- Location
- Italy
It was acquired on Cancer 30 according to the game, so clearly it was both the date AND the amount of debilitating illness that Ramza's party got!
Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Playing: Final Fantasy IX]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
How does that make three games in a row that Omicron's party has become irradiated.
Guile
Having a really great time right now
IncredibleOmicron said:
What an MVP
I've never seen this happen before
The spell Princess casts is called Aegis, and it includes Protect. And a bunch of other things. In a nod to fairness, it also costs 30 MP.
You see the problem.
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Guile
Having a really great time right now
I guess Agrias rolling into the party with 3 levels of White Mage is a 2.5 mod thing. Good choice.
I ran into one early in Chapter 3. Not sure if that's a 2.5 mod thing.
He didn't steal anybody, but the jackass did demolish my ninja's bravery to the point I was worried he'd desert.
I believe Mystics get some weird weapons like the dragoon-esque two-square sticks, but yeah, I couldn't make them work myself. I did grab Absorb MP for my White Mage, though. Sadly it doesn't work when he heals/protects himself, but whenever the Time Mage does his haste thing, Whm gets back that cost in MP. Great for sustain.
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- Pronouns
- Him/He
In the PSX version she starts with job level 3 in white mage.
It seems it's not automatically equipped however. She can be very paladin-like with the white magic, to the extent sometimes I want to yell at her to stop raising my people and fucking finish off the enemies with her mighty magic sword.
- Location
- Malaysia
I remember having an Agrias with Items as second skill. Not sure if I was the one who put it there, or she came by with that setup.
You know what she did? She finished off my Potion pile instead of killing the enemies.
I was so mad I removed all her equipments. Black Magic at least hit the enemy instead.
- Location
- USA
Baby Walter lost on that bridge a truly preposterous number of times. Like I remembered the nonsensical name Gaffgarion from that day to this. I think my AOL name was derived from it. Everyone has that one encounter when a video game just rabbit punches you, and for me this was the one.
- Pronouns
- She/They
"Look you gotta pay me more than that"
"I can have you all branded as heretics and killed"
"Fair enough. That'll get you half off"
I gotta admire the moxie at play
Well hey at least it wasn't the Dragoon floor tanking this ti-*I am dragged out back and executed by firing squad*
Arazlam: "and the chocobo that our heroes found in the forest was none other than the same one who accompanied the great Wiegraf!
Student: "sir how did you know that part?"
Arazlam: "it came to me in a dream."
If it helps Omi, I did the exact same thing. And said class is fucking sick and a joy to use!
The prereqs are just uh. Uhh. Don't worry 'bout it.
Honestly, no wonder Delita thinks he's the good guy here - whatever shady business he's getting up to, his life was upended even more than Ramza's was. Ramza at least has his sister still alive!
At that point Delita could easily justify a whole lot of shit if he thinks it can prevent tragedies like the one he experienced.
*sigh* at least we'll have fanfiction, but I wish we had more time with this party before the sudden betrayal.
Omi you are coming dangerously close to Delita being your personal anime rival
You know, it's starting to seem like people using justifications to shield their own atrocities is becoming a running theme here
Kuja
I'M A SQUIIIID
- Location
- AZ
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Unsurprisingly, a woman like Agrias goes in 110% on whatever job she does. God bless a dumbass violent knight-lady.
Faris would be proud.
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Curse Gaffgarion's sudden but inevitable betrayal!
I did say you'd get to feel like what having awesome sword skills on your side was like. Anyway, yeah, the falls fight was an uncommon occurrence - normally, the Princess gets off her super-duper every-buff-at-once spell which makes keeping her alive fairly trivial, especially with the twin cannons of Delita and Agrias working in your favor. Gaf's... well, not exactly a heel turn, but having him as an enemy is really the only thing making that fight really difficult.
I did say you'd get to feel like what having awesome sword skills on your side was like. Anyway, yeah, the falls fight was an uncommon occurrence - normally, the Princess gets off her super-duper every-buff-at-once spell which makes keeping her alive fairly trivial, especially with the twin cannons of Delita and Agrias working in your favor. Gaf's... well, not exactly a heel turn, but having him as an enemy is really the only thing making that fight really difficult.
