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Academia – 4XX AF
-Let’s see if I can find Captain Cryptic.
-Rumors mention him specifically. “My friend said he saw Captain Cryptic in the east!” Another mentions a strange man by a gate, so maybe he’s near the eastern gate.
-One boy in town says that if the city is attacked, the Academy turns into a giant robot to defend it. Pretty sure he’s just being goofy, making a reference to FFIX Alexander.
-Found a wild fragment! Gonna use it later on the gate in Oerba 300 AF.
-Someone saw a strange person on Grand Avenue. I search and eventually find him phased out in a nook. That’s REALLY tricky to see.
-Captain Cryptic asks a few questions, and it’s not too bad. What shape is Lightning’s summoning (a rose), who are the Shiva sisters (Styria and Nix).
-Elida Karmic is a singer from Palompolum. She grew up with Hope. I’m pretty sure that came up in a Brain Blast question.
-Academy scientists are working on a “metashield” to cushion Cocoon’s impact when it collapses.
-More wandering, then: “I saw the reflection of some strange guy in one of the store windows.”
-Someone tells me he’s in the alley, and boom!
-Questions aren’t too bad compared to Brain Blast.
-Now Captain Cryptic is seen walking west.
*30 minutes later*
-Okay, fuck this. The only clue I found about him is that he was seen going “west.” I looked everywhere I could think of.
“I found him, I found him! Quiz man was heading west!” YOU’RE GONNA HAVE TO BE MORE SPECIFIC THAN THAT, JERK FACE! YOU’RE ON THE FAR EAST SIDE OF THE MAP
-Phew. Found someone slightly more helpful who said she saw him walking down a narrow path. That gives me something to work with.
FOUND HIM. Jesus. I swear I looked in this nook a million times. [Non-rhetorical question: does he only spawn when you get all the clues?]
-He finally asks a question I don’t know. What’s the identification number on a route in Bresha? I have no frigging clue, and the four options I’m given all look reasonable.
AND HE DISAPPEARS WITH MY WRONG ANSWER AND I HAVE TO FIND HIM AGAIN? FHDJKLSFHNDJK:LSFHJKLFHDS
-Alright, more hints. Captain Cryptic was seen in New Town, in a dead end.
*25 minutes later*
-Whelp, turns out I don’t care as much as I thought I did. I checked every New Town dead end multiple times and don’t see him. I give up.
I’d keep searching if, like Brain Blast, I could just try again after a wrong answer. But knowing that a wrong answer will precipitate a 20+ minute hunt really kills my interest without a guide. Maybe I’ll try later when I get my gumption back.
-Let’s use that wild artefact in Oerba 300 AF. Hoping I can learn more about Mog’s backstory.
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Oerba – 400 AF
-100 years later, the sands of Oerba are white, like a salt flat.
-Mog remembers something called the Ocean of Time related to his hometown. It’s close.
-More anomalies to solve. No complaints from me. [Later edit: Some of the tougher clock puzzles make me regret this.]
-One anomaly smells to Mog like the Ocean of Time. We’re getting close.
-But barring our way is a SIX STAGE CLOCK PUZZLE.
-Oof, this last one is one of those twelve-slot, ones numbered 1-6.
*40 minutes later*
-FINALLY JESUS. It’s a fair puzzle, but it made me a bit ragey later on as I found myself repeating the same mistakes and not seeing the way out.
I even had to mute it lol. I was starting to yell at Mog, who doesn’t deserve it. It felt like he was taunting me after every failed attempt.
MOG: “I’m here if you need me, kupo!” “I’ll be helping in spirit, so good luck, kupo!” “I’m here if you need me, kupo!”
COLDRUN: “EITHER START ACTUALLY HELPING OR STFU”
To be clear, the puzzle is fine, and I still like these clock ones a lot. I was frustrated at my inability to grasp the answer, not the game itself.
-we find the ocean of time! Mog remembers this. Remembers being born.
-He was swallowed by a paradox as a wee kid while playing with his friends. He drifted farther and farther away. He awoken in the Void Beyond with no memories.
-The gate at the end of this anomaly holds his home! He won’t leave now since he’s our weapon, but still nice to know he has this choice.
A random friendly behemoth who joined my party.
-Of course, for game mechanics at the least, he chooses to stay with us, but it makes me happy that Serah 100% gives him the free choice to cross back home and leave the party. He lost his childhood.
-The fragment lore confirms that Lightning found Mog in Valhalla. Mog was annoyed at being the weakest monster of the Void. He challenged Lightning to a duel “which he promptly lost” lol.
-Lightning accepted him as a follower, and Mog has been loyal since.
-Found one of Snow’s graviton core messages. Just saying hello to Serah, letting her know he’s alright.
Me failing at another brutal clock puzzle.
-Ooh! Found a weapon called Wild Chorus that increases Serah’s strength by 35%.
-omg we get backstory on why Mog can turn into a weapon. One day in the Void, he met a monster called a Centaurion Blade and tried to make friends with it by turning into a weapon. (We saw those titanic metal constructs summoning Centaurion Blades back in XIII.)
-ODIN HURT MOG’S FEELINGS AND I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM!
He defeated Mog in combat and saw him as too weak to accept as a follower.
-I’ve gotten so many clock anomalies in a row that it’s a relief to get a connect-the-dots one.
-The Void Beyond sounds like an awful place for Mog. Someone so weak trying to make his way in a land where strength rules.
-omg omg mog met chocolina in the Void! The datalog doesn’t name her, but it does refer to a chocobo chick who fell into the Void Beyond.
How did she fall in there in the first place? And if we resolve all the paradoxes, will that wipe Chocolina from existence? I sure af hope not.
-I think my favorite datalog story tells how Mog met a group of miniflan in the Void Beyond. They offered him a spot on their team, “the miniflan musketeers – all for one, and one for all!”
Alas, they got sucked into another gate and left Mog alone. But he was at least briefly part of a team.
Only a couple of these, but I like them.
-Got all the fragments in this place and ready to leave! No more gates to access from Oerba 400 AF.
-Finally, I check if I can get any new fragment abilities from the mystic… and I can’t? That surprises me. There are so many mystery fragment abilities, and it’s not like I’ve been blowing past all the side quests. I feel like I’ve done a fair bit of content.
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Next time: Perhaps some more fragment hunting or just moving on from the gate in Academia 4XX AF.
