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 were just a couple of guys trying to have fun with the cool video game. Red ass dragon say Red Dragon for me one more time.

Chris 0:25
A red ass dragon.

Haney 0:27
A dragon from the ass.

Chris 0:29
The Ash plane

Haney 0:31
you just activated my ass car. What a nightmare. Get caught up on a nightmare.

Chris 0:41
So we got a ancient Red Dragon

Haney 0:50
here you know our our listeners love to get fully action here. Oh yeah, scrape the metal. The only thing that I’m upset about is that I can’t break the glass.

Chris 1:02
Welcome to the first encounter podcast

Haney 1:06
I think you mean the first encounter experience? No, that’s

Chris 1:08
not what I meant. Oh,

Haney 1:09
excellent. Hey, buddy. Hey,

Chris 1:11
how you doing?

Haney 1:12
Oh, I’m so good.

Chris 1:13
I got some good feelings about where we’re going.

Haney 1:14
I can’t even like fuck around that much. Because I just want to like, get into it because of how fucking good this gameplay was. I have no fuck arounds

Chris 1:26
for you today. Fresh out of flux fresh out to new for you.

Haney 1:30
But do you know what i do have this delicious beverage. Ah, talk to us about it. So today I’m drinking a delightful double bag. From long trail brewing. This is the darkest beer I like this is a dark amber Ale 7.2% it’s one of those beers that Will legit taste like dog shit every month of the year. If the temperature is above 30 degrees love but when it’s cold like it is right now. It’s quite quite lovely. Actually. It’s very delicious. Yeah, it’s good. Yeah, I only like dark beers this time of year when it’s starting to get into the fall winter.

Chris 2:13
They’re usually too heavy and sweet for me. I might have to try some now that it’s cold. Yeah, this one’s pretty good. But um, I got some six hour old coffee reheated in the microwave. Oh,

Haney 2:24
excellent. So that coffee was made for you this morning at 6:25am when I woke up before taking the dogs on a run. And now at 1:30pm muted in the microwave for a minute and 30 just heat it right back up for you. Well, yeah, is it it’s sure as coffee sure is coffee. Yeah, it’s also like grocery store brand. So enjoy it. Love it. Fantastic.

Chris 2:52
So we got a lot to dig into today. Yeah, where

Haney 2:58
did we? What did we do last time? Can you remind us so last time

Chris 3:01
we bumblefuck our way over the world map into our boat in our boat in our new the tiny Bronco or hot new ride? We made it to the gold saucer got to Keystone got the Keystone stolen chase the stealth stealer

Haney 3:15
the thief thief thief is the word you’re looking for there homie.

Chris 3:19
Didn’t really catch him. Got to the temple of ancients guy into the temple of the ancients.

Haney 3:24
We did do that chase some more creatures chasing this episode of chasing a lot of chasing a lot of MC Escher. Now that’s really all I got. That’s it. Yeah.

Chris 3:33
kottam got a key. We’re standing on the cusp of opening a door into the depths of the temple.

Haney 3:38
I’m sure it’s okay. What do you think? What do you what do you think i think is on the door.

Chris 3:42
More cases?

Haney 3:43
Hmm. probably hate that. So yeah. Now we’re standing on the cusp of greatness, if you Will, at a door where we don’t really know what’s in there. What do you think’s in there?

Chris 3:57
Probably Sephora.

Haney 3:58
It’s Sephora. Yeah, absolutely Sephora.

Chris 4:02
So bust down that

Haney 4:04
down that door and lo and behold, clouds dreams worse. I just think it’s really funny like cloud just like kicking down to temple door like an ancient like ceramic temple. And just screaming worse. Yeah, so we walk into this mural room air through marks that it’s the mural room that we recently saw saying getting his bowels removed from his body in via visa v saffer. Up sword. Clouds just running around screaming Where’s Sephora, and hey, guess who appears This is the room with the murals.

Chris 4:39
Where are you Sephora.

Haney 4:43
Walk into the bone village to scream Oh, oh, he actually came. Oh boy. So cold. I am always by your side. Come on then like that. Oh God, Jesus, I wasn’t expecting to be there again. Splendid, a treasure house of knowledge.

Chris 5:10
I don’t understand what you’re saying, Hey, what’s that?

Haney 5:13
That looks like a meteor on that hieroglyph look well, at what about that which adds the knowledge of I am becoming one with the planet. Safra basically just gets in on his bullshit immediately starts talking about how you You’re just in time to like, basically for him to give his Bond villain speech and be like, I expect you to die miss this strife.

Chris 5:38
Do you recall what Sephiroth was talking about as he’s describing his evil plan to the gang?

