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Schwartzcough posted:Incidentally, are we supposed to be picking up a weird romance vibe between Cu Sith and Tomaj? I think they're supposed to be lifelong platonic partners, though I could be wrong.
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Dec 21, 2013 16:13
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Update #35: Chapter 7 Part 2 Intro Soundtrack: Everyday (The Skycity of Bhujerba)       "No, mine was definitely real."     "No objections from me... kupo." "Nono!" "Good to see you sleepyheads are finally up. I've kept our guests waiting for you on the bridge."   "That's Nono, the Strahl's mechanic." "You two look like you've been up to something. C'mon, out with it!"   Soundtrack: Balthier's Theme (Destiny)      "Vaan, calm down!"  "Well, if you were gonna share the treasure, you could've at least let us in on the rest! Who do you think you are, making us think you'd turned against us?"   "You would be, if you would act it."  And this time, they're sticking around with us for good.   Soundtrack: Battle 2 (State of Urgency)     "Kupo!" "Everyone to your stations!" Never catch a break, now do we? We'll be checking out the sky saloon now. We won't be getting to the battle in this update unfortunately, but I'll be posting the new folio, log entries, and quiz with the beginning of the next update.  Filo has a new memento for us, and it's a new flowerbed.  20 melee battles is just about all the unique ones at this stage of the game. You can get melee mementos by grinding the same melee battles, but that would also be level grinding, and I want to keep my level at a reasonable number for this Let's Play.   "I thought we helped these aegyl get back their anima, but now they're attacking us!"So it seems our attackers are aegyl then. Well, thanks. Guess we'll find out more about why when we get into fighting them.   "If there's anything I hates more 'an climbing mountains, it's gettin' tossed about in 'em!"  "Without Tomaj and that moogle, we'd never have gotten out alive." "You don't sound too excited about it. What's wrong?" "It's nothing, really. I've just had a bad streak of luck in the kitchen lately. These days I could use a few good ingredients more than treasure." "Yeah, I guess." "But don't worry, I'm fine. Maybe the bill Tomaj posted on the notice board will have something interesting."Wait, why is Penelo thinking about cooking ingredients at a time like this?  "They're usually not this violent. I don't think they'd attack us without a good reason."That's better.  "Yeah, it's not our day." "You said it. When we were in that other world, I got to thinking about what it means to be a sky pirate. no matter how hard things get, you'd never just turn and run away, right, Vaan? That's how I wanna be, too." "Something for us both to aim for. "I'm not scared! Well, I mean, I am scared, but I'm not gonna let it keep me from doin' what I have to do."  "Keeps things interesting though, I'll give you that! Why else would we be here, eh?"  "Not just any moogle is good enough to work behind the scenes to keep Balthier in the air, kupo! You don't think he'd give me his autograph, do you? Can't hurt to ask, can it, kupo?"  "But I look on you and your friends and know that their lust for revenge is misguided."  "But I will not join them. I have case aside my pride. I walk among sky pirates now."  "Even so, I feel no desire to leave this ship. I wish to follow Llyud to this journey's conclusion."  "Our fellow aegyl have begun to strike back at the sky pirates they feel have wronged them. What has brought this to pass? We are not given to violence." "If they get any closer, I'll be beating them back myself. You'll see to it, won't you, Vaan?"As I understand it, Tomaj's store won't be getting new stock until the next chapter. Still, best to get stocked up after finishing the World of Illusion, but you might want to save your cash until there is new stock.  "Isn't that hard for you? I mean... they're aegyl." "It is no easy thing to fight one's own people. But you have done this before, have you not? You and the ship are in danger. I cannot sit by and watch you come to harm." "All right. We'll fight them together. "There is no doubt in my heart. I am ready to confront my fellow aegyl." "Woe is me! Kupooo..." "Don't let it get you down. I'm sure you'll have her fixed up in no time." "True, true! My crew is already hard at work, kupo! We must strike quick, kupo! Just leave the ship to me. I can't wait to roll up my sleeves, tie back my pompom, and see what makes this ship tick!"  "He makes nice with Master Tomaj, but I see through his web of deception! If he thinks he'll get away with this, he doesn't know who he's messing with!"  Look, we've got weapons in this book for Fran and Balthier now! Again, the quiz itself will be next update, but I would highly recommend making these weapons for the upcoming fight. Now we've talked to everyone, let's head back to the bridge.  "That must've been how we got into the World of Illusion." "We thought as much. And so here we came to await your return." "How'd you know you'd find us here?" "The Mist will always lead one home, if it is their wish to find it. The aegyl have found something. Will you not go to see what it is?" Well, I... wow. Us? Wow. Let's let this sink in for a bit. Next time, we'll be ready to strike! .png) And hey, now Balthier and Fran are sticking with us for good, it would be a good time to post their official art.
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Dec 22, 2013 05:22
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And so Balthier says that Vaan is the leading man this time. That's surprising - he still claimed that he was the leading man even when admitting that he was just a cameo in The War of the Lions.
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Dec 22, 2013 06:19
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Wow, Vaan decked Balthier for keeping important plot information to himself for no good reason. Good for you, kid!
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Dec 22, 2013 07:43
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Yeah I like this scene too. Would it have killed you to tell us the situation, Balthier?
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Dec 22, 2013 07:57
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Let me add to the praise to this scene. It sure felt nice to see Vaan punching Balthier, and I like Balthier! He could've made things far easier if he hadn't kept all the goddamn info to himself, and there's no reason whatsoever not to, he KNOWS he can trust Vaan and Penelo, they didn't exactly meet yesterday! Therefore I say that that gif of Vaan punching Balthier is the best moment of this LP until now.
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Dec 22, 2013 15:23
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I'll talk more about our newest party members at the start of the next chapter, but I will say one reason not to use Fran back when we first got her; any levelling you get with her back then is useless, as she joins here at a set level.
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Dec 22, 2013 15:28
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Gettin' real tired of your poo poo, Balthier.
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Dec 22, 2013 21:51
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Update #36: Aegyl Uprising New folio entries: Lesrekta, Isle of Illusions
Auracite's Truth
Balthier
Fran
Nono
New logbook entries: Missing!
Searching
Wondering
Hope
Back Onboard
 The quiz for the Blood Sword is the same as previous quizzes for Vaan, the Mythril Blade and the Runeblade. Rigel What must the gun be?
Elfin Bow What comes first in a bow?
Duster What do you think of Ba'Gamnan's taste in clothing?
