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 joining the collective? This filtration collective is a nerdy and independent Arts Collective form to support indie creators while promoting community inclusion and the drive to grow and improve.

Chris 0:15
Go to spell pushing.com. To learn more. I got some news for you. Do you? Yeah. first encounter is going to be moving our releases to what? Wednesday? What? Wednesday? I was not informed. We’re moving our episodes to Wednesday. How can you do this to me, so put on your calendar. This changes my life. So tell your dad tell your aunt and uncle, your best friend, your cousin?

Haney 0:37
No, that’s just sworn enemy. That’s just your family members who listen to this podcast. Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad.

Chris 0:43
Let’s turn turn it off. Sorry, your mom does I’m so sorry for them. Man I’ve become

Haney 0:49
so if you can see, this is already a nightmare. Are you ready? Ready is always foreign ready. Hey, Hey, welcome to first encounter, winter edition. It’s finally winter. That’s my wind Captain’s log. stardate. January 18 2021. Is it 18? I think so.

Chris 1:28
Beautiful. How are you feeling about it? How’s it treating you?

Haney 1:32
Yeah, that’s fine. All snowy, all snowy, cold winters definitely set in here. Which really hadn’t up till this point. I mean, our nondenominational gift giving holiday that was on the 25th of December was 65. And rainy, if I remember right, so that really set the tone for me. How about you?

Chris 1:53
Yeah, no. I mean, I live about 20 minutes from you. So really not they’re in the same boat. Really?

Haney 1:59
Not that different. They’re excellent. Cool. Cool. Fancy. We’re gonna talk about that. But before we do

Unknown Speaker 2:09
Hey, what’s drinking their soda stream? Now this is brought to you by Let’s try that again. So to stream

Haney 2:16
this is my craft seltzer that I started creating myself by applying artisinal Well, water from the heartland of Vermont. With co2. Can we drink the water out here? Okay, yeah. This is not as carbonated as I was hoping it would be SodaStream Yeah. All right, but it’s very good.

Chris 2:38
No, I mean, it’s good it’s nice seltzer it’s fine I appreciate it’s fine How How long was this? Well water just curing for me.

Haney 2:45
I mean, probably 1000s of years I’m not really sure how water works

Chris 2:50
and you can taste it man.

Haney 2:52
This water is brought to you direct from phone village. That actually be a great word. Imagine selling bottled water with just the bone village logo on it.

Chris 3:03
So here we are. Here we are with the hit Final Fantasy video game the seventh spin off from the popular to Cydia fighting series. I hate you so Oh, wow. What an episode there’s not much.

Haney 3:21
I mean, there’s some stuff that’s actually pretty, pretty full.

Chris 3:23
What are some good pickups? There’s a little good. Yeah, well, good. Good. So,

Haney 3:26
dear listener, we’re picking up right where we left off with TFM bear aboard the June on harbor. I just remember they’re not aboard anything. Ss June on June on harbor just stuck to the side of a cliff. I was gonna say floating at sea, but again, just stuck to the side of the cliff. You know, like a harbor is, if you Will. What a treat. What a nightmare. Um, so today we pick up with the public execution of tiefen. Barrett, what a treat. We pick up the game playing as Barrett bound and tied following Tifa being led by Scarlet through the junan military complex into a room that has some like press and some people here to watch. I mean, it’s fucking weird, but yeah, okay. We get down to the room and have a small little aside with Scarlet and with some, either a reporter or someone who’s kind of there on behalf of FINRA or the public, not really entirely sure the definition or division between the media and the government in this particular instance. So probably one in the same if I had to guess probably the Shinra times Yeah, 100% of the Shinra times and this is basically someone being like, hey, Scarlett, why are we doing this and Scarlet being like, Oh, well, we got to kill them so that people feel better. Is everyone here? These are the ones who brought this madness into the world. Of course, Skyler is the emcee for Republic execution How are these people?

Unknown Speaker 5:03
We Will be broadcasting your miserable deaths on national television live

Chris 5:08
Scott it why a public execution on this day and age

Unknown Speaker 5:12
with the counts resulting from the media reports we desperately need to rally public support. It’s better that we punished somebody anybody never admitted but everyone loves this stuff.

Haney 5:22
Let’s start with this girl. Wait, wait, no, no. Wait, what if they are actually planning on going through the with the execution? I just remembered that Kate said is actually an employee at Shinra. Who might be in June on even he might be able to spring us.

Chris 5:39
Does that seem like a Cait? Sith kind of move though?

Haney 5:42
Yeah, case, the goddamn hero. Remember he sacrificed himself. We’re gonna start with her into the gas chamber. She takes Tifa straps her in, hits a button. Gas starts pouring in. As a Shinra guard walks out of the gas chamber he accidentally or seemingly accidentally drops a gold key on the ground. Switch to Barrett. So back in the observation room, if you Will. Sure. I guess Oh, yeah. You don’t have to say I Will for that one. That’s fine. Um, we get a portly figure in a cloak. Very obviously. Not Cates. If in disguise. He grabs, not grabs, but he he kind of He’s like, how

Chris 6:25
do you feel presumably holds up a flower? Yeah, it just spreads out. Yeah.

Haney 6:30
I don’t remember what happened. Actually.

Chris 6:31
She knocked out Scarlet. He’s like, how do you feel Scarlet? She’s like yak,

Haney 6:34
yak, yak, yak and then passes out. That’s right. Yeah. And then he does a beautiful Sailor Moon spin around. And he learned that from clap he did learn that from Cloud Walmart. Get cloud 2020

Chris 6:45
best cloud.

Haney 6:48
Well, now the show is about to begin. Ah, that was quick.

Chris 6:53
Emergency. Emergency.

Haney 6:55
That’s an emergency going on.

