Day 77

Game - Final Fantasy XII, Day 77
Hours Played/Hours Total - 7 hrs / 12 hrs
Starting Point - Rabanastre, South Gate.
Current Goal - Enter Garamsythe Waterway and steal stuff from the Palace. Probably find out that THAT doesn't work out.

What Happened - It seems that Final Fantasy XII is going quite slowly for me. Things keep interrupting me, or I can't get myself to sit down and type up a post. I'm not going to just type up a pile of excuses though. It's better to just move past this and continue my journey! TO THE POST!
     Where I left off last, I was about to enter the Garamsythe Waterway and sneak into the palace. I was basically ready to go and head on in, but I did a quick supply trip just to make sure. I bought a few extra items where I could, and I checked all the stores. I have all of the abilities and magic I can possibly buy. My selection of armor and equipment is where I want it to be. There aren't any new marks on the board...so time to move on! I head down to Lowtown, find Storehouse 5, and enter into the GARAMSYTHE WATERWAAAAAY~
     Despite it's fancy name and intro video (that all new areas get), the Garamsythe Waterway is just a sewer system. You can add a nice name and make it look a little better, but it's still a sewer. Therefore, it's populated by your typical sewer monsters. It's mostly just dire rats and bats here. Thanks to a little extra time and levels, I have no trouble going through the sewer area and quickly reach the stairs that will take me into the palace. I head up the stairs and get to see a nice cutscene of what is taking place above. It's a fairly simple scene really. It's the outside of the palace, and guards are patrolling the grounds. However, they fail to notice a large hover bike zoom on behind them. It flies up to the palace, and the woman piloting it comes to a stop. A man steps off the hover bike, and the scene ends there. (Thanks for foreshadowing game!) Now the game switches back to Vaan.
     As it comes to Vaan, I've just now entered the Royal Palace of Rabanastre. There's a save point nearby, so I decide to hit it up. It comes with an interesting hint message as I load it up. It informs me that the next part will more or less lock me in place and suggests that I make a secondary save file just in case. I'm honestly not that worried, but I go ahead and do so just in case. Going from this location, I find myself in the servant's quarters of the castle. I'm walking around and exploring the place when some guards come down. They let the current servants present know that they're the clean up crew. They won't be allowed upstairs until everyone has left the party though. I try to head up regardless of this, and the guard quickly stops me. As I come back, a Seeq servant offers to help me out. The Seeq are another common race in FFXII and look like...this!

A typical Seeq

I yell at the guard, the Seeq briefly distracts him, and I head upstairs. As I reach the next floor, I find myself in another predicament. Going back to what Old Dalan said, I need to locate some sort of signet first. Of course, I can't roam freely because there are guards posted all over the place. I get to play a bit of a sneaking game now.
     It's a fairly simple game, but I wouldn't call it a mini-game. Guards are posted at random spots, but I can get them to move towards me if I yell at them. My first attempt at doing this got me surrounded, so I had to turn myself in. It just threw me back at the door though, so I just had to restart. The first thing on the list is finding the Signet. The first one I found was a Hawk signet, and that wasn't the correct one apparently. I make my way around and quickly locate the second and correct signet...a Lion! I used the Crescent Stone to light up the Lion signet, and that lit up a wall panel somewhere. Then I had to run about to try and find it. Thankfully, the guards will only move if you make them move, so this part was still pretty easy. I quickly located the wall and opened it up into a secret passage. The secret passageway closes after I enter, but it takes me directly to the palace's treasury! Huzzah! Now it is time for a cutscene.
     Vaan is looking around the treasury and trying to decide what he'll take. As he is searching the place, a large nearby statue starts to move. The face plate of it opens up and reveals a shiny, fancy rock! He goes and grabs it, and as this happens, the mysterious duo from before enter in. The man approaches Vaan and tells him to hand over the Magicite (Yuuuup.) After he says this, the woman that was with him walks in...and turns out to not be a human. She's a viera.

A pair of Vieras

The best way to describe vieras is...They are bunny ladies. I say "bunny ladies" because I don't think there are male vieras. The two of them have Vaan cornered when they hear a commotion brewing outside of the room. The two of them look away briefly, and Vaan makes a run for it. As the scene ends, the game lovingly reveals that the magicite I have is called the Goddess' Magicite. (It told me that I currently have it.) Jumping to Vaan outside of the room, the guards seem to be running somewhere to deal with whatever that commotion is. Thus, I head a different direction then them! Now we hit another cutscene.
     Vaan is running about the palace and ends up in an upper level of the outside area. Looking down below, there is a battle going on between the Imperials and some other group. Among them is a lady who looks suspiciously like the Princess! (But she's supposed to be dead...RIGHT?) The resistance group of sorts are holding their own against the Imperial soldiers, but that doesn't last too long. As things seem to be going well, an airship comes in and fires upon the battlefield. The man from before walks up and calls it the Ifrit. (Huh... more to come for this I guess.) The battle is escalating even more, and things aren't looking too good for us. Vaan and the guy are forced to run. He grabs Vaan and jumps off a nearby ledge. They are caught by the viera on the twosome's hoverbike. They are flying above the battlefield, but we aren't flying too well. Something goes wrong with the hoverbike, and the trio have a nice crash landing...back into the sewers!
     Once the group recovers, it seems we are back inside the Garamsythe Waterway. The man introduces himself as Balthier, and then introduces the viera as Fran.

Balthier, the leading man (or so he thinks)

