#ajora plays games

[ajoraverse]

Fic, Faris-centered

A Thing Appointed to Desolation Summary: The ship has a sprite that few sailors will ever see, for seeing that sprite spells doom for the ship. Faris has the bad fortune of meeting him on the way to the Ship's Graveyard.

Words: 3033

Warning: British swearing and the dense nautical knowledge being thrown about that comes of the Age of Sail being my special interest when I was 8.

[mintyhootax]

Lucavi King Dycedarg AU

Idk who is going to read this, but I want to get it out of my head.

Adremmelech now has Dycedarg's plotting tendencies. During the fight with Ramza, he realizes that he is very likely going to lose and be destroyed. So he teleports tf out of there and zaps back to the hell dimension.

He is now present to tell Vormav to f-off when Vormav wants to use Zalbag to mentally screw with Ramza. Adrammelech doesn't want to give up his newest toy and decides to brainwash Zalbag and fill him with Lucavi energy so that he is unquestioningly loyal to Dycedarg (for now).

Dycedarg decides to lay low after his near-defeat at Igros. He wants to see how things are going to play out with Ramza going strong. Dycedarg actually tries to tell the rest of the Lucavi that using Alma as a vessel for Ajora isn't going to work because she is unwilling. But the other Lucavi support Hashmal too much atm to pay attention to Adrammelech.

Ramza defeats Hashmal and Ajora. With the Lucavi leadership weakened, Adrammelech basically tells the others "I told you so. Why not follow me? I have an idea."

Just as Ramza and Alma are about to leave Ivalice, Dycedarg secretly tells the church (because they are still around, as canon in the game, but under different management) where to find them. Ramza is taken into custody and imprisoned, due to be on trial. Alma is also taken into custody, but is not imprisoned as she is being portrayed as a victim of Ramza by the church.

Here is where Dycedarg re-emerges into the public eye to challenge Delita and Ovelia ascending to the throne. Dycedarg actually intends to bring down the church of Glabados and the reign of St. Ajora (don't forget, Ajora was only ever a vessel that Ultima used in order to try and establish a power center that resulted in the church). Dycedarg reveals to the people of Ivalice that the church and the templars planned to use the War of the Lions to overthrow the crown and turn the land over to the control of demons.

He also reveals the plot with the stones and the zodiac braves, but is careful to frame it as the braves being the good guys while Ajora was a demon that the church wanted everyone to worship. And Dycedarg uses the Scriptures of Germanique that Ramza recovered as proof of their plot (with some things changed in the scriptures to establish that the auracites and the braves are not the same as the demons).

Since Delita was known to work for the church, he is framed as the church's hand in its bid for power and complete control. Ovelia is revealed to be a false princess, which would make Dycedarg and the Beoulve family to be the closest to having a claim for the throne with Larg and Goltana dead and the baby prince Orinus too young to get the throne (he will likely be killed later anyway).

The Ivalician people are swayed to favor Dycedarg, and just to emphasize how evil the church is, Dycedarg makes a show of freeing Ramza from his prison in the templar's cellars. Ramza is the true hero of the War of the Lions, Dycedarg says. Ramza was the only one trying to reveal the truth of the church's evils.

Ramza tries to resist, of course, because he knows that Dycedarg is one of the Lucavi now, but Ramza has also been tortured and starved by the templars for weeks. So when Dycedarg suddenly frees him and takes him back to Igros all the while giving him food and rehabilitating his injuries, Ramza can't do much but go along. Besides, Adrammelech has the rest of the Lucavi behind him now. Dycedarg gives the stones of the Lucavi who support him out and together they pick off anyone who opposes them. Ramza won't be able to defeat all of them.

Also, Dycedarg gives Alma to Ramza as a show of his goodwill. In return for Ramza's cooperation, their family will remain together and happy. Also Dycedarg is using a brainwashed/possessed Zalbag to further his point.

And so, Dycedarg presents Ramza as a hero and the Beoulve family are revered as the ones to free Ivalice from the clutches of the evil church of Glabados. Dycedarg himself is crowned King of Ivalice, promising to weed out corruption (oh, the irony) and restore Ivalice to its former glory, going so far as to plan to avenge Ivalice against Ordallia, who screwed them over after the 50 Year War anyway. What would Ordallia be able to do against the power of the Zodiac Braves, after all...

