Clan Hall Meeting
-Clan hall cutscene. Ezel Berbier congratulates me on joining him on the wanted list.
-Ezel’s fine with this. It shifted the heat from him to me. The judges are scouring the cities for Marche.
-Thankfully, Ezel won’t turn Marche in. “Any enemy of the judges is a friend of mine.”
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Mission: Scouring Time
-No new story missions available so I head to the new city, Muscadet.
-Judges in the city are rousting innocent moogles just because I was seen in the company of a moogle. I guess they think all moogles look alike?
I like how there are so many different moogle portraits. They really do look different (sprites aside).
-Montblanc and I see the judge being an asshole to this poor moogle. “He’s no better than a schoolyard bully!”
-This image hits Marche hard. He’s had enough. He steps out into view.
-Marche isn’t trying to escape. He’s turning himself in, and this jackwagon of a judge won’t release the innocents until he’s sure it’s really Marche.
-We fight them off from capturing us pre-emptively. [Later edit: still not sure of the point of this fight.] Marche tells the judge to have Judgemaster Cid confirm our identity.
-FRIGGING CID. He’s taking Marche’s friends into custody too. Not sure if that means Montblanc alone or all of Clan Nutsy.
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ONE MILLION YEARS DUNGEON!
-Probably not that long. Anyway, scene change to prison. Babus is here, and he confirms that Marche is the troublemaker.
-Y’know, even aside from Prince Mewt’s bad feelings, Marche really does look like a criminal. A legitimate criminal. He’s destroyed three crystals, crystals that supposedly hold together the fabric of the world! He’s destroyed their three sacred protectors!
-Judgemaster Cid is surprisingly open-minded. He hears Marche talk about this as the dream world… and kind of accepts that. Attempts to reason with and work with Marche. Maybe he can help Marche without, y’know, ending his world?
I like Cid.
CID: “You must find another way. You cannot be allowed to destroy our world.” That’s not an unreasonable request.
-He even tries persuading Marche. He’s quite convincing.
This is not a bad world.
His clan is doing well.
He can have power, wealth, friends, success.
Abandoning this plan will heal Mewt’s pain.
-Marche isn’t so sure about that last one. Me too. I can see Marche’s side of this, that Mewt isn’t helped in any long-term way by staying here.
Or maybe he is. It depends on how real the dream is. If this is an honest-to-goodness world he crafted, the kind that persists, then maybe it’s okay to stay here.
-Another of those warping seams suddenly appears. Here? In the prison?
-The seam warps us to an odd crystal room. The totema is weakened here. It has a foresty feel. The crystal-container is a rotted-out tree. looks like there are trees all about.
-And IMMEDIATELY Marche attacks the weakened totema. As if Cid hadn’t talked to him at all.
I get where Marche is coming from, but I’m absolutely NOT with him on this. He says he’s sure this place is just a game, but how? The people seem real. They have real memories, real emotions, real lives. He’s being way too cavalier about destroying all that.
I’ve had dreams before. But Those dreams didn’t last for months and years at this point.
-Oh man. Fight time. Mewt on his own versus Babus and Cid. I don’t like this. I wasn’t ready for a solo fight.
The noble Babus.
-I start going around the room, taking out these fruits. The conversation goes on. Marche trying to convince Babus and Cid that this world is really just Mewt’s attempt to escape the pain of his dead mother and school bullying.
MARCHE: “It’s escapism! Can’t you see it’s not healthy?”
I’ve experienced escapism. I pissed away my first two years in college playing EverQuest, locked alone in my room, avoiding class as often as possible and dodging personal and family issues. That was super unhealthy escapism.
I don’t know that this is the same thing. For all we know, Mewt’s family is here. I keep going back and forth on this. It’s a fascinating quandary.
-Babus two-shots me. Crap. This is the solo Wiegraf fight all over again.
GODDAMMIT I HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE LEAD-UP FIGHT AND THE FULL LAST CUTSCENE BEFORE TRYING THIS AGAIN?
Okay. Chill. He used massive fire damage on me, and there are two immediate ways I have to deal with it: a Blaze Robe or Mirror Mail.
-Redid that long-ass fight against the judge, and I’m using a save state here. I don’t do it often, but I have no shame about it right here. I don’t want to have to keep doing that fight again should Operation Mirror Mail fail.
-Can I take Babus out? Not sure it’s a great idea. He hits hard.
-Arg, I can’t heal up if he counters me. The law forbids it.
-Going with Air Render against Babus. He can’t counter it.
-It works! Two Air Renders and counterattacking works.
-Thankfully, Cid seems to be staying out of the action.
-The totema fruits around here are Exodus Fruits.
-There are a lot of these. I take them out. Poor Babus feels guilty for not stopping this monster of a protagonist I have. I feel like I’m on an Undertale No Mercy run.
-The light from the crystal goes out.
-An image appears. Mewt and Cid, but their St. Ivalice versions.
-We see Cid apologizing deeply for something.
MEWT: “When mom died, he stopped caring. He made some mistakes.”
The image fades, but Cid may be starting to believe that’s who he really is.
-And now his memories return. So this isn’t an alternate reality exactly. It’s just a dream world imposed on their real selves.
-Cid feels guilty, that part of why Mewt needed this dream world is because of how badly he handled his wife’s death.
I get that guilt. There’s nothing wrong with reacting that way when your wife days, nothing wrong with showing that emotion, but I understand his basic feeling..
-And now, Cid… decides to leave the judgeship? “He should not see me here – his false father.”
Look. I don’t want to tell you how to parent. But that seems like the opposite of what you should do. If you were his false father, fine. But you’re beginning to remember yourself as his real father, and you can guide him.
-I misunderstood. He’s still a judge, but he’s going to serve the law only, not the whims of the Prince. Sounds for the best. [Later edit: I think. Maybe. Perhaps? I didn’t quite follow this tbh.]
It’s one of the differences between Cid and Remedi that makes me so distrust her. Cid wanted to stand up to Mewt, guide him. Like a father should. Remedi wanted to appeal to his basest whims.
-He releases Marche from prison and the rest of Clan Nutsy.
-The Viera now have totema access. Makes sense, given Exodus’ woodsy theme. Humans will be last.
-Just in terms of pace, my current theory is that we’re approaching a sort of 1/3 point in the game that we’ll reach when we hit fifth crystal.
-Back in town after, a rumor confirms that the judiciary is now independent.
What surprises me is that the queen gave her blessing to Cid. This severely undercuts my “Evil Queen Remedi” theory.
-In the Clan Hall later, members discuss this new judicial independence. Most clan members are glad, but Marche is not. It’s like Mewt loses a father.
-Scene change to Mewt’s room. Cid assures him that he’ll still be there for Mewt, no matter what.
Mewt doesn’t take it well. “I don’t need a father! Especially not one like him.”
-Queen Remedi enters the room, presenting a boy to serve as Cid’s replacement keeping Mewt company, protecting him.
-The boy is “Llednar Twem.” Mewt Randell backwards. I’m guessing immediately that he’s Evil Mewt. I’m firmly back on the Evil Queen Remedi train.
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Next time: in addition to the normal story and chasing the fifth crystal, I’ll give an overview of thoughts on individual jobs, and a debate I’m having on dispatch/party-size strategy.
