FFX – Part 5: Beach Boys

Summary: Wakka and the Aurochs. The path to Besaid Village.


Besaid – Beach

-Tidus awakes floating just off a sunny beach, triumphant music.

-A blitzball team throws a ball at him to wake him up, and he does some spinny bicycle kick to joyously toss the ball back to them. Is Besaid the present time, or the past? I’ll bet it’s the present.

-Why the hell would Sin bring him here?

-The blitzball player on the beach was really impressed by the kick. But first, before saying hi, going to explore this area a bit.

-Couldn’t find anything in the ocean itself. I did find a “Moon Crest” on a little beachhead off to the side. It’s a key item: “A Celestial Token, fashioned in the shape of the Moon.” Dunno what a Celestial Token is, but sounds good!

-Onto the beach. They want to see the move again. They’re also speaking English. (I know, it’s not English, but until I hear what Tidus’s language is called, I’m just gonna call it Engilsh.) My current guess is that we’re still in the present time, 1,000 years post-Zanarkand. If these people speak English, it could explain why Rikku would know it.

-TIDUS WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING

-He did that awesome kick again. They ask who he plays for, and he says the Zanarkand Abes without hesitation. DUDE. DIDN’T RIKKU JUST TELL YOU TO BE CAREFUL ABOUT BANDYING THAT NAME ABOUT??

-Whew. Nice save. They start to side-eye him and he pulls out with “ohhh my aching head, must be Sin, yup, that Sin made me woozy! Ignore me lolz!”

-They accept this. Happy he’s okay after the encounter with Sin, “praise be to Yevon.” Guess Yevon was not a member of the salvage crew after all. They all accompany this praise with a bow and a sort of shaping of a circle (OR SPHERE??) around their navels.

-The coach/captain of the team is Wakka.

KEEPA: “We’re not the best blitzers in Spira.” Spira = the continent maybe.

-The teammates here are Keepa, Jassu, Datto, Letty, and Botta. Seems that Wakka is clearly the best player.

-They start strong but get winded quickly. Maybe FFX will turn into one of those Disney sports comedies, where the ringer has to help a team of wacky misfits improve and come together to win the big game.

-There are “fiends” on the road. Guess we’ll see what those are soon.

-Here’s that in-game breath explanation I was looking for. It’s about Tidus being a good blitzball player.

-Found a dock. No treasure chest on it (though some antidotes nearby), so I’ll probably be back here to board a boat later.

-New theory! What if the stealthy time mage kid is the embodiment of Sin? I don’t have much to go on with that except that Sin has some timey-wimey elements to it, and I’ve seen creepy shit disguise itself as kids before. Thinking mostly of Pride in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

-Time to head off to the village with Wakka for rest and food.

-Wakka gives some history. Zanarkand and other cities on Spira used to be basically run by machines, “machina.” Sin destroyed the machina cities.

-Wakka seems to believe that this destruction was somehow deserved, that depending on the machina was a sin that they’re still atoning for. I wonder if that idea of dependence on technology vs independence from it will be a theme, and what level of nuance it’ll be explored in.

I hope this especially because nothing we saw in our short glimpse of Zanarkand screamed “Evil!” They were having fun! Leisure time! Relaxing! If the game wants to even remotely go down a “they deserved because machines” line, I’m gonna need to see a helluva lot more.

Also interesting that the Al Bhed don’t seem to have the same compunctions around technology. Perhaps that’s what Rikku meant in wondering whether Tidus was an Al Bhed-hater. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Wakka and his group are in fact Al Bhed-haters.

-So Tidus is starting to accept where he was, and is rolling with it and adapting admirably. Will just try to live here until a solution presents itself. He mentions trying to find Sin to get returned back to the past, but that seems like THE WORST IDEA IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS. Didn’t you hear that Sin FUCKING DESTROYED YOUR CITY? Even if he returned you to the past, it’s be a watery ruin.

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Besaid – Crossroads

-Really enjoying the music here. So pleasant.

-There’s a long path off to the left that I can’t reach. Seems to be on a higher elevation. So gonna follow Wakka right.