Chris 6:56
It’s still going on. Weapons approaching attention. All military personnel. Take your positions. Oh, no. It’s weapon. Confused screaming Hey, all of you. Damn. Why now?

Haney 7:11
How does it feel now? Scarlet. How does it feel? What is he wearing? Yeah. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 7:18
So you did run? I’m impressed. How do I feel right now? Yeah. Sleeping gas. Whoa. Just chit, chit? Okay.

Haney 7:35
I’m so glad I got the chance to sell you my theory before that started. Hey, now. Oh, my God, please give me Kate’s up. Yeah, Dream Team Dream Team. So with Scarlet passed out, Kate says kind of does a spin around and it’s like it was I can’t say the whole time. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 7:56
I’m here. Why you? Ain’t you’re part of Shinra just say I’m against capital punishment. Besides I hate this broad.

Unknown Speaker 8:07
Wow.

Unknown Speaker 8:09
Watch at the entrance. Also, that

Haney 8:14
definitely just confirmed for me who that is? Yeah, yeah, it’s absolutely head of urban development. So Barrington, kitsis. Start kind of taking stock of the situation. When we get a cutaway to Heidegger and Rufus up on the top deck of the junan. Cannon area, I guess. Probably the what would actually be the real observation deck.

Chris 8:37
Yeah, I would say but you got to use a different room now.

Haney 8:39
Yeah, that one. But yeah, so there’s a commotion. Where? Heidegger’s like weapons attacking? So Rufus is like fuck. Fire the big cannon at it. Now hot hot hot hot hot. Oh, I’m really disappointed that Rufus was not good boy though.

Unknown Speaker 9:05
Your orders? No need to ask, sir. Well, camera shot from our big cannon. Would you like your shop for my big cat? Yeah, daddy. Rapunzel carnivores activate canon target.

Haney 9:18
Get a really cool cutscene of the cannon being armed and taking stock of weapon and opening fire. Preparations complete. McCarter prior dryer. Oh, that’s so fucking cool. Isn’t it materia canon? Please materia canon me? I’m sure that’s bad. I know that nothing good is gonna come out of what they just did.

Chris 9:48
At this point weapon is rising from the ocean,

Haney 9:51
right? We see what it is which is basically giant monster fish. Yeah, robotic though somewhat, it seems. I feel like most of the monsters in this game are like Somewhat synthetic to a degree like got tank tread legs or what have you.

Chris 10:04
Yeah, and belt yeah tricera tanks on a tree. Yeah, Miss that boy.

Haney 10:09
Me too. We’ll get there.

Chris 10:11
I’ll get there Well, I don’t know 50 knots your current turn on how about the cannon Will take time to reload then use regular firepower in the meantime Yes sir. tillery bars target learned

Haney 10:34
Oh fuck. Oh weapon swims Who? Oh boy. Oh it’s so cool those mean absolutely nothing to weapon do that I’m not even sure the cannon anything the weapon

Chris 10:50
seems fine.

Unknown Speaker 10:51
It’s a fish. Sweet. Definitely not no good. It’s attacking weapon closing in.

Haney 10:58
And we get cut back to the previous room. I call it an observation room, which is not really the right word. But in there, everyone kind of starts panicking runs away except Scarlett because she’s still passed out on the ground. And Barrett starts trying to figure out how to get teeth out of this room. So banging on the door. It’s locked from the other side teeth is trapped. Fuck. Okay. Him in case that they’re like, Well, shit. Probably can get in there from another room. You take control of Barrett ad kits up to your party run out of the room and start trying to find a nother entrance into the room as you do kids is basically like, shit like this isn’t gonna work. backup plan. Let’s get to the airport and bear it’s like we’re just gonna leave TFA here like just to die. Does that go with you? cases like no, that’s fine. It’s Plan B it’ll be fine. Let’s go.

Chris 11:46
Case f trust me case it over here.

Unknown Speaker 11:49
Barrett help. Hold your breath. Hold on as long as you can. I can’t hold on forever. I’ve already pushed the switch switch

Chris 12:03
to turn the switch how mad Are you can do in all the scenes that involve Tifa and admin children are just flashbacks.

Haney 12:11
I’m worried that if I don’t finish this quick enough there might be but I don’t see a pink time countdown. So let’s see what kids pass offer here.

Chris 12:18
case of has so much to offer.

Haney 12:20
The guestroom is probably locked from a different room

Unknown Speaker 12:24
with a different plan. Let’s get out of this room first. Tifa I’ll help you I promise. No, they locked this two poles. Now you can’t save the girl killed. Bah ha ha. God dammit. Okay, Okay, time for Plan B. Let’s run to the airport. Why the airport leave T for there. Trust me. Trust me. We got to take a chance.

Haney 12:46
Why am I not surprised that kidstuff always has plenty. You

Chris 12:49
want to take a chance on case. I want to take a chance find romance do a little dance. Love it. Where are you going the airports the other way? Oh, well, you’ve got a fucking moron. Where are you going the airports the other way where

Haney 13:05
you start running up towards the kind of airport and you see a reporter with someone else in regard and they’re kind of in the way I guess you would say and I had an encounter here to some soldier second classes Nbd for big strong guy like Barrett with case of backing up the Dream Team the dream doula. Oh, they really are the dream. Actually. Yeah, they actually work really well together. Yeah, weirdly well together, get my back partner. My right. Beat up the remaining members of Shinra second class and approach the knot up reporter who reveals herself as up all along it was no one saw it coming up. Gotta get the whole gang back together again.

Chris 13:52
Clearly. Those reports are not up to you talking about

Haney 13:59
Oh, that wasn’t reporter. I was wrong. My apologies.

Chris 14:02
It’s just a reporter wearing up his clothes.