Shinji117
Endless Troller
- Location
- Rokkenjima (Sydney)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The spritework in this game really is neat. The two standouts so far for me are the swordfight from earlier and, of all things, the thief taking off his hat to stomp on it when he sees Gaffgarion. Those're some specially-done crafted-for-that-scene-alone custom animations.
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Guile
Having a really great time right now
That hat toss is excellent.
And the PS1 in-engine sprite cutscene after the Falls fight misses out on some of the symbolism of the dramatic falls background and the bird flying free and the pendant and all that, but Agrias's sprite has more of a 'stand back milady, no need to soil your delicate hands with his blood, I'll beat him to death for you' vibe complete with wind sfx when she holds out a hand to keep Ophelia back and Ophelia gets a hand-over-fist clasp animation when thanking Delita.
Atheist seems funny, right up until you need to cast a spell on them and realize all spells now fail on them. Also another argument for having Chemists or Items as backup.
So there's an old saying in D&D about "Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards", about how at higher levels magic users are drastically more powerful than physical classes.
That does not apply to FFT. And the Sword-Mages-Saints-etc. decided to just be Quadratic Fighters.
Rad: I have a good feeling!
I miss the old PSX silly translations for these.
So happy you caught that.
Yeah, the PSX translation had it clearer with Delita blaming it on Dycedarg/Larg.
Yeah, the Orbonne attack is actually fairly confusing on who is on whose side. It's a mess.
Or, another view - Ramza disappeared from the Fort, was 'missing' for a year, joins up with a mercenary who turns out to be in the employ of Ramza's brother.... so there is a decent shot that Gafgarrion was originally hired to babysit Ramza.
Incidentally, Alma had been going to some sort of school with Tietra. One with a number of nobles that were bullying Tietra. If she suddenly stopped showing up, people would notice. Ramza, having just graduated from the military academy and going after the Corpse Brigade, disappearing is explainable. Probably part of why no one did anything with Alma after the Fort - she was safe where she was.
Yes, Delita "Blame yourself or God" is a Holy Knight!
Eh, I think that's just a translation/flavor thing. Yes, he's a Holy Knight, but that just means he convinced someone to give him access to the class. I don't think Faith affects any of the Sword Mages, so devotion or belief or the like do not factor in. To say nothing on whether that qualifies him as a 'good guy'.
I mean, the PSX had the White Mage called "Priest", afterall (BLM was Wizard). Doesn't mean they have to hold services.
Break or remove a Sword Mage's sword, and they lose all their skills. Do the same to Ramza and he at least still has them.
And don't discount Ramza's Squire. I've put enough Tailwind's on Ramza that he would occasionally start taking consecutive turns. Takes a long time to setup, but hilarious when you do, and he gets guaranteed JP for each Tailwind!
Good argument for having access to non-resource skills if you can manage it.
Er... this is one of those random things, and not a guaranteed trigger, just so you know.
And look, another teleporting NPC!
Always been my headcanon that Delita did talk with (or at) Ovelia during their travel, and that and the bridge fight is why she's strangely accepting of what he's done to her. Well, that and she's been raised to be very polite.
Delacroix is another of those fun name changes, but I wouldn't worry about that for now. On a side note, the "High Confessor" seems to be the local equivalent of Pope. Old Simon, the priest at Orbonne, was also an Inquisitor when younger.
Yeah, the random eggs can get funny. My family always chalked it up to them wandering off for a quick hookup as you travel between dots.
As for learning spells, do remember that Lightning, Fire, and Ice are all frequent weaknesses.
If the War of the Lions bonus class is the same one that Delita has, it'll be nice to know what his career paths has been in the year he's been missing.
Guile
Having a really great time right now
In the PSX version, I was half hoping Ovelia would follow up this pose
View: https://imgur.com/At2jtnq
by daintily cracking her knuckles and cold-cocking Delita with Princess Power.
'Her thanks' is what she calls her right straight, turns out. Her left jab is, of course, nicknamed 'Please.'
- Location
- Malaysia
WotL seems to have cut off many sprite cutscenes to be replaced with CGI. The one in Zierchele seems to be worse replacement of the scene, because Agrias is more or less directly standing as a human shield in front of Ovelia in the original version. She's not cradling the Princess like she's dying. That cutscene pretty much show Agrias' fierceness as her bodyguard, and her lack of trust in Ramza's old 'best friend'.
