Today we will be exploring Lindblum before the festival begins!
(SPOILER)
Turns out SOMEONE is a terrible moogle hater
Anyways, Steiner is wandering around town, generally getting himself lost
Female Red Mage is having none of that! Being Steiner though he is rather oblivious to what just happened and turns his attention to a street stall.
FACT. Steiner decides, what the heck, he already drank poison back in the Evil Forest, might as well.
And thus begins Steiner's love affair with pickles~
Zidane, meanwhile, does some shopping.
Who indeed
This is why I told you to buy extra equipment if possible, because you can now use that for synthesis! Speaking of which, there's a little story between the synthesis shop owner and his son that goes throughout the game.
As the son's skills improve, so to does the available equipment. It's a neat little detail that help bring the people to life.
Beginner tip: When you exit the Inn, there's a screen towards the south where you can have a bit more conversation. Also be sure to THOROUGHLY explore Lindblum within the next little while if you care about finding everything because some of it will become inaccessible for the rest of the game.
We get to read some nice statues, and learn more about Lindblum culture, which is broken down in 2 four districts. The first is the business district which is where you do your shopping and also houses the Church and an angry little dog. The industrial district is where the bar was where we met Freya and is the center of engineering. The theatre district is where all of the upper-class art types hang out and is also where Tantalus headquarters is located.
*sad violin*
So anyway, Vivi is also out doing some shopping
She gives it to Vivi for free because he's adorable and Vivi had earlier taken note of a sign in the shop.
He decides to inquire
This is where a miscommunication happens because Vivi runs off excitedly, assuming that puppies are going to be released in town for snuggles or something when that really isn't the case.
If you're wondering where Steiner is during all of this, the answer is "Still lost."
He does meet an old gentleman who tells him he's at the bridge where the airship docks connect to the castle.
The old man explains that the Hilda Garde 2 will run on steam instead of mist and Steiner finds this PREPOSTEROUS, which causes the old man to tell him he's living in the past.
We head to the theatre district where a bunch of fangirls are... fangirling all over an actor.
FFIX dealing with issues of transspeciesism way back in 2000.
After Zidane tries to get them to fangirl all over him, which fails, the prestigious Lowell arrives on the scene for like 10 seconds. After which time he bails and may or may not come back in a moogle costume to get away from the crowd
Sure enough, the disguise receives nothing but disdain from his unknowing fans, allowing him to escape.
....................
SO ANYWAY
We head to Tantalus headquarters to find no one there.
As the bell rings out over Lindblum, Zidane wonders what Dagger is up to.
Dagger, it turns out, is trapped in her room.
She is upset by this, reminding herself that she came here to figure out what's happening with her mother, not to be protected.
Back at Tantalus HQ, two kids come in and greet Zidane
After establishing their de facto membership, they ask Zidane some questions about the kidnapping plan. Then, in typical kid fashion, they just blurt out whatever they want to.
The kids tell him that she probably misses him and he should go see her before they scamper off.
And now we see Zidane trying to find excuses to actually go and see her.
In case you were worried about Tantalus, rest assured that they managed to escape.
"I can't believe I got to drop some exposition!"
Despite its flaws, this is actually a good scene because it helps the player out later on when they arrive here. It shows Cinna drinking from a spring which makes the "HP restored" chime noise. It shows Blank open the treasure chest so you know why it's already open when you get there, and it talks about Cinna making coffee off in the corner, which if you recall, pertains to a certain sidequest...
Zidane heads to Lindblum castle to find the Princess is not in her room
Steiner is already there, apparently having found his way, and immediately blames Zidane for what's happening before running off to find her.
He hears her singing the same song she was singing in Dali and realizes she's upstairs. There's unfortunately a problem.
He can't use the lift to go upstairs because its guarded by the man with the face of a 12-year-old. Luckily for us there's a sleeping, suggestable guard whom we can wake up and trick.
So after beating him up and taking his clothes, we get to go upstairs.
Zidane takes off his disguise ON THE LIFT because why not, apparently? I mean sure, there are guards upstairs, but we can conveniently get past them without a disguise!
We do find Dagger upstairs singing to the birds before Zidane scares them all away.
After a bit of awkward conversation, Zidane points out the giant telescope we can use to look around the surrounding area.
This looks much better than the actual overworld, btw
Dagger asks to use it and spends that time berating herself internally.
She asks him if he just did it because his boss ordered him to, and he explains that his boss didn't want him to and he had to leave Tantalus because of it, which he shares that he's done before.
She changes the suject to ask how Tantalus was planning on kidnapping her and he says that they were going to put sleeping weed in her tea, but since she came along willingly, they didn't need it.
She calls him out on his shameless flirting, so he shifts gears to ask about the song she's been singing
While she sings, we get to see what everyone else is up to.
While admiring that FINE piece of armour, Steiner overhears another customer badmouthing Queen Brahne.
Vivi finds some toys that some kids were playing with.
And Freya is jumping from rooftop to rooftop, as you do.
She then expresses some vulnerability when she asks Sir Fratley where he is because she needs him.
Back at the castle, Zidane makes a fool of himself.
If you recall, he asked a different girl about that...
Smoooth operatoooorrrr~~
After some passive-aggressive comments, Zidane once again tries to recover with idiocy.
But because she's already smitten with him, she agrees.
FESTIVAL OF THE HUNT PREP
And Freya is here because why not. We got to name her so we already know she's going to be a party member.
Ugh time limits. UGH STRESS
Also he signed up Vivi without his permission
And offers him to date Dagger if Vivi wins which NEITHER OF THEM WANT and he didn't even ask if she was okay with this. Man Zidane's kind of a butt sometimes, huh?
And so the bests, some of whom are adorable (Mus) are released on to the town!
Next time we get to Festival of the Hunt which is bleh, but the story really starts to pick up with the bigger plot afterwards so that'll be fun!
Stay tuned~