Final Fantasy VII Ep. 24: More Than a Memory

Haney 0:00
Hey listener first encounters an explicit podcast by grownups for grownups. Content warnings can be found in the episode description. Did you know that first encounter is joined to collective the stilt action collective is a nerdy and independent arts collective farm to support indie creators while promoting community inclusion and the drive to grow and improve

Chris 0:15
go to spell pushing comm to learn more? trying something a little different are we and that this recording is going in today’s episode? Oh, instead of the episode, like a month from now, or whatever the recording going? Yeah. Why are we trying that out? Because it just makes more sense. In like the context of what’s happening at the time.

Haney 0:37
What’s happening? Well,

Chris 0:38
we just finished the spectrum. Vermont’s sleep out, raised 550 bucks. That’s pretty cool. For spectrum, which is pretty sweet.

Haney 0:45
Nice. Well done.

Chris 0:46
We just had our twitch stream.

Haney 0:49
That was fun.

Chris 0:50
So we raised $375 for extra life so far, but that’s like a full year thing. So don’t stop donating.

Haney 0:57
Yeah, come watch the stream every once in a while and play games.

Chris 1:00
Yeah. We had the tales boys Tales from the cartridge with us. Yeah, so that was really cool. Crime time. nerds, jitters,

Haney 1:07
all the greatest hits. Yeah,

Chris 1:09
so that was fun. But now we can say things like that. And it’ll make sense when this comes out. Oh, perfect. Yeah. So we’re coming at you from the future. But that’s what happened in our past.

Haney 1:22
I don’t want to be here today.

Chris 1:25
We got to thank our donors. Oh, yeah. Oh, who are those? Well, let me pull up this huge list of people who are so kind enough to massive list. In the meantime, would you like to talk about our promo that we’re playing now? Take it away? Hani. Yeah. We

Haney 1:43
got a great promo today from a friend over on YouTube called Drake, etc. Oh, yeah, we’re going to be listening to a little clip that Drake he provided to us. Go check out their sweet videos on Final Fantasy lore on YouTube.

Unknown Speaker 2:00
Interested in the history and origins of Final Fantasies most fearsome creatures, then check out Drake EC on YouTube for law of Final Fantasy, chronicling the real world and in game myths and legends about Leviathan, Bahama, Tom babies, and more. Drake also produces a wide variety of content for the desity a series, including a Let’s Play cutscene, compilations and random battles with more to come in the future.

Chris 2:26
All right, for extra live stream. Data, would you? Would you want to go first one second.

Haney 2:33
I’ll go first. All right, cuz I would love to take this opportunity to thank Mary Lindsay. Denise a bar, Eric

Chris 2:40
Ryan, and multiple anonymous. amazing, beautiful. So thank you so much for the donations. We’ll have more extra life event streams coming at you.

Haney 2:49
These are all for good, cause you’re all wonderful. children’s hospitals. Yeah. But we got some more donators. I mean, yeah, yeah. Is that right? We got some more donors rather, to think for the spectrum sleep out. So let’s take this opportunity to thank and P. Charles C. David L. Denise l. l. t. john f. Kathy, G. Maria L. Kevin C. Michael F. Mary L. Mary C. palsy,

Chris 3:16
the Strauss and Tyler B. Yeah. Thank you so much.

Haney 3:20
You’re all wonderful.

Welcome to the first encounter, global experience World Tour opening and 64 for 2069 blazes, rah rah rah rah. How are you doing? Doing? Okay, just get comfortable here in this chair. Turn my microphone all around for me. How you doing? helped I

Chris 3:55
got too much saliva in my mouth if you know what I mean. Yes, I think literally what i said

Haney 4:00
i Yes. Hey, Hey, how you doing? Pretty good. How are you? Yeah, I’m doing good. got us

Chris 4:06
a little heavy chunk of good good today. My favorite reveal of the game if you Will.

Haney 4:10
So what you’re saying is it’s all downhill from here. Yeah, yeah. All right. I

Chris 4:15
mean, the podcast is over. We’re not going to keep doing this. But yeah, we got a lot to talk about. So why don’t we dive right in?

Haney 4:20
Yeah, we should. I mean, I have you take control and steer me because this I think this is too important to lose track of. Oh,

Chris 4:27
that’s a good idea.

Haney 4:28
I’m sure it’s fine. Um,

Chris 4:30
so last episode, we got to or so we thought huge metiria Yes, we went to coral we stopped the trains. Some fucking How? still unclear. still unclear.

Haney 4:41
Don’t really unclear as to what happened last episode, not because anything story wise was confusing, but just because I didn’t actually succeed at either of the tasks that were given to me. But I still succeeded at the tasks that were given to me so

Chris 4:54
your natural gamer handy. That’s all I can say.

Haney 4:56
I’m going to show you what they call a pro gamer move.

Chris 4:59
So We got the huge out

Haney 5:00
here that did not get any response that I wanted.

Chris 5:04
So we got the huge material from coral. We also got ultimate materia which doesn’t do anything.

Haney 5:09
Yeah. For now,

Chris 5:10
we got the huge materia from Eagle Island and also the Phoenix summon Eagle oil import Condor, whatever. What? For Condor, what do you it’s birds.

Haney 5:22
Okay. All right.

Chris 5:23
So we got that or so we thought. We cleared the mini game.

Haney 5:27
We definitely got the Phoenix materia Yeah,

Chris 5:29
so we headed to MMA deal, because you were told previously like, Hey, we should check it on cloud every once in a while. So we checked in on him.

Haney 5:36
He seemed still bad yet doctor wasn’t helpful. Yeah,

Chris 5:39
I don’t know about that doctor. Yeah, so he was unhelpful. Couldn’t progress the story? I was like, Well, did we definitely get the materia that we got?

Haney 5:48
And I was like, yeah, obviously. What do you think we are dumb asses?

