Haney 0:00
This episode of first encounter contains spoilers for the video game Final Fantasy seven if you’ve not played this game First off, what are you doing Don’t be like me and second go play it instead of listening to us if you’d like to follow along listen to the end of the episode for where we play to next as well as how you can get in touch with us we would also like to take a second to say that we are in no way affiliated with square we’re just a couple of guys trying to have fun with the cool video game do we meet other Kate’s that’s

Chris 0:24
not going to comment on anything that may or may not happen in the future

Haney 0:29
we’re gonna have sex with Kate so

Chris 0:32
I Will confirm that that does happen

Haney 0:33
oh good cloud just absolutely has sex and cancer as soon as

Chris 0:37
you get case set in your party overwrites all of the other date mechanics and you just plow case

Haney 0:44
oh that’s awful we don’t have we all have cans to make noise so I’m gonna fuck around with the bottle cap of the bottle opener

Chris 1:01
cuz everyone loves scraping glass noise

Unknown Speaker 1:04
yeah

Haney 1:09
I would like you to have this beverage thank you yeah, what’s that you

Chris 1:12
got that so I got a green blaze IPA.

Haney 1:16
This is one of those beers I’ll get because like a six pack of bottles is nine bucks like as opposed to you know a four pack of cans being like 15 bucks for like craft cans. And this one I get a lot on hotter days. Today is not a hot day at all it is a very cool 50 degrees outside so I’m actually quite chilly drinking this year but um I really just want a hot tea right now but it’s pretty good Yeah, it’s

Chris 1:44
good. I’ve been looking for a good IPA that doesn’t break the bank for me because I do tend to gravitate toward those $15.04 pack yeah same so we dive back into Final Fantasy seven

Haney 1:55
the kit predecessor to Final Fantasy eight directly tied

Chris 2:03
if you’re going to do that you have to connect it to a different Final Fantasy seven property

Haney 2:07
we’ve already done all that I couldn’t think of anything else I mean you’d said ones that I didn’t even know existed What the fuck is right

Chris 2:15
so we got back to Final Fantasy seven the seventh the seventh

Haney 2:20
up after we escaped from coral prison and by escaped I mean really just read a joke about right out of there Yeah, we heard in the last episode that we needed to head south across the river I believe is what they told us. And where do we end up heading to?

Chris 2:36
Well the first thing we stopped by was a burned out blasted Maiko reactor with a buggy you can go back to June on harbor if you wanted to. Short out I don’t like that place. But how do you think Mr. Dolphins doing?

Haney 2:51
Hopefully in a can of chicken of the sea is how he’s doing? What the fuck is this?

Chris 2:58
You have to get out of the car. Get out of your car.

Haney 3:02
You’re gonna quit this game. I have a car that’s fucking weird.

Chris 3:05
Yeah, but you didn’t expect cars in a Final Fantasy game.

Haney 3:09
So we take the buggy into this area from the world map once we transition from the world map into the into the area map I guess you would call it we stumble in on the Turks so rude and Reno are standing off to the side talking about who they like. And it is adorable.

Chris 3:30
Is someone there? Oh shit. Hey, rude. Who do you like? What are you getting so embarrassed about Come on. Who do you like? t foo? Hmm. That’s a tough one. But Paulina she you know she likes saying I never knew that. But Singh likes that

Haney 3:48
ancient Jesus Christ. This is a weird place. I don’t know I just find that the cutest thing just knowing that you’re like a deadly instrument of Shinra just standing around me like So who do you want to give flowers to and the smooch on the cheek? I think is adorable.

Chris 4:03
Yeah Really cute.

Haney 4:04
So we find out that rude is into Tifa holy shit we’re starting today off right? So I hate rude now.

Chris 4:14
Oh man. He’s so sweet.

Haney 4:16
I actually really like I really like all the Turks I find them it’s funny. They seem to be the human aspect of Shinra right? Because like all of the board members like Heidegger or president Shinra or now Rufus or Hojo have all been just garbage just absolute trash people but all of the Turks are obviously following our orders you know they’re not doing good stuff by any means. But they have a human side to them. And this was a really cute like a side where it was just like oh here we’re gonna talk about who we like so we find out that root is into Tifa. Do we find out who Reno is into?

Chris 4:53
No, but we find out that Atlanta is into sang, right? But

Haney 4:56
saying is into aerith? Yeah, what am I What a nightmare saying has no chance of error right we’re just we’re on the same page there

Chris 5:05
Yeah, I think it’s safe to assume that the guy who’s watched her grown up while trying to kidnap her all her life probably doesn’t have a strong solid

Haney 5:12
yeah thing was like an adult and like a Turk when she was seven Yeah, you Yeah. Oh man that re colored that for me in a real gross way.

Chris 5:24
So now we’re on the same page.

Haney 5:26
Yeah, now it’s not as cute anymore now it’s just gross. What a mess. So we are just listening in when Elena stumbles upon us and kind of takes her a second to realize that we’re there. She seems a little bit salesy. Like you’re not 100% there but um, yeah, Elena is just like ah shit like guys. She kind of pushes us towards Reno and rude. We start getting into an altercation and the Lana’s like Amanda got Sal saying you guys deal with these two? Yeah. Which is hilarious, because I don’t think we’ve fought Atlanta to this point. No. It’s so stupid. They always talk about who they like or don’t. But saying is different. Oh, no.

