auronlu: (bleeds)
"The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths." ~ Aleksandr Pushkin

In the most recent two episodes, Cloud has given Sephiroth the Black Materia, punched Aeris while possessed, nearly cut her in two while possessed, and stood there like a man frozen in corbomite while Sephiroth performed Death From Above.

Let's pause for a moment to celebrate the hoary Final Fantasy tradition of playing into enemy hands.

I'm sorry I deceived even you, Leo

But now that we've handed Sephiroth the Black Materia on a platter and let Aeris die, there's no way we could screw up anything else, is there? I mean, it's not like we could give him the Black Materia again, right? Ahahaha.

Well then. While Cloud was angsting over Aeris' bloodless body, Sephiroth idly mentioned his upcoming journey to the Northern Crater. Naturally, we must accept this veiled invitation.

On with the Playthrough )
auronlu: (Angst)
  • Final Fantasy VII is a party of people who lie to themselves to get by.
  • Final Fantasy X is a party of people who find different ways to deal with grief and loss.



...inspired by pondering Mintywolf's current FFX Playthrough.

We were talking about the scene between Auron and Tidus on the docks when Auron tells T. the truth about his father, T. loses it and blames everything on Auron, and Auron starts laughing.

I noted that Auron has a certain sympathy for Tidus precisely because Auron himself used to be very high-strung. The only ways he knows to deal with grief are to get angry (which he used to do), weep (which is what Tidus does) or laugh (which is what Auron does now).
auronlu: (Angst)
Ragtag party assembled, it's time to break into the Temple of the Ancients. But first, we need a key to unlock the Path of Plot Advancement.

We drag our reluctant tails back to the Gold Saucer. Speaking of which, I missed a spiffy FMV during our first visit, when I was trying to take Aeris around for a date. Check out the Gondola ride starting around 11:00.



Sorry, Aeris. Let's pretend my Cloud took you on that date earlier, okay? You're allowed to call me cheesebrain.

All right, back in the present...

On with the playthrough )
auronlu: (joggerz)
Last time on Let's Play Final Fantasy VII, we picked up a ninja in a random encounter and stuffed her in a Bag of Holding, cruelly refused to tell Zack's parents what happened to him, visited Nanaki's people and had our hearts wrenched, visited the hometown of Tifa and Cloud and had our heebies jeebied, and picked up one of Hojo's lab experiments taking a nap in a casket. (As opposed to Morgan Freeman's Vincent taking a bath in a casket.)

Then we headed into the mountains north of Nibelheim where—

Use Trine on this
AUUUGH I haven't saved in an hour blammmity blam blam flail flail hack slash bite maul... oh. Oops. There was a really powerful blue magic spell that we could've learned from this thing, wasn't there?

Moving right along...

On with the playthrough )
auronlu: (phear da crack)
Okay, Nibelheim Backstory Dump over. Now we can explore the world map. Guided by random npcs saying "a man in a black cape went thataway," we pack our bento boxes and strike out across the Midgar Marshes.

Oh look, a planarian! They have the cutest woogly googly eyes.

Midgar Zolom under marshes

Uh oh... it seems...hungry?

On with the Playthrough )
auronlu: (Angst)
Woo hoo! It's time to head out of town and tackle the world map. A whole new wooooorld! A new enchaaanting point of v... good gods, what is this trash heap? Oh, right, Midgar.

Cloud on the world map

Actually, before we can start gadding about, we must egress the Shinra building where I left Cloud hanging. (Or was that Rufus?)

On with the Playthrough, Aka A Study in Unreliable Narration )
auronlu: (CeilingCloud)
Last time, we psychoanalyzed the most blockheaded hero in the history of gaming...



...and put him through his paces as a cross-dresser and champion of put-upon sex workers (in which task he failed miserably, since we left Don Corneo alive with his family jewels intact. Phooey).

Reluctantly, I must set Wall Market frivolity aside and get back to saving the Planet.

On with the playthrough )
auronlu: (Default)
Next up, Final Fantasy VII descends unexpectedly into Scum and Villainy with a side helping of burlesque. I will also attempt to explain the Mysterious Voice in Cloud's Head.

But first, we need to meet the third corner of Cloud's pointy little love triangle. Whom I love, despite Squeenix dropping heaps of overhype on her tombstone. Did I mention this walkthrough would have spoilers?

I'm Aeris, the flower girl. Nice to meet you.

Which brings me to the most difficult and challenging, thorny and complex issue of this entire game. No, it's not Cloti versus Clerith, which sounds like dueling nasal sprays. This issue is much more challenging, and has riven fandom to the core...

On with the Playthrough )
auronlu: (Date With Cloud)
Into Midgar we go! I hope I don't bore you with my Maechen imitation, but I'm seeing so many things now that I didn't understand the first time I played FFVII. Warning: there will be spoilers referring to events later in the game.

The opening FMV is still a lot of fun, with retro CGI graphics transitioning smoothly into live gameplay.