Haney 5:43
Yeah, I mean, he’s kind of doing a whole bunch of his like roundabout stuff like on this wall is the most destructive force and like he’s just talking about the murals. And what you can notice in the murals is each panel of the mural is a scene depicting, presumably the ancients doing something, some sort of something seemingly a ceremony, and then a giant flaming ball in the sky, presumably not good. And then all of the ancients on fire that’s just basically the the gist of the like, I don’t know, maybe 10 panel mural, but um, what happens in this room is every two panels as you walk along the room, Sephiroth appears kind of in that Phantom ish form he’s been taking on where he’s not quite there, and it’s kind of like leaving ghost images of himself. And he just is, over the course of a few minutes. He’s basically just explaining his plan. How do you intend to become one with the planet? Simple? Once the planet is hurt? It gathers spirit energy to heal the injury? Oh, no. The amount of energy gathered depends on the size of the injury. No, what would happen if there was an injury that threaten the very life of the planet? Think how much energy would be gathered. And at the center of that injury Will be me. All that boundless energy Will be mine. by merging with all the energy of the planet, I Will become a new life form a new existence, melding with the planet, I Will cease to exist as I am now, only to be reborn as a god to rule over every soul. an injury powerful enough to destroy the planet. Behold, that mural, the ultimate destructive magic Meteor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We slowly make our way across the mural room. And as we finally get to the end of the mural Sephiroth is standing in front of a little model of the temple, it seems like his plan boils down to listen, I’m going to get the most destructive magic on Earth, excuse me, Gaia. And I’m gonna use it and it’s gonna be pretty cool because what’s gonna happen is I’m going to summon a meteor right? I’m going to take that Meteor and I’m going to put it right down into the planet. And what’s gonna happen is the plan is going to be injured life threatening Lee so so what happens is we learn via Sephiroth at this point that when the planet is injured, it gathers spirit energy to heal the wound. So his plan jokes aside is to cause a tremendous amount of injury to the planet so that it gathers as much spirit energy as he can. Like basically, there’s the most biggest bang for his buck he can get. And he’s planning on putting himself at the epicenter of that to merge with the spirit energy and emerged as a god. And to me, that’s pretty tight. Like you can’t hate the guy for it right? Like it’s a good plan. It’s got a beginning, a middle and an end. Lots of ways that could go wrong, but I think not not for him though. No, overall, like I get a six out of 10 Yeah, for a first evil villain plan.

Chris 8:58
pretty solid. I like it. Yeah,

Haney 8:59
IGN. 10

Chris 9:00
at a time, clouds like can’t fucking do that, man. We’re not gonna let you do that. Watch me pretty much just watch me Yeah. Blows by you and his rocket boots and says wake up. And cloud says come back here and chases after him.

Haney 9:16
I’m pretty sure clouds okay, right? Like No, no, but at this point now now what to worry about now it’s it’s pretty normal for him to say run in front of a painting of a meteor crashing into the earth and start holding his head and laughing laughing violently shaking and I think it’s okay. I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably okay.

Chris 9:36
Cloud is stable. If you know anything about him.

Haney 9:40
Oh, cloud is laughing then looking at the cloud laughing cloud. Hey, cloud,

Chris 9:53
black materia. Calm media or

Haney 9:57
Oh, no cloud. Get a hold of yourself oh no no no no no no no no no

Chris 10:05
glad I’m cloud oh no How should I I remember I remember my way oh no oh no oh no no cloud What’s wrong? Something wrong

Haney 10:21
it’s nothing so don’t worry about it now bear it’s like it looks like something so that happens and cloud is yeah I’m worried about cloud at this point. I guess we don’t really know still what what’s going on with God here but we find out later that whatever is happening isn’t good. Yeah, we’ll get there though.

Chris 10:43
Harris has a bit of an aside with him she’s like cloud you okay? He’s like oh yeah, I’m I’m glad Yeah, what

Haney 10:49
are you talking?

Chris 10:50
What’s up? Cool? Yeah, here it is like Yeah, man.

Haney 10:53
Yeah, it’s all good. It’s all good. I think Eretz number one cloud is probably yeah dog at this point the temple shakes and clouds like Sephora and Sephora response out of nowhere not on screen just voice ominously down. He’s like nah, dawg, not me. attributed to Sephora.

Chris 11:12
Beautiful

Haney 11:12
last name several people last name goddamnit What is this? Ah ha that’s a dragon. Oh boy. Is that a dragon

Chris 11:22
in the real tired of these bad boys? How many hits Do you think it takes up rough to take this thing down?

Haney 11:27
Shut up. Shut up. Shut your mouth Chris.

Chris 11:31
All right click here with a fire attack. That’s Red Dragon.

Haney 11:35
I’m sure it’ll be fine if this heals him though, I am going to

Chris 11:40
I mean he’s at full health

Haney 11:42
true could be way worse at least I find out confirmed definitely definitely confirmed there though.

