Summary: Shinra tutorials. Ruins floating above Gagazet. Losing a race to the Leblanc Syndicate. Festivalist for the rest of us.
Shinra Knows Everything
-Going to go through their tutorial, noting things that are new or seem of note.
-First, “The Battle Beginner’s House.”
-Spherechanges require dresspheres and Garment Grids. So there are multiple Garment Grids out there.
-To use a new dressphere, I have to place it on a Garment Grid.
-Some Garment Grids have gates.
-Agility affects wait and charge time on the ATB. (Still a bit salty that they stepped away from the glorious turn-based system back to ATB.)
-The game provides an example of what gates look like, and I sort of get it, but will need to try it to really lock it in.
-Chain attacks occur when successful consecutive attacks happen. Damage increases more and more.
-Shinra says that elements other than fire, ice, lightning, and water exist. Not sure what to make of this. Holy existed in FFX, but didn’t count as an element, so maybe it’s just a language change.
-Poison is damage over time, so more normal than FFX’s poison status.
-Some new status ailments. Pointless means characters can’t get xp or AP. Curse stops characters from spherechanging. Itchy (lol) disables everything except spherechange. All can be cured with Holy Water, but itchy can be cured by spherechanging.
-Poison, Darkness, Silence, Petrification, and Pointless persist after battle. Booooo!!!
-Defeating enemies earns AP, but so does using commands. Cool!
-Another positive: if I don’t pick an ability to learn, the game automatically chooses one so that AP doesn’t disappear into the void.
-holy shit this game has a GUN MAGE. I cannot wait to unlock and explore more dresspheres. That’s the FFX-2 version of a blue mage. Unfortunately, FFX-2 is back to the FFV system of blue magic where you have to have it used against you. I much more liked the FFIX version where Quina could eat a low health enemy – or even better, the FFX version where Kimahri just used Lancet. I guess they thought that was too easy.
I hope that FFX-2 has a dressphere similar to the FFV Beastmaster, where I can control and trigger certain abilities.
-“Oversoul” looks VERY interesting! Seems like enemies can randomly supercharge and become mini-bosses. Some fiends oversoul if you defeat several fiends of the same type. I like this a lot. It means that if I ever farm fiends for AP or collection, I might get rewarded midway through. Better rewards from these.
-I don’t quite understand what “special dresspheres” are. Seems sort of like overdrive or summoning an aeon.
-I can access special dresspheres when I spherechange into all dresspheres (I’m going to be using the word “sphere” a lot, aren’t I?) on the Garment Grid. Not sure whether this means in a single fight. I think it does.
-There’s a list of Treasure Spheres, most of which are blank spaces currently. The first one is Journey’s Start. It’s the thing from the end of Eternal Calm. I watched it again, and the guy really looks a lot like Tidus. The only thing holding me back from being certain is that the game marks him as “????.”
-This is getting frustrating. I’m on a platform, trying to climb, and no idea where to find purchase. I keep getting trapped in combat every time I try to look around for where to go… aha! Found where to jump down. This jumping and climbing thing will take some getting used to.
[Later edit: it really wasn't that bad, but timers and races stress me out inordinately.]
-Hee! I just noticed that on the back of Festivalist Paine’s shirt is a tonberry.
-Found my first oversoul, a Divebeak.
-Festivalist!Yuna looks incredibly cool.
-I’m pretty sure I’m about to lose. That’s okay. If I have to redo this, I’m strangely comfortable with the idea. Feeling waay more okay with combat now.
-Time’s up. But I can still keep going. Just going to explore a bit as I go, since I assume I lost out on whatever awesomeness was at the top.
-A treasure chest on the stairs near the top was empty. Guessing that it would’ve had something in it if I got there before the Leblanc Gang. Hopefully just an accessory rather than a dressphere.
-Their gang flees in terror, running past us. Boss time probably.
-Crabulon!
Boris.
-Holy shit. I just one-shot Boris with Fest!Yuna’s Fire Sandals, which cast Firaga. That seems a bit OP.
-We run past the boss and take a sphere.
-Uh oh. We phone our success into the Celsius and Brother is gone. Did he go to check on our disasterrific mission?
