FFX Recap Part III: Al Bhed Tech Support

Tidus vs. Klikk

(Stuck with lousy PS2 emulator screencaps, as usual, even though I’m playing on PS3. Grumble.)

In our last recap, city slicker Tidus discovered what it’s like to be utterly alone (apart from giant fish monsters, ghosts in trippy flashbacks and the odd judgmental seagull).  I ended the post with Tidus staggering about with 6HP in a boss fight, thanks to some idiot who forgot to save.

Keep in mind that apart from a quick nap, Tidus has just lived through a full day ending with a blitzball tournament, his entire city and all his friends being exterminated, his first taste of combat, getting sucked into Sin’s sphincter for a traumatizing encounter with Dad, a couple of boss battles and a fetch quest in a cold, wet, dark ruined temple. I’m always impressed by how Final Fantasy characters seem to careen from one life-threatening crisis to the next on next to no sleep.

Also, he missed out on two dinner dates, so he’s hungry enough to eat a sahagin.

Later. Now it’s time for him to gulp a Potion and meet the grease monkeys of Spira.

[SPOILER WARNING: This walkthrough has spoilers.]

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FFX Recap II: Into Spira

"My old Man" says Tidus

Sharing headspace with Dad: Tidus’ worst nightmare.

In our last recap, Tidus saw Zanarkand destroyed by photon torpedos, bugs and tentacle monsters. Then a madman in a red coat led him to the source of all that devastation and threw him into it. 

Next stop, a cracktastic dream sequence. Because Sin’s toxin. Because pyreflies. Because IT’S FINAL FANTASY. Of course there’s a trippy dream sequence. This scene made so little sense the first time I played FFX that I had blotted it out by the time the party reached the same location (ominously named “Dream’s End”) later on. [Warning: this playthrough has massive spoilers.]

“Hey!” says a man’s voice. “Hey!”

Great. Even his own father won’t call Tidus by name.

“My… old man?” Tidus says.

Yep, the man who disappeared ten years ago is waiting for him in a vision of  Zanarkand. Local landmarks include a brightly-lit but lifeless cityscape that stretches on forever, part of the deck of Tidus’ houseboat, an exploded stadium courtesy of M.C. Escher, and a flaming Abes symbol as large as Jecht’s ego. Also? Tidus is swimming in mid-air, while Dad is parked on solid ground. It’s cute how these games have to really really break the laws of physics to distinguish dream from “reality.” Otherwise, you’d think it was just standard anime physics.

If this is a dream, then whose?

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FFX Recap I: Zanarkand, Dead or Alive

Final Fantasy X Opening

(ganked from FFWikia)

Into Spira one more time, with feeling. The remaster’s title screen now features “A Fleeting Dream,” putting us right in the groove. Whatever one may say about Tetsyua Nomura’s belt fixation or Motomu Toriyama’s disturbing tendencies, composer Nobuo Uematsu is indelibly awesome. The remaster has done only a light touch-up on this piece. For the most part, I approve of the remastered tracks.

Bootscreen of FFX HD

My Sir Auron figure is back to babysitting the kids again. Poor guy can’t catch a break.

Expert Sphere Grid, here I come. With most of FFX memorized, I’m excited for anything new. (I’ve never played FFX International).

Savvy FFX players know to start the game before watching the oddly subdued opening sequence, since it repeats with NewGame. My gaming-buddy Mintywolf notes that slow pacing in the prologue is a common feature in Japanese cinematography, in contrast to boom-pow-hook-the-audience-now Hollywood.

So. In a barren, blasted wasteland that I initially took for the remains of a bombed-out city, our heroes sit around a pathetic little campfire looking more bedraggled than heroic.

Yuna in prologue

She’s the one with the ginormous sword in this story, right?

The Heterosexual Leading Pair are introduced right off the bat with a shared look, a lean-in, and a gentle touch that shows genuine affection without being in our face about it. I still love the original faces, particularly Yuna’s, which is a little earthier and less dainty than her HD model.

The intro scene gave the game designers a chance to show off their new (now old) facial expression rendering software, but there’s more to this scene than “yo, look at our amazing PS2 PS3 PS4 graphics, baby!” Final Fantasy likes to fling players in media res. Just to shake things up, FFX tosses us in termina res, right near the end unless you count a bazillion sidequests.

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Let’s Play Final Fantasy X: Intro

Final Fantasy X HD Splash ScreenWoo hoo! My goal of playing all the Final Fantasy games before FFX HD was released has failed spectacularly! I had the game on preorder and started a half-arsed Let’s Play FFX  on Tumblr, but what I really want to do is post a tidied-up “director’s cut” here. Because, while it’s not my first Final Fantasy, FFX remains my favorite.

