Game - Final Fantasy XII, Day 83
Hours Played/Hours Total - 21 hrs / 82 hrs
Starting Point - Balfonheim Port
Current Goal - Head through the Feywood and reach Giruvegan to get Cid and nethicite.
What Happened - Must...keep pushing through FFXII. I feel that I'm almost there, and I demand that I finish it soon! I CAN DO IT! That's enough of that for now. Despite the over dramitization of all that, I've been struggling pretty hard to keep focused on this Final Fantasy. I don't enjoy it as much as previous ones, and the biggest problem is I keep getting pulled away by new games. (If you're curious, it was Fire Emblem Awakening on the 3DS and BioShock Infinite.) I keep saying this, but I need to put this game into high gear and finish it up! WISH ME LUCK!
Where we left off, a lot of stuff just happened, but that's mostly irrelevant. I'm needing to head back to the Golmore Jungle and proceed towards the Feywood. I'll cross that into Giruvegan to get Cid and something about nethicite there. I was helped by a Sky Pirate by the name of Reddas, and he helped us and gave us info for what needed to be done. From there, I'm torn between what I should do. In all honesty, I should spend some time getting my loot factor up so I can (YET AGAIN) upgrade everybody's equipment, but on the other hand, I'm really ready to finish this game up. I even looked up a story summary to kinda figure out where I am. I won't spoil it, but I'm still lacking probably anywhere from ten to twenty hours to finish it up. Maybe less if I really push it and hope for luckyness. ANYWAYS! Let's go go go!
I've got a new area to explore, so let's start there. I'll probably work my way towards a few unfinished Marks before moving on of course. I head off into the wilderness of the CEROBI STEPPE! I spend about an hour or so in the Steppe earning some loot. The first area was probably the best for this since enemies seemed to keep respawning, and they were easy enough for me to beat. Seems I'm a bit behind in levels, so I'll get to make those up here soon enough. I did go far enough in to meet with one of the new Mark makers. She needed to beat some giant bird monster to get her stuff back, and she was joining us for the Mark. I ran up to it...and immediately regretted my decision. Most of my characters are still below 2000 HP, and it was able to do almost that per hit. I ran away from the beast and decided to attempt it later.
I head back down the Steppe and back into Balfonheim. From here, it's time for a Mark montage! I say montage, but it's only a few Marks. I call it montage because I'll really only mention the Mark name and beating it or not. First and foremost on the list is one of the oldest Marks I have, the Ring Wyrm! I head back to the Dalmasca Westersand to fight and end this beast. It's a stupid long fight for such an old Mark. Quickenings didn't do much either, so I just had to physical it out. With its defeat, I point my Mark montage towards the Zertinian Caverns. I gotta beat up a snake here so that a guy can make booze out of it. With my new amount of levels, I can actually deal with the enemies here. Before, I met with these enemies, who are in the higher 30 levels, and I couldn't really do anything. Now I'm all powerful! (Sorta.) If you remember from waaay back there, I ran into a strange area with a scene and a boss. It's time to beat this monster jerk! BOSS BATTLE TIME!
The first half of this battle was pretty crazy but felt quite beatable. The giant monstrosity here is known as Adrammalech, and he's able to summon up zombies to aid him. Even if you beat the zombies, they just come back, but they also have to be dealt with or things go bad. So I beat the zombies quickly and start working on him. He's a flying boss so my current team of Basch, Penelo, and Ashe can't hit him physically. I had to resort to magic for the first half of his bar. Once I got past that though, the game decided to say "screw you Daniel", and he made himself immune to magic. I ended up resorting to Quickenings to try and finish him off. That worked, but then he still had a small portion of health left. What's worse is that the game won't let you swap out team members while they are targets. Thus, I was stuck with the team currently out. I had to end up turning off their Gambits and letting them sit there and die so I can switch. Once they all died, I finally swapped in my other team of Vaan, Balthier, and Fran. With their ranged weapons, they should be able to hit. I was finally doing some damage, but it kept SLIGHTLY healing and kept itself from dying. I broke down and threw another Quickening Combo its way. Finally, the best was defeated! And as it turns out, the boss was actually an Esper! I acquired Adrammalech, the Wroth. Well that's done, but now I need to go back to hunting that snake Mark.
I ran all over the place and couldn't find the thing. I did find a secret passageway that connected to a random area of the cave, but that didn't get me anything worth my time. Tired of the manual search, I hit up a guide to find the beast. As it turns out, you find the thing near the front, but it also doesn't jump out at you immediately. You have to go to a specific spot near the front (a southern tip of what looks like a c), and then you have to wait in that spot for like a minute or two. When I say wait, I mean remain motionless, turn off the Gambits, and walk away wait. When I came back, the snake was out and ready to fight! Overall, not a very hard battle, but the last half of it was made entirely of "I parry all of your attacks". I had to break down and throw a Quickening at the darn thing, and it only had 2000 HP left! With the snake gone, it's time to head for the next mark...in Salikawoods!
Before that though, I head out for more training and looting. While doing this, I try to start implementing more status effects into my fighting. I realize it's a bit late since I'm nearing the end, but I'm realizing now that Final Fantasy XII is pretty status effect driven. They want you to use them like there is no tomorrow, but even with a renewed effort to try them out, I just can't justify wasting the time for them in most battles. Most small enemies are too easy to need status effects, or I end up killing them before I could even get them poisoned or whatever. On the other hand, I feel like a lot of bosses are immune to the more obvious status effects, so I don't feel like wasting the time or effort trying to apply them. Oh well! Time to move on to more Marks. I finish up the looting and training and finally head to Salikawoods.
I teleport over and head for wherever the Braegh is. It's some sort of horse monster located in Salikawoods. To get to it though, I'll have to deal with an old enemy...KING BOMB! BOSS BATTLE TIME! Despite my trouble last time, the King Bomb can't do anything to beat me this time. I quickly beat his face all over the place. I'd like to say that it felt good beating the big jerk. With his defeat, I was able to cross into the rest of Salikawoods. In the back part, I only had to search briefly to locate the evil horse. It's an evil ELECTRIC horse! This Mark was pretty old too, and I was able to easily beat the thing with zero trouble. With the Braegh dead, I decide to explore some of the other areas opened up here. The first one I stumble across and discover is the Necrohol of Nabudis.
Upon entering, I get a little scene of the group talking about the place. Basically, they just discuss that Nabudis was destroyed because of a mysterious event that we now know was the Midlight Shard. Much like the Dawn Shard when it destroyed the Leviathan, it exploded and destroyed everything in its path. It also released a bunch of Mist, and that means incredibly strong monsters here. I scoffed at the line, but I quickly found out they weren't lying. The first group of monsters I met almost killed me on the spot, and I had to run away. I immediately ran back to the Salikawoods. From here, I explored for a bit, killed some monsters, and happened upon ANOTHER new location...the Nabreus Deadlands. Unfortunately, that place isn't an option either. The enemies are several levels above me, and I don't stand any chance against them. They're like five or six levels above me...so time to leave! I find the Gateway Crystal in Salikawoods and teleport to the Sochen Cave Palace.
