Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
Ace of Scarabs
Mechanoid Pilot
- Location
- Singapore
Count Minimas has a minor reference in FFTA2, as the Minymum guild regularly attends the Auctions with comically massive number of auction tokens, but always bids low.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I finally caught up to these updates and WHAT THE HELL?
Next you're gonna tell me Hydaelyn shows up somewhere here, good lord.
- Location
- Amman, Jordan
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
So I've finally caught up on this thread. FYI, I kind of missed out on a couple updates after the failed attempt on the Sorceress back in FFVIII. Yeah, that far back. So let's add my two cents to all this.
Nonsense! All she needs is a steel chair, and she'll be one of the best head-crackers around!
I'd put in the obligatory "seems like the Bard rolled well to seduce the dragon", but this is animu, so you don't even need to be a bard, apparently!
Rake #55: Calculator (the class container) sucks
Status:
Leveling the class organically is beyond painful. Give them Squire as the secondary, have Ramza tailwind them constantly, and then Accumulate until they've learned everything and you can swap them back into a class that's actually tolerable to use like Black/White Mage or something.
It's sort of like Gau's Rages in FFVI. It takes a bit of skill and a mind for maths (ha) to use them properly. But when you do, you pretty much break the game balance over your knee like uncooked pasta.
Ramza: *quietly glaring at Delita* Delita, old buddy, old pal... you do remember I'm accused of mass murder, fratricide, episcopicide, spree killing, eliticide, and depending on your point of view, demonicide or deicide - and a good chunk of those accusations would actually be correct. I don't think throwing in regicide as well would be too far a stretch for me at this point.
Ace Combat, Animal Crossing, Assassin's Creed, Asheron's Call, Assetto Corsa, Astral Chain, Auto Chess, Arcus Chroma, Guilty Gear XX Accent Core... why are there so many goddam games with the abbreviation AC?!
Final Fantasy Tactics, Finale: Part 1/3
New
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hear ye, hear ye! 'Tis the year of our Lord 2024, and it has come to pass.
The Story So Far: The War of the Lions is nearing its end. Nearly all the great lords of Ivalice have fallen; the White Lion and the Black Lion are no more, House Beoulve has fallen, and nothing stands in the way of Delita's ambition and Ovelia's restoration to the throne - nothing, that is, save for Folmarv, the last of the Lucavi, who now hurries to Orbonne Monastery where our story began to summon his master…
This is it. The true endgame. All optional sidequests have been squared away… In another timeline; my characters jumped several levels doing Midlight's Deep, so I reloaded an earlier save from before tackling the bonus dungeon. All that remains in our path is Orbonne Monastery, and the last confrontations in the game.
Let's go.
I. Into the Deep
We begin at the bottom of the Monastery's ancient library, where Loffrey and the last few Templarate soldiers have gathered. Loffrey tells them to keep watch while he goes to Lord Folmarv; it's unclear exactly how much these last few loyalists know about the Lucavi's true plans. Given that Folmarv, Loffrey and Cletienne were alone when he slew the High Confessor, it's likely they're being kept in the dark. We'll be fighting a few more Templar Knight generic units past the point of no return, and I suspect they're all in way over their heads with no real understanding of what's happening around them.
Our party enters, and we begin a fairly straightforward battle against generic units: three Knights, two Monks, one Archer. Honestly not a particularly noteworthy opposition, though enemy HP and defenses are starting to be strong enough that Hester can't always get easy one-hit kills; some enemies have enough HP to survive two hits, while many are rocking defenses strong enough that she misses one or both of her attacks if she's not backstabbing them. That Archer survives her first assault, though he is immediately finished off by Mustadio's gun.
Like I said: Consistency.
One of the Monks responds by approaching Hester and hitting her with DOOM FIST, an incredibly named ability which inflicts the Doom status, meaning Hester will die in three turns. Which is neat because it means we get a clock to race against in an otherwise fairly normal encounter. Can we kill all enemies before Hester's timer runs down?
Yes, obviously we can.
Ramza self-buffs with Shout on Turn 1, after which his Doomed Aspiration is a one hit kill on pretty much everything while Hadrian's Jump obliterates one of the Knights, so we take down three units in a single turn. One of the Monks approaches Gillain to Aurablast her, which puts him in stabbing range of Hadrian, so he dies immediately afterwards. I wrap it up with a cheeky Holy on the last Knight and that's the encounter folded in two turns.
As we clean our blades, voices echo from deeper in the vaults.
Loffrey: "I will tend to matters here."
Folmarv: "Very good."
Loffrey: "Faol…cheo…de…anda! Zorda…mu…feo…"
Loffrey: "...mal, Reeve of…oath unto you…bound. Time…cross you…vastness…Throw…Her…that we…pass!"
[A flash of light.]
Ramza: "Do they flee before us again?"
I like how Ramza is taking an increasingly tired attitude towards our mightiest enemies just running like cowards again and again. Who could blame him? Sure, in actual truth Ramza is not the castle-depopulating mass killing monster that his reputation must suggest by this point, he is the leader of a small group of small unit tactics specialists who often follow after the demons who did most of the massacring, but at this point he's still slain every Lucavi that's come his way in both their human and demonic forms and defeated some of the greatest warriors in the realm - the ones that didn't join his group, that is. Everyone who stood their ground against Ramza's party was defeated and either ran or died. It's hard to imagine that Folmarv/Hashmal would present a significantly greater threat, and to the extent that he might, the fact that he keeps running away isn't exactly setting him up for it.
Point is, eventually the concern and fear the Lucavi might have once evoked in Ramza has given way to frustration at their elusive nature. Our boy is on the hunt, and his prey is getting closer.
Swapping Gillian back to White Mage after playing around with Summons for a few levels. This isn't the best loadout I could have gotten her - swapping the Luminous Robe for a Wizard's Robe would reduce her HP by 45 but boost her Magic Power, while the Sortilége grants Protect+Shell but she might be better served by a MA boost and staying in the back line; however, by now, our offensive power is overall significant enough that additional MA isn't really going to change the outcome of any fight.
Loffrey: "We've waited for you, Ramza. How very far you've come, but no farther! Your bones will rest here in the darkness. The stones of the monastery make an ironic cairn for a heretic such as you!"
Sure man, whatever you say.
Our opposition: Two Black Mages, two Summoners, a Time Mage, and Loffrey himself. Each individual magical units has the potential for powerful, wide-ranging attacks, but they all have the same problem: Casting time. Our party overall favors Speed, with Hester being a Ninja, Ramza and Mustadio both enjoying Speed-boosting equipment, Gillian being capable of casting Haste with Arithmetics, and Hadrian being our only really slow unit. So a lot of it goes, like…
…enemy Black Mage advances, charges up an offensive spell, gets immediately shot in the face by Mustadio for extra damage.
Then I remember that Loffrey is one of the "break gear" items kind of Special Knight when he uses Rend Armor on Ramza.
This just destroyed my Mirage Vest. My one-of-a-kind Speed-boosting Mirage Vest.
Let's just pretend nothing happened and quietly reload.
Having Agrias does make these things a lot quicker.
This time, Loffrey defaults to his secondary skillset, Magicks, charging up a Confuse spell aimed at Agrias. Which is great - really I only care about him not ruining my precious gear. With Masamune's power, Ramza is able to use Iaido to cast Haste and Regen on himself, Hadrian, and Hester, setting us up to sweep the enemy field.
I love Confuse's animation. Lookit this little guy!
Agrias somehow manages to parry the spell, avoiding any effects of confusion, and I have Hester get in close and messy with Loffrey. A single dual wield deletes 405 out of Loffrey's 508 HP.
Ramza: "There is something familiar in this. Something reminiscent of our battle with Celia and Lettie. You are no mortal man."
Loffrey: "No, that I am not. I am something far greater. Folmarv has made it possible for me to leave behind ignorance, the frailty of flesh. I am given the gift of life eternal. A joy you can never know."
Ramza: "What drives you to do what you do? What is it you seek?"
Loffrey: "Questions… So many questions. But your search for answers is in vain. They wait beyond me, forever beyond your reach!"
Love it when a villain hints at something that's a massive deal and raises a bunch of questions about their motivations but then they just scoff at said questions so the writer doesn't have to explain shit. I would like to know why Loffrey has committed himself to this cause or, indeed, what the cause even is. Why do the Lucavi seek chaos and destruction? Are they just evil? Who knows! Let's kill them.
There's only one Time Mage left on critical HP and Loffrey; the Templar Knight retaliates with a Crush Armor, but aimed at Hester this time, destroying her Power Garb of which I have multiple backups. That makes things easy. Hester tosses a snow bomb at the Time Mage to finish him off, and Ramza pursues Loffrey to finish him off with a Sanguine Blossom, ending the fight. In the end Hadrian mostly sat out the fight - his Jump 'missed' because I killed the Mage it was targeting before he had time to come down, and Gillian mostly just sat back and threw Hastes and Protects on her teammates that weren't even necessary.
I expect Loffrey to get back up and reveal his demonic form to us, but what happens instead is… Different.
Loffrey: "It is not… my time. So much remains… to be done. For you, Ramza… I shall cast open the very gates of hell."
[A Massive sigil begins to glow on the ground.]
Oh, that's nicely ominous.
Loffrey: "Faolos cheos de vanda! Zorda ramud feolio… Zomal, Reeve of Time, by oath unto you I am bound. Timeless, cross you now the vastness of Time's gulf. Throw wide Her gate that we may pass!"
The same incantation we heard pieces of moments ago. The incantation that allowed Folmarv to cross over. Light begins to surge through the glyph…
A single pillar of light rises from the center of the battlefield, and engulfs it in a great eruption. When it fades - everyone is gone.
The battlefield sits, empty, as the victory fanfare plays out.
It's a nice ironic effect.
Of course, the story can't end here unresolved. We fade to black, and quickly find out what happened as we transition to a strange new environment, a deserted building with a raised stone platform on which the sigil is mirrored. With a flash of light, Ramza appears.
II. The Necrohol of Mullonde
Loffrey sits at the bottom of this level; though he finds the strength to answer Ramza's question, it is clearly with his dying breaths.
Ramza: "What is this place?"
Loffrey: "The necrohol of Mullonde." [He lifts his head to look up at Ramza.] "Never again will you see the skies of Ivalice. Without the glyph… the gate… there can be no return."
[Loffrey produces an item, and begins some kind of spell; blue light erupts across the platform Ramza is standing on, and he must run away as the glyph crumbles into the void.]
Loffrey: "There is… no turning back now. Go. Your sister… awaits."
[He succumbs.]
Ramza: "Alma is near."
[He leaves the room; the camera pans up, emphasizing the vast darkness around him.]
Well.
"Necrohol" is such a strange word. It sounds like nécropole, which is French for "necropolis," and I wonder if that was the intent; in any case it's a creation of the WotL translation team, a neologism created for the purposes of making it sound a little stranger.
What I want to ask is… Why did Loffrey do this? We didn't know the way to enter the necrohol! If he'd just died without that last spiteful gesture, we would have been stuck outside the entrance. Does he have the Scriptures of Germonique with him, and was he worried that we might enter it on our own after taking them from his corpse? If so that could perhaps have been made clearer. As things stand, Loffrey might have condemned Ramza and his allies to a lonely death in the abyss, unknown to all, but he at least made the job of 'stopping Folmarv' easier by getting us where we wanted to be, just locking the door on the way in. Plus… I mean, presumably, Folmarv and his master the High Seraph are planning on getting out somehow, so it's clearly not impossible to leave; the alternative is that Loffrey accidentally sealed his own allies in the necrohol, which would be a little comical.
I think the answer is simpler. Loffrey doesn't believe we're capable of stopping Folmarv (and Cletienne, if it matters). He continues to underestimate Ramza, and figures by trapping us in the necrohol, he ensures our death at the hands of his master. This may prove his final mistake.
Our next battle screen instructs us to split our party into two squads; I go with Ramza/Hadrian/Gillian on Squad 1, and Hester/Mustadio on Squad 2.
Cletienne: "So, Ser Loffrey is defeated. Then it falls to me to stop you, if I would do honor to his noble sacrifice!"
[OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT CLETIENNE!]
Cletienne is supported by two Ninjas, two Samurai, and two Time Mages. These are (almost) the last human units we will be fighting in this playthrough, with the exception of a single lonely Chemist on the next map; the question of how Cletienne and Folmarv convinced these few remaining loyalists finding themselves in the ruins of an otherworld to keep fighting and not ask questions is an interesting one, though they ultimately inscribe themselves in the same tradition as Indiana Jones henchmen and Tomb Raider goons who manage to reach the bottom of the Forgotten McGuffin Temple and still manage to keep their eyes on their end-of-year bonus instead of the dreadful horrors manifesting around them.
Our enemies are starting to severely outlevel us - one of those Ninjas is lv 53, which is 10 levels above Hester, our own Ninja - so the enemy gets to go first, both enemies hurling Shurikens for 100+ damage. They are immediately punished in the way I always am whenever I have Hester attack high-Speed enemies on Turn 1 unsupported:
That's one dead Ninja, and Hester's Dragonheart has triggered, granting her Reraise. An auspicious start. Let's check out Cletienne:
Lv 54 Sorcerer, Zeus Mace, he can Fly so we won't be able to box him in, he has both Magick Boost and Arcane Defense which makes him a powerful offensive spellcaster and a tough nut for my spellcasters to crack. High Faith, too. It's… Decent.
Unfortunately I've grown too used to Ramza needing a turn to reach the enemy lines and using that turn to buff with Shout; throwing a 'naked' Doomed Aspirations manages to hit three enemy units but falls short of quite killing two of them. A problem that could be easily solved by increasing Ramza's Magic Attack with the Aegis Shield, but I… forgot. I forgot that the Aegis Shield increases MA so he's dragging around a much less useful Crystal Shield. RIP. No matter. I do a quick survey of enemy levels, CT counts, Heights and EXP until I can find a common factor across as many of the units as possible; I follow this up with a Fire that takes out the critical Ninja as well as a poor Samurai who hasn't even gotten to act yet but was targeted by Mustadio earlier and so is down at half HP already.
"Why Fira instead of Holy," you ask? Well, because the algorithm I picked included Cletienne in its targeting calculations, and I want to give him a chance to fire at least one spell.
This leads, of course, to him taking the funniest possible decision.
OF COURSE HE TARGETED MUSTADIO. NOT MY MOST POWERFUL UNIT. NOT MY MOST VULNERABLE UNIT. THERE IS NO MERIT IN KILLING HIM EXCEPT ONE: RELENTLESS BULLYING.
Being Mustadio is suffering.
The surviving Samurai moves up to support the last remaining Time Mage with Rain of Wisdom, healing the both of them for… 84 HP. It's sort of a glimpse into what these enemy units could do if they were more optimized, because Samurai being able to flexibly act as offense or support would make for a nice challenge in the opposition but the raw numbers just aren't there; Hester immediately stabs that Samurai to death on her next turn. Meanwhile, the Time Mage…
Baps Gillian on the head with his staff?
Sure buddy, why not.
