Game - Final Fantasy 9, Day 65
Hours Played/Hours Total - 12 hrs / 37-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby Madain Sari.
Current Goal - Head for the Iifa Tree. Stop Kuja and save the world!
What Happened - This game is pretty long when it comes down to it. Of course, that might just be an excuse for me to make my slow posting style seem okay! Let's ignore THAT thought and go straight to the meat of this post.
No point jibbering about, I head for the Iifa Tree. I didn't swap in Amarant yet, but this is mostly because my current team is working for me. As for his fighting style, he's a monk (more or less) with Monk abilities. He uses a claw to attack, and he's got some interesting skills. Honestly, I didn't make much use of him in my last playthrough, and I'll probably not use him a whole lot this time either.
Anyways, as we approached the Iifa Tree, the group spots Kuja flying overhead. He's headed for the tree, and he flies up on the trunk. I close the distance, but we have no idea how to climb up. Zidane tells Amarant to find a way, and Amarant says he can just carry the little ones. He grabs Eiko and Vivi and starts climbing. Zidane grabs Dagger, and the group quickly makes it up the tree. Once they get up there, they finally confront Kuja and demand some answers! They ask if he started the war and created the Black Mages. He simply claims that he only showed those responsible how to create them, and he adds that the Queen was the one who started the war. He said he only gave her a little push. Kuja looks to the nearby sea and finds that the Queen has arrived in her boats (via a cutscene of course). We jump to her briefly and says that Kuja is the last thing standing between herself and total domination. She plans to show him the "ultimate power." At that point, the ships start firing upon the Iifa Tree, and the Black Mages start preparing a spell for something.
Kuja simply laughs at all of this because it is all going as he has foreseen it to. He says that all of this is but an opening act, and that the real show is just about to start. At this point, he starts throwing all forms of monsters at us and the Alexandrians. We easily beat the couple of monsters, but Kuja is now focused on the Queen and her army. As we look upon it all, Amarant asks why we don't let the two groups just fight this out. He figures Kuja is going to win anyways. Kuja flies off on his silver dragon again, and he seems to be waiting for the Queen to do something. Zidane is all for running off at this point, but Dagger wants to save her mother. He asks her why she would possibly want to do that after all that has happened. She says Zidane wouldn't understand and turns to Eiko to ask about the imprisoned Eidolon. Eiko points out where the Eidolon is, and Dagger runs off.
We have to chase after her though and fight off a few of Kuja's monsters as we go. As we hit the bottom, she has just reached a dragon-looking statue. Unfortunately, the Eidolon is...Leviathan, the all-mighty water dragon. As we look on, the Queen is losing the fight against Kuja, but she had the Black Mages preparing for a reason. She was having them focus so she could call in...Bahamut! A cutscene comes up and shows as Bahamut is flying in from the...Eidolon-verse. He's all giant dragon and epic. He flies in and blasts Kuja full-on, but Kuja just flies out of it and appears mostly fine outside of a cut on his face. The group is quite impressed by Bahamut's show of power. Dagger mentions something about Bahamut being the last eidolon and the ultimate dragon (something like that). Eiko chimes in that Mog is strangely and incredibly afraid for some reason.
We jump over to Kuja at this point. Expecting this, he's already got a plan for the exact situation and sets up that this is just the start of many future goals. Suddenly, we see a strange eye in the sky, and it blasts Bahamut with some strangeness. It seems that Bahamut is out for the count, but it turns out that is not the case here. Bahamut starts flying about and destroying all of the Alexandrian ships. This...ends pretty badly for them of course. Bahamut disappears back into Eidolon-verse, and we are left with a scene of death and destruction. The Queen manages to make it to shore on her "escape pod". (It's actually a full ship really...) However, she didn't do much more than that and is dying now. As she is fading away, it seems that whatever had caused her sudden change of attitude is gone. She talks about how she lead Alexandria down a path of ruin, and that the people will be happier with Dagger on the throne. And then...she passes on. The group uses the boat to return to Alexandria and bring the Queen back with them.
