Near the end of the plains we come upon an interesting shack, a monster arena. Here we're told that we can fight monsters for practice but first we must catch them. The guy in charge sells us a few weapons we can use to capture monsters if they strike the killing blow. I'll have to use those later to get some of my final Aeons in the game, so we'll come back to that. For now, it's on to Mount Gagazet.
Here we find the Ronso homeland. At first we're told that we're traitors of Yevon and that we must leave immediately. But after some discussion, they realize that Yuna is still going on to sacrifice herself and defeat Sin. They realize that the church must be full of shit. Instead they tell her to go on up the pass, that they will stop anyone from following her. While I'm there Kimahri's brothers challenge him and I have to defeat them. Used the opportunity to draw out several new blue mage spells like Mighty Guard and White Wind. Nice. However, my super strong beast of a man can only cast blue magic on his limit break and as he travels through the sphere grid the dividing of points between magic and steel has taken it's toll. He's now a red mage of sorts, casting both magic and sword into battle but not really great at either.
On a side note, the leader of the Ronso's tells Yuna that they have great respect for her and that one day after she defeats Sin, they will erect a statue of her in her honor. They will even put a horn on her forhead like the Ronsos as a honorary symbol. This is funny because the symbol in all FF games of a summoner is someone with a horn in their forehead. Thought it was a cool scene.
We entered into some tunnels at the mountain base and worked our way up, up, up. As we progressed we saw the graves of summoners all over the place. Summoners who'd fallen after getting so far. With no one to Send them because they died alone, they all become fiends, making the mountain even harder to pass for the next Summoner. As is the staple of all final dungeons, I have started to see the Behemoth mobs as I climb the mountain.
Eventually we reach the peak and just as we exit the tunnel, Seymour follows behind us. He explains to us casually that he killed all the Ronsos below who tried to stop him. Kimahri is the last of his race. Man what a dick. We engage in battle and Seymour proceeds to thoroughly kick the shit out of me. Ouch. Reset. I went back down the mountain and did a bit of power leveling. Enough to snag Curaga for Yuna, Hastega for Rhek, and all the elemental -aga spells for Lulu. I also took some time to get all five of my summons to their limit break as well as Yuna herself. Once this was done, the fight was much easier. Basically it entailed keeping Yuna hasted and healed while she summons every Aeon she has to deal 9,999 damage before Seymour one shots it. I ended him with a nice Bahamut who doesn't have a 9,999 damage limit. He hit him for about 23k I think. God I love Summoners. As he goes down he yells something about Jecht being Sin to Rhek and as we leave Rhek must confess the truth about that, Jecht is Sin. For the most part they don't hold it against him and we continue to Zanarkand.
When we arrive, it looks more like the Farplane than anything else, so many souls wandering about. We come upon the city limit and find a wall made out of people. WTF. Auron tells us that the people are the dead of Zanarkand, they are Fayth. They dream and give power to the Aeons, or something. Rhek walks up and touches one, and enters a dream world. Oops. Rhek is alone back in his world of Zanarkand on a boat at a dock. We go inside and there in the corner once more is the little boy in the blue hooded robe. We ask him whats going on and he tells us. Here we go folks, the real story about this whole dream thing that everyone was so pissed about.
Apparently long long ago there was a huge war between Bevelle and Zanarkand. But Bevelle had tons of very advanced Machina and Zanarkand knew that their destruction was all but assured. After Bevelle completely annihilated Zanarkand, the few remaining survivors left became the Fayth. They cast a spell among the thousands of people left and they began a dream. A dream that was Zanarkand. They dreamt up the old memories of the dead, the buildings, the events, the people... Rhek-is-a-dream. His entire world - was a dream. Is a dream. His mother, his father, everyone he knows - is a dream. A dream of the Fayth of the long dead city.
And the Fayth are tired now. They are tired of dreaming. The boy tells Rhek that he and his father were touched by Sin though. And they have become something more than a dream. Now the Fayth believe that maybe Rhek is the dream that will end the Fayth's dream at last...
Rhek wakes up, and when they ask him what happen, he tells no one. We continue toward Zanarkand, through some final mountain pass into the city proper. As we approach Auron tells us that 'she' is testing us, making sure we're ready. Who? Yunalesca he says. What?
Well it turns out that no one ever Sent Yunalesca either, and that she's been in dead Zanarkand for over a thousand years. She is the first Summoner to defeat Sin and she tells all Summoners who've come this far how to obtain the Final Aeon and defeat Sin as well. Interesting. We continue on, and must face off with a Temple Guardian who also kicks the crap out of me at first. In a very unconventional fight, I had to jump platforms and use about 25 Phoenix Downs as I chipped away and died over and over and over. After that we move into the city proper, but on the way Yuna drops something. Rhek picks it up, a voice message she intended to leave behind once she was dead. A suicide note of sorts, telling everyone she loves them and will miss them, etc. Rhek pretends like he didn't hear it and moves on. We come to a beach, the beach from the beginning of the game, where Rhek began to tell his story of what has happened so far. Now we're all caught up, in present time, and now we must head into the Zanarkand Temple, ready to face whatever comes.
