Topic: General Final Fantasy Thread

Let's see if I can remember how to do the spoiler tags properly.

@BruceCM I'm not sure I agree with it. Just off the top of my head, for a shocking death from a main character I would have to give it to Chrono . Maybe he is disqualified because you are supposed to bring him back, but you don't have to and he can stay dead if you choose. But his wasn't so much heartbreaking. For a pure heartbreaking one, I would say Fiona from Xenoblade moreso than this one, but again, doesn't stay dead.

Mostly, I just thought everything around it was weird. I think if they actually had Cloud be the one that killed her against his own will that would have been a lot more heartbreaking, but having that fail and Sephiroth just flying in out of nowhere was weird. And I didn't really feel Cloud's reaction either. "What is this pain?" "Why do my eyes hurt?" It was odd like he's some sort of robot who's never had feelings before, but given the dialogue after, maybe he actually is and I just don't know it yet? And does anything change based on who you've grown closest to? Because I was closest to Tifa (the midnight rendezvous at the Gold Saucer was with her), so maybe if I had actually been closest with Aeris that might have changed things.

So, yeah. It was a surprising moment and I look forward to see where the game goes from here, because it doesn't look good for the good guys right now. And I'm just wondering, do others mix their party around, or do you stick with a main one? I have been mixing them around to let everyone level up, but I'm thinking of just kind of sticking with Tifa and Cid from now on because they are the best.

Hmm, interesting, @Xyphon22 .... We'll have to see how you feel after finishing the game, though! Generally, I stuck to the same party as much as possible but it always gets a bit more complicated than that

Okay, let me see if I got this straight. So both Cloud and Sephiroth are clones of the real Sephiroth who died 5 years ago, and the Cloud clone also somehow messed with Tifa's memories to make her think he was the real Cloud. But the real Sephiroth is not really dead but in hibernation and drawing the clones to him to give him power and wake him to take over the world. Is that about right? I am really quite confused. Oh, well. Time to break out of a prison/gas chamber.

Not quite, @Xyphon22 .... But there's more to come on all that, so you'll see as you continue! Glad it's going well

Why does this game keep taking all of my party members away from me?! That is not nice! That is all. Off to collect some Huge Materia.

Try to get all 4, @Xyphon22 .... Save before each 1 in case

@BruceCM All 4 Huge Materia? I thought there were only 2 (one at Corel and one at Fort Condor). They said there was also one and Nibelheim but that Shinra already got that one. And it's actually possible to not get them all? That's kind of cool. Mostly I'm just wondering why I'm doing this in the first place. I know that it is my enemy trying to get them, but they are trying to get them in order to stop Meteor and save the world, so shouldn't I just let them do that? I'm sure all will be revealed soon, but my first order of business is to try to remember where the heck Corel and Fort Condor are since the map doesn't give location names.

Ooops, sorry for the slight spoiler, @Xyphon22 ....It is entirely possible to not get any of them! Naturally, you do want them all, though Corel:

& Fort Condor:

@BruceCM Nah, wasn't much of a spoiler. And I got the two and it immediately told me about the last one at Junon. And I actually managed to find them both on my own. I just now learned this far into the game that when you go to the menu screen, there's a box at the bottom that will tell you where you are.

So now with updated information it seems like Cloud really is a real person but Hojo did experiments on him and injected him with Jenova cells, so that is why he has some connection to Sephiroth and he is able to control Cloud's actions Is that right? I don't know, it's quite confusing, but at least I got all my party members back. I've discovered two aspects that are a major pain, which are having to trek back to wherever you left your ship instead of it following you, and having to bring unwanted members into your party in order to unequip their good armor and materia in order to then bring back in the members you want and equip them. Hopefully I won't have to do that again. Off to find Junon!

@Xyphon22 This is lovely, seeing FF VII through new eyes, I've played it so many times I am kind of numb to the storyline, but with you typing it out it is giving it more life than replaying it. Keep it up!

