Current Events > Playing Final Fantasy X (Spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Man I would have had my 10 Master Tonberries/Varunas if I hadn't been so eager to run around with 3 maxed out celestial weapons.
I guess the grind'll be good for refilling on power/speed spheres though.

I've just realised that I'm in the early stages of scheming to take out the superbosses and I don't even have the Magus Sisters yet.

I'm gonna have to come up with names when I get them too. I could either find a matching trio of names or I could name them each after a different in-joke I have with three separate people.

Gotta start filling up the sphere grid with +4 spaces I guess. I got 5 +4 strengths down which is a pretty great feeling. Guess I could use this to keep count.
Edit: 10 down. Edit: 15.

Endgame only:
Put everyone on same grid, move them together while deleting the +1/2/3 stats and replace them with +4. Max all of the stats.

Is this mandatory to beat the superbosses without Zanmato? I can handle running around dropping a set number of +4s but digging up and replanting 90% of the grid sounds exhausting.
25.

Nah, around 130 stats would be enough iirc.

But you'd want to collect the celestial weapons since their hidden ability boosted their damage. Like Tidus and Wakka hits harder when their HP full, Auron is the opposite. Yuna and Lulu hits harder with MP full, etc.

Ricemills posted...

Nah, around 130 stats would be enough iirc.

But you'd want to collect the celestial weapons since their hidden ability boosted their damage. Like Tidus and Wakka hits harder when their HP full, Auron is the opposite. Yuna and Lulu hits harder with MP full, etc.

I've noticed that happening and was wondering what was up, I've been grinding Juggernaut and any time he got his triple fireball off, I was taking 8k damage and Tidus, Wakka and Rikku's attack power was collectively plummeting.
I guess it'd be nice to have at least one other levelled character with a maxed celestial to switch into. Should probably be Yuna.

I don't know what it is about the regular fight theme but it has incredible resilience to getting stale.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Don Tonberry trick is doing what it's meant to. This pleases TIDDUS.

If you're playing a version with the Dark Aeons, it's considered more efficient to use Dark Ixion while your stats are low. The preference for Don Tonberry is a holdover from back when the American PS2 version didn't have Dark Aeons; but in the remaster, all versions have them.

-Need a monster from Gagazet, specifically Bandersnatch
-Go rummage around
-Forgot to swap my weapons to capture weapons, still have World Champion on
-Find a Bandersnatch
-Ambushed
-It attacks Wakka and misses
-Wakka auto-counters and one-shots it
-The other two attack Wakka, miss and get auto-counter one-shotted
-Fight is over, I got no input.

It's the opposite of what occasionally happened to me earlier. This game has a sense of humor.

At least that didn't happen with something rare like a Tonberry.

It was funnier than it was annoying.
I found a spot that gave me a bunch of Bandersnatches a few minutes later too.
I'm not sure what the rarest thing I still need is. I maxed out Sin and Omega Ruins, I think there was something about cactus guys in the Thunder Plains which might be tedious.

I got three characters to 255 in strength.
I really want to go for agility next because boosting agility to break the game is Xenoblade 1 as it gets. Problem is Fenrir is crazy at dodging so it's either gonna be all overdrives or I'm gonna have to detour through grinding Hornet for accuracy. Wakka's already a decently consistent hit so if I get the other two up to his number, that and whatever number he'd be at would suffice.

I took that tip from earlier by the way, I've got all three on one sphere grid tile and they're moving as a group. It's working great.

And there, 10 of everything.
All but Nemesis unlocked.
Somehow the last thing I needed to do was go to Kilika and get 6 of those plant things.

Got enough accuracy to get the 8 or so hits you need on Fenrir fairly consistently, got the agility sphere off of him to boost that up. The Monster Arena guy gave me 99 dark matters which is nice but you can only carry 99 so it's overwritten the 20-something I was carrying and any that drop while I have them are meaningless.

