At first, i was on the path of "Ramza should just remain a squire". But as the story progresses, it feels less and less actually like, correct. Ramza remaining a squire even as everyone else turns into Knights or other classes is i think the correct choice in chapter 2 and 3. Ramza, spend an entire year wandering the lands barely in a daze, while everyone else was actually doing stuff. Delita was working his way through the ranks, Wulgraf was a veteran, and so forth.
I think, Ramza being weaker then everyone else, only capable of being a match because he's supported by other feels really good in the wake of the tragic event, where he did abandon everyone, including his sister. Dude saw the pillars of his life crumbled, and like the pillars he too collapsed. But then he meets people like Mustadio and Agrias whom does help him. And he becomes more confident as the story progresses.
And from all of this Ramza essentially re-forges himself, into someone that is taking action. That isn't willing to sit on by the sidelines. That doesn't watch tragic events and ran away. Like everyone else, he has now become someone with ideas. Which i think is finally fully actualized in the clash against Belias. This is a fight that must be taken one on one. I think this is the fight that Ramza should have unlocked some kind of class, that represents him alone.
He's no longer a squire, someone that follows order. He's a trained knight, who's got ideals and goals now. Like Delita, he's no longer a mere pawn in other people's games.
--
Fact is, for all that one can make the idea that Ramza is just a squire because he's supported by others. The game really doesn't support that. It can't really, due to the perma death mechanic. But, i think Ramza being carried by other's because he's weak, and then blossoming into his potential as a man that can fight a demon head on, does feel a lot more fitting.
Yeah, playing Tactics Ogre recently and Vyce, who in many ways is the Argath equivalent of the game is much better, imo.
Though to be fair Vyce is treated as much more of a foil to Denam, while Argath seems to be mostly just be a representation of how fucked the class system of Ivalice is.
Fact is, for all that one can make the idea that Ramza is just a squire because he's supported by others. The game really doesn't support that. It can't really, due to the perma death mechanic. But, i think Ramza being carried by other's because he's weak, and then blossoming into his potential as a man that can fight a demon head on, does feel a lot more fitting.
I mean, the other side of it is Ramza is 'merely' a squire, but his version of Squire is honestly pretty badass, and with his personal stats being the best in both physical and magic development... I think the real lesson is Ramza is whatever you, the player, decides he should be. He has no limitations beyond what you want to invest, whereas it'd be kind of silly to turn Orlandeau down the magic path to the point you can make him a Bard, although it'd also be hilarious.
The game not doing anything fun with Ramza's class is a huge missed opportunities. The ability to culminate character growth with a big new capitalized title and mechanical impacts is something other genres and mediums are all not-so-secretly jealous of, so use it!
Like, let's look at Ike Fire Emblem throughout his duology. He starts as mundane Ranger serving under is Hero dad, stumbles into being a Lord later and eventually rejects the noble bullshit, thus ascending to Hero himself. And at the end, once he raises up the damned banner of the local god of chaos, he replaces his father's class with the new Vanguard. That's some peak shit!
Oh I'm aware; my own take on it is that Vyce kind of instinctively sides against Denam because he's been nursing an inferiority complex for years, and then the role he takes afterwards shapes him into what he becomes.
It's really funny though, his portrait instantly changes when the route choice hits, its very funny.
Like, Chaos Vyce immediately gets the smarmy evil grin and hunch, while Law Vyce gets the noble look and chiseled jaw of a hero. Peak shit.
Honestly with how Ramza naturally gets more abilities to learn in the Squire class in Chapters 2 (Steel) and 4 (Scream) anyways but not Chapter 3 for some reason...
Just give him Duskblade. He trained under Gaffy, then slit his throat near the end of the last chapter, you don't even need to give Ramza the entire Dark Knight class or whatever just shove Duskblade into his skillset. If he's a Squire he'll probably be using swords anyways to properly access the ability, and if he goes for another build it isn't like Mettle doesn't already end up being a subpar option for some setups like full mage build.
favorite character across the Final fantasy series. What an absolutle manipulative asshole. Genuinly really solid written character. For a game with such sparring dialogue and cutscene, these feels like some of the most complex and life-like character so far in the series.
Honestly with how Ramza naturally gets more abilities to learn in the Squire class in Chapters 2 (Steel) and 4 (Scream) anyways but not Chapter 3 for some reason...
Mechanically speaking, Ramza doesn't change Class between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. As in, the game has three Ramza Squire classes, each one with their own sprite and command list - the Chapter 1 one, the Chapter 2 and 3 one, and the Chapter 4 one. To add more abilities to Ramza in Chapter 3, the game would have needed to create an additional class for him, which they obviously could have, but it's not like there's infinite memory space in the game, so they might just have decided that a change after the timeskip and another after Riovanes was enough.
That's mostly an issue of Faith - as you might have noticed, Argath had faith 25; that's lower than Marach, and in fact I didn't think any enemy could actually go that low (outside the Constructs). It's honestly a wonder any magic can harm him at all, with that x0.25 modifier added on.
Ultima isn't too bad, with the caveat that it can't be powered up like elemental spells can; it has about the same power as Ramuh and Firaga (MA x23 vs both of those having MA x24), and about half the power of Flare (MA x46), but it can hit up to five people rather than being single target like Flare is. As far as a fall back long-range option when you don't want to use Sanguine Blossom, it's decent.
The primary obstacle to it striking hard is Faith; your Ramza has 69 Faith at the moment, so the actual power is MA x15 (23 x 0.69 Faith), a bit less than the Doomed Aspiration/Muramasa Iaido attack (which has a x18 modifier), and about on par with Sanguine Blossom (x16) and Cloudsea Curse (x14). Of course, Ultima would still need to contend with enemy Faith, which, as shown here with Argath, can really kill the damage. If Ramza had 100 Faith, it'd actually hit harder than Doomed Aspiration on any target with a Faith of 75+, which isn't many enemies, but a few of those high-end casters do pop up sometimes. On a field that had Faith cast on every unit (such as with Arithmetics/Mathskill), it'd do 30% more damage than Doomed Aspiration does.
Of course, the main problem the spell has is that, by the point you get it, you're not really relying on that level of attack power anymore; all of the other damage options on final builds are much stronger, so Ultima ends up being subpar. If it didn't depend on Faith, it'd be fine (I know because LFT modified the spell to work without Faith, which makes it much more reliable), but as it is it just comes too late in the game to be truly useful.
Anyway, let's talk translation, shall we?
- The fight against Barich, who was named Balk in the PSX version, has pretty much the same dialogue in both translation, once the usual style differences are accounted for.
- The scene where Goltana has Oldandou arrested mostly flows the same until Delia shows up. Then, there is a small but interesting difference - when Delita tells Goltana that the High Confessor has decided in Goltanna's favor, instead of the WotL line that "he seemed more neutral to me", Goltana express no doubt about this, and instead tells Delita "thanks for your efforts".
