Via Infinito
-Cloister 62. Had to stop using Tetra Master accessories/garment grid because I’m running into an enemy called Claret Dragon that absorbs all magic.
-Ooh, a dog enemy called Tindalos. Lovecraft reference?
-Honestly surprised that tonberries are still the cloister bosses this deep down. Thought they’d be, like, Tonberry Kings or Chiefs or something.
-DarkKnight!Paine’s “Darkness” obliterates this resistant flan. I’ll bet it counts as non-elemental. That’s good to know.
-Cloister 70. A Great Malboro. Eesh.
Though I had to laugh at “Really Bad Breath.”
-Christ. I knew this day would come. In Cloister 72, I have to fight a giant tonberry. Gonna try skirting around it just in case, but I doubt this’ll work… IT WORKED!! He swung his lantern in wide arcs, and I could time getting past him when he wasn’t swinging his lantern.
-lol. After all that, I come to Cloister 73 and it’s Tonberry Central down here.
-Its Chef’s Knife attacks obliterate me for untankable damage.
-The trick here seems to be avoiding the little tonberries. If I try fighting a little tonberry, the mega tonberry waddles up and goes all “DON’T TALK TO MY SON” on me.
That has to be the trick. I can’t really imagine beating a Mega Tonberry. They seem meant to dodge, not kill.
-These gel enemies continue to be the bane of my existence. I can beat them, but they’re pretty resource-intensive fights.
-Cloister 77. Anxiety rising.
-Ran into Omega Weapon. AS A RANDOM ENCOUNTER. This has happened before in the series, with War Machine in FFI and Ultima Weapon earlier in this dungeon, but still. Was not expecting this.
-Even scarier: its scan description says there’s worse to come.
-Wow. I won. Darkness and regular attacks, plus Hi-Wall at the start of the fight. That’s really surprising.
-I don’t know where I would be right now without Dark Knight. It crushes Protean Gels. It crushes the all-but-holy-immune demons. It crushed FRIGGING OMEGA.
-Cloister 80. Here we go.
-It’s not Temra yet. This place seems like it will probably go to 100. It’s the two lovers, Lord Zaon (I think that was his name?) and Lady Yunalesca.
-They combine into a super basilisk. Chac.
-It obliterates me. Petrify seems to be its main attack, but it also used “Heaven’s Cataract” (which GunMage!Yuna learned as blue magic before promptly dying).
-Putting on anti-petrify items doesn’t seem to help. I still get turned to stone. Even Yuna’s Ribbon doesn’t help.
-I’m able to survive for a little bit, but even with Shell and Reflect up, Heaven’s Cataract does about 12-14k damage. I’m kind of at a loss.
-Done here for now. Maybe as I try more dresspheres and unlock more stuff, like fuller unlocks of the special dresspheres which I haven’t tried much, more ideas on how to overcome this will hit me. I’m both shocked and delighted I got as far as I did, and leveled up a whole bunch. All in all, worth the trip through this place.
-p.s. I’m terrified of what Trema might be like.
[Later edit: I keep thinking about this fight, about how I’ve seen people beat superbosses in past games, and my best theory currently is that I might need to jack my magic resistance through the roof. Going to keep a watch out for ways to do this, accessories to buy, etc.]
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Calm Lands
-I’ve scanned through some of the mission descriptions trying to decide where to go next, and I feel almost certain that this is the final chapter.
-Checking in on my chocobos. One chocobo ran away in the Thunder Plains.
-The more chocobos I’m raising, the less likely a chocobo will run away. Huh.
-Heading back to that nook in the northwest. I swear there’ll be something there eventually and not sure what will trigger it.
-DarkKnight!Yuna’s helm looks like a cross between the head of a xenomorph and a bagel slicer.
-Last place in Calm Lands I want to check out before moving on is somewhere I forgot before, the Cavern of Stolen Fayth and the surrounding area.
