Finally, a full video without any audio issues!
Watcher of the Vale brings us to Cosmo Canyon, home of Nanaki (AKA Red XIII), and after living in Las Vegas for 6-7 years, this zone’s landscape is Western America in a bottle. It’s gorgeous. It reminded me of so many of the hikes I’ve gone on out west. They turned such a small zone in the original into this massive, beautiful area, and I was thrilled looking over the ledges as I approached the city.
I’ll start this off by saying – the final gliding Chocobo minigame was infuriating. It took me well over an hour, but there’s a slight trick to finishing it. If you’re stuck on it, jump to 57:37 in the video, and you’ll see the solution.
Aside from that, we get a lot of the usual to-do list tasks that appear when a new zone opens up. The gliding ramps are a lot more pleasant than the Gongaga mushroom hops, and the map is considerably more open compared to the previous two, so navigating it wasn’t much of an issue.
I really loved Bugenhagen, and I’m glad they brought his goofy laugh over from the original. His scene with us in the planetarium area was amazing – just so well done. The scene with Nanaki and his dad was even more heartbreaking than the original.
The Cave of the Gi was also extremely well done compared to the original. I continue to just be mind blown at how they’ve remade these zones for the remake. Visiting the Gi in their cavern was an interesting addition. It throws a slight wrench in whatever might happen to the Black Materia, so I’m not totally sure what the plan is here.
The Avalanche flashback scenes were great additions, and the minigame that went with them was surprisingly fun, even on hard mode.
Tip: When you’re taking photos of the stars, remember to take a photo of Aerith while you’re at it.
This one was another fairly long chapter, but one I really enjoyed. The full playthrough of Chapter 10: Watcher of the Vale can be viewed here:
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