- Pronouns
- He/Him
Oh so you finally found an item?
I dunno about Omicron, but no, I haven't bothered with Treasure Hunter. I was just talking about the shop inventories upgrading.
Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Playing: Final Fantasy IX]
- Thread starter Omicron
- Start date
- Let's Play
I dunno about Omicron, but no, I haven't bothered with Treasure Hunter. I was just talking about the shop inventories upgrading.
Muramasa
Best Girl
For the record, most of the items that can be found this way can be purchased in the shop later. There 'are' a handful of maps with good items but those are usually reserved for side quests in chapter 4. You can easily beat this game without them. That said, it wouldn't be a bad idea to go into those side quest maps with a trained thief or Orator. Some enemies carry some really nice equipment.
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- He/Him
Update:
The game works much more smoothly when you don't have one person turbo outlevel the rest of the squad.
Also, advancing the story enough to get access to a bow instead of a crossbow made a huge difference to the functionality of the Archer class. Now I can park 'em behind a shield wall or cover and they just mow people down with a bit of Focus boosting: Bows can shoot *over* obstacles instead of smacking my own guys in the back.
The minimum range is less troublesome when your own guys are the ones on the tiles anyway, too.
Archers aren't an omega-tier ultimate godclass, but yeah, people can overstate how useless they are (especially early on, BEFORE you've unlocked all those nice things if you're doing a normal playthrough and not grinding your eyeballs off). Bows do alright damage, at range, and Archer Mustadio is about as effective as Base/Chemist Mustadio at Doing His Thing.
It's just pretty much all of the aim skills past +5, maybe, are kind of useless and a lot of the other skills are superceded elsewhere.
- Location
- Texas
Would you all say that you are comparing Archer specifically to Squire and Chemist, the other "starter" classes, or to all possible classes?
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I'd compare it to the first rank of unlocks -- Knight, Archer, White Mage, Black Mage. And of those I think, once you get used to it and/or have access to bows and not just crossbows, it holds up... okay, at least early? You get access to useful ranged damage that requires no charge time or MP, and can outright assassinate early enemies with even modest application of Aim. Black Mage can do similar things but the AoE and elemental tic-tac-toe is a little awkward to deal with and, especially early, MP pools aren't very deep.
It has downsides that mean you don't want to stay there long -- the stat levelups are much weaker than Knight and not as focused as the mages, your damage output won't scale the way mage spells do, the fairly specific range band the weapons work in is awkward -- but it's actually fine to use while you're there... especially with a bit of foreknowledge.
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- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Archer isn't a starter class, it's unlocked by raising Squire to lv 2, like Knight.
Yeah, but I think it's fair to consider it an 'early' one, since it's among the first-tier unlocks (Knight, Archer, White/Black Mage). No charge time, no MP use, and you can squeeze out a bit of extra damage if you DO allow for charge time.
Range is king in a lot of these kinds of tactics games. Only the relatively small size of most maps make "high move, good speed, high range" something other than utterly impossible to deal with in FFT since otherwise you could have the most badass swordskill unit around chasing after a humble archer who just keeps plinking them from outside of range.
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I think this is what that one jackass in the Dorter fight is meant to showcase. I actually struggled on my first run, took several restarts, because he kept shooting my healbot right at the start
Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 14.A: The Yuguewood, Riovanes Castle Gate, Riovanes Castle Keep, & The End of Chapter 3
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hear ye, hear ye! 'Tis the year of our lord 2024, and it has come to pass that Ramza Beoulve has been set against the greatest of his trials to date, a single moment of truth where, for the first time, he can count on none but himself, and must prevail against all odds.
The Story So Far: The Kingdom of Ivalice has been plunged into war between Dukes Larg and Goltanna, manipulated behind the scenes by the Church of Glabados. The Knight Templars, a military arm of the church, conspires to gather the Zodiac Stones of myth, hoping to use their legend to seize power, but within the Stones dwell demonic forces. Ramza, scion of House Beoulve, is one of the few aware of the conspiracy, and trying to stop it. Even now, he rushes to Riovanes Castle, where his sister is held hostage…
Continuing on the path to Riovanes Castle with Rapha as a guest character, our next encounter is in the Yuguewood. "Two-century-old yugue trees still grow here, but even this primeval forest was not spared from the ravages of war." Honestly, two centuries is pretty young for a "primeval" forest. But the description foreshadows the encounter - do you see how the human sprites in this encounter have a faded texture and float above the ground?
This is our first encounter with ghosts - not the monster species, but the unit type; these use normal unit traits, including jobs and Abilities, but are also treated as undead and have a permanent Float status.
Rapha: "Those who fell in the Fifty Years' War still linger in this wood. You will find no release here! Return with your remorse to the land of the dead!"
The enemies are high-level (they're rocking a lv 27 Time Mage) and count two Time Mages and two Black Mages in addition to three ghast-type enemies. Their number, levels, and the amount of high-tier black magic they could throw around might make them a threat… But it also gives them severe weaknesses.
Mustadio opens with Seal Evil, immediately petrifying one of the ghasts. One of the TMMs then approaches and goes into casting stance, and Ramza and Hadrian both close in and take her out instantly.
440 damage? Jesus Christ.
That's two enemies down, effectively before they got to do anything. A great start! Unfortunately then the enemies get to take their turns, and it turns out Firaga hurts a lot.
Hester, Mustadio and Luso all get hit by one spell, the surviving Time Mage casts Stop on Mustadio, then the other BLM hits both Hadrian and Ramza with another Firaga. That's around 500 damage total spread across my party. Then Rapha uses her Sky Mantra magic and nearly whiffs completely, her big, dramatic kanji explosion doing big visual impacts on empty tiles where they do no damage. At least the last one lands on the BLM for 54 damage, but still…
The Time Mage then goes again, using Haste to boost herself and her allies, and one of the Black Mages tries to cast Poison, which thankfully misses against all targets, giving us time to kick their teeth in. A second Firaga from the other Black Mages does take out Ramza, but we quickly finish off the rest of the party, Mustadio barely hanging on to life with a second Seal Evil on the remaining ghast-type, and that's a wrap.
The undead gimmick is neat, and massively increases Mustadio's value as a team member. Taking Gillian along so that I could have someone to cast offensive healing magic would also have made this easier, though all in all this wasn't a very tough battle.
And with this, Hester has reached Dragoon lv 5, which means it's time for her new job unlock.
Dancer is a female-exclusive job with an interesting if slightly odd mechanic. The Dancer can learn from a menu of Dances, each of which has an effect; every turn, the Dance targets all enemies in the encounter. This means a Dancer can operate from the rear lines, avoiding contact with opponents, while triggering her Dance effects every turn. Effects include damage (which cannot miss, but has low damage value), MP drain, status effects, Slow…
It sounds potentially really useful. In practice? Well, we'll see soon.
Next, we move onto Riovanes, where a fascinating cutscene awaits.
Grand Duke Barrington is sitting at his table, framed by two of his Knights, and two visitors approach - Folmarv, lord commander of the temple knights, and right behind him, a figure whose sprite we should recognize, though his name won't be called out immediately:
Wiegraf.
So as it turns out, men who have fused with the Zodiac Stone can alternate between their human form and their demonic form. This has implications, chiefly that any given character we've met so far could, potentially, have already been one of the Lucavi in disguise.
Such concerns are far from Barrington's mind, of course.
Grand Duke Barrington: "Ah, a warmest welcome to you both. I do hope you've found my halls to your pleasure. They may lack the grandeur of Lesalia's, but I find they make up for it in other ways. Castles built as seats of governance are so dreadfully plain. Would you not agree? There is such greater beauty in a fortress built for war. Ivalice herself would seem to be in agreement. Ever has she been ruled by men with power. Some might take this latest upheaval as a sign that the Crown --- in its austere seat --- has lost the strength to keep her under rein."
Folmarv: "Your summons spoke of matters more pressing than the style of Lesalia's keep.
Barrington: "Must everyone be in such haste?"
[He stands and turns his back to the templars, looking slyly over his shoulder.]
Barrington: "Very well, I shall ask you outright. Will you not join your strength with mine?"
Folmarv: "I am afraid your meaning escapes me, Your Grace."
Barrington: "As I said a moment ago, it is power that rules Ivalice. Who do you think now holds power? Duke Larg, and the Order of the Northern Sky? Duke Goltanna, mayhap, with the Southern Sky's swords at his beck and call? No, I can assure you it is not they. The ones who hold true power are the ones who hold the Zodiac Stones --- the Knights Templar."
Folmarv: "You think us the greatest power in Ivalice?"
Look at this funny little shit.
And there we have these two antagonists framed in respect to one another - Grand Duke Barrington is a man who loves the sound of his own voice, Folmarv is dry and to the point. Barrington has summoned the Templar Knights to seek an alliance, but clearly believes himself to be the one with the power and control, surprising his guests with knowledge he should not possess about their plans and hidden assets.
He's also, uh. Asking them to collaborate with him. Which means they weren't already doing that.
Which means Marach was leading us on. He wasn't working with the Knights Templar, he just let it be implied that he was. Two options there - either he made shit up entirely, sorry Mario your princess is in another castle, Alma was never at Riovanes to begin with, or Grand Duke Barrington's forces intercepted Isilud and Alma while they were escaping, and he's about to reveal he has Folmarv's son hostage as a power play midway through the conversation.
(How the hell would Marach know that we have the Scriptures then, though? That we have no answer to. I guess Barringon's intelligence network is a little magical.)
Folmarv attempts to deflect Barrington's accusations, laughing and calling the Zodiac Stones "fantasy." When Barrington implies that he knows what happened to Cardinal Delacroix, Folmarv stands there and tells him the cardinal just got sick. He's just totally stonewalling the guy with bad faith deflections both of them know he doesn't believe, it's great. When Barrington asks why the Inquisition would be after Ramza Beoulve, Folmarv just tells him the medieval equivalent of "can't disclose the details of an ongoing case."
Sensing this is going absolutely nowhere, Barrington then decides to make his power play.
He summons Marach, who enters dragging Isilud with him. It turns out it was option B after all - Marach captured Isilud on the road, and most likely Alma with him, and then merely let it be tacitly implied that he was working with the Knights Templar when he very much wasn't.
Grand Duke Barrington informs Folmarv that he has taken the Scorpio and Taurus stones for safekeeping, but Folmarv is barely listening to him; he approaches Isilud and slaps him in the face, calling him a "worthless fool of a son." Just then, another Knight enters and warns the Grand Duke that his "long-awaited guests" are at their gate - that would be us. Barrington tells Marach to see to us, and he departs.
Folmarv: "What is it you wish, Barrington?"
Barrington: [He goes back to his seat.] "Cooperation. I said as such a few moments ago. It would be a mutually beneficial arrangement, I assure you."
Folmarv: "And if I were to refuse?"
Barrington: "Then I suppose I'd be forced to unmask the Church's plot for what it is."
Folmarv: "Stones alone prove naught."
Barrington: "In that you are correct, ser. But it would be hard to say the same of the Scriptures of Germonique. I dare contend they might generate something of a stir. Duke Larg, Duke Goltanna - even the Council is like to raise an eye at those."
Folmarv: "Where are they?"
Barrington: "Oh, who could say? You of all people must know how easily such details can elude the mind's grasp."
Folmarv: [Still staring at the Grand Duke] "Wiegraf, see to the mage who left a moment ago. I shall attend to matters here."
[Wiegraf leaves; Grand Duke Barrington stands up.]
Barrington: "Do not think to threaten me! This is a battle you cannot hope to win."
So that was Grand Duke Barrington's play - take the stones, take the scriptures, then force the Knights Templar to the table holding all the cards. He speaks of it as "cooperating" but it's transparent that this man wants to be king; he's been content to allow Larg and Goltanna to bleed each other while he sat on his superior resources, hoarding soldiers, weapons, mages and assassins, waiting to make his move. The only threat to his plan at this stage would, of course, be the other faction currently doing the exact same thing - the Church.
High Confessor Funebris is planning on using Ovelia as a puppet figure while power goes back to the Church. Grand Duke Barrington's proposal is most likely going to be something along the lines of, "ditch the Princess, I get to be King, we will share power but I'm the one in the big chair." Still a better deal for the Church than what they have right now, and it would give them the benefit of an alliance with the most powerful lord in Ivalice that would make victory easier, but it falls short of their current goal, where they get to be the ones in charge through a figurehead. It would be a compromise. But Barrington wields two advantages here: the stick of "I have two of the Stones you need and (will soon have) the Scriptures that can reveal the truth about Saint Ajora," and the carrot of "by working with me you're working with the King of the Forge and nothing could ever stand in the way of our combined forces." It's a bitter pill to swallow, but the benefits are enough that, if Barrington were currently making this offer to the High Confessor himself, the man might actually go along with it.
But Grand Duke Barrington isn't making this offer to High Confessor Funebris. He's making it to Lord Commander Folmarv.
…
Batman: The Long Halloween is a critically-acclaimed comic book by Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale. Set in the early days of the Caped Crusader's career, The Long Halloween is a sequel to Batman: Year One, and drew praise for its heavily Noir-inspired storytelling and exploration of Batman's character and setting. One of the reasons why I find TLH fascinating is because it's deliberately constructed around a point of inflection in the story and genre of Batman: where Year One saw Batman exclusively battle mafiosi, gangsters and corrupt cops, The Long Halloween introduces the "costumed freaks" that make up Batman's most iconic antagonists. Initially, these are freak events, or mercenaries hired by the mafia to do their dirty work, but they increasingly come to take center stage as mafia boss Falcone becomes hard pressed by circumstances. Until, one night, the lights go out in his mansion, there's an attack, gas, his men are getting killed, Falcone rushes into his office…
This is probably the single most iconic panel in The Long Halloween. It tells a story, or rather the culmination of one, the turning point in the question of what genre Batman even is. Two-Face, once an ordinary attorney general, now a "freak," sits at Falcone's own desk, surrounded by costumed weirdos, several of which have actual superpowers.
