I admit, a shock was how people diss Mustadio. He has regularly been a mainline in my groups until mid or late game simply because ranged, MP-free disabled, immobilize, and undead slaying is a handy package. Making him a chemist lets him stay in the back line and tactically help out with support and heals.
Agrias I probably keep beyond the point she is best in spot, but she is good enough to let you lean into a preference. After awhile, the sword skills remain alright but kind of pale compared to stuff like Orbital Dragoon Cannon.
OK, trying as much as possible to give you options instead of telling you how to play @Omicron
Ramza: Since I assume you love Samurai my suggestion is to master that job and then switch back to Squire. Squire has better MA gains and you can equip some things like MA boosting hats to up the Iaido damage while still remaining pretty tanky. Obviously this means you wont be able to hit things with katanas but there are some swords that you'll be getting soon that are VERY good for this build.
Agrias: Holy Knight (HK) has mediocre PA growth so either accept that she'll never do absurd damage and snag some low hanging fruit in the WM skill to turn her into a paladin, or stick her on Knight/HK (best growth) or Geomancer/HK for slightly less growth but significantly better utility.
Mustadio: honestly he works great either as Machinist/Item or Machinist/Knight. The former has more utility since Item is a great seconday with Throw Item (Chemist gains are garbage), Knight Skill is devastating on a ranged unit and doubles down on Mustadio being the premiere disabler unit. If you go down that path, I highly recommend dipping into Archer for Concentration and Save Speed.
Hadrian: Dragoon is a murder machine so it really boils down to what secondary you want him to have. Monk has an incredibly versatile skillset (I feel like you've been sleeping on this), Item is consistent though you'll have to level it up to snag more useful abilities. I would STRONGLY suggest you try out the Dragoon reaction ability before you spend time grinding other options.
Osric: At least get slow and immobilize to round out the Time Mage power trio. Summoner-wise, snag all the elements. Consider dipping into the non-damage options like Golem and Fairy (they're good!). High level summons are awesome but have long cast times (Short Charge from Time Mage solves this issue).
Gillian: Mystic is absolutely the way to go for secondary. You shouldn't need to be healing every turn and that gives her something impactful to do every turn. You don't need to master Mystic, just grab the stuff that looks like it will neuter the opposition if it lands (Disable, Sleep, Blind, Silence), and maybe MP steal for sustain. White Mage skills...honestly the basics are pretty good. Look at Wall (you know how NPCs have the suicidal tendencies of lemmings? This helps), Ensuna isn't always needed but when you need it you'll be glad you have it, Raise and Reraise. Cure 3/4 are nice when the timing window allows but a properly optimized WM can heal significant chunks with just Cure 1/2. Holy is your nuke button.
Hester: you seem to have a solid plan for her. Ninja is a great class but you'll want a Reflex ability to deal with the classes inherent fragility. Dragonheart, Shirahadori, Vanish, and Reflexes all provide solutions to this problem. As for secondaries, you have more options. Ninja has unparalleled speed and mobility so they make really great clutch Item users even without Throw Item. They also benefit a lot from Monk skills. OTOH, dual wield Geomancer sounds like a really nifty idea that could actually work very well (see comment RE: swords) and that lets you pick a utility secondary like Item, Monk, Time, Mystic, or WM.
Yeah. Your team is very close to being SOLID, just need to overcome choice paralysis.
Osric is definitely the weak link in this chain and I keep side eyeing that 61 Faith Score.
That's just not good enough.
You have 3 options that I can see.
You can try and bring his faith score up with an Orator so that his magic can be more effective
You can change him out to a physical class. Physical jobs can still be functional even with mediocre Brave. And Brave is easier to raise than Faith besides.
Finally and simplest solution is to dismiss him which is what I would probably do. Other story characters will join up in time. Your roster issues are going to get worse. Not better and you will have to decide who you want to invest in.
Alternatively if you hate yourself go and Master Knight and Black Mage, and then get level 8 in Dragoon, Samurai, Ninja, and Geomancer (and have him kill 20 enemies and wait until they crystalize).
It is not a question of convenience or practicality. It's a question of honor, justice and basic morality. Some things are worth fighting for even if it's hard. Some things are worth killing for.
And one of those things is "fuck all those rivals like Wiegraf, Delita and Gaffgarion with their fancy cool sword skills classes, and fuck Agrias while we're on it, I wanna be in the club too!"
Dancer and it's male counterpart are both really useful classes, though they aren't really damage types. Used properly they can absolutely ruin your opponents day.
The downsides being that they aren't damage dealers, have fairly low stats, and the set up it takes to unlock them. Upsides is entire map targeting with no collateral, and significant jp farming potential.
(This is a point where it would be helpful to know the legal specifics of Ramza's birth; we now know his mother was a commoner, but did Barbaneth still marry her? Was she a concubine? Was Ramza officially and legally legitimized by his father? Depending on the specifics, it's entirely possible that Zalbaag might lack the legal authority to act on his threat, though that doesn't necessarily restrict his ability to fuck with Ramza in other ways.)
The exact status of Ramza's mother has not been explicitly clarified, as far as I can tell. In this scene, Zalbaag refers to Ramza's "low(-born) blood", 下賎の血. Amusingly, the exact line is "Lowborn blood is lowborn", which makes him sound a little "the floor is made of floor".
One possibility is from an earlier scene, when Ramza and co. were confronting Delacroix:
Cardinal Delacroix: "I see Gaffgarion's sword was no match for his words. Then again, perhaps the fault lies with his adversary. Beoulve blood is not given to spill easily. Even when thinned with that of a courtesan, it would seem.
Delacroix refers to Ramza as the "child of a concubine": 妾の子. The term is not specific to actual concubines, but also to mistresses and "kept women". So "courtesan" might be a bit of a stretch in extrapolation if we're going by strict definitions, but I think the idea is Delacroix is just throwing out demeaning words for Ramza's mother, rather than having detailed knowledge about her social status.
This is notable in a minor way because the game text has added furigana for "concubine" 妾 (めかけ), which implies the writers assume the average player of FFT might not be familiar with the term. The same goes for "lowborn" 下賎 (げせん), as Zalbaag says.
(Hence my belief the fancier translation for WotL fits the original intent of the Japanese script, because even the Japanese text is more than free with vocabulary it assumes the hypothetical teenage player would have to look up.)
Incidentally Zalbaag isn't formally threatening to disown Ramza. His line is "You are not worthy of inheriting the noble name of Beoulve", which sounds more like he's yelling at Ramza for not living up to this own imagined standards, rather than initiating legal proceedings for disinheritance.
Cuchulainn's iambic pentameter here is entirely from the English translation. In Japanese, he's very generic hammy villain, with "let me hear your screams and suffering" at the start, and "how could this be" at the end. Obviously I like the increase in Shakespearean dialogue here.
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Idle curiosity, for people more familiar with the Final Fantasy Tactics setting: where did the titles of the two warring Dukes come from?
As in the White Lion and the Black Lion. Specifically, the "lion" part.
I was reminded of this from one of the item descriptions in Assassin's Creed Syndicate, which notes England has a fondness for lion motifs in a country where no lions natively reside. So I'm wondering if lions even exist in Ivalice, mentioned in one of the Errands or appearing as a wildlife battle encounter.
Is this another case of FFVIII and lions? Will Larg and Goltanna junction themselves into their respective Grievers?
The origin is that their coats of arms have a white and black lion respectively on them. As for why lions, probably the same reason England's coat of arms has them - lions are cool.
Like, this is very clearly a fantasy War of the Roses. It's not surprising that there would be some elements of English heraldry at play.
Trying to give suggestions without spoiling too much is going to be hard, but let's give it a try. @Omicron, if it seems like I'm saying too much, just skip a section.
You mentioned in Hadrian's entry that Ramza's attack seems to deal lower damage than Hadrian's despite a weapon with higher WP; that's because of the katana formula being PA x 0.Brave x WP. So, since PA is the same for Hadrian and Ramza, the effective WP is 11 x 0.87 = 9. If you had 91 Brave, then it'd be 11 x 0.91 = 10, equaling the damage of non-Doublehand Hadrian. Therefore, if you equip Doublehand and get Ramza's Bravery to 91, he'll be doing the same damage with his normal attack as Hadrian does - with one less range because, of course, Spears have range 2. So, if the physical attack is what you want, that might be a valid purchase.
