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xyzzysqrlSo hey. Today is the 25th anniversary of the entire Final Fantasy franchise. Years and years of classic games there, you know? It kind of humbles me that I've been there to watch it all. There's been good and bad times, there's spin-offs I haven't even PLAYED yet... and it all has the weight of history. I really have nothing too special to say, so let's get back down to it.
Last time: I am poor. Like, I am down to 300g, which is amazingly poor in a Final Fantasy game. Even the smallest payout you usually get comes in blocks of 1000. Fucking adventurers depreciating the economy. I could probably sell some stuff, but let's see if we can get coin circulating again.
In other words, I'm going off and doing a bunch of stuff so I won't be poor anymore. This is probably gonna be one dull sack of entry, so y'all can skip it if you want to.
The majority of the hunts I can sign up for have contacts in Nalbina. I drop 180g of my 300 and hop an airship there, in part because there's no fast travel that I can see, and in part to cross the Nalbina/Balfonheim route off my Airship Jerk list. The Jerk on this run is named Lirschell, and he brags about how his brother claims I'll never last out the delivery runs. I chat with Chief Steward Twarra, show her the letter from Ann, and get her in on Project Jerkblock.
That's three, four sisters to go.
In Nalbina I take bills for:
An "atomos", which has been eating traders crossing the Highwaste. Bad business, that. You may remember "atomos" is also a very small, blocky style of airship. All the airships in this game are named after traditional Final Fantasy enemies, which is neat... except then they also use those enemies in-game. So it can be a bit confusing.
There's a quest to stop a ... A deadly bunny called "Carrot". Well. Okay.
An old man wants me to go to Nabudis, which I instinctively cringe at the thought of doing. There's a huge golem there called the "Roblon", which he slips and calls his "son" before hurriedly backing away from the subject. Uh-huh. ... Well. Let's... I'm not doing that unless I have no other choice.
I also meet the dude who WRITES all these bestiary entries I keep finding. Or at least, some of them. His name is Barrong, and he wants me to hunt up "Goliath" the golem in... yes, the Necrohol of Nabudis.
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Ahem.
I accept, but that one may ALSO be a while. All right, one more left in this town, what is it...
Go hunt a "Deathscythe" in the Necroho--
NO MONEY IS WORTH THIS.
Sigh. Let's just go after the Atomos. I run out to the Highwastes, and I start to type ATOMOS in big bold letters like I usually do for hunts, except while I'm typing the party pretty much wipes it out. I should've done that a while ago I guess. Anyway while I'm in the Highwastes someone wants to talk to me about a "Braegh". It's a kind of EVIL wild horse, so naturally I accept that one too. That one's in the Salikawood.
Anyway we turn in the Atmos hunt and get paid. Yay paid. It's like 1800g, and I sell some various floating assets I looted and end up with 20021g.
I AM NOT POOR ANYMORE. Okay more hunting. I pop out to Eryut Village and hunt the DEADLY VORPAL RABBIT Alicia suggested a few days ago. This is not "Carrot", it's a different deadly bunny of death. Actually, it's not really very deadly either, as it mostly makes the entire party chase it all over hell and back. When we're done, we bring its tail back to the viera so they can make hallucinogenic bunny butt drugs.
I don't judge. I just collect profit. Post-sales finances come out to 32611g. Not bad. BUT WE CAN GO HIGHER.
We teleport off to the Salikawood to fight a DEADLY HORSE. Unfortunately for my storytelling ability, the first thing that happens is that "Disable" hits thanks to Basch, and the next fifteen things that happen are me stabbing the Braegh vigorously. So that battle barely even got started before it was finished.
Well... let's try hunting Carrot, then. Here, Carrot Carrot. Here bunny bunny. HeEEEOOOLY FLYING CRAPBUCKETS.
Carrot is -not- a cute little bunny rabbit. Carrot, it turns out, is a Malboro the size of an apartment block. Oh boy. We're gonna DIE. As it turns out however, we do NOT die. Somehow. Carrot does manage to fight me down to Party B after taking out the front line, but somehow, some way, we win that battle. Remarkable luck, and a party pocketbook check reads 42738g.