Cletienne positions himself closer to the group and decides to target Gillian with an Unholy Darkness. A quick check of the turn order tells me it's going to fire after Ramza, Gillian, Hadrian and Hester all get a turn, which would give me ample opportunity to just finish off Cletienne, but I end up playing this out a little too weirdly. First, Ramza takes out the Time Mage with Sanguine Blossom - this is just standard "take out all enemies before focusing on the boss" procedure even if Cletienne has shown no propensity towards extra dialogue so far. Then I have Ramza move up to Cletienne to prepare his next turn, and I have Gillian cast Raise on Mustadio, so that even if she goes down, he'll be there to Phoenix Down her up. At which point…
…I realize that, like a big idiot, I have cornered Cletienne in such a way that Hadrian and Hester can't actually reach him. All adjacent squares are either a wall, Gillian, Ramza, or Mustadio.
Oops.
It doesn't ultimately matter all that much, but it means I have to have Hadrian Jump on Cletienne, and he won't land until Unholy Darkness has fired. Hester, meanwhile, is left to chuck a shuriken at the Sorcerer for a quick 180 damage, and that's all my turns before darkness falls.
This is ultimately more the funny kind of mistake than anything serious. Mustadio immediately tosses a Phoenix Down at her, getting her back up. Cletienne, meanwhile, uses his flight abilities (which look really funny in motion, he's literally walking on stairs in the air) to evade a charge another spell, and surprise, I do get my extra dialogue after all.
Ramza: "Where is Folmarv gone!?"
Cletienne: "What manner of question is that? There is but one place he would go. Our purpose in coming here is solitary. We seek to resurrect our lord and master, the High Seraph. Or rather, to awaken him from the imperfect state in which his former host's death has left him. Lord Folmarv makes for the place our master's soul dwells - the place where Saint Ajora met his end."
Ramza: "Where!?"
Cletienne: "Were I you, I would concern myself with my own fate, not that of Saint Ajora!"
Note the explicitly male-gendered language surrounding "master," "High Seraph," and "Saint Ajora" - this'll get a little weird a bit later on.
Cletienne charges up another Unholy Darkness, but at this point it's another free round so I basically just get to pick how he dies and I decide to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Cletienne: "Loffrey… forgive me…"
[He dies.]
[Light flashes.]
Ramza: "That flash of light - he must be there!"
Hey, what do you know. They did care about one another.
Our next battle is in a place called Lost Halidom, where the ruins of the necrohol are crumbling into unrecognizable rubble, overgrown by vines or roots. And the enemy that awaits us there is… unexpected?
Barich: "Truly, it is a joy that we should chance to meet again. I once suffered defeat at your hands, but it will not happen twice. This dead city will be your final resting place!"
Barich? Seriously? Dude, I didn't 'defeat' you. I killed you. You died in front of me.
I suppose the Lucavi brought him back to life, but unlike Argath and Zalbaag, he shows none of the signs we've come to associate with undeath - no ashen skin, no modified abilities, he's just plain ol' Barich, a Machinist. It feels like a weird twist that's just here to add an extra battle because the game realized that it ran out of loyalist Templar Knights for us to fight before the final bosses.
The thing is, Barich isn't the problem here. His support units are. Barich enters this fight backed by a Chemist, a Dark Behemoth, a Hydra, a Greater Hydra, and a Tiamat. Unlike in previous games, "Tiamat" is not a singular monster but the highest tier of the Hydra monster family, but it's no less a threat for it. Namely:
Tiamat (and Greater Hydra) have a Tri-[Flame/Thunder/Ice] attack, which hits for 220 damage, three times in a row. Any unit that isn't using gear that halves elemental damage (and I'll be real with you I have absolutely not bothered to equip any of my units with that kind of item because we've been tearing through mages faster than they could cast Firaga) dies to half again their max HP in total damage. It's brutal.
My immediate priority is taking out the Chemist; I'm absolutely certain he can throw Phoenix Downs at downed enemies, so I take the risk of sending Hester immediately to turn him into minced meat… And he has the audacity to dodge and then counter-tackle her.
Counter-tackle deals a pathetic amount of damage, but it knocks her back one tile and also mostly just feels insulting. I did manage to land one of her two attacks, so the Chemist is injured, but now she's standing in the middle of three enemies.
Cut for image count.
The Story So Far: The War of the Lions is nearing its end. Nearly all the great lords of Ivalice have fallen; the White Lion and the Black Lion are no more, House Beoulve has fallen, and nothing stands in the way of Delita's ambition and Ovelia's restoration to the throne - nothing, that is, save for Folmarv, the last of the Lucavi, who now hurries to Orbonne Monastery where our story began to summon his master…
This is it. The true endgame. All optional sidequests have been squared away… In another timeline; my characters jumped several levels doing Midlight's Deep, so I reloaded an earlier save from before tackling the bonus dungeon. All that remains in our path is Orbonne Monastery, and the last confrontations in the game.
Let's go.
I. Into the Deep
We begin at the bottom of the Monastery's ancient library, where Loffrey and the last few Templarate soldiers have gathered. Loffrey tells them to keep watch while he goes to Lord Folmarv; it's unclear exactly how much these last few loyalists know about the Lucavi's true plans. Given that Folmarv, Loffrey and Cletienne were alone when he slew the High Confessor, it's likely they're being kept in the dark. We'll be fighting a few more Templar Knight generic units past the point of no return, and I suspect they're all in way over their heads with no real understanding of what's happening around them.
Our party enters, and we begin a fairly straightforward battle against generic units: three Knights, two Monks, one Archer. Honestly not a particularly noteworthy opposition, though enemy HP and defenses are starting to be strong enough that Hester can't always get easy one-hit kills; some enemies have enough HP to survive two hits, while many are rocking defenses strong enough that she misses one or both of her attacks if she's not backstabbing them. That Archer survives her first assault, though he is immediately finished off by Mustadio's gun.
Like I said: Consistency.
One of the Monks responds by approaching Hester and hitting her with DOOM FIST, an incredibly named ability which inflicts the Doom status, meaning Hester will die in three turns. Which is neat because it means we get a clock to race against in an otherwise fairly normal encounter. Can we kill all enemies before Hester's timer runs down?
Yes, obviously we can.
Ramza self-buffs with Shout on Turn 1, after which his Doomed Aspiration is a one hit kill on pretty much everything while Hadrian's Jump obliterates one of the Knights, so we take down three units in a single turn. One of the Monks approaches Gillain to Aurablast her, which puts him in stabbing range of Hadrian, so he dies immediately afterwards. I wrap it up with a cheeky Holy on the last Knight and that's the encounter folded in two turns.
As we clean our blades, voices echo from deeper in the vaults.
Loffrey: "I will tend to matters here."
Folmarv: "Very good."
Loffrey: "Faol…cheo…de…anda! Zorda…mu…feo…"
Loffrey: "...mal, Reeve of…oath unto you…bound. Time…cross you…vastness…Throw…Her…that we…pass!"
[A flash of light.]
Ramza: "Do they flee before us again?"
I like how Ramza is taking an increasingly tired attitude towards our mightiest enemies just running like cowards again and again. Who could blame him? Sure, in actual truth Ramza is not the castle-depopulating mass killing monster that his reputation must suggest by this point, he is the leader of a small group of small unit tactics specialists who often follow after the demons who did most of the massacring, but at this point he's still slain every Lucavi that's come his way in both their human and demonic forms and defeated some of the greatest warriors in the realm - the ones that didn't join his group, that is. Everyone who stood their ground against Ramza's party was defeated and either ran or died. It's hard to imagine that Folmarv/Hashmal would present a significantly greater threat, and to the extent that he might, the fact that he keeps running away isn't exactly setting him up for it.
Point is, eventually the concern and fear the Lucavi might have once evoked in Ramza has given way to frustration at their elusive nature. Our boy is on the hunt, and his prey is getting closer.
Swapping Gillian back to White Mage after playing around with Summons for a few levels. This isn't the best loadout I could have gotten her - swapping the Luminous Robe for a Wizard's Robe would reduce her HP by 45 but boost her Magic Power, while the Sortilége grants Protect+Shell but she might be better served by a MA boost and staying in the back line; however, by now, our offensive power is overall significant enough that additional MA isn't really going to change the outcome of any fight.
Loffrey: "We've waited for you, Ramza. How very far you've come, but no farther! Your bones will rest here in the darkness. The stones of the monastery make an ironic cairn for a heretic such as you!"
Sure man, whatever you say.
Our opposition: Two Black Mages, two Summoners, a Time Mage, and Loffrey himself. Each individual magical units has the potential for powerful, wide-ranging attacks, but they all have the same problem: Casting time. Our party overall favors Speed, with Hester being a Ninja, Ramza and Mustadio both enjoying Speed-boosting equipment, Gillian being capable of casting Haste with Arithmetics, and Hadrian being our only really slow unit. So a lot of it goes, like…
…enemy Black Mage advances, charges up an offensive spell, gets immediately shot in the face by Mustadio for extra damage.
Then I remember that Loffrey is one of the "break gear" items kind of Special Knight when he uses Rend Armor on Ramza.
This just destroyed my Mirage Vest. My one-of-a-kind Speed-boosting Mirage Vest.
Let's just pretend nothing happened and quietly reload.
Having Agrias does make these things a lot quicker.
This time, Loffrey defaults to his secondary skillset, Magicks, charging up a Confuse spell aimed at Agrias. Which is great - really I only care about him not ruining my precious gear. With Masamune's power, Ramza is able to use Iaido to cast Haste and Regen on himself, Hadrian, and Hester, setting us up to sweep the enemy field.
I love Confuse's animation. Lookit this little guy!
Agrias somehow manages to parry the spell, avoiding any effects of confusion, and I have Hester get in close and messy with Loffrey. A single dual wield deletes 405 out of Loffrey's 508 HP.
Ramza: "There is something familiar in this. Something reminiscent of our battle with Celia and Lettie. You are no mortal man."
Loffrey: "No, that I am not. I am something far greater. Folmarv has made it possible for me to leave behind ignorance, the frailty of flesh. I am given the gift of life eternal. A joy you can never know."
Ramza: "What drives you to do what you do? What is it you seek?"
Loffrey: "Questions… So many questions. But your search for answers is in vain. They wait beyond me, forever beyond your reach!"
Love it when a villain hints at something that's a massive deal and raises a bunch of questions about their motivations but then they just scoff at said questions so the writer doesn't have to explain shit. I would like to know why Loffrey has committed himself to this cause or, indeed, what the cause even is. Why do the Lucavi seek chaos and destruction? Are they just evil? Who knows! Let's kill them.
There's only one Time Mage left on critical HP and Loffrey; the Templar Knight retaliates with a Crush Armor, but aimed at Hester this time, destroying her Power Garb of which I have multiple backups. That makes things easy. Hester tosses a snow bomb at the Time Mage to finish him off, and Ramza pursues Loffrey to finish him off with a Sanguine Blossom, ending the fight. In the end Hadrian mostly sat out the fight - his Jump 'missed' because I killed the Mage it was targeting before he had time to come down, and Gillian mostly just sat back and threw Hastes and Protects on her teammates that weren't even necessary.
I expect Loffrey to get back up and reveal his demonic form to us, but what happens instead is… Different.
Loffrey: "It is not… my time. So much remains… to be done. For you, Ramza… I shall cast open the very gates of hell."
[A Massive sigil begins to glow on the ground.]
Oh, that's nicely ominous.
Loffrey: "Faolos cheos de vanda! Zorda ramud feolio… Zomal, Reeve of Time, by oath unto you I am bound. Timeless, cross you now the vastness of Time's gulf. Throw wide Her gate that we may pass!"
The same incantation we heard pieces of moments ago. The incantation that allowed Folmarv to cross over. Light begins to surge through the glyph…
A single pillar of light rises from the center of the battlefield, and engulfs it in a great eruption. When it fades - everyone is gone.
The battlefield sits, empty, as the victory fanfare plays out.
It's a nice ironic effect.
Of course, the story can't end here unresolved. We fade to black, and quickly find out what happened as we transition to a strange new environment, a deserted building with a raised stone platform on which the sigil is mirrored. With a flash of light, Ramza appears.
II. The Necrohol of Mullonde
Loffrey sits at the bottom of this level; though he finds the strength to answer Ramza's question, it is clearly with his dying breaths.
Ramza: "What is this place?"
Loffrey: "The necrohol of Mullonde." [He lifts his head to look up at Ramza.] "Never again will you see the skies of Ivalice. Without the glyph… the gate… there can be no return."
[Loffrey produces an item, and begins some kind of spell; blue light erupts across the platform Ramza is standing on, and he must run away as the glyph crumbles into the void.]
Loffrey: "There is… no turning back now. Go. Your sister… awaits."
[He succumbs.]
Ramza: "Alma is near."
[He leaves the room; the camera pans up, emphasizing the vast darkness around him.]
Well.
"Necrohol" is such a strange word. It sounds like nécropole, which is French for "necropolis," and I wonder if that was the intent; in any case it's a creation of the WotL translation team, a neologism created for the purposes of making it sound a little stranger.
What I want to ask is… Why did Loffrey do this? We didn't know the way to enter the necrohol! If he'd just died without that last spiteful gesture, we would have been stuck outside the entrance. Does he have the Scriptures of Germonique with him, and was he worried that we might enter it on our own after taking them from his corpse? If so that could perhaps have been made clearer. As things stand, Loffrey might have condemned Ramza and his allies to a lonely death in the abyss, unknown to all, but he at least made the job of 'stopping Folmarv' easier by getting us where we wanted to be, just locking the door on the way in. Plus… I mean, presumably, Folmarv and his master the High Seraph are planning on getting out somehow, so it's clearly not impossible to leave; the alternative is that Loffrey accidentally sealed his own allies in the necrohol, which would be a little comical.
I think the answer is simpler. Loffrey doesn't believe we're capable of stopping Folmarv (and Cletienne, if it matters). He continues to underestimate Ramza, and figures by trapping us in the necrohol, he ensures our death at the hands of his master. This may prove his final mistake.
Our next battle screen instructs us to split our party into two squads; I go with Ramza/Hadrian/Gillian on Squad 1, and Hester/Mustadio on Squad 2.
Cletienne: "So, Ser Loffrey is defeated. Then it falls to me to stop you, if I would do honor to his noble sacrifice!"
[OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT CLETIENNE!]
Cletienne is supported by two Ninjas, two Samurai, and two Time Mages. These are (almost) the last human units we will be fighting in this playthrough, with the exception of a single lonely Chemist on the next map; the question of how Cletienne and Folmarv convinced these few remaining loyalists finding themselves in the ruins of an otherworld to keep fighting and not ask questions is an interesting one, though they ultimately inscribe themselves in the same tradition as Indiana Jones henchmen and Tomb Raider goons who manage to reach the bottom of the Forgotten McGuffin Temple and still manage to keep their eyes on their end-of-year bonus instead of the dreadful horrors manifesting around them.
Our enemies are starting to severely outlevel us - one of those Ninjas is lv 53, which is 10 levels above Hester, our own Ninja - so the enemy gets to go first, both enemies hurling Shurikens for 100+ damage. They are immediately punished in the way I always am whenever I have Hester attack high-Speed enemies on Turn 1 unsupported:
That's one dead Ninja, and Hester's Dragonheart has triggered, granting her Reraise. An auspicious start. Let's check out Cletienne:
Lv 54 Sorcerer, Zeus Mace, he can Fly so we won't be able to box him in, he has both Magick Boost and Arcane Defense which makes him a powerful offensive spellcaster and a tough nut for my spellcasters to crack. High Faith, too. It's… Decent.