On the other hand, with a Brave that high, Shirahori/Blade Grasp becomes an exceptionally good reaction ability; it's not unknown for endgame party to have it as the reaction ability on the entire team. In the comparison with First Strike, it stops more attacks - monster physicals and ranged physicals, which First Strike misses, in addition to the physicals attacks First Strike/Hamedo also stops - but deals no extra damage; also, First Strike/Hamedo will stop Ninja's Dual Wield attacks fully, while Shirahori/Blade Grasp only stops the first strike from a Dual Wield character. As others have said, having both and swapping depending on what the map requires isn't a bad idea, but it's not necessary.
If you're fine with going the physical route, then staying Samurai with Doublehand equipped for Ramza should be fine. On the other hand, if you want to get use out of the Iaido, the support ability you want to learn is Arcane Boost (from Black Mage), and then go back to Ramza's Squire class, for the higher MA with still solid PA (and better weapons than katanas).
In any case, I want to caution you to not bother with buying Ethereal Embrace and Raging Inferno - those katana are rares that can't be obtained for a good long while still, so putting JP in those abilities would be a waste right now. Once you have learned the Iaido skills up to Sanguine Blossom, that should be enough to leave Samurai if you decide you want to go the Iaido route and move back to Squire.
I would suggest against Lancer for Agrias; the only useful thing she'd get from that is a reaction ability that she'll probably be able to buy the moment you unlock the class due to Hadrian's accrued spillover JP. Swordskills don't work with Spears, and Swordskill already have decent range (if not as much as Jump - but they compensate with AoE), therefore Knight is just better than Lancer for Agrias specifically.
What you want to do next with Agrias is go to Geomancer; Attack Boost is the ONLY ability that increases the damage from her Swordskills, so you want to learn it and keep it fixed on her thereafter. This has a caveat, however.
Eventually, since Agrias can only use Swordskills when wielding a sword, you will need to either sacrifice Attack Boost for Equip Sword to move her to classes that lack innate swording, or you keep her in one of the two classes with high attack that get sword innates and can therefore benefit from Attack Boost: Knight, or Geomancer (both of whom have a +2 PA edge over Holy Knight). Geomancer doesn't have Attack Boost innately the way Ninja does with Dual Wield, you need to learn and equip it for it to be active, but for Agrias, being a Geo with Attack Boost equipped is definitely worth it, which is why I would suggest you go for that, rather than Knight.
That said, which of the two you take is a matter of preference: Knight has higher defense and will eventually get better swords to bridge the power gap, but Geomancer (assuming you select her equipment for PA rising, rather than HP) has much higher damage, and more movement (4, rather than 3). Plus, of course, Battle Skill offers subpar debuffing (although Speed Break can be useful) while Elemental is longer range than Swordskills, keeping Agrias as a purely damage-dealing focused unit who has something to do if enemies are just outside Swordskill range.
Regardless of what route you want to go down, you'll still want Attack Boost regardless as an option, so working toward that seems the best approach; therefore, my suggestion is to move to Knight to learn Equip Sword, briefly become a Equip Sword Monk (and maybe pick up Lifefont while you're there), and then settle as Geomancer for Attack Boost. This should give you the chance to compare how you like Knight Agrias versus Geomancer Agrias, and decide which one you like best once you have the ability - staying Geo or going back to Knight.
I'll say the best thing to do with Mustadio is to keep him Chemist until you've mastered the skillset, and picked up both Auto-Potion and Throw Item. You can probably even leave him there thereafter, since having a dedicated healer who isn't dependent on Faith is not a bad idea, so really, all you need is to pick up a fitting support ability.
Attack Boost increases Gun damage; it's the only thing that does, as Doublehand and Dual Wield don't work with guns, so if you're going offensive, it's your only choice. On the other hand, you might do better with a defensive option for your support ability on Mustadio, since Chemists are fragile - and you want to stay Chemist because it has innate guns and innate Throw Item, which nothing else does.
So, the choice there is if you want to reduce damage, or avoid it entirely. For the latter, the choices are between Equip Shield, the Ninja's Reflexes/Abandon, and Shirahori/Blade Grasp; which one to go with really depends on how long you want to spend getting the ability - from the look of it, you're 100 short of Equip Shield and, if you'll have Agrias in Knight for a couple battle to learn Equip Sword, then Mustadio should get enough spillover JP from her without needing to move out of Chemist, so that's the low investment option.
Alternatively, just making Mustadio more resilient to damage is a good idea, but if you do that, I'd counsel against Equip Armor. You want Mustadio to use hats in place of helmets because they increase Speed (you should already have Green Berets, stick with those for him until you find better), which is the only stat that affects the accuracy of his Snipe attacks. That's what you should do to make the Snipes land, maximize Speed; Guns and Items don't use the other stats anyway, so you don't need to care about anything else.
Given that you're not going to ever give Mustadio an helmet, the difference between the best available armor and the best available cloth in terms of HP is usually 30 - whereas Defense Boost (from Mystic) or Arcane Defense (from White Mage) halve the damage you take from the appropriate attacks, providing more durability. You appear to already have the JP to buy the latter, so I suggest you try it out for yourself and see the difference it makes. You probably want both, to swap depending on the opposition a particular map presents, but even just sticking with one is pretty solid. Eventually, you might even be able to stack it with elemental resistances and Shell for truly astounding durability.
I sort of agree with you here that Hadrian's build is mostly complete, and I will add that you probably want to get the Dragoon's own reaction ability and try it out - just like Shirahori/Blade Grasp, Dragonheart is often a contender for endgame teams, but some people don't like it much. If you don't like it after trying it out, well, you have nearly enough Monk JP saved up to buy First Strike/Hamedo, don't you? Meaning you should have the full amount through spillover by the time Agrias has Geomancer unlocked. Then you just buy that, and you're set.
Personally, I would keep items as secondary, but without leaving Dragoon - just buy more healing options as Mustadio gives you spillover, so you have them if you need them; prioritize X-Potion, then get the rest as seems practical. If you really dislike items, it might sound odd, but you could just slap Fundamentals on him for using Focus if he ever somehow finds himself without enemies to target; less utility, but more lethal, and you certainly have the JP to buy it if necessary. Although, of course, just using Wait isn't bad for a Dragoon, in that it allows for manipulating CT.
Every other skillset is either ranged damage (which Jump overshadows), lesser support (the Monk's skillset has elevation troubles you don't want to have on your emergency healer), or magic, which doesn't really work well for Dragoon, who has the lowest MA in the game.
The only exception to that is Time Magic; you don't need to have high MA to land Haste, and like Focus, it's a good option to use on oneself when nothing is in range. So, if you dislike keeping Items, try out Time Magic, although I would still say don't move out of Dragoon, just wait for somebody else to spillover the Black Mage JP to Hadrian and then simply buy Haste, you should have the JP for it once the Job unlocks.
As you appear to have over 600 Thief JP saved up, I would strongly recommend that you spend those to learn Move +2. While Ignore Elevation is good, you might want to have the option for extra mobility in particularly large maps, especially if you decide to stick with Items as your secondary ability; rushing to reach an ally will take less time, and therefore be less of a risk, if you have more movement. It's not like you're gonna need anything else from Thief, after all, since Steal is a Speed based ability that benefits from Brawler and Attack Boost, none of which works well with the build you made for Hadrian.
Aside from the level problem, you seem to be on a perfectly fine path with Osric, a typical Time Mage + Summoner build; it's a FFT staple.
In terms of attack summons, you're actually mostly set; Lich was likely disappointing because you used it against a low HP enemy - like Diablos, Lich is a percentage-damage summon, so, while the spell is bad against mooks, it's the skillet's "Boss killer" option. Use it against high HP enemies, and stick to Ramuh otherwise; as long as you have a "strengthen element" item equipped for whichever elemental spell you're using (so, strengthen Lightning in this case - either Thunder Rod, Black Robe or Japa Mala), which increases the MA by x 1.25, you'll mostly be fine.
That's because what you really need out of Summon are the two defense/support options: Golem and Faerie, which together take up 900 of your stored up JP. Faerie is the healing spell with the large AoE in the game, healing nearly as much as Curaga but casting as fast as Cure, which for me makes it the best healing in the game, and Golem is unique defense which stacks with every other defense option - it's very hard to kill an unit that has Golem on top of Arcane Defense + Shell or Defense Boost + Protect. You want both on a dedicated summoner.
