WK Plays FFXII

[Wolf Kanno]

Alright, I'm jumping back into this marathon!

Since I already played this a few years ago, I'm going to being doing this playthrough a bit differently, and I'll be doing a self-imposed challenge run. The theme of which is an FF1 any % run. What this means is that I will not be unlocking secondary classes and I'm limited to the starting classes from FFI. So the only classes I can use are Knight, Red Battlemage, Shikari (essentially thief and ninja), Monk, and Black and White Mage classes. I've also already figured out who is playing who. I am still debating about espers, but seeing how they are more novelty than functional, I may give them a pass. I was also playing with the idea of limiting my weapon and spell selections to what is available in FFI, but I also was hoping to speed run this playthrough a bit.

XII has a tendency to be very involving and I feel this marathon has been going slow enough, so that's why I'm any % this and will likely not be going after all the Mark Hunts this time. Maybe I'll do it if I come back to the file.

So as an added play along, guess who gets each class this playthrough.

[Wolf Kanno]

And thus we begin.

The opening is really a whirlwind of action and information. Basically cramming what was at the least, a year's worth of information into a ten minute movie. It's really amusing how the opening kind of downplays Ashe (the game's real main character) and sort of makes you think it's going to be Razler, then Basch, and then finally Reks. I also like the framing device of the game being Marquis Ondore's memoir, especially helped by his excellent voice acting.

So we start with Vaan and the class I chose for him was Aries/White Mage. The zodiac sign sort of fits him, though I imagine he would be more of a Sagittarius realistically, but the hot-hotheadedness certainly fits the sign of Aries. White Mage on the other hand does not. Aries is a Cardinal Fire sign of action and excitement, so I feel a melee focused sign would have fit better. WHM should have been Cancer or Pisces, nurturing water signs. Not that many of you care about astrology. Anyway, I have three mage classes and three melee classes to choose among my party of six, but I opted to make my healer be one of the boys.

Anyway, I defeated the Rogue Tomato, saw the parade, and spoke to Old Dalan, so I'm moving onto collecting the materials needed to restore the Crescent Stone to enter the palace. I am taking a slight detour to visit Nalbina Fortress where I got my first mage class weapons, so now that Vaan is equipped with his Rod, we can get moving.

I'm going to be honest, but I feel FFXII has some of the best nameless NPCs in the series. It's actually fun talking to characters in this game because they either fill you in on more lore or they have their own interesting mini-plot lines going. The world building in XII is incredibly underrated

[Wolf Kanno]

Didn't get as far as I had hoped, but that might also because XII actually has stuff to do in the early game. I spoke with Old Dalan and headed to the Giza Plains during the Dry season. Met up with Penelo and rescued the lost kid and did the Sunstone quest which only required hitting up two shade stones this time around. With Penelo in my party, I went off to deal with the Thearax or whatever it's called Mark Hunt since that fight is way more manageable with two people fighting. I am a little annoyed that although we got our first hint of Gambits, the game has not given me control of it yet. Sort of sucks when you';re using classes that really need a bit more nuance with their A.I. scripts to be effective. I feel I could take down one of the rare games wandering around the Estersands if I could get Penelo to cooperate.

Penelo gets to be my Black Mage once again since she was my White/Black Mage makeshift Sage my last playthrough. I was thinking of making her a Knight just for the humor of seeing the petite member of the team be the one lifting massive knightswords but Black Mage just felt better. Unlike Aries, Capricorn being the Black Mage makes a bit more sense, it's symbol is a goat fish like being that obviously conjures up images of Baphomet and the Occult. Capricorn are serious, ambitious, and can often be rules lawyers who learn how to game the system to help them with their ambitions. While it's a bit more intense than Penelo's personality is, she does strike me as an earth sign, but more like a Virgo, which is still a responsible sign, but one that is a bit more likely to look the other way if it benefits them. Taurus would also work since she's so stubborn, but that's Uhlan class and not an FFI class.

Anyway. with Penelo helping out, I started the Patient in the desert quest and cleared up the Blooming Cactoid Mark Hunt which will eventually coincide with what's going on with the river village problem of all the menfolk being strangely absent. Once again, FFXII really does world building right. While it does have it's info dumps in the form of the Clan Primer, I still appreciate the smaller quests and these remote villages that add to the setting. Rabanastre is also an underrated starting location. I know most fans will think of either Midgar, Balamb Garden, or even Alexandria as great starter locations, but I appreciate the fact Rabanastre gives you so much more freedom and things to do right at the beginning while it slowly drip feeds story and world building to you. I can see how a lot of players may dislike this approach, but I feel it really showcases how much unappreciated craftsmanship really went into this game. You can tell the Ivalice team were refining a lot of design elements they picked up from working on FFXI. Anyway, next up is taking the Sunstone back to Old Dalan and getting inside the palace. The leading man and his stoic partner are coming up.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well I've worked my way up to the party meeting "Amelia" in the Waterway. After ditching Penelo, who is always more cunning and level-headed than I remember. Vaan travels through the waterway to make it into the palace basement with all the other servants. The only notable thing here was running into the rare game Razorfin in the sewers, and it being weak enough that Vaan could actually beat it. I've ran into two other rare game so far, but both were beyond what Vaan could handle at this point.

Since I didn't have to worry about a Zodiac Spear, I looted the hell out of the place and did the puzzle to find the treasure room, which I always forget about and low key has one sequence (when you power up a sigil to open a door) that reminds me of the temple puzzles in FFX. We'll get to my thoughts on those when I reach FFX of course. Vaan then bumps into the Leading Man himself and his impeccable partner and makes a run for it after he steals the Goddess Magicite. I do like the Hindu statue that hid the magicite as it reminds me of the ultimate boss from Vagrant Story. Not to mention I always liked the fact Ivalice is one of the very rare non-MMO FFs to acknowledge multiple religions within its setting, but we'll talk about that when I get to the Stillshrine.

Course the fete was a trap to lure out and destroys the resistance and Ifrit decimates them. The party tries to escape on the mist powered hoverbike Fran uses but... well we have the Goddess Magicite so that crashes and burns and the party has to hoof it out through the waterway. On the brightside, I've finally unlocked Gambits proper, but on the downside, my options are very limited.

So the leading man and sky pirate extraordinaire made it easy to make Balthier a Shikari since it's basically the Thief and Ninja class combined. It even has some of the same issues as it's FF1 counterpart in that it's extremely limited weapon options early games makes it feel weak in comparison to other classes in the early game. I also forgot that Balthier starts with a license to at least use the starting gun of the game, so that's helping at least. This class being Pisces though does confuse me a bit. While all water signs can be emotionally manipulative, Pisces tend to be manipulated more often than others and tend to be more indecisive than even Libra. I'm guessing the angle here might come from the fact their Tarot Card association is The Moon, which is a card that signifies illusion and deceiving oneself and others. I would have probably chosen Gemini for this class since they are the sign known more for deceiving people. Balthier himself strikes me as either a Gemini or a Leo anyway. Mostly because he's incredibly chatty and knowledgeable like a Gemini, but the whole self-centered "I'm the leading man' nonsense fits Leo's need to be the center of attention, but that is also balanced out be the fact he's surprisingly willing to look out for strangers , which is also a Leo trait.

Fran on the other hand, since she's known as the Battlemaster and always does start with more skills and equipment options than others, made her a perfect fit for Red Battlemage, especially since it worked out really well my first playthrough. Like Balthier, I forget she starts with a Bow license but I may still switch her over to a Mace and Shield combo once I get her Gambits properly fitted. Red Battlemage is probably my favorite of the magic classes in FFXII. The class being associated with Cancer doesn't bother me as much as some of the other class associations. While I feel White Mage is the best job for this class since Cancer's are known to be helpful and emotionally nurturing, often regarded as the mom's of the zodiac (and consequently, their opposite sign Capricorn is usually referred to as the dad's of the zodiac), Red Mage isn't a bad choice either because water signs are often associated with psychic or occult leanings, so at least we finally have one using magick. Cancers will also raise hell if you threaten someone they care about so, Battlemage fits pretty well. As for Fran, I'd probably choose Scorpio as her zodiac sign since she's okay playing second fiddle to extroverted Balthier despite being the more resourceful and useful one. She's also more secretive than the other cast members and her narrative about being being banished for letting herself be bewitched by the taboos of her society fit the sign pretty well.

Rant aside, having a full party has made traversing the sewers pretty easily and we met up with Amelia. I love the fact that we pull a bit of a Cloud in this game and Balthier is explaining all of the gameplay mechanics as he does the Gambit tutorial and then explains what a Guest character is to Vaan as well. I also forgot that the first actual boss of the game is the Flans in the sewers, I got the first actual Victory scene and everything and it's partially also why I'm thinking of trading in Balthier and Fran's starting weapons. Anyway, I saved afterwards and ended for the night.

Thinking back though, FFXII really does stand out from the games between it. While I now better understand my friends assessment that XII is just an offline FFXI in gameplay and feel, XII just feels better because it streamlines so much of the experience. Like yeah, quests are still a bit obtuse to find but are usually easier to solve without a guide. Combat is more zippy and due to the standalone nature of XII's design, the game strikes a better pacing balance. It just took all the things I loved about XI and made it better and more tailored for my tastes.

On the opposite end, this game just blows XIII out of the water. XII's cast might feel more muted than most FF casts, but Ivalice is just a richer setting and the gameplay just feels more robust. In XIII, I'd probably be trapped in Chapter 3 by now being switched back and forth between different groups of characters with the shakiest of understanding of who they are and why I should care. The Roles would be partially open but largely still feel like what I was doing the first several hours anyway and be going down my third set of corridors with only the Datalogs to really give me any form of insight to their significance. Meanwhile, In XII, I have a better grasp of the story, the characters and their motivations through the narrative and NPC dialogue. Even the empire, is actually softened a bit and more humanized if you walk around and really chat with people as some are very much the insufferable invaders the characters think they are while others have more humanizing and sympathetic traits like the guard in Rabanastre who came to love the city and wishes to genuinely protect it and its people, or the one in Nalbina Fortress who switches place with one of the laborers so they can see the abuse he has to deal with. I've had three damn puzzles to play with, three Mark Hunts to distract me, and I've started a major questline in the Estersand. I've also met two small settlements that have no real story significance but fill in a lot about the local culture and make Dalmasca feel lived in. A lot more time was spent making this world feel alive than in XIII.

