The Teams

Freya & Fratley   Zone & Watts     Final Fantasy 9 Freya (left) and Fratley (right) were former lovers that parted when Fratley left to see the world. He had intended to return, but he met with an unfortunate accident and got amnesia. Freya had been searching for him since.   Final Fantasy 8 Zone (left) and Watts (right) are members of the Forest Owls of Timber -a resistance group fighting to regain Timber's independence. The Forest Owls are a small group, so Zone and Watts work a lot together.     Cecil & Rosa   Reno & Rude     Final Fantasy 4 Cecil (left) was a dark knight for Baron Castle and Rosa (right) has always been his girlfriend and later his wife. On their journey together, Cecil learned the ways of the paladin and abandoned his dark ways.   Final Fantasy 7 Reno (right) and Rude (left) are members of the Turks: a division of Shin-Ra involved in special/black ops. Together they do several dirty jobs and in their spare time they drink together.     Biran & Yenke   Cid & Celes     Final Fantasy 10 Biran (left) and Yenke (right) are Ronso that had nothing better to do than torture the smaller Ronso, Kimahri about his broken horn, though occasionally they actually have a bit of helpful information. But that's rare.   Final Fantasy 6 Cid (right) took in Celes (left) when she was still a baby. She was raised to be a special, magic-using knight called a Magitek Knight. Magitek was founded by Cid.     Zell & Ma   Dona & Barthello     Final Fantasy 8 Zell (left) was an orphan that was trained to be a SeeD. Ma (right) is the only name given to his mother, who had adopted him, though did not remove him from his education and training at Balamb Garden.   Final Fantasy 10 Dona (left) was a summoner on a quest to save the world, guarded by her one guardian, Barthello (right). Dona and Barthello grew together on their journey and have never parted ways since.     Reina & Faris   Balthier & Fran     Final Fantasy 5 Faris (left) and Reina (right) are sisters and both were princesses, but when Faris was taken from the castle at a young age, she was raised as a pirate, only to be reunited with Reina during X-Death's second coming.   Final Fantasy 12 Balthier (left) and Fran (right... if you don't count her legs) met and became friends after both had dramatically changed their lives. Together they became friends as well as sky pirates.     Barret & Dyne   Garnet & Brahne     Final Fantasy 7 Barret (left) and Dyne (right) were friends from a small mining town, but when a large corporation destroyed their lives, Barret and Dyne were separated and Barret began to raise Dyne's child: Marlene.   Final Fantasy 9 Garnet (left) is the heir to the throne of Queen Brahne (right), despite not being her biological daughter. As Brahne became obsessed with power, Garnet and Brahne grew apart, technically becoming enemies.     The Hosts: Gippal, Nooj, & Baralai & Paine     Final Fantasy 10-2 Paine (unpictured; joined mid-season), Gippal (middle), Nooj (right), and Baralai (left) were members of an elite squad of fighters known as the Crimson Squad. After a field exercise led to the deaths of almost all of the Crimson Squad, the four barely escaped with their lives, but later events led to their disbanding and joining of different factions.

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Episode Rewind

Episode 1

Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy X & Final Fantasy VII Episode Summary: "I know it's my lucky day now!" -Queen Brahne Alexandros Out in the hot Sanubia Desert, home of the Spiran race, the Al Bhed, host Gippal joined twelve new teams about to embark on a brand-new adventure: a new race around worlds for one-million gil. The twelve teams, who'd come from various Final Fantasy worlds, included: researcher and test subject Cid and Celes from the Fantasy 6 verse, mother and daughter Brahne and Garnet from the Fantasy 9 verse, reunited lovers Freya and Fratley from the Fantasy 9 verse, partners Reno and Rude from the Fantasy 7 verse, sisters Reina and Faris from the Fantasy 5 verse, Ronso friends Biran and Yenke from the Fantasy 10 verse, summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello from the Fantasy 10 verse, resistance fighters Zone and Watts from the Fantasy 8 verse, married couple Cecil and Rosa from the Fantasy 4 verse, fathers Barret and Dyne from the Fantasy 7 verse, mother and son Ma and Zell from the Fantasy 8 verse, and sky pirates Fran and Balthier from the Fantasy 12 verse. The twelve teams began at the starting line in the middle of the desert and, on when Gippal said, "Go!", raced off on Al Bhed landspeeders toward the newly-built Al Bhed Home Spaceport to book the earliest flight possible to their first destination, Midgar in the Fantasy 7 verse. The competition got underway immediately, with Fran and Balthier pulling into an early lead and Zone and Watts close behind them. Brahne and Garnet fell behind early on, which was fine with Brahne, as she had time to ogle Barret and Dyne and their beefy muscles. Biran and Yenke and Reina and Faris got off to bad starts when Biran and Yenke had a tough time driving their landspeeder, and Reina and Faris had trouble navigating to the spaceport thanks to Reina's inexperience in using a compass. Also, Ma and Zell and Cecil and Rosa nearly had a dust-up when Cecil tried to knock Ma and Zell off their landspeeders en route to the spaceport. Their two teams made up quickly at the spaceport, though, thanks to some quick mediating between Ma and Rosa, who barely stopped a fight from erupting between their Zell and Cecil, who almost let his dormant dark side come out. The two teams then formed a one-leg alliance to get information on flights. Also at the spaceport, after snagging tickets on the fastest flight to Midgar, Balthier decided to pull a bit of trickery and coax all potentially weaker teams he possibly could onto the flight with them to guarantee himself and Fran a first-place finish. His targets were Dona and Barthello, Brahne and Garnet, and Cid and Celes. Dona and Barthello didn't believe his claim that the flight he was trying to get them on was the fastest one, though, and went off to find a different one. (The one they found ended up being the second-fastest one.) Brahne and Garnet and Cid and Celes believed him, though, and went for the first flight, but were beaten out to it just barely. In the end, Ma and Zell, Fran and Balthier, Freya and Fratley, Zone and Watts, and Cecil and Rosa all got on the first flight, Reno and Rude, Dona and Barthello, and Barret and Dyne all got on the second flight, and Reina and Faris, Brahne and Garnet, Cid and Celes, and Biran and Yenke all got on the third and last flight. Once in Midgar, the teams had to navigate their way through the dirty, filthy slums and find a train station, from which they'd catch a train to the Shinra Office Building. On the train, the teams met and got to know each other more. Most notable was Brahne and Garnet's first encounter with Cid and Celes and Biran and Yenke. Brahne was immediately taken with Cid, and then, grossly, found herself attracted to Biran and Yenke, as well, which was met with disgust from Garnet and Celes. Once at the Shinra Building, the teams chose various vehicles to drive themselves down the Midgar highway, and then across grassy plains to a chocobo farm. From there, they were told to take Mountain Chocobos to the mechanical city of Junon. It was here that Reno and Rude, after arriving in Midgar in the middle of the pack, started making their way up to the front of the pack with their knowledge of their home world's geography. In Junon, the teams had to march in a parade and perform in a gun-twirling competition. Success in the parade portion required slipping in with the marching soldiers and managing to march perfectly in step with them while also working provided guns well enough. Passing the gun-twirling portion required decently executing commands called to them by a sergeant. If either failed, they would have to start again, and after waiting five minutes in the case of the latter portion of the task. All twelve teams except for Barret and Dyne completed the parade portion on the first try (and Rosa, after bringing out Cecil's dark side, even got a flower for her efforts!), while all twelve teams except for Zone and Watts completed the gun-twirling portion on the first try. Both teams who'd failed ended up losing time. As a bonus, the latter portion of the task was overseen by Shinra and Rufus, winners of the first season! The next task was a careful search around the Junon airport for three different flight times. The teams had to be careful here as they looked for the possible flight times -- 10:00 a.m., 10:20 a.m., and 10:40 a.m. A smart strategy was actually carried out by Freya and Fratley -- sitting on one time when found while looking for a possibly-earlier one, with the intention of taking the first time found if they failed to find any earlier ones. Out of panic from seeing Ma and Zell arrive, Cecil and Rosa made an error by pulling a later time when there was still one earlier time available, and it ended up costing them valuable time. By the time the times were all taken, Reno and Rude, Ma and Zell, Fran and Balthier, and Freya and Fratley had claimed seats on the 10:00 a.m. flight. Zone and Watts, Dona and Barthello, Cid and Celes, and Cecil and Rosa made it onto the 10:20 a.m. flight. Finally, Reina and Faris, Brahne and Garnet, Biran and Yenke, and Barret and Dyne would be on the 10:40 a.m. flight. After an overnight stay in Junon, the teams flew off to their next stop, an amusement park called the Gold Saucer. It was there that they came across the first Detour of the race, and it had them choosing between Game and Fame. Game saw the teams playing and completing any four arcade games in the Gold Saucer's Wonder Square, splitting the task to give each team member two games to complete. Fame involved the teams taking part in a shooting game in the Gold Saucer's Speed Square and scoring at least 5,000 points to complete it. Ma and Zell, Zone and Watts, Dona and Barthello, and Reina and Faris all chose and completed Game, with Reina and Faris choosing it specifically for the smart reason of bypassing the line of teams waiting to do Fame. Meanwhile, Reno and Rude, Fran and Balthier, Freya and Fratley, Brahne and Garnet, Cid and Celes, Cecil and Rosa, and Biran and Yenke all chose and completed Fame, with the latter three teams each needing more than one try to complete it. In fact, Rosa brought out Cecil's crazy dark side once again, this time to enrage him enough to shoot enough targets to get the score they needed. Barret and Dyne initially attempted Fame, but when they failed at it the first time due to their gun-arms making it difficult to work the controls, they switched to Game. It was a risk they were hoping would pay off, as they, like Reina and Faris, were hoping to bypass the line of teams. One missed basket by Barret at a basketball game, though, set them back quite a bit. For their final task of the first leg, the teams had to ride in a Ferris-wheel-type gondola in the Gold Saucer's Round Square to locate the Pit Stop, located in the Ghost Square. It took a very sharp eye to spot the Pit Stop, but sharper eyes got teams to the end quickly. Really, only Brahne and Garnet needed to ride it twice, as they were the only team who failed to spot it their first time on it. The Pit Stop was in front of the Ghost Hotel in the Gold Saucer's Ghost Square, and though it came down to Reno and Rude and Ma and Zell, the former team just edged out the latter one for the victory, having fought their way up from the middle of the pack. They won lifetime passes to the Gold Saucer as their prize, which they gave to Ma and Zell since they already had their own. Ma and Zell gladly took second place, happy and surprised at their high placement. After being in the top two for most of the leg, Fran and Balthier and Freya and Fratley came in third and fourth, respectively. Zone and Watts checked in fifth, with Dona and Barthello close behind them in sixth. Reina and Faris passed up Brahne and Garnet on the gondola and came in seventh, with the mother and daughter right behind them in eighth. Cid and Celes took ninth place, and Cecil and Rosa finished in tenth. Things were now left down to Biran and Yenke and Barret and Dyne, and only by a few seconds, the Ronso friends pulled off the victory, which meant Barret and Dyne would be the first team eliminated from the race. Back to Top

