Game - Final Fantasy XII, Day 82
Hours Played/Hours Total - 12 hrs / 61 hrs
Starting Point - Eruyt Village.
Current Goal - Defeat more Marks. Head to Archades and prevent the war.
What Happened - I left off kinda randomly last time, but that's because the post would have just kept going. I have to end them eventually or they get too long. I've never fully played through Final Fantasy XII before, but I'm hoping that I don't lack much more than 20 hours of hard playing to get through the rest of it. I REALLY would like to start on Final Fantasy XIII before it hits the middle of the year. Either way, it's time to get rolling!
Where we left off, I was trying to take down a few more Marks before moving on with the game. I left Eruyt Village and made my way to Nalbina Fortress to pick up another Mark. Nalbina Fortress is technically where I was imprisoned waaaay near the beginning of the game, but I'm allowed to explore the town area around it now. As it turns out, the Mark is coming from that random guy in the prison that one time. (He gave me a fuse so we could continue underground.) Basically, there is a monster in the Highwastes that is bothering merchants, and he's asked me to go and deal with it. The monster is called Atomos, and LET THE HUNT BEGIN!
I put that Mark on the back burner for now and decide to attempt the Ring Wyrm again. I've yet to really put any kind of dent in the stupid dragon, but maybe that's changed now! I head off into the Dalmasca Westersand, locate the dragon, aaaand nope. I managed to do a decent amount of damage to the best, but he was able to quickly overwhelm me regardless. My biggest problem is I don't seem to do much damage, and at the same time, I'm taking more damage than I feel like I should. I could really use some new and better equipment for sure. I even threw out two Quickening Combos! They brought him down to half his overall health, but he healed most of it with one of those stupid healing abilities that all the Marks seem to have. Seeing as I can't beat him (once again), I'm going to just move on to something different. Of course, my options are starting to be slim...Apart from moving on.
Aside from the Ring Wyrm, I've got a good portion of Marks I could tackle, but most of them are pretty high ranked. My experience with the Ranks makes the system seem kinda stupid though. I've been able to beat things with higher ranks yet not monsters with lower ranks. Well, I figured to at least go around and get all the Marks in the "Ready to Hunt" position. Basically, I just went all over and talked to the Mark makers, but I'm not ready to fight most of the new ones yet. I doubt I can take most of them at this point, so I'm not going to waste the time on them right now. A recent Mark called Bloodwing seems plausible though, so I head over to the Barheim Passage to take a shot at it. With a key I got a while back, I'm able to re-enter the place and explore it. However, I get inside and...I don't know where it is. The room I was told to look for doesn't seem to be on the map either. Yeaaah, screw all the Marks right now. I guess it's time to move on. TO THE MOSPHORAN HIGHWASTE!
Of course, there are a few Marks I can do as I move forward as well! But that's besides the point, the Mosphoran Highwaste was a pretty easy trip overall. None of the enemies were too hard, so I had no trouble going through. I stop briefly in the rest area to heal up and get another Mark ready to hunt. Nothing else to do here that I know of though, so I quickly head on. It's only an area or two later that I spot one of the Marks on the list. It's a giant rock monster known as Atomos, and it's Mark Battle Time! Before anything goes anywhere, the monster is already buffed up with Protect, Shell, and Regen. Despite the trio of buffs, it wasn't that difficult. I began by just attacking it normally and managed to make it through a third of his health with no trouble. The monster may not have been much trouble, but I did end up taking the time to cast Protect on the team before it was done. From there, I ended up just unleashing a pair of Quickening combos and beat the monster. I threw out the Quickening combos because I didn't want it to regenerate all of its health out of nowhere. I'm incredibly tired of that lame tactic. Either way, MARK VANQUISHED! Time to move along.
I head forward through a few more areas of the Mosphoran Highwaste before reaching a bridge. The bridge lead straight into the Salikawood. It was a slow walk along the path of the Salikawood, but once again, the enemies are mostly a big pile of pushovers. A small group of cockatrice-types surprised me with some petrification, but that was easily remedied. As I was walking on through, a met with a guy who mentioned that a group of moogles were working on a door. I ignored this, but I really shouldn't have...More to come on this later. I continue past that guy and came to an intersection with a random moogle. He said something about having to keep after the workers, but they were all on break right now. He warned me that some Bomb monsters were nearby though and to be careful. I ignored his warning and continue onward and upward into BOSS BATTLE TIME!
