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The Road Behind and Ahead
I wonder how far I am in the game. My guess: pretty far.
1) The main quests in the clan info chart form a diagonal line going from top left to bottom right. I have 13 main quests done with space for only 7 more.
2) My bazaar gear is mostly rank A and B, high-end gear. [Later edit: For example, I completed a chain of side quests speed-battling against some bangaa. They rewarded me with a Materia Blade that grants Ultima abilities.]
The biggest argument against: it feels like there’s almost no main story? I basically just met Adelle, and really did just meet Hurdy. I know little of Cid. We’re just knocking around Ivalice. 80% of my time here is just side quests.
Will Ewen grow into a larger threat? Will we get fuller character development in the remaining quests? I hope so.
Mostly the latter. I don’t care about a big villain nearly as much as developing the main characters.
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Seeking the Stone (main)
-The person who originally owned the magicite is named Narph. We take it back to him.
-Dagnabit! We turn over the stone and he immediately sets his goons to kill us. WHY? Even if you’re totally evil, just keep the stone and let us go. Or maybe he doesn’t want to pay us the finder’s fee.
-That ninja, Ewen, appears again and takes the magicite from the scholar. He’s off to “Baron Beltorey.”
-What’s Ewen’s deal? Why the Cid hate? [Later edit: Now I get why he wanted to kidnap a Judge! He wanted to make Cid vulnerable.]
-After the fight, Cid tells Luso that the ninja is part of “Khamja,” an organization in Graszton. Officially seawrights, unofficially smugglers.
-Later in town, we overhear someone talking of Baron Beltorey. Someone recently attempted to assassinate him. That must’ve been Ewen, but rumors are that “sky pirates” did it.
Vaan and Penelo? Sounds like they’ll have a bigger role in this game than I’d expected.
-Luso doesn’t think Vaan and Penelo seem like the assassinating type. Agreed.
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Wanted: Sky Pirate Vaan (main)
-We find hunters after Vaan and Penelo for the price on their heads.
They insist they didn’t do it. It’s a set-up. What actually happened to the Baron?
-Penelo and Vaan were involved – but because they tried to SAVE this powerful baron.
-When they found him, he was cut and poisoned. His nails were turned blue. This draws Cid’s attention. I also wonder whether this is tied to the blue-haired person who tried to recruit Adelle. Or maybe it’s just some signature Khamja poison at work.
-The Baron survived at least. Vaan and Penelo head off to lay low until he recovers.
-Cid wants to go to Graszton to investigate his certainty that Khamja is behind this. He’s being unusually stand-offish.
-This quest also tells me as a player that FFTA2 is set somewhat soon after Revenant Wings. Vaan and Penelo are part of this world, not simply an easter egg like Balthier in FFT.
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Graszton (main)
-Cid wants to investigate things on his own before letting Luso in on what he knows. I wonder if he thinks Luso is a Khamja agent.
-And Luso reasonably pushes back! “Hey, why am I suddenly some ‘boy’ when it’s convenient for you?!” He wants to help. Adelle too.
-Hurdy finds a message for us with the barman. Plus, a package for us: the found, missing, and now found again magicite. Someone mailed it to us. Uhhhhh. Cid stomps out to investigate.
-Luso, Adelle, and Hurdy are left trying to unravel all of this.
-Adelle notes how unusual it is that Cid has hired a judge. Those who hire judges have a stigma as cowards (since judges prevent death), but Cid is no coward. He knows people are after him.
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Geomancer’s Way (geomancer unlock)
-There are a series of trials to unlock geomancer. I have to defeat members of the Naturalist Society in snow, sun, rain, and Mist.
-I love when the job unlock quests tie into the flavor of the job itself.
-The geomancer job doesn’t interest me a whole lot in FFTA2. Seems like a more situational elementalist.
-It’s a gria-only job anyway. I don’t have any gria in my main lineup.
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Notices, Rumors, & Side Quests
-One of my favorite quest types is the one where someone needs help and I have to pick the right party member with the right job to dispatch. For example, a parent who’s kid is failing in school wants help. I have to glean from that to dispatch a scholar.
-Yay, the first canon bangaa lady in game!
A leader of Clan Duelhorn.
-Duelhorn is a major recurring side story. They’re an expansive crime syndicate that avoids harming innocents. Most clans absorbed by them seem pretty happy with their bosses. Interesting.
-Style is key to being a good healer:
-One side quest makes me jump in surprised delight. Luso accidentally angers a bangaa and is saved by a dapper moogle, Hurdy’s brother Gurdy.
Luso and who I assume is Gurdy in FFTA2.
Marche and Montblanc in FFTA.
IT’S BASICALLY A REPEAT OF MARCHE’S FIRST EXPERIENCE IN IVALICE! The insulted bangaa, Gurdy dressing exactly like Montblanc… it’s all a big homage and I love it.
-Found a continental shortcut! A well in the west continent led to a volcano on the east continent.
-Shoutout to the Moogle Rangers. A group of moogles I had to take out because their cuteness was too annoying to those nearby.
Upon defeat, they literally ascended into the heavens, back to their home planet or w/e.
-The more I play, the more I dislike FFTA2’s law system:
1) The rewards are usually bad, so I rarely go out of my way to follow the law.
2) Enemies aren’t bound by the law, removing a level of depth and creativity.
3) I’m so used to ignoring the law that I have a really hard time following them when the quest objective requires me to uphold the law. One quest required me to not Attack, and I KEPT FORGETTING. Even using saved states it took me like a half hour to complete.
Problem #3 is just me being a dingus, but #1 and #2 feel like reasonable complaints. (At least there’s no jail!)
-One side quest has Lezaford school Luso about scions, espers, and pacts.
I guess Luso hasn’t played “Revenant Wings.”
-There’s a particular sidequest where a paravir named Ghi searches for a blademaster named Frimelda. A lot of the dialogue feels like it’s referencing something I’m not familiar with.
At the end Luso says “Maybe you’re looking in the wrong land.” [Non-rhetorical question: are Ghi and Frimelda from some other game or franchise, like Dragon Warrior?]
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Job Stuff
-There’s a new Master Monk ability whose design I love: Cross-counter. It does huge damage to an enemy if they have the common Counter reactive equipped. Turn an enemy strength against it!
Reminds me a bit of FFXII’s Sight Unseeing, a special attack you could do only if blinded. Turns a negative into a positive.
-Any regrets about Luso going ranged evaporated. I got a hunter weapon with Ultima Shot.
-My bazaar trip after the last main mission this session nets me a saber, a “Harpe,” with a sky pirate ability. This probably heralds that Vaan and/or Penelo may join permanently soon with that new job.
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Next time: More Khamja pursuit.