Chris 11:48
Oh, Barrett wake up. Bear has like

Haney 11:56
kind of giggling at that and then I was like yeah Game Over

Chris 12:01
wow that’s rough

Haney 12:04
that is a rough fight Holy shit. How do we do

Chris 12:07
we did well after a death oh yeah died the first time crushed it the second solid

Haney 12:15
solid. I mean one attitude win ratio. That’s okay, that’s

Chris 12:18
50 that’s a failing grade but I mean, you knew me in middle school.

Haney 12:22
Does any of that surprise you? Um, yeah. So I crushed it the second time and they run back to the replica of the temple. And you can inspect the model and you can either shake it Take it or leave it outside give it a little shake see what happens and once you know the whole fuckin building shakes around view aerith at this point starts having a conversation with someone unseen very one sided conversation as and we can only hear one side of the conversation and she’s just like wait you want me to what really what she’s just like running around like almost like she’s on a bad cell phone trying to find better reception Exactly. And Eric gets the the lowdown from her spirit ancestors who describe to her that the temple itself is what is required to some of the most destructive magic Meteor and the temple is actually black material. bobble mumble so metal so now if you look at the murals you notice that it’s a bunch of agents carrying literally the black material like above them and then like taking it to an altar that has the replica of the temple and like doing something and then Meteor coming down and then my favorite panel, which is the last panel which has been running around on fire

Chris 13:41
stuff Roth’s favorite thing incred Allah niflheim I mean big fan big fan of those Oh unfortunate fiery accident

Haney 13:52
so yeah, at this point they’re like well fuck what can we do we need to take it but we can’t because whoever stays behind to solve the puzzles Will be crushed every time the temple like the temple shrinks in size down to the black material size, but like whoever’s inside basically has to sacrifice themselves to crush it and once you know it well actually they’re like oh well that’s perfect we can just leave it here cuz saffer off can’t take it either. And clouds like a he’s got like a lot of flunkies who are just willing to just do that like so we should probably take it at this point. We get a call from the unlikeliest of heroes bring bring bring bring

Chris 14:29
it case if Yeah, big fan. Hello, clown.

Haney 14:33
Said the cane, Seth. And he I wish you two wins every time I did Kate sets voice.

Chris 14:41
an unconscious reaction

Haney 14:43
just causes you physical ailments. Um, yeah, so kids have calls and it’s like, I could do it and you’re like, now I’m all set. And he’s like, now it’s cool. Like, I’m a stuffed animal writing the toy like, nothing bad’s gonna happen. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be great.

Chris 14:59
As if they give a shit about him and then don’t worry about him just stealing the black material and running away with it which leads

Haney 15:04
us to the second half of this thing which is like now I know I promised I was a piece of shit before but I’ll do this that’ll be great. Oh my cell phone’s ringing Pardon? I gotta take that whenever my phone rings but my neck around and then answer cloud This is kids f What a fucking mess. This is the worst person to call me right now. I don’t want to talk to you Kate’s the whole story

Chris 15:31
how how bugged

Haney 15:32
Don’t forget about me. Everything you said makes perfect sense. You can use my stuff buddy for the future of the planet. We can’t

Chris 15:40
let suffer I’ll get his hands on the black materia and we can’t let the chinar get theirs on it either.

Haney 15:45
But cloud there’s really nothing else you can do everyone please trust me this we have no choice I’m only saying this because we have no choice I want you to know that he’s got you already then leave it all with me. I really want to know if he if your phone still rings at your party and he’s just talking to you for like two feet away.

Chris 16:03
The developers knew that nobody would take kicks in here after the shit he pulled.

Haney 16:07
I’m just gonna knock it until it gives me an item are we gonna be here while you’re given two options trust them or I think it’s actually says like we have no choice is the dialogue option or now at this point we’re like yeah, I guess we don’t really have a choice and case this like fuckin rad be there soon axes make our way out of there and go to the clock room clock room is broken at this point so that it’s either six o’clock or 1230 it’s very important to me I don’t know which it is because I didn’t pay attention to which was the big cannon which was the little hand Chris Will get this vital information for you and edit it in here.

Chris 16:47
All right, six o’clock and then I can do that.

Haney 16:52
We’ll see what happens and then dear listener, we run into you the door that was previously locked. And we get some more boss basic Hell yeah.

Chris 17:01
Demon gate.

Haney 17:03
Yeah, demon gate.

Chris 17:05
yarn or what the store was awesome. And

Haney 17:07
are we really doing another bossfight immediately now? It’s warm. This isn’t good. Thank God. Kate’s at the solvent stuff. I’m cloud.

Chris 17:19
I’m behind you.

Haney 17:20
What would you say that is?