Filo's quiz is really cute too. It's also interesting how in Fran's folio entry, she provides lore for herself. Not many characters do that. Soundtrack: Battle 2 (State of Urgency)  ...Um, no, of course not. Now, where were we?  Right! Time to take action. Soundtrack: Battle 4 (Rebellion)    The whole scene has the sky whizzing by and the airship bobbing up and down. I won't animate it all, but it's going on. "Their anima have returned." "And here's the result." "Base emotions are most quick to surface."  "Make sure you're the one using it, not the other way round." "The highlights, at least."  - Objective: Defeat all enemies! Your soul crystal must survive. - As in Chapter 5, Mission 4 (The Dance), we have a soul crystal and our foes don't. This is also the first time we've seen a soul crystal in a while, and this soul crystal is pretty frail compared to those we've seen previously.  If you don't remember Ansei, nobody blames you, nobody says her name in the script even. But she was Llyud's companion when we first met him, and we had to save her all that way back. And now she's repaying us for that, the game waaay underplays the fact she's back unfortunately.  Flying units have the most mobility in this fight, as except the airship, everything here is sky. However, all the foes are flying types, which leaves their weakness to ranged units wide open for exploiting. Don't bring Vaan for this fight, he's a melee type, making him really weak here. My strategy is going to involve camping at the airship and waiting for my foes when they come to me, which excludes Filo and brings Kytes, Fran, and Balthier. Those hoping for a more active strategy would opt to bring Filo, and leave out one of the ranged units. Soundtrack: Main Theme    "The truth of our people, and Lemurés. And most importantly, the truth of Feolthanos. What manner of god is he? What are the depths of his cruelty?" "You would challenge the Eternal? Blasphemy!" "A world filled with trust and love stretches beneath us."  Now that we're got more than 5 party members in our team, the strategies I'm going to be using for battles may start to vary more. In case of two major strategies, I'll show more than one, but in this battle I don't feel there are 2 strategies worth showing.  First, I dismiss all my level I espers. This frees up affinity points for level II espers. Next, I summon up my level III esper, and level II espers with the affinity freed up from the level I espers.  This battle is really hard. The difficulty spikes again from the previous one, but you can't pilot your airship around to fight any melee battles. If you feel you need more levels, the only way to get them is to game over a bunch.  Enemies will routinely spawn from off map, and fly to the airship. They spawn from 3 points, between the gaps in the aegyl's starting positions.  Finally, the aegyl start coming to you. They come one at a time, and like to try and capture the sole summoning gate. If they do capture it, it puts you at a huge disadvantage.  This battle just escalates more of the same thing from here. More espers are spawned, the aegyl come faster with more fight, and your team gets worn down throughout.  The next aegyl to come around brings a larger army of espers. Kytes' magicks can help clear out a bunch of foes. Speaking of magicks and abilities, we haven't talked Balthier yet, so let's touch on him briefly.  Like Fran, he only has 2 abilities right now. The first is Tri-Shot, which rapid-fires 5 shots at a foe. I guess it's kind of like Vaan's duel attack, except three times. His other ability is more interesting. It's called Percussive Slug, and it has a knockback effect as well as damage. Both have quick recharge times.  These guys get some hits in on my soul crystal, which is a pretty big mistake on my part. I send Balthier and Fran into defeat them.  The northwest group of foes has hit right after the eastern ones did, and in short time, the southwest group with Ansei leading it will strike too.  Ansei actually manages to get my summoning gate here. It's a shame, but all the other aegyl are dead, and the win condition was just to beat the aegyl.  So I focus all my attack on Ansei here...  ...beautiful to see Llyud stab his old companion in the face. Just beautiful.  And I finally put this mission to rest! I cut out failed mission runs from the let's play, but this battle took me a fair few tries. Of all the missions I've played for this let's play, this one took me the most tries to win. It's pretty hard. But enough out of me. Soundtrack: Balthier's Theme (Destiny)  "The aegyl, this land - all only pawns to the Occuria." The following is a scrolling image in game, which for your reading pleasure, I have made into one big image. It's a very nice image though, enjoy. Soundtrack: Revealed (The Forgotten Capital)   Soundtrack: Balthier's Theme (Destiny)  "The legend was obviously true, and the Cache was the key. Once again we'd managed to find ourselves a treasure worth its weight in troubles." "Eternity is an illusion. But there is one person who believes in that illusion. The Judge of Wings." "She loved a man named Velis." "But Feolthanos is using Mydia." "Where there is life, there is always choice." "Do you mean that Mydia wants to take over Ivalice?" "If she does, we must stop her." Soundtrack: Main Theme  " - the Occuria for driving the aegyl to hide up here, or Feolthanos for stealing their anima all this time. But there's one thing I am sure about. We've gotta find that last auralith and destroy it, or the aegyl will never be free." "And once the barrier is down, we can come back and visit anytime we like."  "We have to find Mydia. She can tell us where the last auralith is." "One thing troubles me. Why did Mydia first come to Lemurés?"  "Sorry to interrupt, but there's been a development you may be interested in."Soundtrack: Theme of the Empire   "And Queen Ashe's flagship is with them, kupo!" With all this talk of Lemurés, I'm starting to get the feeling we need more FFXII in this FFXII sequel. So next time, we go here and see if we can't find some.  And hey - here's a quick bonus. Want to see that nice scrolling image from before, without any text over it? Well, I've got you covered. Here.  ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 15:21 on Dec 27, 2013 |
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Dec 26, 2013 21:02
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I honestly didn't find this battle all that hard. I was more annoyed with it since I used non-flying units so I had to camp on the airship's edge while the enemy came to me.
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Dec 26, 2013 22:15
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SSNeoman posted:I honestly didn't find this battle all that hard. I was more annoyed with it since I used non-flying units so I had to camp on the airship's edge while the enemy came to me. That was my winning strategy pretty much. I guess I wanted to show Balthier and Fran in action, which meant having to decide between Filo and Kytes... I won as soon as I ditched Filo, which is funny. I think in my first, casual playthrough of this game, I won with Filo, but I might have brought Kytes and skipped Fran or Balthier... I don't remember. I could probably win with Llyud, Filo, Penelo, Fran, and Balthier, but I tried that a few times, and I didn't win, so too bad. I might have even been able to win without Penelo, as the Soul Crystal and Carbuncle might have been enough for healing. Maybe I'll try some other strategies, I've still got save states from before the fight.
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Dec 26, 2013 22:57
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ok Amazing posted:The first is Tri-Shot, which rapid-fires 5 shots at a foe. I guess it's kind of like Vaan's duel attack, except three times. Is this some sort of Monty Python gag? And Ashe's ship is showing up now? How long before Al-Cid makes an appearance (so far I think he's contractually bound to appear in all post-XII Ivalice games)? Also, I guess I totally called that plot twist about the Auraliths stealing the Aegyl's anima. Hopefully I didn't come across like someone who's played this before.
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Dec 28, 2013 02:42
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This battle is actually pathetically easy if you abuse Kytes' magics and Sagittari's Triple Shot. If you send Llyud alone to lure groups over with Jump, you can effortlessly handle each group. If you bring Shiva to this battle, Diamond Dust neuters the difficulty.
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Dec 28, 2013 03:17
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Take two.