The age of gangsters and corrupt cops is over.
The freaks have taken over.
…
Grand Duke Barrington has laid out his plans. He's built up his assets. He has every card in hand. Folmarv might refuse his generous offer and the Church turn against him, and in that case they would have to live with the consequences; that's something he's willing to risk. One thing that isn't on his mind at all, because it doesn't make sense, is that by inviting Folmarv, one lone man, into his office surrounded by his own knights, in the middle of a castle full of hundreds of his best men, he might have put himself in physical danger. This is a political situation, with political stakes. No one is about to pull a sword here. That doesn't make any sense.
Thunder flashes. The lights in the room take on a red tint.
Barrington: "Do not think to threaten me! This is a battle you cannot hope to win."
Folmarv: "No, it is one we cannot hope to lose. Who is there to oppose us, save you feeble-bodied humans?"
Isilud: "Father…?"
Folmarv: "You misjudge the strength of your enemy, Grand Duke Barrington. There will be no sport in killing you."
Barrington: "You would raise arms against your host under his own roof!?"
[He steps back behind his men, who advance on Folmarv; several more Knights enter the room at once.]
Folmarv was already one of the Lucavi. He lied to his son about the nature of the Stones, fully knowing the truth of their power. And now, he's going to show Grand Duke Barrington just how much his careful positioning and political maneuvring is going to serve him in the face of demonic power.
The freaks have taken over.
…
We receive a save prompt, access to the party roster, and then it's on to the actual battle. Marach, of course, has no idea of what's currently unfolding in the castle's inner chambers.
Rapha: "Please, Marach, heed my words! We can leave this place together!"
Marach: "Death is the price for disloyalty. You know this as well as I. The Grand Duke sees all debts paid in kind. Turncloaks are set upon by their once friends, hunted relentlessly until the end. To flee this day is to live your rest in fear, ever wondering when the knife will find its mark. Such is not a life I choose to lead. If we but finish this one last task for him, the grand duke will release us both from his service. He swore as much to me!"
Rapha: "Swore on what? His *honor*? Do not tell me you believed him! The man's words are honeyed poison. I'd sooner deal with a devil. They make no such effort to conceal their lies!"
Marach: "The grand duke would not lie to me! We need only kill that man and take the Scriptures from his corpse, and then our chains are cut!"
[OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT ALL ENEMIES!]
Marach, you buffon. I should let you have the Scriptures just so that you can get to see Barrington laugh in your face at the idea that he'd ever let you be free.
I mean, that wouldn't happen, because Barrington is currently busy screaming in agony as he is brutally dismembered or something of the kind, but you know what I mean.
Alright, so. Three enemy Archers perched on the battlements. Three Knights down in the moat. And Marach.
Marach is "only" lv 24, which makes him the weakest enemy on his side; these generics are rocking an eye-popping lv 28-29. We're probably going to lose this one and have to come back after some grinding, which is fine.
Ramza asks Marach where his sister is, Marach tells him if he wants to see his sister to just give him the book, and Rapha warns Ramza not to do it, once Marach has the book he would simply kill Ramza and Alma both, which does seem like an accurate read on the character. I decide to have Ramza push up that ramp next to the gate that leads to a hole in the remparts where Marach is, casting Tailwind on the way, while my left-side party crosses the moat.
This strategy doesn't work very well. Ramza is fully exposed to fire from all three Archers, while the Knight comes around to backstab Mustadio. Still, I'm able to make it to the Ramparts to throw some Iaido moves at the Archers, while Hadrian engages one of the enemy Knights and Agrias begins the laborious process of climbing up the wall.
But now, it's time to finally see the Dancer in action.
It's definitely a performance, that's for sure. I love the way it flashes through several light colors and smash cuts from multiple camera angles, definitely fun. But how well does it work?
The Dance I selected for this trial, Forbidden Dance, has a chance to inflict Blind, Confuse, Silence, Toad, Poison, Slow, Stop, and Sleep. Unfortunately, what sounds like a Bad Breath tier of "fuck you" is anything but. As it turns out, it inflicts one of these effects, at random. And it has about a 50% chance to hit per target. So I just paid to inflict half of the enemy party with a single randomized status effect. As it turns out, that ends up being Poison on one Archer, Silence on one Knight (so nothing, in effect), and Frog on another Knight.
Funny as watching this guy hop around may be, this sucks. It definitely doesn't seem like the right direction to take this build in. But for now that's what we got, so let's push forward.
Agrias takes out one of the Knights and makes it to the top of the battlement, joining Mustadio and Ramza as our breach team. Unfortunately, it's too late to save Ramza, who has been eating arrows this entire time. Archer is not a good class, but there are only so many free ranged attacks you can tank before you just get ground down.
Hester's Dance fires again, this time managing to, impressively, miss all but one enemy, and inflicting Poison on that last one, to boot. Poison is just… Not cutting it, man. At least give me Stop or something.
Down in the moat, Hadrian kills the frogified Knight, and then back up, Marach takes down Mustadio. Which is unfortunate, because I didn't bring Gillian this time, so, uh… Mustadio was my only character capable of raising downed party members. Oops.
No, wait! Hadrian has this old Item command I gave him as a backup. Okay, maybe all is not lost.
One Archer down, but Agrias is now alone on the battlements against two Archers and Marach…
At least, huh, for the next turn. Because after that, a Knight attacks Rapha, bringing her down to critical HP, and an unexpected cutscene plays out:
Rapha: "What you say is true, Marach. There is no point in simply running. These chains that bind us must be cut by our own hands!"
[She teleports away.]
Marach: "Rapha, wait! Do not be foolish!"
[He also teleports.]
Huh. Okay, so it turns out, when either of the siblings get brought down into crisis, both of them teleport away. The dialogue that plays is a little different depending on which one escapes first, but they always leave at the same time. Which means that if you take Marach out early, Rapha also vanishes, and if the enemy brings down Rapha, then you don't have to deal with Marach anymore. It's… interesting?
Also the implication that Rapha is going to go and straight up murder the Grand Duke herself to ensure her freedom is, like, you go girl, but also please don't this castle is currently an abattoir.
Frankly I'll take it just because it removes battlefield chaos. I haven't talked about Marach's unique skill, but it's the same deal as Rapha: big, flashy screen-shaking effect that hit random squares in an AoE and whiff most of the time.
That leaves us with a severely curtailed opposition: two Archers up in the battlement, and only one Knight left on the bridge. Unfortunately, my stubborn insistence on trying to milk Dance for its maximum effect means I have a character mostly sitting out the fight. Her next Dance does frogify one Archer, but otherwise whiffs on both remaining enemies. I still have Agrias and Hadrian as my main players, though, so everything should be salvageable by the skin of our teeth…
…aaaand I'm not fast enough in bringing Hadrian up the wall, resulting in Ramza's death and a game over.
Fuck.
Well, alright. We got to see Dancer, check out most of the battle, see what we're up against. Now we try again, with new Dances this time.
This time, Marach comes down to fight us directly, and quickly falls to Ramza's attacks. (As in I deliver one attack, take off 110 of his HP, and he immediately teleports out followed by his sister.) This leaves us free to focus on the generic enemy units. I brought Gillian with me this time, and I have her use Reraise on Ramza so our boy doesn't collapse from multiple arrow injuries upon reaching the top of the wall. Realistically, I should have just used Protect, but casting your strongest available spell is always tempting even when it's not actually the most effective choice. I also have Ramza use his new iaido ability, Masamune/Rain of Wisdom, which heals both him and Gillian while advancing. Sounds good, right?
The Dance I have Hester use this time is Slow Dance, which reduces the Speed of all affected enemies by one. It also appears to have a coinflip chance of working, but hopefully repeating it over multiple turns will drag the enemy team's overall performance into the mud.
The effect is interesting, but the odds are too goddamned low. The first attempt hits three out of six enemies, which is decent, but the second one hits only one out of the five enemies then remaining. Given that I am losing an entire unit slot to sustaining this over time, every turn where it mostly whiffs becomes increasingly galling. To make matters worse, Agrias falls to the blades of the Moat Knights, and Ramza meets his first KO before even reaching the top of the wall; Reraise immediately brings him back, but with a measly 27 HP, closer to a Phoenix Down effect than a true Raise. The Archers promptly take out Gillian before she can heal Ramza, then the enemies retreat to the highest tower to form a defensive square.
Seen here noselling Slow Dance again.
Long story short, Ramza goes down again. At this point, I only have Hadrian and Hester up, and there are five enemies still active, so I abort this run rather than play silly games with Phoenix Down trying to get my team back up while under archer fire.
It's clear that trying to tackle an encounter full of lv 29 enemies who have the high ground while lv 24-26 is just pushing it. So we'll head out and do some grinding, which will give us a chance to get better acquainted with Hester's toolkit.
Cut for image count.
The Story So Far: The Kingdom of Ivalice has been plunged into war between Dukes Larg and Goltanna, manipulated behind the scenes by the Church of Glabados. The Knight Templars, a military arm of the church, conspires to gather the Zodiac Stones of myth, hoping to use their legend to seize power, but within the Stones dwell demonic forces. Ramza, scion of House Beoulve, is one of the few aware of the conspiracy, and trying to stop it. Even now, he rushes to Riovanes Castle, where his sister is held hostage…
Continuing on the path to Riovanes Castle with Rapha as a guest character, our next encounter is in the Yuguewood. "Two-century-old yugue trees still grow here, but even this primeval forest was not spared from the ravages of war." Honestly, two centuries is pretty young for a "primeval" forest. But the description foreshadows the encounter - do you see how the human sprites in this encounter have a faded texture and float above the ground?
This is our first encounter with ghosts - not the monster species, but the unit type; these use normal unit traits, including jobs and Abilities, but are also treated as undead and have a permanent Float status.
Rapha: "Those who fell in the Fifty Years' War still linger in this wood. You will find no release here! Return with your remorse to the land of the dead!"
The enemies are high-level (they're rocking a lv 27 Time Mage) and count two Time Mages and two Black Mages in addition to three ghast-type enemies. Their number, levels, and the amount of high-tier black magic they could throw around might make them a threat… But it also gives them severe weaknesses.
Mustadio opens with Seal Evil, immediately petrifying one of the ghasts. One of the TMMs then approaches and goes into casting stance, and Ramza and Hadrian both close in and take her out instantly.
440 damage? Jesus Christ.
That's two enemies down, effectively before they got to do anything. A great start! Unfortunately then the enemies get to take their turns, and it turns out Firaga hurts a lot.
Hester, Mustadio and Luso all get hit by one spell, the surviving Time Mage casts Stop on Mustadio, then the other BLM hits both Hadrian and Ramza with another Firaga. That's around 500 damage total spread across my party. Then Rapha uses her Sky Mantra magic and nearly whiffs completely, her big, dramatic kanji explosion doing big visual impacts on empty tiles where they do no damage. At least the last one lands on the BLM for 54 damage, but still…
The Time Mage then goes again, using Haste to boost herself and her allies, and one of the Black Mages tries to cast Poison, which thankfully misses against all targets, giving us time to kick their teeth in. A second Firaga from the other Black Mages does take out Ramza, but we quickly finish off the rest of the party, Mustadio barely hanging on to life with a second Seal Evil on the remaining ghast-type, and that's a wrap.
The undead gimmick is neat, and massively increases Mustadio's value as a team member. Taking Gillian along so that I could have someone to cast offensive healing magic would also have made this easier, though all in all this wasn't a very tough battle.
And with this, Hester has reached Dragoon lv 5, which means it's time for her new job unlock.
Dancer is a female-exclusive job with an interesting if slightly odd mechanic. The Dancer can learn from a menu of Dances, each of which has an effect; every turn, the Dance targets all enemies in the encounter. This means a Dancer can operate from the rear lines, avoiding contact with opponents, while triggering her Dance effects every turn. Effects include damage (which cannot miss, but has low damage value), MP drain, status effects, Slow…
It sounds potentially really useful. In practice? Well, we'll see soon.
Next, we move onto Riovanes, where a fascinating cutscene awaits.
Grand Duke Barrington is sitting at his table, framed by two of his Knights, and two visitors approach - Folmarv, lord commander of the temple knights, and right behind him, a figure whose sprite we should recognize, though his name won't be called out immediately:
Wiegraf.
So as it turns out, men who have fused with the Zodiac Stone can alternate between their human form and their demonic form. This has implications, chiefly that any given character we've met so far could, potentially, have already been one of the Lucavi in disguise.
Such concerns are far from Barrington's mind, of course.
Grand Duke Barrington: "Ah, a warmest welcome to you both. I do hope you've found my halls to your pleasure. They may lack the grandeur of Lesalia's, but I find they make up for it in other ways. Castles built as seats of governance are so dreadfully plain. Would you not agree? There is such greater beauty in a fortress built for war. Ivalice herself would seem to be in agreement. Ever has she been ruled by men with power. Some might take this latest upheaval as a sign that the Crown --- in its austere seat --- has lost the strength to keep her under rein."
Folmarv: "Your summons spoke of matters more pressing than the style of Lesalia's keep.
Barrington: "Must everyone be in such haste?"
[He stands and turns his back to the templars, looking slyly over his shoulder.]
Barrington: "Very well, I shall ask you outright. Will you not join your strength with mine?"
Folmarv: "I am afraid your meaning escapes me, Your Grace."
