Haney 0:00
Hey listener if you like the sound of my voice now you’re gonna love where we go from here. We started in 2019 and continuously improve along the way. Thanks for coming along on the ride and there ain’t no stopping this train we’re on. Yeah. Although spikings on audition, those are probably fine, right? Yeah, that was good.

Chris 0:15
Okay, worst case scenario you have to cut out. Hey, welcome to episode zero of first encounter podcast. Hi,

Haney 0:23
how’s it going? Good. How are you?

Chris 0:25
I’m Chris.

Haney 0:26
Chris. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Delicious brewed coffee. So Chris, what brings you here to the first encounter podcast?

Chris 0:38
Fucking shit. What a disaster. No, no. Um, yeah, episode zero. I would say the story of one man playing through one of the greatest games of all time blind, while another man clings desperately to his misspent youth in the magic of said game. I love it. And

Haney 0:59
that’s what workshop is. That sounds accurate? I would say that I’m one of those men wichman I’m Hani and I’m one of the two. Yeah. I’m Hani and I have never played a certain video game that has put a huge strain on our friendship for the better part of two decades now.

Chris 1:20
64

Haney 1:21
Exactly. That was the game. Yeah. Fuck, I really wish I just played Miss Pac Man back in the day. But what game is that?

Chris 1:30
Chris? Can you remind everyone that Final Fantasy seven

Haney 1:32
Final Fantasy seven. Now the irony in that is that it’s not the final fantasy, is it? No, because there’s previously been seven of them that were all Final Fantasy six.

Chris 1:42
Well, there’s probably a bunch of other you know, yeah, the math is hard been often.

Haney 1:47
And then there’s been at the time of this recording another additional How many? Team core games? Oh, boy. listeners, as you can tell, I know very little about Final Fantasy. I am a pretty avid video game player. I would say.

Chris 2:06
When did you start playing video games? Oh boy. What age would you say you like five?

Haney 2:11
Probably. How

Chris 2:12
old are you now?

Haney 2:13
I am 28.

Chris 2:15
And you haven’t touched Final Fantasy? No whole series in general?

Haney 2:18
Uh, no, I haven’t game was I have the closest I’ve come is Aaron’s favorite Final Fantasy game. Kingdom Hearts.

Chris 2:28
That’s right, spin off new spin on the hot

Haney 2:31
new spin off. I’ve played Kingdom Hearts one and two. And that is and I’ve seen some some some films. And that is about as close to Final Fantasy in general, as I’ve gotten, I know that the franchise exists. I watched an anime once called Final Fantasy unlimited. That’s very fun. I think it shares a couple of pretty broad aspects with the Final Fantasy seven game in particular that we’re talking about, but as well as just the Final Fantasy franchise, but other than that it’s a very standalone series.

Chris 3:03
So what is this podcast?

Haney 3:05
So this podcast is the journey of me a video game playing big ol nerd who has never touched Final Fantasy seven. Going to play it fresh for the first time. We’re going to play it on mic and discuss it and hopefully see me either fall in love with it or continue to have a cold indifference that I’ve had for the better part of my life.

Chris 3:31
In which case these two best friends are

Haney 3:36
speaking of best friends. It’s been a it’s been a minute that we’ve known each other when you say yeah, two decades now something like that.

Chris 3:43
You don’t need to age Yes. Okay, that’s valid. We met in a while we met in first or second grade. You’re hanging out third or fourth?

Haney 3:50
third fourth? Yeah, I think like third grade. Yeah. And the bees happened to bees. Yeah, that’s a story for an entire different episode are not just never part of that’s part of your best man speech on my way. Boy, that was a struggle for me. By the way. You didn’t really well actually get compliments on your speech a lot.

Chris 4:11
Oh, that’s strange, but it was good.

Haney 4:14
It was very humorous. People liked it. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris 4:19
kept me up some nuts. I’ll tell you what, Oh, boy.

Haney 4:21
Yeah. So I appreciate it. And hopefully, there’s a time in your life where I get to also want to vomit my brains out. Yeah. The night before having to do a speech. Most nights probably I would say. I mean, typically I am constantly on the verge of falling.

