Revier's Chronicles of Ivalice - Final Fantasy Tactics (Complete!)

[Second Duke Revier]

So I am playing Final Fantasy Tactics, and writing to the Internet about it. But, why? Isn't this a game "everyone" knows about? What could my perspective possibly add?

Well, let me share a story.




About five years ago, I discovered a colorful, intriguing game, called Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. It was a strange game where you controlled none of the battles, instead merely moved units across a map and sometimes casted powerful spells with cards. Most of the "gameplay" was thus merely in optimizing units for power and several strategic purposes. Despite its strangeness, or perhaps because of it, I fell in love with the game.

But, despite my best efforts, I couldn't finish it. The gameplay eventually got rather tedious and uninspiring, and there simply wasn't much rewarding to keep playing through it.

Later, I discovered that the man behind it, Matsuno, had created two other strategy games, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, and Final Fantasy Tactics. I tried both of them, but found them too hard, and, in my childish brashness, dismissed them.

Fast forward three years.



My tastes had matured considerably. I tried Tactics Ogre again and was thoroughly surprised and impressed by what I saw. The gameplay was flawed (though still very enjoyable), but the political depth and intrigue made for a very captivating and mature story rarely seen in games of its age, or to be honest, even today.

Considering my newfound realization, I thought that I would perhaps appreciate Final Fantasy Tactics more, and set off to revisit it too...but before I could truly enjoy it, life set in, and I ended up leaving it on the wayside, despite liking most of what I had seen of it.

Fast forward two more years.




Square Enix had announced a remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics, which was great news to me at the time. Finally, I could get my playthrough restarted on a brand new version of the game, with lots of quality of life features and some cool new stuff, like voice acting! And difficulty modes!

But then the bad news hit.

It turns out, this version would not include any content from the earlier PSP remaster, the War of the Lions. People were disappointed, as, from what I could gather, it was a substantial remaster that fleshed out a lot of things about the game. The director behind the new remaster gave no solid reason for such drastic cuts, instead merely vaguely stating that he "wanted to preserve the original vision". Many rightfully called him out on his bullshit, and the hype around the remaster instantly deflated.

I was one of the many people who were disappointed. But hey, it had done one good thing - it gave me the motivation to revisit Final Fantasy Tactics and see it to the end, after a fond, nostalgic jog through Tactics Ogre, of which you can read some fun and sly recollections here.

I plan to play both the PS1 version and the PSP version, as, from what I've heard, the PS1 version has punchier lines, while the PSP version obviously has a lot of added content in its cutscenes and such. My commentary will be less focused on recreating the game experience, and more on commenting on my personal feelings, observations etc. There will also be more than a few comparisons to Tactics Ogre, as that is supposedly this game's predecessor.

Alright, that's hopefully more than enough to "get" my perspective. We shall begin this journey in earnest next time!

Spoiler policy: Gameplay spoilers, such as suggestions and hints about character builds, parties etc is fine. Just don't spoil the story.

Part 1: Remember Your Training!
Part 2: Past Imperfect
Part 3: Infighting!
Part 4: Class Struggle
Part 5: The Sun Sets
Part 6: Forlorn at Falls
Part 7: Honor Soiled
Part 8: Devil Be With Us
Addendum 1
Part 9: Farcical
Part 10: Mysterious "Benefactors"
Part 11: Bloodbath
Addendum 2
Part 12: To New Lands!
Addendum 3: Side Quests, Part 1
Part 13: "Friendly" Fire
Part 14: The End Begins
Part 15: The Era of Massacres
Addendum 4: Side Quests, Part 2
Part 16: Secret Savior

 

[nataeryn]

I've been working through the mainline FF games and sequels and my intent, though ambitious is to tack FFT into that list. I have the PS1 version on disk, but i tend to get overwhelmed after a few hours. My most recent saga has been focused on defeating my personal hang ups of wanting to quit when i feel i've not played perfectly.
I anticipate that when i get to FFT, I will probably use this remaster as my version of choice. I would be very grateful of an effort to talk a bit about the other versions. So i wish you good luck and I'll follow this thread with interest.

 

[Vaeran]

Gentle reminder that per the forum rules, anyone starting a new LP needs to send me a heads-up via PM when they make the thread. Failure to follow this rule is punishable by a term of no less than six hours in the Excruciator™ at its highest setting.

Anyway, good luck and have fun!

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Alright, it's time to begin!