Episode 2

Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy VII Episode Summary: "Ronso always come first except sometimes." -Biran The eleven remaining teams continued their journey through Fantasy 7 verse, setting off from the Ghost Square in the Gold Saucer. As the teams departed, it was revealed that Brahne and Garnet had formed an alliance with Cid and Celes. After heading through the town of Corel and reaching the nearby coast, the teams had to pilot small airplanes to reach the Temple of the Ancients. The planes were no good for flying and could only be taken through the water. Some teams had good luck in the form of their planes running like dreams all the way to their destination. Sisters Reina and Faris even found a useful shortcut to get to the temple faster than expected! Unfortunately for partners Reno and Rude, bad luck struck them when their plane got caught on rocks and sand. Ronso friends Biran and Yenke's plane completely fell apart on them, and a runaway propellor nearly killed one of them. Once at the Temple of the Ancients, the teams were met with their next Detour, which was a choice between Ten O'clock, which involved navigating remote-controlled cars down a small hallway, avoiding large, cement cylinders along the way, and Six O'clock, which involved searching for answers to questions based on murals found on a wall. Reno and Rude, resistance fighters Zone and Watts, sky pirates Fran and Balthier, Reina and Faris, Biran and Yenke, mother and son Ma and Zell, mother and daughter Brahne and Garnet, and researcher and test subject Cid and Celes all chose and completed Ten O'clock, while married couple Cecil and Rosa, reunited lovers Freya and Fratley, and summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello all chose and completed Six O'clock. After leaving the Detour behind, the teams traveled to Gongaga Village, where a search through several huge piles of garbage for one of eleven hidden clues commenced. It was a task with a lot of luck involved, and it greatly frustrated the teams who had little to no patience. Teams suchs as Reno and Rude, Biran and Yenke, Ma and Zell, and Reina and Faris got really, really lucky and found their clues in no time, while Brahne and Garnet took a long time finding their clues and lost position because of it. The teams then had to drive buggies to their next destination, Nibelheim. But two of the teams, Biran and Yenke and Ma and Zell, had trouble with their buggies when they broke down on them at the worst possible time. They were forced to watch helplessly as team after team passed them by. In Nibelheim, the teams faced the first Roadblock of the race. One member of each team had to search the Shinra Mansion of Nibelheim for the four numbers of a safe's combination. Teams had to carefully read clues provided in order to find each number, and the more clever team members realized one of the numbers was actually included in the clue they received, written in invisible ink. Reno and Rude had led for most of the leg, but lost their lead when Rude failed to see the invisible number with his sunglasses on, allowing Cecil and Rosa to pass them up when Rosa saw the invisible number almost immediately and found the other three numbers very quickly. Also included on this leg of the race was an new race mechanic called the Xing. Using it, a team could stop another team behind them, forcing them to get stopped only until one team (or more) had passed them (or, if the team forced to stop was in last, in which case they'd only have to wait for five minutes). All of the leading teams elected not to use it, but Biran and Yenke, having bonded with Brahne and Garnet (especially Garnet), decided to try and keep them in the race so they could keep taunting Garnet and hopefully make her stronger in doing so. They Crossed Ma and Zell, who found themselves in dire need of catching back up. The Pit Stop was at a Mako reactor on Mt. Nibel, and Cecil and Rosa arrived there first, having gone from tenth place to first, and won a seven-day cruise around Wutai, which they could enjoy after the race. Reno and Rude arrived in a very close second, and Biran and Yenke improved their position after their near-elimination on the first leg, going from eleventh place to seventh. In the end, a three-way footrace ensued among Ma and Zell and the two allied teams of Brahne and Garnet and Cid and Celes, with Cid and Celes finishing last by the slimmest of margins and becoming the second team eliminated from the race. Back to Top

