Game - Final Fantasy XII, Day 80
Hours Played/Hours Total - 10-1/2 hrs / 38 hrs
Starting Point - Rabanastre, South Gate.
Current Goal - Prepare for the next part. Head south through Giza Plains to the Garif village.
What Happened - Final Fantasy XII is starting to show some fun moments here and there! I'm slightly surprised, but I was getting a tad bored of it. Doesn't help that I have several new games I want to play as well though...Anyways, things are looking up, and if I can keep after the game, I'll have it done in NO time! Let's get down to it.
My current selection of goals was to try and weed out some of the Marks I recently collected. Of those, I decided it was time to take out my old friend the Cluckatrice. Unfortunately, I think I have missed out on that mark completely. The area is different due to the rainy season, and I'm unable to clear out the plains area the Cluckatrice was in. The problem lies in ONE enemy, the Storm Elemental. It's level isn't that much higher, but it throws out a Thundara spell that could almost wipe out my entire team. For now, I'll have to give up on the Cluckatrice. (Currently thinking I won't ever be able to do it, but I'll just wait and see for now.) Since the Cluckatrice is out, I decided to attempt the next mark on the list...the Croakadile. (Yes, the names are horrible.)
The Croakadile likes to troll around a bridge in the southern section of the Giza Plains. I quickly spotted it and charged at it for MARK BATTLE TIME! The initial thought I had when the battle started was that it was pretty powerful and intimidating. However, I quickly threw out a round of Quickenings, and that took off around a third of its health. From there, I just had to keep after it with physical strikes. All in all, it was a decently hard fought battle, but it looked like the odds were in my favor. The Croakadile's vanquish-ness was imminent, but then...it pulled out two insanely annoying and game breaking moves. It cast two spells that completely changed the battle and forced me to run away. The first ability (missed the name) caused it to double its current levels. (Screw you Croakadile.) That would have been acceptable if it weren't for the second ability...Renew. With Renew cast, the Croakadile was restored to max HP from basically nothing. I won't comment further on this because it'd just be a big pile of swear words. *Insert angry sweary-ness here*
With its levels doubled and health renewed, I had to end up running away from the monster. Thankfully, the big toad couldn't cross the nearby bridge, so I was able to heal up and restart. At this point, I was very disgruntled. I had it at nearly 10% of its health when it basically doubled its efforts and fully healed itself. However, this time, I pulled out an old trick that is insanely cheap. So take THAT Croakadile! I charged back at the beast, and the first thing I did was cast Blind on it. As luck would have it, the first casting of Blind struck true. And thus was the downfall of the Croakadile. You might wonder how, but it's actually pretty simple. With Blind on it, it's hit chance was pretty low. When you combine that against someone who uses a shield, which gives you a bonus to evasion (although it's technically blocking), you basically just get a big pile of screw you enemy. With Blind and Vaan's shield, I was blocking at least four out of every five attacks. Unable to hit, all that was left to this battle was a little time and patients. Apart from the regular attacks, I did take a little time to cast Protect on my party. Of course, that was just to eliminate having to heal Vaan so much. (Anything that did hit was pretty hurting.) After way too long of time, I finally defeat the toad! MARK VANQUISHED!
Then the person who posted the Mark has a second task for me. The Croakadile dropped a ring, and he wants me to take it to someone. Of course, he didn't really give me a name or a location, so...I'm not going to do that. I considered doing it for whatever reward it brings, but I didn't really feel like wasting the time for now. Instead, I head back into Rabanastre to sell off what loot I have. I didn't have much to sell though, but I gained more marks...3 new marks. All three of the new marks are higher ranks, and I'm pretty sure I can't handle any of them! Since I can't deal with the marks, I decide to focus my efforts on looting. I need to upgrade everybody's armor anyways. I head out into the Dalmasca Westersand to explore, loot, and find out more about the Mark known as the Ring Wyrm. (Yeaaah, they went there.)
