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The Errand Prince (continued)
[Non-rhetorical question: a log-in tip says that sprinting depletes my stamina bar. Where do I see that bar?]
-Let’s test something… yes! Buying food from the dinner helps Ignis learn the recipe.
-I deliver Cindy’s goods in Longwythe Rest Area..
-A puppy named Umbra (again with the Latin shadow names) runs up to us. He’s a cutie! To be fair, so are 99% of dogs, but still.
[Later edit: Something about its form reminds me of Link’s wolf form in Twilight Princess.]
-Noctis knows him. A pre-existing pupper relationship.
-Flashback to 12 years earlier in Tenebrae, where young Noctis and Lunafreya hang out. I’ve seen Lunafreya before on a loading screen, though as an adult.
-They seemed on good terms. Before this, I didn’t know if they’d even met pre-engagement.
-She’s showing Noctis an album with a sylleblossom, part of Tenebrae’s crown. (I somehow assumed that Tenebrae’s crowns would be EVIL and IRON, so this subverts expectations I didn’t know I had.)
-Is that Umbra down at their feet with another dog?
-She asked a favor: would he mind taking the book with him, putting something inside, and sending it back?
Huh. What does she want him to send back? A flower from Lucien?
-Back to the present… Ah, Umbra gave Noctis a note from Lunafreya: “It’s come time for me to leave Tenebrae.” Are we going FFIX here? Is the princess escaping her kingdom?
-Noctis doesn’t read it that way. He just writes back something. “Looking forward to seeing you after all these years.” This desire from Lunafreya to leave seems expected for him, since he’s not replying with “Are you okay? Stay safe, I’m on my way!” or something.
-Interesting. He doesn’t actually tell the party what he saw or wrote. Keeps that private.
-Our next stop is Galdin Quay.
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Side Quests and Exploration
-Hey, it’s Dave Guy. Hunters keep ID tags on their person to help identify them after death, and so he asks me as a side quest to send any tags his way. Talk about a bleak type of fetch quest.
-Tracked down some sabertusks that killed a hunter, and a combat task appeared to break the target’s appendage. [Non-rhetorical question: How do I do that? Is it the “break” message that appears when I hit especially hard randomly, or do I trigger it more by facing my character towards a tail or horn or something before I swing?]
-Wandered around the area a bit taking out hunts, when I met my first inaccessibly tough hunt for higher-level Flans. They’re resistant to all my attacks.
-Took out some much more reasonable goblins, a level 7 hunt instead of level 14. (I’m currently level 8.)
-Back at the Crow’s Nest, I hear Lady Lunafreya’s radio address about how happy she her betrothal plays a part in some coming peace.
So there is/was conflict between Lucien and Tenebrae. Must have been pretty recent if the royal kids were playing together 12 years ago.
-She also addresses some public fear that marriage will stop her from being Oracle.
“You will find me in your towns and villages, as you always have. And I shall continue to bless you all.”
So the Oracle is a very hands-on role. Perhaps like a small-town pastor, but presumably with magic powers. Healing or giving the crops a boost, stuff like that is my guess.
-OH! The radio announcer finished by saying that she was ready to leave for her wedding. That’s what her note to Noctis must’ve been about.
-Turning in my recent hunts gave me rank 2, “Trapper.”
-I wrote last time about how I was deciding whether/how much to do full explorations. Let’s test it. Gonna head to the east part of the zone (away from progress) and see if it’s worthwhile.
-…Not really. Found some info by the Insomnia border about a monster-filled sewer system. As surely as grew up playing FFIV, I now expect to return to this area to sneak into Insomnia through those sewers.
-Ooh!! Tried messing around with Elemency beyond pure fire or ice spells. Mixed all my elements for “Unicast II: Casts Fira, Blizzara, or Thundara.” [Non-rhetorical question: does this just cast whatever the enemy is weak to?]
-Took out my first rank 2 hunt, a Jumbo Flan.
-I really like how each campsite has its own cutscene!