[Wolf Kanno]

Two days worth of progress to report, though not a lot happened. Made it through the Nalbina Dungeon, officially recruited Basch, discovered Penelo was kidnapped, and we're heading to Bhujerba now. I also cleaned up two Mark Hunts, took down a Rare Game that was taunting me named Nehkbet, started the Ktjn quest and the Seven Sisters quest.

Nalbina is an underrated dungeon and one of the better ways to do a more linear dungeon if you ask me. I like how the Battery Mimics draining the power quickly turns this dungeon into a mad dash to find and kill them. In addition to needing at least 30% power to open the final gate, the fact the lower lights starts summoning an ungodly amount of undead to overwhelm the player was a neat way to keep you on your toes. Honestly, FFXII has some underrated dungeon design.

I also find it interesting Basch has four playable character models in this game, and funnily enough gets the most costume changes of any party member at a total of six different outfits (Rabanastre Armor, Order outfit in the tutorial, shirtless prisoner, found clothes, main outfit, and Gabranth's armor), which is even more than Lady Ashe. The Nalbina Dungeon is also amusing because the devs reuse the same Bangaa corpse for all the bodies found in the main prisoner area.

Basch's job is Monk, though I would really love to keep him as a Knight but I promised I was going to try to be a bit more unconventional this time around, but a mage class felt too weird. But his time as a prisoner fighting bare-fisted made me think Monk might not be a bad job for him, and now that I don't have all that sword nonsense going around for him, I can see how poles really fair for him. Monk is Virgo in the Zodiac Jobs and it's not necessarily the worst choice. Fire or earth signs feel the most natural, I would have probably done Taurus personally but whatever. I also feel that might be Basch's sign as he is pretty committed to his loved one and what he wishes to protect and the man is too stubborn to die, and Taurus are often both very committed and very stubborn. I do really want to play with barehanded with this class as I feel it's often very overlooked and while there are times you have bare-fisted characters fighting like Prisoner Basch or Vaan and Balthier fighting the Seeq guards in Nalbina dungeon, you don't often get to see Brawler in action. The algorithm for it looks interesting and I get the sneaking feeling this combo works really well with a high-level monk. So we shall see.

I think the interesting observations I've been meaning to talk about is some of the environmental design. Like I feel it's clever how all the doors the player can interact with in Rabanastre tend to have these subtle twinkling crystal objects acting like torches on either side of the door. Just a nice and quiet means of helping the player out. The other was the waterways in Lowtown, which never really registered for me. It makes sense due to the city being built over an lake in an oasis and the Garsmythe Waterway is located beneath it, but I never noticed all the water wheels and water paths flowing through the area. Makes it weird it was a storage area, but I imagine if it was food like vegetables, fruits, and meat, it would be a good place for it since I imagine the flowing water cools the whole area. There are also these little fans above the stalls that probable helps too. While it's the poor second class citizen part of the city, my temperament with the heat and Dalmasca's illogical desert dress code would make this my ideal part of the city. I am curious what the pet of Old Dalan is since it looks a bit like a pink Carbuncle depending on the design. I also think it's interesting Vaan is such an anti-imperial and yet was not really aware that the Resistance was headquartered in Lowtown, especially since a lot of the members are aware of his brother Reks. Likewise, the scene with Vaan speaking to Reks and giving him the Galbana Lililes feels really vague and surreal, making me wonder if the scene is mostly symbolic and Reks' death was different? The game implies he dies of his injuries but the manga adaption says he died from torture instead. I also just now realized that the ship Vaan and Penelo acquire in Revenant Wingswas named after Reks' favorite flower. Neat.

Well, with no new items or quests left in Rabanastre, it's time we head to Bhujerba and partake of the most infamous quest in the game.

[Loony BoB]

As someone who pretty much never does challenge runs (and very rarely replays games), I'm curious how the challenge impacts your 'feeling' towards the game, if at all.

[Wolf Kanno]

As someone who pretty much never does challenge runs (and very rarely replays games), I'm curious how the challenge impacts your 'feeling' towards the game, if at all.

Honestly, not much has changed because I haven't reached the point to use two classes yet, and frankly TZA was based off the original Zodiac Braves version which did restrict you to one class. I'm in essence just kind of playing the Zodiac Braves version. The other factor at play here is that restricting myself to just the original job classes (and counting Shikari as Thief/Ninja) gives me access to all the prime real estate jobs anyway. The big kicker is not having access to all the Time Magick and not having access to the powerful spear and katana class weapons. I could make this more challenging for myself if I went the extra mile and restricted my equipment and abilities to ones that only exist in FFI.To give this some context, doing so would restrict my White Mage to only being able to use the Healing Rod and my Black mage could only use a Dagger until I acquire the Judicar Staff and Staff of the Magi. Shikari could not use ninja blades and only use daggers and my monk would be restricted to bare-handed only. Red Mage would be royally screwed because I wouldn't be able to use most of the class's magic and the only weapons I can give a character (in my case I nerfed myself by giving it to the one party member that doesn't start with Daggers unlocked), is the Defender Greatsword, which I would have to find the Esper associated with it.

I might still try this if I feel the game is getting too easy, but honestly, I don't intend on lingering on this title like I normally would, so I may save that for another time.

**************************************************************************************************** ***
In update news, I've finished the Bhujerba arc. I took down Ba'Gamman in the Lhusu Mines, let Vaan pretend for a moment he's actually someone important in this story for a while, got captured by the imperials to rescue Ashe and Penelo, and took down a Judge. I finally have my full party as well, and it's going to be interesting seeing who I run with for a while.

By process of elimination, Ashe gets to be Knight, which as typical of a Matsuno title and FFI, is a very powerful class with excellent synergy with all the other classes if I was duel classing. By choosing Ashe as my knight, I also get to start with some low level white magic as well. Leo is the zodiac sign of Knight, and one of the few I can get behind. We're obviously invoking historical figures like King Richard the Lionheart with this choice, but Leo's tend to be warm, friendly, and larger than life. They are also very protective of loved ones and have a tendency to see themselves as "knights in shining armor". So this works here. With that said, if I was to choose a zodiac sign for Lady Ashe, I would actually go Aries as she is very dominating, forceful, quick to anger, and yet still very sensitive and childish in some ways. I also like the connection with Belias this would give since he's associated with the Aries zodiac sign and is guardian to her ancestor.

I think the most interesting observations I did not realize is that Basch's main outfit is from Bhujerba. The color scheme is unique but the design is the same as the soldiers from this country. Vossler is more fun in TZA since you can mess with his gambits and he starts with a bunch of skills you can use to make him more interesting in combat. I also seem to have acquired a bunch of accessories, so now I'm scrambling to unlock them for the team since they were the one thing I was sort of forgoing over augments and abilities. I also think it';s weird Shikari starts with all the HP+ skills so early. He's tanky because of HP and has even more than my Monk and Knight classes. Just feels a bit weird. Also, now that I have access to gambits, Penelo can really shine as a Black Mage, and she's the only character I have with no healing gambit setups. I'm going to play around with status effects for a bit. Next is the dreaded Sandsea.

[Wolf Kanno]

The Sandsea is done. This is definitely one of those places where you can tell the devs just wanted you to gain some levels and gets some licenses. I'm easily halfway through every character's boards and the average of my party lv. is 22.

I know most people hate this location on account of the fact it's technically two locations and they are quite large, but I've always digged the place. I like getting those high chains and the wandering Salamander Entite certainly keeps you on your toes. I also really like the mini-quest with the Urhtan Eater to get the Esker Berries for the Garuda fight. Course Garuda is not nearly as powerful as it was in the OG version, so the item usually goes unused by me.

Raithwall's Tomb is next.

[Wolf Kanno]

Not a lot of [progress tonight, mainly just screwing around the Tomb of Raithwall. I managed to take down both Demon Walls, though I am sad the Zodiac version removed the Demonsbane as a prize. Now it's just a Scathe Mote. I did manage to score a lucky theft and stole a Blood Sword from a Steele Bat, so along with the one as a treasure in here, I'll have two. Though I do find it funny how the Blood Sword gets some legacy treatment despite not being a terribly great weapon. It gets its own license on the board, and while the Sap effect inflicts on use is great, it does lose it's usefulness when you realize the Chopper knife does the same thing and can be acquired earlier. Granted the Blood Sword is a stronger blade, but even before you get it, you'll have access to a stronger sword through the shops beforehand

The other distraction here has been trying to find and kill the rare game in here. One was really annoying because it's one of those two-faced statues that wander around this dungeon, but it only appears in the area right after the Demon Walls, and like the Kaiser Wolf in the Westersand, you have to wrack up a 12+ Chain before it appears, and unlike that rare monster, I can't leave the area it spawns in. Now this area is swarming with Steele Bats, so this shouldn't be a problem, but it also has a few amorph slimes as well, so you end up needing to switch gambits around so you don;t accidentally break your chain by killing one of them. The other one I was trying to spawn never happened for me, and sadly, the game kind of crashed before I could try again. This one is a special Lich that only appears when a regular Lich gets knocked to critical health and uses an ability called Divide to create a second Lich, but the issue is that there is only a 20% chance it will be the Cultist Lich and Lich's created through Divide can't use the ability. Complicating the matter is that the Lich may not use Divide right away when knocked into critical health, so you have to be careful you don't kill it before hand.

I will say, the Lore from the beasts in this dungeon has been some of the best so far as it fills in backstory about Raithwall and the major royal and political families. In fact it kind of spells out why Judges exist, which is interesting because they are not intentionally military units but basically a law enforcement group created to keep the Archadian Military from trying to overthrow the empire, like it tried in the past. House Solidor is so powerful because their family is from the Ministry of Law and thus control the Judges. So they effectively run the military. Likewise, a hint as to why Vayne is so interested in Raithwall is revealed as well because Raithwall is originally from the continent of Valendia where the Archades Empire is from. The Dynast-King simply set up shop in the Galtean Peninsula due to its strategic importance. It's also impressive that his family line and empire survived for four centuries before collapsing, and even more impressive that the Dalmasca line Lady Ashe is from managed to maintain their country for seven centuries before the start of the game.

