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Okay! Another FFXII liveblog entry!
I swear I did not mean to leave it six weeks, but uuuuggggghhhh I have just been so tired, and I was ill for, like, a month, and turning on the computer felt like a chore. You get the picture. Also I didn't actually play any FFXII for about three/four weeks, and I didn't want to catch myself up, as it were?
~
I just wrote a whole bunch of stuff and had to delete it because it was exactly what I'd said at the end of the last entry *sighs* Only slightly better worded because my brain's mildly more functional.
Anyway, Tiamat! Sometimes this fight goes well, and sometimes it goes really badly. This time, it went really badly. It took two quickening chains (they're totally for taking down bosses, right?) and a lot of running around for MP in the middle, because ethers aren't a thing yet *sigh*.
But I did it, and I think the ensuing cutscene is the first time we see Venat?
Larsa is so fucking sensible I can't even.
The cutscenes in Eruyt are horrible horribleness.
And then, the Elder Wyrm. I think what I hate most about this boss fight is that it doesn't make sense, we're not given warning about it, and Sporefall is horrible cheating mechanism that can bite my bony ass. Aside from anything else, it inflicts statuses that you have no way of curing at that point in the game (oil and confuse), and I don't think Esuna is available as a spell at that point?
I did beat it first time, but it was the worst attempt in a very long time. I could not seem to set quickening chains off (although part of that may be my controller - it's not an official Sony one, and it's seen a lot of use in the last ten years), and I didn't seem to be doing much damage otherwise. I suppose it may have been easier, had I had black magic users but, as I've said before, I don't even think to use black magic. Also the person with the highest magic stat - Penelo - was my healer, so I didn't think about her pulling double duty.
By the time I got to the Paramina Rift, I wasn't having the snot beaten out of me by random mooks.
And then it turned into Cutscene: The Game*
I don't know if Larsa's trust in his father is misplaced or not (I know his trust in Vayne certainly is). I never really came away from this game knowing how Gramis would or wouldn't act. He exists, to me, as someone there for Vayne to murder**, and we don't get enough screentime with him to get a sense of how he would act. IMHO.
But everybody wants to protect Larsa! Because he is a smol bean!
(I can't believe I just typed that).
Balthier: You can never know another, even your father.
OUCH.
Obviously, this is the first hint that all is not well in Balthier's family life. And I think it's worse once you have the context for it? Like, initially you could think, oh this is him being flip and condescending to a twelve year old boy, and then it's like, nope!
FUCK YOU BERGAN PLEASE GO AWAY AND DIE.
I hate that scene with Drace and Gabranth. Partially because it's fucking horrible anyway, and also because I really wish they'd done more with Drace? She deserved better.
I'm ambivalent about Al-Cid. I don't like that type of charming character who thinks he can woo every woman he encounters (I was going to say "every woman he comes across", but uh, yeah, NO). He doesn't really wind me up like most of them do, but I also have no strong feelings of like towards him.
Penelo's face when he kisses Ashe's hand is AMAZING. Watching what goes on in the background occasionally is great, and makes me really pleased they put the effort into animating it.
Larsa's BSOD on being told his father has died is also AMAZING - he honestly really looks like he's about to start crying (which obvs he would be). I know it sounds wrong of me to say it's amazing but like I say, I appreciate the work that's gone into this game.
~
*Seriously, this one is like, half an hour long. Or it feels like it.
**It is Vayne who kills Gramis, right? Or his will by proxy, and then he blames someone else?
~
Next time: The Stilshrine of Miriam and more swearing at Judges!
<--- Raithwall's Tomb to the Henne Mines | The Stilshrine of Miriam --->
I swear I did not mean to leave it six weeks, but uuuuggggghhhh I have just been so tired, and I was ill for, like, a month, and turning on the computer felt like a chore. You get the picture. Also I didn't actually play any FFXII for about three/four weeks, and I didn't want to catch myself up, as it were?
~
I just wrote a whole bunch of stuff and had to delete it because it was exactly what I'd said at the end of the last entry *sighs* Only slightly better worded because my brain's mildly more functional.
Anyway, Tiamat! Sometimes this fight goes well, and sometimes it goes really badly. This time, it went really badly. It took two quickening chains (they're totally for taking down bosses, right?) and a lot of running around for MP in the middle, because ethers aren't a thing yet *sigh*.
But I did it, and I think the ensuing cutscene is the first time we see Venat?
Larsa is so fucking sensible I can't even.
The cutscenes in Eruyt are horrible horribleness.
And then, the Elder Wyrm. I think what I hate most about this boss fight is that it doesn't make sense, we're not given warning about it, and Sporefall is horrible cheating mechanism that can bite my bony ass. Aside from anything else, it inflicts statuses that you have no way of curing at that point in the game (oil and confuse), and I don't think Esuna is available as a spell at that point?
I did beat it first time, but it was the worst attempt in a very long time. I could not seem to set quickening chains off (although part of that may be my controller - it's not an official Sony one, and it's seen a lot of use in the last ten years), and I didn't seem to be doing much damage otherwise. I suppose it may have been easier, had I had black magic users but, as I've said before, I don't even think to use black magic. Also the person with the highest magic stat - Penelo - was my healer, so I didn't think about her pulling double duty.
By the time I got to the Paramina Rift, I wasn't having the snot beaten out of me by random mooks.
And then it turned into Cutscene: The Game*
I don't know if Larsa's trust in his father is misplaced or not (I know his trust in Vayne certainly is). I never really came away from this game knowing how Gramis would or wouldn't act. He exists, to me, as someone there for Vayne to murder**, and we don't get enough screentime with him to get a sense of how he would act. IMHO.
But everybody wants to protect Larsa! Because he is a smol bean!
(I can't believe I just typed that).
Balthier: You can never know another, even your father.
OUCH.
Obviously, this is the first hint that all is not well in Balthier's family life. And I think it's worse once you have the context for it? Like, initially you could think, oh this is him being flip and condescending to a twelve year old boy, and then it's like, nope!
FUCK YOU BERGAN PLEASE GO AWAY AND DIE.
I hate that scene with Drace and Gabranth. Partially because it's fucking horrible anyway, and also because I really wish they'd done more with Drace? She deserved better.
I'm ambivalent about Al-Cid. I don't like that type of charming character who thinks he can woo every woman he encounters (I was going to say "every woman he comes across", but uh, yeah, NO). He doesn't really wind me up like most of them do, but I also have no strong feelings of like towards him.
Penelo's face when he kisses Ashe's hand is AMAZING. Watching what goes on in the background occasionally is great, and makes me really pleased they put the effort into animating it.
Larsa's BSOD on being told his father has died is also AMAZING - he honestly really looks like he's about to start crying (which obvs he would be). I know it sounds wrong of me to say it's amazing but like I say, I appreciate the work that's gone into this game.
~
*Seriously, this one is like, half an hour long. Or it feels like it.
**It is Vayne who kills Gramis, right? Or his will by proxy, and then he blames someone else?
~
Next time: The Stilshrine of Miriam and more swearing at Judges!
<--- Raithwall's Tomb to the Henne Mines | The Stilshrine of Miriam --->