Haney 0:05
Hey, listener first encounter is an explicit podcast by grownups for grownups. Content warnings can be found in the episode description.

Chris 0:12
Also, we’ve been getting some a couple new Apple iTunes ratings have we? Yeah, we’re up to 21. Five stars.

Haney 0:20
How many other than five stars? Do we have? 00? Yeah, you know why? I assume it’s just because people like our podcast. Oh, at least 21 people like our podcast enough to give us five star ratings. And other people are just those nice enough to be like, Oh, this isn’t for me. But I don’t need to do a one star rating. Yeah, I’m gonna give us our first one star ratings. Please don’t do that.

Chris 0:42
So if you were one of those people who gave us a rating, thank you so much. That helps a lot helps with discoverability Keep it up. If you haven’t rated us. What are you waiting for? Aside from Apple being a garbage system to write podcasts? On

Haney 0:55
the note of it being a garbage system? previously to this recording, like within the last I don’t know, maybe half hour? We’re trying to

but the apple reviews are what drive literally almost all of the discoverability of being a podcast, which is so frustrating to me. Yeah. We don’t need to keep this in. I just need to rent it out. But yeah,

Chris 1:26
go ahead and rate us on Apple fun. Yes.

Haney 1:41
The O Matic. Got me a little tasty beverage. taste. A little tasty bag. A little tasty, baby.

Unknown Speaker 1:49
Hey, hey, pumpkin. Ah, yeah. Hey, I already said hi. I’m Ken. Do we really how you do this every time

Haney 2:00
Chris. Final Fantasy seven. And you motherfucker. You just open your VR right up before? You know what you know what? God dammit. Why does it always split? We got towels now. Ah, let me give me that little egg. But oh god. Oh, that’s fine.

Chris 2:17
It’d be a shame if beer were to spill all over the computer.

Haney 2:20
Hmm. I’m just gonna put this cross my legs here. Because they’re itchy. From bug bites. friggin summer. It is. And that Will help me Stop from the kitchen.

Chris 2:30
Perfect. How’s your summer going?

Haney 2:32
I started playing the video game. I don’t believe that I did last night. So around nine.

Chris 2:38
Wait, are you saying you start playing a video game by yourself? After I invite you to play a video game with me that evening? That’s what you’re telling me?

Haney 2:46
That is what I’m telling you. Yeah. All right. Okay, proceed. Around 930. Last night, my wife was not in the mood. So watch anything. Of course, this is where I was going with that.

Chris 2:57
Yeah. Why do you wink at me so hard.

Haney 3:00
So yeah, we wanted to play a new game. I really wanted to play mudros mask, but I am still waiting on my alternative hookups for my new fangled TV that won’t work with the GameCube. And I didn’t want to play it on 3ds. And I wanted to kind of include my wife and what I play cuz we like playing games together. So sometimes we’ll have the controller back and forth. Sometimes we just like to watch the other one play. So we were just trolling the switch store. And I ended up purchasing Stardew Valley. It’s fucking delightful. Yeah, it is the most soothing little game you can even imagine plane, we had a blast. We didn’t even get that far into it. It just started kind of clearing out a lot chopping down some trees and collecting some stuff. Good God, what a cute little game though I love the graphics very much reminds me of the SLDS Zelda game. It’s everything. The music was good. The graphics were cute. The storyline is adorable. Like it’s just pleasant. The the basic hook is that your grandfather gives you a sealed envelope and tells you, hey, when modern life gets to be too much when you just can’t deal with the hustle and bustle of the city of your job. You’ll know when the time is right, open this letter and do what I did. And you’re in this dead end job. And they they do this beautiful, beautiful scene where it’s just rows of cubicles, right? And each cubicle has a camera pointed down into it so that you can’t like be doing anything other than work. And your character is just staring at the screen and then just opens the desk drawer and reads the letter. And it’s like, I have a farm when modern life got to be too much for me and I hated my job. I just went out and got a farm. And now I want you to have the farm go take care of it. And that’s basically the entire premise and you just go build the fucking farm and it’s great. I had a treat. Good. Yeah, it was a lot of fun, highly recommended Stardew Valley. I know I’m not by any means the first person to probably suggest it to like 90% of the people listening to this. If not But I really enjoyed it.

Chris 5:01
Yeah, good. Nice. I Will ask you not to recommend things that aren’t directly sponsoring us on the show. We’ll just keep that in mind. Shout

Haney 5:08
out to whatever production company makes Stardew Valley.

Chris 5:11
Alright,

Haney 5:12
what are we let’s get into enough of that nonsense. Why don’t we? Why don’t we talk about this hit? Last episode of the all time best selling JRPG Final Fantasy seven. You did it my dude I fucking did it kid fucking did it and of an era one one and a half years. 1.5 years. December fucking 2019 was when I started that. Dude, it tomorrow is June 1. Yeah. Holy Well, no, it’s not. Tomorrow’s may 31 2021. Holy shit.

How are you feeling? A lot. Yeah, mostly. I just feel a lot. Yeah,

I’m good. Sad. Happy. fulfilled. I think it’s probably the most accurate statement to how I feel right now, though. Yeah, I was worried about what the game ending would bring. And I think I no longer have any worries. I no longer have a care in this world. I just feel free, free to fully enjoy the fruits of FF seven. Oh, gee, at least. I feel like I can kind of start poking into things. Play the game again, at my own pace. I feel like I’ve accomplished something. And I feel just proud, honestly, of myself of the podcast of you of us together. I think we’ve just done some amazing things here. And it’s pretty emotional. And yeah, and pretty incredible to be at this point. It’s still unreal to me that we didn’t give up or we didn’t stop doing this. I think we’ve had significant challenges in our personal lives. We’ve both dealt with loss we’ve dealt with busy schedules we’ve dealt with it’s it’s just incredible. I don’t know when it’s gonna really sink in that it’s over. But also I’m excited because I know it’s not over. And I think I’m just excited to see where we go next to like I’m ready. I really want to watch Adventureland. Now I really want to play some of the other compilation games. I want to be able to go on the internet and dig in and learn more. Honestly, the thing I’m most looking forward to is reading a full walkthrough of the game and seeing what I missed.

Chris 7:36
Yeah, I’m sure you hit all of it. I don’t think there’s anything to go back for.

Haney 7:42
Actually, there is one thing so we were chatting a little bit about things that I deemed safe to look up. And one thing that I did look up was missed summons because I really wanted I knew were at the end of the game. I knew there’s no leaving from this point. So I was like, I’m gonna look up and see what summons I missed. I’m really really bummed about the summon we missed in the ice area. Yeah. Anthony or something. Tony. Whatever. It has like some weird like Italian man name. I think it’s Anthony Alexander. Hmm. I take that all back. That’s not even remotely Italian. That’s Roman. Well, which it’s fucking Yeah, no bucket that is a tie in just old Italian before it was Italy. It is Alexander though. I believe it’s Alexander. Yeah, I’m real bummed I missed that. Because that sounds like a fun fucking summon.

Chris 8:24
Um, so Okay, talk about burying the lede. Let’s

Haney 8:28
Yeah, let’s let’s back this way up. So we start the game out at our throne down savepoint in North crater, basically, right after the hellscape of escaping the cavern system up there. Yeah, basically just a hop, skip and a jump. Kind of literally, from getting back together with the party and diving into the crater itself to face our enemies. We went through this part multiple times. Nothing really exciting happened any of them. Some cool enemies, but nothing like really special. How do I get over there? Not like this. What’s his? What’s his deal? Master? tonberry. Yeah,

Chris 9:11
he’s gonna stab you at some point. Oh, right. It’s to figure out how to run I think

Haney 9:16
and it does like all the damage right?

Chris 9:18
Yeah, it’s not good. Maybe he’ll just leave. Where is he going? Oh,

Haney 9:23
he just ran up there and knife me huh?

Chris 9:24
Gotcha. Oh, yeah. To hear what a run is. Yeah. Run Run knowing run would be fun. What non luck is that flow? I think I want a tattoo of that boy. I think it’s called like evil eye or something.

Haney 9:40
It looks like I’m like Mike was asking when we make our way through just some material. Some items. Think the materials that were the big ones were magic counter and mega all pretty cool. Meet up back with everyone. After splitting ways last time and everyone has a little bit of an item to give you which was pretty cool. Except the Wii tries to hold on to Harry’s which I thought was just a nice cute little like, throwback to like her stealing your material and all that stuff. It’s just very, very fun little inside, which is like, you know what, though I found it so give that back to me after you’re done with it.

Chris 10:16
This is the center of the planet. Fucking called it I said it was hollow. Cloud fuck. So that’s Yeah, that’s the different pads. You send them down when you split them up. That affects what items they come back with sick. Cloud, I found this on the way sick. Cloud Nine found this. Hold on to this. What? By the way up? Didn’t you find something? Now All right. Here cloud up sucks. But I’m the one who found it. So you better give it back to me when you’re done with it.

Haney 10:55
Like it’s not a one time use item. So after we get our items from everyone, you’re allowed to build your party. I went with Dream Team v1, cloud kit Seth and Barrett, because v2 is unavailable. After we choose our party cloud says something very fun, which I think is probably a more iconic line from the game because I’ve definitely heard it before.

