Giruvegan
-This place is full of Mist.
-A headless statue standing guard comes alive. Daedalus.
-It becomes a statue again upon defeat. Another waystone takes us forward.
-Giruvegan looks both futuristic and ancient. An FF tradition dating back to FFI.
-Started at the gate of earth, down to Water….
-There’s a huge rock thing in the middle. Is that PURE NETHICITE? Yikes.
PENELO: “I can’t shake the feeling we’re somewhere we’re not meant to be.”
VAAN: “Yeah, it’s exciting.”
I love how adventurous and enthusiastic Vaan is as a protag.
-The next area, the Gate of Fire, is suspiciously void of enemies.
-There’s one! “Tyrant.” A big fiery dragon that stops me from using technicks. Is it an Esper?
-Looks like it isn’t. When it dies, it falls into the pit below and disintegrates. A new waypoint appears.
-We teleport to a new section of Giruvegan: “The Great Crystal.” Are we inside the nethicite? It’s called “A Prama Vikaari.” The name vaguely sounds Hindi.
-This whole area is quite confusing. It’s hard for me to keep geographic bearings.
-Found a gate key that won’t open but to its master’s chosen. Hm.
-Progressing down a chain of Way Stones, with progressively lower numbers. Waystone VII, Waystone VI, etc.
-God, I’m SO CONFUSED. There are some video game skillsets I have. Navigating mazelike zones is NOT one of them. I’m sure I’m missing tons.
-Reached the Crystal Core. On through the Gate of Wind now.
-Another boss: Shemhazai. A horse? A caped dude? Not sure.
-She seems to have a gimmick of using shifting mana resistances, but we just keep punching her with weapons until she dies.
THAT WAS AN ESPER?? Shemhazai, the Whisperer.
-Who gets the most out of her?
VAAN: guns
BALTHIER: hand-bombs 3
FRAN: potion lore 2
BASCH: nothing
ASHE: heavy armor 7, white magick 7 (esuna, cleanse)
PENELO: nothing
Ashe is the clear choice.
-Shemhazai is both horse and woman. She controls the souls wandering the underworld.
INTERESTING! “When Ultima announced her rebellion, Shemhazai went to her, whispering of the gods’ hidden weaknesses.” So in FFXII, Ultima is the leader of the anti-god rebellion.
-Y’know what? I regret not at least trying to more fully explore the Great Crystal. Going to head back and do the best I can.
-So I did. I went back and mapped out the prior area. And… I’d done everything I can. Explored everywhere. And STILL couldn’t open the Scorpio Gate.
I’ll bet that as I progress through Giruvegan, I’ll access more of the Great Crystal, and then eventually go back to the Scorpio Gate.
-Reached an Empyrean Way Stone: “By this path, and no other, reach ye the Round of the Undying, walk of the Chosen.” I wonder if this is talking about the gods, the ones the espers rebelled against.
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Princess Ashelia, Messenger of the Gods
-Ooh, cinematic! A thing is happening! Ashe is alone on a platform high in the sky.
-Wait. Not alone. A crystalline statue watches her, talks to her. It’s an Occuria.
-Spirits/souls seem to converge on it, and… it looks like the things that possess people who carry nethicite! The Venat!
-They’re offering to grant her holy power. If she seeks the “Sun-cryst.” The mother of all nethicite. The Dynast King, cut shards from them. A source of Nethicite. He cut the Cryst with the Sword of Kings and became the Dynast-King.
-It’s offering to … wait, it wants her to DESTROY Venat?
Venat is also an Occurian, but they see them as a heretic. Venat is the devil to these Occurians’ angels.
-Btw, the voice actor for these Occuria is INCREDIBLE.
-These are vengeful gods. Their duty is to set history on its right path. Ashe is their chosen servant.
“Take revenge against those who stole your kingdom. Fulfill your role as savior.” What a temptation.
-She grasps the proffered sword.
-To my surprise, the rest of the party witnessed all that. We join her, crowd around her. What will Ashe do?