Chris 4:39
Yeah, so you’re going to be playing for Final Fantasy seven. We’re going to be capturing live reactions as you play. Ideally, yeah. Final Fantasy seven. Yeah, this game, sir. It’s

Haney 4:49
so much about it. Yeah,

Chris 4:50
well, let me just say there’s when I was growing up, there were two things that shaped everything. I now enjoy. Like this is kind of this set the foundation of what I enjoyed today. All right, Final Fantasy seven was one of them. Okay. And you introducing me to manga and anime was the other one, though. Yeah, everything I like.

Haney 5:13
I’m sorry about that second one. Yeah, me too. Yeah, yeah, I probably would have had girlfriends a lot sooner. Well, I probably would have done

Chris 5:19
better in school. But yeah, it means there’s no way to describe it, but it’s the only game soundtrack I can just hear and start like weeping. Like it. It’s so deep in gray.

Haney 5:37
I know exactly how you feel because of my deep affinity for the LSD for Coronavirus. I listened to it frequently. I use it in dungeons and dragons as background music. Sometimes I just put it on and have a cry in the dark.

Chris 5:48
It’s

Haney 5:49
It’s hard being a millennial.

Chris 5:52
Let me let me tell you, it’s rough being a millennial. Hey, handy.

Haney 6:00
2020.

Chris 6:03
So what are you kind of looking to get out of this podcast as we play through the game together?

Haney 6:10
Oh, I’m looking for a couple of things. I’m looking to spend some quality time on my best bud. I think that’s very important for me, I’m looking to get Oh, I’m looking for an introduction to the Final Fantasy seven franchise that I’ve never heard the Final Fantasy seven game that I’ve never had previously. And hopefully we’ll get to enjoy and join this little segment of General nerdom that I’ve kind of been left out of sharing Chris’s affinity for anime and manga and video games in general. This was always one of those big barriers to conversation was when talk inevitably trans to Final Fantasy seven. My contribution was I played Kingdom Hearts, and I’ve seen Advent Children. Those things count. Right, Chris? And then you would

Chris 7:03
get shouted down by everyone else in the room? Yeah, I

Haney 7:06
was asked politely to leave several times, politely yet firmly, masked? That’s what I’m looking forward to get out of it. What are you looking forward to getting out of this?

Chris 7:19
Well, definitely kind of hanging out with you more as we’ve aged, it’s been kind of harder and harder to hang out in general with anybody. Yeah, I’ve done moved out of state for a while.

Haney 7:31
Don’t do that. Just move back. That’s the best thing you could have done?

Chris 7:35
Yeah. So definitely, that’s a part of it. The biggest thing for me is experiencing someone else experiencing Final Fantasy seven for the first time, because I can’t experience it for the first time myself anymore. that’s valid. So I’m looking to kind of reconnect to that magic somehow. And I hope that anyone viewing they’re not viewing or listening to these Will also be able to kind of touch that in some way.

Haney 8:02
I am definitely looking out to reach out and touch everyone listening to this.

Chris 8:10
We’re gonna cut that we Will not be reaching out and touching our fans. It’s not something you can expect from us.

Haney 8:17
I might. Oh, no.

Chris 8:18
My my third bullet point was what can fans expect?

Haney 8:23
You can absolutely expect me to reach out and touch you. I think I

Chris 8:29
turned it off. I’m good.

Haney 8:33
I would say that fans can expect, hopefully some comedy. I think both of us are very funny individuals, personally, which is probably the worst way to introduce yourself to someone is by saying no, I’m funny, I promise. I want people to enjoy getting to know us as people a little bit and hopefully developing a affinity for kind of what we bring to you know, their daily entertainment or their Weekly Entertainment or whatever that may be. I’m also looking forward to fans of this podcast just getting to either re experience that connection to the video game that you’re talking about. Or if they are like me kidding to maybe play along and join in on that first kind of path of discovery. My bar for this game is incredibly high after two decades of you hyping it up so it better be good.

Chris 9:31
Just remember it released in 97.

Haney 9:33
I mean, I I’ve seen the polygons. That’s great. Okay, that’s not a concern for me. I’ve grown up playing video games a long time. I love beautiful modern graphics. I love retro graphics. I love eight bit 16 bit 32 bit. I just like when people find an outlet to express themselves. I am somewhat of an artist at heart and I really appreciate when you can tell them And it was crafted with care and it might not meet, you know the standards of something like the Witcher three now, in terms of pure, just raw beauty. But from what I understand of how much care was put into this game, I think that Will show through a lot. And I think that’s probably a good chunk of its popularity is not just the fact that it has a good storyline, and it has, you know, for the time it had groundbreaking graphics, I think a lot of it is going to be, you can just tell the love of the creator’s while you’re playing the game. And I think that’s more important to me, honestly, than any sort of visual kind of gratification. Like, I understand it’s a game that’s 23 years old now. It’s not going to have the same graphics as a game that came out in 2020. Yeah, this is not

Chris 10:43
Yeah, that attitude should be perfect.

