FF7 - The Diary :)

[The Skillster]

hey guys, some one posted something here a while back, and its given me some ideas.
I was thinking of a FF7 diary. Where day by day i play about a few hours worth, and post all the strange and corny things that happen in FF7 in an attempt to prevoke an explanation to "further increase my knowledge" as one person posted before (cant remember the name).

Maybe everyone could start playing FF7 again, and we could all make notes and post them here, not just day by day, but area by area, ie: sector7, sector5, kalm, junon etc

[Rubicant?]

i think i'll pass.  thanks for the offer though...

[Rubicant_II]

I think threesixty mentioned doing something like that on his website. Like taking apart the game word for word.

What're we, scholars?  

But I suppose it's not really a bad idea...maybe a good idea so people can get a nice chronological view of the game for reference if we need it for the remake.

[The Skillster]

naa , i didnt mean word for word
i simply meant raise all the issues we dont understand

[Rubicant_II]

Well I guess it wouldn't hurt to start. I woke up from a 3 hour nap and I decided to restart FF7 and cover the stuff at the beginning of the game. This is what I wrote down in notepad while playing the game.

***********************************************
Cloud: "I don't care what your names are. Once I'm done, I'm getting out of here."

He doesn't want anything to do with the people who care about him. Things for Cloud still haven't come very clear yet. He hardly knows who he is at this point.

Cloud had been in reactors before. He worked for shinra, you know.

Cloud feels that the planet isn't his problem.

Suddenly, cloud becomes paralyzed by something calling to him, almost as if it were a guardian.

Watch out! This isn't just a reactor!

Perhaps this is one of Cloud's first few flashbacks he's had since he arrived in Midgar.
***********************************************

I'll provide a savegame of my progress...so maybe each of us should trade off on who gets to write what when. I think it'd make things a little easier. Even though where I'm at right now takes seconds to get to

Savegame

[The Skillster]

good start rubicant, actually just WHO is the person warning cloud?
And WHY, if its not just a reactor> then what is it>?
BTW there was a unfinished scene on train (first time cloud goes on the train) where we loses his mind again, and some thing is telling him that its not the real him.
Unfortunatly they cut access to that scene (u can see if via debug screen) and it would have made more sense to the average gamer on this first attempt at the game.

[The Skillster]

Ok Heres my contribution
Carrying on from where Rubicant II save left off:
You find your first materia here at the reactor, that being Restore Materia.
Just the fact its so blatantely on the Floor in front of you is just a glimpse of how easy it is to gain materia in this game later on.
On the PSX version If i remember is says 1999 above the reactor "core", and i think on PC versions it says 2000. Cant remember, I didnt check

Just as I said before theres a mysterious voice saying to cloud's mind
"This isnt just a reactor"
You think to yourself "Then what the heck is it?" For some reason I dont recall Cloud ever finding out who and when that was said to him in his past.

Boss fight
Barret/Cloud Warns in this boss fight "Careful" , "Attack while It's tail is up" ,
"And its gonna counter attack"
I Always mistook that for "attack while it's tail is up", and happened to hit him while his tail was up

I did it again today, and lol 3 times in a row Cloud got Killed and Barret managed to survive, and finish the fight

Equipted our first weapon "Assault Cannon" to Barret, Its a long range shooting weapon.

When you free Jessie (Which you have to, there's no choice) She jumps over you! How rude and stupid looking

When I was new to this game, I Allways had problems climbing the ladders,
Just finding their base and pressing OK was always tricky, and im sure 9 out of 10 people never get onto a ladder first attempt

As you escape the reactor, you are treated to some appaulling FMV, the quality is Yuck, putting it simply, the black sky line has line all over it!

As you split up and head for the station you first meet Aeris, what ever you choose here (in the dialog options) slightly effects the Love points game later on.

The Jump scene where Cloud leaps onto the train is cool

Jessie seems to care abit about Cloud, cleans the soot off his face, then thanks him for helping her at the reactor.

There was supposed to be a scene here, where cloud goes abit mental, but it was cut out, as I explained in my previous post.

The rail system map that jessie shows you is kinda pointless me thinks.

Jessie then says "Bombs & Monitors" supposedly this is "flashy stuff" What the hell did she mean there?? since when was Bombs and Monitors deemed as Flashy?

The Id tagging system used on the trains seems pretty Hi Tech and all but Jessie says "When The Light go off, you dont know what kind of creeps'll come out" Never quite understood this, simply 'cos I never saw any creeps come out

"Look you can see the surface now" Says Barret, but hes apparently looking at the sky making you think he means the plat's surface...

You finally arrive at Tifa's Seventh Heaven Bar, but on the outside there is a different name on the exterior...

I had a drink with Tifa, but if you try and have another she says
"Cloud are you feeling alright" Cloud thinks he is an alcoholic

Very popular quote by cloud here (for me), was when he dismissed his "attachment" to Shinra and Soldier,
But warned Barret that he didnt care about the Planet or Avalanche

Cloud has his First Official Flash back to his youth, when he and Tifa relive their "Childhood Promise"

Cloud gets paid for his duties, "Easy Money". Wish I could get paid that easily

You finally get access to the Materia System from here onwards, the tutorial is abit brief and isnt very clear.

Tifa follows up saying
"I got a message from the Weapon Shop Man upstairs" what weapon shop man upstairs? I had no idea where she was supposed to mean.

From the materia shop due south of the bar, I always grab 2 Lightening Materias, as 90% of the enemies in midgar are metal based, and are weaker to Thunder Elements.

I never bother getting armor/weapons from the shop in the tall 3 floor building to the south, no fun otherwise in the battles!
I grab all the goodies from the beginner's hall, where you can get info on almost anything and used the save point.

