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FFX: Replay done
An appropriate day to finish up my replay, since it was announced that the upcoming FFX remaster will include FFX-2!!! And it will be the International version which means extra boss battles and Last Mission!!!! I will finally be able to play Last Mission. You have no idea how excited I am about this.
I meant to write up a little more about my replay as I went, but I being more motivated to play FFX than to write about playing FFX. :) In the end, I didn't really have any amazing revelations, but I did have fun.
Observations :
Somewhere along the way, I realized that I'd decided to replay FFX-2 next. I just can't step into Spira without wanting to spend as much time there as humanly possible. Let's see if I can resist starting it tonight.
I meant to write up a little more about my replay as I went, but I being more motivated to play FFX than to write about playing FFX. :) In the end, I didn't really have any amazing revelations, but I did have fun.
Observations :
- This time around, my sidequest of choice was monster hunting. I collected all the monsters from all the areas, and got most of the extra achievements, too, except for five of each fiend and ten of each fiend. I started working on five of each fiend, because the reward for that is enough Dark Matters to put Break Damage Limit on a couple of weapons, but it ended up being waaaaay too much trouble. Sorry, Lulu, you're stuck with spells that do 9999 damage on almost every monster and boss. The hardest was the Omega Ruins; I died there a lot, mostly because of the fiends that inflict the bad status effects: stone, berserk, confuse. By the time I got to Omega, I was able to kill him in two hits from Bahamut.
- I got two ultimate weapons: Auron's and Yuna's. Yuna's is by far the easiest to get -- you just need to do the Calm Lands monster hunt and collect all the aeons -- and Auron's is tied to the monster hunting. Part of me wants to try and earn some of the others (I've gotten Rikku's before, but no one else's), but it doesn't seem worth it, because it's not so hard to win without them.
- One consequence of monster hunting is a lot of levels, so I was way overpowered for the final battles. Seymour died in two rounds, Jecht in maybe a dozen, Yu Yevon in about four. The aeon battle takes longer, but that's just because there are so many of them to deal with, and I couldn't whack any of them with warriors -- it ended up being all magic.
- Yuna looks so sad during the aeon battle. She just deflates a little more with each one you defeat. No wonder she got upset about it in X-2.
- I must have noticed before that Lucil and Elma are in Besaid at the time of the final battle, but I'd forgotten, so it was a nice surprise to see them there with Luzzu and the last chocobo. Luzzu looks so at peace, watching Sin explode in the night sky. I so wish they had found a way to work the Operation Mi'ihen survivor into X-2.
- I will never not be bitter that Auron's final scene was not fully rendered.
- The end movie didn't make me cry the first time I played the game, but it sure does now. Tidus starting to fade away, Yuna's little headshake, the way she tries to hold him but can't. Rikku's denial and Lulu's sad little wave and Wakka kicking the roof of the airship -- I forget, sometimes, that Wakka and Tidus became such good friends, that the other remaining guardians share Yuna's grief. I wonder how much she allowed herself to lean on them.
Somewhere along the way, I realized that I'd decided to replay FFX-2 next. I just can't step into Spira without wanting to spend as much time there as humanly possible. Let's see if I can resist starting it tonight.
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The only ultimate weapons I have achieved are Yuna, Auron and Tidus.
This is actually the only game I have ever played that has made me cry for real. Like actually tears running down my cheeks. Not just Tidus and Yuna at the end, but the scene where Tidus says goodbye to Jecht.
I also think this game has the most genuinely hideous boss monster I have seen in a Final Fantasy game - the medusa version of Yunalesca is straight up nightmarish, especially when she first emerges.
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I teared up when Auron leaves. I actually got into fandom and wrote my first clumsy Aulu BEFORE finishing this game, and I put off the ending for at least a little while because it was going to be hard to watch him go.
The whole ending is beautiful and heartbreaking. I have so many ambivalent feelings about the story continuing after that, because this was such a perfect Greek tragedy (and yet, much like the Third Age of Middle-earth, there are things worth seeing in the sequel even if we mourn for the incomparable tragic beauty and wonders of the First Age and Elder Days).
This game is one of the few that managed to hit so many things right for me -- the epic/mythic, yet all the characters care so hard for one another. I'd missed Wakka's kick! But Rikku hopping and Lulu's sad little wave always caught my eye as Tidus runs.
Lucil and Elma in the final scene of the game set off a whole big pile of head canon for me, explaining how they ended up there. We get just enough hints to reconstruct what must've happened. They head north with their remaining chocobo, intending to collect new wild chocobos and rebuild the Chocobo Knights. It seems likely that they're headed for the Calm Lands where the Yocun Crusaders practice, and where we see lots of feral chocobos.
But it seems that Maester Seymour ordered them instead to guard the path to Macalania Temple, making sure Yuna headed that way. They're seen directing wedding guests towards the temple and congratulating Yuna. And then suddenly... they stop appearing. That's it until the final scene of the game.
Putting together various NPC comments, it appears that Mika issues orders for Yuna's execution, but Besaid village defies those orders! So my headcanon is that Elma and Lucil rebelled against those orders as well, went back to Besaid to join the rebels and defend them from the warrior monks sent from Bevelle to occupy the temple (which the villagers mention happening, if you backtrack to Besaid, and in the international version you actually see the villagers toss out a high member of the clergy sent to arrest Yuna.)