It's more Mark time! Here in this cave, there's a big turtle with the label "dead" on it. That's because I'm about to kill it. I locate the turtle known as Darksteel and quickly defeat the beast. Pretty easy Mark overall, and it really only took time because of lots of health. From there, I immediately teleport out to the Giza Plains to deal with the Gil Snapper, another turtle monster. Unfortunately, it's another Mark that you can't just directly approach. I had to run all about the Giza Plains and try to knock down all the trees to make a path to the Gil Snapper. Then once I was able to get to the area, I had to keep going back and forth from that area because it only appears during heavy storming. When the beast finally appeared, I was ready for it! On top of that, I had help from a member of the Clan to help me. (Clan Centurio. That group I joined but which has no impact on anything really.) Even without his help, the Gil Snapper would have been easy. Mark Vanquished.
Next on the list is the White Mousse in the Garamsythe Waterway of Rabanastre. The Garamsythe Waterway looks like a pretty confusing maze of paths, but I actually found my way around really easy. The White Mousse is just a fancy white Flan monster. Well, it wasn't too fancy when I beat it! Another Mark vanquished. I am just taking down these Marks left and right. Of course, most of the ones I'm dealing with are easy ones that I've put off to play more of the main story. Anyways, I thought about doing a few more Marks, but I'm ready to move on. My next goal is an area called the Feywood that's supposed to be near the Golmore Jungle. So...TO THE GOLMORE JUNGLE!
I teleport to the Golmore Jungle and quickly run through there. Taking the only unknown path leads me straight to THE FEYWOOD! It's a spooky ghost forest all covered in Mist. The enemies aren't too tough, but they aren't pushovers either. I quickly run through the forest and find myself in...a random part of Henne Mines. Yeah, I seemed to have missed the real path through the forest and ended up here instead. I turned around and started looking around the Feywoods. It took me a while before I realized that I had walked right past it. Nearby the save point, there's a path that's not listed as an entrance/exit on the map, but it's actually the correct way to go. It's hidden...sorta. I went up to it and small scene! The group is being halted by the heavy Mist blocking their path, but then Ashe sees Mr. Rasler at the edge of it. Suddenly, the Mist dissipates and the group is able to pass. We move right along into BOSS BATTLE TIME!
Oh no! It's a giant plant monster called Rafflesia. With some guide advice, I fully buffed my party before entering into the battle. I used Bubble (doubles your HP to double the max), Protect, Shell, Regen, and Haste. The first fun fact about this battle was the fun and strange field that constantly drains your MP. Even with these conditions, it was a pretty easy boss. Since my MP was going, I decided to throw out a Quickening and eliminate it all with one go. That only took about a quarter of its HP though, so I had to just physically attack it from there. Even after it called in Malboro helpers, I just kept my focus on the main target. Boss defeated! And now we can continue onward into the rest of the Feywoods.
This new area of the Feywoods comes with new enemies. Unfortunately, one of those enemies was a rare enemy who was incredibly powerful. That one enemy alone almost killed off my entire party. I managed to beat it after some very hard battling. After that, I didn't encounter any more real trouble with the enemies here. The next few areas came along with a fancy puzzle to keep me from continuing. Basically, there are a number of shrines scattered throughout each area. You go to the first shrine, observe the emblem, and it gives a little saying. It says something about the true path being lit by an illusion. Basically, you look around the shrine with the camera and look through the doorways. One of them lights up with the illusion of a forest, and that leads you to the next shrine in line or the exit. If you don't do that, going to the exit of the area just magicks you back to the entrance. The first area of shrines lead me to a second area of shrines, but the second group of shrines lead me to a large gate. The gate wouldn't open if I touched it, but an inscription said something about opening only for the Gigas. I had to actually summon Belias the Gigas to open the gate for me. When I tried to open the door again, Belias took over and opened the gate with magic. With the gate opened, I could finally go to the next area.
In the next area, I'm treated to a scene and the knowledge of finally being in The Ancient City of Giruvegan! Ashe says something about this being the city on the edge of time. Fran comments that the Mist is quite thick here, but she won't be going crazy like on the Leviathan because this Mist feels "cooled". She also says something about the sense of a shadow like the one from before. Balthier figures she means like Venar, and goes on to say that we should wait here since Cid isn't here yet. Penelo asks why we aren't going inside, and Balthier tells her that we don't want to go twisted like Cid does. Ashe is all of a sudden distracted again because Rasler is back. His ghostly form walks off, and she follows after him. The group is all "What?", and Vaan simply says that "She can see him. Let's follow her." Nobody questions this, so we head right on through.
There's a Gate Crystal nearby, so I teleport back to town to buy supplies. I sell all of my recently acquired loot and end up with over 60,000 Gil! Woo! Then it's gone in no time. It wasn't even enough to fully upgrade everybody, but whatever, I'm moving right on with the game. I teleport back to Giruvegan and then continue through this ancient city. A nearby warp machine takes me across the way and to another platform for BOSS BATTLE TIME! A nearby statue changes into a large monster with a huge blade. The boss wouldn't have been very challenging if it wasn't for the flawed hit system. It was doing combos of like five to eight hits in a row. That fact alone allowed him to kill off a party member here and there. It delayed the battle by like five or ten minutes because he kept doing it, and I kept wasting time to revive people. Finally managed to beat it, but I wasn't very happy with the overall battle. Anyways, with its defeat, it changed back into a statue and opened up another warp point. I take that and am teleported to a massive underground dungeon with monsters all about.
This place is pretty big, and I'm having to slowly climb down through hordes of fairly rough monsters. The only "puzzle" of this place is lowering the various barriers to get around the place. I also have to find random hidden paths to continue from one area to another. It looks like thin air, but if you walk on it, it lights up as a giant green glowing magical path. The first one was easy enough to find and took me down down down...into a scene! The characters are walking along this giant glowing path when they look to the center of this massive place and spot the insanely huge crystal. There's really not much said here, but Vaan seems overly excited for the unknown for sure. I continue along and come to a save point! Then I move right along.
This next spot is a big area with a ton of staircases and small spots, but there aren't any enemies. I spent a lot of time walking around and trying to figure out where I'm supposed to go. I finally happen upon another invisible pathway, and it makes itself visible when I find it. I take the platform out into the giant chasm of an area and right into another BOSS BATTLE TIME! The group is standing in the middle of the unknown, and suddenly a dragon flies down to fight us. Oh no! I can't use techniques for this battle! Whatever shall I do? /end sarcasm Despite this horrific disablement, I'm able to push through this battle. It's just a generic boss battle with a dragon. The dragon was all like "RAWR!", but I just felt kinda meh about the entire thing. I make some heavy use of Bubble and Curaja, but the dragon doesn't really have anything special up its sleeves. With its defeat, the dragon ends up backing and falling off the magical platform. This leads to a big CONGRATULATIONS! Another warp point appears, and we jump on it and straight into the inside the massive crystal inside this dungeon.
Dear lord, I'm now in a very unfun part of this dungeon. There's not really any kind of map, and looking at the menu map just shows a picture of a giant crystal. Basically, we're inside the giant crystal we spotted before. The first thing that hits me is...I get a little lost. I didn't really pay attention to which paths I took as I adventured through here. I seemed to go the right direction though because I'm soon hit with a scene. Ashe sees this giant glowing spot in the background and wonders if this is all nethicite. She goes on to say that there's enough here to...And is immediately cut off by Fran. Fran chimes in with "enough here to destroy ALL of Ivalice if you wanted". Ashe doesn't find this thought very comforting though, and we move along. Another warp point appears ahead, and it takes us straight into a random room. Oh noes! Another BOSS BATTLE TIME!
