Flowering Cactoid, Round Two
-I had planned to explore the Giza Plains, but want another shot at that Flowering Cactoid.
-Stocked up on 60 potions, 10 Eye Drops, and ready to go.
-It’s a loooong fight. He parries practically everything. I try to stay at critical HP; one of my licenses gives me a big defense bonus then.
-Flowering Cactoid twice fled across the zone, making me evade or fight enemies along the way.
-THAT ASSHOLE! I had it on the ropes and it healed with two potions.
-More potions, more hitting, and I think I’m about to win. Until it casts 1,000 Needles.
I only have like 500 HP max. I have no way to interrupt it, no way to evade. It hits me for 1,000.
A blood-drenched game over cactoid.
-Giving up for now. I’ll try again later if I get the tools to deal with 1,000 Needles. Even another party member would probably be enough, if one members eats the needles while the other finishes the job.
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Exploring Giza Plains
-Hyena bestiary: they can hunt behemoths? Holy shit.
-When I complete the hyena bestiary, I also get “Sage Knowledge” about Lowtown. It used to be a storage area, but the Archadians “relocated” many residents of Upper Rabinastre down there.
-Found Jinn, a nomad kid. He injured his leg.
-Happy Bunny bestiary: These are from the genus “Dreamhare.”
“Being a fiendish creature taking the form of an adorable bunny (for which, indeed, it is all the more fiendish)…” RIGHT THERE WITH YA, BESTIARY. (They’re super annoying, healing my enemies and constantly fleeing.)
-Sage Knowledge from the Happy Bunny is about the Giza Plains. During the dry seasons, the dark crystals absorb the sun’s radiance and glow. The local nomads can capture the crystals’ energy in chunks of magicite called sunstone…
Aha! Sunstone is magicite!
-Nearby werewolves appear red to me. Leaving them alone.
-Found a horse with some cool spiky armor called Sleipnir.
They were bred as war chargers, and named after one particular horsed knight who named his personal horse Sleipnir. They’re wild now.
-Giza Plains connects to Westersand.
-Slaven bestiary: Giant type. Used to be a beast of burden until recent advances in technology. Now wild.
-The Slavern are like giant crocodiles. I wonder if they’re a bangaa offshoot.
I really like these bestiary entries! Their a neat way to provide lore about the history of Ivalice, seeing it from out of the corner of my eye rather than being subject to exposition dumps.
-Urstrix bestiary: they used to basically be canaries in coal mines. Fowl were put used in magicite mines to indicate fumes. This exposed the fowl to huge quantities of Mist, causing them to birth stunted chicks. The Urstrix.
Sage Knowledge: Ordalia. The continent on the western edge of Ivalice, home to the Rozarrian Empire. The Galtean Peninsula is on the eastern portion of Ordalia. Dalmasca held it until Archadia took over.
It hits me that I don’t really know anything about Rozarria other than that it’s Archadia’s main rival. Maybe they’re the “good guys” or just another powerful nation eager to stomp on Dalmasca.
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Enter Penelo
-I reach the Giza nomad camp.
-THEY HAVE TAME COCKATRICES! THEY’RE SO FLUFFY AND CUTE
-Some kids in the village talk about how Jinn left but hasn’t come back yet. Some untold story here.
-A woman named Masyua can help with the sunstone. She wants me to find Jinn.
-HI PENELO! She came here to check on me and wants to join. Yay for party member!
-I spend the next five minutes perusing the jobs. I want a white mage, but I really don’t want her to be it. Doesn’t feel like it fits.
Then my eyes settle on Time Battlemage. What a fucking cool idea! Crossbows, heavy armor, time magic, green magic… Time magic especially seems pretty solid.
I also like the RP element. Penelo strikes me as controlled, fierce, rational, with a sense of where she wants to go. (I could be totally wrong, since I’ve only seen her briefly.) Time Battlemage fits imo.
-This may not be a good choice, but I’m pretty sure it’s an awesome choice.
-WAIT WHOA HOLD ON
NEVER – NEVER – NEVER DID I DREAM OF THIS – I HAVE 286 LP TO SPEND ON HER. SHE IMMEDIATELY GETS ALL THE LP I BUILT UP FOR VAAN
I immediately remember FFVII. Yuffie was like 12 levels below my main party when I got her and so I never really played her. This mechanic totally eliminates that issue.