Uh, I'll avoid saying anything about things like that for now, @Xyphon22 .... Seems to be going well, at least!

@DarthNocturnal Thanks. I'm still learning new things even this far into the game.
@BruceCM Yeah, I imagine things will keep changing anyways. I thought I was about to lose Cid, but at least he stayed around.
@Bunkerneath Glad I can entertain you. I guess I'll keep it up. I got all four Huge Materia, although I'm still not sure why. My team was like, "Oh, no! Shinra's plan to stop Meteor failed!" And I'm just like, "No kidding. We just stole the Huge Materia from the rocket. It's our fault that it failed." So now I'm off to find some key that my only clue is it's where the sun can't reach. So I'll try for a little bit before just looking up the walkthrough because I'd prefer to find it myself but I'm not going to wander the world aimlessly for hours.

& have you equipped any of them yet, @Xyphon22 ....? There's also some optional content available, in case you want to check any of that out!

@BruceCM The Huge Materia? I didn't know you could equip them. They are just hanging out in Red XIII's grandfather's planetarium. I did get some sort of Bahamut materia from one of them, though. And yeah, I've seen in the walkthrough that there's a lot of optional stuff, but I only do the ones that I come across naturally playing (which I have done some, but probably not much). I just beat the giant Weapon that came walking out of the sea, which I have to say was surprisingly easy. Honestly, not many of the bosses have given me much trouble, other than that punk robot with the arms at the submarine who kept grabbing one or sometimes two of my partners. I hated that guy. So I have now parachuted into Midgar, and I guess I'm off to destroy this giant cannon that they somehow managed to hook up to like 12 giant Mako reactors in about 5 minutes. And I still haven't heard a good reason as to why we don't just partner with Shinra. I know we've been enemies the entire game, but right now we are both trying to stop Meteor and destroy Sephiroth, and probably could have by now if we would stop getting in each other's way.

@Xyphon22 You can't equip Huge Materia, but you getting Bahamut means you collected all of them. As you can miss the submarine one (and then you get a Red Submarine) also if you run out of time on the rocket you dont get that one either, because of not having all of them you dont get Bahamut ZERO.

On a seperate note have you tried linking Add Effect and Transform on a weapon yet?

@Bunkerneath Yeah, I probably would have missed the submarine one thinking that was the one that Shinra took with them if the walkthrough hadn't told me to go get it. And I did fail to unlock the one on the rocket the first time, but I had just saved so I just redid it and figured out the passcode on my second try. And no, I don't think I have done that with Transform. Honestly, I don't use materia all that often other than All and Restore to heal my party. I have found that just doing normal attacks usually causes a lot more damage than magic does, so that's what I do. It's worked well for me so far. I do fill up all the materia slots just in case, but usually with things like All and Lightning/Ice/Fire or Long Range so I can put Tifa in the back. I think the only time I ever used a Summon it ended up healing one of the enemies, so I've never used those again either. There are a lot of things I've never done or used, but until my strategy fails I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing.

Cool, @Xyphon22 .... Do keep us updated, then!

@Xyphon22 What? Wow! I wouldn't survive without my materia set ups.

Also even though you have done the RED XIII storyline with the Gi Tribe, did you realise that healing potions and phoenix downs hurt undead? Therefore, when against the final boss all you need to do is give him a phoenix down for instant kill

Alright, made my way through Midgar and got a pretty big reveal about Sephiroth's ancestry. Unfortunately, I think I took like the exact path you are supposed to take through Midgar and so I missed a lot of optional side stuff, but oh well. I didn't use a tent or anything after the big robot boss, so I thought I would attempt Hojo once for the heck of it to see what he does, and I actually beat him first try even with already being fairly low on MP. Then I guess there are two different possible scenes between Cloud and Tifa, and I think I got the good/more romantic one. So now I'm off to the Northern Cave and the final battle.

Great stuff, @Xyphon22 .... I hope you're ready, lol