Aaaaand this battle was a huge mistake. I don't know if I want to go into detail because this battle just made me all forms of mad. The monster in question is a King Bomb, but he isn't alone. The big guy comes with a trio of regular Bombs to back him up. Now being where I was, I didn't expect this battle to be much. I thought I was going the correct way through the woods, but I was quite wrong. My team is in the lower 30s, and apparently I was not even remotely prepared for this battle. As with most battles as such, I focused on the minions before taking on the head honcho. Even for random minions, they were pretty hard to beat. After eliminating them, I focused on the big guy, but I wasn't really getting anywhere. Even if you kill his minion Bombs, he just calls in more of them. All they really do is cast Fire spells on you, but they tend to combo it with the Oil status. Most of the time, I was just struggling to heal people and revive people. After fiddling with the damn King Bomb for like 15 minutes, I was basically nowhere in beating it. So...I went to the alternate method of defeat...Quickening Combos!
I was hoping this would make quick work of the giant jerk, but I was quite wrong. Why? Because after half his health was gone (due to a Quickening set), he simply healed it all back with a casting of Renew. I was angry at this, but I figured he'd only use it once...Right? WROOOOOONG! He ended up using Renew THREE more times after the initial use for every attempt to finish him with a set of Quickenings. All during this, I kept losing party members left and right, and I had to fully switch the party over at one point. The only point I gained any real ground against the King Bomb was when I fully Protected and Shelled the entire team. Even then, things didn't go well. I don't have any idea how long I went at this battle, but I finally had my fill of it. I ended up quitting the game and completely reloading because I was just pissed off at the boss. I turned around and started wandering about for some extra levels and loot.
I ended up going all over Salikawoods to try and gain some levels. Of course, all this training and looting isn't much fun since the enemies never seem to drop loot, and the experience needed for leveling makes it takes quite some time to get anywhere. I figured since I couldn't go past the King Bomb, I might as well try to accomplish some other things. I went back into the Mosphoran Highwaste to turn in the Atmos mark for my reward. I then sold all of the loot I had collected up until that point, and that was enough for...two pieces of armor. (There's going to be quite a rant about how I hate the loot system in this game when I eventually review it. Let's save that gem of a speech for then!) Time to head back in for more of the one, two train and loot combo.
I was running all over the Salikawoods and fighting off the monsters there. While doing it, I took time to explore some of the areas I hadn't seen yet. Among these, I happened upon a Moogle trying to repair this large gate. However, he was lacking his employees to get the job done, so he asks us to go back into the woods and locate the nine missing Moogles. I wasn't very stoked about doing this, but King Bomb wasn't going to be happening. I won't go into the length of this, but basically, I just had to run all about the Salikawoods and locate the moogles goofing off throughout. They're all marked on the map though, so that takes a little of the trouble out of it. That...and they're all in groups of at least two, so that split the time in half once again. When the last group was found and pushed back to work, I was allowed to follow/quick travel with them to the gate. This ended with a small scene of the Moogles repairing the gate and opening it up. The boss thanked me for getting the group together and handed me a gift...a pair of boots (item called Quasimodo Boots).
With the gate open, I decided to head through since the King Bomb thing was a huge bust. I was also quick to learn that this was the path I was actually supposed to take. So..that King Bomb mess was just a mistake on my part. The path through the gate leads us to the Phon Coast. As I enter, the group spots airships flying overhead. Balthier mentions that we made the right choice going on foot. Had we taken an airship, we would have already been caught by now. He adds that we avoided the biggest trouble currently, but we need to remain cautious and watch our steps from here. Also added to "keep our wits about us" and a couple other typical lines for this scenario. Moving along! The coast is full of your typical variety of monsters. There are wolves, frogs, birds, and some plant things known as mandragoras. Nothing fun or special to add here though.
