Haney 0:00
This episode, the first encounter contains spoilers for the video game Final Fantasy seven. If you have not played this game, first off, what are you doing? Don’t be like me and second go play instead of listening to us. We’d also like to take a second just to remind you that we are in no way shape or form affiliated with or sponsored by square. Just a couple of guys trying to have fun with a cool video game. Previously on first encounter, the rest of this group known as avalanche takes off, starts running and I’m kind of left to face the music of finding some Shinra soldiers or Shinra guards. Glad you said. Oh, okay.

Chris 0:38
What you didn’t know we were blowing up the reactor.

Haney 0:40
Oh, I knew why not the reactor. I didn’t know I was blowing up the reactor. The countdown? That was stressful. Let’s get out of here. Oh, is this like an actual countdown? Could be? Oh sure is.

Chris 0:56
So you come into sector seven, and everyone’s reconvening at the seventh heaven bar.

Haney 1:02
This place is terrible. I don’t want the terrorist away. What are you

Chris 1:05
talking about?

Haney 1:08
A child of what I would assume is like seven to 10 years old is behind the counter of a bar mixing drinks in a terrorist organization. What do you mean what am I talking about? Now let’s press start.

What’s your drinking?

Chris 1:35
I’m drinking a all day founder’s IPA

Haney 1:38
Have you had this before? I have not so founders is great. The all day IPA session is one of my favorites because it’s super cheap for a 15 pack. And you can literally drink it all day. Like I think I drink six yesterday. Well fine. DND and was absolutely fine. That’s really nice. It’s really really smooth. It’s like low percentage without sacrificing taste.

Chris 1:58
Yeah, very nice.

Haney 1:59
Welcome to our beer podcast. Oh, is that not this one ship start over. Oh, Final Fantasy Am I right? Hey, man. Hey, you doing a pest? Mostly? I want to keep playing Yeah, and I can’t because we ended on a fucking cliffhanger. Oh, you’re such an asshole. Um, so so for that though.

Chris 2:19
Yeah, last episode we left off with you waking up from tifus bar about to roll out on your next mission with avalanche

Haney 2:25
That is true. But can we pause for a second talk about Marlene bartending again because I just really can’t get over the fact that we’re letting a child run a bar for a terrorist organization in a slum by herself just can’t let it go. It just seems you know,

Chris 2:44
it doesn’t seem right all right, man. Let’s rap about it.

Haney 2:48
So like you said, we ended we ended where we ended last time. And yeah, you know, cuz that’s the sense. So this time we booted up the game and picked up right where we left off. Basically we were prepping to get on the train head back and blood reactor five as our next mission. Before we did that, we did spend a little bit of time walking around the slum and bought some armor. Before we got to the armory, though let’s talk about that sad house to the right of Tito’s bar.

Chris 3:19
Yeah, just a sad little couple whose child has grown up

Haney 3:24
she did mention that he used to give us nothing but headaches when he was here, but now that he’s gone we kind of miss them. Are they missing a child but I go over and talk to pa pa? I wonder if my son’s already left? That’s just my wife and I hear you have no idea how long somebody gets and Jesus

Chris 3:40
she’s watching stetic I think she’s depressed

Haney 3:42
in all seriousness, I think they did a really good job of showing the Depression of the forms because you really feel like there’s brown liquor all over the place everyone is in a state of alcoholism depression like don’t give a fuck it definitely sends the signal that this is a place that is down on its luck walking around it more today and actually exploring all of the buildings that were there sign even more

Chris 4:08
it’s interesting that you’re picking up on this so much more than me because I’ve played it years ago as a child and I definitely didn’t like absorb any of these themes was going through the first time but yeah, we checked out the very sad house fairy fad house we also stopped by the item shop

Haney 4:24
What is this home I’m going in here Don’t tell me go fucking rabbit though. Robert blind no slow day this keeps up the sores guys just because no one has money here. Okay, so he’s a like pharmacist, more like Harmon assist. Again, it like as a like, I’ve worked in businesses that were like tanking. I mean, like retail businesses like exactly like that, like just a shop where you get two customers a day and like one of them probably is just using the bathroom. But I’m like, I get it. It’s just, you know, another cog in the capitalism. And that makes me really sad

