Hours Played/Hours Total - 7 hrs / 39-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Home.
Current Goal - Defend Home and find Yuna.
What Happened - I'm gonna need to start trucking along if I want to beat this remotely soon! Let's waste no time and get going.
With the Al Bhed Home under attack, I'm here to help and find Yuna. I enter inside their main complex and start helping out. As I travel through the complex, I have to fight off several groups of Guados with fiends. The group wonders why the Guados are doing all this though. While moving through the place, I look about for a set of three Al Bhed Primers. I have to get all three of these here and now, or they are locked out of this save game forever...Yeah, they went there. As we move along, the group asks Rikku where Yuna would be. She says she should be in the Summoner's Sanctum where they are keeping all the summoners at. About this time, Cid chimes in over their intercom system and starts saying something. Of course, he said it in Al Bhed, so only Rikku truly understood (although having a majority of the primers helped). The only thing she told the group was they needed to get below ground right now!
As we head into a different area, the group observes the base is just...in pieces. Wakka says that this place is done for. Rikku says that Sin destroyed the Al Bhed's original home some time ago. After that, the Al Bhed were scattered all over Spira, but then Cid came in and got everybody back together. They worked really hard and managed to form a new home. They were quite happy, but now all of this has happened. Aw...sad time. Fiends surround the group for another battle, but I beat them quite quickly. After the battle, the group heads down the steps, and we have a fairly suspicious-y conversation. Yuna restates how the Summoner's Sanctum below is where they keep the summoner's safe. She talks about the Al Bhed kidnapping summoners to protect them and such. Everybody seems to understand for some reason except for Tidus. He doesn't understand why the Al Bhed are doing it. Summoners are necessary to beat Sin, and who is going to do it otherwise? Tidus says they are safe with their Guardians, and that the Al Bhed need to understand that....right? RIGHT? Everybody is all silent and just continues on. Obviously, we're leading up to a big reveal here. (You might have already worked it out, but I'll be revealing it fairly soon regardless.)
We go into the Summoner's Sanctum. There are a few summoners there (Isaaru and Donna), but Yuna isn't here. There is also a big pile of dead Al Bhed. The summoners start sending them because they gave their lives protecting the summoners. At this point, they finally drop the bomb. Rikku says that Yuna will die if she tries to fight Sin. When she summons the final aeon, it might defeat Sin, but it will most definitely kill her. She claims that summoner's shouldn't have to sacrifice themselves so that everybody else can be happy. Of course, Tidus didn't know any of this. He demands to know why nobody told him and why they hid it. They claimed that they didn't hide it, but they found it too hard to say. Tidus is even more angry and frustrated because of all the things he said to her before. (Let's go beat Sin and let's do this after beating Sin. Stuff like that.) The summoner's present hear what Tidus has to say and respond by saying it was their choice. They were willing to give their lives to fight Sin. Tidus has a small flashback of talking with Yuna, and now he says he won't let Yuna die!
The place is coming apart though, so we continue on through Home. We finally find a strange hanger area with what looks like a ship. We board it and find the Al Bhed preparing something. Tidus goes over, grabs Cid, and demands to know where Yuna is. Cid asks what Tidus will do with her next and figures he'll just try to sacrifice her like they always do. Tidus claims he didn't know about the end of the pilgrimage bit, but Cid figures he'll just force Yuna to do it regardless. He doesn't think Summoner's should die for everybody else's sake (like Rikku said earlier). Tidus promises that Yuna won't die, and that he wants to apologize to her. Cid seems satisfied enough with his answer and says he'll regret it if he goes against those words. Unfortunately, Cid doesn't know where Yuna is, but they will find her soon enough! Then...awesomeness kicks in! Cid tells them to take off in the airship. WOO! AIRSHIP BABY! We get a nice cutscene of a massive airship starting to rise out of the ground. The sand parts as a massive hanger opens up and the airship ascends. It starts flying away from Home, and Cid gives the order... to destroy Home!
