Part 43: Obligatory Tournament Arc, Part 4

Update 43: Obligatory Tournament Arc, Part 4

In This Update:
- The Grand Finale!
- Bringing the arc to a rocky finish.
- Kupo!

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Welcome to the final update of the Obligatory Tournament Arc! There's only two quests left for us to cover.


We really have our work cut out for us today, because the next cup has 11 bouts! That's ridiculous, it's not even funny.


Haha, no, this is just a regular quest.



: Kupo...Hurdy!?

: Wait a second, you're that moogle from before!

: Kupo kupo! You two know each other!?

: Sure do, kupo. I'm in Samuel here's clan these days, kupo! Wait... how do you know Samuel!?


This was way back in Update 14. A couple bangaa bumped into Samuel and accused him of being a thief, but Montblanc stepped in and cleared it up.

: I had no idea he was your brother, Hurdy! Right, well, my name's Samuel... Which I guess you know.

: And I'm Montblanc. Small world, kupo-po! I certainly didn't expect my own brother to come when I posted that bill in the pub.

: I was surprised myself, kupo! The bill did say you were traveling alone, but it didn't have your name... Say, what -are- you doing all the way out here alone, kupo?



: I'm on personal business as a matter of fact... a bit of a treasure hunt, kupo.

: A treasure hunt, kupo?

: Have you ever heard of something called the "Gigas's Pendant," kupo? It's shaped like a gigas of antiquity, and possesses power most wonderous, kupo!

: Wait...


"Gigas Pendant," not "Gigas's." Montblanc does a cute spin when he sees the pendant.

: Kupo... I didn't know it had an owner. Oh well.

: I could give it to you...

: Oh no, kupo! I'm sure there's another treasure out there for me to hunt... somewhere. Actually, there're some earrings called the Reaper's Rings that go with that pendant.

: Wait...


"Earrings of the Dead," the item Mac gave us for helping him. I don't know why the translation is inconsistent. Montblanc is excited to see the rings, at least.

: Look...

: No, no! Don't concern yourself with me, kupo! There's still one treasure left... The Bringer's Pin, kupo! It's a hairpin. Goes quite nicely with the other two. That is... you don't have the pin too, right, kupo?


Inconsistent translation again. We know it as the "Pin of Order." Maybe the difference names are supposed to represent how legendary items can be known by different names to different peoples?


You may have noticed that these are the three pieces worn by respectively Marche, Mewt and Ritz in their official character art.


As Montblanc nearly flies away, all I can think of is the Shooting Stars meme.

: No, nothing like that. I just happened to come across these.

: This, this, this is most unexpected. Kupo! I...I'm beside myself, kupo. Truth be told, I bought that pendant once myself, a long long time ago, kupo.

: Kupo!?

: Well, it was a replica, but it looked just like the real thing, kupo! I was fond of adorning myself with glittering trinkets back in those days, kupo. It was my favorite accessory - I wore it always. That is, until I lost it, kupo. A shock, to be sure, but I've since recovered, kupo. I thought to myself, "better to replace it than mope about it! I'll go find the real one!" Which brings me to my current quest for the Gigas's Pendant.

: Gee...I'm sorry. If I'd known it was so important to you...

What, Samuel? You would have not accepted it as a quest reward?

: Please, kupo, let's be realistic here. My life is more than bauble-hunting!

: So... what are you going to do now, Montblanc? Are you going back to your clan, kupo?

: Not after crossing a whole continent to be here! No, I'll linger a while.



: Hurdy's with us, and there's never a lack of places to go or things to do!

: Are you sure, kupo?

: Hey, you're Hurdy's brother. That practically makes you family! Right, Hurdy?

: Kupo!

: Well then, thanks, kupo! I accept your invitation!

: Good to have you with us!

: Kupo...but Montblanc, is it okay to leave your own clan leaderless, kupo?

: Oh, Clan Centurio does fine without me. Bensat keeps an eye on things, kupo. Besides, it's been a while since I've done any real questing myself, kupo. Kupo-po!



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So. Montblanc.


The "Wanted: Friends, Kupo!" quest is unlocked by beating the game and obtaining the Gigas Pendant (Camoa Cup), Pin of Order (Fluorgis Cup) and Earrings of the Dead (The Last Step).


He's not terrible. A bit slow, maybe, and a bit under-skilled. He knows all of the Fire and Thunder Black Mage spells and comes with a free Chill Rod, which teaches Blizzaga.


As far as bonus characters go, Montblanc isn't bad. He's basically a magickal Cid: capable, has potential, but slow. He has no unique job, but he does have the full range of moogle jobs available.