-Yup. He jumped ship when he heard Yuna was in trouble. He’s just lying on the bridge now. Maybe I was supposed to find him down below somewhere.
---
Next time: viewing the newly obtained sphere. Also checking out the Creature Creator tutorial which I think I missed.
Shinra Knows Everything
-Going to go through their tutorial, noting things that are new or seem of note.
-First, “The Battle Beginner’s House.”
-Spherechanges require dresspheres and Garment Grids. So there are multiple Garment Grids out there.
-To use a new dressphere, I have to place it on a Garment Grid.
-Some Garment Grids have gates.
-Agility affects wait and charge time on the ATB. (Still a bit salty that they stepped away from the glorious turn-based system back to ATB.)
-The game provides an example of what gates look like, and I sort of get it, but will need to try it to really lock it in.
-Chain attacks occur when successful consecutive attacks happen. Damage increases more and more.
-Shinra says that elements other than fire, ice, lightning, and water exist. Not sure what to make of this. Holy existed in FFX, but didn’t count as an element, so maybe it’s just a language change.
-Poison is damage over time, so more normal than FFX’s poison status.
-Some new status ailments. Pointless means characters can’t get xp or AP. Curse stops characters from spherechanging. Itchy (lol) disables everything except spherechange. All can be cured with Holy Water, but itchy can be cured by spherechanging.
-Poison, Darkness, Silence, Petrification, and Pointless persist after battle. Booooo!!!
-Defeating enemies earns AP, but so does using commands. Cool!
-Another positive: if I don’t pick an ability to learn, the game automatically chooses one so that AP doesn’t disappear into the void.
-holy shit this game has a GUN MAGE. I cannot wait to unlock and explore more dresspheres. That’s the FFX-2 version of a blue mage. Unfortunately, FFX-2 is back to the FFV system of blue magic where you have to have it used against you. I much more liked the FFIX version where Quina could eat a low health enemy – or even better, the FFX version where Kimahri just used Lancet. I guess they thought that was too easy.
I hope that FFX-2 has a dressphere similar to the FFV Beastmaster, where I can control and trigger certain abilities.
-“Oversoul” looks VERY interesting! Seems like enemies can randomly supercharge and become mini-bosses. Some fiends oversoul if you defeat several fiends of the same type. I like this a lot. It means that if I ever farm fiends for AP or collection, I might get rewarded midway through. Better rewards from these.
-I don’t quite understand what “special dresspheres” are. Seems sort of like overdrive or summoning an aeon.
-I can access special dresspheres when I spherechange into all dresspheres (I’m going to be using the word “sphere” a lot, aren’t I?) on the Garment Grid. Not sure whether this means in a single fight. I think it does.
-There’s a list of Treasure Spheres, most of which are blank spaces currently. The first one is Journey’s Start. It’s the thing from the end of Eternal Calm. I watched it again, and the guy really looks a lot like Tidus. The only thing holding me back from being certain is that the game marks him as “????.”
-The
Bestiary has space for 131 oversoul subjects and 54 common subjects.
That’s surprising. I would’ve expected an equal number of common and
oversoul subjects. Maybe a single normal monster can oversoul into
various forms.
-Checked out Shinra’s “dossiers.” Profiles of different characters. The first one I flipped to is “????,” the dude who might or might not be Tidus.
Even Yuna admits he looks “a little off.” In a game where the first enemy we fought was an illusion mage impersonating Yuna, I’ll be skeptical that anyone I meet is who they say they are.
-Hee! We have a Hypello on board the ship.
-Shinra is listed as male.
-Brother is the leader of the Gullwings, and is described as Rikku’s older brother. An “intense desire to speak with Yuna.” Probably a crush.
---
Celsius
-Yuna does a thing with her arms when running that I don’t know I’ve ever seen anyone do irl.
-This is much easier to navigate than Cid’s ship.
-Not much on deck right now. What a beautiful ship though.
-I love Barkeep already. This bar is pretty sweet-looking too!
