Calm Lands
-OMG IT’S A RONSO KID!! That’s pretty heckin’ adorable.
-Wait, Lian? Is that one of the kids who went to search for Kimahri’s horn?
-Yeah. Definitely. Lian and Ayde.
-The kids don’t want to go back to Gagazet, and book it before we can catch them.
-what the fuck. Some rando is asking Yuna to marry his kid.
-This feels weirdly skeezy. I now have a quest called “There Goes the Bride” to find a match for this dude’s son.
-Found my first game set-up. I’m a bit hesitant about this – I’m never sure with mini-games how much time or money or resources to spend on them.
-First game is Sky Slots.
-Something about a publicity campaign. Sure, why not. Team Open Air.
-I try playing this game about 5-6 times and don’t have any luck. It’s pretty frustrating since the fiends don’t stop at consistent times.
-Ok, this is some bullshit tbh. I stopped the right fiend before the arrow twice now and it just skated right through and gave me the next one in line.
-Finally. On like the tenth attempt I got it.
-Next game is Reptile Run.
Sort of like Frogger, with fiends. Not too bad. I have some trouble, but the game does a great job of indicating how things work with the green, yellow, and red orbs.
-Let’s check out the Arena.
-Huh. Nobody’s home. That living reptile thing is still here, but I can’t go inside. Seems… ominous? I dunno. Predicting that this’ll be superboss territory by the end of the game. Just the way it’s set up reminds me of the language around Ozma in FFIX.
-Next game is Lupine Dash. Seems like a game of pure chance, predicting the outcome of a race. I’m more and more reminded of the Millenial Fair in Chrono Trigger.
-Whew, there are stats and everything. Not just a game of pure luck then.
-I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I want to win at least once. I bet on the one with the overall highest score until I win.
-Takes about four times, but eventually I win. Yay.
-Ooh, what’s this? A seal thing hidden on the northeast corner of the Calm Lands.
-Found a fiend change from the way FF enemies traditionally work – and unlike, say, the Tonberry change, I really like this one: Coeurls usually have a Blaster attack that instantly kills the target. In X-2, the Coeurl’s Blaster knocks a player down to 1 HP instead of instantly killing them. That’s way better. More chance to play around it imo.
-So that was fun! I think I’m good for now and don’t feel the urge to really binge or master any of these games, but I’ll check back in here every once in a while. Especially curious about the seal in the northwest and the ominous arena.
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Mt. Gagazet
-Kimahri is apologetic that he couldn’t find a sphere for Yuna. Yuna doesn’t mind though.
-I really like this relationship – both in FFX and its continuation here.
-Kimahri hasn’t checked the Fayth Scar. Let’s check there.
-I’m trying to get a sense of how the Ronso are dealing with the revelations around Yevon in FFX. It seems like their basic sense of what is sacred still holds true, although they are well aware that the Fayth are gone.
-I LOVE THIS – Yuna even asks Kimahri permission to go into the Fayth Scar. She knows and respects its sacredness to the Ronso, and I have no doubt that if Kimahri asked her not to go, she would have avoided it. No matter what spheres might be found there.
-Many of the Ronso here are hungry for vengeance. Hungrier for it than Kimahri.
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Spring into Action
-Teleported to the Fayth Scar and found a Leblanc Syndicate goon climbing the rails.
-I think I may have a sense of this chapter’s scope now. Maybe I get one uniform from this area, another from the other two hotspots.
-CREEPY!!! That’s really cool, but sort of horrifying. You can see the fayth that used to protrude out from the wall still etched into the wall.
-There’s a treasure chest juuuust out of reach.
-Okay, these pillars are ACTIVELY TAUNTING me. The pillars with treasure chests shift out of reach as I get close to them.
Just a few more steps…
…lol nm.
-Found a hot spring, where two Leblanc Syndicate goons are skipping their work to enjoy the spring.
-We’re about to grab their uniforms when Ormi shows up.
Quick boss fight. He goes down easy.
-The Syndicate members finally notice us: “The Gullwings? Or is it the Peeping Tom Wings?”
-We beat them, take their uniforms, and get the Stonehewn Garment Grid. I hope that’s not the end – I want to explore the top of the cliff.
-FUCK FUCK FUCK. That’s the end of it it. I’m back on the airship.
-Phew. False alarm. I can indeed go back to the mountain and climb to explore more.
-Got near the top, but the winds grew too strong and blew us away. We’ll come back.
-Even went back to the Hot Springs, but couldn’t interact with anything there.
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Guadosalam
-Looks like the Syndicate took Seymour’s home as their HQ.
-The innkeeper sells me “data” for 10,000 gil. Says I can sell it at a profit to someone else.
“Hint 1: the guy is in a place you wouldn’t expect.” The fuck am I supposed to do with that info?
-OH. It’s just in Guadosalam. Thought I was supposed to travel Spira looking for someone in a place I wouldn’t expect. I talked to the first three people I saw, and that was all the time I had before the data became “old.” Guess I just wasted 10,000 gil. I thought the time limit was a hidden clock, not a pre-set number of people I could try it on. Well… shit.
-One of the rooms in Guadosalam is locked.
-The Farplane is unstable. A large number of pyreflies, and no Guado to help understand it.
-Found an old woman outside Guadosalam and did a horrible job pitching her on the matchmaking and Open Air publicity thing. She was put off.
-I think we got all the info we need about where to go next. We’ll return once we get our disguises.
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Next time: Syndicate uniform hunting on the Djose Highroad and in the Bikanel Desert.
