Summary: Doned joins. Ritz can’t bring herself to say goodbye. Preparing for the home stretch.
Hidden Vein
-A mine foreman wants me to investigate whether any mythril remains. Marche is just taking this job to grab Doned’s attention. He’s bound to try to stop us.
Marche is getting crafty.
-The plan works. A gang pounces on us as get to the cave.
-We fight them off and call Doned out of his hiding spot.
-He isn’t ready to go back. This is a world where he can run and have snowball fights. He’s in a clan with friends. Not fighting yet – too young – but soon!
MARCHE: “You were always saying ‘I want this’ and ‘I don’t want that.’ And I always had to put up with everything.”
Marche argues that because Doned needed so much attention for his health, Marche could never ask for anything without seeming selfish.
…I mean, I get that it’s lonely, and that sucks, but it sure as hell sounds like you’re trying to blame Doned which is gross?
-Now here’s a better path. He’s telling Doned that all the growth he’s had here, all the fun, doesn’t have to be temporary. “I don’t think you have to lose what you’ve found here.”
Is magical healing on the horizon? Feels like it. If so, then again, I’m mixed. I totally get why Doned as a character would want that, but I also get why that trope can be harmful.
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To Ambervale
-Later, Doned and Marche confer in the clan hall. I’m happy to see the bros back together. (Even if I only saw them together for like two minutes at the start.) Ritz may know where Mewt went.
-A clan member enters with a message from Judgemaster Cid. They found the queen in a place called Ambervale, the Royal Valley.
-Cid’s here. He asks me a favor: go to Siena Gorge and get amber. It’s actually a request from Ezel Berbier, needed for a powerful antilaw.
-It’s unusual to hear this request from the judgemaster himself, but sounds good to me! I imagine that Queen Remedi will try to impose some powerful “DO NOTHING” type law when we reach Mewt.
-I leave, but the camera lingers.
Ritz and Shara know where we’re going.
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Over the Hill
-We head to Siena Gorge. Clan Ritz awaits, blocking the way to Prince Mewt.
-Interesting! Her clan is all viera.
-Ritz can’t help but laugh. The kid who always got picked on back in St. Ivalice is now charging with his clan into battle with hers.
SHARA: “They don’t pick on Marche anymore, though. Not here.” Damn right. He’s become a force.
Buffy spoilers: V vzntvar gung vs ohyyvrf gel gb cvpx ba Znepur onpx va Fg. Vinyvpr, vg'yy or yvxr gur pbasebagngvba orgjrra Pbeqryvn naq Knaqre ng gur raq bs "Gur Mrccb."
-Ritz doesn’t want to talk with Marche. She’s determined to stop him.
-I don’t have to defeat all the clan members. Just Ritz.
-Even now, Shara tries to stop Ritz. Not because she thinks she’ll lose, but rather because she’s afraid of the impact that her fighting Marche will have.
AGAIN I LOVE SHARA!! I love her loyalty, how willing she is to be honest in challenging situations with Ritz and take hits for her. She’s constantly checking up on her friend.
-The dialogue is pretty great here. Ritz knows the end of the game is near. She knew this game would have to end at some point.
But she wants just a little bit more.
RITZ: “That’s why I decided I’d do as much as I could. Even if the world is going to turn back no matter what. I won’t take it lying down!”
-We fight on a bridge at sunset. When it’s over, it’s… sad. We have to do it, but it doesn’t feel good. That “Mission cleared!” victory music brings no joy.
-Even having cleared the way, she STILL won’t join us.
MARCHE: “Hey, Ritz! Will you hate me if I bring back the real world?”
RITZ: “No, I won’t. I don’t think what you’re doing is wrong either. I just want to stay here. That’s all.”
OH GOD MY HEART I’M FUCKING CRYING
There are certain tropes that hit me like a gut punch. The idea of finding utopia and wanting to hang on, even if you KNOW that part of what makes it utopia is its temporary state… just, this is everything to me.
I’ll try to bring myself to talk more about this in the game wrap-up, and why this hits me so hard.
-The camera lingers behind on Ritz and Shara as Marche moves on. (Symbolic, that.) She’s sure he’s going to end this world.
“He’s changed. He’s moved on. I wonder why I haven’t.”
RITZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
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Random Missions, Combat, Rumors
-A Brevenia tournament is coming up. There will be “special laws.” Uh oh.
-I head into the tournament, and it’s looking awesome. Only color magic is allowed. The enemies are all mages.
-I don’t have a ton of mages, so I kind of wing it a bit. Blue magic to soften em up (Twister), use my red mage to crowd control early with Sleep, and hammer away with a couple of black mages.
-The next Bervenia competition is a swimming meet. The trick in this fight is that the battlefield is mostly water with some islands in between.
It’s a lot of positioning and strategy.
-Just completed a mission that netted me a Scorpion Tail, which grants my alchemist Meteor. Hell yes.
-A nameless swordsman lost his memory and needs my help getting it back. This is called a “reserve mission,” and I don’t know what it means. I don’t have the required items to try it: Gold Vessel and Eldagusto.
I screenshotted this because my inner 13 year old snickered. Blame him.
-The “Damage > MP” passive ability in this game feels broken. Not overpowered, but actually not working as it should. If my character is at like 5 MP and takes 200 damage, it reduces MP to 0… but doesn’t carry over to health. The character then regains a few mana over the next turn and is essentially invulnerable again to the next hit. It’s weird.
-Found an Ifrit-based staff called Lotus Staff that teaches Flare and Gigaflare. Woohoo!!
-Finally unlocked my final job, summoner. Needed white mage and elementalist abilities.
-I’m pretty confused about what to do with all these mission items. I’m constantly full of them.
I don’t want to use them since they may come in handy later, but so many of them just feel like they’re taking up space.
-A rumor tells me about a Clan League, some clan-based tournament.
-Lol, I already had Ragnarok, but now I got the sword “Nagrarok.”
Ragnarok, but better!
And Zanmato too!
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Side Missions: Auggie’s Assistants
-For one mission, I have to track down Professor Auggie. Their name has come up before. I think I had to recover one of their studies? But I could be mixing my professors.
-Something’s weird here. I beat the enemies, but the fight isn’t over. There are two “odd statues” here. I can’t deal any damage to them. I even get yellow cards for attacking them.
-Totemas knock them out. The professor is behind the statues.
-I was wrong about the yellow cards. I got them for violating “Copycat.” I assumed Copycat was Mimic, but I think I just can’t use the same ability twice in a row. No biggie, just lost some gil.
-The professor quests continue with “Mythril Rush.” His inventions found a mythril vein in that same Tubola Cave.
-I don’t have to fight for this. I find the Nu Mou professor Auggie at the cave and pay him 10k gil for the ore.
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Next time: I’ll try the last mission. I know there’s a ton more available, more missions and side stuff and weapons and armor to find, but this feels like the end.
