A Quick Note on Naming Conventions
One design problem I find is with FFTA’s naming conventions and the laws. Certain differences are totally unintuitive to me.
One example is sword names. I understand what a rapier is, but don’t grasp the difference between laws against “blade” but not against “swords.” This continues with broadswords, knight swords, greatswords.
Another example is skills versus techniques. Again, this is technically fine. The action menus tell me whether it’s “Ninja Tech” or “Sagacity Skill,” but it feels like an arbitrary decision which is which.
I’ll check laws at the start of the fight, see that skills are forbidden but techniques are not, and it just doesn’t stick. I have to keep checking back during the fight to remember which is which.
[Later edit: I just fought when “Holy” was forbidden. Fine, I don’t have that white magic spell yet. But apparently ‘Holy” includes all heal abilities, like Cura. Sure. Okay.]
Not a huge problem, and I have no clear better option in mind. Just grinds my gears a bit.
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Link
-There are three options in the link menu: Team Up, Trade Items, Trade Units.
-Never mind. It just says “Link broken. Returning to world map.” These various features are only for pvp. That must be what they meant with “Clan Allying.”
-Went to a store and saw “Trade Items.” You came through, Nono!
This is a gambling feature. Bought one of each to try it out. Some crap, but also a Pure Staff and Feather Boots.
-It’s not unlimited. Not sure how often the trade store restocks.
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Mission: The Bounty
-The palace is offering a bounty. That’s probably for us lol.
-I track down Clan Ox, the group hunting the troublemaker in question.
-omg marche be a LITTLE bit more cautious! Don’t just ask your hunters, “Hey, mind telling me a bit about this mysterious mark of yours?”
They notice. But it’s not enough, so they ask for his name.
“Huh? My name’s Marche. …Why?”
FHDJKLSFHDSJKLFDHSJKLFDS DUDE
-We take them out. My new Firaga weapon on my Nu Mou black mage has turned him into a monster.
-Marche is still shocked – shocked! – that the palace would put a bounty on his head. Have you been awake the last few sessions? Babus and Prince Mewt think you’re a threat to the world! (…and they’re not wrong…)
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Mission: Golden Clock
-A new rumor appears in the pub. The Belta Company has made a “Golden Sandclock.” They want me to investigate someone selling knockoffs.
-I head to the zone, a desert. Shara and Ritz are here.
PHEW. I thought she was gonna attack me for the Marche bounty, but she’s better than that.
They’re on the same mission I’m on.
-We agree that “Prince” Mewt is probably behind the world change. We’re also on the same page that this is Mewt’s dream world.
Or at least Marche and Ritz are on the same page. I’m not so sure. This could be more than a dream. Depending on the magic, it could be as real as the St. Ivalice world.
-Ritz is surprised Marche wants to go home. Isn’t it better here?
She brings up that his brother might “change” here. She must mean making him able to walk, which feels icky. I’ve listened to enough disabled activists to know magical healing trope can problematic af.
-Ritz herself is dead set on staying here.
Marche brings up my point from a few sessions back, that we don’t really know why she wants to stay.
RITZ: “That… that’s none of your beeswax, Marche!” Hm. Whatever it is, she has some bone-deep hurt waiting back home.
As much as I want Ritz and Shara to join us, I understand why that’s not happening just yet.
The fight ends with Marche thanking Ritz for her help on this fight.
RITZ: “Don’t thank me. I wasn’t trying to help you.” This is brutal.
OHHHH SHIT!!! In a fight epilogue, Marche tells Ritz and Shara he hopes they don’t get in trouble for helping someone with a bounty on his head. Their reply is brutal: if they’re caught, they may well turn Marche in.
Marche slinks away. She stalks after him, driving in the dagger. “I might just side with Mewt, you know!”
“Then we’d be enemies, got it?”
Again, I don’t know exactly what motivates Ritz, but she is NOT FUCKING AROUND. She’ll do brutal things to stay away from home.
No reply. Marche leaves.
-The scene unexpectedly lingers on Shara and Ritz. One of the very few times all game we’ve seen a scene without Marche.
Shara wonders why Ritz doesn’t help Marche out after all. He’s got family on the other side, right? And Ritz isn’t a fan of the palace. And doesn’t Ritz have friends/family there?
I love Shara SO MUCH. I love that in front of Marche, she backs up Ritz 100%. I love that in private, she’s forthright and honest with Ritz, even when that honesty might piss her friend off.
-Ritz claims that yes, she has family and friends back in St. Ivalice, but here she has… red hair. “This normal, non-white hair.” (Bold of her to say to Shara with who has white hair and is like two feet away.)
-Ritz really was born with white hair. She had to constantly dye it. Her mom taught her.