The first thing this battle says to me is....This monster is another Esper. The Esper battles kinda just have this certain look and feel that makes me feel like it is a new Esper. This strange Esper is some sort of combination between a woman and a horse, but it's not your typical person-horse combo like most centaurs. I'm not quite sure how to describe it...Anyways, even with some of the more powerful spells like Shock and Flare, the Esper didn't have anything to really give it an edge. With the battle's end, I'm congratulated and rewarded the Esper Shemhazai, the Whisperer. Past the boss area lies another warp point with a fun message. It says that it's the only way to go beyond this place, but I ignore that and touch it to move on. ANOTHER SCENE!
Ashe is suddenly by herself, and a strange being starts talking with her. The being identifies itself as an Occuria and tells her that she has been chosen. Then it's all WOOOO! and suddenly, Ashe is surrounded by a whole group of the strange ghost figures. They look a lot like the ones from before and the one identified as Venat. They start talking with her about who they are and what is going on. There's a lot said here, so I'm going to try and shorten it a bit. They know that she desires power, and they plan to grant it to her. They tell her that the source of the nethicite is a large crystal known as the Sun-Cryst. King Raithwell was given the Sword of Kings and told about the Sun-Cryst as well. He used the Sword of Kings to cut off three shards of the crystal. The shards are the crystals he passed down through his legacies.
Ashe doesn't know what to think about this, and suddenly they give her a "Treaty Blade" and grant her the right to cut the Sun-Cryst to claim her own shards. They ask her to wield the power of the shards to become a Dynast King and destory Venat. She responds by saying that Venat is an Occurian like them, but they respond quite swiftly that he is a HERETIC! They claim that the nethicite is theirs to give to whomever they choose and no others. Venat helped someone to produce nethicite, and they aren't happy with them at all. They're giving Ashe the Treaty Sword and the right to use the nethicite so that she'll go and destory the Empire. She doesn't know how to respond to this. She might have wanted revenge, but she didn't plan to destroy them utterly.
The Occuria go on to say that man is short lived in this world and insults them in a couple different ways. The Occuria are everlasting and immortal, and they have chosen people throughout time to help mold the world. They've passed their judgement on countless peoples so that Ivalice could forever endure. They believe they are the stewards of history to keep it going on the course they deem right. Their chosen person is their hand in the real world to help guide it. The hand also chooses who is to live and destroy any others. They tell Ashe that she is their chosen. They order her to take her revenge against those who stole her kingdom and fulfill her role as a savior. The Occuria disappear at this point...and then the rest of the group walks in.
They wonder what was up with the Occuria and what gives them the right to tell her what to do. Fran asks Ashe if she'll truly take her revenge like they asked. Ashe isn't sure how to respond, and Basch lets her know that they couldn't see the Occura, but they could hear them speak. He goes on to say that the Occuria may believe themselves to be gods, but everyone is their own person and free to choose their destiny. Basch might like like the Empire, but he's against her destroying it in revenge. They should pay for their actions, but utter destruction is too much. Suddenly, the group realizes Cid isn't here, and Balthier knows what happened.
Cid baited them into coming to Giruvegan. He wanted Ashe to get the stone and meet with the Occuria. Penelo asks how this would help since them having the stone would be bad for the Empire. Balthier figures that Cid just wants to see what happens when nethicite collides. Regardless, Ashe tells the group that she will search out for this Sun-Cryst. The group turns to go, but Balthier has one last thing to add. He tells her that "Hhistory is built by our hands" and adds that it is a favorite line of Cid's. Balthier doesn't believe Cid would stand by and let the Occuria shape all of history. Scene jump!
Now it's Larsa and Vayne in Archadia. Also Gabranth and Cid are there. Larsa is begging Vayne to give Dalmasca back to Ashe to avoid a war. Vayne thinks Ashe is determined for war though and desires it above all else. She won't rest until her revenge is taken. Larsa belives he is just misreading her because he feels Ashe would shun war before embracing it. Vayne then looks over to Gabranth and asks that he judge her in his place. He is to decide whether she wants war or peace, and if it comes to war, he asks that Gabranth takes care of her. Larsa doesn't seem very happy with this, but he believes that Gabranth will see what he sees in Ashe and won't kill her. Gabranth and Larsa then head off.
Cid comes over from the corner and starts talking with Vayne. He comments on how Larsa is such a nice kid and can't believe how he is Vayne's brother. Vayne simply responds that he is how he should be. Cid suddenly talks with the invisible Venat who informs him that "they've taken the bait", and that Ashe has been given her Treaty Blade by the Occuria. Vayne comments that they've chosen their scribe to write history and believes that she'll be adding fresh nethicite to her power. Cid laughs at this and believes that the nethicite to be simply trinkets best left for study. Vayne adds that they've conquered TWO kingdoms so that he could study these "trinkets". Cid says he's grateful for the sacrifice because manufactured nethicite is just so amazing. Cid starts talking with Venat again, but there isn't much worth mentioning. They do suggest that they have an ace for taking back the "reins of history" from the Occuria. From here, there's a bit more said, but let's just move on.
The group is about to head on, but they aren't quite sure where to look. The Occuria did give her a clue about where to find it. Something about a lost time on a distant shore. Vaan brings up that Reddas mentioned something about following another lead, and that they should go ask him about that. Balthier doesn't really want to be in Reddas's debt, but Vaan simply asks who Balthier can trust if not his own kind? I guess that's enough for everybody else though. Time to leave this awful place. Unfortunately, I missed the quick teleport out of here and instead took the long way out. It's not that tough of a dungeon, so it wasn't that bad really. It helped me get some extra loot out of the journey at least. There were a few annoying enemies, but nothing I couldn't handle. When I finally hit the Gate Crystal, I teleported back to Balfonheim and sold all my loot. I made 90,000 Gil! Unfortunately, it was pretty much all gone once I bought all the newest magic available.
Before moving on, I figured to tackle another Mark or two. For this time, I decided to revisit the Cerobi Steppe and fight the giant bird monster known as Vyreen. Somebody's got to help that viera get her stuff back. I quickly made it up and to the bird monster for Mark battle time! The battle started off pretty well too. I was all buff-ed up and ready to beat the monster. I got pretty far into its health, and it was nearly dead when it did the most annoying thing ever. Rather than just heal itself normally, the giant jerk began to run around the area and just avoid me. I tried running after it, but the thing was able to run crazy fast. It was fast enough to run halfway across the map and heal up some before I caught up. Thanks to this little bit, it was able to avoid me for several minutes before finally coming back to fight. When it came back, it was suddenly like three or four times harder. All of this not because of its moves or abilities, but because the stupid thing could just run really fast. I managed to beat the thing after blasting it with a pile of Quickenings. Enough of this! I head into town, sell the loot, buy new armor and such, and then move on with the story.
