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xyzzysqrlLAST TIME, I walked for hours on end, found a key to the Lhusu mines back-section, and fought some really silly bosses.
That key interests me. I happen to know there's some really good stuff off in those mines, so while I'm at the save point/teleporter, I poof on out there. It's kind of touch-and-go when I start getting into the harder bits, but soon I've loaded the party up a little more with some nice armor, a new dagger (Zwill Crossblade) and ninja sword (Orochi) for Ashe, a hat that regens Vaan or Ashe's hit points, and a spear for Fran called the "Dragon Whisker" that lets her disable things from taking action.
Sadly I get kind of pasted when I try to push in deeper and go for MORE RICH STUFF, but this is a much better run than the Necrohol thing. The party comes out nicely fortified with MORE POWER, the prime goal of any RPG campaigns.
Let's get back to where we were going. Just outside of Sochen Cave Palace is "Old Archades", and Vaan instantly comments on it smelling like a sewer. That, as Balthier explains, is because in a way it is. It's the runoff pool from the city proper, where "The mighty who have fallen and the fallen who would be mighty" reside. The city itself houses a different sort of filth.
Talking around the city, it's clear that this is where dreams go to fall over and die. The people here are unenergetic, uncaring. They just want a better life than... well, this. I want to say it was better in Rabanastre, and then I remember... well, no it isn't, really. Vaan calls this place a sewer, but he lived literally a few minute's walk from a REAL one. If the settings were reversed, he could just have easily risen out of this place as his own hometown.
Dancing in the town square are eight moogles, which the game informs me are The Moogles Eight. Handy, that. It's good to have a name that describes your troupe well. They seem depressed, singing about how they were promised travel and great meals, and now they work for curds and whey. Nearby is their promoter, who offers to sell me the group for cheap. "They sing, they dance..." ... I try to tell them about this little plot, but they're busy. Damn. All I can do is move on.
Heading on up to the city... well, I find I can't head up to the city. There are some guards there who want to see my papers, and I've already used all my Indiana Jones references for this playthrough. As the party is pondering, Balthier spots an old friend, who is a "streetear" and willing to help us out for 1500g. I pay the man out of my ENORMOUS POCKETS and he asks if I've heard any rumors lately. Well, Vaan muses, there is a seeq trying to sell some moogles. "Go tell them that."
I did TRY. Sigh. ARMED with permission to affect the plot, I trot back there. The moogles consult briefly, then knock everloving hell out of their EX-promoter. This starts a small riot, and when the guards come running, the group zips past and up into the city proper.
I feel like I did a good deed here today!
Up in the Imperial City proper, Vaan wanders around gaping like a tourist in New York. And hey, the city IS a bit NY-ish. Penelo seems to think he's changed, gotten more sensible somehow. Vaan just feels like he's gotten lucky. After all, neither of them thought they'd ever be in a place like this, or meeting people like Larsa and Ashe. And yet... There they are!
"I'm just along for the ride." Vaan declares, finally comfortable with his second-or-fewer-banana place.
Now that we're finally in the big city, I consider hopping a sidequest, but ... not just yet. Let's push on a little further. Just as well, really. Balthier takes this moment to salute and stroll off, to do some stuff on his own. I wouldn't want to proceed without him. Wandering around the city I find that in order to get on a taxi to the center of town, I need nine "chops". They're some kind of status symbol here. ...Chops? What, like, pork? ...No, WOOD chops, apparently. And the only way to get them is to wrangle them from people, who help you out because it makes them feel SUPERIOR to you, and of course Balthier is waiting in the center of town, so I need to do this and arhjajafblbef.
This leads to an interesting system where you memorize rumors around town, and run back and forth telling people who need things about people who have an excess, or dropping news from one place where it needs to be heard by others, and the like. It's very -interesting- and it reminds me a lot of the Keyword system last seen in Final Fantasy 2, but I'm a little impatient with it at first. Soon I kinda get into the groove and it gets more fun.
(It's really NOT a bad idea, putting keywords and event flags in the hands of the player. I could see a game based around this, actually, where you can collect knowledge in trading card form, say, and play it wherever.)
But anyway. When you help a brother out, you get pinewood chops. Those are the chops. I get all choppy and hop a cab ride. Whee.
Out in town central, Balthier has news. He's found an airship that runs supplies in and out of Draklor Labs. It's now or never, we should hop that ship and cruise in through the service gate. Unfortunately, as he's explaining the plan, some guards run by to report to their superior. The senate has been "quelled" with only "light casualities", and there's a detatchment of guards in front of Draklor just in case.