Quick side-note: I LOVE LOVE LOVE how in both FFX and FFXII, the protags are fine, but basically along for the ride. X was Yuna’s story. XII is Ashe’s. XII has the advantage here because at least Vaan knows this is Ashe’s story. He accepts it in a way Tidus never did.
-Basch is against this. He wants justice for the Empire, which is NOT its wholesale obliteration.
-Penelo asks a good question: where’s Cid?
…He laid a trap for us. He wanted Ashe to get the stone. This was his plan. He wanted Ashe to see the Occuria. Why?
Cid seems to be a “watch the world burn” type. He wants to see what happens when foes with nethicite collide, even if the Empire sucks.
-Ashe says she’ll do it. She plans to go to the Cryst, cut her own nethicite, take her revenge.
This is really interesting. The temptation she faces here. Also, that it’s looking like Vayne may not be the Big Bad after all. Venat is shaping up as the power behind the power.
-The weapon we now have is the Treaty-Blade.
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Imperial War Council
Scene change to Archades. Lord Larsa is trying to convince Emperor Vayne to restore Ashe to Dalmasca’s throne. Vayne believes he’s facing a war of necessarity.
-Gabranth will seek out Ashe to judge: Does she intend peace or war?
-Cid is here. He talks openly to Venat.
“Ah, taken the bait already, have they? Splendid.”
-Vayne knows about this, hears this. He’s doing his best to manipulate a war. And yet… I kind of see where he’s coming from on this issue. He just learned that the gods are giving his enemy a weapon of mass destruction, and he wants to stop that person.
For his own ends, but still.
-Venat praises Cid for overcoming the obstacles in his path. Humans live short lives, so we have to get moving in our efforts to orchestrate our own demise.
-Venat names “Gerun” as the lead Occuria.
VENAT: “For your ascendance, Vayne, I offer prayer. May you obtain all that which is your due.”
I can’t imagine a deadlier curse.
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Great Crystal
Back to us. WE’re pondering the words, “In tower, on distant shore, dreams the Sun Cryst.” WE don’t know what this means, but perhaps Reddas in Balfonheim Port for a hint.
-Before that though, I want to try heading back to the Gate of Scorpio. I’m hoping this Treaty-Blade will serve as proof that we have the Master’s Blessing and can progress.
-YES! The Scorpio Gate now opens. The crystal here is green, not bright yellow.
-One room beyond has a swarm of self-destructing Mom-Bombs. Ow.
-I progress, and find myself in a living hell. Ghost enemies called Necrophobes that keep dividing and just will not. Frigging. Die.
RAGE.
-I work up a decent strategy to deal with them: do as much damage as fast as humanly possible. Vaan with haste and a ninja sword chews them up. (Sometimes.)
-I did my best to map the area out. I really did.
This is one of the most draining dungeons in the FF series. Physically, mentally, emotionally.
The enemies are high level and put out lots of damage, but even worse is that they just keep tossing out brutal status effects. Disease. Doom. Death. Petrify. Confuse. Petrify and confuse I can deal with, but I have no accessories to guard against them.
It’s not a bad thing exactly. It’s a challenge, and challenges are fine. But it does contribute to why I chose to stop before I completed things. I was just not prepared. My gear is good but not great, so trying to solve the gate puzzles was a real slugfest.
It also drained my resources. I got low on Remedies and Phoenix Downs, so I couldn’t continue to test and explore the deeper reaches of the place without restocking. Which brings me to the other reason I held off on pushing as far as I could: there’s no easy way out.
Again, not a bad thing! Just one I’m not prepared for right now.
The last note I want to make is that I LOOOOVE the concept of this place. Of having to explore an unmapped maze with a series of puzzles, gates, and all kinds of cool stuff to explore.
But as I said, it’s draining.
I doubt I’ll be back. I’m glad I got to see this, but will reserve a fuller exploration for a second run at some later point.
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Next time: the Port of Balfonheim to meet up with Reddas.