I head into Balfonheim and meet up with Reddas. As I walk into his house, it seems that something has most definitely gone down. He's ordering people all about to take care of something. He tells us that a problem came up. He sent off a bunch of boats to search a far off coast. When they approached the foreign coast, the Mist was incredibly thick and started to cause problems. He sent boats because he knew airships would have problems, but he didn't expect trouble for boats. After explaining all of that, he asks Ashe how Giruvegan went, but he can already tell from her face that it wasn't much of a success. Reddas also seemed to know that Cid was lying about going there. Ashe confirms this but thinks that we know what he truly intends. They go on to explain that the deifacted nethicite is simply shards taken from a much larger source known as the Sun-Cryst. The group believes that the Sword of Kings can be used to break the source, and this would stop the Midlight Shard from working at all! They're unsure about what would happen to manufactured nethicite though. As Ashe finishes up with that explanation, Balthier adds in that they could use the Treaty Blade to cut off a new shard of nethicite and use that to fight the Empire's nethicite. With that said, Balthier gives them his opinion on the nethicite. He says we should pick it up and throw it away for good.
After all this talk-ary, Vaan comes in (thankfully) and gets the group back on topic. He says we have to find the Sun-Cryst regardless of what we do with it, so let's just forget about this for now and find the thing. Vaan then asks Reddas about the hint they were given of its location. "A tower on a distant shore across a distant sea." Lucky for us, Reddas immediately recognizes that description as the Naldoan Sea, the Ridorana Cataract, and the Pharos Lighthouse. That's where he sent his fleet to and where they ran into all the trouble. Basch is already convinced that this is the place from the saying. It seems to all match up, and the strong Mist is most likely from the Sun-Cryst.
Balthier asks how they'll get there because the seas in that area are "Jagd". The game has never truly explained how their air travel works, but now that we're just a few hours from the game being over, I can make some assumptions from this conversation. Jagd is some sort of special type of stone/air/something or other that keeps airships from working properly. Lucky for us, Reddas has a solution for this. He gives Balthier a special skystone that he believes should resist the Jagd. (Again! It's suggested that the skystone is how airships work.) Balthier sees the stone and assumes it is another stolen good from Draklor Laboratories. Of course, the bigger question here is the one he asks...Why didn't Reddas use it in his ship? Reddas explains that the stone won't work with his airship, but he believes Balthier's Strahl will work with it. So! It looks like we are ready to go. As the group turns to head out, Reddas asks Ashe if he can accompany us. Ashe isn't opposed but asks why he's given us so much help. His only answer to this is the Nabudis Deadlands. They ask if that is his homeland, and he answers no but it's a memory burned forever in his heart. REDDAS JOINS THE PARTY AS A GUEST!
We head out of Reddas's house/mansion/whatever, and I learn that I finally have control of Balthier's airship, the Strahl! The game's explanation was that it was being repaired all of this time. All the way back from when it was damaged that one time during the Leviathan business. The Strahl opens up the ability to move all around Ivalice without having to make copious use of Teleport Stones between the Gate Crystals. I can't go anywhere on the map, but I can head to most of the major locations. Before heading off to the Ridorana Cataract, I figure to attempt another Mark. I figure I can handle one of the harder Marks now, and I also have a guest member to help out. So, why not?
The Mark I have in mind is another dragon known as the Lindwyrm. This one was another Mark on the list of "Marks with special conditions". Basically, you have to go to a specific area at a certain time when the conditions are juuuust right. You have to approach this random area of the Tchita Uplands when it's rainy but not HEAVY rain. Yeah, I'm just loving these. Anyways, I find the dragon and engage battle! It's your typical Mark battle where it was honestly more annoying to find it than to fight it. Really was just a long battle simply because the thign had a lot of health. I had basically no trouble fighting it, and with its defeat, that meant another Mark Vanquished. After this huge time waste, I decided I didn't want to waste anymore time and made my way to the final dungeon! (I know this because of the guide.) ONWARD! TO THE RIDORANA CATARACT AND THAT LIGHTHOUSE PLACE!
After I take off to head for said place, I'm treated to a lovely cutscene of the Strahl flying over an ocean. Then there's a huuuuge tower on a random bit of land above said ocean. At the edge of the lighthouse is like...a waterfall but with the ocean? I'm confused sorta, but it looks all nice and pretty. So glossing past that, the tower is just freakin' massive, and of course, we have to park at the very bottom of the tower. I can already tell this isn't going to be a short trip up the tower. (Also the guide warned that this is easily a several hour dungeon WITH the guide help.) With the end of the cutscene, we shift into a regular scene of the group looking at the tower from the bottom. Almost can't see the top of it...Ashe is still contemplating what action she should take. She doesn't know whether to destroy the Sun-Cryst or use it to get her revenge. She says this outloud of course, and Reddas warns her that revenge will only end in her own woe. That part of the group heads on, but Balthier stops Vaan briefly to say something to him. He tells Vaan that if something goes bad for him (Balthier), he wants Vaan to take the Strahl for him. Vaan doesn't know how to take this, and Balthier simply adds that he's the leading man and might have to do something heroic before this is done. Enough talking, let's go get that Sun-Cryst!
This area is littered with some pretty tough enemies. I'd also like to add that almost every area since like the Salikawoods has had SOME form of Malboro. I'm not saying they aren't good for a challenge, but it would be nice to see a little more variety. Either way, I don't get too far on this area around the Lighthouse before we come right up to the big building itself. There's the door...but oh no! It's a giant zombie dragon! BOSS BATTLE TIME! The first of the last round of bosses is a big ol' zombie dragon called Hydro. I don't know why you'd name a zombie-fied dragon Hydro, but I'm not a game designer. Either way, there wasn't much of a fight to be had here. I didn't have any real trouble with the guy until he was struggling with the throws of undeath death. Even then, the big guy went down with not much effort on my part. With his demise, we approach the big door to the big tower for a scene.
As the group approaches this big door, Vaan notices some interesting writing at the side. The writing is quite old though, so only Fran can read it of course. As she reads it off, I'll summarize it in the worst way possible. "Dear person chose by Occuria with your fancy sword, This tower is very tall. There are monsters in here, so I'm just warning you that it is dangerous. Also there are tests in the tower to test your worthyness, and there 'watchers' or whatever. Yours truly, King Raithwell." Basically, the Dynast-King left a message for any others that the Occuria might send. It's a warning to those who would come after him. Fran feels the message is definitely for Ashe, and that there might be something she can understand of this message that the others can't. There was a part about "cutting the truth path", but I don't get it right now. I figure we'll get it eventually, but let's handle that problem when it comes. Ashe approaches the big ol' door, and it magically opens up just for her. Let's move on into the FIRST ASCENT! HORIZON OF FIRST LIGHT!
This dungeon is so big that different parts of it are technically considered different dungeons stacked on top of one another. I see it that way because there are different Ascents coming up, and they each have their own map to find, different enemies, and all that. The areas of this dungeon are littered with pillars with glowing words upon them. It's all written in the sort of "old style speech you can't directly understand" dialect. It's all hints, clues, suggestions, and assorted messages about climbing this tower. Basically, I'm not going to get to just stroll to the top. I don't feel like deciphering all of these pillars, so I'll just hit up the guide. The first step is to go around, beat enemies, and collect Black Orbs when they drop them. The first floor is just a giant circle with enemies on the outside ring, so I run around the exterior and collect a pile of Black Orbs. After that, I hit the inner ring of the circle and place one of the orbs into a pedestal With the pedestal activated, it does a little fancy scene and talks about the first seal being broken. Now I have to go around and activate the other two pedestals around this area. I didn't realize that they were all around, or I would have activated them as I was going...
