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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose!

Shelinda just accidentally ending up the de facto head of Yevon is hilarious

And she has about a week to enjoy it before the central tenets of the religion get completely disproven.

Has that ever stopped an organized religion before?

I've always found it a little weird how Wakka is like "Some day it'll be gone, ya?" and Yunalesca is like "Nope. Never going to happen." instead of "Of course. And we can only hope humans one day reach that level of purity. Until then, Sin is eternal."

They still manage to collect themselves and invoke the name of Yevon in FFX-2, so I would say yeah... never stopped religion before.

Brief update, since I'm at the endgame and don't want this topic to get neglected. One of my big GAMEPLAY goals for this playthrough was to actually succeed in getting everyone's Celestial Weapons maxed out. I can't remember EXACTLY what I accomplished in the original playthrough, but I feel like I for sure maxed out Yuna, Tidus, Kimahri, and Rikku. I would assume I did Auron, but I can't recall (and I feel like I wouldn't have had the patience, back in the day, to do the necessary requirements). But yeah, my big goal here is completing all the Celestial Weapons. Other sidequests are maybe extra.

As far as the Celestial Weapons go, I collected every crest over the course of the game (usually in a place most closely-tied to the character in question), so those are all ready to go. Prior to finishing Zanarkand, I'd already gotten Caladbolg from beating the trainer at Chocobo Racing, unlocked Nirvana by capturing every fiend in the Calm Lands, and found the Spirit Lance in the Thunder Plains. I also got the 0.0 seconds at Chocobo Racing, so that meant I could immediately upgrade Caladbolg to max power once I could return to Macalania Woods. And while I was there, I also ran the Butterfly Catching minigame. It was SOMEWHAT annoying, but unlike Chocobo Racing, the butterflies stay in the same place every time, so you just need to run around them and it only took me about ten tries in total to clear both courses. With that, the Spirit Lance was maxed out as well.

After that, it was time to start traveling around the world to collect Rikku's Godhand (using the GODHAND password), Wakka's World Champion (just chatting in Luca since I'd already won multiple Blitzball tournaments), and Auron's Masamune (traveling the Mushroom Rock Road to drop off the Rusty Sword I picked up back around the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth.) That means I've collected 6/7 of the weapons themselves, so it's time to get more Sigils. First, I went to Bikanel and started in on the Cactuar minigame, which was more time-consuming than anything else. The Red-Light, Green-Light was pretty simple, with only the sixth cactuar being difficult to catch. Regardless, I caught all ten and got Rikku's Sigil, which means her weapon is maxed.

Bikanel also meant I could clear the fiends for the Arena, which led to me traveling all the early-game routes to max out the Arena there. After catching ten of everything, I got a bunch of unlocks at the arena itself, but that meant grabbing Auron's Sigil to make 4/7 of the weapons complete. Next up is Wakka and Blitzball, which meant playing through a full league of ten games to get a new league prize, and finally the Sigil became available. Now it's just a matter of finishing nine more games, and I'll have officially gotten farther in this goal than I was originally. The only thing that is annoying is, once again, lightning dodging is just miserable. I've managed to get fifteen consecutive dodges. That's my best so far. Lulu is really testing my resolve on this, because every aspect of her Celestial Weapon is the worst >_<

bruh you push the x button when the screen goes white

Skip the god damn lightning and you'll die happier in life

Use the crater:
https://youtu.be/te-ihMHRtJ8?feature=shared

Have Ermine dodge lightning for you.

He never missed

Ermine cleared the challenge?

Bospsychopaat posted...

Use the crater:
https://youtu.be/te-ihMHRtJ8?feature=shared

Thank you! I spent 16 minutes following this video and hit 212 dodges!

