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The Bad Job Teardown: Scholar, Flintlock, Arcanist, Chocobo Knight (Job Roundup #11) What makes a good job? In my opinion, there's four criteria. Useful abilities. "Hit the target for massive damage" is useful. "Hit the fours squares around you for half damage" is situational at best. "May harm allies" is not useful at all. Action Economy. In order to succeed, you must get the most out of every turn. A Double Cast Blood Price Summoner can hit multiple targets with two powerful spells in one action. They can do this every turn and heal themselves at the same time. Very efficient! A good job will give you the tools to use every turn to the fullest. Ease of use. How quickly and easily can a unit start making an impact? The Summoner above needs Double Cast, Blood Price, an elemental-absorbing item and a spell of that element. That's a lot to gather for one unit. Other units may be hard to use in-battle. For example, Illusionists have powerful but very expensive spells, and they require support to be maximally useful. Good stats. At the very least, the stat growths should support the unit's abilities, e.g. high magick growths for a mage. Good speed is a major plus. The four jobs discussed in this post fail several of these criteria. --- Scholar  Races: Nu Mou Locked By: 1 Sage + 1 Time Mage + "Treasured Tomes" quest Unlocks: Nothing Equipment: - Weapons: Tomes - Armor: Light Armor Growths: Top-tier W.ATK, great speed, average everything else. There's an argument to be made that the game designers don't really like Nu Mou. Exhibit A: This job. One of the two new Nu Mou jobs, Scholar's gimmick is inflicting damage on every unit on the battlefield. Yes, every unit, including friendlies. Some people like to use them as a clan-wide healer, since every job can equip at least one item that will absorb all damage of a particular element. They're one of the few jobs that can deal Dark damage, which is a rare but useful element. Two of their abilities are chock-full of flavor: Mad Scientist inflicts a random status ailment, while Force gives you a random buff. Natural Selection deals damage to all enemies of the same race, which can be useful in certain battles, though it doesn't work on monsters. And that's all they really have going for them! Outfitting your clan to absorb your Scholar's spells locks you into a single elemental damage type, which is never a great idea. Of course, you also need to have all the gear necessary to absorb the damage, which can be difficult until late in the game. At 28 mana each, Scholar's abilities are as expensive as an Illusionist's, though they deal every-so-slightly more damage. Their other spells aren't much better: Study reveals enemy loot tables (useless), and the Spellbound passive prevents buffs and debuffs from being removed from the unit (double-edged sword). It's just all so underwhelming and hard to use. By the way, Exhibit B: Those stat growths. +10 W.ATK on a magick job is useless. Scholar has exactly the same stats as the Morpher job from FFTA, which seems to have been removed wholesale and replaced with Scholar. Scholar is possibly the least worst of the jobs in this roundup. Their action economy is quite good and their abilities can be useful, but these both depend on setting up the rest of your clan. --- Flintlock  Races: Moogle Locked By: 2 Fusilier + 2 Tinker + "Of Kupos and Cannons" quest Unlocks: Nothing Equipment: - Weapons: Hand Cannons - Armor: Light Armor Growths: Average everything. Bleh. Flintlocks are the new ranged Moogle job. They wield the new Hand Cannon weapon type, and boy do they not live up to how awesome "Hand Cannon" should be. Conceptually, Flintlocks are support Fusiliers. Their abilities can restore MP, heal, cure statuses, grant Protect, Regen or Shell, and even teleport targets around the battlefield! Plus their passive ability Charged Attacks let them use MP to power up their attacks. Neat, right? There's a catch: every one of those abilities consumes the Primed buff, which is granted by the "Prime" ability. Flintlocks can at best use one of their powerful abilities every other turn. Those abilities are all single-target, so there's no efficiency to the job at all. Couple that with underwhelming stat growths and you're looking at an overall bad job. Their saving graces are the huge range on their Hand Cannons, letting them make good use of Ultima. They also work well with Fusilier as their secondary ability set. That's not enough to make them worth using. Oh, and since Primed is a buff, it can be stripped away or even outlawed. Fun. --- Arcanist  Races: Nu Mou Locked by: 2 Time Mage and "Nu Mou Nobles" quest Unlocks: Nothing, thankfully Equipment: - Weapons: Rods - Armor: Light Armor, Robes Growths: Highest MP growth in the game. Slowest speed in the game. At or below average for everything else. It's hard to say exactly which is the worst job in FFTA2, but Arcanist is a strong contender. First, the stat growths: Literally the lowest speed in the game, tied with the Bangaa Templar. +8 M.POW and +7 M.RES for a race that has 3 jobs with 10 or higher in both those stats. Sure, +8 MP is the highest in the game, but with how MP works, that's next to useless. Below average in everything else is just icing on the cake. 34% speed growth, holy poo poo. Alright, maybe the spells can salvage this. Drain and Syphon steal HP and MP respectively and restore HP, giving the Arcanist a bit of sustain. Wait, why doesn't Syphon restore MP? That would be really useful! Um, what's next. Gravity and Graviga do 25% and 50% respectively of the target's current HP, which aren't too bad and were stolen from Time Mage. Death is an instant KO, which means it has abysmal accuracy, but OK, Time Mage's Stop could help there. Too bad bosses tend to be immune to it. Also, all of these spells cost at least 12 MP, so you'd better grab Half MP from Illusionist if you want to use them at all. Arcanist's passive is Pierce, which ignores Reflect, which I think one enemy in the whole game has. MP Shield, Arcanist's R-ability, means you'll never have enough MP on your turn if you get hit. OK, what's left? Ah yes, Level 3 Dark, Level 5 Haste and Level ? S Flare, the Three Musketeers of lovely Gimmick Spells. Level 3 Dark and Level 5 Haste (which cost only 8 MP each!) target units whose levels are multiples of 3 or 5, while Level ? S(hadow) Flare deals damage to anyone whose level has the same last digit as yours. By the way, the level cap is 99, so at that point Haste won't ever target you while Level 3 Dark always will. To recap: Hard to use, likely to harm allies, terrible stat growths, only regularly-usable spells might not target anything, only good spells were stolen from a much better job. --- Chocobo Knight  Races: Moogle Locked By: 2 Animist + "Popocho's Chocobo's" quest Unlocks: Nothing Equipment: - Weapons: All non-ranged weapons - Armor: Light Armor Growths: Average or below average in everything, except for 99% Speed. Chocobo Knight is new melee moogle job, and in my opinion wins the "Most Gimmick" award. You see, Chocobo Knights don't learn any abilities. Instead, they have chocobos. In some battles, you'll fight against chocobos. Weaken one, and your Chocobo Knight will be able to mount it. Every chocobo knows Choco Cure, Choco Barrier (grants Shell + Protect) and Choco Beak (a basic attack). But you can find more than just regular yellow ones! For example, black chocobos can fly and cast Choco Flame, a fire element attack that ignores the target's defenses. There's five different chocobos, besides the regular yellow: green, brown, red, black and white. Green, Brown and White are defensive/support builds, while Black and Red are offensively built. Let me lay this out more clearly: Every chocobo knows three basic abilities, and colorful ones have an additional ability. Chocobo knights have no other abilities. When riding a chocobo, they can't do anything but basic attacks and the chocobo's three or four abilities. Secondary ability sets are only available if the moogle is not riding a chocobo. They also gain the chocobo's innate weaknesses to Water, Lightning and Holy damage. If the unit is slain or petrified, the chocobo runs away. There's no way to switch chocobos without losing the one you're riding. The only upsides to Chocobo Knight is the 99% Speed growth and being able to equip any melee weapon. Solumin fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Dec 18, 2018 |
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Dec 8, 2017 04:10
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The worst part of the Arcanist is how it retroactively makes other Nu-Mou jobs worse like Time Mage by stealing their abilities. It seems like an easy fix to make them somewhat worthwhile would be to give them blood price. It makes sense thematically and seems like it was something they intended to include since they gave that one NPC blood price.
