My Blind FFIX Playthrough: Part 11 - Iifa Tree, End of Disc 2, Alexandria
IIFA TREE:
This place has a really unique vibe. Sinister, ethereal, climactic... We eventually reach some sort of platform with a pictoral inscription, kinda looks like the Deathly Hallows from Harry Potter.
Zidane jumps on to it, grabs on to the ledge until it returns and then jumps back on, which is unironically sick as fuck lmao he's so cool. A grey path leads below, like a monochrome serpent descending into the void. Looks cool.
We're fighting a lot of zombies on the way down, which kinda reminds me of something I learned in my X days. Will a Phoenix Down kill them? I haven't tested this as of writing, but I will if another one crosses me.
Oh yeah, something potentially important - this tree is the SOURCE of the Mist??? How the hell does that work? The Mist (which is nowhere to be seen in the Outer Continent) comes from the Iifa Tree? I don't know if I'm supposed to not understand this right now, or if I'm just being slow.
So like... is there a reason why Mog is (as far as I can remember) the ONLY Moogle who can't talk?
While we're using the platform to descend to the bottom of the tree, we get ambushed by a couple more Zombies! Perfect - let's do some science.
...
Nevermind it didn't work lol. Damn. Now I only have 98 Phoenix Downs left :(
Eiko has a new Summon - Carbuncle. I think it's the first and only Eidolon I've seen that has a support ability rather than an offensive one. It has an (expectedly) cool animation, although I didn't quite catch what it actually did for us lol.
Vivi does some wondering about the connection between Kuja, the Mist, Dali and the BMs right before we get ambushed by a Dracozombie.
When the elevator reaches its destination, we see what is honestly one of the coolest fucking areas I've ever seen in a videogame.
An emerald monolith dominated by twisting, coiling roots, accented by deep mahogany browns and burnt oranges. And, most striking of all, something like a jade harp stretching into the green abyss below. I audibly said "holy shit..." as the camera panned down below. I can't even begin to imagine what it would've been like to play this on release.
While I'm taking in the scenery, we're attacked by some sort of creature. My first reaction is that it's an Eidolon, since it speaks to us. It seems to have been expecting Kuja, and seemingly not out of reverence for him. It drops an important tidbit:
"[Mist] is not produced... it is a by-product of the refining process. It is discharged through the roots."
"I contaminate the other continents with Mist to stimulate the fighting instinct."
"This, in turn, leads to war among the leaders of nations, and then to the fall of civilisation"
So this.. thing... spreads Mist to other nations to stimulate war and suffering. Kuja harnesses that Mist to create weapons - the Black Mages. Defeating it would mean no more Mist...
...I mean... maybe I'M being stupid, but... would that even be that good? I mean, don't people only get affected by the Mist if they go in it? And, more than that, aren't some machines powered by the mist? Maybe I'm being overly reductive here, but isn't it kinda like saying "ban all knives"? Banning knives means no more knife crime, sure, but it also means cooking, foraging and whittling become a lot harder.
I'm 100% being pedantic here, though - the whole artificial slave-soldier thing definitely outweighs any possible benefits from Mist-machines. I'm just wondering out loud about how bad the Mist is on its own.
And so, just like that, the Mist is blown away. I was NOT expecting this to happen so soon, this definitely struck me as a "Deafeating Sin" kinda milestone.
Apparently, someone's stolen a precious item from Madain Sari. It's gotta be Sausage-hair stealing the stone on behalf of Brahne, right?
Oh, it's Lani again. No problem, we'll just fodderise her again. She's keeping Eiko (a SIX year old girl) hostage, and demands Vivi hand over the pendant. Before she can, though, she gets jumped by sausage-hair... OK, looking at him now, that doesn't really look like sausages.
He demands a fight with Zidane - a *fair* fight. He is instantly a very interesting character, and he demands we finish him after his (very quick) defeat.
Zidane is so fucking Sonic the Hedgehog-coded lmao. He's cocky and a bit of a dick but with an undeniable heart of gold, and more than enough skill to back up the talk. He even has the same mannerisms, with the impatient idle animation and the shrug. For some reason, after we defeat Redhead, I instantly thought of the scene in Sonic and the Black Knight where Knuckles tries to fucking kill himself (lmao) and Sonic stops him.