Chris 6:08
Fuck. We’ve been spotted.

Haney 6:10
They’re here. They’re really here.

Chris 6:13
Huh? Then it’s time. Ruud Gill cozy on them. Not even the girls. Don’t worry. I’ll do my job. It’s been a while. payback time for what you did in Sector seven. How could they know we were coming here? They followed us. But there weren’t any signs of it. Then. That means

Haney 6:29
spy maybe? No, no way.

Chris 6:32
I don’t even want to think about there being a spy. I trust everyone.

Haney 6:36
I know who it is. Fucking Kate’s it’s always Tifa No, it’s always kids. After we spank Reno and rude we make our way up to the burnout reactor. We approach it is obviously just ruins of a once you know, fruitful working reactor just gone horribly awry. As we’re admiring it though. A helicopter appears on the screen. So we do a runner, cloud runs and dust behind the reactor core which is really funny to me.

Chris 7:05
A helicopter

Haney 7:07
Oh shit, Scarlet and saying

Chris 7:10
it’s Scarlet. Head of shinar a weapon development so

Haney 7:12
fun fact. This is the first time we’ve learned what Scarlet is Yeah, head of Shinra weapons development.

Chris 7:19
How do you feel about that?

Haney 7:21
Uh, considering the last time we saw her she grabbed a gun from a stormtrooper and started firing it at Dine and Barrett and I believe she would have been the one that costs bear and done their arms. Not great and I haven’t feeling bear it’s gonna feel real not great about her.

Chris 7:38
stormtroopers.

Haney 7:40
Yeah, you know what they are? Oh shit. Are we hiding? They don’t know. We’re here. The helicopter lands and outcome. Our favorite. Sang classic sang classic sang just runs out of the helicopter screaming Hey, fuckers, and Scarlett who has been making more and more appearances lately, so it’s been pretty cool to kind of see more about her and we learned what her role is. This is I believe, at least in my memory the first time we’ve heard her role as the head of weapon development at Shinra you’re Yikes. This isn’t any good either. You only get junky material from chunky reactors. This reactor is a failure. What I’m looking for is big, large huge material. Yeah, you seen any?

Chris 8:27
No, I haven’t seen it. I’ll get on it right away.

Haney 8:30
Please. We could make the ultimate weapon If only we had some.

Chris 8:33
I just can’t wait

Haney 8:34
with her with her joke I can’t say normal with Hojo gone weapons developments been getting a bigger budget but even if we make the perfect weapon could that stupid Heidegger even use it oh I sense infighting Chris sorry I forgot Heidegger was your boss. Let’s go sang looks like he’s gonna fucking murder her

Chris 8:58
one big large huge metiria Just what are the chinar up to

Haney 9:03
oh this is real bad Chris This is real real bad. She just wants all that metiria huge big material the best the best the biggest. She looks into the core of the reactor and she’s like Ah damn nothing here. She’s like but I know we’ve got it somewhere Have you seen it saying and things like no I haven’t I haven’t seen any Why did you take me Yeah, like I’m here to body guide you I have no idea what else do you want from me? Oh one other thing that Scarlett says now that whoa Joe’s gone she’s been getting his budget which is really funny. But also like I thought that lab like the fuck was her just spending money on nothing good No, it’s just nightmares like it probably should go to weapons development or something literally anything honestly the only one on that Bard who deserves any money is Reeves actually being like a city planner and like a seemingly decent human. I do want to I hope we see more every and Mayor Domino oh yeah Mayor dominoes the shit yeah, reason Though from what we’ve seen, yeah, yeah, he seems to not be a bad guy. I feel like he’s not really in line with what Shinra wants. He just really seems like he believes in his own mission. So we successfully hide from Scarlet and saying until they realize they this burned out reactor does not have what they’re looking for. Once they leave, we look in the reactor core and we pulled out a materia Yeah, what material was Titan? Titan right, it’s a summon.

Chris 10:26
You’re gonna like it.

Haney 10:27
I’m really excited. Yeah, I’m hoping I’m hoping to use it. Next episode. I think I think I left what’s even my party. So before we leave, check out

Chris 10:36
Ganga village.

Haney 10:38
What is it gone Gaga. I think it’s gone Ganga Ganga, Ganga village,

Chris 10:42
check out the village.

Haney 10:44
So we head up to the village. And the first thing we are met with is a scene of an old man and a younger woman in a graveyard. A reactor explosion three years ago took my husband. Do people really need reactors to live? aren’t there more important things in life? That’s the same woman wasn’t it? Yeah, it was. Do people really need reactors to live No matter how much I pray we’ll bring our grandson back. renegades of this time and age. Oh, so we’ve found this little purple town overlooking the reactor here it looks like from the graveyard we kind of roll out into the greater quote unquote village. There’s I think five houses. The first one we visit is a item shop.

Unknown Speaker 11:32
Buy accessories Haris diary, nothing in particular. Like this character. People can live without the Shin razmik are reactors. That’s not a story. I was a garbage story.

Haney 11:44
We voted to outlaw the use of Miko energy live with nature ever since the explosion. Alright, that’s actually pretty cool. Yeah. It’s like the this is the final fantasy version of living off grid. We went to the next house in the village, which was an inn. We did stay the night there because I was pretty low on health at this point. And where we had from the end, Chris.

Chris 12:06
The next house. What do you want from me?