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Dec 28, 2013 05:48
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Update #37: Chapter 8 intro New folio entries: The Underworld
The Chronicles
Under The Chronicles folio entry, there is also an option to view the scroll from last update, if you ever wanted to see it again.  We've got an airship to visit, heading into Chapter 8.  You'll see our airship starts right where we left it. The Leviathan is dead center of our world map, so lets... yeah, you guessed it. Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)  There are some new side missions to tackle right now, and we'll get around to those later in the chapter.  "Or maybe to help us get back to the ship. Or both." "Do you think Mydia can really go back to what she was?" "We made it back. Anything's possible." "The aegyl won't really be all right until we destroy all the auraliths, will they..." "What is it?" "The Stone you carry, Vaan. You found it in a ruin in the underworld. What was a piece of auracite doing beyond the borders of Lemurés?" "That's a good question. There's a lot of things about that Stone that bother me, too. I think we need to find some answers in Ivalice." "Will we find all the answers we seek waiting for us in the underworld?"  "We haven't been doing this for thanks, Tomaj. It's the right thing to do." "I won't argue with that. But it's still nice to be appreciated. This is hard work! Before we go running off on the queen's business, you might want to take a look at the notice board. Just because you take time off to rest doesn't mean I do!" "I thought getting their anima back would make them all better." "Maybe the feelings they're having now are different." "Well, I hope they learn that there are good feelings, too." "That makes two of us." "I wonder what Llyud's thinking. It can't be easy to have your friends think of you as a traitor." "My business is my own." "Fine, don't tell me." "I held a lovely lady in my hand, and I wanted to see her properly tended to." "I don't even wanna know." "The depth of the Stones is more than we can imagine. Like a woman and her wiles. Don't let yourself be taken in, Vaan. Hear me?"All this comparison of women and stones is weird, Balthier, when you consider that you shot your stone to pieces. Now, we head out to the sky saloon. All of the generic characters say the same things as they did last update, but our main cast has new conversation options. Fran's also out there, while Balthier is in here. I guess those two don't have the ability to be in two parts of the airship at once, like everyone else, so let's get out there. Soundtrack: Airship 2 (Secret Practice)  "Hello! Anybody home?" "Sorry. I was just thinking. Ever since we got back from the Yarhi's world, Llyud's been different." "He doesn't seem all that different to me." "You never notice these kinda things. Trust me, he's different. But it's 'good' different! You sure you haven't noticed anything different about Llyud?" "She's always been like that. You know how those viera are. I'm glad you decided to listen to her." "Far be it from me to ignore the wishes of a lovely viera. Even if Fran hadn't told me to wait for you, what else do you think I would do? I've never been one to leave my friends high and dry, no sir!"No, Tomaj, there's no saving face.  "What did happen between you and the Judge of Wings?" "We encountered her before you. She sought the impossible. To use the power of the Eternal to restore life to the unliving. The rest, you know." "You fought her and lost?" "Yes." "What happened then?" "You nursed Balthier back to health, right?" "I wouldn't be much of a partner had I not. Something stirs in Ivalice." "It has been awhile. She's too busy running the kingdom for something like this, though. Isn't she?" "Too busy to see you, that's for sure!" "Ashe wouldn't do that. At least I don't think she would..." "Well, try to show her some respect for once, okay?" "When haven't I?" "Remember, Ashe is queen now, Vaan. Queen! You have to watch how you talk around her." "Balthier was telling me some stuff, and I was wondering if you could help me get it all straight." Sorry, Kytes, but i'm going to have to say not right now. "Okay. I'll think about it some more on my own."Alright, alright, why not hear him out? "Where should I start?" Kytes will give us a recap of these two big plots points in the story so far, which is cool if you've forgotten some important things. First, we'll hear about Lemurés. "Let's see... A long, long time ago, the aegyl lived in Ivalice, too. But the Occuria turned against them." "Right. And that's when they ran away to Lemurés." "But the Occuria made a barrier around Lemurés, and the aegyl were trapped there." "No wonder they hold a grudge against Ivalice." "Yeah, I guess it's not all the sky pirates' fault. Wanna hear about anything else?"Next, is a reminder about Feolthanos. We heard about him at the start of the game, and then not for a while, so a recap on him right now is a very timely idea. "Feolthanos is the god of the aegyl." "He's been using the auraliths to steal their anima, and that's where the Yarhi come from." "That's why we've gotta destroy all the auraliths!" "Exactly." "And even the Judge of Wings is doing what Feolthanos says. So if we could figure out who he is, we might learn more about her, too."And we're just about done here. "I'm still a bit confused, but I'll figure it out as we go." "They do?" "Take you and Balthier, for example. You didn't really hate him, yet you struck him." "You saw that, did you? It's kinda hard to explain. It was a conversation I didn't want to have with him. So I kept it short." "Queen Ashe, she is your friend?"No, we're not going to hit her to prove she's our friend either.  "The Strahl, kupo! Sky pirates, kupo! There it was, kupo! Help, kupo! The aegyl, kupo!" "Don't get your pompom in a knot. Just slow down and start from the beginning." "No time to explain, kupo! We must act at once! Kupo kupo!" "All right, all right! I'll do what I can, just calm down. If the Strahl's in trouble, we'll help." "You must, kupo! It's a matter of life and death! Of course, kupo! I'll post it on the notice board so you don't forget!"These two. This is a conversation we only get after crafting enough weapons, and I'm glad to have reached this threshold as soon as possible this time. It opens up a sidequest.  "I'll have to have a long talk with him before he goes near another airship engine. Kupo..." "I thought you'd never ask! I got caught on one of this ship's wings, and Master Tomaj came to my rescue! He saved my life, he did!" "And what about before that?" "I came from a place beyond the clouds!" "I thought we were already in a place beyond the clouds..." "I've never felt more safe than I do now. And I owe it all to Master Tomaj!"Its kind of sad to remember that Cu Sith is a Yarhi, isn't it? Now we know all we do about Yarhi and all... That's all that's new for our sky saloon, for now. It's time to pay the Leviathan a visit.   Soundtrack: Ashe's Theme      "They fight using beasts unlike any we've seen. The sky pirates use some sort of magicked stone to summon them."  "We've heard of these Yarhi and Lemurés from such sky pirates as we've managed to capture. We cannot allow stones of such power to fall into just any hands. It could mean another war... or worse." "The Empire is studying them, but we want your help until the situation is brought under control."  "Then it's settled. Than you, Vaan." "Seems like a good opportunity for both of us, though. I was hoping we could go back to Ivalice to find out more about Mydia and the Cache." "We'll take on another member of our party there." "Another member? Who?"  - Ashe joins the party! - - Basch joins the party! - Politics are boring, but it's reassuring to know that some of the major political players in Ivalice aren't completely apathetic about somebody trying to conquer the place. A new location for us to visit opens up...  A location down in Ivalice.  Well, you can tell where we're going next time.  Of the six playable characters in the original FFXII, Basch and Ashe were the only two we'd have yet to see in Revenant Wings... up until now. And they were some of the most important party members, plot wise. People who've played the original FFXII have probably been wondering when these two would show up, and those who haven't probably don't know what's going on. But that's their deal basically. They've also been name dropped in this game a couple of times before, mostly in Cu Sith's quizzes. Maybe foreshadowing, maybe not, the point is they're here and playable again now. Their upcoming logbook and folio entries will summarise their history better than I ever could, so I'm going to ask those who are confused to just sit tight until the next update. ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Dec 30, 2013 |
