Game - Final Fantasy XII, Day 78
Hours Played/Hours Total - 5 hrs / 17 hrs
Starting Point - Rabanastre, West Gate.
Current Goal - Head out to Bhujerba. Find and rescue Penelo!
What Happened - The trip through Final Fantasy XII continues onward and upward. I really need to get things in gear if I plan to finish this by the end of February at best. I've already abandoned the notion of beating it in January because that would require I triple my time and then I'd never get posts done from all the gameplay. Overall, I'll learn to accept it and get posts out slightly faster. Time to move right into the story...
Where we left off, I was about to enter the Aerodome and leave the ground behind! I head inside the Aerodome, and it's basically...just a large airport. There are tons of people and desks around, and you can apparently travel to different places from here. However, I'm only allowed to travel to one right now, and it's not through any desk for sure. I locate Balthier and learn a bit about Bhujerba before we leave. Bhujerba is located on a Sky Continent known as Dorstonis. It's a city-state that thrives on the export of magicite. It's currently ruled by a Marquis Ondore, and he's kept off Imperial Invasion through neutrality and staying in good graces with the Emperor. Well, that's all he has so I guess it's time to move on!
Next up, the group is walking through a hanger and towards Balthier's airship. As we approach, a group of moogles are leaving it, and he asks how it is. They don't really say anything though, and we climb aboard regardless. Balthier's airship is known as the Strahl. Vaan is very excited to be aboard. (Who wouldn't be?) Everybody straps in and the ship takes off into the sky! Of course, this happy cutscene is cut short by a slightly depressing scene. It jumps over to a captured Penelo who being held by the Bangaa group. The leader comes in and talks about how they are preparing to capture Balthier. They seem to want him alive because the bounty is worth more if he is. And...end scene.
We land at the station, and we spot a group of Imperial Guards who are looking about. The group seems to assume that they are the ones being searched for, so we head right along. Outside, I gaze upon the large Skycity of Bhujerba. The group discusses the next course of action, and that is heading to the nearby Lhusu Mines. A random guy over to the side overhears us and has a request. He has something to do there as well and asks if he can come along with us. Balthier agrees but asks that he stays right where he can be seen. The guy agrees and introduces himself as Lamont. Vaan begins to introduce himself and give EVERYBODY'S name despite Balthier saying they are supposed to keep a low profile. (He just mentioned like a few minutes ago for NO NAMES.) Oh well! We move right along into Bhujerba.
It seems that Final Fantasy XII does one thing right. All of the places that I've been to so far feel fairly alive. On top of this, you can talk to almost 40% of the people around you, so this means it at least looks and feels lively. Back to the game, our current goal is the Lhusu Mines. We have to travel through town to get to them, but there are Imperial Soldiers all about. They're blocking off several paths throughout the city, and more importantly, they are blocking the most direct path to the mines. So I get to do this the fun way and take the long way through town. While I walked through, I hit up a few of the shops and got what I could. Not a lot of new things at this point, so I quickly make my way through and to the Lhusu Mines. As we are about to head inside, Basch thinks there may be Imperials afoot inside, but he is quickly told otherwise. Lamont steps forward to inform us that very few Imperial Soldiers are allowed inside the city at all, and that none of them should be present in here. So...off into the mine we go!
Finally, we have made it into the Lhusu Mines, but it doesn't seem we are quite alone yet. The group jumps to the side real quick, and it seems for good reason. A small group is walking through here, and it's not just anyone...it's a Judge! Along with the Judge is a group of fairly important looking people. The Judge is talking to the man among them about the mine's magicite. He seems to be questioning it's quality or quantity or something like that. The man tells the Judge that all the magicite is going straight to Lord Vayne. Nothing of importance is really said and the group moves right along. As they are leaving, Lamont informs us that the man talking to the Judge is quite important. That man was Marquis Ondore, the leader of Bhujerba. Lamont goes on to say that Ondore has tried to remain neutral during all of this conflict. He was even the mediator at Dalmasca's surrender. Balthier notices that Lamont seems quite well informed...and asked who he really is. Vaan interrupts all of this and says that none of this matters right now. They're here to find Penelo and nothing more. So our journey into the mine continues/actually starts.
