Final Fantasy VII/Flight from Midgar

59th floor: Guards! Guards!
There isn't much to see here. Beat up the guards before they make much of a ruckus and grab their Keycard 60. The robot guards are very susceptible to Lightning but Ice works pretty well too; give each party character Lightning materia, hammer away with it, and you can kill each of the guards in one turn. If you don't have enough Lightning materia, at least equip one person with a Lightning + All combination so that you get a good spread on your first hit, then just Lightning/Ice/Assault Gun and you can still normally take the guards out in one turn.

60th floor: Metal Shinracrud Solid
Time to sneak past guards! Head to the room on the left. Open the door, head to the statue when the guards aren't looking (you can move to the first statue no matter what the guards are doing). Then, when the guards aren't looking, scoot across the gap betweeen the pillars, one at a time, until you reach the middle and Cloud leaves your control. At this point, you use [OK] to let Barret and then Tifa know when it's safe to cross a gap. Remember, any time the guards aren't standing still they aren't looking! Then, do the same process for the right side of the room, note that the distances are shorter and the guards run now. Be careful, Snake. I mean, Cloud.

If you get seen, the guards will attack from both sides. In that case, use Bolts or Bolt/Ice/Gun again. Luckily, if you absolutely don't manage to get through with five tries or so, the torrent of guards will eventually end... The team isn't very happy about this, but at least you tried!

61st floor: Bar of the Fools
This is the employee lounge or something. Luckily, the door is busted so you won't need a keycard to get to this floor. Once inside, talk to every people in the room. If you don't show yourself to be a complete idiot by talking about Aeris, you get a Keycard 62 for your trouble.

62nd floor: My Librarian, My Mayor
The Mayor will help you if you manage to solve his riddle.

So here goes, solution to the riddle: Look at each library room. Each room contains books on certain topics (read the signs on the doors). Each room has three shelves. Each shelf has two books, stored on the ends of the shelf. Your task is to find the book that doesn't belong in the room in question. (For example, "5 Reactor Construction Chart" that has somehow been filed to, say, urban planning library.) Then, count to the indicated letter, ignoring spaces and punctuation and such, from the beginning. Make note. (In the example, "T") Arrange all four letters to a word.

Mayor will give you Keycard 65 for guessing right eventually, and an Elemental materia if you guess right at the first try.


 * You should equip the Elemental=Lightning Materia (in a weapon with linked slots) combination as it will make the character's weapon lightning-based. This gives you an attack bonus for mechanical creatures in the HQ

63rd floor: Warehouse of goodies
Once you reach this floor, go to the door access computer below where you come in. It will give you the ability to open three doors on this floor. Go all the way right, then up, then left until you hit a door. Open it. Then go left until you hit another door. Open the door south from that one. Get the item coupon in the room west of the door you just opened. From there, click [OK] to jump into the air ducts and make your way to another room containing a coupon. Exit this room, and open the door to the west to get to the last item coupon. Afterwards, jump into the air ducts again and go back to the first room again. Tell the computer you want to trade in your coupons, and you will be rewarded with a Star Pendant accessory that protects against Poison, a Four Slots armor that holds four individual materia, and an All materia.

If you make a mistake and open up the wrong doors, go back to the door access machine to reset the doors. Remember, once you turn in your coupons, the doors won't reset anymore!


 * like the other All Materia you got from the beginner's hall, you should equip this with a restore materia to heal your party

64th floor: Workin' Out?
Floor 64 is the gym, nothing to do really. There's also a save point here, and in the room with treadmills, you can get a Shinra Gym Special Drink. The lockers in the back have items, if you have the patience to check them. The first row has a Phoenix Down somewhere, second row has an Ether somewhere along the microphones, the third row has a Megaphone, but it serves no purpose as of now.

65th floor: Exhibition behind locked doors
There's a big Midgar model in the middle. One of the chests contains "Midgar parts". Insert the piece to the model in its appropriate place, and another chest will open. Repeat this until the last chest unlocks. It contains Keycard 66.

