I need to make a thread (259,852 views)

[Mario the black knight]

So I have to redo the whole Yuna section again

God I love the atmosphere of Luca, the music, the colors, everything, it's so good.

My strategy for the Goers game this time is gonna be to try and play as much defense as possible to make sure they don't blow us out during the half where we effectively can't score, then during the second half, going in for one Jecht Shot, if that goes in, just taking the ball and running down the clock. We'll see if that works.

In the meantime, lets go through this kinda sloppy subplot.

You know what's funny...? All the little water bottles in the locker room.....They spend minutes at a time submerged underwater....Why do they need more water...?

I mean we can assume it's sea water in the globe, but still...

I love how you can tell this is a sports storyline written by nerds....

Annnnnd we lose.

The defense strategy in the first half works great, it's the second half thats trouble. My goal this time is to try and break up their formation a little more.

AND AGAIN.

Well thats fun.... about half way through the round the teams just swim in circles in place and don't do anything..... huh.

Well I landed the Jecht Shot, and the crowd is STILL cheering for Wakka....Ungrateful bastards.

Hopefully I can keep the Goers busy for 2 more minutes and the cup is mine.

OHHHHH!! I JUST FUCKIN STYLED ON EM!!

I took a random shot with Wakka and got a goal!

2-0 Goers, You can Goer fuck yourselfs.

AND WE WIN!!!!!

And I think literally all I got for that was a Strength Sphere.....Cool.....

I just did the impossible and all I get is a shitty sphere. No cool, thats fine. I just wonder how the team is going to split that one fucking sphere. And what the Goers were gonna do with it. None of those little bitches are Guardians. Whatever.

Oh hey, we DID get a trophy, it's a giant crystal dildo.....lovely...

Well now we know why the Goers wanted it so bad.

I absolutely love the scene where Tidus is lashing out at Auron, and he just laughs in his face. The whole scene is amazing. Tidus is such a petulant child, lashing out about everything, until reality starts to sink in, it's the first time you see growth in Tidus' character

Also, it never ceases to amaze me that they could drop the "Sin is Jecht" bomb on you SO early in the story, and somehow not spoil anything else. It's perfect.

Then the next scene where Yuna teaches Tidus to smile when he is sad, and the infamous laughing scene, it's like she is giving you ANOTHER hint about what she is doing all the time, showing her hand a little bit, which is rare for her. People shit on that scene, but it's actually goddamn brilliant when you process the entire context. You only get to see Yuna's character in little scenes like this. All of her humanizing scenes are with Tidus, because when talking to everyone else, she is just speaking to them as their boss, or in her role as a religious figure, but when it comes to Tidus he is just Jecht's kid, she sees him as an equal in that way.

Of course, I think maybe she is just pretending to believe Tidus/Jecht's Zanarkand exists, just to give Tidus hope, since that is like her thing. I think she sort of indirectly reveals that later in the pond in Macalania.

Another thing I like about the Professional Sphere Grid is that I feel more inclined to actually use the Stat Spheres you would otherwise hoard on the regular sphere grid, because there is so much common ground between characters, you know more than one character will get those bonuses sooner rather than later. It's a much better thought out system for sure.

I am now realizing how many voice actors they reused in this game, it's actually kind of amusing.

Oh shit, I never thought about this. Yuna already knows Belgamine is unsent. She just can't say why she knows.

Damn. I never thought about that.

MAN Miihem highroad is LONG. Getting to a save point to go to bed is hard here....But so many dialogs and fights....

[Mario the black knight]

I think one of the things that makes Seymour such a compelling villain is just how completely unapologetically shitty he is. He is a walking pile of garbage and he knows it, and absolutely doesn't give a shit. He knows he can get away with literally whatever he wants, and he flaunts it so shamelessly. He embodies everything wrong with organized religion, he is the Rodrigo Borgia of Spira, and you just want to tear him to pieces from the moment you first see him.

An interesting thing I am noticing is just how much different I play from my first playthrough. I actually use my abilities more rather than just hoarding all my strength and the fights in this section which I remember being much harder are just trivial. I dunno if classic sphere made this section harder or if I just really was that dumb about this game back then.

I am just loving Professional Sphere grid so much, I am finding myself planning out routes way more often, because there are so many more possible ways to go. Like right now I am strategically moving Yuna to a portion of the sphere grid just to make looping back over that area easier because I will need to backtrack through that area after I get the -ara spells from Lulu's section. Meanwhile with Auron, I am tracing back through Tidus' grid to get Cheer, which I never thought about how good that skill actually is, but it will only take a second to get back onto Auron's main grid again. But taking this diversion will improve his evasion and accuracy, which will be helpful.

It really changes how I play, now I use Yuna WAY more often than I did in previous runs, because she has so much more utility now.

I just love playing this game knowing the story and seeing JUST how much thought went into (at least the most major aspects of) the story. Seeing people do things and knowing their motivation for doing them, which upon first viewing seems innocuous, but with context become way more meaningful. They just dangle so many aspects of this story right in front of your face, but in such a way that it's subtle. Something modern stories just have no idea how to do.

Just the way Yuna absolutely melts away when Auron points out that Luzzu chose his path, just like she did. When you know that he dies in this battle (if you don't send Gatta out to die instead), and you know the main conceit of Yuna's character, it has so much more weight.

I think something I really like about this section is just how theres such an air of futility around this whole operation. Everyone keeps saying it's not gonna work, the Crusaders clearly have the sense that it's mostly a suicide mission for them, and you as the player know it's obviously not gonna work even on first playthrough, because you know Sin has to be the final boss, and you know all these people are marching forward hopelessly to their deaths, but you support them anyway because it's for the "greater good", it's almost like a microcosm of the Summoner's Pilgrimage playing out right in front of you, while at the same time serving to put over just how powerful Sin really is, and begins to show the earliest signs of the corruption of Yevon.

I always felt like it was a bit of a story speedbump before, like I wondered why we didn't go straight to the Djose Temple, and instead engage in what feels like a pointless, hopeless battle, but it really is an important plot point.

I also love that Kinoc uses the phrase "Lets let them dream a little longer" a phrase that holds much deeper meaning later in the story. So much of this story is dripping in grim fatalism, but never moreso than in this moment.

It's funny, I remember us getting stuck on this fight back then. It was a breeze this time. Granted, we were WAY underleveled the first time we entered that fight, but also we just had no idea how to use our abilities back then.

The way everyone is just shellshocked after the battle, Gatta freaks out, Tidus chases Sin, Yuna just wants to summon....something, everyone wants to respond to what they've seen, but they just have to sit there and feel the futility of it all. It was all completely avoidable, and just the way Sin brushes it off, then just leaves, like all of this effort literally did nothing to it at all, make him look so powerful. Then when the hallucinations end, it all just washes over you. And I just love the feel of that moment, this rocky beach with the cloudy, forboding skies, like nautical twilight, it's just such an amazing feeling, with that perfect scene setting track.

God this game is good.

[Mario the black knight]

Right when I started back up, the first scene actually drew attention to something that I had never thought about the implications of before

Auron confronts Kinoc about the whole ordeal, asking if he is satisfied, since all of the "unfaithful" died, while those who stayed faithful to Yevon survived.

The alterior motive of the Maesters getting involved being to setup the crusaders and al bhed to die. I never thought about it like that. definitely makes the corruption more transparent. Not to mention it serves as a big demonstration to the masses that trying to fight Sin is fruitless without them. They set them up just to prove a point

Whats really wild for me I think is that once the party gets back together after being seperated during the battle, nobody talks about what happened. They just move on. This is sorta what saps some of the gravity from this scene for me, but I guess in a way it also sort of demonstrates that huge catastrophes like this and Kilika just happen and people are mostly just used to moving on like this.

Kimhari's first dialog in the game also happens here, and demonstrates a great theme of the story, how most of what you learn about Yuna, you learn from other people. Other people talk about how she is, tell you about her and why she does things, basically telling you what to look for in her personality. People miss this stuff, even though the game literally spells it out for you, and just expects you to remember and pay attention.

In this one Kimhari explains how Yuna tries harder to keep spirits up the sadder people are.

I think because this game was the first FF with real facial reactions, they really wanted to play this one subtle on purpose, to utilize those facial expressions and mannerisms to tell a story. Yuna is a lot of reaction shots and non verbal mannerisms in particular

When that was lost on people, they went with the ham handed bullshit everybody does nowadays

I always love when they have to call Tidus by a name other than Tidus because they wrote themselves into a corner just so you could name the protagonist for basically no benefit. Hearing Auron call Tidus "New Guy" is funny, because we know WHY he's calling him that. Nothing to do with the story, everything to do with that dumb mechanic.

Also, when Auron explains why he told Tidus about Jecht, he explains that he didn't want Tidus becoming emotional at a critical moment, and Tidus' incredulous reaction about the possibility of possibly becoming emotional made me laugh out loud remembering the scene on the dock.

One thing I am noticing is the mishmash of inspiration in the armor in this game, at least on the more "heavily armored" characters, some of it looks western, some of it looks asian, some of it even looks greek. This one guy has something that looks almost like a gambeson with a greek style linen corslet, and asian style pants.

It's just interesting how it seems that Nomura does SOME research, but mostly just says "this looks cool, I'm taking it" without considering it's use or purpose.

It happens way more in modern post-FF Square Enix games, like a suit of armor with a lance rest...despite the character using a sword and shield. They clearly saw it on a real piece of armor without figuring out what it was

Oh yeah, this dork Issaru, who is voiced by Raiden's voice actor. What a fuckin weeb.

He definitely wasn't as good as he would be by the time of MGS2 and KH2

Oh yes, now we need to complete "put random sphere into random holes until stuff happens: Electricity Edition"

I remember that being WAY harder as a kid....Then again maybe I tried applying logic to something that had no logic....

Oh yes! The Moonflow! One of my favorite areas in the game aesthetically

Also, Movement in Green plays here, one of my favorite tracks in the entire game by a longshot.

I'm noticing theres some sort of lag on the Overdrives, I'm having much more trouble hitting Spiral Cut for some reason, I'd already have Slash and Dash or whatever by now with the regular system

I think the stupidity of Kimhari's subplot with Biron and Yanke is just stupid enough to be entertaining. It's just nothing. Two random assholes who show up a few times throughout the story to make fun of Kimhari.

UGH, I love the ambient sounds in this area, the bugs, the birds, all of it! So good.

Ah, theres Slice and Dice, just in time with Riku coming up.

It drives me nuts that the music resets after every battle....it didn't do that in the original...

"THIS! IS FOR THE FALLEN!!!"

God I love Auron.

