MARREND'S PROFILE

Well, I suppose you could, in theory, make a duplicate world map that has the modified encounters. Though, that kinda sounds like a pain to deal with to ensure all the town/dungeon exists go to the "correct" world map.

An alternate idea (and arguably the one I should have thought of first), would be to set up common events as your encounters instead, rather than using the map's encounter-table. If you insist on not having encounters on-screen, and using a by-step method, you'd need, at minimum, three variables. One that keeps track of the player's current step-count, another to keep track of what step-count to trigger the next encounter on, and another to determine which encounter will happen when the two other variables meet.

I'll concede that this wouldn't be the first time the featured game hasn't been updated. However, I'd rather avoid that situation, if possible.

As for what's happening now, we shouldn't be in a position to not feature a game. If nothing else, there's a running list of games to feature here in the case nothing else notable comes forward. There's also three users (maybe four if anky can do it) who have the access to set what the featured game is.

*Edit: I also have to wonder if stuff like not updating the featured game (or simply not having one), is going to affect the Misaos. The current vote-count is 457 as of this writing, and the season is half over. The season with the least votes on record was 2009 (I'm not counting last year, because I know that was done off-site), at 737 votes.

I dunno. I suppose those numbers will speak for themselves, when the time comes.

Sorry for piling on, but, while the front page cycle has changed, why keep RMN's Australian Christmas at this point? That slot probably should have been replaced with the Misao reminder, while changing the Featured Game. Could there be at least some explanation behind the decision for why the front page cycle was changed this way?

Last time, our heroes were split up, with Barret taking Tifa as far as from the reactor as possible. Meanwhile, Cloud took an involuntary dive down to the slum level. Thankfully, since Cloud is a SOLIDER, he survived the fall. It's not like he recovers instantaneously, but, I'm not entirely sure how long it does take him. Regardless, when he comes to, he finds himself face-to-face with that flower seller he met from the beginning of the game, in a bed of flowers.

Let's take a bit of an aside here to rely some info. This aside is pretty lengthy, so, I'm putting it under a hide-tag for those that want to move along. However, I will note here that I've set the difficulty down to "Easy" after that last boss fight.



I'm getting the particular impression there will be some down-time this chapter, and some side-jobs will open up. Well, that might happen later, but, for now, Cloud's stuck in the church until the next event clears. Which involves talking with the lady, and having some guys that look like trouble barge in. Naturally, Cloud has to clear these guys out. I probably could have done a little better during that fight, though.

With the group down for the count, the pair make their escape, with ghosts leading the way. Which is a phenomenon both Cloud and his charge are wondering about, but, it's not like they are in a position to ruminate about it. After having evaded the danger, at least for the moment, Cloud gets the flower peddler home. There's a segment where the two are on the rooftops, and can only go in single file before reaching the ground level. Which, naturally, is infested with monsters. Not entirely content to let Cloud do all the work, the flower peddler, Aerith Gainsborough, joins him in battle.

As the two approach a more residential portion of Sector 5, a group of people are surrounding an outdoors, large-screen television that is airing a report at Mako Reactor #5. The report states that crews are still cleaning up from the fallout, and that the reactor, itself, will be offline for the foreseeable future. Now, personally speaking, I wouldn't expect a sabotaged reactor to be back online for months, if not longer. Anyway, a Shinra executive arrives on site to supervise. Or, maybe just checking up on the progress of the clean-up. Either way, the reporter flags down the exec, and a statement is made to ease the nervousness of the people. However, that exec doesn't exactly answer questions posed about the possibility of another potential attack, or what Shinra plans to do about their possible presence in the city.

I find it interesting that the reporter mentions how Avalanche is responsible for the destruction of Reactor #1 and 5. Which is basically true. However, the only response made to such queries is that Shinra will protect it's citizens. Perhaps if it was left at that, it would be enough. However, the poor sop that was working the camera was tripped over, or something, and then the feed was cut short due to a guard butting in. Which might not have been be the best PR move for Shinra to take.

Anyway, the pair moves through town, with Aerith being asked to do some volunteer work for a local orphanage. Cloud begrudgingly agrees to go with her on this errand, and does not care to enter the building for when it's done. With Aerith saying that "I might be a while", one might thing that might trigger some side-questing. It does not. So, it's either going to be later this chapter, or maybe next chapter, at this point.

Moving along, a guy, who kinda matches the description of #49 that we meet in Chapter 3, has been creeping out some of the kids. Aerith and Cloud peruse the rumor into a scrapyard. They don't find the guy, but, they do find some kids out on a floating platform. Cloud does his thing, impressing the tykes with his moves, and are returned safely. Though, said guy, who has a #2 tattoo, does choose to make an appearance afterwards. Hrm.

