Road to the Farplane
-Vast cavern down here. Crimson walls.
-I’m a bit confused about where we are. This is called the Road to he Farplane, so I guess the Farplane is both accessed through Guadosalam and… beneath the earth? Or something.
-Cutscene on a platform shortly after ourlanding. Mini-boss? Woman with snaky hair.
-Oh, right, Shiva! But Dark Shiva.
-The platforming here is confusing. I’m not sure if a lot of these paths on the side are accessible or just decorative.
-Next platform has the Magus Sisters. [Later edit: I’m still not 100% sure why the aeons were being revived. Perhaps it’s just that Shuyin’s rage was roiling the pyreflies of the Farplane to the point that he was turning already at-peace aeons back to fiends?]
-Continuing in a spiral down. Perhaps if I came in through a different hole, like Besaid or something, I’d be going down one of these alternate paths and get different treasure.
-Another platform. Anima. Scan confirms it as “an aeon that once fought alongside Yuna.”
-So what are these? Are they reanimated versions? Copies? Enslaved/mind-controlled?
-Got the Immortal Soul garment grid.
-HEY IT’S BAHAMUT! Or rather the bahamut fayth.
-Shuyin dragged them down somehow.
-Shuyin is “just a shadow” of the real Shuyin’s misery. Not the real Shuyin. Some nihilistic tendencies we’ve seen from bosses in past games. The Creator, Kefka,
-Yuna plans to banish shadow with light – namely, with Lenne’s feelings.
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Farplane Abyss
-Holy shit.
-This place is amazing. I know we’ve seen it before briefly in X-2, but… wow.
-I especially like the way the flowers sway in the breeze.
-Ormi, Logos, and Leblanc are here. At the swirling red portal where the trio of faction leaders jumped in.
-The music playing right now is super familiar. Not from X-2 either – is this from a prior game?
-There was a sphere telling Leblanc to wait from Nooj. Lolol at her impression of him.
-We head into the portal.
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Heart of the Farplane
-This is a stormy, metallic math leading to a metallic sphere.
-A musical gate. There’s a thing to the side that says “So Mi Re.” And a keyboard. It opens up a gate.
-More notes. La and Do <star> Ti. Then So a bit later.
-All those notes deactivated another gate farther in.
-Died. Nothing major, just got reckless and used Gamble. Drew a dud, and immediately after putting myself at low health a breath attack from an adamantoise got me.
-These Claret Dragons can be pretty nasty.
-We come across Gippal. He’s hurt.
-Nooj went ahead.
-Leblanc comes to where we are, and agrees to wait with Gippal.
-Wow. Gippal gives us Paine’s Sphere from Nooj. From two years ago, was inside the sphere camera.
-Yuna convinces her to watch it now.
-She talks here about how she wants to fly a “ship that glides through the air for real.”
-They fantasize about being a crew together.
-PAINE IS LAUGHING UPROARIOUSLY AS THEY JOKE AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THIS IMAGERY!! SHE’S SO CAREFREE!!
-Yuna loves the idea of trying to wake this Paine up.
-I continue to love the importance this game places on music. We get a new puzzle, “Scaling the Heights,” about stepping on pedestals to play a melody in the right order.
-So Mi(star) Re(star) do(star) ti la so fa mi fa so do…
-Takes me a while platforming to reach the gate. I don’t know if I get it right, because I have to fight a boss. [Later edit: I’m reasonably sure I didn’t get the right musical notes, and if I had I probably wouldn’t have needed to fight this beast.]
-Tough fight. It keeps using Damocles Photon, which chunks off huge portions of my party’s health. But victoyr, yay!
-We push on. Vegnagun waits ahead.
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Vegnagun
-To my surprise, there’s no save point so I scoot on back to save before the music puzzle.
-Vegnagun is super creepy up close. Mostly because it keeps twitching. Little leg and ear (or what passes for leg and ear) twitches.
-Nooj is here.
NOOJ: “Both Baralai and Vegnagun belong to him now.” To Shuyin’s shadow, I imagine. Baralai must’ve been possessed or taken or something.
-Yup. We see Shuyin’s ghost (looking like Tidus) seeming to possess Baralai, and both pushing buttons, operating Vegnagun from atop the skull.
-Nooj’s plan is to stop the body Shuyin is possessing. Shoot Baralai, Shuyin will abandon Baralai and come for Nooj. Nooj will suicide with Shuyin inside him.
-Not quite sure how this’ll work. Won’t Shuyin just hop to another body then?
-lololol yuna – “I don’t like your plan. It sucks.”
-AH!! It reminds her of how they sacrificed the aeons two years ago to stop Sin. She doesn’t want to repeat this.
-That act devastated her. Having to destroy her aeons. Even now, she asks forgiveness of the aeons.
-She feels so guilty at how happy everyone was, including her at the time. It hurts now deeply. She remembers the choices made then, and doesn’t want it again. Keeps hearing voices saying, “We have no choice.”