Huh...I just now realized that Wakka is significantly taller than Tidus....And not just his hair either

I'm finding it really interesting how much the sphere grids converge later in their paths. Tidus, Wakka, and Auron's sphere grids all sorta blend together in the second half, while Yuna and Lulu's are constantly crossing each other, it;s really wild, it's easy to get lost looking for some abilities. And Riku's feels mostly just converged with Tidus, I just now got Use for Tidus, I was sorta hoping to get Steal so I could Steal from Riku, because that would be funny, before I got the tutorial on stealing....

...I wonder if I can break that tutorial...

HOLY SHIT!

When Auron describes Jecht's first encounter with Shoopufs, he says in passing that "it looks like that Shoopuf still works here." looking over at it

I just noticed theres a scar on it's hind leg from where Jecht hit it.

I got screencap from the original game, and sure enough, it's there too, just WAY hard to see because theres less contrast and the resolution is smaller

CRAZY!

Also, I love that they invented a new race of creatures just for the handlers of Shoopufs...who you never see again....

Also, I'm now realizing the ridiculous number of merchants at the shoopuf dock are show that it is a tourist trap. Kinda funny way to say it without saying it

...I got steal for Tidus...I'm gonna see if I can steal from Riku. And maybe break Riku's tutorial after

...Well they let you steal from the Extractor. Just Potions though. I thought because it was Machina, it would insta-kill it. Ahh well.

I love how Wakka just becomes everyone's racist uncle about the Al Bhed, and it just gets awkward

Also, I love how the Shoopuf theme feels like a holdover from FFIX

[Mario the black knight]

The scene where Rikku joins the party formally is so weird when you think about it.

Like Tidus basically doesn't question Rikku's attempt to kidnap Yuna, like, at all after about 10 seconds, then Yuna asks Auron, one of her guardians, for permission to make Rikku a guardian.....even though she was the one who gave him permission to come along.

Again, NO ONE questioning like "hey where did you come from, person vaguely dressed as an Al Bhed, who is beat up, after an Al Bhed just tried to kidnap Yuna like 2 minutes ago...." Just "hey, random stranger, wanna be a Guardian after like literally 30 seconds of consideration?" when it took like 2 dungeons and a blitzball tournament before Tidus could formally become a Guardian, being called newbie along the way....even though Tidus is a WAY better fighter than Rikku can ever be....not that there was literally any evaluation of that, other than finding her beat up in a puddle by the side of the road....suggesting about as much battle prowess as she actually has....

Aww, I forgot Tidus isn't in the Rikku tutorial, so I can't actually use him to break the tutorial. Ahh well

I'm now realizing the brilliance of my little diversion for Tidus to take him onto Rikku's grid, now I never have to use Rikku! Thats like literally her only useful skill, and now that Tidus has it, she is somehow even more worthless.

One of the things I love about this game is the banter between characters in battle. I just heard a line between Auron and Wakka I in all my playthroughs never heard before, about how there were less fiends in his time. It's so insane the sheer amount of dialog they had to record for this game

Also, I just now realized the reason the Guado have the weird hair is because they are like plant people basically, which is why they live underground.....Makes a lot of sense when you think about it

Also, the Guadosalem theme is so good, I love the rhythm of it, and the electronic elements mixed with the organic

Ugh, they make us wait SO long to punch Seymour in the face, the wait is unbearable

I do love his like "The actors must play their parts" when Auron confronts him about the distraction of Yuna marrying Seymour. Like he BARELY keeps up the pretense.

Also, I just noticed Rikku trying to talk Yuna out of the pilgrimage to just marry Seymour. Crafty little plant that one

Also, I've been thinking about the equipment system in this game, I think I never understood why one weapon was "better" than another in previous playthroughs, mostly because I never really processed that weapons don't have stats, and just basically apply passive skills to the character they are equipped to.

It's an interesting system, but also makes the weapons feel not that important for most of the game.

I've been thinking of doing something similar, but instead with active abilities that pull from the base stats of the weapon, that way each weapon can have a unique behaviors associated with it, rather than every character having one stock attack. It will need some design, but it is an interesting system I want to try

I like how Rikku just gives the alternative interpretation of what the Farplane is. Breaking the illusion of it in a way

Heh, it's funny, you can actually see what is pre rendered and what is FMV in the cutscene where they introduce the Farplane, the model is just blatently floating there. I suspect we maybe couldn't see that in the SD version

The stealth dunk on Tidus from Lulu: "If Yuna said she wanted to marry, I'd want her to marry for love. But if she told us she wanted to marry the one she loves, I would have to object."

Gottem.

This is the part of the game where Yuna is way ahead of everybody, another situation where you have to pay attention to really get what's going on. She was already cryptic before, but she only gets more cryptic after

[Mario the black knight]

So after a short break playing other games, we're back to FFX

Thunder plains

I feel like the encounter rate in this area is a bit...intense. Especially with the lightning at the same time

It's probably to create the illusion that it's a larger area than it actually is

That and it seems like they want you to level Wakka and Lulu, since almost all the enemies are archetypes centric to them

Everything they do to try and make Rikku endearing just makes me hate her more.

What I find interesting about the scene where Tidus eavesdrops on Yuna watching Jyscals will is that we only see Yuna from behind the entire scene. Infact for almost the entire time you are in the Travel Agency, she never faces the camera.

Man, this area is such a grind....

I don't know what it is, but I derive some visceral satisfaction from obliterating Quatars with Aeon Overdrives. Dunno why....But it's so good. Hehehehehe

I don't think I ever processed previously the weight of Tidus' sentiment when he talked about how he didn't want to think about being alone in Spira. Like obviously being alone anywhere is terrible, but I guess I had never processed how terrible of a place Spira is, despite it's really amazing settings, just how grim and traumatic it all is. It's like if 2300 AD from Chrono Trigger was in The Bahamas

Another one of my favorite conversations where they really show their hand about what they are doing with Yuna is right when you enter Macalania, Auron basically spells out a lot about her character. He describes her as "Naive, Serious to a fault, and doesn't ask for help" and most importantly "easy to read" which Tidus agrees with. Auron tries to guess ahead a little, that Yuna is trying to utilize the marriage proposal as a bargaining chip in exchange for something, but can't really figure out what.

Also, Macalania might be one of my favorite locations in the game, it's just so surreal compared to everything else.

I'll have to play it next time, since Thunder Plains too goddamn forever.

[Mario the black knight]

On to Macalania

If theres one thing I really like about this remaster, that can truly be considered a graphical "remaster", it's how they almost completely overhauled the UIs. Rather than that weird messy rainbow look, they've taken it and given it this much more refined, blue and purple color scheme, and much more well defined buttons and icons with harder edges.

Theres this effect they use for example to denote the 3 members in the active party where the panel behind their names has this watery caustic effect that looks super nice., and the different options in the menu rather than just being floating text have their own defined panels that when put together have this faint look of a glyph in the background that looks really slick. They also have this nice white stroke behind the black numbers, it's very subtle, but on the blue-ish grey background it really makes them pop out, and makes the numbers very readable, it;s very...logical....compared to a lot of other decisions they've made on this remake so far. All the layouts are essentially the same, it's just graphics themselves look different, so it's nicer looking while still being familiar. It's one of the few places where it really feels like they've honestly improved over the original

Theres a really small scene with Bartello when he loses Dona that has a couple of little tidbits in it.

While Auron is telling him to chill out, theres this great shot that uses a really great perspective that allows them to put Tidus and Yuna next to each other and pretty close to center of the frame, while still showing Auron and Bartello talking, right when Auron says "Guard your emotions, then Guard your Summoner". Kinda thematic. Also, at the end Rikku almost goes to chase after Bartello, and Wakka asks what shes trying to do, when shes says she was just gonna wish him luck. I never really noticed just how much they show their hand with the Al Bhed kidnapping Summoners, and how Rikku never really stopped in her mission, despite how we KNOW she tried to kidnap Yuna once already

Man, I feel like they really pumped up the difficulty in this area.

The spawn rate isn't as high as it was in thunder plains, but the enemies themselves are significantly stronger, I can't even one shot the archetype enemies anymore. This is the first time I have had deaths during fights

Also, it's so goddamn easy to get turned around in here....

Ugh, I love the Jecht Spheres. In addition to being a cool way of showing the evolution of Jecht's character from being an asshole to growing up a bit and finding real noble purpose, they are just funny and well done. They also show Auron's evolution from "Man with Stick Up Ass" to "Cool Guy". The way Auron and Jecht basically changed each other, being completely diametrically opposed

I think about the only thing I don't like about this scene is Yuna doesn't react to seeing her father the way Tidus gets a chance to

Oh man, sometimes the dialog in this game gets me

While sitting around in the Rin Travel Agency, Auron tells Tidus theres an old saying called "Hurry Up and Wait" where you prepare quickly incase something should happen, and Tidus responds "sounds like something an old man would say" and the way Auron says "Forgive me" is just perfect.

And people have the nerve to say this game doesn't have good voice acting. It's one of the better voice acted games I've ever played. If FF was going to go to voice acting, they were going to have to do it right, and at least on the first one, they did.....

Then the merger happened and the Enix Execs came in, in exchange for quality standards.

It's really interesting that they throw 2 boss fights at you back to back, Sphereamorph followed like literally a few minutes later by the Al Bhed Crawler.

Also, it's silly that Tromell would want Yuna to come with him completely unguarded, it kinda makes no sense, but whatever

God, the scene with Wakka and Rikku debating about Yevon when he finds out she's Al Bhed is like watching literally any religious debate on the internet ever, it's almost frustrating now. If this game was made today, Wakka would have a red trucker hat instead of whatever the hell that hair is

Also, how the hell do Tromell and Yuna get to the temple before us on foot when we are riding snowmobiles?

I got the default Lulu scene. Pretty much literally every other scene is more interesting...except the Kimari one...because Kimari is useless.

It's interesting how the sphere is revealed to the party, one of the people from the temple going through her belongings......What were they looking for?

Also, I never realized how many people there are to talk to and how much they expose about Seymour in this place. Also, I love how through Act 1 of the game, talking to literally any NPC can just result in a ton of free items, making item shops mostly redundant.

I also noticed that Trommel gives you a piece of gear for Rikku.....Interesting that he has some Al Bhed gear laying around

And this is the third boss fight in a row. Theres a little more preamble before this third one coming up, but still, it's 3 big bosses in rapid sucession. Probably further explains the intense spawn rate in the areas before this

Man, I remember this fight being WAY harder, ha ha

I guess I am taking stuff like buffs and debuffs more seriously, and know how to fight with Aeons more intelligently, actually bothering to block Anima's attacks and such. Also, I love the Oblivion rebalance, so that it is now a Multi-Hit that matches the animation, making Anima MUCH stronger as an Aeon once you finally get her

But actually playing using Shiva intelligently, she can hold her own against Anima which is cool.