Unknown Speaker 14:03
I know you’re in a hurry, but please if I can have a word shop I’m in a hurry. Don’t make so much noise it’s me up there. How are you doing here? Oh, yeah. Monkey ninja I really

Haney 14:15
really got me I really Oh shit. Now I have to fucking equip up to do the joke about Transformers suppose

Chris 14:34
Transformers make more frogs spring back to touch me. Oh no. Give her throw

Haney 14:46
up is like alright, the others are already on the ship. Let’s go who really? Wait, what? Okay, grab up into your party and take off towards the ship.

Chris 14:54
We get to the airship and bear it’s like fucking I don’t know man. What now it’s a dead end. Yeah, in case it is like, whoops. Oh, that’s when you get the watch my back partner line from Barrett case F, which is like so would have thought so

Haney 15:08
good. I thought it was gonna be Tifa. Like, watch my back. But obviously it’s not because Tifa I think that is the point because you switch the team’s perspective. And she’s like, well, just trapped here in this gas jam here. This is cool. There’s a mini theme, I guess I don’t really know, Pudsey. If you Will, that you have to manipulate different aspects of tifus body with different controls to reach down, use your feeties to grab the key, pass it up into your mouth, and then use your mouth to open both your left and right arm. For whatever reason, not really sure why she didn’t use her mouth to open one arm and then just you know, use the key But hey, not my problem, man. Move your feet in arms and use your head to get out of the chair. menu. Oh, no. Menu head. Okay, switch. Right arm. Okay, left arm. Cancel, legs. Give me a key.

Unknown Speaker 16:04
Let’s go down a little bit. can go down is go and I’m yelling timber. Ah. Let’s move my head back up, I think.

Haney 16:16
Thank God for this mini game.

Chris 16:17
Hey, man, have you tried different patterns? And like tried combining two movements at once?

Haney 16:23
button mashing time for me.

Chris 16:26
Alright, well, you get it in your feet. You know you got to do that. Yeah. What are you using? combination of your feet sees

Haney 16:31
my head? Let’s try that. Because my arms are pretty useless right now. Hey, man,

Chris 16:35
have you tried different patterns? Yes, sir. Um, sucks, dude.

Haney 16:39
Yeah, not bad. Hey, where is it? in her mouth?

Chris 16:43
I think it’s in her mouth. Yeah. Thank you go to arm free.

Haney 16:46
Yeah, I just don’t know why I’m not using that arm to free myself.

Chris 16:49
You’re the one in control man. You tell me why Well, that was brutal. At this point, weapon has crashed into June on harbor I’m sure that’s fine has just destroyed a section of the wall. Which Tifa is able to clamor out

Haney 17:03
of Yep. And shortly after Scarlet and some shimmering guards follow you out there like shinar guards. It’s like falling off around you. It’s just very fun. As Scarlett is just yelling mean things that you as you run away.

Chris 17:15
She’s a very mean lady. Really,

Haney 17:17
really mean? really mean? You kind of run down the end of the cannon away from Scarlet as she’s following you out of the wall down the dome with a cannon and then like onto the barrel until Scarlett gets to the point where she corners you. You get the weirdest level thing where it’s just a slap fight, which was very cathartic to slap Scarlet. Yeah, but very cathartic.

Chris 17:36
I am on the cannon. Because we’re going this way.

Unknown Speaker 17:41
Stop. What?

Haney 17:42
Don’t do that. Cuz you know, I’m gonna double back as soon as you say it.

Chris 17:47
It’s I’m on the edge sister Ray. Oh, this is Ray. It’s like Sugar Ray. Yeah, right. Absolutely. Yeah, what a reference.

Haney 17:59
I’ll give you $1 if you can single one sugar.

Unknown Speaker 18:04
Every morning there’s a halo hanging from the corner of my girlfriend’s smartphones. Then here we go. Live a game of hide and seek ends here. The execution may have been unsuccessful, but your death by falling and crashing into the water below might still be pretty exciting. slapper Oh, you bitch. stuck up to the end. Put slapping me you Will. so and so. Yeah, slap by swap. Is this.

Haney 18:36
Chris and I had a funny conversation at this point about how you absolutely no Tifa could just punch her to death immediately. But it’s so much more disrespectful. On teeth. It’s hard to slap her like it just means more. It’s like more of an insult rather than like, I could kill you. But instead I’m just gonna cause you something like some minor pain and inconvenience for being who you are as a person which I found very fun. Yeah, weird, but very fun. Well, it’s

Chris 19:01
every time that Scarlett raises her hand also is when TiVo Will just smack me upside

Haney 19:05
the head faster. I’m better like just stop whining. A voice off screen yells the cannon get to the end of the cannon. So TIF is like okay, turns around and runs and jumps off the end of the cannon onto airship? Yeah, the high wind rises up at the end of the cannon seemingly being controlled now by Tifa. Cloud or

Chris 19:28
said said Barrett, Barrett. keetsa. Kate said read 13 Shinra defectors? Yeah,

Haney 19:34
I thought it was interesting. They made Tifa miss the rope at first and then catch at the last second just to give you like that moment of like,

Unknown Speaker 19:40
God, I can’t stand it. Take her away. Now it’s time to pay up calm down or I’ll drop you. Run. Run to the end of the cannon. I feel like I’m not under the under the curtain. Cannon Yeah.

Haney 20:00
really bummed that I gave Rufus and Scarlet the benefit of the doubt that I did

Chris 20:04
yeah, I don’t know what you were thinking but

Haney 20:06
yeah man just really too much to ask for.