Chris 17:23
An alien

Haney 17:24
alien monster. Don’t like that. Oh, god. What is this thing? Oh, God. You just said we went to another boss immediately. You why’d feel like feel evil work on that. It looks evil. Oh, dear. I shouldn’t be used to all Do you think that actually did anything? Excellent. I think I think we’re doing really well. Personally.

Chris 17:48
So who is your favorite summon right now?

Haney 17:50
Ah, Shiva probably. Or choco mock. Probably Shiva. I like I stuff a lot.

Chris 17:56
All right, because it’s about to become Bahama. Yeah. Ready?

Haney 18:00
Is it a whale? Like it’s supposed to be. Now that’s dragon. Oh, that’s cool. Oh, it’s really cool.

Chris 18:08
mega flare.

Haney 18:11
Oh, he’s strong. Nothing cold in ice.

Chris 18:16
What’s cooler than being cold?

Haney 18:19
Ice cold. All right. All right. That’s fine. I’m sure I’m sure that half Seymour slab era class this was a really fun battle. Really cool design. Yeah. really odd. Lots of bright colors for a demon but very fun. Um, slave this one though. I crushed the demon gay man. I put it to bed. It was sweet. Yeah. And then the door that the demon was in front of first open. And it’s like hands outstretched, rolling some dice telling fortunes. And he just fucking kills it. He comes in. We have a little conversation with him about what it’s going to do. And we get a couple of interesting points here. So I think the first thing that happens is Eric asks for him to tell that her fortune one last time, right and she asked him if her and cloud are right for each other. Yeah, she asks about their compatibility. compatibility. That’s it. Yeah, that’s me. Signing keep you waiting. Can y’all handle the wraps from here? You could have literally showed up like two minutes ago and helped with that fight, but that’s fine. Take care yourself. Is this it? Is this just dying? Now he’s a little stuffed animal. He’ll be fine. Come on cloud Say something.

Chris 19:37
I’m not good at this.

Haney 19:39
I understand. I feel the same Tim. Why don’t you read our questions? That’s right. I’m so excited right or wrong. I’m still the same old me. Now what should I predict? Some very strange happy aside. Oh, okay. Let’s see how compatible cloudify are naviga Yeah, exactly one day. Here I go. Like yeah I like that music. This isn’t gun I can’t say it for Tifa No, tell me. I promise I won’t get mad then I’ll tell you looks good. You are perfect for each other. And starring cloud star they show a great future cloud I’ll be here matchmaker preacher. I’ll do whatever you want me to you just call me when it all happens. Thank you for believing in me knowing that I was a spy. This is the final final farewell. Oh no, I’m actually a little sad. Be strong kitzur case this like Call me if you need a preacher Call me if you need your fortune told like whatever I’ll be here for you guys. It’s actually a very sweet moment and then he adds a second sweet moment which started my path to increasing the cry counter for fucking Kate said this episode. But um, Kate says he’s about to leave turns back to everyone. He goes, Hey, like, just say, you know, this really is goodbye. Like, even though, you know, there might be another case. In the future. I’m still me and like, this is it? didn’t ask for that. So we’re like, Okay, I’m good luck, buddy. parently from the crew, combat a kitten. We pan away from the crew and follow kitsis kind of through. It really just picks them up in the mural room and things are violently shaking. It’s trying to like kind of crumble apart and he trips and he’s like out and then like, you start like, feeling a little bit. He’s like, no, I gotta like, keep going. I got it. Like everyone’s depending on me. I cried. Yeah. She told me to be strong. I feel so happy. out. What happened? I can still move more. g night sweet, sweet kids. This must be the aunt and she did a good job making this I can protect the planet two. I’m kind of embarrassed. Miss plenty of stuff toys like my body around but there’s only one me I get choked up every kid so if I’m gonna Don’t forget me even if another kid Seth comes along. Goodbye, then. I guess I’m off to save the planet. Got me. It got me Chris.

Chris 22:30
didn’t predict that one.

Haney 22:34
does a really good moment. Which is really funny because there’s definitely a Shinra soldier somewhere like sitting in a room just like making it so much more of a bigger deal than it is as easy as just like weeping into a microphone with like an on button. Oh my god.

Chris 22:47
Other employees are like watching like, Yo, dude, like, let’s

Haney 22:50
go. Yeah, um, Keith makes its way over to the temple replica, and start solving puzzles. I think at this point, we’ve pan back to the crew who are just leaving the temple, right? The temple collapses into itself into a pit and at the bottom of the pit is a shiny item looks like a materia if you Will, is it black? But black?

Chris 23:13
How would you describe it?