[ajora]

Continuation of screenshot spam because I love Lenna, etc etc.

Notes I probably can’t fit into captions:

The dragon mentioned, the hiryuu/sky dragon/wind drake/flying dragon/ however-you-want-to-translate-飛竜, was never actually given a name. It’s just always called by its species name because Alexander’s (and later Lenna’s once Alexander dies) sky dragon was the only one left in their world

From the books, it’s said that the hiryuusou/dragonweed/etc/however-you-want-to-translate-飛竜草 was growing more and more toxic before the game, leading to a decline in populations* because their species was so dependent on the dragonweed. I just wonder now if it was always toxic to humans, or if the dragonweed population on North Mountain was somehow the one variant that hadn’t gone toxic.

Someone please point me to a fic where Lightning and Faris commiserate over impulsive younger sisters, while Serah and Lenna commiserate over overprotective older sisters

I really need to watch FFXIII videos because it’s one of the few FFs I haven’t played and wanted to play but couldn’t on account of not having the console it’s on

* The hiryuu of Final Fantasy V are the koalas of dragons. They’re so dependent on one main** food source that it’s driven them to extinction on two worlds. 

** Apparently they also eat bugs, but they need to eat dragongrass. To be fair, bugs can get big in FF worlds, but also? it’s a miracle the hiryuu take in enough calories to fly.

[o-w-quinlan]

“Tag Tamers” has finally been completely translated to English, by Ajora Fravashi and NikcDC from Romhacking net. Yep, the game that’s basically Ken’s and Wormmon’s backstory for Adventure 02. If anyone is interested in playing it, the link is the second one in the description of this video.

Yes, it’s a Spanish video, but that’s how I found out. I’ll probably make a Let’s Play of it in this blog in a couple weeks.

[endangered-liaison]

FFXIVWrite Prompt #5: Matter of Fact

Jaejh watches his Warders-in-training from his perch on a tree branch. His body is covered in old scars. He claims it's the mark of a true warder. The Fleur-who-is-not-yet-Fleur thinks it's the mark of someone who was barely skilled enough to survive - or someone lucky. She doesn't say that, though. That would be a death sentence, or at the very least it would lead to her being made an example of. She'd rather avoid that, where she can.

"Today, my little terrors, we're going to play a game."

A few of the boys around Fleur sound excited by that, murmuring back and forth. But most of them know by now that Jaejh's idea of a game is a little different to the games of their youth.

"We are going to have a race. You will leave all weapons behind. From here, you travel east, to the Fenlands at the edge of the jungle. Two days' travel. The plants there are poisonous, and you will pick a handful of berries. Even a single one would have you die in agony."

A journey to the edge of their territory to pick poisonous berries. This is sounding lovely already. The excited murmurs die down, as the nature of their task starts to become apparent to everyone.

"Once you're there, you're to turn northwest. Four days' travel, and you will reach the hilltop of Golgollada Gallows. I expect every one of you to make the journey successfully." The mood is already dark enough when he speaks up once more. "If you arrive without berries, I will kill you. If you are one of the last two to arrive, you will eat the berries."

At that, there's just shocked silence.

Jaejh has given them intense challenges before. Had them fight until one could barely walk. Had them face fearsome beasts. Many and more of them have died. But he's never outright threatened to kill them. Never outright promised death to the slowest amongst them. Never so bluntly, never so matter-of-fact.

He drops a single waterskin in between the group, then crosses his arms.

"Go."

_ _ _

Five days and nineteen bells later, Fleur collapses on the hilltop. Her chest heaves as she tries desperately to drag in air.

"Well. Look who's arrived." Jaejh's voice breaks her from her rest, and she staggers to her feet.

There's a boy ahead of her, kneeling before Jaejh. The man's spear is raised, tip pointed towards the child, but he makes no move to strike. Not yet. His eyes flick to the berries, then back to her, then back to the boy in front of him.

