Friday, December 2, 2016

FFX-2 – Part 3: Battlin’ Boris

Summary: Trying out Creature Capture. The adventures of Boris. Returning to Besaid. Lulu, Wakka.


Celsius

-Viewing the sphere. It’s Zanarkand.

-A ticket? “What a thrill to be able to shake her hand like that!” Whose hand?

-Dunno. But apparently we can use it as a dressphere. Black Mage.

-Next treasure spheres are on Besaid Island or the Zanarkand Ruins.

-Exploring hotspots lets me unlock new story, so incentivized to go to those places.

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Creature Capture Tutorial

-Brother has joined us! Trap pods L, S and M (hee) have been supplied.

-Wait, BROTHER is a creature we can do stuff with?

-I’m so confused by this. I’m trying to see Brother’s fiend story, and he’s running around on my screen, shaking his butt and screaming “PAAARTY!”



-Ah, found the tutorial.

-Shinra creature a Creature Arena. I wonder if it’s the same one as the one in Calm Lands.

-The goal here is to train fiends and learn their “Fiend tales.” Interesting. Backstory on fiends, who in the FFX-verse used to be human.

-I can set trap pods to cleanse the souls of fiends in different areas and turn them good.

-Four types of trap pods. The ones I got – s, m, l – correspond to fiend sizes. The last, SP, targets species.

-I can release fiends to make it more likely to catch others – or something? Didn’t quite understand this yet. I’ll try it out and see if it makes sense in context.



-I can use items and stuff to improve my fiends. Still not sure what the ultimate point is – do I fight htem against each other? Use them as party members?

-Each creature gets four command abilities and four auto-abilities.

-god, this is SO EXCITING!! The thing that incentivizes me to use the system isn’t loot (or at least not just loot), but more story.

-Fiends train in the Fiend Arena. Seems like a self-contained mini-game then.

-Now it’s going into Creature Battles. This reminds me of the pet battles in WoW. If I were a Pokemon player outside of Pokemon Go, it’d probably remind me of that, but not familiar enough with it to make the comparison.

-3 small = 1 large. 2 small = 1 medium. I can only have the equivalent of 3 small size fiends at once.

-Wait creatures can use dresspheres? XD XD XD I can’t wait to break out a Festivalist Behemoth.

-Creatures grow smarter as they fight. Huh.

-This is so weird. I can’t control the fiends (like the FFVI arena iirc), but I can affect them by cheering them on.



-Fiends can learn abilities when they’re attacked by said abilities, like this game’s blue magic.

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Creature Capture

-Trying it out. Going to trap some Gagazet fiends. Got an Ahriman, Takouba.

-WHAT??? LOLOL I GOT THE BOSS, THAT CRAB MONSTER BORIS



-And I can give Boris a Tiara. This is bizarre af.

-I don’t want to spend accessories on my fiends yet, but want to just try a battle out to see it.

-Ok. First fight. Boris vs. the Impressions (a coyote and Flan Azul).

-Won. Then lost to a turtle thingy.

-Let’s try one tournament.

-Boris tearing his way through! Lost in the second round though to a seed pod and getting this hilariously sad music. Poor Boris.



-HEY GAME, FUCK OFF!! DON’T CALL BORIS A LOSER. EVER.

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Besaid Village

-I’ve decided to switch jobs in combat as little as possible. Yuna is a Gunner, Rikku a Thief, Paine a festivalist.

-Went up the hill first and the traveler shrine thing says “6.” Um. Ok. Let’s head back to town.

-omg I forgot to swap Boris out and now it’s just boris fighting. Maybe I should just leave YRP on the sidelines and makes this Boris Fantasy X-2. Boris is the true hero that Spira needs.


BORIS: “This is my story.”

-Wow. This is the first time Yuna’s returned to Besaid in a while. I hope she at least let Wakka know where she was.

-Hey Rikku, how about you fuck off with the whole calling Wakka “tubby” thing? Thanks.

-WAKKA’S GONNA BE A DAD WTFFFFFF???? Is he having a baby with Lulu? I have to assume so.

-Wakka seems to mention know something about not ever having met his parents since Sin killed them, leaving him without a direct model for fatherhood.



And yet, there seem to be hints that he might know of a sphere of them. Or not. Hm. He’s acting unusually cagey about this.

-The store here has “rare finds.” Let’s see.

-She wants to sell me a key with the emblem with the Besaid symbol on it. Would love to buy it, but the price is just a tad steep.


I currently have around 2,700 gil.

-The Aurochs are here. Hi guys! And the Crusaders went to the mainland to join the Youth League.

-The temple is now called the “Great Hall.” I wonder what the state of the Yevon temple is. A bit like how the Christian world might react if it learned that Christ was secretly controlling an eternal sea monster whose death brought about an unprecedented era of world peace.

In other words, I have no fucking clue.

-A woman tells us to stop back here after we see the cave by the ruins. Ok.

-There’s a chest here that only a key etched with the emblem of Besaid can open. Sure. Lemme just scrounge up about a million gil and I’ll brb.

-The Cloister of Trials is closed. Let’s move out and explore the island.

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Around Besaid



-WTF THERE’S AN IRON GIANT IN BESAID?? The Blind Mask festivity worked great at least, keeping it blinded for the fight. Killed it.

-Found a switch. Can’t push it or do anything like that though.

-Can’t go into the water. Yuna, you gotta practice your breathing a bit more.

-OOH A THING!! I got to the beach, climbed up a bit, and found a thing on the ruins that says “5.” 6 outside town, 5 here.



-Found a hidden treasure chest.

-The beach is empty except for a couple of kids playing.

-Not really sure what I’m supposed to be doing tbh. Just kinda wandering the island. On my way back to the town, I found another glittery spot at the ruins that says “9.”

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Besaid Village

-Back to town… OH LULU RIGHT!! Forgot to seek her out. I probably just didn’t trigger a story thing. That explains why exploring Besaid felt a bit aimless.



-Lulu is indeed pregnant, but she’s not due for a little while.

-On a walk with Lulu.

-Yuna tells Lulu about the Maybe!Tidus sphere.

-Lulu watches it and agrees that something about it seems “a little off.” That phrase again.

LULU: “You have spread your wings.” Yuna really does sound and feel freer than before.



-Lulu warns that she might be used as the high summoner who defeated Sin, but Yuna is determined not to let that happen. She’s been used enough.

-Yay! Let’s stay the night at Lulu’s.

-The next morning, we find out that Wakka left to seek a cave. What are you hiding?

YUNA: “That’s funny. I don’t remember there being any cave.” Neither do I back in FFX. I’ll bet that’s what the switch unlocks.



-We’re on the case.

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Next time: Where’s Wakka?