The game does a small time jump, and the entire group is back at Alexandria (minus Quina who swam back earlier before this). Dagger is visiting the grave of her mother. Steiner, Beatrix, and Doctor Tot are with her for the visit. A cutscene plays showing Dagger walking away from the grave and looking upon Alexandria Castle. /end Disc 2. Insert Disc 3! We come back to Dagger who is talking with the group of them. She is going to be coronated as Queen in three days, and she seems unsure for the time. We jump over to Zidane who is at the bar in town. He's in a sad mood, and the Tantalus group is trying to cheer him up. It seems to be ineffective, so they all run off to see a play being done by Ruby. (Random Tantalus person from the beginning...mostly unimportant.)
As they run off, the group of them run into Vivi and speak with him briefly. It seems that the trio left behind in Alexandria (Beatrix, Steiner, and Freya) took quite a beating while holding off the enemies back there. They had to be helped out and carried away by Tantalus. I take control of Vivi and start exploring Alexandria. There's quite a bit to do right now, and the amount of character switching is ridiculous. Be ready for it! An ATE pops up, and I quickly find out that Eiko is walking about the castle. Not being used to its size, she finds it to be insanely big. Back to Vivi, I start exploring town, buying supplies, synthesizing items, and basically anything else I can do. After I've had my fill, I find Marcus and Blank in front of the theater. Blank asks if I want to see the show, so I head on in. Of course, I don't actually get to see the play, and it switches over to Dagger briefly.
Dagger is having to deal with being the head honcho of the place, and she desperately wants to go see Zidane. Of course, Steiner says she is too busy with about to becoming Queen and dealing with Alexandria stuff. Doctor Tot comes in and hands Dagger a whole pile of stones. He says the stones contain the rest of the eidolons that were taken from her. She needs to get changed into her outfit, so Doctor Tot and Steiner head out while Beatrix comes in. Dagger tells Beatrix that she wants to go see Zidane, but Beatrix says the same thing as Steiner...She just doesn't have the time right now. We switch to Eiko now!
Eiko is still walking around the castle, and she's trying to figure out how to win over Zidane. She decides to write him a love letter. As she goes off to write it, she runs into Doctor Tot and asks for his help since he looks like a "nerdy philosopher type". He laughs at this statement but agrees to write the letter for her. He notices her horn and starts to remember. *Insert text flashback* Basically, he remembers them finding Dagger and her real mom when their boat drifted into Alexandria. The young Dagger greatly resembled the late Princess Garnet, except for the horn. The King had her horn removed, and the King and Queen raised Dagger as the Princess. Eiko interrupts all of this backflash moment, and we jump back to Dagger. Dagger has finished getting dressed and looks all elegant and such. She tells Beatrix that she isn't the real daughter of the late Queen. Beatrix says that she already knows because Doctor Tot told them. Back to Eiko!
As we come back to Eiko, Doctor Tot is finishing the letter. She thanks him, tells him her name and her home, and then runs off. Her mentioning of Madain Sari perplexes Doctor Tot though. He didn't know it was a real place and was wondering about it...but gets cut off! Eiko starts running through the castle and is heading for town, but she doesn't get too far. As she is moving about, she gets knocked off the second floor and gets caught on something. So...we have a scenario just like from the Mountain Path. Although in this case, she was knocked off by a passing Baku. Seeing as she can't get down, she asks Baku to deliver the letter to Zidane.
Baku leaves the castle and is waiting to cross the river. (There's a river/moat between the castle and the town.) Steiner approaches him Baku and is fairly hateful towards him despite all of Tantalus's help. Baku isn't super happy about that but drops the letter as he leaves. Steiner walks away, and Beatrix comes on the screen and finds the letter. She mistakens it as being from Steiner. (Yuuuup, there is hilarity to come.) We jump to Zidane who is thinking about his loss of Dagger and isn't sure what to do. Everybody from Tantalus comes back to attempt to cheer him up. Eventually, Baku trots in, and Zidane asks if he can rejoin Tantalus. He mentions that they could go after some treasure or something. Baku tells him that he doesn't deserve to rejoin if he can't "capture a canary". Vivi steps in and asks if they can go see Dagger. Baku laughs and tells Zidane that he should be more honest like Vivi. Zidane agrees to go see her, but he says that he is leaving after that. They walk on out to head for the castle. (Later on, in an ATE, Baku remembers that he forgot to give Zidane the letter, but he finds that he's lost it and laughs.)
