Final Fantasy X-2, 3: Faction Action.

The Gullwings had heard rumors that riches could be made digging in the deserts of Bikanel island for the Al-Bhed. Despite Paine's protests that they were sphere hunters and not laborers, Yuna led the girls to Djose temple, to speak with the machine faction leader, Gippal.

Since the tenants of Yevon had forbidden the use of machina, the new faction insisted they were using "machines" not "machina", although anyone with an ounce of sense could see there was no difference.

The Gullwings waited their turn to be granted an interview with the dashing Gippal. Yuna was a bit taken aback by how quickly she was accepted. Gippal cared less about their abilities than their simple willingness to do the work; digging in the burning sands and relentless desert sun.

The Al-Bhed camp on Bikanel.

With a letter of introduction now in hand, the Gullwings sped off to Bikanel. Their task was relatively simple, but by no means easy. Diggers could only survive out in the open desert for about 60 seconds before needing to ride back to camp and rehydrate. They had to search the sands using a radar, indicating where items were located under the sand. The main goal was to find important parts for the Al-Bhed, thus completing the dig. However, their were also fiends wandering about the desert to make things more difficult! Certainly not the least of which was a massive beast that was detected on the radar as an "unidentified object". When it reached the girls, they were at first quite afraid of the intimidating beast, but for some reason unknown to them, it did not attack.

    

Angra Mainu... My first thought was that I was toast when I encountered it, but as far as I can tell it has a running total of ~322,000hp, and gets more attacks as the story progresses. At the beginning, it simply watches, then eventually ejects you from battle.

After their work in the desert, the Gullwings continued their tour of Spira, as was Yuna's wish. In Luca, they recalled the events prior to concert in the stadium. Yuna had to remain incognito of course, as the populace thought she was about to headline a concert! Unfortunately for Yuna, this meant being dressed up in a stuffy moogle suit and handing out balloons!

Yuna's dope threads. I think you can get this as the "mascot" dressphere. I haven't found it yet though.

The Gullwing's travels also included stops at the Mi'Hen Highroad, which was now patrolled by machina, and the Youth League headquarters. The machina were of dubious effectiveness however, as the girls encountered a ridiculous amount of fiends while walking the road. This was why most folk now took the Al-Bhed hovers to speed through the highroad, avoiding fiends and bandits.

Patrolled by machina my ass... the highroad had a ridiculously high encounter rate.

The Youth League headquarters was an imposing structure, which appeared to be built on the ruins of the massive machina used in the failed Operation Mi'Hen. While the former crusaders were very happy to have a visit from High Summoner Yuna, their leader, Meyvn Nooj, was apparently in the midst of very important planning, and wasn't available.

In this case meyvn is a title for the Youth League's leader. As far as I can tell, it's root is a Yiddish word meaning "expert". 

Youth League headquarters.

The Gullwings had a somewhat different experience at the palace of St. Bevelle, the headquarters of New Yevon. The Yevonites were equally excited to recieve a visit from the High Summoner, assuming she had come to join their faction. In this case however, Yuna was granted an audience with their leader, praetor Baralai. He was young and handsome, not at all what the Gullwings had expected.

The entrance to the palace of Bevelle.

Relatively early in the game, the Gullwings are forced to give a sphere to either the Youth League, or New Yevon, the two main opposing forces. I'm not sure this event is really all that significant though. It certainly changes a ton of the dialogue from unimportant NPC's, but I don't feel like it changes anything major. I could be wrong, though. Once you pick a side, the other group immediately views you as spies and enemies, and word travels fast. I've done one playthrough so far giving the Youth League the sphere, and one with New Yevon. Like  I said, besides dialogue from bystanders, and being attacked by gaurds in Bevelle, I didn't notice any major differences.

At least these two still have some sense!

It is notable that for some reason you can achieve %100 completion on one playthrough if you give the sphere to the Youth League, but cannot if you choose New Yevon. Is this keeping with the somewhat anti-religious theme of the first game? Hohoho, who knows. 

Join us again next time... for This Bard's Tales! 

   

Final Fantasy X-2 Remaster, 2: New Game + !

The "Gullwings" safely recovered Yuna's sphere from the imposter, Leblanc. The sphere seemed to contain the memories of a singer and dancer, who could be tapped in to in order for the Gulls to use her skills in battle. Back aboard their airship, the Celsius, they searched for signs of spheres to hunt.

The new, New Game Plus option!