The reason for Auron's final scene not being fully rendered is that he's got his weapon on his shoulder. In that game, the weapons only ever appear with their low-poly, lowest-resolution models. I hate it, but I can see why they wouldn't render all his swords just for that one moment at the end. (On the other hand, some of Yuna's cutscenes show her with a different staff than whatever you've given her, and we never worry about that.)
I wish I could give all of you my Lulu savegame. Fittingly enough, I have ZERO trouble with her ultimate weapon, and find lightning dodging about as relaxing as archery practice (using much the same part of the brain; it requires an inner stillness and focus). It helps that I've found a spot just north of the agency in the Calm Lands where the lightning is about 4 seconds apart like clockwork. Dodge, take a step forward, dodge, take a step forward, repeat about ten times, have a battle to rest, take a deep breath, repeat. I seldom need to do it more than once. it's actually one of the parts of the game I look forward to.
I like the fact that you need to put yourself in a light trance, relaxed focus, to get Lulu's weapon. It fits.
Whereas the quests for Tidus and Kimahri are an utter nightmare. i've done them each once, but usually skip. The others I've done a few times each. It helps that I find blitzball relaxing and fun; I've been known to play it for a ten minute brain break, while stuck on the phone, or while listening to baseball on the radio. (Also, save before each season or tournament and reset until one of Wakka's reels is listed.)
Yuna's little head shake is indeed wrenching, but having her run through him always got me just as it was designed to do. Doubly so, because the Lulu in me has a stomach spasm at the brief image of Yuna hurtling right off the airship -- but then Tidus does instead. (And Lulu became very fond of him, too.)
I'm really praying the HD ffx comes out in time for the moogle university marathon, and that the game includes the PS3 capacity to take screenshots, which is up to the game designers. i would LOVE to do a let's play with full meta commentary for FFX. SO MUCH META.
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I think the solution to the issue with Auron's sword is clearly what you said, just give him the original sword model or whatever. They do it all the time with Yuna, just as you mentioned.
I really can't imagine actually winning the lightning game. I remember trying it once and I don't know where I got to, but it wasn't anywhere impressive. I doubt I reached 100.
Yes, the part where she runs through him is so sad. I am with you on feeling ambivalent about the sequel for the same reasons. It was such a powerful ending. I always feel like it's as if they let you resurrect Aeris in a FFVII sequel. It's all right anyway, FFX-2 is so different as a game. It's clearly not supposed to have the same sort of story.
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I can't remember, have you ever read my defense of X-2? I think it came out when you were taking one of your hiatuses, in early 2011.
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And I do appreciate X-2. There's a reason I compared it to the Third Age of Middle-earth, which has a lot of characters and events we love. It's just...not like the First Age.
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I have to admit, I'm not familiar enough with Tolkien to understand the parallel. (Have read the Hobbit and the trilogy once each and nothing else.) And it may just come down to appreciating different kinds of stories. :)
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Okay, all of that, but especially #4. That I got, although I found it a bit jarring.
My problem with the fanservice is similar to that of Sev and some of your other commenters: there's a part of me that enjoys the eye candy, but there's a point at which it starts hitting hentai-level (LeBlanc's outfit; also the Berserker for some reason), that flips me over into "Ack, too much female objectiification and caricaturing powerful woman = slut...NOT GOOD.")
And yes, appreciating different kinds of stories. On the one hand, I appreciate a lot of X-2 (except for some of the pointless minigames like matchmaking). On the other, I love a heart-wrenching yet poetically fitting tragic ending (see: Marcus and Ivanova, "all love is unrequited.") I am torn between liking what was done in X-2 and regretting how it undid that part of FFX.
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As for X-2 undoing the end of FFX, I have conflicting feelings about that. For one thing, X-2 doesn't necessarily "fix" the sad ending of FFX -- you need to do a number of fiddly things just right to bring Tidus back, and not every player is going to manage it. I didn't, my first time through. Even then, it's up to the player: the fayth gives Yuna a choice of whether she wants him back. As I mentioned in the comments, that's one of the things that I liked about X-2: the recognition that there are many different kinds of "happily ever after". And there is something to be said for Yuna, a character who makes a large number of sacrifices to save the world, being able to get back at least one person who is important to her.
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I also agree on the horrificness of Yunalesca in medusa form. Unfortunately this time I didn't skip fast enough through the sphere grid to get Yuna the Holy spell before that battle, so it was a long slog, too. Although I beat it on the first try. I actually got every boss on the first try -- it was only random monsters that managed to kill me!
This game just has so many emotional moments, especially at the end. One of the reasons I love it so much, it engages my emotions, but not in a way that feels fake or overwrought.
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But yes! FINALLY I SHALL MAKE MY WAY THROUGH X2.
I will definitely wait for the re-release, though. :D
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I'm really interested to go through X when we get there in Moogle U. SO MUCH DISCUSSION.
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I am excited for the Moogle U replay of FFX also! Especially if I'm able to play along. :)
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I hope you can! I, meanwhile, am eyeing the HD announcement and hoping it gets here before October.
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