Once that's done, you need another damage summon for when Ramuh is resisted, and there your choice is between efficiency and area of effect, as well as dependent on what equipment you prefer to use. If you're going with the Japa Mala and want better AoE then Leviathan is the choice, as in addition to being a different element and much stronger than Ramuh, it's also larger area, which can be useful on its own. If you don't want your accessory slot locked, on the other hand, but would still prefer better AoE, then Odin is what you can afford - a bit less powerful than Bahamut, but faster casting and less costly in MP.
Alternatively, if you're fine with just different damage and don't care about having a better area of effect, then the choice is between Salamander and Cyclops - again, Bahamut costs too much with your current budget. Cyclops is stronger than all of the others summons, Bahamut included, but it has quite the high MP cost; Salamander, on the other hand, is Leviathan's equal in damage and cost both, but easier to boost since wearing the Black Robe to boost it and Ramuh at the same time is less limiting than the Japa Mala. All of these are the same casting speed as Lich, by the way - that's just the base casting speed for all the powerful summon options, with Bahamut being the only one which is slower.
So, on how to spend the summoner's JP you've stored, that's my suggestion: Golem, Faerie, and one of your choice out of Salamander, Leviathan, Odin or Cyclops. Once you've done this, your summoner skillset is mastered for practical purposes - you don't really need multiple variants since the only things with elemental weaknesses are monsters and very few pieces of equipment, and although I could see the argument for wanting all three of "another element, larger area, and non elemental" that would justify going either Salamander + Odin or Leviathan + Cyclops, I don't really think that's necessary. Although if you want them, nothing wrong with spending more time as a Summoner.
On to Time Mage, if you're using summons as your attack option, then eventually you'll want Swiftness; I'd probably argue that you should in fact get that first and Teleport second, but there's a solid argument to make for Teleport being the best movement option in the game, so going the other way around might be better - it depends on whether you feel that summons are too slow for you already, or if you still feel you can deal with their casting time for now. Either way, you should get those two first.
Once that's done, I'd say you want to round out the skillset, but don't go for the high cost options - Meteor is a trap (too slow to use, just like Archer's Aim skillset), as are Hasteja and Slowja (they cost four times as much, takes four time as much to land, and all they offer in exchange for this is higher accuracy); Graviga is a Lich with lower area of effect, and therefore redundant for you, and while Stop is better than all of these, I find it a bit too costly and inaccurate for my tastes. Slow and Immobilize will serve you much better and are cheap, and Gravity is normally useful, although with you having Lich already, it's probably not worth it on Osric. The only other spell worth looking at here is Quick - great spell, tricky to use properly but worth it when it lands - but you'll want user and target both to have 80 Faith for it to have full accuracy, and it is costly, so I could see the reasoning in not going for it.
That's a lot of work to put in for a backup character you're not really using, but if you want to keep Osric, I think that's mostly what you should work on. While it'll likely take you a long time to finish getting all of that, the other party members will appreciate being able to pick up Mana Shield from the spillover of having a Time Mage in the group - especially if they can get enough spillover for Manafont from a Mystic as well. The two are an excellent combination on any unit that isn't using MP, such as a Samurai, Geomancer, or Dragoon.
As others have said, the first thing you should buy is Holy; it is the best spell in the game - it has stronger attack power than Meteor and Flare, and while it's tied with Cyclops, that's easily solved by boosting it with the Japa Mala, or equipping later weapons that strengthen holy. So, highest magical damage in the game, there for the taking since you have the JP for it - automatic choice, really.
With those 600 JP accounted for, you have 1300 more to spend, which is actually not that much in the grand scheme of White Magic. I would say, do not go for Wall; it cost four time as much MP as Shell and Protect, and unlike them, it's single target. In most situation, you'll just want to apply one or the other to multiple people, not both to just one person, and when you want to apply both, it will still likely be to multiple people, in which case you need multiple castings anyway, so might as well go for those which cost less MP. So then, the use of Wall is as an emergency "I need that unit both shelled and protected NOW!", in which case... you just use Purifying Breeze from Ramza's instant-casting Iaido skillset. You don't need Wall.
Just like with Hasteja and Slowja, Shellja and Protectja are traps - they cost three times as much, have slower cast time, and hit the same area, with accuracy being the only boost. There's only downsides to using them when you can already cast Protect and Shell.
Curaja is actually good, but you probably won't need it because Curaga is sufficient to heal back to full in most circumstances if you MA is decent - right now, with a honestly pretty bad 8 MA, Gillian would heal Ramza (the person she heals the least due to there being bad compatibility between Acquarius and Taurus) by about 92 HP or so - if her MA was raised to 10 by wearing a Wizard Robe or a Magepower Glove/Magic Gauntlet, that'd grow to 114, and with both it'd be 137, so we're hovering between half and two-thirds of total HP for the person that get healed least. You rarely need more healing than that in a fight, in my experience - therefore Curaja is, in my eyes, overkill.
With those excluded, the next question becomes whether you want to go for Reraise or not.
Reraise is the best buff in the game, but it does takes planning to use properly, and since it's single target, applying it to the entire team is a time consuming process. I would go for it, since the resilience it affords is great, but it is true that it's very costly in JP terms - if you go for it, you'll only be left with enough JP for Esuna, and nothing else. Esuna is handy but situational; you'll miss it when it's needed, but it won't be needed in every battle, so going for Reraise + Esuna is basically committing to spending some time at the beginning of every battle to cast a few Reraise, or the JP will feel wasted. Of course, self-casting Reraise is the next best thing to immortality - hard for the enemy to win if your resurrection unit self-resurrects.
Not going for Reraise opens the door for spending those extra 1010 JP on Arise + Curaga (1050, so one action away before you can actually buy both), or Arise + Regen (950, so can be taken immediately and leave you with just Curaga to collect JP for), or Curaga + Regen (750, with about half of Arise's JP collected and the rest to be collected later). If you don't care about Esuna, there still isn't enough JP to get all three of Curaga + Arise + Regen (you'd be 40 JP short, so two actions), but you can take two and then the third after the next fight.
I would say that you absolutely want Curaga on your healer, especially if you're not planning on boosting MA, and while Arise is slow-casting, sometimes you really want to get certain units up at full health, rather than half.
Regen is a great buff to cast when you've nothing else to do and works especially well on self-sufficient units like Dragoons, ones that move far away from the healer and so might need extra health before the healer can get in range like Ninja, and units that just take a lot of actions, like Ramza. It's not always good for every team, but it can be, and especially with a team like yours, I would absolutely find the space to buy the ability.
I'd say that it's fine to keep being a White Mage until you've gotten all of those spells - Holy, Reraise, Arise, Curaga, Regen and Esuna - while using your Talkskill to keep raising everybody's faith to 80 (Ramza alone could go up to 97 if you manage it) and only after you've got all of those spells should you think about moving to get a different secondary skillset.
As for which one, well - there is that class which is unlocked if you have 5 level in White and Black Mage, and 4 in Time Mage and Mystic; as you have already two of those requirements fulfilled, cycling through the other two classes would let you judge whether you like either Black Magic or Time Magic more than you do Speechcraft or Mystics Arts as a secondary, and then you can compare the last class' secondary skillset (after you learn it through errands, it'd take too long in battle) and see if that is more to your liking than any of the others.
Or, if you don't want to bother with all of that, once you're finished with the White Magic skillset, just move back to Orator, putting White Magic as secondary, and buy yourself Equip Shield from Knight (you already have the JP for it, from what I see); that'll probably work very well, if you don't want to go through the effort of unlocking the special class for mages nor feel the interest in going Mystic to master their skillset.
Speaking of Mystics, since you have the JP for it, you might want to buy Manafont, which is one of the better movement abilities for a mage. At least trying it out and getting a sense for how it works and whether you enjoy it could be fun.
Having an Attack Boost Ninja seems perfectly fine to me; the question there is what you want as a secondary, and the answer to that will likely have to wait until you check out what Dancer has and deciding if that's a good skillset for you, or not.
I find that whether somebody enjoys using the Dancer's skillset is a matter of taste, as it's an high risk/high reward skillset that some people love and others hate, and whose damage-dealing abilities actually benefit from Attack Boost, so, if you end up liking it, it would slide into your build very well.
