TW: brief mention of stalking
Besaid Island
-Lots of stuff on tap here. Got the hotspot temple shenanigans going on, the Besaid Key to check out, and the cactuar who I think might be here.
-Sounds like Wakka has been kicking fiend ass.
-Beclem’s training paid off. The Aurochs were able to help against the fiends.
-It’s gotta feel weird for Yuna to charge Lulu to help out.
-Shinra’s still setting up the CommSphere. Ooh, is it ready?
-Nice, this’ll give us a visual to check in across Spira.
-GOD BROTHER YOU ARE SO GROSS
Right there with you, Shinra.
-Fucking Beclem. He wants to burn the temple down to ensure the source of the fiends is destroyed.
-Opened the chest in the temple and got the Search Sphere. It is only of use on Besaid.
-It seems like we’ll get a bit of Search Sphere Hot & Cold. We will search the island with the Search Sphere and try to dig up little cipher things.
-Beclem tries to justify his desire to burn the temple. He thinks praying never did anyone any good. Boy, is Yuna the wrong person to talk to in that way.
-Yuna doesn’t argue. Just turns, walks away from him.
Into the temple to fight the fiends.
---
Besaid Temple
-oh lord, I’m not ready for Yuna to have to fight resurrected!Valefor.
-There are glowing disappearing and reappearing runes lining the walls. Were those always here? I don’t think so. They are reminiscent of the glowing runes beneath Bevelle, where Vegnagun used to be.
-Wakka’s here, a bit dinged up.
-Paine may be leaning towards the fire solution, but I’m hoping that we can solve things by taking out the source. Please let it not be Valefor.
-Hee! We leave Wakka in the dust to recover. Just the Gullwings.
-no valefor no valefor no valefor…
-well. Shit.
-Wakka comes down and sees this, but Yuna insists this isn’t simply an aeon. Something’s wrong.
-Valefor goes down super quick. Not like the Yojimbo fight.
-Yuna, I’m so, so sorry you had to go through that.
-We emerge. Beclem wonders why Wakka risked himself when he’s about to become a father, but I personally think he’s just concern trolling cause he wanted to burn the place down.
WAKKA: "If we risk dying trying to save one memory, we risk losing them all."
RIKKU: "But, what if it’s a really important memory?"
WAKKA: "‘Memories are nice, but that’s all they are.’ It’s an Al Bhed saying."
He’s quoting Al Bhed! Wakka really has come far!
I really like this exchange. There’s no right answer to me, no clear side. The need to preserve memories is so important! I’m glad Yuna feels comfortable defending this as some of her desire to preserve the temple.
-I’ve said this before, but I really dislike Brother. A lot.
-The mission is over, but back to Besaid. First thing is I want to check Valefor’s room.
-No treasure. Just another huge hole.
-The monk guarding the Cloister has the option for another Gunner’s Gauntlet, this one set in the Cloister of Trials. I have zero desire to play that mini-game again.
---
Besaid Island
-Found the first cipher with the Search Sphere, in the village. Or did I? It uncovered a camera that lets me zoom. No password. Gonna check back with the woman in the temple to make sure I’m using this correctly.
-She leaves it pretty vague. Just says I can use those not!commspheres to scan the area and maybe see a thing.
-Okay, I scanned around and see a green sphere with a B in it that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen.
Going to assume that’s the part of the code necessary right now.
-Sure enough, found the second cipher sphere by the save sphere outside the village, and zoomed in on a green sphere that’s a bit hard to make out. 7? A? R?
-I’m strongly disliking the mechanics of the Search Sphere. It frequently zooms up to red, and yet I still can spam “B” around the area trying to dig and there’s no indication if I’m close or not. There’s no way it should be in the red this frequently unless possible spheres are all around me.
-Found the fourth one, an O.
-Found the Cactuar Toumeya chilling on the beach.
-I lost the “cact-war” (lol), but don’t really understand how. I only shot when Toumeya was on the screen. Can I control when he dodges to make him miss or pure luck? Huh. I’ll try playing with my timing more next time.
-Finally found the last one, a 5. So I have B/8, 7/A/R, 0/O, and 5.
-Got to the Besaid Cave and it asks for four numbers. Gonna go with 8, 7, 5, 0.
-Hm. No luck. Tried a few different combos of those numbers.
-I was about to brute force it, but that’s a lot of possible combos. Instead, going to go back and make sure I read the spheres correctly.
-FUCKING HELL DUDE. As soon as I walked into Besaid Village, Brother came in from the CommSphere and I now know enough Al Bhed to understand that he said, “Yuna! So photogenic!” This CommSphere system has some majorly uncomfortable implications.
-In order of proximity to Besaid Village:
FIRST: It really, really looks like a B, but not like an 8. Perhaps it’s a 3 with a super long left mark?
SECOND: Probably a 7 but possibly a 7 or a 4?
THIRD: Definitely a 5
FOURTH: Definitely a 0
-The puzzle should be solved. I found all the cipher spheres with the Search Sphere and zooming. It really bothers me that the puzzle is now trying to read weird numerical handwriting.
-Back in the cave at the console. Let’s try again. For the moment, I’ll assume that the order is the proximity to Besaid Village.
Try: 8750 – 3750 – 8450 – 3450
-3750 worked. Yay!
-Worked through the short, twisting cavern, and came out atop the Waterfall. “Waterfall Way.”
-At the end of the path there’s a treasure chest with the Raging Giant garment grid. Various confuse/berserk-related abilities. Kind of niche, but still nice.
-Hoo boy. Just got Dirty Dancing on Songstress!Yuna, which lets all party members crit while she dances. I’m really psyched to combine this with Berserker!Paine. (Who one fight later, learned Magic Counter.)
-Ready to leave, but one last note. I experimented a lot with Hi-Potion mixing on Alchemist!Rikku, but stopped. It seemed like the vast majority of combinations were giving me Mega-Pot. Nice, but far lower variety than I got with standard potions.
---
Next time: Cactuar hunting continues.
