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

[Second Duke Revier]

My knight had finally acquired enough skill points to get the armor breaking move, so I purchased it and turned him into an archer. Let's see how well he fares!



Ovelia has a brief, inconsequential moment where she regrets that people are fighting and dying for her, and that she's hunted for her status as royalty. She briefly mentions being friends with the protagonist's sister, and before they leave for Lionel the protagonist attempts to cheer her up a little by teaching her how to play the reed flute. Lol.



Anyhow, the team continued journeying towards Lionel Castle, the church's capital in the region. They were again waylaid by the brigands pursuing the young archeologist, where they quickly learnt of a new, terrifying weapon in their employ.

Summons.

These were the second level magic spells made to cover a much larger area, and the classes summoning them were quite well protected, with a formidable and hefty force holding the hill overlooking them. I was stumped for a while, and ended up with quite a few failed attempts.

Eventually, however, I figured out a solution - send two thieves, one on either side of the hill, have the archer distract the enemy forces and support the guests at the center, and have the white mage support first the thieves and later the central forces. I also optimized one of the thieves to maximize their evade, so as to make them a tempting yet elusive bait. This worked out fairly well, though the fighting was still tense, with many a potion consumed and many a cure and revive slung by the white mage.



Their arrival at Lionel castle seemed to go well, but the game then cut to Dycedarg scheming against them, claiming that he already had discreetly got the church to side against them and deliver the princess to him. It was also revealed that the assassins back in Dorter were not in his employ and had been sent by some mysterious third party, neither allied to him nor the opposing faction. Hmm...



Back at Lionel, the reigning cardinal revealed that the brigands were looking for mythical stones of holy powers, each stone corresponding to one holy warrior of the zodiac. These warriors had, in ages past, defeated a great evil and sealed him away. He reassures the party that he'll provide the princess a safe haven and send a force to punish the brigands hounding the archeologist. The party, ignorant of any wile machinations on the cardinal's part, eagerly accept his words, and the archeologist and the protagonist set out to his home city to assist the church's forces. Welp.



The shops of Lionel have several considerable pieces of gear, including shoes that straight up nullify lightning, a cloak that boosted magic alongside evasion, and buyable ethers.

The next battle was against the undead in a swamp, and, aside from the swamp poisoning units that stepped into its waters, was fairly unremarkable. One annoying aspect of the team's current composition was that the monk lost out on the physical damage bonus offered by the Headgear, as they could wear no helms! Oof. This not only made them lose out on a good chunk of HP, but also made their damage scale back considerably compared to other classes. It didn't help that a second knight had finished learning how to equip swords on other classes and had transitioned into being a thief, thus benefiting both from the swords and the headgear, and consistently tying the supposedly superior monk in damage, and sometimes even outdamaging them!

Anyhow, the two reached Goug, the archealogist's hometown, without further incident. However, they noticed something quite strange....



Goug looked completely undisturbed, with no signs of large scale violence anywhere. This was suspicious and quite unsettling. The archeologist decides to split to discreetly look into things himself.

Goug has guns, or rather specifically, the same model of gun the archeologist was using. I had got the opportunity to deploy all five possible units on the last fight, and my fifth party member was still a chemist, and so capable of wielding a gun. I bought it for her, figuring that it would do her more good than a dinky knife, and I was proven right in the very next fight.

Said fight occurred as soon as the protagonist tried to leave.



It turns out the church had indeed betrayed them, and had no intention of stopping the brigands. In fact, they had already captured the archeologist's father, and were now harassing him for his stone. He reluctantly relinquishes it to them in exchange for his release, and their leader pretends to let him go, before calling on his mooks to finish him off! Quite shameless indeed, these brigands.

The fight was essentially a halfway mirrored version of their earlier fight, with their summoners being at the center and thieves and archers taking one each of their sides. The summoners were again the biggest threat and caused me to wipe once, but on the second try I won with a more cautious approach. Reversing the positions made the formation much easier to deal with, as their core offense, so to speak, was left wide open to attack, and thieves, while certainly faster and more annoying than knights, were also considerably weaker.

Both fights also highlighted a fairly glaring weakness of the armor breaking archer - while he was effective against units that relied on heavy armor to get their bulk, the armor breaking was completely worthless against units that either didn't wear armor, or were already relatively frail. Further, having it equipped meant denying him access to items, which did get dicey a few times. I also despised that he was helpless at close range, with nothing but a tackle to respond to any assailants in melee. I hoped to find something better for him soon.



The session finally ended with a huge string of cutscenes, where the archeologist revealed that he'd somehow hidden the real stone on his person all along! Wow, these must've been some really incompetent brigands! The two, now realizing that the church couldn't be trusted, feared for the princess and Agrias, and decided to rush to her aid via a discreet back path into the castle.



On the way. the protagonist meets Delita again, who warns him against mounting the rescue and once again reassures that he can protect the princess better without elaborating on the how and why. It's cryptic and suspicious bullshit and the protagonist rightfully rejects him over his "offer".



Elsewhere, the extent of the church's treachery is revealed, as not only did they renege on their promise to the archeologist, they were in fact using the brigands to collect the stones, in hopes of invoking the power and memories of the zodiac heroes to rally the people behind them and wrest control of the kingdom. The cardinal even whisks the princess away to Dycedarg, and permits the dark knight, Gafgarion, to use her as bait. This game sure isn't holding back on its portrayal of its villains, heh.

And with that, this session comes to a close. I like how the team building and character customization mechanics have shaped up so far. The story is a bit hamfisted with both its twists and the portrayal of its villains, yet it's a decently enjoyable thriller so far. I can only hope that it can sustain this without cheapening itself too much, and that the gameplay side of things will remain as strong as ever. Until next time!

 

[Second Duke Revier]

This is only tangential to the LP, but I do wonder: how much creative control was Matsuno given over any of the projects he directed under Squaresoft/Square Enix? Is it true that he was given full creative freedom while making Vagrant Story, and that was scaled back when the game failed commercially?

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Revier, the protagonist, had finally unlocked Chakra, which meant he was free to sample other jobs! Yay!



