Luca
-Found a Jecht’s sphere outside the locker room.
-He’s making Auron film him playing blitzball as an instructional video.
-Aw. He begins to tear up while thinking about his kid back in Zanarkand.
-Found a Jupiter Crest!! It was in a locker. That’s the last crest I needed. Now I have seven crests.
-What a start. I was debating whether to bother coming back here or not, since there’s no aeon in Luca, but it’s paid off big-time.
-Come on, Coldrun. Think. Celestial Tokens, legendary weapons. Where do I something with these? Maybe the Fayth Wall near Zanarkand. Maybe Bevelle. Maybe something else.
-Hi, O’aka! He escaped the priest’s prison.
-Tells us about a sister who went on a pilgrimage at a young age. He and Wantz didn’t want to be guardians then, but he regrets it. He’s helping us to make up for not helping.
-Huh. He says Lady Yuna looked so much like his sister. Who was O’aka and Wantz’s sister?
-Wantz is now the main vendor. O’aka’s retired.
-Just bought a couple of music spheres to try it out. Nice. I can play the soundtrack in-game, in a lore-centric way.
-Found an Al Bhed Primer here too. It was just blending in with the carpet. Vol. VII, K G.
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Djose
-The wounded Crusader on the road is looking much better. Relates how everyone sang together along the Highroad.
-The lemurs at this temple crack me up.
-The Cloister of Trials is going pretty smoothly. I remember more about how to navigate this than I thought I would.
-The Ixion fayth has a sweet hat.
-He forgot to move forward. Ready to run to the dream’s end.
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Guadosalam
-Our friend Zazi Guado warns us to stay away from Guadosalam. That’s new.
-Chateau Seymour still off-limits.
-At the Farplane, Tromell is talking to Lord Jyscal. Looks forward to death by Sin so that he can serve Lord Jyscal and Lord Seymour in the Farplane.
-That’s it for the Farplane. I’m a bit disappointed – it felt like a “celestial token” kinda place.
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Macalania
-The Guado are now the primary target of blame, not the Al Bhed.
-Seymour used to be this temple’s maester. There’s a void now.
-That seems to be an issue all over. No leader here, no leader in Guadosalam, nobody trusting the Yevon temple.
-Can’t get over how cool these fayth tableaus are.
-She seems to confirm that Tidus will fade into Spira when the dreaming ends.
-Even the Macalania trials go super quickly.
-Checked Zanarkand, but looked like I did all I could there for the moment.
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Calm/Stolen Fayth
-Heading to the Cavern of Stolen Fayth to see if I can talk again with Yojimbo.
-Something at the Calm Arena makes me think that I’m missing something. Between Mt. Gagazet and Omega Dungeon is an unknown location. This leads me to believe that there’s still one final dungeon to go through. Final boss may not be as imminent as I thought.
-Can’t reach Yojimbo. A cave-in blocks the way.
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Sanubia Desert
-PROGRESS!!
-I have a feeling the answer to some of this may be in Bevelle, so I was wandering around checking any last stuff before I get there. Went to Sanubia Desert to the sandstorm area, and now I can read the stone in front of it.
“10 little gatekeepers play in the sand.
Tomay’s gone. Gone to fetch the water.
Be back soon.”
VILLAGE OF THE CACTUARS HAHAHAHA THERE’S A VILLAGE THIS IS EPIC
-Not quite sure what I have to do. Maybe I have to kill 10 little cactuars and return. They don’t seem to drop spheres, but perhaps that’s metaphorical.
-It’s gonna take a little while to kill 10 of these. They’re not super common.
*five cactuars later*
-Yeah, this is pretty boring. It doesn’t help that I’m far from certain killing 10 cactuars here will let me into the village. The description to enter the village mentioned spheres, and the cactuars I’m killing don’t drop spheres. However, this is how it worked in FFVI to spawn Gigantuar, so hopefully it’ll work here.
-Hee! I just saw Wakka to something I never saw him do before. Instead of throwing his ball, he held it over his head with both hands and bopped the enemy bird. (It was a counterattack.)
-There. That’s 10.
-DAMMIT. It didn’t work.
-Ok. Chill. Follow the clues. The sign said that dude went to get water. Going to check by the entrance to the Sanubia Desert, where there’s water.
-FHDJKLSFHFHLDS YESSSSSSSSSSSSS
-Hi, Tomay!
-I’m getting a series of Way of the Gatekeepers messages. They’re brave, but I have to sneak up on them.
-Mini-game time. Aha! I have to use the tree for cover or he bounces away.
-Lost three times. Got the Sphere of the Perdedor (loser).
-Returned it to the stone. New writing:
“9 little gatekeepers play in the sand. Rovivea’s gone walkabout. Be back soon.”
-Found her. She seems to not like Tomay.
-Failed again, but now I get it. I’m not supposed to hide behind stuff. I’m supposed to turn my back during Needletime.
