| ========================================================================= 4. DISC TWO WALKTHROUGH ========================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1 the cave ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Viper Halberd, Bolt Armlet, HypnoCrown, Megalixir, Magic Plus materia, Power Source. You'll start off outside of one of the shell-shaped buildings on the east side of the Ancient City. If you walk to the left, Cloud will have another attack and you'll see the ghostly form of Sephiroth leaving the Ancient City. Once Cloud has recovered, follow Sephiroth by heading north, then east along the path you couldn't take before. Note that you're free to go back through the Forest and return to the World Map, but there's no point in doing so unless you wanted to buy some items or find Vincent or Yuffie (unless you already have them). Although you're now on Disc 2, none of the other events that occur in this disc will actually happen until you get the Highwind in section 4e (meaning that if you were to return to the World Map, you couldn't go on the Huge materia quests yet, dig up the Gate 5 Key, or bring Bugenhagen back to the Ancient City). In the next area, ignore the white, spiked object for a moment. Instead, walk behind it (look for a path to your left). This will allow you to reach a chest containing a Viper Halberd (a weapon for Cid). Once you've gotten it, climb up the spiky object. It's a little tricky to navigate due to it's spiraling shape, but you'll eventually reach a cave entrace after making your way to the top. Inside, walk to the left and press against the second cleft in the wall. You'll climb to the top and be given two options (Right or Left). Pick the bottom option (Left). Walk over to the next cleft and climb up it, then choose the bottom option when you reach the top to land on a little ledge with a chest above it. You can open the chest from where you are; there's a Bolt Armlet inside. Face the cleft and choose the bottom choice, then the top one to jump to the other side. Now, go to the right and when two options appear, pick the bottom one. This lets you climb down to where the first chest is; there's a HypnoCrown inside of it. Climb back up to the top of the cleft, pick the bottom option, then press against it to try and get back on. When two options appear, choose the top one. Then, make your way up to the ledge with the chest, and pick the top option. You can now take the Megalixir from inside the chest. Get back into the cleft and choose the bottom option to jump to the west side of the path. Work your way to the left, climb up the cleft, and head left a second time to reach a long ladder. Selecting the bottom option will left you climb down to the bottom of the ladder. If you search using the O button, you'll find a purple materia (Magic Plus) near the lower-left corner of the screen. When you approach the ladder, you'll automatically climb up to the ledge you were at. Now pick the top option after nearing the ladder and climb all the way to the top. Once you're off the ladder, run to the right and go through the opening on the north wall. In the next room, take the contents of the treasure chest (Power Source) before exiting through the far opening to the northwest. Once outside, keep to the east. After heading along the coastline for a while, you'll come across a sharp curve that turns to the west. Just beyond it is a village and a deep valley, which you can't enter without exploring the village (Icicle Inn) first. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.2 icicle inn / great glacier ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ITEMS IN THIS AREA: X-Potion, Hero Drink, Vaccine, Turbo Ether, Mind Source, Safety Bit, Elixir, Added Cut materia, Go to the far end of town and talk to the man in purple standing near the trees. Pick the top option. Two Shinra members will show up, along with Elena (a Turk). After confronting Cloud, she will try to knock him out. To avoid her strike, press left, right, or up just after you see the transparent message box. If she does hit you, you'll wake up in one of the houses, but if she doesn't, then she'll roll right out of the town. It doesn't make a difference whether you get hit or not. After that's done with, go to town entrance and check out the house that's just to your right. In the back room, there's a boy, a cat, and a snowboard. Talk to the boy and the cat will leave the room, enabling you to take the snowboard by examining it. You'll need it for the upcoming event. Now, go to the inn, head to the upper floor, and examine the window in the lower left-hand corner to get an X-Potion. You can also check out the bar beneath the main room (look for a door near the reception area). Now, leave and enter the house on the far right (near the snowman). Take the items in the back room (an Hero Drink and a Vaccine), then examine the map on the wall in the