Guadosalam
-Oh, right! Guadosalam is newly reinhabited.
-The guado are listening to the music of their forest friends.
-Hi Tromell.
-They went to the woods to “wither away.” But they met the musical people, who were prepared to fade as well. But their music revived the Guado somehow.
-Another common thread of X-2. The power of music.
-Tromell seems genuinely repentant. Willing to make genuine contrition, not according to his own desires, but according to whatever the Ronso ask.
-The Guado have to choose a leader. Rikku suggests Tromell, and though he objects, the forest musicians support this strongly.
-He relents. “If you’re ever feeling weary, we’ll play a song to make you cheery!
-Episode complete. I head back in.
-We head into Chateau Leblanc, though it’s empty.
-Explored the full chateau, including the parts below it. Nothing.
-Found Tromell, and… YAY! He invited me into the house that’s been locked. The final resting place of Guado memories.
-tbh, I’m a bit afraid that I’ll find empty chests and a note from Lone Wolf laughing at me.
-He offers to let us take anything from inside.
- LIAN AND AYDE KNOW THE GUADO IN HERE!! She’s the one they referred to.
-She gives me a Tempered Will garment grid. The kids gave her “tons more like it.” Hm.
-The kids are forming a bridge between Guado and Ronso. That’s really sweet.
-Tempered Will allows Double HP and Double MP from crossing nodes. Very nice.
-I also find Baralai’s Sphere here,
-Ooh, another data quest. Rumor is that the Mi’ihen Highroad, Thunder Plains, and Calm Lands, and Bevelle all contain hidden places. I think I know where all of them are except for the Thunder Plains.
Mi’ihen Highroad is the place with the 8 crystals. Calm Lands is that thing on the northwest. Bevelle is the Via Infinito. Thunder Plains? Not sure.
-The person running a shop here refers to Yuna as “the warrior princess.”
-Tobli’s house is open. I get a Crystal Ball from a chest there that raises magic by 50. Very nice.
-I hoped the Farplane would be open, but no luck.
-I really feel like I’m missing something in Leblanc’s house.
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The Celsius
-The new sphere is Yevon’s Secret.
-Maester Kinoc betrayed Crimson Squad.
-It’s Baralai.
-SEYMOURRRRRRR HOLY SHIT
-BARALAI WAS SEYMOUR’S APPRENTICE OR SERVANT OR SOMETHING – in exchange for expunging his Crimson Squad record.
-Whose voice is that using the sphere?
-Ah. Tromell.
-Wait, no. He just appeared. Not sure who’s recording.
-This is behind the scenes of FFX. Like, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
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Mushroom Rock Road
-Now time to test my theory. I want to head back to the Ravine, and if now 7/8 lights are done, this cave will be opened by the eighth.
-Dang. Still just six lights. It’s not about the story spheres.
-Now I’m more convinced than ever that Paine has been there. Inside that cave. As soon as I camefrom there, she says “That’s the place. That’s where… never mind.” Could that be where the Crimson Squad disaster took place? It also makes me think this is related to Crimson Spheres, but there are 10 (or more) of those, not 8.
-If that is the case, it might mean that Vegnagun wasn’t behind all that mind-control-possession weirdness. Hm.
---
Celsius
-I was looking through my spheres on the ship and see that I never looked at Crimson Record 2.
-Crimson Squad vs a giant or Gemini and some other monsters. They seem to be on good terms.
-Paine steps in from her recording, seeing that Nooj was about to throw away his life in this fight. He doesn’t deny it.
-Same with Crimson Record 3! Just forgot to watch it. Let’s look.
-Omg. Baralai and Gippal preparing for Operation Mi’ihen.
-They talk about preparing for the Calm, what it might be like. Nooj thinks it’ll be dull.
-Nooj is much different now.
-That’s it. All the others I’ve already seen.
---
Thunder Plains
-Fiends are swarming. Sphere waves scattered during the concert drew them here. Dang it, Shinra!
-One of the chimera type monsters, Rhyos, is at each of the lightning towers. I have to go clear them away.
-Hoping to find Cid here.
-I love Festivalist!Rikku.
It fits her personality in X-2 well. This probably sounds negative given that I don’t like a lot of how she’s written compared to FFX, but festivalist highlights the more positive aspects.
-I set foot into the Fiend Haunt, the little cave to the east of the Thunder Plains, but left. The treasure chests there hadn’t reset, which signals to me that there’s nothing new there.
-I like how each festivalist is good for different things. Festivalist!Rikku is a single-target specialist with her fish.
-I kill the last one, but Rikku points out that the lightning isn’t stopping, implying that there are more. Was the goal of this to stop the lightning though? I didn’t think the fiends were related to increased lightning.
-The red arrow on the mini-map draws me to a nearby tower across a lake. Another thing I like in FFX-2 is they often give me the choice whether to do a boss fight. It asks if I’m ready, with the option to say no.
-Looks like Humbaba from the Via Infinito. This guy was nasty.
-I mostly remember his deathrattle, the Meteor, so I pop Shell and keep us topped off.
-He goes down. After leaving a crater in the earth.
-Scored the Valiant Lustre garment grid. It increases Defense and Magic Defense by 20, with four possible +20 node upgrades.
-Ooh!! Now there’s a “strange hole” in the tower where Humbaba was. That must be one of the secret ruins we learned about. The one I hadn’t seen yet in Thunder Plains.
-Let’s see what’s down here. I’m hyper-nervous, because it was put in a category along with Via Infinito.
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Thunder Plains – New Cave
-Long tunnel. There are some side walls that don’t open yet.
-I could hang a right towards the blinking red arrow, but there’s a button at the end of this long starting tunnel I want to press… nothing happens. I’ll have to come back to this later.
-lolol Festivalist!Rikku throwing out her water fish: “Fly, my pretties! *evil cackle*”
-I explored everywhere I could in here without going to the red arrow and all the buttons are useless right now. Got some okay treasure. Let’s see what the red arrow is.
-Is that Cid? He looks hurt.
-There are pink squares scattered through the dungeon’s mini-map. Not sure what they are. Probably walls that may come up later.
-Yup, it’s Cid.
-He just came here to explore. Got stuck because of the fiends.
-He’s too hurt to move. Not fatal or anything, just pulled a muscle.
-lol he just lowered a wall and brought out a giant gun. Thanks, Cid.
Machina Panzer.
-I killed off the three little watchers first, and then it went down easy. Stole an Oath Veil and got a Crystal Bangle.
-We offer to get Cid onto our airship. Brother chimes in because why not I guess, and wants Cid to apologize first. For what? Not sure. But Cid does, and Brother is suspicious still.
-I like that all the narration is done through Yuna talking to Tidus. Not actually to Tidus, but like talking to Tidus’s gravestone.
-Episode complete.
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Next time: back to the New Cave in the Thunder Plains.
