Making Music (main)
-Let’s help that moogle bard, get in his good graces for advice on the ghost vision area.
-The bard’s name is Hurdy. He sends us out to find him instrument materials.
-Monsters guard the materials. They go down pretty smoothly.
-The instrument I craft is great for Hurdy. It has a “[Control] Behemoth” beastmaster ability and a new animist ability too. Ah well. I’m sure we can get it later.
-Boo. Hurdy hasn’t heard of the place we’re after.
-He’s still excited to hear that we’re literally chasing a place we saw in a dream. I don’t blame him. He’s a songwriter, and meeting Luso – a kid from another world – should provide great material.
-WAIT HE’S JOINING THE PARTY!!???! KUPOPO!! This really shocks me. I thought we might rope Lezaford into the party maybe, but not this new random moogle.
-I’d spent a lot of time building up my generic moogle party member as a juggler and I couldn’t care less. I’m so happy to get a new named party member.
-Cid got good news. The appraiser is finished with his appraisal of the stone, the one that the would-be Judge kidnapped dropped.
-This is my first chance to look at the bard job. Hurdy comes with four abilities already. He can do heavy undead damage, go invisible, raise resistance, restore MP, and raise defense. It’s… okay? The undead damage song, Requiem, sounds especially good.
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Job Offer (main)
-While most of the party is out meeting the appraiser, Adelle chills alone in the bar.
-A person with blue eyes and blue hair approaches her. Recognizes her as a hunter.
-Not just that. They also recognize whatever that special thing is we keep hearing about Adelle.
-…and they want to hire her?
-She turns them down – already in a clan and all – and they leave. WHAT’S YOUR DEAL ADELLE??
-Luso and Cid return from the appraisal. The stone is 100% magicite, stolen. We’ll have to return it to the owner.
-She’s distracted. Blue Hair’s request really effected Adelle. Is she tempted to join him? Maybe she thinks we’re too nice, returning this magicite rather than just selling it.
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Notices, Rumors, & Side Quests
-I helped the sleazy newspaper editor get an interview with a fashion designer. He lost his interview notes and had to wing it. The resulting interview is glorious.
-I mastered my first job! Elementalist on my viera. [Non-rhetorical question: does mastering a job grant me any special benefits on top of having all that job’s abilities?]
-FFTA2 features a number of small touching moments in these side quests. In one, we were hired to save someone from undead in a mine.
We only learned afterwards that he’d already become one of the undead we slew.
-A new NPC appears near Fluorgis, the “Luck-Stick Seller.” I buy a luck-stick for 1,000 gil. I’m now lucky. I don’t know what that does but yay?
-I LOVE the continuity in these quests. A few sessions back, I had to capture a Poison Ivy-type protector of nature named Florah.
Now, I hunt Floraxion, a rampaging plant. The plant’s dying words: “Flo… Flo…rahhh…”
THE PLANT MISSES HER FRIEND AND PROTECTOR. That’s why it lashed out.
-Much of the game’s portrait art is silly, but I want to highlight one of the more badass portraits. There’s a witch who keeps helping us with potions to solve silly problems.
Her face just screams: “I command the powers of the universe so STOP ANNOYING ME.”
-Four leaders of a warlike enemy clan, Duelhorn, have fantastic names: Maquis, The Night Dancer, Alys the Ensorceled, and Snakeheart.
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Sleight of Hand (trickster unlock)
-Tricksters use cards as weapons. Low ranged damage, but orator-like abilities. They talk to targets.
For example, they poison you by using “Hypochondria.” They convince you that you’re sick. That’s kind of badass!
-HOLY SHIT I GOT A RIBBON! It was in a treasure chest high up during this quest.
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Lord Grayrl! (Viking unlock)
-A quest notice is available for Lord Grayrl, a “gentleman trader” who clearly plans to scam me.
-lolol he’s so jolly and awful at being a pirate.
-AHA! So THAT’S what a Viking is. I unlocked the Viking job.
-The job seems a mix of thief and mage.
Alas, it’s a seeq-only job. No seeqs in my main party right now.
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Party Planner
My party strategy is very much in flux; I frequently change the job plans based on new abilities I find on bazaar items, so take this with many grains of salt.
Each party member focuses on one or two core jobs, then build some supplementary/situational jobs. Aiming for a balanced group that lets me try a variety of jobs.
Adelle:
CORE: Use ninja dual wield to hit stuff hard.
SUPPLEMENT: Melee range jobs, like paladin, fighter, paravir.
Luso:
CORE: Really tempted to copy Adelle, but for diversity, going ranged. Blue magic + archer/hunter.
SUPPLEMENT: Maybe seer, just in case? Idk. Bow attacks with blue magic feel okay for now and I have a lot of abilities to go, since I started out focusing Luso on melee abilities before changing directions.
Cid:
CORE: White Monk and Master Monk for melee utility and damage.
SUPPLEMENT: Other in-your-face stuff like gladiator, defender, templar, dragoon.
Hurdy:
CORE: Support! A mix of bard, animist, juggler.
SUPPLEMENT: I’ll experiment with the ranged options like fusilier.
Silmer, generic nu mou:
CORE: Magic! White magic and a mix of damaging magic, mostly illusionist and black mage.
SUPPLEMENT: Beastmaster, to help Luso’s blue magic pool.
Drisha, generic viera:
-CORE: Elementalist for mixed elemental damage and debuffs, especially that single-target disable.
-SUPPLEMENT: Assassin in non-boss fights, or green mage and red mage. Maybe I’ll play around with summoner for some serious magic damage and utility instead of red mage, idk.
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Next time: Following up on the mysterious magicite.