If there was going to be a game that I was going to beat before I even typed a word about it, I could have done worse than FFX-2. This game has that feature called "New Game +", which my understanding is, takes it's name from another Square offering, Chrono Trigger. As I started thinking about it, this game actually has a fair amount in common with Chrono, such as non-linear play and multiple endings. Primarily, the New Game + allows you to start a new game with all of the items, abilities, dresspheres (jobs/classes), garment grids (umm... hard to explain quickly), and Gil (money) that you ended the game with. This doesn't completely mitigate the challenge, as you start back at the bottom in experience levels.

FFX-2 Also tracks your "story completion" as a percentage. I'm guessing this just means what percentage  of the story moments in the game you've experienced. I'm not 100% sure actually, haha, no joke intended. I finished the game at 68% completion, and the New Game + retains that. This means, hopefully, I won't need to worry about repeating everything I did the first time around.

Yuna was making an audio journal, that she addressed to an unknown figure. I think you can guess who it was, someone who she was missing a lot no doubt. She took a few moments to traverse the Celsius and introduce it, and the crew, to her journal.

The Celsius has a pretty ballin' bar.

Just as Yuna was heading back to the bridge from the cabin, an alert rang out! The co-pilot, Buddy, had located sphere waves, indicating there was a sphere located in recently uncovered ruins on Mt. Gagazet. The Gullwings scrambled to the floating ruins, but were non-plussed to find that Leblanc's crew, the Leblanc Syndicate, had followed them. Leblanc was a tall, shapely blonde, who's loud voice and obnoxiousness left much to be desired. Her side-kicks were lanky, gun-wielding Logos, and massive Ormi. The threesome were determined to stop the Gullwings from making it to the top of the ruins, throwing hordes of goons and machines at them to delay their travel.

Yuna climbs the floating ruins on Gagazet.

This as good a time as any to mention a couple things, first, the "goons" are actually named "goons" in the game. There's Mr. Goon, Ms. Goon, and... wait for it... Dr. Goon. Goofy yes, but it fits well enough with the tone of the game. The second is that this game adds the ability to both jump and climb by holding the O button while walking. It seems like mainly a gimmick, but it does expand the three dimensional feel of the map a  little bit. There are treasure chests and secrets that can only be found with proper use of the O button.

The Syndicate tried, but not hard enough, as the Gullwings came out on top with the sphere!

The Leblanc Syndicate seems to have fallen for this treasure chest.... haha... hahaha.

X-2 is organized into 5 chapters, and during my first time (for the blog, second time total) through, I hit every location in chapter 1 to see what was out there. While some of the locations don't have "missions", there are plenty of story elements to be uncovered, and some areas have missions that you don't discover until you visit. One of which is protecting the shipment of a fellow named Tobli's supplies from bandits. 

As you can see here, Tobli is fast. His assistant, who I must help, however, is not.

I rather enjoyed chasing the bandits as they attacked the assistant's wagon. X-2 is loaded to the brim with mini-games, and they are hit and miss for sure. This one I enjoyed though. Thankfully, for the most part, they are optional. I'm sure as far as an RPG is concerned, FFX-2 has the most mini-games out there. I just can't see anything else competing. However, depending on your tastes, some of them are lame, some are great fun, and some are completely out of the genre, so mileage will vary. I personally enjoyed the mini-games the most that still employed bread-and-butter combat as part of their gameplay. That includes this bandit catching mission, and the digging in the desert, which I'll describe later. 

Before traversing off looking for more spheres, the Gullwings, at Yuna's behest, decided to tour Spira a bit, and gauge the welfare of the people. Their first stop was the moonflow, followed by a trip to the Mushroom Rock Road, which was known to house the headquarters of the recently formed "Youth League." The Youth League was mainly made up of former Crusaders, and exists to counter the other major faction "New Yevon." The Gullwings thought to make a quick stop at the Youth League headquarters when they spotted none other than... Logos and Ormi! The dorkish duo took off into the thick fog, with Yuna, Rikku, and Paine close behind.

Following Logos and Ormi led to a mysterious door, and an equally mysterious sphere. I know a little bit about this place from my previous playthrough, but I didn't get all of the spheres necessary to open it. I plan to this time, however. After Logos and Ormi vacated, Maroda shows up out of nowhere and names the place as the "Den of Woe." He doesn't offer up any other information though, just saying the place is off limits. 

The reasonably spooky Den of Woe.

May you never fall victim to the Den of Woe, my friends... so that you may come back next time, for This Bard's Tales!      