At this point, I realized it was time to change my Gambits around. I'd been using the same basic set of Gambits since nearly the beginning of the game. (A couple sets of healing ones and a couple sets of attacking ones.) That setup is a bit outdated though, and I figure I should liven them up. I swapped out a few of the redundant Gambit setups for one that makes people cast Haste on themselves. Not everybody had Haste though, so I had to set a couple people up with Protect. One of them had enough slots that I set up a couple different buffs! (It was Ashe...I gave her Haste and Regen.) I doubt it will really change up the entire game, but I figured it couldn't hurt to change things. I continue on through the Phon Coast without much trouble and eventually find myself to the recreational area known as the Hunter's Camp. As I enter in, I get what is probably one of the better and more revealing scenes of the game.
Vaan and Penelo take off from the group to look at something, and the rest of the group follows after them. Ashe is walking along and almost stumbles when Balthier catches her. He suddenly asks her why she wants to go to the capital. Ashe claims to want to destroy the nethicite, but Balthier questions if she wants to destroy it...or use it. The power of the nethicite could help her rebuild Dalmasca. Ashe asks him if that is really how he sees her. He responds by saying that she reminds him of someone he knows. A man who was obsessed with nethicite and getting more and closer to the stuff. He built airships, crafted weapons, and even made Balthier a Judge. (I'd like to stop briefly and thank Balthier for being the ONE interesting character in this game. Thank you Balthier.) Ashe is quite surprised to hear that Balthier was a Judge! (I was as well honestly.) Balthier says that it is part of a past he'd rather forget about, and his time as a Judge didn't last very long. He left the Judges long ago when he left...HIM. Balthier reveals that he is referring to the one and only Doctor Cid of Draklor Laboratories! (He said the full name, but screw the full names in this game.)
Balthier goes on to say that Cid lost himself to his obsession for nethicite. He also suggests that Cid is his father! (DUN DUN DUUUUUN!) He looks over and warns Ashe to not lose herself to the nethicite as well. Balthier ended up running away from it all because he couldn't stand seeing what the stone did to Cid. After he ran from it all, he was finally free at least. When he was going for the Dusk Shard, he didn't know it was nethicite or...something like that. I didn't catch it. Regardless, it all changed when he met Ashe. He realizes now that he can't run away from his past, so he needs to go and cut the ties himself. Ashe finally comes in and tells him that it is hard to leave the past behind, and she knows that well enough. This drifts off into a pretty but pointless cutscene. It's Ashe talking with Mr. Rassler. It's not really worth mentioning what they talked about (as far as I'm concerned), so it goes back to the present. Balthier says it is her choice in the end, but he asks that she doesn't give the stone her heart. He believes Ashe is too strong for that. /end one of the better scenes for the entire game
Well! Time to move right along and continue to Archades. I take some time to sell my loot at the camp and buy what I can. After that, I leave the Hunter's Camp and head out into the TCHITA UPLANDS! (Yeaah, the names of these places are just getting worse if you ask me. Different but worse.) There's nothing major to describe here really. It's just your average monsters, although I will mention the funny-looking Overlord King Malboros. They're yellow-ish with crowns and mustaches. As I'm traversing these Uplands, I come across a random kid in the middle of nowhere. He tells me about a Mark that they wouldn't let him or his father post on the board. They've asked several hunters to try and deal with the Mark, but they all come right back out all scared-like. He requests our help in dealing with it and shows us a big jumbled scribble drawing of the Mark. It's simply labeled ???. So...Let the hunt begin?
After gaining this most unusual Mark, it's time to head back out and explooore. As I go about, I happen upon a random cave. As it turns out, this cave is the correct path I need to take to Archades. After heading inside, the group discusses how this cave will lead them straight into the city. Vaan asks Balthier if they really have to go this way. Balthier tells him that he can always knock on the front gate instead. He goes on to add that it's better to be a rabbit in a hole than a rat in a trap. Ashe adds that although their names are known, their faces aren't what will be recognized. They should be able to walk through the city if they blend in. Enough talk! Onward through the cave! It's your basic cave setup with zombie monsters and other dark-ish creatures. I head on through and run into a large gate blocking my path. As it turns out, I kinda had to get the Mark from the kid before. He hands over a key to open this very gate, so I saved myself from having to backtrack, which is always nice. I unlock the Soul Ward and go inside and right into a scene. This place is the Sochen Cave Palace, and we're being greeted by a group of Mandragoras. It's a group of five different ones, but they appear to be the Mark...BOSS BATTLE TIME!