“She was always so sad… She looked like she would cry every time she took out the dye.”
“I’d rather be called ‘whitey-locks’ than have to see her take out the dye. What did she have to cry about? Her hair was normal!”
I don’t know what to make of this. It can’t just be aesthetic. Maybe the white hair symbolizes something, or reminded her mother of something. It seems kind of low-key.
Whatever the real reason here, Ritz feels mother was ashamed of her. Here, Ritz can find a family of her own. She can set her own rules. Change things.
-Look. I like Marche and Montblanc, so this isn’t a knock on them. BUT I WANT A PROTAG SWITCH TO SHARA AND RITZ SOOOO BAD. This is awesome.
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The Royal Palace
-Scene change. Prince Mewt paces in front of Babus and his father, panicked that Marche is at large.
-This is so frigging sad! Mewt isn’t an evil king hunting a noble rebel. He just can’t bear going home.
-Things are already breaking down for Mewt. He begs for his mother. Babus is like “she’s just in the other room, brb,” but Mewt falls to his knees and grabs at Babus.
Part of him at least knows Queen Remedi is not his mother. (Or at least THIS Remedi. My working theory is that there’s something wrong with her, but that’s based off of very limited info.)
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Morphin’ Time...?
-Unlocked the “Morpher” job. Morphers can take a captured monster’s form. I’m not sure how to capture a monster. I’ve temporarily done so on a beastmaster, but the fight wouldn’t end with the monster still under my control.
-Apparently, five beastmaster A-abilities unlocked Morpher. I’ll try getting five on some other jobs.
-LOL – during a fight, I controlled a Flan and made her cast an illegal ability, getting her a yellow card. Sorry
-Okay, I’ve tried controlling an enemy multiple times until the end of battle and still the fight didn’t end. Not sure how to capture it.
-What if… okay, I doubt this will work, but I’m trying it. I controlled the enemy a bunch, made it get two yellow cards and get shipped off to prison. Will it be my friend if I free it?
-Boo. I went to prison and the Flan isn’t here. I can’t visit it. Still, that’s a good way to eliminate an enemy! Control them and force them to violate the law and go to prison.
The only downside is I feel like a Hitchcock villain.
[Non-rhetorical question: I give up. I can’t find any hints in game and testing hasn’t worked. How do I capture an enemy?]
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Random Missions, Combat, Rumors
-I forgot to follow a law in one fight and got a yellow card. Now’s my chance to see what that involves.
-After the fight, he got “Status Down.” I go pardon him, having him sit out a couple of fights.
[Non-rhetorical question: Another yellow card later on gave me a “3 Cards” penalty. What does that mean/do?]
-One mission has me find a Snow Fairy. She asks me for a candy as “sweet as the fallen snow.” I don’t have it. Her reply is Shakespearean: “Bummer. You suck.”
-Blue mage enemies get doublecast. WANT. Haven’t unlocked it yet.
[Non-rhetorical question: I silenced an adamantoise and he still used Matra Magic. What gives? Is this one of those nomenclature things, like that silence only affects magic and not “abilities?”]
-Crowd control is crucial on some of these large fights. Landing an early sleep – or better yet, a charm or confuse – makes things way easier.
-Hee! I’m fighting some wanted thieves, the Gabbana Brothers, and lil Gabbana uses an ability called Smile that makes the target take its turn immediately. That was one of my favorite time mage abilities from FFT.
My favorite part of the ability here is that the animation is lil Gabbana throwing a moogle face at his target.
-Found a sword that gives Fighter!Marche doublehand WOOOOT!
-Ooh, I got my fifth black mage ability and unlocked THREE Nu Mou jobs: Illusionist (so that’s what ILV is for! Must’ve misread it. It’s probably ILU), Time Mage, and Alchemist. Hell yes.
Time Mage is likely to be one of the more powerful… but Illusionist is the most intriguing. Trying that next.
HOOOOLY CRAP THE ILLUSIONIST ABILITIES DAMAGE ALL ENEMIES INDISCRIMINATELY! Sure, it’s weaker than straight-up black magic spells, but it hits EVERYONE!
It’s super expensive to cast, which reins it in a bit.
-One mission had me go into ruins in Nargai Cave, ruins dating back to when “golden gil was still in currency.” I went there and fought a pack of lamias, but one of them found something I would’ve missed. I charmed a lamia and it ran over to a statue and smacked it, shattering it.
I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but now there’s a rumor about that mission, that ancient ruins were discovered in Nargai Cave by Clan Nutsy. Those statues the lamia broke were the entrance.
I’ll have to watch for similar ruins and statues.
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Next time: searching for the fourth crystal.
