The Let's Play Archive

Final Fantasy X

by The Dark Id

Part 95: Episode LXXXVI: Test My Haggling Skills

Happy 14th Birthday Final Fantasy X


Music: Silence Before the Storm



Goddamn, Tidus has a stupid outfit. After so long I've gotten used to it. But every once in a while I'll sit down to start typing up a new update, look at that mess of a character design, and just exasperatedly wonder what the hell Tetsuya Nomura was playing at...



Anyway, welcome to The Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. This optional dungeon makes the Via Purifico seem downright intricate. You'll notice a teleporter panel above. It's not for any puzzle. It just pops you back to the entrance once you reach the end. Which all considered was nice of 'em.



The layout of the cavern is entirely this rocky corridor texture repeated in a zig-zaggy line for a ten minute walk. There's occasionally an wider ovalish section of the straight line through the cavern. These are for cutscenes or teleporters. Or both, in the case of the very end of the dungeon.





Every once in a while there will be other lines jutting out from the main path which will have a treasure chest tossed in the middle of 'em. So concludes the entire layout of the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth.



After two or three minutes of walking, the party reaches the first designated cutscene chamber of the cavern.



*shrug* “Don't ask me!”
”Meh. The last one was in the middle of hover-pad Tron. This one is downright mundane in comparison...”



“Huh?”
”How does... that even work...? Was there like a heist or a caper?”
“I... Hmph... It was long ago...”
“...Nice handwave.”



“Without training, they cannot call the Final Aeon. Without the Final Aeon, they cannot defeat Sin. That is why."
"'Cause then the summoner won't die!"
"Mmm... That must be what the thief was thinking."
”Like... you mean THIEVES right? I saw one of those fayth things. That's not exactly something you can just slip into your back pocket on the sly.”







Sure... Except for the part where the thief(s) stashed the fayth in the back of a cavern full of nasty fiends since it's adjacent to a mass grave just outside. And it's fairly common knowledge it's here if Lulu's no-name summoner charge still got ganked going for it. Also the part where Yevon can just write off a compromised fayth like the one here or in Remiem Temple as non-canon and no longer part of the pilgrimage.

They never mention who stole this fayth beyond it presumably being the Al Bhed since... literally no one else in Spira is interested in stopping summoner pilgrimages. Likewise, where the hell temple it was shanghaied from in the past. Or of course the ridiculous logistics involved in pilfering a six ton magic stone floor imbued with the soul of a dead man.



This whole area feels like an idea they came up with early on and never really bothered fleshing out in any way that made sense. But the work and art assets for the fayth/aeon were already done and welp... here we are with another dungeon whipped up in a week by an unpaid intern to fill in the gaps.



Since there's little left of interest level design wise, let's get to the meat of the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth – by which I mean this area has a very high encounter rate and it's just holding forward and doing random battles for half an hour.







Palette swaps of all your favorite critters are out in force. More lizards, scissor leg folk, thorned back acne bulls, robots, fire devils, those dragonish things Auron kills on one hit, and a Dark Elemental are all hanging out to fill in the roster. There are a few new monsters showing up to rumble here...



First up is... hey what in the hell?! Defender X already got downgraded to a common enemy? We fought that guy like ten minutes back! Those lazy ass Guado messengers just lure out a hardy random battle enemy to a new area, slapped an X on its title (these are just Defenders), and called it a boss battle. No work ethic with the Guado youth. Disgraceful.

Defender is just Defender X with 12,000 HP and no Blast Punch and Mighty Guard. So the tactic of having Tidus provoke it is out the window. Technically making it more difficult than its big boss brother.



Next up we have Ghosts. No fancy fantasy title. It's just a lousy ghost. What differentiates a Ghost from an unsent or the like?







Mostly the ability to cast Doom. Doom will afflict its target with a 5 Turn death sentence unless it is dispelled. Which means... err... well, exactly what I said. Once the number above the target's head hits 0 they'll instantly drop dead from a magic heart attack. No ripping and tearing huge guts involved.



It's worth noting this is one of the only places Kimahri can learn his Doom Ronso Rage. Not that we'll ever use any of 'em. But it's the thought that counts.



Next up is another Final Fantasy staple in its pantheon of mascot characters – the Tonberry. These cute little serial killers have been around since Final Fantasy V. Their main gimmick since the series went 3D has usually been having the Tonberry start a decent clip on the battlefield away from the party and having it slooooooowly march toward our team.



