As expected, Shinra got to the Temple of the Ancients before Cloud and the rest of the group. Unfortunately for them, Sephiroth also managed to get there. The Shinra group was attacked and destroyed, for the most part. Tseng of the Turks was lying wounded at the entrance. He knows they failed, so he gave the keystone to Cloud.

The temple was a maze, the layout of which was difficulty to even comprehend, let alone navigate. It wasn’t empty, though. Aside from the usual menagerie of monsters, several guardians lived there, left by the Cetra to protect the temple from intrusion. They weren’t able to communicate verbally, but Aeris could still understand them. They were scared, very much so. Sephiroth needed to be found and dealt with, fast.

I’d consider the Temple of the Ancients a fun place if I didn’t know what was coming.

The black materia is extremely powerful. It can be used to summon Meteor, the most powerful destruction magic imaginable. Luckily, the Cetra used a trick. The temple itself is the materia. Whoever wants it, needs to solve a puzzle which shrinks the temple to a manageable size. However, the puzzle is located within the temple, so whoever solves it gets destroyed. At first, some of the people in the group suggested to just leave the materia, since no one can get it. However, Cloud saw it differently. Sephiroth has plenty of lackeys – all those tattooed people in black who have been following him. He could easily sacrifice any or all of them to get what he wants. No, the party needs to somehow get the materia and keep it safe from Sephiroth. Someone had to step in.Pretty soon, the group found their way to a room with a huge mural along the wall. This is where they met Sephiroth and this is where he revealed another part of his plan. He wants to become one with the planet. He intends by trickery. The lifestream serves to protect the planet and everything on it. If the planet ever gets damaged or “wounded”, a large portion of the energy is used and focused on that place to heal it. Sephiroth intends to intercept that energy and absorb it. First, he needs a fresh wound and for that, he needs the black materia from the temple.

Cloud got a call on his PHS. It was Cait Sith. It’s simple, really. His body isn’t real. He has backup bodies stored at Shinra. Who else would be more suitable as a sacrifice? Cloud accepted and the trio went out to meet up with the fortune teller. However, there was a trap. The door leading through the exit was guarded by a demonic creature in the form of an entire wall.

This was the first battle in this play through in which I failed, twice. The first issue was, Aeris was underleveled and the Demon Wall hits extremely hard. It could kill Aeris in one hit and any of the other two in one more. Cloud basically had to devote his every turn to heal, while Barret was the only one doing the damage, what with Aeris being dead throughout the battle. 

Giger’s designs must have inspired this boss.

Secondly, there’s this gimmick in the game where, if you get exactly 7777 current HP, your character goes berserk and starts repeatedly hitting the enemies for 7777 damage until they are all dead. Apparently, this works the other way around to. On my first attempt, a hit from Cloud’s limit break got the boss to that exact amount of health and suddenly, all of his attacks were hitting for 3 times the health Barret had. Suffice to say, that attempt didn’t last long. 

On my final attempt, I finally got smart. I’ve combined Barrier with All on Aeris and cast it on my entire group at the start of the battle. With that, the fight became extremely easy and the boss was dealt with.

When the enemy was defeated, Cait Sith entered and the rest of the party left the temple. He solved the puzzle and then he was gone. He wasn’t absent for long, though, as his replacement body was already being flown over from Shinra headquarters. In Cloud’s eyes, this redeemed the robot and whoever was controlling him, at least by a bit.

The materia was at the crater left by the temple. Cloud and Aeris leapt in and Cloud picked it up. Suddenly, he lost control of himself. First, he tried to hurt Aeris, but managed to stop himself in time. Then Sephiroth appeared and Cloud gave him the materia, against his own will and with the rest of the group unable to stop it. Before they could react, Sephiroth was gone with the materia. Cloud blacked out.

Another 3000 Gil had to be spent to enter the Golden Saucer. The party should really work on getting that 30 000 and buying a lifetime ticket. Dio really didn’t have much issue with giving away the keystone. The only thing he asked for in return was for Cloud to “entertain” him in the battle arena. The battle was short and not at all entertaining, though. Cloud managed to lose from the very first monster, who got lucky with an instant death spell.

The time at the Gold Saucer makes the events that follow so much worse.