Chris 5:01
anyway he is one of the few people in Sector seven who has a job but appears that is very true there’s a 10 year old child who’s renting out beds and his only room so he can make a couple bucks

Haney 5:12
What is your problem kid? Fuck she’s you read up on GIS Are you tired while you rest up on the third floor of my house? This is the only condition you got to give me some cash not giving yourself to shift Jesus this kid is aggressive Mr lanes pretending to be fair she does have a job she’s seemingly an accomplished bartender

Chris 5:36
kids are doing much better than the adults yeah

Haney 5:38
yeah for sure. He’s the son my siblings soda Yeah, I would hoard like if we got like soda I would like take one hide it and then we’re out resell it for like a couple dollars you know it’s like in terms of a cannon it’s like 75 cents. So we we headed up north from the item shop to blue weapon shop on the first floor at the weapon and armor shop. Now I’m in this place which is loud. What are you doing your weirdo? Hey, hey wait a minute you can’t just walk out of here without buying something might be unhealthy for you. I don’t want to buy anything from you. Same person so that’s the gun that he already that he just has right then grenades i’m not i’m not a big Granada’s not a lot going on in the town outside of just like kind of we can use this time to ramp up on items ramp up on weapons ramp up on metiria learn a little bit more about what’s going on the slums get some exposition I’m a treasure chest it’s talking to me that’s good. This is so awful.

Chris 6:50
The thought that you can get to this point without saving or opening a treasure chest is baffling to me Oh wrap with you for why

Haney 6:58
did he really say all wrapped with you for a while?

Chris 7:00
Yeah, he’s a cool guy.

Haney 7:01
This is the most 90s interpretation of a cool guy. Like the dog though cute.

Chris 7:08
Okay, so opening your material in you fuck me.

Haney 7:11
Oh no. Oh, no, I’m sorry. Dogs in on this Oh no. Oh, oh fuckin leaving. Yeah, this is the worst place I’ve ever been. I did decide to go exploring a little bit before getting to the train platform to meet up with the rest of the party and kind of got into Thomas the Tank Engine graveyard there and

Chris 7:34
it was fun. Just a couple of random and random encounters

Haney 7:37
and nothing else. I’m in a bus the down train yard that looks like Thomas the Tank engines graveyard trying to see if I can get into any of these busted old How do I want to get over there I think because that looks like an interval door. I can get into a random encounter here. I hate the things he’s awful are experiencing just what a mess ended up going back to the train platform and we got on the train.

Chris 8:05
Let me try saying that again. For the train as you do not want to mix anyway. So we hopped aboard the train. Barrett kind of runs in scopes out the area scares a bunch of people out of the car getting real

Haney 8:19
aggressive with a Shinra mid level employee, mid mid level manager. Like I was his title his general manager like what what is that train manager you know, you know? And then friggin alarm bells start going off. Yep. And that’s when we learn that there’s an ID check and we’ve been using fake IDs up to this point and Jessie was supposed to make us good fake IDs that were gonna work better but Jesse done fucked up.

Chris 8:44
Yeah, she goofed pretty harsh.

Haney 8:45
Jesse is on strikes you for me because strike one Let me tell you this when she got her frickin foot stuck in the mega reactor and knocked off like a minute of my time that’s fair. Trying to get out of the frickin maker reactor is a very precious minute for me. It mattered at this point panic sets in for me because there’s another freaking countdown and if you’ve been listening, you know that I don’t like countdowns, and these are incredibly short countdowns. 15 seconds to move train car to train car. Type a security alert. Unidentified passengers can burn search all cars Will be conducted. Someone blew it. Let’s go keep it up. Oh, no, another tech countdown. lockdown upgrading the level to one. Darn it. Ah heck. Oh, shoot.

Chris 9:33
Just like your first countdown, but more aggressive. Oh my god, some flashing red lights.

Haney 9:37
It’s so aggressive. I’m so stressed out. I would like to go please. Oh, that’s fine. Oh, I’m so scared.

