Board 8 > Final Fantasy X Playthrough / Challenge Log (SPOILERS)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Join Tidus, a heroic blitzball superstar, and Yuna, a courageous girl skilled in the ancient art of summoning, as they embark on an epic quest to defeat Spira's deadliest enemy.

Final Fantasy X is my favourite game of all time. I love practically everything about it, even the little things that are probably rubbish if I'm being honest. But the plot is the best in a Final Fantasy game for me, the music is superb, the characters are good individually and great as a group, the Sphere Grid is a fun level-up method, the CTB works well... I could talk about it for hours, and probably will do.

I've played this game about a billion times, and it's gotten to the point where I like to play it with challenges to keep the gameplay fresh while I experience the world and the story. In the past I've done a NSGNSNONCNENNENBB playthrough (for those who can't figure it all out that's No Sphere Grid, No Summoning, No Overdrive, No Customisation, No Escaping, No "No Encounters", No Blitzball) and played it upto-and-including defeating Omnis. I don't want to do something that intensive again though, for a couple of reasons - firstly, I've already done that and don't want to do it again, and the only other common challenge that's that intensive is YONS (Yuna Only, No Summons) which is an absolute bore to play as it requires you to grind until you get Holy pre-Kilika Temple; secondly, there are points that require lots of grinding, which will make the playthrough topic stall (and I won't be able to progress that fast anyway due to only really being able to play for decent periods of time on weekday evenings).

So, my chosen challenge is going to be "no random encounters". Thanks to Kotetsu for suggesting this. Basically, I will escape from all encounters that aren't forced upon me, which will deny me levels, gil and items, and hopefully make the game a lot more challenging. The biggest problem I can see is the lack of red spheres - it's going to be very difficult to level up, especially once I've exhausted my supply of tutorial battles. I don't fancy having to use the Distiller items on all the bosses. What I might do is wait until Mi'ihen Highroad, then set aside a character (maybe Kimahri?), get all the spheres I need with him, but not use him for boss battles, and sell/discard any extra items I get (as well as wasting any extra gil). But we'll see. With certain bosses/fixed fights having repeatable enemies like the Sinscales, it might not be needed.

This topic is therefore 2 things:
1) A journal of how the challenge goes
2) A log of all my thoughts on the game, as they occur to me while I play through.

Hopefully there are enough other people on the board who like the game enough to want to read; if not I guess I'll quietly let this purge and continue playing it in private.

(Note: I've already played (and written thoughts on what happens up to) the arrival at Kilika. If that stuff is too long or boring let me know and I'll try to improve my writing-up as I go. But don't expect any improvement until then!)

Oh, and EXPECT SPOILERS FOR ANY PART OF THE GAME FROM HEREON OUT. Let's begin!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Woo!

Wait, why no Blitzball?

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Aww, I lost to SuperNiceDog, Winner of the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest

I've done something like this. you'll want to get flee just to avoid the tedium of escaping with all three guys.

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xyzzy

Yeah, flee is first priority for Tidus, definitely. In that challenge, the no blitzball is to stop you getting Dark Matter. And to add 3 more letters on the end, I guess!

Going with the Expert Sphere Grid. It's not as good end-game, but I'm not gonna reach end-game any time soon, and the flexibility is going to be important with the lack of levels - I can stuff all my extra spheres in the middle and move everyone there, get the mages and Wakka the much-needed Lancet to restore their MP, etc.

To Zanarkand is still an absolutely beautiful piece of music. The whole "narration" aspect of the game confused me for the first time I played the game, but on repeat playthroughs it feels like a good call - both to help make Tidus more relatable since you know he matures, and to frame the world better. It's a wonderful opening though - something that all the Final Fantasies seem to be able to do really well is the opening cutscene. Off the top of my head, only FF9's is weak. X's is up there with my favourites.

Tidus flirts with the kids and promises the girls he'll teach them how to blitz (I think I got that the right way round), and the Faith shows up. After a bajillion playthroughs I still don't understand why. Then we get the great walk across the bridge, with the voiceover of Zanar's memories of Jecht, which is actually done really, really well. I make sure to get my Potions from the lady (I won't point out this stuff all the way through, don't worry; just establishing the importance of getting all the items I can given the nature of the playthrough) and then proceed to the stadium where all hell breaks loose.

