Summary: Finishing up the last notice board missions before Keep of Forgotten Time. Crafting books. Zalera, Famfrit.
Just for Penelo – Giza Plains (notice board)
-It’s starfruit season in Giza Plains. Let’s get Penelo some ingredients for cooking.
-I love how Basch and Ashe on this mission validate Penelo. She’s not doing something trivial. Her cooking fuels this whole mission.
-There’s a PACK of level 99 golems?? I thought there’d be maybe one, like a superboss.
-…Never mind. They turn out to be not nearly as bad as I expected. Tough enemies but not, like, bosses.
-The pack is huddled around the starfruit tree. I can’t rush past them and get it, so I instead pull out and kill one at a time to clear a path.
-YET ANOTHER crafting book – Hammer of Lightning. A lot of element-specific weapon crafting now.
-Back on the ship. Emperor Larsa loved Penelo’s starfruit! He thanked her by paying to turn her little food stand on the Galbana into a swank culinary station. #GoodGuyLarsa
-She’s reflective. Kytes and Filo aren’t the only ones who learned something about sky pirating. “I really feel like I’ve changed since we left Rabanastre.”
---
Dance of the Dead – The Paramina Rift (notice board)
-This is the mission from before that made me super salty. Zalera is here.
-THAT’S SO COOL! I clicked on Zalera and he’s got a sweet oversized portrait. You can see both the skeleton and the woman stretching into the top DS screen.
-Fighting slowly and carefully through his zombie hordes, and… got him!
-Shit gets heavy afterwards. Kytes wonders if Basch feels what he did at Nalbina was right.
-He responds with wisdom, that right now he’s just trying to honor those whom Zalera has raised. That’s Basch’s defining characteristic. He’s one of the most well-balanced characters in Ivalice.
Basch already had his struggle and story in FFXII. RW keeps that character development. This is the aftermath. He doesn’t need to go through those struggles yet again.
KYTES: “I see why they all call you a hero.”
-Oh wow this is cool. Defeating Zalera, the Death Seraph, gives Basch his Apocalypse Shield quickening that renders allies invincible.
-I unlocked Zalera as a rank 3 esper. He’s a holy-natured esper who can cast both single-target and area effect holy attacks. Perfect when I go against undead.
Just for Penelo – Giza Plains (notice board)
-It’s starfruit season in Giza Plains. Let’s get Penelo some ingredients for cooking.
-I love how Basch and Ashe on this mission validate Penelo. She’s not doing something trivial. Her cooking fuels this whole mission.
-There’s a PACK of level 99 golems?? I thought there’d be maybe one, like a superboss.
-…Never mind. They turn out to be not nearly as bad as I expected. Tough enemies but not, like, bosses.
-The pack is huddled around the starfruit tree. I can’t rush past them and get it, so I instead pull out and kill one at a time to clear a path.
-YET ANOTHER crafting book – Hammer of Lightning. A lot of element-specific weapon crafting now.
-Back on the ship. Emperor Larsa loved Penelo’s starfruit! He thanked her by paying to turn her little food stand on the Galbana into a swank culinary station. #GoodGuyLarsa
-She’s reflective. Kytes and Filo aren’t the only ones who learned something about sky pirating. “I really feel like I’ve changed since we left Rabanastre.”
---
Dance of the Dead – The Paramina Rift (notice board)
-This is the mission from before that made me super salty. Zalera is here.
-THAT’S SO COOL! I clicked on Zalera and he’s got a sweet oversized portrait. You can see both the skeleton and the woman stretching into the top DS screen.
-Fighting slowly and carefully through his zombie hordes, and… got him!
-Shit gets heavy afterwards. Kytes wonders if Basch feels what he did at Nalbina was right.
-He responds with wisdom, that right now he’s just trying to honor those whom Zalera has raised. That’s Basch’s defining characteristic. He’s one of the most well-balanced characters in Ivalice.
Basch already had his struggle and story in FFXII. RW keeps that character development. This is the aftermath. He doesn’t need to go through those struggles yet again.
KYTES: “I see why they all call you a hero.”
-Oh wow this is cool. Defeating Zalera, the Death Seraph, gives Basch his Apocalypse Shield quickening that renders allies invincible.
-I unlocked Zalera as a rank 3 esper. He’s a holy-natured esper who can cast both single-target and area effect holy attacks. Perfect when I go against undead.
---
Flames of Torment – Roda Volcano (notice board)
-The aegyl are enraged. Their anima has returned, along with a swarm of negative emotions they weren’t ready for.
-Got yet ANOTHER crafting book! Forged by Fire. They’re coming out my ears.
-What a crap deal for the aegyl. They went from no emotions to torment and pain.
PENELO: “I’ve just been lucky to have friends with me who make the rough times easier to handle.”
Amen.
---
Darkening Clouds Gather – Oghu, the Veiled Isle (notice board)
-This is where we fought Leviathan. A new scion is in town. Famfrit.
-The enemies are once again about 15-18 levels higher than me. I’m concerned.
-Got it though! Wasn’t too bad. Levels don’t matter as much as I thought (though at the extremes, like with those 99 golems, it still matters a hell of a lot).
-Afterwards, we get a scene with Basch and Ashe discussing what is essentially a war between the aegyl and Ivalice. Basch doesn’t think the aegyl really want this. I agree.
-I know there’s war, but this is a happy coda. We see Ashe and Basch in their full glory, comfortable in their own skins.
BASCH: “You share the wants of your people, and so your people want for nothing.”
-Ashe got her quickening! That’s the final one. “Empyrean’s Edict.” Prevents enemies from summoning Yarhi. That sounds… not very good? Idk.
-Forged a pact with Famfrit. A ranged rank 3 esper who has two water-damage abilities. Much stronger attack than Shiva, somewhat weaker magick and lacks her utility.
---
Ship Time
-We must be approaching the end. Folks on the ship are all “Here we go. Make sure you prepare before this next part.”
-I’m holding off on crafting new weapons because so many are element-specific. For example, I don’t want to blow my crafting materials on earth gear and find the next brutally tough boss is resistant to earth.
-Hee! I talked to the viera in that viera/seeq couple, and she’s DONE with this ship. Ready to go home.
-There’s only space for six core missions left in my log. There are four more notice board missions ahead of me, but I also seem to have missed three along the way. Ah well. 83% completion currently.
-I’ve gotten all but one recipe book. Something left between Anvil of Earth and Everburn Essentials.
-Lots of new entries in the folio (the glossary).
-I wondered what the Exiled did to deserve their horrific fate. The lore under Feol Viera (the Exiled) is an ancient viera text:
“They violated the Green Word and the will of the Wood, and so did we drive them out. Their blood is mixed with the blood of outsiders, a taint that can never be cleansed. Better that they meet their ruin. They are no viera.”
I like Fran. That said: FUCK THE VIERA. Ughhhhhh. THAT’S why you exiled this group of viera and their children and children’s children to live in a frigging volcano?
-The lore under Mydia is an undelivered letter from Mydia to her mother. It’s heartbreaking.
“I speak to our father, but he remains distant. My words do not reach him. I do not know what to do. How can I gain his favor? His notice?”
-Everything about Feolthanos paints him as a messianic leader, ushering his people to paradise above the clouds. This passage especially interests me:
“He led with compassion and wisdom, treating each aegyl as dearly as his own flesh and blood.”
What happened? What made him turn into the monster he is today who literally steals aegyl souls?
-Okay, ready to take the plunge.
---
Next time: into Feolthanos’ Keep of Forgotten Time.