Chris 5:52
Turns out Yes. We didn’t pick up to huge metiria from Fort Condor

Haney 5:55
because you have to talk to someone in a foreign Condor after the only other resident of foreign Condor who’s not selling something. And then previous episode Honey, I store I stormed out. I was like, yep, never come back here again. Boy, was I wrong. So we went

Chris 6:09
back to Fort Condor

Haney 6:11
got the metiria headed right back to my deal and was able to start the story progression. sort of kind of haltingly forgot to save it before we got back there. Yeah. And at this point, I had done a good chunk of buying and selling.

Chris 6:25
Finally selling material.

Haney 6:27
Yeah, it’s all Bama.

Chris 6:28
Okay. Yeah, the second one, why the fuck not?

Haney 6:30
I haven’t used Phoenix yet.

Chris 6:31
That’s true.

Haney 6:32
I just don’t know why I would sell material. I really, I guess if I have a couple that are continually leveled up, like then I get like a new fire.

Chris 6:40
You can also sell the ones you don’t use that you never equip or use. They’re new. Yeah, they’re seal. You never use such if you don’t use throw. Let’s go down the list. Let’s see what we got. You don’t use trends for most of my triggering.

Haney 6:57
Transform? Not gonna sell that. It’s worth so much money.

Chris 7:03
Yeah. metiria is fucking expensive. Dude. Sell it.

Haney 7:06
I feel weird, though. Like,

Chris 7:08
why you’re never gonna use it. It’s fine. I’m giving you permission. I thought I can’t believe you fucking did.

Haney 7:14
You so much. A little world exploration. We’re gonna have a real going into that cave of a time. That you wish you were.

Chris 7:23
You can only land on grass.

Haney 7:25
I don’t believe you. Is that a threat? Are you threatening me? Yeah. All right. Fuck you. You’re acting like I don’t have other options. I don’t know where they are. But I’m gonna go find them. You want to know your other options are what chocobos to get there?

Chris 7:40
Yeah, you have to breed chocos so they can cross the ocean.

Haney 7:42
I don’t believe that’s not true. I’m going back up north. What if I just fly right into media?

Unknown Speaker 7:51
I’m painting any

Chris 7:54
been in any movie that tried that? Armageddon? Oh, yeah.

Haney 7:58
Yeah, it’s fucking phenomenal. One of the best made films of all time. What’s next, shall we head for fort Condor

Chris 8:07
really did for calendar. Year man. What’s next data? We get the huge metiria Yeah, I have Phoenix

Haney 8:14
and had gone back to Fort Condor and gotten the damn big metiria so far con dark. Don’t tell me. Remember right for Condor yonder here we are not what I wanted.

Chris 8:28
Shall we take off captain said Sir. Yeah, yeah. Taking off.

Haney 8:36
Sir, would you like to take off the only thing I don’t like about the Highland is my tendency to flatten mash, meaning that there’s actual time based consequences.

Chris 8:44
I feel like button mashing shouldn’t be a part of navigation.

Haney 8:49
How do you play video games? I literally don’t understand.

Chris 8:53
Alright, who around here would have a huge metiria this guy? Show me your huge materia

Haney 8:58
kaseya. Huge material, please.

Chris 8:59
Although there’s anything we could give you. We’ll make sure you can stop in state anytime. So be sure to drop by. Yeah, there’s one thing I forgot to tell you, Donna.

Haney 9:13
It is. Something happens as the story progresses. When you go back and see Tifa and cloud with the materia in hand medela starts shaking and cloud in his ultimate not okayness does. They’re coming and said runs outside and weapon is just flying overhead. It’s just flying around torching things. The whole middle Island is shaking like it’s just a nightmares and said in his ultimate wisdom. TiVo runs out and she’s like, what’s going on? He’s like, no, nothing you unclog. Go back inside. I’ll handle it. Not a big deal. Chris very artfully mentioned is probably not something you’re supposed to do during an earthquake. But we really don’t know. We don’t know. We’re on the east coast. West Coast listeners. What should you do in a? What should you do in an earthquake? Email us at mail at first encounter podcast calm the last stream is gushing up from below that our surface of the earth. Damn this is bad. I love it said What’s wrong? Nothing you can clap again sad quick, but I hey don’t worry about a thing. I ain’t about to die that easily. Oh boy it’s weapon. Damn that’s fucking all the times to show up. Okay then come on you fuck fine. Do I have to fight this thing? Oh fuck

Chris 10:38
so said start screaming at weapon just really giving him a bad

Haney 10:42
obviously as you might think weapon turns down and sort of dive bombing said we get into a fight and like i mean i got wrecked immediately just absolutely destroyed. I wasn’t prepped for a fight. I wasn’t expecting it. And just like I don’t even think I gotta move off. Maybe one attack. You got its own attack. Oh, yeah. It had reflecting so I died. I didn’t save it recently. No, you didn’t.

Chris 11:07
Oh, but you got Sid with the reflect. Yeah, yeah, that’s a pretty sweet design. Talk to me about what that is.

Haney 11:15
What is that?

Chris 11:15
You’re gonna heal him? Fucking Hey, wait a minute. What do you do?

Haney 11:20
I cast life instead of boost job. Oh, I should have fucking taken that reflect Ricky’s

Chris 11:26
potions?