Chris 20:09
Hmm Well, now we know

Haney 20:11
Yeah, I’m sure that’s okay. But look what we got now and ship ship ship captain Kate said there yeah hi Mimi. I think at this point it kind of cuts back to just the ship flying away basically as soon as you’re out of the way the cannon takes a second shot off at weapon and seemingly does a good chunk of damage to it

Chris 20:34
took its head off

Haney 20:35
Yeah, so I don’t know if that actually killed it just because this game today just not having a head hasn’t really prevented anything from being actually dead

Chris 20:45
from just wandering out of this and rebuilding.

Haney 20:47
So you know, like, maybe they defeated it, but it’ll probably be back in some way shape or form. At this point, we are kind of free to explore the airship so that ship Yeah, you take control of Tifa wander around the ship just kind of find out that your whole crew minus cloud is there. So everyone’s there up on deck except up who is kind of on the side runner puking her brains out because she gets motion sickness from being in the air or on the water

Chris 21:17
which is hilarious for ninja

Haney 21:19
oh so funny. Like I just imagined her like swinging from vines like Naruto and like vomiting. Yeah, perfect. As Tifa we get the chance to walk around the ship talk to you some crew members we get one conversation that I wish was not missable all there’s so much to do shit. There’s so much to unpack. My hands are so I’ll excuse myself here. Fly airship chew the fat.

Chris 21:41
Oh, it’s true. The fat

Haney 21:43
which I talk about on here why we rebelled. Oh, these guys rebelled with us against general

Chris 21:49
Scott crew now

Haney 21:50
working on the highway and weeds man every day slaving under Heidegger. Whenever he got yelled at by the president. He didn’t immediately take it out on the crew. We put up with this all the time, even when he beat us. I mean, I finally made it on the crew of the famous hiwin there’s no way I was going to quit over him. Let’s see. It must have been a week ago. It was my shift and we were heading towards that North cave. Everyone including President Scarlett got on with them I SAW said legendary pilot. He was looking around the inside of the ship looking you know, really nostalgic, even talked to us. I couldn’t believe it. I was so impressed. He was every bit as warm hearted as we’d heard really. Since that day, if he had the high word things would be a lot easier. Now here we are off to save the planet. It’s true. He really overwhelmed me. And that’s why we decided to hit after the North game. We went to June on I started screaming fire fire. In the middle of all this commotion. We stole a ship from the Shinra that’s how it happened. Just a minor mutiny against our leaders. The Barrett and you were captured by Heidegger. We waited seven days for a chance to rescue you guys before finally kid so thanks for a successful mission we were able to see again hope I didn’t bore you too much with that long story. That was dope as hell yeah, I understand. I’m so glad I didn’t just like not talk to him. You can ask one of the people on the ship they’re basically just Shinra defector what they’re doing and said apparently you find out basically went to all of them as like, you know, it’ll be way better under me right and convinced them all but seemingly didn’t take much convincing to defect again. Shinra and steal the high wind with him

Chris 23:19
the idea that shit is just like a gold hearted. Good like decent. Yeah, is so bonkers. Because of the way he treats the rest of the party.

Haney 23:28
Yeah, he’s I get it though. Like I feel like he’s not actually mean to he is like, yeah, that’s how he shows love. And well, it’s obviously inappropriate.

Chris 23:36
And also coming off of how Heidegger acts like Yeah, yes, it seems much better. Yeah,

Haney 23:41
but also like if you talk to anyone like in the Army or like in the Navy or like sailors, that is like how they talk to each other. You dumb shit like you should, you know, they love each other. Even contractors talk to each other that way. Yeah, I had was having like people working on my roof recently. And they were like screaming obscenities at each other, like laughing and eating lunch together. Like 20 minutes later, I was like, Okay, I guess this is just like how they work. So I think it’s just, you know, like, stupid fits in with the mentality that the crew has without being actually outright abusive. Like Heidegger’s? Yeah, yeah, but I was saddened that that seems like something you could miss as a

Chris 24:16
player, which is a bit you’re like, oh, NPC Yeah, but it’s like fucking cool as hell yeah. So yeah, he

Haney 24:22
tells you basically, they just waited for the right minute. And when the weapon attacked, it was the right minute so they stole the ship and kicked off anyone who wasn’t friendly to your party and ticket. You tiefen flew away. We leave Rufus and everyone behind at john harbor seemingly probably fine. I’m assuming they’re fine because they did weapon it seems like or at least put it off for now. We explore the ship a little bit. There’s a operations room where you can kind of prep. We find out later that if you talk to the guy in there, it’s basically acts like as a pH s system. To the right of the control room or operations room. There is a choke about it. There’s a guy that tells you all about how to breed and raise chocobos and tells you if you want to get a choco tells you about Chuck, Billy and how to go back and get there like as if you could forget choco belly. So obviously we’ll visit that at some point in the future and figure out our check about a time but that wasn’t today unfortunately. make our way up to the crew to like the main deck where like the ship is being piloted from and have a power with our crew chief is basically just like, Well, shit clouds not here. We got to figure this out. Welcome to my airship, the highway. What’s wrong? You should be more excited than that. Said. Yeah. Alright. 13 like, Dude, come on. Come on, man. paladin training level three. Yeah, don’t talk to me right now. Yes. Amen. So glad to hear all right. Tifa.

Chris 25:48
So glad you’re so glad

Haney 25:49
you’re all right. And Tifa Do you think we aren’t strong enough without cloud? Do you think we can’t save the planet alone?

Unknown Speaker 25:56
Meteor is coming and weapon is on the rampage at a time like this. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Get a hold of yourself to come on. Let’s think about this. No way we can get off of this train. We’re on no way we could get off of this train. Were on Are you okay? If only cloud was here, everything would be fine. Cloud would stand that cocky little way he didn’t tell us what to do.

Chris 26:15
You’d say Everything’s under control. Tifa.

Unknown Speaker 26:18
diva wins. You become such a wimp. I’m sorry. They’re so depressed. I’m surprised at myself.

