Final Fantasy 12 IHOP Edition Part 2.
Nov. 26th, 2012 05:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xyzzysqrlOkay where was I. Uhm.
There's gonna be a lot of these posts, and I'll spoiler-cut them all, by the way. MOSTLY me derping around through the playthrough. I'm trying to keep stuff recorded and on-track. They may be REALLY BORING as time goes on. Sorry.
Right. I go talk to whatshername by the DARK CRYSTAL and she tells me that making them is a job for little children. Obviously Vaan is underqualified. But she lets him do it anyway. Actually, she wants Vaan to find one of the kids who didn't come back, and she'll give him one. Meanwhile, Penelo comes along to watch Vaan and -glare- at him for being a dipwad.
I'm okay with this. It gives me the chance to cram Penelo into her new job class of RED MAGE (aka Hat Girl) and teach her stuff. Then I trot back to town, get her some clothes and a mace, and look into side-jobs, like hunting things. REAL RABANASTRIAN GRINDING occurs.
(The city is named Rabanastre. I don't know if that was clear.)
Right now, actually... it doesn't look like I can GET a mace. I do dress Penelo up in a SHIRT and HAT so she's more dressed than Vaan. She can make do with a default stabbery-dagger until I can get her a bashy-mace.
Then it's off to hunt marks! Like... Thextera the wolf. Thexder? I loved that game! Okay, mostly I loved the music to that game.
Thextera the giant wolf goes down pretty easily, with the help of slowing and curing magic thanks to Penny. Man, this is... all going pretty smooth! I worry about that. Everything seems to be going great. I'm either misunderstanding something or just plain MISSING something.
Grindy grind grind. Penelo gains the ability to use a shield, which is good because I like when my characters do not DIE. Vaan gains the ability to go "Hey, it's a thing." and identify the weak spots, which will be good for MASSIVE DAMAGE. With Thextera cleared I also take the next Mark, a flowering cactus. ... Yeah, this oughta be a real challenge.
I should ALSO have access to the Gambit system, but I dunno if I can customize those yet, so Penelo just goes and does her own thing in fights. Gambits are everyone's favorite X-Man it seems like, except I dunno why because he was kind of a sleaze and that whole thing with Rogue just felt forced after the third time they broke up an-- I'm sorry, I'll start again. Gambits are basically macros. You set "IF party is fucked THEN cure them you jerk" and roll. I'll be getting into machine-code programming my party members as soon as that cracks open.
Vaan also goes up a rank as a Clanner, which grants him access to non-Star League technology or something I don't know. (God. Nobody's gonna get that.)
Anyway, with Penelo's low HP and new shield and tendency to facerush battles, she has become the tank of this two-person group. Yes, the mage is tanking. What a brilliant plan I have discovered. She's a pretty good evade-tank though. Also her mace attack animation switches between "SPIN-STRIKE" and "I will hit you over the head and KICK YOU IN THE STOMACH at the same time". I think I made a good choice here.
I am kind of living in FEAR of the pause screen guys, because there's a button on it that's like, PUSH SQUARE TO QUIT BACK TO TITLE SCREEN and I -know-, I KNOW that someday I will not have saved for 136 hours and I will hit that by accident and go "AAAAAAAAAAAAAA" and then my face will come off my skull, still screaming, and fly off over the horizon never to be seen again.
i like my face you guys. *sad*
Oh my god is there EVER ANYTHING IN CHESTS? 5 gil! I CAN ALMOST BUY 1/8TH OF A POTION. CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.
Vaan learns the potential ability to Poach, giving him the ability to make delicious eggs first try every time. ... I mean, to rip bits off weakened monsters for more delicious loot to sell. I say potential to, because while he CAN learn it, I haven't found the actual training for sale anywhere yet. My licenses-bought is starting to outpace what's actually available to buy from shops, so I should probably move on with the plot soon enough.
It's kind of how the game keeps you on track. "Yes, you can keep grinding so you will be good in the future and your stats will be higher, but your power level is gonna be limited by what's available ANYWAY, so you might as well get on with it."
I finally find the man to talk to about the Flowering Cactoid. It taunts us for a while. Actually, if I remember, this little dick can one-hit-kill you with Thousand Needles... I hope I'm wrong.
As it happens, there is both good and back luck. I quickly discover that the Flowering Cactoid is TOO MIGHTY for me to beat right now, since he has like ALL THE HP and I am not doing a lot to whittle it away. However, while running away from him in a BRAVE FASHION I discover the next town over, Nalbina Fortress. This place has a street bazaar, and THEY will happily sell me a mace for Penelo and some upgraded armor. So ... NET SUCCESS.
Let's actually get back to the plot. There was a lost little kid, right? Right. "Find kid south of tribal village, get sunstone, watch out for werewolves". Let's just tromp back to town in fast-forward sped-up motion and ignore all these encounters and AAAAAAAA T-REX AAAAAAAA IT KEEPS HAPPENING RUN RUN RUN YOU LITTLE BASTARDS RUN okay whew.
