Politics are boring, Let's Play FFXII: Revenant Wings instead

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ok Amazing: Apr 7, 2012; Final Fantasy Job Faire

Update #31: Audience at the Auralith + (End of Chapter 6)

New logbook entries:

Executing the Plan

Well, I thought about it, but Fran just doesn't seem like she'll fall for flowers or that sort of thing. Maybe Cu Sith could make her something special.
- Kytes

Cancelling the Plan

Bad news. Apparently, Cu Sith can't make anything besides weapons. When I asked about those mementos she's been making, she just squinted her eyes at me. So much for the plan.
- Tomaj

Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)

Further up the mountain, the location of our next mission opens up. But first, the usual.

...Um Filo?

"Look on the bright side. At least Llyud hasn't taken much notice."

"Yeah, but... but... Ow! Ow ow! Ow ow ow!"

"What are you doing?"

"Stretching my ears. I wanna look more like Fran. What do you think?"

"You're gonna have to pull a lot harder than that."

"My ears are getting sore. Maybe I should ask Penelo for some dancing tips instead..."

Filo will continue to jump around and thumbs up (which is apparently pulling her ears ) as long as we aren't talking to anybody else on the airship.

"You have to put a lot of thought into wooing a mature woman such as her."

"Mature is right."

"If you think I care about how old she is, you've got it all wrong, Vaan!"

"Well, good luck. You're gonna need it."

"What kind of man is Fran attracted to, I wonder."

"You shouldn't encourage him."

"I told him I didn't want to, but he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer."

"Well, you're both wasting your time, if you ask me. I don't even wanna know what Balthier would think of all this."

"Oh, right, Balthier. Hmm... Any idea what Fran likes, Vaan? I know I should just ask her, but I'm too shy."

This first part of the update has been dedicated to those of you who forgot Motomu Toriyama was the director of this game.

"So they have. I've received a letter, flowers... all manner of things I don't know what to make of."

"Sorry about that. Try not to let it bother you, okay?"

"Why would it bother me? It is not the first time such a thing has happened."

"Wait, you don't mean... Balthier?"

"Yes, though his methods were somewhat... different. There is a large cavern among the mountains of the Ymir Qul. There you will find Balthier."

"Huh?"

"We've known each other a long time now, haven't we?"

"Penelo?"

"Will we always be together? You wouldn't leave me, would you, Vaan?"

"I'm not going anywhere - and you know that, Penelo."

"I just wanted to hear you say it. Balthier and Fran share a really strong bond. That's how I want us to be."

"You were saying that the Yarhi are messengers of the Eternal, right?"

"Yes."

"So how do you think they feel about what's happening to Lemur�s?"

"I do not know. Do the Yarhi think and feel as we do?"

Lets leave, before Filo does anything else to her ears.

- Audience at the Auralith: Fran leads the party through a cave deep in the Ymir Qul. Within beats the sacred heard of the mountain. Is the curtain about to rise on a new act of their adventure?

Soundtrack: Boss Battle 3 (Esper Battle)

- Objective: Defeat the Judge of Wings! At least one ally must survive. Balthier must survive. -

Fran is brought instead of Filo, because there are a lot of Shivar here, so Filo and Llyud are fragile. I prefer to replace Filo, as I don't find her Gambits fit my playstyle, but it depends on how you play I guess.

Soundtrack: Boss Battle 2 (Desperate Fight)

This battle is prolonged at the end, but not difficult. The esper the Judge of Wings has summoned is Mateus, The Corrupt.

First, capture the summoning gates close to spawn, in the southeast and southwest. As standard, capture them just to stop things from spawning, you probably won't get use out of both of them. The Judge of Wings and Balthier don't start fighting impudently, so you have plenty of time.

You can take the fight to the Judge, or use a level III esper to lure the Judge to you. I choose to bring the fight to the Judge, but if you wanted to lure the Judge close to you, you'd get the esper in her aggro range, and flee to bait her down to you. Your esper will probably die, but can be re-summoned. As I just said, that's not what i'm doing here.

Once capturing the lower summoning gates and bringing the fight to the judge, you need to juggle defeating the minor enemies, capturing the remaining summoning gates, protecting Balthier, and defeating the Judge of Wings and Mateus.

After capturing all the summoning gates, the rest of this battle is trivial.