"Y'think they're on to us?" Vaan asks worriedly. Basch shakes his head... but does concede "This will make our task that much more difficult." SIGH.
Balthier's old friend shows up -again- to let us know that he's planning stuff and blah blah he is also kind of a JERK it's not really important WE'RE GETTING INTO THE LABS via taxi that's the important part. At this point I am BEYOND READY to do that, so I just nod vigorously at whatever he says, even when he says Balthier's real name is Ffamran. Sure. Whatever. I don't have any idea how you pronounce that. Farm-man. Ffmfmfmn. Just GET ON WITH IT. Ex-Imperial Judge Farmin' My Banana AKA Ballfear LEADS THE WAY.
"Drive faster, if you please!" he calls to the cab driver. "I would be loathe to expend any of the violence of my current mood on my companions!"
When the group gets to the Draklor Labs, of course, the place is completely, eerily empty. "Maybe we're lucky!" Vaan suggests. "Maybe you're an optimist." counters Balthier. The party rolls out, poking around just in case but headed for Dr. Cid's labs. There are, of course, bodies strewn through the hallways on the way. Naturally they accuse the party of "Being with HIM" and "Trying to get away with these horrible things!".
The crew is nonplussed. They stumble upon a trashed room full of papers and notes, but Balthier knows what he's looking for. He finds a keycard and a map of the place and leads the way back out. "What madness found you in the Jagd Difohr?" he wonders, to a Cid that isn't there. I kinda wonder how often Balthier talks to his dad when his dad isn't around, actually.
Probably not half as much as Ashe talks to Rasler when HE isn't around. Our party is not a grand parade of stability, is what I'm saying.
Anyway, now there are guards and there is a gimmick where there are red and blue doors and you can only have one open at a ti-- didn't they do this? I think they did this. Oh well. DUNGEON NAVIGATION: I do it. You don't have to.
On the 70th floor, a special event happens as the group leaves the elevator: A black bald man armed with knives attempts to kill us! Luckily, Basch strong-arm blocks until the guy figures out we're not with Cid. Then he sprints off screaming to deal with Cid. ... That was... Okay! Sure! Enemy of my enemy. Dude seems legit. We'll figure him out later.
In a side room, we also find the "Gil Toss" technique. Now Vaan and Balthier can literally throw money at problems to make them go away.
Upstairs, we find KnifeMan yelling at Cid about nethici-- OH HOLY CRAP THAT'S PHIL LAMARR. He's dressed like he killed a rainbow and skinned it for pants, but the voice coming out of that mouth is 100% Pure Green.
Lantern.
... Anyway.
Balthier and his father snark at each other for a while over Balthier being a pirate, then Cid listens to the voices in his head and glares at Ashe. He declares that this will be A TRIIIIAAAL FOR ASHELIA B'NARGIN DALLLLMASCA!!! and that it will start RIGHT NOW. Ashe considers this man a "babbling idiot", but he knows she wants the POWER!! of the Dusk Shard. Cid starts laughing like a loon, then glowing and deploying little Forces from R-Type all around him in a hovering pattern. Boss fight time.
Balthier is neither impressed, nor inclined to hold back. "ALWAYS hiding behind your toys. Pity if anything were to HAPPEN to them." he says, as the party smashes a satellite down. Soon he's without Bits, and so he pulls out... a cannon, which fires multiple bendy lasers, which hit reflectors on the side of the arena, and the reflectors angle the beams back down so EVERYTHING EXPLODES, and it looks like a goddamn Myst puzzle. Does surprisingly little damage, though, so we just cream him with damage until he tips over.
Cid drops, and Phil LaMarr rushes in for the killing blow. Unfortunately Cid activates some kind of personal force field, and Phil is NOT using a slow knife, so he bounces off violently. Dude lands on his feet, though. Cid thanks "Venat" for the save, and a glowing ... something... appears over his shoulder, like the "possessed" people we've already seen. Cid smirks. "ASHELIA B'NARGIN DALMASCAAAAA. Just how FAR will you GO for POWERRRAH?" he asks, all smugfaced. He smugs it up about how she LUSTS FOR NETHICITE and all, and then suggests she go to "Giruvegan", where she might just GET some nethicite to use on her enemies.