Haney 10:46
I think one other thing I would like to say about giving out to what I hope people can expect from this is, and this is, it’s always so cheesy to say stuff like this. But last year, early last year, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. And if I didn’t have podcast to get me through driving to the hospital multiple times a day to go visit her she was hospitalized for over a month. You know, to just kind of take me out of it. I was part of the discord channel that was for patrons only for a certain podcast that I absolutely adore. still am. That community was incredibly supportive during that time. And listening to those podcasts has allowed me to escape for 45 minutes to an hour every day when I was just waiting to get a terrible call from the hospital or waiting to hear what the prognosis is. I’m like the latest thing with my mom. Luckily, my mother has since recovered, but my love for podcasts was not slack after that, you know, I still really appreciate everything they did for me during that time. And I think having a good outlet for when you’re going through something just an escape. Something to make you smiles may make you laughs something to make you cry even you know, sometimes it’s cathartic to cry when you can’t cry about something else is, is really important to have. And I think you know, there’s a lot of podcasts out there. There’s a lot of movies, there’s a lot of TV, there’s a lot of excuses. But if you’re coming on this journey with us, and you’re here and you’re invested, I want you to have something to keep coming back to you and really enjoy it. Like I don’t want to just have like, oh, like their fan. I was like No, I want them to really feel connected to us. And I want to be connected to them. Yeah, for sure. To you listener,

Chris 12:27
what about me, you want to get

Haney 12:28
out? I’m trying to reach out and touch you if you’re just not letting that happen. Reach out and touch base around. Yeah, for sure.

Chris 12:37
And see what happens. Anyway, on that note. Yeah, if you’re listening to this, and there’s something that you do want to see from us, that we can give back to you or help you with? Let us know for sure

Haney 12:50
we’ll have channels for you to reach out to talk to us on social media platforms, etc. We’ll figure all that out. And, you know, also if there’s something you didn’t particularly care for, let us know that too. So we can continually you know, get better for you and get better for ourselves. This is our first attempt at a podcast. This is a very, we know that we’re not doing everything perfectly. We know that we’re trying our best we’re recording and my converted childhood bedroom with heavy curtains over the windows. And you know, this is something we’re trying to try and figure out and get better at. So yeah, let us know.

Chris 13:26
Having said that, if you don’t like it, fuck off. This is for us to

Haney 13:31
take your opinion. Put it in the garbage.

Chris 13:35
No, but seriously, seriously, please hang out with us.

Haney 13:39
Please, please. I’m so alone. I have one friend. He’s only my best friend because he’s my friend.

Chris 13:48
Yeah, why don’t we take a break then we’ll come back.

Haney 13:58
I’m going to need to just apply not just right up on here. Let’s climb over right into my nest right there. Just just live here. So right down. Yeah, I think that’s the best place to look. Oh no, we’re recording.

Chris 14:11
Welcome back. Whoa, I thought we take a few moments to talk about what you know about Final Fantasy, the Savage. How have you encountered seven so far? Three ways

Haney 14:23
I would say kina parts became hearts franchise. Sure. The whole Final Fantasy Adventure children, the film. And you flash. Excellent. So all of my information is either firsthand through playing Kingdom Hearts or seeing Ave children or secondhand through friends and Chris, who is also a friend.

Chris 14:47
Friends flowerama. parentheses. Question mark question. It’s a rough foundation.

Haney 14:55
Yeah. Let me tell you a little bit about what these these things have shown me please So I’m very familiar obviously, with all of the main characters of Final Fantasy seven.

Chris 15:07
Let’s name them.

Haney 15:08
Let’s go. So Cloud the absolute Hot Topic emo one 100%. Rockstar live in quiet solitude he sold soldier boy who Will never ever talk and is moody and upset all the time.

