Board 8 > Inviso Replays Final Fantasy X (The Playthrough!) *SPOILERS WITHIN*

(+) Yeah! (+)

So we kicked off Act 2 with Sin sending us to Bikanel Island, which means desert exploration and a trip to Rikku's home. And then Home is- oh. Oh NO.

Bikanel Desert doesn't have a whole lot going on. I wandered around a bit...fuck those sandworms and the Swallow thing causing me to miss out on some SWEET sweet EXP. But hey, at least Cactaurs prove slightly easier to fight than Cactaurs (so long as you avoid 10,000 Needles), and are worth 8k EXP for a single kill. That was pretty cool. Not much else to talk about here, other than Rikku revealing that she can use Steal to auto-kill robots and mechs, which is pretty sweet. Also, Al Bhed potions are badass (and they're must-haves, given that Yuna's the only party member not here).

The desert might not have a lot to offer, but HOME is...hoo boy. Up until this point...the game has not really painted the Al Bhed in a sympathetic light. Sure, we have Rikku, but even Rikku joins the party after washing up along the shore of the Moonflow...which is a result of her attacking the party to try and kidnap Yuna. Again. Our only interactions with the Al Bhed in the game have been three kidnapping attempts (one of which happens in SPITE of Rikku's presence), and the Al Bhed getting WRECKED by Sin during Operation Mi'ihen. And yet in one scene, the script gets completely flipped. Now granted, the Guado have already turned heel at Macalania Temple...but we come up on Home to see it just COMPLETELY under attack. The Al Bhed are getting SLAUGHTERED by a full military/fiend invasion. And to make matters worse, the scene kicks off with Rikku calling out the NAME of someone we just watched die. So IMMEDIATELY, there's a sense of sorrow for the Al Bhed...particularly since I don't want to see Rikku subjected to this shit.

Now, this is unrelated to story stuff, but I have to mention the Home alarm, which...I get that it's meant to give a militaristic sound to the setting...but I can't hear anything other than "AN ANNOYING ****! AN ANNOYING ****!" It's unintentionally funny to mean, and I'm not the only one to hear it this way, per Reddit. But yeah, that chant is going on throughout my exploration of Home, and I actually enjoy this section, because if you've been picking up Al Bhed primers all game like I have been, you have these riddles and quizzes that earn you special rewards if you can read them properly. It's just satisfying game design for me, is all. But yeah, this section is pretty easy to deal with (with some decent EXP gain), so that's nice.

But then we get to actual plot stuff. And Rikku announces that the Al Bhed are holding the summoners, to which Tidus is incredulous. Why would you want to prevent the Pilgrimage? Do you not think the Guardians are strong enough to protect their charge? Now, the FIRST time this comes up, it's awkward as fuck, because Tidus is outright demonstrating a clear lack of understanding, yet no one corrects him. I get that it's hard to talk about, but this FIRST scene is literally coming on the heels of Wakka saying "I get WHY you did it, but-" and Tidus immediately cuts in with "Well I don't! Why would you do this?!" And the party just looks at each other awkwardly and keep moving.

The second time works MUCH better though, because there's no hiding it, and there's no obfuscating the subject. It's Pacce who brings it up--a literal child, which illustrates perhaps how the other characters feel about Tidus--claiming the Al Bhed said the summoners are being sacrificed and not understanding. And Tidus is still oblivious until Rikku finally breaks it down and outright reveals the big secret the game has hidden from the player until this point: Yuna has to die for her pilgrimage to be a success. Now, those who know me from SMFFFC know that Vanille is my favorite character, and a large part of that is the fact that on the surface, she's a bubbly, perky young girl...but she's using that perkiness to mask a deep sadness and fear. In this moment, Rikku falls into that same category, and it's the kind of characterization I really enjoy for its stark contrast.

But this isn't just Rikku's moment. She has her desperate plea (as Rikku is the only Guardian trying to save Yuna, rather than aid in her journey to self-sacrifice), but this is Tidus' moment more than anything. No one told him any of this, and all of a sudden, he's the naive idiot that has been acting like everything is fine and acting like he and Yuna are on some grand adventure together. The subsequent breakdown goes SO hard, and it's SO deserved. THIS tantrum works for me in a way the tantrum in Luca didn't, because here...he's been deluding himself and basically looking at Yuna like his rock. She's the one thing giving Tidus hope for the future in this otherwise unpalatable situation, and now he finds out that not only is she destined to die for her cause...but everyone else kept this from him the whole journey.

Not to be TOO nice though, I do have to say that, while the scene itself is great and the emotional is great and well-deserved...holy FUCK I hate Tidus' voice actor. He's nailing the role, but I don't need to hear a high pitched man wailing. And...for comedy purposes...Tidus has his cry of dismay and the dialogue pauses for a second...and all you hear is the background music going "AN ANNOYING ***!" which is SO much funnier than it has any right being.

But yeah, Tidus feels his feels and vows to save Yuna regardless, and this brings us to the end of Home. The summoners send the dead Al Bhed and flee, and the survivors go with them. But it's finally airship time, and we meet the Cid of FFX, who turns out to be Rikku's dad. Rikku's dad who united the Al Bhed and created Home in the first place (hmm, lot of all-mighty father figures in this game. Tidus, Yuna, Seymour and Rikku all). Tidus tries to get tough with him in defense of Yuna, but Cid suplexes him because he's got more important shit to do, dammit.