Haney 11:28
Nope. I made my choice. Oh you know I’m not surviving this fight right oh

Chris 11:37
and that’s a wrap thanks for joining us yes sewed up first encounters I

Haney 11:42
mean, fuck I lost all my weapons too and the selling and buying and all

Chris 11:47
that you know you’re doing Hey, it’ll be easy. Hey,

Haney 11:53
we ratchet that death count up yet again. And I have a realization at this point which is I haven’t saved it in the 10 minutes we just spent doing all this shit is another aggressive 10 minutes worth of doing this shit again. So rebooted the game went back to for counterfeit equipment materials farrakhan nowhere so make it back to me deal again kick off that whole story. I think I was a little bit better equipped for this particular fight and made it three rounds before almost dying The only thing that saved me from dying before the round naturally ended I believe was that revive all I accidentally casts yo so I know for a move yeah accidentally cast to revive all my entire party was alive however weapon got off an attack that killed bear and read 13 and said had like 200 HP left so like I was like well fuck, the restore all goes off. They come back and weapon just ups and flies away and everything’s okay. Weird flex but all right. Whoo. Just swings by to find out and get anything from that fight that

Chris 13:02
feel like you deserve no no.

Haney 13:05
I’m really glad that it just bailed you back. You try this game. Stop. God said seriously stops it. Oh, thank God. After weapon books, it flies away. The island still is shaking. someone yells the Lifestream is gushing up. This whole island is going to fucking go down. Like we’re thinking get off everyone go. And yeah, real depressing watching that entire island fucking blow up. City yells to Tifa to save cloud and get out. So at that point, we see the remnants of our party just kind of go away. And we focus on Tifa. And cloud Tifa grabs clouds wheelchair and is trying to quickly get them out of the doctor’s office. However, they don’t quite make it off of medela in time. And as the village is collapsing, they fall into the live stream. Oh boy, this was really exciting for me. A couple episodes back, I made a prediction that cloud was going to kind of have a journey where he had to find himself. I think I got pretty close there.

Chris 14:11
Yeah, you nailed that.

Haney 14:13
That’s where my predictions kind of ended their accuracy for the day. Dear listener, the next chunk of I mean, the rest of this episode Really? Yeah. is incredible. Tifa wakes up kind of in the dark. She’s you know, searching for a cloud. She doesn’t know where she is. And she stumbles into a vision. I guess. It’s best probably described as clouds subconscious. My guess would be as what happened here is that since they’re both in the live stream, and the live stream consists of all living beings, their souls kind of merge while they’re in there, and that’s why TIF is able to see inside of clouds mind at this point and help them kind of sort through his shit. So she stumbles into this area that is basically just bits of nibble. himeko connected through clouds mind, it’s like all the pieces that are important to him. And all over this place, there is kind of these ghostly images of clouds crouched down and like kind of, you know, very vulnerable. Not the usual gung ho Big Boy cloud, we usually see teeth is kind of like, Oh, I get it, you have to find yourself by yourself. Like, you have to do this. And she starts talking him through kind of their life. And like the past five years, the first

Chris 15:30
memory we get is the entrance to nibble on the gates of nipple line five years ago, suffereth pass through these gates. And that’s all started

Unknown Speaker 15:43
connects to nipple hook. That’s right, it’s probably best to start from there. Let’s go and have a look cloud. I know it’s not easy.

Haney 15:50
I’ll be here for you. This is really cool. Because as cloud and sci fi are talking Sephiroth walks kind of passed in between them and is at the gate. And the two soldiers are foot soldiers, not Soldier Soldier. Not all caps soldier. Yeah, the two guards lock up alongside Sephiroth. And you can just see, like that scene replaying that we’ve seen a couple times now. But teefin clatter talking in the front. And Tifa is like, I gotta be honest with you. Like, I can’t lie to you anymore. You never came to Neverland five years ago, that wasn’t you Sephiroth did come to nibble home. But it wasn’t cloud that came with them. Buck. When Tifa says that wasn’t cloud, we do you see the same back of that dark haired person that Sephora showed us previously. And that confirms that Sephora wasn’t lying in that instance, about cloud being not who he thinks he is. Five years ago,

Unknown Speaker 16:47
two men from soldier came Sephora, and a young and vibrant soldier. Can you tell me again? What happened?

Haney 16:56
How does it feel?

Unknown Speaker 16:57
Five years ago, I saw the real suffer off for the very first time. It’s your first time back in your hometown in a long time. Right. So how does it feel? I wouldn’t know. Because I don’t have a hometown. So this is the great Sephora. But to tell the truth, I thought he was very cold.

Unknown Speaker 17:17
Alright,

Unknown Speaker 17:18
let’s go.

Haney 17:20
I knew I knew she was gonna shake her head.

Unknown Speaker 17:23
No cloud. I’ve been hiding it for some time, afraid that if I told you something terrible might happen. But I’m not going to hide anything anymore. You weren’t here. Cloud did not come to nibble hunt five years ago, I waited. But cloud never came. The two that were ordered here were Sephora. And another person.

Haney 17:45
We go down to the center of clouds subconscious and talk to the bottom left memory, which is clouds body kind of blocking the well. This is the one I probably remember the least because the first one was like, and the last one was just like, wow. But um, the second one is Tifa basically being like, what about that night like all those years ago, looking up at the stars and get this really cool scene of the camera angle changing to kind of go underneath the characters and look up at the sky. And like change to a starry night. And it was super, super cool. transition

Chris 18:23
that Starry Night at the well. And our promises. What if the memory was sold? Still, I

Unknown Speaker 18:28
thought hey, cloud, don’t answer too quickly. Just keep checking all those small emotions and it’ll come back slowly. Little by little, like the sky that night. The heavens were filled with stars.

Haney 18:41
How much good good. Are we getting here? Because it seems like really the cream of the crop of good good.

Unknown Speaker 18:45
Trying to remember cloud. I was wearing these clothes. That’s up to you. We’re so small bun. And cute. Sephiroth once said

Haney 18:54
that was a really cool I don’t know. I don’t know how much you’re paying attention to it. But that had turned them at the same time was just Ah, that was chef’s kiss moment.