As luck would have it, I almost immediately found the Ring Wyrm. It was exactly as I predicted too! The giant dragon was completely out of my league. I took a chance though and unleashed a Quickening combo on it. Even with a decently preformed set of Quickenings, I barely scratched the surface of the Ring Wyrm's HP. Then it unleashed its own attacks and killed two people without trying. Time to escape! With that Mark a huge bust, I decided to stick to leveling and looting. I spent quite some time exploring the Westersands, and that exploration eventually took me down into the Zertinan Caverns. Unfortunately, most of the enemies down here are at least 10+ levels above my own. I fought off the enemies I could while avoiding the rest, and somehow my exploration took me to a mysterious cave. The cave...was home to a special cutscene boss. Some sort of flying demon thing charged at the group and wiped out the entire immediate party with a single attack. Thankfully, this game lets you bring in your alternates even when the entire group is wiped out. I swapped in and made a run for it. Seeing as I'm not having any luck here, I figure it's time to turn in my loot.
Loot is quickly approaching my list of "things I don't like about FFXII". Why? Because I spend forever killing a pile of enemies so that I can obtain a pile of loot. The loot, in turn, sells for next to nothing and takes forever to build up enough to purchase what I need. In all honesty, I'm probably doing it wrong, but I've rarely had money problems up until this game. I'm also tired of the random monsters that are seemingly five times more powerful than they really are for their level. (Looking at YOU Storm Elemental.) /end rant Seeing as I'm getting bored with it, I decided it was time to move right along.
If you don't remember, my current goal was to reach the Ozmone Plains. To get there, I have to head south through the Giza Plains. I quickly reach the Ozmone Plains, and basically, it's just a nicer looking Giza Plains without the rain. There are quite an assortment of monsters about, but nothing here really gives me any trouble. As I typed that, a fun group of flying enemies head my way, and most of my party doesn't have ranged weapons. I have to resort to magic use on those guys, and I quickly push through them. Not a whole lot to add about the Ozmone Plains at this time. I did get slightly lost on where to go, and I even went an entirely wrong direction in all of this. The designers must have figured this would happen, so they threw in a few adventurers to point me in the right direction. They said I was going in the wrong direction, so I had to simply turn around and go further south. Finally! After a lot of death dealt out to a lot of monsters, I finally arrive in Jahara, land of the Garif.
I quickly learn that the Garif are a different race of people. They're sort of a combination between a human and a bird, but they have fur. (The face looks bird-ish.) They're bodies are mostly human-like, but they have a bird-like face with antlers and such. (I found out later that these are masks.) As I approach the front gate, there are a pair of Garifs guarding who won't let me enter inside. Then a random Garif walks up and vouches for us. He saw us fighting on the plains and apparently that is more than enough for him. The other Garifs refer to him as War-Chief and ask him if he is sure about that. He says that he'll take responsibility for us, so we're allowed inside! As we get past the guards, the Garif introduces himself as Supinelu. After the introductions, he asks us why we are here. Vaan tells him (silently with no words...) about what is going on, and how we need to speak with the Elders. He explains the mask thing and lets us go about our business.
As I start looking around Jahara, it's quite apparent...These guys are basically American Indian clones. They're all spiritual warriors who live with nature and have fancy tents and such. Anyways, as I'm looking around for the elders, I run into one of the higher ranking garifs. He's an elder, but he doesn't have anything to tell us about the Dawn Stone. (That thing we've been trying to learn about.) However, before we leave him, he gives us some fancy stick thing and asks us to deliver it to Supinelu. I take the stick over to him, and that starts up a small scene. He says that if that Elder didn't know, we'd have to talk with the Great Elder. That isn't going to be easy to arrange though, but then Ashe steps forward. She says that she has come this far and won't be stopped here. She's a royal descendant of Dalmasca and wishes to learn more about the nethicite and the stones of the Dynast-King. She claims that the Garif must know because they all seem to somehow have knowledge that no one else does. After her little speech, he simply asks for proof of her lineage. She doesn't have any, but he lets her through anyways. Time to go see the Great Elder!...after a little side trip.
