Continuing my exploration of Nibelheim! This time I'm talking about Zack and Cloud's escape, the tragic story of Vincent Valentine, and why we bother going to Nibelheim in the first place.
Anyway, in the basement you find two tubes, each with cryptic
messages scraped into the glass, as their contents had apparently
planned to break out at "feeding time." This seems very ominous if you
don't know what was in there. Interestingly, if you check the book
shelves at the back of the room you can find written reports of Zack and
Cloud's escape. The reports state that Zack was killed for resisting,
but that the other one escaped during the confusion. In fact, though,
Cloud was catatonic at the time and could only watch as his friend got
killed.
Zack's death scene is pretty gruesome, by the way. After
he's knocked down, the soldiers surround him and fire a machine gun into
Zack's head at close range, like an execution. It's pretty horrifying,
not to mention baffling, since Zack was clearly still a SOLDIER 1st
Class, no more atrophied from five years in a tube than Cloud was.
Regardless,
rather than getting away, Cloud was just lying there helpless. The
soldiers would have probably executed him, too, but their commander
decided to leave him there. Whether out of pity, remorse for the
execution they just performed, or from some sick idea of torturing Cloud
by letting him die of exposure, it's not clear. However, apparently in
the report he said that Cloud got away.
Another interesting note
is that Cloud was apparently cognizant enough to coordinate their escape
plan with Zack via messages scraped in the glass, yet he was catatonic
when they actually escaped. I'm guessing the Jenova cells were reacting.
Zack resisted the Jenova effect somehow, according tot he experiment
logs.
Also, despite what Hojo and Sephiroth said to Cloud,
preying on his doubts, I'm prett sure Cloud doesn't have a number tattoo
because he never finished the experiment--he escaped before the
experiment was complete.
Whew! What else do we have in Nibelheim?
Oh, right: Vincent. He was part of the Turks, but they kicked him out because he's a FREAKING VAMPIRE, and they don't allow vampires in the Turks.
Wait,
no. He was a Turk who disagreed with human experimentation
(particularly if that human was the woman he loved), so he got shot
by... Gast? Or was it Hojo? I'm guessing Gast, since the shooter seems
to be distraught about shooting Vincent and it's hard to imagine Hojo
exhibiting that sort of emotion. However, that incident may be one of the events that turned Hojo into the cold, emotionless psychopath he eventually became.
So,
Vincent blames himself for it all, presumably because he didn't shoot
first and ask questions later. Tragically, he becomes a victim of human
experimentation himself, leading to his apparent immortality and ability
to transform into horror movie knockoffs. He's cold, brooding, and
tragic, so it's no wonder he got his own game later.
Anyway, the
black-caped folk are all over the place. I wonder if it's because
Jenovaroth is hanging out in town, apparently waiting for Cloud to show
up, or if it's because the town itself was partially populated with
Sephiroth clones, all of which are going nuts during the call of the
Reunion.
Regardless, in the end Jenovaroth just kinda taunts Cloud a bit and uses reverse psychology to lure Cloud toward Rocket Town. It's kind of interesting that Sephiroth is here at all, since really you could probably just run straight through Nibelheim and ignore the Shinra Mansion altogether, right? Yet without thinking, a player being back i Nibelheim feels compelled to explore this town that should not exist.
Finally, props to the Shinra folks who rebuilt the town exactly as it was before getting burned. Did they have photos to reference, or what? VIDEO GAMES.
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