Remind me again: Chapter 2. Why did we need to cross the swamp?

[A]

So after killing the Midgardsomnr, you see the hooded figures go inside a building and Cloud remarks they're looking for Sephiroth as well and that they should follow. If I'm remembering the main quest, this wasn't actually the reason why we procured chocobos or needed to go past the swamp right?

I got lost into the game for 8 hours before continuing the main quest lol.

EDIT: I had to dig through the cutscene compilation and I'm inclined to agree that the marked answer is the most reasonable one. Maybe the 2nd post as well.

Anyone else reading this, beware, the rest of the comments have devolved into a debate beyond the scope of the question.

[defnotj4]

barret points out we can take the mines that are across the swamp to get to junon, and we get chocos to do that. can't recall if there's a particular reason he even suggests junon though. we're kind of just meandering i think... which is on brand

[Fitzy]

Originally posted by defnotj4:

barret points out we can take the mines that are across the swamp to get to junon, and we get chocos to do that. can't recall if there's a particular reason he even suggests junon though. we're kind of just meandering i think... which is on brand

They know Sephiroth went to the western continent iirc they need to get to Junon in order to get there. The black robes are all over the place but their story is only hinted at in the original, so they've expanded it all around them.

[sajmon]

There was something that robes follow Sephiroth, so we follow robes. Why swamp exactly, i dont know. Maybe what Fitzy says is true, but i dont remember if we actually know Sephiroth crossed the sea or not

[CHAO$$$]

The plotpoint was that the chocobos can outrun (swim) Midgardsomnr so you get chocobos in order to not deal with the boss that you deal with anyway at the same point in the story
(plot device was a sign at the shack)

Yes i actually listened to all the writing in the story.
Its really that bad.

If this was an FF game from the peak era he would be an optional boss that you come back to later.

But the writers are freaking terrible so here we are.

Theres more awful plot moments like this.. for example:
In Godanga Barrett randomly starts ranting at yuffie how she is actually a bad person (cant remember the exact wording) and as such she cant come along to the reactor .

^which is basically the worst way to write a plot device in order to split the party for the narrative (it was really shoehorned so they can split them up).

Its even worse because Barrett LITERALLY SAW YUFFIE TRY TO KILL THE SHINRA PRESIDENT . Of all the people Barrett shouldnt trust. Yuffie is the LAST one.

But yea the writing is terrible and no effort was made to make it good. If the plot goes to the left they give you the dumbest reason ever to go left and you go left.

FF16 had the same problem.

[sajmon]

Originally posted by CHAO$$$:

Its even worse because Barrett LITERALLY SAW YUFFIE TRY TO KILL THE SHINRA PRESIDENT.

And Barret (?!) stopped her lol
You should probably make spoiler tag for your comment though

[Weltall8000]

Why should Midgardsormor be optional?

[sajmon]

Originally posted by Weltall8000:

Why should Midgardsormor be optional?

Well, the whole point to get Chocobos was to dodge him. But then you fight him anyway.
In original you did dodge him (he was way out of your league at that time of the story) and then you could come back and fight him later.

On the way you would see one of these snakes left impaled by Sephiroth and that would show you how much stronger Sephiroth is. It was quite cool moment.
Here he just shows up out of nowhere to kill it for you, kinda weird tbh

[Fitzy]

Originally posted by sajmon:

There was something that robes follow Sephiroth, so we follow robes. Why swamp exactly, i dont know. Maybe what Fitzy says is true, but i dont remember if we actually know Sephiroth crossed the sea or not

Cloud is seeing Sephiroth but its the black robes is what happens and they're going west, in the og they're told a man in a black cape went that way. In the Original you went back to Midgar anyway, with this being a stand alone game, they can't go back there until disk 3 and that's not made yet so its a stand alone boss fight.

[DeFitSquid]

To make the game "feel" longer and shove Sephiroth in a scene...

[Weltall8000]

Originally posted by sajmon:

Originally posted by Weltall8000:

Why should Midgardsormor be optional?