-I spend all my gil to buy some status curing items. 10 antidoes, eye drops, echo screens, softs, and 6 holy water. It’s a habit. Ever since I played FFI and got obliterated by the poison of the Marsh Cave, I want to do my best to be prepared.
-Like, this cabin is seriously luxurious! I’ll bet even someone like Yuffie might enjoy herself here.
-I can talk to Barkeep and “rest,” which seems like a free tent.
-Brother comes over the speaker, asking the Gullwings to report to the bridge. In a minute. I have one room left to check out, the Engine Room.
-Treasure chests are here.
-lololol “You scored Ether!” Duuuuude, we scored some sweet Ether! Some odd word choice there to be sure.
-There’s a stairway leading down in the engine room to nothing. Perhaps later something’ll be here or open up here. Let’s head to that meeting on the bridge.
-Buddy spies some “treasure sphere waves.” I think I might learn soon what the hell sphere hunting is all about. Coming from Gagazet ruins.
-Airship select screen though I can’t select a specific one. It auto-selects Gagazet.
-Gagazet is described as a “hotspot.”
-Checked out Shinra’s “dossiers.” Profiles of different characters. The first one I flipped to is “????,” the dude who might or might not be Tidus.
Even Yuna admits he looks “a little off.” In a game where the first enemy we fought was an illusion mage impersonating Yuna, I’ll be skeptical that anyone I meet is who they say they are.
-Hee! We have a Hypello on board the ship.
-Shinra is listed as male.
-Brother is the leader of the Gullwings, and is described as Rikku’s older brother. An “intense desire to speak with Yuna.” Probably a crush.
---
Celsius
-Yuna does a thing with her arms when running that I don’t know I’ve ever seen anyone do irl.
-This is much easier to navigate than Cid’s ship.
-Not much on deck right now. What a beautiful ship though.
-I love Barkeep already. This bar is pretty sweet-looking too!
-I spend all my gil to buy some status curing items. 10 antidoes, eye drops, echo screens, softs, and 6 holy water. It’s a habit. Ever since I played FFI and got obliterated by the poison of the Marsh Cave, I want to do my best to be prepared.
-Like, this cabin is seriously luxurious! I’ll bet even someone like Yuffie might enjoy herself here.
-I can talk to Barkeep and “rest,” which seems like a free tent.
-Brother comes over the speaker, asking the Gullwings to report to the bridge. In a minute. I have one room left to check out, the Engine Room.
-Treasure chests are here.
-lololol “You scored Ether!” Duuuuude, we scored some sweet Ether! Some odd word choice there to be sure.
-There’s a stairway leading down in the engine room to nothing. Perhaps later something’ll be here or open up here. Let’s head to that meeting on the bridge.
-Buddy spies some “treasure sphere waves.” I think I might learn soon what the hell sphere hunting is all about. Coming from Gagazet ruins.
-Airship select screen though I can’t select a specific one. It auto-selects Gagazet.
-Gagazet is described as a “hotspot.”
---
Gagazet Floating Ruins
-When the Fayth disappeared, some of the clouds around Gagazet faded and revealed floating ruins. That’s where we’re going now.
-Yuna seemed to get vertigo and nearly fell.
- What the hell is this place?? The ruins of what?
-oh god, oh god, oh god. This game has active jumping. I’m going to suck so bad at this. And yet, jumping and climbing adds a potentially neat element to exploration.
-FHDJKLSFHLDS PAINE WHAT
-I swapped her to “Festivalist,” and… lololol. Just.
I had built Paine up as this stoic warrior in my mind, and now she’s wearing a goofy chocobo mask and saying, “Don’t put off the party for another day!’
-Surprisingly, she does huge damage in this form. I should have learned from Mortal Kombat not to underestimate the power of a fan.
-Elevator starts to drop fast.
-Seems like XP is awarded based on how many actions I take in combat. Not sure I want Dancer as a primary thing since it uses fewer actions.
-Hi again, Leblanc.
-lol rikku: “Maybe she’ll go away if we ignore her.”
-She’s a rival sphere hunter.
-Ormi and Logos are with her. The music is goofy af. I don’t know who the big bad will be in X-2, but there’s a zero percent chance in my mind that it’ll be Leblanc.