The Lhusu Mines are your typical mines. There are shafts full of bats and skeletons, and several tunnels separating to different directions. It's a pretty easy trek through overall. Lamont is a bit behind us in power, but he keeps up regardless. Despite being the same level as the group, he certainly feels under powered compared to the group. There's not any directions of where I should be going, so I have to guess. As luck would have it, I happened upon the exact room I needed to. (Found out later it was the ONLY place I could go actually...Everywhere else is locked off.) After all of the mine shafts, we finally come to a mining area. Lamont steps forward and says that this is why he came here. He pulls out a strange object and holds it out. Vaan asks him what it is, and he calls it manufactured Nethicite. He quickly explains that Nethicite draws in magical energy, unlike Magicite. He also mentions something about research at the Draklor Laboratory. He thanks everybody for our help and says that he will reward us soon enough.
Of course, Balthier has been suspicious of him this whole time, and now his suspicious has peaked. He comes forward and asks Lamont how he knows all of this. He inquires about the Nethicite, how he got his sample, and what he knows about the Draklor Laboratories. As he attempts to question him though, things take an obvious turn. The Bangaa who called out Balthier appears now. The Bangaa, known as Ba'Gamnan, is very determined and seems quite happy to finally have Balthier cornered. He puts together his chainsaw spear...thing and comes at is. (Seriously, that's how I would describe it. It's a chainsaw ring on top of a spear.) Vaan asks him where Penelo is, but Ba'Gamnan replies that he released her nowns more, and we were back at the entrance. We lost the Bangass, but we also lost track of Lamont as well.
We go to leave the mines and spot Lamont outside. Of course, we find out that Lamont ISN'T Lamont. He's actually Lord Larsa, and as he leaves the mines, he's greeted by the Judge and some guards. They seem to have Penelo oas well though. They found her wandering and trespassing in the mines, and they are about to punish her. However, Larsa ends up defending her. He claims that if wandering the mines is a crime, that he is guilty as well. He asks the Marquis if he can accommodate another guest, and the group begins to leave. Lamont takes Penelo with them as they leave. The rest of the group watches on, but Vaan is still behind somehow. He asks what is up with Lamont, but Balthier reiterates that he isn't Lamont. He's Larsa something-or-other Solidor. He is one of the Emperor's sons and a brother to Lord Vayne. Fran tells Vaan not to worry about Penelo though. She feels that Penelo will be treated well.
After all that is said and done, Basch comments that their paths are now one and the same...to Ondore. Of course, the group doesn't have a way to approach the Marquis, so that is our next goal. Balthier figures that the Marquis is giving money to rebels who are opposing the Empire. That's where we need to start, and unfortunately, it's going to start in the most annoying way. The group wants to be discovered by the rebel groups in Bhujerba. Balthier suggests that Basch's current status of "not being dead" might spark up interest if it becomes well known. (As far as the world is concerned, he was executed a couple years ago.) Vaan volunteers to run around town and yell out about Basch's new status. This involves one of the most annoying and ridiculous sounding parts of the entire game.
Basically, I have to run around town as Vaan and yell at people. This is yet another percentage minigame sort of like the electricity in the underground area from before. The game threw up a Notoriety meter and gives me a percentage. I just go about yelling out things like "I'M CAPTAIN BASCH!" or "DON'T BELIEVE ONDORE'S LIES!". To achieve more percentage, I simply have to quickly spread rumors around town. You aren't timed while you do it, but you have to do it quickly because the meter drops. Unfortunately, the game didn't tell me that only certain people I can talk to are affected by your yelling. It didn't waste a lot of my time, but I wish I'd known beforehand...Anyways, I ran all over town and yelled it about like an idiot. It was soooooo much fun. /end sarcasm Overall, it's just a large and incredibly annoying task, but it goes by relatively quick.
