Summary: Hunts and exploration. Fafnir, Piscodaemon, Diabolos. Exploring the brutally hard Pharos Subterra. Ixion and Shadowseer.
Hunt: Fafnir
-The hunt poster art here is interesting in that it looks like a behemoth – but not an FFXII behemoth. FFXI behemoths stand up and seem more humanoid. This looks like a more traditional behemoth.
-Fafnir lurks in the Paramina Rift, by Mt. Bur-Omisace. The Gran Kiltias had kept him at bay, but now with him gone…
-It takes a while to find him. I have to wander around and aroun and around until I get the blizzard weather to spawn him. Must’ve swapped regions like 20 times without spawning a blizzard, but when I tried bouncing between totally different zones it only took like 5 times.
-He’s one tough behemoth. Tons of HP, heavy damage output, both physical and magic. My strategy is to keep decoy up on Knight!Fran while White Mage!Basch heals and Black Mage!Ashe blasts it with Thundaga.
-I return to the petitioner, Relj, a viera in town. I bring the ring from her friend killed by Fafnir. She’s been traveling for a while, cynical as hell, looking down on the weak humes. Her friend’s sacrifice has helped show her the nobler aspects of humes. Their willingness to protect each other.
-Got Assassin’s Arrows as a reward, KO-arrows. Nice!
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Paramina Rift - Bestiary
-White Wolf: Great cities used to exist here during the time of the Galtean Alliance, when it was a warm and verdant land. Mist-driven climate change turned it into the snowscape it is today.
-Garuda-Egi: There’s an odd piece of mythology here about “white incense.” Something about the idea that the sun isn’t aligned with fire, but with holy power. That it’s a holy orb with fire clinging to it on the outside. “A base light yearning for a higher power.”
The “white incense” is highlighted in blue, so I assume it’s a rare steal/loot.
-Skull Knight: I knew Mt. Bur-Omisace was holy with its temple, but now I see it’s a temple to someone named Kiltia. Makes sense.
-Twintania: If you attract the attention of a phoenix, you’re supposed to offer it a phoenix down. Weird. That’s like attracting a person’s attention and offering them human skin.
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Hunt: Piscodaemon
-Haaaaate these guys. Piscodaemons have traditionally been Mindflayer-types that I first met early in FFI in the Marsh Cave. Their paralysis attacks were brutal. Curious what they’ll be like now.
-The petitioner is a Nu-mou on Bur-Omisace. His brother, Ashkroft, became a power-drunk sorcerer, and now has become the Piscodaemon.
-He’s in Giruvegan, by the Gate of Fire. I love his look – he appears to have one of those plague doctor masks.
Hunt: Fafnir
-The hunt poster art here is interesting in that it looks like a behemoth – but not an FFXII behemoth. FFXI behemoths stand up and seem more humanoid. This looks like a more traditional behemoth.
-Fafnir lurks in the Paramina Rift, by Mt. Bur-Omisace. The Gran Kiltias had kept him at bay, but now with him gone…
-It takes a while to find him. I have to wander around and aroun and around until I get the blizzard weather to spawn him. Must’ve swapped regions like 20 times without spawning a blizzard, but when I tried bouncing between totally different zones it only took like 5 times.
-He’s one tough behemoth. Tons of HP, heavy damage output, both physical and magic. My strategy is to keep decoy up on Knight!Fran while White Mage!Basch heals and Black Mage!Ashe blasts it with Thundaga.
-I return to the petitioner, Relj, a viera in town. I bring the ring from her friend killed by Fafnir. She’s been traveling for a while, cynical as hell, looking down on the weak humes. Her friend’s sacrifice has helped show her the nobler aspects of humes. Their willingness to protect each other.
-Got Assassin’s Arrows as a reward, KO-arrows. Nice!
---
Paramina Rift - Bestiary
-White Wolf: Great cities used to exist here during the time of the Galtean Alliance, when it was a warm and verdant land. Mist-driven climate change turned it into the snowscape it is today.
-Garuda-Egi: There’s an odd piece of mythology here about “white incense.” Something about the idea that the sun isn’t aligned with fire, but with holy power. That it’s a holy orb with fire clinging to it on the outside. “A base light yearning for a higher power.”
The “white incense” is highlighted in blue, so I assume it’s a rare steal/loot.
-Skull Knight: I knew Mt. Bur-Omisace was holy with its temple, but now I see it’s a temple to someone named Kiltia. Makes sense.
-Twintania: If you attract the attention of a phoenix, you’re supposed to offer it a phoenix down. Weird. That’s like attracting a person’s attention and offering them human skin.
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Hunt: Piscodaemon
-Haaaaate these guys. Piscodaemons have traditionally been Mindflayer-types that I first met early in FFI in the Marsh Cave. Their paralysis attacks were brutal. Curious what they’ll be like now.
-The petitioner is a Nu-mou on Bur-Omisace. His brother, Ashkroft, became a power-drunk sorcerer, and now has become the Piscodaemon.
-He’s in Giruvegan, by the Gate of Fire. I love his look – he appears to have one of those plague doctor masks.
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Giruvegan: Bestiary
-The Vivian (a purple malboro) has some pretty epic royal jewelry. It has forehead beads and a massive lacy crown.
-Mom Bomb: The Rozarrian Empire is ruled by an Emperor, but it’s more of a military state than Archadia. The Emperor lacks power compared with the military high command.
-Reaper: The Archadian Empire started as a republic. Only about 200 years ago did it change to an imperial military system.
-Shadonir: Clan Centurio is a relatively new clan compared to the rest. My favorite of the other clan names has to be Clan Buckaboo of Balfonheim Port. It’s kind of adorable.
OH RIGHT!! This Sage Knowledge also mentions the Phon Coast hunters. I have to remember to revisit them – I’d forgotten about them entirely.