Unknown Speaker 19:03
Sephiroth once said, cloud made up his memories by listening to my stories. Did you imagine the sky? No. You remembered it. That night the stars were gorgeous. It was just clad and I we talked at the well. That’s why I kept thinking you were the real cloud. I still believe that the cloud from niflheim. But you don’t believe in yourself. Cloud. What about your other memories? No, not memories, the memories something that is consciously recalled, right? That’s why sometimes it can be mistaken or wrong. It’s different from a memory lock deep within your heart. That’s it. What about some memory that has to do with me? If you say something, and I remember to the mall? No, that’s a memory. Talk to me about anything. Why did you want to join soldier in the first place? I always thought it was a sudden decision.

Chris 19:50
I was devastated. I wanted to be noticed. I thought if I got stronger, someone would notice. Someone to notice you but who you Me, why Tifa? Did you forget about those days?

Haney 20:05
So the final memory that you can traverse into at this point is a little version of cloud, a little boy cloud, lead CFO over to this third area of niflheim. And it’s a window. He’s like, do you know where where this is, and she’s like, now Should I and he’s like, I’ll go first things like, I used to only ever look up at this window. And the camera angles, like kind of zooms and turns in. So that is a view of teef his room. And you can see Tifa as a very young child, at this point, probably like eight or so. She’s in a room full of other kids. And she’s kind of upset sitting in the corner. And cloud is talking about kind of how he used to want to be like, part of her click right. She had this like little group of friends that she hung around with all the time, but cloud wasn’t one of them. And turns out that her and cloud actually weren’t even close as children. And you know, this whole time, we’ve been kind of thinking that they’ve been best friends forever, you know, childhood BFFs. But she wasn’t actually really familiar with cloud, even though they live next door to each other. She had her own friends. And cloud was kind of a weird kid. It seemed like he was kind of a tag along. He wanted to always be included, but it seemed like he didn’t really know how to ask and the friends and if I weren’t really interested in, including him.

Chris 21:23
That’s all right. You were having a hard time back then. You’re so busy with your own things. It’s only natural. You don’t remember me then. Then? I hate to say it, but it’s a very important memory. Do you know where this window goes to Tifa? My room was my first time there

Unknown Speaker 21:40
was it? That’s right. We live next to each other. But I really didn’t know you that. Well. I’ve known you since we were children. And I always thought we were close. Now that you mentioned it. I don’t recall you ever been in my room. tifo is used to have our own group. That’s right.

Chris 21:56
I thought they were all stupid. What? You’re all childish, laughing at every little stupid thing. But we were children then. I know. I was the stupid one. I really want to play with everyone, but you never let me in the group. And then later, I started thinking I was different from those immature kids. But then, maybe, just maybe they would invite me in. I was so prejudice and weak. At night, I asked Tifa to come out to the well. I thought to myself Tifa would never come that she hated me. That was so sudden, I was a bit surprised. It’s true. We weren’t that close. But after you left town, I really did think about you a lot. I used to wonder how cloud was doing. I wondered if you were able to get into soldier. I started reading the newspapers thinking I might see an article about you. Thanks, Steve. Tell him what you told me later. We’ll probably be so happy. Okay. What happened on say, was it a special day? This was the day to his mother.

Haney 23:00
Oh, fuck. hadn’t really done a lot of thinking about teeth as mom. Yeah. The day mom died for the same changes. And you see Mount nibble with Tifa and her group of friends talking about how dangerous mount nibble is and how like no living creature has ever like gotten across it or something like that, like a legend. And Tifa is like, I wonder about people who aren’t living anymore. I wonder if my mom made it across. She’s like, I want to see my mom and she just starts fucking running towards Mount nevel. One of her friends turned around at that point. He’s like, Nope, I’m gonna go get a grown up. He’s He’s cloud on the way out. He’s kind of just like, hey, cloud, gotta go do grownup stuff. Tifa gets to that bridge, which we are familiar with. Because it’s the bridge that felling killed one of the other soldier guards during the first flashback to know behind we had and we get probably my favorite chunk of good good at this point. Tifa gets onto this bridge. And as she does that the two remaining friends like take one step on it and they’re like no dog. And they bucket around and you just the cloud trying to follow Tifa I wonder if there’s anything beyond that mountain. Mount nibble is scary. Many people have died there. No one crosses that mountain alive. How about those that died? Did mama pester them out? I’m going I have some serious back then. I only got scraped knees vibes coming. Chris. Please let this happen for me.

Chris 24:28
I don’t remember the path I walked. for Mr. Step. I ran to her, but I didn’t make it in time. We both fell off the cliff. back then. I only scarred my knees but

Haney 24:47
back then. I only got scarred up knees. Fuck. Oh, that was so long in the making. So long. That was Episode Three, Chris. Yeah. I mean, that’s minutes into the game. You Get that line initially and it makes no sense. Oh, but it’s like it’s it’s perfect because in the moment like as we’re running towards the bridge, I was kind of talking to Chris I was like, No, I we’re gonna get it. I know we’re gonna get it because like, this is all lining up perfectly like he’s going in memories he’s talking about back then. And now he’s on a bridge and like, the last time he had that memory, he was on a bridge and it you know, collapse underneath him, although it was really a tank that bombed it, but you know, semantics, and just Oh, it got so good. I mean, that’s probably peaked at my favorite part of the game is that callback now. I’m probably gonna watch that on YouTube, like 30 times tonight. Just that scene over and over again. It’s so good. So good. So after the back then I got banged up knees, we find out that Tifa almost died in that accident. Cloud.

Chris 25:47
Why did you bring Tifa to a place like this? What the hell’s the matter with you? What if she dies Tifa was in a coma for seven days

Haney 25:56
thought.

Chris 25:57
We all thought she wouldn’t make it. Before me It could have saved her. so angry at myself for my weakness. Ever since then. I felt Tifa blamed me. I went out of control again to fights with anyone. was the first time I heard about Sephora. I thought if I were strong like Sephora, then

Haney 26:21
he just wanted to protect Tifa so that was it. Sorry. Crime now. The tear stone fall crashing.