Final Fantasy X-2 Remaster, 1: Introduction.

Welcome back dear friends, as we set off on a new adventure...

Using my phone is such a simple way to get screen caps... I'll work on holding it straight.

I was pretty happy for finally catching up on the blogging to the point where I had beaten FFX. Then I did a bad thing. I went and beat FFX-2 before even writing a single post about it. For shame! Is that how my parents raised me? It all started out innocently enough, I was planning to play for an hour or two. Then I was like, "just one more hour." I was fighting through the final dungeon to see how far I could get, not expecting to be able to make it all the way. Then I realized it was going to happen... I was going to beat the game that night. Afterwards I realized I probably played for 8 hours straight! Yikes... now you know why I immediately felt a kinship with The CRPG Addict upon discovering his blog.

Final Fantasy X-2 is a big departure from many of the established norms of the series. Most importantly, it is the first sequel in the series that uses the same world and characters from a previous game. Also, the tone is quite different from its predecessors, to say the least. It starts with Yuna as a pop idol singing to a crowded Luca stadium. Go ahead, if you haven't played the game, reread that last sentence a few times. This is likely the first, and hopefully the last, time a fantasy role-playing game has started with a pop concert. Yes, you in the back again... Final Fantasy 8 does have a rock concert in it, it's a lot more mello, and is part of a mini-game. It's not nearly as jarring.

So that happens... then Yuna, who in the first game had about as much spunk as your average grandmother, shows up on the scene in hot pants and wielding akimbo barettas. That's not all, our Charlie's Angels inspired crew rides around in a Harley-esque airship called the Celsius.

Errm... Wert now?

I really couldn't fault any sane person for jumping ship at this point and saying, "This game is just not for me." The thing is, underneath the trappings of ridiculousness, lies an actually pretty damn good game. Although they are called "dresspheres" here, this game brings back the often lauded job-system of some of the previous games. Essentially "jobs" are classes, and your characters are able to switch between them and learn a wide variety of abilities. The newest things is that here in X-2, you can switch jobs even in the middle of battle. This type of gameplay is tried and true for the series, and has worked well in such games as FF3, FF5, and Final Fantasy Tactics. Between the jobs, the "garment grids" (like I said, you have to be okay with a little ridiculousness), accessories, and numerous mini-games, there is an almost endless amount of stuff to tinker with in this game. There are even decent story moments, and an interesting background to the new characters that are introduced.

Two years passed on Spira, after Yuna and her guardians brought the Calm. This one was hoped to be the Eternal Calm, with the cycle of death ended, and Sin never to return. After the lies of Yevon had been exposed, there was a renewed interest in the true history of Spira. Many began seeking spheres that held recordings of the ancient world. Teams gathered to seek these spheres, and they were called "spherehunters." Yuna joined on with Rikku, and a mysterious woman named Paine, to be spherehunters. They were the active arm of "The Gullwings", which also included their nominal leader Brother, pilot Buddy, and boy-genius Shinra.

What adventures awaited our friends in the new Spira, the Spira without Sin? Find out next time... at This Bard's Tales!       

Final Fantasy X, 11: Fin.

Our heroes made it to Zanarkand, the goal of the pilgrimage. However, what awaited them there?

The ruined "dome" in Zanarkand. It bears a resemblance to the blitzball stadium depicted in the game's opening sequence.

Although it's not the end game, I think the guardians arrival in Zanarkand is the climax; certainly so of the storyline. The storyline builds and throws twists at the player relentlessly, and gaining the "Final Aeon" is no exception. Final Fantasy X boasts a fleshed out world with a very interesting and detailed background. I considered summarizing it here for those who might not wish to play the game, but in the interest of blog time, and to not spoil it, I'll just recommend playing the game. If you hate playing games like this with a passion and just can't see yourself giving it a go, I think the story is worth a read honestly. There is likely a summary up somewhere on the 'nets. I can't resist a little tease, basically everything that the Yevonites of Spira have been taught to believe in is built on half-truths and political rhetoric, and it all comes to a head dramatically in Zanarkand.

After Zanarkand, the heroes now must seek a way to defeat Sin. First, they make Sin somewhat docile by encouraging all the folk of Spira to sing a song, "The Hymn of the Fayth". This is a song sung by the fayth themselves that Tidus's father particularly liked. Once Sin is calmed, the guardians attack with the airship's help, and fight a triple battle with Sin.

