Time to ship them and write a fanfiction named : "Love Bound by Blood and Death"
Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
daniel_gudman
KING (in land of blind)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Lol planting my flag here:
Balthier is a try-hard poseur, he is not On Fleek.
Egleris
Vagrant Dragon
- Location
- Italy
Remember that Doublehand doesn't applies to Swordskill. It would apply to the normal attack, of course, but since Attack Boost applies to both the normal attacks and the Swordskills, it's clearly the superior choice.
Yeah, WotL doing this to Mustadio is one of the most annoying things to me about a port that I'm really not a fan of. Even if they wanted the cameo, there was absolutely no reason to give Balthier this kind of build.
At least he has great equipment which, if transferred from him to Mustadio, would almost be enough to match their utility; you won't find another Ras Algheti or Mirage Vest, and Thief Hats are endgame equipment. Not that it'd make much sense, but, you know, in case you want to keep using Mustadio, this is the way.
("This is the way" is a PSX translation sentence that shows up a lot in the errands reports; inside FFT joke that cannot be understood by WotL players).
As already mentioned, while Balthier is obviously a WotL addition, as is (much less obviously) the scene with Mustadio, Agrias and the lip rouge, the Beowulf questline is entirely part of the original game, as is Worker 8 shooting Mustadio.
Now that you've unlocked those two, it won't be long before you're able to participate in another optional battle which just so happen to have the best spear in the game (which cannot otherwise be obtained outside of astonishingly unbelievable luck with the Catch reaction ability) as a hidden treasure. How to get it is very convoluted, and unlikely to be something a player can figure out without guidance.
The same panel with the best spear also has the worst spear in the game as the common item, meaning you need somebody with very low brave (Rapha is the usual choice) to retrieve it, and it's named the same as the worst spear (Javelin), so you need to pay attention to the item icon when you obtain it (which is different for the two items) to know if you actually found it or should retry the battle.
And the item is on a tile that requires special consideration to be reached, as it is at the top of a pillar that has no stepping stone and is above the maximum possible jumping distance - and Ignore Elevation cannot circumvent this, since the unit need to have Treasure Hunter as their movement ability. This issue can only be solved by having a large monster that can act as a stepping stone (both Reis and Worker8 would work for this purpose), positioning them in a panel adjacent to the pillar, and then having the low brave unit with Treasure Hunter, who must have 5 Jump (and therefore be in a class with 4 Jump and be wearing either Spiked Boots or Germinas Boots), move through the monster's panel to reach the top of the pillar where the treasure is.
What's that? You didn't know certain monsters could be used as stepping stones? Yeah, most people don't. Guess they won't be getting the ultimate spear and shield then, will they? FFVIII has convoluted mechanics, but FFT is no slouch in that department either.
Anyway, just to make things that bit more convoluted, the map in question has two pillars, not one. On top of the other one is the best shield in the game, in numerical terms, which also is the rare find, with the common find being the worst shield in the game, with which it shares the name, so once again you need to keep an eye on the icon when the item is retrieved to know if you got the right one.
So... that's that. To get the treasure, you need to bring along a low bravery itemfinder with 5 jump (better hope that's a character who can pull their weight, or you'll be fighting the optional battle with one useless unit along), and pay careful attention to what the item look like to make sure it's the version you want, which will require you familiarizing yourself with the look of the weak versions of Javelin and Escutcheon to make sure you don't get the weak copy by mistake. Not convoluted at all! Right?
And the item is on a tile that requires special consideration to be reached, as it is at the top of a pillar that has no stepping stone and is above the maximum possible jumping distance - and Ignore Elevation cannot circumvent this, since the unit need to have Treasure Hunter as their movement ability. This issue can only be solved by having a large monster that can act as a stepping stone (both Reis and Worker8 would work for this purpose), positioning them in a panel adjacent to the pillar, and then having the low brave unit with Treasure Hunter, who must have 5 Jump (and therefore be in a class with 4 Jump and be wearing either Spiked Boots or Germinas Boots), move through the monster's panel to reach the top of the pillar where the treasure is.
What's that? You didn't know certain monsters could be used as stepping stones? Yeah, most people don't. Guess they won't be getting the ultimate spear and shield then, will they? FFVIII has convoluted mechanics, but FFT is no slouch in that department either.
Anyway, just to make things that bit more convoluted, the map in question has two pillars, not one. On top of the other one is the best shield in the game, in numerical terms, which also is the rare find, with the common find being the worst shield in the game, with which it shares the name, so once again you need to keep an eye on the icon when the item is retrieved to know if you got the right one.
