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

SHIT

Fine. WAKKA is now the only one I'll probably get. And that's just SAD.

x_x

Unless they've changed the way it works for the International edition, it should be pretty simple to get both Lulu and Yuna's ultimate weapons. You are collecting all of the Aeons over the course of this playthrough, right? Rikku's isn't very hard either, although it does take some time.

(Also, Tidus' chocobo chase is a pain in the ass, but it's nowhere near as hard to complete as fucking Kimahri and his fucking butterfly course.)

Lulu's still the lightning dodging, right? I do not have the patience for that crap. Yuna I should be able to do. Forgot about that one. I'm making sure to grab the destruction sphere treasures in each temple as I go. I seem to recall that being a part of it.

I hate the chocobo race. So much.

Er, wait, you're right. Who has the one that's in a chest in the bottom of that temple that Tidus wakes up in all by himself? Is that Auron?

Lulu's, I believe, though you get her actual weapon there and not the crests. (By the way, you might want to pick up Tidus's crest right after the Yunalesca fight, Elfir, as it's not the only one guarded by a dark Aeon later on...)

Elfir, it looks like you don't need the Jecht sphere to unlock Auron's ultimate weapon.

I never had that much trouble with the chocobo race. It only takes me a few goes to do it, once I remember how it works.

The key is that you're always going to be targetted by birds, so you want to be turning frequently. Conveniently, there's a lot of balloons all over the course! Force your way in front of the trainer, then go nuts collecting balloons, making sure you never run in a straight line for more than a couple of seconds.

You can take the corner on the inside, but it's better to go on the outside so you can see where the birds are spawning from. They usually put balloons out there, too.

You usually need at least 12 balloons to get Tidus' seal, and add one for every bird.

Yeah, I procrastinated the shit out of this update.




Last time I checked, Yuna was agreeing to being a bride, not a political prisoner. She certainly acts like it's the later. Tromell is here to escort Yuna to her husband-to-be instead of her guardians. It's Guado custom but I would think summoner custom would trump that. Can't we at least travel together?



Auron indicates the guardians support her wherever this hairbrained scheme takes her. Sally watches her go with eyes filled with uncertainty. Thump thump. Thump thump. Why does her heart beat so?? Yuna is just a friend... a dear friend, and yet... Ok, my shoujo ai wank attempt kinda sucks. I'll try harder next time.



And this is why you don't surrender your summoner to a non-combat character! Rikku's buddies pop up and try to kidnap her again.



We know enough Al Bhed now to get that guy's meaning but just in case Rikku translates. This boss fight is going to involve preventing the party from using magic or aeons at all. That kinda sucks seeing as I've gotten pretty addicted to using magic for everything.

So I panic and have Rikku use some Dark Matter on it, with some kind of disgusting results. I need to get me some more of that stuff!



Some more arguing in the crazy space language. Rikku says she's protecting Yuna, the shirtless wonder tells her she's on her own now. After all that's through...



Oh right, that. Guess even Captain Oblivious could figure that one out.



Yeah! You tell him, Rikku! It's these Rikku vs Racism scenes that make her character work. She's the least isolationist Al Bhed you'll find, with the possible exception of Rin, but the whole time she's got to deal with being considered a traitor to humanity by followers of Yevon. True Believers can counter any argument with "god did it" so it's incredibly frustrating.



It doesn't help that she was actually getting along with Wakka pretty well until he finally figured that little tidbit out. He mostly just needs time to figure out what a prick he's being.

Yay! Learning about other cultures is fun! Wakka sulks and we move on.



Snow mobile time! This is one of the few times the affection system in this game comes into play. Sally will have a conversation with Lulu, Rikku, Kimarhi, or Auron on the trip to the temple. Going into this I really had no clue who Sally would be matched with but I like this result.



KITTY!

A better question would be "What do you think about Rikku?"



Because the answer's a lot nicer that way.

That's it. The girls get much longer conversations if they win the affection rating. Lulu's isn't that interesting since she just reinforces the Wakka-Chappu-Al Bhed-Sin backstory. There's more than enough of that in the main plot already. Rikku will talk about what the Al Bhed are up to in trying to kidnap all the summoners. And Auron's just a dick, as always.

On to the temple.