I first saw the Otherworld cutscene in a cinema on a big screen, and it was absolutely mind-blowing. I was already hotly anticipating the game (Final Fantasy 9 was, going in, my favourite game of all time) but that pushed it over the edge in a big way. Also, fun fact: I thought Auron was summoning Sin, and was set to be the big villain of the game. Either way, he's incredibly badass.

More crazy Faith stuff, Tidus gets a sword and it's fightin' time. I take the time to farm for overdrive modes across these battles - I don't bother normally, but on this kind of playthrough farming opportunities are gonna be quite slim, so I'll take them where I can. I grab the Loner, Daredevil and Slayer ovrdrive modes for both Tidus and Auron. This is all pretty boring, so I'll skip ahead to "and then the tanker ignited".

Tidus gets sucked through a hole and ends up in the ruins of Baaj Temple. This is possibly my least-favourite part of the game, to be honest - the gameplay is beyond basic, the environments are very dull and brown, and the flint/bouquet "puzzle" is insultingly easy. And it doesn't really add anything to the story beyond it not being suspiciously quick that you're inadvertantly rescued. The "out of the frying pan and into the freezer" comment sums it up perfectly - both are horrible situations, but at least one's interesting! On the plus side Tidus does get to take some magic pill that allows him to learn the entire Al Bhed language (though he of course will still be confused when Rikku and the others speak it later).

So yeah, very little to say until the fight with Klikk. First stage of this fight is very simple - hammer x until Rikku shows up. You shouldn't need to heal in part 1 (provided you remembered to use the save sphere before the battle). After this mysterious girl shows up to join, we get the steal/use tutorial. This deals a healthy amount of damage, supplemented nicely by my having saved Tidus's overdrive until now, and consequently Klikk's HP is basically halved immediately. A couple of grenade steals later and I'm fine with killing it, at the loss of 0 potions (and the gain of 4 Grenades). Everyone loves economical item micro-management, right? Video games!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Sphere Grid tutorial time, then we're off to salvage for stuff. My first opportunities to escape from battle! Tidus operates stuff by hitting it, and I steal Grenades in the two mandatory fights. I finish the section with 15 Grenades (and 14 Potions). I have absolutely no idea whether that will prove worth it. At the very least I can sell them, since I'll probably need the gil. The Al Bhed are all happy they found the airship, Tidus shakes himself off like a dog, and then we get the "Zanarkand is ruins" cutscene. Now I'm on my bjillionth playthrough the scene bores the hell out of me, but the first time it was pretty awesome, as far as set-ups go. Is Tidus from over 1000 years ago? Is it a different Zanarkand? Was it some crazy toxin dream of Tidus's? Intrigue abound!

So Tidus hits the boat and Sin pops up. I like to imagine those to facts are related. Way to go, Tidus.

So, just as he was starting to make friends, Tidus gets washed away again. This time it's to a place with more colours than dark-blue and brown though, so that's fine by me!

First arriving in Besaid is such a good part of the game. It's the first time you see colour, we get Blitzball Gamblers playing, which is a superb cheesy sports movie song, we get this deluge of colour, and we get the introduction to my favourite FFX character (Wakka, not Luzzu, Gatta or one of the Aurochs, in case anyone fancies being clever). Plus Tidus breaks the laws of physics by kicking a Blitzball into the sky. What's not to love?

Also:

- Gets told not to mention Zanarkand

-

- "Who you play for?" "The Zanarkand Abes!"

God Tidus, I like you, but I see why people don't. It's because you're an idiot. I do like how the music instantly cuts off the moment he says it, though.

All the Aurochs give you gifts (except Letty, because he's mean) and we get to follow Wakka back through "part of Besaid you can never visit again for some reason". We then get some nice swimming before Wakka reveals they've not won a game in 10 years. Tidus groans as he realises he's the Charlie of this Mighty Ducks team, but he does his best. We explore the village a bit, open all the chests, etc., then Tidus has a nap and thinks about how he hates his dad, as one does. Then we're off to the temple.

