Midgar Zolom

[Heath]

How disappointing is Midgar Zolom?

The first time you play the game you're in awe of this huge serpent which can kill you in an instant and when you get to the other side you're amazed at Sephiroth killing it. Then later in the game you think you're pretty tough and want to test your skills against it and find a) it's ridiculously easy and b) you get barely anything from it.

I've recently started a new game of FFVII and I've just got out of the desert prison and thought I'd track back to get Beta off it. I was disappointed how easy it was even at about level 20. Admittedly I was using Big Guard, but only because I reckoned I'd be able to take him if I used it.

About the only impressive thing about it is how quickly it respawns.

tl;dr - Midgar Zolom is disappointing. Discuss.

[Jiro]

But putting Elemental + Fire on someone's armour, you can almost give Midgar Zolom a beating the first time you get there. A little extra training and it's no sweat. Hugely disappointing to be able to kick the Zolom's ass and then you walk into Mythril Mines and get that cutscene where everybody is impressed and I think "fuck man I did that like 20 times already?"

[Quindiana Jones]

The first time I ever played the game, I defeated it and got my Beta (or whatever it was you can learn from it). I never knew it was supposed to be so impressive! xD

[WildRaubtier]

It's not even necessary to train - a keen eye notices that the eject and Beta moves are counter attacks, so all you have to do is poison him and ride out his onslaught.

Unless you plan on learning Beta there and then, in which case, go ahead:
cxPwtNf9GC0

[Mirage]

No point in fighting it if it isn't in order to learn Beta :p.

[Gamblet]

No point in fighting it if it isn't in order to learn Beta :p.

No point? What about all the glory? THE GLORY.

[MJN SEIFER]

I think the most dissapointing thing about it, is that you don't really get an item for it. I get that you learn Beta, but only if you have E-Skill. It would have been cool if you at least got a rare (for that point in the game) item, like a weapon or accesory.

[Gamblet]

I think the most dissapointing thing about it, is that you don't really get an item for it. I get that you learn Beta, but only if you have E-Skill. It would have been cool if you at least got a rare (for that point in the game) item, like a weapon or accesory.

...or a piece of paper that says "Gongrats, you have beaten the toughest monster that you can encounter so far!"

[Mirage]

I guess killing midgarzolom reaching the mythril caves would be one of those things that would get you a "*blinngblong* trophy acquired" message these days.

[Chris]

I avoided it like the first five playthroughs. :(

[Jiro]

It's not even necessary to train - a keen eye notices that the eject and Beta moves are counter attacks, so all you have to do is poison him and ride out his onslaught.

Unless you plan on learning Beta there and then, in which case, go ahead:
cxPwtNf9GC0

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I poisoned him to get damage up so he would eject and then use Beta on my Fire + Elemental Enemy Skill Wielder! :D

[Formalhaut]

Seeing how it is a unique enemy seen nowhere else, I do see the sentiments surrounding how unrewarding it can be. But then again, Beta carries the player throughout most of the damn game and while you can obtain it later, I suppose the reward is just breezing past disc one.

It would be nice though if that sort interlude just before the mines was changed though; instead of "whoa, if Sephiroth can defeat that then how powerful must he be" to a more suitable "Hah, please, I could kill it in my sleep. Move on guys, move on."

[Bubba]

You all have my utmost respect for challenging the mighty Zolom on your first play through.

When I first saw that shadow in the marsh... I was out of there quicker than a whippet with bum full of dynamite.

[Jinx]

That moment when you find out the Zolom can still attack you, even when you're on a chocobo.

[Mirage]

Ha ha screw you stupid snaaaaAAAAH HOW CAN YOU BE FOLLOWING ME I *BZSIHHHHHG* *BOOM*.

[Gamblet]

That moment when you find out the Zolom can still attack you, even when you're on a chocobo.

Yeah, I found that out the hard way in my first run...

[Mercen-X]

Technically, Cloud's party never does kill the Zolom. It's more appropriate to say presumably that Sephiroth killed the Zolom's mate and that shadow you see in the marsh is the remaining Zolom (not some kind of duplicate like you all seem to think implying it procreates asexually). That would mean that Sephiroth remains the only being capable of killing the Zolom. Of course, after having killed Diamond, Ultima, Ruby, Emerald, Jenova, a Bizarre Sephiroth, and Bahamut Sin, you'd think Cloud would be able to kill the Zolom at least by the end of AC.