Haney 26:24
What the title is gotta be around. We did fine without him in the beginning. Right? What happened to that tough girl. He’s now huh? Where’d she go? buried? So good. Yeah. Give me a thumbs up. All right. I want you to know, I didn’t dislike him. I gotta admit, he was a strange dude. Just when you thought he was cool. can do some damn cool thing. Then when he thought he was smart. He was stupid. He was. I won’t say ever everything about him from his movements to speech. We’re kind of odd. You know what I do now? I can see why he was that way. Well, as long as you stay alive, Matt just see him again. someday. Cheer up this man if we can find out where he is the how and I’ll get us there no time. How does this duck deep in the north crater where the ground cracked up and swallowed him buried in the depths of the underground.

Unknown Speaker 27:10
Deep within the earth. Are you talking about the live stream? blood stream sometimes gushes up who cracks in the ocean floor to the surface? I heard about such a place. Maybe? Just maybe clouds. Wow.

Haney 27:22
Captain said Tifa. Sorry, but I’ve got to show this more on how to land the ship. Captain How? Just imagine if you’re on an airplane. They forgot to turn the air on and you just hear that? Someone says well, you know, if cloud was locked in that materia, well, or livestream sometimes, Miko washes up in the ocean and bubbles out so maybe he washed ashore somewhere. So we got to take the ship and start looking for somewhere where that happens. So I think at this point, we try to just find the ship around. boy did we did some tours did the Greatest Hits visited Midgar unfortunately, found out that mud guard isn’t accessible, which Chris is very very excited for me I think to finally understand that I Will not be going back to mid guard anytime soon. At least know more of that. level for now. We’re going we’re off. Just absolute nightmare times. Please tell me there’s no

Chris 28:21
there’s no random encounters in the sky

Haney 28:23
at ship. How do I land on button? Oh, that’s kind of cool that you can switch to like deck

Chris 28:29
mode. Ah, we’re off. I mean, to be fair, he was still figuring out how to land. That’s true. Dammit, I just talked to operate not the operations guy.

Haney 28:42
The guy on the wall. He tells you the controls now. I’m figuring it out. Are we going? We’re having a great time.

Chris 28:49
So where are we going? This is the chuck about farm that’s the choco Billy’s Taco Bell. We’re gonna go get a choco that’s the mid guards. zolang Oh, yeah, there it is. Floor cavern over here. There’s four htcondor thank God is everything open now? I mean, you can return to anywhere you can land. You know where I’m going. You’re gonna be so mad. I know where you’re going.

Haney 29:11
I missed him ID guy. Oh, I’ve never actually like figured out

Chris 29:16
what’s the right Shin? Try not go in. Oh, you deck you knew didn’t you? I knew that’s a failsafe right there.

Haney 29:25
Love it. Just in case someone gets curious.

Chris 29:28
No curiosity here.

Haney 29:30
No curiosity on the podcast. All right, fine. You in. Let’s see. We’ve got a couple of hints. Yeah, so we’ve got choco plan. ahead. For Condor Yeah, here we are. We back that up. That’s just the other side of the cave. There’s me guys on Chocobo fire. I’ve been over here, Chicago. I’ve been to the south over here. I don’t think we actually landed anywhere else because I couldn’t figure out how to land the thing. But um, you know, took the airship route and finally there’s some inaccessible islands up to the north on the map went up there. And on one of them, there’s a small little house thing. Also a goblin on a goblin. We don’t have to talk about the cobbler, aka No, fuck the Goblin. Um, so this is basically this old village that’s up there. We landed there. I don’t know how I missed it the first time either.

Unknown Speaker 30:28
zoomies. Yeah, so from town from town. had a good time. Yeah, that’s fine. Nothing too much going on. Yeah. Except,

Chris 30:38
montage. Yeah, we have a little shopping montage. Let’s see what’s in here.

Haney 30:42
There’s a lot to unpack here. Yeah, there’s a lot going on. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s Chuck about music. Oh,

Chris 30:48
welcome to the charity store. a store of love and courage. What can I get you today? weapons hopefully. Whoo. What is this crystal sword? Oh, blowing all your money. Yeah, characters who are not here.

Haney 31:01
Yeah, I feel like I had way more galvanise. I don’t think it can afford anything else you like. I don’t want to sell anything. This is my stuff. You don’t

Chris 31:15
get this. I’m not

Haney 31:16
a big seller. Thank you comma garden, a lot of buying and selling, which extended the game out way more than I think Chris wanted, but I need like in better equipment. So sue me. So we got some crystal bangles, you know, some of those good, good weapons. Not enough of those good good weapons. Definitely going to have to make some scratching come back here grinding time, my man. As we’re talking to villagers after our shopping time, we overhear two villagers talking about some washing up ashore down the way a bit with a extra long sword. And then they start talking about his bright blue eyes. And Tifa is like cloud that’s got to be cloud. Holy shit. That’s cloud. Honestly, though, it was super wet it ready for it to not be cloud at all, but Tifa rushes over and she’s like, I think you’re talking about my friend. Like, where’s he and like, What happened there? Like, yeah, that’s like young kid washed ashore. And yeah, he’s over at the clinic. You can go check on him if you want. So we rushed our way over to the clinic and found the doctor and you can’t see cloud, there’s just an empty bed. And that was a brief moment of like, Oh, fuck what happened for me. But then the doctor says that cloud is in the next room over so they like kind of pull back a curtain and you can see cloud looking not stellar. Kind of shaking his head rocking back and forth just moaning can’t really eat literally cannot talk. He just moans Yeah. And he was like, What the fuck is wrong with them, and the doctor tells us that he has extreme makeup poisoning. Someone who’s been overexposed to Maiko would have these symptoms, except he’s never seen a case as severe as clouds.

