Shombody shave me!

Before we begin: Sphere Break sucks. I hate you, Rin! (But not my cheetah. I love you, Rin!)

 

Before going anywhere else, head to the Calm Lands. There are two game long side quests here, so you might as well start them now. The Calm Lands have become a place of amusement. There are two rival factions who think their three games are better than the other. They're the exact same, though, and neither are doing anything about the fiends. Yuna can promote one of them throughout her travels. In the travel shop at the center of the map is a man looking to marry off his "homebody" son. For some reason, Yuna can set up an arranged marriage between the boy and various women through Spira. With these two quests, I went back to Besaid, Killika, and Luca to get a good start on them.

 

We continue our first of five re-pilgrimages by walking the Mi'ihen Highroad. The first thing we notice is the quick travel hovercars just up the stairs. Gone are the chocobo rides, having been replaced by Al Bhad machina. For a mysterious reason, all the chocobos are gone from the highroad. There's a preacher near Mushroom Rock Road petitioning them to come back, but I get the idea that they can't.

 

But I refuse the easy path and hoof it. There are items to be had, exp to be gained, and creepy relationships to set up. Seriously, this is such a great time to grind. I got to level eleven. We notice a lot of machina patrolling against fiends, but they're really bad. I ran into a lot of mobs, including several iron giants. They're terrible at their job... Otherwise, there's nothing here. You can see a baby chocobo eater if you take to the low road, though, and I sense dark clouds on the horizon... You can also crash a cart if you accept a ride from the north entrance to the travel agency.

 

Mushroom Road has a sight to behold. Ormi and Logos are running ahead, and a group of former Crusaders let them pass. We know those guys are evil, so it's our turn to follow them! Before we're let onto the path that once took us to Operation Mi'ihen's HQ, we can meet the people outside. This is Yaibal of the Youth League. YL has their headquarters down the road, so everyone is standing guard. I don't remember Yaibal, but you can respond that you do. Beside him is someone I do remember, Clasko. The reluctant guard just wants to ride a chocobo, but Elma and Lucil dragged him to the YL. We get out next mission, which is to reach Young League headquarters. Along the way, we see the Leblanc boys jump into a pit. Sneaking up on them leads us to a door they can't figure out how to open. It's got something to do with spheres, though. When we try to ambush them, Logos shoots a smoke grenade at us and escapes. But they left behind the Crimson Report 9 sphere. As we go to leave, we see another person we recognize. It's Maroda, the younger brother and guardian of Issaru! Yuna tried to bring up Issaru, but Maroda skirts around the issue. He really doesn't want to talk about him. But this door is blocked by the Youth League and is off limits to us, so we have to leave. Continue towards the HQ, but I'd suggest not walking when the lights dim. This is supposed to be fog, and it increases random encounter rates. Most of the YL is off on a mission now, so this path is less guarded than it usually is.

 

In time, we'll reach the lift and see Elma. She tells us Lucil is a big wig in the YL and is guarding the HQ above. Take the elevator and head all the way back. Lucil is waiting for us, but she lets us know that the YL leader, Mayven Yooj, is gone now, so we can't speak to him. Talk to her again for a scene where they catch up, and we get a little backstory on the League. It seems there are some miscreants in their ranks because Yooj lets in all comers. While this conversation happens, Maechen shows up. The wise old man who loves to talk your ear off is still in Spira, and he serves the same purpose. Talking to him, which will take a while, lets us know a lot of what's been happening in Spira over the last two years. In the wake of Sin's death, a lot of people wanted to know the truth about Spira's history. These people sought out spheres and called themselves the Seekers. The Seekers were started by a man named Trema, and he shared his newfound knowledge with all who asked. But, one day, he started another faction called New Yevon. New Yevon is far more secretive with their spheres, which upset a lot of people. The Seekers grew into what's known as the Youth League. But Trema disappeared about a year ago with no word on anything. Why did we start two opposing factions? Before we go, Maechen asks to shake our hand. Yuna lets the professor do so, but he gets a little scared. He also tells us that his memory is going, and new information seems to be kicking out the old. In fact, he can't remember his age. Hang with us, Maechen. But the mission is done, so let's carry on. Also, if you watch Crimson Report 9 sphere with Shinra, you hear the voice of Ormi and Logos as they look upon dead bodies. Was this after Operation Mi'ihen?