"We're gonna get you Sin!"

"Oh good Yevons!" If the guardians do not defeat Sin before it's overdrive gauge fills, they are met with probably the only instant game over in the game.

These battle sequences depict for the first time in the game anyone having any real success battling Sin. It's interesting, for the first time the characters, and you, feel like Sin might be on the ropes and there is some chance of defeating it. This contrasts sharply with the rest of the game, where Sin seems invincible, and inevitable.

The airship drops the heroes off inside Sin, at the "Sea of Sorrows."

Like most of today's RPGs, FFX has an auto-map feature that displays on screen. Being how this is my third time through the game, I turned this off to increase the challenge a little, and increase the fun of exploration a little too. However, the Sea of Sorrows was the first place I had to turn it on to make it. The camera angles shift at intersections, and it was just too hard to keep my bearings without it.

The mysterious stairs exiting the Sea.

The final battle with Seymour acts a capstone to the Sea of Sorrows. He is an interesting character, he is a dark embodiment of the Buddhist idea that living is suffering. However, unlike the Buddha, he believes that suffering is only escapable by death. He wishes to be Yuna's final aeon, and thus become Sin, bringing the escape of death to Spira. The guardians have something to say about that plan, though.

I didn't get a screen cap of this final incarnation, Seymour Omnis. It illustrates a great thing about combat in this game though, combining traditional combat with puzzle elements. Seymour is accompanied by large discs behind him which the player can manipulate by attacking them. The position of these discs determine Seymour's attack pattern and how powerful it is. Seymour can move them as well, otherwise the battle wouldn't be very challenging of course.

Following the Sea of Sorrows is the City of... something I don't remember. There is one monster that only shows up here that I have always been very curious about. It's called barbatos. I believe barbatos is the name of a demon, however, I've of course (for me) always been curious if it has some connection to the name of the country Barbados. For example, if Christian explorers arrived their, met some difficulty, and proclaimed it home of the demon Barbatos, that sort of thing.

I love these old school demon illustrations.

From Wikipedia: "In demonology, Barbatos is an earl and duke of Hell, ruling thirty legions of demons and has four kings as his companions to command his legions. He can speak to animals, can tell the future, conciliates friends and rulers, and can lead men to treasure hidden by the enchantment of magicians. His name derives from Latin barbatus, meaning 'bearded, old man, philosopher'."

As far as the etymology of the country's name: "The origin of the name Barbados is either the Portuguese word Barbados or the Spanish equivalent los Barbados, both meaning "the bearded ones" It is unclear whether "bearded" refers to the long, hanging roots of the bearded fig-tree (Ficus citrifolia), indigenous to the island; or to the allegedly bearded Caribs once inhabiting the island; or, more fancifully, to the foam spraying over the outlying reefs giving the impression of a beard." So there you go! My hunch was correct, there is a connection between the two names, if not as sinister as I originally hoped.

After the City of... Dying Dreams I found out it is called, the guardians enter a giant tower and an area called the "Nucleus" which is very peculiar. The camera rotates slowly, and you must collect a number of crystals that form in the air, while crystalline stalagmites pop up randomly. If a stalagmite hits you, you go into battle. It's not a bad little puzzle but it's really strange, as there is nothing else in the game similar, and it pops up out of nowhere with no explanation. This area leads to the final boss. Like I said, it's not bad, I just don't get what they were going for with this section.

Tidus reunites with his father...

...and promptly kills him. Well, kills him in the form of Braska's Final Aeon, anyway.

Storyline wise, Tidus reunites with his father, but then is forced to battle him in order to defeat Sin. The whole scene is done well, and tugs at the heart strings. I won't detail all that though. I have few beefs with this game, but unfortunately the series of final battles is one of them. Having a series of final battles that live up to the hype is a staple of Final Fantasy's, and something they generally do very well. I've gathered from walkthroughs that Braska's Final Aeon can be a tough battle, however, both times I've fought him I had a Bahamut overdrive in reserve, and he went down quickly with a mega flare or two. It was a little anti-climactic. Granted, if you don't have Bahamut on overdrive, maybe it wouldn't be so easy, I don't know. I'm glad they didn't resort to the quick fix of giving him an instant aeon kill like some other bosses have, because that just feels unfair. Perhaps the Final Aeon should have had some more HP though, or a higher defense against the massive damage overdrives.