Fran, the special Viera

The two mention something about being Sky Pirates as well. (If you remember from the beginning, Vaan wants to be a Sky Pirate.) He suggests that they all work together so that they can get through the sewers. Vaan tells him that he can't have the magicite because it is his loot. Balthier just ignores this comment for the moment, and I venture forth into the Garamsythe Waterway...again.
     I finally have a party of three, so it's time to see what we can do! Balthier and Fran come with a full amount of License Points to spend. I spend all the points I can to fill in their skill lists and continue on. Just a small ways in, and Balthier explains the Gambit system to me! (Finally!) He's a pretty straightforward guy, so he keeps it pretty simple overall. Basically, Gambits are the "automatic" mode for your characters. Every character starts with two customizable Gambits, but you can buy more through your License Board. Each Gambit consists of a target and an action.
     The target can be a specific enemy or ally, or you can choose special conditions like "party leader's target", "ally's HP <70%", and more! Actions can be attacks, specific spells, or specific item uses. Combined together, you can create a pretty cool assortment of automatic abilities. This gets even better if you get more rules in place and buy new target Gambits. (You only start off with a handful of target variables. Action variables are unlocked as you gain the actions.) After the Gambits are made, you must also place them in order of importance. It's best to place healing Gambits at the top of course, so that allies will heal you rather than constantly attacking the enemy while you die slowly. Overall, the Gambits system is really good way to customize team actions. If you want to be lazy, the Gambits system is your friend! Set everybody up to do things automatically and watch as battles fight themselves! SUPER FUN! Getting back to the game now...
     I'm moving onward through the sewer now. We come across a couple of dead soldiers, and Balthier explains what most likely has happened. The new consul, Vayne, got the rebels to come out of hiding with the idea of a lax of defense during the Fete. When they struck, the air force was called in to blow them all up. It's a smart plan, but you kinda feel bad for the rebels. (Sort of?) I move on through the sewers with my new lineup of three people! It was easy enough before, and it's even easier now with a couple extra hands. They both make use of long range weapons (Balthier - Gun, Fran - Bow), so they just shoot things from afar. I'm fairly overleveled, so nothing stands much of a chance against me. With a party at my command, they can basically just sit back and heal me rather than wasting my own time and MP on healing! (Gambits make this process even easier too with automation.) I reach a rather large area in the sewer, and that's when things change a bit.
     The lady from the battle before (one that looked like the Princess) is dealing with a couple of Imperial guards. They have her cornered at a ledge, but Vaan yells to her to jump down. Seeing her choice of options, she takes the leap, and Vaan catches her. As Vaan puts her down, the guards work there way around to us for a fight! However, I now have four people, so this battle went pretty fast. I quickly defeated the soldiers, and the woman thanked me for the help. She reveals that her name is Amalia (looks like Princess Ashe...) and says that she got separated from the rest of her group. Of course, they're probably gone now. Randomly, Vaan has the magicite in hand, and it responds to her presence for some reason. She sees it and asks if he stole it. He says yes, but this seems to make her mad. She doesn't like the idea that she's now working with common thieves. She starts to walk away, and Vaan is just confused at her disappointment. Whatever! It's time to continue through the sewers.
     Amalia joins our team, but instead of being a fourth party member, she's a Guest Member. Balthier explains it in an interesting way. He says it in a way that would almost make sense if it weren't in the game. Basically, she's just a Guest member, but she won't take commands from us. She'll be with us briefly but leave whenever she wants to. Thus, FFXII features both party members and random guest members that come as a fourth party member at random times. I head into the next area, and now I get to fight a BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     As we step into a strangely open area, the group is moving about when they are suddenly surrounded by a group of Flans! (Stupidly enough, they made these specific flan monsters look exactly like the flan dessert that they are based off of. It's clever, but it looks stupid.) Normally, flan are pretty resistant to physical strikes, but the group here can be struck for okay damage. However, they are weak to Fire, so I unleash that as much as I can. After I run out of MP, I'm stuck with regular attacks, but like I previously stated, physical strikes work fairly well. They're mostly defeated by this point, so I finish the remaining ones quite quickly. And with their defeat, the game throws up the classic yet redone victory theme! Everybody strikes a pose, and I get a large "CONGRATULATIONS!" on the screen. Now it's time to move on.
     I continue through the sewer for just a brief period and end up in another BOSS BATTLE TIME! (Seems awfully quick but whatever.) For this round, I'm fighting a more traditional boss battle. It's a massive fire horse called Firemane! As the battle gets going, he doesn't appear to be overly difficult. Of course, he was mostly focusing his attacks on Amalia rather than the rest of us. There's not much of a strategy to do in this battle unfortunately. I wasn't able to use any weakness to my advantage here, so I just had to whittle him down the old fashioned way. He's one of the first real bosses in the game though, so I shouldn't have expected much. Once we defeated Firemane, the fire horse turned into a giant fireball and flew away.
     With his defeat, it seemed that things were finally on our side. Unfortunately, it was most certainly not on our side. As Firemine is flying away, the Imperials come in from all over and surround the group, Well, it seems that our escape has come to an end. The game jumps forward a little bit, and the group is now on the streets of Rabanastre. However, they are also all handcuffed. The Imperials take Amalia away, and we are looking at a bleak fate. Penelo shows up and tries to run towards the group. The Imperial guards start to come around, but Balthier stops her before she does anything. He gives her a handkerchief and tells her to hang onto it until he can return Vaan to her. The trio (Vaan, Balthier, and Fran) are taken away at this point and are being taken to prison it seems. In the background of all this, there's a pair of Bangaa that are looking upon this event. They mention something about Balthier, and one specifically mentions that Balthier is HIS to deal with. So...that's another thing we'll get to deal with.
     The game jumps forward a bit, but it goes into a strange scenario. Vaan is in a strange white room and is holding the flowers from earlier. He's looking at a man in a chair...The man is Reks. He's trying to talk to him, but Reks looks like he is messed up somehow. Suddenly, Reks just fades away into nothingness, and it's obvious that this is just a dream sequence. Vaan wakes up and finds that we are now in prison. Balthier confirms this, but says that this place is more of a dungeon than a prison. They've been dropped in an old dungeon and sealed off the bottom level of it. We hear people screaming in the background of it all, and there's a dead Bangaa corpse in the area we're sitting in. Vaan asks where Fran is at, and Balthier says she is off looking to find a way out. Vaan gets up and decides to do a little exploring of the NALBINA DUNGEON!
     There's not much to see of the place though. It's mostly full of hopeless and pitiful looking prisoners. I walk into a large arena-looking area and run into a group of SeeQ attacking a Bangaa. Vaan says something to him, and they turn their sights on him! They toss Vaan into a large pit in the middle, and it doesn't look good. As Vaan's doom is impending, Balthier drops in to help out. I have to fight the group of Seeq hand-to-hand with Balthier! It wouldn't have been much trouble if not for the lack of weapons. Of course, they can't take your magic away, so...it's still not much trouble! We quickly beat the gang of Seeq, and as we do, a large group of Imperial soldiers start coming into the area. (They're up above, and we are kinda hidden in a pit at the bottom.) All the prisoners that had gathered to watch start slinking away into the darkness. Of course, we are stuck in the middle, so we just have to hide out for now.
     Up above, one Imperial guard is coming down with one of the Bangaas from earlier. (Back on the street, one looking for Balthier.) He's talking with the guard about locating Balthier and seems quite intent on getting him. As they are talking up above, Fran shows up to help us out of the pit arena. She claims to have found a way out, but she mentions something about a "Mist" being present as well. (Doesn't go into any details at this point...I guess we'll find out more later.)
     Back to the group above, the Bangaa is disappointed in the guards for losing track of Balthier and starts threatening them. However, he doesn't get too far when a very menacing figure walks in. He's a specially armored and quite important looking man. Balthier and Fran immediately identify him as a "Judge" and describe them as "self-claimed" upholders of peace and order in Archadia. He's an elite guard form House Solidar (royal family I believe), and this essentially makes him a commander of the Imperial troops. The Judge addresses the Bangaa (didn't catch his name) and reminds the Bangaa that the Emperor only allows races like himself to travel because of their "talents". (Soo....Empire is kinda racist. It did seem strange that the guards all appeared human.) Informs the Bangaa that if he doesn't show some respect, he won't receive any either. At this point, he leaves the Bangaa to do what he wants as he goes to deal with another matter. All he mentioned was dealing with some "Captain" character. The Bangaa orders his group to find Balthier, and they start spreading out.
     Finally getting back to our group, they start talking about the way out. It seems that the exit Fran found isn't openly available to us. Balthier already seems to have an idea formulated though...He suggests that we let THEM open the way for us! Basically, we're going to follow after the Judge and his cohorts, and this will somehow lead us out of here. We start following them and run past a large room of random junk. As it turns out, this room happened to have all my old equipment! Because that's where you keep prisoner's weapons. You throw it all in a big pile in a random room. Moving right along, we quickly head after the Judge and co. We come to an area that is just crawling with guards all about. Balthier suggests that we step lightly and avoid them, but I quickly find that to be stupid and not completely possible. SO! I fight all of the guards I can! The Imperial guards did prove to be a bit tougher than previous enemies, but they weren't anything to complain about. After plowing through all the guards I could, I came to a large open room and SCENE!
     As I said, we are trailing behind the Judge and his group. We see them in the next room doing something. There's a strange gateway in front of them that is (assumingly) magically closed. One of his entourage steps forward and casts something on the door. After he does his little piece, the door opens for them, and they continue onward....Leaving the door wide open. Thus, we follow right behind them! This scene leads into an even larger but much more note-worthy scene! (This next bit is a mouthful, but I've tried to paraphrase where I can.)
     The Judge is there in a large chamber and is waiting as they pull up a prison cage with a man inside. The Judge takes his helmet off, approaches the man, and begins to speak with him. At this point, it is revealed that this "Captain Basch" is the one who killed the King! The Judge asks Basch why he continues to live despite his sentence to death (very thin and scraggily-looking). Basch simply replies "To silence Ondore". The Judge asks him if that is all, but Basch simply tells him to ask Vayne since he is his master. (I can't remember all the wording here, but it's basically a big slap to the face.) The Judge is angry at this point, but he lets Basch know that they're bringing the leader of the insurgence here...the woman named Amalia. Basch seems to react to this, but he doesn't say anything else. The Judge and company leave at this point, and we step in!
     The group approaches the cage but instead turn their gaze downward. Balthier asks Fran if this is the place she spoke of earlier. She says something about Mist flowing through here, and that it is going somewhere. Basch begs that we get him out of there, but Balthier points out to him that he is both dead and a Kingslayer. Basch tries to say he didn't do it, but he doesn't get much in as Vaan jumps on his cage. He yells at Basch how he's a traitor to Dalmasca and how he killed his brother! Balthier tells him he's making too much noise, and Fran decides it is time to go! The group jumps on Basch's cage and rides it down into the BARHEIM PASSAGE!
     One loading screen later, the group has crash landed down in an area below the main prison area. Everybody landed safely (somehow), and Basch's cage had busted open. Vaan is about to go attack Basch, but Balthier holds him back. He tells Vaan not to waste his energy on Basch, but Vaan is angry at him for a lot of reasons. Balthier reminds him that they could use an extra sword arm in the current area, so...Basch joins as a Guest Member! Exploring my new environment, there's a strange pillar that I immediately spot in the middle. Balthier identifies it as a power relay, but he says the fuse is broken so it isn't going to work. I look around a bit and run into a random Bangaa down here. Of all things, this Bangaa just HAPPENS to have a fuse we can use! (*insert obligatory "What are the chances?" remark*) Of course, he also comes as a shop as well. It's been a while since my last stock up, so I rummage through his wares and buy a few things. After that, I take the fuse and go place it in the power relay. The power is back!
     As the power starts to come on around us, a lovely little "charge" meter appears on screen and goes up to 100%. I head over to open the gate, and as it opens, the meter drops from 100% to 70%. Thus...it's going to be a fun area already. (Yaaaaay) I finally continue forward, but the bangaa stops me briefly to explain the scenario ahead. The power is currently keeping all of the lights on and the monsters mostly tame. However, if the lights start to go out, there will be a lot more trouble heading my direction. Onward... to power balancing challenges!
     Of course, the first thing we meet in the next area is a monster chewing on some wires. While enjoying the taste, it also gets to drain away the current energy level. So my first step is elimination of the monster jerks that are draining power! Balthier informs me that these are mimics. They like to seek out energy and will drain all of it if we aren't careful. He goes on to say that they are much worse in the darkness, but they will gladly give the energy back if we beat the crap out of them! I quickly beat the mimics lurking around, and my worst fears are already eliminated. This scenario looked pretty bad, but I'm finding out that it really isn't goign to be hard. The mimics drain out energy, but they also tend to give more back than they initially drained so...net gain! The system wasn't too challengingly designed though because mimics who haven't drained anything yet will give back energy that they never took! I came in this area at like 70%, but I was already back to 100%! Yay me!
     From there, I continued to run around and kill anything that came remotely close. Most of the enemies I encountered in the Barheim Passage were pretty easy. I guess I'm just overly prepared again. There's not much worth describing for most of the area, but I will say that it gives you more than enough to explore. There's not much challenge here as far as enemies are concerned though. I manage to locate a lever in one spot, so I flipped it! This opened up another gate, but it wasn't anywhere nearby so I had to search for it. Skipping ahead a bit, I located the gate and went on through...right into a cutscene. Fran mentions the Mist thing again, and Balthier comments on how something big must be close. Basch loots a nearby body for a weapon. (FINALLY! He was just doing unarmed crap.) Of course, Vaan decides to start up an issue in the middle of all of this.
     He starts up again with the whole "That guy's a traitor!", but it seems Balthier is the smarter one here and believes something else is up. He says that he didn't see Basch kill anyone, but as we know, Vaan is mad for a more specific reason here. Vaan immediately brings up that Basch killed his brother! Basch realizes he means Reks and that Vaan is the younger brother he mentioned to him earlier in the game. He asks about Reks, but Vaan informs us of the obvious...He's dead now. Basch claims that he didn't do it, and he starts to tell them what ACTUALLY happened that night. Long scene short, Basch says he has a twin brother, and he is the one responsible for all that happened that night. Balthier figures that it would work out for the situation, but Vaan is very skeptical and doesn't believe it. (I don't see who would really...but whatever.) Basch tells him to believe in his brother, Reks, instead. His brother fought to his very end to protect the Kingdom after all. Time to move on!
     We continue through this rather large passage. There are a pile of mimics all about, and I'm starting to find a few of them that are disguised as treasure vases! (Because for some reason, FFXII doesn't have chests. All the treasure is just lying around in vases.) If you try to search them, they transform and rooooll out! I'm moving right long when we come to a large room with BOSS BATTLE TIME! The group comes in and sees that there is a massive Mimic making MORE Mimics...a Mimic QUEEN! Of course, being a Queen and all, the fight is more than just against her. As I fight her, she spawns mini Mimics that go around and cause havoc. I have to quickly exterminate them before they drink up all of the energy. They are easily beaten, but they distract me from the Queen. It's all going fairly well when the Queen drops a special move... SHOCKSTORM! This deals a huge chunk of damage to everybody's health, so I start healing as she follows up with a GROUND STRIKE! That slams into the ground and damn near finishes off everybody. It actually killed Basch though, so I had to revive him and heal everybody up. It wasn't looking good for a moment, but we manage to throw the kill strike at her before she gets anything else off.
     Of course, as the monster falls in death, it smashes right into a nearby wall and that starts bringing the house down! A nearby gate opened at the same time though, so we run on out of there. We barely make it out and find ourselves coming out into the Dalmasca Estersand. Basch is glad to be free and out in the open once again. He's planning to return to Rabanastre despite the people's hate for his "supposed" betrayal. Without further ado though, we head back to Rabanastre. It's a short trip back, but I take a little time to level up and gain some extra loot before heading in. It's nice to finally be able to roam free and not in a line like I was. I'm hoping that the game doesn't constantly do that, but I have a bad feeling that it does. As we make it into Rabanastre, everybody parts ways. Basch sets out to keep a low profile but connect with the local resistance. Balthier and Fran are going to be in town briefly, but they don't say anything apart from that.
     So, I'm down to just Vaan again. He asked about the Magicite stone before the duo left, but they didn't seem interested in it anymore. They claimed it was "too much trouble". Vaan isn't sure what to do with it either, but he figures he'll at least show it to Penelo. Now that I'm back in town, I'm free to explore and buy things! As I'm shopping, nearly every shop makes a mention of Penelo to me. All of them are very determined to get me moving through with the story. I hit up the Sandsea board to look for new marks, and as it happens, there's a new one! A WRAITH! Now that I know where the person is though, I'll look into it more later. After my small shopping trip, I head over to Migelo's store to find Penelo. Of course, as I enter inside, it turns out that neither Migelo or Penelo are there. It is just that kid Kytes. He's currently watching over the store but was hoping to get to Old Dalan. Old Dalan had a job for him, but he's stuck at the store. Since Penelo isn't here, Vaan goes to look into that job for Kytes, so I head into Lowtown.
     I set out to find Old Dalan but make a quick pit stop first. The person who left the mark for the Wraith is here. She talks about the ghost being in a nearby sewer area, and so THE HUNT BEGINS! I head over to fight the Wraith by myself. It doesn't seem too bad at first, but then it starts smacking me around so I try to run. Unfortunately, the Wraith can teleport and eventually kills me as I attempt to run. I reload the game and decide to try that mark later. The crappy part about this is I hadn't saved for a while. It took me back to right after I beat the Mimic Queen. (So...be sure to always save when you can. Otherwise, THIS happens.) Repeating everything that's happened before, I head back into Rabanastre. Make my rounds about town, and actually come across something I missed before. I head to the Clan Hall and receive a few random rewards! It's mostly just random items and money for defeating those monster bosses like I did. (The Flan, Firemane, and the Mimic Queen) I also gain access to a few extra marks here, a chicken and a turtle. Now it's time to head to Old Dalan.
     As I enter Old Dalan's house, Vaan shows off the Magicite that he acquired at the palace. Dalan is quite impressed with the find and that Vaan managed to escape from Nalbina. After all that is said, Dalan asks a small favor of Vaan. He wants him to deliver a sword to a man named Azelas. Vaan identifies the sword as one of the "Swords of the Old Order". Dalan tells him to take the sword to a different part of Lowtown and speak his name when he gets there. Vaan is about to head out, but before leaving, he asks Dalan to keep an ear out for Penelo since she's currently missing. Dalan agrees, and Vaan leaves. With him gone, Old Dalan offers a little forebodingness to the scene by saying "I hope this sword reminds him of how important the order was." And end scene.
     With the sword in hand, I decide to go ahead and deliver it. I can't take on any of the marks by myself, and there's not a lot else to do. That...and the sword delivery is super close to where I am. I find the location, enter inside, and find out that Basch is here to join the resistance. The people there are talking about Basch and are unsure of whether to believe him or not. Vaan says his brother was't a liar, which Basch agrees to. Basch says that Reks was the witness needed at the time to frame Basch for the king's murder. A lot of words go back and forth between Azelas and Basch, but in the end, they turn down Basch's offer to help them. They don't want anything to do with him or his tainted reputation. Basch makes a mention about saving Amalia, but it pretty much ends there. Both Basch and Vaan leave the place after that.
     The two of them talk outside briefly, and Vaan mentions meeting Amalia briefly before being sent to Nalbina. Basch makes a mention of their paths seeming to keep crossing, but Vaan isn't super cheerful about the idea. Basch then asks a small favor of Vaan. He wants Vaan to take him to Balthier. When Vaan asks why, Basch says something about being trapped in a cage but needing wings? (They made mention earlier about a cage when Basch was conversing with that other guy.) Vaan reluctantly agrees because he feels that he owes Basch for helping them to escape Nalbina. Basch joins the party again, but now he's a full character!

