My Reflections on Finishing Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

THERE ARE SPOILERS.  So if you haven't finished the game, skip reading this post.

So, it’s been eleven days since I finished this game. I had to give myself some distance from watching the ending since I was still a bit sensitive about it. Yes, I cried, I believe I said that already did I? I didn’t sob, but the tears kept coming during the ending scene and through the end credits.

I left off right before Zack was to enter the Portal called the Light of Doom. So I ended up going ahead and going to where Zack felt Genesis was. First there was a scene, and then the battle begins. Even if Zack has the Libra materia equipped, the number of Genesis’ HP doesn’t show. I just had to keep attacking and attacking. And not at Genesis directly: for this battle, his sword is the weakness. He doesn’t have it low enough for Zack to hit it all the time. And if that’s not enough, there are minions that try to slow down Zack’s progress of defeating Genesis. Sigh, this battle is going to go on forever, is it?!! I wouldn’t even know how finished I am since his HP won’t show. I kept using my Dark Firaga spell and Cissnei gave Zack the Lucky Stars ability multiple times. I used up my magic points quickly because Dark Firaga takes around 32 or so points at a time. Luckily I had plenty of Ether I gathered over time to help me out. I used an Elixir to save Zack’s life as well. Cloud was a good boy and helped out Zack as well, along with Angeal and, uh, Aeris.

Genesis actually helped out Zack in the DMW. How IRONIC is that for this battle?

After some time that I didn’t take into account, I finally won this fight against Genesis. But I only thought I was done; there was yet another fight Zack needed to win against Genesis. At least this time I can see his max HP: 99,999. WOW. The battle was speedy because I used Dark Firaga. I forgot if Graviga was effective or not. I would have to play the battle again and see. But the fight went very fast for me, too fast in fact.

I realized to my horror there were no more save points since the point right before the battles with Genesis. At this point I believe I’d finish the game that night. Looking back at it now, I see that it was not necessary to have any more save points. There would be no more game to play afterwards. It turned out I was right.

After another few scenes come up, and before I knew it, Zack was on the truck already. I said out loud, “Oh no, ohhh no, here it is.” All I could do was watch on. So I did.

Turns out, there is one more battle Zack still needs to do. And the developers (and Tetsuya Nomura, I have to guess) decided that he’d give players the experience of fighting Zack’s last battle, the one against the Shinra soldiers. This battle was very different though. As Zack fought, his DMW seemed to be malfunctioning. I thought that was really weird, but then I think it makes sense what the developers were trying to do making the DMW unavailable. I mean, it still appeared, but some characters were missing and there were no matches. Pretty much the only thing that the characters in the DMW did to help was Zack’s memory of them, saying to “hang on” and “don’t give up.” I believe it was Cloud who said “hang on,” but again I didn’t take notes.  :(  I think Zack was too distracted for the DMW to work properly, not to mention that he fought bunch after bunch after bunch of soldiers with no end in sight. I found a really good comment from someone on The Lifestream.net who explained the significance of the DMW’s malfunction. I responded to his comment, agreeing with him and thanking him (I put myself there as “Sara,” by the way).

LINK:  (This is the title of the post in which I responded to a comment in The Lifestream.net)

The Most Memorable Moments of the Compilation of FFVII - Part 2

I knew what was going to happen, but I wanted to have Zack fight as long as he can, because I wanted to fight as long as I can. I used my most powerful materia, slashed again and again, healed Zack again and again, and dodged attacks. I did everything in my power. There was just too many of those soldiers, and I felt as overwhelmed as Zack must have felt. I personally was fighting for Cloud, but as well as for him, Zack also fought for SOLDIER honor. It was just so touching to be involved in that part of the game, in this part of the story.

The last wave of soldiers was very difficult, with the DMW almost gone. I lasted as long as I did, and then it was the end of it. And then this rookie infantryman just had to walk up to Zack and look down at him, like “I’m going to fill you with more bullets,” and I was so angry. I saw it happen in the original game, but in full FMV from Zack’s point of view, it was so frustrating. There was nothing that could be done. Zack was trapped.

As for the finishing scene, well, I don’t have to tell you much about that at the moment. I always cry when best friends are separated by death, and that was the most painful example of it.   Maybe I’ll do an analysis of the ending scene of Crisis Core sometime in the future, after watching it again. There is so much to say about it and this post is long enough already :D Sigh.

Thus I am in a Final Fantasy VII craze phase.

@,@