Unknown Speaker 26:37
Sorry, cloud. If I had only remembered more thoroughly What happened? could have done something sooner.

Chris 26:43
No, it’s not your fault. Tifa.

Unknown Speaker 26:45
But I remember back when we were eight. That’s it. Now I know. You weren’t created five years ago. My childhood memories were all made up. Hang in the cloud just a little longer. You’ve almost found the real you. Let’s go back to nibble him again.

Chris 27:00
There is definitely some weird energy coming off the parents. Yeah. Where they’re like, hey, how could you lead to danger like this?

Haney 27:06
See if I was like fucking charging headfirst stuff out nibble. Cloud at that point strikes me like Naruto and the beginning of Naruto where all the kids are like, he’s like, He’s weird. Because like our parents halls, he’s weird. Otherwise, it’d be like, no, that’s fine. Like, you can play with us. We don’t care. But yeah, I kind of got that narrative vibe from him. Basically, any attention is better than no attention. Some good good, though. Yeah. It seems like shortly after that was when he made the decision to join soldier because he wanted to be strong because he started hearing the stories about Safra which also puts the former you were a war hero kind of more in perspective,

Chris 27:42
it wasn’t like you’re a war hero. It’s like, Oh, you’re so strong. And if you’re that strong,

Haney 27:46
like I could defend Tifa if I got to be that strong. This little arc was definitely by far my favorite chunk of this super good. Yeah. So he was like, Oh, shit, this is all real. Like, I remember that’s and like, I remember us being eight years old together like this, Israel. And finally, at this point, I think Tifa has collected enough fragments of class memory to lead cloud back into niflheim in the subconscious world. So he starts running into town, and she’s right behind him. And she’s like, Where are you going? He goes, I don’t know, the reactor. She’s like, Yeah, all right, that sounds right. The next scene is excellent. So once they hit the reactor, it cuts to the scene that we’ve seen before of sefer off, just slashing Tifa across the chest, I think with his massive moon, but we also know at this point that if cloud wasn’t there all those years ago, who was that’s when that same dark haired figure runs up the stairs, and promptly gets his ass fucking thrown right back out of the Genova room. unclear if he’s dead or unconscious.

Chris 28:54
This is the first time we get to the name though.

Haney 28:56
It is so we learned that this is actually Zack. Zack, you remember? I fucking knew it. I fucking knew it. That’s right. It was Zach who came nibble? Hi. misafir off then where were you cloud Oh, was that what I think it was? Was that Zack just being absolute? Oh, just ruined just demolish cloud Did you see it all

Chris 29:27
I saw everything

Haney 29:30
we get probably the heaviest chunk of that good good. That has ever good good Id ever

Chris 29:37
has good good

Haney 29:39
you know I’m saying I want you to set this up again cuz I don’t want to fuck it up because I’m gonna have to watch this all over again but just just walk me through it again.

Chris 29:47
So we’re in the reactor Sephiroth Kutztown Tifa Zach blasts through the door and he’s very easily put down by self Roth. That’s when a Shinra guardsmen, just one of the blue koats runs into the reactor

Haney 30:02
grabs Zach’s Buster Sword, and dives into the Genova room, and fucking runs it through Sephora off.

Chris 30:11
The shinier guard takes off his helmet. Its cloud.

Haney 30:15
Was he just a regular soldier? He was just

Chris 30:22
my town. Give it back. Who are you? It’s so much respect for you. admired you.

Unknown Speaker 30:37
For Oh, you were there. You were watching me. He was the fucking guy who turned her away.

Haney 30:53
It’s It’s so good. But then Tifa goes, wait, you were there. And then you realize that he’s been there the whole time. He’s been there the whole time. And you see sepher off addressing not Zach at the gate to nibble home. But still cloud just slightly to the right. Yeah, he is still coming home to nibble home for the first time. And cloud starts remembering a little bit more. He remembers riding on the truck into niflheim with Zack, and Zack is the one that’s doing the squats and being the cool guy and clouds actually the soldier that’s ill up against the side of the car. Fuck, it’s good.

Chris 31:33
Yeah, this is me. I never made as a member of soldier. I even left my hometown telling everyone I was going to join but I was so embarrassed. I didn’t want to see anybody. Oh, he

Haney 31:46
thought TFM had his fucking helmet on. Bach.

Unknown Speaker 31:50
How does it feel? It’s your first time back to your hometown in a long time, right?

Haney 31:54
A million. Fucking piece puzzle just fell into goddamn place. I’m and he was the fucking soldier and oh my god. You came? You kept your promise. All that music. So you really did come on. I was in trouble. So he really was the one who carried her after.

Chris 32:14
Sorry. I didn’t get there sooner. That’s all right. Cloud.

Haney 32:20
After we learned that Sephiroth walks out of the gennova chamber and he is seemingly okay. Otherwise, we found her fucking head. Yeah, this is the first time we ever seen where it had went. Safra has it yep, there’s holding on to it. And he’s just walking down the stairs swaying NASA moon and one hand and Genova his fucking head and the other. He kind of just looks at Cloud and he’s just like, come on, down. And he leaves and cloud runs after him and he’s like, hey, like, fuckin stop. And Safra just turns around, just rubs them through and just lifts them up and he’s like, Don’t push me. And you can tell that Safra it’s like, I don’t want to kill you but good God Almighty. I’m going to if you’re going to be like this, but cloud kind of summon some sort of inner crazy strength grabs NASA moon a while it’s still inside of him lift sefer off up from the other side much to suffer awesome surprise, and fucking throws separate off massive moon engine novas head up against the wall of the reactor. And they fall to know we don’t know what end at this point, I guess into the live stream into the raw live stream at the bottom of the reactor. I think this might be why Sephiroth is seemingly dead or dormant up in the north because we know all the Lifestream is connected under the continents. So I assume similarly to how cloud ended up in the deal. He ends up in North Pole. So that was probably the fucking tetes. Like, that was just the coolest shit as the bees tits, as the kids say, Wow, what a cool theme though, man. That’s kind of where that memory ends. You see cloud with Tifa leaving the nipple high memory again and at this point, all of clouds kind of fragments of memories and spirit kind of redrawing into clouds body and he seemingly starts to regain consciousness. Tifa

Chris 34:20
Oh, cloud. It’s really you, isn’t it? Yeah. Tifa we finally need again. You stupid jerk. You had us all worried sick.