Unfortunately I've grown too used to Ramza needing a turn to reach the enemy lines and using that turn to buff with Shout; throwing a 'naked' Doomed Aspirations manages to hit three enemy units but falls short of quite killing two of them. A problem that could be easily solved by increasing Ramza's Magic Attack with the Aegis Shield, but I… forgot. I forgot that the Aegis Shield increases MA so he's dragging around a much less useful Crystal Shield. RIP. No matter. I do a quick survey of enemy levels, CT counts, Heights and EXP until I can find a common factor across as many of the units as possible; I follow this up with a Fire that takes out the critical Ninja as well as a poor Samurai who hasn't even gotten to act yet but was targeted by Mustadio earlier and so is down at half HP already.
"Why Fira instead of Holy," you ask? Well, because the algorithm I picked included Cletienne in its targeting calculations, and I want to give him a chance to fire at least one spell.
This leads, of course, to him taking the funniest possible decision.
OF COURSE HE TARGETED MUSTADIO. NOT MY MOST POWERFUL UNIT. NOT MY MOST VULNERABLE UNIT. THERE IS NO MERIT IN KILLING HIM EXCEPT ONE: RELENTLESS BULLYING.
Being Mustadio is suffering.
The surviving Samurai moves up to support the last remaining Time Mage with Rain of Wisdom, healing the both of them for… 84 HP. It's sort of a glimpse into what these enemy units could do if they were more optimized, because Samurai being able to flexibly act as offense or support would make for a nice challenge in the opposition but the raw numbers just aren't there; Hester immediately stabs that Samurai to death on her next turn. Meanwhile, the Time Mage…
Baps Gillian on the head with his staff?
Sure buddy, why not.
Cletienne positions himself closer to the group and decides to target Gillian with an Unholy Darkness. A quick check of the turn order tells me it's going to fire after Ramza, Gillian, Hadrian and Hester all get a turn, which would give me ample opportunity to just finish off Cletienne, but I end up playing this out a little too weirdly. First, Ramza takes out the Time Mage with Sanguine Blossom - this is just standard "take out all enemies before focusing on the boss" procedure even if Cletienne has shown no propensity towards extra dialogue so far. Then I have Ramza move up to Cletienne to prepare his next turn, and I have Gillian cast Raise on Mustadio, so that even if she goes down, he'll be there to Phoenix Down her up. At which point…
…I realize that, like a big idiot, I have cornered Cletienne in such a way that Hadrian and Hester can't actually reach him. All adjacent squares are either a wall, Gillian, Ramza, or Mustadio.
Oops.
It doesn't ultimately matter all that much, but it means I have to have Hadrian Jump on Cletienne, and he won't land until Unholy Darkness has fired. Hester, meanwhile, is left to chuck a shuriken at the Sorcerer for a quick 180 damage, and that's all my turns before darkness falls.
This is ultimately more the funny kind of mistake than anything serious. Mustadio immediately tosses a Phoenix Down at her, getting her back up. Cletienne, meanwhile, uses his flight abilities (which look really funny in motion, he's literally walking on stairs in the air) to evade a charge another spell, and surprise, I do get my extra dialogue after all.
Ramza: "Where is Folmarv gone!?"
Cletienne: "What manner of question is that? There is but one place he would go. Our purpose in coming here is solitary. We seek to resurrect our lord and master, the High Seraph. Or rather, to awaken him from the imperfect state in which his former host's death has left him. Lord Folmarv makes for the place our master's soul dwells - the place where Saint Ajora met his end."
Ramza: "Where!?"
Cletienne: "Were I you, I would concern myself with my own fate, not that of Saint Ajora!"
Note the explicitly male-gendered language surrounding "master," "High Seraph," and "Saint Ajora" - this'll get a little weird a bit later on.
Cletienne charges up another Unholy Darkness, but at this point it's another free round so I basically just get to pick how he dies and I decide to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Cletienne: "Loffrey… forgive me…"
[He dies.]
[Light flashes.]
Ramza: "That flash of light - he must be there!"
Hey, what do you know. They did care about one another.
Our next battle is in a place called Lost Halidom, where the ruins of the necrohol are crumbling into unrecognizable rubble, overgrown by vines or roots. And the enemy that awaits us there is… unexpected?
Barich: "Truly, it is a joy that we should chance to meet again. I once suffered defeat at your hands, but it will not happen twice. This dead city will be your final resting place!"
Barich? Seriously? Dude, I didn't 'defeat' you. I killed you. You died in front of me.
I suppose the Lucavi brought him back to life, but unlike Argath and Zalbaag, he shows none of the signs we've come to associate with undeath - no ashen skin, no modified abilities, he's just plain ol' Barich, a Machinist. It feels like a weird twist that's just here to add an extra battle because the game realized that it ran out of loyalist Templar Knights for us to fight before the final bosses.
The thing is, Barich isn't the problem here. His support units are. Barich enters this fight backed by a Chemist, a Dark Behemoth, a Hydra, a Greater Hydra, and a Tiamat. Unlike in previous games, "Tiamat" is not a singular monster but the highest tier of the Hydra monster family, but it's no less a threat for it. Namely:
Tiamat (and Greater Hydra) have a Tri-[Flame/Thunder/Ice] attack, which hits for 220 damage, three times in a row. Any unit that isn't using gear that halves elemental damage (and I'll be real with you I have absolutely not bothered to equip any of my units with that kind of item because we've been tearing through mages faster than they could cast Firaga) dies to half again their max HP in total damage. It's brutal.
My immediate priority is taking out the Chemist; I'm absolutely certain he can throw Phoenix Downs at downed enemies, so I take the risk of sending Hester immediately to turn him into minced meat… And he has the audacity to dodge and then counter-tackle her.
Counter-tackle deals a pathetic amount of damage, but it knocks her back one tile and also mostly just feels insulting. I did manage to land one of her two attacks, so the Chemist is injured, but now she's standing in the middle of three enemies.
Cut for image count.
Final Fantasy Tactics, Finale: Part 2/3
New
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, I have Agrias and Mustadio advance towards the rickety bridge, and Mustadio takes a potshot at the Tiamat, my priority target. Unfortunately, Agrias can't quite get in Sword Skill range of the enemy… And the Tiamat then takes its turn, downing Agrias instantly before she got off a single attack. A brutal setback. The Chemist follows this by tossing an X-Potion at himself and withdrawing behind Barich, while the Greater Hydra lines up behind him.
This… Is actually an incredible boon.
Because you see, unlike most Iaido skills, Sanguine Blossom hits in a straight line… But it hits all enemies in that straight line.
Chemist down, Hydras injured, Barich wounded. Gillian is next, and I pick an Algorithm that will target Agrias with an instant Arise (which also targets several enemy units that aren't KO, so there's no drawback). We are back in business.
The Dark Behemoth advances across the bridge towards Agrias, but falls short of getting close enough to attack her; to my great fortune, that puts it on the other end of an X-pattern with the Tiamat.
And the turbo-hydra is down, thank God. That was one threat I could not afford to let stand.
As predicted, Barich and the standard Hydra immediately gang up on the vulnerable Hester. The Hydra's Tri-Attack doesn't hit three times in a row like the Tri-Breath attacks, so that fails to take her down and triggers her Dragonheart; Barich takes aim at her with his Thunder Gun and I'm ready to accept the KO…
…and it deals 85 damage. 85.
What were they thinking bringing this guy back from the dead instead of, I don't know, Wiegraf or something?
Hester is in critical HP but still alive despite her glass bones because of the laughable weakness of our boss enemy, and she immediately backstabs the Hydra for lethal damage.
Unfortunately, the Greater Hydra then reveals it also has Tri-Fire, and Ramza eats 864 damage to the face. Needless to say, our boy is down.
No matter. We can finish this fight without him. Mustadio plinks the Behemoth, which doesn't kill it… But does bring it into critical HP before its turn, and the monster's AI reacts as it often does in these cases; by fleeing into a corner of the map rather than pursue its attack on an exposed Agrias.
Unfortunately, Barich's second Thunder Gun attack, while as weak as his first, is enough to finally bring Hester's low HP down to 0. We are now down two units, Ramza and Hester, and Gillian is busy charging up a standard, no-arithmetics Raise on Ramza…
…because Hester has Reraise! She simply gets up on her turn under her own power and turns the Greater Hydra to greater jerky!
Meanwhile, Agrias finishes off the cowering Behemoth, and Barich is the last unit in our way. Credit where credit is due, most of my units are far enough from him that he does get to go again, withdraw to the corner of the map and takes down Hester a second time.
Meanwhile, Gillian's Raise on Ramza… Misses.
God I hate this mechanic.
Whatever. I have my troops slowly close in on the cornered Barich, and that gives me enough time to cast Raise again, succeeding this time and prompting some dialogue.
Ramza: "So you've become a pawn of the Lucavi, too. Was such your fear of death, that you would sooner bend your knee to demons?"
Barich: "You are a naive child who speaks of things he does not understand. Only now am I made truly human!"
Ramza: "How does selling your soul to demons make you human?"
Barich: "I stand above all other men now. I have transcended death itself! No longer must I bow my head in coy attempts to curry favor with you highborn nobles! I've bought my freedom. I am a human at last - no longer something less!"
Ramza: "You think freedom a thing bought and sold? What value, a freedom you have not earned? A man who's lost his pride can never be free. You surrendered your own freedom the moment you bowed your head to someone undeserving! Freedom and equality cannot be bartered. They are rights - rights earned in sweat, and toil, and blood! Freedom is no raiment of Lucavi weave! They tell you you wear cloth of gold, but in truth you stand more naked than before!"
Barich, it was already established, believes that human relationships are inherently ones of dominance, the exploiter and the exploited; to be human is to be in the position of the dominant, the exploiter, while to be the dominated is to be less than human. It is fundamentally the same ideology in which Argath believed, only instead of believing that relationship is inherent because blood makes one side intrinsically better than the other, Barich believes it entirely a matter of power; he has fully absorbed the toxic aspects of that worldview and simply wishes to reverse the relationship and place himself at the top.
Ramza's own ideology, to the extent that he has one, is a little harder to pin down coherently, even though this here is clearly meant as a big statement of his beliefs. Freedom and equality are "rights," but they are "earned," but they also cannot be "bartered" and freedom cannot be obtained without "pride" - are these rights inherent, or are they earned? If they're earned, what makes one way of earning them worthier than the others? What does pride have to do with all that? We can't exactly expect the highborn Ramza Beoulve to start penning down the Declaration of the Rights of Man as if he were a French revolutionary, and it's not surprising that his exact beliefs are a little fuzzy because it's not like he was asked to write a treatise of philosophy.
The correct read here, I think, is that Ramza does believe that freedom and equality are intrinsic - all men are created free and equal - but that as a matter of practicality they must still be fought for (earned) against external threats and encroachment, whether by demonic Lucavi, ambitious nobles, or a corrupt and lying church; it's only when one willingly bargains with such powers to position oneself in a position of "ruled over by those above me, but still ruling over those below me" that one abandons "pride" and their freedom.
The newly arisen Ramza follows this exchange with another Sanguine Blossom, though it does low damage, I think because of poor Zodiac Compatibility. Barich slips away (he has Lifefont, so every turn he survives and moves he recovers a little health) and manages to land an Arm Shot on Gillian, disabling her mid-spellcasting. We'll have to end this fight without Hester.
Fortunately, we can always count on Agrias to take care of business.
Barich: "How can I die…? I thought I had… transcended…"
Ramza: "The Stones resonate. We draw near."
Loffrey, Cletienne, and the reborn Barich have fallen. The last surviving Templar Knight footsoldiers, as well as the monsters Barich brought to help him, have been slain.
Folmarv is all that's left. Folmarv, and the captive Alma, awaiting in the depths of the necrohol.
I expect this will be our last formal battle, with phase changes throughout, and so I had to think a lot about who I'd bring on board. Gillian is on board regardless, she's my main support unit. Hadrian has been the King of the Midgame and a consistent MVP pick for a lot of this run; his endgame performance depends largely of whether I equip him with the Obelisk or the Javelin II, but he'll get the job done anyway. Hester ruled over my late game and solo'd the bonus boss; I feel she deserves a place of honor at the end. Cid is, of course, the ultimate iconic powerhouse, but I'm definitely taking Agrias, so this feels like overkill and redundant at the same time. Mustadio… Is Mustadio, but in the end, I decide that I really want to have the two characters who can actually, without sleight of hand be described as Ramza's friends, and that means Mustadio and Agrias, and that leaves two slots for my generics whose journey I want to honor here, and I pick Gillian and Hester.
Let's go. Our final battlefield: The Airship Graveyard, Saint Ajora's last resting place.
III. Hashmal, the Bringer of Order
We know that Saint Ajora was not a true prophet, but a spy engaged in a deadly Cold War power game; but what does it tell us, that he died on an airship? Were his martyrdom and execution actually some final showdown in the sky, miles above Ivalice, in which he perished? Was he interred in a ship like some warrior king of old? We'll never find out the full secrets of Ajora and the Holy Ydorian Empire, the true reasons for his death and the cataclysm that followed, but we are about to get some answers, and there is much to be read between the lines of these final confrontation.
Folmarv kneels over Alma's unconscious body, laid in a position of repose, and rants.
Folmarv: "I do not understand. Why does Virgo not awaken?" [He stands.] "The spirit of the High Seraph lingers in this place, I am sure. What could be amiss?" [He slumps, dejected.] "Mayhap you are not the vessel of Saint Ajora after all. No. No, it cannot be that. Virgo stirred at your presence. You must be the one." [He raises his head.] "They have come."
Ramza: "It is over, Folmarv! You will not rouse Virgo! End this! Release my sister!"
Folmarv: "Of course… It is but a matter of blood! You see, do you not? She wants for blood. The Angel of Blood must slake her thirst ere she rise again. The land has drunk deep of blood in the chiliads since Saint Ajora's death. Yet still she covets more. So be it. Once more to the world of light, there to steep the earth in blood's sweet rain. *chuckle* Worry not. You will not live to see the storm."
[He produces the Leo Stone.]
Hashmal, Bringer of Order: "Angel of Blood, in all things you I serve. No wine more deep, no searing coal more hot than this, the crimson blood for you I spill!"
[OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT HASHMAL!]
Notably, Hashmal is visibly lion-themed and linked to the Leo stone, like Belias was ram-themed and linked to the Aries stone and Adrammelech was goat-themed and linked to the Capricorn stone. This is notable because Cuchulainn had no particular Scorpio theming, and Zarela's only Gemini-theming was that he had Celia and Lettie as henchwomen. The inconsistency is odd.
A 'chiliad' is just another word for a millennium. Hm.