Zidane and Vivi bump into Freya and Amarant. The two of them bumped into one another and are about to square off over it. This gets the guards attention, and they move in. Zidane wanders in at this point and fixes the situation using his charm. Freya tells Zidane that she is mad at him for wandering around and not speaking to Dagger when she's about to become Queen! After yelling at him a bit, she asks if he found out anything more about Kuja. Zidane answers no of course, but that's to be expected. Freya figures that if he is responsible for both the Eidolon extraction and Brahne's death that he will come back for Dagger. Zidane doesn't know what to do because he feels that Dagger won't want him now. Vivi steps in and tells Zidane that Dagger wants to see him and that he should go. Zidane agrees to this but again says that he will leave after that. Amarant and Freya join us for this venture. As we reach the castle, Steiner is throwing Eiko out. When they ask to come in, he tells them they aren't allowed inside. Vivi steps forward to ask and Steiner immediately consents to this. He goes to prepare this, and we enter the castle. She steps out briefly to speak with the group and is still formally dressed. Everybody comments on it, but when it comes to Zidane, he can't seem to find the words to say anything. She has to leave shortly after, and the group looks to Zidane. Zidane says that he had a whole speech of sorts prepared, but he felt it was all a lie. He isn't sure what he'll do without her either.
Time Jump! We see that Eiko is waiting out in front of the castle. (The letter said to meet in front of the castle by the fountain.) She's moping about and realizes there isn't any room in Zidane's heart for her...only Dagger. She thinks he doesn't even know how he feels and is angry about it. She starts to hear someone approaching and hides off to the side. Marcus and Blank are coming onto the screen and are talking about something. Apparently, the love letter made its way to his hands, and he figures it is for him. However, the two of them hear someone approaching and hide as well. However, Blank dropped the letter on the way, and Steiner walks on to find the letter sitting there. Steiner picks it up, reads it, and is wonder who wrote it to whom. He starts to think that someone planted it there for him...and that someone might be Beatrix! She walks in about this time, and they start talking. They get closer and closer, and the three looking on are just curious of what's goign to happen. However, before it goes anywhere, we hear someone sneezing offscreen and ruins the moment. Baku comes out, and Eiko runs off saying that Baku "ruined the scene".
Time Jump 2: Return of Time Jump! Freya, Vivi, and Amarant are waiting around at the bar and are curious to know where Zidane went. Vivi is about to go off to find him, but Eiko steps in. She's currently mad about the Zidane ordeal. Doctor Tot enters in (everybody coming to the bar!) and asks Eiko if he could question her about Madain Sari. She says yes and that they should go to his place. He answers that he lives in Treno and that would require some time...Zidane walks in and talks about going to Treno for a card tournament. As he says that, the rest of the group decides to follow him to Treno. Of course, they make use of Gargant Roo since it's really the only way. The game switches over to Zorn and Thorn who are just piddling about and trying to get back into the castle, but they don't make it too far before heading elsewhere.
The group arrives in Treno, and they each head their own way. Eiko asks Vivi to show her around the town, so they head off...right in time for an ATE!
Eiko and Vivi have just left Doctor Tot's place, and Vivi asks why she didn't pick Zidane instead. She responds that "Those two are bricks. They don't realize how they feel about each other until they're apart." Vivi is confused by what she means, and Eiko explains it a bit more. She says that Zidane really likes Dagger but tries to act cool, and they misunderstand one another and end up fighting. Vivi is still confused by all this...I get to play the "What's everybody doing game!" next with a pile of ATEs (reminder...Active Time Events). Vivi walks about town some (Eiko walked away) and runs into a random person that he seemed to have met earlier on (guy who helped him reach Alexandria for the play at the beginning). After speaking with that guy, Vivi decides to head home for a quick visit. Next up, we find Amarant walking about and being recognized. (He's a big wanted person all over...and known in Treno.) However, Eiko comes in and starts talking to Amarant and ruins that vibe. I walk around some and play a couple card games. Another ATE comes about but basically just has Eiko almost in a bad situation...that Quina comes through and rectifies somehow! I finally head for the card tournament and easily deal with the first round. ATE! Vivi arrives home, but it is very much abandoned since both he left and his grandpa died. It also confirms that his grandpa was a Qu clan member.