Episode 3

Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy VII & Final Fantasy Tactics Episode Summary: "Yes, each with its own pros and cons." -Sir Fratley The ten remaining teams journeyed from the Fantasy 7 verse to Goug Machine City in the Fantasy Tactics verse. And right off the bat, the teams were faced with airport drama. Fran and Balthier cut in front of Freya and Fratley to get in line for a travel agent ahead of them, which didn't upset Freya, but did leave Fratley majorly peeved. Then, partners Reno and Rude tried to ensure a first-place finish for themselves by emulating Balthier's plan from the first leg, reserving all the remaining seats on the earliest flight over the phone for themselves and three weaker teams: sisters Reina and Faris, mother and daughter Brahne and Garnet, and friends Biran and Yenke. On another front, summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello decided to stir things up by deliberately cutting in front of teams already waiting in line for the travel agent to snag seats on the flight ahead of them. But because Reno and Rude had already reserved the last of the seats over the phone, however, they didn't get on the flight, which meant they'd ticked off the other teams in line for nothing. Once in Goug Machine City, Reno and Rude wound up in shock when they found out that the teams they'd hoped to leave in the dust were actually able to pass them and get far ahead of them! And later, Freya got into a horrible accident during the race for the clue that left her injured and with amnesia. The teams were faced with a Detour choice of Find Exit, which involved searching for the exit to a dungeon, as well as a crevice holding the next clue, while completely covered in darkness, and Find Item, which involved climbing to the top of a volcano to retrieve a clue tied to a blade. Brahne and Garnet and resistance fighters Zone and Watts were the only two teams to choose and complete Find Exit, while the rest completed Find Item. For most of the teams, they wound up in a race to don their safety gear the fastest, as only two teams could scale the volcano at a time. Dona and Barthello (mainly Dona) continued their truly deplorable tactics that pissed off other teams by pretending to work together with Cecil and Rosa to complete the difficult climb, but then ditching them once they'd been helped by them first. Cecil and Rosa then unwisely aided Freya and Fratley, the last team at the Detour, although Cecil was tempted to (smartly) ditch them. The teams' next stop was Orbonne Monastery, at which they had to find its underground book storage and search for a big, green book called The Germonik Scriptures. In it was a page printed in all red text. Said text would point them in the right direction to their next destination. However, as well as reading the clue, the teams had to tear out the page in red text and take it with them. Ma and Zell failed to read the clue correctly and didn't take the page with them, losing themselves valuable time. This, of course, was after Reno and Rude lost time from missing the entrance to the underground book storage thanks to a bit of deception from Brahne. The Roadblock saw one member of each team rappelling up a dam, swimming out to a buoy, retrieving a clue attached to it, swimming back to the dam, and rappelling back down it. The task was pretty straightforward. Reina, Garnet, Reno, Yenke, Watts, Fran, Barthello, Freya, Zell, and Cecil took the task for their teams. The Pit Stop was at the front gate of Limberry Castle, and as a result of running a near-perfect leg, Reina and Faris arrived there first, winning a trip for two to that very castle, which they could enjoy after the race, as their prize. Brahne and Garnet barely took second place, making a one-two finish for the two all-female teams of the race. While the three underdog teams didn't all finish in the top three, Biran and Yenke did manage to finish in fourth place after being passed at the Roadblock by Reno and Rude. Dona and Barthello, to many teams' dismay, stayed in the race by finishing in seventh place, and Freya and Fratley rose from adversity and also remained in the race, landing in eighth place. In the end, it came down to a race between first-leg allies Ma and Zell, who were in dire straits after having to return to the monastery, and Cecil and Rosa, who fell into panicked bickering at the monastery. Zell's athleticism at the Roadblock proved to be the deciding factor, as he and Ma finished in ninth place because of it, which meant Cecil and Rosa's unwise display of nobility at the Detour, coupled with Cecil having major difficulties at the Roadblock, resulted in them going from first to last and becoming the third team eliminated from the race. Back to Top

Episode 4

Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy Tactics & Secret of Mana Episode Summary: "Clue... not tell Biran where to go?" -Biran The nine remaining teams, fresh off Cecil and Rosa's elimination, set off from Limberry Castle in the world of Final Fantasy Tactics and raced to Dwarf Village in the world of Secret of Mana. Sisters Reina and Faris were hoping to keep up their momentum after their previous first-place finish. Partners Reno and Rude wanted to stop dropping in the ranks and nail another win. Sky pirates Fran and Balthier, meanwhile, wanted to net their first win, having not won a leg yet. And summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello and reunited lovers Freya and Fratley, who'd been healed after their accident on the previous leg, still had a lot of tension between their teams. Upon reaching Dwarf Village, the teams were faced with their next Detour. This one saw them choosing between Forge Ahead, which involved navigating through a large maze in a cave in search of the exit and the clue waiting there, and Forge Axe, which involved making a replica of an axe that satisfied a local blacksmith. Fran and Balthier, Reno and Rude, Reina and Faris, and Freya and Fratley all chose and completed Forge Ahead, while resistance fighters Zone and Watts, mother and daughter Brahne and Garnet, comrades Biran and Yenke, mother and son Ma and Zell, and Dona and Barthello all chose and completed Forge Ax. The latter Detour was made easier to complete than it appeared for Zone and Watts and Brahne and Garnet, especially when Zone, Watts, and Garnet all thought to watch a demonstration from the blacksmith himself. The Roadblock saw one member of each team displaying their prowess with a variety of weapons — a whip to help make their way over a ditch, a sword to cut through some bushes, an axe to chop through a huge statue, and a choice from among a javelin, a boomerang, and a bow and arrow to hit a target (that didn’t have to be hit in its center, but just hit at all). Balthier, Rude, Faris, Watts, Brahne, Biran, Zell, Dona, and Fratley all took the task for their teams. Many of the teams found out the hard way, however, that the better team member to send in was whichever member was more physically capable of performing such strenuous tasks, but quite a few of the racers chosen for the task were the less physical members of their teams (namely, Watts, Brahne, and Dona), and this cost many of them a lot of time. After a wild ride from a cannon, the teams came upon the final task before the Pit Stop, which required some logical reasoning. The teams had to solve a riddle saying, “Walk the seasons, Spring to Winter. Spring again and you can enter.” The teams found themselves in a forest that had four different areas, and each area was permanently set in a different season of the year -- spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The teams had to figure out that they’d have to walk through each seasonal area of the forest once, starting with the spring area and making their way through each of the other areas based on the chronological order in which their respective seasons came in the year. Once they made it back to spring again, they’d receive their next clue. Fran and Balthier, Reina and Faris, Zone and Watts, Brahne and Garnet, Ma and Zell, and Freya and Fratley figured out the riddle right away, while Reno and Rude and Biran and Yenke lucked into completing the tasks by following, respectively, Reina and Faris and Brahne and Garnet. Also, the second of six delay points popped up on this leg, and following the Xing of the second leg came the first Yield. The Yield was to be used by one team to stop a team behind them from racing until all the sand emptied out of an accompanying hourglass. Knowing they were in the back of the pack and needed a time buffer to stay ahead of possibly at least one team, Ma and Zell used it on Freya and Fratley, whom they'd passed at the Roadblock, but quickly regretted it when they saw that Dona and Barthello hadn't passed them, and that they'd blown the chance to try and knock them out of the race (all due to how much they greatly disliked Dona). The Pit Stop was at the Wind Palace, and there, Fran and Balthier finished in first place for their first time after pretty much doing everything right on the leg. They won an elemental named Sylphid as their prize. Reno and Rude overtook Reina and Faris in a footrace and finished in second place, with the two sisters right behind them in third place. Zone and Watts came in fourth place, happy that their plan to fly under the radar and stay in the middle of the pack was still in full swing. Brahne and Garnet finished in fifth place, relieved that the choice to have Brahne to the Roadblock hadn't killed them, with Biran and Yenke behind them in a close sixth place. Ma and Zell beautifully recovered from their near-elimination on the last leg and notched a seventh-place finish, leaving things down to Dona and Barthello and Freya and Fratley. As it turned out, the Yield really helped the summoner and guardian, as they just inched out the reunited lovers to finish in eighth place by a hair (though it had to be reviewed by Gippal first, who had a tough time making the call, as the two teams had finished very close together). Thus, Freya and Fratley were declared the last-place-finishers -- and sadly, not by much -- and became the fourth team eliminated from the race. They graciously shook hands with Barthello before they left, wishing he had a better teammate than Dona, and were at least glad to have had the time to get to know each once more. They felt more like they were picking things up in their relationship from where they'd left off, and that was a much better prize for them than the million gil.