As they were ready to return to their rooms, Cloud and Aeris spotted Cait Sith carrying the keystone. As he noticed them, he instantly started running. Cloud suspected there was a Shinra spy in their party for a long time now, so it now became obvious what Cait Sith was all about. After a lengthy chase through the various areas of the Saucer, Cloud and Aeris finally managed to corner him at the Chocobo Square, but not before he gave away the key to the Shinra.With the keystone in their possession, the party was ready to leave, but sadly, the tram was broken, so they were forced to spend the night at the Saucer. Due to the issues with the tram, all of the events were free for the night, so Aeris woke up Cloud in the middle of the night to take him on a “date”. It was a fun night for Cloud and he even managed to learn something new about the girl. She used to have a boyfriend who was in SOLDIER. His name was Zack and Cloud reminded her of him for some reason. This was also probably the same Zack the people in Gongaga are looking for.

Cait Sith had nothing to hide now. His body is just one of many, as would be expected of a fortune telling machine. It’s being controlled from Shinra Headquarters, by an unknown person, and destroying this copy would simply activate the backup. The person controlling him is a Turk and has taken Marlene hostage just in case this happens. Cloud and Aeris are forced to hide the fact Cait Sith is a spy and keep him with the party if they want to keep Marlene safe. It wasn’t all bad, though. Cait Sith seemed reluctant to use Marlene as leverage and admitted he is starting to see things differently from Shinra, now that he’s been with the group.

In any case, there was nothing to be done but move on. Whichever side has the keystone, their next step would be to open the temple, so that’s where Cloud decided to go next, keystone or no.

Yuffie was hard to track in Wutai. Appart from her being a ninja, it was obvious the rest of the town was helping her elude the group. After several encounters where she managed to escape, Cloud,  Barret and Red XIII managed to corner her near an inn. Even then, she only pretended to be defeated to lure them into a trap.

During the search, Cloud had another encounter with the Turks. They were Reno, Rude and Elena this time. While Elena was eager for a conflict, Reno and Rude decided to ignore the party due to, in their words, being on a vacation. They even refused to help a bunch of Shinra guards with tracking down another unknown individual who was in the area.

Eventually, the group tracked down Yuffie again, this time to a hidden room under a large bell. This is where they discovered Yuffie and Elena were captured, by none other than Don Corneo, the perverted idiot with whom Cloud has already dealt in the past. He lured the gang into another trap and then escaped towards the gigantic statues carved in the local cliff side.

It was difficult to consider Wutai a nation in Final Fantasy VII. Crisis Core made me realize that.

There was nothing left to do in Wutai, so the party returned to the Tiny Bronco and continued sailing to the north. On the shores of the northern continent, they found Bone Village, a tiny settlement built upon an arheological dig. This is where Cloud finally managed to get some information about Sephiroth’s whereabouts. The Temple of the Ancients is located to the southeast, directly opposite of Bone Village, in relation to the central continent. It is supposedly a pyramid, located in the middle of the forest, on an isolated island. In order to enter, however, one needs a keystone. The rumor is, some rich guy has it.Reno and Rude decided to initiate a truce and help Cloud and the others with saving Yuffie and Elena. Together, they searched the cliff side and soon found Corneo with the girls strapped to one of the statues. At first, he threatened their lives unless Cloud lets him go, but he did not expect Reno and Rude to be there, so his plan failed. Yuffie and Elena were finally free and Yuffie even gave back all the materia she stole.

There are several rich people Cloud knows, so this wasn’t a very useful rumor. Because of this, the party decided to find the rumored temple first and only then worry about the keystone. As described, the temple was on an island between the southern tips of the central and the eastern continent. Without the keystone, the party was unable to enter.

North of the temple, on a peninsula of the central continent, there was a lone house which Cloud already visited in the past, but there was no one home. Desperate for clues, the party visited the house again and found a man living there. As luck would have it, he used to have the required keystone, but sadly, he was “persuaded” into selling it to Dio, the manager of the Golden Saucer.

This was Cloud’s next stop.

The Nibel reactor was another area I used to have trouble with as a kid. The place itself was tough enough, with the dragon monsters which would hit extremely hard, but the boss at the end, Materia Keeper, was the real issue. Back then, I didn’t understand materia, and I understood elemental absorption even less. This monster absorbed fire and did a huge amount of damage through Trine, as well as single hits. As a kid, I barely even knew how to bind healing materia to my gear, so I would be able to heal my party. 