-lol wakka just shoved Tidus right off the cliff into the water XD

-Wakka throws his blitzball in combat. It’s pretty badass. He’s also got an Overdrive ability (“Slots,” so maybe it’s like Setzer’s ability in FFVI). I’m gonna guess that he’s a long-term party member.

-THIS PLACE IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!

I’ve never been a good swimmer. I used to swim in competitions as a kid, and racked up an embarrassing number of “participant” medals. Never liked it that much. I’m a fat 33 year old man with a host of body issues, and embarrassed of myself.

All that said, and no joke: this game is making me really want to swim again. (Piranhas and horrors from the deep sea aside.)

-Another guess: I think Rikku will be a long-term party member, but that she won’t rejoin me for a while. She had over 400 AP until her next S.Lv, so she’ll probably rejoin when that becomes a more attainable number.

[Non-rhetorical question for y’all: does Cheer stack? If Tidus casts it twice, do we get double benefits?]

-I was about to ask another non-rhetorical question about the empty nodes, but I don’t want to just yet. I have a theory about them, that I’ll eventually be able to teleport to them once I learn about the locks. We’ll see.

-I’m also wondering what the different colors around the nodes are. Like, Wakka’s nodes currently just have a dark yellow diamond lit up around them. Maybe I’ll eventually be able to level tem up further, and more diamonds will light up the higher I level the individual nodes.

-Is it just me, or does Wakka’s garb look a bit like a fireman wearing just he yellow rubber overalls/pants?

-Okay, I’ll be shocked – like, UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY SHOCKED – if Wakka/Tidus isn’t an established ship in the FFX fandom.

-Wakka wants Tidus to join his blitzball team, and Tidus says yes. I really like Wakka. And Tidus! Both are so chill, so relaxed, so positive. Especially Tidus here; still astounded as how well he’s adapting. However, hard to tell if it’s because he’s accepted it or if he’s in denial that this may be more permanent. He may still think of this as a quick trip, given his thoughts about using Sin to get back to his own time earlier.

-As we transition to the next area, he hints that there are more than a few differences between his old culture and this new one.

-lol the aurochs really sucked. They didn’t win a game in 10 years. Even the 1962 Mets managed to win 40.

-Wakka seems on the verge of retirement maybe. He just wants the team to give it their all in the next tournament and he’ll be happy. Not Tidus, though. A hardcore competitor, this one.

-Bactracked a bit from where the red triangle told me to go and found a shrine that people pray to for safe passage.

-Tried going down a particular middle path from the shrine. Tidus stopped and just turned around. Guess I can’t go there yet.

-Ooh! Found an ancient road. A huge structure is in the road with many save points atop it and a treasure chest.

Something is written here: “Kilika Aht Bikanel zueh Ac uha.” Kilika and Bikanel are both in pink, along with the As in aht and ac. I’ll guess that “aht” is “and,” which makes h = n and t = d. Kilika and Bikanel. Hm.

-Spent some time trying to climb up this thing. No luck.

-Continuing down this path toward a waterfall.

I see a treasure chest and save point down at the base of the waterfall, but can’t reach them. In all likelihood I’ll be back later.

OH SHIIIIIIT!!! I did a loop!! This place connects up with where I started. Let’s go back to the triangle.

-Ran into two assholes, Luzzu and Gatta. They provide what sounds like a veiled threat.

That “fiends” term again. Still dunno what that means.

-They’re “Crusaders.” Another team perhaps?

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Besaid Village

-Arrived at the village. Wakka asks Tidus if he remembers the prayer, and I get two options: “I don’t remember” or “I don’t know any prayer.” The first option seems the safest, since it plays into Tidus’s cover that he knew all this info once and just forgot it. I go with that.

-He shows us the prayer. It’s the movement we saw before with the circle around the stomach.

-WHAT THE FUUUUUUCK – Tidus DOES know it, as the blitzball sign for victory from his time. That’s… sort of messed up, and hard to say why. Like if I went to a post-apocalyptic future and found out that the “Meet the Mets” jingle was now used for marriage vows. Feels sacrilegious - and worse even because of how sincerely Wakka seems to believe this.

-Gotta go to the temple summoner.

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Next time: Besaid Village. This was the last post of the week as I'll be away tomorrow through Sunday. See y'all next week!