General Strategy
-I have six initial party members. I’ll try keeping the minimum possible, maybe with some side members for dispatch.
-I want a diverse range of options, and I want each character always working on new abilities.
-Not gonna plan too much beyond that general strategy. Diverse roles, always be growing, minimal party members, and prioritize named characters over generics.
-As usual, I’ll explore without really being completionist. (Completionist runs are usually better done with guides, or at least by better players than me.)
Still, I’ll try to complete side quests before moving onto main story. I’m assuming that the main story quests are the ones with the “Cannot be canceled once accepted” tag.
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Green Dominion (side)
-Four viera are chanting in a circle about “green dominion” and “Njrg.” Sounds like a viera name.
-COOL! They’re all “green mages.” There’s precedent for that sort of job in FFXII’s green magick like syphon, decoy, and bubble.
-I see two types of treasure chests on the battlefield, a plain one and an ornate one. The plain one has a potion. The ornate one has a Grimoire Stone.
-We defeat the green mages. They apologize – they spent a full day preparing magick only to have us interrupt it. Makes sense that they felt miffed.
“I go contrite. Let me share the wisdom of the green mage with you.” OH HELL YES!! NEW JOB! And one I unlock through a quest rather than mastering a certain combination of abilities in other more basic jobs. I really like this.
-They say they come here each month to study green magick. Not sure if that’s just flavor text, or if I should check this tile out every month or so. I’ll check back next month just in case, but I’m pretty sure it’s the former.
-I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the rewards from a mission, tbh. All kinds of weapons and bazaar materials and consumables.
I’m not complaining! It’s good to be rewarded. Just a lot to process.
-Green mage seems to be a buff/debuff job exclusive to viera.
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Side Quests & Rumors
-I notice that some items have on-hit effects, like the measures in FFXII. For instance, the White Staff removes Doom on hit. Super useful.
-I’m digging the tutorial system, how it shows the tutorials via story-based rumors.
-There are eight elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Earth, Wind, Holy, and Dark.
-I have a tendency to hoard things until juuuuust the right moment, which never comes, rather than using them as I go. I’m going to try to fight that tendency in the bazaar.
-The stuff I get from the bazaar helps give me job direction. Like , a couple of my weapons give fighter abilities, so when I get a fighter (still undiscovered) I’ll build that.
-Woohoo! Some bazaar goodies netted me fencer weapons. My favorite job.
-I’m finding the nu mou toughest to build. Currently she only has access to white and black mage, and I only have two starter weapons there.
-There’s a new option in the pub called “Notices.” The first one, “Fluffy and Pink,” lets me know about a popular flower called the prima peta.
-I can now access clan trials. Doing so gets me new titles and privileges.
-The missions I’ve done have been Rank 3. I’m now seeing a bunch of Rank 7 and Rank 8 quests in the pub, and Rank 10 Clan Trials. I’m concerned I’m underleveled for that.
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The Yellow Wings (main)
-Back at HQ. Someone is complaining that bandits block the road to Camoa. This frustrates Cid, who was hoping to check there for better info and quests.
-Off to the highroad for a fight!
-The Yellow Wings (perhaps the little cousins of the Red Wings?) are a standard group of bullying highwaymen.
My party pushes through them without too much trouble.
-There’s an “MVP.” Not sure if that just highlights the most impactful member or if it confers a bonus.
-Luso is excited (isn’t he always?) to see his first major town in Ivalice.
LUSO: “I’ll just take a quick tour…”
CID: “A tour? Have you forgotten why we go to Camoa in the first place?”
It’s an odd character trait for Luso to give so few shits about returning home. Cid seems to care more about it than Luso does.
-Aha, there are area maps (like where we’re starting, for the Targ Wood) and the world map.
-I can move between locations on an area map within a day, but moving to another area on the world map takes a full calendar day.
Note to self: prioritize time-limited quests.
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Regeant Run (side)
-One particular quest available requires a specific quest item, cactus fruit. This mission rewards that item.
-Interesting! I have THREE options when asked to accept it. “Yes,” “Dispatch,” and “No.” Does that mean I can either send a party member on it as a dispatch OR do it myself? That’d be amazing.
-This is a rank 8 quest. My prior quests have been only rank 3. I assume that correlates to difficulty and that this will be too tough for me right now, but we’ll see.
-Still not sure if this game will have random encounters like in FFT, semi-random encounters like FFTA, or something else.
-My objective in this mission is to collect a “muskmallow” sample. Does that mean I don’t need to do combat?
OMG I LOVE THIS ANIMIST ABILITY! “100% Wool” gives the caster protect and shell, but more importantly the animation shows a big fluffy sheep rolling on top of the moogle’s head.
All the animations in this game are pretty great. Like the fencer ability Swarmstrike. In FFTA, a little cloud of bees appears on the enemy’s head. Here though, the bees swarm from the camera down to the enemy in a 3D effect.
-Booooo. The law in this fight was against “Knockback.” My regular attack caused a knockback which broke the law. That seems a bit goofy.
-There are a number of interactable nodes here where I can search for muskmallow, my objective. Failing didn’t just bring a simple “You found nothing.” It’s: “You find a pile of wolf dung. Your hands smell… unpleasant.” XD
-This map has another ornate treasure chest that drops a “Eureka Crystal” (like the starry FF3 end zone?) rather than a Grimoire Crystal.
-I spend new loot at the bazaar and unlock an Iron Hammer. Three thing:
1) I deeply love the flavor text on different items.
2) The Iron Hammer teaches a Viking ability. THERE’S A VIKING JOB IN FFTA2! This is the second time the job’s appeared in the series so far, the first being in FF3.
3) The first Viking job ability is Pickpocket? Really? That doesn’t go to the thief? I mean, it probably is also available on other weapons for thief, but still. A weird fit on Vikings.
Or maybe not. They’re plunderers after all. Just not usually in a stealthy sort of way.
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Next time: continuing Targ Wood side quests, and trying out clan trials.