Basch, Captain and Swordsman

He comes along with a large pool of LP to spend as well! I quickly spend the points and move along with the game. I head up to the Rabanastre streets and talking to a few NPCs. They quickly point me in the direction of the Sandsea. I head on over there and right into a scene.
     Unfortunately, this scene wasn't even in the bar yet. Vaan just talks with Basch briefly about his past life. He talks about his parents dying before the war. They died to the plague, and he started living with Penelo's family. Then...the war came. A lot of people died during the war, but Vaan realizes it wasn't Basch who killed his brother. The Empire did it, and there's nothing more to add. Now...into the Sandsea! As we walk inside, I immediately spot Migelo on the upper floor. He's there and talking with Balthier and Fran. He is yelling at them and blaming them for Penelo's abduction! He says that a group of Bangaa took Penelo and left a note for Balthier. Migelo is holding Balthier responsible and tells him to go rescue her. He's a Sky Pirate after all, and that's something he would do. Balthier responds that he doesn't like to be ordered about.
     Vaan steps in around this point and says that he'll rescue her. He then offers Balthier the Magicite if he'll take them to where the note specifies. The note specifies a place called Bhujerba, and once there, we are to meet these Bangaa at a placed called the Lhusu Mines. (What's with these names?!) To explain, this Bhujerba place seems to be inaccessible except by airship, so we need Balthier and his airship to get there. After Vaan's proposition, Balthier accepts it. Basch joins with the group because he has business to attend to there. Balthier asks if it happens to be with a certain Marquis there, but he doesn't push anymore. The group gets up and begins to head out. Balthier and Fran rejoin the party, but Balthier points out to meet him at the Aerodome when we're ready to go to Bhujerba. Of course, before heading on, I head out and take care of a few things.
     First things first, I'm going to fight that stupid Wraith again! I charge into the sewers with my group and attack it! The Wraith is a ghost-type monster and comes with quite an array of abilities. For the battle, it mostly used spells, but when it did strike out, it was able to absorb HP with it's physical attacks. Among the abilities used, it liked to cast Doom on everybody so we would eventually drop dead. This was the primary ability that made me turn around and run last time. However, with multiple people around, I could easily revive people when Doom's timer went up. Apart from the Doom castings, the Wraith wasn't overly difficult. Gambits proved quite effective here since every character would pitch in to heal when necessary. Since I mostly play as Vaan, I get to focus on attacking while Balthier and Fran will heal me as necessary. With just a little time, a few revives from Doom, and some healing, the Wraith was defeated. WRAITH VANQUISHED!
     I ran back into Lowtown and went to claim my reward. Unfortunately, it was a fairly meager reward to receive. Ah well! Something is better than nothing. With that finished, I turn towards the next mark...the Cluckatrice! It's a yellow cockatrice that lives in the Giza Plains and is causing trouble for the tribe there. I head out to the tribe's village and inquire within. Once I found out the what and where, I head onto the plains to find the bird. From what I was told, it won't just show itself normally. I have to lure it out somehow and then strike at it! I...actually spent a long time trying to figure out how to get it to show up. As it turns out, (I believe) you have to clear a specific area of monsters, and then you go back after clearing it out. Once this has been done, the Cluckatrice shows up along with a group of baby Chickatrices. I charged out to fight the beasts!
     And then it went very badly. The Cluckatrice was fairly tough, and it had a lot of health. By itself, I probably could have managed it, but then you add in the Chickatrices for even more badness. From what I could see of their HP guages (no numbers but a graphical representation exists), I wasn't even close to killing ONE of the Chickatrices. Given time and effort, I could have probably defeated them, but then the Cluckatrice started turning the tables. It was able to slow party members with Mucus, but on top of that, it started using Stone on party members to petrify them. In this game though, Stone works more like Doom. You are given the Petrify status and then it slowly counts down to petrifying you. As soon as that started, I turned tail and ran away! I quickly ran to the closest save point to heal up. Along the way, I lost Fran to Petrify, but I made it right in time to save Vaan. (Balthier had avoided it somehow.)
     Seeing as the Petrify was the biggest problem, I made my way back to town to buy some healing items for that. I had to go back to Rabanastre to buy the items, but it was a worthwhile trip. After getting a good amount of Gold Needles, I returned to Giza Plains to attempt the mark again. Unfortunately, the second attempt at the Cluckatrice didn't go much better. I was holding my own for a bit, but I was clearly still facing a losing battle. I was barely doing anything to the Cluckatrice, and despite my effort, I was only close to killing ONE of the Chickatrices. Seeing that I had no chance against it, I ran away...again. Since I can't beat the Cluckatrice right now, I figured to turn away from this mark for now and continue with the story. I could try again in a few levels, but that'd take some time and I'm ready to continue the story.
     Before moving on, I took some time to gain extra loot and License Points. This involved about an hour and a half of wandering the Giza Plains and killing off enemies. Nothing super special happened here, but I did do a huge combo of enemy kills! I took the time and effort to get a 100 Enemy Streak. I ran around the plains killing a ridiculous number of hyenas (Wolf-type monsters. If you kill the same "type", it counts towards the overall streak number.) I managed to reach a streak of 100 after quite a bit of time and effort. It's not too hard, but you have to avoid killing anything that isn't part of your streak. Most of the Giza Plains monsters won't try to charge after you unless you get too close, but the large bird creatures that were there seemed determined to stop me. Regardless, the effort was worth it as far as loot and LP is concerned. I sold everything and returned to Rabanastre. I fully outfitted the entire group with new armor and weapons. It was most definitely worth the trouble. From there, I made my way to the West Gate where the Aerodome was and saved my game to end the post.
     Woo! Another post finally typed up and done! During this post, I think I actually spent more time typing it up than I did playing the actual game. That's...kinda sad if you ask me. However, with this post done, I'll be more or less caught up and free to continue through the game (in my mindset at least). It feels like I've spent FOREVER on FFXII, and yet I'm not even past twenty hours yet! This game might be reaching into March if I'm not careful...It'd be best to push through it now before a pile of new games come out. It's not looking good for me, but I shall persevere! Thanks to anybody who read and stay tuned for another post...sometime soon. I can't promise when, but it will happen!


Ending Point - Rabanastre, West Gate.
Current Party -

• Vann - Level 10
• Balthier - Level 10
• Fran - Level 10

Goals Accomplished - Made it through Garamsythe Waterway and infiltrated the Palace. Found the Palace Treasury and obtained the Goddess' Magicite. Escaped the Palace through the Garamsythe Waterway but got caught in the end. Escaped Nalbina Fortress and rescued Basch. Returned to Rabanastre and learned about Penelo's Abduction. Defeated the mark, Wraith. Lots of leveling and loot gaining.
Next Goals - Head out to Bhujerba. Find and rescue Penelo!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 76

Game - Final Fantasy XII, Day 76
Hours Played/Hours Total - 5 hrs / 5 hrs
Starting Point - Beginning of the Game.
Current Goal - Start Final Fantasy XII.

What Happened - Here we are again! It's the start of a new Final Fantasy title. As far as I'm concerned, I'm finally on the downhill slope. Why? Because I've never truly played much of the last two titles. True, I've played a bit of Final Fantasy XII, but I was nowhere near the end of it all. Final Fantasy XIII on the other hand...I guess that'll just be a nice treat when I get to it. Anyways, there's no point in me rambling right here. Let's get on with the festivities...Let us begin Final Fantasy XII!
     Before I even start the game, the visuals are already pretty nice looking. The opening cutscene that goes on before you load up the game is quite pretty and magnificent if I do say so. There are all matters of airships, castles, mystical monsters, fairly improved character models, and it's just all around pretty! Of course, Square Enix is basically #1 in the "cutscene graphics" categories. The only company I feel that could ever rival them is Blizzard. (Seriously, go look up any Blizzard cutscene and your jaw will make funny noises as it locks in place. Even Warcraft 3 had ridiculously pretty scenes!) I can't stay at this screen forever though, so I click New Game and start my journey.
     As usual, the game opens with a big cutscene. It's all birds and airships above a massive city. The city is full of all forms of colorful people and creatures. And there's more than just humans here! Hooray! There's a large parade going through the middle of the city. It's a pretty big parade and has chocobos! Even Moogles are here! I'm already excited to see more. As this is all going on, there's a lot of signs pointing to a wedding. The most definite of these are the two people who are gallantly dressed and at the front. Also there seems to be a priest, and they are getting married. It is a happy time for everybody here! However, it's not to last...
     The cutscene keeps going but changes pace and location. There's a group of General-looking figures and one who seems to be a King. They're talking about an incoming force of some sort. They mention that a place has fallen, and the groom (from the recent wedding) asks about his father. Basically, there's already a pretty good background here, and I'm just getting to start in the middle of it all. Another jump! It's back in front of the castle, and there are troops and airships all about. It seems that our little kingdom here is about to go and meet their enemy head on. (There seems to be a partial split in my notes, so I think I've missed something. It's a very lengthy opening...I do apologize.) There's more cutscene from here on, and they are fighting a losing battle. The group is losing to whoever their enemy is, and then slight explanation!
     I'm going to try and explain this shortly but as best as I can. The game is based in the Ivalice setting of Final Fantasy. If I'm thinking of it correctly, Ivalice was first introduced in Final Fantasy Tactics. It was further re-used in Tactics Advanced, Tactics A2, and Final Fantasy XII. Anyways, there are two major nations at war with one another: Archadia and Rozarria. Archadia invades one of Rozarria's kingdoms, the Kingdom of Dalmasca, and takes control of it. For a brief period, it was under occupied rule, but the King of Dalmasca ended up signing over the kingdom to Archadia rule. The game initially starts around the time of the invasion, and then proceeds up until somewhere near the end of it. At this point, I'm finally thrown into the game for a little bit of tutorial and a whole lot of story. /end history lesson
     I'm picking up back in Dalmasca where some soldiers there are fighting off the Archadians. I take control of a very young soldier named Reks. We're trying to protect the place and find the King of Dalmasca basically as soon as possible. I'm finally given control here! This opening bit is the loving tutorial section of the game. The game adopts a new battle system here called "Active Dimension Battle." (I looked it up...I doubt the game had it anywhere.) I could go into lengthy detail, but all in all, it's very similar to an MMO's style of fighting. There are no random encounters. The enemies are simply placed on the map and fought at will. When you select to attack enemies, a bar underneath the character name charges up and unleashes said attack/action upon the intended enemy/target. It's definitely a big change from...all of the previous titles, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad! Enough about that for now, time to move on with the game.
     After given the basics of movement, battle, and exploration, I'm given a few enemy soldiers to practice on. This isn't very hard (being the beginning of the game and all), but it's made even easier by giving me like four extra NPCs to help fight. I fight a short ways in, and I come face to face with my very first BOSS BATTLE TIME! A large aircraft enters the scene and charges at the group! We have to fight this small airship with swords and such...It seems like it would end badly, but then it doesn't! It's quite weak really, and I have a decent group of soldiers with me. I was making use of Rek's magic and casting Thunder on it. From there, everybody else just attacked it to death. Within just a few minutes, the ship was defeated and quickly retreating. (Also revealed that its call sign was Tonberry.) Overall, I didn't get that many attacks in on the boss. The regular soldiers are fairly meh, but the captain of our group is ridiculously powerful.
     Moving right along, we head into the castle area. Our current goal is to try and find the king. Considering the current enemy situation, we might want to reach the king quickly. It doesn't look too good with enemy soldiers all about though...Along the way, I run into my first save point. It's a large crystal! (Wooo! No spheres!) The group is climbing up a large set of stairs while trying to get to the king. At one point, a large group of enemy soldiers starts catching up to us. Reks holds them off while the rest of the group heads on. I get to fight off a few enemies, and then I continue upstairs. As it turns out...badness has occurred. As I enter the throne room, it seems that quite a massacre has gone down here. There are dead soldiers littered about, and worst of all, the King is dead upon the throne. As Reks is freaking out at this situation, the captain appears and is still quite alive. He tells Reks that he killed the king because he was selling the country out. He proceeds to stab Reks as well. As Reks falls over, a troop of enemy soldiers comes in and secures the place. Rek's final words as he passes into darkness seems is a name..."Vaan".
     From here, it jumps back into the word-y description of the happenings. Basically, (if not already obvious) Dalmasca is taking control now. Amongst all this crisis and kingdom downfall, Princess Ashe (girl that married the guy earlier on) as killed herself in grief. The Captain, named Basch (who killed the king), has been found guilty of high treason and has been put to death for his crimes. It is stated that any people who would still fight at this point are considered traitors who would lead Dalmasca to ruin. Not too long after all of this, the Kingdom of Dalmasca fully surrendured to Archadia. And now...I finally get full control.
     The game changes pace and throws me into the spot of the Vaan person. Vaan is Rek's brother.