That line's more for Wakka's benefit than the temple guard's, I think. Auron can intimidate practically anybody into letting him do what he wants, even if he wants a heathen to desecrate a temple to Yevon.

Heh heh heh, yeah... I guess we kinda told Shelinda there was no way Yuna was gonna marry tree boy. Oopsy.



How dare he take our place in the trials?!

Oh wait, that's awesome. He can suffer through those stupid puzzles instead. Hell, when he realizes marrying Yuna means suffering through even more of those, he might even dump her. While they're doing that for the next four hours, we can go through Yuna's stuff!

Ooh what's this? An unlabeled video sphere! I wonder if that's one of Auron's...



Oh boo, it's not. Just some Guado dude talking about how his kid's the Anti-Christ. Funny, his kid's got the same name as Yuna's fiancé...



You said it.

Oh FRICK! Yuna's in the puzzle dungeon with the Anti-Christ! I'm pretty sure the Guardian contract we signed says we have to go after them. x_x

Don't worry, it'll all still be solved for you! No-one's gotten around to resetting it yet, and there's no pressing need like trying to trap traitors to Yevon or anything.

My favourite moments in any medium are when people get hit with the cluebat, so Wakka's arc is immensely satisfying to me.

Really? SWEET! Maybe I'll get the PS2 turned on again soon after all.

I coulda sworn I had to push ice blocks or something like that.

That means Dona really did get to bypass the puzzle last temple because we just did it. Bitch.

Yeah, that'll only happen if you do something stupid like attack a Maester of Yevon.

Hooray! I read through this entire thread last week, and now there are updates! Unfortunately you have severely made me want to play some Blitzball (yes, I'm one of the ones who loves the minigame), but I'm without my game. Who knew I'd get a Blitzball hankering 6 years after beating the game.

Dun'd indenfene!

Yuna's in the cafe?!

Oh man, I could do this all day, I'll stop.

I'm pretty sure there's also a clause in the Guardian contract that says that you should never, ever leave a summoner alone with creepy, evil religious leaders to begin with. In any case, I'm sure this won't lead to any super-annoying boss fights in the near future!

God I hate the Seymour fights so much.

I think it's obvious from this thread that I've really been enjoying this LP. I hope Elfir's just busy, not abandoning this.

I'm determined to finish it but I might be getting burned out. I'd like to at least get through the wedding before calling hiatus (probably till the end of the year for full regen.)

*tosses Elfir a few potions to tide her over*

I think she could use an elixer more, to be honest. *tosses Elfir an elixer*

E drehg cra luimt ica yh ameqan suna, du pa ruhacd. *duccac Amven yh ameqan*

I'll just make Rikku mix them up for me. Two dozen healing items at once can't possibly kill you, right?


right?


x_x

Only if you're a zombie.

Good news! I plugged the PS2 back in!

When last we left off, Yuna had just gone off with her new fiance for some pre-wedding pilgrimage bonding time when the guardians discovered he was, in fact, the son of Satan. Oops! Gather 'round all, and Let's Save Yuna.



"Even a maester." Have to remind Wakka which side he's on before it becomes an issue. Wouldn't want to have to eliminate our fifth-best party member...



Lulu makes it clear there's no risk of that problem with her. So yay, no risk of losing the sixth-or-seventh-best party member! (Depending on elemental weaknesses.)



W-what's this?! The path is pre-cleared! Thank you Yuna and Yuna's evil fiancé! We should arrange to send Yuna ahead with the bad guys through more of these things.



Yeah! What do you think this is? A library?! Well unfortunately for you, Sally has just as little respect for libraries as she does temples!

Seymour and his guado goons trade glares with the guardian gang until Yuna emerges from her prayers. So what do you have to say for yourself, missy?



D:

TMI! TMI!



Oh thank god. This is the kind of misunderstanding a speech impediment can cause. Keep that in mind and take a damn speaking class before next game.



Sorry, Seymour's the Master in this relationship.

Btw, in the second picture, doesn't t look like Seymour has big goblin ears?



This picture kinda sums up the whole game.




Hell Yes.

Bonus: Substitute Lulu for another goth girl and you've got Final Fantasy X-2!



There are a couple in-battle conversations for Sally and Yuna to give a stat boost for the duration.



