THE TRUTH ABOUT CLOUD!! Reacting to "Final Fantasy 7 Machinabridged" Ep.26 FF7MA!
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- Опубликовано: 19 авг 2024
- Thank you all so much for watching! I hope you enjoyed the video!
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Outro Song: • Leonell Cassio - Chasi... Развлечения
Sephiroth is not actually a Cetra, because Jenova is an alien and not a Cetra. The "Reunion" is when Jenova cells come together again, including those experimented on by Hojo. Cloud could ""feel" Sephiroth because he was experimented on using Sephiroth's cells, which is also how Sephiroth has been controlling him.
"Jenova is an alien and not a Cetra."
Red XIII: "But is she hot?"
The giant monsters you saw at the end cutscene are called WEAPONS. They are bio mechanical creatures created by the Planet itself to defend it from planetary threats like JENOVA and Sephiroth. They were created when JENOVA began to terrorize the planet, but they were never used because the Cetra defeated JENOVA before they had a chance to awaken. So because of this they remain dormant on the Northern Crater.
But after Sephiroth summoned Meteor, they have awakened because Meteor is a planetary threat.
In the original game you fight four of the Weapons. One was mandatory and the other three were optional.
The first Ultima Weapon fight is also mandatory - you're just not required to kill it.
Oh Jesus christ that is terrifying
@@theduckgoesmoo Yeah, those things are civilization-destroyers. The fact that a properly-optimized Cloud can wreck their shit is kinda terrifying on its own, when you stop to think about it. By the end of the game, Cloud "the loser" is a genuine badass that makes almost everyone else on the planet *_combined_* look weak. The exceptions are Sephiroth, JENOVA, a couple of others who were genetically engineered from them, and the rest of the party, who are almost as strong as Cloud is.
So he definitely earned his dream of being strong.
And fortunately, those mandatory ones are considerably weaker than the optional ones.
11:16 "How close is this to the actual game story?" The same. You're also very close, and in some cases right, about some of the stuff you called this episode. Not gonna say which ones, of course. You'll see.
Hmmm I think the abridged version helped me a lot when predicting
5:33 "What are they fighting?" Jenova. A piece of her, at least.
Actually, there's some stuff related to Jenova that can be safety discussed now, since I don't believe any of this gets farther discussed in the abridged series (or the game for that matter), and certainly doesn't spoil anything going forward. I'm a bit rusty on my FFVII lore, but I'm pretty sure everything below is correct.
I will *not* be discussing Sephiroth, Cloud or Zack at this time; that'll come later (I think after Ep28 or Ep29).
I'll put a big gap below if you (or anyone else) doesn't want to read farther. Again, 99% sure there's no spoilers here (at least not nearly as much as Aerith dying :/ )
On Jenova:
Some 2000 years before the game, Jenova arrived on the planet, landing at what became the North Crater. Jenova infected the Cetra with a virus that mutated them into monsters (which Professor Hojo of Shinra would re-create two thousand years later). The Cetra were almost entirely wiped out, but managed to quarantine Jenova within the North Crater, where she would be remembers only in Cetra legends as "The Calamity from the Skies".
Jenova was eventually re-discovered by Professor Gast of Shinra, mistakenly classifying Jenova as an Ancient (Cetra). This lead to the Jenova Project, which was essentially just an attempt to find the Promised Land, a place spoken of in Cetra myths that Shinra (mistakenly) believed contained an infinite source of Mako energy. In reality, the Promised Land is simply just the journey of one's spirit after death and not some physical location, but that didn't stop Shinra from throwing a great deal of resources trying to find it.
However, Shinra also discovered by injecting humans with Jenova cells, they became super...SOLDIERs. This was the birth of the SOLDIER program, which ensured Shinra had the best fighting forces in the world, major reason why (along with an energy monopoly) the entire world is run by Shinra.
Farther research on Jenova was primarily carried out within the Shinra Mansion at Nibelheim, with Jenova stored within the Mako Reactor at Mt. Nibel.