This greatly changes the scene - in the PSX version, Goltana has no doubt about having the Church on his side, and in fact, he credit Delita with being the one that brought them on board. This, naturally, justifies Goltana's trust in Delita and appointing him as commander - if Delita actually had managed to secure the Church's support, that'd have won Goltana's the war, justifying trusting him with command of the Southern Sky knights. The WotL translation makes Goltana looks like more of an idiot for arresting Orlandou on the word of a man he thinks is lukewarm on him, but in the PSX version, it's clearer that arresting Orlandu is Funebris' price for supporting Goltana.
- On Larg's murder scene, we see a small difference when Zalbag finds Dycedarg. In the WotL version, he says "I'm well, I worry for the Duke, where is he?", but the PSX version has him say "I'm well, now where's the Duke?" - no line about "I worry for him", which is subtle, but interesting in that Dycedarg is openly lying to Zalbag in the WotL version, but in the PSX version he doesn't. It seems like an interesting difference to note: if Dycedarg never lies to Zalbag, not even when plotting, instead just eliding when he doesn't want Zalbag to know something, then a firm "no, I didn't kill our father" would perhaps be more persuasive to Zalbag than otherwise.
- The random battles feature very brief dialogue, with no change of any real importance.
- Dycedarg's talk with Loffrey goes the same way, although I think the PSX version simpler phrasing makes the functioning of Mossfungus a bit clearer. But it's still understandable in the WotL version, so it's not really worth commenting about, this is likely just my preferences speaking.
- A single difference in the chat between Elmdore and Folmarv, but a very significant one: instead of saying "I will not disappoint you" as he does in WotL, which makes him appear subordinate to Elmdore, PSX Folmarv says instead "be careful". It gives a greater sense of camaraderie between the two, and even shows what might be the only sign of worry for somebody else the Lucavi have chosen, which makes Elmdore "get Ramza back for Riovanes" desire more clearly about avenging Belias. Also, doesn't diminishes Folmarv by implying that the man who's been our big bad for the whole story now was in truth the subordinate of an enemy who showed up at the end of Chapter 3 only to be killed mid-way through chapter 4.
- Nothing worth mentioning was changed in the discussions that took place during the two Elmdore fights, except for the name of Folmarv's Lucavi form, which is Hashmal in WotL but Hashmalum in PSX. Not especially important, except that, as we've now seen, the name of Lucavi are all refences to demons (Belial, Azrael) or angels (Hashmal), which makes sense as an unified theme since devils are supposed to be fallen angels... except for CuChulain. Hence why I wondered if the name might have been intended to be something else: it feels out of theme.
- The scene where Delita confronts Ovelia, Olan and Balmafula follows the same beats, the changes in dialogue small enough to matter little, although it is a bit funny that Delita's PSX line to dismiss Ovelia is "go to your room". It's the same meaning as the WotL "return to your chambers", but it really drives home the patronizing way in which Delita is treating her. Then the follow-up scene with Zalbag and the chemist checking Balbaneth's tomb is pretty much the same.
I'm not doing translation comparisons for the optional side missions, since I don't think they really matter that much for the purpose of judging the differences between the two versions' translations.
Changing the class name is something I could agree with, and adding some extra options wouldn't be bad, either - LFT gives Ramza a no-MP version of Quick, which is a nice tactical addition to his kit - but, personally, I'm against giving him any swordskills.
Even leaving aside how that would reduce the impact of Cid and Agrias, having even just one Swordskill in his kit would make people feel forced to use it, therefore wedding Ramza to swords the way most of the optional characters are, which would vastly reduce build variety for him. That's not something I would like for the main character - I think making it easier for the player to just build Ramza however they prefer by not creating an incentive to force swords on him is a positive aspect of the game, and I would be against removing that.
Speaking of changes and unique characters, LFT also modifier Meliadoul very heavily, which dovetailed into Cid as well; Cid has the "destroy" skill removed from his skillset, so instead he's limited to "just" having the Agrias + Gaffgarion skills - leaving him exactly as overpowered as before, since most people would never use the destroy skills, but giving Meliadoul more of a use case. Then, they added four extra skills called "Ruins" to her skillset, which operate like ranged, multi-target variants of the knights' Arts of War, reducing MP, Speed, PA and MA.
This basically makes Meliadoul a better version of the base knight class, and to emphasize this, LFT also gave her the highest HP multiplier in the game and astounding defense, which all sum up to giving her a niche as the toughest unit in the game. She hits nowhere near as hard as Cid or Agrias, but she's almost always the last unit on the battlefield to go down, especially if you give her a defensive build and status protection. It's a very different gameplay experience to simply overpowering everything with unbeatable attacks like Cid does.
Of course, the vanilla version of her has none of that, and is therefore useless; a shame, although not as big of one as making Rapha unusable.
Changing the class name is something I could agree with, and adding some extra options wouldn't be bad, either - LFT gives Ramza a no-MP version of Quick, which is a nice tactical addition to his kit - but, personally, I'm against giving him any swordskills.
Oh I definitely don't think Ramza's Squire class should get swordskills or anything, I just like the idea of him being able to class into Dark Knight and use those skills if he wants. Which, the answer to that is to make DRK less of a silly nonsense class to unlock, so anyone could get it, and it would just make a fun narrative beat for Ramza to use.
(Which is another point Tweaks agrees with, it cuts down on the class prereqs for DRK quite significantly)
I forgot that I wanted to point out - Folmarv having the Leo stone, specifically, adds a bit more resonance to the title; it is, after all, "the war of the Lions", not "the war of TWO Lions".
Turns out, while everybody was focusing on the black and white lions symbolizing Larg and Goltana, the real war all along was the one being fought in the shadows by Ramza against the third, secret Lion, the gold one.
Just thought it'd be something amusing to think about.
The WotL translation makes Goltana looks like more of an idiot for arresting Orlandou on the word of a man he thinks is lukewarm on him, but in the PSX version, it's clearer that arresting Orlandu is Funebris' price for supporting Goltana
TBH Goltana believing the church when they go, "sure we'll back you after you undermine your own support base by arresting your most loyal and powerful retainer, trust me bro" doesn't exactly strike me as a smart play either
Goltana believing the church when they go, "sure we'll back you after you undermine your own support base by arresting your most loyal and powerful retainer, trust me bro" doesn't exactly strike me as a smart play either
Fair enough. However, we only have Balmafula's words that Goltana has plans to execute Orlandu immediately; seeing as she's something of an interested party in the whole affair, it's not out of bounds that Goltana would wait to take any more action than an arrest until he had the remit, just so that he could go "sorry Orlandu my old friend, I was taken in by fake evidence" in case Funebris doesn't deliver the remit quickly. As long as Goltana didn't expect Delita to steep to straight up murder, the plan isn't the smartest but isn't entirely stupid either, just a bit risky.
That's actually impossible; I heard contradictory references to whether it was possible to steal Elmdore's stuff (more importantly than the Genji set to me, he uses the Masamune* katana, which is not sold in shops, and which I'd like to get for Ramza), so I went and checked. While Elmdore's support ability is Brawler, his Ark Knight 'class container' has innate Safeguard in War of the Lions, which makes stealing his equipment impossible. This was actually the case in the original Japanese PSX release as well; it was changed in the English port for unknown reasons.