But there are two possibilities remaining. One being that Cloud and company may have already (finally) killed the Zolom between VII and AC or after AC since we're not shown the Zolom we can't know for certain. The other possibility is that the Zolom has continued to grow more powerful over the years and not even Cloud's crew can defeat it meaning that if they really want to get rid of the remaining Zolom, they'd have to purposefully resurrect the only known Zolom-slayer, Sephiroth.

[Jiro]

It always respawns though so I don't know what to make of that :monster:

[MJN SEIFER]

It always respawns though so I don't know what to make of that :monster: Either there are several Midgar Zolom, and Midgar Zolom is someting that can't be pluralized (like how several sheeps are still called "sheep") or Squaresoft wanted to create a challange to the players, and not ever end it, but also show them what their enemy, Sephiroth, is capable of, and both plans clashed with each other. If we are to believe that there is only one Midgar Zolom then we should never even fight it at all, as it is dead when we see it.

[Jinx]

Technically, Cloud's party never does kill the Zolom. It's more appropriate to say presumably that Sephiroth killed the Zolom's mate and that shadow you see in the marsh is the remaining Zolom (not some kind of duplicate like you all seem to think implying it procreates asexually). That would mean that Sephiroth remains the only being capable of killing the Zolom. Of course, after having killed Diamond, Ultima, Ruby, Emerald, Jenova, a Bizarre Sephiroth, and Bahamut Sin, you'd think Cloud would be able to kill the Zolom at least by the end of AC.

.

Yeah, I'm sure that's it.

[Sephex]

http://videogum.com/files/2012/11/seinfeld_money.jpeg

What's the deal with the Midgar Zolom not even living near Midgar?

[Jiro]

Well it does live near Midgar, because the Mythril Mines are supposedly near Kalm enough for that town to be based around mining there. Distance is fucked on the world map.

[Raistlin]

I agree that the drops for the Zolom are underwhelming, but getting Beta is a huge spell boost at that point in the game, which is a more significant reward than most bosses.

Like most others, I ran away from the Zolom terrified the first time I played the game.

[VeloZer0]

Wouldn't making the Zolom have good drops completely defeat the purpose of his existence? He is supposed to be a boss that you run away from, not that you look forward to challenging. If they wanted him to have good drops then the difficulty of the encounter would have to be upped significantly so you would have no hope until disk two.

[SteahMeLee]

I remember to have even leveled characters to 30 when I was a kid in 90s to learn Beta being able to survive the hit the first time but now I play with Job Classes and the Chocobolo Lure Materia is assigned to Cid (Dragoon/Blue Mage) and thus it cannot be used by none of the characters when you arrive there the first time...

But it's not hard though...


I bring the Knight (Barret) with the Mindblow Limit (Magic Break) and I destroy Midgar Zolom MPs so that it can't use Beta anymore!
The team, beside Cloud, has to be Knight and White Mage, Barret and Aeris! Barret covers the party and Aeris heals, Cloud throws a Deadly Waste and poisons the monster that slowly dies while Barret, after having used Mindblow, keeps the defense stance minimizing damage on himself and allies while Aeris heals and slowly the battle ends... Quite easy actually...

I can't learn Beta the first time since it's Cid to have the Enemy Skill Materia usage so I don't even bother to find a strategy to do so...

[Skyblade]

I always try to get Beta immediately.

But am I the only one here who never uses a Chocobo to get past him? Heck, even if you don't want to fight him, just time it right and you can run across before he reaches you.

I'm certainly not going to buy any of those greens. Gil's precious!

[SteahMeLee]

I also never use Chocobo in that situation! It's not for Gill... It's for Job Class restrictions of course... Hahahaha! Same reason why I don't learn Beta immediately! XD Both Enemy Skill and Chocobo Lure are assigned to Cid... :jess:

It's true that it can be avoided even without Chocobo but if you nullify Beta as I mentioned before, it's easy even at low level...