I do like how Tidus just rushes in to try to help the summoner - it sums up his good and bad qualities perfectly. Like any good boy I've learned the cloister of trials from heart, so it doesn't take long for me to get the Rod of Wisdom and meet 3 new characters at once. Since it gets brought up all the time, I'm gonna go ahead and ask - what don't people like about Yuna's voice? It's really common complaint I hear, but I don't think Hedy Burress does a bad job at all. I know some sentences have an odd time structure because she tried to match the lip flaps, and she says "yes" and "okay" the same way over and over, but really, these are very minor nitpicks for me. I literally didn't know there was supposed to be a problem with it until I came online and everyone was complaining.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

I do like how the mere suggestion of "victory" is enough to get the Aurochs chanting like they'd never heard of the concept before. Then we get the first flirty conversation between Tidus and Yuna, which is fun for everyone. Because I'm happy to go with the script, I enthusiastically tell Wakka she's cute, then we're done for the night. To hammer the point home, Tidus has a sex dream. Well, until his dad gets involved, anyway! Dude's got issues. Then we transition into 2 awesome scenes in a row - Wakka being chewed out by Lulu, and then Wakka and Tidus's heart-to-heart. I'm a big fan of the whole Chappu subplot. Almost every scene it involves is powerful as ****. I also like how it gives Wakka a real motivation for everything he's done so far rather than him being "generic nice", yet at the same time it makes him more likeable and personable. We then get the Brotherhood, Chappu's old sword, to cap it off.

Yuna's goodbye scenes are so much more powerful on repeat viewings. It's cool enough the first time, when you think she's just saying bye to her hometown; seeing it again, knowing it's goodbye forever, and she'll never see any of the people she grew up with again (except those coming with her of course)... it's exceptionally well done. Some people say this game doesn't get going until Luca, but for me it's always been waking up in Besaid, 'cause there's such a deluge of scenes I really like on the island.

Gameplay stuff time. I get something mangled and slobbery (seriously, how is Energy Blast a dog's chew toy??) then leave for the tutorial battles. I get to the Kimahri fight, and (this is why I'm a loser with the stuff before) switch Tidus's overdrive mode to Loner. For this fight, the Overdrive bar is filled within a few turns - and in that time, I get Kimahri down to under 300 HP, so that when I overdrive I finish him off, getting the Overkill that's vital for my extra spheres. No potions needed, simple! Having done that, time to backtrack - there are no random encounters yet, and now that I know I don't need them, I can sell all my Potions so that I can get a full 20 from kicking the suitcase on the ship that's upcoming. Never know when that extra gil'll help! I also get to sell my un-needed weapons (Tidus and Yuna's starting weapons, plus the Hunter's Sword Kimahri dropped). Continue with the game as usual until the Sin battle.

In this battle, in theory you can break the challenge because of the never-ending spawn of Sinscales, which this time round you get AP for. I guess if you played for long enough eventually they'd take out enough HP to force you to heal with Yuna or Potions, and eventually her MP and the potions would run out, but you could keep going a long time. I didn't want to render the entire point of the challenge irrelevant, but I didn't want to not seize the advantage to at least get some spheres either, so in the end I compromised - I killed 42 Sinscales total, judging by the number of Power Spheres I received. I switched Tidus's overdrive mode to Slayer so that I could max it out while farming off the Sinscales in part one of the fight, then in part two I cheered 5 times with Tidus while Wakka wore down the Sinspawn and kept me healed up with potions, got the Sinspawn down to about 700 HP then used Spiral Cut for the Overkill.

We then get the cutscene of Sin trashing Kilika. They had to start by showing the kids playing and mother cradling her kid, didn't they... I've played this game so many times now, but this scene and the sending scene combined still motivate me so strongly to want to beat the **** out of Sin. Seeing the ball the kid was playing with floating by... damn. Incidentally, for the most part I like Tidus's narration, but the fact that he wishes he went back to Zanarkand afterwards doesn't work for me, the deaths of most of this village seems like it matters more to me!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

XD Oh Tidus.

You can get Dark Matter from Blitzball? Huh.