main room. You can examine it by choosing the top option, but before you leave, you'll want to choose the bottom option to take it. Finally, go into the house on the left side of town, just to the right of the weapons shop. If Elena KO'd you, this is where you'll wake up :) If you go down the stairs and look by the windowsill, you can get another item (Turbo Ether). You can also take a look at the machinery on the ground floor to see a series of prerecorded videos dating back many years ago; they show Aeris' mother (Ifalna, a Cetra just like Aeris) and her father, a 'renegade' Shinra scientist named Gast. There are several videos, but watching them has no effect on the game itself, aside from cluing you in to Aeris' past. There's a device to the left that will allow more light into the room, but it doesn't have any purpose. Before you leave the town, you may want to buy weapons, Hi-Potions and Tents at the shop. When you're ready to go, simply walk past the man in the back of town (the one near the trees), and the snowboard sequence will start up: Your controls while using the snowboard are: S Brake X Jump Pad Move left or right, down to brake Start Pause/unpause L1/R1 Quick turn to the left or right when used with control pad Basically, you want to make your way through the mountains. You can collect balloons along the way, but I don't know what they do for you. There are also obstacles to crash into, like dead wood, pine trees, igloos, moogles, snowmen, rocks, ice boulders, and chocobos. I believe there are four different 'exit' paths; I'll take the left path twice and go from there in this FAQ. My characters came to in a white forest. Did yours? From this point onward, you can press S to look at the map you took (but not in some screens), which shows where you need to go but not where you are. I spent hours trying to map this place out, only to discover that there's almost nothing of interest in this area. So, I've simply described each location and where it is on the map; getting there isn't much of a problem. Your ultimate goal, BTW, is to make it to the red check mark shown on the map. The locations are listed below (I'm using my names for the : ENTRANCE (looks like a square at the bottom-center of the screen) Heading south from this area takes you back out to the World Map. If you return to Icicle Inn to heal yourself, you'll have to snowboard in here again. MOUNTAIN CAVE (small opening just to the right of the ENTRANCE) You can hop across the ledges to the top of the screen, but in the next room, there's nothing to do but choose to fall/not fall down an icy chute that has no effect aside from ejecting you back into the world map. The entrance to this cave is hard to see; it's in the lower-right area of the T-junction screen. You can also get here by going right from the LAKE CAVE area. FOREST (forest divided by Y-shaped paths) In the main forest screen, there's an item (Mind Source) at the foot of a tree near the upper left part of the screen. If this is where you landed after the snowboarding event, then it's just up and to the right of where you crashed. BURIED AIRPLANE (tail of plane sticking out to left of forest) Nothing here. LAKE CAVE (cave in the middle of the central lake) On the surface of the frozen lake, near the shore, there is a green item (a Potion). Be sure to get it. Then head to the left to reach a screen full of ice floes. Here, you'll have to jump on the floating ice chunks to get across, but the chunks surrounding the one you're currently standing on will submerge or raise depending on how they looked when you arrived there. If you mess up and they are all submerged, you'll have to start all over. The key is to make sure that you're not jumping onto a floe when the ones surrounding it are all raised, or else they'll all submerge and you'll fall into the water. To get on the ice floats, choose the top option, then use the O button and the controller to jump around. Enter the cave in the next area, grab the item bag (it contains a Safety Bit accessory), and leave. LONE TREE (pine tree up and right from the LAKE CAVE) Nothing here, either. ICE BOULDERS (northwest corner, left and below the STONE FACE) Go into the small cave entrance and grab the item in the northwest corner of the cavern (an Elixir), then go out the other entrance. RIVER LOG (above central lake, at mouth of river) There's nothing here. STONE FACE (left of the red check mark) Nothing here. Seem familiar? The stone face has also appeared in Secret of Mana and FF5j. STEAMING LAKES (south and east of the check mark) You can touch the water on the lefthand bank if you want. In fact, you should, since you can't get the Alexander Materia any other way. (Keep reading for details.) Just maneuver yourself as close to the shore of the left lake as you can, and when an option appears, pick the top one. MOUNTAIN CROSSROADS (top of mountain east of the STEAMING LAKES) Once you reach the