Macalania Road
-Was gonna play some blitzball but it’s not an option right now.
-Chased by Guado Guardians. Running into them starts combat.
-Threaten no longer works against them. Luckily, they don’t cast protect on themselves so I can one-shot with physical attacks.
-This music is so intense!
---
Lake Macalania – Crevasse
-Backtracking down that speeder path. No longer chased by Guado Guardians.
-Stole “Musk” (?) from an Evil Eye. Both that and Hypello Potion are items now in my inventory that have the description: “There seems to be some use for this…”
-Used a bunch of stolen items to buff my aeons, for instance giving Blizzara to many of them.
-Came to the next area, still chased by the Guado Guardians. They brought an Umaro-esque yeti with them this time.
Wendigo.
-Scan weapon tells me that I can curse Wendigo’s berserk to lower its strength.
-Holy CRAP. Wendigo hits like a truck. I don’t think I have a dispel. At least I can put it to sleep while I deal with the Guados.
-OH WAIT!!! Ixion. Ixion’s autospark acts as a dispel. Let’s try that to remove Protect, Berserk, and Shell.
-Doesn’t seem like it worked. It dispelled the Protect and Shell, but not Berserk. At least it did 9999. Made it easy to finish off. Woot!
-wait its not dead. It stomped the ground and caused some kinda quake. Knocks us out.
---
Lake Macalania – Bottom
-We’re on the bottom of Lake Macalania? Huh?
-There’s a dreamy film around this.
-We’re under the lake ice. Wtf.
-Wakka’s distraught. Feels most like a betrayer of Yevon’s path.
-Rikku admires Lulu, wants to become grown up and together like her.
-Yuna wakes. She wanted to convinced Seymour to turn himself in. Even in exchange for marriage. Seymour didn’t respond.
-Auron just wants to move on, and is being kind of dickish.
-Auron’s coming off as very Marin Luther here. Thinks we just need power directly from the Fayth, and don’t need the approval of the temples and maesters.
-Next stop: Bevelle. Try to explain to Maester Mika.
-All through this time, the hymn is playing.
-Wakka feels some kind of “bad vibes” in the air. Just an indication of his mood or foreshadowing?
-Interesting! The singing comes from the fayth itself.
-Even Kimahri thinks the place smells different. Wakka’s bad vibes may be tangible and real.
-Flashback! Auron listened to Tidus singing, the hymn that Jecht used to sing.
TIDUS: “How’d you get to Zanarkand, anyway? Sin?” Seems like it. Sin’s the only link between those two times, two worlds.
-Ruh roh. The singing stopped.
-Grounds quaking.
-OH FUCK SIN
-This whole section is pretty trippy.
-Flashback again? To Zanarkand? Perhaps induced by a homesick Sin. This is so weird. Is Tidus in Sin’s mind somehow? It seems like Sin is communicating with Tidus, asking Tidus to end him as Sin.
---
Oasis
-Tidus wakes up alone at an “Oasis.”
-I don’t just want to know where he is. I want to know when he is. It’s totally possible that this encounter with Sin could’ve zapped Tidus back in time again.
-A giant Zu attacks.
-Yay, Auron joins the fray!
-And here comes Lulu. The whole team might have made it.
-Won, and got an Al Bhed potion which is pretty awesome. Like Esuna + Cure in potion form.
-Lulu and Auron haven’t found the others yet.
-Well, there’s Wakka. In a makeshift shelter. Alone.
He seems to have had Yuna then been… ambushed by machina? Hm.
-Ok, first the Al Bhed potions and now a chest with an Al Bhed first aid kit. Guessing we’re still in the present, and deep in Al Bhed territory.
-A tutorial board suggests cactuars and Zu populate this desert.
-Trying to find an effective method against Cactuars. Maybe Slow? The main issue seems to be landing attacks, so a combo of Aim and Slow perhaps. Still not great probability.
---
Sanubia Desert
-Found Kimahri, trying unsuccessfully to climb a sandy hill. Mourning he lost Yuna. This is what, the second time?
-LOLOL – encountered a cactuar, and Tidus’s opening battlecry: “Don’t you run, needles!” I love that he has a pet name for cactuars.
-Another AL Bhed dictionary.
-This fire-breathing desert monster, Mushussu, hurts bad.
-HOLY HELL THIS SANDWORM ART, COMPLETE WITH DROOL
-Aaaaand it just ate Tidus.
-….it spit Tidus back up. “Regurgitate.” This is possibly the coolest and grossest monster in the game so far.
-How is this Sandworm not a boss? It’s got 45,000 HP, jesus.
-Oh, right! I can use its HP against it with poison. A bio from Lulu does major work.
-Here’s Rikku. She has a secret for us, and Wakka’s hackles are up.
-We’re on Bekanel Island. A secret island with somewhere called “Home” nearby. Yunie… ahem, Yuna… must be there.
RIKKU: “Yevon did something really bad to us before.”
WAKKA: “Well, you Al Bhed must’ve done something to deserve it.”
FHDJKLSFHDS DAAAANG WAKKA
-Rikku agrees to take us as long as we keep it a secret. I wonder what the Yevonites did to the Al Bhed. They definitely have some inquisitorial proclivities, so I’m not super surprised by this.
---
Next time: Home-ward bound.
