I took some time out of my day (such a sacrifice, I know) and I finished up my Blue Magic hunts and did the Gongaga scenes.
In Gongaga, we fight Reno and Rude after we ruin their conversation about who’s the hottest girl. Remember, this game was released in ‘97; a different time. Cloud wonders how the Turks knew the party was coming. Probably not a spy... We go to the exploded reactor and pick up the Titan Summon after hiding from Scarlet looking for big, huge Materia. In the town proper, Aerith reminisces about her first love, Zach, a 1st Class SOLDIER who Cloud has never heard of. We head out afterwards after meeting Zach’s heartbroken parents who’ve been missing him for ten years.
We then drive out into the canyonlands just for the buggy to breakdown. Fortunately, it’s just outside a small observatory called Cosmo Canyon, Nanaki’s hometown. Unfortunately, this is where he decides to end his journey with us. There’s some strange dialogue here if you name Red his real name. “Nanaki is Nanaki”. It makes more sense with default names but feels existentially rewarding this way. “I yam who I yam”.
Like in Costa del Sol, the party splits up and they do their own thing. Barrett gives a talk to Cloud about how Avalanche was founded here while Aerith looks for anyone who may have information about the Cetra. Those were my party members and I don’t know what everyone else does. Later on, with more pressing time constraints, Tifa is in the bar, Yuffie is in the Materia shop, And Cait is in the dining hall.
Nanaki takes Cloud up to see his grandpa, Bugenhagen, a 129-year-old man sitting on a floating green ball. He informs the party about the Lifestream and how all life comes from and returns to it. Without it, the entire planet would whither and die. He also informs us about how the planet is slowly dying regardless of Shinra. “It could be tomorrow, it could be in 100 years, but it will happen.” The party then reconvenes at the eternal flame, called the Cosmo Flame, where everyone talks about their feelings. Barrett and Aerith lament while Tifa wishes she could do something more. Yuffie and Cait are materiel creatures. Nanaki regrets his father, who he believes fled and hide from an invading force leaving his mom and the people to die several years before the game started. Bugenhagen wants to show his grandson the truth and asks Cloud (and Aerith) to join them.
The Cave of the Gi Tribe is a, somewhat, quick dungeon where we walk through only three scenes with only one puzzle. I make it harder by wanting to fight everything and spam summons. And then I forgot to change out Cloud’s fire sword against a boss with literal fire adds. Use Chocobo against the Gi Tribe, by the way. After the boss, we learn the truth about Seto, Red’s father. He actually went back to the canyon to fight the Gi and block their flank attack on the town. Even as he was struck by numerous poisoned arrows, which turned him to stone, he continued to fight. Nanaki is empowered by this knowledge, 'forgives' his father, and wishes to fight for the planet as the 'statue' of Seto begins to cry. So Seto is still alive? And unable to move? Should we cure his prettification with our abundance of softs?
The music during Cosmo Canyon is essentially just Red’s theme. It’s a very Native American sounding tune with an earthen drum under a stringed instrument that isn’t a guitar, but something I’m not familiar with. I assume it’s a native instrument. I once tried to write lyrics to this song, but my ability to write songs just ain’t what it used to be.
With the buggy fixed, we travel onward until we come to the town of Nibelheim. Yes, that Nibelheim. The one that burnt down. Cloud and Tifa are in shock as they explore the town filled with people who deny the fire. It’s also filled with people in black coats with numbers tattooed on them. One says Sephiroth is in the basement of the Shinra Mansion so that's where I head.
I open up a safe to fight a boss names Lost Number, who has a lot of HP and hits hard. The good aide about that is he triggers a lot of Limit Breaks, which I spam to take him down. He drops the Odin Summon, a book called Cosmo Memory (Nanaki’s final Limit) and a key to the basement. Down there, we met everyone's' favorite emo vampire, Vincent Valentine. He tells us the truth about Sephiroth and how his mom isn’t Jenova, but a scientist names Lucretia. Sephiroth isn’t special, just some dude who is related to a Shinra big-wig which led to him being a scientific experiment. So he’s goth Kefka from FFVI?
The encounter rate here sucks. And all of the mobs take a while to kill due to high HP and slow animations. It really ground me down and I kinda lost the will to play, but I wanted to finish Mt. Nibel. It’s much more relaxing and I powered through, beat the Matwria Keeper boss (with the damned Fire Sword sabotaging me once more), and called it a night. Tomorrow, I finish exploring the dungeon and get the last member of my party, as well as his plane...boat. Poor Cid.
The biggest thing I’m looking forward to in the Remake is an expanded story for several characters, Red being the top priority. His story is pretty much over at this point and it’s a shame. I want to know more about Seto, Red’s mom, and his race as a whole. He loses a lot of unique dialogue and only plot relevance is through Bugenhagen and an optional scene where we get his beat weapon. Barrett needs some love too, but at least Barrett gets early game plot.
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