So... that's that. To get the treasure, you need to bring along a low bravery itemfinder with 5 jump (better hope that's a character who can pull their weight, or you'll be fighting the optional battle with one useless unit along), and pay careful attention to what the item look like to make sure it's the version you want, which will require you familiarizing yourself with the look of the weak versions of Javelin and Escutcheon to make sure you don't get the weak copy by mistake. Not convoluted at all! Right?
Yes, yes it is, especially if you can get the third tier - which cannot be found in the wild, you need to breed for it. But there's few things in the game as rewarding as slaughtering Wildbow. Still, the other pigs also provide high quality poach results; they're definitely worth butchering.
Did you manage to steal (or get from dropped chests) any of those? Because, while there is one future story battle and one rare battle you don't yet have access to where they can be acquired, these are not otherwise available - they can't be bought in shops.
You're remembering incorrectly, the Beowulf questline is only available in chapter 4.
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Ah, the things we could have had if FFT didn't regulate characters to the No Dialogue Dimension in the first place.
And so Omi has yet another Final Fantasy game where he gets to go "no guys really it's aliens".
See, my immediate thought (which is of course validated by the rest of the update) is just "wait do you have the Aquarius yet? That's absolutely Aquarius."
Whaaat, strange rando who wants to team up with a Heretic to hunt a holy dragon? A rando who has the Temple Knight class?
What could possibly be suspicious about that?
In the corner, Mustadio laughs his ass off as for once it's someone other than him getting absolutely destroyed and playing Phoenix Down Roulette.
In the corner, Musadio is Fucking Dead Again, instant karma
Now that we've gotten one stone completely disconnected from the main story, I wonder how much the devs originally planned with all (presumably) 12 stones. Were there plans to have all 12 show up in the main plot, maybe even all 12 Lucavi, or did they decide early on to cut a few into sidequest-landia? Heck, if some stones aren't going to be mandatory, does that even mean all 12 are obtainable or in the game in the first place? Maybe there's two or three that you'll just never encounter!
Hester, as always, making himself known as the absolute MVP. I wonder if the part where he murderized an Inquisitor last update upped his bounty any, might be considered Ramza's Bloody Right Hand by this point with an only slightly lower bounty ala One Piece crews.
From what I recall of these two, Reis is decent for a monster class (fittingly for having an entire sidequest to recruit and a unique class). Basically just an Uber Dragon, when Dragons are already among the stronger monster classes.
As for Beowulf, he's probably pretty good? I never bothered to use him, but effectively he's "Mystic But Better" what with instant casting and lower MP costs and being in a class that has decent combat capabilities even outside of that. That said he's also not like, peak party member material or anything, runs into a similar (if not as bad) issue as the twins with "yeah but it's chapter 4" where you need to be very strong out the gate to be worth replacing a blorbo.
The game would totally never hand you a new character that utterly outclasses the ones you already have though, that would be rather silly, right?
And there it is, the ultimate in Mustaido deathsRamza being caught completely off guard and seemingly afraid of telling the massive robot anything and Mustadio totally foisting the responsibility of ordering the robot on him, and Ramza going with "dance" is pretty funny in itself - this is the kind of casual funny interactions that we've been missing with every new recruit falling into the Oblivion Hole. But what's even funnier is the next beat:
Mustadio: "I wonder how powerful this thing is."
Automaton: "I AM VERY STRONG."
Ramza: "Well, then…" [He points to Mustadio] "Dispose of Mustadio!"
Mustadio: "Oh, for-!"
I can't believe Mustadio is fucking dead.
God Ramza actually finding it in him thirty hours into the game to try to make a joke and then instantly getting hit with payback when the robot obliterates Mustadio is so fucking funny. Mustadio just catching strays out of nowhere, this is the character interaction we've been missing this whole time.
God, fuck me, they mirrored it so you might not immediately notice the reference, but he's specifically doing the Yamcha death pose.
The counter is straight up broken our boy got Yamcha'd there's zero returning from that.
Construct 8 is a neat gimmicky monster-type party member, which may or may not be enough reason to use him.
You already noted he's a faithless machine which means he's completely immune to magic (and also healing spells to be fair), he's apparently immune to a multitude of elements outside of magic as well (other than lightning) and most status effects, his massive form means he can be used as a makeshift platform to let other characters jump on him to reach higher places, and his skills are decently powerful with one that's got huge range.
See this just makes me long for the missed opportunity of a battle where you set every character in 1-2 man squads, get ambushed with "just" Ramza, and then every turn or two your blorbos start showing up to help you out as they all hear the fighting going on, sigh, and finish their shopping to join in because clearly Ramza's gotten into yet another fight.
Just some good ol' Final Fantasy tradition of "make some absolutely ridiculous armor/accessory that's female exclusive".
Balthier is totally a crossover character, yes.