Vaan

I've just placed as Vaan, but I'm already in a small fight. I have to kill a couple of sewer rats, but that goes pretty fast. With the rats disposed of, I climb up and out of the sewers and into the...Royal City of Rabanastre! It's the year 706, and it's been two years since the fall and takeover of Dalmasca. Vaan is leaving the sewer and set to head elsewhere, but then he spots something going on. A couple of Imperial (Archadian) soldiers are being jerks to a local vender. They don't want to pay for the things they take, so Vaan helps them out. As they are walking away, Vaan steals one of their coin purses. They immediately notice and make chase, but their way is blocked by a couple of non-human figures. Vaan lives to see another day! 

     Vaan is looking over his recently acquired loot, but he's quickly interrupted by someone. A girl walks up and starts scolding him for stealing. She says that if he were to be caught, they'd be helpless without him. The two begin to talk amongst themselves, but they reveal a few facts here. They are a couple of orphans among a large group of war orphans. Also, her name is Penelo. They're quite poor of course, but they don't want to live like this forever. Vaan says that he'll own an airship someday, and then he'll be a Sky Pirate! As their conversation is finishing up, Penelo mentions something about Migelo needing help with a task. During the conversation, the name Migelo was brought up several times and seems to be a man of some noteriaty. Regardless, I finally get to move around! 

     The city of Rabanastre is filled to the brim with life and NPCs. There are several races of peoples scattered about through the city. There are quite a few people to talk to around here, but they don't offer a lot of information outside of story-ish information. (Typical NPC talk but better than some previous ones.) The biggest news worth mentioning is something about a new Consul coming to Rabanastre. The guards and people are all in preparation/uproar over this event. (Consul is kinda like a city ruler...as far as this goes.) After a little exploration, I quickly locate this Migelo guy, and as it turns out, Migelo isn't a human (called humes in this) but a Bangaa instead. 

Typical Bangaa (NOT MIGELO)

     Migelo calls out to Vaan and starts telling him what is up. Migelo has been put in charge of a feast for the new Consul. To prepare for this, he placed an order for some items. As of this moment, he was waiting for the courier to arrive with the items, but things have run into a bit of a snag. The courier hasn't been able to make it to Rabanastre because of problems with monsters on the road. With that problem at hand, he's turning to a local tavern, the Sandsea, to borrow a few items. Vaan figures he wants him to go and retrieve the items, but the job isn't that simple. He already sent someone to go and retrieve the items, but the kid hasn't returned yet. Therefore...he wants Vaan to find the kid he sent and get him back on track. It seems like a silly job, but it's a story thing, so I have to go with it. I head on over to the Sandsea tavern.
     Once inside, I quickly locate the kid and remind him of his job. (If you care, the kid is a known person to Vaan and is named Kytes.) He was distracted by a jobs board in the Sandsea. It has a posting for a Mark on a monster. Kytes thinks that the monster is the reason that the courier didn't end up making it into town. A random guy comes up to us and comments on the Mark. He says that he put the job up for someone to go and eliminate the monster. With the monster gone, the road would be safer and certainly eliminate a few problems. Vaan reminds Kytes of his current job, so he runs off. The guy, named Tomaj, starts up an explanation of an in-game mechanic known as Marks.
     Marks are requests and bounties to kill specific monsters. People post up a mark on boards around the game. (They all synchronize thankfully.) I look at the board and select a monster I wish to hunt. However, I can't go out and hunt it quite yet. I have to find the person who posted the mark (listed on the board). After you talk to them, you get to find the monster and defeat it in battle! After that, I return to the person who placed the mark, and they reward me in one way or another. To commemorate my very first hunt, the man gives me an armlet accessory for my character. Of course, this rockets us into yet ANOTHER explanation. So now I get to type up the game's ability/learning/building system..the License System!
     Each character in the game has their own copy of the License Board. It works a lot like the Sphere Grid, but it's got some differences and improvements. First and foremost, it's not a damn sphere. Secondly, your character's have both levels and stats that go up with levels, so you don't have to bother with that. Back to the License Board, it's two large chess boards of squares. One area contains character skills, abilities, spells, and other fancy things to learn. The other area enables you to equip new equipment and weapons. Each character starts off with a few places already unlocked, and you get to build from there. You can only unlock skills that are next to the current ones, so your selection of skills slowly builds up. You purchase skills with LP (License Points) that you earn off of enemies along with experience.
     Unfortunately, there's a second part to this License Board system. Buying the skill on your License Board is simply one part of a two part game. After learning the skill, you have to also purchase the skill from a shop. This means that you can only do/equip/use your abilities/equipment once you have both purchased it on the board and purchased it from a store. Of course, once bought at a store, you can share all of the non-tangible things like spells and skills. To keep you from buying it all from the start, new equipment and skills only become available as you progress through the game. Makes enough sense really. Overall, I like the idea of the License Board, but it seems like I'll end up buying the entire board before the game is done. Enough about the License System for now, it's time to move on with the game.
     With all of that explained, it's time to move onto the first mark...the Rogue Tomato! LET THE HUNT BEGIN! Before heading out, I look through all the nearby shops to see what's available, but I can't really afford anything at this point. From here, I have to head out of the city's East Gate to get to the Rogue Tomato. When I reach the gate, the Imperial Guards there stop me from going out. The city is on full lock down with the whole "new Consul" thing going on. However, the man at the bar gave me a Writ of Passage. After a little convincing by Vaan, they let him out of the gate. I am finally outside of Rabanastre! From there, I step out and into Dalmasca Estersand.
     As I walk about this desert area, the game is giving off a very MMO feel to it. Random encounters have been traded in for enemies that spawn directly on the map. Enemies are either fully hostile and attack on site, or they are docile and only attack when provoked. Enemies that spawn aren't all exactly the same as one another. Some of them have higher and lower levels based on random factors, so this means that two of the same monster aren't necessarily the same as far as level and stats go. For their defeat, you are rewarded experience, License Points, and sometimes loot. Rather than directly awarding money for battles, you get loot that you can sell instead. Alongside fighting random monsters, you can also chain same-type monsters together! By doing this, you can increase the chance of loot being dropped by the enemies. (If you happen to not know, loot is just a fancy term for the items/money dropped by a fallen enemy.) I believe there is a secondary application for loot, but I'll cover it when it comes around.
     Back to the game at hand, I took some time to fight off a good portion of monsters. The only things I can fight at this point (and not die) are wolves and cactoids (not quite cactuars). After a little leveling and some new abilities acquired (but not usable), I decided it was time to face the Rogue Tomato! BOSS BATTLE TIME! Unfortunately, despite calling it a boss battle, the Rogue Tomato was quite easy to beat. It's the first mark and has to be fought solo, so even without the extra levels, this wouldn't have been a hard battle. I kept smacking the Rogue Tomato until it fell down...dead! With it defeated, the game threw up a little victory screen for me saying ROGUE TOMATO...VANQUISHED! With the monster beaten, it's time to head back into Rabanastre. As I'm heading there, Vaan grabs a group of flowers that he notices on the side. He actually says the name, but I forgot to write it down. Anyways, it's time to go back to town.
     Things are going pretty well, but it seems I took too long. (Story-wise, not time-wise) As I'm approaching the gate into town, all of the people are currently gathered around it. I get in closer and hear that the gate is officially closed until the Consul's welcoming bit is finished. Nobody is allowed through, but Vaan tries to give it a shot. He gets in closer, but the guard says nope. Vaan is quite angry with the guard, and it just gets worse from there. As he's waiting there, a couple of Chocobos approach the gate. The guard says to let them through, and Vaan asks why the chocobos are let through. The guard comments that the chocobo is incredibly expensive and of high breed...unlike Vaan. At some point, Vaan dropped the flowers he picked earlier, and the chocobos crush them as they walk through. At this point, Vaan is about to make a REALLY bad decision. Lucky for him, Migelo comes to save the day! (Penelo is also with him.) Migelo starts chatting up the guards, and he bribes them with a little wine. The guards gladly accept the wine and let everybody into the city. (Yay for bribes!) Vaan runs into the city, and Penelo follows him swiftly behind.
     CUTSCENE! The two of them are running through the city, and there's another parade going down. This city is all about their parades. The scene comes up to the Rabanastre Palace, and we get our first glimpse at this new "Consul". He reveals himself as Lord Vayne Solidor, and it seems that he is of great importance. He's the son of the Archadian Emperor, but he lets everybody know that he wants to help them and be their friend. I didn't take notes for his speech, but it was just a big blob of charisma and winning the common people's favor. Everybody seems at least remotely impressed with him. They do cheer as his speech comes to an end, and then the cutscene comes to an end.
     The new Consul (Vayne) is talking with someone, and Migelo approaches him. He introduces himself and explains that he is the one preparing the banquet. As he starts talking with him, Vayne starts playing the part of a modest man. Despite his royal background, he says that he's just an elected official, and he points out that the emperor is chosen by the people. He asks that Migelo treats him as an equal, doesn't bow, and call him by his name. Vaan watches all of this from the side, and he doesn't like how Migelo was bowing to him and such. As that conversation ends, the game switches over to Vaan and Penelo. They're walking around Rabanastre and talking about some fancy "Fete" going down at the palace. Vaan is discussing with Penelo if there is some chance of them getting into it, but she points out that he doesn't have any form of an invitation. She suggests that maybe he talk to Migelo or Old Dalan if he's really that interested. She runs off to help Migelo with something, and Vaan decides to go see this "Old Dalan".
     From this point, I'm free to fully wander around the city. I'm looking for some sort of descending stairwell into "Lowtown", but for a bit, I couldn't seem to find it. (I realize I have a map, but I forgot about it and wasn't checking it.) As I'm looking around, I happen upon a special location known as the Clan Hall. I enter inside and learn about Clan Centurio. The leader of this group is a Moogle named Montblanc. (He's a main character in FF Tactics Advance.) Anyways, I talk with Montblanc, and he grants me membership with the clan! As of right now, there's not a lot of benefits, but there are several little things you get through it. It's supposed to offer special marks, and some of the members there offer information for things. Apart from that, there's a Clan shop in the nearby market that offers items based on your clan rank. Since I can't do much right now, I decide to head out and explore a bit more.
     The city is quite a trip to walk about, but there really isn't that much there. The majority of the shops are in one location, so the rest of the city feels kind of empty. It's alive with people, but you can't talk to them all. Also, the ones who DO talk really don't have anything relevant to say (IMO). I head back to the Sandsea and check in with the guy about the Rogue Tomato mark. He rewards me for my efforts with some gil and an item! I re-check the board there and look for a new mark. Lucky for me, there's already a new mark available for me to take on. It's a mutant wolf named Thextera. "LET THE HUNT BEGIN!" (It states that whenever you first learn about the mark...with every mark.)
     Before moving on with the story, I decided I should focus on this mark and some money making. I sold what loot I recently gained and bought some magic, skills, and equipment. I head out through the West Gate of town and into Dalmasca Westersand. I was doing pretty good in the Westersand. I killed many wolves, and I had little trouble of it. Of course, that was swiftly ended when a wolf decided to pull a fun prank on me. It used a move called "Fang" and basically insta-killed me. I hadn't saved in a bit (before the big parade and speech cutscene), so I got to redo a couple things! Yaaay...Skipping the re-explanation of all that, I'm back in the Dalmasca Westersand and fighting the wolves AGAIN. I took time to kill off some wolves, a few cactoids, and finished it all off with a few cocktrices. (They didn't have petrify-inducing attacks. THANK GOD.)
     At this point, I've already got the basic selection of White and Black Magic, (Cure plus the trio of elements) so I'm handling things pretty easily. Since battles take place on the map in real time, you don't have to worry about constantly refilling your MP. It automatically refills as you walk! This is really nice, and it allows for maximum battling since you can just use Cure in between battles and save money. After a little experience-ing and loot-ing, I head over to deal with the mutated wolf, Thextera! He was a bigger and more powerful wolf, and he could even summon more wolves. Yet, thanks to my extra levels, Thextera was barely a challenge. I mostly used physical strikes and defeated him pretty easily. THEXTERA VANQUISHED!
     The more I've used the License system, the more I do enjoy it. It allows for optimum customization of your characters. As far as it is concerned, everybody can learn all of the skills available. You can give everyone any of the skills or magic (Black, White, etc) or easily equip them with different kinds of armor (Heavy, Light, Shields, etc) or any of the weapons available (Daggers, swords, bows, guns, staves, etc). I turn in the Mark for Thextera and earn a little more pocket change. I've wasted enough time with extra stuff for now, so I head down to Lowtown to locate Old Dalan.
     As the name Lowtown sounds, Lowtown is located below Rabanastre. It's basically the low class portion of town and is where the poor citizens live. Lowtown used to be an old tunnel network of storage houses, but the people moved into here when the Imperials took control of the city. People were forced to move down here when they couldn't afford the cost to live up above. It's pretty depressing really, but let's not focus on that. I look around the old network of tunnels and storehouses for a bit, but there's not much to see at this time. I finally work my way around to Old Dalan's place and go inside. As I head inside, the old man (Old Dalan) greets me and asks what is going on. Vaan doesn't mess around any though and immediately asks if there is some way to sneak into the palace so he can loot the place. Dalan laughs at his straightforwardness but quickly answers his question.
     Dalan says that he can make it into the palace through the nearby sewers. It's easy to get into the palace, but the hard part is getting into the vault like Vaan wishes to. Dalan says that the vault is hidden and can only be opened with a magical stone called the Crescent stone. Vaan is sad to hear that, but Dalan quickly reveals that he has the stone in his possession. Unfortunately, there's a small catch to the stone. Despite its magical nature, the stone has lost most of its power and needs to be recharged. Dalan reveals that this can be done with something called a Sunstone. He says I can get some help with that particular item from the Nomads living in the plains south of here, known as the Giza Plains. So...my path now takes me on a side quest of sorts before I can continue through the main story line.
     I leave Old Dalan's and head out a nearby gateway. It's a nice shortcut from the Lowtown to the South Gate of Rabanastre. Just outside of Lowtown, I spot a slightly different Save Crystal. It's orange instead of blue and called a Gate Crystal. The nearby guard informs me that the Gate Crystal allows quick travel with the use of a special item called a Teleport Stone. I have a few of these available, but the Gate Crystal needs a second Gate Crystal to travel inbetween. For now, I can't use it, but it's nice to know that the system exists. I save here and head out onto the Giza Plains.
     It's a short walk from the entrance to the Nomad Village, and once there, I'm pointed to a specific person to obtain a Sunstone. The woman I'm directed to informs me that they normally sell the Sunstones because they are quite valuable. However, they are currently out, but she offers to give me one if I fulfill a small request for her. (OF COURSE! It's all about jobs and quests for these people.) She asks that I find a kind named Jinn. He was out on the plains turning Shadestones into Sunstones. If I find and help him out, I can have one of those for my trouble. She suggests I speak with a few of the kids around before I go because they'll have some information. I head over to speak with the kids, and it turns out Penelo is here! As I talk with her, she believes Vaan is up to no good and tags along for the quest. And so I get my very first party member!

