Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift Part #11

Part 11: Swamp of the Living Dead

Update 11: The Swamp of the Living Dead

In This Update:
- Skyferries, or how to make airships boring.
- I try not to abuse Ranger but it's just so appealing!
- Ordallia is the most haunted continent.

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Welcome back! Last time, we stopped a "genius" from sabotaging the airships in Moorabella. We also ran into the infamous sky pirates Vaan and Penelo, who suggested we explore Tramdine Fens.

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Let's go on our first airship ride!

The skyferry flies between Moorabella and Fluorgis, the closest city on the content of Ordallia. It costs 300 gil for a one-way trip, which is pretty cheap.

: The skyferry between Moorabella and Flugoris is just that: a ferry, not much else. The cities aren't all that far apart - hundreds of people travel between them every day. Booking a longer trip takes much more work - not to mention money.

: Guess ya learn something every day.

They head towards the gate.

: Cid!

: Are you sure you should be up and about so soon?

: I'm fit as I've ever been, thanks to the two of you. The doctor's even given me a clean bill of health.

: "Given", you say?

: I was afraid you'd already left for Flugoris. But then I heard about this business with the airships and thought I might find you here. So here I am. Even if I'd missed you, Moorabella's a good a place to wait as any.

: Well, your guess sure paid off! This is great! With all of us here this'll be twice the fun! C'mon, let's go!

Every time you ride the skyferry, you're treated to this little animation of the airship crossing the ocean.

It gets old very, very quickly.

The Fluorgis Aerodrome looks the same as Moorabella's, but it has a warmer color scheme.

: It's the best time I've ever had!

: You're certainly easy to please.

: I suppose we head for the fens next. That's where these sky pirates said to go, yes?

: Yeah. Tramdine Fens. They said we'd find some sort of treasure there.

: -If- they can be trusted. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if all we come back with is muddy boots.

: I don't know why, but I believe 'em. Either way, we'll find out soon enough. But first I wanna take a look around town and get ready before we head out.

: Now, what is there to see in Flugoris...? I know! We should have some roasted zignuts and a cup of nua tea - it's supposed to be great here. Oh, and I want to stop by the Anne Salier store. It's affiliated with Galmia Pepe, you know. Don't worry, I only want a little peek.

Adelle exits.

: She sure didn't waste any time.

: She'll waste plenty of outs before this is over, you mark my words.

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Cid finally joins Clan Sawyer!

He's leveled up as a Warrior, which means his Speed is kind of garbage. He's also 4 levels higher than the rest of the clan.
On the other hand, he knows a good number of Warrior and White Monk abilities. Cid is set up to fill any physical gaps in your clan. He'll work well as any bangaa job, except for the magick ones.

Like Adelle, we have no choice but to hire him. Also like Adelle, he's hardly a burden.

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Now that we've landed in Fluorgis, let's do some quests.
The next story mission is a little bit higher than we are -- most of the clan is level 15 to 16 right now. Plus, we could use more gil and CP.

Fortunately, we have a ton of delivery and dispatch missions to do, so we can knock out a good half dozen in one quick tour.

Wanted: Artillery is another "pick the right job" quest. In this case, they want someone who can use cannons. Henri's Cannoneer job will suffice.

A good dad wants to make shaved ice. This is another Fluorgis delivery, might as well grab it.

And this singer needs sweet sap for her sore throat.

Back over in Loar, someone wants us to ask Lezaford about Judges, and Mack Oktor needs some medicine delivered.

And while we're running those, might as well send out for the next Wayfarer's Log!
Imino is a Juggler now, since he's mastered two Tinker abilities. Jugglers are the buff/debuff job for Moogles, and perennial fan favorite.

Look at all those rewards, just sitting there waiting for us!

Ice stone: delivered.

Singer: Satisfied, but sickened.

Artillery: Dispatched.

No Henri you are not allowed to leave this clan.

_{I originally read this as "If things go well, I'll be dead!"}

And those three quests were long enough for The Towns of Loar to return.

One quick air trip back to Moorabella...

Mack is worried someone might try to intercept the shipment of medicine, so he's asking us to handle the delivery.

Lezaford doesn't tell us anything we don't already know. The Judges were created to prevent more pointless war, and they quickly became a voluntary restriction.

And then we finish the delivery to Targ Woods without incident. As far as I know, you'll never be attacked.

And that's the Artillery quest settled.

I love the Cannoneer aesthetic. The goggles, the bright green uniform, the fierce salute... it's great.