This is actually kind of a strange choice on the JP original's part; Masamune is one of the Samurai's Iaido abilities, but since it cannot be stolen from Elmdore, the only way to acquire it appears to be to catch it when Thrown by very high-level ninja, and by very high level I mean "level 95," far in excess of any story battle and which could only feasibly be encountered in random battles. The Genji set, meanwhile, is entirely impossible to obtain in the original JP release. The WotL version adds other ways to acquire both the Masamune and the Genji set, though the Masamune is the only one we're likely to see in this LP, as the Genji set requires engaging with multiplayer content.
*chalk another note on the Sephiroth Analogue board.
Since you've mentioned you don't care about stealing and so on, I just want to make a footnote that Elmdore is also the only source of Genji armor in at least some versions of the game, via thievery. Other versions added other sources, from quests or ridiculous luck with Catch or the multiplayer content. I don't recall what your version provides for.
See above; the Genji set is only available through multiplayer content, the Masamune will require carving out a specific exception to my "refuse to engage with Steal" habits, and neither can be obtained from Elmdore due to his innate Safeguard.
Some very frustrating and convoluted design choices, here.
So, as others mentioned, Argath was a WotL addition, and by my mark one of the worse by far, both because of how nonsensical it is and because it retroactively robs the satisfaction of killing him at the end of chapter 1, but I am curious: considering how many signs there are that this is an add on (reused battle map, sprite being Ramza's instead of unique to him, in the middle of the much more natural progression of the two Elmdor fights following each other in the same way as the Wiegraf > Belias fight did), how quickly did you realize this was a WotL addition when playing through it?
I didn't; unlike Balthier or Luso, who bear their cameo appearances on their sleeve, there was no particular reason for me to suspect this was a WotL original. I don't think it fits in as poorly as you seem to think, and while Argath being returned from the dead is a bit outlandish, Argath is connected to Marquis Elmdore, who is a vampire who summons the undead in his Lucavi form and claims we will join his army in undeath, so him having a deathknight lieutenant made from a lesser noble he thought might torment us isn't particularly out there. If this was the only time we saw a character destroyed before our eyes and then brought back as undead it would be weird and raises a bunch of lore questions but, well, it's about to happen again, so actually that functions as foreshadowing and established precedent for something that would otherwise have been a baffling one-off event
I think the dark comedy value of rolling out the most unlikable character in the game just to troll the player, plus the visceral satisfaction of getting to style on him with our endgame builds, outweight how somewhat baffling the twist of his return is. It doesn't rob us of our victory - if anything, getting to choose between fifteen different ways of turning Deathknight Argath into pink red mist doubles the satisfaction. This guy is such an asshole, I'm glad to get to kill him again.
It didn't strike me as particularly out of place, and judging from the entertainment value it has brought to the thread, I'd judge it a positive addition.
So this bit of dialogue here is interesting. The Stones don't seem to be the actual prisons of the Lucavi, but simultaneously the lock and door to where they're actually imprisoned in this "Rift" they mention. This would explain why they can still be used for good ends - they're not tainted in and of themselves, but at any point if you use them wrong they can open a portal to Hell, at which point a demon will possess you.
I do wonder what conditions are required to make that dark miracle happen. Presumably, it's why you need to give the Stones to a "chosen" wielder who meets the criteria to undo the seal and open the gate to the Rift.
I've been wondering if this is tied to the compatibility/incompatibility between character sign and stone sign. Let's check in order:
Cardinal Delacroix/Cuchulainn: Scorpio user, Scorpio Stone.
Wiegraf/Belias: Virgo user, Aries Stone.
Rapha/Resurrecting Marach: Pisces user/Scorpio Stone.
Elmdore/Zalera: Gemini user/Gemini Stone.
So... Wiegraf is the odd man out here. Without him, we could conclude that possession is made possible by Sign correspondence: A Scorpio user holding the Scorpio Stone may be reached out to by the Lucavi inside, but because Rapha is not a Scorpio, she instead was able to use the Stone without connecting to its Lucavi. But Wiegraf was a Virgo and called on the power of Aries to become Belias, so that doesn't fit. And checking, Alma is meant to be receive the power of Virgo and is explicitly a once-in-centuries chosen one... And she's a Leo. So that doesn't work.
I think, given that Folmarv and Elmdore's exchange has Elmdore say "We are all that's left - we and Adrammelech, who waits trapped beyond the rift", there aren't actually twelve Lucavi. There's only Cuchulainn, Belias, Adrammelech, Hashmal, and then the High Seraph and "the master," either as two independent entities or the same one by two different names. The other Stones don't have a Lucavi connected to them, so they're just power sources used to power ancient pre-collapse machinery.
So far, I had assumed that the phrasing around the "undying" Lucavi meant that the Lucavi could not be permanently slain, merely returned to beyond the Rift, from where they would one day reach out again. And that's still a possibility; but I think it's clear that even if that is the case, there is a "cooldown" period and the Lucavi cannot return after being defeated for years, decades, perhaps even centuries. And that's why Rapha was able to use Scorpio to resurrect Marach; Scorpio had been "purged" of its connection to Cuchulainn, at least for the time being, and could be used as a neutral source of miraculous power.
Between him and Alma, we're getting a lotta Beoulve Lucavi at this rate. I'm surprised none of the stones have had a temptation scene with Ramza by this point, honestly, you'd think at least one of the extras he picked up would go "Ramzaaaaaa use my power to save your familyyyyyyy".
imagine if we could get a powered up Lucavi Form Ramza for the final battles of the game as Ramza struggles to keep his sense of self while tapping into this forsaken power for the sake of his sister, his friend and the realm
robbed, we were robbed i tell you
Okay I've been wondering this all update
What, exactly, is Elmdore getting retribution for??? He keeps talking like "aha Ramza, today I finally settle things with you, our legendary rivalry ends here" when you literally just met him on a rooftop, he murdered a guy, then he swooshed off immediately afterwards. Is he avenging his fellow Lucavi, I guess???
Yeah, I think we're supposed to treat the Riovanes battle as much more meaningful than it ended up being mechanically - a dire struggle to barely manage to force Elmdore and his Assassins to flee, rather than a quick one-and-done "hit Lettie or Celia for high damage and force an immediate end."
I absolutely choose to headcanon that this is permanent and you are now dragging around Literally A Vampire Agrias for the rest of the game.
Can you believe that there is no fanart of Vampire Agrias anywhere that I could find?
I mean, yes, I can believe it, considering this is an unscripted emergent interaction between a boss that doesn't seem to be strongly remembered by the fandom and a character who has had one story cutscene in the past 30 hours and otherwise vanished from the narrative and who is not mandatory for this fight, but.
C'mon. Vampire Agrias. I would almost commission it myself.
I just recently got around to buying Tactics Ogre on Steam and it sounds like I really need to get around to playing more than the first map or two.
I feel like skipping to Alucard is taking an unneccessary step. Have you considered he's just Castlevania Dracula, instead? That game series goes back and forth on giving him silver or black hair.