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Dec 30, 2013 07:55
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Oh hey, we got our last party members, so let's do character roundups, part two: Fran Average all-around. At least she won't die to a stiff breeze like Kytes or Penelo. Learns a spread of abilities, which range from offense to healing. The only unit capable of dispelling enemy buffs. Initial impressions of Fran are unlikely to be favourable. She's stuck with her lousy status arrows til level 44, when she picks up Barrage, which is nice and a decent way to inflict status effects on multiple enemies. Dispelga is handy when you need it but you never really need it. On the upside, if you can get her to level 50 Ward of the Wood acts like Curaga+Esunaga all at once, which means you can start phasing Penelo out if you don't need the two Carbuncles at the start of a map. Fran also gets some useful weapons, such as the Stop-inflicting Perseus Bow, which go nicely with Barrage. So is Fran worth it? It really depends - she'll never match Vaan, Kytes or Filo in terms of damage, and Balthier is better at status effects end-game. If you're willing to baby her til Barrage, she becomes quite useful, and Dispelga is nice on some boss fights, but you can go through the entire game without ever touching her if you want to. She turns out alright at the end, even if I wish they gave her something better than the status arrows. Balthier Above average Strength, slightly higher HP than Fran, with decent but unspectacular ratings for his other stats. Focuses on single-target attacks and self-buffs. Balthier is a Ranged Vaan - single-target damage is his thing. Tri-Shot is a good enough offensive move and should be his staple til he picks up his last few abilities. Balthier also learns self-buffs to increase his Strength and range, and he can also inflict Immobilize and Disable. On the other hand, Kytes still easily outclasses him in terms of damage, and using all his abilities require micromanaging, so it doesn't seem like Balthier is going to cut it... ...At least, until you reach level 49. Armor-Piercing Shot singularly redeems Balthier's standing on group maps, as it gives all his attacks Pierce. Aside from being able to Tri-Shot foes in a line, Balthier's best asset by far is his ability to Immobilize and Disable multiple foes, allowing him to lock down strings of enemies, making him very useful in the end-game optional fights. He also gets a powerful single-target Quickening, so he's not complete dead weight on Bosses. Like Fran, you can go through the entire game without using Balthier and not really miss him, but take him to reach his potential and he can go places. Ashe High Magic, good Mind. Similar stats to Kytes but trades some offensive power for slightly better survivability and speed. Learns a mix of group buffs, debuffs, utility skills and area of effect attacks. Despite that sword in her character artwork, Ashe is our fifth Ranged leader. And she uses Hand-bombs as her weapons - remember, the ones that nobody used in FFXII? Her default attack is a three-way bomb throw, which is handy, especially since she doesn't get an actual offensive attack until level 41. As a Time Mage, Ashe starts off alright - Slowga isn't the best debuff and doesn't work on most level IIIs, and Hastega is a good buff even if Filo does it better. After that, Regenga is a great buff if you don't want to overload on Carbuncles and allows you to not use Penelo all the time. Ashe also gets two powerful attacks (Pyrotechnics and Comet), and while Kytes will still beat her in the long run in terms of damage, she's got good enough damage with some nice utility. But that's not the real reason to use Ashe. Instead, what makes Ashe so great are her accessories, or really, just the one. The Embroidered Tippet increases Experience gain from battles, which is really, really nice and makes getting new abilities and grinding much faster, especially for those planning to 100% the game and need the levels. Ashe also gets the Ribbon, which blocks all status effects for her group and is one of the only ways to block Disable, but really, the Embroidered Tippet alone is worth bringing Ashe along for most fights - the rest of her skills are just icing. Basch Highest Stamina and Strength in the game, with an acceptable Mind stat, but has lower Attack Speed compared to Vaan. His repertoire includes defensive buffs both of solo and group variety, and a limited number of offensive attacks. It took seven chapters, but we finally have a second permanent Melee ally. And Basch does not disappoint. Vaan is faster and will, over time, likely do better damage, but Basch offers survivability in spades and is generally difficult to kill. It's even safe to bring him along in Flying heavy maps as long as he has a good backup crew, and you've got four Ranged damage dealers, anyway. Protectga and Shellga are both fantastic buffs (and go well with Ashe's Regenga), and Basch can even hold his own without Espers for a while. His damage won't be through the roof, but like our last three characters, it pays off once he reaches level 51 - Shining Ray is arguably the best offensive attack in the game and will wipe the surrounding area of most weaker enemies. Oh, and he has the best Quickening, too. Basch also raises his group's HP with his accessories, and really, you could even phase Vaan out near completely but for very specific maps once Basch is in town. He does have his weaknesses, especially since his damage dealing potential isn't great before the literal endgame and crippling status effects (Confusion, Stop, Disable) render him helpless, but it's rare that I'd regret bringing Basch along. ApplesandOranges fucked around with this message at 11:39 on Dec 30, 2013 |
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Dec 30, 2013 10:04
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I wasn't sure whether Ashe and Basch would really show up in this game- I thought it was going to be Wacky Skypirate Adventures in the Sky, and not necessarily a FFXII reunion. And somehow I missed that Cu Sith is a Yarhi. I'm guessing Cu Sith will make a noble sacrifice to save the world and then fade away to go hang out with Tidus in illusionary hero land.
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Dec 30, 2013 22:01
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Schwartzcough posted:I wasn't sure whether Ashe and Basch would really show up in this game- I thought it was going to be Wacky Skypirate Adventures in the Sky, and not necessarily a FFXII reunion.
