Summary:
The party splits and busts into the four elemental shrines, preparing
the way to the Shimmering Island. Amarant continues hurtling down his
character arc.
Outside Ipsen’s Castle
-time to process. The music is very “time to plan.”
-The mirrors on the… GAH OF COURSE!! The mirrors were over certain places of the Gaian map.
EARTH: The castle on the Outer Continent.
WIND: The Gusty Valley that kept blowing me away on the Forgotten Continent.
FIRE: Must be Mount Gulug. Perhaps the Shimmering Island southeast off the Lost Continent, but Gulug seems more fiery.
WATER: I think that’s the spiky rock thing that’s sticking up just west of the Forgotten Continent.
---
Hilda Garde 3
-Whew. That’s unexpected. Zidane plans to take down all four at once. Four parties?
-Two people per location.
-Wait, no! Eiko want to go with Dagger. I was hoping to split up my healers.
-I won’t worry too much about it. I assume that the game knows my parties won’t be at full power. I can only hope they don’t choose this moment to start throwing Behemoths and shit at me.
-Maybe I misunderstood. It’s now giving me the chance to select a party of four. Someone suggests the sea place first.
-Ok. That’s cool. That’s really cool. That rock formation sticking up now has a whirlpool surrounding it.
-HEE!! IT’S THE WATER SHRINE!! Another deliberate FF1 callback. First Mount Gurug, now the Water Shrine. (I know, FF1 was the Sunken Shrine, but it’s so close that it must be intentional.) If the earth place is the Cavern of Earth, we’ll really have something.
-I wonder if the music here will be the Sunken Shrine music. That was far and away my favorite track from FF1.
-Eiko and Dagger are indeed going in together. Dagger suggests next dropping Freya and Amarant off at the fire place.
-This is a really neat way to do this series of things. Duos. I like it! I mean, it all depends on execution and monster difficulty. It could be painful. But I think it’ll be fine.
-Next stop: Mount Gurug. It’s smoking. Highly active. The Fire Shrine.
lol sullen Amarant
-Next up is the Gusty Valley. Wind Shrine probably. It’ll be Vivi and Steiner. Love the pairing.
-hahaha, Steiner has to stand in front of Vivi or else Vivi gets blown away.
---
Earth Shrine
-Quina is so happy to be with Zidane here, but Zidane just says he got stuck with the leftovers.
Hey. Psst. Zidane? Don’t make me rip away your “best protagonist award” by being that way to Quina. Don’t make me do it. *glares*
-Quina hears his jackassery and just brushes it off.
QUINA: “There old saying in my tribe… ‘Leftovers good!’” The bright side of everything. Quina’s so great.
-Intense music. This place is empty.
-AHA! There are crusher things here. Gotta time my jumps.
Outside Ipsen’s Castle
-time to process. The music is very “time to plan.”
-The mirrors on the… GAH OF COURSE!! The mirrors were over certain places of the Gaian map.
EARTH: The castle on the Outer Continent.
WIND: The Gusty Valley that kept blowing me away on the Forgotten Continent.
FIRE: Must be Mount Gulug. Perhaps the Shimmering Island southeast off the Lost Continent, but Gulug seems more fiery.
WATER: I think that’s the spiky rock thing that’s sticking up just west of the Forgotten Continent.
---
Hilda Garde 3
-Whew. That’s unexpected. Zidane plans to take down all four at once. Four parties?
-Two people per location.
-Wait, no! Eiko want to go with Dagger. I was hoping to split up my healers.
-I won’t worry too much about it. I assume that the game knows my parties won’t be at full power. I can only hope they don’t choose this moment to start throwing Behemoths and shit at me.
-Maybe I misunderstood. It’s now giving me the chance to select a party of four. Someone suggests the sea place first.
-Ok. That’s cool. That’s really cool. That rock formation sticking up now has a whirlpool surrounding it.
-HEE!! IT’S THE WATER SHRINE!! Another deliberate FF1 callback. First Mount Gurug, now the Water Shrine. (I know, FF1 was the Sunken Shrine, but it’s so close that it must be intentional.) If the earth place is the Cavern of Earth, we’ll really have something.
-I wonder if the music here will be the Sunken Shrine music. That was far and away my favorite track from FF1.
-Eiko and Dagger are indeed going in together. Dagger suggests next dropping Freya and Amarant off at the fire place.
-This is a really neat way to do this series of things. Duos. I like it! I mean, it all depends on execution and monster difficulty. It could be painful. But I think it’ll be fine.
-Next stop: Mount Gurug. It’s smoking. Highly active. The Fire Shrine.
lol sullen Amarant
-Next up is the Gusty Valley. Wind Shrine probably. It’ll be Vivi and Steiner. Love the pairing.
-hahaha, Steiner has to stand in front of Vivi or else Vivi gets blown away.