Running low on speed spheres but I figure running around Omega Ruins for a while will refill all of them sooner than later.
Real issue is finding something to watch while grinding.

Oh it's so nice to be asked to grind against something that can't dodge and isn't fast enough to get a non-ambush-related turn in. I think I'm gonna stop counting spheres on tiles and just go until my three main characters have 255 in the stat. Seems less tiring.

Also, Tanket looks like one of those crystal golems from Dark Souls 1. Distractingly so. I know he's an edit of the other short enemies with big hands but it feels like he's in the wrong game.

I'm now hearing I need to build multiple outfits for each character for different dark aeons/Penance.

I've got strength and agility up, accuracy is looking okay enough. I guess if it's gonna go on a while I should go for Shinryu and try to get break health limit as a safety net so I have to focus less on each fight. Edit: Oh this is great, max defense brings Shinryu's counter down to triple digit damage, I start the fight then mash A until I get two wings of discovery.
It would be neat if the customise button didn't actually mean permanently apply ability. I can rip tiles off the sphere grid, why not customised attributes? Ah well. Also heard Dark Yojimbo is easier than the others and is a vending machine for good armor.

I always leave Dark Yojimbo for the last because he's the best source of farming Dark Matter to me. As long as you don't beat the final encounter, you can just exit the cave and the encounters will be reset.

And yes, he drops armors with ribbon and break hp limit iirc, but only 3 slots.

The sheer price of some of these customisation options has me hesitating to commit to anything/
If I go the break health limit route, am I screwing myself if I go for anything beneath 99,999 health?
The 9999 with auto-phoenix seems more glass-cannon like than I'd want. I'm leaning toward break hp limit because there's absolutely gotta be a bunch of ways the dark aeons can hit the whole party for 9999. Costs 99 dark matters to actually commit to it though, damn.

Edit: Just went to throw a fight to Dark Yojimbo just to get a look at what I'm up against. I didn't actually think I was playing as three vegetables on a cutting board before that fight but hey you learn something new every day.

You can actually reach 170 Agi without any drops from Fenrir if you're using the Standard Grid. You need a few spheres on the Expert Grid though.

There's basically no difference between 170 and 255 for Agi - your first turn of the battle might come slightly quicker but no affect whatsoever on subsequent ones or after revival.

Break HP Limit is an utter waste of time. Break MP Limit is even worse. Only Break Damage Limit is worth it, but you're better off using the celestial weapons due to their hidden ignore-defence trait. (Note that this trait only applies to Attack or Skills, not overdrives.) Very few enemies can hit your entire party for more than 9999 damage anyway, and attacks that can are always either predictable (so summon an aeon to take the hit or put up Auto-Life) or can be reduced below 9999 with measures like Protect and Cheer. The ONLY exception is Nemesis's Ultra Spark, but since everything else he does is predictable or sub-9999able, you can just keep Auto-Life up at all times.

Acc and Eva are likewise pretty pointless, as raising Luck will cover it, and some enemies (including the Dark Aeons) are evasive due to Luck rather than Eva - for these enemies your Acc stat won't make any difference, but Luck will. Likewise for enemies with over 111 Eva; as your base chance of hitting them is the same at 0 and 255 Acc (but Luck will still help).

Let's find out what qualifies as excitement to someone who's spent hours throwing Blitzballs at Earth Eater and probably has a way to go.
I should be thankful fiends aren't allowed to form Blitzball teams. Even at Lv1, each of those arms has to have at least 30 block stat.