Heh. Got you excited there, I bet. The tutorial is rather dull and uninteresting, like most tutorials are, but it's also a very in depth look at the game, and how it works. On that note, it's rather peculiar how people often skip the tutorials for strategy games, and then complain when they get walled by something they could've easily figured out in the tutorial. Then again, it's hard to retain information from something perceived as boring. I'm not sure what the best solution to this is, honestly.



One of the things that caught my eye was the brand new inventory system. Instead of the freeform equip system of Tactics Ogre, they went with a more standardized and recognizable RPG equip system. In some ways this is better, but the familiarity also makes it a bit less interesting. Also, where are the consumables?



Ah, I see. We shoved them into an obscure, far off menu, LOL. Well, if they're not equippable anymore, that can only mean one thing - they can likely be brought out of storage at anytime, likely at the cost of a turn or so. Got it lol.



The tutorial also covered what's supposedly the big draw of this game, the ability system. Abilities would, in theory, enable much more customization and allow for some cool tricks. Personally, I've found that many games with purchasable abilities kind of depend heavily on those abilities being both a. interesting and b. at least somewhat balanced for their cost. There's certainly a lot of promise to such a system, but also a lot of potential blunders.



The tutorial also highlights the existence of tooltips. These were of course no surprise, as Tactics Ogre already featured them heavily, but what's curious to me, from my experience. is how few games in adjacent genres, namely RPGs, implement this. Hell, even today many of those games are very stingy with how they provide info, even though tooltips would be perfect for providing enough relevant info without spoiling the player. But I guess we decided that they are too complicated to use outside of strategy games, lol.

The tutorials involving map and unit controls were the most interesting and the most nostalgic to me, because it felt like I was actually controlling a game, and not just listening to a disembodied voice prattle on as if their life depended on it.



This game introduced the idea of units having a grace period after being "killed" before "truly" dying. This was most certainly a reaction to complaints about Tactics Ogre's lethality being too harsh. I have mixed feelings about this, because on one hand, I understand the need and appeal of such safety mechanisms; on the other, it does take away from the high stakes of combat I enjoyed immensely in Tactics Ogre, as it contributed both to the intensity of gameplay as well as the somberness of the narrative. Ah well, we can't have them all, and I'll certainly appreciate the convenience, even as I begrudge the loss of some uncompromising sharpness.



As expected, and as I was delighted to see, the game keeps the character turn system of Tactics Ogre. I think this system makes fights more interesting than simply having teams move at once, making character speed more important and noticeable, and making each unit matter a bit more. Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis did a decent compromise by making movement key off unit speed, but most SRPGs in my experience don't even try.

This game wonderfully expands on this system by having spells and special abilities require additional charging. Normally, I would protest locking high power attacks behind an additional time cost, but within the context of an srpg with a huge emphasis on mobility, and turns controlled by individual timers, it makes a lot of sense. Of course, it's still possible to ruin it by going overboard, but hopefully that won't be the case.



Remember when Squaresoft did ASCIII art? Yep. Lol. This "table" is supposed to depict how well each star interacts with other stars, essentially an immense expansion on Tactics Ogre's elements.

The rest isn't notable, mostly rehashing what the earlier tutorials said, or giving a dry extended explanation on certain specific aspects, such as how Reflect works or what each status means exactly.



And that's the tutorial finished! Next time, we continue with the game proper!

 

[FelixSH]

I played through the psp version a year ago, and enjoyed it a lot. Not necessarily the battle system, more the story and characters. Don't underestimate that parts. Most discussion on FFT focuses on mechanics, which is a shame.

Anyway, I don't mind the extra content gone. It wasn't great. I'll probably point it out, when you are there, not to spoil anything.

Well, have fun, any keep multiple save files (seriously, don't use just one file).

 

[Violentvixen]

Yeah, everything I've read is saying the extra content isn't missed. I played this on PS1 back in the day after playing the GBA sequels, it's great stuff.

 

[Mogri]

I haven't played WOTL, but I understand people enjoyed kicking Algus/Argath's butt again as well as the hilarously broken perfume in the Mustadio/Agrias event. (All of the perfumes are hilariously broken, but most players won't see the rest of 'em)

 

[Second Duke Revier]

The game chooses a rather interesting framing device, where the entire narrative is presented as an alternate account of history in contrast to the "regular narrative" often spouted publicly. We do not get to know much of this narrative, save that it involved a chaotic war that was eventually put down by a charismatic hero, Delita. Naturally, our historian-narrator chooses to focus not on him, but rather on our protagonist, who is apparently unknown to most people, and who is regarded as a heretic by the Church. For some reason, I'm allowed to pick his name and his date of birth.