Haney 23:14
I would describe it as a dark material. It’s the black material is at the bottom of the pit. Like Come on. We all knew this clouds like gonna jump down onto the ledges make myself look like a cool guy starts jumping down to go retrieve the materia aerith. responsibly and intelligently climbs down slowly. Barrett says up top to watch out and cloud retrieved slack metiria I think at this point, treble shows up. Chris, what would you call it trouble?

Chris 23:46
A beautiful man with long shiny glossy ass hair with a big sword

Haney 23:50
descending from the sky and being like Hey, give me I Will be taking this thing can can I have Can I have that? clouds obviously like now? You can’t have that. too wet find stuff rock guys, huh? No, give it to me.

Chris 24:06
Cloud has a bit of a moment, doesn’t he?

Haney 24:08
He does. So Cloud has his spirit, which is a child removed. It’s a little unclear what exactly is happening here. I took it to be like clouds either innocence or his essence or spirit being like kind of pulled away like you can run around as basically child cloud as clouds adult form is moving in slow motion towards suffer awful like his arm outstretched like handing them metiria

Chris 24:33
as long as we have this Sephiroth won’t be able to use Meteor.

Haney 24:37
I’m a bad feeling.

Chris 24:39
Can you guys use it?

Haney 24:40
Nope. We can’t use it right now. You need great spiritual power to use it. One person’s power alone won’t do it. somewhere special where there’s plenty of planets energy,

Chris 24:50
the promised land. No,

Haney 24:52
but Sephora is different. He’s not an ancient Ah, fucking knew it.

Chris 24:56
He shouldn’t be able to find the promised land.

Haney 25:00
But I have I’m far superior to the ancients. I became a traveller of the livestream and gained the knowledge and wisdom of the ancients. I also gained the knowledge and wisdom of those after the extinction of the ancients and soon I Will create the future I won’t let you do it the future is not just yours I wonder wake up. Oh no, no no no no no no no

Chris 25:26
Shut up. No ice

Haney 25:28
Bok. Bok Bok Bok Bok Bok? Bok. I called it I called an episode one that the damn boy in his head was Sephora. Their cloud? Good boy. He hands over the materia not great. Would you say?

Chris 25:46
I wouldn’t say it’s the best Yeah, you get the fun little dialog handed over black material to set for us.

Haney 25:51
Oh, I hated that. That little thing. It’s like like what the success message like something like good happened. It’s like no, no, no, no, thank you. This was very bad. did not like this. Um, yeah, at this point, we get a very not good aside, which is a cloud against as well. Punching Aaron.

Unknown Speaker 26:13
Oh, black materia to suffer. Oh. welds

Haney 26:18
on Bach. Ah, so sapper off can control cloud. Excellent. God, are you all right?

Chris 26:29
I give the black materia to suffer author. What did I do?

Haney 26:35
Tell me your cloud? Be strong. Okay.

Chris 26:39
What have I done?

Haney 26:40
cloud? You haven’t done anything. It’s not your fault. I don’t know why stuff can confirm. Hey, I’m stop it stuck. There it jumps down and fucking is about to wall up cloud out of the world. But at this point, it’s like, Hey, I’m here. Oh, no, what a weird time to show up. When Fuck off. I’m Barrett liaison on cloud real hard and cut to black or white.

Chris 27:08
I don’t remember. And we get a weird dream sequence, it seems. Yeah,

Haney 27:12
we get something. So at this point, your eyes open onto a forest scene. And there’s like a little trail leading through the forest. And Eric pops out from behind the tree and you guys start talking? Yeah. Eric says some shit that I didn’t like Chris. No.

Chris 27:28
Everything’s Wait. What did I do? I don’t remember anything. My memory. Since when? If everything’s a dream, don’t wake me. Cloud. Can you hear me? Yeah, I hear you. sorry for what happened?

Haney 27:48
Don’t worry about it. I can’t help it. Oh, then why don’t you really worry about it. And let me handle Sephora. And cloud, take care of yourself. Oh, no. So you don’t have a breakdown?

Chris 28:03
Okay. What is this place?

Haney 28:05
This forest leads to the city of the ancients. And it’s called the sleeping forest. It’s only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor. That’s why I’m going to protect it. Only a survivor of the sutra like me can do it. Secret is just up here. At least it should be. I feel it. It feels like I’m being led by something. Then I’ll be going now. I’ll come back when it’s all over there. Oh, no. is it today? I wasn’t ready for it to be today. Chris don’t drink your coffees cheekily. Answer me. So she’s going to interfere. She’ll be a difficult one Don’t you think

Chris 28:49
Dec had suffered.