The group is surprised to hear this, and the Al Bhed are very sad about this. The group asks how they are going to destroy it, and Cid says with the use of a forbidden machina. As they get ready to fire upon the city, they start singing the Hymn of the Fayth. It's kinda sad to hear, and then...cutscene time. The airship is flying turns partially towards the city and opens up a bay on the top. It lets loose a flurry of missile that quickly fly towards Home. They all hit the city, and a massive explosion spreads from the city. The airship has to hit top speed to outrun it. It looks pretty bad for the moment, but we just barely manage to outrun it all. Aaaand it is sad times.
Cid starts looking into finding Yuna, so I get a little exploration time. Exploring the airship goes to show it is pretty damn big inside of it. A lot of people managed to escape into here as well...The first one I run into is Isaaru with his brothers. Despite everything though, he is very determined to continue his pilgrimage. He wants to protect everybody and defeat Sin. He knows that others will do it even if he doesn't. Nothing we can do to change his mind it seems. I quickly locate Donna in a different area, and she seems to have decided the other way on this. She tells Tidus she doesn't feel like talking with him, but as I go to leave, she asks him a question. She asks what he would think if she decided to quit her pilgrimage. I'm allowed to choose my answer, but I can assume the end result is the same. Basically, I choose the more supportive one, but Tidus explains that it doesn't matter what he thinks about it and will support her quitting it. She doesn't understand why he says that since most people would simply see it as her abandoning her duty. Tidus thinks it is her decision and up to her. She feels better about it and thanks Tidus after that.
After looking around a bit more, I finally head for the bridge. Up there, Auron is talking with Cid currently. Auron is talking with Cid about Yuna's pilgrimage and wants to know if Cid will stop her. Cid says he isn't going to let his niece (Yuna) die a stupid death for everybody else's sake. Even if she refuses to quit, she won't let her sacrifice herself like that. Auron says that it is his decision in the end being the captain and all. (Don't know how that is relevant...) As they wrap things up, Brother (Rikku's brother...also his name for some reason) says that he found Yuna. They bring Yuna up on a screen, and she is dressed fancily for some reason. She is with Seymour as well, and they are in an unknown location. Lulu identifies the place as St. Bevelle Palace, the Heart of Yevon. From the look of things, she is about to be married to Seymour.
Tidus is more determined than ever to go and rescue her. Cid says that it's dangerous, and that Bevelle is chocked full of defenses. Tidus tells him that it doesn't matter because they are going to go rescue her regardless of all that! Cid laughs and says he has guts. We set our course for Bevelle, and things are starting to look up. But then...problems arise. (Of course they do.) It seems that a few Guado slipped on board before we took off, and they are currently messing up the place. Cid is about to go off into a drastic rant, but Rikku interrupts him. She was mimicking what he was about to say about destroying the ship or something along that line. She says he needs to take it down a notch. She says that they'll go take care of them because they are made for this. And so...we head off into the ship to fight off some fiends!
After a couple of random battles, I come into a viewing area near the top of the airship. Outside of the ship, we spot a rather large dragon creature approaching! Lulu quickly identifies it as Evrae, the guardian of Bevelle. As we are looking upon it, Cid tells us over the intercom that we are going to fight it! All during this little scene, Auron just sits back and makes terrible jokes. He says that "The red carpet has teeth" (Evrae) and "The ferryman asks a high price" (referring to Cid). No point delaying this anymore. I prepare myself and then head outside for BOSS BATTLE TIME!
This game is all about its special condition battles. For this time, I'm having to deal with Evrae and give directions to Cid so he can pilot the airship as needed. The coolest thing you can do is back away from Evrae so Cid can fire on it. He has three volleys of missiles he can let loose on Evrae! They don't do a lot, but it's some free damage with no cost. I remember this battle fairly well in my previous playthrough (waaay back there and never finished), and I remember having quite a bit of trouble with Evrae. The biggest concern was his one powerful breath attack that did decent damage and poisoned everybody. However, I easily fixed that with one of Rikku's Al Bhed potions. So lucky for me, this was a fairly easy battle overall. It probably helps that I've spent extra time here and there gaining levels. As Evrae fades away, the airship looks to have taken some damage and rapidly declines downward.
