Beowulf is hoss

On my way to get Beowulf!!! What a studly stud.

First, I fought the battle with 7 chemists. Easy enough with Beowulf in my party. I pretty much just rushed them, stole a couple of Lambent Hats (what were there original names?) I suppose. Chemists armed with guns are annoying, I must admit, but not so hard.

The second battle at Gollund, I decided to get Agrias, a summoner and an orator in my party. This made it extremely difficult when the chemist with the Glacial Gun dealt icy death from above while the Behemoth King rampaged below, but I struggled along, healing and often raising! At last I enticed the Behemoth King in (because I didn't get to with Luso's battle) and snatched the Glacial Gun away. With no help from Beowulf might I add, always raising his faith for some reason.

My brother has already fought the third battle and tells me it will be a challenge full of defending and enticing. Whooo?

Japanese fanart sites: part 3

Well, many of these sites haven't been updated in a while, but they still have lots of pretty art for those of you who are looking for more Tactics fanworks.


89 by ひたき
Tactics, Advanced. Cute sketchy style with soft colors, be sure to check the logs for tons more funny doodles.


okoanism by おこあん
Tactics. Very bold semi-realistic style, like graphic design. Lots of character and generic class sketches to delight your eyes!


e倉庫 by 藤沢 明
Tactics, Advanced. Bold lineart and bright colors, with a really unique SD. Lots of generic class and old-man art that never fail to amuse me.


キラメクヒト by toppy
Tactics, others. A gorgeous painting and dozens of cute little oekaki sketches scattered about in a cheerful style.


4cc by スズシロ
Tactics, Advanced. Tons of beautiful sketches and little paintings in a bold and colorful style. Lots of funny group pictures, generics and other cast members, too!


Q-m3 by ツミレ
Tactics, others. Lovely painterly sketches, not too many.


国立少年　by 今村陽子
Tactics. I managed to get a doujinshi from this artist and it is not only gorgeous but funny. Lovely soft shading with beautiful antique texture.


リセット by 扇
Tactics, Advanced, 12. Funny and adorable drawings with bright colors and a fresh vibrant flair.


RMKYU by きゅきゅ
Tactics. Cute sketches and comics that I wish I could read better! Lots of Ramza love = awesome.

Meliadoul, then Balthier! Hot!

That Meliadoul is a sassy girl, completely immune to Ramza's cuteness. But then again, most of the females in this story are. They're clearly not like me! Anyways, that battle at Bervenia kicked my butt all over the place and then kicked my face in as well. I decided to just gun for Meliadoul and to hell with stealing or whipping up on the other female soldiers. The rend ability in the hands of the enemy is so much more powerful than it is in your hands! I guess it wasn't a good idea having everyone on weak jobs for a story battle, hah. I keep thinking the AI will be dumber than it really is.

Then it was time to introduce the sexy "leading man," Balthier! His entrance FMV was super smooth, but I was really impressed by the animation of Ramza fighting the thugs. So pretty and elegant, if you can believe that. *cuddles Ramza some more*

And what can I say, Balthier certainly beats Mustadio on all counts of usefulness. Sorry, Mustadio! The battle was fairly easy and Ramza got to steal the 2 new items while Balthier blasted every enemy away into oblivion.

Poaching finally yielded a holy lance, which I use with much glee!!! But my behemoths are sterile and haven't breeded anymore, while my chocobos drop eggs every few days.

Proposition time.

My brother and I are going through and writing out whether our attempts to get bonuses in the propositions work out well. So far... they haven't! But well, we try to write down the hints and tips the tavernmaster occasional says for future reference.

Chapter 3: The Valiant

At last, we find out why this chapter was called "The Valiant."

Second battle at Riovanes: defeating Wiegraf as Belias, the blue and white ram using the Aries stone. That was a while ago so I don't remember exactly what I did, but it included Ramza versus Wiegraf, mano e mano. Ramza had to keep running just out of reach of Wiegraf's wicked holy sword skills to heal, all that while dealing as much damage as possible. Then after Belias was summoned, my team had to deal with 4 arch demons as well. Again, I used Agrias and a monk to deal the damage, but with such power-houses, I was able to silence Belias (mwa hah!) and take down the demons quickly.

The scene where Isilud speaks with Alma about his regret was sad. Of course I'd feel pretty regretful after I've been gutted alive, I suppose. But then Alma gets kidnapped again! Wow, way to go, Alma, way to inconvenience your loving brother.

