Escape
-Time to evacuate. The tower is collapsing. Some of the party will get the Invincible, and Zidane will try to save the Genomes. They’re fairly innocent, after all.
-Just Dagger and Zidane for now.
-Found a teleporter.
-HOLY HELL THERE ARE LOTS OF EYES THAT JUST OPENED WITH THIS SQUISHY SOUND ON THAT TELEPORTER
-lol dagger is totally chill about the eyes, while Zidane is basically me
-Nooooo!! He’s about to basically proclaim love for her, stumbling through it, when they get teleported to an upper level.
-Wait. Not love. Perhaps just as powerful. “Thanks.” For saving him. In more ways than one.
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Escaping the Tower
-Hee!!! Everyone is running out of the tower. Eiko is panicking. But Amarant and Quina are just strolling along, chill as can be.
-Poor Quina. Didn’t find good food anywhere on Terra.
-Zidane and Dagger split up in Bran Bal to help speed evacuation.
-Most of the party arrives aboard the Invincible. Quina’s late, but they arrive too, a delight as usual.
-Zidane finds the Mysterious Girl. Oh! She was given a soul in order to replace Kuja and Zidane. Now she’s without purpose, but Zidane is helping.
-Her name is Mikoto.
-She’s joining us! Yay!
-The Invincible takes off amidst the burning, collapsing world.
Flies back to Gaia.
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The Invincible
-So is Kuja stuck there? For the moment. No doubt he’ll blast into Gaia sooner rather than later.
-Zidane echoes my thoughts. Kuja will likely try to destroy Gaia.
-Garland said something about a tree as a gateway for souls. The Iifa Tree. AHA!!!! So THAT’S what the Soulcage meant when it said it would die at a later point.
-Steiner rushes down to us below deck and begs us to see something from the bridge.
-Clouds.
-OH SHIT THAT’S NOT CLOUDS THAT’S MIST. Coating the world. We’re low, and still just seeing Mist.
---
Black Mage Village
-We dropped off the Genomes here.
-Vivi… He sees the Genomes as mini-black mages themselves, and as a chance to restart.
-This warms my heart.
-OMG THE GENOMES ARE MEETING CHOCOBOS
-The chocobo is named Bobby Corwen. [Non-rhetorical question for y’all: is this another reference? Like, someone who worked on the translation for the game or a kid who won a contest or something?]
-BOBBY CORWEN IS SO CUTE
-Quina’s laying down some truth on the Genomes.
-The mages and Genomes are so similar. Both learning about this new world.
FREYA: “We must protect them from anyone who tries to take their time away!”
-Dagger begs Steiner not to tell Regent Cid about Kuja.
-lol, Mikoto is great. In a brutally cynical way. She doesn’t think we stand a chance against Kuja. Can’t blame her, given what she just witnessed.
---
Treno
-The entire world is misty. Flying to Treno for the Auction House, knight’s house, and coin turn-in.
-There’s a behemoth in the basement. Shit. Go Zidane!
-lol got two-shot.
-Take two… whomped. Same with take three.
-BUT NOT TAKE FOUR!!! EAT IT, BEHEMOTH!! Won a Circlet that reduces earth damage taken by 100%.
-For that fight, used Auto-Haste, HP +20%, Distract, MP Attack, Beast Killer, Counter, and Eye 4 Eye. Level 56.
-I’m pretty surprised that after winning, I didn’t get to see the Knight.
-Nothing especially great in the auction house.
-Turned in Aquarius for a Rosetta Ring. Got an achievement, “Queen’s Favor.” That surprises me – I didn’t think I got all the coins. I guess 10 is an accomplishment anyway.
-Sold the Griffin’s Heart to a passing adventurer. I just don’t know what I’d use it for.
-Sold the Rat Tail also. I haven’t had a use for it, and I sense the game’s end approaching at the Iifa Tree, so might as well unload and see if new stuff opens up.
-Sold Doga’s Artifact too.
-Holy crap, there are a TON of new opponents in the Tetra Master stadium!
[45 minutes later]
-I think I’m now done with Tetra Master. Now as in “I’m so done with this fucking game,” but more “I’ve enjoyed what I think I reasonably will and accomplished what I reasonably can.” Beat all the opponents in the stadium, got some cards, and had a lot of fun.
I also felt a lot of frustration, but the fun overrode that in the end. The themed decks and card masters were really cool. Some of the competitors were INCREDIBLY challenging, like the all Iron Man line-up or the all Behemoth line-up. Ouch.
Quick strategy note: I fared a LOT better when I stopped just trying to challenge cards head-to-head and relied more on getting uncontested cards. I combo’d less, but I also got reversed and combo’d much less. And something I learned from Triple Triad is that there are few things more frustrating than being combo’d. Playing defensively for the win.
---
-Ok, ready to leave this town.
I don’t know for sure if the Iifa Tree is the end of the game. It’s still possible that there’s more, but it’s certainly looking like the final dungeon. So I’m going to now go on a bit of a world tour searching for anything I might have missed and clearing up any loose ends.
I also freely admit that I could well be wrong. Maybe there’s a whole other act awaiting me. (I doubt it, but perhaps.) Everything is gravy at this point.
Nothing too thorough, just popping around to wherever on the map catches my eye.
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Next time: Around Gaia.