crossroads (da dum da da :)) head to the upper right corner of the screen to go off the map. In the next area, work your way up and to the left. When this screen repeats a second time, look for a Blue Materia (Added Cut) near the beginning of the screen, in the upper-right part of the path. This road takes you to the Steaming Lakes area, but if you try to back the way you came, you'll see that the screen has changed. Put another way, you couldn't have gotten the Materia unless you took this path since the 'switching' road isn't marked on the map. If you're fast, you can reach the 'lost in the snowfield' section (the red checkmark) before anything bad happens. But if you waste your time in this area, you'll pass out. (This will still happen to you even if you reached the snowfield, but then returned to any part of the 'first area'. If that happens, go to the next section. If you made it to the snowfield area, then skip the first paragraph to find out where you are. Personally, my suggestion is that you follow the example in the FAQ and take the left path twice so that you land in the Forest. From there, you can go right to the Lake Cave area, then continue right past the Mountain Cave area (the T-junction), and up into the Mountain Crossroads, where you can take the switching path to the Steaming Lakes, and then head left into the snowfield. Not only is this a fast way to get through this area, but it also lets you pick up all the items along the way and get the Alexander Materia later on (since you touched the lake on your way out). Also, you'll start off at the bottom end of the snowfield when you first get there, so you can just head up to the cave to get the All materia (mentioned in the next section), then keep heading north to reach the old man's shack (if you're in need of healing and a Save Point). After talking with him, you can go to the Stone Face Area, head south to the Ice Boulders area where an Elixir is, then backtrack to the snowfield and go to the right in order to get the Alexander Materia before returning to the shack. Voila! You've just cleared out this _entire_ area in only a few minutes! Remember, you _will_ pass out eventually if you return to the first area--there's nothing you can do about it, even if you've already gone to Holzoff's shack. If you don't want to waste too much time backtracking just run around in the same few areas until it happens, then leave the old man's shack and continue exploring. Why this still happens to you after clearing out this area doesn't seem to make much sense, as it's more of a nuisance than anything else, but there's not much you can do about it. If you return to the first area after falling unconscious and wait around there again, you'll pass out a second time. In fact, this will always happen to you, so get moving! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.3 lost in the snow ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ITEMS IN THIS AREA: All Materia, Circlet, Alexander Materia. If you passed out: You'll awake in the house of an old man named Holzoff. Go up the stairs and let the old man talk to you; choose the bottom option twice when he asks you two questions. When you wake up the next morning, check out the Save Point (since you probably haven't saved prior to entering the Icicle Inn). If you want to spend the night again, talk to the old man in the first room and choose the top choice. When you leave the shack, your friends will be waiting outside. Make a new party if you wish, (see below for directions) then head south. You may have noticed that you can talk to Holzoff from the ground floor even though he is above you :) If you didn't pass out: Go directly through the snowy field to the shack (head north) so that you won't pass out. There, you'll meet an old hermit named Holzoff. Talk to him, and when he asks you a question, answer any way you like. The second time he asks you a question, choose the bottom reply. You'll spend the night at his shack, and when you leave the next morning, your allies will be standing around outside. Choose either choice when an option appears. Then talk to any member and pick the top option to accept a party change or the bottom option to decline, if you want to change your members. If you don't want to explore the snowfield any more, skip to section 4.4. After all, you can return here at any future point in the game, providing you have the Highwind. Otherwise, head south to leave the shack area. Outside, you'll be in a large snowfield. Use the O button to set down spikes that you can use to track your location (since your direction changes when the wind picks up). If you want to explore the rest of that first area that you left/passed out in, head south. When you leave the first area from the Steaming Lakes exit, you'll see a rock formation with a cave entrance if you keep walking north. Inside, a Blue Materia (All) is lying near the tent. If you head east, you'll go through some snowy areas, then arrive at a cave entrance. Talk to the purple lady inside to enter a battle, but only if you touched the water back at the Steaming Lakes. _________________________________________________________________________ BOSS TIPS: SNOW LV: 32 HP: 4000 MP: 160 (weak against Fire) You can't Control or Morph her, but you can steal a Circlet during the battle. Her cold-based attacks (Cold Breath and Ice 2) are nothing to worry about, but be careful if she Fascinates (charms) one of your own members. 