And then we get to a section that legitimately made me tear up. The Al Bhed, who have been established as disconnected from Yevon, start openly singing the Hymn of the Fayth with full vocals. It's sad and somber, and it's capped off by a tearful Rikku revealing "We're going to blow up our home..." Absolutely heart-breaking to have Rikku be the one delivering that line (while Cid is having the BEST time prepping to nuke the shit out of those Guado bastards), which makes Wakka's extremely insensitive "Happy fireworks" line all the more cringe. But yeah, this whole sequence completely flips the perception of the Al Bhed on its head, and everything about this is filled with remorse. Really powerful and good sequence that's somehow peaking from what I thought was the peak with the Seymour heelturn.

It's one of the best depictions of genocide in a game. What's even deeper is that this is enabled by the union of Guado and Yevon. 2 long time enemies finally becoming allies after centuries, and that results in genociding a 3rd smaller enemy, is a timeless idea. Probably some parallels in Japanese history but I'm not an expert on that.

Also al bhed potions are such brilliant gameplay and narrative design. They literally save you dozens of times when you're without Yuna, so you gain a quick attachment to Al Bhed. They are so much stronger than even a megapotion, showing how advanced the Al Bhed are. AND it requires a specific skill to use, which only Rikku has, so you engage more with the sphere grid mechanics to try to get the skill on others like Tidus and Kimahri.

Inviso posted...

Now, this is unrelated to story stuff, but I have to mention the Home alarm,

Fuck that thing. I find it so annoying.

But other than that the Home section is great.

The Home alarm is the literal worst.

When Ermine played through, we noted it as sounding like "AN ANNOYING MAN" so if you hear us saying that in server ever, it is a direct reference to that.

Also, cease this slander for James Arnold Taylor. He's one of the industry greats.

"I'm annoying hah" is the standard interpretation

Flying around on the Fahrenheit was pleasant enough, though it's funny how Rin is such a businessman/opportunist that he's still charging you even though the Al Bhed are under literal attack by Yevon, and your party are the only ones available to stop them. Also, I have access to Wakka, Brother and Nimrook now (though Nimrook is still under contract). It doesn't matter at the moment since I can't play Blitzball...but it's good to know, regardless. But yeah, fought the Bevelle guardian and then we get the interruption of Seymour/Yuna's wedding!

It was pointed out to me a while back, but holy crap, Kimahri really IS carrying Lulu during that rail grind down to the ceremony. I'd never noticed that before and just thought it was odd that Lulu was the only character incapable of joining the fight. Got another Ronso Rage from the robots here, but the big moment is Yuna trying to send Seymour, only for Kinoc and his guards to threaten the lives of Yuna's friends, forcing her to back down. Which...does that mean the Fahrenheit actually fucked up Yuna's plans, because she was willing to sacrifice herself, but couldn't go through with sacrificing her friends and family?

Now, I may have thought the writing behind the Seymour heel turn in Macalania was off...but holy crap do I love the character work the writers do with Seymour here. I don't know if I'm just seeing things, but Seymour's character design is slightly more purple in this scene, which gives that reminder that he's dead, and yet he forces Yuna to kiss him for far longer than I feel comfortable watching as a viewer. The game does a great job selling Seymour as a creep and an asshole, complete with Yuna's balled fist as she endures the kiss...only for Seymour to turn around and be like "Yeah, kill her friends anyway." It might be cliched, but I can appreciate that sometimes villain cliches are cliches because they're effective.

Yuna's swan dive--and brief aside, but she looks GORGEOUS in her wedding dress--leading to a Valefor save is pretty awesome, but it then leads to Bevelle Temple. I remember playing through the game the first time, and holy FUCK I hate Bevelle Temple. And to make matters worse, I think you pretty much HAVE to do everything in a very specific manner to navigate this place (whereas other temples, you can skip the Destruction Spheres if you REALLY want to), but it's a massive pain in the ass all the same. But good on Kimahri for finally accepting Tidus and helping to break into the Chamber of the Fayth, so Tidus can see what exactly is up for offer when it comes to Yuna's pilgrimage and the general concept of Yevon's religious ideology. Everything revolves around death indeed.

The trial of the Pilgrim 7 is pretty revealing as well, because Yuna's so innocent and earnest, but it doesn't matter since all of Yevon is corrupt as fuck. We hearken back to Tidus in Luca, commenting on his surprise that Mika has been leading Spira for fifty years...and yeah...Mika's been dead for a while but just keeps holding onto his position of authority. Man, I can't imagine what living under a political structure like THAT is like. And to make matters worse, the Maesters don't even give a shit that Seymour's a murderer and murdered his own father (who I imagine was their colleague at one time). At best they have some mild distrust, but they're still doubling down on maintaining the status quo. Again, crazy to imagine a political system like that. At least Kelk Ronso--a character we're meeting for the first time in this scene--has some misgivings. Not about Yevon's ideology being a sham, but about the murder. Baby steps, I suppose.

This sequence caps off the Macalania>Home>Bevelle section of the game like Han mentioned earlier. It's just great to see the mask slip away finally, and we get to experience just have the world of Spira is truly fucked up. Finally, we can question the cultural aspects that don't make sense. Let's break the system! Fuck yeah!

Inviso posted...

Which...does that mean the Fahrenheit actually fucked up Yuna's plans, because she was willing to sacrifice herself, but couldn't go through with sacrificing her friends and family?