Well, the whole point to get Chocobos was to dodge him. But then you fight him anyway.
In original you did dodge him (he was way out of your league at that time of the story) and then you could come back and fight him later.

On the way you would see one of these snakes left impaled by Sephiroth and that would show you how much stronger Sephiroth is. Here he just shows up out of nowhere to kill it for you, kinda weird tbh

They got the chocobos and failed to evade him. Why should that make it optional?

That was optional in OG, but why would it have to be here?

Sephiroth is clearly invested in Cloud and he saved him...and showed off how powerful he is. All consistent with our story so far.

[Weltall8000]

Originally posted by Fitzy:

Originally posted by sajmon:

There was something that robes follow Sephiroth, so we follow robes. Why swamp exactly, i dont know. Maybe what Fitzy says is true, but i dont remember if we actually know Sephiroth crossed the sea or not

Cloud is seeing Sephiroth but its the black robes is what happens and they're going west, in the og they're told a man in a black cape went that way. In the Original you went back to Midgar anyway, with this being a stand alone game, they can't go back there until disk 3 and that's not made yet so its a stand alone boss fight.

The party returns to Midgar right before the end of disc 2. Well after the events of Rebirth.

And, at least in OG, Sephiroth didn't cross the sea, black robes did. Sephiroth is laid up in Northern Crater all game.

In this continuity, I am not so sure if we are seeing a black robe/clone, the Sephiroth (who may or may not also currently be in NC (so, time travel shenanigans)), or a Sephiroth (multiverse shenanigans).

[Ashuran]

Originally posted by CHAO$$$:

The plotpoint was that the chocobos can outrun (swim) Midgardsomnr so you get chocobos in order to not deal with the boss that you deal with anyway at the same point in the story
(plot device was a sign at the shack)

Yes i actually listened to all the writing in the story.
Its really that bad.

If this was an FF game from the peak era he would be an optional boss that you come back to later.

Very much agree with this. When he suddenly popped up I was expecting we would get a kind of QRT like mini game where we need to press the exact button at the exact time while he chases us to avoid getting eaten. They built him up to be some super powerful monster that we surely cannot beat so we had to use the chocobos to escape etc. Then we just ran over and slapped him silly lol.

[CHAO$$$]

Originally posted by sajmon:

redacted

true my bad - will do

now you have to as well tho ;)

[Weltall8000]

Originally posted by Ashuran:

Originally posted by CHAO$$$:

The plotpoint was that the chocobos can outrun (swim) Midgardsomnr so you get chocobos in order to not deal with the boss that you deal with anyway at the same point in the story
(plot device was a sign at the shack)

Yes i actually listened to all the writing in the story.
Its really that bad.

If this was an FF game from the peak era he would be an optional boss that you come back to later.

Very much agree with this. When he suddenly popped up I was expecting we would get a kind of QRT like mini game where we need to press the exact button at the exact time while he chases us to avoid getting eaten. They built him up to be some super powerful monster that we surely cannot beat so we had to use the chocobos to escape etc. Then we just ran over and slapped him silly lol.

The party doesn't actually beat him. He was strong and would have killed Cloud if not for Sephiroth's intervention.

[CHAO$$$]

Originally posted by Weltall8000:

Originally posted by Ashuran:

Very much agree with this. When he suddenly popped up I was expecting we would get a kind of QRT like mini game where we need to press the exact button at the exact time while he chases us to avoid getting eaten. They built him up to be some super powerful monster that we surely cannot beat so we had to use the chocobos to escape etc. Then we just ran over and slapped him silly lol.

The party doesn't actually beat him. He was strong and would have killed Cloud if not for Sephiroth's intervention.

You do absolutely beat him in straight combat - the only reason its even close is because he gets the hell outta there after he got his ass beat and goes under water.

In general the whole "we beat him in gameplay but lost in the cutscene immediately after" makes the writing fail worse if anything. If you really need the player to lose just make him lose (e.g. granblue relink).

its just bad writing.