I head back to the Clan Hall to talk to Montblanc. He offers me a hunt for a Man of Mystery, last seen atop a big bridge.
Oh HELL.
There's no way I can help going after Gilgamesh. If nothing else, he has the best battle theme out there.
Am I prepared? I don't know. I decide to head out and have a look. I have been pre-warned about this fight, so I make sure everyone is ready to try to steal from him. Deep breaths. Okay. Here goes. Off to the big bridge deep in the Lhusu Mines.
The fight with Gilgamesh is wonderful and nasty, the kind of boss fight I really enjoy. He brings his dog, Enkidu, and the first thing he does is make a dramatic leap onto the bridge... miss, and sail off into space. This doesn't keep him down though, as he double-jumps back up. "WE FIGHT!" he declares, and we DO. We have a running sword battle up and down the bridge, with occasional pauses while I swipe his stuff. In the end, I have the Genji Shield (kinda useless) and the Genji Gloves (YES). He keeps pulling out sword after sword after sword, hitting harder and harder, but I TRIUMPH.
And then he runs away and gains about 50 levels.
I'm gonna have to do that fight later. But YAY I beat one of my favorite encounters in any given Final Fantasy!
*collapse* Well. I beat HALF of the encounter. That counts, right?
From there, nothing is quite as exciting. The party fights a Mindflayer, but that's a mage. We tag him with "Berserk", which causes wild uncontrolled physical attacking, and... well, mages don't usually do physical attack very well.
I even wander down into the Barheim Passage... you remember I had a key to do that? I barely remembered... and fight a giant bat. As if that wasn't enough, I push right on past the giant deadly bat and challenge Zalera, the Death Seraph. This is the Elemental God of Death, and naturally he can just... casually kill people out of hand. I stick a ring of pierce reflect (Opal Ring) on Penelo and have her just go nuts casting high-powered healing spells on him, and naturally this does massive damage because GOD OF DEATH. Meanwhile Balthier flails away with his new Genji Gloves and his katana, racking up 6-8 chain hits, and Fran just beasts away with her spear.
Death Seraph DEFEATED. So now the elements on the team are Fire, Lightning, Ice, and... Death. Death is an element now.
(You know what I want to see? I want to see a pokemon style game where you collect creatures embodying principles of ACTUAL ELEMENTS. Hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium... you know. It would be no more scientific than any other game but at least it would adhere to a classification of the elements that wasn't docmented by the fucking ANCIENT GREEKS and BABYLONIANS, okay? Let's actually MOVE UP a little from the classics and try out the periodic table, it's only been around about TWO HUNDRED YEARS OR SO now. ... Thank you for listening.)
So! Vote time!
Who gets to summon DEATH?
The candidates:
Ashe - Would get MORE HIT POINTS by doing this. Good for her role as party front-liner. This would be my choice.
Balthier - Would get Blood Swords. Blood Swords are weak, but inflict Sap. Sap is -really painful-. This choice is the only reason I didn't just throw it on Ashe, because he could then use the Genji Shield as well. Sword-and-shield samurai?
Basch - Would unlock Ether Lore, getting more MP back every time he used one. He has a pretty small magic pool, so this is also an outlier choice.
Penelo, Vaan, and Fran would get nothing special but are still valid choices.
Anyway... with this? I'm feeling REALLY GOOD about my party. I'm not ready for Gilgamesh Round 2, I'm not ready for the Necrohol, but I -am- ready to keep the plot moving. NEXT TIME: We do that!
Oh. Final total at checkout: 126620g. Thank you, enjoy your day.
Last time: I am poor. Like, I am down to 300g, which is amazingly poor in a Final Fantasy game. Even the smallest payout you usually get comes in blocks of 1000. Fucking adventurers depreciating the economy. I could probably sell some stuff, but let's see if we can get coin circulating again.
In other words, I'm going off and doing a bunch of stuff so I won't be poor anymore. This is probably gonna be one dull sack of entry, so y'all can skip it if you want to.