"YOUR WORDS MEAN NOTHING TO ME!" Ashe yells back.
Cid gives no shits. He flies off in an escape pod to Giruvegan. "Give chase, if you dare!" he snipes one last time.
"I hate when he does that." Balthier sighs.
Phil LaMarr comes over and introduces himself as Reddas, but he's Phil LaMarr, damnit.
More text on a black screen from Ondore! The Senate was dissolved. Vayne took over. Most of the government didn't like this, but the Military was all "fuck yeah we're gonna kick some ass". Thus: WAR. The Resistance raises some airships and an army, and get assistance from Balfonheim, which is where the party ends up after traveling with Phil LaMarr. Phil is a pirate, and Balfonheim is a pirate city, thrown down with the Resistance. Still, while war is going on, the party's current job is to go smash some nethicite before Cid or the Empire can get their hands on it.
Yet... Giruvegan is the holy land. Fran's people have a song about it. (It's not very catchy.) Fran's people know where it is too, the door is in the Feywood. We roll. Phil mistakes Vaan for Balthier's pirating apprentice, which makes Balthier all sulky. ("I don't HAVE an apprentice.") Phil also stops to grill Ashe about nethicite. Does she still crave it? "I desire its power. I want... but I fear. I can't AFFORD to fear." she replies.
Phil reminds her not to forget Nabudis. Ugh. I'll ALWAYS remember Nabudis.
Anyway, this leaves the party in a weird city with l i t t l e m o n e y and about eleventy billion hunts to do.
Next time, I start sidequesting like a mofo.
That key interests me. I happen to know there's some really good stuff off in those mines, so while I'm at the save point/teleporter, I poof on out there. It's kind of touch-and-go when I start getting into the harder bits, but soon I've loaded the party up a little more with some nice armor, a new dagger (Zwill Crossblade) and ninja sword (Orochi) for Ashe, a hat that regens Vaan or Ashe's hit points, and a spear for Fran called the "Dragon Whisker" that lets her disable things from taking action.
Sadly I get kind of pasted when I try to push in deeper and go for MORE RICH STUFF, but this is a much better run than the Necrohol thing. The party comes out nicely fortified with MORE POWER, the prime goal of any RPG campaigns.
Let's get back to where we were going. Just outside of Sochen Cave Palace is "Old Archades", and Vaan instantly comments on it smelling like a sewer. That, as Balthier explains, is because in a way it is. It's the runoff pool from the city proper, where "The mighty who have fallen and the fallen who would be mighty" reside. The city itself houses a different sort of filth.
Talking around the city, it's clear that this is where dreams go to fall over and die. The people here are unenergetic, uncaring. They just want a better life than... well, this. I want to say it was better in Rabanastre, and then I remember... well, no it isn't, really. Vaan calls this place a sewer, but he lived literally a few minute's walk from a REAL one. If the settings were reversed, he could just have easily risen out of this place as his own hometown.
Dancing in the town square are eight moogles, which the game informs me are The Moogles Eight. Handy, that. It's good to have a name that describes your troupe well. They seem depressed, singing about how they were promised travel and great meals, and now they work for curds and whey. Nearby is their promoter, who offers to sell me the group for cheap. "They sing, they dance..." ... I try to tell them about this little plot, but they're busy. Damn. All I can do is move on.
Heading on up to the city... well, I find I can't head up to the city. There are some guards there who want to see my papers, and I've already used all my Indiana Jones references for this playthrough. As the party is pondering, Balthier spots an old friend, who is a "streetear" and willing to help us out for 1500g. I pay the man out of my ENORMOUS POCKETS and he asks if I've heard any rumors lately. Well, Vaan muses, there is a seeq trying to sell some moogles. "Go tell them that."
I did TRY. Sigh. ARMED with permission to affect the plot, I trot back there. The moogles consult briefly, then knock everloving hell out of their EX-promoter. This starts a small riot, and when the guards come running, the group zips past and up into the city proper.
I feel like I did a good deed here today!
Up in the Imperial City proper, Vaan wanders around gaping like a tourist in New York. And hey, the city IS a bit NY-ish. Penelo seems to think he's changed, gotten more sensible somehow. Vaan just feels like he's gotten lucky. After all, neither of them thought they'd ever be in a place like this, or meeting people like Larsa and Ashe. And yet... There they are!
"I'm just along for the ride." Vaan declares, finally comfortable with his second-or-fewer-banana place.