The game never fails to impress me though. It's interesting how subtle and well crafted the differences are between different countries. Like Bhujerba feels very different than Rabanastre, and likewise the Archadians feel very different from either of them. And while the Ivalice races are all culturally unique, it's emeshed better with their nationality as well, so a Moogle from Rabanastre has a bit of different attitude than one from Bhujerba. Like Bangaa and Seeqs get the raw deal in Rabanastre and Nalbina fortress due to the Archadian occupation, but they don;t deal with the racism you see there in Bhujerba. There are layers upon layers of detail that makes Ivalice feel a bit more real than say Spira or even Vana'diel for me. I think the biggest difference is that the races are integrated better in the different nationalities and the cultures they create, whereas both of those other places do the typical fantasy thing and have every race be their own nationality. Which isn't to say Ivalice is not guilty of this as well with the Viera and to a lesser extent, the Nu Muo and Archades, but I appreciate the fact that the major cities feel like both a melting pot ethnically, but still distinctively their own cultures from one another.

The other fun observation is how dense Vaan is and how he is essentially a Big Fish in a small pond type of deal who finds himself thrown out of his pond into the great big ocean. Like he's incredibly well respected among all the orphans in Rabanastre who look towards him and Penelo as role models with most of the pickpockets of the city being taught by him. Yet he is completely out of his depth in this story and completely oblivious to the geo-political nonsense he has been caught up in. He is incredibly adorkable. It's also pretty fun watching the adult characters teach Vaan and Penelo more about the world. Like people use to complain that no one in this game talks to each other, but that's just patently false, I think at this point the only two characters that haven;t had a straight up conservation with each other is just Ashe and Penelo and both are my newest recruits. There is also some great background elements going on as it is very obvious if you pay attention that Balthier knows way more than he's letting on. He gives it away a lot if you spot him in the background during plot heavy parts.

I'll try to take down Belias tomorrow night.

[Wolf Kanno]

Not as much progress tonight either. I managed to fight the Cultist Lich Rare Game, spawned him with my second Lich even. After that, I simply took down Belias who couldn't muster up much of a fight with the four party members bum rushing him. Wish the fight with him in FFTactics was this easy. Lady Ashe gets her first temptation by the Occurians as Lord Razler appears before her. I always forget that Vaan is the only party member besides Ashe that can see him. I'm wondering if its because Vaan's hatred for the empire isn't going unnoticed by the Occurians and he's being set up as a potential "spare' in case something happens to Ashe? Afterwards, the party gets captured by Judge Ghis and we reveal that Vossler was working with the empire. Though unlike most types of these betraylas, Vossler is working in Dalmasca's interest, he just decided that fighting the empire was pointless and settled for having Lady Ashe restored as a puppet monarch since it would technically get the imperial occupation out. The fight with him was also over before I realized what was going on. It was a nice story-gamplay integration to have Fran start in the Berserk status due to the overloaded nethicite. The party escapes (though I do question how they managed to since it looks like the Leviathan blew up shortly after the fight with Vossler), and Now Lady Ashe wants to learn how to use the Nethicite so we need to head south into the Kerwon continent to speak with the Garif.

The rest of my evening was spent wandering the Garasmythe Waterway looking for the White Pudding Mark, only to discover that the dungeon is now occupied with much higher level monsters including Malboros and damn Water Entites. I find it amusing how Entites in FFXI are annoying but fairly easy to deal with. Like if one is powerful enough to wipe the floor with you, then chances are you were likely not supposed to be in that area to begin with as everything could likely kill you effortlessly. Meanwhile, in XII, these assholes cause lots of dungeons to have tense moments as you try to get around not using magic around them while fighting the easier monsters. Anyway, I am way too under-leveled and under-prepared to deal with this dungeon so I had to scramble out of there. I did start the quest for the Earth Tyrant in the Westersand, so I may do that along with the Mark Hunt out there. It also looks like I can finish some other smaller quests like the Desert Patient, the Missing villagers, and July the Streetear. I also got my second to last part of the Ktjn the Viera quest finished as well. So I have lots to do.

[Wolf Kanno]

A more productive two evenings than my last post. So as my last paragraph sort of let on, my team might be kicking ass in story mode, but side content had a big leap in difficulty, I have also lost out of the boons I could have received with the Second Board, and it's becoming a bit more obvious to me what I'm missing out on such as extra HP gains. Belias only really helped Ashe's Knight class as well to earn her a Potion Plus bonus. The real trick will be seeing which Espers are going to whom as I'm looking at the chart and I've got some tough choices ahead of me.

So with all the extra bits too tough for me, we moved forward and proceeded through the Giza Plains during the Rainy Season and I honestly like the rains seasons a bit better, from there we reached the Ozmone Plains, which might be one of my favorite minor eareas in the game. The lore speaks about it being the sight of a massive airship battle in the past, and so you can see old school airship wreckage dotting the landscape. It also has one of the more convenient entrances to the Zertinian Caverns and the one closest to Adrammalech who might be in my future as I hope to take advantage of my extra guest character to clean up some stuff.From here we reach Garif village and I've always found the Garif kind of fascinating, especially since we have a Geomancer among their ranks who sends you on a few Mark hunts and eventually will lead you to Zodiark...

Anyway, the journey was a bit of a waste as the Garif are clueless as to how to use the Nethicite anyway to both the Occurians and Lady Ashe's disappointment. Course, Ghis' little experiment ended up using all the Mist inside the Dawn Shard anyway, so it's now a mostly useless trinket, though not a bad accessory for my magic-less Monk and Shikari classes. On the other hand, we are reunited with MVP guest character Larsa who wants to help Lady Ashe regain her throne so the Resistance won't spark a war between Archades and Rozzaria. With no more clues to help her, Lady Ashe reluctantly agrees to go to Mt. Bur-Omiscace to meet the Grand Kiltias and have him recognize her as the princess and announce it to the world. We also get a nice scene between Vaan and Ashe where we learn Vaan is also seeing the ghosts but he can't tell if it's Prince Rasler or his brother Reks. But we get a real nice character moment for Vaan as he admits he's been just an angry kid lashing out and just trying to find a way to grieve his brother's death. But now that he's with the group, he resolves to stay so he may find a real path for himself. So we've reached sort of the emotional end of Vaan's arc in the story, and he'll return to being the clueless man-child the party knows and tolerates. We also get a nice exchange between Basch and Balthier with Basch checking Balthier's allegiance since he's still reeling from Vossler's betrayal. Balthier, in true sky pirate fashion, feigns allegiance and is still keeping his cards close to his chest after getting his feather's ruffled after Larsa mentioned Draklor Laboratory.

With the story out of the way, I was able to shop for some much needed equipment upgrades, finally get my first -ra level spell, and take down a few hunts and even took down the Earth Tyrant, who is nice sly reference to FFVI according to the Clan Primer. I went back to the Waterway and was able to hold my own, and managed to complete the Ring Wrym, White Mousse, and Marilith Hunts. Marilith is especially a pain as she must have the ability Adrenaline cause she can start one- shotting party members once she's at critical health. I had to resort to using a Quickening to beat her in the final stretch. I am also debating about ignoring Bazaar goods going forward. I managed to Unlock all of the main Monographs so I can start getting better drops. I just need the funds to get the Dragoon one and obviously it's a bit early to get the Canopic Jar, but with my party's limited weapon pools, I don't really need to drop my gil to go after some bazaar goods anymore, so I'm thinking of just ignoring any bazaar items I unlock until I reach endgame. I'll instead try to hit up Balfoheim as early as possible and use my money to keep the team well equipped with conventional goods from shops, treasure finds, and enemy drops. Though I may need to make an exception for Ninja Blades as I don't think they appear in shops as normal items. I'm honestly ready for Greatswords and Ninja Blades as the team needs a bit more oomph that isn't magic and Basch getting lucky with a full combo. I miss range weapons, Spears, and katana's far more than I thought I would.

I'm going to finish the Gil Snapper and Orthros Mark Hunts and see if I can finish the Desert patient and missing villager quests. If I'm feeling saucy, I might explore the Zertinian Caverns and try my luck against Adrammalech. I'm going to have to do some serious prep work before I can tackle CuCuchlainn, even though I finally acquired the Water System Key. I have a feeling I may have to wait until I've passed Archades and heading to Giruvegan before I can seriously tackle some of the espers with the challenge I've given myself.

[Wolf Kanno]

Spent most of the evening working on side quests. Did the simple July the Steetear quest in Nalbina which introduced me to XII's version of Biggs and Wedge called Gibbs and Deweg which was really funny. Finished the Cactoid Family quest in the Estersand village as well as drop off the final item in the Desert Patient quest. The Catoid Quest is one of my favorite because it ties back to an earlier Mark Hunt. In fact, I'm just going to say this now, FFXII is probably the last chronological FF I've played where I felt the side quests were good. XIII and XV's quest often felt like busy work with samey quests. In XII, the quests not only help expand the setting with fun minor NPCs but I like the fact they feel part of the world. Some Mark Hunts get named dropped long before you ever unlock the hunt like Diabolos in Bhujerba being a demon that eats bad children, or the Flowering Cactoid hunt unlocking a quest involving saving a village from the monsters family that is now searching for him, or even all the quests that build up Clan Centuiro throughout the game. Like sure, I'm still just doing fetch quests and monster hunts but the game takes the extra step to make it feel like part of the world and narrative. It's not like XIII where all the hunts can be summed up as "I got a Focus to kill an annoying monster, and I failed" or FFXV where five colorful NPCs just send you on ten quests to find something for them. Like there is some real narrative pull and integration going on in XII's sidequests.

I also hunted down Gil Snapper and Orthros giving me my FFV and VI references. I forgot how funny the Orthros Petitioner was with her being a bumbling female Seeq thief who talks to Vaan like he's the "one who got away" or how in addition to the Gil Snapper getting the Clan Hunter Bansat to start getting motivated to work for the clan again while also the whole quest being connected to the brother and sister in the Giza Village who thought they accidentally summoned the Mark and need you to seal it in a jar only to discover later they misunderstood the elder who likely sent them on the quest because they're both kind of bratty. Like I was originally going to ignore the Hunts and just barrel through the game, but it's hard not to engage in them since they are so well done.

I likely won't be playing tomorrow, but on Wednesday, I'll likely move the story along since I don't have anything else to do except get my ass handed to me by the optional Espers I have access to.