There was nothing left but to follow Sephiroth through the mountain. The road was the same as in the past, for the most part, and the party was near the reactor in no time. The way out was soon found, but before that, Cloud wanted to navigate through a series of ladders and pipes in order to gather the valuable equipment left behind by the reactor crew. This involved some walking back and forth, but it was eventually worth it.

The cave exit was guarded by a monster, the Materia Keeper. It was a powerful creature, able to use attacks which hit multiple targets at once, as well as some powerful physical moves. Eventually, Cloud managed to defeat it with Barret and Red XIII.

Once outside the caves, the only place reachable by foot was a local town. The town was built around an old run down rocket ship. Asking around town revealed that the rocket belongs to Shinra. It was part of a space exploration program that was scrapped due to a launch failure and high financial costs.

After the depressive atmosphere of Mount Nibel, Rocket Town serves as a refreshing change.

The captain’s name was Cid and he was definitely not willing to give up his plane. He was also an extremely ill-mannered person. His assistant, Shera, felt it the worst because, according to her words, the initial launch of the rocket failed because of her. She was attempting to repair an oxygen tank seconds before launch and was even willing to die, but Cid aborted the launch to save her life. After that, mako became a lucrative industry and the space program was scrapped. Cid basically never forgave her, even though it wasn’t really her fault.There was nothing in town for them so the party decided to search for a way to continue their journey. In the backyard of one of the houses, Cloud managed to find an old, but functional aircraft. Cloud asked the resident, a woman named Shera if it was possible for them to borrow it, but she said it belonged to “the Captain” who was at the rocket ship.

As the party was talking with Cid and Shera, they were interrupted by the arrival of president Rufus and his posy. At first, Cid was hopeful that the space program might be restarted, but it was soon obvious why they were really there. They wanted to take Cid’s plane, the Tiny Bronco. Cloud and the gang listened to the conversation from inside the house and decided to take the plane before Rufus could.

Before that, they had to deal with Palmer, Rufus’ lackey, who was inspecting the plane. Palmer was a pathetic man, easy to deal with, but he slowed them down enough for Shinra to notice the theft attempt. They started shooting at the runway. Cid also noticed what was happening and even managed to catch up and climb aboard, but as the plane was taking off, several bullets hit one of the engines and a forced landing was soon required.

The plane was not airworthy anymore, but at least it could be used as a flotation device. With nothing left for him, Cid decided to join the party for the off-chance to one day pay the Shinra back for what they did to him. They now needed to decide where to go next. Cloud overheard Rufus about Sephiroth going to some place called The Temple of the Ancients, but he had no idea where that was. However, they crash-landed at the shores of Wutai, so they decided to land on the shore and ask around in the nearest town.

They reached a bridge connecting two cliffs, when Yuffie stopped them to say something. Before she did, a pair of Shinra officers attacked. When the battle was over, Yuffie was nowhere to be found, along with any materia the party used to own. This was her plan all along – to lure them to Wutai and rob them. For better or worse, the party was now stuck in Wutai until they track down the thief.

The Nibelheim Cloud entered was not the Nibelheim he and Tifa remembered from five years ago. The town seemed like nothing bad ever happened to it. In fact, it seemed so fine, Cloud began doubting his memories. Upon investigation, though, it became obvious something is wrong. Most citizens would get overly defensive on any mention of Sephiroth or the towns destruction.

Even more disturbing, some of the people there, namely those dressed in black acted unstable, constantly talking about joining Sephiroth and some sort of Reunion. Through one of them, Cloud found out Sephiroth is at the Shinra mansion. The ground floor of the mansion held a book written by some Shinra researcher. He mentioned a subject that has been put in suspended animation in the cellar. The key to his room was stored in a safe and the pieces of the combination were hidden in the mansion. He also left several clues about where the pieces might be:

One of the pieces was supposed to be “in the place with the most oxygen”. There was a room filled with plants in the upper left wing, and this is where Cloud managed to find the first part of the combination. Another piece was “behind the ivory’s short of tea and ray”. This one was difficult, but Cloud managed to remember that piano keys used to be made from ivory. Once he remembered that, it became clear that “tea and ray” were actually do notes “Ti” and “Re”. The second part of the combination was found next to the piano, again in the upper right wing of the mansion. The third piece was found by simply following the instructions in the message. There was a chair in the upper left wing, placed next to a squeaky floor. From that point, one simply needed to follow the required number of steps in the right direction in order to find the third part of the combination. The fourth and final piece was found in the research notes themselves. It was written in invisible ink, right underneath the third clue.