Haney 28:51
must stop that girl soon. So aerith is like hey, just so you know. This is where Safra is heading you were in the sleeping Woods like at the entrance to the last day like I have to do this and it’s like no no, no, no, no, no, no no please please please let’s go as a group we can all go Please don’t go along. Really not happy right now. No, no real worried why she’s

Chris 29:15
gonna go take care of it. You don’t have to worry about it anymore. And of game

Haney 29:18
I’ve been lied to for so long that this game was actually 70 hours. You just run around for 10 minutes and then a dialog appears like aerith succeeded. Sephora handed over the black material. That would be magic. Um, yeah. So aerith gives us this beautiful speech about how she’s basically leaving to go fight suffer author herself or stop this from happening. We don’t really know what she’s going to do, but she kind of just ends up running off into the vanishing point and going away.

Chris 29:47
You train chaser in slow motion, but you can’t move anywhere. And then

Haney 29:50
in classic Sephiroth style, he floats down from the fucking sky. He’s really like that, like Piccolo entrance. Yeah, yeah, that’s really good. Though

Chris 30:00
I would do that all the time I

Haney 30:01
could absolutely 100% um Sephiroth descends from the sky and looks kind of like at AIR things like ancient Huh, she’s gonna be a problem. Don’t like that and don’t really like that. So then cloud is shaken awake from this little aside, and he is in a bed watched over by Tifa and Barrett. Both are very concerned for his well being. At this point, cloud shows some weakness he hasn’t previously shown. Barrett and Tifa are all like, well, we got it like we got to go after aerith like she ran away. Like, we got to make sure she’s okay. We got to stop Sephora. Like let’s go. We got all this stuff, too. And Catholic now, I’m scared like I don’t like what happens if I go crazy. I’m like, what happens of all this? Barrett? is, I think, necessarily brutal to him at this point. You look like he was having a nightmare. How are you feeling? I

Chris 30:56
don’t really know.

Haney 30:58
I guess that’s right. Well, don’t worry too much about it. You know, cloud era is gone. Everyone’s out. Looking fair. That’s probably my favorite song.

Chris 31:07
City of the ancients. Earth is headed there

Haney 31:10
by herself. Why don’t you go by yourself? Hey, we’re going to

Chris 31:14
only the ancients. Only Earth can save us from Meteor.

Haney 31:18
Then we must go. What do we do if something happens to Earth? If Sephora finds her, she’s in trouble?

Chris 31:24
Sephora. already knows.

Haney 31:27
Hey, why are you still sitting around? Let’s go cloud.

Chris 31:31
No, I might lose it again. Sephiroth comes near me. I might.

Haney 31:36
Yeah, God dammit. It’s because of you that Sephora. I’ve got the black materia it’s your damn fault. I know you got problems how we all do, but you don’t even understand yourself. You got to understand that there ain’t no getting off of this train we’re on so we get to the end of the line. Cloud we came this far. Aren’t you going to settle up a Sephora? No.

Chris 31:55
I’m afraid if this keeps up my my go crazy.

Haney 31:59
I’m afraid god damn jackass. That’s what you are. Loved Barrett. Just think about it. How many people in this world do you think really understand themselves? People get depressed in life because they don’t know what’s up. But they go on living. They don’t run away. That’s just how it is. Parents so good. Cloud. He’ll come with us. Right? I believe in you.

Chris 32:19
What am I supposed to do? Just pull out of here.

Haney 32:23
Cloud. Wait a minute to give him a little time. He has to decide this on his own. You believe in cloud, right?

Chris 32:31
I’m afraid to find out the truth. But why?

Haney 32:34
So walking out the door we find that we’re back in going Gaga village. So gutten gaco was the village near the burned out reactor we visited right? How close is that to the temple of the ancients? Is that close? I don’t remember it being close at all. No, it’s

Chris 32:48
not terribly.

Haney 32:50
I didn’t think so. Like I wonder why they chose to put us there. I’d have to look at the map. But it seemed like a weird choice. But start exploring a little bit of Ganga village and run back into Barrett and Tifa. At this point, you know clad is a little more vulnerable again. It’s like like what if this happens again? And very it says such a good line because it’s like so what if it does, like whatever is gonna happen is going to happen. Like nothing you can do about like, just worrying about it. Let’s just get to it and get work done. Ah, bear it’s so good, Chris. Yeah, bear it’s easy, easy. Top three. If not, like top two? If not number one. Yes. So good. I love Barrett.

Chris 33:28
I feel like the top three probably fluctuate depending on the scene. They’re all

Haney 33:32
really good characters. Like I know we give kids a lot of shit because it’s easy, but it’s still a really good character. It’s probably the weakest of the character so far, like in terms of like, connect like connectability Yeah, I’m like Nanaki dude, so good said so like, shitty money and like lovable. Can I say something that you might force me to cut from the episode because it’s going to anger you so much. Cotton might be my least favorite character in the game. That being he’s a great character, but there’s so many better characters. Yes,

Chris 34:03
I think there’s a chance that that Will change before the end of the game.