Haney 12:10
I wanted you to take it over so I can take a drink with my beer is what I wanted.

Chris 12:15
You a traveler. Hey, wait, the glow in your eye. Are you in soldier? Oh, you’re right. Don’t you know anything about our son? His name is Zack. I know that name. Name you’ve mentioned before.

Haney 12:27
It’s like clouds commanding officer right? And soldier. I swear I know that. It’s been

Chris 12:31
close to 10 years since he left for this city saying that he didn’t want to live in the country. I assumed Zach said he loved saying he’s gonna join soldier. You ever hear of Zach and soldier? I don’t know. sack. Oh, no lady, you know him. I remember he wrote us six or seven years ago saying that he had a girlfriend could that have been you know, it wasn’t.

Haney 12:54
We walk into this house and one of the patrons of the house says your eyes like you have Maiko eyes. Are you are you part of soldier and you know, like, who was asking motherfucker. They’re like, Oh, our son said he wanted to join soldiers. His name is Zack. Do you know him? I know the name Zack. Not really sure where From where? Probably from Chris in the past. I believe the commanding officer of cloud at one point or his mentor or something was a guy named Zack. I don’t know anything past that. I don’t even know why I know that. Honestly, at this point in my life. Clouds like, oh, fucking never heard of him. Which is interesting, because like I thought we were supposed to know like, I thought, I don’t know, it strikes me as weird because I feel like I know that Zach was his mentor. And if he doesn’t feel like he knows them, that’s weird. And that kind of ties in with something. Tifa says to him later, which we’ll get to, but Tifa seems to act real weird about the whole Zach thing just keeps coming, like repeating his name and like being real suspicious. And like, the couple are like, Do you know him? And she’s like, No, no, no, no. anyone named Zach. Can you? They’re like, well, he read to us about his girlfriend 10 years ago was that you? And I’m like, doing mental math. And I was like, I don’t think that was Tifa she would have been like nine So Cloud kind of pushes her a little bit as to the parents and she’s like, No, it wasn’t me like fuck off. Leave me alone. And she storms out. We leave the house and find Tifa in the village center being real squirrely still about Zack. We kind of questioned her a little bit more, but she really doesn’t. She doesn’t give us anything.

Chris 14:31
Tifa What happened?

Haney 14:33
Sweet Tifa going on teeth.

Chris 14:36
Sick. Do you know him? No. I don’t know him. Your face tells me differently.

Haney 14:42
Don’t fucking lie.

Chris 14:44
I told you I don’t. All right. That sounds just like you leaving town in saying I’m joining soldier. There are a lot of guys like that back then. You must really be something making soldier out of group like that. I really respect you. I just got lucky. Don’t be so Clem, thanks for carrying

Haney 15:02
lots on pack they’re definitely got to unpack some shit in there.

Chris 15:06
unpack some of that shit soup as they say,

Haney 15:08
huh? Are we ever gonna learn about Zach maybe if I don’t bumblefuck my way right past it all right Are we done in gang Gaga? Let’s gather the fuck out of here then there’s too much fucking entry ground I want to know more. Yeah, so that was really I think all of ganganagar village and the burned out maker reactor. Where did we had after going Gaga village Chris

Chris 15:32
well we spun our buggy around a couple times in the forest.

Haney 15:42
What is that? Chris? What is that frog jam? I love him. Look at that. Look. What what what? What is happening? Am I a frog now? Yeah, Chris, I don’t care for that. What do you mean? I don’t want to be a frog. How long this frog lasts for

Chris 15:58
then bumped into Cosmo Canyon.

Haney 16:01
They they study the planet there is what I say. It seems to be just mainly a village made up of scientifically minded folk. And we also learned that this is sent that it read Thirteen’s home. Yeah,

Chris 16:13
so you’re rolling to the town

Haney 16:15
and someone screams Nonna keys back and we’re like, What the fuck are Nanaki and at that point, we realize read 13 isn’t read 13 is a real name. his actual name is Nanaki Cosmo Canyon le Yeah, boy,

Chris 16:29
huh?

Haney 16:31
I am home it is I Nanaki

Chris 16:34
Hey, Nana key you’re safe. Come on, say hello to bugan Hagen.

Haney 16:41
I guess yeah, read 13 probably couldn’t be his real name. Here’s where I was. I mean, this is my hometown. My tribe are protected that those who appreciate this beautiful Canyon and the planet. My brave mother fought and died here, but my cowardly father left her. I am the last of my race. cowardly father. Yes. My father was a wastrel what a word. So the mission I inherited from my ancestors is to protect this place. My journey ends here.

Chris 17:07
Hey, Nikki, you’re home.

Haney 17:11
Coming Grandpa. Grandpa Grandpa. Just dead tired everyone. How about some more ants?

Chris 17:19
Fucking just nap Kate. Seth

Haney 17:21
we literally just stayed in a hotel Kate says you absolute pizza garbage. We hear someone calling for Nanaki off screen and read 13 just fucking books at away screaming grandpa. Yeah, so he books it away and we start exploring the village. How do I get up there? I want to talk to the kid on fire. Okay, now the keys back now the keys back. It’s all thanks to this flame. This fire is called cosmic candle. It is burned for generations. The Holy flame that protects this canyon. I’ve heard it only went out once long ago. The elder said something horrifying occurred but I really don’t know much else about it.

Chris 17:57
Well, let’s not put that out then.

