LogFAQs > #936481395

I figured it out before reading your comment, proud to say!

Is there a world map where you have the names of the towns you've visited? I vaguely remembered that the tram was to the north and was able to do it from memory, but it'd be nice to know "hey this is the Gold Saucer" or whatever. Rolling with Tifa/Cait Sith atm.

It's fairly painless getting the Keystone - it's right on display near the battle area, and Dio offers to give it to me if I go into the fighitng pit. I'm embarrassed to say that when Dio throws me into the fighting pit, I... well, I lose on the second stage to the petrification. I was dumb, trying to use Quake2 (which didn't slay the petrifying bastard) and not OHKOing it, whereas I could have probably OHKO'd with the regular attack.

Anyway, the tram is broken, which provides Cait Sith the opportunity to tell us to stay the night. We gather round and do a bit of plot recap, which is actually pretty helpful. Sephiroth is after the Ancient Land, where Aeris and the Ceta ultimately go. He's after the Temple of the Ancients and also a mysterious Black Materia, which no one knows much about. Aeris is resolved to go, of course. Meanwhile, we suspect that the hooded figures with tattooed numbers, in Nibelheim, are Hojo-victims... Nanaki is worried about going insane himself.

At night, Tifa comes out (proud of picking the two most plot-relevant characters for this segment of the game!) and takes Cloud on a date. Wish the nearest save point were closer so I could easily pick every option, because they're all super-fun. In the end I give Tifa the kiss and it's incredible watching Cloud and Tifa pirouette their way out. Did not see that coming.

The gondola ride is also really sweet, though I have to say that Cloud's being stodgy and uncaring toward Tifa takes me out of it a lot. She's pouring her heart out and Cloud is just sitting there... it makes me feel embarrassed for her and kinda annoyed at him! It's interesting that she's almost jealous of Aeris, who's expressed no romantic interest in Cloud, but whose flower-girl personality ironically is more forthcoming and open than Tifa's angsty childhood BFF who fights with her fists and blows up reactor cores. While they can all be defended on individual merits, I think it's probably fair to say that this is a very male-oriented set of female characters...

Here comes the Cait Sith betrayal that was mentioned before. He's hinted at it earlier in that town in the south, and now it's coming to roost - he steals the Keystone, we give fruitless chase, and he passes it off to Tseng in a chopper. He also refuses to leave, since he's got Marlene hostage. Then he tries to buy sympathy briefly, but Tifa quickly wrecks him. So Cait Sith is a homunculis controlled remotely by a Shinra employee... great.

In the end, we're still going to the Temple of the Ancients, with Aeris in tow. I choose Vincent (he's leveled up without being in the party - I guess that's normal?), and that's all for now.

Wonder if there will ever be any true comeuppance for Cait Sith or at least some resolution there - guy is just a straight-up, unrepentant bad guy that we know of, but who's just staying there.

I think I'm at a little less than 21 hours, btw.
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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