Aside from that, I would give you the same recommendations I gave for Hadrian, ie, go Item or go Time Magic, since you already have the ranged attack option in Throw. Alternatively, Ninja can actually be pretty effective with Martial Arts, although you'd need to sacrifice Attack Boost for Brawler, and go barehanded, to get the best out of that setup. It could still be worth trying out, as you appear to have sunk a lot of JP on Monk already and to have the JP saved up to buy Brawler if you miss it.
That's if for recommendations from me; make of them what you will!
I prefer the Reflexes ability, though ironically not on a Ninja since you need a shield and cloak to get the most of it.
With the equipment Omi has available, you could get a 16% phys - 35% magic hit chance from the front and sides and 50% from the back.
With the equipment you can buy later on you can get that down to a 4% phys - 28% magic hit chance from the front and sides and 20% - 40% from the back.
Unless of course the enemy uses unavoidable attacks.
I didn't have any good expectations of Ramza's meeting with Zalbaag but that was a pretty cold rebuke and disowning of him. Yet even with the Inquisition showing up with figurative guns out to capture Ramza, there's a consolation: our hero was able to reunite with his younger sister. And honestly, I love that scene, their mutually stubborn clash about Alma's intentions to accompany him followed by bargaining in this very convincingly sibling-like way to which Ramza has no choice but to relent, are very fun. Alma's got some sass, and she's not wrong that there's likely no safety for her in staying with the older Beoulve siblings as it stands, not to mention after becoming involved in this tangle with the Church. Ramza is the only person who might truly be able to look out for her in the midst of this increasingly dangerous political scheme.
I wonder how Ramza's fortunate meeting with Orran Durai might throw a wrench into ongoing plans by influencing Cidolfus's decisions...
Dycedarg: "In order to help fund this war, I've recruited some of the greatest financial minds from lands near and far. I'm pleased to announce our new, completely normal, Minster of Finance... Baron NORGberg!"
Dycedarg: "In order to help fund this war, I've recruited some of the greatest financial minds from lands near and far. I'm pleased to announce our new, completely normal, Minster of Finance... Baron NORGberg!"
Listen, we can question the ethics of Baron NORGberg's practice of recruiting and deploying child soldiers, but one thing is for sure, and it's that the Duchy's budget has been turning a profit ever since he was brought on board, and you can't argue with results.
Listen, we can question the ethics of Baron NORGberg's practice of recruiting and deploying child soldiers, but one thing is for sure, and it's that the Duchy's budget has been turning a profit ever since he was brought on board, and you can't argue with results.
Listen, we can question the ethics of Baron NORGberg's practice of recruiting and deploying child soldiers, but one thing is for sure, and it's that the Duchy's budget has been turning a profit ever since he was brought on board, and you can't argue with results.
Listen, we can question the ethics of Baron NORGberg's practice of recruiting and deploying child soldiers, but one thing is for sure, and it's that the Duchy's budget has been turning a profit ever since he was brought on board, and you can't argue with results.
Listen, we can question the ethics of Baron NORGberg's practice of recruiting and deploying child soldiers, but one thing is for sure, and it's that the Duchy's budget has been turning a profit ever since he was brought on board, and you can't argue with results.
Hear ye, hear ye! 'Tis the year of our lord 2024, and it has come to pass that Ramza Beoulve has once more crossed paths with a foe from his past, in the process revealing more of the true nature of the conspiracy he's arrayed against!
The Story So Far: Ramza Beoulve, renegade scion of the noble House Beoulve, has uncovered a conspiracy that manipulates the events behind the War of the Lions, in pursuit of Zodiac Stone carrying the power of an ancient evil. Having reunited with his sister Alma, he now hurries to Orbonne Monastery, where the Virgo Stone is hidden…
…but not before taking a few weeks' break to do errands and random battles.
I. Why Is The Doll Back
Not much to say there. Story encounters are outpacing our level at a considerable rate so we need to do some catch up. My usual approach is to split the team by sending the generics on errands while traveling with the story characters, with Alicia filling in the last slot. The Errands are mostly more mining stuff (including a spooky encounter with the ghost of a minor still at work), and we get a couple of new trophies such as an Enchanted Pistol from the before-time and a giant fucking sword that sadly isn't a weapon we can equip. Once of the Errands actually involves our group getting scammed by a con artist who sells them the location of a normal shipwreck as the ship of the legendary King Mesa, which is a delightful little spin on the upteenth shipwreck salvage we do. We also take part in a fantasy science faire, for which our reward is…
AAAAAH WHAT THE FUCK
NO, DON'T TELL ME-
CALCOBRENA!? The doll is back from my nightmares in hell. What do you mean, they're popular with children? What do you mean they trap these children's souls what the fuck
Moving on.
In Which The Writing Upsets Me
After half a dozen random battles and about as many Errands, I feel like I'm finally in a good place to tackle more of the story; several of my characters have developed new skills and quit weird jobs I had them in just to access other jobs or one specific ability and are back to something resembling the builds that I posted in my last non-standard update. It's time to forge ahead.
Ramza and Alma enter to find a scene of devastation. Several of the priests/monks are dead on the ground, and Elder Simon is gravely injured. Still, he is roused to consciousness and tells Alma she must leave at once, the place is not safe.
Elder Simon: "Men have come… seeking the stone." Ramza: "A Zodiac Stone? Then it is as Alma said!" Elder Simon: "The Virgo Stone is one of… one of the crown jewels of Ivalice. It was given into our keeping when Lady Ovelia was brought here for her fosterage… as proof of her royalty." Ramza: "And the ones come to take it - who are they?" Elder Simon: "You are… Alma's elder brother? Ramza, was it not? I beg you, my son - leave them be. Block their way, and they will only cut you down."
[Then, voices from outside the room.] Man's Voice: "Where's the bloody Stone!?" Second Man's Voice: "Patience! It's here somewhere. We need only look harder!" Third Man's Voice: "Come, this leads to the lower vaults!" Ramza: "I am branded a heretic and hunted by the church. Am I to assume these Stones I now possess are the reason? Who are these men? Please, I must know!" Elder Simon: "...Very well. High Confessor Marcel and his followers seek to restore the Church to prominence. As a first step, they have set Dukes Larg and Goltanna against one another to whittle down their military might. The longer the fighting lasts, the weaker the dukes become - and the more the people lose their faith in the Crown." Ramza: "And by gathering these Stones, and reviving the Zodiac Braves? What do they hope to gain from such a show?" Elder Simon: "The support of the people, of course." Ramza: "Truly? The Cardinal used his Stone to infuse himself with the strength of the Lucavi. If such is the power of the Zodiac Stones, it is a power to rival that of any army. Is that strength not what the High Confessor seeks?" Elder Simon: "You are unlike your brothers. You remind me a great deal more of your late lord father. You - you may well have what is needed to put a stop to their ambitions."
Interestingly, Elder Simon didn't actually answer Ramza's question, he avoided it while praising him. But the picture is becoming clearer now: As suspected earlier, this is a conspiracy by the church to reclaim its power of the realm. What's intriguing is that they may not actually know about the true demonic power of the auracite? They may think the Stones hold a generic kind of magic power, or even that they're just baubles that are significant because of their cultural importance. More on this later.
Elder Simon knowing all this is intriguing - either he was associated with the conspiracy and defected for whatever reason, or he somehow just learned all this from the men who just barged in and stabbed everyone. We won't get much more answers out of him at this stage, though; Ramza decides he has to stop the intruders before they get their hands on the Stone.
Which is where the game makes what I would call its first bit of actually bad writing.
Alma wants to follow Ramza into the vaults, but Ramza tells her that they can't just leave the wounded Simon alone, she needs to stay with him and find a place to hide until his return. Which is sensible enough, and is definitely at least half Ramza finding a sensible-enough reason to keep Alma from going with him in harm's way.
But then.
He gives. The two Zodiac Stones. To Alma.
Words cannot express how hard my eyes rolled out of my skull when I saw this. This is just - fuck me, this is stupid. It's the most telegraphed move in existence. There is zero chance we're getting those back. We have effectively already lost the Zodiac Stones the moment Ramza makes this decision, and the entire next bit of the story is just walking ourselves to the point where it actually happens.
