In this area, there's nowhere else to go but up, so climb along the
rock face until you arrive at the cave entrance, pausing at each ledge
to restore your body heat. Always keep an eye out for the red flags;
they indicate which part of the wall you can climb. Inside, go through
the two archways into the next cavern. Here, climb up the stairs and
go through the south exit. In the adjoining area, walk all the way to
the right to find a hidden chamber with a chest; inside it is a Ribbon.
Then return to the main path and head north, then west, through the
entrance. Cross the icy bridge in the third cavern and press the
SELECT button to bring up the cursor; it'll help you navigate through
the twisting passage before you. Once you reach the top, examine the
boulder and choose the top option when it presents itself. This will
make you push the boulder and free up the blocked passage beneath you.
You can still move while the boulder is rolling--notice that you can
stand right where it falls and you will recieve no damage (then again,
Cloud is the same guy who can run around in the cold wearing a
sleeveless shirt and not die of hypothermia...must be those corn
flakes).
Go back to the other room (where you got the Ribbon), and open the
purple chest to the northeast; there's a Javelin lying inside it. Now,
return to the room that you exited from the south (the one with the
formerly blocked passage), and go north along the passage until you
reach another exit. This leads to the upper path above the chest with
the Javelin--keep following it and you'll find yourself outside.
Build up your temperature, then climb up the wall. After going a short
distance, you're given a choice (up, down, or right). Pick the top
option (up), and head up until you reach a ledge. Keep climbing upward,
and you'll be prompted with another choice (right or down). Pick the
top option and head right to arrive at another ledge. Then climb up
until you reach the next ledge; it has a path going left and an
unmarked path that goes to the right (i.e. there's no flag by it). The
right path is a dead end, so take the left path and keep climbing up
along the wall (you'll find another ledge on the way) until you reach a
second cave entrace.
This large cavern is pocked with holes. There's an exit and a treasure
chest, but they are too high to reach, at the moment. Don't miss the
Save Point between the chest and the exit. Nab the other chest in the
lower right corner of the room (there's an Elixir inside of it), then go
north from the chest to find a passage that leads outside. Once you're
out in the open again, head north, then go around the bend and head
south and east.
In the next room, examine the area immediately to the right to find a
chest with an Fire Armlet inside. There are four huge icicles
here that you need to knock into the holes in the lower cavern. This is
done by 'fighting' them. Each icicle is guarded by several yellow bats.
_________________________________________________________________________
TIPS: ICICLE LV: 30 HP: 3000 MP: 300
(weak against Fire, Earth, and Gravity)
EVILHEAD LV: 28 HP: 740 MP: 45
The Icicle can counter with an Icicle Drop attack. It will do this to
any person who attacks it, tries to steal from it, or the like. You
don't have to kill the bats in order to win the battle (all you have to
do is 'kill' the icicle), but since they can Silence your characters and
recover HP when they attack you, you may want to get them out of the way
before attacking the icicle. Or, use Beta to inflict damage on all of
them at once. Killing the icicle is worth 500 exp, 0 AP, and 0 gil, so
if you want some AP and gil, you may want to kill the Evilheads too
(which, incidentally, you can Morph into Holy Torches).
_________________________________________________________________________
Each time you win a battle, you'll be given an option. If you pick the
bottom choice, you'll drop down to the room below, while picking the top
choice lets you stay where you are (so you can continue to 'fight' the
other icicles. After knocking down the last icicle, choose to stay
where you are so that you can get the chest on the far left (it has a
Megalixir inside*). Then, go back along the path. Just before you
reach the door, an option appears; pick the bottom choice to jump down
to the room below.
* Note that it says you get a 'Last Elixir'! Yes, this is the power
of the Square translators at work. 'Last Elixir' was the Japanese
name of the Megalixir item, and if you look at your menu, you will
have gotten an extra Megalixir, not a new item called 'Last Elixir'.
Didn't they do a good job on the translation? :)
When the icicles drop down here, the floor of the cavern is 'raised'.