Chris 32:52
Guess it’s been about a week now since he washed up here on the shore. Poor pokey headed young thing is really sad, but weird. who’s holding this really long sword? I don’t know. The whole thing feels unlucky to me. But the amazing thing was those weird blue wise.

Unknown Speaker 33:08
What? Wait a minute, what did you just say? Excuse me? That person you were just talking about?

Chris 33:14
Yeah, a villager found him a little ways down the coast. It was about a week ago, I think. Or kid must have drifted away from somewhere pretty far.

Unknown Speaker 33:22
Cloud. It must be its cloud. You sure? jackpot. So Where’s he? Is he safe place he now? Yeah, I’ll

Chris 33:31
go ahead here at the clinic. He’s the cloud cloud for life. Hey, you punched in

Haney 33:39
here like Meteor was crashing down or something?

Unknown Speaker 33:41
I’m sorry. But I heard a friend of mine was here. Oh, that young fellow. Don’t worry. He’s next door. But his condition isn’t good. Over here. Cloud. Cloud. I’m so glad you’re saying.

Haney 33:55
I Oh, oh. I like that music. What’s wrong? cloud? cloud? What happened to you make a poisoning quite an advanced case. He probably has no idea who we’re where he is now. Poor fellow. He can’t even speak. He’s literally miles away from us. someplace far away where no one’s ever been. All alone.

Unknown Speaker 34:23
Cloud. Why? What do you want me to do? Please, cloud? Talk to me. Tell me you can see me. You can hear me. Please. I made it this far, believing in the memories we shared. This isn’t happening. It’s too cruel. Oh, cloud.

Unknown Speaker 34:43
Yes.

Haney 34:45
God is in absolutely dire straits. And you know, the doctor kind of doctors, everyone else is like, hey, let’s give them like a couple of minutes alone. Tifa tries to talk to cloud obviously he’s completely unresponsive. This takes a pretty big impact on Tifa outside the doctors like hey, like you have to have have like faith and hope. Like if you don’t have hope your friends never gonna get better.

Chris 35:03
I think this is probably a good moment to touch on because the fact that Barrett’s like, I don’t know if we even want Clyde back like,

Haney 35:09
he’s like, isn’t he just Sephora shadow like, Yeah, what’s the problem?

Chris 35:13
That’s pretty heavy. How are you feeling about that? Coming from Barrett? Especially?

Haney 35:17
Yeah, cuz Barrett well, bear. It’s always hard on Cloud. But like, he’s definitely like, come around his like, this seems more like old bearer from like, you know, the first thing like, oh, trust, yeah, don’t trust them. don’t even want them around. But I think it’s a moment of weakness and Barrett where it’s just like, you know, it’s easier to be like, Well, fuck if he’s, like, out of the picture, and we didn’t want him like, maybe this is just for the best and like, I get it, like, it sucks, but I get it. teef I think kind of just pulls everyone back inside. And she’s like, Listen, guys. I’m not okay. Clouds. not okay. And I’m not gonna be okay. If I can’t be here with clouds. So I need to stay here until it gets better. You okay?

Unknown Speaker 35:56
Yes, I’m sorry, to where you all? There’s something I want to say to you. I don’t care about anything else on the cloud. I want to be by his side.

Haney 36:05
Yeah, that’s probably best for cloud. And you. I’m sorry, everyone, especially now. Why are you apologizing? We’ll come back again and check on. Right. Oh, and Tifa? I don’t like asking this. But are you sure he’s really your friend and not suffer off shadow? Well, that is no, I’m sure that. Yeah. Okay. Sorry for asking. We got to get back to the high wind. So you lose Tifa at this point. So we’re down from nine accessible party members to six now. And you basically make your way back to the ship. Once in the ship. Barrett kind of is like talking about what it means to be a leader and like what a leader should be. And he talks about how you know, I’m a leader, at least I thought I was until recently. He’s like, I don’t think I’m cut out for this anymore. I think it’s a really powerful moment where he’s just like, I’m not the one that’s supposed to be in charge here. And he’s like, I thought it was going to go to a different area than it did. But he’s like, said, said wakes up. You’re the guy so said he was previously napping during Barrett’s speech, wakes the heck up and is like what? Me? No, I don’t want that. Yeah. And then he’s like, maybe I do want that. That sounds actually pretty cool. Catherine said, I like that leader said. Every group’s got to have a leader. And that’s me. Or at least I want to be, but I ain’t cut out to be a leader. I never knew that. So lately. That’s what it is.

What’s going on? You’ve been chosen to be the new leader. pain in the ass. Forget it. Yeah, for us to fight. We got to have high one and you need to save the planet. who’s running this ship? You? That’s why you’re our new leader. He no one else can do it. The ship’s gonna save the planet. That can be just a little tough. Oh man stabbed me in the heart. I’m a man too. Okay, I’ll do it. Everyone follow me? Amazing. He’s level five grants Captain like that. Every time you get back he’s leveled up. Yo said when you’re ready, we’re heading for the call reactor Come on later, man. Let’s hurry. You take control of set as the leader and choose your party and get materialized up at one point during the conversation with the crew keetsa is like Oh hey, yeah and Yamaha are having a conversation. Do you guys want to just listen to him and bear it’s like what are you some kind of spy in cases like Yeah, but literally Yeah, dude, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Do you want to listen or not? So the party becomes aware of and the visual switch to Shinra boardroom and you see Reve in the corner, Rufus talking to Scarlet kind of upfront, and then I think it’s Palmer in the back I’m not 100% sure that was Palmer and then Heidegger. We got to check back on Palmer and then during their conversation they talked about what their plan of action is so they need to destroy Meteor destroy weapon destroy Safra that’s basically what they need to do I don’t know I don’t remember which order that they had an order for it all. No, I’ve got some nails yeah what you spy yeah ever told you I was but yeah and yeah yeah and yeah are up to something want to eavesdrop Don’t we? Literally every day

Chris 39:40
now then. we’re faced with two issues. One stray Meteor to remove the barrier around North cave defeat several Any ideas?

