Part 87: Episode LXXVIII: Via My Copypaste

Music: Enemy Attack



Between scenes Tidus and the Swim Team have been flushed into the Bevelle sewers area of Via Purifico. How? Why? Huh? Don't worry about it. We're in a water dungeon now. Well... dungeon is a very generous term. If you thought Via Purifico's on-land version was half-assed, then strap on for some lazy level design.





Before we move too far into the Via Purifico Part 2, it's worth noting that Yevon was sporting enough to set up an automated aquatic item shop inside a loot chest floating in the dungeon. Or the designers just tossed a floating chest next to the save spot, had it link to a shop interface, and called it a day. I'll let you adjust your head canon accordingly.



So as far as traveling the underwater section of Via Purifico is concerned, here's the main gimmick: There's this big open tunnel. You swim down it. Sometimes it turns left. Sometimes it turns right. This ends the layout of the dungeon.





There are, of course, some critters floating around the Yevon execution grounds. Namely: Ones copy and pasted with a stat boost and palette swap from the last underwater section in the very beginning of the game. The mid-boss of the derelict Fahrenheit has been downgraded to a common enemy encounter without any of the positioning gimmicks the game brought up and quickly abandoned after the first couple areas.



Accompanying them are also these bizarre looking electric fish that will waste several turns charging up an attack. Too bad the party will almost certainly slay them before they can pop it off (they just steal Kazooie's Sonic Wing.)



Apparently there's a fourth enemy type that is an over-sized fish with a bull head but hell if I could get it to spawn before I stopped caring. It doesn't really matter either way as the random encounters are just a token gesture in case Wakka and Rikku are underleveled. For you see, about a minute of swimming forward in this dungeon and...





It is boss battle time! They actually did leave a guardian of sorts for this leg of the Via Purifico, unlike the surface where they quickly scrambled to throw the first mildly capable Yevon loyal idiot in the path of Yuna and company just immediately strolling out.



Though, as it turns out, Yevon may have half-ass scrambled to fill in the dungeon security hole of the sewer Via Purifico as well. For you see, the boss of this area is...



Evrae Again Altana. Yep. They just copy and pasted the last proper boss battle with a palette swap. Have I mentioned Bevelle felt like a hurriedly stitched together mess recently?



Yes the wyrm of Bevelle is back. The implication is this is, in fact, the same monster. Chiefly because it comes innately inflicted with a status effect we've yet to encounter in Final Fantasy X: Zombie. Yes, you can really see the dignity of the blue palette. Signifying the deep sorrow of a magnificent beast to a slow and possibly endless descent into ruin. Or it's just a lazy boss fight. You decide!

This does raise the question as to whether bosses and other fiends need to be sent too or else they're just going to come back as zombie versions of spirits of the dead... That's like three layers of being dead, Spira. Give it a rest!





So this fight has a Trigger Command gimmick where we can have the party burn two turns to open the locks on a gate trapping them in the room with Zombie Evrae.







There is a semi-lengthy animation of the party fleeing while the apparently aquatic undead beast is utterly incapable of keeping pace with three humans' breast stroke.





There's no particular advantage to this the first time around. But the party can opt to do it a second time at another gate they reach.





Each time the party uses the gate fleeing gimmick, they swim by a treasure chest in a cutscene. Yep, we're missing loot doing this nonsense!



However, the third gate the party reaches doesn't have glass paneling. So the party can swim right through it while Evrae is trapped on the other side. Evrae Altana's main threat is it counter attacks for nearly 1,000 HP each time it's struck. In this position, that is knocked out.

It can instead use the Photon Rays attack it commanded when the airship flew out of range back during the first round against the foe. And there's some nasty business with it still having Stone Gaze, which underwater will instantly result in a Stoned party member shattering into bits. It's this whole thing I don't think any of us want to bother with...



So let's back up a bit to the beginning of the battle. Remember the Zombie status the undead Evrae had? Zombie is a strange status where healing items or spells will instead hurt the afflicted party. Since... I guess that sort of makes a weird sense, being undead and all. I mean if you restored a zombie to life, you would technically be killing the zombie incarnation of that creature, right? I think... Look. That's the logic Final Fantasy is putting forth. Just roll with it...



So, what's the strongest way to heal a character? Why, a Phoenix Down of course! It heals them from death unless cutscenes demand it. That's fairly potent!





And wouldn't you know, a Phoenix Down tossed Evrae's way takes off 50% of its HP. Normally, Life spells or Phoenix Downs will instant-kill Zombie status effected characters/enemies. However, Evrae Altana is immune to Instant Death being a boss and all. It's in their union contracts.





So we'll have to go the extra mile and use TWO Phoenix Downs. Boy, that takes us like 200 gil in the hole.









...Aaaaaaand that's a wrap. Two Phoenix Downs and we're done here. They were doubly concerned players might have a crappy Wakka and Rikku on hand for this mandatory Swim Team party. So they threw in a contingency that makes this literally the easiest boss in the entire game. There is one down side to our easy victory, however...

Music Ends...



So in those Trigger Command gimmicky bits of the boss battle, the party quickly blasted past most of Via Purifico's sewer in a couple of ten second scenes. That is... no longer an option if you immediately cream Zombie Evrae. The game just dumps the party exactly where the boss battle began and you've got to swim the rest of the way.





Sure, you can get some extra loot along the way. Wakka picks up a new blitzball that comes equipped with Evade & Counter. Which is pretty nice for dealing with trash mobs. It does just as it says on the box. Wakka will evade (more often at least) physical attacks and immediately counter with one of his own. Even if the evasion fails, he'll still get a free counter.



Tidus gets Avenger, a lackluster sequel to Evade & Counter where two factions just hit each other in the face back and forth until three hours of your life has been wasted and you drive home dissatisfied and $30 poorer.



Beyond that... there is nothing left to Via Purifico. It's just... a bunch of swimming in silence for a solid four minutes straight...



...The switched off the music after the Evrae battle ended. You cannot move faster than the on-land walking speed while swimming. And all the random battles got scared away... Just watching Tidus slowly swim down a poorly lit gray hallway for nearly five minutes...



I hate Bevelle...






Video: Episode 78 Highlight Reel