Then, we cut to a panoramic cutscene sweeping over many a scenic locale, from lush forests to ruined towns. Eventually, it focuses on a band of knights rushing through the lands, mounted on chocobos rather than horses.



They eventually stop right outside a church tower, and it is here that both our protagonist, and their purpose, is revealed. The protagonist works as security detail for a princess, whom the knights are trying to abduct, presumably as political ransom.

This queues forth a "battle" which, in true Tactics Ogre fashion, is more a showcase for how the battle system plays out in practice, with swords, arrows and potions all flying between guests, and no real odds of "losing", thanks to the presence of some overpowered companions on the "player's" side. In this case, they were a dark knight and a holy knight. Heh, clearly the best compliments to each other! The narrative even reflects this, with the holy knight being overtly polite and submissive to her lady, and the dark knight caring for little but coin.



The battle is won, but the commander ends up hoodwinking the princess' guards and stealing her from the back! He utters this very memetic line to the holy knight to utterly mock her, and then steals away on his own steed! But the protagonist recognizes him - it's Delita! The guy who'd become the hero of the land!



Our dear historian then finally cuts to the point and begins explaining how the protagonist and Delita got intertwined - it turns out they both studied at the same military academy, where they were reared to put down bandit infestations. Their kingdom had been economically horrific for a while, and thus, many people desperately resorted to banditry to feed themselves, leaving it extremely unstable and violent; hence their choice of career.



The town housing the academy was attacked, and they were pressed into action, thus leading us to our first fight! It was...pretty unremarkable, being mostly a matter of melee fighters beating up other melee fighters across a rather limited space, consisting mainly of two lanes of approach.

I then played a little with the units that had participated, and ended up discovering several interesting quirks.



Each class had its own pool of points, making customization more open ended than I had anticipated. I had also curiously unlocked two new classes already, and so tried them out; but none of them had any appropriate gear, so I settled for the starting fighter and item-thrower classes.



Continuing the story, I ran into another flashback flashing back even further into the past, right when the former war the kingdom was engaged in had ended. Unfortunately for the protagonist, it was also when his father passed away. His last words to him were that he should retain the honor of his house, and be just and righteous in his dealings. Hmm. Quite ominous.

The two lads then set off for the protagonist's family castle, but not before being accosted by a fight midway. This fight involved yet more weak bandits, but also a curiously dressed man in overalls. He, called Algus, turns out to be a rather curious and brash fellow, boldly asking the protagonist's eldest brother and current head of the family for an army to rescue his liege! Naturally, he is turned down, with the brother, Dycedarg, sensibly explaining the situation and assuring him that people wouldn't randomly cut down someone as exalted as a marquis.



He also clearly has an inferiority complex, as he then spends a fair bit of time talking about how, back in the day, his family too was highly regarded, and it was only one of his forefathers turning traitor that ruined their reputation and status. A very likely story, a truly important aristocratic family would have ways and means of covering up a scandal, and could just disown their "bad" members if worst came to worst.

Delita's and the protagonist's sisters then show up, along with the other brother of the family, Zalbaag. He's very casual about recent affairs, and slyly "hints" to the two young leads that they could go and rescue an informant who could provide more clues on the marquis' whereabouts. There's also a bit more dialogue that reveals just how stratified the world is, with Delita's sister getting mocked in her school for her low class and stature, being the only commoner in her class.



Storytime over. Their next destination is the far off city of Dorter. But before that, I find yet another quirk of the system - spells are not bought from any shop, but simply unlocked by spending class points, meaning that any wizardly class could, eventually, become all powerful on their own!

Oh, by the way, I did unlock two wizardly classes, to go alongside the two fighter-ly classes I had acquired earlier. The protagonist's castle sold gear for them, so I went ahead and made two knights and one archer out of my team. I would've made the chemist a white mage, but it turns out, he had no access to ethers, and MP was too limited to rely on casting healing, so I'll be keeping him in his starting class until he learns how to chug ethers. Lol.

That's all for now! Next time, I follow the lads as they decide to sneak out of the castle in what's likely an ill advised move. Until then!

 

[Mogri]

It's possible but relatively difficult to lose the tutorial battle.

 

[Torzelbaum]

He also clearly has an inferiority complex, as he then spends a fair bit of time talking about how, back in the day, his family too was highly regarded, and it was only one of his forefathers turning traitor that ruined their reputation and status.

Or maybe that forefather just revealed the family's true colors.

A very likely story, a truly important aristocratic family would have ways and means of covering up a scandal, and could just disown their "bad" members if worst came to worst.

Sorry, but did you mean to say unlikely here?

 

[Second Duke Revier]

It's possible but relatively difficult to lose the tutorial battle.

Heh, I believe it is possible, but exceptionally unlikely. I wonder how you accomplish that, though? Do you make the protagonist attack his overpowered companions?

Sorry, but did you mean to say unlikely here?

It was a play on words, I meant to say that it was likely a story, aka something he made up to pretend he was hot shit back in the day so as to not be embarrassed in the company of actual nobility. Lol.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Heh, I believe it is possible, but exceptionally unlikely. I wonder how you accomplish that, though? Do you make the protagonist attack his overpowered companions?

It looks like it:

(And also hope the enemy knight breaks Agrias and Gagfarion's swords. And use Guts->Wish to heal the enemy.)

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Amusing that even in the hypothetical "losing" scenario, the enemy lost basically all but one of their fighters. And said fighter came close to ruining his own chances by breaking the protagonist's sword a fair few times.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

The lads set off for Dorter. Along the way, they end up meeting a huge gaggle of monsters in its surrounding forest. These provided the most challenging battle so far, largely because they could and did often counter attacks with their own. Human units do not counter melee attacks by default, rather they have to learn it as a counter "ability". It's certainly an interesting interpretation and expansion of the counter mechanic in Tactics Ogre, which merely did the standard "counter every melee attack with a counter attack" system. The only problem is that I didn't have any counter abilities yet!



Dorter added a bit of intrigue by introducing the idea that there were schisms in the brigand group, and that their leader clearly didn't approve of the kidnapping. It was also the site of the fiercest battle yet, with the enemy having significantly advantageous positions and powerful wizards on its side. The battle was won mainly on the strength of the protagonist and his fellow knight having enough health to outlast the onslaught and enough damage to kill the enemy forces before they could inflict any lasting damage on his team.

It is here that I began to notice something about these battles - they were all about wiping out the enemy forces, instead of assassinating their leaders. Thus, the focus was clearly much more on effectively spreading damage, rather than effectively focusing it on one pivotal point. Secondly, bodies staying on the ground for prolonged periods actually impacted positioning subtly but visibly , as the number of valid tiles for positioning reduced dramatically as a fight dragged on and more units lay dead, denying the tiles they occupied to any current units. It was certainly a very interesting and unexpected wrinkle, and I wondered how often I'd get to exploit it in future battles.



Anyhow, Algus ended up extracting the location of the splinter group by applying excessive violence towards one of the surviving brigands. The game weaved in more signs of classism here, with the brigand vehemently denying Algus' smearing of his group and instead accusing the nobility itself of mistreating and neglecting the people under them. And...that's it, really.



Their final destination, the desert of Zeklaus, split the group up into two. I found this hilarious, considering how limited my party size had already been. That aside, I quickly regrouped them, as there was little tactical benefit to having them split up. The game assumed that I would lead a two pronged assault, but I simply boarded up their front door and ended up using their walls against them, as the door ended up being an incredibly lethal chokepoint. You can kind of see what I meant with the corpses blocking effective positioning in the screenshot above, heh.

I was, however, starting to get annoyed with my archer's crossbow. It was annoyingly limited in its targeting, and compared very unfavorably to the bows the enemy was using, which were straight up capable of arcing fully and so were far more flexible and impactful as ranged weapons. I never liked the crossbows in Tactics Ogre, and they didn't do much to impress me here, either. Give me a real bow, for crying out loud!



The leader of the brigands was here, and he himself dispatched the leader of the splinter group, then graciously offered up the abducted marquis to the lads. The marquis was unhurt, though of poor health, and the team heaved a big sigh of relief.

And with that, this plot arc was complete. But of course, the game wasn't, and in the process of all that battling, I had unlocked two new classes - the thief and the monk. The thief clearly seemed like an agility focused fighter, while the monk relied on their mental focus and spiritual prowess, shunning physical equipment for their own strength of both body and mind. Both classes seem intriguing, but I have no clue who should take them up, and the knights are already quite solid in their own right. I kind of like the idea of Ramza becoming a thief, and the archer has been a little weak, so perhaps he could take up the role of a knight in Ramza's place.

And that closes out this session! But before I leave, I must present an example of a rather seemingly outrageous counter move:



If I had space for a black mage in my current lineup (I sadly don't), I'd have strived hard for this. Wizards do certainly seem quite powerful in this, going by all available information.

