Wow that's a lot of progress. Good job and keep it up!
NSGNSNCNONENNENBB
Yuna Only, No Summons
Yuna Only, Own Sphere Grid
Rikku Only, No Sphere Grid
No Sphere Grid, Initial Equipment
No Sphere Grid with Dark Aeons
Wow that's a lot of progress. Good job and keep it up!
Okayy guys it's time for second update on the challenge so let's just jump straight to it.
After the failed Sin operation and Gui fights there isn't really anything else to do than to make a run to Djose Temple to move with the story a bit. The Cloister of Trials here isn't really hard as well but I do remember when I was playing this first time ten years ago, it took me like two hours to solve no kidding. I guess I wasn't the brightest child >_> As always I got the hidden chest as well, I do get them even if they aren't important really, it's a habit.
The way to the Moonflow is quite a long one but it's not very hard area, still there is no reason to stay there for longer than needed really.
Oh yes the Moonflow and the broken Engrish of the blue people!
You bet I'm gonna ride ze shoopuf! Nothing imposshibibble about it. And while we are at it you should install some security system on ze shoopuf really because it's time for the last boss battle before getting the sexy, the mighty, the best - Rikku!
Extractor - YouTube
Sorry for no audio. This battle is a little tricky as I have to inflict slow fast and then manipulate the CTB so I can inflict enough damage to interrupt Deep charges because they are basically game over. First time it took me two tries but the recorded video somehow was black screen so I redid the battle two more times for the recording. I ain't redoing it anymore for audio too, sorry!
Oh god yes, Rikku is there to save the challenge. It's shame that I didn't really use her my first two playthroughs years back since I didn't quite understand just how strong the Steal, Use and Mix commands really are and also I developed a bit of fetish for her spiral eyes huehue. She is one of my favourite characters now! With Rikku also comes the second and last forced overdrive in the game so I go with it and overkill the poor thing with mixing two strength spheres.
For now I run to Guadosalam for... Tons, tons and tons of scenes. I mean sure the plot and scenes are nice but seeing them for thirtieth time isn't so appealing anymore. By now I really miss the skip function newer games usually do have. Interesting and sad note is that the FFX HD Remake isn't going to introduce the scene skipping either. There is one scene I like everytime though, the Farplane. I never truly understood what it really is considering you can enter and leave it while alive. Is Guadosalam just supposed to be a portal to realm of the dead? Perhaps in FFX-2 it is addressed more but since I didn't play it yet I don't know.
It's beautiful though.
Well with plot stuff done, it's time for the first stealing marathon which also means a little of backtracking all the way to Djose Temple. On the roads between Djose temple and Guadosalam there are quite a few very nice and also mandatory items that have to be stolen like Petrify Grenades, which are one of the most broken items in the game really, half of the encounters all the way to Inside Sin can be won by throwing one but it takes the fun outta them so I really plan to use them only when needed or when in pinch. And also Poison Fangs, which deal 2k damage each with guaranteed poison to those not immune, these are overpowered for bosses but for few of them they are really mandatory for the win. My guess is that I spend about two and half hour here just stealing the necessary stuff.
Now the Thunder Plains or should I call them the Game Over Plains? This place is really the first truly dangerous place and also my very first Game Over while simply running through, without any stealing. Ambushes here are seriously almost guaranteed Game Over. What a coincidence that this is also the first place in the game where you can win Initiative weapon that completely prevents ambushes huh? And I did win one on my very first Quactuar, lucky! Also Lulu with her brand new Fatal Cait Sith can show us some funny things like this:
A small puppet one shotting an Iron Giant. Fun stuff, go go FCS!
Macalania Woods right after Thunder Plains are yet another very deadly place, now even without ambushes unless you throw your valuable stolen items like mad. Fortunately I got through them on the first try and O'aka presents me with the ultimate weapon of the challenge, Sonic Steel! A.K.A. First strike weapon for Tidus, with it in my possesion and Rikku now full time out of party, I can always have a turn or two with her switched with Tidus to either cripple or kill the enemies, yummy. Before backtracking to Thunder Plains, which are now basically safe place, I decided to take down the Spherimorph while I am here. Auron shows us that he always wanted to be a lumberjack, not a monk or guardian. Seriously is pretty good at cutting down them trees!