Waaay back there, I got a Mark for a monster down here in the Ozmone Plains. The Mark maker is in the village, so I quickly find him and learn more. After that, I head out to find the Mark! I wander all over Ozmone Plains and end up in an area called the Golmore Jungle. (It looks more like a cave really...) I head back to Jahara and find out that I couldn't find the mark because I was missing a few details. There was a random garif that had some vital information for me. Basically, you can only approach the Mark after dealing with all the enemies in the area he appears. (It's not a new tactic, but it's still necessary information.) Blargh! I decide to move on and talk with the old Great Elder instead. I approach the center tent and time for a long series of scenes.
Ashe approaches the Chief and shows him the nethicite. He notices that it has been used, but then he adds that he actually has no idea of how to use it. So...this was basically a huge bust. He goes into a large story here about the origin of the nethicite. The Gods gave his people the gift of the nethicite, but they didn't know how or what to use it for. This angered the Gods, so they took the nethicite back and gave it to a hume King, the Dynast-King, instead. He took the stones and used them to bring about an age of peace to his people. The Chief finds it strange that despite her royal blood, she can't wield the nethicite like the Dynast-King did. Ashe responds to all of this with "So...you can't tell me how to use it then..." He apologizes for his inability to help her, but he adds in a surprising fact.
Even with the ability to use it, the nethicite she has is basically dead. The Mist that was once collected inside has dwindled, and the power inside of it is pretty much gone. He adds that despite being void of power, the stone seems to want to drain the world of its power. Whether good or evil, men or magic, the stone seems drawn to people with intentions of power. (My translation of what he said. It was longer and word-ier than that.) During all of this, Larsa shows up. He asks Ashe to accompany him to help put a stop to an upcoming war. He says we need to get moving right now. Of course, this just brings on a line of thought (for me) going "...what?"
Larsa explains that Marquis Ondore is leading a large resistance to face off with the Empire. (Learned this a while back from the history scene.) However, the true problem is that Rozarria is planning to aid in the endeavor and use it as a pretense to start a war with Archadia. He wants her to go with him to Bur-Omisace. Once there, they'll get the blessing of the herpa-derpa globba wabbo wang tang council (I just...can't care about the real council name.). With their blessing, Ashe will be allowed to reclaim the crown and restore the Kingdom of Dalmasca. As Queen, she could call for Peace and stop the Marquis from starting this fight with the Empire. Of course, Ashe brings up an important and angry point after he says his piece.
He talks about Peace with the Empire, but they are to blame for all of this. The Empire started it by attacking Dalmasca and stealing everything from them. Yet, he asks that she saves them from War. Larsa explains that Dalmasca would be the battlefield, and what if Nethicite was used on Rabanastre? He reminds her that his brother wouldn't hold back in doing something like that. Ashe doesn't really have a response for that, and he apologizes and claims he didn't know what else to do. If she is truly unsure of his motives, he asks her to hold him hostage. And...that is all for that. We make a small time-jump forward, and Ashe is contemplating all of this. She spots Ghost Prince of Dead Guy, Rasler, and heads towards him only to find...Vaan again. He asks her if she saw him again, and she is sure now that Vaan saw him back there. They start talking about Vaan's brother next (Basch brought her up to speed on it). To be honest, I didn't really care about this conversation, so I didn't make any notes here. It's just emotional character-story stuff, and although I'd normally care, I just can't with these guys. /end scene
Next thing I know, Ashe is talking with Larsa and has agreed to accompany him to Mt. Bur-Omisace. He's glad to hear that, but she says still has some questions and hopes to get them answered. As we are about to leave, he adds that there is someone he wants her to meet on Bur-Omisace. This person is supposedly both an ally and an enemy to her, but she'll have to wait and see who it is. Larsa sure likes them secrets, and the group heads out. As they are moving along, Basch is talking with Balthier and Fran in the back. Basch talks of the Empire's airships being unable to follow us to Mt Omisace. Balthier mentions that the Leviathan didn't have any trouble with the Sandsea or marching straight towards the Tomb of Raithwell. Apparently, there is something about how ships are able to fly that keeps them from flying certain places. It is assumed there is something to do with the nethicite. Basch asks why Balthier is even with them and what he is possibly after. He's great help for them in all of this, but what is it that Balthier truly wants. Basch belives he is interested in the stone, but Balthier claims that is the furthest thing from his mind. He's here to see this story to its end...and dodge the question (more or less). Oh well! Time to move right along.
