Fighting battles... yep

I have been poaching, questing and leveling my special characters, nothing too interesting. However, I died miserably when attacked by 6 ninjas once. Held out as long as I could, but I had my weakling characters at the time and they weren't enough.

Soon Ramza and company will be girding their loins to enter Zeltennia Castle.

Dragon+Knight love~~~~

I'm sure everyone in the party now thinks Beowulf is some kind of pervy weirdo, hah hah. But I am touched by how this game decided to turn the dragon and knight relationship upside down, so sweet!

I finished the third battle at Gollund Colliery (what's a colliery?) and enticed a cute widdle pig and blue dragon into my party. But when I signed Reis and Beowulf up, I had to dismiss 2 other monsters! Other than my chocobos, my animals are freaking sterile, even in the breeding seasons, and I haven't been able to poach many rare items. Hopefully I'll strike it rich with these 2 plague horrors I got.

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?

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!

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...

Lusoooo!!!

Heya fans, I haven't been updating much because things have been hectic, but now I have Luso into my party! He's a cutie, with his little notebook and super bright clothes! And I love his CG introduction, Ramza's all like, "I'M A NINJA, I WILL SAVE YOU!" My baby's all grown up. *wipes tear*

I got the Dark behemoth into my party, hoping to breed it and poach some cool items. The King behemoth died last, so I couldn't poach it, even though my samurai had poach ability on, so that was annoying. They'll pop up later, I'm sure. Right now I'm running errands, finding treasure, and leveling Luso up, even though he is already super strong!

I'll continue my "death-count" oekaki sessions and site pimps later, but this week is going to be hell-week, so it might not be for a while. Sorry!

Orbonne Monastery: Damn you, Wiegraf!

WHAT THE HELL, I had to restart the battle 3 times. Yes, I'm a girl and I suck at strategy, but come on, I had 3 healers and Ramza was a dragoon, punching away with his lance at a safe distance. How could I possibly die? VERY EASILY.

I finally had to follow the FAQ's suggestion of bringing in Agrias and aggro at Wiegraf before his bitches got to the rest of my party. Ramza still got KOed, but because the enemy was concentrating on killing either him or my healers, whoever they could reach, Agrias managed to slip through and she basically hunted down Wiegraf like the cunning fox he is. Unless your party is over-leveled, this may be the best strategy to use in story-battles with a boss. Have a super-powerful decoy with a lot of HP take down the boss before Ramza's timer runs out. There was no stealing possible in this episode, let me tell you that.

But finally, I am out of Orbonne Monastery. Isilud's fanatic wildly shouting self has taken Alma away and Wiegraf has made an unholy pact with a fluffy blue and white sheep with no eyes. Now Malak, the outlander, has commanded me to go to Riovanes. But before I do, to level up we go! Ramza, you can take a break, you've gotten killed enough.

Orbonne Monastery: Isilud, stop, it hurts!

Well, you should know how I feel about the re-translation of the names by now. I feel that "Nightblade" is even less relevant than "Knightblade", but whatever.

This was a hard battle before and it didn't get any easier now. I had to restart the first time because I chose to put Ramza in as a ninja, and I'm sorry if you like ninjas, but that was a weaksauce move. Then I figured dragoons was the way to go for Ramza, and we just barely made it out alive. I really like, and by like I mean hate, Isilud's fantastic Jump/Concentrate ability. You shouldn't be able to jump that high in a library vault!!!

I decided to soldier through and kill as many of the other knights and archers before attacking Isilud to end the battle. Such a decision is usually foolhardy, but my own dragoon and archer managed to pick off a few enemy soldiers before Ramza charged in and cut Isilud down to critical. Whew! I think the thing that helped the most was Isilud not being able to attack on his first move (the first move of the battle), because he was able to attack first on my previous attempt and just slaughtered both Ramza and a healer in no time. Clever AI.

One more battle to go! What a marathon this is going to be. I'm sure Agrias, Mustadio and the rest are going to be asking for overtime.

Insanity at Orbonne Monastery pt. 1

Urgh, last night I started the first round at Orbonne Monastery and it was killer! I had to restart a couple of times because I stupidly left some characters equipped with random "optimize" items. Finally I forced myself to stick with the battle and eventually won with everyone intact.

First off, the 3 dragoons were seriously powered up with mythril spears and of course, my healers kept on dying in one blow even though we were several levels ahead. Not just that, but one of them kept charming Agrias and making her do Judgment Blade on us. Good thing Ramza knocked some sense back into her with some shurikens. And you know what, I never use time mages myself, but they have some irritating spells that almost always work on my team. Grah!!!

