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I caught up with this thread after not reading it for a few months! It's great to see that you're still keeping at it, Choco. Also, I'm reading two concurrent FFT LPs now - this one here, and the fan patch LP in its own thread. Good thing the game is so varied and interesting. Keep it up!
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Feb 10, 2019 13:29
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Simply Simon posted:I caught up with this thread after not reading it for a few months! It's great to see that you're still keeping at it, Choco. Also, I'm reading two concurrent FFT LPs now - this one here, and the fan patch LP in its own thread. Good thing the game is so varied and interesting. The hack being shown off in the other LP is wild. But in a good way! I’d love to take it for a spin eventually myself. Ace Transmuter fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Feb 11, 2019 |
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Feb 10, 2019 21:50
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I have to say, I like that Algus has a measure of depth. Even sympathetic qualities. You can sort of understand why he wants to redeem his family name so badly, and how his goals could drive him to act like a scumbag. Which doesn't justify his behavior in the slightest. To me, that aspect of Algus makes him a better and more memorable villain.
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Feb 11, 2019 03:51
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DeTosh posted:I have to say, I like that Algus has a measure of depth. Even sympathetic qualities. You can sort of understand why he wants to redeem his family name so badly, and how his goals could drive him to act like a scumbag. Which doesn't justify his behavior in the slightest. To me, that aspect of Algus makes him a better and more memorable villain. In some ways, you could see his character as an allegory for falling prey to a very insidious form of class warfare. Note that at no point does he lash out at the systems of privilege that turned their back on his family. He's so desperate for self-worth that he focuses on tearing down those that he can still say are beneath him. He's got so much rage and frustration but the only place he can see to punch is downwards. Anybody who has lived in a community with a large houseless population has probably seen this in action.
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Feb 11, 2019 17:27
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So for some reason I've got a Google Calendar Reminder for today that says "Remind Ryan re: Bravely Default"; does anyone remember what that might be about? Were they putting off the decision on whether the Bravely games counted or not?
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Feb 12, 2019 18:06
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I rewatched the mainline series late last year but don't remember hearing anything about Bravely Default. Hope Ryan is here to be reminded.
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Feb 12, 2019 18:23
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Maybe there's some way to reach him. We could tweet the LP's twitter account perhaps? @goodfriendsgame
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Feb 12, 2019 20:00
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Similarly I see him logged in on Steam regularly. I'm sure he has been busy at work. Has there been any news in the past year regarding *checks notes* Epic Games? Oh boy...
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Feb 12, 2019 22:04
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Ivalice Days, Zodiac Nights: Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions! Episode 9: Us, or Them On our quest to rescue Tietra, we make our way to the Lenalian Plateau, where we shockingly run into a battle.   : It's worth noting here that this is the first and only story battle in all of Chapter 2 where we're allowed to bring five characters with us. Normally, we've only been allowed to do this during random encounters. Milleuda, again? Didn't we just leave this party? : Yes, our next plot battle following a boss fight with Milleuda is a... boss fight with Milleuda. Milleuda is done taking literally anyone's poo poo.  Argath insisted that it was either us or them. But is that really true?  : Our opposite number. A pair of Knights, a pair of Black Mages, and our first encounter with a Time Mage. This can be a dangerous mission if the Knights are able to effectively run blocking for the mages in the back, even if we're only being asked to kill Milleuda. : This Knight is showing off that they can equip Robes, if they want. This considerably lowers her potential HP in exchange for a decent boost to her max MP. Of course, she also never bothered to equip a  : Contrast Milleuda, who is considerably beefier, with real armor and with a higher tier of shield and helmet. The Shoulder Cape gives her an additional 10% evasion from all direction (even Magick) which only makes it all the more difficult to bring her down. : Good Friend starts by Tailwinding Mydrede. Mydrede Arts of Wars abilities are going to be pretty crucial to my strategy for the next two fights. Delita gets a turn and immediately triggers a conversation.   : Tietra is my sister, no more a Beoulve than you! Please, she's no value as a hostage! Return her, I beg you!  : Our lives, our dignity, and all else that you have claimed as your own? We ask nothing more than that you return to us what is ours by right. But you deny us even that! You take and take, until there is naught left.  Milleuda's really laying it on thick here. Remember, Chapter 1 is a flashback, and it's as much (if not more) about Delita's origin story than it is about Good Friend. While we won't learn exactly why Delita has kidnapped the princess or who he's really working for for a good long while, and it'll take much longer to figure out why he's considered some great historical hero, what we're seeing here is the develop of what motivates him and drives him to do what he does. Keep this in mind in the future, when Delita's motivations seem questionable at best.  : Dawson gets Immobilized, which is alright, because Dawson's pretty useless and only here to pick up some token EXP/JP, but all annoying because he doesn't really have a ranged option. : Dueling Black Mages. Who will come out on top?. : We'll never know, because I didn't bother taking screenshots of the resolution! Mydrede, meanwhile, is making a bee-line to the enemy Black Mage. She's fairly sturdy and those mages are by far the most dangerous enemies on the map. : To the point where Good Friend also over-extends himself a bit to work on taking out the other. : This also blocks off this enemy Knight's easiest pathway to the battlefield. : Charging cuts your evasion and you take double damage from attacks. A crit would push the Black Mage back and fizzle the spell if it wouldn't just straight up kill him outright. I'm not that lucky however.  : Wenlyd (who's still trading clothes with Concessa) can finish off that Black Mage before it gets its Fira off, but it means pegging Mydrede with a Blizzard also. On bargain, however, it's worth it; we also get to nail Milleuda with it.  : Dawson continues drawing the Time Mage's ire, which, sure, fine. Meanwhile, Blizzard does its job. : That cost 1200 gil, you jerk! : Well, that Knight needs to die soon. Enemies with Items cheat, as they don't have an inventory and can just throw potions around all day long. : Meanwhile, the excursion behind enemy lines is not doing Good Friend many favors. : Wenlyd at least is able to rack up two more kills on the day, this time a Knight and the Time Mage. Dawson would say thanks, were he to ever get a chance to do anything. : Yeah, Good Friend has seen better days. : But he'll have his revenge yet! : Excelsior! : Mydrede now gets to work slowing Milleuda down into oblivion. Oh, how I wish there was a Rend Accessory ability... : Instead she fails and eats a Counter. Milleuda can still pack quite a punch.  : Concessa goes for two more kills, but isn't able to finish Delita off. Milleuda is at least all alone.At this point there should have been a few more conversations triggered in the battle, but for some reason they never did. : I mustn't fall! Our struggle is not yet won!And later...  : Why this struggle? To what purpose do you fight? Have we wronged you? Have we somehow made you to suffer? I do not understand what fuels your hatred.Good Friend isn't that great at listening, I've gathered. : It is enough that you can stand there before me in ignorance of the misdeeds done us. Get woke, Good Friend! : You may not see the world beyond your high walls, but that does not mean they mark its boundaries. It may well be you've done no wrong. It is your place in the world that drives my hatred on. You bear the name Beoulve, and that name is my enemy.   : Much of the rest of this fight is a formality. Also pictured: Concessa as a White Mage showing off  : Don't mind Good Friend, here. He's just checking up on his good buddy here. Nothing to see. : "Speed: 01" is one of my favorite things to see. Drop an opponent's speed that low, they may have enough CT built up to get one more turn off, but they won't be getting a second. : Holy crap! Dawson contributed! And with that, Milleuda dies.  Was Argath right after all? That we cannot co-exist with those outside the nobility who strive for, fight for, a better life for themselves? To be seen as more than mere cattle?  And what does that mean for Delita, a man trapped between both worlds? Peasant, but without the hardship. Noble, but without the power. What's the right path for one such as he? Does a right path even exist?   Next Time:  
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Feb 18, 2019 21:14
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He's not...wrong. Neither was Tellah.
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Feb 19, 2019 06:38
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DeTosh posted:He's not...wrong. Neither was Tellah. I mean, yeah. I just think it's a bit of a shame that the localization team decided to strip the game of all of its own iconic lines ("Blame yourself or God" "Surrender or die in obscurity!" "I had a good feeling!" "This is the way!" etc.) but drop in a reference to some other game's iconic line.
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Feb 19, 2019 17:50
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I heard you guys liked Spoony Bards, and I came running with a new update to The High Price of Beauty! Last time, Leviathan came and killed errybody but Cecil. It sucked.  Good news, there's a town right near where Cecil washes ashore!  Bad news, it's Mysidia, where Cecil and the Red Wings invaded and stole their crystal way back at the start.   See that Black Mage Cecil is talking to? He casts Toad on Cecil if he talks to them. For real. You can either Maiden's Kiss him or rest somewhere to take it off, but it's the real spell. The Dancer here dances, sure, but Cecil gets knocked out by it and wakes up out back with pig cast on him. The bartender gives Cecil a free drink, which turns out to be poisonous. Place is rough is what I'm saying. Also, while the shops sell weapons and armor, none of it is suitable for Dark Knights. So all that's left is for Cecil to return to the crystal chamber and present himself to the High Elder.  I'm Cecil, last time you saw me I was too much of a coward to disobey Baron. Yeah, well it's a little late for sorries, rear end. Sigh, but tell you what, you've got moxie coming here. I'm trying to stop a man named Golbez who has taken over Baron. I was on my way to save a friend he kidnapped, when this big fish ate my friends. Bummer. Anyways, that Dark Sword'll never win you the fight. Evil vs Evil is no good and all that. If you really want to beat the evil dude, you're going to need to go to Mount Ordeals to the East. Uh, I'm not exactly on a leisure trip here man... Well if this friend matters so much to you, you'll go to the mountain and become a Paladin. It's dangerous to go alone, take this!   