Before my description, I should warn you...This was by far the most annoying battle so far, and I have bad feelings about what lies ahead of this one...Anyways, it's a lovely big arena with the five little munchkins running all about. Each one of them are buffed in one way or another, and on top of that, I'm having to constantly chase them to get any attacks in. They don't have much health, but I'm having a hard time keeping up with them. They don't even do a lot of damage either, but they like to run in quickly and mess me up with a pile of status effects. Then they run away! While they're away, I end up wasting all my time just trying to heal up, and then they return just as I'm fully clean. This entire battle was just a downhill slide of anger for me. All of the status effects and constant running about by the little devils.
As all the chaos takes place, I finally manage to down two of the five. (A lot of the credit goes to well timed usage of the spell Bio though...) However, even with two down, the other three weren't going to leave without annoying me. I spent quite some time struggling during all of this just to get my party up and going. I eventually got tired of dealing with the little bastards and broke down to using Quickenings. I had to do three sets of Quickening Combos to accomplish this...one per Mandragora. This is getting more and more frustrating as it goes for me. I feel like I should be able to beat most of these monsters/people without the use of Quickenings. However, I'm finding more and more that I have to resort to them to eliminate the major threats. Anyways! MANDRAGORAS VANQUISHED. I get a fun little cutscene of the little buggers dying, and their souls float upwards to heaven. (I guess?)
I'm sure glad that battle is over with. Now I just have to limp over to a save point and recover the team. (I say limp, but really I was only low on MP.) Past that big room, there's a room with a save crystal! I approach it to heal up...OR SO I THOUGHT! As it turns out, that Save Crystal is another crystal bug. Yeah, the game decided I needed an extra challenge beyond the Mandragoras. Lucky for me, the only hard part about this battle was the complete and utter lack of MP. Beyond that, I was able to just beat the crap out of the crystal bug. The area around me has evolved from random cave into random underground castle ruins. Then it goes right back to cave again. I don't really have much of an opinion on this strange mixture of an underground area. It eventually turns back into the castle ruins, but it's shaped into a massive diamond with hallways and doors galore. I wander about here for a bit before I finally find the correct path. I took a bit of time to hit up a few more enemies, but then I figure it's time to move on and leave the Sochen Cave Palace behind.
As I leave this area, I enter right into...another BOSS BATTLE TIME! A giant ghost monster comes out of the ground and is all like "RAWR!" I charge in and attack, attack, attack! My initial impression was that "This guy doesn't seem too hard at all." Of course, I realized that it couldn't be all there was to the boss. However, I quickly found out that the ghost (Ahirmin) wasn't very hard at all, but he did come with yet another "annoyance" factor, as I'd put it. The first half of his entire HP went pretty fast. He did try to poison, attack physically, and a few -ra tier spells, but nothing was truly worrisome. Then he started using the Divide ability, so I had a feeling things were going to go south. Thankfully, his version of "Divide" simply made images that really only confused me and the game itself. The images kept weirdly messing with the camera. Again though, this was more of annoyance than a difficulty changer. I just had to hunt down and hit the real one as I could. With only a little trouble in the end, I managed to beat the ghost and CONGRATULATIONS!
With the ghost beaten, I'm finally able to leave this room and continue to Archades. It's just a short distance from here to an elevator that takes me to the surface. When I reach the top, there's a nearby Gate Crystal. I save my game and teleport back to the Phon Coast to sell some loot. I could have just walked forward and done that, but that's not the point here! When I got there, I found out I had collected quite a bit of loot during my trip. (What was only a couple sentences on here was like 2-3 hours of just running around and random fights.) I made quite a haul this time...I had over 40,000 gil by the time I sold all my loot! Even with all that money though, I still wasn't able to fully upgrade everybody's armor and weapons. I focused on armor over weapons though because what I had was quite outdated. I was able to afford a single piece of equipment per person, but I did manage an extra piece here and there.
