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.
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| 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.
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| Typical Bangaa (NOT MIGELO) |
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!
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| Penelo |
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
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~
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