Alright, now I'm ending this session for real. See you next time!

 

[Torzelbaum]

It's certainly an interesting interpretation and expansion of the counter mechanic in Tactics Ogre, which merely did the standard "counter every melee attack with a counter attack" system. The only problem is that I didn't have any counter abilities yet!

I know obsessive min-maxers generally don't like to use damaging counter abilities in FFT because they "rob" you of JP.

I was, however, starting to get annoyed with my archer's crossbow. It was annoyingly limited in its targeting, and compared very unfavorably to the bows the enemy was using, which were straight up capable of arcing fully and so were far more flexible and impactful as ranged weapons. I never liked the crossbows in Tactics Ogre, and they didn't do much to impress me here, either. Give me a real bow, for crying out loud!

That's weird... I thought you could purchase bows at this point in FFT.

I generally always use bows on my FFT Archers. I don't hate the crossbows but the advantage of using a shield isn't much of a benefit early on and the extra range, targeting and damage from bows tend to outweigh that advantage as you progress through the game.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

I know obsessive min-maxers generally don't like to use damaging counter abilities in FFT because they "rob" you of JP.

Good thing I'm not a min maxer!

I generally always use bows on my FFT Archers. I don't hate the crossbows but the advantage of using a shield isn't much of a benefit early on and the extra range, targeting and damage from bows tend to outweigh that advantage as you progress through the game.

No surprise at all. Crossbows weren't great in Tactics Ogre and they don't seem great here either. In there the intent was to let the physically oriented characters use them as a sidearm in lieu of either the defenses of a shield or the power of a two handed weapon, which I could at least hypothetically understand, but they don't seem to have included that possibility in this game - none of my characters so far can equip two weapons in their hands.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Hey, @Second Duke Revier, how do you feel about spoilers in this LP?

Good thing I'm not a min maxer!

A wise choice. 'Tis a most dreadful and self-destructive obsession.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Hey, @Second Duke Revier, how do you feel about spoilers in this LP?

They're fine, just put anything that could be potentially drastic in black bars.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Crossbows weren't great in Tactics Ogre and they don't seem great here either. In there the intent was to let the physically oriented characters use them as a sidearm in lieu of either the defenses of a shield or the power of a two handed weapon, which I could at least hypothetically understand, but they don't seem to have included that possibility in this game - none of my characters so far can equip two weapons in their hands.

There is a class you can unlock that lets you dual-wield some weapons but crossbows aren't on that list.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

I see. That's kinda amusing considering everyone in Tactics Ogre could dual wield weapons (but not necessarily use both of them while attacking, that was restricted to some classes, of which half were special classes usable only by special characters, who were mostly meant to be elite fighters).

 

[FelixSH]

Dual Wield was already a passive skill in Final Fantasy V, which is probably the basis that Tactics used for refinement. That's probably, were that change from Tactics Ogre comes from.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

The journey back to the protagonist's family castle was pretty uneventful, though I discovered a rather curious bit of information:



The tooltip for all of the knights' debuffs and equipment breaking skills implied that they could be used at range with ranged weapons. Hmm, this certainly made the prospect of training up an archer with knight skills quite interesting.

Back to the story. Dycedarg was unsurprisingly livid about the lads shirking their duty for the sake of "adventure", and would've issued stern reprimands had it not been for his superior chiming up for them and strongly convincing him to not only forgive them, but to let them join their main campaign of attacking bandit hideouts.

He reluctantly acquiesces to this, putting them in charge of attacking a small bandit fort. The intrigue deepens, as once the lads leave, both Dycedarg and his superior talk in hushed tones about how their rescue had unexpectedly aided them and that they needed to act fast because the king's condition was worsening. Hmmm.....



The castle finally served up an actual bow, alongside considerable armor upgrades, especially for the knights. I noticed that this game had a considerable number of equipment upgrades even in its currently short span of time, and that the vast majority of these upgrades were straight stat upgrades, thus encouraging a lot of trading gear upwards, so to speak.



The thief fort featured some of the classes I had been striving for, namely thieves and white mages. The latter were curious because they packed some powerful offensive magic, which almost ruined my knights. Fortunately they were poorly guarded, and made for rather easy pickings, especially since spellcasting left them extremely vulnerable to damage.

The fort was also an introduction to leader centric maps, as its objective was to defeat the fort's leader. She was better armed than her subordinates, but not significantly so, and as such, once her wizards were cut down, she proved quite easy to kill.