As we get closer to the temple we begin to see visions of the dead. Summoners who got this far. The summoner Yucon, Braska, and some event with Seymour when he was like five with his mother. She's telling him he must become the final Aeon and defeat Sin... Little confusing with no follow up. Okay...
We continue on and fight the final Temple Guardian before entering the real Temple. We go inside and hear Jecht's voice. "What do you mean no final Aeon?!" Yuna goes down inside then comes right back out and tells us to follow. When we get inside, we're greeted by some temple custodian who tells us that the final Aeon was Lord Luca, but he's been dead for some time now. His soul is gone, there is no final Aeon. WHAT?!? Lady Yunalesca awaits us.
We go inside and are greeted by the Summoner of all Summoners, the legendary Lady Yunalesca. She then breaks it down to us. Yuna must choose a guardian. The guardian will die and become the final Aeon. It must be someone whom she has a very strong bond with because it is through that bond that Sin is defeated. Yunalesca chose her husband Lord Luca. We flash back to Jecht choosing to be the Fayth for Braska. And against Auron's wishes, Braska goes through with it because he believes that MAYBE this time Sin won't come back, maybe they'll break the cycle. And that possibility is worth the risk. Yunalesca goes into her chambers and asks us to follow once we've made our choice.
Of course everyone volunteers, but Rhek wants to ask Yunalesca if there's not some other way. We enter into her chamber and get a little more info out of her. The final Aeon that defeats Sin with the Summoner, becomes Sin reborn and kills the Summoner in turn. It is inevitable, it is guaranteed, there is NO breaking the cycle, it is eternal, Sin will always come back, no matter what humanity does, it will always be there. No atonement, no possibly breaking the cycle this time. Nothing. We flash back to Auron confronting Yunalesca about this very point after Braska and Jecht die while defeating Sin. Auron attacks her, she cuts him down. Back to present.
Well, the party doesn't like this at all. All of Yevon's teachings were bullshit from day one. Well, I knew that, but they didn't. Yuna chooses no one. She will no longer participate in this false tradition. She will not choose someone she loves to die. Yunalesca accepts this, but she must kill them now. Death is inevitable for all and is the final embrace of peace. We engage in battle and Auron calls out to us to prepare. I think he's known all along that this would be the outcome. He's come to kill Yunalesca. After a pretty tough three phase boss fight where we're zombies for like 20 minutes and she's curing us to deal damage, we end the final part with a nice 5 Aeon straight limit break. Fun stuff.
Well at least that part of the cycle is forever broken. Yunalesca perishes believing that all hope for Spira is gone, she says that "Yu Yevon the Immortal will only create Sin again if defeated." After the fight, Auron pulls Rhek aside and finally tells him he's dead, Unsent. Yeah, figured. He died fighting Yunalesca ten years ago. But it was through death that he was able to travel back to Zanarkand on Sin and help watch over Rhek. Which Jecht asked him to do before he became the final Aeon.
After all the drama we finally walk back outside, and sitting there half above the water, is Sin waiting for Rhek like a loyal dog.
Kinda weird. Rhek tells him that he'll think of something, he tells Jecht that he'll free him, he promises. Sin turns and leaves, passing Cid's airship in the sky as he comes to pick us up.
After some head scratching our party comes up with two ideas. One, go talk to Maester Mika and see what he knows. And two, we realized that Jecht is really attracted to the Hymn of the Fayth. So much that he becomes almost docile when he's near it. We plan to use that to weaken him then strike.
We head back to Bevelle and are greeted by Mika who now believes that Yuna has the final Aeon and is Spira's only hope. We're not traitors all the sudden... But he's of course very upset when we tell him we didn't get the final Aeon, but killed Yunalesca instead. After he has a little break down, he says something interesting before disappearing. He says that Yu Yevon's spiral of death will consume us all. That even if we defeat Sin, Yu Yevon will just take the souls of the dead and create the unholy armor of Sin once more. There is no end.
So Sin is just armor for the true villain, Yu Yevon.
After the Maester disappears, the floating boy shows up and tells Yuna and Rhek to come see him. We go to his old room or whatever and he explains to us that Yu Yevon was once a Summoner long ago, but now he lives for only one purpose, to summon. He's not good or evil, he's awake but he dreams. When the final Aeon defeats Sin, Yu Yevon merges with it to make a new Sin, to continue the summoning. Yu Yevon lives inside Sin.
The boy tells us that we alone are not strong enough to defeat Sin, and then Yu Yevon. He asks that we call upon all the Fayth to aid when we go to battle. He tells us as we leave that when it's over, the dream of the Fayth will end. The dream will vanish with Sin... He's talking to Rhek, and Rhek understands. When Yu Yevon dies, Rhek will disappear forever. Rhek accepts it. Yuna doesn't understand but she knows he's not telling her something.
As we leave Bevelle we tell the head steward to spread the word to sing they Hymn of the Fayth when they get the signal from the ship in the sky. The whole of Spira must participate. We leave and I have control of the airship and free roam of the world for the first time in the game. I see the final destination "Sin" at the top of my list of destinations, but there's some summons to be gotten first. Tomorrow, the last three summons and final preparations before the final showdown.
Doing good on time, should have a full two weeks to complete FFXII, looks like I'll be done with FFX in a total of seven or eight days.
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