Episode 5

Featured Games/Worlds: Secret of Mana & Kingdom Hearts II Episode Summary: "We did more than last time, we should get more munny." -Dona The eight remaining teams, fresh off Freya and Fratley's emotional elimination, set off from the Pit Start in Wind Palace in The Secret of Mana and raced to Twilight Town in the Kingdom Hearts II verse. Sky pirates Fran and Balthier were hoping to keep their lead. Resistance fighters Zone and Watts were hoping to keep implementing their "stay in the middle of the pack" strategy. Mother and son Ma and Zell (particularly Zell) still felt regrets about Yielding Freya and Fratley. And summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello were hoping to get back into the race despite how far behind they were. The first task involved quite a bit of luck. The teams headed to Mantengo and were tasked with using Flammie Drums to hail large dragons called Flammie-Taxis to carry them to two destinations as they finished up their excursion in Mana -- Turtle Island, an island resembling a turtle, and the Lost Continent. However, during the shuffle for position, some teams, such as Zone and Watts, mother and daughter Brahne and Garnet, and Dona and Barthello, pulled ahead largely due to the luck of faster Flammie-Taxis, while others, such as Fran and Balthier, Ma and Zell, comrades Biran and Yenke, sisters Reina and Faris, and partners Reno and Rude, fell behind because of slower ones. Reno and Rude, in particular, found themselves smack at the back of the pack, stuck in last place and struggling to try and catch up. Next, the teams had to take trains from a newly-built train station on the Lost Continent to Twilight Town. Zone and Watts, Dona and Barthello, and Brahne and Garnet all got on the first train, and while Zone and Watts went off to strategize alone. Dona and Brahne got to talking. Meanwhile, Ma and Zell, Biran and Yenke, Fran and Balthier, and Reina and Faris all got on the second train, and to the relief of all, Reno and Rude missed their train. They were stuck getting on the third and last train, even farther behind the other teams now. Seeing this, Fran and Balthier hatched a plan to try and get rid of the two Turks at the first available opportunity. Once in Twilight Town, Zone and Watts, despite a very subtle by Brahne to block them with her large body, took the lead in riding skateboards to a place called the Usual Spot. There awaited the clue to the Detour, which was a choice between Stand and Deliver. Stand involved teams becoming grandstanders and trying to keep a big ball in the air by hitting it with sticks as many times as possible and amassing 150 munny from an onlooking crowd. Deliver, meanwhile, involved completing two tasks that'd end with receiving 150 munny — quickly delivering five pieces of mail to three humans and two birds within fifteen seconds, followed by putting up twenty posters around a town square in less than one minute . . . while either riding on or just using a skateboard. Several teams found themselves at a loss with both tasks, but Biran and Yenke, Reina and Faris, and Dona and Barthello decided they weren’t that good at riding skateboards and were thus better off choosing Stand. Meanwhile, Zone and Watts, Ma and Zell, Fran and Balthier, and Brahne and Garnet, the teams that were good (or just decent) at skateboarding, were better off choosing Deliver. The Roadblock saw one member of each team taking part in a traditional Twilight Town pastime — the game of Struggle. One member of each team was tasked with going up against Setzer Gabbiani from the Fantasy 6 verse in a one-minute Struggle match and trying to knock at least twenty balls off a velcro suit he was wearing before collecting them — and then trying to hold onto them before the minute was up. Zone, Ma, Biran, Fran, Reina, Dona, Brahne, and Reno all took the task for their teams, with only Biran, Fran, and Reno completing the task on their first tries. Reno actually found a loophole and knocked Setzer out rather than beating him by getting twenty balls. On other fronts, after several repeated failures, Dona got a lucky break when Brahne distracted Setzer with some loud yelling outside of the ring, enabling the former summoner to defeat him. Later, Dona distracted Setzer with some provocative stretching that allowed Brahne to defeat him while he was looking at Dona's body. Both distractions seemed to happen inadvertently, but were they? . . . But before the Roadblock came the third of six delay points, this one being the first U-Turn. A U-Turn was placed at the end of a Detour, and it allowed a team to send another team back to complete the Detour they didn’t previously do. Like the Xing and Yield, this race mechanic was a perfect way for one team to knock out another team, especially if that team was a potentially strong one. Fran and Balthier certainly knew this and tried to ensure the elimination of their biggest competition — everyone’s biggest competition — by using it on Reno and Rude. Because of this, the Turks, who'd already chosen and completed the Stand Detour since they expected to be U-Turned, were quickly sent back to do the Deliver Detour, which they finished very quickly. In the end, Zone and Watts, after a fantastically-run leg that saw them getting in and out of the Roadblock before any of the other teams could even get there, came in first at the Pit Stop, which was at a mansion outside of town that teams found by going through a crack in a wall. They won a bag of marbles and a Struggle trophy as their prize. They were a bit disappointed that their "middle of the pack" strategy was now officially done, but they were glad enough to have their first victory. Ma and Zell finally returned to the higher placements, finishing in second place after their own very solid leg (excluding Ma needing three turns to complete the Roadblock). Biran and Yenke left the Roadblock in second place due to Biran's quick completion, but they wound up having trouble finding the crack in the wall, allowing Ma and Zell to slip past them, and they thus wound up finishing in third place. Fran and Balthier came in fourth place, hoping their plan to get rid of Reno and Rude would work. Reina and Faris, who'd stayed in the background for most of the leg, finished in fifth place, glad that their struggles at the Stand Detour hadn't hurt them. Things were then left down to Dona and Barthello, Brahne and Garnet, and Reno and Rude. Though it seemed like Reno and Rude, who'd made up a lot of time despite the U-Turn, would pass up the former two teams, Dona and Barthello made it to the Pit Stop in sixth place, with Brahne and Garnet right behind them in seventh place. There, it was revealed that Dona and Brahne had formed a secret alliance dedicated to getting rid of strong teams. The team of choice for this leg was Reno and Rude, at whom Dona was angry for reserving the last seats on the earlier flight to the Fantasy Tactics over the phone on the third leg, and at whom Brahne was angry for basically mocking her and Garnet's physical weakness by offering them the handout in the form of the tickets for the earlier flight on the same leg. The secret alliance got their revenge, as Reno and Rude finished last, just two minutes later . . . and became the fifth team eliminated. The original frontrunners were shockingly out of the race.