The final combination to open the safe, thus, was “right 36, left 10, right 59, right 97”. With this, the safe was opened and the group was attacked. The monster was tough, but the party managed to dispose of it. As a reward, they gained the cellar key, something called Cosmo Memory, and a materia which can be used to summon Odin.

I used a guide from the PSX magazine to get Vincent in my first play. Even so, I only got him and Odin later in the game.

Nanaki’s grandfather, Bugenhagen, was an extremely knowledgeable person. Cosmo Canyon is a place devoted to learning about the Planet and life living on it. Bugenhagen has spent a large deal of time studying nature and listening to what the Planet has to say, so he filled Cloud and the group in.

Every living thing, every object, everything on the Planet is connected as energy. When something dies, its energy goes back to the planet, circulating through it until it ends up back in some other living thing. All of this energy forms a network called the lifestream. The lifestream gives live to everything, but it also gives life to the planet. If the lifestream is ever depleted, the planet will die, just like everything on it.

This is exactly what Shinra is doing. Mako reactors create electricity from the lifestream energy. Once that electricity is spent, there is no way for it to go back to the lifestream. With every mako reactor built, the Planet is dying faster. If there was every anything to strengthen the party’s resolve, it was this realization. Shinra needs to be stopped. Whatever Sephiroth is planning needs to be prevented. The Planet must be saved.

Many forget this sad scene in favor of the one later in the game, but I find it almost just as sad.

The caves are the site of an old battleground, where the Cosmo Canyon fought off the Gi tribe. They tried to use the caves to sneak into the town, but they were somehow stopped. Now their spirits haunt the caves, unable to return to the lifestream. The road through the caves was a perilous one, but eventually, the party managed to reach the end of it. This is where the undead leader of the Gi tribe attacked, Gi Natak.There’s something else that needs to be done first, though. Red XIII, or Nanaki, as he is truly called, needs to come to a realization. He is convinced his father died a coward, leaving his mother and him alone to fend for themselves. He has grown up resenting him. Bugenhagen is saddened by this, because he knows the real truth. To make the truth clear, he needs the party to follow him to the caves bellow Cosmo Canyon.

Of course, being undead, there was a simple way to deal with the creature. A single X-Potion defeated the spirit instantly. With the spirit out of the way, the passage to the outside was open and that’s where Nanaki could see the truth. Guarding the canyon was the petrified body of Seto, his father. He is no coward, he never was. He sacrificed himself to stop the Gi from advancing. His sacrifice is what saved Cosmo Canyon from certain doom.

Upon realizing this, Nanaki was filled with remorse for how he felt. He let out a long, sad howl as a sign of respect for his father. While he did this, the statue let out a stream of crystalized tears. The truth was now known and Nanaki could focus on what’s important – the salvation of the Planet.

It was now time to return to where the Sephiroth story started – to Nibelheim, Cloud and Tifa’s home town.

With the buggy in their possession, the party decided to search further for Sephiroth. The road led them to Gongaga, another village ruined by the Shinra Company. The village was located near an old mako reactor which eventually blew up. The few that made it are now barely surviving and the village is slowly dying out. They entered the village, but not before being attacked by a young Wutai ninja named Yuffie in one of the outlying forests. She acted her age, but has shown eagerness to join the group, for some reason, so Cloud decided to let her.

It took me two plays of the game to figure out what Gongaga was and who lived there.

At the town entrance, the gang had another encounter with the Turks and this time, it got physical. Reno and Rude were no match for Cloud, Barret and Red XIII though, so the fight was not a lengthy one. After the Turks retreated, Cloud and the group continued towards the reactor, where were forced to hide from a Shinra helicopter. The passengers on it were Scarlet, the new head of the Shinra weapons branch, and a couple of low ranking guards. Apparently, they were surveying decommissioned reactors, looking for powerful materia, but they got nothing here in Gongaga. As they left, Cloud decided to take a look at the ruined reactor himself and he was right in doing so. He found a piece of materia which would enable him to summon Titan. It might not be powerful enough for Shinra, but it will surely help the party.

