Part 48: Episode XL: Hold My Line

Time of Judgment



Welp you jerks decided we ought to tell Gatta to stay put. I’m pretty sure the game defaults to telling him to stay put if we’d just ignored him. We’ll see how that pans out later. For now, it is onward to the command center.



Upon entering we come upon Maester Curly Howard chilling out on his lawn chair. He expresses interest in seeing our band. Specifically, Auron…



“Good to see you, Auron! Ten years, is it?” *chuckles*
“…”



Lulu has caught onto the tell-tale signs that Tidus is moments away from reiterating his obliviousness to all things Spira and cuts to the chase early.



“He leads the warrior monks and also commands the Crusaders."
”…How come he gets a surname? Why don’t I get one?”
“Are you a Maester of Yevon?”
“…No.”
“Then there you go.”
“Weak.”

Gatta runs into the area…



"Good. Dismissed."

"Sir!"

Gatta runs off to sneak into battle and die horribly stick to his post and hope for the best…



“We don't have time for this now, do we?"
”Been keeping up with your question deflection skill, eh?”
“Something like that.”
"This plan won't work, you know that. We'll just let them dream a little longer."
"…What?"
”Just thinking aloud. Pay it no mind…”
*walks into the area* "Lord Kinoc..."
"Oh, yes. Proceed."

A short while later…



Clearly Auron is not impressed with Bishop Babyhead. Though something to ponder… The Crusaders’ plan is to team up with the Al Bhed and their machina in order to defeat Sin. This course of action had the entire organization excommunicated by the church. Except… Cardinal Cookiegobbler here commands the Crusaders and is clearly heading this whole operation. So… how did the Crusaders manage to get on Yevon’s shitlist while following the directives of a top Yevon official?



"I heard that, Auron. A lot has happened in the last ten years. What were you doing, and where?"
”I mean there are only so many places to go in Spira. You can hike across the entire continent in under a month.”
"Fulfilling a promise I made to a friend. I still am."

Auron loses interest and begins walking away…



“Hmph.” *walks away*



”Yeah? What’s new? Tell me when things don’t feel awkward for a change.”
“For just you or in general?”
“I think I’m a lost cause. Especially with Kimahri around…”
“…?”
_{”I don’t think he likes me. I keep looking over and seeing him glaring at me. Should I be worried?”}
“Hehe. Oh he’s just like that. Don’t worry about it.”
“…If you say so.”
<Did nancy boy detect Kimahri’s gas? Kimahri always silent but deadly... Could always deflect blame on Wakka… But now… Now everything has changed… Kimahri thinks he knows… Nancy boy best not say anything to Yuna…>
*wanders onto the scene* "It is time at last. We must tell the Al Bhed waiting outside to begin the operation at once. The fiends may break through. This place is not safe. Make sure you're prepared to defend yourselves. Tell me when you’re ready."



For some reason Tidus has been granted the ability to begin combat operations. This is the last time to save before quite a bit of cutscenes and possibly a battle or two. We can also speak with everyone for their closing thoughts before the shit hits the fan…

“Go to Yuna.”

Oh yeah? Seems a bit of an inappropriate time for Tidus to get his mack on but Auron knows best…

“I’m a little nervous.”
I don’t think Tidus is skillful enough to work with this, Auron.

“With them here, it’s like Yevon authorizes this whole operation!”

…That is because Yevon IS literally authorizing it. There’s a maester right over there and he’s running the show. And another one is in the corner leering at Yuna while nodding in approval of the mission. That is a full 50% of Yevon’s leadership both present and giving their blessing to the whole shebang.

“Anything could happen. Make sure you’re ready for combat.”

Translation: Save idiot. And check our equipment and Sphere Grid. Then go save again so you don’t have to redo it all if you die! Never forget the lessons of arranging your inventory in Resident Evil 4 ten minutes out from the nearest typewriter deep in decapitation country.

“…”

One of these days you’ll get a line, Kimahri. One of these days…





O’aka has managed to make it all the way up to the command center to price gouge even more doomed soldiers out on the front. I sold 1000 gil worth of unneeded shit back to him just so I could get a return on that loan I gave the cockney scumbag. He has some new overpriced garbage if you’re into that kind of thing. But no thanks, shitheel. We’re good.



