The Let's Play Archive

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

by Solumin

Part 65: The Adventurer's Field Guide to Ordallia

Update 65: The Adventurer's Field Guide to Ordallia

Welcome back! In today's update, we're jumping across the channel and catalog the monster battles in Ordallia.

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Fluorgis: A Hard Place

Chocobos: None
Blue Mage: Cornered, Matra Magick
Traps: No


I made a slight error last update: monster battles will appear in Fluorgis and Goug, despite the cities.


I'm pretty sure we've seen this battle before. You probably want more ranged units than melee ones, due to that law.


The only enemies are Great Tortoises and their ilk. Bring wind damage!


The Great Tortoises (the green ones) have Limit Glove, also known as Cornered, a hard-to-use Blue Mage spell.


All three tortoises have the same abilities. Notably, they have Critical: Quicken so they can try to use Limit Glove.


There's also an Adamantitan, who is packing the Matra Magick Blue Mage spell.


Finally, there are two purple Toughskins. They have Munch, which will destroy the target's armor, and Resonate, which inflicts Disable on any unit who is holding a metal weapon.


The Adamantitan also had Munch. The attack has a very low hit chance, thankfully.


But low chance is not the same as no chance!

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Tramdine Fens: Otherworldly Visitors

Chocobos: None
Blue Mage: Doom, Night
Traps: No


Great, my least favorite enemies: ghosts and Lamia.


Normally, Samuel says "Ack! We're under attack!" when you step on a monster battle tile. I like the attention to detail.


Not a hard law, bring moogles and nu mou if you find yourself having trouble -- they won't be able to walk in water at all. Units wearing the Galmia Shoes accessory won't walk in water either, and Winged Boots let you walk on water. (I'm not sure if that counts for the law though!)


Be aware: Night costs 22 MP, so the Lamia will take quite a while to use it.


This Lamia doesn't have anything you can use though. Hand Slap will delay the target's next turn, so watch out for that.


This is Deathscythe, it wants to put you to sleep and Doom you! An effective combo that Assassins can do with a single ability.


Ghosts don't have anything useful.


Some people say ghosts linger on our plane of existence due to unfinished business. As far as I can tell, that unfinished business is healing other undead.


This is a Wraith, not a Ghost, but it's not like anyone can tell the difference. As always, make sure you have a way to banish Undead! Hurdy's Requiem and Summoner's Phoenix are my preferred methods.

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Nazan Mines: Spirits of Nazan

Chocobos: None
Blue Mage: None
Traps: Yes


Wait, no Blue Mage spells or Chocobos? Then what's the point?


Be careful when banishing undead, it can be really hard to tell what their facing is when they're in gravestone form.


The singular Ghost can summon more undead. I don't think I've ever seen one use it! And that's pretty much all I have for advice on this battle. So, uh...


Well, besides the three zombies and the ghost, there are two Tonberries.


Tonberries have quite a few abilities. Knife and Butcher's Knife reduce the target's health by 90% and to 1 HP, respectively. Karma deals damage that scales up with how many foes the target has killed -- a guaranteed kill from basically the start of the game. Voodoo is straight-up Instant Death. All of these attacks have 100% accuracy. And finally, Tonberries use Stalk to target a single unit, letting you know who is about to die.


Anyway, there are traps here.


Also Samuel says the line here, too.

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Aisenfield: Dire Rotundity

Chocobos: None
Blue Mage: Dragon Force, Expose Weakness, Mighty Guard
Traps: Yes


I really don't know why this battle is named after the Cockatrices when there are three dragons here.


Grouping again! This map is huge, you're going to want ranged abilities anyway.


Besides the usual Fire Breath, this Fire Drake has Expose Weakness, which reduces the target's defenses. It's useful against tougher enemies.


Over on the other side of the map, you can find a Thunder Drake with Mighty Guard. It's the reverse of Expose Weakness, buffing defenses instead of lowering them. Of course, the drake also has Thunder Breath.


In the middle is a Nagaraja, who has the very good Dragon Force buff, which raises Attack and Magick Power. You absolutely must have a Beastmaster in order to learn this ability! It also has the Lightning and Thunder ranged abilities, which you can't learn.


Finally, there are these three birds. They have Wake-Up Call, which grants Quicken. You can't learn it. I don't like Cockatrices, personally.


Also, there are a few traps scattered around. I didn't get the chance to reveal all of them. Good luck!

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Kthili Sands: Burning Soul

Chocobos: Red (1)
Blue Mage: Sandstorm, Self-destruct
Traps: Yes


You know, in another tactics game, that high ground would be incredibly important.


This law may look bad, but it's really easy to get around. The Half MP P-Ability will solve all your issues, and you can always stack the MP Efficiency clan privilege on top of that.


The Pit Beasts have Sandstorm for your Blue Mages. They're otherwise not very interesting.


Though do watch out for Bonecrusher and Charged Attacks. Their counterattacks will be really strong!


The Grenade doesn't know anything useful. Spark is an ability I don't think I've ever seen. Apparently it deals non-elemental damage and heals the user. It also knows Firaga.


The two Bombs have Self-destruct, a mildly dangerous ability that can be rather fun if you have Re-raise.


Both Bombs also have Fira.


There's also a red chocobo here. Definitely a good choice for Chocobo Knights in my opinion.


There are a LOT of traps here, in really inconvenient positions. It looks like this chocobo will always step on this trap.

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Goug: Of a Feather

Chocobos: Red (1), Yellow (5)
Blue Mage: None
Traps: None


The last monster battle is in Goug, because I was completely wrong about cities not having monster battles. Notably, it only appears once you've beat the final boss.


This is a really early-game law, and the small battlefield means melee abilities will be fine. And there's always magick, of course.


There are five yellow chocobos here. They're pretty much identical, some minor variations in their R- and P-Abilities. If for some horrible reason you need to outfit an entire clan of Chocobo Knights at once, well, this is a jackpot. For the rest of us, this is a pretty easy battle.


The last chocobo is a red...

Wait. Redhawk? Level 99?! Is this a boss chocobo??

Redhawk is a secret chocobo that has a low chance to appear in this mission in place of a regular red chocobo. It's always level 99 and is therefore very fast. But that's the only difference, it has no unique abilities and can still be captured. It doesn't do anything special when you capture it, sadly.


It dies like any other chocobo: quickly.


If you win the battle, you'll obtain the Armlet of Whispers, a scion summoning item! (You'll get the item whether you kill or capture Redhawk.)


Soul Purge deals damage to one target equal to the amount of damage the user has dealt over the course of the game, with 100% accuracy. It's a once-per-battle single-target nuke.

This is probably the reason Brightmoon Tor forbids scion-summoning items.

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Thanks for reading!


With all the monster battles done, the rest of the clan has finally caught up with that handful of units that reached level 55 in Brightmoon Tor.

The vote for the next update will be up in the thread!