Yo! What's happenin Pops? ...You want me to take two...children with me on this dangerous and potentially deadly quest? Well when you put it that way it sounds kinda stupid. Oh well, too late now, these are the very talented mages-  And so the next quest is set out for us! We have to head East to Mount Ordeals. Obviously, I'm going to grind these two twerps up a little first. Palom, the boy, is a black mage, and Porom, a girl, is a white mage. Palom has the ability "Bluff" which when used, the next round his intelligence is doubled, which means all black magic is doubled in potency. Very useful. Porom has "Cry", which cuts the enemy defense in half. Also useful. (They also have their respective magics, natch) They also both have "twincast" which is an interesting ability. See, you have to have both of them use the ability the same round for it to work. With these two using the ability, they cast one of two powerful spells-Pyroblast (Flare in some versions) which deals massive fire damage, or Comet, which deals massive non-elemental damage. In the GBA and PSP versions, there's a bonus accessory in the extra content that when equipped lets them cast twin-meteor, an insanely powerful holy spell. These magics still cost mp, so keep that in mind. Also, I'll be coming back to Twincast later. Also, and this is important, neither of them are any good at physical damage. Palom starts with a fire rod, and Porom starts with a heal staff. I didn't worry about it when Rydia was around as her physical strength slowly built up, but that's not going to help here. So in battle our lil mages have to use their weapons as items to cast fire or heal respectively. But here's the problem: I'm playing the PC version. Literally every other version of the game this task is trivial. Just go into the use item menu in battle, press up to go to your equipped items, and select the equipped weapon to use it. In the PC version only, that only allows you to change your equipment. There are two routes to doing this in this version: You can set it in the auto battle options (which is what I do, because trash mobs gonna trash) or you can go into your abilities and put it in your active battle options, which usually means actually replacing one of the default options like fight or items with using your held item. It's really awkward and dumb. Oh nice, a Chocobo Forest right near the mountain, meaning we can grind easy!   Hey Cecil! All this traveling and recording stuff, I realized I love camping below the stars more than anything! Just call me Campingway from now on! Oh, by the way, you don't happen to have any spare tents do you? I'll pay you for them! Yup, to continue Campingway's quests, you have to give him all your tents, and he gives you 300 gil. Regardless of how many you have, he takes them all. Also, Mysidia sells cabins, the upgraded form of tents. Tents only restore so much hp and mp. Cabins are closer to Inns, where they restore you to full, heal status, and revives KOs. Now Chubby gets the movie player option added to his list. There's still one ??? slot on his options when you summon him though besides movie player and bestiary. Wonder what it'll be... Also, because I'm a Grade-A Moron, I forgot to start equipping my augments until after I grinded the twins up to level 25 each. They uh, would have helped. How augments work is they sit in the key items slot, and can be used once and only once per playthrough to equip one character with your party permanently with the ability listed. However, you still need to turn them on in the battle options area like I mentioned in the explanation for using items above for them to be active. Anyways, you see I have three augments at this point. I cannot get every augment in this game in a single run, because the math for some of the requirements doesn't pan out. I COULD have given 1 or 2 augments to Edward before the ship sank to later be able to get his salve and hide abilities as augments. He can wait til NG+. For the record, augments are one of the things that linger in new game plus, including equipped ones on that person. Cecil has a couple open slots on his battle menu, and I give him Counter and turn it on. Now, every time Cecil is physically attacked, he automatically counter-attacks, and this doesn't count towards his ATB bar, which is handy. I give Porom auto-potion and do NOT turn it on. She has it equipped, but she isn't using it. When turned on, that character automatically uses healing items when hurt. It's kiiiinda wasteful. Palom gets equipped with Item Lore, which I replace his attack option with it, since he's always using magic or autobattling with the fire rod. Item Lore doubles the power of items used by that character. Reread the last two sentences together. When he uses his fire rod in battle, it's using an item. Now that I equipped Palom with Item Lore, his auto-battle fire rod does DOUBLE damage, and I'm an idiot for not realizing that sooner. Let's hurry up and get to this stupid mountain already. Palom easily uses ice magic to get rid of that flaming blockade. Porom socks him for being cocky about it. MEANWHILE   This...Cecil. He must be stopped now before he gets stronger! He's still a Dark Knight, so he'll be useless against your undead minions! Make sure he doesn't become a paladin! Assss you wissssshhhh...Scarmiglione disappears Well, what do you think of that Kain? Don't underestimate Cecil. I know he's your friend. That's why I sent Scarmiglione instead, you old softy. He's one of the four elemental archfiends, so the fight should be a good watch, right Rosa? I should be the one to impress Ros-I mean slay Cecil! That went SO well last time, didn't it? No, you stay guarding the girl. (what a wiener) Tellah! Cecil? Hey man, are you looking for Meteor magic too? Wait, Meteor? You must be- You're that Tellah guy! Palom! Don't be rude! It's an honor to meet you sir. We've come here on orders from the elder of Mysidia. Yeah, we need to keep an eye on-Porom runs over and socks Palom Sorry about that. We're supposed to guide Cecil to the top of the mountain. Children from Mysidia? I see. Where are Edward and Rydia? Last I saw them they were getting swallowed by a sea serpent. Bummer. Yeah. And Golbez has Rosa. Ooooh, Cecil's got a giiiirlfriend! Shut it. You're going after Golbez too, right? Yeah, but man, have you seen that guy? He's huge! I need meteor first! I think it might be up here! But that spell is too dangerous! Especially for someone as old as you! I don't plan on walking away from this fight.  I'm here to become a paladin. Dark swords aren't squat against Golbez. Well obviously my hunch about this mountain having power was right! Let's get to it! And now Tellah is back in our party! He's the same ol Tellah as before, only knowing a handful of spells. He starts with an Ice Rod, and I just have him use it as auto battle in the fights. Most of the enemies here are undead, so Palom's fire melts them. Then there's firey ghosts it heals, but Cecil and Tellah can take them out. On the way up the mountain, a hissing sound is heard, and the kids keep blaming each other, until we get to the very top and are about to cross a bridge. Such Pleasssure I will take in delivering you to the gatesss of hell! gross. Who's there??  Welcome to the Scarmiglione fight! He's...not hard. He counters attacks with thunder on a random party member. He absorbs ice and darkness themed attacks. So Cecil has to go in vanilla, and I have to be sure that Tellah never physically attacks. I have Palom bio his heiney, then he and Tellah use fira attacks while Porom cures and Cecil attacks. He goes down pretty quick. For an Arch-Fiend he's uh, kinda a wimp. So after the fight we swap our rows for no apparent reason. Then we cross the bridge. Impresssssive, but my true ssssstrength lies in death! Come join me!! Again?? Surprise! It's Undead Scarmiglione! And he ditched his robe and got real ugly. It starts as a back attack, hence my smug row swapping. Don't bother me none! This version of Scarry has two attacks--a big ol swing of his arm that hits like nobody's business, hitting Porom in the back for over 150 hp alone! He's also got a move where he tries to curse the party with status effects. In this version it seems like it doesn't do much status wise, but still hurts. Also he has about 6 times as much hp. He's not messing around now. I devote Cecil to physical attacks and Tellah to using Cura on the whole party (it's needed). First round, Palom bluffs and Porom cries to help, then in round two Palom blasts him with a bluffed bio, doing well over 2000 in damage and causing a steady drain, and Porom casts protect all. Then I switch to bluffing and Firas with Palom, and Porom first shell-alls, then switches to Curas against Scarro, as he's undead. Tellah's healing and Porom's buffs keep the party alive while we whittle him down. Scarmiglione promptly backs off the cliff to his second death  ???: My son...at last you arrived. Son? Whose voice is that??The party gets teleported inside  ???: Long have I waited for the day you would come. There's now a tragedy that hurts me more than you'll understand. To end it, I will gift you my light, though it condemns me to further pain. But there is no other way.    ???: Vanquish the dark knight! You and he are no more!  I must be seeing double...FOUR Cecils!! Stay back guys...this is MY fight, and mine alone! Now Cecil is nakkie with his new fancy Paladin sword, fighting a dark version of uh, his dark knight persona. This is a trick fight. All you have to do is nothing/defend for three turns. In the 2D version it's POSSIBLE to actually win this fight offensively, but in the 3D version they buffed up the Dark Knight hp so that it's extremely difficult. But yeah, just block or whatever and you'll quickly come out of the fight. ??? I will instill with you the light of my very soul. May the last of my strength be all of yours. My son...you must stop Golbez! White Flash  ...he actually did it! I feel so...warm...and familiar...? Oh! Suddenly I can remember everything! All my spells! What a trip! And...me...te...or? Jumpin Jehosephat! The light here gave me Meteor too!The twins waffle on confessing their reason for the trip to Cecil now, but Tellah moves everyone along out the door  So, both Cecil and Tellah gained the strengths needed to fight Golbez! Tellah's spell list has pretty much doubled, and Cecil is now a Paladin. But the Light or whatever gives both gifts with catches. As you can see, Cecil starts naked of equipment, and back at level 1. If you are smart (like I was) you'd have bought a full set of Paladin equipment in Mysidia. But that's expensive, so it's a good thing I got gil while grinding. And I STILL had to sell a bunch of Cecil's old unique Dark Knight gear to afford it all. As a Paladin, Cecil loses Darkness, but he now gets Cover, which when used means he'll jump in front of any other party members being attacked that round and takes the hit as if he were attacked while defending. He also gets a small amount of white magic, including cure, cura, and when he hits level 25, arise. Also, the enemies on Mount Ordeals are weak to Holy element, which his sword contains. I have to grind for a while having him play catchup. Some tricksters like to kill off the three mages at this point, because of something I haven't mentioned before now--experience is split between all alive party members equally at the end of each fight...the less alive party members, the more exp the winners get. Tellah meanwhile, gets all the spells, like, all of them, including the god-tier spell of the narrative, Meteor. He no longer has the Recall ability. The catch? Meteor costs 99mp. If you recall from several updates ago, Tellah is hard capped at 90mp. Womp womp. It's possible to raise max MP values in this game either with soma drops, or with a +50% MP augment, but neither of them appear until after Tellah is gone from the party for good. (Uh, spoilers?) Though if you really are hard up for Tellah to use Meteor in battle, you can hang on to that augment when you get it until the next loop and throw it on him I guess. I guess.But regardless, now that we're stronger, it's time to get back on track...NEXT TIME!!
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Feb 20, 2019 03:26
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Well gently caress this really is dead, a sad favourited thread to remove rip
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Feb 22, 2019 13:14
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Agradine and I are doing plenty to keep it alive! 
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Feb 22, 2019 14:19
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I really like Palom and Porom's portraits in this version. Look at him. He's so smug.
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Feb 22, 2019 14:57
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Thanks. I'm grabbing those portraits from the sprite sheets for Pictologica, and it drives me crazy that Tellah and Cid don't have ones.
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Feb 22, 2019 15:42
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Yeah I really dig that Palom art - it really captures his attitude. Also this got me back into playing SNES FFIV and I'm really digging the critical look at Tactics as well. It's a bummer that the mainline series has lapsed but I'm still a happy (if quiet) follower.
