Materite Now!
-There’s an upcoming festival, and chance for Marche to see Mewt. Gift Day!
-Gift Day is when people approach the palace with gifts for an audience. Marche will try to get a good gift, crafted by Nono.
-We’ll first need some materite. The material in short supply since everyone and their mother is trying to create something for Gift Day.
-We grab some from a nearby forest, and a gang attacks us to hijack it. Doned told them I’d be here. How does he know where we’re gonna be?
-I fight them off. Doned then jumps out from behind the bushes – literally – and steals a chunk of the materia from Marche.
-Doned starts mocking Marche, mocking his plans to make a gift to get in with him.
And then smashes it.
-What’s so shocking about all this is that I think Doned is still his St. Ivalice self like Ritz, not some new fantasy version like Mewt and Cid. He’s really doing his best to stymie Marche.
-Ah. Yup. It’s the wheelchair and hospitals and chronic illness. He doesn’t want to go back to that. Doned runs.
MARCHE, to himself: “There’s something you have. Something I’ve always wanted. You just don’t realize it.” I hope to GOD he’s not gonna be like, “You’ve always had more time with [insert family] because you’re sick, you should feel lucky!”
Nah, I don’t think he’ll say that. I’m honestly not sure what Marche is thinking of here.
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Mission: Present Day
-There’s also a new rumor about a tournament in Bervenia Palace.
-Time for Gift Day. This is gonna be awkward, given that the palace still has a bounty on Marche’s head.
-We have a gift from Nono ready to go. A “lugaborg” made of the materite left over after Doned smashed that batch.
-We wait in line… and then a troop of soldiers prepares to apprehend us. Our cover (all zero of it) is blown.
-They received a tip from “a concerned citizen.” DAMMIT DONED. I don’t blame you, but… still… grr.
-It cracks me up that the battlefield here is a waiting room with sofas and furniture.
-We push on. We’ve got to talk to Mewt!
-More guards pursue… but then BABUS APPEARS AND STOPS THEM WITH MAGIC! Is he joining Team Nutsy?
-No. He’s still Team Mewt. “I want to know what the prince is really thinking, and… I need your help.”
He fully believes in the other world, knows it’s having some sort of hard impact on Prince Mewt, and he wants to help him.
-Scene change to the throne room. Babus leads me in.
-Oh shit. Mewt is not receptive.
MARCHE: “Babus needs to know. He just needs to make sure you’re not escaping…” Good guy Babus. He wants Mewt to stay, but only if Mewt is here because this is a healthy world for him.
-Marche admits that it’s not an easy choice for him either. If he really did want to go home, then destroying the last crystal would’ve done so.
-Mewt is tormented by the thought of leaving. Of being bullied again. Of his father going back to his depressive, absent state.
“I won’t go back! I need magic to make things better!”
-He starts lashing out at his mother. Why did she have to leave him?
God, I can’t believe I fell for thinking this was a cute game at first. This is one of the rawest entries in the FF series. Especially since these are kids.
-Queen Remedi teleports to Mewt’s side. This incarnation of Mewt’s mother is going to be the biggest problem in reaching Mewt. She keeps him anchored here.
[Later edit: And yet she’s not The Big Bad. Unless something changes, it looks like the Big Bad is how difficult life can be, and the desire to pull away. What a brave choice for a game.]
Marche wants Mewt to be healthy and happy in a long-term way. Remedi wants Mewt to just enjoy the illusion here.
I still don’t know what’s right here. Leaning more and more to getting back to the real world, but is there no middle ground? No way to help use this dream world to help Mewt work things through rather than just diving back into the pain?
Ritz too. And Doned, and Marche.
Look, maybe I've seen "San Junipero" one too many times, but I'm really hesitant to just dismiss the potential value of this virtual/dream world. Especially since these are real people! Marche, Doned, Cid, Mewt, and Ritz are real! They’re not virtual facsimiles. The joy they experience here is real. The relationships (with each other at least) are real.
-I don’t even blame Mewt when he then says he wants to stay here. He’s a child who is hiding from a pretty crap situation in a pretty appealing situation, and someone who is like his mother is telling him he’ll be loved and happy here.
