LogFAQs > #935798272

Okay, so picking things up! We're out in the slums, where opinion on AVALANCHE is mixed. It turns out that Tifa is the one who requested that Cloud join AVALANCHE. She reminisces a bit about the good old days, though Cloud resolutely maintains a stick up his ass even when he agrees to go on another mission.

Pushing through this second mission doesn't go as well. There's a dramatic train escape (complete with me almost getting a dope item from someone, but accidentally picking the wrong dialogue option because of time pressure). Since she's already the weakest character, I hand Tifa the Restore Materia, which further makes her worse in battle. (Gimme some offensive spells, would ya?)

(At this point, I begin to realize that judicious use of the speed-up function was very useful in the random encounters.)

Sector 5 is a surprisingly long dungeon with a bit of non-linearity, but we meander through it. Cloud remembers Tifa's family being butchered and that it was blamed on Sephiroth, who's starting to build himself a nice off-screen presence.

Before we can escape, we're ambushed by SHINRA - in fact, by President Shinra himself. We easily dispose of the boss (though it does cause me to use my first-ever in-battle Cure spell on Tifa).

A break in the ground results in a splitting of the party, and I'm suddenly waking up in the care of Aeris. She's got a different attitude toward Cloud - more withdrawn and lighthearted than Tifa's reminder of Cloud's responsibilities and apparently of his childhood desire to get the hell out of their small town. The flower-girl also represents life here.

After getting run out by Reno and the Turks (what a fantastic theme song!) we wind up escaping near Aeris's house. Aeris shares that she was being recruited for SOLDIER, and Cloud manages to... poke fun at her... and laugh a little. Apparently she's more his type. But this feels like Cloud beginning to turn the corner.

Some notes:
- Regular battles rarely stretch long enough, but deep into the music it's really great.
- Boss battle music is also energetic and strong, though this boss itself was bland in design. Scorpion-dude was more interesting.
- President Shinra's finger-snap is fantastic.
- Reno and the Turks are so damn cool.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness