Blame yourself or God! Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics!

Welcome back for the first update of the New Year-- and the conclusion of Chapter 2! With Gafgarion defeated, we're
brought back to the Unit screen where we can modify our units before the battle. There's no opportunity to get into
some random mischief or purchase items between the last battle and the this one, but that shouldn't be too much of a
problem.

If I had been paying attention last fight, I would have gotten Ramza to grab a few extra JP to get Holy. Holy, as the
Priest write-up ages ago described, is one of the most powerful magic spells in the game. While I don't believe the
upcoming boss has any particular weakness to Holy damage, it still creates huge numbers.

The upcoming fight (spoilers?) against our first Zodaic Beast, Queklain, will almost certainly feature one member or
another getting hit by a status ailment. Sleep, Death Sentence, and Petrify are the most common debuffs, but Queklain
can also Slow and Don't Act your characters as well. In fact, between all of Queklain's abilities there's only a handful of
status ailment's he can't affect you with. Luckily most of the tools you'd use to fight Sleep, Petrify, and Don't Act will
often cure the less common ones as well.

You should bring one character with the the Priest's "Esuna" or the Chemist's "Remedy" to the fight. The Monk's "Stigma
Magic" can do in a pinch as well, and thankfully the terrain is relatively flat to make proper use of it. We're fortunate
enough to have access to all three as we enter the fight, but one should be enough.

Make sure to repair any stolen/broken equipment and reequip normal accessories if you were using Rubber Shoes for the
previous battle! Defense Rings are helpful here, as they prevent Sleep and Death Sentence.



Positioning is somewhat important in this fight. Some of Queklain's abilities are as constrained to tight height restric-
tions. Not to get into too much detail yet, but positioning your non-Ramza units around the sides with Ramza anywhere
in the middle (see picture) will prevent him from hitting more than one unit with his favorite attack, Nightmare. Of
course, he still has other spells he can use, such as Bio 3, but they're not as likely to outright shut down a group of
characters. Enough pre-planning, let's get to the fight!

As a bonus, I've recorded the battle! You can watch it here. I might record future fights, but for now just
think of it as a treat! It doesn't go quite as smoothly as the first one I recorded did...

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Inside of Lionel Castle

(Scene: As Ramza searches for Princess Ovelia, he finds
Count Draclau by an altar in the castle. The stones like the
one that that Mustadio found will turn out to be more
powerful than he could ever imagine. Dark forces tear
at the fragile peace in Ivalice...)

(Descent)

Draclau: Even if you are a bastard.

(Draclau moves down to the stairs above Ramza.)







Draclau: Why must you save her?



Draclau: Don't waste energy. Without power, nothing can
be achieved...



Draclau: She's no here. She left for Zeltennia.



Draclau: She has begun to think for herself. She felt
unsure of you and chose us for obvious reasons to take the
throne.







Ramza: Change the world? You think anyone really can?
I'm not that reckless!!

(The Pervert ~ Lucavi Demon Battle Theme)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Queklain is all about status ailments. His main source of damage are a line of "Bio" spells (Bio 1, 2 and 3... actually ten
different spells, each which deal different status effects), but otherwise he's going to be looking to wear you out with
effects like "Petrify" and "Death Sentence".

Now, I don't want to scare anyone who hasn't seen this fight before; it's a cakewalk. Queklain only has about 380 HP,
and is grossly outnumbered. If you spread your guys out, you can pretty much just zerg his creepy hide before things
get too out of hand. The only way you're going to get into trouble is if your heavy hitters get locked down, preventing
you from dealing enough damage to Queklain before his Bio 3 and Nightmare spells overwhelm your party.

However, given the two fights that preceded this one (Golgorand Execution Site, and the Lionel Castle Gate) it's very
unlikely that you aren't prepared to deal with this guy.

There's not much to this fight other than pounding him quickly. Here's some more information about him and the fight:

• He's a Scorpio, and considered a male one at that (most Zodiac Beasts are gender neutral, like monsters).
  Because of this, Leo, Aquarius, and male Taurus units will be slightly more useful as your healers/status effect
  cleansers. Good/Best compatibility isn't too threatening however, and can be used to take him down quickly.
  
• Incidentally, Sissie is a female Taurus. That means she's going to do a heck of a lot of damage to this guy, given
  the chance. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Sullivan is a male Taurus, which is kind of going to suck.
  
• He's fast, with a Speed value of 9. This means that he'll likely go first, which is a good reason for making sure
  your units are at least not clumped together at the start of the fight. He's also got Short Charge innately, so
  despite his Bio spells having a casting time, they're almost always going to be cast before you can hit him while
  he's in a 'charging' state.
  
• Queklain has a Move and Jump value of 4, a Speed of 9, and a Faith value that (to my best calculations) is 69.
  His Brave Value is unknown, and he has no counter ability (I've also never seen him try a physical attack). His PA
  is 10, his MA is 7, and he has a natural evasion from the front of 12%. He amusingly has Martial Arts naturally.
  
• This map is small, with a narrow chokepoint in the middle. It's almost impossible to avoid clumping up units such
  that Bio 3 can't hit at least three of your units, but you can prevent him from hitting more than one with
  Nightmare without too much difficulty.
  
• Queklain is immune to every state ailment but Don't Move. With the arena being as small as it is, Don't Move is
  hardly an optimal choice. If you're using Mustadio however, who knows. Maybe a good opportunity will arise
  (Probably not).
  
• Interesting facts: Queklain is known as "C�chulainn" in both the FFT PSP remake, "War of the Lions" and appears
  under the same name in Final Fantasy XII, as a summon spell. The name comes from an mythological Irish legend
  named "C� Chulainn." He beat up a dog and fought a lot. He's killed after eating dog meat. It's true, I read it on
  Wikipedia (his death actually sounds pretty bad ass)! This Ivalice reincarnation seems to have little to do with
  the source material, but Square was always quite liberal with their interpretations.

Queklain

Lucavi Skill: Fear

Queklain seems to prefer to use Nightmare, Bio 2 (the one that Petrifies) and Bio 3 (any). This makes preventing Sleep a
nd Petrification important. As seen below however, he's certainly not limited to those abilities.

Nightmare: Add's Sleep or Death Sentence to any units in a small area (Effect: 2,0), with a 100% success rate
(modifiable by Zodiac compatibility). This move has no vertical tolerance, thus two units can stand next to each other
as long as they stand on different heights. This is a very common attack he'll do; the Death Sentence part is the least
worrisome, since Queklain is unlikely to survive long enough for it to matter.

Chicken Race: Add Don't Act to a single unit, with a 100% success rate (barring Zodiac nonsense).

Death Cold: Add Slow to units a small area (Effect 2, 0). While Slow would be a pain, Queklain seems to prefer
Nightmare instead.



Lucavi Skill: Bio

These spells are all calculated off of Faith, of which my calculations suggest Queklain has a value of 69 for (this might
vary a little). Percentages/damage values should assume the target has 70 faith, and no Zodiac compatibility modific-
ation to Queklain's MA (which is 7). None of these can affect the caster, but they can be reflected.

Bio: A very quick, small area attack spell (Effect: 2,2) that deals minor damage (~40). There are actually three differ-
ent Bio spells, all of which do the same amount of damage, but with different status effects. The possible ailments are
Darkness, Poison, and Oil, with a very small (5-6%) chance of actually being inflicted.

Bio 2: Spells that hit a small area (Effect 2,2) but deal no damage, instead giving a moderate chance to inflict some
status ailments (~56%). Like Bio, there are four different versions of this spell, that will inflict Frog, Slow, Silence, or
Petrify.

Bio 3: Like Bio, there are three different versions (that cause Undead, Dead, and Petrify about 5-6% of the time), and
it deals moderate damage (~80). Unlike Bio however, Bio 3 has the area of effect of a summon spell (Effect: 3,3).



Try and mentally keep track of Queklain's hit points. He won't have more than 400, so don't be afraid to let some of
your party members remain dead/stoned if it looks like you can wear him down before he can wear you down.

Defeated, all that remains of the former Count Draclau is another mysterious stone. If the legends are true however,
there are potentially ten more floating around Ivalice, ready to unleash their terrible power. Ramza does not have time
to stop and think about this latest development however, because the War of the Lions now begins in earnest...

I'll be announcing the results of our own personal "Talking Time" Monster Team along with Chapter 3! Don't worry FSS,
my ineptitude at getting this in before Christmas means your vote still counts!

Join us next time on Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics: Chapter 3!

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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Zodiac bosses were always the biggest mystery I wanted to figgure out in this game because you couldn't look at their status screen. Now I know everything I need to know about Queklain. Thanks Eddie! Once again you've taught us all some miscellaneous FFT drivel. And I mean that in a good way. The details actually come in handy when playing through the game.

I've thought about it, and there's a lot of stuff (job changes, skills and treasure) that I'm going to have acquired before the first battle of chapter 3, so I'm going to make a supplementary post, including the results of the vote. Stay tuned true believers!

- Eddie

Incidentally, Astrology is awesome.

Technically this all takes part at the start of Chapter 3 (after a cutscene) but we'll be saving that for the next battle
update. For now, let's see what the Hadouken crew have been up to in the three in-game months since the beginning
of the Lion War...



Shops are selling Twist Headbands now, which give an amazing +2 PA. Any physical class that can use this will
probably be wearing these for some time. Shops are also selling Bags now, which are the bane of my existence. Bags
are like Axes and Maces, in that their damage is somewhat random, so they make poor weapons. Yet they always try
and equip em on ladies when you "Best Fit" in stores because they tend to have a high attack power than most other
weapons.



Yet another accessory to boost our magic to ridiculous levels. There's a small decision to be made over using a Wizard
Mantle instead (giving up a point of MA for 18% evade), but I think stacking PA/MA is just too important.



The Fur Shop is open now too. When you kill monsters with the Thief's "Poach" ability equipped, they get turned into
items you can purchase here. Some are quite rare, and it's certainly something we'll play with later. The shelves in the
immediate future will remain bare...

Rumours, and lots of them!











We'll hear about this a bit more, but for now it helps set the scene a little.







Oh he was CRUSHED alright!

Finding unexplored lands rewards us with another type of meaningless rank. Horray!



You can dance if you want to Jean!



Sullivan and Jessica have been hitting the holy books perhaps a little too hard, but as long as we keep them under 94
Faith they won't be going anywhere. Still, they're going to be bitching at us after every battle about how terrible it is
that they're effortlessly slaughtering the enemy.



Most of the jobs are pretty generic (mine some ore, salvage a shipwreck) but there's a line of quests revolving around
"Phantom Thief Zero."



I like how our guys removed evidence from the crime scene. CSI: Ivalice we ain't.



MEGAREUS. Look at that Mindflare! That's a beaut. Sadly, while I had Junk in the fight with me, I didn't have him with
the ability to talk to Monsters. I'LL BE BACK FOR YOU (if I hadn't bolt'd you for about three times your hit points).



The pages for Bar Treasure has been updated, and a new one for the Unexplored Lands. We'll add one for the Zodiac
Stones once we get to another page, so we don't clog up with too many images in one place.

Let's look at our roster!

Ramza

Well Ramza finally got that Holy spell. Holy is amazing, but I think I've said enough about its greatness. Not much has
changed with Ramza, but I've got a plan for him.