66th floor: Why is everybody talking of the bathroom?
As you get in, you note that President, Heidegger, Scarlet, and other people are gathering in the big meeting room. Obviously, it's not really wise to barge in. Most of the folks here seem to have some sort of bathroom obsession. So, head to the bathroom.

Use the ceiling grate to get to the ventilation shaft, which just happens to be above the meeting room. Cutscene ensues. Listen patiently.

As the meeting ends and you crawl back, you see Hojo leaving to the floor above.

67th floor: Mad science!
Here, you see Hojo adoring his new specimen, and he goes to the floor above using the elevator. While Tifa seems preoccupied with the cute specimen, Cloud gets freaked out by remains of Jenova, who seems to be locked up in the other container. Not much you can do about it - head north, save if you want, then up.

A brief cutscene ensues. Summary: Specimen up. Barret mad. Specimen pounce Hojo. Aerith safe. (Select who will take care of her.) The specimen (whom I shall henceforth call Red XIII, in honor of Hojo's insanity) has a name which you surely do get to pick. Red XIII is also armed with some free Materia.

Another specimen shows up, and you need to fight it. For this fight, your party has Cloud, whoever you didn't send away with Aerith, and Red XIII.

After beating HO512, grab the 'Enemy Skill' Materia (it's where Aerith was being held), then run around the floor and steal Carbon Bangles from "Moth Slashers" (the blue chain saw looking things) and steal the Hardedge for Cloud from "Solider: 3rd" (the blue soldiers, who can give you a serious beating, but the Hardedge is worth it at this point in the game).

Escape from the Shinra Building
Time to get out! But just as you enter the elevator, this bald guy, whom you will henceforth know as Rude, stops you. Seems that he and the Shin-ra security folks have captured you and the rest of the team.

Some cutscenery later - where you get to meet President Shinra in person - you find yourself in prison. Kill time.

As you wake up, we find out a few alarming things: Jenova is missing from the containment. Tail of blood leads up. President Shinra has a big honkin' sword on his back. Palmer spooked because he saw Sephiroth come and kill the President.

Rufus waits you outside. Talk forth.

Basically, there's now two battles to deal with. You get careful options and time to prepare the battles if you play your cards right.

The Elevator fight
The first battle is done by Aeris, Barret and Red XIII. You get to remove Cloud's and Tifa's materia first. Re-equip. I recommend a good dose of Lightning materia (hey, we're still in Shinra building!) and Restore as well. You definitely need to have good spells on both Red XIII and Aerith.

Enter the elevator, and boom... Well, let's just say, this is one of those battles that make skeptics love this game. A battle in the freaking elevator. The following two bosses will be fought immediately after each other, so you don't get any chance to rest or change equipment between them.

Balcony fight
You get to mess with Cloud's materia and equipment at this point too. Rufus and Cloud talk and talk and talk. And then the time for talks is over.

Now, head downstairs. You can save at the savepoint - just remember to do it before you talk to Tifa.

Crazy Motorcycle Chase
And then it's the time to show some surprising thinking. The crew gets in a car, Cloud gets a motorcycle. Time to slam some baddies after you figure out the instructions. Note that this is the chance to rearrange your party for the coming fight and get the materia up correctly.

Also note that if you use PC, drinking 10 litres of coffee is strongly suggested - illegal/controlled stimulating substances, on the other hand, are probably just harmful. The following game was manageable on a P166 with Voodoo1, pretty hellish to play on a Pentium III 600MHz with a GeForce 4; Your humble editor surely wouldn't want to try this on his Athlon XP 3000+ with the same graphics card! There are, apparently, some unofficial fixes to make this game a bit less... mentally straining. PlayStation version remains really smooth.

There's really not that much into this game - you can ram the bikes against the railings, or slash them with your sword. Either way, get rid of them before they damage the passengers or Cloud too much. Eventually, you end up getting tailed by something really big...

Time to adore the view and try to get down. You're finally out of Midgar.