Doing so however revealed a rather silly trait of the class system - many of the class unlocks made no damn sense! To demonstrate, here's what the paths for all the classes so far looked like.

Squire →Knight→Monk→Geomancer (!)

Squire→Archer→Thief→Lancer (??)

Chemist→White Mage→Oracle (???)

Chemist→Black Mage→Time Mage (?!?!)

Yeah, uhhh...I can't make head or tail out of those progression paths at all! It seems like they tried to mesh the class system of Final Fantasy 5 with the linear class progression of Tactics Ogre, except Tactics Ogre had linear progression because the later classes were meant to be upgrades (or, at the very least, considerable sidegrades)!

That aside, I considered making Revier a lancer, but with no spears available, there wasn't much point to it. Instead, he'd just go back to donning a knight's garb, with Chakra keeping him topped off and Counter getting him extra damage in melee.



Sure enough, Revier's forces run across Agrias being pursued by the Church's forces. This leads to a rather awkward battle, where nearly half the team is consigned to a distant part of the map, separated by steep hills and a ferocious stream in between! Once again, the wizards were the biggest threat, and they were quickly dispatched by concentrated attacks, both from melee and range. Once that was done, the battle simplified itself into a slugout, though I was at a noticeable disadvantage until my thief made his way to the other side. I also had to face some rather annoying status effects from geomancy, which was a bit of a wakeup call that they would be more prominent in battles, going forward.

Thankfully, my white mage could and did unlock Esuna after this battle. I also got a spiffy new accessory that raised both physical and magical power and cancelled Slow. Of course, this, and some other pieces of equipment, would come into play soon...



Because the very next fight was a doozy, with the party being awkwardly split up, the enemy party being numerous, the bigger portion of my party being exposed to their melee attackers, and all of them being faster than my party. That last bit was exacerbated by the enemy having time mages on their side, who magnified the time gap by hasting their party and inflicting slow on mine!

I was stumped for a bit, but eventually figured out a solution - give everyone who could wear a speed hat one. This greatly helped in closing the gap, and allowed my party to act proactively rather than reactively. The second part of the solution involving minimizing exposure to attack, which was accomplished rather unorthodoxly:



Yep, I did just line all of my team on a narrow passage. Since most of the enemy's actual damage came from their melee fighters, minimizing frontage this way only made sense. This worked out brilliantly, and though the battle dragged on, in no small part due to Gafgarion's constant drain attacks, the tide decisively turned against the enemy and they were thoroughly dispatched.

Narratively, this battle was a trick designed to get the party to waste time, as Gafgarion gave false news of planning to execute the princess. Aside from the obvious bait and switch, the battle was notable for Gafgarion hilariously trying his hardest to get Revier to "see reason" and join his family back, seemingly indicating that, despite his outwardly cold and rough demeanor, he did have a soft spot for his former apprentice.

Sadly the game didn't bother elaborating much on this, and nor would it get the chance to, as there was only one more battle against him left ahead. The upside of this battle dragging out was that Revier's party had earned loads and loads of skillpoints, and so could unlock a fair few skills. The most notable acquisitions were Bolt 2 for my wizard and Wall for my white mage. I had half a mind to switch the party back to the jobs they were "training" up before the battle at the execution site, but eventually decided against it, as it would be more prudent to see what the next fights offered first.



We're briefly treated to a scene where the princess, Ovelia, is shown in captivity. Delita is revealed to be working for the church, who are presumably the third faction Dycedarg was worried about. They spill out that Ovelia is not only politically inconvenient, but also not of royal blood at all! Thus, she'd better listen to them, as she's worthless to either faction, and they know how to treat her better, allegedly. Yeah, don't know about that, lol.



It was a good thing I chose not to change classes, as the next fight was quite rude in its setup indeed, having Revier "duel" with Gafgarion while the rest of the party was stuck outside, exposed to a force surrounding them on three sides! The latter side could've gone quite bad if there hadn't been a tank and an evasive thief to keep them distracted. Fortunately they were able to outlast the onslaught, with Revier opening the gate just in time for them to regroup, recover and then destroy the enemy. The enemy party had a summoner, who was once again the biggest threat to the party. Fortunately he wasn't very well protected, and the thief could shank him before he did much nasty.



With Gafgarion finally put down for good, the party hurried inside the castle, only to discover that Ovelia had already been moved away, and there was little they could do to rescue her. The cardinal also reveals the secret of the stones - they were filled not with the holy power of the zodiac heroes, but the devilish power of demons! He transforms himself into a demon, which leads to a final climactic battle for this act! Or so I'd say, but in truth he was pretty pathetic, choosing only to spam one sleep and death sentence inflicting aoe on the same three people over and over, leaving two party members free to wail on him and finish him up. So much for the stone's power, hah.



The act wraps up with some insights on Ovelia's fate - it turns out Delita had dragged her into the rival faction's seat of power itself. This faction was headed by Goltana, and he was surprisingly quite pleased with Delita's actions. It turns out, he himself had been looking for a royal puppet to lay claim to the kingdom, and Ovelia provided him just that. Some skullduggery happens, Delita urges Goltana to move ahead and proclaim Ovelia queen before Dycedarg's faction gets to counter them, and just like that, an act ends and a civil war begins!

That shall be all for this session. It was a good session, with some entertaining fights that required a decent bit of strategizing. The story is starting to get a bit weird, especially with Delita freely betraying people with little personal consequence, but there's still a decent amount of potential for some nice conspiracy thrills, especially with a civil war breaking out. Thank you for reading, see you next time!

 

[Mogri]

He transforms himself into a demon, which leads to a final climactic battle for this act! Or so I'd say, but in truth he was pretty pathetic, choosing only to spam one sleep and death sentence inflicting aoe on the same three people over and over, leaving two party members free to wail on him and finish him up. So much for the stone's power, hah.

In low-damage challenge runs (e.g. Bard-only or solo runs), this is the first major roadblock. But, yes, this battle is barely a roadbump for a competent squad; casual runs will have a much harder time with Golgorand Execution Site or Outside Lionel Castle.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Both fights also highlighted a fairly glaring weakness of the armor breaking archer - while he was effective against units that relied on heavy armor to get their bulk, the armor breaking was completely worthless against units that either didn't wear armor, or were already relatively frail. Further, having it equipped meant denying him access to items, which did get dicey a few times. I also despised that he was helpless at close range, with nothing but a tackle to respond to any assailants in melee. I hoped to find something better for him soon.