That's all on Jenova for now, but here's something to ponder: If injecting an adult human with Jenova cells results in a super soldier, what would happen if Jenova cells were injected during a much earlier stage of a person's developmental cycle? [You DO see where this is going, right?]
So we can’t talk about crisis core and skip over Zacks part in the game yet?
@@channingpappe2876 Nope. Not until Cloud recovers.
For anyone who plans on playing FFVII Remake, some minor spoilers are below; if you don't plan on playing FF7R, or don't care for very minor spoilers, full speed ahead:
The reason the Northern Crater is perma-locked in a sheet of ice is because of the original Shiva (the blue ice-lady summoned via the red materia on the Shinra-ship in an earlier episode). She was apparently a very powerful witch-queen, and such a badass that she managed to cast an ice spell *_so powerful_* that it permanently locked a whole continent in eternal winter and instantly created a glacier thousands of feet thick over most of it.
Keep in mind that the most powerful spells in the actual game are crazy-strong, but they're only a tiny fraction as powerful as that. It was one of the most powerful spells ever cast by anyone.*
*SLIGHTLY LARGER SPOILER BELOW:*
*The only two exceptions to my knowledge are Meteor and Supernova (which are planet destroyers only castable by Sephiroth and JENOVA).
Cloud: "I know just who to give it to!" (I WOULD BE HONORED!) Cloud: Garett, promise me something.
let me guess: autocorrect?
@@jaredohlstein7355 And edibles.
"Imagine being a kid playing this game." Honestly, some things in the original game were even more subtle/confusing than here, so yeah... I played through this game a whole lot of times throughout middle school, and I felt like I figured out something new about the plot every time just about. Not to mention that one of the most important scenes explaining a lot of it is actually an optional cutscene that's extremely easy to miss. Basically, you just have to go down to that library in the basement of the Shinra Mansion at the very end of the game (when the only story requirement left is to go through the final dungeon and defeat the final boss), but there's literally nothing in the game to hint that you should do this. You just have to either know that it's there, or maybe just have been exploring old areas for no reason.
I won't spoil any of the stuff about Cloud, as they'll be getting more into it in the next episodes, but one thing to keep in mind: remember that, just as Tifa was pointing out in this episode, both she and Cloud have memories of their childhood together.
God a game this old with that kind of replay ability...
So what I get from this story so far:
Hojo was obsessed with Jenova, injected people and even babys with here gene's and Sephiroth was the only one that survived.
And since that was not enough for Hojo, he also tried to clone him.
This guy has issues
@@theduckgoesmoo you have no idea, dude…
During the flashback scene when sephiroth gives team the truth about cloud and nibelheim, the twitching eye was just a glitch, don't think they ever fixed it.
That is so spooky lol
Let’s just leave it at a whole lot of what the fuckery happened that needs to be unpacked. And I can’t possibly explain it better than anyone trying to. Enjoy your migraine!
Freaking Hojo is a treasure act in this show. Seriously. It’s just too good.
I did not expect him of all people to be behind this
I hope no one spoiled the your answers yet. They’ll be coming soon.
Also as a kid this game came out in 4 disks, I think I had disk issues around disk 2 or 3 so I never finished as a kid before picking up a different new game and completely forgetting it until I was older.
This is pretty accurate to the original game's story, and actually explains some aspects of it far better than the game did! TFS tend to remain true to the original source material when it really matters.
Indeed. TFS's jokes tend to play primarily on character quirks, references, and fan hindsight. All the while, retaining key plot points so that the story, and those jokes, remain coherent.
The way they use the word "Clone" is very confusing
It's probably supposed to be. That way when you learn more about it later on, those additional details are still a surprise.
Hello the Cloud and FF7 nerd here again. So yeah a lot has happened in this episode and I'll try my best to explain some minor things without spoiling future stuff. And if I'm incorrect on anything people are more than welcome to correct me.
So yes that voice in Clouds mind the entire time was Zack, and the moments in this series is very very close to the game other than the humor sprinkled here and there.