Episode 6

Featured Games/Worlds: Kingdom Hearts II Episode Summary: "And I thought it was a metaphor. " -Zell Dincht With the shocking elimination of Reno and Rude behind them, the seven remaining teams continued their jaunt through the Kingdom Hearts II verse, setting off from a mansion on the outskirts of Twilight Town. All of the teams were relieved to be running an easier race without the dominating Turks in it, and all of them knew that now, anyone could win the whole thing with them gone. Meanwhile, Reina suggested to Zone that their two teams could work together, but Zone was really nervous about that possibility, especially since he and Watts had agreed to no alliances on the race. In the meantime, Garnet was growing increasingly annoyed by comrades Biran and Yenke's constant teasing about her "hornless" status. The first task saw each team finding the location of one of the seven mysterious wonders of Sunset Hill and solving it. However, since seven teams were left, only one team could solve each wonder, while other teams would have to solve other wonders. That was one major drawback of the task, but some teams thought to avoid that drawback simply by finding a wonder and in solving it before another team could find it. Sky pirates Fran and Balthier solved the first wonder and left quickly, with sisters Reina and Faris close behind them. On the other side of the coin, Biran and Yenke and mother and daughter Brahne and Garnet struggled due to harder-to-find wonders and were left fighting to catch up. The Detour was a choice between Swim This Way and Search That Way. In Swim This Way, teams had to travel by gummi ship to Atlantica, change into sea creatures, and direct an undersea performance by giving at least five cues at exactly the right moment, and then not losing any points they got by giving bad cues. In Search That Way, the teams had to fly to the Land of Dragons and search a mountain for eight hidden warriors waiting to launch an attack, then get their eight unique thumbprints to please their leader. Mother and son Ma and Zell, summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello, Biran and Yenke, and Brahne and Garnet all chose and completed Swim This Way, with only Ma and Zell and Biran and Yenke completing it on their first tries, while sky pirates Fran and Balthier and resistance fighters Zone and Watts all chose and completed Search That Way. The Roadblock saw one member of each team heading down into the Underworld in Olympus Coliseum and trekking through it to find Hades’s lair. While that part of the task was pretty straightforward, the next part involved a lot of luck — the chosen team member rooting through several threads until they’d found one labeled with the name of his or her teammate. Then, after taking the thread to three ladies called the Fates, they’d get a pair of scissors to cut their teammate’s thread, and then be done with the task. Balthier, Zell, Zone (through some reverse psychology from Watts), Barthello, Yenke, and Brahne all took the task for their teams. An easy way to figure out the task was realizing that the threads were really hair, and that the hair just had to match the color of the teammate not doing the Roadblock. All of the team members luckily figured that out, though Yenke had two colors to consider, and Zone didn’t even know Watts’s hair color, due to him always wearing his hat! Also, for the most part, the choice of teammate was dependent on who was more physical for the trekking part, and would probably be more patient for the thread search, and Brahne more than proved the former part by running out of breath fairly quickly in the run back from Hades's lair, while Yenke proved the latter part by getting impatient with the search. In addition to all of this, the first of two Fast Forwards hidden on the race finally appeared. This task saw the teams flying to Radiant Garden and each team member eating one of Scrooge McDuck’s Sea Salt Popsicles. It was a disgusting food task, but teams who could handle the strong taste were just the ones to do the task. Reina and Faris, Fran and Balthier, Dona and Barthello, and Biran and Yenke all chased after the Fast Forward, none of them being totally able to stand the taste except for Faris, who was used to it after years of living at sea. In the end, the latter three of the teams abandoned the task, putting themselves at a potential risk for coming in last, while Reina and Faris rode things out, though not easily in Reina's case. The Pit Stop was in The Dark Depths of Radiant Garden, and due to winning the Fast Forward, Reina and Faris arrived there first, the first team to nail a repeat victory. Unfortunately, they won no prize for their first-place finish. Fran and Balthier, despite losing out on the Fast Forward, made an excellent comeback and finished in second place, with Ma and Zell close behind them in third place. Zone and Watts arrived in fourth place, returning to their middle-of-the-pack strategy. Dona and Barthello held steady and finished in fifth place. Things were left down to Brahne and Garnet and Garnet's long-time antagonists, Biran and Yenke. And although the mother and daughter seemed poised to make it to the mat before the Ronso, Brahne yet again ran out of steam at the last minute, allowing Biran and Yenke to pass them. While the two Ronso initially entertained the notion of letting them step on the mat first in case it was a non-elimination leg, they decided not to risk anything in case it wasn't and just stepped onto it before them, taking sixth place for themselves. Brahne and Garnet were left to finish in last . . . and despite a fake-out from Gippal, they were left as the sixth team eliminated from the race. Brahne took the news badly and burst into tears, but she and Garnet admitted to being proud of each other and how far they'd gotten before making their very sad exit.

Episode 7

Featured Games/Worlds: Kingdom Hearts II & Star Ocean: Till the End of Time Episode Summary: "You sure know how to please a man." -Ffamran "Balthier" mied Bunansa The six remaining teams, fresh off Brahne and Garnet's tearful elimination, left the Kingdom Hearts II verse behind and moved onto the simulated world that was the Star Ocean 3 verse. Sisters Reina and Faris were looking to keep their leg and bag a third victory. Sky pirates Fran and Balthier, glad that dead weight team Brahne and Garnet were finally gone, were now out to get rid of mother and son Ma and Zell and resistance fighters Zone and Watts. Ma and Zell were just hoping to finally win a leg. And comrades Biran and Yenke, after their brush with elimination, now wanted to run the remainder of the race in Garnet's memory. The Detour was a choice between Buy Win or Buy Perfecta. Both Detours involved betting on the bunny races in Gemity City, but Buy Win involved merely betting on the winner of a race that’d be run by four different bunnies — pink, yellow, green, and blue — and placing the winning bet three times. Buy Perfecta involved betting on the winner and runner-up and only placing the winning bet once. Both Detours were purely luck-based, so it was probably hard for the teams to really determine just which one would be the right one to choose. Only Zone and Watts chose Buy Win and stuck with it the whole way through, their main bet being on the blue bunny. Ma and Zell, summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello, and Biran and Yenke chose Buy Perfecta and stayed with it until their bets won -- Ma and Zell's on the blue and pink bunnies, Dona and Barthello's on the green and yellow bunnies, and Biran and Yenke's on the blue and yellow bunnies. Reina and Faris and Fran and Balthier, however, started with Buy Perfecta, but both teams switched to Buy Win when they realized how much luck was involved in their initial choice. Zone and Watts had the worst luck at the task, ending up being the last team out of it and struggling to catch up. The Roadblock saw one member of each team taking control of a turtlelike creature called a hauler and navigating it, along with a minecart it was pulling that carried two accompanying soldiers and the other team member, through a mine, first to a drop-off point to let off one of their soldiers, and then to the end of the course. There five different types — steady, carefree, whimsical, ill-natured, and aggressive — who operated under different conditions, moved at different speeds, and obeyed different commands. Two things came into play in completing this task quickly and effectively. The first was picking the hauler best-suited to the chosen team member’s abilities and mastering the commands it would and wouldn’t obey and adjusting to its working conditions easily. The second was remembering the correct and incorrect paths in the mine, as the teams ended up right back at the beginning of the course if their chosen team members chose the wrong path. Ma, Faris, Dona, Zone, Yenke, and Fran all took the task for their teams. Dona and Yenke had the most problems with both of these things, but neither wound up in last place because of it. Meanwhile, Ma mastered the task after an initial failure and completed it quickly on her second attempt. In the end, Ma and Zell arrived at the Pit Stop first for their first-ever victory! They won a two-day trip to Gemity City as their prize. Reina and Faris came in second, though they were slightly disappointed to have lost their lead. Fran and Balthier arrived third, but they found out they'd missed a clue box on their way to the Roadblock and had to go back for it before they could check in, allowing Dona and Barthello to finish third instead. Zone and Watts got there in fourth place after some quick work on Zone's part at the Roadblock. Biran and Yenke just barely squeaked by again, landing in fifth place. This left Fran and Balthier to finish last . . . but they were not eliminated. It was the first and only non-elimination leg, and they were still in the race. However, their reprieve came at a heavy price. Sometime during the next leg of the race, they'd need to complete a Speed Bump, a task only they would be required to complete, and hope to make up the lost time after completing it. Also, they'd get no money at the start of the next leg. They knew they had an uphill battle ahead of them, but the two intrepid sky pirates were definitely sure that they were up to the challenge, unquestionably.