I understand that the writers probably needed the enemies to get the stones for plot reasons, so it had to happen somehow, but they could have expended literally any effort at all selling it to the player. I could buy this if there was at least the tiniest attempt at making it sound not fucking stupid. Like, one of the story characters Ramza is accompanied by could step off to guard Alma. Any number of our soldier units could be left behind to act as a close guard, and then be defeated later in a suitably dramatic off-screen battle. Of course, the game can't actually do that, because it has to make sure that it's technically possible to dismiss every non-Ramza party member and play the entire game solo, but I don't know, maybe it could have given us a temporary guest member before reaching Orbonne?
I guess not. Ramza is just handing the two precious stones that his enemies are after to a defenseless child whom he says to stay behind, unprotected, and burdened by a severely injured old man.
At least Ramza has a cool line where he tells Alma that if he doesn't make it back she should throw the Stones into the Bugross Sea, which is a fun move, but then this is followed by random sexism.
Alma: "It pains me that I can do no more at times like this. How I wish I'd been born a man like you." Ramza: "Don't be ridiculous! Who would I ever turn to if I didn't have my little sister?"
I understand that cultural sexism likely does exist in Ivalice even though women can serve in the army, but girls, what the fuck are you talking about. You're a Cleric who can cast the strongest buff spell in the entire game. You live in a world where women can become Holy Knights who obliterate people by calling on swords of divine light. Where does that even come from?
Whatever, let's move on.
II. One Dragoon vs Three? It's Hardly Fair… For Them!
And with this bit of dialogue, we finally have a name by which to call our enemies: the Knight Templars, or "Templarate." Good to know. This is our first time dealing with enemy Dragoons and they brought three of them. If they're even half as strong as Hadrian we're in for some trouble. (Turns out they aren't.)
The enemy team is on paper very strong: Two Time Mages, a Chemist, and three Dragoons. With Time Magic to support the physical attacks and hobble my party, a Chemist to chuck potions at people, and three powerful physical classes to screen our access to the back line, this could be a real threat. Especially because they're on average much higher level than us, and better equipped. Look at this asshole:
At lv 25, this guy is high level than Ramza, he's wielding a better spear than Hadrian has access to, and he has several platinum items. Of course, the game also rolled him a Wizard's Robe in the body slot, which would be great if he was, y'know, a wizard, and he has no Support, Movement, or Reaction Abilities (Reequip doesn't count), so he's actually not really that good (look at this Move rating. Three tiles. Lmao).
Their main problem, though, is that their positioning is dogshit. Generally speaking, in FFT, it's better to be up than down, and we start with the verticality advantage. Two of the Dragons slowly clamber up the steps, while Ramza just moves in between them and smacks them both with a Binding Darkness.
Then Agrias and Mustadio blast the front Dragoon from range, bringing him into critical, while Gillian casts a Protect on herself and Mustadio. The enemy Dragoons do retaliate, moving up and flanking Gillian, poking her with their spears from range, so it's not all roses, but once the situation has unfolded after a turn and a half, well, look:
You can hopefully see the shape of the problem here: While the Dragoons' high Jump allows them to hop straight past those stairs, the Mages and Chemist have to actually climb them, and they're circuitous, so they actually spend several turns out of support range of their allies who jumped the gun too eagerly instead of withdrawing closer to their allies. Meanwhile, check out my range:
Unbroken line of sight to pretty much the entire map thanks to being upstairs. The same applies to Hadrian's Jump range, although… Well, here's the thing.
As I've said before, I had Hadrian spent a stint as a Samurai to learn Doublehand, allowing him to wield his spear in two hands for an increase in attacking power. This power does not apply to Jump, sadly, but Jump still gets bonus damage from using a Spear, so it's fine. It's just that, whereas before I wanted Hadrian to occupy a central position hopefully away from enemies to target any target with Jump, now I actually want him to engage in melee, because…
A Doublehand spear attack against an enemy in casting stance (probably good zodiac compatibility too, though I didn't check) is 240 damage, killing the Chemist instantly. Meanwhile, Agrias's new Sword Skill, DIVINE RUINATION, is an 8-tile, straight-line shockwave-type attack which has a chance to inflict Confuse, which it does, turning one of the enemy Dragoons useless.
Gillian heals herself with Cura, one of the Time Mages has no other option than just casting Haste on himself, the second one manages to land a Slow on Agrias but also targets the Dragoon next to her in the process, one of the Dragoons tries to hit Ramza and gets First Striked for his trouble. The only thing even mildly going these guys' way is that one of the TMM then manages to cast Immobilize on Ramza… But Iaido has range, so he still takes out the Dragoon next to him.
The last surviving enemy Dragoon finally decides to Jump, but it seems that the AI does not properly check for turn count when doing so, meaning I can literally just have Agrias move out from the targeted tile and hunt down the last remaining Time Mage who has resorted to fleeing to the bottom of the map.
Once the Time Mage is down, we just wait for the Dragoon to land, whiffing his Jump, and then Agrias finishes him off. All in all, despite the enemy's superior levels and on-paper good team composition, this was a totally oppressive victory.
Unfortunately, while we were clowning on these guys, Temple Knight Isilud found what he's looking for. We hurry down to the lower vaults in hope that we might get him before he turns into a fucked up Hellraiser atrocity or something, with a save prompt and an opportunity to access the party roster in between that we don't really need, everything is going great so far.
I mean, combat-wise. Narratively we're rushing headlong into disaster. But in gameplay we're doing fine.
III. Isilud, the Nightblade
Isilud: "The mongrel follows our scent! Mayhap it is for the best. Heretic! I shall have the Stones you carry!" Ramza: "You will have an offer of mercy, and naught more. Lay down the Stones you've taken and you may flee with your lives." Isilud: "I've no more need of your mercy than for you. If you want the Stone, come and claim it!"
God I love No Chill Ramza. "You will have an offer of mercy and naught more" goes hard. A surprising amount of Ramza's lines do, compared to how low-key he was at the start of the game.
The terrain situation is trickier this time around. The battlefield is made up of a series of arches, which can be climbed, so this field rewards a good Jump rating. Thankfully, I recently bought my whole team boots that grant +1 Move, +1 Jump, so we should be mostly fine.
Isilud has a special class, Nightblade, which the select cursor describes as, "a fearsome warrior steeped in the dark power to which he is bound. He cleaves enemies with a ghastly glowing blade." Which sounds incredibly cool, but in practice he's like a spiced up Knight:
He doesn't appear to have special magical sword moves or anything, he just use Rend X moves and has Jump, Counter, and Ignore Elevation, which will serve him well in this battle.
The enemy team composition is one Summoner, two Archers, two Knights, and the Nighblade himself, so as long as we can take out the Summoner quickly we shouldn't be in too much trouble.
Like so.
I have my party stick to the arches, Gillian stays close to Ramza and casts Protect on the both of them, while Hadrian starts Goomba-stomping the enemy Knights due to having accidentally moved the wrong way to attack the SMN instead.
Isilud gets up on the arches and squares up against Ramza in a direct duel - with the arch only one tile wide, nobody can come in from the side. This leads to a really cool interaction:
Isilud prepares to attack, Ramza prevents his attack with First Strike, but Ramza's own strike is blocked by Isilud's shield. That was some real high-speed swordplay, in a turn by turn game! I'm obviously not overjoyed at losing my free damage, but this was a very fun interaction to see in action.
The Knights are now following me up in the rafters, hitting Hadrian for some solid damage, while the Archers are taking shots at Mustadio who is unfortunately exposed without cover, and the Summoner is just hiding at the edge of the screen, frustratingly hard to reach. In fact…
The Archers actually focus fire on Mustadio, bringing him down in a couple of hits. This means the first kill is theirs, and for once it could be us on the wrong side of a death snowball.
At least Gillian is close to his body and shielded by Ramza and Hadrian, so I can have Agrias disregard his dying gasps and just hop over to inflict DIVINE RUINATION on the Archer and Summoner unwisely standing in a single file.
This takes care of the Summoner, so we've evened out the scale. It's Ramza's turn to go again and, well. I'm only now realizing that Isilud as one hundred more HP than Ramza does. He's also got strong evade odds, so I stick to Iaido, which as far as I'm aware can't miss. It's just Binding Darkness spam all day.
We'll most likely have to kill everyone before we can focus on Isilud, even though defeating him would end the battle immediately - he's too tanky to kill conventionally with this many enemies cramping our style. Fortunately, we have some powerful assets on our side.
Hadrian takes out a Knight with a 160 damage attack, Gillian casts Raise to bring Mustadio back to 50% HP, and Isilud's next turn comes up and with it, some dialogue.