Now that we're finally in the big city, I consider hopping a sidequest, but ... not just yet. Let's push on a little further. Just as well, really. Balthier takes this moment to salute and stroll off, to do some stuff on his own. I wouldn't want to proceed without him. Wandering around the city I find that in order to get on a taxi to the center of town, I need nine "chops". They're some kind of status symbol here. ...Chops? What, like, pork? ...No, WOOD chops, apparently. And the only way to get them is to wrangle them from people, who help you out because it makes them feel SUPERIOR to you, and of course Balthier is waiting in the center of town, so I need to do this and arhjajafblbef.
This leads to an interesting system where you memorize rumors around town, and run back and forth telling people who need things about people who have an excess, or dropping news from one place where it needs to be heard by others, and the like. It's very -interesting- and it reminds me a lot of the Keyword system last seen in Final Fantasy 2, but I'm a little impatient with it at first. Soon I kinda get into the groove and it gets more fun.
(It's really NOT a bad idea, putting keywords and event flags in the hands of the player. I could see a game based around this, actually, where you can collect knowledge in trading card form, say, and play it wherever.)
But anyway. When you help a brother out, you get pinewood chops. Those are the chops. I get all choppy and hop a cab ride. Whee.
Out in town central, Balthier has news. He's found an airship that runs supplies in and out of Draklor Labs. It's now or never, we should hop that ship and cruise in through the service gate. Unfortunately, as he's explaining the plan, some guards run by to report to their superior. The senate has been "quelled" with only "light casualities", and there's a detatchment of guards in front of Draklor just in case.
"Y'think they're on to us?" Vaan asks worriedly. Basch shakes his head... but does concede "This will make our task that much more difficult." SIGH.
Balthier's old friend shows up -again- to let us know that he's planning stuff and blah blah he is also kind of a JERK it's not really important WE'RE GETTING INTO THE LABS via taxi that's the important part. At this point I am BEYOND READY to do that, so I just nod vigorously at whatever he says, even when he says Balthier's real name is Ffamran. Sure. Whatever. I don't have any idea how you pronounce that. Farm-man. Ffmfmfmn. Just GET ON WITH IT. Ex-Imperial Judge Farmin' My Banana AKA Ballfear LEADS THE WAY.
"Drive faster, if you please!" he calls to the cab driver. "I would be loathe to expend any of the violence of my current mood on my companions!"
When the group gets to the Draklor Labs, of course, the place is completely, eerily empty. "Maybe we're lucky!" Vaan suggests. "Maybe you're an optimist." counters Balthier. The party rolls out, poking around just in case but headed for Dr. Cid's labs. There are, of course, bodies strewn through the hallways on the way. Naturally they accuse the party of "Being with HIM" and "Trying to get away with these horrible things!".
The crew is nonplussed. They stumble upon a trashed room full of papers and notes, but Balthier knows what he's looking for. He finds a keycard and a map of the place and leads the way back out. "What madness found you in the Jagd Difohr?" he wonders, to a Cid that isn't there. I kinda wonder how often Balthier talks to his dad when his dad isn't around, actually.
Probably not half as much as Ashe talks to Rasler when HE isn't around. Our party is not a grand parade of stability, is what I'm saying.
Anyway, now there are guards and there is a gimmick where there are red and blue doors and you can only have one open at a ti-- didn't they do this? I think they did this. Oh well. DUNGEON NAVIGATION: I do it. You don't have to.
On the 70th floor, a special event happens as the group leaves the elevator: A black bald man armed with knives attempts to kill us! Luckily, Basch strong-arm blocks until the guy figures out we're not with Cid. Then he sprints off screaming to deal with Cid. ... That was... Okay! Sure! Enemy of my enemy. Dude seems legit. We'll figure him out later.
In a side room, we also find the "Gil Toss" technique. Now Vaan and Balthier can literally throw money at problems to make them go away.
Upstairs, we find KnifeMan yelling at Cid about nethici-- OH HOLY CRAP THAT'S PHIL LAMARR. He's dressed like he killed a rainbow and skinned it for pants, but the voice coming out of that mouth is 100% Pure Green.
Lantern.
... Anyway.
Balthier and his father snark at each other for a while over Balthier being a pirate, then Cid listens to the voices in his head and glares at Ashe. He declares that this will be A TRIIIIAAAL FOR ASHELIA B'NARGIN DALLLLMASCA!!! and that it will start RIGHT NOW. Ashe considers this man a "babbling idiot", but he knows she wants the POWER!! of the Dusk Shard. Cid starts laughing like a loon, then glowing and deploying little Forces from R-Type all around him in a hovering pattern. Boss fight time.