Now, the first time I played, I was not disappointing by this fight, because I knew the real big baddy was coming; that being the mysterious Yu Yevon. That name starts popping up near the end of the game, and I had a sense by the end of the game that Yu Yevon was going to be an epic battle with an ultimate badass. Then came the disappointment... the problem here is simple, in the battle with Yu Yevon, your party has the "auto-life" ability, meaning you CAN'T LOSE! I think this takes all the fun out of it, it seems pointless, a challenging battle instead becomes monotony. Even if the battle is relatively easy, having the chance that you could be defeated over your head makes all the difference. So, I think the designers really made a big mistake here, sucking any potential challenge, and fun, out of the final battle. Despite my misgivings about the final battles though, it is important to note that I think the game's strengths more than make up for these pit-falls.

There it is folks! After a month and half and eleven posts, I've finally blogged to the end of the main storyline of Final Fantasy X. There is, however still a lot of content left in the game in the form of side quests, and I'll be covering those intermixed with my posts on other games. Also, I'll get the hang of pacing my gaming and blogging as I go along here. Expect less posts to get through most games, or at least posts that keep up with my actual play time. Overall, I still think FFX has great gameplay and a fantastic story, and I highly recommend it.

One final note on this game is that as I played, I noticed something I hadn't ever before, that is, similarities to Final Fantasy 13. It makes sense, of course, since this is my first post 13 play through. Basically FF13 was panned for having extremely linear gameplay and dungeons. I noticed that FFX's dungeons are super basic, just like 13s, often being a long strait line with one or two branches. I'm not sure I could describe tangibly why, but it just seems that FFX works, and FF13 doesn't. It's like X toes the line, and 13 took it too far. I'm intrigued by this comparison though, so I plan to play FF13 next in the Final Fantasys, after X-2, to see if I have any new perspective on it. I'm going to play X-2 immediately next, so the storyline it continues is fresh.

I haven't been doing a lot of posts on the old school gold box games, but rest assured those will continue as well, hopefully a little more regularly.

Although some guardians had come, and some had gone, in the end, Sin was both defeated, and Yuna's life saved. Although, the tale of Spira, and the stories of the guardians did not end here. Thank you for joining me friends, for the epic tale known as Final Fantasy Ten. There is yet more to come, next time... at This Bard's Tales! 

Final Fantasy X Remaster, 10: Game Balance and International Versions.

       The guardians get a momentary respite at they travel the Calm Lands. However, trouble is close behind as they reach the sacred mountain, Gagazet.

       Okay, so this blog is relatively new, and here is where I admit that I'm still figuring out the best way to pace my playing with my blogging. Obviously, the way I've been blogging FFX has been less than ideal, since the quality of what I have to say has certainly taken a hit, being that I'm reflecting on experiences I had over a month ago now, if I recall. So, I'm hoping to wrap up the notable elements of the "main quest" (That is, besides "side quests") all in this post, and get the blog back on track with my game playing.

       The Calm Lands I talked about in my last post as a place where some new monsters show up. The game had been relatively easy up to this point, but pleasingly so. I was not having much difficulty because I knew the correct strategies to defeat enemies. This is the sort of gameplay I like. In FFX, you have some leeway for trial and error to figure out the best way to defeat your opponent without losing. Once you've got a good strategy, it's relatively easy. Contrast this to FF13 and many other games where the trial and error portion involves fighting and losing a battle many times, than reloading. Uggh, I hate that sort of gameplay, it's unfortunate that it seems to be the trend that games are moving toward. FF13 even builds this in with a "retry" option in battle, wtf? Admittedly, I may have a bit of a bias from tabletop games where I feel like if I "die" or "lose" a battle that I didn't do something right, and that I should be able to win battles without having to reload if I'm a good player. 

      A good example of what I'm getting at is the contrast in gameplay from Pool of Radiance to Pools of Darkness. In PoR you can wander around, and generally speaking, use your resourcefulness to get yourself out of any sticky situations (good game balance). PoD throws massive, deadly battles at you, and you just have to hope for the best... then reload (not good game balance). Oddly enough, at the time I'm writing this I'm a good deal into FFX-2, and the two games have a similar contrast. FFX has a turn-based, strategy heavy combat system. FFX-2 has a real-time strategic system, but it just seems like you're holding on for dear life trying to come up with the right combination of abilities, and often just end up button mashing... and hoping for the best.

Seymour attacks again on Gagazet. Total Annihilation? Hmm, that sounds best avoided.