- Wind Soul grants all allies Haste and enables all magicks and abilities to be executed with no wait. -

And she wasn't even here to see it. Oh well, I think this is the first mission in which the party member receiving their Quickening is allowed to be absent.

There are going to be two missions in this update - but between them, a trip to the airship bridge.

Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)

"He is very... unique."

Well, we've been waiting for our reunion with Balthier for a while, so no more stalling, let's get on with the next mission, and...

Soundtrack: Balthier's Theme (Destiny)

...oh.

"Had I wished to be found, I'd not have hidden the entrance, now would I?"

"I grew tired of waiting."

"Not the answer I wanted to hear, so I'll pretend I didn't."

"Ah, Vaan. See to our uninvited guests for me, would you?"

"I'm using this machine to destroy the Stone."

"Vaan, please. Why must everything be so difficult with you?"

"What's gotten into you? Is this how the 'leading man' is supposed to act?"

"High time I stepped out of the limelight."

Soundtrack: Boss Battle 1 (Slash of the Sword)

"Ah, so long I've waited for this!"

"I don't want to fight you!"

"If you won't change your mind, I'll have to change it for you!"

- Objective: Stop Balthier! At least one ally must survive."

Soundtrack: Boss Battle 1 (Slash of the Sword) continues.

I went through this fight twice, to show off two different strategies. The first one is a crude strategy that involves going after Balthier first, and shows off more dialogue, which is why i'm showing it first. The second method is a really smart strategy that's good for people struggling in this mission.

As you can see, you start off with a summoning gate of your own. Ba'Gamnan gets one too, over to the southwest. Now, at first it looks like a pretty clear shot to Balthier, but... just apply some buffs and get your level III esper ready now.

Enemies will spawn in your way! These guys will ruin your day if you don't know they're going to spawn there, so people doing this mission for the first time might get caught off guard by it.

They're not really so hard though, if you know they're there, and after defeating them, put on some new buffs and set up some traps.

The Golem are pretty easy to take out, with Kytes fire. When you get in close enough to Fran and Balthier, more Sagittarius will spawn on either side of them.

All these ranged units are pretty nasty to Filo and Llyud. I just looked away for a second, I swear! It's a good thing Penelo can revive units from KO now. If she revives Llyud, Llyud can then revive Filo.

Ba'Gamnan gets sick of waiting and joins the fray. Ba'Gamnan attacks Balthier too - those two hate each other.

- Objective: Defeat Ba'Gamnan! At least one ally must survive. -

Espers will occasionally spawn before the Auralith. Ba'Gamnan started the fight with some espers, who will follow him here now. They don't arrive before he runs out of HP.

"Do take care of Balthier for me, eh?"

Let's return to the start of the fight, and take a look at the other, and better way of completing it.

For this strategy, bring some level I flying espers. I picked Ramih, but most any one will work. You want espers without any gambit abilities, as the AI in this game tends to be aggressive - as in, if there's a foe within range of a gambit, come hell or high water, your esper will go for that. Normally, that's beneficial, but we don't want that here.

Summon a few Ramih to Llyud's side - I have three here and it works, but you could summon a couple more to be safer. Anyway, flying units can go over the pool in the center of the field. Have Llyud fly out into the middle of the pool, and cast Vanishga on his group.

Then move just the espers to the north-west, up between Balthier and Ba'Gamnan.

As with last battle, Sagittarius spawn on either side of Balthier and Fran when your units get too close. Don't worry about it, your Ramih should still be under Vanish, so they won't get attacked.

Vanish wears off after 20 seconds. (Or when your esper uses an attack, which is why we wanted an esper without gambits) At this stage, Ba'Gamnan should notice the Ramih and kill them. Also notice Ba'Gamnan has a Titan esper and Tonberry, neither warned about on the preparation screen of the battle or relevant in the previous strategy I employed.

If you've lured Ba'Gamnan close enough to Balthier, which doesn't have to be close really, the two will start fighting! These two sides will take big chunks out of each other, without you doing any dirty work.

You can safely capture the summoning gate Ba'Gamnan was using!

And even this one, right behind the fight.

With your pristine team, you can just pick off whichever side lost the skirmish, and you're done! It might take a few tries to get the first part right, but once you've cinched it, it works really well. If it's just not working for you for whatever reason, use Llyud himself as the bait, and have Penelo revive him when she gets over there.

Soundtrack: Boss Battle 2 (Desperate Fight)