List of words you can make from the letters in Earth Eater's name.
At, Ah, Are, Ate, Art
Earth, Eater, Eat, Ear, Ether
Hat, Heater, Heat, Hater, He, Her, Hare, Hear, Heart, Hatter
Rate, Rear, Rat, Retreat, Rare
The, Tear, Tar, That, Tree, There, Tart, Tat, Teeth, Thee, Three, Treat, Theatre, Tetra, Threat, Tether, Terra
And of course because this is FFX, "HAA"

List similarities between the FFX and Xenoblade 1 parties.
-Main character: Short-ish blonde guy. Has a funny sword. His home is attacked. Angry and aimless for much of the game but settles for challenging the predominant way of thinking taking out a deity figure near the end. Is the pawn of a much more powerful force. One has a sword that makes things go his way, the other has to repeatedly say "This is my story" and make it happen the hard way. Was dead at one point but has found his way back. Will die again and find his way back again. Pronounciations: Shuhlk? Shoolk? Tiedus? Teedus? Tiddus.
-Main guy's BFF: Taller guy. Red hair. Often says dumb things that other party members disagree with. Hilariously overpowered. The plot forgot them but the endgame meta sure didn't. Both really don't like robots for a while. Puts most of his hate/doubt behind him by the end. MVP. Fun to quote.
-Summoner: Summons things (Aeons/Magic orbs), Uses magic to both attack and support. White/purple color scheme. Starts off withdrawn and distant but mellows out. Is part of a big important lineage. One is excommunicated, the other's kingdom destroyed.
-Female ranged fighter: Taller than the protag as well. Dark hair. Ill fated romance. No point playing as either. Gets together with the OP red haired guy at the end.
-Older dude: Taller and older. Dark hair. Has a bad arm. Was previously part of a three man team. Is hailed as some big deal hero. Likes to dispense wisdom. Big sword. Suffered a grievous injury shortly after achieving hero status. Ends up fighting one or more of the trio he worked alongside.
-Thing: Weird way of talking. Mixed bag moveset wise. It's on the team. You can use it if you want. I don't.
-Lasers and explosions: Was there at the start. Was gone for a while. Comes back. Join after you defeat them while they're piloting robots. Technology themed. Not the absolute best gameplay wise but more than welcome. Right after they join the party suddenly gains access to a bunch of tech and airship stuff.

FFX/ Xenoblade1 villain similarities.
-Both have a petty stalker who targets the love interest. Shows up in the snow level to attack the party. Initially presented as good despite both having obviously evil/sinister voices. Show up one last time after they've been overshadowed by a bigger threat and are unremarkably finished off once and for all. Both are about half dead half alive. This ends up giving both a size advantage. Seymour's crazy forms and Mumkhar's mech.

-The protag's father/father figure is the second to last opponent. Jecht is initially shown to be hard work but Jecht Spheres show him in another light. Dickson is initially a help to the party until he makes his move. The protag is unhappy about what he has to do but follows through anyway. These characters are fought as some big demon monsters.

-Both have some boring deity guy at the end. Said boring deity guy lives in another much larger creature. Both are really easy to beat.

-Not sure about Egil. Maybe he and Yunalesca both prolong the cycles. Yunalesca's handing out final aeons that recreate Sin long after her death, Egil is probably 3000 and something and still fighting. Uh both have multiple forms you fight. Both are arrogant and haughty. This one differs a lot more. Egil's great.

I think Tales of Symphonia has more in common with FFX than Xenoblade.

_____Cait posted...

I think Tales of Symphonia has more in common with FFX than Xenoblade.

I couldn't agree or disagree, never played it. All I know is the guy's named Lloyd or Luke Von something.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

I couldn't agree or disagree, never played it. All I know is the guy's named Lloyd or Luke Von something.

The entire plot is basically FFX with split worlds shenanigans.

Read that I need about 130 luck. Well damn, two of them are up at 170-something.
Gonna power trip through some of the area conquest/species conquest guys with attack reels while I decide what I think of this.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Read that I need about 130 luck. Well damn, two of them are up at 170-something.
Gonna power trip through some of the area conquest/species conquest guys with attack reels while I decide what I think of this.

85, 220, 230 and 255 all have good arguments for them. I personally go with 85.

Trumble posted...

85, 220, 230 and 255 all have good arguments for them. I personally go with 85.

