Hunt: Atomos
- Atomos isn’t a door in XII. Rather, a lizardy slaven.
“They say a horrible creature that lost a war with the gods lurks even now in the Mosphoran Highwaste. ‘Tis a local legend.”
There’s a part of the Highwaste I can’t access. I’ll bet that’s where the esper mentioned above lives.
-Killing Atomos opened up some trading routes to Nalbadia.
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Hunt: Roblon
-Roblon lives in the Nabreus Deadlands, “beyond a place of high grasses and thick fog.” Perhaps the high grasses will be those things passable only by chocobos.
-They weren’t kidding about fog. This place is a wreck. All caused by the nethicite use.
-This is my first time in the Deadlands. It’s still too high. I’m 39/40 and the enemies are 45-46. I can deal with them solo or paired, but their swarms are brutal.
-The Deadlands section with Roblon is isolated. I can’t reach it yet.
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Hunt: Braegh
-A bangaa named Va’Kansa is the petitioner. He and his coworker got separated by this giant horse named Braegh outside the Nabudis Necrohol.
-These horses are my favorite enemy in the game. They just look so frigging cool. This one is Ixion-like in that it is lightning-based.
-We kill it and return to Va’Kansa, the petitioner. His partner is still missing in the Salikawood. I’ll look around for her.
-The tree houses in the Salikawood now have some moogles chilling out in them. I go to all of them that I can find, but no luck. They all have moogles, with one empty one beyond the red save crystal. I can’t find Va’Kansa’s partner.
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Salikawood to Phon Coast
-Holding off on the elite marks for now to progress the story.
-The way east out of the Salikawood is blocked. I have to go around and collect a bunch of moogles napping in the Salikawood to help finish the job.
-The moogle design has grown on me. They’re super cute, and somehow making them competent-yet-lazy engineers enhances that.
-With the path to Phon Coast now open, the craftsmoogles will split up. Some will go fix windmills on the Cerobi Steppe. Some will repair things in Mosphoran Highwaste. (Ooh, maybe this’ll have to do with those water shrines, or the area I can’t reach!) Others will go towards Nabudis.
-I continue east to the Phon Coast. Drones fly above; it’s a good thing we came on foot, not by airship.
-The Phon Coast is a bright, sunny beach. The music matches the area well.
-I like how FFXII divides big zones. It gives them the design space to make single zones feel varied and easy to navigate, even the more complex places like Salikawood.
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Hunter’s Camp
-Reached a little hub, a hunter camp. Penelo and Vaan race off to the water – they’re still basically kids, and I like that despite the shit they’ve been through, they still act like it at times.
-Balthier reads Ashe well. She claims to be heading to Archades to destroy the nethicite, but he sees her temptation to take the nethicite for herself, for Dalmasca.
-Balthier recounts someone he knew who was blinded by nethicite’s power. Used to talk about “Eynah” or “Venat.” (Not sure what that means, but I assume it’ll come into play later.)
“Everything he did, he did to get closer to the nethicite. He made airships, weapons… he even made me a Judge.” LOLOL JUDGE BALTHIER. What a surreal mental image.
[Later edit: Y’know, it’s not THAT wild. Balthier has this controlled aspect to the way he talks and acts. It’s not like imagining Al-Cid as a Judge. I really could see it.]
Is my theory that Judge Gabranth is Balthier’s brother correct?
-Nope. He’s related to Doctor Cid, of Draklor Laboratories. I wonder what if any relation Al-Cid and Doctor Cid have.
“And, I suppose, that’s when I lost my father.” Cid’s son. I think we only saw Cid once, briefly. A confidante of Vayne iirc.
-Balthier’s desire that Ashe not become obsessed with nethicite isn’t just practical. It’s personal.
I’m not sure where I fall on this. It’s a tough call, but I ABSOLUTELY don’t see an equivalency. Cid worked on developing a weapon for imperial domination. Ashe is considering whether to take a weapon for defensive purposes.
If Ashe chooses to take the nethicite as some sort of mutually-assured-destruction thing, then unless she intends to create the Empire of Dalmasca or something, it’s totally different than what Archadia did.
-Flashback. (Or should I say, Ashe-back? …no, that phrase should go in the dumpster.) We see Ashe and Rasler.
-Their marriage was built on politics, on wedding Nabudis to Dalmasca, but it was full of love too.