Isilud: "Why do you persist in this fool resistance, Ramza? You are a Beoulve! Why do you not heed your brothers' counsel? Why!?" Ramza: "It is *because* I am a Beoulve I do not heed them! The Beoulve name stands for truth and justice! It is not a tool to be used for selfish gain! My lord father fought and died defending our people against Ordallia in the Fifty Years' War. House Beoulve cannot now turn on its purpose and fight for the interests of a corrupt Crown and self-serving aristocracy!" Isilud: "Then let it fight for ours! What we wish for is the same! Hear me, Ramza!"
Isilud: "The Church of Glabados envisions a world devoid of class divides - a world where all men can live as equals! Saint Ajora spoke of such a utopia. It is the Promised Land he foretold! Fear and doubt worry the hearts of the people, leaving small room for fealty. You see this! Ivalice lists, Ramza, and threatens to founder! Should we fail to right its course, this storm *will* claim her!" Ramza: "It is you who churn the waves! You orchestrate this entire conflict! You claim *war* to be the proper course for Ivalice!?" Isilud: "Change does not come without cost! Revolution requires martyr, and we require revolution! The Crown is rotten, the nobility corrupt! They must be made to pay! The people deserve their justice! Help us deliver it to them, Ramza! Join us, as your once friend Delita has!"
…
I mean.
It's definitely a better sales pitch than Cardinal Delacroix's.
I am going to take a wild guess that a non-zero number of people reading this paragraph right now are already in the reply box typing "so why can't we just join them again?" And like, you know, that's fair. Except the group promising us an end to all class divide aren't principled anarchists, they're loyalists of a hierarchical theocratic organization that features a complex internal hierarchy, an inquisition punishing religious deviation, and a supreme authority embodied in one man, and also they're powering their class revolution with demon stones, so…
I think it's fair of Ramza to give it a pass.
Isilud follows up his little speech by deciding not to test the strength of Ramza's First Strike again and instead hops over to Gillian for a stab. This turns out to be only a small break between two dialogue beats:
Ramza: "Were it justice you desired, I would gladly help you see it done. But what you truly want is power. Power beyond that of any army. You would free the people only to enslave them anew with the demonic power of the Stones!" Isilud: "*Demonic* power? The Zodiac Stones are vessels for the *gods!*" We would use their divine miracles to guide the people to greater glory! There is nothing *demonic* in that!" Ramza: "Few would consider it divine miracle when a man is made a demon. Or do you pretend not to know that their power transformed the cardinal into a Lucavi?" Isilud: "What nonsense is that? The only demon I see here stands before me! Was it not you who murdered the cardinal for the Stone he possessed? Not that he would have lived long gathering the Stones behind our backs as he was!"
Okay, that's really interesting. Isilud doesn't register as insincere in this exchange - he seems to genuinely be confused by what Ramza is spewing. And he also reveals that Delacroix was acting behind the Templars' backs - it's clear he was part of the conspiracy, but it seems like he conducted his own, personal conspiracy-within-the-conspiracy. Delacroix was deeply corrupt, and sought the Stones' power for himself, rather than the Templars' goals. Now, it's entirely possible and even likely that the upper echelons of the Templar conspiracy are some degree of self-interested or hypocritical, but at the very least they're selling a much better party line to lieutenants like Isilud, who appears to be a true believer.
And if they don't know the true nature of the Stones… Hm. Either the leadership knows, and are concealing the truth from the lower ranks, or they genuinely don't realize that the power they seek to gather is actually tainted and evil. Interesting!
Anyway the enemy Archers take turn just dunking on Mustadio who immediately goes down again.
Fuck's sake.
IT'S FINE. I'LL JUST RAISE HIM AGAIN.
Agrias keeps following the left-side Archer, hitting him with Divine Ruination for 70 damage a pop and slowly working her way down his HP. On the other side of the screen, Hadrian is duelling against the surviving Knight on the narrow arch; the enemy attempts to Rend Weapon twice, which would really fuck up my strategy, but thankfully it doesn't work and Hadrian retaliates with another 160 damage hit, driving the Knight to flee to the other end of the arch, where Hadrian pursues and finishes him off.*
Unfortunately, while I'm busy doing this, I'm not keeping a close enough eye on Gillian, and Isilud sneaks around the main melee, corners her at the end of her arch, and KO's her.
Mustadio, already again in critical HP after taking another Archer hit right after Raise, nonetheless picks off the Archer that Ramza cornered downstairs, then Agrias corners her own fleeing Archer and takes him down. At this point, Isilud is the only opponent remaining in the field, and we're free to focus on him, right after MUSTADIO GOES DOWN A FOURTH TIME
ARE YOU KIDDING ME.
It doesn't matter. Isilud is alone and he's going down.
The bastard proves shockingly resilient and quite evasive, including this shrewd move above: By placing himself with his back against a downed character, he can't be cornered. Nobody can occupies Gillian's tile or the Summoner's, the arch is too high up to hit from the flanks, and I can't access a tile adjacent to Gillian at low elevation and therefore can't use a Phoenix Down to raise her. This means Isilud has managed to escape the flanking scenario and force a 1v1 with Hadrian.
Unfortunately for him, this means he is now in a 1v1 with Hadrian.
The closest our man has yet come to defeat.
Isilud goes down, then rises to one knee.
Isilud: "I will not be bested by this heretic! But nor will I risk death for honor here. Delivering the Stones is of far greater import. Know this, Ramza: The day of our next meeting will be your last!"
Sure, buddy. Whatever you need to tell yourself.
Obviously, this is followed by him teleporting away.
I originally didn't mind this particular device, but it's starting to grate a little. I'm not the kind of reader who gets mad when protagonists fail to secure their kills, for the most part - I like recurring villains and am often sad when they die. But the cutscene teleport has turned from "shorthand for 'the antagonist escaped somehow'" into "magical power that activates at will to allow antagonists to survive as the plot requires." It's a crutch that is never explained diegetically and is not represented in the mechanics (we know Teleport is an actual ability one can learn, but it doesn't do that) and this is, what, the fifth time I watch an antagonist press the escape button and evade flawlessly while my characters just stand around and let them do it?
Whatever, let's move on.
And by "move on" I mean "turn around," because Isilud had the stone with him when he escaped and he's definitely going to be trying to flee the monastery, which means we need to hurry back to the upper vault levels, where we'll find…
Cut for image count.
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Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 12.B: Orbonne Monastery, Revisited
IV. The Most Predictable Plot Twist In Hist-WAIT, HE'S BACK!?
Heavy sigh.
Alma has been found in whatever her hiding spot was, and Isilud is now holding her and taking the Stones from her. Because of course he is. He didn't just teleport out of battle; he teleported into a strategic victory. We won the tactical battle, but it didn't matter, because Isilud pressed the "I escape flawlessly, steal the stones and abduct Ramza's sister on the way out" button and achieved a total win on all his objectives at the cost of just getting beat up a little in the process.
But never mind that, it's time to be hype for the return of one of the most interesting characters in this game.
Wiegraf: "Isilud, I will secure the monastery. Take the girl and go." Isilud: "C'mon, no need to struggle!" Alma: "Ramza! Help me!"
[Isilud leaves, dragging Alma with him.] Wiegraf: "So, Ramza Beoulve is here. Do not be deceived by his youth. He is a worthy foe. Gird yourselves well for battle!"
Wiegraf: "Milleuda, you will soon be avenged."
So, Wiegraf, whatever happened to "taking children hostage is beneath our honor"? How things change, huh?
Yeah, I think putting in the earlier cutscene was absolutely the correct move here. I don't know if it messes up the timeline or whatever, but it would be wild for Wiegraf to show up here with three lines of dialogue and no explanation, just Instant Holy Sword. Which, I'm sure, is why some like it, but like… I think you need more buildup for something like that.
Also, there is always something just inherently badass about a guy showing up and saying "Go ahead, I'll hold them back," and somehow it's more badass when it's one of the villains doing it, precisely because it's classically heroic behavior.
But yes. Wiegraf has clearly thrown in with the Templar Knights, which further reinforces the idea that there's at least a significant number of true believers in their upper ranks - if the leadership is corrupt/evil, it'll be a twist and a betrayal of people like Isilud and Wiegraf.
