I've tried writing the walkthrough for this chapter twice before this attempt. Both times previous, the game froze midway through, so naturally, I ragequit both times, deleting this part of the walkthrough with it... let's hope we get through it this time.

Memories of stairs returning... so many stairs...Edit

We open with Vincent Valentine approaching the more or less dead Shinra Headquarters. He gets a call from Shelke, who tells him that the ground squads can't penetrate Deepground defenses, meaning the Mako Reactors are still up. Vincent says he's at the Shinra HQ and Shelke tells him he can get to Deepground via a passage in the building and we should search for the President's personal entrance. Vincent starts to cough and collapses to the ground. Fortunately, he manages to not transform into Chaos here. A DG hound runs up behind Vincent, who retaliates by swiftly putting out his arm, sending the thing flying off into the distance. He stands and does a weird roar as we hear Shelke shout his name through the phone. Again, he manages to not transform and is curious why Chaos wants to jump out of him now. Shelke tells him that the Protomateria was what helped him control the beast and now that he's lost it, Vincent and Chaos are becoming unstable. Suddenly, Lucrecia Crescent appears behind Vincent. She begins to talk about Chaos being the harbinger of anarchy and says that he sleeps within Vincent. Lucrecia tells him that she's sorry and that he must resist Chaos in order to live. Lucrecia then vanishes and we see that Shelke is saying what Lucrecia was saying, since she holds her thoughts in her head or something. Her helmet thing then begins to break, with electricity shooting out of it and a small explosion heard.

We cut to Cid Highwind asking what's happening in the Engine Room and receives no response. Shelke enters and Cid tells her that engine levels have dropped and that they haven't taken any direct hits, so everything should really be fine. Shelke heads down to investigate and is greeted by the engine room in flames and purpley-black clouds of mist everywhere. Nero the Sable appears behind with his awesome accent I just noticed. Nero says he "was short a few souls and came to collect". Shelke asks what he did with the crew, to which Nero replies that his mission is complete, so we assume he either ate them or sent them to be eaten by Omega. We then see Cait Sith, who's either unconscious, or in a much more fun universe, dead. Shelke pulls out her laser whip things and Nero says "And what do we think we are doing?", which just sounds amazing when combined with his accent. Shelke replies to this with "I don't really know" and says she doesn't want to let anyone down who's counting on her (Vincent, Reeve and Cid). Nero disregards this, claiming it to be nonsense. Shelke activates her laser things and begins to swipe at Nero, missing every time. Nero's wings are released and we see that he has guns on the end of them. He fires at Shelke who blocks the bullets with Protect. Nero then drops his arms, which are usually around his shoulders. We see he has sweet looking tribal tattoos. He summons purpley-black clouds of death and then the screen blackens.

Now we're back with Vincent outside the Shinra Building and take control. Turn around and grab the Red Potion near some fire. Turn left from here to grab a Phoenix Down and shop at the Jukebox. Stand in front of the Jukebox and turn around to see an item in the distance. This is 1000 gil and there are some bullets to the right of it and a Mako Point near it. You'll see a garage door which was home to so many damn stairs back in VII. Thankfully, we can just take the front door this time. Head in and through the left metal detector to spawn a pair of DG. Take them out and pick up the 500 gil each of them drop. Head up the right set of stairs, killing the spawning DG and following along the path. A crap load of DG will spawn of the ground floor, so take them all out, keeping in mind that the dogs can leap up the stairs. After they're all down, walk up to the top floor and into the open, but broken, elevator to land you back on the ground floor, behind the mass debris this time. Grab the items here and drop down the ladders to the left. Head through the corridor and the lights will flash in a creepy way. Bizarre Bugs will spawn (oddly, one of the ones in my playthrough spawned midair and was frozen there until I shot it...). Kill them and carry on. You'll eventually trigger a cutscene of Vince looking down a grid into some sewer-y area. He'll shoot through it and drop in. Turn around to find a Red Ether, then proceed forward. A pair of DG and a dog spawn around the corner, so take 'em down and head through the door at the end (grabbing the 1000 gil that you pass on the way). You'll arrive in a room with some crates. Shoot the two DG that spawn on the balcony, then shoot the other two that spawn upon their deaths. Proceed through the door to see a Bizarre Bug on the window to your right. Head into the door leading into that room and take it and it's friends out. Head through the door to see five of the bastards spawn. Keep moving around the small room and keep firing until you take them out. Head out and take a right. Charge at the Mako Point and proceed forward. As two DG spawn from a door, fire at the barrel to take them out. Head in the room they came from and kill the three enemies in there. Continue through the door at the end and grab the two Red Potions, before heading along the path, stocking at the Jukebox and entering the door. You'll appear in a room of explosive barrels. Fire at the DG who spawns on the balcony before he can shoot any of them, then go straight through the door at the end. Keep going forward and hit the button to open the door. A small scene will trigger, showing you a button on the wall. When it ends, a bunch of bugs will charge towards you. Quickly hit the button to shut the door and you're safe. Continue along and charge at the Mako Point, then head through the door.