I did, but as far as I can tell the silver-haired take was introduced by Ayami Kojima, who first worked on Castlevania with SotN. Early Castlevania Dracula is a very clear Hollywood Dracula ripoff drawing primarily from Bela Lugosi/Christopher Lee, with short, slicked-back black hair. There's limited sources on concept art from later, pre-SotN game concept art and the sprites are hard to read; but it seems like Dracula starts to lean towards more Gary Oldman, "conventionally handsome, long black hair" type Draculas after 1992 and the release of Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula. There's some art of a white-haired Dracula pre-SotN that appears online, but most of it appears to be fanart backporting the Kojima style onto earlier Draculas that lacked official artwork, such as Belmont's Revenge. It seems to be Kojima who introduces the silver-haired angle, along with portraying Dracula in artwork as more of a dignified, contemptuous lord, as opposed to earlier official art that leaned into the predatory, "smiling behind his cape"/"fangs out for dinner" depiction of their antagonist.
That's as best as I was able to find, of course; I'm not a Castlevania scholar so I may be missing details.
What has been established about Prince Orinus? He's the third son of the previous King and Duke Larg's sister, Queen Louveria. Louveria's been captured and held at Fort Bessalat (note: Check the Chronicles on all of them). And Duke Goltana is supporting Princess Ovelia by saying that Orinus was not fathered by the previous King. Especially after the death of the first two children, and the King's known poor health.
So, we have Duke Larg here, a fair bit of your power is tied to your sister being the Queen and the mother of the next King. Her first two tries at a successor are dead, the King is on his way out, and probably can't father another child. What can he do? First, let's take out the "Song of Ice and Fire" solution, and not have any incest. That leaves.... either getting an unknown stud that you can then remove without consequences, or.... use it to tie an important ally even closer to your faction. One that knows how to stay quiet, and maybe someone Larg has some dirt on just in case.
Dycedarg's the head of the Northern Order, the military power that the Queen lacks, a long-time friend of Larg and his sister, and Larg knows about mossfungus.
So, yeah, I do wonder about who Orinus's father really is.
That's entirely possible but it also ties into one of my frustrations with the story:
Where the hell is Queen Louveria?
I mean, we know where she is. We only have to check the Chronicle: Here's the latest update on her situation.
Queen Louveria was banished to Fort Besselat after accusations of kidnapping Ovelia.
Louveria has never appeared on-screen. She's not a minor character in this drama! A lot of the early game was directly instigated by her! The game could have chosen to make her a mere figurehead for Larg's ambitions with little agency of her own, but it did not; throughout the Rumors and Chronicle updates in the earlier chapters of the game, we saw clearly that Louveria was highly active in trying to secure power through Orinus's claim to the throne, suppressing knowledge of the King's true condition, eliminating threats to her power from the court, banishing the Queen Mother, and so on. While Ovelia has this whole tension around being used by others and feeling like nothing more than a puppet for others' ambition, Louveria is our most prominent example of a powerful woman with agency in the game, playing the game of politics at the highest level and with the highest stakes.
But we never got to see her even once. She was outmaneuvred and banished off-screen, presumably leaving her brother Duke Larg as the one controlling their faction and calling the shots until he was killed.
It's very frustrating. What we can glimpse of Louveria through Rumors and Chronicle entries paints a fascinating picture of a complex character, who has probably committed some real crimes but is also a deeply sympathetic and tragic figure (her two sons were murdered by a conspiracy to keep her off the throne) retaliating out of what's probably a mixture of vengeance, ambition, and mere survival. And yet without these Rumors and Chronicle entries, we would barely even know she existed at all.
- The fight against Barich, who was named Balk in the PSX version, has pretty much the same dialogue in both translation, once the usual style differences are accounted for.
- The scene where Goltana has Oldandou arrested mostly flows the same until Delia shows up. Then, there is a small but interesting difference - when Delita tells Goltana that the High Confessor has decided in Goltanna's favor, instead of the WotL line that "he seemed more neutral to me", Goltana express no doubt about this, and instead tells Delita "thanks for your efforts".
This greatly changes the scene - in the PSX version, Goltana has no doubt about having the Church on his side, and in fact, he credit Delita with being the one that brought them on board. This, naturally, justifies Goltana's trust in Delita and appointing him as commander - if Delita actually had managed to secure the Church's support, that'd have won Goltana's the war, justifying trusting him with command of the Southern Sky knights. The WotL translation makes Goltana looks like more of an idiot for arresting Orlandou on the word of a man he thinks is lukewarm on him, but in the PSX version, it's clearer that arresting Orlandu is Funebris' price for supporting Goltana.
I think this is kind of emblematic of your approach to the comparison between the translations and why it's struggling to find purchase with others. Here, you focus on the use of the phrase: "Thanks for your efforts" as opposed to the WotL's "He seemed more neutral to me," explaining that this conveys Goltanna having greater trust in the church's support, making his decision feel more justified and less foolish. But that's taking that one line out of its context. Let's instead compare each exchange in their entirety:
Article:
Delita: "You summoned, Your Grace?" Goltanna: "I want you to maintain your contact with Mullonde. Once the Confessional rescript is in my hands, Larg is as good as defeated." Delita: "Fear not, Your Grace. The High Confessor's mind is most firm on that account." Goltanna: "Hmm. He had seemed somewhat indifferent to me. There is another matter as well. I am placing the Order of the Southern Sky under your leadership. Henceforth, you are a Knight Devout." Delita: "You grant me honor far beyond my due." Goltanna: "I expect I shall not regret it. I place my full and utter confidence in you, Delita - you, and you alone." Delita: "Your Grace."
Article:
Delita: "Yes, Your Excellency." Goltanna: "Continue your contact with Murond. If we get an official edict, overturning Larg will be easy." Delita: "The High Priest's already decided. No need to worry." Goltanna: "Thanks for your trouble. I will grant you command over the Nanten Knights. You will become a Holy Knight." Delita: "I appreciate your kindness!" Goltanna: "I'm counting on you, Delita. I know I can trust you." Delita: "I won't let you down."
The whole exchange in the PSX version is off - Delita introducing himself by saying "Yes, Your Excellency" before anyone has spoken, the casual tone of "No need to worry" and "Thanks for your trouble," the bizarre choice of "I appreciate your kindness!" in answer to being granted a position of extreme power, honor and responsibility - but that's not really the issue for me here. The issue is that in the WotL version, Goltanna expressing doubts regarding the High Confessor's support strengthens his character; he is clearly not so naive as to flatly believe that the High Confessor is about to throw him his unmitigated support just on Delita's word. Between this and his mention that he can't hope to win without the Northern Sky to Cid, Goltanna here clearly feels like he's caught between a rock and a hard place; he fully believes that Cid was conspiring against him, but he's intensely worried about what removing Cid from leadership means for his chances of victory and did it because he felt he had no choice; he's now hoping for an edict from the High Confessor as his silver bullet but doubts that it's coming. Delita tells him the High Confessor is firmly on his side, but Goltanna has enough political instinct to have sense that Marcel did not really care either way - he just has no other choice but to hope for him to break his way even so.