[Wolf Kanno]

Tonight we delved into Fran's past and went to the Viera village while trying to go to Mt. Bur-Omisca. We had to take a slight detour to Henne Mines to rescue Fran's younger sister and we got our second hint of Venat and their first physical appearance. Not to mention we got Vaan's cringiest scene which is still hilarious and now has him in the proverbial dog house with the female members of the party.

I honestly love Fran's story bit and I feel its criminal how underrated she often is among the cast when I talk to some fans. Granted, she's fighting Basch over who is the most stoic member of the team, but no one complains about Lulu doing the same thing. The Viera are weird, at first, you think they're like a Tolkein-esque High Elf type deal, but really, they feel more like some weird Amish type group. Gated community, ignoring the outside world, adhere to a strict code of ethics, live within a more simple life style than the rest of the world. Not to mention the tendency to treat those who leave the co0mmunity as though they are dead. The heartbreaking part is watching Fran tell her little sister to follow the rules of the Wood and consider her dead even after her sister was trying to defend Fran from their older sibling. I also noticed that Fran's ears have a black fringe to them but neither of her sisters do, or anyone in the village. I wonder if the hair changes the longer she's away from the Wood, and if the color change symbolizes her inability to hear the Wood?

I also liked the conversation she has with Balthier before going to the village where she calls out his interest in the Nethicite being part of his past as well. The other cool exchange is one between Ashe and Basch as they leave the Golmore Plains (a nice reference to FFTA) and discuss how they may not be able to forgive the imperials but Basch seeing hope in how well Vaan, Penelo, and Larsa are getting along. FFXII always gets slandered for not having a strong story or characters, but I honestly can't agree. Of anything, it's ability to juggle personal stories while staying focused on the grander narrative puts it above a lot of other FFs. But I may save this rant for my final thoughts segment.

I did take down one MNark Hunt for the Garif, being a Ghost haunting the mines that was created from the Garif that fought the imperials when they tried to make the mines. I also tackled a Rare Monster in the Golmore Jungle that requires a 21+ Chain to even appear. I also got a few upgrades to equipment and unlocked Thundara and Bubble. I even got Haste! Except no one in my party can use it...ever. I also explored the Zertinia Caverns and managed to take down Adrammelach. Vaan ended up acquiring him so he could get access to another Battle Lore and the Souleater ability. The two most important items I acquired was the Thief's Cuffs and the Diamond Armlet. The Thief's Cuff are a bit underrated if you ask me. Not only does it raise the Steal Probability, but it also allows the wearer to steal more than one of an enemies items. If Zidane had access to that, I feel most fans would stop slandering his thieving skills.

I think once we hit the halfway mark (probably after the battle with Judge Bergen) I'm going to do a real assessment of all the classes I'm using.

[Karifean]

Not to mention we got Vaan's cringiest scene which is still hilarious and now has him in the proverbial dog house with the female members of the party.

Funnily enough, I think it's also his best scene. The scene does open up with Balthier complimenting Vaan for a reason; he basically took charge and stood his ground against Joté very well, and in "the two sides of the same coin" of Vaan's straightforwardness to me it most directly conveys what the whole point of Vaan as a character is. He doesn't get lost in needless complications, for better or worse. I always felt the party was kinda ridiculously harsh on him for asking Fran her age. Feels like it earns more of a headpat over still being a boy than an annoyed "try to grow up, please". But well, we're not supposed to take it seriously I suppose.

[Wolf Kanno]

For the life of me, I've been having a hard time updating this

So we have finally reached Mt. Bur-Omisace and met Gran Kiltias Anastasis who is apparently from a race called Helgas race. It's interesting spotting some of these races that weren't in FFTA, though according to the wiki, they are spoken of in FFTA2. FF fans should recognize his voice too, as he's voiced by Dwight Schultz who famously voiced Maechen, Mika, and Oaka XXIII in FFX and even played a minor character in The Spirits Within. We also got to meet Al-Cid Margrace, who spends the first minute of his introduction feeling a bit out of place with his sunglasses and then hilariously tries to flirt with Ashe with the same level of success as Edgar to Terra.

We also learn that Emperor Gramis has been murdered, so no more Larsa for me, which I will come to regret later. Still the political intrigue scenes we get in Archades are fascinating. Between the infighting among the Judges about Vayne, the Seante using the lost of the Leviathan as a pretext to finally be rid of Vayne, and the ambiguous conversation between Gramis and Vayne where I really do feel they plotted Gramis' death so they could use it as pretext to setup the Senate; Archades has some interesting politics going on.

So with all that going on, Anastasis decides that Vayne can't be trusted to sign a peace accord with Ashe, so instead, we need Ashe to travel to the Stilshrine of Miriam to collect the Sword of Kings, which will allow her to destroy nethicite. So off we go...

Well no, I finished up some sidequests instead. I took down the Couerl that was attacking pilgrims on the mountain, helped Clan Centurio member Monid to tackle the always annoying Trickster and his overpowered Choco-Meteor attack, and even got access to deeper parts of the Lhusu Mines to save some runaway rich kids. I also finished the Patient in the Desert quest to get the key back into Baraheim Passage so I could fight and obtain Zalera The Death Seraph.

While I know it's never been outright confirmed, I feel Zalera, like many of the Espers, is a callback to classic FF villains. In his case, I would say Sephiroth. He has a one wing physical trait, he's connected to a shaman he exploits, and his ultimate goal is to kill all life so he can absorb it into himself. Throw in the fact the shaman has some thematic and even physical characteristics that are reminiscent of Jenova and Aerith, I feel it's obvious.

Anyway, off the the Stilshrine of Miriam next.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time!

Stilshrine of Miriam is finished, the Gran Kiltias is dead, and we're now going to take a long trip to Archades so we can say hi to Daddy Bunansa. The Stilshrine is a pretty cool dungeon and I love the statues coming to life to attack. It's also interesting how this temple is for an older god that's not directly connected to Kiltia of Light religion, yet it was apparently built in the Galtean Age, and yet it also has mechanical wonders that are apparently older than the Galtean Age. My guess is the temple was repurposed by the Kiltia faith when they moved into Bur-Omisace and the temple was older than the faith itself. Kind of like Hagia Sophia is in the real world. The God of Swords has an interesting design as well being half hume and half bangaa. It makes me wonder if all the races have a common ancestor. See this kind of lore gives you something to chew on and speculate, we'll be having a very different conversation about lore drops when we get to the next entry on this list.

Judge Bergan also gets a killer intro like Judge Ghis and like Ghis before him, Judge Bergan is killed before I really had much of a chance to really enjoy the fight. Someday, I'll do a play through where I actually skip the side content and play the story mode straight to finally feel like these story bosses are an actual threat. Granted, that's also what Trial Mode and Minus Mode are for...

I also got the item needed to fight Zeromus, but considering I don't think I could take Cúchulainn on just yet, we're going to skip him for now. We're at the Tier 2 Espers who all have some weird gimmick that makes them like 10x more annoying to fight and sometimes require certain skills. I'm eyeing which jobs have Souleater just so I can make the Chaos fight less of a chore than it has to be. Likewise, I need some better status defense options before I tackle Cúchulainn and I sure as hell don't want to deal with Zeromus and his no magic rule while he's using gravity magic to systematically lower my health while hordes of undead are swarming around my party. I'll need to come up with a strategy that will work for Ashe, Basch, and Balthier who will be running point on that fight. Exodus will also be available once I reach the Mosphoran Highwaste north of Nalbina Fortress.

Before my next update, I'll do my breakdown of my six FFI classes I'm using, especially since most of them are mastered outside of the extra stuff through Espers.

[Wolf Kanno]

Okay, let's do a job breakdown at the moment. I will preface this to say that I haven't unlocked the extra stuff with Espers, seeing how I only have four at the moment, but I more or less have everyone's base stuff unlocked. I will be starting this in order of my least favorite class to my favorite.

Shikari - This one is finally starting to change for me, but I was fairly amused that this class perfectly recreates the Thief/Ninja dynamic as the thief portion is weird, and I've only recently started to enjoy the class now that I'm getting Ninja blades. The weirdest thing about this class is the high HP it gets. I figure I would get more evasion skills which I sort of due since I can use daggers with a shield, but daggers lack punch, and even though I obtained a Gladius before formally recruiting Basch that dagger has abeen a mixed bag due to it's Wind attribute. So I've got this meat shield that sort of hits like a wet noodle compared to my two other offensive classes because all of its weapons that are not guns use speed for the damage formula, but Ninja blades fix this due to their high combo rate and the fact TZA fixes Ninja blades by not making them all dark elemental, which was detrimental in a game where every third dungeon was Zombiepalooza. So the class is growing on me. I sort of want to unlock guns for it so I can have better long range options that are not magic, but I think the esper that unlocks it for me also unlocks useful spells for the other characters, we'll see. On the brightside, I did set up some decent steal gambit options that have made it useful for it's primary role.

White Mage - While Shikari has largely been disappointing in early game, White Mage largely falls into boring but practical. I am counting the hours until I acquire Protectga and Shellga because that will make this class much more useful. I do think it's weird they use Rods in this game, but I think that has more to do with XII making Rods the White Mage option when traditionally it was a Black Mage one, but whatever. I am sad it doesn't have access to Maces, which are also traditionally White Mage weapons, but I'm intrigued that it does get Greatswords. The class gets enough Battle Lore's to hold their own in combat, it's just the weapons don't hit hard, hence why I feel like Maces would have been a better option. This class is great when fighting a tough Mark or Esper, but ho-hum when dealing with everything else, especially when I have to streamline things to shut off support gambits when they are not needed. I am, stoked it learns Bubble as well, but disappointed I don't get Haste in any form. Useful class, but very "set em, and forget em" once you get all the spells.

Monk - This is a pretty solid class. It lacks the high damage potential of earlier incarnations, but makes up for it with surviability. I feel I will see some serious improvements once I get Ultima for the class and acquire two more Swiftness augments. The class does feel slow and Unarmed is only ever so slightly faster than using the Poles. The real advantage of not using poles is only against enemies with high magick defense. Poles may use the users strength for damage calculation but it also uses the enemy's magic defense as well. It is interesting to see this class on it's own. In my previous game, I mixed this class with Knight and got some insane bang for my buck in terms of HP boosts and magic options, but Knight is just a more useful class with more useful weapons by endgame, so I never really got to spend time using the weapons of this class. I sort of wish poles had a higher combo rate, or that Monk could unlock the Genji gloves but whatever. I do like the FFTA shout out in terms of the class getting some heavy White Magic options with it's esper placements. This class can effectively be turned into a second endgame white mage if you set them up right. So I have a feeling this class may climb the ranking before endgame.