With the goal achieved, I'm shown a little scene. Vaan is suddenly surrounded by a group of people and abducted for spreading the rumors. Next thing I know, I'm in a random backroom and being questioned. The guy there asks why Vaan keeps saying he's Captain Basch. He demands that Vaan explains himself right now, but Vaan doesn't get a chance. The rest of the crew suddenly comes in and starts talking. Balthier comments on how the rebels are disguised as tour people, and that the Marquis is supporting them during all this. He did find their backroom tavern hideout to be a bit typical though. Basch steps in finally and things are going to get interesting...SCENE CHANGE!
Now, I'm seeing Penelo at the palace (I think), and she's talking with Larsa. She thanks him for helping her out of the jam with the Judge, and she asks if Vaan is okay. Larsa was glad to help, but it seems the two were talking about the current state of Dalmasca. He seemed troubled by whatever she said, and he promised to speak with the Consul himself. He informs her that the Consul is his brother...He's Larsa Solidor. He believes that his brother is a great and righteous man, but Penelo says she is scared of him. She tells Larsa that he can't possibly understand how much the people of Dalmasca lost during the war. Larsa asks if she fears the Empire, and Penelo shakes her head yes. Larsa approaches her and says that he was taught to take the needs of others before their own. He will see that she is kept safe from harm, and that is his duty as House Solidor. She asks how she can possible believe him, and he gives her his word. He claims that his brother would do no less. End scene, and back to the main group!
Thankfully, the group went over the entire backstory without me having to listen in. Basically, the Marquis is going to be quite surprised to find that Basch is alive, but at the same time, he is going to be in trouble because of it. (Doesn't directly explain, but I'd assume because the people would see him as a liar.) Of course, one of the Marquis's men is present during all of this discussion. He says that he'll arrange a meeting for us with the Marquis, and we are to head there as soon as possible. I leave the tavern, and I'm finally free to roam again! I run all around the city and do a bit of shopping. After that, it's time to catch up on the side questing. In this case, I'm needing to look into a few of the Marks I took on some ways back. Of course, before I can rush off to those, I have to find the people who requested the Marks.
I'm not going to go into detail of finding the people, but I'll list the names of the Marks of course. The two Marks that I acquired are the Rocktoise and the Nidhogg. Both of them are located in Lhusu Mines, so I simply need to re-enter the mines and locate these monsters. Will I be able to beat them? I'm going to assume yes, but the Rocktoise does have me a little worried. I received that Mark quest from the Clan Hall before I left Rabanastre. The other one I received (cluckatrice) was incredibly hard, and I couldn't beat it. No point messing around here though, so let's get to it! BACK TO LHUSU MINES!
I ran through the mines and gained extra loot and LP as I could. After doing that for a bit, I went just a small ways in and located the Nidhogg! LET THE HUNT BEGIN! I made use of a Quickening (The in-game Limit Breaks...still never gave me a proper explanation for them.) and dealt a pretty good amount of damage. I was doing pretty well on the whole, but then something happened and everything went downhill. The Nidhogg managed to kill one person, and then it just became a revival game with no hope of killing it. If I got one person up, the next one would fall and things would just repeat. So...that ended in a big ol' Game Over, and I got to reload and retry. I wasn't very happy about that either since I lost like 40 minutes of battling and looting. Regardless, I took another stab at the Nidhogg.
However, this time, I took a slightly different approach. I did use the Quickening again, but this time I made use of another feature of the Quickenings. Basically, like previously stated, Quickenings are sort of like this game's version of Limit Breaks. It deals a pretty good amount of damage on its own, but there's a better use for it! If every character has a Quickening, they can chain them together! From what I read somewhere, it's also possible to constantly chain one after another, but I didn't remember the details to that. The biggest downside to the Quickenings is that they take an entire MP bar to activate. That means that you're going to be without magic as soon as you use it, so you have to choose wisely. Regardless of that, I threw two Quickenings at the big snake and took out pretty much all of its HP. I was able to keep after it from that point and quickly finish it off. And thus...NIDHOGG VANQUISHED!