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Aww, I lost to SuperNiceDog, Winner of the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest

and the only other common challenge that's that intensive is YONS (Yuna Only, No Summons) which is an absolute bore to play as it requires you to grind until you get Holy pre-Kilika Temple

Now that's just not true. It takes insane amounts of grinding, but you don't quite need Holy pre-Kilika. I remember you need a Belladonna Wand from Kilika, which obviously has an abysmal drop rate, but I also remember that the pre-Gui grinding only goes up to Reflect. I think you don't need Holy until Seymour&Anima, but it's been a while since I was a FFX-board regular, so I could be wrong (though I'm pretty sure I'm right :P)

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I'll have to catch up on this later.

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http://i.imgur.com/CbfFb.jpg

Ah, fair - I've never done a YONS playthrough myself because it sounds awful, for some reason I thought you needed Holy to beat Sinspawn Geneaux 'cause there's a bit where you need magic to beat it and it's the only offensive spell she learns. My memory is very rusty though, so I'm probably wrong.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

*follows along*

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I like the people that I work with, generally. With four exceptions.
- Dwight K. Schrute

tag

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Circle gets the Scare!
Imagine if Jesus knew kung fu. That's what everyone is dealing with

Just looked it up and I'm entirely wrong, oh well. What it is is if you do a No Items run you need Holy to beat Sinspawn Gui. So I got the specifics wrong and the Sinspawn wrong.

Still a horrible, un-fun challenge. My one was a grind in places but at least there's fun in the way you go about things, every fight there's peril but there's also a different way of winning. And it makes some boss fights even more epic than normal, whereas YONS is either "slowly wittle away" or "power grind until you get Holy then spam the hell out of it".

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Without reading too muchs

YONS requires reflect for gui and holy for anima. While being ridiculous, isn't quite as bad as what you said.

You could do nsg rikku only no items or no overdrives

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PhoneYoshi

Oh I'm not gonna argue about YONS being a terrible challenge. Any challenge that requires insane amounts of powerlevelling for a boss is dumb, and this one takes the cake. NSGNSxxx challenges are fun, because they are about using the right strategies. They may require item hunting, but that's different. I've also always been a proponent of just customising a Phoenix Bracer if Greater Sphere doesn't drop it right away. Mindless repetitive grinding is dumb and doesn't add anything to the overall experience.

I remember when I played Wakka Only No Attack Reels challenge, I broke the NAR rule on Anima. The choice was either grinding for hours, then rolling all over the rest of the challenge just so I could kill Anima in 2 or 3 hits, or keeping the challenge alive for the rest of the game and not spend hours in Macalania with a boring grindfest. I didn't even have to think about the decision. And Wakka grinding is still significantly faster than Yuna grinding, as he does approximately 10 times as much damage with his physical attack and he won't miss birds, lizards and wolves 75% of the time.

I did wo nbb nc. His elemental reels does more than enough damage if you can get through the first phase with 2 people alive >_>

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PhoneYoshi

Tag.


Great stuff so far. Don't really need to change your write ups at all.

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~Ç~ http://img.imgcake.com/AlecTrevylan006/fdshieldpngyn.png Eff_Dee
http://img.imgcake.com/nio/9fdpngys.png

I did wo nbb nc. His elemental reels does more than enough damage if you can get through the first phase with 2 people alive >_>

Well, your Wakka was probably signifcantly stronger than mine. My challenge was actually the actual challenge was WONCNARRSONENNE, the RSO part in that acronym being Red Spheres Only (so no extra 16 strength from the Goers match and Lightning dodging). I think I remember running the math, and I would have needed to grind until the end of Wakka's grid if I wanted to do it without AR, and still pray that both characters survive the first round (or hope for an 1% Pain resist).

I never did finish that challenge. I think I lost interest during the pre-BFA preparations.

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tag

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I do because I can.....and because I'm bored.
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We get one of those deliciously awkward scenes where everyone except Tidus knows Yuna will die if she summons the final aeon and he unknowingly does a faux pas, and then it's off to the Kilika Woods. Ochu goes down pretty easily - wear him down with the main party using Yuna to heal, then switch to Valefor, charge the overdrive and the use it to get the overkill for 2 HP Spheres, placed either side of Lancet on the Sphere Grid. Not everyone is there yet, but Wakka, Kimahri and Yuna get a 600HP boost, which I'm sure will prove useful. They're staying put until I get the Strength Sphere from Blitzball, then everyone will finally go their separate ways.