3_________________________________________________________________________ If you are victorious, she'll disappear and a Summon Materia (Alexander) will drop to the floor, so don't miss it. While you can use the map here, you can't reach this place normally from the first area. If you go right, then down the snowy path, you'll end up at the 'switching' crossroads in the first area, though (sort of like a one-way path). Going west from the snowfield takes you to an alternate entrance to the first area. There's not that much to do there, anyway, unless you want a shortcut to the ICE BOULDERS area where an item is lying in a cave (refer to the previous section for more information). If you're really having trouble navigating around, think of the snowfield like this: Old Man's Shack +-----------------------------+ S | | A 1 t | | l M s o | | e a N t n | | x t | e | | a e W-- + --E A | | n r | r F | Cave | d i S e a | | e a a c | | r e | | +-----------------------------+ First Area (Steaming Lakes) So no matter how far you are along a boundary, you'll still enter that area when you hit it. The same applies to the corners -- you'll hit one boundary or the other, so going in a diagonal direction won't get you to a new place. Don't worry about finding an 'exact' spot to enter an area, just head in that direction. The only real landmark is the cave with the All materia, but if you head north from the Steaming Lakes exit, you're bound to spot it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.4 the crater / whirlwind maze ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Ribbon, Javelin, Elixir, Fire Armlet, Megalixir, Speed Source, Enhance Sword, Dragon Fang, Neo Bahamut materia, Ether, Hi-Potion, Kaiser Knuckle, Reflect Ring, MP Turbo materia, Poison Ring. Once you've had your fun in the snowfield, return to the old man's house and heal up or save your game if you need to. Then, go north from the shack to arrive at the slopes of a icy mountain. Keep in mind that you can't explore this area at any time other than right now in Disc 2, so make sure to get all the items and other stuff. Now, get ready for some finger-smashing fun! The meter that appears on screen when you're outside is your body temperature: it goes down because of the cold climate. To keep your temperature up, you need to rapidly hit the S button. The highest temperature you can get to is 38, while the lowest is 27. Any less than that (26), and you pass out and find yourself back in Holzoff's shack. It sounds like keeping your heat up is easy, but you can only increase it when you're on one of the ledges, not while you're climbing up the rock face. So for those long climbs, you have to max out your heat and climb as quickly as you can. Luckily, your heat doesn't go down during a battle. Remember, it's not how hard you press the S button, but how fast you press it, so try to get in as many presses as you can to max out your temperature. I had made a GameShark code for this part of the game in the Japanese version of FF7, because it was so hard. But in the US version, you'd have to really mess up to have your temperature dip below 34, even. That's right, here's another example of Square making an easier game even simpler. In the Japanese version, you _destroyed_ your fingers trying to keep your rapidly-decreasing body heat up. ^_^; In this area, there's nowhere else to go but up, so climb along the rock face until you arrive at the cave entrance, pausing at each ledge to restore your body heat. Always keep an eye out for the red flags; they indicate which part of the wall you can climb. Inside, go through the two archways into the next cavern. Here, climb up the stairs and go through the south exit. In the adjoining area, walk all the way to the right to find a hidden chamber with a chest; inside it is a Ribbon. Then return to the main path and head north, then west, through the entrance. Cross the icy bridge in the third cavern and press the SELECT button to bring up the cursor; it'll help you navigate through the twisting passage before you. Once you reach the top, examine the boulder and choose the top option when it presents itself. This will make you push the boulder and free up the blocked passage beneath you. You can still move while the boulder is rolling--notice that you can stand right where it falls and you will recieve no damage (then again, Cloud is the same