So, for the first time in my two attempts at playing FFX, I managed to get 200 consecutive lightning strikes. Thank you very much, Bosp! And on top of that, I finished my Blitzball league to get the Mercury Sigil, allowing me to fully unlock Wakka's World Champion. This leaves me with just obtaining Lulu's weapon, and obtaining Yuna's Sigil, and I'll have completed all the Celestial Weapons once and for all. That means we're off to Baaj Temple, and it's nice to get a chance to fight the very first boss of the game a second time. Didn't struggle with the fight at all; didn't even take damage. And that means I get to pick up Lulu's Onion Knight, and then head into the temple to snag Anima for Yuna's repertoire.

We get some last-minute story for Seymour and his mother which isn't THAT much more than we've already gotten from the last few story battles against Seymour (and the remnants back in Zanarkand), but it's nice to address his mother directly. But now it's time to fully convert Lulu's weapon to maximum power, which means a brief stop back in Macalania Woods. I cannot tell you how amazing it feels to have accomplished Lulu's weapon after so many years. Wakka's too, but Blitzball was just time-consuming in the end and didn't feel like I had to try very hard the way lightning dodging felt. That just leaves Nirvana now though, which means I have to fight a few more Aeons and finally send Belgemine on her way. That means it's time to head back to Remiem Temple.

Killing Anima was easy enough with Bahamut (just doing normal attacks was enough), and then it was time to sneak behind Belgemine and unlock the Magus Sisters. With that, I have Yuna's entire summon repertoire, and that means I got to fight them (using Anima this time) for the final battle of Yuna's Sigil quest. Simple enough, and Yuna sends a relieved Belgemine as I head back to Macalania Woods to finally finally FINALLY max out my seventh and final Celestial Weapon!

Congratulations on unlocking everything!

Ive still never really tried the lightning dodging and only tried the chocobo 0.0 a few times before giving up.

I never attempted lightning more than like 10 or 20. Once you hit 20 and realize you're only 10% of the way there, there's no way to keep motivated.

I sadistically like the chocobo race nowadays. On one playthrough I remember beating it first try. It's also almost entirely luck. If your first balloon is close to you, it's way easier. If your first balloon is unlucky, you basically have no chance.

You're welcome.
Ultimately lightning dodging is simply a matter of turning your brain off for 15 minutes and doing the crater trick. It's obnoxious to have it in a game, as it's not fun at all, but it's simply a task. Unlike chocobo racing which is the worst.

With all the Celestial Weapons obtained, I'm currently in the middle of a two-step process. One, given that I've completed ever OTHER aspect of the Monster Arena, I'm now trying to catch 10 of ever fiend in the Omega Ruins, because that's one of the last two zones I need to do that for (the other being Sin, but I figured I'd do the optional level first.) I got VERY lucky I think, in that I ran around opening the twelve treasure chests and though my first try netted me a grand total of zero, I reloaded my save and managed a run where I got all twelve (and the subsequent 99 Warp Spheres) on only my second try.

Additionally, I'd like to actually be able to defeat some of those monster arena monsters, and they hit hard as fuck, so that means I've gotta start trying to max out some sphere grids and whatnot. I've got Rikku at 9999 HP (surprisingly, she was the first to hit the cap, but she's also gaining so much more exp since I have her in battles for Stealing so often), and Wakka hit max as well recently. But the others are getting better. I had Lulu/Yuna go through Kimahri's grid so they have access to everyone more easily, and meanwhile Wakka/Tidus/Auron are all clearing each other's grids. Kimahri finished Rikku/Tidus and I'm having him go through Wakka next. And for Rikku, she cleared Wakka/Auron, but now I'm gonna move her to Yuna just to have a third healer on-deck.

Just need to find like three more fiends in the Omega Ruins to finish the Arena stuff there. Then it's just Sin.

At the moment, I've gotten pretty far along the Sphere Grid for everyone, some more than others.