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Feb 22, 2019 17:45
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Ivalice Days, Zodiac Nights: Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions! Episode 10: Beyond My Weary Sight Our next battle takes place at the Fovoham Windflats, but first... : Let's briefly check in with our party so far, shall we? : Killing Milleuda triggers the last shop upgrade of the chapter. Notably, Dawson here is a Knight, because I'm getting tired of him being useless, but also because I want him to finally unlock Monk so I can use all the spillover JP he's earned to give him Lifefont.As a reminder, any time a party member takes an action as a member of a certain job, everyone else in the party in the battle that's not KOed gets JP in that specific job as well. I believe it's 1/4 (or 1/6 if the party member has JP Boost, which doesn't affect spillover JP). This can help folks pick up abilities they might want from jobs they'd otherwise never need to touch, and even help them unlock classes if you spend enough time in a certain class. Because Good Friend has been a Monk for quite some time now, Dawson and Mydrede should be picking up a good amount of Monk JP by now. Since I don't intend to have them using Martial Arts, I can spend that spillover JP on things like Lifefont (Move-HP Up) and Counter. Note: this is why basically everyone in my party has Parry (Weapon Guard) right now.  : Mydrede is still a knight, but mostly because I'm still saving up her JP for something very important for the next battle. : Concessa is now a Mystic, because Manafont (Move-MP Up) can keep her rolling as an agent of destruction almost indefinitely. As a bonus, she can still keep her Ice Rod equipped now that she's no longer a White Mage. : Good Friend the Monk picks up a whole 6 Max HP. Late in the game light armor (Clothes & Hats) are easily the best armor set in the game. Early on though, they can be kind of underwhelming.  : Wenlyd is now a Time Mage. I never quite understand, thematically, why Time Mage followed Black and Mystics followed White in FFT. Mystics seem much more offensively minded than Time Mages, who are renowned as much for their buffs as their debuffs. : We get into a random encounter on the way back to Fovoham, which is good, because Mydrede needs a few more Knight JP, and we could, in generally, stand to be a little stronger for the next few battles.Also pictured: Stone putting in work. Never discount the power of a good ranged attack if you're trying to grind.  : Case in point. Good Friend already showed this off, but the Monk having access to a couple of ranged attacks goes a long way in making it such a great job. They're never going to fall behind, at least. : Good Friend is hitting hard. Note that Aurablast suffers from a bit of a damage penalty; he'd be doing more damage with a straight punch.Not much more to see here. Before we start the next battle, there's one more thing we've got to do.  : Say what you will about Archers, and they certainly deserve it, but they definitely serve a niche. Didn't I just tell you guys!?  : We had to take a hostage - there was no other way to escape.It's really annoying how many times I'm going to need to use that portrait.  : Then why not release her once you were clear of your pursuers? Do not tell me this madness has taken even you!Seriously guys! I mean it!  Previously on Ivalice Days, Zodiac Nights: agradine posted:Meet Gragaroth. He's basically Gustav 2.0. : I am no Gustav, if that is your fear! Think, Wiegraf. We've lost the greater part of our number, and the Northern Order draws upon us from all sides. She is of Beoulve blood. A hundred swords - a thousand! - could not buy our freedom with such ease!: So we fly - what then? Know you some happy haven in which we may alight? : We must make for our children a fairer future than the past you and I have known. They must not suffer as we do! The stone we cast might raise only the smallest of waves, but see how they crash upon the shore!Our villain, folx!  Okay, that's a little hardcore.   I think we're starting to see exactly why Wiegraf isn't our hero here. : Foolishness! The only blood the earth will drink will be our own.: The remainder of our forces should yet be safe in our fastness at Ziekden. We must rejoin them - together we have the strength to strike!: <muttering to himself> And if they are already dead?A female monk rushes in and whispers something to Wiegraf. : Milleuda? Slain? Impossible...    : Your orders, Commander?: We quit this place at once! We shall make for our fastness at Ziekden. The girl will be left here, Gragoroth.: <from outside> The Northern Sky is upon us! They attack!: They waste little time. I shall hold them off here! Gragoroth, you will take the others and make for Ziekden!He rushes outside with the messenger, leaving Gragaroth, who takes a long sideways glance at Tietra. : I will run, yes. But I do not mean to die! Battle Theme: Antipyretic I probably don't link to the excellent soundtrack in this game enough, but this battles opens with an excellent sweeping pan of the windmill as this bombastic track plays. It's fairly intense.  : Our enemy: Wiegraf, a Knight, two Monks, and a Chocobo. A very specific Chocobo, in fact, but we'll get to that.Meanwhile, I've set Concessa to a Summoner and Wenlyd to a White Mage for maximum slaughter/healing potential. This is not a fight to screw around with in the least. You might we asking then why did I bring an Archer? We'll get to that too. But first...  : Milleuda deserved a better death - they did not even send proper knights to kill her!You'd think he'd give us some credit, seeing as we showed up to save the Marquis before any of the "proper knights" even came close to finding him.  Wiegraf likes to talk trash about running away. Remember that.  : Our mission is simple: all we gotta do is take Wiegraf out. We don't even actually need to KO him; knocking him to critical status is enough to end the fight.This battle, however, is far from simple.  : Good Friend starts by boosting Mydrede's speed. She's got a very important job to do, and if she can't do it quickly this battle will turn pear-shaped in a hurry. : Like I said; weird as it seems, but our Archer is our most important character in this fight. At least early on.If you haven't already guessed, you must be wondering by now, what's so important about Mydrede? Well, you remember that ability I was saving her Knight JP to learn?  : It was Rend Weapon. Which she can use at the range of her longbow. Observe : Wiegraf needs to be parted from his sword as quickly as humanly possible, or he will destroy you. : You've got to be kidding me.I should have counted spaces. Since you can't take back movement, my most important character is now stuck there, right out in the open. This could be going better.  Delita gets a turn, and sparks a conversation. : Your sister? Then you are a Beoulve, yes?: He is not. If it is a Beoulve you seek, address yourself to me!: So, Gragoroth has erred. But surely the girl must hold some connection with House Beoulve?: You draw no distinction between our house and those who deal with us?: Should I?This game does a really good job of setting up character development most of the time, but I feel like they missed an opportunity by not having Delita respond here; or in general giving most of dialogue in this conversation to Good Friend. It's here, more than anywhere, that Delita realizes that he's not truly an innocent bystander in this; that he can't really claim to not being part of the nobility. Next battle he will get an abject lesson that he also can't really claim to not being part of the peasantry either. His position is fairly unique, in that he is straddling both worlds, and in a single action, Tietra's kidnapping, and everything that follows from it, he learns why both worlds are so truly awful.  : You will see her free - if you live to see aught at all!Wiegraf, stop.  : Welcome to why Wiegraf needs to be parted with his sword ASAP. Remember all the wacky stuff Agrias was doing way back in the prologue? Wiegraf can do it too. Instant, high-damage, high-range sword attacks that also carry an additional chance of a bonus effect, usually a status effect. This here Northswain's Strike, nee Crush Punch. The status effect in can trigger?KO. He's also got one with a radius of 2 that can set Stop. Thankfully, he cannot do either without a sword. Even more thankfully, Mydrede survives this, and a subsequent Boco beak.  : Concessa doing work. That damage seems a bit low for her; probably a compatibility or faith issue. : Luckily, Wenlyd got Hasted too, so she's able to heal up Mydrede some; at the cost of setting up a pretty horrible Judgment Blade (Statis Sword) attack from Wiegraf if Mydrede misses. : See? It's Boco; in honor of BUTES' constant chocobo companion. You might notice the stars over Boco's feathery corpse instead of a countdown timer; Boco is flagged as essential in this battle; we'll actually see him again later. : I... I don't like these odds. Between his shield, his cape, and his class evade, Wiegraf is toting a 39% dodge chance from the front. If I could attack from the rear my chances would be nearly doubled. : Luckily, fortune favors the bold. Don't think you can take it easy the rest of the fight; however. Those enemy Monks are still capable of putting out a ton of damage in a short amount of time. Luckily Boco is already KO'ed; Chocobo Heal would only make this fight more dangerous than it already is. : Mydrede runs the hell away while Wenlyd's Cure finally triggers. : The situation right now; Delita is playing Target Boy while Good Friend acts as a bottleneck by blocking the stairs. The Monk might have enough Jump to still get down from there, but the Knight sure as hell doesn't. Also, look at that damage; Wiegraf is considerably less dangerous than he was before, but he's not exactly helpless. : Delita's Counter Tackle. Underwhelming is an overstatement. : Wiegraf's stats. He's sporting a great deal of equipment that we don't have access to yet. Counter would be problematic if we brought along anybody without a ranged attack option. I'm not looking forward to seeing what kind of Arts of War he's packing either. "White Knight" "A pious knight" "untarnished soul". ...Are we... are we the baddies?  : As you can see, Operation: Bottleneck the Stairs didn't work out as planned. Turns out it's easier to fall off things then it is to jump up to them. Meanwhile, Delita's actually managed to take out one of the Monks. I'm sure he had help. What arms?   : We did not set out to kill her! This quarrel need not be settled by the sword. Let us treat, and persist not in this bloodshed!: You see it not - the reason we hold fast to our steel! What advantage might I hope to enjoy at the treaty table? And who would set a seat for me there? You? Even were it in your power, your brothers would never heed any agreement we might reach!: My brothers do not want this fight! Set down your  They are really putting Good Friend's naivety to task, here. Good Friend's turn comes around soon enough, triggering still another conversation.  : Callow child. The hands that guide history's reins are ever black with blood. Think you Dycedarg's hand more just? A new justice is born and dies on the lips of each man who would pronounce it.: Do not mock my brothers!Good Friend is being really defensive of his brothers here. Remember this.  : 80% chance? Piece of cake; you just made a 24 perc-. : Son of a... :   : Meanwhile, that Knight's got a free run on my squishy wizards. Wenlyd puts a stop to that quickly. : Good Friend has had enough of your bullshit. : Like I said.   : And just like that, Wiegraf is ice-olated.    : My plan to Immobolize Wiegraf ends up not working so well. Or working too well.No, definitely the former. : I honestly can't remember what I'm going for here; probably the shield. It doesn't end up working anyway. : The first Monk crystal drops right next to Good Friend. He opens it with courage, and... : Learns some halfway decent abilities! Aim +1 is a minor damage boost but it's quick enough that you should pretty much always pull it off every time. Antidote is fairly useless, however; poison is rarely a thing in FFT and it's not all that threatening even when it does show up. Meanwhile, Cyclone is a Monk ability that used to be called Spin Fist; with it you hit every creature in an adjacent square (no diagonals). Sounds nice, but it's situational at best and doesn't have the greatest accuracy.  : It also has zero vertical tolerance, which makes it even more difficult to use effectively. Thank you, next. : I'm not sure what broke here, but it was probably something I had to march all the way back to Gariland to buy another copy of, and so it annoys me. : Wenlyd just cannot catch a break on her Immobilize timing. : That's better. :  : This is Moogle (aka Mogri), the cheapest summon. It's a wide area cure spell that's reasonably quick, cheap, and ignores enemy units (unless they're undead, I think). It's pretty great. : Chakra doing work. : This is a little better. Pummel assigns a random multiplier to your punch attack. It could be weaker; could be stronger. Still rarely worth the tradeoff and never really worth the JP, but Pummel can occasionally pull you out of a desperate situation. : And Wenlyd ends the fight by smacking Wiegraf with a staff, which is probably the most embarrassing way for him to lose. Oh, now he compliments us. After we've broken his sword, knocked his chocobo out cold, murdered his troops and devoured their souls to gain their power, and hit him over the head with a stick.  See, Wiegraf talks a big game when it's somebody else's life on the line, but unlike his sister he's not actually above fleeing. This is his hubris; he sees himself as the hero of this story; only he can bring about the change the world needs. : Wiegraf, wait!: Who do you think sent Gustav to kidnap Marquis Elmdore?  : Absurd! Why would Dycedarg do such a thing?Good Friend, for one, isn't having this. We of course already know this to be true. Well, about Dycedarg, anyway. There's a lot to Zaalbag's character that is... well, open to interpretation is the nice way to put it. Inconsistent is the other, more accurate way. : The Lions vie for power in the void left by the king's death. I speak, of course, of Larg, the White Lion, and Goltanna, the Black. Each hopes to learn who may be counted as friend, and who as foe. But such things are not so easily read. Easier rid yourself of those whose loyalty is uncertain, and install others to rule in their stead. I fear Gustav, fool that he was, tired of our rebellion, and was taken in by the silver tongue of your dear brother, Dycedarg.: Do not take my word for it. Judge their actions for yourself. Farewell, young Beoulve.He uses his magical powers of teleportation (no really) to escape. At least Tactics Ogre had items they showed NPCs using.  The next time anyone wants to trash this translation, here's what this line is in the original translation: : Wait, Wiegraf!! Take that back!! Yeah, "Surrender, or die in obscurity!" was pretty metal, but I'd argue that WotL's Good Friend is a much more dynamic and confident character in the long run. The scene cuts in, and we see Good Friend and Delita rush into the windmill. : Tietra! Tietra, where are you!?The camera pans to reveal that the Windmill is empty.   I mean, not technically, but we've learned by now that Wiegraf's control over his troops is tenuous at best. : Come, Delita! We must hurry to Ziekden. Tietra is there, I'm certain of it. : Why, Ramza? Why Tietra? : I'm sorry, Delita...Next time: 
Ace Transmuter fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Feb 22, 2019 |
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Feb 22, 2019 20:57
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I want to say thanks once again, Agradine, as this has been probably the most I've understood what's happening in the plot to FFT ever. It's an insanely complicated plot, tempered with a lot of very samey character portraits so it's easy to get lost. It doesn't help that much of the background is explained in walls of text at the pub. Can someone give a quick refresher on the two Lions, and who is allied with which so far for me? Am I correct that Wiegraf and his proletariat forces are independent of that rivalry?
