Part 129: Episode CXVIX: Our Giant Dad

Music: Other World ~ Braska's Final Aeon (Recommended Listening)



Welcome to the final boss of Final Fantasy X: Braska's Final Aeon aka Tidus' Giant Dad. Too often games featuring characters with daddy issues choose to resolve 'em before the final act and moving on to go punch out god or what have you. Not here. We're doing this right. Giant demon dad. Let's go!

You may notice Braska's Final Aeon has gained a couple of friends since we transitioned to battle.





These are the Yu Pagodas and they're real jerks. Their primary function is using Power Wave on Super Jecht, which boosts the aeon's Overdrive meter as well as heals it for 1,500 HP. That's a bit of a nuisance, to say the least.





Now, we can attack the Yu Pagodas. They're fairly resistant to magic, but they're chumps against physical strikes. But there is an issue with that. They cannot be destroyed, only temporarily stopped for around the equivalent of three turns. After the disabled Pagoda will revive, this time with more HP. The exact amount of HP on revival is determined by how much damage was dealt killing it.

A Yu Pagoda begins with 5000 HP. If we took it down with two attacks hitting for 4000 and 3500, when it revives its HP will be 7500. And this continues to be cumulative. So if we use weapons against it that break the damage cap, the Yu Pagoda will quickly see their total HP rise to the five plus digit range. As such, it's best to just use less overpowered attacks like high level magic (Flare, Holy) that are damaging, but won't break the bank disabling 'em.

Alternatively, to cast Slow and try to power past their being a pain in the butt.









If only one of the Yu Pagodas are active, they cannot use Power Wave. So instead, their solo act consists of stealing one of our characters' MP or throwing the book at us with status effects. A solitary Yu Pagoda can also cast Dispel if we're getting fancy casting buffs.





But enough about the Yu Pagodas. Just keep in mind they're a constant factor in the background of this and possibly future battles. Braska's Final Aeon begins with not a whole lot of tricks in its bag. Obviously, the big worry is the slowly ticking up Overdrive meter being aided by the Yu Pagodas. Beyond that, Jecht 2.0 has a force push that hits for 2000+ HP as his most generic attack.





Jecht Beam (what, did you think a super powered Jecht wouldn't name half of his attacks after himself?) is a very weak attack. However, it can cause petrify. And Jecht's force push can shatter petrified characters. That would be a bad scene to go down during the final boss battle...







Tidus has a Trigger Command that allows him to yell at his dad. Jecht will forfeit his next turn and his Overdrive meter will empty. We can only use this TWICE during the entire battle. After that it no longer becomes effective. Spoilers: This isn't the part of the battle we want to burn an Overdrive mulligan.



Speaking of Overdrives, Jecht has a few at his disposal. His primary one early on is Triumphant Grasp. I'm sure it would be Jecht's Triumphant Grasp but it couldn't fit in the space and Jecht's Grasp sounds like a masturbation joke.









This attack just involves grabbing one of our active party, exploding his fist while they are still in his grasp, then fucking dunking them back on the ground dealing 1000-2000 HP of damage for both the fist explosion and the dunk.

Tidus, Jecht does not approve of you boning his boy Braska's little girl. He's just showing it in a weird, violent way.





As a rather half-assed alternative to the Triumphant Grasp, Giant Dad will use Jecht Bomber on any summoned rival aeons. It is err... just a small explosion that does less than 1000 HP of damage. I think someone went “oh wait SHIT the battle shits the bed if he tries to pick up and dunk Agnes or Bahamut” and this was a cheap solution.



Anyway, that's about it for Braska's Final Aeon! Only 60,000 HP to burn through here. Nothing too bad.



After clearing the 60,000 HP hurdle, the floating Zanarkand Abes symbol in the skybox ignites to signify it's time to move on to Round 2! Braska's Final Aeon does not have a second form. Here's clearly already perfect in every way. Just look at him. You cannot surpass Giant Dad Jecht.



So what is Braska's Final Aeon going to do for Round 2, you ask? Well that's simple...





He's going to pull a massive fuck-off 30 foot sword out of his goddamn chest. What did you think would happen? Braska's Final Aeon does all things metal as fuck.