Larsa joins the party as a guest, and we move to head out of Jahara. As I go to leave, the Garif War-Chief gives me a Bowgun and some Onion Bolts for it. He also offers us a free Chocobo ride and wishes us luck on our quest. Finally! I get to leave this place. Sure, the scene was only fifteen minutes at most, but since I have to pause and take notes, it was at least double that for me. Anyways, the first thing I have in mind is to finish up the Mark I got in Jahara. I head out to a spot known as The Shard and prepare for the Mark. Supposedly, the monster, called Enkelados, doesn't like these giant Wu birds, so I have to clear them out first. After clearing them out, I leave, come back, and MARK TIME! The Enkelados is a massive stone monster, and it's not going to be taken down too easily. First things first, I throw out a huge Quickening combo of 7 hits (It's a large combo for me...Other people probably do better.). This takes out at least 3/4ths of the monster's HP, but then it just immediately recovers it all to piss me off. From there, it is at about half, so I just have to widdle it down from here. With an extra member, I'm able to wail at it with an extra weapon hand. It's not the best or most complex strategy, but we beat him easily. MARK VANQUISHED!
I head back to Jahara to turn in the Mark, and then I do a little shopping to restock items and upgrade my equipment. I managed to slightly improve my setup, but I really wasn't that satisfied with it. A random thought struck me at this point, and I teleported off to the Dalmasca Estersand to take care of something. Remember that side quest with the lady and the medicine? If you do, good memory and thanks for reading! If you don't, no big deal really...I want to say I first worked on it back on like the first or second day of FFXII progress. Regardless, it is time to finish this side quest for good! Last thing I remember, I needed to head across the water to finish up this quest. To do that, I need a boat, but the only guy with the boat was last seen going to the other side. Luckily, it floats back, but he's not present. His son comes along and takes us over because he wants to know what is up. We head to the other side, and it seems that Cactoids are to blame. They're holding the village on the opposite side hostage because of a missing family member. Now we get to head back and locate the little guy.
Of course, the first thought about the missing cactoid was...Have we possibly already killed it? The missing one has a flower on its head, and we did just kill one waaay back there. As fate has it though, the flower from the flowering cactoid is quickly found AND sprouts a new cactoid from it somehow. We take that cactoid to the other side, and the group seems happy enough with the scenario and finally leave. With that done, I can now freely venture into the desert beyond and collect the ingredient for more medicine. I quickly find out that it's probably best that I randomly waited until now. The enemies aren't necessarily hard, but they're close enough to my level that I'd have had some trouble dealing with them. Along the way, I meet a Sauren enemy (t-rex) and blow the crap out of him with Quickenings...kinda on a whim. I could have beat him regularly, but it would have required a lot more time and effort than I wanted to use. Anyways, I head to a northern part of the desert area, find the ingredient, and head back to the village.