Man, I am not liking these new cutscenes even more.
- Location
- USA
In terms of translation, the Japanese "name" used here--ドラクロワ--is the exact same one used in Japanese literature for Eugène Delacroix's last name.
- Location
- Northern Virginia
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I actually kind of prefer the PSX translation for the Trade City dialogue.
It kinda makes more sense for a mercenary to not talk all-fancy like.
It's not.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Yeah, it's been mentioned before a few times, and the game never telegraphs it, but Ramza's default class is Squire for actual plot related purposes, Not because he's just Inherently Inferior to all of these other gigachads. It Is identical to a normal Squire with maybe one or two unique skills, yeah, but there's a reason it's called Mettle instead of Fundaments like it is for everyone else, and the further you go in the game, the more and more potent abilities start showing up for purchase in his Squire class.
Why is it called Squire then?
Because Ramza was never Knighted, he was still a cadet when he went to ground, and then spent all of his time learning in the school of hard knocks like all the other commoners did, spending the better part of a year or two just in a post-traumatic fugue until Orbonne knocks him out of it.
All of these fancy names, titles, and all that jazz? Those are formal titles of office granted to people who were already badass. Specific titles granted by someone with the authority to give you one. Plus the special martial techniques that go with that formal, elite training which tend to exceed what other people can do. Ramza only has experience, will, and what he's figured out or copied from others over time.
The same as all of your other generics, just that his potential is much higher and he did have some formal training, which is why the Chapter 2 Ramza's Squire class has a wider variety of gear he can use than a standard one. Generally speaking, a good time to check his Squire Job Skills is at the start of each new Chapter, some of them can be absolutely decisive if you use them right.
Why is it called Squire then?
Because Ramza was never Knighted, he was still a cadet when he went to ground, and then spent all of his time learning in the school of hard knocks like all the other commoners did, spending the better part of a year or two just in a post-traumatic fugue until Orbonne knocks him out of it.
All of these fancy names, titles, and all that jazz? Those are formal titles of office granted to people who were already badass. Specific titles granted by someone with the authority to give you one. Plus the special martial techniques that go with that formal, elite training which tend to exceed what other people can do. Ramza only has experience, will, and what he's figured out or copied from others over time.
The same as all of your other generics, just that his potential is much higher and he did have some formal training, which is why the Chapter 2 Ramza's Squire class has a wider variety of gear he can use than a standard one. Generally speaking, a good time to check his Squire Job Skills is at the start of each new Chapter, some of them can be absolutely decisive if you use them right.
I'm sorry, your son has... Dawkins. It's terminal.
So, goblins are pokemons, got it.
Good thing she won's stay 22 for long at the rate you're going, then!
You should've learned from Wiegraf. For all that Boco's his chocobo, you may notice that he didn't ride it in battle. Clearly he respects the almighty action economy.
Who knew that a man disgraced for doing too many war crimes even for notoriously shady nobility's taste would be a bad person? I, for one, am shocked.
Chocobos have managed to solve the incest issue by moving onto partenogenesis.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
Well, it could just be that those are there because of her class and she just leaves but you have the opportunity to unlock that class for Ramza later and he can then learn those skills (and she doesn't start with them unlocked so you can't use them against Gafflarglebargle when he betrays you).
I don't know, I'm just spitballing.
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
Trivia: "Mystic" in Japanese is 陰陽士, "onmyoushi". Which translates to "Yin-Yang user", and might be more familiar to anime fans as 陰陽師, "onmyouji" (which is "Yin-Yang master"). Less culturally sensitive translations have also called it "Taoist", because of the yin-yang imagery.
陰陽道 ("onmyoudo", ie "the way of Yin and Yang") is one of those historical mystical stuff that is very popular in pop culture. It's the equivalent of the default Wizard archetype in Chinese and China-adjacent mythology, and in the Japanese context was made famous by Abe no Seimei in the 10th century AD. Abe no Seimei is basically the Merlin equivalent, in terms of inspiring legends and folklore and cultural imitations.
So while the general idea of a wizard is flinging fireballs and calling down lightning, the general idea of a Mystic/Onmyoushi is using paper talismans and person-shaped paper cutouts that turn into summoned creatures called shikigami.