Giant Sword Dad has increased his HP to 120,000 for the second phase. You know Omega Weapon's HP setting was borked when the actual storyline final boss of the game ends up having twice as much health.





The only new attack Super Jecht has gained is the ability to just wreck the entire party for 2000+ HP at will with his sword. That doesn't replace his unnamed force push or anything. He's just mixing it up.

In phase two, we want to save those Trigger Commands to drain Jecht's Overdrive meter. Otherwise (once he drops down to 30% health and begins using it) we may get hit with this:



The Ultimate Jecht Shot. Of course! What did you think would be Jecht's ultimate attack? It's the one everyone kept coming to games waiting to see and buddy, this is Jecht's final performance.







First of all, we'll just go ahead and pull everyone into space for a moment here. Or whatever is the equivalent of space in a pocket dream dimension occupying a flying doom whale in stasis.







No half-measures for the ball while performing Jecht's ultimate shot. No less than a flaming meteor from deep space will do here.









And then said meteor is just dunked on the entire party for 3000-4000 HP of damage. Short. Sweet. To the point. Dunking on nerds from space. There aren't nerds on other planets we need to blow up. The sun hasn't done anything. There are nerds right here in front of Braska's Final Aeon and they're getting dunked on right in front of him. That's all you need! That's all you fucking need!



Beyond that? Yeah that's pretty much all there is to Braska's Final Aeon. The guy isn't particularly resistant to anything of note. Heck, he can even be poisoned, even if it takes some doing. It's just a matter of managing the Yu Pagodas and dumping on him. I had to unequip Wakka, Auron, and Tidus' Celestial Weapons until the back half of the fight, otherwise they'd wreck him with our end game equipment on counter-attacks in no time.

Sorry Giant Dad. Final Fantasy X isn't balanced for shit.

Music ends...







As Braska's Final Aeon keels over, a glowing black and red orb emerges from its defeated form. Say hi to Yu Yevon! At least the spectral form of Yu Yevon. We'll see his physical form... such as it is... later on.





First we have to deal with Tidus' father exploding and the fallout from that, eh?







Jecht has seen better days. Or he's drunk... It's kind of hard to tell with that guy.






Music: Someday the Dream Will End







Tidus runs over and catches his dad before he collapses. It's not a hug, alright! Shut up you guys!





”Nuh-uh.”
“Oh yeah? Hehe. Your Asian Stunt Double ain't holding it together so well.”
“...”



“Told ya.”
*sniff* “Damn it, dad...”

Tidus stands up...



"Save it for later."
"Right... We've got a job to do, don't we?"
“...” *sits up*



“...”
“You know... for the first time, I'm glad... to have you as my... father.”



“Heh.”



“I should...”



”Err... You are Yuna, right? I mean you've got the eye thing and the summoning and stuff... Err... just assuming.”
“Yes.”
“Phew. Alright...”







Yu Yevon has just kinda been sputtering around the field for a while now. This is all emotional and all, but we ought to maybe do something about that...



“The aeons..."



Oh hey, Ghost Kid. Good to know you can warp into any dream realities for dramatic effect.







So we never really did discuss how exactly we were going to take out Yu Yevon after we defeated Jecht. For some reason, we cannot just start beating the shit out of him like every other enemy in the game. We're going to have to use the aeons. But, not in the way you'd think. We'll get to that in a bit.









For now, RIP Jecht. You lived as you died. Face down in a blitzball stadium while upsetting your son.



Soooooo... Now what? What does Jecht's death mean for Sin anyway. Yu Yevon is the one piloting. The original Braska's Final Aeon was the buffed up shell used to make Sin's form. Was Jecht like... ripping out the steering wheel of a car or something? I'm not sure how this works.





So for not readily apparent or explained reasons, the only way the party can defeat the doom orb Yu Yevon is to stuff it into another aeon and beat it up that way. Just letting it sputter around in circles here? Not gonna cut it. Nobody is even going to make an effort to toss a blitzball or lob some lighting at it to see if it has any effect.







So tune in next time where we take on Yu Yevon in a sequence I can only describe as... something that definitely probably sounded better on paper than its actual execution. Like I said earlier, Braska's Final Aeon was the final boss. Kinda...






Video: Episode 119 Highlight Reel (Recommended Viewing)





Braska's Final Aeon Concept Art