Mushroom Rock Road
-Checked here on the Celsius and it seems like there’s a distress call without being a hotspot.
-Yaibal fills us in. The fiends got near the Youth League HQ, but not too close thanks to the Machine Faction’s help.
-When Gippal was here, he told the Youth League not to rely on the Gullwings.
I mean… it’s sound advice in general, but is it coming from a place of good intent or ill? Hard for me to say.
-Lucil interrupts. Wants to know if we have any leads on Meyvn Nooj. Yuna says no, but… that’s a lie, right? We have that sphere that puts Nooj beneath Bevelle iirc.
-There’s a blinking red light on the map, but I can’t reach it. The machine faction is dug in here, barricades and all.
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Djose Temple
-Gippal… vanished? I thought he was just at the Mushroom Rock Road. Huh.
-So all three faction leaders are missing.
-The Machine Faction is having trouble with the fiends because the fiends started merging with machina. That SUCKS.
-We head inside, and shit is looking rough as hell in here for the Al Bhed.
-The Tomb enemies here are nasty. They use Stone and Confuse.
-There’s a treasure chest I can’t quite reach… oh right lol, I forgot I can jump in this game.
-I like that the cloisters are more straightforward than in FFX. I loved them as puzzle areas, but would rather see this than having to figure out the same puzzles again.
-Ixion time.
-Rikku, stop being shocked that it’s another aeon. You had to expect this.
-Ixion merged with machina, but in combat seems to be the same Ixion. Aerospark and thunder magic.
-Got the Unwavering Guard garment grid.
-Another hole. Yuna doesn’t want to go in for some reason.
-LOL TOO BAD YUNA, OH SHIT SHE GOT KNOCKED IN BY THE EXPLODING IXION MACHINA
-We get a delightful split screen.
I love how X-2 has a style that’s all it’s own, a completely different feel from FFX.
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Way Down in the Hole
-The hole is… white? Yuna is falling.
-Not!Tidus is speaking to her. Wtf is happening????
-Now Yuna is in magic fountain celestial heaven.
-And wearing her songstress garb? I could’ve sworn she was in her gunner garb just a second ago.
-Her garb starts to shimmer. Pyreflies all around her.
-Hi, probablynot!Tidus!
“It is me. Shuyin.”
-He thinks Yuna is Lenne.
-Shuyni seems pissed that Spira is the same 1000 years later, and he wants to “fix” it. With Vegnagun.
-He keeps calling her Lenne.
-OHH!!!!! Is the garb she’s weawring possessing her, making her into this past Lenne?
-This is FUCKED. UP. Lenne’s feelings for Shuyin are mixing and melding with her own feelings for Tidus.
-Nooj and Baralai are here.
-Hallucinations on top of dreams wrapped in illusions.
-I’m SO CONFUSED.
-Gippal’s here too. The three faction leaders are in this pyrefly-infested dream world.
-Nooj and Gippal give Yuna two spheres to give to Paine.
-Gippal says the four of them - the three leaders and Paine – “go way back.” I KNEW IT!!
-Gippal, Nooj, and Baralai step into a portal and walk away, asking Yuna to “take care of things topside.” I’ll bet Shuyin is some old foe they all had to face as part of Crimson Squad. A vengeful Zanarkandian ghost or something.
-Got Crimson Spheres 2 and 3.
-Yuna is left alone. AND PISSED.
She doesn’t want to be yanked around like this. This is fantastic – I love when characters acknowledge that shit is confusing and are annoyed at being stuck in the middle of it. It’s incredibly relatable.
-I’m able to walk around with her a bit. There’s a weird spotlight following her.
-She yells out. An old trick from her time with Tidus.
-She’s… she’s just alone down here. Again, this is fucked up.
-She falls unconscious, and the scene chages. No longer on a flowery plateau. Now, she’s on a metal platform.
-Buddy makes contact with her by radio. Chapter 3 complete.
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The Celsius
-Start of chapter 4.
-A lot of time had passed apparently.
-Yuna relates the story to the group.
-Shinra says Lenne is the girl from the songstress dressphere. Says that she wore “that dress” 1,000 years ago. Well. There it is.
-This adds a whole creepy angle to that moment early in the game when the songstress dressphere kind of possessed Yuna. Yikes.
-The CommSphere system is almost ready.
-Yuna confirms that Shuyin wasn’t really anything like Tidus, aside from looks.
-Time to explore the ship a bit.
-Paine is on the deck. Yuna gives her the two spheres from Gippal and Nooj.
-Yuna starts to walk away, and I like how she doesn’t press Paine for details. Paine might appreciate it too as she chooses this moment to open up a bit.
-The three leaders were Crimson Squad candidates and Paine was their assigned recorder.
-Crimson Squad was an elite fighting squad created by Yevon. This is reminding me more and more of the Shinra/Deepground relationship in Dirge of Cerberus.
-The Squad was destroyed in “an accident” before it could be really deployed.
-Paine didn’t really understand what happened, and decided to become a sphere hunter to look for answers.
-Both Paine and Yuna are thinking about how tied they are to their pasts.
-This has gotta be especially disheartening for Yuna, this whole Shuyin thing, since it seems that Shuyin taking Tidus’s form may be a total mislead.
-Calli and Barkeep are still on board.
-One day, this lower staircase in the Engine Room is going to lead to something. I’m sure of it. But today is not that day.
-Back on the bridge, Paine says she’s staying with the Gullwings despite her recent thoughts on her past. She’s enjoying herself here.
-Neat! The CommSpheres are up and running, so we can check on them.
-Besaid is quiet. Fiend-free.
-Beclem will be leaving soon. The Youth League is recalling him.
-Someone is carrying the Kilika commsphere through the streets. Dona? Yup.
-Hee! They want Dona to be the new leader. She’d be awesome.
-Yaibal is panicking at Mushroom Rock Road. Rumors that Bevelle is planning to attack them, so they want to pre-emptively strike New Yevon. No way that’s going to go well.
-Last place I can currently connect to is Bevelle.
-A Youth League spy, Maroda, is there. Taking advantage of relative chaos in Bevelle due to the missing praetor and the fiends.
-So Chapter 4 seems like it’ll focus on Spira without its faction leaders while the leaders work on Vegnagun. She wants to bring people back together somehow.
-Wait. Their plan is to put on a concert so that Yuna’s singing can bering people together? I’m not sure whether they’re just fucking around or being serious.
-Oh shit, now CommSpheres are active everywhere. INFO OVERLOAD.
-They’re serious. This is the plan. We’re heading to the Moonflow to enlist Tobli’s help.
-Ok, so we’re doing this.
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Next time: Moonflow.