Chris 9:47
Yeah, so an alarm starts going off red lights start flashing, and you’ll have to run through the train car by car to get through each checkpoint

Haney 9:55
before your car and you get 15 seconds per train car. And there’s so many people you’ve run out And it’s like I want to talk to them but I don’t have time. Also someone mugged me. But we ended up making it to the front of the car through a couple of what is that? Three checkpoints? I think we have Yeah, I think three cars and we find Jesse dressed up as a male Shinra guard. Oh, that’s Jesse.

Chris 10:18
Do I look good in missionary uniform?

Haney 10:20
Like I’m yeah, I’m so happy I think Jesse yo ain’t no time to waste do something. Like what? losslessly I’m going to jump. You don’t care if I go first leader always stays. Don’t worry about me just go off here. It’s so cool. It’s pretty good. Getting your spike Yasser.

Chris 10:41
He likes me. Tifa leaps off the drain.

Haney 10:44
And then cloud leaves off the train. Barrett Barrett says he’s gonna stay behind because a good leader always stays behind and bear

Chris 10:51
it’s nothing if not a good leader.

Haney 10:52
I actually really do like bear jokes aside, I do think he is a generally good leader. He seems to be pretty quick to anger. But

Chris 11:00
yeah, I don’t know if I’d call him a good leader yet seems like a good dude.

Haney 11:04
Yeah, I don’t know. He seems to inspire a lot of confidence in his underlings.

Chris 11:09
He’s got a good heart.

Haney 11:11
bless their heart.

Chris 11:12
His child is back in the bar running it while he goes off to blow up a reactor valid kinda reminds me of Hagrid a little bit oh no why

Haney 11:21
oh my god that’s incredible you know I mean yeah just like the like he’s really nice. Really strong really good like good hearted, but just like does stupid shit. Yeah, I totally get that

Chris 11:35
um, you jump off the train you land in the train tunnels? Yep. Good so far everything’s going as planned sorry I was dancing

Haney 11:43
to the sweet ass music and keep dancing ain’t gonna stop you don’t let your guard down until we get to the sector so we’re gonna bomb sector five reactor today

Chris 11:51
I can yeah we are the actors just down this time run through the tunnel get to events show

Haney 11:57
oh right the vent shaft so we get to the vent shaft my favorite little bit there was buried like I’m not fitting down that thing I know we’re not going in there. Are you telling me to squeeze into that to get under the plate? No way

Chris 12:11
it’s one tiny hole.

Haney 12:13
We’re gonna die today.

Chris 12:15
Finally,

Haney 12:16
I’ve been waiting. Don’t be wasting time never know when the general fund what a contraction that is the Shinra apostrophe l l old general find us calm you just got to go down but damn man that thing gives me the chills. Oh beret. So we eventually go down this hole to kind of bypass the Shinra laser checks which is an identity checkpoint to get through this particular part of the tunnel, climb through and end up back in like in the reactor at this point

Chris 12:49
and get into a couple of random encounters lots of fish and there’s a lot of fish you know how there’s fishing in your nuclear warehouse that you want to beat the shit out of? Yeah.

Haney 12:57
Oh my god. They’re actually pretty tough villains. Hell bubbled you. Yeah, a lot. Bubbles. Bubble body bubble blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Chris 13:09
I have to cut that for licensing reasons.

Haney 13:16
These are some really strong fresh

Chris 13:19
think you just cast fire and cloud?

Haney 13:21
I did not know I could do that. Shit. What a treat.

Chris 13:26
That’s the most damage you’ve taken since the guard scorpion. Good.

Haney 13:30
fisherman a lot stronger than me. What do you just

Chris 13:33
had cloud attack himself?

Haney 13:36
I’m doing okay.

Chris 13:37
What is happening health

Haney 13:38
disaster. Me I used Barrett to cast fire on cloud because I fucked up and then I had to cloud punch himself in the face. He was confused which was interesting because this is also a game I was not expecting to have friendly fire like that. Like it seems like you just safeguard against that as a developer

Chris 13:59
there’s a couple reasons you would attack yourself various circumstances where don’t go too far into it but yeah, just there’s reasons Okay,

Haney 14:07
we’ll get there um, this was not one of those times

Chris 14:10
it was not you were just hurting

Haney 14:14
me is confused hurt itself in its confusion um we did meet up with Jesse again at one point we climb up a ladder and Jesse is hanging out there and and I got a little aggressive because I was kind of mad at her again because countdowns and my stress level just I don’t need that, you know. Not pester Jessie for fucking up our ideas and almost Gideons calm train. If she doesn’t do better next time. I might kill her.

