The Teams

Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy X & Ehrgeiz

Episode Summary:

"I believe in gwok!"
-Cid Fabool

Gippal met twelve new teams at the Luca blitzball stadium for an all-new race around worlds for one-million gil. Each team was made up of two people with an existing relationship. The twelve teams were: Cloud and Aeris, dating, from the Fantasy 7 verse, Vaan and Penelo, orphans, from the Fantasy 12 verse, Cid and Hilda, married, from the Fantasy 9 verse, Irvine and Selphie, dating, from the Fantasy 8 verse, Malak and Rafa, brother and sister, from the Fantasy Tactics verse, Lucil and Elma, Chocobo Knights, from the Fantasy 10 verse, Blank and Marcus, thieves and actors, from the Fantasy 9 verse, Kiros and Ward, war buddies, from the Fantasy 8 verse, Godo and Yuffie, father and daughter, from the Fantasy 7 verse, Tidus and Wakka, bromance, from the Fantasy 10 verse, Celia and Lede, demons and assassins, from the Fantasy Tactics, and Setzer and Daryl, dating gamblers from the Fantasy 6 verse. The teams heard the basic rules from Gippal -- eleven legs, the first ten ending with a Pit Stop, eight of them being elimination points, and last team to each one would be eliminated. Then, after revealing that Setzer and Daryl were a hidden twelfth, he sent them off from the starting line to find their backpacks in one of two locker rooms.

The first thing the teams had to do was compete for their seats on the earliest possible flights. Upon finding their backpacks, one member of each team would take a swim in the blitzball sphere pool to find a ticket for one of three flights — the earliest one on Spira Space, the second-earliest on Luca Goer, and the latest one on Guado Glory. Teams had to be careful, because they couldn’t choose another time after picking their first one. Cloud, Tidus, Blank, Yuffie, Lede, Cid, Setzer, Penelo, Elma, Selphie, Malak, and Ward all swam for their teams. A little bit of trickery from Lede to Ward came into play here, and one that played a huge part in the first leg’s surprising twist.

After flying to the Ehrgeiz verse, the teams were stuck with the choice of taking either a train or an airship to a beach not too far away. Well, while it looked like a faster choice on paper, it turned out taking the airship would actually get the teams to the beach about five minutes later than taking the train would.

Once at the beach, teams would have to compete in an Ehrgeiz verse tradition: the famed beach games. They’d have to complete four trials. The first involved having a member of one team face off against a member of another in a footrace on the beach. The second involved the other member of one team competing against another team’s other member in a race that began with them facedown and backwards in the sand. The third involved picking a final team member to race on a course filled with tree branches that would serve as hurdles. The fourth and final one involved squaring off in a wrestling ring with either a wrestler or a stronger-than-strong archaeologist while breaking crates to try and find a clue with one of two departure times on it. The teams had the option of searching for the faster time if they first came up with the slower time, but they’d have to hurry — there were only five spots for the earlier departure available . . . and six for the slower one. Why did this add up to only eleven spots with twelve teams in the race? Because the biggest surprise came at the end of this task — the only team left without a departure time would be eliminated on the spot! It was up and down and back and forth for various teams, only two of whom, Tidus and Wakka and Celia and Lede, breezed right through the beach games with the greatest of ease, and two more of whom, Cid and Hilda and Malak and Rafa, struggled with greatly. Others completed the trials with varying degrees of success. But in the end, the final showdown wound up being between Setzer and Daryl and Kiros and Ward, with the latter team being left without a departure time . . . and becoming the first team eliminated.

With the surprise mid-leg elimination now out of the way, the eleven remaining teams, all shaken up by the twist, spent a relaxing night on the beach, then proceeded to the Roadblock. This saw one member of each team either competing in the game of Battle Panels. They could compete against either a member of one of the other teams or against a professional player of the game by simply selecting a panel color, then trying make lines that cover their opponent’s panels of the opposing color. The player with more panels covered by the end of the game would beat their opponent, while the loser would have to play again. The faster, more agile racers, as well as those that could formulate strategies for winning on the fly, did better than the impatient racers who could not. Cloud, Tidus, Blank, Yuffie, Celia, Cid, Daryl, Penelo, Lucil, Irvine, and Malak all took the task for their teams, with only Cloud, Tidus, Cid, Penelo, and Irvine clearing the task on their first tries. Celia and Lucil took the longest of everyone, each needing three tries to finally win.

The Detour had teams choosing between Invest and Save. Invest involved getting a bottle of red wine, then taking it to the local restaurant, where they’d watch the local stock markets on a monitor and buy or sell the wines according to the market price. Then, they could sell the wine at a high price and get the gold in return. Save involved heading to a nearby cave/dungeon carrying gold, batches of 200 at a time, and returning it to the restaurant until they’d accumulated one-thousand gold. Teams could not combine their money from either Detour. The downside to Invest was that if teams ever lost enough money that they couldn’t afford another bottle, they’d have to get another bottle for all the gold they’d collected. It was also very luck-based task, in that teams had to buy low and sell high to optimize their profit. Save’s only downside was that it was very physical, which was not good for the less physical teams. Cloud and Aeris, Blank and Marcus, Cid and Hilda, Setzer and Daryl, Vaan and Penelo, and Lucil and Elma all chose and completed Invest, while Tidus and Wakka, Godo and Yuffie, Celia and Lede, and Malak and Rafa all chose and completed Save. Irvine and Selphie initially chose Invest, but switched to Save when their luck proved to be pretty poor.

In the end, Cloud and Aeris arrived at the Pit Stop first. They won 20,000 gil, 10,000 apiece, as their prize. Tidus and Wakka arrived second, with Blank and Marcus close behind them in third. Godo and Yuffie finished fourth. Celia and Lede came in fifth, with Cid and Hilda coming in sixth. Setzer and Daryl made an admirable recovery from their rough start, clocking in seventh. Vaan and Penelo cleared the Detour in seventh place, but time-wasting bickering got them to the Pit Stop in eighth place. Lucil and Elma recovered from Lucil's struggles with the Roadblock and arrived in ninth place. This left things down to Irvine and Selphie and Malak and Rafa. It was neck-and-neck most of the way, but the dating couple's superior speed in the final footrace helped them just barely beat out the brother and sister to get to the Pit Stop in tenth place, keeping themselves alive for at least one more leg. This left Malak and Rafa to finish last . . . and become the second team eliminated, much to several of the female racers' delight, as it meant being rid of Malak's sexist behavior early on.

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Featured Games/Worlds: Ehrgeiz & Final Fantasy IV

Episode Summary:

"Don't lose to any more girls!"
-Penelo

The ten remaining teams, fresh off Malak and Rafa's elimination, continued on with the race, setting off from the underground well in the Ehrgeiz verse and racing all the way to the Adamant Grotto in the Fantasy 4 verse. Dating couple Cloud and Aeris were hoping to keep up their lead and come in first again, while demons and assassins Celia and Lede knew they needed a good alliance with a racer or team whose strength lay in mental tasks since they knew their own mental prowess just wouldn't cut it. They chose married couple Cid and Hilda, and while Cid was eager to jump at the chance, Hilda was a bit reluctant. But she ultimately agreed to the alliance. Meanwhile, Chocobo Knights Lucil and Elma and dating couple Irvine and Selphie were both hoping to get out of the back of the pack.

