Victorious Return to Eagrose Castle
-Dycedarg is PISSED that we went off on our own to rescue the marquis.
-Delita nobly tries taking the blame. Ramza tries taking it back. “I’m Spartacus!” “No, I’M Spartacus!”
-Duke Larg interrupts this, praising us for our bravery.
-Final strike time shortly against the Corpse Brigade.
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Party Building
-Combat seems to scale. After some testing (namely, getting annihilated by a pack of level 7 enemies when all my party were level 1 and 2), they scale to either the highest party member or Ramza, not sure which. I don’t like this. It should scale to the party on the battlefield imo.
[Non-rhetorical question: what’s the correct term to describe these recruited party members? Squad members?]
-The bomb enemies’ critical HP face is hilarious.
-I love that all HP/MP heals after battle!
-Hired Josephine (59/62) as another mage.
-Lauda was my black mage, but I see that she’s (71/49) and so I’m swapping her to some physical job.
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Job Thoughts
-My party’s level range is a bit spread out. Ramza is 7, and a couple of my more party members are near it, but many are not. I want to try building a decent squad and exploring this job system a bit more.
~~a long while later~~
-So I’ve built up a squad. Recruited new squad members, tried out different jobs, and got waaaaay more comfortable with the combat system through lots of combat to the point where I actually look forward to my play sessions now.
Here’s where I’m at, with some brief initial thoughts on each job, and the role I see it playing in a party.
[Note: I KNOW I’m wrong about this. I’m sure I have opinions on these jobs that are wildly wrong, thinking great jobs are bad and bad jobs are great. I’m totally comfortable with that. :])
Ramza (72/70) – Lv7 MONK (melee damage). I love this job. I love it so much. Its defense feels powerful (and I love counter), and big ol’ hamfist punches. Versatile attacks to work towards – range, aoe, etc.
Frances (64/56) – Lv7 THIEF (physical support). I have a feeling I won’t use this that much. It looks like the kind of job that is amazing on a second playthrough, when you know what kind of armor and weapons and accessories each enemy has to steal.
Move+2 and Jump+2 look great, and I’m gonna try poach out.
Owyne (68/52) – Lv7 SQUIRE (physical support). Owyne can motor. Like, he got the zoomies. Move +1 and just very versatile getting around the field, throwing stones, Salving. I haven’t tested out Focus yet, but I’ll bet Squire can put out some damage if Focus stacks up over a long fight.
Eadbert (74/66) – Lv6 ARCHER (ranged phys damage). I hated this job at first, and now I love it. Getting better at reading distance, and few things are more satisfying than getting high ground and bombing arrows down on enemies from across the battlefield.
Guston (52/52) – Lv7 MYSTIC (magic support) – Tons of buffs and debuffs. I’ll likely dump Guston since faith of 52 is pretty low, and I worry about status effects not landing.
Millicent (59/53) – Lv7 CHEMIST (healer) – My strongest single-target healer currently. A real powerhouse, especially given that I don’t run out of mana and can load up on potions beforehand.
Diamanda (58/46) – Lv7 KNIGHT (tank/physical support) – Shield, heavy armor, and decent physical damage. I’m excited to dive into its more expensive debuffs.
Josephine (59/62) – Lv7 WHITE MAGE (healer) – A burstier and tougher healer than chemist.
Randwulf (46/62) – Lv7 BLACK MAGE (magic damage) – Similar positioning challenges to the white mage. It’s not bad just yet with the short casting spells, but I imagine landing the higher level spells without roasting my fellow party members will be a major challenge.
I’m also not sure how to spend my JP for black mage. Started with Fire and then the 400 JP Arcane Strength. I’ll try Blizzara next. (Still a bit weird to me that I can skip spell ranks.)
Lauda (71/49) – Lv7 TBD. Currently working down the archer path.
Braya (57/57) – Lv4 TBD. Currently working down the mystic path.
Morys (69/68) – Lv7. Currently a monk, working towards geomancer.
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Brigands’ Den
-Time to finish off the Corpse Brigade. Going with knight, monk, archer, chemist.
-It’s a huge bottleneck of a battlefield.
-Some white mages here. Milleuda is a knight among the group. She complains that her brother was too indecisive. Her brother must be either Gustav or the other dude.
-This is the first fight where my objective isn’t to defeat everyone, but just Milleuda.
-Cleared the enemies other than Milleuda. She still feels righteous anger towards the nobles, that they treat soldiers like her like pieces of shit.
“Why must we be made to starve that you might grow fat? You call us thieves, but it is you who steal from us the right to live!”
Milleuda is ready to take the means of production, and it sounds like the Corpse Brigade really got screwed.
ARGATH: “You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there’s a beastly thought. You’ve been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired.”
FUCK OFF DUDE. Calling it now: Argath is a villain in the future. He must be. God he’s the WORST. He thinks her shitty luck in life is the will of heaven, and she calls out his nonsense.
-Delita hears this, and wants to show mercy. “Is this woman really our enemy?” I legit don’t think so. And if she is your enemy, it’s you who needs to correct that, not her.
But this is a fight, and the fight is on. I tried not attacking her any more after Delita said that in case I could impact the outcome of the fight.
Perhaps it’s fitting that Argath was the one to finish her off.
-I love the weather sound effects here and the booming thunder without music after the fight. She wants us to finish her off, we don’t want to, but Argath is howling for blood.
ARGATH: “Spare her now, and you place your seal on the warrants for our own deaths!” I guess prisoners aren’t a thing in medievalice? Come on, bro. Chill the fuck out.
-Delita resists. Refuses to strike her down. Good.
-Uh…. She gets up and walks away, cursing us. Like. I was ant-killing her, but couldn’t you capture her? Now I think Delita and Ramza fucked up.
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Eagrose
-The scene suddenly shifts back to the castle. Dead soldiers here. Gragoroth is a dude on chocoboback. Two fallen knights nearby.
-Some folks are kidnapping Alma.
AND HER BRO STORMS OUT OF THE CASTLE AND SLICES THEM APART! Nice save, Zalbaag.
-Inside, Dycedarg is injured. The Corpse Brigade attacked them directly, killing five guards and successfully capturing Tietra.. This is gonna make Delita’s and Ramza’s mercy look sooo much worse.
-Aaaand Dycedarg drops dead.
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Next time: Our “triumphant” return to Eagrose Castle. Jesus. We’re so screwed.
