Next we headed to the Calm Lands where we traveled to where Lulu's first Summoner met her end. We enter a cave and work our way through to the end where we find the Unsent summoner who has no more humanity left, just hatred. She calls upon Yojimbo and I answer with my new summon Anima. I had hoped he would not be capped like Bahamut so he could deal over 9,999 damage. I was not disappointed as he one shotted Yojimbo for 40k damage, sweet. Afterward though I did not receive the summon outright. Rather I had to pay him off to join me, ended up costing me most of my bank roll, 205,000 gil.
Next up, we traveled to Remein Temple to have our final showdown with Belgemine, the summoner who's been challenging and teaching Yuna throughout the game. We defeat her Bahamut and receive the Flower Scepter. Then we go monster hunting for the guy in the monster arena. Once we've captured all the required monsters, we are rewarded with the Blossom Crown. We head on back to Remein Temple and receive the last summon, the Magus Sisters, who are originally from FFIII. Cool.
With the summons obtained it was time to fight Sin. We begin the hymn and the world joins us in song. We approach the great beast and he creates a vortex which pulls us in.
As we're pulled in, he casts some crazy ass spell which rips holes through the surface of the earth, converging on our airship, we barely get out of that.
We move in closer and notice symbols on the arm joints, so we attack each arm to weaken it before Cid uses the cannon on the airship to fire at Sin and rip his arms off.
Sin, now hurt, moves in for the kill and instead of waiting we engage him first, jumping onto his body. We attack his center point, deal with his ass and then hop off as he goes crashing into the city of Bevelle. But it's not over, Overdrive Sin arises and hovers over the city, waiting for us.
We head in. Now at this point in the game my guys are just.. ok. Auron smacks shit around pretty well, as does Wakka from time to time. But Rhek is very mediocre and Kimahri is useless, as is Rikku. Lulu is powerful when she uses her end game magic on regular mobs but it's pretty weak if not worthless against bosses who are often immune to things like Bio, Demi and Death. She's not far enough in her sphere for Flare or Ultima. So at this time I typically win by overdriving Yuna and her summons then letting the Aeons do all the heavy lifting. This was no exception, Anima annihilated OD Sin, his regular hits were for over 12k (more than a regular summon's OD), and his own Over Drive hit for 50k. Sin went down nasty.
Now it was time to enter Sin and kill Yu Yevon before he could find another Aeon host for Sin. Inside we find Seymour who's been absorbed by Sin. His master plan this time is to sit in Sin for eternity and eventually find a way to control it. Whatever, man. We whip the shit out of him for the last time and Yuna Sends him finally. Man that guy was annoying.
We travel through the body of Sin in some metaphysical plane of existence and finally come to a great tower in the body. At this point it's worth mentioning that I was nearing the end of my sphere grids and I'd gotten Ultima for Yuna and Lulu. We enter the tower and find Jecht, the final real boss of the game.
He lived up to his status and beat me down, but I almost had him. I grinded a couple of overdrives up and went at him again. After a tough first phase (because I saved my best Aeons), I was finally able to chip at his health, only really bringing out my weaker Aeons to absorb his overdrive which almost guarantees one or all of my party dying if they're out. Using this method to soak up most of the damage, I finally beat him into his second phase. At this point it was up to my Aeons. It's worth noting here that once an Aeon has used his or her overdrive ability, the boss doesn't stop getting turns until the Aeon is dead. This killed me before because his turn ended on an Overdrive and he wiped my party when they came back out. This time I was prepared though and strategically timed the turns and overdrives so that wouldn't happen. Auron started things off with an Armor Break to weaken the boss, then Yuna summoned Bahamut who hit him for 28k, Anima who hit him for 85k (!!!), and finally the Magus Sisters who did a disappointing 18k damage (for being the final summon). Gotta love Anima and Bahamut. Jecht went down and transfered back to human form. Rhek reconciled with his father as he died but now it was time for Yu Yevon.
At this point the game was beat, what followed was a series of battles that I couldn't lose due to the fact that the game put Auto-Life on all my party. Yuna summoned each of her Aeons in turn, who were immediately possessed by Yevon, and then defeated by us before they could meld with Sin. We went through this process for every summon in Yuna's arsenal and this was the only time I kinda regretting getting every summon. Once this lengthy procedure was complete, we finally got to face off with Yu Yevon himself. A squid...
Kinda ironic how Yu Yevon cast Zanarkand to remember his dead city, and uses Sin to keep Spira away from his dream world; and then to be killed by your own summon. Ironic because his defeat has always been based on a summoner calling upon a summon which just ends up killing the summoner in the end after merging with Yu Yevon. He got a taste of his own medicine.
Reflecting on this battle I see what has become a key element in the entire series, the summoner. I used to think that the common thread in all the stories was usually something to do with crystals. But ever since FFIII, a summoner has either played a vital role, been the center of the story, or the Eidolons control everything. It's always the summoner.
The fight itself was a pain just because I was hitting him for only like 2-5k damage and he would counter attack with Curaga for 9,999 health. With his total health at 99,999, I wasn't sure how to beat him for a minute. Then I cast Bio with Lulu and it actually landed and I just sat and did nothing so he couldn't counter cure as Bio ticked for 9,999 damage every turn. When his health was under 2k I finished him off with Auron, which I thought was fitting.
After Yu Yevon is defeated, we see all the statues of all the Aeons in the temples over the entire world start to fade in power. We see the Fayth disappear from the temples. Yuna starts to perform her final Sending, and as she starts she sees Auron begin to fade. This causes hesitation but Auron tells her it's ok, to continue. The final Sending destroys all Aeons, Sin, and the Fayth.
The dream that is Zanarkand ends, and Rhek disappears as Yuna tells him she loves him. Aww, so sad...
After everything is over, we see Yuna standing at a pier, whistling the way Rhek taught her. He told her when she whistled like that, he'd always come for her. But he doesn't come... Lulu comes and tells her it's time. She turns and walks to the stadium to tell the people of Spira that they're finally free and it's time to rebuild.
The credits roll and at the very end, the black fades into a scene of the sea. And we see Rhek curled up under the water.
He wakes, looks up, and begins to swim for the surface. The title splash screen hits, The End. What a tease. I almost want to go play through FFX-2 now to see how he came back.
My final stats, game logging in at about 41 hours. Overall great game. I can see why they'd want to do a sequel to this one. The 'dream' thing wasn't bad at all or how people made it sound. I LOVED the whole Summoner story line. I loved using the summons in battle. The story was good. The only things I had a beef with were the voice acting and responses of some of the characters but as I stated earlier, Square has never been great in this department and I accept that. This game ranks pretty high for me though, I'm going to put it at number 4 I think.
Only FFXII to go. After that I think I'll post a ranking of my favorites. Until next time, peace.
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