Rikku of the Al Bhed (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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fandomhigh_ooc2007-04-29 07:05 pm
the_merriest) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2007-04-29 07:05 pm
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Spotlight on Fandoms: Final Fantasy X
(Note: all of this has spoilers. The huge massive ones are in the noted section below.)
Final Fantasy is a series of role-playing video games, originally for Nintendo and then for Sony's Playstation. None of the games are connected from a storyline or universe POV (with a couple of exceptions such as direct sequels) - each game is a complete story unto itself. Rikku from Final Fantasy X wouldn't know Cloud from Final Fantasy VII any more than she'd know Buffy. What stays consistent is the battle structure, certain enemies, systems of magic, and so on, although each game has its own unique take on them. Make sense? Okay, let's go.
Final Fantasy X: Once Upon a Spira
Your main character for Final Fantasy X is Tidus, a blonde young blitzball player. He's cocky, but not undeservedly so, as he's about to be named Rookie of the Year for the Zanarkand Abes. The night of the Jecht Cup Memorial - Jecht being Tidus's father, who disappeared ten years ago - a huge monster named Sin sweeps in and destroys the city. Auron, an old friend of Jecht's, meets up with Tidus and drags him to the center of the maelstrom, telling him lots of cryptic things such as "this is your story." Tidus is sucked into a wall of water and wakes up alone in the ruins of a temple he's never seen before.
And thus, it begins. Tidus's story at first appears to be a classic case of "I time-travelled, how do I get back home?" - particularly when the first person Tidus encounters scoffs at him playing blitz for Zanarkand. [Zanarkand? That city was destroyed a thousand years ago!] But nothing's what it seems in this game. The main plot picks up when Tidus meets Yuna, a young girl who has just become a Summoner. She's on a pilgrimage to beat Sin, with her Guardians (protector/bodyguards) in tow. Will he come along and be one of them? As Tidus is pretty smitten with Yuna, and starting to realize that Sin is tied to his fate, he agrees.
Summoners are people who can merge with the Fayth - more on that in a second - and can perform a highly ritualized dance known as the Sending to make sure the dead move on to the Farplane, instead of hanging around and becoming fiends and attacking the living. The Fayth are people who sacrificed themselves to exist in a not-alive, not-dead state within a statue, where they can be called forth by Summoners. Their dreams, when manipulated by the Summoners and powered by pyreflies, become reality, or something that looks/seems like it until you poke a few holes around the edges. One Fayth is a little boy, but the Aeon he calls forth is Bahamut, an enormous dragon sort of creature.
More general background: Zanarkand was a highly advanced city; Spira is simplistic and almost medieval. This is because Yevon, the predominant religion, teaches that technology is bad and should be shunned. Yevon also teaches the rites for Summoners and fayth. The Al Bhed are the only group on Spira who do not follow Yevon (and, therefore, allow themselves to use technology); as such, they're considered outcasts, and it is widely believed that their refusal to repent is the reason Sin is still around.
Most of this isn't true. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Cast of Characters [and Final Fantasy job type(s)]
Lady Yuna - a new Summoner who is attempting the dangerous quest. Her father managed it ten years ago, but that's the problem ... Sin always comes back. That and, vanquishing Sin for that ten-year-period costs the Summoner his or her life. Saving the world: not always easy. [White Mage (healer) / Summoner]
Tidus - your protagonist, who falls in love with Yuna and doesn't want her to sacrifice herself for this thousand-year-old tradition. There has to be a better way, and he's going to find it. And hopefully find a way home. [Fighter]
Wakka - captain of the Besaid Aurochs, another blitzball team, and one of Yuna's Guardians. He's like an older brother to Yuna, who grew up orphaned on Besaid, and he takes an instant liking to Tidus, since Tidus has a striking resemblance to Chappu, his dead younger brother. [Archer/Gambler]
Lulu - the badass stoic type, and another Guardian. She dislikes Tidus for the same reason Wakka likes him so much - the resemblance to Chappu. Seems Chappu was just about to propose to Lulu when he got crushed by Sin. Oops. [Black Mage]
Kimahri - a strong, silent cat-person and Yuna's personal protector. A dying man (name omitted here for spoiler purposes) begged him to find newly-orphaned Yuna and protect her, and as Kimahri had just be ousted from his tribe and had nowhere to go, he agreed. [Blue Mage/Dragoon]
Auron - Sir Auron to you, a legend in Spira for having served alongside the late Lord Braska, Yuna's father. (The third member of their party? Jecht, Tidus's dad. Yes, really.) He's bitter about the secrets he uncovered a little too late. His outfit is that of a ronin samurai, as he believes he has failed those he swore to protect. He's with your pilgrimage to right some wrongs, and to keep an eye on both Tidus and Yuna. [Knight/Paladin]
Rikku - a bouncy young Al Bhed girl who tries unsuccessfully to kidnap Yuna and stop her pilgrimage, and is instead persuaded to join it. She's also Yuna's first cousin; most of Yuna's friends don't know that she's half-Al Bhed, as prejudice against the Al Bhed runs high. Wakka doesn't realize that Rikku's an Al Bhed when she joins your group; when he discovers it later, he screams at her as well as the others for letting him travel with a "filthy heathen." Despite this, the two are now friends. [Thief/Alchemist]
The above seven are all playable characters; during any battle, you use three, but you can swap between them. For example, if your lineup is Wakka, Tidus and Rikku, but you want to cast Black Magic, you can swap Tidus for Lulu and have her cast away.