-Time to explore the hunter’s camp here.
-A Bhujerban fell from the sky and somehow survived! Albeit with amnesia. At some point I’ll head back to Bhujerba; maybe I can help him find his identity.
-The nearby Sochen Palace has a nasty reputation.
-Archadians BET on hunters! Like chocobo racing, with us as chocobos.
-I FOUND VA’KANSA’S FRIEND!! He survived Braegh’s attack and wandered here to the Phon Coast.
He has a message for his partner, from their boss: “You’re fired.” ...well shit.
-Rimzat is here. He’s the bangaa studying sandstorms, who set me on the path to the Earth Tyrant. I tell him of my victory over the Earth Tyrant, and he gets excited that he might get a bonus from his bosses.
He leaves. See ya down the line, buddy. Hopefully you get rewarded.
-A lot of the hunters here brush me off.
Maybe I’ll get new dialogue as I climb Centurio’s ranks.
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High Above the Highwastes
-Gonna stop my journey towards Archades to check out the Mosphoran Highwaste caravan camp.
-Poor Va’Kansa. Good news, your friend is safe. Bad news, you’re fired.
-The craftsmoogles have started repairing the shrines, which are functioning fountains again. …Wait. Or not. They got here, and the shrines were already working again. What happened?
-When I touch the now-functioning fountains, the water heads up and shoots “floatweed” into the air. I can use that floatweed to cross high-up gaps. Yay!
“One often hears of a place whose name translates roughly to the ‘wind-blown wyrm-god path.” Yikes. I’m guessing that nearby I’ll find another of those eight legendary dragons.
-God, these floatweeds I can access open up a whole new realm within the Mosphoran Highwaste!
-New boss. This absolutely looks like an esper: Exodus. I can’t use items.
-Dispel works, to get rid of Exodus’s Protect/Reflect/Shell. He puts Reflect back up pretty quickly, but not Protect and Shell.
-He seems reasonably squishy compared to Cuchulainn. [Later edit: probably not the best comparison. I spend so much time in the Cuchulainn encounter healing through the room’s damage that I could only plink away with one party member while the others healed.]
-I spoke too soon. His Last Stand phase, about the final fifth of his HP, gives him physical immunity.
-Okay, strat time: Fran will just use Curaga, while Basch and Ashe do the primary work. Basch will keep dispelling Reflect, and in the brief window before Exodus recasts Reflect, Ashe can get a spell cast off. She first lands Sap with Bio, then just tosses in Aerogas/Firagas.
GOT HIM HAHAH YES!!!
[Later edit: it hits me that someone called the upper-reaches of Mosphoran Highwastes the “wyrm-god’s path.” Exodus is not a wyrm-god. I’m reasonably sure I’m not done with this zone yet.]
Just noticed that the symbols on the gems are rough outlines of the espers themselves. Like here, you can sort of make out his balancing scales.
-Exodus is the most ancient scion, in opposition to Halmarut, the Arbiter. Tasked with judging the world, he saw its value dwindle until he thought it was worthless, and acted on that thought in rebellion against the gods.
I wonder if we’ll meet the gods ever. And if not in FFXII, maybe in one of the other Ivalice games. For all I know, maybe FF Tactics focuses on playing as the espers against the gods or something like that.
What would Exodus give to each party member?
Vaan: Stamp
Balthier: Decoy, Oil, Souleater
Fran: 4x Magick Lore
Basch: nothing
Ashe: Heavy Armor 8, 9, 10
Penelo: Battle Lore
It’s tempting to give to Fran to boost her cure magick, but I think I prefer the utility of Balthier having Green Magick access. Decoy and Oil can be sweet, and I usually don’t want to take the time for one of my power mages like Ashe, Basch, or Penelo to cast those.
-I try Exodus in combat. He’s fucking incredible. Meteor, comet, curaja… a nice all-rounder.
THE METEOR ANIMATION IS SIIIIICK!
His scales of judgment are spring-loaded and launch boulders into the air that crash down as meteors.
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Next time: Before I continue with the story, I’ll at least take a crack at the three elite hunt marks on my docket, and I’ll also try getting a sense of the strength/benefits of the individual espers in combat. I’ve neglected them, opting just to use my Mist Charges for quickenings, when I don’t know what I’m missing out on.
