Calm Lands
-The music matches the name.
-No road. No villages. No towns. Just plains. Sin was fought here in the past.
-Easy to get lost.
-Auron makes it sounds like it’s easy to get lost in a moral way too. That many summoners lose their way here.
-Future!Tidus’ voiceover makes it sounds like he didn’t find a way to save Yuna, but hard to say.
-Chocobo feather on the ground. Guess we’ll get to ride a chocobo soon.
-Lots of chocobos on the plains ahead!
-Maechen’s here. Having persistent NPCs on the road is a really interesting choice for FFX. Makes the open world feel alive.
-Bevelle and Zanarkand fought here. This place was a ruin, and then it was later used for a battle against Sin, away from people. I’m not sure if this is where Sin will be fought in the future or where he was fought in the past. Maybe both.
-Tried approaching the chocobos. Some sort of hovercraft approached and the chocobos scattered. Rin the vendor.
-FUCKKKK NOOOO – IT’S A MALBORO
-It’s obliterating me. All my weapons are frost and it seems to only take fire damage. Then the infamous Bad Breath. At least Wakka escaped.
-Someone here is offering to let me train chocobos. That sounds kind of awesome.
-Seems like this’ll be a racing mini-game.
-First attempt was 13.9 seconds. About a second off from the goal. I have to use left and right to rein the wild chocobo in.
-Second attempt was 12.8 seconds. Just barely succeeded. I think I’ll be able to use a chocobo across these plains now.
-Going to try a couple more times to beat my record.
-12.5 seconds. Better! Couple more at 12.5-12.8, then 12.3.
-12.2! Can I pass 12.0?
-My most successful strategy here seems to be pre-emptively waggling the controls to stay on the center line as best as possible, pre-emptively, rather than just reacting to wild directional swings.
-Yes!!! Got 12.0 seconds. All I got was another X-Potion, but still neat.
-Ooh, more training courses. Wobbly chocobo or dodger chocobo. Wobbly was probably the one I just did. Let’s try Dodger.
-This one is a bit more frustrating. Blitzballs coming at me to dodge, and they have tracking.
-After three attempts, got 15 seconds.
-One more course. “Hyper dodger chocobo.” Ruh oh.
*three tries later*
-GOD FUCKING DAMMIT STOP IT
-This one is SUPER annoying. Best method seems to be to stick as close ot the middle as possible. Just barely beat the goal of 18.5 seconds at 18.4 seconds. Good. Done.
-She wants me to race her for a final challenge.
-Let me give you a sense of how this race went:
“Tidus is hit!”
“Tidus is hit!”
“Tidus is hit!”
“Tidus is hit!”
“Tidus is hit!”
“Tidus is hit!”
I SUCK SO BAD AT THIS
-She keeps getting the first string of balloons easily and I have no idea how to go faster than her.
-Whew. Finally got it. This was one where going straight was often required, as shaking around except when a bird was headed my way usually just threw me off of the path of a balloon.
-Got a level 3 key sphere for a reward, and an achievement: “Chocobo License.”
-Backtracked to the entrance on my new chocobo, where the feather was. It took me to a non-chocobo path to “Calm Lands – South.” Don’t wanna go there yet.
-Exploring the nooks and crannies of this area netted me 15,000 gil in chests.
-Belgemine is here. Calls Yuna a traitor, but only with her tongue in cheek. She’s on our side.
-Another aeon duel incoming.
-She summons Shiva. I’ll try Ifrit.
-Yikes. Meteor Strike sucks against her. That’s… surprising. Maybe Hellfire will do better.
-Yup! 9,999.
-Nulfrost helps here. Like, a lot.
-Hellfire #2. Come on… yes!! Victory.
Sorry, not!Shiva. :(
-Belgemine gives us 30 Power Spheres as a reward. Not the best reward since I’m usually full on them, but ok.
-Ooh! And “Aeon’s Soul!” That sounds better.
-She mentions the hidden temple of Remiem for more training.
-The Aeon’s Soul can boost stats. Nice. I like that this gives me another reason to care about spheres.
-Reached a settlement in the middle of the Calm.
-A dude in awesome robes and a face-covering comes up. Father Zuke. Lulu knows him.
-Mika is saying that our party killed Kinoc.
-Kelk Ronso left Yevon. Interesting.
-I like this guy. Tells us we should avoid temples, beware of Yevon. Thanks, Father Zuke!
-An Al Bhed here has a message from Cid. The airship is being repaired, and he’ll get us when he’s done.
-Four new fiends on the training menu. Two of which sound newish (Bashura and Ghost), and the other two are known from past games and feared. Coeurl and Malboro.
-Coeurl uses magic. Silence Buster when possible. It’s strong against ice and lightning. Not a ton of HP.
Adorable but deadly.
-Malboro is immune to slow, bio, silence, and probably more. Bad Breath does a ton of status inflictions, but Confuse is the main thing I want to guard against. Without confuse, I can use items and swap to other party members like Yuna to Esuna the rest off. Auron with a Fire Blade does the most damage.
-Bashura looks a bit like Goro from Mortal Komba. It eventually uses heavy hitting melee attacks when low health, so Dark Buster.
It’s immune to Power Break. Not immune to slow. Weak to fire and poison.
-Last is the Ghost. It uses Doom early. Magic Break and Silence Buster to counter it. Interesting! Elemental immunities change from fight to fight. Kimahri can learn Doom from it.
-So none of those (not even the Malboro) are too bad. They just require specific strats to beat.
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Next time: will play around a bit with aeon attributes, then continue through the Calm Lands.