Unknown Speaker 39:49
Yeah. The first problem already solved. Meteor Will soon This must have wets the planet already emotion

Haney 39:58
we are collecting big huge love. metiria from each region

Unknown Speaker 40:01
what his material is a high density special type of material made through a special compression process and mega reactors. The energy extracted from it is 330 times the normal strength of Materia. I love that they were just like, what sounds big. How about that?

Chris 40:21
Why don’t I know about this?

Haney 40:22
Yeah, that’s also wildly concerning that they were doing stuff without references. Now,

Unknown Speaker 40:27
we Will gather all the huge materials together and ram it into Meteor. That Will cause a huge explosion reducing Meteor literally to bits. You’re

Chris 40:35
going to ram Meteor

Haney 40:37
cut down.

Chris 40:39
Do you think we have the technology to do it?

Unknown Speaker 40:42
First things first. Right now we’ve got to collect huge material from each area. already collected material from nibble High Rollers left our coral and fork Connor. I’ve already dispatched troops to Carl.

Haney 40:57
So their plan is to go to coral and then to where was the other place that had a foot contour for Condor? That’s the other place that had materia the niflheim reactor has already been stripped of its huge materia. Yep. So from there, we get obviously the direction of we need to head to coral First, it pans back to the ship. And Barrett obviously pest is like a coral. How could they like what could they do that they haven’t already done to that place? And that’s a big, big bummer of a time.

Chris 41:28
Yeah, not not no ideal? No.

Haney 41:31
But this also helps us kind of narrow down who Kate’s up could be because he has to be someone on the board, or the rooms bugged, or the room is bugged. But that was really nice. Rufus. It’s Rufus. Rufus is cakestuff I could be Honestly, I’m still on the reef train. Honestly.

Chris 41:49
I was now I’m back on the roof is train. Yeah, well,

Haney 41:53
shit. Now you’re at Mesa Scarlet. Haha. And I think at that point was when we decided to save the game. Boy. Weirdly short, but heavy amount of stuff today. Yes. Didn’t feel like a crazy long amount of playtime. It was turns out was two hours. There wasn’t filler in there. But the things that did happen, boy, did they happen. Yeah. Which was pretty brutal. How are you feeling?

Chris 42:22
I’m feeling good. This kind of section of the game always hits me pretty hard. Especially the way you find cloud. Like previous to this. He’s such a strong character. Yeah, cocky, spunky? Like,

Haney 42:34
on his deathbed.

Chris 42:35
Yeah. And that’s heavy.

Haney 42:38
There’s a cool moment where aerith is talking or?

Chris 42:41
Fuck yeah. Speaking of heavy Oh,

Haney 42:45
there’s a cool moment where Tifa is kind of talking about what it means to be a leader to where she’s like, what would cloud do if he was here? He you know, cocked his head or he’d like stand in that cocky way he does move his head and just be like, Alright, guys do this. And you tell us what to do. Now I just don’t know what to do. And that was like, whoa, whoa.

Chris 43:01
This is a turning point for the game. Yeah, a lot of the cards are on the table at this point. And there’s a lot of shit going down like we got weapon. We got Meteor headed our way shiners doing whatever they’re doing. Yeah, clouds missing, who previously is the one who has given us all the direction in the game so far? Yeah. And here we are down three party members.

Haney 43:22
Yeah, it’s it’s interesting to the one thing that the doctor says that we should touch on is he says, you know, his body’s here, but his minds miles and miles away from anywhere from here, somewhere we’ve never been, which I think is interesting, because I think we touched on that a little bit in the last episode about how like, we might find this body, but I’m not sure we’re gonna find his mind. You know, he’s gonna be pretty far away. So, at this point, I’m really not sure what to expect from the game wasn’t expecting to go even this long without cloud as my main party member. So really not sure where to even head from here. I mean, like physically or like, emotionally like, I have no idea where my compass is pointing, which is probably the most directionless, the most directionless. I felt and I think that does a lot to make you feel like the characters feel like, you don’t have a purpose right now. Like you need to figure out what your purpose is supposed to be. Yeah. fucked up, man. Like, I know where I’m going. But I don’t know where my head’s going to be masa really concerned about how long it’s going to take cloud to recover or what we’re going to have to do to cure him or if we can even cure him. Not sure. Yeah, sure. That’s okay.

Chris 44:30
Yeah. Huh. No, I never thought about it. But I’d like to think at this point where clouds head is that His Kingdom Hearts.

Haney 44:38
Holy shit. Yeah. Right. Yes. So here’s the thing. Yes. Yes, that’s why bear it’s not in Kingdom Hearts. It’s why it’s Aaron. My God. It’s why it’s aerith separate off and cloud. Yeah, that’s the only one from the first one right? Yes, he’s there. And the first one yeah. Okay, it’s been a while. She’s so sick of that. So it’s perfect.

Chris 45:03
Yeah, it all makes sense. It all fits together beautifully. And can’t believe they plan this in 97.

Haney 45:09
I mean, they probably did that game came out in like 2001 which means they I mean, they absolutely must have had it already planned by that point, because that’s like a very aggressive game to legally put together.

Chris 45:21
Yeah. So I guess just quickly, how are you feeling about the weapons? What are you going to do about them? hoping for election right?