It's clear from Hashmal's dialogue that Saint Ajora and the High Seraph/Angel of Blood were one and the same - at least at some point. But when? We know Lucavi possession progressively replaces its host, and we know they can lie in wait for a long time. Was Saint Ajora always a Lucavi in disguise, working towards its nefarious goal in the guise of a prophet, with her "spy" identity merely another layer? It would mirror the multiple layers of conspiracy the Lucavi of this age have been operating under.
Ramza noted that the Scriptures of Germonique made no mention of the demons which he knew to be very much real. Could it be that Germonique found out Saint Ajora was one of the Lucavi at the last moment, in some fateful confrontation they never had the chance to record into their Scripture? We'll likely never know.
It feels almost as if Final Fantasy Tactics were the sequel to another Final Fantasy game that never was, and this, the resurrection of the final boss of that hypothetical game. I don't know exactly where Tactics Ogre fits into this picture, but if I ever play it maybe I'll find out.
But yes. The last battle.
Hashmal's opening move is Bind, which immediately casts Stop on Ramza and Agrias, disabling two of my most powerful units - a good way to even the odds in his favor. However, that still leaves Hester to act immediately.
A dual attack for 459 damage - our toughest opponent so far, the Dark Dragon, had around 3000 HP; if Hashmal is in the same weight category it'll take a couple of turns to bring him down. Unfortunately, there's no item that can end Stop early, so Mustadio is left to ping at Hashmal's health with his gun, which doesn't do much progress, although…
On a normal battlefield, Holy is dangerous to use because of its long cast time and single-target restriction. But against a singular boss without backup, Gillian can charge up and cast Holy before the boss gets to go again and attack her mid-casting, making her our best damage option by far - no need for Arithmetics. Gillian is using the Sortilège perfume for Protect + Shell, rather than the Jappa Mala bracelet that would boost her Holy damage even further, but like I said earlier, with 610 damage base a further damage boost would be overkill, while Protect+Shell is useful when Hashmal decides to do stuff like this:
Quake is a major threat to low-HP units like Gillian, and this one threatens to hit my entire party except Hester. And Hagrias and Ramza are still Stopped, so they can't move out of the AoE. It's a predicament; Gillian doesn't get her next turn before Quake hits, so she can't move out of the AoE or cast Reraise or a protective spell on Ramza. There's only one thing I can do here and it's have Hester continue her attack-
…
Are you for real? Holy shit, he got punked by the generics (and also Mustadio). Way to go, Folmar. You punk.
Hashmal, Bringer of Order: "My lord and master… still you do not wake…"
[The Virgo stone on Alma's body shines; she stirs awake.]
Alma: "Wh-where… where am I?"
Ramza: "Alma!"
Alma: "Ramza? Is it… truly you?"
And there it is. We've won. The Lucavi are all slain, Hashmal is defeated, he has failed to perform the great blood sacrifice that might have awakened the High Seraph, Alma has awakened and is about to be reunited with her brother. Total victory across the board.
Now to take a big sip from my mug of tea and hope nobody has a sudden and incredibly brilliant idea to ruin it all in the next thirty seconds.
Hashmal: "Too far we've come… to taste now of defeat… Angel… of Blood. That you should rise… my life I gladly give!"
Folmarv you punk-
Yeah. Whatever the reason, it turns out Hashmal's loyalty to the High Seraph is of the true, self-sacrificing kind. We don't really have much insight into Lucavi psychology, but they do appear to have strong bonds towards one another, and for his master, Hashmal is willing to stab himself through the chest with his own claw.
The typical Lucavi death animation plays out, Hashmal's body consumed in an explosion of yellow light, leaving behind the Leo Stone. Exit Folmarv-Hashmal, our "big bad," the man behind the Templar Knight conspiracy-within-a-conspiracy, who played a key part in getting Delita to where he ended up being.
Unfortunately, it doesn't stop at his death.
The Virgo Stone shines in answer to Hashmal's sacrifice. It engulfs Alma in a pillar of light, and she stands again, her hair bleached white, as her dialogue box title declares her as:
Saint Ajora, who is come once more.
…
I don't know quite what to make of the gender angle there. Saint Ajora the historical figure has consistently been described as male, including in the Scriptures of Germonique. And the Lucavi have been talking about "our master"... But ever since the start of this scene, Folmarv has been talking about the Angel of Blood as "she."
It's possible the Lucavi are beyond notions of gender and Hashmal is simply switching pronouns based on the gender of the intended vessel of the High Seraph. It's also possible that the High Seraph was always female, but once possessed a male host body in Saint Ajora. Transgender Lucavi, now there's an angle to explore.
In any case, the Alma that stands before us now, her posture slouched forward with arms hanging limply before her, her hair turned white, is now the new vessel of Saint Ajora, the High Seraph, the Angel of Blood - for whom we'll shortly have a brand new name.
IV. Ultima, the High Seraph
God but the game does so love its ironic victory fanfares.
To my surprise, we do get a full break and save before the next battle, including a Trophy - the Ragnarok sword, the most powerful sword we've acquired so far (at least in Attack rating; it lacks Excalibur's auto-Haste). It's a bit of an awkward fit, because Ramza doesn't use physical attacks and is instead running the Runeblade for its MA boost, and Agrias is using Excalibur to make her Sword Skills holy-elemental.
I end up doing a bit of an odd shuffling around, giving Agrias the Ragnarok for extra PA (she keeps auto-Haste from the Tynar Rouge) and Ramza the Excalibur for auto-Haste, which will reduce his MA and thus the effectiveness of his Iaido but auto-Haste should make up for it and, also, more importantly, it means Our Hero goes into the final battle wielding Actual Excalibur and I can't pass that up.
Hester got the second generic spot on the previous battle that I thought would be the last, so it seems only fair to give it to Hadrian this time.
As we head into our final battle, the game takes full advantage of its 3D environments to give us a rising view of the ruined airship floating in the void before closing in on our characters..
Saint Ajora: "What… is this? What happens to me?"
[The Stone shines brighter; she falls to her knees.]
Saint Ajora: "Unghhh… Ramza… please. Help me…"
Ramza: "Alma!"
Ramza: "Ramza… No! You cannot-! You must not-! NO!"
[A great light descends from above, and engulfs Alma.]
…okay.
I have to admit to some confusion.
Somehow, despite this having never happened previously, Alma split off from the Lucavi possessing her body, resulting in two bodies - Alma on one side, looking like her usual self; and the white-haired Ajora!Alma on the other side, still on her knees.
At first, I thought, that feels like someone on the writing team realized things were headed towards "Ramza has no choice but to kill his own sister to stop Saint Ajora who is using her as a vessel," decided that was too much tragedy for one game, and contrived some separation that doesn't make sense based on how we've established Lucavi operate so Alma could be fine. But on second thought… No, we've actually been told explicitly this would happen: "Then all that remains," Elmdore said much earlier, "is the revival of the master. Once that is done, we will have no need of auracite - nor of these vessels. We will come and go as we please."
Saint Ajora has returned, and by her power, the Lucavi are freed from their prisons of flesh. She needed Alma only to incarnate herself into this world, and now she has no further need of her, and cast her aside.
It still kinda feels like a copout to avoid too much familial tragedy after Ramza already had to put down his two brothers, but at least it was explicitly foreshadowed.
Also Alma has spent like thirty seconds sharing her soul with Ajora and she is already incredibly aggro:
Ramza: "Alma! Are you all right?"
Alma: "I… I will be. But Ajora - you must kill her… quickly…"
Saint Ajora: "To thwart my coming… you would dare assay? No. It shall not be. Loyal minions… heed my call - to me!"
[Several Ultima Demons appear.]
Saint Ajora: "I suffer spite… from neither lord… nor serf!"
[Particle effects flood the screen; Ajora transforms with a great burst of purple light.]
Ultima, the High Seraph: "Your defiance reaps you naught but death's embrace!"
Well. It definitely looks as if this final form is based on Alma's appearance, just, uh, aged up and sized up significantly. Oh, and look! She has cute little winglets in her hair! I wonder if this is the first time we see that bit of character design in a Final Fantasy game or if I'm forgetting a boss from a previous game; it definitely shows up in FFXIV.
So. We follow once again in the line of the stereotype associated with Final Fantasy games where an extremely powerful cosmic opponent is introduced at the very last second before her boss battle - and, like in most cases and against the reputation associated with that stereotype, that opponent has in fact been heavily foreshadowed and her appearance makes sense within the narrative.
Let's go.
Agrias goes immediately thanks to Haste, obliterating one Ultima Demon and hitting the actual Ultima for 448 damage. She's quickly followed by Mustadio who pings a demon for 144. Nice of you to contribute, Mustadio. Then…
Oh, shit, that's right, Alma is actually here.
She's down to 1 HP, and she immediately charges up Aegis to cast on herself. Having a unit capable of casting all buffs at once would be very useful, though, hm, her turn goes by so fast I didn't pay enough attention to the whole '1 HP' thing and I'm going to pay for it by just letting her take care of herself.
My standard procedure applies here: Wipe out all adds before focusing on Ultima. However, because Ultima appeared with two Ultima Demons framing her at the shoulders, it's easy to catch her in the AoEs of both Hallowed Bolt and Doomed Aspirations while getting rid of the demons:
When Gillian's turn comes up, I do a brief check of the math of all units to see if there's something ridiculously boosted I could do, but I quickly decide that rather than do math to do a perfect turn I can just charge up another Holy in her normal range with normal casting time and keep it "fair." Unfortunately the Demons aren't in Gillian's range, so I charge it up at Ultima, because why not. She's a big girl, she can't take it.
The one who isn't a big girl and can't take it, unfortunately, is Alma.
Cut for image count.
This… Is actually an incredible boon.
Because you see, unlike most Iaido skills, Sanguine Blossom hits in a straight line… But it hits all enemies in that straight line.
Chemist down, Hydras injured, Barich wounded. Gillian is next, and I pick an Algorithm that will target Agrias with an instant Arise (which also targets several enemy units that aren't KO, so there's no drawback). We are back in business.
The Dark Behemoth advances across the bridge towards Agrias, but falls short of getting close enough to attack her; to my great fortune, that puts it on the other end of an X-pattern with the Tiamat.
And the turbo-hydra is down, thank God. That was one threat I could not afford to let stand.
As predicted, Barich and the standard Hydra immediately gang up on the vulnerable Hester. The Hydra's Tri-Attack doesn't hit three times in a row like the Tri-Breath attacks, so that fails to take her down and triggers her Dragonheart; Barich takes aim at her with his Thunder Gun and I'm ready to accept the KO…
…and it deals 85 damage. 85.
What were they thinking bringing this guy back from the dead instead of, I don't know, Wiegraf or something?
Hester is in critical HP but still alive despite her glass bones because of the laughable weakness of our boss enemy, and she immediately backstabs the Hydra for lethal damage.
Unfortunately, the Greater Hydra then reveals it also has Tri-Fire, and Ramza eats 864 damage to the face. Needless to say, our boy is down.
No matter. We can finish this fight without him. Mustadio plinks the Behemoth, which doesn't kill it… But does bring it into critical HP before its turn, and the monster's AI reacts as it often does in these cases; by fleeing into a corner of the map rather than pursue its attack on an exposed Agrias.
Unfortunately, Barich's second Thunder Gun attack, while as weak as his first, is enough to finally bring Hester's low HP down to 0. We are now down two units, Ramza and Hester, and Gillian is busy charging up a standard, no-arithmetics Raise on Ramza…
…because Hester has Reraise! She simply gets up on her turn under her own power and turns the Greater Hydra to greater jerky!
Meanwhile, Agrias finishes off the cowering Behemoth, and Barich is the last unit in our way. Credit where credit is due, most of my units are far enough from him that he does get to go again, withdraw to the corner of the map and takes down Hester a second time.
Meanwhile, Gillian's Raise on Ramza… Misses.
God I hate this mechanic.
Whatever. I have my troops slowly close in on the cornered Barich, and that gives me enough time to cast Raise again, succeeding this time and prompting some dialogue.
Ramza: "So you've become a pawn of the Lucavi, too. Was such your fear of death, that you would sooner bend your knee to demons?"
Barich: "You are a naive child who speaks of things he does not understand. Only now am I made truly human!"
Ramza: "How does selling your soul to demons make you human?"
Barich: "I stand above all other men now. I have transcended death itself! No longer must I bow my head in coy attempts to curry favor with you highborn nobles! I've bought my freedom. I am a human at last - no longer something less!"
Ramza: "You think freedom a thing bought and sold? What value, a freedom you have not earned? A man who's lost his pride can never be free. You surrendered your own freedom the moment you bowed your head to someone undeserving! Freedom and equality cannot be bartered. They are rights - rights earned in sweat, and toil, and blood! Freedom is no raiment of Lucavi weave! They tell you you wear cloth of gold, but in truth you stand more naked than before!"
Barich, it was already established, believes that human relationships are inherently ones of dominance, the exploiter and the exploited; to be human is to be in the position of the dominant, the exploiter, while to be the dominated is to be less than human. It is fundamentally the same ideology in which Argath believed, only instead of believing that relationship is inherent because blood makes one side intrinsically better than the other, Barich believes it entirely a matter of power; he has fully absorbed the toxic aspects of that worldview and simply wishes to reverse the relationship and place himself at the top.
Ramza's own ideology, to the extent that he has one, is a little harder to pin down coherently, even though this here is clearly meant as a big statement of his beliefs. Freedom and equality are "rights," but they are "earned," but they also cannot be "bartered" and freedom cannot be obtained without "pride" - are these rights inherent, or are they earned? If they're earned, what makes one way of earning them worthier than the others? What does pride have to do with all that? We can't exactly expect the highborn Ramza Beoulve to start penning down the Declaration of the Rights of Man as if he were a French revolutionary, and it's not surprising that his exact beliefs are a little fuzzy because it's not like he was asked to write a treatise of philosophy.
The correct read here, I think, is that Ramza does believe that freedom and equality are intrinsic - all men are created free and equal - but that as a matter of practicality they must still be fought for (earned) against external threats and encroachment, whether by demonic Lucavi, ambitious nobles, or a corrupt and lying church; it's only when one willingly bargains with such powers to position oneself in a position of "ruled over by those above me, but still ruling over those below me" that one abandons "pride" and their freedom.
The newly arisen Ramza follows this exchange with another Sanguine Blossom, though it does low damage, I think because of poor Zodiac Compatibility. Barich slips away (he has Lifefont, so every turn he survives and moves he recovers a little health) and manages to land an Arm Shot on Gillian, disabling her mid-spellcasting. We'll have to end this fight without Hester.
Fortunately, we can always count on Agrias to take care of business.
Barich: "How can I die…? I thought I had… transcended…"
Ramza: "The Stones resonate. We draw near."
Loffrey, Cletienne, and the reborn Barich have fallen. The last surviving Templar Knight footsoldiers, as well as the monsters Barich brought to help him, have been slain.
Folmarv is all that's left. Folmarv, and the captive Alma, awaiting in the depths of the necrohol.