The teams all sailed on ferries to the peaceful town of Troia. Cloud and Aeris rode alone on the first one, thieves and actors Blank and Marcus and bromance Tidus and Wakka all rode on the second one (which arrived third due to an unwanted interruption from the Call Beast Leviathan), Cid and Hilda, Celia and Lede, and father and daughter Godo and Yuffie rode on the third one (which arrived second due to the aforementioned interruption), dating gamblers Setzer and Daryl and orphans Vaan and Penelo rode on the fourth one, Lucil and Elma rode alone on the fifth one, and Irvine and Selphie rode along on the sixth one. And it was when they got to Troia that they ran into a new twist in the race: the Intersection. This device would force two teams to join up together to complete as many tasks as possible before finally being instructed to part ways. It could slow teams down, though, as every odd team that arrived at it would be forced to wait for the next even team to show up. The Intersected teams were Cid and Hilda with Celia and Lede, Setzer and Daryl with Vaan and Penelo, Blank and Marcus with Cloud and Aeris, Tidus and Wakka with Godo and Yuffie, and Irvine and Selphie with Lucil and Elma.

In a twist on the more classical version of the Intersection, though, a new spin was added to it. One that applied to the Detour that followed. On this leg, teams had to choose between Heavy Metal and Classical. Heavy Metal involved putting on metal gauntlets and moving through the Magnetic Cave to find a clue in a room of crystals, with one obstacle being the magnetic force that’d pull on the gauntlets, making it hard to move quickly (if at all, in the case of weaker racers and/or teams). Classical involved learning from a bard — Edward Chris von Muir, the “spoony bard” of the Fantasy 4 verse, in fact — to play a particular song on a mystical harp, the Twin Harp, that would temporarily lift the effects of the Magnetic Cave. The twist to this Detour was that rather than teaming up for the same Detour, the two teams would joined by the Intersection would each decide between themselves which team would do one task while the other team did the other task. So one team would proceed through the cave only as easily as the other team could play their Twin Harp. Once at the end, they could grab clues for both Intersected teams. The teams could communicate through Whisperweed so they could update each other on their progress and work together effectively to let each other know whether or not to keep playing the Twin Harp, or just to stop moving in case the harpists needed to take a rest. Celia and Lede, Setzer and Daryl, Tidus and Wakka, Lucil and Elma, and Cloud and Aeris all chose and completed Heavy Metal. Cid and Hilda, Blank and Marcus, Vaan and Penelo, Irvine and Selphie, and Godo and Yuffie all chose and completed Classical.

The teams were later freed from their Intersection and forced to race on their own. And the next task saw them taking command of an airship and flying to the town of Silvera. Here, navigation and flying skills came into play, and a good number of teams did better than others. In fact, this was one of a quite a few things that came into play when deciding this leg’s elimination. Cid, Setzer, Vaan, and Selphie, in particular, were very good at flying, while Godo and Yuffie were slowed down by Yuffie's motion sickness and Godo's inexperience with flying airships.

The Roadblock saw one member of each team taking command of the same airship they’d taken to Silvera, flying off to another island, and working a claw on their airships to reach down and pick up one of ten waiting hovercrafts, which they would have to try and carry back to Silvera without dropping them before they got back to the mainland. Skill with both flying and machinery was of utmost importance here, and was another determinant of the final results of this leg. Cid, Lede, Daryl, Blank, Tidus, Vaan (who potentially got his team penalized by leaving his airship to manually hook up his hovercraft with his hands), Selphie, Elma, Aeris, and Godo (the latter two of whom did very poorly, the poorest jobs of anyone, in fact, at the task) all took the task for their teams. All of them would really have to be careful with the hovercrafts, too, because they had their clues in them, and they were what they’d be driving to the Pit Stop at the end of the leg.

In the end, Cid and Hilda arrived at the Pit Stop first after Celia and Lede threw first place to them to keep the Fabools trusting them. They won a Rat's Tail as their prize. Celia and Lede then took second place. Setzer and Daryl showed a nice rise from their performance on the previous leg, finishing in third place. Blank and Marcus slid into fourth place. Tidus and Wakka arrived in fifth place. Vaan and Penelo came in sixth place and were relieved to find out that Vaan's actions hadn't gotten them penalized. Irvine and Selphie checked into the Pit Stop in seventh place, very relieved to have climbed up a bit in the ranks. Lucil and Elma came in eighth place and were also really happy to still be in the race. This left things down to Cloud and Aeris and Godo and Yuffie, both of whose teams had hit the bottom two mainly due to Aeris and Godo's poor Roadblock performances. But in the end, the dating couple edged out the father and daughter to claim ninth place and stick around for another leg. This left Godo and Yuffie to finish last . . . and become the third team eliminated. Both were disappointed, but they were glad to have at least stolen a lot of their fellow competitors' belongings their two legs on the race. Though they'd more than likely have to give it all back in the end. . . .

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Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy IV

Episode Summary:

"I gotta go grab another package!"
-Tidus

The nine remaining teams, fresh off Godo and Yuffie's elimination, resumed the race, leaving the Adamant Grotto in the Fantasy 4 verse and racing all the way to Mysidia in the same world. Demons and assassins Celia and Lede were absolutely positive they could win over any man in the race they wanted to help them, and they got right to work, turning thieves and actors Blank and Marcus onto their side, as well as Vaan (to an extent) and Irvine. They attempted to get bromance Tidus and Wakka, as well, but when they opted to remain faithful to their significant others (Tidus's girlfriend, Yuna, half of the first season's runner-up team, and Wakka's wife, Lulu), the girls misconstrued them and wrongly figured that they were likely gay. On other fronts, dating couple Irvine and Selphie and Chocobo Knights Lucil and Elma were desperate to finally get out of the back of the pack, and dating couple Cloud and Aeris knew they'd be in trouble if Aeris didn't start contributing to their team much better than she had been.

The Roadblock saw one member of each team trying to melt a portion of an ice wall to obtain a clue frozen behind it. They could do so in any way they wanted except for using magic. Penelo, Irvine, Daryl, Blank, Aeris, Lucil, Hilda, and Lede all took the task for their teams. Team members showed a number of interesting ways in completing this task. Penelo (at Vaan's urging) heated up gloves by a nearby fire to make things warmer (the fire was actually for team members to use if they needed warm their hands up, assuming they were using their bare hands, but at least three racers found another use for it!), and Daryl and Aeris both copied this trick. Lede, on the other hand, just tried to use plain brute strength (not that it really worked to any real advantage).

After that task was over, the teams took three different boats to a fairly secluded island. Vaan and Penelo and dating gamblers Setzer and Daryl hopped onto the first boat, Blank and Marcus and Cloud and Aeris rode on the second boat, and Irvine and Selphie, Lucil and Elma, married couple Cid and Hilda, and Celia and Lede on the third and last boat.

Once on the island, the teams faced the Detour. This time, they had to choose between Kain and Vain. Kain involved finding a dragoon by the same name (Kain Highwind, the best friend of Final Fantasy 4 protagonist Cecil Harvey, a prior racer, in fact) and having one member of the team hold onto him while he jumped up really high into the air, then grab a clue attached to the bottom of an overhead airship while holding onto him. This seemed easy, at first, but there was a major obstacle in the form of birds that flew in to try and distract the team member holding onto Kain and/or knock him or her off course. This is where the other team member came in. He or she would try and keep the birds away by repeatedly shooting them with BBs. Some team members performing this job did better than others, but all in all, every team who chose this Detour got through it. Meanwhile, Vain saw team members finding a cave filled with mirrors all around and trying to determine the correct angle at which to see a certain word they needed to move on: “paladin.” They would give that word to Cecil himself. Physically stronger teams with a good sharpshooter on them, or teams who were just flat-out daredevils, were better off choosing Kain, while more careful, attention-to-detail teams or teams afraid of heights were better off choosing Vain. Vaan and Penelo, Irvine and Selphie, and Setzer and Daryl all chose and completed Kain, while Blank and Marcus, Cloud and Aeris, Lucil and Elma, Cid and Hilda, and Celia and Lede all chose and completed Vain. Kain ended up being the wiser choice, as all three teams who chose that Detour got out of it before any of the teams that chose Vain.