Two things to make this battle easy:
1. Steal the Hi-Potions from the Guado Goons so they can't Auto-Potion.
2. Nul-Element everyone so Seymour can't do jack.

Once the prep's over with, smackdown commences. Things are going pretty smoothly.



Aw crap. Spoke too soon. Well, let's see what the new aeon Yuna picked up at the ice temple could be.

'????'! Anima's devil powers are apparently partly ice-based so ???? only takes partial damage. Plus when ???? casts ice stuff on herself it cures her.



BOOYAH! That'll show him!

Two seconds later:


CHEATER! Multi-cheater!

As soon as Anima is dead, Seymour insta-kills ???? and starts doing two-hit elemental spells. This would be really rough if the Nul-element effects weren't still in place. Instead...



Dead like a chump.



Okay everybody, get out the good d20s and roll those bluff checks.



...

-_-

Wakka I can understand, but dammit what did we send Sally to rogue college for if she didn't even pick bluff as a trained skill?



Everybody's too shocked to do anything while Tromell and his guado goons take away the body.



We're in for a rough time... Well, let's get going.



Tromell, you shit.



Something like that.



Tromell, you shit.



You can always count on O'aka to capitalize on every thrilling plot sequence. The guado goons chase Sally through this area. Every time they catch up, we get another not-very-hard battle.

After that there's another area where we're not actually being chased before a third where we're being chased again. Yay! Smells like boss battle time!



I'm not sure when the guado and yetis teamed up but it won't matter for long. Ifrit takes no damage and does his overdrive twice. It's awesome. By all rights the yeti should have been incinerated by now but nooo, he gets a final strike.

Did I mention we're on top of a frozen lake?



Ice falls. Everyone dies.

Why is Seymour thinking about Sally's eyes in the middle of battle?

<3

You know, Tromell, trapping the party in the Cloister while you summoned the cavalry would have worked better if you hadn't left all the puzzle spheres in place.

If it's one thing Umaro taught us, is that yetis are strong enough to shatter even an ice lake that the nearby ice goddess has been working on for the past thousand years.

You're kidding me... all those times I've been brute-forcing my way through the battle with trouble, I could've used rarely-used spells and abilities to make it easier?

Well damn.

The Nul-spells are a godsend vs Seymour. Every time.

Better late than never I suppose, and it is too late now, but after you get the first Jecht sphere you can walk all the way back to Luca and take a boat back through Kilika to Besaid grabbing each sphere along the way. This involves going back through the Thunder Plains and Mushroom Rock road which isn't exactly fun with the encounter rates in those areas - but hey the number of encounters you've fought directly impact the quality of Bliztball prizes . . . that's a plus I guess.

While these spheres add directly to the story, and give Auron more limit's there really wasn't any reason to do this in the original.

I would recommend it (someday) simply because everyone's dialog has been updated and it adds a bit to story. If you just play the game through straight it seems like Seymour goes on a crazy killing spree before the heroes jump in and take him down, and that this was his only plan all along. However walking back at that point in the game really displays that there have been longer term plans in place and that the heroes only really interrupt Seymour's latest/final plan. It also drives home the fact that Seymour wanted the people that hurt him to not only be punished, he wanted them to proudly and willingly jump to their doom.

It goes something like this:
1) The Guado rejected him
2) He comes back and makes the Guado the most powerful and important race in Spira
2a) Unfortunately the Crusaders already hold that position
2b) Everyone hates the Al Bhed, but they're pretty powerful too
3) Eliminate the Crusaders and the Al Bhed by convincing the the church "supports" them working together for the good of Spira
3a) Watch it fail miserably, decimating the Crusaders and reiterating that the Al Bhed are worthless
4) Make the Guado Spira's defenders in place of the Crusaders
5) Later spoiler event that ends badly for the Guado.

Step 4 is the step that isn't really obvious if you just follow the main plot, because I think the next section leads directly to step 5. However walking back at that point in the game you can talk to some of the new defenders and villagers who happily discuss the great things the Guado are doing for them.

Yay, the Let's Play lives again! I'm so happy.

Looking at walkthroughs, it looks like we're about two thirds of the way through the game. I can do this... BELIEEEEVE! *powers up*

Everyone, pray for Elfir!

*defeats Zeromus*