It's just such a fun fight in general, it's the first fight with a lot of smart strategy, having to plan around Seymour's bodyguards and elemental offense, it's just cool to have to plan in a fight

Oh hey, got my first 9999 with Diamond Dust on a boosting Anima, nice.

Beat Anima with Shiva, nice.

...Then Seymour nuked her with a Thundaga...welp...

I think I buffed myself up pretty good, we nuked him after the fight in like 2 attacks. So yeah, a good plan came together

Now for this annoying Cloister of Trials

This one and Bahamut aren't as hard as we used to think as kids, I think when you realize how much of it is just waiting, it really is just annoying rather than actually genuinely clever or difficult.

I remember this one in particular being REALLY hard, and man, it is braindead simple. It's really not great

This escape sequence and what comes after definitely to me feels like the transition to Act 2 of the game.

The first act of the story just introduces you to the world, and you travel as "Lady Yuna, Summoner of Yevon" and get to see the world from the Yevonite perspective.

Act 2 is where you get to see the dark side of Yevon, being fully exposed to it's corruption, and as a result traveling as a fugitive, which changes everyone's perspective on the party. The story kicks into full gear, you get to see Yuna's faith challenged, and Yevon mostly takes the mask off, revealing they aren't so holy about their use of Machina and so on.

I think that will be a good place to pick up next time, I am hoping to turbo this game through August if I can

[Mario the black knight]

And now, back to being chased by Guados

It's crazy how much of a different status effects actually make. Just put big Windego guy to sleep, and put him in darkness, he's easy peasy. Having Diamond Dust helps too....I feel like maybe they buffed Shiva a little. I remember being underwhelmed by her before

Now part 2 starts in earnest

I love how they hit literal rock bottom, sitting in the wrecks of the machina city below the temple, before Sin comes along, since we haven't seen him in a minute, not to mention of course we need another Deus Ex Machina to get us somewhere, so thats when Sin shows up

I loved the Dolly Zoom effect they use a lot during that dream sequence while they are being sent to Bickenel Island. To pull off a shot that normally requires a real camera in a game from this era is pretty slick. I'm sure Kojima was impressed.

Snagging Steal and Use with Tidus once again coming in clutch, now I can use Al Bhed Potions and destroy Machina without having to find Rikku, making this section way easier

Al Bhed Potions are like, THE reason to get Use

You get so many of them in the desert, and they are so powerful, especially with Yuna out of the party for so much of Act 2

God, Racist Uncle Wakka is so frustrating in this section. I just wanna smack the trucker hat off his head and parental block Fox News on his TV.

And of course, the Rikku tutorial battle where she teaches us stealing destroys machina, because they needed to make her useful somewhere. But then I steal the spotlight with Tidus who has been doing that this whole time, so it gets awkward.

Having listened to the audiobook of Dune, I now understand why the Sand Worms are weak to water. They knew what they were doing.

I find it kind of amusing that they gave the Machina, probably the weakest enemy out here, an insta-kill. Like I can already wreck them without steal

"Ugh, where's the early bird when ya need em" I've heard Wakka say that when you encounter the Sand Worm before, but it's still funny

Ha ha ha, using Shooting Star on Sand Worms and sending them flying is still the best thing ever.

Had to save part way through, got a pretty late start.

[Mario the black knight]

And now, back to the desert

I can't believe just how much I slept on the free Special skills like Cheer, stacking 2 or 3 cheers makes such a massive difference in damage on longer fights

I actually kind of love the fact that the signs in the area in Al Bhed actually tell you where the fiends are stronger or weaker, and you need to have found as many primers as possible to find the best route. I think that was lost on me before because the minimap just tells you where to go, which is dumb. I have grown to hate this sort of minimap more and more over the years

Oh great....They put a bad reverb on the "An Annoying fuck" thing that is on repeat in Al Bhed Home, so now it repeats twice as often....cool, we totally needed that.....

And now, the game drops one of the biggest bombs.

I love the DEAD silence when Tidus is questioning that summoners will be OK, and everyone leaves, except Rikku, because no one wants to be there when he finds out. And I love how To Zanarkand plays through this whole section as you play

There are certain visual effects they use in this scene that sort of take away from the impact of it, but overall it's still powerful

And I love that they cut to the laughing scene after Tidus lashes out, because this is where they connect the dots.

I also love how that feels like such a simple time compared to now

And now, we get the airship, and Act 2 REALLY gets underway

Also, the way the airship emerges from the ground feels like a callback to FFVI, when they reveal the second airship

Weird that they sing the hymn of Yevon given that Yevon is why they are about to do what they are gonna do.

Wakka got no chill, didn't even give Rikku 5 seconds to mourn the destruction of her home before he starts cracking jokes.

Ha, I just realized Cid is the one who drops the bomb that Yuna is part Al Bhed on Wakka, and he just has to cope with that in a side conversation. I can't say I feel bad for him.

And now, one of the boss fights we got stuck on in the first playthrough, Evorae. I feel like this was one of the fights that really taught me the basics of the game

I've always loved how shocked Wakka is that we have to pay Rin for items. It actually is hilarious to call that out, and yet Rin sells it in a way that is believable

I think one of the more interesting changes they made to the professional sphere grid was that they moved Armor Break WAY further along in Auron's progression, like they recognized how powerful it was.

Luckily, getting it for Tidus will be pretty easy, since he has a connection to Auron's grid super close to it, right near Slowga. I'm only about 2 moves from it for Tidus, which is super nice.

Still a tough fight for sure, and it was probably the closest I've come to actually losing a fight thus far, but I was able to pull it out in the end

I was unable to dodge all but 1 of the Poison Breaths, so that made it tough

It's just a cool fight in general, the boss is super strong, theres a cool gimmick to the fight, it definitely feels worthy as a serious gatekeeper boss, probably the first really serious boss fight in the game.

It's so crazy that they just have forbidden Machina just blatantly on display as part of their wedding procession, right in front of everyone

But I guess that is the point, they are no longer hiding the hypocrisy

They took out the savepoint on the bridge. Thats brutal

The scene where Yuna summons Valefor to break her fall is cool, but also the way they just have Rikku be like "Oh look at this Deus Ex Machina I only just now found in my pocket that I could have used more effectively about 45 seconds ago! Shield your eyes!" and then they just get away from the people who were holding them at bay just moments before.

Also, Wakka being shocked about Machina in the temple when like a minute before he had a literal Maester holding a forbidden machina weapon to his head, surrounded by robots and dudes with forbidden machina weapons feels a little
silly.

I know what comes next though. Definitely saving before this cloister, the most annoying one bar none.

We'll do that next time.

[Mario the black knight]

And now, standing on a treadmill for an hour

It feels like this was intentionally designed to be agonizing and not fun rather than engaging.

It doesn't help that theres an input lag in this version of the game, so that timing the button presses on the turntables is incredibly annoying and you just end up missing and having to repeat the slow animations over and over....

Ok, that didn't take TOO terribly long, but I fucked up the destruction sphere part, because of course they don't tell you that you can't go back, even though you followed the pattern that worked in every other temple. Fuck these puzzles are awful.

Well now I have Bahamut at least. But I will probably have to do this again to get the destruction sphere properly, since I think you need all of them to get Anima

What I love about the trial is just how the mask comes off of Yevon, and it peels back yet another layer about the entire nature of Spira. They have this way of building on the information you learn, so that the previous revelations feed into the next. Previously you find out Seymour is kinda fast and loose with Yevon's teachings, then you find out he murdered his father to get his position as Maester, then you kill him, but he comes back as an unsent to try and marry Yuna against her will, then in that room you find out almost everyone in the court knows all this about Maester Seymour, and don't care, which completely changes your entire perception of Yevon. And the way it is such a show trial, she is accused of absurd crimes with no proof, on what little she can argue against is completely valid to the teachings, and what you know as a player thus far, but you get sentenced to death anyway almost instantly, and are never even formally accused in the court of anything at all, just thrown into the pit unceremoniously.

I just love the scene after that where all the Maesters are chatting afterward and really driving home how shitty they all are. They shit on Maester Kelk, the only person who didn't know Seymour killed his father, because he was actually upset about this, and they basically make clear that he is only in his position to hold power over the Ronsos, which is a nice little subtext. Then when Mika shows the smallest amount of shock and disgust at the idea of Seymour wanting to kill his "bride" in addition to his father, as if he even found Seymour to be disgusting by his incredibly low standards, and Seymour once again shows just how few shits he gives about it. I also missed in previous runs the fact that Kinoc didn't trust Seymour to actually kill Yuna because he knows he has some twisted predatory attraction to her, so that explains why Seymour kills him later, I never understood why that happened.

I love the part after that, where you play as Yuna. She finds herself alone, at rock bottom, having this crisis of faith, after having been betrayed by her religion for trying to do what was right. I just love the Via Purifico theme, the solo piano that plays. You are just sort of alone with your thoughts in this place for a while given time to process what has happened. I also sorta like how it mirrors when you arrive on Bikkenel Island as Tidus, without Yuna for the first time, but inverted, because now you are without Tidus for the first time.

Theres something amusing about using Bahamut's regular attacks to nuke these regular ass enemies too, since summoning is basically the only offense I have worth a damn until I find everyone

Oh yeah, now I gotta whoop little Issaru's Raiden sounding bitch ass.

This should only take a second.

I used my Bahamut to walk over his Valefor, then to flex on his little bitch ass, I used my Valefor to whoop on his Bahamut

Also, I love Auron telling him his Pilgrimage is over, like losing one fight was the end for him. To be fair though, I think thats the last time we see him

And now, to go dunk on Zombie Evorae

I wonder if they just assumed new players wouldn't think to use Phoenix Downs on a Zombie, since healing kills him.

Also, it's funny that Lulu tells Tidus that he or Rikku should learn healing magic for underwater fighting on the airship before the Evorae fight, perhaps that was a hint

I just love the logic here. "Oh! I know how we'll kill a couple of world renowned players of a game that requires being able to hold your breath for inhuman amounts of time! We'll throw them into some water!"

Huh, this is interesting. Theres a trigger command in this fight. I'm not actually sure what it does....I'm gonna try it, since I know I can shit on this clown if I really want to or need to

Oh, it just lets you run from Evorae, fuck that, we crushing this fool

I love how they acted like being trapped in the Via Purifico was supposed to be this impossible maze to escape from that everyone who ever got sent there died, and yet it is like, the easiest thing ever to escape from, like both Yuna and Tidus' paths were really easy....Like it's mostly just a straight hallway to the exit.

If thats one thing this game had as a MAJOR weakness, it was the puzzles. Especially since this impossible to escape laborinth had convenient fast travel built right into it...