      All that being said, the Calm Lands and Gagazet were where I started to have difficulty. An almost defeated malboro (I was trying to capture it, if I recall) handed me my first game over. This was over 30 hours in, without a defeat. Some might call that an easy game, but in this case I call it well balanced. The key is that there were some close battles, but I was always able to dig my way out and come out on top. I've heard a lot of Joe Internet complaining/bragging that Final Fantasy games, JRPGs, etc. are sooo easy, but part of me wonders how much of that is just simply based on expectations. If you expect to die Wizardry, or even Gold Box style, Final Fantasys might seem easy. However, if you expect NOT to die, they might seem just right. 

      On a side note, I've played a lot of Dark Souls, and feel the devs there really found a sweet spot in terms of deaths and gameplay. Death in an RPG isn't so aggravating if you don't lose your exp and items. Honestly, I think even keeping exp is enough, otherwise a defeat just feels like a waste of time since your last save. Take notes developers!

This massive beast is a member of another great Final Fantasy pedigree, the flan.

      So, FFX became a bit of a grind on Mt. Gagazet. The enemies were tougher than I remembered, and there was a very high encounter rate. It's notable that the remaster of the game is based on the "international" version of FFX, and features a new sphere grid option. The sphere grid is how you develop your characters in the game. Without going into too much detail, I was using the new "expert" sphere grid that allows more options for the characters. This also means I may have developed them less optimally, accounting for the increased difficulty than I remembered. All that being said, although the mountain got a little aggrivating at points, I did feel like I'd really accomplished something tough after making it through. I felt like it was actually the test of the summoner's abilities that the game's story hypes it up to be, and I came out on top. It was a nice unintentional RP moment for me, actually.

      There is so much to dig into in these games, I feel like a quick explanation of the "international" releases is in order. Essentially, some of the games have been released outside of the US with additional features (In this game's case, the extra sphere grid, and extra mega-bosses), possibly to make Europeans and Australians feel better about their release date being later than the US and Japan. Then, in true cash cow fashion, these additional featured games (along with english audio, if I recall) are released in Japan as the "international" version. That pretty much sums it up.

  Feeling exhausted but triumphant after scaling the massive mountain, the guardians faced yet more trials within the caves leading to the mountain's peak, and to their eventual goal... Zanarkand.

The cave holding the trials of Gagazet.

           

The guardian at the mountain's peak.

  There is a very nice sunset background as the guardians decend into Zanarkand.

 Then, once the guardians reach the base of the mountain, it's a starry night.

Which, admittedly, this screen shot does not show too well.

     Given that the Final Fantasy games don't have a day/night cycle like Ultima or Dragon Quest, I cynically expected to go back a screen and have magically gone back in time to sunset. Kudos to the devs for thinking of that, the sky on the previous screens was now awash with stars. Incidentally, I generally dislike the word "kudos", go figure...

       So there is just too much more to say about this game, and it's 3am, so... one more post on the main quest to follow! (It would have been cool to end FFX on the 10th post, but hey, whatevs.)

  The guardians have reached Zanarkand. Rikku and Tidus are no closer to finding a way to avoid Yuna's death. Will she end up sacrificing herself in the name of peace? Find out next time... on This Bard's Tales!  

Final Fantasy X, Remaster 9: Bevelle, Bahamut, Coeurl and Malboro.

 The guardians fought on to save Spira, heading to Bevelle aboard their newfound airship. However, the great dragon Evrae, guardian of Bevelle, stood in their way. They fought the dangerous beast aboard the deck of the airship, with Cid firing volleys of missiles to support them.

 Circling the great city of Bevelle is a dragon the guardians must fight. Their is a funny moment here, as the Al-Bhed Rin offers items to help the party fight off the dragon, that pokes fun at RPG tropes. Wakka says "We gotta pay? If we lose you die too buddy!" Rin counters with,"I have faith in your victory." I really enjoyed it, after all, it's just sort of accepted in RPGs that even though you are the heroes who will save the world, you often start with little equipment and experience, and must earn your own keep, however little sense it might make. Rin is one shrewd businessman indeed.

  While in Bevelle, Yuna receives the "grand daddy" of Final Fantasy summons, a powerful dragon that goes all the way back to Final Fantasy 1, Bahamut. Bahamut has always been represented as a dragon in FF (Bahamut is also a powerful god of dragons in the Dungeons & Dragons mythos), which is notable because of the etymology, but I'll get to that momentarily.