In FFT, this is shown in the Japanese names for their skills; most of them are forms of "seals", "chants", or "prayers". One of them (to lower Bravery) is named "Fox Bird Rat", which are common motifs for shikigami, but I admit I don't know if that kanji combination means something specifically.
Apparently "Atheist" in the Japanese text is イノセン, which is four-fifths of the katakana for a transliteration of "Innocent" (イノセント). I don't know what that means. Given the Japanese text for the status effect "Paralyze" is ドンアクト, which I can only read as "Don't Act", I assume this is one of the FFT-isms that don't have any meaning outside of the game mechanical UI.
In Japanese, Gaffgarion says "While I have a policy of not doing anything without pay, consider this an extra (bonus) service". So he's still being sarcastic and flippant, but it's a different sarcastic statement. The word he uses is "service" in katakana, which means the bonus freebies businesses like to give for promotional or marketing reasons, like "free flow of drinks" or "extra ten minutes on your karaoke session". I assume the WotL translation went for a different line because Gaffgarion talking about "freebies" does not fit the dramatic style of the dialogue.
What the fuck is an Orator.
Okay so apparently there is a whole class centered around 'talk good,' and it can do stuff like convert enemies into allies? It can also modify values like Faith and Bravery, convince opponents to stop, convince opponents to give you money…
Yeah, the Japanese is 話術士, which translates directly as "speech arts user". Can't really do anything about that other than come up with synonyms. "Orator" works as well as any other, and probably better than "Talker", which at least one light novel tried.
An interesting comparison is how Mystic "lowers Faith" (pedantically inflicts the Atheist status) with a skill called "Pseudo-prayer" (信擬仰祷), the Orator lowers Faith with a skill called 解法, "kaihou", which is "method of solving". Described as "using reasoning separate from the teachings of gods to explain everything".
In other words, the Mystic draws the faithful away through mocking prayer, while the Orator draws the faithful away through Logic and Science.
From what I see on the Japanese script site, if you choose not to save the Chocobo, Gaffgarion says "Obviously, we shouldn't do anything if we're not paid to do so", and Agrias says "Poor thing, but saving Ovelia is more important".
So it sounds like if you choose not to save the Chocobo, the party just leaves and lets Boco die to Goblins.
Yeah, your reading is correct.
One of the more irritating parts of how a lot of "pop culture" (ie not high literature) Japanese dialogue is written is this sort of thing: a character or the narration goes on at length about something happening or explaining a plot, and then ending with "... or that was what was supposed to happen" or "... which is what That Person intended". The idea is to lead the reader on with what seemed like an inevitable progression of the plot, before negating it with a surprise twist.
In this case, it's used in Delita's dialogue, where he lists out multiple paragraphs of the plan, before revealing to the reader that it's Larg or Dycedarg's plan, not his own. So the translator would have to decide whether to clarify it early, against the Japanese script's intentions, or translate it relatively faithfully and cause this exact confusion.
(I was going to mention how the plan as described contains no subjects as per Japanese grammar, but I just noticed the translation also has no grammatical subjects. Which is impressive in its own right.)
As for quotation marks, I admit I can't remember if there are any quotation marks used in the dialogue so far, in the English translation. The Japanese script does have them, but doesn't use it here, because as mentioned it's a common enough formation of dialogue that Japanese readers would likely not have a problem with it. So I'm wondering if the lack of quotation marks is due to coding issues, or because the plan requires multiple paragraphs to describe (and probably multiple dialogue boxes).
If it matters, Ramza's line also follows the same formation in Japanese: "Another sacrifice of the weak and helpless... that cannot be forgiven!" The initial statement is an apparently inevitable plot progression, negated by the next statement of Ramza denying it. This time it's just one sentence of "what should have happened", so it's easier to parse than the long explanation Delita had.
Once again, Gaffgarion is using vocabulary in Japanese that's very much not the high Shakespearean style the WotL translation wants. He uses the word "pro" in katakana a few times here, in the sense of "I am a professional behaving professionally". So pretty much the same idea as the translation, but in Gaffgarion's rougher and more direct style.
Slight potential confusion in the translation: in Japanese, Agrias names Ramza as the person she's thanking, for his help during the prior battle. I don't know if the cutscene makes it clear (eg by having Agrias face Ramza).