-Yuna seems to be earning so much less experience than Rikku or Paine per fight. Her ATB gauge is longer – maybe she’s just getting in fewer actions.
-I feel pretty uncomfortable with combat so far. It’s very hectic.
-Leblanc and friends go down again. She drops a smoke bomb and peaces out. Again.
-Oops, not quite. Timed event. I have to chase the Leblanc Gang to the top of these ruins.
[Non-rhetorical question for y’all: How do I tell whose turn it is?
Eventually I’m sure I’ll be more familiar with the dresses and just know who in my party is the gunner at a given time or whatever, but for now I don’t know what to look at in the UI to tell me whose turn it is.]
Gagazet Floating Ruins
-When the Fayth disappeared, some of the clouds around Gagazet faded and revealed floating ruins. That’s where we’re going now.
-Yuna seemed to get vertigo and nearly fell.
- What the hell is this place?? The ruins of what?
-oh god, oh god, oh god. This game has active jumping. I’m going to suck so bad at this. And yet, jumping and climbing adds a potentially neat element to exploration.
-FHDJKLSFHLDS PAINE WHAT
-I swapped her to “Festivalist,” and… lololol. Just.
I had built Paine up as this stoic warrior in my mind, and now she’s wearing a goofy chocobo mask and saying, “Don’t put off the party for another day!’
-Surprisingly, she does huge damage in this form. I should have learned from Mortal Kombat not to underestimate the power of a fan.
-Elevator starts to drop fast.
-Seems like XP is awarded based on how many actions I take in combat. Not sure I want Dancer as a primary thing since it uses fewer actions.
-Hi again, Leblanc.
-lol rikku: “Maybe she’ll go away if we ignore her.”
-She’s a rival sphere hunter.
-Ormi and Logos are with her. The music is goofy af. I don’t know who the big bad will be in X-2, but there’s a zero percent chance in my mind that it’ll be Leblanc.
-Yuna seems to be earning so much less experience than Rikku or Paine per fight. Her ATB gauge is longer – maybe she’s just getting in fewer actions.
-I feel pretty uncomfortable with combat so far. It’s very hectic.
-Leblanc and friends go down again. She drops a smoke bomb and peaces out. Again.
-Oops, not quite. Timed event. I have to chase the Leblanc Gang to the top of these ruins.
[Non-rhetorical question for y’all: How do I tell whose turn it is?
Eventually I’m sure I’ll be more familiar with the dresses and just know who in my party is the gunner at a given time or whatever, but for now I don’t know what to look at in the UI to tell me whose turn it is.]
-This is getting frustrating. I’m on a platform, trying to climb, and no idea where to find purchase. I keep getting trapped in combat every time I try to look around for where to go… aha! Found where to jump down. This jumping and climbing thing will take some getting used to.
[Later edit: it really wasn't that bad, but timers and races stress me out inordinately.]
-Hee! I just noticed that on the back of Festivalist Paine’s shirt is a tonberry.
-Found my first oversoul, a Divebeak.
-Festivalist!Yuna looks incredibly cool.
-I’m pretty sure I’m about to lose. That’s okay. If I have to redo this, I’m strangely comfortable with the idea. Feeling waay more okay with combat now.
-Time’s up. But I can still keep going. Just going to explore a bit as I go, since I assume I lost out on whatever awesomeness was at the top.
-A treasure chest on the stairs near the top was empty. Guessing that it would’ve had something in it if I got there before the Leblanc Gang. Hopefully just an accessory rather than a dressphere.
-Their gang flees in terror, running past us. Boss time probably.
-Crabulon!
Boris.
-Holy shit. I just one-shot Boris with Fest!Yuna’s Fire Sandals, which cast Firaga. That seems a bit OP.
-We run past the boss and take a sphere.
-Uh oh. We phone our success into the Celsius and Brother is gone. Did he go to check on our disasterrific mission?
-Yup. He jumped ship when he heard Yuna was in trouble. He’s just lying on the bridge now. Maybe I was supposed to find him down below somewhere.
---
Next time: viewing the newly obtained sphere. Also checking out the Creature Creator tutorial which I think I missed.