I was not very happy about this situation. I spent quite a bit of time getting what money I did, and it wasn't even enough to finish the job. The only way to truly remedy it is go back out and loot some more. I considered going out to do MORE training and looting, but I figure I'm set enough for now. I teleport back to the Gate Crystal at Sochen Cave Palace and head into Archades. As it turns out though, the cave leads us into OLD Archades. It's the poor side of town where people are struggling to live and such. Kinda depressing...then our group walks in! We have to go through old Archades to reach new/rich Archades. Once we are there, we simply have to infiltrate Draklor Labs and...do whatever it is we are going to do. It's a pretty small area to run through, and I quickly reach the stairs to head to the good part of town. Of course, I can't get to the topside without any papers. As the group turns around in defeat, a random guy pops up and starts talking with us. Balthier seems to know him and identifies him as a real cheapskate. The guy lets us know that information in Archades is the key to making a living, and we had best learn that. He says he MIGHT have a way for us to get topside...for a fee. It's only 1500 gil, but I'm broke after all the purchases I just made. So I get to go loot after all! Yaaaay, can you hear my excitement?
I head back into the Tchita Uplands to try and earn money. I figure if I'm earning, I might as well go for a little bit more. Seeing as I need money, I figure it is time to try out the Poach technique. Poach enables you to catch an almost-dead target and guarantees you get loot for it. I tried to use Poach manually, but if I don't turn the AI off, they'll just continue to attack and screw up the Poach. With that realization in mind, I decided to configure my Gambits once again. This time, I just throw in the Poach command set to activate when the enemy hits Critical HP. It works out incredibly well! However, there is a trade-off to using Poach...If you Poach the enemy, you don't get any experience or license points for it. It's a fair trade, but it kinda sucks since you have to choose between maaaybe getting loot and guaranteed loot with no growth. I used up a few more hours looting it up and was finally able to get caught up on equipment! Also made sure to save a little gil Woo! Time to return to Archades and pay that cheapskate.
I teleport back, pay the guy, and...he directs us to talk with someone else. He said a name, but I didn't catch it. Therefore, I talked to everybody all over the place. Then I was supposed to talk with a couple other people, and eventually, I returned to the cheapskate (named Jules). As it turns out, this was all part of a plan to distract the guards because as I talk with Jules, the guards run past us to stop a fight started by our rumor mongering. With the guards busy, we're able to slip upstairs into the IMPERIAL CITY OF ARCHADES! As we come up into the city, there is a brief scene of the group considering where they are. Vaan and Penelo are surprised that they've come so far from home. Despite it being a big Imperial City, they're all admiring the largeness and such of it. As we head to explore the city, Balthier leaves us briefly to do something. I keep exploring the city and eventually locate the aircab service. This is when things get all pointless side quest fun again.
As we go to board said aircab, the worker standing there says we need something called Chops to ride the aircab. That...or we have to pay a million gil instead. Seeing as a million gil is a retarded price, we are left with getting whatever these Chop things are. As we turn around, guess who is back? Cheapskate Jules! He says that Balthier wants us to meet him by riding the aircab and offers to explain Chops... for a fee. There goes another 2500 gil just to move the game forward. Basically, Chops are what people give you for completing good deeds. They don't have a monetary value at all, but they're like...socially and morally relevant. This turns into a minigame of "match the story with the person!" I have to run arouch each section of town and relate a person's story to the correct individual. Usually, it's just delivering a message from one person to the other, but some of them are more like "I could sure use a painter..." and then a person who is labelled "painter". Yeaaah, it's sooo deep. It's not hard to do, but it's a big pile of time suck. Every time I get a match done, the person rewards me with a Chop. I have to do it nine times for nine Chops to ride the aircab. It was a simple enough activity that I ended up doing all of the "good deeds" in town. I then traded in my "Pinewood" Chops for "Salikawood" Chops. Because that's a GREAT tradeup for whatever reason, and it's supposed to change things. The guy also explained that the Chop aren't about money, they're about respect and the greater good. Whatever.