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Dec 30, 2013 23:28
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Update #38: An Irresistible Opportunity New folio entries: Ashelia Dalmasca
Basch fon Ronsenburg
New logbook entries: A North Wind
The Queen
Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)  "If people in Ivalice use the auracite to summon, will their souls still be stolen?"Anima is pretty much your soul in this game, and this is the first time the two terms have been used interchangeably. Yay. "It does not matter where the Stones are used. The effect will surely be the same. Feolthanos's power will grow." "Then we better go find out what's happening. And fast." "I will have much to think on while we travel the underworld. What is right... what is wrong. Perhaps this will help me put order to my feelings." "You said it. We're gonna need all the help we can get." "Yeah... things are starting to get pretty serious. I'll feel a lot better going into battle with Basch looking out for us." "Who wouldn't?" "I think Kytes and Filo feel a little nervous around Ashe. I can't really blame them. Even after all we've been through, sometimes I still can't believe she's queen!" "The Gilgamesh's shipshape. We shouldn't have any problems making the trip back and forth from Ivalice." "What's the matter? You're not scared of her, are you, Kytes? She's a bit tough on the outside, but she's not so bad once you get to know her."Kytes is afraid of pretty much everything though, don't be silly Vaan. "But she's the queen! She lives in a palace and everything!" "Where else would she live? Besides, that's no reason to be scared of her." "I don't know how you do it, Vaan... I don't think I'm ready to talk to any queen by myself..." "It's...kinduva long story."The sort of story we'd probably need a whole game or something to tell, I'd wager. "Is this some kind of grownup political stuff?" "Why don't you ask him yourself?" "Well, I would, it's just... that armour he wears is kinda scary. I mean, I know he's not like the Judge of Wings or anything, but still. Judges are kinda scary... but Basch seems really nice!"Soundtrack: Airship 2 (Secret Practice) It was fun talking to Filo just now, let's do it again but on the Sky Saloon.  "I suppose they can." "It must be nice, having wings." "Yeah. Imagine being able to fly all the way to Ivalice without needing a ship!" "I wish I could fly the way Llyud does..." "But with the queen and a judge magister aboard, the gil should start rolling in!" "I don't know... Ashe came here on business. I doubt she's got time to go shopping. And forget about Basch." "Hm, you've got a point there. Well, I guess I'll have to keep relying on my number-one customer. (sigh) I'll have to find some way to make ends meet."Tomaj has a few new accessories for our new units, but he also now stocks the default armour and weapons which came with everyone. Not a very interesting stock update, it's been a while since we've had a good stock update.  "Those don't come cheap, you know. Your man there's losing a bundle on them, mark my words."You mean Tomaj? Really?  "I know 'er kind well enough. Best appreciated from afar, aye." "Something familiar about this young lady and her escort... Why, if I didn't know better, I'd say that was a judge magister's armour. That's friends in high places you have!"Thank goodness there's no airship puns to be had here. None at all. "Nono's a famed moogle among us sky pirates, kupo. To think I got his autograph - and even a handprint, kupo! I'll treasure them forever!"Aww. Speaking of aww, as we've been talking to these NPC's, you would have noticed quite the crowd of characters, playable characters, around Penelo's cafe. And the mission before last, we only had 5 playable characters. Our party's grown fast!  "Yeah, I bet. And there are more and more mouths to feed all the time." "Well, don't worry about the food. I've got it under control. Just make sure you keep them under control! I sure hope Ashe likes my cooking. She's probably used to something a lot fancier."Vaan, help Penelo with the cooking already. Come on.  "No question about it." "You really think so?" "Sure. We've seen a lot of adventure since we got to Lemurés." "Well, maybe some of that's rubbed off on me. I still have a lot to learn, though! It seems like we left Rabanastre ages ago. But it really hasn't been that long, has it?" Ashe is the queen, so we'll talk to her first. "This is the ship that landed outside of Rabanastre, yes? When it left, we weren't sure where it had gone. And we were more than a little surprised to learn you were aboard." "You're not upset about that, are you?" "What do you think?" "I think I'd better apologize and get it over with." "Well, I'm grateful it was you. We'd have had little hope of securing the help of some other sky pirate so... amicably. I didn't know when we'd next meet. I'm grateful for your help."I wonder what Ashe and Basch are standing around looking at. Anyway, time to interrupt Basch standing around. "So, what are we supposed to call you now? Judge magister?" "What do you want to call me?" "You'll always be just 'Basch' to me." "Then you have your answer." "Right! Thanks, Basch!" "Right. You bear the look of a leader. The others have come to rely on you, that much is plain."It's a lucky thing all the NPCs around you are deaf, or Basch being alive might be sort of a big deal. As we read in his biography in the folio, or you'd know if you're played the original FFXII, he's sort of meant to be dead. I guess nobody will notice Vaan saying it unless he runs around the place declaring himself to be Basch, and that's not going to happen in this game.  "Good luck, Vaan. Nasty business, this, what with Ivalice involved now." "What, are you just going to sit this one out?" "I think I've earned a little break, don't you?" "I'm sure if there's any treasure to be had, your break will be over soon enough." "The Queen of Dalmasca and a judge magister. Quite a fine mess Ivalice must be in to bring them here."Oh, I am so using you next battle, Balthier. Now, what's Fran got to say? "Mydia, the Judge of Wings - she is no hume." "Then what is she?" "It is hard to say. I sense something unusual about her. Do you not find it so?" "Don't ask me. If you can't figure it out, I don't stand a chance." "We must return to Ivalice. There we may find the key to this mystery." "He stood watch on the same mountain pass as I. Were it not for me, he would never have joined our group of rebels. He would never have been injured. In his present state he may not guard his tongue as he should. Do not hold it against him. I find myself growing more like you with each day. This concept of anima with Llyud describes begins to make sense." "Now... now I am not so certain." "The fate of the underworld does not concern us. There are times when I wonder, though, whether it should." "This notion of a horizon where the land meets the sky is new to me. In Lemurés, when one looks in the distance, one sees only sky." "That's a good way of putting it. The noise doesn't bother you, does it?" "Do you imagine I could have travelled with you so long if it did?" "(laugh) I guess not. Wait. You're kidding, right?" "...I just wanted to see the look on your face." "You've got a mean streak in you. Maybe getting your anima back wasn't such a great idea." "All in good fun." "Yeah, at my expense!" "You have a way with people, Vaan. This does not come easily for me."I hope Llyud keeps picking on Vaan.  "He says we're in the red. Deep in the red! I haven't seen anything red myself, but it sure sounds bad!" "I can't figure it out, kupo. Are you a Yarhi, Tomaj's pet?" "A pet? I am his underling, his labourer, but never his pet!" "Oh, one of his peons? Run here, fetch that, kupo?" "I'll not dignify that with a response! An artificer of my skill... a peon!?" "And I'm a master machinist, kupo! What's that got to do with anything?" "Don't get your pompom in a knot. You're both great at what you do. Can't you just get along?" "This airship doesn't use any kind of skystone I've ever seen before, kupo. It should be able to fly through jagd... or just about anywhere!"I just can't get over how cute this pair is, no really. This is the third update with these two, and I'm still not over it. But, alas, we have to leave them, and head down to Ivalice. Soundtrack: Theme of the Empire plays as the world map music when flying around Ivalice.  Fast-forward-o-vision of Ivalice. There's a path back up to Lemurés, and a lot of land to explore. Obviously, the land of Ivalice will never feel expansive here as it was in the original FFXII. For now, there's only one place to go for now, so... let's get to it.  - An Irresistible Opportunity: The party returns to Ivalice at the behest of Ashe and Basch. Once there, they meet an unexpected ally.Expect the unexpected!  Soundtrack: Field 3 (Dalmasca Eastersand) is finally being used in the setting nature intended.   "A meeting in the city would draw too much attention."       - Objective: Destroy the enemy soul crystal. Your soul crystal must survive. -   Sad news, thread-goers. This soul crystal battle can't be cheesed with chocobo! You can't just tap your team, tap the crystal, and win. They're onto us. So, what will win us this battle? We can still do it quickly, and we'll even do it without Penelo. (And we will do it with Balthier - I told you I'd bring him) Watch a video of the battle here. From now on, I'm going to be uploading videos of battles I think are interesting to watch in motion, or significant ones. This won't be an every-battle thing, but I hope this shows some things that are hard to explain with screenshots. Because this battle goes quickly, and things happen fast, this is why I'm posting a video for this one.   