FF10 HD: So...we just wrecked 1000 years of tradition in order to save the world!
First plot stuff we get? A bunch of scenes from prior pilgrimages! Apparently Ohaland and that other dude aren't important enough, BUT LADY YOCUN MUST BE SHOW SO WE CAN FORGET ABOUT HER 2 MINUTES LATER! Then we have kid Seymour whose all "I don't wanna say the world because you won't be in it
" even though he's going to die too...pretty weird thing for the kid to be scared that his mother is going to die instead of he himself and...wait, how does Seymour and his mother know that the Final Aeon yield the death of the person? You don't learn about this until you get inside! I suppose because Lord Jiscal is a Maester, he might have inside knowledge or something, but that's about the best I can come up with.
Then we see Jecht being all "Don't do it" and Braska's all "too bad" and Jecht's like "Well shucks, I tried" and Auron's like "MY TURN! BEHOLD MY HEARTFELT SPEECH TO TALK YOU OUT OF IT!" and Braska's like "nope, didn't work!"
Then we do the Cloyster of Trials...which is weird because they don't play the music here but they do play it if you come back to get the Destruction Sphere! THIS IS TOTALLY IMPORTANT AND IF YOU SAY OTHERWISE YOU CLEARLY DO NOT HAVE YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT!
Then we meet some old dude who is...completely useless. Like, does Yunalesca really need an old, undead butler to help her? What does a dead person who does nothing but lay around half naked on a couch need? Speaking of which, what the hell does she do all these years?
There's 8 Aeons in the game, meaning 8 people who reached Zanarkand and failed to kill Sin (or in Seymour's case, simply said "screw you, I quit!"), so they met Yunalesca, then we have the 4 high summoners. So over the course of 1000 years, only 12 pilgrimages have gotten that far...you'd think she'd be happy to see another person! You're the first person she's seen in like 10 years after all, and Braska is...the first person she's seen since Seymour's pilgrimage I guess? God knows how long a difference between Seymour and the others and *fast forward button pressed because this is looking too deep into things*
So Yunalesca appears, is all "kill one of your friends so you can kill Sin...and you will die too...KILL YOURSELF DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT!" Yuna's like "ok" and Lulu and Wakka are like "We volunteer!" then Tidus is all "HELL NAW!"
Ok, to be serious, this is the part where Tidus really comes through. He puts his foot down and says "no, you are not going through with this, killing yourself is not the answer." We see a flashback with Auron saying the same thing to Braska, and Braska just goes "there's a chance it won't!" and it does, and Auron gets angry seeing this part of his life over. This is a rare case of seeing Auron show legitimate emotion that isn't casual happiness or anger or something. Which is fine; Auron's suppose to be kind of stoicy and unphased by much, so seeing him get emotional shows just how much this hurts him. Tidus seeing Auron doing the same thing and failing just further cements that Tidus has to try harder.
Wakka and Lulu respond with "You want everything, but you'll get nothing. Stop being a child!" Tidus says "but I want everything!" Not the best response, but Tidus is also not the brightest person despite not being an idiot. The better statement is Tidus' follow up to that:
"Ok, tell me, what would an adult do? Just send more summoners to throw away like trash?" Paraphrased, but I do like his point here, because while it is arguably "childish" he's taking the moral high ground and basically saying "This is stupid! All you're doing is enabling more death and destruction and we all know it's just a temporary solution!" Then he follows up with "Yunalesca knows, let's talk to her one last time!"
Yunalesca of course goes "nope, Final Summoning, only way, AND SIN ALWAYS COMES BACK!" and pretty much spells out that Yevon's teachings were always a lie, just to give people hope, if a false one. Then Yuna gives the "we will live without false hope!" speech, basically telling Yunalesca to shove it, Auron's "Now's the time!" speech kicks in, everyone gives their epic lines of determination, and they kick Yunalesca's ass. Yunalesca's response is "Now you've REALLY doomed Spira! Yu Yevon is immortal!" and dies.
Then we have talking about what to do next, then Auron pulls Tidus aside. One thing I left out is in an earlier scene, Jecht explains why he decides to go with Braska:
He's given up hope of ever going home, and thus his biggest dream will never be fulfilled. What is his dream? Seeing Tidus grow up and become a star player like he himself. This is the scene that finally encaptures that Jecht was thinking what he was doing is tough love, and he really did care for Tidus, and wanted him to succeed, he just was really bad at doing it. Still, it's a noble dream nonetheless, and one he will never see fulfilled, so he decides he might as make himself useful.
So piggybacking off that, Jecht basically hands the torch over to Auron, asking him to raise Tidus. He calls him a crybaby that needs protecting, but it's still a noble thing to do; he wants to make sure Tidus has some form of father figure to look up to, though the Tidus/Auron relationship came off more like Nephew/Uncle than pseudo father/son, but I digress. Still, we also learn that Auron is dead, he used this to his advantage, etc.
Not much important happens from here, just discussing of what to do next. I guess a few minor things worth noting are:
-Yuna finally meets Cid, her uncle, and they don't exchange any words. Yuna bows her head, Cid turns around, because he's about to break up crying seeing her; probably because Yuna looks a lot like his sister, and it's an emotional moment that he almost lost her, etc.
-Rikku and Wakka fighting over the "LET ME TELL THE PLAN!" Just funny little incident of how far that relationship has gone and how the two bounce off each other. On one hand, we have the energetic 15 year old girl, on the otherhand, we have the idiot who loves attention. So Lulu jumping in and being the one to say the plan was a great little punch line that made them both go "Aaaawwww..."
Then I went off and started doing gameplay things...because gameplay...and gameplay...and YOJIMBO YOU ARE AN EXPENSIVE WHORE!
EDIT: Regarding Hector solo, yeah, I gave up. Part of this was because I didn't plan properly and save Tomahawks which may have given me a chance, but ultimately, the mages were doing too much damage and them being able to attack without countering effectively (Hand Axes weren't cutting it from my recollection) led to some bad stuff. Ursula especially was threatening because of the move, and while it was a joke, Jerme's damage was meaningful because taking 7 damage can mean the difference between surviving something Ursula does or dying.
I am not sure if Tomahawk would have made a difference, but I'm sure a legitimate ranged counter would have been meaningful.