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Dec 8, 2017 06:14
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You forgot exhibit C on "Do the devs hate Nu Mou?" question: Morpher. They took one of the races not best but coolest and most unique jobs away. Instead we got Scholar, Arcanist and theoretically a cut grenadier. Instead of a Nu-Mou who can become any monster, even a loving dragon, we have a moogle who can...become a chocobo if you go through a bunch of BS. The sad thing is that Chocobo Knight would have actually been legit awesome if they learned the chocobo skills from the bird they were riding. Then you'd have an adorable but unique take on the Blue Mage. Yes they'd be limited to bird spells, but the birds actually have a really nice if somewhat thin skill set if you mash them together. As is, the Chocobo Knight's just good for filling out a line of quests Popocho gives you. Also recruitment if you want that 99% speed. Alkydere fucked around with this message at 07:19 on Dec 8, 2017 |
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Dec 8, 2017 07:16
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Alkydere posted:You forgot exhibit C on "Do the devs hate Nu Mou?" question: Morpher. They took one of the races not best but coolest and most unique jobs away. Instead we got Scholar, In particular, this is a much more solid case for Scholar being a last minute addition than the dummied Transmuter job is. That's not where they got their stats. Scholar's growths are more or less stolen straight from what Morpher's growths were, with the natural system tweaks for the different speed system in both games. Scholar is literally what we got instead of Morpher, one-to-one. Arcanist is a bad job, but at least it isn't a highly visible slapdash bandage on an overpowered job (one that would only get more powerful in the new MP system, notably). Hell, it might not have even been a balance thing, but the fact that the method for gaining Souls in FFTA was so goddamn convoluted and unenjoyable. It was the Gau of FFTA. In exchange, Scholars are the Crusader/FF6 Meltdown of FFTA2. Enjoy eating that delicious damage with your enemies. Alkydere posted:As is, the Chocobo Knight's just good for filling out a line of quests Popocho gives you. Also recruitment if you want that 99% speed. The minmax rule of thumb is: recruit jugglers/time mages as Chocobo Knights, recruit any other unit as Mog Knights. (If for some reason you want an Animist or Black Mage other than letting Hurdy subclass into them, recruit a Time Mage.) Wait, what's that? You don't actually unlock the recruit spot for chocobo knights and mog knights directly until two missions away from the end credits? Welp! Sucks to like moogles, too, I guess. KataraniSword fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Dec 8, 2017 |
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Dec 8, 2017 19:02
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Morpher is another one of those things I just never used. The mechanic in FFTA was kind of a pain! Anyway, you're right, I conflated the missing job with the scholar's weird stat growths. I really would love to see what they were thinking of doing with Transmuter.
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Dec 9, 2017 19:12
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Update 15: Pirate Rescue! In This Update: - We're still a little under-leveled. - They're sky pirates, not sky assassins. - I had to cut this update in half. --- Welcome back! Last time, we unlocked a whole bunch of new jobs. We also found out a certain Baron Beltorey had been assaulted, and the sky pirates Vaan and Penelo are the prime suspects. Samuel doesn't believe those two could do it, and it falls to Clan Sawyer to see if they're innocent. But first, let's recruit our last clan member. ---  Viera Assassin was an option in both polls, but we couldn't recruit one directly until now. I mean, probably. It's hard to say when particular jobs unlock. No one's really checked.  Would be nice if we could get to the Clan Mates location without being assaulted.   It's the same Fey Mischief battle we saw last time. These monster battles scale up with our clan, making them useful sources of XP. And 99 CP is nothing to sneeze at!  Anyway, Clan Mates. Which jobs you can hire is gated by your story progression. Of course, you don't know this beforehand, so you can work your way through the quiz only to be rejected at the last minute.  Answering BAAA nets us an assassin.  Look at those stats! 86 Speed is incredible. The big reason I recruited Jalia now is that we will be swiftly passing level 30. However, the level of recruits is capped at 30. This game does not make it easy to train low-level units, so it's important to pick up any units you want before your clan's average level rises too far above level 30.  We now have a pretty full cornucopia of units. I'll be able to show off any combination of jobs, assuming I have the equipment and AP to master the needed abilities.  Lian is our first unit to have mastered a job! He's learned every A-Ability that Bishop has to offer, and the job now shows up as "Mastered" in the list. (He also knows all the R- and P-abilities, but those don't count towards mastery.) Mastery doesn't mean anything important, besides letting you know the unit is done with that job's abilities.  I want to make him a Trickster, since he could really use the Speed and M.POW growths, but first he needs a couple Warrior abilities. ---  The next story quest, "Wanted: Sky Pirate Vaan", is rank 32. That means we'll see about five enemies who are around level 27 - 28. We're all around level 23, and that's enough to really make a difference in the damage we deal and take.  Time for another quick round of sidequests. I grab a bunch of level 24 and 25 ones, since that's exactly at our power level. ---  Wanted missions are usually good fun.    This one is themed, as a few others are. Clan Gaitsnipe is a group of ranged damage experts, and we aren't allowed to fight from range ourselves.   Looks like all his chickens came home to roost.   ---  Our next quest takes us to the Galerria Deep for a geological survey.    Which really means a battle.  Lenolia's switched to Green Mage. She's picked up a couple Summons, but she really needs some speed.  Our actual mission is to investigate all the glowy spots on the floor. Eradicating the monsters is just a bonus.  Gria are awesome because they can fly, letting them ignore terrain and enemies. It makes missions like this somewhat faster.  ---  We head up to the Rupie Mountains next.    This law is either the easiest you'll face or a complete bastard, depending on when you take the quest.  Fortunately, everyone on this team is exactly level 24, which doesn't violate the law.   On the left is Adelle's movement range. Zoe's is on the right. Again, flying units make some things trivial. You can achieve the same effect with teleportation, if you have an item that grants that. (I don't.)  This mission is really just beating up a dragon, sorry, a Nagaraja. Bring ranged units, it won't reach you in time.  Lady, you did nothing.  ---  Our last mission takes us up to the Ruins of Delgantua.    I really like all of the Ruin of Delgantua locations. They have some of the best artwork in the game.  Leed is here for fun, he can't actually do anything as a White Mage due to the law. He needs some XP, but obviously we don't want him to get a bad White Mage level. Fortunately, this battle won't give him enough to level up.   This side quest is actually somewhat important, since it introduces the Duelhorns. They're a foreign clan of criminals looking to establish a foothold in Ivalice.   Assassins are terrifying! Sleep + Doom is a potent combo, because sleep lasts at least 3 turns unless interrupted. Of course, you have to hope the unit is immune to sleep, doom and instant death.   There's a couple interesting enemy units. The Soldier has Chivalry, the Paladin skill set, and the Warrior is packing the Trickster skill set. It makes the battle more interesting, and I wish we saw more enemies like this. It also hints that this clan is more dangerous that we might think.  