As the ship flies downward, I get a cutscene of us flying closer and such to Bevelle. It seems Bevelle is a pretty big city, but our goal is the palace. As we fly in closer, soldiers on the ground pull out guns and start firing upon the airship. Of course, this is pretty much pointless as the bullets fly past or just bounce off of the airship. It flies in close at one point and launches out some massive hooks into the palace. (This is all cutscene right now.) The group jumps on the cables and slides on down to the palace. After their drop off, the airship takes off, and we are left to deal with the troops. I fight my way through several soldiers and a couple different robots. Funnily enough, each of the soldiers we fight has a gun of sorts, and not to mention the several robots involved in all of this. (Yevon teachings for those not catching my meaning.) Just as we make it to the top to stop Yuna...Maester Kinoc jumps out of nowhere with a rifle.
Despite all those soldiers we beat, we are surrounded and can't go any further. (Because those guns didn't stop us in battle, but out of battle they are 100% going to kill us now.) The group is helpless, but its seems like Yuna is planning something. She pulls out her staff and seems to plan to send Seymour. Seymour admits that she has something...She was willing to fake a marriage in order to try and send him. Unfortunately, Maester Mika steps forward and warns Yuna that her friends' lives are at stake. He advises her to choose wisely. She drops her staff and gives in to save everybody else. The marriage continues with a little cutscene, and Seymour kisses Yuna (to everybody else's disgust). However, as the marriage ends, Seymour gives the order for everybody to be killed. Kinoc has his rifle pointed at Auron, and Auron mentions that those are illegal by Yevon's teachings. Kinoc comments that there are some exceptions to the teachings. Things aren't looking too good, but then Yuna gives us an opportunity!
She has stepped onto a nearby ledge and is slowly backing towards it. She says that she'll back off of the ledge if they don't let the rest of us go. They do release everybody, but she jumps off anyways with a bit of a "trust me" look about her. Yuna is falling off the building in a cutscene, but right before she splats into the ground, she summons up Valefor to catch her. With Valefor, she flies off to a different location. Unfortunately for Seymour and co, the group has already started running away. Tidus wants to turn around and fight Seymour, but Kimahri seemingly (I don't directly see them at this moment.) carries him with them. The group makes it into the temple, and several are surprised to see how much machina is currently present. Wakka is the main one to comment on it, and Rikku says that maybe it is all here for convenience. Rikku does something on a nearby panel, and then we take the escalator of sorts down into the depths of the temple.
As we make it to the bottom, there is more machina spread about the bottom of the temple as well. Wakka just doesn't know what to think at this point, and he starts to have a strong doubt in all of it. The group has come down into Bevelle Temple because they believe Yuna has most likely came here. Seeing as there isn't any other place to go, it is fairly likely. And so... we enter the Bevelle Cloister of Trials! The trial here involves a moving platform and several spheres. It's not necessarily the hardest Cloister of Trials, and I easily make it through with a little patience. I also collected the super-secret item here! Although I've read that this one is impossible to NOT get since you have to get it to proceed. We make it to the final chamber and see the door to the fayth on the other side. Tidus goes over to open the door, but Wakka tries to stop him. Tidus tells him "screw your taboos", and Kimahri helps him get the door open. (Doesn't seem to open automatically for them like it does summoners.) Once inside the fayth, I quickly spot Yuna talking to the weird ghost child that appeared some time earlier. (I believe he's mentioned in the first and second posts at some point.) Auron appears out of nowhere to explain what is happening right now. Basically, Yevon rites trapped people's spirits inside ancient stones. The fayth joins with a summoner, and through this process, the summoner gains the power of the Aeon. Yuna passes out after joining with the fayth, and Tidus carries her out.