Here is my contribution to that ongoing debate. "Uh man um I wonder what uh, I probably oughtta have a lot of luck I'm not 100% sure why apparently they're using this stat to make my accuracy and evasion pointless and like I guess I could get crits so uh y'know."

More FFX to Xenoblade 1. Specifically locations.
-Starts in an ill fated machina town.
-Goes into a cave next.
-Kilika and Colony 6 are both destroyed.
-Besaid and Gaur Plain are your first big steps in the sun and the adventure
-Mt Gagazet and Valak Mountain are the same place.
-Bevelle and Sword Valley are important machine themed places you can't revisit.
-Bikanel/Home and Fallen Arm feel similar enough.
-Zanarkand and Agniratha are long dead cities you make a long journey to and fight a big story boss in.
-Inside Sin and Inside Bionis are the same level.
-Omega Ruins looks like Prison Island
-Pre-final battle is some weird trippy dimension.
-Final battle is in some magic void.

Guess there's also Alcomoth and Home being destroyed, maybe Makna forest and Moonflow. There's a big unified military offensive on the Mechonis similar to Operation Mi'ihen that just finds its way into the story too.

There is one major difference between Xenoblade and FFX. In FFX Tidus is transported to a new world and his entire goal is to make his way back home. In Xenoblade, Shulk is already home, and is forced to leave to deal with a bigger issue.

Ivany2008 posted...

There is one major difference between Xenoblade and FFX. In FFX Tidus is transported to a new world and his entire goal is to make his way back home. In Xenoblade, Shulk is already home, and is forced to leave to deal with a bigger issue.

They do kind of swap places after a while.

Tidus all but forced to leave to deal with a bigger issue by Jecht and Auron too though. There's a part where Auron tells him to do what he wants and Tidus gets angry because there's really no choice and he has to follow Auron. Tidus also seems to accept that there is no way back. He later finds out he was a digital purchase made by the fayth and will be delisted at the end when they turn their Xbox off and even though he'd come to like Spira, he is forced to leave because of a bigger issue. Even though he wants to stay.

-Shulk by the end has decided that he wants to permanently alter his world, since it's a sentient titan scheming to come back to life and also he wants all species to come together. Filling in for Jecht and Auron pulling the strings is Zanza's magic will-powered scheme to revive himself. Shulk doesn't like the status quo and wants to swap his old home out for an idealised one.

Greater Sphere is the link between the main combat system and the Blitzball minigame.
-It's a ball of water like the arena.
-Takes abnormally long to start and finish because of its spawn/death animations.
-Have to repeatedly play it to max out a character.
-You throw Blitzballs at it until you win.
-I hope you like watching Jecht Shot/ Attack Reels and Slice and Dice
-Because it drops Fortune Spheres that means there's luck involved.
-One mandatory encounter each, there's one point in the story where you're meant to fight a slightly different water sphere and a point where you have to play a Blitzball game with the Blitz team equivalent of playing Jenga with oven mitts on.
-Have to run around recruiting players to make Blitzball worth playing, have to run around capturing monsters before the arena guy can learn how to invent mean spirited water.
-Blitz keeps giving you the wrong thing as league/tournament prizes. Greater Sphere keeps giving you Dark Matter when you want the spheres.

Okay finally, 255 luck on my top 3. It only took a Sanity Not Included marathon, a Yugioh Abridged marathon, too many listens of HEYYEYAAEYAAAEYAEYAA, a little Resident Evil themed disappointment, a few speculations that the X in FFX actually stands for Xenoblade and a lot of overdrives.

Still gotta tape some armor together and on top of that I want to level Yuna and her collection of oddly named meat shields up just to be safe. It's one thing in to switch her in safely but it might be another to switch back.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Here is my contribution to that ongoing debate. "Uh man um I wonder what uh, I probably oughtta have a lot of luck I'm not 100% sure why apparently they're using this stat to make my accuracy and evasion pointless and like I guess I could get crits so uh y'know."