Doesn't take too long to clean them up.  ---  While we're out and about, I also visit the clan trials.   Advocates is pretty easy, just 2 enemies (Tonberries again) in 3 turns. We can handle that quite easily.   For our efforts, we get Bonus AP 3! That's +60 AP per battle. We can really tear through skills now. ---  Right, on to the story.  We find Vaan and Penelo in the Rupie Mountains, where they're being accosted by some bounty hunters.   : You want a medal? : Hra! Nay, I want yer head, lad. That business with the Baron's made your bounty all the more beautiful!: I'd say we didn't do it, but something tells me you and reason aren't on speaking terms.  : If yer a headhunter, hunt elsewhere. These heads're mine. Dead or alive, they're leaving with me! : Oh, I'm not here to get in your way. But listen to what they're saying for a second. What if they really didn't do it?: Erh? I don't care if they killed a hundred souls or none. 'Tis not my concern! I'll have that head-price!: Cid, let's help those two out or we'll never get to hear their story. : My thoughts exactly. And if it turns out they're assassins after all, well, we'll turn 'em in ourselves.: You hear that, boys? They're in cahoots! Take 'em all down!: You sure? I thought you headhunters stuck together?: He's really not my type. But, hey, if you want to go with old pigsnout, be my guest.: He'll not find us such easy prey. Right, Penelo? : Famous last words, Vaan. Here they come!  Oh, this law. Movement-based laws are always the most annoying! This one really wouldn't be too bad, but Vaan and Penelo can really mess it up for you.  For example. It's Imino's turn, but Vaan moved next to him. He has no way to follow the law now! (This is from an earlier, failed attempt.)  Here's our starting formation. We're forced to take Samuel, and he'll take the left path up the mountain. Zoe has a bow, but she can use her wings to freely move up the mountain. Imino, Jalia and Tsing have guns and bows, and they'll be staying down at the base.    To add to the misery of law, there's a scattering of traps around. The enemy Ranger will also contribute a few more. The blue one in front of Tsing is a Sten Needle, and the green one is a Leech, which drains the victim's MP. It's not the most dangerous trap, but it still ends your turn early.  Vaan starts his turn with some more dialogue. : So, you didn't do it? I can trust you?: All I can say is, we didn't do it. Trusting Vaan or not is an entirely different matter.: Right... Hey!: Well, you sure don't act like assassins.: You think? He then moves down towards us and starts attacking.  Penelo is a Dancer, another unique job. She's also technically a Viera. Mincing Minuet is a basic ranged attack, like Air Render.  She also moves over a space. This ends up being a bad decision.  Zoe is able to fly up one space. The law cares how many squares you move through, not how many squares away you are from your starting position. Anyone else would need to move through at least three squares to get here from Zoe's starting position. Being able to fly is really good.   Imino's picked up a couple great Fusilier abilities, such as Charmshot and Concentration. Charm is a weak crowd-control condition. I swear the AI will do the one action that guarantees the Charmed unit will take damage and thus become un-Charmed.    Remember I said that was a bad position? Penelo takes 244 damage in a single turn thanks to a lucky critical. Abilities with inherent knockback really shine on maps like these.   That fall hurt like hell, but her Critical: Quicken helps her survive. Tsing will drop a potion on her, too. Fortunately, the enemy is too far away to target her.  Samuel mastered his third Fighter ability, and he's switched to Parivir. This gives him access to a Wind Slash, a nice ranged ability.   This seeq is a Lanista, which I'm not sure how to pronounce. They have a lot of flashy and cool abilities that I'm really looking forward to! Souleater deals Dark damage and heals the unit, but since Zoe's armor absorbs Dark, he just hurts himself instead.   Up north, the enemy Bishop charms himself. That's now two enemy units charmed!   Not that it lasts.  The problem with charming enemies is you eventually have to attack them anyway. Conditions like Slow or Blind are a little better in that respect.   Still, it does take them out of the battle for a bit.   Down below, we've weakened the Berserker and Jalia goes for the kill. But the shot is too steep and she hits the Lanista instead! As far as I know, this can't happen with guns but will happen with bows. You can avoid it by using abilities, which don't care about line-of-sight or trajectories.  Zoe follows up with the kill a few turns later.   Imino lands yet another Charm. We've said conditions were nerfed since FFTA, but he doesn't seem to care!  I mentioned earlier that the AI always seems to take the action that will dispel Charm.  This looks innocuous enough, right?   Nope! The Lanista is wearing Mirror Mail, which has a permanent innate Reflect. The Bishop has the Spring Staff, which makes him immune to Water damage. By casting the Water spell on the Lanista, he hits himself for 0 damage and cures Charm. The Lanista is still Charmed though, thankfully.  Charming the Ranger had one advantage: He stopped laying traps for a bit. (The Bishop attacked him and removed Charm.)  Tsing casts Awareness again, revealing the new traps. One is next to Samuel and the other is next to Imino, right above Tsing's hat.  Another enemy down. Zoe takes him out up close with her bow.   Imino is 4 for 4 on these Charms!  He also has no choice but to step on the Leech trap. Fortunately, it just drains his MP, which is meaningless for him.  Samuel takes down the Ranger. Just two left, though the Lanista already removed the Gladiator's Charm.  Can Tsing make this shot from the base of the mountain?  Nope. It plinks off the side of the mountain.   That just leaves the Lanista then.   Charm eventually fades, but he won't be alive long enough for that to be a problem. Imino lands a Blind on him as he runs away.  Zoe has had the Seventh Heaven equipped all this time, which teaches Ultima Shot to Hunters. I don't have any other good abilities for her to learn, you see.  Why yes, that'll do quite nicely. Witness the power! (gfycat link)    And that's that. : You two all right?: We're fine, thanks to your help.: Yeah, thanks. They were tougher than they looked. ---  : It's nice to know you're grateful, but I'd rather know what happened to the Baron. Assuming, of course, you truly were not involved.: Oh, we were involved. 'Cept, we weren't trying to kill him. We were trying to save him.: By the time we arrived at the manse, the attack had already taken place. : Blue nails... You don't say.: We did what we could for him and tried to get out of there before anyone caught up. No such luck.: They take our treasure, and call us assassins to boot. A simple shiv in the ribs'd be kinder.: What are you going to do now?: Well, not much else to do but lay low for a while, I suppose.: Once the baron's mended, it will be clear that it wasn't us.: That's right. I hope they find the onces who did it soon.: That makes two of us.: Well, Vaan, time to leave?: Hey, we owe you one. We sky pirates may steal, but we pay our debts.: Thanks. I'll remember that. With a cheerful wave, Vaan and Penelo scamper off. : You know, I believe them. I really don't think they did it. Of course, that doesn't tell us whether Khamja was behind it or not.: Nay, the stench of Khamja is all over it.: Huh?: I'm going to Graszton.: Huh, Cid, what do you - --- Thanks for reading! Why are the blue nails important? Why is Cid in such a rush? Find out next update, when we chase Cid back to Graszton! Solumin fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Dec 14, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2017 03:58
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Solumin posted:
Some of the laws in this game just get obnoxious.