Chris 15:25
I wish my expressions could make sounds, people would understand how fucking livid I am about your understanding of clouds. I have a feeling

Haney 15:35
that anyone else who has played the actual game Final Fantasy seven is also feeling those feelings. So there’s that So Cloud, the female protagonist, who I believe does not speak often have heard he’s a silent protagonist. All right, and then there’s Sephora. Who is, to my knowledge, a genetic Angel, like a genetically created Angel. And I believe him and cloud are somehow clones of each other even though they look completely not like each other at all. Or they share the same genetic like, they’re they’re both clones of each other. Another thing maybe Zach, is that a name? That’s a name? Or this name? I’ve heard that name. I don’t know why, but I have heard that name. So character probably from you at some point. There is Tifa selfie.

Chris 16:31
Selfies a through selfie. Oh, you don’t give a shit about selfie.

Haney 16:35
Selfie. You know,

Chris 16:39
that’s 10

Haney 16:40
Okay, I’m getting real hard here. There’s there’s like two more? Well, you’ve listed aerith three

Chris 16:45
characters.

Haney 16:46
Eric.

Chris 16:47
Eric, this one? Okay. You’re not gonna say who Tifa is.

Haney 16:51
I feel like people with the character in some of the Kingdom Hearts games as well. But it’s been It has been a while since I played Kingdom Hearts. I played Kingdom Hearts one and two, and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories. So my knowledge of those people is just from that game. So Cloud is moody and email. Sephiroth has a really hard to be character who lives on the same planet as Disney’s Hercules.

Chris 17:15
Yep, but yeah, that’s that’s a fact. And Hercules hanging out all the time.

Haney 17:19
Yes, correct. Phil was there as well.

Chris 17:22
Yep. I’m putting my finger back down.

Haney 17:28
For a minute you’re like Danny DeVito voice them in the video again. I’m Danny DeVito

Chris 17:35
also voice in Sephora.

Haney 17:38
Oh my God, that’s amazing. Oh, actually, one thing I do know about Sephora speaking about his voice is Lance Bass from either m sinker the bass Backstreet Boys, I can never remember which our next podcast is how much can we remember from boy bands from the 90s got to be me. But I bet he may say Lance Bass was his voice. Yeah, remember that? There was also a vampire named Vincent. Big Red biLlahi. cloak looks like Dracula got like red eyes and a headband. He’s like,

Chris 18:09
just a jogger.

Haney 18:10
He’s like Castlevania. He’s just alpha his morning cardio.

Chris 18:15
Vampires don’t wear headbands.

Haney 18:17
Is that is that canon to vampire Lord? Yeah, I’m

Chris 18:20
pretty sure no sweating in general. But you said Eris as well.

Haney 18:24
Eris as well. And then not unit,

Chris 18:27
not unit.

Haney 18:28
There’s definitely another there’s Tifa aerith and eufy. Right up is the other one. She’s like ninja right up. I remember her she wasn’t an ninja. She was kind of cool. There’s Barrett Wallace. Who is a baller like Barrett

Chris 18:46
from a basketball fan.

Haney 18:48
Ball his life. He so Barrett Wallace is a guy. I think he has a hand cannon. I’m pretty sure he has the mega the Mega Buster from Mega Man. I’m reaching really hard right now.

Chris 19:02
I mean, it’s you’re not. You’ve been more wrong previously than you are right now. All right, he’s got a cannon arm.

Haney 19:09
I like it. There’s a corporation called Shinra.

Chris 19:13
You’re actually missing two characters still.

Haney 19:16
Oh, there is read? 13 Yeah, there’s a big red dog. I like to call them Clifford. Personally. Clifford, I believe is the last of his kind. I vaguely remember that from maybe Advent Children, but he was not in Kingdom Hearts. Neither was Barrett, or imagined buried in Kingdom Hearts. I mean, having a character with a gun arm I don’t know anything about Barrett. But having a character with a gun arm would have been sweet and so stupid people and yeah, holy crap. Some missing one more characters though. I believe it’s the giant cat writing the teddy bear. katsa right pizza.

Chris 19:49
Yeah, we’re how it’s correctly pronounced, which we Will not do throughout the series. It’s

Haney 19:55
cat like the cat that’s reading the teddy bear. And then he says, Lord sounds crass. If that is the correct term, that’s basically all it is. Those are all the characters that appear in it. There’s no one else. Except Don Cornejo, who I only know from a rap album about Final Fantasy seven excellent. That album black material by mega ram has several references to other to the characters. I have zero context for I have listened to the album, but I listened to it more as a rap album as opposed to a fan album if that makes sense. Like I listened to it for like the beats and the rhymes and stuff. I don’t actually know the plot of the game at all. I know there’s an evil power company called Shinra. And they are an electric company I think you know, like our very own Vermont electric Co Op or something. Watch out for them guys. He Will come show your power off you don’t pay your bill. Hani crooks. Yeah, who knew you had to pay for goods and services in this world? Hmm.