Knight - I know this class swill be fighting for top spot before the end, but based on it's function for the first half, it's here for now. Like Shikari before it, this class also plays into the Warrior/Knight dynamic from FFI. One-Handed swords and shield combo is pretty snazzy in the early game, and once you start getting elemental weapons it can finally do some serious damage, but I already know this class really starts shine once Greatswords finally unlock, and the Excalibur alone makes this class overpowered by endgame. But the first half has this class fall into the same category as White Mage just for melee offense. Boring but practical. I did get some extra mileage by giving it to Ashe, meaning I got access to some basic white magic in the beginning so all that MP doesn't go to waste. It's white magic give it some good support options, but not as good as Monk's potential. I also feel it was not a smart move to make Telekinesis an optional skill I have to fight over with espers. But then again, when this class starts hitting hard, you're probably not going to care about options when the basic build is "give them Excalibur/Ragnarok/Tournesol and let them hit things really, really hard". If I could make any over changes, I would give them acess to a few Spears or Katanas, not the good ones mind you, but a few low to mid level ones might have been nice.

Black Mage - Magic is incredibly overpowered in this entry, which is nice for a change especially since magic feels underwhelming in later entries after this. But for a game where the main enemy strategy to take out the party is to overwhelm them with numbers, having a class that does crowd control really well is super useful. Low level magic is potent as well, but this class really starts to shine once the -ara and -aga level spells are acquired. and with the elemental staves to boost their damage, this class is just a beast. It's biggest flaws are the usual black mage issues of being fragile, having the lowest natural HP of the six classes, no good defensive options unless you unlock the heavy armor, but even that is just going to hurt the BLM's damage potential in the long run. It does get access to hand-bombs but this also feels a bit misguided (would have given this to White Mage honestly) since Black Mage doesn't need a long range option as a mage. Of anything, the class has the most lackluster options with espers with most of its best options being much needed HP boosts. Getting early access to elemental weak and vulnerable Gambits gave magic a huge boost in TZA.

Red Battlemage - Basically Black mage but with healing options, defensive options and decent combat options when magic is a no-go. This class is very much a master class with great options overall, especially since you can dramatically boost it's offensive potenital by the end with Esper options to acquire Greatswords and the -aga level spells. Maces are surprisingly good weapons despite being slow and a mage with better HP options and access to a shield makes them stand out quite a bit in the early game. They also get enough Magick Augments that the difference in elemental damage potential between it and Black mage is sometimes hard to notice until elemental staves get involved. But whereas BLM is screwed when the reflect status is around, RDM can use dispel to make life easier. I do wish it gained a few more useful Time Mage spells (haste anyone?) but getting exclusive access to Arcane was a nice touch to keep them feeling different from BLM in the early game. It was weird they don't get access to Blizzard, but whatever.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time!

Mainly went through the Mosphora Highwaste and the Salikawood. I also took a detour through the Nabreus Deadlands and the Necrohol of Nabudias or as I shall rename it for this playthrough where only two characters have resurrection magick "burn through Phoenix Down" Zone due to me likely hitting up this area prematurely.

The Highwaste is short but I did start some of the quest stuff to reach Exodus, though I have no intention of tackling him until after Archades. He's not as hard as Zeromus due to only losing out on items for his fight as opposed to magick, but he does hit hard and I would like Shellga for this fight.

The Salikawood is an interesting place. I always forget the search for the lazy Moogle Quests in here, but it's pretty fun, especially since Salikawood is filled with non-aggressive animals in a few zones. In fact, I don't feel like the place gets any real enemy threats until you reach the Necrohol or Deadlands, then suddenly the top area starts spawning those annoying goblin monsters and Mantis creatures. The battle with the optional King Bomb was surprisingly challenging. He's a bit like a combination of the Big Mom Bomb fight from FFIV and the one against the Ourborus Bombs in FFV. By which I mean he likes to spawn multiple smaller bombs who love to use Chain Reaction for big damage, but the bastards also use Renew to keep King Bomb alive so you have the quick death from IV but the prolonging the fight from V. I had to switch out my mages Gambits to use multi-targeting spells as long as the enemy was vulnerable to it since the party can't use Aquara outside of items. I also found the Wood Toad Rare monster, who is one of the more ingenious if annoying monsters to encounter on account of the fact it has a 20% spawn rate in a specific zone and has the invisible status when it does. I ran into this thing in my last playthrough on happenstance, but he's always amused me nonetheless.

The Deadlands wasn't so bad outside of the area where Roblon was hiding but the Necrohol is a pain in the ass due to the high spawn rate of the enemies who usually appeared with Haste and Shell already active, as well as all the HP/MP traps littered everywhere in the entrance ways. I actually meant to just peak in and leave, but then I was alerted to the fact that a lot of White Mage support magic was lying around here. So I managed to gain Silencega, Protectga, Bravery, and Faith. I do still need to see if I can get the Ensanguished Shield from here, but I'll wait until after I reach Archades and acquire some better crowd control spells. I did find the secret Shop and bought some Power Armlets for the Stop resistance.

I also caught up on all the Mark Hunts available and managed to beat Roblon, who is honestly one of the toughest non Elite Marks for this portion of the game on account that the area you fight him in spawns countless Dead Bones that like to cast Reflectaga on themselves to limit you're ability to crowd control. I only managed to finish this fight thanks to acquiring an Opal Ring in the Necrohol that allows a party member to pierce through Reflect with Magick. Even then, it was a challenge, because the Dead Bones will beeline towards the party member inflicting the most damage.

I also did the Carrot Elite Mark Hunt and fulfilled a Ivalice Tradition, since this concept has existed in the series since the original FFTactics as a side mission. For those unaware, there is always a mission involving the search for a pet named Carrot for an eccentric client, and the pet turns out to be a Malboro. This one gets an extra layer of challenge since Ribbons are extremely rare in this game, and you have to enter Salikawood and reach Carrot's location without killing anything.

I think I'm feeling confident enough to try and take on Cúchulainn before moving on, and part of me also wants to clear out any more rare game that is not connected to the Hunt Club. I also need to farm the Seeq enemies on the Highwaste because their Ivalice lore is actually the creation myth and finally gives us some insight into the Stilshrine of Miriam since it follows the God of Swords. After that, Phon Coast, and likely a side journey to Balfoheim...

[Wolf Kanno]

Due to the holiday, I haven't had as much time to play. I mainly went Rare Game hunting in some of the earlier areas. I'm like 29/80 but like 30 of those monsters don't appear until I start the Hunt Club quest. So I'm over halfway done with the regular Rare monsters. I was also clearing up some of Clan Primer entries for earlier areas. I still need to go through the Parinam Rift to finish all the entries there. The two most annoying overall are the Gazer in the Lhusu Mines and the Darkmare in the Stilshrine of Miriam due to both enemies technically only spawning once every time you visit their locations and both only spawning far into the dungeon, making trekking back in a pain.

I also took on Cúchulainn and managed to win, but just barely. I had to pull off an impressive 12 Chain Quickening to get him down to critical before his perma-sap murdered my party. Going in with with my mages first to clean up the Foobars that accompany him helped. I probably would have had an easier time had I remembered his other annoying spell was Disabliga. So had I gone in with everyone equipped with Black Belts, I could have lasted longer. I am tempted to try fighting Zeromus, just to see how bad it's going to be.

So I'm probably going to wait until I reach Archades to tackle Zeromus and Exodus so I can have access to some better gear. I also gave the Nu Muo sage two of the three missing Medallions, so I'm not far from making Chaos available either.

[Wolf Kanno]

Just a very minor update. I made a few small mistakes while hunting some of the last rare game in the regions I have access to. The first was testing my luck with Zeromus, and as I assumed, he whooped my ass hard. I'll need to wait until I have access to X-Potions to feel safe in that one.

I also dabbled in some rare steal and treasure chest farming in the Necrohol, which was a mistake as I wasted an entire evening and only got like one decent piece of armor for Lady Ashe. I was unfortunately inspired due to getting extremely lucky and nabbing a Defender Greatsword from a rare steal and I was gunning for a Save the Queen from the rare game in the Babreus Deadlands.

I did finish up the Phon Coast and even acquired the Site 11 Key for the Lhusu Mines, but I'm going to hold off on that until the Gilgamesh Mark opens up. I distinctly remember the Site 11 section having some endgame level stuff there, so I'm going to hold off for just a bit.

Next up is the Tchta Uplands and the Steepe. I'm going to tajke a slight detour to Balfoheim before I check out Archades. I may also try to take on the Great Wyrm while I'm in the Sochen Cave Palace, because I waited too long to fight him last time and crushed him like a bug, so I'm hoping an earlier encounter will make it exciting.

[Wolf Kanno]

Minor update.

I explored the Tchita Uplands and the Sochen Cave Palace. The Uplands don't have much to do in the Zodiac version since it removed the treasure chest gimmick the area originally had. It does have the funny Archadian Father and Son team who set you up on a unofficial Hunt against the Mandragora Court. The are also doesn't really have that many unique monsters either.

The Sochen Cave Palace on the other hand does have some cool stuff. Despite the amount of undead soldiers you deal with in this game, I do appreciate how chilling all the lore is for them. Like you get you vengeful spirit types like the Fiends from FFX, but others are placed there due to curses and such not and honestly the cosmology of Ivalice feels a bit more chilling here because a lot of monsters and most of the undead are the direct results of the sentient races just being pricks to each other. A lot of monsters are just abandoned war or working animals that have gone feral again but maintain their instincts from being used for war, and some undead are simply soldiers oath bound to protect and serve their masters, despite the fact they and their kingdoms have long since been lost to time. SE is tapping heavy into fantasy tropes with this game and I'm here for it.

I did do the Waterfall Puzzle in the palace, but sadly the prizes are not nearly as good in Zodiac. In the original, you got the Iga and Koga blades but here it's just 1000 Needles and a Megalixier. I am debating about trying my hand against the Ring Wyrm before moving onto Archades though.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!

