Part 109: Episode XCIX: Our Heads Together

Music: To the End of the Abyss



Welp. That's a wrap on the Zanarkand Ruins. We are now officially in the end game stretch of Final Fantasy X. If you just mainlined the critical path there is... maybe two or three hours left of the game. If it were possible to skip cutscenes? Like 45 minutes. An hour, tops. Unfortunately, our completionist road stretches a bit longer than that.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's sort out business on the airship first.



So in addition to linking directly to the purgatory realm of blitzball, all Save Spheres now are a fast travel conduit straight back to the Fahrenheit. How did Rin manage to master teleportation technology? You got me. He's on the airship and has no comment beyond offering overpriced weapons and standard items for sale.

Either way... spiffy!





We're in another segment of the game where we need to wander about to find the next plot advancement flag. Everyone on the bridge just has a line about thinking things over carefully. Unfortunately, nobody here is going to conjure up any bright ideas while Tidus is hanging around. So we'll have to look elsewhere for that dubious plot advancing person of interest.



Spoilers: It's the only two people who are not on the bridge. At the back of the airship we find Yuna and Kimahri staring off into space.



There's also Al Bhed with designs of carpet bombing Bevelle and Guadosalam with the Fahrenheit. A lot of the Al Bhed on board are kind of pissed about the whole Home nuking thing, now that some time to get over the initial shock has subsided. Thankfully, the Al Bhed cool off by the time Final Fantasy X-2 rolls around.

The Ronso on the other hand, are ALL about marching on Guadosalam and committing some Guado genocide. There is a sidequest to cool race relations between the two sub-human factions. Or just go “fuck 'em”, ignore the quest, and leave the Ronso to rend the tree elves asunder.


Music: Someday the Dream Will End



"What are you talking about?"
”It was your first time. Don't sweat it.”
“...What?”
“Wait... What are we talking about...?”
"All this time, I've been thinking about how to defeat Sin. But I... Beyond the teachings of Yevon, I... I know nothing.”
”We saw the Al Bhed's machina is no match for Sin and I don't think we alone could just... fly up and start hacking away at it.”
*rubs chin* “Hmm...”
“I'm sorry."
"Yuna, no apologies."
"Huh?"

Kimahri half into frame. Ronso have always been terrible at stage blocking...



“Yuna never run away."
"Thank you, Kimahri."
”Dude we have totally bailed a few times. Remember when we iced Seymour the first time?”
*growl*
“Err... Yeah Yuna never runs. Ha ha...”
"So, uh, Kimahri... You got any good ideas?"
"Yevon's teachings."
”...So no.”
"The teachings won't help us fight Sin."
"No answer in the teachings, answers lie outside. Must know both sides to find answer."
*ponders* "Both sides..."
"Mika knows much. Find him, make him talk."
*fist pump* "That's it! Kimahri! You rock!”
”I forgot all about that old geezer. Hell yeah! Let's go kick the pope's ass!”
“What is a... 'pope'? And if you're talking about Mika, I don't think there won't be any need for violence. At least... once we get to him.”
“Oh c'mon. He's like a 100 year old evil zombie dude. We're totally gonna have to fight him.”
*shrugs and nods in agreement*
“Yes... alright. It is likely at this point...”

Welp. We now have our actual end game triggering destination of Bevelle: Round 2. Before we head back to the bridge to tell everyone the good news of possible plot progression, we can speak with Kimahri and Yuna one more time for a bit more chatter.



“He'll have to run pretty fast to beat this airship!”
“We cannot chase if we cannot see. We must go to Bevelle.”



This is all I can picture going on in Tidus' head on chasing down Mika in an airship.



“Through the front door! You worried?”
”I mean after taking on that crazy Yunalesca death head thing, I'm pretty sure we can take the entire Yevon army no problem if we had to...”
“I'll be fine. We can't stop now.”
”Like... really. We CAN'T stop now. Literally.”
“Yep. Kinda exciting not to be railroaded anymore. Ya know?”
“Maybe we'll find answers in Bevelle.”



Alright. Back to Bevelle it is. Let's head to the bridge and tell everyone the good news that it's time to stab and throw sports balls at an old man.



This is a highly unlikely scenario you are presenting me with, Wakka.



This statement still holds true. Also, Rikku... are the front and back halves of your shirt held together with belts? Goddammit, Nomura.



Wakka smacks Rikku's hand away. Cuz they're pals now trying to playful one-up each other. Haha... Remember when Wakka was super racist against the Al Bhed and wanted to kick Rikku out of the party? Haha... Yeah.



"The Hymn is the key."
“Gaaaah!”



"Sir Jecht likes the Hymn of the Fayth, correct?"



”I... guess...? I mean he listened to a bunch of crummy buttrock too. You ever heard that Otherworld song...?”
"That's why he was listening to it in Macalania!"
"Sin... violence incarnate, listening peacefully."
”Yeah... I guess... Like Sin was just hanging out in Zanarkand earlier too and there was no hymn then. Maybe Sin is just weird.”
“Yes well... I don't know what to make of that... Hear us out.”