I hand over the ingredient to the woman, and she informs me that the guy I've been helping to heal is finally well. I go out back to talk to him. He thanks me for helping him and hands over a key and a lousy item. I'd like to thank the game for a pretty long and pointless side quest. With that done, I'm pretty limited on overall options. I can't beat any of the current marks I have, but I don't really feel like leveling up. So...guess it is time to move on! Now we move onward...to Mt Omisace! To get there, we have to cross through the Golmore Junlge, so I set sail for Golmore Jungle. This of course took me through the Ozmone Plains. Nothing to see there...and finally, the GOLMORE JUNGLE! As I'm approaching the jungle...guess what happened? A SCENE! SURPRISE! (I was super surprised.../end sarcasm)
The group is heading towards the jungle, and Ashe starts talking with Basch. Basch is questioning Larsa's whole plan for the future, and he doesn't think that there can be peace between Dalmasca and the Empire. Ashe doesn't really want to go through with it, but she feels there aren't a lot of other options to avoid a war. Basch comments that it might cause shame for him, but it could give hope to Dalmasca. Ashe doesn't know how he could bear that shame, but he simply reminds her of everything he's been through. He'd rather carry that shame than let the people of Dalmasca suffer through more wartime. Ashe is unsure if her people would even approve of the idea. Basch looks over at Vaan, Penelo, and Larsa getting along, and he feels that there is some hope. Now...we shift over to a completely different scene.
It's back over in Archadia, and there are a pair of judges I haven't seen before. They're discussing Lord Vayne when a third one enters the scenario. They start talking MORE about Lord Vayne, but I'm not going into details because it's a big pile of political games. Basically, there are three Judges here, and they all have different opinions of Vayne. As all of the Judges are talking, Gabranth enters the scene and says something about a meeting. Two of the Judges move right along, but the third one stays behind to talk with Gabranth. The 3rd Judge, known as Drace, asks Gabranth about Lord Larsa's current plan. It seems the plan involves the ally on Mt Omisace, and that all of this is to push back Ondore's insurgence force. Both of them seem to be quite pleased with Larsa's progress. They talk about how the Senate believes they are in control of Larsa, but the Senate will soon find out they're quite wrong. Unfortunately, when that happens, the Senate will try to strike him down, and the two Judges plan to protect Larsa at all costs. Finally...the scene ends. (Apologies for the horrible summary, but there was a lot of talking and nothing I found interesting...Moving along.)
Time to enter Golmore Jungle! I move right along the "jungle" path and fight off the monsters as I go. Most of the enemies aren't any real challenge, but I do have to avoid a few spots where the enemies are way over my level. (Yeaaah, this game just loves to do that.) Things are progressing pretty well when suddenly...a giant blue circle of blocking-ness! I can't go that way, so...I move along to find a different path. This brings up another giant blue circle, but this time, a scene plays to explain things somewhat. Fran says that something in the forest won't, but she adds that it isn't us but her instead. She walks around to a different spot with Balthier, and the two of them start talking about something all mysterious-like. Balthier adds in something about it being both of them, and that the Nethicite has him troubled and all. She does some weird light-tracing magickyness with her finger, and then a path opens up random into the jungle area. After the path opens, she informs the group that we need the permission of the Viera here. Penelo says to her that they'll be glad to see Fran after so long, but it's obvious that something is up here. Fran tells her she is unwelcome here...so yeah. I follow the magical path, and that takes us straight into...ERUYT VILLAGE!
As we enter the village, Fran directs us to go and find someone called Mjrn (prounounced me-yern) and bring her to her. She stays on the outskirt of the village because she isn't really supposed to be here anyways. I head onward into the village to look for Mjrn. While I'm doing so, I'm finding out quite quickly...Vieras are a big pile of jerks. They want nothing to do with our group, and they say very little beyond "unwelcome" or "don't want to talk to you". Regardless of their negativeness, I continue my search through the village right into...a scene! Unfortunately, the scene is pre-tensed with a lovely message of "You're not welcome here. Leave now!" Vaan inquires into the one who more directly approached them and asks about a Mjrn. Of course, they just respond by telling us to leave because we are unwelcome. Vaan says they aren't leaving until they find her and turns around to look some more.
