Magick City of Gariland
-Three options are open to me here: Tavern, Outfitter, and Warriors’ Guild.
-I start with the tavern. Very pleasant music! I love the Tavernmaster’s face.
-There are rumors I can investigate.
-The Corpse Brigade brigands have ravaged Gallionne for six months.
-King Ondoria III has been in ill health. Queen Louveria and her retainers have been filling the gaps.
-The Fifty Years’ War between Ivalice and Ordallia started with the death of Ordallia’s King Devanne III. He failed to name a successor. Varoi VI was next in line but King Denamda II of Ivalice proclaimed himself rightful heir.
Interesting! Ivalice was the aggressor.
-It was just a pretense on Ivalice’s part to attack Ordallia’s province of Zelmonia, annexed by Ordallia a century earlier. Zelmonia had petitioned Ivalice for help in liberation.
-Ivalice then moved from Zelmonia to the Ordallian captital, Viura. (Like viera? …lol probably not.) Ivalice’s king died on the road though, giving Ordallia the chance to recover.
-Romanda then joined in. They marched on Ivalice, who repelled them 3 years later.
“Two military orders worthy of mention… are the Order of the Northern Sky, led by… Barbaneth Beoulve, and that of the Southern Sky, led by Cidolfus Orlandeau, known also as the Thunder God.” Hi, Cid!
So both Orders worked for Ivalice.
-Back and forth, back and forth between the two nations. Eventually, Varoi VI’s successor in Ordallia, Prince Lennard, pushed into Ivalice proper. This led to a “peace treaty” favoring Ordallia.
-The “peace treaty” fucked up Ivalice’s economy due to their reparations/tribute. Iirc, this poverty of former nobles and soldiers helped lead to the
-Holy shit. That’s a ton of info. It’s helpful background, something I’ll probably refer back to later to process.
-It cracks me up that the Tavernmaster’s face is at the top just like, “What? That’s just what I heard.” As if some random dude ordered a beer and drunkenly confided a detailed military, political history and economic history of the Fifty Years’ War.
-The Outfitter is next. I start off with potions, antidotes, eye drops, phoenix downs.
-It also shows me a line-up of the game’s jobs.
-It also has a Fitting Room setting, that shows maximized gear I can buy for each party member.
-I can recruit new troops in the Warriors’ Guild. I’ll hold off for now until I get a handle on how many of my current troops I’ll need and what gaps I want to fill.
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Deathbed
-On my way to the Mandallia Plains, I get a cutscene of cutscene of Barbaneth Beoulve, dying. His kids are with him, minus Ramza who busts in late.
-Ramza busts in late. It’s clear that Barbaneth cares deeply for Ramza. Urges him to follow a knightly path.
“Your friend, Delita. He is a good boy. He is lowborn, but he can serve you well.” Barbaneth wants Delita to be like a close aide and confidante for Ramza.
RIP Barbaneth Beoulve.
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Mandallia Plain
-This battle only allows me four. I go with three squires and a chemist.
-Some highwaymen hold a hostage. Looks like we have to defeat the Brigade and hopefully rescue the dude as well.
-Argh! I lost a squire. I had her go whole hog, and only later noticed my chemist can’t use phoenix downs. Boo.
-Victory! We saved the dude. Apparently, the “marquis Elmdore de Limberry” was here.
-The dude we saved is Elmdore de Limberry’s knight, Argath. He begs us to help rescue the marquis.
-WHEW! I thought I’d lost Diamanda, the squire. But since the death timer didn’t finish counting down, she’s still in my party.
[Later edit: I detest my party members having a chance at permadeath. DETEST. Didn’t like it in X-2: Last Mission, don’t like it here. I can envision a fight going down to the wire and barely winning, but going back to an old save anyway because I permanently lose 3-4 members if I accept the victory.
Or maybe I just have to suck it up and get used to leveling up new party members from zero. I guess. Idk.]
-I love how all the fights so far have been scripted fights rather than random encounters. Especially in a game where each fight takes so much times compared with fights in most (all?) prior FF games.
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Job Investigation
-Before we head to Eagrose, I want to take a second and explore the party roster menu. My roster of squires and chemists might be able to expand. I’ll try checking this out after every fight.
-Squire seems to just be the starting job.
-I’m gonna turn Ramza into a Knight. This seems to be a debuffing job – lots of “Rend X” abilities. Parry is the first ability I want.
-OH RIGHT!!!! I can mix and match abilities!
-For now, I’m just trying out a variety. Some I can’t use yet (like archer since I don’t have a bow yet), but I have a squire, a chemist, an archer, a knight (I make Ramza a knight), a white mage.
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Eagrose Castle
-Another flashback first. The Beoulve dinner table. Dycedarg is proud of how his brother (half-brother?) has done as a knight.
-Oh, this isn’t a flashback. This is happening now at Eagrose Castle. Albeit, still in Ramza’s past. And DOUBLY in the past, since it’s also all told through the medieval scholar from the future. Layers!
-Dycedarg offers to have Zalbaag help with the marquis. But Argath’s direct appeals get SHUT TF DOWN.
-Ramza and Argath are to stay here in the castle.
-Later. Argath’s family used to be well-regarded, until Argath’s grandfather was captured in the war and turned traitor. Brought shame on the house of Atreus and all that.
-I like how the battle terrain is also used for non-combat cutscenes.
-Ramza’s family is here! Hi, Alma!
-Ramza is a bit of Serious Sam. Not in an anti-social Squall way. More like if someone like a young FFVI Cyan were a protag.
-We got a ransom note from the Corpse Brigade about the marquis. It rubs Zalbaag the wrong way. The marquis isnt’ usually their kind of target.
-I like both Delita's sister and Ramza's sister.
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Party Building
-I head a few sections over to a dilapidated merchant town, pursuing the marquis.
-We fight our way over to a merchant town. Some dude gets up in some other dude’s face here about the marquis.
He’s in some Sand Rat thing. I gotta remember to slow down message speed. I haaaate that the game automatically scrolls through it rather than making me push a button to move past each dialogue window.
-OH GOD, I CAN HIT MY OWN PARTY MEMBERS WITH ARCHERY! Lolol – it takes me a few rounds wondering why I’m losing a fight before I realize my archer is plinking away at my own party members. I thought I misclicked, but nope. I have to be careful of positioning to allow a clear path.
-The next fight obliterates me. Hard. There are three main groups of attackers – black mage/melee, black mage/melee, and an archer at the top that rained arrows down on me.
I’m still trying to figure out the best general tactic. In this case, I kind of panicked and split my party up. I sent two of them up to the rooftop which took them FOREVER to climb and chase the archers. Others got funneled into a bottleneck. It was bad.
-On my way back, I hit a random encounter. So “grinding” is possible.
-My party is a mix from levels 1-3, so I think I want to build my party a bit before continuing. It’s an older FF mindset I want to get back in the habit of.
In newer FF games, there’s no grinding really required. The pacing is pretty natural. But back when I was playing earlier FF games, I would grind in an area until my party had enough gil to buy the gear sold in that town.
For now, I’ll go back to that approach. I am still very uncomfortable with the combat system, so even if someone more experienced could probably pilot a low level party to success, I am not that. Most of my party members are wearing their beginning gear.
I’m also just starting to explore the job system. I’ll continue that, and try to have a reasonable party set-up before moving forward.
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Next time: Exploring the party system and trying that fight again.