  Bahamut first appears in Final Fantasy I, although not in his typical role as a summon. In this game, he is the King of Dragons, and rewards the party for a particular quest by upgrading their classes. Fighter becomes Knight, Black Mage becomes Black Wizard, and so on. When the summons were introduced in Final Fantasy 3, Bahamut was the most powerful of them, and the rest is history. Although more powerful summons were introduced in later games, each one is generally specific to it's game (for example: FF8's Eden, FF9's Ark, FF10's Anima). Bahamut is the most powerful that exists across multiple games.

Bahamut imparts the class change in a FF1 remake.

Bahamut's fayth.

  The origin of the name, from The Final Fantasy Wiki: "Bahamut originated as an enormous whale in ancient pre-Islamic Arabian mythology. Upon Bahamut's back stands a bull with four thousand eyes, ears, noses, mouths, tongues and feet called Kujuta. Between each of these is a distance of a 500-year journey. On the back of Kujuta is a mountain of ruby. Atop this mountain is an angel who carries six hells, earth, and seven heavens on its shoulders. Another version of the Arabic story is that Bahamut is indeed a dragon and he stands on a whale called Liwash. In modern times, the game Dungeons & Dragons is responsible for re-imagining Bahamut as the king of dragons, a benevolent Platinum Dragon; the opposite of the malevolent Tiamat, the five-headed Chromatic Queen of Dragons."

  Now, I've seen an image depicting Bahamut and Kujuta as described above, however, my image searches just brought up pop-culture related items. So you get the artist's interpretation below.

Bahamut.

  The guardians must escape from Bevelle, after being sentenced to death for their supposed treason and murder. Oddly enough, Seymour is present for the trial of his own murderers, but such is the way of Spira, named for its spiral of death. The guardians find that Spira is crawling with the unsent, those who have died but refused to go to the Farplane. Over time the unsent lose more and more of their humanity, and become fiends. I found this a very interesting bit of background, as it gives a reason why Spira is overflowing with monsters, which is often left as an assumed status quo in RPGs.

The summoner Isaaru seeks to stop Yuna's escape from Bevelle. She calls Bahamut to aid her.

Escaping Bevelle also marks the first of many battles with creepy Seymour transformations.

  After the wild battles in Bevelle, things calm down for a moment as the guardians reach, the Calm Lands. Here on these wide open plains are a couple of monsters which harken back to past Final Fantasy games, the coeurl and the malboro.
  Both of these creatures made their first appearance in FF2, a game which while being a bit of a black sheep due to its leveling system, was the first appearance of a whole slew of monsters, characters, etc., that have become staples of the series. The coeurl is a magic cat... with tentacles. It usually has an attack called "blaster" that can be devastating, by either paralyzing or killing its target. The origin of the coeurl once again illustrates why I'm doing this, it comes from a science fiction tale I had no knowledge of. From Wikipedia:  "Coeurl is a fictional alien race of predators created by science fiction novelist A. E. van Vogt (1912-2000) and featured in his first published short story "Black Destroyer" (1939), later incorporated in the novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950). Its appearance is comparable to a large cat, except that its forelegs are twice as long as its hind legs, and it possesses tentacles attached to its shoulders which terminate in suction cups." No s...! That is a cool find. Also from the same page,  "The displacer beast in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game was inspired by the coeurl the two have the same idea of tentacles coming from the shoulders, as well as a feline appearance, and the displacer beast uses 'vibrations' to confuse its enemies." Interesting stuff.

Final Fantasy X's Coeurl.

  Next up is one of my personal favorites, although certainly not my favorite to fight in game, the dreaded malboro. These tentacled monstrosities again first appeared in FF2. Their ability to use an attack called "bad breath" that causes numerous status effects, makes their mere appearance in battle strike fear in the heart of any Final Fantasy veteran.

Run away... Run away!

   Final Fantasy Wiki has a few theories on the origin of the name: "A likely possibility is that it comes from the Japanese onomatopoeia "boro", which is the sound of an upset stomach. Their name may also be derived from the Latin and Greek words "mal" (meaning bad) and "boros" (meaning breath), a reference to their infamous attack. The name could also be a reference to Marlboro Cigarettes, since the creatures often spew horrid-smelling fumes." I say the first two theories are hogwash, and firmly believe in the third. It's a gross monster that spews "bad breath" and its name is malboro, which I think omits the "r" only to avoid a lawsuit. I mean, that's just too good to be a coincidence, right? Its a much better anti-smoking ad than American tax money has ever paid for.
  Incidentally, it's my understanding that Marlboro Cigarettes were originally marketed to women in the US, and in fact they are a popular women's cigarette in Japan. Take that Marlboro Man.

