Celsius
-Cid is atop the deck.
CID: “Shameful how they gussied this baby up.” WAIT. Is the Celsius the Fahrenheit, just souped up? Not necessarily – the language is vague, and it could just be “how dare they gussy what was probably a nicer ship when more plain.”
-lol at Cid chastising Brother
-I continue to follow Cid through the ship, and he winds up at the Engine Room. That seems likely to be his longer-term home.
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Thunder Plains – New Cave
-I feel I only touched the surface of this place, so heading back here.
-Yup. When I arrive back here, there’s a set of directions getting through here. Numbers are strewn throughout the cave, and I have to memorize them (i.e. write them down) and use them to open walls.
-When I open a wall, two treasure chests will appear. I can only pick one. The other will disappear. So this is one of those things that is definitely gonna go better on replay.
-The top left number I see is the current wall’s number. Bottom right number is the number of the next wall to open. Hm.
“When you examine the next wall that needs to be opened, you’ll be prompted to input a number. If you input the sum of Key Number 1 and Key Number 2, the wall will open. If you examine a wall out of sequence, only that wall’s number will be displayed.”
-This is a bit complicated. I don’t quite know if I understand it, but I have a decent enough starting point.
-Ah. Choosing a chest isn’t entirely random…. Wait. Yes it is lol.
-The game offers me a sample, a walkthrough. Yes please.
-To start with, there’s “No Data” in the top left. Makes sense, since I’m not looking at a wall.
-The bottom right says “[box] >> 3” which means that Wall #3 is next, and one of its key numbers is 9.
-The blinking red light will tell me where the next wall is.
-Okay. I get it. Got my notepad out and ready to go.
-I’m a lefty, so I’ll always just pick the left chest.
-One of these buttons is a Gil Guide. Hm.
-The switches in the corners that did nothing before now have different trackers. One shows gil earned in here, another shows number of battles fought, another shows the codes for each wall.
-I got the right chest after wall 11, and it gave me a clue. An unnecessary clue – that the wall 10 code was 38, which I already had written down – but helpful still.
-Equipped the Charm Bangle. If I hadn’t, I fear I’d be here forever. [Later edit: turns out this also simplified the puzzles themselves.]
-This is the first time in X-2 where I wish I had FFVI-style Sprint Shoes that let my character move across the screen faster.
-Found the Salvation Promised garment grid. It’s incredible.
It allows white magic use, but the big bonus is that node swaps grant Auto-Life. This is my first time seeing Auto-Life in X-2.
-And that’s it. That’s the dungeon. Neat series of puzzles. Nice variety from standard combat dungeons.
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Calm Lands
-Checking in on three things here. Chocobo ranch, Open Air promotion rank, and the secret cave/ruin in the northeast that might or might not be open (and probably won’t).
-Sent out some more chocobos. The rewards I’m getting aren’t anything particularly great.
-I’m at 145 publicity, rank 3, with Open Air.
-Still not open. Grr.
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Mushroom Rock Road
-One last thing I want to check this session. I want to see if that cave with the menorah is open.
-Still only 6/8 lights.
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Going Forward
I haven’t done everything. Not by a long shot. Just a brief list of things I’m currently missing or haven’t yet done that jump to mind:
-Blitzball. [Later edit: I think I might’ve been more willing to give this version a shot if I saw it early. If I started in chapter 1 or 2 and got used to it over time rather than seeing it at what feels likely to be the end.]
-Creature Creator.
-The Djose Temple code.
-More sphere break stuff.
-Chac and the remaining cloisters in the Via Infinito.
-More chocobo ranch progression.
-Hunting down however remaining Garment Grids there are.
-Hunting down the three remaining dresspheres.
-Hunting down all the missing key items to complete my dresspheres.
-Hunting down the remaining Crimson Squad spheres.
-Finding out how to get into the cave or ruins beneath Calm Lands and doing it.
-Finding out how to get into the cave or ruins beneath Mushroom Rock Road and doing it.
The list is likely not as long as it seems. I’ll bet the rewards for, say, winning a blitzball tournament include a garment grid or crimson sphere or something. Many of these will go together.
And yet… I think I’m ready to be done.
I am not against really trying blitzball, but don’t especially want to. I’m not against spending more time on the chocobo ranch, or learning more and practicing more in Sphere Break to beat the tougher opponents. But I don’t especially want to. Same thing with the rest of Via Infinito. Even if I find the right strategy for Chac, I think it’s likely that what awaits me at Cloister 100 (probably Trema) is Penance-esque, requiring me to be able to do 99,999. One of THOSE superbosses.
Creature Creator seems especially appealing to me, but to be honest it’s just really daunting. It feels like it’s a tremendous undertaking, and not super into that right now.
Maybe on replay. I feel a bit guilty about not wanting to spend lots of time leveling up stuff in Creature Creator and the like, but I know these aren't 100% completionist playthroughs, just unspoiled first runs, and I hope y'all will forgive me.
So what’s next? I’ll pick a cave. I don’t know what the difference will be between whether I dive beneath Besaid or Kilika or the Calm Lands Gorge or whatever, but I’ll pick one and do it and see what’s there.
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The Celsius
-So where do I jump in? I don’t really have a sense of what these options are about, of why I’d pick one over the other. I’ll go with Bevelle Underground.
-Heh. Brother tries for a dramatic cheer, but can’t remember what we’re called because we keep changing our team name.
-Shinra says it will be his last mission, even if nobody else’s.
I think I’m missing something with Shinra. I’m worried that he’s gonna reveal he has some fatal illness or something, but it’s subtle enough that this probably isn’t the case. He could well just be sad that our primary mission is wrapping up. After all, he’s just a kid. We’re like his family.
Even Brother.
-Everyone’s pumped to get underway. Me too.
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Bevelle Underground
-We’re at the spot where Vegnagun was ripped away.
-We jump.
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Next time: Road to the Farplane.
