Part 2: Am I My Trapper's Keeper?

Update 2: Am I My Trapper's Keeper?

In This Update:
- Tutorials Galore
- There's No Business like Bazaar Business
- Our First Quest!

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Welcome back!




Thank you all for voting!
Samuel Clemens won by a landslide, and Clan Sawyer proved to be just slightly more popular than the others.

When we left off, Samuel had been accepted into the clan that saved him from Klesta, a giant, vicious bird, after he suddenly landed in the middle of their battle.

The clan celebrated their victory and their new member, and now it's time for Samuel to learn what clans do.



: I always pictured a pub as someplace to kick back and grab a snack.

: What better place? People gather to share a meal, and where there are people, there's talk. Clans pay good money for the sort of talk that leads to work - the quests I mentioned before.

: So if we need to make money or find something to do, the pub is the place to go.

: Exactly.

: Ah, Cid. Looking for work?

: That's right. We have a new member in need of training. Talk to the barman, Samuel. Find us a good quest. The best way to learn is to do, lad.

: Okay, leave it to me.



: Well, if you're looking for a quest, the first thing you'll want to do is ask to see the quest roster.
The roster lists all the quests on record at the pub. Once you've found a quest that catches your eye, simply pay the finder's fee and you're done. It's not enough to read the quest and go running off. If you haven't paid the fee, you'll be on a fool's errand.
Now some quests you can take as long as you please to finish. Others you'll have a set number of days to do it in. It's all there on the quest roster, so just pay close attention and you'll avoid any unpleasant surprises.
That's all there is to it. Ready to have a go?

That brings us to the Pub menu.



Notices are useful, short notes about the goings-on in the world.
Quest Roster lists the available quests.
Current Quests lets us view which quests we've accepted. We can cancel quests here, if we so choose. Story quests can't be cancelled once we've taken them.
Rumors are basically the same as Notices, but are usually hints and tips about the game itself.



Unsurprisingly, we only have 1 quest available to us right now.
You can tell it's a story quest because the "Days" column is empty. There's no time limit for story quests.

Each quest has 4 pages of information.


Here's the basic description. Rank is roughly how difficult the quest is, which kind-of-but-not-really corresponds to character levels. Quests with a rank lower than our characters' levels will be easier, while those above will feature tougher enemies we may not be able to beat.
Fee is how much we have to pay to take the quest. Days is the time limit for the quest.

This particular quest, "A Paw Full of Feathers," is only rank 2, so it'll be easy. It seems a nearby chocobo ranch needs some wolves taken care of.


The quest requirements page. Some quests require some items, or for your clan talents to be high enough.

Most missions (though obviously not story missions) can be dispatched, which means sending off one or more clan members to handle it themselves. That is, we don't have to do every mission ourselves! It's useful for particularly easy quests, and there are a few that are dispatch only. "Recommended for Dispatch" will list a job that's more likely to succeed on that particular mission.


The quest reward page lists the quest type, the monetary and loot rewards, and whether or not the mission can be dispatched and/or cancelled.


Finally, the destination page shows where we need to go and how many clan members can be taken on the mission. We can only take 5 people, because Cid is filling in as our 6th.


Since it's the only mission available, we must take it.


Pay the fee and the quest is ours.
I don't know what happens if we don't have enough money to pay for a story quest. Effective game over? They let you take it anyway?

: I got us a quest. "A Paw Full of Feathers". They want us to chase off some wolves.

: Let's see... That ranch isn't far from the village. No hurry, though. There's no deadline written on the bill.

: Sounds like they're in a tight spot. I don't wanna keep 'em waiting. I'll go get the others!

: See that you're ready before you go running off!
That boy needs to get his priorities straight. At this rate he's like to stay here forever.

Samuel runs back into the pub to rouse the clan.

---

Let's take a look at the equipment screen.


Here's Samuel. He's a Soldier still, equipped with a Shortsword, a Bronze Shield, a Plumed Hat and a Linen Cuirass.