As we come outside, it seems that our course of action was quite expected. Maester Kinoc is in the main chamber with soldiers and guns, so...we have been captured. Maester Kinoc says that we will be going to trial for our actions. Auron comments that it will be fair of course. Maester Kinoc says of course it will, but they are being sarcastic about it more or less. The screen goes to black...and I gained the Aeon Bahamut! The next thing I know, the group is in court, and we are being presided over by the four Maesters of Yevon. We finally get to meet the fourth maester here, Maester Kelk Ronso. He's the maester of the Ronso Tribe (obviously). He states that if we speak the truth, that Yevon will forgives us and such. He addresses Yuna and brings to light that she severely injured Seymour (killed actually), joined with the Al Bhed, and conspired against it all. He simply asks her what made her do all of this. She claims that Seymour is the true traitor here, and that he killed his father and previous maester Jyscal.
Maester Kelk is incredibly surprised to hear this, and he turns to Seymour to ask him about it. Seymour simply responds "You hadn't heard?" Then Yuna proclaims that on top of this Seymour is already dead! Lulu adds that Yuna was simply trying to send Seymour, which is part of a summoner's job. Maester Mika comes up at this point and reveals a crazy truth. Mika is also dead, and if she sent Seymour, she would have to send him as well. Kelk confirms that Mika is dead, but his wise leadership is invaluable, even in death! Kinoc adds to this that "enlightened rule by the dead is preferred to misguided failures by the living". Seymour compliments that by saying life is but a passing dream while death is eternal. Mika concludes by saying that everything dies and only the power of death truly commands in Spira. This...is kinda a lot of sacrilege as far as my understanding of Yevon goes.
After hearing all of this, Yuna asks them about Sin. Like her father before her, she became a summoner and started her pilgrimage in hopes of stopping the death that Sin brings. She asks if all of that is futile because she isn't alone, and this would mean that all of those before her died in vain. Mika claims that the summoner's pilgrimage was never in vain. Unfortunately, Sin can never truly be defeated regardless of number of summoners who give their lives. The rebirth of Sin can't be stopped, but the courage of those who fight gives the people hope. He claims there is nothing futile about the life and death of a summoner. Auron tacks on that it might not be futile, but it is also never ending. Mika claims that Yevon is continual and unchanging truths, and those who oppose this are traitors! (Despite all this rule breaking, WE'RE the traitors. Fantastic.) From here, we get to go straight to temporary prison.
The group is there in hanging cells and are awaiting their sentence. Tidus asks Auron why Spira seems to be stuck in a constant spiral of death. Auron explains that Summoner's give their lives to defeat Sin, the cause of most death. Guardians sacrifice to protect their summoners, and even maesters remain unsent. Spira is full of death, and only Sin is reborn to bring more death. It's just a massive cycle of death. Kinoc enters the room to inform everybody that their sentence has been decided. Auron chimes in and asks "Sentence or execution?" Kinoc asks if Auron thinks he'd truly execute a dear friend. Auron simply answers "Yes". From here, things to a drastic turn for the group.
Next thing I know, Tidus is thrown into a massive sewer full of water. He meets up with Wakka and Rikku there (Suspiciously lucky since they are the only ones who can fight underwater.), and it seems we are all okay for the moment. They don't know where the others are, so they head for the exit and hope to find them there. The game switches over to the Maesters speaking with one another (minus the Ronso), and they are talking about the current situation. Of the maesters, only Kelk Ronso seems disturbed by Jyscal's murder. Mika adds that Ronsos are all hard-headed. They talk about dealing with the group, and Seymour brings up that Yuna could still be useful alive. Mika responds by saying she has upset the order of Yevon and shouldn't be left to live. Kinocs tells Seymour to let her go because nobody has ever survived the Via Purifico! (Assuming the dungeon-y area there group is in right now.) However, Mika believes there is a chance they'll make it through and orders them to send guards to kill any who exit Via Purifico. Seymour volunteers for the job. He claims that he should be the one to kill his wife because it is his duty or such. Kinoc tags along with him because he doesn't seem to fully trust Seymour. He did kill his own father after all. Seymour laughs and welcomes him aboard. From here, we switch to Yuna.
