Summary: Kilika, Luca, Mi’ihen Highroad, and Mushroom Rock Road revisited. The Magus Sisters return.
Kilika Port
-The place is still rebuilding. Doing better judging by what the people say, but still not normal yet.
-Hi, Vuroja! I love seeing blitzers I know from the games just hagnging out in their towns.
-Having a ribbon shield for Tidus frees up some inventory space. I sell off most of my single-status protection for him.
-I can see the airship from the dock. Nice. It’s not just randomly floating in the air, but parked nearby.
-Fucking warrior monks.
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Kilika Woods
-Gonna try to capture some of these fiends.
-FOUND A CODE FOUND A CODE!!! There are only three letters here that Tidus doesn’t know, but based on context and my own personal glossary I’ve put together, I know them.
“t e p s w r s
V C O I U”
[Later edit: I like doing crossword puzzles. I’m not especially good at them – usually can get through most of a Wednesday one and some of a Thursday one – but I like them. There’s something satisfying in staring at something, trying to understand it, and eventually having the block in your mind just fall away as the answer appears to you after staring long enough.
Something similar happened with this on a small scale. I was inserting screenshot links throughout this post, and it clicked. I think when I combine this code with whatever I find in Bikanel, I’ll get “the password is” and then “V_C_O_I_U_,” or maybe “_V_C_O_I_U.” That combined second word will be the thing I input. I’m certain.]
D -> T
F -> W
I -> U
-Approached the Kilika Temple, and I’m turned away.
-Hey – the monks guarding the temple just turn me away verbally. No “Dark Ifrit.” I count that as friendly. Relatively speaking.
-Back aboard the airship, I tried entering different combos of those codes. No luck. Perhaps I have to combine them in some way? After all, the “code” on Besaid said “Kilika and Bikanel,” together as one. I’ll keep an eye out for a similar code in Bikanel to try combining with this.
KILIKA FIENDS CAPTURED [3]
-DINONIX
-KILLER BEE
-RAGORA
-YELLOW ELEMENT
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Luca
-No fiends to capture here, but I want to check this place out anyway.
-We may be marked as traitors, but we’re also blitzers. The people respect that.
-The Ronso have turned against the temple of Yevon. Both because the warrior monks left Luca for Bevelle, leaving Luca unprotected, and probably because of Seymour’s act against them.
-Even the Luca Goers are supporting us! Disney sports movie villains no longer.
Game respects game.
-The Crusaders are starting to pick themselves up too.
-Went to check out the sphere theater thing, but fuck that. Waaaaay too expensive.
-Some really good armor and weapons being sold here. Element-proof armor, and triple-status-inflicting weapons. But I want to save up.
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Mi’ihen Highroad
-Someone here says that there are seven legends about Lord Mi’ihen’s statue.
1)Its eyes follow you when you move.
2)It gets up and walks around at night.
3)His sword still exists somewhere.
WAIT HOLY SHIT IS THAT THE RUSTY SWORD I FOUND OUTSIDE THE CAVERN OF STOLEN FAYTH??
-The dude doesn’t say the other four legends.
-Gonna head back to the statue at the start of the Highroad. Maybe I can use the sword somehow.
-Can’t activate the statue or use the sword. However, the traveler said it gets up at night. Maybe something’ll happen to cause night to fall across Spira, and that’ll give me a chance to give him this sword.
-Found a message in a ruin: “There is a valley in a vast plain with a great thorn beside. From the thorn look cross the vale to the other side.”
-Hm. Thunder Plains? Calm Lands? I’ll keep an eye out for a thorn.
-All the chocobos that used to be bouncing around here are gone. Killed in the Sin attack.
-Ok, got all the fiends here.
MI’IHEN HIGHROAD FIENDS CAPTURED [8]
-BOMB
-DUAL HORN
-FLOATING EYE
-MI’IHEN FANG
-RALDO
-THUNDER FLAN
-VOUIVRE
-WHITE ELEMENT
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Mushroom Rock Road
-At first, I thought that the fiend-capture thing might feel a bit like a time-waster. Just, go back to old zones and get weak monsters?
I was so wrong.
-When past FF games reached a point where the world opened up, I usually liked to go back through things and see what I missed. This capture system helps guide me through that process in FFX. A focused tour of the world, showing me the new things there.
-Two summoners see us upon entering the Mushroom Rock Road from the Highroad. A kid and an adult.
Dark Someone time?
-NO IT’S A TRIO OF BUG PEOPLE WHAT?
-But I had the chance to escape. And escape I did. Back to at least save at the Mi’ihen Highroad. If this is anything like recent encounters, I can expect to die.
