Final Fantasy is an RPG...

After all the hell this games minigames have put me through, I'm almost gonna feel bad about getting Anima, then leveling him and Bahamut up. I'm almost gonna feel bad about doing my second playthrough with an Action Replay save that gives me 99 of every item.

Almost.

But not quite.

Net trouble, shooby dooby...

Yeah, I was online yesterday morning when it started to storm, and before I could get off, the power browned out and did something to make my modem act all screwy. I couldn't get on at all for the rest of the morning, and I was sick, so I said to hell with it and went to bed.

Then I go to get on this morning and it's the same deal. I wanted to get on, however, so I called tech support. They can't figure out what's wrong, I can't figure out what's wrong, so she begins to schedule a service call. Then, magically, the connection comes up...and stays up. How odd.

In FFX, killed Seymour 2.0. A buddy of mine at work had said that, and I quote: "Yo, that dude fuckin' spanked me the first time." Well, I annhilated Seymour. I swarmed over Seymour like white on rice. I picked up Seymour and shook him like a dog with a dead bird in its mouth. I came, I saw, I kicked his ass!

Had 2 Black Magic Spheres(which let another character learn any Black Magic spell one character has already learned) and 1 White Magic Sphere(same thing w/White). Taught Lulu(Bl. Mage) the White technique Holy because her Magic stats are so high; taught Yuna(Wht. Mage, Summoner) the Black technique Flare because etc, etc; and taught Rikku Flare also, just to have three people who can cast it. An unintended bonus was that Lulu now has a possibility for her Overdrive of Flare Fury. Eee-hee-hee-hee!

Then, I got to the Calm Lands. Got to the Monster Arena. Got one of each of the nine Calm Land species and the Monster Arena guy made a better monster out of them. The Chimerageist.

Oh...my...God...

That thing kicked my ass so many times I lost count. First off, I had Lulu cast Flare and Tidus did an Overdrive. The Beast used Aqua Breath and killed Lulu right off the bat. I quickly Summoned Bahamut and used MegaFlare, doing around 23000 HP damage...and then the thing fucking kills Bahamut in 2 hits! Physical hits! So I summon Shiva and use Diamond Dust...doing 0 HP damage. Great, it's immune to Ice, I think. Boom, slap, dead Shiva. Summoned Ifrit, used Hellfire. 0 HP damage. Great, it's immune to elemental attacks. Boom, slap, dead Ifrit. Brought Lulu back from the dead, used Flare Fury...dead Lulu, dead Tidus, dead Yuna. Tried again. Summoned Bahamut knowing he'd die; then summoned Vastria knowing he'd die; used Kimahri's Jump, Rikku's Mix, Tidus' Spiral Cut, Auron's Dragon Fang, and Lulu's Flare Fury...and not only is the damn thing still alive, but most of my peeps are dead! Wait, they're ALL dead. I lost count of how many times it beat me, but finally I hasted Yuna before Tidus died, then concentrated on keeping her and Lulu alive and casting Flare and Holy, and after about 80000 HP, the damn thing finally dies.

Yeesh!

The death of Maester Seymour Guado...

Yee-ha! Got to kill him real good!

See, I bought the strategy guide to FFX not for help with the bosses, but to make sure I didn't miss any items. i.e., I never look at boss strategies until after I beat them, etc; don't look at 'to-do lists' for the next area. All I use it for are the maps.

Well, it's a Bradygames guide written by Dan Birlew, and while it's been pretty valuable to me so far, I can't help but notice that either he went through the game at a lower level than I am or he didn't 'get' the battle system.

His strategy for fighting Seymour, his Guardians and Anima was this: Use Rikku to steal potions from the Guardians so they can't cure themselves, then kill them; when Seymour summons Anima wait 'a few turns' until Shiva shows up on the Aeon list and then summon her; use her Ice spells to keep her HP high while Anima uses Pain, then go through a long and drawn out process to max out her Overdrive meter and hit Anima twice with Diamond Dust. Dismiss her as soon as you get back to Seymour, who can destroy her with his Multi- spells, use Lulu's Bio to poison Seymour, since 'keeping characters alive in this late stage of the battle is somewhat difficult'.

Here was MY strategy: Use Tidus' Spiral Cut Overdrive to take out Guardian A right off the bat; withstand Seymour's lower-level spells with Lulu's Focus; Use Auron to finish off Guardian B; and as soon as I brought Yuna into the party, I could immediately summon Shiva against Anima; then beat on the chained one a few times, then hit it with Diamond Dust, which kills it; dismiss Shiva, summon Vastria(originally Valefor) and use its Energy Ray Overdrive on Seymour, doing 9999 HP on a 6000 HP character for TEH INSTANT WIN!!!!!!

Anyway, I'm glad he's dead, but now all the characters(except Auron & Tidus) are worrying about being labeled 'traitors' for killing a Maester(even one who was plotting death & destruction and had started by murdering his own father), and the Guado people are trying to kill me. Well bring it on, boys, cause like in all RPG's, That Which Does Not Kill Me Only Makes Me Stronger, and if I could, I'd Gul Dukat the Guado in a heartbeat.

Leveling...

Yeah, now everyone in my party is up to 10 Sphere Levels, meaning I can advance them 10 places on the Sphere Grid. Except for Rikku, who is actually at S. Level 17 since she was so far behind the others. And I have 99 of Power, Speed, Magic and Ability Spheres, so it's time to go on a leveling-up spree!

Wowzers, ten days...

Yeah, the longest 'break' I've ever taken from the Blog. Oh, well.

Continuing to play FFX, and just got Rikku back a few days ago. Attempting to use her to steal every single thing in Spira that's not bolted down.

Got a Creative Zen Nano Plus 1 GB MP3 player which i says can hold 500 songs. Of course, that's 500 songs at 64 kbps, which I would never do. So I start putting songs on it, only to find out that I can't put more than 122 songs on, even though this leaves 525 MB of 998 MB free. Arrgh! Currently awaiting a reply from Creative support as to whether or not I'm doing something wrong.

The quest for the Aeons...

Yeah, I've got Valefor, except I renamed him.

See, I sometimes make weird sound assocciations, and when I saw Valefor on the screen and prounounced it 'Val-i-four', I realized that it sounded like 'Valley Forge'...kind of, at least.

So now that I couldn't keep Valefor, I racked my brain for a name. Usually, I'm very good at coming up with names for games(old Final Fantasy's, Fable, Morrowind, KOTOR 1 & KOTOR 2), but I was so tired I was drawing a blank. So I shut the game off and went to bed.

When I started again the next day, inspiration struck, and I named him 'Vastria'. Kinda Russian-sounding, almost.

And now I've got Ifrit, and am on my way to get Ixion. After that, Shiva, Bahamut and Anima; because I have no interest in Yojimbo or The Magus Sisters.

And then, tomorrow, the movie I've been dying to see comes out. I'm gonna get the special edition, then come straight home and watch it, as the masterfully adapted story of two gay cowboys is presented in an Oscar-worthy way...oh, fuck it, I can't keep this up. No, I'm not getting Brokeback Mountain(or, as some of my coworkers put it, Bareback Mountain). I will most likely never watch that movie, mainly because I hate hate hate HATE Heath Ledger.

Nope, I'll be getting the two-disc SE of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. Woot!

Sucked into Spira...

Yeah, I'm getting dragged into Final Fantasy gameplay again. Heh, I forgot how that could happen. The only bad thing so far is that I've noticed a decidedly lopsided ratio of Ability Spheres to Power/Speed/Mana Spheres. Seems like it's on the order of 1: 1 Google.