Celsius
-Just checked the Black Tabard. Lets me use Black Mage spells. Nice for Yuna!
-Ok, let’s check the CommSpheres again. I like this occasionally, but hope it’s not my primary way now of navigating the world.
-Dona misses Barthello so much. I love how this relationship has been developed.
And now I feel SUPER CREEPY spying on her like this.
-Shelinda’s network in Luca will carry Yuna’s concert live.
-Rin confirms that our investigation is now closed.
-Lucil claims that the Youth League doesn’t want to start the war, but she worries that the soldiers’ wild anger may eventually become too much.
-The Al Bhed think that the fiend ravaging the desert has to do with Vegnagun.
-No chocobos allowed on the shoopuf? How rude.
-Ormi and Logos used to fight for Yevon. Used to “do their dirty work.”
-Poor woods musicians.
-A hypello went to the Macalania Agency and was attacked by fiends. Shouldn’t we go save him?
-The Bikanel Desert camp looks fucked up. The fiend (that I assume is Angra Mainyu).
-As we’re watching, the earth shakes. The fiend is on its way.
-Uh-oh. Kimahri isn’t at the mountain gate.
-FOUND A CACTUAR!! In the Gagazet hot springs.
-I don’t know if Isaaru will come to the concert, but he’s at the Zanarkand campfire and wishes us luck.
-hahahah – got a mission called “Rehearshal’s Shtarting?” and the entire mission text is in the hypello dialect.
-Okay, that was super confusing.
It was a mission that seemed to use PlayStation keys. I have an X-Box controller. That sucked.
-Got the Pearl Necklace accessory as a reward which must be the worst one.
-Yuna starts singing a song she never knew. “It’s more like I felt it.” YUNA, TAKE THAT FUCKING POSSESSED SONGSTRESS DRESS OFF NOW. WEAR BERSERKER CLOTHES. SAMURAI DRESSPHERE. SOMETHING ELSE. ANYTHING ELSE.
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Thunder Plains
-Time to land.
-Fiends have shown up to attack the spectators, so we have to clear them out first. (I still think the Thunder Plains is a bad idea, unless you’re super 10000% confident in the towers.)
-YES!! Berserker!Paine finished off Evade & Counter.
-Neat new enemy: Aka Manah.
[Later edit: In the next chapter, I’m going to try scanning more enemies and seeing if the yellow spells are blue magic, really actively trying to build my gun mage repertoire.]
-Got to the boss area.
-An old fiend returns: the Gigas. It’s started using magic attacks.
-I can sort of see the boss over the walls of this labyrinthine area, and it does look pretty dang big.
-Gotta say, I love GunMage!Paine’s checkered pants. It’s a bold look.
-The boss is my old nemesis from FF3.
Zalamander.
-Heee!! The scan description is in hypello.
-That was quick. Got an achievement, “Dousing the Fire.”
-Got a nice ring, the Black Ring. Anti-Gravity, and can cast Demi.
-CONCERT TIME!!
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Yunapalooza
-The Celsius has arrived with a ton of passengers.
-People from New Yevon and the Youth League are both here.
-Uh-oh. Trouble in the crowd?
-Makes sense. Two warring factions.
-Sounds like these wounds need to be healed by the POWER OF SONG.
-Yuna sounds pre-emptively exhausted, hearing this. It’s a lot of pressure.
-HI TOBLI!! Time to start. I just pray that there’s no mini-game involved in this.
-YRP time.
-dammit. She’s in her possessed songstress garb.
-Her speech hearkens back to the war 2000 years ago that birthed Sin. I wonder how much Lenne will feed into this.
-Yuna is a commanding public speaker.
-The voice starts to double… is that Lenne? I’m super paranoid about Lenne’s presence, even though she’s not necessarily bad.
-Beautiful cinematic concert.
-oh god the background is morphing into Zanarkand, this is bad
-the pyreflies
-VEGNAGUN??? And Shuyin. Together.
-THIS IS INCREDIBLE
-WAIT CAN RIKKU AND PAINE SEE THIS??
THE MUSIC IS HAPPENING AS SHUYING IS DOING SHIT WITH VEGNAGUN
-SHE’S NOW LENNE FULLY
-SOLDIERS ARE TAKING AIM AT SHUYIN THIS IS WHAT WE SAW BEFORE
-THEY GET GUNNED DOWN
-LENNE AND YUNA ARE SINGING BACK TO BACK, IN HARMONY
-Is there actual sun on the Thunder Plains now? Damn. Powerful voice.
-Yuna collapses at the end of the song, physically exhausted.
-Wow. I have chills. That was some virtuoso sequence.
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Post-Concert, Aboard the Celsius
-Wait, everything that happened in Yuna’s mind was projected onto the screen? EVERYONE SAW THAT???
-Yup. Everyone saw Lenne and Shuyin.
-So what we saw, with Vegnagun, must’ve happened in the past? Still a bit confused there.
-Maechen meets us on the ship.
-He believes that the concert was effective.
Hahahaha
YUNA: “You know Lenne?”
MAECHEN: “Of course. Would you like to hear-?”
YUNA: “Yes, tell us!”
Agreed. EXPOSITION ME NOW, Mr. Exposition!
-1,000 years ago, she was a songstress in Zanarkand. She was also a genius summoner, and was sent ot the front lines of the war.
-“A young man” whose name was lost to time (probably Shuyin) was unaccepting of this. Planned to steal the machina weapon and save Lenne. But they got gunned down as we saw. Their last moments.
-So this puts Shuyin in a bit more of a sympathetic light. Rikku and Yuna see themselves reflected in this.
PAINE: “I think that Lenne’s final words might have been happy ones. ‘I love you.’”
-Aha. But these final words, Shuyin never heard. He died before Lenne could tell him.
-I wonder if that’ll be the way to stop him now. Now to simply kill him or overpower him, but to allow YunaPossessing!Lenne to say those words.
-Leblanc is down here in the engine room of the ship with new info. Gives us the Crimson Sphere 5.
-Wait, Nooj is in the Farplane? That’s where Yuna was in that weird illusion place?
-Leblanc is determined to go to the Farplane, despite how much this terrifies Ormi and Logos.
LEBLANC: “Anything goes for the power of love!”
-Back on the bridge, Shinra is getting commsphere transmissions from the hole.
-Gippal! He fixed it. We see him but he can’t hear us.
-We see Nooj as well. They’re plotting how to fight Vegnagun. They tried approaching it but when they do, it lashes out or gets angry or something.
GIPPAL: “When a Deathseeker dies, it’s no apology.”
-Deathseeker must be some Crimson Squad title.
-Yuna wants to talk to Shuyin.
-Next stop: one of those holes.
-Chapter 4 complete! The shortest one yet – perhaps because the game forced me down the critical path.
-It feels like I’m getting really close to the end, but only 56% complete.
-Looks like the game will open up again.
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Next time: Strategizing the next steps. If it’s up to me, I’ll head around the world again, checking on things in person, with my first steps as the cactuar nation and then the chocobo ranch. Oh, and I have to remember to watch Crimson Sphere 5.