*rubs neck* "I know it's your old man, and I don't mean no disrespect, but..."
"No, it's fine. I've gotten used to it."
”Not like you can do say anything offensive. He's a big nightmare walking disaster monster. And that was before he turned into a doom whale.”
"Let me say it. If we attack Sin head-on, we've little chance of winning. However, if he hears the Hymn of the Fayth, he will become docile."
"Yeah, and that's when we make our move! Might be against the rules and all, but who's keeping track, ya? Ya?!"
”...Nobody is keeping track, right. I don't need to hear it...”
"Yeah! It could really work!"



”We're assuming a REAL lot here and I'm not sure what kinda move we're going to pull that wouldn't just immediately piss Sin off like if we'd taken it head on. But man... whatever. Best plan I've heard so far by virtue of being the only one! Let's do it!”


Music: Start



Now that all of that is settled, we at long last finally have access to the Fahrenheit airship. All of Spira is now our oyster. Cid has been crudely transmogrified into a GUI for our airship control. What do we need a “NavMap” for? Well... yeah about the airship control... Err. Don't get too excited.



We've actually just unlocked fast travel. What did you think an actual overworld map with a flyable airship was going to pop 93% of the way into the game? I'm afraid not, sport. This is all we get.



It's not even a particularly great fast travel either. While every single Save Sphere can be used to transport the party straight back to the airship, the airship itself can only plop us down in a single point in each major location. Usually it is the first Save Sphere encountered in the region. Kind of a bummer.





But we can add a few additional locations to our map grid via two separate methods. The first is inputting passwords. A thousand years ago the Al Bhed transcribed secret passwords to an ancient site known as “GameFAQs”. These ancient tomes are still in working condition to this day.

There are some Al Bhed coded riddles throughout Spira that will clue you in on these hidden map locations. I think the first one we encountered was by the ruins where we fought Kimahri as Tidus. They've cropped up a few locations along the way. I've probably pointed out a few. But let's be honest here. Nobody with access to the internet has ever fucking gone to the effort of remembering and returning to the locations of these hints after they've collected all the Al Bhed Primers.



If you at home did, congrats! You spent your time poorly, you dope. There are three passwords we can input in the NavMap. They are completely static and just looking them up and punching them in will unlock their bounty.

The passwords are, in all caps:

• VICTORIOUS
  
• GODHAND
  
• MURASAME
  

This unlocks two new locations in Besaid Island and a location in Mushroom Rock. We'll see what that's all about at another time.



The second method of tracking down hidden map locations is searching for map coordinates manually. We have control over the X and Y axis. Z is automatically set according to elevation. Not sure why they included that much detail.

Again, there have been scattered hints of these locations throughout the game. And again, just look it up, who cares? You can just look it up and save time. Lining up the actual coordinates are rather iffy and it's best to kind of jam on X in the vaguely right place. The game is generous enough that it ought to register.



For instance, the first location is located roughly at X=11 - 16 Y=57 - 63. If we can hit without those parameters, the search will be successful.

Baaj Temple is one of the hidden locations. Perhaps the most important of the lot. If you'll recall, this is where Tidus landed in Spira proper waaaaay back in the very beginning of our adventure. We still have a bone to pick with that giant murder fish that attempted to make a meal of Tidus. And there may be more to that sunken temple than Tidus' whining about going without a meal for three hours exploration would have led us to believe.



Next up is the Battle Site at (X 39 – 43, Y 56 – 60). This might sound like a pretty metal location. Naw dog. It's just a treasure chest. Indeed, several of these hidden map locations are just a Save Sphere next to an otherwise inaccessible treasure chest.



Like the Besaid Falls at (X 29 – 32, Y 73 – 76.) There's a treasure chest. It's behind those falls. On Besaid. Yes, the ones we passed on the way out. They're not going to make new falls just to stick a treasure chest. The game has already stitched together enough elements as it is.



(X 33 – 36, Y 55 – 60) say remember that pretty ruins in the sunset where Yuna made a suicide note audio log? Guess where this leads!



(X 12 – 16, Y 41 – 45). It's just a box.



Finally at (69 – 75 X, 33 – 38 Y) we have the Omega Ruins. This is the bonus end game dungeon where the super boss of Final Fantasy X may dwell. At least prior to the great Euro-International Schism which rained countless shitty super bosses across all of Spira. This will probably be our last stop of the End Game roundabout before tackling Sin. Assuming my will to live hasn't been sapped and I just go fuck it! We're going to the end!

I reserve the right to pull the breaks and charge the end game at any time.



With that in mind, you chucklefucks can decide amongst yourselves what we tackle first in our Final Fantasy X End Game extravaganza. There's a handy little poll below you can vote in! I'll tackle end game content in the order of popularity. There's a few items I have left off as we've still not met a few requirements. And Omega Ruins is obviously last to hit.

Feel free to shit on any of the upcoming content at your leisure. No unmarked spoilers on stuff with plot still or stuff beyond Bevelle Revisit. Gameplay? Whatever the fuck. Don't care! Go hog wild. Blitzball is for jerks and Chocobo Races suck rancid ass.


***** CLICK TO VOTE ON END GAME ACTIVITIES! *****






Video: Episode 99 Highlight Reel