Bevelle – Highbridge
-So I think I’m out of the Via Purifico now, and just on some bridge in the capital.
-lol O’aka’s still here. This dude is the most persistant and loyal vendor I’ve ever seen.
-Just got Death for Lulu. The x-agas are next up.
-I really like the mech enemies here (YKT-63) who do this taekwondo heel drop attack.
-Strike that. I liked them until I just saw that they use “Thrust Kick” to knock party members out of combat so that they don’t get xp. Eat a bag of hell, YKT-63.
-Another thing I love about FFX is its liberal use of save spheres. Redoing content is not really fun (one of my main qualms with the Dark Souls series), and these are great.
-Got back to Kimahri. He shakes his head in disbelief that we returned. Unlike Auron, Kimahri is a cat and so his face betrays no feelings on whether he’s happy we returned or angry.
-Boss time. Two enemies here – Seymour Natus (Seymour Reborn perhaps?) and Mortibody. I’m guessing that Mortibody is either a creepy anima or a necromantic creation drawn from the corpses of Seymour’s dead party.
-Seymour’s voice now has an echoey quality.
-Can’t slow him or Mortibody.
-HOLY SHIT HE JUST KILLED TWO OF MY PARTY MEMEBRS
-Ok. He rotates attacks. Ice, thunder, water, fire.
-Brought in Ixion to take out Mortibody, but Ixion got banished.
-Yet ANOTHER thing I gotta repeat – I love the option to talk to the boss for a turn and get a buff. For example, Auron mentioned that even though Kinoc changed, Auron still considered him a friend and wants to avenge him.
-My working strategy is to attack Mortibody, and force it to use “Mortsorption” for heavy damage on Seymour Natus.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Lq13f0K.jpg:<
-Dang. Tried using Cura on Mortibody. It healed it rather than hurt it.
-Stole 2x Tetra Elemental from Seymour.
-This Mortibody strat seems to have stopped Seymour from casting. We keep pounding Mortibody and it keeps hurting Seymour Natus. Auron is my all-star here.
-VICTORY!!!
-Some epilogue voiceover from future!Tidus conveys how badly this experience shook Yuna’s faith.
-So… did Yuna then send Seymour? I hope so. (Not that I think it’ll matter, since I imagine he’ll still be an even bigger threat from the Farplane.)
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Macalania Woods
-We’re in a crystalline area. Auron tells us we’re clear, and will have to avoid Bevelle going forward.
-Auron’s exhausted. I’m reasonably sure at this point that Auron is a fiend, like Mika.
-Rikku’s come to a bit of a change of heart about Yuna.
If Yuna wants to continue on her pilgrimage, Rikku wants to support and protect that. Nice character development.
-She wonders if it’s possible to do the Final Summoning without dying. I kind of doubt it. I believe Yuna’s fated for a sacrificial end.
-These woods are so beautiful.
-Kimahri and Yuna went off into the woods, so Tidus heads off to find them.
-This Yuna/Tidus conversation is really great. He’s trying to support her, but really giving her an active choice to consider: forgoing the pilgrimage. Live.
-It amuses her to consider this briefly. The thought of Auron’s reaction holds her back… but not for long.
Wow. She’s legit considering this.
-This is super heartbreaking and delightful. They’re spinning a fantasy alternative where they head back to past!Zanarkand, watch and play blitzball, spend time together in the natural beauty of the city.
It’s never gonna happen. But boy is it a nice thought.
-She’s crying now. She too knows that it’s a fantasy. She has to fight Sin. This is really hard to watch, and really powerful.
-Cinematic as they kiss and a song with lyrics plays.
[Spoilers for “25th Hour,” the Spike Lee movie with Edward Norton.]
Guvf fprar uvgf zr rfcrpvnyyl uneq. Cneg bs vg vf gung vg erzvaqf zr bs cebonoyl zl snibevgr fprar va nal zbivr rire, gur raqvat zbabybthr sebz "25gu Ubhe."
Gur zbivr vf nobhg n zna fcraqvat uvf ynfg qnl serr orsber ur unf gb tb gb cevfba. Va gur raq, uvf qnq vf qevivat uvz gb gur cevfba, naq jbaqref - jung vs gurl qba'g tb nyy gur jnl, naq gur sngure whfg fraqf gur fba sebz AL bhg jrfg?
Ur fcvaf guvf jbaqreshy snagnfl. Gur fba jvyy gnxr n ohf jrfg, abobql jvyy punfr uvz. Ur'yy fgneg n arj yvsr. Yvr ybj, trg n pnfu wbo, ohvyq pbaarpgvbaf, sevraqf, n snzvyl, naq gura bar qnl ur'yy or byq naq gryy uvf snzvyl nobhg uvf pevzvany cnfg. Ubj pybfr vg nyy pnzr gb arire unccravat.
Ohg gura gur snagnfl raqf nsgre nobhg 7-8 zvahgrf. Jr synfu onpx gb gur cerfrag, naq gurl qevir ba gbjneqf gur cevfba. N znfgrecvrpr.
-They start to float. This is some magical realism, and the colors and art direction of this are wonderful. (Or maybe they’re underwater.)
-FFX is taking great advantage of the new graphical capabilities of the PS2 here.
-Some time passes, and they sit on the shore. She’ll continue on her pilgrimage. She simply can’t bring herself to abdicate that responsibility.
-Tidus tells her he’ll be with her still. As her guardian. To the end.
YUNA: “Stay with me until the end. Please.”
TIDUS: “Not until the end. Always.”
YUNA: “Always then.”
-Yuna asks him to head back to camp. She’lll stay by the lake a bit longer. (Tbh, leaving her alone seems like a bad idea this close to Bevelle, but so be it.)
-Tidus starts to walk away, but Yuna catches up quickly to him.
-AWWW THEY HOLD HANDS ON THEIR WAY BACK TO CAMP
-The party sees them arrive. Tidus kind of shakes his head at Rikku, indicating that she’ll continue.
-Yuna arrives. She tells them her decision.
Begins to apologize to them, but Auron cuts her off. She needs rest.
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Macalania Woods
-Daytime in the woods. The sun shines on the crystalline trees and the birds chirp.
-A woman says that there was a riot in Bevelle and the monks aren’t letting pilgrims in anymore. Hm. I wonder if there were real riots due to the chaos at the top of the Yevonite order, or if it’s some kind of spin.
-Quick Sphere Grid note. I feel pretty comfortable with how most characters are progressing except for Kimahri. He’s the only character now who is tracing over another character’s progression path – Wakka’s, specifically. I checked back to see if I should’ve gone elsewhere, but everywhere I checked it seems like he would’ve had to overlap someone else’s already activated spheres.
It’s not necessarily bad. Wakka has similar stat boosts that are useful for Kimahri. But I definitely feel like I’m missing something. I’ll have to explore this further. Maybe use a Teleport Sphere to bring Kimahri elsewhere.
-Map comes up pointing our next steps.
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Next time: through the Calm Lands to Mt. Gagazet.
