Author Topic: !OUTDATED INFORMATION! -- The Novella: Final Fantasy X-2.5 ~Eternal Cost~  (Read 110783 times)

catnip

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Um... "Aniki"? ???

pierpaolo

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あに (ani) means Brother
あにき (aniki ) means Big Brother ( I use Google translate )
I don't know if there's a Kanji for Aniki!

Internal Medicine Doctor

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I'm sure it's, if anything, a preview of things to come as you said.

I wouldn't trust anything until we get the official translations from KaminaSan and Pixel. Not to discredit this source, but we are reassured with our translators that the information we're getting isn't muddled at all.

After the necrophilia scandal,
it's best to keep our eyesight keen.

TresDias

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Lots of new information from hitoshura at TheLifestream.net, where Pixel and I are from. He's been a translator in the FF fandom for more than ten years and was the first to provide a summary of Nojima's The Kids Are Alright FFVII novel a couple years ago:

http://thelifestream.net/lifestream-projects/translations/11751/summary-of-the-new-ffvii-novel/

He confirmed the boat sex thing between Tidus and Yuna the other day, by the way.

What I'm about to provide here is an explanation of the sex-fayth method. I'm summarizing from what hito said across several posts:

----
A summoner can have sex with someone (it can be anyone, not just another summoner; it just happened to be another summoner in the Boy's Side story) as a means of reaching a bonded mental state in order to create a particular kind of fayth called a Beast Core (獣芯). Sex isn't the only way for them to reach that mental union with one another, but you could say it's the quick and dirty way (pun intended)..

The person who becomes the Beast Core is still being sacrificed, but not in the same way as when their soul is pulled from their living body and placed in a monstrous fayth statue. Instead, they slowly crystallize into a glass-like state, but still retain their human shape. As the Beast Core, they provide the summoner with the power to create pyreforms (幻光体) based on imagination rather than just the strict blueprints offered by the fayth from FFX. If the Beast Core's bond with the summoner is strong, the summoner can create damn near anything. Otherwise, the summoner can only create a somewhat limited range of "aeons" based on their own experiences (we don't see any traditional aeons in this story -- just replicas of things that actually existed).
----

He also explained that the sex-fayth method recounted in the Boy's Side story involved a female summoner named Kushu (クシュ) and a male summoner named Ifarnal (イファーナル). Kushu actually became the Beast Core for Ifarnal. Briah (ブライア) was Kushu's non-summoner lover.

The rest of these are quotes from hito:

Quote from: hito
the island, which was besaid in the past, was summoned by ifarnal (who was on the island before the end of the war). ifarnal survived what happened on the island and lived to be 90-odd, but when he died became an unsent. yuna doesn't meet ifarnal on the island itself, but kushu who was another summoner and the one who became the core for ifarnal. although that wasn't the actual kushu, but rather a summoned form of her.

after tidus blows up (that doesn't sound real but it is a real thing that is actually in this book omg) ifarnal speaks to yuna and tells her how to bring tidus back.

other things this book decides are things now, unsents can have kids with humans

and yuna has a mole somewhere only tidus would know

know in a biblical sense, more like

Quote from: hito
i can't remember the specifics right now, but ifarnal does tell yuna about the old way of summoning. there is something about how if tidus realises what he is then that would have a detrimental effect on his existence (as in it might end). this also applies if he goes somewhere where there are lots of pyreflies.

Quote from: hito
briah (or valm, another unsent who was on the same island as ifarnal but got shot by an angry albhed) goes to confront him and then he gets blown up by one of those bomb balls

so he's just dead now. [Note by TresDias: These next two paragraphs are about Ifarnal, not Briah; hito was answering my question about what Ifarnal's intent was in telling Yuna how to resurrect Tidus, as I was wondering if perhaps he was the one who killed Tidus so that he could tell Yuna how to bring him back and cause her to weaken the Farplane] i don't think he really had a plan. i don't think there was a plan here. it was just a bunch of stuff that kind of happened. tidus blowing up seems like an accident, but now that i think about it i don't know why ifarnal told yuna what to do to bring him back

he just kind of spoke to her via magic or something and told her what to do. but the price was that he would seal away her memories of what happened (which she later remembers), because if they both remember then it would all be undone. or something.

conflict would come in the forms of:

