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aestivalis) wrote2021-06-01 05:39 pm
aestivalis) wrote2021-06-01 05:39 pm
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Opera Omnia 2: I even got the princess to cry once!
Back at it again! Just going to cover one more story chapter for now though. We left the cast travelling off in search of torsions in need of sealing, under the guidance of Mog. And they arrive somewhere new, landing the airship as close as they can to their destination.
And so! Chapter Two: Ruins of Deserta! Even though this is only chapter two, the story already begins to pick up here in comparison to the adventures on Primus Island. Team Mog arrives via airship (piloted by Sazh, as promised), and set out toward some ruins. And then we get... Kuja!
- Kuja and Zidane have one of my favourite relationships, and it's been really interesting to see how it's handled in Opera Omnia. Like, look at this right from the outset.
Kuja: Zidane? What are you doing here? I don't have time to be entertaining guests.
Zidane: I don't need you to entertain me. You've been gathering an army of beasts. What do you intend to do with them, Kuja!?
Kuja: You of all people should understand! If you've come all this way to mock me─
Zidane: Mock you? I'm here to─
At which point they're interrupted by the arrival of Team Mog. So what's up with this! You of all people should understand is especially interesting to me, and I feel like it's probably our first indication that this Kuja is coming from after the events of Final Fantasy IX. Like he expects there to be some sort of kinship between himself and Zidane, albeit with that undercurrent of antagonism still in place. The fact we don't get to hear Zidane's intentions keeps it nicely ambiguous as well.
Kuja runs away through a torsion portal thing and Zidane joins up with the crew, though not before making eyes and Tifa and Rem. Because, you know. It's Zidane. Vivi's chuffed to see him though, which is cute;;
- Cecil is next up, and he is notably in his Dark Knight incarnation. I'm not too personally invested in Final Fantasy IV, but it's nice to have yet another example of characters being called from different points in canon. Cecil laments about how he has ~walked in the darkness too long~ to be one of the Warriors of Light, but WOL himself says some nice stuff about darkness being nothing to fear and how a sword forged in darkness can still be used for light, and off the go.
- When questioned by the team on his relationship to Kuja, Zidane demurs that it's a long story—though he does mention that Kuja is the cause for all the troubles back in his world of Gaia. He still seems reluctant to ascribe guilt to Kuja's current actions, though. At the very least, he says he doesn't know what Kuja's intentions are right now but he intends to find out. (I hope you were ready for FFIX bias because here we are, lads.)
- After that we get a bit of Opera Omnia lore. Zidane and Hope both says the ancient ruins feel familiar, even though they're from completely different worlds. Mog confirms that this entire world has been pieced together from aspects of the heroes memories, and so a lot of things will have a certain sense of familiarity hanging over them. Sazh speculates that this is why they haven't met any natives yet; the world they're in is actually fairly new, an artifical creation. Mog says they have to protect this world or the darkness will spread back to the original worlds it's drawn from, proving that JRPG gods are all fucking useless.
- Next up is Yda, who I unfortunately have very little to say about because my Final Fantasy XIV knowledge is close to non-existent. At first she tries to keep on heading out on her own, but Y'shtola persuades her to travel with Team Mog instead.
- Zidane decides he's gonna go into a torsion. Because if Kuja can do it, then so can they, right?! Mog doesn't much like the idea, and Sazh isn't wild about it either, but they decide to give it a try. The inside of torsions is basically depicted as a swirly purple mass of nothing in particular, incidentally. But... they find Kuja! Who is chatting away to himself about his intentions to change the course of fate.
Kuja proceeds to tell Zidane and the others that he knew that they would come, because they're puppets to the will of the gods. WOL is particularly offended by this for some reason, hahaha. Then he sets monsters on the party and retreats. More specifically, he sets manikins on them—strange colourless beings who otherwise look identical to the party characters. This, understandly, wigs everyone right out.
It's a shame that manikins are so obviously differentiated from the appearance of the player characters, otherwise I'm sure you could do some messy fanfic with that.
- There's a cute scene around here where Vivi is fretting about Kuja's intentions and Hope comforts him. This is wonderful because they are both Very Good Boys. Also Vivi calls him 'Mister' (perhaps -san in the original text?) which leaves Hope quite bewildered, hahaha.
- VAAN'S INTRODUCTION IS WONDERFUL. He literally just strolls up like 'HEY COOL AIRSHIP MY GUY' and Sazh is thrilled that someone else is finally excited about it and they nerd out for a while before Vaan is finally like 'oh yeah, and where am I?' because vaan. He seems to figure that he's just gotten lost out on a hunt and that Sazh can maybe just fly him home??