Maybe! Of course in the end its for the best because Yuna is needed.

This is where Kimahri has his best moment with the stab right? I love that moment.

Maniac64 posted...

Maybe! Of course in the end its for the best because Yuna is needed.

This is where Kimahri has his best moment with the stab right? I love that moment.

That's coming up with my next update.

Ah im too early. Explains why it wasn't mentioned lol

Before we get back to the gameplay, I want to briefly mention the rare scene we see Mika, Seymour and Kinoc talking about distrusting Kelk and planning to ensure the party dies if they manage to escape from Via Purifico. This scene in and of itself merely exposition, but it stood out to me because I think this is like...the first time we get a scene from outside Tidus' perspective. Which shows that the game is capable of doing scenes outside the main character's purview to explain what's going on...they just choose not to >_>. Like I said, it just stood out to me because of scenes earlier in the game where the audience is specifically kept in the dark because Tidus is out of the loop...even though there's no reason for him to be kept out of the loop. Looking at you, Besaid Temple.

Via Purifico is...I'm not sure what Bevelle's intention was here. Like, you throw everyone into prison, but only throw the three characters who can swim into the shitty water area, while Yuna and the "old" squad wind up in the standard labyrinth. Both of them were easy enough to navigate, and I actually wound up powering through everything using Yuna's summons (since she needed to catch up in her levels with everyone else anyway, after Bikanel and Home). But then Isaaru shows up to fight me at the end and like...I GET it. He's still very much buying into the illusion of Yevon, but I wish that SOMEONE would've outright stated that the Maesters were full of shit. Granted, I think the characters most likely to rebuke his reasoning are in the other party, but still. He went down easy, since Shiva, Bahamut, and Shiva again just wrecked his summons; and Auron just ended this man's whole career...literally.

Meanwhile, in the water dungeon...I'm reminded of how annoying it is that the game makes a big deal out of Tidus' Brotherhood sword, but then gives it very specific Water-typing. Yeah, Tidus is effectively useless in this dungeon using the sword that the game heavily implies you SHOULD be using, for storyline reasons. That always seemed off to me. It doesn't really matter though, because while I did wind up fighting some random battles (and those octopi were annoying with Auron to handle armor), the only fight that really matters in this place is the boss. And this is the one boss battle I remember more than any other from my first playthrough, because it's a zombie version of the boss we beat on the airship...which means I just needed to have Rikku Steal, and then Tidus/Wakka threw out Phoenix Downs for a two-hit Overkill.

THEN we break out and reunite, and wouldn't you know it, all that scheming from earlier comes right back to haunt us as Seymour shows up, having killed Kinoc off-screen. That's an odd choice, given that they've been building Kinoc up as this traitorous villain with direct ties to Auron's story...then he's just killed unceremoniously on-screen. But this leads to Seymour's grand master plan, where he becomes Sin and destroys the world to end the cycle of life and death once and for all. That's certainly ONE method, for sure. But I do like my interpretation of Seymour just harboring so much hatred for life under Yevon (and life as a half-breed, dealing with ostracization) that he wants to burn it all down out of spite. That's not QUITE as fun as going the Littlefinger route, but it's still some solid villain insanity. Needless to say though, I kicked his ass (even though this was probably the most difficult boss fight I've dealt with thus far in the game).

Before we get to the big scene though, I want to add a brief update to my sphere grids. Kimahri's been long-finished with his and on the Rikku route, but Rikku recently finished hers and teleported over to Wakka's. And shortly after that, Auron finished his, so I Friend Sphered him to Rikku to start on Wakka's route. Tidus JUST finished his route with the Seymour battle, so I'm probably going to teleport HIM to Wakka's route as well. And Yuna/Lulu are nearing the end of their respective routes, so I'm going to need to find a way to switch them onto each other's routes for further magic usage.

Anyway, we finally reach the big romantic climax of the story: Suteki Da Ne. And yeah, it fucking holds up. I did not remember anything beyond the FMV, so the scene prior to the big moment was a surprise to me. And I've said multiple times along this playthrough, but the Tidus/Yuna relationship has the two of them at their absolute best. Yuna is very clearly shellshocked after all the revelations she'd had in the past day or two, so all she can do is float in that little pond until Tidus shows up. And I love the fact that Tidus immediately leads with an apology. It's clear that the realization of what Yuna's pilgrimage actually entails hit him really hard, and he feels tremendous guilt over how carefree he's been acting along this whole journey. It's almost like a sign of growth from him, realizing that even though he's upset...what he really worries most about is how Yuna is feeling in all of this madness.

And Yuna, to her credit, eases his mind as well, because his obliviousness to the severity of the pilgrimage meant that she had ONE person on the trip who was just looking out for her as a person, not as a summoner. Even if they can't do all the things Tidus promised, just the fantasy (Yuna's...FINAL fantasy, one might say, dohoho) of a life after Sin did a lot to help Yuna overcome her fears and keep going. Perhaps it's not even for herself, but imagining all the people who COULD have those adventures if she saved the world. But then Yevon had to go and fuck everything up, and THAT'S what finally broke her.

I love the follow-up to Tidus' apology, where he starts suggesting Yuna give up her pilgrimage and just live a normal life, and then tells her about what's effectively a date in his Zanarkand. The whole conversation has that forced tone of people who are deliberately putting on a brave face even though they're in a shitty situation, and I really like the way that emotion gets conveyed. Both of them know that Yuna can't give up her pilgrimage (she's already come too far and burned too many bridges as it is), and they both know Tidus can never go back to his Zanarkand. But for just a moment they get to share in that dream before the emotion becomes too much and Yuna starts crying (cry-laughing, really, but I'll chalk that up to bad American dubbing).

