Let's Play Final Fantasy X: International (Expert Grid)

Ixion's next, I think - if memory serves, we don't acquire Shiva until [after you reach Guadosalam].

As for names, Mr. Hugs is perfect for Ifrit. You must use it.

Everyone involved with Project Mi'ihan has retreated to Djose Temple, even though Luca isn't much farther away and won't make you convert to get treatment. No matter.



What really matters is this adorable big guy made it! Aw look at him smile. I remind myself I don't hate chocobos, I just hate chocobo-related minigames, and continue along.

Inside Yuna meets her next and possibly final rival summoner.



Isaaru is the opposite of Dona: a really nice guy. His guardians are his "brothers" who bear no resemblance to him at all. In a game where half the player characters are Sin-orphans, I'm inclined to guess they're all from the same temple orphanage or something. I doubt the game says anything on the matter.

Note the little lizard monkeys hopping around on the statue in the first frame. So cute!! They follow people around the temple area but nobody mentions what they are or even acknowledges their existence. I want one.



For some reason Isaaru and Maroda wait until the big group meeting is over and approach Sally alone to mention this tidbit. Is this another secret Yuna's too pure and innocent to hear? And... why the heck would you tell Sally when Auron The Great is right over there?



;_; I don't wanna.



HATE.

If you asked me which trial I hate most, I wouldn't be able to say. I hate them all in their own special little way. This one, for example, requires the use of the shiny reset spot to complete. It resets the pillar but not the spheres, which is stupid and non-intuitive. HATE.

Lufia 2 never would have done this to me. ;_;



Past the trial, Dona and her manmeat show up to do the praying fun time soon as Yuna's done. Barthello's a bit of an Auron fanboy, making Dona jealous and maybe a little insecure.



She takes it out on Yuna. Yuna, being Yuna, does not respond in a satisfactorily catty way so Sally just withholds the information about summoners disappearing. That'll show her!

In other news, Yuna's got a new pet.



That's not its name.



Here's a little more of Gatta whining. Thought you'd want to see the meager results of this nugget of reader input. Yay.

The team spends the night at the temple because Yuna wants to cast cure on everybody she can find. Kimhari points out he has Pray now but nobody wants to bring a fiend into the temple just so he can Pray at people. All the fiends around here would probably finish the civilians off or turn them to stone anyway.



Yuna oversleeps (still probably getting less than four hours in) and everybody relieves stress by mocking her mercilessly. So damn cute. Would be cuter if her bed head was noticeably different from how her hair normally looks.

Ooh, I would, I would! The one you have to do to get Bahamut, definitely.

As much as I dislike FFX's story, I really love the NPCs that are in it and Isaaru, in particular, is one of my favourites. He's a really nice guy! He and his brothers just want to do what's best for the world, though he gets a little lost in X-2 when he [becomes a tour guide because he doesn't know what to do with his life].

As for Dona... well, I don't necessarily dislike her (at least not anymore), but she's a bit abrasive, yeah. Still, I'm glad they don't play up the rivalry thing too much, or carry it over into the next game, because Dona turns out to be somewhat of a nice person, albeit tempermental. Her conversations with Bartello are also a riot to watch, but that's neither here nor there.

Oh, and Elma's another favourite, but there's not much else to say other than she's pretty funny. Anyway, good characters abound!

I should hope so. You don't want to give the poor Aeon issues, do you?

I don't remember them very clearly by now, so every time I get to a new one I'm like "Oh yeah, this one wasn't so bad..." and then begin swearing once I get two minutes into it. But I clearly remember hating the Shiva one. Ugh.

It was the one where you have to ride on these moving platforms, conveyor belt style, and if you miss your stop or get on the wrong one you have to ride allllllll the way back around again. I think you had to change the routes of the platforms, too? Either way, combined with the usual sphere puzzles, it was a serious pain in the ass.

Speaking as one who hates them all, I think he's right.

At least with the others it was just a stupid, stupid trek. This one had those weird time limits >_<.

This is Bahamut. Shiva is the worst game of Boxxle ever after tricking you into thinking that there won't be a fucking trial.

That he may be, but I NEVER got over the fact that he's voiced by Raiden --a fact I learned before reaching this point in the game. It's really awkward when MGS2 is your second PS2 game, and FFX is your immediate third, with less than two days of rest between. I kept expecting Isaaru to cartwheel everywhere.

You don't. Trust me. The things mate like bunnies and can overrun a whole city in days.

I HATE HATE HATE HATE the Macarena Temple Cloister with Kefka-level hate. It NEVER fails that, at least once per playthrough, I'll accidentally reset the whole puzzle just as I've completed it.

Okay, I had no idea that FF X International was available in English. Buying. Immediately.