Haney 18:00
How do I go up by ladder?

Chris 18:02
There we go. Nailed it. First try.

Haney 18:05
Got him. God, I’m good. I want to fucking go over there to see what that green arrow thing is. Let me down. So we explore the whole village don’t really find much until we get to the highest point of the cliff, which is like a star observatory. And we find red 13 talking to his grandfather. His grandfather is seemingly probably not his real grandfather. How dare ya. He is a human and not a dog. I got the vibe that bouken Hagen actually raised red 13 though probably so I think grandfather was more of a nod to that. But yeah, bouken Hagen definitely like the elder of all the elders. Cloud. This is my grandfather. ugen He’s incredible. He knows everything.

Chris 18:54
Oh, I hear that you looked after nada ki netic is still a child. You see,

Haney 19:00
please stop grandfather. I’m 48 Oh,

Chris 19:03
Donna keys, tripods incredible longevity. So you see his 48 years would be equivalent to say that of a 15 or 16 year old he’s 15 or 16. He’s quiet at noon very deep. You thought he was an adult?

Haney 19:16
Grandfather. I want to be an adult. I want to grow up to be able to protect you and the village.

Chris 19:21
Oh, no, not again. You can’t stand on your own yet. To do that now would destroy you in the long run. So sad. reaching up into the heavens threatening to snatch the various stars from the great city of mitiga. You’ve seen it, haven’t you? Well, that’s a bad example. Looking up too much makes you lose perspective. Where it’s time for the planet to die. You’ll understand that you know absolutely nothing. When the planet dies, oh, maybe tomorrow or 100 years from now but it’s not long off. How do you know this? I hear the cries of the planet.

Haney 19:59
Begin Hagen can told us that he wanted to show us his apparatus right? And like show us a little bit more about planetary science because we’re interested in saving the planet. Yeah, cause it’s all about that planetary shit he is he really is. But first He’s like, why don’t you go get two more members of your party because it’d be weird if we just went up there me you and read 13 You know, I’m saying like, go get to other people who don’t contribute anything to the cutscene I’m not taking kids. I can tell you that right now.

Chris 20:27
I heard loss.

Haney 20:28
I’m pretty over kids. Ah, I found some Barrett a

Chris 20:32
bear would appreciate it. He cares about the planet fair. It

Haney 20:35
does it Yeah. Let’s go Barrett. Barrett? What?

Chris 20:39
What the fuck you want.

Haney 20:41
I found Barrett like one level down from ugen Hagen’s loft. And when he talks to me I get the option to put him in the party. And then I also like it basically lets you access Ph. s from there. So let’s say well, just the poll to get into and I was like I’m not looking for anyone else. So me Barrett and Tifa. Start legging it back out to begin Hagen bugan Hagen takes me Nanaki aka read 13 Barrett Tifa up to the apparatus level of the observatory. And this is a really fucking cool cutscene so we kind of see the solar system of Final Fantasy seven. tune it out. I really like beside trains, space space. That was pretty cool. Oh, this is amazing.

Chris 21:32
Oh, yes, it is something isn’t it? Well, let’s get to the subject. Eventually, all humans die. What happens to them after they die. The body decomposes and returns to the planet that much everyone knows. What about their consciousness, their hearts, their souls, I think we’re about to hear a word that I’ve known the soul to returns to the planet. And not only those of humans, but everything on this planet. In fact, all living things in the universe are the same. The spirits that returned to the planet merge with one another and roam the planet. A room converging divide becoming a swell called the life stream.

Haney 22:08
Yeah, 20 hours into the game and we finally heard live stream. This is another word I know from a combination of the mega and black materia album and Ivan children

Chris 22:21
live stream. In other words, a path of energy of the souls roaming the planet. Spirit energy is a word that you should never forget three, all dog children are blessed with the spirit energy and are brought into the world, then the time comes when they die, and once again returned to the planet. Of course, there are exceptions, but this is the way of the world

Haney 22:41
bouken Hagen tells us that everything kind of has its time and place. And when you finish your time and place as a human, animal plants, whatever any living being on the planet, your body is returned to the earth and you decompose, and you’re returned to the planet that way, you know, in a very physical sense, but also in a metaphysical sense, your soul as you’re trying to the planet, and the soul of any other living being as well. And those souls kind of congregate into one thing and wander the earth and that is called the live stream. the live stream is made up of spirit energy, and spirit energy. Wind mind, is Maiko

Chris 23:23
spirit energy is efficient because it exists within nature. I have a bad feeling about this. When spirit energy is forcefully extracted and manufactured. Oh shit. I can’t accomplish its true purpose.

Haney 23:36
Hey, Chris, Yo, I might know what Miko is. Oh, yeah, I think I think makeup might be spirit energy. I think now that it’s been forcefully extracted and manufactured, it can accomplish its true purpose.

Chris 23:49
I don’t know about that. So

Haney 23:50
what you’re saying is we’re burning through all the natural resources of the planet literal foals, that is so fucking dark.

Chris 23:59
Every day. Maiko, reactors suck up spirit energy diminishing it. It’s pure energy is compressed and reactors and processed and to make energy. All living things are being used up and thrown away Christ. In other words, Mikko energy Will only destroy the planet. I don’t

Haney 24:15
want to talk about the cutscene too much because I don’t want to detract from how great it was. But basically, what Shinra is doing is mining souls to fucking use as energy which is so dirty, that is so fucked up, but also just so capitalist.