-As beautiful as the desert is, it now clearly strikes me as a former war zone. The giant concrete structures look like bunkers. Rusted tanks dot the landscape.
-Got a quest in a northern area, Prairie Outpost. It took me towards a level 29 Reaperking enemy, which was an INCREDIBLY fun fight at level 9-10!
Had to use some consumables, and I still don’t understand how the vulnerability point/break system works, but fun nonetheless.
-Parking lots seem to be fast travel points. Nice.
-Had good luck with the Jumbo flan, so I’ll try the smaller flans. Still probably too tough, but we’ll see.
-After camping to prepare, I hear the party talk about how this journey mirrors one the king and his retainers once went on. Maybe the betrothal trip is a tradition.
GLADIOLUS: “And don’t forget, they were in the middle of a war.”
Scratch that. Their trip was probably for a far different purpose. They made it sound to Noctis and the others like it was a party atmosphere, but I’m not so sure.
I recorded this, for anyone interested in seeing my combat with a few sessions under my belt.
-Success! That went WAY better than last time.
-I’m feeling heady with my success on the flans, so I take on a red hunt, a level 18 hunt for some crabs though I’m level 10.
-WOOOHOOOO VICTORY! Intense, since each time they connected they chunked about 40% of my HP.
-That’s all the rank 2 hunts available to me at Hammerhead and Longwythe. On with the story.
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The Errand Prince (continued)
[Non-rhetorical question: Can I only drive manually at night? The option is greyed out.]
-A news report comes on about the coming marriage. It’s definitely a political marriage, but (as the party ribbingly notes) not one that either Noctis or Lunafreya are necessarily unhappy with.
Again, strong XII vibes. Noctis is awkward about it, but I get the sense that he’s just introverted and really likes Lunafreya.
-The car can really autopilot you around the map. Not sure how I feel about that.
Convenient, and I suppose it’s not much different than chocobo travel, but being able to autopilot to somewhere you’ve never been on foot rubs me the wrong way.
-We arrive at Galdin Quay (“Key”), a seaside resort town.
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Fishing!
-This also looks to be the first place I can try out Noctis’ skill.
-There are a ton of fishing lines and lures available. Let’s start basic and dive in.
-This is far more engaging than I’d expected. There seem to be a few main parts:
1) Choose your gear (e.g. line/rod).
2) Aim at fish and cast. The minimap is really helpful. [Non-rhetorical question: some fish on the map are blue and some are yellow. What does the color coding mean?]
3) Entice a fish to bite. It’s sort of like pulling string in front of a cat. The goal is to make it think it’s chasing something, so I benefit from tugging the line at different speeds when the fish is looking.
4) It bites! The final mini-game is to do two things:
a) Keep reeling the fish in with R2, but stop when the tension on the line goes into the red.
b) Move the left joystick in whatever direction the game says, quickly.
This last part draws directly from Final Fantasy XI’s fishing system.
I love how low the barrier to entry is! The fishing vendor nearby sells lures and lines cheap, and each is pretty clear about which fish it helps catch. I’m sure there are tons of secrets to discover – like, kill Omega Weapon and use his head as a lure in some rare spawning pool to catch The God Fish or w/e – but it’s incredibly accessible.
-The flavor is also kind of hilarious. The rest of the party cheers me on when something interesting happens, or mutters about how frigging bored they are when nothing happens.
PROMPTO: “Can’t you hook something, like, boss level?” (getting annoyed at the low level stuff I’m catching)
-Oh and it connects up with Ignis’ cooking (of course)! Gives him supplies and new recipe ideas.
I LOOOOVE this kind of content. I still remember with both rage and fondness back in World of Warcraft, spending a week in the sewers of Dalaran trying to fish up a rare rat pet.
(And that system wasn’t remotely as engaging as this. You just threw out your cast, and when it bobbed you clicked on it to see what you caught.)
I expect to spend a lot of time on this.
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Next time: Taking a boat across the Quay.