Yeah, if you play the sequel you will suddenly discover that those adorable little monkeys have unexpectedly intricate and annoying personal lives.

@_@ I don't remember that at all... Not that I got anywhere near 100%.

I suppose I'll spoiler this for no good reason?

They're overrunning a temple... I *think* it's maybe all the way up in Zanarkand but I could be wrong. Anyway, each monkey has another "soul mate" monkey somewhere in the temple, and you get vaguely obtuse clues when you examine them. You need to help them all pair up for... some reason that escapes me, but probably boils down to "I did the damn puzzle because I wanted to get 100%".

I did the monkey-mating puzzle.

I used a FAQ.

I regret nothing.

You have to pair them up because Yuna and Rikku don't like Cid and Raiden using a historical site, one with great emotional significance (to them,) as a tourist trap. By unleashing the horde of monkeys, the tourists are scared off and Cid and Raiden have to shut down the operation.

Also... while the Bevelle Cloister is the stuff of nightmares, at least it gives out the treasure freely instead of hiding it behind further puzzles. Which is good, because you can never visit it again.

Ah! That's what the damn place was called. If I had known I would have said that instead of just "the one where you get Bahamut".

Strangely, I don't remember the Macalania trial at all, so it can't have traumatized me too badly.

I don't recall minding the trials at all. They were kind of like Lolo, except more obtuse and slower paced.

I can't remember though, were there random battles inside the temples? Because if there were, then I obviously must have been incredibly annoyed by them and simply blocked it out.

There is little worse then a puzzle game that gets interupted for random battles constantly.

I hated the trials the first time, but every time since then they've been really simple and only take me a little bit of time. The worst part is having to do them twice to see extra little scenes and get some goodies in the endgame.

Thankfully there are no random battles. Better than a lot of puzzle dungeon games in that respect. Still annoying as all hell.

I did that with the sphere stuff. That was never a question.

Though I didn't get to the monkey mating stuff. Maybe stopping right after Tidus's dream was a good idea...

With all the characters who pop up along every single path along this pilgrimage, you'd think they'd just form some kind of caravan. A little extra recruiting and they could pull a Suikoden on Sin's ass.



Not that I really want to run around with jerks like these but maybe we could hitch them up to some wagons or something.

They parrot the rumors of MIA summoners that everybody else has already heard and are generally mean meanie heads. Kimahri plans for their future beatdown.



Horrifying thought: Belgemine is like if Rydia and Rubicante had a kid. I'm not looking for that fanfic but I bet it's been written.

Belgemine's aeon is pretty badass and the battle looks pretty hopeless until Yuna's first aeon dies. That's when you realize she can summon another and keep going. Belgemine sticks with just the one so even if Yuna hasn't seen a single battle, she'll probably win.



Yuna learns a new trick. Feed the aeons items and they'll learn new spells and abilities. There's not a whole lot to be done with it with the items readily available right now. Next trick down the line deals with boosting their stats - far cooler and easier.

I'll focus on a particular aeon if anyone has requests. During prior playthroughs I always just dumped my spare items into the aeons at random and eventually just threw Bahamut at everything that required summoning.



The team reaches the banks of the Moonflow. It's a pretty lake-or-river with pretty flowers and at night it lights up with pretty sparkles. Auron shoots down Sally's suggestion before she can even make it. Lamer.

Our next stop lies on the other side of the Moonflow and the fastest way there is to get a ride on a creature called a shoopuf. It's like a dinosaur crossed with a whale and trained to bear passengers. Shoopuf story time!



Yuna was eight at the time. It sounds really cute - chibi-Yuna falling off a dinosaur and having a splashy great time and the stoic Kimahri fretting over his soggy charge. She's much bigger now and has surely learned better so we don't have to worry about it happening again.



A sobering experience, indeed.

This butt shot is the best look we get at the shoopuf, by the way.



The shoopuf driver's voice is awesome. He's like Jar Jar Binks if Jar Jar was only in two scenes. But he's against stacking weird magical creatures and thus the chocobo riders have to go around the Moonflow instead.

If they joined my party they could just wait until Sally crossed to the other side and take the Viki express but noooo. Should be a while before we have to deal with them again.


Hey peanut gallery!

Ride ze shoopuf?

Note: But thou must!

Dude you is bitin' my style.

My second time through FF10 I had completely forgotten that shoopufs existed. And then I completely forgot they existed again until I saw this update. In conclude that the shoopufs just aren't very memorable.

Absolutely.

I only remember them because of the shoopuf driver. I want him to join my army too.

It's your fault I keep thinking in Suikoden terms! ;_;

Hell yes we ride ze shoopuf!

I'm going to say no. There's like chests and Al Bhed books and stuff we gotta get, and I want you to go back to Kilika.

Just 'cos!