One annoying aspect of the team's current composition was that the monk lost out on the physical damage bonus offered by the Headgear, as they could wear no helms! Oof. This not only made them lose out on a good chunk of HP, but also made their damage scale back considerably compared to other classes. It didn't help that a second knight had finished learning how to equip swords on other classes and had transitioned into being a thief, thus benefiting both from the swords and the headgear, and consistently tying the supposedly superior monk in damage, and sometimes even outdamaging them!

I generally prefer weapon break and/or speed break over armor break. There are also some quirks of the underlying mechanics that you've ran into here but I don't know how into the weeds you want to get with that stuff.

The second part of the solution involving minimizing exposure to attack, which was accomplished rather unorthodoxly:



Yep, I did just line all of my team on a narrow passage.

That's quite an interesting approach to that battle. I usually include Agrias and have her use her holy sword skills on the time mages. I also rely on Mustadio's skills and try to break Gafgarion's sword.

Doing so however revealed a rather silly trait of the class system - many of the class unlocks made no damn sense! To demonstrate, here's what the paths for all the classes so far looked like.

Squire →Knight→Monk→Geomancer (!)

Squire→Archer→Thief→Lancer (??)

Chemist→White Mage→Oracle (???)

Chemist→Black Mage→Time Mage (?!?!)

Hmm... I've never really thought of that. I just accepted that progession as how things worked.

The cardinal also reveals the secret of the stones - they were filled not with the holy power of the zodiac heroes, but the devilish power of demons! He transforms himself into a demon, which leads to a final climactic battle for this act! Or so I'd say, but in truth he was pretty pathetic, choosing only to spam one sleep and death sentence inflicting aoe on the same three people over and over, leaving two party members free to wail on him and finish him up. So much for the stone's power, hah.

Ha, ha, ha... You're the one holding the stone. You can change not only the world, but the truth of everything with its power. Since you don't seem to understand, let me show you.

I feel like your experience with that battle and response to it is a lot different than most other peoples'.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

In low-damage challenge runs (e.g. Bard-only or solo runs), this is the first major roadblock. But, yes, this battle is barely a roadbump for a competent squad; casual runs will have a much harder time with Golgorand Execution Site or Outside Lionel Castle.

Yeah I can imagine. Also he's much more of a threat when his AI is fixed to properly use his spells, like in the PSP version:



Speaking of!

Addendum 1

So I mentioned that I'd be playing the PSP port. Well, I ended up doing it alongside my current playthrough of the PS1 original.

It's a pretty good experience, it's the base game but with some decent quality of life features, a brand new translation, some minor visual upgrades, animated and voiced cutscenes and of course, brand new content. What's immediately noticeable is how the AI is much more aggressive, being willing to hurt its own allies as long as it can do significant damage or kill an enemy or two. The new translation is enjoyable, and has some pretty good lines sprinkled throughout. I was dreading that it would be exceptionally stilted, having had poor experiences with the similar looking translation for Tactics Ogre's PSP remake, but thankfully that isn't the case, aside from a few lines that try too hard to be Shakespearean.

The three main problems with it are:
a. The slowdown during magic/special skills, easily fixable with a fan made patch (and reportedly fixed in the mobile port of this version).
b. The poor sfx in comparison to the PS1 original.
c. The needlessly raised skillpoint costs (which is apparently a holdover from the original Japanese version, but still weird lol).

These are legitimate problems, but they're fairly minimal, all things considered, and the good parts easily outweigh the bad.

But I'm not here just to sing its praises, I'm here to shed a light on what it added. So, let us begin in earnest.

Wiegraf's Religious Turn​

This scene occurs upon leaving Golgorand, the execution site Gafgarion used to bait Revier's team into wasting time, and illustrates what happened to Wiegraf, the leader of the failed brigand rebellion in act 1. He's shown grieving for Miluda, and the church recruits him to their cause by playing on his desire for revenge on Miluda's killers and his hatred for the noble classes. While not a significant bit of story, it's still interesting, and provides some decent insight into what happened to a prominent enemy of the past, instead of making him vanish into the shadows, so to speak.

Delita Rescues Ovelia​

This occurs immediately after the battle at the gates of Lionel Castle, and shows Delita escorting the princess out of the captivity of the church and towards Goltana's faction. If that were all there was to it, it wouldn't be worth making. And indeed there's more.



They get ambushed by Dycedarg's assassins, and the player gets to play as Delita fighting them off! It's a pretty easy battle, and effectively an interactive cutscene, but it's still pretty neat for the novelty factor, especially since it gave me a nice taste of all of the "holy sword moves", lol.

There's obviously much more to come, and I'll be covering later additions as addendums to the LP, whenever it gets to relevant points. That will be all, see you later!

 

[Second Duke Revier]

That's quite an interesting approach to that battle. I usually include Agrias and have her use her holy sword skills on the time mages. I also rely on Mustadio's skills and try to break Gafgarion's sword.

Heh, yeah I got a fair few comments asking me about why I didn't use them lol.

Truth is, I find it more satisfying to fight battles with the units I reared myself. It's half the fun of this game to me, lol.

I generally prefer weapon break and/or speed break over armor break. There are also some quirks of the underlying mechanics that you've ran into here but I don't know how into the weeds you want to get with that stuff.

Feel free to dive straight into the weeds, lol.

I feel like your experience with that battle and response to it is a lot different than most other peoples'.

Huh, is that so? I did have a friend of mine describe the string of battles from Golgorand to Lionel castle's keep as a long, painful endeavor, but they later admitted they didn't know how to approach the demon fight, and that he was undertuned as a boss, being the first "real" boss of the game. And, in fairness, I can see him being dangerous when his AI works right and he isn't obsessed in just attacking the same few people over and over - I experienced that firsthand in the PSP port, LOL.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Truth is, I find it more satisfying to fight battles with the units I reared myself. It's half the fun of this game to me, lol

A perfectly reasonable and understandable approach.