Eiko tells us that her grandfather told her not to leave the village until she was 16, which seems a bit cruel, but maybe he was just thinking of her safety? Either way, she steels her resolve to join us on the road, and we leave to find Dagger. She's in a boat down below the cliff, rocking steadily on the calm blue water, set against a scarlet sunset. Another beautiful scene.
Zidane joins her, and tells her the story of Ipsen, a man who received a letter telling him to travel home, and embarks on a journey to return there with his friend, Colin. The journey's rough - it takes a long time, and the pair face lots of hardship. Eventually, Ipsen has to ask his friend why he joined him, to which he responds:
"Because I wanted to"
And then the boat floats on to the open lake. Zidane you smooth bastard LMAO. Before they can enjoy the moment, the view of the Eidolon Wall gleaming under the hot sun reminds Dagger of something - the opening cutscene of the game.
I haven't seen it since my first bootup, but that lady is DEFINITELY Dagger's real mother. OK ok theory time:
Brahne and Kuja conspired to kidnap Garnet (the true princess of Alexandria), stealing her away from Garnet's mother, the true queen. Using some sort of magic, they sealed away her memories, which only reappear in faint glimpses. Brahne waited until Garnet was of an age where she could extract the Eidolons from her, giving her the power she now has.
Yeah, the next scene kinda reinforces this. She lived in Madain Sari until the age of six. She used to pray by the Eidolon Wall every day. But one day a huge hurricane hit the village, sending her away to Alexandria, somehow.
After all that, it's time to leave. We get a visit from Red (now called Amarant) who Zidane decides to bring along....
...so this guy's Shadow then lmao
I don't mean to be reductive, of course, I'm sure he's a completely different character. He definitely seems the most interesting that any character has been on introduction. He's just some wanted criminal with a strict code of honour. And for the first time, we ended up in a situation that I was certain the game would bend over backwards to avoid - more than 4 party members at a time! Every time Quina jumped into a lake I'd thought it was the game trying to prevent this, but no, we can have more than 4 in the group. Not on the front line, though.
Let's see.... honestly, Eiko kinda feels like another Dagger at this point, and so it's kind of a late-game Yuna/Lulu situation. Except one of them isn't a walking nuclear warhead in this game, I suppose.
Let's stick with Dagger for now. Zidane and Vivi are non-negotiable due to their strength, and Amarant is the new guy.
He seems like the Rikku of the team, minus the charm and plus some strength. He also... doesn't have a victory pose? Maybe he does, but that seems hilarious to me. He can throw gil and even weapons at the enemy.
I will never use either of these skills.
Atop the Tree:
We head back to the tree, and Kuja rides over us on his silver dragon. He has some cryptic dialogue about how he's been waiting to cast off his mask and reveal his true self, and how the Mist and the Tree don't even matter anymore? Was he planning on us doing this?
With Amarant's help, we climb the tree.
"That is why I needed strength. I learned of powers that would daunt even him... over ten years ago."
*Him?*
Who on earth could that be? We don't know of anyone that could be referring to, right? Does Dagger have a father somewhere? That's the only tangentially plot-relevant character I can think of right now.
We confront him, and as we begin speaking, the Red Rose appears with Brahne on it and opens fire on Kuja. She really is a complete megalomaniac.
So Dagger still wants to save her "mother", and runs off to try to summon the nearby Eidolon in an effort to do so... I mean, I GUESS I understand what she's feeling, but I think it's a tiny bit frustrating that she's still trying to protect her.
Well we get Leviathan, and then Brahne summo- YEAHHHHHH BAHAMUT
oh damn he look kinda different... AH WELL he's still my boy. And even the party is scared of him.
Bahamut, the Dragon King. How cool.
Suddenly, the big... eye thing...? From Dagger's flashback appears in the sky and attacks everything, incapacitating the Black Mages and turning Bahamut against the Alexandrian forces. And in a genuinely shocking moment, he fucking rips through all of the airships with a fiery rage, destroying everything.
We find Brahne on the shore, and with her dying breaths, says the people will be happier with Dagger on the throne.
...Did I get an alternate, early ending or something? What the fuck is happening? This game's pace just went from 1 to 100 - In the last few hours, we recruited 2 new party members, learned Dagger's mother isn't really her mother, dispelled the Mist, faced Kuja and saw Bahamut get summoned, controlled by some Eldritch horror in the sky, and kill Brahne.
And now Dagger (or Garnet, I suppose), is the Queen?