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Feb 23, 2019 01:38
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Choco1980 posted:I want to say thanks once again, Agradine, as this has been probably the most I've understood what's happening in the plot to FFT ever. It's an insanely complicated plot, tempered with a lot of very samey character portraits so it's easy to get lost. Okay, so the War of the Lions features two clashing nobles whose banners depict lions. The White Lion is Duke Larg, who we’ve met. Larg’s family is the Beoulves’ liege, and Larg and big brother Dycedarg basically grew up together. Larg is the Queen’s sister, so he technically makes the most sense to serve as Regent to Prince (technically now King) Orinus, who is an infant. Most of the nobility hate the Queen, however, and would like to see the Black Lion, Duke Goltana, who is somewhat distantly related to the late King (I think he’s a cousin). We won’t see Goltana for a while, but when we do he’ll be surrounded by vassals, including this game’s Cid; in contrast to Larg, who’s only ever seen hanging with Dycedarg. Complicating matters is that the King, before Orinus was born, adopted Princess Ovelia, who is technically his half-sister, and named her his heir. Since Goltana’s forces have been casting doubt over Orinus true pedigree, she would be considered the true heir. This would be why Goltana is seeking to control Ovelia, while Larg wants her stashed somewhere safe. And yes, Wiegraf’s little rebellion is pretty much opposed to any nobility, so he’s not on either side. Still geographically speaking, he’s been a much greater thorn in Larg’s side. Though if you hadn’t noticed, he’s not doing so hot. I’ll note that none of this is really that important to know. The most important faction in this still hasn’t quite been introduced yet (we’ll get there in Chapter 2), and the mechanics of the war serve more as backdrop than plot, for the most part.
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Feb 23, 2019 03:51
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The Death Corps / Corpse Brigade are commoners who were survivors of the recent war (Fifty Year War) which left the power vacuum that has inspired the Lion War struggle. The nobles had a better relationship with the commoners during the war (not really explored afaik) but just abandoned them once the war was over. So that’s why some of the commoners joined the Death Corps - for revenge. That’s about the only aspect that I feel might be easy to miss (that wasn’t already covered) that makes them a bit less of an arbitrary anti-nobility gang.
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Feb 23, 2019 07:15
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And on that note, it's time for another High Price of Beauty update! Last time, Cecil became a Paladin, and his Darkness ability was replaced with Cover Sidenote, halfway through this update I really figure out how Cover works. I just basically flag a character in the party as "don't let them get hit with physicals", and that persists as long as I have it turned on, but Cecil can still act outside the covering as well, which is nifty. Anyways, time to go back and see the Elder now that we're successful. Well I'll be. You did it. We're just as surprised as you! uh yeah, I sent them less to help you as to keeping an eye on you... Sorry, we suck... Eh, that's okay, I already knew you sucked. Well now you're a paladin! Where'd you get that sword? Uh, on the mountain. duh. That engraving on it...it's an old Mysidian Legend...  ...well that's not helpful. Anyways, the light on the mountain called me son. What was that about? Heck if I know, I'm just a guy with a beard. Well I guess then all we can do is go take care of Golbez! Why Tellah! It's been ages! We met him on the mountain! He learned meteor while there! Meteor? Heavy. Now I can get revenge for Golbez killing Anna! Revenge? Maaaan, you know that's a bad way to go man. Meteor's just going to kill you too if you use it for that... If I die, I die. Well whatever man. Now with Cecil, you stand a chance at least. Yeah uh, about that. We need to get to Baron and get an airship to fight him with. Right, right, I'll open up the Devil's Road for you. Kids, your job is done, you can go home. Nope. We're in this the whole way now, man! Well I can see no way this will turn out bad for you two. Okay.And so, the "Devil's Road" is unlocked, which is basically a teleport from Mysidia to Baron  And Cecil learns that things have only gotten rougher and weirder in Baron while he was gone, with the King being rougher, a mysterious monk now in his employ, and even a ban on dancing! But before progress is made, the party decides to go do optional content and see how the town of Mist is doing.  Things are pretty grim there, with assumptions that it's the end for these people.  There is some swag to get here in town however. That Dancing Dagger for instance. It's a mid tier dagger on its own, but when used as an item in battle it does significant non-elemental magical damage. Note it's a straight upgrade for Palom. Also on hand to be found is a gold hairpin that is a helmet type armor that does great magical boosts, so I put it on Porom for now, and a Polymorph rod, which is trash, and when used in battle attempts to cast the pig spell. meh. Let's go back to Baron and see about that kung fu man up in the pub. Hey! We know that Kung Fu Man! Yang! You're okay! Am I knowing you? It's me, Cecil! Oh good, I have been looking for you! Seize him men! Whaaaa??? Okay, these are the Baron Guardsmen. They're...situationally a pain. They sometimes will counter physical attacks with mini or pig, but they aren't very difficult. The best plan of action is for Tellah and/or Palom use Break, which is a rename of Stone in this game. It's not a great spell for bosses, but on scrubs it's likely to one hit kill. Such as these fools. Yang, meanwhile, isn't a difficult fight any way you slice it. How it's supposed to go is Cecil hits him around a couple times and his evil wears off. Instead, I go the other route of hitting him hard with everyone else. Because I'm a dick. Looks like Golbez has been hitting you with the whammy, man... Well that sucks. So uh, where am I? We're in Baron ya dingus. Let's get a room and I'll catch you up.Yang gets introduced to the gang and reveals that Cid was imprisoned for not giving up his new supercool airship. Also, Cecil notices that Yang has the kingdom keys hanging about his neck, which means they can sneak into the castle through the Ancient Waterways entrance in town, ie the sewers. Also, they can finally open up Baron's equipment shoppe  Well hey there Cecil! Come for my debut performance then? Uh...performance? Oh...I see. Well, I've enjoyed myself singing on my travels so much that I've changed yet again! Say hello to Jammingway, the Bard! In case it wasn't obvious, this now opens up the music player for the game through our bunny friend. That sure is a sewer level. Yup. We stick around here a while grinding Yang up to respectable levels. Nothing has changed about him ability wise. Palom gets to the point he learns Blizzaga, which is nice. The castle is strangely empty. The party still is able to sleep up in Cecil's bed  Baigan! Don't tell me you're under Golbez' power too! Golbez? I'm loyal to Baron! My men and I tried to go rescue Cid, but Golbez is too strong! Only I survived! Thank goodness! Your sword could really help us out, join us? Sounds good! Let's go see the king and explain what's going on! Huh. That would mean we have six people in our maximum of five party... I smell a rat. Yeah, it stinks almost as bad as this guy's lies! So you HAVE betrayed Baron! Quit talking betrayal! I mean, have you HEARD what Golbez has to offer? Stuff like...THIS! Here's the Baigan fight! He's the point even in the vanilla game where they slap you upside the head and say "yeah, you COULD just brute force your way through, but you're gonna have a bad time." I probably should have used strategy, and I wound up...not. And paying for it. Notice his snake arms? They're separate targets. They can cast sap or entangle (paralyze) on party members. They have low HP but regenerate quickly after both are dead. Baigan himself is weak to ice, and of course bio. But will cast reflect after getting magic on him. He hits hard too. And uh, after the body is dead, the arms cast self-destruct, killing themselves and an individual party member. He beat me up pretty bad but I limped away afterwards back to Cecil's bed to heal up. Before going to see the King and get an answer to all this, I realize that an empty castle means nobody is guarding the treasure rooms, and go a lootin. There's not anything super worthwhile, just like, consumables, but still, yoink. Also, there's a weird barrier keeping us out of the sub-basement, but don't worry, we're not going there for some time still.  Oh, you've become a...paladin, is it? Well that won't do at all! Uh, sir? Oh right, that's supposed to be me. I'm supposed to be that old fool who refused to give up this kingdom...The king of Baron! Ha! I do a pretty good impression! HAHA! What have you done with him?! Would you like to see him? I can arrange that, I'm no wimp like that Scarmiglione. How he ever became an Arch-Fiend I'll never know... Then you must be-  Welcome to the Cagnazzo fight! I learned my lesson with Baigan, and actually use my brain here. It's still a pain of a fight though. The biggest difference between this and the 2D version is that they severely buffed Cagney's speed, making him really annoying. Cagnazzo is a boss that mostly fights through reacting to you. If you hit him with a physical, he tries to counter with a physical attack that can paralyze. Hitting him with magic, he counters with a mute spell. Also he sometimes tries to hit your party members with sleep spells. Normally he's weak to ice spells. However, his other move set is altered slightly in the 3D version. A ring of water will rise up at his feet, and at that point ice spells heal him instead, and thunder spells are needed to dispel the effect. However, if you wait too long to dispell the water, he'll channel into the Tsunami attack, which does massive water based damage to the whole party, and has a good chance of hitting a few of the party members with instant KO attacks. Again, he moves far quicker this version, so you really have to be on the ball to counter his water. I got hit with tsunami at least 3 times in this battle, killing Yang and Palom each time. Once he's damaged enough, he'll hide in his shell and start healing himself. I've seen that you really have to be ready for this to hit him hard or else he'll get back to decent health. Good luck if you're playing hard mode. I have Cecil Cover Porom, and Cura the party each round. Porom basically ends up on Raise duty, and uses Protect and Shell when she can. Tellah is backup magic, throwing raises and thunders and whatnot. Yang I try hard to Focus (he's wearing ice claws) and attack, and Palom I try to Bluff and cast magic when he can. First I throw a Bio which lands and helps the whole time. and Blizzaga when he can. But both he and Yang die a lot as I say. By the time I finally get the second Bluffed Blizzaga off, Cagnazzo finally dies.  You filthy imposter! You got another thing coming if you think you can hold ol' Cid! Why, just wait til I get my hands on you and send you back to Queen Dopplepopolus and I--Aw dang, I'm too late. Hi Cecil! Cid! Cecil you're alright! I like the new outfit! Where's Rosa, she left to find you! Um, Golbez has her. Well that sucks. Did kind of a crappy job protecting her I guess. Stupid Golbez. Steals my airships, steals Rosa... And she's in danger, so if we could hurry to this airship of yours... Who's this Geezer? Who are you calling a geezer, geezer? Me? A geezer?! Yes, yes, you're both pretty. Now we need to hurry to that ship! Okay, okay, this way... Hmm...six party members again    I was bad in life! I'm even worse in death! Come join me! BWAHAHAHA!To our heroes' shock, the doors lock and the walls start closing in on them! Well this sucks.The twins look at each other resolutely and nod in agreement Palom, Porom, what are you doing?! We'll miss you Cecil! It was almost like we had an older brother! What are you two on about?! We won't let you all die like this! Tellah, take care of Cecil for us! BREAK!! They...they turned to stone to stop the walls. Oh right, I've got this...ESUNA!Nothing happens. Because they took the curse willingly, they cannot be cured the narration tells us No...they were only children!! It's not fair! If one of us were to die, it should have been me!! We will avenge them! I swear it! To the Enterprise!! Golbez! You will answer for this!!MEANWHILE  Uh, With regards to that last crystal my lord... Yes, yes, I am aware of the complications in getting it... Actually, I was thinking why don't we make Cecil get it for us? We can use Rosa as our hostage in exchange! Ah yes, good thinking! And when he brings it to us, we'll just kill him anyways! HAHAHA! We're so evil! Yup, they never thought to look UNDER the castle for the ship! As my granny always said, "The darkest place is underneath the candle"! Now let's see what this baby can really do! Wait, there's another ship...flying white flags? Kain. So, you did survive. Where's Rosa?? Heh, if you want to see her alive again, you'll bring me the Earth Crystal from Troia. You better hurry...Kain leaves You heard the man...to Troia. Just kidding. We have a friggin airship now, and can travel the whole world! It can land anywhere there's grass, which opens a huge chunk of the world to us. The Earth Crystal ain't going anywhere, let's go splorin. First, we stop in Baron Town where word traveled fast, and everyone now knows that Cecil is the former black knight and deposed the impostor to the throne. Also they celebrate that Cecil is basically the only Baron royalty still around. The dancer even has Cecil join her in her routine! Before we end this update we have a few other stops too. If we go back to the Ancient Waterway, in the middle of the dungeon is the Tsunami Augment ours for the taking now that Cagnazzo is dead. We're going to save it for a while. Also, let's take a quick look at Cid in the party Cid is a physical fighter. He uses Hammers in battle (and axes) and can equip shields, just like Cid and Kain. He doesn't get magic. Analyze was called Peep in previous versions, and is basically Libra, scanning the enemies. I don't have a use for it with the world of strategy websites. Upgrade is new to the 3D versions, and is a neat little technical skill. For the duration of the battle, Cid can graft a combat item to his hammer, using it in the process, but endowing his hammer with that elemental property. I can see it being useful. Cid is a slobberknocker of a guy, and very quickly gains strength. In other words, he's our tank. We go back to Mysidia to let the Elder know what an idiot he was for putting literal children on the front lines of the battle. He's up in his tower praying. In condolence, he gives us the Dualcast augment, which when equipped lets the owner cast magic twice per turn. And because we equipped the twins with a total of 3 augments between them, he also gives us Cry, Bluff, and two Twincast Augments. I give Bluff and one of the Twincasts to Tellah and the other Twincast to Cecil, and hang on to Cry and Dualcast. Some more info about Twincast now that we have the augment. Anyone equipped with Twincast can cast it with anyone else. Pyroblast or Comet are always possible, but certain character relations can possibly cast other spells. Tellah doesn't have any of these connections, but he's around a while and needs augments. Again, augments linger in NG+ and NG++, so the combinations will increase. Kain twincasting with Cecil or Rosa can cast "Bubble" which doubles the party's max HP. Rydia with either of them can cast "Faith" which increases the party's magic power, "Mystery Character" with either Cecil or Rydia casts "Bravery" which increases physical power of the party. Finally, if Cecil and Rosa twincast, they have a chance of casting ULTIMA. Kinda wish Rosa was around sooner. Yes, that Ultima. Our next stop is this small island village south of Fabul  Welcome to the town of Mythril! So named for their mythril mine, meaning they have really good, and really expensive equipment made out of it. The other thing of note is that the town is populated entirely by minis, frogs, and pigs.  Including this trio who dance for us!  After that, we go to this other small village in the center south area of the world map.  This is the town of Agart. They're a tiny town with a couple landmarks. There's a guy with a telescope looking at the two moons in the sky, and he tells us one is definitely inhabited. Also there's a big well in the center of town. The townspeople claim they descend from dwarves that live deep underground. The shops around here don't have anything very good, but at least they're cheap.  The town dancer does a special dwarf-traditional dance. Unlike other dancers, this one is all twerking. Yes really.  Finally in the Southwest, near a weird giant tower we should pay no attention to is this castle! I'm sure they're friendly!  Actually it's empty. We really aren't supposed to go to Eblan Castle at this point, but tough titties, I'm gonna. There's lots of treasure here, as well as secret passages, and some chests guarded by enemies waaaay out of our current pay rate. Basically the main strategy against them is to defend and let Tellah break the hell out of them. Some of the booty herein includes several elixers, a silver apple (upgrades max hp of a character!) and a wicked sweet sword upgrade for Cecil that has a chance of casting sleep on its target.And that's all the extra stuff we can do for now, so we'll finally go to Troia NEXT TIME!!