Penelo

     Penelo joins the party with a blank License board, but she also has a pile of LP to spend! I quickly spend all her points and bring her up to speed. With that done, it's time to enter the Giza Plains in search of Jinn. One of the kids told me that he should be in an area south of town. The rest of the kids left him there when he said he was dealing with something. So... I head on out! As I walk out onto the plains, Penelo gives me a small explanation about party stuff. First off, I'm informed that I have a party now. (Duuuuh) Apart from that, she explains that she will control her own actions if I enable her Gambits. The game doesn't explain anything more about Gambits at this point, but Gambits suggest a list of auto commands that the character will do when not directly commanded. If the Gambits are on, she'll more or less act on her own, but I can override any action with a manual selection of her actions. It's also possible to disable her Gambits and just control her manually. It also suggests that I can directly play as other party members, but I don't mess with that right now. Anyways! Back to exploring the Giza Plains...
     There are plenty of enemies to fight on the plains, but there's nothing really tough at this point. I've noticed a few enemies here and there that seem specifically placed to keep me from moving on through a certain area. I work my way to a small southern area at the bottom of the plains. Once there, we quickly spot the Jinn kid sitting by a group of plants. He explains to us that he hurt his leg while trying to finish up the Sunstone creation. He's determined to finish, but his leg is still acting up. Vaan quickly explains the situation to the kid, and Jinn offers us a little deal. He hands over one of the Shadestones and explains the process of charging it.
     Basically, I have to go around the plains and visit the multiple Dark Crystals that are about the area. A charged Dark Crystal will be glowing like the sun, and I discharge the Dark Crystal's energy into the Shadestone. After I charge it enough, the Shadestone will change into a Sunstone. He points out that there are four Dark Crystals littered about the plains that are currently charged up. I won't have to visit all four of them, but I'll still have to find them. It's a short task overall, but it takes some time to walk around the entire plains. It's mostly a win-win scenario though since I can earn some extra experience while I hit up each Dark Crystal. I manage to fully charge the Shadestone from three Dark Crystals and take it back to Jinn. Jinn approves of the Sunstone, and I'm transported back to the village! (Yay! I didn't feel like walking all about anymore.) The lady who requested the help approves of the stone, and we are successful. I do a bit of extra fighting outside the village but then head back to Rabanastre.
     I'm ready to move right along in the game though, so I head for Lowtown from there. Penelo leaves the party at this point because she has something else to work on. She asks Vaan not to get himself into trouble before leaving. He tells her he won't but apologizes after she leaves. I go back to Old Dalan with the Sunstone, and he uses it to recharge the Crescent Stone. With it recharged, he finally gives me the rest of the instructions needed to complete my task. I'm to head to the palace through the Garamsythe Waterway. That will take me to a staircase that leads straight up into the palace. That's the easiest part though, but then I have to locate the hidden treasury. The Crescent Stone will help there and even open the hidden door to it. Before leaving, he imparts on me a saying to help me find the hidden door. "The Signet yearns for Sunstone's strength to light the clouded way." (Light the Signet with the Sunstone.) As I begin to leave, he reminds me that I'll be spending my life in prison if I fail here. With the Crescent Stone in hand, I prepare for my journey through Garamsythe Waterway.
     As I leave Old Dalan's place, the game throws a little snobby foreshadowing in my face. I see a group of soldiers, presumably rebels, are in the Garamsythe Waterway. They are seemingly preparing something for the Imperials. As the scene closes, I see the partial form of a figure approach the screen. I believe I know who it is, but I'll wait and let the game reveal it. Back to Vaan, I head back to town to do a bit of shopping here. Lucky for me, the shops have already obtained new equipment and spells to purchase! But...I don't have enough money to purchase it all. I buy what I can of the spells and head off to do a bit more side questing before continuing. I go to the Sandsea to find another Mark. There's already a new mark on the board as well! The Flowering Cactoid...LET THE HUNT BEGIN!
     From here, I head to the Dalmasca Estersands to find the guy who put up the Mark. He's located in a little pit stop area in the Estersands. I quickly locate him, and he explains what is up with the Flowering Cactoid. I won't go into details, but the monster is making trouble for merchants, so he wants it dealt with. He also requests that I take the flower from its head for him. It's a useful ingredient in medicines it seems. He points out that the monster hides in an area of the Estersands known as the Yardang Labyrinth. I head on out into the Labyrinth and begin the hunt. One of the unfortunate parts of the battle system is running away. If you do it, you almost literally have to outrun the enemy while holding the retreat button. The enemy can ALSO retreat though and run away. That's what took place during most of this battle.
     I found the Flowering Cactoid and started my attack. The battle initially began with the Mark having a few friends along. I took them out first and started focusing on it. Unfortunately, my physical strikes did very little to the monster, so I had to resort to magical attacks. After doing enough damage, the monster started running. I had to chase it all about the labyrinth while also avoiding other monsters. They felt a keen interest in annoying me and chasing me while I chased the Cactoid. Once it stood still, I restarted my fight to slay the blasted plant. Thankfully, it didn't seem to regain its health on the way here, so I just had to continue as is. I had to kill a few sidekicks again though, but that was easy enough. From here on, I had to heal with fair consistency and was forced to resort to potions. It wasn't necessarily powerful, but it liked to combo attack quite often. (The game loves to randomly combo attack...It's great. /end sarcasm) After a lot of trouble and plenty of potions spent, I defeated the Flowering Cactoid and VANQUISHED! I claim the flower on its head and plan to head back to the guy at the camp.
     Of course, before heading back, I took some time to run around and kill a few extra monsters. This was mostly to earn a bit of extra LP for new skills. Let me just say...License Points are very slow to trickle down from enemies. Most enemies only give away a single LP, so it's very slow to get a decent amount. I get what I need and head back to the camp. He gives me my reward, but it's really not that great of a reward. After that, he has a request of me because that's how this game works. He asks me to take the flower back to his wife in a nearby village. It's not part of the Mark's quest, but I figure I'll do it anyways. This turned into a huge mistake. I didn't know directly where the village was, and he didn't say anything outside of indicating north. Despite this, I was able to quickly run through the canyon and find the village. It was located a ways away near a river shore. I went into the village and gave her the flower.
     However, if you give a lady a medicinal flower, she's going to want sea shells. She's trying to help out a traveler with medicine. The flower is the start, but she needs the shells to help out more. I run outside of the village and retrieve the shells and return them to her. However, if you give a lady sea shells, she's going to want something called Nebralim. She believes her husband has some, so I run back to the outpost to retrieve that. I quickly run back, and that certainly helps...but now she needs more. This is getting very annoying, very fast. It's just a damn package run back and forth. This time, she requests some sort of ingredient for an antidote. The item she needs is Valeblossom Dews, but that's locatedi n the Broken Sands. It's across the river, and I can't go that way yet. For now, this side quest is more or less stuck. I return to Rabanastre immediately to save my game and wrap up the post right here.
     Yeah, that's a very sudden and halting stop for my post, but things are just going to get longer from here if I don't stop it somewhere. I considered stopping it a little sooner, but I figured to go ahead and add more. Final Fantasy XII is going fairly slow for me at this time. I'm trying to push through, but I tend to get bogged down when I want to finish the posts as I finish the parts that I type up in said posts. Of course, I've failed at accomplishing that around...the first couple of games. Anyways, on the next post, I'll finally get to jump right into the actual story going on here. I'll also get to meet more exciting characters! You should stay tuned for that idea alone. Anyways, it's been a long first post, and let's hope there are many more to come! I'll sign off right here with a final "Thank you for reading". Tune in for our next startling episode of RECURRING FANTASY!