To the north of the map is the archer viera, and she's hovering over your soul crystal, and a major threat if the fight drags on. To the east, there's a lot of espers, and a road down to a summoning gate closer to the enemy soul crystal. However, we're going to be taking the path through the middle, right after we capture the nearest summoning gate.  First, let's go grab the nearest summoning gate, we're going to need one. Leave your espers to fight your foes, we want to thin our numbers of level I chocobo espers. This is a bad battle for showing off Ashe and Basch's new abilities, but I'll try. Ashe is a ranged unit, and uses hand-bombs as her weapons and time majicks as her abilities. It's an interesting and unusual combo of abilities, and her standard attack hits multiple targets, which nobody else really does.  Her current abilities are Slowga, which inflicts slow, but there's also Combustion (with the bomb icon). This improves the radius of her standard attack. Anyway, yeah, Ashe is interesting. After capturing the gate, we need to wait for a certain buff to charge, and it's one from Basch.  Basch's first abilities are Barrier and Shell, which do what's standard in a Final Fantasy game, and give buffs. We need his protect, as this ability will protect us while we're breaking through the middle of our foes, because they reduce our damage output. It's also time to summon our level III esper, Ultima.  Ultima is our healing for this battle, in place of Penelo. Ultima can also inflict damage right now, with it's gambit. Whereas Penelo can't deal out any damage right now. I'm just letting my Chocobo die, so I can summon my level II espers, Balasa, in their place. It would take too long to dismiss them.  As we continue through, we have to keep pushing forward, but just stutter enough to take out our foes or they will overwhelm us.  On our way, we run into this seeq. I hit him a bit, and leave Ultima around to finish him off, but leaving another leader behind to finish him is fine also.  There's a wall of foes and an enemy leader here, if we can get a lot of our guys in under them, this battle is in the bag.  Ultima clears out any foes left chasing us. Enemy leaders are respawning around the soul crystal, but they don't put out enough attack to dent us.  At some stage towards the end here, Vaan does die and has to walk back there. But as long as we move fast and destroy the crystal fast, the foes positioned to be a threat to ours won't start moving in. Soundtrack: Theme of the Empire        "And the situation before us is more dire than you might know. I trust you're all familiar with the person calling herself the Judge of Wings?" "Yeah, you could say that. We're trying to find her." "Her choice of the title 'judge' has done little to improve people's opinion of the Empire."  "What's more, we cannot simply leave the Yarhi she's using in these attacks to wander freely. I am kept apprised of their deployment and movement. I want you to help us eradicate them."    Next time, we discover Larsa has some advice regarding where we next travel. But where? Well, he'll tell us. So let's look at Larsa's official art here.  Larsa was a temporary party member in the original FFXII, but sadly, he's not playable here. The emperor of Archadia, with Basch as his personal bodyguard, and he's as young as he looks as well. He is the same age as Filo and Kytes - which is cool, maybe Kytes won't be afraid of him. Oh who am I kidding.
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Jan 2, 2014 10:45
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Yeah, for being a dead man, Basch is really bad at keeping a low profile. And I don't know if I've mentioned, but I think it's neat that every random sky-pirate mook has a seemingly unique title and description. It's not exactly character development, but it's better than the nothing most games give these kinds of enemies.
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Jan 8, 2014 02:17
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Update #38: Taking Counsel, and also some sidequests, Battlefield Strahl + Destiny in the Stars. New folio entries: Larsa Solidor
New logbook entries:
Soundtrack: Theme of the Empire   This is sort of our talk-to-everyone mini-mission, like the Port at Maralith and such. Because it's just on our airship deak though, it's pretty short.  "I wonder what other secrets lay undiscovered in the ruins." "Wouldn't hurt to take another look." After talking to certain characters, you get a new area to explore in Ivalice. Talking to these characters a second time, after unlocking whatever area they unlock, gets you some new dialogue. "The ruins are doubly so now, but you never know what we may find." And other characters, well... Well, it's Fran, telling things how it is. At least some of the other characters say some cooler things.   "If you want my advice, ask someone who's been in Ivalice a little more recently."Tomaj is giving a hint that we need to talk to some of our new crew members to unlock places, but we're going to talk to everyone anyway so.   "What other links to Lemurés might it hide?"  "It would seem she's been spotted near the Paramina Rift. We must investigate at once!" "I've made arrangements with Tomaj to use the notice board he's placed on the bridge. I'll be sure to post any goings-on in Ivalice which might interest you." "How about doing that after everyone's done talking?"You can't hurry off and do missions during all this.  "Vaan! Don't you think we should figure out what to do before running off?"...Or anything, really. Dammit, looks like we'll have to find our last NPC to talk to.  "We should discuss what course to take next." "There was someone asking about Lemurés not long before all this began." "Who? And where?" "I do not know, but I do know where to find someone who might. He's in Giza Plains, just outside Rabanastre. The information he has may prove useful." After unlocking all three areas, we're done! Normally, we'd have to miss out on talking to one of these guys twice. Luckily, we're in a Let's Play, and can hear what Basch has to say. "It is strange that an entire sky continent should go undiscovered in a world of so many airships. Home to an entire race whose very existence was lost to history. I would scarcely have believe it myself had I not seen it with my own eyes." "That's what's so great about being a sky pirate. There's always something new waiting just around the corner." "What did this person hope to find in his search for Lemurés? I cannot think it idle curiosity."And he has a lot to say. Cool. Well, we can visit these 3 areas now, so let's call it a wrap.    This update is kind of short, so we're going to tackle a few side missions right now. The first one is the one Nono and Cu Sith urged us on to do last update, Battlefield Strahl. - Battlefield Strahl: The Strahl is in danger, kupo! She's on Arda, near Heaven's Virgil. You have to do something! If anything were to happen to her, I'd never forgive myself... - NonoSoundtrack: Field 3 (Dalmasca Eastersand) This song plays during the battle as well, so I hope you enjoy and such.   "Though I never expected to see you here guarding the Strahl for us." "It is the will of my people. We are not soon to forget we owe you our lives." "Let's put coyness aside for now. Whatever your reasons, thank you. We'll take care of everything from here."- Objective: Defeat all enemies! At least one ally must survive. -  Our foes are all weak to fire and earth. I bring along Hashmal, for their earth element, and Lamia, for their fire element and their ability to confuse foes. And the healing staples.  We start the fight possessing one summoning gate.  And there's another summoning gate here to capture. Capture this gate, and summon your level III esper from the other.  Our aegyl friend will help us fight. He doesn't have to survive to win the battle, and there's no dialogue change if he lives or dies.  Our foes are all weak to fire and earth. I bring along Hashmal, for their earth element, and Lamia, for their fire element and their ability to confuse foes. And the healing staples.  Basch's two buffs helps with the fight, although our aegyl buddy also helps us with buffs.   There's like a ton of foes and they all come out and overwhelm you, and holding them back is the strategy. Use buffs, top up espers, there's a lot of foes but they're not all that hard.  Well, these final guys are a bit tricky. No, not really.  And we're done! Soundtrack: Balthier's Theme (Destiny)  "I should hope he can manage that much by now."  "Yet you have much in common." "Spare me the patronizing."  Since we did this mission on behalf of Cu Sith, let's go see how she's doing.  Soundtrack: Airship 2 (Secret Practice) "How kind of you to notice. But it was not me. Nono is the fixer-upper who deserves the credit." "It's the least I could do. A small thank-you for saving the Strahl, kupo." "Anytime. And thanks for doing this, Nono."We have time - let's do one more side quest. - Destiny in the Stars: Stars are said to fall near the waters of Gugoza Falls, smashing boulders into gravel. Could another scion have stirred on that deserted isle?Soundtrack: A Sky Pirate (The Dream to be a Sky Pirate) A surprisingly somber little tune chosen for the music here.    Soundtrack: Boss Battle 4 (Esper) Like the last fight, this tune continues throughout the entire battle.   "We can't let him destroy the island! We have to stop him!" "He comes!"- Objective: Defeat Exodus! At least one ally must survive. -  Pretty much all our foes, except for the sprites, have a weakness to fire. There is no reason not to bring an all-fire troupe. There is no summoning gate here, so no level III espers for us.   This battle... really isn't too different than our previous fight here. Walk around, kill some guys, make sure not too many of them die.  There's a material node behind these three sprites here. It's easy to miss on the overhead map, but easy to see when you look here, so... get it. There it is.  These malboro guard a mushroom. Helpful for healing after the skirmish with them.  After the malboro, the next section is slightly less risky. I lost some espers, but am still fighting strong.   I'm... well, you can see what I'm doing.  These are our last non-Exodus foes. Well, Exodus is skirted by weaker espers, but these are the last ones before all that's left is Exodus and his close allies. After killing them, Exodus will aggro, and come after you.  Set up buffs before he gets to you, kill, etc.  Soundtrack: Air Castle (Abandoning Power)  "Better luck next time." "You like looking at the stars, too?" "I do. Though the heavens are best viewed from the sky." "I'm afraid that will have to wait until the Strahl is out of repairs."  "I don't think it would be the same."  - Gaze of the Void fires a barrage of arrows that removes all enemy buffs. - Also, Exodus will become available on the Ring of Pacts, standard fare by now. Anyway, we have some main mission missions to do, and let's take a peek at where they are:  Basch suggested a visit to Giza Plains. There's an informant there, according to him. We could check that out first.  Larsa said the Judge of Wings had been spotted here. Probably a good idea to find out where she might be.  Balthier wanted us to pay a visit here. And so did Llyud, I guess. This is the area we visited at the start of the game, and it might make a good place to start our investigation too. Right, cool. We've got 3 places to investigate, and can do them in any order. I could probably fit a couple into one update, but I want to pace things a little differently, and throw in some sidequests too. It's also been a while since we've had some thread participation. Yes, that's right, it's thread participation time. What I want you guys to do, is vote for what order these three locations will be visited in. I'll be doing one of them each update, based on the order decided by your votes. I'll also throw in a side-mission into each update, but I'll be choosing which one myself, probably something that will contrast the main mission nicely, probably. Also, so nobody gets scared, there's no worries as to which comes first, in terms of missing dialogue and such. This is just a bit of fun. Next time, we chat to all the NPC's on our airship pretty much. So I won't cut off voting until after the next update, so lots of time. Have fun! ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 09:45 on Jan 11, 2014 |
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Jan 10, 2014 09:13
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I vote Glabados, Giza Plains, Paramina Rift. Glabados seems like a natural starting place, Giza Plains is boring so it can go in the middle, and Paramina Rift was one of my favorite settings in the original game, so it should go at the end because it's cool.
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Jan 10, 2014 10:47
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I agree with the Ruins, Plains, Rift order, also the rift has a nice character moment for one of the new members of the party.
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Jan 10, 2014 11:59
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Let's get Giza Plains out of the way, then Glabados Ruins, and then take a scenic tour of Paramina Rift.
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Jan 10, 2014 13:03
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Giza Plains, Glabados, then Paramina Rift. Go in alphabetical order.
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Jan 10, 2014 15:16
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Keeping true to how silly Final Fantasy V is, Exdeath is introduced with a Star Wars reference. 
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Jan 11, 2014 00:03
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Rift, Plains, Ruins. I know they're not actually going anywhere, but that's about the order of likelihood of leads trying to walk off (a living enemy, an informant waiting for us, and a ruin that almost certainly isn't going anywhere). It seems appropriate that Fran would know so much about Exodus, and have him unlock her Quickening. Exodus was the viera totema in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Well, that and he's Exdeath, and viera know their trees. Incidentally, a lot of the generic enemy sprites (field sprites, not portraits) were taken from there as well. Though I would expect most of the people reading this thread know that already.
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Jan 11, 2014 06:40
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Zonko_T.M. posted:I vote Glabados, Giza Plains, Paramina Rift.
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Jan 11, 2014 08:06
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Ruins, Plains, Rift sounds like a good plan to me.
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Jan 11, 2014 09:04
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Update #37: Another quick sky saloon visit New Cu Sith quiz:  The quiz for the Golden Staff is the same as previous quizzes for Penelo, because she pretty much only has one quiz. The quiz for the Artemis Bow is the same as a previous quiz for Fran, the Elfin Bow. Rainmaker Could a skybandit be used as a ship?
The quiz for the Blood Lance is the same as a previous quiz for Llyud, the Mythril Lance. Hornito Word association: Explosion.
There should have been a Cu Sith quiz last update, as we got 2 new books after our first mission here in Ivalice. It was my fault I forgot to add one, but here's the first one now. The following missions in Ivalice are sort of considered by the game as one big mission, and dialogue at the airship won't update between then. So for a change, we might not be seeing this place for a while. That's why I'm putting this dialogue into a short little update for you guys. Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)  "To look below me and see only earth is... troubling." "It sure is nice having solid ground under out feet again."I can't keep both Penelo and Llyud happy, thanks guys.  "It's not much, but I'm still getting information for the notice board here and there." "It's a little soon for talk like that. There'll be plenty of time to tell everyone back in Lowtown what you've been up to once we're back." "Okay, okay. I guess we're just getting to the best part, anyway, aren't we. I wonder what Llyud thinks of Ivalice? I sure hope he likes it!" "Yeah, but so far it doesn't look like any have made it into the city." "Let's hope it stays that way. What if something happens to Migelo or the others? I guess we're fighting to keep everybody back home safe. We can't let 'em down!"And next is the Sky Saloon, naturally. The generic NPC's still have the same dialogue as last we talked to them, but all our main and playable characters have new things to chat about. Soundtrack: Airship 2 (Secret Practice)  "Surely they cannot still fear the Empire." "It's not that. They just get a little nervous around you is all. They're not all that much younger than you. I'm sure they'll open up if you give 'em a little time." "We shall see." "You could've sent a messenger to tell us what you wanted us to do, but you couldn't resist coming. Still the same old Larsa." "Oh?" "Not that that's a bad thing. Actually, I was sorta relieved you hadn't changed. I mean, your family has a history of... letting power go to their heads." "You need not fear that from me. I had no idea Penelo was such an excellent cook!" I cannot accept that it is mere coincidence. She must have some reason. "Trade has been favourable." "Turning a profit, are you?" "So much that we can afford to further reduce our prices for you. If there are materials you need, you've come to the right place." "Woah, you're starting to sound like Tomaj." "Now that you mention it..."This is only a slightly terrifying development.  "She went to commune with the winds."  "I wanted to feel the wind on my face. I'll not be long." "As you say." "There's something I - (sigh)" "Go on." "I travelled to Rozarria not long past. I saw Al-Cid." "A state visit, was it? A queen's work is never done." "You really must see a sunset in the Ambervale. It was beautiful." "No more beautiful than the view from the Strahl, I should think." "If only I'd had the time to appreciate it then." "There's still time." "Is there, Balthier?"   Short update, but that's about all anyone has to say, so we'll live. Voting is still open for our next destination! As of now, the Glabados Ruins seem to be winning. I said I was going to close voting after this update, but I changed my mind. I'll be doing a magicks and abilities update for our new party members next, and voting will close after that. If you haven't voted yet, anyone is welcome to, so get in with yours. So next time, magicks and abilities! And the next time after that, we visit the destination that you guys voted for.