Near the entrance to the command center is a bored by helpful soldier who will fill us in on some of the details of the operation. I suppose we may as well know what we’re potentially getting into here.

”What’s the deal with the cannons?”
"The Al Bhed provided us with these cannons at no charge. I hate the bastards, but I've got a little respect for them now. These cannons have good range. We'll give Sin a shower it won't soon forget!"
”Neat. Howabout the chocobo knights? Why isn’t that Lucil chick wearing any pants? I mean not that I’m complaining but… I’m just saying I rode one of those things earlier and that’s definitely not something I’d do freeballin’ even with the feather cushioning…”
"Only a select few can become Chocobo Knights. You have to be a skilled rider or achieve some combat merit to become one. Captain Lucil is no doubt the best of the bunch right now. I just don't know how that wimp Clasko got knighted. Well, he is good at earning their trust -- the chocobos, that is."
”Yeah? How does he do that…?”
“Scuttlebutt says that at night he goes into the chocobo pens and strokes…”
“HEARD ENOUGH! NEW SUBJECT! What haven’t I asked about?!”
“The operation?”
“Yep. That. Tell me about that instead!”
"We've researched Sin's past behaviors in planning this operation. Sin often turns up where its sinspawn are. So we hunted down the sinspawn at various places and brought them here to lure it. When it shows up, we're gonna hit it with the ancient machina, and it's bye-bye Sin. The Crusaders' responsibility is to lure Sin and immobilize it. The Al Bhed will deliver the finishing blow. I wish it could be the other way around, but as long as we defeat Sin, who cares."
”Uh…huh… Umm… Good luck with that…”
“Thanks but we don’t need it. This plan is solid. Sin is going down!”
“Sounds like you’ve… got a handle on it…”
<I wonder if it’s too late to get everyone to go back to the main road…>



Welp. We may as well get this train on the rails for its inevitable wreck. Please place all bets on the Crusader casualty rates before the turn of the hour. The closest guess receives an all-expense paid trip to scenic Mount Gagazet!





"Will Sin come?"
"Sin always returns for its spawn. To make sure, we're going to encourage them to call out to it."
"You won't have to. It'll come."



“I remembered Auron telling me. Sin is my old man. Sin is Jecht."
”It was kind of, sort of *really* hard to forget something like that…”


New Music: Crisis



So remember those Sinspawn playpens from earlier? Step one of the Crusader’s plans is to hoist those up and electrocute them to piss off the Sinspawn within.



Unfortunately, no engineers actually tested the durability of said abomination holding cell against an enraged Sinspawn ramming into it. As such, this part of the operation goes to shit literally five seconds into its initiation.



The brave Crusaders, whose job description is literally “fight Sinspawn and Sin” flee in terror almost immediately. Didn’t these same people already subdue and capture the thing? Did they hire an unseen JRPG protagonist contractor to do all the heavy lifting while the Crusaders took credit for it? I’m sure Serge isn’t doing much these days ever since he stopped being a pan-dimensional furry.



That said, you get no brownie points for guessing which group of adventurers is forced to deal with the situation.





…Okay. Perhaps the Crusaders were onto something with running away from the 30 foot tall crab-scorpion Sinspawn Frankenstein’s monster.



Meet Sinspawn Gui. Evidentially, when left in a small room together for extended periods of time, Sinspawn can combine together like Voltron into supersized Lovecraftian horrors (you can see that little roach looking thing Luzzu and Gatta were transporting has become this thing’s “head”.

Despite its enormous size and intimidation factor, Gui really isn’t too much of a threat. The boss is split up into four separate parts. The head, two arms, and the body. The body segment is what must actually be defeated to end the battle and it has a quite respectable 12,000 HP to wind down. The two arms have a mere 800 HP while the head only has 1,000 hit points to deal with.





That said, to actually damage the body we need to destroy Gui’s arms first. Otherwise it will guard its body reducing any damage inflicted to something silly like 10% of normal damage. The two arms have the armored status, what with being ten foot tall hardened pincers and all. But Auron beefed up with a round or two of Cheer can easily one-shot ‘em. At this point I also had Lulu learn the first second tier magic spell, Fira. Magic ignores armor so that can easily fry any part of this Sin bastard child for 1,000+ HP of damage a turn.