guy who can run around in the cold wearing a sleeveless shirt and not die of hypothermia...must be those corn flakes). Go back to the other room (where you got the Ribbon), and open the purple chest to the northeast; there's a Javelin lying inside it. Now, return to the room that you exited from the south (the one with the formerly blocked passage), and go north along the passage until you reach another exit. This leads to the upper path above the chest with the Javelin--keep following it and you'll find yourself outside. Build up your temperature, then climb up the wall. After going a short distance, you're given a choice (up, down, or right). Pick the top option (up), and head up until you reach a ledge. Keep climbing upward, and you'll be prompted with another choice (right or down). Pick the top option and head right to arrive at another ledge. Then climb up until you reach the next ledge; it has a path going left and an unmarked path that goes to the right (i.e. there's no flag by it). The right path is a dead end, so take the left path and keep climbing up along the wall (you'll find another ledge on the way) until you reach a second cave entrace. This large cavern is pocked with holes. There's an exit and a treasure chest, but they are too high to reach, at the moment. Don't miss the Save Point between the chest and the exit. Nab the other chest in the lower right corner of the room (there's an Elixir inside of it), then go north from the chest to find a passage that leads outside. Once you're out in the open again, head north, then go around the bend and head south and east. In the next room, examine the area immediately to the right to find a chest with an Fire Armlet inside. There are four huge icicles here that you need to knock into the holes in the lower cavern. This is done by 'fighting' them. Each icicle is guarded by several yellow bats. _________________________________________________________________________ TIPS: ICICLE LV: 30 HP: 3000 MP: 300 (weak against Fire, Earth, and Gravity) EVILHEAD LV: 28 HP: 740 MP: 45 The Icicle can counter with an Icicle Drop attack. It will do this to any person who attacks it, tries to steal from it, or the like. You don't have to kill the bats in order to win the battle (all you have to do is 'kill' the icicle), but since they can Silence your characters and recover HP when they attack you, you may want to get them out of the way before attacking the icicle. Or, use Beta to inflict damage on all of them at once. Killing the icicle is worth 500 exp, 0 AP, and 0 gil, so if you want some AP and gil, you may want to kill the Evilheads too (which, incidentally, you can Morph into Holy Torches). _________________________________________________________________________ Each time you win a battle, you'll be given an option. If you pick the bottom choice, you'll drop down to the room below, while picking the top choice lets you stay where you are (so you can continue to 'fight' the other icicles. After knocking down the last icicle, choose to stay where you are so that you can get the chest on the far left (it has a Megalixir inside*). Then, go back along the path. Just before you reach the door, an option appears; pick the bottom choice to jump down to the room below. * Note that it says you get a 'Last Elixir'! Yes, this is the power of the Square translators at work. 'Last Elixir' was the Japanese name of the Megalixir item, and if you look at your menu, you will have gotten an extra Megalixir, not a new item called 'Last Elixir'. Didn't they do a good job on the translation? :) When the icicles drop down here, the floor of the cavern is 'raised'. After knocking down 3 of them, you can reach the exit, knock down all 4 and you can get the chest on the ledge in the upper left corner of the room (which contains a Speed Source). When you're ready, go through the now-avalible exit by hopping across the stones. This leads to the left side of the outer path. Be sure to examine the chest that's here to get an Enhance Sword, then follow the path as it curves back on itself and leads to the lower passage in the icicle room. Keep following the path, and you'll find yourself on the side of the mountain yet again. Grab the rock face and climb to the right. After a while, three options will appear (up, left, or right). Pick the bottom choice and keep holding right to make Cloud ascend the side of the mountain. When you reach the next ledge, raise your temperature and take the path that leads to the left. As you're climbing, another set of options will appear (up, down, or right). Choose the top option and keep climbing up. Once you've made it beyond the second ledge, you'll find a final cave entrance. This area has a hard-to-miss Save Point in it, and if you examine the nearby pool of light, your HP and MP will be completely restored, and all dead characters will be revived. Now is a perfect time to stock up on goodies--you can use