Haney 34:31
Funny how he seems to have symptoms again, as soon as he’s in trouble. That’s what we call a pro gamer. Cloud. Are you all right? voice there.

Unknown Speaker 34:42
I see. We’re in the live stream early. iPhones waiting. Let’s go back cloud back to everyone.

Chris 34:49
Yeah, I guess. Come on. Tifa. Let’s go home.

Haney 34:54
We exit cloud subconscious and we see our whole crew surround me and Tifa and cloud Somewhere else it looks like on the outskirts of what wasn’t ideal and the whole like water around them is just raw lifestream does washing up again so much. Sure that’s fine, I believe is like Chris said, but yeah, I think at this point Tifa kind of wakes up and bear it’s like, oh my god, are you okay? And she’s like, Hey Barrett like, Fuck you. I got him back and he’s like, Damn, I never should have underestimated you. He’s like, You really are a special lady and I love their friendship. It’s so good. It’s such a good friendship. We need more friendship and video games, Chris. Yeah, love friends. fucking love friends.

Chris 35:33
We need more love friends and video game.

Haney 35:35
Boy. So as Tifa kind of passes back out, we kind of wake up again to everyone gathered in the ops room aboard the high wind.

Chris 35:50
I never wasn’t soldier. I made up that story about what happened five years ago in my being in soldier. I was so ashamed of being so weak. When I heard the story from my friend Zack,

Haney 36:00
are you saying that good good, isn’t done giving.

Chris 36:04
I created an illusion of myself made up of what I had seen in my life. And I continued to play the charade, as if it were true.

Haney 36:11
illusion. Hmm. Pretty damn strong for an illusion. Physically.

Chris 36:15
I’m built like someone in soldier who does plan to call in Sephiroth wasn’t that difficult, is just the same procedure they use when creating members of soldier. You see, someone in soldier isn’t simply exposed to Maiko energy. Their bodies are actually injected with Genova cells. Ah, so you get that don’t like that. For better or worse. Only the strong can enter soldier, but weak people like me, get lost in the whole thing. The combination of Genova cells, Sephora strong Will and my own weakness or what created me, but I can’t remain trapped in an illusion anymore. I’m going to live my life without pretending you share my stuff, cloud. Thanks, Tifa. That means he ain’t no different from before. Thanks, Barrett. By the way in clown What are you going to me now? Don’t tell me you’re gonna leave the ship. I’m the reason why Meteor is falling towards us. That’s why I have to do everything in my power to fight this thing.

Haney 37:09
Good. Then you’re gonna keep fighting to save the planet.

Chris 37:12
Like he always told me Barrett. Oh, you mean that? There ain’t no getting off

Haney 37:17
of this train? clouds back Bama?

Chris 37:20
No. Do you understand why I like cloud so much?

Haney 37:22
That was good. Yeah. Oh, so good. Um, I really want to go back and just replay this game. Yeah. That we’ve been waiting 20 fucking five episodes for 24 however many cups, so many little pieces. So it’s

Chris 37:38
all gonna just fit somewhere now for you.

Haney 37:40
I mean, so much fit in today. So did we get to the point today? Where if I found this out? It was all over?

Chris 37:47
Yeah, it was the realization that cloud has always been in nobody. Yeah, but he was also like, still there the whole time. He’s you know, cloud clouds cloud. Yeah,

Haney 37:55
he’s not anything special. Like in terms of like he’s not created. He’s a real guy. And just

Chris 38:01
the fact that he was a fucking Shinra guard. How many of them have we mowed down?

Haney 38:05
Fucking a billion Yeah, I can honestly say I did not see that part coming at all at fucking all Yeah.

Chris 38:12
And what a treat

Haney 38:14
I wrapped up in so many like little bits here. But

Chris 38:18
at this point, I knew the chance of returning to chinar Mansion because Hanny’s just real good experience with it. Probably was a no go so I had to mention. Hey, you remember all the way episodes ago when you found those scratched up beakers? Yeah, maybe they got something for you. Now maybe it means a little bit more documents in there that you could read.

Haney 38:41
Listen to the Ninja and the jogger. If you haven’t. It’s really good. It’s real good. And that’s where that gig was? Actually I don’t think it was I don’t think so. But also listen to the agenda jogger. It’s really good.

Chris 38:52
Yeah. Well, shall we head to nibble home? Let’s go there.

Haney 38:55
Whoo. So we do our bullshit.

Chris 39:00
It’s your fucking predictions weren’t true. Were they fucking cloud being a clone of Zack piece of shit?

Haney 39:06
I didn’t see them being friends coming. Oh, that’s where all my fucking material is on up.

Chris 39:11
Thanks for holding on to it up for

Haney 39:13
free and two jobs are on here. Okay. Oh shit. What did I just did?

Chris 39:19
I take you back to a certain scratched beaker. Or someone left some marks on the inside. feeding time.

Unknown Speaker 39:27
nibble. nibble Han Dong Dong Dong Dong. Where it is nibble. nibble. This do not harbor

Chris 39:37
you’re on the wrong continent. Okay,

Haney 39:40
I wouldn’t worry about it. Get through the mansion. It was fine. It was fine. Please tell me it’s no longer there’s no longer enemies in here. random encounters. Yeah. All right. Well, you’re gonna have to keep I think

Chris 39:54
oh, keep directing you because I don’t remember where I’m on the stairs.