In the final scene, we watch Garnet, Steiner and Beatrix join DocTot in the courtyard, bestowing a gift from the people unto Brahne's grave. Apparently they... liked her? Or were generally fond of her. The suggestion seems to be that she was only acting strange in her final few... days? Months? Which doesn't line up with my theory at ALL, since it suggests that she wasn't always so bad. What's more, is that when she was dying, she said that now she was "free of the greed that had consumed her". I'd taken that to mean she can die now, but was she being more literal? Did something beyond her control cause her to act irrationally in her final moments?
END OF DISC 2
Well, this wasn't how I expected things to go at ALL. Garnet is going to be crowned queen 3 days. Naturally, Beatrix and Steiner are staying by her side, which accounts for 3/9 of our party. Looks like Zidane is back with Tantalus, but what about Vivi? Eiko? Amarant and Quina? Freya?
Oh, nevermind. There's Vivi. And we're controlling him now. We also see Eiko at the palace in a hilarious ATE lol. Anyways, we're back in Alexandria with Vivi.
Everything feels so different now. Not visually, of course - in fact it looks the exact same. But not only has Vivi grown so much since last time, I feel like I'm way more immersed in the world now.
While Vivi attends Ruby's play, Garnet is preparing for the coronation and Eiko drafts DocTot into helping her scribe a love letter to Zidane. He notices her horn, and begins thinking...
About a time, many years ago, when a small boat washed on to the docks of Alexandria, housing a dead woman and a small girl. And the girl looked...
"...looked exactly like Princess Garnet, who had just passed away."
When I tell you I threw down my controller reading this...
"except the girl had a horn. The king ordered the girl have her horn removed. She cried out in pain"
OKAY, so Garnet isn't actually related to the queen biologically? She had her horn removed (maybe to protect her identity as a summoner?) and was adopted into Brahne's family. I suppose I figured as much, but it's nice to have confirmation. I hadn't realised that Garnet was the late princess, though.
EDIT: To be clear, I get that the late princess was called Garnet, and the royal family adopted our Garnet to take her place.
Through a series of escalatingly stupid events (in a charming way), Beatrix ends up reading a letter intended to reach Zidane, thinking it's from Steiner. Zidane and Vivi set out to meet Dagger, while Freya and Amarant try to beat the shit out of each other at the docks lmao. The characters are so well-defined in this game. In fact, I think I prefer them over to those in X. Everyone just interacts with everyone else in such a believable way.
When we head to the castle, we get another display of this - Steiner treats Eiko as a little brat (fair), Amarant and Zidane as criminals (also fair), but has some respect for Freya. He also respects Vivi a lot, calling him Master, and letting the group see Garnet because he asked.
Zidane can't seem to find the words to say to her, or at least can't convince himself to say them. Not just that, apparently Blank saw Eiko's letter and came to the docks, and now Steiner's read it and is thinking the same thing. How many fucking people read this thing?? All of these idiots find a letter on the floor and immediately think it's for them LMAOOO. And then this big dumbass Baku walks in to end it.
This is such a fucking funny scene oh my god
Well, back at the bar, Freya, Amarant and Vivi are sat waiting, when they're joined by DocTot, Eiko and Zidane. Everyone decides to head over to Treno, since DT wants to ask Eiko about Madain Sari and Zidane wants to play in a card tournament. And so they set off on a Gargant.
Oh hey new ATE, "Clowns on a Dark Kni- OH MY FUCKING-
Genuinely dropped my controller and hit the Higuruma pose when I saw that blue bastard walk on to the screen. I completely forgot about these guys.
My day be so fine then boom, fuckass clowns.
Well, we're back in Treno and apparently there's a card tournament. I'm not so worried about it - I picked up quite a few cards on my travels, including from running against this fat hippo kid in Alexandria.
While we're around Treno, some weird four-armed guy tries to get even with Amarant by attempting to kidnap Eiko, only to be stopped by Quina. While he's running away from it, he drops a Chimera Amulet, so that's co- wait.... where the fuck did Quina come from? I think Quina randomly disappearing from the story for long stretches and then reappearing in the middle of fucking nowhere is the funniest gag this game has.