Barrington: "As I said a moment ago, it is power that rules Ivalice. Who do you think now holds power? Duke Larg, and the Order of the Northern Sky? Duke Goltanna, mayhap, with the Southern Sky's swords at his beck and call? No, I can assure you it is not they. The ones who hold true power are the ones who hold the Zodiac Stones --- the Knights Templar."
Folmarv: "You think us the greatest power in Ivalice?"
Look at this funny little shit.
And there we have these two antagonists framed in respect to one another - Grand Duke Barrington is a man who loves the sound of his own voice, Folmarv is dry and to the point. Barrington has summoned the Templar Knights to seek an alliance, but clearly believes himself to be the one with the power and control, surprising his guests with knowledge he should not possess about their plans and hidden assets.
He's also, uh. Asking them to collaborate with him. Which means they weren't already doing that.
Which means Marach was leading us on. He wasn't working with the Knights Templar, he just let it be implied that he was. Two options there - either he made shit up entirely, sorry Mario your princess is in another castle, Alma was never at Riovanes to begin with, or Grand Duke Barrington's forces intercepted Isilud and Alma while they were escaping, and he's about to reveal he has Folmarv's son hostage as a power play midway through the conversation.
(How the hell would Marach know that we have the Scriptures then, though? That we have no answer to. I guess Barringon's intelligence network is a little magical.)
Folmarv attempts to deflect Barrington's accusations, laughing and calling the Zodiac Stones "fantasy." When Barrington implies that he knows what happened to Cardinal Delacroix, Folmarv stands there and tells him the cardinal just got sick. He's just totally stonewalling the guy with bad faith deflections both of them know he doesn't believe, it's great. When Barrington asks why the Inquisition would be after Ramza Beoulve, Folmarv just tells him the medieval equivalent of "can't disclose the details of an ongoing case."
Sensing this is going absolutely nowhere, Barrington then decides to make his power play.
He summons Marach, who enters dragging Isilud with him. It turns out it was option B after all - Marach captured Isilud on the road, and most likely Alma with him, and then merely let it be tacitly implied that he was working with the Knights Templar when he very much wasn't.
Grand Duke Barrington informs Folmarv that he has taken the Scorpio and Taurus stones for safekeeping, but Folmarv is barely listening to him; he approaches Isilud and slaps him in the face, calling him a "worthless fool of a son." Just then, another Knight enters and warns the Grand Duke that his "long-awaited guests" are at their gate - that would be us. Barrington tells Marach to see to us, and he departs.
Folmarv: "What is it you wish, Barrington?"
Barrington: [He goes back to his seat.] "Cooperation. I said as such a few moments ago. It would be a mutually beneficial arrangement, I assure you."
Folmarv: "And if I were to refuse?"
Barrington: "Then I suppose I'd be forced to unmask the Church's plot for what it is."
Folmarv: "Stones alone prove naught."
Barrington: "In that you are correct, ser. But it would be hard to say the same of the Scriptures of Germonique. I dare contend they might generate something of a stir. Duke Larg, Duke Goltanna - even the Council is like to raise an eye at those."
Folmarv: "Where are they?"
Barrington: "Oh, who could say? You of all people must know how easily such details can elude the mind's grasp."
Folmarv: [Still staring at the Grand Duke] "Wiegraf, see to the mage who left a moment ago. I shall attend to matters here."
[Wiegraf leaves; Grand Duke Barrington stands up.]
Barrington: "Do not think to threaten me! This is a battle you cannot hope to win."
So that was Grand Duke Barrington's play - take the stones, take the scriptures, then force the Knights Templar to the table holding all the cards. He speaks of it as "cooperating" but it's transparent that this man wants to be king; he's been content to allow Larg and Goltanna to bleed each other while he sat on his superior resources, hoarding soldiers, weapons, mages and assassins, waiting to make his move. The only threat to his plan at this stage would, of course, be the other faction currently doing the exact same thing - the Church.
High Confessor Funebris is planning on using Ovelia as a puppet figure while power goes back to the Church. Grand Duke Barrington's proposal is most likely going to be something along the lines of, "ditch the Princess, I get to be King, we will share power but I'm the one in the big chair." Still a better deal for the Church than what they have right now, and it would give them the benefit of an alliance with the most powerful lord in Ivalice that would make victory easier, but it falls short of their current goal, where they get to be the ones in charge through a figurehead. It would be a compromise. But Barrington wields two advantages here: the stick of "I have two of the Stones you need and (will soon have) the Scriptures that can reveal the truth about Saint Ajora," and the carrot of "by working with me you're working with the King of the Forge and nothing could ever stand in the way of our combined forces." It's a bitter pill to swallow, but the benefits are enough that, if Barrington were currently making this offer to the High Confessor himself, the man might actually go along with it.
But Grand Duke Barrington isn't making this offer to High Confessor Funebris. He's making it to Lord Commander Folmarv.
…
Batman: The Long Halloween is a critically-acclaimed comic book by Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale. Set in the early days of the Caped Crusader's career, The Long Halloween is a sequel to Batman: Year One, and drew praise for its heavily Noir-inspired storytelling and exploration of Batman's character and setting. One of the reasons why I find TLH fascinating is because it's deliberately constructed around a point of inflection in the story and genre of Batman: where Year One saw Batman exclusively battle mafiosi, gangsters and corrupt cops, The Long Halloween introduces the "costumed freaks" that make up Batman's most iconic antagonists. Initially, these are freak events, or mercenaries hired by the mafia to do their dirty work, but they increasingly come to take center stage as mafia boss Falcone becomes hard pressed by circumstances. Until, one night, the lights go out in his mansion, there's an attack, gas, his men are getting killed, Falcone rushes into his office…
This is probably the single most iconic panel in The Long Halloween. It tells a story, or rather the culmination of one, the turning point in the question of what genre Batman even is. Two-Face, once an ordinary attorney general, now a "freak," sits at Falcone's own desk, surrounded by costumed weirdos, several of which have actual superpowers.
The age of gangsters and corrupt cops is over.
The freaks have taken over.
…
Grand Duke Barrington has laid out his plans. He's built up his assets. He has every card in hand. Folmarv might refuse his generous offer and the Church turn against him, and in that case they would have to live with the consequences; that's something he's willing to risk. One thing that isn't on his mind at all, because it doesn't make sense, is that by inviting Folmarv, one lone man, into his office surrounded by his own knights, in the middle of a castle full of hundreds of his best men, he might have put himself in physical danger. This is a political situation, with political stakes. No one is about to pull a sword here. That doesn't make any sense.
Thunder flashes. The lights in the room take on a red tint.
Barrington: "Do not think to threaten me! This is a battle you cannot hope to win."
Folmarv: "No, it is one we cannot hope to lose. Who is there to oppose us, save you feeble-bodied humans?"
Isilud: "Father…?"
Folmarv: "You misjudge the strength of your enemy, Grand Duke Barrington. There will be no sport in killing you."
Barrington: "You would raise arms against your host under his own roof!?"
[He steps back behind his men, who advance on Folmarv; several more Knights enter the room at once.]
Folmarv was already one of the Lucavi. He lied to his son about the nature of the Stones, fully knowing the truth of their power. And now, he's going to show Grand Duke Barrington just how much his careful positioning and political maneuvring is going to serve him in the face of demonic power.
The freaks have taken over.
…
We receive a save prompt, access to the party roster, and then it's on to the actual battle. Marach, of course, has no idea of what's currently unfolding in the castle's inner chambers.
Rapha: "Please, Marach, heed my words! We can leave this place together!"
Marach: "Death is the price for disloyalty. You know this as well as I. The Grand Duke sees all debts paid in kind. Turncloaks are set upon by their once friends, hunted relentlessly until the end. To flee this day is to live your rest in fear, ever wondering when the knife will find its mark. Such is not a life I choose to lead. If we but finish this one last task for him, the grand duke will release us both from his service. He swore as much to me!"
Rapha: "Swore on what? His *honor*? Do not tell me you believed him! The man's words are honeyed poison. I'd sooner deal with a devil. They make no such effort to conceal their lies!"
Marach: "The grand duke would not lie to me! We need only kill that man and take the Scriptures from his corpse, and then our chains are cut!"
[OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT ALL ENEMIES!]
Marach, you buffon. I should let you have the Scriptures just so that you can get to see Barrington laugh in your face at the idea that he'd ever let you be free.
I mean, that wouldn't happen, because Barrington is currently busy screaming in agony as he is brutally dismembered or something of the kind, but you know what I mean.
Alright, so. Three enemy Archers perched on the battlements. Three Knights down in the moat. And Marach.
Marach is "only" lv 24, which makes him the weakest enemy on his side; these generics are rocking an eye-popping lv 28-29. We're probably going to lose this one and have to come back after some grinding, which is fine.
Ramza asks Marach where his sister is, Marach tells him if he wants to see his sister to just give him the book, and Rapha warns Ramza not to do it, once Marach has the book he would simply kill Ramza and Alma both, which does seem like an accurate read on the character. I decide to have Ramza push up that ramp next to the gate that leads to a hole in the remparts where Marach is, casting Tailwind on the way, while my left-side party crosses the moat.
This strategy doesn't work very well. Ramza is fully exposed to fire from all three Archers, while the Knight comes around to backstab Mustadio. Still, I'm able to make it to the Ramparts to throw some Iaido moves at the Archers, while Hadrian engages one of the enemy Knights and Agrias begins the laborious process of climbing up the wall.
But now, it's time to finally see the Dancer in action.
It's definitely a performance, that's for sure. I love the way it flashes through several light colors and smash cuts from multiple camera angles, definitely fun. But how well does it work?
The Dance I selected for this trial, Forbidden Dance, has a chance to inflict Blind, Confuse, Silence, Toad, Poison, Slow, Stop, and Sleep. Unfortunately, what sounds like a Bad Breath tier of "fuck you" is anything but. As it turns out, it inflicts one of these effects, at random. And it has about a 50% chance to hit per target. So I just paid to inflict half of the enemy party with a single randomized status effect. As it turns out, that ends up being Poison on one Archer, Silence on one Knight (so nothing, in effect), and Frog on another Knight.
Funny as watching this guy hop around may be, this sucks. It definitely doesn't seem like the right direction to take this build in. But for now that's what we got, so let's push forward.
Agrias takes out one of the Knights and makes it to the top of the battlement, joining Mustadio and Ramza as our breach team. Unfortunately, it's too late to save Ramza, who has been eating arrows this entire time. Archer is not a good class, but there are only so many free ranged attacks you can tank before you just get ground down.
Hester's Dance fires again, this time managing to, impressively, miss all but one enemy, and inflicting Poison on that last one, to boot. Poison is just… Not cutting it, man. At least give me Stop or something.
Down in the moat, Hadrian kills the frogified Knight, and then back up, Marach takes down Mustadio. Which is unfortunate, because I didn't bring Gillian this time, so, uh… Mustadio was my only character capable of raising downed party members. Oops.
No, wait! Hadrian has this old Item command I gave him as a backup. Okay, maybe all is not lost.
One Archer down, but Agrias is now alone on the battlements against two Archers and Marach…
At least, huh, for the next turn. Because after that, a Knight attacks Rapha, bringing her down to critical HP, and an unexpected cutscene plays out:
Rapha: "What you say is true, Marach. There is no point in simply running. These chains that bind us must be cut by our own hands!"
[She teleports away.]
Marach: "Rapha, wait! Do not be foolish!"
[He also teleports.]
Huh. Okay, so it turns out, when either of the siblings get brought down into crisis, both of them teleport away. The dialogue that plays is a little different depending on which one escapes first, but they always leave at the same time. Which means that if you take Marach out early, Rapha also vanishes, and if the enemy brings down Rapha, then you don't have to deal with Marach anymore. It's… interesting?
Also the implication that Rapha is going to go and straight up murder the Grand Duke herself to ensure her freedom is, like, you go girl, but also please don't this castle is currently an abattoir.
Frankly I'll take it just because it removes battlefield chaos. I haven't talked about Marach's unique skill, but it's the same deal as Rapha: big, flashy screen-shaking effect that hit random squares in an AoE and whiff most of the time.
That leaves us with a severely curtailed opposition: two Archers up in the battlement, and only one Knight left on the bridge. Unfortunately, my stubborn insistence on trying to milk Dance for its maximum effect means I have a character mostly sitting out the fight. Her next Dance does frogify one Archer, but otherwise whiffs on both remaining enemies. I still have Agrias and Hadrian as my main players, though, so everything should be salvageable by the skin of our teeth…
…aaaand I'm not fast enough in bringing Hadrian up the wall, resulting in Ramza's death and a game over.
Fuck.
Well, alright. We got to see Dancer, check out most of the battle, see what we're up against. Now we try again, with new Dances this time.
This time, Marach comes down to fight us directly, and quickly falls to Ramza's attacks. (As in I deliver one attack, take off 110 of his HP, and he immediately teleports out followed by his sister.) This leaves us free to focus on the generic enemy units. I brought Gillian with me this time, and I have her use Reraise on Ramza so our boy doesn't collapse from multiple arrow injuries upon reaching the top of the wall. Realistically, I should have just used Protect, but casting your strongest available spell is always tempting even when it's not actually the most effective choice. I also have Ramza use his new iaido ability, Masamune/Rain of Wisdom, which heals both him and Gillian while advancing. Sounds good, right?
The Dance I have Hester use this time is Slow Dance, which reduces the Speed of all affected enemies by one. It also appears to have a coinflip chance of working, but hopefully repeating it over multiple turns will drag the enemy team's overall performance into the mud.