Third battle at Riovanes, now that was a challenge. I was wondering how the hell can I defeat all three of these undead bastards and keep Rapha alive when my brother reminded that all I had to do was bring one of the assassins down to critical before they would all teleport away like cowards. Duh. Anyways, the second try Agrias dealt the final blow while Ramza lay on the rooftops, dead. See how I keep depending on Agrias? She is pretty much my staunchest warrior, at least until Cid joins, I guess.

I was thinking that these zodiac stones are actually pretty evil for bringing Malak back to life. I mean, who wants him?!!! I know I don't! Why don't they bring Isilud back to life? He's way more useful.

But now we're in Chapter 4, where the action will be coming fast and furious! Quest to fill, characters to recruit, skins to poach! The shit will be hitting the windmill, that's for sure!

Riovanes Castle: part 1

Sorry, I've been busy with finals these past few weeks and haven't gotten further in Tactics. My brother and I also decided to buy Puzzle Quest and well, that is one fun game. Even though it kicks your ass. Well, it kicks my ass!

I did fight the first battle in Riovanes, where Rafa and Malak do nothing for a bit and then teleport away to God knows where. I was left to deal with the evil female archers and not very useful abilities. No one died, but the battle was still a pain. However, my female monk can now deal 100+ damage, so *punch!!!*

Yuguewood

I just fought the battle at Yuguewood, not too hard. I still have difficulty enticing characters in, but I suppose that's a tricky skill to use. Also, I have a dancer now, and that is way amusing watching her dance. Still haven't made much headway in the mage path, though. I just finally got a summoner, how long until I get a calculator and a bard?!



Here's a fanart of Ovelia. I drew the lineart on tegaki which is why it looks kinda awkward, and finished it up on Photoshop. I have no idea why she's sitting like that, that's just how it turned out.

Does anyone have any tips on completing the quests and getting the bonus? Sometimes the tavernmaster tells you that a specific type of person needs to go on this quest, but I have yet to guess correctly on which one. Like for example, this latest Diving Expedition requires people with strength and endurance and I tried every combination of buffed up characters, monks, geomancers, knights, squires, dragoons, and it just won't give me the bonus!

Goodbye Scorpio...

Have some hideous oekaki fanart of Cardinal Alphonse Delacroix and Cuchulainn the Impure. Nasty fellow, but love the Scorpio demon design, so disgusting.

I know I'm missing a few deaths, such as Gustav, Bart and umm... people we suppose to be dead. Maybe later. I don't even know who's next, who's next? Anyone?

Since it will be a while before the next deaths, I guess I'll do some of the living characters now, hah hah.

Malak and Rafa!!!

Note: READ PREVIOUS ENTRY if you haven't already!

Oh man, the exploding frog always surprises me!

Anyways, fixing to get me the two most useless characters in the game, Malak and Rafa. I don't hate them, but man, it is difficult to justify keeping them in your battle party. Who here keeps Malak and Rafa? My brother always gets rid of Malak and keeps Rafa for treasure hunting purposes. I believe Squenix upped their heaven and hell abilities in the PSP version, though, so maybe they'll be more useful. Still, Rafa killed one of my warriors who was caught in the mantra range in the first battle against Malak. Ungrateful!

I do love how Ramza's super helpfulness. He always tries to save everyone, even complete strangers. I mean, that's how you get new members, am I right? I thought Rafa was especially insightful in how she says Ramza isn't just out to honor his family name, but to correct what's wrong in the world, to the best of his ability. That's the charisma of a true-born leader for you. Plus it doesn't hurt that my battle party has about 300k gold in their pockets.

Does anyone else think Orran and Malak and Rafa come from the same ethnicity? I haven't played the other games (namely XII or Vagrant Story), but I don't know the name of the darker-skinned ethnicity in Ivalice. Is that even significant? *shrugs shoulders* I mean, there are no numou or viera around...

OH NOOOOOO...

ごめんなさい! ;_;

I accidentally linked to a Japanese fansite that wasn't supposed to be publicly linked (I think?). Tonight I was checking back with all the sites again and it turns out that one webmaster didn't allow free-linking from a blog such as mine. So if you read the last entry and linked to kif, please take down your link, just to be safe. Thanks! And SOOOOORRRY!!! I didn't know.