-Party system tutorial. Gambits allow a party member to go on autopilot to some degree, but even then I can give commands if I want.
-lol whoops. I forgot that I had an auto-libra item equipped and misread the Werewolves as blue. They two-shot me. Welcome to the party, Penelo!
-We find Jinn. He’s still injured, and wants me to make my own sunstone out of shadestone.
-I run around the plains charging my shadestone into a sunstone.
-Jinn confesses how he got injured. He and his friends dared each other to get close to the werewolves. He got too close and hurt himself.
-Dude. Are you saying you survived the werewolves with a mere injury? You are a BOSS!
-Back in town, safe and sound. And now the First Aid technick is available! So it seems like technicks and armor and weapons and the like will become available as I progress the story, after certain events get flagged.
-Penelo and I head to Rabanastre.
-Time Battlemages use crossbows, but I can’t find one anywhere. I buy 20 bolts anyway. At least she can use her starting dagger, despite not having a license for it.
-…or not. I thought I was buying 20 bolts, but I bought 20 QUIVERS of bolts. Good. I want running out of ammo to not be a thing.
-Back to Old Dalan. OH NO!! Penelo leaves the party. I wanted another crack at the Cactoid with her.
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Through the Waterways
-The way to the palace is through the previously locked door in Storehouse Five, and through the Garamsythe Waterways.
OLD DALAN: “The signet yearns for sunstone’s strength to light the clouded way.” We’ll find the signet tile in the palace, and have to give it the sunstone’s power somehow. I’m sure it’ll make sense when I ge there.
-Scene change. Rebels are plotting in the Garamsythe Waterways. A dude is in charge, along with a woman whose face is concealed. She could be Penelo, but I kinda doubt it.
-omg kytes just trolled the shit out of me. I reached the storehouse and he says he needs special tools to enter the waterways. I start mentally prepping for a fetch quest until he’s like “Nah jk, I can open it.” XD
-I head into the Waterways. Lots of rats here.
-The full Dire Rat bestiary entry gets me SUPER excited. It mentions the “rat tail” as loot.
Rat tails are a cheap reagent for potion-crafting. Also tasty in fried butter!
“Rumor has it that with the right spices, the flavor can only be described as ‘transcendent.’ I, for one, am not sure I’m quite ready to transcend.”
First: lolol. Second: In prior FF games, the Rat Tail has been crucial. The job upgrade item in FFI, and a key item for Excalibur in FFIV.
I think this is like the “bundle of needles” that the cactoid entry talked about. And I know that you can use battle chains to increase your chance at better and more loot. I didn’t really get to test things in Estersand since the cactoids were so spread apart, but the Waterways are rat city. Let’s get ourselves a rat tail.
*a long ass time later*
NOTHING GRR. I built up a 160+ Dire Rat battle chain here in the Garamsythe Waterways. Around the 60 kill mark I hit the highest level tier. And STILL NO RAT TAIL! All I got was a crapload of rat pelts and fire stones.
[Non-rhetorical question: Did I just get bad luck in not finding a rat tail during that battle chain, or am I missing something? Not looking for details. Just kind of a “keep trying!” or “you can’t get it yet, you’ll know when” sort of thing.
As much as I want the Rat Tail and the Bundle of Needles for whatever they get me, I have the feeling that I need a new ability or to trigger something down the line. 160 kills feels like a long time to grind without success. (At least, for a game that’s not FFXI.)]
-Anyway. Moving on. At least I got to see what all the battle chain tiers look like!
-Ichthon bestiary’s Sage Knowledge: the Kingdom of Dalamasca. It’s existed for 700 years, and has served both as a crossroads of trade and stepping stone from larger armies.
-Found a piranha named Razorfin. It took me about 20 tries to steal – eventually got a Water Crystal.
-He’s classified in the bestiary as Rare Game, which makes me pretty psyched! I have a feeling this will be a fun game to replay with full knowledge.
-Steeling (bat type) bestiary, Sage Knowledge: Airships. AIRSHIPS WERE DEVELOPED BY MOOGLES!!! IVALICE IS THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS
-Skystone powers airships. They can’t fly in “jagd, where skystone is ineffective.” The j in jagd is lower case, so I think jagd is a condition or weather type rather than a zone.
-Pretty tired from all the rat-slaying, so going to take a break here.
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Next time: sneaking into the castle fete.