A short while later, I've activated the other two pedestals, and now the seal to some door is gone, so I may continue on! I find the door that's been "unsealed" and enter inside. This transport the group to a weird illusion world. I walk around a bit and eventually run into a giant rock...that transforms into a weird turtle rock monster! BOSS BATTLE TIME! It's the rock turtle Pandaemonium! It's all tough with its rock defense and such. This battle goes pretty well for a while, but then the boss pulls one of FFXII's fun "screw you" moves. When he hits about the halfway point on his HP, he puts up a barrier where he can't be hurt by magical or physical attacks. Thus, for the next several minutes, I have to sit there and just wait it out. I can't hurt it in any way, so I have to just sit there and take it from the turtle. I don't know whose idea this was, but it's getting thrown on the list of ideas known as "Bad game design". When the period of suck is done, I take a few more minutes to eliminate the turtle. With the turtle down, the illusion world fades, and we're back in the room from before.
As the room comes into view, I get a message telling me that gateway is now open. There was a deactivated warp device at the front of the dungeon, so I figure it should work now. I head to it, hit the warp switch, and now...I'm on the tenth floor. Now I'm presented with just a bunch of stairs and pathways to climb up. What's the catch? I have to defeat specific green glowing monsters. With their defeat, pieces of magical bridges appear and eventually materialize into actual bridges. Most of these monsters are just along the path, but I do have to search out one here and there. As I'm moving upward, the game throws a wrench in the easyness of the path by adding red versions of the monsters. You have to avoid killing those, or the magical bridge resets. If that resets, you have to go and kill all the green ones again. This sounds pretty simple right? Just kill only the green ones, but the problem here is you have a guest member who runs soley on AI telling it to "Kill everything". That means the stupid idiot will go and attack ANYTHING that isn't friendly. I had to keep telling Reddas to retreat, or he'd kill off the red ones. Despite this minor setback, I'm able to climb up quite a bit with some speed. I make it all the way to floor fifty before I hit another save.
Just a small ways beyond the save, there's some closed doors, and beyond one of those doors is another illusion world with...Yeah, it's more BOSS BATTLE TIME! This time, I'm in a marsh-y area, and a giant fish jumps out to fight. This could have been a very challenging and interesting battle, if I didn't know the secret. It's almost like a recipe! Take one giant monster fish named Slyt. Cover in Oil (the status effect), and fry him with Fire. Repeat lovingly until the fish dies in like two or three minutes at most. Each hit of Firaga was doing nearly 7000 damage, so I had no trouble with the guy. With his defeat, the illusion is gone, and we're free to continue our climb upwards through another warp device. We teleport up and into the SECOND ASCENT! REACH OF DIAMOND LAW!
The puzzle for this area is less of a puzzle and more of a "choose your hinderance" game. There are four pillars around the area, and each one asks you to sacrifice something to continue. You can choose between losing your physical attacks, your magic, your items, or the mini-map in the top right corner. That's a pretty tough choice. I had to think about it before I could choose what to lose. In the end, I gave up the mini-map because it's the stupidest hinderance choice. Seriously, you can still pause the game with select and have access to a map. So it's less of a hinderance and more of a "slight delay". That's the gimmick for the first half of the second ascent. Seriously, why would you give up your magic or attacks? Is it to challenge yourself? Because it just seems like a bad decision. I make my way up a group of floors before finding myself in front of another door. Guess what? It's another illusion world with ANOTHER BOSS BATTLE TIME!
For this round, I'm fighting a giant white tiger man with a big sword. His name is Fenrir, and he was a huge disappointment for a boss. It was more of a difficulty enemy than a boss honestly. He doesn't have a lot of health, and he only really does physical attacks. Sure, he comes with the stat boosts Haste and Bravery, but those can be dispelled quickly enough. Beyond that, he just combo'd his attacks at times. This gave him some umph behind his attacks, but it really wasn't anything to worry about beyond that. I beat him, the illusion goes away, and we're allowed to continue up this lighthouse.
In the next area, it's a replica of the initial area. There are the four sacrifice pedestals from before, but now I have to hit the same one as before to gain back what I lost. Woo! Mini map retrieved. With everything back in place, I'm given an elevator that lets me move up a SINGLE FLOOR! YEAAAAAH! (Floor 66 to Floor 67) I save my game on this floor and hit up another warp point. Now I'm on THIRD ASCENT! METE OF DESTINY! This area comes with word puzzles about choosing the correct warp forward among a group of different colored warp stone sigils. Getting one wrong simply resets the area, but if I mess TWO up, I'll be punished for it. Of course, I have a guide behind me, so I'm not too worried about the punishment. No point extending this post, so I'll just list the colored sigil order. The order goes Black sigil, Green sigil, Red sigil, the color you sacrificed earlier (Pink for me), and Clear sigil. This takes you to an elevator, and that elevator takes me up to floor 90. Once there, we step off the elevator right into a BOSS BATTLE!
It's a strange lion-man creature with weird arms. They look like airplane wings almost. Oh well! We're going to take this beast man DOWN. This battle had a couple of blargh moments that have to be solved with very precise strategies. You have to float everybody to avoid the boss's Quakeja spell that he eventually casts. That's not so bad really, and it didn't even do that much damage if I messed it up. However, the real problem was that he liked to inflict the Disease status. I didn't know what it did before, but I learned quite quickly. If a character with Disease is knocked out, they are revived with only ONE HP. You can't cure the status through death either, you have to cure it with the spell Cleanse or the item Vaccine. I had to deal with the status quite a bit and revive a few members several times. Beyond that, there's not much more to mention. With his defeat, I found out that airplane-arm lion man was another Esper. Thus I gained Hashmal, Bringer of Order.
From here on, it's a pretty calm trip up the rest of the tower. There's a small scene with the group talking though. Fran comments on how the din of Mist grows thicker, and she believes we are finally nearing the Sun-Cryst. Penelo is curious if Ashe will truly take her revenge against the Empire. She knows how hard it is to lose someone precious, but Penelo knows there is nothing you can do to bring them back. (Because Pheonix Downs and Life spells don't work on non-party members.) Reddas replies to this by saying that the past can be as bad as iron shackles, and he wonders if Ashe will truly cut the path. After that, it's a save crystal, a warp device, and right into another scene. We're finally face-to-face with the Sun-Cryst! Ashe is still quite unsure of what she wishes to do, but she's contemplating it all out loud right now. She holds both swords in hand (Sword of Kings and Treaty Blade) and has to choose which to use. Suddenly, Rasler appears in front of the crystal, and now everybody can see him. As she looks at him, she feels like he is asking her to take the stone and get revenge, but she realizes now that she doesn't want revenge. Just as she's saying that, a surprise guest appears from nowhere.