Also when Hojo says "him" he refers to Sephiroth and all those trash bags that they meet are Sephiroth clones, the ones Hojo made and each have number tattoos except for Cloud. The clones were part of an experiment by Hojo about Jenova and Promised Land, but Sephiroth has control over them and was controlling and compelling them to come to him and bring the Black Materia.
So in one episode when you asked why couldn't Cloud and crew just leave the Black Materia where it was, its simply because Sephiroth has all these clones as minions who he could sacrifice and use to get the materia and bring it to him. Unfortunately since Cloud was also experimented on this means he was under Sephiroth's control, and so Cloud's obsession to find and kill Sephiroth to the point of being irrational was actually Sephiroth influencing him to come find him and ultimately deliver the Black Materia.
As for the story on Zack, and Tifa and why she seems to know more than she lets on, and why she seems afraid or unwilling to tell the truth should be answered in next couple or few episodes I believe. I think that's all I can say without giving too much away in the future.
Sorry if that seems confusing I'm not the best at summarizing things well. To anyone reading this far I hope you all have a great day/night and be safe.
I appreciate you not spoiling anything
@@theduckgoesmoo No problem don't want to ruin your experience with the series and it's always nice to see someone enjoy FF7 stuff.
This is your brain 🤓
This is your brain on the story of Final Fantasy 7 💥
12:50 inserting genes into someone doesn't make them a clone... can't remember how it was in called in the game but cloud is not a clone that way...
or is that just part of the joke of this plot? to long ago to remember all the details for me...
mfg
Olli
Exactly, however it does call him a Sephiroth-clone in the game. Must have been a translation error or something. Cloud was more of Gene-spliced with Sephiroth DNA
@@Jmasterturbo2 I always saw it as metaphorical: Shinra (and Hojo) were trying to recreate the success of the experiment that created Sephiroth from Jenova's cells, thus they were attempting to clone the "success" not necessarily the man himself.
Analogy: Before the creation of the term "First Person Shooter " to represent the genre, any games that was remotely similar to the breakout hit Doom, were so-called "Doom-clones" because they were accused of trying to recreate Doom's success. Doom wasn't the first game in the FPS genre, and later successful games became the new target to "clone/beat", such as Halo and Call of Duty before "FPS" and its variants became more commonplace.
It's called splicing.
@@Jmasterturbo2 I wouldn't see it as a translation error, so much as them trying to keep the player misled. A lot of this game's plot is extremely convoluted, and plays on your expectations of what you think you know, only to then find out that wasn't the case. So I would feel like the whole clone thing would've been done on purpose for the sake of having the actual truth revealed later still.
Some clarity on the things Hojo explained in this episode:
After the Nibelheim incident when Sephiroth burned it down, Hojo took the survivors and experimented on them.
Hojo fused the survivors with cells from Jenova. They're not "clones" like being exact copies. He just calls them "clones" since they were spliced with Jenova's DNA.
Hojo had a theory that the different parts of Jenova would try to come back together into a single body, which he called the "Reunion theory."
So since the people were fused with Jenova's DNA, they were "part" of Jenova's body and tried gathering together. Throughout the game you would see those people in black robes just wandering around and mumbling things like "reunion".
There's some more details about Sephiroth and Jenova but I think they're still going to be expanded on in the Abridged so I'll wait on explaining those.
Oooooh boy welcome to the most confusing "wtf is even going on" part of the game lol. You're getting really close to the answers tho! One of the best scenes from the game is coming up soon, can't wait for it :D
Also, since you're planning on reacting to a remake trailer (which I'd be super down for), there are 4 main ones :
Final Fantasy VII Remake - TGS 2019 (Very dynamic and fast-paced)
Final Fantasy VII Remake - E3 2019 Trailer (A bit more gameplay oriented)
Final Fantasy VII Remake - Theme Song Trailer (Showcases many characters and iconic scenes, I personally recommend this one if you want to compare it to the old one!)
Final Fantasy VII Remake - Final Trailer (Mainly shows a lot of characters, both OG and new ones created for the remake)
Hope that helps!
Has the remake even happened yet?