 

Djose Highroad also has the fast travel carts, but I walk it anyway. There are no items, but exp is exp! Heading to the temple has Yuna tell "us" that the temples of Yevon sat abandoned for a long time after Sin died. Djose was no exception, but it's certainly lively now! The Machine Faction has made this their base and operates their mainland business here. The Machine Faction is run by Al Bhed, who dig in the Bikanel Desert to find new machine parts. Would be diggers come here to get the okay to dig. The line is long, so we have to wait. In time, we'll get the go ahead to speak to the leader, Gippal. Inside the temple, Gippal remarks how cool it is to be near Yuna, but he doesn't stay long. Something happens that seems inconsequential, but we still have to follow him back onto the bridge. It seems Rikku knows him, and it also appears that Gippal knows Paine. Paine has no idea who he is, though, just as Gippal blows off Rikku. Ohhh, a love triangle?! Anyway, he asks if we want to dig, I say yes, and he gives us a pass. We have to talk to someone in Bikanel, but I'll head there later.

 

The Moonflow is next, but there's a strange sight en route. A hypello is traveling with a chocobo drawn cart, and he's under assault. The Moonflow has become a den of bandits, so we'll need to guard the cart to the shoopufs! Word of advice for this, you can skip the hypello's warning dialog to get to the bandits faster. I had to try this five times to get the full reward because the game kept getting strange with the second ambush. When we reach the Moonflow, a small red penguin named Tobil will thank us by giving us the Gun Mage dress sphere. If we saved all of the cargo, we'll get a grid and an accessory I already had. I just wanted the grid. Tobil seems to be planning something. A show, perhaps? Maybe we'll see him again later, but it's on to Guadosalem.

 

All the guado are gone. They went into hiding out of guilt for what they did with Seymour. But Guadosalem is far from empty. It's now the home to every second rate sphere hunter in Spira. What's most disturbing is Leblanc now lives in Seymour's house. If you try to go to the Farplane, Yuna tells "us" that she's thought about coming here before to see if she could see "you." Sadly, it's unstable, so we can't enter.

 

The Thunder Plans is next, and there's nothing here, either. Yuna tells "us" that Rikku is no longer afraid of lightning, though. She camped out here for a week! In the last two years, the Al Bhed have repaired the lighting towers, so all we have to worry about are the fiends now.

 

Macalania Woods isn't doing well, it seems. The fayth vanished from the temple, and the ice began to melt. We see the butterfly guy/harpist from FFX walking away after appearing downhearted at what's happening to the forest. The drummer is where Yuna and Tidus made out, and he teleports away after hearing a sound. Along the bottom path is the flutist, who remarks that the woods are getting lonelier. I don't think that's true because Macalania Woods is where the guado fled. We can find Tromell where the group once fought Sphereimorph (a random encounter now). Talk to him a handful of times, and we can begin to understand what his people are going through. Out of fear of the ronso, they fortified Guadisalam. But they felt guilty and lost all will to fight, and they fled here to disappear. Tromell doesn't want forgiveness. He just wants to be forgotten. Eventually, though, he asks what Yuna has been up to, and he gives us Paine's special dress sphere, Full Throttle. I kinda hate these since they take too long to "summon," and they remove your other characters, but I'm glad they exist for some reason.

 

But that's not all! O'aka XXIII is still alive but on the run. As we approach the former travel agency, we see several Al Bhed around it. They're speaking Al Bhed, so I have no idea why, but we witness the merchant run back into the forest. We can also notice the lake is gone if we go the other way. From here, Rikku wants us to find O'aka, so take the crystal path. We'll see him running beneath us. Follow him to the campsite, and he'll tell us he bought the agency from Rin. However, when the fayth fell, tourists stopped visiting. O'aka now owes 100000 to the Al Bhed, which we can pay off by buying his stuff if we invite him to the Celsius. Alternatively, we can hand him over...

 

While we're here, let's stop by Bevelle. It's Yuna's home, but it doesn't feel like it. We can explore further than before and even meet the leader of New Yevon. Yuna wants to leave because the chairman of NY asked Yuna to marry his son. She turned him down and doesn't want this awkward moment. Rikku does! Before we can get away, the chairman comes to greet us, but it's a new face. This is Barelai. He's the new leader because the prior chairman and his son sucked and got kicked out. We don't get much time to talk because he's busy, but he hopes we'll join New Yevon in time. Paine had her back to him the whole time... We can get a tiara if we find him in the courtroom. And with that said, we can climb Mt. Gagazet and finally reach Zanarkand. But we should head to Bikanel first, which I'll do...

 

...tomorrow!

 

I understand why all the mobs are in different positions, but I also hate it. Why are fiends that were inside Sin now roaming the Thunder Plains? Why are all the elementals everywhere? And I'm kinda not digging the battle system this time around. It's more traditional, which is fine, but I lose track of who's doing damage now because everything is happening at the same time. No one gets to shine or look cool when they take out their target. It's faster, but it's also lost its charm...