  Despite the odds being firmly against them, the guardians escaped death in Bevelle. To find out their fate, return next time for... This Bard's Tales!  

 

Final Fantasy X Remaster, 8: Bikanel, Zu, and some Final Fantasy tropes.

 Shaking off the last vestiges of Sin's toxin, Tidus awakened. Strange sensations assaulted his body as he reluctantly opened his eyes to be greeted by the piercing light of the noon sun. Somehow, he was floating in a small pool, surrounded by mountains of shifting sand. Staggering about in the blistering heat, he looked for any sign of his friends.

 After reuniting with his friends, Tidus finds out that he is on the remote island of Bikanel, home of the Al-Bhed. Now, I've always wondered if this series of events is an homage to Final Fantasy IV. In FFX, Tidus washes up in an oasis on an island, surrounded by sand dunes... and fights giant birds called Zus. In FFIV, Cecil washes up on an island, surrounded by a sandy beach... and fights giant birds called Zus. It's hard to say whether this is purposeful, but I like to think so.

He fights them on the beach too... I'll get the appropriate screen cap when I play FFIV.

    Zus are a staple enemy, appearing many times in the series. The etymology appears to stem from Mesopotamian lore. From Encyclopedia Mythica: "In Sumero-Akkadian mythology, Zu is a divine storm-bird and the personification of the southern wind and the thunder clouds." That's a pretty self-explanatory association for this one.

 The storyline continues to heat up on Bikanel, as this is where Tidus, who has been blissfully unaware up to this point, finds out something key to the summoner's pilgrimage. The summoner sacrifices themselves at the end of the journey in order to defeat sin. Summoning the "Final Aeon" spells the end of the summoner. Tidus is understandably upset, and sides with the Al-Bhed in their quest to end the pilgrimages, thinking that it is simply leading lambs to slaughter for a hopeless cause. The Yevonites believe the sacrifice is worthwhile, if only for a temporary respite from Sin.

 Tidus found his companions spread out in the dunes, and they reunited to head for the Al-Bhed home. However, they would only find it if their only somewhat reliable guide, Rikku, could remember where it was! After some twists and turns, they arrived at what the Al-Bhed had named "Home", however, sirens blared and smoke filled the air. Home was under attack!

This is a semi-secret room in home that has a chest requiring a code to open. It's a neat addition that I didn't remember from my other playthroughs.

 The guardians rescue the summoner's that the Al-Bhed had abducted (albeit to save their lives), but Yuna is not among them. In the end, Home ends up being destroyed, from aboard another Final Fantasy staple... the airship! Getting an airship to travel the world is one of the most exciting points in any Final Fantasy game, which I believe is possible in all of them. The airship is one of the few Final Fantasy tropes that goes back to the original. Even staples like the chocobo riding birds and airship engineer "Cid" didn't enter the picture until Final Fantasy 2. Speaking of Cid, he is an Al-Bhed, and the captain of the airship in FFX.

The airship docked at Luca.

 Since FF2, each game has had a character, usually some sort of engineer, named Cid, who is responsible for getting the party their airship, and often doing modifications on it. Okay, yes, you with your hand up in the back, FF6 has a Cid, but he is not tied to the airship in that game. Exceptions do exist. One of the "tropes" of Final Fantasy is that each game takes place in it's own world, with all new characters. However, their are many recurring themes and names that tie them together. Airships, Cids, and chocobos being a few of them. One notable change in this game is that the airship is not directly controllable by the player. This is, most likely, a necessary evil of not having a walkable "overland map" as their was in previous games. While this design choice may have helped make the world feel more tied together while traveling on foot, the absence of the real time flight is a bummer.  

 Yes again, you, in the back, I know, after Final Fantasy X many exceptions to the unique world started popping up. X was the first game to have a direct sequel, X-2 (Talk about confusing numbering conventions), and FF XII takes place in the same world as previous games Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics. After the gate opened, the flood spewed through, and there are now prequels and sequels to FFVII, FFIV, and more. Not to mention the remakes... These are all subjects to be discussed over time though, lest I explode the minds of the uninitiated.

 Fleeing from the overrun Home, the guardians now fly the salvage airship to Bevelle. What danger awaits them? Will they be able to save Yuna from the clutches of the dark Seymour? Find out next time... on This Bard's Tales!