Slowly but steady, healing and reviving at every turn, I managed to get rid of the time mages and chemist. Ramza and my white mage successfully ganked some nice armor while Agrias went around and collected crystal abilities, hah hah. Overall, I admit the AI was a worthy challenger. Looking forward to fighting Isilude and Wiegraf in the next battles.


He looks pretty fabulous with his fur sleeves, hah hah. Good old Gaff, I liked his attitude, all full of sassafrass. But a failure in the end.

Battle at Lionel Castle Postern

I'm not sure what a postern is. This battle, we fought Head Inquisitor Zalmour and his knights and monks. Alma accompanied us, and of course, did her awesome Aegis spell on Ramza that unfortunately did not last the whole time. I did get her killed once, whoops. But overall, an easy battle, since we were so juiced up on powerful accessories and Zalmour kept missing his cure spells. I mostly took my time stealing diamond helms from the knights as well as Zalmour's white robe and elven cloak. Ramza finally had good compatibility with someone and stole Zalmour's items with no trouble at all.

As it turned out, some of those items could be purchased after the battle, but oh well, thousands of gold I didn't have to spend.

I am at a quandary right now in the development of my team's abilities. Everyone is starting to jump around classes with the exception of 2 mages and of course, Mustadio and Agrias. It is better to keep them on one path so they can become expert at it, but at the same time, I like learning other abilities. I just don't want to waste my time if I'm going to be kicking a few people out to make room for the story characters on down the line. Decisions, decisions!

Celestial Stasis!

Just finished the battle at Gollund in which you have to protect Orran. I kinda botched this one up and missed stealing the orichalcum. At least I managed to get the mythril guns and avant gauche. My problem seems to be that Ramza as an Aries has terrible compatibility with every enemy in the entire game, ever. And I should have increased the jump of my team, since I knew it was going to be a roof battle. Oh well!

Story-wise, I like Orran (why did they change the spelling?!), but this battle always amused me for being kinda... pointless, at least at first. I guess it was important that Orran meet Ramza at least once, before the epilogue happened and all.

doujinshi: TIME AND REALITY by tsuki no dango

Title: TIME AND REALITY (Toki to Jitsu?)
Circle: tsuki no dango (to the best of my knowledge)
Year: 2000
Pages: 34 pages
Characters: Ramza, Cloud, Elmdor, Delita, Ovelia, Alma, generics, some Vagrant Story art
Rating: PG

Summary: This is a fairly nice doujinshi with a lot of guest art in the middle, kinda amateurish style but probably better than my art, at least. The first 2 stories are pretty hilarious gag ones concerning Ramza's unique ability and then Cloud being stupid, it's great. The last story is longer, angsty and of course, about the epilogue. I do wish I could read it though, it seems like it has some good dialogue going on!

Page 1!
Basically Ramza is "Cheer"ing his teammates on, and they clearly do not want to be sped up, hah hah.

Anyways... I just defeated a flock of chocobos at Barias Tor, one of the hardest battles you can find, I think. Little bastards tried to take me out! Well, I finally got myself a red chocobo, so hah.

Chapter 2: The Manipulative and the Subservient (Lionel Castle)

Urgh, I didn't know that there were going to be three battles in a row at Lionel Castle. Finally offed Gaffgarion at the gate, which wasn't too hard if you have auto-potion on Ramza. Stole the Ancient Sword as well! On the other hand, the team outside the gate had some difficulty despite being levels ahead of the enemy. For some reason, the enemy knights had extra-good compatibility with everyone and my darned black chocobo kept getting hit for too much damage. At least it dealt major damage right back. I actually forgot about opening the gate until after Gaffgarion died, hah hah.

The 2nd battle, which I believe is new, had just Delita and Ovelia. Easy enough, plus we get a little insight on to how Ovelia accepted Delita's offer.

Now the third battle with Cuchulainn the Impure was interesting. I always liked the devils, they're so gruesomely designed and Cuchulainn is especially disgusting with his mouth-stomach. I managed to kill him in just a few rounds with Ramza as a ninja and a little help from Agrias, so it wasn't too bad. Of course, I wouldn't have been so annoyed if Ramza's armor hadn't been rent previously and I forgot to re-equip him before the battle. I don't use the knight's rent ability myself, but it is damn irritating when the enemy does it to you! Just that ability has been the reason for many a restarted battle!

Starting Chapter 3 now. The little blurb after Chapter 2, narrated by Ramza, was really quite saddening. You get such a feeling of despair and hopelessness that resulted from the war between Prince Larg and Duke Goltanna. Orlandeau arguing with Goltanna about suing for peace, extremely moving.