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Feb 25, 2019 02:59
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Ivalice Days, Zodiac Nights: Let's Learn Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions! Unit 1- Tier 4 Classes: Geomancer, Dragoon, Summoner, and Orator! : Today we'll be seeing the Tier 4 classes, which is where the two different job trees (physical and magical) begin to differ. It essentially boils down to the fact that the Physical tree has one more Tier 5 class than the Magical tree, and that Physical classes take a bit more effort to unlock.Geomancer is unlocked by Monk level 4, Dragoon by Thief level 4, Summoner by Time Mage level 3, and Orator by Mystic level 3.  Geomancer Move: 4 Jump: 3 Class Evade: 10% Weapons: Swords and Axes Armor: Shields, Hats, Clothes, and Robes Geomancers are a great , completely underrated class. They have high bases stats and great growth in all stats except Speed (which is a bit average), they can equip both Hats and Clothes, which by end-game are easily the best armor types in the game, and they have a skillset that has free, instant, high-range AOE attacks. There are, of course, major weaknesses behind the class as well. For starters, their skillset takes a while to really get going, but at least each individual move is cheap. Second, their weapon selection leaves a lot to be desired; Swords fall of a cliff once Knight Swords become a thing, and Axes are never not garbage. The final issue that Geomancy's damage formula relies on both MA and PA, with MA much more heavily weighted; and to get Geomancer unlocked requires a trip through a set of classes that have probably tanked your MA in favor in of your PA. Much like in Final Fantasy V, Geomancy makes a solid enough secondary skill set for a mage-type if you're having MP problems; the major downside in comparison being the relatively high sunken cost it takes to even just unlock Geomancer, let alone pick up most of the skills for it. There's ways around that which we'll be introduced to early next Chapter, but they're only available for generic soldiers, and we ultimately wont be using those forever. On the other hand, the need for both PA & MA makes it a good class for your main character. Action Skill: Geomancy All Geomancy skills work the same: they have a range of 5 (reminder: most Black Magic has a range of 4) with an AoE of 2 (cross shape, up to 5 targets). They also all have a 25% chance of setting a specific status effect. The damage formula is MA x [(PA/2)+1], which you can see gives MA almost twice the impact of PA on the damage calculations. Some skills also have a element associated, which are impacted by elemental boosting gear and elemental strengths/weaknesses, accordingly. Each skill also has an associated Terrain; in order to use the ability you must be standing on a tile of that Terrain type. Standing on a Terrain you don't have the Geomancy skill for? You can't use Geomancy. This is why it can take a little while to get going. Every skill costs 150 JP. Sinkhole: Terrain: Soil, Wasteland, Road; Status: Immobilize. Soil and Road are somewhat common, so this'll be an early one to pick up. Torrent: Terrain: Canal, River, Lake, Ocean, Waterfall; Status: Toad. Water is fairly common, but it's also something you usually want to avoid standing in. Element: Water Tanglevine: Terrain: Grassland, Underbrush, Vines; Status: Stop. Very common terrain types, very useful status. Usually the one I pick up first. Contortion: Terrain: Gravel, Flagstone, Stone Wall, Earthen Wall, Gravestone; Status: Petrify. Somewhat rare terrain overall, though it's essentially an AOE 25% chance of death. Tremor: Terrain: Stone Outcropping, Basalt; Status: Confuse. Rare terrain, and Confuse isn't as useful as you'd like. Element: Earth Wind Slash: Terrain: Book, Tree, Brick, Bridge, Furnishings, Iron Plate, Moss, Coffin; Effect: Disable. That's a lot of terrain, but none of them are all that common. Disable is nice though when you can get it to stick. Element: Wind Will-o'-the-Wisp: Terrain: Wooden Floor, Carpet, Coffer, Stairs, Wooden Deck; Status: Sleep. Probably the most common indoor Terrain. Element: Fire Quicksand: Terrain: Marsh, Swamp, Poisonous Fen; Status: Doom. Rare terrain, worthless status effect. Element: Water Sandstorm: Terrain: Sand, Stalactite, Salt Flat; Status: Blind. Another rare terrain paired with a terrible status effect. Does not cause techno music to start playing. Element: Wind Snowstorm: Terrain: Snow, Ice; Status: Silence. Situational, but comes up fairly common in one late-game sidequest, though I don't remember many spellcasters being involved there. Element: Ice Wind Blast: Terrain: Roof, Chimney; Status: Slow. This terrain doesn't come up very often, though there's one somewhat difficult battle that's mostly made up of this terrain. Element: Wind Magma Surge: Terrain: Lava, Machinery; Status: KO. Machinery is rare and you can't stand on Lava without one or two specific Movement abilities, neither of which are worth it and also it's very rare. Element: Fire. Reaction Abilities Nature's Wrath (300): Brave% chance to counterattack physical attacks and geomancy with your own geomancy. Geomancy will never hurt the caster, so you don't have to worry about damaging yourself with this (other allies, on the other hand...). In the PvP meta this is generally regarded as one of if not the best Reaction Abilities, and it's hard to dispute that, especially for the cost. Support Abilities Attack Boost (400): Raises physical attack damage by 33%. That's good! It only affects physical attacks, and not any skills the take PA into account. That's bad. The physical equivalent to the Black Mage's Arcane Strength, this is definitely the weaker of the two. Movement Abilities Ignore Terrain (220): Stuff like water doesn't slow down your speed. This is hardly ever worth it. Laval Walking (150): Even more useless than Ignore Terrain, if you can believe it.  Dragoon Move: 3 Jump: 4 Class Evade: 15% Weapons: Polearms Armor: Shields, Helmets, Heavy Armor, & Robes It's... it's a Dragoon. They Jump. What more do you want? Okay, so as you'd imagine they are physical powerhouses but their magical stats are lacking. Of course, since you had to endure several levels of Archer and Thief just to get here, your physical attack might be lacking by this point anyway. At least you might be somewhat ahead of the curve Speed-wise? Other then that... if you're still in this thread you know what a Dragoon does. How does it translate in three dimensions? Well... pretty well, for the most part. Like Geomancy, Jump isn't so much an Action Skill Set as it is just one Skill that you select. Jump's skills, unlike opening up new terrain options to use, instead increase the horizontal and vertical tolerance of the command. The nice thing about this is that they act cumulatively; once you learn Vertical Jump 4, you need to learn Vertical Jump 2 or 3. The typical strategy with this class was to just save your JP for max values (Horizonal & Vertical Jump 8, respectiely), and that's certainly the most efficient route, it's not exactly fun, especially since War of the Lions jacked up the JP costs for the higher level abilities. There's one other downside with Jump; because it's not selected from a sub-menu, you don't have the ability to push right on the D-Pad to check when you're going to land. This isn't a problem for Geomancy because that's an instant skill. Jump... isn't. It's actually somewhat slow, depending on your Speed; it takes (50/Speed) to land, regardless of the distance. This means you're better off aiming for targets with low CT. Action Skill: Jump Horizontal Jump 2/3/4/5/8 (150/350/550/800/1100): This sets the horizontal range in tiles. Generally more important than Vertical Jump, with some exceptions. Vertical Jump 2/3/4/5/6/7/8 (100/250/400/550/700/1000/1500): This sets your vertical tolerance for Jump. Most maps are flat enough that the lower ranges will suffice, but you'll eventually want to save up for Vertical Jump 8. Reaction Abilities Dragonheart (600): Brave % chance to set Reraise in response to a physical attack. This is not a bad defensive reaction for high Brave characters who you'd like to keep alive, but remember that this is only triggers on physical attacks. Support Abilities Equip Polearms (400): Equip Polearms is... not terrible? Unlike Final Fantasy V you can equip both this and Jump on a character with a different class. This being an Ivalice game, one of the most powerful weapons in the game is a spear, and they tend to scale well in general unlike some other weapon sets. I just don't know which classes are that badly in need of a better weapon, outside of Geomancer. Movement Abilities Ignore Height (700): This basically sets your Jump stat to infinity. This is pretty solid, but there are other movement abilities that also let you ignore Jump while providing additional benefits as well.  Summoner Move: 3 Jump: 3 Class Evade: 5% Weapons: Rods & Staffs Armor: Robes & Hats Summoners are pretty fantastic. Their bread & butter summons are surprisingly quick and powerful enough to carry you through most of the game. They come with huge areas of effect that intelligently target (that is, they have friendly fire disabled). Their high level summons are generally too slow to be worth the bother, but that's true of most high level magics in this game. Downsides are of course the low physical stats (including HP) and the high cost of Summons; your basic damage summons start at 24 MP to cast. On the other hand, these cost just as much and do equal damage to the "-aga" tier of Black Mage Spells, but have a much bigger area of effect (the smallest summons can hit up to 13 targets, compared to the typical cross-shaped 5) and cast in nearly half of the time. And ignore allies. They even come with added utility, including healing, defense and status effects. Black Mages are generally only better by dint that sometimes Summoners are overkill. Make sure you have some way of restorying their MP and they'll be your top spellcasters for the entire game. Action Skill: Summon Moogle (110): A healing summon; this is both weaker and more expensive than Cure, but it casts a much wider net and ignores enemies. Where this has most value is as an action that's almost always going to earn you XP and JP in battle, but it can save you in a pinch. Shiva/Ramus/Ifrit (200 each): These are your bread and butter summons. Pick a favorite, slap on the appropriate damage-boosting rod and go to town. These take only 4 clock-ticks to cast, which is impressively fast. Sadly, it tends to go downhill from here. Titan (220): Slightly bigger damage, slightly bigger MP cost, slightly slower cast time. There are times where it'll be your most effective option but probably not often. Golem (500): It's pricey but quick and effective; and it doesn't even need a target; it automatically hits all living allies. This does exactly what you expect it to; block physical damage to your party up to a certain amount. Carbuncle (350): Gives units in the area Reflect. Reflect is wonky as hell in FFT, but if nothing else it makes you immune to magic, and there are battles where that's not nothing. Bahamut (1600): Bahamut your third most powerful summon and also the most expensive to learn. It's also tied with being the slowest, at a Speed of 10, you're going to need to immoboilze enemies to keep them within your spell range. Almost never worth it, but satisfying nonetheless. Odin (900): Less powerful, cheaper Bahamut. There's not much to say; most Summons are just big sources of damage. Marginally faster at a Speed of 12, that's still gonna take nine clock-ticks to fire, which is usually going to be too slow to hit a moving target. Note that this is always just damage in FFT; there's no chance of KO here. Leviathan (860): The last of the three massive range summons you can learn (Bahamut and Odin being the other two), this bad boy is the weaker and also the cheapest, without being any faster than Odin. Also, it's Water elemental! Which is... something, anyway. Salamander (860): Think Leviathan, but with a smaller effect area but everything else being the same. It is Fire elemental, so that's probably more useful (it's much easier to boost Fire damage), but again, this is just too expensive and slow for what it does. Sylph (400): Inflicts Silence. It has a great base success rate (150%) so it can potentially be more useful than Carbuncle in combatting enemy magic. Faerie (400): Moogle+, heals HP with a power somewhere between Cura and Curaga, so it's not quite overkill, at least in fairly dire circumstances. Relatively fast too, firing after only 4 clock ticks. Cyclops (1000): This is the most powerful summon, barely topping Bahamut in both power and MP cost at the effect of one less bit of range (which, it must be stated, is effectively four tiles). It's faster than Bahamut, but not by much, with only a speed of 12. Reaction Abilities Critical: Recover MP (400): Brave % chance to respond to damage that puts you into critical status to recover your MP. There are both better Reaction Abilities and more efficient ways of regaining MP. Support Abilities Halve MP (1000): Cuts your MP costs for spells in half. Again, there are much easier ways to regain MP. Like Chakra. Or Manafont. Movement Abilities None. Because you should be using Manafont. Or Teleport, I guess.  