Royal Valley – Llednar Twem
-A new area is on the map: Ambervale. I didn’t have the choice where to place it.
[Later edit and non-rhetorical question: There’s still one empty map slot remaining. why is this? Is this some final bonus spot? ]
-It offers me the chance to save my game when I reach it. Yup, this feels like the end.
-Cid leads me into a beautiful, ornate chapel.
-Babus lies unconscious on the ground.
-Llednar meets us at the gate, blocking the way to the queen and Mewt. This is gonna be a multi-stage area it seems.
-Cid helps me how a judge can. “I hereby nullify all laws protecting Llednar!” Adios, invulnerability.
-Llednar summons a party of his own. Here we go.
-Note to self: I expect to die. I’m not especially high level, in the mid-high 20s. Think and adjust.
-Holy crap, they hit HARD. Their illusionist’s Stardust obliterates much of my party.
Thank goodness I just have to take out the boss, Llednar. I can beeline for him.
-Got him! (with… like, half my party dead lol) He turns to stone and crumbles.
-Babus is okay. He wakes, and urges us to hurry inside. “Please… help him…”
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Royal Valley – Queen Remedi
-The queen awaits in the next room in front of a giant statue/fresco of a woman with a cupper hand outstretched.
-She’s upset that Llednar is dead. Specifically, that Mewt lost someone else close to him.
This game is so kind. The major antagonists throughout – Cid, Babus, Llednar, Remedi – don’t want to destroy or conquer. They want to protect a scared, lonely, grieving, bullied child. The primary conflict is about how to best help a group of kids.
-Remedi acknowledges this world is an illusion, but still wants Marche to want it. Isn’t he happy here? Isn’t this world better than his life back in St. Ivalice?
MARCHE: “I did want all those things, yes. But that’s not me. I felt like I had become someone else when I came here… but I hadn’t. I am who I am. I am what I have done. There’s no ‘real me’ out there! I’m right here!”
I agree… but I see this as praise of this world rather than indictment. Marche used his time here to build himself up, to grow. That is real. This “illusion” fostered that growth. It gave him space and agency.
-Remedi doesn’t press her point further. She simply calls out to Mewt and asks what he wants.
-Mewt appears lying in the palm of that weeping statue.
He’s not ready to go yet. He doesn’t want his mother to leave. Which, again, understandable.
In praise of Remedi’s non-villainous villainy, I fully believe that if Mewt had said he was ready to go, she’d have bowed out of the way.
-Remedi dons what looks like lighter combat gear and hand-scythes.
“I am the fulfiller of wishes.”
-She’s fulfilling Mewt’s wish. And Marche’s. But March can appreciate this world while wishing to be back home.
-The queen turns two statues nearby into giant monsters. Boss fight.
-Ah! The creatures Remedi summoned are Famfrit and Adrammelech.
-I manage to surround Remedi. Again, I ignore the adds.
-A final flare, and down goes Remedi!
-We approach Mewt. We hear a series of jumbled thoughts:
“But… but they’ll pick on me…”
“You’re embarrassing me, dad…”
“Mama! Don’t leave!”
GOD THIS IS HEARTBREAKING – a swarm of all the worst parts of this kid’s life, all his grief and pain and fear.
-Marche pushes forward. He promises support, that he’ll be there for Mewt when they go home.
MEWT: “Part of me understands. Part of me wants to go home. But… I still want things to stay like this…”
They can! The time you got to spend here doesn’t get erased. You can carry the feelings of love and power you had here back home, and your friends will be there to help you.
---
Royal Valley – Li-Grim
-Remedi stands up.
“I am the wish-gatherer. I am the world-maker. Desire is the thread that binds the worlds together.”
PHASE TWO, HERE WE GO! I should’ve expected this. I didn’t. [Later edit: Has any final boss after FFIV had just one phase?]
-Remedi has become something ethereal now. The pure essence of wishes that tie this world together.
-Her name is Li-grim. This is final boss music. She summons two Mateus’ by her side.
Yet again, FFTA kicks ass with this portrait and sprite art.
-They deal heavy elemental damage to all of us.
-Mid-fight, Marche begs Mewt to wake up and help. We literally can’t end the wishes if he’s still wishing.
Something in Mewt responds. “…Marche…?”
-OH THAT’S SOME BULLSHIT.
She uses Descent, summoning a totema that one-shots us all from full health and how is that fair and grrrrrr
*a few attempts later*
[Later edit: I used a save state here so that when I died, I just restarted with party adjustments at Li-grim. I did not want to have to go through all the combat and cutscenes from the start of Royal Valley to adjust my Li-grim strategy. Idc if that’s cheap. They should’ve let me save between phases. Hell, I would’ve been fine with them just letting me save post-Llednar so I could start at Queen Remedi.]
-My strategy is “Protect the Marche.” His dual katanas do heavy damage. has Angel Ring for auto-life, dual katanas, and my other party members support him. For instance, Montblanc has juggler abilities for Smile to reset Marche’s attack.
My next strategy: pray Li-grim doesn’t use destroy me with Descent.
-GOOD GOOD she’s using the Nu Mou MP-destroying descents.