Next up for ATEs, Amarant and Freya find each other and start to chat a bit. Amarant mentions that he is actually from Treno. I get to play another round of cards, and then I resume that previous event. Amarant reveals that he's actually met Zidane before in the past. Amarant had become a guard for the local auction house. He ran into Zidane who was trying to escape with stolen goods. He was looking to get into a fight, but Zidane managed to trick the guards into thinking Amarant was the actual guilty party here. While they tried to deal with Amarant, Zidane ran off. Amarant figures that he doesn't remember that event and therefore doesn't remember him. That's all we get out of him though...
We find Eiko returning to Doctor Tot to help answer his questions. They talk only briefly, and she eventually brings up that Dagger gave her the "mark of the princess." He asks what she's talking about, and she says she is referring to two of the four jewels that the Queen was going after. Tot realizes now that Madain Sari obviously had the fourth jewel/crystal, but he wonders how it's all related to the event of 500 years ago (from waaaay earlier in the game...it'll fall into place soon). Finally, I get to compete in the final round of the card tournament. The champion for all of this is a "hot girl in a sailor's suit", but I quickly find out that the actual champion is Cid! I start the final round and am surprised by an entire hand of Oglop cards (not completely really...), but I don't seem to have any trouble. I win the tournament and a pile of money! However, with that resolved, Cid and Erin (the hot sailor girl) come out and talk with Zidane. They come aboard the new Mist-free airship, Hilda Garde 2. Cid fears that trouble is on the horizon and wants to be prepared for it.
Eiko runs in before they get too far and says that trouble is now. Mog was informed by another moogle that bad things are happening in Alexandria right now. The game jumps over to Kuja in Alexandria. He calls in Bahamut to attack Alexandria. We get another awesome cutscene of Bahamut being summoned in and destroying things all dragon-like. Dagger sets out to try and help everyone. I get to order around the Knights of Pluto during this, but I do so poorly...because I have no idea who should be doing what. Anyways, everybody sets off to do what they can to protect the town. As everybody leaves, Dagger passes out all mysterious-like. We jump over to Steiner and Beatrix who are trying to fight off the monsters about town. We fight off several rounds of these strange Mist monsters (same ones I fought earlier at the Iifa Tree). Things aren't looking good as an endless tide of them seem to stream in. However, the two of them persevere through this, and they share a small moment as they fight off the monsters. Back to Dagger!
She awakens and hears strange music coming from somewhere in the castle. This leads me off to a random portion of the castle where things go...magic-y. A set of stairs rises out of nothing and go around the castle's central spire (I learn later that it's known as Alexandria's Sword or something like that.), and I follow them on up. She has no idea what it is or why she was drawn there, but the strange music is still going. She isn't sure what to do now, but she believes she needs to be there for her people. It changes back to Zidane and group who are aboard the Hilda Garde 2. It's slowly making its way towards Alexandria. They are hoping they get there in time, and Eiko starts glowing for some reason. She makes mention of needing to get to Dagger and something about a Holy Judgement. Finally, she says that Alexander's judgement has come and leaps off of the ship. This throws the game into a cutscene of Eiko diving off of the airship and straight at Dagger. They float together and their jewels react to all of this. Eiko explains what is going on of course. She says it is the Light of Destiny brought on by the hidden powers of their four jewels. This power appears when the holy eidolon, Alexander, calls for its summoner. They start praying together, and we start up a grouping of awesome and epic cutscenes.
Alexander is summoned onto the scene as his kick-ass living castle form of robotic ridiculous...featuring massive angel wings! Bahamut flies towards him and starts firing off shots. This does nothing to Alexander, and he retaliates with his Alexander Lasers! (my name for it). Bahamut does its best to keep away from them, but in the end, Bahamut is defeated by Alexander. As the battle comes to its conclusion, Kuja calls upon his magical carrage that is called...Invincible. Once again, the giant eye of sorts appears from the sky and takes aim at Alexander. However, before it does anything, we jump to a strange and evil-looking man. He says that Kuja has gone too far and doesn't know who he is dealing with. He also mentions Zidane's name during all this. We come back to Kuja who is surprised to see that the Invincible has stopped. He realizes now that the strange man, he calls him Garland, has taken control of the Invincible. He wonders why Garland would come to Gaia (That just brings up MORE questions), but Kuja seems to have some idea why but doesn't say.
