LogFAQs > #954371720

We collect the potions for Cid, but it doesn't really work and he turns into a frog. My bet is that Zidane didn't portion the ingredients out the way Tot specified. We then decide to head straight to Kuja, which means finally getting a ship, woo! I pick up Quina along the way (what happens if you don't have 100 Gil to pay for the pickle?) and we're onto the world map riding Blue Narciss. I am very impressed at Quina's self-restraint in not eating Cid. Character growth!

Amazed that it took til disc 3 before we both get a vehicle and have the ability to freely change party members (well, via Cid). Of course it is time to scour everywhere in the world I can before heading to the main objective. Unfortunately there's not really anywhere new we seem to be able to access- I head back to Alexandria and turns out it's not completely destroyed, but Beatrix is nowhere to be found. There's a crater where Cleyra used to be, but not much new in any other previous location (I don't walk over to Treno or Dali though).

We do at least get a look at the other continents. There's strips of grassy land housing mean lying cats and OP dragons, and a giant western continent that appears to be largely desert but has no beaches to land on. Guess we'll be back here with an airship. I dub this land Westhar.

We do discover Esto Gaza in the snowy northern continent, a strange place with lots of devout believers talking about the Shimmering Island/Path of Souls. Sounds important (is path of souls related to Garland's soul circulation thing from earlier? Perhaps!), but nothing to do here now. It's possible there's other new areas in this continent but the enemies are pretty tough so I don't bother running around for now. I do grind a bit on the beach to get my lower leveled party members back on track, thank you Whale Zombie for dying in one hit to Life. Also at one point my software abruptly closes. It was when I was running 3x speed on the map, so I'll make sure not to do that anymore.

The mages with Kuja were indeed from the Black Mage Village, as Vivi is distraught to learn. We witness a chocobo hatch and there's some more nice sad scenes here between Vivi and 288. Vivi starts to accept his own individuality, realising that his sadness and suffering is a trait shared with humans. He's still obviously sad about his own mortality, and I am terrified that one day we will head back here and 288 will have stopped. This is another case where a typical 'happy ending' seems unlikely here, as Vivi is mortal and can't run from this. This game is rough, man.

The game is quick to contrast Vivi with Dagger here (not the first time it has done this), and their different approaches to grief. Dagger seems to sink further still into despair and guilt when witnessing Vivi's growth, and she continues to be frustrated that she's still the same person she wanted to escape from way back when. Baby steps I suppose, she must soon realise that she can't keep running from herself or blaming herself for the world. This really has been such a good way to develop Dagger's character and distinguish her from the other leading white mage FF women, though it doesn't make it any harder to swallow. Weirdly enough, Dagger is one of the more relatable characters in this game despite her royal status.

Dagger's status extends to battle now, as noted by some users already. Sometimes she just won't attack, and she doesn't engage in victory animations. I really don't have a problem with this (maybe I will if it goes on for ages), it's a nice way of connecting gameplay to story and reminding the player that Dagger can't just switch off from her depression, it's consuming every aspect of her days.

Very interested to see where we go from here. It's starting to seem like Kuja could possibly be the Act 2 boss of this game, or maybe a Seymour kinda deal. We shall see!


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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado.
Currently playing: Final Fantasy IX!