rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (hope is all we have)
Riona ([personal profile] rionaleonhart) wrote2021-05-07 05:52 pm

The Red Carpet Has Teeth.

[personal profile] thebaconfat's been replaying Final Fantasy X, which has inspired me to get back to the replay I abandoned about a year ago. It's a slightly weird experience; I was last playing this game when I was writing my 'Squall is Yuna's guardian' fic, so it's really disconcerting that Squall isn't there and there's some guy called Tidus instead.

(I'll get back to my Final Fantasy VIII replay at some point!)

The Cloisters of Trials are deeply tedious. Whose idea was this? Who went, 'Ah, yes, let's include trial-and-error puzzles where the player character has to physically run long distances in order to try things out?'

Auron never explains anything. Just makes cryptic statements and does his own thing.

Loved this exchange when the airship's attacked and Rin tries to sell you supplies:

Wakka: We gotta pay? If we lose, you die too, buddy!
Rin: I have faith in your victory.

Given Kelk Ronso and Seymour Guado, do all the human characters in this game just have the surname 'Human'? Maybe appending your species to your name is just a maester thing.

Spoilery notes under the cut! Yes, I'm cutting spoilers for a twenty-year-old game. (Yes, Final Fantasy X is twenty years old.)



Auron of Tidus's mother: 'If she dies, I wouldn't know what to do.' Interesting! I'm curious about what Auron means here; is he invested in Tidus's mother for her own sake, or is he worried because he promised to look after Tidus, and he doesn't know how he can do that if he's left as Tidus's sole guardian?

The Al Bhed evidently believe it's wrong to expect the few to sacrifice themselves for the many; that's presumably why they're abducting summoners. What's their long-term plan, though? Saving someone's life by locking them up permanently doesn't seem ideal. Or are they hoping they'll find a machina-based way to defeat Sin, after which they can let the summoners go?

After they learn that Seymour is bad news, I love that Wakka's response to Auron's 'We will protect Yuna from anyone. Even a maester' is just helpless laughter and 'This can't be happening.'

Really love Yuna taking up her staff and telling Seymour that she'll fight him too.

Wakka's probably the Final Fantasy X character I like least, but it is interesting to have a very devout character in the party for a traditional 'kill God' storyline.

Tidus asks if Auron was homesick in Zanarkand, and Auron's response is 'Maybe', which I like both because it's on the edge of showing vulnerability and because the man is allergic to straight answers.

I'd forgotten that Sin tries to communicate with Tidus under the lake ice, showing him memories of Zanarkand and blitzballs and Tidus as a kid. It's sort of sweet and sad.

The 'I can fly' scene is admittedly cool but also makes absolutely no sense. If you go 'don't shoot my friends or I'll jump', and then you jump anyway before your friends have made it to safety, your friends are likely to get shot!

I enjoy Seymour's 'Hm? Hadn't you heard?' to the other maester when Yuna reveals that Seymour killed his own father. He's not in my top three Final Fantasy villains (that'd be Ardyn, Seifer and Kuja), but I enjoy him more than I remembered. Final Fantasy villains basically divide in my head into 'interesting' (Ardyn, Seifer, Kuja, Kefka, Seymour) and 'uninteresting' (Vayne, Ultimecia, Sephiroth (fight me), Barthandelus), and Seymour makes the 'interesting' cut.

I'm curious about how Seymour feels about Yuna. He's prepared to let the others go to prevent her from jumping off the building, and he argues against her execution. He asks her to marry him, obviously. (It's weird to remember that Yuna and Seymour do technically end up married!) Is there anything genuine there?

I got a bracer with Death Ward for Auron. I keep picturing Tidus giving it to him and going 'can't have you getting yourself killed' while Auron is just struggling not to laugh.



I think Tidus/Yuna is probably my favourite canonical Final Fantasy pairing. The characters click somehow. I wouldn't say I'm particularly invested in it - I wouldn't seek out fanworks - but it's endearing.

There are definitely canonical pairings I love and am invested in, but none of them are in Final Fantasy games, which is a little surprising when I think about it. There aren't even that many non-canonical Final Fantasy pairings I love. There's Celes/Sabin, Squall/Zell and Serah/Hope, and then you hit Final Fantasy XV, where I suddenly ship everything.
runicmagitek: (white mage ; ffix)

[personal profile] runicmagitek 2021-05-07 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
The Cloisters of Trials are deeply tedious. Whose idea was this? Who went, 'Ah, yes, let's include trial-and-error puzzles where the player character has to physically run long distances in order to try things out?'