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Dec 14, 2017 07:01
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Morpher was my favorite Nu Mou class in the first Advance game and I'm so sad that it's gone. That, the MP change, and only being able to get one level a battle is really sad.
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Dec 14, 2017 07:17
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theshim posted:A couple typos there.  that's what I get for not spellchecking the script I'm using.
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Dec 14, 2017 07:31
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theshim posted:Some of the laws in this game just get obnoxious. Forbidden: Harming the Weak and the one that is "no affecting yourself" are my two least favorites, particularly as I put off plot as long as possible at each step.
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Dec 14, 2017 17:06
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KataraniSword posted:Wait, what's that? You don't actually unlock the recruit spot for chocobo knights and mog knights directly until two missions away from the end credits? Welp! Sucks to like moogles, too, I guess. Clan Mates. Although given that Chocobo Knight is kinda high on the ladder I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of the jobs that you can't recruit in that quest until after story mission #16 either. (I'm pretty sure that's the cutoff where you can recruit every single class if you have unlocked them)
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Dec 14, 2017 20:10
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RegalStar posted:Clan Mates. It's 18, not 16, before the Neslowe Passage spot unlocks. There used to be a list somewhere on GameFAQs about what recruit spots unlock when, but I can't seem to dig it up. There is still a list of what recruit spots give you what, though, and I can see I was wrong on Moogle Knight - it's tied to Goug, not Neslowe. Neslowe is for Jugglers, Choco Knights, and Flintlocks. So one good class and the two worst moogles in the game. Mog Knight unlocks a little earlier than that, though not much IIRC. More importantly, Clan Mates won't give you a class if that class's recruit spot isn't unlocked, which is why those are plot-gated, too. The Rupie Mountains recruit spot (All of the Viera advanced classes, though you're generally only going to recruit Assassins for their speed or Snipers for their raw attack unless you're playing without caring about stats, then you'll recruit Spellblades for their sweet jackets) doesn't unlock until 12, I believe. KataraniSword fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Dec 15, 2017 |
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Dec 15, 2017 00:37
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I never used a Morpher in my life because that class seemed like an enormous pain in the rear end to get off the ground. I know this technically isn't the thread for it, but I'm sure someone here knows: were they really that good?
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Dec 15, 2017 16:28
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I never used a Morpher in my life because that class seemed like an enormous pain in the rear end to get off the ground. I know this technically isn't the thread for it, but I'm sure someone here knows: were they really that good? The game was easy enough that you could use whatever and be fine. And honestly, with concentrate and subdue or other small damage skills, it wasn't too bad. Sure, you might need to juggle some skills around but you could still get Capture on whatever class you're using though. Anyway, they were neat, and something that Nu Mou desperately needed considering they're all magic all the time and that can get kinda boring. Personally, I thought getting Mythril weapons was way more obnoxious than that.
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Dec 15, 2017 17:15
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DACK FAYDEN posted:I never used a Morpher in my life because that class seemed like an enormous pain in the rear end to get off the ground. I know this technically isn't the thread for it, but I'm sure someone here knows: were they really that good? Imagine Gau from FF6, but without losing control of the character. Basically, each Soul you mastered gave you skills from the monster(s) you had in your monster bank, and your damage was based off of the stats of those monsters. Except the whole point of the monster bank was to boost monster stats by shoveling high-end curative items in their mouth, which were easily bought en-masse from one of the shops (for everything but Malboros, which coincidentally have nothing but status-inflicting non-damaging skills) by endgame. Want 500-600 damage -aga spells? Morpher has you covered with the Flans. How about making your enemies get less turns? Lamia has Hand Slap and Antlions have Suffocate. Status ailments? Bad Breath from the Malboros is obvious, but there's also Poison Frog from the Lamias, Blaster from Coeurls, and Acid from the Flans. Party buffing? Dragons have Dragon Force and Mighty Guard. The big problem with Morphers is that they take so much work... in a game where Assassins and Thieves are right there in plain view with no extra effort necessary whatsoever. Sages in FFTA are no slouches either, if you want to compare it within its own race. tl;dr: They're great but they're not worth the trouble it takes unless you really like blarfing out big numbers. They're basically Blue Mages but even more so.
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Dec 15, 2017 17:26
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Morphers fail the "easy to use" test. Once you get them going, they're great! But getting the monsters and such is an ordeal. Especially, as KataraniSword says, when you have Assassin/Ninjas/Thieves available.
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Dec 16, 2017 02:07
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Morpher sounds like it would be a really big deal in a low-level or other challenge run. How viable is that?
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Dec 16, 2017 02:32
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Not everything has to be easy to use. It depends on if your goal is to make a team of maximally effective shitwreckers, or to make a team of cool combos and weird special effects.
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Dec 16, 2017 02:35
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ultrafilter posted:Morpher sounds like it would be a really big deal in a low-level or other challenge run. How viable is that? They’re your sole competent physical option for Nu Mous if you do single race runs (a concept painfully less possible in A2 due to the changes in equipment gaining, recruitment, and the goddamn hardest boss in the game banning any Nu Mou usage), but low-level runs tend to be like normal break-the-game runs: rush assassins and the cinquedea/steal ability, win game.