Here's a problem: Samuel's sword has no abilities!

Every job in FFTA2 has a number of Action Abilities (A-Abilities), Reaction Abilities (R-Abilities), and Passive Abilities (P-Abilities). A character learns abilities by equipping gear that teaches them. Generally, weapons teach A-Abilities, while armor and accessories teach R-Abilities and P-Abilities.

Every battle and quest gives you Action Points. Most side quests give 30, and story missions give 80. Every member of the clan gets the same number of action points, which get applied to every skill they're learning. So if a Soldier is learning First Aid (from an equipped Broadsword) and also Shieldbearer (from a Bronze Shield), both abilities get the full amount of AP applied to them.

Since Samuel's sword has no abilities, any AP he gets is not used. This is pretty wasteful, though AP is effectively unlimited.


Unfortunately, our only Broadsword is currently being used by Henri, our bangaa Warrior.


How do we get more weapons? By going to the shops!


Shops in FFTA2 have a couple useful features besides buying and selling gear. Fitting Room lets us try on items, which is useful for outfitting new characters.


The shop is a bit limited right now. They don't even have any broadswords!


"Item Info" shows which jobs can equip an item and the abilities the item teaches. Pretty handy, especially when trying to figure out which armor a character can wear.


This Hand Cannon teaches a couple abilities that sound interesting...


But we haven't unlocked those jobs yet.

OK, but still: we're looking for a Broadsword so Samuel can learn some useful abilities. We need to do expand the shop's inventory, and we do that using the Bazaar.
I'll let the shopkeeper explain it:


"Loot" is the random items we get as quest rewards and drops from slain enemies. Rat pelts, precious gems, various metals, elemental crystals -- all of these and more count as loot.


Here's the main Bazaar menu. The bottom screen shows the various categories of items we can unlock, and the top screen shows the types of loot each category uses.
Apprentice Weapons has a glowing dot, indicating we have the loot needed to unlock an item in that category.


We only have Gikhet Lead, a rank E Metal, available.


It can be combined with Faren Pollen, a Rank E Flora. Together, they unlock the Broadsword.


Simple as that! I immediately buy one and equip it on Samuel.
The shop has nothing else of interest. Let's go to our first real quest!

---



: Whoa, so this is a chocobo, huh? It's way bigger than I imagined! Cool! Hey, they're kinda cute.

: Step too close and he'll peck your eye out.

: Oh, I already knew all about that.


The chocobos all turn to face the woods.

: What is it?

In the distance, a wolf howls.

: Company.

: Um... Here, chocobos! Stay in the hutch while we deal with these wolves.


Here are our enemies for the mission: Two Wolves and a Baknamy.

: Don't even think about touching those chocobos!



: Hey, Cid. What was that Judge saying about some law just now? What do laws have to do with fighting?

: Ah, I was remiss in my explanations. Laws are like the rules of engagement: guidelines you must follow in combat. When an adjudged clan - that is, a clan watched over by a Judge - fights, it abides by laws. It is not enough to do battle. We must do battle with care to not break any law.

: You serious? That sounds like a pain.

: Yes, but not without gain. Only by keeping the letter of the law may a clan enjoy its full privileges. Not to mention the reward offered those who heed the Judge's word.
Why don't you try picking the clan privilege this time round, Samuel? Don't fret over your choice. Consider it to be a gift. First choose which clan members will participate in battle, then choose the privilege you will use.
Listen, Samuel. Always obey the law when you can. But know that all is not lost when you can't. The penalties for breaking the law are not so severe. You will merely lose your clan privilege, and fallen comrades will remain so until the battle ends.

This is pretty good advice. It's rare, but you might find sometimes that breaking the law will help you win a battle. The trade-offs aren't really all that terrible, and breaking the law once or twice won't hurt you.
It's not like FFTA where breaking the law multiple times has mounting consequences, and the laws in this game are way less onerous.