With the activity all said and done, I go to board the aircab and find Balthier. Upon our arrival, Balthier comes up and tells us that Draklor Laboratory is nearby, and we should be able to slip in there. I save at a nearby Gate Crystal and head on over. As we walk over, a group of Imperial Guards are walking out of the lab and mention something about quelling the Senate. They're moving on now, but some of them are staying behind to guard Draklor Laboratory. Sooo, the place is going to be better guarded than before, and this has screwed up our plan. We can't go in this way, so we turn around and head back. As we are walking, Balthier asks why we took so long to get there. Vaan explains that they had to earn Chops to take the cab. Balthier says that he gave Jules some Chops to hand off to us...So screw Jules! He has slowed us down by being a jerk, and then he suddenly appears. If I could, I'd stab him right now and end him. He's here to give us a little info though.
Jules explains that a squad of Judges have been sent to Draklor to protect it, and that the service entrance we were about to take has become a difficult path now. Balthier comments on how that was most likely Jules doing. He forced us to waste time earning Chop so that the Judges could reinforce Draklor. Again, I say we kill the guy right now. Balthier asks him how much they paid him for word of the "Prodigal Son's return". Jules says that Judges are too much about rules and law to get any money out of them. A lot of things are developed at Draklor, but very little knowledge ever escapes the place. On top of this, Doctor Cid has created several things that even the Emperor didn't know about. However, now that Vayne is in charge, no new information has come out. Jules mentions that a lot of people would pay quite a bit for information from Draklor. Basically, Jules has set everything up so we can cause a disturbance and allow him to get information. We just need to head to the aircabe, give them the code words, and off to Draklor! Screw you Jules! And then we walk away.
We board the aircab and zoom off to the lab. CUTSCENE! It's all pretty with flying cards and buildings. The aircab lands on the Draklor Laboratory roof, and the group hops off to infiltrate. I'd like to add that we managed to do this with nobody there to stop or even remotely hinder us. One would think that a high security lab with top secret technology would have some kinda protection to stop random cabs from dropping by. Whatever! We're officially inside of DRAKLOR LABORATORY. As soon as we enter, the group notices that the place is kinda empty, and that's all sorts of suspicious. Something is up, so we had best be careful. Balthier suggests we skip the carefulness and just hop to it while we have a chance. We start walking around and come to find out...Someone has already come before us. There is a huge line of knocked out/dead guards! Someone has already done part of the work for us, and we'll probably run into them eventually. I find an elevator during my search and head on up.
As I come out of the elevator, the uninvited guest lovingly left me a line of guards to follow. The line leads me straight to Cid's office. As I enter, a scene takes over. Balthier looks around and mentions something to himself. He notices a keycard on the desk and takes it. As he does that, we hear a fresh group of guards moving about outside. However, they aren't directly after us. They're looking for whoever infiltrated before us. Fran suggests we lie low, but Balthier says we should use the confusion and get to the bottom of all this. With the lab keycard I obtained, I should finally be able to move around the place. After we leave the lab, the place goes on lockdown, but it opens up side rooms for me to enter. It's also very noticeable that there are colored doors closing off areas. The lab makes use of the two-colored door system much like previous areas. Basically, there are two colors of doorways, but you can only have one open at a time. It's simple enough really, but means you have to go all about while constantly switching back and forth. Before moving on, I hit the nearby save point. It warns me to make a separate file, or I'll get stuck otherwise. Never know what the enemies will entail, so I head the advice.
As I head out, I find that the only enemies around are Imperial Guards. Honestly, they were pretty tough compared to my level. I didn't have a huge amount of trouble, but it took some time and patience to beat each group. While looking about, I try to hit all of the extra rooms I can. Among these rooms, I walk into one with a strange looking slime called Hecteyes. Aaaand that was just a huge mistake. A trio of them popped up and took me by complete surprise. They started off with an attack called Mythril Bubbles, and that completely screwed me over. It did a pretty good amount of damage along with a pile of status effects. The intial trio of Mythril Bubbles nearly wiped out everybody. I had to start just throwing out whatever I could to beat the darn things. I just barely managed to get them with a couple Balance Motes. (Casts the spell Balance that does damage = to the difference of your current HP and max HP.) With their defeat, I left the room and re-cooperated the team. It...wasn't a pleasant time. I was mostly afraid of getting a Game Over and having to redo like thirty minutes of un-fun.
