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Update #15: More sidequests! Baubles and Banditry + Easier Said Than Done + Harmony in Discord + The Trodden Past Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)  We'll be heading out on the sidequests unlocked by entering Chapter 4. But before leaving the airship, we'll have to talk to Filo first. The optional conversations, and the new folio/logbook entries, will be covered next update.   "It's a fold-out canoe! This might come in handy on the skysea. Speaking of setting sail, guess who's at the helm? That's right - me! Ready when you are, Cap'n!"   We can now travel to Port Marilith, on the skysea.  However, a new location opens up on Tormelados. There's no plot-advancing mission here (as the lack of a flag would suggest) but there is sidequest here in this update.  Soundtrack: Field 1 - Battle 1 (Giza Plains)    "Hold it right there!"  "Who do you think you are!?"  "A wise leader uses what resources are at hand. There is no shortage of aegyl here. Why not put them to some use? Or... is that a problem?" "Yeah. A big one!"  - Objective: Destroy the enemy soul crystal! Your soul crystal must survive. -   Since all but one enemy leader here has a weakness to fire, bring lots of firepower! And chocobo, bring chocobo.  These foes like to use immobilise. There's an accessory you can buy from Tomaj, the Winged Boots, that Vaan can equip, and that will prevents immobilise from affecting your party. Equip it, it makes the fight a lot easier!  Summoning Espers that clear out large groups of foes, like Bombs, might help. Lamia can confuse foes, and that may buy you some time. Otherwise, you could summon Golem, and go on your own immobilise-fest.  The slopes here tend to be pretty bad catching points for the AI, and coupled with immobilise, they're really deadly. Prolonging this battle may get everyone caught on the slope, and it becomes an uphill stalemate.  But why bother with strategy, this is a soul crystal battle! Capture a summoning gate, and get yourself some chocobo!  Then tap the soul crystal, and we're two-for-two when it comes to cheesing the soul crystal battles. Soundtrack: Penelo's Theme    "It's the thrill of exploring new places, the adventure!" "I don't quite understand." "Just give it some time. You'll catch on before you know it!"  - Easier Said Than Done: The aegyl that have taken shelter on the ship mentioned a cache of materials in the temple gardens on Tormelados. It's guarded by the usual nasties, but nothing you can't manage. -Soundtrack: Field 3 (Dalmasca Eastersand)       - Objective: Find the treasure! At least one ally must survive. -  The most dangerous foe here is the Minotaur. (The blue level II Esper) He is a melee type, with no nature, weakness, or resistance. To add to this, he's at level 36, twice the level of everything else, including your party! To counter him, i've brought Diabolos, who is a flying type with a similar lack of any nature. Since this map has no summoning gates, i've brought both flying leaders along, to get the maximum amount of Diabolos.   Our target is the northmost node. But there's a material node right behind the starting point, so nab it.  The enemies don't wait for our approach to dogpile, coming down to us!  On the upside, this is a fight where you know if you've won or lost quickly, no painful stalemates like the last fight. You might keep Llyud out of the skirmish, so he can heal fallen members, but it's not necessary.  Once everything's cleared out, there's nothing left of the field, and you have a straight shot at the material node you need to mine to win.  Soundtrack: Rabanastre   "Something worth having is worth fighting for." "Is that something you learned being a sky pirate?" "Yeah, I guess I did. But it didn't happen overnight. It took a lot of hard work."  "Hard work? Don't you mean supervision?"  - Harmony in Discord: The auralith chamber in the shrine on Tormelados teems with monsters. Hardly the proper respect for so sacred a place. I think a hunt is in order. -Soundtrack: Field 5 - Battle 5 (Challenging the Empire)   "Think it's those sky pirates again?" "Your guess is as good as mine. Either way, we need to clean this mess up!"- Objective: Defeat all enemies! At least one ally must survive. -   Let me be perfectly honest. This is a glorified melee battle. It's really easy, which is reassuring considering the last couple of battles honestly.  Walk around, kill things, and catch summoning gates.  Enemies spawn themselves out of summoning gates pretty quickly compared to anything seen so far, so there's an extra incentive to capture the gates.  The final challenge is an uphill battle against a whole lotta flans. Push ahead, try to make it to the summoning gate, to stop it spitting out new foes.  Soundtrack: Rabanastre    "I think that's precisely what happened."  "Their destruction distorts those laws, which in turn gives rise to the unnatural."  "Well, i'm just glad we got to meet Llyud." "Me too!" "But I guess you'd be happier if none of us sky pirates came here at all, huh?" "I wouldn't say that..." - The Trodden Past: Sky pirates have been raiding a ruin on Tormelados known to aegyl as the shadow of Paharo. It's a special place they've protected for centuries. It wouldn't do to let it fall to sky pirates now. - Soundtrack: Field 3 (Dalmasca Eastersand)    "What splendid pieces! I absolutely must have some. No, no, wait... I must have them all!"   "Barbarians?" "You make a companion of an aegyl? You've poor taste in friends boy. " - Objective: Defeat all enemy leaders! At least one ally must survive. -   This is a really bad battle for Fire Espers. Oh yeah, it's possible to take less than five Espers. I took this amount, so I could start the battle with Cactoid on the field.  Soundtrack: Field 1 - Battle 1 (Giza Plains)  Cactoid are important, because of this summoning gate. The Appraising sky pirate, the Bangaa on the foe's team, will try to capture it straight away, and bring an army of Raiden along.  Raiden are Flying natured, and weak to Earth, making them really weak to Cactoid. Have your flying type units capture the gate, while Kytes deals with the other Espers here. Kytes' magic demolishes them quickly, but leave Penelo with him, or he'll die quickly.  It's possible to die really quickly in the initial skirmish, but the rest of the battle is pretty simple once it's over. Observe what Espers your foe has summoned in droves, and bring something to counter it.  Capture summoning gates when you can survive doing so, not when all the foes are clear. The summoning gates replenish foes quickly, and you'll have a hard time until you stop them.  This Viera here is our last foe. They can cast Vanish, so you might forget they're here. Anyway, there's a bunch of ranged units, and a treasure chest behind them.  To nab the chest, i've sent my flying units to sneak up behind it, and distracted the Viera and the Lamia espers with my other characters.  The chest contained a rare material, so... more effort than I needed to put in for it, but still neat. It's a strategy you can use for other treasure chests in the game.  Soundtrack: Rabanastre  "Llyud, don't let what she said bother you." "I have come to know that you are different from the others." "But there are lots more like us. If you don't believe me, you should come see for yourself!" "..." "Trust me, you'll have a great time." I just realized, as I was writing this update, i've built up quite the little army of Espers. Including unlocking a few Level II Espers. But i've never showed you my collection! Well, here's who i've got so far.            There are so many ways to go along the Ring of Pacts, and it's possible to have quite a different set of Espers at this stage of the game. Since a lot of monsters at the start of the game are weak to Fire or Earth, most people will probably have quite a few of those, if they're unlocking based on need. I've also taken a note to myself to unlock a flying Lightning esper. Next time we give a hearty thumbs up to Llyud. No, wait, we already did that, so let's bring in some more minor FFXII characters. But which ones? 
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Oct 6, 2013 08:09
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 03:01 |
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