After a bit of combat, Mog and the others explain to Vaan what's actually going on. Being the good kid he is, he immediately offers his aid—he can't just turn away from people in need. And sure that's great and all, but Sazh immediately interrupts to offer Vaan a tour of the ship's engine, and off they cheerfully go. IT IS GREAT. THEY ARE GREAT.
I like Vaan a lot more now than I ever did when I was younger! I think I've got a lot more time for earnest well-meaning kids than I did when I was an earnest well-meaning kid.
- Zidane and Vivi have a cute little chat, with Zidane reassuring Vivi that he's just as strong as capable as anyone else here. They wonder a little about Kuja as well, which leads nicely into the next set of conversations where Vivi theorises about Kuja wishing to defy his fate.
A bunch of characters have plenty to say on that topic, unsurprisingly. Vivi's pretty scared of the idea that, in Orience, you're forgotten when you die. I'm glad Opera Omnia has characters from various other FF titles react with shock and horror whenever a Type:0 cast member talks about this, because IT IS IN FACT HORRIFYING. Also rife with awful potential, oof.
Hope describes how he and his friends fought against their fates once; something about the phrasing feels a little melancholy, though. I haven't played XIII-2 or Lightning Returns, so I'm not sure whether I'm reading too much into that, or if he's just from a point prior to the end of FFXIII and thus doesn't know yet how things turn out. On that note, neither he nor Sazh say anything about Vanille's crystalline fate when they meet up in her Lost Chapter. HM.
- Zidane: It doesn't matter what [Kuja's] reasons are. The fact remains that he hurts people to get what he wants. He must be stopped. What he's doing, if left unchecked, will affect all our worlds. Besides, it's not our sympathy he's after.
Don't mind me, I just liked this. Although actually, this is a decent example of the writing in Opera Omnia having a really good basis in the characters personalities but a slightly iffier feel when it comes to character tone. I just can't imagine Zidane saying 'he must be stopped' rather than something more like 'we can't let him keep on like that', or 'we gotta do something about it', or something else a bit more colloquial and less rigid. One of those things where all the shapes are really good, but sometimes you just gotta let your eyes blur a little and enjoy the sense of what's being presented rather than the literal.
- There isn't really too much else to say for this chapter. Team Mog confront Kuja, he sets some monsters on them, they have a fight, Kuja ultimately escapes and we're no closer to knowing his true goals. But he does remain the sole acting antagonist at this time! No wonder I was so excited about this game when I first started playing, hahaha.
CHARACTERS INTRODUCED: Zidane, (Dark Knight) Cecil, Yda, Vaan.
I actually started playing Opera Omnia for the first time right around the Global First release of Beatrix as a playable character. Loving Final Fantasy IX hours never end in this house, so how could I possibly resist. I've been playing for over two years now, and honestly it's become my main mobile game and almost my only mobile game. Love Live: School Idol Festival held the crown for so many years, but it's kind of nice that something as nostalgic as a Final Fantasy-based RPG would rise once again to take a place in my heart.
Completely unrelated to any of that, I have been making Pokémon icons lately! I went and saved a whole bunch of art from Pokémon TCG cards and I've just been slowly working my way through stuff that catches my eye ever since. And soon, I will reach... Snubbull >:)
For now though, it is dinner time! Yakitori get inside me.
And so! Chapter Two: Ruins of Deserta! Even though this is only chapter two, the story already begins to pick up here in comparison to the adventures on Primus Island. Team Mog arrives via airship (piloted by Sazh, as promised), and set out toward some ruins. And then we get... Kuja!
- Kuja and Zidane have one of my favourite relationships, and it's been really interesting to see how it's handled in Opera Omnia. Like, look at this right from the outset.
Kuja: Zidane? What are you doing here? I don't have time to be entertaining guests.
Zidane: I don't need you to entertain me. You've been gathering an army of beasts. What do you intend to do with them, Kuja!?
Kuja: You of all people should understand! If you've come all this way to mock me─
Zidane: Mock you? I'm here to─
At which point they're interrupted by the arrival of Team Mog. So what's up with this! You of all people should understand is especially interesting to me, and I feel like it's probably our first indication that this Kuja is coming from after the events of Final Fantasy IX. Like he expects there to be some sort of kinship between himself and Zidane, albeit with that undercurrent of antagonism still in place. The fact we don't get to hear Zidane's intentions keeps it nicely ambiguous as well.