Here's the crew for this fight. I haven't really focused much on the clan members -- the game doesn't do much to emphasise them, really, and there's no way to customize their names or appearance.

From left to right, Clan Sawyer is:
Cid, the bangaa Warrior. He's a guest.
Nyno, the hume Archer.
Talf, the nu mou Black Mage.
Lenolia, the viera White Mage.
In front of her is Henri, the bangaa Warrior.
And of course, in front is Samuel Clemens, hume Soldier.

Not present is Imino, the moogle Thief. We'll see him later. Since Cid is with us, we can only bring five clan members, and Samuel counts as one of the five.

Our enemies aren't particularly frightening, since we out-number them 2:1. But don't be fooled: they can be pretty strong, and Baknamy pack a hell of a punch thanks to their abilities.


First off is the passive, Geomancy, which lowers resistance to elemental attacks.

In FFTA2, elemental resistances come in tiers:
Weak < Normal < Resist < Immune < Absorb
The names are pretty self explanatory. "Weak" means they take double damage, and "Resist" means they take half damage.
Geomancy lowers the resistance by one stage, so an enemy that Resists fire will take normal damage. This applies to all 8 elements, too, so enemies with no resistances will become Weak to all elements!

I don't think I've said it earlier, but the eight elements are:
Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Wind, Earth, Dark and Holy.
The middle three -- Water, Wind and Earth -- are the rarest damage types, I think, but are also the most common weakness. For example, the wolves here are weak to Water.


The Baknamy can't take advantage of Geomancy, thankfully, but it has something scarier. Goblin Attack, the only A-Ability the Baknamy knows, ignores the defense granted by wearing armor. That's more than a little frightening!


Undeterred, we start the battle. We can finally choose our own clan privilege.
We will almost always take Bonus AP. This is the skill we got from answer the quiz in the first update. Bonus AP 1 gives +20 AP at the end of the battle. Skills like First Aid and Cure cost 100 AP to learn. With Bonus AP 1, we can learn those skills in a single story quest!

The other abilities slightly boost their named stat. We're talking a couple percent, maybe 5% max. Not worth it, though some privileges we'll unlock later are extremely powerful.

And so the battle begins.

One of the wolves is faster than us, so it advances. Lenolia spends her first turns doing nothing. She's a White Mage with no one to heal, so we might as well save her turn for later.


If you recall, last update we got a Longbow. It teaches the Archer ability, "Focus." It's not that great, since you're usually better off attacking twice.


13 damage isn't terrible. Archers fall off pretty quickly, unfortunately. Part of the problem is their weapons are a little rare, so it's hard to unlock the best skills for them.





Henri, Cid, Samuel and Talf gang up on the one wolf, quickly killing it.
We get a Power Fruit for our troubles. Not bad! Every enemy has four tiers of loot they can drop, and each tier has four items. They're always guaranteed to drop one piece of loot when slain.
Power Fruit is one of the tier 1 drops. Oh well.

The first round ends with both sides heading towards the middle of the map. Lenolia drops a heal on Cid, who hurt himself using Body Slam. It's an AoE heal, so Henri and Samuel get some HP too.


I want to move Nyno forward, but I don't want him to be in range of the enemy. Before moving him, I can check out each enemy's movement range, shown in the red squares.


Looks like the Baknamy can move pretty far forward...


...but there's enough space for Nyno to move forward and still attack.


Here's why Goblin Attack is scary. That's one third of Henri's health in one hit! And I'm pretty sure it can be used every turn, too.


But we can do comparable damage by taking advantage of facings. Attacking from the side helps Henri deal a solid 30 damage.


Talf has plenty of fun too. AoE attacks are very powerful in this game, and the AI doesn't really try to avoid grouping up. Black Mages rule the early parts of this game... and the later parts, too.


I mentioned last update that friendly fire does exist. It goes both ways: We can also heal the enemy! I'm not sure this is ever useful, but it's something to keep in mind.



The second wolf falls, granting us a Crooked Fang.