Going back to Zidane, they have finally arrived in Alexandria...with the Hilda Garde 2 crashing down there. We are at the castle, and a soldier passes by looking for Dagger. I set off to look for Dagger as well as Eiko, but of course, that isn't too hard for me since I know exactly where she is. As we reach the strange stairway, Zidane tells the group to turn around and let him take care of it. He greatly cares for Dagger, but he doesn't want them to get hurt if and when Kuja destroys the castle. After a little convincing, they all head off and Zidane continues alone. Another cutscene with the Invincible, but instead of taking Alexander, it destroys him completely. The area where Dagger and Eiko are starts falling apart, and Dagger falls off. Luckily, Zidane swoops in to save her before she gets too far. They start to make their escape when the Invincible lets out another blast! This time, it destroys the entirety of Alexander's remaining corpse, and the resulting explosion seems to reach all of Alexandria as well...
We jump back to this mysterious Garland character who mentions something about souls returning to recirculate. He says that Gaia doesn't belong to "them" anymore. He doesn't understand why Kuja would die on Gaia, but Garland knows he'll face off against "his counterpart" in the future.
Time Jump To Lindblum! Cid is overseeing all the repair over Lindblum when Baku strides in. He starts talking with Cid who mentions that Zidane has finally awakened. Baku sends Blank off to go see him. Next up, an ATE jumps in to show Quina washing ashore in Lindblum. The guards are collected there because they think "it" is dead, but it turns out Quina is made of tougher stuff! He pops up and starts looking for food. I take control of Zidane next, and he talks with Blank only briefly. After that, he sets off to find Dagger. She's sitting in the same spot as waaaay earlier. He tries talking with her, but he feels that something is wrong so he leaves her be for now. As I make my way out, Dagger has an ATE where she blames herself for everything that happened to Alexandria and isn't sure what to do now.
After that, Cid throws a meeting where the whole group discuss the circumstances and what to do. They bring to mind that the four nations are completely vanquished (Lindblum, Alexandria, Cleyra, and Burmecia). Zidane is determined to get Kuja at this point, but Amarant thinks it won't be so easy since he's obviously crazy powerful. Cid informs us that he saw Kuja escaping aboard the Hilda Garde I along with a group of talking Black Mages. Vivi wonders why they would possible go with him, and I get a little insight into the situation. ATE Time! Kuja is obviously preparing something as he gets off the Hilda Garde I in an unrecognized location. He mentions that Zidane is somehow involved. Also Zorn and Thorn are here! (If anybody cared?) We return to the group who are in agreement that their biggest need is an airship. The Hilda Garde I is obviously in enemy hands, and the Hilda Garde II is still being repaired from the crash. Cid wants to help with that but he can't do a lot as an Oglop. He's called Doctor Tot to help with that situation. The group is still talking when Eiko comes in. She has bad news...Dagger has lost her voice! The meeting disbands for now
Several of them go to see Dagger and unfortunately confirm this. Nobody is quite sure why but figure that she is like this because of all the recent traumatic events. They figure she will eventually snap out of it, so they just have to do what they can for now. Zidane is all ready to go take on Kuja, but the lack of an airship is still a problem. The current plan is to try and cure Cid of being an Oglop so that he can get a new airship going. Doctor Tot tells them that there MIGHT be a method to cure him, but he's really unsure of it. He sends Zidane into town to find three potion ingredients to make a cure. Zidane thinks Cinna has one of the ingredients though, so that leaves the other two. I head off into town and do a looot of exploring. This part was interesting because I could actually question everybody about this. Unfortunately, this didn't help at all. The majority of their answers were don't know, don't care, or ask that person. A loooot of searching and talking later lands me the first ingredient from the item shop lady. The second ingredient is found in the artist's house in the theater district. Lucky for me, the final ingredient was with Cinna. I happened upon the Tantalus group attempting to repair their home, but I only talked with them briefly. I then made my way back to the castle.