---
Earth Shrine
-Quina is so happy to be with Zidane here, but Zidane just says he got stuck with the leftovers.
Hey. Psst. Zidane? Don’t make me rip away your “best protagonist award” by being that way to Quina. Don’t make me do it. *glares*
-Quina hears his jackassery and just brushes it off.
QUINA: “There old saying in my tribe… ‘Leftovers good!’” The bright side of everything. Quina’s so great.
-Intense music. This place is empty.
-AHA! There are crusher things here. Gotta time my jumps.
---
Water Shrine
-Scene swaps right as Quina and Zidane jump, to Eiko and Dagger. REALLY cool storytelling device. Feels very cinematic.
-Dagger and Eiko find the same thing that Zidane and Quina did: feels too quiet.
-Yikes, a block of ice nearly knocks them out.
---
Earth Shrine
-Brief flash back to Zidane, worrying about E&D.
-Time to place the mirror on what seems to be a circular shrine platform.
-uhh…. A voice.
Garland? Kuja?
---
Fire Shrine
-Look, I love the warm and simple friendship of FFV, but some of the salty and acerbic relationships in this game are great too. Amarant brings some real balance to the party.
-Freya and Amarant reached the mirror. Freya places the mirror… and has to jump quickly back, warned by Amarant.
-A naga-esque creature jumps out. Kuja warned her. She’s a mirror guardian.
One who looks EERILY similar to FFI’s fiend of fire, Marilith.
---
Earth Shrine
-omg, and the person who was waiting for Zidane looks a helluva lot like FFI’s fiend of earth, Lich.
I’ll bet the Wind Shrine guard looks like a multi-headed dragon, and the Water Shrine guard looks like a giant tentacle beast.
-This Earth Guard as he’s called (but I KNOW he’s Lich ) says he doesn’t work for Kuja. He protects Terra.
---
Fire Shrine
THIS IS SO FUCKING COOL
-They’re all having the same basic conversation, just picked up at the different shrines by different guardians and party members.
-Amarant relates well to Fire Guard. She wants to defeat them to prove herself, for the joy of victory, something he can relate to.
-HFDJKLSFHDJKLSFHDLSFDSKL AMARANT CHARACTER GROOOOOWTH
-He sees what Fire Guard is doing, empathizes with it because it used to be him, AND NOW IT’S NOT HIM FHDJKLSFHDSF HAHAHAHA
Water Shrine
-Scene swaps right as Quina and Zidane jump, to Eiko and Dagger. REALLY cool storytelling device. Feels very cinematic.
-Dagger and Eiko find the same thing that Zidane and Quina did: feels too quiet.
-Yikes, a block of ice nearly knocks them out.
---
Earth Shrine
-Brief flash back to Zidane, worrying about E&D.
-Time to place the mirror on what seems to be a circular shrine platform.
-uhh…. A voice.
Garland? Kuja?
---
Fire Shrine
-Look, I love the warm and simple friendship of FFV, but some of the salty and acerbic relationships in this game are great too. Amarant brings some real balance to the party.
-Freya and Amarant reached the mirror. Freya places the mirror… and has to jump quickly back, warned by Amarant.
-A naga-esque creature jumps out. Kuja warned her. She’s a mirror guardian.
One who looks EERILY similar to FFI’s fiend of fire, Marilith.
---
Earth Shrine
-omg, and the person who was waiting for Zidane looks a helluva lot like FFI’s fiend of earth, Lich.
I’ll bet the Wind Shrine guard looks like a multi-headed dragon, and the Water Shrine guard looks like a giant tentacle beast.
-This Earth Guard as he’s called (but I KNOW he’s Lich ) says he doesn’t work for Kuja. He protects Terra.
---
Fire Shrine
THIS IS SO FUCKING COOL
-They’re all having the same basic conversation, just picked up at the different shrines by different guardians and party members.
-Amarant relates well to Fire Guard. She wants to defeat them to prove herself, for the joy of victory, something he can relate to.
-HFDJKLSFHDJKLSFHDLSFDSKL AMARANT CHARACTER GROOOOOWTH
-He sees what Fire Guard is doing, empathizes with it because it used to be him, AND NOW IT’S NOT HIM FHDJKLSFHDSF HAHAHAHA
---
Wind Shrine
-The guardian here isn’t a multi-headed dragon like Tiamat, but a dragon nonetheless.
-Not!Tiamat is too fast for Vivi. Steiner encourages him.
-This whole section is my bread and butter. I don’t need a punishing gauntlet of high-end fights. (Though I’m sure one awaits me in Terra eventually.) I really don’t. But relationship-building, dramatic music, badass art, and character growth? Hell fucking yes.
---
Earth Shrine
-THE BANTER IS TOO GOOD
-Earth Guard is disappointed that there are only two of us, not eight.
ZIDANE: “Aw, did you prepare a feast?”
QUINA: “You no worry. We eat everything!”