Seymour Guado - half-human, half-Guado and a new Maester of the Yevon religion. He murdered his own father for the position, and won't stop there to get more power. He's also obsessed with Lady Yuna. Great.
Cid - Rikku's father, Yuna's uncle, and the leader of the Al Bhed tribe. When the Al Bhed city of Home is destroyed, your party and the remaining Al Bhed are piled onto an old abandoned airship which, after a thousand years, miraculously still flies. In-game, this airship lets you visit previous locations without backtracking.
(Note: most Final Fantasy games incorporate an airship near the end of the plot, and usually piloted by a man named Cid.)
Plotty Plotty Goodness (MASSIVE SPOILERS)
Your group, after murdering a Maester (Seymour, who doesn't stay dead), being sentenced to death by Yevon's rulers for that murder, witnessing the destruction of Home, participating in the ill-fated Operation Mi'ihen (a joint effort between Yevonite monks and the Al Bhed to fight Sin - most of them are now dead), and winning a blitzball tournament, finally reaches the ruins of Zanarkand. There, Lady Yunalesca reveals some ugly truths. Like:
- the final Aeon is actually one of the Summoner's Guardians, who chooses to sacrifice him/herself
- that psychic bond between the two is what both defeats Sin and kills the Summoner
- Yu Yevon, who started the Yevon religion? Is actually the Summoner at the center of Sin
- Yu Yevon uses each new Aeon to form a new Sin, and this cycle will never, ever stop
- Thus, Tidus's father, Jecht, who was Braska's Final Aeon, is currently Sin.
Good times, huh? Your group kills Yunalesca in one of the hardest bitches of a boss fight ever, WTF FFX, although I still say Seymour Flux was harder STUPID ZOMBIE/FULL-LIFE COMBO AHHHHHH *cough* yes. Anyway. Your group kills and sends the one-thousand-year-old spirit of Yunalesca and are going to beat Sin once and for all. Not by killing off a summoner, not temporarily, but permanently.
As your group talks to the fayth and other people, you uncover more information. Such as:
- Zanarkand was going to be destroyed in a war, so all the residents of Zanarkand chose instead to go up to Mount Gagazet and become fayth. Their dreams were of a Zanarkand that never died, and Yu Yevon has been Summoning that city for a thousand years continuously.
- It's this dream Zanarkand that both Tidus and Jecht are from.
The fayth are tired and want to stop already, and ask Tidus to help them end this. He agrees, but doesn't tell the others, because he knows they would stop him.
And so: you take on Sin headfirst, and win. You call forth the Aeons and finish them off. Everything ends. Yuna does one big final dance of the Sending ...
... and Auron begins to fade out. Yeah. He died ten years ago when he went back and told Yunalesca where she could shove her Final Sending, and she struck him down. He's been hanging on to (after)life this long to see things out to the end, because he owed his friends that much. He says his goodbyes and then ...
... Tidus begins to disappear in a different way. He explains everything quickly to Yuna, who stares at him for a few moments, and then he turns to leave. She gasps and runs to him ... and falls through him, landing hard on the ground. She stands and announces "I love you," and he wraps his arms around her. And then fades through her and does a swan dive off the ship into the open air.
That's how FFX ends. Bit of a downer, no? Lots of controllers thrown and obscenities yelled. Despite that? BEST GAME EVER. (Okay, I'm Kingdom Hearts's bitch, but still.)