I expect this will be our last formal battle, with phase changes throughout, and so I had to think a lot about who I'd bring on board. Gillian is on board regardless, she's my main support unit. Hadrian has been the King of the Midgame and a consistent MVP pick for a lot of this run; his endgame performance depends largely of whether I equip him with the Obelisk or the Javelin II, but he'll get the job done anyway. Hester ruled over my late game and solo'd the bonus boss; I feel she deserves a place of honor at the end. Cid is, of course, the ultimate iconic powerhouse, but I'm definitely taking Agrias, so this feels like overkill and redundant at the same time. Mustadio… Is Mustadio, but in the end, I decide that I really want to have the two characters who can actually, without sleight of hand be described as Ramza's friends, and that means Mustadio and Agrias, and that leaves two slots for my generics whose journey I want to honor here, and I pick Gillian and Hester.
Let's go. Our final battlefield: The Airship Graveyard, Saint Ajora's last resting place.
III. Hashmal, the Bringer of Order
We know that Saint Ajora was not a true prophet, but a spy engaged in a deadly Cold War power game; but what does it tell us, that he died on an airship? Were his martyrdom and execution actually some final showdown in the sky, miles above Ivalice, in which he perished? Was he interred in a ship like some warrior king of old? We'll never find out the full secrets of Ajora and the Holy Ydorian Empire, the true reasons for his death and the cataclysm that followed, but we are about to get some answers, and there is much to be read between the lines of these final confrontation.
Folmarv kneels over Alma's unconscious body, laid in a position of repose, and rants.
Folmarv: "I do not understand. Why does Virgo not awaken?" [He stands.] "The spirit of the High Seraph lingers in this place, I am sure. What could be amiss?" [He slumps, dejected.] "Mayhap you are not the vessel of Saint Ajora after all. No. No, it cannot be that. Virgo stirred at your presence. You must be the one." [He raises his head.] "They have come."
Ramza: "It is over, Folmarv! You will not rouse Virgo! End this! Release my sister!"
Folmarv: "Of course… It is but a matter of blood! You see, do you not? She wants for blood. The Angel of Blood must slake her thirst ere she rise again. The land has drunk deep of blood in the chiliads since Saint Ajora's death. Yet still she covets more. So be it. Once more to the world of light, there to steep the earth in blood's sweet rain. *chuckle* Worry not. You will not live to see the storm."
[He produces the Leo Stone.]
Hashmal, Bringer of Order: "Angel of Blood, in all things you I serve. No wine more deep, no searing coal more hot than this, the crimson blood for you I spill!"
[OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT HASHMAL!]
Notably, Hashmal is visibly lion-themed and linked to the Leo stone, like Belias was ram-themed and linked to the Aries stone and Adrammelech was goat-themed and linked to the Capricorn stone. This is notable because Cuchulainn had no particular Scorpio theming, and Zarela's only Gemini-theming was that he had Celia and Lettie as henchwomen. The inconsistency is odd.
A 'chiliad' is just another word for a millennium. Hm.
It's clear from Hashmal's dialogue that Saint Ajora and the High Seraph/Angel of Blood were one and the same - at least at some point. But when? We know Lucavi possession progressively replaces its host, and we know they can lie in wait for a long time. Was Saint Ajora always a Lucavi in disguise, working towards its nefarious goal in the guise of a prophet, with her "spy" identity merely another layer? It would mirror the multiple layers of conspiracy the Lucavi of this age have been operating under.
Ramza noted that the Scriptures of Germonique made no mention of the demons which he knew to be very much real. Could it be that Germonique found out Saint Ajora was one of the Lucavi at the last moment, in some fateful confrontation they never had the chance to record into their Scripture? We'll likely never know.
It feels almost as if Final Fantasy Tactics were the sequel to another Final Fantasy game that never was, and this, the resurrection of the final boss of that hypothetical game. I don't know exactly where Tactics Ogre fits into this picture, but if I ever play it maybe I'll find out.
But yes. The last battle.
Hashmal's opening move is Bind, which immediately casts Stop on Ramza and Agrias, disabling two of my most powerful units - a good way to even the odds in his favor. However, that still leaves Hester to act immediately.
A dual attack for 459 damage - our toughest opponent so far, the Dark Dragon, had around 3000 HP; if Hashmal is in the same weight category it'll take a couple of turns to bring him down. Unfortunately, there's no item that can end Stop early, so Mustadio is left to ping at Hashmal's health with his gun, which doesn't do much progress, although…
On a normal battlefield, Holy is dangerous to use because of its long cast time and single-target restriction. But against a singular boss without backup, Gillian can charge up and cast Holy before the boss gets to go again and attack her mid-casting, making her our best damage option by far - no need for Arithmetics. Gillian is using the Sortilège perfume for Protect + Shell, rather than the Jappa Mala bracelet that would boost her Holy damage even further, but like I said earlier, with 610 damage base a further damage boost would be overkill, while Protect+Shell is useful when Hashmal decides to do stuff like this:
Quake is a major threat to low-HP units like Gillian, and this one threatens to hit my entire party except Hester. And Hagrias and Ramza are still Stopped, so they can't move out of the AoE. It's a predicament; Gillian doesn't get her next turn before Quake hits, so she can't move out of the AoE or cast Reraise or a protective spell on Ramza. There's only one thing I can do here and it's have Hester continue her attack-
…
Are you for real? Holy shit, he got punked by the generics (and also Mustadio). Way to go, Folmar. You punk.
Hashmal, Bringer of Order: "My lord and master… still you do not wake…"
[The Virgo stone on Alma's body shines; she stirs awake.]
Alma: "Wh-where… where am I?"
Ramza: "Alma!"
Alma: "Ramza? Is it… truly you?"
And there it is. We've won. The Lucavi are all slain, Hashmal is defeated, he has failed to perform the great blood sacrifice that might have awakened the High Seraph, Alma has awakened and is about to be reunited with her brother. Total victory across the board.
Now to take a big sip from my mug of tea and hope nobody has a sudden and incredibly brilliant idea to ruin it all in the next thirty seconds.
Hashmal: "Too far we've come… to taste now of defeat… Angel… of Blood. That you should rise… my life I gladly give!"
Folmarv you punk-
Yeah. Whatever the reason, it turns out Hashmal's loyalty to the High Seraph is of the true, self-sacrificing kind. We don't really have much insight into Lucavi psychology, but they do appear to have strong bonds towards one another, and for his master, Hashmal is willing to stab himself through the chest with his own claw.
The typical Lucavi death animation plays out, Hashmal's body consumed in an explosion of yellow light, leaving behind the Leo Stone. Exit Folmarv-Hashmal, our "big bad," the man behind the Templar Knight conspiracy-within-a-conspiracy, who played a key part in getting Delita to where he ended up being.
Unfortunately, it doesn't stop at his death.
The Virgo Stone shines in answer to Hashmal's sacrifice. It engulfs Alma in a pillar of light, and she stands again, her hair bleached white, as her dialogue box title declares her as:
Saint Ajora, who is come once more.
…
I don't know quite what to make of the gender angle there. Saint Ajora the historical figure has consistently been described as male, including in the Scriptures of Germonique. And the Lucavi have been talking about "our master"... But ever since the start of this scene, Folmarv has been talking about the Angel of Blood as "she."
It's possible the Lucavi are beyond notions of gender and Hashmal is simply switching pronouns based on the gender of the intended vessel of the High Seraph. It's also possible that the High Seraph was always female, but once possessed a male host body in Saint Ajora. Transgender Lucavi, now there's an angle to explore.
In any case, the Alma that stands before us now, her posture slouched forward with arms hanging limply before her, her hair turned white, is now the new vessel of Saint Ajora, the High Seraph, the Angel of Blood - for whom we'll shortly have a brand new name.
IV. Ultima, the High Seraph
God but the game does so love its ironic victory fanfares.
To my surprise, we do get a full break and save before the next battle, including a Trophy - the Ragnarok sword, the most powerful sword we've acquired so far (at least in Attack rating; it lacks Excalibur's auto-Haste). It's a bit of an awkward fit, because Ramza doesn't use physical attacks and is instead running the Runeblade for its MA boost, and Agrias is using Excalibur to make her Sword Skills holy-elemental.
I end up doing a bit of an odd shuffling around, giving Agrias the Ragnarok for extra PA (she keeps auto-Haste from the Tynar Rouge) and Ramza the Excalibur for auto-Haste, which will reduce his MA and thus the effectiveness of his Iaido but auto-Haste should make up for it and, also, more importantly, it means Our Hero goes into the final battle wielding Actual Excalibur and I can't pass that up.
Hester got the second generic spot on the previous battle that I thought would be the last, so it seems only fair to give it to Hadrian this time.
As we head into our final battle, the game takes full advantage of its 3D environments to give us a rising view of the ruined airship floating in the void before closing in on our characters..
[The Stone shines brighter; she falls to her knees.]
Saint Ajora: "Unghhh… Ramza… please. Help me…"
Ramza: "Alma!"
Ramza: "Ramza… No! You cannot-! You must not-! NO!"
[A great light descends from above, and engulfs Alma.]
…okay.
I have to admit to some confusion.
Somehow, despite this having never happened previously, Alma split off from the Lucavi possessing her body, resulting in two bodies - Alma on one side, looking like her usual self; and the white-haired Ajora!Alma on the other side, still on her knees.
At first, I thought, that feels like someone on the writing team realized things were headed towards "Ramza has no choice but to kill his own sister to stop Saint Ajora who is using her as a vessel," decided that was too much tragedy for one game, and contrived some separation that doesn't make sense based on how we've established Lucavi operate so Alma could be fine. But on second thought… No, we've actually been told explicitly this would happen: "Then all that remains," Elmdore said much earlier, "is the revival of the master. Once that is done, we will have no need of auracite - nor of these vessels. We will come and go as we please."
Saint Ajora has returned, and by her power, the Lucavi are freed from their prisons of flesh. She needed Alma only to incarnate herself into this world, and now she has no further need of her, and cast her aside.
It still kinda feels like a copout to avoid too much familial tragedy after Ramza already had to put down his two brothers, but at least it was explicitly foreshadowed.
Also Alma has spent like thirty seconds sharing her soul with Ajora and she is already incredibly aggro:
Ramza: "Alma! Are you all right?"
Alma: "I… I will be. But Ajora - you must kill her… quickly…"
Saint Ajora: "To thwart my coming… you would dare assay? No. It shall not be. Loyal minions… heed my call - to me!"
[Several Ultima Demons appear.]
Saint Ajora: "I suffer spite… from neither lord… nor serf!"
[Particle effects flood the screen; Ajora transforms with a great burst of purple light.]
Ultima, the High Seraph: "Your defiance reaps you naught but death's embrace!"
Well. It definitely looks as if this final form is based on Alma's appearance, just, uh, aged up and sized up significantly. Oh, and look! She has cute little winglets in her hair! I wonder if this is the first time we see that bit of character design in a Final Fantasy game or if I'm forgetting a boss from a previous game; it definitely shows up in FFXIV.
So. We follow once again in the line of the stereotype associated with Final Fantasy games where an extremely powerful cosmic opponent is introduced at the very last second before her boss battle - and, like in most cases and against the reputation associated with that stereotype, that opponent has in fact been heavily foreshadowed and her appearance makes sense within the narrative.
Let's go.
Agrias goes immediately thanks to Haste, obliterating one Ultima Demon and hitting the actual Ultima for 448 damage. She's quickly followed by Mustadio who pings a demon for 144. Nice of you to contribute, Mustadio. Then…
Oh, shit, that's right, Alma is actually here.
She's down to 1 HP, and she immediately charges up Aegis to cast on herself. Having a unit capable of casting all buffs at once would be very useful, though, hm, her turn goes by so fast I didn't pay enough attention to the whole '1 HP' thing and I'm going to pay for it by just letting her take care of herself.
My standard procedure applies here: Wipe out all adds before focusing on Ultima. However, because Ultima appeared with two Ultima Demons framing her at the shoulders, it's easy to catch her in the AoEs of both Hallowed Bolt and Doomed Aspirations while getting rid of the demons:
When Gillian's turn comes up, I do a brief check of the math of all units to see if there's something ridiculously boosted I could do, but I quickly decide that rather than do math to do a perfect turn I can just charge up another Holy in her normal range with normal casting time and keep it "fair." Unfortunately the Demons aren't in Gillian's range, so I charge it up at Ultima, because why not. She's a big girl, she can't take it.
The one who isn't a big girl and can't take it, unfortunately, is Alma.
Cut for image count.
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Final Fantasy Tactics, Finale: Part 3/3
New
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ultima teleports to Alma's location and hits her with knives, of all things, instantly taking her out. Oops! Fortunately, Hadrian is next in the turn order, so I immediately have him raise Alma with a Phoenix Down.
This was frankly kind of embarrassing, and unfortunately canceled the casting of Aegis, so now Alma is vulnerable and needs to wait until her next to get a chance to act again. Hopefully I can have Mustadio toss her an Elixir on the next turn or something while I take care of the Demons and, oh, right, Ultima is firing-
Oh come on now.
Look, I'll be real with you: The endgame of Final Fantasy Tactics turning out to be comically easy feels a lot better than in the mainline games I've played previously. I was expecting a bit more challenge but, to be frank, blowing through the last shreds of the Templar Knight conspiracy and carving every remaining Lucavi like a turkey (with the occasional comedic setback like the Hydras incinerating my best soldiers) is rewarding because it genuinely feels like the work I put into customizing all these characters has resulted in a team of personalized badasses who have grown to truly meet every challenge in their way. We surpassed the Lucavi for good, in definite and build-based fashion around the Elmdore-Zalera fight, and everything since then has been Folmarv and his remaining loyalists scrambling to finish their plan before we could catch up to them and give them their just desserts, with the Dycedarg-Adrammalech ploy a (successful) distraction to buy himself enough time to enact the final steps of his plan.
It's the most mechanically satisfying game since FFV, and unlike V, endgame characters don't devolve into samey Freelancers where everyone is running largely the same set of skills. This feels like my reward for engaging with the game, with only a little bit of a cheat hax OP handout (ahem Tynar Rouge ahem).
So yeah, we kicked Ultima's teeth in, and it felt good.
And spoiler alert?
Phase 2 isn't gonna go any better for her.
Ultima: "Impossible… this end to meet… I see it now, too late. In you… his blood, my vanquisher in times… long past. But not so soon… shall I accept defeat…"
Hell yeah.
Okay, but wait. "Your blood, my vanquisher in times long past"? Is Ramza… The descendent of the one who slew Saint Ajora in the distant past?
Holy shit, this really is the sequel to an unwritten Final Fantasy game that ended with Germonique finding out Saint Ajora was possessed by Ultima and confronting him in a final boss fight atop a flying airship that crashed to earth and somehow sank the heartland of the Ydorian Empire beneath the waves.
It's a shame that Ultima continues in the other proud tradition of the last minute bosses by having very little dialogue and very much not enough to establish a character with any depth or even clear motivation - she just likes blood, I guess. Because the whole "sequel to some unseen game" angle is really cool and could really serve as the basis for a strong villain.
Ultima is now classified as "Arch Seraph," and has a much spookier, much more deathly appearance, perhaps closer to her "true" form than the Alma-inspired angelic appearance she (it?) took on moments ago. She also… doesn't take immediate action, and the turn order seems to have reset to start; that means Agrias opens with Hallowed Bolt to her face, Mustadio tosses an X-Potion at Alma who quickly moves away from the Arch Seraph while charging up Aegis again, and Ramza squares up with Sanguine Blossom.