-The two of them teleport away.
-Llednar Twem appears. (I was wrong last time, btw. He’s different from Doned. Their portraits just have a similar look.)
LLEDNAR: “I am… me. I want to be here!” So maybe Llednar is just some focused version of Mewt. One particular personality trait amplified and given form.
-Babus sent for Cid. He asks me to hold out against Llednar until then while he chases after Mewt and Remedi. Something tells me this is gonna hurt.
-Usually, the game tells me that to win I have to beat a boss. Or beat all the enemies. This is new.
“SURVIVE!”
-Just being around Llednar sends a chill down Marche’s spine. Maybe Llednar is like Mewt’s defenses, protecting him. An immune system where I’m the virus.
-I have an Angel Ring. That should help a bit.
-I keep running and waiting. No actions. That gives me an extra turn here or there to get behind him and keep running.
-YAY! I held out and Cid arrived. Llednar ports away. Whatever Llednar’s powers, Cid’s laws reign.
-I talk to Cid post-fight, asking about Llednar’s nature.
CID: “He’s Mewt. Or rather, he is the distillation of an aspect of Mewt. The most violent, dangerous aspect.
”He was created to protect Mewt and the crystals.”
-That used to be Cid’s role. He grew out of it. Maybe it’s possible for Llednar to grow out of it too? We’re not gonna beat Llednar by conventional means. It sounds like we’ll have to convince Mewt to call Llednar off. I believe that once Mewt no longer wants to be here, he’ll reabsorb Mewt.
-Cid leaves to join Babus in pursuit of Mewt and Remedi. Marche will try to convince Doned and Ritz.
And himself.
---
Random Missions, Combat, Rumors
-I find myself using the “Turbo” button on my emulator a lot. It’s speeds the game up like 10x while I hold it. The enemy turns go really slow. They didn’t at first, since I didn’t know what to watch for, but at this point I don’t need to watch the full animation to understand what’s going on.
-Tried out the human totema, Mateus.
She does a ton of damage to all enemies. Appropriate for a character who once ruled both heaven and hell.
-One mission, “For a Song,” requires me to protect someone who just does not want to be protected. She keeps running into the teeth of enemy dragons and dying.
It sucks. It takes literally about 10 tries for me to get the right party comp and laws to protect the NPC.
Brb, recruiting two hunters and renaming them Sam and Dean.
-It’s not Gilgamesh, but I get a mission for adamant armor from “Gilgame, Young Blacksmith.”
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Mission: Old Friends
-One side mission comes from Ritz.
-Awww this is awesome! I encounter here and have the choice to give her a blue flower. I do. I don’t remember where I picked this flower up from – some mission or other.
-She gives me an INCREDIBLE reward. An antilaw called Allmighty: “[R7] Nullifies all law.” I’m gonna save that up as much as I can, in case I face some final dungeon judge boss who tries to ban everything.
-With that, we start her mission. She’s hunting an adamantoise called Blade Biter.
-I love that this mission is really me helping her out, not the other way around. I only get to bring in Marche plus one other from Clan Nutsy. The other four members on “my” team are not under my control.
-Also interesting is that I could’ve canceled this mission. This is not one of the primary story missions. It doesn’t feel exactly like a core story mission, but it does feel like an important one since it focuses on Clan Ritz.
-Afterwards, Marche debates asking Ritz whether she’s still set on staying here, but holds off.
“(Ritz and Mewt… will I have to fight them before this is over?)” I really, really hope not, but it’s sure looking that way.
-Neat! One of the rewards is the spear that was stuck in the rockbeast’s back.
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A Look Ahead
I keep wavering on how close to the end I am. I think I’m pretty close for two reasons. First, Tubola Cave just got added to the map and there are only three blank spots beyond that.
Second, the mission report (those 17 pages of missions) start listing side missions from #25 onwards. #1-20 have been main story missions. Only four more before the side mission list starts.
A TON of side missions left, but only four more in what I expect to be the main mission part of the report log.
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Next time: trying to convince Doned and Ritz.