Oh noes! It's Judge Gabranth! He admits to pretending to be Basch and killing her father. He demands she stand up for her people and country and take revenge. There's a whole bit that goes down here, and it's pretty lengthy. It's mostly just angry-ness and revenge talk. Gabranth goes to strike at one of the party members, but Reddas cuts in and blocks him. Reddas talks about a Judge who was present at Nabudis. How this Judge took the Midlight Shard and used it, and that was how Nabudis was wiped out. The Judge was told by Cid to find out the true power of the shard, and if you guessed, then yes, that Judge, known as Judge Zecht, was Reddas! (Dun dun duuuuun!) Gabranth pushes Reddas off to the side and tells Ashe that she has sworn revenge and states that the dead deserve it. Blah blah blah, the past can't be changed and what have you. Ashe looks again at the image of Rasler and slashes through it. She realizes now that it can't possibly be him, and it turns out that the Occuria were leading her around all this time.
The Occuria reminds her that she was chosen to fix history. Ashe gets angry at this statement and tells them that she isn't their false saint. She slashes through the Rasler image, and it is now gone. She says that Dalmasca has never relied on the power of the Dusk Shard. They resolved to never use it, and that's the Dalmasca she wishes to have back. To make use of the nethicite now would simply betray that. She's decided to destroy the Sun-Cryst and throw it away. Gabranth scoffs at how she claims no need for power. What of the broken kingdom's shame? He yells that the dead demand justice! Vaan yells at him how that is wrong. Nothing can be changed now. He can't help his dead brother because he's gone for good. Ashe stands to say that the past can't be changed with power, and what is done is done. Gabranth asks how she plans to defend the future of her Kingdom without power. Basch steps in and says he will give his all to defend his Queen and his Kingdom both. Gabranth laughs at the statement and asks what good Basch could possibly do. Basch couldn't defend Dalmasca or Landis (their long forgotten, dead, and previous home country). What good is his shattered hope and shield now? BOSS BATTLE TIME! WITH JUDGE GABRANTH!
What it should really be called is "a big pile of easy nonsense with no difficulty whatsoever". It's four people facing off against one guy who's just throwing out mostly puny attacks. At the halfway point of his health, he yells out at Basch about stuff. Something about how slaying the Kingslayer won't bring back his honor, and he's stained with blood for abandoning his country. Oh who cares anymore! We wallop the guy after that and he goes down. As Gabranth is all "urgh" after his defeat, he adds in something about them leaving their debts unpaid. Then, someone comes in to end all of this judge-y, preachy nonsense. Guess who? It's Cid! He calls Gabranth a disappointment. Cid says that Gabranth shouldn't have simply raised his sword at the Princess. When he did this, he broke his word to Larsa and doesn't deserve to be a sword or shield for him. Cid dismisses Gabranth and moves right along. Gabranth isn't too happy to hear this and lunges forward to strike at Cid. Venat interrupts this little moment and flings Gabranth to the side though.
Cid comes forward and congratulates Ashe on resisting the Occuria's offer and choosing to end their meddling instead. If they don't rely on the Sun-Cryst shards, that puts the reins of history back in man's hands. He asks that she hold off on destroying the crystal briefly though because he has one last use for it. With Venat's help, he brings forth a big pile of Mist from the thing. Mist starts shooting from the crystal, and Balthier yells at Cid because he realizes what it was all about. Cid has done all of this to try and become a god of some sort. However, we aren't going to just sit here and watch. BOSS BATTLE TIME! Unfortunately for Cid, he's pretty damn weak. We are just beating his face in with no trouble whatsoever. Halfway through, Cid doesn't like where it is going, so he calls in a helper. It seems he also has an Esper, and he summons forth a big metal-y guy he calls Famfrit. When he brings out Famfrit, Cid pulls up a magical and physical barrier to make himsel invulnerable. So...we can't get to him until we defeat this big guy. That's really not too much trouble though. The only thing Famfrit seems to have of any power is the Waterja spell, but that's about it. We quickly beat the big Esper down and re-focus on the half-dead Cid. Smack, smack, boom, ka-pow, and the Cid man is down for good! (Also we get his Esper, Famfrit the Darkening Cloud.)
Scene time! Cid dies here and fades away into nothingness. Of course, what he did to the Sun-Cryst is still happening, and it is fuming up a storm of Mist. According to those there, it's going to blow soon, and we need to take it down now. Vaan and Ashe each grab one of the swords and attempt to run up to destroy the Sun-Cryst, but they can't reach it because of all the Mist pouring out of it. Reddas comes up and takes the Sword of Kings. He rushes the Sun-Cryst and slices it up...Of course, it blows up regardless, but not without a large cutscene showing off how people from all over can see/sense the explosion. Now it jumps back to the tower, but it's very much missing the top piece. The rest of the group is in the Strahl as it flies away, and Reddas...is dead. I'm given the option to save my game now, and next thing I know, we're back in Balfonheim.
As we get there, Al-Cid is waiting for us. As it turns out, that wasn't the end of all of this. He informs us that now is the time for essence because we have a war on our hands. He did what he could to delay said war, and everything was going very well. Unfortunately, some of the more devoted war generals went behind his back and straight to the Resistance. On top of that, Al-Cid has learned that several groups of the Resistance went rogue and charged straight at the Empire. He believes they were most like Rozarrian troops placed into the Resistance under the guise of mercenaries. This little act of course brought out a response from the Empire, and now the Marquis has been forced to send his main fleet to counter that. As it turns out, the battleground of all of this is Dalmasca. Balthier figures that Rozarria will use this little battle as an excuse to send in more support with the excuse of defense. From there, war is basically the next step between the two empires.
It is also believed that Vayne will strike out at both the Resistance and Rozarria when they are all out there. Basch doesn't understand why he'd do this since the Dusk Shard is powerless and no longer an advantage. Unfortunately, Al-Cid informs us that Vayne has many advantages on his side. It seems he is on the higher ground with a little something he woke up...Bahamut, Lord of the Sky. It was reported that a whole lot of Mist was reported near Ridorana when Bahamut awoken. Obviously, the group believes that these two events are linked. It's always possible that they aren't, but this is a game! Two random events are always linked. Balthier believes that this was most likely Cid's doing as well. It was his last big goal, and unfortunately, he accomplished it. The Bahamut is coming to Rabanastre, and it's time for us to take it down. We're all united in taking down a sky fortress although we really don't have a way to do that. Al-Cid heads out at this point to go and hold back the Rozarrian invasion for as long as possible. From here on, all I have left to do is fly to the Bahamut with the Strahl.
Before I head for the final area, I had a couple of things to do first. I sold all of the loot I just acquired over the last several hours. I had over 100,000 gil! Of course, 70% of that money was gone after I purchased all of the new spells they had in Balfonheim. After that, I went to find out what new Marks came up. Turns out there were like seven new Marks, but that still wasn't really all of them. From what I looked up, there are 45 Marks in the entire game, and I've only tackled a little over 20 of those. Since I can't come back after the Bahamut, I figured maybe I should try to eliminate a few more of those. My patience in this game has really hit its edge, but the completionist part of me wants to complete more of the game. SO! I chose a Mark and went out into the world to deal with it.