Kuja runs away through a torsion portal thing and Zidane joins up with the crew, though not before making eyes and Tifa and Rem. Because, you know. It's Zidane. Vivi's chuffed to see him though, which is cute;;
- Cecil is next up, and he is notably in his Dark Knight incarnation. I'm not too personally invested in Final Fantasy IV, but it's nice to have yet another example of characters being called from different points in canon. Cecil laments about how he has ~walked in the darkness too long~ to be one of the Warriors of Light, but WOL himself says some nice stuff about darkness being nothing to fear and how a sword forged in darkness can still be used for light, and off the go.
- When questioned by the team on his relationship to Kuja, Zidane demurs that it's a long story—though he does mention that Kuja is the cause for all the troubles back in his world of Gaia. He still seems reluctant to ascribe guilt to Kuja's current actions, though. At the very least, he says he doesn't know what Kuja's intentions are right now but he intends to find out. (I hope you were ready for FFIX bias because here we are, lads.)
- After that we get a bit of Opera Omnia lore. Zidane and Hope both says the ancient ruins feel familiar, even though they're from completely different worlds. Mog confirms that this entire world has been pieced together from aspects of the heroes memories, and so a lot of things will have a certain sense of familiarity hanging over them. Sazh speculates that this is why they haven't met any natives yet; the world they're in is actually fairly new, an artifical creation. Mog says they have to protect this world or the darkness will spread back to the original worlds it's drawn from, proving that JRPG gods are all fucking useless.
- Next up is Yda, who I unfortunately have very little to say about because my Final Fantasy XIV knowledge is close to non-existent. At first she tries to keep on heading out on her own, but Y'shtola persuades her to travel with Team Mog instead.
- Zidane decides he's gonna go into a torsion. Because if Kuja can do it, then so can they, right?! Mog doesn't much like the idea, and Sazh isn't wild about it either, but they decide to give it a try. The inside of torsions is basically depicted as a swirly purple mass of nothing in particular, incidentally. But... they find Kuja! Who is chatting away to himself about his intentions to change the course of fate.
Kuja proceeds to tell Zidane and the others that he knew that they would come, because they're puppets to the will of the gods. WOL is particularly offended by this for some reason, hahaha. Then he sets monsters on the party and retreats. More specifically, he sets manikins on them—strange colourless beings who otherwise look identical to the party characters. This, understandly, wigs everyone right out.
It's a shame that manikins are so obviously differentiated from the appearance of the player characters, otherwise I'm sure you could do some messy fanfic with that.
- There's a cute scene around here where Vivi is fretting about Kuja's intentions and Hope comforts him. This is wonderful because they are both Very Good Boys. Also Vivi calls him 'Mister' (perhaps -san in the original text?) which leaves Hope quite bewildered, hahaha.
- VAAN'S INTRODUCTION IS WONDERFUL. He literally just strolls up like 'HEY COOL AIRSHIP MY GUY' and Sazh is thrilled that someone else is finally excited about it and they nerd out for a while before Vaan is finally like 'oh yeah, and where am I?' because vaan. He seems to figure that he's just gotten lost out on a hunt and that Sazh can maybe just fly him home??
After a bit of combat, Mog and the others explain to Vaan what's actually going on. Being the good kid he is, he immediately offers his aid—he can't just turn away from people in need. And sure that's great and all, but Sazh immediately interrupts to offer Vaan a tour of the ship's engine, and off they cheerfully go. IT IS GREAT. THEY ARE GREAT.
I like Vaan a lot more now than I ever did when I was younger! I think I've got a lot more time for earnest well-meaning kids than I did when I was an earnest well-meaning kid.
- Zidane and Vivi have a cute little chat, with Zidane reassuring Vivi that he's just as strong as capable as anyone else here. They wonder a little about Kuja as well, which leads nicely into the next set of conversations where Vivi theorises about Kuja wishing to defy his fate.
A bunch of characters have plenty to say on that topic, unsurprisingly. Vivi's pretty scared of the idea that, in Orience, you're forgotten when you die. I'm glad Opera Omnia has characters from various other FF titles react with shock and horror whenever a Type:0 cast member talks about this, because IT IS IN FACT HORRIFYING. Also rife with awful potential, oof.
Hope describes how he and his friends fought against their fates once; something about the phrasing feels a little melancholy, though. I haven't played XIII-2 or Lightning Returns, so I'm not sure whether I'm reading too much into that, or if he's just from a point prior to the end of FFXIII and thus doesn't know yet how things turn out. On that note, neither he nor Sazh say anything about Vanille's crystalline fate when they meet up in her Lost Chapter. HM.