Balthier is neither impressed, nor inclined to hold back. "ALWAYS hiding behind your toys. Pity if anything were to HAPPEN to them." he says, as the party smashes a satellite down. Soon he's without Bits, and so he pulls out... a cannon, which fires multiple bendy lasers, which hit reflectors on the side of the arena, and the reflectors angle the beams back down so EVERYTHING EXPLODES, and it looks like a goddamn Myst puzzle. Does surprisingly little damage, though, so we just cream him with damage until he tips over.
Cid drops, and Phil LaMarr rushes in for the killing blow. Unfortunately Cid activates some kind of personal force field, and Phil is NOT using a slow knife, so he bounces off violently. Dude lands on his feet, though. Cid thanks "Venat" for the save, and a glowing ... something... appears over his shoulder, like the "possessed" people we've already seen. Cid smirks. "ASHELIA B'NARGIN DALMASCAAAAA. Just how FAR will you GO for POWERRRAH?" he asks, all smugfaced. He smugs it up about how she LUSTS FOR NETHICITE and all, and then suggests she go to "Giruvegan", where she might just GET some nethicite to use on her enemies.
"YOUR WORDS MEAN NOTHING TO ME!" Ashe yells back.
Cid gives no shits. He flies off in an escape pod to Giruvegan. "Give chase, if you dare!" he snipes one last time.
"I hate when he does that." Balthier sighs.
Phil LaMarr comes over and introduces himself as Reddas, but he's Phil LaMarr, damnit.
More text on a black screen from Ondore! The Senate was dissolved. Vayne took over. Most of the government didn't like this, but the Military was all "fuck yeah we're gonna kick some ass". Thus: WAR. The Resistance raises some airships and an army, and get assistance from Balfonheim, which is where the party ends up after traveling with Phil LaMarr. Phil is a pirate, and Balfonheim is a pirate city, thrown down with the Resistance. Still, while war is going on, the party's current job is to go smash some nethicite before Cid or the Empire can get their hands on it.
Yet... Giruvegan is the holy land. Fran's people have a song about it. (It's not very catchy.) Fran's people know where it is too, the door is in the Feywood. We roll. Phil mistakes Vaan for Balthier's pirating apprentice, which makes Balthier all sulky. ("I don't HAVE an apprentice.") Phil also stops to grill Ashe about nethicite. Does she still crave it? "I desire its power. I want... but I fear. I can't AFFORD to fear." she replies.
Phil reminds her not to forget Nabudis. Ugh. I'll ALWAYS remember Nabudis.
Anyway, this leaves the party in a weird city with l i t t l e m o n e y and about eleventy billion hunts to do.
Next time, I start sidequesting like a mofo.
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-17 11:07 pm (UTC)I buttheart you for that!
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 01:00 am (UTC)That said, you have to do all the chop quests to get access to an area that lets you finish the cockatrice's quest and opens up another hunter's guild to impress. It often does feel like you have art folks churning up assets and then designer folks coming up with content to put in those assets.
And yeah, it's hard to get enough money to buy everything you want until the endgame - fortunately there are a ton of gambits and items that you'll never need. Also, may I say how much of a "fuck you" move it was for Square to give you the "Charge" technique so early in the game, but not to give you the "MP < 10%" gambit until Balfonheim? "Charge" is almost useless until you can activate it through a gambit due to its failure rate, but how it keeps your casters casting even when they run out of mana.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 03:06 am (UTC)Also you get way more MP.
Hm. Also... I have to be honest. Kari Wahlgren usually steals everything and anything the MOMENT she walks on screen for me. I bought another game (Rogue Galaxy, which was SO MEMORABLE that I actually put the wrong game-title here pre-edit) simply because she was in the VA list. She kind of made FLCL for me. Here, though, she's leaving me a little cold. I also feel like Phil is hamming it up and affecting a lot because he's... well, a -pirate-. He's peacocking, basically.
Agree with you on GIdeon though. He's really stone-cold the best actor here. (I'm also really digging Fran.)
I'm gonna stop editing this now.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 03:33 am (UTC)I didn't remember Redass's pants being quite that... ~fabulous~, I must say.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-19 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-20 12:17 pm (UTC)