Haney 34:09
All right. I mean, we still got a

Chris 34:11
long way to go leave it there. I think there’s a chance that I could change

Haney 34:15
so we both know that a certain event happens. You’ve told me towards the end of the first act of the game I haven’t said that you’ve inferred that I’ve inferred that. Are we near the end of what would be considered disc one not gonna say Oh, excellent. I’m cool. Yeah, I think after that point, we did save the game and shut down for the for the session. Oh, yeah. I was promised good good last session and I’m very I feel like you delivered on me so I’m very very pleased. How are you feeling what’s what’s what’s on the top of your mind right now.

Chris 34:46
So a couple things going on test cubot last me so the big thrust of the end of this episode is I would like to kind of get your bearings on

Haney 35:02
steel. You don’t want my bearings. Oh man cloud is in a bad way, man.

Chris 35:05
Yeah, so what is happening with all this?

Haney 35:09
previous thoughts have been that cloud is some sort of fad clone of Sef Cronus after a clone of Zack, I’ve had Shinra science experiment um, he obviously can be controlled by Sephora off that’s like we know that now we’ve seen it twice. Ish place ish once for sure. The other time maybe I it’s a toss up between possession like if if Sephora had had some sort of magic that allows them to possess cloud, or on some sort of magic that allows him to control something about cloud like control clouds like physical motions, but cloud has like control of his mind. He’s like that would be in line with some of the material we’ve seen where you can like, fucking grab someone’s limbs. It’s almost like almost like blood bending in an avatar Last Airbender kind of heard of it. I hate you so much. Watch avatar, watch Cora understand my references. Um, but it’s either like how does being blood bent almost by suffer off or it’s that deeper connection thing that we’ve been seeing with cloud where when he’s in heightened moments of stress when he’s nearby, like reactors, like in certain circumstances, I guess, cloud loses bits of himself and like he becomes forgetful he becomes imusic if that’s a word, he just really loses himself. In certain circumstances. This is one of the circumstances where he’s not really at a place where you would expect him to lose himself like tumble of the ancients is definitely like Arif steel like, she’s talking to the ancients. Like she’s, I don’t think clouds relate to the ancients at all, because he’s like, he hasn’t heard anything from anyone like while in the temple. aerith is just having conversations with people like, with like, spirits or whatever dwells there. So I don’t think he’s one of those. Still not convinced he’s not a clone of Zach or Safra somehow, or Shinra science experiment. I don’t know why that would give separate control over him. It seems like Safra probably just had some sort of real intense magic that he can exhibit ever cloud for some reason. We also saw him slay a dragon that slayed us like four times in one hit so you know there’s that um, I really want it to not be magic and I really want it to be some deeper spiritual connection that cloud has to suffer for some reason that causes him to lose control to staffer off maybe hear Sephiroth thoughts or or be kind of instructed by Sephora like he’s almost like a piece of Sephora that’s being like piloted around and doesn’t really know it until Safra needs something from him right? Yeah.

Chris 37:46
In what did you think the ghostly child cloud was when cloud had lost himself

Haney 37:51
I think I said I thought it was either his innocence or his like inner spirit like his real spirit. But it also could be like the last time cloud was cloud like that’s like what his soul is like that of a child because like since childhood he’s not been himself Yeah, I have I he Shinra got a hold of him like right around the time he went into soldier at age 14 and like just got experimented on your Winston a lot. Even if it’s not right the implications of that are real gross.

Chris 38:21
It’s pretty gross. Yeah, it’s

Haney 38:22
very in line with Shinra it’s real in line with Shinra so I would say like you know, clouds soul could be stumped into that of a child’s because he hasn’t been developing spiritually since Shinra. Did something to him so his spirit energy is like stunted

Chris 38:37
gotcha gross. Yeah, um, so at the end of last episode, you said you

Unknown Speaker 38:43
believe I have a lot of beliefs

Chris 38:47
and a thing called love beautiful. You said you believe that Sephiroth was searching for Genova is head yes, at this point Sephiroth has told us what his evil plan is Yeah, so we got two questions

Haney 39:02
probably not looking for what he was looking for the Keystone

Chris 39:04
Yeah What the fuck is going on with digenova at this point, and B now that we know sufferance evil plan whoo what’s the reunion and what how does that fit into anything?

