Leaving the Calm Lands
-I think Mt. Gagazet is next iirc. Kimahri backstory time!
-Tidus realizes that this whole journey is basically a death march for Yuna in her mind.
-I got a bunch of new items and equipment over recent sessions that I haven’t really taken stock of. At some point either at the end of this session or beginning of the next one, I’ll do so.
-The map appears, and…wow.
Zanarkand ruins are really close. Just past Mt. Gagazet.
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Gagazet
-Snowy mountain area. I love wintry zones in video games.
-Digging the music already.
-Maester Kelk and some of his Ronso bodyguards jumps down as we enter. Demands that we leave. I’m surprised – thought he’d be more sympathetic.
-Holy shit, Yuna “cast aside Yevon.”
-EVEN WAKKA GOES HARD AGAINST YEVON HOLY SHITTTTT
-Ok, I think I understand Kelk better than before. Yuna says she fights for Spira, not Yevon, and I believe Kelk will be impressed and let us pass. [Later edit: before now, I’d always considered Yevon as a deity, but now I think the order of Yevon doesn’t necessarily have that. Just the religious hierarchy/order without any deity at the top.]
-Woohoo, Kelk lets us through. Go Yuna!!
-He praises Yuna’s will as stronger than tempered steel. Something not even Ronso could break. This is great.
-Rikku’s starting to panic. Neither she nor Tidus have thought of any ways to summon the Final Aeon without losing Yuna.
-Biran and Yenke left the showdown for now, but I have no doubt we’ll have to deal with them at some point before we’re through this place.
-I love the Kelk voice actor.
-Ooh, random Ronso gives us backstory on Kimahri! He fought Biran as young Ronso are wont to do. Biran won, but Kimahri didn’t admit the loss. Biran broke Kimahri’s horn, and Kimahri left in shame.
It’s hard for me to tell from this whether Kimahri acted nobly, not letting his spirit be broken in not admitting defeat, or whether he acted like a sore loser and SHOULD have admitted defeat.
-We move on, and Biran and Yenke IMMEDIATELY stop us. They want everyone but Kimahri to continue. Rematch time.
-Here we go. One on two duel.
-Used “lancet” to learn the Thrust Kick rage from Biran, and the Stone Breath rage from Yenke.
-The fight lets Kimahri frequently be in overdrive.
-HELL YESS!!! Learned Mighty Guard also from Biran.
-Can’t get past Biran’s Mighty Guard, so I’m going for Yenke.
-This is like Ronso Rage heaven. Learned White Wind.
-BIRAN DOWN WOOHOO!! I also learned from this fight that Lancet goes past Mighty Guard.
-Victory for Kimahri.
-Biran is a graceful loser. Happy for Kimahri, and announces his name to the mountain. This is pretty frigging great.
-Biran and Yenke will even watch our backs, fighting off pursuers! Woohoo!!
BIRAN: “Ronso will ensure your statue shines brightest.”
YUNA: “But I fear no one will make a statue for a traitor such as I am.”
BIRAN: “Then Ronso will make!”
Few things seem more comforting in Spira than having Ronso on your side.
-lol yenke even wants to add a horn to the yuna statue XD
-We move on, and the Ronso who see us off – Biran and Yenke – start singing the Yevon chant. Starts as just Biran and Yenke, but other Ronso join in.
-We’re now on the “Mountain Trail” of Gagazet.
-Found a gravesite of fallen summoners and guardians.
-Whoa!! Braska’s Sphere! There’s Auron in the background. “Jecht and Auron send their regards.”
-And here’s Jecht wandering into the background. This has gotta be empowering and encouraging for Yuna to see.
-Another stone marker. Many fallen summoners.
-Oh god. Lulu mentions that summoners who die here don’t get sent to the Farplane, because… well, there’s nobody to send them. Many of the fiends around here are likely past summoners. That’s horrifying.
-I could keep going up, but there’s a side path I want to explore.
-Dude named Wantz here. I don’t remember him.
-Hee!! This guy is O’aka’s brother.
-WTF, the temple imprisoned O’aka for helping us?? O’aka… wow. We’re actually getting O’aka backstory. This is incredible. Wantz deflects when we ask why O’aka would help us, but O’aka’s more than the random NPC merchant than I had expected.
-Wantz sells a lot of anti-Zombie stuff. Good to know.
-I can only really get one item. I’ll go for… a Zombie Ward bracelet for Auron. I also max out on Holy Water, so that I can use Rikku’s customization to add Zombie Ward to other items if I decide.
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Taking Stock - Weapons
-Now’s a good time to look at my stuff and review whatever items I don’t understand. I won’t go over every item, just the items I don’t really understand or know how to use, or items that look especially strong.