The majority of the hunts I can sign up for have contacts in Nalbina. I drop 180g of my 300 and hop an airship there, in part because there's no fast travel that I can see, and in part to cross the Nalbina/Balfonheim route off my Airship Jerk list. The Jerk on this run is named Lirschell, and he brags about how his brother claims I'll never last out the delivery runs. I chat with Chief Steward Twarra, show her the letter from Ann, and get her in on Project Jerkblock.
That's three, four sisters to go.
In Nalbina I take bills for:
An "atomos", which has been eating traders crossing the Highwaste. Bad business, that. You may remember "atomos" is also a very small, blocky style of airship. All the airships in this game are named after traditional Final Fantasy enemies, which is neat... except then they also use those enemies in-game. So it can be a bit confusing.
There's a quest to stop a ... A deadly bunny called "Carrot". Well. Okay.
An old man wants me to go to Nabudis, which I instinctively cringe at the thought of doing. There's a huge golem there called the "Roblon", which he slips and calls his "son" before hurriedly backing away from the subject. Uh-huh. ... Well. Let's... I'm not doing that unless I have no other choice.
I also meet the dude who WRITES all these bestiary entries I keep finding. Or at least, some of them. His name is Barrong, and he wants me to hunt up "Goliath" the golem in... yes, the Necrohol of Nabudis.
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Ahem.
I accept, but that one may ALSO be a while. All right, one more left in this town, what is it...
Go hunt a "Deathscythe" in the Necroho--
NO MONEY IS WORTH THIS.
Sigh. Let's just go after the Atomos. I run out to the Highwastes, and I start to type ATOMOS in big bold letters like I usually do for hunts, except while I'm typing the party pretty much wipes it out. I should've done that a while ago I guess. Anyway while I'm in the Highwastes someone wants to talk to me about a "Braegh". It's a kind of EVIL wild horse, so naturally I accept that one too. That one's in the Salikawood.
Anyway we turn in the Atmos hunt and get paid. Yay paid. It's like 1800g, and I sell some various floating assets I looted and end up with 20021g.
I AM NOT POOR ANYMORE. Okay more hunting. I pop out to Eryut Village and hunt the DEADLY VORPAL RABBIT Alicia suggested a few days ago. This is not "Carrot", it's a different deadly bunny of death. Actually, it's not really very deadly either, as it mostly makes the entire party chase it all over hell and back. When we're done, we bring its tail back to the viera so they can make hallucinogenic bunny butt drugs.
I don't judge. I just collect profit. Post-sales finances come out to 32611g. Not bad. BUT WE CAN GO HIGHER.
We teleport off to the Salikawood to fight a DEADLY HORSE. Unfortunately for my storytelling ability, the first thing that happens is that "Disable" hits thanks to Basch, and the next fifteen things that happen are me stabbing the Braegh vigorously. So that battle barely even got started before it was finished.
Well... let's try hunting Carrot, then. Here, Carrot Carrot. Here bunny bunny. HeEEEOOOLY FLYING CRAPBUCKETS.
Carrot is -not- a cute little bunny rabbit. Carrot, it turns out, is a Malboro the size of an apartment block. Oh boy. We're gonna DIE. As it turns out however, we do NOT die. Somehow. Carrot does manage to fight me down to Party B after taking out the front line, but somehow, some way, we win that battle. Remarkable luck, and a party pocketbook check reads 42738g.
I head back to the Clan Hall to talk to Montblanc. He offers me a hunt for a Man of Mystery, last seen atop a big bridge.
Oh HELL.
There's no way I can help going after Gilgamesh. If nothing else, he has the best battle theme out there.
Am I prepared? I don't know. I decide to head out and have a look. I have been pre-warned about this fight, so I make sure everyone is ready to try to steal from him. Deep breaths. Okay. Here goes. Off to the big bridge deep in the Lhusu Mines.