-The bug people are doing some trippy “Delta Attack.” (“Delta Attack” is a boss move that’s plagued me in FFIV first, and again in subsequent games like Chrono Trigger.)
It’s an intensely cool animation. Long, too – reminds me of what some final bosses have used in the past, those attacks where they throw planets at you and shit. It also spams me with 99,999 damage. Uhhhhhhh.
-Recently, balthier asked me what I thought of the difficulty of the game. I said it was fine. Always doable, tough but fair.
I may be rethinking that.
Look. I’m sure it’s still tough but fair, but I’ve never felt so consistently outmatched in an FF game before. Not just by a single boss, not just by a single Ozma or Omega that whomps me before I move on, but by a series of encounters across the world the regularly whomped me.
I’m certain there’s a trick to beating this. Dark Valefor did 9,999, so maybe if I get enough HP/defense I can do better. This trio? Getting hit by hundreds of thousands of damage across my party? It’s not about HP/Defense.
-Let’s try a few things. But I have a hunch that I’ll leave FFX with more content unfinished and undone than any prior FF game, and that it won’t even be close. I don’t see this as a bad thing at ALL. I love when games give a range of challenges, with a doable baseline and a heavy challenge mode for those who want it.
I didn’t have to come back to Mushroom Rock Road, or Dark Valefor, or Dark Yojimbo. I could probably complete the game without these elements. (I hope that’s true at least.) These are extra side puzzles.
-Going to try that again with the set-up I used against Dark Yojimbo. Initiative and First Strike equipped, so I can at least get a singled attack off.
-Nice. I just learned that I can skirt around this parent/child pair. If I don’t beat the bug trio (and I don’t expect to), I can continue on my capture mission and come back if I want to later.
-OMG. I FOUGHT THEM AGAIN THIS TIME, HAD FIRST STRIKE, AND SAW THEIR NAMES. DARK SANDY, DARK CINDY, AND DARK MINDY!!! Those were the bosses guarding the Barbariccia, Fiend of Wind, way back in FFIV, who did the Delta Attack in that game.
This is so frigging cool. I’m squeeing with joy right now. Yet again, I’m so, so happy I am playing the series in order so I can appreciate little callbacks like this. Even if said callbacks leave me a bloody smear on the ground.
-Ok, Coldrun. Think.
-All three are like aeons. They all have full overdrive gauges. They all also go before my party, so I again don’t think I’m meant to win a straight-up fight. Can I do anything to reduce their overdrive gauge? Maybe if one gets disengauged (heh, sorry), they can’t do Delta Attack.
-Gonna try an insta-kill Yojimbo.
-lolol Yojimbo used Wakizashi, and one of the trio did a butt wiggle that obliterated him.
Then they Delta Attacked me.
-Tried another Yojimbo spending 100k, but still got Wakizashi. Perhaps I can’t get Zanmato on this group.
-WHOA WHAT WAIT
-I JUST TRIED AGAIN, GOING WHOLEHOG, SAYING FUCK IT AND HANDING YOJIMBO 130K, AND HE DID ZANMATO
-IT WORKED AND I GOT A SHITLOAD OF AWESOME EQUIPMENT
-Is that the answer? For Dark Valefor too? Maybe I just come back to all these “Dark” enemies when I have a crapload of money. My best guess at this point is that Yojimbo’s Zanmato is the “noob” way to beat these enemies, but that there’s also a cleverer way without sinking gil into him.
Well... I am noob, hear me roar!
-Shooting Star is one of my favorite attack animations. It’s Auron getting his Happy Gilmore on.
-Found a path I don’t think I’ve seen before.
-THERE’S A STATUE AND I CAN USE THE RUSTY SWORD
-GOD I’M SO EXCITED
-It unlocks a panel. Another thing that the Cloudy Mirror can use. I really have to learn how to charge that thing up. Making progress though!
-I’ve been using the new auto-haste bracelet on Kimahri, and I like how all his animations are now much faster.
-Huh. Is this beach new too?
-No. The path to reach it is new, but the beach itself is not. It’s the Sin aftermath.
-Meanwhile, on the Sphere Grid. Lulu just got Doublecast.
I’m using my one Special Sphere so that Yuna can get that too. Seems like it’ll be useful.
MUSHROOM ROCK ROAD FIENDS CAPTURED [7]
-BOMB
-DUAL HORN
-FLOATING EYE
-IPIRIA
-THUNDER FLAN
-VOUIVRE
-????
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Next time: Quick stop back to the Calm Lands Arena to check in, then back continuing on Mushroom Rock Road.