Since the person requesting the Nidhogg mark is just outside, I left the mines to go ahead and turn it in. Yet again, the reward wasn't anything to brag about, but it was better than some of the previous ones. I sold off all of my loot and had a small shopping spree. The main thing I had to restock on was potions from all the training. After that, I returned to the mines to do a bit more training. I spent at least another hour inside of there to get extra levels and loot. Let me just say...Getting extra money in this game is very slow and time consuming. You have to sell dozens and dozens of items at a time just to gain enough to fully upgrade ONE character to the current standard. It's a very slow road to upgrade, and I've only got four characters that I'm trying to fully equip at this point. (Based on positioning and such, I believe you have a max of six people.) After my hour of training/looting, I left the mines and made my way to the Marquis's palace for the meeting. (No point delaying this game anymore.)
A brief walk later, and we are now face-to-face with Marquis Ondore. He acknowledges that Basch is very much alive, and he realizes now that Lord Vayne has placed him in a most precarious position. Basch requests the Marquis's help in rescuing Amalia and claims that she is of great importance to the resistance. The Marquis seems like he would like to help, but he mentions that he's currently stuck with the Empire looming over him. Vaan asks if they can see Larsa since Penelo is with him. The Marquis informs us that Larsa and the girl have already left and will be heading for Rabanastre soon enough. Of course, now it throws us a super suspicious cutscene. There's a large group of airships in the distance away from Bhujerba. They launch off a pile of little fighter ships that go heading towards the palace. Back inside the palace, Vaan is currently being held back for whatever reason, and it turns out that this meeting was a big damn setup. Ondore calls in his men, and we are officially captured. He informs us that we are going to be turned over to Judge Ghis. (Prounced GEESE. This game is all about it's weird pronunciation of things.) Now we get to jump over to a completely different conversation!
I am now privy to a conversation between Consul Vayne and one of the Judges. They're currently discussing the resistance and their insurgence. The Judge talks about how the Bhujerba resistance seems a bit too well funded, and he believes that Marquis Ondore is behind this. Vayne then shows the Judge (calls him Gabranth) a letter. He says that the Marquis has captured Basch and is sending him back with Judge Ghis. Ghis will arrive tomorrow with Larsa, and Vayne orders Gabranth to escort Larsa back home. He bids Gabranth to leave now because Dr. Cid is about to arrive. (Yuup, Cid is back once again! But...he might be a bad guy this time.) Cid enters the room as Gabranth is leaving, and he starts discussing something with Vayne. Of course, the game cuts off this scene around this point. (I also didn't really care what they were yammering about!)
And guess what? Right into another cutscene! The group is being chain-scorted onto an Imperial airship. Then that airship flies into a LARGER airship, and I'm quickly informed that this airship is known as Dreadnought Leviathan. (Based on earlier bits, the airships in this game are named after various monsters and summon monsters. Tonberry, Leviathan, Ifrit, and etc.) We're taken into a large room, and Amalia is here as well. As soon as she sees Basch, she comes forward and is quite angry at him. Then the secret is revealed...AMALIA IS PRINCESS ASHE! (Dun dun duuuuun! Not really a secret. I already knew as soon as I saw her the FIRST time.) The Judge states that despite that statement, she doesn't have any proof of her royalty and shall be executed soon enough. Basch steps forward and claims that he has something to prove her royalty-ness. The late King of Dalmasca entrusted him to give her the Dusk Shard, and that would prove her royal blood. He claims that only he knows where it is. Ashe is angry with him though because she believes he killed the King. Everybody believes that though...except the current party. She asks him why he would leave her alive after killing the King, something about shame. Vaan tells her to stop yelling or they'll all die. Randomly enough, the Goddess Magicite happens to be in his hands and starts glowing.
The Judge is quite happy to see the stone Vaan has because it saved him quite a bit of trouble. He then asks Vaan to hand over the stone. Vaan gives it to him, but he asks that nobody is executed. The Judge takes it and says something about upholding the law. After that, the group is taken away while Lady Ashe is taken elsewhere. As we're being escorted away, Basch and Balthier start chatting away. As the guards tell them to hush, the two of them start the BREAKOUT! Despite being shackled, they start beating the crap out of the couple of guards nearby. As they are coming to deal with the last one though, suddenly one of the other guards strikes him. He steps forward and reveals himself as an old friend in disguise. It's one of the Resistance guys whose name I didn't catch!