- Zidane: It doesn't matter what [Kuja's] reasons are. The fact remains that he hurts people to get what he wants. He must be stopped. What he's doing, if left unchecked, will affect all our worlds. Besides, it's not our sympathy he's after.
Don't mind me, I just liked this. Although actually, this is a decent example of the writing in Opera Omnia having a really good basis in the characters personalities but a slightly iffier feel when it comes to character tone. I just can't imagine Zidane saying 'he must be stopped' rather than something more like 'we can't let him keep on like that', or 'we gotta do something about it', or something else a bit more colloquial and less rigid. One of those things where all the shapes are really good, but sometimes you just gotta let your eyes blur a little and enjoy the sense of what's being presented rather than the literal.
- There isn't really too much else to say for this chapter. Team Mog confront Kuja, he sets some monsters on them, they have a fight, Kuja ultimately escapes and we're no closer to knowing his true goals. But he does remain the sole acting antagonist at this time! No wonder I was so excited about this game when I first started playing, hahaha.
CHARACTERS INTRODUCED: Zidane, (Dark Knight) Cecil, Yda, Vaan.
I actually started playing Opera Omnia for the first time right around the Global First release of Beatrix as a playable character. Loving Final Fantasy IX hours never end in this house, so how could I possibly resist. I've been playing for over two years now, and honestly it's become my main mobile game and almost my only mobile game. Love Live: School Idol Festival held the crown for so many years, but it's kind of nice that something as nostalgic as a Final Fantasy-based RPG would rise once again to take a place in my heart.
Completely unrelated to any of that, I have been making Pokémon icons lately! I went and saved a whole bunch of art from Pokémon TCG cards and I've just been slowly working my way through stuff that catches my eye ever since. And soon, I will reach... Snubbull >:)
For now though, it is dinner time! Yakitori get inside me.
no subject
I love your observations on the 'You of all people should understand' line. Ardyn may have displaced Kuja as my favourite Final Fantasy villain, but Zidane and Kuja still easily have the most interesting hero-antagonist relationship in the series. (Well, Squall and Seifer are also pretty interesting. Hero and main antagonist, perhaps I should say.)
He still seems reluctant to ascribe guilt to Kuja's current actions, though.
Intriguing! (I am absolutely ready for FFIX bias.)
It's a shame that manikins are so obviously differentiated from the appearance of the player characters, otherwise I'm sure you could do some messy fanfic with that.
I've actually wondered whether the obvious differentiation is more for the player's benefit than a reflection of their actual appearance, because I feel we've seen characters mistake manikins for the real person on a few occasions.
I remember really liking that Vivi-and-Hope scene!
He literally just strolls up like 'HEY COOL AIRSHIP MY GUY' and Sazh is thrilled that someone else is finally excited about it and they nerd out for a while before Vaan is finally like 'oh yeah, and where am I?' because vaan.
Bless him.
Vivi's pretty scared of the idea that, in Orience, you're forgotten when you die. I'm glad Opera Omnia has characters from various other FF titles react with shock and horror whenever a Type:0 cast member talks about this, because IT IS IN FACT HORRIFYING.
I was really glad to see this topic discussed in Opera Omnia, because it's such an interesting concept and it's severely underexplored in the original Type-0.
Although actually, this is a decent example of the writing in Opera Omnia having a really good basis in the characters personalities but a slightly iffier feel when it comes to character tone. I just can't imagine Zidane saying 'he must be stopped' rather than something more like 'we can't let him keep on like that', or 'we gotta do something about it', or something else a bit more colloquial and less rigid.
This is such a good observation.
I am still really enjoying these entries, and I'm sorry this reply took so long!
no subject
Ardyn may have displaced Kuja as my favourite Final Fantasy villain
I AM GLAD WE'RE VERY SIMILAR IN THIS WAY. My love for Kuja is a bit too deep-rooted to ever be completely displaced, but I never anticipated that I could end up liking any other FF villain anywhere near as much. And then along came Ardyn! Upturning everything.
Now that you mention it, you are almost certainly correct about manikins and I'm not sure why that didn't occur to me. There are definitely scenes where the characters are unable to visually distinguish between genuine ally and manikin—the unorthodox fanfic is free to commence!
ONE DAY I WILL WRITE TYPE-0 CORRECTLY. I can not understand why you would create a world with such an unusual conceit and then not do more to explore it! I'm glad that Opera Omnia does more with it, but also I really should play Type-0 one of these days and it's going to be interesting see how my current impressions line up with the actual source material.
Thank you for taking time to comment! I'll get another one of these done at. some point. SOME POINT, FOR SURE.