Episode 8

Featured Games/Worlds: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time Episode Summary: "This meal is a 100!" -Zell Dincht Fresh off Fran and Balthier's save by the season's sole non-elimination leg, the six remaining teams resumed the race through Elicoor II in the Star Ocean 3 verse, setting off from Arias and racing to the Mosel Ruins. Mother and son Ma and Zell were hoping to keep their lead on the other teams, but saw that it wouldn't be possible, as they hit a bunch-up point. Summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello were looking to improve on their third-place position, which had been their highest finish thus far. Comrades Biran and Yenke were still out to prove that they were strong Ronso and could dispel the stereotypes of Ronso being stupid (which they were still doing a poor job of doing). And sky pirates Fran and Balthier were anxious to overcome their upcoming Speed Bump. Before the opening of the town of Peterny, the teams' first stop, Ma and Zell, sisters Reina and Faris, and resistance fighters Zone and Watts came together to form a loose alliance whose objective would be making sure Dona and Barthello and Fran and Balthier (especially the latter) got eliminated sooner rather than later. The Detour was a choice between Invent or Patent. Invent involved heading to a shop and creating a new kind of craft (well, new for Peterny) that obtained a rating of at least thirty points. The craft could be made in one of any of these seven guilds — alchemy, cooking, crafting, compounding, engineering, smithery, and writing. Patent involved searching through a guild master’s store to find and gather patented items and hope that their combined ratings total added up to a thousand points. Ma and Zell, Biran and Yenke, and Fran and Balthier all chose and completed Invent, while Dona and Barthello, Reina and Faris, and Zone and Watts all chose and completed Patent. The latter Detour had an interesting, controversial twist to it — while it was okay to make a pile with the items gathered by one team, it wasn’t required, meaning any collected item was fair game for another team to take, and Dona took advantage of that loophole without hesitation, swiping an item of Reina and Faris's and adding to her team's items. This made Reina and Faris lose a lot of time when the stolen wasn't there to be counted in their pile. Following that task, the teams were to head for the Surfario Ruins for the Roadblock. However, there was a distinct thing they'd have to remember when asking for local help. They'd need the Surfario Ruins, not Surfario the town, and every team but Biran and Yenke remembered that. They were sent in the wrong direction and lost so much time having to backtrack when they realized they'd gone the wrong way. Prior to the Roadblock, the fourth delay point of the race came into play on this leg, and it was the second of two U-Turns. At this stage of the game, a team wishing to use it needed to be looking to try and neutralize the threat posed by a stronger team and knock said team out of the race. Dona and Barthello realized that and did just that. Knowing they were part of an alliance with Reina and Faris that needed to be split up before they came after them, they used the U-Turn on Zone and Watts, sending the Forest Owls back to complete the Invent Detour after they'd already completed the Patent Detour. The Roadblock saw one member of each team solving a puzzle to get through a difficult maze of blocks. The team members had to keep in mind that a block of one color would follow a specific path matching its color. Only one route could be followed by each block, and it could not be stopped manually before reaching its destination. A team member who found himself or herself stuck and stumped could simply raise his or her hand and be carried out of the maze to start again. The key to completing this task was good mental skills. Barthello, Zell, Faris, Biran, Balthier, and Watts all took the task for their teams, and through being tall enough to see over the blocks, Barthello was able to help Dona and himself break out for a fairly sizable lead! In the midst of the action came the Speed Bump, which only Fran and Balthier would have to do after arriving in the town of Surfario (which was the next destination following the Roadblock). The task involved heading out into a desert and searching for three treasures. It seemed pretty simple, but it wasn't. Unfortunately, the hot sun would present a problem for them. They'd have to keep themselves as hydrated as possible, because if the heat got to be too much, the possibility of passing out from it was high. That very thing actually did happen to Fran, and in exchange for getting looked at by attendants, they were forced to pay for it with one of the treasures they'd collected. All this made it a more difficult task than it looked, and it lost them a bit of time. Upon reaching the Mosel Ruins, the teams would also have a small task to perform in the hopes of opening the way to the Pit Stop. They were to watch some black statues of warriors, thieves, and symbologists do battle with white statues of the same types of fighters, each of which could only beat a certain type of person. For example, a warrior of one color could defeat a thief of the other color. A thief of one color could defeat a symbologist of the other color. And a symbologist of one color could defeat a warrior of the other color. The teams were to figure this out from the demonstrations they had watched and, in various puzzle rooms, try and choose the correct white statue to oppose and defeat a black statue preselected for their particular room. Dona and Barthello, Ma and Zell, Biran and Yenke, Fran and Balthier, and Zone and Watts all got it right the first time, although some of their teams had to guess. Only one team, Reina and Faris, had to perform the task twice. But after the task was complete, it was off to the Pit Stop, the way to which would be opened up for them. In the end, in a huge surprise, Dona and Barthello arrived at the Pit Stop first after running an excellent leg. They won a trip for two to Costa del Sol in the Fantasy 7 verse, compliments of Rin's Travel Agency, as their prize. Ma and Zell finished second after their own really good leg. Reina and Faris clocked in third after a solid leg of their own. Biran and Yenke came in fourth thanks to some local assistance they'd received prior to the statue puzzle. Things were then left down to Fran and Balthier and Zone and Watts. The two teams actually solved the statue puzzle at about the same time and ended up in a dead heat for last place. After an intense footrace, Fran hit the Pit Stop mat first, followed by Watts. So it would come down to Balthier and Zone. After a quick discussion between Gippal and the leg's greeter, a man named Cliff, it was determined that the leg's fifth-place-finishers were Fran and Balthier, but only by a hair. This meant that Zone and Watts had officially finished last. The Forest Owls became the seventh team eliminated from the race. They weren't all that sad, though, knowing they'd had a good time on the race together and were looking forward to breaking out the marbles they'd won in Twilight Town once they got home to Timber!