Chris 24:33
Everyone else kind of leaves in a little bit of an aside with bugan, Hagen and Bukit haggins like not a key thought his father was a coward The fuck? The thing

Haney 24:43
that bothers me about that is like, I’m sure read 13 must have mentioned that at some point, right? Like, over the past, how old are they say Nanaki is 48. I feel like in the 50 years that bouken, Hagen and Nanaki have hung out, read 13 might have mentioned the fact that he thought his dad was a coward. But no, no, this is the first book in Hagen’s ever heard of this? Um, so at this point Bukit Hagen’s like oh, we can’t have that head back to the fire head back to the fire, he says, all of your, all of your your your homies are hanging out by the fire. So we go down, talk to you, all of our homies at a fire. That is, I think it was the cosmic candle. So we chat around the fire. And I feel like we get a couple of interesting aside. So the first one is aerith. I learned a lot. The others taught me many things about the cetera and the promised land. I’m alone. I’m all alone now.

Chris 25:40
But I’m, we’re here for you, right?

Haney 25:43
I know, I know. But I’m, I’m the only cetera

Chris 25:48
does that mean we can’t help looks away.

Haney 25:52
I really like aerith she’s a really good character. I feel like that’s a big legacy for her to uphold, right. And it kind of ties her to read 13 in this moment, too, as the last of their kind, with a huge responsibility on their shoulders of basically upholding the legacy of their entire peoples and it seems to definitely hit aerith harder than anything has hit her previously, like aerosol has been kind of fun, and doesn’t really take much seriously. It seems like until this point, this is the first time we’ve really seen Arif take somebody like super seriously. Yeah, we end the conversation with her. I think we talked to read 13 next who just gives us dots until we talk to Tifa This is where things get real weird.

Chris 26:34
Cloud, bonfires are funnier. They make you remember all sorts of things. You know, cloud five years ago. It’s nothing. No, forget it. I’m afraid to ask what is it? It feels like feels like you’re going far away. You really really are you right? Huh?

Haney 26:56
I didn’t like that. That ties in a lot with like the like missing memories and with the like, Who the fuck is talking when you’re near maker reactors and I don’t like that Chris tifus asks something along the lines of like, you know, I’ve been thinking about stuff cloud art Are you really you fucking How do I know? Like I thought so. But now TIF has gotten me making you know, like, wild accusations out here. Like are you you? Yeah, I’ve been. But this ties into a lot of other parts of the story. Things like me knowing externally that Zack is clouds, commanding officer mentor, something that cloud knows Zach. But he doesn’t have any recollection of Zach in this moment. He has no recollection of what happens with him and Sephiroth after they seemingly fight at the Genova statue and mountain in Boeheim or mountain level, excuse me. Um, why cloud hears voices that answer for him at the Maiko reactors and in turn in other situations where, you know, he meets key people on insulin, and they’re like, you know, me, and he’s like, takes a second here’s an inner voice. And he’s like, yes, I do know you am good robot. Um, definitely feels real dirty, though. Like, there’s something wrong with Cloud. definitely get that vibe at this point. I mean, kind of had that vibe from Episode One, to be fair, but definitely seems to be something very different with cloud and this is the first time we’ve seen another character be like, hey, soon things don’t seem super right with you. And of course, childhood best friend Tifa person who probably knows is best in the world aside from our mom who is dead at this point, um, you know, she’s the kind of the perfect person to call this out. But this is the first time she’s called this out. And this is 20 hours into the game. So this is pretty interesting. I’m very intrigued and Chris has just the biggest shit eating grin on his face right now. After talking to TiVo, we talked to Barrett next. Yep. Oh boy. I got I got choked up at this part. I think this is the first time literal tears have been shed from me playing this game. Cosmo Canyon, this is where avalanche was born. Fuck yeah, there’s a lot that just like comes out in this area. Hmm. I promised my guys someday when we save the planet from the Shinra that we don’t go to Cosmo Canyon and celebrate. Oh, no. Give me a rough Biggs. wedge. Jesse. Now they’re all gone. died for the planet. Really, to save the planet? We all hate the Shinra but is it right to go on? Well, they Will they ever forgive me? I’m getting choked up sorry. Right now I really don’t know. But I do know one thing. there’s anything I can do to save the planet or the people living on it. That I’m getting. I’m getting Do it. I don’t care if it’s for justice or revenge or whatever. I don’t care. I’m gonna do it again. Again. avalanches born again. Oh fuck.

Chris 30:13
That’s what I was waiting for.

Haney 30:15
Oh, hey, you stupid fucking marshmallow. Do you have anything? Really really choked me up it was really good. I yeah, I don’t know how to explain it just really good. Yeah, yeah, I’m from there we go to talk to you read 13 who is the last person we can talk about? Oh, yeah. All right. I don’t even remember what he said. I’m just like so fucking done with that character. It was like yeah, it’s been a while. Oh yeah, yeah, we have no idea like, seems like he’s been here before maybe Cool. Cool. fuck that guy. Um, yeah, so we got to talk to red their team. Long ago, when I was still very small. We were all around this flame. No, nevermind.

Chris 31:03
What happened?

Haney 31:04
That’s about my parents. When I talk about my mother, I’m full of pride and joy. And that’s fine. But when I think of my father, my heart is

Chris 31:14
full of anger. You really can’t forgive your father. Of course.