After knocking down 3 of them, you can reach the exit, knock down all
4 and you can get the chest on the ledge in the upper left corner of
the room (which contains a Speed Source). When you're ready, go through
the now-avalible exit by hopping across the stones. This leads to the
left side of the outer path. Be sure to examine the chest that's here
to get an Enhance Sword, then follow the path as it curves back on
itself and leads to the lower passage in the icicle room.
Keep following the path, and you'll find yourself on the side of the
mountain yet again. Grab the rock face and climb to the right. After a
while, three options will appear (up, left, or right). Pick the bottom
choice and keep holding right to make Cloud ascend the side of the
mountain. When you reach the next ledge, raise your temperature and take
the path that leads to the left. As you're climbing, another set of
options will appear (up, down, or right). Choose the top option and keep
climbing up. Once you've made it beyond the second ledge, you'll find a
final cave entrance.
This area has a hard-to-miss Save Point in it, and if you examine the
nearby pool of light, your HP and MP will be completely restored, and
all dead characters will be revived. Now is a perfect time to stock
up on goodies--you can use the pool to stay healthy while fighting the
enemies for exp, AP, and gil, and you can learn Smelly Breath from the
Molbors just outside (be sure to wear a Ribbon!) Plus, you can win
Dragon Armlets from the Blue Dragons in this cave, which will halve
damage taken from Fire, Cold, or Lightning attacks, and win M-Tentacles
from defeated Molbols. There's a boss encounter coming your way, so make
sure you're ready to do battle, then exit the chamber by going to the far
right.
In the adjoining hallway, you'll see one of those shrouded creatures
(similar to the ones in Nibelheim) be thrown to the floor. Before you
have a chance to examine it, you'll be attacked by a two-headed boss.
_________________________________________________________________________
BOSS TIPS: SCHIZO (Right) LV: 43 HP: 18000 MP: 350
SCHIZO (Left) LV: 43 HP: 18000 MP: 350
In case you're confused, the 'right head' is the scaly one, and the 'left
head' is the one with horns. Anyway, you should have the Aurora, Bolt,
and Fire Armlets equipped on your members to reduce damage from the scaly
head's Fire breath and the horned head's Ice breath. The Bolt Armlet
will defend you against the heads' final attack, which damages all
members for 1400 damage. Use MBarrier to up your defense, then Haste
yourselves. Try using Earth and Comet spells, as well and summonings,
like Alexander, Leviathan, and Bahamut to soften the boss up. However,
don't use Poison (which does no damage) or the Kjata summon spell (which
will heal both heads). Ice works well on the scaly head, and Fire works
well on the horned head, but don't confuse the two since you will heal a
head instead of hurt it. You may also want to use Elemental and attack a
Fire or Ice materia attached to your weapon in order to attack with that
sort of element (but don't attack the other head, for the same reason).
In addition to breath attacks, the boss can also use a dual Ice/Fire
breath attack, it can cast Quake 3, and has the previously mentioned
final attack that it uses once when each head dies (and if you kill both
heads at once, you'll still lose if both final attacks kill you off.
When it's defeated, you'll get a Dragon Fang from the boss.
_________________________________________________________________________
If you were badly beaten during the fight, you can always return to the
room with the pool to heal yourselves. Otherwise, continue down the
passage; it leads outside (Cloud sure moves slow out here, doesn't he?)
Then climb the icy wall up to the top, where an automatic sequence will
play. After it finishes, head along the side of the inner crater. In
the next area, Tifa will talk with you if she's in your party; if she
isn't, she'll promptly appear and insist on coming with you, which
means you'll have to kick a member out of your current group. Head
to the left.
In the next area, climb down to the lower path and look for a red materia
(Neo Bahamut) near the bottom edge of the screen. You can't do
anything about the shrouded guy leaping off-screen, so ignore him. After
getting the materia, you can hop up to a small island of rock where there
is a Save Point. When you're done there, jump again to return to the
top path, and walk to the left. You'll see a short intermission with
the three heads of Shinra and several scientists heading towards the
Crater in the Highwind, the airship you saw back in Junon Town.