It seems like the further you get into FFXII, the more it turns into "Who can pile the most status effects at once!" That's really not my method of play. If you don't know what spells work, you end up wasting a pile of spells just attempting statuses. That's how I feel at least. I'm anxious to get the game done, so I don't feel like wasting time with trial and error. That's it for now...so back to the Labs! My current unstated goal was to head for the 70th floor to locate Doctor Cid. The elevator is located centrally, but with the two door system, you can't just walk straight for it. You have to walk all around and constantly switch which door type is open. While I'm walking, another fun thing that happens is that the map scrambles in just a single corner of the map. This would affect me if this wasn't a tiny map with no reason to scramble whatsoever The map is still more or less there, and it doesn't really affect my ability to know where I am. Seriously, the game is just being a huge pile of annoying to me. Skip ahead a short ways, and I'm on the 70th floor for a scene.
The group gets off the elevator and is then attacked by a random guy with big swords. He's all like "RAWR! but then goes "Whoops! You aren't Cid OR Cid's people!" The group acknowledges him as the intruder from before. Suddenly, someone yells at him from upstairs, and he runs off after it. Pretty sure it's Cid, but we'll confirm here soon enough. I save at the nearby save point and then chase after him. We go upstairs and run into a scene! The guy who yelled was Cid, and we all get to talk briefly. I didn't write down or memorize what he said though, but the basic jist of it is that Cid is crazy. He's a crazy old fool doing crazy things. He asks what the group is doing here, and Balther responds that they are here for the Dusk Shard. There's a little back and forth between the two, but basically he is crazy. We're going to kill him! He suddenly glows all super saiyen and pulls out a pair of swords! He comes at us bro for BOSS BATTLE TIME!
Of course, Cid hasn't come alone. He comes paired with a group of four little robots. They float all around him, and I'm immediately aware of what needs to be done. I shouldn't try to aim for him until I defeat his little defenders. I go all out on one for quite some time before it falls, but as it does, Balthier comments on how he is hiding behind his toys. This confirms that I'm doing the battle right so far! Also, the "swords" he pulled out were actually guns. They just looked more like swords to me. There wasn't much to this battle overall. It takes some time to eliminate the robot bodyguards, called rooks, but there wasn't a lot of challenge for me besides them. Once they were gone, the old man was a pushover. He did do a super special ultimate laser bouncing off of mirrors explosion attack, but that really didn't do much damage. With his rooks gone, it was just "smack the Cid around" time. With his defeat, the big guy with swords finally decides to charge in and attack Cid. (You know...despite his not taking any part in that previous battle.) As he goes in for the strike, suddenly a large shield pops up, blocks the sword strike, and knocks that guy away.
Cid thanks "Venat", and we suddenly see the strange ghost creature from before with the nethicite problem. Balthier says something about THAT being his Venat like he's heard the term before. Cid gets up and starts yelling at Ashe. "Blah blah blah, lust for nethicite, and blah blah blah, go to Giruvegan." An airship flies down to pick him up, and Cid adds that he's going there as well. Cid takes off, and the guy with the big swords introduces himself as the Sky Pirate, Reddas.
 |
| Reddas the Sky Pirate. |
And now it's history time! Marquis Ondore comes in to let us know what was going on during all of this. To shorthand it, the Senate has been purged and disbanded by House Solidor. Vayne Solidor now reigns supreme over all of the Empire now. Though this upheaval shook the Empire, the military more than welcomed the change. The rule of the Judges brought an uprising in military-ness during the impeding threat of Rozarrian attack. The Resistance was working to bolster their own strength and prepare for the task ahead. Marquis ends it that "A War to decide the Doom of Ivalice would soon be upon Us." /end history lesson.
This is all followed up by a cutscene showing a pile of airships flying in the sky. It focuses on one of the larger airships and calls it the flagship, Garland. (Yeah, that seems kinda random if you ask me. Garland was the BAD GUY in FF1. It's still a reference but to a villain.) Inside, Marquis Ondore is there observing whatever it is they are doing. They seem to be preparing and training for what is to come. One of his men there makes the mention of the Sky Pirate leaving Archades and having Ashe and co in tow. Their destination is Balfonheim. Marquis asks if their bid for the stone worked out, but his assistant simply answered that their training has prepared them to be ready with or without the stone. Ondore just hopes that it'll be enough and SCENE JUMP!