Chris 14:41
She was photoshopping you real good.

Haney 14:43
I think Photoshop was the thing on this game was made what I think it might have been

Chris 14:47
Adobe Photoshop the hit New.

She explains that the reason the checkpoint. disaster occurred is because she tried to make clouds ID special.

Haney 15:03
And at that point you see, I believe it was bigs off to the side. I decided to go down and talk to him for a second he basically just says like, oh yeah this way to blow up the reactor like I’m gonna head back to the hideout pull it out somebody call out and meet up at the hideout. Cloud We’re counting on you so is everyone just leaving me to face the fucking music and blow up the reactor? Yeah, I swear to god if I have another countdown on this and Tifa Don’t forget Tifa you sexist pig.

Chris 15:34
This is the first game that utilize countdowns. JRPG Really? No. Oh I mean it could have been

Haney 15:44
so much. So then we go into the maker reactor and the maker reactor is basically a mirror of reactor four which makes sense. So I went and saved healed up ready to get into a combat with I assumed it was going to be another guard scorpion. I assumed wrong we walk in and this is where the fucking coolest shit happens. Start walking in the screen gets this little bit of a red tinge to it not as red as like the alarms in the train but like you get this really like tinge to the screen like the sepia note that’s just like hey, pay attention to what’s about to happen. Cloud starts gripping his head and drops to his knees and seems to collapse and you start hearing voices and then you get to a flashback where cloud is kind of the only way I can think of this is you know the holy shit

Chris 16:43
I’m not sure

Unknown Speaker 16:44
the fucking the thing where you put your memories into it and you oh shit Why can I

Chris 16:54
not the pensee

Haney 16:55
mc Yes. Oh my god so we make a lot of Harry Potter references on this podcast but it reminded me of the pensive and Harry Potter because cloud is like within a flashback like when Harry goes into the pensive in book four and sees Barney crash juniors trial

Chris 17:11
spoilers spoiler warning for both Harry Potter and and Final Fantasy

Haney 17:16
literally everyone has read Harry Potter and played Final Fantasy.

Chris 17:20
Well, not the populace guy.

Haney 17:21
Oh yeah, that’s fair. Or me because I haven’t played Final Fantasy. Um, anyway. The kind of little pensive trip we take um, we see a younger Tifa Oh my god. Am I seeing tifus father being killed sepher off. What? Does Zephyr off do this to you? Oh, no, those suffer off soldier maker reactors. Shinra. I hate them all. So is this is after the promise, I assume. But before now, and we see a slain dying man at her feet. And she just says Papa, and at that point, obviously we’re seeing her father’s death in a flashback and knowing that she also witnessed her father’s death. At this point. She sees the sword and I kind of knew a little bit just because of Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts. That sword is probably set for us. I am so hot right now. I am so stoked on that. That was the coolest shit on Earth. That was such a good I was just expecting to hear another voice on the screen that I was like oh time for surprise splice again. Now I’m not even sure that Zephyr off the first time I’m very just all over the place. But obviously something is wrong with cloud or something with Maiko makes cloud react at that point we hear Barrett saying like Dude, pull yourself together. Wake up, set the bomb this time thank god there was no timer so we’re free to kind of lead our way out I think we had another couple of encounters nothing major. I’m gonna Limit Break.

Unknown Speaker 18:59
Oh, wasn’t good for you too. Oh, no.

Haney 19:08
Deadly waste.

Chris 19:09
Take your word.

Haney 19:11
Someone say when I use the restroom, that’s also the reward I get. We get to an exit point after working our way back to the reactor and out into the tunnels where we run into some guards coming on screen from the left. Were coming from the right and I was fully expecting suffer off the lockout and not gonna lie. I was like ready for it?

Chris 19:32
Well, first of all, you would never hear Sephiroth coming.

Haney 19:35
Shut up. Nothing personal kid teleports behind you.

