Inside the Luca Stadium
-Oh yeah – only five players in the game at a time. Who’ll sit? In the tutorial examples, there was no Wakka, which concerns me.
-Two Al Bheds are outside the locker room. Something about “_ _ad_ summoner.” Tidus has a pretty one-sided talk with them, mentioning Rikku and the coming game before he gives up.
It’s awkward, and he does the pretty annoying thing I’ve seen some do where they SPEAK LOUDER if they’re not sure whether they’re understood.
-Went into the next locker room and found a female Ronso.
She looks AWESOME.
-More talk around of the Crusaders’ coming operation. I still think it’s gonna be an unauthorized strike against Sin.
-O’aka is wandering around. He’s got some great stuff but I don’t have nearly enough, not nearly enough, not NEARLY enough money to buy all that I want. I just get a Thunder Spear for Kimahri.
-The Ronso city is Gagazet.
-An Al Bhed says: “Hudrehk baadc blitz! E fecr oui micg.” No idea.
-At the Maester’s ship. A Guado says Lord Seymour will lead them to “eternal repose.” Huh. Dunno what that means, but it sounds pretty permanent and maybe even a bit apocalyptic. His Guado companion ominously says: “Seems like they scaled back on security this year. Hope nothing bad happens.”
I trust the Guados no farther than I can throw them.
-One of the guards calls himself a warrior monk, a true defender of Yevon, and angrily refers to the Crusaders as heathens.
-The northeastern dock, Dock #3, is the first one I’ve found mostly empty.
-Lotsa treasure here, some in secret places.
-Ok, done with my little trip around the stadium. Let’s find Auron/Yuna.
-A large crowd around Yuna, including a cameraman.
-We get a really cute minute where Tidus tries teaching Yuna to do the loud two-fingers-in-mouth whistle. Usually a cheer back in Zanarkand, but also to call out if they get separated.
I could never do this.
---
Sphere Theater
-Found a Sphere Theater. Dunno what that is.
-Found a tutorial screen. It has something new: “Fiend Info.” Lets me fight some monsters – specifically, a Bomb or a Dual Horn – in a tutorial setting, with tips on fighting them.
Beat both of those monsters… I wonder why they were picked for this tutorial? A Crusader says she collects it to help travelers. Perhaps it signals the kind of monsters I’m about to face.
-Went into the theater, and am learning about “Movie Spheres.” The person explains it as something that captures memories from my past. I can currently record 15 memories.
-LOL IT WOULD COST 75,000 GIL FUCK THAT
-There’s a music sphere as well. These must be here if I wanted to replay a particular song and didn’t have access to YouTube or something.
-There’s a main hall where I can play spheres I bought, but I don’t have any.
-Ok, time to leave. (I know this is really a TERRIBLE time for this exploration. Auron is waiting, and the tournament’s about to begin, and here I am sight-seeing. Hoping that video game logic will put both those things on hold.)
---
Stadium & Surrounding
-Rumor is that Sin is still lurking in the ocean nearby.
-This is the second largest city in Spira. Tidus is shocked that a town this big existed. He thought, as I did, that it was just small villages like Kilika and Besaid. Yuna is hesitant – says that that’s usually true, and Sin seems to destroy larger gatherings of people.
Well. Shit. Sounds like Luca is due.
-There’s a large sword statue in this town square here that reminds me strongly of the huge Alexandria sword in FFIX.
-Found Luzzu and Gatta at the city limits. They’re waiting for couriers, and will come watch the game afterwards.
-It strikes me that the name of my second session, “Sphere,” was WAY more prophetic than I had expected. I put that name down because that ominous Sin sphere reminded me of the death-wish sphere from the movie/Michael Crichton novel. Spheres are actually everywhere though in this game!
---
Café
-No Auron sighting in the café.
-Ooh, Kimahri story! Kimahri’s not speaking, even though two of his old acquaintances are here, Yenke and Biran.
-Hm. Yenke and Biran both have full horns while Kimahri’s is cut off.
-They taunt him. He takes it.
-HAHAHA YES!!! KIMAHRI FUCKING DECKS ONE OF THEM
-The opening ceremony is starting. Crap. You gotta get back there, Tidus!
-Awesome! We get to see them filling the sphere.
-The game’s starting. Did Tidus make it back?
Tip-off.
-Seems not. He left his team in the lurch. Wow. Bad job, Tidus.
-YUNA’S GONE SHIT SHIT SHIT!! Did the Ronsos mess with Kumahri intentionally to distract him, or coincidence?
-Lulu comes by outside the café. She says the Al Bhed Psyches kidnapped her and will return her in exchange for the Aurochs losing. Jesus. That’s extreme. Especially since the Aurochs are historically bad. Not necessary. What’s going on? Something more than the Psyches wanting to win, I know that.
-Also, it sounds like Wakka knows about this, and approves of us going to help save Yuna while he and the others play.
---
Rescue Mission
-On our way to the Al Bhed ship. Some of their salvaged robots fight us. The Al Bhed definitely have a steam punk vibe to them.
-During a break in robot fighting, we see the game on the sphere. Tied up, but the refs are keeping their whistles pocketed and Wakka’s really getting hit hard.
-Lulu speaks really derisively about Wakka.
You can hear the sneer. What happened between these two? Or is it just that she saw him play enough and thinks he’ll fade? ...nah. Seems more personal.
-The ship starts to leave and we hop on at the last second.
-A huge robotic device pops up to fight us. Boss time.
Hee! “Oblitzerator.”
-there’s a crane nearby. Tidus tries using it, but it’s out of power. Lulu can charge it up with her lightning probably.
-Yes! A few shocks and it’s cooking. It picked up the blitzball cannon from atop the Oblitzerator and dropped it into the sea. OH BTW IT ALSO DID ALMOST 5,000 DAMAGE
-Victory! That was pretty easy. Yuna got released, and we see her guard knocked out next to her.
LULU: “I hope you hurt them.”
YUNA: “A little.”
-Tidus says this is a different ship from the one that got him.
-Hi, Cid! Yuna asks if someone named Cid was on the ship. Unsure. He’s her uncle.
-Wait, Yuna’s Al Bhed? On her mother’s side, yes. Was told to seek his help. That’s probably who we’ll seek next. But Lulu warns Tidus not to tell Wakka, since Wakka hates Al Bhed. That secret is a time bomb right there.
-OH SHIT RIGHT THERE’s A GAME ON!! - Lulu throws some fireworks in the air to signal the mission’s success.
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Blitzball Stadium
-Wakka sees the signal. Smiles. Time to go on the offensive.
-LISTEN TO THIS IMPENDING VICTORY MUSIC
-FUCKING WAKKA LOOKIT HIM GO
-GETS A PASS FROM LETTY, EVADES A TACKLE, AND LAAAAUNCHES OFF THE WOULD-BE TACKLER’S BACK
-SHOOTS AND SCOOOORES
-I'm surprised by how exciting and joyous this was, given that victory was never in doubt.
-The party sees this and dances – except for Lulu. “Not the most graceful win. If it were Chappu, he’d still be standing.” [Wakka is nearly collapsed with exhaustion.]
That’s pretty harsh. Best guess at this point is that Lulu and Chappu had a thing, and she blames Wakka still for Chappu’s death.
-Tidus starts to make those guesses aloud, but stops before Lulu burns him to cinder where he stands.
---
Next time: Possibly the next game. I don’t know whether the finals will take place immediately, or whether we’ll investigate more into Yuna’s kidnapping.
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