Haney 31:18
He left mother for dead. When the GI tribe attacked. He ran off by himself leaving mother and the people of the canyon

Chris 31:26
come Nanaki there’s something you should see. The place may be dangerous clad, Will you and one other person come with us?

Haney 31:35
As we talked to read 13 Bagan Hagen bugan Hagen ugen Hagen

Chris 31:42
I don’t know if that’s how it’s pronounced.

Haney 31:43
Bhushan Hassan comes bawling his round screen and is like Hey, I heard you thought your daddy was a coward. Absolutely. I want to show you but it’s dangerous. Bring cloud and one other person to make sure we’re all safe. So I took myself cloud read their team because you have to and the earth because since he said this place is dangerous. I was like I’m probably gonna need some heels. Yep, boy did you boy did I followed bouken Hagen up to a sealed door that we had encountered earlier, but it was sealed so we just kind of move past it. Are we going into secret door? Shall we go? All right, come in. Come in. You need to wait, grandpa?

Chris 32:28
What are you crazy? It’s dangerous in there. I told you that. You are an old man like me to go first. I’ll be right behind you. Oh,

Haney 32:37
I like him. Yeah, dude, booger. Hyman is in my party. Now.

Chris 32:41
You know what the kids say? That guy is the bee’s tits.

Haney 32:46
What? Who? This is looking fine. Okay, we step into this cave. and a half Do you kind of climb down a series of ladders into this kind of glowy gross cavern where we learn the spirits of the GI tribe? Who were the enemies of read 13th tribe is to attack the Kenyan from this area. It seems like this area is haunted by their ghosts who were unable to return to the live stream because they’re bent on vengeance or something out of now. Whatever it goes do I want that looks good. I get that.

Chris 33:26
I love to figure it out. This is a strange looking rock break it open. Fucking did it.

Haney 33:34
Fucking nailed it. Surprise these legit monsters.

Chris 33:38
I’m kind of looking for a game over in this area. I’m not gonna lie to you.

Haney 33:41
Really? I don’t know if I like that Chris. stumble around a little bit, break some rocks and eventually find the rock to break that opens a secret cavern. The next area has all of these and by all of these I mean one like slick areas. I ran straight into it. The spikes come out of the wall drop me down to one HP for every character in my party. And then I got into a fight with one of the geek spirits at that point we we died

Chris 34:09
Chris Yeah. Ratchet that death count up to two.

Haney 34:12
To do my snake is a member of the GI tribe.

Chris 34:15
Do you know why snake is a member?

Haney 34:17
That was good. That was really good. No, I don’t like that

Chris 34:20
because you hit the spikes I imagine. Yeah, yikes.

Haney 34:27
Oh, this is it. No, it’s

so then we loaded up our previous save head back into the cavern, went through everything again. And finally got back to the point where we were learning that if you walk on the slippery pirates, you don’t fall into the spikes. So far some spiders thought some spiders. Because Do you know what the single only animal in the world They don’t like us dolphin that’s not true sorry hold on let me back that up. Hey Chris Do you know one of the three animals I don’t like in this world though? spider spider Do you know why? Cuz they’re fucking terrifying Spanish are just friends that clear out bugs for you what just happened fat choco oh yeah What the fuck is that? What do you want? What happened? What do you mean why did that get cast instead of Tacoma What

Chris 35:24
are you talking about

Haney 35:25
fat choco what is that I was looking away I literally like I looked over it said fat choco and I was like wait, what?

Chris 35:32
Never look away honey. That’s how you miss life, just like why and so

Haney 35:38
after we kind of clear out the spiders from this area, make sure we got all the items we forward into the last area of the cave. The last area of the cave is a giant like skull face on the wall and read their genes like is that thing and begin Hagen’s like share. And everyone’s like, Oh, it’s alive and you learn that like the spirits of the GI at least some of them if not a lot of them are embodied in this physical being that can come back to life and come out of the wall that it’s attached to and start fighting. Yeah, so we get into a boss fight here. Ah, don’t like that probably should have healed before I came in here. Did he just take Gareth Chris

Chris 36:23
you don’t want to use her Did you? Did listen. healers are overrated

Haney 36:29
are they though? I bet they’re gonna be resistant to fire.

Chris 36:34
I bet they’re gonna be better than resistant

Haney 36:36
Oh no. Please don’t please don’t if those numbers are green I’m locking out of this room Oh, this was a hard one This was probably the worst I’ve done in a boss fight I don’t think I had to revive anyone any but it was getting low several times. So this was a couple of Fire Spirits and an undead so I learned that bio does not work against them to know poison in fire heals the Fire Spirits obviously so that was out so I think I did a lot of ice attacks a lot of lightning attacks and a lot of I used as many summons as I could to get through it. It was it was a hard fight though. It’s probably the hardest boss fight I’ve had today.

Chris 37:17
It was definitely the messiest definitely Yeah, it was a longer fight because you ended up with no MP on anybody and you’re just smacking physical

Haney 37:25
attacks only I was really surprised when I finally killed the main boss but eventually got there in the end and moved on to the second scene of this episode which made me break down crying

Chris 37:39
Thank you cloud because of you we survived not okay you have grown strong too.

Haney 37:44
But fuck era thank Oh yeah.

