Ship Time
-Working my way up the earth esper tree. I got my first tier 2 esper, Golem, a goofy tree dude. Coming options are Diabolos or the ridiculously adorable Cu Sith, a puppy with a marching band hat.
-Hm… I can’t seem to equip Golem in a troupe… aha, I need to equip a rank 2 esper only to a rank 2 slot! I can currently equip one rank 2 esper only. That’ll probably change as the story progresses.
-Lore time. The Yarhi don’t die in combat. They simply dissipate and return to their world.
-The lore draws on a sort of bible, “The Canon,” with Feolthanos as God.
-New log entries. Omg, Tomaj created the Ba’Gamnan-control just to kill time.
-Llyud mentions the Keep of Forgotten Time. Feolthanos may reside there. Sounds like a final dungeon.
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Melee
-Before moving onto the next island, I wanted to give “melees” (repeatable combat scenarios) a shot.
-Three melee options await me at the Fane of Gucuma Qul: Monster Melee, Sky Pirate Melee, and Summoning Melee. Monster Melee is just against espers, sky pirates is both leaders and espers, and summoning is against leaders with espers who resummons espers through summoning gates.
-I can do a monster melee pretty easily, but this Sky Pirate Melee defeats me.
-Low esper diversity is a problem. I regret going hard on the earth esper path. Going forward, I plan to make pacts with espers based on enemies I face on each new mission. Stay flexible and build a diverse base. I want at least rank I espers in each element for each type (flying, range, melee).
-Once the fight starts, I’m limited in how much I can control. There’s some micromanaging, but it’s really hard to precisely click a group of allies and precisely click the enemy I want them to attack. It’s mostly me clicking on all my party members and espers and sending them to do their thing at the enemy group.
Revenant Wings combat is… not the best.
However, before fights, I can pick a party that effectively counters the strongest parts of the enemy. That ability to counter seems super important. That’s where I’ll put my mental energy.
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Chapter 3: What Goes Up (Tormelados, Isle of the Megalith)
-We set out for the western island.
-Vaan is bothered. We’re only one group, while sky pirates could be spread all over this region. I mean… yes, but are you proposing we split the party?
-Tomaj has an idea. A notice board! What a very FFXII idea. As we learn about sky pirate mischief on Lemures, those missions will go on the board.
-There’s a new option on my main menu for these notice board missions, a Tomaj button. Neat! I thought the melees would be the only side stuff.
-The melees gave me experience but not auracite. I’ll be curious if the notice board missions provide that auracite for new espers.
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Tomaj Missions
-The first mission is Bug Hunt. It revisits an old area with a new challenge.
-lolol the boss here is a bangaa who tried summoning something awesome but messed up and just got a bunch of big ants.
-I DO get Auracite as rewards. Sweeeeeet! These notice board missions can build my esper pool.
-We defeat Quaddo, the Verminlord. Sounds like he’ll be back for future events.
-Another mission has us force our way to help some aegyl on the defensive. They fought us off at first, thinking us hostile. (Pro tip: if someone doesn’t want your help, maybe don’t attack them to prove that they should accept your help?)
-The aftermath of this mission is especially sad. We convinced the aegyl of our intentions, but even so they feel hostile towards Llyud.
Llyud’s becoming an outcast for teaming up with us.
-The last of this initial trio of Tomaj’s missions is back in the Fane of Gucuma Qul, that sacred temple to the Eternal. Yarhi are all over despite that unbound Yarhi are generally forbidden.
-The final mission here has me track down the sky pirate who unleashed the Yarhi on the temple.
-It’s Quaddo again. Interesting – Llyud is shunned by his own for acting against his expected nature as an aegyl, and now Quaddo scorns us as sky pirates for doing the same.
It’s FAR worse for Llyud. He’s shunned by his family while we’re shunned by our profession. But still. A theme.
-Hee! I love one of the bosses here, a “Nearsighted Archer.”
-I like how this series of missions feeds into the newbies’ understanding of being sky pirates. They thought it was adventure and until now hadn’t considered that there are thieves and bullies in the profession too.
It’s up to Kytes and the others to decide what kind of sky pirates they want to be.
-Completing this batch of side missions also gives me a sense of the main game’s length. There’s a list of missions, most of which are still just “????,” but at #46 the side missions start. I’ve completed 10 main missions, which tells me I’m just under a quarter through the main game.
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Savagery – The Kisne Rise (3-1)
-When I arrive at the western island, a sky pirate attack against the aegyl is underway.
-This mission has me save the aegyl one-by-one from pirate bands. My favorite enemy is this jolly-looking seeq:
Thankfully, the aegyl have great durability. It’s not like I have to rush to reach each aegyl quickly lest the enemies kill them.
-One of my rewards is a new recipe book.
-I regroup afterwards with the now-safe aegyl. The pirates are bee-lining for the auracite, regardless of who gets hurt along the way.
-The aegyl will stay on our airship in the meanwhile for safety.
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Ship Time
-The aegyl fear that the Judge of Wings is Feolthanos himself. I doubt that.
-Tomaj opened up a shop. The most interesting things here are status protection accessories that guard against confuse, poison, etc.
[Non-rhetorical question: many say “Grants group immunity to [status effect].” Does the “group” include all espers and all leaders in my party, or just that specific leader’s group of espers assigned to them?]
-I’ll hold off on buying status protection stuff for now, until I know what I’m up against, what status effects are slowing/stopping me.
-New lore on the Canon. It contains the code of the aegyl, and forbids contact with the outside world. No wonder the aegyl are side-eying Llyud for his alliance with us.
-It fits Llyud’s character that his ship log entry is in verse. He reminds me a bit of Urianger from FFXIV.
-I check out crafting, but nothing going there. The materials I currently have can only be used to craft the prior tier of gear that I already have.
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Next time: towards the auralith.