While I've been enjoying my 8 month sojourn in 16bit/retroland, it feels luxurious to come back to a PS1 game with backgrounds detailed enough for storefronts. (I briefly misread "Goblins Bar" as "Goblins Ban[k]" and was thinking, "Gringotts" even though this game predates HP.) And yep, there's Loveless, a play that's referenced in most of the FF7 spinoffs. Someday I need to get my hands on Crisis Core.

Aeris' etherial appearance contrasted with urban grunge is a startling juxtaposition, reminding me of my own experience moving from green countryside to the big city (which I've since fled). She walks the old-school players out of the shadows and into the Brave New World of FF7, where the visual setting is now a major (if not the dominant) character in the story, as it will be for all future FFs.

On with the playthrough )
auronlu: (CeilingCloud)
I wrote a "Before I start playing" post Saturday night, collecting my thoughts about the game. So that's here.

Final Fantasy VII Playthrough: Introduction.

And tonight, while putting together notes for my first playing session, I had a fit of PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER.

Final Fantasy VII: MORE OF SAME about how FFVII is actually exactly like all the Final Fantasies that came before it except II.

(This is a short somewhat tongue-in-cheek post)

So where did my evening go?
auronlu: (FF5)
"Dude" in black with long katana, Final Fantasy V concept art:



Dude in black with long katana, Final Fantasy VII concept art:



DAMMIT AMANO I WANT A PIRATE CROSS DRESSING SEPHIROTH AND I WANT HER NOW.

No Comment.

Jul. 9th, 2012 04:42 pm
auronlu: (Angst)
Cloud Strife - Anime Expo 2012

-- from Anime Expo 2012 photo album by jeriaska@Flickr
auronlu: (Faris)
[personal profile] mako_lies just drew my attention to this Yuffie (ff7) and Faris (ff5) ficbit:

A ninja and a pirate walk into a bar....

I love crossovers playing on different inflections of the same trope.

And Faris, of course.

ETA: YES I HAVE NO BRAIN and forgot that mako_lies is also the author because I can't remember pseuds sorry facepalm.
auronlu: (Default)
It's really hard to top this Final Fantasy VII cosplay.

However, I now expect several of you to try.
auronlu: (Default)
I really got into the Final Fantasy bandwagon with VIII. While I have actually played through VII once and vaguely remember it, many of the details are fuzzy, and I recall being extremely confused by the whole Cloud-Sephiroth backstory (clone, puppet, wha?)  Also, I didn't entirely grasp where I was or what I was looking at the first time through most of Midgar, since I was playing with a lousy TV or a confused Mac Molar trying desperately to emulate a PS1.  Now, armed with a PS3, good speakers, and a screen I can see, I'm trying it again.

So yeah. I don't know if I'll get through it, but for the moment I have joined in the group playthrough here in [livejournal.com profile] ff7_oldschool .

I've always been fond of VII, but it's never been THE GAME the way some other games (RIVEN, FFX) are for me. 
auronlu: (Haz A Sword)
My annotated list of  The Top Ten Final Fantasy Swords

In retrospect, I probably should've included Tidus' whatsit, but I can't spell it.
auronlu: (emptiness)
Title: Going Somewhere
Fandom: Final Fantasy X / VII: OGC
Characters: Auron, Aeris
Rating: G
Word Count: 900
Spoilers: end of FFX

A/N: I'm not quite satisfied with this snippet, which came to me in the midst of a migraine. However, the idea captured my attention. It was vaguely inspired by the Ellone & Auron piece I recommended recently, plus a replay of Kingdom Hearts. (Also, apologies for old-game spelling; I'm still not used to "Aerith").

Auron marched through flowers )
auronlu: (n00b)
1) While searching for the Yevon glyph to use as an art reference, I happened across this cosplay of Baralai.


[[ ETA because I don't want to post 3 times today! ]]

2) MERDA SACRA. One-Winged Angel's lyrics are quotes from the CARMINA BURANA:

   Estuans interius, ira vehementi       "Burning inside, violent wrath"     1st couplet of C.B. 11.
   Sors immanis, et inanis                "tremendous/terrible and empty fate"
                                                         Couplet from O Fortunata, most well-known chunk of C.B.
   Veni, veni, venias;                    "come, come, may you come / do not let me die"
   ne me mori facias                     First couplet of C.B. 20.

Latin vocals start at 1:10:

Why the HECK did I never notice this before?

Although in Advent Children I kinda picked up on "veni veni" something or other, but the lyrics in AC are new, original Latin.

auronlu: (Date With Cloud)

Some months ago, I posted a comment in [livejournal.com profile] capslock_ff that wasn't capslocked. You know what the penalty is? One must create a Sephiroth/Barret fic or fanart as penance! Small wonder that I disappeared from fandom for months. So, anyway, in light of recent discussions, it seemed like it was time to pay my penalty.

 

Brace yourselves.

WHAT:FANART/PHOTOMANIP
TITLE: "Let Me Be Your Angel"
FANDOM: FFVII AC

WHO: BARRET / SEPHIROTH
RATING: PG-13

Click thumbnail to make head explode:



Base: Gack! from here.

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