Chris 19:41
That guy

Haney 19:43
and we get footsteps and a man in a red suit comes out Maroon suit, red suit. Sure. Yeah. Oh no. Oh no. Shinra soldiers and they’ve seen our face now. We’re gonna have to commit a murder a trap. Oh, no, they said trap for us. Oh fuck that’s ominous. Oh shit. President Shinra Alright, President here is the president. This is probably a stupid question because I think Shinra his power is way overreaching? Is president, shouldn’t it just the president of the company or as he president of mid Gar, as well? Or is the only answer that just Yes, yes.

Chris 20:25
We’ll just leave it at Yes.

Haney 20:26
I figured it was Yes. So your president Shinra a long time No, see, sir. Longtime this you want to quit soldier and joined avalanche I need been exposed to mayco from the look in your eyes. So the look in my eyes or the like actual color on my eyes? Don’t tell me. Tell me Schrader, what was your name? cloud? Forgive me for asking. But I can’t be expected to remember everyone’s name. Unless you become another Sephora off. Sephora. He was brilliant. Oh, all I wanted. He was brilliant. To brilliant. don’t give a damn about none of that. This plays going up with a big bang soon. z All right. you’re beginning to bore me. Oh, fucking hate Shinra have made arrangements for a playmate for all of you. Oh, here we go, boss. So the President walks out is like, Oh, it’s you. I don’t remember your name. But I know you were one of my former employees who quit to join the little center is the organization avalanche. And he’s like, very snooty, very shitty.

Chris 21:34
I’m not gonna lie. As a bad guy. I really like prediction.

Haney 21:37
I am intrigued to see more because I was ready just to have saffer off as the main villain. I wasn’t like expecting more people to come along. So president Shinra I thought may have been a character from Admin children that I remember. I don’t remember who he is. But he’s somehow involved with Shinra he has I think silver hair or white hair and he is in a wheelchair. But I don’t remember who that character was. I thought he was the president of Shinra Corporation. But we’ll we’ll find out when either we play through this game or we watch Advent Children, which God I’m really not looking forward to the more and more I played this game, like I’m just gonna get so fucking mad at that movie.

Chris 22:15
I’m looking more for. So the President general walks out.

Haney 22:20
He did say a couple of interesting things to where he just kind of stood out to me where he says like, Oh, this is from soldiers, like weapons laboratory. And I was like, why does the power company need a weapons development program? The other thing that stood out to me though, was what he said about I can tell that you have been exposed to make I could like see it in your eyes saying that I was trying to like is he saying like, Oh, you’ve got the eye of the tiger kid like I can see in your eyes kind of thing. Or you know, more like, like, literally, like your eyes have a color or a pattern or something that has been altered by Maiko. And if that’s the case, maybe it’s why cloud reacts so strongly when he’s next to a reactor because I’ve only seen him react that close to make when he’s at the heart of the reactor. So obviously, there’s something with cloud there’s a connection with cloud Miko, and Zephyr off that I’m just very excited to learn more about. At this point, though, Sharon is like listen, babes. I got dinner. I got split, and I’m gonna fucking send my Voltron to murder you brings on this lovely robot who I actually did pretty well against in the fight. I was surprised I think I’m starting to get the hang of the battle system, which was was pretty exciting. Like, act like a big tough piece of shit. And then like the president is like Yeah, what’s your name? Your The other piece of shit.

Chris 23:43
Alright. I gotta kill Voltron. To be fair,

Haney 23:48
he’s a very busy man. program one operation big bomber get fucked. That’s gonna hurt as a man. Ooh. Oh, that was quite a bit of damage actually. skin so fun. I think I did pretty well in the fight. The fight wasn’t really all that eventful in any way. Just kind of got through it. And then, unfortunately, when we finish the fight, the fucking thing blows up blows the scaffolding beam we’re on in half, and we are on clouds on one side of it. And Tifa and bear on the other side. And cloud is hanging on there. It’s like Tifa we gotta go. And I was like, seriously, you’re just gonna leave him there. And he was like, can you do anything? He’s like, No, not really. Cloud You good? No,

Chris 24:33
not a damn thing I can do.

Haney 24:34
Yeah, clouds like yeah, I guess I’m good. That’s fine. I’ll be all right. Oh, Cloud Save him. It’s gonna blow let’s go to bear. It’s gonna leave me here.

