I've been thrown in prison, which is just the desert with some other thugs. Barret tells a bit more about another guy with a gun arm, luckily he's the prison boss so it doesn't take too long to get there. Quite an emotional story with Dyne I have to say, him going crazy with everything that happened to his town and Barret, but at least finding peace in the thought his daughter and wife are together in another place. Then Barret telling him his daughter is still alive, and this actually makes him even more desperate. Desperate enough to give you an important pendant and throw himself off the cliff, to be with his wife.
I enjoyed the fight, felt like a western style shootout with automatic arm guns.

Obviously the next thing you have to do is win a chocobo race, as that's the only way to get out of prison, seems like the thing to do. Win a race, get an ugly buggy. Thanks to Caith Sid being in your party, you have the manipulate materia now.

Went to Gongaga, fought the Turks again, they ran away, saw a small village where a lot of people seem to have experienced loss, and there was a broken down reactor. Going there triggered another scene with two different Shinra employees, hinting at Huge Materia and Ultimate Weapons.

I usually check back a guide once I've done a bit, and that one said to pick up some enemy skills with the manipulate materia. So now I have aqualung, big guard and white wind, all seem quite useful. White wind means I can hopefully free up Cloud of his cure-all materia (Barret has them too, but I had Cloud as back up in case he gets pulled apart from the party) and have him use white wind, and play around with some different materia in his linked slot.

I don't really know where to go next, as the Turks didn't drop Obvious Hints this time, but since I'm near Junon I'm gonna give that another good look. Some of the bars were occupied during the parade, so maybe I can do some more there.

So last update I got Big Guard. Not really knowing where to go after, I stumbled on Cosmo Canyon, where my buggy broke down. Lucky me it happened near a town, and one with incredibly good music. A long climb up and we get a scene with Aeris in the observatory, learning more about spirits and how they travel around the planet. After we learn all that, we find the rest of the gang around the campfire, most will have a little sad quote. But the saddest things in this town still needs to come, and that's Red's backstory. Seeing a statue cry was quite effective.

After that I wanted to grind a bit for money, as Cosmo had the hp and mp up materia, and I didn't have any money for them. While doing that I stumbled on Nibelheim, and entering that was quite a shock. It looks... fine? Not burned? But then you enter houses and it's a mix of black blobs and characters you don't know at all. Must be something wrong with Cloud, and I can't seem to forget that quote in Junon, after you took a nap when defeating the water monster and saving the girl, where that weird voice tells you to ask Tifa about 5 years ago. Clearly there's more to that event.

Went to Shinra Mansion, got a few more enemy skills, found Sephiroth in the basement who pretty much just blasted over me after throwing a materia in my face. Opened a safe and found a key, went down the basement again to find grumpy guy in a coffin. He pretty much was there 5 years ago, saw it all went quite wrong and decided to sleep in a coffin. Apparently there's still some unfinished business that's nagging him now he's awake, so Vincent joins me. Haven't used him yet though.

Onto Mount Nibel then, where I took some time to steal golden armlets from dragons, and slid down pipes to find some items. I don't think much happened here, apart from coming out the other side of the mountain. Which at the time sucked a bit as my buggy was still near Nibelheim. It still is there I think.

As the next stop is Rocket Town! Finally get to know how Cid looks in this game (short hair, with cigarette) and hear the story about the rocket, how it was Shinra's best, and Cid was the best, but saw his dreams of going into space fall apart by his indecisive aide who wouldn't get out of the rocket part that gets really hot during lift off. So Cid cancelled last minute, and has been bitter since. Little bit of hope when Shinra people show up, but it's soon clear they have no interest in space, and after a battle with the fat guy we escape on the plane. Which is apparently broken and can allow bob around the shallow water a bit, which is a bit annoying. 

Had Yuffie in my party and she wanted to go West, so that's what we did. First island I stopped she decided to steal all my materia, so I didn't have much choice as to go after her, and ended up at Wutai. Chased after Yuffie, found a house with a lot of cats, saw the Turks on holiday, found the nasty man from Midgar again who stole Tifa at the time and now stole Yuffie and Elena, so I had to steal Yuffie back to get my materia back. Quite a thing. Luckily the Turks helped me out and together we saved all the girls.