Also, I never noticed that scene where Tidus stammers, like he is trying to say sorry to Yuna, like he said he would on Bikkenel, but can't find the words, right before Seymour shows up, it adds gravity to the scene in Macalania

I feel like when Seymour confronts you at the top of Bevelle, he sorta loses a lot of his appeal as a villain, because he just becomes obsessed with death in a way that is rather boring and almost one dimensional. Like he accuses Kinoc of being this petty schemer who craved power, when everything Seymour has done up to this point was in the name of chasing power to abuse.

Now of course all of Yevon is a web of hypocrisy, but it just feels like he loses the thing that got him the most heat. Rather than continuing to abuse his powers to try and stop you or act even more predatory, he just spills the beans right there about his plan to become Sin.

I guess maybe they thought now that the mask is fully off Yevon in terms of it being corrupt, they thought maybe him abusing pretenses would be less effective but honestly I feel like it might have been even more infuriating. By comparison, he feels kinda hollow after this point. I can understand him becoming obsessed with death, having died himself by this point, but it feels like everything about him that we hated, his smugness, his flagrant abuses of power and his shamelessness about them leave him, and most of the rest of the story he just seems to pop up at random points, go all Bray Wyatt, rambling cryptic nonsense about death, then boss fight.

Speaking of boss fight, I'll be doing that next time.

[Mario the black knight]

And now, we kill Seymour. Again.

But fiiiirst, maybe a small level grind, because the robots here are quite strong, and also I am PRETTY close to the -agas with Lulu, might as well get there. I'm sure my totally un-leveled Kimhari can hold his own against a powered up Seymour, right?

Meanwhile with Yuna, She is now pretty far off her canonical path after just getting the -aras, so I'm gonna need to have her backtrack a bunch of moves to get her back to Protect and Reflect which are next for her. Tidus should be not terribly far from Hastega, and most of the rest of his really good abilities. But once I finish his grid, Unless I can get a ton of Lv 3 Lockspheres, I'll have to backtrack to Armor Break to get him on Auron's grid, and visa versa for Auron getting on Tidus's grid.

Wakka is nearly done his grid, but he is way way isolated, so I have no idea how I am gonna get him onto Tidus or Auron's grid.

Welp. Died in a level up battle....Hadn't saved in a while. Cool....

Uhhhh....

It thinks I haven't saved since Bevelle...when I totally did..... Fuck.

I'm all the way back to Zombie Evorae......Fuck.

Oh great, I can't skip Seymour's insufferable monologue....

Oh wow. Theres a combo of enemies that has a chance to drop mega phoenixes on this bridge. Fuck Kimari, we're grinding those out, they get you Auto-Phoenix later

Oh....wouldya look at that. We are outta time.

Well, I am now strong enough to walk over all of the enemies on that bridge, Yuna knows the -aras, Lulu knows the -agas, Auron now has Mental Break and is making it into his last major section of the grid (with the exception of Full Break, the new ability, which is at the start of his grid, which I will go back for later), and Tidus is within striking distance of Delay Buster and Hastega, 2 of his better moves, and not terribly far from Quick Hit, the single best ability in the game bar none. And Wakka was there too.

We'll try this again next time.

[Mario the black knight]

And now, we kill Seymour. Again. But for real this time.

Seymour: Lady Yuna, you don't seem pleased!
Yuna: I'll only be pleased when you are on the Farplane!

Dayum son.

Oh....he broke Auron...Like shattered him after turning him to stone....oh we in trouble....

It was rough going for a second, but we made it through just barely

Of the 4 Seymour fights, that one is probably the most boring. The gimmick is kind of easy, it's just the Petrification that makes the fight annoying. It's also the only one of the Seymour fights that doesn't have unique music.

And now, one of the most iconic scenes in the game

I wanna save here, but everyone is standing in front of the save point blocking it, and hinting that MAYBE I should go talk to Yuna. Yeah you guys even know whats about to happen

I just love how they indulge in this fantasy, this idea of forgetting about the pilgrimage, and just going to Tidus' Zanarkand. This is the scene that makes me think Yuna doesn't really believe in Tidus/Jecht's Zanarkand, and that she just indulges Tidus when she acts like she believes, just to make him feel better. Because she breaks down finally when he is describing it all to her again. Like she knows it isn't possible, that there is no escape from what she thinks is her fate.

The build to this scene was so perfect, because they had just resolved a lot of the big loose ends, The Seymour/Yuna wedding subplot is done, her faith is shaken and she is incredibly vulnerable, meanwhile Tidus is now up to speed on the truth of Yevon, and the entirety of the summoners pilgrimage, and of course has come to terms with his feelings for Yuna, cleared up by the whole Seymour thing, so this sorta ties everything together at the perfect time for a major climax.

It's interesting because even in the two previous stories which were much more explicitly presented as "romantic" storylines, Squall and Rinoa, Zidane and Dagger, never got such an explicit scene like this. Granted maybe it was more possible because of the advancement of technology, but I feel like maybe it just works with this story more than it did with those ones I guess.

This is just something Squarsoft were the best in the world at bar none back then, pacing their stories. Even though this story at times struggles to find logical ways to connect locations sometimes, using Sin as basically "get the characters where we need them" device, they were willing to make those stretches in the name of always hitting the story beats with the characters exactly when they needed to. Because this scene just hits perfect. Even when I was a kid and didn't get it, I still felt the sense of gravity it had, how important it was.

Another thing Squaresoft was the best at back then was really good dialog. I'm not sure how much of it was the original writing and how much of it was the English translators from the Golden Age, Post Woolsey, Post FFVII era, but they always nailed the dialog, especially between the main hero and heroine, it never feels contrived or corny, it's always engaging and feels natural. Other RPGs try to do romantic scenes like this and it just feels gross and wrong.

And even the delivery of the lines before and after the FMV, Tidus and Yuna's voice actor's nail it. Especially after, Yuna's delivery of her lines feels different from before that moment, she feels less guarded, very open, possibly for the first time in the entire game. It really makes the scene.

Also, my PS4 blocked recording on that FMV. And only that FMV. Probably because of the song. Fuck you DRMs.

I wasn't recording anyway, but still, it's the principle of the matter.

Another clever little thing they do. After they come back from the lake, Yuna kinda switches back to her "Summoner" voice to address everyone and make clear her resolve. But it just goes to show the switches in tone.

I also love that in the room you wake up in, theres a chest that contains a piece of armor for Yuna called the "Lucid Ring" which has Silence ward and Confuse Ward on it. It's a pretty mediocre piece of armor, but it's just interesting that a piece of armor with that combination of abilities with that name would be here. Really smart, really subtle detail if it was intended to convey that message

And now, The Calm Lands, the closest thing this game has to a world map, and where the sidequests begin

I love how they just throw Father Zuke randomly into the game to let you know the church has accused you of being Kinoc's murderer, and then you literally never see him again.

Also, it's interesting that Maester Mika specifically gave the order, which means he knew Seymour killed him and wasn't bothered by it. Should be a little unnerving that he is in the business of killing Maesters, given that he is one.....

Auron actually notices that, which is pretty nice.

Also, theres an Al Bhed in the back who basically tells you Cid is repairing the airship and he'll come find you when it's fixed, an interesting little continuity thing, hidden behind your ability to translate Al Bhed, kinda fun

Oh yeah, theres another Belgamine fight here, I forgot.

She got roasted. I am a much better Summoner now.

...And she gives me 30 power spheres. Cool. Not like I didn't already have 100 of those already....

And now, the quest begins for monster catching...

And Chocobo Riding

I love how they say at the beginning "Many Summoners get lost here." As in they get lost in all the sidequests, ha ha

I'm sure Father Zuke got his ass beat trying to ride those chocobos, and thats why he quit.

More sidequests next time

[Mario the black knight]

And now, giant birds

I really wish this minigame wasn't so janky. Like if you had some level of throttle control as it were to speed up or slow down, and if it wasn't like controlling a tank that randomly veers off course for no reason, it might be a lot more fun

Still better than the Cloister of Trials though.

Also, do we have lore on why these seagulls are engaging in all this bird on bird violence?

youtu.be/IbZWRj_Zn1U?t=111

It really is just at the mercy of the random balloon spawns, and whether the birds feel like randomly just fucking you over and stunlocking you with nothing you can really do about it because they spawn literally out of nowhere and the chocobo turns so slowly.

Got it. 8)

Oh fuck! Thats right, I can't get it yet anyway because I don't have the mirror. FUCK!

I forget if that means I need to win again or not to get the guard away from the sword.

I THINK you get the celestial mirror for collecting all the monsters in Calm Lands? I forget

Well, I just beat the super challenge boss the fiend guy makes you fight for getting all the monsters. Never done that before. Nice. Got a chest that I can't open, which makes me think that needs the mirror too, and isn't the mirror itself.....

I forget where I get the mirror.

I guess all thats left is Remiem Temple in the southeast, but I know I can't beat all the Aeons yet, I do remember there being another minigame there though

But I'll do that next time.

[Mario the black knight]

Real quick session, gonna try to get this other chocobo minigame done at the temple. I suspect this is how I get the mirror

Oh. Well that took 3 tries.

I forgot it starts as the cloudy mirror though, which I think means we have to take it to that part of Macalania where you make the weapons

I'll see if I can get there on foot, but that might be impossible right now....

For now I'll just get some of the Belgamine fights out of the way for Magnus Sisters

Beat her first 4 pretty effortlessly

I'll beat the rest once I have the others, I think Yojimbo is up ahead, and I need the airship for Anima

Lets see if I can clear up this Mirror to get the Caladbolg and whatever is in that chest at the monster place, it's either the Rusty Sword for the Masamune or the Nirvana, I forget

Oh hey, a Jecht Sphere.

I love the dynamic in Braska's group. A group of nobodies who everyone expected to fail who actually go on to defeat Sin. I never really thought about the fact that Braska married an Al Bhed woman was something anyone considered. But I guess that makes sense that that little fact would be swept under the rug by the church in the official version.

Huh. Well I can get there, but I forgot theres an NPC blocking it.

Oh yeah, this dumb miniquest

Gotta find that kids dad or whatever

Now we have the mirror fixed, time to go get the treasure

Caladbolg and Nirvana Acquired

Now that I think about it, I THINK the sword that becomes the Masamune is near Yojimbo

One thing I DO know about the International Edition is it MIGHT be harder to get the Sun Crest, since the room you fight Yunalesca in is also the room where you fight Dark Bahamut, who has 4 million HP and doesn't give a fuck about plebians under 40k HP.