I want to say that the opening of this battle as a battle is incredibly funny. You see, this is our battle screen; Ramza and his team are already on the other side of this wall, but because it stands in the way, we don't see them. By the time the "OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT WIEGRAF!" screen appears, our characters haven't shown up, and the first thing we see…
Is Wiegraf going through the doorway, the camera turning to reveal our party, and Wiegraf instantly blasting us with Judgment Blade. Which, because we have no choice but to start in a packed formation, means he can always hit at least three characters at a time with his opening move.
For 108 damage and Stop.
(Stop affects Agrias, shutting her down for the remainder of this fight, which means we're not getting the White Knight vs Holy Knight duel of the fates. This is extremely sadge.)
This is completely overwhelming. Three characters taking 108 damage and one of them being tagged with Stop before my first action is an absolutely devastating opener. And that's on top of Wiegraf rocking the same HP as Isilud despite worse equipment - Wiegraf rolled a White Robe instead of heavy armor, he could be even worse.
Like, I reloaded the start of the fight some time after finishing it to capture some extra footage, and look at this:
In this version, his opener instantly killed Gillian and Mustadio and deleted more than 50% of Hadrian's HP.
Also, his entire party is made up of badasses who are lv 24-25. Two Knights, two Archers, a Black Mage - not a particularly impressive lineup but unlike in the first battle, we are this time on the wrong side of the height differential; those Archers only have to exit these doors at the top to have us completely surrounded with long range attacks.
The first battle of the Vaults was a total stomp in our favor. The second one was an even match against peer opponents. The third one is one we'll have to barely scrape by to win.
There's no two ways about this: We need to actually rush the objective. No careful cleaning of the enemy threats. Wiegraf appeared in front of us, and his party will be delayed by a turn getting to us. In that one turn, we have to pour as much damage as we possibly can on him.
After the initial dialogue that takes place when Ramza gets his first turn..
Ramza: "Wiegraf! You live?" Wiegraf: "I have lived for this, Ramza. How long has it been since last we met?" Ramza: "Then you were a warrior who fought to make your dream a reality. Now you are only a thrall of the Church." Wiegraf: "What troubled sleep have you known, to speak of my dreams? No matter how sweet, a dream left unrealized must fade into day. Only with power can dreams be made real! I see the truth of it now. What good, dreams, without that power? You think me a thrall? So be it! Your envenomed words succor me, for when at last you yield - as you must - their poison will consume you!"
Yeah, this ties directly into how the first thing we see him do on his return is order Isilud to take Alma captive, the very thing he once scolded Gragoroth for doing - our man is fully blackpilled. You ever beat someone so hard their entire code of ethics evaporates?
Alright, so. Our objective here is to deal as much damage as possible to Wiegraf before his party closes in, he goes again, and our entire team collapses.
Cloudsea Curse is Ramza's newest Iaido move, dealing higher damage than Binding Darkness and with a chance to inflict Slow (sadly it doesn't take). That's 98 damage out of Wiegraf's 334 HP. Next, Hadrian flanks him on the other side and stabs him with his spear - no Jump, up close and personal for more damage from Doublehand Spear.
The "1" hadn't appeared on the screen when I pressed the screenshot, but this was actually 180 damage.
Wiegraf actually knows Counter, and so he attempts to hit back, but fortunately Hadrian blocks the attack with Parry. I move Gillian next to Ramza so that she can cast Cura for some sustain. Wiegraf has now taken 278 damage, driving him into critical HP.
This was actually a lot faster than I thought, by the time Mustadio's turn comes up, I move him up the stairs, and I have Wiegraf dead to rights:
This is a 100% accuracy shot that would take Wiegraf down on the spot.
I hesitate. This went by so fast I didn't even have the chance for any further in-combat dialogue. The odds seem very high that, if we let Wiegraf have his turn, he would deliver more dialogue. Things have gone well enough in this turn, and I basically have a firing squad surrounding him - one gunner on each side up the stairs, two melee jobs in close range… I decide to chance it, and pass Mustadio's turn.
Ramza: "I pity you, Wiegraf. Even as a man of broken dreams, you might still have been remembered fondly. Your ideas lifted the people, showed them the cracks in the age-old facade of the aristocracy. You acted on your convictions, and so ennobled those actions! But what would the people think now? What would Milleuda and your fallen friends think of this barter you've struck? Dreams built on borrowed stone are defiled before they are made!" Wiegraf: "What have you done that did not rely on the labor of others? From birth you have wanted for nothing! You can not know what it is to live the meager life we do. Reason may trick you to believe you do, but your heart can never know! Harsh is the world in which we live. Harsher still than you can imagine. You have neither right nor reason to pour scorn on me!"
Aaaah, yeah, baby. Sweet sweet drama and grand speeches and big feelings, inject this straight into my veins. Ramza telling Wiegraf, easily the most powerful non-demonic opponent we've ever faced, I pity you, hits so hard. And Wiegraf's point isn't entirely wrong either, Ramza can't truly know the lived experience of poverty, but Wiegraf is using it as an excuse to sell out to a conspiracy and betray his old ideals to the point that even his own enemy can see it and call him out on it… Yeah, baby.
Of course then Wiegraf gets his turn, hits Ramza with the Northwain's Strike and escapes our hold, then the Knights go again and stab my carefully positioned gunners in the back, and the Archer takes her turn and KOs Ramza.
Ramza is down, Mustadio is in critical, Gillian is wounded, Agrias is also there, the situation would be a disaster, except:
Wiegraf: "I hold the Zodiac Stone… Aries. I will not… fall so… easily!"
Dragoon saves the day and ends the fight.
So what happens next?
Why do you even ask. Wiegraf teleports, of course.
Ramza: "Damn you, Wiegraf!"
Whatever. We just have to roll with it, because the cutscene that follows is incredibly cool and probably extremely important. As Ramza curses Wiegraf and we get our rewards for victory, we move to the outside. It looks like Wiegraf did not escape the battle uninjured - in fact, he's barely able to crawl on the ground to the outside of the monastery.
V. There Is A Knife For You. It Is Shaped Like [Giant Monster Form]
Wiegraf tells Isilud to leave without him, just as Ramza emerges out of the monastery. With the chocobo's "backseat" already taken up by Alma, Isilud can't help carry Wiegraf out there - almost like the game is trying to imply something about the moral costs of ruthlessness without saying it! Isilud begs for Wiegraf's forgiveness and rides away, so that's Alma and the Stones in our enemy's hand - I'm not feeling any less bitter about this than I did at the start of the update, by the way.
Wiegraf: "Is this… how it ends…? I have… failed Milleuda. Failed them all. A bitter draught… So much left… undone…"
Whatever his claims earlier, whatever plot device nonsense let him escape us, Wiegraf is terribly injured and straining himself. He's very clearly dying. Could Ramza save him? Maybe. Would Ramza save him? Also maybe - if nothing else he has value as someone to interrogate, and if Ramza has the means to help him, he might do it just out of principle. Would Wiegraf allow himself to be saved by Ramza? That I'm not so sure about.
But then.
The Aries Stone rolls out of Wiegraf's armor, and begins to levitate and pulsate with light.
Aries:God Stone bearer, with me now do treat. Ramza: "The auracite… it speaks?" Aries: God Stone bearer, with me now do treat. Your spirit and my flesh as one shall merge. Life undying yours forever more. Wiegraf: "Is this the Stones' great secret?" Aries: Your ire and despair, their call I heed. And so once more I ask: With me do treat. Ramza: "Wiegraf, no! It means to deceive you!" Wiegraf: "Help me… I beg you…"
Motherfucker, the Stone also speaks in iambic pentameter.
Or, wait. It doesn't?
Fuck, I'm bad at this. Let's see:
God/Stone/Bear/er/with/me/now/do/treat
That's nine feet, one short, and it feels like the stresses should be God stone bearer with me now do treat, which would be a trochaic whatevertheninemeter is? Hm. Tricky. Maybe my breakdown is wrong.
It still does feel strongly poetic, and suggests that Cardinal Delacroix was under the mental influence of the Scorpio Stone in his Cuchulainn form - the poetic meter, whichever it is, is the way the Stones speak, and once transformed, becomes the way the bearer speaks. They are no longer fully themselves, in more than just appearance and power - at least, we'll see this confirmed within moments if Wiegraf goes through with the transformation.
As if there was any chance he wouldn't.
Aries: The Gigas Belias have I been named. Your plea to answer now my only wish.
[Lights, the screen shakes; Wiegraf appears transformed.]