RIGHT???? Those were by far my least favorite parts of the game when I was replaying it.

I also wondered that same thing with the surnames! Or if the human species has a different name, like Final Fantasy XII's humes or something.

Wakka's probably the Final Fantasy X character I like least, but it is interesting to have a very devout character in the party for a traditional 'kill God' storyline.

It is!! I wasn't big on him when I first played and REALLY did not like him with my recent replay, but he's a nice contrast to their "kill god" plan in the long run.

I feel you both with Tidus/Yuna and canonical pairings in the series. I wouldn't seek out fanworks of them, just like you, but Tidus/Yuna worked for the story, especially in comparison to the other canonical pairings (hell, I love Squall/Rinoa, but there's A LOT of plot holes to jump over for that one).
runicmagitek: (rebel princess ; ffviii)

[personal profile] runicmagitek 2021-05-08 11:12 am (UTC)(link)
Oh I love your username backstory! Thanks so much for sharing 🥰 I very much remember having "oh no..." moments with usernames when I was a teenager... and then dropped them after a year. Kudos to you for keeping it alive! And Riona is definitely pretty! 💕

Also RE: Squall/Rinoa, I feel like the older I get, the more lukewarm I feel about them :\ very eager to read your insights with them (and in general) when you dive back into VIII!
queenlua: (Default)

[personal profile] queenlua 2021-05-12 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
your username origin story is EXTREMELY charming omg, thank you for sharing

my own memories of FFX are a bit less fresh than yours, as it's been some years since i played the game, but—i always found it in-hindsight ironic that i was gifted the game on a Very Religious Holiday, given just how, uh, on-the-nose the game is with its "kill God" plotline :P (relatedly, the first time i played, i really appreciated Wakka and he might've been my favorite. having had, uh, nontrivial experience with a certain variety of religious fundamentalism in my youth, there was something very ouch familiar in watching his arc, and it was very satisfying to see someone turning against all that—unhappily! while feeling a lil betrayed and hurt! and still not sure exactly How It All Went Wrong!—but still managing just the same. the whole cast is so good though, happy sigh, lots of competition lol)

also i had a friend in high school who was totally fixated on this game, like, was absolutely speedrunning it before speedrunning was much of a thing; you set him alone in a room with a PS2 for a few minutes and he'd be booting up a new save. honestly it was kind of delightful to just watch while he steamrolled baddies & quoted along with all the scenes; he was very surface-level Star Football Player Jock Guy that you'd never expect to have this fierce tireless love for this random JRPG, but indeed he did!
queenlua: (Default)

[personal profile] queenlua 2021-06-08 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
hahaha, i've totally done the same thing with comments before, no worries & delighted to have charmed :)
pict: (pic#9434645)

[personal profile] pict 2021-05-07 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Auron never explains anything. Just makes cryptic statements and does his own thing.

Yeahhhh. Auron is my Unfavourite for this exact reason. Having been through the Final Summoning as a witness/guardian and survived, he knows Yunalesca is empty -- but I never got the impression he cares to tell Yuna this, even though she is his dear friend's child and is preparing to end her life at seventeen. He doesn't have a plan like so many fans think he does, he just has a vague promise to fulfil. Tidus and Yuna are only seventeen, they're children with cheeky baby faces, but his crypticisms mean they suffer a lot of extraneous pain that open communication on his part could have avoided.

And I will fight you, but because you called Vayne uninteresting! Meet me in the pit at sundown.
Edited 2021-05-07 18:05 (UTC)
pict: (pic#9557274)

[personal profile] pict 2021-05-07 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
You deliberately waited until late evening UK time to reply, didn't you.

(Anonymous) 2021-05-07 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
The early cloisters of trials weren't so bad, probably because they're more contained and so feel reasonable. As they get more convoluted (especially as you also have to get destruction spheres, some of which you only have one change to get), it becomes more frustrating. I remember hating Bevelles. (And I don't think I was too fond of another one either... Macalania, I think?).

Auron never explains anything. Just makes cryptic statements and does his own thing.

And that is why we love him. (I still remember you used to make tons of polls back in the day and you did FF favourite character polls, and once you made a subsequent FF10 poll that was just "Not including Auron, who is your favourite FF10 character?" which I thought was hilarious.) The Auron and Tidus interactions will always be my favourite parts of FF10.

'If she dies, I wouldn't know what to do.'

I read this as not knowing how to deal with a child, especially a child who you're planning to drag into the chaos of Spira to murder his dad. You don't want to start caring for him and being his caretaker and then having to do that!

