Lunar Gate
-Into this facility. It feels a lot like an airport.
-OH NO!!!! Angelo. He runs yipping and crying into the place.
Does he just miss Rinoa, or is he pulling a Lassie and trying to tell us that Rinoa fell down the well and/or into Odine’s gross clutches?
-I was right on the airport, in general at least. They’re sending us somewhere.
-Wait, we’re actually going to space? They’re freezing us in cryo-stasis and sending us to space.
-Ellone’s in SPACE???
-Limited room available in the space capsule. I leave Zell with Edea outside. Rinoa’s coming, because that’s the whole point. And Quistis for the third slot.
-Yup. We’re heading to space. Space space space. This is pretty unreal and I’m laughing because this is awesome?
-The rocket launches.
Visually arresting as always.
-We see those who stayed behind. With Angelo.
-Angelo’s acting pretty upset, and I’m starting to think it’s not just because Rinoa’s gone. One possibility I’m afraid of: that Odine cut a deal with Ultimecia and put Ultimecia in Rinoa’s body.
-A quake starts rumbling. I’m now controlling Zell and Edea. Interesting – I didn’t think I’d be staying with their perspective. In case I get into a fight, I give Zell Squall’s fighter set and Edea Rinoa’s GF set.
-Something overhead. A Garden? No… It’s a large black…
…MONOLITH! Is that the thing that the Galbadians had excavated from the sea?
-It came from the city, so a party of us will head back there. Taking Irvine for the third slot. I like Selphie way more, but my general rule has been to bring the lowest level characters as often as possible to keep things even. Back in FFVII I played with a pretty set party and felt like I lost out.
[Non-rhetorical question for y’all: do the enemies scale to the level of the party in combat, or the level of all my characters even if they’re not in party? Everyone except for Squall is in the low 30s, and Squall is in the 60s, so I’m wondering if a Squall-less party will lead to lower level monsters.]
-Quick bit of maintenance before pushing on. I have a lot of low level spells and the ability to upgrade them with GF abilities that I haven’t used. Let’s do that now, so I have Blizzara and Blizzaga instead of Blizzard, for instance.
This may be a mistake. Maybe it would be better to keep stuff spread across different ranges. But it seems like a reasonable risk to take, so I’m doing it.
*40 minutes later*
That took a while, but consolidated all magic onto my three characters and converted as much as I could to higher levels. No regrets.
---
Esthar – City
-Let’s see what’s up. I’ll head towards the Presidential Palace.
-The monolith has the Estharian symbol on it. I’ll bet it’s a surprise that Adel buried before the was taken out of power… Yup. Some dude says it’s something that was believed to have been gone 17 years ago.
-It was something that was studied in the Lunar Lab.
-Hm. Nothing going on at the palace. Maybe I have to head to the overworld. No, Odine’s Laboratory first, since the townspeople are all “I wonder what that doctor’s up to now?”
-Yup, Odine’s lab. The doctor’s in. Ah shit – he’s in a good mood. He caused this, right?
-Odine calls the monolith the L****** Pandora. He didn’t cause this, the Galbadians did. It’s the thing they dredged up after all. He says they won’t use it to attack Esthar, but is worried about “Tears’ Point.”
-The Pandora is currently off the western coast of Esthar. It’ll pass over Esthar.
-DAMMIT, GAME. STOP. USING. TIMERS.
-I have to board the Pandora at the 15:00-12:00 minute mark at the city center, the Skyway Crossing Point at 10:00-5:00, or north of the shopping mall in the last three minutes.
-Backstory time. Monsters occasionally fall from the moon. It’s just a thing that happens. Pandora effects the moon. If it gets to Tears’ Point, it’ll maximize the monster-falling effect or something.
-Gotta find the city center. Huge problem is that I don’t understand this city’s geography like at all. So I’ll just wander and hope I find it. No map, and no overhead view, so… I’ll just run.
-This is pretty frustrating. I’m supposed to go to “Skyway Crossing Point” and don’t know where that is and there’s nothing here indicating it. No signs, nothing.
-ODIN STOP, I AM TRYING TO RUN FROM FIGHTS AND DON’T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR DRAMATIC BULLSHIT
-Ok, I found the area north of the shopping mall. Just gonna sit here and wait.
-I see now – the little grainy image I see on the timer is the picture of the zone I’m supposed to be in.
*twiddles thumbs north of the shopping mall waiting for the Pandora to arrive*
-One final battle against some Galbadians and a robot, but Odin takes them out. Nice job!
-We hop aboard.
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The Pandora
-Spacey music.
-This place looks a lot like the Centra Excavation from one of the Laguna interludes. Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same exact thing.
-This place is so strange! A robot thing just came out and seems to be inverting our gravity or something.
I think it just ejected us back to the city.
-Creepy cinematic of the Pandora flying over an array of techy stuff with statues in the middle. That must be Tears’ Point. It’s activating the array, and making the statues crack in a way that reminds me of Weeping Angels.
One of my favorite cinematics yet. Spooky.
-Zell and company fall back within the city, watching from a distance.
EDEA: “The Lunar Cry…”
-The first time I heard that phrase in the streets of Esthar, I thought it was someone being cut off while saying, “The Lunar Crystal.” But now that I know there’s a thing called Tears’ Point, it could mean what it says. The Lunar Cry. (Cry? Tears? Maybe.)
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Next time: rejoining Squall.