Speaking of the latter Detour, when it got down to the bottom three teams, Lucil and Elma found out the word and gave it to Hilda in secret. When she got her clue, Cid attempted to get her to give it to Celia and Lede, as well. But when Hilda stood her ground and reminded her husband that it'd likely mean the difference between staying in the race and getting eliminated, a struggle with the two girls and even her own husband resulted. She fended Cid off by using her magic to turn him into a mu from the Fantasy 9 verse, but she'd need more help to deal with Celia and Lede. That help came in the form of Lucil and Elma, who saved her from them and left them high and dry, having to complete the Detour themselves after their failure at relying on their male alliancemates to complete it for them.

Also on this leg was the first of an unspecified number of Fast Forwards. It was interesting to many of the teams that the number wasn't disclosed to them, as it would keep them all on their toes by keeping them guessing as to whether or not the next Fast Forward would be the last one and really have to use good strategy to determine the right time to use the only one they’ll be allowed to use. But as for the task itself, it was simply carrying a package full of bombs through a misty cave to reach the city called Mist. Tidus and Wakka, Irvine and Selphie, Lucil and Elma, and Cid and Hilda all chased after this task, with the married couple abandoning it right away when they saw they were in over their heads. Irvine and Selphie and Lucil and Elma both came really close to finishing it close together, but both teams messed up at the last second, due to carelessness and outright incompetence on Selphie's part that inadvertently made Elma be careless, too. This paved the way for its completion by Tidus and Wakka, who, by their own admission, didn’t even need it, but took had gone for it, anyway, just because it sounded fun. This essentially meant that it'd just been wasted by them.

This leg also held the first of five delay points on the race. This delay was the Yield, a device used to stop a team from racing until the sand in an accompanying hourglass runs out. The amount of time that’ll take will vary this season, in yet another twist. Blank and Marcus, at Celia and Lede's urging, used the Yield, hoping to take out their biggest competition, Tidus and Wakka, but it ended up being a waste, seeing as how they'd won the Fast Forward, which came before the Yield.

In the end, Tidus and Wakka came in first due to their wasted, unneeded Fast Forward. They won a trip for two to the Dwarven Castle in the Fantasy 4 verse's Underworld, compliments of Chocobocity.com, as their prize. Vaan and Penelo, after an excellently-run leg, finished second, first of the teams who hadn't taken the Fast Forward, their highest finish so far. Irvine and Selphie made an amazing recovery from losing the Fast Forward and actually managed to arrive in third place! Setzer and Daryl held steady in the rankings, ultimately making it to the Pit Stop in fourth place. Blank and Marcus checked in fifth. Cloud and Aeris clocked in sixth. Lucil and Elma arrived in seventh. This left things down to Cid and Hilda and Celia and Lede, two teams who'd been aligned, but their alliance had officially ended with the aforementioned struggle at the Detour. In the end, the old married couple edged out the demons and assassins, finishing in eighth place. This left Celia and Lede to finish last . . . and become the fourth team eliminated. Both were angry to be out of the race so early, but were ready to give Gippal an STD to blow off steam.

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Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy IV & Xenogears

Episode Summary:

"Does a tie ever count as a win?"
-Daryl

The eight remaining teams, fresh off Celia and Lede's much-deserved elimination, continued on with the race, setting off from the Fantasy 4 verse and heading to the Xenogears verse. Bromance Tidus and Wakka still felt like they'd made the right choice in using their Fast Forward on the last leg, thinking that they were right to use an advantage they felt like they'd never need, but orphans Vaan and Penelo clearly disagreed, though they didn't voice it to them. Meanwhile, dating couple Irvine and Selphie were hoping to keep racing well, while Chocobo Knights Lucil and Elma were hoping to finally break their streak of finishing third-to-last. And married couple Cid and Hilda, the former of whom was still a mu due to the latter's spell from the end of the previous leg, knew they'd have to repair their team dynamic — and their marriage — after Cid's manipulations by the now-gone Celia and Lede. After each team had taken turns reading off a prayer, a ship called the Lunar Whale rose up for them, and they used it to fly to their next destination automatically.

The Detour was a choice between Lead and Speed. Lead involved taking a ferry to an island with an orphanage on it and leading three chickens back to a pen from which they’d strayed without using their hands. Speed involved taking a ferry to a barge and playing a holographic, life-sized version of Speed, the card game, against a professional player of the game, Queenie, who could clearly be a very poor sport if she lost. Keeping the focus of the chickens by simply paying attention to them was required in Lead, as the chickens tended to lose focus very easily and go off to do other things. Also, as one team expressly noted, a lot of love was also needed. In addition, one needed to remember to keep the pen locked so none of them could wander out. One of the teams who chose this task forgot all three of these criteria, and it cost the team valuable time. Speed really just needed a good strategy between the two team members to defeat Queenie. Or just dumb luck. A lot of dumb luck. Teams who preferred tasks with less precision and more focus were better off choosing Lead, while faster, brainier teams were better-suited for choosing Speed. However, choosing Lead was an easy way to bypass a line, while Speed required waiting in line for a team’s turn to face off with Queenie. Lucil and Elma, thieves and actors Blank and Marcus, and dating couple Cloud and Aeris all chose and completed Lead. Vaan and Penelo, dating gamblers Setzer and Daryl, and bromance Tidus and Wakka all chose and completed Speed, with the latter team lucking out in a huge way due to their incessant loudness throwing Queenie off her game. Irvine and Selphie originally chose Speed, but when Selphie realized that waiting in line would be a factor of the task, she quickly wanted to switch to Lead, and Irvine agreed to do just that, and they completed it fairly quickly.

Teams then had to take Gears and pilot them until they’d reached their final task of the leg. These Gears were Omnigears and could only be controlled by thought, and some teams had more problems than others in mastering that very thing. Especially since the Omnigears responded to the thoughts of both team members riding inside of them. Irvine and Selphie, more due to Selphie, did the best job at piloting their Omnigear, while Lucil and Elma struggled a lot.

The Roadblock saw one member of each team piloting regular Gears that had actual manual controls and completing three tests — a training course with a ratlike creature named Hammer, a battle with a former Battle Arena champion, Rico, and a battle with the current champion, Fei. The training course absolutely had to be completed first so that the teams could know what each of their Gears (which, coincidentally, belonged to most of the heroes and one of the villains in the real game) could do, and what they could and could not apply in the real battles. However, the two actual battles could be completed in either order. It was a matter of signing up and waiting in line for whichever one seemed poised to open up first. Selphie, Vaan, Elma, Daryl, Marcus, Wakka, and Aeris all took the task for their teams, with Selphie, Vaan, and Elma just killing the task, and Marcus, Wakka, and Aeris faltering badly at it, Wakka in training and Marcus and Aeris in the actual battles. Daryl's performance was more in the middle.

Also on this leg was the second of an unspecified number of Fast Forwards. This one involved finding a way to open a secret path in the moving city of Shevat called the Wiseman’s Pathway to Heaven. Several moving platforms in the city could fly the teams to different areas of the city or open entrances to underground buildings, but they’d have to find the way to open the one entrance that didn’t work. Teams would have to figure out that they would need to find three rocks to open it — the Dawn Rock, the Dusk Rock, and the Black Rock. Speaking with locals, searching the floating city, and basically being able to deduce cryptic riddles were all key factors in winning the Fast Forward, and the team that completed it had way too many problems with a combination of all three of them. Cid and Hilda, the former of whom was now human again, opted to complete this task, but they struggled for a long time with finding the right local to talk to. They picked things up when they started finding the Dawn Rock and Dusk Rock fairly quickly, but got slowed down again when they struggled with finding the Black Rock. It took some fishing to finally get it, along with Hilda transforming her husband again, this time into an oglop to use as bait. After this, they were flown to the Pit Stop right there on the floating city.