The effect is interesting, but the odds are too goddamned low. The first attempt hits three out of six enemies, which is decent, but the second one hits only one out of the five enemies then remaining. Given that I am losing an entire unit slot to sustaining this over time, every turn where it mostly whiffs becomes increasingly galling. To make matters worse, Agrias falls to the blades of the Moat Knights, and Ramza meets his first KO before even reaching the top of the wall; Reraise immediately brings him back, but with a measly 27 HP, closer to a Phoenix Down effect than a true Raise. The Archers promptly take out Gillian before she can heal Ramza, then the enemies retreat to the highest tower to form a defensive square.
Seen here noselling Slow Dance again.
Long story short, Ramza goes down again. At this point, I only have Hadrian and Hester up, and there are five enemies still active, so I abort this run rather than play silly games with Phoenix Down trying to get my team back up while under archer fire.
It's clear that trying to tackle an encounter full of lv 29 enemies who have the high ground while lv 24-26 is just pushing it. So we'll head out and do some grinding, which will give us a chance to get better acquainted with Hester's toolkit.
Cut for image count.
Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 14.B: The Yuguewood, Riovanes Castle Gate, Riovanes Castle Keep, & The End of Chapter 3
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
A few hours later.
Gillian is feeling Mystical again.
Alright, here's what I learned:
Dancer may be good but to my brain it doesn't feel good. I'm sure that statistically, a 50% chance attack that targets all enemies on the battlefield is plenty useful, but the sheer number of "Missed" labels floating over my enemies' heads is just very painful to watch. Also, there's a strange dynamic at work; typically when you're winning in FFT, you're facing fewer and fewer enemies each turn. But the fewer enemies there are, the less enemies Dance is targeting, and the less interesting its trade-off of "targets everyone" becomes.
The solution, I think, is to just learn to use Dance strategically. While the game frames Dance as being continuous, and every time you try to take an action you get a prompt of "this will interrupt the Dance!", we can just choose to do it anyway. So using Dance on "off-turns" between moving around and doing normal character stuff seems… Fine?
A special mention should be made of Mincing Minuet. Mincing Minuet doesn't have a miss chance. It hits all enemies, every turn. It's just that the damage it hits them for is, like… 11 in Hester's Dancer job and 18 if I turn her back into a Ninja, which is pathetic. I could buff that by raising her Bravery, I'm told, but that seems very painstaking.
We'll keep workshopping it, I think.
Now let's head back to Riovanes.
New setup. Hester has Dance equipped, but she's back to Ninja; Gillian is now a Mystic with White Magicks. The rest of the squad is Agrias and Hadrian, Mustadio has been underperforming and is sitting this one out.
The bridge Knight pulls off a nasty surprise by revealing he actually knows Shockwave, a Monk move that hits both Ramza and Gillian. However, he soon gets to taste Gillian's new kit in return:
Our girl has her Mystic Arts back, and is now throwing around Disable spells. Finally, other characters get to suffer the indignity of sitting there and waiting to be allowed to do anything. Meanwhile, Hester is using Mincing Minuet when nobody is in stabbing range.
18 damage to six characters is, in theory, 108 damage total, which isn't bad, just spread incredibly inefficiently. Will this matter to the outcome of the fight? Doubtful. Her effectiveness becomes much greater after two turns, when she's climbed the wall and can now attack in earnest.
Remember, Ninjas have Dual-Wield, so that's 160 damage.
Having Hester take a proactive role as a Ninja turns out to be much more effective than fucking around with Dancing. In the moat, Hadrian is dancing with both moat knights while Agrias fires Hallowed Bolts from above, and since I, hm, commandeered Luso's Icebrand sword and put a Bracer on her (an accessory that increases Physical Power by +3), homegirl has finally transcended her DPS issues:
204 damage, she's up there with Hadrian as a damage dealer now. Unfortunately Bracers are super-expensive and I can't just outfit all my team with them - yet.
After Agrias reaches the top, an injured and somewhat exhausted Hadrian locks in for one last duel with that just-as-worn-out Knight on the right in the above screenshot, while Hester, Agrias, and Ramza corner the Archers on top of their tower. That place might have been frustratingly hard to reach - but that means in turn there's no good escape. We lost Gillian along the way, and with Mustadio there's no one to raise her (other than Hadrian who is at the other end of the screen and needs to be adjacent to someone to use an Item on them), so we need to wipe them out before our girl's clock runs out.
It's done. A couple of extra level peppered over the group did help, but ultimately I credit the final result more with tweaking my party line-up and job situation. I waited until Gillian had mastered most of the spells I care about (including Arise/Reraise) to swap her to Mystic, and she's now even more effective than she'd already been as a WHM. I'm sure I could have find a way to place Holy in this fight, but the range and environment made it hard to get enemies within its range.
Still, a mostly clean victory. Now let's move on.
The doors to the inner castle open. A guard emerges, limping, and collapses. On his words, a plea for mercy. There is a monster within.
Ramza: "Pray let them be safe… Alma, and Rapha, too."
End battle. Cut to cutscene.
…
So, this scene, in theory, is pretty horror-coded. Alma is alone in her cell, when she starts hearing strange noises, screams, and then a Knight enters her cell, staggering and visibly injured, before collapsing to the ground. Alma rushes to his side, asking what happened to him and commenting that his wounds look "terrible." The man grasps her arm - it was a beast!
Alma, showing incredible empathy for someone who's been abducted and held in a dingy cell to be used as ransom against her brother, holds the man's hand and tells him to be strong. And the guard, in what is also a nice little gesture of humanity, tells the girl - his lord's prisoner, someone to whom he owes no loyalty or care - that she must leave this place, for there is only death here.
It's a touching scene, for how short it is. The sprite works helps a lot to sell it - the way the man's head falls as his life gives out, Alma joining her hands in prayer over the body of this man she did not know and who served someone who only hurt her - I really like it. And then she leaves, to whatever horror even now stalks the halls of Castle Riovanes.
There's just one thing.
When the game plays "dying screams" in its cutscenes, it plays its in-game death noises for units that go down. And these aren't scary. They're comical. Each one has the feeling of a lego figurine saying "Oh no!" before getting broken up in a slapstick comedy incident. They're just funny little guys, you know? So when these death rattles play during what this game's take on the "Jenova rampages outside the heroes' cell" scene, that makes the whole thing inherently funny.
Anyway. Poor Alma. I hope she'll be alright.
And now…
It's time for the piece de résistance.
Save prompt, party roster screen, battle map screen, you know the drill. As in the previous battle, we're split into two squads. So far, so nothing out of the ordinary.
But then. The battle opens. And our party isn't there with us.
Wiegraf Folles. The hero. The revolutionary. The White Knight. The man whose ideals would not allow him to die. The bereaved brother for whom the line between vengeance and righteousness has become so blurred as to be indistinguishable. To date, our strongest opponent by far, now empowered by the Zodiac Stone. He stands there in the middle of a hall full of dead knights, whom he has clearly just slain himself, and yet looks not the least bit tired.
Why does this tragic figure, this blood-stained hero, this man who sold his conscience and honor in hope of justice, revenge, change, have to say for himself?
Wiegraf: "So, you've come. Draw your sword, Ramza." [Ramza does not do so.] "Not in the mood? I hope you will not object to me drawing mine."
Ramza: "I pity you, Wiegraf. More than you know. What must Milleuda think, to see you now? You would sell your soul to the Lucavi to slake your thirst for revenge."
Wiegraf: "Revenge? You think that is what drives me? I have no such petty concerns. I do not fight to avenge Milleuda's death. I sow the seeds of chaos in the world of men, and reap the anguished cries of the weak. But worry not, Ramza. Yours is a special case. I shall kill *you* myself!"
Well.
There goes Wiegraf Folles. Hollowed out by a demonic presence from beyond the world, and not even aware that he's gone. Oh, I fully believe that the thing standing in front of us now thinks it's Wiegraf Folles, it retains continuity of memory, it thinks of itself as Wiegraf changed and bettered rather than as a body snatcher who claimed the body of someone who happened to make the wrong pact. But everything that was Wiegraf - his ideals, his pain, his thirst for revenge, his moral compromises with his own principles - all of that is gone, replaced by a thing that claims to care for nothing but chaos, pain, and death.
A thing of evil, pure and simple. Our greatest adversary stands before us now for the last time, and he's already gone.
Well. Now to us falls the task of making his body catch up to where his soul's already left.
There is only one problem.
We have absolutely not a fucking chance.
This is a duel. Ramza presumably rushed ahead of his party because he was worried about Alma, and now he's locked in a 1v1 hell in a cell cage match with The Guy. This is like a repeat of the Gaffgarion battle, except far worse, because this time? There's no castle gate. There's no Dragoon standing outside ready to jump in. There's no mage who can lob buff spells from outside the wall.
There is only you, and Wiegraf.
Die.
Wiegraf opens with Hallowed Bolt for 168 damage. My eyes boggle out of my fucking head watching this - that's two thirds of my HP gone instantly. I will die on the next turn. In a panic, I push up to Wiegraf and attack. I deal about one third of his HP with my attack - but he has Counter. He immediately retaliates and obliterates the remainder of Ramza's HP.
Game over.
…
Jesus Christ.
Okay, let's talk specific parameters.
Wiegraf is lv 28, and Ramza is also lv 28. So in theory, we are level-appropriate for this encounter. Of course, that's not the full story.
Wiegraf is running all-diamond equipment. That's nothing - so are we. No, the reason he has 89 more HP than Ramza does is just because… he does. "Stat growth," the bane of my existence, has plagued Ramza's meandering journey and long stay in Samurai, cursing the boy with a body made of cooked pasta, leaving his HP tremendously inferior to Wiegraf's exceptional stats. Ramza isn't actually too bad off in the offensive stat department - he has 10 PA, same as Wiegraf, and his Ama-no-Murakumo katana has Weapon Power 11, one higher than Wiegraf. Unfortunately none of that matters. Iaido works off magic power, not physical, so Ramza's Iaido moves are useless, but Ramza's base physical attacks trigger Wiegraf's Counter, which deals a devastating 120 damage, leaving us with… Nothing. First Strike is entirely useless against an opponent who can simply throw Holy Sword skills at us every turn. Ramza's build is just completely wrong.
Compounding all this is, as usual, the Zodiac system: Wiegraf is a male Virgo, Ramza is a male Taurus, they have the best compatibility with each other, meaning they deal +50% damage to one another. This might sound like a good thing, since we hit Wiegraf harder as well, but in practice this means that no strategy based on self-buffing, evading, or self-healing will work. We just die Too Fast.
Case in point.
Attempting to self-heal with Ramza's Iaido moves nets us a whopping 72 HP, or about half of the damage Wiegraf does with every single attack, at the cost of our entire turn.
In this second attempt, however, something funny happens; Wiegraf does decide to try using a physical attack, and gets whacked on the head by Ramza's First Strike for his trouble, which actually gives us our only shot at seeing some in-combat dialogue between the two.
Ramza: "Auracite is the work of demons, not gods - the Zodiac Braves, their unholy knights. Heroes of a false legend!"
Wiegraf: "*chuckles* All such tales of gods and their miracles are false. Those who would lead prefer that history suit their needs, and rewrite it to see that it does. And why shouldn't they? The fault lies not with them. The reeking masses yearn for gods and miracles. It is their opiate, and they consume it greedily. The people do not endeavor towards greatness, but rather mire themselves in their petty strifes - shackles on the feet of man. Their leaders give them no more than that for which they clamor. It is history's oldest and most oft-repeated tale."
Wiegraf: "Do men exploit this weakness to dominate their fellows? Mayhap they do. But they succeed only because the people are eager to know such dominion. Gods are only illusions born of man's fear. It is they who see this charade for what it is and join in the pageantry who are to blame."
Ramza: "And you? You did not conquer your fear. You turned to the auracite to find your miracle."
Wiegraf: "It is *because* I am weak, *because* I fear, that I turn to the gods. Can you claim to be free of weakness and fear?"
Ramza: "No, but I endeavor to be so!"
Wiegraf: "Your endeavors are soon ended!"
Man, there is something profoundly… gross to watching the thing that was Wiegraf stand there and pontificate about the "reeking masses" who "do not endeavor towards greatness," "eager" to be dominated. Wiegraf was always a complicated character, his revolutionary, equalitarian ideals hopelessly mixed with resentment and grief, a man who chose to compromise his cause in service of a conspiracy he hoped might grant him revenge and perhaps the continuation of his dream but in service to the Church - but one thing he wouldn't do is talk about the people he sought to free with such cloyingly sweet contempt. There's enough condescension there, in lines like "well we can't blame them for being human, it's their cynical leaders we ought to blame," that you can sort of see the shape of how a Wiegraf hopped up on mind-melting demon juice might rationalize that he's still holding the same ideas he once did, even as he talks about laboring for the sake of nothing but chaos and pain and no longer caring about the memory of his sister.
This is not Wiegraf.
Unfortunately this fascinating insight into Lucavi psychology is immediately followed by Big W throwing Hallowed Bolt at Ramza and obliterating all his bones. Game over.
Wiegraf taking a break from relentless Bolting to try a cheeky standard attack was a freak accident that will not be repeated, unfortunately. Which means First Strike is dead weight. We need a Reaction Ability we can actually get use out of. But which one?
My eye is immediately drawn to Auto-Potion. Mustadio has had it equipped for the past couple encounters; Auto-Potion causes the user to react to being hit by using the lowest available potion to him. Since I have Potions (30 HP) in my inventory this has kinda sucked, but I could ditch those, keep only X-Potions, and Ramza would heal 150 HP on a reaction. Not quite a full regen from Wiegraf's hits, but pretty close. This would make my life significantly easier.
Unfortunately Ramza just doesn't have the stored Chemist JP to buy Auto-Potion, so that option would require quitting out of the battle, reloading our save from before the castle rampart battle, and going through it - and all the attending cutscenes - again. And I am not doing that except as a last resort.
