The Let's Play Archive

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

by Solumin

Part 12: Found Another Job

Update 12: Found Another Job

In This Update:
- Clan Sawyer Seeks New Job Opportunities!
- Every update from now on will feature at least 1 undead.
- New Recruit Voting! See the end of the update

---





: I'll come home on time tomorrow, promise. Okay, Aunt May?

: ...

: I wasn't trying to - I mean, I'm sorry I made you worry. I won't do it again.

: ...

: Yeah. I'm sorry.

---



Welcome back to FFTA2. Last time, Samuel caught some kind of swamp bug after fighting a legion of ghosts and ghouls.

There's no official artwork of Aunt May, so her part will be played by Generic Woman #1.

: Unh...

: Ah, you finally decided to wake up!

: What happened...? What is this place?

: A hut Cid found. We carried you here after you fainted.

: Oh... Where's Cid?

: Resting outside. You want me to call him?

: No, that's fine. He should rest. So, what about the treasure?

: Well, it's not in this hut, I can tell you that.

: I... I'm sorry. I guess I threw the whole expedition off course.

: Don't worry about it. You did give us a bit of a scare, though. Anyway, we can always come back and hunt for that treasure.

: Back home, in my world, my aunt would always chew me out. She'd say I'd "give her a heart attack form worrying so much".

: Oh yeah, I suppose I should tell you, my parents are gone. They both died. That's why I was living with my aunt.

: ...



: My aunt... Bet she'll be having that heart attack any time now.

: You know, you - Actually, never mind. We'll be here another two or three hours. You should rest. If you're hungry, I could rustle something up...?

: ... I guess, something hot, if you can make it.

: No problem. You know, ever since you came here, you've been going without a pause.

Hey, remember like 4 updates ago?

Adelle, how did you forget this?

: You're tired. You've been doing too much too fast. Next time we're in town, you should take a break. It never does to overdo it!

: Yeah... thanks.

---


We finally get the results from Rumors Abound.


We then immediately dive into another cutscene in Fluorgis.


Samuel is restless in bed.


He remembers his last day of school.


Opening the book in the library.


His first mission with Clan Sawyer and discovering the journal.


Meeting Lezaford and understanding the true nature of the journal.


Meeting the mysterious ninja Ewen who wanted to steal our judge.


But then he finds himself in a grim, gray landscape, thick with yellow Mist.


Further in is an odd stone pattern in the ground, almost like an altar.


Before he can investigate further, a red split appears in the air and devours Samuel.



: You all right?

: Cid? I...

: You were moaning, lad.

: I... had a strange dream. I've been having them ever since the fens. Maybe I'm more tired than I thought... Or just not as tough.

: That, or... Perhaps you've brought something unpleasant back from the fens with you.

: ... What kind of something?



: Which reminds me, there's a bill posted in the pub. Someone with a similar problem.

: That's... interesting. I'll go check it out once the pub opens.

: Can you sleep til then?

: Yeah, I think so. Thanks, Cid.

---


Eh, let's skip that story quest for now. It's more undead, and I'm not in the mood.

Instead, we're going to do job quests!

---


Spellblades, finally! The other new viera job, and one we've been looking forward to.

"Escort" means "protect the client."


To Moorabella!


Hana the Red Mage is trying to become a Spellblade. To do this, she must succeed in a tournament against her peers.

So she invited some outside help. That seems unfair at best, but hey, no one else is complaining!


We can only bring 3 clan members here. We must take down 10 enemies, but we only have to fight 4 at once. A reinforcement will appear each time an enemy falls. We also must keep Hana alive.

These three are our biggest damage dealers. I also have no compunction about cheesing this with Mirror Items. It's a side quest and I really want this job, so I'm not pulling any punches.




The enemies all have slightly higher levels than us, so they go first. They spend their turns trying to Silence Hana, which eventually succeeds.

Hana knows Doublecast, and Silencing her really hurts our damage and survivability. But we have Mirror Items, so I'm not worried.







That was an Assassin, a White Mage, a Green Mage, a Red Mage, another Green Mage, a Fencer, another Fencer, a ranged Assassin and an Archer. Really the whole gamut of early viera jobs.


After slaying 9 viera, the Spellblade herself appears.


Look, Tsing is using his powers for good for once!


It doesn't last long.


Hana thanks us for our help, and we unlock the Spellblade job.

Another highlight:

You have one of the largest ranges in the game, why are you attacking a ninja from melee range?!?

---


"Investigation" doesn't actually tell us what we'll be doing to resolve the quest. In this case, it's a battle.


More than doable. Just keep our four units alive for four rounds.


I'm using these four because they need the XP.


Right, so: these moogles have been disturbing their neighbours with loud explosions and lots of "Kupo!!" all night. It's our job to shut them up for a bit.


It also serves as our introduction to one of the worst (new) jobs in the game: Flintlock.


Flintlock's central gimmick is the "Primed" buff, which lets them use special attacks like Ether Boost.

I'll go into a full rant about this job in a later Job Roundup, but in summary it's bad. The bangaa Cannoneer does every Flintlocks do but better.

You know, if I had been smart, I would have brought Samuel with the Blue Magick "Roar" ability. Prime is a buff, after all -- we could just strip it off them!


Nothing of interest happens all battle. There's reinforcements, so you can't just kill everything. It's really just a waiting game.