the pool to stay healthy while fighting the enemies for exp, AP, and gil, and you can learn Smelly Breath from the Molbors just outside (be sure to wear a Ribbon!) Plus, you can win Dragon Armlets from the Blue Dragons in this cave, which will halve damage taken from Fire, Cold, or Lightning attacks, and win M-Tentacles from defeated Molbols. There's a boss encounter coming your way, so make sure you're ready to do battle, then exit the chamber by going to the far right. In the adjoining hallway, you'll see one of those shrouded creatures (similar to the ones in Nibelheim) be thrown to the floor. Before you have a chance to examine it, you'll be attacked by a two-headed boss. _________________________________________________________________________ BOSS TIPS: SCHIZO (Right) LV: 43 HP: 18000 MP: 350 SCHIZO (Left) LV: 43 HP: 18000 MP: 350 In case you're confused, the 'right head' is the scaly one, and the 'left head' is the one with horns. Anyway, you should have the Aurora, Bolt, and Fire Armlets equipped on your members to reduce damage from the scaly head's Fire breath and the horned head's Ice breath. The Bolt Armlet will defend you against the heads' final attack, which damages all members for 1400 damage. Use MBarrier to up your defense, then Haste yourselves. Try using Earth and Comet spells, as well and summonings, like Alexander, Leviathan, and Bahamut to soften the boss up. However, don't use Poison (which does no damage) or the Kjata summon spell (which will heal both heads). Ice works well on the scaly head, and Fire works well on the horned head, but don't confuse the two since you will heal a head instead of hurt it. You may also want to use Elemental and attack a Fire or Ice materia attached to your weapon in order to attack with that sort of element (but don't attack the other head, for the same reason). In addition to breath attacks, the boss can also use a dual Ice/Fire breath attack, it can cast Quake 3, and has the previously mentioned final attack that it uses once when each head dies (and if you kill both heads at once, you'll still lose if both final attacks kill you off. When it's defeated, you'll get a Dragon Fang from the boss. _________________________________________________________________________ If you were badly beaten during the fight, you can always return to the room with the pool to heal yourselves. Otherwise, continue down the passage; it leads outside (Cloud sure moves slow out here, doesn't he?) Then climb the icy wall up to the top, where an automatic sequence will play. After it finishes, head along the side of the inner crater. In the next area, Tifa will talk with you if she's in your party; if she isn't, she'll promptly appear and insist on coming with you, which means you'll have to kick a member out of your current group. Head to the left. In the next area, climb down to the lower path and look for a red materia (Neo Bahamut) near the bottom edge of the screen. You can't do anything about the shrouded guy leaping off-screen, so ignore him. After getting the materia, you can hop up to a small island of rock where there is a Save Point. When you're done there, jump again to return to the top path, and walk to the left. You'll see a short intermission with the three heads of Shinra and several scientists heading towards the Crater in the Highwind, the airship you saw back in Junon Town. Once the intermission is over, walk left and you'll reach the first of three 'shield' screens. Talk to the two shrouded men, and they'll each leave behind an item when they die (an Ether and a Hi-Potion). To get past the flickering shield that's in front of you, stand as close to it as you can, then wait until the green aura is almost gone. Now, quickly run through it or you'll be knocked back when the shield's aura grows stronger. If you mess up, you'll be repelled by the shield and will be attacked by a monster: _________________________________________________________________________ TIPS: WIND WING LV: 36 HP: 1900 MP: 350 For starters, you can steal a Hi-Potion from the Wind Wing, and you can transform it into a Phoenix Down. Even better, you can control it using a Manipulate materia and make it attack itself! In other words, this is an easy battle. _________________________________________________________________________ If you happen to touch the shield from the other side, you'll get knocked back to the front of the screen, so be careful. In the next screen, more of those shrouded creatures are running around and dying. Ignore them, but don't miss the chest near the first left turn of the path; there's a Kaiser Knuckle inside it. Follow the path until you reach the next screen. The second shield is here, but unlike the first one, there's a surge of energy traveling along the shield that will knock you back even if the shield's aura is almost gone. So, wait until the energy surge has passed _and_ the aura is nearly invisible, then dash