-HAHAHA VICTORY!!!!
-Mewt sees his ethereal blue “mama” twinkle out.
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The White-Haired Girl
-Scene change to Ritz and Shara walking in scrublands. It starts to snow.
-Ritz knows what’s up. She’s not sure she’ll ever be okay with losing this.
-She starts to panic about her hair going white, when Shara steps in. Viera have white hair too!
“White hair is the most beautiful gift of the spirits. No mere human could receive this gift. Only you.”
You were chosen. You are special.”
Dammit im crying again
“I would like to see your real hair, Ritz. I would! I think it must be as beautiful as new-fallen snow.”
FDSHFJKLDSHFDJKLSHFDLS THESE TWO FHDJKLSFHDS
-Shara thinks if Ritz embraces her hair, her mother will be happy too. That her mother is only sad because Ritz is sad about her hair. That if she accepts herself, then that’s all her mother wants. Perhaps.
Ritz is now ready to go home.
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Goodbye, Ivalice
-Scene change the Royal Valley. Marche, Cid, and Montblanc meet Babus outside.
-No sign of the prince. He just disappeared after the fight.
“His wishes disappeared and so did he.”
-How is this world still here if Remedi is gone and Mewt disappeared?
-We hear Mewt’s voice. “Babus… Dad, Marche... I’ll be right there.”
-Mewt materializes, holding the book that started all this. (Which strangely vanishes for the duration of the following conversation, reappearing at the end.)
-Mewt was in the ether somewhere, saying goodbye to his mother. “She told me to look after you, Dad.” I’m not sure if he actually met his real mother’s spirit or simply the remnants of his wish.
I like to think it doesn’t matter. This is about how he gains closure and copes with loss, not whether he literally communed with a spirit.
-This is really it for Ivalice.
-Marche and Montblanc say their farewells. THEY HUG AWWW! Sort of? It’s not a full on hug, more of an awkward chest bump.
-How much of their memories of this world will they retain? I’ll be a bit miffed if there’s a full on memory wipe.
[Later edit: though I suppose in some circumstances that’d be a mercy. https://xkcd.com/693/ ]
-Babus has dedicated his life to serving Mewt, and now has to say goodbye. They don’t even know if Mewt will remember Babus’s life of service.
We haven’t spent a lot of time on the tragedy of the seemingly-sentient dream beings learning they’re about to fade away.
They seem pretty chill – chill enough that I think this world is more ephemeral than I’d initially given it credit for. The dream characters are here to support the main characters.
CID: “Perhaps if those here wish it enough, they will remain.” I hope so. I don’t want this Ivalice to disappear.
MARCHE: “Goodbye, Ivalice! Goodbye, everyone!”
-The book flashes with power.
-Scene change to Doned at the Clan Hall, saying goodbye to his friends.
-He leaves. The clan members fade away. The whole screen washes.
-And in one of my favorite small touches of this ending, we scene change to a random encounter. Some generic clan members are fighting a generic panther, supervised by a generic judge.
Dream warriors who never knew their nature. They all fade.
---
Hello, St. Ivalice
-Scene change to a snowy city street, outside the St. Ivalice café. Ritz is walking with someone. Hard to tell her companion’s age. I think it’s her mother but could just be a friend.
-Her hair is white and undyed. She is viera-blessed. and she looks much happier right now.
Maybe she’ll dye it later. If she does, it won’t be from a place of fear and self-hate.
-One of Cid’s old employees – Biggs! – approaches him outside the café. Biggs started his own company. He offers Cid a job!
-Scene change to what looks like a public park. Doned’s still in his wheelchair. I like this – that Doned can grow without needing magical healing.
MARCHE: “Hey, Doned! You finished ‘Final Fantasy’ yet? Can you tell me how to defeat Adrammalech?”
“Easy! Double Sword and Mindbreak are pretty good…”
Three things:
1) LOLOL THIS META SHIT IS STILL WILD TO HEAR
2) Doned is SO RIGHT about Double Sword. That was the best ability in the game.
3) MINDBREAK!! I should’ve thought of that on Li-grim. [Non-rhetorical question: would Mindbreak have reduced the damage of her Descend ability where she uses totemas against us?]
-They head inside to play some FF together.
-Scene change. A snowy day at school. A bookend to this game.
-Bullies are back, chucking snowballs at Mewt. HEY BULLIES, WE KILLED ZOMBIE VERSIONS OF YOU, NO FUN GROWTH DREAM FOR YOU JACKWAGONS
-They start to taunt the “new kid” for helping Mewt.
MARCHE: “The name’s not ‘new kid.’ It’s Marche. And don’t you forget it.” Hell yes! He and Mewt chuck snowballs back at the stunned bullies and walk away.
Middle school mic drop.
-The credits roll. The end.
-Holy lord. What a game. To crib from Mark: I have thoughts
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Next time: Final thoughts and wrap-up on FFTA later this week. I know there’s a lot in FFTA I haven’t done. I’m at 210 missions, with many undone in my quest log. But I’m done for the moment.
Next week (around April 15th) I plan to start Revenant Wings, assuming I can get a DS emulator up and running.