The Baknamy follows quickly after.



And with that, Samuel Clemens finishes his first quest with Clan Sawyer!


Note that Samuel started at level 1. He'll catch up quickly.


Metal Knuckles are the first knuckle weapon we'll get, and are used by White Monks, the other bangaa starting job. The Silken Robe is an upgrade for mages, but teaches no abilities.

---



: And a good day to quest. All we need to do now is collect our pay. So I think you understand well enough what it is we do. You might keep an eye out for quests that promise to lead you toward home.

: Home... Right. It's all tied up in that book with the blank pages... Figure that book out, and I'll find my way back.

: The magick book, yes.

: I just wish I'd been paying more attention to the thing. I remember it was old, real old. The cover was all faded. I didn't even see what it was called.

: The question is, who wrote it, where, and for what reason? ... Three questions, actually.
Hrm? Don't tell me you carry a journal around, Samuel.

: Huh? A journal?
He checks his pocket.
Hey, it's a journal.


Samuel, really?

: You mean... that's not yours?

: Do I look like the type to keep a journal to you?

: That you do not.

Samuel rifles through the book.



: What is it? Has it been written in?

: Look at this, Cid! This journal talks about me in the library and coming to Ivalice, and getting rescued... Everything I've done is in here!

: Ah, so you do keep a journal!

The journal glows in Samuel's hands, and a new line appears.



: Ah, it's recording the fight with the wolves just now.

: A magick journal?

: Yet another surprise. You're full of them, aren't you?

: You think this magick journal's got something to do with that book?

: Possibly... No, it's certain. You've found your first clue.

: That wasn't so hard. So, who would know something about a magick journal? Maybe a wizard? What if I can find a quest that'd take me to one?
That's it! Cid! Let's get back to town and check out the lists at the pub!

---



We've learned some new abilities!


Since Samuel mastered First Aid, he unlocked Thief and Archer. These jobs require the character to learn 1 Soldier A-Ability before they can start training in that job.

Let's head back the pub and get the plot moving a little.

---



: Bandits on the highroad. Several merchant caravans reported attacks between here and Camoa.

: Purely profit seekers, I hear. They let those who offer up goods and gil they want go free. Little good it does us without two coins to rub together.

: And that's the only highroad out of this place.

: Bandits, hrrah? Their timing couldn't be worse.

: Why's that?

: I had a mind to take that highroad to Camoa. I'm tired of scratching around in the dirt here for scraps of information.

: If there are bandits on the road, why not bring 'em in? We can teach them a lesson and open the road... Two birds with one stone.

: It'll take more than a stone to put that lot in their place, but I don't see as we have a choice.

: Hey, maybe someone's posted a reward for getting rid of them in the pub, too! Better get there quick before someone else has the same idea!

The Blue Mage, Hunter and Illusionist trio are a callback to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where they served basically the same role: dispensers of plot-relevant gossip.



: While I'm away, you'll have to quest without me... but I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle. Don't worry, I'll come back if you need me for anything particularly important. Be safe.

Cid will no longer be joining us as a guest. That means we can bring our full contingent of 6 clan members, finally.


He's still here in the pub with us though.


We have 3 quests right now. "The Yellow Wings" is the next story mission, but let's see the other two.



This quest requires we have a particular piece of loot.


Since we don't have any Cactus Fruit (it's a possible drop from the wolves in the previous mission), we can't take it at all.


This one's a little more promising. Weird people in the woods? Sounds like fun!




We'll grab the story mission, too.


Before heading towards the missions, let's check out the shop. The Grade E item in the Survival Set is open, so let's check it out.


Here's what happens what you try to use an item that doesn't match with the other selected items. Since a category can multiple items of the same grade, it can get confusing. Also, every recipe is only for items in the same grade, so we'll never mix Grade E and Grade D items, for example.


This recipe unlocks the Jackknife, which teaches Steal: Gil for Thieves and Gil Toss for Jugglers.


