<\/div>A quick stroll on out to the Feywood later, and that path, previously blocked by a thick current of rushing mist,mist can do anything, shut up<\/span> clears up at Ashe’s approach as the mist dissipates with a final howl. On cue, Rasler appears and wanders deeper into the snowy wood, beckoning her further.<\/p>\n He could have at least warned us about the boss fight in the next area, the spooky Nabradian git. Thanks to the multitude of status effects at its disposal it managed to annoy me a bit despite my overpoweredness. So! That must have been the trial of the Feywood, which means Giruvegan lies just ahead.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Or not. Turns out the boss was just some overgrown plant; the actual trial of the Feywood is just beyond. Several shrines lie in a snowy field, shaped more or less like gazebos. Standing in the middle, one exit will show an illusory image of a verdant paradise rather than the desolate landscape without, and heading straight out in that direction will lead to another shrine. Repeat until you are led right out of the area and to the next. Trying to proceed without using the shrines will result in the old Lost Woods standard of returning you to the entrance of the zone you were in.<\/p>\n Here’s what gets me: at the end of the next area, the real trick of entering Giruvegan is a gate that will only open if Belias is summoned and present. That’s pretty clever, and, during my first playthrough of this game, was the only time any Esper ever got let out of its Pok\u00e9 Ball. But what the fuck was the point of the elementary-school shrine puzzle?! In what world is someone capable of besting and commanding a fucking gigas but incapable of solving the most rudimentary riddles presentable, with no penalty for failure? Was that built expressly to troll non-heirs of Raithwall? Could we have shown our Gigas-pass at the gate of the park and be let right in without the wait?<\/p>\n How the fuck did Doctor Cid get through, anyway? Balthier claimed he was missing in the Jagd Difohr for six years, was most of that time spent knocking very patiently until VenatWhose bright fucking idea was it to name Vaan, Vayne, and Venat?<\/span> got fed up with the clamor?<\/p>\n Once opened by the gigas’ presence, the gate to Giruvegan leads… nowhere, it seems. We find ourselves on a high causeway floating in an endless pool of water as clear and still as glass. Fog blocks line of sight beyond any significant distance, but the high domes and spires of a great city stretching from horizon to horizon is visible far beyond the end of the path, sitting out on the water’s surface.<\/p>\n Fran remarks on the extreme mist floating around, and Penelo worries that she might flip her shit like back on the Leviathan.<\/i> Of course, she assures us that that was a one-use plot device, and will never come up again. (She’s right.) Balthier seems determined to lie in wait for Cid, believing he hasn’t arrived yet. I don’t know, Balthier, do you really think we outran the guy who knew exactly how to get here, and took an airship here, while we fucked around getting directions from pirates and hiking here on foot (after hunting marks for a month or two)?<\/p>\n Anyway, Balthier is more concerned about what might happen if they press on than about Cid; he was the only man ever known to travel here and return, and it twisted him up like a corkscrew. Luckily for the plot, Ashe has the big dick of the party, and no one gives a shit what Balthier says; Ashe sets off after yet another vision of Rasler, and Vaan encourages the party to follow.<\/p>\n They do, but Vaan makes the curious mistake of saying \u201cShe sees him,\u201d to explain her rationale. No one but him should have any idea that Ashe is seeing dead people, nor should he really let on that she is. No one makes any comment, though, so they’ve probably long accepted Ashe is batshit insane and long ago resigned themselves to their slavery to the crazy bitch. Well, that and no one pays any attention to what Vaan says in the first place.<\/p>\n It looks like the angry hedge back in the woods wasn’t enough of a test for whoever oversees this place, so another (easier) boss battle takes place, and the way is open to… oh. Oooh NO!<\/p>\n NOT THIS FUCKING PLACE!!<\/p>\n I’ll level with you, I took a long<\/i> break before gathering the strength to tackle this next segment. It’s an incredible setpiece, and would be very interesting and awesome to see but for the fact that it’s a god damn chore to play through: the Great Crystal.<\/p>\n See, we aren’t going to get to see that mysterious, foggy city just beyond our reach. No, the only way forward is a teleporter to some sort of immense cylindrical cavern, slowly working our way across stone terraces and hard-light platforms spiraling a long, loooooong way downward, eventually encircling a shimmering orange crystal of titanic proportions. We’re talking a literal mountain-sized crystal, well over a kilometer in height, and that’s our destination.