Junk

We get Attack Up with Junk, and sneak out of the Geomancer class. We take a dip into Archer to grab Speed Save,
and Thief for Move +2. I have no idea where to take Junk now! He'll keep the Talk Skill for now (I've still got people to
use it on) but if anyone has any direction a Geomancer/Mediator with Speed Save can go... I'm moving him into Bard
for the moment.





Jessica

We don't really need either of these, but heck. Big spells are fun!

Tabitha

Tabitha is getting close to functionally mastering Chemist. The skills I'm picking up aren't likely going to be used anytime
soon (particularly the Ether ones) but heck.





Sissie

Sissie manages enough JP to grab Speed Save, which will be an excellent compliment to her Thieving skills she'll soon
be possessing. She grabs Steal Heart and Steal Weapon.





Sullivan

I'm itching to push Sullivan into Oracle now, but it's kind of fun having a variety of ways to burn, freeze, and
electrocute people. I pick up Death too, although I can't remember ever using it (Casting Flare and the higher level
elemental spells usually outright kill your enemies).





Jean

Blade Grasp! We pick up Murasame to add a bit of healing. Koutetsu isn't really worth picking up right now, so we'll start
saving for Heaven's Cloud (even though we can't purchase them yet).

And finally...

THE RESULTS.

I totally started posting this before I forgot to do the tally! It'll appear here soon.

We'll be jumping into Chapter 3 soon! Take care until then!

Well I'm starting my playthrough on this tonight. Thanks for making me buy it, Eddie!

Unexplored Lands 1

The Mirage Tower is from the original Final Fantasy. It was entered by doing a small detour to learn another language,
so you could get a chime to enter the darn thing.



I believe this is another location from Final Fantasy.. No hints on WarMech, but I hear BANE works alright against
Tiamat (sometimes).



This is a location from Final Fantasy 6, that sort of divides the game in half. It hosts a trio of statues with amazing
magical power.



Another FF6 location, where Sabin and Cyan get stuck on while trying to get to Narshe. It carries the dead to their
final resting place, and has some pretty cool music.



Falgabard (not Falfabird as I named the image) is a hidden village of Dark Knights you can find in Final Fantasy 3. The
PSP "War of the Lions" correctly changes the "Magic sword" reference to "Dark sword" that the villagers actually used.



This is another Final Fantasy 3 reference. It was an end game dungeon which contained a bunch of powerful treasure.



Wait, more FF3 references? I didn't even like that game.

Well whatever, this is a miniature town that can only be accessed by casting "Mini" on your party.



Chocobo Forests appear all over Final Fantasy games, the best known perhaps being the ones from Final Fantasy IV.
Nothing about Fat Chocobos in here tho.



A location from Final Fantasy 2, not 6 like I stupidly originally thought. But who cares, no one likes Final Fantasy 2.



A biblical place where God spited a bunch of dudes who were trying to build a stairway to heaven (note: may not be
100% accurate). Also a Final Fantasy IV location where a Giant lived and Elemental Fiend refights happened.



This is a reference to the final dungeon in Final Fantasy II (the sucky one), but is itself a reference to John Milton's
"Paradise Lost".



Let's set aside the obvious Final Fantasy I reference here. Mayota is a dude?



Double Reference! The Castle of Trials was where you found the Rat Tail in Final Fantasy I, and the Red Wings
mentioned are of course from Final Fantasy IV.

I hear Calculators are good.

- Eddie

You have to have that support ability set on someone when you enter, too. Kind of annoying when you are using the Byblos to poach.

Oh, that "winged men" reference is probably to the Moogles, which are extinct at this point in Ivalician history (and were largely responsible for the magicite based tech of FFXII's era).

I honestly don't think he had the other races planned at this point.

Hmm, did the Lefeinish have wings at one point? I think it's probably a reference to the Floater and sky castle in FF1.

The description for, I think, Sweegy Woods mentions that Moogles once lived there, but are now extinct.