Ending Point - Rabanastre, South Gate.
Current Party -

• Vaan - Level 7

Goals Accomplished - Started Final Fantasy XII. Made it through the opening bit. Helped Migelo with stuff. Killed a couple Marks. Obtained a Sunstone in Giza Plains. Did another Mark. Started a ridiculous side quest of lame item fetching but then stopped that nonsense.
Next Goals - Enter Garamsythe Waterway and steal stuff from the Palace. Probably find out that THAT doesn't work out.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

And so begins 2013...

Well, it's been a while (basically the beginning of last year) since I posted something that wasn't a Day # or a Side Post!

I've been at this for nearly a year now, and I've completed ten of the twelves titles I've sought to play. I was planning to be further along, but plans rarely go without a hitch. Either way, I'm happy with my overall progress and look forward to wrapping this up before this year gets too far.

As it currently stands, I lack Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIII. I've played very little of XII, and I'm very much NOT looking forward to XIII. Everybody I've talked to about it hasn't been able to push through it because of the sheer amount of unfun contained within. I plan to break past that barrier and beat it though! How fast or successful I am with that...Time will tell. Once I finish Final Fantasy XIII, I've got a couple different ideas of where to expand this blog.

In a past Side Post, I mentioned a large assortment of different games I might play. I reconsidered what games about a month or so ago, and I came to a couple of conclusions. One of these is I'd rather keep this blog focused purely on RPGs. This only eliminates a few of the titles I listed, but I find that completely acceptable. The next thing I realized was that there is a big series I hadn't considered. Apart from Final Fantasy, there's only a few other RPGs that have stood the test of time and survived this long.

The series I'm thinking of is the fabled Dragon Quest RPG series! It boasts a whopping ten titles without including any side series that have been spawned along the way. My plan is to start from the beginning with Dragon Warrior (America originally got the first four titles labelled as Warrior instead of Quest.) and play through until I reach Dragon Quest IX. I'm skipping Dragon Quest X because it's an online title, but I greatly look forward to the rest of the series! My decision to pick Dragon Quest was based on playing a little bit of it randomly back there. After some random and unnecessary purchases, I own almost all of the titles in the series. (1 thru 4, 6, and 9, so I'm only lacking 5, 7, and 8.) As far as I'm concerned, Dragon Quest is probably the best series to tackle after Final Fantasy. It's been around as long as the Final Fantasy, but it doesn't get nearly as much love as it does (in America at least...super popular in Japan).

Other plans to come for this year is to think of another label to use for my extra posts rather than Side Post! all the time. It's not necessarily bad, but it'd look nicer and easier if I could think of a different name for them. I could at least come up with a different title for when I switch to Dragon Quest. I already plan to make another page for the Dragon Quest post archive. Final Fantay's archive is called Archived Fantasy, so I figure I'll call the Dragon Quest one "Questing Logs" since the game called the saves "logs" in the early days. I'll also reset the day counter when that time comes.

Before moving on to Dragon Quest though, I plan to play a few off-FF titles! The current plans are to play through Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and maaaybe Final Fantasy Tactics. I'll see when the time comes. Worst case, I drop Tactics because that game can easily eat 70+ hours for me.

Apart from those announcements, the only other thing I have to add is to wish everybody who reads this a Happy New Year! Let us hope your goals, quests, fantasies, and other assorted plans come to fruition this year! I'm looking forward to another year of RPG-ing myself and can't wait to see where it all goes.

Thanks for reading! Let's hope I have another post up soon enough...

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

(P.S. - I have NO IDEA what kind of ending signature I'll do with Dragon Quest. As far as the blog goes, I'll probably just stick with that one since I don't think Dragon Quest has anything different I could say. I prefer the current one anyways...so for now, sticking with it!)

EDIT - Holy crap! I just realized (from the information that Blogger displays me) that THIS post is my 100th Blogger Post! YAY FOR ONE HUNDRED POSTS! I sure hope I see another hundred posts by the time next year comes around! Woooo! ONE HUNDRED! TAKE THAT DISBELIEVERS!

Day 75 - FFX-2 Single Shot

Game - Final Fantasy X-2, Day 75
Hours Played - 5 hrs
Starting Point - Beginning of Final Fantasy X-2
Current Goal - Play Final Fantasy X-2 for a couple of hours and form a highly opinionated opinion of it. Try to play it no more than about five hours at most.