Feel free to dive straight into the weeds, lol.

The formula for barehanded damage is calculated in part by using the attacking unit's Brave stat. So lower Brave means less damage when everything else is equal. Monks have an innate support ability that boosts their barehanded attacks (and most of their Punch Arts).

The range of Longbow attacks is affected by elevation - if your unit is at a higher elevation than the target then that unit has increased range. So sometimes going up instead of forward is the better option for an Archer. But you usually can't get some of the skills that really help with that until a bit later in the game (unless you grind).

Huh, is that so? I did have a friend of mine describe the string of battles from Golgorand to Lionel castle's keep as a long, painful endeavor, but they later admitted they didn't know how to approach the demon fight, and that he was undertuned as a boss, being the first "real" boss of the game. And, in fairness, I can see him being dangerous when his AI works right and he isn't obsessed in just attacking the same few people over and over - I experienced that firsthand in the PSP port, LOL.

Hmm... I wonder if most people bring Agrias and Mustadio to this fight and if that changes how Queklain's AI acts.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

The formula for barehanded damage is calculated in part by using the attacking unit's Brave stat. So lower Brave means less damage when everything else is equal. Monks have an innate support ability that boosts their barehanded attacks (and most of their Punch Arts).

This is covered by the in game tutorial, it mentions Brave not only affecting counter abilities, but also the damage of certain weapons and abilities, and specifically mentions punches becoming stronger with higher Brave.

Your latter point is fairly self evident from the Monk's passive skill being the ability to punch as well as the Monk even in a different class, why would it exist if the Monk didn't give a bonus to punching? Not to mention, Monks are typically expected to punch well, it's like...their whole thing, lol.

The range of Longbow attacks is affected by elevation - if your unit is at a higher elevation than the target then that unit has increased range. So sometimes going up instead of forward is the better option for an Archer.

I did notice this myself, it's part of why I used a longbow instead of a crossbow. It's a neat and intuitive mechanic, and it also showed up in its predecessor, Tactics Ogre, with which I am quite familiar.

Still, thanks for delivering the tips. Keep them coming!

 

[Torzelbaum]

This is covered by the in game tutorial,

For some reason I thought you had skipped the tutorial but talking about it was one of the first things you mentioned in this LP.

 

[ClaudiaSilvestri]

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.

One thing about Algus, I think, is that he's much more purely hateable than most awful characters. Usually there's some kind of redeeming backstory quality, some aspect of cool design, interesting abilities, fun dialogue... but Algus has none of that, he's just horrible.

Squire →Knight→Monk→Geomancer (!)

Squire→Archer→Thief→Lancer (??)

Chemist→White Mage→Oracle (???)

Chemist→Black Mage→Time Mage (?!?!)

One thing that occurred to me about the progression order here: for sword-users, Geomancer coming after Knight fits how good their equipment is pretty well. Early-game, helmets/armor that Knights use are better than hats/clothes, but now you've started seeing equipment where hats/clothes definitely help more.

Heh, yeah I got a fair few comments asking me about why I didn't use them lol.

Truth is, I find it more satisfying to fight battles with the units I reared myself. It's half the fun of this game to me, lol.

Understandable! I do think Agrias is very cool though.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

One thing about Algus, I think, is that he's much more purely hateable than most awful characters. Usually there's some kind of redeeming backstory quality, some aspect of cool design, interesting abilities, fun dialogue... but Algus has none of that, he's just horrible.

Yeah, and I think that's completely intentional. As one of my friends commented, he's supposed to come off as a pathetic weasel who hates his current post and decides to take out his frustrations on the people below him, abusing whatever little power he has. In that sense he's a great villain, they really realized his character well lol.

One thing that occurred to me about the progression order here: for sword-users, Geomancer coming after Knight fits how good their equipment is pretty well. Early-game, helmets/armor that Knights use are better than hats/clothes, but now you've started seeing equipment where hats/clothes definitely help more.

That's certainly possible, I just dislike how it breaks the theme and makes planning out progression for your characters a bit frustrating, as you don't know if the next class is worth switching over to, especially since doing so involves dealing with a barebones class command for a fair while. But it's not that big a deal, the game has given me enough info to make the right decisions in that regard so far.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Algus has none of that, he's just horrible.

that Richie Rich-looking asshole

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Act 3 opens with a somber discussion in Goltana's court - the war hasn't gone well. Both sides have suffered huge casualties, people everywhere are dying from a drought and a flood, and there are many destitute refugees flooding the capital itself in search of shelter. Orlandu, one of Goltana's nobles, and the only noble sympathizing with the populace's woes, pleads for him to end the war, but the latter is in no mood to listen. It would seem he's hell bent on seeing Dycedarg's faction defeated, even if it'd cost the fortunes of the kingdom.



Revier himself sets out for the imperial capital, hoping to meet his brother Zalbag and get him to stop the war somehow. However, he runs into a haggle of brigands hassling a young man on the way! This leads to a really bizarre fight, where the man, allegedly of the astrologer class, single handedly debilitates all the brigands into uselessness with a global aoe! Ummm....alright....Needless to say, the battle was a swift breeze.

Once he was rescued, the astrologer thanked Revier and then went his own way. Okay then. His surname seemed oddly familiar, however. Hmm...



That encounter aside, he reaches Zalbag's home in the capital without incident. There, he tries to inform him about the entire conspiracy with the church seeking the stones, but with no proof on his side, and his accusations implicating Dycedarg, Zalbag gets incensed, and admonishes him for daring to smear his own family. The discussion breaks down, with Zalbag going so far as to accuse Revier of being a bastard son unworthy of the family name! Thankfully, before things get too awkward, he is called for battle, and the scene ends.



The capital finally sells spears, so Revier dons the lancer class. It's...quite the powerful class, going by stats alone. High HP from heavy armor, decent base evasion, the ability to equip shields, high power spears with a two tile range and some noticeable evade on them...damn!

The shop didn't just sell spears either, there were all sorts of nifty gear upgrades! Some of them are visible right here, and yes, they were indeed selling the elemental shields right here! Clearly, the designers were starting to introduce the fancy stuff to spice things up. This was very much to my liking, of course. The only problem was that I didn't have the money to purchase all the stuff I wanted! Ah well, nothing to do but grab the stuff I could reasonably afford without bankrupting the party's treasury.