It's kind of pointless to look for something exactly matching the description in FFT. I mean, Mirage Tower was definitely from the first game, but the Ronkan civilisation was in FFV, correct? I wonder if this, too, is part of the game's theme....

Alternately, someone recently saw the location description, realized there were no winged men anywhere in FF, and created the Aegyl to justify it.

Yep, Sweegy. I think at this point they were still just the classic forest dwelling moogles. And the flying ruins in FFV were indeed Ronkan. It's all just a jumble of fan-service references I think, though maybe I am just clinging to the old humans-only Ivalice I loved.

I loved thinking of this setting being in the dark ages of Ivalice, and having all these amazing forgotten landmarks that they haven't really climbed out of the darkness enough to really question. Like Hadrian's Wall, where even the people living around it just sort of forgot what it was.

MONSTER TEAM ALPHA TIME KILLERS RESULTS

First, the voting. Points are awarded based on which monsters was ranked/listed first. The first name is worth 3, the second 2, and the third 1. I took some liberties interpreting some posts, but I'm considering the below results FINAL. ALSO I'M USING AS MUCH BOLD TEXT AS I CAN (legally).

THE TALLY

Aeonus: ZOIDBERG, Ahriman, Behemoth
Bongo Bill: Goblin
Coinspinner: Dryad, ZOIDBERG, Cocatoris
Destil: Chocobo, Hydra, Uribo
dtsund: Hydra, Bomb, Dryad
Elfir: ZOIDBERG, Hydra, Marlboro
FSS: Chocobo, Marlboro, Dryad
Kirin: Chocobo, Marlboro, Behemoth
Lucas: Cocatoris, Hydra
MoneyCityManiac: Hydra, Dryad, Cocatoris
nimling: Marlboro
PapillonReel: Hydra, Behemoth, Marlboro
Ruik: Marlboro, Skeleton, Behemoth
Shivam: Marlboro, Hydra, Behemoth
SpoonyGundam: Uribo
Stiv: ZOIDBERG, Marlboro, Cocatoris
ThricebornPhoenix: Minotaur, Behemoth, Bomb
Turnip: Dryad, Uribo
Zef: Behemoth, Uribo, Dryad
ZRofel: Uribo, Hydra, Dragon

THE FINAL SCORES (spaced out to be obnoxious)


Hydra: 19









Marlboro: 17









Zoidberg: 11
Uribo: 11
Dryad: 11
Behemoth: 11


OH DANG DEMOCRACY HAS FAILED US ALL

A 4-way tie between Dryads, Uribo's, Behemoths, and *GASP* ZOIDBERGS!? We need a tie breaker Talking Time! And we need it before chapter 4. Naming contest? Beauty pagent? Essay writing? Cage match? Guys! Four enter, but only two can join the battle!

- Eddie

p.s.

Chocobo: 9
Cocatoris: 5
Bomb: 3
Goblin: 3
Minotaur: 3
Ahriman: 2
Skeleton: 2
Dragon: 1

Gah! I can't make up my mind. How about Behemoth and Dryad?

The pig! Go with the pig!

Or whichever one is the most useless!

If Dwyvaer has taught me anything, it's that trying to get rid of a Behemoth only results in your party getting massacred and said Behemoth saving everyone's butts.

So you know what your fate will be if you leave the Behemoth behind.

So a reptile and a plant. You'd think there would be another plant in there, to round things out.

I've completely forgotten the descriptions of each monster, so I'll just vote for behemoth.

And speaking of names: what's the character limit? I want to name the Marlboro in the grand tradition of famous Final Fantasy Marlboros, but "Carrot" is too cliche, and Cassie and Vivian are too "Audrey II"-ish. Maybe... Kumquat.

Or Rinoa.

The Hydra is definitely a Gonzalez, though.

The Marlboro is going to be named "Flavor Country." This is non-negotiable.

And guys, we just had a vote and it totally didn't give four clear winners and you want to fix the problem with more voting!?

- Eddie