All the demon adds are gone, so there's really no reason not to hit her with everything we've got - it's not like Ultima has shown herself particularly interested in mid-battle dialogue.
Alma successfully pulls off her Aegis cast this time while Gillian charges up Holy with a forecast for 697 damage (Ultima's Faith likely increased with its transformation) and Hadrian stabs her in the back.
Then Ultima finally takes her turn, and that's where things turn into… Kind of a farce.
A while back in FF8, I mentioned that using a spell or summon that could cast protective buffs on the whole party in one of the Edea fights was very helpful, not because of the protection itself so much as because Edea would react by casting Dispel, and it would take her three turns to Dispel the buffs on everyone, giving us essentially free reins to attack her the whole time.
Well.
I'll give you three guesses on how Ultima reacts to Alma sticking around and casting Aegis on herself.
Ultima teleports to within range of Alma, centers a spell AoE on her, and begins to charge… Dispelja.
A spell which removes all beneficial status effects, but does no damage and inflicts no debuffs.
It has a cool animation, at least.
Despite Agrias being in its AoE, Dispelja does not appear to be able to remove buffs granted by equipment like Tynar Rouge, either; the spell whiffs on her.
So now we get to just beat on the giant piñata until it explodes into a shower of JP and EXP.
Even Mustadio gets to contribute!
To add insult to injury, when Alma goes again, she casts Aegis on Mustadio, and Ultima reacts to that on her second and last turn by casting Dispelja on Mustadio.
Hilarious.
Well, that's enough. Ramza?
Please do us the honor of ending this.
Ultima begins a traditional Final Fantasy final boss disintegration, beams of light tearing out of its form and explosions running across its body before beginning to disintegrate… But here, once again, Tactics exploits its chief advantage over the SNES era games - its 3D environments - to pull the camera back and remind us…
"…oh, shit, we're all standing aboard the wreck of an ancient airship in the middle of the void at the bottom of a sealed necropolis beneath the earth. How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?"
There's no answer - nor is there any dialogue; the explosion from Ultima's destruction propagate across the ship, and the dire fate threatening our heroes is left to the visuals, as the camera pulls further and further away from the exploding ship, until…
Okay you have got to stop it with the ironic victory screen - wait I guess this is the last one in the game, huh.
…well, shit.
Did… everyone die?
I mean… The ruined ship on which they stood exploded, at the bottom of the Necrohol of Mullonde, which Loffrey stated they would never be able to leave because he destroyed the glyph that allowed entrance and exit… So…?
We'll find out more in a moment.
…
In every Final Fantasy game we've played up to this point, the endgame is defined by the looming weight of the final dungeon. The game's final antagonist awaits us at the heart of a nightmare place, beyond a gauntlet of monsters, many of them usually unique, with names, fearsome designs, and deadly special abilities (no matter how easy the endgame turned out in practice). Moreover, each of these dungeons is filled with random encounters, the highest-level monsters in the game ready to pounce on us every five steps, draining resources (and mental stamina) as we go on. By the time we reach the final boss, we've gone through an exhausting gauntlet of horrible fiends; and even if we kill every single named dark general serving our true foe, the place always remains filled to the brim with enemies ready to ambush us if we try to backtrack or explore more.
The effect is that, even if we reach the final boss and they are alone, the advantage of numbers doesn't feel that great. To defeat Kefka, we must ascend a nightmare tower filled with ancient gods bound into his service, mighty dragons, deadly magitek contraptions, and finally confront a man who has already ascended to godhood. To defeat Sephiroth, we must venture to the very core of the planet, past vast complexes of caverns filled with teeming legions of monsters, Iron Giants, King Behemoths, Jenova's last hideous form, and when we meet him it is as an angel; the ultimate lifeform grown cancerous at the heart of the world, a tumor upon existence itself that must be excised. To defeat Ultimecia, we must wrest the very source of our power from each of the most powerful monsters which she has used to sealed them, exploring her dark castle at the end of time, until we can finally breach into her throne room where the ultimate Wicked Witch awaits us upon the machine with which she stands ready to collapse all of space and time into a singularity. Above all, we always remain in their domain. They are the masters of this dark castle, this interdimensional rift, that Lunar subterrane, their mind and power reaching far and wide.
That's not how the final 'dungeon' of Final Fantasy Tactics feels, for many reasons. One is of course the lack of random encounter, and another is that this isn't Folmarv's domain, but a dark, slumbering necropolis to which he has only just now gained entrance. I compared it earlier to Indiana Jones and Tomb Raiders for a reason - we both race through this dark temple for the secret at its heart. The obstacles in our way are not dark generals now challenging us in their domain with their full power unbound; they are Folmarv's henchmen that he has left behind, one after the other, in a series of desperate ambushes that mean to slow us down to buy him the precious minutes to complete his summoning of the High Seraph.
And each time, Ramza enters followed by, as @ZerbanDaGreat so aptly described it, "a bunch of glowing-eyed blood-soaked cryptids who have spent the past 20-odd months reaching the pinnacle of murder" who "skitter in on all fours and slaughter everybody." We carve through these foes one after the other, and with their dying words they each can't believe that they could even die, and at the end of it all we track Folmarv-Hashmal to the site of Saint Ajora's death, and there he makes his final, hopeless stand, alone against all of us.
In his last moment, this man, who showed himself previously without honor, without honesty, without mercy or kindness, in short without humanity, shows his one and only true bond, his loyalty and love for his master, and sacrifices himself in one last gesture to bring about their release.
And then we murder his God.
…
But wait a fucking minute
Delita did sit out the entire endgame after all!?
Oh my god. Okay. Hold on to that thought. There's more to see first
Now, this is where I could put a cliffhanger before the actual epilogue. In a different game, I might have. But the epilogue of Tactics is frankly not very long.
So buckle in.
We are staying on this ride until the credits roll.
V. The Funeral of Alma Beoulve
We move to a graveyard, where a fresh casket is about to be entombed. There are mourners in black, though there are few - we know the game is capable of portraying a larger number of sprites on-screen at the same time, so it's a deliberate choice to keep this gathering to about eight people.
None of whom, I should add, are named characters we've seen before, but merely generic men and women in mourning clothes.
Priest: "Blessings of the Great Father descend, and guide your body's return to the earth. May the grace of Saint Ajora lead Alma's soul to the eternal shores of Paradise. There she shall find peace. Faram."
[The priest makes a sign.]
Mourners: "Faram."
[The mourners begin to leave. A few who stay chat among themselves.]
Mourner: "She was so young."
Mourner: "For all the children of the house to be taken at once - the gods are cruel."
Mourner: "And the youngest son, Ramza, denied even a burial - such tragedy."
Mourner: "For three centuries House Beoulve stood, but no more."
[The last mourners leave.]
Well.
It looks like Alma was buried in abstentia - I can scarcely imagine anyone figured out how to retrieve her remains from the necrohol - as the last of the Beoulve, and the last to receive a proper burial. Alma was innocent, too young to be tarred by her brother's heresy, and the circumstances of her abduction and presumed death mysterious enough that she was likely granted this burial as a kindness. But… It's notable how there are no named characters to attend this burial. And after all, who would?
Who is left alive at the end of all this? After all the great nobles were slain, the Knights Templar perished, the High Confessor fell… The last survivors of our entire cast are what, Besrudio? Orran? Delita and Ovelia, of course - but for whatever reason, they chose not to attend the funeral of Ramza's sister.
Likely Delita simply decided attending the funeral of the sister of a known heretic would reflect poorly on his all-important image.
But there - two characters enter.
Orran and Valmafra. So she survived, after all; and perhaps she's here in Delita's stead, as a token gesture. It's not like she knew Alma or Ramza personally, she only met the latter for about five seconds.
Orran: "Ramza, Alma… forgive me. I am late in paying my respects. I would have come sooner, were not so many eyes upon me.
[Valmafra approaches the grave and puts a flower wreath upon it.]
Orran: "Delita and Ovelia are wed now. A commonborn youth restores peace to the realm, and now together with a princess, he forges a new kingdom. A tale of heroism not like to be soon forgotten."
Orran: "I believe Delita may be just the man you said - pure of heart, in the end. When Valmafra revealed herself for an agent of Mullonde, he made it appear as though he'd killed her, then let her run. I think he must have caught a glimpse of himself in her - a tool manipulated by Lord Folmarv."
[Valmafra motions towards the distance; Orran nods, and she departs.]
Orran: "My father… Did… did he die bravely?"
Orran: "I'll visit you again. Be at peace."
Oh my god I can't fucking believe this. This is literally the "Luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing!" meme.
Did Delita even know about the Lucavi!? By all indications no! He never had any idea as to the true power and nature of the auracite! He never saw a demon! He thought himself manipulated by Lord Folmarv but he didn't even know what Folmarv was!
Delita's last actual move was to kill Goltanna and pin it on Cid, which was admittedly pretty shrewd, and then he just sat back and let the rest of the game happen. Completely and blissfully unaware of the battle for the fate of Ivalice unfolding under his feet! He probably heard Ramza had murdered the High Confessor and thought "neat, now I don't have to worry about that anymore" and thought nothing more of it! Folmarv vanished and he doesn't even know why, only that his boss is no longer on his ass so he doesn't have to worry about that either!
That bitch!! He didn't do shit!! We did all the actual work!!
Wait, what happened to Queen Louveria and Prince Orinus? Oh, okay, I see, checking the in-game encyclopedia, Louveria "disappeared" during the final battle at Besselat (let's be real Delita probably had her killed) and Orinus "led the life of a fugitive, eventually settling in Romanda," so we have an exiled prince with a defeated claim to the throne living in Ivalice's long-time rival nation to cause trouble in about twenty years. Sure.
Alright, well. With his parting words, Orran turns to leave the cemetery, but then he pauses, briefly, and turns to Alma's tomb again, though it's clear it's Ramza he's addressing…
Orran: "Are you truly dead? I still cannot believe you are gone. After so much… *sigh*"
And then.
Two chocobos enter, bearing familiar riders. They do not pause; they do not look at the grave, or at Orran; they simply pass through, and Orran hurries after her, calling out their names… But they're already gone. After a moment, Valmafra enters again, probably to ask Orran what's taking him so long, and he turns to her:
Orran: "They're alive. They're both of them alive!"
[Valmafra turns to the way the chocobos left.]
Orran: "Thank you, Ramza…"
Ramza is an infamous heretic, who could not ever hope to cleanse his name now that all the Lucavi are dead and no evidence of his true deeds remain. It is, of course, better for him - and for his sister, and for all his followers - to be thought dead. But here, they lingered but briefly, to give… Well. Calling Orran a friend with how short his screen time is seems like a stretch. But still; to give one of the last friendly faces in the game a glimpse of their true fate, before departing for some faraway land where no one will know their faces.
Of Agrias, Mustadio, Cid and all the others - not a trace, but of course, we can consider their survival implicit with Ramza and Alma's, the game merely lacking the tools to depict all the story-relevant characters who survived to the end on-screen in this last cutscene.
Or they all died in a great off-screen sacrifice to somehow get Ramza and his sister out of the necrohol, and those two are truly the only survivors. There's no way to know. The scenario they were trapped in, "airship explodes at the bottom of a buried city under the heart sealed by powerful magic" seems impossible to escape, but they are heroes, and the final scenes of the game make it clear this was no passing hallucination of Orran.
And thus, cut to credits.
Except no. These aren't real credits. This is a montage.
We are getting the epilogue in the form of a CGI cutscene, composed mostly of environmental shots and a "voice-over" recounting the events that followed.
So let me just transcribe it.
Arazlam, the Narrator: Ramza and his sister were not seen again. Orran Durai was left to ponder the mark they had left on history's page.
Orran, narrated: "I know not what brings men joy. Of what drives them to great deeds, of what legacies they hope to leave, I know less yet. But I do know this: The true hero of this tale was the man forgotten."
Arazlam: Orran would spend the next half-decade assembling an account of all to which he had borne witness. His work complete, Orran presented his account, the Durai Papers, before the Clemensian Council, then convened for the selection of a new High Confessor.
Arazlam: However, the Church, fearing above all else the revelation of the truth, seized Orran as a heretic, and burnt him at the stake.
Wait what? I'm sorry? They burned him at the stake?
What an incredibly grim and horrible fate to consign a friendly character to off-screen, mid-epilogue, while sweeping hopeful music plays over shots of the peaceful countryside, drinking chocobos and mothers putting laundry up on strings!
-Arazlam Durai
Author of the Zodiac Brave Story
And our last shot of this epilogue - of Ramza and Alma on their chocobos, riding off into the sunset.
And now we roll to credits.
Actual, proper credits this time, with concept art rendered in charcoal sketches on parchment style - it's really cool. At this point, I am more or less sitting down and basking in, and thinking about what my thoughts are on this ending, how much it left implied or unsaid, how much might have needed to be said instead.
So it's one final surprise for me when the credits end on "(C) 1997, 2007 SQUARE ENIX CO, LTD. All Rights Reserved." and instead of a nice "The End," I get is a black screen and "Now Loading."
V. Delita, Alone
The Chapel Ruins at Zeltennia Castle. The one place in which we've seen Ovelia many times, in reflection and prayer, where often Delita finds her and talks with her for a while in private.
That scene begins to play out again, as it has before.
Notice how, this time, Ovelia is not kneeled in prayer.
Delita: "I thought I might find you here. Everyone has been looking for you."
Delita climbs down from his chocobo, who turns around and leaves the two of them alone; then from behind his back, Delita produces something I truly never expected from him.
A bouquet of flowers.
It's strange, isn't it? Even now, we cannot truly know Delita's heart. Whether that bouquet is yet another manipulative gesture to continue to build up Ovelia's trust and make her rely on him as her knight in shining armor, or a first sincere gesture of love, now that the war is over, all his ambitions have been secured, he and Ovelia are wed, and he can, at last, afford to show honesty. Orran gave us his analysis - but of course, Delita's sparing of Valmafra was as much a performance as everything else about him.
We'll likely never know.
Delita: "Today's your birthday, is it not? I brought you-"
With the distance and the simplicity of sprites, and the angle showing us Ovelia's back and cape, it looks, at first, almost like a hug; as if, in a burst of emotion, Ovelia turned around and jumped into Delita's arm for some consolation against some darkness troubling her mind.
It's not, though.
Delita mutters Ovelia's name in obvious confusion, as she parts slightly, though her hand is still joined to his chest. He puts his own hands on her arms, gauntleted hands pushing against her.
Queen Ovelia: "How could you? You… you used them, and all the others! And someday you'll cast me aside, just as you did him!"
There's a struggle - it's brief. Whatever wound was inflicted on Delita, he is armored, and a Divine Knight. He is much stronger than Ovelia, and he turns the blade against her.
The dagger which Agrias gifted to Ovelia, her present, so that she might be able to defend herself, used in anger and turned against her. One last tragic irony.
Ovelia falls among the scattered flowers Delita meant to give her. Delita's shoulders slump, he clutches his chest where the knife found him, visibly wounded and exhausted. The dagger clatters to the ground, and he turns away, taking a few slow, lumbering steps away from Ovelia's body.
