Part 115: Episode CV: Our Last Lessons

Music: Darkness







Democracy works sometimes. Occasionally. But not very well. I mean, the Hocus Pocus names were clearly the best options. But even I must abide by the rules put forth or else chaos would reign. The Magus Sisters are now re-dubbed Ozzie, Slash, and Flea after of course Ozzy Osbourne, former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea. There was also this Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross games that may have had a trio possessing the same names. I dunno.



The Magus Sisters themselves hail from Final Fantasy IV, in which they were... kind of just a mid-boss lackey squad of the Archfiend Barbariccia fought in The Tower of Zot. And... no that's literally it. They were a forgettable mid-boss team from Final Fantasy IV and have never appeared again in the series until now. It's kind of a baffling deep cut reference choice.

I know Final Fantasy IV is really popular in Japan, but was there some deep fandom for this goofy one-off boss fight encounter? I don't even think they had lines.



Well, whatever. There's no further fanfare for the retrieval of the final aeons of Final Fantasy X. Take 'em and go!



But we are not leaving just yet. Now that we've obtained The Magus Sisters, Belgemine offers new summoning challenges for the three optional aeons, beginning with Yojimbo. Your funeral, lady. I mean... were you not already dead.


Music: Normal Battle





Well, I think we can manage a choice aeon selection here. Let's try out our new toy, shall we?







A trio of seeds descend from the heavens and sprout beautiful flowers which immediately tank the real estate value of Remiem Temple by punching holes in the temple floor. Do you know how expensive it is to get a mason to The Calm Lands?!





Using arcane life-giving summoner techniques, of which Yuna apparently possesses now, Yuna sprinkles magic dust all over the newly sprouted flowers. And from within the blossom, out pops...



Slash – The Tall One!!



Ozzie – The Fat One!!



And Flea – The Underaged One!



And so Yuna gains a sassy posse years before Final Fantasy X-2 was even envisioned! Meet The Magus Sisters.



The Magus Sisters are a bit weird to use. Yuna does not have direct control over them like most aeons. She instead, can only suggest actions for each sister and they will randomly choose what they will do. 'Do as you will' results in a random action. 'Help each other!' will cause healing and buffing actions for the group. There's also 'Go! Go! Go!' which will result in a random offensive attack. And if all three sisters fill their Overdrive meter, they can combine their powers for a big all-out Overdrive attack.





Cindy Ozzie knows a few third tier magic spells (and also Holy), but her bag is mostly healing and support. She has access to Cura, Dispel, Might Guard, Regen, Shell, Protect. She also has Camisade, a giant butt stomp that hurts like heck. Since she's fat so of course she has a butt stomp.





Mindy Flea is all about offense and is probably the single strongest aeon in the game. She knows all the third tier magic spells plus Flare and Ultima. But most importantly is this attack here: Passado.



This attack is a win button against any normal enemy in the game. And just about every normal boss as well. It doesn't seem like it's doing a lot of damage here because it's a physical attack and Belgemine's Yojimbo is quite sturdy. But it does hit 15 times. 5,000 HP x 15 is... if my calculations are correct...







Yojimbo is toast. We didn't even get to use Sandy Slash. She's all physical attacks all the time. Quite hard hitting ones. But only the one. It's kind of hard to show off the Magus Sister's abilities when they smoke everything instantly and what they choose to do is randomized. Rest assured, they're pretty good. Especially against foes that cannot be downed in a couple of rounds.

Agnes' big drawback is that she is slow as hell and if you cannot finish a battle in a turn or two, she's going to have to tank several rounds of punishment to try it again. Magus Sisters do not have such a problem.



Our reward for ganging up on and stomping Yojimbo are 8 Shadow Gems. Which could be used to teach an aeon Demi. If you wanted to do that for some weird reason.



Belgemine wants to continue with this farce. It's all she really has going for her these days. So let's not disappoint her.



Next up is Anima. Which dates Belgemine's death to within the last twenty years or so. Given Seymour's Mother didn't win the Parent of the Year award until Seymour was eight and the undead creeper is only 28 now. Unless the unsent can still collect aeons... Best not to think about it to much.





We'll bring the Magus Sisters out for another go with a Grand Summon by Yuna to fill their Overdrive gauges. Now we can have the flower... insect siblings go all Captain Planet in combining their powers to bring down the heavy metal album cover aeon.