Okay, so turns out I can't fight the Elder Wyrm yet due to not having the key from the Wrym Researcher. So I headed to Archades and got my Chops. I know a lot of players hated this side quest since it halts the action and feels a bit like a waste of time, but I appreciate how it gives you a lot of insight into what Archades is like and what it's people are like as well. It definitely has a nice blend of New York City and L.A. (or any capital city for a country) vibe to it in that it's a place that will feel very foreign to anyway not originally from there and is the kind of place where there are just as many stories of failure as success. Of anything, I feel XII doesn't really get enough credit for some of it's social commentary.

Anyway, I made to Draklore Lab and fought Big Daddy Cid who is the second hottest Cid just behind yellow condom suit Cid from VI and tied with chubby Robin Williams Cid from VIII. Scrumptious ;)

We had out fight, got some Balthier Lore and are now being egged onto go to Giruvegan. The end of the game is in sight... but first, let's take down all the Mark Hunts that opened up and start a few quests. I'll admit this is the point where the Normal Mark Hunts are kind of dull, just being palette swap monsters and the only unique aspect is the fact we're being slow dripped all of the nasty support skills later Mark Hunts and Bosses are going to have like Ignore Shield, 0 CRT, and lots of pailings... The two elite marks I unlocked was the Bolito fight, which is actually the Ba'Gammen rematch that ends with his very own Boba Fett style ending. I do appreciate the buildup to this mission with the Clan murmuring about a Clan Hunter and suspecting Monid. The other one I unlocked was Man of Mystery, but I'll save that for another night.

After unlocking X-Potions and having better gear, I tried to take on Zeromus, but that's still a no go. It's a pain in the ass dealing with a tanky boss using percentile damage while being swarmed with up to seven undead wizard knights skeletons with no good crowd control options available. I've tried using Quickenings, but frankly, they are not reliable enough to get good damage, and even if I do wipe out the lot of them, they just respawn less than a minute later. I'll wait until after Giruvegan when I have Excalibur. I also finished most of the Medallion quests, so I could go check out Chaos but I sort of want to do this in order.

Other than that, I explored Cerobi Steppe, checked out Balfoheim, started the Missing Cockatrice mission, and managed to meet six of the seven airship sisters. I like how the Medlallion Quest give some Nu Muo a moment to appear, since I feel they are not utilized as much as the other Ivalice races, and it's amusing seeing the Craftsman Moogles wandering around Ivalice. Not to mention more fun with the Street kids of Rabanastre like Filo and Kytes. If there is anything I feel XII has done better than any FF game that has come after, it's the side content. Like thinking back to XIII trilogy and FFXV, hell even XI if I'm allowed to be controversial, I feel XII nails the side content well.

[Wolf Kanno]

Minor Update tonight.

I got a bit burned out and started playing Phantom Pain instead, which is why this thread hasn't been super active. Finally got burnt out on that game, so we're back.

I mainly finished exploring the Lhusu Mines this evening and completed the Man of Mystery Mark Hunt, which is frankly one of the best Mark Hunts in the game. I think only the Shadowseer comes close, and even then, not by much. I obtained a lot of great weapons here, a shame I don't have the Ulhan or Bushi classes to make use of the Dragon Whisker and Masemune I just acquired. Got the Orochi and Zwill Crossblade for Balthier (third strongest Ninja Blade and Dagger), the Whale Whisker for Basch (second strongest Pole) as well as a Renewing Morion (Auto-Regen!), Vaan got some Glimmering Robes so he's no longer easy canon fodder, Lady Ashe got the full Genji Gear and the cool Magepower Shisack helmet along with Excalipor as a conselation prize, and Fran got the Bone of Byblos which is a great FFTactics reference along with being her strongest melee Mace, though not necessarily her best weapon. The Bonebreaker may be stronger and more useful since it uses the Guns algorithm for damage as well as inflicts Disease of all status effect, while the Chaos Mace raises Dark Magic by 50% which might be her best mage weapon.

Regardless, I managed to get everyone but Penelo to reach the Gilgamesh fight at an odd number not divisible by three which always makes this fight significantly easier, but Gilgamesh is a toughy when he's down to his last 20% of health. Will need to restock on items after this fight, but it's such a treat of a fight and I love watching him pull out fake weapons from other FF games.

With that done, my only other tasks is cleaning up a few sidequests like the airship sisters and escaped Cockatrice fight. I also will tackle the Elkder Wyrm before reaching Giruvegan, and maybe I'll even attempt Zeromus one more time now that I have stronger weapons and armor.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time!
Tonight was more productive. I finished the Seven Sisters quest, the Missing Cockatrice quest, started the finishing minigame quest, and even did the Madhu Beverage quest. The Madhu would have been more practical if I had done it when it first opened back when I got the Dawn Shard, but it was fun getting a lot of NPCs in Bhujerba drunk. The Cockatrice quest is a personal favorite even if some points can be a bit more frustrating than they should. I haven't started fishing yet, but I did acquire the Matamusa Rod so I can start it officially.

I did try my hand against the Elder Wyrm and was promptly destroyed for my trouble. I could probably setup a scenario to win this fight, but since he's an HP sponge and basically the Beta version of Yiazmat, I've decided to wait until I get Excalibur before thrashing it.

The real victory tonight was taking down Zeromus, though it was still close with my ill-equipped B squad of mages winning the fight at the end with a Quickening. I then tried my hand at Exodus, who only seals items and doesn't have any notable allies helping him, and the dude died under a minute with little problem. Zeromus is bullshit... So I may try my hand at Chaos and taken down the Humbaba Mistant and Fury before heading to Giruvegan. I gave Zeromus to Fran so she can get another Channeling Augment. Exodus is the tricky one because he gives Monk access to Souleater, which is a great skill for the Chaos fight and Basch would make great use of it. On the other hand, it also gives Fran access to some decent Heavy Armor and lately, her fragility has become a bit of an issue. I'm leaning more towards Basch because while the skill is only really useful for one fight, the Armor upgrades will likely not be strong enough to be practical for endgame for Fran anyway. I'll sleep on it and see how I feel.

I also need to double check if there are any rare game in Lhusu Mines I missed. I'm purposely holding off on the Hunt Club to make collecting the rest of the rare game a bit easier to find. I also need to start hunting Entites to fill the Bestiary as well as some Bangaa.

Now that we're getting to the point where I have access to endgame gear and abilities, I may do another assessment of the classes as well as some foresight into how my first playthrough using the second classes sort of warped my impression of a few classes. We'll see. Chaos is next, my last numbered FF villain Esper, and then the rest will be the Ivalice Exclusive ones. I am not looking forward to Zodiark, but I'll likely try to be more patient this time and save it for after the Pharos. I may also check to see where some spells are because I'm annoyed I don't have Shellga yet.

Anyway, the end is getting close.

[Wolf Kanno]

Two minor updates.

I finished the Chaos quest, which I've always found to be fun. Acquiring the medallions is a bit annoying but I like the Nu Muo characters and always forget they are actually ghosts who sacrificed their lives to seal off Chaos and his two companions. The Fury intro is still one of the best in this game. Bossess have a lot of personality in this game even if they have flimsy connection to the narrative sometime. Chaos went down pretty easily, especially since I opted to give Basch Exodus so he could access Souleater skill. I honestly feel Zeromus is the second hardest optional Esper behind Zodiark. Even Ultima nevr gives me that much trouble. But I do love Chaos' design in this game and his fight is actually fun.

With that done, we went into the Feywood and I absolutely destroyed Rafflesia and Daedulus. I'm happy about the first one because that fight gets ugly the longer the boss is alive since she pelts you with status effects and uses Fearga to wipe out all your party MP.

I opted to save Giruvegan itself for another night and instead opted to grind some materials tonight. I've managed to acquire all the materials to make Tournesol this evening except the Soul Powder I can't access until I either start the hunt club or acquire two more espers so I can access the optional Henne Mines section Zodiark calls home. I also need one more Damscus Steel, but that will actually be an easy acquisition since there is an easy rare monster to spawn in Parinama Rift that has it as his only steal. I do still need to go Entite Farming so I can get their special elemental drops for some other ultimate weapons.

I also tried to farm the Mandragora family in the Feywood, but got my ass kicked when I didn't find the group fast enough and they leveled themselves to 99 and crushed me like an insignificant bug. Hell, I still need to kill one of those Lv. 80+ Dragons in the Zertinian Caverns.

I probably need to start the fishing minigame soon as well.

[Wolf Kanno]

Minor Update!

Fought my way through Giruvegan and the story portion of the Great Crystal so I could meet the Occurians and get my Treaty Blade from them.

I sort of debate whether the Occurians are the true gods of Ivalice. Like reading some of the mythology presented in the game, it doesn't really sound like them. This being a sword and sorcery type game, it wouldn't surprise me if Ivalice does have true gods spoken of in legend and the Occurians are simply a race of beings that evolved enough to become energy beings, and basically called themselves gods afterwards. It would also make Venat's betrayal make more sense because they would understand that they are not gods, and the actions of their kind are hindering the natural progress of the other Ivalice races. I like the idea of the Occurians, but I also feel the narrative fails to really explain how your actions affect them. Like I get their plan to use Ashe to become a new pawn to keep them in control, but again, we don't really get an explanation how destroying the Sun-Cryst would really stop the Occurians. As far as the player knows, the Sun-Cryst is simply the only leftover tech from their civilization they can offer to make mortals do what they want, but it would make more sense that the Sun-Cryst also maintains their society and is the last tech keeping them connected to Ivalice, so it's destruction either shuts off their ability to communicate with the mortal world, or even more distressful, it may shut down their ability to exist, but Venat still lingers after it's destruction so the latter doesn't seem to be the case, but when you look at the throne room of the Occurians, Venat's statue itself is missing, and I've long suspected those statues are the Occurians original bodies and form. So if Venat transferred it back to the mortal world, either scenario could be true. My issue here with the speculation is that the game gives no real answers or meaningful clues to suggest anything. This and Vayne's character arc are really the two biggest story gripes I have with the game.

I also don't like Shemhazai and her design. Of all the Espers, she feels the most off and kind of looks more stupid than imposing. Not helped that she's another insta-death Esper despite already having Zalera. I get the feeling she was meant to be a re-imagined Odin type deal, but she honestly just looks goofy to me, which is a shame because the redesigns of all the other Espers are pretty badass.