Episode 9

Featured Games/Worlds: Star Ocean: Till the End of Time & Final Fantasy 5 Episode Summary: "Are you saying there's some kind of brain in there?" -Dona The five remaining teams, fresh off Zone and Watts's elimination, left the Mosel Ruins in the Star Ocean 3 verse behind and traveled by meteor to Mirage Town in the Fantasy 5 verse. Summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello were on a high since winning the previous leg and were hoping to capitalize on their lead. Mother and son Ma and Zell were surprised and happy to have made it as far as they had. Sisters Reina and Faris were optimistic about winning the leg upon finding out about the home world advantage they'd be having, as they were natives of the Fantasy 5 verse. Comrades Biran and Yenke continued showing their general cluelessness in regards to even the simplest of things. And sky pirates Fran and Balthier, with their Speed Bump behind them, hoped to recover from their two prior visits to the back of the pack and reclaim their place in the front. In Mirage Town, the teams had to find a secret chocobo corral in the back of the town. Being native to the world, Reina and Faris didn't have to rely on any local help for this. The four teams foreign to the world, on the other hand, got any help they could get right away, but Biran and Yenke lost serious time by simply mispronouncing one of the words on their clue, leaving the locals puzzled as to what they were asking for. They actually thought they were looking for "chocobo coral!" The Roadblock saw one member of each team taking a yellow chocobo from the hidden chocobo corral and riding it around the world, which was really two of the Fantasy 5 verse's worlds merged together into one. This was a pretty straightforward task that could be completed quickly by good navigation and keeping a close eye out for race markers indicating the right path. Reina, Yenke, Dona, Ma, and Fran all took the task for their teams, with Reina excelling over all the others due to her knowledge of her own world, and Dona trying some trickery to keep herself out in front of Ma. A trick that proved to be in vain, but was still, in her eyes, worth a shot. Yenke struggled with how to ride his chocobo, while Fran struggled with navigating her way around the world. Next, the teams were tasked with finding a way into Bal Castle by making their way through a perplexing cave. The cave contained a set of disappearing switches that left the right switch out in plain sight, but that switched, unfortunately, would tend to switch locations. After searching for other hard-to-find switches, they were forced to rappel up a rocky wall to get into the castle basement. The teams would just need to have the right strategy for conquering the disappearing switches, but the rest of the trek through the cave was more or less basic. While Reina and Faris, Dona and Barthello, Ma and Zell, and Fran and Balthier all made their way through logically, Biran and Yenke, as expected due to their performance most of the race, simply lucked their way through it. Of course, in the midst of the action came the fifth of six delay points on the race. This delay point was the second Xing, a device used to stop a team behind the team that uses it until at least one team has passed them, or at least until five minutes have passed (but only if it’s the last-place team who gets it used on them). If Ma and Zell’s survival despite getting hit with the Xing was any indication as to how powerless the Xing was, it made sense not to use it. However, Reina and Faris, the one team left with a delay to point to use, did choose to use it in the hopes of taking out their biggest competition. They Crossed Fran and Balthier, hoping they were far enough behind to be put at risk because of it. As it turned out, they weren't. The only team behind the sky pirates was Biran and Yenke, and even then, they were only a few minutes behind them. So not much time was lost. The next task was to take a wind drake, or a hiryuu, to the town of Carwin. However, teams had problems navigating them as they tried to fly them around mountains that had no breaks in them at all to pass through. Only one team found a path with no little to no mountains at all: Biran and Yenke. In what was probably their first moment of brilliance (and generally thinking for themselves) the entire race, they took a big risk going a different way from the other teams, and shockingly, it paid off! They went from last place in leaving Bal Castle to second place in arriving in Carwin! The Detour was a choice between Search for Shards and Rip to Shreds. Search for Shards involved entering a flood section of Walse Tower and finding five shards around the room. Rip to Shreds involved entering an above-water room and using provided tools to break a crystal down from its height of six feet to a mere foot. Reina and Faris, Ma and Zell, and Fran and Balthier all chose and completed Search for Shards, while Biran and Yenke and Dona and Barthello all chose and completed Rip to Shreds, both teams coming up with interesting strategies to break their crystals. In the end, Reina and Faris, to the surprise of no one, arrived first at the Pit Stop at the top of Walse Tower, where they were greeted by their old friend, Butz! They each won a magical lamp as their prize. Biran and Yenke, thanks entirely to their risky shortcut paying off, managed to get their highest finish ever, coming in second place. Dona and Barthello, after spending the leg angering the other teams more or more (though mainly Ma and Zell), finished third. This left things down to Ma and Zell and Fran and Balthier, though neither team had any idea of that. In the end, the mother and son had just slightly better luck at finding shards underwater and made it to the Pit Stop in fourth place, happy to still be in the game, but displeased to learn that Dona and Barthello had survived again. Sadly, this left Fran and Balthier to finish last for their second time in the race. And, to the relief of many of the teams, the biggest threats were finally eliminated. And with that, it was now down to the final four. . . .

Episode 10

Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy 5 & Parasite Eve 2 Episode Summary: "Die or be killed!" -Zell Dincht Everything was getting down to the wire as the final four teams, fresh off Fran and Balthier's elimination, raced from the merged world of the Fantasy 5 verse to the Parasite Eve 2 verse. There was no room for mistakes as all four teams began the battle for their spots in the final three, as well as to avoid the final elimination. Sisters Reina and Faris felt confident about their position due to their status as the current team to beat. Comrades Biran and Yenke were ready to prove to the other teams that they were a strong team by making the final three. Summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello were positive that they could make it through the last elimination. And mother and son Ma and Zell were hoping to climb out of last place. The Roadblock saw one member of each team solving a slide puzzle to open one of three sarcophaguses by making the correct row combination with the tiles of each sarcophagus’s corresponding color — red, yellow, or blue. They also had to make sure that the symbol of a circle with a dot on it pictured on the slide puzzle could be seen. Reina, Ma, and Yenke all took the task for their teams. However, each team member would have a different solution to solve to open the sarcophagus that had their clue in it. While a team member could find a clue hidden in a yellow sarcophagus, another team member could find a clue hidden in a red sarcophagus. Yenke, however, got really lucky by copying Reina and finding out that both of their sarcophaguses of the same color each had clues in them. The Detour was a choice between Decipher Code and Discover Code. In Decipher Code involved trying to hack into a computer infected by a virus by discovering the password. To find it, they would have to skim through twelve monthly magazines to find an article about the antivirus program needed to take care of the virus. Then, they’d have to use the article to decipher the required password. The password would have to be rewritten in a special way to gain access and get the four-digit code needed to open a box in a parking garage. Discover Code involved sliding through a garbage chute and searching through trash for four numbers that were to be put into the box in the parking garage. However, unlike Decipher Code, the teams would not know the order of the numbers, so they’d have to find the correct permutation on their own. Reina and Faris and Ma and Zell chose and completed Decipher Code, while Biran and Yenke, knowing they weren't good at logical thinking, decided they were better off leaving things to luck, and thus, they chose and completed Discover Code and took a long time with it. Finally, after driving cars to a motel in the desert town of Dryfield, they had to search that motel for the code to its cash register, which contained keys to the room containing Gippal and the Pit Stop, by looking for clues hidden all around the place. The password was #3033, which could only be found by determining how old two Western legends, Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp, were at the time they were in the town of Tombstone in 1881. Reina and Faris and Ma and Zell remained neck-and-neck throughout this task, with the Tycoons finishing it just ahead of the Dinchts. Also on this leg was the second and last of two Fast Forwards. This one involved solving a difficult puzzle atop a model pyramid. Using a dial, teams had to figure out the relationship between given symbols and numbers to figure out how many times they’d have to push each of four waiting switches — red, blue, yellow, and white. Reina and Faris had already used their Fast Forward and thus couldn’t go for this one, but Dona and Barthello, Ma and Zell, and Biran and Yenke all could, and all of them did, knowing that whoever got it could guarantee themselves a spot in the final three. However, Biran and Yenke bailed after barely starting when they realized they weren't good at puzzles, and Ma and Zell were left struggling to get back in the race after losing out on the Forward to Dona and Barthello, who won it by just hair. In the end, taking the Fast Forward helped Dona and Barthello arrive at the Pit Stop at the motel in Dryfield first! They won a week-long trip for two to that very motel. They also claimed the first spot in the final three, so they'd be racing to the finish line for one-million gil! Reina and Faris came in second and gladly grabbed the second spot in the final three, so they, too, would be racing for the million gil! Just minutes behind them were Ma and Zell, who happily finished third and snagged the last spot in the final three. This left Biran and Yenke, who'd fallen far behind due to choosing the luck-based Discover Code Detour, to arrive at the motel last. But they had to be called up to the Pit Stop by Gippal since everyone had already checked in by the time they'd arrived! Once there, they finished last . . . and became the ninth and final team eliminated. The Ronso who'd spent the last several legs just scraping by had finally run out of luck. But they took some time to nail Gippal with some unnecessary, sore-loser potshots before they made their exit. And with that, the final three was determined at last, and the final showdown was about to begin. . . .