The Suteki Da Ne FMV holds up as really good though, and I'll say that the first kiss Yuna and Tidus share is both beautiful and well-earned by the build-up of their relationship up to that point. And the song is great too, with perfect visuals of the water and the pyreflies floating around. A-plus work there. It's good to know that everyone is onboard with the pilgrimage and Tidus has cemented himself as Yuna's champion though, even though Kimahri watched this whole scene play out. He watched and he loved it, the sick fuck. :P

I recently rewatched the Suteki Da Ne scene and it still made me cry. One of the best things Square has produced, still holds up just like you said.

Genny and I got married in April 2020... so it was cursed obviously given what was going on. But we went through with it anyway and our one dance was this song, alone in our apartment living room.

Hope you got Wakka's Evade & Counter weapon in via purifico.

Also I'm pretty sure Wakka's route has way more strength than Auron's so it's definitely the right one to put the melee chars through. Similarly, Yuna's route has way more magic power, so you need to get her the -agas.

v-charon posted...

I recently rewatched the Suteki Da Ne scene and it still made me cry. One of the best things Square has produced, still holds up just like you said.

Genny and I got married in April 2020... so it was cursed obviously given what was going on. But we went through with it anyway and our one dance was this song, alone in our apartment living room.

*doesn't start to cry doesn't start to cry*

This has made me want to replay the game and now I am up to the Mihen Highroad. Forgot how sometimes that opening Blitz match can be brutal if they get the ball first and the rng completely screws you over.

Yet immediately in a league game van beat them 4-0 without a sweat. Sheesh.

Should have an update soon. Calm Lands opened up a lot of stuff that my OCD could not ignore.

Brief update (by my standards), with not a LOT storywise, since I've largely been doing sidequests in and around the Calm Lands for a while now.

Storyiwse, the only things that have happened are we stopped in at a little campsite and Father Zuke spoke to us, at which point we learned that he's the summoner Lulu previously served as a guardian for. But he's a cool guy and doesn't buy into the lies about Yuna being a traitor, so he just lets us know what's going on, but largely leaves us to our pilgrimage. And shortly thereafter (in the story, not so much in game time), we get accosted by some Guado, who attack me with a big ol' stone golem and get their asses kicked for trying to stop us from continuing Yuna's pilgrimage. That...pretty much covers the plotline of the Calm Lands, which is largely just a big, open space with the lore reason for its existence being that summoners typically draw Sin there to do battle and avoid major damage or casualties.

Now, with that being said, there are a lot of side quests that opened up here. Blitzball is back on the menu, but I'm not touching that until I get the airship so that Brother doesn't get scooped up by another team. Weird that the Blitzball season is still ongoing though, given the outright war going on between the Guado and Al Bhed (plus Tidus/Wakka being on the Besaid team as enemies of the state). Beyond that though, there are 3-4 minigames I need to go off about, plus some other details to discuss. The most minor is the chocobo race around the side temple, which I only really did a few times before getting annoyed, since it's not really worth a whole lot. I just got my Cloudy Mirror, which I then used back in the Macalania Woods to turn into a Celestial Mirror, which means I can start the process of getting everyone's ultimate weapons. Woo!

Speaking of my celestial weapons, I did just that for Yuna and Kimahri. With Yuna, I started the Arena sidequest, which meant taking a LOT of time to go around the Calm Lands and catch ten of every monster there. I know you only need to catch the one of each for Yuna's weapon, but I also know you need to max out each monster EVENTUALLY, so I might as well do it now. Maxed out the monsters for Calm Lands, and then went and did the same in Macalania and Thunder Plains, while also making a brief stop to grab Kimahri's ultimate weapon from Thunder Plains as well. I TRIED to do the lightning dodging there, but holy crap that minigame is somehow the WORST in a slew of bad minigames FFX has to offer. Maybe it'll get better when I have the ability to disable random encounters though.

Back in the calm lands, I also cleared Yuna's fights with Valefor, Ifrit, Ixion, Shiva and Bahamut, so we're looking good there. But there's one big elephant in the room, and that's the chocobo races. This minigame SUCKS, largely because of the randomness and largely because of how trigger happy the controls are. It was especially bad in the first run, where you're trying to control an unruly chocobo under a time limit, but it's just as bad when you're trying to dodge thrown balls under a time limit too. The third course was weirdly easy, but then we get to the chocobo race itself.

I got Tidus' weapon from the race, but I know that mastering the race with a time of 0.0 seconds is what I needed to fully unlock things. So I had to get to work, and I spent a good three hours trying to run the course again and again and again, hoping the random placement of the balloons would work in my favor. I got 0.3 seconds once, which was HEARTBREAKING. But finally, finally FINALLY, I had a perfect run. Fourteen balloons, and I managed to dodge every single bird, including the ones that pop up right before the end to screw you out of a perfect run typically. And I got my 0.0, so I've completely that portion of Tidus' legendary weapon quest. Not the...first part, but the second part, at least.