Dejected, Revier tries to slip out of Zalbag's house, but is caught by his sister, Alma. Revier delivers the bombshell that Delita is alive, and that there's a conspiracy afoot involving him, Dycedarg and the princess. Of course, he doesn't know much about the entire conspiracy, just that they have something insidious planned, and are after the stones. She decides to go along with him to try and figure everything out. He protests, but...



They are cut short by the arrival of an inquisitor, who wishes to capture and interrogate Revier, as he's a prime suspect of the cardinal's murder! Welp, looks like it didn't take very long for the "police" to catch onto his act. Revier of course defies his order, which leads to the second fight of this act. It was yet another bizarre fight, with the map providing an extremely defensible position in the back, no ranged units on the enemy's side, and an enemy leader who did nothing but walk around, poke people with sticks, and sometimes cast Life 2. As such, this was a very trivial fight, with little to write about. Though, with the latest equipment featuring elemental shields, the knights had them too, which made my wizard switch to Bolt 2 to avoid hitting any absorbs or resistances.



After the fight, they ponder a bit about the church's motives, and Alma reveals that she does know of the location of another holy stone, but forces Revier to take her in, claiming that she may be an outlaw herself now that she actively assisted him against an inquisitor. It turns out, the stone of the Virgo warrior was at Orbonne monastery all along - the very same monastery she and Ovelia had studied in! Some back and forth later, Revier reluctantly lets her join, as she knows its head priest better and would get him in more conveniently.



The shops immediately upgraded their stocks again, adding what was probably the first good knife I'd ever seen! I switched my thief over to it, and with a shield equipped he got a prodigious amount of evasion indeed! Now, his offense did drop, but the latest "light" helmet and armor upgrades offset that with heavy physical attack bonuses, so it seemed like the right call. There was lots of other amazing stuff on offer, including Aegis shields (!), which had insane evasion against magical attacks. Sadly, once again I was short on money, and had to settle for a few important purchases.



The two arrived too late at the monastery, it had already been ransacked by the church's secret cabal. Its head priest had somehow survived the attack, and revealed their entire plan - the civil war was intentionally stirred by the church to weaken both Dycedarg and Goltana's faction, and they were hoping to use the power and memory of the stones to then win the trust of the people. Revier points out a simple flaw in the plan, however - the stones held demonic, not holy power, and, far from winning any trust, they would likely just plunge the land into further chaos. He then decides to pursue the cabal, leaving the two stones in his possession in Alma's keeping.



The next battle was against the cabal's vanguard, and they proved to be quite the tough fight! The lancers were not only very powerful with their stabs and jumps, they were also incredibly evasive and swift. Combined with the Hastes from their time mages, they went crazy and put the entire party in a world of hurt! It was only with lots of careful positioning and desperate focusing of damage, alongside some handy equipment breaks from the knight, that they squeaked out a victory on this fight! Thank God, I was hoping that the first two fights wouldn't be a trend of this chapter, as they were too goofy for my liking!

That's where this session ends. The new equipment and new classes makes things potentially intriguing, even if I have my reservations about how the latter are unlocked. The plot seems to be leaning more into the shadowy mystery side of things this time around, but that may well be the consequence of it introducing new stakes. We shall see where the whole shadowy church cabal arc leads us. See y'all next time!

 

[Mogri]

The shops immediately upgraded their stocks again, adding what was probably the first good knife I'd ever seen!

The evade% only applies if you're using Weapon Guard.

Disparate sources of evade tend to stack multiplicatively, but if you're equipping two Main Gauches (Mains Gauche? Mains Gauches?) with Weapon Guard, that is indeed 80% weapon evasion IIRC. (It will not help you evade spells, and there are actually better evasion abilities for your Reaction slot if you are above 80 Brave or have access to endgame gear, which is ridiculous.)

 

[Second Duke Revier]

The evade% only applies if you're using Weapon Guard.

Yep, I'm aware.

Disparate sources of evade tend to stack multiplicatively, but if you're equipping two Main Gauches (Mains Gauche? Mains Gauches?) with Weapon Guard, that is indeed 80% weapon evasion IIRC.

Huh, interesting, I figured only shields would count for shield evasion (unless equipping two of them counts doubly for weapon evasion?).

(It will not help you evade spells, and there are actually better evasion abilities for your Reaction slot if you are above 80 Brave or have access to endgame gear, which is ridiculous.)

Yeah I figured, that's why the Aegis shield exists lol. But do tell me about these better abilities.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Disparate sources of evade tend to stack multiplicatively, but if you're equipping two Main Gauches (Mains Gauche? Mains Gauches?) with Weapon Guard, that is indeed 80% weapon evasion IIRC.

I don't remember it working that way but I can't find anything in the mechanics guide about that situation.

Revier himself sets out for the imperial capital, hoping to meet his brother Zalbag and get him to stop the war somehow. However, he runs into a haggle of brigands hassling a young man on the way! This leads to a really bizarre fight, where the man, allegedly of the astrologer class, single handedly debilitates all the brigands into uselessness with a global aoe! Ummm....alright....Needless to say, the battle was a swift breeze.

This battle is incredibly RNG-based. If Galaxy Stop rolls poorly and doesn't hit many enemies then this battle can be a lot tougher. You seem to have gotten really lucky. (Are you still only using Ramza Revier and the generic troops?)

The capital finally sells spears, so Revier dons the lancer class. It's...quite the powerful class, going by stats alone. High HP from heavy armor, decent base evasion, the ability to equip shields, high power spears with a two tile range and some noticeable evade on them...damn!

Many people (even me) think that the implementation of the Lancer's action ability skills greatly diminishes the class overall. Their other abilities are still pretty good and they have all of those other advantages that you mentioned. So that does mean that they are more of a solid but mid-tier class overall.

Sadly, once again I was short on money, and had to settle for a few important purchases.

little money is a problem until you get late into the game and then you really have the opposite problem.

But do tell me about these better abilities.

