Black Mage Village
-The place seems to be empty. That’s concerning. Vivi goes to investigate.
-Black Mage No. 288 is at the graveyard. He says the rest of the mages left with Kuja, except for the ones taking care of the chocobo. Like, they left voluntarily, or…?
-Kuja is the literal fucking devil. As the mages learned of their short lifespan, they became afraid. Kuja promised he could extend their lives, and so they went with him.
-Vivi is so angry at this. At Kuja.
-No. 288 won’t tell us where they went. He feels it’d be a betrayal. I can respect that.
-But this mage chose to stay. I wonder why.
-There’s even art in the inn by one of the black mages. That’s somehow incredibly heartbreaking. It’s a sign of the individuality expressed and owned by one of the mages, a sign of something that was sold.
-LOOK AT THAT LI’L CHICOBO!!!
-These two mages were going to leave, but they decided they were responsible still for the baby chocobo. Bless you two.
-…this seriously hurts. They are excited to show the chicobo to the others, but if Kuja is controlling the others I’d be shocked if they ever meet again.
-Oh no, what’s happening? No. 33 and No. 111, the mages here, are feeling strange. Please don’t die please don’t die…
-!!!! They’re crying. I think they’re crying with joy and I’m done.
-No. 288 comes by. He says he couldn’t leave with Kuja because he’d have left something important behind. His sense of self. His individuality.
-Vivi wants to know if he’s going to “stop” soon. Fdjaklsfhadsldsakl
-No. 288 has a somewhat positive reply. That the prototype to these black mages was supposed to live longer, so if Vivi was the prototype, he may live longer.
-He’ll still “stop” one day. He felt grief when his grandfather died, despite his grandfather telling him not to worry. Then he felt grief again when he learned this whole village would stop.
-But he’s philosophical about this. If he were just a puppet, he wouldn’t feel this kind of grief or sadness. It helps him know he owns himself.
-Mr. 288 relates to this. It hits a chord with him, and he reveals where Kuja and the others are. A palace on the eastern side of this continent. Under quicksand.
-Scene switches to Dagger. She both admires Vivi and feels ashamed, ashamed that he’s going through hard times and is fighting while she feels like she’s not.
DAGGERRRRRR. Gives yourself room. Give yourself time. You’re not any less for reacting to grief differently than Vivi! You took action, you tried, and it hit you hard. Be kind to yourself please.
-Eiko comes by, and senses this.
Then she says to Dagger EXACTLY WHAT I JUST DID AND I WANT TO HUG HER
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Overworld – Outer Continent
-It just feels so darn good to be able to cross mountains on Choco.
-Found two things of note wandering the eastern half of the continent (which I had not yet visited): first, the Kiera Desert is filled with sinkholes and quicksand pits. This will be my first stop.
Second, one grassy area to the south, the Triquai Plains, are shaking. Constant earthquake. Three small stone peaks are in the center of the Plains, and they don’t look natural. I’m guessing that they are the turrets of a buried castle that will arise.
-Also concerning: roots right in the midst of this castle. Roots that must be from that Soulcage tree.
-I’m going to keep an eye out on mountains for a third Choco area. The first was a forest, second was a lagoon, so I assume that the third one will only be accessible now with mountain climbing.
-I may have found the scariest enemy in the game: “Whale Zombie.”
Sure it’s a bit ridiculous, but giant sea monsters? No thanks. At least Quina learned Level 5 Death from it.
-The Blood Sword seems to have the same kind of impact as prior games when I try it out. Lowish attack, but drains health.
[Non-rhetorical question for y’all: what’s the point of Zidane’s Lucky Seven ability? It seems to just do a random single-digit point of damage to the enemy. What am I missing about it? Or does it just flat-out suck?]
-Quina learned Limit Glove from a Blazer Beetle. This is interesting as hell, and niche as hell too. Deals “non-elemental” (usually the same class as flare and meteor) damage to the enemy when Quina’s health is at 1. Gotta remember this for enemies that use Heartless Angel type attacks.
-Holy crap! Just tried out one of Zidane’s abilities, Thievery. The description just says it deals damage, so I’m not expecting much since it’s pretty cheap. But the ability itself summons a treasure chest in front of the enemy that opens and explodes for pretty nasty damage. Neat!
-Quina’s Frog Drop still does crap damage.
-I’m so torn on my party going into this next area. Going with Dagger, Amarant, Quina, and Zidane. Dagger is especially important mechanically because I want to start building her stable of summons.
-Some of the flavor text on these items is really interesting. Like, Dark Hat’s describes it as “an old hat, steeped in legend.” Going to have to spend a future session poring over these for interesting nuggets.
-Ok. Been blorping around too long just playing with abilities and testing stuff out. Ready to move in.
-Interesting! I tried going into one of these sand pits, and an Antlion attacked. It’s an antlion pit.
-Just tried out summoning Leviathan for the fight, and his summon may be my favorite animation yet. We first see him streaking beneath the water like an aquatic Midgar Zolom. He then emerges, looks at the enemy from a distance, and charges forward with an echo (to borrow a term from Leviathan in Worm) crashing towards the target.
-Surprisingly to me, Leviathan’s water attack just healed Antlion. I guess the desert creature finds water refreshing.
-hehe. Got the achievement “Surf’s Up!” for summoning Levi.
-Amarant’s Dragon Claws also heal the antlion.
-Defeated it, but that Antlion felt super tough and resilient.
-Tried going back to the pit afterwards, but it just brought me into combat with another Antlion. Hm.
-There are four of these sandpits. Going to try fighting in each one in case one of them is hiding something special.
-Just hit me. I keep trying abilities with Dagger, and I get “Dagger can’t concentrate!” She’s out of commission for combat for the time being. I’m tempted to bring her along anyway, just in case bringing her to face Kuja is the cure, but if that were the case the game would’ve probably made her a mandatory party member.
-Yeah, I feel like I’m missing something with the Kiera Desert. Maybe it’ll be revealed after Kuja. Or maybe it’s just environmental flavor, to have Kiera Desert be the home of the antlions.
-Swapped in Eiko for Dagger. She can’t learn a bunch of the summons, but she can learn some. Working on Carbuncle.
-Moved to the unexplored part of the continent and found a Ragtime Mouse. True or false: Fossil Roo connects Treno and Alexandria. Going to say false, since I think it connects the Outer Continent to Mist Continent.
Correct! Got 2,000 gil, and a scolding from the mouse for not getting better than 71% so far.
-This southeastern-most part of the Outer Continent is the Kuentis Peninsula.
-ANOTHER Ragtime Mouse! I guess it’s once per forest area. True or false: the Prima Vista uses Mist as its primary means of motion. True! The Prima Vista is definitely a Mist-powered ship. Won 3,000 gil and graduated to “You’re pretty good!” from the mouse. Hard-won praise from this most dancy of rodents.
-Huh. Tried approaching the three cones which I was convinced were turrets of a buried castle and nothing happened. Maybe I have to spend more time with Antlions.
-Fought some Vepals, and Freeze is fast becoming my most hated status effect aside.
-Last time, I think I missed one of the Antlion Pits. Going to try going clockwise this time to make sure I don’t miss any.
-Arrgh. Ran into a sand worm. I’ll never get used to those creepy things.
-First Antlion Pit, and something new happens.
-Words on the screen.
Must be Kuja judging by language and tone.
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Next time: Kuja’s prisoner.