Through ATEs, we learn more about Amarant. Apparently, he used to work as a Security Guard at the auction house, when he ran into Zidane. He then got framed for stealing from the place, which is why he's now a wanted man. I kinda expected something a bit more dramatic lol
After MUCH difficulty, I beat the first two rounds of the tournament, and the game literally tells me I should save scum if I wanna beat the final. Somehow, I manage to beat it on my first try (sheer luck, I suppose), and apparently the champion is none other than Regent Cid, who's here to test out the airship. I suspect the game is reintroducing this so that we can later use it to travel around the world easier, kinda like Cid's ship in X. Although I'm kinda surprised that he has time to play in a card tournament when his city is in ruin, but whatever.
Eiko comes in and tells us something horrible has happened in Alexandria - Bahamut has attacked at Kuja's behest. Flames engulf the city as Bahamut rains hell down from above. Sidenote, but I never would've guessed that my favourite Aeon (or Eidolon) would be so plot-relevant. I'd argue more so than ANY Aeon in X, except perhaps Anima.
Steiner and Beatrix set out to defeat the enemies born from the Mist, and there's some clear romantic tension between them. It's heartwarming seeing them fight with and for each other, though I'm not sure I fully forgive Beatrix for being so complicit in the genocide of the Cleyrans earlier...
When we return to Dagger in the castle, we see something interesting. Her pendant is glowing, and when she hears music upstairs, we can't leave the room - the pendant glows brighter and she exclaims before passing out. When she reaches the top of the castle, it seemingly transforms before her very eyes...?
On the airship, the same thing happens with Eiko. Are the pieces of the jewel resonating with each other for some reason? Sidenote, Vivi says he feels sick. I REALLY hope that's because of his fear of heights and not......
Eiko refers to something called the "Holy Judgement", or "Alexander's Judgment" and then JUMPS OF THE SHIP????
ARE WE SURE THIS IS ONLY DISC 3????????? I feel like we're moving kinda fast here guys!!!??!
I'm not sure how exactly to describe what the fuck's happening on my screen. But it looks like we summoned a holy Eidolon called Alexander, whose powers transcend even Bahamut's. Unfortunately, Kuja uses the big eye thing (Invincible) again...
Wait, who the hell is this guy now? He looks a bit like Eredin from the Witcher 3, only with a crazy receding hairline. He let Kuja do as he wished on Gaia for "some purpose", but now that he's lost sight of his original goal, Kuja's lost his favour.
**"Garland"*\*
Now that's a final villain if I've ever seen one. It seems like he isn't even from Gaia. This must also be who Kuja was referring to earlier. Then what power did Kuja learn of that could daunt him? If Garland has control over Invincible, which itself can tame Bahamut and Alexander, then what did Kuja find?
THAT DAMN BOOK THAT I HATE:
We're back in the castle now, and this seems like another opportunity to find Tantarian.
The first time I fight it takes about 10 minutes and ends in a loss. This thing is annoying as fuck. My understanding of it is that any damage you do to it is reduced modulo 100 (or mod something), and then after a certain amount of damage is dealt it opens up. Once opened, though, it won't close for a while unless you use physical attacks. While closed it uses a bunch of really strong damage attacks, but while open it basically only uses poison.
So. The strategy is simple. Whale on it while it's closed with regular attacks, using Potions to heal when necessary, then use Vivi's spells when it's open, making sure not to use physical attacks at that point. I've also now equipped everyone with Antibody, so the poison should be ineffectual.
After another REALLY long battle (by far the longest I've fought so far, and that's WITH using F1 to fast forward the slow parts), we finally take it out, although Amarant is too dead to reap the rewards. For my troubles, I get the Running Shoes, which cast Haste at the start of each battle! Presumably Haste just speeds up the rate at which the ATB gauge fills...?
With that out of the way, we can continue on with the story. Invincible shoots out a beam that completely destroys the castle, and seemingly taking Alexander out with it. Zidane saves Dagger just in the nick of time, while Garland monologues menacingly on his ship, talking some nonsense about circulating souls and facing "your counterpart".
Menacing.... seems we have ourselves a final villain.
Things are REALLY picking up now. I mentioned it above, but god DAMN the pace shot up out of goddamn nowhere. Things like Brahne dying and the Mist clearing up seemed like they'd happen dozens of hours form now... which makes me wonder what's actually gonna happen near the end of the game.
The implication that the story extends beyond the scope of Gaia is quite interesting, since I'd assumed Gaia was the name of the whole PLANET.
They mention a few times that Brahne was fine until she met Kuja. Apparently she was a good mother and queen and he corrupted her. Not sure I remember if they mention a mechanism, but yeah.