Chris 11:21
Let’s get going. Now not yet. Let’s get going. Alright everyone, let’s mosey there’s actually a really interesting translation explanation for this for let’s mosey. Yeah. Why I’ll just have you read the article, but basically, oh, that’s a thing we can do. Now you can actually send me article Yeah, yo, g at least. But to summarize it really quickly. In the Japanese version. One of the things that doesn’t come through very well with the translation is after a cloud like finds himself in the live stream, and realizes like kind of who he is and all that stuff. The way he speaks changes himself and not Zack. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. Damn,

Haney 12:03
again, stop saying that, like a wimp. can’t just say move out or some move out. After we mosey our way into the next section, we kind of climb down these astral stairs and work our way deeper and deeper into the crater. A couple of encounters. Why don’t you mosey with me Chris? Why don’t you mosey with me to fight suffer off suffer off Sephora off for that Sephora guy go Yeah, there’s gonna be bad

Chris 12:33
this i’m sure

Haney 12:36
what the fucking fuck is that? Oh no, it has abnormal breath. We did this multiple times. Really? Nothing exciting happens until we get down to the main section here the boss arena if I Will. At this point cloud says Hey, what’s that Baron says hey fuck What’s that in case of that and Genova fucking attacks us Yeah, I was not expecting this No, for some reason I had written Genova off and I was like now Sephora Ross the bad guy right,

Chris 13:08
because last I remember talking. You’re like, I don’t know is it Genova? Or is it Sephora? Who’s really controlling whom?

Haney 13:17
I still don’t know. Actually. Just throw that out. I’m pretty sure that’s what add then children is about? Well, yeah, man, can you imagine playing this game and Well, yes, you can. But

Chris 13:27
can you imagine playing this game and not thinking that like, oh, there’s like a bunch of spin offs and sequels? I have no idea. Dude. You know how excited I was for Advent? children? I was like Fogg Yes. of Final Fantasy seven animated movie adjuvant to me.

Haney 13:41
Did you like adventure when the first came out? Or no? No. Okay. Do you think you’d like it now after doing this podcast? Yes. I think that’s Yeah, I think we’re both gonna like

Chris 13:50
it. I think we’re ready for it now. I

Haney 13:52
think so before we get there that I definitely want to read on the way to a smile.

Chris 13:55
Yeah, absolutely. We Will do that. Yeah, um, so Genova fucking flies out of the Yeah, um,

Haney 14:01
so Genova sin thesis, I think is what it was. It was definitely like a riff off of like anaesthesia and synthesis, I think, but just a giant monster. nightmare. I’m so glad to be brought up for this momentous occasion.

Chris 14:17
Where are we Genova it’s coming.

Haney 14:25
I was not ready for this. Fight my fight engine Nova.

Chris 14:29
What the fuck? Remember Barrett has all the like barrier and

Haney 14:33
yeah, haste. You’re like please for the love of God. Learn how to play this game The last time we play it. It’s fine. I’m sure it’s fine.

Chris 14:41
I don’t know what it is now about Kate siths stupid fucking zipper that I find so comical in this mode. Holy fuck. Stop. Oh shit. That’s no good. That’s no good.

Haney 14:53
Crushed through and just fucking pounded away. Really? Dream Team worked out like you exactly how I wanted it to really just hammered on her and she she dies. Yep. Awesome. Yep. After she dies, you kind of get vacuum sucked into this void. Yeah. And when we land, you don’t really land you’re kind of floating in there. It’s the entirety of the caste minus aerith. Surrounding Holi, which is seemingly bound and kind of gagged, almost like, it’s definitely like constricted by some magical means. Do you see a giant flash of Zephyr off space across the screen, which was very cool and very alarming. And then Sephora himself kind of ghostly image fades into the center of holy, you’re all circling holy, and him and it’s like all eyes on him. And he just starts psychically warping you

Chris 15:46
Yeah. So that aura

Haney 15:47
Yeah. And he’s able to just kind of inflict psychic damage on everyone read Thirteen’s like my tail is gonna get ripped off like I’m feeling like I’m being pulled apart from the inside. Everyone’s like at the end of their wits. And at this point is kind of an awkward like interjection of do on a Tuesday or party. We choose our party spoiler it was always going to be Kate’s if, if there’s one thing that you can guarantee from this podcast? It’s going to be Kate’s light. A light is this is this light. Holy.

Unknown Speaker 16:24
Wow.

Haney 16:26
Sam. Oh, wait, that’s cloud. Said. God damn it. So we’re all here.

Chris 16:32
Oh, sepher off.

Haney 16:36
Is this Seth Ross power. My body. My front legs. My hind legs. My tails about to rip off. Definitely not good. He’s way out of our league.

Chris 16:49
Thank god case at this year. Cloud. Cloud. No. They’re it’s their cloud. Holy air. This prayer is shining. It’s not over yet. This isn’t the end yet.

Haney 17:07
God I’m still gonna be Barrett kitset I’ve already gone through this. I chose Hollis peace. It’s sad again.

Chris 17:17
Isn’t want this to come to an end? This is the longest anybody’s played with him.

Haney 17:22
I don’t think that’s true. We chose our party. And everyone who’s not in the core party gets blown away. And you enter a fight. All right, you ready for this nightmare?

Chris 17:33
Yeah, dude, let’s do it. Let’s go everyone.

Haney 17:36
Not only aerith holy is the prayer of avalanche of Marlene and Dan, and everyone on the planet. We noticed a little late the trouble we were getting in. But there’s still time. We can still get out of it. Even if we can’t get everything back to normal. We should be able to protect what’s most important

Chris 17:55
Eretz memories our memories come planet show us your answer. in Sephora to the settling of everything

Haney 18:03
oh boy I don’t like that grass. No, that’s not ever just make the fabric of space and time ripple. Oh god damned damned. Oh god what the fucking fuck is that? How do you feel about that think about the sequence of the five targets and beat them bizarre bizarre rows of Roth that’s a lot of parts. This fight is kind of a make a monster version of saffer up mix with Genova

Chris 18:33
it’s I mean, it’s kind of a fish. It’s a fishy Genova II mess of a

Haney 18:38
Yeah, I mean it fits right like it makes sense like attracts Yeah, let’s

Chris 18:41
Okay, so it’s got a core

Haney 18:43
it’s got a core which is like an orange like Orbis body with some like praying mantis. He kind of bottom half Sure. Not a big deal.

Chris 18:51
Yeah. And then in the center of this chesty area, this testicle is face number one of suffer author, that’s fine, if you Will. If you travel up the chest face, you reach face number two of Sephiroth. Yes. Which is a false face. Yeah, with a little more of a chesty body to it. I don’t know. Yeah, I mean, you described it perfectly when you said it’s like a masthead.

Haney 19:15
And then the sides, the arms are just kind of like flailing wenglish kind of things. Yeah. But I think you’re also right in that like the back half of it is very fishy.

Chris 19:25
Yeah, the top head has like a fishy body behind it.

Haney 19:29
So it has five parts. It has a core, it has a head B kind of a central head a and then it has like side magic parts. D and E i think they were called and the chorus See, basically you just have to defeat D and A in order to attack C and do this.

Chris 19:49
I constantly feel like we can present that better. Destroy its head and arms to attack it center. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Let’s go with that.

Haney 19:59
Oh, wow. It Guess Okay, so that’s centerpieces the most protected one. All right all right all right. No problem. Bizarro energy. Oh, he can heal I I have one concern. Yeah. Is one minute Angel actually a track from this game from the game? And Will we get to hear it because it doesn’t seem like it so far.

Chris 20:24
This doesn’t sound like one way good angel to

Haney 20:26
Chris This is going Danny. Danny This is very jazzy but isn’t a good that is good Yeah,

Chris 20:32
I love this track is great is very good. But I’m not going to tell you the only cure to It’s all I have bold, bold of you.

Haney 20:44
The portion be revived. What is that? Okay, no. First time just crushed Bizarro Safra. I’ve had a great time. When into the second fight, I think almost fully healed. Not a ton of MP used. really ready for it. But as you might expect from fucking sepher author one of the most well known villains of all time, and I knew this was going to be hard going into it because I have played Kingdom Hearts and I have beaten sepher off and Kingdom Hearts one and two. And both of those fights are the fucking hardest fights in those games. I was just like, Fuck, like, I know where they’re like those fights must have been based off of something which would be Oh, yeah, the final bad guy of this game is probably going to be very hard.

Chris 21:29
Yeah. So you beat Bizarro Sephiroth and a second form immediately comes back to fight you know,

Haney 21:36
pause for rearrangement, no pause for heels. No pause for anything. It just immediately goes into the second fight. And safer separate off safer. Sephiroth

Chris 21:44
is in the second fight. And during the Bizarro Sephiroth fight. I remember you asking me Do we ever hear one weekend angel in this kid?

Haney 21:53
Because I thought at this point, this would be the point we heard it right. Like what happened was exactly what I thought would happen where we’d have to fight multiple versions. But I thought one mega Angel would play throughout all of them. So obviously like fucking any red blooded American I know wondering. Yeah, I want to say sorry, but I’m not sorry. I’m not even remotely sorry.