At this point, Fran shows up and says something about speaking with the woods and Mjrn not being here. She asks the one who directly talked to us, Jote, where she might be. This Jote asks Fran why she would possibly want to know. This drags on for a bit, but basically, Viera can somehow "speak" with the woods. Fran can't though because she abandoned the woods, and Jote adds in that Viera who leave the woods aren't truly Viera anymore. There's details about it involving the Green Word and their people's laws in general. Vaan tells them to leave the laws out of it, and we'll just go on by ourselves. For some reason, this makes Jote decide to give us something. She gets all weird aura, starts talking with the woods, and then tells us exactly what we wanted to know. Mjrn has left and wandered off into the west. She makes a mention of men covered in cold iron and warring. Before they completely leave, Fran tells her something about leaving being a choice (really crapped down but basically yeah...). Jote adds taht Fran told her the same thing fifty years ago. Overall, this entire visit, in my opinion, was a huge bust. Time to go now.
As we are leaving the village, Balthier thanks Vaan because apparently he's the only reason we got what information we did. Of course, Vaan apparently ruins his moment of glory by asking how old Fran is. Everybody is all like "OHMYGOSH! SO RUDE!" I'll be honest...I was kinda curious too. Oh well! The group figures that our destination is an Archadian magicite mine to the south known as Henne Mines. Basically, I have to backtrack before I can proceed onward...for story! I head back out of the jungle and onto the Ozmone Plains. As I head out, there's a pair of Imperial soldiers nearby. One of them is injured, and his friend asks us for a potion. I'm a nice guy so I give him one. As I give them the potion, they thank me and offer me the use of their Chocobo. He adds that the Chocobo is necessary to access some of the paths on the Ozmone Plains, including Henne Mines. As he says that though, he tells us that we shouldn't go there because bad things are currently happening. Of course, we are going to ignore this and continue anyways. I jump on the Chocobo and ride my very first Chocobo in FFXII!
The first thing that strikes me is...I have a timer on the thing. I'm only given 180 seconds to run around on the thing. Of course, it moves pretty fast, and enemies aren't a problem while riding. (That I know of...) I also get a sprint bar with three fruits in it, so I can sprint three times. Sprinting is crazy fast though! The only hint the guy gave me about the path I need to take is to look for chocobo footprints. I get out and look all around, and I never spot the darn footprints. I have a general idea of the location I need to get to based on the map, but I have no clue how to get to that part. I run around quite a bit trying to find the path, but I end up running out of Chocobo time. I run back to the Imperials and borrow their Chocobo again. This time, I work my way down to a southern part of the Ozmone Plains where I randomly notice Chocobo footprints! The footprints lead me through a grouping of bushes that I can't walk through as a person. I go through and find myself at a cave entrance! Huzzah! I disembark the Chocobo and go inside for a scene!
The group is approaching the entrance to the mines when they notice a big pile of dead bodies scattered about. Obviously, this is a bad sign of what lies ahead. Larsa identifies some of the bodies as researchers from the Draklor Laboratories. He wonders why they could possibly be there, and Balthier points out the obvious...research! There are also dead Imperial Guards, but nobody seems to really care for that matter. Anyways, let's ignore the dead bodies and enter HENNE MINES! I don't go too far inside when I spot a random switch. Throwing caution to the wind, I immediately press it. Luckily enough, I had to press this switch anyways to continue forward because it opens a gate. I head on through, and that takes me to a cross ways with four directions. At this crossing, I discover what the true puzzle of this place is...switching gates. The switch will open either blue or red gates, but while one is open, the other is closed. I accidentally switched over the gates again at this point, and that just led me through a large circle. Oh well! Just a small amount of time wasted, but when I came back, I ran into one of the most annoying parts of this dungeon.
I wander back into the cross ways, and then a group of flans, called Jellies, drop down to pick a fight. I wasn't horribly worried when they initially dropped down, but they proved to be incredibly annoying. They weren't the hardest enemy around, but the Jellies have a fun little technique called Duplicate. Every time I beat one, it had already spawned another one. On top of that, the new ones spawn with full health, so I have to keep after them or end up with even MORE Jellies to kill. I ended up killing at least ten of them before this little battle was all said and done. I'm not even sure how long it took to beat them because they kept confusing my party members on top of everything else. I eventually pushed through these jerks, switched the gates back, and moved right along.