-I could’ve sworn there was a statue of Lord Mi’ihen here before that gave me a Rusty Sword. Now it’s just a pillar.
-Now THIS is what I’m talking about!! When I want to Yojimbo’s room in the Cavern of Stolen Fayth, I got a treasure chest with Aurora Rain in it. That lets Floral Fallal break HP limit.
-I’ve been playing around with Paine’s special dressphere, building its abilities while moving through the Cavern, and some of its later abilities let me jack my HP through the roof. Double. Triple. That’s awesome!
-Interesting. I got as far as I could on Paine’s Full Throttle special dressphere, unlocking all the abilities currently open to me – including the incredible Sword Dance (one of my favorite things from FFV).
Sword Dance.
But that still leaves Full Throttle at 86%, not 100%, and Dextral and Sinister Wings (the companion dresspheres) at 82%. I’ll bet that out there in the world somewhere is a key item that’ll grant me access to the remaining abilities.
-Just checked the Floral Fallal abilities, and what I see here basically confirms the above. Floral Fallal doesn’t automatically have double HP just because I have the key item. Rather, I get access to an ability (currently at 0/20) that can Break HP limit.
-Quick check in on the chocobos, then I’m off to see the baby.
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Besaid Island
-LOOKIT HIM SO CUTE!!!
-AND HE’S GOT A LITTLE MOOGLE POMPOM HAT
-No name yet.
-Lulu wants Wakka to decide on the baby’s name. He’s nervous.
-Checking the cloister/chamber in case I missed anything. Don’t see anything here though.
-I’m starting to get kind of emotional walking around on Besaid. I feel like I’m almost a resident of Spira at this point, that this is my last chance to see it (for a while, anyway), and I’m going to miss it.
-Beclem is leaving on the ferry today. Good. What an asshole.
-Found another key item retracing my steps on Besaid: Twilight Rain. And… wow. It lets Floral Fallal break the damage limit. Going to work hard to raise that.
-Finding Twilight Rain also confirms my desire to revisit everywhere I’ve been.
-Interesting! One of these Spine Drakes I found in a cave (leading to the top of the waterfall) has an ability called “Gun-Hater.” It only attacks characters with guns.
-Beclem’s at the docks. He needs to help reorganize the Youth League.
-A stray ball wanders by him. He juggles it a bit, then does some badass flipping spin shot.
-The Aurochs seem like they’ll miss him.
-That’s really all I could find to do here. Gonna head back to the village. Maybe Beclem’s departure triggered something back there.
-Yes! On the way back to the village, I run into Wakka. He was going to say goodbye to Beclem, but he’s too late.
-He’s still worried about the baby name, and Rikku thinks he’s just stalling.
Lololol she does a great Kimahri impression. XD
-It’s interesting advice. Partly that he should try, but that in the end he’ll still be Wakka. He won’t change what’s core to him. This seems to help, and Wakka thanks Rikku in Al Bhed.
(So weird for me still, remembering what Wakka thought of the Al Bhed early in FFX.)
-He invites us to spend the night in the village.
-As we move into the village, we get a scene at night.
-No name yet, but he wants to officially introduce everyone to the baby. This is so wonderful.
-I’m actually kind of tearing up. Again – it’s the sense that I’m saying goodbye.
-The message on the airship says “Episode Concluded.” Does that mean that I’m done in Besaid? Hm. I’m like 70% sure that I’m playing in the final chapter of X-2, but a part of me is screaming “NO DUDE, REMEMBER THE WORLD OF RUIN? DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN, YOU ALWAYS GET FOOLED. DON’T YOU SEE THAT YOU’RE ONLY LIKE 60% DONE WITH THE STORY?”
-And if this were a base game rather than a sequel, I’d put more faith in that. As is, I’ll be not-unpleasantly surprised if there’s a chapter 6 and 7 and beyond, but it’ll be surprise nonetheless.
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Next time: Bikanel Desert. Will continue working on Floral Fallal.