Final Fantasy X-2: Taking a Good Thing and Killing It
X-2 picks up two years later, with Yuna, Rikku and a new girl named Paine. They're sphere hunters, running around Spira in skimpy outfits looking for information about hopefully finding Tidus again. Yuna spends half the game being badass-shooter-with-guns and half of it moping and being emo. Rikku has been turned into ditzy ho-tastic comic relief. It's a fun game, but it has almost nothing in common with X except for setting.
If you finish all the optional side quests and jump through a hundred million hoops and look up information on GameFAQs, then at the end of the game one of the Fayth kids appears and says, "Hey, by the way, thanks for saving the world again, Yuna. ... You want Tidus back?" If she says yes, he washes up on Besaid Island and they get a reunion scene. It's cheap and stupid and a total deus-ex-machina, and I still played the whole freakin game for it because zomg, TIDUS BACK.
X-2 is largely irrelevant to Fandom, because Rikku is the only X/X-2 character here, and she's pulled from three months after X ends. I've used a few bits of X-2 just as informative character notes, from those places where they didn't totally butcher her character. Also, the current plot to resurrect Tidus is slightly inspired by X-2, and the fact that - according to "Eternal Calm," the FMV set inbetween the two games - it's Rikku who lures Yuna from her moping spot on Besaid with information about possibly finding Tidus again. (Also, however it works out bringing him back is going to be way more legit than "the fayth kid snapped his fingers and ... it's magic! Have a Tidus!")
Why You Should Care
- Seriously? Best game ever. Square-Enix at its peak.
- Plot, mytharc, actual character growth and a moving tragic love story and zomg.
- I cried like a little girl at the ending. LITTLE GIRL.
- Lulu has enormous boobs, and an insanely low-cut dress.
- The weapons-customization process and the sphere grid system of levelling up (which I hated at first and then loooooved once I got the hang of it) let you do exactly what you want with your characters, and as a control freak, I love that.
- Combat is turn-based, so if you're a touch slow on reaction times, THAT IS OKAY.
- Chocobos are disturbingly cute.
- The game is now 6 years old and considered a classic, so you can find it re-released in the Greatest Hits series for, like, $20, and that's new.
- Most gorgeous and beautiful cutscene ever: Yuna performing the funeral rite Sending for the bereaved in Killika, just after Sin attacks. (Link.) Watch that and tell me you're not moved.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Cookies?
Final Fantasy is a series of role-playing video games, originally for Nintendo and then for Sony's Playstation. None of the games are connected from a storyline or universe POV (with a couple of exceptions such as direct sequels) - each game is a complete story unto itself. Rikku from Final Fantasy X wouldn't know Cloud from Final Fantasy VII any more than she'd know Buffy. What stays consistent is the battle structure, certain enemies, systems of magic, and so on, although each game has its own unique take on them. Make sense? Okay, let's go.
Final Fantasy X: Once Upon a Spira
Your main character for Final Fantasy X is Tidus, a blonde young blitzball player. He's cocky, but not undeservedly so, as he's about to be named Rookie of the Year for the Zanarkand Abes. The night of the Jecht Cup Memorial - Jecht being Tidus's father, who disappeared ten years ago - a huge monster named Sin sweeps in and destroys the city. Auron, an old friend of Jecht's, meets up with Tidus and drags him to the center of the maelstrom, telling him lots of cryptic things such as "this is your story." Tidus is sucked into a wall of water and wakes up alone in the ruins of a temple he's never seen before.
And thus, it begins. Tidus's story at first appears to be a classic case of "I time-travelled, how do I get back home?" - particularly when the first person Tidus encounters scoffs at him playing blitz for Zanarkand. [Zanarkand? That city was destroyed a thousand years ago!] But nothing's what it seems in this game. The main plot picks up when Tidus meets Yuna, a young girl who has just become a Summoner. She's on a pilgrimage to beat Sin, with her Guardians (protector/bodyguards) in tow. Will he come along and be one of them? As Tidus is pretty smitten with Yuna, and starting to realize that Sin is tied to his fate, he agrees.
Summoners are people who can merge with the Fayth - more on that in a second - and can perform a highly ritualized dance known as the Sending to make sure the dead move on to the Farplane, instead of hanging around and becoming fiends and attacking the living. The Fayth are people who sacrificed themselves to exist in a not-alive, not-dead state within a statue, where they can be called forth by Summoners. Their dreams, when manipulated by the Summoners and powered by pyreflies, become reality, or something that looks/seems like it until you poke a few holes around the edges. One Fayth is a little boy, but the Aeon he calls forth is Bahamut, an enormous dragon sort of creature.