Chris 37:47
Now I know that wasn’t a mistake bringing you here. Come I have something I want to show you right over here. This is the warrior who fought against the GI he kept them from taking even one step into Cosmo Canyon. But he was never able to return to town. Look Nanaki look at your father at the Warriors Seto.

Haney 38:08
Oh fuck that’s so cool. Is petrified. Oh fuck that’s so cool. That that’s setup.

Chris 38:16
Seto continue to fight the D tribe here to protect this canyon. Even after the geese poisonous arrows turned his body to stone. Even after they all ran away, Seto continued to protect us. And he continues to protect us even now. Even now. He thought that he was a coward and ran away. But he alone risked his life to protect Cosmo Canyon. That is your father. Seto

Haney 38:41
didn’t mother No. Oh,

Chris 38:43
she knew the two of them made me promise to keep this cave shut. They asked me to seal it myself and not tell a soul. They said we should forget about this cave. dots. Cloud. Would you mind leaving the two of us alone?

Haney 38:56
Seems like we’re in the bottom of the canyon looking up at the edges. And Nanaki read 13 is like is that embiggen Hagen’s like yeah, just so you know. There was one warrior who gave it everything to keep fighting the GI. And that was our like proud warrior Seto. And we learned that red Thirteen’s father got infected with these poison arrows that petrified him so as he was still giving everything to defend the Kenyan against the key. He like fought to the very last and his body was just petrified now stands still at the top of the cliff like with all the arrows in it. And bouken Hagen says something along the lines of like he’s still defending us today.

Chris 39:42
Nicky, I want you to continue your journey with cloud and the others, Grandpa, listen, nucky Cloud says they’re trying to save the planet. Honestly, I don’t think it can be done. For even if they stopped every reactor on the planet, it’s only going to postpone the inevitable even if they stopped Sephora, everything Will perish. But Nanaki I’ve been thinking lately, I’ve been thinking if there was anything we could do, as a part of the planet, something to help a planet already in misery. No matter what happens, isn’t it important to try? Now I just wishing against fate. I am too old to do anything about it. This year I’ll be 130 that is why not a key you must go with them. For my sake. Grandpa. I wanted to show you your real father before you left. I’m so glad that you came back while I was still alive to show you.

Haney 40:37
Grandpa. Don’t talk like that. I don’t want to think of life without you.

Chris 40:42
Oh, well. I’ve had a long life.

Haney 40:45
Grandpa, you must live. I’ll see to it. I’ll see to what’s happening to the planet and I’ll come back to tell you Nanaki I am not a key of Cosmo Canyon, the son of the warrior said Oh, I’ll come back a warrior truth to that noble name. So please, grandpa. Oh, god damn it round to

Chris 41:02
this always gets me.

Haney 41:04
Oh, I fucking lost it. I just It’s so good. It’s so good. I’m like, getting a little teary right now talking about it, but it was just I love that. I just I love it so much. They did such that was a cyst executed so well. And yeah, it gives this like closure to read 13 and understanding that not only was his father not a coward, he was actually a fucking hero. And he asked spook and Hagen He’s like, Did my mom know about this? And he’s like, yeah, it was her idea. Yeah, they both asked me to seal this cavern of Titan. Never tell anyone about it. It’s like Oh, cool. So fuckin, you know, spent 50 years of my life thinking that my father was a piece of shit. And turns out he’s the greatest guy on Earth. Yeah, he also seemingly knows about Sephora, which is Yeah, he

Chris 41:49
knows everything that’s going on with the plugin Hagen’s the fucking man. Yeah, he’s real tapped in

Haney 41:54
there. Yeah, from there. We kind of cut back over to you know, clad Who do you want to go with you? Like very awkward transition back to the VHS screen. And I chose three is so fucking weird. I chose three people. And then I started leaving the town to go save on the world map. And it’s like read 13 comes running like no, I gotta come with you.

Chris 42:18
Chilly get going.

Haney 42:20
So this is it. Read 13 that’s just the way it goes. You came in handy at times. He literally just said he wanted to continue on the journey with us the book,

Chris 42:30
read Thirteen’s, his own person fell. I mean, he’s got some shit to unpack.

Haney 42:34
I guess. Let me just wipe these tears out of my eyes here.

Chris 42:38
I can’t believe it’s raining in here. It’s raining, sir.

Haney 42:41
Wait for me. I’m coming to

Chris 42:45
cloud, please look after Nanaki What happened?

Haney 42:48
I think I grew up a little that’s what happened.

Chris 42:51
And that was where we were we were trying to this is where we’re stopping this

Haney 42:58
shit. Jesus left. And we have to like Ph. s, again after leaving to get read 13 back in the party if we wanted. But yeah, that was the major story point at which we ended the game. We just went to the world map and saved and ended there. Chris, what are your thoughts for today?

Chris 43:14
I guess a What do you think sup with like Zach and cloud and Tifa and what’s going on with all this?