Yuna is located in a small maze in a different area of Via Purifico. There's really not much to the maze though, so I quickly make my way around. While looking about though, I locate the party members I hadn't seen yet (Kimahri, Auron, and Lulu in that order). They were each in a different area, but they were found quite quickly. I had to deal with a few monsters here and there, but nothing here was too terribly tough. There was also a few nice little treasures littered throughout the area. After finding everything I could, I continued towards the exit to find an old friend waiting...We run into Isaaru as we go to leave. He's been sent here to deal with the traitors, but he didn't really expect us. (Also explains that the Al Bhed dropped him off a ways off, and then he headed for Bevelle.) He is here to stop us in the name of Yevon or something along that line! BOSS BATTLE TIME! TRIPLE AEON BATTLE EDITION!
As my ALL CAPS explained, Isaaru faced off against Yuna in an Aeon Fight. The fight was composed of three different rounds where I got to make use of my newest Aeon, Bahamut! Bahamut is a very awesome king of dragons in this game, and he comes with a full set of -aga spells as well as incredibly powerful attacks and an insane overdrive. (The usual...Mega Flare.) For the first round, Isaaru brings out Ifrit, and I counter this with my new friend Bahamut. Despite the enemy Aeons getting a little better health stat, I'm able to easily deal with Ifrit with a couple shots of Blizzaga. Bahamut even took the full blast of Ifrit's Hellfire! (His overdrive.) Isaaru may be down one, but he isn't out yet! Round two brings up his Valefor versus Bahamut! With my overdrive meter good to go from the last battle, I let loose a Mega Flare and deal quite a bit of damage with that alone. After that, I follow up with a few physical strikes and manage to beat Valefor with only a minimal amount of effort.
However, we have one final round to do, and he summons up Bahamut to make his final stands. With his Bahamut out, I can't use mine. I'm forced to switch to my second most powerful Aeon, Shiva. This Aeon battle is a bit different from the previous ones though, because all his Bahamut does is sit back and charge up his Overdrive. This leaves me only a handful of turns to deal with it! Lucky for me, I had my Overdrive beforehand, so I start off by blasting Bahamut with Diamond Dust (Shiva's Overdrive). Beyond that, I just kept after it with all the Blizzara I could cast. I managed to beat his Bahamut right as he got the Overdrive charged. With Isaaru's Aeons defeated, the group passes right by him and heads for the exit. As Auron passes by, he tells Isaaru that his pilgrimage is over. Time to switch it up!
I'm now back with Tidus and company (Wakka and Rikku), and we are currently in the water-filled part of Via Purifico. There isn't much to do or explore in this area though. I just had to swim forward and deal with fiends as I did. These three are a pretty good team despite the lack of Yuna's healing magic. Rikku's special items easily makes up for that though. We fight off a handful of fish fiends and find ourselves in front of a large closed gate. Unfortunately for us, we are joined by a revised old friend...BOSS BATTLE TIME! Evrae has reincarnated into the Via Purifico as a giant water dragon. For this battle, I have the option to stay and fight or escape through the gate. I use my first round of moves to open up the nearby gate to try and escape Evrae. Unfortunately, all this does is delay the battle by a small swimming scene. So at the next gate, I choose to stand and fight!
Despite what I thought would be fairly easy, I had a pretty difficult battle to fight. Before I got anywhere, Evrae chooses to petrify Wakka on the spot, and since we are underwater, he immediately shatters and is kicked out of the battle. I'm forced to fight the rest of the battle with just Tidus and Rikku. Lucky for me, I manage to get Darkness on him, so that greatly reduced his accuracy. From here, I do a little prep work to further my chances. I haste and protect the both of them, and from there, I just start attacking like crazy! I manage to delay Evrae with Tidus's move, Delay Buster. (It does exactly what it says...delays turns.) Thankfully, with the little bit of prep, I manage to beat the monstrous sea dragon without any further incident. After his defeat, I head out of the watery dungeon and outside of Via Purifico.