@@theduckgoesmoo The FFVII Remake came out already, or at least part 1 has, and dlc for it just released recently. But due to massive spoilers I would recommend finishing the entire abridged first. Also, loving your reactions and speculations so far.
oh shit. I forgot there were 5 episodes left until the tfs movie
i was a kid when i played this game and i was plesently surprised, it was a gift to me
I remember, as a kid, being pretty scared after the Weapons broke free. The world didn't feel safe to explore anymore. Annnnd, I never defeated Ruby weapon. Lol
Lot to unpack here and you are right on endgame. Sephiroth plans on ending the world and absorbing the Mako energy to become a god like being. Cloud was an attempt to clone Sephiroth through gene splicing like Zack as Hojo used survivors from Nebielhiem. Jenova more or less is a parasitic shape shifting alien who travels to different worlds before was stopped in her latest conquest by the Cetra
WOAH THE CETRA ARE REAL?
"We're getting endgame stuff right now!"
This cutscene occurs halfway through Disc 2 out of three discs total. (Not actually halfway through the game; the separation into separate discs was based on pre-rendered cutscene size.) Aerith's death was the end of disc 1, which led into a huge dungeon that MA mostly skipped.
Also, if it's not clear: players were meant to be super confused at this point.
The Dragon Prince in 5 minutes is fun. I'd like Kyle to react to that.
It almost a tradition that your average Final Fantasy main character goes through mindscrew revelations about themselves. They learn about they're part moon alien, part esper, or they literally a made up imagination living in the real world.
Cloud is one of the many keeping the tradition.
I'm not going to spoil anything, but keep watching. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
After this series look up TOME:Terrain of magical expertise
To put it simply: This game's story is insane. But that's par for the course with Final Fantasy. While some of them are definitely more complex than others, just about all of them are convoluted to some degree.
Oh, it’s mind-fuck time ain’t it? Boot up the DuckGoesQuestionCorner, boys. We got a chunky one.
“Not the time, Yuffie.”
Actually, it IS the time. Shinra was a bunch of dumbasses in considering JENOVA a Cetra. It was actually an alien parasite. The first hint of that? When Cloud and the crew climbed the mountains to approach the Northern Continent from the City of the Ancients. With a snowboarding mini game. That TFS wisely chose to skip over for the terrible tone-ruiner it was after Aerith’s death.
“Zangan…?”
Tifa’s old teacher and Cid’s old dom, remember? Who died in the Nibelheim incident.
“Wait, what happened to Red?!”
Sephiroth hid the party so they wouldn’t interfere with getting Barret out of there. Nothing happened to Red other than the equivalent of Sephiroth plugging his ears.
“WAIT, HE’S A CLONE?!”
Ah, the common misconception/mistranslation. They said clone in the original game because of a mistranslation- apparently, the terms for clone, son, and genetic connection get tangled (see also: Kirby VS Maajin Buu. Boomstick explained the same thing with Babidi). As such, things got complicated. What Dr Hojo called “Sephiroth-clones” are actually survivors of the Nibelheim incident, kidnapped and injected with JENOVA cells. JENOVA in turn became a sort of hive mind to them, and summoned them all to return- though you seemed to understand the Reunion Theory well enough from what Hojo said. According to Hojo, Cloud was just some punk-ass bitch Nibelheim survivor with fake memories of Zack Faire implanted in his mind and JENOVA cells implanted into his… everything. Nothing more than a pathetic puppet of the Reunion, no better than the black-robed guys.
But that doesn’t quite explain Sephiroth, huh? Why Hojo spoke as if Sephiroth was the true mastermind?
Because as the one true child of JENOVA, Sephiroth forcefully overtook all of it. He became the puppet master, faithfully carrying out his mother’s will as her incarnate servant on Gaia.
If this is sounding somewhat twistedly religious in certain capacities, welcome to Final Fantasy! Where the word “subtlety” has been forcibly removed from the dictionary.
“So was it all just a bait?!”