Since we're in the area, we'll take care of another dating quest. This one is in Camoa and Graszton.

Unfortunately, we don't get to see Samuel dance.
The event in Graszton is identical to this one, so feel free to dispatch it. You can dispatch teams at any time from the Clan menu, so feel free to do a single task by yourself first.

Lots of abilities mastered during that little stint, but most importantly, Samuel is now a Ninja! Adelle mastered Dual Wield at the same time, fortuitously enough.

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Now it's time for some combat! Let's do the next Wanted bounty hunting quest.

Florah is wanted for hurting some loggers and escaping jail. She's a plant empath, which means she can control plant monsters like Malboros and Deadly Nightshades.

Oh man, this law. It's really, really terrible. I suppose they expect you to use weak weapons and the high-accuracy, low-damage attacks that many jobs have.
But screw that, we're going to cheat!

I had originally planned to get Samuel a couple Blue Magick abilities here, but it ended up being a total pain. We can get them later.

To his credit, Samuel asks Florah to come peacefully. But she's committed to her cause.

So, cheating the law. It may come as now surprise to you that it involves Tsing, our friendly Ranger.

[sub]I'm skipping like 10 minutes of trying to teach Bad Breath to Samuel.[sub]

You can't break the law if you end the battle! We did way more than 50 damage, but since we defeated Florah and won the battle, the game doesn't check if the action broke the law.

It's pretty situational, but this quirk can really save you some frustration.

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This one's been available for a while, so let's take care of it too.

An interesting law, but not terribly restricting. Magic isn't incredibly useful against the Red King due to her high magick resistance, so you just need to make sure your weapons are OK.

The Red King has all red equipment, appropriately enough. The only Red Magick she knows is Silence and Doublecast, but her elemental magick makes up for it.

She really just spams Double Cast, thanks to Half MP.

With 344 HP, she's going to take a fair bit to wear down. She's level 44, too. I'm not bringing Tsing because watching him drop X-Potions on all my problems will get boring quickly.

We need to strike hard and fast. This is without Doublecast -- she can easily do 100 to 150 damage per turn!

And we do much, much less damage to her.

She also has counter, so melee attacks are even more dangerous. Her physical attacks hit just as hard as her magickal ones! And thanks to the Ribbon she wears, you can't try to shut her down with conditions.

Cannoneers have humongous range, rivaling that of Greatbows. This is why people like pairing them with Gladiator, which gets Ultima Sword.

But the real reason to have one is to buff your mages, who can get a free 60 MP per turn!

Anyway, this battle is just a damage race. No matter how strong she seems, the Red King is still only one viera. With 6 units on your side, you should be able to pour on the damage.

The King is down to critical HP, so losing Adelle isn't the end of the world.

Samuel seals the deal not long after.

The Sequencer increases in power for every Opportunity Command you get, to a max of 131. That's significantly higher than any other weapon in the game, but obviously you can't really control how strong it is.

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The Moon Seal is the sequel to the Star Seal quest we did all those updates ago.

Like the Star Seal, we have to touch this stone, then fight more monsters.

I'm trying to level up this crew. They're all level 16.

These two are sitting here, building up as much MP as possible. Lian only has 44 MP max, while Talf has over 100.

Easy enough, obviously.

That is a lot of strong monsters! But we'll be OK -- this is only a rank 18 mission, after all.

We got lucky with the law, no one is using those except Lian, and his counter attacks don't count.

Lenolia is our spokesperson. She seems to like it here.

As usual, I'll just give the highlights.

Werewolves can give themselves counter.

Lamias can inflict Doom and Charm with a single Kiss attack.

I kind of love Alchemist. For the cost of a Thundara, Talf did significantly more damage.

Aero? Nah, lamias resist it.

That's much better!

Talf automatically has access to Item, letting him cleanse Tsing's Charm condition. Unfortunately, we can't easily remove Doom.

Tsing has only 3 turns left to live, so he goes on a murderous Mirror Items rampage. I wasn't going to use it, but they forced my hand!

Smile Toss is the Juggler's most famous ability. It grants Quicken to the target, letting them immediately take a turn.

And Lian gets an awesome double kill with Aero.

This mission allows us to finally recruit viera! I think that's why Lenolia said the area was "not unpleasant" -- it's basically the place viera come from, or live, or something like that.

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Well! I think we're prepared for the next story quest now.

I could devote a half-dozen updates to side quests and still have plenty to do. But we're really here for the story, right?