Walk into the room and a scene will trigger with Vincent slowly walking as he hears clanging metal above. He looks up to see another one of those Black Widow things... this time it can turn invisible and fire grenades... yay... as the mist clears, we see... damn it... there's two of them...

Black Widow IIIEdit

So, here we are fighting the Black Widow TW. It's essentially the same as the original Black Widow fight from Chapter 5, only it's weaker and can't dash. But, there's two of them, so it's still just as challenging... well, actually, it's easier... Anyways, focus on the grounded one first (remembering to avoid orange beam of death) and you'll take it out really quickly by circling and firing at it. Once that's down, the fight's even easier. Just fire at the one on the ceiling until it drops relatively quickly. When it's on the ground, jump at it and take a shot at it's underbelly to take it out (or at least wipe the majority of health) in one shot. Once it's down, easy as hell 2-in-1 boss fight is done!

Reassurance from old friendsEdit

Cutscene will show the last Black Widow exploding and Vincent approaching an elevator. Hit the button to open it and then hit the button inside to activate it. When the lift stops, head out to the right to spawn some red bots. Take them all down and grab the Limit Breaker and Mako Point. Head to the other three corners of the room to grab various items, including some Top Secret Files. Head through the door at the left of the room and head along until you're on a bridge, where two DG Shrikes will spawn. Take them down and cross the bridge to arrive in a place with some glowing crystals in glass cabinets. DGs will spawn here, so take them out and head right along the corridor. The next room will house some similar cabinets, but now holding glowing ball things. Take out the enemies and grab the Top Secret Files from behind the cabinet with the orange ball thing in. Carry on along the corridor and a cutscene will trigger at the next bridge. Vincent will try to call Shelke, but is unsuccessful. As he puts the phone away, it rings and the delightful voice of Tifa Lockhart speaks to Vincent. We hear Barret Wallace in the background too. The two argue for a second until Tifa hands the phone to Cloud Strife. Cloud tells Vincent that they lost contact with Cid and the Shera about 15 minutes ago. Cloud reassures Vincent and Tifa and Barret follow suit. Tifa sends him a map of the Shinra Building and we see that our destination is just ahead. We're to take an elevator as far down as we can to reach Deepground. The trio wish our hero luck and he proceeds. Head forward, grab the Handgun bullets, then head onto the elevator. Hit the button and pull out your Machine Gun. We're tasked with taking out Surveillance Mines here. Pretty simple; just fire at them before they get to you. Stay in the middle of the elevator to avoid splash damage and keep going until you eventually arrive at the bottom. Depending on how many you took out, you'll get a score. I got 33. Head out and stock up at the Jukebox on the bridge. Head through the path and you'll see a ton of DGs through some windows. Keep on going until you end up at a door. Head in and kill said ton of DGs, remembering to grab the Top Secret Files in the first room. Continue through the rooms until you end up in another corridor, where two DG and two of those shielded bots from Chapter 4 will spawn. Fire Materia them and proceed to find another elevator. The score thing from earlier will reappear and more Surveillance Mines will too. Repeat the process from before, being a tad more careful, since the movements of the bots will be closer to you. DG soldiers may also spawn on the balconies, so watch out for them. You'll soon arrive at the bottom and your score will have increased. Mine went up 50 to get to 83.