In contrast, the PSX version just makes him out as a guileless idiot. Delita: "The High Confessor is totally on your side, my duke." Goltanna: "Sweet : D Anyway here's your fancy new knight order. Everything is coming up Millhouse!"
Like, one of these has Goltanna as a man aware that he's in a very difficult situation and trying to navigate it to his best interest, but making the mistake of trusting Delita to see him through rather than the loyal Cid. The other has Goltanna just fully bought onto whatever Delita is saying at this particular moment. To me, he comes off better in the WotL version, even if he's still an idiot either way.
- A single difference in the chat between Elmdore and Folmarv, but a very significant one: instead of saying "I will not disappoint you" as he does in WotL, which makes him appear subordinate to Elmdore, PSX Folmarv says instead "be careful". It gives a greater sense of camaraderie between the two, and even shows what might be the only sign of worry for somebody else the Lucavi have chosen, which makes Elmdore "get Ramza back for Riovanes" desire more clearly about avenging Belias. Also, doesn't diminishes Folmarv by implying that the man who's been our big bad for the whole story now was in truth the subordinate of an enemy who showed up at the end of Chapter 3 only to be killed mid-way through chapter 4.
I like this change, personally. Knowing that we already brought down the more high-ranking of the two remaining Lucavi, the sophisticated Elmdore to whom Folmarv made an oath not to fail, and now the only one that remains is Elmdore's lesser, a demon who is probably more physically powerful than him but has appeared, in all his scenes, as less sophisticated and more thuggish, enhances the vibe of loneliness and pathos that I get from the Lucavi now that more than half their numbers are gone. Elmdore was no doubt less physically powerful than Folmarv, but I like the idea that he was the one Folmarv deferred to, if not as a superior, then at least as a respected friend, and now he's gone and what's left is the impulsive, brutal Folmarv to try and wrap up their plans on his own. It's a different vibe from the traditional "eliminate enemies in strict order of hierarchy" approach.
With that said, "I will not disappoint you" doesn't inherently suggest a hierarchical relationship; it's also something you'd say to a friend and peer who is counting on you for something valuable. Even here, the WotL script is more nuanced than the PSX one, because "I will not disappoint you" could carry either a subordinate relationship or a powerful bond of comeraderie, whereas "Be careful" doesn't tell us anything in particular about how these characters relate to one another and whether they care about each other beyond just simple practicality.
I do like that Elmdore and Folmarv's conversation heavily implied that Ramza's gunning for the Lucavi is affecting them, simply because they are running out of Lucavi to throw at the man before the High Seraph is even summoned. They are finally acknowledging that a human is capable of killing them.
Kinda obvious now that Folmarv is explicitly targeting Dycedarg to be Lucavi as a way to distract Ramza while he is prepping Alma for Seraph summoning. Like, from Limberry in Southeast Ivalice to freaking North? Sure Dycedarg is fitting to be a Lucavi host, but the timing of it is a little too suspicious.
Delacroix could have sent a Stone to Dycedarg way earlier since this particular stone is not waylaid like the ones in Ramza's possession and he claimed to have kept connection with the Beoulves because of Ovelia, and yet they only pass the auracite now of all time.
Can you believe that there is no fanart of Vampire Agrias anywhere that I could find?
I mean, yes, I can believe it, considering this is an unscripted emergent interaction between a boss that doesn't seem to be strongly remembered by the fandom and a character who has had one story cutscene in the past 30 hours and otherwise vanished from the narrative and who is not mandatory for this fight, but.
C'mon. Vampire Agrias. I would almost commission it myself.
One could perhaps posit that since the fledgling Agrias immediately turned on her would-be sire and performed an impromptu field tracheotomy on him, she denied the curse of vampirism a chance to take hold of her. Even though she didn't directly kill him storywise, she did land the final blow of the battle which is a pretty strong symbolic repudiation of the gift of undeath.
Not for nothing, Agrias is also a Holy Knight. While that clearly doesn't confer immunity to the vampire's bite, in a world with real magic where a person has spent years training body and soul, permanently turning such a person likely requires more extreme measures like death through exsanguination or even ritualistic sacrifice which Elmdore didn't have time to enact.
Also worth noting that Agrias could be healed after the battle - a quick check of the wiki confirms that gameplay-wise the vampire status can be removed through use of holy water or high-level dispel.
Or it could be something else, idk.
Mustadio: You just...chose not to be vampire? Agrias: Vampires are cringe. Mustadio:
Ramza: You ok? Mustadio:*pressing a handkerchief to his face* I hauve cobid.
Orran kept his Durai name. He kept the name for generations after the Lions War is dead and dust, simply because the name Orlandaeu has become a stain in Ivalice history.
Makes you wonder if his death for trying to recover Ramza's reputation is purely a Church action or a combined Church and Crown action? Delita, who we saw to be utterly eager to carve his name in history as a Hero, would not want anyone to besmirch his legacy, not even his old buddy Ramza.
And the irony of Delita's legend being debunked centuries later by a Durai scholar is not lost on me either.
One could perhaps posit that since the fledgling Agrias immediately turned on her would-be sire and performed an impromptu field tracheotomy on him, she denied the curse of vampirism a chance to take hold of her.
I mean hey, on the plus side you do in fact have more Matsuno games to play through now! Better than getting invested in a particular author's work only to realize they never worked in the games industry before or since and may in fact have dropped off the face of the world
Louveria has never appeared on-screen. She's not a minor character in this drama! A lot of the early game was directly instigated by her! The game could have chosen to make her a mere figurehead for Larg's ambitions with little agency of her own, but it did not; throughout the Rumors and Chronicle updates in the earlier chapters of the game, we saw clearly that Louveria was highly active in trying to secure power through Orinus's claim to the throne, suppressing knowledge of the King's true condition, eliminating threats to her power from the court, banishing the Queen Mother, and so on. While Ovelia has this whole tension around being used by others and feeling like nothing more than a puppet for others' ambition, Louveria is our most prominent example of a powerful woman with agency in the game, playing the game of politics at the highest level and with the highest stakes.
Part of me almost wonders if this is intentional? Like, Tactics has spent a lot of time building up a world we never see - the ruins of several past civilizations, all mixed together such that we don't have a solid timeline of their history, countries off the edge of the map we know of but never see. I could see them maybe thinking that some of the players in this war just don't get screentime, in part because Ramza has chosen to divest himself of the war for the most part to focus on the Lucavi threat. I don't think I like it, but I can see an argument being made for keeping her off screen that way.
On the other hand, we see most of the big players in this war in some fashion, and even ones we don't see directly much like Funebris get brought up by others enough to have a real presence. And Louveria also happens to be a women pulling the levers of politics who gets sidelined, and that makes it a more bitter pill to swallow.
So, it definitely sucks we don't get to see more of her, I just wonder if it was a mistake or an active choice.
Can you believe that there is no fanart of Vampire Agrias anywhere that I could find?
I mean, yes, I can believe it, considering this is an unscripted emergent interaction between a boss that doesn't seem to be strongly remembered by the fandom and a character who has had one story cutscene in the past 30 hours and otherwise vanished from the narrative and who is not mandatory for this fight, but.