This map was also where the game brought its theme of classism and class warfare to the forefront, with the leader constantly entreating the lads with pleas to their humanity, and Algus ruthlessly swatting them down and outright claiming that she, and the people born in non-noble classes like her, were little more than cattle, whose sole purpose was to loyally serve their noble masters to their fullest extent. Her defeat and Algus' behavior leaves both the protagonist and Delita shaken, making the former question their deeds while the latter directly protests Algus' words, making them resent each other.



Back home, the brigands attempt to directly attack the family castle and abduct its inhabitants. It would seem that the death of the splinter faction's leader didn't stop other brigands from feeling resentment with their leadership and acting on impulse to gain whatever money they could, even if it involved extortion. Their assault decisively fails and they're forced to flee, but not before abducting Delita's sister and injuring Dycedarg considerably.

Naturally, the team is quite upset to hear about this. Dycedarg reassures them that the brigands have mostly been reduced to a single fortress, and that they're planning a decisive siege to end them there and rescue Delita's sister, though the latter point comes off as an afterthought. Delita doesn't take this well, and Algus, still smarting from Delita's words, begins acting like a full blown classist bigot, insulting him for his birth and urging the protagonist to break his friendship with him. This naturally doesn't work out well for him, and he gets beaten up and then firmly ordered to leave. He does, but not before spilling out the location of the fortress, and a path to its back entrance.



Phew! That was a lot of story indeed. The next mission involved a final showdown against the former fort's leader, as she defended the path to their final fortress. She was enraged by Algus' words, and openly berated both Delita and the protagonist for treating them like dirt and caring little for their suffering. Her screeds made them both lament killing her, and hilariously also exposed just how sheltered the protagonist was from the injustices of his society. He legitimately thought the brigands could have their concerns appeased, if only he brought them up to Dycedarg! Poor guy clearly had no idea whatsoever about economies, and how they affected hierarchies.

Gameplay wise, I attempted turning the protagonist into a thief. This required a lot of rigmarole, as the thief could only be accessed by leveling up the archer job, meaning I had to swap the roles of the three fighters quite a bit to maintain an archer and two knights at all times. The thief was certainly fast, and decently evasive, but its attacks were extremely pathetic, as knives were horrible weapons. Thankfully, this battle too was manageable once the wizards were killed, as it was their aoe spells that were the most threatening - by now, melee opponents had become quite manageable indeed, and though the leader had upgraded her equipment once again and also learnt how to counter melee strikes somehow, she was still easily isolated and taken down.

Two more battles remain ahead. I find the story a bit unconvincing as is, with the protagonist getting shaken up a bit too readily. I understand that, in the interests of storytelling, some things need to be abstracted and simplified, and it's certainly possible that his reaction is intended to characterize him as a good hearted but naive individual who was unaware of the travails of the people below him, and can't stand them now that he's heard of how harsh they are, but it still seems like an all too sudden shift in character. There doesn't seem to be much "weight" in the story of classism and class struggle, so to speak, which feels rather disappointing considering Matsuno's pedigree.

Gameplay wise, the class system is certainly interesting, and shows many signs of promise, even with me sticking to about two or three classes. On the other hand, it seems like building good characters involves a lot of class switching and deliberation in purchasing abilities. This by necessity calls for significant micromanagement, which, while enjoyable in service of clear goals, does get rather taxing when indulged in for prolonged periods of time. This is despite the sharply smaller team sizes here; so far, I'm still limited to five characters in an active team, with the fifth member only recently getting a chance to participate in fights.

The end result is that, rather than a strategy RPG, it feels like a "regular" RPG which happens to outwardly exhibit the structure of the former. This is of course neither a good nor a bad thing, and as long as it stays interesting and enjoyable, I will happily explore it, with its full share of quirks and oddities.

Alright, that does it for this session. See you all next time!

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Up ahead, a cutscene revealed the desperate situation of the brigands, as they were openly defying their leader's orders under the misguided belief that they had a noble hostage who could buy them some security, if not a large sum of money. Their leader is furious, and vehemently orders them to relinquish their hostage; but news of the duo's approach reaches him, as well as the information that they had killed the leader of the earlier map, who happened to be his sister! Enraged by this piece of news, he decides to personally fight them and their retinue in combat!



He was a considerable step up from all my earlier opponents, being able to freeze and kill my units at range, much like the holy knight in the intro. The team thankfully did have enough damage to beat him, but the fight was only won by desperately concentrating damage on him. Upon his defeat, he fled, but not before revealing that the protagonist's brothers had in fact stirred one of his people into kidnapping the marquis, as he was an obstacle to their political scheming.