"Ajora here arrived just before you, with no berries to his name. Tell me, have you done any better?"

Fleur opens her palm, revealing the handful of blood-red berries clutched in her hand.

He hums, taking them from her and dropping them into a pouch. She flexes her fingers, stained dark with the poison on them.

"Well then. Two would-be warders, and only a single handful of berries." Jaejh hums, twirling the spear in his fingertips and walking away from them both. After a few moments of hesitation, he stabs the point of the spear into the ground, stepping away from the weapon. Then he gestures, wide and open. "Normally, I'd simply kill Ajora myself. But today, I have a better idea. Since you two are the first to arrive, you're going to amuse me."

For a moment, Fleur is shocked that she was the second to arrive. But the rest of his words soon hit their mark, and she freezes. She's out of breath, exhausted. And he's about to ask them...

"The berries belong to whichever of you survives." He gestures towards the spear in front of him, then grins. "Your weapon, my dear Warders."

Fleur only has a moment to stare at it before she's shoved to one side, Ajora rushing past her to yank the spear out of the ground.

It's a little large for him, but he still manipulates it easily enough to point towards her. She curses herself, climbing to her feet. Of course Jaejh would change the rules. Of course he'd get bored, and demand she fight for what was rightfully hers.

She flexes her fingers, eyes fixated on the tip of the spear between her and her opponent.

He lunges, and she ducks to one side. Again. Again. He's corralling her, pushing her down the hill where he has an advantage. Another jab, another. The blade glances across the bark of a tree. She backs up further. There's a branch, above her. Just above her arm's reach. Between her and him.

The next time he lunges, she charges forwards. Leaps. Grabs the branch, and swings her body to kick him in the chest with both legs. The impact knocks him backwards, sending the spear twisting wildly. She lets go at the height of her momentum, tangling the spear's haft between her ankles and dragging it down with her.

Ajora makes a shocked sound, but reacts quickly. His right hand lets go of the spear, snapping forwards to grab her by the throat.

Her hand moves to grab his wrist, trying to free herself. Leaving only her ankles battling against his left hand as she tries to stop the spear from getting free.

He bares his teeth, lifting her off the ground like one would a twig, and she locks her ankles more determinedly. Her vision is starting to white out. She has to do something. Anything.

There's nothing to do.

She's going to be choked to death by a would-be warder who couldn't even drag a handful of berries across a forest, and there's nothing she can do to stop it.

...berries.

She lets go of his wrist, feeling his fingers dig into her throat even tighter as she gives up on her grip, and reaches out. Her hand, covered in berry juice, covers his face; she smears it down across his eyes and to his lips.

Ajora yelps, letting her go and staggering backwards to spit and try to get the taste of pure poison from his mouth.

She'd take advantage of his distraction, except when he lets her go she drops to the floor, hard. She groans and wheezes in breath, but doesn't release the spear.

He coughs again and again, and she looks at him with grim satisfaction as she sees that one of his eyes is bloodshot, tears running from it freely. "You bitch!" He snarls, turning his ire towards her again and taking a menacing step towards her. Well. She thinks it's that. It could be a number of things, owing to how he's slurring his words.

She bares her teeth, and twists her ankles. The spear snaps in half, leaving the top half in her hand. The bladed half. Lunging to her feet and driving it upwards is easy. A simple matter of momentum and motion.

The blade pierces Ajora's chest, and he freezes in place as she staggers past him.

The boy half-turns, taking a step towards her. He tries to say something, but his tongue is swollen and numbed, and it comes out as some strange murmur. She thinks she hears her not-name. His hands raise to try and pull the spear from his chest, tugging at it weakly. One of his hands is covered in berry juice, just like hers.

Eventually, he seems to give up on tugging the blade free, and collapses.

There's a slow clapping from behind her, and she turns to face Jaejh. He looks positively delighted. "Bravo! Quite the show. It's a shame you broke my spear, but, well, survival above all else."

He smiles as he reaches her, tilting her chin up with his fingertips with far too much gentleness. "So many said that one with one arm would never succeed in being a Warder. But I told them you had the strength. I always believed in you. And after that display, well...it's clear you're certainly no delicate flower."

