The Red Carpet Has Teeth.
thebaconfat's been replaying Final Fantasy X, which has inspired me to get back to the replay I abandoned about a year ago. It's a slightly weird experience; I was last playing this game when I was writing my 'Squall is Yuna's guardian' fic, so it's really disconcerting that Squall isn't there and there's some guy called Tidus instead.
(I'll get back to my Final Fantasy VIII replay at some point!)
The Cloisters of Trials are deeply tedious. Whose idea was this? Who went, 'Ah, yes, let's include trial-and-error puzzles where the player character has to physically run long distances in order to try things out?'
Auron never explains anything. Just makes cryptic statements and does his own thing.
Loved this exchange when the airship's attacked and Rin tries to sell you supplies:
Wakka: We gotta pay? If we lose, you die too, buddy!
Rin: I have faith in your victory.
Given Kelk Ronso and Seymour Guado, do all the human characters in this game just have the surname 'Human'? Maybe appending your species to your name is just a maester thing.
Spoilery notes under the cut! Yes, I'm cutting spoilers for a twenty-year-old game. (Yes, Final Fantasy X is twenty years old.)
Auron of Tidus's mother: 'If she dies, I wouldn't know what to do.' Interesting! I'm curious about what Auron means here; is he invested in Tidus's mother for her own sake, or is he worried because he promised to look after Tidus, and he doesn't know how he can do that if he's left as Tidus's sole guardian?
The Al Bhed evidently believe it's wrong to expect the few to sacrifice themselves for the many; that's presumably why they're abducting summoners. What's their long-term plan, though? Saving someone's life by locking them up permanently doesn't seem ideal. Or are they hoping they'll find a machina-based way to defeat Sin, after which they can let the summoners go?
After they learn that Seymour is bad news, I love that Wakka's response to Auron's 'We will protect Yuna from anyone. Even a maester' is just helpless laughter and 'This can't be happening.'
Really love Yuna taking up her staff and telling Seymour that she'll fight him too.
Wakka's probably the Final Fantasy X character I like least, but it is interesting to have a very devout character in the party for a traditional 'kill God' storyline.
Tidus asks if Auron was homesick in Zanarkand, and Auron's response is 'Maybe', which I like both because it's on the edge of showing vulnerability and because the man is allergic to straight answers.
I'd forgotten that Sin tries to communicate with Tidus under the lake ice, showing him memories of Zanarkand and blitzballs and Tidus as a kid. It's sort of sweet and sad.
The 'I can fly' scene is admittedly cool but also makes absolutely no sense. If you go 'don't shoot my friends or I'll jump', and then you jump anyway before your friends have made it to safety, your friends are likely to get shot!
I enjoy Seymour's 'Hm? Hadn't you heard?' to the other maester when Yuna reveals that Seymour killed his own father. He's not in my top three Final Fantasy villains (that'd be Ardyn, Seifer and Kuja), but I enjoy him more than I remembered. Final Fantasy villains basically divide in my head into 'interesting' (Ardyn, Seifer, Kuja, Kefka, Seymour) and 'uninteresting' (Vayne, Ultimecia, Sephiroth (fight me), Barthandelus), and Seymour makes the 'interesting' cut.
I'm curious about how Seymour feels about Yuna. He's prepared to let the others go to prevent her from jumping off the building, and he argues against her execution. He asks her to marry him, obviously. (It's weird to remember that Yuna and Seymour do technically end up married!) Is there anything genuine there?
I got a bracer with Death Ward for Auron. I keep picturing Tidus giving it to him and going 'can't have you getting yourself killed' while Auron is just struggling not to laugh.
I think Tidus/Yuna is probably my favourite canonical Final Fantasy pairing. The characters click somehow. I wouldn't say I'm particularly invested in it - I wouldn't seek out fanworks - but it's endearing.
There are definitely canonical pairings I love and am invested in, but none of them are in Final Fantasy games, which is a little surprising when I think about it. There aren't even that many non-canonical Final Fantasy pairings I love. There's Celes/Sabin, Squall/Zell and Serah/Hope, and then you hit Final Fantasy XV, where I suddenly ship everything.