Golgollada Gallows

This was a difficult battle on the PSOne and it still is! That Gaffgarion and his Blood Sword, I should have stolen his sword the first chance I got! At one point, I had 2 people down, poor Mustadio took some extreme damage. I managed to rally back aggressively and did not retain any casualties, but it was darn close. I sure was tickled by the fact that they actually made a different icon for Gaffgarion in disguise as the executioner, hah hah.

Other things of note - Mindflayers are quite annoying, but my brother and I developed a good strategy in avoiding them when they come in groups of three. It involves a lot of running away.

There is currently only one FAQ for this game up at gamefaqs.com, although there are plenty for the PSone version. I recommend it - it is very thorough regarding gameplay tips and sufficiently reticent on actual plot points. My personal preference is saving the game right before an important battle, fighting the battle and then reading the FAQ to make sure I didn't miss anything I would need later. Even though I am obsessive-compulsive, I enjoy playing the game without knowing (or in my case, remembering) exactly what is going to happen. More fun that way!

Regarding merchandise, I am debating getting the ultimania artbook/guide, the five action figures or the super rare trading cards. *lusts* They are all so expensive, though! Am I that hardcore of a fan? I don't know, I still need to grab the soundtrack CDs though. Which to get first?!!! I think I may get the trading cards from eBay and the figures from Amazon, since they're not any cheaper through eBay. *debates* I must get everything...

Milleuda Folles

I like the translation of the two Milleuda battles, the exchange between Delita, Milleuda and Ramza flows a little better now. Do you think Milleuda and Wiegraf are low-born knights or high-born? They do talk so very posh, it seems out of place with their supposedly low-born background. Not that I'm expecting some Shakespearean-fool accents, but clearly some of the truly low-born characters have been speaking in a very rough dialect with contractions and rude epithets whatnot. I am inclined to think that the Folles siblings were middle class knights now thrust into poverty, clinging to some past dignity.

I don't know about you, but even at 5 levels past the enemies, my thieves and monks keep getting slaughtered. I only managed to steal a couple of things from Milleuda, it was that devastating. I also realized that a couple of my characters, the mages, had really crappy brave/faith stats (after I leveled them to 11) so I had to dismiss one male (I always hate that) and put the female down the crazy job class path. Cursed brave/faith and zodiac compatabilities! At least there aren't judges and laws, sheez.

Well, this isn't my perfect game, the only purpose was to go through the storyline and see all the new cutscenes, goodies and classes. That's what I keep telling myself, anyways...

Brigand's Den

Ramza is at level 8 right now and I am about to fight the Brigand's Den battle with Mileuda. Unfortunately, my thief hasn't gotten the "steal" abilities yet, so I think I will level up some more even though the items I want to gank may be available after the battle.

I noticed the introduction has changed from a slideshow of the zodiac stones to a somewhat eerie animation of black and white unfurling vines. I have no idea what the significance of this change is, possibly something to do with the other Ivalice games that I have yet to play or maybe part of the Ivalice Alliance theme.

The change of the ability names has been a little confusing. Not that the original translation was perfect, but I have already gotten a few skills mixed up with each other because the names are now more ambiguous, hah hah. Oops.

Anyways, the link of the day is of course, my own FFT fanlisting! Over 1200 members! Please join!
http://www.insomniel.com/tactics

Welcome!

Greetings, noble reader! I just wanted to start off with a warm welcome to whoever is reading this, if anyone at all. Probably not...

My brother and I, with great cost to our pocketbook and grievous injury to the truck, purchased a refurbished PSP just for this precious game. At this point, I have logged in several hours and leveled Ramza (an Aries) up to level 7. The gameplay is as delightfully challenging as ever. The opening CG movies are gorgeous, and the voices are as stuffy and medieval as I would have wanted. (Though what was with changing Ramza's infamous "Surrender now or die in obscurity!" line?!! It was classic! I dislike the new version, doesn't have the same ring of arrogance to it.)

My greatest complaint is the terrible load time during certain moves, which I hear was even worse in the Japanese version. I also miss the random Engrish spell and attack names, that was a charming and amusing component of the original, but I guess it would have made the lag worse. Also... Argath Thadalfas? That thounds thuper gay.

Overall, just as fun as I remembered, and the translation is much smoother and classier. Here's to further adventures!

Recent fanart!
Save the Queen (Agrias Oaks)
Ser Agrias (Agrias Oaks)
Gunner and Knight (Mustadio and Agrias)