Spherimorph - YouTube
It's not a hard battle by any means, it's just a little long and very item expensive. Oh well, the main reason to steal them all is to use them after all right? Afterwards I just had to do a lot and I mean a lot of item stealing in Thunder Plains and Macalania Woods, I spend about 3 hours there I guess.
Well next boss is right around the corner after the stealing and this time I have to win Lifesaver from him, which is Alchemy weapon for Tidus and it's supposedly really important for BFA. I never would've thought this would be so hard, even with killing him with only Tidus alive it took me exactly thirty tries to get it. No I didn't make a typo there. Thirty retries. I almost cried, I managed to finish four movies while redoing the battle. Kind of ridiculous really, at least the battle itself isn't really hard, look.
Crawler - YouTube
The Lifesaver isn't recorded but each battle went about the same really. I was so goddamn happy when I finally got it. I was rewarded with some private time with Lulu at least!
I never really looked up what exactly decides who does Tidus ride with and I actually never managed to ride with Auron, though after watching the scene with him on YouTube, I didn't really miss much.
In Macalania temple we get an unexpected plot twist, shh spoilers! Seymour is evil! Seriously I wonder if there was anyone who didn't see it coming. And so we must kill him right? This is actually another boss battle where I gotta win Silencestrike weapon for either Yuna, Kimahri or Auron and I was really afraid after the thirty tries for Lifesaver earlier. Thankfully it only took me four tries to get it for Yuna so nothing really bad. The actual battle itself is quite enjoyable imo. Watch it for yourself!
Seymour&Anima - YouTube
SOS-nuls are truly magnificent. I kind of find the scenario of this battle a little funny really. When Seymour summons Anima, game hints you to summon Shiva and most people on the first time at least do so I would think, it is very easily possible to kill Anima with Shiva and when you do, Seymour says he wants that power. I mean what the hell, Shiva is the aeon of Macalania temple of which he is supposed to be a high priest of, so there is no reason he shouldn't be easily able to get her right? Oh also a big update on the quality of the videos! I actually purchased licence for the program I am using to record and found a better setting for rendering so from now on all the videos will be without watermark and in HD quality! Enjoy!
After killing Seymour and making run to the sphere, it's another stealing time, but there isn't really that much stuff needed so it was swiftly done. And yet another boss battle is there, Wendigo who is really simple boss with few items.
Wendigo - YouTube
Well I end up under the lake after easy win and we get another encounter with the overly grown and overly grumpy whale named Sin which already made it clear that he simply enjoys throwing us all over the Spira. THANKS MAN. And of all the nice places I simply had to land in Bikanel... This place is nightmares really. I got more Game over screens here than I probably did on my very first playthrough for the whole game. Seriously first of all I died about four times before even getting back Rikku and then about six times when stealing tons of stuff. I actually wanted to screenshot at least a few of them to show you the pitiful side of the challenge but I didn't think of it on the first few and later I just ragequitted before hitting screenshot each time. Just imagine me crying tears of blood in this place. At least I won auto-potion armor for Rikku from the Land Worms which will be needed much later for Sin. I will have to win more of them for another characters as well but it's always nice to have something to start with.
After spending more then five hours (not counting time lost by each game over) stealing stuff in the desert, I went to Home which is really just a few Petrify Grenades so at least this part of Bikanel was quickly done. I get to watch the awesome destruction of Home, the sweet cry of Brother and craziness of man named Cid. And also not to be forgotten the awesome line by Wakka.
Man I wish I was such a smooth talker as Wakka, Rikku has to be totally into him now!
And that concludes second update folks!
Hey there folks, did you enjoy New Year? I sure did but aside from that I also played some more and thus I am bringing you third update on the challenge and trust me, there was alot of progress again!