Things continue as usual. I do like that Yuna isn't just some timid girl who does nothing - she has fun on her journey where she can, like when she cheats to get a headstart in the race up the stairs. Makes her feel more real to me, I guess. Same strategy used for Sinspawn as was used for Ochu. In the subsequent scene you think Lulu's being supremely, horribly harsh on the first time through; to be fair, she is, but on subsequent playthroughs you realise just how hard it is for her to say Chappu's dead. She's not just kicking Wakka in the balls with it. Wakka's quiet breakdown is so good, and I don't get how people can dislike the guy (at least at this point) - his out-loud admission that he "could never be what Chappu was" is a simple statement, and when you know the whole story it takes on a new meaning. Did he want Lulu himself, only to see her fall for his brother, accept it and wish them well only for his brother to then die and see his love become colder and more distant while having to deal with his own loss? The guy deals with some tough **** throughout the game. How quickly he pulls himself together and gets up says a lot about his internal strength, I think. Also notice how much FFX-2 messes up the scene by retconning Lulu/Wakka sexual tension? I get the feeling that's another rant for another day, though.

And following that short yet powerful scene, we get the generic sports villains of doom! The Luca Goers? The Luca "Going Down"ers more like! Is it just me or does Bickson have a more camp version of LeBlanc's voice. Might be the use of the word "boys". And then we get to meet Dona, because apparently Kilika temple houses all the obnoxious "kinda mean" characters. And I know this point has been made loads of times before, but what gives Dona the right to lecture Yuna about how to act when she's wearing a Thong and chaps? Does she not realise everyone can see her ass, or does she just not care? Just imagine if Dona had become the next High Summoner. All the priests of Yevon would've been slipping off to their temple's monks's chamber for some alone time whenever they saw the statue from the wrong side <_<.

Out of interest, do people like to make Tidus pray with Wakka or just watch? I normally have him just watch, I like to play it as "Tidus immediately sees this as stupid and because he's pigheaded and brash he doesn't bother paying lip service"; this time though I'm having him join in, I figure we'll go with "he likes Wakka and doesn't want to offend him by mocking the religion".

I like how they abandon Tidus at the top without telling him they were going to do it. Like, they knew if they'd done it sooner he'd have whined and moaned until they let him follow them, so they just shove him out right before the lift sets off. Dona throws you down anyway, and for some reason the lift doesn't work if you try to go back up. Anyway, Cloister, easy, yadda yadda. Red Armlet get, Ifrit get. I don't quite get how Yuna would've been excommunicated because some random buffoon ran into during her trial. How was she meant to stop that?!

I'll stop there for now, I think.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Oh, one quick thing I forgot to mention - after you leave Kilika Temple, there's a short bit where Tidus screams and Yuna approves. If you then get in a random fight on the way back with both of them in your frontline party, there's a chance he'll scream again and she'll say "you can scream louder if you want". It's almost certainly my twisted imagination, but does anyone else think she enjoys the screaming just a leetle bit too much?

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

I alternate between Tidus praying, in fact I alternate between all of the different choices, unless there is some benefit to picking a specific choice.

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I do because I can.....and because I'm bored.
http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/a/Micer101.png

Huh, I don't remember that bit.

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My Little Phineas and Ferb: Summer is Magic!
Aww, I lost to SuperNiceDog, Winner of the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest

Ultimaphazon posted...

I did wo nbb nc. His elemental reels does more than enough damage if you can get through the first phase with 2 people alive >_>

Well, your Wakka was probably signifcantly stronger than mine. My challenge was actually the actual challenge was WONCNARRSONENNE, the RSO part in that acronym being Red Spheres Only (so no extra 16 strength from the Goers match and Lightning dodging). I think I remember running the math, and I would have needed to grind until the end of Wakka's grid if I wanted to do it without AR, and still pray that both characters survive the first round (or hope for an 1% Pain resist).

I never did finish that challenge. I think I lost interest during the pre-BFA preparations.

ah, yeah that'd make sense. I got tired of BFA attempts on mine, didn't plan enough ahead to get a zombie strike weapon from someone (omnis?) so I think I was running e&c and stoneproof(got that on my way to bfa actually.. I was pretty lucky)

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Don't worry guys, I have all the clubs

Time for the ship back to Luca! Tidus's Theme plays, and we get some cool scenes. First I want to highlight one great line of dialogue regarding the Luca Goers:

Jassu: I just wanna sneak up behind them and beat the... -I mean, I wanna get in their faces and show'em what we're made of!