Zidane mixes up the potion like Doctor Tot said, and Doctor Tot applies the potion. A few seconds later we find out...complete failure. All the potion managed to do was turn Cid into a frog instead of an oglop. That means the only cure for Cid is for his wife Hilda to reverse the effects. Since that seems to be out of the question, we change the focus back to Kuja and trying to find out where he is. Vivi suggests that they ask the Black Mages at the Black Mage Village. He also wants to find out what happened. Cid has a boat prepared so they can head for the Outer Continent, and I make my way down. An ATE reveals that Quina got himself in a little trouble around town, so I have to find him first. Luckily, I knew exactly where he was and was able to help him out. (He ate food without paying for it...I got to pay for it instead.) I make my way down to the Serpent's Gate where the ship is waiting. When we board the ship, Blank is there as well. He's brought along to pilot and watch the ship while the rest of us do our business. And thus starts a whole damn pile of extra side quest stuff. Seriously...I gave like 3 or 4 hours to this alone.
With a boat at my disposal, I'm able to explore a large portion of the world unhindered! Of course, there are still a few places I can't get to, but with a little help from Choco, I easily overcome all of that. (I'll get into that soon.) I find a new marsh to visit and catch a couple more frogs for Quina. From there, I make my way to Alexandria to explore the remains. As it turns out, there is quite a bit left of Alexandria, but it is most definitely in ruins. The town is all messed up, but much like Lindblum, they are all doing their part to repair things. I buy a few things and leave soon after. I then start work on the great Chocobo side quest...Chocobo Hot & Cold!
I've done a little bit of this in the past, but I quickly found out that on Disc 3...pretty much 90% of the entire Side Quest is done here. I find a new area known as Chocobo Lagoon and managed to snag more Chocographs. Many new treasures were obtained through this, and I even upgraded Choco! (Two times to be exact.) The first upgrade was to a Red Chocobo that could climb mountains, and the second upgrade gave me the awesome Black Chocobo (looked dark blue) that can basically walk anywhere. Both times, the Fat Chocobo (who is their god or something) mentions something about Choco heading home and getting closer to it. With these upgrades, I'm finally able to revisit a few locations and start various other side quests. I collect several Stellazio (coins with the astrological signs on them). These special coins can be traded to a duck lady in Treno for money and items. I collected seven more Stellazio (on top of two I already had) and managed to get quite a bit of money and a few nice items out of it. It was definitely worth the effort. After that, I spent time getting all the Chocographs and finding any acquainted treasure with it. It earns you quite a hefty amount of items and even some exclusive/rare items. Again...definitely worth it, but it burned through a pile of time.
After spending who knows how long (probably more than I said earlier), I finally made my way to Black Mage Village. As it turns out, nobody seems to be here now. I walk around a bit and finally run into the graveyard Black Mage (Mr. 288). He said that he stayed behind when the rest had left with Kuja. It seems that Kuja had promised to extend their life spans, and they all seemed eager for that. He wouldn't tell us where they went though because that would betray them. He mentioned something about a couple other Black Mages staying behind to watch their Chocobo Egg. I head over there, and we find out that the egg just hatched! Those two Black Mages considered leaving the village, but they felt they NEEDED to stay behind to keep the egg safe. They started feeling funny (emotions they don't understand most likely), and the group left them be. As we go outside, we find Mr. 288 waiting there for us. Vivi knows that he stayed behind for the Chocobo as well. Vivi asked Mr. 288 if he thought he (Vivi) would stop soon. Mr. 288 said that Kuja had mentioned something about the prototype lasting longer than the others.
Vivi came out and said that he didn't know how to feel about it before. His grandpa had told him that he shouldn't be sad about him (his grandpa) dying, so he didn't. However, when he saw Dagger crying over her mother's death, he finally understood it. He realized that he was sad at that time as well.With all these feelings, he knew they couldn't possibly just be puppets. He hated Kuja for using them, and he was going to go after him. After hearing all of this, Mr. 288 revealed that Kuja was hidden in a palace on the eastern side of the Outer Continent. The palace was hidden under quicksand in the desert there. He added as we were leaving that he hoped the others would be as strong as Vivi was someday...