---


Better stock up on potions, we've been really going through them recently.


Samuel's mastered Dual Wield! He's staying as a Ninja still because he needs the Speed. It's currently 67, boosted +8 by the two Rangetsu-denbu.


Lenolia has mastered Doublecast and a couple more Red Mage spells, so she's switching to Spellblade in order to pick up Blood Price.

---


Let's see the good Moogle ranged job, shall we?


Much more straightforward. The law is a slight annoyance -- no Illusions, no Tinker abilities, no Awareness.


Here's our crew for this battle. Again, mostly trying to get XP here.




This group of moogles are from the Goug Consortium, a weapons development firm. They're testing a new weapon, but they think we're from Zedlei Consortium, a group of bandits honest merchants we saw at the auctions.


This is a straightforward battle, though the enemy is a bit spread out.


Like, really spread out. Hope you brought ranged damage! Or a gria.

Illusions would be great here, except they're forbidden. Oh well.

We should get a gria....


Not much of interest happens here. We're a little too powerful for this mission, even if I wasn't using Mirror Item.


Cool! Fusilier was hit hard by the condition nerf, and their best attacks are no longer quite as effective. Still one of the better Moogle jobs though.



---


Our next quest takes us back to Moorabella.


Copycat doesn't matter here because we won't really bother attacking.


Rockstar Mayhew of the famed girl group Prima Donna has lost her prized concertina! We must help her find it!




It's this one.

I really hate item search quests. They're boring.


For our trouble, we unlock the gria Raptor job.

We should definitely get a gria.

---


Interlude 2: Exploring Ordallia.


Veterans of FFTA might recognize this location: Aisenfield.


And those familiar of Final Fantasy Tactics may recall the lost city of Goug.

---


Time to unlock a bangaa job!


A simple task: defeat everyone!


A mix of powerful jobs and those last few low-level characters.




But these aren't just any enemies. No, we're fighting Master Monks and their students, a handful of White Monks.

Master Monk is like White Monk, but better. Easily one of the strongest jobs in the game, in the right circumstances. I'd say they're my favorite new job.


No Tsing today, so no cheesing it with Mirror Item.


Master Monks hit hard. Pummel strikes twice, for a total of nearly 100 damage!


They inflict few conditions, but Doom is a pretty strong one.


Not that Samuel lives long enough to feel its effects.


But we eventually wear them down.


Awesome!

I had thought the next story mission at Rank 24 was a little high for us. But we just swept a Rank 29 mission without any really abusive tactics.
I may have been underestimating our power.

---


Cid immediately switches to Master Monk.


Having mastered Blood Price, Lenolia is ready to become a Summoner.

---


A clan of fearsome warriors from Japan the East wishes to battle us!


We don't know what scions are yet. They are not what Summoners summon, since those are Espers.


Heck yeah we accept! Prepare to meet the one hume melee job that doesn't benefit from Dual Wield!


They're a very fast clan, but then again, so are we.

Highlights!




Our Double Cast Blood Price Summoner is ready, and it is good. That was around 60 - 70 to each enemy.


And she's almost fully healed from that, too.


This is one of the best Master Monk abilities. Cross-counter deals double damage against enemies with Counter and disables the reaction!

Counter is easily the most common R-Ability, so this is fantastically strong. And I believe it works some on other Counter-like abilities, such as Bonecrusher.


Parivirs use their Flair abilities to inflict heavy elemental damage and conditions. Shimmering Blade can inflict Confusion, though Lenolia's Ribbon prevents it from sticking.

100 damage for what's basically a regular attack. I love parivir, and I almost always make Luso one in my play-throughs.
The reason Parivirs don't need Dual Wield is their abilities can only make one attack. There are better P-Abilities for them, like Geomancy.


Anyway, nothing else of interest happens and we kill them all.

---



Let's end this update with one of my favorite side quests.


The gang is hanging out in Tramdine Fens, waiting for their contact to show up.


When suddenly, a zombie appears!!


Uh.


Oh dear.

: Haa... Have you brought the medicines?



: H-Hey! What're you doing?





: Ohh... Ouch.


Thankfully, Lotice doesn't drink the second one.

: Maa... Might I ask a question? I do not wish to startle...

: Ahh... Am I dead?



: I... think so. But you're walking and talking, so...

Alternatively:
: No, you're alive! I mean, you wouldn't be standing here talking to us if you weren't! It's just that you don't look so... alive, y'know? Not that you look dead, or anything! ... More... kind of... UN-dead?


: Yeee... It's as I feared. Yaaaai... I thought it strange. I tried to stay at an inn, but they drove me off with stones... and clans attacked me by the roadside...

: Aahh... Um, thank you! Thank you so much! Yee... Here. I give this to you, as thanks. Guu... Good-bye.


The crew is left baffled as Lotice limps away.

---

Thanks for reading! Next time: New recruits and more story progression.

Recruit Voting is open again!

Your choices are:

Everyone gets 1 vote this time, not 2! I'll be choosing only the top choice.

Some notes:

- We will be recruiting a gria next update. That's why it's not an option.
- Nyno will be leaving us. He's too low level to even think about catching up.
- If you're thinking of a write-in job but aren't sure what we already have (or have planned), feel free to ask in the thread!