In the end, Irvine and Selphie and Cid and Hilda ended up in a head-to-head race for first place, and in an Amazing Final Fantasy Race first, the Fast-Forwarding team actually didn't come in first, despite starting out on even ground with the other teams! Yes, Irvine and Selphie finished first instead! They won a trip for two to Solaris, right there in the Xenogears verse, as their prize. Cid and Hilda had to settle for second, with Cid still an oglop. Vaan and Penelo continued their great racing and finished third. Lucil and Elma clocked in fourth, finally breaking their streak of third-to-last-place finishes. Setzer and Daryl dropped one place from the last leg and finished fifth, slightly discouraged, but glad to still be in the game. This left things down to Blank and Marcus, Tidus and Wakka, and Cloud and Aeris, the three frontrunning teams who were all racing it out in the bottom three. Although Tidus and Wakka left the Roadblock in sixth place, they got lost trying to find the Pit Stop, which allowed Blank and Marcus to slip in and finish sixth instead. Cloud and Aeris, due to Aeris's struggles with the Roadblock, left the task in last place and seemed poised to catch up to and pass the lost Tidus and Wakka. But in the end, Tidus and Wakka got one more lucky break and managed to reach the Pit Stop in seventh place. This left Cloud and Aeris to finish last . . . and become the fifth team eliminated. They were both bummed, but Cloud was at least glad to have given Aeris the chance to fulfill her long-awaited dream of flying in an airship. And Aeris was just glad to have seen a few new worlds outside of her own.

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Featured Games/Worlds: Xenogears

Episode Summary:

"With my panties soiled, Gippal, here we come!"
-Selphie Tilmitt

The seven remaining teams continued their adventure through the Xenogears verse, this time racing from the large city of Kislev to the mountain village of Lahan. Dating couple Irvine and Selphie were hoping to keep their momentum going. Married couple Cid and Hilda were hoping to get their marriage back on track. Dating gamblers Setzer and Daryl wanted to get back up toward the top of the pack again. Thieves and actors Blank and Marcus were so sure they could recover, they wouldn't need the Fast Forward. And bromance Tidus and Wakka were so sure the previous leg's lower finish had just been a fluke and could finish high again.

The teams had to start out by driving in jeeps to the desert town of Bledavik, and while six of the teams got there with little to no problems, Chocobo Knights Lucil and Elma got lost on the way there by driving so fast, they wound up driving to the neighboring town of Dazil instead. They had to backtrack, and do so fast.

The Detour was a choice between Hide and Seek. Hide involved swimming through and navigating the aqueducts of the desert city of Bledavik until they find a way into the fish tank of a restaurant and hide a golden nugget in a chest containing their next clue. Seek involved searching the town and playing hide-and-seek with a child, either a boy or a girl, wearing a T-shirt of the color assigned to a particular team, and then finding him or her three times. Very physical teams were better off choosing Hide, while teams more willing to rely on luck were better off choosing Seek. Tidus and Wakka and Blank and Marcus were the only teams to choose and complete Hide, while Setzer and Daryl, orphans Vaan and Penelo, Cid and Hilda, and Lucil and Elma all chose and completed Seek.

The Roadblock saw one member of each team playing a game of RPS — rock, paper, scissors — with a local Lahan man, and then winning five times without losing. They’d be able to end a match in a draw without losing their win count, but they’d immediately have to set their count back to zero if they lost a match. It seemed based on luck, and it largely was, but there was a trick to beating the task faster. Sometimes, the man would give not-so-subtle hints on what he’d throw out among rock, paper, and scissors. Or if not what he’d throw out, then on what he might throw out. Daryl, Wakka, Penelo, Hilda, Marcus, and Elma all took the task for their teams. The smarter racers, Daryl, Penelo, Hilda, and Elma, easily figured out the trick to beating the man, while the dumber ones , Wakka and Marcus, pretty much lucked into it. However, Elma went from smart to dumb by outing the man's very strategy to him, forcing him to stop giving hints out of anger, a move that turned to task from being partly based on luck to completely based on luck.

This leg contained the third of an unspecified number of Fast Forwards. Any team hoping to win it was required to take an elevator to a control room and use a control panel to target a mirror on a place called Babel Tower. What they didn’t know was that Babel Tower was over halfway around their current world. They’d have to use computer technology to see the tower at which they were aiming. The tower was also constantly spinning, so they’d have to time their shots right — at the precise moment when the beam cannon was lined up with the mirror. The first team to hit the mirror would win the Fast Forward. Only one team, Irvine and Selphie, went after this Fast Forward and grabbed a great lead on the other teams, all of whom wisely chose to save theirs for later (if they hadn’t done it already like Tidus & Wakka and Cid & Hilda had). Although Vaan was tempted to go for it, as well, before Penelo talked him out of it.

Also on this leg was the second of five delay points, and following the Yield of the third leg was the first U-Turn. A U-Turn appears at the end of a Detour, and any team who chooses to use it can force a team behind to turn around and complete the other Detour they did not previously complete. Tidus and Wakka stupidly opted not to use this delay point to take out their biggest threats in the game, Blank and Marcus, while others also unwisely chose to use it. In the end, since they were in the next-to-last position at the time, Vaan and Penelo wound up using it to turn back the last-place team, Lucil and Elma, to gain a buffer on them.

In the end, Irvine and Selphie finished first for their second leg in a row thanks to their Fast Forward! They won a machine currently being worked on by Dr. Citan Uzuki, whose mountain home they'd finished at, called a Land Crab as their prize. Setzer and Daryl finished second after a sensational performance by Daryl throughout the leg, though they knew they'd have to be careful with their Roadblocks since she'd done all five so far and only had one left. Tidus and Wakka, thanks to being extremely lucky to only have physical and luck-based tasks, recovered from their near-elimination to finish third. Vaan and Penelo recovered, as well, from their weak Detour finish to finish fourth. Cid and Hilda clocked in fifth after a solid leg of their own. This left things down to Blank and Marcus and Lucil and Elma. But in the end, Elma's dumb move at the Roadblock made all the difference, as Marcus got lucky at the right time and got Blank and himself to the Pit Stop in sixth. This left Lucil and Elma to finish last . . . but they were not eliminated. It was the first of two predetermined non-elimination legs, and they were still in the race. However, they'd face a Speed Bump on the next leg and would have to complete it while the other teams continued racing. They both felt like they were up to the challenge and were eager to prove it on the next leg.

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Featured Games/Worlds: Xenogears & Final Fantasy VIII

Episode Summary:

"Center for the win, like Tic-Tac-Toe, right?"
-Tidus

The seven remaining teams, fresh off Lucil and Elma's relieving non-elimination, resumed the race, setting off from Lahan in the Xenogears verse and moving on to Deling City in the Fantasy 8 verse. Dating couple Irvine and Selphie felt like they'd have the home world advantage, though neither expressed it out loud out of fear of irony striking them. Dating gamblers Setzer and Daryl were hoping to pick up their pace and finally nail their first win after finishing second on the previous leg. Orphans Vaan and Penelo were hesitant about continuing their alliance with Setzer and Daryl due to Daryl tricking them at the previous leg's Detour. Meanwhile, Chocobo Knights Lucil and Elma had to focus hard on catching up after their poor previous leg, which saw them tasked with a Speed Bump they'd have to complete. The teams all had to take their own ships to Balamb Garden in Fantasy 8, all of them called the Ragnarok, but bromance Tidus and Wakka had problems getting started when they unknowingly climbed into Vaan and Penelo's ship (the ships would only take off when the specified team allowed to board them had boarded).