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Dec 16, 2017 02:45
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Not everything has to be easy to use. It depends on if your goal is to make a team of maximally effective shitwreckers, or to make a team of cool combos and weird special effects. Yeah, they're novel and that's kinda what influenced me using them in the first place. Getting to use monster skills whenever I want and all I have to do is catch them first? Sure why not? Especially easy with stop, sleep, immobilize and Smile Toss being in the game. I mean, when else are you gonna use a Nu Mou? Punching a lamia in the face the soul of a vampire sounds like a great way to use them.
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Dec 16, 2017 10:30
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Are Vaan and Penelo also completely uninformed about clans?
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Dec 17, 2017 00:51
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Glazius posted:Are Vaan and Penelo also completely uninformed about clans? Possibly. The Judges are unique to Jylland, the area of Ivalice that came takes place in, which consists of Loar and (the western part of) Ordallia. Vaan and Penelo are from a different continent, and it's possible they've unfamiliar with the Judges and clans.
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Dec 17, 2017 01:44
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It's also important to remember that Vaan and Penelo have a completely different idea of what a Judge even is so adjudiced clans, even if they knew about them, would be a confusing idea for them. Why would an EXecutor protect you from dying? That makes no sense. Also the Judges they know are, you know, human, not magical constructs. In fact I'm pretty sure this game never bothers to explain why Judges in XII and TA2 are so different in everything yet not only are called the same, they look identical.
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Dec 17, 2017 04:18
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I mean it also doesn't do a very good job at all of explaining how/why Vaan and Penelo are even there, when it's heavily implied that the games take place during largely different time periods.
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Dec 17, 2017 04:38
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KataraniSword posted:It's 18, not 16, before the Neslowe Passage spot unlocks. There used to be a list somewhere on GameFAQs about what recruit spots unlock when, but I can't seem to dig it up. There is still a list of what recruit spots give you what, though, and I can see I was wrong on Moogle Knight - it's tied to Goug, not Neslowe. Neslowe is for Jugglers, Choco Knights, and Flintlocks. So one good class and the two worst moogles in the game. Mog Knight unlocks a little earlier than that, though not much IIRC. I did Clan Mates straight away after finishing mission #16 for a Chocobo Knight and I got it, despite not having any new spot in Neslowe Passage unlocked. I believe it only gates you if you didn't unlock the class or aren't far enough along the story, not if the location is physically unavailable.
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Dec 17, 2017 04:48
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Imagine having Gabranth follow you around and tell you what you can't do in battle.
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Dec 17, 2017 10:49
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The Shortest Path posted:I mean it also doesn't do a very good job at all of explaining how/why Vaan and Penelo are even there, when it's heavily implied that the games take place during largely different time periods. What implies that? As far as I know, FFTA2 takes place shortly after XII. I do wish there was a better reason beyond "FFXII tie-in!" I suppose they're supposed to be exploring the world, looking for treasure and trouble wherever they may find it?
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Dec 17, 2017 11:16
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I'm not sure if a timeline exists, but at the very least FFTA2 happens after Revenant Wings considering Vaan finally had enough money to buy a shirt. And that shirt helps him a lot, I can't play as him in Dissidia with any other outfit (okay, the pirate one, but that's DLC and won't be in NT). I don't think there's a reason to explain how or why Vaan and Penelo are here: they're sky pirates, travelling the skies and seeking treasures is their job. Though that sure doesn't seem to be going well for them, but I never called them competent sky pirates. Vaan's no Balthier and this, sadly, isn't War of the Lions so it gets the worse FFXII cameo.
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Dec 17, 2017 14:48
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There is something of a timeline -- I was actually thinking about talking about in a future update, because it's kind of interesting. The short version is that FF XII, FFTA2 and FFT all take place in the same world, while FFTA was a dream world.
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Dec 17, 2017 18:47
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Supposedly FFT is hundreds/thousands years after XII, after that some cataclysm or war that left only Humans alive. And Vagrant Story as well.
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Dec 17, 2017 20:10
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Supposedly FFT is hundreds/thousands years after XII, after that some cataclysm or war that left only Humans alive. And Vagrant Story as well. Is that before or after FFXIV?
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Dec 17, 2017 23:18
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There are Seeq and Bangaa in XIV, but they mention Ramza and Delita with Argath also showing up. 
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Dec 17, 2017 23:45
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Ojjeorago posted:Is that before or after FFXIV? 14 reverses the whole deal, given Rabanastre there was built on top of Ordalia. Whether or not this is Actual Ivalice or just a very-close version (c.f. the Crystal Tower) remains to be seen.
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Dec 18, 2017 00:47
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Physical Might: Fighter, Parivir, Master Monk (Job Roundup #12) In a world where dog-wizards can shred the laws of physics and rabbit-women have the power of god-like beings at their fingertips, it's not easy for simple sword-swingers to stand out. Today we look at three great melee fighters and see if they can stack up to their magical allies. --- Fighter  Races: Hume Locked by: 3 Soldier + "To Be a Fighter" quest Unlocks: - 3 Abilities: Parivir Equipment: - Weapons: Blades - Armor: Light armor Growths: Excellent weapon attack, good defense. Below-average Speed. Fighter is a really solid job, thanks to their weapon attack growth (10 per level!) and two particular skills: Air Render and Aurablast. Air Render is a ranged attack, and Aurablast is ranged AoE. On a melee unit whose other jobs are also melee-focused, these skills are golden. Otherwise, well... The other abilities are OK. Air Blast is a wind-element Dragoon-like attack, and the Bonecrusher is guaranteed to do more damage than you would take. The others are fairly basic, "do damage with some side effect" sort of deals, like pushing an enemy back. Basically, Fighter is there as a stepping stone to Parivir and to give Paladins and Ninjas a couple ranged abilities. Excellent as a secondary ability set, but a little boring otherwise. --- Parivir  Races: Hume Locked by: 3 Fighter (and "The Eastwatch" quest) Unlocks: Nothing Equipment: - Weapons: Katanas - Armor: Light armor Growths: Best weapon attack growth. OK speed, average everything else. Paravis is the new physical Hume job, and it focuses on elemental sword attacks that inflict conditions. They only get four of these attacks, for fire, ice, lightning and dark. The ice attack, Hoarfrost Blade, is the most popular because it inflicts Slow. Parivirs can also use Wind Slash, a wind-element ranged attack. Interestingly, they also get Unburden Soul, a support ability that sacrifices the Parivir and restores the HP and status of all allies. Since all these abilities cost no MP and deal at least as much damage as a regular attack, they're worth using if you aren't dual-wielding. And you have a very good reason not to Dual Wield: the Black Mage Geomancy passive ability! Suddenly, all of your elemental sword attacks are dealing significantly more damage because you're nullifying enemy elemental resistances. With Geomancy, Parivir deals some of the highest single-target damage in the game. I like Parivir. They're a bit one-note, since they only have four attacks and one is significantly better than the other. But dealing several hundred damage per turn for free is excellent! Since their abilities require swords, you can use Parivir as a secondary ability set for Paladin or Ninja, too. Another way to look at this job is that Parivir cuts away all the filler skills and has only exactly what it needs. --- Master Monk  Races: Bangaa Locked by: 2 Warrior + 2 White Monk + "Banbangaa!" quest Unlocks: - 2 Abilities: Trickster Equipment: - Weapons: Poles - Armor: Light Armor Growths: Top-tier W.ATK, excellent speed, solid everything else. White Monk is so awesome they decided to make a new job that's White Monk but even more awesome. 2nd highest Bangaa Speed growth (by a large margin), highest W.ATK (after Gladiator, of course), respectable magick growths -- Master Monk is an example of how rewarding advanced jobs should be. And it doesn't stop there! Master Monk has a good selection of A-abilities, like Pummel (two attacks for the price of one), Holy Strike (deals holy damage), and Cross Counter (deals massive damage and negates the reaction of enemies with Counter-type reaction abilities). Their true gift is the Unscarred passive ability, which gives bonuses to all W.ATK, W.DEF, M.POW and M.RES while the unit has full health. One of the best parts of Master Monk is their hidden "unarmed attack bonus" trait. Most jobs only get +15 - +20 when unarmed, but Master Monks get a full +40 W.ATK. For reference, pole damage caps out at +49, barring one legendary pole that has +58. It's an interesting feature that definitely doesn't lead to any slightly broken builds. Master Monk is one of the better new jobs, if not the best. It's a solid improvement over White Monk and serves any Bangaa well. Solumin fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Apr 5, 2018 |
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Dec 18, 2017 04:06
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Parivir elemental blades (not Wind Slash) starts at DOUBLE weapon damage. Completely for free. Geomancy turns them into TRIPLE weapon damage on enemies neutral to the element, though you do occasionally run into monsters (like all nidhoggs) which resist all four elements. They are still kind low on the pole of broken because they require edged weapons (thus 1-range only) and hits only one guy, but they're still utterly ridiculous.