Orator Move: 3 Jump: 3 Class Evade: 5% Innate Skill: Beast Tongue Weapons: Knives, Guns Armor: Hats, Clothes, Robes Orators get a bad rap for a number of reasons. They have low-ish stats and stat growth on the whole, and their action skill set is... wonky, to say the least. But I think they have quite a few benefits. First, I happen to quite like their skill set; it's versatile enough to be a solid support/annoyance skill set. Second, they natively have the ability to equip the weapon I'm keeping in spoiler tags, which can be pretty useful, if for no other reason than their range if not their damage potential. We already saw the damage Archer Mydrede was capable of with Arts of War on range. Action Skill: Speechcraft Entice (100): This recruits an enemy unit. It has a straight 20+MA% chance of working. This is the best way, by the way, of scoring equipment upgrades earlier than you'd normally be allowed to, as random encounter human enemies come equipped based on your current level, and not plot progression. Consider that plot-gated equipment is basically the only protection that the game has against power-leveling. Stall (100): Sets an enemy's CT to 0. Situation at best, and at a 30+MA% isn't accurate enough for what it's designed to do. Praise/Preach (200): Raise target's Brave/Faith by +4. This is the main way of improving a character's Brave permanently (they get one point of permanent gain for every 5 points of temporary gain) and the ONLY way to permanently raise a target's Faith. Useful for if your magic characters' Faith isn't up to snuff. The 50+MA% success rate isn't especially thrilling, however. Intimidate/Enlighten (200/200): Reduces a target's Brave/Faith by -20. That is a solid reduction in magic damage, and a straight 20% drop in reaction chance. Lower a target's Brave low enough and they end up with the best status effect in the game. Condemn (500): Sets the Doom status. At 30+MA% of hitting, that's not terrible for a guaranteed 3-round kill. It might have more applications in the fact that the enemy AI will ignore your characters with the Doom status set. Risky, but it can pay great dividends. Beg (100): Literally you are begging for coins from your enemy. The take is miniscule. Don't bother. Insult (300): Inflicts Berserk on one target, which seems to be to be rather pointless since 90% of the enemies you'd benefit from inflicting Berserk you could just Silence instead, and most of the other 10% are immune. Mimic Darlavon (300): An instant-cast area effect Sleep effect. The success rate seems low (40 +MA%) but I've had pretty good experiences with it in the past. Considering how many enemies you can catch in it, you're bound to knock somebody out. Reaction Abilities Earplug (300): Brave % chance to avoid the effects of Speechcraft. I... I don't know that there are any enemy Mediators in this game. Support Abilities Equip Guns (800): What it says on the tin. Fairly low damage, but long range and reliable. Tame (500): If you attack a monster and knock it into critical range, you immediately recruit it. Probably the easiest way to recruit a monster, given Invite's low success rate, but it hardly merits the Support slot otherwise. Beast Tongue (100): Use Speechcraft against monsters outside of the Orator class. Not really worth it. Ace Transmuter fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Apr 12, 2019 |
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Feb 26, 2019 01:09
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Orator/Mediator may not be the most powerful FFT class but it compensates for that by being Fun As Hell and I almost always have one character beeline towards unlocking it. Recruit/Invite is one of my favorite FFT skills. Looking forward to seeing you show one off.
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Feb 26, 2019 02:20
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Just popping in to say I'm not dead, I've just been going through a crap ton of different things lately so I've been procrastinating on making an update. I've got the next update all recorded, and it's big, encompasing Troia through Zot, but I haven't gotten my screengrabs yet. Seems like it's a lot more grabbing than actually writing. I'll get to it soon, promise. Also the next update after that might take a while because I've hit a point where I need to grind for a super rare drop to progress with the namingway quest after this next update. Hopefully it'll be merciful. Anyways, there's no gettin offa this train we're on!
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Mar 7, 2019 01:01
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Ivalice Days, Zodiac Nights: Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions! Episode 11A: Curse The Lot Of You  The Corpse Brigade is all but ended. All that remains hole up in Ziekdan Fortress, Tietra as their only hostage.  : Along the way I get into a random encounter, which gives me the opportunity to show off a few things. : First, this is what the range of an archer with the high ground looks like. : Doesn't help with the damage at all, but the last battle taught us that ranged units don't necessarily need damage to be dangerous. : This flying eyeball is of course the Ahriman, FF's evolutionary descendant from the FF1's "Eye" monster (which we of course now know was originally the D&D's Beholder). They're weak to Ice, which is another way of saying they're weak to Concessa. It's time to bring this chapter (of the game, of Good Friend's life) to an end.  : I've mentioned before that one of the ways in which the game builds difficulty is by splitting our army up for generally arbitrary reasons. In most cases the best strategy is to get your two parties back together as quickly as possible; as a player you will (usually) always be better at concentrating fire than the AI is.I'll also note that this is one of those battles that doesn't care where you think to put Good Friend. In this case, he'll start two squares ahead of Dawson no matter where I put him.  : Mydrede and Concessa are ideally placed to begin the long march to joining up with Dawson and Good Friend. There's a faster way to them but it's much more dangerous and I want to keep Concessa out of the line of fire as much as possible. Wenlyd rides the bench for this fight.I wonder if I'll regret that.   : Do not think to try my patience! This keep packs such a store of powder as you could scarce imagine! More than enough to deliver the lot of you to the Father's keeping, should your feet lack proper haste! The Order of the Northern Sky and  Good Friend and Delita arrive in time to stop any senseless tragedy.  Reunited at last. : Withdraw at once! I'll not warn you again! I need to take a moment to talk about Zalbaag. Zalbaag is the worst character in the game, in that he is less of a real, imagined character with a consistent personality and set of beliefs and ideology and reputation, and more often than not he is simply a plot device.  He serves whatever role is needed in the scene he's placed in. Nothing he does even faces any consequences; while he often does things that would make other important characters mad at him (all but outright asking Good Friend and Delita to abandon his post; this) but nobody ever brings it up ever again.  Argath fires.  Tietra falls. Everyone is stunned, least of all Gragaroth.    Argath fires again, this time striking Gragaroth.  : Tietra-!  : Two score, mayhap three. A man of Wiegraf's look moves among them! Spoiler: We will never call Zalbaag out for this.   I like to kid that Gragaroth is Gustav 2.0, but he at least gets to play a more pivotal role in all of this. He seems a bit smarter than Gustav too. Curse the lot of these indeed.  Everything has been building up to this moment. Tietra, in her last breath, apologizes to Delita. Tietra, who is perhaps the most blameless character in the game, is dead. By Argath's hand and Zalbaag's command (or at least indifference). When last we saw Zalbaag, he was hanging out with Alma and... Tietra. His sister's best friend. Delita and Tietra were as close to family as any of the Beoulves would have. And this is what their life ends up being worth. Killed to wound a tired man with no one left to run, no army left to defend, no cause left to fight for. I showed off that Tavernmaster rumor earlier for a reason. The Corpse Brigade is done. Wiegraf has fled for the hills. Gragorath is powerless to do anything. He was not going to win anything. Tietra died because she was an inconvenience. For no other reason. And while Argath may have seemed like a fringe class warrior, Zalbaag doesn't bat an eyelash at him killing his sister's best friend out of inconvenience. Everything that Delita will become; kidnapper of the princess, storied hero the Lion War, and every step he takes in-between, all comes back to this moment. The moment in which his sister was killed and he could not stop it. Because they both lacked power.  Delita shoves past Good Friend towards Argath. : You whoreson dog! : It is to be a fight, then? I'm only too happy to oblige!Yes, our final battle of the chapter is against not the Corpse Brigade, but the Order of the Northern Knights. An order we are ostensibly still members of.  Meanwhile, Good Friend is having his own worldview shaken to the core.    Argath whistles, which summons more troops, and the battle is on. Next Time: 
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Mar 7, 2019 21:01
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Ivalice Days, Zodiac Nights: Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions! Episode 11B: When The Pillars Fell No more words. It's time to end this.  Okay, I lied, there's quite a few words in this fight.    : Is it not time you awoke to the fact that we are different from them? This is an important line. I'm not sure how much Good Friend is paying attention, but Delita certainly is. Remember this line for when we learn more and more about how Delita has changed when we return to the present. : That commoner and his sister ought never have been here at all! On the other hand, Argath, like most nobles, doesn't really get the ordeal that the peasantry is currently dealing with. Remember that Ivalice is broke, it's standing army unpaid, and dealing with an unprecedented famine. There's no food and l i t t l e m o n e y. Delita and Tietra are both orphans; had Good Friend's father not taken them in, they'd be living in the streets, starving. Delita's too young to have fought in the Fifty Years War, but it's easy to see him getting swept up in Wiegraf's little rebellion, so he would almost certainly be dead right now. This would leave Tietra alone, starving, and homeless, and potentially suffering even worse fates than that.  : Our goal, as you might have guessed, is to kill Argath. Accomplish that and the fight, and chapter are over. He's easily the sturdiest enemy unit; however. Between the heavy armor and solid shield (19% evasion), he's tough to hit and has a lot of HP to burn. He also has Auto-Potion. Fortunately for us, excellent story/gameplay integration means our coward/bully Argath here has only a 32 Brave, so it's only going to trigger 1/3 of the time.  : Fortunately he's also the least dangerous unit on the map, at least until the Black Mages run out of MP. His fancy crossbow has only an WA of 3, and that power gauntlet is only helping so much. He can cause Blind with it, but that's a minor annoyance at best. It would be a lot more troublesome if he came packing a cape. : Remember the range Dawson had in that last random encounter when he was at the top of the cliff? And you see that building next to us? We can climb it. Good Friend has little use of use to do, so he speed boosts Dawson. : Turns out that wasn't the best plan, as being just a little bit faster than everyone else has rendered his Aim skills nearly useless. : Argath also has a 10% class-evade, so hitting him from the front is never a sure bet. : Auto-Potion automatically uses the weakest potion in your inventory. The player can game this to make for a pretty powerful defensive option, especially once money stops being a concern. The AI is not that fortunate, and is stuck using regular old potions at 30 HP a pop. Still, that turned this into a net 5-damage attack. We might be here a while.: To turn your blade on us is treason! You would turn your cloak and name yourself a traitor to the Order of the Northern Sky?: But - the Order would never forgive what you've done! Argath is not wrong; Zalbaag basically leads the Order, and he just watched Argath murder Tietra without batting an eyelash.  : Argath, as you might imagine, likes to target Delita when he's able to (which usually translates to, when Delita is still alive). : Delita, understandably, reacts likewise. : Mydrede and Concessa started clear on the other side of the map. While there are faster ways to get them to the fight, running them around the back of the fortress is the safest, and most of the early battle strategy involves turtling up on top of the fort while taking out the main threat, which are of course the Black Mages.  : Seen here: a Black Mage wrecking Delita. Ideally he'd eat as much Black Mage MP as possible.  : Yours is a line of champions, of lords among men! To do great deeds is your destiny, and your duty as well. Much is there that cannot be done, save by your hand. It falls to you to see it so - to act where we cannot.I think this line also tends to stick out in regards to Good Friends' character development. He has two very different reactions to it. We've already seen one in the prologue/present; he has abandoned his name and thus his duty and his destiny, serving only as a nameless mercenary living an un-extraordinary life. Considering he's our hero, it's probably not a spoiler to say that he ends up taking the second half of that line to heart before too long.  Right now, however, this is his main concern. : You? A puppet? Don't be absurd! : Long have we danced for House Beoulve, that it might reign on history's stage. A dance that serves our ends, to be sure. The Beoulve name is our shield, behind whose aegis we've long thrived. It is the way of things! People are used, and use others in turn. How do you think you came to be where you are? How naive is Good Friend still? Argath is telling him to check his privilege. Argath.  This battle is really setting up a lot for the rest of the game, particularly the character development and motivations of our two main leads. This theme around using others as puppets is going to come up often in the future. : What do you mean?That's... that's not an inspiring response to that. Fortunately, because Delita is in critical condition Good Friend can immediately demonstrate his care for his friend's wellbeing.   : Delita...Delita is done with the whole lot of them. Even his best friend, Good Friend. I suspect that his brothers would be next on the list.  : AI pathfinding, folx. These two knights are taking the bee-line to Good Friend, which is going to leave them stranded on a bridge and sitting ducks for Concessa's AOE damage. : That on the other hand is troubling. Good Friend is the only one here packing a revive ability. Argath isn't too difficult to rush down with Concessa still alive, but I'd prefer that to be a last resort.  : Aim+4 does the trick, though Aim+3 would have worked well also. Aim+1 just doesn't have enough punch, however. Still, this goes to show how much Aim can boost damage; it's just a bit too situational when those moments actually come up. In any case, Aim is still too slow, so I just go with a regular attack and hope for a crit, which I don't get.: Do not pretend at ignorance.  We'd get slightly different dialogue if we chose to not save Argath way back when, mostly him saying he knows we understand because we put our orders ahead of saving him. Good Friend's comeback in that instance amounts to "I-", which, you know, is the game's way of making you feel lovely for proving Argath's point.  Of course Argath is going to try to make us feel bad anyway, but it doesn't land nearly as well.  Now Argath taunts Delita for essentially winning his one-on-two fight. : No mere commoner can leave his mark on history! You've not the power!Previously, on Ivalice Days, Zodiac Nights: agradine posted:
  Delita is, at the very least, not taking Argath's poo poo-talking laying down. : Laughter, then? Be not so hasty, Delita! You'll hear that soon enough, when you are on your way to your dear sister's side!: I'll not be told what I will do, or when! Not by you, nor by any other!I usually try to get really important lines in screenshots, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. Still, this is another one of those "remember this" lines. You can't really question Delita's courage here.  Only his results.  : With Wenlyd benched, Concessa's Moogle is the bulk of our healing. Good Friend also has Chakra, so he should be able to recover well from that nasty attack. : Dawson finishes what we started. Again, look at that range. : Of course, there's still one more left alive, and they're going to hurt us badly until we can stop her. : Regenerate triggers. If you don't recall, this is a White Mage reaction command, and it's going to do wonders for Concessa's survivability. : Good Friend pulling out a Chakra, which remember heals HP and MP. This makes Good Friend Concessa's best friend. : Mydrede puts an end to that threat, and we should have clear sailing for the rest of the battle. : If you ever wanted to know if the Archer ever had an actual purpose beyond unlocking better classes, well, it's this battle. Dawson is putting in work today. : Aura Bolt is somewhat less impressive in this context. : Speeding up the murder machine, everything is going as planned. So much so that I lighten up on taking screenshots. Until... well... : The plan goes awry. Concessa's corpse is inconveniently placed on lone 1 height tail, surrounded by various 0 and 0.5 heights. I mentioned earlier that Good Friend is the only one with a revive ability, in this case Revive, from the Monk skill set. And what is Revive's vertical tolerance? : Right. We're now on the time clock. But this should be easy shouldn't it? agradine posted:
: Yeah, this isn't good. : Good Friend is too far away to contribute to Argath slaughter, so the best he can do is protect Dawson and take down some Knights while he can. : Mydrede attacks Argath and immediately rushes to pick up this crystal before Argath can. The AI doesn't care about learning abilities and will always go with the full HP/MP restore. That would be a bad thing. : Son of a bitch! : That's better. : God damnit! : Good Friend has abandoned Dawson to try to help whittle down Argath; the lone living Knight can't kill Dawson fast enough to make a difference anyway. : Please don't Auto-Potion, please don't Auto-Potion... : Arrrrrrrrgh : You've got to be kidding me! :   : At least Good Friend getting involved is helping. : Here we go. Dawson has missed two of the last three "72%" hits, and Argath pulled three "32%" Auto-Potions in a row, but I'm still going to get out of this with Concessa inta-. :   : : There was a joke awhile back about how sometimes FFT's percentages are a joke. It's usually in reference to Raise's hit rate, but this battle was another prime example. At the point in which Concessa dropped, Dawson missed three attacks, and Argath triggered three auto-potions in a row. If any of those attacks had hit, or if any of those auto-potions hadn't triggered, he wouldn't have had the HP to survive Mydrede or Good Friends' attacks. The odds of all of those breaking Argath's way is less than 0.2%I mean if FFT's RNG were truly random, anyway. So we try this again.  : Ouch. : Ouch! : You know what, gently caress it. There are two general ways to approach this fight; turtle up and take out Argath's support so you can slowly whittle down his HP in peace. The other approach... : ...is Shiva with an Ice Rod in a snow storm. gently caress you Argath, and the chocobo you rode in on. I'm finally done with your bullshit. Mostly.  Click the above image to watch the video; thanks again to Ugato for the uploads! Good Friend approaches Delita on the suddenly much larger bridge. Delita is standing over the dead body of his sister. : I'm sorry, Delita.Something explodes in the distance. It seems Gragaroth's threat about the gunpowder stores was not idle. : What was that?Smoke is billowing from a window in the fortress above. : Delita! We must away!Another explosion; this one knocks Good Friend to his feet. He looks up to see Delita holding his sister's body, standing in the flames.  : Delita! Delita!The flames engulf Delita as the screen fades to black.  We cut to Good Friend, limping through the snow.  The screen cuts to black. : I turned, and walked away.Next Time  We have to go rescue the princess from our long lost best friend. Ace Transmuter fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Mar 8, 2019 |
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Mar 8, 2019 21:14
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: His is a heroism of great renown - a story familiar to all who dwell within our land.
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You know, I've never thought about Zalbaag that way. But I guess I'd have to agree that few of his actions say much about who he is. Actually, I'd like to know more about quite a few characters in Tactics.
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Mar 17, 2019 10:58
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DeTosh posted:You know, I've never thought about Zalbaag that way. But I guess I'd have to agree that few of his actions say much about who he is. Actually, I'd like to know more about quite a few characters in Tactics. My argument, at least for Zalbaag, is that most of his actions actually say quite a bit about who he is, they just all seem so drat incongruous. Like, we know by now that Dycedarg can't really be trusted, though we aren't sure exactly to what extent that is. Zalbaag, though? We first meet him when he's spending time with Alma and Tietra. He does the cool big bro thing and wink wink nudge nudges our way to glory, and I don't see any other reason, behind his general apathy at Tietra's death in this scene, to agree with the interpretation that he was manipulating us. We don't see a ton more of Zalbaag after this (he's certainly not as central to the plot as Dycedarg is) but every time we do see him we're pretty squarely on his side. So the question becomes: why was it even necessary to include Zalbaag in that scene? From a thematic perspective he's filling a role that would be much better suited to Dycedarg, but of course Zalbaag is the already the established battlefield commander for the Order, so it makes sense that he's there from a plot perspective, but then... why have him give the order? Why have his sister's best friend killed to stop one measly rebel? And why say nothing about it? Was this scene composed before they had even thought to make him a more sympathetic character later in the plot? If so, why not remove him? Argath would have had no problem making that call on his own. And he's already a stand-in for the worst of the class warfare. What does Zalbaag's presence say? Consider Zalbaag when we eventually revisit his character arc much later in the story, and why he's presented the way he is presented here. Is there a question being asked here, whether intentionally or not, about the nature of the nobility and their view of the common people? If Zalbaag is one of the best nobles we deal with (and trust me, he is), what does it say that even a "good guy" like Zalbaag can so callously throw away a commoner's life like that? Is he a "good guy" at all, even though we do later work together? Or is the nature of Ivalice's class system so fundamentally broken that even Zalbaag, one of the "good guys", can't see the value in Tietra's life? And how do the answers to these questions color the lenses through which we will later judge Good Friend's and Delita's actions?
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Mar 22, 2019 22:48
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Also, an update: life has been pretty rough for me this month, so I'm not sure how soon it'll be before I'm able to put the next update together. In the mean time I'll try to create some sort of index for this LP; this has been a fairly long one and we're, at best, maybe 20-25% through the game, and it might be nice to have a handy link to past episodes. With any luck I'll be able to squeeze one more update in before the end of the month.
