#( just a little somethin' while remaking icons )

[meltykarasu]

Final Fantasy VII Remake Advent Calendar — Dec. 24

Cloud and company ascend into the executive suites pursuing the trail of alien blood and eventually he wanders into President Shinra's office, where the man himself has been thrown out the window. He's offering anything. Money. Power. Anything you want.

"I want my father back, you son of a bitch," Barret says.

Nah, just kidding. Barret does tell him to clear AVALANCHE's name and then the President pulls a hidden gun on him—

And then is immediately killed by Sephiroth, who also stabs Barret.

Sephiroth mutates into Alien Freakazoid JENOVA Dreamweaver with one of my favorite battle tracks in the entire game. See, it's an arrangement of the original JENOVA theme but it doesn't hit you with it at once, subtly working in the layers as the fight progresses until you hit the last phase and the iconic synths start in and you're like "Now! That's What I Call Boss Music!"

Anyway, you gotta cripple its tentacles or somethin' like that. I just really dig the music.

Anyway then the illusory battlefield it's pulled Cloud's party into fades. Barret's life is saved by one of the Whispers and Cloud chases after what appears to be Sephiroth, hauling the black-cloaked corpse of what had been Jenova until it was beaten and reverted to seemingly being human. The Sephiroth he's pursuing is ALSO a man in a black cloak, who leaps from the building to parts unknown.

AVALANCHE's helicopter descends to the heliport but is promptly blown up by an arriving Shinra helicopter. It's Rufus Shinra, everybody! [APPLAUSE]

Cloud says he'll delay Rufus if Barret gets Aerith out and then comes one of my favorite boss fights in the entire game — a solo fight between Rufus and Cloud, guest starring Darkstar, Rufus's pet guard hound. Rufus is just a really dynamic fighter and the entire fight is really fun. I don't know how else to describe it.

After the fight Rufus escapes via helicopter and attempts to blow Cloud off the side of the heliport. He's saved by Tifa at the last second.

Barret, Aerith, and Red XIII descend down the elevator but are waylaid by The Arsenal, another Shinra mech. This is not one of my favorite boss fights, mostly because I like playing as Cloud and Tifa a lot more than Barret and Aerith. I blew a lot of Aerith's MP early and it was a lengthy fight because he would not do the thing that let me stagger him.

Meanwhile, Whispers throw Wedge out a window.

Barret's group heads down to the lobby where they are met with Shinra infantry and Heidegger, but then Cloud appears on a motorbike at the last second and does some sick moves to defeat the troops while Tifa pulls up in a dinky pickup truck to grab the rest of the gang. They leap out a window and head down the incomplete expressway.

Whispers swarm the Shinra Building, covering it completely.

Shinra pursues the escapees, throwing a bunch of soldiers and mecha at them including the Motor Ball, an interesting boss which is now fought entirely on the bike, involving repeatedly staggering it by crippling the wheels, and then racking up over 500% damage by doing this several times over. It's interesting.

The gang pulls to a stop because Cloud saw Sephiroth and the Whispers, which is an awful band name. They confront him and he vanishes into a portal and Aerith makes her own portal. Inside, they are confronted by the massive Whisper Harbinger and its gang of Whispers, and basically you have to fight a bunch of the little guys to destroy the big guy. It's an okay boss fight but it's barely about the big guy except for thirty seconds at the end.

Then Sephiroth shows up!

This is a GREAT final boss fight. Sephiroth is in top form here — fast, agile, lethal, he swaps between different elemental weaknesses and affinities at points. He puts a lot of pressure on the currently controlled character, which makes switching pretty necessary. That said, I kept whacking him with Cloud's counterstrike, which is basically how I cheesed most of the bosses tonight. All those Whispers? Counter. Jenny? Counter. Rufus? Counter, and his dog too.

It starts as a solo fight but then you get Aerith and man, when I said he pressures the fuck out of your controlled character, he could NOT stop stabbing Aerith! Eventually Tifa also shows up and throws down and thank god because she has the Cure-All setup going.

I wound up beating Sephiroth with about 30 seconds to spare before midnight.

Anyway, Cloud pursues Sephiroth into the edge of creation and Sephiroth implores him to join him. They duel but Cloud is outclassed. Meanwhile Rufus takes control of Shinra and the people of Sector 7 begin to rebuild.

I did not edit this screenshot to make it look like it was snowing.

Cloud and company stand outside Midgar. Cloud knows that Sephiroth is still out there and wants to pursue him and the rest join in for the sake of the Planet's ongoing health. It begins to rain.

And I, personally, thank you for reading. See you next year!

#ffvii advent calendar #final fantasy vii