Fitness - Halt

No.

I'm not going to do this yet.

I'm under a fairly immense amount of pressure to finish grad school, and feel driven by fears that I won't complete my work.  Fitness and health should not be an escape, and I won't make that mistake again.  I'm going to make myself finish grad school by Saturday, begin to address the other issues in my life (financial, social, health, home), and once I get to a better starting point I'll revisit how I want to get fit.

Part of me is tempted to delete my last post, but I'll leave it.  It may help remind me of what not to do - or rather, how not to do it.

Nerd Fitness - Day 0 - Reset

For over a month, I've made no progress on fitness.  Diet or exercise.  I gave up.  I binged most days, and though I haven't weight myself in a while, I'm probably around 267lbs or so.  Maybe more, for all I know.

I'm not ready to give up.  So I'm taking on a longer project.  365 days.

FFVI – Part 79: A Little Help From My Friends

Summary: We escape the collapsing tower of Kefka. To borrow a phrase I first saw on the Spoils site, everything is beautiful and nothing hurts. The end.

FFVI – Part 78: Life, Dreams, Hope

Summary: Argument with Kefka over the meaning of life, and the (presumably) final battle.

FFVI – Part 77: Power of Three

Summary: We continue through this mashup of the Floating Continent and Vector that serves for Kefka’s Tower. We finish off the legendary dragons, kill the three members of the Warring Triad, and approach the end.

FFVI – Part 76: Tower Dive

Summary: Twelve of our team (all except Cyan and Gogo) airdrop into Kefka’s Tower. Three parties pick three paths and prepare the push for Kefka. Another legendary dragon goes down.

Final Fantasy Project - Going Forward

Hello!  Just wanted to let y'all know a bit about my plans going forward for Final Fantasy in the next few weeks.

FFVI is going well.  Starting on Kefka's Tower, so I expect to finish the game probably within a week.

After that, I'll take a short break to finish up grad school (HURRAY!), and then onto FFVII.

[EDIT: To be more precise, FFVII will likely start around February 3rd/4th.]


Thank you as always for reading!

FFVI – Part 75: Take Five

Summary: Inside the Ancient Castle, I get some loot, magicite, and a healthy dose of table-flipping rage. Another legendary dragon down. Two to go.

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The Ancient Castle

-Inside. Still deliriously happy with Mog’s new present, the Master Scroll.

-This place makes me nervous. Not because of ghosts or monsters or anything, just that it looks so layered, like the cave preceding it. Lots of hidden eaves. I worry about missing stuff.

-We reach Odin in the throne room. Still stone.

-Oh. Huh. I was expecting to have to fight him in one of those infamous FF-Odin-KILL ME IN FOUR SECONDS OR ELSE-style battles, but we just immediately get his magicite.

-That’s… anti-climactic.

-Another Gold Hairpin and a Blizzard Orb.

-Interesting. Umaro can’t use armor, but it seems like he has these character-specific Relics in the Berserker Ring and the Blizzard Orb that can help work to build different resistances.

-Ow. A new monster, Armored Weapon, nearly whomped me in a single missile launch.

-A side room has a “book encrusted with glittering gems” called “The Queen’s Diary.” She describes falling in love with Odin, and telling him when the fighting ends only.

DAMMIT! Was I supposed to come here first and THEN show this to Odin?

I hope not. I hate being punished for a random choice about the order in which I explore.

-…That’s it? That can’t be it.

-I actually wish I could turn off random encounters. I just want to explore this place, and the fights are getting annoying. Oracle in FFV had a passive ability like that. (Too bad the rest of that job was so awful.)

-THERE MUST BE MORE HERE. If it were just Odin, fine, we’d get his magicite and move on. But the gem-encrusted Queen’s Diary SCREAMS OUT that there’s more to find.

-Alright. One last walkthrough and I’ll leave. I’m going with what I call the “Jesse Method” (my brother). Learned it watching him play FFIV. It was frustrating to watch because it was slow, but it got shit done eventually. Basically, a brute forcing of secrets: click ALL the things. EVERYWHERE.

*10 minutes later*

-A THING HAPPENED

-I DID A THING

-SWEET MOTHER OF MERCY I DID A THING

-Opened a door or something, but my screen randomly stopped and there was a noise. If only these DAMN ENCOUNTERS WOULD LEAVE ME ALONE MAYBE I COULD FIND WHAT THING? (Sorry, a bit frustrated right now.)

-Staircase in the queen’s room.

