I’ll admit it. I am lagging way behind, but I can’t help but want to mine every last detail in the Cloud’s flashback in Kalm. It sets up so much more than the game lets on and every little detail counts. This little scene, for instance, has far greater significance than you would first imagine.
I don’t want to give any spoilers away, for those who haven’t played it, but prepare for your mind to be blown.
Of course, you’ll have to earn it by making it to disk 3 and, believe me, it’s a long haul. But that is what makes this game (and good games in general) so satisfying. Even though some of the bosses are terrifyingly hard and the opportunities to get housed are many (so sorry about the data loss, Gavin), the game keeps putting out. You feel a real sense of earning the story or that badass item (*cough* Knights of the Round *cough*).
I guess what I am saying is the game hasn’t really gotten fun yet. As it stands, we have the usual JRPG tropes. Troubled youth with no parents grows up in a small town, largely untouched by the troubles of the broader world and then disaster strikes and you need kill a big, scary bad guy for revenge but also to save the world.
Yawn.
But, naturally, FFVII gets better (we wouldn’t be writing about it, if it didn’t), Kalm is just the launch pad for plot twists. The world will become much larger and the cast of characters increasingly delightful. I can hardly wait to get there again so we can talk about it.
Disc: 1
Location: Kalm
Cloud’s level: 17
Timer: approx. 3:37 (eight or so times through means I know how to blow through this game)
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Read Gavin Craig’s week 4 post