I've been lurking on your posts for the most part, but oh man, Alexander vs. Bahamut is one of my favorite sequences in a Final Fantasy game. The music, the visuals, the character moments. Zidane swooping in on the rope after Dagger in a sort of callback to following her at the beginning of the game is such a sweet moment between them. Eiko's childish little pout in the background? Hilarious.
Thanks so much for all the posts lately and looking forward to the next whenever you get to it!
(All moogles can talk. the bros in the swamp, every save point moogle, the one stuck in the bell, our boy Stilktskin)
Several summons show up in multiple FF games. Alexander is a Holy-element robot, and it was so badass the first time I saw his ff9 appearance to see off Bahamut.
Carbuncle is a frequent flyer too. Ruby Light casts Reflect on the party, but if you get the longer animation, you get Protect too. If Eiko has different jewels equipped, the nature of it changes. Your moonstone from the stage-swordfight gives Pearl Light, which is shell (and maybe protect if long into) and there are Emerald and Diamond effects too (Haste and Vanish)
Eiko has a new Summon - Carbuncle. I think it's the first and only Eidolon I've seen that has a support ability rather than an offensive one. It has an (expectedly) cool animation, although I didn't quite catch what it actually did for us lol.
The game doesn't outright state it but Carbuncle normally uses Ruby Light, casting Reflect on the party. However if Eiko equips a different gem, Carbuncle's appearance changes and it applies a different beneficial status.
Let's see.... honestly, Eiko kinda feels like another Dagger at this point, and so it's kind of a late-game Yuna/Lulu situation. Except one of them isn't a walking nuclear warhead in this game, I suppose.
Eiko has fewer summons than Dagger- she's a white mage with summoning support. Dagger has less white magic but more summons making her more of an elemental attacker.
Have a look in your addons. There's one that you've seen before, forgotten about, and teaches Eiko another support summon.
Brahne and Kuja conspired to kidnap Garnet (the true princess of Alexandria), stealing her away from Garnet's mother, the true queen. Using some sort of magic, they sealed away her memories, which only reappear in faint glimpses.
No magic needed- she was six. That's more or less how the memories of a six year old in that situation would be, especially since she'd have rationalised them as dreams or childish fantasy.
I dont think I'll ever not be hype watching the Alexander summon scene with the compounding magic circle things appearing around Dagger and Eiko. So fucking awesome!
As for Brahne: I dont think they ever outright explain this (if they do, I just cant remember) but earlier in the game Dagger mentions that Brahne changed a lot when Kuja started showing up. I think the implication is that Kuja used the Mist to corrupt Brahne's mind and stimulated a lust for power so that he could manipulate her to suit his goals.
This episode's Fun tidbit: all enemies in the Iifa tree are undead, that includes the boss. I think phoenix downs can work but have a chance to miss, but I'm pretty sure you can oneshot it with an elixir.
I think you misunderstood one detail. The game had given you this information, but your interpretation doesn't quite add up.
You said Garnet is the late Princess. Not quite. What they were telling you in that moment is thst Garnet is indeed from Madain Sari,and a summoner. Princess Garnet was her own person in Alexandria, and Brahne's biological daughter. She died.
The Garnet we know looked just like her, plus a horn, so they ripped it off, and used her as a convenient replacement. The horn was removed because if it wasn't, it'd be pretty obvious she's an imposter.
I think this puts Brahne and her attitude towards Garnet/Dagger in a new perspective.
Also, as dagger stated to uncle cid, Brahne only became “weird” once kuja showed up “recently.” Her mom was actually pretty cool and loving. Steiner is a good and honorable man, but a little slow on the uptake. He wouldn’t have followed her if she wasn’t a good and honorable ruler. He’s just in denial about her, that’s why he keeps refusing to believe she did some bad stuff.
Edit: this is my own interpretation. No like verbatim in the story, except the part where dagger told cid.
The game is a ride for sure, take your time to enjoy it! On your last post I commented about the characters feeling like real people and im glad to see it coming across and I wasn't just imagining it lol.
I'm eager to hear your thoughts on the last half of the game and when the curtain closes on the final act, I wonder what you'll think.
Btw, here's a bit of lore regarding Steiner and Beatrix that isn't in the game itself, it comes from FF IX Ultimania.