Before things got started, Lucil and Elma immediately had to face their Speed Bump, which was searching their Ragnarok for eight carnivorous monsters called Propagators, which were lurking around the ship. They’d have to fight and defeat all of them, a task that seemed easy, but wasn’t. What they didn’t know was that there were two Propagators of each of four colors — red, yellow, green, and purple. They’d have to kill each colored pair of Propagators before killing one of another color. If they broke the chain, the previously-killed Propagator would be resurrected. For example, if they killed a red one, they’d have to find a kill the other red one. But if they, say, killed a green one before killing the other red one, the first red one would come back to life, a threat to their chances of survival once more. The trick to completing the task was, of course, figuring out the pattern. Although they didn't take too long to complete the task, the massive time gap between them and the other teams could possibly have meant the difference between staying in the race and being sent home. Still, after completing it, their ship automatically took off, as it'd stayed grounded until they'd completed their Speed Bump.

The Roadblock, set at Balamb Garden, saw one member of each team playing and winning a game of Triple Triad, the Card game of the Fantasy 8 verse, against four different members (or, in one case, pairs of members) of the Garden’s Card Club — Heart, Diamond (two girls), Club, and Spade. They’d have to learn the correct way to play Card games and formulate the correct strategies to beat each member. Of course, they’d be provided with cards of their own, but since they were very simple, weak cards, they could always go around the Garden and search for better ones before playing. Pretty much all of the selected team members did just that, one of them even getting one from Card Club member King, aka Quistis Trepe! Cid, Selphie, Vaan, Tidus, Marcus, and Setzer all took the task for their teams, with only Cid getting out of the task without even needing to search the Garden for stronger cards. Vaan smartly started searching right away instead of charging right into his card games. Tidus basically lucked out that the Card Club members were allowed to show him how to play the game, as he knew he'd have struggled even more than he already did without that aspect of the task. Setzer probably had the greatest struggle despite normally being good at card games.

After taking trains to Timber (married couple Cid and Hilda on the first one, Irvine and Selphie, Vaan and Penelo, and Tidus and Wakka on the second one, thieves and actors Blank and Marcus on the third one, and Setzer and Daryl on the fourth and last one), teams were then tasked with the Detour, which was a choice between Sonar and So Many. Sonar involved teams riding on a train trying to detect and catch Final Fantasy 8 protagonist Squall Leonhart (from season one’s mediocre team of Squall and Rinoa) in the act by using both motion and temperature sensors to determine which set of blinds on a train car to open and spot him. It would not be an easy task, either, because he’d be assisted by Rinoa the whole way. So Many involved finding the Timber Maniacs office and searching through stacks and piles of magazines of the same name for one of few issues of The Girl Next Door, then turning it over to Zone (from season two's excellent team of Zone and Watts). Teams who were handier were mechanics and could form the right strategies were better off choosing Sonar, while teams who weren’t quite as keen on using machines and felt better leaving things to luck were better off choosing So Many. Irvine and Selphie, Vaan and Penelo, and Setzer and Daryl all chose and completed Sonar, while Cid and Hilda, Tidus and Wakka, and Blank and Marcus all chose and completed So Many.

After going to Deling City, the teams were then tasked with climbing up onto the Gateway and searching for the location of the Pit Stop, then running to it. But they’d have to get to Deling City by driving to it by car. Or at least making sure their car got to the city at all, if it ran out of gas. Tidus and Wakka disobeyed that rule, and would it end up costing them.

Also on this leg was the fourth of an unspecified number of predetermined Fast Forwards. The team hoping to win this one would have to find Balamb Garden’s cafeteria and down thirty hotdogs apiece. Once completed, they’d get a clue from Zell (from season two’s wonderful, lovely, third-place-finishing team of Ma and Zell). Blank and Marcus attempted it, then bailed just before finishing it after seeing an a chance to break up Vaan and Penelo and Setzer and Daryl's alliance (which had actually already broken up at Vaan's insistence) by getting rid of the latter team. Their plan seemed doomed to failure, though, since Setzer and Daryl did complete the task . . . or they thought. At least until it turned out that Daryl had tried to cheat at the task by hiding extra hotdogs in a plant, and even a few on Setzer’s person. This caused the Fast Forward to be taken away from them and put back in play for the way-behind Lucil to get, and it was a huge break for them.

Things were up, down, and all around on the leg, but in the end, Setzer and Daryl reached the Pit Stop first. But due to the aforementioned cheating being discovered, they were sent back to Balamb Garden to either try the Fast Forward again (and do it fairly this time) or return to the course of the regular tasks. They chose to do the latter since Daryl was too full for any more hotdogs. This allowed Cid and Hilda to take first place instead after an excellently-run leg! They won a trip for two to Deling City, compliments of Chocobocity, as their prize. Irvine and Selphie's plan to break Fujin and Raijin's record of consecutive first-place finishes had officially been foiled, at least for now, when they came in second, but they were still hoping to at least beat Reina and Faris's record of cumulative wins. Lucil and Elma came in third after completing the Fast Forward, glad to have made up a lot of time and still be in the game. Tidus and Wakka arrived fourth, but were sent back to get their car to Deling City after trying to get there on foot when they ran out of gas. This allowed Vaan and Penelo to sneak in and take fourth place themselves. Tidus and Wakka then returned to Deling City and finished fifth. This left things down to Blank and Marcus and Setzer and Daryl. And it was no doubt how this would turn out. Simply for being on a train an hour ahead of Setzer and Daryl's, the Tantalus boys managed to complete the Detour, get to Deling City, and reach the Pit Stop in sixth place, staying alive for another leg, but now very vulnerable for elimination on the next leg due to their third low finish in a row. This left Setzer and Daryl to finish last, well behind the other teams . . . and become the sixth team eliminated. All because of Daryl's cheating. Setzer was a bit miffed at her, but not surprised since it's what she'd almost always done in the past. Still, both of them had a lot of fun and were hoping to have even more fun together as they went forward with their lives.

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Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy VIII

Episode Summary:

"And he's weird looking!"
-Penelo

The six remaining teams, fresh off Setzer and Daryl's well-deserved elimination, resumed the race, remaining in the Fantasy 8 verse as they raced from Deling City to the edge of The Great White Lake. Married couple Cid and Hilda were hoping to keep up their momentum after winning the last leg. Dating couple Irvine and Selphie were hoping to put an end to their curse of not winning legs and instead dropping positions in their home world. Chocobo Knights Lucil and Elma were hoping to keep up with the other teams now that they were back to being about even with them. Orphans Vaan and Penelo were hoping to finally win a leg. Bromance Tidus and Wakka promised each other that they'd start reading their clues better after not reading one of theirs correctly on the last leg. And thieves and actors Blank and Marcus just hoped to catch up after being so far behind on the previous leg. Cid and Hilda and Vaan and Penelo almost immediately made a potentially deadly mistake when they spent their bulk of their money on rental cars to drive to their first destination, the Tomb of the Unknown King, where an equalized bunched up the six teams, most of whom were shocked to learn that Setzer and Daryl were out of the race.

To start things off, the teams had to search an ancient tomb for a three-digit password. From there, they’d have to search the tomb for one of six boxes with their names and combination locks on them. There was a lot of luck required in this task, as well as a good memory as to where they’d gone in the tomb, as the place was like a maze with a slightly distorted sense of perception. Blank and Marcus and Lucil and Elma, whose teams had formed a tight alliance the night before the task had started, finished this task quickly, with Irvine and Selphie and Vaan and Penelo not too far behind. Tidus and Wakka and Cid and Hilda struggled at finding their locked boxes and thus brought up the rear.

The Detour saw teams choosing between Vase and Space. Vase involved entering the village of Winhill and searching for four hidden pieces of a vase, all of which would be assembled in exchange for a clue. Space involved waiting on a hillside for a UFO to come along, and then snapping a good enough picture for task supervisor and former journalist Laguna Loire. Teams with sharper eyes and who were unwilling to take a stab at a luck-based task were better off choosing Vase, while teams who wanted to rely more on luck and were quicker with their hands were better off choosing Space. Blank and Marcus, Lucil and Elma, Tidus and Wakka, and Cid and Hilda all chose and completed Vase. Irvine and Selphie and Vaan and Penelo chose and completed Space.