Basch and he start talking about all of the events. The man apologizes for his previous actions towards Basch. He needed to protect the Princess and couldn't trust anybody. He requests Basch's help in rescuring her now, and Vossler (his name) joins the party as a guest. Time to mooove out! As we begin to search the ship, Vossler warns us about the laser alarm system. If we trip it, guards will keep coming until the system turns back off. As I explore, I do my best to avoid the lasers as I can. However, I eventually get caught in one because the NPCs decided it would be fun. Luckily enough, the Imperial guards are pretty easy, so I just deal with the "problem". I have to fight quite a damn few of them while trying to find the Princess. For most of the game, I've been sticking with Vaan, Balthier, and Fran, but I ended up switching out Vaan for Basch because of the level difference. (Vaan was up two levels on everybody else.) I'm moving right along when I come to a conveniently shaped room for a round of mini-BOSS BATTLE TIME!
As we walk into the room, a pair of Judges (non-named I guess) come in along with a pair of Imperial guards for each. They come at me, but they don't stand a chance! I quickly beat the Judges and then follow up by beating the couple of guards with them. CONGRATULATIONS! (The game throws up another one like with the Flan.) This battle was super easy, and it's barely a boss battle. I probably shouldn't have called it that...No point in going back now though. With their defeat, one of them dropped a No 1 Brig Key. Hooray for keys! I grab the key and enter the nearby brig area. I quickly explore the four cells here and find that one of them...has Princess Ashe! As soon as I opened the cell, I imagined the following situation...
Princess Ashe "Aren't you a little short for an Imperial Guard?"
Basch "My name is Basch Fon Rosenburg. I'm here to rescue you!"
/end tacky reference placement
Back to the game now, the Princess isn't too happy to see Basch, but then Vossler shows himself. She seems fairly eager to see that guy. She wants to argue with him, but he says that we need to escape now and can talk later. Princess Ashe joins the party as a real member, and it's time to move right along.
As we leave the jail cells behind, the alarm turns on and goes into "permanent mode". I get to run back to where I started, and I get to do so while enemies are constantly flooding towards us. With the Gambits in place, this was a fairly easy task. Of course, I'm getting a constant flow of enemies, so I had to start managing my characters here and there. I don't have a perfect Gambit setup, and they can sometimes get caught up in what I call a "Healing cycle". (Quickly explained, they get caught healing each other constantly.) Lucky for me, there's a shortcut to go back, so heading back went quite a bit faster than coming to the jail area. It's possible to hit a console in the ship and deactivate the alarms, but it's a temporary fix and only lasts a minute. However, that lasted long enough to get me past a lot of the guards! Just as I'm coming back to where it started, we run into Larsa and Penelo.
Penelo and Vaan have a small moment here because they are reunited and such. Larsa looks over and comments that something is definitely up if two dead people are currently very much alive. (Basch and Ashe) He says that their current alive status is bound to pull up some strings, and we had best follow those leads as they come up. He requests Vossler's aid in dealing with something so that the rest of us can make our escape. Before leaving though, he gives Penelo the manufactured Nethicite and wishes her luck. He runs off with Vossler, and Penelo re-joins the party. Well, it's time to make our escape! I head to onward and find out the truth...We aren't getting away THAT easily! The Judge from before, Judge Ghis, has come around to stop us himself.
 |
| Judge Ghis |
The Judge looks to be quite a powerful foe, and I hoped that I was prepared to face him. As it turns out, I was MORE than prepared to face him. I start off by taking out all of his guards first. They were just regular Imperial guards, so they go down quite easily. With them out of the picture, I change my focus to him. I started on him by unleashing a couple Quickenings in his direction. For this case, I was actually able to combo them up! This took out a pretty good chunk of his health, but then I had to focus on regular attacking and let my Gambit setups work their magic. He wasn't the easiest enemy to beat, but it was a fairly simple battle overall. The only interesting attack that came out of him was Aero. Instead of just striking one person, it hit everybody within a certain range. With his defeat, he is knocked back, and his helmet comes off. We get a glimpse at the man inside, but we don't linger around too long.