The best bait in gaming history. Fucking. Epic. You’ll get a better explanation of what that monster at the end was next time, though- from me, not from the series.
It’s a bit light today despite the reveals. Two reasons: one, it’s more about specific questions that I’m waiting for you to respond to this comment and ask so I can narrow in on what actually needs explaining, and two, you’re catching on INCREDIBLY well! FF7 takes the bronze medal of TFS series for me just on the nature of its lacking presence as an adaptation visually and its stumblings in properly explaining the lore and plot, and yet you’re still doing GREAT for a newb! As we close out the Corner today, everyone give Kyle a hand!
Alright, that’s enough. See ya Wednesday for Smash!
(P.S. I made a playlist of FFVII music, the best one I could possibly refine. Do you want me to make a supplementary doc explaining each song’s significance in order, and where’s the best place for me to actually GIVE you those materials? My Discord is SsjSora#3296 and I have the same pfp AND I’m in your server, so options are open.)
Next time on Machinabridged:
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
Poor Kyle is having the same existential crisis that Kyle Broflovski had in the Tooth Fairy episode of South Park. XD NOTHING IS REAL! I AM NOWHERE, AND EVERYWHERE!
I dont get this reference
@@theduckgoesmoo I would honestly be surprised if you did. ;)
Oh boy. You're in for a surprise, Duck.
The OG was getting confusing at this exact point. The story has 2 big plot twists (if you ask me the first one is so unnecessary, it didnt add anything to the plot just create confusion in total);
1. This whole Clone thing. Sephirot says that Cloud is a clone for some reason and you as a player think like "oh so Cloud is just a clone but a strange one" but in reality its not true. Cloud is NOT a clone. Hojo just injects Jenova cells and Mako to Cloud after he founds Cloud and Zack lying wounded.
2. (This is a little bit spoiler but not that much so if you want to skip it dont read but as i said after this point its not that much of a spoiler)
In the second Plot twist it just goes back to the start like "Yeah you are not a clone bro" statement. And you see the reason why Cloud is not in the photo but still remembers it. It has a really simple explanation actually but between the first and second plot twist, Cloud goes in to a fucking depression.
So basically as a kid who plays this game, your brain gets fucked up a lot. Because OG goes deeper on how our memories could be fake, are we real, how can we be sure that our memories are true as we remember etc. And these are actually really heavy topics for a kid. I played this game on 99 or something but i only understand it when i played it again before the remake came out.
The characters may be exaggerated, but TFS is VERY good at translating the core story. Everything is going by the book, and it's amazing!
Sephiroth Clones are the black cloaked people you saw in this game (the trash bag people in this episode), and Cloud is one as well.
I’m reality, the “Sephiroth Clones” are actually the survivors of the Nibelheim Incident, that Hojo captured and experimented on to test his Jenova Reunion Theory, which suggests that if Jenova’s cells were separated they would eventually reunite towards the main body and become whole again.
To test this, Hojo injected the survivors of Nibelheim with Sephiroth’s own cells (which contains Jenova cells), and gave each of them a number.
Cloud was one of the many experiments, but he was never given a number because he escaped the facility he was in(You will find out how in a later episode)
Aerith Dying was about 2/3 of the game done.
Unfortunately the series is... incomplete.
There is one more season we've been waiting over a year for.
They released the rest of the series in one big video instead of multiple episodes.
You...do realize Machinabridged is done, right?
The last episode was released as a movie late last year
@@harleyronco6021 did they? I must have missed it. I'll binge watch it :D
Endgame? Isn't this like 60ish%?
Barely.
yeah but TFS kinda rushed the last third. we have 4 more episodes and a "movie" left.
WHAT?
@@theduckgoesmoo yea, Aerith died super early in the game, as the dude above said, they rushed the ending so 4 normal episode and a movie with is basically 2 more episodes
I was wondering how your going to get mindscrewed by this episode.
