My Hammer
-ATE. Not sure who this could be.
-Tantalus! Rebuilding their HQ.
-Weird little interlude where Marcus needs a hammer and Cinna won’t lend him his own. Seemingly just to show us where Cinna is, that they’re rebuilding.
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Lindblum Business District
-The aircabs are up and running again.
-First stop is the business district to find the moogle and see if shops have any new things.
-Playing a bunch of Tetra Master, and for the first time in the game, not understanding the rules is really biting me in the ass. I keep getting creamed and don’t know why. It’s getting frustrating quickly.
-Spent the last 20 minutes looking at the numbers and letters and interactions and trying desperately to make some sense out of it, and I simply don’t understand it.
Things don’t seem consistent (though I’m sure they are, according to whatever magical and mysterious and arcane rules are in place), things don’t make any sense.
Bigger numbers seem good, X seems great for attacking and shit for defense, P seems okay for attacking, the last two numbers are defense and the first one is offense, and I don’t get it. Whatever. I give up. I get that they want me to puzzle it out for itself, but I’ll say this for the last time: the rules shouldn’t be this foggy and confusing. Make the rules clear and the game complicated beyond that, and you have something.
-I’ll still play, and still probably win more than I lose, but won’t worry about it too much anymore.
-lol at the art on this “Gimme Cat” card.
-So Zidane’s plan is to just ask every citizen if they know about potions. Reasonable starting point.
-A potion collector used to live in a studio in the Theater District.
-lol at the Star Trek reference.
-hee! Zidane wrote a comment in the suggestion box of the local inn.
-Gave Moodon Mogki’s letter. Mogki is worried about the Alexandria moogles, Kupo and Mosh.
-Found the Sagittarius coin, perfect for any secret White House basement meetings.
-The eggs that were in the tower above Card Freak Gon’s house hatched!
-A woman, Alice, gives me one Beautiful Potion that she has lying around.
-Found a couple of cards, Cactuars both, with a letters in the third…
NO. Nope. Never mind. I don’t care. Not going back down that rabbit hole. I’m just not that strong at mathematical puzzles, even simple ones, so bowing out.
-I’m really low on money after that trip to the weapon/armor shop I just made, so it’s strangely relieving to find that the Synthesist’s shop has nothing in particular I want.
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Lindblum Theater District
-Zidane’s immediately recognized… hey, it’s a couple from Burmecia! This is the group we saved from the falling statue.
-Ooh, ATE!
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The Rally
-Freya ATE. She’s in the castle, talking with some Burmecians.
-Glad to be alive, mourning their lost friends.
-I love Freya’s music deeply. Reminds me of Shadow’s from FFVI’s.
-Yay! The Burmecian soldiers plan to return to Burmecia and rebuild. Seems to be a theme.
-They want Freya to join. She really seems tempted, and plans to join them after Kuja’s done.
-She misses Sir Fratley. :(
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Lindblum Theater District
-OMG THE BURMECIAN KIDS ARE ADOOOORABLE
-Kal and Wei, the couple, are super grateful to Zidane, and with good reason. They call him their savior.
-The artist in the studio here didn’t know about potions, but I found a Strange Potion in the place regardless. Must’ve belonged to the last artist.
-Tantalus is working to rebuild their HQ. They’re worried for Zidane immediately.
-Cinna has the Unusual Potion lying around. That’s the last one I need. I was afraid that for the 5:2:3 ratio I’d need that many potions each, but I now doubt that. More likely one bottle of each and Doctor Tot will set the ratio.
-Zidane is facing a similar question to Freya. Does he help rebuild his home with his old crew, or keep going? And gives a similar answer: keep going against Kuja, and maybe rejoin Tantalus after.
-They miss him! :D :D :D
-The chests inside the Tantalus HQ are restocked, so I pillage some more gil from them.
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Lindblum Castle
-Dagger’s no longer in the guest quarters.
-She’s also not by the telescope. Or in the conference room.
-Gave the potion to Cid. Down the hatch, your highness.
-HOLY CRAP I WAS RIGHT??? I WAS FUCKING KIDDING
Ok, I promise, I swear I did not play this game before. I’m wrong 99% of my guesses and this hyper-specific one happens to be right, but I PROMISE I DID NOT CHEAT OR ANYTHING. I was just guessing based on other common status effects in past FFs. It was either frog, pig, or mini, and frog has been by far the most common among those.
-hahaha this is awesome
-Everyone assembles in the castle to… hee! I’m sorry. It’s really hard to take the regent’s proclamations and war strategies serious when he’s a froggy.
-So how do we chase down Kuja and Hilda without an airship? We’ll use the one we “borrowed” from Alexandria earlier. Not great, but okay.
-Vivi suggests that we head to the Black Mage Village since there were black mages with Kuja. Sounds like a plan.
-Dagger’s coming. I wonder if she’ll be able to use magic, or if it’s like she has permanent Silence effect.
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No Free Lunch
-Quina in Lindblum. The quest for delicious food continues.
-They find the pickle vendor. The pickles are super strong and an acquired taste. Will Quina meet their culinary match?
-I love love LOVE that the game really takes Quina’s eating seriously, not just as a joy, but as a learning experience, a profession, and way of life.
Tbh I was a bit afraid that they’d just turn into a series of fatphobic jokes and stereotypes and I personally don’t see that in the least.
-They try the pickles, and seem to enjoy it. I just hope they don’t get in trouble with money.
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The Serpent Gate of Lindblum
-Aha, this isn’t an airship, but rather a regular on-water ship. The Blue Narciss. (Pretty name.)
-Quina’s on board! Bless.
-They haven’t been through the same kind of emotional trauma as Freya or Dagger, but physically Quina has had to travel a helluva lot.
-OH GOD IT JUST HIT ME
-QUINA SEES REGENT CID AS A FROG, ONE OF THEIR KEY FOOD SOURCES
-And a talking frog at that. Must be confusing as hell for them.
-I have a ship now. Party selection. I go with my lowest level party members: Zidane is mandatory, and he’s 28, and Eiko is a white mage who I want at level 27, but Freya and Quina are both 23. I wanted Steiner also, but… actually, yeah, let’s bring Steiner in place of Eiko for a bit and see how we do sans white mage.
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Next time: sailing the high seas. Exploring, looking for chocobo stuff maybe, and eventually meandering over to the Black Mage Village.