This one is no different. Tonberry takes about five turns to get close to the party's range, at which point...





...he will stab a party member directly in the kidney for several thousand damage. Tiny dude in caves that ganks fools in the dark is Tonberry's whole MO. Though Tonberries usually have another odd secondary attack based on obscure stats the party has accumulated up to this point.





While making his slow march to gank range, Tonberry will start counter-attacking characters with Karma. Karma inflicts damage based on the number of total enemies killed x10. So in something like Tidus' case that's 298 fiends he's slain and a bad time for the star player of the Zanarkand Abes. Meanwhile, Karma does a whole... 10 damage to Yuna since aeons don't count and hell if she's bopped anyone to death with her plastic stick at this point.



Last, but not least, is this bizarre enemy: the Magic Urn. Protip: Just run away from this stupid thing. Nothing about this weird gimmick creature is worth bothering with.



Magic Urn has 999,999 and is literally invincible unless an instant-death attack hits like Doom (which takes 255 turns to succeed and is pretty much just a programming error that it works) or another ability we've yet to encounter. Hitting the Magic Urn in one of its (RNG dictated) eyes will result in one of two things...





You hit the “correct” eye and the goofy looking creature within the urn will cough up an item. At best, there is a very small chance of getting an extra Elixir you'll never use. At worst, here's a free 100 gil Phoenix Down. Thanks a bunch.





The alternate and much more likely scenario is that the “wrong” eye will be hit. Again, this is just dictated by the RNG. Though there are different prize pools for the middle character hitting the Magic Urn compared to the two side characters on the field.





Wrong! will cause the goblin inside the urn to leap out with a bomb vest and explode in the faces of the party, damaging everyone for 2000+ HP and ending the battle with a hearty “fuck you!” Again, just Flee from these idiots.



It's also worth noting that there is no getting cute and stealing from a Magic Urn. Sure, it'll work. But the cost for theft against this suicidal genie?







Instead of a suicide vest, it's just going to go ahead and detonate all the C4 it had wired to the cavern and go out in a blaze of glory, taking the entire party with it. Real neighborly of it. Don't mess with the Magic Urn. It's not part of even the tedium that is the Monster Arena capturing slog as it is, again, completely invincible unless taking its own life.





That's about it for challenges in the random battle infested halls of the Cave of the Nicked Ghoststone. There is one final remaining point of interest before we inevitably deal with the final 25% of Lulu's backstory at the end of the cavern system. Right by the save point and boss fight arena opening in the tunnel, there is another treasure alcove to the west.



This contains the penultimate Al Bhed Primer! Today at long last we receive the revelation that [O = Y!] Fufcan!



Now that we've dealt with that bit of knowledge boosting, we're free to follow the only available path to the end of the cave. Good thing too. I think I got some pyreflies up my nose.



“No! An unsent.”



Original Character: DO NOT STEAL!!!




New Music: Lulu's Theme (You should probably listen to this because now is the ONLY time it plays in the entire game.)



“Forgive me. I was too young.”

Reminder: Lulu is now a much older, wiser, and experienced... 22 years old.



Auron, Rikku, and the rest give Yuna the look of “are you going to do your job and sort this out...?”





Yuna begins performing her Sending, unlike when we defeated Seymour the other day. Yes, I'm still annoyed by that, Yuna.





However the Unsent Lady Gimmen is having none of that Sending garbage and deploys a potent seizure beam throughout the cavern. I... guess Unsent can do that now. Or just this one. The Seizure Beam Cannon is never deployed again after this point.



“Very well, then. Allow me to perform my last duty to you. My last as your guardian."





The final challenge of the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth is Lady Gimmen. But, given Lulu's former zombie-ghost charge is a summoner and this is a new aeon's resting spot, no matter if relocated by dubious means, we'll instead be faced against...









Meet Yojimbo and his pup Daigoro – the aeon of the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth and the boss of said cave system. I guess we're to assume Lulu and Gimmen made it to the fayth, got their summon, then then Gimmen tried it out on a Magic Urn and things took a dark turn.

Unlike previous summoner battles, the party does the sensible thing here and just fights like normal against the enemy aeon instead of having a Yuna only face-off. Which is fine, since Yojimbo is incredibly easy.



Really the main threat of this battle is just taking out Yojimbo's 33,000 HP before it can fill its Overdrive gauge. Physical attacks, magic attacks, essentially anything that does damage outside of status effects will work fine against the bodyguard aeon.



