LogFAQs > #936051731

Okay, so apparently it's minigame season. After already having resuscitated Priscilla, I now have to time a button-press so that Mr. Dolphin kicks Cloud up to the sky. There's a breathtaking shot of the airship as we start moving around and... get recruited into the Shinra corps. I utterly fail at marching for a long time before realizing that I'm not allowed to run or something. It's still not entirely clear. I do enjoy these goofy sections, though this one feels a bit long.

In a weird little alcove, I'm actually able to shop around and stuff. I discover Rude in a shady basement gambling. Everyone in Jinon appears to compete hard at selling wares. We get up close to Rufus Shinra several times. It seems clear he doesn't think as highly of Heidegger as his father did. It also appears that he is trying to lay a trap for us and Sephiroth. Well, the bait works - a hilarious dressup (Red XIII as a "sailor" absolutely slew me) means that our party infiltrates the ship to cross the river, and when we run to the basement, we find Sephiroth exploding through. (The guy seems a bit disoriented. Weird for our first real-time glimpse at him!)

A piece of the weird tentacle creature known as Jenova stays behind. When I do a scan, he's got 4000 HP, which is IIRC around how much Midgar Zolom had, and I briefly think that I'm supposed to (plot-wise) lose to her. But several limit breaks and Cure spells later, I do manage to edge by her. (BTW, am I the only one who hoards MP other than Cure and mostly uses them during big battles/when it's to the rock/paper/scissors advantage? Cloud's Ice or Bolt does more damage than his Attack, but it's by like 25-30%, so I wind up using Attack most. In any case, Cloud's mainly casting Quake here, since I superstitiously believe it stronger than Ice. Party here was Red XIII/Tifa.

We wind up in a beach town with a thriving tourism industry and run into Hojo, who is still interested in science but seems placated in exile with a bunch of bikinied women instead. Lots of talk around the town about the Golden Saucer playground, so we take a mountain pass via a scary section. Here, I go with Barret/Aeris and man, the enemies here seem to provide a lot of experience - by the time I get through the passes, they've grown three or for levels. My Ice, Lightning, and Restore materias level up so now I can use Ice2, Bolt2, and Cure2, though as stated above, that will likely be reserved for boss battles mainly. (I also don't steal the "treasure" of two little chicks. Wonder what the "reward" for that is, or if there even is one.)

The mountain pass leads through to the Golden Saucer area, but the town around it is decrepit. Apparently there was some major incident, and Barret of all people was to blame. I head outside to save and swap to the Aeris/Red XIII pairing again. They're a little underleveled (and with all the materia, are now underhealthed as well) but I think we'll be okay. I'm pairing Tifa's Restore materia with All. Very excited about being able to cure everyone on demand for now.
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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