Final Fantasy VII/Leading Cid

Where the wind takes us
Now it's time to get used to the various facilities of the Highwind, find out how all of the stuff there works, and talk to the folks aboard about the plans on what to do next. There's a whole lot of stuff to do at this hour.

What you can do at this time: Train your fellows, explore stuff, and go to some places you couldn't previously.

It's actually easier to tell what you can not do. For starters, Gold Saucer is closed&mdash;Dio is on the door, saying he's not sure if it pays to keep it running. So, you can go catching chocobos, but you can't race them right now.

Another thing is that if you get the bright idea of going to the Gaea's Cliff and back where Sephiroth is sitting, well, you can scrap that idea as well - the guy who takes responsibility of that little sledding track there won't let you go down the hill.

Also note that Highwind cannot land on forests, mountains or snow. You can reach places like the Round Island (an uncharted island on the top northeast corner of the world map), but you can't land on that.

My sources say we head to the last unexplored town
Okay, a lot of people, including Bugenhagen if you visited Cosmo Canyon (and why not, he's a wise guy who has guided you before), seem to suggest that there's an island to the south with springs of Lifestream. Well, look at that! If you happened to open the menu near Temple of the Ancients, you probably wondered what the heck "Mideel Area" is. A town near the Temple of the Ancients? Yep! Just east of it, actually.

Mideel is a nice small quiet town, with a cute dog that seems to like Tifa. And then Tifa hears someone talking of some familiar thing. Eep!

So, you've found Cloud. Cloud is not being very healthy at the time. Tifa will stay at his side (and automatically gives you back her materia and accessory).

Other things you can do in Mideel: You can visit the shops and buy some really nice gear, and fine accessories. Also, there's a small white chocobo there: Feed him some greens, and scratch behind his ears (you remember what Choco Bill said back in the farm, right?) He'll give you a Contain materia, which is a spell materia that has some unusual properties. If you check the back of the weapon shop you'll find a locked door, go outside down the path to the left and search to find a rusty key, and try to use it in the lock, only it will break off. Be honest when the man asked you what happened, and you'll get a Curse Ring. You can also go inside one of the houses to find an Elixir, only for once the man inside will complain, just be honest again and you'll get to keep it.

Big plans from Gya ha ha and Kya ha ha
Aboard the Highwind, Cait Sith lets you hear of Shin-Ra's new plans. Apparently, they're gathering Huge Materia from various regions (as you probably remember from Gongaga reactor, if you went there). They're going to use that to blow up the Meteor. For some reason or other, the characters obviously want the world dead, not leave the comet-busting to professionals, and stop Shin-Ra's new illustrious plan...

You can do the following two sections actually in either order.

The Flying Materia Train!
Cid heads the party now! Head back to Corel Reactor - in case you forgot, back to North Corel, up, over the big hangbridge, follow the tracks. You really want to save the game at the save point here! If you fail here and not save, it isn't completely disastrous, but very annoying!

As you reach the door of the reactor, two soldiers stop you. They're not very tough.

After you defeat them, the materia train comes from the reactor. Cid heads in and you follow the train on another train.

You have 10 minutes to stop the materia train. Basically, follow your on-screen instructions. First, you need to alternate between Up and [Menu] (psx: Up Dpad and psx: T on PlayStation, up and + on PC). Keep doing that in good rhythm and sooner or later, you reach the other train and jump in.

In each car, you have to fight a creature or maybe even two. I've noted that summons work great here, but take too frigging long - enemy skills like Beta, Trine and Magic Breath rule here. You need to fight five times in total, then you get to the engine. You need to dispose of the soldier who runs the train.

Then comes the critical part. As Cid says, you need to push the two levers certain way to stop the train: Push both levers to the same direction.

Try Up+ [Menu], twice. Oooops! The speed is only getting faster! Okay, Down+ [Cancel], twice? Great! It's slowing down! No, it isn't! Aaargh! ...and the train stops just in time.

(Alternatively, you can push first Down+ [Cancel] twice, then Up+ [Menu] twice.)

If you manage to stop the train, a kid will give you Ultima materia (the leetest spell ever devised by man or god) and you can find the Catastrophe (Barret's lv4 limit break manual) from a woman in one of the huts. If you fail, you can still buy the Ultima materia from the kid, it just costs a lot. If you fail to reach the materia train at all, you won't even get that!

El Condor Splode
The second Huge Materia is at the Fort Condor. Instructions for beating that minigame are in a separate article.

This time is a little bit different: The condor will die in a giant fireball and the egg hatches. After the battle, head through the door to the top of the reactor, and you see the newly hatched bird - and a tempting red orb, the Phoenix materia.

Then talk to the folks at the fort, especially the warboss' father who sits by the table downstairs. He'll give you the materia.

Return to Mideel
As you return to Mideel, things seem to be a bit more tumultuous than before. The ground starts shaking all of sudden, and it seems the Lifestream is very, very upset. And suddenly, a big dragon-like creature appears out of blue and you are forced to fight it.

Cloud's self-discovery
In the following cutscene, everyone dies. Well, at least the town gets blown into smithereens - luckily no one was hurt and everyone's still around after this. But Tifa and Cloud drop into the Lifestream.

What follows is a... really... really... really long cutscene. It's time for Tifa to finally help Cloud to get grips of what he really is. You'll find out a lot of cool stuff about what really happened in Nibelheim, for instance. Whippeth out ye olde popcorne and cola. However, you do need to run around and talk to the various Clouds as Tifa.

After a bit of rest, it's time for Cloud to get back to leading the crew. No use getting off the train, indeed!