Oh, got Oh, fuck. Oh, he’s like a real is the one wing is the one wing? Kinda Well,

that’s a lot more than one wing, actually. Oh, he’s like a biblical Angel. I got to put up headphones. I’m sorry. Oh, just so good.

Chris 22:44
Yeah,

Haney 22:45
I think even though I know the song, I’ve heard the song. I was expecting the song did not dilute the full effect of hearing the song in that moment. Also, can we talk about the design of safer safer off for a minute. So super quick aside, I am not Christian. I went to a Catholic college and I learned everything that I know about Christianity in Catholic school as a college age students. So it’s very, very limited. But I remember reading parts of the Bible and being like, horrified by the description of angels and being like, how did anyone get like Cupid out of this? It’s like a wheel with seven like seven wings and an eye that’s Bernie and like that is not Cupid What the fuck? However, my favorite anime is Neon Genesis heaven galleon, the angels and that are much more close to what they’re described as in the Bible. Yeah. And this version of Sephiroth has one very large wing on his bright side, I believe. And then his lower half is made up of like six or seven additional wings. And then it’s like the torso and head of Sephiroth himself.

Chris 23:53
Yes. So Sephora. Sephora comes from Sarah.

Haney 23:58
That’s a class of angel I believe. Yes. And Sarah for the highest class if I remember right,

Chris 24:03
yeah, I believe so. And that’s where kind of all the wings come from. They have multiple wings. Yeah,

Haney 24:07
if I remember right. The voice of God. Mellotron is a Sarah which is the highest order believes. I find religious anything fascinating, but I just don’t know enough about it to intelligently speak to it. But here we are. But here we are trying our fucking just nastiest best.

Chris 24:26
Wow, what a tree is so safer. Sephiroth Yep.

Haney 24:29
So when you’re fighting this Winget monster in the sky, he is hard. He is a fucker tough fight. But still isn’t quite one wing it Angel isn’t yet it’s like the Dennett in

Chris 24:45
it. This this is one way Have you ever heard the full track?

Haney 24:48
I don’t think I’ve ever heard they’re like actual. Oh, there it is. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Again.

Chris 24:54
He’s got a barrier.

Haney 24:55
Yeah, yeah, we’re not we’re not doing so good. Oh, he has Shadowplay Are delightful. That’s fine.

Chris 25:04
He is better Chateau flair by cloud. Cloud had Phoenix pale horse. Oh, you’re a frog? Sometimes. All right. Do you think Sephiroth is just having a laugh at you? Yes, absolutely. He’s having a good time. hope you got some maidens kiss. I don’t think I do. Thank God. supernova. Okay, here we go. You’re ready for this now? What is this called? It’s called supernova. Do you think that’s okay? Can I interest you in the Milky Way?

Haney 25:39
Could you interest me probably in a team wipe?

Chris 25:43
Can I interest you in a don’t need these planets anymore? Wait, wait. Yeah, that’s fine.

Haney 25:51
Wait, these are the real planet. Yeah, yeah. Wait, these are the solar system our solar system?

Chris 25:58
Yeah, that’s why I said the Milky Way. Ha. Shoot. We weren’t using that. No, no. Don’t need any of that.

Unknown Speaker 26:07
This is fine.

Haney 26:09
I love that this is our planet. Like definitively from this. Well was I mean

Chris 26:15
maybe it couldn’t just be passing through the Milky Way mercury and eventually reaching Gaia.

Haney 26:22
So it goes into the sun and then it causes the sun to supernova. Do you think that’s gonna do any damage to me or now?

Chris 26:29
I think it’ll probably miss

Haney 26:32
shut up I’m just ready for the game to restart at this point. Oh boy.

Chris 26:40
They’re probably fine they’re just watching it approach just eyes filled with determination we can take this they say you just attack as a frog. You came back as a frog. Yeah, he didn’t lose frog now.

Haney 26:55
This is bullshit. Cloud you got that Phoenix handy so I cannot I have no way to bring back barricades come back

Chris 27:04
Yes. Oh luck. Oh, that was really anticlimactic. Yeah. Achievement unlocked on the slash That’s weird.

Haney 27:16
first fight. No good No. Second fight. No good. Better

Chris 27:22
I was gonna say better but realistically not rationally.

Haney 27:24
No. So our second fight was the worst one Yeah, because however Yes, and

Chris 27:31
it’s also it’s the best fight and also the worst fight

Haney 27:34
Yes. So the second time we faced Bizarro saffer off I accidentally pulled off keetsa ultimate limit break I want to go that far. I accidentally pulled off Cade sets ultimate Limit Break transform at which point it exiles your other two party members I mean

Chris 27:54
consumes them

Haney 27:56
I prefer the term exile we did the pro gamer move on aligning the three marks in case the slot for the free gift

Chris 28:10
doesn’t mean anything to anyone who hasn’t used case it in their party.

Haney 28:13
I don’t think everyone’s use case at the party except you. Don’t look at me like that. Tweet us at

Chris 28:20
one SP encounter pod.

Haney 28:22
Oh, I accidentally pulled off Kate’s transform Limit Break. When you do this. Kate Smith consumes your two other party members and imbibes all of their MP HP and strength so I had ultimate fucking mech Kate Seth at 9999 hP 999 MP and just crushing it I mean, just yeah. 2x cut in this fight so just poppin poppin poppin Oh,

Chris 28:52
rude. Stop it. shit on me. Stop at Sephora.

Haney 28:58
Several still Oh reuses I was not trying to use that transform. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 29:07
what?

Chris 29:08
What just happened?

Haney 29:09
it transformed him. Look at my fucking stats and MP

Chris 29:13
but your party members are gone. I

Haney 29:14
don’t think it matters particularly much. pomp.

Chris 29:19
I can’t believe kisseth is a one on one in Sephora.

Haney 29:22
I can’t you though. Tell me this isn’t the most first encounter first encounter thing on it this case of the one v one v one v one v one mi mid lane Zephyr off. So I crushed bizarre Zephyr off with him. But what happens is when Kate’s it goes back to his normal form when he vomits up your other party member and vomits up your other party members. It splits the HP and MP into perfect thirds among everyone. So I went into the second safer Sephora fight so underprepared, because my characters were just absolutely rad. On HP and MP going into the fight

Chris 30:03
I mean isn’t that the case that story in a nutshell though is you get like really the cream of the crop like really good dialogue really good character development and also just the lowest most despicable character

Haney 30:17
and it’s perfect I mean it really was just Kate so yeah, it fucked me that yeah I die no good so quick and the second safer Zephyr off by so boot up our save file for the third time and crush our way downtown speed through Genova crushed through Bizarro saffer off and managed to actually do well against safer Safra

Chris 30:41
very well, I said in a previous episode that I believe whatever it was, was your best fight so far. Yes, this blew out of the water really easily your best fight the strategy was on point the control was on point there’s no panicking and going into this fight. I believe a big part of that was rearranging the material and kind of reassessing our strategy.

Haney 31:05
I think we made everyone a bit better rounded, each of them had a little bit of support a little bit of punch a little bit of caste and we really leaned away from material in this fight and really I think landed on physical attacks and support magic to items and items yes good chunk of items too. So I got haste off from Kate set and when I got em barrier off now I’m just gonna start fucking hit Yeah,

Chris 31:31
just smash him in the face. We also have Wi Fi we could throw like two fucking You know, that’s

Haney 31:37
a great point that I was not remembering

Chris 31:40
especially when we can’t read jack this supernova into another busy

Haney 31:46
What a great mechanic they built into the game for us. They were like, oh, pee break. imperfect and flawed. They’re undeserving of love are merged with the last stream and emerge as a god.

Unknown Speaker 32:01
Oh, heck. Oh, I can Oh heck

Haney 32:05
bearish loaded I help. Okay, all right. Well, fuckin heals. Kids that uses What the shit?

Chris 32:17
Oh, he is break. Oh, so the cure is actually hitting the barrier you have set up? Yeah. That’s asas Nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. This is the first time we’ve got this off.

Haney 32:31
Yeah. Yes, this is the first time I’ve gotten off. Why thank you. podcast. Do I need anything else? Right now? I still keep smashing.

Chris 32:39
I think keep smashing. Yeah. Way. Yo, no. Did I

fuckin Yeah. Oh, holy shit.

stay vigilant, man. Dude. I’m visual.

Haney 32:57
So I don’t know how to like build up to anymore. But we won.

Chris 33:03
Yeah, you’d be safer Sephora,

Haney 33:05
we beat safer Sephora. There’s a cutscene of safer Sephora off just evaporating into nothing. As he’s scattering to the wind. I mean, I’m just in shock, honestly, that I won. I’m just staring at it. I’m like waiting for the next one waiting for the next one. Chris, like don’t drop your guard. But we eventually end the fight cutscene and see cloud and the full party. Yeah. Just kind of staring. It’s like, well, I did the best we could. Yeah, like we did everything. Now like, everyone starts walking away. You know, Sid Lee’s Barrett leaves. Kate stuff leaves. Vincent Lee is read 13 until it’s just teeth and cloud Tifa starts walking away. And cloud says wait, I can still I still hear him. He’s laughing and we get this very trippy. cutscene of cloud falling through nothingness basically. Until it’s basically just cloud v Sephiroth. Obviously shirtless Sephora off, because what would it be? If not

Chris 34:12
best? Sephora. Yes. And yeah.