Anyway, I find the kid! And he gives me a stone to SUCK ENERGY with. So I run around getting energy from rocks.
Who is tanking? MAGE IS TANKING! Oh my god, Mage is tanking?! How can this be?! I DON'T KNOW BUT IT'S HAPPENING AND IT IS AWESOME. Penelo is developing into a kind of Grand Mistress of hitting things in the face with blunt objects and it's making me SO HAPPY.
Having charged the sunstone, and before Penelo decides to bugger off since I THINK I remember she leaves the party for a while soon, I elect to go challenge the cactus again now that people are kitted out and leveled some. The little bastard DOES manage to kill Vaan with THousand Needles (1000 damage, unavoidable I think) but he's revived. He also kites me into some wolves, but in spite of that, I manage to win! YAY. I BEAT A CACTUS TWO-ON-ONE.
This easily nets me enough potions to replace the ones I used, a bunch of money, and a follow-up quest to take the flower from its head to the hunt-giver's wife. It turns out that the flower is medicinal, and this leads to me racing around the little village finding stuff for medicine. I get some SHELLS and then she wants some SALVE so I run across the map and get THAT and then she wants me to go to Broken Sands, which I cannot get to and have never heard of.
So... uh, ON WITH THE PLOT. Sunstone goes to the old guy who wants to recharge that magic stone. Right. BACK TO TOWN!
"Hey Vaan, it's been way too long since we did stuff like this. Anyway, uh... you're about to go do something HORRENDOUSLY ILLEGAL and I know it, so I'm gonna go somewhere else and pretend I don't. Don't get caught." ... Bye, Penelo. You were incredibly boss-awesome.
Meanwhile, Old Man gives Vaan the MOST CONDESCENDING INSTRUCTIONS KNOWN TO MANKIND on how to find the secret path into the palace. "Vaan, go down into the sewers. There will be TWO DOORS. TWOOO DOOOOORS. That's between one and three, Vaan. Now, if you're caught, the agency will disavow any knowledge of your actions..."
We're off to perform a B&E. Look sharp, Vaan. Meanwhile in cutscene mode, down in the sewers, a large gruff man and a mysterious young woman meet to plan something...
...but that's for later. Breaktime!
There's gonna be a lot of these posts, and I'll spoiler-cut them all, by the way. MOSTLY me derping around through the playthrough. I'm trying to keep stuff recorded and on-track. They may be REALLY BORING as time goes on. Sorry.
Right. I go talk to whatshername by the DARK CRYSTAL and she tells me that making them is a job for little children. Obviously Vaan is underqualified. But she lets him do it anyway. Actually, she wants Vaan to find one of the kids who didn't come back, and she'll give him one. Meanwhile, Penelo comes along to watch Vaan and -glare- at him for being a dipwad.
I'm okay with this. It gives me the chance to cram Penelo into her new job class of RED MAGE (aka Hat Girl) and teach her stuff. Then I trot back to town, get her some clothes and a mace, and look into side-jobs, like hunting things. REAL RABANASTRIAN GRINDING occurs.
(The city is named Rabanastre. I don't know if that was clear.)
Right now, actually... it doesn't look like I can GET a mace. I do dress Penelo up in a SHIRT and HAT so she's more dressed than Vaan. She can make do with a default stabbery-dagger until I can get her a bashy-mace.
Then it's off to hunt marks! Like... Thextera the wolf. Thexder? I loved that game! Okay, mostly I loved the music to that game.
Thextera the giant wolf goes down pretty easily, with the help of slowing and curing magic thanks to Penny. Man, this is... all going pretty smooth! I worry about that. Everything seems to be going great. I'm either misunderstanding something or just plain MISSING something.
Grindy grind grind. Penelo gains the ability to use a shield, which is good because I like when my characters do not DIE. Vaan gains the ability to go "Hey, it's a thing." and identify the weak spots, which will be good for MASSIVE DAMAGE. With Thextera cleared I also take the next Mark, a flowering cactus. ... Yeah, this oughta be a real challenge.
I should ALSO have access to the Gambit system, but I dunno if I can customize those yet, so Penelo just goes and does her own thing in fights. Gambits are everyone's favorite X-Man it seems like, except I dunno why because he was kind of a sleaze and that whole thing with Rogue just felt forced after the third time they broke up an-- I'm sorry, I'll start again. Gambits are basically macros. You set "IF party is fucked THEN cure them you jerk" and roll. I'll be getting into machine-code programming my party members as soon as that cracks open.
Vaan also goes up a rank as a Clanner, which grants him access to non-Star League technology or something I don't know. (God. Nobody's gonna get that.)
Anyway, with Penelo's low HP and new shield and tendency to facerush battles, she has become the tank of this two-person group. Yes, the mage is tanking. What a brilliant plan I have discovered. She's a pretty good evade-tank though. Also her mace attack animation switches between "SPIN-STRIKE" and "I will hit you over the head and KICK YOU IN THE STOMACH at the same time". I think I made a good choice here.