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Mar 22, 2019 22:50
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In further bummer news, I have to say this: I'm burning out. I've always been enthusiastic for this train we're on, but lately the work in actually making the LP has just been that--work. I still love the games, and playing them, but man am I just not into making my updates anymore. I'm not sure where that leaves me for the future of things. I'm definitely open to suggestions from you guys, but I'm scared I'm finally getting offa the train after all. I'd do streams again, but I'm just completely uninteresting and without any co-pilots to keep things moving, plus having no real schedule to speak of, I'm not exactly a streamer type. I never really wanted to come to this, I had dreams of going the whole route. Including surprises for you all. Like, after 4, I'd be doing Interlude followed by After Years, as I'd always had in my head that self contained franchises go in story order. Then I was going to do SaGa 3's DS remake, which actually looks a lot like the SaGa2 DS game, but has wildly different gimmicks. Then I was going to see if the thread wanted me to run through Mystic Quest, as our absent leaders never finished it, then I was going to get real ugly and do the steam version of 5. Then as a surprise I was planning on going over the Legend of the Crystals 4-part anime OVA, which takes place in the far future of 5's world, starring the descendants of the heroes of 5 (including the ghost of old Mid guiding them!). Then the Ugly version of 6. That would have been the limit of my original scope of the project, and wasn't sure what came next. I mean, there's the complete crisis set of media for FF7, spanning from the Japan only mobile game where you play as the turks, through to Dirge of Cerberus, including prose and movies, and then there's an explosion of spin-offs in the ps1 era. I have no idea what my plan was in all that. But the point was, I had ambition. And now I'm kind of burnt out. Maybe it's because this thread has gotten so quiet for so long without Ryan and Claire keeping things moving and exciting. Maybe it's my own poor showing. I don't know. I'm not leaving the thread, and I'd like to still like, play and beat all the games as time goes on, but I don't know what to do right now. I'm listening if you guys have any ideas.
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Mar 23, 2019 19:50
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I know the feeling, you guys. There's nothing wrong with taking a break and jumping back into things when you're able to, or have figured out what you want to do next. And I'd like to make a suggestion, but I don't want to bring up a game that would be a chore to play (for example, any variation on FF2). I'll think about it.
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Mar 23, 2019 22:56
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I'll admit to having considered, at times, starting a separate Ivalice mega-thread if I managed to get through War of the Lions without this thread really re-starting. Even now... I had plans for audience participation later on (I eventually want the thread to tell me which NPCs they'd like me to use, and how you'd like me to build them) but I worry that how little that's going to be. I still would love to keep the hope alive, and I don't intend on parking my LP anywhere else for the immediate future. And I definitely don't intend the next few chapters to take up to 9 months to finish (my goal is to reach Chapter 4 by October). I'll also promise to engage more with your own LPs, Choco; you're definitely still doing great work, and I'd hate to see you discouraged. But our mantra this past year or so, even moreso than the bit about trains and the question of our ability to alight, has been "take the time you need."
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Mar 25, 2019 17:41
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Ivalice Days, Zodiac Nights: Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions! Episode 12: Ambush at Dorter v 2.0 We pick back up at the present. I mean, the present within the framing device. So still the past. You know what I mean.   : ...I think this is meant to convey Good Friend telling them... well... everything we just witnessed in Chapter 1. Also, a new chapter means a new Good Friend portrait! This one'll last us until Chapter 4. : You mean to give chase?  : What else? I will not return to the Crown in shame!: Well, you'll have no help from us! Our agreement said naught of this!: I would not accept your help if you offered it! A true knight is all too eager to set right what he has let go amiss. The Lionsguard will serve the king's justice. Lavian, Alicia. We leave at once!I'll be honest, I missed these guys. I sure hope these two crazy kids are able to work things out.  Elder Simon comes limping it. You know, I don't recall if they actually spoke his name at all in the prologue. He's another one of those characters who will be important much later (™)  : The Princess..! What of the princess?: She is taken. I am sorry. But you may put your fears to rest. We go to rescue her!: No. No, milady, you mustn't! You would only throw your own life away.: Your worry will find no purchase with me. A knight is oathbound to render aid!Much like Claire, I love Agrias. She's just so utterly sincere, it almost borders on naivety. But at this point, at least, she serves as a good role model for Good Friend. Do note that Gaffgarion is also trying to play this role somewhat; they're kind of like the angel and devil on Good Friend's shoulder.  : Nonsense, Ramza! This is no concern of ours!: I must go! I must know if it's truly him!: The boy, eh?Good Friend nods, and Gaffgarion takes a few steps away.  Looks like he's sticking it with us as well. And we're off!  There's a lot of subtlety going on here in regards to who exactly is The Manipulative and who is The Subservient at any given moment throughout this chapter. In some cases we won't know the true story until well into Chapter 4.   : Ladd, Alicia and Lavian all join. They're fairly bog-standard generics all told, and I won't be using them. Ladd will probably need to be kicked out to make room for more interesting characters. In the original version you could do this with Alicia and Lavian as well. In WotL there's an extra cutscene with Agrias and them if you keep them around for long enough. It nets you a very good (borderline broken) accessory, so it's worth keeping them around.  : Agrias is a Holy Knight, and her skillset, Holy Sword, is very good. Unfortunately, her PA is pretty terrible, and never gets much better. This really just has the effect of making her a worthy addition to the team rather than a walking god like some later character who'll remain nameless for now. All of her abilities are at range, are free and instant-use, apply some nice status effects, and most of them are AOE of various flavors. : Characters' unique classes replace the Squire on their class list, so they're forever locked out of Stone or Tackle. That said, this only ends up replacing the action skill, so they can still learn JP Boost and, most importantly, Equip Axes. : Agrias sports a couple of levels in White Mage also, which gives her a nice support skill set to use. : Gaffgarion is a Fell Knight. It has a meager skillset but it doesn't need much to be dangerous. Shadowblade is an HP absorb at range that does a lot of damage, and makes him very, very tanky. The downside to these two characters is that they need to have swords or knightswords equipped to use them. Remember how we needed to break Wiegraf's sword way back at Fovoham? Agrias and Gaffgarion will be similarly negatively effected.Duskblade absorbs MP, which is pretty pointless. Gaffgarion finds that dead mages rout easier.  Good Friend abandoned his family name and turned his back on his brothers in order to... join a mercenary company in the employ of his brother. He means well, honestly.  There's that Order of the Southern Sky. These were called Nanten in the vanilla version, and are Goltana's version of the Order of the Northern Sky (nee Hokuten). Delita took his teenage rebellion a little more seriously and actually switched sides in the war.  Ovelia may be adopted royalty but she's also actual royalty as well. As Duke Larg is her ward, that put him on a pretty clear path to the throne (or at least the power behind it). Unfortunately for Ovelia, Queen Louveria managed to pop out a healthy son which Larg could serve as ward to for a considerable amount of time, leaving Ovelia superfluous at best and a loose end at worst. She's seemingly destined to remain a pawn, but for whom?  Queen Louveria is continuing to be a badass and getting work done off-screen, and remains the most important and fascinating character we will never meet.  In some ways, Gaffgarion was another victim of the war; cast aside by the Order of the Southern Sky when the country no longer needed a man who would do what needed to be done. The main difference is that he had a unique set of skills and a reputation to precede him. It's no wonder that he's now offering his services to his former Order's rivals.  It says a lot about Agrias that she was chosen for such an important task at such an early age. Of course, this being Ivalice, it's entirely possible (if not probable) that that actually says more about the people who dispatched her in the first place.  The map so far. Orbonne Monastery, where we're standing, is located just south of Dorter Trade City, our old friend. I'm sure nothing bad will happen to us this time. J/k it's a battle.  I actually forgot that we see this guy this early in the game. He's yet another one of those characters who will be important much later (™)  Okay, so somebody for some reason is hiring somebody else to kill... somebody else... else. Got it.  : Mayhap you forget the ease with which men are branded heretics. : Threats, is it? A thousand, then.: Seven hundred. I can offer no more.: Done. Let it never be said that I was aught but a pious man. Good Friend and his friends arrive. : Hmph. No sooner speak the devil's name, than he doth appear. You've work to do. Best be about it.In case you were still confused, the somebody else else is us, and the somebody else is some nameless goons we'll be mowing down.  The knight? Well, he'll have to wait.  Have I gushed about the incidental one-off spritework enough? Dude literally takes his hat off and throws it on the ground. They animated all of that. For this one scene. For this completely unimportant character. I unfortunately didn't capture it, but then he, hat still off, whistles, signalling his buddies to arrive.  : If you'd not fight, the road home lies behind you.  Oh I missed this. : This is a minor fight, so there won't be many screenshots (nor for the next one). This one can be a bit dangerous, but it doesn't take too long for Guest Agrias and Guest Gaffgarion to take control of the battle. Our foes, two thieves, two archers, and two black mages, aren't too dangerous. Take out the black mages quick enough and the clean up is relatively easy.Note my percentage to hit. That Thief isn't protecting his face for a reason; he's using the Defend ability, which paired with the Thief's naturally high class dodge rate is making him pretty hard to hit.   : But not impossible. And yes, this dude keeps his unique Male Thief portrait for the battle.  : As you can see, things are about to take a turn. : Ow. : Ow.  : Mogri heals some of the damage, and Chakra covers the rest as I try to maneuver Good Friend around to target those black mages. : The map is short enough that Mydrede's low Move isn't a huge problem. : Good Friend can only get this wounded thief from the front, where he's going to be hard to hit. So why is my hit chance 100%? : Meet Cyclone. The damage is variable but that thief was weak enough that it didn't matter. : Mydrede mopping up. I'll get to show off Agrias and Gaffgarion more in future battles.  : Her captors have but one place to go. The impenetrable walls of Fort Besselat.: Then we must lose not time. : Battle Trophies. Not sure why I captured this; there's nothing particularly valuable here. Our path becomes clear. Next Time:  We begin our long trek to Fort Besselat.
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Apr 5, 2019 20:18
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Oh, neat, side-by-side Ovelia and Lugeria bios. That will be useful for something I'll bring up later. Gaff was also Eastern Sky, not Southern. Aside from mention in his bio they're otherwise not mentioned so it's real easy to overlook that.
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Apr 5, 2019 20:24
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Choco1980 posted:
Thanks for helping to keep things going. I haven't really said anything in a long time, but I've been reading! Also, hope Ryan's doing alright, after reading about all the goings on at epic. https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/23/18507750/fortnite-work-crunch-epic-games
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Apr 23, 2019 22:06
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Ambitious Spider posted:Thanks for helping to keep things going. I haven't really said anything in a long time, but I've been reading! Also, hope Ryan's doing alright, after reading about all the goings on at epic. Yeah I saw Jim Sterling did a video and all I could think about is Ryan being worked to death instead of spending time with Claire and the rest of us good friends 
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Apr 24, 2019 13:25
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Yeah, my heart goes out to Ryan. Wishing only the best for all of the Good Friends. Both school and work have me stretched thin for a while; I'm going to try to get at least one or two more Let's Learn FFT segments in (the rest of the jobs and propositions) in the next few weeks but that's probably all I'll be able to manage until around mid-May, when my schedule should open up a bit more. I actually recently caught up to where I was when I first started this LP, and I was excited to pick the game back up and actually play it for a bit!
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Apr 24, 2019 16:41
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Good to hear. I'm looking forward to more of this.
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Apr 28, 2019 01:41
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So in an attempt to bump the thread without bumping... The other FFT thread mentioned there's a hack to implement War of the Lions content in the PSX version. Have not gotten far enough to see if this is works well besides the attract mode and intro CGI FMV being changed. All I can say is that it remains true to form and Algus continues to be a little poo poo. http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=hrdiovfhm2583vovifn7u5glh6&topic=12313.0
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Oct 6, 2019 23:54
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