I also changed the team. Samuel's going to train as a Thief for a bit, since it unlocks a great job later. Talf is going to be a White Mage, since that's important for unlocking a bunch of nu mou jobs. Finally, Henri is training as a White Monk. We don't have anything else a Warrior can use, so we might as well put those Metal Knuckles we earned to good use.

---


Onto the next battle! Let's go fight creepy people in the woods.


Laws aren't going to be very restrictive for a while. We just don't have enough abilities to really run afoul of them.


Here's the starting lineup. We won't earn enough AP to master the abilities that Samuel, Talf and Henri are starting to learn, but that's alright.


The enemies here are hardly threatening. Only one of them is armed and knows more than just basic attacks. This will be a walk in the, uh, woods.
Most missions start with a bit of dialogue. If it isn't a story mission, I believe which character speaks is based on who you place first. That's almost always Samuel, obviously, but there really is dialogue for every character! I think it's based on the race of the character you place though.

: Nrjg, nrjg... Elom nrjg... Green Dominion...

: Those have to be the ones we're after. Sounds like they're chanting a spell.
Um, hey! What exactly are you doing over there?

: Green Dominion, heed us. Nrjg, nrjg. Grant us your power.
... Nrjg?
Who can concentrate with this noise!? The incantation is ruined! How close we'd come to divining a new magick... You will pay the price for disrupting these rites!

: What did you expect, chanting some creepy magick in the middle of the woods?

And we're off. Viera tend to be pretty fast, so a couple of them move toward us. They're too far away to do anything, since they can only attack with their bare fists.


Imino is our fastest character. He's still a Thief, so of course we should try stealing with him! Note the probability here -- 50% isn't great. Also, stealing does no damage at all. That's actually a good thing.
The best way to boost your Steal chance is to Sleep the enemy. Since Steal does no damage, we can take our time and make multiple attempts. Another condition, Stop, also improves Steal chance.


Oh well. It would have been only a handful of gil anyway.


Also these viera really can't do much to us.


Some maps have treasure chests on them. A character can walk up to them and open the chest as an action. This is why I placed Lenolia on the right side -- as a White Mage, she has nothing to do for the first couple rounds.


Red treasure chests like this one contain common items, like this Knot of Rust.
This is a throwable item that does a fair bit of damage.


I'll just be showing the highlights of this battle, since it's so easy. Here's Roundhouse, the A-Ability taught by the Metal Knuckles. It attacks every target around you, but only does half the damage of a normal attack.


Damage is calculated individually for each target, of course. Here's how facing can make a difference: attack the target's back does twice as much damage as an attack to their front!


Please stay grouped up forever. Well done, Talf.


They aren't defenseless, of course.


Both land. Ouch! Sleep will fade after a few turns, thankfully.


Or we can just attack them. Friendly fire does have its uses.


That viera also knows Blind, which greatly reduces accuracy. Fortunately, it misses.


It's not long before we have the upper hand in this battle. After all, they can barely hurt us.


Imino ran to the back of the battlefield to open the other chest. These fancier blue ones have valuable treasure, like rare consumables and even weapons! They're almost always worth getting.


Ether restores 80 MP and cannot be purchased. It's a fantastic consumable for mages.


A White Mage, making a melee attack? This early in the game, why not? Every attack has a bit of variance in how much damage it deals, so it's possible this attack won't KO the enemy.


Lenolia doesn't mess around though. In this game, critical hits knock back the enemy, which can actually be kind of frustrating.


Pretty soon the last one falls. Mission successful!

: I am beaten. Not yet has our power grown to maturity. Forgive us our anger. Fully a day we'd spent preparing, only to have all come to naught. I go contrite. Let me share the wisdom of the green mage with you. Each month we come to this place to study the art of these magicks. Join us, should you like.

: That's, uh... nice of you to offer, but I think I'll probably pass.


We've unlocked our first job. Green Mage is a buff/de-buff-based Viera job with some really neat abilities.