Haney 34:15
But we go into a fight with Sephora off. And we are immediately at our Limit Break. Yep. And we have one option, Omni slash, which is nothing we’ve ever had before. I click it and cloud just fucking wreck sever off just cuts him to shreds.

Chris 34:39
This is all we could do. Wait, what about holy, what’s gonna happen to the planet? That I don’t know? Isn’t the rest up to the planet? Here, right. We’ve done all that we could do. Alright, everyone. We did our best. That’s it. Let’s go home. Proud. Oh man. What happened? I feel it. What? He’s, he’s still here. Still Bok cloud he’s laughing cloud

Haney 35:23
What the fuck is happening? What the fucking fuck is this? Chris What the fuck? What was happening? What do you want? I don’t like this.

Chris 35:33
Sure it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty worried. Oh shit Can I interest you?

Haney 35:41
Are you do I have the one via WhatsApp or off? Oh asses passes? How bad is this fight?

Chris 35:49
So remember you got that Omni slash thing?

Haney 35:52
Yes. Holy shit asses after suffer off explodes really he explodes? Yeah, we get a scene of cloud kind of disappearing up into like some spirit energy and seeing a hand reach out for him. And I think at this point I said something like, oh shit is cloud ready like ready to die? Because it seemed to me like it was Aaron’s hand like reaching down to like pull cloud into the afterlife. But that illusion is quickly shattered when it’s tifus hand and like the literal world is collapsing around them at the crater. I think you could probably be both, it’s probably both and then it’s like, I think it’s like the more metaphysical thing shattered into reality by Tifa being like, no, no fucking cloud grab my hand. We got to go. Oh, shit. March. That was a hard left turn. You can really see where they spent their money on animation. Nancy from the planet.

Chris 36:56
The Promised Land. I think I’m beginning to understand. I think I can meet her. There.

Haney 37:04
Yeah, let’s go meet her. Oh, that’s heartbreaking. The craters collapsing just nightmares happening all over the place. And the high wind collapses down into the tunnel. Everyone gets onto the high wind. The high wind kind of takes off out of the crater but it’s like really rough. It’s like falling apart. pizzas falling off of it. Sit is reaching for this emergency lever manages to pull it in this cutscene and just it rockets out of there. Oh, fuck.

And that’s fine.

Is that high wind? Yeah. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please be what I want it to be. Yeah. I’m not entirely sure anyone’s piloting the high wind technically right

Chris 37:51
there seems to be losing some bits. I’m sure it’s fine. Yeah. Come on.

Unknown Speaker 38:01
Fuck, dude.

Haney 38:02
Holy shit. Because have I beaten Final Fantasy seven? Is that a thing that’s occurred in my life. What we see from the sky? Is Meteor basically still crushing mid Gar. Yeah, mid Guard has tornadoes. Electrical storms. The Meteor is like right above like the Shinra building and like it’s trying to crush it. And everyone in the party is like, what the fuck do we do like mid guard is dead and like, read their teens like forget mid guard. We got to worry about the planet at this point. Like we’ve done all we can like I think Kate said says as Reeve He’s like, I told everyone to hide in the slums. That’s the best I could do. I don’t know what’s going to happen past this point. But when all seems that is bleakest because media is still crashing down. We see the briefest glimmer of hope. We see kind of these traces of green like fountains, like anti tornadoes almost coming out of Gaia around mid Gar, and start kind of pushing back up against everything. And we get cutscenes of like people’s faces and we see Eretz face with like the prayer and the green light of holy now that we know that that green light from that opening cutscene is actually fucking holy, that pale green light has begun puts it and everything gets fully repelled. I mean, it’s just I cannot do it justice. It’s hard to do it justice verbally it is almost impossible for me to describe this in any way other than just saying, if you’re at this point in your life where you want to see what we’re trying to describe, go to YouTube, type in Final Fantasy seven original ending, and just watch this cutscene I I don’t want to belittle it by trying to describe it in my fucking plebeian voice smiling. The flower girl she what’s really cool about that? This is holy protecting the planet. She recognized immediately that it was flower girl. She like felt there. Yeah, I love that.

Chris 40:12
That’s really cool. That’s my that’s not. That’s not holy. That’s very bad. That’s Midgar kinda feel like mid guard can just eat shit. There’s a lot of innocent people there. That’s true. That is very true. Oh, fuck. Goodbye, sister. I pour one out. Tornadoes aren’t aren’t good. angry, Crimson tornadoes, filled with lightning and hate. I bet you didn’t think Meteor was going to be the final boss. Wait, what? Shake? Seriously? That’s holy. There we go. Dude,

Haney 40:54
I’m not ready. I’m still not ready for the over end credits, roll the credits roll. And we get the briefest of most beautiful. I believe they call it a sting. When there is a bit after the credits. The sting and this is 500 years later, we see Nanaki himself with two cubs running through like Cosmo Canyon, and they climb up kind of a ledge and overlook what is the city of Midgar. But Midgar has been basically reclaimed by nature at this point. It’s covered in vine growth. It’s just basically if you’re familiar with the hit animated series, The Legend of Korra, which Chris is not familiar with, if you’ve listened to this podcast, it is exactly what happens when the spirit world takes back capitol city or whatever is called an era. She was there in the end.

Unknown Speaker 41:55
God damn it

Chris 41:56
wasn’t gonna cry, weren’t you? I didn’t think there was any doubt. There would be tears. It’s like It’s like era though. Yeah. Oh my god. That’s I did it. You beat Final Fantasy seven.

Haney 42:14
Huh? Wait. Yoshitaka Amano did the illustration for this. A mana like Vampire Hunter D Yeah. Holy shit.

Chris 42:21
I don’t know if he did any after this. But yeah, he’s been the character designer. Since the first game. The Vampire Hunter D is actually how they found him and like, chose him. Because they were looking for a style that differentiated them from Dragon Quest. Yeah. Which was Toriyama. Right? Yeah. So I probably shouldn’t tell you this, because I know it’s gonna come back to bite me in the ass. But remember when you said like I’ve never finished Rama one half for like, X number of years because I just could not. Yeah, and I have not beaten Final Fantasy seven. Ever. I’ve played it all the way to suffer off. Really? Yeah.

Haney 43:01
Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I’m assuming you’ve seen the end a million times.

Chris 43:06
Yeah, I’ve watched it but I just can’t do it the first time that I got that far. I just stopped playing and subscribe to our $15 a month. beat the game. I’ll just be using honey save file but hey, fuck you. I worked hard to save file you fuck it down. But yeah, after reaching the end in replaying it I haven’t gone to the end again. Hmm, you’ll be Final Fantasy seven before I did? Yeah.

Haney 43:37
Holy shit. I don’t know what to do with my life. 500 years later. This is cool. Like this. I didn’t know this is the thing. Yeah, I’ve never heard of this.

Chris 43:50
It’s it’s real quick. Oh, ah.

Haney 43:55
No, Nikki had children. Oh. Oh my god. They’re just running through the canyon. Wait. Mid guys just a fucking overgrown. I mean, it’s a beautiful wasteland.

Chris 44:13
But I would not call that away. Yeah, no, I’d call that gorgeous. Oh my god. Holy shit. Fuck did Bach.

Haney 44:27
Wow. We beat Final Fantasy seven. today. The game shuts itself down. And we are left staring at audacity cruelly still recording are stunned silence. Chris, how are you feeling about today’s episode? pretty fucking good. A year and a half? Yeah. One and a half years. 500 days. We have been playing this game. Yeah. I saw you do the math in your head. They’re like that’s close enough.

I’m sure it’s fine. No math on this podcast now. What’s very sad that a year and a half ago yeah. Feels fucking good. feels really good. Holy shit.

We did it. We fucking did it, man. Yeah. I don’t know that I ever thought we were gonna get to this point.

Chris 45:17
Man. What a journey dude. I mean, it’s hard to put into words. Let’s go down a quick checklist I have. Yeah.

Haney 45:27
What are you most proud of from this endeavor? Um

Chris 45:33
I think for the rest of this episode, I’m probably going to be fairly emotional. I’m already emotional about it. I’ve been saving it for this final episode. Um, there’s two things I’m most proud of. First is like, holy shit. We’re here. We did it.

Haney 45:55
This is like Episode 30. Something maybe more? I’m not sure honestly. 29 or 30. I mean, dude, like, I’ve heard stats before that, like 75% of podcasts. Don’t make it past episode three or something like that. I think

Chris 46:09
it’s episode seven. Yeah, episode. 77 is the number I’ve seen like, but like

Haney 46:13
seven was when I realized I was like, we’re doing this and I don’t want to stop. Yeah, Episode Seven and eight are still on to my favorites. In fact, yeah, I was actually having lunch with a former coworker and very good friend. Recently, we were about fully vaccinated. So decided to grab dinner is my first time actually having dinner. Speaking of a year and a half, it was my first time having dinner at a restaurant and about a year. And he said, so this morning, I turned my phone on. And I got a notification that episode like 26, I think it was had just come out. And he’s like, I cannot believe you’ve done that. Like I use like, I literally just cannot believe that, like you’ve kept up with it, because so many of you Will just have started and stopped. I think he was just like, proud of us, like, of me and of us just like sticking with this thing that we created. Yeah, just bonkers still, right, absolutely bonkers that anyone listens to this.