Basically people complained about how easy Ultima Weapon was in the American release, so they decided to add a ton of Superbosses to ream your asshole, because that is "fun"

I mean I am fine with the game having more challenge, but I feel like it just boils down to the abuse of dominant strategies, which late game FF games are rife with, since they seem to basically forget the elemental system exists after about 60% through the game and just make spells like Ultima and Flare which render all the previous magic in the game obsolete. And also Quick Hit is way too powerful. I think they nerfed it from International Edition onward, and it's STILL too powerful. Mostly just due to the combination of the simplicity of the timing system in the game combined with the damage limit, and how easily the player can reach it with physical attacks. The damage limit in FF games basically makes all abilities equal after a while. Like why use an ability that uses MP when a physical attack which is completely free can do the exact same amount of damage, and be faster? Especially when damage types cease to matter after a while.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Next time I will probably get back on track with the story, since I think I've done everything I can in the Calm Lands for now.

[Mario the black knight]

And now, back to the empty field

I believe I've done everything I can in Calm Lands, so it's finally time to move onto the next area. I remember a big ass golem boss, then Yojimbo, which I can't do because I just don't have the gil yet.

After that is Mt. Gagazet, probably my least favorite area in the game...

Well I trucked that golem no problem. Another boss I remember getting stuck on. Of course, we are in the "everything is immune to status effects portion of the game now, where basically only Auron does any damage

Speaking of Auron, I got the Rusty Sword, so thats one less step to do once I get the airship. Not gonna bother with Yojimbo yet.

Ah, theres the scene. The scene where Tidus explains a behavior Yuna has been doing the entire game, that they wait until now to explain, her staring off at a place before she leaves it. Her saying goodbye to a place she believes she'll never see again. It's such a simple thing, just writing ahead, and setting stuff like this up, and so few do it now.

And now, Gagazet, the cold ugly slog, with the token animal race

We get through a cutscene where Yuna has to do almost nothing to convince Kelk Ronso to let her pass. Though I do love how this is the first time she speaks ill of Yevon. She makes clear her faith in the church is gone, but she still believes in the quest itself.

Theres also a side conversation where Auron admits to thinking of ways to try and save Braska when they reached this point. He was having the same struggles Tidus is now, and we know he failed. He then ominously says our duty as a guardian will end soon. Nuh uh brotha.

And now, one of the most absurd fights in the entire game

I basically get to learn all of Kimhari's overdrives in one fight.

I discovered the fun of this a run or two ago, where if you don't use Kimhari at all during the entire game, Biron and Yenke are stupid easy because they level with Kimhari.

But the funniest part is the fact that even though their level is on par with Kimhari, they still give a flat rate of EXP, which means Kimhari just gained 14 levels, ha ha ha

God Kimhari sucks.

Am I gonna use any of those levels? Just like the 14 he had from a previous boss fight...Nope

I love how Biron and Yenke fall over themselves trying to put over how strong Kimhari is for beating them, when like, literally any regular enemy in the game could effortlessly kill him in almost any area besides possibly Besaid.

Oh good. We get to hear them sing the song. Cool Great. Seymour is gonna kill you guys in a minute. Good luck with that.

They know we are being followed, and yet do all this shit to slow us down. Ronsos suck.

We are definitely at the point in the game where Lulu ceases to be useful and only Auron can deal reliable damage against anything.

She has the -agas, still can't kill Bombs, but Auron can 1 shot them.

Well that should help. O'aka's dorky brother Wantz was selling a really good weapon for Lulu that had magic booster and a ton of Magic+ on it. Fuck it, Why not. Sure as hell not getting the Onion Knight.

God this is the reason I hate this place, besides it being cold. The encounter rate is so stupidly high...

What I think of whenever Auron uses Shooting Star on a regular enemy

youtu.be/XhyLzMdAqQc?t=20

Up next is one of the legendary gatekeepers of the main story, Seymour Flux

The cutscene before it is one of the only times in the entire game Seymour speaks to Tidus directly that isn't optional.

I might just give it a shot now, I am pretty powerful and honestly I hate this place anyway, so might as well hurry on to Zanarkand

I love how Seymour drives the entire race of Ronsos extinct....except the Blitzball team

Also, he has a weird accent in this scene. Not sure why.

Heh, I love this battle theme.

Oh...I accidently cast Haste on him, trying to Haste Yuna.....luckily he's immune?

Huh. Well he's definitely not as hard as I remember. Definitely a tough fight, but imagine that, actually using your abilities is useful. I cast Shell on everyone when he was about to use TOTAL ELIMINATION and the attack did almost nothing to us. So thats neat.

The gimmick with using Zombie was a little tough, but I was able to deal with all of it pretty easily.

I PROBABLY could have brought other people into this fight to soak up some of this EXP....whoops.

I love how coy Auron plays it after the fight, because Seymour basically revealed the fact that Sin is Jecht without explaining how, and he just tries to brush it off, but Yuna ain't having it and tries to get it from him, but then gets it from Tidus, because she knows he won't lie to her.

The way he reveals it at that point makes it feel like it doesn't matter much. And like, the way the party reacts feels like it's kind of irrelevant. I think if they hadn't revealed that fact there and waited until Zanarkand to drop that bomb on everybody, it would have been a bigger impact.

And with those levels, Auron is the first to reach the end of his Sphere Grid. Now I either need to get a Lv 3 Key Sphere to unlock the path to Wakka's grid or backtrack to Tidus', not sure how to play it honestly.

Ah yes, the next and possibly biggest bomb of all in the story, when they discover the Fayth that is summoning Zanarkand itself. This shit is top tier masterful.

Like, it's such a mindfuck of a twist. And the way it relies on literally all of the information you have learned in the story up to this point, how Fayth work, the Machina War, the fact that Tidus' version of Zanarkand exists but no one seems to understand where, all of those little bits and pieces of information come together to create this perfect twist. It's all stuff that just feels like background and world building from the first act that probably doesn't matter, but becomes vital here.

And the icing on the cake is it leads to one final big secret, Tidus spent the entire story up to this point having secrets kept from him, not understanding the world he is in at all, big ones like the truth of the pilgrimage. And now he has a secret that dwarfs them all, and he keeps it from everyone. Not even Auron knows this one, and for the first time in the story, he is a step ahead of everybody else about something. And he hides it for the same reason they hid the secret of the pilgrimage from him, because he doesn't want to hurt them.

It's a type of symmetry that is just master tier. It's beautiful and haunting and really dark, without having to be "gritty". Nobody has come close to this since.

WOAH! Auron just said "Your pain shall be twofold!" when I used Armor Break on a random enemy in the cave!

I thought they made that up for the Kingdom Hearts 2 version of Auron when he did the Limit Skill with Sora, I didn't know that was one of his real quotes from the game! I never heard that before!

This is a part of this game that for the life of me after all this runs I still don't understand

They've got me throwing a ball at some orb with Wakka and are calling it "The First Trial of Gagazet" why did no one explain there would be random minigames?

Also, the first trial of Gagazet was dealing with that Biron and Yenke bullshit this whole game. The second was listening to them sing.

Hoo Boy, almost had a battle go sideways in the water because Rikku is shit. Was lucky to barely turn it around by having Tidus spam Al Bhed Potions. Thanks Rikku for being shitty at your own race's fucking medicine.

These minigames are so dumb. This one I THINK had me swimming into holes based on the color of the sphere grid of the character? Dumb.

Man, I've come closer to dying in some of these underwater fights than I did against Seymour Flux. Some of these fish are stupid strong, they deal more damage than Seymour did with most of his attacks, and I have to do this with no mages....

I think I'll try the third pointless minigame of Gagazet next time.

[Mario the black knight]

Alright, let the shitty minigames commence

So I think the third trial is the boss, I remember being tough but not too bad

They have this great scene where Auron and Yuna talk, possibly for the first time, almost on the level of equals, even though Auron works for Yuna. He speaks to her directly about Yunalesca sending a beast to test us, and asks her if she has lost her nerve, and she responds "nothing frightens me now" which is awesome. And the way he tells her Braska would be proud is so great. He talks to her for the first time the way he normally talks to Tidus, which is really interesting. It's like now he is preparing her now the way he was preparing Tidus before.

So the fight was pretty good. I liked how it was built around inflicting curse, while wiping away your stat buffs with it's tail whip, so you basically had no overdrives and no status effects. I worked around it pretty easily now that I have Hastega

It makes me think about my own system. I am currently working on a system that would allow you to use some of your super bar for a limit/overdrive style skill to power up your abilities. I think how that would have worked in this battle and how it might have changed my strategy, like having some status effect buffs have the ability to be all targets, but in exchange for an additional resource rather than just being regular skills.

After this fight, theres a great scene with Tidus, Wakka, and Auron. You can tell Tidus is getting anxious because they are getting close to Zanarkand, and Auron tells them how he felt the same way, the way his resolve wavered in this same spot. Wakka is surprised that a "legendary guardian" might feel this way, but Auron tells them that he was just a boy, about their age, and how he wanted to change the world, and how he feels he changed nothing, and that was his story.

For some reason the weight of that scene has never hit me before. The regrets Auron carries with him on this quest, having to watch it all happen again to the children of his friends who died last time. I already loved Auron before this playthrough, but like, damn. What a great character.

It's kinda convuluted how they get Yuna's sphere into Tidus' hands, but I guess for pacings sake it needed to happen that way

Also, It really is dark, listening to someone's will, that they prepared SO far in advance.

OH SHIT

In the Sphere, Yuna talks about the first time her and Kimhari met. She says that Kimhari told her that it was his duty to take her as far away from Bevelle as he could, and that it was the will of a "dying man". She interprets this as him being not good at talking to children and that he was talking about Braska.

But we ALSO know that it was Kimhari who found Auron dying, and he was HIM who passed on that message!! It's mentioned in passing that Kimhari and Auron met in Bevelle when he was "injured" but we don't find out until we meet Yunalesca WHY he was there, and why he was injured.

As the player, you would ALSO assume Kimhari is talking about Braska, knowing what you know up to this point, and wouldn't even consider they were talking about Auron.

What a subtle detail!! This game is so fucking good!

THIS is why they needed to be clumbsy about HOW the sphere made it to Tidus, because THIS was the only moment that ruse would work

HEH, the way she talks about Tidus, the way her tone changes, how flustered she gets, well done.

And also that writing conceit getting in the way again, having Yuna have to call him "Star of the Zanarkand Abes."

I like the way they made the recording feel so unedited, especially how she mentions how afraid she is of what shes doing, and that Tidus's voice is included in the recording. I just love how long ago that was in the story, how simple things felt, and how their relationship is so different then, and yet you know even then she was thinking about him in that way.

And now, the intro plays again. We reach the point in the story where we were in medias res, the point in the story it was being narrated from. It adds a literal meaning to the Spiral.