-It’s a dragon. They put a legendary dragon in here.

-I don’t like this. This was EASILY the most hidden away of all the dragons, and I only found it because the gem-crusted diary told my obsessive side to randomly walk around pushing buttons. I’m fine if they wanted to make the legendary dragons a secret thing, but all the other ones have been in plain sight. A bit out of the way, and optional, sure, but in plain sight.

-Whatever. Let’s try this.

Blue Dragon.

It looks a bit like Shinryu from FFV. Starts with a Tsunami, but it’s got nothing on Leviathan – much weaker tsunami. It dies easily. It’s nothing against the encounter, though; I’m sure I’m here at a much higher level than I should be.

Drops the Zantetsuken sword, for Celes here. Six down, two to go.

-Up ahead, we find the queen turned to stone. Why? Who did it? Who was that ghost that turned Odin to stone and then the queen? Just some random enemy? Was it someone who saw the queen in love with an esper and wanted to lash out at her?

-We click her and get her tear. That’s… actually

-Interesting. Getting her tear turned the Odin magicite into Raiden.

-NOOOO!! Odin taught Meteor, but Raiden just teaches “Quick.” Quick is an awesome spell, but the Gilgamesh magicite already taught me that. Fhdjkalfhadlsfhadkls

-Ah well. I’m spoiled at this point. I have way more than I probably need to beat the game, but it’s like Gau’s redundant rages. It’s the principle of the thing.

-Zantetsuken looks really cool when Celes hits with it in combat. Massive sword.

-And I can’t teleport out. Even once I get to the cave, I can’t teleport out. I have to walk the whole way back. Really, game?

---

Figaro Castle

-A guard tells me they discovered an ancient text in the library.

-We finish our trip to the east, and I head to the library.

-………………………….

-………………………….

-No words. I’m angrier with myself than with the game. I made that way harder on myself than I needed to by being impatient.

But I’m still a little angry at the game. You couldn’t have forced me to see that clue some other way? To have found it properly, I would have had to ask to move on from that snag we hit mid-transit, and just hope that if I were to move the castle again we’d hit the same snag. What if it was a one-shot deal?

Granted, I probably should have talked to that RANDOM GUARD on the way into the passage, but would it have been so bad for that random guard to stand in front of the jail cell and only move to let me through once I talked to him?

Anyway. Lesson learned. Not going to waste time on that kind of brute force again. Checking for secrets, yes, but not pure click-everywhere. It’s not fun, it’s not puzzle-solving, and if the game wants me to know something, it’ll give me a clue.

---

I know I probably sound negative, and I apologize for that. This was a frustrating session and it didn’t have to be. The clue was there that told me how to get to that spot, making it not necessary to have brute forced it, but whatever. What’s done is done. Got some loot, got a snapshot of an ancient civilization, and also saw a brief glimpse at what was in its time a much larger drama.

---

Next time: I still have two dragons to find, but don’t know where to look. I’ve kind of gone everywhere I can to do.

FFVI – Part 74: Beneath the Sands

Summary: After taking longer than I probably should have, I find the way to the buried castle. We find evil incarnate, a.k.a. Master Tonberry. Eventually, we reach the castle itself, and see some flashbacks to its activity in the War of the Magi, and its champion esper, Lord Odin.

FFVI – Part 73: Felling Giants

Summary: Taking down some lingering big boss baddies. Leviathan, Deathgaze, Gigantuar.

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Sailing from Nikeah

-We arrive in Nikeah and book passage.

-Promising start, since we actually see the ship sailing from an overhead view rather than being instantly transported to South Figaro.

-Yup. Here he comes.

-Hey hey hey, it’s underwater! New dance time? Please say yes.

-QUICK NOTE TO SELF AS I FIGHT, IN CAPS FOR EMPHASIS: DO NOT USE A DANCE. DO NOT USE A DANCE. DO NOT USE A DANCE. HEY, COLDRUN, YOU KNOW THAT TANTALIZING DANCE BUTTON? IGNORE IT. IT’S NOT A THING.

-He slows us all, which sucks. I don’t have Hastega yet.

-I make a couple of attempts, but we just get obliterated.

Rinse, repeat.

Tsunami damage is too much, and Celes doesn’t have Curaga or Arise.

-One more attempt maybe, going whole hog. Full offensive. See if dualcast Ultima plus Umaro can burn him down, while leaving Mog and Locke to spam Cura on the group.

-It doesn’t work. He dualcasts Tsunami and El Nino, and it’s just too much.