My save is here (overwrites Rubicant II's one, as I just carried on from his save)

BTW these shots are 256K each, and they dont show the fact im running FF7 bug free on a Geforece 2MX with 4x FSAA and full Anistropic Filtering with Yamaha XG SoftSynth on XP, the graphics are filtered and AA'ed and look sweet.

[Rubicant_II]

Wow, you went into detail, skillster.

The message from the guy in the weapons shop was meant by the people in the opposite building where they have all tutorials.

I think that the thing about it "not just being a reactor" was a flashback from the nibelheim incident whereas the nibelheim reactor was not just a reactor, but it was also developing mutants. Maybe the mako reactors in midgar are also places where they are infusing people with mako and jenova. Also, I believe it says 1999 in the pc version.

By the way, could you tell us how to see that scene from the train using the debug room, or even describe it?

Oh, and I'll be busy tonight, so I will not be able to work on this until about tomorrow. It's 6:40 pm now (central time), and I think I'll be able to continue tomorrow afternoon. Maybe we can give someone else a chance to continue this  

[Caddberry]

Jessie then says "Bombs & Monitors" supposedly this is "flashy stuff" What the hell did she mean there?? since when was Bombs and Monitors deemed as Flashy?

The Id tagging system used on the trains seems pretty Hi Tech and all but Jessie says "When The Light go off, you dont know what kind of creeps'll come out" Never quite understood this, simply 'cos I never saw any creeps come out

If you look at the vast majority of things in midgar its flashy stuff.. The monitors are flashy.. not flashy as in elegant.. think flashy as in crap popping on the screen and diagrams and well its just flashy.. bombs.. those are pretty flashy.. think flashy as in lights and stuff to put it better..

Some of the text in videogames is poorly written/translated.. it shows on occasion.. i think this is one.. atleast with the creeps thing.. but i thought there actually was a person that came out..

[Synergy Blades]

I Always mistook that for "attack while it's tail is up", and happened to hit him while his tail was up

That confused me so many times when I first played it, I got bored of dying and left. Lucky I came back to it later though  

[Caddberry]

I Always mistook that for "attack while it's tail is up", and happened to hit him while his tail was up

That confused me so many times when I first played it, I got bored of dying and left. Lucky I came back to it later though  

It killed me like twice now that i think about it too.. a perfect example of what i said before about the speech translation/writing..

[Rubicant_II]

Actually it says "1998" on the no. 1 reactor, not 1999 or 2000. That's for the pc version. I'll be working on skillster's progress now..I'll be editing this post in awhile.

By the way, the whole "don't attack while it's tail is up" comes from FF4, if you hadn't known. When the mist dragon (at the beginning of the game, first boss) turns into mist, it will automatically counter you with an annoying mist attack. So you just sit there and parry until it turns back into a dragon. The same thing happens with that Whelk creature in FF6. When it hides in its shell, you can't attack it anymore or it will absorb the attack.

******************************************************

When Barret, Tifa, and Cloud arrive at the bombing site in sector 5, cloud suddenly grabs his head. Everything around him turns red, and suddenly he is shot back several years into the past. He sees the inside of another  Mako Reactor. He sees Tifa is standing over the cold body of her father. "Sephiroth? Did Sephiroth do this to you?". "Sephiroth...SOLDIER...Mako Reactors...Shinra...I hate them all!"

Tifa picks up the masamune that laid next to her father and runs into the next room. The next thing Cloud hears is Barret's intimidating voice. "Damn man, get a hold of yourself!"

They meet up with president Shinra on the bridge that leads from the reactor. Cloud seems familiar with the man, and Shinra acknowledges Cloud as the person who quit SOLDIER and joined AVALANCHE. He could tell because Cloud had looked like he had been exposed to Mako by the look of his eyes. They seem to glow. Shinra begins to taunt Cloud about not remembering his name; only Sephiroth's name was worthy of Shinra's memory. If only Cloud became another Sephiroth...

Now, this right here gives it away that they were trying to make another one as powerful as Sephiroth.

As Cloud is hanging onto the edge of the broken bridge, Tifa says she has so much to tell Cloud. Things she hasn't talked to him about yet. Cloud falls...and lands somewhere. This is one of the places where it seems he is talking to his "inner child".

??: "you all right?"
??: "can you hear me?"
Cloud: "Yeah"
??: "back then, I only got scraped knees"
Cloud: "What do you mean by 'back then'?"
??: "What about now? Can you get up?
Cloud: "What do you mean about 'back then'? What about now?"
??: "...Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself now."
Cloud: "I'll try"
Aeris: "Oh, it moved!"
??: "How about that?"
??: "Take it slow now. Little by little."
Aeris: "Hello, Hello?"
Cloud: "I know.."
Cloud: "Hey, who are you?"
Aeris: "Hello, Hello!"

Grass and flowers can grow in the church. Because of Aeris' holy presence?

Aeris has some materia. But "It's good for absolutely nothing". She got it from Ifalna. 10 bucks says it's Holy.

Reno is standing outside the church at this point. He says "I'll give you a little more time".

Cloud sees Reno for the first time. White flashes occur with a whirring sound. He is starting to remember things.

Turks are on the watch for candidates for SOLDIER. Also known as Jenova infusion..

Aeris knows already that people in SOLDIER have been exposed to mako. From Zack, perhaps?

******************************************************

And here's the savegame.

[Sir Canealot]

hey guys, some one posted something here a while back, and its given me some ideas.

Err... that was probebly me. I've been planing to do that for agggggeesss. I still plan to do it to, except in a much more organised way, with only me doing it
I've had a hankering to see if I can get the Pc version working in XP for ages anyway. So I might start sooner or later...