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Dec 18, 2017 05:35
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Update 16: Jagd Little Pill In This Update: - Our past comes back to bite us. - In multiple ways, really. - Everyone has questions. --- Welcome back! Last time, Clan Sawyer rescued Vaan and Penelo from headhunters. Cid seemed worried about something, and he ran off to Graszton. ---  In the Graszton pub... : Will you just tell me what's going on with Khamja and this baron guy?: There is something I need to make sure of first.: Where're you going now?: What does it matter?: Back to that streetear? I could join you... I capped this so you wouldn't accuse me of making a typo. : Hey, don't forget, last time you were here you almost died! You left without saying anything that time, too. You really think I'm going to let you do that again!?: I said leave me be, boy!: Hey, why am I suddenly some "boy" when it's convenient for you!? Something's been eating you lately, and I wanna know what it is! : Friends shouldn't keep too many secrets. Clanners less.: You're one to talk.: ...Quite.: I'm sorry... That was wrong of me.  : Says there's a bill up that specifically requests our clan, kupo! Also, this came along with the request...Hurdy reveals a familiar, silvery-white stone. : Hey! This looks just like that magicite! The color's a bit faded... but it has to be the same!: So the stolen magicite has come back into our possession? And right now, of all times? Pretty suspicious, if you ask me.: ...: Cid!: I'm going out for some fresh air. The cooler head prevails, they say.Cid walks off. : Argh! How annoying can that guy get?I feel like this should have been Samuel's line. : Have a little patience, now. Sometimes, the best way through a fortress isn't the front gate.: What's that supposed to mean?: I mean, not everyone is as... open as you are. Think on it a moment, Cid is powerful, yes? Yet he employs a judge! Don't you think there might be a reason?: What kind of reason? : By pledging to uphold a judge's laws, you avoid true death in battle. But if you're strong enough to win anyway, the merit of having a judge is lessened.: That's right! With a judge around, you have to follow all those laws, kupo! Most hunters, well, they're too busy holding up each other to uphold the law.: Some are of a mind that those with judges are mere cowards, afraid to fight. Does this strike you as a fitting description of our Cid? Hardly. He's not the type to want anything to do with the judges, normally.: Normally? So Cid has some special reasons, then...: Oh, at least one. Probably several. No simple man, that one. Not that I'm losing any sleep over it, mind you.: ...: Well, I'll put aside that bill for the clan, kupo! There was no date they wanted it done by, kupo, so you can pick it up whenever you fancy.---  That request sounds normal, but the postscript makes it really creepy. Or is it just me?   The Hall of Kings. Appropriate. Another really cool location that we don't get to see enough.  : It's her!: Sad to see your memory fail at such a youthful age. I've never run in my life, Illua.: Cid, is she...?: Khamja, yes. One of their number.: Illua. I've two questions in need of answers. : Do tell.: You did for Baron Beltorey.: Whatever makes you think that?: Well, I was pondering the baron's peculiar fondness for painting his nails blue... when I recalled a curious side effect of that poison of yours... Lazulum.: ...And your next accusation? Excuse me, "question"?: The whitesilver magicite. What is it?: A catalyst I needed to work certain magicks. The palings protecting the baron were not easily broken, you see. Had those sky pirates not arrived on the scene... The lucky old coot.: Yet, I believe his grace understood our message. I fain think he'll move against Khamja without second thoughts. The baron is an intelligent man. Would I could say the same for you.: Hmph, I'm afraid the only cure for my brand of idiocy is steel, my dear.: Then I suppose I'll have to kill you. Again. : ...!Illua backs away. Cid turns to Adelle and Samuel. : Leave now, and she'll let you go.: What, you want me to leave you here!? Not a chance! This is my fight, too!: Then you're an idiot as well.: So, either we win here, or I'm cured, right?: Ha ha ha! ...Just be careful. Good?: I'll be fine.  I think that's one of the scenes where this game's writing really shines. There's some great lines in there from everyone. This law is inconsequential, since no one here can steal.   Illua's job is given as "Nightshade," a master assassin. Her abilities are a little terrifying.   Saber is the same as Vaan's "Razor's Edge," granting a buff to damage and accuracy. Dimensional Rift is the real threat: 75% HP removed from all units in a 3x3 area.  Illua and her companions are well equipped. They all have strong elemental defenses thanks to gear that absorbs, negates or halves damage from particular elements.   This Spellblade can drop a lot of conditions on us, like Sleep and Doom. Plus she hits hard and absorbs two elements.  This Seer takes half damage from Ice, making him the least threatening-- wait. Nyno?! As in, Nyno the Archer?! I guess he fell into a rough crowd after being kicked out of Clan Sawyer.   The Illusionist is immune to Fire and absorbs Lightning and Ice. Fortunately, he doesn't have Blood Price, so he can't cast anything for a while. Try to neutralize him before he has enough MP.  This Elementalist is the biggest threat at the start. She's immune to lightning, deals heavy damage to most characters and can inflict a ton of conditions. Take her down early! Can anyone think of a good reason why the Rubber Suit is a women-only garment?  Finally, there's Ewen. Yes, our favorite ninja (well, Nightfall) makes a return. He's immune to a number of conditions.  We'll go with this crew. Everyone here is a hard-hitting, powerful unit with good abilities. More ranged damage may have been helpful, but this battlefield isn't that large. Yes, I brought three Master Monks. Lian learned enough Warrior abilities to switch over -- he's the one facing backwards. Cid and Henri are adjacent to him. Notably, I'm not bringing Lenolia. She'd be a natural here, considering how clumped up the enemies will be. But Lenolia can't do much with her Summons, because of all the elemental resistances. In particular, Maduin would be absorbed by Illua and the Spellblade.  There's some special stuff that can happen with Ewen, and I want to show that off.   Oh dear.  There's no animation of our judge being trapped, there's just the spell and suddenly he's gone.  Ewen doesn't escape the battle this time.   And like that, he's dead. Really, actually dead. For real this time.  I want to keep him alive. It's not the most important thing, but it makes the story more interesting later on.   On to the battle proper. We're still the fastest clan in the land. Tsing and Adelle move up, dropping a trap and an ineffective Veil.   Tsing's back is a tasty, tasty target for the Spellblade.  It's a trick I don't pull off that often. As usual, I'm trying to avoid Mirror Items.   