Bickson and Graav were flirting with Yuna, then Tidus came along and ruined things for them. Yuna decides to come down pretty hard on Tidus's side, at the risk of coming across like a loon to sports stars, saying there's a big city in Zanarkand where Tidus is the star player. Incidentally, if you alread know all this then sorry, what I'm trying to do is recap some of the easily missable stuff while giving my thoughts on the main story, but this scene, though missable, is so easy to get it might not be worth it. On that note, if you go back down to the cabin now you'll find the female Luca Goers have abducted Keepa. It's...unclear what they do to him. Botta expresses his wish to be "next", though. Is this why Keepa's catching stat is so poor? Neither man is there when you do the Jecht Shot...

Lulu and Wakka's conversation is really interesting. On the first playthrough it's basically your first sign Lulu's not just a cold-hearted cow. She basically talks Wakka out of leaving Tidus in Luca and into asking him if he wants to be a guardian. If you keep going up the stairs, they start talking about their parents and how Sin killed them. If you hadn't figured already, it makes you realise just how horrible and depressing Spira truly is.

Jecht Shot time. I like how in the flashback Tidus falls over trying to kick the ball at all, so Jecht assumes the shot he was trying to do was this ridiculously complicated physics-defying spectacle. Rather than just, y'know, kicking it. The shot's easy to do when you're used to it, and that'll make the Strength Sphere (er, I mean Crystal Cup) a lot easier to get! Yuna and Tidus chat about Jecht, and Yuna realises just how messed up Tidus is basically! Wakka eventually breaks things up by, uh, using his physical attack on Tidus.

Now we get the awesome "arriving in Luca" scene, which is pretty stunning in my opinion. We've got the awesome commentators Jimma and Bobba who are there to beef up the Goers and point out how the Besaid Aurochs are "a living, breathing statistical impossibility! I've never scene a team this bad!" Until Tidus decides to interrupt proceedings in the most obnoxious way possible. Then we get the arrival of Maesters Mika and Seymour. Up to now, even with the Temples, Yevon hasn't really played a big role in the game, so it's cool the game reminds you about its presence here.

Seymour himself...I get the feeling I'll rant more than once, but for me he's a big let-down. In gameplay terms, he's awesome and I love all his boss fights, but from a plot standpoint you could cut him and I probably wouldn't care. At the very least, if he was sent after the second fight with him, 'cause after that he does nothing (I know he massacares the Ronso, but it's off-camera, it doesn't have any real effect on your playthrough, and immediately after he does it you just beat him again anyway).

Also, this point's been made a bajillion and six times before, but his design sucks so many asses.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

After that we get a Blitzball tutorial. Kinda worrying Wakka has to remind his team of basic mechanics a couple of minutes before the first game! Tidus understandably gets bored and ditches the teamtalk to go flirt with Yuna, and I go hunt around for all the items. Incidentally, if you try and leave for the Mi'ihen highroad, Luzzu and Gatta are there to stop you. Anyway, eventually you go to the cafe and Kimahri gets bullied by Yenke and Biran, who always amuse me as dumb jock villains. In the confusion somehow Yuna gets kidnapped, AND a ransom message sent to Lulu/Wakka, AND Lulu gets across to tell you to get your ass in gear, without you noticing. Can't explain that one!

Before the fights against the Machina I switch Tidus's Overdrive Mode to Slayer to fill it up and make sure to use Lulu's Extract Magic ability to get some Mana Spheres for my trouble, then it's on to the might Oblitzerator! As always this is simple - Tidus cheers 4 times while Lulu powers up the crane and Kimahri defends, then Tidus uses it to all but finish off Oblitzerator and Kimahri uses Seed Cannon (first time he's used an Overdrive since his one-on-one battle with Tidus!) for the easy Overkill.