Chris 47:13
Speaking of like, I’m proud that we have people who are like following us and are enjoying the podcast are Yeah, like, I know, when we started, that was one of the biggest things for us. Like, we want to make people happy and give people like an escape or something to turn to. And I’m not sure where I’ll fit this in. Because we’ll figure it feels a little weird. But during the course of first encounter, my uncle did pass away. And that’s one of the big things that didn’t cause me to quit my job. But it was definitely pushing me to make that decision to finally leave. And I know he would be super proud of where we are right now. And that coupled with the friends that we’ve made have really been the two things have kind of propelled me forward. If that makes sense. Because it’s a blast. I wouldn’t want to do anything else then first encounter at this point. But fuck is it a lot of work?

Haney 48:17
It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of stress. It’s a lot of frustration. I think there’s an equal part of frustration to the, to the joy that we both get from it. Like it’s,

Chris 48:29
it’s a second. It’s a job.

Haney 48:31
It’s a job. Yeah, I wouldn’t say it’s strained our friendship by any means. Like I think it’s actually made us closer than anything else. But it’s definitely like,

Chris 48:39
it’s added a new dynamic. Yeah,

Haney 48:41
and I’m pretty proud of us for not breaking down that dynamic to like, where we can still be friends and like have our conversations that are completely unrelated to this. You know, we talked about other podcasts we like we talked about video games, you talk about dinner, food, whatever, you know, like just normal friendship, but I think I appreciate so much how much we can still be friends and also still be partners in this endeavor.

Chris 49:08
Yeah. 100% So,

Haney 49:11
and I think your uncle would be very, very proud. Yeah,

Chris 49:14
I think you’d be very happy to see where first encounters come. Absolutely. So first of all, your present

Haney 49:24
yummy a Prezi Prezi How did you sneak that in here? So fucking Brady games Final Fantasy seven strategy guide Don’t settle for anything less get all the secrets straight from Squaresoft

Chris 49:39
There you go. Thank you. Oh my guest he used copy. The new ones are quite expensive.

Haney 49:45
Oh my god. I have never seen any breaks. Dragon. Oh my god, I missed so much. Up. Ah. Oh, this is so cool. pillar assault bossfight motor ball. All I remember that shit. Ah Whoo. Oh boy whoo tie is way earlier in this guide it’s right after the gear, the Geek cave yeah thank you so much.

Chris 50:12
Yes so you can start your switch play through Can I interest you in this

Haney 50:18
photo of you and I together just enough this this is me this is you yeah beautiful for those listening at home I’m pointing out a picture of Kate’s up next to the cloud. Thank you. Yeah, so I mean that leads us to another point. I’m going to start playing this on switch probably tonight. Excellent. Well, probably not tonight because I have to play d&d but ASAP there Yeah. I have a couple of things I treasure in this world at least as far as strategy guides go and it’s my original crona craft strategy guide in my original Skies of Arcadia strategy guide and this is gonna go right with with those excellent as one of my favorite games and having the strategy guy for it.

Very nice. Very, very happy to hear. How did you see this and did not even see you put this down there?

Chris 51:03
It was one of the times I went to go pee. Yeah, we cross paths. You went to pee. I was coming back from pee through under the desk. Did you got to the car. Yeah. Delightful. But aside from that, in preparation for our final episode, I’ve been collecting

Haney 51:19
of this of final fallacies that we aren’t specific there Will be another season

Chris 51:24
disclaimer. We are continuing the pod please

Haney 51:26
do not unfollow us or on the subscribe button. Now we need the money. unemployed. Chris is dangerously unemployed. But I’ve

Chris 51:42
collected some questions for you fucking what from both our discord which you can get to add Twitter slash one one sc encounter pod. What a mess. Come join us where we’re? Well, we’re bad. But our community is not. Yes. checks out. So question. First of all, I have a voice clip to play for you. A voice clip? Yeah. What is this? This is from Mary. Give me this. Can you bring that on over here?

Unknown Speaker 52:17
Hi, Hannah. It’s Mary. You did it. You crazy? Let them a bit you did. You put the game. That’s awesome. Congratulations. And it has been over a year. So over a year of frustrations with mapping on controllers and mini games and avoiding spoilers avoiding casual spoilers, avoiding spoilers from well meaning listeners and and even though you really just wanted to play the game, and sometimes you were frustrated, you hung in there and you beat it. So that’s I’m so proud of you. Congratulations again. So my question really, is the question that all teachers would have to ask, because you were playing a game, where a major theme of the game is the journey to self discovery, and finding out something about you that you didn’t know before, too needed to know. So my question is, what did you learn in this journey through this journey of not just the game, but of the whole first encounter of season one podcast experience.

Unknown Speaker 53:33
That’s,

Unknown Speaker 53:34
that’s really what I want to do. So tell me how many What have you learned?

Chris 53:40
So I hope you’re happy Mary, you definitely made me cry.

Haney 53:43
I’m sobbing right now. Um, I let me try my eyes here quick. I’ve learned so much about myself and about what I’ve learned so much about myself about community and friends, and just what’s really important, and it’s I know that sounds so stupid coming from our silly little podcast, but I don’t know that I ever thought I’m fucking losing. I, I don’t know that I’ve ever thought of myself as someone who’s capable of creating something that people would give a shit about. And it’s just been so amazing meeting people like you and like Tyler and other people who have just reached out to us on all of our platforms who genuinely care about Chris and his journey through this game and wanting to be there and be part of the journey is just so amazing to me. And it’s just something that like, I’ve always felt as someone who’s wanted to be part of that, like, as you know, like, I’m a huge fan of a lot of videos. games on a lot of bucks. And I’m usually part of the people that are wanting to be part of it. And just being on the other side of that and being like, creating something that someone cared enough about to send us a fucking picture, you know, a hand drawn picture or, you know, just nice messages on Twitter and nice messages in our Discord. And just like people who care about my general well being is just so incredible to me. And it just I think the community aspect is the most important thing that I’ve really learned about from this journey is just that there’s people out there who, even if they’re not super vocal At first, they do care. And that’s just been incredible to learn. And I’m fucking god.

Chris 55:49
I probably should have saved this last. Oh, boy. Let me just clean myself up over here. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, doing okay. I mean, so. So no joke. The top of my bucket list for life has been create something that Oh, create something that other people that make other people happy, right. And I guess Here we are.

Haney 56:17
We did you did it. I mean, we did it. You know, I’m kind of the the vocal piece of this part for season one. But I mean, this was all you man. No,

Chris 56:27
that’s not true. I don’t think either of us could have done it without the

Haney 56:30
other. That’s good. Neither of us would have done it without the other so but I do think I definitely would not have done this without you. I mean, you have been the person to keep me going to drive me for it to be like, dude, fucking do something with me.

Chris 56:45
That’s a very, very kind way of saying fucking I need you to do this. Hey,

Haney 56:49
yes, but it’s you know, it’s it’s what I need from from people that I interact with and work with is I need that sometimes that fucking handy. Can you do this?

Chris 56:59
But at the same time, I’m only an ideas person, and I need somebody who can lead the charge. And that’s where you come. So here we are. Oh, crazy. Fuck. God. Damn it. So, uh, this is from Tyler, favorite PC characters, player characters, party members. Kate’s Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s

Haney 57:24
okay. So, my love for Kade Seth originally, absolutely started as a joke to Tom and Chris, because the voice was annoying. Chris had a reaction. And I’m the kind of person that if you give me a reaction, I Will run it into the ground. asked my wife asked my siblings asked my mother. That is exactly. I’m the youngest child of four in my immediate family. That’s how this happens. Chris gave me that reaction. I love Kate’s F. Not just because of the reaction. But because beyond all the bullshit that we attached a case that’s like the stupid voice I gave him the being annoying and stuff. At the end of the day. Reeve is actually a true fucking hero. Like he is someone who stayed on the inside at his own peril, to be that person who defected and helped cloud and party out whenever he could. He did originally do some bad stuff, you know, particularly stealing the black materia. But after his initial flaws, he sacrifices himself to a degree in the temple of the ancients to stop sefirat from getting the black material or tried to stop stuff from getting in black materia. He is constantly the person who is still sticking up for people in mid Gar. He is the person who most often has those heartfelt, touched moments where he says something that’s really poignant and matters. And I genuinely, genuinely love Kate’s as a character. And I know that’s awful. And so many people are going to hate it. But I do think it’s really important that Kate still exists as a character in this game, because I don’t think the game would have the same pattern without him.

Chris 59:13
Yeah. Men going into this playthrough I definitely fell on the side of not like, Oh, fuck Kate, Seth, but like, I don’t care. Okay, so he’s a character. He’s a character. He has some of the best lines in the game, like you said, and to cloud and party, they wouldn’t probably be able to do what they do without him being on the inside.