I'm supposed to head back to Balfoheim, but I'm going to stick around the Crystal for a bit and loot the place and fight the two non-Hunt club rare game. One of which has a crazy requirement that involves killing over 255 enemies while in the Crystal without leaving or shutting off the game. Which sounds difficult, but considering a lot of enemies pop up in groups of six or summon other enemies, I was able to easily rack up a hundred kills in no time. I have maybe four items left to acquire, the most important being Excalibur, and the Larva Eater does possess one of the best Daggers in the game as well. Not to mention, if I defeat Ultima while I am here, I will have met the requirements to enter the optional part of the Henne Mines and can square off with Zodiark while getting easy access to all the endgame loot and items. I know a bunch of Mark Hunts also just opened up. So I'll be busy for a bit.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update time!

Mostly spent the evening exploring the Great Crystal for all the loot. I wasn't able to get everything, I always seem to miss the Staff of the Magi, Hastega, and in the Zodiac version there is a new invisible shield as well that's super rare to get. I was moving on from my last auto-save but ended up putting myself into a non-winnable situation. Only two party members have a magic raise spell while the rest require Phoenix Downs, and I got overwhelmed so much by the mass spawning Necrophobe or Chain Reacting Mom Bombs that I blew through my stock of Phoenix Downs without realizing it, and then lost Fran and Vaan. So I was stuck with just Basch knee deep in Ultima territory. So I restarted and had to go after all the treasure again.

The highlight of the evening was fighting Ultima, who is still my favorite fight of all the Espers. I like how she switches between all the battle conditions of other optional Espers and her Holyja/Reverse spell certain keeps you on your toes without feeling too cheap ( :stare: @ Zodiark ) so we got that going. I called it a night since I would have to return anyway for the Hunt Club Rare game and Omega XII.

Nothing new had unlocked, so I went to Balfoheim and recruited Reddas so I could finally unlock the last Mark Hunts and new magick for the party. I'll likely be doing sidequests for a bit including the Henne Mines and then we'll move onto the Pharos.

[Wolf Kanno]

Update Time.

Mostly worked on Mark Hunts. Defeated the Wild Malboro, which is a pretty amusing story Mark Hunt if you talk to a lot of the Viera about it. The Catoblepas wasn't too shabby either, finishing up a minor plot point in Jahara with the Garif. Diabolos is an underrated one if you ask me. While we've had a Mark Hunt earlier in the game that was petitioned by a ghost, I like this one better because talking to NPCs earlier in the game hints to this Marks existence and because the whole being petitioned by the dead i way less obvious and comes a bit more like a surprise when the reveal happens. I also did Deathgaze, and as a VI fan, I love this Mark Hunt. Kind of clever of altering the odds of encountering it by speaking to the petitioner after every missed flight. I also happen to love this NPC grooup of the spoiled rich Archadians, they were fun in the earlier parts of the game as well and like Diabolos and Catoblepas, this is another Hunt that is actually hinted at m,uch earlier in the game if you talk to the NPCs regularly.

With that done, I also checked out the Henne Mines a bit, and while I didn't attempt Zodiark yet, I did manage to acquire the Soul Powder I needed and for the first time while playing this game, I've made the Tournesol Greatsword. So kudos to me, and honestly, it wasn't as time consuming as I thought it would be, but that may have been due to luck. I also opted to finally purchase all the gear I've been holding off on, and debating about making the rest, but honestly, I think I should now just focus on finishing the game.

I plan on doing some Hunts and optional fights, but I'm likely going to hold off starting the Hunt Club quest and likely focus on just finishing the game.at this point. I may take a stab at Yiazmat but I'm over 115 hours in this playthrough and as usual, I feel I'm getting a bit burnt out here. So I may focus on just finishing what I can and rush to the ending so I can play something else for a bit before tackling FFX.

[Wolf Kanno]

Minor Update tonight.

Completed the two quests from Bur-Omiscae, so Piscodeamon which has some fun lore connections and Fafnir, which was the really cool one that kind of brings a more hopeful ending to the refugee crisis in Mt. Bur-Omiscae. I remember once debating another forum member named Renmiri about this part of the story, and I still stand by the fact it has a more well thought conclusion than some plotlines in other FF titles.

With those out of the way, I unlocked the King Behemoth quest, which has the distinction of featuring the only Behemoth that resembles the more classic design as opposed the the two legged variants found throughout most of the game. But I opted to deal with Hell Wyrm first and that fight sort of cemented the fact I probably won't attempt Yiazmat on this file. Not because I don't think I could beat him, but more because I don't enjoy the fight at all. I don't really like HP Sponge bosses in my RPGs, which is also making me reconsider the VIIR title as well because most of the bosses in that game fit in that category.

After that, I went and started the fishing minigame, and while I appreciate the fact we threw a mini-game here, it leaves much to be desired. I find XII has superb sidequests, especially compared to X and XIII, but unfortunately for XII, like FFX before it, the actual minigames are more frustrating than fun or just plain tedious. So I'm likely not going to see the Wyrmhero Blade this playthrough either.

[Karifean]

I do think the Trial Mode is done very well (the finale being an all-time favorite battle of mine), so maybe worth to tackle that if you feel like it. It even includes a Yiazmat fight that only has like less than 1/10th the HP and it's a perfectly functional good boss fight, just proving how hilariously excessive the original is.

[Wolf Kanno]

I need to get back to Trial Mode. Will be likely be a bit more challenging this playthrough since I'm not dual classing. I think I got to the early 70s in my other playthrough. I got stopped by Reddas underlings and their pirate underlings using guns.

[Wolf Kanno]

The Pharos begins!

I've just reached the Third Ascent, so not long now. I may still sneak into the Subterrain when we're done, but we'll see. XII is one of those games where I always enjoy my time with it, but it's so dense with content I need to take breaks towards the end. It was neat taking on the four cardinal beasts, or I guess I should say three, because the Phoenix doesn't appear until the Shadowseer fight. While it's a classic in eastern mythology and RPGs, I can't help but be reminded of SaGa 1 here. Helped that Kawazu was the Executive Producer at the end of the game's development.

The Pharos is easily the definitive final dungeon for this game, and I like the fact each floor has it's own challenges and puzzles to deal with. I feel this along with a lot of the other dungeons in this game are really underrated. While FFs dungeon design has always been varied in quality, depending on the entry, I honestly think XII was the last good one in terms of gameplay. XV had some good narrative focused ones, but XII has more puzzles and gimmicks that help them stand apart from other entries.

I managed to acquire Holy, and the Ascent I've reached should net me both Flare and Ardor, so we're near the end for my mages development. While the Sage Ring is easily the best accessory for them, I played around with a few options this time and have determined that the Opal Ring is easily the true MVP of the mage focused accessories. Being able to ignore Reflect status and save Gambit slot from needing to dispel it has saved me quite a few headaches and opened up strategies utilizing Reflectga more. I'll need to experiment on this again when I get to FFIX, since Vivi has some options that deal with weaponizing Reflect.

I think the biggest thing I wished I used more this playthrough was playing around with the Espers. Like FFX before it, the main team can be built into such a well oiled machine that it feels impractical to even use them, but XII is likely worse about since it doesn't have summon battles or a double Limit Break strategy to use. I should play with it more because I really feel you can make some nasty strategies using Zeromus and Shemhazai, especially since their limits can potentially do the most non-combo damage in the game. I think it would be fun to do a breakdown of them as well since they are criminally underutilized in this game

Likewise, once I acquire the last Espers, I'll need to do a proper Class assessment.

[Karifean]

All the espers that deal damage scaling based off their HP got pretty broken in Zodiac Age which casually tripled some of their HP values. Exodus also falls under that. Just try and summon them sometime and see for yourself ^^

[Wolf Kanno]

Good to know. I'm like right before the Sun-Cryst right now. Hashmal is done, and he even had high enough health to survive long enough to use Quakja, so lucky him because even Exodus and Shemhazai didn't survive long enough to get off their specials. I did screw around a bit, because I was hunting down the items on the floor and forgot I have to screw up the puzzle to access one of them. But hey, we now have Flare and Ardor along with a White Robe. So I have the strongest spells for all three color classes of mages in my party.

Gabranth is likely going to get destroyed in his fight, so I'm thinking of giving him a handicap by making him fight Basch alone, with Reddas' Gambits shut off, and I'll have Basch use a sword and shield combo instead of any weapons from his actual Monk class. Poor Gabranth, I'll fix my PSP and play some Dissidia to finally give you a win.

78350

[Wolf Kanno]

Minor Update!

Finished the Pharos, unfortunately for me, Gabranth's defense was high enough that Basch did no damage to him, so I switched it with the Treaty Blade and managed to prolong the fight long enough to actually see some of Gabranth's special attacks, which was nice. The fight with Cid and Famfrit afterwards was more laughable because I decided to fight Esper with Esper and had Balthier showdown his dad with Zalera. Famfrit is definitely my favorite Esper from FFTA and kind of a neat lore to coincide with the Cloud of Darkness.

After that, we get some major story revelations, some touching family aspects, and Balthier being sweet on Fran. I'll miss Reddas. Honestly, with the guest characters that come and go, as well as the fact that Sky Fortress Bahamut looks like a mechanical tornado, and having to climb and unnecessarily tall tower of magic to obtain a forbidden ultimate power that ultimately results in a story characters death, I am starting to see how obvious it is that FFXII is making serious nods to FFII.

Afterwards, I opted to take down Zodiark, which surprisingly went smoother than my last playthrough despite him still being a cheating ass whose opening Darkja attack still managed to auto-kill my opening party in both attempts. I also found a Ribbon in the Mines, which is pretty neat, because I don't think I've ever managed to get this item in XII before. I've also unlocked three of the four Mark Hunts for the Pharos area, and I may do them all, but I'm stopping short of fighting Yiazmat. Once those are done, I'll finish the game and move on. It's been a blast, but the burnout is real.

I'm really wanting to get to FFIX before the year ends since it's the 25th Anniversary of the entry.

[Wolf Kanno]

And done... sort of.

Obviously I still have Yiazmat to deal with, but I also didn't really bother with Shadowseer either because I did not feel like going through Subterra after finishing the Ixion Mark Hunt. Oddly, Ixion gave me more problems than Pyrelaster who usually ends up being more of a challenge for me in previous playthroughs, but my team managed to wipe it out fairly quickly despite his level doubling boost he gets at critical that allows him to one-shot everybody. Ixion also gets this boost and suddenly her Thundaga spell destroyed my team, except for Basch, because he was wearing a Rubber Suit. I then learned that Ixion's melee attacks are also Thunder element, so she couldn't do anything to stop Basch solo the fight. Besides that, I also managed to take down two Magic Pot's without getting destroyed and forgot how much I like their Ivalice design. Their lore was also pretty funny, but the Sage Lore was really fascinating because it gave more depth to the Light of Kiltia religious sect, but to my surprise, I didn't realize it also would reference FFTactics directly by name dropping St. Ajora who according to the timeline, is physically active at this time frame.