From there, I had to fight quite a few bats. This mine is crawling with bats...and then it changed from bats to demon horses. That's quite a change if you ask me. They were slightly harder than the bats, but nothing to really worry about. Then suddenly there were T-Rexs! Down in the mines! How'd they get down there? I started to think "Way to go FFXII!", but then I realized that basically all RPGs, especially Final Fantasy titles, tend to have random monsters in random places. So a T-Rex in the middle of a mine seems to be somewhat appropriate really. Glossing past that, I come to another set of door switch-ary. Somehow, I got confused at this point though and missed the switch. I ended up wandering around a bit and running into ANOTHER crossways with...more Jellies. I fought sixteen of the damn things in a confined space. If I hadn't resorted to area effect spells like Aero and Dark, I might have actually died right there. (Although... I did have fun since it was actually a challenge.) I wandered around for a bit and killed quite a few bats along with a couple T-Rexs. Eventually worked my way back around and located the switch. (No idea how I missed it...Maybe I'm just stupid?)
This leads me right into a room for a lovely scene. Larsa tells the group that Draklor must be here looking for new ore veins. What with the resistance pushing on and Bhujerba closing off, the Empire will be hurt by the lack of ore veins. They'll need to start locating new ones. After that, they all walk forward and gasp at a big pile of dead soldiers. That is except for Fran. Fran simply says something about the Mist being here and that she is here. They look up and there's a Viera stumbling about...Mjrn! She yells at the group about the stench of humes and their power-hungry ways. She points over to Ashe, calls her power-hungry, and then runs off all weird like. Time to chase after that cwazy wabbit. (Apologies! I couldn't help it...) We head after her and that leads us straight to a dragon! BOSS BATTLE TIME!
My first and foremost complaint is...How'd this big dragon even get in the mines? It's massive and couldn't have possibly just got down here. Oh whatever! Let's fight this guy! The dragon is called Tiamat, but it isn't nearly as cool or epic as a Tiamat should be. Honestly, this was a pretty easy fight. It wasn't really a pushover, but the darn thing didn't really have any big guns. It did throw out some fancy status effects. The only one that really affected me was Disable though. (Disable does exactly what it says. You can't do ANY actions while disabled.) Unfortunately for Tiamat, my entire team has the Esuna spell and a few Remedies just in case. The Remedy in this game is jacked up though.
Not to suddenly stop everything, but I wish to explain. In regular FF titles, Remedy is the cure-all of statuses. It's kinda like the bottled form of Esuna, but in FFXII, Remedy only cures a handful of things. However, you can unlock more cures for Remedy on the License Board. It's pretty lame if you ask me, but I won't go into a rant here. Enough about this, back to the battle!
The only real change I had to make while fighting Tiamat was changing Vaan's weapon. The current blade I had was wind-based, and each strike kept healing Tiamat. I just swapped it out though, so problem solved. It didn't take much to finish off the massive dragon, and it was all BLARGH, DEAD! The only thing left to say about Tiamat is...Why did they put the weird metal rings around its neck and front legs? Or any dragon for that matter...I DON'T GET IT! Oh well, with the battle finished, it's time to commence with the scene. Mjrn is still stumbling about, but now it seems we've spotted the reason for her crazy. She drops a piece of manufactured nethicite, and a strange ghost-like creature appears and then disappears from behind her. Fran goes to her as she collapses, and Mjrn looks up and asks if it is really her.