He falls to his knees. But he finds the strength to look up, and ask to the sky:
And that's the end of Final Fantasy Tactics.
…
It's such a sudden scene, and so brief, that it's hard to work out an exact timeline of what happened here, but as best as I can tell: Orran was (obviously) alive when he said to Alma's tomb that Ovelia and Delita had gotten married and Delita was leading Ivalice into a new era, at which point we can assume Delita and Ovelia were still in happy-ish matrimony; later he compiled the Durai Papers and was burned at the stakes (which again, wow). So presumably, all this is happening in sequential order - Delita and Ovelia are wed, Orran compoises the Papers and dies, Ovelia later finds out the truth of the Papers from accounts of Church insiders or else gathers what happened to Ramza on her own, her fear and distrust of Delita rise quietly in her heart until she can no longer stand them, and tragedy strikes.
Or… no. Not at all. It's not Ramza. It's Orran himself.
Ovelia was there listening when Delita told Orran about his true goal, that he was not the "Church's hound," and that he hoped he could gain Orran's trust and service.
But Orran died burned at the stake, even though Delita was already King, and the Church terribly weakened by the loss of so many of its higher ranks. Which means Delita must have made the willing choice to allow Orran to be executed because he didn't want the political fallout of flexing his strength against the Church to have him pardoned, exiled, or granted some other fate.
That's why this scene follows after that particular epilogue. Because Ovelia now realizes that if he allowed Orran to die after all these promises, none of what he says will ever mean anything.
…
Where were you, Agrias, when Ovelia perished at her husband's hand, on the dagger which you gifted her?
Perhaps Agrias did die in the Necrohol after all, and there was no one left to come back to Ovelia, because Ramza could not remain in Ivalice and trusted Delita's heart besides. Perhaps Agrias did survive, but she faced a choice, and she decided that, after all, she would trust Delita as Ramza did, and left with him.
The irony there being of course that we'll never find out whether Delita was undeserving of that trust; it was Ovelia who struck first. And though he turned the blade against her - was it in the chaos of the struggle, a thoughtless gesture just trying to get her away? Was it a heated gesture of wrath and pain, struck before truly thinking it once he had command of the knife? Or was it coldly calculated in the split second where he seized the blade, deciding that Ovelia was too much trouble after all?
Who knows. We can only wish Agrias had come back to fulfill her promise.
…
And so ends Final Fantasy Tactics.
Ramza, the blood-soaked heretic, the killer, who has walked out of more empty castles than can be remembered leaving behind nothing but the stench of corpses and the wailing of the wind, his name written off all records but that infamy, is doomed to be forgotten for five hundred years after having become an object of fear and hatred in his lifetime. He, who was in truth the hero who slew the demons manipulating Ivalice from behind the scenes, who saved the kingdom from the return of its false saint, from the Angel of Blood whose coming had once brought down civilization, he gets to walk into the sunset with his sister, to find a new life somewhere else, presumably followed by the friends and allies he made along his journey.
King Delita, the hero in armor of gold, the savior of Ivalice, the commonborn soldier who rose to knighthood and nobility, who married the princess and ushered in an era of peace and prosperity for the kingdom, is written into history as one of the great names of Ivalice, a Knight Devout, anointed by the Church, crowned in honor and glory. He, the manipulator, schemer, assassin, survives everyone he ever knew and had reason to care about. Ramza, his childhood friend, presumed dead on some quest of which Delita kept himself ignorant. Valmafra, allowed to flee into the night to find some other life far away. Orran Durai, whose trust and loyalty he sought to purchase with careful demonstrations, he allowed to die on the Church's stake. All the Knights Templar who had once trusted him are dead, and he had already planned to betray them besides; and now his own wife lies lifeless among the scattered petals of the flowers he'd thought to gift her for her birthday.
Delita will go down in history as a noble, brave and kindly king, perhaps struck by his wife in a bout of madness, but he will always be there, in the ruins of that chapel, clutching his breast where the dagger drew his blood, looking to the stars and asking Ramza if he got all that he wanted, all that he deserved.
But there will be no answer.
We are the sum of our deeds, not our names.
Thank you for reading.
Next Time: We will have a final round-up post, as is traditional.
In the meantime, this Let's Play has been nominated for the Users' Choice Awards in the category of Best Alternate History & Nonfiction. I'm delighted by this and very grateful to those who named it to that category, and I'd like to ask you to consider voting for it - it would be a delightful end of year present for me, and all of you who've been giving this Let's Play life as a thread.
This was frankly kind of embarrassing, and unfortunately canceled the casting of Aegis, so now Alma is vulnerable and needs to wait until her next to get a chance to act again. Hopefully I can have Mustadio toss her an Elixir on the next turn or something while I take care of the Demons and, oh, right, Ultima is firing-
Oh come on now.
Look, I'll be real with you: The endgame of Final Fantasy Tactics turning out to be comically easy feels a lot better than in the mainline games I've played previously. I was expecting a bit more challenge but, to be frank, blowing through the last shreds of the Templar Knight conspiracy and carving every remaining Lucavi like a turkey (with the occasional comedic setback like the Hydras incinerating my best soldiers) is rewarding because it genuinely feels like the work I put into customizing all these characters has resulted in a team of personalized badasses who have grown to truly meet every challenge in their way. We surpassed the Lucavi for good, in definite and build-based fashion around the Elmdore-Zalera fight, and everything since then has been Folmarv and his remaining loyalists scrambling to finish their plan before we could catch up to them and give them their just desserts, with the Dycedarg-Adrammalech ploy a (successful) distraction to buy himself enough time to enact the final steps of his plan.
It's the most mechanically satisfying game since FFV, and unlike V, endgame characters don't devolve into samey Freelancers where everyone is running largely the same set of skills. This feels like my reward for engaging with the game, with only a little bit of a cheat hax OP handout (ahem Tynar Rouge ahem).
So yeah, we kicked Ultima's teeth in, and it felt good.
And spoiler alert?
Phase 2 isn't gonna go any better for her.
Ultima: "Impossible… this end to meet… I see it now, too late. In you… his blood, my vanquisher in times… long past. But not so soon… shall I accept defeat…"
Hell yeah.
Okay, but wait. "Your blood, my vanquisher in times long past"? Is Ramza… The descendent of the one who slew Saint Ajora in the distant past?
Holy shit, this really is the sequel to an unwritten Final Fantasy game that ended with Germonique finding out Saint Ajora was possessed by Ultima and confronting him in a final boss fight atop a flying airship that crashed to earth and somehow sank the heartland of the Ydorian Empire beneath the waves.
It's a shame that Ultima continues in the other proud tradition of the last minute bosses by having very little dialogue and very much not enough to establish a character with any depth or even clear motivation - she just likes blood, I guess. Because the whole "sequel to some unseen game" angle is really cool and could really serve as the basis for a strong villain.
Ultima is now classified as "Arch Seraph," and has a much spookier, much more deathly appearance, perhaps closer to her "true" form than the Alma-inspired angelic appearance she (it?) took on moments ago. She also… doesn't take immediate action, and the turn order seems to have reset to start; that means Agrias opens with Hallowed Bolt to her face, Mustadio tosses an X-Potion at Alma who quickly moves away from the Arch Seraph while charging up Aegis again, and Ramza squares up with Sanguine Blossom.
All the demon adds are gone, so there's really no reason not to hit her with everything we've got - it's not like Ultima has shown herself particularly interested in mid-battle dialogue.
Alma successfully pulls off her Aegis cast this time while Gillian charges up Holy with a forecast for 697 damage (Ultima's Faith likely increased with its transformation) and Hadrian stabs her in the back.
A while back in FF8, I mentioned that using a spell or summon that could cast protective buffs on the whole party in one of the Edea fights was very helpful, not because of the protection itself so much as because Edea would react by casting Dispel, and it would take her three turns to Dispel the buffs on everyone, giving us essentially free reins to attack her the whole time.
Well.
I'll give you three guesses on how Ultima reacts to Alma sticking around and casting Aegis on herself.
Ultima teleports to within range of Alma, centers a spell AoE on her, and begins to charge… Dispelja.
A spell which removes all beneficial status effects, but does no damage and inflicts no debuffs.
It has a cool animation, at least.
Despite Agrias being in its AoE, Dispelja does not appear to be able to remove buffs granted by equipment like Tynar Rouge, either; the spell whiffs on her.
So now we get to just beat on the giant piñata until it explodes into a shower of JP and EXP.
Even Mustadio gets to contribute!
To add insult to injury, when Alma goes again, she casts Aegis on Mustadio, and Ultima reacts to that on her second and last turn by casting Dispelja on Mustadio.
Hilarious.
Well, that's enough. Ramza?
Please do us the honor of ending this.
Ultima begins a traditional Final Fantasy final boss disintegration, beams of light tearing out of its form and explosions running across its body before beginning to disintegrate… But here, once again, Tactics exploits its chief advantage over the SNES era games - its 3D environments - to pull the camera back and remind us…
"…oh, shit, we're all standing aboard the wreck of an ancient airship in the middle of the void at the bottom of a sealed necropolis beneath the earth. How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?"
There's no answer - nor is there any dialogue; the explosion from Ultima's destruction propagate across the ship, and the dire fate threatening our heroes is left to the visuals, as the camera pulls further and further away from the exploding ship, until…
Okay you have got to stop it with the ironic victory screen - wait I guess this is the last one in the game, huh.
…well, shit.
Did… everyone die?
I mean… The ruined ship on which they stood exploded, at the bottom of the Necrohol of Mullonde, which Loffrey stated they would never be able to leave because he destroyed the glyph that allowed entrance and exit… So…?
We'll find out more in a moment.
…
In every Final Fantasy game we've played up to this point, the endgame is defined by the looming weight of the final dungeon. The game's final antagonist awaits us at the heart of a nightmare place, beyond a gauntlet of monsters, many of them usually unique, with names, fearsome designs, and deadly special abilities (no matter how easy the endgame turned out in practice). Moreover, each of these dungeons is filled with random encounters, the highest-level monsters in the game ready to pounce on us every five steps, draining resources (and mental stamina) as we go on. By the time we reach the final boss, we've gone through an exhausting gauntlet of horrible fiends; and even if we kill every single named dark general serving our true foe, the place always remains filled to the brim with enemies ready to ambush us if we try to backtrack or explore more.
The effect is that, even if we reach the final boss and they are alone, the advantage of numbers doesn't feel that great. To defeat Kefka, we must ascend a nightmare tower filled with ancient gods bound into his service, mighty dragons, deadly magitek contraptions, and finally confront a man who has already ascended to godhood. To defeat Sephiroth, we must venture to the very core of the planet, past vast complexes of caverns filled with teeming legions of monsters, Iron Giants, King Behemoths, Jenova's last hideous form, and when we meet him it is as an angel; the ultimate lifeform grown cancerous at the heart of the world, a tumor upon existence itself that must be excised. To defeat Ultimecia, we must wrest the very source of our power from each of the most powerful monsters which she has used to sealed them, exploring her dark castle at the end of time, until we can finally breach into her throne room where the ultimate Wicked Witch awaits us upon the machine with which she stands ready to collapse all of space and time into a singularity. Above all, we always remain in their domain. They are the masters of this dark castle, this interdimensional rift, that Lunar subterrane, their mind and power reaching far and wide.
That's not how the final 'dungeon' of Final Fantasy Tactics feels, for many reasons. One is of course the lack of random encounter, and another is that this isn't Folmarv's domain, but a dark, slumbering necropolis to which he has only just now gained entrance. I compared it earlier to Indiana Jones and Tomb Raiders for a reason - we both race through this dark temple for the secret at its heart. The obstacles in our way are not dark generals now challenging us in their domain with their full power unbound; they are Folmarv's henchmen that he has left behind, one after the other, in a series of desperate ambushes that mean to slow us down to buy him the precious minutes to complete his summoning of the High Seraph.
And each time, Ramza enters followed by, as @ZerbanDaGreat so aptly described it, "a bunch of glowing-eyed blood-soaked cryptids who have spent the past 20-odd months reaching the pinnacle of murder" who "skitter in on all fours and slaughter everybody." We carve through these foes one after the other, and with their dying words they each can't believe that they could even die, and at the end of it all we track Folmarv-Hashmal to the site of Saint Ajora's death, and there he makes his final, hopeless stand, alone against all of us.
In his last moment, this man, who showed himself previously without honor, without honesty, without mercy or kindness, in short without humanity, shows his one and only true bond, his loyalty and love for his master, and sacrifices himself in one last gesture to bring about their release.
And then we murder his God.
…
But wait a fucking minute
Delita did sit out the entire endgame after all!?
Oh my god. Okay. Hold on to that thought. There's more to see first
Now, this is where I could put a cliffhanger before the actual epilogue. In a different game, I might have. But the epilogue of Tactics is frankly not very long.
So buckle in.
We are staying on this ride until the credits roll.
V. The Funeral of Alma Beoulve
We move to a graveyard, where a fresh casket is about to be entombed. There are mourners in black, though there are few - we know the game is capable of portraying a larger number of sprites on-screen at the same time, so it's a deliberate choice to keep this gathering to about eight people.
None of whom, I should add, are named characters we've seen before, but merely generic men and women in mourning clothes.
Priest: "Blessings of the Great Father descend, and guide your body's return to the earth. May the grace of Saint Ajora lead Alma's soul to the eternal shores of Paradise. There she shall find peace. Faram."
[The priest makes a sign.]
Mourners: "Faram."
[The mourners begin to leave. A few who stay chat among themselves.]
Mourner: "She was so young."
Mourner: "For all the children of the house to be taken at once - the gods are cruel."
Mourner: "And the youngest son, Ramza, denied even a burial - such tragedy."
Mourner: "For three centuries House Beoulve stood, but no more."
[The last mourners leave.]
Well.
It looks like Alma was buried in abstentia - I can scarcely imagine anyone figured out how to retrieve her remains from the necrohol - as the last of the Beoulve, and the last to receive a proper burial. Alma was innocent, too young to be tarred by her brother's heresy, and the circumstances of her abduction and presumed death mysterious enough that she was likely granted this burial as a kindness. But… It's notable how there are no named characters to attend this burial. And after all, who would?
Who is left alive at the end of all this? After all the great nobles were slain, the Knights Templar perished, the High Confessor fell… The last survivors of our entire cast are what, Besrudio? Orran? Delita and Ovelia, of course - but for whatever reason, they chose not to attend the funeral of Ramza's sister.
Likely Delita simply decided attending the funeral of the sister of a known heretic would reflect poorly on his all-important image.
But there - two characters enter.
Orran and Valmafra. So she survived, after all; and perhaps she's here in Delita's stead, as a token gesture. It's not like she knew Alma or Ramza personally, she only met the latter for about five seconds.
Orran: "Ramza, Alma… forgive me. I am late in paying my respects. I would have come sooner, were not so many eyes upon me.
[Valmafra approaches the grave and puts a flower wreath upon it.]
Orran: "Delita and Ovelia are wed now. A commonborn youth restores peace to the realm, and now together with a princess, he forges a new kingdom. A tale of heroism not like to be soon forgotten."
