Getting close to the end of the game here, folks.
And it's only taken what, five, six, years to get to this point? I suppose if I'd managed to stay as consistent as I was at the beginning, it wouldn't have taken so long to get to this point. Then again, real life adult stuff and ongoing health issues have also needed to take priority in all this, too, which kinda sucks, but that's life as an adult, I'm afraid.
Anyway, after doing that level grinding and making sure I had the best equipment I had equipped in the last issue, I took care of one last issue I missed before I put things down for the night and then went on to the battle with Garland one more time. Between last night's play time and starting earlier this time, it turns out that the battles with Garland and the Silver Dragon were not nearly as difficult as I was thinking they were. I think I missed a few of the things I could have stolen from the two, but at the same time, I'm just glad I finally got through that battle. The biggest downer here is that I got a Trance for Zidane just before I beat the dragon, which I wound up losing for the fight with Garland. Would have been nice to be able to use the thing, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.
Once we beat Garland, he tells us we're stronger than he thought, and he's impressed. Before that can go any farther, though, we hear from Kuja, who's somehow gotten aboard the Invincible, Garland's airship that, as it happens, runs on souls or something, and Kuja somehow managed to absorb Queen Brahne's, since it had been trapped in the Invincible after she died after one of Kuja's Eidolon attacks a couple disks back now. Once Kuja explains all this and starts acting towards Garland the way Kefka did to Gestal in Final Fantays 6, we have to fight him, too, also without a break after the previous two fights. This goes on until Kuja somehow hits Trance, because I guess having a real live soul is what makes that happen. Once that happens, the part of the fight we control is over, because the different-kind-of-creepy-looking Kuja starts floating and casts Ulitma on the party. If I'd played this far into the game before I'd very nearly finished the original Final Fantasy II, I might not have noticed how similar that animation looks to how it did in the Origins version of 2. Probably the biggest help for me was taking advantage of the skills my party members had in Eiko's Carbunkle summon and healing magic and Freya's Reis's Wind and Jump abilities. Really made all this easier.
With the party laid out as a result of the spell, Kuja's dialog in the cutscene indicates that I was probably supposed to have Dagger in the party, because unless I've missed or forgotten something about these characters, Brahne wasn't anybody else's mom. From there, Kuja throws Garland off the tower all this is supposed to be happening on, thinking that he's the man now. Garland's spirit tells him that no, he's on his way out because Kuja was only supposed to live long enough for Zidane to take his place. This irritates Kuja enough that he destroys all of Terra, taking only just long enough for our heroes to get the Genomes, Zidane and Kuja's people, away to safety on Gaia. In the process of the evacuation, we find that the girl that had been leading Zidane through to Garland was created with a soul, as a replacement for Zidane if he didn't make it back to Terra. Her name is Mikoto. Not sure how important she'll be since we're so close to the end of the game.
As we start Disk 4, we're back on Gaia, aboard the Invincible, to find the whole planet full of Mist. The task now is to get our shit together and find the Ilfa Tree so we can take care of Kjua once and for all. But that's for a later date. Hopefully not three months later, like it was between the last two issues, but it may not come as soon as this one has, either, because I have some adult stuff to take care of and then two longer days at work. With any luck, though, I should be able to get back to this early next week at the latest.
Until then, stay safe, have fun, keep gaming, and DFTBA.
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