Calm Lands - Camp
-Talking to party members at the camp.
-Wakka and Lulu used to be Father Zuke’s guardians. He gave up on his pilgrimage here, in the Calm Lands. I hope that this means giving up on pilgrimages is not that uncommon, so Dona can feel happier in her likely decision to settle down with Barthello.
-Yuna’s trying to put a brave face on this whole “being called a traitor” thing, but it’s tough. Tidus is supportive as ever to her.
-This is Lulu’s THIRD pilgrimage. She doesn’t say who her first was. Both prior ones ended here, in the Calm Lands.
-Zanarkand is past Mt. Gagazet. Huh. If I’m guessing, I’ll bet that Zanarkand will not be the end of the game, but rather something of a 2/3 or even halfway point. Hard to say. I haven’t even gotten any level 3 key spheres, to say nothing of level 4 key spheres. However, we’re close to all the x-aga spells, and making good sphere grid progress. (Just some general indicators.)
-hahahahaha Yuna just gave the BEST AURON IMPRESSION
-Auron brings up a really interesting point about Yevon: it’s not of one mind. He thinks Seymour and Mika are at odds in their thinking, and I agree with him. Mika seems more conservative, more dedicated to keeping the machine of Yevon and summoners and Sin running. Seymour is more revolutionary, wanting to upend the whole thing.
I believe Seymour will defeat Mika in the end, but I also don’t think it’ll be as one-sided as Kefka defeating Gestahl. Gestahl was taken by surprise. Mika likely has a much more accurate read on Seymour.
-Rikku and Tidus share similar concern for Yuna, making a pact to try to save Yuna from the Final Aeon.
Wakka and Lulu care about Yuna too of course, but I get the sense that they prioritize her mission as a summoner in a way that Tidus and Rikku do not.
-Wakka felt some relief when Zuke left the pilgrimage behind. It gave him the chance to pursue blitzball.
-Gagazet will likely be super awkward for Kimahri. He says he has no family.
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Calm Lands
-At the start of a random encounter, Lulu says: “I will not fail – this time.” I wonder if she blames herself for the two prior unsuccessful pilgrimages. Perhaps she even let her first summoner die.
-My one complaint about the FFX combat system at this point is that I don’t like the stalling. There are plenty of times where I have the enemy on the ropes, only one enemy left, but I have to cycle in four party members to just do a stalling action (Aim or Cheer or Guard or something) and then only kill it when the last party member comes in so everyone gets AP.
-Found a woman overlooking a valley. A gorge, called “the Scar.” Where Sin made one of his last stands.
-Lord Gandof was the one who took Sin out here.
-The woman, Svanda, is actually a pretty interesting pick-up for an attacking blitzball player. I’ll try her out.
-Found a side area, a Crusader training area. Hm.
-This seems like it’ll be another mini-game. Or even a meta-game. The fiends for training escaped, and I have to collect them. I have to defeat them with a special weapon.
-To start, there are nine species of fiends in the Calm Lands. I have to collect ten of each (or maybe the most I can catch and get rewards is ten of each? Not sure.)
-He sells a bunch of weapons with “Capture” as the abilities. I’ll buy a ball for Wakka, a katana for Auron, and a moogle for Lulu. Those three are the most likely to land fatal blows.
-This guy also sells Holy Water. Maybe I’ll start meeting zombifiers soon. I buy 25.
-It also seems like I’ll be able to fight fiends here after I catch them. Like the arena in FFVI maybe, or the knight’s dungeon in FFIX.
-Ok. Let’s catch some fiends as I explore. I’ll keep an ongoing tally and post it at the end.
-Tougher fiends are in the northwest.
-Lulu’s mog might’ve been a waste. Using magic didn’t seem to “capture” the enemy when it killed it.
-Tried capturing Mech Scouter, but couldn’t. Makes sense. It’s a mech, not a fiend.
-Bought capture weapons for Tidus and Kimahri also. It hits me now that all the physical attackers in my party are dudes. The women are casters a thief. A bit… I dunno, typical or disappointing or something like that.
-YIKES! New enemy: Chimera Brain.
-Anacondaurs are nasty. No elemental weaknesses, and stone gaze. Lowish HP at least. Love their design.
-Boo. I don’t like that my overdrives don’t capture the enemy.
-Ok. Captured all nine fiends. Not ten of each, but I want to see what is new now that I’ve captured them before deciding to go and capture a lot.
-Went back to the arena master, and he gave me a chest. Only problem is that I can’t open it.
-He gave me Farplane Wind x60. Huh.
-Okay. This dude combined some of these enemies and created a “Chimerageist.” A Frankenstein.
-Immune to slow. Let’s try out Bahamut.
-WAIT NO – I gotta get hits in with everyone first.
Chimerageist.
-HOLY SHIT THIS BOSS IS RIDICULOUS – Wiped me out easily. I’ll bet I have to beat her before I can open the chest.
-I wanted to try again, but no go. I can’t seem to access it again. Really, REALLY hope it wasn’t just one attempt, one failure, never see it again.
-Let’s see what happens when I fight individual monsters in the arena. I’ll first try… Ogre.
-Not much happens. I beat it, and got AP. Perhaps this is a place to Steal and farm items/AP. But when I killed the Ogre, the number in “stock” didn’t go down.
-Going to try killing one of each captured Calm Lands enemy. Maybe that does a thing?
-Nope. Beat em all and nothing happened. I guess this is just like a farm. Still not sure what the point then is of catching 10.
-Chatting with this guy gives hints or general info about different areas.
“One lap through the forest on Kilika is all it takes to grab ‘em all!”
“Get me some baddies from the Thunder Plains. Catching fiends, dodging lightning… what a thrill!”
“You’ve caught some flying bugs already, eh? Keep it up and watch out for poison!”
-I can infer that at some point, I’ll be able to use the airship to hop easily between these different areas to collect fiends.
-There are only five unknown areas left.
-To finish this session off, going to try to get ten of a single monster type and see if anything happens.
-Got 10 Chimera Brains. Can’t see any difference. Ok.
Calm Lands Monster Capture
ANACONDAUR: II
CHIMERA BRAIN: IIIII – IIIII MAX!
COEURL: IIIII – IIII
FLAME FLAN: III
MALBORO: I
NEBIROS: IIIII - I
OGRE: III
SHRED: III
SKOLL: IIIII – IIII
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Next time: There are two exits. The critical path seems to be in the northeast, but I want to explore a path I found in the southeast of the Calm Lands first. Maybe even some blitzball, since that’s an option again.