At this point, I did more Chocobo Hot & Cold again, but I didn't have a lot left to do and was quickly frustrated with it. I quit that pretty fast and made my way to the desert area on the Outer Continent. I started exploring the area and quickly found some very obvious sinkholes. However, examining the wrong one revealed a nicely placed Antlion for me to fight. It was fairly tough for a normal enemy, but I managed to dispatch it nonetheless. The real problem was that you would keep fighting Antlions if you picked the wrong one and/or clicked the same one (accidental!). Eventually, I searched the right sinkhole (upper left one when facing north) and fell inside. Unfortunately for us, Kuja had already predicted our actions and had a trap prepared for us.
Zidane awoke in a strange circular room with Cid. The two had no idea where the others were, but their questions were quickly answered as Kuja spoke to them. Kuja tells them that all of them are in separate rooms and reveals that the room can open up to lava below. He lets Zidane out and tells him to come up to him. This leads Zidane around and to a pair of Black Mages. They teleport him to Kuja himself. Once there, Kuja tells Zidane all about a special task he has for him. Kuja needs Zidane to go and retrieve a special stone, the Gulug Stone, from a place called Oeilvert. Oeilvert is located on the Forgotten Continent, and Kuja has offered to send the group there on his airship (Hilda Garde I of course). Zidane wonders why Kuja doesn't get it, and Kuja informs him that a magical barrier around there keeps him from doing it. He figures that Zidane is too stupid to use magic and wants to send him instead. If Zidane doesn't do it though, Kuja plans to kill his friends. Of course, he doesn't force him to go alone. I get to pick three friends to take with me for the quest. I picked Eiko, Freya, and Quina. I figured this was a well balanced team. (And I also knew that the remaining members have to work together later.) Zidane tells Kuja that he best keep his promise. Kuja claims that he will...but as he teleports them away, he does the typical bad guy thing that assures us he won't.
From here, we are sent to Kuja's hanger to get on the Hilda Garde I and start our journey. Zidane attempts to talk with the Black Mages, but none of them respond to him. Zorn and Thorn show up again and inform him that these Black Mages don't have any form of ego or will. They claim that they won't respond to any command other than theirs. They laugh and talk about how the Black Mages are nothing and will be disposed of when they are done with. Zidane points out that the duo aren't too different from that description. The two jesters are just pawns in Kuja's grand scheme. This pissed them off, so they don't say much for the rest of the journey.
The ship finally lands on the Forgotten Continent, but the stupid jesters dropped us off on the opposite side of it all. Oh well! I head for the nearby Qu Marsh and catch a few frogs first. After that, I explored with Choco and located a bit more treasure. With the arrival of the Black Chocobo, I gain access to a new item called Dead Peppers. With the Dead Pepper, I can access a few new locations and uncover some secret treasure. On the Forgotten Continent, there is a few cracks in mountains that unload goodies! Unfortunately, they are hard as crap to find because they blend in with the graphics too much. With a little bit of guide and a whole lot of searching, I turned up all the cracks. With that said and done, I was ready to find Oeilvert and turn it in. With Choco, this was an easy task and quickly done. I got off Choco, healed up, saved my game, and stopped there.
Hooo boy! I got in TWELVE HOURS on this post! It wouldn't seem like that from the length, but I skipped over the majority of my exploration. I didn't really skip the details because the details were mostly just "found X treasure at Y location". Really wanted to get a post on Tuesday, but a lot of unexpected things came up and screwed that over completely. I've skipped playing anything else today so I could get the hours in and get the post finished. So...I finished it! It's nearly 3AM, but I'm getting it done. I've only got a couple more weeks in October, and I'm DETERMINED to finish this game. If I have to just push my way through the rest, I will. I was just hoping to try out a lot of the side quests this time around, but those are almost as long as the rest of the content. WHO KNEW!? So...as always, thanks for reading and hope you come around for my next post that is hopefully sooner than this post was!
Ending Point - Oeilvert.
Current Party -
- Zidane - Level 30
- Quina - Level 26
- Eiko - Level 27
- Freya - Level 26
Next Goals - Collect the Gulug Stone for Kuja. Save the rest of the group. Stop Kuja after that and save the world!
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
No comments:
Post a Comment