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.
Jack: How do you know?
Will: It's more of a feeling really.
Jack: Well, that's not scientific. Feeling isn't knowing. Feeling is believing. If you believe it, you can't know because there's no knowing what you believe. Then again, no one should believe what they know either. Once you know anything that anything becomes unbelievable if only by virtue of the fact you now... know it. You know?
Will: No.
If Demolition Man were remade today
Huxley: What's wrong? You broke contact.
Spartan: Contact? I didn't even touch you.
Huxley: Don't you want to make love?
Spartan: Is that what you call this? Why don't we just do it the old-fashioned way?
Huxley: NO!
Spartan: Whoa! Okay, calm down.
Huxley: Don't tell me to calm down!
Spartan: What's gotten into you? 'Cause it sure as hell wasn't me.
Huxley: Physical relations in the way of intercourse are no longer acceptable John Spartan.
Spartan: What? Why the hell not?
Huxley: It's the law, John. And for your information, the very idea that you suggested it makes me feel personally violated.
Spartan: Wait a minute... violated? Huxley what the hell are you accusing me of here?
Huxley: You need to leave, John.
Spartan: But Huxley.
Huxley: Get out!
Moments later Spartan is arrested for "violating" Huxley.
By the way, that's called satire. Get over it.
It always respawns though so I don't know what to make of that
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.
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 smurfed on the world map.
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.
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.
>>Am willing to change opinions based on data<<
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...
If you want to be a Final Fantasy hero...............
Choose your class!
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!
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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...
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...
If you want to be a Final Fantasy hero...............
Choose your class!