I also love that this entire story up to this point was basically just Tidus stalling to keep Yuna from getting to Zanarkand, and that it's well into the night when they finally set off on the final leg of the journey.

UGH, I love when this track starts, and doesn't even stop for battles, it really makes this final leg of the journey feel so powerful

youtu.be/ndPT6fIKeSA

UGH!!! THIS is the stuff that makes me want to be a game designer. Can you believe there are people out there who play shitty games on purpose? When they could just be playing FFX?

I love this game.

Next time we enter the Stadium, and the climax of Act 2.

[Mario the black knight]

And now, a sports stadium turned religious monument....

....Thinking about it, if society collapsed...would modern sports stadiums become religious monuments....? I mean technically the Coliseum in Rome sorta did...

Anyway, getting off that dark thought...

I got a really good rod from the last boss for Yuna, it gave her Half MP Cost, so now I can pretty much spam all of her spells with almost no consequence, which is nice,

Ah yes, the flashback of Seymour as a child being a huge mamas boy. What a dork

And with that Lv 3 Sphere, the path between Wakka and Auron's end grids is now open, so now I can start powering up Auron even more, and start moving Wakka onto Auron's if I need to. At this point the need for multiple characters falls apart pretty hard.

I am basically only leveling Lulu because Ultima and Flare are on her path and much easier to get for Yuna once she has them. Then I am basically done with Lulu, and everything goes into Tidus, Auron, and Yuna.

Auron is now at the point where he is consistently hitting Damage Limit, which is the point where using the Masamune is actually stronger than using the Shimmering Blade. Once I get it. I must be a little overleveled, since normally I have to level a bit before Masamune is breaking damage limit consistently

I love the little detail where Braska actually uses the save point in one of the flashbacks. Man I would kinda love a little mini game where you got to play as Braska, Jecht and Auron, but at the same time I'd never trust Square Enix to make it right, and honestly this game covers enough of their story. Plus, it would basically just be using Tidus, Yuna, and Auron anyway, just with different cutscenes.

And now we step on random floor button until the puzzle is done! YAY! Puzzles....

God the Cloister of Trials sucks...

I forgot they pay it off with a really unique boss fight after, the one where you have to jump the characters around to the different tiles to avoid attacks, it's actually a really cool unique battle, I kinda wish they had done more like that

I also like this slightly creepy, slightly sour version of the Hymn that plays here. It gives this place the creepy messed up atmosphere it should have, that sense of foreboding for what is about to happen.

The scene with the big reveal of the Fayth being empty, and having to give up one of the guardians to make the final aeon, the way it connects all the dots is so good. You see Jecht complete his redemption arc, and Auron, the badass the whole game, reduced to a groveling child, and how angry he gets at seeing himself fail is really great.

It's kind of interesting to think on how Jecht kept his promise that he would think of something. Auron rode Sin to Zanarkand, so Jecht helped him bring Tidus to Spira to have him break the cycle, with Auron's help.

UGH, I LOVE the scene where Auron just goes into a passion, telling everyone that this is the time to shape their stories, now is the time to choose, whether to die and be free of pain, or live and fight your sorrow!! YES!!

It's just great, since you see Seymour kinda go crazy earlier on, and you think he was just nuts and a one off, but when you find out basically the main religious figure of Yevon has basically the same ideology as a maniac like Seymour you see that all of Yevon is false and rejecting all of Yevon is the only way to break the cycle, since they are the ones keeping it going in the first place.

And now, the true gate keeper, and the Climax of Act 2.

This fight is a perfect example of why Esuna is bad. This whole fight was interesting and required me to strategize because Zombie is one of the only status effects that isn't cured by Esuna, meaning I had to actually use Holy Water, while I only had a few of, meaning I had to be careful about using them. Also, I love the gimmick with Mega-Death where it doesn't work on zombified enemies for the same reason Phoenix downs kill them. It was a clever play on the mechanics.

And here, Yunalesca is the first to mention Yu Yevon, the true villain of FFX.

hehehehe, got the Sun Crest. I made sure I didn't go to the center of the room by using the staircase to avoid Dark Bahamut B)

Now I have the full Caladbolg when I get into the overworld again

But now, we find out one more big truth, about Auron.

I love how he just shows you Jecht telling him to look after Tidus, because just telling him he might not have believed.

I also like how at this point, Tidus isn't incredulous or clueless about the situation, sort of like the player, which doesn't insult the player's intelligence, they've given you enough information to figure it out, so they have Tidus reflect that. It's a situation where they don't make every twist a surprise to the characters, this is just them spelling out something you as the player could figure out based on the information given, it was just important that you knew in this place.

Also, I kinda love how Yunalesca just swats Auron away. Knowing how much of a badass he is now, you see how much he has grown.

Also.....here's a question. If anyone can seemingly come back as an unsent....why don't the summoners come back?

I feel like that is like the ONLY thing they don't explain. Like the person who becomes the Final Aeon? Sure, we know what happens to them. But the summoners? They definitely have a reason to be mad, and cling to this world, if nothing else to see if Sin is gone for real... I dunno.

Anyway, that scene where Sin is sitting outside Zanarkand is kinda creepy. But also points out another thing...why didn't Sin just kill Yunalesca? The Previous Sin's would probably be mad at her, given that she killed them to make Fayth.

Also, I love the scene where Yuna finally gets to meet Cid.

And with that, we enter what I consider Act 3 of the game. Where the focus of the story officially breaks away from Yevon pretty much completely, the game breaks wide open, and now the focus becomes breaking the cycle. This is where the sidequests go into overdrive.

Right now I already have all of the parts to make the Caladbolg right off the bat, which is nice. Though, it's interesting that I'm not even close to the end of Tidus' Sphere Grid. Granted, part of that is because of detours, but even then, I took much bigger detours with Auron and he is well into Wakka's grid now. I think they made Tidus' grid much longer in Professional, since Quick Hit is like, unquestionably the best ability in the game.

Yuna and Lulu are both pretty far from the end of their grids as well, but both of them had significant detours, and I think in general I always remember Lulu and Yuna taking the longest due to being the 2 principally magical sphere grids, with more abilities than anyone else, in exchange for less stat boosts.

I definitely feel much more motivated to play around with the Sphere grids in Professional, theres a lot of cool little abilities everywhere I wanna try and get to.

So next time I'll probably start by getting the Caladbolg, and passively do some monster catching while going to get the other Aeons, so I can beat Remiem Temple and get the Magnus Sisters, and I think the Moon Sigil as well. And maybe I'll actually start playing Blitzball?

[Mario the black knight]

And now to not do as the game tells us to

We speak to Yuna, who tells us outside of the teachings of Yevon, she knows nothing, which is a little sad. Then Kimhari has pretty much literally his only impact on the plot of the game by having the idea of hassling Maester Mika.

Then we go back to the cockpit to learn the plan to play the Hymn of the Fayth to lure in Sin for the big attack

First, off to Macalania to get the Caladbolg powered up. Gonna be a while before Tidus can harness it's full potential, but Triple Overdrive should help me get Blitz Ace faster. But I have a lot of monster catching to do first.

Next off to Mushroom Rock, to get the Masamune.

Huh. Well thats new....

There were some NPCs just standing there who summoned the Dark Magnus sisters and I had to run away from them......

Huh....

I suppose I am at the stage where I really get to see the new content.

Well....I hope I can sneak by them....somehow...

Oh, hey, nice! They literally just added a shortcut to it on Djose Highroad, weird janky boxes you can climb over to a secret bridge basically straight to the statue.

Interesting that they give you the option to avoid these fights, but you have to be sneaky, or at the very least explore a little to find all of the little tricks to get the parts of the celestial weapons while avoiding the Dark Aeons. Kinda cool.

I got the Mars Crest immediately the first time on the Highroad, so all I need is the Sigil which I get from the Monster Catcher Sidequest, so that'll be a while.

I don't actually remember how to get the Moon Crest, so that should be a journey. I'm pretty sure I get the Sigil from Belgamine, so I'll have to get the other Aeons before I can do that.

I guess I could go back to Besaid and get Valefor's other Overdrive. But I'm PRETTY sure Dark Valefor is there, but I don't know how to avoid him...

Might just have to figure it out

Oh hey. Theres the Moon Crest. I was exploring around the beach on Besaid. Figures it would be in the place where Yuna's theme plays all the time.

Oh. Well great. Dark Valefor is just at the door in Besaid. And you can't run from him. So he just used Energy Ray and merked us like second turn....cool...great.

Not sure when I last saved...

OK, I at least saved after getting the Masamune. I can just go get the Moon Crest again then fuck right off.

Went back to the Monster Catcher guy. Fought his special monster from Besaid. Whooped it's ass. The Caladbolg is crazy even if Tidus can't hit 9999+, Triple Overdrive allowed me to hit 6 Energy Rains. I now understand why it takes 70 uses to get Blitz Ace. This should take no time at all.

God dammit

So I got wrapped up in this REALLY long fight with one of his Behemoth variants, over an hour, just to have him use Ultima on death and nuke everyone and we all died at the same time, but it count as a loss. I used Energy Rain a ton of times during that fight, all of those better have counted....

Well that went way later than I was planning on.

I guess next time I could go look for the Jecht Spheres

[Mario the black knight]

After a short distracting, back to wandering the spiral of death

Which starts immediately with death

I talked to monster guy again. He made another terrifying end game level abomination that destroyed me in like 3 turns.

BUT he gave me 60 Three Stars as a reward for it. That item lets you put 1 MP cost on any weapon.

Earlier I bought that Booster Cactuar for a ton of money, which increases magic damage by a ton. I am STRONGLY considering adding 1 MP cost to it.....but a better weapon might be possible. I just know I don't feel like trying to dodge 200 lightning bolts...

I dunno, I'll think about it.

In the meantime, gotta get some Jecht Spheres

Got the one in Luca, and not Auron has Banishing Blade. Nice.

It KINDA makes me wanna play some Blitzball..... Maybe I'll do that tonight too

Ugh, god I love the Moonflow.

It's kinda funny that Jecht attacking a Shoopuff was the catalyst for him becoming a better man. Like that feels like the story I am learning so far.

It's kind of hilarious that they use the generic flamethrower guy as a stand in for young Kinoc in Auron's Sphere, like it feels like they were just like "we don't wanna make a young model for Kinoc for literally one optional scene, so uhh, whatever, close enough." Definitely the worst sphere.

The Chocobo Eater fight one is a little phoned in too, but I do like where you find the sphere, at the bottom of the cliff, letting you know how the fight went.

I also love that they put all the spheres pretty close to save points, like they knew people were gonna go back to the airship right away. Super convenient.