Finally, a Sphere Grid update: all characters have completed their initial grids. Kimahri is in Rikku's path and I think may be getting nearer to the end of hers. Auron/Tidus/Rikku are all bunched together on Wakka's grid, and Wakka doubled back to Auron's grid. Yuna and Lulu are...tough. They're both at the end of their grid, but I lack spheres necessary to move them to each other's grids...which means they're just accumulating AP until I can actually start moving them where they need to go. Here's hoping I can make that happen sooner, rather than later.

Lightning dodging is trivial (but tedious) if you use the spot where you can force it to come down. Turn down the music and make to sure to dodge 20 or so extra in case you miscounted.

But yeah, you absolutely need a no-encounter weapon.

I've found throughout the years that one of the nice things of the FFX minigames is that everyone has a different they hate with a passion, and they usually don't mind or even like the other ones. Always fun to discuss the peculiarities of them, their design is fascinating to me, as one can see their intent and how they all have unrealised potential.

skip all the side quests

I think the Remaster lets you cheat by having a toggle to change fight frequency

lightning dodging is easy, very lenient timing

does take a while though so it can be stressful, I think I messed up in the 160s once. Obviously you need no encounters though

Moderate take: Do the ones that you find fun, skip the ones that take forever or are tedious. You can craft custom pseudo-ultimate weapons with resources later anyways.

Denji posted...

Moderate take: Do the ones that you find fun, skip the ones that take forever or are tedious. You can craft custom pseudo-ultimate weapons with resources later anyways.

This

You really just need the ultimate weapons for 3 party members since they all equalize pretty quickly after going into each other's grids. Fortunately Tidus and Yuna's are pretty easy to get.

you should do every side quest

Not much new to say regarding the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. I went in, I explored the whole place and obtained Yojimbo via the smallest amount of gil I could. Also cleared Yojimbo's battle with Belgemine. Really, the only major storyline beat (since this is optional content) is seeing the summoner Lulu lost the first time around as a guardian. I'd honestly forgotten she had been a guardian twice before, probably because so much had happened between the Farplane and now, and Father Zuke's arrival was so much fresher in my mind. But at least she got some closure there and got to take down Yojimbo and at least kind of help close that chapter of her life and regrets.

foolm0r0n posted...

You really just need the ultimate weapons for 3 party members since they all equalize pretty quickly after going into each other's grids. Fortunately Tidus and Yuna's are pretty easy to get.

Yeah, thankfully Yuna is one of the easiest to get and she's the only one that has something special over the rest of the cast. Then Rikku's is pretty easy and then you can either pick whatever minigame you hate the least of butterflies, chocobos, or lightning dodging, or do the tedium of hunting down monsters or blitzball.

I always end up with Wakka's without even trying lol

you don't know how good you have it with butterflies nowadays. trying to catch them on a 10" CRT where you can barely seem them, let alone distinguish the colors, is a rough minigame. with actual technology you just do it ezpz

I remember using the prima games guide to try to do the butterflies and me and my friends literally could not see them. Something about red and blue butterflies? None of us ever figured it out.

Yeah its easy in the HD version

Yeah, butterflies look a lot easier.
Lightning I would call tedium, not difficult.

Chocobo racing is the pure luck grinder that is hate.

Alright, so it took a while, but I finally finished Mt. Gagazet and have paused to do this write-up just after reaching Zanarkand.

It's all been leading to this. The Calm Lands were just that: calm. A lot of open space but not a lot of story content. I took a long time to finish them because of all the sidequests that opened up, but it was a nice breather in terms of the game itself. Same goes with Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. But then we're right back into the meat of the game with Mt. Gagazet, and somehow the game manages to ramp shit up even further than it was already ramped in the wake of spitting in the face of Spira's religious structure and unmasking their leadership as ghosts and murderers.

Up until this point, the Ronso have been arguably the most underdeveloped group in the game. That title previously went to the Guado until they completely turned heel out of fucking NOWHERE, but now it's the Ronso. So naturally, when we finally get to their home and we get to interact with the Ronso people as a collective, you've gotta hope for a solid introduction to the race. And I think the initial moments of Mt. Gagazet do a decent job. The Ronso are proud, they are loyal, and yet they can respect those who demonstrate bravery in the face of opposition. And when they try to scare Yuna off, she tells them "Fuck that...I'm finishing my pilgrimage." Paraphrased, but you get the idea. It absolutely buys some goodwill with Maester Kelk (who's already turned off by Seymour's murderous ways), and thus the pilgrimage can continue thanks to Yuna standing up and putting her foot down.

Also, despite Kimahri being arguably the most ignored character in the party (okay, not arguably, but you get what I mean), he does at least get to wrap up the tiny bit of storyline he had going for him, by facing off against Biran and Yenke. These two muscleheaded jocks once again start some shit as the rest of the party is just trying to go about their day. But yeah, it felt REALLY good, getting to wreck these two clowns, particularly while Kimahri beat on them enough to make them activate Mighty Guard AND White Wind, so he could just Lancet them both into his Ronso Rage repertoire (still wish they were just Blue Magic spells instead of Overdrives I never use). But yeah, kicked their asses, stole a BUNCH of Level 3 Key Spheres from them, and finally earned the respect of the Ronso people for Kimahri. And even though it's a RAPID shift in mentality, I kind of accept it since the Ronso are such a warrior culture that Kimahri managing to kick their strongest warriors' asses is a perfect reason to throw all their support behind Yuna as the summoner to defeat Sin and bring about the Calm.