If you're interested,

85 is enough to hit Penance's arms every time without fail
220 is enough to hit Dark Mindy (the most evasive enemy in the game) every time without fail - Acc makes no difference against her whatsoever
230 is enough to crit Dark Mindy every time without fail (highest functional requirement for Luck alone; a couple of specific cases benefit from higher Luck+Eva total)
255 is the actual cap

Trumble posted...

If you're interested,

85 is enough to hit Penance's arms every time without fail
220 is enough to hit Dark Mindy (the most evasive enemy in the game) every time without fail - Acc makes no difference against her whatsoever
230 is enough to crit Dark Mindy every time without fail (highest functional requirement for Luck alone; a couple of specific cases benefit from higher Luck+Eva total)
255 is the actual cap

Well it's nice to know if it ever comes up, I can tear up a few more luck tiles now.
Man that reminds me I still haven't gotten the Magus Sisters summon yet.

The petrify status effect seems like something really bad to share a universe with. I was wondering if you could use it to travel forward in time like a kind of stasis but it doesn't seem practical.
It's less like they turn to a stone statue because a light breeze can shatter them once they're like that. It's more like liquid nitrogen in an action game.

Characters coming back after being shattered after the fight is just for the gameplay but the fact there's a whole bunch of enemies roaming around Spira that can just bust out an insta-kill on people or groups not kitted out properly or ready with the cure makes it seem a lot more threatening in general.
Are they aware of what's happening while they're petrified? They're able to be returned to their normal state by an item so nothing too permanent/severe could have happened.

Shattering barely even leaves a trace, it's some Yoshikage Kira Killer Queen shit.
Could you even be sent to the farplane? There are characters that get up and keep walking around after their deaths but none of them were completely obliterated. Difficult to say what exactly happened with Jecht and Yunalesca, they might prove otherwise. Would you respawn as a post-death version of yourself if necessary?

Sure Sin goes around doing pretty much the same thing but at least with Sin it's enormously telegraphed and Sin is something that can ultimately be destroyed. Same with poison or going down because of blindness or poison impairing you, with petrify it would all happen so fast.

You rent a chocobo, in the space of about 15 seconds it approaches you and you turbo speed across the Calm Lands to the monster arena.
The chocobo waits through hours and hours of monster arena grinding. When you exit the arena, it's just as eager to take you somewhere else.
I wonder how disappointed it is when it hears the save sphere teleport sound after that long.

I'm finally doing this aeon pokemon battle gauntlet to get the Magus Sisters and I think it's weird that some of them innately have break damage limit and some of them don't.
You'd think a past summoner would have written down which ones are worth training. Maybe if you knew ahead of time, you could even skip a few temples.

I finally managed to remember I didn't have the Magus Sisters and be willing to go get them at the same time.
I already know I've gotten really bad and picky about naming characters in games lately but coming up with stupid names for aeons in this game has been particularly tough.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

I'm finally doing this aeon pokemon battle gauntlet to get the Magus Sisters and I think it's weird that some of them innately have break damage limit and some of them don't.
You'd think a past summoner would have written down which ones are worth training. Maybe if you knew ahead of time, you could even skip a few temples.

Bahamut, Anima and Magus Sisters - the three strongest ones - inherently have it. The rest don't, but gain it when certian characters' ultimate weapons get their first upgrade. (Tidus and Rikku's don't grant this to any aeon, the others grant it to one aeon each.) All of them, always, have Break HP and MP Limit.

Two of them - Valefor and Ixion - can actually gain it before you get the airship. (Plus Bahamut, who you get before that and always has it.)

Ribbon on two character achieved.
Heard I can go 1 Ribbon 2 Stoneproof but I'd rather have 2 golds and a silver than vice versa.

Just to be sure, that thing from a while back about boosting up all your aeons' overdrives and having them ready to bust out one by one. That's only shameful to do in the main storyline, isn't it? If I'm dealing with bosses with actual million of health it's perfectly commendable preparation, right?