Auron->Wakka->Tidus
Kimahri->Rikku->Tidus->Wakka
Lulu->Yuna->Kimahri->Rikku
Rikku->Wakka->Auron->Yuna
Tidus->Wakka->Auron->Kimahri
Wakka->Auron->Tidus->Kimahri
Yuna->Lulu->Kimahri->Rikku

I'd suggest putting your thinking cap on and thinking of ways to level up quickly if you haven't already

Did you notice how in the Omega Ruins it sounds like the music is saying "Ringworm ringworm"

A little bit, but I found it was more prominent on the airship.

I cleared MOST of the lead-up to the point of no return in Sin, then I went and captured all the remaining monsters for monster arena (so that is completely complete). However, I'm currently working through the steps of maxing out all steps of all sphere grids. That means bribing Chimera Brains for Lv. 4 Key Spheres, and then doing the Don Tonberry trick to get a lot of AP really fast.

Maxed everyone's basic sphere grids (aside from Fortune Spheres, which are a pain in the ass to obtain en masse).

You definitely don't need max luck, and only truly necessary to have high luck on Tidus Wakka and Rikku. For Penance. If you wanna try it without Yojimbo. Fortune sphere farming isn't actually that bad tbqh. But it is definitely more tedius than it should be.

It's clear that Inviso is doing a lot of things that are not truly necessary in this game

I've largely been going around and boosting my Attack/Magic/Defense/Magic Defense/HP/MP on the sphere grid so everyone hits for 99999 all the time (except Auron, whose weapon I guess gets weaker the more HP he has?) But I think it's time for me to stop dicking around soon and actually finish the game. I'm just gonna go take on Ultima Weapon to get Kimahri's final Ronso Rage, and then I can start considering letting the game come to an end.

At least revert to a pre-grind save for the ending. It sucks to 99999 the final boss

Finally stopped dicking around and went to actually finish the game. Fought Seymour one last time (where he's REALLY going the nihilistic route and trying to justify mass extinction...guy has lost his gatdang mind). But he's finally put down and sent. And all that's left is to fight the string of endgame bosses.

I will say this: after building it up and building up their relationship all game, the first meeting between Tidus and Jecht is really sweet. Jecht KNOWS he has to be a father figure in the moment--"You eating healthy?"--but they both know this isn't about them reconnecting. Tidus cuts him off, and it's time to fight. And then Another World starts playing and holy hell I forgot just how hard that track slaps. Awesome fight theme to go out on (for the most part). I let the fight go on a little longer than necessary just to listen to it a little longer, but in the end, Jecht fell like all the rest before him. That meant it's time for the unlosable portion of the ending, where I had to go through and kill all of Yuna's summons. And here, grinding bit me in the ass a little bit, since her summons were super strong and super evasive. But they too fell, one by one, until finally, there was nowhere left for Yu Yevon to hide. And one final battle later, and I've freed Spira from the misery of Sin's existence.

Now, in a game so intrinsically tied to themes of death and loss, it's only natural that we'd finally bid farewell to much of the party. There's the big two, obviously, but there is something to be said about watching the summons that have accompanied Yuna throughout the game finally fade away and the Fayth are able to sleep and let their dreaming end. But yeah, Auron departs first, and I'm fairly certain none of the rest of the party (aside from Tidus) ever had it made explicitly clear to them that he was dead...so him walking away and giving respectful glances to his fellow guardians, all while asking Yuna to finish the sending and let him rest...it was touching. But obviously the main event was still to come.

Now, Auron dying was one thing. The party respected him, sure...but he was an old soldier, and I'm sure there was a vibe of "be at peace". I don't think ANYONE expected Tidus to suddenly be like "Yeah, I'm gonna disappear too, when this is all over." So there's this shock and sorrow over losing the guy that was really the glue of their whole team, and was the catalyst behind breaking the cycle of Sin in the first place. And just that moment of realization, when evryone sees him starting to fade away...it's tough. But tougher still was Tidus trying to leave before everyone could mourn him too much, only for Yuna to run to him and he's just not tangible anymore. In that last moment together, all he could do was wrap his arms around her, not even touching her, and let her pretend one last time that they were embracing. It's particularly sad because Yuna is the hero of Spira after all this; she saved the world by upending the cycle as the high summoner...yet she's the one who lost the most, in a way. Her father and her true love (who she said 'I love you' to in their last moments together) are gone...and it's bittersweet that victory required such sacrifice on her part.