After he leaves is when the game decides to throw a few side-quests at me. However, before I get to any of them, there was a yellow materia in the church that I couldn't get to before that I probably can now. I met no resistance on the way, which kinda surprised me. I figured the monsters would have respawned by now.

To say the least, I've been looking forward to getting off-rails, even if the amount of time spend there was probably around an hour or two before getting back on. So, let me give some summaries as to what happened there.

Among the first that I could complete was talking to a kid in a moogle outfit. This kid will trade moogle medals, strewn throughout the game, in exchange for various items. Next up was a guy worrying about some machines on the rampage in the scrapyard. Well, Cloud sure made short work of them! Next was finding some wayward kids for a teacher at the orphanage. Next was an old man whose dead wife is buried in a graveyard. One that happens to be in the scrapyard. Monsters taken care of, Aerith takes a moment to pay respects in the old man's stead. Next was playing a round of wack-a-box for the amusement of the kids. My score was shy of the 20,000 mark, but, I think I only needed 10,000 to mark the job done. Last was a reporter that was sent to cover the story of a burger that is said to steal from the rich citizenry of the topside, and gives to the poor citizenry of the slums. The only lead we get is that she might be in the graveyard, but, all that's found is a bot, and a calling card.

That out of the way, it's time we take Aerith back home. Again. The pair is accosted by a Shinra agent, and the two sides scuffle for a bit. Then, he's recalled to another location. Aerith's mom isn't exactly pleased that the two came home so late, and asks her daughter to set up the guest room. Then, while her daughter's out of listening range, she asks Cloud to leave that night without a fuss. Which, if you ask me, would suit Cloud just fine.

Sneaking out of this house is a lot harder in this game than it is in the original FF7, and is pretty aggravating. See, in the original FF7, all you had to do was not hold circle, and walk downstairs. If you hold circle, you run, make noise, are caught by Aerith, and need to start from scratch. In this game, there's junk riddled on the floor, and if you touch anything, even in the slightest, it will make a noise, and will alert Aerith, and you'll have to start from scratch. Uge.

Even if the player was perfectly silent, and did it in one go, it doesn't actually matter, as Cloud finds Aerith waiting ahead of him, along the path to Sector 6. She rejoins him, and off they go, and with them, the end of the chapter. To see how much they pad the happenings in Sector 6, keep your eye on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake LP!

Last time, our hardy party had went through some puzzles in order to reach Reactor #5. Which were totally not any attempt by Square-Enix to pad the game whatsoever. Biggs was waiting for them, but, rather than join the group, his his job is now to evacuate the populace. While Jessie's bomb should be less potent than before, we're still erring on the side of caution here. Avalanche may be labeled as terrorists, rebels, or what-have-you, but, their enemy is the mega-corporation, Shinra. Not the average, everyday citizen of Midgar.

Getting to the reactor core from the crawlspace wasn't a big problem. The problem came from Shinra being prepared, and setting up an ambush for our heroes. Which, if you think about it, makes a certain amount of sense. Barret informed them they would attack, so, how could we not expect them to put up a defense? The exact nature of that defense was not known until now, however.

Shinra has also decided to televise the story about this bombing, and streams footage from Reactor #1's bombing, with people causing chaos and ruckus as the order to evacuate Sector 1 comes down. Who knows how many people Biggs was able to got out of there before this story hit the air?

Either way, the party passed by a mech that Shinra intended to sic on them, but, it's not quite ready yet. They can interfere with this a little bit...



...before taking it on. They even give us a bench before the fight, just in case. Before that, though, the president of Shinra, himself, deigns to give our intrepid heroes an audience. Albeit a remote audience, sent over a comm-channel. Here, while he acknowledges that his company drains the planet of mako energy, he points out that it isn't just Shinra that reaps the benefits. Let's make no mistake. They do make truckloads of money. However, let's also not forget that the city of Midgar literally runs on the stuff. Perhaps people are ignorant of what might happen if there is no more mako energy to use, however, that's hardly a concern right now. The concern right now is survival.

This fight for survival is now on two fronts. One, is the obvious one that's now right in front of our faces. In other words, the boss fight. The other is that Shinra has hijacked the explosive, and they now have control of when it explodes, rather than be triggered off of a remote device Tifa had on her, compliments of Jessie.

Even with the mech not having everything it should, this is a damn tough fight, with only Barret surviving it, and even then, only barely. However, the thing was felled, and the explosion caused a big gap in the bridge. Tifa and Barret on one side, and Cloud on the other, hanging onto an edge precariously. While Tifa tries looking for a way for Cloud to get up, Barret picks her, up, and carries her off. Even while she's kicking and screaming for her comrade, yet another explosion knocks Cloud off his perch...



...and into the depths. Well, then. That's not good. That's not good at all. To see all this pans out, keep your eye on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake LP!