By now, the guy behind the abduction had of course fled, but he didn't have many places left to run...the next map was the last stronghold the brigands held in the region, and with the duo's team marching through their back path, they were well and truly cornered.



I decided to risk making the protagonist a monk for this last climactic battle on the path. In the process, I discovered a nasty limitation of the knight's passive skills - only one of them could be active at any point of time! This meant that I could only choose to wield either a shield, sword, or a piece of heavy armor outside of its class. Well, that kind of dashed my hopes of making good use of the thief, though I still planned to use one of them with a sword equipped, as it would likely offset their glaring lack of offensive power.



At the fort, the duo discover something really shocking - not only was Zalbaag willing to attack the fort ruthlessly, he was also willing to overlook the hostage, and employ Algus for some reason! Algus shot both Delita's sister and her kidnapper, and the latter retreated into the fort's storehouse, shocked at how callous his enemies were about the hostage, and determined to take them out with him by blowing up the fort's gunpowder. Before Zalbaag can do anything else, news of the brigands' leader desperately attacking with a small army reaches him, and he leaves, putting Algus in charge.

Algus is of course an out and out bigot at this point, and most of his behavior is him sneering at Delita and lecturing the protagonist on how he needs to recognize the superiority of nobility, and accept scheming for the sake of greater power and benefit. Delita is both angered and saddened, and spends most of his (admittedly very brief) time blindly charging Algus. The protagonist, meanwhile, shakes his head at Algus' bald villainy and tries arguing with him, to no avail.

The fight itself was annoying, partly because it featured two powerful mages, but mainly because Algus could randomly heal himself back upon taking damage, and his three knights did a great job of guarding him on the cramped battlefield, with both their health and their strong strikes. The monk was surprisingly very powerful on the offense, but on the other hand the lack of durability from missing armor was quite noticeable, and made the battle more dicey than it needed to be. It also didn't help that the archer missed his shots on Algus quite a few times. Ultimately I'd say the monk hurt more than it helped, and while this fight was won it was at the cost of several revives and a bunch of frantic footwork. Phew!



That battle marked the end of the game's first act, and it ended with the fort exploding, seemingly taking out Delita with it. The protagonist, completely shaken by the recent turn of events, decided to flee his family, himself turning fugitive. Well, more accurately turning mercenary, as the black knight, Gafgarion, had picked him up into his squad. The narrative finally caught back up to the "present", where he argued about pursuing the princess' kidnapper with the holy knight, only relenting when the protagonist, out of his desire to meet his old friend, sided with her.



Three mediocre looking characters then joined the team, now presumably headed by Gafgarion rather than the protagonist. More interesting was the progress the chemist had made; now he could actually drink ethers, and safely transition into being a white mage! But that will be for next session, as this session ends here. See you all later!

 

[Mogri]

Three mediocre looking characters then joined the team

One of them is pretty rad.

 

[FelixSH]

To be clear, Algus is a classist ass from the very beginning, he just doesn't let it out like this. He is the worst, one of my most hated characters in all videogames. Him being so easily manipulated might be the reason, why he was used.

And I think, you just got my favourite character.

Regarding Ramzas change of perspective, time is meant to move way slower, than the player experiences it. Especially if you do some grinding. So Ramza has more time to think about everything than it seems. And yeah, he is just very, very sheltered. Considering his age, I totally buy how his development is somewhat fast. Teenagers can have their mind blown by new ideas way more than when you are older and more experienced. And might change drastically, from a day to the next, if they are hit by the right (or wrong) idea.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

One of them is pretty rad.

Haha, I see what you did thar.

And I think, you just got my favourite character.

Who is that, out of curiosity? Gafgarion? The holy knight? I don't think either of them have formally "joined" yet, but they're certainly listed in the roster now, albeit as "guests".

Regarding Ramzas change of perspective, time is meant to move way slower, than the player experiences it. Especially if you do some grinding. So Ramza has more time to think about everything than it seems. And yeah, he is just very, very sheltered. Considering his age, I totally buy how his development is somewhat fast. Teenagers can have their mind blown by new ideas way more than when you are older and more experienced. And might change drastically, from a day to the next, if they are hit by the right (or wrong) idea.

Yeah I completely get this, it's just that the exploration of classism and class struggle feels rather hollow, given how swiftly the narrative shifts through them. I was expecting more, considering Matsuno's general output and his surprisingly nuanced take on political matters in other games. But meh, it just might be my own problem lol.