As we make it outside, they spot the other group, and everybody is glad to see that we all appear to be okay. Tidus tries to apologize to Yuna at this point, but he is interrupted by the group approaching us from the other way. As we already know, Seymour has come down here to deal with us. Before he does anything else though, Seymour immediately kills Kinoc. He claims that Kinoc craved power too much, and he spent his time scheming and worrying over it. Through his death, he will be brought into a peaceful slumber. Seymour thinks that all of Spira could benefit from being dead. In death, they would be free of their problems or the worries that plague them. He needs Yuna so that he can do this, and he invites her to come with him to Zanarkand, the Lost City of the Dead! He plans to take her life and power from her to become the next Sin! He will destroy Spira and through his logic, will save Spira. Of course, the group finds this a little crazy. Kimahri charges at him and holds him at spear point.
Seymour chuckles and such, but then he does some crazyness. He kills everybody around them (without moving) and absorbs their life energy into himself. He then transforms into SUPER SEYMOUR! (He looks like a giant statue of himself with wings. Hard to describe.) Kimahri tells everybody to run. Tidus tries to protest, but Auron gets him moving. We are running away from Super Seymour when Yuna turns about. She doesn't want to leave Kimahri behind. Nobody really does, but Auron says that it is his job as a Guardian. He is protecting her from everything that he can. Tidus interjects that they are all Guardians, and wherever she goes, they will just have to follow her. (Obviously, he's suggesting something.) Yuna gets his drift and turns around to go help Kimahri. I go through a few random battles on the way back, but I reach the other end intact. We reach the other end and join up with Kimahri for BOSS BATTLE TIME! SEYMOUR EDITION!
There's really nothing special to this battle as far as environment goes, but you have to put some effort into your tactics as to come out ahead. The battle starts with Yuna, Tidus, and Kimahri as my intial group here. I'll admit that the first several rounds didn't go too well. Super Seymour comes with a large snake parasite looking thing, and the two work together quite well. The snake mostly uses the basic spells to attack everybody in a group round of spells, but Seymour follows that up with the -ra version of the same spell on two people! Luckily, whatever element the snake uses, Seymour follows up with the more powerful version of. With this in mind, I started trying to simply block those with the Null spell. (Each element has an appropriate Null spell that will cast a status on a character to make the next elemental attack of that flavor to be immune. It's pretty nice really.) Of course, that only negates a handful of spells, and I'm having to spend most of Yuna's time healing more than anything. (FYI, she has the Null spells.) After getting everybody back to a decent point (health-wise), I start casting Reflect on everybody. Reflect is the largest key to winning this battle. With Reflect in place, any spells that the twosome throws at you is reflected right back at them. That doesn't do a huge amount to them, but it keeps them in their place so I can start the counterattack! Tidus, Auron, and Yuna each have a special Talk command with Seymour. It doesn't really come much of a response on his end, but I do get some special boosts out of it. Apart from reflecting his spells, I try to strike at him as little as I can. He tends to respond to most attacks with a Flare spell or other ability that can't be reflected. Focusing on the snake also works pretty well though. Every time you kill it, it revives by absorbing health straight from Seymour. This means you don't have to worry about Seymour's powerful reactions either! Either way, once I had Reflect up and recovered from the initial turns, the battle was in the bag. I defeated Seymour, and the group went on their way.
Narrator Tidus chimes in to take us past their ordeal of getting out of Bevelle. He said that something had changed about Yuna from here on. She seemed to feel betrayed by Yevon, and Tidus wanted to say something but didn't know what. Next thing I know, we are back in Macalania Woods. We have set up a small camp of sorts, but we aren't sure what to do. Everybody has something to say here, but nothing is incredibly important enough to mention. Yuna has gone off to be alone and needs to think of what she plans to do next. Everybody insists that Tidus goes over to her...so I do just that. He finds her in the area where we fought the sphere monster, and she just starts talking. She feels like everything is just so hard now. Tidus suggests she is trying to hard. He goes ahead and reveals that he knows her fate ahead of her. He apologizes for all the things he said about going to Zanarkand and defeating Sin. He asks for her forgiveness for it all and hopes she wasn't saddened by it. She says she isn't sad at all but was quite happy during those times.