Well, at least in theory we can. Have I mentioned the Magus Sisters, especially Ozzie, will sometimes decide they're not in the mood to listen to Yuna's suggests. That's fine... Take your time, ladies.



Slash was at least more responsive to the Overdrive suggestion. And so the trio performs Delta Attack.



Ozzie butt-stomps so hard, it draws her sisters and the enemy into another dimension. As you do. Seizure warning for everything that follows...











It's a very trippy display to get to the ultimate goal of just hitting the damage cap. It's almost impossible not to hit the damage cap with this overdrive.





Like Anima's Overdrive, the original Japanese and North American version of this attack is bugged/not working as intended. It's supposed to hit six times, not just once. It's fixed in the PAL/International/HD Remaster versions of the game.



Our reward is a boat load of Stamina Springs. These can be used to teach Drain on an aeon. Again... not sure of the point of doing so. But sure, Belgemine. I'm sure there's a pro-strat using it.





Regardless, one more round against Belgemine to go in order to finish up this side quest. We just obtained the Magus Sisters and now it's time to turn around and do battle against them.



Yeah no problem. Challenge accepted. I came into this side quest prepared.







Good old Agnes Guado had an Oblivion Overdrive tucked away for a rainy day like this one. She could have also easily just used her basic attack to one-shot each of the sisters individually. But c'mon. How many times is Oblivion going to be an appropriate use of force against a boss?





It was a nice try, Belgemine. I bet you didn't start this training challenge thinking that Valefor would be the only of your aeons not to get one-shot by Yuna's crack team of bizarrely named summons.


Music: Darkness



Our reward for besting the enemy combatant Magus Sisters lets us teach an aeon Flare, if you're into that kinda thing. To this day, I don't believe I have ever bothered teaching any aeons new tricks. Yeah, lemme dig up McGruff and teach him Flare. That'll bring him back to the forefront of relevance!



*chuckle* “That's not possible.”
“Huh?”



“My work here on Spira is done. Time for me to go.”
“...”



Geez, Auron. Really eager to disintegrate the undead. We're given a choice as to whether or not we Send Belgemine. Though it is a false choice. The only way to complete the side quest is to perform the sending. If refused, Belgemine will just awkwardly stand around waiting in silence until Yuna does her duty.



Auron doesn't seem to mind hanging out for this Sending, unlike most other instances where he bailed immediately. Is it some kind of focused magic spell? Or thought it was an AOE thing. Or maybe there's different version of the Sending depending on if it's a group or individual. Meh... I'm thinking about this harder than the writers of Final Fantasy X ever did.





RIP Belgemine. You were kind of nothing but filler every time you appeared. But hey, you were one of the friendlier Unsent weirdos we've come across. And besides, with Belgemine's departure from Spira, she coughs up the Moon Sigil to complete Yuna's Nirvana set.



That concludes our time with Remiem Temple in Final Fantasy X. That's blow this side quest hub.







With that all taken care of, we can take yet another visit to the Seed of Resurrection to buff Yuna's Nirvana to full power.



Break Damage Limit and Triple Overdrive come standard equipped in the augmented Nirvana. Additionally, there's the One MP Cost like Lulu's Onion Knight. And Double AP, so Yuna can continue her strength training seminars with Auron at a brisk pace.

Nirvana has the same damage modifier as Lulu's Onion Knight. That is:
(10 + [100 * Yuna's current MP ÷ Yuna's Max MP]) ÷ 110

So the higher MP, the better damage. If you are hitting enemies with Yuna's staff like a crazy person. Additionally, the Moon Crest, which we've had since Besaid Island, broke Kazooie's damage cap. But ya know, good luck having that lame aeon dishing out enough damage to capitalize it until well past its point of obsolescence.



But at the end of the day, we've completed yet another Final Fantasy X Endgame side quest. Two in a row, in fact. Another Celestial Weapon down. All the aeons collected. If the end of the tunnel was blighted by Blitzball and Chocobo Racing, I'd say we might be able to see some light.

Alas... Final Fantasy X's Endgame marches onward into darkness...






Video: Episode 105 Highlight Reel (Recommend Viewing: SEIZURE WARNING!)





The Magus Sisters Official Art