Gui itself doesn’t really have many attacks despite all the assorted claws, spikes, pincers, and maws skittering about on the creature. It can cast lightning spells which aren’t too deadly.



It can smack folks with both its big beefy targetable claws as well as the itty-bitty ones on the front of its body. The damage from the latter can be diminished by a Power Break from Auron.



Lastly there is the head. Sinspawn Gui’s head doesn’t really contribute anything to the battle until it decides to start head-banging to the rather tuneless background music. If left unattended until its next turn, it will vomit Venom like the last Sinspawn incarnation we battled. Venom causes Poison and poison is a BAD thing in this game. Any attack to the head before said turn comes up will prevent the Venom attack. A blitzball from Wakka, magic from Lulu, or even Kimahri’s Lancet will all do the trick.





Lulu’s Fira is likely the best bet at actually killing the head and nipping that danger right in the bud. Once destroyed, the head is out of commission for the duration of the battle.



The same cannot be said for the two arms. After around three turns they will regenerate and need to be attended to by our resident field surgeon, Auron once again.



Lastly, once Sinspawn Gui’s health drops below 50% the body section will begin busting out Demi attacks against the entire party. This is more of a nuisance than anything actually dangerous. On the plus side, everyone’s Overdrive gauge gets a nice boost from the spammed Demi attacks.





And that’s about it for the wayward bait. The whole torture aspect of the Sinspawn gathering might be a bust…



But uhh… I think it has done the trick nevertheless…







The Crusaders might be a pack of suicidal idiots, but you’ve got to admit they have some huge balls to see this thing lumbering out of the depths of the ocean and still pick up their iron dinky swords to bum rush the thing as it marches towards the beach.









Now that the party has dealt with the obligatory boss battle and Sin has shown up for the main event, the Al Bhed open fire with everything they’ve got on everyone’s favorite doom whale. Or… whatever the hell Sin is supposed to be… It is looking decidedly less whale-esque now that we have a slightly better look at it above water. But doom whale just feels so right.



I mean the head still looks fairly whaley. Right? Oh yeah and guys… That cannon fire…?







…You all do remember that Sin doesn’t so much “spawn” creatures as seemingly any chunk of it that is broken off is capable of coming alive as some new flesh hungry predator? Right? You guys know that? Yes? Alright… Just checking.



Oh well I guess that’s what the Crusaders are there for on the beach. Shoot Sin with cannons… Have infantry kill the Sinspawn that breaks off… and then…

…

You guys DO have a step three, right…?

Meanwhile, up on Mushroom Rock’s Cliffside…



Yep. Just chilling out and watching the battle up here. Maester Kinoc had the right idea with that lawn chair. We ought to have stuck up there chilling with him. Err… WHY aren’t we still back at the command center…? Where did the command center ev—







Aww fuck… It can definitely not be good if Sir “Yeah I helped kill Sin already once and am going for seconds” Auron yells to hit the dirt when Sin is around…





So did you know that Sin can spontaneous grow protective armor if it is under attack? Yep. That’s a thing it can do. It also instantly regenerates any pieces/critters that were knocked off of it in said attack.





Did you know that Sin can also spontaneous generate an impenetrable sci-fi energy shield when under attack? It doesn’t even need to hide behind cover without getting shot for the shields to come online.



We haven’t actually seen Sin go on the offensive yet. I mean there was that one time back in Zanarkand it fired a couple shots and err… leveled several blocks. But that doesn’t really count. For all we know Jecht was just rooting for his son during the game and things got out of hand. Prior to that it was dissolving entire skyscrapers into water simply by floating near them. And in Kilika it just lazily swam through town and produced a tornado force gravity anomaly around it simply by being in the area. But actually getting it actively annoyed enough to go on the attack? This is a first…







”Haha! Didja see that! I got one! I got one!”
“We’ve all gotten one at this point! Don’t get cocky, ki—“











…

.....

………So did you know Sin can atomize entire armies if it gets pissed? Cause…yeah. That is a thing Sin can do… Yeah… That sure is a thing it can do…






Episode 40 Highlight Reel





Wen Kinoc Official Art



Sinspawn Gui Official Art