Offensive, Yojimbo's only attacks are having his dog headbutt a party member for around 500~ points of damage. Aww... little guy is helping.





He can also use Kozuka to launch a trio of knives at a target for 1000+ damage. It apparently has a third physical attack but hell if it ever bothered to use it on me even when I was trying to coax out its full move list.



Also worth mentioning, Yuna no sells a knife to the knee and forehead like a champ.



I takes actual effort to get Yojimbo's Overdrive bar filled up. I had to get Teen Girl Squad and the ancient 22 year old grandma to come in for a couple dozen turns straight bopping it for less than 100 damage to do the task. But if, in the event, Yojimbo does happen to max out his gauge...



...he will perform his Overdrive: Zanmato. This move is similar to an earlier summon ability in the series: Zantetsuken. Which if you've played those titles...











...you'd know the party on the receiving end is pretty well fucked. Zanmato is an instant kill attack with no way to defend against it. Unless, of course, Yuna summoned an aeon to eat the blow just prior to Yojimbo hitting his Overdrive. But details...







The best way to avoid Zanmato is to never have to deal with it in the first place. Best defense is a good offense and all that rot. Tidus learned his Energy Rain overdrive finishing off Yojimbo with Slice and Dice here. I'll have to remember to show that off another time.



Unfortunately, being an optional aeon battle like Belgemine, the fight against Gimmen and Yojimbo offers no direct rewards.



*wipes eye* “Maybe I've gotten used to farewells."



“I hope you're right.”
”Always told ya that low level run with that summoner wasn't gonna end well.”
*sigh* “It seemed like such a worthy challenge at the time.”





Alrighty then. The best part about having a fayth stolen and dumped into the back of a musty tunnel is no lousy Cloister of Trials to contend with beforehand. This dungeon was boring and had zero effort put forth. But eh... I'll take a few new random battles for a bit over the tedium of Bevelle or Macalania's cloisters any day.



Now that we've reached the end of the dungeon, a teleporter back to the start is open. There are two side rooms with not particularly noteworthy treasures. But of course what we really want to go check out is the Chamber of the Fayth.






New Music: Song of Prayer ~ Yojimbo



Welcome to the stolen fayth. Yep, the thief just dug a hole, draped some carpets into it, set up some Yevon police tape, and called it a day.







Yuna wastes no time getting right to work. Meanwhile, Tidus has officially stopped giving the remotest shit about letting Yuna commune with the fayth in private. Tidus saw what happened with Ghost Kid sneaking a feel on Yuna's assets. That shit's not going to fly anymore now that they're going steady.





The fayth responds to Yuna's prayers. But not exactly in the usual way. For you see, Yojimbo is an asshole.



“Summoner, I ask you. What do you want of me?"



We're given a trio of options to choose from here. All three will advance the dialog. But we want to pick the third option here.





You see, Yojimbo demands we pay for his services as an aeon. A hefty ass 250,000 gil. Choosing Option 1 would have made it 300,000 gil and Option 2 was 270,000 gil. There's no alternate way to obtain Yojimbo. You're required to pay out the ass. What in the hell does a spirit bound to a rock in the back of a cave need with that much money in the first place? Spectral doggie treats?





But the fayth is willing to haggle for the price of services rendered... We're given the ability to make a counter-offer. Yojimbo is fickle with his haggling and if we ask too little then the deal is off and we'll have to return and try again. The key is to go around 100,000 and one gil less than his initial demands the first time around. Half might also work, but it has a chance of pissing him off.





Next round of haggling we'll go in for half and 1 gil of his new offer. Assuming he accepts, we'll move on to the third and final round of negotiations.





We can shave a few grand off at this point, but around 200,000 is as low as Yojimbo is going to go.



Welp. So long to two-thirds of the pilgrimage funding war chest. Kimahri is going to have to cut back on catnip until we reach Zanarkand.



Regardless, Yuna has received yet another aeon. Sure, he already introduced himself as Yojimbo. But shut up idiot. That's just “bodyguard” in Japanese you wannabe samurai tool. Time for a new title, as per tradition.

----- AEON RENAMING: YOJIMBO -----

Let's review the boundaries for naming our new summon...



Whatever consensus the thread reaches or whatever I veto because I find it funny will become this clown's new name for the LP.






Video: Episode 86 Highlight Reel





Yojimbo Concept Art



Early Yojimbo Concept Art



Chamber of the Stolen Fayth Concept Art



Yojimbo Fayth Artwork