The fight with Gilgamesh is wonderful and nasty, the kind of boss fight I really enjoy. He brings his dog, Enkidu, and the first thing he does is make a dramatic leap onto the bridge... miss, and sail off into space. This doesn't keep him down though, as he double-jumps back up. "WE FIGHT!" he declares, and we DO. We have a running sword battle up and down the bridge, with occasional pauses while I swipe his stuff. In the end, I have the Genji Shield (kinda useless) and the Genji Gloves (YES). He keeps pulling out sword after sword after sword, hitting harder and harder, but I TRIUMPH.
And then he runs away and gains about 50 levels.
I'm gonna have to do that fight later. But YAY I beat one of my favorite encounters in any given Final Fantasy!
*collapse* Well. I beat HALF of the encounter. That counts, right?
From there, nothing is quite as exciting. The party fights a Mindflayer, but that's a mage. We tag him with "Berserk", which causes wild uncontrolled physical attacking, and... well, mages don't usually do physical attack very well.
I even wander down into the Barheim Passage... you remember I had a key to do that? I barely remembered... and fight a giant bat. As if that wasn't enough, I push right on past the giant deadly bat and challenge Zalera, the Death Seraph. This is the Elemental God of Death, and naturally he can just... casually kill people out of hand. I stick a ring of pierce reflect (Opal Ring) on Penelo and have her just go nuts casting high-powered healing spells on him, and naturally this does massive damage because GOD OF DEATH. Meanwhile Balthier flails away with his new Genji Gloves and his katana, racking up 6-8 chain hits, and Fran just beasts away with her spear.
Death Seraph DEFEATED. So now the elements on the team are Fire, Lightning, Ice, and... Death. Death is an element now.
(You know what I want to see? I want to see a pokemon style game where you collect creatures embodying principles of ACTUAL ELEMENTS. Hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium... you know. It would be no more scientific than any other game but at least it would adhere to a classification of the elements that wasn't docmented by the fucking ANCIENT GREEKS and BABYLONIANS, okay? Let's actually MOVE UP a little from the classics and try out the periodic table, it's only been around about TWO HUNDRED YEARS OR SO now. ... Thank you for listening.)
So! Vote time!
Who gets to summon DEATH?
The candidates:
Ashe - Would get MORE HIT POINTS by doing this. Good for her role as party front-liner. This would be my choice.
Balthier - Would get Blood Swords. Blood Swords are weak, but inflict Sap. Sap is -really painful-. This choice is the only reason I didn't just throw it on Ashe, because he could then use the Genji Shield as well. Sword-and-shield samurai?
Basch - Would unlock Ether Lore, getting more MP back every time he used one. He has a pretty small magic pool, so this is also an outlier choice.
Penelo, Vaan, and Fran would get nothing special but are still valid choices.
Anyway... with this? I'm feeling REALLY GOOD about my party. I'm not ready for Gilgamesh Round 2, I'm not ready for the Necrohol, but I -am- ready to keep the plot moving. NEXT TIME: We do that!
Oh. Final total at checkout: 126620g. Thank you, enjoy your day.
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no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 07:03 pm (UTC)You also didn't mention that Zalera has the most metal stare ever.
Also, you didn't send Fran to nibble that Carrot?
no subject
Date: 2012-12-18 07:19 pm (UTC)I had been trying not to traumatize my readers and/or myself by dwelling on that shot.
And... come to think of it, Fran was in the B-team that beat it. (It clobbered Balthier, Basch, and Penelo and then Ashe, Fran and Vaan won out.)
no subject
Date: 2012-12-20 06:25 am (UTC)Also, a gigantic Malboro named "Carrot" kept as a pet is kind of an Ivalice in-joke, considering it was passingly mentioned in FFT and was an enemy in FFTA, FFTA2, and FF12. It's kind of a thing now.
As far as GIRUGAMESHHHH, you might struggle a bit (unless Red Mage can get Arise, in which case things get a lot easier) but basically the strategy is just wearing him down in the second run like you did in the first (and doing your best to steal the Genji Helm and Armor, which are nice). Enkidu is priority #1 - dispel his buffs and tear him apart with extreme prejudice, and Gilgamesh will basically alternate between status-locking your party and wailing on one party member at a time, meaning it's all a matter of keeping healthy.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-20 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-20 01:56 pm (UTC)