-However, I note that after the first Ultima was dualcast, he used El Nino or Tsunami. That tells me that was a retaliation spell. Maybe I go pure melee on this, attacking only with Umaro, Mog, and Locke and healing with Celes dualcasting Cura?

-VICTORY! With a new dance on top of that. Who’s got two thumbs and is doing the “Mog’s Set is Nearly Complete” dance? This guy.

-Got the Leviathan magicite as a reward.

-LOL – just noticed that one of Umaro’s possible attacks is where he goes to another party member and flings them at an enemy.

---

The Falcon

-Hey, maybe fighting on the airship is the last Mog dance? I’ll try finding Deathgaze again.

-Leveled Mog up to 46 in the Tyrannosaur Forest, and it’s off to try for Deathgaze again. I really want him to stay alive in case this is the only chance we get to fight in the air terrain.

-After five straight minutes of flying, found him.

-I DID IT!! DUAL CAST ULTIMA GOT HIM

(In fairness to Deathgaze, dual-cast Ultima gets most things.)

-Magicite reward. I’ll bet summoning Deathgaze lets us flee everything so that the monsters have to hunt for 10 minutes to find us again.

-BAHAMUT MAGICITE WTFWTFWTWFFWTWFWRTWF

This probably means we won’t actually meet Bahamut in any sort of dialogue-y way, but that’s ok. He already showed up because Setzer got lucky anyway.

It teaches Flare, and grants 50% HP on level-up. That’s ridiculous. I mean, I don’t plan on leveling-up much more, but that’s nice anyway.

-That’s two big targets down. Let’s try for a third.

---

Desert South of Maranda

-Cactus time.

-Found him MUCH quicker than last time.

-Ok, doing way better. Party is Strago, Mog, Sabin, and Locke. Sabin’s Phantom Rush is basically all my damage. (By the way, is 9,999 the limit, or does that just indicate “9,999 or greater”?)

-Come on…

-DIE YOU CACTILE FIEND!

-YES! VICTORY!

-Strago prepared for Gig

FFVI – Part 72: Gilgamesh the Gladiator

Summary: An encounter with Deathgaze goes badly. A bet in the coliseum goes gloriously, gloriously well.

FFVI – Part 71: The Gifts of Youth

Summary: After some failure in spawning the Hidon encounter, the matchless Relm conspires with Gungho to help Strago realize his dreams.

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Ebot’s Rock

-For this, I’ll start with Strago, Cyan, Umaro, and Setzer. Mix of magic and melee, with some of my lower level characters to start building them up.

A rare Setzer triple BAR: “Hellfire.”

-Huh. Nothing here. I really thought I’d trigger Hidon with Strago in my party, but maybe it’s a rare spawn or maybe I have to do something else. Going to head back to Thamasa in case Gungho is hanging aroud there.

---

Thamasa

-Nothing here. Grr…

---

Ebot’s Rock

-Going to try bringing Shadow and Relm into the party.

-hjkldsahfads

-Still didn’t work. Nothing on Ebot’s Rock.

---

Thamasa

-YES! Success. Something’s happening - Relm is happy to be home and breaks off.

-Gungho’s hurt. He got himself hurt hunting HIdon. (hee hee!)

-And by “hurt,” I now mean “dead.” Strago wants to continue pursuing his youthful dreams and avenge his friend (who seemed like an asshole last time we met) at the same time.

-He ran from it last time, and wants to face it alone.

STRAGO: “It’s a matter of pride, dear.”
RELM: “It’s a matter of you being a stubborn old man!”

We’re going as a group.

---

Ebot’s Rock

-There’s now a cave here.

-Aw, dang. It’s one of those limited sight dungeons.

-I think I’m going to convert Setzer into Genji Glove-wielding auto-attack machine. I present my reasoning via the medium of a screenshot essay called “Fuck Setzer’s Slot Mechanic”:

-A sentient treasure chest is blocking the way forward. We have to find coral to feed it.

Hungry, Hungry Treasure Chests.

This feels like a callback to the giant in FFI we have to feed rocks to before he let us pass.

-The dungeon is made up of lots of disorienting portal stones. I collect pieces of coral from around the area and port back to the chest to feed it, but it says we need to feed more at once to fill it up.

-After a bunch of kind of random porting around, I have what feels like an arbitrarily large enough number and try again. Success.

-Found him.

Hidon.

Awesome sprite model once again. Looks like a particular creature from the MMO rift, in skeletal form. Easy fight at this point, especially compared to the Cultists’ Tower. Hurray for Strago!