As a brief gameplay update after the Biran/Yenke fight: Kimahri finished Rikku's path, so I moved him over to Tidus so I'd have a second character with the potential to cast Haste and Slow and Flee. Also, I finally realized I could use Black/White Magic Spheres along with the Return Spheres from Biran/Yenke to move Yuna/Lulu to each other's paths, so I had about 50 AP to get through, moving each of them around the Sphere Grid. The plus side there is that they're up into the upper 3000s for HP, so it doesn't feel like they're going to get OHKOed by the wrong enemy getting a good hit in.

Continuing onto the mountain, I found the Braska sphere, which is a nice little goodbye message for Yuna, even if it's not as engaging as the rest of the Jecht spheres have been. But hey, Auron got his next Overdrive for finding all ten, so that's good. Also, good to see that O'aka's family still has a knack for business, even in the inhospitable climate of Mt. Gagazet, as his brother Wantz shows up to sell goods while O'aka is in prison for aiding and abetting traitors. I guess it makes sense, since when we last saw O'aka, he was on the Highbridge, selling us supplies. But still, good to have a friendly face up on the mountain.

I love the sense of urgency that has been building over the course of the last few sections of the game though. Because despite everything, Rikku's primary goal has been to stop Yuna from completing the pilgrimage all game, and Yuna will not give up. Yuna WILL die if she finishes her journey. And Rikku is growing more and more frantic about this, but thankfully Tidus is the only other voice taking Rikku's side in this endeavor, and I appreciate that the two of them are kind of sharing the burden of that panic while the rest of the party has resigned themselves to Yuna's fate. And we get this scene where the two of them are still at a loss for how to fix things, but Tidus at least takes more of an optimistic "We'll get to Zanarkand and figure it out from there" approach. I still don't like Tidus' early characterization--I think he's far too hyperactive, and I think the writers didn't need to make him THAT bad--but I can at least appreciate that he's definitely stepped up and matured since the beginning of the game, in terms of taking charge and at least trying to be decisive in an extremely difficult situation.

Of course, Seymour shows up again because he just won't die, and I love how the writers just keep making him more and more dispicable as the game goes along. NOW he's coming to us to claim he wiped out the entire Ronso race, taunting Kimahri and saying he should die as well. We JUST got cool with the Ronso, so even though his claim is logistically false (after all, I can go play Blitzball against the Ronso Fangs right now), it's still another thing to make you want to just punch Seymour's light out and destroy his nihilistic ass once and for all (I THINK this is the last time you fight him...I can't remember if there are three or four Seymour fights, but this is the third, regardless).

Seymour's pontificating about becoming Sin leads to the "big" reveal to the party that Sin is Jecht, which is shocking to them, but it's one of those secrets that almost feels like it shouldn't have been a big deal to begin with. Sure, there might've been some distrust towards Tidus, but like...what're you gonna do? It's not like Tidus chose to make Jecht Sin, and if anything, Sin being Jecht probably helped the party out on multiple occasions by moving Tidus around the chessboard to the proper places he was most needed in the first place.

So just to recap: big reveals have been ongoing. Sin is Jecht. Yuna's pilgrimage is meant to end with her dying. Both of these are solidly foreshadowed (or explained early), and recontextualize the plot when you know what's coming. But then you get to a very...not BEAUTIFUL setting, but very artistically-interesting setting, with all the survivors of the war between Zanarkand and Bevelle frozen into a living fresco. And when Tidus touches this artwork, he passes out and has a dream where he speaks with the Fayth child from Bevelle temple. And suddenly, we have this earth-shattering reveal that Tidus isn't real. Tidus and Jecht are just dreams of the last lingering remnants of Zanarkand, and they've somehow arrived in Spira as living entities.

I'm not COMPLAINING about this plot twist, mind you. But it's fucking WILD that the game decides to drop this on the player after everything that happened throughout the past few regions of the game. I will admit though, thinking on this scene more does justify Tidus as the main character more for me. For a long time, I thought he was just an annoying douche, and then this playthrough happened and I thought he's been a good friend to the main character of Yuna. But this twist suddenly flips the sacrifice. Yuna thinks her pilgrimage ends with her death, but Tidus now has a cause to think that HE needs to be the one who dies to save Spira, not Yuna. Now it IS his story, and that adds an interesting new wrinkle to things, because now TIDUS is the one keeping secrets from everyone else about how a sacrifice must be made.

Anyway, after that, I wound up fighting another boss, since Yunalesca is apparently still "alive" and guarding Zanarkand to test summoners and make sure they're strong enough to endure the Final Summoning. I finished the full capture log for Mt. Gagazet without needing to grind fiends that much (I managed to naturally find and capture just about everything in the course of the normal gameplay, aside from a few Behemoths). And this brings us, finally, to the edge of Zanarkand. Not quite into the city proper (and we get a heartbreaking moment between Yuna and Rikku, when the time limit is up and there's no more stalling to be had), but seeing the ruins after it's been so long since that opening sequence...it's great. Especially when you have Auron's theme playing the ascent to the promontory looking over the city. Really impressive scene, aesthetically.

Finally, we have Yuna's sphere. Tidus picks it up after she dropped it along the path to Zanarkand, and I fucking cried, man. Knowing that Yuna had the foresight to prep this WAY back on the Mi'ihen Highroad, and then she's detailing her goodbyes to everyone. The Auron goodbye is very formal, and it's not much to write home about, but I lost it at the Kimahri goodbye. That's the thing: Kimahri has been an underdeveloped character, but the ONE defining trait of his is that he defends and he protects Yuna. When she gets kidnapped, he feels ashamed. And her goodbye to him finally explains their relationship: Kimahri took a vow to protect Yuna, and he's been watching over her for ten years without fail. Being with Yuna has broadened his horizons and just generally made him a better person, and she realized and acknowledges that.