Jecht getting struck by lightning is pretty hilarious in Thunder Plains. Especially how much Braska laughs at him, like HA HA, you got nearly killed

Also, in HD, these Quactar ghosts are creepy as hell. I thought I was seeing stuff in the PS2 version, but in this version I can see them clearly and it's creepy

On Gagazet, I found the scholar guy, and listened to him for a bit, and man, I am loving the early world lore. Like how the Hymn of the Fayth is essentially cultural appropriation, since it was originally a song from Zanarkand.

It explains a lot, like how originally the Al Bhed sang the song as a rallying cry of defiance against Yevon. Which explains why the Al Bhed sing it before blowing up Home, which is cool

It also explains Tidus and Jecht's connection to the song as well.

Apparently Yevon made it scripture to make people stop using it against them, which feels so real.

In general the fact that summoning was an art in Zanarkand that Bevelle stole is really cool deep lore that the main game doesn't even directly tell you, which is awesome.

Also I didn't know Yu Yevon was Yunalesca's father. Kinda nuts, but makes sense. Though that does mean she killed her own father. Though, I guess that puts a whole new spin on the whole cycle concept.

Ugh, gagazet is so fucking miserable, you can't take 2 steps without another encounter..

I would pay all my money for a No Encounters weapon right now...

Braska's sphere is interesting. It's one of the few times we get to hear him speak, and he speaks to Yuna directly, telling her to follow her own path, and to live how she wants to, and she would have her father's support. Interesting that this almost feels like he is giving her permission to not be a summoner in a way. I guess he just assumes she won't have to deal with Sin, because he already will have. Guess that didn't work out.

Well, that leaves 2 Jecht Spheres. One is on the boat, the other......is in Besaid Village. And of course Dark Valefor is guarding Besaid Village, so theres no getting that until I am WAY stronger than I am. So that actually walls me off from a LOT of stuff. No Energy Blast for Valefor, no final Jecht Sphere, and since I don't think I was able to get the Destruction Sphere in Besaid, I MIGHT be walled off from Anima as well? I think she requires all of the destruction spheres be complete before her Fayth unlocks.

I need to be a LOT stronger if I am gonna have any chance in that fight. Like Celestial Weapons and Endgame Armor stronger.

So in the meantime, what I can do currently is get Yojimbo, catch monsters, and play Blitzball.

I'll have to decide on my next move next time, since Gagazet ate so much time with it's stupid encounter rate.

[Mario the black knight]

Took a little break to work on a side project, but now we are back

And tonight I am feeling some Blitzball

First, I am gonna go recruit Rin as my Center, since I used him as my center last time and he was super good

I recruited Wedge and Jumal before I left Luca WAY back when, so I am good on Goalie and my right striker

I should be able to get by with average backfielders for now

I think I'll jump right into the first league game, not bother with any exhibitions, I mostly remember what I am doing

I DID beat the Goers with the shittiest team in the league, so I think I know a thing or two

Oh, first round vs Guados? Oh, easy peasy. They gettin merc'd

OK, so I'm gonna need to gain a few levels before I am completely walking over teams, but I definitely still wrecked the Guados 3-1

Second match in the league is a rematch from the world title match against the Goers. Lets see if we can wreck them even harder this time around

Well, it's 3 - 0 at half time, so that'll do

Absolutely styled on them just like I did in the tournament!

I just took a last minute shot against 3 of their teammates and the goalie, they ALL missed the ball, then the ball just kinda went in. No Jecht Shot, nothing special. Just merc'd.

As usual, the competition for the top scorer is a heated rivalry within the Besaid Aurochs, between Wedge and Tidus,

Oh? A new tournament? And it has Attack Reels? I can actually make Wakka useful? Lets do that

Looks like we got the Goers again. Time to destroy them again

5-0 this time. This one guy with like NO shoot stat kept just taking random shots from midfield that even my shitty regular goalie could have stopped

Next match is against Killika. I don't remember if these guys are any good, but they have actual abilities, we'll see how this goes

They have a weak center and a weak goalie, it was basically target practice, 6-0 blowout

Finals are against the Al Bhed, I remember their team actually being pretty good early game, but I gotta beat em to get Attack Reels for Wakka

tough game, their players are actually on our level, and their goalie is actually better than ours. Just barely got a Jecht Shot by them.

Hard fought victory. They even blocked a Jecht Shot! But now Wakka has his only good Overdrive

Meanwhile, back in the league, next game is against the slow moving, absolutely not at all aquatic Ronso Fangs

This shouldn't be too hard.

The only downside to them being so slow, and having such high endurance, is that they can just hog the ball forever, but literally can't shoot past our goalie, so we can't score nearly as high

Also, weird thought I had playing this. If humanoids other that humans existed...do you think they would be allowed to play against humans in sports? Or would they be segregated to their own leagues?

Was really hoping to get Grip Gloves in that game, kept forgetting to get the copy

Still won though

Seems like it's a round robin league, so probably 5 games

Next is Kilika

Time to kilika them

Pretty easy, not high scoring, but now I have Grip Gloves and Jassu actually has a technique

They mostly just ran out the clock, passing back and forth, like the AI just knew it couldn't beat me, so they just wanted to mitigate the damage

Now the final round of the tournament. I could probably lose this game and still win the tournament, but I want the clean sweep.

Oh, that wasn't the last game? OK then.

Still won. It was tough, but Wedge is coming into his prime now, where he is just a one man wrecking crew

Wow, the Guados got less terrible. They actually have an OK striker, and their goalie actually stopped a Jecht Shot

Wow. They actually stopped TWO Jecht shots that game, and actually got a ball past Jumal. Just barely squeaked by. 2-1. Kinda nuts

STILL not the end of that league. Huh.

Guess I'll have to continue next time.

[Mario the black knight]

Back to Blitz

Next round of the tournament puts us up against the Goers again

5-0, absolute target practice. Their goalie is not even a consideration. Wedge is definitely in his absolute prime right now, he is just a complete beast. All of his stats just dwarf everyone at this point in the game

Not to mention the Goers are absolute jobbers.

Next game is the Ronsos again

These games are so boring because it's mostly just the Ronsos lumbering around, running the clock out on themselves

Still crushed em 3-0. Learned a few good techs

I am in the phase of the game where there are lots of techs to learn, which makes the games more fun, the only trouble is how unlikely it is anyone will get a chance to use the shots for how aggressive I play

Also, I am trying to train up Keepa, the default shitty goalie as a defender, just to get his XP up. Apparently in the end game he is the best goalie in the game period, but you need to get him to like Lv 99. So I am just grinding levels with him as one of my defenders, since the defender he is replacing was mostly inconsequential either way

I think I am gonna switch to tournament play to switch things up, just to cycle tournaments to get the better stuff unlocked

We got a Bye in the tournament, so I just had to sit there and watch the results...so thats cool....next round

Looks like we get a rematch against the Ronsos

Absolutely shit on em, 7-0. They are so boring to play against.

Somehow the Kilika Beasts beat the Guados, so like, that is a miracle win

Guess we're gonna have to merc them again



9-0. Get absolutely shit on you jabronis

It was just their center catches the ball, walks it over to Wedge, Wedge takes it from them, casually saunters to the goal, shoots over the entire team, scores, repeat.

There was a point where Rin caught the ball off the start, literally passed the ball over the entire team to Tidus, followed by a Jecht shot.

This was not a game, this was a bloodbath.

Back in the League now. And of course, we get a rematch with the Kilika Beasts....Oh good.

Glorious violence.

Only 6-0 this time. Mostly because they stopped walking the ball directly to Wedge, so he didn't get to play much that game.

Next in the league we have the Al Bhed Psyches again. But this time they have a bunch of new less good players. Their goalie is still ridiculously good, but everyone else feels more average for some reason. Definitely got me way less worried about this match though

They have a new Center who is terrible, shes slow, has no stats, and is pretty high level, so it's not like shes gonna level up and get better. Wedge absolutely MOLESTED her, it was just embarrassing.

That was finally the end of that league, I got a megalixer. Cool I guess.

The next League has Status Reels as the prize. Guess I gotta win that...whatever. It does have Sphere Shot for the top scorer though.

Wrecked the Beasts 6-0 again. Much of the same.

In the trades though, Kilika bought one of the good Al Bheds to replace one of their shittiest characters....so uhh...that is interesting...

Thats enough Blitzball for now, you can only emasculate teams over and over again for so long before it stops being fun. I'll come back later probably

I guess I need to catch monsters next? Might as well, thats pretty mindless.

Well I caught a few things. Nothing terribly exciting

I gotta be honest though, I don't remember how the hell to get to some of the locations like the Omega dungeon. That would be a good place to get stronger, but I forget how to get there.

In the original Omega was the superboss....and like, he was PRETTY easy to 1 shot because almost nothing in the original US release had more than 100k HP, so once you had a sufficiently beefy Tidus and Auron, you could just one shot literally everything effortlessly. International Edition has all the extra crazy stuff, but I suspect Omega Dungeon is still probably the best place to grind.

Maybe thats what I'll do next time, look up how to go there

[Mario the black knight]

So I think this time, I'm after Al Bhed Primers, then I'll look up all the airship passwords

Theres a few that look like they will be inaccessable to me, either because they are blocked by Dark Aeons, or because they are in locations I can't get back to

Like Vol. 2 is located in Besaid

Woaaaaaah.

So Vol 6 is located in the locker rooms opposite of the Aurochs in Luca, and theres this great camera shot in there that shows this windows that look out into the ocean like an aquarium, it's so cool!

So it looks like I missed 3 inside Al Bhed Home which are now gone forever, and one in Bevelle. Kind of annoying honestly that they are missable

The last 3 that I can access are in Besaid, The Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, and Omega Ruins

Since I want to go to Omega Ruins to level and get good stuff and so on, I'll just look that up and go there

Man, I forgot just how intense the jump from even Zanarkand to Omega Ruins is in terms of standard enemies. It definitely feels fair, but man, every fight is a FIGHT. You enter Omega Ruins a boy, and leave it a man for sure

Welp, got wiped out by a Malboro

Sure that won't be the last time, the ones in here are no joke

Met my first Xion. At least I'm not getting nuked with over 10000 damage by Karma like before.

Finally got Curaga with Yuna. MUCH needed. Still a long way from Holy and Auto-Life

I am BARELY surviving long enough to flea from Malboros, they are still as scary as they always were, especially without Auron with a complete Masamune

Going through the sphere grid, it looks like they added a ton of high level magic to random parts of Rikku's grid behind lock spheres, like Flare and Auto-Life. Weird.

Welp, 2 Marboros

I forgot the early part of Omega Dungeon is sorta just grinding in the lobby near the save point so you don't lose tons of battles worth of progress if you encounter like...half the possible enemy encounters

And reading into it, it looks like in the International/HD release, they buffed the hell out of both of the weapons, so they are the real deal now, with Ultima having one 9 tacked onto his HP total, bringing him just short of 1 Million. So yeah....this ain't no picnic now...

