If you don’t know what my Diaries are, please go here. Spoilers ahoy!
Otherwise, let’s go!
Arriving in Costa del Sol means a bunch of funny scenes. I hope in Remake they don’t lose some of the anime-like silliness even when a crazed murderer is going on a killing spree and the de facto government is trying to chase Cloud and friends. Nothing like Barret admiring his sailor outfit in the mirror.
Also, I know Hojo has a lot of money, but have standards, ladies.
I wish Rufus was around so he could also tell Hojo to stop his stupid laugh. Come to think of it, Scarlet is an ohoho type, and Palmer is… well, Palmer. Maybe weird laughs is a requirement to work at Shinra? No wonder Reeve doesn’t fit in.
Morphing some enemies in the Corel area took a while since the dino-like enemy is resistant to physical attacks and the blowfish like to absorb HP.
Anyway, I get to the part where you can take the treasure from underneath some baby chicks or leave them alone. I chose leave them alone (which I normally do). Since I didn’t fight the new enemy there (spoiled from the item guide), I loaded my save.
DAAAAANG, I nearly blew through all my Softs. (Hoping they’ll be Gold Needles in Remake. The old naming system gets me every now and then.) But I got the Jem Ring I wanted, so it’s all good.
Fast forward to Gold Saucer. I always buy a lifetime pass on my first visit to save a little money in the long run even though it makes me temporarily broke. Not playing that basketball game to get one.
Cait Sith’s recruitment is the same, but he gives you 100 GP when he joins.
Cait Sith innate: gains MP gradually during battle and can exceed his max if at full MP
So, of course, I went and spent that GP on Speed Square. I knew it comes down to that air balloon, but I just couldn’t hit it. I’ve done it before I know. I should have saved before I went on a spending spree, and I even had to go play Mog House since I was running low on GP. Finally, though, after reading online, someone suggested just having the cursor in the bottom right corner where you can hit the propellers even though they’re offscreen. Sure enough, next time around:
Hope they don’t make Speed Square a hard first-person shooter in Remake, but I hope it’s more balanced than “hit one thing or it’s nearly impossible to pass”. 3,000 point prizes included a Syncher (changes party members’ row), Cactuar Gun (which, I learned after spending way too much time on morphing one, is NOT a gun for Vincent or Barret but a 1,000 damage item), and an Elixir.
Fast forward to Corel Prison. (Can you tell I find this whole section of the game dull?) Nothing much has changed. I went out to the desert to see the Sand Worms the people mentioned, but they weren’t bad, just a long battle. However, the little Cactuars nearly got me a Game Over.
The item guide I had listed a Boss battle above Dyne. When I didn’t encounter anything, I thought maybe the Dyne battle had changed. Well, it turns out, that was changed in 1.5. So Barret stumbled into the Dyne face-off with a less-than-optimal setup. Nothing like wasting a Materia slot on Morph in a 1v1 Boss fight.
But hey, Barret knocked a good amount of HP right off the bat thanks to having his Limit Break charged. (A coincidence.) Dyne had quite a repertoire though. I kick myself for not using a Dirty Bomb though. Probably would have Poisoned him and got some free damage.
You also can’t miss Ramuh now since Ester gives it as a gift. Anybody imagine her to be voiced by the same woman as Chocolina?
Now free with Manipulate and a Buggy, I decided to head over to Junon. (I also visited the Weapons Seller, but he wasn’t home.) Those Beach Plugs can be vicious. Big Guard now inflicts Reflect along with Wall, and it’s also a single-target spell. Definitely not a Wall replacement this time around. There were some funny antics with other Beach Plugs casting Ice2 on my party that now had Big Guard thanks to Manipulate. Bouncing Ice spells!
White Wind also costs 55 MP now. Harpy enemies cast Aqua Rake, not Aqualung, so no early Water spam.
The Mythril sleeping guy was pretty funny. Cloud goes in, and the guy says something like, “People are so rude! They want something from me while I’m sleeping then cause a ruckus by fighting eleven more battles! Here, take the two items and leave me alone!” Also, the guy in Junon DEMANDS to be bribed for the whopping sum of 0 gil. I love all these “screw it, don’t waste our time or money!” changes.
I also thought I’d try to see if it was possible to fight the Midgar Zolom at this stage. I’ll save the video for later, but the answer was no. And no, you can’t poison him.
KO KOunter: 19
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Hojo’s cackle is suitably villainous. When it comes to laughs he easily trumps Tidus/Yuna.
I hope headphones were allowed at Hojo’s lab. Otherwise, those scientists must have had their ears bleeding each day.