The Wakka/Lulu goodbyes are very sweet, if truncated a little. It's nice that she personalized them just a little bit, and calls the two of them her big brother and sister (and she effectively grew up with those two, even if they were probably teenagers while she was still a child). But the Tidus goodbye is also touching, because you can tell that, even though they'd barely known each other at the time, Yuna had a crush on him in a way she'd never felt about anyone before, and it's like she's not sure how to process that against the fact that her end goal is self-sacrifice. It really does hammer home the fact that I think Tidus made YUNA a better person but just giving her that secondary perspective she never had under the auspices of Yevon's teaching.

It's crazy how strong getting to the start screen is in context, after seeing it so many times with no context (remember that on PS2 you had to boot the game up every time you played so you would see the intro probably dozens of times by the time you get here)

he says listen to my story this maybe are last chance

So, so good

Seymour is such a racist asshole.

"I killed all the Ronso on Mt Gagazet which means they are all dead but Kimahri."

"Uh not every Ronso was there. The blitzball team travels all over. And other Ronso live and work in different cities."

"Nope, I killed all of them. Those big cats just sit around on their mountain all the time and never travel or leave."

One of the worst depictions of a genocide, so soon after such a good depiction at Home

I have to wonder if that was lost in translation.

But yeah, not sure if you saw the intro with To Zanarkand every time you started to play, but it is so memorable to boot the PS2 and see Brotherhood with Yuna's staff and the blitzball with the opening bars of the tune.

Actually getting to Zanarkand after the whole game just feels so heavy, since you've accomplished so much to get there and yet, when you arrive, you know that death and sacrifice hangs over everyone - especially since we are also seeing for the first time that Zanarkand is truly in ruins.

It loads up every time I start the Switch version too.

nice

But on Switch you typically sleep the game then resume without the intro right?

I have now cleared Zanarkand and I'm moving towards the endgame it seems. Big revelations and events all around!

The general vibe of Zanarkand is very somber, and I will say that I liked fighting my way through here because after clearing five zones of monster arena catches (Calm Lands, Macalania, Thunder Plains, Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, Mt. Gagazet), it was good for my weird brain to not feel like I needed to have catch equipment on. But yeah, traveling through Zanarkand is actually quite zen, but we DO get some minor scenes that are quite interesting. It's established that if someone dies without being sent, their spirit lingers and haunts places or becomes a fiend, so in an area as remote as Zanarkand, naturally all the spirits of summoners and guardians show up again. We get a brief flashback to a previous summoner (who I don't recall being mentioned before), but that just sets the stage for the more important scenes afterwards.

First, we get the image of a little boy with stupid hair, and he's crying because his mother wants to become a Fayth while he uses her to become a summoner. It's Seymour, who we as players know is a summoner, but we haven't really gotten any of the backstory as to WHY he's able to summon. Yet in this moment, we get two major pieces of information. One, she effectively says "I want you to become a summoner and stop Sin, so that everyone will accept you." This confirms the assumption I made earlier in this topic about Seymour being outcast as a mix between two races. But of course, Seymour is a child in this flashback and he doesn't give a shit about making everyone else love him after he's dead...he would much rather keep his mother around since she's the only person who actually seems to care about him. But then we also learn the implication that she's largely going through with this because she's already dying and wants to at least use her death to better Seymour's lot in life. It's very tragic, because again, this is being forced on a CHILD who is well out of his depth in how to handle this shit.

But beyond that scene, we then get the flashback of our FFX-0 trio, and even though it has been HEAVILY implied by this point, this is the moment that really confirms what's going on here. The High Summoner will die when they summon the Final Aeon, but the Final Aeon is also the result of a secondary sacrifice in the form of one of the summoner's guardians. Now, up until this point, it feels like this was obvious, but this scene kind of hammers the point home: Jecht is Sin BECAUSE someone had to make a sacrifice here. Now, I'm just gonna say...of the trio, I don't really give a shit about Braska. Unfortunately, he's very stoic and resolved, and the spheres never REALLY show him as a very dynamic character (at least in my recollection). However, I do appreciate the character growth on display from both Jecht and Auron here.

With Jecht, we know he's a fuck-up, and Tidus' childhood was spent hating him, but from watching the spheres, we've seen Jecht become a better, more focused and serious person, and it's interesting to see that growth culminate here, when he gladly and calmly accepts the need for one of the guardians to sacrifice themselves in order to help Braska complete his ascent to the High Summoner role. It's a sign of maturity to be like..."I know I'm never getting home, so it's better for me to die than you, Auron. We're kind of at odds, personality-wise, but I think you're a good guy and I want you to get out of here and try to look after Tidus and Yuna." Also, gotta love the father/son parallels of Jecht being like "Don't worry, I'll think of a way to end the cycle.", much like Tidus' constant reassurances that he and Rikku will think of a way to save Yuna.