That said, yes he is also totally legitimately cool... if also just a tad unbalanced from what I've heard.
LolThen it's the Thief's turn…
Who moves up in front of Ramza and steals his 50k gil Bracer that he just got transferred to him after Agrias got the lipstick.
Lmao, even
Yeah uh, that does in fact sound just a tad overpowered. Absolutely wild of the game to just hand you a character and go "here's Better Mustadio" to try and advertise Final Fantasy XII, which I assume released around the same time as Tactics PSP.
Shinji117
Endless Troller
- Location
- Rokkenjima (Sydney)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- USA
The original XII was released in '06, one year before WotL. That said, however, the International Zodiac Job System version came out in August '07, three months after WotL. Sadly, it was a Japan-only release; the rest of the world had to wait TEN YEARS before the Zodiac Age re-master came out.
He does need someone after Agrias blasted him to the friendzone, Who better then a white mage with a gun?
They did it in Dissidia Duodecim as well.
You may or may not recognize that Balthier is the guy they picked to narrate the text tutorials for the menus, and even then, he proclaims himself the leading man of the story and immediately gets asked by the other tutorial narrator what the hell he's on about, he's not even in a story.
Thozmp
Gets my kicks above the waistline, Sunshine.
Kiyomori: "Innocent sword, slash evils and protect! Kiyomori!"
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Classic Japan - you can be travelling the world fighting for your life on a daily basis in pitched battles against gods, demons and bloodthirsty mercenaries, but god forbid your teenage protagonist sip a beer. It gets especially hilarious in situations like this where the passage of time will literally take Ramza past drinking age over the course of playing the game, or in GBF where years keep ambiguously advancing yet the characters stubbornly insist on treating the Captain like a minor no matter how long they've been aboard.
I can't embed it but imagine I posted a gif of Alex Murphy getting absolutely blown to pieces in a hail of gunfire at the start of Robocop.
Mustadio: "I wonder how powerful this thing is."
Automaton: "I AM VERY STRONG."
Ramza: "Well, then…" [He points to Mustadio] "Dispose of Mustadio!"
Mustadio: "Oh, for-!"
I can't believe Mustadio is fucking dead.
Construct 8: "Is one a prime number?"
Mustadio: "What-?"
Construct 8: "Incorrect."
Mustadio:
Remember how I wow'd over the Bracer and its +3 Physical Attack bonus? Yeah, Agrias's new lipstick grants +3 PA, +3 MA, boosts Holy Damage, and grants Protect, Shell, and Haste while equipped.
"Magickal lip rouge from the popular Feyforge brand. It is a limited-edition product, making it difficult for even the reachest noblewomen to obtain."
Genuinely absolutely insane. The strongest item we've found so far and I am going to wager a stronger frontrunner for strongest item in the game even later on.
That's nothing special, I gain these buffs wearing the kind of lipstick I like too.
Then it's the Thief's turn…
Who moves up in front of Ramza and steals his 50k gil Bracer that he just got transferred to him after Agrias got the lipstick.
…
Omicron when he sees an enemy Thief to abuse:
As one might expect, Luso and Balthier both being "existing characters, BUT BETTER!" - if more minor in Luso's case - is one of the things mods often correct. (The "Tweaks" mod I used mostly leaves Luso alone since 'backup auxiliary SuperSquire' is at least a novel role, but reworks Balthier to be a little less strictly superior.)
Beowulf is surprisingly strong as, basically, a Mystic who can wear heavy armor and has access to a few extra abilities aside. Sure, a remote drain isn't Gaffgarion's vampiric move since it can miss, but it's there to use.
Worker 8 is fun but being big and slow is a mark against it.
Beowulf is surprisingly strong as, basically, a Mystic who can wear heavy armor and has access to a few extra abilities aside. Sure, a remote drain isn't Gaffgarion's vampiric move since it can miss, but it's there to use.
Worker 8 is fun but being big and slow is a mark against it.
Guile
Having a really great time right now
For reasons I'm unclear on, Reis's Ice Breath obliterated those marlboros: they could take 150 damage from fire or lightning breath, or 360 from Ice Breath.
Mostly what I noticed is his excellent sustain; he might only be hitting for 80 with Drain (at range 4), but he then gains that 80 HP for himself. Ditto MP with Siphon.
I am liking the look of him. He's a Mystic with knight armor, plus a bunch from Orator.
Mostly what I noticed is his excellent sustain; he might only be hitting for 80 with Drain (at range 4), but he then gains that 80 HP for himself. Ditto MP with Siphon.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
While that is one reason to add Balthier, the Cache of Glabados reference marks this as an advert for FF12: Revenant Wings, the DS only RTS sequel to FF12 that had that as the primary McGuffin.
