It's mostly just a big book of flavour text. Four flavours of text, in fact!





The Mission List is a summary of all the missions we've done thusfar. We can also discover there are a total of 81 in the game. Neat!



The Recipe Library is where we can view the contents of that book we got last mission. At a glance, this looks like an item crafting system, so I guess it would be ok for me to come out and say it's for an item crafting system that will be unlocked a bit further into the game. As usual, you'll get the specifics when it comes up. But it looks like there's a new item in there for everyone!



The Folio features worldbuilding words, about characters, locations, and terminology. All the entries in the folio have a purely informative "History" tab. Then, the "Lore" tab which gives information from the point of view of a character in the world, and features trivia mostly.



The Logbook is the diary everyone agreed to keep in the first mission of Chapter 2. This is entirely lighthearted bonus character building stuff. It's cute, funny, and helps you get to know the cast.

• History: Common term for a heretofore uncharted archipelago of purvama floating high above Ivalice. Separated from the outside world by a great barrier of Mist, its people retain a unique culture born of many years of isolation. The only mention of Lemurés is in sky pirate legends and folklore.
  
• Lore: Whilst studying the effects of the Mist release in Draklor's great experiment these days past, a curious piece of news came to me by way of a sky pirate. He tells me a new continent has been discovered. This warrants further investigation.
  - An Antiquarian's Musings

• History: The winged race which inhabits Lemurés. With the notable exception of said wings, they are otherwise much like humes in appearance, though they are much shorter lived-a mere forty years. The aegyl shun conflict, and are in fact slow to show emotion of any sort.
  
• Lore: On the Aegyl
  These dwellers of the lost sky continent are singular among races for their short span of life and unexcitable nature. We shall endeavor to unlock their secrets.
  - Royal Society of Anthropology

• History: Reluctant leader of a group of orphans in Rabanastre's Lowtown. Vaan had long dreamed of becoming a sky pirate before the Fates took matters into their own hands, placing him alongside Balthier in the midst of a great war and setting him down the path to making his dream a reality.
  
• Lore: Traveling with Ashe and Balthier changed my life. It changed everything. And Penelo, well... Wait, what were we talking about?
  - Vaan

• History: Orphaned when her family was killed in the war with the Empire, Penelo is Vaan's closest friend. Following Vaan on his misadventures, Penelo keeps him out of trouble as best she can. A dancer since she was very young, Penelo fills her companions with cheer and hope when all seems lost.
  
• Lore: What trouble have those two gotten themselves into this time?? If they think they're too old to be worried after, they're quite mistaken! Bah! So long as they're all right, I'm sure I'll manage to forgive them -- after a good and proper scolding!
  - Migelo

• History: Young orphan from Rabanastre's Lowtown. Kytes had always looked up to Vaan as though he were his older brother, even sharing his dream of becoming a sky pirate. When Vaan returned from his struggle against the Empire, Kytes began studying magick to become a sky pirate in earnest.
  
• Lore: At first I thought I'd try fighting the way Vaan does. You know, swords, daggers, those kinds of things. But it wasn't really for me. That's when I started studying magick. Only problem is, I haven't had much time to keep my lock picking up...
  - Kytes

• History: Young orphan from Rabanastre's Lowtown. A friend of Kytes and many children in Lowtown, Filo's Buccaneer's Brigade drilled long hours hoping to one day become sky pirates.
  
• Lore: I could never get the hang of weapons or magick, but I really like these skybandits. Nobody's keeping me out of a good fight!
  - Filo

• History: Barman at the Sandsea, a lively tavern in Rabanastre. Tomaj is also a member of Clan Centurio, always keeping an eye out for promising young adventurers to recruit into the clan. He prefers work behind the scenes to the battlefield, putting his experience at the Skysea to use securing supplies.
  
• Lore: It wasn't all that long ago I was watching Vaan and the rest running errands for Migelo. I miss those days...
  - Tomaj

• History: A warrior of the winged aegyl race. Most aegyl avoid contact with outsiders, but Llyud's curious nature has led him to join Vaan and his companions on their travels. Many aegyl now call him traitor and heretic for this choice.
  
• Lore: Llyud has always stood out from the others. He would travel from island to island,ever curious. Now he's even fallen in with sky pirates. Say what you will about that, he's always been reliable. There's no warrior i'd rather have at my side.
  - Acquaintance of Llyud

• Well, I guess I'll go first. Here we are on a sky continent, and nobody knows what we'll find. It's pretty exciting! I just hope everyone remember to keep the log going!
  -Kytes

• Today we met one of the people who live on the sky continent. He's an aegyl named Llyud, and he doesn't talk much at all. I think he may have something against sky pirates.
  -Kytes

• That aegyl is so rude! Never says 'hello', never says 'thanks'... never says anything! What trouble did we cause to deserve this?
  -Filo
  
• You cause trouble in your own way, Filo. Just kidding! Don't be mad.
  -Kytes

The field is fairly straightfoward, with material nodes right at the start! As suggested by the last cutscene, taking control of the summoning gate, while collecting the treasures here at the start, is first off.




Beyond the archway is our first foe. Once finished up in the starting area, just send everyone in.



Once an enemy party leader dies, their dazed body remains on the field. Unlike the Espers, who just vanish. The same is true of your own party members.



There is material node in the east corner here, don't forget to grab it before you fight the next guy!




Capturing the summoning gate here means summons won't have to walk all the way from the other summoning gate outside to get to here. It also means your opponents won't be able to use it! Even if you don't think you need a summoning gate, you should capture it, just so the enemy can't use it!




All the generic enemy NPC party leaders in this fight share the designs of character classes from Tactics Advance and A2. And we haven't seen the last of these designs either!




I didn't bother capturing this summoning gate here, the fight was almost over anyways. Once the last leader is dead, and our victory condition filled, anything else of our opponent's left on the field dies.





Llyud becomes my first party member with more than one ability!

Before finishing up this update, let's look at our new goodies!



Here's our menu! The Primer is where tutorials are, I won't be showing it off. As for the rest of the non-self-explanatory stuff...

We can unlock a few lv1 espers right now. Some are Final Fantasy mainstays, like cactuars and bombs, but there's some more out there ones too. At this stage, it's best to unlock espers as you need them, so take a look at what espers your next foes are wielding before spending Auracite willy-nilly. Auracite is in surplus, there will be more than enough Auracite to unlock everything on the Ring of Pacts, but it's uncommon enough to tread with caution for now!



White Hares provide healing though, that's always handy, so I went right ahead and made a pact with them!

ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Sep 10, 2013