Meanwhile, while MOST characters have improved in my eyes on this playthrough, Auron is the one character who has kind of dipped for me. I think my original playthrough was when I was much younger and the stoic badass archetype just appealed to me a lot more (plus I hated Tidus/Wakka/Yuna a lot more, so having a badass that wasn't having any of their shit probably boosted him a bunch). Now, Auron's still fine in THIS playthrough, but I feel like I'm more enjoying the brief glimpses of YOUNG Auron more than anything. He starts out with such a stick up his ass, but it almost becomes funny in and of itself because of how much he loves seeing Jecht fall flat on his face. There's that subtle trolling energy to young Auron, but also, over the course of the game, we see that he and Braska are super close, and he grows to respect Jecht. And then in this last moment together, it's HIM who wants Braska to turn back, because HE doesn't want Braska to die. Auron's the one who trained as a monk under the teachings of Yevon, yet he can't bring himself to support what the pilgrimage means for Braska. I also like how older Auron sees this flashback and can't help but lash out as his younger self for not trying hard enough to stop Braska from sacrificing himself.

But yeah, the party reaches the end goal with Yunalesca, and it's spelled out very clearly: one of the guardians has to sacrifice themselves to become Yuna's Final Aeon, and effectively become the new Sin once the old Sin is destroyed. It's absolute bullshit, and everyone sees that, and even Yuna is not down with this. She's resigned herself to her fate, sure...but she's not about to sacrifice her friends; we've already seen a lighter instance of this with the marriage scene in Bevelle. And to make matters worse, Yunalesca straight-up tells the party "Yeah, Yevon's teachings are a total lie...Sin will ALWAYS come back and there's no ultimate atonement. IMMEDIATE soul-crushing news for everyone, and even worse for Yuna and Tidus, since they now know for sure that their fathers died for nothing, effectively.

And finally, SOMEONE breaks the cycle. Yuna refuses to go through with the path Yunalesca expects her to follow, Tidus encourages her, and the party fights Yunalesca to the death. It was a tough battle, but the game is really trying to add mechanics to their boss battles so you can just overlevel and blast the boss outright, which is still appreciated. I tried to always keep one of my healers (Lulu/Yuna) zombied and one normal, just to handle any spells that got used to start doing some real harm to the party overall. But yeah, we killed Yunalesca and that means the standard method of "killing" Sin is no more. Time for Tidus to put his "just think of something" mindset to work.

One thing I noticed--and it stood out more because I came back to Zanarkand after visiting Bevelle, and I met up with Dona and Barthello (good on them for actually finishing the pilgrimage, I suppose)--but early on, Dona highlights how pathetic it is that Yuna needs so many guardians. Dona only has Barthello, Isaaru only had his two brothers, Braska only had two, Father Zuke only had Lulu/Wakka. Yet Yuna wins up with a party of six. But I feel like having such a large party is exactly what allowed Yuna to be the one who broke the cycle. If she only had a Tidus/Rikku guardian duo, they likely would've talked her out of the sacrifice. If she only had a couple of the Kimahri/Lulu/Wakka group, they likely don't make her question the pilgrimage, and one of them gladly sacrifices themselves. But because you have SIX people, and you have both the stalwarts AND the skeptics, it allowed Yuna to complete the pilgrimage AND had those conflicting thoughts that let her stand against what Yunalesca wanted. Even in a group of three, we saw Jecht/Braska were two-on-one versus Auron, but with six, each of the guardians has a relationship with one another, and you have to take THAT into account in addition to the summoner themselves. So in a way, it's not even just Yuna's individual strength, but the strength of the people she chose to surround herself with that serve as the change that Spira needed.

Finally, we get our last BIG reveal of the game (I think), with Auron telling Tidus that yeah, he's been dead the whole time. It's hinted at for sure, but it's good to see the game spell it out, because I think that really helps to sell older Auron as a hero more than he has been before now. Up until this point, he's just been "I'm pushing Yuna along because Braska wanted it", but now it's more "I'm staying alive just to guard the children of my two closest friends and make sure that Braska and Jecht's deaths weren't in vain." Hell, Auron gets killed trying to avenge them right away, taking a swing at Yunalesca, so good on him for that, too.

And then we get outside where Sin is just chilling. For once, Sin isn't causing unbelievable destruction, or immediately whisking Tidus off to some random corner of the world. And this leads to the thought process on the airship soon after, where perhaps the Hymn of the Fayth (which Jecht always liked) could pacify Sin long enough for the party to take him down. It's the start of a plan, for sure. But it also requires some information from Maester Mika, since he's been alive long enough to know things. That means heading back into the Lion's Den of Bevelle, where we're not exactly welcomed. Or...we WEREN'T welcomed until Shelinda shows up! That's right, Shelinda saves the day again and I'll not hear a bad word about her, even if she totally buys into the anti-Al Bhed propaganda still. But yeah, it's great to see Mika so terrified that he has no choice but to rely on Yuna to defeat Sin, and when he learns that Yunalesca is dead, that's enough for him to peace out and finally pass on. That's all the Maesters fully dead at this point, I think.

And with that, I now have free reign to explore Spira and complete some sidequests. Get some ultimate weapons, finish getting all of Yuna's summons. I'm at the endgame, but there's still a ways to go to finish the story.

Imagine sticking around that long after death that you finally have a chance to see the world change and you just don't take it. Watch the world burn, Mika. Why are you despairing so much anyway? You can leave when you want!

Bro was just trying to get with Yunalesca the whole time

The scenes in Zanarkand with the flashback and Yunalesca are so good.

Also you can still go ahead pretty far from here without hitting the point of no return if you want