I assume that he means Blade Grasp but I've always preferred to use Abandon instead.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

This battle is incredibly RNG-based. If Galaxy Stop rolls poorly and doesn't hit many enemies then this battle can be a lot tougher. You seem to have gotten really lucky. (Are you still only using Ramza Revier and the generic troops?)

There are people who told me this, but I saw him cast it twice, maybe even thrice, and it hit most of its targets on all of its casts. So I dunno.

And yes I'm still using my generic characters.

Many people (even me) think that the implementation of the Lancer's action ability skills greatly diminishes the class overall. Their other abilities are still pretty good and they have all of those other advantages that you mentioned. So that does mean that they are more of a solid but mid-tier class overall.

You mean how the active skill is made up of increasingly taller and wider jumps, and so there's little point to buying the lower tier skills? Yeah, I noticed. It's somehow even lazier than the Archer's command set, which I didn't think possible.

I assume that he means [redacted] but I've always preferred to use [redacted] instead.

Gotcha, will keep that in mind if those skill names ever show up.

And now for an interesting exercise. What's the best way to prepare for the first fight of chapter 2? For reference, this is what the battle's composition and map looks like:

And this is what your class selection is like, without excessive grinding:

 

[Torzelbaum]

You mean how the active skill is made up of increasingly taller and wider jumps, and so there's little point to buying the lower tier skills?

Yes, exactly.

 

[Mogri]

I assume that he means X but I've always preferred to use Y instead.

Those are the two I meant, yes.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

The next fight was against one of the cabal leaders, who hilariously lacked any self awareness and preached to Revier about how he should join them because they both hate the injustices of the nobility and wanted to right their wrongs, conveniently leaving out the fact that they were of course doing this to gain power on their own. The fight was overall fairly easy, despite him being well armed and equipped - he was poorly guarded, and it didn't take very long to blast him down.



Sadly, he got to escape, and capture Revier's sister while at it! Wiegraf, the leader of the failed bandit rebellion from Chapter 1, abruptly returns here! It turns out he sold himself to the church cabal to get revenge for his dead sister, and is now motivated by little but hate. What a sad turn of events.

Like his companion, he guarded himself poorly, despite being well armed. His holy sword techniques caused some problems, but it wasn't particularly hard to dump damage on him and finish him off. My white mage managed to get the final blow on him in style, blowing him up with a Holy for 200+ damage! Well worth it.



But that wasn't the end of him. He possessed one of the stones the cabal had retrieved for their own ends, and, in his desperation and lust for revenge, formed a pact with it! It turned him into a demon, and he fled after mocking Revier! Then the head priest of the now thoroughly ransacked monastery gave him a book that seemingly could expose the cabal and get them to return both his sister and the stones.



Unfortunately its existence didn't stay secret for very long, as he was accosted by a mysterious wizard who demanded he relinquish the book at Duke Barinten's castle. Hmm. Was this duke in any way part of their plot?



And the cutscenes just kept coming! This one was Delita trying to reassure a pensive Olivia that he wouldn't betray her, and would protect her for the sake of his dead sister. Um, sure thing. Not sure how much we can trust someone who's willing to play literally every side for his own sake, but okay.

The shops had upgraded their gear yet again, and yet again I found myself too short on money. Especially notable was a rod that gave a hefty magic bonus and thus rendered the element boosting rods obsolete, and a rosary that boosted all elements! With these, a wizard could run amok with power, and sure enough, the black mage, who had been hitting hard already, elevated their damage to insanely high levels, hitting regularly for hundreds of damage!



I also discovered what was essentially the ultimate class of the "physical" classes - a samurai who could use katanas to both slice his enemies, and also blow them apart with aoes! This certainly sounded very intriguing, and I would be sure to promote someone into this eventually.

I also did some testing with the classes I had ignored offscreen (Geomancer, Time Mage, Oracle), and found that Geomancer was essentially the end point of the "physical" classes, while Summoner was the end point of the "offensive magic" classes, Mediator the end point of the "defensive magic" classes, and Lancer the end point of the "agile" classes. Certainly a bizarre collection, but hey! I also discovered that, much like the Samurai, there was an ultimate "agile" class that involved multiclassing - nothing less than the Ninja itself! My thief will certainly pick one of these two.



But back to the regular playthrough. Revier's squad discovered a detachment of Goltana's soldiers who were tired of the war and were deserting his army. They turned on him because they recognized him as a branded heretic, and reasoned that by killing him, they could earn a reward and be released from the army in glory, instead of being branded as deserters and forced to live in hiding, or worse. They were...exactly as tough as you'd expect a squad of tired, disheveled people to be - not very! Though it was a bit amusing that this was one of the few enemy formations that could revive its own fallen members, albeit only by liberal application of phoenix downs. Also, for what it's worth, their chemist gunner hit decently hard with their guns...though I began to realize that gun damage was fixed and largely independent of the wielder's stats, so full marks to the guns!



The "astrologer" from before returns, and reveals that he's actually Orlandu's son-in-law! He's on good terms with Revier, and also seeks for an end to the war. Not only that, he's aware of the church's secret cabal plotting something, and has been investigating them, though not with much success. He reassures Revier that he's on his side, before departing with his squad.

My knight also finally acquires all of the equipment breaking skills, making me transition him back into an archer.



Up ahead, we see the mysterious wizard from earlier arguing with his sister. It turns out she, Rafa, is upset that he, Malak, is being blindly loyal to Barinten, their liege, and points out that he intentionally manipulated them into joining his service by burning their village when they were kids and then inducting them into his orphanage. Not only that, but he did something vile to her. Yikes!

Malak refuses to listen to her, going so far as to even slap her for daring to voice dissent against his liege. His troops, a squad of ninjas and summoners, march in...as does Revier's squad, just in time!

This fight was a bit difficult, thanks to the ninjas dealing a lot of damage with both their thrown weapons and their melee hits, and the summoners cooking people with their summons. I eventually figured out a good solution however - wear the fire and ice shields instead of the diamond shields for the elemental protections, and combine the ice shields with the lightning nullifying boots whenever possible. This worked out quite well, and instantly took out a lot of bite out of both the summoners and the ninja's elemental balls. Without their overwhelming offense, their brittleness became a huge liability for them, and they were taken down quite quickly.



