Final Fantasy VII [21] – The Final Showdown [COMPLETED!]

Though they were not ready for the final showdown, after several days of training and preparation, the team decided to go ahead and scout the area of the northern cave, in order to be better prepared for the final push. The area was filled with dangerous enemies, but with some difficulty, they managed to push forward, all the way to a fork in the path.

At this place, Cloud decided to take a smaller group in one direction, while the rest of the team went in the other. It was an uneasy separation, as everyone feared they would not see each other again. Luckily, there was no reason to fear. The two paths met up again soon enough and the group was back together.

Final Fantasy VII, Northern Crater Cave, Top View

The crater is deep, very deep.

The path closed behind them and there was no other way to go, but forward. A brief moment of desperation and fear hit them, as they were realizing the battle would be now, not later. Having no choice, though, they summoned up all the courage they had and continued forward.After an extremely long way down, the group finally reached the core, where their final foe was waiting. The area was fully explored and mapped, so there would be nothing to surprise them when they are finally ready. Little did they know, they were forced to be ready now.

I’m trying my hardest to describe what happened “in role”, but I’m not sure I’m doing it well. To put it more directly, I completed the game by pure accident. I wanted to enter the cave and get to the point of no return, so I could create a save point there and train, since the area gave good experience and AP. What happened was that I triggered the “do you wish to continue” part and accidentally answered yes without creating the save point first, or saving the game.

Since it took me quite a while to get there, I decided “to hell with it” and went for the kill. Luckily, I did some training over the last two days, so my party wasn’t that weak. I just wasn’t ready to go yet and wanted to get all the side quests first. Apparently, I did good anyway.

The core was surrounded by floating debris, forcing them to jump from platform to platform, fighting dangerous monsters nearly every step of the way. Finally, they reached the core, where Sephiroth was waiting. The first to attack was another form of Jenova – Rebirth. This one was relatively simple to dispose of, mostly in thanks to some of the new skills the party learned by observing various creatures of the world.

With Jenova finally dead, it was time to deal with Sephiroth. His first form was a twisted mass of mutated parts, barely reminding of the original in appearance. The various parts of it acted separately, healing and reinforcing each other constantly, making for a very difficult battle. Eventually, Cloud managed to recognize the critical parts and focused the group’s attacks to those spots, finally destroying the creature. It wasn’t over, though.

Sephiroth transformed into his second form, a twisted parody of an angel. This one acted as one, but it was stronger than all the parts of the previous form combined. Most of its attacks were manageable, but before the end, it used something that nearly killed every single member of the group. Luckily, Cloud was ready to react, using a megaelixir to completely negate the damage done and refresh the group for the final push. A few moments later, Sephiroth was down.

Final Fantasy VII, Safer (Seraph) Sephiroth

Sephiroth’s most dangerous form.

It was just Sephiroth. No twisted form, nothing special, just flesh and blood. Cloud was done. His determination was absolute. He started swinging, cutting, without pause, but with complete control and his sight constantly on target. When he was done, it was finally over. Sephiroth gasped lone last time and then fell.The group did all they could. It was now up to the planet and Holy. They started climbing back to the surface, with Cloud being the last one. He paused for a second and listened. It wasn’t over. He could still hear him, screaming, mocking them, and refusing to die. Something pulled him down, towards the lifestream, towards the center of the planet. There, in the darkness, Sephiroth was waiting.

Tifa was calling for him, with everything collapsing around them and for a moment, it seemed too late. She fell down towards him, he snapped out of his trance, grabbed her and used his other arm to grab the edge of a cliff. They climbed up and rejoined the group.

The party was hurrying upwards with the cave-in in full effect. Something crashed above them and the Highwind came rushing down. Luckily, the backup plane stored on the airship managed to deploy in time to provide an escape route for the group.

In the meantime, Meteor was rapidly approaching. Holy activated, but it seemed it wasn’t in time. Then, the planet itself provided help, using the lifestream to reinforce Holy and destroy Meteor. It was over.