Orran: "I believe Delita may be just the man you said - pure of heart, in the end. When Valmafra revealed herself for an agent of Mullonde, he made it appear as though he'd killed her, then let her run. I think he must have caught a glimpse of himself in her - a tool manipulated by Lord Folmarv."
[Valmafra motions towards the distance; Orran nods, and she departs.]
Orran: "My father… Did… did he die bravely?"
Orran: "I'll visit you again. Be at peace."
Oh my god I can't fucking believe this. This is literally the "Luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing!" meme.
Did Delita even know about the Lucavi!? By all indications no! He never had any idea as to the true power and nature of the auracite! He never saw a demon! He thought himself manipulated by Lord Folmarv but he didn't even know what Folmarv was!
Delita's last actual move was to kill Goltanna and pin it on Cid, which was admittedly pretty shrewd, and then he just sat back and let the rest of the game happen. Completely and blissfully unaware of the battle for the fate of Ivalice unfolding under his feet! He probably heard Ramza had murdered the High Confessor and thought "neat, now I don't have to worry about that anymore" and thought nothing more of it! Folmarv vanished and he doesn't even know why, only that his boss is no longer on his ass so he doesn't have to worry about that either!
That bitch!! He didn't do shit!! We did all the actual work!!
Wait, what happened to Queen Louveria and Prince Orinus? Oh, okay, I see, checking the in-game encyclopedia, Louveria "disappeared" during the final battle at Besselat (let's be real Delita probably had her killed) and Orinus "led the life of a fugitive, eventually settling in Romanda," so we have an exiled prince with a defeated claim to the throne living in Ivalice's long-time rival nation to cause trouble in about twenty years. Sure.
Alright, well. With his parting words, Orran turns to leave the cemetery, but then he pauses, briefly, and turns to Alma's tomb again, though it's clear it's Ramza he's addressing…
Orran: "Are you truly dead? I still cannot believe you are gone. After so much… *sigh*"
And then.
Two chocobos enter, bearing familiar riders. They do not pause; they do not look at the grave, or at Orran; they simply pass through, and Orran hurries after her, calling out their names… But they're already gone. After a moment, Valmafra enters again, probably to ask Orran what's taking him so long, and he turns to her:
Orran: "They're alive. They're both of them alive!"
[Valmafra turns to the way the chocobos left.]
Orran: "Thank you, Ramza…"
Ramza is an infamous heretic, who could not ever hope to cleanse his name now that all the Lucavi are dead and no evidence of his true deeds remain. It is, of course, better for him - and for his sister, and for all his followers - to be thought dead. But here, they lingered but briefly, to give… Well. Calling Orran a friend with how short his screen time is seems like a stretch. But still; to give one of the last friendly faces in the game a glimpse of their true fate, before departing for some faraway land where no one will know their faces.
Of Agrias, Mustadio, Cid and all the others - not a trace, but of course, we can consider their survival implicit with Ramza and Alma's, the game merely lacking the tools to depict all the story-relevant characters who survived to the end on-screen in this last cutscene.
Or they all died in a great off-screen sacrifice to somehow get Ramza and his sister out of the necrohol, and those two are truly the only survivors. There's no way to know. The scenario they were trapped in, "airship explodes at the bottom of a buried city under the heart sealed by powerful magic" seems impossible to escape, but they are heroes, and the final scenes of the game make it clear this was no passing hallucination of Orran.
And thus, cut to credits.
Except no. These aren't real credits. This is a montage.
We are getting the epilogue in the form of a CGI cutscene, composed mostly of environmental shots and a "voice-over" recounting the events that followed.
So let me just transcribe it.
Arazlam, the Narrator: Ramza and his sister were not seen again. Orran Durai was left to ponder the mark they had left on history's page.
Orran, narrated: "I know not what brings men joy. Of what drives them to great deeds, of what legacies they hope to leave, I know less yet. But I do know this: The true hero of this tale was the man forgotten."
Arazlam: Orran would spend the next half-decade assembling an account of all to which he had borne witness. His work complete, Orran presented his account, the Durai Papers, before the Clemensian Council, then convened for the selection of a new High Confessor.
Arazlam: However, the Church, fearing above all else the revelation of the truth, seized Orran as a heretic, and burnt him at the stake.
Wait what? I'm sorry? They burned him at the stake?
What an incredibly grim and horrible fate to consign a friendly character to off-screen, mid-epilogue, while sweeping hopeful music plays over shots of the peaceful countryside, drinking chocobos and mothers putting laundry up on strings!
Arazlam: The pen that inked them forever stilled, the Papers then lay hidden for long centuries, forgotten even by the Church that had concealed them. But I have found the truth, and so lay it bare for all to see. That his deeds might guide generations yet to come. That his name may receive the honor it is due.-Arazlam Durai
Author of the Zodiac Brave Story
And our last shot of this epilogue - of Ramza and Alma on their chocobos, riding off into the sunset.
And now we roll to credits.
Actual, proper credits this time, with concept art rendered in charcoal sketches on parchment style - it's really cool. At this point, I am more or less sitting down and basking in, and thinking about what my thoughts are on this ending, how much it left implied or unsaid, how much might have needed to be said instead.
So it's one final surprise for me when the credits end on "(C) 1997, 2007 SQUARE ENIX CO, LTD. All Rights Reserved." and instead of a nice "The End," I get is a black screen and "Now Loading."
V. Delita, Alone
The Chapel Ruins at Zeltennia Castle. The one place in which we've seen Ovelia many times, in reflection and prayer, where often Delita finds her and talks with her for a while in private.
That scene begins to play out again, as it has before.
Notice how, this time, Ovelia is not kneeled in prayer.
Delita: "I thought I might find you here. Everyone has been looking for you."
Delita climbs down from his chocobo, who turns around and leaves the two of them alone; then from behind his back, Delita produces something I truly never expected from him.
A bouquet of flowers.
It's strange, isn't it? Even now, we cannot truly know Delita's heart. Whether that bouquet is yet another manipulative gesture to continue to build up Ovelia's trust and make her rely on him as her knight in shining armor, or a first sincere gesture of love, now that the war is over, all his ambitions have been secured, he and Ovelia are wed, and he can, at last, afford to show honesty. Orran gave us his analysis - but of course, Delita's sparing of Valmafra was as much a performance as everything else about him.
We'll likely never know.
Delita: "Today's your birthday, is it not? I brought you-"
With the distance and the simplicity of sprites, and the angle showing us Ovelia's back and cape, it looks, at first, almost like a hug; as if, in a burst of emotion, Ovelia turned around and jumped into Delita's arm for some consolation against some darkness troubling her mind.
It's not, though.
Delita mutters Ovelia's name in obvious confusion, as she parts slightly, though her hand is still joined to his chest. He puts his own hands on her arms, gauntleted hands pushing against her.
Queen Ovelia: "How could you? You… you used them, and all the others! And someday you'll cast me aside, just as you did him!"
There's a struggle - it's brief. Whatever wound was inflicted on Delita, he is armored, and a Divine Knight. He is much stronger than Ovelia, and he turns the blade against her.
The dagger which Agrias gifted to Ovelia, her present, so that she might be able to defend herself, used in anger and turned against her. One last tragic irony.
Ovelia falls among the scattered flowers Delita meant to give her. Delita's shoulders slump, he clutches his chest where the knife found him, visibly wounded and exhausted. The dagger clatters to the ground, and he turns away, taking a few slow, lumbering steps away from Ovelia's body.
He falls to his knees. But he finds the strength to look up, and ask to the sky:
And that's the end of Final Fantasy Tactics.
…
It's such a sudden scene, and so brief, that it's hard to work out an exact timeline of what happened here, but as best as I can tell: Orran was (obviously) alive when he said to Alma's tomb that Ovelia and Delita had gotten married and Delita was leading Ivalice into a new era, at which point we can assume Delita and Ovelia were still in happy-ish matrimony; later he compiled the Durai Papers and was burned at the stakes (which again, wow). So presumably, all this is happening in sequential order - Delita and Ovelia are wed, Orran compoises the Papers and dies, Ovelia later finds out the truth of the Papers from accounts of Church insiders or else gathers what happened to Ramza on her own, her fear and distrust of Delita rise quietly in her heart until she can no longer stand them, and tragedy strikes.
Or… no. Not at all. It's not Ramza. It's Orran himself.
Ovelia was there listening when Delita told Orran about his true goal, that he was not the "Church's hound," and that he hoped he could gain Orran's trust and service.
But Orran died burned at the stake, even though Delita was already King, and the Church terribly weakened by the loss of so many of its higher ranks. Which means Delita must have made the willing choice to allow Orran to be executed because he didn't want the political fallout of flexing his strength against the Church to have him pardoned, exiled, or granted some other fate.
That's why this scene follows after that particular epilogue. Because Ovelia now realizes that if he allowed Orran to die after all these promises, none of what he says will ever mean anything.
…
Where were you, Agrias, when Ovelia perished at her husband's hand, on the dagger which you gifted her?
Perhaps Agrias did die in the Necrohol after all, and there was no one left to come back to Ovelia, because Ramza could not remain in Ivalice and trusted Delita's heart besides. Perhaps Agrias did survive, but she faced a choice, and she decided that, after all, she would trust Delita as Ramza did, and left with him.
The irony there being of course that we'll never find out whether Delita was undeserving of that trust; it was Ovelia who struck first. And though he turned the blade against her - was it in the chaos of the struggle, a thoughtless gesture just trying to get her away? Was it a heated gesture of wrath and pain, struck before truly thinking it once he had command of the knife? Or was it coldly calculated in the split second where he seized the blade, deciding that Ovelia was too much trouble after all?
Who knows. We can only wish Agrias had come back to fulfill her promise.
…
And so ends Final Fantasy Tactics.
Ramza, the blood-soaked heretic, the killer, who has walked out of more empty castles than can be remembered leaving behind nothing but the stench of corpses and the wailing of the wind, his name written off all records but that infamy, is doomed to be forgotten for five hundred years after having become an object of fear and hatred in his lifetime. He, who was in truth the hero who slew the demons manipulating Ivalice from behind the scenes, who saved the kingdom from the return of its false saint, from the Angel of Blood whose coming had once brought down civilization, he gets to walk into the sunset with his sister, to find a new life somewhere else, presumably followed by the friends and allies he made along his journey.
King Delita, the hero in armor of gold, the savior of Ivalice, the commonborn soldier who rose to knighthood and nobility, who married the princess and ushered in an era of peace and prosperity for the kingdom, is written into history as one of the great names of Ivalice, a Knight Devout, anointed by the Church, crowned in honor and glory. He, the manipulator, schemer, assassin, survives everyone he ever knew and had reason to care about. Ramza, his childhood friend, presumed dead on some quest of which Delita kept himself ignorant. Valmafra, allowed to flee into the night to find some other life far away. Orran Durai, whose trust and loyalty he sought to purchase with careful demonstrations, he allowed to die on the Church's stake. All the Knights Templar who had once trusted him are dead, and he had already planned to betray them besides; and now his own wife lies lifeless among the scattered petals of the flowers he'd thought to gift her for her birthday.
Delita will go down in history as a noble, brave and kindly king, perhaps struck by his wife in a bout of madness, but he will always be there, in the ruins of that chapel, clutching his breast where the dagger drew his blood, looking to the stars and asking Ramza if he got all that he wanted, all that he deserved.
But there will be no answer.
We are the sum of our deeds, not our names.
Thank you for reading.
Next Time: We will have a final round-up post, as is traditional.
In the meantime, this Let's Play has been nominated for the Users' Choice Awards in the category of Best Alternate History & Nonfiction. I'm delighted by this and very grateful to those who named it to that category, and I'd like to ask you to consider voting for it - it would be a delightful end of year present for me, and all of you who've been giving this Let's Play life as a thread.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
"It turns out, if you make your entire career about backstabbing, betraying, and climbing the ladder, you're not going to have a happy ending, because nobody is going to trust you as far as they can throw you, and Ivalice hasn't invented throwing technology yet"
I like your interpretation too that the straw that broke the camel's back for Ovelia was Delita leaving Orran to die at the stake. Claiming to be no dog of the church but letting them--in their moment of greatest weakness--murder a supporter that he promised to support, openly, and without raising so much as a peep of protest was the moneyshot. The man was no threat to Delita, and he was discarded the moment it would actually cost him anything but words, no matter how trivial.
If he'd do that to someone who wasn't a threat to him at all, who had absolutely no interest in working against him. Nobody was safe.
And the funny thing is, he might have genuinely loved Ovelia, but he never explains shit to anyone, so he let her stew on that without doing damage control until it was finally too much for her.
I like your interpretation too that the straw that broke the camel's back for Ovelia was Delita leaving Orran to die at the stake. Claiming to be no dog of the church but letting them--in their moment of greatest weakness--murder a supporter that he promised to support, openly, and without raising so much as a peep of protest was the moneyshot. The man was no threat to Delita, and he was discarded the moment it would actually cost him anything but words, no matter how trivial.
If he'd do that to someone who wasn't a threat to him at all, who had absolutely no interest in working against him. Nobody was safe.
And the funny thing is, he might have genuinely loved Ovelia, but he never explains shit to anyone, so he let her stew on that without doing damage control until it was finally too much for her.
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OkayishGatsby
This Titan is Fine
Incidentally, according to Matsuno's tweets, Ramza survived the events of the Necrohol (no mention of the others) and went on to have new adventures in new lands, not unlike a proper Warrior of Light. He later added that it's up to the players if he survived or not.
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
All pictures are broken for me too. '^^
- Location
- Somewhere between the stars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Huh. Yeah, for all that i think so far that final fantasy tactics is amongst my favorite of the covered games, i'm not fully sure i like this ending that much? I dunno, something about the last battle with Ultima just feels kinda awkward or weird. Like it doesn't flow properly, or is very stilted. It doesn't quite pull on me in the same way the previous parts of this has been.
Ryumancer
Dragons Are Romance
Images are fine on my end.
- Location
- Spain
All broken for me as well.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
When too many people look at the same page at once, the pictures break. It's something to do with hosting them on a google doc. I need to figure out a way to bypass that but it requires a change in my workflow so I've been putting it off, and the problem is usually temporary - it should stabilize shortly, hopefully. I'm very sorry about the inconvenience.
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daniel_gudman
KING (in land of blind)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That's what heretics get, speaking of historical Catholicism; that's how Jan Hus went out. Witches only got burned at the stake when the witchcraft was a side-note to their much more serious crime of heresy.
I got the limit problem too but I switched to mobile which fixed it for some reason
- Location
- Spain
How tragic. He forgot to unequip First Strike.
- Location
- USA
That's interesting--in the original Japanese script (and possibly the PSX version?) he explicitly shouts out the name of the spell at the end: Dejon, also known as Warp, X-Zone, or Banish, depending which FF game it appears in.
In the original script, there's some additional dialogue between Hashmal and Ramza when their battle begins. I don't know if it didn't appear because Ramza ate a Stop (similar to how Cú Chulainn put him to Sleep) or if it was omitted entirely in the PSP port.
Ovelia specifically mentions Ramza in the original Japanese, although the translation for the words she uses is closer to "you'll let me walk to my doom, just as Ramza did".
This is a valid interpretation of Delita's line, but a more literal way of translating it would be "Did you get what you wanted, Ramza?"