Gameblogging: Final Fantasy 12

[owlmoose]

I took advantage of being home sick the other day to finally start my long-planned replay of Final Fantasy 12. The first time through, I played with T, which always means rushing through faster than I would like, so I wanted a slower, more thorough replay where I get all the sidequests and talk to NPCs and so forth. And this seemed like a good time because... well, let's just say, I have my reasons.

I'm now about 10 hours in, with about an hour or two of that pure leveling, just finished Leviathan, and here are some random thoughts :

• So if Rehks was Gabranth and Vayne's witness, the one they needed to finger Basch for the killing of the king, that means that he has to have lived at least long enough to tell someone. So how long did he live, after the massacre in Nalbina? Might he still be alive? The White Room scene still seems ambiguous to me. Vaan seems pretty convinced that he's dead, though.



• Penelo may think that Vaan is a punk kid and an irritating little brother, but she also seems to be pretty sweet on him. Maybe it's just my various 'ship preferences coming through, but as early as Bhujerba, I'm seeing the seeds of the Vaan/Penelo/Larsa triangle being sown. Larsa is just as awesome on the second play-through, by the way. So is Penelo -- I'd forgotten just how much I liked her from the very beginning, and that I was waiting from the very beginning for her to be a full-time part of the party.



• When Balthier and Larsa meet in Bhujerba for the first time and Larsa introduces himself as "Lamont", I could swear that Balthier knows who Larsa is, or at least suspects. And vice versa. At the very least, there's a weird tension there.



• Some things are totally obvious on a replay: Balthier's reaction to first hearing the name "Draklor Laboratories" from Larsa and his derisive comments about the judges while they're in the dungeon, Dr. Cid chatting away to an invisible Venat on his first appearance. The Dr. Cid bit was played particularly nicely -- he walks past Gabranth, apparently holding a conversation with himself; Gabranth pauses, and you can just imagine what his face must look like behind the helm, his raised eyebrows safely hidden from the world.



• The Leviathan is such a great place to level. Enemies keep coming, all the same enemies so you can get some crazy chains going, and there are plenty of safe places to retreat. One of the potential pitfalls of a replay is that you don't spend nearly as much time flailing (I know I at least spent a lot of time running around in circles, in the dungeons and in the mines), so you have to make a concerted effort to level. The only downside of the Leviathan is that there's no ready source of cash -- the soldiers drop gil (or whatever it's called in this game -- I forget off the top of my head), but generally not as much as you would get for selling fiend loot. Although I do appreciate the way this game has the enemies drop things that make sense: soldiers have money, potions, and other restoratives; animals have pelts, other creatures have things that relate to the kind of beastie they are. Knowing from the very beginning that you're just supposed to sell all that stuff, that you aren't saving it up for some kind of item synthesis, has made gameplay a lot easier this time through.

Comments

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

I'm 99% sure Balthier knew who "Lamont" was. He hasn't been away from Archades for that many years and had probably seen him as a rug rat and/or recognized his features from his brothers.
Also, was it my imagination, or was that odd thing Larsa uses to parry fashioned in the shape of a Solidor symbol?

The Rekhs thing bothered me as well. All I can figure is that he lived long enough to be taken back to Vaan, then died in that room. Why? I guess Vayne wanted it bruited about that Basch was the murderer.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

Do we know, canonically, how long ago Bathier ran away from home? I can't remember if the game tells us. But I agree, given how young he is, it can't have been *that* long, and he must have been able to make a pretty good guess that "Lamont" was Larsa Solidor. And I'm pretty sure the recognition was mutual -- although Larsa has to have been small when Balthier left, there is a family resemblance, and Larsa is pretty sharp.

In that conversation with the Order in Lowtown, Basch calls Rehks "the perfect witness", which pretty much confirms that Vayne was using Rehks to pin the murder on Basch, which he couldn't have done if he'd died in Nalbina. Unless perhaps Vossler found Rehks there, and he lived just long enough to blurt out his story. But I really think Rehks has to have lived long enough to make it back to Rabinastre; otherwise the white room scene makes no sense at all.

[lassarina]

Yeah, I think that Reks lived long enough to say what happened. Otherwise the white room thing is nonsensical, as you say.

I am certain that Balthier knows exactly who "Lamont" is. For one, he can't have been gone from Archades proper so long as to never have met him, and there is a ridiculous family resemblance. For another, Balthier strikes me as the kind of man who knows (to the best of his ability) exactly what is going on everywhere - it's part of being a sky pirate, really. Political upheaval has the potential to leave interesting prizes ripe for the plucking.

Better place to level than Leviathan: The Lhusu mines in Bhujerba. The Shunia Twinspan spawns ONLY Skull Defenders and Skeletons, who drop Bone Fragments (sell for 193 gil each) and occasionally Iron Helms (sell for 700 gil each.) I usually spend enough time grinding there to fit myself out with the absolute best available and stock up on all of the Grimoires (except the Canopic Jar), and it's both easy and quick, since 99 of those nice Bone Fragments comes out to 13K.

Someday I am going to write a fic of Balthier being fabulously ironic and Larsa being very much on his dignity about Larsa's little stunt as "Lamont."

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

I think Balthier would definitely keep his ear to the ground, both for the reason you said and to keep an eye on what his father is up to. He may claim not to care about politics, but I think that it's an act, at least in part.

I do remember the mines being good for money and levels, and right now I could use both, especially the former (spells aren't cheap, you know!). But I also needed to do some leveling while trapped in the Leviathan -- I lost pretty badly to Ghis the first time I tried it. Does the game go on rails after Leviathan, or will I have some time in Bhujerba before I have to run off to the next place?

[lassarina]

I *think* you get some time in Bhujerba, but if nothing else you should be able to teleport back, perhaps.

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

If I'm remembering the sequence correctly, after you get done with plot business on the Leviathan, you then get to another Amazing Leveling Area: the Sandsea.

Just be a little careful to avoid the onion people (whatever they're called) and soon you'll find you're chaining dozens if not over 100 of those dratted sand people. Also, I seem to recall the cockatrice-like rolly birds in that stretch drop the occasional Vega, on the western side of the Sandsea.

One of my favorite stupid game mechanics moments: there's a bridge on the west side of the Sandsea that's got traps in the sand on the far end, with just a narrow clear spot on the left against the railing. Vossler loves walking through them. So I get Ashe to bulldoze him to the left side of the bridge before proceeding across.