Henri and Lian move in, but they don't quite manage to kill her. Critical: Evasion does trigger, which is annoying.   Up top, Illua buffs herself. I'm a little worried, because increasing her accuracy makes Dimensional Rift even scarier.   But we have ways to deal with that! Roar handily strips away the buffs from both enemies. I knew Blue Magic would be useful!   Cid moves up to the Elementalist. I want her down quickly.  This is why. Adelle won't get hit by the Slow condition that Sliprain inflicts, but 58 damage is nothing to scoff at.  Ewen is suicidal, which makes my job harder. I'll heal him if I have to.  Illua's turn comes around again, and she drops Dimensional Rift on us. The range on that is unfairly huge -- you can barely see her in this screenshot! -- and the AoE is as large as a Summon.   I'll give her this: it looks awesome.  Lian was hit hard, as was Samuel. Tsing's Item Lore is really useful for pinch healing like this.   A lucky critical from Adelle nearly takes out the Elementalist.  Across the room, Henri finishes off the Spellblade. Holy Strike would have healed her, and a basic attack was too weak. Cross-Counter is basically the best Master Monk ability.    Samuel unleashes the horrifying spirits of death on the Elementalist. I did not notice how low his health is.  Nyno takes it upon himself to remind me.   Well, death is hardly permanent, so we can keep going.   Oh right! Samuel has an Angel Ring equipped, which automatically brings him back to life once per battle.   With the Elementalist and Spellblade out of the way, it's time to move on Illua. If we move quickly enough, we can finish this before the Illusionist can do too much damage.  OK, he can survive that.   There's a chance-   Oh well.  Nyno, I was going to keep you alive. But now you've betrayed us.  Goodbye.   Everyone focused on Illua now. Adelle is beating up the Illusionist, actually.  Cid gets a good hit in.  I'm impatient, and this is already over.   Give it a rest, Illua.  ---  Of course, Illua isn't ready to give it up just yet. : I thought your fangs chipped and dull... I thought wrong. You and I are of a kind, Cid. Feral creatures that live by the blade alone.: I was never as hungry for power as you, Illua.: Me, hungry for power? You miss the point. The world needs people with power... be they many or few.: So, you're saying the world "needs" you?: Of course. I am powerful, after all. And something else, Cid. You see, I understand the power I possess. I was chosen. The power could not deny me. Dark magic flares out from Illua. : Hey, what's going on!? : The words on the page... they're glowing!: It can't be... a grimoire!? She pulls out her blade and strikes the journal.  It repels her, flinging her into the wall. : My journal... What the-!? ---  Here again. : This... This is the place from my dream!: And Illua is nowhere to be seen. Quite a run-in she had with your book.: Speaking of which, Samuel... You don't happen to have your journal... do you.: No. When she hit it with her sword, I let go... It's gone.: Well, that's just great. What are we supposed to do now!? We don't even know where we are!: If I'd known this was going to be this kind of quest, I'd have stayed in Graszton. One of those chiffon cakes down at the Gateau Kaldi cafe sounds good about now...: Quit your grousing. You're making me hungry.: Forgive a girl for needing a distraction... this Mist ties my stomach in knots.: Ah, my apologies.: I do sort of wonder what we're supposed to do now. Somehow, this doesn't seem like the kind of place you can just walk home from. : Huh!?  : Samuel... You must leave at once. This place is dangerous. Follow the path I shall make plain for you... Come back...Lezaford disappears. : Lezaford...? Lezaford!!!Watch this in motion!     : Wha-!?: What the heck is that!?: The demon... you must not let it through!: What? How!? Lezaford!?The demon roars, a deep, bestial and hellish sound that shakes the landscape. : Eeek! Why do these things always happen to me!?: Ha! You're not the only one here, princess.: Stop it... Bind it...: Bind it? You mean we have to defeat this thing!? Us!?: You see anyone else around?: ... When you put it that way... : Samuel!?: That's right, Samuel Clemens is the name! And fighting impossibly huge demonic hands is my game... *gulp*The demon howls again.   Clan Sawyer is in a bit of a pickle now, huh? Don't worry, it's nothing that cold steel and strong magick can't handle.  Neukhia, the demon, has a number of terrifyingly-named abilities.  He also brought friends. They are merely distractions.  Here's our crew. Samuel is required, as usual. Adelle, Henri and Zoe are here for their combination of mobility (especially Zoe) and power. Hurdy is a Time Mage and will be throwing Hastes around. Lenolia is still a Green Mage, but she's here for her Summons.  No AP here, so Regen is my privilege of choice.   : Huh? What are those weird purple glowing things? : Is this... some kind of weapon? Hey! Maybe something like this could put that demon back in its place and keep it there!Here's the big mechanic for the boss fight: the mage cannon.   Our goal is to defeat Neukhia, who is an absolute bucket of HP with a few nasty abilities.  There's four mage cannon buttons in the four corners of the map. Adelle, Henri, Samuel and Zoe will head towards those buttons. Hurdy and Lenolia will stay in the middle, supporting the other four and fighting the demon directly.   Also, there's traps. I have no way to see them, so hopefully I'll just get lucky and avoid them!  When next to a button, the unit can select "Charge."   This charges the mage cannon.   Pressing the second lit button fully charges the cannon.   The mage cannon immediately fires.    It's about 100 damage per shot. The weakened Plague (Henri hit it earlier) is knocked out entirely.    At the end of the turn, the mage cannon is drained of power and the buttons to activate change. This is why I need a unit stationed at each button.  Meanwhile, the demon gets a turn. (Well, a second turn. It did nothing on its first turn.)   Suitably epic for a demon boss!  Oh come on, Illua did more than that!   Samuel and Lenolia take care of the second Plague.  Of course there are reinforcements. Even worse, these ones will absorb Lenolia's holy damage. But that's the only element Neukhia doesn't resist, so we're sticking with it.   Henri and Adelle charge the cannon again.  The mage cannon hit all enemies on the battlefield and will never hit us.   The other two buttons light up. The mage cannon is pretty useful, dealing about 100 damage to all targets. If there are multiple enemies, which there usually will be, it's slightly better than attacking ourselves. But you might be able to do more damage more quickly by focusing on the boss.   Henri has nothing to do while the cannon is charging, so he handles the adds and gets a very good loot drop for it.  Neukhia isn't letting us attack us with no reprisals, of course.   Looks awesome!  Does basically nothing!  The mage cannon sometimes doesn't do a lot of damage. It's not the most reliable mechanic, which is kind of frustrating.    This time, we need to hit 3 buttons to charge the cannon.  