But I don't think I've ever quite fallen so far behind as this. And I'm not really going to update now, either, because it's late, but I did want to mention that we've gotten through the prologue and are now futzing around in camp. Much more tomorrow, I hope.
FFX Replay: Macalania, Bikanel, Bevelle
Feb. 25th, 2013 06:04 pmThis, to me, is the heart of the game: from the Guardians arriving at Home through leaving Bevelle. The revelations large and small, the growth experienced by every single character, Auron finally starts to let his hand show, my favorite cut scene ever: I could play it again and again.
After this, we have a little bit of falling action, as the party crosses the Calm Lands, plays the Monster Hunting game (easily my favorite sidequest), explores Yojimbo's cave, and heads for Gagazet. Good times.
- Update to a previous thought -- so the bodies of the Al-Bhed in the Summoner's Sanctum do disappear after Dona and Isaaru send them, in contrast to the bodies that stay on the beach after Operation Mi'ihen. On the other hand, a fiend (a wendigo) comes to life before they've finished, so maybe that's the difference. And in Bevelle, Seymour uses Kinoc's corpse as well as four living people (one warrior monk and three Guado) to create his armor for the battle with Yuna and co. So I have to call the results of this study inconclusive.
- Also in the Summoner's Sanctum, I was really struck by Tidus's interactions with Valefor when he gets upset about Yuna, and the way Valefor bowed her head and wrapped her wings around Tidus, as if to comfort him, to share in his sadness. The bond between the summoners and the aeons must go both ways. What if the aeons grieve every time a summoner dies? What if they're tired of losing tiny pieces of themselves, of crumbling slowly over the centuries? Just another reason they, too, want the cycle to end.
- One of the things I always look forward to in this bit of the game are the interactions between Auron and Kinoc in Bevelle. The moment I noticed this time: when Seymour orders the warrior monks to stand down, and Kinoc pulls the gun away from Auron's face, he has a strange expression, like he's both disappointed and relieved that he won't be pulling the trigger.
After this, we have a little bit of falling action, as the party crosses the Calm Lands, plays the Monster Hunting game (easily my favorite sidequest), explores Yojimbo's cave, and heads for Gagazet. Good times.
On replaying FFX
Feb. 18th, 2013 12:46 pmI've been thinking about replaying FFX again for awhile, and being at home sick for the last week ended up being a good time for it. (I'd also thought about playing along with ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
moogle_university, but I decided I couldn't hold out until October. :) I can always replay again then if I'm inspired.) I haven't played FFX at all for several years, and I hadn't done a top-to-bottom replay in even longer; then again, I know the game so well by now I doubt there will be many real surprises. But that's not the point of a replay like this. It's more about sinking back into the world and spending time there, reminding myself of the voices and the faces and the story. I'm about twelve or so hours in, just reached the Thunder Plains.
A few stray thoughts:
moogle_university, but I decided I couldn't hold out until October. :) I can always replay again then if I'm inspired.) I haven't played FFX at all for several years, and I hadn't done a top-to-bottom replay in even longer; then again, I know the game so well by now I doubt there will be many real surprises. But that's not the point of a replay like this. It's more about sinking back into the world and spending time there, reminding myself of the voices and the faces and the story. I'm about twelve or so hours in, just reached the Thunder Plains.A few stray thoughts:
- The Jecht Shot is ridiculously hard. I think I reloaded seven or eight times before I got it to work. FFX was the last game before the ability to skip cutscenes was introduced to the series, and there's also no way to reload besides restarting the PS2, so that was also annoying. I don't intend to play much blitzball, so I didn't really need the Jecht Shot. But I so much prefer the way the characterization works if Tidus is able to make it work that I decided it was worth it.
- The other choice I really care about: who dies at Operation Mi'ihen. Nothing against Gatta, but the scene with Luzzu and Wakka at Djose Temple is one of my favorites in the game, so when I accidentally kept Gatta alive I found myself going back to a previous save.
- One thing I noticed at Operation Mi'ihen: after Yuna performs her Sending, there are still bodies on the beach. I remember having a discussion about that issue either here or someone else's journal a few years back: do human corpses disappear after death the same way that dead fiends do? At least based on this evidence, the answer is no. I'll have to keep an eye out in future scenes.
- Tidus's voice acting is better than I remember. Yuna's, sadly, is worse. Maybe it only seems that way because she gets so much better in FFX-2, so that's the impression that remains in my head.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}