Haney 43:21
So I feel like Tifa knows more about clouds post nibble Haim incident than she’s LED on. And I feel like she understands that cloud might have lost some of himself or his some of his memory. And she’s trying to be careful about what she says to not upset him. That’s what I’m thinking. I have not very much evidence to back that up. But that’s what I’m thinking. So I’m thinking that she seems to know more about Zack person, right? That cloud doesn’t seem to know about, but I know externally that cloud. should note Zack, which is funny, because I also should know that. So like I’m trying to think of like if I didn’t have the few spoilers I had for this game. What the fuck would I think about I would have been like, yeah, who the fuck cares about Zack, or would have been like, I got a boyfriend she doesn’t want to talk about but knowing that Tifa like 10 years ago when Zach left to go join soldier and never read to his parents again. If he was an adult at that point, and Tifa was like 10 probably wasn’t her boyfriend. Really hope squaring an ex Don’t let me down on that one. Um, yeah, so I think that Tifa knows something about Zach that she doesn’t want to tell cloud because she doesn’t want to upset cloud for some reason. I don’t think it has anything to do with boyfriend girlfriend shit. I think it’s more to do with cloud not seemingly knowing who he really is. Because Tifa is also like, cloud Are you really you and that’s another weird thing that that Tifa said this this episode that made me think that Tifa is starting to be more concerned for clouds sanity. than she has been in the past.

Chris 45:01
And setting Zach aside. What do you think? Is cloud steel at this point in the game?

Haney 45:09
My thought right now is that he has severe memory loss for some reason, but I don’t know. I mean, I’m assuming he got his shit kicked in by Sephora off in that fight. Don’t know why Sephora would have left him alive, though. Probably a specific reason for that as well. But I feel like there’s something wrong with cloud in that his something like some parts of his memories are fabricated, but I’m not sure if it’s really like artificially fabricated or his like his own mind, just like was trying to fill in gaps after getting his shit kicked in by Sephora. So I’m not really sure what’s going on there. But that’s my my guess my best guess is that he just has some sort of amnesia that’s stemming from trauma of fighting and cipher off. Okay, that’s my guess right now.

Chris 45:55
And going back to the Jehovah’s party boat.

Haney 45:59
Yes, that’s great time.

Chris 46:00
Why was Sephora thing so weird with him?

Haney 46:04
That was weird, too. Because Sephora off, like we thought that they went on a mission together, and then niflheim happened. But at the same time, Safra would have been such an elite soldier already, that he probably would have just been like, our I don’t fucking care who this kid is like, he’s just, he’s whoever. But he also seemed to know stuff about cloud at that point, because he’s like, Oh, yeah, Isn’t this your hometown? And like, how would he know that unless he knew a little bit about cloud. But then, you know, by the time he gets through niflheim, he’s kind of on his high horse. And he seems to think himself so much better than cloud that he kind of just is pushing him aside every time. So I don’t know if he’s been dormant all these years, just like thinking about his higher powers and his higher goals. And cloud just hasn’t registered as like a being of importance to him. That would be my first guest. My second guess is that there’s a reason both of their memories are missing around each other. But cloud knows who suffer office he didn’t like completely forget him. He was just like, No, he’s a fucking he was the man back in the day. Now he sucks. So this there seems to be both of them having gaps in their knowledge of the other one. My other thought would be that they are somehow the same entity that was split. I do think that that it’s a little more far fetched than I think this game would go for. I don’t see that being the real reason that was just like a maybe thought that I had that’s like my best next guess after there is a reason that after their fight, both of them have been purged from each other’s kind of consciousness.

Chris 47:34
What do you think’s coming up? Where, where are we headed, we

Haney 47:37
don’t actually have any direction at this point. My goal is to just head for the next nearest blip on the map, that’s a town and see what happens solid. And see if there’s anything cool along the way. I really want to get back to Midgar at some point, and check in on I’m guy. I also want to get back into chinar headquarters and pick up that megaphone. Yep. I also want to go back to junan harbor at some point and talk to the guy who was fixing the underwater access to the maker reactor in June on harbor. I want to ask you a question. Yeah. Before we wrap up here, totally. What was to date? The past 20 hours we’ve played, which I can’t believe it’s been 20 hours already? Yeah, only 50 left to go. Um, what has been your favorite part that I’ve encountered so far? Because I have I have a distinctly favorite part so far. Yeah,

Chris 48:26
I really liked the moment where you start getting choked up about around Barrett. My favorite section has still been nibble home, because it felt like it was the first episode that really like just grabbed you and yanked you into the into the story.

Haney 48:43
That is also what I would say so far as my favorite part of the game. Today, because it was probably Shinra headquarters, leading into niflheim. So chinar headquarters, I think, built up everything around niflheim. So like that was where I started getting really excited. And then having nibble hunt, follow that so closely after that was fuckin awesome. That was just so so damn cool. But niflheim just, it gives you so much in such a short amount of time, whereas everything else has been teased out. It just it kind of was both titillating. And it was kind of titillating in that, like it had a lot of mystery around it. But also very satisfying and giving you a good amount of information to make you happy up to that point. I think that brings us to the end of our talk here for today. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share with our listeners?

Chris 49:35
Let us know how you’re liking it. How do these? How does the new setup sound? Does it sound good? Is it working?

Haney 49:41
I hope it sounds good.

Chris 49:42
Yeah.

Haney 49:43
All right. Well With that, thank you so much for listening to the first encounter podcast and we’ll see you next time.

Chris 49:48
Bye.

Haney 49:48
Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the first encounter podcast. If you enjoyed the episode, please go leave us an apple review. They make a huge difference and we would really appreciate it Additionally, you can find all of our past episodes and how to connect with us on first encounter podcast.com. Please come say hi. Join us next time on first encounter as we returned to Neville Haim and we play up to the point where we crash our brand new boat ride into the ocean. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you next time.