Especially because right now, Ramza and Wiegraf are both the same level, and I'll be damned if I let this bastard make me outlevel him in order to beat him.
Okay. Next strategy: Does the Samurai's Shirahadori, one of the best defensive abilities in the game, protect against Holy Sword skills?
It doesn't.
Might we be able to use the Dragoon's Jump command to play silly buggers with the turn timers and simply be Not There when Wiegraf takes his action?
We cannot. Being "not there" when Wiegraf takes his action also means he gets to move before we land, which means Jump whiffs, so I have to recalibrate towards using the simple attack command, which means he kills me.
Maybe… Learning the Archer's Concentrate and Aim Commands would allow Ramza to deal increasing damage and ensuring we always hit would allow us to trade blows fast enough to outdamage Wiegraf?
It does not. Wiegraf still has Counter, so he still gets to hit us full force after we're done hitting him the first time, meaning we never get a second hit in.
Could we, perhaps, create a bizarre "Chemist Gun Counter" setup, so that when Wiegraf hits us with a ranged Holy Sword skill, we retaliate with gunfire?
No. Mythril Guns have too low damage. This would just prolong our suffering. What about using the Dragoon's Dragonheart ability to allow Ramza to raise himself from the dead? That buys us time, but it can't solve the fundamental equation. Wiegraf just kills us when we stand up.
Again… and again… and again… We fall.
This picture, this one screenshot that opens every battle with Wiegraf, is engraved on the inside of my eyelids. It's what I see when I go to sleep at night:
Hallowed Bolt. Hallowed Bolt. Hallowed Bolt. He never opens up with anything else, he never follows up with anything else, he only used a standard attack that one time, as a trick, to give me false hope.
Increasingly, with each crushing defeat, the inevitable conclusion draws closer, until it dawns upon me, terrible and beautiful; this is how Moses must have felt when God told him to go forth and announce the Plagues.
We have to kill Wiegraf in a single hit.
Tank the first Hallowed Bolt. Move up. Hit him hard enough to delete his entire HP bar, meaning he never gets off a Counter.
Win.
Is it possible?
I will need to reconfigure my entire setup to optimize damage. Monk, Samurai, they're not going to work. What is the highest damage weapon in our entire set?
Icebrand - our gift from Luso. Currently equipped on Agrias (who is currently an Equip Sword Monk), along with the Bracer, which cost us 50k gold and of which we only have one. Sorry, Agrias; I'm going to need to strip-mine your equipment. That means you'll be sitting down the full-party battle that is sure to follow this duel, but that's fine, we have enough characters to make up for it.
Icebrand is a Sword, meaning Ramza needs to be a Squire or Knight (or Geomancer, but we're not doing that) to equip it. We're going with Knight here, because our second command slot doesn't really matter, we're just trying to boost the Attack command to unbelievable heights. And that, in turn, means we need to use Samurai's Doublehand Ability.
Behold! Knight Ramza! 12 Attack Power. 13 Weapon Power. Mettle, if that matters, which it won't. Dragonheart, as a last-ditch save from death. We can only hope we won't need it.
Let's fucking go.
Bam.
Bam.
BA-Wait what?
Wiegraf blocks, counters, we die.
…
Fine. I can't use Concentrate to get past Wiegraf's shield block chance, because that would mean dropping Doublehand and falling below the one hit kill damage threshold. So we'll need to just accept there's a chance of him negating our hit. The best way we can adapt to it is instead to negate Counter. How can we do that?
By ditching Icebrand. Abandoning the dream of knighthood.
Embrace the Tao of Hadrian. Spears have a two-tile range, which means Wiegraf's Counter can't reach us. The Partisan has 11 Weapon Power, lower than Icebrand, but still enough.
Ramza may not currently have the Samurai job equipped, but our ethos in this is still that of the single-stroke battle. Draw. Cut.
Knightfall.
It's done.
I wish my screenshot had captured the exact damage number here - I think I landed a critical hit for 416 damage? Someone with deep knowledge of the game's math can probably figure it out, since damage is deterministic except for the crit chance.
But the point is:
We won.
The game told us, "here's Ramza's graduation test, to beat the strongest opponent in the game so far one on one." No party members. No guest characters. No support. Ramza's story may be about leading a group of friends and allies to victory, about how bonds of trust prevail over enemies who are individually gifted and powerful but cannot rely upon one another, but he is still a JRPG protagonist. He can't get away with being a Squire forever.
At some point the game demands that he rise to meet its fallen heroes.
Of course… This was only the opening. Now that we have passed the entrance exam, the game is ready to throw the true bullshit at us.
Wiegraf: "You are… stronger than I had thought…"
[He plays the "teleport away" animation, but contextually it's implied he just vanished in some fashion.]
Ramza: "You cannot run, Wiegraf!" [He turns around looking for his foe.] "Show yourself!"
[Wiegraf reappears at the top of the stairs.]
Wiegraf: "This has gone on long enough."
Belias, the Gigas: "I am come."
[Ramza's party enters the room.]
Belias, the Gigas: "You fight alone no more? Then nor shall I. Here join me, followers loyal and true."
[He crosses his arms and opens them, bellowing a cry; several demons appear behind him.]
Belias, the Gigas: "The battle now is joined, Ramza Beoulve! Behold for true fell pow'r of the Dark!"
[OBJCTIVE: DEFEAT BELIAS!]
Cut for image count.
Gillian is feeling Mystical again.
Alright, here's what I learned:
Dancer may be good but to my brain it doesn't feel good. I'm sure that statistically, a 50% chance attack that targets all enemies on the battlefield is plenty useful, but the sheer number of "Missed" labels floating over my enemies' heads is just very painful to watch. Also, there's a strange dynamic at work; typically when you're winning in FFT, you're facing fewer and fewer enemies each turn. But the fewer enemies there are, the less enemies Dance is targeting, and the less interesting its trade-off of "targets everyone" becomes.
The solution, I think, is to just learn to use Dance strategically. While the game frames Dance as being continuous, and every time you try to take an action you get a prompt of "this will interrupt the Dance!", we can just choose to do it anyway. So using Dance on "off-turns" between moving around and doing normal character stuff seems… Fine?
A special mention should be made of Mincing Minuet. Mincing Minuet doesn't have a miss chance. It hits all enemies, every turn. It's just that the damage it hits them for is, like… 11 in Hester's Dancer job and 18 if I turn her back into a Ninja, which is pathetic. I could buff that by raising her Bravery, I'm told, but that seems very painstaking.
We'll keep workshopping it, I think.
Now let's head back to Riovanes.
New setup. Hester has Dance equipped, but she's back to Ninja; Gillian is now a Mystic with White Magicks. The rest of the squad is Agrias and Hadrian, Mustadio has been underperforming and is sitting this one out.
The bridge Knight pulls off a nasty surprise by revealing he actually knows Shockwave, a Monk move that hits both Ramza and Gillian. However, he soon gets to taste Gillian's new kit in return:
Our girl has her Mystic Arts back, and is now throwing around Disable spells. Finally, other characters get to suffer the indignity of sitting there and waiting to be allowed to do anything. Meanwhile, Hester is using Mincing Minuet when nobody is in stabbing range.
18 damage to six characters is, in theory, 108 damage total, which isn't bad, just spread incredibly inefficiently. Will this matter to the outcome of the fight? Doubtful. Her effectiveness becomes much greater after two turns, when she's climbed the wall and can now attack in earnest.
Remember, Ninjas have Dual-Wield, so that's 160 damage.
Having Hester take a proactive role as a Ninja turns out to be much more effective than fucking around with Dancing. In the moat, Hadrian is dancing with both moat knights while Agrias fires Hallowed Bolts from above, and since I, hm, commandeered Luso's Icebrand sword and put a Bracer on her (an accessory that increases Physical Power by +3), homegirl has finally transcended her DPS issues:
204 damage, she's up there with Hadrian as a damage dealer now. Unfortunately Bracers are super-expensive and I can't just outfit all my team with them - yet.
After Agrias reaches the top, an injured and somewhat exhausted Hadrian locks in for one last duel with that just-as-worn-out Knight on the right in the above screenshot, while Hester, Agrias, and Ramza corner the Archers on top of their tower. That place might have been frustratingly hard to reach - but that means in turn there's no good escape. We lost Gillian along the way, and with Mustadio there's no one to raise her (other than Hadrian who is at the other end of the screen and needs to be adjacent to someone to use an Item on them), so we need to wipe them out before our girl's clock runs out.
It's done. A couple of extra level peppered over the group did help, but ultimately I credit the final result more with tweaking my party line-up and job situation. I waited until Gillian had mastered most of the spells I care about (including Arise/Reraise) to swap her to Mystic, and she's now even more effective than she'd already been as a WHM. I'm sure I could have find a way to place Holy in this fight, but the range and environment made it hard to get enemies within its range.
Still, a mostly clean victory. Now let's move on.
The doors to the inner castle open. A guard emerges, limping, and collapses. On his words, a plea for mercy. There is a monster within.
Ramza: "Pray let them be safe… Alma, and Rapha, too."
End battle. Cut to cutscene.
…
So, this scene, in theory, is pretty horror-coded. Alma is alone in her cell, when she starts hearing strange noises, screams, and then a Knight enters her cell, staggering and visibly injured, before collapsing to the ground. Alma rushes to his side, asking what happened to him and commenting that his wounds look "terrible." The man grasps her arm - it was a beast!
Alma, showing incredible empathy for someone who's been abducted and held in a dingy cell to be used as ransom against her brother, holds the man's hand and tells him to be strong. And the guard, in what is also a nice little gesture of humanity, tells the girl - his lord's prisoner, someone to whom he owes no loyalty or care - that she must leave this place, for there is only death here.
It's a touching scene, for how short it is. The sprite works helps a lot to sell it - the way the man's head falls as his life gives out, Alma joining her hands in prayer over the body of this man she did not know and who served someone who only hurt her - I really like it. And then she leaves, to whatever horror even now stalks the halls of Castle Riovanes.
There's just one thing.
When the game plays "dying screams" in its cutscenes, it plays its in-game death noises for units that go down. And these aren't scary. They're comical. Each one has the feeling of a lego figurine saying "Oh no!" before getting broken up in a slapstick comedy incident. They're just funny little guys, you know? So when these death rattles play during what this game's take on the "Jenova rampages outside the heroes' cell" scene, that makes the whole thing inherently funny.
Anyway. Poor Alma. I hope she'll be alright.
And now…
It's time for the piece de résistance.
Save prompt, party roster screen, battle map screen, you know the drill. As in the previous battle, we're split into two squads. So far, so nothing out of the ordinary.
But then. The battle opens. And our party isn't there with us.
Wiegraf Folles. The hero. The revolutionary. The White Knight. The man whose ideals would not allow him to die. The bereaved brother for whom the line between vengeance and righteousness has become so blurred as to be indistinguishable. To date, our strongest opponent by far, now empowered by the Zodiac Stone. He stands there in the middle of a hall full of dead knights, whom he has clearly just slain himself, and yet looks not the least bit tired.
Why does this tragic figure, this blood-stained hero, this man who sold his conscience and honor in hope of justice, revenge, change, have to say for himself?
Wiegraf: "So, you've come. Draw your sword, Ramza." [Ramza does not do so.] "Not in the mood? I hope you will not object to me drawing mine."
Ramza: "I pity you, Wiegraf. More than you know. What must Milleuda think, to see you now? You would sell your soul to the Lucavi to slake your thirst for revenge."
Wiegraf: "Revenge? You think that is what drives me? I have no such petty concerns. I do not fight to avenge Milleuda's death. I sow the seeds of chaos in the world of men, and reap the anguished cries of the weak. But worry not, Ramza. Yours is a special case. I shall kill *you* myself!"
Well.
There goes Wiegraf Folles. Hollowed out by a demonic presence from beyond the world, and not even aware that he's gone. Oh, I fully believe that the thing standing in front of us now thinks it's Wiegraf Folles, it retains continuity of memory, it thinks of itself as Wiegraf changed and bettered rather than as a body snatcher who claimed the body of someone who happened to make the wrong pact. But everything that was Wiegraf - his ideals, his pain, his thirst for revenge, his moral compromises with his own principles - all of that is gone, replaced by a thing that claims to care for nothing but chaos, pain, and death.
A thing of evil, pure and simple. Our greatest adversary stands before us now for the last time, and he's already gone.
Well. Now to us falls the task of making his body catch up to where his soul's already left.
There is only one problem.
We have absolutely not a fucking chance.
This is a duel. Ramza presumably rushed ahead of his party because he was worried about Alma, and now he's locked in a 1v1 hell in a cell cage match with The Guy. This is like a repeat of the Gaffgarion battle, except far worse, because this time? There's no castle gate. There's no Dragoon standing outside ready to jump in. There's no mage who can lob buff spells from outside the wall.
There is only you, and Wiegraf.
Die.
Wiegraf opens with Hallowed Bolt for 168 damage. My eyes boggle out of my fucking head watching this - that's two thirds of my HP gone instantly. I will die on the next turn. In a panic, I push up to Wiegraf and attack. I deal about one third of his HP with my attack - but he has Counter. He immediately retaliates and obliterates the remainder of Ramza's HP.
Game over.
…
Jesus Christ.
Okay, let's talk specific parameters.
Wiegraf is lv 28, and Ramza is also lv 28. So in theory, we are level-appropriate for this encounter. Of course, that's not the full story.