Next up, getting the keystone (thank you guide as I don't think I would have figured this out in a decent amount of time myself), so back to the Saucer, check out Dio's museum, do some battle fights and get the keystone. Easy enough. Can't leave the Saucer because the tram is blocked, go for a sleep in the ghost house (there was actually a nice scene where Cait Sith asks for what it is we're actually doing, and even Barret says he has no clue) but Tifa has other plans so I ended up joining a horrible play, and had a nice ride on the cable car. Cait Sith also awake, so obviously we chase him, only to find out he's a spy and stole my keystone. Bit stupid of Cloud to not bring the keystone with him on the date. I also had no clue there was a spy.

Aeris gets put in my party by default and it's time for the Temple of Ancients. At this point I like the game a lot less as I'm sure sadness will come soon. Found the temple, Aeris drops down face first and cuddles the bridge, being a bit unclear in what she's doing, go up the stairs, set a black blob free (the same as in Nibelheim I assume) go inside where Aeris has a cry over wounded Tseng, we come at a multiple level screen where we need to find a path and find a purple blob who is an Ancient spirit. And a save point. Pfew.
Next room, cylinder boulders with a gap bouldering over our path, when we get to the end we go back to the purple puddle. Aeris decided this is also a good spot to lie down face first, and we get another amazing scene.
We see Sephiroth and the Turks, but also have the party in transparent models in the foreground. At some point during the scene Sephiroths model splits in two and the transparent one seems to talk directly to the party... Once that's done we're out of the puddle, but it's still glowing. Heartbeat mixes in with the music, and Sephiroth appears for a moment in the puddle glow, before beaming up and having the puddle go back to normal. Music goes to default theme. Thought this was a great scene, and was quite excited and also terrified by it. Or to say it like Yuffie "Oh grosness!"
Another purple blob at the end (or the same one? who knows), clock tower puzzle which was pretty fun, and we come to the room with the final door and another small puzzle. Involving a purple blob and some cave like entrances. 
Now in the room from the puddle scene. Don't like this at all, more story, and a boss. Also Cloud starts to twitch near the Meteor painting, and doesn't really seem to recall. Aeris and Yuffie pretend like he's not going crazy. A whole thing about black materia, and how it shrinks together with the temple if you solve puzzles, so ultimately crushing the person inside the temple. Cait Sith says he's ok with it, as he's just a hull anyway and the real person is safely in Shinra offices (wonder if we saw him during the Shinra Tower part), before leaving the temple Aeris does want a fortune from Cait Sith, and decides this is the right time to ask for her compatibility with Cloud. She really deserved a punch in the face for that, but no one else seemed to care.
Run outside, temple is now a big hole, get the black materia, Sephiroth shows up, give him the black materia after seeing Clouds model split in two (not sure what to think of this, it happened to Sephiroth a bit earlier in the puddle scene, is it linked, or is it just a technical limitation and a way for them to tell the story), Cloud punches the ground but it's so close to Aeris that it's not clear if he's trying to punch her, Yuffie is just running along the top of the temple remains, Cait Sith Model Nr 2 shows up, and there's a scene in a misty looking forward, with Aeris going off on her own, Sephiroth invading the scene as well and Cloud waking up in Gongaga, all depressed and with a worried Barret and Tifa next to him. Takes a bit of convincing to get him out of bed. It all does feel like quite the bummer, lost the keystone, lost the black materia, lost Aeris, Sephiroth is probably stronger now. 

Decide to go back to Wutai, to fight through the Pagoda with Yuffie. Quite enjoyed the scene with her dad.

Went to bone village, and had them dig up a lunar musical instrument for me. And that's where I am now. It must all go horribly wrong soon, and I feel quite anxious about that. Pretty much all of it is sad and depressing, and knowing there's still worse ahead...