Between the previous episode and this episode, they entered a slowly village on the way. There they found Professor Gast's old videos where he recorded he and his Cetra wife discussing about Jenova, the Cetra, and weapons. Also they're Aerith's parents. Right after she was born, Hojo came in, killed Gast and took in the two women
sooo I'll be as spoiler free in my explanation as I can be.
so 5 years ago, sephiroth DID die, it's not explained how yet, but he did.
well, his will was so strong that he not only reformed his body in the lifestream, but he's also able to dominate the jenova cells to his will. so he's capable of controlling anyone that has jenova cells. which is why he can control cloud
the "sephiroth" you follow all game is actually parts if jenova being controlled by sephiroth, which is why everytime you get in a fight when sephiroth throughout the game so far, you fight a form of jenova.
but now the real sephiroth is back in action...
Duck: Is Hojo the real villain?
Me: Well, no, but actually yes.
Seriously, pretty much everything bad that happens is because of him, or is because he was involved. Sephiroth being created, Mako reactors, Jenova going on an omnicidal rampage…
If you think what he did to Cloud was bad, you will absolutely hate what he did to a woman named Lucrecia.
Also, Jenova is basically a sentient lovecraftian apocalypse that has the ability to shapeshift, which is how she turned into Sephiroth and lured the party, and is implied in the film to have destroyed worlds before.
cid's wisdom knows no bounds
Nice video
Cloud is not EXACTLY a clone in the sense you're thinking.
Think of Captain America, but instead of being injected with super serum, it's Sephiroth steroids.
So cloud was an actual person before
@@theduckgoesmoo Cloud Strife is a real person, yes. He's now just not quite 100% Cloud. Hojo mentions in the episode.
Cloud was a survivor of Nibleheim, was experimented on, and then considered a failure and thrown out. You could probably imagine why his brain would..... Fill in some gaps and make shit up.
You could say hojo is the real villain. Literally everything that happens in the game is because of what hojo did to lucretzia, sephiroth, and ifalna
It’s been a while since I was this early wow
Why is Raditz carrying a buster sword?
If you're shocked now, just you wait.
Surprise! The "Sephiroth" you've been seeing was actually Jenova taking his shape all this time. You haven't seen the real Sephirot at all (except in flashbacks) until this point of the game.
Also Hojo uses the word "clone" differently that we do (maybe a translation error?). He took existing living people and injected them with Jenova cells. So not actual clones in the sense of being artificially grown or somesuch. As Tifa said, Cloud really did grow up in Nibelheim. Those memories are real... it's only later that his memories diverge, though saying any more would spoil things.
Jenova is not just a program. While it's true that Shinra did have the Jenova program running, as they said at the start of this episode, Jenova is an alien that crashed onto this planet a long time ago and somehow got burried. Shinra later dug her up and mistakenly believed her to be a Cetra (or Ancient) and then started experimenting with putting some of her cells into other living beings... in Sephiroth's case while he was still a fetus inside his mother's belly and in case of the ones in black capes (and Cloud) when they were already grown up.
Also if you are wondering about the simply terms for some things like SOLDIER and WEAPON, remember that this game was made in Japanese, but these words were spelled in English (even in the Japanese version). They didn't bother to put those out-of-language terms into something other than English for the English version unfortunately, leaving the naming a bit awkward. I mean come on, why would they call their elite soldier just SOLDIER and such?
Is anything real do ducks really go moo?!!!!!
Yes they do actually!
@@theduckgoesmoo I know just make a joke.
Making a joke I mean
You should’ve watch lazy purple
1:21 I hate these people
Sadly, nothing to share for VA Fun facts on this one, for the most part.
I didn't grow up with this game, actually, never even played it. The abridged is all my knowledge, and I've forgotten most of these last episodes, so I'm going to enjoy watching them semi-blindly with you in these upcoming weeks.
I can't necessarily spoil you on the voice in Cloud's head, but I will state a reminder that he is voiced by Nathan Sharp, Voice Actor and Musician. I have a song related the FF7 that he's involved in that I wanna share, but I think I'm gonna hold off for a couple more episodes, just because of spoilers.