Wiegraf is running all-diamond equipment. That's nothing - so are we. No, the reason he has 89 more HP than Ramza does is just because… he does. "Stat growth," the bane of my existence, has plagued Ramza's meandering journey and long stay in Samurai, cursing the boy with a body made of cooked pasta, leaving his HP tremendously inferior to Wiegraf's exceptional stats. Ramza isn't actually too bad off in the offensive stat department - he has 10 PA, same as Wiegraf, and his Ama-no-Murakumo katana has Weapon Power 11, one higher than Wiegraf. Unfortunately none of that matters. Iaido works off magic power, not physical, so Ramza's Iaido moves are useless, but Ramza's base physical attacks trigger Wiegraf's Counter, which deals a devastating 120 damage, leaving us with… Nothing. First Strike is entirely useless against an opponent who can simply throw Holy Sword skills at us every turn. Ramza's build is just completely wrong.
Compounding all this is, as usual, the Zodiac system: Wiegraf is a male Virgo, Ramza is a male Taurus, they have the best compatibility with each other, meaning they deal +50% damage to one another. This might sound like a good thing, since we hit Wiegraf harder as well, but in practice this means that no strategy based on self-buffing, evading, or self-healing will work. We just die Too Fast.
Case in point.
Attempting to self-heal with Ramza's Iaido moves nets us a whopping 72 HP, or about half of the damage Wiegraf does with every single attack, at the cost of our entire turn.
In this second attempt, however, something funny happens; Wiegraf does decide to try using a physical attack, and gets whacked on the head by Ramza's First Strike for his trouble, which actually gives us our only shot at seeing some in-combat dialogue between the two.
Ramza: "Auracite is the work of demons, not gods - the Zodiac Braves, their unholy knights. Heroes of a false legend!"
Wiegraf: "*chuckles* All such tales of gods and their miracles are false. Those who would lead prefer that history suit their needs, and rewrite it to see that it does. And why shouldn't they? The fault lies not with them. The reeking masses yearn for gods and miracles. It is their opiate, and they consume it greedily. The people do not endeavor towards greatness, but rather mire themselves in their petty strifes - shackles on the feet of man. Their leaders give them no more than that for which they clamor. It is history's oldest and most oft-repeated tale."
Wiegraf: "Do men exploit this weakness to dominate their fellows? Mayhap they do. But they succeed only because the people are eager to know such dominion. Gods are only illusions born of man's fear. It is they who see this charade for what it is and join in the pageantry who are to blame."
Ramza: "And you? You did not conquer your fear. You turned to the auracite to find your miracle."
Wiegraf: "It is *because* I am weak, *because* I fear, that I turn to the gods. Can you claim to be free of weakness and fear?"
Ramza: "No, but I endeavor to be so!"
Wiegraf: "Your endeavors are soon ended!"
Man, there is something profoundly… gross to watching the thing that was Wiegraf stand there and pontificate about the "reeking masses" who "do not endeavor towards greatness," "eager" to be dominated. Wiegraf was always a complicated character, his revolutionary, equalitarian ideals hopelessly mixed with resentment and grief, a man who chose to compromise his cause in service of a conspiracy he hoped might grant him revenge and perhaps the continuation of his dream but in service to the Church - but one thing he wouldn't do is talk about the people he sought to free with such cloyingly sweet contempt. There's enough condescension there, in lines like "well we can't blame them for being human, it's their cynical leaders we ought to blame," that you can sort of see the shape of how a Wiegraf hopped up on mind-melting demon juice might rationalize that he's still holding the same ideas he once did, even as he talks about laboring for the sake of nothing but chaos and pain and no longer caring about the memory of his sister.
This is not Wiegraf.
Unfortunately this fascinating insight into Lucavi psychology is immediately followed by Big W throwing Hallowed Bolt at Ramza and obliterating all his bones. Game over.
Wiegraf taking a break from relentless Bolting to try a cheeky standard attack was a freak accident that will not be repeated, unfortunately. Which means First Strike is dead weight. We need a Reaction Ability we can actually get use out of. But which one?
My eye is immediately drawn to Auto-Potion. Mustadio has had it equipped for the past couple encounters; Auto-Potion causes the user to react to being hit by using the lowest available potion to him. Since I have Potions (30 HP) in my inventory this has kinda sucked, but I could ditch those, keep only X-Potions, and Ramza would heal 150 HP on a reaction. Not quite a full regen from Wiegraf's hits, but pretty close. This would make my life significantly easier.
Unfortunately Ramza just doesn't have the stored Chemist JP to buy Auto-Potion, so that option would require quitting out of the battle, reloading our save from before the castle rampart battle, and going through it - and all the attending cutscenes - again. And I am not doing that except as a last resort.
Especially because right now, Ramza and Wiegraf are both the same level, and I'll be damned if I let this bastard make me outlevel him in order to beat him.
Okay. Next strategy: Does the Samurai's Shirahadori, one of the best defensive abilities in the game, protect against Holy Sword skills?
It doesn't.
Might we be able to use the Dragoon's Jump command to play silly buggers with the turn timers and simply be Not There when Wiegraf takes his action?
We cannot. Being "not there" when Wiegraf takes his action also means he gets to move before we land, which means Jump whiffs, so I have to recalibrate towards using the simple attack command, which means he kills me.
Maybe… Learning the Archer's Concentrate and Aim Commands would allow Ramza to deal increasing damage and ensuring we always hit would allow us to trade blows fast enough to outdamage Wiegraf?
It does not. Wiegraf still has Counter, so he still gets to hit us full force after we're done hitting him the first time, meaning we never get a second hit in.
Could we, perhaps, create a bizarre "Chemist Gun Counter" setup, so that when Wiegraf hits us with a ranged Holy Sword skill, we retaliate with gunfire?
No. Mythril Guns have too low damage. This would just prolong our suffering. What about using the Dragoon's Dragonheart ability to allow Ramza to raise himself from the dead? That buys us time, but it can't solve the fundamental equation. Wiegraf just kills us when we stand up.
Again… and again… and again… We fall.
This picture, this one screenshot that opens every battle with Wiegraf, is engraved on the inside of my eyelids. It's what I see when I go to sleep at night:
Hallowed Bolt. Hallowed Bolt. Hallowed Bolt. He never opens up with anything else, he never follows up with anything else, he only used a standard attack that one time, as a trick, to give me false hope.
Increasingly, with each crushing defeat, the inevitable conclusion draws closer, until it dawns upon me, terrible and beautiful; this is how Moses must have felt when God told him to go forth and announce the Plagues.
We have to kill Wiegraf in a single hit.
Tank the first Hallowed Bolt. Move up. Hit him hard enough to delete his entire HP bar, meaning he never gets off a Counter.
Win.
Is it possible?
I will need to reconfigure my entire setup to optimize damage. Monk, Samurai, they're not going to work. What is the highest damage weapon in our entire set?
Icebrand - our gift from Luso. Currently equipped on Agrias (who is currently an Equip Sword Monk), along with the Bracer, which cost us 50k gold and of which we only have one. Sorry, Agrias; I'm going to need to strip-mine your equipment. That means you'll be sitting down the full-party battle that is sure to follow this duel, but that's fine, we have enough characters to make up for it.
Icebrand is a Sword, meaning Ramza needs to be a Squire or Knight (or Geomancer, but we're not doing that) to equip it. We're going with Knight here, because our second command slot doesn't really matter, we're just trying to boost the Attack command to unbelievable heights. And that, in turn, means we need to use Samurai's Doublehand Ability.
Behold! Knight Ramza! 12 Attack Power. 13 Weapon Power. Mettle, if that matters, which it won't. Dragonheart, as a last-ditch save from death. We can only hope we won't need it.
Let's fucking go.
Bam.
Bam.
BA-Wait what?
Wiegraf blocks, counters, we die.
…
Fine. I can't use Concentrate to get past Wiegraf's shield block chance, because that would mean dropping Doublehand and falling below the one hit kill damage threshold. So we'll need to just accept there's a chance of him negating our hit. The best way we can adapt to it is instead to negate Counter. How can we do that?
By ditching Icebrand. Abandoning the dream of knighthood.
Embrace the Tao of Hadrian. Spears have a two-tile range, which means Wiegraf's Counter can't reach us. The Partisan has 11 Weapon Power, lower than Icebrand, but still enough.
Ramza may not currently have the Samurai job equipped, but our ethos in this is still that of the single-stroke battle. Draw. Cut.
Knightfall.
It's done.
I wish my screenshot had captured the exact damage number here - I think I landed a critical hit for 416 damage? Someone with deep knowledge of the game's math can probably figure it out, since damage is deterministic except for the crit chance.
But the point is:
We won.
The game told us, "here's Ramza's graduation test, to beat the strongest opponent in the game so far one on one." No party members. No guest characters. No support. Ramza's story may be about leading a group of friends and allies to victory, about how bonds of trust prevail over enemies who are individually gifted and powerful but cannot rely upon one another, but he is still a JRPG protagonist. He can't get away with being a Squire forever.
At some point the game demands that he rise to meet its fallen heroes.
Of course… This was only the opening. Now that we have passed the entrance exam, the game is ready to throw the true bullshit at us.
Wiegraf: "You are… stronger than I had thought…"
[He plays the "teleport away" animation, but contextually it's implied he just vanished in some fashion.]
Ramza: "You cannot run, Wiegraf!" [He turns around looking for his foe.] "Show yourself!"
[Wiegraf reappears at the top of the stairs.]
Wiegraf: "This has gone on long enough."
Belias, the Gigas: "I am come."
[Ramza's party enters the room.]
Belias, the Gigas: "You fight alone no more? Then nor shall I. Here join me, followers loyal and true."
[He crosses his arms and opens them, bellowing a cry; several demons appear behind him.]
Belias, the Gigas: "The battle now is joined, Ramza Beoulve! Behold for true fell pow'r of the Dark!"
[OBJCTIVE: DEFEAT BELIAS!]
Cut for image count.
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Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 14.C: The Yuguewood, Riovanes Castle Gate, Riovanes Castle Keep, & The End of Chapter 3
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I suppose it was too much to hope that this would be another Cuchulainn battle in which we only have one opponent. These things behind Belias are archaeodemons, meaning "ancient demons." So the Lucavi aren't limited to the twelve demons bound within the stones - they are able to summon demonic hordes as well. This could become a problem. And has. Right now. For us.
The Archaeodemons have comparatively low HP but very high offensive power, and like most Monsters, are capable of Countering close combat hits. I don't want to find out what happens when they all get to take their turn at the same time; our objective may be to defeat Belias, but we need to clear the rabble first.
Fortunately, as Ramza is still rocking his one-hit-kill set, he's able to visit the same fate on the Archaeodemons, immediately taking one out of the fight. Hester then takes her turn, but she can't move far enough to reach one of the enemies, so I just have her throw a grenade at Belias, then Mustadio takes a potshot at one of the demons - not enough to kill it, unfortunately.
Belias then goes into a casting stance, with a massive AoE marker that seems likely to hit Mustadio and Gillian if I can't move them out of the way before his charge-up completes. I try to move Gillian out of the way but, unfortunately, I miss the mark. I advance Hadrian, but all the enemies have CT gauges so full they'll take their turns before he completes a Jump and they're out of stabbing range, so I have him Jump as merely an evasive maneuvre. Ramza continues his rampage in the backline, killing a second Archaeodemon and putting the last one to chase - its turn comes up, and it too goes into a casting stance, aiming at Ramza.
Then the enemies' charge-up ends, and disaster strikes.
Belias summons Cyclops, one of the most powerful Summons, instantly taking out Gillian and Mustadio. The Archaeodemon completes its Dark Art, dealing Ramza 189 damage - which, because he carried over his injuries from the Wiegraf battle, is enough to take him out.
I'm down 3 out of 5 party members. The only ones remaining are Hadrian and Hester, and Hadrian just wasted his turn in the air, which kept him out of the way but means no progress on killing the enemy. I'm able to have Hester hunt down and kill the last Archaeodemon, and I try to have Hadrian use Phoenix down to raise my party members, but while I'm doing that, Belias summons Cyclops again, taking out Hester.
Belias, despite bearing the power of the Aries stone, is still a Virgo, so Ramza's damage against him is extremely high, but I have no idea what his HP is. In addition, having Hadrian run around using Phoenix Down on people means I lose one of my main damage dealers, and without any space to heal, Ramza just gets taken out when Belias goes again and summons Titan.
Ramza goes down. Hadrian manages to reach Gillian and heal her, so I have a second character who can raise, but…
It's too late. Mustadio has died.
Reloading this battle would normally mean having to go through the Wiegraf ordeal again, and I'm not doing that. Thankfully, the emulator has its own save function, and I saved at the start of the Belias battle, so I reload from there.
This is a disgustingly brutal fight. Our main opponent is far tougher than Cuchulainn, and Cyclops is so powerful it's essentially a death sentence for anyone caught in its AoE. The Archaeodemons' Dark Arts are similarly highly dangerous, though mainly as a result of Ramza starting the fight down over half his HP from Wiegraf's Hallowed Bolt. A truly brutal gauntlet that we will need to adjust to.
This time, I have Mustadio take the side ramp where he should hopefully be out of harm's way while still able to shoot enemies. I send Ramza to kill the Archaeodemons as before, but now I have a new trick:
Belias isn't immune to Silence.
Say goodbye to your Summons, asshole.
Unfortunately, Ramza goes down to Dark Arts again. In addition, Belias has hands - his physical attack hits Gillian for 171 damage. I have Gillian go and kill the last demon while Gillian rushes to cast Arise on Ramza, which, unfortunately, never goes off, thanks to Belias's next move: Befuddle.
Befuddle is an AoE move that inflicts Confuse. That means Hester and Gillian are both lost to me until I can hit them to knock them out of it, something which only Mustadio can do (because Hadrian and Ramza would kill them instantly). And Gillian is in critical HP, so Mustadio would also kill her. I have him ping Hester, then send the Ninja and Dragoon to engage the Gigas, and…
Turns out he can also cast Petrify. Fuck.
