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!
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| A typical Seeq |
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.
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| A pair of Vieras |
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.
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| Balthier, the leading man (or so he thinks) |
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| Fran, the special Viera |
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!
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| Basch, Captain and Swordsman |
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
Next Goals - Head out to Bhujerba. Find and rescue Penelo!
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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