The group explored the town, trying to find some information about where Sephiroth might have went. Sadly, they got nothing. It wasn’t uneventful, though. One of the families there asked Cloud if he knew their son, who was also a member of Soldier. Cloud denied every knowing anyone by the name of Zack, but admitted the name did sound familiar to him.

Since there was nothing to be found in town, Cloud decided to continue exploring with the buggy. The next place along their way was Cosmo Canyon. As they entered, Red XIII was greeted as Nanaki. It turns out this was his real name, and Cosmo Canyon was his place of origin. His grandfather lives there, so he decided to visit him and let the rest of the party explore the town.

As suspected, Barret was being too hard on himself. He used to live in a mining town called Corel. Coal was getting used less and less, so the villagers voted on letting the Shinra build a Mako reactor in the mountains nearby. Barret was one of the supporters of the idea, while the only person against it was his friend Dyne. The village accepted the Shinra offer, but soon enough, the company showed its true face. For some reason, probably to remove the potential bother, they burned down Corel and killed everyone there. Barret and Dyne were on their way home from the reactor when it happened and got ambushed by a guard platoon. Barret survived with his arm ruined, but Dyne fell off a cliff.

Flash forward to today, all the survivors moved tho North Corel and they blame Barret for all that happened, for some reason Cloud didn’t really understand. I mean, sure, Barret was a Shinra supporter back then, but so were most people.

In any case, this didn’t matter now. The gang needed to get information and the best place for that was to go where everyone goes – The Golden Saucer. The entrance fee was costly, at 3000 Gil, but hopefully it would be worth it. Barret went to sulk on his own, while Cloud took Aeris to explore and investigate.

This is one of the images that drew me to the game. I saw it first in a Croatian gaming magazine called PSX.

At the Wonder Square, they encountered a strange creature, describing itself as a fortune telling machine called Caith Sith. As far as fortune telling goes, it seemed to be broken because, even though it’s supposed to be able to find lost items and people, it couldn’t say much about Sephiroth’s whereabouts. He did say one thing, though. Cloud will find what he’s after, but he will lose something very dear to him on the way. This puzzled the creature, so it decided to accompany the gang.

Things made a turn for the worse at the Battle Square. The guard at the entrance was found dead. The party decided to investigate further and soon found most of the people there to be dead or dying due to gunshot wounds. Before they could understand what happened, the security arrived and mistook them for the killers, casting them to the desert prison bellow the Golden Saucer. This is where the gang found Barret again. Even though the gunshot wounds pointed at him, he denied the blame. Apparently, there was another person with a weapon drafted to his arm. The doctor who did the procedure on Barret said so.

Upon some exploration, Cloud found out the only way to escape the prison is by winning a race as a Chocobo jockey. Of course, in order to become a jockey, the local “boss” needs to approve it. As suspected, the boss was none other than Dyne. He survived the fall and had the same procedure as Barret, but he was not as well of mind. He wants to destroy everything due to what happened to him. He wants to destroy the rest of the town, the Shinra, the world, even his daughter, Marlene, who Barret took care of for the past few years. He is going to start with the gang.

Cloud was ready to engage, but Barret asked him to hold back. He was the one who needs to handle this and so he did, without much issue. Before the Dyne realized he was in the wrong and then threw himself off a cliff, for the second time.

With the “boss” out of the way, Cloud was “approved” as a jockey and it was just a matter of time before he won his first race. Even better the owner of the Golden Saucer, Dio, realized the gang was wrongfully accused and pardoned all of them. As an apology, he additionally awarded them a buggy, which will allow them to traverse rivers and deserts. He also gave them the crucial information they have been looking for – Sephiroth is on his way to Gongaga.

The fortress the gang stayed at had a roost of condors on its roof. It’s a rare, majestic bird and it chose a dangerous place to nest, what with a Shinra mako reactor being housed at the fortress as well. The Shinra Company isn’t too pleased with a bunch of birds damaging their precious reactor, so they attempted to forcibly remove them on several occasions.

They tried, but they failed, thanks to some acts of bravery committed by the locals. The cant last long, though. They need manpower and funds to hire defenders. This is where our gang comes in. Every opportunity to set the Shinra back a bit is a welcome one. The issue is, Clouds funds were low, so he didn’t have the 7000 Gil required in total to fund a battle. He donated as much as he could, which was 4000, but it wasn’t enough.