I am kind of living in FEAR of the pause screen guys, because there's a button on it that's like, PUSH SQUARE TO QUIT BACK TO TITLE SCREEN and I -know-, I KNOW that someday I will not have saved for 136 hours and I will hit that by accident and go "AAAAAAAAAAAAAA" and then my face will come off my skull, still screaming, and fly off over the horizon never to be seen again.
i like my face you guys. *sad*
Oh my god is there EVER ANYTHING IN CHESTS? 5 gil! I CAN ALMOST BUY 1/8TH OF A POTION. CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.
Vaan learns the potential ability to Poach, giving him the ability to make delicious eggs first try every time. ... I mean, to rip bits off weakened monsters for more delicious loot to sell. I say potential to, because while he CAN learn it, I haven't found the actual training for sale anywhere yet. My licenses-bought is starting to outpace what's actually available to buy from shops, so I should probably move on with the plot soon enough.
It's kind of how the game keeps you on track. "Yes, you can keep grinding so you will be good in the future and your stats will be higher, but your power level is gonna be limited by what's available ANYWAY, so you might as well get on with it."
I finally find the man to talk to about the Flowering Cactoid. It taunts us for a while. Actually, if I remember, this little dick can one-hit-kill you with Thousand Needles... I hope I'm wrong.
As it happens, there is both good and back luck. I quickly discover that the Flowering Cactoid is TOO MIGHTY for me to beat right now, since he has like ALL THE HP and I am not doing a lot to whittle it away. However, while running away from him in a BRAVE FASHION I discover the next town over, Nalbina Fortress. This place has a street bazaar, and THEY will happily sell me a mace for Penelo and some upgraded armor. So ... NET SUCCESS.
Let's actually get back to the plot. There was a lost little kid, right? Right. "Find kid south of tribal village, get sunstone, watch out for werewolves". Let's just tromp back to town in fast-forward sped-up motion and ignore all these encounters and AAAAAAAA T-REX AAAAAAAA IT KEEPS HAPPENING RUN RUN RUN YOU LITTLE BASTARDS RUN okay whew.
Anyway, I find the kid! And he gives me a stone to SUCK ENERGY with. So I run around getting energy from rocks.
Who is tanking? MAGE IS TANKING! Oh my god, Mage is tanking?! How can this be?! I DON'T KNOW BUT IT'S HAPPENING AND IT IS AWESOME. Penelo is developing into a kind of Grand Mistress of hitting things in the face with blunt objects and it's making me SO HAPPY.
Having charged the sunstone, and before Penelo decides to bugger off since I THINK I remember she leaves the party for a while soon, I elect to go challenge the cactus again now that people are kitted out and leveled some. The little bastard DOES manage to kill Vaan with THousand Needles (1000 damage, unavoidable I think) but he's revived. He also kites me into some wolves, but in spite of that, I manage to win! YAY. I BEAT A CACTUS TWO-ON-ONE.
This easily nets me enough potions to replace the ones I used, a bunch of money, and a follow-up quest to take the flower from its head to the hunt-giver's wife. It turns out that the flower is medicinal, and this leads to me racing around the little village finding stuff for medicine. I get some SHELLS and then she wants some SALVE so I run across the map and get THAT and then she wants me to go to Broken Sands, which I cannot get to and have never heard of.
So... uh, ON WITH THE PLOT. Sunstone goes to the old guy who wants to recharge that magic stone. Right. BACK TO TOWN!
"Hey Vaan, it's been way too long since we did stuff like this. Anyway, uh... you're about to go do something HORRENDOUSLY ILLEGAL and I know it, so I'm gonna go somewhere else and pretend I don't. Don't get caught." ... Bye, Penelo. You were incredibly boss-awesome.
Meanwhile, Old Man gives Vaan the MOST CONDESCENDING INSTRUCTIONS KNOWN TO MANKIND on how to find the secret path into the palace. "Vaan, go down into the sewers. There will be TWO DOORS. TWOOO DOOOOORS. That's between one and three, Vaan. Now, if you're caught, the agency will disavow any knowledge of your actions..."
We're off to perform a B&E. Look sharp, Vaan. Meanwhile in cutscene mode, down in the sewers, a large gruff man and a mysterious young woman meet to plan something...
...but that's for later. Breaktime!
no subject
Date: 2012-11-26 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-26 10:38 pm (UTC)I always really liked Longshot, and Nightcrawler both.
(Nightcrawler over in Excalibur where he got to cut loose and be a swashbuckling adventurer was WONDERFUL. Nightcrawler as tormented priest, not so much.)
no subject
Date: 2012-11-26 10:43 pm (UTC)I love that Nightcrawler actually had religious beliefs that were important to him, but the film Nightcrawler was a huge disappointment. Nightcrawler at his best was a wisecracking, swashbuckling, good-natured hero. He is FUN. OK, angsty sometimes, but that's not his primary mode.
Also, gorgeous, but that goes without saying. <3