-“Ambitious,” a Tidus weapon. Overdrive -> AP and Counterattack, along with two blank spaces. Overdrive -> AP suppresses the overdrive gauge but gives me more AP for victories. That’s a trade-off I’ll ALWAYS take for Tidus.
-“Space Power,” a Lulu weapon. SOS Overdrive. An incentive to try staying at lower life. I also just love the name.
-I probably should just sell the various elemental strike weapons for Lulu and Yuna. I never use them for their elemental attacks. The status ones, maybe, but elemental ones, never.
-I hadn’t really thought about weapons like Auron’s “Dual Blade” before, that have both lightningstrike and waterstrike. They confused me. But I checked the reference, and it seems like those attributes just add to the attack damage rather than changing it. So if I use that weapon against something weak to lightning and strong against water, I guess they cancel each other out? Dunno.
-“Kain’s Lance,” a Kimahri weapon with SOS Overdrive. I haven’t loved Kimahri’s overdrives until this recent encounter on Gagazet. They felt kind of weak. But White Wind? Mighty Guard? Thrust Kick, which can knock an enemy out of combat entirely? Hell yes.
-“Calamity Spear,” Kimahri weapon. Silencetouch and sleeptouch. Worth using more.
-“Hurricane Claw,” Rikku weapon. Rikku does weak damage, but she attacks often with Mug, so status weapons are right up her alley. Definitely using this now.
-“Buzzerbeater,” Wakka weapon. SOS Overdrive is especially strong for Wakka with how powerful his overdrives are.
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Taking Stock – Armor
-A lot of the new armor I’ve gotten just provides options. Like Wakka’s “Tetra Armguard,” with Defense 5% and three empty slots. Items I can customize.
-“Peaceful Bangle,” Lulu armor. NOOOO!!!! Shit. I had this equipped through my walk on Mt.Gagazet. I didn’t mean to, I just had it from before. Dangit. I’ll backtrack to see what fights I missed.
-“Spiritual Bangle,” Lulu armor. Has an MP Stroll ability, to replenish MP as I walk. Hasn’t been necessary yet since she has a lot of MP and doesn’t use heavy MP spells often, but I’ll keep it in mind.
-“Arcane Ring,” Yuna armor. Curseproof, Break HP Limit, and two empty slots. I haven’t seen Curse yet. The Help menu says that cursed characters can’t use overdrives and overdrive gauges don’t fill. Bad, but not devastating. Not sure about Break HP Limit, but I’ll guess that characters normally can’t go above 9999 HP and this ring lets her go higher than that. Not useful yet.
-“Solidity,” Auron armor. Ribbon and Curseproof. Ribbon is especially interesting… AW DANG! I just blew a bunch of gil on a zombieward bracer for Auron, but Ribbon takes care of that. Almost complete immunity against status ailments. Ridiculously powerful.
-“Curative Targe,” Rikku armor. Auto-Med. Rikku will automatically take any status curing item. If poisoned, will use antidote. If darkness, will use eye drops. Sounds good at first, but in reality for most fights I just swap party members out if they get this. Can be useful for boss fights where I want Rikku in for long periods of time.
-“Atlas” Rikku armor. Break HP Limit (again, not yet an issue) and three blank spaces.
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Taking Stock – Key Items
-“Cloudy Mirror – The surface is dark and clouded.” Got this from the chocobo race, and I think this might be the thing the race told me I needed to charge up?
-“Rusty Sword – An old, rusty sword.” Definitely useful, and I have no earthly clue how. I found it outside the Cavern of Stolen Fayth, so perhaps it’s related to Dark Yojimbo.
-Various crests. I have Moon, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. They’re “Celestial Tokens.” I’ll bet I turn them in for legendary weapons for each character at some point.
-“Flower Scepter – Seems to have some connection with a hidden aeon…” Omega? Knights of the Round? Something like that.
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Mt. Gagazet
-Going to explore until I reach a save point, then call it for this session.
-Now I’m getting random encounters. Grenades, imps, mechs.
-Grenades are like Bombs, weak against ice, but they have high magic resist. Auron’s Mental Break is useful here.
-Found another grave.
-Just saw what Auron’s “Entrust” is for. It sends his overdrive gauge to an ally. That’s amazing. Especially for someone like Yuna or Wakka.
-I’m a bit lost on this mountain. Forgot which way I came from.
-Found the way! Definitely missed stuff, but not going to go back since I don’t know what or where I missed.
-Used Yuna to cast shell.
YUNA: “Veil of light, ward wizardly might!”
COLDRUN: “…ffx writers wyd you are SO CORNY SOMETIMES“
-I’m starting to run into blocks on the sphere grid with nowhere to go until I find more level 3 key spheres.
-Save point.
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Mt. Gagazet Enemies Captured
BANDERSNATCH
GRAT
GRENADE
NIDHOGG
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Next time: continuing up the mountain.
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