Chris 24:45
Gotta get out, man. It’s gonna blow

Haney 24:47
barricades. You something? Not a damn thing. Cloud. Please don’t die. You can’t die. There’s still so much I want to tell you. I know. Tifa Hey, you gonna be all right? Oh, I gotta be strong. I’m fine. Take care of Tifa Sorry about all this stuff talking like this. Okay, hold on. Are you ready for this shit? No. Oh, fuck, cloud. Share this is going to be so cool.

Chris 25:16
I bet you thought you played this cloud the

Haney 25:19
clouds not dead. At that point, the reactor blows as Tifa Barrett run off screen and cloud starts falling. As we’re falling starts fading to black. And that’s where Chris made me turn the video game off. Yeah,

Chris 25:34
this is we’re gonna stop the second episode. God dammit. Yep. No, I’m serious. This is the story beat that we’re stopping it.

Haney 25:42
I’m going to beat you up. So Chris, how you feeling so far? Good.

Chris 25:47
Um, it pained me to stop at where we did. But I thought

Haney 25:50
oh, I paid you who knows already exactly how this is going to go.

Chris 25:54
Last week as I know everything that’s coming up. Oh,

Haney 25:56
I’m so excited. This game has just hooked me so hard. already. I cannot wait to play the remaining 69 hours. It’s there’s a lot that happened today that made me really enjoy the game. Like we’re talking about a little bit. I really like how bad the slums feel when you’re there like, wild cloud feels at home there for whatever reason, I’m not really sure. I feel like we should be a little more ostracized as a member of soldier but like everyone seems pretty welcoming. which honestly is pretty indicative of people who are down on their luck just being better people than people who have everything. This is quickly becoming an anti capitalist. But we so I really like just kind of how the slums are portrayed and how it’s like definitely a community definitely close knit. Everyone seems to be looking out for each other. But it sucks to be there still, like I get that I feel that um, the other things that stuck out to me, were president Shinra I’m very intrigued just to see more about him. Obviously the stuff with Sephora I’m very keenly looking forward to learning more about teeth his backstory was a little more tragic than I was expecting. I wasn’t expecting a lot from Tifa To be honest, but I’m actually very pleased that she has her own backstory her own development there’s just so much to look forward to in this game I’m having such a blast playing

Chris 27:20
it one thing I love about this game that we haven’t touched on too much you kind of remarked a little bit the monster in enemy design and this is so fucking weird and creative I yeah, I

Haney 27:34
don’t want to say it’s bad because it’s not bad it’s just odd. It goes all over the place. I don’t understand. There was one enemy we face today that seemed to be a bundle of office supplies stuck together with a windmill on top. I’m used to playing games with with odd looking enemies Yeah, like one of my other favorite games is Skies of Arcadia, which Chris Will be playing at one point and when you’re at sea, because it’s a game about pirates. You’re at sea quote unquote in an airship

Chris 28:04
See,

Haney 28:05
I hate you. There’s air fish which makes sense however less air fish and you’re just cold birds

Chris 28:13
air fish

Unknown Speaker 28:20
literally designed like fish you fuck I’m gonna be driving tomorrow and I’m gonna see a bird I’m just gonna scream airfare

Chris 28:33
so there’s some more March airfare

Haney 28:39
but yeah, I’m very very enamored already I’m having a blast. I just cannot wait to see more. I really I’m wondering I wonder if bear it’s always going to hate cloud because I just assumed they were best friends like when I started the game like and by when I started the game I mean before Berra opened his mouth and was like fuck you soldier punk.

Chris 28:59
Culloden beret running across the beach holding hands

Haney 29:04
that song in the background the

Unknown Speaker 29:05
Denton 10 tenten

Chris 29:08
that’s all my sounds like in the least

Haney 29:10
I do the still you have to listen to him. But yeah, that’s that’s what happened today on first encounter and it was a blast and thank you all for joining us and we’ll see you next time. 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 again. Check us out on spill potion calm. Hey guys, if you’re playing along with us at home, we’re gonna pick right back up where we left off here and we’re gonna play up through Don carnales entire just nonsense. That’s Yeah, he’ll, you’ll see when we get there next time. Thanks for listening.