Once the intermission is over, walk left and you'll reach the first of
three 'shield' screens. Talk to the two shrouded men, and they'll
each leave behind an item when they die (an Ether and a Hi-Potion).
To get past the flickering shield that's in front of you, stand as close
to it as you can, then wait until the green aura is almost gone. Now,
quickly run through it or you'll be knocked back when the shield's aura
grows stronger. If you mess up, you'll be repelled by the shield and
will be attacked by a monster:
_________________________________________________________________________
TIPS: WIND WING LV: 36 HP: 1900 MP: 350
For starters, you can steal a Hi-Potion from the Wind Wing, and you can
transform it into a Phoenix Down. Even better, you can control it using
a Manipulate materia and make it attack itself! In other words, this is
an easy battle.
_________________________________________________________________________
If you happen to touch the shield from the other side, you'll get knocked
back to the front of the screen, so be careful.
In the next screen, more of those shrouded creatures are running around
and dying. Ignore them, but don't miss the chest near the first left
turn of the path; there's a Kaiser Knuckle inside it. Follow the path
until you reach the next screen. The second shield is here, but unlike
the first one, there's a surge of energy traveling along the shield
that will knock you back even if the shield's aura is almost gone. So,
wait until the energy surge has passed _and_ the aura is nearly
invisible, then dash across. If either defense knocks you back, you'll
have to fight a second Wind Wing (see the above strategy).
Beyond the shield, Sephiroth awaits. He'll cut down two more of those
black creatures before turning invisible and toying around with Cloud.
After he attacks the party, he'll summon a second version of Jenova to
kill Cloud and his friends.
_________________________________________________________________________
BOSS TIPS: JENOVA*DEATH LV: 55 HP: 25000 MP:800
Jenova will try to Silence your members from time to time, and uses a
Red Light attack often (usually after being attacked with magic). It
causes little damage, but too many of these will really mess up your
party. Jenova's last form of attack is a spurt of fire bubbles (even
weaker than the Red Light attack). As you can see, this battle is not
hard at all; just hack away with physical attacks, or if you think you
have enough HPs, use Comet and cast Bahamut, Neo Bahamut, and Alexander.
It's advisable that you wear the Fire Armlet or Dragon Armlet, since
Jenova's attacks all cause Fire-based damage. Give the Fire Armlet to
your best spell caster, and you can knock out Jenova and gain life back
at the same time :) You'll win a Reflect Ring when the battle's over.
_________________________________________________________________________
After the boss is killed, you'll get the Black Materia back (and it's
actually black this time :)) Once you're back in control of Cloud,
he confesses that since Sephiroth was able to manipulate him last time,
he might try it again. Therefore, someone else should hold the Black
Materia and stay here while Cloud and the others follow after Sephiroth.
The first time I got here, only Red 13 would take the Black Materia.
This second time, only Barret would. In the US game, they both offered
to keep it...! ^_^; Well, just give it to whoever will take it--simply
choose the top option when it is available (you won't get an option if
that character refuses to take it). Finally, talk to Tifa.
When you're in control of Cloud again, head north. There's a materia
here (MP Turbo, but notice that it's yellow when you pick it up!), as
well as a Save Point and a chest containing a Poison Ring. If you go
north from here, you'll run into the third and final shield. In
addition to having all the defenses of the previous shield (the glowing
aura and the moving energy surge), bolts of lightning will strike the
ground repeatedly. Since the lightning strikes in short bursts with
long pauses in between, wait for the shield's aura to fade, the energy
surge to pass, _and_ wait for a pause in the lightning strikes before
attempting to pass through the shield. If you're hit by any one of
those defenses, you'll have to fight a Wind Wing again (refer to the
strategy section above). Once you're past the shield, head along the
path. It leads to an exact replicate of Nibelheim.
This next scene is sorta like a 'semi-interactive' flashback. You get
to see Sephiroth run around in Nibelheim, but this time, there's another
guy following him (Zack, the guy you heard about in Gongaga Village).