A lot of really, really cool jobs are locked behind quests like this. It's generally in our best interest to unlock them as soon as possible, since more jobs means more power.


Henri was the MVP of this mach. This doesn't really mean much right now, and I have no idea how it's calculated. I think it's based on bonus XP: if a character gets +10 or more, they're an MVP. Henri punches enough faces to get XP, I guess.


The Barong a Greatsword, which Soldiers can equip. Soldier abilities are more useful than Thief abilities right now, so I'm going to switch Samuel back.
The Iron Helm is an improved helmet, and Eye Drops cure the Blind status.


Not a bad haul at all. Still no cactus fruit though.


I've switched Samuel back to Soldier. Since the Barong is a 2-handed Greatsword, we have to unequip his shield before he can use it.

---


Let's take care of the next story battle. Some bandits are blocking the highroad, but we want to use that road. So we'll bring them to justice!



: Pay? But we're just walking. When people pay, they usually get something in return.

Samuel slips into his "innocent and naïve" act, which is actually pretty passive aggressive.

: How about your lives? Don't tell me you've not heard of our band, the Yellow Wings!

: Ring any bells, Cid?

: Not a one.

: Fools! Hand over the coin, or we'll exact a higher price... in blood!
Not that you look like you've more than a pint in you, runt.

: I like my gil and my blood right where they are, thanks. What do you say we show those guys just who rules the roads, huh, Cid?


Easy enough. Only Black Mages can deal ice damage right now, and they have Fire and Thunder to use instead.
Note the wording of the law: "weapons and abilities". Some weapons deal elemental damage, and that will trigger laws like this one!


I made a few changes.
Samuel is a Soldier so he can learn the Baron's A-Ability, Rend Power.
Talf is back to Black Mage, though he has no abilities to learn. It's worth it for the stat growth when he levels up though.
Lenolia is a Green Mage. I picked up the Battle Mace, which lets her cast Sleep.
Henri and Nyno haven't changed since last battle.
Finally, Imino is a Black Mage now. Two Black Mages can do a lot of damage together.


We're up against a sizable enemy force, and they're all armed this time. The Thief, Kidd, is joined by a bangaa White Monk, viera Archer, nu mou Black Mage and a moogle Animist.
The two biggest threats are the Black Mage and the White Monk, so we'll try to take them down first.



Here's what Focus, the Archer A-Ability looks like. Yes, she will keep standing like that until she attacks.


Imino is still our fastest character, thanks to his Thief training. Thunder can do quite a bit of damage to the enemy White Monk.


...or not.


Animists are more of an annoyance than anything. Their weapons do very little damage, and at this point in the game, they only have the "100% Wool" A-Ability. This gives them Shell and Protect, significantly boosting their defenses. But since they don't have any real way to deal damage, this just delays their inevitable death.


One drawback of Green Magick: It's expensive. We only gain 10 MP per turn, so we can't cast Sleep right away. I'll forget to cast it for a while, actually.


Let's check out Rend Power, the A-Ability Samuel is learning from the Barong.


Nifty!


This is after Rend Power. See why I said the White Monk is so dangerous?


Kidd goes for a Steal: Gil on Lenolia. It actually connects, and he takes 80 gil. That's chump change, even at this point in the game.


At the start of her turn, Lenolia spouts this line. She's activated an "Opportunity" turn, during which she can use a unique command depending on how many allies or enemies she has around her. These turns activate randomly, and can actually be pretty helpful.


With one adjacent enemy, she can use Flurry!, which does 2 normal weapon attacks.


Standing next to one ally unlocks Battle Shout!, which raises Resilience. Higher Resilience reduces the chance you'll be hit by status effects.


With 3 adjacent allies, Lenolia can use Shield of Steel!, which grants Astra. As it says in the description, Astra prevents the next status effect from hitting at all.