At least the victory is real though, and Spira has a chance to rebuild, free of Sin's destructive influence. And somewhere, Tidus returns, even if he's going to start a brand new adventure in the process. And so, this was his story...and now it has come to an end.

I'm not crying, you're crying

what can i do for you

I think the ending is really emotional.

FFX has such a great ending

It's been fun reliving the game through your eyes. Also, yes, great ending.

Got up to my goal for luck spheres on the grid. All that remains is getting the last armor I want for Tidus, Yuna, Rikku and Lulu, and maxing everyones HP. Also fighting the dark aeons and the last few arena creations.

I'd be curious to hear your updated thoughts on the main cast members of the game if you had a chance to type up some things.

Yeah still waiting for the postmortem, Vis

It's clear he now agrees it's the best FF story and Tidus and Yuna are the best protags

Ah yes, I do need to deal with the postmortem.

First things first, I wanna briefly touch on a couple characters who feel important enough to warrant discussion, but not ENOUGH. Mika feels like the embodiment of Yevon as a villainous entity, but other than that, he's just kind of there. It's very Mitch McConnell vibes, and I'm not a big fan. And then you have Braska as the third member of the FFX-0 trio...and I don't care about him all that. He just feels like the most pleasant and normal guy who goes through the least character development of that trio.

Second, in terms of MINOR characters I like...Cid is obvious. He's a grumpy old man who does crazy shit with airships...what's not to love? Shelinda is adorable, and she's just such a wholesome representative of Yevon. She just wants to do good and make the world a better place, and at no point does she come across as a bad person. And of course, O'aka is just hilarious, but I love the capper on his story where he's helping you out because his sister was a summoner and didn't make it. All of those are sweet little storylines.

Now, this leaves us with the seven playables and the two major villains, giving a total of nine characters. Before I get to the ranking itself, I just want to state that there aren't going to be MASSIVE swings in my opinions on this cast. A lot of the reasons I developed my initial opinions are still THERE, but I have additional information in some cases. I think most characters at least shifted more positive, but it's not going to be a MASSIVE shift. That's just getting that out of the way right now. So, ranking from worst to best:

9th. Lulu - I don't HATE Lulu, I just feel STRONGLY indifferent to her. She has three things (one major, two minor) working against her after this playthrough. First, the biggest problem Lulu has is that I'd argue she is the least developed character among the party. She is the character who, like Braska, feels like she starts in one place and finishes the game in the same place in terms of characterization. We get some backstory (former guardian, formerly dating Chappu), but most of Lulu's story feels like it's better handled by Wakka, since Wakka actually develops over the course of the game. Second, I'm still bothered by Lulu's character design. I don't hate the design in a vacuum, but she stands out as so out-of-place in the context of Spira as a world. It makes her design come across like she was created SOLELY to titillate the player. And third, Lulu's just the most frustrating character from a gameplay perspective; she's just SLIGHTLY slower than everyone else, which is not my cup of tea.

8th. Wakka - While I'm more willing to tolerate Wakka after this playthrough, largely because I'm looking more at the basis behind some of his beliefs...it's still DIFFICULT for me to overlook certain aspects of his personality. I appreciate his chill and his laid back attitude most of the time; he steps up to try to look after Tidus largely BECAUSE he has that guilt and regret over the loss of his brother, who Tidus reminds him of. In that regard, I can understand the hatred for MACHINA, because he can justly blame his brother's death of MACHINA as a defiance of the teachings of Yevon. However...while the hatred of the Al Bhed starts out kinda comical and over-the-top (and the game DOES justify it since the Al Bhed start out doing some shady shit), once Rikku joins the party, it gets tougher to enjoy Wakka. I've said it before, but his abject hatred is just rough to watch, particularly since Rikku is largely a sweetheart character. It's just difficult for me to completely accept, particularly in the years 2025, given the current political climate. Also, Wakka is not helped by arguably the worst character design in the game; I can tolerate a bad design, but when it's attached to a character I already don't necessarily care for...it doesn't help matters.