I try my best to course correct by healing Gillian enough that she can survive a hit from Mustadio so she can raise Ramza, but in the time it takes me to do this, Ramza's timer runs out, and we get a Game Over.
This is fine. I am okay with this. We have learned valuable lessons.
Next attempt starts out similarly. Gillian Silences Belias, Ramza kills two Archaeodemons, then dies to the third one. Then I have Hester immediately move up and kills that last Archaeodemon and have Gillian cast Raise, rather than Arise - it brings Ramza up with 50% HP instead of full, but it's a faster cast, so she completes it before Belias can have a chance to Confuse her. Unfortunately, while I'm busy doing that, Belias brings down Mustadio in a single 279 physical attack.
Belias evades towards the ramp on the left side, and Petrifies Hadrian, who just came down from hitting him with a Jump…
Hester pursues, misses her first hit, lands the second. I am down two characters, but Gillian is still up, which is what matters; she immediately uses Esuna to cure Hadrian's petrification, and, since his CT gauge was still charging, he immediately takes his turn and goes for a back hit on Belias. The beast is now sandwiched between two of my toughest fighters.
Do you see the flame on the side of the bridge? That's a torch, and it's an impassable square. It's a tile that Belias cannot jump to - he is stuck. His only way out would be to go down in the moat below, which for whatever reason, he is unwilling to do. On his next turn, Belias lashes out, hitting Hester into her critical HP, but it's not enough to kill her - which means the fight is good as ours.
Hester goes, hits twice for a couple hundred damage, then immediately pulls back, so that Ramza can hop in to her tile, right in front of Belias, and hit him with the Wiegraf Slaying Methodology.
No parting words. No regrets. Not a word for Milleuda. Wiegraf was long gone. This was just finishing the job.
What an ignominious end for the man who was perhaps the opponent who once most deserved our respect.
Ramza calls out Alma's name, and leaves, and we head for another cutscene.
Alma enters the room where Folmarv and the Grand Duke spoke. Barrington is nowhere to be seen, but judging from the ravaged bodies of his soldiers, he most likely shared their fate.
As, shockingly, did Isilud. Folmarv's own son, and an extremely skilled fighter in his own right. Was he killed for his failure? Or merely because he was there, and the Folmarv-Lucavi had no interest in holding back his blows?
I think that what doomed Isilud is that he actually believed in the cause of the conspiracy, and to uphold that belief, he had to be fooled into believing the Stones were divine and good. Once Folmarv revealed his true demonic form to him, that charade could not be sustained, and Isilud lost his usefulness. So the Lucavi disposed of him.
Alma is aghast at the horror on display, but then she hears Isilud's rattling voice, and rushes to his side.
Alma: "You're going to be all right."
Isilud: "My… my sword. Where is… my sword? I must stop him. Stop *it*. Won't you fetch… a taper, to kindle some light? It's so dark here…"
Alma: "It's all right. You needn't fight any longer. Rest yourself."
Isilud: "Your brother… tell him for me. The auracite… a foul work. Evil… My father… nay, that was no longer… my father. Transformed by the… auracite. One of the Lucavi! *cough*"
Alma: "You should not speak."
Isilud: "Ramza was right… It must be stopped. It could destroy… all of Ivalice. Such power… You must tell them. Tell them all. They must cease their fighting. Together they must face a… greater threat. Where is my sword? My arm does not heed me…"
Alma: "Be still now. I saw… its body in the hall. My brother slew it. It is done."
Isilud: "Is it dead? Slain? Then I might rest… In my doublet. There is a piece of auracite. You must give it to your… brother for me."
[Alma retrieves the Pisces stone from Isilud.]
Alma: "I will."
Isilud: "Thank you. My eyes are weary… heavy with sleep. Let me rest them for… for a little while…"
[His head falls. Alma bows her head.]
Man's Voice: "Whose voice is that?"
At first, I assumed that Alma had seen Belias's body in the hall while running through the castle looking for Ramza, but after Ramza had already left looking for her, and was a bit confused how she'd ended up in this high room after that. But no; Lucavi don't leave behind monster bodies, or Cardinal Delacroix's death would have been a lot trickier to conceal. She's just lying to make Isilud's last moment a little more peaceful.
Unfortunately, Folmarv enters them. He approaches Alma, promising her her death will be quick, when he is interrupted by a loud bellow from afar - Belias's death cry. Folmarv declares Ramza to be bad luck for them, then approaches Alma, but just as he is about to seize her and no doubt kill her, something on his person reacts to her presence.
Folmarv: "What's this? Virgo stirs." [He looks at Alma.] "You? Could it really be?" [He grabs her and pulls her closer.] "Mayhap our luck turns! I should not have thought to find our quarry here! I had feared we might search another century or more and still not find you!"
Alma: "What are you talking about? Release me!"
Folmarv: "Do not worry, your life is safe. Now, come!"
[He punches her in the gut, and she passes out; he swings her body over his shoulder, and teleports away. Without Folmarv noticing it, the Pisces stone rolls out of her clothes before he does.]
…well.
Congrats to whoever called the "Alma connects to the Virgo Stone" twist, I should have seen it coming and didn't until someone raised the possibility.
Is Alma the… what, reincarnation? Of one of the Lucavi? Or just a person destined to make connection with the Virgo Stone?
Does that mean that Delacroix and Wiegraf were similarly connected to the Scorpio and Belias stones? This is intriguing but we don't have much else to go on at the moment.
Hopefully we're not going to be forced to kill Alma after she transforms into some kind of fucked up demon that is rapidly losing all its ethics and emotional connection to other humans. That would be… unfortunate.
Then the game surprises me by throwing another battle screen at me.
What? How? Who is there even left to fight in this castle? Everyone is dead, except Folmarv and Alma, who just left. Who could possibly-
…
Are you fucking kidding me, Folmarv, you couldn't even secure the kill? You let Grand Duke Barrington get away? Unbelievable!
At least it gives Rapha a chance to conclude her own character arc with a personal climactic confrontation with her tormentor.
Barrington: "After all I've done for you, you now repay me with betrayal? You owe me your life, you ungrateful wretch! You would not stand here today were it not for me! Did you prefer digging through sordid heaps of rubble? Or have you already forgotten that?"
Rapha: "Oh, I recall quite clearly. It was after you burnt our village, was it not? Shortly after you murdered my mother and father and everybody else! It is not with *betrayal* I repay your deeds! It is with *vengeance!*"
[She draws her sword. Barrington pulls out a gun and holds her at gunpoint.]
Barrington: "Vengeance? You truly believe that you are capable of exacting vengeance on me? I am your father, Rapha - the man who raised you from a girl! You cannot kill your own father. Though you are welcome to try!"
[A moment passes. Rapha does not move.]
Barrington: "*chuckle* You cannot do it. Do you know why? The flesh remembers, Rapha. It remembers fear, cold and trembling. But it will not always be so. In time, your fear will blossom into another flower - and I shall have that one as well."
Yeah, dude, because you have a gun pointed on her. Try lowering it and we'll see what "the flesh remembers."
Marach: "It's true, isn't it?"
[He appears on the rooftop and takes a few steps towards the two.]
Marach: "You meant the words you spoke just now!"
Barrington: "You turn on me as well, Marach? You truly are an ungrateful lot."
Rapha: "I'll kill him, I will!"
Marach: "Rapha, no!"
[Barrington fires; Marach hurls himself at Rapha, knocking her out of the way.]
Marach goes down. Rapha calls out her brother's name and holds his body, pleading for him to speak to her, but there is no reply.
This is the moment Ramza chooses to make his entrance.
Barrington: "You must be Ramza. Move no further! If you wish to help your brother, Rapha, bring me the auracite he carries. It should be on his person. Check his robes."
[Rapha searches Marach's body; she retrieves the Taurus and Scorpio Stones, the ones we lent to Alma, which Isilud recovered, and which Marach presumably took from Isilud after capturing him. Just making sure we can all follow the chain of custody here.]
Barrington: "Yes, that is it! Bring it to me!" [Someone walks up behind him, obscured by his speech bubble.] "Quickly now! I grow impatient!"
[Barrington suddenly realizes someone is standing behind him. He turns around, and is hoisted into the air by supernatural strength.]
Oh, wow. I guess that's one method of disposing of the old grand duke. She just… threw him off the rooftop. Literally threw him. An absolute dunking.
So much is happening, man. I was fully expecting things to resolve and Chapter 3 to end on everyone leaving the castle, but no. Turns out Barrington managed to escape Folmarv only to be cornered by Rapha and then he shot Marach and now a mysterious third party just appeared who casually disposed of Barrington and…
Motherfucker. Marquis Elmdore?
Right, that's Marquis Elmdore de Limburry. The guy who Duke Larg and Dycedarg had abducted, whom we rescued in Chapter 1, who was later seen as part of Goltanna's war council, and who we last heard had died in battle. Shot by an arrow. What the hell is he doing here?
We know Elmdore is an Inquisitor. Was he part of the conspiracy this entire time? Was his "death" coverup for his recruitment by the Knights Templar?
[Rapha hides the stones in her clothes.]
Elmdore: "No, dear. This is not a game of hide-the-Stone. Bring it here."
Ramza: "Guard yourself, Rapha! Those are no humans!"
Elmdore: "You must be the heretic, Ramza. I suppose I owe you my thanks. Forgive me for not expressing my gratitude sooner. I would have you know that I am not a violent man like Folmarv. Will you not yield the Stone of your own accord? I do so hate to see blood spilt needlessly. Spare me the struggle, and I shall be glad to ask Folmarv to return your young sister."
Ramza: "What have you done with her!?"
Elmdore: "Mayhap I have not made myself clear. I would have the Stone, if you would speak more of that."
Ramza: "I cannot let worry sway me. It must not go to him."
Elmdore: An adoring brother you must be, to trade your sister for a stone! After all you've faced in coming here, you leave her to her fate?"
Ramza: "I have no words for you."
Elmdore: "Indeed, the time for words is past. Celia, Lettie! The girl carries the auracite. Take it from her corpse."
[OBJECTIVE: PROTECT RAPHA!]
I am not going to spend overlong on this battle. The pacing of this update is fucked, and you're probably tired; I know I am. Furthermore, this isn't really a full battle; it ends as soon as we've brought any of our opponents goes down, not just Elmdore himself.
Elmdore's henchwomen, Celia and Lettie, are Assassins who use the Dancer job sprite but have different abilities, most notably disabling abilities like Shadowbind, which casts Stop on Ramza, while dealing very high damage with dual-wielded ninja swords; Elmdore himself is an Ark Knight, "a warrior sworn to the service of the gods, using the Sword Spirit ability to release a wave of spiritual power." Functionally, he's a Samurai using the Iaido command and boasting First Strike and Doublehand, making him extremely close to Ramza's own build; a funny coincidence. If the battle played out in full, these would be dangerous opponents (especially because Elmdore is five levels higher than Wiegraf was), but I focus on clearing out the ads early, which turns out to cause the battle to end as soon as Lettie takes a knee.
Elmdore: "So… this is the strength that felled the Gigas - and Cuchulainn as well. Celia! Lettie! Come, this night is lost. If you wish to claim the auracite I hold, Ramza, you had best make your way to Limberry. I shall await your coming there with bated breath."
[They all teleport away.]
Rapha: "Oh, Marach…"
And that, at last, concludes the battles of Chapter 3.
Dawn is rising, and Marach is talking to her brother. She appeals to their memories together, their dreams of seeing their old village again, and pleads for him to talk to her. Ramza averts his eyes, and silently prays Alma to wait for him.
But then, something unexpected happens.
The auracite which Rapha now carries begins to glow.
Ramza: "The auracite cries with her. It resonates with the grief in her heart. Wiegraf's heart was full of sorrow as well… and despair. And those feelings summoned forth-!"
Rapha: "You grieve for him as well? Thank you."
Ramza: "No, Rapha! You must not listen to that voice!"
[The auracite glows red, and a light descends from above.]
Ramza: Do my eyes deceive me?"
Marach: "Uh… uhn…"
Rapha: "Marach!"
Marach: "Rapha…? Wh-where are we? Why… why am I here?"
[Rapha pulls him into a hug.]
Rapha: "Oh, Marach! Thank the gods, you're alive!"
Marach: "Ow! Do you mean to suffocate me? Ha ha ha…"
…
RIP to every character who died in a Final Fantasy game before but it turns out you can, in fact, just cast Raise if you want it hard enough.
Well, no, of course. This is clearly a higher power at work here, far beyond ordinary White Magic. Only, the wish it granted was not twisted. Marach does not appear to have been infused with the knowledge and power of a thousand years. Nor did Rapha. So what gives?
As before, we get a "voice over" text crawl for the end of the chapter, though this time it's more dynamic, interspersed with some dialogue and a shot of Ramza exploring the castle and finding the Pisces Stone that Alma dropped as well as Isilud's body.
Marach: A voice called to me in that land of pure white light, though whose it was I cannot say. "Return," it said to me. "Return to the side of the valiant - the one whose heart beats true."
Ramza: I'd thought auracite a product not of godly fashion, but an issue of hands far fouler - a gateway of sorts for Lucavi into our world. I know not by whose hands it came to be, but I do not think its evil inherent. I believe it is the wielder who gives its power shape.
And there we have Rapha and Marach joining our party. I do not know if I will make use of them; as I've said before, I kind of hate the random factor of the Manta abilities. They have a little time before joining the Named Unit Oblivion Pit, as Ramza will have a brief dialogue with them to open the next chapter before we can save and then get them killed in random encounters so they have to vanish from the narrative.
At least this should put to rest any worry that Marach's resurrection had a hidden clause and that he'll turn Lucavi on us at some point.
…
Man, Marach and Rapha.
What a mess.