More general background: Zanarkand was a highly advanced city; Spira is simplistic and almost medieval. This is because Yevon, the predominant religion, teaches that technology is bad and should be shunned. Yevon also teaches the rites for Summoners and fayth. The Al Bhed are the only group on Spira who do not follow Yevon (and, therefore, allow themselves to use technology); as such, they're considered outcasts, and it is widely believed that their refusal to repent is the reason Sin is still around.
Most of this isn't true. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Cast of Characters [and Final Fantasy job type(s)]
Lady Yuna - a new Summoner who is attempting the dangerous quest. Her father managed it ten years ago, but that's the problem ... Sin always comes back. That and, vanquishing Sin for that ten-year-period costs the Summoner his or her life. Saving the world: not always easy. [White Mage (healer) / Summoner]
Tidus - your protagonist, who falls in love with Yuna and doesn't want her to sacrifice herself for this thousand-year-old tradition. There has to be a better way, and he's going to find it. And hopefully find a way home. [Fighter]
Wakka - captain of the Besaid Aurochs, another blitzball team, and one of Yuna's Guardians. He's like an older brother to Yuna, who grew up orphaned on Besaid, and he takes an instant liking to Tidus, since Tidus has a striking resemblance to Chappu, his dead younger brother. [Archer/Gambler]
Lulu - the badass stoic type, and another Guardian. She dislikes Tidus for the same reason Wakka likes him so much - the resemblance to Chappu. Seems Chappu was just about to propose to Lulu when he got crushed by Sin. Oops. [Black Mage]
Kimahri - a strong, silent cat-person and Yuna's personal protector. A dying man (name omitted here for spoiler purposes) begged him to find newly-orphaned Yuna and protect her, and as Kimahri had just be ousted from his tribe and had nowhere to go, he agreed. [Blue Mage/Dragoon]
Auron - Sir Auron to you, a legend in Spira for having served alongside the late Lord Braska, Yuna's father. (The third member of their party? Jecht, Tidus's dad. Yes, really.) He's bitter about the secrets he uncovered a little too late. His outfit is that of a ronin samurai, as he believes he has failed those he swore to protect. He's with your pilgrimage to right some wrongs, and to keep an eye on both Tidus and Yuna. [Knight/Paladin]
Rikku - a bouncy young Al Bhed girl who tries unsuccessfully to kidnap Yuna and stop her pilgrimage, and is instead persuaded to join it. She's also Yuna's first cousin; most of Yuna's friends don't know that she's half-Al Bhed, as prejudice against the Al Bhed runs high. Wakka doesn't realize that Rikku's an Al Bhed when she joins your group; when he discovers it later, he screams at her as well as the others for letting him travel with a "filthy heathen." Despite this, the two are now friends. [Thief/Alchemist]
The above seven are all playable characters; during any battle, you use three, but you can swap between them. For example, if your lineup is Wakka, Tidus and Rikku, but you want to cast Black Magic, you can swap Tidus for Lulu and have her cast away.
Seymour Guado - half-human, half-Guado and a new Maester of the Yevon religion. He murdered his own father for the position, and won't stop there to get more power. He's also obsessed with Lady Yuna. Great.
Cid - Rikku's father, Yuna's uncle, and the leader of the Al Bhed tribe. When the Al Bhed city of Home is destroyed, your party and the remaining Al Bhed are piled onto an old abandoned airship which, after a thousand years, miraculously still flies. In-game, this airship lets you visit previous locations without backtracking.
(Note: most Final Fantasy games incorporate an airship near the end of the plot, and usually piloted by a man named Cid.)
Plotty Plotty Goodness (MASSIVE SPOILERS)
Your group, after murdering a Maester (Seymour, who doesn't stay dead), being sentenced to death by Yevon's rulers for that murder, witnessing the destruction of Home, participating in the ill-fated Operation Mi'ihen (a joint effort between Yevonite monks and the Al Bhed to fight Sin - most of them are now dead), and winning a blitzball tournament, finally reaches the ruins of Zanarkand. There, Lady Yunalesca reveals some ugly truths. Like:
- the final Aeon is actually one of the Summoner's Guardians, who chooses to sacrifice him/herself
- that psychic bond between the two is what both defeats Sin and kills the Summoner
- Yu Yevon, who started the Yevon religion? Is actually the Summoner at the center of Sin
- Yu Yevon uses each new Aeon to form a new Sin, and this cycle will never, ever stop
- Thus, Tidus's father, Jecht, who was Braska's Final Aeon, is currently Sin.
