LogFAQs > #954468909

I certainly feel like I would remember a quizmaster ragtime mouse...

Anyway I check out the old areas and open a few chests, there's not too much there though. The mayor at Dali is back so I did miss my chance to get the coffee there, and the old man at the observatory is very sad. I can't find the next chocobo hot 'n' cold level and Mena isn't telling me anything so I figure maybe it's gated to plot progression. I'm getting antsy to continue anyway so we head to Esto Gaza.

I did indeed miss the shop here before, so I can't say if it had the fancy new items then or not. But we get all of the -agas in one Octagon Rod, despite having to get the -aras in three separate weapons. Did they get lazy or were they just being very generous here? Either way, I'm not complaining!

We follow Kuja into Mount Gulug, which has very nice music. Even after all the sidequesting I feel like I'm a little underleveled here, the enemies frequently knock out Dagger and Zidane. Yes I brought Dagger again, I didn't want to miss any unique scenes! Vivi and Steiner are the MVPs here, they annihilate the red bird things with Blizzaga and Blizzaga Sword (seriously Steiner's Magic Sword stuff is really powerful). The two of them climb several levels ahead of the others as they're often the only ones left standing at the end of battle. Turns out I was right to bring along Vivi and Dagger, as they both have multiple moments to themselves here (though I figure Vivi's might happen regardless of whether I brought him or not).

Shortly before reaching Eiko, we witness a scene with Kuja and Zorn/Thorn. Kuja is ranting about Garland, and I screenshot a line that piques my interest: "I must destroy him before Terra's plan is activated, or my soul will no longer be my own!". Obviously we don't have context for this yet but that sounds very ominous, what on earth/gaia/terra is Garland planning? And why is it called 'Terra's plan' as if the planet came up with it >_>

Z/Thorn do show some hesitance before deciding to kill Eiko, and it is here that Mog makes her stand. Turns out Mog was an Eidolon all along, who appeared as a moogle to be closer to Eiko and protect her. Mog kinda dies here, as far as Eidolons can die I guess, and I guess we won't see her again outside of summons. It's kind of touching and very unexpected, though I can't help but notice that they could've waited 10 seconds and Zidane and co would be down here to help out, Mog even seems to block Zidane from coming down when performing her attack. Ah well, RIP Mog. Who's gonna explain it to the other moogles at Madain Sari... Vivi runs off after the Black Mages and Mog leaves behind a Ribbon- now that's one hell of a way to get such an iconic OP item, I really like how they structured that!

Kuja starts talking about how Mog went into Trance mode, and how the trigger for Trance must be extreme anger with one's surroundings, not will to live or protect others or anything like that. I didn't expect Trance to be a plot mechanic, but I have no problem with that. I recall very early on somebody said that not everybody can Trance, but everybody in our party can I think so I wonder if we're all special! Anyway Kuja has no need of us and leaves us be, but before we can mourn it's time for a boss with the merged Zorn/Thorn.

This boss (somethingGemini, I forgot already) introduces us to the Virus status effect, which I recall (and by 'recall' I mean 'look up the tutorial screenshot I took ages ago') stops you from getting XP/AP. Honestly, not that big of a deal! Especially for boss fights which don't grant EXP anyway. I don't waste turns on Vaccines and instead focus on stealing and healing the constant Poison and Venom status effects. I'm glad I brought Dagger along here, having two healers on hand is very useful even if one of them is unreliable. Zidane focuses on stealing of course, and eventually does get all 3 items, and Steiner does his basic attack. The boss manages to knock out party members several times, but after the last steal we switch to full on assault (including a rather long Eidolon animation while poor Steiner's HP gets zapped away by poison <_<) and eventually take the annoying minions down for good. What was their deal? Did Kuja create them, morph them to their previous form, or what? Who knows.

The black mages know of Kuja's lies, and maybe knew the whole time, and apologise for their actions. They all just sit down in despair, and Vivi goes to sit with them because he's an angel. Man, Black Mages do not catch a break in this game :(

We finally meet Hilda, who reunites with Cid, and we hop back to Lindblum. She turns him back to human form and tells us Kuja's plan, which amusingly he just straight up told her of his own volition. The man loves to hear himself speak! We are to go to a place Hilda names 'Ipsen's Castle' once the airship is built. In the meantime however, Dagger is missing. As Tantalus search for her in Alexandria we are reunited with Beatrix! Hey! Weirdly she doesn't really give a reason for not trying to contact Steiner or the rest of us, or what she's been doing since, or why she won't join us. Kinda disappointing, honestly. She does give a Garnet for Garnet though.

Zidane finds Dagger at her mother's burial plot, and we finally get her moment of transformation. This is an interesting scene, there's no big plot development to instigate her change, I guess it was just the passing of time that allowed her to mourn and move past the worst of her depression. She decides she wants to stay with us and wants to be a leader that the people deserve, instead of just acting the part she spent her life preparing for. It's a nice scene, it does feel a little 'well it's time for her to talk again so just flip that switch' rather than a fully organic transformation, but any doubts I have are dwarfed by how cool the hair cutting scene is, using the dagger that gave her her new name to forge her new self. Really nice. Her new character portrait is really good too, I love that they changed that. The 'praying woman' one was pretty cliche! I don't know how I didn't know of this haircut twist beforehand, honestly.

The Hilda Garde 3 finishes construction (was this simultaneous or is there supposed to be a time lapse here) and we have our airship! Woo! I like the music for it! I could explore more but this seems a good place to leave it.

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