-The Earth Guard wonders what us “lower life forms” will do on Terra. I wonder that myself. Terra’s gotten heavy build up, and I’m super curious what it will be like.
-Boss time.
-Stole a Rubber Suit. Also stole “Avenger,” which sounds like a great weapon.
-Earth Guard has tons of magic. Focusing all of it on Zidane. Literally everything. Blizzaga, Thundaga, Firaga, all just on Zidane. No way that’s a coincidence. Perhaps Kuja suggested that something about Zidane was the big problem.
-Victory! We place the mirror.
Wind Shrine
-The guardian here isn’t a multi-headed dragon like Tiamat, but a dragon nonetheless.
-Not!Tiamat is too fast for Vivi. Steiner encourages him.
-This whole section is my bread and butter. I don’t need a punishing gauntlet of high-end fights. (Though I’m sure one awaits me in Terra eventually.) I really don’t. But relationship-building, dramatic music, badass art, and character growth? Hell fucking yes.
---
Earth Shrine
-THE BANTER IS TOO GOOD
-Earth Guard is disappointed that there are only two of us, not eight.
ZIDANE: “Aw, did you prepare a feast?”
QUINA: “You no worry. We eat everything!”
-The Earth Guard wonders what us “lower life forms” will do on Terra. I wonder that myself. Terra’s gotten heavy build up, and I’m super curious what it will be like.
-Boss time.
-Stole a Rubber Suit. Also stole “Avenger,” which sounds like a great weapon.
-Earth Guard has tons of magic. Focusing all of it on Zidane. Literally everything. Blizzaga, Thundaga, Firaga, all just on Zidane. No way that’s a coincidence. Perhaps Kuja suggested that something about Zidane was the big problem.
-Victory! We place the mirror.
---
Water Shrine
-Aw. I was actually hoping for the four boss fights. No such luck. We catch up with Eiko and Dagger emerging from the cave victorious.
-Eiko is super nervous. Lots of build-up, then quite a direct question.
-Dagger is saved by the bell. And by “bell” I mean “return of the airship.” Runs off before she can confirm/deny her love.
---
Hilda Garde 3
-Zidane and Amarant. He wants to know what motivates Zidane.
-I get three choices: Dagger, Kuja, or “I don’t know.” Hm. All of them? But that’s not an option. So what is the best choice? I think “I don’t know” is probably most accurate for Zidane. He runs on instinct and is not super reflective. But of those things, I think I’ll go with Dagger.
-I believe it. He says Dagger, backs it up, and walks away.
-Amarant continues to learn. There’s power in connection.
AMARANT: “I lost to his way of thinking.”
-Party selection time. I’ll go with my lowest-level party. Zidane is mandatory, level 51, and Amarant (38), Freya (41), and Eiko (41). The others aren’t way higher or anything, all in the 43-44 range, but I still want to keep it as even as possible.
---
So that was neat! Again, I loved the dialogue there, the boss art, but for possibly the first time in my FF playthrough I would’ve liked a little bit more combat. Again, I didn’t need a punishing gauntlet of Yans and Behemoths or anything, but I would’ve enjoyed being able to fight each of those bosses as the duo, using their unique synchronicity.
I love the combat in FFIX, and combat in FFIX in the service of story and character development can be a powerful thing.
---
Next time: the Shimmering Island.
Water Shrine
-Aw. I was actually hoping for the four boss fights. No such luck. We catch up with Eiko and Dagger emerging from the cave victorious.
-Eiko is super nervous. Lots of build-up, then quite a direct question.
-Dagger is saved by the bell. And by “bell” I mean “return of the airship.” Runs off before she can confirm/deny her love.
---
Hilda Garde 3
-Zidane and Amarant. He wants to know what motivates Zidane.
-I get three choices: Dagger, Kuja, or “I don’t know.” Hm. All of them? But that’s not an option. So what is the best choice? I think “I don’t know” is probably most accurate for Zidane. He runs on instinct and is not super reflective. But of those things, I think I’ll go with Dagger.
-I believe it. He says Dagger, backs it up, and walks away.
-Amarant continues to learn. There’s power in connection.
AMARANT: “I lost to his way of thinking.”
-Party selection time. I’ll go with my lowest-level party. Zidane is mandatory, level 51, and Amarant (38), Freya (41), and Eiko (41). The others aren’t way higher or anything, all in the 43-44 range, but I still want to keep it as even as possible.
---
So that was neat! Again, I loved the dialogue there, the boss art, but for possibly the first time in my FF playthrough I would’ve liked a little bit more combat. Again, I didn’t need a punishing gauntlet of Yans and Behemoths or anything, but I would’ve enjoyed being able to fight each of those bosses as the duo, using their unique synchronicity.
I love the combat in FFIX, and combat in FFIX in the service of story and character development can be a powerful thing.
---
Next time: the Shimmering Island.