And quickly found out this was a huge mistake. The stupid part is that the Mark itself wasn't that hard, but the conditions around the Mark were ridiculous. The Mark was this large golem in the Nabudis Deadlands, but to get to it, you have to go through a battallion of constantly respawning skeletons. I managed to get the golem's health pretty far down, but then I was stuck on trying to keep everybody alive. On top of death, they were making everybody Blind, so I had to keep curing that as well. In this process, I ended up running out of Phoenix Downs and magic. I had to run away with only one party member left, and then when I tried to recover, I lost that person as well. Game Over. All this taught me was that I had to be stupid amounts of prepared to deal with a simple Mark. With that setback, I decided...Screw it! I'm moving on to the final area. After reloading my game, I went to the Aerodome and flew off towards the Bahamut.
From here on, it's pretty much just story bits and a couple of boss fights. I'll go into some detail, but I'm not going to be obsessive because this post is long enough as is. As soon as I take off, I'm put to a large cutscene of Rabanastre being overtaken by what appears to be a massive storm with a tornado, but I'm guessing that inside of that storm is the Bahamut. Now it switches over to a scene. It's Vayne and Larsa aboard the massive sky fortress. I'd like to say that this thing doesn't even remotely compare to the other airships. It is like five or six times bigger than even the BIGGEST airship they've shown so far. Anyways, Vayne is on the bridge of the Bahamut, and he's hearing stuff from Venat. (Currently invisible to us.) Larsa is begging with him to let it end since the people have surrendered. Vayne is all "nope" though. The Bahamut opens fire with the main gun, and this destroys a huge mass of the Resistance airships with just the single shot. Back inside the ship, Vayne is explaining how he sees all of this. He believes there is no surrender now. The Resistance will send everything they have, and he will destroy them all.
Larsa tells him that he is wrong to just slaughter them all, and the people will only hate him more for doing this. Vayne believes that if he pardons them instead, they will simply rise up again. Larsa still believes he is wrong, but Vayne suggests that he back up that statement with the strength to take him down. Then Vayne goes and gives a speech to his crew aboard. He talks about how they are going to start a new beginning and write a new history. They will stop this rebellion and do it for Archadia. Huzzah! And now, we jump into a big battle cutscene! There are airships all around, and they are beginning to launch out and about to attack the Bahamut. However, they don't stand a chance. On top of the Bahamut, the Empire has a fleet of ships as well. This cutscene is mostly just an awesome airship battle. For the moment, it was looking kinda hopeful for the Resistance, but then their main ship moves out of the way, and the Bahamut takes a shot at the Resistance. It just barely misses the Resistance's flag ship, the Garland, and heads past to blow up a whole group of their ships.
The scene jumps on board the Garland who is preparing to deal with this. Suddenly, the Strahl appears, and Ashe messages them to say they're going in to stop Vayne. Ondore tells her that it isn't her responsibility to do this, but then we randomly hear Larsa contact them to say he's going with her to stop Vayne. Ondore wishes them luck, and we find out the group is a pile of liars. Vaan used some equipment on the Strahl to pretend to be Larsa, and they fly onwards to the Bahamut. There's an epic little cutscene of the Strahl flying all action-like towards the Bahamut. He dodges all sorts of stuff and lands on the Bahamut. The team disembarks, and we find ourselves on the SKY FORTRESS BAHAMUT! The group talks briefly to remind me that our goal is Vayne alone. We don't need or want to fight the whole Empire, so it's suggesting that I just make a mad dash to get him. So let's GO GO GO!
I have to fight through some Imperial soldiers as I make my way through the Bahamut. As we reach the core of the ship, it's more cutscene time! There are Resistance fighters who manage to get to the Bahamut and fire upon the ship. You gotta give those guys something...They are pretty well prepared. The group renews their determination and moves right along. It seems that the Imperial soldiers are more or less endless, so I just make a run for the central elevator. Just as we make it to the elevator, I'm greeted by an old friend...Judge Gabranth is alive and here somehow. He claims that he still has a job to do, but Basch says he shouldn't just blame himself. Gabranth yells at Basch and tells his brother (Yeah, I didn't connect the dots until last time although the game suggested it a couple times.) that he failed Landis and Dalmasca. How does he hold onto his honor? Basch says that he has succeeded in defending someone important, and that is what matters to him. He asks Gabranth if he hasn't done the same and suggests that Gabranth has done the same for Lord Larsa. Gabranth doesn't seem to care right this moment. His title has been stripped, and the only feeling he harbors now is hatred for his brother. Gabranth asks how Basch goes on with all that has been forsaken, and Basch simply answers that he does what he must. BOSS BATTLE TIME!
Judge Gabranth is back for a second round, but he hasn't really changed any from before. True, he was a little bit harder, but there's still not much to worry about here. Minus a little setback, I managed to beat the guy and get another scene. Basch calls Gabranth by his true name, Noah. Gabranth feels that he doesn't deserve that name anymore, but Basch asks that he live on and earn that name back. The scene ends, and I take the elevator up. That's met with ANOTHER scene! As we reach the top, we find Vayne and Larsa waiting for us. He welcomes us to the Bahamut Sky Fortress and goes off into his dramatic speech. He asks if Ashe is here for vengeance or freedom or whatever. Ashe says she is for herself and just wants to be free. Vayne claims that she can't possibly rule without power, and that Dalmasca shall be coming to an end. He tells Larsa to remember her as a person who would rule but has no power. Larsa finally stands up and says NO! He may lack the power, but he will persist in trying to stop Vayne. We see Gabranth coming to his feet on the elevator, and the battle is now upon us! FINAL BOSS BATTLE TIME! ROUND ONE!
For this battle, it's just simple Vayne using simple physical attacks. I use Blind on him, and there's not much more to deal with here. At half health, he gives us a little speech and renews himself...not health-wise. Blam blam blam! The fight is now over. It's followed by a scene of Vayne falling to the ground. Larsa rushes over to him, but then something grabs hold of Larsa. It looks like Venat may be involved and like drains the energy from Larsa and to Vayne. Ashe says it is the manufactured nethicite. Suddenly, Vayne is up again, hopped up on magical power, and hulks out. He's all massive and weird looking. Gabranth walks in and joins the fight this time for FINAL BOSS BATTLE TIME! ROUND TWO!
Hulk Vayne is floating about the place and has a pile of swords floating with him. Each sword has an element and its own health. So before I go for him, I start taking out each sword one by one. This takes a little time because they're flying all over the place, but at the same time, each sword has a specific elemental weakness that I can make use of. Again this isn't too difficult a battle, but I am using all of my usual buffs to keep my characters ahead of the game. (Bubble, Shell, and Protect) I quickly eliminate all his floating sword helpers and then focus on him. Once his health is down halfway, he goes off into another speech. He talks about how he's the new Dynast-King and how mankind's history will now continue without the reins of the gods keeping them in line. The battle continues, but he's just not that hard of a boss. Without his swords helping him, it's just down to him floating about with a physical attack here and there. Sometimes he goes off into a super special scene move, but none of those were really that bad. I had to revive a teammate here and there, but I never really felt the possible pressure of losing. He puts up a magical barrier at one point, but I've mostly been using physical strikes so...no change. Also, on top of this, I have Gabranth helping us as a guest character. I finally deliver the final blow of the battle, and it jumps over to a scene.