At this point, Tidus tells her to just not do the pilgrimage! She should forget about it all and just not do it. Yuna says that it is maybe an option, but what would everybody say? Would they be surprised? Tidus answers that of course they would be, but they would still be happy for her, Rikku especially. The rest would cave into it eventually, and Auron would be the only one she truly had to break it to. Of course, if she stopped her journey, what would she do? Tidus suggests that they go to his Zanarkand and starts describing everything they'd do. Tidus is really getting into it, but then...Yuna starts to cry. She says she can't go and can't quit the journey either. So...it is decided then, but then the game jumps into another super pretty and purely decorative cutscene. I'm going to sum it up in the following sentence. Tidus and Yuna swim around together and make out underwater. It's kinda funny in a way really.
With their little session done, the two of them are sitting by the water. Yuna says she will continue her journey because she has to. Even if she gave up, she couldn't forget about it all, even with Tidus with her. Tidus is sad to hear it, but he will stay with her as her Guardian. She wants him to stay with her until the end. He adds not until the end but always. They head back to camp together, and she reveals her answer. She says that they will leave at dawn and apologizes to everybody for putting them through it all. And...we sleep for the night.
When we wake up, we head onward to our next destination, the Calm Lands. However, before fully leaving the Macalania Woods, I backtrack a little and located another Jecht Sphere. This one contained the very first meeting between Jecht, Braska, and Auron. Jecht is in a prison of sorts, and Braska has come to talk with him. He asks Jecht if he is the one claiming to be from Zanarkand. Jecht confirms that it is true. Braska also plans to get Jecht out of prison, and Jecht asks for the catch. Braska wants him along for his trip to Zanarkand. Jecht is all up for it since he wants out more than anything. Auron finally speaks up and protests against Jecht being a Guardian. Braska says it doesn't really matter who his Guardians are. It'd almost be funny to see them succeed. As it turns out, they aren't the most lovable group of misfits. Braska is a fallen summoner married to an Al Bhed woman, Jecht is the drunkard who claims to be from Zanarkand, and Auron is a warrior monk who refused the high priest's daughter for marriage. Basically, it'd be fairly funny and ironic for them to defeat Sin. (And they ended up doing it..take THAT society!) The video ends when the group is leaving prison, and Jecht asks what a "summer-ner" is anyways. With that video done, I head off to the Calm Lands!
As we enter the Calm Lands, I come to find out the Calm Lands is a massive plains area. It's probably one of the biggest areas in the game. The group talks about the area briefly and gives me some idea about the place. Lulu says that a long time ago summoners fought Sin here. It was perfect for battling Sin since there weren't any towns nearby or civilians to get in the way. Auron says that a lot of summoner's lose their way here. The area is beyond most of society so there isn't any kind of rest places to rely on. As the group goes to head on, Tidus says that he'll find a way to keep Yuna from having to sacrifice herself. And then..we continue into the Calm Lands.
Along the way, I spot the familiar face of the scholar Maechan. He tells us a little bit of background information on the plains. He says that long, long ago a great battle took place in this area between Bevelle and Zanarkand. A melee of machina! That war left the place barren and lifeless, and then time passed. Eventually, summoners realized that this area was a good place for battles. It was a perfect setting for a final battle with Sin. They would wait there to perform the final summoning. Of course, when Sin is defeated, the Calm visits Spira once more. Thus, the area is referred to as the Calm Lands, although there's no idea who dubbed that name. And that...is that.
Travel through the Calm Lands is quite slow unfortunately. It's a huge area, and there are lots of random encounters along the way. I make it to the northwestern corner of the Calm Lands and locate a person on a chocobo. I ask her for a chocobo, but she doesn't have one for me. However, she does offer to help me train one to ride! And thus begins a new minigame...Chocobo Racing! The first couple of courses are just teaching me the basics of the game. This wouldn't be too bad of a minigame, but you can't directly move the chocobo. Instead, you simply direct the chocobo left and right in an awkward and fairly shitty way. Basically, the end result of the initial courses is to train the chocobo for riding and yourself for doing the big race course. You grab balloons to decrease your time and dodge birds to avoid wasting time. The biggest goal of this game is getting a perfect run of 0.0 seconds. (Obtainable if you get enough balloons and dont' hit any obstacles.) It earns you another part of the Ultimate Weapon quest, but it's also super frustrating to do. I tried the chocobo racing a couple of times with no success though, so I moved right along. However, now I have a chocobo! Travel is faster, easier, and no encounters!
