FF7 Replay #8
More FFVII related blogging.
Some final thoughts on Aeris' death. Because I'm a nerd with too much time on my hands, I went and replayed the Aeris death scene with various characters in my party to see what their reactions were. Cid just looks up the sky and shakes his head. Vincent just looks at her before silently walking away... either that or he uhm, does this. Bad Vincent! Nanaki howls. If I ever harboured any dislike for Yuffie and Barret it gets eliminated here because she goes over to Cloud and hugs him while crying into his chest, and he gently puts a consoling hand on Cloud's shoulder.
My favourite reaction has to be Tifa's though. Whatever the more rabid shippers may think, Tifa and Aeris were friends. Admittedly there may've been some mild jealousy on Tifa's part where Cloud is concerned but as I can tell she never acts on it in the slightest. You need only watch Tifa kneel down and gently stroke the side of Aeris' face to realise that there was a bond between them and it certainly wasn't the bad kind.
A somewhat horrible thought came to me yesterday. Is it possible Cloud may have led Sephiroth to Aeris? Not a pleasant thought indeed.
I'm inordinately fond of Icicle Inn. The little quaint houses, the room of the hotel with the light pouring in and the humble little bar... *loves* This is also one of the few places where you find children playing. It has such a wonderful atmosphere like a warm, cozy blanket. It's a good move on the part of the game team considering what just happened and what's to come, gives us a relief from all the angst. Professor Gast and Ifalna's house even has a tree growing through it. ^_^ Cool little videos there too. I like hearing the history of the Ancients and JENOVA. Shame nobody's written a fic about it.
Hello again Elena! Her reply to Cloud asking why she's there: "It's a SE-CR-ET." She's probably got genuine skills because she's in the Turks but... I can't help but find her completely just adorably overly enthusiastic. I keep on wanting to give her a cookie and pat her on the head. "There's no way he can avoid my punch." I generally let her knock Cloud out opposed to having her fall down the entire of the ski slope. If they ever get a decent convention here, I'm totally going as her. (I'm sad and I know it too.)
Oh supreme being, I truly and utterly suck at the snowboarding game. Anyways what kind of ski resort is this place? Aren't there any safety standards? I mean there's bloody boulders and attacking ducky-things clogging up the run! Maybe the population of Icicle Inn are secretly trying to keep people away from the Crater? I know it seems implausible but it makes more sense than this.
There's all these cool nooks and crannies on the trails leading up to Gaea's Cliff. I very much enjoy how the paths don't seem to orient themselves the way the player expects and the final stretch doesn't have anything other than snow. It really lends to the sense of disorientation a blizzard might cause. Occasionally you find what looks like an abandoned campsite from a group of previous climbers. There's also this crazy ice lady who attacks you if you've touched the hot springs. Yes, neat place. I wish there was more to do here.
Okay, if you take too much time in aforementioned place, you eventually collapse from the cold and this Holzoff guy rescues you and brings you to his little house at the base of the cliff. Once again like the Inn, it really emotes warmth and comfort prior to next darker act. On Holzoff himself, apparently he's been hanging out there helping climbers challenge the cliff ever since his partner died in the attempt. While this seems a great and noble aspiration, it's been mentioned earlier that he hasn't taken the time to visit his wife for the past TWENTY YEARS. Probably he's avoiding going home because if I was his wife, I'd kick his ass for not visiting during the first one. Yeesh. Does divorce exists on Gaia?
When Cloud goes outside and see all of AVALANCHE gathered, it really strikes me how ridiculous the whole bunch looks being bombarded with snow. With the exception of Cait Sith (robot), Nanaki (fur) and possibly Vincent (who simply crosses his arms every once in a while), the entire gang is clearly freezing. You think they could take a break from all the weapon buying and get some warm clothes. Poor Yuffie and Tifa especially. Maybe they wouldn't have to depend on doing squats to stay warm. But what would I know about dealing with cold weather? I'm only a Canadian. We don't have cold weather up here. Barret makes a rather good point here about the Planet being perfectly capable of being a bitch to people at times. It reminds me of what my great-uncle, a sailor, said about the ocean: "You don't love the ocean. You respect the hell out of it. Because as nurturing and pretty it can be, it is perfectly capable of hurting you, drowning you without a moment's hesitation."
Gaea's Cliff - I'm doing those squats to the party from fainting because they're too stupid to buy warm clothes. Then I'm exploring those frankly utterly gorgeous caves - it's like being inside a gem-stone. Then, there's the first of the Sephiroth clones that pops up in this section and he ends up fighting the group. I always wondered why Sephiroth had them do that sort of thing. Is it to keep the group from getting suspicious if things were too easy? Or is that the clones are only partially under his control and that they're instinctively lashing out?
Now what to say about the Northern Crater? Firstly I dislike calling it the Northern Cave which, while a valid description, lacks the emotional response of dread and awe which the word 'crater' illicits (this is what I get for staying awake in English class). Furthermore WOW! That initial glimpse of it with the Mako like a fountain of colour boiling up from its heart. I love it. It really sets the stage for what's to come, you can't see this and not think that something major is coming.