Last time I ended up on airship just after escaping the Home and after a little while it appeared that some fiends snuck on the board as well. Oh well nothing to do, we gotta blow the whole airship and take them down with us, right Cid?!
I wish. Rikku, look how sad your father is
Well since that plan blew up, it was time for one of the hardest bosses of the game. The red carpet's teeth - Evrae. He is really a bit tricky thanks to his haste state when he falls under 10700 hp, since most of the time Cid is still crying over his failed plan to blow up the ship and can't simply move out before Poison Breath which is deadly. I actually managed to luck out and defeat him first time around, but I was trying to save up items in the forced fights that are very hard as well and in the end I died to them, F- me. It took about 4 more tries to finally take him down again, but this time I was rewarded with Stonestrike for Auron, which is very nice so I was kinda happy to be honest. Watch the battle here:
Evrae - YouTube
And since the worm is outta way, it's time for a little adrenaline!
I love how Kimahri had to hold Lulu, since she and her 500 belts couldn't do it. As I said earlier, the forced battles on the bridge before the wedding are really hard, the robots can either kill whole party in one go, or eject a character outta battle, or simply KO someone easily. But after first try I wasn't trying to save any items anymore so it went just fine. The reward for that was seeing Seymour taking the sweet Yuna and her hating every second of it.
This scene always made me feel a little weird. After running away it was time for the Cloister of Trials. And the very worst of them. Seriously I always hated this place so much and I always will. I can more or less solve it without a mistake now but still I guess I remember the stress from earlier playthroughs or something. And all that only to get captured. Or did we?
I mean, what the hell? Guys you could so easily get through and the cage wasn't very far from the bridge. Well nevermind that, thankfully we had awesome luck that only those who can hold their breath for god-knows-how long in the water and the rest ended up in Via Infinito.
In Via Infinito I just rushed through picking up Kimahri and laughed at the end, where you find Auron. He says that there must be some exit and we should search. Exit is right behind him. Lel. And last three forced Summonings of the game were at the end of it. I enjoyed them, for some reason I always loved using aeons in FFX, unfortunately thanks to all of the battles I've fought so far, my aeons were really strong from the natural stat growth so it wasn't any challenge to take Isaaru down. I also never understood why afterwards Auron tells him that his pilgrimage is over.
After being thrown underwater, I laughed a bit at the "Merchant Chest", while I understood why the put it in gamewise, storywise it's funny. Hey why not make some gils before they drown? Hyenism. Well, I had to steal some Water Gems here for later encounters on the highbridge which took a while and few game overs. But else than that, one of the easiest bosses of the game was ahead.
EvraeAltana - YouTube
Hardcore battle and strategy huh? Thankfully it is really quick battle because I needed stonetouch for Rikku, which took me eight tries. Not too shabby.
The highbridge has one of the toughest encounters in the game really and requires a bit of luck to get through but thankfully it isn't so long and took me only two tries to get through. And it was time for the second Seymour fight. I love how Kimahri looks so dissapointed that I didn't abandon him and came back. Sorry. Apparently Seymour Natus is one of the hardest bosses of this challenge but I didn't have any troubles with him, took me three tries only because he killed Rikku before I setted up the necessary.
SeymourNatus - YouTube
In Macalania Woods to where the party ran after killing Seymour for the second time, Tidus finally got himself some action.
Such romance, many kisses, much feelings. Wow.
Aaand now I finally get to go on a little capturing frenzy. Long story short, I had to capture at least on of each monster in Calm Lands, Macalania Woods, Thunder Plains and also the Cavern of Stolen Fayth. While not so hard, it took a lot of time. Before going to the cavern I had to take down this guy.
Defender - YouTube
The capturing itself wasn't hard but I hate Tonberry, took so long to find just one. And since I was in the cavern, I took the opportunity to take down Yojimbo.
Yojimbo - YouTube
Capturing in this challenge is awesome though for the rewards and mostly because I get infinite safe source for my stealing needs. Also I gotten the Cloudy Mirror, upgraded it to Celestial Mirror and other stuff like that. After getting everything I needed I needed I finally could move on with the story a little bit. This time it was purely Kimahri's fifteen minutes of fame. Well actually just 6 minutes. It's really boring fight but I recorded it anyway.