Episode 11

Featured Games/Worlds: Parasite Eve 2 & Final Fantasy X Episode Summary: "Go Get 'Em!" -Ma Dincht Everything had come down to this. Ten legs ago, twelve teams set off from Bikanel Island in the Fantasy 10 verse on a race around worlds for one-million gil. Teams had been made up of two people with an existing relationship. Along the way, after fighting through many, many challenging, taxing, grueling tasks, nine teams were eliminated -- Barret and Dyne, Cid and Celes, Cecil and Rosa, Freya and Fratley, Reno and Rude, Brahne and Garnet, Zone and Watts, Fran and Balthier, and Biran and Yenke. This left summoner and guardian Dona and Barthello, sisters Reina and Faris, and mother and son Ma and Zell as the final three. And those final three teams, fresh off Biran and Yenke's long-overdue elimination, set off from Dryfield in the world of Parasite Eve 2 and raced to Kilika in the world of Final Fantasy 10. With the stakes higher than ever and the one-million gil on the line, there was absolutely no room for any mistakes. And if a mistake was made, it needed to be corrected quickly if the teams hoped to walk away with the grand prize. All three teams knew this for sure. The final tasks of the race began with a set of riddles whose answers were numbers. These numbers would have to be obtained by counting various objects around Dryfield — phones, toilets, barrels of wine, and mirrors. Three of the riddles seemed pretty straightforward, but one team, Reina and Faris, ended up completely perplexed by the first riddle, which involved finding a clue in “sunless molehills where red blood sleeps.” They had no clue “sunless” meant just having the lights off, not being where there was no sun. They had to get the help of Ma and Zell to figure this out, until which they lost a lot of time. After flying to Besaid in the Fantasy 10 verse, the teams were tasked with the final Detour of the race, which was a choice between Sonar or Go Far. Sonar involved using a search sphere to find four buried spheres, each with a button on them, then simply pushing the button. Once all four of the buttons were pressed, a box labeled with their names on the pier would open and release a clue for each team. Go Far involved using a map of where four buttons were located, then running to those places to press each button, with some of them located in high areas that required intense climbing to get to. Also, some buttons were hidden by the foliage. As with Sonar, pressing all four of the buttons would unlock a clue on the pier. Teams willing to rely on luck and were not all that physical were better off choosing Sonar, while teams who were greatly physical and hoped to eliminate the luck factor were better off choosing Go Far. Dona and Barthello and Ma and Zell chose and completed Sonar. Reina and Faris, hoping to make up time and not rely on luck, chose and completed the more straightforward Go Far. The teams took ferries to their final destination city (er, island), Kilika, with Dona and Barthello getting there on the first ferry, Ma and Zell on the second one, and Reina and Faris on the third and last one after just barely missing the second. It was on Kilika where they were then tasked with remembering two passwords to get past a man guarding Kilika Temple: “Carved Monkey” if the answer to a question they would be asked by him was an odd number, and “Craven Monkey” if the answer to his question was an even number. The teams had to remember these passwords without having to refer to their clues, as taking them out to use as guides would mean an automatic failure at the task, which would result in a three-minute wait before the next question could be answered. They would have to answer the guard’s questions both in heading toward and away from the temple. The next task was one just like one that appeared on the final leg of the first season. The teams would have to make their way through the Cloister of Trials, this time for the one belonging to Kilika Temple, using various spheres to open paths and passageways. This task required logical reasoning and, basically, a good mind for solving complex puzzles. For the most part, all three teams did all right here. The final Roadblock of the race was also the final task, and it saw one member of each team filling out a board to complete five statements relating to the events and occurrences gone through by a team in the race who’d made it to the final six, but not the final three. In this case, Zone and Watts, Fran and Balthier, and Biran and Yenke. The team members would only have to choose one team, and they’d have to use spheres that had answers on them to fill in the blanks and make the statements true. What was definitely required here was a good memory and, hopefully, extensive periods of interaction with at least one of the three teams in question. It was certainly recommended that the team member performing the task had been at least fairly close to the team whose board they opted to complete. If they were not then there would definitely be problems, and they’d only have to rely on luck. They’d have to finish the task quickly, though, because a final run (and swim) to the finish line would follow that’d ultimately determine the winner. Reina, Barthello, and Ma all took the task for their teams, with Reina completing the board for Zone and Watts, Barthello completing the board for Biran and Yenke, and Ma and Zell completing the board for Fran and Balthier. Due to Ma's body quitting on her during the final Roadblock, the race came down to Reina and Faris and Dona and Barthello, the former of whom was helped out by Ma, who'd given Reina the last answer she needed to complete her board, and the latter of whom was held up when they answered the guard's question incorrectly on the way to the finish line. This made much of the difference, as Reina and Faris came close to catching up with them on the final sprint to the finish. They actually did catch up with them when they had to take a final swim to the S.S. Winno, a boat where the finish line awaited the final three teams. Due to Barthello's slow swimming, Reina and Faris managed to pass him up. And then, on the final run to the finish line, they also passed Dona. After being greeted by the other teams, everyone learned that after traveling through eight galaxies, thirteen worlds, and countless miles . . . Reina and Faris were the official winners of The Amazing Final Fantasy Race! The two sisters happily shared in their joy of having won the race, glad they'd been brought together as a family and now had a million gil to show for it! Dona and Barthello finished second, although Dona had to be dragged to the finish line by Barthello, who finally declared his love for her. Ma and Zell arrived in third place, sad to have lost, but happy to have gone through the experience together. After all congratulations were given (and Dona was paid back in full for U-Turning Zone and Watts with a dip in the ocean), the teams posed for one final picture, and the race was over.