EoFF Sidequest/Mini-game Contest 2019: Round 11

[Wolf Kanno]

The theme today is divisible by six.

The Ancient Castle: After getting the airship in VI which requires fixing Fiagro Castle, you can return to the castle and learn that the engineers encountered something under ground during that time. Checking it out leads the party to an ancient castle dated all the way back to the War of the Magi and detailing the story of Odin and his forbidden love with the human Queen (Princess in the original) of the castle. The player can acquire quite a few cool pieces of loot including the Odin Esper, and if they solved the puzzle to find the Queen's secret chamber, they can face off with one of the Eight Dragons and upgrade Odin to Raiden. You get one or two extra pieces of dialogue if you bring Terra there as well.

vs.

Trial Mode: A new feature added to the International version of XII, Trial Mode allows the player to test their party against a hundred opponents including Mark Hunts, Bosses, Rare Game, Espers, and most interesting of all, several NPCs. This all culminates in the final round with a challenging encounter against all five of the Archadian Judges who will quickly teach an unexpected party why they are the most feared members of the Archadian Military. The real nice element here is that you can use these trials as second chances to acquire rare steals and drops from certain enemies and anything acquired here can be transferred back to your main file and vice versa, making a perfect run far less of a hassle. It's a great challenge for people who love to tinker and party build with the gambits and license boards.

[Lord Golbez]

Aside from not particularly liking FFXII and never playing the international version, a hundred round endurance match sounds like a pain in the ass in any game, so this is a pretty easy pick for me. The Ancient Castle was an ok side quest which is better than I can say for any hundred round match type thing I've ever played.

[Karifean]

The Trial Mode for sure. A real good challenge to finish off a long FF XII run with, ending with one of the very best superboss battles in any FF ever? Sign me up. I have a major soft spot for any optional challenges that are actually difficult for a Level 99 party and the Trial Mode - or at least its final 20 levels - are great for that. And while the levels before that should by all rights be tedious, I feel like they make for a great prelude and revisiting of everything that happened in the game as you go through every area and pretty much every major boss in the game in order.

I have a bit of disdain for the Ancient Castle for the way it hid its secret area. I really wish the hint for it was given to you straight up instead of the way they did it, and it's so obscure you're not going to find it just searching around on your own unless you get real lucky.

[Lord Golbez]

I don't think it's that hard to stumble across something that only requires you to use the submerging ability of Figaro castle to find. I found it back as a kid with nothing to go on but the map that came with the game. I doubt I was even looking for the Ancient Castle when I found it thogh. I wouldn't call it luck. Just natural curiosity/inclination to play around with stuff.

I don't even know what you're talking about in regard to the "hint," but seems like the hint isn't even necessary to me.

[Vermachtnis]

I like the Odin side quest.

[Shiva95]

The Ancient Castle with Odin. It's such a great sidequest!