across. If either defense knocks you back, you'll have to fight a second Wind Wing (see the above strategy). Beyond the shield, Sephiroth awaits. He'll cut down two more of those black creatures before turning invisible and toying around with Cloud. After he attacks the party, he'll summon a second version of Jenova to kill Cloud and his friends. _________________________________________________________________________ BOSS TIPS: JENOVA*DEATH LV: 55 HP: 25000 MP:800 Jenova will try to Silence your members from time to time, and uses a Red Light attack often (usually after being attacked with magic). It causes little damage, but too many of these will really mess up your party. Jenova's last form of attack is a spurt of fire bubbles (even weaker than the Red Light attack). As you can see, this battle is not hard at all; just hack away with physical attacks, or if you think you have enough HPs, use Comet and cast Bahamut, Neo Bahamut, and Alexander. It's advisable that you wear the Fire Armlet or Dragon Armlet, since Jenova's attacks all cause Fire-based damage. Give the Fire Armlet to your best spell caster, and you can knock out Jenova and gain life back at the same time :) You'll win a Reflect Ring when the battle's over. _________________________________________________________________________ After the boss is killed, you'll get the Black Materia back (and it's actually black this time :)) Once you're back in control of Cloud, he confesses that since Sephiroth was able to manipulate him last time, he might try it again. Therefore, someone else should hold the Black Materia and stay here while Cloud and the others follow after Sephiroth. The first time I got here, only Red 13 would take the Black Materia. This second time, only Barret would. In the US game, they both offered to keep it...! ^_^; Well, just give it to whoever will take it--simply choose the top option when it is available (you won't get an option if that character refuses to take it). Finally, talk to Tifa. When you're in control of Cloud again, head north. There's a materia here (MP Turbo, but notice that it's yellow when you pick it up!), as well as a Save Point and a chest containing a Poison Ring. If you go north from here, you'll run into the third and final shield. In addition to having all the defenses of the previous shield (the glowing aura and the moving energy surge), bolts of lightning will strike the ground repeatedly. Since the lightning strikes in short bursts with long pauses in between, wait for the shield's aura to fade, the energy surge to pass, _and_ wait for a pause in the lightning strikes before attempting to pass through the shield. If you're hit by any one of those defenses, you'll have to fight a Wind Wing again (refer to the strategy section above). Once you're past the shield, head along the path. It leads to an exact replicate of Nibelheim. This next scene is sorta like a 'semi-interactive' flashback. You get to see Sephiroth run around in Nibelheim, but this time, there's another guy following him (Zack, the guy you heard about in Gongaga Village). Talk to your other party member, then to Tifa. In the next scene, Zack will look around Nibelheim (which has been reduced to smoldering rubble), and chat with Zangan, who was Tifa's mentor. (BTW, you can go to the Main Menu while Zack is running around. It's pointless, but I thought it was sort of amusing :)) Then, your party appears in a flaming building, and Sephiroth appears. Instead of attacking, he talks to the party. When you can move, talk to Sephiroth and he'll teleport around the room. When you're in control of Cloud once more, talk to Tifa twice. Sephiroth warps around some more, then shows Cloud a picture of him, Tifa, and Zack. After that, Cloud has another fit, and the screen fades out. In the next scene, Rufus, Scarlet, and Hojo (the scientist) arrive at the crater. Before them is a monster encased in ice. It's one of the five 'Weapons', which awakens and watches them, then starts moving. Following that, Sephiroth appears in the guise of Tifa and knocks out the other characters, then tricks whoever is guarding the Black Materia to go to the center of the crater. Your party will appear in the area where the Shinra members are at, and the person with the Black Materia gives it to Cloud, who then flies to the structure where Sephiroth is at (though you can move around up here, the game takes over your controls in a few seconds anyway). Once Cloud's given the Black Materia to Sephiroth, the whole crater starts to break apart and your party (sans Cloud) escapes on the Highwind along with the rest of the Shinra crew. Notice that the FMV will suddenly switch to the five Weapon monsters escaping; this is new to the US version of Final Fantasy. The remaning FMV has also been altered (five streaks of light representing the Weapons shoot out of the crater). Gee, I dunno, I kinda liked the Japanese FMV better (really!) |