C'mon. Vampire Agrias. I would almost commission it myself.
This is an absolute travesty. If you'll excuse me I'm going to go revive the FFT fanbase and spread the good word of Vampire Agrias, this is a great wrong that must be righted.
Mustadio: You just...chose not to be vampire? Agrias: Vampires are cringe. Mustadio:
Ramza: You ok? Mustadio:*pressing a handkerchief to his face* I hauve cobid.
Hear ye, hear ye! 'Tis the year of our Lord 2024, and it has come to pass that Ramza Beoulve met a fateful reunion with his brothers Zalbaag and Dycedarg, which would settle very fate of House Beoulve.
The Story So Far: Ramza, youngest scion of House Beoulve, went rogue after his brothers betrayed his trust and slew the sister of his childhood friend Delita. For a while, he lived the life of a mercenary, until he stumbled upon a conspiracy manipulating the War of the Lions that now tears apart the kingdom of Ivalice. Trying to make this secret known, he has once again run into his childhood friend Delita, now part of the conspiracy, and been brought into contact with his brothers Dycedarg and Zalbaag. Now, he hurries to Eagrose Castle, where Dycedarg Beoulve now holds one of the legendary Zodiac Stones, whose power he does not suspect…
Before heading to the next story nodes, we spend a little time doing Errands and random encounters; I'm trying to get Reis up in level to try and make use of her excellent Dragonkin stats. This proves trickier than expected when, after finally unlocking her Dragon's Speed ability and trying to use it in battle, it turns out to not work on any of my units! It turns out the tooltip is misleading. When it says "harness dragon spirit energy," it doesn't mean Reis's dragon spirit energy. It means a target dragon.
Reis's Dragon's X ability can only be used on Dragon units. Which means to make full use of her toolkit, we need to dedicate two entire unit slots (out of five) to it: One for her, one for a recruited dragon. And that's… A big ask. That doesn't make Reis useless, she's still a unit with phenomenal stat growth, innate dual wield and several Breath abilities, but… Well, she's already lv 39, close to parity with encounters. We don't have a lot of room to make her grow with Dragon's Speed having already been wasted JP. Ah, well. We'll see how it goes.
Also we found the Shrine of Chaos! That's pretty cool.
Now let's head to Eagrose Castle. But before we do, as we enter the Dorter node, a surprise battle occurs!
Man's Voice: "So, the marquis has fallen." Ramza: [Turning to look around] "And who might you be?"
[A Knight Templar appears, standing on the rooftop.] Man: "My name is Cletienne. I come in Lord Folmarv's stead, to see his will made manifest." Ramza: "A knight of the templarate, then! Where is Alma!?"
[The light darkens; a blue light and lightning surrounds Ramza, whose sprite freezes.]
"Toki wo tomare!"
Ramza: "My… my limbs are frozen! What foul trick is this!?" Cletienne: "A time magick of my own fabrication, its might all but wasted on one such as you. I thought myself overcautious in readying a trap, but it appears that was not the case. You'll find no avail in a struggle. You've not the strength of will to break free. Make your peace. You go to the gods."
[Etienne raises his hand to prepare a killing spell; just then, a light erupts that breaks the time magick's hold on Ramza. A second light strikes Cletienne, and Meliadoul enters.]
Meliadoul: "Ser Cletienne. How long has it been since last we met?" Cletienne: "Yours is an unexpected sight. Tell me, when did you don the traitor's cloak?" Meliadoul: "I was not aware I had. Is not that garment draped about your own shoulders? It is Isilud and I who were used, by you and all the others!" Cletienne: "What of it, if you were?" Meliadoul: "Those sins will be atoned for. There shall be no mercy - not even for you."
[Several mage units enter.]
I unironically love all the 'squaring up' scenes where a bunch of goons on both sides step in from just outside the screen like the protagonists are about to throw down with a musical number and they need their backup dancers.
The cool thing about Final Fantasy Tactics is that it has some of the most interesting, compellingly written villains in any Final Fantasy to date, all stained in the blood of tragedy and lost ideals, and then every so often you have Some Fucking Asshole who shows up and goes "my magic is wasted on the likes of you" and says "yeah your dad and I lied to you your entire life, who gives a shit" to your new ally, and then you get to kick his teeth in.
Our opposition is made up of two Summoners, two Time Mages, a Black Mage, and Cletienne, who himself has a unique Sorcerer class. A magic-heavy encounter, interesting! And we only have 4 units in this fight, likely due to Meliadoul being a mandatory guest unit. This is… Technically… A problem, because… We kinda stripped Meliadoul of all her equipment to give it to characters we would actually use in battle the second she joined. What can I say? I wanted to give Adrias the Save the Queen sword, it's thematically fitting.
Anyway. That doesn't actually matter.
Wow, you're level 40 with a MA of 8? That's soooo impressive.
Ramza goes first, hops on that rooftop near the Black Mage, and instantly takes her down with Sanguine Blossom.
On her turn, Meliadoul goes, and, due to her unfortunate gear impediment, all she can do is approach one of the Summoners and do a barehanded attack for a pitiful 40 damage. Sorry, girl. It's not your fault.
More interestingly, though, with her turn, she also provides us with some dialogue.
Meliadoul: "Know you the Stones' secret - what it is my father means to do?" Cletienne: "He strives towards a grand and lofty goal. Of it, I will say no more. Such things exceed your feeble capacity for understanding." Meliadoul: "You know the truth, and yet you aid him!? But… But why?" Cletienne: "*chuckle* My reasons, you've no need to know."
Oh my god. You stupid asshole. What did Folmarv promise you? Riches? Unimaginable power? Did he tell you about the part where you're hollowed out as a demon replaces every part of who you are?
God, what a smug prick.
But you know what?
I can be smugger.
Gillian, end his entire bloodline.
Imagine being a level multiple of 5 in my girl's perception range. Couldn't be me.
Cletienne: "This I did not foresee. But surely the time I've bought will suffice." Meliadoul: "Ser Cletienne, wait! Is… is it true? Is my father… A Lucavi?" Cletienne: "You've eyes, have you not? Go and see for yourself."
[He teleports away.] Meliadoul: "Could he… truly be?"
What 'time you've bought', Cletienne? You died on turn one before getting in a single action. You bitch.
Anyway, thank you Meliadoul, sorry about stealing all your gear.
Now it's time to make haste to Eagrose Castle.
Time for a family reunion.
We enter the castle node, and a cutscene plays out before we're prompted to make our battlegroup. Ramza approaches the gate, and finds no guards; a chocobo waits by the gate, whom Ramza recognizes as Zalbaag's mount.
It looks like Little Brother has decided to have a meaningful discussion with Big Brother. No way this could go wrong.
Ramza investigates the gates, and find a lever which lifts the grate; if you ask me, having this accessible from outside the castle is kind of a liability, but I guess this was a secret lever whose location is only given to Beoulve heirs or something.
Ramza enters, and we get the "form your squad" prompt. What awaits us inside is a Shakespearian tragedy unfolding.