She feels disgust churn in her gut, feels tears prick at the corners of her vision, but she stamps it down. She forces herself to smile politely at him, to nod. To look grateful.

"Well then!" He pulls away from her suddenly, humming and leaping on to the nearest tree branch. "Now that the entertainment is done, I suppose all that's left is for us to wait for the others to arrive. Who do you think will be last?"

Almost as an afterthought, he tosses her the pouch of berries.

She doesn't need to check to know it holds two handfuls of berries.

[an-organized-confusion]

FF Big Bads & Others vs The Sides

I just had the silly Idea of making connections between my fave game franchise, “Final Fantasy”, and the Sides. Because of COURSE I would.

I’m not going to explain my reasoning here (other than I picked from the titles I’ve actually played.)

... unless anyone decides to ask.

Roman

Emperor Mateus

Jecht

Gilgamesh

Remus

Kefka Palazzo

Garland/Chaos

Sorceress Adel

Ultros

Logan

Sorceress Ultimecia

Necron

Exdeath

Dr. Hojo

Virgil

Shuyin

Sephiroth

Cloud of Darkness (idk man, screw it)

Janus

Kuja

Zemus

Vayne Solidor

Patton

Seymour Guado

Saint Ajora

Sorceress Edea

[irandrura]

I don’t know what FFXII is saying with the Kiltias.

Well, on one level, I think it’s perfectly clear what it’s saying with the Kiltias. The Kiltias are, like the Viera you meet just before them, a group of people who seclude themselves from the world and abjure politics. They have clean hands and are extremely moral, at the cost of renouncing power to affect the world directly. They both appear at a point in the game where the heroes are seeking power to change the world, to defend kingdoms and cast down empires, and they serve firstly to condemn blind ambition or power-lust (Mjrn: “Power-needy humes!”), but secondly to illustrate the perils of refusing power entirely, when the Kiltias are slaughtered.

So they’re here to illustrate a tension. You need power to achieve anything; but power is also morally corrupting. The Archadians who attack Bur-Omisace are powerful but immoral; the Kiltias who defend it are powerless but moral. Is there a trade-off? Where do you find the balance?

Ashe: [after defeating Mjrn] There is a place for all things, even danger such as this.

Ashe: [with the Gran Kiltias] Should I become queen of Dalmasca now, powerless as I am, I can protect nothing. With a greater power at my disposal, perhaps then.

Anastasis: To wield power against power. Truly the words of a hume-child.

Thus also the significance of Raithwall entrusting the Sword of Kings to the Kiltias: the only people who can be trusted with a tool of such power are the people who make a principled refusal to ever wield it. The Kiltias have attained a level of moral purity that makes them trustworthy, but at the price of giving up the power to act.

The Viera illustrate something similar. Mjrn or Jote have the power to hear the wood, this spiritual oneness with the land; but they can’t leave and so can never change anything. Fran has lost that higher connection, but she alone is in a position to act.

So the thematic effect of this part of the game is to illustrate the dangers of power (cf. Bergan’s madness, Vayne’s ambition), but also why the heroes need to seek it out, corrupting as it is (for without the power the Kiltias cannot improve the world, only palliate its effects, and ultimately will be slaughtered by the ruthless).

But all that said –

I don’t know what FFXII is saying about religion with the Kiltias.

I should preface this with an admission. I hate the ‘corrupt church’ trope in fantasy. I hate it with a passion. I think it’s cheap, lazy, and predictable. I understand that Final Fantasy Tactics relies on it very heavily and this is one of the reasons why I have no interest in that franchise, even though I’m a fan of FFXII and Revenant Wings. I got the impression that Fire Emblem: Three Houses uses that trope as well, and it was also one of the factors that really killed any desire I had to play it. I realise that this judgement on my part is very subjective – since I’m a person of faith and indeed currently in formation for ministry (like seminary, basically), I can take it a little personally – but it does bias everything I’m about to say.