Yep, I’m the lunatic who transcribed the entire game script because there’s so much that Yuna’s party never sees.

Do you love Blitzball Kid? Do you want to know why that paparazzi in the blue sweater kept photographing Yuna? Are you curious what Kinoc and Seymour were really up to behind the scenes? Curious what the inscriptions on temple walls and Al Bhed shop signs mean? You’ve come to the right place. Please allow me to channel my inner Maechen for you.

Alas, one thing I can’t do is screengrab my PS3, so I’m gonna have to emulate FFX original for my own screencaps. For full HD beauty shots, check out Dansg08’s superb commentary/video PS3 walkthrough or DavetheUsher’s PS4 Playthrough. You’ve probably played the HD version anyway, so there’s no need for me to remind you how pretty it is.

Besides, while the remaster has given the backdrops of Spira a glorious makeover, some of the characters have suffered from their plastic surgery (poor Wakka). FFX just isn’t the same without duckface Tidus, is it?

Tidus looking like a doge

Thought not.

P.S. If you spoil the audio epilogue, I will borrow Paine’s sword and disembowel you. I’ve had most of it spoiled, and from what I’ve heard I’m not going to like it, but allow me to entertain the delusion that I still have something new to look forward to, OK?

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Square Enix Presents at E3: Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster Interview

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULAR “LET’S PLAY FINAL FANTASY” for a special feature!

Square-Enix had a livestream interview at E3 today with producers Kitase and Toriyama.

Because Final Fantasy X/X-2 (yes both) are my favorite in the series, I’ve typed out a complete transcription below. FAN TRANSCRIPTION, totally unofficial, so there may be mistakes. Apologies for the commentary that I couldn’t resist adding.

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Final Fantasy Kumis: FFX, FFXIII

I originally posted this on Tumblr, but it’s so hard to find old posts there that I’m archiving it here. Even though I won’t reach these two games in my playthrough for a year. Have a does of Meta!

組, kumi, “group, party, pair, band, class” ~ Wikipedia

I like both Final Fantasy X and XIII, although the pacing, plotting and worldbuilding of XIII show the duct tape and staples of development hell. Yet the characters in both games are passionate, complex individuals with hidden motivations and a great deal of personality, despite their tendency to slot into archetypes at first glance. The messy dynamics between the party members in XIII, I think, are the game’s greatest strength.

It fascinates me that the two games’ kumis start out almost as inverses of one another.

In X, every party member cares tremendously for some of the other party members. The four from Besaid grew up together and are all deeply devoted to Yuna and to one another, united by bonds of trust and understanding and old friendship (and occasional squabbles). Tidus falls for Yuna and likes Rikku and looks up to Auron  when he’s not bawling at him. Rikku cares enough for her cousin to pledge herself as a guardian, despite her upbringing. Auron is more aloof, but betrays occasional gruff fondness that goes above and beyond that of duty to dead friends’ children. They’re a kumi from the start, quickly adjusting to adopt new members into the kumi.

In FFXIII, every party member cares tremendously for someone outside the group. At first, none of them care for one another except Fang and Vanille (who are separated). Lightning is dedicated to her sister and takes out every frustration on Snow. Snow is dedicated to Lightning’s sister and barely paying attention to those dragged under in his wake. Fang will “tear down the sky” for her missing girlfriend, and will certainly tear apart a few strangers on Vanille’s behalf. Vanille’s in cloud cuckoo land to avoid inner turmoil, but she’s hunting desperately for her girlfriend. Hope’s missing his mom and doesn’t want to be with any of these crazy people, although he soon latches onto Lightning as a surrogate. The sane guy, Sazh, is in it only for his son.

So the dynamics are inverted: in FFX, the group starts out interconnected by a network of loyalties and shared pasts, whereas in FFXIII, they begin with nothing in common and with disparate loyalties pulling them outward. The first half of FFXIII, up through chapter 7, is simply the process of forging connections between members of the group so that they can become a group, a kumi.

Both arcs work for me because I like characters motivated by fierce love for and loyalty to other characters. It means I tend to fall for the tired old romance tropes, but I don’t necessarily fix on the romantic storyline, so much as the ones of friendship, devotion and trust.

Luckily most of the FFs play with those tropes, too. But FFXIII, more than most, is about the spectrum between rejection, trust and blind obedience.

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