Haney 59:35
He has so much Intel that he gives them like when like that joke, like throw away that we like, hey, Ki Aha. yahara talking. The next part that comes after that is pivotal to what cloud and party do

Chris 59:47
yeah. So as much as I give Kate Smith shit, honestly, I think he’s a great character. Yeah, I think is super important. I think he’s super good. He’s great. Yeah, like all the characters. But

Haney 1:00:00
I think all of the characters are and I think the two characters that surprised me the most of this whole thing I would have to say are probably, I might have to give it three years honestly arith was not what I expected at all. And it made it hurt so much more that I wasn’t prepared for her to die. Because when I started this game, I was prepared for death because I knew, I knew she was gonna die. And I was like, I’m okay with it. She’s just a caster. She’s just the healer. She’s just a supporting character. Like, she’s like, just just just just just. And every chance she got, she showed that she was so much more than just like, an incredible character and incredible woman and incredible love interest and incredible friend, like, she’s just so many things for everyone that I was not prepared for, or not ready to understand, really, I think going into this game that her death matters. And like she matters, and it was incredible to learn that. I think the other character that really shocked me was cloud. Because I went into this with a very fresh notion. See episode one here, I remember of what cloud was, and I was wrong. And I’m okay with admitting that I was very wrong. And I’m very happy that I was wrong, because now I can really appreciate cloud for who he is, which is a fucking kid who had a horrible life, you know, for the last couple of years, and now he’s just a man trying to make it and trying to figure it out and trying to do what’s best.

Chris 1:01:39
The fun thing about cloud is you had a preconceived notion. And that was blown out of the water as soon as he opened his fucking mouth. Literally, Episode Two.

Haney 1:01:49
Yeah, it was blown out of the water, because

Chris 1:01:52
yeah, yeah. And then you had a second notion. And that was fucking subverted as well.

Haney 1:01:56
Yeah. It’s like, Oh, okay. Well, he’s this cool guy. For the first I don’t know. 20 episodes? Yeah. Oh, no, he’s not. Zack is a cool guy. Cloud as a kid just trying to fucking be something and trying to know who he is. Holy shit. So good. Yeah. And I think this is gonna be so buckwild. But my last character that really surprised me was said, Okay, I forgot about said, I forgot about. Yeah, I thought you’re gonna say Barrett. personality wise. Barrett was for the most part what I expected him to be sure. Um, I think he’s, I mean, every character is richer than I expected, for sure. But I don’t think I was shocked by Barrett as much because I was like, Oh, I’m surprised that this is part of his life. But I’m not shocked at how he acts, or how he behaves or how he talks. Yeah. Because that was pretty in line with how he was from the beginning of the game. Right? The diamond stuff was definitely very shocking. But I think Sid, was probably the most surprising to me, because we both forgot about him in the beginning of the show. He’s one of the only other characters you ever play as that’s not cloud. But he’s also as much of a dickhead as he is all the time to everyone. He has a genuine heart underneath it all that you see a couple of times and when you see it, it just shines so bright, and it’s so perfect. And it just cuts through all his bs off his ass wholeness all his like, too much gene that he has, and it’s just like, wow, you’re really fucking good character. I want more of your said. More said.

Chris 1:03:31
So in response to Tyler’s first question. Kate says

Haney 1:03:34
Kate. At the end of the day, doesn’t it always come back to kids?

Chris 1:03:38
It’s an all comes up case if the top three moments from the game.

Haney 1:03:43
Holy shit. Yeah, I’m number one. Tifa revealing to cloud his actual past. I don’t think anything. Maybe nothing in a video game Will ever top that for me than the revelation to me as the player and the revelation to cloud the main fucking character from a support character. Yeah, that is bonkers. I’ve never seen anything like that in a video game. And just the magnitude of that reveal. of no Sephora. It’s not lying to you to completely completely Tifa is the Lord lying to you until that moment and then learning everything you know where you did come back to nibble home. You were fucking no one when you came back. You were just some scrubs that wasn’t fit to lick the boots of Sephora and Zach. That whole part. just broke me as a person like,

fuck. Yeah,

so that’s number one. Number two. When you first exit mid Gar make your way to calm and you get the flashback and learn about the nevel Hi, Manson. What’s not to love there. I mean, holy shit, what’s not to love and Then the third part is when Kate Smith sacrifices himself in the temple of the ancients. I don’t know why because it’s a fuckin stuffed animal and a robot. It’s not even a real character and he comes back within 10 minutes that still Will always stick with me. And I don’t know why but it really fucking stuck with me.

Chris 1:05:21
I, what I would throw out there is that it’s a kind of overlooked character who’s like, hey, even I can do something I can make a difference. I can help I can save the world myself in my own way.

Haney 1:05:33
I think that resonates with me pretty hard because I often consider myself an NPC and the world like I i’ve never considered myself a main character that resonates with me pretty hard. Close fourth would obviously be at its death. Yep. which I think was the first time I cried in the game. No now dying, I think was the first time wasn’t it? No, it

Chris 1:05:52
was Fred 13 did Oh, yeah. Nanaki is Papa Papa. Yeah. Worst three moments from the game. I can name one of them. I can name two of them. I know your two worst moments in her mansion. Yep. submarine time. Yep. Those were the two snowboarding Really? There wasn’t a worse moment than snowboarding

Haney 1:06:17
there probably was you know what? Walmart get Walmart it was disgusting. It’s been a long time since we talked about it but Walmart was great wait a minute

Chris 1:06:26
Walmart get or whoo Thai

Haney 1:06:29
Walmart get okay well market at least moves. I had the best of intentions. There was nothing good about while that’s happening well,

Chris 1:06:35
so we got to kill Don Cornell.

Haney 1:06:37
Yeah, does the squash tomato. Easy, easy, easy, biggest takeaway from the experience? If you give a shit enough about something, you can actually accomplish it. We’ve I think we’ve said it a million different ways in the past hour and a half. But we both cared enough about this to keep it going. And I think that’s my biggest takeaway is like, you know, like, for the last couple years as I listened to podcasts that you know, had that like little voice in the back of my head. That’s like, I wish this was me. I wish I was like, you know, the voice on the other end of the radio, someone’s driving and like, caring about what I’m talking about. And I don’t care how many people it is just one and knowing that there’s at least one. It’s enough for me and I love it. Beautiful.

Chris 1:07:19
Well said. cloudready says wait, are we near the end? Question mark? Yeah, we are collateral. Yeah. So fair brand. Which Final Fantasy? are you most excited to play next? I think that’s a big question.

Haney 1:07:34
I think I’m most excited to play either 10 or eight next, okay, cuz that for very different reasons

Chris 1:07:40
that encompasses crisis, core dirge of Cerberus.

Haney 1:07:44
I’m gonna discount those, because we aren’t going to play those absolutely as part of the FF seven compilation from the FF seven compilation. The next thing I’m most excited for is honestly at this point Advent Children. Sure. As far as games go, next I’m most excited about is probably dojo service, because I want to know what the fuck that game is about. All right. I have no idea what it’s about. Aside from that it’s about Vinson. And I’m hoping to finally get that Vincent, cool guy energy that I’ve been looking for that I just have not gotten to this point. Yeah, fair enough. Final Fantasy seven and compilation aside. I’m either most excited to play eight or 10. Next, okay, eight is my brother’s favorite. As well as the majority of my friends. Believe it or not that or not, Chris is their favorite. And 10 is my wife’s favorite game. And the only one she’s actually ever played. or her favorite Final Fantasy game, her favorite, because it’s the only one she’s ever played. But I’m excited to see what it was with 10 Yeah, why she became interested in that game at all. And then for a I’m so excited to see why it was so many other people’s favorite games. That wasn’t seven years after it was you know, basically the next thing that came after seven.

Chris 1:08:52
Yeah. Okay, so Final Fantasy eight or Final Fantasy 10 here Okay, here you go. Do you agree with the Eco terrorist actions of avalanche during the mid Gar segment?

Haney 1:09:02
Yes and no. Yes, in that I am very pro environment and very anti capitalist. So if they are just destroying property in the maker reactors of a fuck garbage capitalists, organizations, such as Shinra fucking more power to them. However, as seen with Kate Smith and Barrett’s argument later, when they blow up the reactors, they are actually killing Shinra soldiers as well. We see from cloud that he was just a nameless Shinra grant. We see a lot of other nameless Shinra grants who are just trying to get by, it was a job. They just wanted to provide for themselves, their family, whatever, killing those people was not right, and should not be justified, like Barrett tries to justify as a cost of saving the planet. So my roundabout answer is yes, I agree that defeating Shinra by destroying their property is absolutely viable. However, being careless enough to kill other innocent people was not a right action.

Chris 1:10:05
Yeah, I completely agree with that favorite and least favorite minigames

Haney 1:10:10
Lee’s favorite minigame absolutely submarine fucking absolutely the worst mini game mouth to

Chris 1:10:17
mouth

Haney 1:10:19
might take back submarine actually cuz mouth to mouth isn’t good let’s name some of the mini games to help me jog my memory Yeah,

Chris 1:10:25
so let’s start at the very beginning. squats squats very good very good. A plus did not hate the squats. Now even before that press the button at the same time.