Small time jump later, Mjrn is explaining what happened. Hume soldiers came into the woods recently. Normally, the viera don't worry too much about things like that unless the woods were in peril. However, Mjrn felt uneasy about it and wanted to know why they came. Balthier fills in the rest saying that she came into the mines and got caught by whatever that creature behind her was. It's also revealed that she is Fran's sister. She adds that the humes caught her and put the stone next to her. They claimed that the mist would be drawn to her, and that it'd be an end suiting a viera. Unfortunately, the stone caused her to go crazy, and Fran related to this based on her frenzy about the Leviathan with the Dawn Shard. Larsa realizes it was the manufactured nethicite, and he asks Penelo where she put it. She pulls it out, and Larsa takes it from her. He says he didn't realize how dangerous it was and feels bad for giving it to her. She says it is okay though, and the nethicite did protect them that one time. Ashe adds in something about there being a place for dangerous things...I think. I didn't really catch it. Time to magically scene teleport!
And we are back at Eruyt Village. Jote greets the group at the front and says that the woods whispered to her. She gives us something called Lente's Tear and informs us that we can now travel through the forest with it. Jote turns to leave, but then Mjrn speaks up. She tells Jote that can't be all, and that Ivalice is changing around them. They can't just sit back anymore and do nothing. Jote responds that Ivalice is for humes, and the woods is their place. Mjrn says she is wrong! How can they hide inside the woods when everything outside of the woods is changing so much. Mjrn says she will leave this place, but Fran cuts in at this point. She tells Mjrn that she can't let her do that. Mjrn needs to stay and keep the woods and village. She doesn't belong with the humes. Fran won her freedom, but it was at a great cost. She can't hear the woods anymore, and she doesn't want this for her sister. Mjrn pleas with her, but Fran says she isn't her sister anymore...Mjrn only has one sister to turn to now. Mjrn walks off, and Jote apologizes for making her do that. Fran reponds by saying it was her duty. She feels it is up to her to to keep others from straying from forest law since she doesn't uphold it anymore. (That's how I interpreted that.)
Not to cut in, but this little bit of face time with the Viera has made me not enjoy them. They're less of fun bunny ladies and more like a big pile of elves from most universes. As far as most elves go, they generally seem to have a set of pointless law nonsense, and they never want to get involved with the other races. It tends to go to the point of "The world is ending...but we will not get involved." Way to go Viera! I can't appreciate your bunny lady ways thanks to you basically being lame elf clones. (There are good elf types, but I'm not going into it.) As a final note..there don't seem to be any male Viera around. What's up with that?...Going back to the conversation now.
Fran asks Jote (assuming this is her other sister) to listen to the wood's voice for her. Fran thinks the woods hates her, but Jote tells her otherwise. The woods misses its child that has left it, but Fran believes it to be a pleasant lie and goes to leave. Jote warns her that the woods is jealous of the humes that have taken her. They need to be careful as they venture on. Fran bids Jote farwell...and identifies her as the other sister at this point. Well! Time to pack up and leave this village. Before I go though, I hit up the moogle merchants at the village entrance. I sell off what goods I have and prepare to move along. (If I didn't mention it earlier, these moogles are the ones we rescued on the Leviathan. The little guys made it off thankfully.) There is one good thing that comes out of this. I'm finally allowed to purchase the -ra spells! Of course, that leaves me broke...Yaaay. The next step is to finally head for Mt. Omisace.
Well! This is as good a place as any to end the post. I'll be heading for Mt. Omisace next, but I'll probably want to get in some extra training and looting first. As usual, this game makes it incredibly easy to have no money. You have to spend forever gaining it up, and then you'll go through most of it just attempting to upgrade a few characters. Really feeling like a long and arduous process to do ANYTHING in the game. Oh well, I'll hit up a few marks and hopefully gain some money along the way. On top of all of this, I've pushed the completion of FFXII on into March. I was hoping February, but I got distracted with other games. It's hard to help at times, but I can't RPG all the time. You gotta have some variety! I'd like to say thanks to my loyal readers (if you exist...) and hope to see you next time on...RECURRING FANTASY!
Ending Point - Eruyt Village.
Current Party -
- Vaan - Level 28
- Balthier - Level 29
- Fran - Level 28
Next Goals - Journey beyond the woods and reach Mt Omisace.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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