I never really thought about this before. You have taught me so much about FFX that I never knew in my 15+ times of playing through it.

Because I really don't want to walk all the way back to Luca for the Al Bhed Primer I missed right now, we're taking the shoopuf!



On the Shoopuf ride across the Moonflow, the Besaid Buddies share a story of why machina are evil (except the ones used for sports) and why Sin appeared in the first place. A thousand years ago, mankind engaged in a massive machina war and developed the equivalent to nukes. Sin nuked the nukes* and continued wrecking havoc on the world into the present.

Under the water here is a ruined city, by the way - much like the one Sally helped explore at the beginning of the game. It was one of the cities wiped out by Sin.

* Major FFX-2 spoilers: The big one didn't get nuked after all.



Thash be kidsnappersh!

Things Yuna has bad luck with:
- Al Bhed
- Shoopuf rides

Clearly it was a mistake to combine those. The blurry Al Bhed dude grabs Yuna off the basket and into the water. Sally and Wakka, still the only two party members who can swim, dive in after her.



Note: Only instance of someone speaking underwater in this game as far as I can recall.

Yuna's in a bubble on top of the mecha starfish here so at least the Al Bhed made sure not to drown her. But with Sally and Wakka throwing electrical attacks at the thing for a couple minutes, it's amazing they don't accidentally kill her themselves.

Amusingly Yuna counts as participating in this battle but having missed all her turns she gets no experience. It'd be cool if there was a way to free her from the bubble and have her join in the fight but Yuna doesn't learn how to swim until the next game.



I love you, shoopuf driver, but that's your last line.



Well this is awkward. Wakka spewing racist slurs and nobody has the nerve to just tell him Yuna's half-Muslim. I mean.. Al Bhed. Yeah.

After a while Sally's like "Hey how 'bout that Blitzball?" and somehow they make it through the rest of the trip okay.

Auron's an asshole but now he's an asshole to the player too. He's the only person on the far shore to offer a hint as to what to do next and you have to do the complete opposite. See, Yuna's mobbed by her groupies and Lulu and Wakka are standing nearby voicing expectations this could take a while. Kimahri's off in a corner grooming himself.

So instead of guarding Yuna, Sally's got to wander off into the wilderness alone like an idiot, hoping not to be eaten by monsters, until she finds a corpse on the shore.



Okay, she doesn't look very corpselike now but this is after the cheesecakey cutscene where she gets up and peels off her Al Bhed diving suit and wiggles her ass a bit. You can go find it on youtube if you must, pervs. She's, like, fifteen!



So yeah, Rikku was the one operating the mecha starfish that kidnapped Yuna for five minutes. She even has the nerve to blame Sally for the ouchies!



Sally introduces Rikku with a poor (but successful!) attempt to disguise her ethnicity from Wakka. And then, out of left field, Yuna decides to have her attempted kidnapper join the party. What is wrong with you, girl?!

Somewhere between leaving Luca and now, Auron has wrested control of this pilgrimage from Lulu. Before he joined she was in charge of guardian membership, the itinerary, and packing arrangements. By now Auron has final veto on whether Rikku becomes a guardian.



~_^

Even Auron cannot withstand the dreaded Jailbait Wink attack!

Okay, the whole point of this was to show Rikku's freaky swirly eyes. All Al Bhed have eyes like that, which is part of why they all wear goggles, and why Yuna's eyes are mismatched.



Miss Perky has joined the party. Despite the obviously weird eyes, Wakka doesn't catch on to the Al Bhed Rikku thing, leading me to believe he doesn't look at women's faces at all.

Rikku's voice actress is Tara Strong. You may know her from Powerpuff Girls, The Little Mermaid 2, or Rugrats. She's... perky. Very.



Rikku joins pretty far into the game and on the sphere grid she's all the way back at square one. Auron was like that too, mind you, but he's a badass even then. Rikku dies in two hits and can't do much damage. Her main advantage is starting with Steal... at least on the normal grid where nobody else could have gotten it before now. On our grid, Sally's been stealing for a couple hours already.

On the normal grid, my favorite thing to do with Rikku is hold out on the sphere grid a little while longer, till you get a Level 2 Sphere Key and slip into Yuna's path shortly before Curaga. On the International Grid you can get the same result but it feels like a happy accident instead of getting away with something.

So what shall we do with Rikku? Sally's already on the thief path but that needn't rule out that option. We've already got three characters with some level of black magic (Lulu, Wakka, Yuna) and two with some white magic (Yuna, Kimahri). She could also backtrack over the path Sally took getting to Steal into combat oriented ground. Or there's so much tangled around that side of the board she could do something ADD-ish and we'll see what happens.

It's up to you!

Note: I like Rikku, I just don't like when she acts like a little kid.

Tank.