Why is it shameful?
You're talking like people who mocked Elden Ring players who used the spirit ashes.

Maybe cynical is a better word than shameful. It strikes me as a cynical way to play, especially if you're in my position where you're returning after over a decade trying to get as close as possible to playing it for the first time again. I didn't want it to turn formulaic until I got to this late game stuff.
I'm hardly going to see anything new or different if I just stick to a min-maxed auto-win strat that I'm already very familiar with.

"A boss. Time to go fill my aeons' super meters and let them take turns torching the boss while the other characters are just kinda there. Hopefully the boss won't get to play and after a while every boss fight will just sort of blend together into similar looking overdrive showcases."

Do it if you want though, I was using Rikku's double hi-potion mixes to tank Seymour and Yunalesca's shenanigans earlier and while that's probably similarly OP, at least it's my first time using it and it's been fun seeing how it plays out.
Still haven't Zanmato'd anything. That's like the extreme example of what I'm getting at.

Nemesis doesn't have a fixed pattern but does have a few rules. In particular, he won't use Ethereal Cannon or Ultra Spark twice without using the other one inbetween; and he always uses at least one regular attack after Ultra Spark before he uses Ethereal Cannon again. Ethereal Cannon always comes before Ultra Spark at the start of a battle. He can insert additional physical attacks at any time he wants, though. There are also rules to determine when he'll use Armageddon, but while I recall the general concept of it (he has an invisible counter that gains a certian number of points each time he attacks, with physicals being worth a bit more than EC / US, and uses Armageddon when it reaches a certian value), I don't recall the exact numbers off hand. You can look it up in pbirdman's Ultimate Companion Guide if you were curious or wanted to plan around it.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Just to be sure, that thing from a while back about boosting up all your aeons' overdrives and having them ready to bust out one by one. That's only shameful to do in the main storyline, isn't it? If I'm dealing with bosses with actual million of health it's perfectly commendable preparation, right?

I wouldn't see it as cheap there, but for a lot of them it won't be as effective as you might hope. Most of their overdrives are a single 99999 shot - and if the enemy absorbs or blocks elemental damage, you've got a few less of these available. Oblivion and Delta Attack can reach 1599984 and 599994 respectively, but only if the enemy's Defence isn't too high (the storyline aeons' overdrives are not affected by defensive stats in any way, but Oblivion and Delta Attack are).

Also I thought it was funny that there was a post-Nemesis cutscene where the monster arena guy seemed completely aware of just what he'd created.

"All that's left to do is go defeat Sin!" like he's fully aware you could easily save Spira from its endless cycle of carnage and despair but unfortunately for him you're more interested in repeatedly overkilling one of the species conquest monsters for rare drops.

"Guys I don't know if you noticed but uh, remember that Th'uban monster you beat a while ago? It had more health than Sin! It did! Wink wink nudge nudge? Oh, not now? Guys if you're worried, I really think you can do it. Hell, remember Ultima Buster? ...The one that looked like that Sinspawn? Still no? Okay well you beat him... and he had five million health. So maybe you could... Y'know?"

One on the board.
Dark Valefor down.
I thought these things were all going to have uber health, that only took a round of Quick Hits then Anima swapping in and overdriving.
It's Valefor though, not going for the false sense of security.

They even give Dark Valefor's summoner the stay away from the summoner line afterwards.

Two done. Dark Ifrit down.
I couldn't really gauge if Dark Ifrit had a lot more than Dark Valefor. When I fought Valefor for some reason I didn't immediately overdrive, probably because Nemesis auto-countered it. This time I did a bunch of Quick Hits and ended with an Attack Reels. I thought it was going to be my phoenix down supply vs his auto counter. It kind of caught me off guard when he dropped with about a sixth of his overdrive bar filled.

And damn, the first summoner just got run out of town. The second one is straight up dead. Brutal.