Out of the Temple and Through the Woods
-The party emerges from the village’s temple. Now here’s the piece-de-resistance: villagers crowding eagerly around Yuna as she tells what happened.
-Tidus sees this and flashes back to getting cheered as a blitzer. Missing Zanarkand. Missing his old life. (That’s when Miss Yuna walked into his life.)
-lol. Yuna notices he’s feeling a bit upset, asks him if he’s doing okay, and MIRACLE OF MIRACLES, HE ANSWERS HONESTLY. Then says he wants to scream.
And screams.
Look, I loved FFVIII deeply. I even loved Squall deeply, though I suspect that I’m among a fairly small group in the fandom who feels this way. That said, this kind of openness is a delight to play.
-Let’s try Ifrit.
-Something I already love here: Ifrit pops out, and Yuna says, “will you help us?” She asks permission. SHE ASKS THE AEON FOR ITS CONSENT AND SHE IS SO GREAT.
-Ifrit has access to a standard mana-less fire attack, Meteor Strike, along with regular Fire.
-Ifrit’s overdrive is a pretty brutal Hellfire attack.
-I feel like I’m ready to learn about locks on the sphere grid, since I’m starting to avoid areas that butt right up against them. I’ll wait until the game tutors me on them.
-Just had an “I immediately regret this decision” moment. Turned an empty sphere into a Luck Sphere for Wakka… but then realized I didn’t have any items to activate a luck sphere.
-Got Wakka’s limit break, Slots, for the first time. It is a bit similar to Setzer’s Slots in FFVI, but WAY slower and easier to control. I didn’t line up all three this time, but with some practice I think I can, while Setzer’s Slots felt like a total crapshoot.
-At this point, I feel fairly confident that Wakka’s attacks do get a bonus against flyers.
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Kilika Village
-Dona has come through here.
-Did a last check through the village, but I feel ready to go. The ship is ready. We’re heading to Luca next (I remember that name from Rikku telling me it was the blitzball place).
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S.S. Winno
-Peaceful night sailing. Hopefully we won’t get attacked by Sin.
-We get a beautiful little wordless montage of things happening on the ship. We see the lips moving and dialogue happening, but hear only music.
-Got control back over Tidus below the ship.
-Dona and Barthello are here. What do they have to say for themselves? Nothing much.
-Loaned O’aka another 500 gil.
-Gatta is sleeping.
-All is right with the world since the woman is still singing to her chocobos.
-Tidus overhears Wakka and Lulu arguing, about Tidus and what to do with him. Yuna wants to make him a guardian.
LULU: Yuna wants to make him a guardian.
WAKKA: Oh geez…
LULU: And whose fault is that?
WAKKA: Not mine!!
*beat, as Lulu stares at Wakka, then…*
LOLOLOL
-Yuna’s belief that Tidus is Sir Jecht’s son may drive her desire for him to be a guardian, according to Lulu. I think it’s simpler than that – she just trusts him.
-Lulu is really quite insightful. Wants Wakka to approach Tidus about being a guardian because he senses the enmity between Tidus and Jecht, and doesn’t think Yuna asking him to step into his father’s footsteps is something Yuna will do.
-The conversation continues as I keep walking up the steps to eavesdrop. Wakka doesn’t remember his parents, and Lulu’s parents died when she was five.
-The whole conversation is pretty great and provides fantastic insight, but I’m sad to see that FFX didn’t keep the Active Time Event system from FFIX. I think it would’ve worked more smoothly and more naturally to show this conversation than to have Tidus just keep eavesdropping.
-I don’t know how long Tidus can keep up this “Sin’s toxin” excuse for. Eventually the truth will out, sooner than later I think.
-Really interesting line from a disbelieving blitzball fan: “You’ve got nerve to say you’re from Zanarkand. Go home and relearn Yevon’s teachings.” Something about the idea of being from Zanarkand is blasphemous. Maybe since Zanarkand was the first place attacked, it’s taken on a reputation as Sin’s home or something. A Cult of Sin even? (hey, if Kefka got a cult, Sin deserves one too!)
-Tidus approaches a blitzball on the deck and FLASHBACK TIME!! To when he was a kid, just learning how to kick a ball and not succeeding that well.
-Jecht is approaching, but I also see that hooded stealthy kid from the intro in the background of the memory.
-Fucking. Jecht. Taunting his own kid about how the kid can’t do some super shot, the Jecht Shot. What the hell are you doing?
-Back to the present, and there’s the Jecht Shot Challenge where Tidus has to fight off memories of his asshole dad.
-Oh wow, that was really cool! Had to fight off his dad’s taunting words coming from different sides of the screen and was rewarded with a badass spinny shot.
-YES!!!! The Aurochs see the shot and gather around to marvel at it. Tidus take the opposite tack from his father. Instead of being condescending, he encourages the Aurochs!
And doesn’t even tell them it’s Jecht’s shot.
(“Steven Universe” spoilers: *irel Ovfzhgu ibvpr* "Gura lbh ernyyl ner orggre guna uvz.")
-Afterwards, he talks to Yuna, and she knows it’s the Jecht shot. Crap. Cover blown. He showed it to Yuna when Yuna was a child.
This really twists things in the Yuna/Tidus relationship in a few ways. For one, it sounds like Jecht was sort of like a godfather to Yuna, not just her dad’s protector.
For another, it’s kind of heartbreaking. Jecht was playful and upbeat and positive with Yuna… all the things he wasn’t towards Tidus. I wonder if Tidus will be jealous of that relationship she got to have with Jecht.
-Yuna doesn’t know if Jecht is alive. Tidus is super pissed that Jecht is so famous here.
-I’ve said it before, but I love how open and sharing this relationship is between Yuna and Tidus. They don’t share the same opinions of their famous fathers, but each listens to and respects the other.
-Fade to black, and some ominous closing words from Tidus.
I like that in the background of this conversation, we see the Aurochs practicing Jecht’s shot.
-Save time. No save point, just a message coming on the screen asking me if I want to save, like when prior games came to the end of a CD. I’d be surprised if that’s the reason for this – feels too short to be the end of Disc 1 or whatever. The location on the save file list is “Near Luca.”
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Next time: Luca.