Soon after the fight, Rafa thanked Revier for helping her out and praised him for sticking to his morals, regardless of the great risks it brought to him. Malak then hilariously threatens them with a frog messenger informing them both that his sister, Alma, is held in Barinten's castle, and they both should arrive there as soon as possible, else her life will be forfeit. Peachy.

And that's the end of this session! The fights kind of went down in difficulty after the first monastery fight, but the fight against Malak's squad was still decently challenging in a good way. The plot seems to be a bit lost, trying to spin a bunch of conspiracies and shadowy truths without much of a "base" to keep them plausible and thus somewhat interesting, but it hasn't done unravelling everything yet, and I am willing to give it the benefit of doubt, as it hasn't worn out my patience yet. My offscreen experimentation did reveal a lot about the system I did like...and made me resent the nonsensical progression system even more. Ah well, it can't be helped, at least not without modding the game, which I shall only do after completing it.

And that will be all. See you later!

 

[Mogri]

I also discovered what was essentially the ultimate class of the "physical" classes - a samurai who could use katanas to both slice his enemies, and also blow them apart with aoes! This certainly sounded very intriguing, and I would be sure to promote someone into this eventually.

Too bad all of Samurai's abilities scale with MA, not PA.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Well that sounds pretty dumb lol. I guess that was their way of "balancing" those moves when used by a martially oriented class?

 

[Torzelbaum]

Malak then hilariously threatens them with a frog messenger

If only this was his ability set instead of what he actually has.

I eventually figured out a good solution however - wear the fire and ice shields instead of the diamond shields for the elemental protections, and combine the ice shields with the lightning nullifying boots whenever possible.

That's a neat idea. I usually build in a more straightforward fashion so I don't often take advantage of interactions like that.

Also, for what it's worth, their chemist gunner hit decently hard with their guns...though I began to realize that gun damage was fixed and largely independent of the wielder's stats, so full marks to the guns!

Gun damage does not scale up with unit stats but there are other ways to affect the damage.

a samurai who could use katanas to both slice his enemies, and also blow them apart with aoes!

The katanas can also help you and your allies.

My white mage managed to get the final blow on him in style, blowing him up with a Holy for 200+ damage! Well worth it.

Excellent coup de grace there. And I think the only thing I can say about that damage number is holy!

My offscreen experimentation did reveal a lot about the system I did like...and made me resent the nonsensical progression system even more. Ah well, it can't be helped, at least not without modding the game, which I shall only do after completing it.

I am curious to know what would make more sense to you for a progression.

Well that sounds pretty dumb lol. I guess that was their way of "balancing" those moves when used by a martially oriented class?

I suppose that's one way of thinking about it. I like to think that they designed it that way to give mages a good "physical" secondary ability. And it is an excellent secondary ability for magic users. So much so that it tends to supersede their default ability for my play style.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Excellent coup de grace there. And I think the only thing I can say about that damage number is holy!

Hah, I see what you did there!

I am curious to know what would make more sense to you for a progression.

Well, off the top of my head, I think I'd like it more if Chemist and Squire unlocked more jobs, and if multiclassing was involved more with unlocking the oddball jobs, not just the "ultimate" jobs. Of course, this would require a fair bit of testing and brainstorming to actually work well, and I'm sure some people would mourn the loss of class tree "depth", but I am fairly confident it would play better in practice.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

The next fight was in a haunted forest, haunted by the spirits of the victims of the earlier war. It's actually a little funny how this was very similar to a scenario in Ogre Battle, Matsuno's very first game. Anyway, it wasn't very hard, though the undead respawning at times did get a bit annoying.



At Barinten's castle, the game cut to a meeting inside. It was revealed that Duke Barinten had already figured out what the cabal was up to, and was threatening them by showing them the stones he had obtained by capturing one of their leaders. The cabal is none too pleased, and uses the stones they still have to transform into monsters and fight his garrison! Well, alright then. Lol.



The battle at the castle's gates was fairly straightforward and easy, with the only real threat being the archer posse at the top. By now my white mage had learnt every spell I had wanted them to, so I transitioned them into a time mage, as, despite my grievances with the class and the class progression, it did have some nifty buffs I wanted to obtain. The thief had also finished granting everyone Move + 2, so I transitioned him into a monk to prepare him for the Samurai class. He had got its prerequisite Lancer and Knight levels already, and was just missing the Monk levels. Sadly I couldn't offset its low HP by using the heavy armor passive from the Knight, else I'd have done exactly that. Ah well, at least this was a nice opportunity for him to learn Chakra and Counter, LOL.



Revier's squad learnt of terrible happenings within, and rushed inside. It turns out, the cabal-turned-demons had effortlessly killed most of the garrison already, and Revier unknowingly walked into a room with demonic Wiegraf alone, who challenged him to a duel! This led to the most infamous and meme'd fight of this game, and for good reason - he had his holy sword techniques, and they did way too much damage for Revier to survive in a straightforward fight!

I tried various approaches, like hitting him with geomancy, shooting him as an Archer, and even combining the Monk's Chakra with the geomancy skills in varying degrees. One of my craziest ideas was to use a Thief's movement and height clearance with a crossbow to keep peppering him, but that was thrown out of the window the moment I was reminded of how crappy crossbows were. Eventually I came across a surprisingly straightforward solution:



Shoot him with a gun! Duh! The Chemist could naturally fire them, and with an upgrade they even did decent ranged damage, enough to end this fight in four shots!



This then led to the next part of the fight, where he transformed himself to his real demonic form. This form was fairly straightforward - he marched ahead of his guards and relied heavily on summons, so it was a matter of killing him before his squad killed everyone. His summons were actually pretty slow and overtly telegraphed, and so they were easily avoided, but his posse could easily blast the team apart with their spells, and it was not very realistic to defeat them all at once, given their HP!

I got a bit stumped here, but eventually figured out a solution, optimizing my time mage cleric's equipment and skills to blast him with a 426 damage Holy! That, along with a jump from a Dragoon, boosted spells from the Black Mage, and an attack from both the Chemist and the Monk was enough to seal the deal.



