Remiem Temple
-There are two places to try going, here in the Calm Lands. The critical path, where the red arrow is blinking, is in the northeast. I want to first explore the area in the southeast, the area I needed a chocobo to reach.
-It’s the Remiem temple, the place that Belgamine mentioned! The “secret” Remiem temple, iirc. Lol it was like half a zone away from here when she said that.
-The temple is a real architectural wonder.
-Hello, lemur! I dub thee Momo.
-HOLY SHIT that took me by surprise. There’s a whole lower level that looks like an arena.
I imagine crossing this bridge must be challenging for those with vertigo.
-I have the option to play blitzball again, but don’t want to just now.
-Found a squeaky chocobo friend. She squawks at me but that’s it. I’m sure she’ll be of some use later.
-Al Bhed Primer vol XXIV, Q->X.
-Sphere on the ground. Maybe one of those Al Bhed compilation spheres.
-Nopee!! It says chocobos come here to test…no. oh no no no. It says chocobos come here to test speed and skill. If this place is to chocobo racing as the Treno card arena in FFIX was to the Tetra Master minigame, my stay in Remiem may be pretty short.
I know I’ve been pretty harsh on the mini-game, but most of it is about personal taste. My opinion of Dirge of Cerberus was impacted by my dislike of the FPS genre, and I am a bit biased against chocobo racing here because I never really enjoyed racing mini-games. Will try to keep an open mind though.
-Lost the first race. Gotta find the best path down.
-Won the second time!
And it seems like it opened stuff up through Spira. Interesting. Star Doors like in Mario 64 maybe.
-But there were chests. Can I get them?
-The chests have lemurs in them that let me jump down. Is that it? Or do some have treasure?
-There are various colored lights I can collect. Maybe a thing happens if I collect all of a certain color.
-A bunch of failed attempts where I lose as I collect stuff. I’ll be back maybe.
[Later edit: this race was more relaxed than I was expecting. Chocobo racing is fine enough, and I’m sure there are secrets to discover on this race course involving chests and/or those collectible colored lights. But what made this so much better than I thought it would be was what it lacked: projectiles. I HATED dodging crap, hated the feeling of getting stunned/hit by stuff. SO happy that wasn’t a thing here.]
-Into the temple!
I wonder what the symbols on the door mean. Nations of Spira maybe.
---
Inside the Temple
-Hi Belgemine!!
-High ceilings, intricately designed alls.
-OH FUCKING SHIT BELGEMINE IS DEADDD!!
-She wants to give us access to some kind of super aeon, right?
-Here we go. Final fight against Belgemine. Gonna get my ass kicked.
-I start with Valefor, and so does she.
-Oh, no. SHE starts, with valefor, I have to start with someone else. Ifrit.
-Ifrit goes down.
-I summon Ixion in his place. No way I’m winning this. I’ll DEFINITELY have to come back.
-Not!Valefor finally goes down, after Ixion takes a beating. Will I have to work my way through the rest?
-Ok. I beat Valefor. Ifrit next. New encounter.
-Let’s bring in… Shiva. Shiva vs. Ifrit.
-She’s about to die. Diamond Dust knocks him down 9999, but doesn’t take him out. She goes down.
-Next… Valefor.
-WOOHOO!! A nearly-dead Valefor takes out a not!Ifrit with his last attack. Reward is 30x X-Potions.
-Next up: Ixion.
-Ixion uses evasion pretty regularly. I wonder if Meteor Strikes can hit when it does that.
-Ifrit goes down, but not before getting off a Hellfire to do 9999. That’s key. Shiva next.
-Ixion keeps defending. This is a bit of a stalemate.
-Crap. He one-shot Shiva with Thor’s Hammer.
-Come on, Valefor, finish off not!Ixion… YESS!!! Valefor was on death’s doorstep, but got off an Energy Blast.
Reward: 10x Chocobo Feathers.
-not!Shiva next. Starting with Ifrit.
-She keeps evading my attacks. Does not evade meteor strike though. That’s my ticket. That and Hellfire. Made this the easiest fight yet – Ifrit won it solo. 60x Mega Potions as a reward.
-Who’s next, Bahamut? And after that?
-Before each successive fight, Belgemine’s intro changes.
Over the course of these fights (both now and in our previous meetings), I get the sense of a pretty neat teacher/student relationship developing here.
-Yeah, Bahamut time.
-Starting with Ixion, since I don’t remember if Bahamut buffs himself, and if he does I want Aerospark to knock it off.
-Bahamut’s about to obliterate Ixion with Mega Flare. That’s okay. Ixion was almost dead, so I stalled until the Mega Flare went off. Didn’t want it to hit a full-health aeon. (Though when shielded, it only did 590 damage.)
-Ifrit comes in next for me. I rope-a-dope Bahamut a bunch until Bahamut hits Ifrit’s overdrive gauge full. Hellfire finishes Bahamut off. WOOHOO!!! What’s next?
-Got a Flower Scepter as a reward.
-Thought it might be a rod for Yuna, but no. Even BETTER. It’s a key item that has some connection with a “hidden aeon.” Knights of the Round? Something like that probably.
-There’s a door at the other end of this temple that’s “sealed by a strange power.” Glowing pink.
-I think that’s all I can do for now. If I get more aeons, I’ll come back here.
-Actually, one more thing before I leave: I want to see if the rewards are farmable. If I fight Ixion again, will I get 10 more chocobo feathers?
-Note to self: Valefor was a TERRRRIBLE choice against Ixion lol.
-Either I’m seriously fucking up, or Ixion is a way tougher opponent now than my first attempt. Ixion destroyed every aeon of mine except Bahamut.
-The reward this time was 8x Power Spheres. Much worse than last time, perhaps because I lost so many aeons.
-Trying one more fight: using my Ifrit against Belgemine’s Shiva.
-I one-shot her again with Ifrit. Got 6 Star Curtains as a reward. A nice reward.
-Don’t really want to farm this right now. (I’m not usually a fan of farming.) Moving on.
-Tried one more race to see if I could get the chests, but it feels really infeasible to collect all the lemurs in one run. Hm.
---
Next time: Exploring the northeast path out of the Calm Lands.
[Later edit: I just reviewed one of the screenshots, and it seems like something in the chocobo race needs to be actively done to open up seals throughout Spira maybe.
Just not sure if beating right now if beating the master chocobo was enoguh or if I'll need to do more. I have the hunch I need to do more, and may end up experimenting with the race more next time.]
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you're commenting on the Final Fantasy playthrough, DO NOT INCLUDE ANY SPOILERS. This includes any hints or references or teasers for content beyond where I have played. Thank you.