After this, the teams had to head to a prison, where one person would work a crane to lower a cell down into the deeper parts of the prison while the other person would ride in the cell, only leave it at the bottom to retrieve a clue, and then take a long run all the way back up to the top to rejoin his or her teammate. This task was a combination of mechanical knowledge for one team members and pure physicality for the other and, at least for Cid and Hilda, was a real struggle in both aspects. Blank, Elma, Selphie, Vaan, Tidus, and Cid all rode in the cells for their teams, which meant that Marcus, Lucil, Irvine, Penelo, Wakka, and Hilda all worked the cranes, some of them doing better jobs than others.

Following this task was a taxi ride to Fisherman’s Horizon, or FH. However, it would be a long ride, so a lot of gil would be required to pay for such a ride. While four of the teams — Blank and Marcus, Lucil and Elma, Irvine and Selphie, and Tidus and Wakka — had plenty, two of the teams — Vaan and Penelo and Cid and Hilda — did not due to blowing a lot of their money on the previously-mentioned rental cars. However, Vaan and Penelo found a way to avoid having any trouble here by bailing on their cab when it got to the amount they had left and simply running the rest of the way to FH, while Cid and Hilda foolishly rode the whole way through and decided to hope for the best. The best became the worst, unfortunately, when their cabbie held them up until Blank and Marcus were able to bail them out of their money situation.

The Roadblock saw one member of each team choosing a musical track from a different Final Fantasy world and trying to match it up with four different musicians who were playing it, whether they were playing the piano, saxophone, bass guitar, violin, flute, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, or wearing tap shoes. There were over one-hundred musicians playing different things, so a very sharp ear was required here. Another aspect of the task that cannot be ignored was the luck of the draw. Marcus, Elma, Selphie, Penelo, Wakka, and Hilda all took the task for their teams. Most of the racers who took on the task got songs with which they were not familiar. However, Hilda got one that she was at least vaguely familiar with, though not a lot, while Wakka, who started out in serious trouble, got an all-too-lucky break when he got one he was very familiar with.

Also on this leg was the third delay of the race: the second U-Turn. As with the first one, any team who used this could force another team to turn around and complete the Detour their team didn’t previously complete. This U-Turn, however, was Blind U-Turn, meaning that the team who used it did not have to put their own picture up in a “Courtesy of” box. They could just keep their identities secret from their victims. Lucil and Elma made use of the Blind U-Turn, choosing to hit Tidus and Wakka with it despite knowing them from the Fantasy 10 verse, and it worked to a fairly great effect, as while the bromance still avoided elimination in spite of it, it still brought them very close to it.

In the end, Blank and Marcus arrived at the Pit Stop first, claiming their first victory! They won a trip for two to Fisherman's Horizon as their prize. Lucil and Elma arrived in a very close second place, notching their highest thus far. Irvine and Selphie landed in third place, bummed that their "curse" was still continuing. Vaan and Penelo came in fourth place, just glad to have survived in spite of their money problems. This left things down to Tidus and Wakka and Cid and Hilda. It came down to the married couple's cab far problems and the Roadblock, and in the end, Wakka's good luck at the latter made the difference, as he and Tidus managed to get out of the task first and hit the Pit Stop mat in fifth place, barely overcoming the U-Turn and staying alive for another leg. This left Cid and Hilda to finish last . . . and become the seventh team eliminated. They were sad to be out of the race, but they were glad that the race had brought them closer and overcome some of their marital problems. Especially those previously caused by Celia and Lede.

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Featured Games/Worlds: Final Fantasy VIII & Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Episode Summary:

"Did you just touch the skies?"
-Blank

The five remaining teams, fresh off Cid and Hilda's emotional elimination, continued on with the race, moving on from the Final Fantasy 8 verse to the Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories verse. Thieves and actors Blank and Marcus were hoping to keep riding high. Chocobo Knights Lucil and Elma were also hoping to keep up their momentum. Dating couple Irvine and Selphie were glad to be leaving their world since they hoped it'd rid them of their "curse." Orphans Vaan and Penelo just wanted to finally nail a win. And bromance Tidus and Wakka were relieved that Tidus's injury from the last leg wasn't bad at all. The teams' memories were instantly affected as soon as they changed worlds, as they somehow stopped remembering who most of the other teams were. Their first stop was to the Destiny Islands, a place that Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka remembered for some reason, but they had no clue of why. . . . Once there, they'd have to find a clue on a coconut before proceeding on with the rest of the tasks.

The Roadblock had one member of each team guiding a familiar yellow-furred stuffed bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, in the One-Hundred-Acre Wood. The chosen team member would have to lead Pooh through a garden with several obstacles in the way until they got to a finish line. The obstacles weren’t all that major, but Pooh himself could hinder the team members with his poor sense of direction and his lack of energy if he didn’t recharge himself by eating honey along the way. Also, the team members could not touch him, only wave to him to make him follow them. The key was having a lot of patience with Pooh, as well as keeping an eye all around themselves to know what was coming up ahead and whether or not Pooh looked like he was still energized enough. Lucil, Wakka, Irvine, and Vaan all took the task for their teams, with Lucil charging right through the task by having a lot of patience with him, Wakka connecting with Pooh through having things in common with him (though those things really didn't make a lot of sense), Irvine struggling majorly with keeping his patience with the bear, and Vaan coming up with a handy trick to controlling Pooh.

The Detour was a choice between Catch the Bird and Tickle the Whale. Catch the Bird involved heading to Agrabah and trying to retrieve a magic lamp from a parrot named Iago, and then taking the clue inside the lamp, although they’d have to master the pattern of moving floorboards to do so. Tickle the Whale involved heading into the innards of a whale named Monstro and making their way to his nasal passages to pound on them and make him sneeze out a boat with their next clue. Teams with more physicality and willing to do the more straightforward task were better off choosing Catch the Bird, while the more conservative teams were better off choosing Tickle the Whale. Lucil and Elma and Tidus and Wakka both chose and completed Catch the Bird, while Irvine and Selphie and Vaan and Penelo both chose and completed Tickle the Whale, no team having that much trouble with their tasks.

Also on this leg was the fifth and last of an unspecified (until now) number of Fast Forwards. To win this one, teams would have to head to Twilight Town and pass through several rooms, each requiring a different lock. However, All of the locks were based on cards with specific numbers on them. The teams were given a deck with one of each type of card, numbered zero through nine and colored either red, green, or blue. The doors had specific values, and if teams encountered doors that they could not open, they’d have to return to the start and retry from the beginning. The key here was rationing their cards properly, even with thirty cards at their disposal, so they’d have just the ones they’d need when they reached the end of the task. Blank and Marcus made one attempt at the Fast Forward on their own and failed at it, which left them racing it out with Vaan and Penelo on their next two attempts. Only barely were they able to complete the task ahead of them, win the Fast Forward, and proceed straight to the Pit Stop.

Also on this leg was the fourth of five delay points, and following the U-Turn of the last leg was a newly-introduced take on it: the Double U-Turn. Unlike the original U-Turn, which only involved one team sending another team back to complete the Detour they didn’t originally choose, the Double U-Turn lets two teams exercise that power instead on two other teams. Lucil and Elma opted to pass up using one of the U-Turns since their main target of choice, Tidus and Wakka, were right behind them. Having formed an alliance with Vaan and Penelo during the Roadblock, Tidus and Wakka used the first U-Turn on big threats Irvine and Selphie to help their new allies out when they learned they were behind. As a result, Irvine and Selphie were forced to use the U-Turn themselves on Vaan and Penelo out of self-preservation, and both teams headed back to complete the Catch the Bird Detour.