7th. Kimahri - What I said about Lulu being a fairly static character applies to Kimahri, but he also lacks the design and gameplay flaws. Also, I feel like Kimahri at least has his own little running subplot with his rivalry with Biran and Yenke (and his role as the face of the Ronso in general). Plus, the backstory with a dying Auron begging Kimahri to protect Yuna...and then Kimahri spends the entire game holding true to that vow...it takes a very flat and weakly-written character and at least gives him a solid characterization.

6th. Tidus - I think it's a testament to my overall respect for the game's story that Tidus has risen this high among my character ranking. I want to make this clear: Tidus makes one of the WORST first impressions imaginable for someone like me. TERRIBLE design (the hair and the clothes are SO stupid), I HATE his voice actor, and the way he acts up until reaching Kilika is so obnoxious that I CANNOT overlook it in considering this ranking. Those are just traits that are physically unappealing to me as a player. However, I think once Kilika hits, Tidus really tones down the hyperactivity and his general fish-out-of-water persona feels a lot tamer and more natural and more tolerable. He works well as the outsider who thinks the ways of Yevon are off, and he works well as a young person who isn't viewing Yuna through the lens of "you must/must not follow in the footsteps of your famous father". I like Tidus' relationship with Jecht because it makes sense, and we get to see Tidus still dislike certain aspects of his dad...but he loves him deep down. And ultimately, Tidus DOES become a hero and makes a sacrifice for the good of Spira, and I've gotta respect that.

5th. Jecht - Jecht has a tremendous benefit of being a side character. Because I think if we had a game in which I had to play as Jecht as the main character, and had to start from him arriving in Spira as this arrogant, drunken jackass, I would have a similar problem to the one I have with Tidus at the start of the game. However, because we only really get to see Jecht in flashback or in those Jecht spheres, or in his late-game interactions, we instead get these brief snippets of an abrasive character slowly maturing and becoming a guy who's trying to do what's right and save the world. That's enough to rank here for me, solidly in the middle of the list.

4th. Auron - Just about every character either improved or stayed basically the same in my eyes after this playthrough...except Auron. I still LIKE Auron, but the biggest reason I think I liked him originally was because he was the cool badass as opposed to whatever Tidus was. After this rewatch, he's still cool and mysterious and badass, but there is SOME annoyance there because he withholds too much information for someone who's trying to upend the summoner pilgrimage system. That being said, I do appreciate watching him in the past via Jecht spheres, and then seeing him as this stoic badass who's just trying to push Tidus and Yuna along as a favor to his two lost friends. And he gets that cool moment where we see an echo of his past and he gets pissed at himself for not trying harder to protect Braska/Jecht. So he's still solid, but he has dropped a bit for me.

3rd. Yuna - With Tidus and Wakka, I knew there were aspects to their characters that were never really gonna resonate with my tastes. However, with Yuna, a lot of my previous disdain was due to a complete misunderstanding and misreading of her character, which I'm more than willing to acknowledge now. She is by FAR the most improved character after this replay. Seeing her start out meek and weak, yet she still treks on and she's STILL fighting to finish her pilgrimage despite the world being out to get her...it's great. And I love her relationship with Tidus--it's HIS best aspect--because I think the two of them bring out the best in each other. I think Yuna could have been top two for me if not for just how annoyed I was with her during the Guadosalam/Thunder Plains portion of the game.