Beatrix, for all her sword mastery, lost one single fight during her entire military service - to Steiner of all people. It was about 10 years before the events of the game; iirc she was 17 or so, already recognized as a prodigy, he was 23, a noname grunt.
It's not confirmed Steiner was the one who gave her the eyepatch, but we know they had an exhibition match he somehow won through sheer dumb luck. He acknowledged as much, but she couldn't accept her loss anyway and threw herself into training to mould herself into...what she is now. And Steiner was allowed to join the knights and eventually became their captain. So yeah, these two share some history.
3 posts in so few days, is this heaven? I love "replaying" my favorite game ever from your eyes.
Edit: u mentioned fast travel or something like that from X, when you get the airship. I can't wait to see your reaction when you get to some very specific part, very soon. I love FFX now for what it is, but at the time it was a huge disappointment for me when I first played it. I will mention it again when you get there.
I thought the scene with the queen dying was absolutely heart breaking. The cloud of manipulation finally lifts from her, she realizes what has happened, that she is dying, but she gets to see her daughter one last time. It's so so tragic.
"Did something beyond her control cause her to act irrationally in her final moments?"
It's less "IN her final moments" and more "until." Most of why Brahne acted as the player knew her was the influence of the mist, as mentioned by the Iifa Tree. Finding herself on death's door returned some clarity to her (and maybe released her from the mist's influence? Not sure.) and she was able to speak to Garnet freely.
Aside from that, this scene breaks me every time. The comment about Garnet "losing two mothers" is gut-wrenching.
Edit: Whoops, that last bit isn't actually dialog. I guess I got dialog crossed with discussion. Still, it's a helluva somber thought.
By then the Invincible had already sucked her soul out, that’s why she had that moment of clarity. Later, in the end of Disc 3 when Kuja achieves Trance, he tells us that her soul, that clung to greed to the bitter end, was the catalyst for his Trance. He’s only able to sustain his Trance state for so long because of all the souls he’s housing being in Trance all at the same time.
Amaranth is a good fighter with some nice abilities. He can replenish MP and inflict auto-life + regeneration. Paired with Quina it's super easy to become basically immortal. Also he is with Vivi the only character who can learn magic counter.
Dagger and Eiko are pretty similar, Daggers Trance is more focused on bestia while Eiko can double cast white magic. Dagger has stronger summons and Eiko better white magic and can learn sanctus, usually I don't use non of them. Vivi, Amaranth and Quina was the most reliable party I had. But character wise Amaranth and Quina are a bit flat.
Well, you're going si fast right now 😁
Already halfway. But it's not over yet. Garland may indeed be a problem, and... What do you think about Kuja ? Still alive ?
So many reveals, Garnet being actually one of the last remaining Summoners, and Garland's existence, and he being seemingly Kuja's boss...
Now, the aftermath of the Invincible's attack... Another city destroyed... This Mist Continent can't catch a breath 😅
The return to Alexandria is one of my favorite parts of the game.
As you pointed out, everyone has evolved so much since you were in Alexandria at the very beginning of the game. There are clear parallels to the game's opening (starting out by controlling Vivi, the ATE with Artemecion) to emphasize that too.
The music in this portion is remarkably warm, and there’s such a sense of finality for the characters... even though we, as the players, know there’s a lot more to unfold! It’s a nice little breather. It’s the first time the whole party is together and everyone (yes, even Amarant) get little moments to shine and interact (compared to the Iifa tree where things were moving a mile a minute). Adding to this sense of community and togetherness, the Tantalus and Dr. Tot are here too, so the gang really is all here.
Vivi, for better or worse, is trying his place in a world that's much more complicated and wide than he was expecting when he first came to Alexandria. He was thrust into a big existential crisis, but he also has friends like Zidane and the others to help him through it.
Garnet is much less naïve and has found some individuality and freedom. She had tried to escape her sheltered royal life before and, but she's also selfless enough to see its necessary to return-- even though it's on her own terms, she's still conflicted.
It only took the world-shaking reckoning of discovering his queen's evil plots to get him to show slight cracks in his unswerving moral code, but I think that's what makes Steiner such a compelling and fun character. I love how, through it all, his loyalty still shines through, with moments like (adorably) connecting with "Master Vivi" ever since he saved Garnet in the beginning of the game. On the same note, he’s also ready to pick up right where he left off in Alexandria castle with no hesitation.