What Happened - So I said I was going to start FFXII next, and I'm going to really soon. But then I decided to do a one-shot single day couple hour post over the strangeness of Final Fantasy X-2. My current plan is to only play this around five hours and then never look back after I type up this post and details. So..let's get this over with.
     Final Fantasy X-2 is the very first official Final Fantasy sequel in the series. By sequel of course, I mean directly a sequel to a previous title. X-2 is supposed to continue a brief time after the original X ended. I've already played a little in the past, and I believe I know the majority of the story that goes down. So let's just play a little and see if the opinion changes as I go.
     The game opens up with a cutscene (of course), and we're at a Blitzball stadium! So we might start something like the last one....Nevermind. Turns out they are having a concert there right now. As things are starting up, we already see one familiar face pop up. It's Rikku! She's saying something about team is in position. Let's find out. At this point, there's no idea how far into the future it is, but it's funny to see all this technology literally flying about the stadium. Guitarists on flying platforms playing electric guitars. Main stage is a giant drum buddha-looking robot. Yuna appears on top of the stage in her summoner outfit. Next thing I know, the outfit changes into something else entirely. Then Yuna...starts dancing and singing. Rikku is dealing with guards at one point, and the third yet mysterious lady is dealing with guards elsewhere. Find out quickly enough that her name is Paine. The two of them get up to the main stage and fighting begins! (My favorite way to summarize this scene is this: The game opens up with a Britney Spears number ala Yuna and friends.)
     So I get immediately thrust into the battle system. It seems simple enough, but they've changed it a bit since the last one. They've gone from turn-based back to the Active Time Battle (ATB) system. Characters are all actively fighting and moving about this circle that is the battlefield. It's really fast and moving for sure. I'll go more into it later, but either way, it's a quick battle against Yuna and the two guards with her. Rikku is obviously a thief with her steal ability, and Paine seems to be a warrior with her massive sword. I just quickly attack everybody on the field and beat them. After the battle concludes, Yuna runs off and out of the stadium. I chase after her and try to catch up. I have to fight several guards along the way, but they're nothing special. I make my way around, but Yuna has disappeared. Then, we are cornered by a couple of guys who start to attack us when...things happen!
     Yuna appears again, but now she has guns and is in a different outfit. She leaps over the two guys and starts firing at them. As she lands, she poses dramatically with Rikku and Paine, and then the screen throws up a Y R P name. So...they go by that it seems. After that, the two guys charge at us, and another battle starts. One's a big guy with a huge shield, and the other is a taller guy with a pair of guns. Nothing much to say right here, but Yuna has come in as a Gun-based class of sorts. This battle felt all jumbly and quick with characters just bobbing around, but the two guys are easily beaten. With their defeat, the Yuna from before comes up and tells the group that they are quite persistent. The group yells something at her about giving Yuna her Garment Grid back. The singing Yuna changes into a different lady and throws back whatever it was. Then...another battle!
     This opening bit is just shooting through here, and I'm getting to learn things on the fly more or less. As the battle starts, it tells me to push L1 to do something. I hit it and come to find out that you can change your class mid-battle. This detail...I like. I change Yuna from Gunner (what she currently was) into a Songstress. When you change your class mid-battle, you get a little cutscene of the character flashily transforming her outfit from the current class to the new one. It seems like a big pile of fan service...not that I mind. The Songstress class is a class that causes status effects to the entire enemy group through dancing and singing. At this point, I only have the Darkness-causing Dance, but I quickly make use of it. With Darkness in effect, the enemies are quickly beaten. With their defeat, they run off, and the girls start to head after them when they realize...Yuna is a little preoccupied. She's dancing in place and can't seem to control herself. Regardless of this, an airship seems to fly in to pick us up and MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
     When we get back on the ship, it seems that quite a few characters are back for the adventure. Brother (Rikku's brother) is here, and he says something about wanting to see Yuna dance...Yeah, I feel like Square Enix seemed to forget Yuna and Brother's relation. That or they found it okay for cousins to enjoy one another's company. It's kinda creepy. Anyways, something seems to be going on, and he yells some stuff in Al Bhed. (Which I get to re-learn...yaaay...) A kid dressed in a funky outfit is introduced as Shinra (DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN) and is one of the bigger new characters. The group tells him about Yuna's dancing incident and asks him what was up with that. Apparently, this kid invented the Grid Garments (item they mentioned earlier), and he's some sort of genius. After that, I get to start exploring the ship and filling myself in on the details.
     So far, this game feels really rushed and pushing me into things. It jump starts, gets going, and doesn't want to stop. I guess that's all beginnings in a game really, but I wish it'd ease me in a bit slower. I go talk to the Shinra kid and find out he has all the tutorials. I quickly look them over and try to grasp all I can for the moment.
     Like I previously stated, the game has changed from turn-based in FFX to a slightly-altered version of the ATB system. The two biggest things in FFX-2 are the Garment Grids and Dresspheres. Simply enough, Dresspheres are the different jobs/classes you can play as. The Garment Grid takes a bit more of an explanation. The Garment Grid is a grid (OBVIOUSLY)  that you place Dresspheres into. The Garment Grid allows you to change your jobs mid-battle, but you are limited to however many slots are on the Garment Grid. The initial one comes with quite a few slots, and I can easily fit all the current Dresspheres in it. Apart from just holding Dresspheres, some Garment Grids come with special abilities and upgrades that are attached and usable while it's equipped. Each character can equip any Garment Grid separately, but they share the same layout that is on it (job layout). Some Garment Grids come with "gates" on the lines connecting the dresspheres. Passing through the "gates" activates temporary boots in battle like upgraded spells or buffs.
     Apart from the Garment Grid, there isn't a lot of other details to go over. You can chain attacks together in this (due to the nature of ATB), and a higher chain will result in more damage. Of course, you have to be quick to really chain the attacks together. The elements of magic from the previous title are still present here (Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Water). According to what I looked up, there are fourteen different Dresspheres in the game and also three special dresspheres. I don't know much about the special ones, but each character has a special one that can be activated by travelling the entirety of their Garment Grid in-battle.
     As the final note for the "gameplay", they did do one thing correctly...They reinstated actual levels. Rather than having zero definition of a character's level, you have an actual number now! It's nice to have some form of a number for sure. Levels simply boost their general stats though, but it's nice to have an idea. Each Dressphere has its own selection of abilities to learn, and you learn them by having them equipped and using them in battle. You can actively select the skill to learn from the menu, so you can learn pretty much whatever in whatever order. You are limited on some skills to keep you from skipping weak things for their more powerful versions. (Example, you have to get the regular spells first before getting the -ra and -ga spells.) Overall, this is probably one of the stronger points in this game. The job system it uses is actually really nice and better than the previous title. However, now it is time to move right along.
     Among the things Shinra has, he also has a listing of all the current sphere videos I have. There's already one available, and it's detailed as "why Yuna became a Sphere Hunter." I quickly load up the video and find out why things are the way they are. The video contains footage of a person who looks and sounds an awful lot like our departed ghost-friend Tidus. (I forgot to point out the spoiler at the end of FFX credits. You see Tidus swimming up and out of random water somewhere...Yeah, screw you Square Enix.) So basically, this video has lead Yuna to believe that Tidus is still alive somewhere. So now she's joined with the Gullwings to try and find more spheres with evidence like this. So...yeaaah, that's what this game is about.
     From all the minor details during this opening bit, I've learned that it's been two years since the "Eternal Calm" started and a lot of things have changed. Yuna and company are part of some group called the Gullwings. They're a group of Sphere Hunters. Sphere hunters are just one of the many new products of this everlasting peace from Sin. They go around and hunt "treasure spheres" all over the place. These old spheres tend to hold old video recordings from the past and other things. It isn't said at any point, but one could assume that a sphere with valuable and relevant information is likely to be worth quite a bit. Paine is quickly introduced as a sphere hunter who joined the Gullwings shortly before Yuna did. Finally, I learn by talking to Brother that I get to re-learn all of the Al Bhed language! Yaaaay...Luckily, it throws out Al Bhed Primers like free candy in this one. After talking with him, I've already got 4 of the 26 Primers. Every character I talk to gives me a little bit of information, but nothing else felt relevant for the post really. (I also didn't take notes nor did I care about them!)  That's enough of the background stuff for now. It's time to move right along!
     Our navigator, named Buddy, tells me that he can't find any new spheres at the moment and suggests I go rest. I head to our tavern/inn area and sleep it off. (Yeaaah, the airship has a tavern basically.) It quickly jumps over and informs me that they've found a new sphere. I head to the bridge and find out the next sphere is at Mt. Gagazet! We head on there and are dropped off at floating ruins above Mt. Gagazet. Just as we touch down, trouble has already started. Yuna is about to fall off of the floating ruins, but the other two quickly pull her back up. Brother is talking to them through some radio system and is freaking out right now. He's all worried about Yuna at a creepy level really. Once we get past the bit of drama, I find out that exploring in X-2 is a bit more platform-y than previous titles. You can climb up at certain spots or jump over gaps. You can even fall into gaps for collecting treasure or exploring other paths! It's an interesting change but nothing more. I quickly work around the ruins and run into an old friend from before.
     It's the lady from the beginning, and she finally gives us her name, Leblanc. She's a sphere hunter as well, but she calls the group a bunch of amatuers. Rikku quickly points out that she followed us though. Well, Leblanc and her group aren't going to take that so BOSS BATTLE TIME! We get to re-fight Leblanc and her two purple minions. (Fat shield guy and tall gun guy) The battle started off okay, but at some point, they got the upper hand and were just going to town on me. They managed to actually kill one character, so I had to revive her. Lucky for me, I looked around the airship a bit and found some treasure with a Phoenix Down. After the revival, I quickly turned the flow of battle.
     At this point, it feels like the flow of battle is overly fast and forces you to just constantly "Go go go!", or you'll get left behind. For an RPG, it's not very fun if I feel like I have to pause battle to have time to consider my next move. As for dressphere changes, I mostly just changed Yuna around while I kept Rikku a thief and Paine a warrior. I had Yuna jumping between Gunner and Songstress though. The Songstress's Dark Dance is pretty useful and at least kept them from hitting nearly as often. After I finished off her two cronies, I quickly put an end to Leblanc, and the battle was a success! But the war had only started...
     With their defeat, they quickly run off and ahead of us. They plan to grab the treasure sphere before we can! Screw that though, I'm going to get it first! The game throws up a MISSION START, and I get six minutes to quickly get ahead of them and get the sphere first. Six minutes doesn't feel like a lot of time to run around and make it to the top, but it does stop during battles thankfully. I get interrupted by several battles while trying to navigate the place. With the ability to jump gaps, you can explore all forms of places. At least, I would have had I not been hindered by time. I was busy enough trying to find the end of this place that I skipped several chests along the way. Leblanc's group also set up several ambush points on the way up, so I'm further delayed by those.
     As I reach the top of the ruins, I'm sad to see that I had more than enough time to make it. As it turns out though, none of the time mattered at all. (Storywise) The trio of idiots are stuck and hanging from a ledge. They have no way of getting up, and I'm allowed to walk straight past them...Fun fun. As we reach the top, the game quickly informs me that I'm not alone here. Atop the middle chamber leading to the sphere, there's a large spider monster waiting for us. BOSS BATTLE TIME! This battle went pretty fast though, and I had little trouble overcoming the massive spider thinger. I kept Yuna as a Gunner while the other two were their starting classes. (Already mentioned above.) There's not much to comment on this battle overall. I just kept after the beast and easily beat it. With it's defeat, we run into the chamber it was guarding and claim our prize.
     We grab the sphere, and the group wonders if it's worth anything. Leblanc comes in and claims that the sphere is a pile of junk. She tells us that we can have it and walks away. With the sphere in hand, the mission is complete, and the group returns to the ship...without letting me explore anything more. (Find out later that I can't return either...THANKS GAME.) They hand the sphere to Shinra so that he can analyze it. It also turns out that Brother had jumped off the ship when he thought Yuna was in danger. As Yuna, I go over to comfort him, and that was basically just a bad idea. Brother tries to sneak in a grab, but Rikku beats him for that. As that concludes, the sphere is ready to view, so I go to watch it. Turns out...it really just just garbage. The sphere contains just random footage of old Zanarkand. A guy there mentions something about meeting a lady. Luckily, the sphere isn't completely useless because it can be made into a dressphere! Thus I obtain the Black Mage class! Woo!
     With all of that cleared up, it's time to find more treasure spheres! Buddy, the navigator, tells us that a few spheres popped up on their scanner, so I have my choice between the two. One is in Besaid, and the other one is in Zanarkand. All of the locations have a star rating for difficulty, and in this case, Zanarkand is a much higher difficulty than Besaid. Buddy suggests we hit Besaid first. However, in this title, I have most (if not all) the locations (that I know of) unlocked from the start, so I can basically just go wherever I want whenever I want. Before heading to Besaid, I decided to do a bit of exploring first. With the whole map available, I decided to hit one of the low star locations first. With difficulty in mind, Kilika Island seems like a nice start so I head there.
     The first and most obvious thing about Kilika Island is that it is intact now! (Upon visiting locations, Yuna gives a brief explanation of changes and etc.) Yuna narrates how the place was rebuilt some time ago by a group called the Youth League. I explored the town briefly enough and found quite a number of treasure chests available to me. Unfortunately, I couldn't go into the nearby forest to level, so that made this trip somewhat of a waste. (Was planning to get some levels.) For the most part, there wasn't really anything notable about Kilika apart from the repaired status. I did meet a pair of old faces though!
     Dona and Bartholomew are living here, but they are having a small problem between them. They are conflicting over differing beliefs. Dona is with the Youth League, and Bartholomew is with New Yevon. The two factions are currently at odds with one another and disagree over things. Dona doesn't say anything more though, so I make my way back to the airship and look for a new location. Although we just came from there recently, I headed back to Luca to see what's up. (Luca is where the concert was at.) As soon as I get there, I'm immediately thrown into a mission!
     I quickly find out that this is less of a mission though and more of a "What was Yuna doing during the beginning bit?" The group didn't want any problems occurring while trying to get Yuna's Garment Grid back, so they had her dressed up in a Moogle outfit. While the other two infiltrated the concert, Yuna was waiting outside to keep from being spotted and listening in for the code words I guess. As I'm moving about in the Moogle suit, a guy approaches her and tells her to hand out balloons to everybody. I had to give away at least ten balloons to everybody in the town square. This was just a short run about though and easily completed. After giving all the balloons away, Yuna overhears that the concert has started. The group is currently in position and doing their part. From here, the rest is already known though. With the backstory mission completed, I'm awarded a new Garment Grid and MISSION COMPLETE! With the mission done, I decide to look about Luca to see what else is going on. There's not a lot to see or do at this point though.
     The game is split up into five separate chapters, and each chapter has new things available while also locking other things. It's one of those fun factors...If you aren't careful, you can miss out on things with no way to go back. Alongside that lovely thought, the game comes with a percentage score as well. Basically, as you do and complete things, it reflects through your total game percentage. I've already looked up some of the details for it, but I won't be revealing them here. Suffice it to say, if you want the best/true ending, you'll have to hit a fairly high percentage, if not 100%. This can be easily screwed up though, so for those who don't want to miss that, you'll probably want to keep a guide on hand constantly. Back to the game for now.
     As I explore Luca, it's pretty obvious that this place has probably changed the least during all this Eternal Calm business. Everything is basically the same here, but there are a few new things to keep you occupied. By a few though, I guess I only truly mean one thing. There's a new in-game game called Sphere Break. I'm not going to bother with the details, but it involves coins, numbers, math, and being fast about them. If you are really that interested, you can look up more about it yourself. Before leaving the area though, I went up and checked out Mi'ihen Road. There's still fiends all about, but the Al Bhed have put up machina to fight off the fiends. An unfortunate side effect of the technology acceptance is also apparent. Nobody really travels the road with vehicular services able to take you from one place to another. Chocobos are all but gone from here now. Sad times...Well, I take in the time to get in a few extra battles for experience and money. Not much to comment there, so I'll head on with the game.
     Of course, by "head on with the game", I meant I'm going to explore a bit more before moving along with the main story. X-2 has a fairly short main story (or so I read), and a lot of the content in the game has to do with all the side missions. The side missions are basically all the story outside of the main story and has to deal with all the old characters, new characters, warring factions, problems with people, and much more. It sounds kinda lame...but it might work for some people! Moving along, my next destination was Djose Temple.
     Djose Temple is now home to a group of Al Bhed that are doing heavy research on old Machina. The idea is to research and upgrade the current machina. Then, with the knowledge gained, they plan to try and make new machines out of the process. They're also trying to promote the word Machine over Machina. They're trying to eliminate the negative thoughts instigated by Yevon teachings by SLIGHTLY changing the word. From what the NPCs around said, it is somehow working. People come here to apply as a digger for this Al Bhed group. If you pass the application process, you are allowed to go help dig in the Bikanel Desert for old machina buried in the sands. I head in to get signed up, but before I get the okay, I have to be interviewed by the Al Bhed leader of this group. This consisted of a few small cutscenes of him looking all of the ladies up and down. He seems to recognize Paine in all of this, but nothing is mentioned past that.
     After I get the okay from that guy, I head down Djose Highroad and make my way to Mushroom Rock Road. Once there, the group spots Leblanc's minions. They appear to be up to something, so we have to follow after them. I have to sit through a small scene where Yuna and co talk to the Young League, but after that, MISSION START! I'm following the two bozos as they run through Mushroom Rock Road. I also get to fight off minions to help out the Youth League somehow. I eventually follow these guys into a small cave area where they're messing with a weird gate of sorts. They spot us though and run off while dropping important-looking spheres. I pick them up, and I get to learn about this mystery cave. I have to collect some "Crimson Spheres" in order to open the sealed gate and access its juicy contents. There's another little scene between the group and a random old character, but honestly..he wasn't much of a character in regular FFX. Therefore, I don't plan to give him anymore time. Back to the ship!
     Seeing as I've wasted enough time, I head for the next story objective at Besaid Village. When we land, Yuna gives the normal narrative bit. She hasn't been here since she left and blah blah blah. Upon entering the village, we immediately meet with an old friend...Wakka! They talk about things briefly, but the most notable thing that comes up is Wakka's current parental status. He's about to become a father! And guess who the mother is? It's Lulu. His biggest concern is not knowing how to act like a parent. When Rikku mentions to act like his own parents, Wakka says they died long ago and doesn't remember them thanks to Sin. After that little bit, Wakka suddenly grows silent and seems to have something else in mind. He heads off to go check something out, so we go find Lulu next. I quickly locate Lulu and start talking with her. The only funny thing mentioned here is how Rikku says she doesn't look pregnant. (She doesn't...They didn't change her character graphics at all. Lazyness!) She asks the group to walk with her for a bit, and they head a small ways outside of town.
     Lulu asks why Yuna ran off, and she shows her the sphere with the video. Kimahri found the sphere on Mt Gagazet and gave it to Rikku. Rikku gave it to Yuna and then the rest of the story happened. Lulu notes the resemblance of the person in the sphere, but she says that something seems off about it. Regardless, she is glad to see Yuna changing but reminds her to not forget who she is. Lulu believes that people will most likely try to use her if she isn't careful. After that, we stay the night in Besaid. One nighttime nap later, we wake up and learn that Wakka has gone off somewhere. The only clue he gave was inside some sort of cave. And who takes the case? We do! MISSION START!
     First off, we have to talk with all the people about town for clues. It's mostly a lot of little stuff, but when you put it together, you get something like this. Basically, there very much is a cave nearby, but you can't just go inside. You need to acquire a few ciphers to gain entrance. There are four of these around Besaid, and although I have clues to where they are, I still have to go look for them. From there, I leave town and start finding these ciphers. The townsfolk gave good enough clues that most of them are easily found. On top of that, many of them are directly labeled on the map with a giant pink square. After locating the four ciphers, I go to find the cave. As it turns out, the cave in question has a large mechanical door. The ciphers were simply the numbers needed for the password to open the cave door. Once inside, we spot Wakka at the very front and ask what's up.
     He doesn't ever directly say what is going on, but he does admit that this cave is supposed to hold a sphere. He won't say what's on it, but it is important enough that he has come this far for it. Paine hears the word "sphere" in all of that and says we are getting it regardless. So we head on into the cave, and what a cave it is! /end sarcasm It's an insanely small area with nothing much to explore other than reaching the back end of it. When we reach it, there is very much a sphere there for the taking, but we aren't about to get it for free...BOSS BATTLE TIME! This was a grand example of another spectacularly easy battle. Maybe I'm just over leveled at this point, or maybe this game isn't supposed to be that hard. Either way, the dragon we fought here was incredibly easy, and I put him down without any real trouble. With the sphere acquired, I'm immediately given access to the White Mage dressphere! Woo!
     I head back to the entrance of the cave, and the group takes a look at the sphere. Unfortunately, the sphere is useless (outside of the dressphere) and only seems to contain random shots of areas around Besaid. As they leave the cave area, Rikku asks Wakka about the sphere he was looking for. He said that the sphere was supposed to contain an image of his parents. His parents were killed by Sin long ago, and he can't remember what they looked like. Chappu had claimed to find it when they were young, but he never showed it to Wakka because of an argument the two had. Wakka never asked him about it and never thought about it until recently. The whole parent thing got him thinking about it, and he went to investigate that cave. Chappu used to play there as a kid, and he figured that maybe the sphere was there. As he went inside to look for it, he started to think...Maybe he didn't want to see his parents! He already had an image in his head he always used to think of in hard times. Unsure if their real faces would be different, he decided he didn't want to know and would be happy not knowing. He's still unsure about the dad thing, but he thinks he'll figure it all out. He's still unsure of how to go about it, but NOT OUR PROBLEM! MISSION COMPLETE!
     From here on, I didn't really have enough time to complete more story-based missions, so I set about to try and do a few more side mission things. The next spot that was highlighted in the location list was Bikanel Desert. Might as well check out this digging business! I head for there next. The first thing to happen is our drop off in the middle of a damn desert. Rikku leads the group about and seems to know where she's going, but then we get lost. Next thing I know, the group ends up passing out. Oh noes...but then we are picked up by a group of Al Bheds! The explanation here was that they moved the base of operations due to an incoming sandstorm. Rikku was heading for the old location and would have probably never found the new one. Ah well, not much more we can do about it than be glad to be alive.
     Currently, we have to wait around for a couple of things. We can't board the airship currently because of a sandstorm, and we are waiting for the person in-charge to give us full permission to dig. She shows up, we get permission, and a new mini-game is unlocked! MISSION START!
     It's nothing really special though. I'm carried onto a random part of the desert by a hovercraft and have a minute to look around. The map in the corner has several X marks on it, and they mark where treasure is. Apart from regular stuff, there's also a required piece of treasure to get that is vital to a successful dig. Of course, you only get a minute to look around and have to return to the hovercraft before the time expires. So...you don't get much time to explore. There are some fiends to deal with as well, but there's nothing super hard about it. I managed my first round pretty easy though and MISSION COMPLETE! I can redo the mini-game as often as I'd like. The rewards given out are a bit of Gil along with any items I can find. I tried it a second time, but the rewards were kinda meh. I didn't feel like wasting any more time in the desert, so I returned to the airship to explore elsewhere.
     The next location I made my way to was Guadosalam. Unfortunately, there's nothing much to do here at this point. I do learn a little bit of story elements, but nothing worth going crazy over. After the whole latest Sin incident, a lot of people blamed the Guado for what happened. Yuna says they weren't wrong to blame them for that, but it still wasn't the right thing to do. The Guados ended up leaving Guadosalam, so it became an empty place. Sphere hunters have ended up setting shop here because it's a nice middle area of Spira. It also seems that Leblanc has set up her sphere hunter organization here as well. She's laid claim to Guado Manor and nothing much more to add for Guadosalam. I head back to the ship and aim for another location. This time...I went to Bevelle.
     Ah Bevelle! I was never truly able to visit it last time, but I can visit it now. Of course, there's really not much to do at this point. Bevelle has become the home of the New Yevon faction (of course). As previously stated, New Yevon and the Youth League are currently at odds with one another. I do learn that there was something up between Yuna and the New Yevonites. It seems there was some sort of strange meeting between her and the leader. He had asked her to marry the current high minister or something like that. However, the group recently kicked him out because he was trying too hard to go for a power grab. Since the change has occured, Yuna's deal fell through. She wasn't planning to marry him regardless though, so it doesn't really matter! The new leader explains that New Yevon just wants to help people adjust to the current times. Without Sin being a problem, they are trying to adjust to peaceful times without the constant overhanging doom of Sin. There's not much I can do in Bevelle right now though, so I leave here.
     And with that, I'm calling it. I'm a little under the five hour mark, but I don't really care. It's close enough to stop because otherwise I'll go over. I'm ready to start Final Fantasy XII! No point wasting anymore time with X-2. I don't plan to post a full review of FFX-2 though since I didn't play the full game. However, listed below, I'm going to make a Pros and Cons list to explain what I think is good and bad about the game based on the small amount of time I played. I'll say right now that it hasn't been the best experience, but there's some niceties about it regardless.

