Can you skip Shinra Manison [SPOILERS]

[Cantavanda]

Hello there!
I'm currently in Nibleheim in Disc 1.
I just finished everything in the Shinra Manison.
Here, you find a lot of story elements that Vincent explains, and you meet Sephiroth.
But I noticed, before going in it, that I could go to the mountains, skipping it all...
Is that normal? Is it possible to progress the game without all of the events in the Shinra Manison? How can a player understand the story if they don't see those things happening?
Thanks!

PS: The enemies were quite tough in it! I hated the Yin Yang and Jersey enemies

[NBOX21]

It's a purely optional part of the game. You don't have to go through it if you don't want to, so you can reach the final boss and the ending without ever going through the mansion.

As for the story, it's mostly stuff that's not required to fully understand the main story, but is there for additional background information if you're looking for it.

[Xengre]

Yup, optional and skippable as said. I did that my first run in the game and didn't come back until much later in that run as a kid. The events in Rocket Town kind of force you in a specific direction and really Sephiroth doesn't really say much other than to send you in that direction to begin with so he doesn't add much real value other than a bit of flavor to the story at that point.

Yin/Yang are definitely an interesting enemy that is more powerful than average. Personally, I've never actually considered them even remotely hard but it makes sense since they are one of the final fights in the battle arena square if you do it very early. One is weak vs magic while the other is weak vs physical damage hence their name. What is interesting is the magic oriented one will become stronger and stronger if you hit it with the wrong attack type, up to basically the normal stat cap making it virtually as strong as a maxed character. The other is resistant to the opposite and has a powerful suicide attack if you don't kill it fast enough so you should kill that one first then hit the other with the right attack. Or you could just nuke both with the right Enemy Skill/physical attacks even with their high defenses and call it a day if your stats are high enough.

Jersey is similar to the other but total immunity depending on the arm side, but realistically if your weapon/attack is high enough you can 1-shot it at that point or if you have Beta/Aqualung you could nuke them once it swaps.

That place has some interesting enemies. It even has one enemy extremely weak to gravity, aka Demi magic and iirc the only enemy in the ENTIRE franchise that can die to demi as it is technically a non-fatal spell, except that one enemy is weak specifically to it, (used even in FFX as a way to make an impossible to lose boss tutorial fight).

The only real odd enemy I can think of off the top of my head you will encounter after the mansion that may throw you is, if you aren't already familiar with this returning Final Fantasy franchise character, the Tonberry. Its a green short thing with a chef knife and a lantern that waddles to you. It literally takes several turns to take enough steps to reach one character. Its known for having immense HP, seeming unthreatening at first, but even a single silly poke from its chef knife will cause instant death. It isn't until the final dungeon tho and you can morph it into extra Ribbon's (one of the greatest accessories ever in FF lol, ull get two if you explore as you progress in chests).

[Electric Cupcake]

Why would you? Some really cool monster fights there, and even if you don't like Vince in your party, there's some cool materia in the safe as well.

[Xengre]

Originally posted by ZootsIdenticalTwinSisterDingo:

Why would you? Some really cool monster fights there, and even if you don't like Vince in your party, there's some cool materia in the safe as well.

I believe they were asking simply for story continuation purposes what would happen because, from their perspective, they felt it was ripping out an important plot beat and was asking how the story would handle that or if it forced you to go there because it was potentially important. The average player back when the game first came out definitely skipped getting Vincent, though, as the internet wasn't so readily available with information to find out how to unlock Vincent and not everyone would figure out the clues so a surprisingly lot of people would miss Vincent and Yuffie on their runs.

[timpejohn45]

yes you can however you will lose barrets ultimate weapon. but you have to have him in the group to retrieve it.

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by timpejohn45:

yes you can however you will lose barrets ultimate weapon. but you have to have him in the group to retrieve it.

I thought that was glitching past the Midgar section at the end of disc 2. We're talking about something completely different here.

[Xengre]

Originally posted by NBOX21:

Originally posted by timpejohn45:

yes you can however you will lose barrets ultimate weapon. but you have to have him in the group to retrieve it.

I thought that was glitching past the Midgar section at the end of disc 2. We're talking about something completely different here.

Yeah, he is confused. You are right you get Barrett's ultimate weapon at the end of Midgar revisit on the stairs if he is in your party just before the final Hojo fight.