During all of this chaos, Alma escaped her cell in the castle, and stumbled through the carnage in its halls. Eventually, she met a cabal leader who had turned against the demons and was barely alive himself. He warned her that the cabal's intentions were evil, and that everyone needed to unite against them. In his last few moments, he entrusted her with the stones. But, unfortunately, one of the demons was still alive, and kidnapped her, because she made one of the stones resonate to her presence! Thankfully, she dropped one of them before getting captured, and it went unnoticed by the demon.



The final fight of this act occurred on the castle's rooftop, where Barinten threatened Rafa for daring to "betray" him. He boasts about how she won't be able to get her vengeance on him, because he is more powerful and had violated her already in her past. Yikes!!! Malak, overhearing all of this, finally decides to stop being blindly loyal and rush to Rafa's aid...only to get shot! Revier's squad arrives...only to see Barinten being thrown away by two mysterious ladies, accompanied by the very marquis they rescued in Act 1, Elmdor! It turns out he's part of the cabal's plot too, and wants the stones for them.

This leads to a weird fight where Revier's squad has to protect Rafa against him and his assassins, and they were certainly quite powerful in their own right, with exceptionally accurate abilities to stop and kill people within their vicinity! Thankfully, the fight was quick, as all that was needed to get them to back off was to lower one of their HPs to critical! Well, alright then lol.



Rafa then grieves over Malak's death, and the stone gestures to her. She wishes for his revival, and surprisingly, the stone grants it without any strings attached. The act then ends with some impromptu hints of the civil war heating up, with Dycedarg's faction getting tired of the current impasse and preparing to attack the main frontline castle of Goltana's faction. Revier and Malak briefly discuss that perhaps the stones did contain holy power, and that what power they manifested depended entirely on its owner's intentions.

And that wraps up this session! I enjoyed figuring out how to get past the Wiegraf duel, but it, and the fight afterward, certainly pushed how much the player could be expected to do under this system. They both required very specific solutions, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but does run against the expansive class customization system they have here. Then again, RPGs always tend to struggle with balancing options against difficulty, and these fights were no exception. I'm also surprised Act 3 was so short, with little progress in the story save for some reveals of the church cabal's true nature. The cabal being straight up demons is also a bit too cheesy for my tastes.

Regardless, I still liked my time with the game, and do look forward to how this will all resolve itself. The story is not as good as in Matsuno's earlier works, but it's still fairly solid as a conspiracy thriller, even with some blatant flaws. The gameplay is still pretty good, providing enough challenges and curveballs to keep things interesting, despite one or two battles perhaps pushing the envelope a little too far.

Anyway, enough rambling, see you all later!

 

[Torzelbaum]

Anyway, it wasn't very hard, though the undead respawning at times did get a bit annoying.

There are a few ways you can prevent the undead from respawning. Also, their undead nature is a bit of a double-edged sword since it means they're vulnerable to healing magic and items.

I once tried to have Ramza as an Oracle Zombify himself in the final battle against Gafgarion. It did prevent Gafgarion from using Night Sword but he drained Ramza's MP with his other skill and still had strong sword attacks so the battle still didn't go well for Ramza. I had to use the backup of opening the gates to escape from him. The enemies also managed to knock Ramza down but I was able to get a lucky respawn to get back into the battle.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

For this addendum, I should be honest and note that the PSP version doesn't really add much. That's not really surprising, because this act is really short. Observe:



The entirety of Act 3 is traveling to that imperial capital, then travelling back down past Dorter to Orbonne, and then travelling alll the way up top and left to Riovanes. There's just not much that happens here, either narratively or gameplay wise. Barinten does get some development as a foe, but sadly we barely deal with him, and it'd be hard to expand on him without significantly rewriting the story.



So let's cover what we do have. The main addition here is a cameo by Luso, the protagonist of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2! I don't know much about that game, I do know that it, and its predecessor, are set in roughly the same universe, but eons in the past, back when the land was still prosperous and ancient civilizations with advanced technologies still existed. I also know that both games use a magical book as a portal of sorts between the world of the game, and the "real world". Rather curious, that.

To get back to the game however, Luso ends up surrounded by Behemoths and needs to be rescued by your team. This is fairly easy to do, despite the looks of things, because the behemoths have naught but physical attacks, and they don't hit as hard as Final Fantasy behemoths usually do. Luso is also generally smart about fighting them, and won't push his luck against them.

Gameplay wise, Luso is exactly like Ramza, but with the innate capability to Poach monsters (i.e. turn their corpses into items tradable at poaching stores) and with a slight bias towards physical attacks. He also unfortunately has rather low Bravery and Faith, meaning he will be generally worse than most characters at using counterskills, being a monk, and casting spells. He seems fine, but not terribly exciting except as a source for additional items.



The second, and less important addition, is another Delita fight against assassins from Dycedarg's faction. It's notable for occurring in the same ruined church where Ovelia and Delita had their conversation, and for depicting ninjas in the garb representing Dycedarg's faction, but otherwise this fight adds fairly little, and mostly just serves as a reminder of the civil war side of the story, a side that goes rather neglected despite dominating the opening portions of this act.

That's it! Like I said, the PSP version didn't add much to this act, so there wasn't much to cover. I hope that this coverage was still enjoyable, and still did justice to this version's additions. See ya later!

 

[Torzelbaum]

enjoyed figuring out how to get past the Wiegraf duel, but it, and the fight afterward, certainly pushed how much the player could be expected to do under this system. They both required very specific solutions, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but does run against the expansive class customization system they have here. Then again, RPGs always tend to struggle with balancing options against difficulty, and these fights were no exception.

There are other solutions you can use but some of them take advantage of bugs and might not work on the PSP version. And some other solutions have other drawbacks.

 

[Second Duke Revier]

Yeah I heard some of my friends recommending buffing Ramza's speed with his little innate speed buffing skill, which stacks and can apparently be used indefinitely. One could certainly use melee attacks, or even magic this way.

I'm also aware of the AI being bugged into thinking the Holy Sword techniques are holy when they're actually all non elemental, and have their element influenced by the sword they're carrying, but I am wont to abuse bugs in this playthrough.