Belias: "Is this the wonder of the auracite?" Ramza: "Wiegraf!?" Belias: [He turns to face Ramza.] "Magnificent, the pow'r of the gods! Nay, not only pow'r - so much more. Sights unknown I see. My mind a vessel filled with wisdom of a thousand years."
[Ramza draws his sword.] Belias: "Ha! You hurry towards your end, alas too soon." [Thunder booms.] "Such power… Such power!"
[He Fucking Teleports Away.]
Oh my fucking god.
Whatever. Given how powerful Wiegraf was in the last encounter, facing him now with a sudden infusion of auracite power would probably kill us all. So in this instance, it is actually the enemy doing us a favor by bailing out - it's just genuinely kind of incredible that this is the third time in this update alone that our enemy just Cutscene Teleports away from us.
Unlike Cuchulainn, I'm not sure about the name 'Belias.' The Biblical devil Belial is most likely the inspiration, and his name does appear to have been at times rendered as 'Belias.' As for why Wiegraf's demonic form would be named after one of the many faces of the Literal Devil, I think there is a very funny explanation as to why that particular name was picked:
"Belias" sounds like "Bélier." And bélier is French… for "ram." The animal which the Aries sign represents.
Given the implications of Zodiac influence on the ones transformed by them, I suspect that by the time we meet Wiegraf/Belias again, he'll have completed his arc of moral degradation and fully lost his way. With that said - it's interesting that the Stones grant a transformation that doesn't appear to be a temporary power-up, but a permanent change that also makes the bearer immortal?
How will Wiegraf manage to continue his part in the Templar Conspiracy now that he looks like a twelve-feet tall sheepman? We'll find out eventually, I'm sure.
Right now, Elder Simon stumbles out of the monastery and into Ramza's arms.
Elder Simon: "I… I had to bring you this."
[He shows Ramza something.] Ramza: "A book?" Elder Simon: "Written by a man named Germonique… one of Saint Ajora's disciples. It was lost for a great many years. Only recently did I discover it among the stacks of our reliquary beneath the monastery. It chronicles the true tale of the Zodiac Braves - no detail is omitted." Ramza: "Please, Elder, you'll tire yourself." Elder Simon: "I am already… so very tired… I have lived a life of sin. All these years I have turned a blind eye as the Church rotted with corruption. With this book, you can expose their misdeeds! You can win… Alma's freedom…" Ramza: "Please, Elder!"
[Elder Simon closes his eyes.] Elder Simon: "Ahh. It is done. My mind is now at ease. The rest, Ramza… depends on you. You… you really are the very image of Barbaneth in his youth… you know…"
[Elder Simon slumps into Ramza's arms, his life fading.] Ramza: "Elder Simon, no!"
Well.
That certainly was some plot developments, goddamn. Some good, some bad - this is the first time I'm having mixed feelings towards FFT's narrative. On the whole though, a great set of battles gameplay-wise, and some real flair in Wiegraf's presentation, his tragedy, and his transformation. Our enemies remain moved by deeply sympathetic motivations, even if it leads them astray and into corruption.
I'll need to grind some more, though - I enjoy a fair amount of challenge, but I don't want to be cornered in another situation where I have no choice but to zero down the boss and potentially miss dialogue again. Especially because it made me feel like a total rat - Wiegraf showed up clad in shining armor wielding divine power (his Job description for White Knight literally says "A pious knight clad in pure white armor. His untarnished soul enables him to wield a Holy Sword to smite his enemies.") and I immediately shanked him from multiple sides like a pack of wolves tearing apart a majestic deer.
Alright, that'll do for us today-
Hm?
What's this?
Oh, alright, fine.
We can read the big book that Elder Simon gave his dying breath to ensure would be passed onto us.
Wait, first - let's check out the Chronicles for Isilud's page.
…
Wow! Turns out he's not just Some Guy, he is in fact the son of Lord Folmarv - you know, the guy who revealed to Ovelia that she was a fake princess? And this tab reveals to us something we have no way of knowing, that Folmarv is not in fact some high-ranking officer in the templarate conspiracy, but its boss! This is the big bad!
Okay now let's check out the book.
VI. The Gospel of Judas
Okay, guys, here's the thing:
It's the Gospel of Judas.
Germonique was the thirteenth disciple of Ajora, who betrayed him for the promise of mere coin, leading to his capture by the Holy Ydorian Empire and his execution. And this book is written from the point of view of Germonique and reveals the true nature of events.
It's literally the Gospel of Judas except the game was written in 1997, and the Gospel of Judas was only first translated in the early 2000s, so it can't have been an inspiration - of course the Gospel of Judas wasn't the first work to ever depict a sympathetic Judas whose truth was hidden in the official Gospel accounts which entered the general awareness, just the first ancient one - it's a fairly natural way to go if you want to add a conspiracy angle to Christianity. And Germonique isn't quite… sympathetic, I would say. But still. Wild.
Anyway, the full text of the Scriptures of Germonique is extremely long, far too much to transcribe or post in screenshot form. So I will do my best to summarize it and someone else can copy-paste it from the wiki or whatever. Here's how it goes:
The official account of Saint Ajora's life is that he was born in an age of high technology, rose and spoke on the day of his birth and delivered prophecies, slowly gathering a cult around himself. In that age, Ivalice was divided in seven warring kingdoms. One of the kings summoned a demon to help him conquer Ivalice, and Saint Ajora gathered the Zodiac Stones as they had been before, the Zodiac Braves rose once more, and they defeated the demon as they had in the past. But the Ydorians, fearing his rising star, had him killed after Germonique's betrayal, inviting the wrath of the gods and their devastation, while Ajora ascended to Paradise to take his place among the gods.
Germonique's account is entirely different. According to them, Ajora was a mere mortal, and a revolutionary driven by ambition, who had no love for peace and no inclination towards self-sacrifice. His religion was founded to instrumental ends, and Ajora was furthermore a spy, infiltrator, and saboteur who collected information for the benefit of an unknown state while sowing civil unrest. Ajora did seek to collect the Zodiac Stones, but it is unclear in Germonique's writing whether he ever found them all, summoned any Zodiac Braves, or fought against any kind of demon - Elder Simon's conclusion is that he likely did not. And while Germonique did betray him, it was because they were, in fact, another spy from the Empire, engaged in a deadly dance of counter-intelligence, their disciple facade a mere cover to get closer to him.
The Church knew of the writings' existence, and feared their discovery. The Church actively worked to erase any records of Ajora's mortal identity in order to shape the narrative of him as a child of the gods empowered from his birth. The Church always knew it was founded on a lie, and suppressed that knowledge. The writings shattered Elder Simon's faith, yet he was afraid to come forward with them, be branded a heretic, and lose his precious library.
"My curiosity eclipsed my will to do what was right."
As they once did with Elder Simon, the writings of Germonique deal a fatal blow to Ramza's faith. He was never truly devout, but like many raised in a religious society, he had absorbed a default belief - he did not feel strongly about Ajora's sainthood, divinity, and great deeds, but he still took them to be true, as true as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Now, even that base assumption about the way of the world is taken from him.
But there is one caveat: Elder Simon failed to find an account of the demon Saint Ajora was said to have defeated in the Scriptures of Germonique, and so concluded even that story was false.
But Ramza knows better.
Ramza has seen what horrors can slip through the cracks in the world.
…
And so it turns out, to approximately nobody's surprise, that the JRPG Fake Catholic Church is, in fact, a JRPG Fake Catholic Church, meaning it's founded on a lie, its leaders are suppressing dangerous knowledge, they do not truly believe in their own teachings, and they are corrupt and out for power. I suppose I can't really fault Final Fantasy Tactics for it; it's such an early work that I expect this wasn't a cliché back then. Berserk's Conviction arc, the one whose central antagonist is Inquistor Mozgus and which first prominently features one of the iconic early "evil churches" of manga, started publishing in 1997 and didn't introduce Mozgus until 1998. We are, I think, in the early formative period of the "corrupt anime church" arc, before it became rooted in. If any manga/JRPG historian in the audience wants to correct me on this, of course, I'd be happy to learn more.
There's probably a lot more to say about these revelations, but it's late and I'm tired and I'd rather see what discussion this kicks off among those who haven't played the game, and those who have. So I will leave off here.
Thank you for reading.
Next Time: We try to get Alma back!
Main Story Battle Count: 26 Random Encounter Count: 37