-Next clue: “Little Chava likes big numbers.” Honestly no clue where in the desert this could be.’
-Wish I had a chocobo for this part of the game. The desert is huge.
-Not seeing her… oh, maybe she’s by that 20% off sign?
-YES THIS IS SUPER SATISFYING!
-Though the trials are frustrating. I feel like I’m getting better, since I’m getting really close now, but still messing up at the last moment.
-Next: “Alek and Aloja play tag in the ruins of men.” By Home perhaps? No… maybe by the strong fiend ruins? Yes.
-These anecdotes about the individual chocobos are adorable.
-god I’m the WORST at this game.
-Next: “Vachella seeks the shining blue.” Water first jumped out a tme, but Tomay was there. A save sphere probably. Not at the nearest save sphere. Maybe the one where we found Rikku? Yes.
-Come on, Coldrun, you can get this!
-lolnope this is a seriously unforgiving cactuar
-Next: “Robeya’s stuck inside.” First gonna check the nearby Sandragora traps… nope. Next idea is one of those enclosed areas in the strong fiend section… not there either. This is tricky. Perhaps one of the tents… no.
-Another tricky one here. Okay, where else? I’m clicking on all the treasure chests in case she’ll pop out at me.
-$50 says you’re in this newly closed chest in front of me.
-Treasure chests taunted me at this trial. I got two of them but lost the trial overall.
-Next: “the lord of the hole is gone. Isrra thinks.” This must be a Sandragora pit… or not. Huh. That’s pretty surprising. I was so sure it would be a Sandragora pit.
-What gives. I feel like I’ve looked everywhere multiple times for Isrra.
-WHAT. Isrra was in one of the Sandragora holes I checked earlier. He must’ve done loops, gone between them and I just missed him.
-Still failing these trials. I don’t know how that one is physically possible even.
-Only two left.
-“Much-curious Elio has left on a journey.” Not quite sure what clues I’m supposed to glean from that. Going to check the straight-away paths where I came from by the ship sphere… Found him! By the oasis save sphere.
-OMG HE TELEPORTED UP TO THE AIRSHIP TO GO ON AN ADVENTURE Where’d that little stow-away sneak off to?
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Airship
-Seriously, where did he go? I’ve done a couple of laps around every square inch of this airship and can’t find him anywhere.
-Atop the airship, I talked to Yuna. Hoped she’d just tell me if she saw a cactuar, but started confiding in Tidus how something about the fayth’s offer was bugging her.
-She makes a good point. They’re saying they’ll help now… as if they hadn’t always been helping.
-Yuna walks through her thinking. If she summons an aeon, Yu Yevon will join with it. It’ll be small at first, perhaps beatable. But then it might jump again. I wonder if the final boss fight will turn into fighting against versions of each aeon.
-Yu Yevon is summoning the dream of the fayth from within Sin. Yuna now knows what’s up.
-HOLY SHIT SIN JUST SPROUTED ANGEL WINGS OR SOMETHING???
-HEY WAIT WHAT THE FUCK I WAS HAVING CACTUAR FUN TIMES, DON’T THROW ME INTO SIN NOW
-I quit the game and restarted. I hate hate HATE being taken into a new section without being ready. I very rarely do this, but no way am I letting the game stop me from finishing the cactuar thing.
-Ok. Back to the airship. I’ve done a bunch of laps around this place and have had no luck. Getting pretty frustrated. Went all the way back to the stone and still see the message about Elio. Guess I’ll walk back to the oasis.
-Back to the oasis, back to the ship, all over. What the fuck. He’s nowhere. Checked every compartment I could possibly click on the ship, checked every room multiple times, checked the top of the ship multiple times (the outside area with Yuna, accessible by elevator), talked to everyone multiple times, and NOTHING GRRRRRR.
-I don’t get it. I was so close to seeing a frigging village of cactuars and I get stuck on this. I give up.
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Highbridge
-There’s one final thing I want to do before progressing to Sin. I want to revisit Highbridge and Bevelle. I’m hopeful the answer to the celestial things is there.
-Two people are telling me the temple is closed off. Maroda and Pacce. Mourning for Maester Mika.
-Oh, right! This is Issaru’s crew. Sounds like Issarru might be in Bevelle trying to help keep the peace.
-Long story short: can’t get into the city.
-Even went back to the Wall of Fayth by the Gagazet cave, but nothing happened.
---
Next time: Honestly exhausted everything I can think to do. I could continue hunting down captures in Omega Ruins or try fighting some of the beasts in the Calm Arena, but would rather just move on for now.
I might change my mind. Feeling pretty drained right now to have spent so much time hunting cactuar with little to show for it. I still don't know what I did wrong. The clues made me feel so sure that the cactuar was aboard the airship, but no matter where I looked he wasn't there.