Haney 39:57
All right, you have to go up to go down. Right? Yeah, that’s Armada obviously,

Chris 40:01
maybe there aren’t gonna be

Haney 40:04
literally Fuck off. We make our way to the basement where we saw beakers is what they call them, but they’re really like back to tanks for Star Wars. So we make it into the room and immediate flashback. And we see in one tank, Zack and the other tank cloud, and it seems like they are cognizant and awake. But it seems like they need to escape right during a certain event because they’re locked in the tanks. So a scientist comes in carrying a tray and he’s just like, hey, it’s feeding time. And he goes up and he tries to open Zach’s tank, seemingly to lead him out to eat. Knowing that feeding time is his chance. Zach just fucking punches the guide straight out. He opens up clouds tank and presumably because it’s right after the niflheim incident. There’s probably light security there. We don’t really see how they get out of the mansion. But Zach’s first class Yeah, he can also just like murder, his layout. And yeah, they were definitely his point hunted.

Chris 40:58
They were being hunted. But at this point, we only know of two members who are first class soldier.

Haney 41:03
Yeah, Sephora, Sephora and Zack, and considering what we just saw sephora.do. Zack, it’s probably more than capable as well. Yeah. So Zack grabs the Buster Sword and he grabs cloud. And cloud is in a really bad way from the makeout treatment and the experimentation at this point. And both, and the next time you see them cloud is sick in the back of a truck. And Zach is trying to keep his spirits up. It seems like he’s just talking a ton. And he seems a lot more like how cloud pictured himself. I think it seems very obvious at this point. That cloud was definitely emulating Zach all this time, like trying to be that person. sacks doing squats in the back of the truck, like trying to keep the cloud spirits up, trying to talk him what he wants to be anybody like in the future.

Chris 41:45
He seems very cocky. Super, super

Haney 41:47
fun character. He’s like interacting with the guy driving the truck and the guy driving the truck is clearly regretting picking them up. But he asked him how long it’s going to be till they get to mid guy. What are you gonna do once we get to Midgar I know what I’m gonna do. I got a place I can crash for a while. No, wait, the mother lives there too. Yes, that’s out.

Chris 42:09
There, Tim. My first boyfriend was a first class and soldier.

Haney 42:12
Fuck. That’s what I was thinking. I was like now can be. Hmm. No matter what I do. I need some money first. Hey, want to start a business? Now? What could we do? The old guy. What do you think I’d be good at? What do you yappin about? You’re still young. And yeah, you know, folks should try everything. Got to pay your dues while you’re young. Go out and look for what you really want. Try everything. That’s easy for him to say. Of course. I got more brains and skills than most other guys. That settles it. I’m gonna become a mercenary, Jesus. Yeah, thanks, pop. Hey, did you even hear a word? I said? Listen, I’m gonna become a mercenary. And that’s that. boring stuff. dangerous stuff. anything for money? I’m gonna be rich. So Cloud, what are you gonna do? No, wait, you got it all wrong. Just kidding. I won’t leave you hanging like that. We’re friends. Right? mercenaries cloud. That’s what you and me are gonna be Oh, so good. And like, I don’t want to be that guy. But like Seth would never have a associated with the lower class. Oh, that’s not true. Because he knew him. Yeah, he did seem to know him. But

Chris 43:27
in when clouds stepped in through the back. He was like you like seriously? Like he knows who cloud?

Haney 43:32
Yeah, I think the thing that sets Zach and sepher off apart as soldier first class is that I don’t think Sephora given the situation locked in a tank next to the cloud or Zach, even for that matter. I don’t think he would have let the other person out. He would have just cared about himself to leave. I think

Chris 43:48
Yeah, it’s a little hard for us right now, because we’ve gotten so much post

Haney 43:54
breaking point. Yeah, right before niflheim he might have but also remember that when the bridge collapsed, he refused to look for the other soldier. And Tifa says that she thought Zephyr off came off cold. Yeah. So well. Obviously, he had his breakdown that we’ve seen. You don’t just break down suddenly like that. There’s a lot. Yes, boiling right under the surface. I think on Sephora that makes me think that even pre niflheim he would have probably most likely to save his own skin before saving a friend. And I think that’s what sets him apart from Zach cloud. For that matter. Cloud doesn’t leave people behind. avalanche doesn’t leave people behind. Well, Barrett tried to, but it has a few times. Only cloud to be fair. Yeah. But yeah, it was. It’s a really good scene. The next thing we see is Zach, and cloud, Zach supporting cloud, but we hear gunfire and we see a couple of soldier guards and commander running them down and they shoot Zach. And while he’s on the ground riding, they shoot him again. Clearly dead as they turn around to leave one of the Shinra guards points at clouds, you know for him and he’s like, what about him and the commander is like, Oh, he’s too Don’t even bother, like just leave them. after they leave, cloud crawls his way over to Zack picks up the Buster Sword and just whales at the sky. The camera pans up and you just see mid Gar. And you know that at that moment, clouds memories connect to where he found Tifa like, right, probably within hours of this moment, and where the game essentially picks up. Yeah. Wild. Yeah, fuck. With that. We shut down and save the game. We know we’re heading to junan harbor next to the underwater Maiko reactor. We did get that good, good. But, man,

Chris 45:42
how do you feel about cloud at this point, going from this cocky first class soldier punk who is not a strong character as we know him, like he has these voices in his head and whatnot, but it doesn’t really build him up or describe him at all. Now we know who he is.