- tidus trying to spend some time with yuna the night he returned (so he goes on the boat and then yuna sneaks on and they sail away into a storm)
- tidus and yuna stranded at sea (which i thought went on for a bit longer than it needed)
- tidus and yuna on the mysterious island and how they will leave it (tidus literally just warps away, he gets that special power for reasons/i guess because he's just pyreflies. yuna gets taken on to a boat by ifarnal but i don't remember if they gave an explanation about how that happened since it was a real boat and just seems to just move from the island to the boat)
- briah going a bit insane when he gets his memories back
- tidus and yuna doing what ifarnal/kushu asks and if they will do it (i don't think they actually did)
- the nature of tidus' new existence
- yuna feeling some distance from tidus, which is a running theme

the last one is probably the most problematic part. realistically yeah, it makes sense. for yuna tidus has been gone for two years, she has gone through a lot of stuff and tidus is still 17 and how he was in ffx. but that's been a big complaint about it, yuna's treatment of tidus. she's not being a total **** or anything, there's still love there but it's tempered with 'that aspect of tidus is bugging me'. she doesn't seem as happy as she does in ffx-2's ending, like she's just been reunited with her love.

tidus dying too. this story starts right after ffx-2. to make a timeline of the series, it would go:

- ffx
- eternal calm
- ffx-2
- eternal cost
- 100% ending of x-2?
- last mission
- will
- ffx-3 which we all know they are going to try to make now

at most it would be a couple of days after tidus came back (depending how long they spend floating at sea, which i can't imagine being more than a few hours so that would place the island stuff starting the day after he came back), and they unceremoniously blow him up. which is a bit of a ****. but then they went from 'the world's purest kiss' in ffx to tidus being a horndog trying to get laid a bunch.

it feels a lot more like it was written to lay the groundwork for a sequel than anything else. some of the new stuff is interesting, but it's still weird overall.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 12:05:10 am by TresDias »

city

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Wow this is a lot of info to take in!

Mars1040

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...I've read stuff like this in fanfiction, the fact that Nojima actually wrote that Tidus becomes like that (and Yuna going along with it) speaks VOLUMES of the Novella's quality.

Tidus, Yuna, what have they done to you?

CrystalOfLies

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I have to agree. While some of the new stuff is pretty interesting (Beast Cores, wat. Can't wait to see happens cause of this.), I'm still not a fan of how they portrayed Tidus and Yuna. Their relationship was a LOT more than just kinky stuff. It was a tale about protection, trust, determination, and the will to do anything to save his love from impending doom, going as far as to literally bend tradition and move the heavens for her. All because they naturally liked each other, and their love grew so much that it changed the world. Now that they've basically given Tidus the 'surely you jest sex' mentality, it not only nullifies part of what their relationship stood for, but also Tidus' stance as a... well, mature person.

I can understand that they would want intercourse together, considering the possibility that they might have never seen each other again, but on the standards of Tidus and Yuna, I would have expected it to have a slow build up, and have them treat it as an emotional bonding. Their first kiss was engaged in an underwater lake, and they treated it like a freakin' oath, and that was when they realised that they loved each other. Their first time together would have been just as magical. Instead, Tidus is like 'hey yuna i like your hair wanna screw?'

I just don't believe that Yuna would have more experience in life than Tidus had. Oh sure, she had two adventures instead of one, but the second one was more of a personal mission that evolved into something much bigger. Oh, and I guess nobody remembers the scene where Tidus' spirit guides Yuna out of the Farplane after she gets trapped. Yep. Tidus totally hasn't gone through as much as Yuna had. Well, except the fact that his home was destroyed and he found out that his life was a selfish illusion maintained by a subhuman summoner. Gah, this was one aspect of FFX fanfictions that I always hated: Yuna outgrowing Tidus because they spent two years apart. The fact that it's now canon just saddens me.

Tidus and Yuna aren't just a throwaway thing, oh no. They're a MAJOR part of what FFX stands for. For Nojima to suddenly do this to them for the sake of drama, it just... feels dirty and wrong. Why can't they just fight the main threat while they're HAPPY together? Haven't they gone through enough? Two games of pain and desperation to save each other? All for naught?
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catnip

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this is ridiculous and awful in every sense

Thank you so much for your guys' contributions though (translations, searches, etc.)

TresDias

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A few last (really weird) details:

Quote from: I
As always, hito, you are awesome sauce. As an entrée, and not a side.

EDIT: What is this exactly?:

Quote
tidus and yuna doing what ifarnal/kushu asks and if they will do it (i don't think they actually did)

What does Ifarnal ask them to do? And are we to assume Yuna really went and **** some random person since Tidus came back?

Quote from: hito
yuna only had boat sex, her bringing back tidus was something different

ifarnal's request to yuna was to kill someone (i can't remember if this was briah or kushu, but i think it was kushu)
kushu's request to tidus was to give a woman sitting in a chair looking out of a window 'a little push' on the shoulder (this was kushu's real body located in one of the ruins on besaid)

Quote from: I
That's ... weird.

Quote from: hito
it's a weird book

i am starting to think that the thing with yuna distancing herself from tidus has something to do with the whole 'if he finds out what he is he will disappear' thing

Quote from: I
Do you get the impression she may have done "something bad" to bring him back?

Quote from: hito
i think she just wished really hard, that's about it. think about tidus and wish really hard

kk

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Crystal, I agree with you wholeheartedly. But I also think we should wait until we see the actual translation before judging TOO harshly!

I mean, people were making it sound like Yuna was COMPLETELY irritated and cold to him, but in the translated scenes we've been given so far, she always either affectionate, coy, too busy, or , sadly, reasonably distant after not seeing someone for two years, I think. I consider it... sort of like, if they had been in an online relationship for the past two years, to give a contemporary example! xD You could be the two closest people in the world, but if you haven't spent time with someone physically for two entire years, there are still some emotional and physical boundaries that you need to cross. There is still an initial period of awkwardness and getting to know each other, EVEN THOUGH you may actually know each other on a very deep and personal level, do you know what I mean??? I think it's sort of realistic that they need to get "used to each other", as Yuna says in one scene. The fact is, they haven't seen one another for two years, and while, no, I don't think Yuna has emotionally matured extremely beyond him, because as you said, he matured A LOT in X, too... she has still been progressing for two years, and we don't know where/what he was for the past two years, if he was conscious or not. I can see there being some difficulty in them adjusting, at the beginning. But, it sounds like this book takes place BEFORE Last Mission. Therefore, all the happy moments they have in Last Mission? Unaffected by this book. :) So, clearly, she has gotten over her hang ups! It sounds to me like the book is addressing the, as you said, popular theme in fanfic and general opinion, of Yuna having trouble adjusting to Tidus, BUT, with his death (crappy as a plot device as it is) or whatever, it seems that she comes to realize how much she loves him and blah blah blah. I'm guessing this is the message, from that mysterious voice reminding her to remember how much she loved him, and her having to "wish" (call, like in the audio drama, perhaps?????) him back... Anyway, they just need time to work out the initial kinks.

Speaking of kinks... I also am skeptical of the "boat sex". Again, remember he was accused being a total horndog in that "ecchi" bikini scene, but all he said was one playful comment? It was kinda blown way out of proportion, surely you jest.

Also, doesn't that bikini scene take place AFTER the boat? So, if they did have sex, canon-ly, on the boat... isn't that kind of weird? Like, why would he ask for her forgiveness for thinking dirty stuff if they've already had sex? LMAO. Like, that ship has sailed, so to speak. uNLESS... the sex they had was romantic, not dirty. In which case, it's all good, right? ;) I agree that they wouldn't rush, and their first time would be 'pure' and all that, but... at the same time, who says it wasn't???

Not to mention, the translator only said it's implied, didn't he? By them picking up clothes off the floor, the next morning or whatever? Did I read that right? If that's the only implication, that doesn't necessarily mean much. Tidus DOES were a lot of unnecessary garments that I'm sure are uncomfortable to sleep in, surely you jest.

I don't know... I'm just saying, I'd wait to see the full translation before getting ourselves too worked up! :D A lot of the things that got me really riled up and angry at first, turned out to be far less horrible than they were presented by summation at first. ^^;

CrystalOfLies

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Ah, you make a valid point actually. Yeah, I guess your long-lost lover suddenly reappearing into your life would make for a bit of a clumsy start, I guess. XD But still, this is Tidus and Yuna, after all. There was hardly any real 'awkwardness' between them on the pilgrimage, except maybe at Macalania. (But we all know where that went. ;)) They had playful banter and it was pretty obvious that they had crushes on each other. They're pretty much a 'love at first sight' couple done right.

But still, in the context of the '2 days later' timeline, isn't that weird? You'd think Tidus and Yuna would have time to settle down on Besaid together; you know, get Tidus acquainted and caught up with his old friends and all. Instead, they just pass off some boat to them and tell them to go out to sea. I'd buy it better if they went back on the Celsius instead. (Come on, Tidus being a sphere hunter isn't that far of a stretch.) Don't they have weather vanes on Besaid or something? That's pretty reckless of those Aurochs, IMO.