Gabranth charges in for a final blow, but that doesn't seem to cut it. Vayne lets loose an attack that cuts off a huge chunk of Gabranth's judge armor. He knocks Gabranth away and then sends in the giant magical swords to finish the job. Larsa steps in the way though and uses a piece of manufactured nethicite to stop the swords...because they were magically apparently. Vaan picks up one of Gabranth's swords and charges at Vayne. He knocks Vayne back and off the platform. He tries to go in for the final hit, but Venat blocks him from doing that. (This game sure loves the V names.) Venat disappears, and the group gives chase to a running away Vayne. As the group is heading on, Gabranth asks Basch if Larsa was a good master, and Basch tells him yes. Time to follow after Vayne!
We're now following Vayne on this outside part with a scene. He's struggling to just keep moving and telling Venat that he's failed. Venat says that he hasn't failed at all, and everything has gone quite well. The Sun-Cryst is destroyed, and the "Age of Stones" is finally done. Venat says it will join with him for the final battle and claims that Cid would have been happy to know that history begins anew today. This kicks off into a cutscene where Venat fuses with Vayne, and Venat's power begins to rip the place up. Parts of the ship are pulled up and form with Vayne's body to make a new super metal body with a kind of clockwork look and wings! It's weird for sure but also pretty cool looking. FINAL BOSS BATTLE TIME! ROUND THREE! ULTIMATE FINAL BATTLE!
This battle takes place on the exterior of the ship against a giant super-armored Vayne with wings and is simply referred to as THE UNDYING. I'm still buff-ed up from the last battle, so the first half goes pretty easy. The first thing I get to see is that this guy apparently gets super special versions of spells. Instead of just -aga spells, he gets PIERCING -aga spells for more damage and cheating. His attacks are fairly powerful here, but most of that is countered with the use of Protect and Shell. I try to keep those going as well as Bubble for doubling health, but he likes to cast Dispelaga and just eliminate those. Thus, I have to REALLY keep after my buffs and keep recasting them. It's a bit bothersome, but it keeps me from having to just constantly focus on healing if I'm buffed. At one point, he threw up a magical barrier to block magic damage, but that didn't really affect anything because I'm mostly using physical strikes. That eventually fades away, but then he throws up a physical barrier. This mostly sucked because I've been exhausting my MP supply on buff spells, so I'm having to replenish MP with items. (It is the end of the game after all.) I'm getting used to throwing what spells I can at him, and I'm mostly using Flare since elemental stuff doesn't seem to work very well on him.
Things are going pretty well, but then the game decides it is time to throw this into "screw you!" time. He throws up a PERFECT barrier, and now nothing can damage him. Just like the stupid turtle from before, I just have to run around and keep myself alive until the barrier lowers. I struggle through part of this just to keep alive. (Again, I REALLY hate this idea in a game like this. I can take having to use a specific spell or item to help but giving them FULL invulnerability is retarded.) After no telling how long, the barrier finally goes down, and I let the big guy have it. It's all like slash slash, pow pow, blam blam, and FINALLY the Undying has finally died. A cutscene ensues as Vayne is all "GRAAAAAAH", and his clockwork armor just flies apart. The group is happy with their victory, and it's all like "yaaay". Then suddenly, they remember that this massive war is still happening around them. They run back inside the Bahamut and back to the Strahl.
They're all getting back onboard the Strahl, but they're having a hard time getting it going. They also notice that the giant rings around the Bahamut have stopped. (They're the things keeping it flying apparently.) Balthier starts to head off the ship and tells Vaan to take off as soon as he gets the Strahl going. Balthier and Fran both head off the ship to deal with the Bahamut. Lots of stuff happening at this point. The group takes off with the Strahl, and Basch sends out a message to all the fleet. He tells everybody that he is Gabranth and that a ceasefire has just been signed with Lady Ashe. Larsa also comes on to tell everybody that his brother has fallen in battle, and this makes Larsa the one in command now. He gives the order to everybody to stop now. Then Ashe comes on to further say the same thing, but she also adds this nice heartfelt message about them all being free.
Everybody does stop firing as all these messages go out, and it seems like it might all really be over. Then all of a sudden it is all "WHOOPS!" The Bahamut is starting to fall out of the sky, and it's going to crash into Rabanastre. Judge Zaargabath contacts the other ships and tells them to get out of the way. He's planning to use the Alexander (Imperial flagship) to ram the Bahamut out of the way. He says that if the Bahamut falls on Rabanastre, there won't be anything left of it. Again, that's not too hard to believe because it's a huge air fortress and probably bigger than the town. The Alexander starts to turn around, but then Balthier sends out a message to everybody. He's still on the Bahamut, and he's working to get it moving. He plans to keep the massive ship from crashing into Rabanastre. Heartfelt moment times! Despite all the ridiculousness and implausibility of it, Balthier gets the Bahamut moving enough to prevent it from crashing into Rabanastre. The Bahamut manages to keep going just enough to crash just outside of the city. We have succeeded!
The game then continues into a "one year later" epilogue cutscene. Ashe is about to be coronated as the Queen. Basch went with Larsa under the guise of Judge Gabranth. Nobody knew that the real Gabranth died, and since the two looked alike, it pretty much works out. Penelo seems to have adopted a completely different look, but Vaan looks exactly the same. The Strahl was "stolen" back, but Penelo (who is doing the narrative for this) realizes that it isn't really stealing if it was yours in the first place. Balthier leaves them a small gift and Ashe's ring. He claims that he found a greater treasure and doesn't need it now. Vaan seems to have his own airship now, and Penelo and he are going to go exploring now. Everything is good. The game has finally come to its end, and then the ending credits roll. FIN.
WOOOOOOOOO! It has taken forever, but I've FINALLY completed Final Fantasy XII. I started my journey through this game all the way back in January. That might not seem like that long ago, but I was aiming to beat each title in around a months time, but I ended up extending this one to nearly four months. The only person I can blame is myself, but I've had a lot of fun distractions throughout. Personal life stuff, more new video games coming out, random games I felt like playing instead of FFXII, but all in all, I'm glad I finally finished it. It wasn't my best experience in a FF titles, but it was still worth completing because I did it. I pushed myself and I did it. I'm glad it is finally over! With XII complete, I'm only lacking one more title in the Final Fantasy numbered series. Before I hit XIII though, I plan to do a ten hour play review of Final Fantasy Tactics (the PSP remake). This is so I have a small break before the next one, and because I love Tactics in general. It'll be a fun one! So stay tuned for it!
As a final note, I'd like to thank anybody who has supported me as I played this. I could also phrase that as "thank you anybody who has heard me complain about it and complain about finishing it for the past couple months". Either way, it is done! I'm never going back. Look forward to a review of this game along with more side posts coming soon. Also the story thing I'm writing! Thanks for reading and STAY TUNED FOR MORE RECURRING FANTASY!
Ending Point - End of the game.
Current Party -
- Vaan - Level 46
- Balthier - Level 46
- Fran - Level 46
Next Goals - Take a breather. Do a quick-play of Final Fantasy Tactics and review that. Start Final Fantasy XIII and complete this journey of mine.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