Haney 46:00
I mean, he’s fantastic. He is he’s a fantastic character. He’s complex, he’s flawed. He’s good. He sees done bad he loses control of himself. Sometimes he’s in control. Like he’s just he’s very human. Which is ironic, because he’s, you know, up until right now for quite a while now he’s been questioning what he even is, you know, like, Is he an experiment is he you know, a Genova cast off is he like, just created like, what is he, but he’s probably the most human character in the game. Like, he’s just the guy. He’s literally just a guy who had a job and it went too far. That’s literally what this game boils down to. I’m, like, cloud just like as a playable character. Like, he’s still kind of like, man for me, but like, as like a character like witnessing him like, oh, fucking awesome. Like, just so cool. So, so cool. Miley grasslin at this point is like he levels way too fast. just slow down, buddy. Slow down, buddy. I also don’t know how he leveled up six levels while he was unconscious, fine.

Chris 46:59
It was him fighting himself,

Haney 47:00
Sam. I’m enjoying cloud at the character. Every day, though, that we play this game. I drive closer and closer to the what happened in Advent Children line that we’ve been basically basing this podcast off of for the last 25 episodes or whatever.

Chris 47:18
Yeah, um, apparently a lot of people like average children. Hmm. And I only discovered this interacting with Twitter after we started this podcast, because honestly, it’s not my favorite movie, even if the movie itself was standalone. And it was what it was, I’d be more okay with that. But I don’t like what it made cloud following Advent Children, if that makes sense. Yeah. All the iterations of cloud at this point are the admin children duration, and he’s so much more complex than that character is Yeah, but apparently people like it. And somebody gave me an explanation for why he is the way he is in that movie that I could see and be like, okay, I mean, that makes sense.

Haney 47:58
Is it something you can tell me or not yet? I think so. Okay, Lay it on me, dad.

Chris 48:02
So what they said is, at this point in the game, cloud has discovered his family, the people that he wants to be around that he wants to protect. At this point, he has that in at the point of Advent Children following like Eric’s death, he’s scared of losing that again. So he’s like, just setting yourself apart. And

Haney 48:26
I could see it. I mean, I guess we’ll have to play more of the game. Because to me, maybe this is just me mistreating his character. But to me, he doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would push it away doesn’t he seems like the kind of person who would cling to it. Yeah. So I’m not saying that that person who is explaining to you is wrong. It’s just I don’t have the information. I need to make a decision on that yet, because we need to see what else could happen with him mentally for the rest of the game, right?

Chris 48:49
Yeah. And it’s also been a long time since we’ve seen that movie. So yeah,

Haney 48:53
we could like it. Who knows? Who knows? I mean, I’m sure it like looks cool, and has awesome action. I’m sure like, they’ll be parts were like, Oh, that’s fuckin cool.

Chris 49:00
Plot wise. I really enjoy it.

Haney 49:02
It’s just I don’t know what the plot is still. Yeah, I thought it was them trying to get to another’s head. But I don’t remember.

Chris 49:07
I’m not going to say anything about it. But I think how it connects to the Final Fantasy seven compilation as a whole is pretty cool. Yeah, I think it fits. I think it works. So well. We’ll see. We’ll get there. Yeah. Anyway,

Haney 49:18
it feels like the game is winding down

Chris 49:20
a little bit. That’s funny because you have another disc. You got whatever is left of this disc, and another day. Yeah,

Haney 49:26
it feels like we definitely hit a climax and are coming down, if you Will. So we

Chris 49:31
got the underwater maker reactor. Yep. What’s next after

Haney 49:34
that? Say we’re gonna get the big huge metiria from underwater maker reactor. And then we’re going to use that to make something to stop the Meteor. And then when we thought Meteor we’re gonna be like, Alright, problem is solved. Let’s go kill joven Sephiroth up north there at a high level, if

Chris 49:51
you Will. Yeah, sure. Way zoomed out.

Haney 49:54
Yeah.

Chris 49:55
How do you feel about Zack, what do you think?

Haney 49:57
Oh, he’s so fun. I don’t know how much more I Will learn about him. He’s definitely Eretz boyfriend though. That’s fun. I’m going back to my car. I need you to know that we’ll see.

Chris 50:06
I know it seemed pretty locked up tight.

Haney 50:08
fell. Let me back in.

Chris 50:09
How do you feel about the weapons now that you fought one? Um,

Haney 50:12
I don’t think their weapon. No, no talk to me. So I was listening to. So this is how much of a piece of shit I am. I listen to our own podcast, like fairly frequently. Sure. So I was really listening to contracts pro snowboarder too, if you Will, I Will. And when you asked what I thought weapon was at the end of that episode, I said, I’m pretty sure it’s a materia that’s the opposite, because that’s what the planet can produce as materia at that point is that I thought it was a material that was the opposite of the black material. That would be the white material, which is what and correlated that to the white item that we saw drop out of Eric’s hands when she died. I’m still on the train that that’s the actual weapon that the planet created and the weapons I think those are more artificially created by probably the cetera but just the thought, just a little conjecture, but I’m just a little fun fun. A little bit of my hypothesizing that came out of me snow blowing the other day. All right. It’s an entire podcast, like the giant piece of turd I am. I mean, we could just say it’s quality control, quality control. Yeah, that episode came out like several weeks ago, so that’s fine.

Chris 51:22
I mean, we didn’t need to say you could have been snow blowing at any point. That’s true.

Haney 51:25
Yeah. I mean, it’s Vermont. Winter is nine months out of the year. So excellent. My heart is full for sure. Today was a good day. That was some good, good. You have anything you want to talk to your listener? Chris. Thanks for sticking by us. Yeah. Thanks so much for listening. And we’ll see you next time. Thank you so much for listening to the first encounter podcast. If you want the journey to continue. Why don’t you hit us up on Twitter at one st encounter pod? You can email us at mail at first encounter podcast comm or you can check out our website first encounter podcast.com our intro and outro music is written and performed by Elton Zack.