I'll probably just chip away at this again next time.

[Mario the black knight]

Back into the dungeon

Probably just gonna grind more, then blitz if I get bored

A lot of end game is predicated on me upping my level quite a bit, and Omega Dungeon is sort of the proving ground for that

Oh, I forgot Demonoliths can just straight up paralyze the party...cool...great....awesome....

The way this game handles status effects is frustrating at times

The annoying thing is I don't have armor for dealing with Berserk, Petrify, or Confuse for everyone. This might be a sub objective before I dive into this in earnest.

Luckily, a lot of the materials can be obtained here anyway, so the process doesn't really change

Got got by some black elements.

We really need to get these materials together. They berserked us, then flared us to death.

It looks like there might be some easier locations to get some of these materials gathered up, I might go grab those, then go back in with better armor

Well that was interesting. Inside the cave we slept in after the pond scene, there were a couple of Guados. They explained to me that it was Seymour who released the fiends into the arena just to make himself look strong in front of everyone. How about that, closing that little plothole, huh?

Well that was a development I never considered...

In Macalania it must be an ultra rare drop, one I'm probably not gonna get in my lifetime compared to how common they are in Omega. Gonna just have to run the risk.

Beat my first Malboro, had to Shooting Star him, but I beat him. Good EXP. No Capture though

So after that extended grind, Tidus is now on Auron's grid, Auron has got to canonical end of Wakka's grid, and is now gonna backtrack through it. The goal is to reach the beginning of Wakka's then use a shortcut through his early path to reach the early parts of Auron's own grid to unlock Full Break, then hop onto the start of Tidus's grid where I broke onto it early on to get Haste and Cheer. Yuna is ALMOST at Full-Life. After that she needs to use some lock spheres to get Holy, then she has a link onto the end of Lulu's grid, which I can just use to soak up all the Magic Power, since I already have most of the good Black Magic anyway.

I'm basically running around stealing Petrify Grenades, Hypello Potions, and Musk from the enemies who drop them while grinding levels, hoping to make sets of armor for Tidus, Yuna, and Auron that will have immunity to Confusion, Berserk, and Petrify, which should make fighting some of the more dangerous enemies like the Malboros and Demonoliths survivable

[Mario the black knight]

Back in the dungeon

More grinding

I've got the petrification grenades, now I just need the Musks and Hypello Potions to get our Omega Armor up and running

Pretty unremarkable grind so far. I steal from monsters, I kill them, I level up, I repeat.

Though, right now I have Tidus, Auron, and Wakka all in the same section of the sphere grid right now, which is slightly remarkable I guess.

I have Tidus' armor done, he now has Berserk, Confuse, and Petrify protection, so that should make at least one designated survivor against a bad breath or something of the like

Now I just need to find 2 more Tetra type armors for Yuna and Auron

I'm most of the way through making Auron's

I'm gonna see if I can go buy a Tetra Ring for Yuna, because my current armor for her is all ass

Well it looks like the merchant who sells the best armor doesnt appear until after the Highbridge cutscene, so I guess I have to progress the story a little more, make Mika pee his pants and leave the world

I love this stage of an FF story, where even the common bad guys who have been jumping you all game are kind of afraid of how powerful you are and just sorta fuck off when once they would have triggered a fight

Also, I love how we fuck with that Shelinda girl, after Mika kills himself, Auron just like "never seen him, where is he?" and she just goes off running looking for her again. They intersperse just the right amount of humor into these serious late cutscenes, especially with the scene we go into next.

I also love the scene where Bahamut calls Tidus and Yuna to "his room" and Auron kind of just acknowledges it, which makes me think he can see Fayth too.

I also like how this dialog takes place as a true discussion with the player, to see how much they understand, giving you different multi choice prompts.

If you go straight to Yu Yevon, it goes by pretty quick though

They use this camera effect to show when Bahamut is speaking with Tidus or Yuna, it's subtle but it's great.

At the end, when Yuna calls Tidus on hiding something, and he basically does to her what she has been doing to him all game, it's such a strangely satisfying reversal. He tries to cheer HER up, to hide the truth about something that he doesn't want her to know, the exact same truth that she was hiding from him before this. The symmetry is so good.

I guess at this point, Shelinda is like, the highest ranking member of Yevon...All 4 Maesters are dead, and pretty much all the summoners have quit their pilgrimage, and she is caption of the guard at the order of the former last Maester, so I guess she runs Yevon now. What a promotion we gave her, starting as a lowly acolyte.

Back in the Airship, theres a dialog with Auron, one of which being a bit of a cryptic spoiler, saying that "their stories will end together" which makes me think maybe not only can he see the Fayth, but maybe he knows Tidus and Jecht's true nature? Hard to say for sure. We know he intends to pass on once he has fufilled his duty, but I'm not sure how he would know about Tidus

Back on the bridge, Wakka apologizes to The Al Bhed present, showing like, the first and probably only real development his character ever sees. He's not a bad character, just pretty flat.

Speaking to Yuna....the symmetry is complete, because after questioning the teachings, she talks about how they can plan what they want to do after they beat Sin later.....Something Tidus spent all game doing to Yuna, not knowing her previous fate.

It really is kind of amazing, how Tidus sort of takes the burden off Yuna and puts it on himself, which is simultaneously noble and cruel, and overall really tragic.

This is what puts the FF games above everybody else, theres such depth to the stories. Like Legend of Dragoon couldn't have possibly even imagined this level of depth to it's characters and their relationships.

Like Tidus effectively taking Yuna's place as the one who has to die in order to defeat Sin and bring the Eternal Calm, basically putting her in the position she put everyone around her in, when she had spent so much time preparing herself to die, not really thinking about what it would do to those around her is so tragic and grim, and strangely beautiful. It's just on a whole other level from anything any other RPG I have ever seen. Not Legend of Dragoon, not Breath of Fire, not Dragon Quest, nobody. They all just feel SO shallow by comparison.

Anyway, I got the Tetra Ring. Next time it's grinding for more materials before finally starting Omega Ruins in earnest.

[Mario the black knight]

And once again, face meets grindstone.

We start with Yuna getting Holy, the last skill on her main line sphere grid. She still has a few little stat boosts before she gets onto Lulu's sphere grid.

Murdered another Xion.

Auron now has Quick Hit, and Yuna has Doublecast before Lulu does, so thats interesting.

I've noticed since finishing the Highbridge event and getting the game to the true endgame state, all of the in battle banter has returned, like Tidus saying stuff when you use flee, characters re-entering the battle, etc. Guess there really is some event flag aspect to that feature. Interesting.

This is ridiculous, I've already been at this for like an hour and not seen a single enemy that gives the Hypello Potions or Musks I'm looking for

I think in order to not drive myself crazy, it's time to go wreck some chumps in Blitzball

Well I absolutely shit on the Goers again as usual in Round 2 of this League. But now the Guados are like...not terrible anymore. They keep using this cheeky strategy where they put my good players to sleep then shoot on goal. It's actually tied 1-1 at halftime. I got robbed because my goal went in at Halftime exactly, which was bullshit.

OK, it apparently counted the goal, it just didn't update the UI until the second half

5-1. I handily punished them for besmirching my goal.

OOOOOH! One of the original Aurochs just got recruited by the Guados. Sucks to be them.

Next we got the Al Bhed Psyches. Ever since they got their new shitty center they are WAY easier to beat. Their goalie is still pretty legit, but we pretty much constantly have possession of the ball so it doesn't matter, we can shoot all we want, and I can use Wither Shot with Wedge to bring his insane Catch stat down.

I'm convinced they based the AI of the Kilika Beasts team on the average FFX player's Blitzball knowledge. They just make moves that make literally no sense like trying to take shots from midfield, they sign a random ass Guado to be their goalie who is like Lv 1 who completely sucks, they are hilariously outclassed.

Like, I had Wedge literally blocked by their entire team, and I still scored. I literally just sat there through all their tackles, shot over their heads, and dunked on their Lv 1 goalie. It was embarrassing.

8-0. Absolute Slaughter.

Next time hopefully I'll actually encounter the enemies I need for this armor to make traveling through these ruins safe.

[Mario the black knight]

Once again, pacing in a lobby

Once again grinding for Hypello Potions and Musk, probably Blitz later

I think I finally got all the Musk I need. Now I just need the Hypello Potions for Auron's gear

Then I might have a slight diversion to Temple of the Stolen Fayth. Apparently theres a monster there who drops an item that gives Silenceproof. Kinda want that for Yuna's armor for this area.

Plus I almost have half a million gil again, so it should be good enough to buy Yojimbo's services

Got the berserkproof, time to go visit Yojimbo, mostly just to mix it up, before finally attempting this dungeon in earnest

And now, basically the only real story Lulu gets in the entire game. It's as boring as she is.

Oh hey, there are Tonberry's in Stolen Fayth, I forgot about that.

I absolutely stepped over Lulu's former Summoner's Yojimbo. Hilariously so.

The one thing I like about this section is the music that plays during this fight. I think it is listed on the soundtrack as Lulu's theme. You don't get to hear it for long though. Because you know. Steppin over chumps is easy.

I don't know why, but theres just something cool about the vibe of the Yojimbo haggling minigame. Not to mention his voice is awesome. I just love how his actual form is just some generic Crusader NPC with the default dog with him, like they became a Fayth together

You know...I wonder, how does Monster Catcher guy make new monsters? Like....does he have some weird genetics lab in a post apocolyptic world where technology is basically banned? Also, is that dragon's head next to him actually a dragon head or like, one of those balloon guys you used to see at used car dealerships in the 90s?

I dunno.

Anyway, I think I am gonna head back to Omega and give it a try in earnest this time, since I can somewhat handle myself against most of the monsters, and am no longer in danger of getting insta-killed

This last section of Lulu's grid has a ton of really beefy stat boosts, for Magic and evasion, something Yuna already has a lot of, so she is gonna get super powerful fast

Tidus is ALMOST at the point where he can actually consistently gain benefit from using the Caladbolg, so that will be nice.

Auron is already pretty much consistently hitting 9999

Unfortunately it will be ages before I get the Mars Sigil

Knowing about the treasure chest gimmick in Omega Ruins, where if you get a Mimic in each of the areas, all the other chests disappear, and the probabilities are kind of messy and weird, making it tedious, I'm gonna see if I can get through it, by saving often

Apparently in the HD remaster, the config is set the first time you load Omega Ruins, so I might just be stuck with a bad spawn, I might not, I don't know. I just know I got the first two without incident, and REALLY hope I can get the 99 Warp Spheres.

Buuuut I think I'll attempt this feat tomorrow