Vossler comes in and informs us that he has secured us an Atomos shuttle to escape in. (See! More summon monster names for aircraft.) Balthier doesn't seem overly impressed with that, but we don't have much choice and head out. Cutscene! We pile inside the small airship and fly out of the Leviathan. Penelo tells Fran (currently piloting) to hurry up, but Fran has a plan. They slowly fly up and past the other ships, and as she clears their range, she finally takes off. She tells Penelo that it would have been suspicious to have gone faster. Therefore, we have officially escaped! Huzzah!
We make it back to Bhujerba safely. Basch has a talk with Ashe and Vossler now. It seems that Ondore was responsible for making all of this possible, and Vossler says he feels bad for distrusting the Marquis at first. Vossler needs to head off now though. He's trying to find a way for them to defeat the Empire and asks that we wait for him at Marquis Ondore's palace. He entrusts Ashe to Basch and asks her to stay with him despite her not wanting to. He fully trusts Basch now and wishes that she does the same. From here, I'm finally free again to explore as I want. Before heading to the Palace though, I decide it's time for a little extra training and a Mark I ignored earlier.
Of course, with Bhujerba, there's only one place I can go at this point...back to Lhusu Mines. I head inside to do a bit of training, a lot of looting, and to deal with a pesky Mark. Earlier on, back at the Clan Hall waaaay back there, I got a Mark about a monster called a Rocktoise. Someone got it as a pet, but then it got out and turned into a massive monster. He asked that we go and take care of it, and here we be now. I head into the mines and locate him all the way at the back. THE HUNT BEGINS! Of course, the first thing that came to mind when the fight started...I'm probably not going to succeed. With the Cluckatrice in mind, I figured this Mark would be quite a bit harder to vanquish. I was right about that, but with one spell, I quickly changed this battle from "insanely hard" to "just takes time". I cast Blind on the Rocktoise, and everything was downhill for the monster from there. With it Blinded, it missed on nearly 90% of its attacks, so from there, I simply needed to take the time to constantly attack, attack, attack! Honestly, it made it a pretty unexciting event. Regardless of that though, MARK VANQUISHED!
With the Mark dealt with, I took some time to do a bit more grinding and looting of the mines. I spent at least an hour fighting off all the monsters I could. The main group I dealt with were the Skeletons scattered throughout. They weren't anything horrible to deal with, and they dropped some of the better loot available at this time. With my bag overflowing with loot, I left the mines and sold everything I could. I contemplated heading back inside, but I'm having a hard time keeping focused on the game as is. Thus, it was time to continue onward! I visited all of the shops and bought what I could with my meager income. I managed to obtain all of the current spells and even buy a few techniques. Of course, that drained everything I had, so I was forced to skip any true equipment buying. I want to spend more time looting to get better equipment, but I decided it would be better to push through the game.
That being said, I saved my game and stopped there. I've taken long enough getting this post typed up, and I decided to stop and get this done before going a lot further. It's not the longest post I've ever done, but I wanted to release a new one. If I went a whole lot further, this post could easily double in size. This is the end of the post though, so I won't babble on anymore. I meant to have this up and posted sooner, but then I got distracted. I wasn't playing much of Final Fantasy XII because I was playing the newly released Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. If you are reading this post and haven't heard of it, GO FIND OUT ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW! It's a fantastic RPG with a Studio Ghibli movie vibe. It's lots of fun and very well made. Back to the ending bit, thanks to anybody who stuck through until this post made it up! I'm going to try and work harder this week, and hopefully, I'll have another post up sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading and see you soon...on RECURRING FANTASY!
Ending Point - Bhujerba, Lhusu Square.
Current Party -
- Penelo - Level 15
- Balthier - Level 15
- Ashe - Level 16
Next Goals - Figure out what I'm supposed to do next. Vague but involved the Marquis I believe.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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