Oh, that's a nice couple of rewards there. A few really wonderful items can be bought with these.

Of course, the new auction in Fluorgis also has some of them, but that's besides the point.

It's good that most quests give several thousand gil now, or all this flying would get really expensive.

: Hrm...

: Doesn't the air feel... charged, somehow? They say ghosts lurk in places like this.

Samuel jumps when Adelle says "ghosts," and Cid and Adelle look at him in surprise.

: H-Hey, what? I'm fine! Really!

: Ah ha! So Samuel's afraid of ghosts!

: Th-That's ridiculous!

: So, if I told you there was a ghost right behind you -

: Kidding, kidding! There's nothing.

: I-I knew that.

: Hmm... I never would have picked you for the easily scared type.

: Hey, we all have our weaknesses, right? What about you?

: I suppose it's only our nature to be scared of at least one thing... And ghosts are so very scary, aren't they? Hee hee hee.

: Jest with him like that and he'll get you back one of these days.

: Oh, I just wanted to get him ready... to face them.

: And right on cue, here come the ghastly things themselves. You all right, Samuel?

: Hardly!

: Harumph. Let's hope they're friendly haunts then, shall we? I'm still on the mend.

Really getting some real winners for laws, aren't we? This one will sneak up on you. The easiest way around it is to always use Abilities and avoid the basic Attack action.

However, that can backfire too! If your White Mage uses Cure, and next turn your Red Mage uses the Red Magick version of Cure, you'll still be penalized! So be careful and try to keep track of last action taken.

This is the anti-undead crew right now. Henri and Cid have White Monk abilities to back them up, while Lenolia and Lian have plenty of holy damage to throw around. Samuel and Adelle are stuck doing regular damage, but they're both Ninjas with Dual Wield.

The enemy is two Floating Eyes, a Zombie and three Wraiths.

Also, Samuel is finally catching up in Speed! He's second fastest, right after Adelle. His equipment and job are boosting his Speed a little, I think.

Both Eyes will try to inflict conditions on us. When they're weakened, their Critical: Quicken R-Ability will kick in and they'll try to Death Dive us.

Undead are weak to Holy damage, absorb Dark and can be damaged by healing spells. This makes your early-game White Mage an incredible damage dealer.

Wraiths can teleport. It's annoying, because they love to get behind you, but the true danger is how it lets them set up their more powerful abilities.

Fortunately, we have a number of tools for handling undead. White Monks have an ability called "Exorcise" that lets them banish undead. Archers also have "Burial," which does the same. A few other jobs have similar abilities.

If you get lucky, it'll completely destroy the undead!

The undead have a few tricks of their own. Drain Touch, the Zombie signature ability, steals your HP. Darkra is a 2x2 AoE Dark-damage spell that hits pretty hard.

That's one Flying Eye down, and we managed to avoid the Death Dive.

The other one is pretty weak. Forbidden: Copycat forces me to use abilities I'd otherwise ignore, which I guess is a good thing. Blizzard Tackle is one of the Gladiator's elemental attacks.

Dammit. Just 1 HP away!

Lenolia is in dire straights, but there's a chance she'll survi--

Welp.

Let's show off reviving teammates! Samuel has the Item command, and he can use a Phoenix Down to revive Lenolia.
Unlike other Final Fantasy games, Phoenix Down aren't particularly rare.

The character is revived at critical HP in the square you used the item on.

It's immediately Lenolia's turn again, and a quick Doublecast Cure brings her back to a safer HP.
(I'm pretty sure revived units regain their place in the turn order, and Lenolia was supposed to act right after Samuel.)

Lian steps in to give her a bit more HP, killing one of the Wraiths at the same time.

Except undead don't actually die. This is their last trick. Instead of a corpse, undead leave behind a gravestone. After a few turns, they'll come back fully healed.

Before we see how to deal with that, observe this Wraith.

The Darkra heals the Wraith, but Henri's Bone Armor absorbs Dark so he gets a heal too! And then Henri, Samuel and Cid all get counter attacks against the Wraith.

Well done, you dumb dead ghost.

Once an undead has been reduced to 0 HP, Exorcise becomes 100% accurate.

You can also use Phoenix Down to banish them.

Fortunately, reducing them to 0 HP counts as defeating them for the purposes of completing the mission. You have a choice: race the clock, or play it safe and waste some turns. It's almost always worth taking the time to exorcise the undead, in my opinion.