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Bhujerba
-I found a bottle of spirits in the Staras Residence that I missed before. Gave it to the mother here and she got stand-on-the-table drunk.
-Found more bottles around and more people who get drunk off it, buying the bottles off me for 1,000 gil. Not sure what the purpose of this was. Maybe if I had found all of them and distributed them properly, a thing would have happened.
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Hunt: Diabolos
-This is probably the coolest looking poster. A burning demon.
-I remember hearing about Diabolos as a boogeyman of the Lhusu Mines way back when I first arrived in Bhujerba. This is something FFXII has done exceedingly well throughout the game: bits of dialogue hint at monsters and events lurking in the background, seeding my brain, and so when I actually deal with them later they feel more fleshed out, set-up properly.
-The petitioner is one of the kids in the town, scared of the monster. Rumors that it carries people off.
-I head into the Lhusu Mines and take it out. Diabolos goes down pretty quick.
-I turn in the quest, and the kids thank me for taking care of it. Nobody would believe them. They run off to play with their friends. AND THEY VANISH.
They must have been the spirits of Diabolos’ victims, and now they can rest. THAT’S FUCKING AWESOME.
-Afterwards, I talk to a nearby woman. She overheard me turning in the hunt, and just assumed I was talking to myself.
There was never anyone else there. I love it. A nice, Halloween hunt.
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Hunt: Pylraster
-YAY!! I found this when starting my hunt for Ixion in Pharos. I started at the very beginning of the zone, and a huge dino was just wandering around.
-It’s a tough, but straightforward fight. Pylraster uses one of the scariest abilities in the game: Growing Threat. It DOUBLES his level. Yikes.
Black Mage!Ashe continues to be the all-star. I recently picked up Ardor, and it blows Pylraster apart.
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Hunt: Ixion
-Again, props to the poster art. One of those nightmare horses, with thunder erupting.
-The petitioner is troubled by dreams of Ixion, nightmares. Literal nightmares. It was a legendary beast that was cast away from the Cerobi Steppe. It found its way to Ridorana.
“Ever since, you can hear its cries on sleepless nights. The cries of Ixion.” So I’m not sure where it is, but it’s in the Pharos with whereabouts unknown. I’m heading back to the lighthouse.
-The elevator is here and now offers to take me to “Penumbra.” Um. Ok?
WHOA – NEW AREA!!! It takes me to “Subterra,” the lower level. Ixion “greets” me immediately on getting off the elevator. Was not ready for that.
-It got a bit scary early, and settled into a fine battle. Removing silence/sleep, doing damage, healing up.
-The petitioner in Balfonheim is relieved. She can sleep again. She gives me a sword: Ragnarok.
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Pharos Subterra
-I want to keep exploring this place.
-HOLY HELL THERE ARE A LOT OF ENEMIES – they feel like they constantly respawn maybe.
[Later edit: This lobby/circle area is one of the most overwhelming in Subterra, with little rewards. Eventually, I just ran from the enemies to the side doors, where things were more manageable.]
-Surprise boss! A phoenix. Nothing too special in the fight – it goes down relatively easy.
I was running around here for a while, trying to find out what the hell was going on, and then I ran into a Magic Pot. It OBLITERATED me. Didn’t take any damage, blasted me with Flares.
Now, I’ve seen this enemy type in past games. I know I’m supposed to give it stuff, usually an elixir. The problem is the gambit system. As soon as I went into the room my party went HAM. After I died, I slowly approached it again, cleared out the other enemies, and fed it an Elixir.
The Magic Pot proceeded to RUN WILD, flopping happily over the zone and causing me to run after it, pulling a thousand different enemies in my attempt to get it.
-First area was Penumbra. When I filled all the various altars around the place, got access to the next place. But it wasn’t at all clear.
-One thing I hate about the Subterra is this mini-game to collect Black Orbs that drop from enemies. It’s super frustrating to get your character to juuuust the right pixel that lets me pick it up.
-The next tier is Abyssal. I’ll be honest: this is not my favorite zone. I’ve stopped fully exploring. The ghosts and zombies and status effects swarm me, and I haven’t found much in the way of rewards. I have enough Black Orbs at this point to progress, so I do.
Maybe if I came back at a higher level it would go smoother. My party is in the mid-60s (65-66) right now.
-Yet another area opens up: “Unknown.” I head down and meet a boss. Shadowseer.
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Hunt: The Seer
-This is an interesting one. The poster shows five separate creatures. A sea creature, a firebird, an adamantoise, a rock golem, and… a wolf maybe? It’s yellow and smaller. Not sure which is the Seer. I feel like it’ll be a callback, but not sure which yet.
-Montblanc is the petitioner. The Seer is one of the enemies in the poster and it has four buddies, so this’ll likely be like the Cluckatrice fight.
-The Seer is within Pharos at Ridorana. I find him in the bottom of Subterra.
He’s got an incredibly cool character design. Clearly humanoid, with long hair floating high above him. He’s suffused in shadow. Moves like he’s in a slow motion nightmare.
-And holy shit, this guy is hard. He summons the three watchers consecutively that I’d fought climbing through Pharos. Pandaemonium, Slyt, and Fenrir. All while Shadowseer is attacking me. I thought I was done, but then Shadowseer summoned Phoenix, the boss I fought in Subterra.
It took a long, long time. Lots of Phoenix Downs, slow and grinding.
Once only the Shadowseer remained, on his own he was tough. Threw out some serious magic. But I pushed through and survived. WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Well said, Montblanc.
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Next time: continuing these hunts and exploration. Basically, I’ll keep going in this way until I get either bored or overmatched, whichever comes first. Then I’ll move onto the Sky Fortress Bahamut.
