The gang's all here; wish they weren’t.

I finished exploring Mt. Nibel earlier and I picked-up another elemental Materia, a few levels, a weapon for Tifa I’ll never use, a few stolen armors, and a pistol with a scope on it that Vincent will be using for a long time. There’s, sadly, no extra scene at the reactor

Once free of this oppressive mountain air, we walk across the plains to find what appears to be a large rocket tilting towards its side. Not only does it look like a rocket, but it is a rocket! Welcome to the creatively named Rocket Town; see our scenic moss-covered spaceship. We break into several houses, which contain nothing of value, except the Materia shop that sells several time magics. I no longer need to buy magic rocks for the rest of the game. There is one house, however, that has a small airplane in the backyard. It’s there, a woman named Shera comes out to talk to us and, rather than being upset we broke into her house, asks if we’re with Shinra. We answer correctly, and she asks us to talk to The Captain, so we walk to the rocket.

There we met the games spear user (and my dragoon/time mage), Cid Highwind. He tells us his entire backstory and the story of the town. Several years ago, Shinra was investing in going to space and was about to launch the very rocket we're in (Shinra 26). That is, until Cid's engineer, Shera, found a problem in one of the oxygen tanks and refused to leave it alone. Even as the countdown reached 0, she was still down there trying to fix it. Because Cid was (was) a nobleman, he canceled the launch, saving her life. Shinra discovered Mako and gave up on space, thus ending Cid’s dream. I'm not sure why they didn't let her fix it before the launch, but it's probably something about being an evil corporation.

Despite it being a bad time to ask. Cloud asks to rent the plane, The Tiny Bronco, and Cid says no. He adds a few added swears because Cid cares not for age ratings. We return to Shera and Cid joins us, yells and swears at Shera to make us, “some goddamn tea” as she regals us of her guilt in the rocket cancellation. Cid’s a jerk, to say the least. He calls Shera terrible names and treats her like a slave. This didn’t look good 23 years ago and looks even worse now in 2020.

Regardless of my PC Culture badge, Palmer, a Shrinra big-wig shows up, asks for lard his tea, and sneaks back to the Tiny Bronco. There we fight a fat man with a gun. He's pretty simple, only having one attack that only hits one person. After we beat him, he gets hit by a truck. It was unique for the time.

Before we caught him, he managed to turn the plane on, so as the Tiny Bronco takes flight, we jump on and try to control it. Sadly, we don’t even know where the pilot seat is, and it automatically flies around the rocket and into the scene between Cid and Rufus in town. As Shinra opens fire on us, because they wanted the plane to go north, Cid runs after us and catches up just in time for the engine to be hit as we crash land into the sea. The plane is buoyant and, somehow, can pivot, so it's now a boat, as long we stay in shallow water. Cid, having spurred Shinra, joins us and the party is not complete!

We crashed near the continent of Wutai, so I decide to see Yuffie's hometown. On the way, she steals our Materia during a Shinra ambush, which means we have to chase her down. Can we cut our losses there and go back to the ship and never worry about this? I should try it sometime. Once we're in the city of Wutai, a village designed from eastern culture filled with pagodas and other Japanese, pre-modern, aesthetics, we continue to chase the teenage ninja around town. She's, somehow, behind us at every turn. It's also in Wutai where we meet back up with an old foe, the Turks. They’re on vacation, so they’re just hanging out drinking sake. In between tricking us left and right, Yuffie has a fight with her dad, which leads to her getting kidnapped by another returning foe, Don Corneo. He left Midgar, seeming, chased away by the Turks for giving out classified information. On his way out of the town, Corneo finds Elena (of the Turks) and kidnaps her, as well. Being exiled formed a grudge, I guess.

This leads to Cloud and the party teaming up with Reno and Rude as they chase him down to the hills of Wutai, Da-Chau. He’s doing his rape of the night thing again, and he picks Yuffie, who is 16. Cloud shows up, and Don attacks us with his new pet, Raaps. Mind you, all of this is happening without Materia. A lengthy world map hike, with hard enemies, and now a boss that hits for 1500 damage. This isn't all that fun. Now, yes, I could have waited, but nows the best time. Anyway, we beat the boss, Rude and Reno beat Corneo, and Don falls to his death, thus ending our alliance with the man who's directly responsible for killing thousands of people in Sector 7. We get our Materia back, but it’s all misplaced, so I spend the next 30 minutes putting it back to where they belong. This hour was tedious, and I hate Yuffie.

I continue with the plot until we re-reach Gold Saucer. Cloud gets beaten up for a key to the Temple of the Ancients, where Shinra is heading, and get stuck here for the night as the tram exit is down. One giant, world renown, amusement park, but only one entrance. That’s not only a fire hazard but a bad business model. So there we spend the night and the party hangs out together for the first time as Cloud and Aerith explain the story thus far. That night, Cloud hears a knock on the door, and, in my case, Aerith askes him on a date. You can also get Tifa, Yuffie, and even Barrett, but Aerith is the best girl; fight me.

The first place we go is to the event square, where a play is taking place. Because we’re the 100th couple, we get to star in the show. I kiss the Evil Dragon King and live happily ever after while Princess Rose, played by Aerith, is confused. We then take a gondola ride through the entire park and watch the fireworks while beautiful, yet oddly sad music plays. In the end, Aerith mentions Zack (which I hear a sign of a great date) and says how shocked she was that Zack and Cloud look alike. She then says she’s searching for the real Cloud. At the end of the ride, I promise to take her on another gondola ride and go to bed. Or at least we try to.

On our way back, we see Cait Sith and notice he has the key to the temple. We chase him around the park, until he meets up Tseng of the Turks and throws him the key. Cait admits he’s a guy working for Shinra and has kidnapped Marlene. He’s using her as blackmail to stay with the party. Having no choice but to let him stay, we go to bed and plan our attack for the Temple of the Ancients. Which shall happen tomorrow. Or, more likely, the day after for reasons I'll talk about then.

I hate Yuffie, Cait Sith, and Cid. They’re rude, not helpful, and two actively sabotage the party. Tifa, Barrett, and Red are great characters. Vincent was nearly cut from the game so I’ll give him a pass, but the other three get my (divine and terrifying) wraith. Cid can still be saved, and I hope the remake fixes him. More scenes at the end of the game where he's nice to Shera, make her stand up for herself, rewrite the two altogether; anything, man!