In the end, Blank and Marcus finished first at the Pit Stop for the second leg in a row due to the Fast Forward. They won a trip for two to Traverse Town, compliments of Chocobocity, as their prize. Lucil and Elma finished second once more, glad to have kept up their good racing streak. Tidus and Wakka came in third. This left things down to Irvine and Selphie and Vaan and Penelo, both of the U-Turned things. The timing in completing the Catch the Bird Detour made all the difference, as Irvine and Selphie finished it first and got to the Pit Stop in fourth place. This left Vaan and Penelo to finish last . . . but they were not eliminated. It was the second and last of two predetermined non-elimination legs, so they were still in the race. But they'd have to complete a Speed Bump on the next leg of the race. They both thought they were up to the challenge and promised a mostly indifferent Gippal that they'd make him proud.

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Featured Games/Worlds: Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories & The World Ends With You

Episode Summary:

"I don't even know what Noise is!"
-Vaan

Thanks to a careless mistake on Gippal's part, the five remaining teams, fresh off Vaan and Penelo's non-elimination and the restoration of their memories, continued on with the race, racing from the Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories verse to the World Ends with You verse. Thieves and actors Blank and Marcus were saddened by finally learning that Cid and Hilda had been eliminated back in the Fantasy 8 verse, but were willing to keep trying to win for Lindblum. Bromance Tidus and Wakka were still desperate to find out who Blind U-Turned them two legs prior (former allies from their homework of Spira, Chocobo Knights Lucil and Elma, being the culprits). And orphans Vaan and Penelo were just anxious to keep on doing well so they could overcome their Speed Bump.

Teams were immediately tasked with a math-based challenge. Mystic forces governing their new world somehow magically (and painfully) inscribed their first clue into their hands, telling them to solve the math equation x = 34 + 70. This equaled 104, and the teams had to figure out that this pertained to a building with the street number 104 on it. Tidus and Wakka, dating couple Irvine and Selphie, Vaan and Penelo, and Blank and Marcus all stayed together in finding this out, more out of circumstance than anything. Lucil and Elma broke out on their own to find their answer . . . and this proved fairly costly.

Upon reaching the clue on the roof of the 104 building, Vaan and Penelo found out that they’d have to do their Speed Bump, which they were tasked with after getting spared elimination at the end of the previous leg. This saw them traveling a distance away to completely wash off the statue of a dog named Hachiko. It was a very simple task that could be completed relatively quickly so long as the statue was completely spotless. Meaning every spot had to be checked and not overlooked. Once it was completed, they could return to the course, hoping to make up their valuable lost time.

The Detour was a choice between Fix the Lights and Fix Dinner. Both Detours involved wearing special buttons and imprinting thoughts into people’s minds to get them to do what you needed and wanted them to do. Fix the Lights saw teams finding a concert stage and imprinting thoughts right into the head of a man tasked with fixing the stage’s lights. They’d have to look through manuals and memes to find the key words to imprint in order to help him fix the lights. Fix Dinner saw teams imprinting thoughts of hunger into random passersby in order to get them to a ramen shop in order to buy a type of ramen they are tasked with getting sold. The task would be complete once ten people were imprinted. Fix the Lights sounded more complex, so Fix Dinner was probably more straightforward and, therefore, much easier. Still, Blank and Marcus were the only team to choose and complete Fix the Lights, while Tidus and Wakka, Irvine and Selphie, Vaan and Penelo, and Lucil and Elma all chose and completed Fix Dinner. Of course, Tidus and Wakka figured out a trick to complete this task much more quickly — it was not necessary to stay in the area of the ramen shop, which had little foot traffic, as it was. More populated areas were probably better.

The Roadblock saw one member of each team completing two tasks in one. They were to play a game of Tin Pin Slammer (Tin Pin, for short) against a child using simplified rules. Upon winning, they’d receive a pin with their team's picture and names on it. Then, they’d take their pin and try to make ten people in the RG, a parallel plane of existance, wear the same pin, which would be sold by an RG proxy accompanying them. Imprinting people to make them wear their pin was against the rules. They could only imprint their proxy. Ten people would have to wear their pins in order for them to get their next clue. It was a matter of thinking of the right sales pitch to imprint in their proxy’s mind, as well as thinking of the right trend to sell people on. Tidus, Selphie, Vaan, Blank, and Lucil all took the task for their teams. But one crucial factor that Blank and Lucil overlooked was that the one completing the task would actually have to wear the pin to get others to want to wear it, as well. Not knowing this cost them a lot of valuable time.

The final task of the leg saw teams playing a game of Reaper Creeper, which involved trying to move a coin on a piece of paper. It didn’t matter where, so long as they made the movement look supernatural. Otherwise, the children they would be playing with would think the game is rigged. Doing this correctly would guarantee their passage to the Pit Stop. Irvine and Selphie and Vaan and Penelo were the only two teams to complete the task in only one try, while Tidus and Wakka, Blank and Marcus, and Lucil and Elma all needed multiple tries.

In the end, a footrace between Tidus and Wakka and Irvine and Selphie resulted in the former team coming out on top to finish first at the Pit Stop, but only by a hair. They won free supply of ramen for life as their prize. Irvine and Selphie then took second place. Vaan and Penelo admirably overcame their Speed Bump and finished third. This left things down to allied teams Blank and Marcus and Lucil and Elma. It was a tight race, but ultimately, the thieves and actors managed to eke out the win and finish fourth. This left Lucil and Elma to finish last . . . and become the eighth team eliminated. Both were sad to be out of the race, but they were at least glad to have run the race with each other and hoped to be friends with Blank and Marcus for the rest of their lives.

And with that, it was now down to the final four. . . .

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Featured Games/Worlds: The World Ends With You

Episode Summary:

"This place sounds delicious."
-Irvine Kinneas

The final four teams, fresh off Lucil and Elma's emotional elimination, resumed the race, continuing their jaunt through the World Ends with You verse. The race for the final three was on, and all of them knew that even one mistake, if not the failure to correct it quickly enough, could mean the difference between running the final leg and falling victim to the final elimination. Bromance Tidus and Wakka were on a high after their victory on the previous leg and were more than positive that they could make it to the final three. Dating couple Irvine and Selphie were just hoping to keep holding steady. Orphans Vaan and Penelo, relieved to have overcome their Speed Bump, planned to get the win that'd eluded them for so long. And thieves and actors Blank and Marcus, still stinging over losing Lucil and Elma on the previous leg, were hoping to win the race for them, as well as for Lindblum. And, of course, for themselves.

Right away, the teams were challenged with a mental task. They had to find the highly-decorated (really vandalized) walls of the Udagawa Back Streets and, using some equipment to either paint or remove paint from patterns on a wall, try to match every correct configuration and orientation of a picture they would be given, and then press a button accompanying a box that, if correct, would release their next clue. Attention to detail was really important here, as was realizing that the teams had been given paint remover for a reason — to get rid of paint colors that really didn’t really need to be in their patterns. The solution was correctly figured out by three of the teams — Vaan and Penelo (Penelo figured it out), Irvine and Selphie (Selphie figured it out), and Blank and Marcus (Blank figured it out), while Tidus and Wakka needed a bit of assistance from Vaan and Penelo.