After that, I decided I had done enough for this playthrough and decided to just end. I got one more sad fight against Gabranth and then proceeded to squash Vayne like a bug. But honestly, I like the Vayne fight, I love the fact his final form has him turning into a Mecha Bahamut with a Terraflare move that would make any Bahamut summon proud. I love the fact I get Larsa and even Gabranth as Guest characters for the fight and Struggle for Freedom is such a badass final boss theme. Honestly, a lot of the boss themes in this game are great with special mention going to the Espers as well. I also love the part after you win wherethe party looks all relieved and happy and are staring off into the blue skuy, before an airship fly byes and exp[lodes, reminding the party and the player they are still in an active war zone. I have a sneaking feeling that was Kawazu's doing.

Compared to all the FFs I've played up until this point for the marathon, XII has the best one, bittersweet, informative, still some fun mysteries to be had but I appreciate that we got a "where are they now?" segment and Penelo doing to monologue takes me back to Krile doing it in FFV.

I'm going to do a minor break down of the classes I used to update what they are like endgame and with Esper options, before I do my final thoughts.

[Wolf Kanno]

Quick overview of the classes. This is not in any particular order.

White Mage: Gets more useful the further you go in, especially once you acquire a Sage Ring. The class is okay in story mode unless you're doing a low level run, at which point its vital. The class really shines as you deal with powerful Marks or Esper fights, as well as areas the game that try to overwhelm you like the Necrohol of Nabudis or the Pharos. Most of it's optional abilities deal with increasing HP or improving combat use by granting access to better weapons like Daggers and Greatswords or by increasing survivability with HP upgrades. Overall, a solid class. If I could change something, I would give the class access to Haste, but I can see why they don't since it would weaken the time mages position. I also would switch out it's offensive weapon options of Greatswords for Hammers instead, so the class feels closer to the earlier versions of it.

Red Battlemage: This class is superb for like 75% of the game but certainly get overshadowed by endgame. Great spell selection and surprisingly powerful with it. I like the fact it gets exclusive access to Arcane magick and the Ardor spell. Maces are solid weapons and letting the class always have access to a shield is great. The optional upgrades the class gets are solid as well with access to Tier 3 elemental magick and Cure magick . Greatswords give it a stronger end game melee option, and Channeling is never an ability to look down on. I do wish that instead of Heavy Armor, it got Light Armor options instead. The defense boost is appreciated, but an HP boost would be more useful and Light Armor tends to have more practical secondary effects that would be useful for a mage.

Knight: Solid class that just gets better the further you go in. They are tanky in the early game with a shield and sword combo, and 1h swords like Deathbringer and the Blood Sword have far greater longevity than they deserve. The class really begins to shine towards the second half of the game once their HP and defense options make using Greatswords more viable. At this point they become a serious damage machine. Being one of only three classes to gain the Genji Gloves also makes this class super powerful by endgame. The biggest issue with the class is just how slow it is,but we need to balance somewhere. Optional abilities are not bad. Mostly access to some mid and high tier White magic and more Battle Lores. I do think it's weird Revive and Telekinesis are optional skills though. More Phoenix and Potion Lores would have more sense. I also feel the class could have had more variety if some optional upgrades were accessing mid tier katanas, axes, and spears.

Monk: As usual, SE loves their Monks and this class is certainly weird for it. They are good fighters and poles are freat weapons, it's just a shame the class doesn't get access to Genji Gloves normally to take advantage of the weapons high combo rate. Unarmed is okay as well. The class probably gets some of the best choices in terms of optional skills such as a lot of high end white magick for support and healing, as well as swiftness upgrades and access to Soul Eater. Basch almost ended up getting the majority to the Espers because the optional skill list was mostly amazing. With that said, I feel like Monk, in a reversal from it's counterpart in XI, is mostly useful as a support class. My Knight/Monk combo in my first file was devastating. Though a Foebreaker/Monk class would be ideal as well too. But yeah, with all the optional white magick, Basch ended up being my switch out for my white mage Vaan. The only downside to the class is its lack of access to magick gear to boost MP and no Channeling or status boost licenses.

Black Mage: Excellent Class, since the TZA version gives you early access to the elemental weak/vulnerable gambits, this class is superb throughout the game and the magic boosting staves and damage limiter removal make this class dominating for the crowd control and dealing damage to bosses. It might also go into why it has the worst optional set of the classes I used. Most of it either giving the class Hand Bombs, which is useless because of elemental magick being so useful in this game and staves are great for boosting said option. You can get heavy armor, but as mentioned earlier, by endgame HP is a bit more useful. Some access to Light Armor would have been far more useful.

Shikari: Like Knight before it, this class starts to shine best once you can drop dagger/shield combo for Ninja Blades. The only real challenge with this class is debating about setting them up for survival or going the full ninja route and boosting their speed with gear. All of the Ninja Blades are optional gear, and thankfully with quickenings, but it is annoying you have to choose between the Iga and Koga blade, though the lore implications are amusing. The rest of its options are mostly there. I feel guns should have been an earlier access option as once Telekinesis is opened, it's less useful. Lack of the Genji Glove options is also weird and likely what I would have done for an optional unlock.

[Wolf Kanno]

Final Thoughts:

I've said this before, but I will say it again. For me, this was the last great FF in the series. XIII is just not good and its sequels kept trying to limp it along. XV was good, but very rough overall. XII though scratches all the itches I need. Gameplay is sold and the Zodiac Jobs just makes it flat out better. The story and cast are underrated but pretty solid, and the game still feels fresh despite being almost twenty years old.

About the only real complaints I have are the randomizer chests, of which the TZA version puts a band aid on, but doesn't really resolve my issues with it. I like treasures to be meaningful and while I will suffer the conceit of RNG for random drops, I feel extending that to treasure chests was just cruel. Especially since this is one of those entries where equipment and items really matter. Other than that, I really wish the fishing minigame had larger fonts and a bit more generous times for the input and the footrace is blah. The Bazaar could also be more user friendly and I'm sad the ITZJ and TZA versiosn didn't try to address that either. The main story difficulty is also abysmal but unlike other entries with this problem, the sheer amount of extra content with Mark Hunts, secret bosses, Esper Hunting, Rare Game Hunting and optional dungeons and secret areas keeps the game feeling challenging throughout, so the easy story mode is just less noticeable. The gameplay is fantastic, and I'm sad we didn't get two more games with ADB instead of whatever XIII was trying to push on us.

While the game is certainly taking notes from XI's playbook, it's also fixing a lot of the issues I have with it. XII is more streamlined, less likely to waste your time, and it's maps are more compact and impactful. Quickenings could be better, they truly embody the idea of a desperation attack since they are unreliable, but seeing how I'm about to enter the Limit Break age where they are all glorified "I win" buttons, I should cherish the fact they are nerfed so hard in this game. I also wish Espers were a bit more useful. They're not bad, they issue is that they fall into an awkward middle ground that makes them impractical. In story mode, they are wrecking balls that sap some of the already weak challenge in the main scenario, but in side content, they are not as useful as a well setup team, which is where XII takes a bit more from XI's pedigree. A well built team with good gambits will often work way better than flashy Quickenings or cool Espers. I will say, not having access to a Time Mage and nearly unlimited Haste outside of Motes was annoying in this playthrough, but not super difficult. Still, it's a shame because the Espers are super cool. Though I guess it's interesting how of my top five FFs, three of them are notable for having the worst iterations of the Summon ability

This time around, I really started to enjoy Vaan and Penelo more. I've always had a soft spot for both of them but it was fun seeing both of them really shine this time around and I find it kind of adorable that Basch sort of acts like a guardian for them both as well since he interacts with both of them quite a lot in cutscenes. I also really love Gabranth and I'm a bit sad he doesn't get as much love from the fanbase despite the fact he's the face of XII in the marketing and merchandise. Like Vayne is a bit flat as a villain, but Gabranth brings a lot of drama to the story and he's honestly fighting with Dr Cid for the Hammiest Villain award in this entry.

I also just love this games side characters, Fran's sisters, Migelo, Joey, the Rabanastre street orphans, the ghost Nu Muo, and so many more. This game is honestly packed with great characters and little narratives that make this game so fantastic. In fact, this is what I mean when I saw the Mark Hunts in XII are the best. These beings have narrative purpose behind them. They are not just treated as extra quest nonsense like in XIII and XV. Many of them are name dropped and referenced by regular NPCs, many of them are part of little stories with NPCs that explore some of the game's themes of Freedom and duty, while others get attached to recurring NPCs. Like it's fun doing the Marilith Hunt for the Sandsea Pub owner who wants to use the creature to make a special wine he owes to a friend who bailed him out, only to discover later after the quest the special friend is Migelo. Or the mother using the legend of Diabolos to scare her son straight and kids around Bhujerba talking about the scary ghost story the don;t believe in, only to get aksed by a kid to actually hunt the demon and discover it was real and the petitioner is the souls of its victims. Or how about the quest that ties up Ba'Gamin's story thread while also creating this cool narrative among Clan Centurio thinking one of their own is hunting Clan members? The Mark Hunts are more than just extra battles, they help breathe life into Ivalice and I was crazy to think I could get through this game without doing any of them. The World building in this game is amazing and I would dare say on par with even XI despite having years to build on its own lore with expansions, though XII does have spinoff games to fall back onto as well.

While XI turned out to be a fun adventure I am happy to have finally tried, XII has still been the best entry I've played so far in this sort of backwards marathon. Of anything I am grateful I finished XI first because I feel coming into it from XII would have made me judge it a bit harsher. I'm happy the re-release and the games own legacy of inspiring the next generation of RPGs like Dragon Age and Xenoblade have kind of vindicated this entry among RPG players. This game is also the one that brought me to this forum, so I have a lot of sentimental attachment here.

Fantastic Game, last great entry, Matsuno and the Ivalice team as a whole are amazing, so when are we going to finally get a new entry into Ivalice?

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