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.
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bluemagedanny 57p · 264 weeks ago
1. After Gippal goes meeting, you can find the three leaders where you fought Bahamut. The gist of it is that Shuyin has been possessing Nooj for two years and tried to use his body to get Vegnagun, only for it to flee since Nooj wanted to destroy it. Shuyin then body hops to Baralai and tries to kill Nooj, only for the Gullwings to interrupt which causes Shuyin to attack them with a Malboro. He then flees into the hole while the other two follow, and Yuna and Rikku finally realize Paine knew all three of them. You also get a Crimson Sphere after this.
2. When Yuna is all alone and the screen is fading to black, pressing Square four times causes Tidus to come to her aid and help her out of the Farplane. This scene is needed for the Good Ending and might only happen if you talk to Maechen first.