The chocobo also opens up a hidden area on the map. By using the chocobo to jump over, you can access a hidden temple known as Remiem Temple. The area is pretty quiet and doesn't seem like anybody has been around here. I do notice a few chocobos around and see what is up with them. It seems that I can do another kind of race here. I won't go into details, but the basic idea is to make it to the bottom before the other chocobo does. By making it to the bottom quite speedily, I was rewarded with the special item Cloudy Mirror. The Cloudy Mirror is the key item for completing all of the Ultimate Weapon side quest crap. You have to restore the Mirror first, but then it's used to open up special chests and restore the Ultimate Weapons to their full value.
Anyways, with the mirror acquired, I decided to enter the temple and see what was inside. Inside of the temple, we ran into Belgemine again. (She's the summoner I've had Aeon battles with a few times.) She greeted us and told us that this temple used to be a major and well known temple before it was destroyed during a Sin battle long ago. She also reveals to us that she is dead, but she asks that we don't send her quite yet. She wants to test Yuna and reward her in the process. Of course, the testing involves a large series of Aeon battles that I can do at my leisure. Seeing as I have time, I decided to do a couple rounds.
For the first round, I had to fight off her Valefor. I chose Ixion for this match, and I managed to beat it quite easily. I could go into detail, but...I didn't put any details down. It was a fairly easy match, and nothing was particularly a problem. For winning this, I earned an item called Aeon Soul. The Aeon Soul allows me to up Aeon attributes with items, and of course, it works almost exactly like learning new spells. For the next round, it was her Ifrit versus my Shiva. Of course, that was an insanely easy battle, and I finished it with little trouble. As a reward, she gave me a couple of nice and rare items. (I forget exactly what they were...I want to say Elixers? The classic super item!)
As for the next (and final round for the moment), she sent out her Ixion. I countered this with Bahamut, and I was surprisingly in for an even match between the two. She managed to take down Bahamut, so I had to switch out for Ifrit next. I managed to bring her down with just a small amount of health left in Ifrit, but it was well worth it when she gave me...more items. I seriously forgot to write down what she gave me. The next round available was Shiva, but from what I read on the guide, there wasn't any point going further. I can't finish it right this moment without having nearly all of the Aeons. I won't go into any details right now, but this is another side quest. However, the reward is quite nice, but that is enough for now, so I saved my game.
And thus we come to another fine ending of a post. My posting has become very erratic, and I do apologize for that. The holiday season coupled with a few new titles ended up killing my mood in FFX. Not to mention that I'm nearing the final hill of the game which comes with around 5-6 hours of gameplay if I don't do side quests. It could be nearly three times that if I want to truly do just about everything. I've been heavily distracted, and I'm hoping to fix that. The current goal is to beat this before the end of the year. I figure the worst case scenario is I ditch the side quests and go straight for the end. Realistically, I think the game is more than beatable without the Ultimate Weapons and such, but it'd be cool to get them. I was really aiming for it in past games, and I've only skipped a lot of it in the last few titles because of time. The only true worry I have is what happens when I hit XIII. However, I'll cross that minefield when I approach it. As my usual ending goes, I'd like to thank anybody who took the time to read this, and I hope you all look forward to my next post which should be sooner than later! Recurring Fantasy will return again in THE SPIRA CONSPIRACY, What really happens in Zanarkand. (Of course, it won't be the last post for this game.)
Ending Point - Outside of Remiem Temple.
Current Party -
- Rikku
- Wakka
- Yuna
Next Goals - Cross the Calm Lands. Defeat Sin.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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