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.