Haney 39:15
So the reunion Let’s start with the reunion okay. I thought it was like oh, he’s gonna separate it’s gonna bring all the clones of himself to him and like he’s gonna invite their little snippets of soul back in himself isn’t

Chris 39:27
that he’s gonna have a house party. House Party in him

Haney 39:31
hmm definitely naming that this episode that probably won’t. But now I’m thinking now my little gears are turning my head thinking that’s probably the reunion of everything into Sephora off Ah, I think we’ve talked about this briefly before I don’t know if it made the episode or not, but very similar to instrumentality, and even galleon Safra is definitely trying to melt the consciousness of everything into To a singular being and then be the consciousness of that being like be its guiding spirit it’s and he’s going to be God at that point i’m not great at better big big not good um so I think their union is probably his plan like I think their union is what’s going to be when he smashes Meteor into the into the planet gotcha um and reunites with the spirits because like we learned that the live stream is recycled like spirit energy is used to make new and then you die and you rejoin the live stream sort of reunion would be all of the live stream coming back together for once you know like instead of being fractured into living beings and creatures everything would be dead and reunited

Chris 40:43
a cocktail of spirits if you Will.

Haney 40:45
I Will Yeah, your second well your first question was what’s happening with Genova? Fuck divine. Last time I saw her he threw a tentacle at me in his pot me um, I thought maybe he was searching for head um in retrospect now that I think about it that might be the plot of adventure um and the whole Where’s mother thing Where’s mother Where’s brother? Um, but yeah i i don’t know Genova has something to do I think with the reunion because he obviously needed bits of Genova because he grabbed her body from the from Shinra when he broke in before looking for the Keystone I’m wondering if she has to be present at the strike of the meteor for him to use something about her chemical makeup or body makeup to actually merge with the live stream and gain control of it because I feel like it’d be easy enough for him to get hit by a comet and die like that’s if you’re somebody in the comment right to where you’re standing and it hits you you’re probably gonna die so I feel like he needs a little bit extra to take control of that energy and take control of the chaos of that moment and manipulate it to his well and I think that’s where Genova is the key to that so far, he’s willing to chuck bits of her at us to fight us though so that’s upsetting. Still, oh no, her head is though. That’s where I’m that’s where I’m at with Genova. I assume that we haven’t really seen Zephyr off up to this point. Like, Sephora is like in some, you know, ducking Kingdom somewhere like does grant just have the ball? Yeah. And just sending out little like, you know, visit massages of himself, but I assume that wherever he his physical body is, is where Genova is as well. Or at least most of her What a nightmare to treat, what else you got for me?

Chris 42:34
That might be it for right now. Do you have any thoughts on what’s coming up? Any other feelings about what you want to what you want to touch on?

Haney 42:41
I think at this point, I’m a little hesitant to proceed with the game. Yeah, yeah, I think we need to throw one of those big old fashioned spoiler alerts here. really concerned that era staff is like, right on us. Um, it just feels like it’s the right time. It’s like starting to feel real upsetting. I really wish I didn’t know this, too. I really wish I didn’t know she died. Wish I could have avoided that one. But kind of impossible in life. Yeah. My mom knows that. Really? Well, because I talk about it, but I’m sure it’s fine. Hi, mom.

Chris 43:19
Well, here’s the thing. Talk to me.

Haney 43:22
Tell me the thing. sucks that you know,

Chris 43:25
when this game came out, that event broke like that was probably the first big major fucking surprise moment from a video game.

Haney 43:37
I’ve heard that it was widely received positively because of how brave it was, but also negatively because of how fucking stupid it was to kill a main character in a game at that point. Like that doesn’t happen a lot in games. I don’t know that I can name a lot of video games. Yeah, where our main character dies. Man, what a brave fucking like, path to take in 9997 97 I yeah, now I could see a game doing it mean like yeah, okay, I get it. Like I could see it coming. But man back then. No way. Yeah, no way. No fucking way. Oh, I can’t wait for it to come up. But as I’m like, dreading it? Like I’m gonna cry so damn. Oh, yeah, it’s gonna be bad. Yeah, no,

Chris 44:19
you Will?

Haney 44:20
Yeah. Are you gonna cry it with me? Right? I

Chris 44:22
think we might have a little cry session. Love it. Love to hear it. Man. What a treat. One nightmare.

Any other thoughts? Where are we headed to next?

Haney 44:31
So I assume we’re heading towards you know the city of the ancients or ancient or lost city or whatever. I don’t know where to look for that. I’m very lost right now. I’m on the temple, ancient land. I have no idea where to go. I think I’m going to go for round two of what I think which is adding up to bone village or whatever. Yeah, and see town volunteer. I’m gonna take cloud to bone town.

Chris 44:58
Yeah.

Haney 45:00
Let’s see what’s going on out there. Because that seems like a good place where ancient civilization might have been at some point does have a skeleton. It does have a skeleton with a fighter jet in it. Yeah, still curious about that. That’s fine. I’m sure we’ll find out. I’m very excited to move forward but also very terrified. But I think it’s gonna be great. I

Chris 45:19
think that I think that sums it up.

Haney 45:22
Perfect. Well listener thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time.

Chris 45:27
Bye.

Haney 45:27
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 calm please come say hi