We're about halfway through the battle, and Lenolia is going to speed things up with Maduin. That spell does as much as the mage cannon was doing!  The battle rages on. More adds appear, we fire the cannon a couple more times, and it's not too long before Neukhia is defeated.     It's sucked back into the rift.  ---  The team is battered and exhausted when Lezaford reappears before them. : Ahh, you're all right! I am relieved.: If you call battered, bruised, and scarred for life "all right," then, yes.: So... what is this place? I've seen it before, but only in my dreams. Oh, and you remember that magick journal of mine...?: There will be time for talk later. First, you must leave this place.: How do we do that?: To the east you will find a large crystal... A gate crystal. Touch it, and you will come back. As I'm sure you are aware, this place is unnatural. It will not do to linger. I will be waiting beyond the gate.: You don't have to tell me to get our of here twice!: We move.---   The map is surreal, I love it.  We head out, as Lezaford suggested, to find a cavern with a large, spinning crystal. : This must be it. I'm going for it. Okay? Samuel reaches out and touches the spinning crystal. It stops and flashes.      ---  : Yes, but magick so powerful is not lightly used. In order to use a stone of such power, one must pay a commensurate price. And this stone, this has been forcefully reduced to its original state.: If whoever did this released all the energies within... It must have drained them terribly. They wouldn't be able to cast for days.: Apparently, a risk worth taking to send Baron Beltorey a message. Makes you wonder what the baron did to deserve such attention?: ...Never mind. Unraveling the mystery of that stone is enough for now. I've said my piece. Now tell us about that place we were sent.: Yes, yes... Where to begin? The name I suppose. You were in Jagd Zellea. One of many jagds in this world - places where the Mist is unstable indeed.: Jagd Zellea? Where have I heard that?: Wait, I know! The Forbidden Keep! Quite a famous place in pirating circles... Something about a treasure there that, when held, would let one rule the world.: ...Quite. A power of immense proportions sleeps in that land. You saw it, did you not? The rift, and the demon that emerged from it?: ...: Jagd is known for rifts of this nature - gateways to other worlds. They open now and then, sometimes letting in great evils. It was the power of the rifts that cast Zellea off on its own, a barren waste.: No rift has been known to open full-way, yet if one did, the effects would be catastrophic. The mages who knew of the rifts were wary of their power. They created magicks to bind the rifts closed. Your magick tome is one such book. It wasn't destroyed after all! : You mean... my journal? But Illua, she cut it in two...: The Grimoire of the Rift. So is your book named.: Well that clears up a great many things... including what Illua's been after. She wants to use the power that flows in through the rifts, I'd wager. And Baron Beltorey must have known something about it. That's why he was attacked. She called us out because of the whitesilver magicite...: But when she realized what Samuel was holding, she tried to destroy it. After all, that book has the power to seal the rifts.: This may be true. Yet, that book is not something to be ruined by brand or blade. It is protected by a magick most potent. And the source of that magick's power... is you, Samuel.: Huh? Me?: Yes. The words written upon its pages - the telling of your life. That proof of your being protects the grimoire. The power you and that book generate is far greater than you imagine.: So this book, this Grimoire of the Rift thing... What am I supposed to do with it? What if I don't do the right thing, and that rift opens? What will happen to this world?: I mean, if this were just about me not being able to go home, that's one thing. But you're talking about a whole world!: Think naught of these things. Continue filling in the pages as you have thus far. Worry not, for you have that of which the grimoire has need. Did you not protect the book from Illua's blade?: I guess...: Do as you will. Meet those you will. Live life, for life lived is the source of the book's power.: Okay... I just, I'm just not sure I have what it takes to finish the thing.: When the times comes, you will write the final words. And so will end your story in this world. I believe you know why. : The world I came from...: The grimoire chose your life to be its wellspring. Live your life as you would. The book wants nothing more than this.: ...Okay. Let's go back to town. I've got to check the bills up in the pub. And I don't know all I'd like to know about Khamja yet, either. Thank you for everything, Lezaford. The group leaves.  But Adelle returns alone a minute later. She hesitates, then speaks: : Um, I was wondering if I could ask you something...
Solumin fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Dec 20, 2017 |
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Dec 20, 2017 01:39
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I'd like to thank you all for reading the LP so far! We'll be taking a break for a few weeks, because I will be on vacation for the holidays and won't have access to a computer. I'm expecting to get the next update out in early to mid January.
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Dec 20, 2017 01:42
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Solumin posted:[sub]I capped this so you wouldn't accuse me of making a typo.[sub] Missing a / here.
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Dec 20, 2017 02:51
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Ah, dang, what a time to come back just as a break is announced. I love FFTA2, I tried it out on a whim and ended up spending nearly 100 hours on it. I was dumb and didn't do a lot of the things that you're talking about in this playthrough (really could have used Bonus AP) but learning is really interesting and people always have their own brand of special strategy for these kinds of things. I didn't figure out the really broken stuff until very late, but stuff like Maduin-healing and how versatile Elementalists were didn't fly by me. Also since I didn't abuse the Auction House NEARLY as much, I lived and swore by Steal Accessory to get all my Ninja Tabi and stuff like that. It was pretty effective once I started using Stop.
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Dec 20, 2017 03:08
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 18:24 |
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Here's where I think the plotting (such as it is) really starts stumbling - a huge threat is discovered in Illua but it's almost immediately established that she can't do poo poo to our hero and the best thing to do isn't to deal with her but to continue loving around. I get that they want to keep the mission format, but even FFTA handled plotting better than this.
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Dec 20, 2017 03:37
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