<\/p>\n Eventually, we reach the third terrace, and another set of green, hard-light platforms reaches out toward the crystal, with another boss fight at the end waiting to be curbstomped. With that out of the way, well, here we are, folks. The Great Crystal itself. Whistle through your teeth at it, take pictures. What? No, I didn’t mean getting to<\/i> the crystal was our destination; it’s the next dungeon.<\/p>\n Yes, the crystal itself comprises a massive area, honeycombed with dozens of identical platforms crawling with difficult enemies. Progression relies on a number of mild gate-unlocking puzzles. There is no place to resupply, and if you ever have business here, the closest way in our out is the gate crystal waaaaay back at the entrance just after the Feywood. There is no map.<\/p>\n THERE. IS. NO. FUCKING. MAP.<\/p>\n I swear to God, this fucking game.<\/p>\n I’m convinced that after Final Fantasy X, some very proud game designer overheard someone suggest, \u201cSpheres are great and all, but I wish we went back to crystals,\u201d and just absolutely lost his fucking sanity. \u201cCrystals?! You want… CRYSTALS, do you?!\u201d he cried, tearing his shirt and hopping up and down. \u201cI’LL GIVE YOU SO MANY CRYSTALS YOU SHIT THEM IN YOUR SLEEP! From stones to halcyons, we’ll have magicite crystals, and nethicite crystals, and skystones and memstones and gate crystals and save crystals.\u201d At this point the cafeteria was evacuated as he began scratching plans in the tile with a fork and drinking soy by the pint. \u201cWe’ll have a Sun-Cryst, and a special crystal for every time of the day! Maybe some for meals and holidays! We’ll have crystal enemies, and a… crystal… DUNGEON…\u201d he finished, as his eyes widened and a terrible clarity consumed him whole.<\/p>\n Luckily, most of the ire I reserve for the area stems from the many, many side-quests that lead to this place; the only mandatory trip here is fairly linear, for whatever that’s worth when every room leads to an identical room with multiple exits and no stated goal or direction.<\/p>\n The party works its way downward. At the bottom\u2014 which we better fucking hope is our goal, since no one actually has any god damn clue\u2014 an immense sphere seems to have formed in the surrounding crystal lattice, and dense mist pours out of it like a gale. The party seems certain it is nethicite. In fact, the entire Great Crystal may be nethicite, for all we know. Penelo worries once more that Fran might go Jason Voorhees on us, but she reiterates, \u201cWhat part of ‘one-use gimmick’ don’t you understand,\u201d and the party turns its attention to Ashe, who is salivating openly at the sight of the nethicite. Fran very sarcastically notes that it would be enough nethicite for Ashe to bomb the entire planet to zombie-gnawed cinders, doing her part for once in the party’s eternal quest to constantly guilt-trip Ashe for wanting nethicite while working tirelessly to help her obtain it.<\/p>\n We step through one last tele-pedestal, and arrive in… a building, I guess? It has the architecture of the terrace-steps, but is enclosed. Maybe we’re in the city itself. But no time to worry about it; it’s an ambush! A bizarre, misshapen creature flies at us in a rage; it’s Shemhazai, the Whisperer!<\/p>\n Look, ma’am, no offense but I’ve already fought an esper that was slightly easier than cutting out my own wisdom teeth with a soup can lid: Chaos, Walker of the Wheel, and he’s just itching to meet you.<\/p>\n One humiliating boss stomp later, Shemhazai is mine to command, and the last of waaay too many bosses needed to get an audience with the residents of Giruvegan. I mean, I assume this is one of those whole, \u201cDestiny foresaw you would come someday,\u201d type deals, so am I really proving my worth, or am I just jerking off some lonely dungeon designer the other Occuria don’t talk to?<\/p>\n What’s an Occuria? Well, we’re about to find out. The party touches one final waystone, and Ashe finds herself alone, floating on a tiny round platform high, high above Giruvegan, the city visible below: dozens of walled, circular districts sitting here and there on the glass-still surface of the water, from horizon to horizon, connected by serpentine highways. Another layer of similar layout floats above the clouds, as high above Ashe as she is above the water, with small floating structures dotting the sky midway between the two.<\/p>\n Ashe can’t believe the sight, but a mystic voice greets her with that most angelic of catchphrases: \u201cBe not afraid.