Recommendations for after this series: we have the always present "Terrain of Magical Expertise," where I'd be giving all the VA Fun Facts. There's Yugioh GX Abridged, by Shadyvox (the one who played Jaden in Yugioh Abridged), though it's only got about 20 episodes and will probably never finish. There's Pokémon Bridged, which is a very different Abridged series, but still a really fun one (if only the head creator wasnt a bad dude) that will never be continued. Finally, another pokemon one, "Starter Squad." It's not an abridged series, but it is a fun pokemon fan series with a few recognizable VAs. Only 9 episodes so far, out of the 12 for the whole series, but each episodes gets better and better.
It might end up on the poll im not sure yet
I'm with red what kind of Bahamut is that
Just wait till you play Remake and see how it further fucks with you while retconning but acknowledging some of the...dumpier additions to FF7 lore post the original game.
You will get ALL the answers in episode 29. Maybe. It's still a bit convoluted.
Don't wanna tell you everything and ruin the fun.
One or two episodes and things will be explained.
As spot on to the story as dbza and hellsing abridged. Also you can see what I mean by even tho Zack was never there he's one of the most present character in the story
Edit. You can now also see why it's so hard to talk about Zack without giving spoilers. Lol so much dancing around details
REACT TO THE TRAILERRR PLEASE
I know you're confused Duck, but you have to keep watching. So far many of your predictions are right on the money.
Thank you!
You should react to smg4
Imagine being a kid and playing this.
Me as a kid playing this:
*MAshing skip cutscene button and skip dialog*
You monster...
Who's want more depression?
I'm capped out unfortunately
It's close to the game story, yeah, but extremely rushed, Nibleheim is one of the greatest story telling devices ever, and this part, with Cloud breaking down, and Tifa panicking, is the second greatest scene in the game IMO. Really don't think they do it justice, it's such a mind-fuck.
The game is filled with half-truths and people with incomplete knowledge.
I'll quickly say what you'd normally know by this time in the game.
1: Jenova reunion. The jenova reunion theory states that even if Jenovas cells are separated, they will try to become whole again. The black cloaked men basically have Jenova cells in them, Sephiroth was created from Jenova, I'll not specify how, since I am not sure you actually know that at this time, but needless to say, sephiroth clones also have Jenova cells inside them, as do members of Soldier.
Hojo expected all the cloaked men to gather at the shinra building, where the body of Jenova was kept.
However, something else happened, Jenova actually broke out, if you look at the rampage in the shinra building, you'll notice that the containment chamber was breached outwards.
Hojo discovered that instead of Jenova pulling Sephiroth and the others with Jenova cells towards Shinra, Sephiroth instead was pulling all the other Jenova cells towards himself, he is in control. So Cloud was literally being compelled to seek Sephiroth out. Jenova can shapeshift (and read minds), the sephiroth we've been following throughout the game was actually Jenova, shapeshifted as Sephiroth, seeking out the real one, trying to bring him the black materia.
2: After Cloud loses Tifas faith in him, he no longer has a tether on who he is, and breaks mentally, allowing Sephiroth to basically take full control, as shown in this episode, and yes, he gives Sephiroth the black materia while Tifa is pleading and crying in the background, Cloud unable to hear her.
3: The monsters that escape after Cloud gives Sephiroth the materia are "weapons", a defense mechanism of the planet, born of the lifestream, who are released when the planet is in danger in order to save it from whatever is endangering it.
4: The third Nibleheim visit (shown in this episode), basically goes as shown, Cloud believes Sephiroth will show him illusions, Sephiroth shows him the events of nibleheim again, but with a black haired man instead of Cloud. Sephiroth tells Cloud that he was constructed piece by piece 5 years ago by Hojo. That reading minds and shapeshifting is the power of jenova, and that Tifas memories of a boy named "cloud" are just a piece of the stuff used to cobble together this "cloud".
5: They skipped A LOT of stuff in between Aeriths death and north crater, they go through a frozen tundra, they go snowboarding, they find professor gasts research center where you learn about Aeriths past.
6: The story is not over yet, not even close.
Don't try to make much sense of it. FF7 has a really bad story.