The teams were tasked with the Detour upon completing the wall task. This Detour was a choice between Sharp Dresser and Sharp Memory. Sharp Dresser involved going to four different stores in the Shibuya Shopping District and buying four different articles of clothing for each team member. Then, they’d have to wear their outfits to talk to a Reaper, who’d inspect their outfits. Sharp Memory involved searching for answers to three questions relating to their immediate area and then trying to remember those answers as they gave them to a different Reaper. As an added difficulty for Sharp Dresser, each of the racers' four garments had to also be made by a different brand. And not only would lots of running from store to store be involved, but also proper money management. If they lost all their money, then they’d have to either switch Detours or beg for money, and begging would be difficult in the current area. Sharp Memory’s only drawback was that it could take time gathering information for their answers and remembering them for the Reaper. Teams with less-than-sharp memories and who really didn’t have much in the way of a good mental game were better off choosing Sharp Dresser, whereas teams with good memories and/or were much stronger mentally were better off choosing Sharp Memory. Tidus and Wakka were the only team to choose and complete Sharp Dresser, while Vaan and Penelo and Blank and Marcus chose and completed Sharp Memory. Irvine and Selphie initially chose Sharp Dresser, but Irvine's slight worry over the money Selphie was spending on clothes she deemed "cute" led him to make the call to switch to Sharp Memory, which they actually finished in only one try. Elsewhere, misreading the clue about how to go about gathering their clothes, as well as how many of each kind they'd need, put Tidus and Wakka well behind.

The Roadblock saw one member of each team doing some pig wrangling. In an alley filled with stampeding pigs, they were to go after one of four pigs with clues among several, several pigs that didn’t have any and try to detach them from whichever pig they went after before it got back to the building it left from. Stampedes would occur every four minutes, so with a wait time like that, it was probably a good idea to get the clue in as few attempts as possible. Especially since the Pit Stop deciding the final elimination was coming up next. Penelo, Irvine, Blank, and Wakka all took the task for their teams.

In the end, Vaan and Penelo arrived first at the Pit Stop, winning their first leg of the entire race! They won a ¥20,000 shopping spree in the Shibuya Shopping District as their prize. Also, they claimed the first spot in the final three! Irvine and Selphie, who were originally poised to finish first, made a wrong turn en route to the Pit Stop and had to settle for second place instead. Still, they were happy enough to have claimed the second spot in the final three! This left things down to Blank and Marcus and Tidus and Wakka, the two remaining all-male teams of the race. It was a close race, to be sure, but the Roadblock decided it all. The thieves and actors managed to slide and finish third over the bromance, taking the third and final spot in the final three. This left Tidus and Wakka to finish last . . . and fall victim to the final elimination. Both were disappointed to be out of the race, but were still happy to have gotten to the final four. They both had a lot of fun together and would going home proud of how well they'd done.

And with the final three determined, the race for the million gil was about to begin. . . .

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Featured Games/Worlds: The World Ends With You & Final Fantasy VIII & Final Fantasy X

Episode Summary:

"How about a million gil?"
-Irvine Kinneas

Ten legs ago, twelve teams set out from the Luca blitzball stadium in the Fantasy 10 verse on a race around worlds for one-million gil. Along the way, after facing Detours, Roadblocks, Fast Forwards, Yields, U-Turns, an Intersection, and just dumb luck, good or bad, nine teams fell by the wayside — Kiros and Ward, Malak and Rafa, Godo and Yuffie, Celia and Lede, Cloud and Aeris, Setzer and Daryl, Cid and Hilda, Lucil and Elma, and Tidus and Wakka. This left the final three teams of the race — orphans Vaan and Penelo, dating couple Irvine and Selphie, and thieves and actors Blank and Marcus. The three teams were no long racing just to avoid elimination and stick around. Now, they were all ready to set out on the final leg. Their objective? Doing anything possible to cross the finish line first and win the one-million-gil prize. Vaan and Penelo knew it was time to serve it up and take it all home to Rabanastre. Irvine and Selphie were relying on their bond to get them to the finish line first and win the money they needed for Trabia Garden. And Blank and Marcus were still just hoping to win for Lindblum, for Cid and Hilda, for Tantalus, for their departed friends and allies, Lucil and Elma, and, most importantly, for themselves.

Immediately, the teams faced flight drama. They had to find flights that’d get them to back to Luca in Spira, the world of Final Fantasy 10, as soon as possible. Irvine and Selphie managed to get the only direct flight, while Vaan and Penelo and Blank and Marcus had to race for a flight with a tight connection. Blank and Marcus got to their flight fairly easily, while Vaan and Penelo seemingly did not. It was then that they found out that they actually did make it, but had been left to think that they hadn’t. So the bottom two teams would reach Spira just ten minutes behind Irvine and Selphie.

Once the teams had arrived in Luca, they were tasked with finding the spot in which they got their very first clue of the race. In this case, the locker rooms in Luca’s blitzball stadium. Only Irvine and Selphie initially thought it was the blitz sphere pool they were looking, and looking there first cost them time, as the clue found there was a fake clue telling them to try and again, and they thus lost the last of their lead in doing so.

Once they’d found the clue in the locker room, the teams were tasked with the final Detour of the race. This was a choice between Sell Spheres and Break Spheres. Sell Spheres involved delivering one-hundred colored balloons to people in Luca. They would not actually have to sell the balloons, but the person must willingly accept a free balloon, but only one per person. Oh, and they’d have to be in costumes when handing out balloons. Break Spheres involved defeating a woman’s dog in a local Sphere Break tournament, successfully accumulating forty breaks in fifteen turns in this math-based task, which could likely only be done through a combination method. Irvine and Selphie and Blank and Marcus all chose and completed Sell Spheres, while Vaan and Penelo were the only team to choose and complete Break Spheres. It was really hard to say which would’ve been easier. The more straightforward one, though, was easily Sell Spheres, as the teams could use any method at all to give out the balloons. Blank and Marcus played dirty with the stadium's intercom system to do just that, even managing to snag a large number of potential customers from Irvine and Selphie. Break Spheres was more mental and potentially time-consuming, as Vaan and Penelo found out. Still, they attempted it, but struggled at it for quite a while.

Next, the teams had to each get a bag of spheres from the local Sphere Theatre and then take it out to the Mi’ihen Highroad. There, they’d have to complete the final Roadblock of the race — following a trail of chocobo feathers to find a chocobo, and then playing a game (that the Roadblockers didn’t even know was a game) involving trying to capture it while it dodged their captors by running around them. Once it got tired, it’d allow itself to be captured. This task could have a varying level of difficulty depending on how much energy a particular chocobo had. Irvine, Marcus, and Vaan all took the task for their teams.

The final task saw teams riding their chocobos to Djose Temple, site of the starting line in season one. There, they each had to enter their unique Cloister of Trials and solve a puzzle using the bag of spheres they’d obtained in Luca. Ten of these spheres, which had combinations of images and sounds, had to go in specific recesses that matched the number of the leg on which the sphere’s image appeared. What the teams didn’t realize was that the correct spheres needing to be placed were spheres displaying the Roadblocks of the first ten legs, and placing them in the correct order would result in their final clue being revealed to them. They’d have to complete the task fast, though, because a run to the finish line would be following this final task.

In the end, it came down to a footrace between the remaining two coed teams of the race, Vaan and Penelo and Irvine and Selphie. And after traveling through seven worlds, twenty-two cities, and countless miles . . . Vaan and Penelo crossed the finish line first and were declared the official winners of The Amazing Final Fantasy Race! They'd be taking home one-million gil! And there was better news to go with this. They were officially the first coed team in the history of the show to win the race. Both were happy to have taken the journey together and ultimately get rewarded with the win, which they'd gotten with great teamwork. Irvine and Selphie came in a very close second, having nearly passed them in the final run to the finish line. They were bummed, but still happy for Vaan and Penelo, especially since they'd thought they had no chance originally. Blank and Marcus, after making a major mistake at the final task, crossed the finish line third. They were also surprised to learn that Vaan and Penelo had won, but were happy for them just the same. They were also happy to have at least run the whole race together, even if they hadn't won the money.

And after one final picture taken on the finish line mat with all twelve teams, as well as an announcement of the next season, the race was finally over.

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