Haney 1:10:36
I fucking crushed that nail that at me and first trashing that so the other day

Chris 1:10:41
stinking past the Shinra guards loved

Haney 1:10:44
that I actually really enjoyed sneaking through the Shinra tower. Excellent. I usually play a rogue in the end that’s all you really need to know.

Chris 1:10:51
Very cool. motorcycle. Pretty fun. It’s pretty fun. That was one of the stronger ones I feel like

Haney 1:10:57
Yeah, well that’s probably up there as maybe the number one Oh wow, that’s really fun. And I actually enjoyed playing it a second time when we went back and we’re playing it in gold crown

Chris 1:11:09
Yeah, gold corral. That’s what they call it. Yeah. Okay, so we got that we got mouth mouth was terrible. Now Strauss was terrible dolphin jumping off and jumping was terrible marching. Really bad. I was really bad. Actually.

Haney 1:11:22
Number one le bad marching and submarine might be tied for number one, but I think submarine was more frustrating.

It was definitely inferior. Yeah, snowboarding was garbage. But it was fun. No worrying. We got armwrestling numbers looks fine. We got ambivalent basketball throwing. No, I take it back. You know what the best one is? Not fucking mogh fucking that’s what they call it. mogh fucking might be my favorite. We got battle square news.

I like I like fighting but like, I don’t like the battle system. So I can’t read as my favorite but it wasn’t like bad by any means.

Chris 1:11:58
Chocobo racing check. My race is pretty fun. Pretty good.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:02
So I think

Haney 1:12:03
submarines definitely number one in the worst. And I think for the best toss up between motorcycle fight and Shinra guys while motorcycling and mogh fuckin know fucking well. I just thought the mogh fuckin was so wholesome. In the end. I was like it

Chris 1:12:17
was just Yeah, he just had a basketball.

Haney 1:12:20
It’s pretty fun, too. I after I figured that out. I crushed it.

Chris 1:12:23
Oh, there’s also the punching one.

Haney 1:12:24
I actually did pretty good. Yeah, that’s pretty fun. I think motorcycle riding was really fun.

Chris 1:12:30
Okay, motorcycle. That was a strong one. I have a favorite summon.

Haney 1:12:34
Hades, Hades, Hades, followed by Bahamas zero followed by

Chris 1:12:39
Bahamas zero over Neil Bahamas.

Haney 1:12:41
No, you know, I think I like Neil Bahama. Better than zero. He’s cooler. I think Hades, Neil Bahamas. And I think maybe Odin. Okay, this is from I have not seen the ones I missed, though, to be fair, so I’ve never seen that to the round. And I’ve never seen Alexander Alexander. And I think there might have been another one I missed, but I’m not sure.

Chris 1:13:01
This is from fair. Can you replay the game again and get the berry date scene?

Haney 1:13:06
I’m going to try my goddamn hardest.

Chris 1:13:08
Yeah, that’s gonna be hard for you. Because you’re gonna have to be a dick to earth and Tifa

Haney 1:13:14
Yeah, depending on how the switch version works. I’ll let y’all know. I might have Chris spin up a new channel called like switch walkthrough and discord or something. But I might try to get one of everyone. Excellent. I think it gets the habit in there.

Chris 1:13:29
So that harem under control. You know, I’m saying? This is from Lord jackpot. Oh, Penny, I hear that you look forward to 100% in the game in the future. I do possibly with the help of a game guide. Right here. My gift for completing the game. What area Do you think you missed the most in?

Haney 1:13:48
Honestly, I think junan Harbor, okay. I think either June harbor or mid Gar or the snowy tundra. I mean, I missed the the summon. But it didn’t seem like there’s much else there. I feel like I didn’t explore enough of Midgar early on. And I also feel like I missed some stuff in June on hardware, because there’s like instances in June on harbor where you run into the Turks playing poker at the table. What the fuck was that about? That can’t have just been nothing like I’m excited. I’m gonna go home and like flip through this. Figure out what that was sure. Yeah.

Chris 1:14:17
All right. This is a follow up. What area do you most hope goes much deeper once you get the chance to fully explore it.

Haney 1:14:26
I think Shinra mansion, which is crazy to throw out there as well. One of my most hated places, but I I hope there’s more story in Shinra mentioned about Zack and cloud and about Benson it’s not really so much of the location as it’s the characters like I want more of Zach and cloud. And I want more events and but also, the fact that the two main spin off games are about Zack and cloud and about Vincent, make me think that there wasn’t enough there and they realize that after the fact that they were like we should go deeper on those starting points.

Chris 1:14:59
Sure. Sure, sure sure. What area do you hope has no more to it than what you’ve already done? Not necessarily because you didn’t like it, but the core gameplay there is just not for you

Haney 1:15:11
either wall market because I don’t like the content or Casa Del Sol because it was so fucking boring.

Chris 1:15:18
Whoo that’s where you find Whoa, Joe lounging The highlight of an area should not have Hojo in the name at all. Favorite song slash track from the game? The World Map music that’s my favorite. Yeah, yep, very good.

Haney 1:15:34
It’s probably my favorite second follow up obviously one minute Angel.

Chris 1:15:37
Yeah, what would you do differently if you played again?

Haney 1:15:41
I would have Chris show me things that are not as clear I would explicitly ask for things that are not as clear so when we went through this Chris mostly let me play blind except for the two things we agreed upon beforehand. Were Don’t let me Miss Vincent. Are you fees backstories I think there’s other stuff in there I don’t know for sure. I’ll let you know. But I don’t know for sure how much more I missed but I would want to see more of things that I missed like some of the the less clear things as a complete noob playing this game where it’s like without a game guide it’s like I have no idea what I’m doing Yeah, I would want to not miss those things. But Chris was so can to get me a game guide as a congratulatory present for finishing the game so really no sweat off my back cuz I got to have a fucking great time with my best friend playing this game and making friends in the podcast and now I’m gonna go home buy it on the switch and play it again so hell yeah, I really not really a ton of regrets here.

Chris 1:16:43
Follow up with rude puppy. any interest in the remaster add on top which is definitely a remake not a remaster. Yeah,

Haney 1:16:52
I’m I think I’m most curious about what’s changed between the Oji because I feel like I have a solid grasp of the Oji now Yeah, sure. I haven’t played as much as everyone else but I played it boy have I played it so I’m really curious to just fucking loaded up and to see what’s different.

Chris 1:17:09
Yeah. So Lord jackpot separate from what his most favorite character. Who do you think has the most interesting or powerful character arc as in growth from point A to point B? cloud

Haney 1:17:21
cloud has the best character arc. He subverts so many tropes and also fulfills so many tropes at the same time. And it was so hard to pin down where he was going and what was going to be his deal for so long that I was genuinely shocked when I got to his deal. So yeah, for me, cloud had the best character arc.

Chris 1:17:45
That was the most important story spoiler for me to save you from

Haney 1:17:49
Yeah, and I’m so glad I never never saw it coming. Yeah, um, character surprised me. Kate says surprise me. It surprised me. Tifa surprised me. Buried even surprised me said surprise me. Yeah. But it wasn’t that their character arcs were surprised. You know, it’s just that my preconceived notions of them were so different. Yep. Cloud while playing the game, both blew away my preconceived notions and then also had an incredible arc to change who he fundamentally was from the beginning of the game to the end of the game.

Chris 1:18:18
Yeah. Crazy. Fucking bonkers. Love cloud. Pepper, but well, Puppy’s favorite weapon design.

Haney 1:18:28
And now I’m just kidding. I’m probably conformer Yo, no,

Chris 1:18:35
I believe he is talking about weapons. Oh, capital W weapon. Yeah. Oh,

Haney 1:18:39
actually, in that case, then. Ruby. Yeah. weapon.

Chris 1:18:42
It’s a good one. Ruby shocked me Yeah.

Haney 1:18:45
Coming out of the sand. I mean, that that’s no good. I know. I don’t like it either Ruby weapon or ultimate weapon? Yeah. However, if he didn’t mean actual weapons can former ups final has degrade design? I’m a huge fan of chakram

Chris 1:18:59
excellent. favorite character design, regardless of playable or non playable boy does that open it up? Rufus?

Haney 1:19:07
Good answer, because I am a former anime con kid. If I think about characters that I would want to cosplay. I could see myself cosplaying Rufus. Okay. I love the three piece suit like riff that they give him where it’s like he has a tux on or a three piece suit. But it’s a cool guy like fantasy three piece suit.

Chris 1:19:28
And he’s got a tentacle dog he’s got

Haney 1:19:29
it in shotgun his dog has shotgun if not him. Any of the Turks yeah fucking power suit with sunglasses. You literally cannot get better like rude. Elena and saying and actually no actual.

Chris 1:19:45
Who is your favorite boss and why was it last number also from Lord jackpot

Haney 1:19:49
Fuck you. Large jackpot, but not really because I care about you. But I’m my favorite boss. They’re all really good. It was not lost. Number I can absolutely assure you of that. I think specific boss man that’s that’s a hard one that’s a really hard one

Chris 1:20:09
um good question.