The Aurochs win 3-2. Good luck putting three past the Al Bhed Psyches normally! It does amuse me how Botta worries Wakka'll bench him, even though Wakka's clearly injured AND Tidus is a striker. Wakka and Lulu get to have a nice moment, and we get an AURON SIGHTING! Match doesn't actually go that well - 1-0 down before I get a touch of the ball. However, I'm able to time the comeback well, and get my equalising goal shortly before halftime so the Goers can't go ahead again. Second half I'm lucky enough to get the ball back before they score, and again time it so Tidus scores with the Jecht shot seconds before the 3 minute mark to go 2-1 up. Annoyingly the Goers then equalised again from the restart without me getting a touch. Wasn't able to punch a route through in the remaining time, so it finished 2-2. For once the random restart actually passed the ball my way, and I was able to get the ball to Wakka and score for the dramatic 3-2 win! It's the best sports movie plot ever!

Lots of fights. After cheering 5 times, Wakka and Tidus can overkill all 17 Sahagins, Auron OHKOs the Vouivre and then a Tidus overdrive eventually takes down the Garuda. And then, uh Seymour kinda rapes everything. Given he's trying to present himself as not "obviously evil", you'd have thought he wouldn't summon infernal beings from hell in a public place, but there ya go!

We then get a few scenes. Auron tells Tidus that Sin is Jecht, which is basically the key part of all of them. That scene confused me so much on the first playthrough. I thought it was stupid, but it really works the longer the game goes on. Wandering Flame is still my pick for most underrated song on the OST, incidentally. It's not the most poignant use of it by a long shot, but it's still pretty chilling. ( ).

Gonna stop for a bit now, Luca's done!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Final Fantasy X is my favourite game of all time. I love practically everything about it, even the little things that are probably rubbish if I'm being honest. But the plot is the best in a Final Fantasy game for me, the music is superb, the characters are good individually and great as a group, the Sphere Grid is a fun level-up method, the CTB works well... I could talk about it for hours, and probably will do.

Yes

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MZero the extreme
yes i am Yugi i have spike hair and i play card games with ugly monsters on them its time to Duel-ertyu

Bump. Won't be able to give an update this weekend, apologies!

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Maybe if they cut the 3rd fight, giving you more time to hate Seymour?

But I never really cared about him, so eh.

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My Little Phineas and Ferb: Summer is Magic!
Aww, I lost to SuperNiceDog, Winner of the Rivalry Rumble Guru Contest

I always felt that Seymour was needed in the game, besides adding to the story, losing his boss fights would certainly make the game somewhat dull. I found Flux to be in the perfect spot, especially since he killed the ronsos who turned out to be pretty chill guys.

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I'm but a simple companion in the pack of gurus whereof SuperNiceDog is the pack leader!

FF7 SPOILERS BELOW

The analogy I would make is ShinRa in FF7. You fight Rufus once, he flees but has time to establish himself as a monster again, and while you don't fight him again and have to fight ShinRa on-and-off throughout, the last time you fight ShinRa is the last time they are relevant to the plot, in the parachute raid. Imagine if you did that, got to the Northern Crater, then at the point where you can make the last save point there was a boss fight against Rufus again? It might be cool, but it wouldn't make sense because ShinRa (and Rufus) didn't matter anymore.

In short, from a purely plot perspective, it doesn't make sense to keep fighting him, he's no longer relevant or a threat. And I say that despite Flux being my favourite boss fight in the game, with the possibly exception of Evrae.

The way I'd try to solve it would be to halve the amount of walking you do on the mountain, have a smaller boss fight against a Sinspawn of some sort, then halve the amount of time it takes to solve the cave puzzles. Either that or have the 2nd Seymour fight instead be against Kinoc, establish it that Seymour has left Bevelle and will obstruct you at some point, and then have the fight with Flux happen when it does but without Seymour already being a non-entity by that point.

I'm kind of rambling now (and using up things to say when the events happen later :p), apologies.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

I like the Flux fight. It's my second favorite Seymour fight actually. Omnis is definitely one Seymour fight too much, but Flux is great.

Bump. No update for now, hopefully will be one tomorrow.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism

Oh right, I still need to read this.

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http://i.minus.com/iH9vIGOBoyTQ2.gif

bump

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I do because I can.....and because I'm bored.
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4565/mgrok.png

Thanks! Haven't forgotten about this, don't worry, just that the last few days have been crazy busy. Should hopefully get some time to play later today.

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James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism