YIIK is over, gacha season is back in. I was hoping to start this back up alternating between Opera Omnia and SINoALICE, but the latter got delayed and we don’t know when that will be coming back. Been a while since the last one, so we’re long overdue for this!

I played for a brief period in June, but I mainly just played the Cycle Quests because I have a poor sense of focus. It’s during this time that I decided to make a roll on a banner for Zidane (I think). Not only did I get a weapon for Zidane, but I also got one for Freya – who was also unlocked for my party. I guess you can get some characters from the gacha? Though I guess this might mean these characters don’t have quest lines or roles in the story like Squall.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about Panel Missions. Opera Omnia offers an unusual set of missions called Panel Missions, where aside from getting prizes for clearing objectives, you also get free currency for clearing lines of panels. One of these lines required me to pick up Squall to finish it, so I decided to go do that.

Squall’s story seems to take place during the first chapter and he’s out here hunting for a Torsion for a client. The gang tries to help him out but he keeps playing that lone wolf card. For him, doing this job gives him a sense of purpose in this new world he found himself in.

The squad follows him around anyway until he reluctantly joins the party. They also ask him who his client is, which is a pretty reasonable question considering that the world is desolate. He has no answers.

Around the time I finally got around to playing Opera Omnia again, there was a banner with a weapon for Squall, so I rolled on that. I got a weapon for Squall, but I also unlocked Yuri from Crystal Chronicles by getting his weapon. I never played Crystal Chronicles, so I don’t know what the fuck this dude’s deal is.

Whatever, we’re on chapter 3 of the first act of the main story, the Lost Kingdom of Thronus. Sazh lands the airship on a beach and the gang has to go investigate the Torsion on foot. Zidane is excited about checking out girls on the beach in a firm reminder that he’s the straightest Final Fantasy character.

But their investigation is interrupted by Yuffie, who I guess is willing to just rob the first humans she sees. Thankfully, Cloud and Tifa are in the party, so they can talk some sense into her! Oh wait no, she doesn’t care about what they have to say, either. They chase her down to get their stuff back and Yuffie decides to join for the opportunity to get things from other worlds to sell off. Don’t know who you’re going to fence your stolen goods to, but go off.

We meet another face – three actually: it’s Seifer, Raijin and Fujin, FF VIII‘s Disciplinary Committee and local polyamorous triad (well, I imagine them that way, anyway)! Seifer calls Y’shtola a catgirl, which she takes offense to, which had me sincerely wondering if calling a Miqo’te a catgirl or catboy is canonically racist. Seifer implies that Cloud reminds him of Squall despite the fact that Squall is already in my party and seems to have joined within the timeframe of the previous chapter. So, I guess characters gained in Lost Chapters just don’t get referenced in the main story? Then again, I got Kuja from those and he seems to be a major character. Hm.

Anyway, the Disciplinary Committee chooses to fight the gang for no real reason and they run away after getting defeated. Mog considers the potential of recruiting them and everyone’s kinda like, “don’t know about that one chief.”

For now, we recruit another ninja character, Edge, from Final Fantasy IV. The guy briefly mistakes the gang for hostile Manikins and attacks, but gets beaten and calms down. Cecil recognizes that they’re from the same world, though they don’t get much character interaction beyond that because they were apparently pulled into the Opera Omnia world before IV‘s plot began popping off.

Further in, the Disciplinary Squad are found harassing Yuna. Seifer is on his “wants to be a knight” shit and sees the defenseless summoner as the perfect subject to protect for the sake of his dream. Zidane jokes that he sucks at picking up girls and once again we fight them and Yuna joins the party.

Our heroes continue further down and guess what? The poly triad is back. They thought that they should outdo our heroes at being knights and have beaten up a bunch of monsters ahead. Vaan doesn’t take their “heroic efforts” seriously, negatively comparing them to the actual knights of Warrior of Light and Cecil. Man, must suck to get owned by Vaan. Seifer is once again angry and his friends/partners stick with him once again to fight the party.

And once again, they’re fucking bodied. Seifer pretty much says, “fine I’ll let you guys save this place, but we’ll be the ones to save the world, this victory wine flowing down my face is delicious” and the gang leaves. I don’t even know what he’s doing because he just learned what a Torsion was five minutes ago, but I respect him.

As we continue on, there’s actually a nice side scene of Yuffie and Vaan relating to each other about imperialist forces taking things from their people and stealing it back. Zidane dismisses her as flighty and Cloud makes a snide remark about how he’s the same before we continue on.

We finally reach Thronus properly, where we meet another Type-0 character, King. Also what the fuck, is the Type-0 school really called Akademia? Sazh attempts to convince him to join as a fellow gunslinger, but he feels that he’s more suited for war more than saving the world. Vivi and Warrior of Light manage to talk him into it though, referring to how Vivi was intended to be a weapon but found new purpose, and that what matters is noble intentions. Also, Rem and King briefly talk their fears of being erased from the minds of their new friends when they die which is kinda fucked.

As the gang gets closer to the center of the map they smell something horrible, and it turns out it’s a Great Marlboro. This is actually a pretty hard fight if you don’t bring Yuna to cast Esuna, because this thing loves to poison and blind people.

The gang’s about to close the last Torsion, when suddenly Bartz is teleported through it! With one more new guy in tow, I’ve finally unlocked Chapter 4: Snowy Peaks of Crudelis! With that, Chapter 3 is finally done after months of procrastination! Nothing interesting to pull on, especially since I don’t know what other characters are unlockable through the gacha. See you soon, I guess?