BiranYenke - YouTube
Ascending the Mount Gagazet is really tough everytime I do so, it it's full of tough encounters and more importantly really long. And at the end of it, one of the hardest bosses in the game, Seymour Flux. Oh god this bastard took way too many tries to beat, thanks god I didn't need to get any equipment from him.
SeymourFlux - YouTube
The cave with the trials isn't a tough place really, I just needed few steals and zombietouch from Behemoth here, but I was running out of the mighty Petrify Grenades so I had to restart a few times while hunting the zombietouch to save at least few grenades for the rest of the way to Zanarkand. The boss here isn't dangerous at all and actually quite stupid really, see yourself.
SanctuaryKeeper - YouTube
Well what do I say, thanks for Hastes I guess. I usually play without a sound and just listen to music or watch movies when playing but I always turn it on on the way through Zanarkand Ruins. I love the theme here. The trials there aren't hard but I find them kind of fun and relaxing. Though they lead to another boss battle, which took me few times due to getting unlucky with Glyph Mines etc.
SpectralKeeper - YouTube
The plot thickens. I enjoy this part everytime, everything suddenly makes 180 turn and things start to get really interesting. Final Aeon sacrifice, Auron's memories and him being unsent etc. And not just that. The most enjoyable battle of the whole challenge - Yunalesca. While she took me many hours to beat, I loved the battle. If you enjoy watching my battles, you should watch this from the beggining to the marvelous end.
Yunalesca - YouTube
Well that's it for this update, there are tons of preparations ahead for Sin, Seymour and BFA. Tons of capturing, much equipment hunting and more for the final showdown.
A little bonus so you actually see just a few of the many Game over screens of mine:
Last edited by Ergroilnin; 01-01-2014 at 11:04 PM.
Very awesome! You are blasting through this thing.
Hello guys, I would like to ask you a question. Very important for the future of this thread actually. Since I will be soon going back to work and I also bought ALOT of new games on Steam during the sales (damn you Gaben!), I want to ask you all if you are interested in following me on the others challenges as well or not. There aren't many posts besides mine so I am not sure how many peoply enjoy my thread and how many of you would really like to see another challenges done. Either way I will definitely finish this current challenge as far as normally possible - to second form of BFA. I just want to know if I should do whatever I feel like or if I would actually have a decent audience if I did other challenges as well.
And since I am questioning you all like this, please if you reply that you would like to see another challenges as well, tell me which interest you the most and if there is anything you would like me to add to my journal or change in it.
Thanks folks!
I very much enjoy this thread. I'm fine with it if you call it quits with this challenge though. I wouldn't find the others as interesting as I do this one. As I said, I'm more interested in X-2 challenges. I feel like I've seen endless X challenges already.
Oh yeah thanks for that comment, I will surely NOT do any FFX-2 challenge before there is a chance to get emulator friendly copy of the FFX-2 remake. Since I played FFX so many times already I would be probably put off by newer graphics, even more so since I already started the challenge.
But for FFX-2 that I never really played yet, I would surely wait few months for HD remake to enjoy everything in best quality, so if you are interested mostly in FFX-2 challenges, you can pretty much call this thread quits, as I will create new thread for the sequel few months later, when it gets released.
Hello guys,
I am very sorry for not updating for so goddamn long but real life didn't leave me with much time these past two weeks and I was happy enough when I could actually at least do some playing. In all the silent time I catched 10 of every monster minus Inside Sin and Omega Ruins, where I only got a few monsters and I am working on it now. I also killed Sin and Seymour Omnis, both which took me in total about 30 tries due to being unlucky or simply screwing up. Unfortunately I didn't record the battles, I have saves before the each of them so I might record them sometime later who knows.
Also I am a little fed with FFX now so the next updates won't come anytime soon really I might catch a monster or two a day and that's it.
I have a new project in mind that I will be doing in the rest of this month, I will be starting a thread about it in so please do follow me on it
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