\u201d A being of the same sort as Venat materializes, and in an androgynous iambic tetrameter lays out a gameplan for the princess. Ashe really is the chosen one, and Cid wasn’t lying: they really do want to give her new nethicite to forge a new Ivalice however she sees fit. But nethicite is a sort of self-serve deal: the Dynast-King’s three stones were just tiny shards of a massive hunk of nethicite made for the purpose, the Sun-Cryst.<\/p>\n Ashe can do little more than stammer out her amazement, so the Occuria, named Gerun, presses on. Ages and ages ago, the Occuria thought they might give a little firm guidance to human affairs by granting power to a worthy hume: the Dynast-King, of course. That turned out rather well for about a thousand years, but Ivalice has gone to shit without their influence and they think Ashe is just the lady to succeed her great ancestor. To symbolize the new treaty, they grant her a sword that marks her as the new Dynast-Queen, a symbol of the Occuria’s favor and, conveniently enough, a blade able to carve new nethicite shards from the Sun-Cryst.<\/p>\n Oh, and take care of Venat while you’re rebuilding your shitsack world. Ashe is confused on that point; she points out that Venat is an Occuria, like them, and the representative speaks in a voice that shakes the platform: Venat is basically the lovechild of Prometheus and Satan. A whole slew of Occuria, of various shapes and colors, materialize around Ashe. Gerun firmly explains that nethicite isn’t the sort of thing you want just anyone to have, as evidenced by their not seeing fit to give it out more than once every thousand or more years, and then only to a single person recognized expressly worthy of its use. Venat ran off and started giving its blueprints to madmen, to be used by the most ambitious and ruthless would-be tyrant alive in the world. Part of Ashe’s duties in building a better Ivalice, naturally, is to knock off the renegade angel and any trace of knowledge pertaining to the manufacture of more nethicite.<\/p>\n So, that’s that: Ashe is Heaven’s first-draft pick to clear up all this political bullshit that’s been going down and usher in a new thousand-year golden age of Ivalician unity and prosperity, and we’ve got the tools to do it: nethicite in as little or great an amount as we so choose, a means to destroy that nethicite if we deem it too dangerous or no longer worth keeping around, and a mandate no one on the planet can talk back to! Quick, ask them how to use nethicite in a manner other than \u201cnuke mode!\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of asking how to use nethicite, which I might point out we still don’t know<\/b>, Ashe gets cold feet instead, choosing the worst possible time to treat the idea of making war on the Empire\u2014 a wish she’s borne with an almost sexual desire up to this point\u2014 with a sudden distaste. Gerun, with a mix of authority and incredulity, calmly explains that, as immortal, omniscient beings, they’ve had to step in and stop humanity from destroying itself more times than they care to remember throughout history, more or less as a hobby. Appointing a human champion to take care of these things is just their way of giving history a light nudge in the right direction every now and then. The Occuria, figuring taunting might work where having a brain in your fucking skull has clearly failed, conjures up the illusion of Rasler, placing his hand on the Treaty-Blade’s hilt to guide her, and tells her to avenge her kingdom and claim her birthright.<\/p>\n Ashe’s baser impulses sufficiently appealed to, she reluctantly grasps the blade, and a quick flash of light later the Occuria are gone, with the rest of the party filing in around her in their place. They seem to have heard the conversation, despite being unable to take part in it. Vaan is immediately suspicious of their authority by virtue of being a shithead teenager, but no one pays any attention. Basch, though, doesn’t trust the Occuria one bit, suddenly believing very firmly that mankind shouldn’t take orders from beings beyond their comprehension and orders of magnitude beyond them in power. Furthermore, he thinks destroying the Empire outright might be going a bit too far.<\/p>\n Altogether, everyone immediately determines that the Occuria are shady no-goodniks, despite their previous interactions of this nature resulting in the greatest golden age the world ever experienced.<\/p>\n Penelo points out that we came here expecting to find Cid, but Balthier sardonically states what the audience likely figured out back at Draklor: he never intended to come here; he was just baiting us into coming ourselves, certainly to facilitate this very meeting.