Chris 20:59
So I was gonna ask you if you could recap the plot of Advent Children, but it sounds like it would be a

Haney 21:06
mess. Oh, what we don’t want to dry I would love to so it opens up with a man. I’m grinning as I’m saying this because this is me stretching back to 14 to 15 years ago, and thinking about what was happening in that time. But what I remember is that opening up with a whole bunch of boys on leather and suits Penny you’re sweating having gang fight. One of them had a red hair and glasses sunglasses.

Chris 21:37
No, you’re right. That’s a character.

Haney 21:38
It’s a character. I don’t I suddenly am remembering that there’s more characters in that movie that I answered and I don’t remember who that guy was.

Chris 21:46
I mean, he’s from Kingdom Hearts.

Haney 21:47
Oh, the final thing so character. Okay, so this guy who is absolutely part of organization 13 started speeding up some some people on motorcycles with a baton for some reason. Also, this might be the plot of Akira. Free cafe. The more I think about it, the more that seems to just be getting mixed up with Akira after that. Class cloud C’s aerith in a lake. She has literally all I can remember and I don’t even think

Chris 22:16
recapping a plot you’re just saying that may or may not have occurred in the movie.

Haney 22:22
From what I remember. I think it was a the plot was something to do with the Power Corporation, the people who ran it I remember a guy in a wheelchair with like an illness is trying to revive Sephiroth for some reason. Basically, no wait, that might be the plot to Harry Potter. Actually, you know what? No, I’m done doubling down. I’m pretty sure that this movie was a direct ripoff of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire it’s true cloud did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire? Did you put your eye I’m pretty sure that this is a plot for the servant Shinra to cut off his hand and resurrect Sephora Yeah, the Dark Lord. Sephora is absolutely an angel and then the vampire is in like a crystal cavern at one point and then at the end of the movie, there’s a monster being summoned called behemoth of a hobbit Yeah, that’s what we said. Yep. And behemoth has to be defeated by everyone doing their power up move apparently cuz that’s how fucking movies work. I remember that that was actually a real part of it. Yeah, and just kind of bullshit. Yeah, well, yeah, that’s valid. Um, so they all do their special power ups and then they like all say like gum, but they clap sound as they like, give him a leg up to like, get up to the point where he can just like punch behemoth in the face. And Claire doesn’t say anything because he’s a silent protagonist. I genuinely don’t remember him talking. And that movie actually doesn’t say a whole lot. Like I’m pretty sure that that’s why that movie plus Super Smash Brothers not that anyone really says anything and Super Smash Brothers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. just tossing the entire time. Um, I believe that that and Kingdom Hearts is why I’m pretty sure cloud doesn’t say words. Yeah, and Final Fantasy seven. The other characters feature in the film at some point. I have heard this is one of those like, spoiler Snape kills Dumbledore things? I do know that You son of a bear. I do know that Eris or aerith I don’t know why I’ve heard both. But I have heard both. I do know that she dies in the game at some point, I believe. And it’s like for a good reason. Like she dies to like save cloud or to defeat Sephiroth like it’s like some sort of sacrifice or something. That might also be Harry Potter actually. And that basically sums up what I know Final Fantasy.

Chris 24:50
I think he got most of it. That’s pretty much the game.

Haney 24:53
So do I need to play it still? I nailed it right? And the podcast now. Okay.

Chris 24:58
Yeah. Let’s just about Final Fantasy seven in a nutshell yeah anyone who is listening doesn’t have to play it themselves you got all you need to know

Haney 25:08
oh I really if you’re listening and playing along for the first time please make me feel better and reach out and tell us so that we can play along together

Chris 25:17
Yeah, okay well let’s take a break and maybe we can jump into the game.

Haney 25:21
Thank you so much for listening to the first encounter podcast if you enjoy the show. It would help us out a lot if you just shared it with one other Final Fantasy seven lover you know, if you want to subscribe follow us on social media or get in touch. Check us out on spill potion, calm