First off, let's cover the Pros!

• THE PROS 
• Fights are nice and fast like FFX.
• The overall system is interesting and nice. A LOT simpler than the Sphere Grid.
• Levels are back! No more weird unknown about how far along you are.
• There are several classes in the game, so you can customize your team to the fullest!
• Customization is easy and learning new abilities is also easy.
• The game has more than enough for you to do, and it's all fairly optional unless you want a better ending. (I mentioned above how a certain percentage is needed to get the better endings.)
• You get the airship from the start, so you have immediate access and full freedom of exploration.
• Fans of the previous game will find it nice to see what has happened to Spira as well as the many, many characters from FFX.

Now that lists the pros of the game for me, but with a pros list, you inevitably get a cons list. I'm afraid that my cons really outweigh the pros list.

• THE CONS
• From the very beginning, the fights feel almost too fast. You almost have to play catch up or just fully pause the game to consider your course of action. 
• Beyond classes and accessories, you can't customize your character very much. There's no armor or weapons included. Of course, this is for good reason, but it'd be nice to have at least some control over this.
• From what I looked up, there's not much to do if you just play straight through the game. This means that the game is more about doing side missions than the main bit. This means you spend more time talking with and learning about random NPCs than anything. This is good for people who just absolutely LOVED the assortment of random people in FFX, but I found a lot of them pointless and annoying after a while...So yeah. 
• The underlying focus of this story is that Yuna loves Tidus. Every narration bit she does refers to "him". He's supposed to be gone, but what I read about the plot summary suggests otherwise...if you get 100% on the overall game completion.
• There are multiple endings based on your overall percentage. For me, getting anything less than 100% is lame, and the different endings without 100% aren't worth my time! It's also incredibly easy to miss some of them since some of the percentage is as simple as "comforting Brother" or "sleeping in the tavern every chapter". Overall, not a big fan of that.
• The music in this game feels incredibly weird in comparison to earlier entries in the series. I'm even talking about FFX! The music is more pop-based than anything. There's none of the good classical music or cool rock pieces. Simplest way to say this, the music is lame. 
• The characters are even worse than they were previously. Even good characters aren't any good now! The girls are a just too girly. The biggest problem is that it seems like Yuna and Rikku have both changed to a worse degree. Brother's just gone weird in this game. He's obsessive over his cousin Yuna. Won't say anything more past that. 
• My final con for this is obvious but will say it anyways. This game is obviously only built for a fan of FFX. I'm not just talking about an average fan either. I feel like FFX-2 is for the incredibly large super fan of the first title. Would recommend anybody else to just skip past this.

If I were to summarize everything I said there, it'd go something like this...

     Final Fantasy X-2 has brought some new ideas into the Final Fantasy series, but the game just feels really bad from the start. The opening piece and character's personalities feel just awkward, stupid, and fairly warped for already known characters. My name for this title is "Final Fantasy X-2: Girls' Night Out!" because that completely summarizes how I feel about this. It isn't a bad idea to have a sequel to finish up loose ends to the series, but a lot of it just seems weird in comparison. 

     The most redeemable part of this game is that the garment grid and dresspheres add an interesting aspect. They brought back character levels and more control over your character's builds. Beyond that though, a large portion of it just feels bad. I don't like the idea of multiple endings in general in gaming. I can accept it when it seems more relevant like "I was a bad person. I get THIS ending." or "I killed everything in sight. This is my reward/ending." For FFX-2, you get an ending based on how much of the game you played. I do not approve of this. I realize the whole point of the game is to work on the issues surrounding Spira currently, but I shouldn't have to do random bullcrap events to earn a single percent. It's just...bad game design. 

     I'm not going to tell you to NOT play it, but I would suggest pretty much any title in the series over X-2. There are better Final Fantasy titles out there, and I really hope I'm about to go into one! Final Fantasy XII is coming up very soon, so I'll hopefully have my first post ready to go next week! Look forward to it! I would like to thank anybody who took the time to read this and headed my words on FFX-2. You can play it regardless, but just be warned now...it's not great. That's all folks. 

Ending Point - Celsius (our airship) Bridge.
Current Party -

• Yuna - Level 10 - White Mage
• Rikku - Level 11 - Thief
• Paine - Level 10 - Warrior

Goals Accomplished - Started and suffered through Final Fantasy X-2.
Next Goals - Start Final Fantasy XII.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~