Here's how I rank the unique characters in FFTA2:

Top tier: Adelle, Frimelda, Penelo
Good: Cid, Hurdy, Montblanc
No one cares: Vaan
Terrible: Al-Cid

Annoyingly, we have a lot of overlap between Imino, Hurdy and Montblanc. I guess I will switch Imino back to physical builds, let Hurdy handle support stuff and use Montblanc for more offensive magick.

I'd rather have another viera, honestly.


I equipped Montblanc with the Gigas Pendant, because he deserves it.

---


OK, now it's time for the final tournament. It's just a single bout, us versus the previous champions.




That law isn't too bad. I'll have to avoid Ninja Veils, but I wasn't planning to bring Leed anyway.


Samuel's here because of course the leader of Clan Sawyer must be present when we fight the champs. Jalia and Lian will be our main offensive units, with Penelo, Hurdy and Montblanc backing them up.

But before things can get started...



: Wha-wha-whaaaaaaa!? Montblanc!? Where've you been!? We've seen neither wing nor pom-pom of you since you left! And what's this? You've gone and joined another clan!?



: Bansat! I'm sorry I didn't write, kupo. A lot's happened... I could go on and on, kupo, but I won't. The gist of it is, I've joined Clan Sawyer. But what about Centurio, kupo? Is everyone doing well? You better not be leading the clan astray, kupo!

: Hah! Don't you worry about Centurio! We've made it through quite a few scrapes thanks to my leadership, if I do say so myself.

: I won't ask why you got into those scrapes in the first place, kupo... Kupo-po! Okay, Bansat! This is your chance to show me all your fancy leadership, kupo!






OK.


Step 1: Sleep.


Oh man, they have a Double Cast Green Mage! That's a little scary.


Step 1.5: Disable the White Mage with Berserk so he doesn't wake anyone up.


Step 2: More Sleep.


I want to wake Samuel up. If I attack him, he'll counterattack. A Knot of Rust would work, but would break the law. So instead, we'll have to use a Remedy. Kind of weird there's no item that removes just Sleep though.


I was hoping for a Slow, since that would make the Green Mage less of a thorn in our side. At least the damage will make her a little more cautious.


Step 3: Tactical Sculpting.
Hurdy blessed Lian with Haste, so we get two statues in a row.


Unfortunately, these last two really don't want to take a nap.


And then Bansat wakes back up!


Fortunately, Hurdy takes care of him and the Soldier.


Jalia and Lian quickly take advantage of that.


These last two are really resisting our plans. Even worse, they're turning Sleep back around on us!


I actually didn't know Berserk fades after a few turns. That's annoying, but not insurmountable. He'll be busy trying to heal, so he won't try to revive his teammates.


A few turns pass where no one accomplishes anything, until Jalia lands a lucky Nightmare on the White Mage.


A few turns later, she follows it up with Slow. This might seem counter-intuitive since he's Doomed, but this lets me focus on the Green Mage now.


The Green Mage is still an active threat, landing yet another Sleep on Samuel. Well, I say "threat." It's not like she's actually capable of stopping us.


Either way, Jalia returns the favor. She's really getting work done here.


This White Mage is immune to Stone -- sorry, Randalor, I won't be able to give you a full set of statues. I figured Toad would be just as good, but he's immune to that, too!


So instead, Lian stones the Green Mage.


The White Mage is suffering from Sleep, Doom and Slow... nailing him with all our Scions will make up for not Stoning him, right?






The more charge you have in the Smash gauge, the more damage the Scion will do. I didn't notice a huge difference. Maybe I needed to fill the bar more.




That killed the poor Green Mage, too.


Unfortunately, the White Mage was awake for his turn, and of course he healed himself. This did burn his Doom counter down a turn, so it's not a complete waste.




He has Critical: Quicken, forcing him to the front of the turn queue.


And that drops his Doom counter to zero.



: And you have a fine clan -- hand-picked by me, I might add -- to back you up, kupo! ...I've decided to remain with Clan Sawyer for a time. But have no fear, kupo! I shall return to Rabanastre soon!


Five statues and a Nightmare Scion combo. Nice.

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Yes, recruiting Montblanc was the entire reason I wanted to do the tournament quest line. How could I resist having all of the bonus characters unlocked, not to mention the extra dialogue with Bansat?

I know it dragged on a bit in the middle, but I hope you enjoyed the tournaments nonetheless. They were enjoyable to play, since Clan Sawyer was more than a match for any opponent.

We once more find ourselves faced with a vote!

Vote for 2 of the following! As usual, put your choices in bold.

- There's a few geological surveys going on that look interesting.
- Or, we could turn to more organic pursuits and learn about ecology.
- After beating them up in the tournaments, we could bother Prima Donna some more.
- Maybe we should relax and teach a man to fish.

As always, thank you all for reading.