2nd. Seymour - I just like this guy as a villain. There really isn't a lot else to say. I hate his hair (especially since he has the same stupid hair as a little babby Seymour), but other than that, I love the fact that he looks sinister and SOUNDS sinister, and there's SOMETHING off about him from the first moment you see him, but he's not like...puppy-kicking evil right away. If anything, he comes across like he's genuinely trying to be helpful for a while, but then the mask falls away piece-by-piece over the course of the game, until he turns out to be a straight-up murderer who's helming a religious conspiracy at the center of Spira. Forcing Yuna to kiss him in order to protect her friends is SO gross and SO slimy, and it's PERFECT for him as a villain. And then you throw in the nihilism and the desire to destroy the world to end suffering (largely because of bitterness and sorrow over his own shitty childhood), and he's a GREAT villain.

1st. Rikku - Yeah, Rikku's the best. She's spunky, she's sweet, she's adorable, and more than that, I love the fact that she is the strongest force in terms of trying to save Yuna, rather than allowing her to go forward with this pilgrimage to the death. That's the thing: Tidus benefits a lot from being the voice of reason against the "adults" pushing this Yevon summoner pilgrimage narrative...but he's right there with Rikku, and she's FAR more invested from minute one. I feel like Rikku works well as Tidus' partner in crime, and it's sad to watch her try to change the party's minds...but eventually she's forced to go along with them in the hopes that she'll find a different solution to save her cousin. Plus, Rikku works well as this voice of the Al Bhed, since otherwise there really wouldn't be that open door to make the player accept them. I just think she works really well in her role, and you can see the transition from Rikku in FFX as the "young girl who's more mature than she seems" to Vanille a few games later.

Those are some rankings. Can'r say I agree with Lulu being dead last or the writeup for Seymour or Tidus but opinions am I right

ugh another roba (he likes rikku right)

Inviso posted...

and you can see the transition from Rikku in FFX as the "young girl who's more mature than she seems" to Vanille a few games later.

omg I'm dead

Jecht had the same character arc as Tidus, but Tidus made the right decision in the end.

I don't remember if I posted much about it but earlier in this topic, I was considering the role of each of the party members.

Tidus is the player-insert, so it makes sense that he responds to Spira like an outsider, and reasonably believes that sacrificing summoners in a spiral of death is bad.

Yuna is the plot - the game revolves around her and her decisions, and eventually, she is turned against the status quo because that's what the plot is about - an outsider loving the world and convincing it to change.

Wakka is the setting - entrenched in its ways, somewhat alien in how it responds to things, but still welcoming to you, the player. It has its time to focus on Blitzball, but then moves on to more important things. It is stubborn and resistance to change, but it does - eventually and reluctantly, once the evils of Yevon are exposed.

Lulu is - the other side of the setting? She at least represents the victims, or all the failure of Spira. Her previous pilgrimages failed. Her fiance was a crusader who got killed. Lulu's life is filled with loss and failure. Perhaps she is the representation of that theme of loss, because everyone in Spira is just constantly losing (to the Luca Goers m I rite?), but they keep on trekking anyway, even if they expect it to end with them dying. So I guess Lulu embodies a core theme.

Auron is plot device. He is vehicle to connect player to plot and move things along. I could say he represents the dead, or reality, but - he plot device.

Rikku is perspective? From the beginning, she shows a new perspective to Tidus - new language, working on a boat, etc. then becomes the perspective against Yevon - the one to say "yes some people do think this shit is whack". But she's just perspective and that's why she needs Tidus to help.

Kimahri is hornless.

I dont know how Yuna isnt considered a massive swing. Going from a character you absolutely hated to 3rd in the cast and now really like her.

Yuna is considered the biggest swing in a positive sense.

At the end of the day it's a very similar list to mine, just with Tidus and Rikku swapped. Seymour is underrated as hell.

Also quit saying you hate Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vis

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Also quit saying you hate Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vis

I dont understand this reference.

Espeon posted...

I dont understand this reference.

Tiduss voice actor is James Arnold Taylor who also plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Clone Wars (and most other animated things).