IN THE NAME OF LOVE. What a title.
The PSX translation has 'Somebody to Love' which references a much better classic, iconic, song.
But, yeah. The High Confessor is corrupt, but he's the normal kind of corrupt.
He sucks in the worst possible way in a non-magical setting. The usual way.
Plus, as the downed Hadrian's CT gauge fills up, it reaches his "turn" - and, to my surprise, he gets up.
Dragon Heart is really good. I believe that how much HP you stand up with is based on your max HP, so it's best on high-HP characters like Dragoons, who often can take another hit to trigger it again.
Or you can do something like throw rocks at your own people to trigger it, making them near-unkillable berserkers. The Dragoon kit is really really solid all around.
I don't think enemies should be allowed to have Dragoons. I think only I should get to have them. I think that'd be fair.
Too often do people lose a fight or battle because they spend too much time thinking about what they'll do to the enemy, and not enough time about what the enemy can do to you.
Well, nothing to do but fight it out. What's Meliadoul's deal anyway?
Oh she's another Divine Knight? For real? Guess God is handing those out like candy to all his favored sons and daughters, but I'm not mad!
. . .You realize you're calling Formav god, don't you? I mean, it's a JRPG so someone's gotta be it, but the fact that both his kids are magic sworders and Delita, who is a major part of his conspiracy, kinda makes me think that maybe Formav just knows how to train people better then some knight-apprentence that ran off to become a mercenary.
Let's just accept that this will definitely be a loss and use it to at least scout out what the opposition is like. What does Meliadoul's Unyielding Blade ability look like?
…
Meliadoul has an ability called "Crush Armor" that's a ranged Rend Armor that also damages HP and appears to have a 100% success chance.
What the fuck.
While knights rending your gear has been a constant risk since chapter 2, so rarely is there a battle specifically tuned to hurt you on the strategic layer rather then tactical layer. The tactical layer is tricky, she sprung a good ambush, but you might think that it's a good time to splurg and outfit your squad with the new chapter. But maybe it's wiser to wait until after this fight.
As we leave town, however, we are presented with a cutscene.
Delita is alone at night, staring out the window and looking at Tietra's pendant, thinking of his sister. Then, he hears a strange sound; as he comes down to investigate, he finds that Princess Ovelia is trying to make a grass whistle.
A familiar beat plays. Ovelia tells of how a friend at the monastery once taught her how to make a grass whistle, but she never seems to get it quite right, illustrated by playing a kinda disappointing quack sound. Delita shows her how to do it, and at first, she doesn't get it, but soon, they are both together blowing their grass whistles, and Ovelia cheerfully exclaims that she did it. She notices a shine then - Delita's pendant. She asks him what it is, and he opens up to her with a piece of information we already know to be true: This was his sister's.
Delita: "She… she was caught up in this fighting and died. She died for the nobility's convenience. They used her and cast her away, and for that I cannot forgive them. I shall not let them deal to you the same fate they dealt to her. I will protect you from aught and all who use you."
Ovelia: "Delita… thank you."
[Scene ends.]
Yada-yada, very sweet, Delita is saying factual things that we know are true but the emotional content could be a clever ruse to manipulate Ovelia, same old same old.
I'm fairly sure this is another PSP cutscene not in the original. The pendant-momento thing wasn't in there either, the waterfall scene that highlighted it was all done with sprites and no special sparkles, and this one was added as well.
I like your analysis of it, that Ovelia is starting to play up the 'helpless princess in need of protection' as she realizes how limited her options are. Uncharitably it feels like the PSP remakers just recreating a scene because they wanted to plump out the Delita plotline, but even if Delita never said anything about Ramza, Ovelia knows for a fact from Ramza that they were close before, and can use this knowledge.
But Ivalice so far has been a much more… densely populated and thriving world than that of the average FF game, yeah? There are many actual cities, connected by trade routes, within a unified country with several seats of local government.
Not only that, it's also made the cardinal sin of
giving solid numbers. We know roughly how many dead soldiers, how many wounded, we can extrapolate roughly how far major towns are from each other (Two days walk, which seems unusual, but I suppose there might be minor towns between not mentioned/fought in.) It doesn't feel like most of Ivalice is wilderness except a few scouted, but still dangerous, routes between towns.
I suppose it could be something like mostly farmland, with a few pockets of 'no one sane goes in there' that has all the unplundered ruins. After all, people are giving out pastel AK-47s as prizes, so some ruins are getting looted.
Thankfully, we are aided in this by one of Ramza's new skills:
The goddamned Kaioken.
Ah yes, the skill which is why Yell almost definitely isn't the best skill in the game, even though you can Yell at others.
(Tailwind was Yell in the original translation, and
this wonderful little thing kept in theme by being 'Scream', very much settling Ramza's fandom characterization as mild in conversation and absolutely loud and shouty in battle.)
Would have been nice to have it in the Wiegraf battle of course, but maybe Ramza developed it after he realized how hard he has to go sometimes.
Okay so like. Setting aside the obvious ominous implications regarding Delita having anticipated and accounted for Ramza's behavior and planning to use it somehow.
This is crazy, right?
Let me sum up the past two exchanges with Delita:
Ramza: "What's your plan, Delita?"
Delita: "I am planning to kill Dukes Larg and Goltanna, both your brothers, and Cidolfus Orlandeau in the chaos of the fighting, on behalf of the conspiracy I'm using to my own advantage. What's your plan, Ramza?"
Ramza: "I am planning to convince Cidolfus Orlandeau to step down from the fighting by using the Scriptures of Germonique to unravel the conspiracy that you're using to achieve your own goals and exposing the Church's lies to everyone."
Delita: "Sounds good."
Ramza: "Sounds good."
Then they shake hands and part amicably.
Delita said in a sort of handwavy fashion that his goals and Ramza's are currently aligned, and only their means differ. But their means are completely incompatible. It is literally impossible for both of them to succeed. Either Cidolfus gets killed in the fighting or he convinces everyone to stand down, and if everyone stands down without all the leaders being assassinated first then the Church is no longer in a position to casually sweep in oh and also Ramza's plan relies on exposing the entire conspiracy that Delita is using to (allegedly) put Ovelia in power!
I think both Delita, and Ramza, are kinda not exactly saying what they're doing next. You're right that Ramza's silence about demons is interesting, because from his perspective Delita must be a perfect candidate for a Zodiac brave PR guy, and he didn't pass on a warning.
Delita meanwhile is happy to expound on the
church's plan in great detail, but also said he's not the church's man in truth. What he actually is planning is never metioned except he wants to protect the princess. Delita seems to implicitly agree with Ramza's goals 'Then we're too late, the fighting will continue' and Ramza says he'll try anyways.
I think there is probably some sort of unspoken understanding going on with each other that isn't explicit, much like back in chapter 1 where they decided together, instantly, to go save the informant. Here Ramza says he's going to try and talk to Cidolfus, and Ramza is trusting Delita to either help him or ignore him, but not stop him. Which may be misplaced, but it's a choice Ramza is making to trust Delita with this sort of information, and he knows it'll end badly if Delita betrays him.
Also I think it's rather interesting that you meet the Hersey examiner in both of the capitals of either side, the chuch either has these people going incognito, or they really do have the clout to go anywhere they'd like regardless of the war. Ramza basically has never done anything to the Black Lion, but can't get past a checkpoint because I guess he just looks sketchy and there's a war on.