The peak of Ivalice Alliance tie-ins, a slow, plodding experience where you Zerg rush enemy units with monster summons that move at the speed of molasses uphill in January.
daniel_gudman
KING (in land of blind)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I know its not what yoy mean, but that speed infamously peaked at 35 miles per hour.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
oh god
oh god it's that robot
never mind abort abort we're ditching it and never coming within a hundred miles of it ever again-
Clockwork City Goug is SCORCHED EARTH
As long as party slots will allow, I will never dismiss any party member who even has a single name drop in the story. Boco was a genuine accident, I was fully ready to spend the entire rest of the game dismissing chocobos until the end of time just for the idea of having Wiegraf's old chocobuddy along for the ride.
With that said it probably ended up serendipitous; given how many new characters joined in this update, I might genuinely have found myself unable to recruit someone due to not checking the rampant chocobo growth frequently enough between each beat.
I fully believe that Beowulf is good.
The question is: Is he good enough, and special enough, that I want to permanently swap one of my main rotation units for him? He doesn't start out with all these cool "no MP instant cast Mystic Arts" unlocked, I'd have to put in the work. And I have no doubt the work would be rewarding, but... I could just give Gillian Mystic Arts? I could instead keep Agrias on with her own Sword Arts?
Five slots is really not a lot. Right now, I have a rotating cast of Ramza/Hadrian/Gillian/Hester/Mustadio/Agrias, with Luso getting included sometimes but is probably getting dropped now, and now I just got Balthier who is Mustadio+ and I'll have to decide whether to use him or not, and now I have to figure out whether to fit Beowulf into this whole thing. It's not so much whether he's good as whether he's worth the opportunity cost of taking someone else out, and I need him to earn a few hundred JPs to unlock multiple Spellblade skills to try out before I can know.
It's a tough sell!
these devs are psychopaths and should be in jail
Not even a little. I don't have Steal Weapon unlocked on any character (anyone who spent enough time in Thief to get the JP necessary learned Move+2 instead), I have decided long ago that having a character permanently dedicated to Thief/reloading when I see valuable equipment/obsessively checking enemies at the start of a battle for specific rare equipment I should steal or turn them to chests for would turn into a chore that would poison my fun, so I've just not bothered with it.
Knowing that these are permanently missable is a disappointment, though. I'd assumed the ice guns would show up in shops a little while after their encounter appearances, there being no other way to get them sucks.
Some time back people questioned how the game could manage to have all twelve Zodiac Stones result in twelve Lucavi boss fights given how much density of demon fights that would require before the endgame, and I guess the answer was that... The game never intended to have all twelve stones directly involved in the plot, and only a small curated section of them would result in Demonic Boss Fights? A little disappointing but probably very reasonable from a gamedev perspective.
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- He/Him
Meanwhile, I have Ramza with 8 levels in Thief, because I want to rob Wiegraf's sister.
In the course of getting this, I noticed a couple of things:
1. Thieving skills appear to be tied to speed.
2. Levelling as a thief increases speed, even after you swap out -- my characters who spent a pile of time as Thieves are consistently going ahead of the ones that haven't.
Likely--If I remember correctly, the game only gives you just enough slots at base to keep all the characters who ask to join you, no more.
You should be fine overall? From what I recall a team of four blorbos + all named recruitables in the OG game was still slightly below the slot limit, and WotL adds 4 slots but I believe only two bonus characters in Luso and Balthier.
Hey, worst comes to worst, Marach can "accidentally" trip off a cliff somewhere.
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
>AGRIAS: Equip Chainsaw
What CHAINSAW? You are quite sure there is no CHAINSAW among your birthday gifts. There is, however, a tube of LIPSTICK.
>Equip that, then.
Luckily for everyone in a hat the Chainsaw isn't in this game.
- Location
- USA
I like how Besrudio is completely chill at Mustadio getting blasted. Like, "yeah, man, this is just another day at the office, especially for my son" while Ramza is freaking out for Phoenix Downs.
The Chronicle tab works off the in-game timer, however. I think there were a few jokes early in the LP for this game about how it's possible for the Chronicles to report that the cast is running around as a bunch of sexagenarians and septuagenarians even though they look remarkably young in their sprite art.
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Maybe it's a Fight Club thing.
Like:
Ramza's suppressed inner desire to just be done with this political shit and be an adventurer in a world that apparently has floating cities just chilling in the sky manifested as a hallucination he's having while actually being an alternate personality
and all his party members roll with it and don't say a word about it because let's say this takes place after Ramza just ordered Mustadio's death and no one is willing to cross him now for fear that they'll be next.
- Location
- Spain
So Ramza repressed inner desire is that he wants to fuck a dragon?
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