My take on the Al Bhed was that they weren't the greatest of long term planners. Stop the immediate issue, then worry about what to do about it later! I forget the timeline and some exact plot points; weren't the Al Bhed involved with the Crusaders on their take out Sin with weapons plotline, or am I misremembering? If so, depending on when this event took place in the timeline, there's a possibility that they were holding them so they could go and do their (very failed) thing?

I do like Wakka. He embodies some typical FF tropes, but he also feels rather different and he gets some decent development from his deep religious respect to, as you say, fighting God (while still never quite losing his faith, which is interesting to me). He's definitely not a perfect character, but I know you're on the same page as me with liking characters v agreeing with characters viewpoints.

I never liked the Seymour and Yuna plotline since I always felt it comes out of nowhere and drags down the pace, but I've never been a big fan of Seymour. Maybe I'd appreciate him a bit more on replay?

Interesting that Ardyn and Sephiroth aside, you mostly prefer the older villains and find the newer ones less fascinating. Sephiroth is a funny one as how much is he in FF7 anyway? I never quite understood that bit: surely at least at his earliest appearances he must actually be Jenova(?) since isn't his body found later? Am I misremembering?

He's prepared to let the others go to prevent her from jumping off the building, and he argues against her execution.

I don't remember this at all; I really didn't like him and just remember thinking he was a jerk!

I got a bracer with Death Ward for Auron. I keep picturing Tidus giving it to him and going 'can't have you getting yourself killed' while Auron is just struggling not to laugh.

Oh no. Now I'm going to have to do this on my next playthrough as it's hilarious.

Rinoa/Squall was always my childhood OTP. It's also where I first learned about bashing; poor Rinoa, fandom was very unfair to her.

-

I've been replaying FF13 and wanted to try and understand the plot more this time, but got to a point where I just started skipping cutscenes. The sad part is I don't think I have much less understanding of the plot than I did the first time. Still enjoying the combat, though!

-

Also, I forgot to link you to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22MRns7g7KI

It's all the critical status conversations in 13 Sentinels: two for each character; their danger low HP warning, and pilot dying alert. They're only short but it's some nice characterisation. (Plus it's basically people traumatised as their friends die, which is very up your street.) The Gouto one is an interesting one to get earlier on in the story!

-timydamonkey
aestivalis: weapons have been placed aside at the entrance to zanarkand's ruins, a final moment of rest (ffx) (⌈moment of truth⌋)

[personal profile] aestivalis 2021-05-08 01:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I am always so excited when these FF posts come along! And I think I have approximately one million feelings about Final Fantasy X in particular, but you've already received a bunch of long comments so I am going to endeavour to stay on topic and not give you yet another essay to contend with, hahaha. BUT THERE IS JUST SO MUCH TO SAY.

That Rin exchange you highlighted is hilarious but now I am thinking about Rin, and that deep burning sense of betrayal is bubbling up from within me. Of all the unreasonable grudges I hold against unwitting fictional characters, my feelings towards Rin might be the most profound. I will never forgive, Rin. I will never forget.

I'm one of those rare people that considers Wakka a favourite character in FFX, possibly my outright favourite of the whole bunch, and a lot of my joy with him comes from that everyman quality he brings. I don't think the richness of Spira could really be conveyed without a character like Wakka in the party. But that all being said, damn the man is a nightmare to deal with. I am glad you're enjoying what he brings, though!

I love that, even ignoring the fact it's a non-canonical list of pairings, your favourite FF pairings are way off the traditional beaten path. Like, Squall/Zell is probably the most mainstream, but even that one tends to get overshadowed by more beloved options. THIS IS NOT A DISS, I legitimately love this. Celes/Sabin in particular, just because I had never considered it much until you started talking about them!
rosa_heartlily: (Default)

[personal profile] rosa_heartlily 2021-05-09 07:03 am (UTC)(link)
Check out Final Fantasy Peasant's video on how Rin is the real baddy in FFX :D
wheatear: (tifa)

[personal profile] wheatear 2021-05-09 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Wakka's probably the Final Fantasy X character I like least, but it is interesting to have a very devout character in the party for a traditional 'kill God' storyline.

Agree. I don't have strong feelings on Wakka, but I think he's a worthwhile addition to the party because he offers a different perspective.

Final Fantasy villains basically divide in my head into 'interesting' (Ardyn, Seifer, Kuja, Kefka, Seymour) and 'uninteresting' (Vayne, Ultimecia, Sephiroth (fight me), Barthandelus)

I would swap Vayne and Kefka here, but otherwise we have similar opinions! (I think Sephiroth is a very effective villain, but not that interesting a character in his own right.)