Talk to your other party member, then to Tifa. In the next scene,
Zack will look around Nibelheim (which has been reduced to smoldering
rubble), and chat with Zangan, who was Tifa's mentor. (BTW, you can go
to the Main Menu while Zack is running around. It's pointless, but I
thought it was sort of amusing :)) Then, your party appears in a flaming
building, and Sephiroth appears. Instead of attacking, he talks to the
party. When you can move, talk to Sephiroth and he'll teleport around
the room. When you're in control of Cloud once more, talk to Tifa twice.
Sephiroth warps around some more, then shows Cloud a picture of him,
Tifa, and Zack. After that, Cloud has another fit, and the screen fades
out.
In the next scene, Rufus, Scarlet, and Hojo (the scientist) arrive at the
crater. Before them is a monster encased in ice. It's one of the five
'Weapons', which awakens and watches them, then starts moving. Following
that, Sephiroth appears in the guise of Tifa and knocks out the other
characters, then tricks whoever is guarding the Black Materia to go to
the center of the crater. Your party will appear in the area where the
Shinra members are at, and the person with the Black Materia gives it to
Cloud, who then flies to the structure where Sephiroth is at (though you
can move around up here, the game takes over your controls in a few
seconds anyway). Once Cloud's given the Black Materia to Sephiroth, the
whole crater starts to break apart and your party (sans Cloud) escapes on
the Highwind along with the rest of the Shinra crew. Notice that the
FMV will suddenly switch to the five Weapon monsters escaping; this is
new to the US version of Final Fantasy. The remaning FMV has also been
altered (five streaks of light representing the Weapons shoot out of the
crater). Gee, I dunno, I kinda liked the Japanese FMV better (really!)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.5 junon town attacked!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ITEMS IN THIS AREA: Enemy Skill materia, Chocobo Lure materia, Fourth
Bracelet, Yoshiyuki (if you didn't get it the first
time). Note that none of these items are actually
found in Junon Town, but since I talk about them in
this section, they're listed here.
When you come to, you'll find yourself incarcerated back in Junon Town.
Without Cloud, you'll be taking control of Barret and Tifa for most of
this section. As Tifa, talk to Barret. Rufus and Heidegger will show
up. Now that you're in control of Barret, follow Tifa as the guards take
her away (don't miss the Save Point), and prepare to execute her. Once
Junon Town is attacked by the freed Weapon, one of the Shinra officials
knocks out Scarlet. It's turns out to be none other than Cait Sith,
who helps Barret fight the two soldiers who are guarding him. Why not
make use of the new 'Exchange' materia option to fully equip Cait Sith
before he joins you? :)
Notice how the guard will run away and disappear after the battle? I
guess that glitch went unnoticed...anyway, examine the door in the lower
right corner of the screen and use the controller or the O button to make
Barret try to pull it open. An FMV sequence follows in which the Sister
Ray (the mako cannon) is readied and Junon Town prepares to engage the
approaching Weapon. When it collides with the city, gas starts pumping
into the chamber Tifa is trapped in. When you're in control of Barret,
go and talk to Cait Sith. Then go out the door and when it closes, head
right, then out the door. Outside, head down the road. If you got
Yuffie, she'll be here masquerading as a newscaster; talk to her to make
her join you, then continue to your left. Once the Weapon rises out of
the water, continue to the left until you arrive at the Airport. Then,
run to the center platform and examine the yellow box to be lifted to the
upper level. From there, continue towards the airship by heading right.
When you're in control of Tifa again, you have to pick up the key on
the ground so you can free yourself from the gas chamber. Your
controls are:
S Move right arm
X Move feet
O Move left arm
T Move Tifa's head
You'll need to press the buttons in this order: X, X, T, X+T, T+O, O.
(Or, press X, X, T, X+T, T+S, S if you want to free her other hand
instead...it makes no difference).
Pressing them has the following effect:
When you press X, Tifa will stretch out her legs. Pressing X a second
time makes her drag the key towards her. Then press T to sit back in
the chair. Then press T and X at the same time (you don't need to hold
them, just press them), and she'll lift the key up with her feet and
take hold of it with her teeth at the same time. After that, T+O
together will make her free her arm using the key. Finally, press O
so that she can grab the key and use it to release her other arm.
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