-This is powerful shit. Amazing writing.
-She doesn’t want these Pyrrhic victories anymore.
-Yuna’s plan is to take this machina aprt.
-Hah! Leblanc and her gang, plus GIppal, join us.
-So. The plan. Kill the machina, then use Lenne to conquer Shuyin.
-It looks like Shuyin is playing keyboard to operate Vegnagun.
-Vegnagun is SO CREEPY. Like a demon wasp machina. From its head, I assumed it’d be bull-like, similar to the pit fiends in World of Warcraft. This is better.
-Pyreflies are swarming.
-Gippal taking the torso, Leblanc the legs, and Gullwings with the tail.
-We take the tail out in short order.
-Leblanc’s in trouble. We move to help her.
-We continue up where the main group – Leblanc, Gippal, Nooj – are fighting the head.
-The music is surreal, subdued.
-Double Dark Knight knocks Vegnagun out in short order.
-But possessed!Baralai says it’s not over yet. Revs Vegnagun back up.
-HOLY SHIT A GIANT GUN EMERGES FROM VEGNAGUN’S MOUTH
-We run up Vegnagun towards the head. Final phase time. I’m sure of it.
-Vegnagun goes down.
-Yuna facing Shuyin.
-She goes into Songstress mode. Lenne time.
-This possession thing is really eerie.
-Shuyin sees Lenne. Wants to give him closure.
“I love you. And I’m grateful… grateful that you stayed with me until the end.”
-She doesn’t want him to go on grieving alone. Wants him to rest. Poignant, given Yuna’s story in X-2.
-Shuyin releases Baralai.
-Shuyin walks towards Lenne!Yuna…. but the spell is breaking.
-Shit. This is bad.
-Fight time.
-He uses an attack called Terror of Zanarkand. Very Tidus-esque, a chain of slashes and a blitzball kick.
-It’s not just LIKE Tidus’s abilities - he’s using Tidus’s specific overdrives! This is awesome. [Later edit: I’m not 100% sure why he looks like Tidus.]
-Double Death Knight brings him down.
-Lenne then truly steps out of Yuna. Goes to comfort Shuyin.
SHUYIN: A thousand years and this moment is all we get?
LENNE: This moment is enough.
-Lenne is trying to convince him to move on with her. To the after. “Rest with me.”
-This is really quite beautiful. So much of the game has been about Yuna’s (and Paine’s) journey to deal with their past, to make sense of it and come to terms with it without ignoring it or pretending it didn’t happen. Dealing with grief. It’s fitting that this is how the final boss goes down as well.
-Lenne turns, looks back at Yuna. Thanks her.
-They fade away, with the wreckage of Vegnagun in the background.
-Chapter 5 complete.
[Later edit: this final fight was not difficult at all, but I want to emphasize that I don’t fault the game for this. I chose to focus on building my party up and exploring as much of the dresspheres for each party member as I could. If I hadn’t explored as much as I did, or if I had incorporated the Creature Creator fiends into my party, I wouldn’t be in the low-90s and far over-leveled.
I’d rather the game make it too easy for someone who played like me than nearly impossible for someone who just did the bare minimum of story. After all, if I really were desperate for challenge, I still have Chac and Trema ahead of me in the Via Infinito.
(spoiler alert: I’m not really desperate for this kind of challenge. :D )]
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Ending
-We’re back to that beautifully colorful planescape.
-Yuna leaves. The starry sky behind.
-Pyreflies amid darkness now.
-I keep waiting now to see if Tidus – actual Tidus – will have an appearance for Yuna. [later edit: I’m very happy Tidus didn’t show up. If my theory that so much of this game focused on Yuna’s grieving process and moving on, a reunion would’ve cheapened this.]
-Scene switches to the Luca stadium.
-Nooj is speaking. With Baralai and Gippal. Talking about their different paths – Youth League, New Yevon, Machine Faction. A yunafying speech. [Later edit: caught this typo in editing, but I'm leaving it in because I like it.]
-They express their regret for misusing their power as leaders, asking forgiveness.
-Wait, is Yuna not here?
-We see Yuna at a pier.
Heading home to… Besaid Island? Must be.
-The Celsius takes off.
-shut up brother
-Yuna has Brother take the ship as high and fast as he can while the Gullwings sit on the deck, bracing themselves against the wind.
-Yuna is now at peace with the changes she’s gone through. Life moved on.
-This is her story, and I’m a 33 year old man tearing up at this final image. Not that her story WAS a good one, but that whatever is ahead of her, it WILL be a good one.
-Credits.
-Pretty song playing while the credits roll. “1,000 Words.”
-The end. That’s it. That’s Final Fantasy X-2.
-Hey, there’s New Game Plus! That’s ridiculously phenomenal. I don’t need to regrind the dresspheres if I want to play again, leaving me free use Creature Creator more without feeling I’m missing out on major stuff.
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Next time: Final thoughts on Final Fantasy X-2, then “FFX-2: Last Mission.” Whatever that is.