Haney 45:29
Oh, yeah. Okay, and then I’ll just kill Shinra when they’re done. Perfect. Yeah, I don’t have a big cannon. They have big cannons, but I can kill their people that run the big cannons, you know, I’m saying that sir. Yeah, that’s fine. A Meteor. My goal here is to let Shinra get their huge material. Okay, use it on the weapons. Use it on the meteor, and then I’ll kill them. Okay, perfect. And then I’ll kill Sephora. So, yeah, we’re done here. That’s where we’re headed. Um,

Chris 45:56
perfect. Perfect. So plot wise. Now that we’re cloudless.

Haney 46:01
What’s not expecting this?

Chris 46:03
What further developments Do you think the game has in store for you?

Haney 46:06
Well, we need to know more about cloud and TIF as actual relationship and what there is fabricated and what is true. So I think that’s still become we need to know more about suffer off at the real suffer off at this point, because that’s still to come. Will the real suffer off please stand up? Please stand up. Please stand up. And I think we also still need to learn more about Genova. We’ve learned quite a lot about you Nova, though. Yeah, we got a good Genova dump we might be about face there. But definitely more on soft rock definitely need more on cloud and tifus relationship. Definitely mean more on aerith. And the man who may or may not be Zach’s relationship, need more on Tifa and that guy’s relationship need more on nibble? Haim need more? Oh, walk around cloud and like who the what, what the thought cloud is? And then probably most importantly, we need to find cause mind where it is and get it back into him body. Yeah, I mean, I know that’s not exactly what’s going on. But you know, that’s kind of where I gotta bring cloud back. Yeah, basically, gotta get him out of whatever psyche sickness he’s strapped in right now. Yeah. So I think there’s still a lot to come. I’m trying to figure out where the game is gonna throw the next wrench in, because it’s definitely a wrench heavy game. Yeah, they do enjoy their wrenches. And I feel like it’s been a minute since we had a wrench because I feel like we have a clear plan ahead of us. And something’s got to go awry. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I have a feeling that coral is where it’s gonna go awry. So

Chris 47:30
hopefully, nothing goes awry in coral. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Haney 47:34
Hopefully dying, still dead. And we don’t have to deal with that. Um,

Chris 47:37
well, let’s talk quickly about how you feel about the game so far. We’ve come a long way since episode one where we? Yeah, it’s been a good chunk of time. Yeah. I mean, and boy, have people changed in that

Haney 47:54
time. Literally. It’s been over a year that we’ve been playing this game now.

Chris 47:58
Yeah, actually. Yeah. Holy shit.

Haney 47:59
Yeah. We started January 7 2020. Today is January 18 2021. We did it. Yeah. It’s been a over a year of us playing this game. And it’s been 35 hours of gameplay. It’s been weeks upon weeks in game of questing and we’re a long way from sector seven. We’re a long way from sector seven dropping on us. It’s been a journey. I mean, feeling great. The game is phenomenal. I love it. It’s absolutely incredible. I just I’m really excited to see what else could be in store. I’m really stoked and hopeful because a lot of my predictions seem to be heading in the right direction. But there’s still enough mystery around them to completely fuck up what I thought was gonna be, it’s gonna be like, so close, but so far away. That’s how I feel. It’s gonna happen. I believe in the game. But I’m like, right in the thick of it. And I need to play more. Right now. Really excited for Sid to be my main man and just see kind of what’s next. Like, I’m really excited to head to coral and see how we interact with the Shinra there.

Chris 49:02
Yeah, because now we have an airship dude,

Haney 49:05
airship.

Chris 49:05
This is the first moment in the game that the entire world is open up to you. Except med guy. Exactly. But you got an airship? You can go anywhere you want.

Haney 49:16
I mean, I’m probably gonna follow the story pretty closely, but I would really like to visit some old faves. Yeah, some old haunts would definitely love to go back into Midgar if they’ll ever let me in. My I

Chris 49:27
don’t know why you want to go back there

Haney 49:28
after getting out. I have so much I want to shop for a nightmare. I want to talk to um, guy I want to talk there’s so much to do I do miss UNGA. I want to I get I gotta get Kate sets megaphone. We just got

Chris 49:41
him crystal megaphone. He doesn’t need whatever he left back there.

Haney 49:44
We got to use that. Yeah, that’ll be fun. Um, my checking on do see what he’s up to. Yeah, there’s there’s a lot. I mean, like you said, the world’s open up more than it ever has been. So it’ll be really interesting for us to kind of just see what we can do now.

Chris 50:00
Well, I think that’s what I got. But I do have to say, for the listeners at this point in the game, he’s really embedded. Kate Seth into his party. Yeah, I have Kate Smith is definitely the fixture and is building the rest of the party around at this point.

Haney 50:17
How do you feel about that? Not

Unknown Speaker 50:18
great. Now, what’s the matter? Krantz isn’t the voice thing. You know, I

Chris 50:23
never thought all the way back in Episode 16. That case if this happened in four episodes, and I didn’t think you’d come back around to Kate said, I think he would be the pro choice here.

Haney 50:39
I mean, has he failed me?

Chris 50:40
He literally sold you out to this Shinra. But like, and then none of this had to happen.

Haney 50:46
In combat, though, has he failed me.

Chris 50:47
I feel like he’s spent a good time.

Haney 50:49
Good. Yeah. I feel like that’s kind of what he’s been doing guys a lot too, though. So. Um, I don’t know. I like balancing my party Do you would not call a case if balance is never seen his second. I don’t need to see I don’t give a shit. All right, that’s fine. I’m sure that’s okay.

Chris 51:11
But you know, you do you.

Haney 51:12
I’m just saying case that makes the dream work. I think with that, that’s all I had for today’s episode, Chris. Yeah, I’m good. That’s perfect. That’s fine. Thanks so much for listening. And we’ll see you next time. Bye. Bye. 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 calm or you can check out our website first encounter podcast calm. Our intro and outro music is written and performed by Zach