Haney 1:20:11
I think at this point it’s probably safer Safra really fucking cool design amazing music really hard but rewarding fight I think it’s probably safer for us at this point it’s not last number though I can assure you that I Will still have so much more animosity towards last number than say for Sephora forever

Chris 1:20:31
favorite non boss enemy design

Haney 1:20:34
any of the unknowns from the gal Nika alright fucking so cool

Chris 1:20:38
says oh cool there’s a lot of cool ones though we got fucking the ship

Haney 1:20:43
got yep gotcha yeah go ship it’s fucking really cool but the skeleton pilot we got my personal

Chris 1:20:49
favorite

Haney 1:20:50
yin and yang giving Yang was fucking terrifying. Tom berries are really cool marbles are really cool characters really cool dragons dragons are all really cool for me It might be a toss up between Tom berry King and specifically number two unknown to

Unknown Speaker 1:21:07
yeah

Haney 1:21:07
yeah creepy really fucking cool. I like macabre stuff so like having like a really fucking like haunted sunken go ship with a really scary enemy is very fun

Chris 1:21:18
you know the first enemy design for me that was like what the fuck is happening in this game was in it shinar Tower after Genova breaks out and there’s the bloody trail Yes, there’s these fucking like tea pot thing? Yes, the the far date you Yeah, yeah. What the Why Why? Why? There’s so many good designs. So this is a question from me. What has been your favorite dialogue slash line in the game favorite speech

Haney 1:21:50
there’s a couple that are really good. Kate sets death speech and the Temple of ancients is incredible. Yep fight me said speech after cloud is incapacitated is incredible. Cloud Speech of ain’t no stopping this train Ron is incredible. But I do think it does have to get a Cait sets that speech basically have like the I can do this like

Chris 1:22:19
not the facing off against Barrett speech.

Haney 1:22:22
That one’s really good too. I want to table that one. And let me replay it again and I’ll come back in my in my walkthrough okay, but it’s probably one of cases speeches because I think they intentionally gave case that’s really good dialogue to make up for literally the everything else about him.

Chris 1:22:42
Some broth also is quite good lines. Mary says I’m actually actually

Haney 1:22:47
sorry, back that up you know what my my number one favorite line from the entire game is? Back then I only got scraped knees. That is my favorite dialogue from the whole game.

Chris 1:22:57
It’s alright. Those are the questions from Discord. I have one question I believe from Twitter. And it’s a very, very easy one. From the tales from the cartridge. Oh, congratulations milestone, Hani. Do you prefer fully clothed? Sephiroth or shirtless? Sephiroth? inquiring minds want to know. I said there’s only one correct answer. I think you know what it is. Listen.

Haney 1:23:23
I stand by when I said I left Sephora, often naked and tied up. And that’s still where I live. Yeah. I constantly leave Sephora off naked and tied up in my heart.

Chris 1:23:31
Yeah, thanks. Sales voice. Yeah, bro. He’s said just started listening and caught up this week. So I apologize if this has been answered already. Are you going to play remake?

Haney 1:23:42
Yeah, sure. And as soon as Chris says, Okay. That’s that. So Chris, I have one question for you, please. Just one. Yeah. What was the most pivotal point of this podcast for you? In my journey to Final Fantasy seven,

Unknown Speaker 1:24:00
man.

Chris 1:24:02
So I think I have two. Okay. The first one is during the nibelung flashback. And if you don’t know we might touch on this in the director’s commentary episode. But that was actually one episode that we split into two different episodes. Yep. And for me, that was the moment you got most excited about playing the game. Because it was the first one that dropped like all that good good regarding suffer off in clouds past. And it’s the one that really hooked you into the story like you are enjoying up till then. But that’s the one that grabbed you by the balls and just really I wrenched you and think I say that or something to that effect during it too. Or during the talk through for that. But for me, I think that’s probably the point where I was like, oh, not only can we do this, and like, Can this podcast have a future past this point? I’m going to enjoy doing this too. I’m going to love this game and I’m going to enjoy learning what the fucking fuck is happening here. Yeah. So that was the first one because that was the one that grabbed you. And as my favorite game of all time, and one that has been very pivotal to my growing up, that was a really special episode for me. The next one was aerith. Because regardless of what you knew about the game, it’s you know, it’s still 20 years later, such a powerful fucking moment,

Haney 1:25:24
even though I was expecting it and knew it was gonna happen and knew it was gonna happen at that moment. Still surprising. Yeah. Which is bonkers.

Chris 1:25:33
So beautiful. Yeah. fucking good. And my third moment, just kind of personal Victory Slash pat on the back for me. Oh, when we recorded the director commentary, which you can find on patreon.com? slash for scatter? Sure can when you said you are really behind this style of podcast in the first place? Yeah. And you didn’t really see it working out as a format. Yeah. Yeah. I’m glad I convinced you.

Haney 1:25:59
I’m still shocked that it works out sometimes. I think we’re better writers than I think, than I thought we were going to be. And yeah, I’m surprised that this format worked out. And I’m extremely happy it did. Yeah, for sure. But I like that. And now, you know, you felt that way about the director’s commentary. Yeah. Which is also a little bit special for me, because the director’s commentary was my idea. So

Chris 1:26:24
I just I never knew that you were like, this isn’t gonna work.

Haney 1:26:27
I yeah, it was kind of just like, I don’t know about that. But I remember listening in the first episode of me like, haha, I can follow this. That’s weird. Yeah,

Chris 1:26:36
yeah. Cool. Good. Good. Well, I guess the last question I have for you is where the fact is first encountered go from this point?

Haney 1:26:46
Well, you know, I thought, Chris, yeah, it’s been so fun for the last year and a half me playing a game that you loved so much, that it might be really fun for us to play a little role reversal. You know, I’ve heard that that in therapy that they’ll roleplay Yeah, that helps with relationships, as they’re budding and blossoming and growing, rather. So I thought, Hey, you know, I spent the last year and a half of my life in absolute misery, wanting to know what’s gonna come next from this very exciting game from Chris’s youth. What if Chris played a game that he didn’t know about? from my youth?

Chris 1:27:24
I don’t know about that. Well, I don’t know.

Haney 1:27:27
What if we give it a shot? I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? So here’s what I’d like to pose to you, Chris. You

Chris 1:27:33
got to sell me though.

Haney 1:27:34
There’s this little independent game title from my youth called The Legend of Zelda. Majora s mask, never heard of it. His sequel to the video game, Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, I thought, you know, mudros mask was one of the games that was probably most formative to my youth that Chris hasn’t played because there are other games that are formative to my youth that you have played. But majority’s mask is in my top three favorite games of all time at a solid number two, and you’ve played my number one coronagraphs. But you’ve never played my number two. So what would you say to you booting up our old n 64. And playing a little bit of maduras mask.

Chris 1:28:16
You didn’t sell me until you asked me to play with your number two. Perfect. I know you’ve been wanting to do that for so long. Howdy. Let’s just get into it.

Haney 1:28:26
So what I’m suggesting here is why don’t we take a little bit of time off from first encounter, you know, two months, would you say? I would say maybe maybe like two months where we just don’t release episodes, we take a bit of a breather on putting out good content out into the world and play majority mask for the first time together on Mike in the same format. We played Final Fantasy seven, and then come back strong in September.

Chris 1:28:55
Yeah, September. Yeah. That sounds really good. Yeah. What if people just can’t get enough of the first encounter podcast? Well, you know,

Haney 1:29:05
Final Fantasy seven has made such an impact on me. I need to play the whole compilation. Yeah, but we’re just not going to have time to play it on our main feed, because we got to play majority’s mask. You want me to play quest? 64 we got all this stuff coming up that we got to play.

Chris 1:29:20
So what if we put out on our Patreon, the FF seven compilation played by Hani in the order voted by our patrons. You mean if you go to patreon.com slash friends encounter you can actually vote on which Final Fantasy seven compilation game we

Haney 1:29:37
play next. If you’re subscribed as a patron Yeah, why not? Fuck we’ve got Crisis Core, we’ve got dirge of my balls. I mean, they’re just service we’ve got on the way to a smile slash adventure children. So what if we put out there in this our final episode of first encounter season one listener go over To patreon.com slash first encounter, sign up for any tier that you can afford support us and our adventure in making this podcast happen for you, and choose where we go next with Final Fantasy seven. But hey, we get it. Sometimes, you know, financially, you’re not in a place to subscribe. I get it. I’ve been there. I’m here. Chris is currently here. Hang around on the main feed. You know, in a couple months, we’ll be back Chris Will be playing maduras mask from the hot seat. It’s not Final Fantasy, I get it. It’s gonna be a good time. It’s going to be a different time. We’re going to have a blast, though. Please come back and join us in September. Otherwise, head over to patreon.com slash first encounter. click that little subscribe button. Get that good, good content you’re looking for and just join us for this ride. Beautiful. Love it.

I am there. Perfect, Chris. I think with that. Yeah. All right. Well, fuck.

Yeah. Dana, stop in this train. We’re on bud. Thanks so much for listening. And we’ll see you next time. Bye. See you. Thanks so much for listening to the first encounter podcast. If you want the journey to continue please support us@patreon.com slash first encounter and tell one other Final Fantasy seven lovers you know about the show? Find our socials and contact info at first encounter podcast com Please stop by and say hey, our intro and outro music is by Alden. Zach