Dycedarg: "Have you taken leave of your senses, Zalbaag? This is madness!" Zalbaag: "After what you've done, you think yourself fit to lead our house?" Dycedarg: "That business with the duke? Larg was long dead ere my dagger found its mark. Think, Brother. He was a weak man, who relied on others to fight where he could not. More fool he to start a war he could not stomach." Zalbaag: "Our liege lord's murder bothers me not half so much as our father's! How could you dirty your hands with his blood? What manner of son are you?" Dycedarg: "I am my father's son! I know naught of his murder!" Zalbaag: "Duke Larg's dying words. I could scarce believe my ears, but there was no mistaking what he said. Why did you kill him, Dycedarg? Why?"
[A Northern Sky Knight enters.] Knight: "Lord Dycedarg!" Dycedarg: "Zalbaag is taken with some madness!"
[Several more knights enter; they surround Zalbaag. Dycedarg stands up.] Dycedarg: "Seize him!" Zalbaag: "Lord Brother!" Ramza: "Stand your ground, Zalbaag!"
[Ramza and his party enter.]
Well! Looks like Zalbaag found his line in the sand after all. He was able to countenance the murder of Duke Larg, but finding confirmation that Dycedarg had killed his father was a step too far. And how could it not be? Dycedarg has half-justified his actions with it all being for the sake of House Beoulve, but Barbaneth was a hero of the realm, a peerless knight, commanding respect from all; there is none his death serves, save for Dycedarg himself. He killed their father, Zalbaag's father, and dragged House Beoulve into the muk of war, patricide, regicide, and general ruin, all for the sake of his ego. And for a long time, Zalbaag was willing to go along with it (though we know from Gaffgarion's discussions with Dycedarg that he was kept in the dark about some of their darker dealings), but this? This is too far. Dycedarg's entire plan was poisoned in its inception; he did not merely fall along the way, he started out with one of the greatest crimes a society of hereditary nobility can imagine: Patricide.
There can be no peace between the two brothers. Now let's lend our aid to the one who's found his righteousness at the last moment.
Our opposition is straightforward: Five Knights and Dycedarg, with Zalbaag on our side as a guest unit. What's the brothers' deal?
Dycedarg is a Rune Knight, another Special Knight variants; he uses the Sword Skills we're by now all familiar with; plus general magical abilities - his Magicks is the same as Cletienne's Sorcerer command, so it looks like he's an all-rounded mage on top of a Holy Knight-alike. Zalbaag is an Ark Knight, the same ability as Elmdore, although his specific abilities differ; instead of Iaido, Blade of Ruin grants him several "damage a target's stat at range" powers, the stat-based counterpart to Meliadoul's Crush [Gear] abilities.
Everyone and their dog gets to be a special knight in this game, except Ramza. But that's fine.
I brought on Agrias; Hallowed Bolt has no vertical limitation, so she can walk up to the sheer wall and immediately take down one of the Knights without needing to first approach through the circular stairs that are the default way of approaching the main melee, like Ramza is having to do:
It gives him time to Shout, so it's honestly working to our advantage.
When Dycedarg takes his turn, he promptly returns the favor, hitting Hadrian, Mustadio and Gillian with a Hallowed Bolt. This kind of alpha strike is one of the greatest assets of Sword Skills; without shenanigans like I'm playing with Agrias, their damage isn't that high, but their AoE, range and lack of cast time means a character can go first while either side of the battle is still clumped together in their starting position and hit multiple enemies at once.
Here, Dycedarg is hitting Hadrian and Gillian for 160 damage and Mustadio for 200, bringing him into critical range - nothing a bit of healing can't undo, hopefully; I have Mustadio quickly use an X-Potion and advance under the main arch, then Gillian starts charging up a Holy for Dycedarg.
Forecast: 287 damage, or a little over half his health. No funny instant kill this time, but still solid.
Zalbaag: "Ramza! It is all as you've said! Dycedarg enkindled this war and slew the duke. All to feed his own ambition. He has sullied our name, brought scorn upon our house - he must be made to pay!" Ramza: "He shall, Lord Brother!"
Okay, Zalbaag having all these cool Ark Knight Abilities and instead deciding to just walk up to his brother and stab him in the face is very funny. Who needs cool magical sword tricks when your brother has betrayed everything your house stands for and you've got a trusty length of steel to gift him in return, up close and personal?
The nearest Knight then attempts to Rend Shield on Zalbaag, only to be blocked by said shield and eat a Counter to the face. Our brother is so far earning his fame as the Knight Devout of the Northern Sky.
Abusing the verticality of Hallowed Bolt leads to funny behavior incentives, like Agrias just staying at the bottom of the map and hugging the walls rather than wasting turns properly climbing which would put some opponents outside her attack range.
Holy fires next, bringing Dycedarg into critical range. Two of the Knights decide to go down to intercept Ramza, which proves a mistake; this allows Ramza to take down both of them with a single Doomed Aspirations.
Dycedarg: "You fools! Why will you not follow where I lead? Why do you turn against me? The powerful must rule the weak! It is our duty! The Crown once held such power, but no more! See how fate has brought it low? Why should we not rule in its stead? We must wield our power and seize the reins of Ivalice! Why will you not see this?" Zalbaag: "You feast on power, Brother, but leave no place at the table for justice. The name Beoulve befits brave men who raise their swords in justice's name. You are no Beoulve!" Dycedarg: "Justice? I'd die of shame to hear the word from my own lips! Such lofty ideals cannot rule a people so common. Who has earned you the right to wield your sword of justice? To be hailed as hero? Is it not I? I, who have dirtied my hands to keep yours clean? All that you are you owe to me! You ought to be on your knees thanking me, yet here you stand in judgment!"
Yeah, baby, that's the good stuff. Family drama! Brothers throwing accusations at each other! The name and honor of the family at stake! Given how much Zalbaag has allowed to unfold by overlooking it, whether knowingly or not, I can definitely see how Dycedarg feels justified in telling him that he owes his lofty claim of a "sword of justice" to Dycedarg's dirty dealings placing him in the right position - and yet, none of that can compare to the enormity of killing their father. Dycedarg avoids the subject entirely, instead making claims to the weakness of the crown and the need for the weak to be ruled, because there's absolutely no defending this original sin which stains every action he has taken ever since.
But of course he had to kill their father. Barbaneth was acclaimed as a virtuous knight, a man who cared about the people, about justice, and Dycedarg just laid out his worldview for all to see: There is no justice, there is only the necessity of the strong to rule over the weak, and it is up to House Beoulve to rise to that necessity. There's no nobless oblige to Dycedarg's vision of rulership, no honor or justice, just the inevitability of a Darwinian social order: The strong do as they will, the weak suffer as they must.
And as if to drive that point home, Dycedarg takes his turn, stands up with defiant strength…
…and blasts Mustadio into the nether realm.
You know, who cares about victory and tactical objectives when you have a chance to remind the common-born Machinist that his place belongs in the KO Zone.
Poor Mustadio.