 

[FelixSH]

Gafgarion is fun, too, but I'm thinking of Agrias.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Ramza's team, or rather, Gafgarion and the holy knight Agrias' team decide to pursue the princess' kidnapper. On their way back however, they are ambushed by a large group of assassins hired by a shady man. These assassins prove to be quite tough, and indeed, the battle ends up being a bloodbath, thanks to the two enemy wizards getting extremely advantageous positions. Were it not for the presence of the dark knight and holy knight, Ramza would've been completely and utterly annihilated here.



I'm not exaggerating in the slightest; just look at all those bodies on the ground! Sheesh!

The next battle was a fairly uneventful one, only involving rescuing a chocobo from many a goblin. Goblins were weak and frail enemies, and as such the encounter was quite the step down.

But then came the encounter after, where they finally caught up to Delita and the princess:



It turns out they had been ambushed by the protagonist's brothers' forces themselves, who wanted to kill them both! The whole thing was a frame job to get rid of an inconvenient member of royalty and simultaneously blame a rival faction for the deed, likely to weaken their political power or even overthrow them somehow. Gafgarion turns out to be in their employ, and turns on Agrias, but the protagonist refuses to join him, and takes her side, along with the rest of the party.

This fight could've been rough, but by now the new classes were starting to mature, and while the enemy team was very durable, consisting entirely of knights, it had no ranged nor aoe damage, and so could be picked off one by one. The rough terrain also played a significant role, with half the enemy force being effectively cut off from the party, and destroyed effortlessly by Delita's flashy moves. He had certainly grown substantially stronger in the interim!



With the fight over, Delita asks for the princess to be delivered to him, as he'd be able to defend her better. He reasons that, with their fight just now, they alienated Dycedarg and Zalbaag's forces, and so now would be actively wanted in their territory. The opposing faction, meanwhile, would only be too willing to deliver them up for justice to clear their name.

While his argument makes sense, he fails to clearly specify what his alternative solution would be, and naturally the princess prefers the protection of her own entourage over that of a stranger who had tried to abduct her not too long ago. The protagonist, now lacking for direction again, decides to fall under the princess' company, and after a bit of discussion, they decide to make their way to a church controlled state, as that's the closest place that's free from the reign of either faction, with the church's authority guaranteeing them a safe haven.



On their way, they ran into the last fight of this session, where brigands were harassing a young man into handing over some sort of valuable. The party tried to rescue him, but there was a tall wall between them and him, and he was quite exposed to the enemy party, who were well armed and finished him off in short order! It didn't help that there were two wizards ready to hurl spells at him from their first turn itself!

I quickly realized that there was no way to do this with my current gear or party, and ended up looking through the various towns available for new gear, which hilariously included all the town in the protagonist's brothers' territory. Doing this, I discovered that both the archer and knight had upgrades in the form of elemental swords and bows! Well, those were certainly welcome. I also found new useful accessories, most notably one that granted extra height allowance.

Hmm...height allowance...tall wall...idea! Give my offensive attackers more jump to clear the wall and get to the enemy team!



Sure enough, that worked, though not precisely with thieves, contrary to what the screenshot depicts. I just switched to them in hopes of capitalizing on their speed and extraordinary movement allowance to take out the mages early, but they did too little damage and took too much damage in turn for that to work.



Anyhow, with the man saved, he gave some insight into why the brigands were hunting him - they were after lost ancient technology, and he was an archeologist of sorts digging up and researching said technology. He was quite well versed in it too, even his weapon, a rifle, was ancient technology excavated from the ruins of this lost civilization! He begs the party to take him in and protect him, and while the protagonist and Agrias are rather reluctant, the princess overrides them both and welcomes him in!

And that does it for this session! It's nice to see the game growing some teeth, and it's also nice seeing the new classes grow, though the knight and archer still dominate most fights. Counter attacking from the monk and White Magic from the priest in particular served me very well, with Ramza's counters adding up to a lot of damage and healing (and revival) spells giving the priest the ability to extend good support from a distance. It will certainly be interesting to see how they shape up, and what new classes show up next. Until next time!

 

[Mogri]

The thief throwing his cap on the ground is one of my favorite animations.

He has a unique portrait, albeit not by much.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Formally added a spoiler policy to the first post, as I received hints from other places that I wasn't too clear about what kind of spoilers were and weren't allowed. For this thread, it's as simple as this:

Spoiler policy: Gameplay spoilers, such as suggestions and hints about character builds, parties etc is fine. Just don't spoil the story.

Back to your regular schedule!