The Grave Maker monsters of Rift.

---

Thamasa

-Oh. I was wrong. Gungho’s still alive. He must’ve just gone to sleep. Oops.

-The animation here is kind of hilarious as both Strago and Gungho are jumping up and down in excitement, with Strago flailing his arms wildly. Gungho cedes that Strago beat him. All is well.

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Evening in Thamasa

-Lol. Strago’s telling Gungho of his victory. This is really cool to see.

I care less about the challenge or rewards of beating Hidon than about seeing what beating Hidon means to Strago and how he reacts to it. FFVI knows this well.

-oh god this is the best. Strago’s acting out his victory, and pacing back and forth as he talks. He cannot contain his excitement. “Bam! Thwack! Pow! Oh, I wish you could’ve been there to see me. And then…” Fade out.

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Same Evening, Outside the House

-Relm is standing outside when Gungho comes out to her.

-RELM YOU SNEAKY PETE

-Gungho didn’t really get wounded by Hidon. Relm put him up to it, to spur Strago’s competitive spirits so that he would accomplish his dream. Relm: never change.

GUNGHO: “I don’t know how a man like him ever managed to raise a granddaughter as wonderful as you…” Have I said that I love this yet? Because I love this.

AND THEN RELM CHIDES GUNGHO FOR PUTTING ON A CRAPPY PERFORMANCE LOLOL

-Let me touch on why I love this so deeply. Kefka’s world is defined so often by despair, hopelessness, a lack of meaning. Strago was in a deep funk. He joined the Cult of Kefka, thinking there was nothing left to live for. Then Relm comes along. She doesn’t just provide him the company of a loved one. She helps reignite his purpose, and gives him something truly meaningful.

She gives him joy and purpose. She helps him realize these things for himself. Who could ask for more?

---

Next time: Flying around a bit to try Deathgaze, then heading back to Cid’s House with Locke and Celes to hopefully get a cutscene of some sort.

FFVI – Part 70: Housekeeping

Summary: Just a brief interlude trying to collect myself about what comes next.

FFVI – Part 69: Rage 4: The Veldt Awakens

Summary: Where I try to build Gau’s rage selection in the new world and help out Strago’s pool of blue magic. Super long post today, since I’m trying to process a lot of new info and It would’ve felt weird for me to try to string out a non-story session over two posts.

FFVI – Part 68: The Magicians

Summary: An astoundingly brutal dungeon. We get Strago back, and then enter a world where only magic does anything. I end up grinding a lot of the spells I need along the way, surviving by the skin of my teeth. By the end Celes becomes a dual-Ultima-casting, endless-Osmosing machine to carry me.

FFVI – Part 67: Narshe and North

Summary: We explore the Narshe Mines and pick up two party members: Mog, and the yeti berserker Umaro. Another legendary dragon bites the dust. Sabin sees Duncan alive, and learns the ultimate technique: the Five Point Palm Expl… ahem, the Phantom Rush.

FFVI – Part 66: Terra Emerges

Summary: We hit up Mobliz, where we help Terra fight off Humbaba. She outs herself as part-esper, finds acceptance, and joins our fight. We then head to Narshe.

FFVI – Part 65: The Phoenix Cave

Summary: We head to the Phoenix Cave. It’s a tough two-party dungeon. We find Locke, who gets the Phoenix magicite. He uses it to revive Rachel briefly before she truly dies.

FFVI – Part 64: Gladiator and Gogo

Summary: We strike out with Strago in Ebot’s Rock and Thamasa, but find Shadow in the Dragon’s Neck coliseum. Some brief exploration of a really fun mini-game. Travel next to Intangir Isle, where we get sucked in by a Zone Eater. No Strago inside, but Gogo is a go.

FFVI – Part 63: Provenance

Summary: We head to Owzer’s Mansion in Jidoor. Haunted art galore. We help Relm with a possessed painting, and then get Excalipoor.

FFVI – Part 62: My Fair Gau

Summary: Gau rejoins us. We visit his dad’s house, where the party realized that this guy is Gau’s dad. We get our “Pygamalion” on, with Sabin and the rest in the role of Henry Higgins and Gau as Eliza. Then the game crushes our souls because of course it does.

FFVI – Part 61: Distracted by Puppy

Summary: I really intended to finally get Gau on the Veldt, but wandered into a nearby Cave and found Shadow. We save him from Behemoth Kings, bring him back to Thamasa, and learn a thing or two about him.