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Jan 16, 2014 01:35
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I'd like to think it's actually Ashe taking the test for the Hornito, since it's her weapon. "Ka-blooey!" "I will protect Penelo!"
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Jan 16, 2014 03:11
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Even more Abilities and Magicks We've gotten four new party members suddenly, after we're used to having just 5. And each of them come with a bunch of new abilities to cover. But first, our first five members have learned one more ability since last we checked. All these characters learn these following abilities at level 33. Vaan's Ability:  Timeslip (Lasts for: 10 seconds - Recharge time: 40 seconds) Timeslip gives Vaan's regular attack a buff which inflicts stop on it's foes. Stop only lasts 1 second, so it works more like a stun thing, if you're targeting the same foe with all your regular attacks you can keep your foe pinned fairly well... and you usually don't switch between targets for regular attacks. Penelo's Magick:  Hypnotic Dance (Lasts for: 10 seconds - Recharge time: 40 seconds) This dance is different from Penelo's other dances, in that it afflicts foes with a debuff. The debuff is disable, which prevents your foe from performing any action except moving, and it lasts for 10 seconds. This is the first move Penelo's gotten when can even touch a foe really, so that's new. Kytes' Magick:  Charge (Recharge time: 30 seconds) This isn't a clone of Firaga, for a change. This move powers up Kytes' next magick ability by x1.25. Filo's Ability:  Power Snare (Lasts for: 25 seconds - Recharge time: 30 seconds) Sets up a trap, which when triggered, slows the foes Strength and Magick to x0.8 for 25 seconds. Llyud's Ability:  Crimson Wings (Recharge time: 10 seconds) Does damage in a line in front of Llyud. It's got a very short range. Now we're moving onto Balthier and Fran. Even though Fran got her Quickening, we won't be looking at it this update. I'll post it in a later one of course. We've already looked into Fran's starting abilities, but she's learned a third move at level 35. Balthier also started with two moves, and has learned a third at level 36. Let's look at them now. Balthier Abilities:  Tri-Shot (Recharge time: 15 seconds) It's what it looks like in the GIF.  Percussive Slug (Recharge time: 10 seconds) This attack has a knockback effect. It's interesting, but only useful in the right situations.  Sniper Eye (Lasts for: 15 seconds - Recharge time: 25 seconds) Increases Balthier attack range by x1.2 for 15 seconds. Fran's Ability:  Silencing Arrow (Lasts for: 15 seconds - Recharge time: 40 seconds) Gives Fran's basic attacks a property that has it inflict the silence debuff on foes. Silence lasts for 5 seconds. Ashe and Basch are our two newest members, making a sudden return. Both were PC's in the original FFXII. I find the choice for Ashe's abilities interesting, in that she uses Time Magick and Hand bombs. It's just not a combination I'd envisioned for her, or any character really, and it kind of feels like a "well these were the last options left" kind of thing. But in a good way, I dig it. It's unique and works. Anyway, lets get on with it. Like Balthier and Fran, Ashe and Basch come with two moves. Ashe learns her third at level 36, Basch at 35. Ashe's Magicks:  Slowga (Lasts for: 20 seconds - Recharge time: 25 seconds) Inflicts the Slow debuff on a group of foes.  Combustion (Lasts for: 20 seconds - Recharge time: 30 seconds) Increases Ashe's attack range by x1.5.  Hastega (Lasts for: 20 seconds - Recharge time: 40 seconds) Applies the Haste buff to a group of allies. Basch's Abilities:  Protectga (Lasts for: 20 seconds - Recharge time: 40 seconds) Gives allies the Protect buff. Very handy.  Shellga (Lasts for: 20 seconds - Recharge time: 40 seconds) Gives allies the Shell buff. Just as very handy as Protectga.  Flash of Steel (Recharge time: 10 seconds) A more powerful version of Basch's base attack. As you can see in the gif, it has a piercing effect. The votes are in! So, where are we headed next time? Glabados Ruins got voted the most as the first location, so that's your answer. Second location to visit is the Giza Plains, which leaves Paramina Rift as the lucky last. Voting is closed, so look forward to these missions over the next few updates.
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Jan 19, 2014 06:51
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So you said you can only set a gambit for characters to use one of their moves? Well I guess that'd certainly keep you busy manually telling everyone to do their other moves every few seconds, but I'm guessing it just boils down to never using a lot of these moves.
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Jan 19, 2014 20:34
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I'm glad Paramina Rift is last, because it really has the best scene.Schwartzcough posted:So you said you can only set a gambit for characters to use one of their moves? Well I guess that'd certainly keep you busy manually telling everyone to do their other moves every few seconds, but I'm guessing it just boils down to never using a lot of these moves. You can switch Gambits in a fight if you so want, but you can get a lot of damage out of chain-casting moves instead of switching Gambits. Kytes and Filo in particular, as unleashing their offensive moves one after another can rack up lots of damage very quickly in a given area. This is made better by the fact that Kytes can hit elemental weaknesses and has Charge, while Filo's traps debuff opponents.
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Jan 20, 2014 01:19
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Schwartzcough posted:So you said you can only set a gambit for characters to use one of their moves? Well I guess that'd certainly keep you busy manually telling everyone to do their other moves every few seconds, but I'm guessing it just boils down to never using a lot of these moves. Yeah, after a point in the game it largely became setting up the rest of the party with strong enough support to live while I manually chain-cast Kytes' entire spell list. The recharge works out such that you can cast them one after another more or less indefinitely, and the damage output is pretty crazy. This probably doesn't hold up on the very last optional maps, and there's a couple bastard fights, but yeah.
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Jan 20, 2014 20:02
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Schwartzcough posted:I'd like to think it's actually Ashe taking the test for the Hornito, since it's her weapon. Note to self: I've got to do a fanart of this sometime. Anyway, we're almost at the next page in the thread, and i'm almost finished the next update, so i'll post it when we hit the next page. Just like last page. Ok? I'm personally wondering about how people are reacting now to things that surprised them at the beginning of the game. Like, everyone was weird about Filo having hoverboards, are you guys still weird on that? You know, things like that. Or talk about whatever, I don't mind, as long as we hit the next page.
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Jan 24, 2014 16:48
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Hoverboards are still weird no matter what. Also I can't wait for the rift mission.
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Jan 24, 2014 16:56
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I want to say thanks for the ability descriptions: so many of these I never really understood what they did when I first played through with the less detailed in-game descriptions.
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Jan 24, 2014 17:27
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FishOnAPiano posted:I want to say thanks for the ability descriptions: so many of these I never really understood what they did when I first played through with the less detailed in-game descriptions. I have to agree, I hadn't ever bothered to find out that Filo had a use and damage output at all and didn't know that Vaan's stealing skills were worthwhile.
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Jan 24, 2014 18:07
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Just a hoverboard as a weapon is a bit weird, but if you gave her a bat...
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Jan 24, 2014 21:05
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