Joking aside this is actually pretty devastating. I didn't space my characters out properly, so that Hallowed Bolt hits Hadrian, Mustadio, and Gillian again, taking out Mustadio and Gillian and leaving Hadrian in critical HP. Not great!
Ramza is still at the other end of the stairs, and the Knight previously wounded by Agrias approaches him to try and strike him down with a sword blow.
This has the predictable result of Ramza countering with a First Strike, instantly taking down the Knight.
All adds are gone. Dycedarg is the only enemy left. And it is Zalbaag's turn.
The righteous(ish) brother strikes down the patricide. Pure poetry.
Dycedarg: "You've ruined… everything. Ivalice was to be… to be ours. You fools… what have you done?"
[He collapses to the ground.]
But of course, you all know what happens next.
The Zodiac Stone rolls to the ground, rises into the air, and begins to glow.
This time, we are not privy to a dialogue between the stone and its bearer, as we were with Wiegraf - but we can easily infer it. Dycedarg has fewer moral qualms than Wiegraf ever had; offered the chance to rise from his dying state filled with newfound power, he would take it instantly and without question.
What stands up before Zalbaag is no man.
Adrammelech, the Wroth is unleashed.
And just like the Wiegraf-to-Belias transformation, it is a continuation of the same battle, with no refresh - though Adrammelech thankfully doesn't summon additional demons.
He has things to say, however.
Adrammelech: "So this is what it is to be a god."
[The stone shines again, and all the corpses vanish. Adrammelech turns to Zalbaag.] Adrammelech: "Fool of a brother! Heed well these words, the last your ears shall hear. Slain by my hand, our father, Barbaneth. This war had brought our house its chance to rule. He would but watch as hist'ry passed us by. His due I granted him, no more, no less. No sword yet wrought can parry poison's kiss."
[The Stone shines; a pillar of light engulfs Zalbaag.]
Holy shit. He disintegrated Zalbaag. What the hell!
I was genuinely briefly confused whether Adrammelech had decided to get Zalbaag out of the way and teleported him to the moon or something, but no, I'm pretty sure he just fucking killed him on the spot with an orbital laser beam. Sure! Why not!
RIP Zalbaag, not even any last words for either of your brother, death came too fast.
Well, better him than Ramza.
Battle begins, and we immediately have a problem: We are down two units, specifically Gillian and Mustadio, my support unit.
Not to worry. I'll have Hadrian quickly drop by…
…
When I did those Errands earlier, I swapped Hadrian to Chemist so he could earn some Items JP.
When I swapped him back to Dragoon, I forgot to check that he still had the Items command equipped.
He went into this fight without Item.
So. The way I organize my healing, it's Gillian first (White Magic, issues with cast time and miss chance but much more powerful), then Mustadio (Chemist, can use Items at range), and then Hadrian if both the others are incapacitated (Item command, but he has to physically walk up to the unit he uses them on) as a final backstop. Without that backstop, I got nothing.
I have no character capable of raising Mustadio and Gillian, who are at 2 on their death counters - and Hadrian himself is in critical HP and the only way to heal him would be one of Ramza's Iaido moves.
We're going to need to beat Adrammelech in two rounds with only three active units, one of whom is on the brink of death. And neither Agrias nor Ramza are even in range of the demon this round.
First step: Hadrian targets Adra with a Jump and goes up into the air. Then Ramza approaches with another power-up Shout, while Agrias slowly approaches the wall. Hadrian falls, hitting Adrammelech for 180 damage, then thanks to Haste it's Agrias's turn again.
A 374-damage hit thanks to Hallowed Bolt.
Now Adrammelech takes his first turn, moving just far enough to aim a Firaja at Hadrian which is sure to finish him off. No matter. Ramza can finally get into melee of the Wroth, and hit him with Doomed Aspirations for 270 damage. Then Hadrian, using Ignore Elevation and carrying a Firaja target on his back, hops into melee range to stab the beast with his spear.
The beast is cornered, by now its spell finally fires; Firaga fills the screen with a deadly rain of explosion that unfortunately renders poorly in screenshots, dealing honestly merely okay damage - but enough to take down our Dragoon.
Mustadio is down. Gillian is down. Hadrian is down. Their counters are ticking down. Only Ramza and Agrias are left.
But it's enough.
Agrias's final Hallowed Bolt hits for another 374 damage. With a total of 1558 damage, the Lucavi is brought down.
Adramellech, the Wroth: "Too soon this mortal coil did I assume! Angel of Blood, High Seraph… come too late…"
Adramellech explodes in a burst of light, leaving behind his Zodiac Stone. No trace remains of Dycedarg and Zalbaag. Ramza sums it up all in one grim sentence:
House Beoulve is no more. This edifice of honor and legacy and treachery and war, long crumbling, is finally dust. Dycedarg dealt the killing blow long ago, when he slew his own father and pretended it was because he was letting pass a chance to advance their House's interest; he then made the Beoulves party to treachery, civil war, death and famine, and slew his own lord. Zalbaag, seeing too late his older brother for the man he truly was, attempted to redeem this disgrace in blood, making himself a fratricide. In spite and sheer survival instinct, Dycedarg reached out to the stone, made himself a monster, slew his brother in turn, and perished by the commands of his youngest brother.
Ramza is all that remains. Ramza, the heretic, infamous across all of Ivalice, a hunted man. Alma is the only one who could carry the name Beoulve now.
But of course… There is more to it than that. More to the fall of house Beoulve than tragedy.
Ramza: "House Beoulve is no more. But what does it matter? We are the sum of our deeds, not our names." Ramza: "Alma… I will find you, Alma."
We are the sum of our deeds, not our names. And if that isn't the entire thrust of the game summed up in one sentence. Of course, it refers in part to the question of nobility, of whether blood and names matter - in a story filled with adopted children, half-brothers, illegitimate children, conspiracies of unknown parentage, and so on, in which the common-born Delita has established himself as one of the foremost nobles in the kingdom and Ramza been cast out, deeds matter more than names. But it's not just that - it's everything about the way Ramza vanishes from history, the way the Church tars his name, the way he is remembered as nothing more than a rogue and a heretic.
It is tragic, that Ramza's true deeds were suppressed for so long. But it's not what matters. What matters is what he did.
He is the sum of his deeds, not what history remembers him by.
There's nothing left for us in Eagrose Castle. But a new node has unlocked - Mullonde, where the Church has its seat, and with it, the Templar Knight conspiracy. This is the last place for us to check, the very heart of our enemy's power. And it's there we will go… Next time.
Thank you for reading.
Next Time: To Mullonde, seat of the Church.
Main Story Battle Count: 47 Side Quest Battle Count: 8 (I'm pretty sure the Dorter battle against Cletienne is missable if we somehow get Meliadoul killed in the five minutes between Limberry and Dorter so technically it's a side quest) Random Encounter Count: 68
Probably worth warning you that, after you face what waits in Mullonde (which I suspect you already have, from your comments in previous posts), the next red node is where the game's point of no return starts, and there's a few optional missions you might want to undertake before that. Or not, but, you know, being made aware before you head for the point of no return seemed important.