Now we're back with Ashe and company. Ashe says something about someone supplying the Resistance but unwilling to raise their own sword in aid. Reddas tells her that they're men of the sky and sea with no country. They're willing to help but not willing to give their lives for a friend, much less a king. Ashe asks if the Marquis is planning to fight. Reddas informs her that helping the group off of the Leviathan kinda forced him into the conflict. Ondore doesn't really like war, but it seems inevitable now. Then it randomly jumps scene in the middle of the scene. It's Reddas talking with Marquis Ondore, but they are talking in the past and in the same place. They're discussing the whole ordeal at hand. Ondore thinks they'll be a match for the Empire, but Reddas reminds him of the nethicite and how it took down the Leviathan. Ondore says that is why he's supporting Reddas's infiltration of Archades to steal it. He adds that Reddas said it himself. The stone is a powerful weapon, and he'd be happy with Reddas getting it for him. Reddas doesn't want to get the stone for him, but Ondore suggests that he'd have to find power elsewhere if he didn't have the nethicite. It seems he would turn to Rozarria for aid, and nobody seems to approve of Rozarria.
Then the game jumps back to the current time and previous scene. The group continues to talk now. Basch says it'll just end in a trap where the Midlight Shard is used to blow up the Resistance and Rozarrians alike. Balthier reminds him that Vayne doesn't have the stone...Cid does. We need to get him, take the stone, smash said stone with the Sword of Kings, and then Vayne will have nothing. We're short on time and need to chase after Cid to Giruvegan. Then Fran comes in with he usual "MY PEOPLE HAVE A THING ABOUT THIS!" She goes off into a song or saying of some sort about Giruvegan because her people are the indians of the Ivalice universe. Reddas comes in to tell us actual information about Giruvegan. To get there, we have to pass through a special part of the Golmore Jungle. It's a storm of angry Mist and such. Vaan doesn't need to hear anymore! He's all "Let's go!" and charges off. Couple members of the group rushes after him, but Balthier turns and talks briefly with Reddas. He asks if the sky pirate is coming along with us, but he is not. He has another lead to go on right now.
Vaan briefly runs back to tell Balthier they're going to leave him behind if he doesn't hurry up. Reddas suggests that Vaan talks with his men. They've found out things about the place we need to go through called the Feywoods. He suggests that we ask them before we leave. Reddas suggests that Balthier has chosen a great apprentice, but Balthier simply responds he has no apprentice. Balthier goes to leave...and then Ashe is still there. Reddas asks why she truly wants the stone. Ashe says she wants the power, but she also fears the stone. She wishes to protect the Dalmasca and would do anything she needs to accomplish it. Before she leaves, he tells her to remember Nabudis and adds nothing more. Finally! We get to leave and head into the PORT OF BALFONHEIM!
As we walk into town, we meet up with Reddas's people. They're here to tell us what they know about how to get to Giruvegan. We need to head south from Golmore Jungle to a place known as the Feywood. The place is thick with Mist, and even if we make it past that, we might not get any further. There's a hidden trial in the Feywood which must be passed to open up the gate to the HOLY LAND OF GIRUVEGAN! With that information, it's time to move on out. While I'm in town, I check in at the local hunting board. Turns out, there are SIX NEW MARKS. Good lord, they're just adding up. I don't know how many Marks I'm behind on, but I really don't feel like taking down any of these. After this little blargh moment, I look around town a bit and buy what I can. I head to the front of town to find a save point and save the game...and I'm ending the post here.
True, I could keep going with this post, but I've delayed it long enough. I ended up looking up a guide for the game to try and figure out what I have left. At this point, I have no plans to do everything or remotely any extra stuff anymore. I figure the next post will consist of about 5-6 hours of training and looting and then another 5-6 hours of playing through the rest of the game. Basically, I hope to finish it with the next post. We'll just have to wait and see where it goes though. That's it for the Recurring Fantasy! Stay tuned for the next post which should HOPEFULLY be up by next week. Time will tell...THANKS FOR READING!
Ending Point - Balfonheim Port
Current Party -
- Vaan - Level 37
- Balthier - Level 37
- Fran - Level 37
Next Goals - Head through the Feywood and reach Giruvegan to get Cid and nethicite.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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