Good times, huh? Your group kills Yunalesca in one of the hardest bitches of a boss fight ever, WTF FFX, although I still say Seymour Flux was harder STUPID ZOMBIE/FULL-LIFE COMBO AHHHHHH *cough* yes. Anyway. Your group kills and sends the one-thousand-year-old spirit of Yunalesca and are going to beat Sin once and for all. Not by killing off a summoner, not temporarily, but permanently.
As your group talks to the fayth and other people, you uncover more information. Such as:
- Zanarkand was going to be destroyed in a war, so all the residents of Zanarkand chose instead to go up to Mount Gagazet and become fayth. Their dreams were of a Zanarkand that never died, and Yu Yevon has been Summoning that city for a thousand years continuously.
- It's this dream Zanarkand that both Tidus and Jecht are from.
The fayth are tired and want to stop already, and ask Tidus to help them end this. He agrees, but doesn't tell the others, because he knows they would stop him.
And so: you take on Sin headfirst, and win. You call forth the Aeons and finish them off. Everything ends. Yuna does one big final dance of the Sending ...
... and Auron begins to fade out. Yeah. He died ten years ago when he went back and told Yunalesca where she could shove her Final Sending, and she struck him down. He's been hanging on to (after)life this long to see things out to the end, because he owed his friends that much. He says his goodbyes and then ...
... Tidus begins to disappear in a different way. He explains everything quickly to Yuna, who stares at him for a few moments, and then he turns to leave. She gasps and runs to him ... and falls through him, landing hard on the ground. She stands and announces "I love you," and he wraps his arms around her. And then fades through her and does a swan dive off the ship into the open air.
That's how FFX ends. Bit of a downer, no? Lots of controllers thrown and obscenities yelled. Despite that? BEST GAME EVER. (Okay, I'm Kingdom Hearts's bitch, but still.)
Final Fantasy X-2: Taking a Good Thing and Killing It
X-2 picks up two years later, with Yuna, Rikku and a new girl named Paine. They're sphere hunters, running around Spira in skimpy outfits looking for information about hopefully finding Tidus again. Yuna spends half the game being badass-shooter-with-guns and half of it moping and being emo. Rikku has been turned into ditzy ho-tastic comic relief. It's a fun game, but it has almost nothing in common with X except for setting.
If you finish all the optional side quests and jump through a hundred million hoops and look up information on GameFAQs, then at the end of the game one of the Fayth kids appears and says, "Hey, by the way, thanks for saving the world again, Yuna. ... You want Tidus back?" If she says yes, he washes up on Besaid Island and they get a reunion scene. It's cheap and stupid and a total deus-ex-machina, and I still played the whole freakin game for it because zomg, TIDUS BACK.
X-2 is largely irrelevant to Fandom, because Rikku is the only X/X-2 character here, and she's pulled from three months after X ends. I've used a few bits of X-2 just as informative character notes, from those places where they didn't totally butcher her character. Also, the current plot to resurrect Tidus is slightly inspired by X-2, and the fact that - according to "Eternal Calm," the FMV set inbetween the two games - it's Rikku who lures Yuna from her moping spot on Besaid with information about possibly finding Tidus again. (Also, however it works out bringing him back is going to be way more legit than "the fayth kid snapped his fingers and ... it's magic! Have a Tidus!")
Why You Should Care
- Seriously? Best game ever. Square-Enix at its peak.
- Plot, mytharc, actual character growth and a moving tragic love story and zomg.
- I cried like a little girl at the ending. LITTLE GIRL.
- Lulu has enormous boobs, and an insanely low-cut dress.
- The weapons-customization process and the sphere grid system of levelling up (which I hated at first and then loooooved once I got the hang of it) let you do exactly what you want with your characters, and as a control freak, I love that.
- Combat is turn-based, so if you're a touch slow on reaction times, THAT IS OKAY.
- Chocobos are disturbingly cute.
- The game is now 6 years old and considered a classic, so you can find it re-released in the Greatest Hits series for, like, $20, and that's new.
- Most gorgeous and beautiful cutscene ever: Yuna performing the funeral rite Sending for the bereaved in Killika, just after Sin attacks. (Link.) Watch that and tell me you're not moved.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Cookies?