For some reason, Junon invokes a special feeling with me. It’s one of my favorite towns, but I have no idea why.

Sephiroth was sure to cross the ocean from this town, though, so the gang needed access to the upper districts. The issue was, the only obvious route was the elevator, but it was guarded. With no idea what to do, Cloud decided to go for a walk on the beach. This is where the gang met a little girl playing with her pet dolphin. She taught the gang was with Shinra, so she tried to shoo them away, but luckily, Cloud lingered long enough to notice a monster attacking from the sea. They managed to beat it, but Priscila, the little girl, wound up in the water and nearly drowned. Luckily, Cloud knew CPR, so he saved her.Since there was nothing they could do, the gang decided to move on to Junon. Junon is a port town which used to prosper, before the Shinra came. They built a city on top of Junon, blocking the sun and stopping the influx of tourism. Suffice to say, the locals share their feelings towards Shinra with the Avalanche.

As a token of gratitude, Priscila gave Cloud a Shiva materia and helped him get access to the upper districts with the help of her dolphin. Cloud infiltrated the district by disguizing as a Shinra guard and soon got access to the ship Rufus took to cross the ocean. The rest of the gang had their own methods to get there, so they were all on the boat.

The casual boat ride soon took a turn for the worse. It started with a general alert about intrudes on the boat. Cloud’s and Barret’s first thought was that one of the gang was found. They all met up and then realized the intruder was someone else. They went to the lower deck just in time to see Sephiroth killing one of the guards. The peculiar thing was, he didn’t seem to remember cloud. He flew through him and disappeared, leaving a peace of her mother behind.

If this is what the Cetra were, then most would probably be glad they don’t exist anymore. This single piece of the creatures arm was alive and grew into a dangerous monster. The gang managed to beat it, somehow and the voyage could continue. The rest of the trip was uneventful and pretty soon, the gang boarded off the ship at Costa del Sol.

The Mt. Corel reactor is of an older design, apparently.

Barret was not welcome here. Cloud isn’t familiar with the whole story yet, but basically, the town blames Barret for their current state and Barret seems to accept the blame. The story will have to wait.Costa del Sol was a pretty little tourist town, but the Cloud couldn’t relax there while Sephiroth was on the loose. They went north, towards Mt. Corel, an abandoned Shinra reactor facility. The trip was mostly uneventful, so eventually, they reached North Corel, a ruined town located at the bottom of the cableway leading to the Golden Saucer casino and entertainment complex.

Last time, our gang just fled Midgar and decided to make their way to Kalm, to regroup and review the situation. Well, Cloud and the girls arrived at Kalm and met up with Barret and Red XII. Since Sephiroth seems to be the focus and Cloud has a personal history with the guy, he decided to describe what he knows.

A few years back, when Cloud was still a member of Shinra’s SOLDIER program, Sephiroth was his partner on a mission to Nibelheim, Cloud and Tifa’s hometown. The mako reactor there, one of the early models, malfunctioned and started causing monster appearances. Apparently, mako energy can corrupt wildlife, causing horrible mutations. Cloud and Sephiroth were the two SOLDIER members ordered to escort and protect the repair crew and help with the repairs. Tifa was hired as their guide, being familiar with the area and all.

At the reactor, they’ve found a bunch of pods containing horrible creatures. Sephiroth realized they are experiments made by Hojo and used to be human. This made him worry his history might be similar, since he definitely was experimented upon with mako and wasn’t made SOLDIER in the same way the other members were. Upon their return to Nibelheim, he locked himself in the library of a building where Shinra scientists used to work, trying to figure out what he is and where he comes from.

His eventual conclusion was that he was produced by Shinra, cloned from the remains of a Cetra, discovered and exhumed somewhere in the northern continent. Apparently, the Cetra were the previous intelligent beings living on the planet. They went extinct for some reason, long ago and were succeeded by humans soon after. In Sephiroths unbalanced mind, this makes him the last of the Cetra and every human on the planet a traitor to his kind. Of course, back then, he had no knowledge of the existence of Aeris and her mother.

The legendary Nibelheim scene cemented Sephiroth as my favorite villain.