I'm mentioning it because I was a bit confused myself on reading this, before referring to the Japanese text and going "oh, okay, that makes sense".
Raise: "Soul who brought us life, return to us once more!" Very close, outside of the odd grammar in "return us". The lack of plurals in Japanese grammar means I wasn't sure if "soul/spirit" was supposed to be plural, but I think the idea is the caster is calling for the departed soul to return to the body, thus bringing the target back to life.
Quiescence: "Those who manipulate language, seek truth in silence. For now, forget words..." The latter part sounds way cooler than what I can think of at the moment. "Temporarily forget language" is the idea.
Invigoration: "In accordance with the principles of magic, may the beats be for my own self..." I'm not sure what the proper translation of 鼓動 should be. The original translation says "heartbeats", but generally it could also mean "beats" as in "drumbeats".
Moogle: "Kupo! Spinny-spinny pyuu~" Yeah, it's all cutesy sounds. No meaning.
Cleansing Strike: "The devil god is present and hearts are disturbed. People have become exceedingly small!" Again, it's way cooler than I make it sound. "Small" as in "low (ranking/dignity)". "Devil god" (鬼神) is also mostly interpreted as "fierce god".
Cleansing Strike, FFXIV version: "The hearts of men are black with corruption, and must needs be cleansed!"
Agrias: If your hands come anywhere near the Princess you lose them.
Ramza: She's not even fighting! Why does she need that awesome equipment?
Agrias: I'll stab you and won't feel the slightest bit sorry. Don't test me.
Lots of people try to gas up Ramza by citing his support skills, and to this I have but one counterpoint:
"But in the long run support skills are even more useful than-"
It's true, but I don't care. Give me nuke or give me death.
On another note, it's interesting to contemplate the role and treatment of generic units in this game (and tactics genre as a whole).
Like, RPGs tend to lean into being power fantasies, to make you feel like an unstoppable badass, and so you're never actually in danger of losing any of your party members (well, barring old games like Fallout 1-2 and contemporaries, but that attitude got mostly phased out). They don't die when they're killed, and in the majority of fights there isn't even the possibility of KO: their danger, such as it is, lies in slow resource depletion rather than permanent loss.
In strategy games, be they C&C and Warcraft or Civilization, individual units, in contrast, are typically disposable. Losing some of them in a confrontation is expected and unremarkable, the only important factor is whether you've got your money's worth for their death.
FFT and similar games lie square on the boundary between the two paradigms: your units are fragile, and permanent loss is very much on the table in every fight, but there is way too much invested in them to risk that loss. While in principle you could bounce back from the loss of any of your units, in practice each of them is worth hours of your time, and keeping them alive at all costs, even restarting the battle if necessary, is a natural decision on the player's part.
It is, I suppose, fitting for a game about the evils of war. You're never safe from loss, yet you cannot afford to grow jaded to it. But maybe, just maybe, with superior skill (and after committing a genocide or two against "monstrous" races) you'll be able to survive the crucible.
"But in the long run support skills are even more useful than-"
It's true, but I don't care. Give me nuke or give me death.
On another note, it's interesting to contemplate the role and treatment of generic units in this game (and tactics genre as a whole).
Like, RPGs tend to lean into being power fantasies, to make you feel like an unstoppable badass, and so you're never actually in danger of losing any of your party members (well, barring old games like Fallout 1-2 and contemporaries, but that attitude got mostly phased out). They don't die when they're killed, and in the majority of fights there isn't even the possibility of KO: their danger, such as it is, lies in slow resource depletion rather than permanent loss.
In strategy games, be they C&C and Warcraft or Civilization, individual units, in contrast, are typically disposable. Losing some of them in a confrontation is expected and unremarkable, the only important factor is whether you've got your money's worth for their death.
FFT and similar games lie square on the boundary between the two paradigms: your units are fragile, and permanent loss is very much on the table in every fight, but there is way too much invested in them to risk that loss. While in principle you could bounce back from the loss of any of your units, in practice each of them is worth hours of your time, and keeping them alive at all costs, even restarting the battle if necessary, is a natural decision on the player's part.
It is, I suppose, fitting for a game about the evils of war. You're never safe from loss, yet you cannot afford to grow jaded to it. But maybe, just maybe, with superior skill (and after committing a genocide or two against "monstrous" races) you'll be able to survive the crucible.