Head forward to arrive in a room with a bunch of heavy sword guys. Kill and head through the door at the back of the room, charging at the Mako Point as you enter. Head right to arrive in a room with explosive barrels and two heavy rocket guys. Weaken/kill 'em with the barrels and then finish off their last bits of health, before heading right to meet some red bots. Take them out to be greeted by dogs. Take them out and continue. Grab the bullets and X-Potion in the next room and stock at the shop if needed. Then continue through the door and across the bridge to trigger a cutscene.

We see Vincent walking into a room to meet Azul the Cerulean. He says Rosso didn't survive (and considering she dropped off a building, we're not too surprised). He then notices Vincent faintly glowing red and says that something inside him wants to get out. He begins to manically laugh and tells Vince to show him his rage. Azul says that the killing will begin and pulls out his giant cannon.

Neo and ArchEdit

We're now fighting Neo Azul. He's basically the same fight as he was the last time in Chapter 4, only he's much weaker. Your standard attacks can now actually do damage and his attacking power is dropped. Just circle the central pillar as cover and plug away at his health, avoiding his shots and jumping the shockwaves he sends. Once his health depletes, it's boss fight done!

Or is it? Azul laughs manically again, stating that Vincent will feel his true strength and wrath momentarily. A blueish thing appears beneath him and he transforms into his scary Behazulemoth form from Chapter 6... and we have to fight it.

It's name is Arch Azul and as you can see, it's big and scary. And what's so hard about him? Guns won't work. Nor will punching him. Materia will though. Barely. There are a bunch of blocks around the area that you can guide the gargantuan into to reveal Mako Points. Use these only once your ENTIRE MP bar has depleted. Slowly magic the crap out of the giant, avoiding his devastating physical attacks. Eventually, you'll run out of Mako Points. Don't fret though, since you should've gotten the giant around to about half his HP. At this point, use your limit break. Keep firing fireballs at him and if your brave, run in and punch the crap about of him for massive damage. This is a tough battle, so keep an eye on your HP. Once his HP is down, you're done with the most challenging battle so far and possibly the most challenging in the game if I remember rightly.

Vincent will begin to walk away from the fallen monster. It gets up quickly and charges at Vincent, hitting him into some railings. Azul will tell him to stand, since this isn't over. Vincent then teleports (and why haven't we been told about this ability!?) and stabs his arm into the bastard, prompting a huge ball of light and screams from Azul. Azul then explodes. Awesomely. He then transforms back to standard Azul and Vincent transforms into Chaos. HA! Consider these tables turned, you blue prick! Chaos picks up Azul's cannon and throws it through him. Through him. This prompts a painful looking red flash on the screen and pained cries from impaled Tsviet. He says he'll see Vincent again in hell before Chaos delivers a red/black death beam of extremely dead deathly death straight at Azul and sends him flying of the elevator screaming "Hail Weiss!" and laughing to his death, like Rosso.

We then see Nero stood on top of the elevator, finally seeing what Chaos looks like. He then vanishes, dropping something behind him. The screen zooms in on the thing and we hear Lucrecia saying, yet a-fucking-gain, "I'm so sorry". WE KNOW! Sigh... the screen blacks out and we see a flashback of Turk Vince in a chamber with Lucrecia watching him. She collapses to the ground and questions what's wrong with her lately. Professor Hojo walks in (with his face still in shadows, even though it's painfully obvious who he is) and asks what Lucrecia is doing with his failed experiment. Lucrecia tells him to GTFO. Hojo then notices that Lucrecia is using Vincent to complete her thesis on Chaos and Omega. Hojo says some mean things and walks off manically laughing whilst Lucrecia is in tears. She shouts that this is no experiment and that it's-... and the screen blacks out before she tells us.

We cut to Vincent, now out of Chaos state, lying on the floor of the elevator. He says stuff and notices the object that Nero dropped is a phone. Vince picks it up and says Shelke's name, leading to assumptions that this is Shelke's phone and Nero beat her up earlier. The elevator finally reaches it's destination... Deepground. Shinra's dark secret. As the ton of doors open, we're greeted by a blinding white light and waves of purpley-black mist. The screen blackens.

Chapter DoneEdit

After what was possibly the longest stage yet, it's Chapter Done. You'll get money for finding the Top Secret files and for how many surveillance mines you dropped. Level to around 24, buy what you need and begin the game's tenth chapter.

Main Page | Previous Page | Next Page ->