Final Fantasy Tactics Part #44 - Roof of Riovanes Castle

Part 44: Roof of Riovanes Castle

Alma walks into the conference room to find it littered with bodies!

But Izlude clings to life despite his wounds. Alma goes down to see him.

: S... sword... where is it? Must... beat... him... Please... give me some light. So dark... can't see a thing.

: Don't worry. No need to fight anymore.

: Tell your brother... the stone... has 'evil power'... He's not... my father... the power made him... Lucavi... hack... cough...

: Please don't try to talk.

: What Ramza said was true... The world will end... if we don't kill him... Tell everyone... not time to fight... must cooperate...

: My brother killed him. So you don't need to fight.

: Really? That's a relief... The stone is... in my jacket. Give it... to your brother...

Alma gets the Pisces stone from him.

: I'll be sure to do that.

: Ugh... tired... sleepy... just rest now...

Izlude breathes his last, and his head falls. Alma is offering a prayer when-

Vormav enters the room!

: Don't fear. You won't suffer...

He begins to approach Alma when Velius's death howl echos through the room!

He speaks to Alma:

: Your brother has the devil's own luck. Now come here.

But, suddenly, to the surprise of both-

A stone in Vormav's jacket responds to Alma's presence with a burst of energy!

: You... can't be... Very nice! I didn't expect to meet you here!

He grabs Alma by her throat!

: Stop!! Let go of me!!

: No need to fear. I won't kill you. Now come here!

He teleports away with Alma.

Pisces falls to the ground...

Hoo boy, if you barely got through the last fight, here comes another pain in the ass. The previous fight and this one are in an endless contest for hardest battle in FFT.

To this end, Ramza puts on his movin' shoes and reequips Martial Arts.

I didn't buy any abilities before Inside Riovanes, so I get Ramza Attack UP.

Norma gets Flare. Though not quite as powerful as Holy, it still will kill most enemies instantly.

How you arrange your characters... might matter?

First off, Agrias will be in the back of the line, but that's behind two of the enemies. It seems backwards but maybe it really isn't? Ramza gets a Cutscene location so he appears near all of them.

Did I mention I don't like this battle?

I don't like it at all. Too hard to plan for a battle that's over in less than a round or you lose.

Anyway, it's night now at Riovanes...

: Why do you think you're even still alive today! Because of me! I took you out of the garbage! Or did you forget that already?

: Revenge for kindness? You burned the village! You are the one who killed my parents! And you say it's revenge for kindness? No...it's justice!

Rafa draws her sword! She begins to edge closer when-

Barinten pulls out his gun!

: I'm your father. I raised you! I'd like to see you try and kill me!

Rafa stands still.

: Hya, ha! You can't... And do you know why? Because your body recalls the terror... Don't worry...that terror will gradually subside. Hya, ha, ha.

That line is the other major piece of evidence for the "Rafa was raped" argument.

: Is that true?!!

: You're turning on me, too? You're both ingrates!

: I'll kill you!

: Stop it! Rafa!

Malak runs to stop her as she charges!

But Barinten fires and hits...

: Malak! Are you all right!

But Malak doesn't respond! Ramza finds the commotion.

: Rafa, if you want to help Malak, bring the stone here. Malak should have it. Find it!

Rafa finds the Taurus stone on her brother's body.

: That's right, bring it too me.

However...

The figure who sneaked up behind Barinten grabs him and lifts him with a single hand!

The woman flings him over her head effortlessly! Barinten screams as he falls down the castle until he lands with a sickening thud!

From behind a tower, a somewhat familiar man appears. It's-

The Marquis? Back from the dead?!

: No... Give it to me.

: Rafa! Watch out!! They are not human!

: I never really thanked you for doing me this favor. Thank you.... I don't want to have to get rough like Vormav did. Please understand. Now, hand me the stone and I'll ask Vormav to return your sister.

: Where is Alma? Bring her back!

: Didn't you hear me? Give me the stone first.

: No, I won't.

: Are you abandoning her? I thought you came here to save her, knowing there'd be danger.

: ...

: Very well. I didn't want to get rough but... Celia, Lede, go ahead! That girl has the stone. Get it back...!

Sweet jumping beans, this fight.

Rafa is really fucking hard to save.

Swift as lightning, Elmdor will use the Muramasa draw-out to tear a chunk of Rafa's HP.

His 6 MA prevents it from doing too much damage.

But 90 HP is nearly half her health.

Elmdor is equipped for style more than damage, but Hamedo there is a motherfucker with his 70 Brave and his big Katana and two hands. He's got Muramasa, the second-strongest Draw Out ability, and he has an infinite stock of them to break.

Malak's saddled with Auto-Dead.

Yeah, Assassin.

Innate Two Hands? Of course.
100% instant death? Stop Bracelet.
100% ranged stop? Shadow Stitch.
100% Petrification? Seal.
~80% Charm? Allure.
Ultima? Why the hell not?

That's right, they have Ultima. Ramza's chapter 4 squire can learn Ultima. This is chapter 3, though.

Luso in WoTL, having Ramza's chapter 4 skillset, can get Ulitma here if you must have the spell right now when Rafa will be killed by Elmdor in moments.

A helmet in the accessory slot? FFT hates you.

But the worst part is that there's two of them. Celia and Lede are are horrible killers, and they can and probably will tear Rafa to pieces if they get close to her.

You know what? Let's show off how quickly this fight can turn terrible.

Looks like a done deal, right?

Hamedo prevents attacks like that by hitting the opponent first. It's really badass.

This is probably the only time you'll ever see it if you don't use it yourself. Don't know what it does? Too bad, Ramza's dead now.

Rather than jabbing someone with her stick, Rafa actually steps back to cast Heaven Bltback.

Rafa usually just jabs Elmdor with her stick, leaving herself open to a pair of Assassins with big swords. They get turns after her, so I had only one AT before Assassins get turns. They usually kill her fast. If she hit Elmdor, I'd have only gotten 1 AT before Rafa got killed.

This battle is hard.

GameFAQs posters theorized that Rafa's suicidal AI is explainable in terms of story. She was all set to get revenge on Barinten, when he shoots Malak then gets offed himself by someone she's never seen before.

She's suffering from a combination of anger, grief, and self-loathing.

I say it's because Tactics has questionable AI and this is the worst possible time for the AI to be questionable.

Rafa's slightly out of range, and wearing a mantle, so the AI goes with something 100% and stops Agrias.

And you thought FFTA Assassins were bad about abusing statuses, huh? At least they weren't ranged and free and unable to miss.

Norma gets stitched too. Ramza's dying, Norma and Agrias are stopped, and Rafa's going to get butchered by Elmdor and a pair of assassins.

It's Mme. Eldena's time to shine.

Aw hell yeah.

You just have to get one enemy to critical HP. Assassin and Arc Knight have really high HP multipliers, so it's not easy to do that much damage as quickly as needed.

Speaking of HP, strip your characters naked. It may make the assassins target them with attacks instead of Rafa, giving you more time. Moreso if they have high faith, it might make them cast Ultima, it's their least threatening attack.

Oh, it's her second Truth spell! Still hits once and misses 4 times.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn!

Barely, just barely.

See, do one thing wrong (in this case, Ramza punching a guy with Hamedo) and the whole battle is barely won. This battle is hard.

: Celia, Lede, retreat!

You're yelling at a corpse.

: We'll be waiting...!

The three escape.

The last battle of Chapter 3 is over.

Later...

The sun rises on Riovanes...

: Remember how we used to chat till dawn about things? I wanted to travel with you. We were going to go to the Galthana's hometown after the war... Remember? Brother... say something...