Standing alone allows Tough As Nails! to be used. This is identical to 100% Wool.
Four adjacent allies lets you use Second Wind!, which casts Curaga, a high-powered heal spell.
With two or more adjacent enemies, the Opportunity command just attacks those enemies once each.


But one Opportunity command stands head and shoulders above the others. With two adjacent allies, you can cast Hastega, granting all three of you Haste.
Haste is easily the best buff in the game. More turns = more attacks = more damage. Frankly, Fleet of Foot! is the only command worth using most of the time.


Opportunity commands are used instead of your regular action. I rarely find them to be more useful than other abilities, honestly, but they're a nice bonus when they occur.


Samuel starts targeting the enemy Black Mage. He'll only cast one or two spells if we focus him, which will make this a lot easier.




It's hard not to place characters next to near each other, especially on a narrow battlefield like this one. The enemy Black Mage punishes me for it, but we'll be fine if we don't get hit by too many attacks like that.


Why attack instead of using Sleep? Maces do decent damage, and sleep isn't really worth it. If we could catch two or more enemies with it, I would definitely go for it. We could put the Black Mage to sleep, but since we're just going to attack him before his next turn anyway, it would be a waste.


Samuel gets the kill on the Black Mage. That's one major threat down.


The White Monk is still giving us trouble, but not for too much longer.


I take that back.


Remember when I said only the Black Mage and White Monk are threats? Here's another example why.


Imino pays him back for that.


Here's an example of why Guests can be annoying as hell. It's Talf's turn, there's two enemies at critical health, and they're spaced perfectly for a Fire or Thunder to take them both out. But Cid moves in to attack the Thief, ruining the formation.


Or we'll just attack Cid.


Worth it!


Nothing lasts forever. But we've made quite the lead thanks to that haste. With both major threats down, this is just cleanup now.


Lenolia finally uses Sleep, just so the archer can't be annoying and run away. Notice the Focus stance. It doesn't help.


It hits!


And now just the Archer is left.


The Archer is kind of annoying to get to, so I spend a few turns just moving everyone closer. Lenolia is able to jump up to her, since Green Mages get an innate +1 jump.


Oops, I guess that friendly fire is biting me a little. Don't worry, Cid will be fine.


Height is weird in this game. It's sometimes hard to tell if you'll be able to attack a target who is on a different level than you are. Here, Lenolia is attacking from way above her enemy.


Another advantage: AoEs have limited vertical reach. If this was flat ground, Lenolia would also be hit by the spell.


Cripes.


Cid gets the final hit in. That's a little overkill, especially since Cid is at Critical HP himself.


It's over! Our first big engagement went very smoothly. Identifying and eliminating (or disabling) the biggest threats is the most important part of most battles. Ganging up on one enemy, like we did with the Black Mage, is also a really useful tactic.


Samuel did really well and earned MVP status. It's possible to have multiple MVPs in a single battle, but it's not very common.


Glass Bell is an Animist weapon, which are fairly rare for no good reason. Battle Boots are the basic shoe armor, and boots are also rare in general.



: This will be my first big town in Ivalice... I can't wait!

: Stay close once we arrive. I don't want to spend all day looking for a lost lamb.

: No problem! I'm good at remembering streets. I'll just take a quick tour...

: A tour? Have you forgotten why we go to Camoa in the first place?

: To find out more about the journal! You didn't think I'd forget that!

He runs off down the road.




After every story mission, our journal updates itself. A fresh line appears, and this little "save" symbol swirls around.


A pretty good haul! We're fast running out of skills to learn. Hopefully we can do something about that soon. At the very least, we can keep rotating jobs.


The red "X" at the end of the road turns into a blue arrow, indicating we've unlocked the next area.


This is our first look at the entire continent of Loar. We'll be exploring the whole thing pretty soon. But first, we're going to Camoa.



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Thanks for reading! This was a pretty big update, I think, but I wanted to get out of Targ Woods and into the rest of the game. We're basically out of the tutorial but still being railroaded through the early plot. Things should start to pick up a little soon.