The whole 'memory erase' is a pretty big cop-out, though. So we're just left to assume that Yuna screwed up the balance of the world and her lover's plane of existence, only to forget it and go on living a normal life and go poppycock around Iutycyr? But assuming this actually took place a half-year after X-2, why would the loss of her memories of the incident cause her personality to revert back into her X self? Better yet, why would she even maintain that? You'd think Yuna would be trying to find a way to save Tidus by herself instead of going back to square one and praying to the lifeless fayth statues. Okay, yeah, the fayth are on her side, only Tidus and Yuna can see Bahamut's fayth, yadda yadda. So... why can't Yuna just go find Bahamut in person? Did the huge holes that Shuyin leave behind just suddenly close up upon his defeat? I mean, Bahamut created Tidus, so he must know the most about his nature, even if he is a part-human, part-aeon, part-dream, part-unsent, part-zombie, part-fish thing.

Ugh... this whole thing just feels bizarre and not what we'd expect. Then again, nobody expected X-2 to turn out the way it did back when it was announced. I seriously thought that the audio drama would be a happy-go-lucky, happily-ever-after epilogue for our favourite couple. But it is Square Enix, seeker of sequels, so maybe I should have known better.
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Internal Medicine Doctor

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Oh, my.


That's quite the load of new information.

I'll update the Original Post once I get my bearings on all this information. Is this a trusty source, TresDias? Or anybody else who knows about that site?

Ahh, nevermind that. After thoroughly reading, I see this is a trustworthy source. I shall update the Original Post as soon as possible.
Get the word out about this new information!
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 05:01:51 pm by Internal Medicine Doctor »

TresDias

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Re: The Novella: Final Fantasy X-2.5 ~Eternal Cost~
« Reply #177 on: January 27, 2014, 08:31:40 pm »
Yeah, you won't find a more reliable source than hito. There doesn't seem to be much more of interest to mine from this book, though, sadly. He called it "snake feet" -- a term meaning something is not only unnecessary, but damaging to what was there before.

 
Quote from: CrystalofLies
I mean, Bahamut created Tidus ...

What gave you that impression? Tidus is just another resident of the Dream Zanarkand, like Jecht.

Pyreflies_of_MJ

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Re: The Novella: Final Fantasy X-2.5 ~Eternal Cost~
« Reply #178 on: January 27, 2014, 09:37:53 pm »
I completely agree with Crystal. What Nojima's done here is just dirty. He's created contrived drama for the sake of a new plot and it's a shame. This is not what any fan wanted and it most certainly has been done better in fanfiction. Please, don't let this man write romance anymore, he has failed us.

I've met good friends I haven't seen in years and yet we were able to hit it off without a hitch as if we'd never been apart. When you click with someone you just click. For two people who are supposed to be soul mates, you'd think it'd be most likely for them to fall in place, lock step with one another again. They should both be pretty damn giddy and content and all that good crap, not awkward. There was never any drama between them and there shouldn't be now. Nojima just wanted to conjure angst for funs, har har. And don't get me started on the boat sex thing. I've never been opposed to Tidus and Yuna having sex in the world of canon Final Fantasy, but like that, really? Tidus recklessly puts their lives in danger to get some booty? The very notion that Tidus would knowingly risk Yuna's safety for anything is absurd. Seriously, as has been said, Tidus, what have they DONE to you!?

The more that's translated the worse it gets. I think I'm going to try ignoring this thing as much as possible.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 09:42:14 pm by Pyreflies_of_MJ »

Ananda

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Re: The Novella: Final Fantasy X-2.5 ~Eternal Cost~
« Reply #179 on: January 28, 2014, 12:43:36 am »
I don't know what to think of this...
I love FFX and Tidus and Yuna, it hurts to think that the entire FFX and FFX-2 storyline, was useless (by making Sin come back, even if we defeated him!)
I'd have accept if another thing threatens Spira, not Sin...again.
But I hope that, if they do a FFX-3, they make it with effort, responsibility, innovation, intelligence and creativity.
Please SE, you already make a mistake with the first sequel ( this is just my opinion, i don't try to offend anyone that likes FFX-2) don't dissapoint us, we hope that if you decide to start making a second sequel, do it with the great potential that we know you have. :-)
« Last Edit: January 28, 2014, 12:47:38 am by Ananda »
FFX ;-)