Apparently Rufus and co are on their way. Continuity error. If they had the Highwind, why did they want to take the Tiny Bronco in the first place? Oh, Hojo's laughing in the background! It's so wonderful to see someone's happy!
Tifa shows up and insists on being included in the party. If there was any doubt that something is on its way, this most definitely dissuaded that. Whatever she says, I'm fairly certain she's there as much to keep an eye on Cloud as to get revenge on Sephiroth. With her presence and the dying Black Cloaks you keep on running into, it quickly becomes apparent that whatever is coming it's not going to be anything good.
You see the not!Sephiroth kill two of the Black Cloaks, then almost off-handedly state that his body is no longer needed, his form disappearing in a small puff of inconsequential smoke. The body is most likely one of the many Black Cloaks and as we've seen as far as Sephiroth is concerned those human beings are simply tools, easily disposed of tools at that. *shiver*
Now we've got the Black Materia again and this time the sensible suggestion of keeping it the hell away from Cloud is made. It's rather telling that Yuffie doesn't want anything to do with this particular Materia. I tend to give it to Nanaki because he's been experimented on by Hojo and it makes more sense in the scene where its given back to Cloud since he could be under JENOVA influence unlike Barret. (I wish it could also be given to Vincent)
Somewhere around this point Cloud gets way too calm for my comfort. This creeps me out almost as much... no just as much as his laughing in the Temple of the Ancients. He starts spouting information about the Crater and other things which as far as I can tell he has no business knowing. (Sephiroth's knowledge bleeding through?) It becomes even worse when we get to the illusion!Nibelheim. Tifa's becoming more and more freaked out and Cloud acts so utterly calm about the entire thing that I want to hide under a blanket. Then you start to see the cracks forming in him and there's nothing you can do to stop it.
The scene where Cloud gives the Black Materia to Sephiroth never stops being chilling for so many reasons. I mean he begs Hojo to give him an experiment number - that's how desperate he is for any kind of identity. And the way he calmly explains what's going on to the party and the Shinra people... you get the sense he's barely fighting Sephiroth's influence at this point. And then there's the bit where he sitting on the ceiling UPSIDE-DOWN, clutching himself. Meanwhile Tifa's seems to have her own sort of breakdown as she's staring blankly into space. If there ever was a reason to hate Hojo, it can be summed up by his actions here. While various people are having freak outs and they're all in mortal danger, he's just calmly analysing everything as if its a very interesting set of tests results.
The awakening of WEAPONS - I don't really have much to say here except its a very neat scene. I would like to think that the skeleton of the way too big T-rex which Bone Village into is actually from an ancient WEAPON that was killed by something long before Shinra or JENOVA or maybe even the Ancients themselves.
Oh Tifa... Despite AC may make people think, in the original game I'd honestly believe the trait of self-blaming is more something to associate with Tifa opposed to Cloud. While I am very fond of her, she should have said something earlier and perhaps some of this could've been avoided had she done so. That being said, she's only human and how do you bring up something like that? "Excuse me, Cloud. You know the whole thing where our hometown burned to the ground? Well, you weren't there. Yes, you remember everything correctly, including the bit where everyone we grew up with including your mother died horribly. But that wasn't you who experienced all that. Just to let you know." A touch awkward I would think especially when your friend tends to randomly insane and attack your other friends, and in the flashback where Tifa finds Cloud at the train station I honestly was wondering if he came close to attacking her too.
Now we're on the Highwind. The bit where Barret mentions that Tifa's been out for a week makes me think she was pretty much catatonic.
Rufus, it's the end of the world. You need everyone you can get, so why are you bothering with a execution at this point? I will give you mild points if the reason you're only planning to execute Barret and Tifa is because they're the only terrorists in the group, though honestly I suspect it's just because the rest of AVALANCHE got away. I like you very much, Rufus, but I have little in he way of delusions about what kind of person you are. You are not a nice man.
How sweet! Hojo wants to check up on Cloud. Isn't he a nice man?
I adore the music for the WEAPONs attack. I wish they had a variation on this for when you fought them.
Lol. Cait Sith's disguise. Really subtle, Reeve, I'm amazed they let you in. The bit where he guides you to the Highwind while saying he has a way to save Tifa from the gas chamber... Depending on how morally gray you want Reeve, you could easily interpret this as him lying his ass off and actually trying to get the rest of the team to safety while writing off Tifa for dead, with her actual survival being a happy coincidence.
Tifa in the gas chamber. On my first playthrough, I really stunk at getting the key and was rather amused to note that the chamber seems defective as I was there for about ten minutes trying to grab the thing. It's a good choice on the part of the creative team that they gave this little solo story to Tifa as post-Northern Crater she's in a pretty nasty place and its emotionally necessary for her to get some sort of break from the angst. This is one of her lowest points and everything be damned she intends to live and gets herself out of there.
"There ain't no gettin' offa this train we on!"