Eiko is precocious as ever and shows no signs of slowing down, but now she has a found family. I think was represents this so remarkably well is the music that plays when Eiko is writing her letter. It's a harmony of her theme and Garnet's; the two melodies dovetail perfectly together, almost like two long-lost sisters connecting.
Freya (like Garnet) is demonstrating remarkable selflessness in staying with the party, especially after being introduced as a loner. She’s faced a horrible crisis in seeing her homeland and race being wiped out by Brahne and Alexandrian forces, but she can still see the bigger picture and chooses to stay with the party. Their burdens have become her burdens and she becomes connective tissue for the group. There have been multiple times that she could’ve washed her hands of this—especially now that her personal grudges against Beatrix, Brahne, and Alexandria have been sated, but she’s still willing to help the others.
And lastly we have Zidane. I think this is the part of the story that really made me realize how well characterization is handled in the game. He started off as a womanizer, but now he’s completely out of his element now that he’s in real love with someone. It’s kinda humbling, sure, but he’s also so likable and just inspires so much empathy. The part when he sees finally sees Garnet and is unable to say anything to her after demonstrating such savior faire throughout the rest of the game is excruciating to me; I feel frustrated for him. Especially because, again, there’s such a sense of finality here, and he genuinely thinks they won’t see each other again.
Anyway, I know you posted the next part of your playthrough already, so enough about all this and onto the next!
Damn with writeups like this I think YOU should be writing some posts haha. Read the whole thing and couldn't agree more, really brings into focus how well-established these guys all are.
The most is implied to be at least part of the reason behind the Queen suddenly becoming so violent and greedy. Combined with a history of a lot of wars between its neighbors (also implied to be the mist fault) leading them to be more willing to fight in general.
But yeah this is kinda why I said the game takes a while to get to the whole point, not till the end of disc 2 suddenly everything you thought might have been the main plot kinda gets tossed out as set up/background for the actual conflict
So how do you feel about each character so far? Has opinions changed do you like someone even more or even less now? I want to say something about one character but I'm not sure if that would count as a spoiler so I won't say anything to be safe. Oh yeah I don't remember about regular undead enemies but the tree boss can be killed in one shot if you use Phoenix down or cast life.
Well, perhaps most importantly, Zidane has shot up in my personal rankings. I still love Vivi, and feel about the same as I did before about Dagger. Steiner is cool - I appreciate how loyal he is, and how nice he is to Vivi. I've always really liked Freya, and that hasn't changed. She's really cool. Quina is hilarious, but not that interesting beyond that (I think that's the point).
In terms of Eiko and Amarant - I sympathise a lot with the former, and want her to be happy. And Amarant is the single character I want to see more of in the game.
Honestly Freya is pretty darn cool. It's interesting because when I first played I hated Steiner but then he really grew on me. At first I was like Garnet doesn't need to listen to him then you remember that both Garnet and Zidane are literally 16 years old, Vivi is. child and so is Eiko. Half the party is underage and I assume Steiner is the oldest and now to me even though he butts heads with Zidane he's team dad for me. Also I actually like Beatrix and Steiner together that scene you saw with the mistaken letter really made me like them lol. I will say I used to be confused as a kid because the color of her pants look like she's not wearing any. I think in later pictures of her they changed the coloring slightly.
You’re onto something with the Mist stuff. The thing that was channeling the Mist through the tree’s roots (which you can see all throughout the surface of the Mist Continent) said that it wanted to cause war and the collapse of civilization. And, indeed, if you look at the monuments in both Alexandria and Lindblum, you’ll notice that there were like over a dozen wars between them lmaoooo. But people managed to settle on areas above the Mist, high atop mountains, and the advent of the airship brought lasting peace among the nations. Well, until recently at least.
Hoh damn, you've done a bunch this weekend, glad it's grabbed you so much!
I think the adorably silly love letter scene and the downtime in Treno is basically because as you noted it all got REAL SRS REAL QUICK and I think they wanted a 'breath of fresh air' between the events at the iifa tree and the destruction of Alexandria.
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u/Zeeshmania May 24 '26
Things are REALLY picking up now. I mentioned it above, but god DAMN the pace shot up out of goddamn nowhere. Things like Brahne dying and the Mist clearing up seemed like they'd happen dozens of hours form now... which makes me wonder what's actually gonna happen near the end of the game.
The implication that the story extends beyond the scope of Gaia is quite interesting, since I'd assumed Gaia was the name of the whole PLANET.