<\/p>\n What’s more mysterious is his motive for doing so. Cid is 100% behind Vayne and his ambitions, and just led his worst enemies into ludicrous power. He conjectures that the good doctor might just want to see what happens when you give nethicite to both sides of a war, but that seems more Larsa’s style than Cid’s. More than anything, Balthier just seems dazed and upset that his father really had been chatting up a real-live Occuria all those years, long after he came to terms with his father simply being Looney Tunes. Ashe decides we might as well seek out the Sun-Cryst before deciding a course of action, essentially pleading \u201cjust the tiiii~p!\u201d to the nay-sayers in the party. I’m on to you, princess! And I’m not the only one.<\/p>\n The scene skips over to Archades, as the brothers Solidor converse. Judge Gabranth looks on as Larsa pleads with Vayne to bury the hatchet with Dalmasca and let Ashe take her throne back; he seems to think it’s the best way to settle down the Resistance and the Rozarrians, a grand gesture to avert the looming war. Vayne is pessimistic, pointing out that Ashe herself wants the war as much as anyone. Which, I mean, is totally a fair assessment. Larsa argues that she wouldn’t care to war with them if she already had her throne back, and they break down to a short, circular squabble. Vayne gets a light bulb, and, likely as a way to end the discussion more than anything, tells Gabranth to find the gal herself and just ask<\/i> if she wants to rumble or not.<\/p>\n Well, that’s certainly straightforward. Gabranth wants to know if he should go ahead and shishkebab her if the 8-Ball turns up \u201cWar,\u201d but Larsa interjects that it won’t come to that and sends him on his way. I’d tell Larsa this is a fine fucking time for a hefty, one-time bonus to find its way to Gabranth with Larsa’s name on the receipt if he wants to get this question settled the quick and easy way, but Vayne’s plan (Sending Gabranth alone to hunt down Ashe and Basch and shout “D’ya wanna fucken FIGHT?!”) is so likely to end in a tragic misunderstanding that Larsa probably took a big step towards becoming a man the moment he heard it. The little lord excuses himself to sort through the strange mix of feelings that come from witnessing a troll more masterful than himself.<\/p>\n Cid, who until this point has been twitching and muttering to himself like a collected, reasonable individual in the background, struts up to Vayne and remarks how unlikely it is that such a sweet kid could be the brother of such a sinister asshole. Vayne takes this as a compliment, yet while Vayne is without mercy, it seems he is not without remorse. He admires his brother’s nobility, na\u00efve though it may be.<\/p>\n Cid gets a message from Venat, and is happy to report that Ashe has \u201ctaken the bait.\u201d Vayne, too, seems to be counting on the party having their meeting with the Occuria, though they don’t yet tip their hand to the audience as to why. Cid takes a moment to gloat, trivializing the Occuria and their nethicite. Vayne isn’t amused, though; as he says, they had to \u201cconquer two kingdoms so he could study those ‘baubles.’\u201d But Cid brushes him off, thinking his work with manufacted nethicite well worth it. He calls upon Venat to stroke his ego further, and she complies, appearing personally to praise his work and the incredible speed with which he undertook it. Cid boasts that humans don’t have thousands of years to spend on their pet projects like the Occuria, and Vayne agrees; if they had time to piss away, Vayne would rather not have spent it starting wars and building superweapons. Cid tells him to cheer the fuck up: taking the reins of history back (in the hands of man!) from the Occuria was never going to be easy. Venat concurs, mocking the charade of Gerun and the others appointing themselves curators of the world’s events.<\/p>\n This is about as close we get to a stated motivation for Venat; it seems that everything she does is to spite and subvert the other Occuria. Whether or not she genuinely cares about humanity or just wants to service her celestial beef is an open question, but I know where my money lies…<\/p>\n Vayne can only hope her optimism isn’t unfounded. He’s more than ready for all the blood he’s shed to start paying its long-overdue dividends.<\/p>\n The Travelog continues next week.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are indeed a few of Reddas’ shortbus pirates with the lowdown on the Feywood awaiting Vaan outside. Well, that does them a bit too much credit; they tell us it’s south of Golmore and is rich in mist, which I already knew from the previous conversation and, in fact, from having already been there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[616],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ffxii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54097"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54150,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54097\/revisions\/54150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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