There's a solid core there, and I do appreciate how efficient the game is at establishing the previously unmentioned Grand Duke Barrington as a major player who's been lying in wait, only to then use this as a jumping off point to demonstrate the true power of the ones manipulating this game of thrones behind the scenes. And using him in that way requires some degree of emotional investment in his fate, so giving us a sympathetic character who is connected to him to get attached to is an obvious way to do it. I like Rapha. But everything about her arc and Marach's is very rushed, the game has no time for anything but the bare minimum, which would be fine if she stayed with us afterwards to explore her personality and where she goes from there… Except no, she has to go in Schrodinger's Box along with every other party member who isn't Ramza.
The real problem is Marach. Because that man has not earned his redemption. He went from actively trying to kill Rapha to throwing himself in front of a bullet from her and then hugging it out after being raised from the dead, a mercy that better characters deserved. At least Isilud genuinely believed he did the right thing! I think it's the implied sexual assault angle that makes the whole thing especially gross, with Marach being outright told what Barrington did to Rapha and reacting by slapping her in the face, which is just. This is an awful, awful little man. But I guess he's good now.
It doesn't help that setting up Rapha and Marach's character arcs this way requires the confrontation on the rooftop, which requires Barrington to have used the same "teleport out of danger arbitrarily" powers all our enemies seem to have against Folmarv, which kinda robs the scene where Folmarv reveals his power of some of its threat.
Still, these are ultimately some minor grievances. Overall I thought this was an effective end to Chapter 3, if an absolutely brutal one to play through. The Wiegraf-Belias gauntlet is absolutely devastating, and if I actually had to leave, grind some extra JP and levels, and redo the castle gate battle to get there, I would probably have hated it. As a puzzle to solve, with an answer actually available to me in my present build, though? I ended up satisfied. But, like - yeah, keep multiple saves. It's entirely possible to softlock yourself out of the game right there and then. The Belias battle received less attention because it took me fewer attempts, but that was also a devastating eye-opener. Wow, turns out bosses with massively inflated HP counts in the thousands who can kill several characters in one attack can also bring adds! Fuck my life!
But hey, you know what?
We made it. We won. We beat everyone.
We are as gods unto this earth. Every single one of the Lucavi will fall by our hand.
Oh, and Marach?
Who's the petty knight apprentice now, bitch.
Thank you for reading.
Next Time: Chapter 4!
Main Story Battle Count: 33 (We're counting Wiegraf and Belias as one single battle here.)
Random Encounter Count: 44
Getting Our Asses Kicked By Wiegraf Count: 15, and there it shall stand for the rest of time. No more Wiegraf, forevermore.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Apologies for dropping a 12k words update on your doorsteps, everyone. I tried to find a satisfying place to cut it off, I truly did, but it couldn't be before the end of the Belias fight and then that left a full update for just the denouement and the Elmdore pseudo-battle and that felt wrong, so I just pushed on through to the end.
Emy
Artificial Defender
Honestly, despite its unpredictability, this is probably the dance I get the most use out of. It's particularly good in fights where the terrain means you're not engaged immediately, since there's more time to try to get statuses on enemies. 50% hit rate, and about half of the statuses effectively neutralize an enemy temporarily (Confuse, Toad, Stop, Sleep), so there are typically very good odds of it generating favorable action economy.
But I can see why you might avoid it in favor of just killing things. There's real value in knowing what your action is going to do, and you don't have to see as many miss messages.
Huh, did you not get fucked over by Rapha doing a suicidal run at the enemy and getting a Game Over before you got a turn on the rooftops?
Because that is absolutely something that can happen.
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- Location
- Somewhere between the stars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The freaks and the normals. It's kinda a pretty normal things in most final fantasy games, from what I've seen in this thread so far.
That moment the mundane schemes and desires of normal men are supplanted and pushed aside by forces beyons mortal keen. And it seems, we have reached that limit here truly, with the effective decapitation with what might have been the strongest faction in the land.
I gotta say though, i really loved how Isilud died. In a game like this, where there isn't that much dialogue. It's always going to be really hard to judge the degree to which a person might actually believe in something.
Isilud, was blinded, wounded such that is arms did not function. His body was beyond the pale gate, and his last words were "We must warn other of these demons, were is my sword, so i can join them". Untill Alma told him the demons were dead he was refusing to let go, despite his body having given up. For a game with such few words, that felt like a really brilliant way of showing someone off. We had few scenes with Isilud but it's pretty clear that he cared.
As for Alma. I was leaning towards her or Ovelia being tied to the greater demon-God situation that was happening in the background. With my current guess being they might be blood-releated to that summoner that was mentioned.
The auracite also being a power for good though. Makes me less sure, on what's going on in the more divine background. Ivalice seems to have multiple Gods right? So might it be the case that auracite is more akin to "divine wifi", and your personall willpowr essentially chooses if you get connected to the Good God or the Bad God. With the respective fight between those factions.
Might Delita then, perhaps be the Holy Knight of these more "good" gods. Leaving Ramza as the more third neutral faction, standing against both. This is pulling alot on how SMT tend to do stuff, given their own legacy within jrpgs.
That moment the mundane schemes and desires of normal men are supplanted and pushed aside by forces beyons mortal keen. And it seems, we have reached that limit here truly, with the effective decapitation with what might have been the strongest faction in the land.
I gotta say though, i really loved how Isilud died. In a game like this, where there isn't that much dialogue. It's always going to be really hard to judge the degree to which a person might actually believe in something.
Isilud, was blinded, wounded such that is arms did not function. His body was beyond the pale gate, and his last words were "We must warn other of these demons, were is my sword, so i can join them". Untill Alma told him the demons were dead he was refusing to let go, despite his body having given up. For a game with such few words, that felt like a really brilliant way of showing someone off. We had few scenes with Isilud but it's pretty clear that he cared.
As for Alma. I was leaning towards her or Ovelia being tied to the greater demon-God situation that was happening in the background. With my current guess being they might be blood-releated to that summoner that was mentioned.
The auracite also being a power for good though. Makes me less sure, on what's going on in the more divine background. Ivalice seems to have multiple Gods right? So might it be the case that auracite is more akin to "divine wifi", and your personall willpowr essentially chooses if you get connected to the Good God or the Bad God. With the respective fight between those factions.
Might Delita then, perhaps be the Holy Knight of these more "good" gods. Leaving Ramza as the more third neutral faction, standing against both. This is pulling alot on how SMT tend to do stuff, given their own legacy within jrpgs.
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
No, she actually behaved extremely safely, withdrawing immediately behind my own characters and the cover of the rooftop's incline. I almost praised her AI in the update but then I thought I had no idea if that wasn't just pure luck lmao
- Pronouns
- Him/He
I admit, I've seen lots of methods for beating Wiegraf, but seeing you go 'I must kill him in a single blow!' was genuinely unexpected. And you made it work! The flexibility of the FFT job system is not to be forgotten.
It's entirely possible for Rapha to die before you get to move if you don't have enough speed. There is a way around that (Enemies like to target the weakest enemy, so stripping a character of all their armor makes them more appealing to attack), but it's yet another 'protect missions are fucking horrible' tally on FFT.
You might recall the Assassin class from FFT:A, which I think is the only job that an NPC has in this game that gets adapted to be a player class. (well, player's-cultists, since it's Viera only if I recall)
By the way, this is where 'the AI thinks holy sword skills have elemental typing' might really save your ass. The AI thinks lightning stab is holy, and there's a buyable robe that absorbs holy damage. Weigraf tends to use Shockwave as their secondary attack, which does have long range but much lower damage to a single target, for some reason Weigraf doesn't have a large selection of sword skills.
I think that equipment is even hidden on that particular map, so a player might conceivably use move-find item to get it, and then equip change in their support slot to put it on, and then whatever method they have to out-DPS him while nerfed. As you've noticed the ability to softlock the game, there's lots of bits and bytes spent analyzing every aspect of that fight on the internet.
I think that equipment is even hidden on that particular map, so a player might conceivably use move-find item to get it, and then equip change in their support slot to put it on, and then whatever method they have to out-DPS him while nerfed. As you've noticed the ability to softlock the game, there's lots of bits and bytes spent analyzing every aspect of that fight on the internet.
It's entirely possible for Rapha to die before you get to move if you don't have enough speed. There is a way around that (Enemies like to target the weakest enemy, so stripping a character of all their armor makes them more appealing to attack), but it's yet another 'protect missions are fucking horrible' tally on FFT.
You might recall the Assassin class from FFT:A, which I think is the only job that an NPC has in this game that gets adapted to be a player class. (well, player's-cultists, since it's Viera only if I recall)
Don't know if you got lucky or if they fixed that in the WOTL remake, because in regular FFT that is generally the most bullshit fight in the entire bullshit sequence.
You're riding the high from dealing with Wiegraf/Velius only for the next fight to immediately serve you a 'Game Over' because the unit you're escorting decides to charge the assassins.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wiegraf's degeneration is probably one of the strongest character arcs of the game, probably because he's been with us since the beginning.
But god is he a pain in the ass to fight. Bring your best cheese, you will need it.
Regarding the nature of the stones, this gets a player who isn't familiar with the Ogre Battle connection up to where a player who is familiar: that the Zodiac Stones are not just a devilish trick, that they once were the true holy auracite and can be under the right circumstances.
Why they are like this is still a mystery, but one we may get some answers on at a later date.
But god is he a pain in the ass to fight. Bring your best cheese, you will need it.
Regarding the nature of the stones, this gets a player who isn't familiar with the Ogre Battle connection up to where a player who is familiar: that the Zodiac Stones are not just a devilish trick, that they once were the true holy auracite and can be under the right circumstances.
Why they are like this is still a mystery, but one we may get some answers on at a later date.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
I hadn't realized that Sans from Undertale also moonlighted in DC comics.
He cleans up nicely.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
I do not remember the details of FFT's backstory at all, but my best guess is that the story of the Zodiac Braves fighting the Lucavi was true - it just didn't mention what the Braves did to the Lucavi after defeating them. Mayhaps the holy stones that once enabled their defeat now serve as their prisons?
Also god damn, Selina is ripped! Yeah if I had abs like that I'd also take every opportunity to wear a skintight suit.
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ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Batman: The Long Halloween is a critically-acclaimed comic book by Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale. Set in the early days of the Caped Crusader's career, The Long Halloween is a sequel to Batman: Year One, and drew praise for its heavily Noir-inspired storytelling and exploration of Batman's character and setting. One of the reasons why I find TLH fascinating is because it's deliberately constructed around a point of inflection in the story and genre of Batman: where Year One saw Batman exclusively battle mafiosi, gangsters and corrupt cops, The Long Halloween introduces the "costumed freaks" that make up Batman's most iconic antagonists. Initially, these are freak events, or mercenaries hired by the mafia to do their dirty work, but they increasingly come to take center stage as mafia boss Falcone becomes hard pressed by circumstances. Until, one night, the lights go out in his mansion, there's an attack, gas, his men are getting killed, Falcone rushes into his office…
This is probably the single most iconic panel in The Long Halloween. It tells a story, or rather the culmination of one, the turning point in the question of what genre Batman even is. Two-Face, once an ordinary attorney general, now a "freak," sits at Falcone's own desk, surrounded by costumed weirdos, several of which have actual superpowers.
The age of gangsters and corrupt cops is over.
The freaks have taken over.
Folmarv: "No, it is one we cannot hope to lose. Who is there to oppose us, save you feeble-bodied humans?"
Isilud: "Father…?"
Folmarv: "You misjudge the strength of your enemy, Grand Duke Barrington. There will be no sport in killing you."
Barrington: "You would raise arms against your host under his own roof!?"
[He steps back behind his men, who advance on Folmarv; several more Knights enter the room at once.]
Folmarv was already one of the Lucavi. He lied to his son about the nature of the Stones, fully knowing the truth of their power. And now, he's going to show Grand Duke Barrington just how much his careful positioning and political maneuvring is going to serve him in the face of demonic power.
The freaks have taken over.
This is just generally a very cool observation and and thread to take in reading the scene, but also I'll always be a fan of 'the corrupt schemer who knows every man has his price just got stuck in a room with the guy who is having none of it and is about to have the worst day of his life'.
Barrington: "Surely you know it would not do to make an enemy of a man like me, when the Church would benefit so greatly from collaboration with-"
Folmarv: "Dude I don't care I'm a fucking demon I'm gonna flashbang your shit and then kill you."
Lowkey losing it at this line. People accuse WOTL of being all purple all the time but there's a wonderous bluntness to "okay dude i'm gonna pull out my sword and we'll just see what all shakes out from there".
Omippenheimer over here deciding that the only sensible solution to his predicament is to invent the atomic bomb. Personally I would've simply quit the LP-
Ramza calls out Alma's name, and leaves, and we head for another cutscene.
It's crazy to think about the fact that Final Fantasy as a brand was perfectly willing to show a bunch of Messily Murdered Dudes strewn about the room back in the 90s and then they just forgot how to have blood at all until 2023.
There are more men switching women off with their fists in this videogame than the hit film Versus (2000) and it's kinda sending me.
Man though. You're right, I just.......... do not give a single shit about Rapha and Marach? Marach is a bastard, Rapha is just There, and using one of the auricite to resurrect Marach from a Plotline Reinforced Cutscene Death Bullet To The Face is just insane. For what purpose? Especially when, once more, these two are about to have their souls sucked out and spirited away to the No Relevance Dimension while their mute flesh-puppets continue to serve in Witch-King Ramza's army of the dead.
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- Location
- USA
This kind of exchange is something of a stock cliche, isn't it?
Hero: "I don't want to fight."
Rival: "Yeah? Too bad. I do."
Heck, I think I saw it in Netflix's "Cobra Kai" during a recent re-watch.
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