For the most part I think FFXII is not very interested in religion. It’s a very worldly game, and it’s primarily interested in politics and patriotism. The clash of great powers and the direction of secular history are this game’s concerns. Consequently the Kiltias, the only organised religion we see, are sequestered on a mountain and have little effect on history. When we eventually meet the Occuria, the closest thing to interventionist gods in the world, their concerns are profoundly unspiritual. Even these ‘divine’ beings are primarily concerned with those invisible forces of history, of empire and conquest and power. In that light the Kiltias are almost irrelevant. Spiritual concerns must give way to secular-historical ones.

But even accepting that, it’s striking that the Kiltias are portrayed incredibly positively. All the Kiltias we meet are saintly and generous. They are the most morally uncompromised, most purely ‘good’ group we ever encounter. In a world dancing to the strings of arrogant hidden deities, why is it the religion that’s shown so positively?

I’d ask what the relationship between the Occuria and the Light of Kiltias is, but as far as I can tell there isn’t one. It’s actually quite hard to figure out what it is the Kiltias believe. The clan primer claims that they’re polytheists with a dualist system of morality, but they only ever name a single god. Their role as a secluded spiritual order atop a mountain, renouncing worldly power, might make one think of stereotypes of Buddhism, but their care for the refugee seems more Christian, and their leader has a conspicuously Christian name. (‘Anastasis’ meaning ‘Resurrection’.) Their aesthetic at times might be more Islamic, fitting the Middle Eastern or Turkish feel of much of Dalmasca. What exactly do the Kiltias believe, beyond a sort of generic compassionate spiritual-ness? They occasionally mention the gods, but I have no idea if those have anything to do with the espers, the espers’ light counterparts, or the Occuria, especially since the one god they name, Faram, does not seem to resemble anything else. Another clan primer entry namedrops Ajora, the evil-demonic-Jesus figure from Final Fantasy Tactics, but – even though FFXII is supposedly a far-distant prequel to FFT – the primer’s description of Ajora doesn’t sound much like FFT’s Ajora.

On top of that, we see very few signs of religion elsewhere in the game. The Dalmascans seem to follow the Kiltia faith, with the wedding and funeral in the introduction performed in Faram’s name, but there are no churches or shrines in Rabanastre, and no one else has mentioned any faith. Is there any religion at all in Archades? Anywhere else? It’s hard to say.

You would think that, given the Occuria, the espers, and the FFT connection, FFXII would be an excellent choice for a story with a corrupt church. The dominant faith could worship the Occuria, and they’d then be exposed and cast down over the course of the story. But the Occuria seem to have no interest in worship.

So we’re left in this odd situation. The history of the world is controlled by hidden gods, but they play no role in any apparent religion. Most of the world has no visible religion, save one sect in the south. This sect is portrayed very positively and seems to be respected by all, but it has almost no visible teachings or doctrine.

I have no idea what this game is trying to say on the subject, if anything at all.

[livvyplaysfinalfantasy]

Please remind me to never again go solo into a recorded alliance run on the last week before a new expansion, because this run was rough. Fortunately, we didn’t wipe! But that nearly total party KO at the very very very end pretty much summarized my feelings.

The Orbonne Monastery might be one of my favorite dungeons in this entire game so far. I say this with every hint of bias: not only does so much of Orbonne speak to everything I love, it also has so many great memories from running it with friends. My first time going through Orbonne in particular was great, because I did it with @barbariccia​ and I was screaming at the turn of every corner. Tears were shed. It was incredible.

So here’s a run-down:

0:50 - Harpies in the jungle! This enemy design was lifted straight from Vagrant Story, and I let every team I ran with know this for the next five weeks. Please play Vagrant Story.

2:20 - Ivalice confirmed for the gays.

2:55 - Inside the monastery, the first boss battle is Mustadio Bunansa. Mustadio, one of the first machinists of the Final Fantasy series, has been transformed into an automaton not unlike those he researches. His fight has a lot of tricky AOEs and quick-loading mechanics, not unlike the moveset of machinists in Tactics! He has a really cool ultimate at 5:00. (After weeks of trying to figure out how to explain this mechanic to newcomers while shot-calling, I eventually resorted to just saying “expose your hole.” 1. It works. 2. No one ever forgets it.)

When defeated at 12:18, Mustadio fades back into his Hyuran form - and even his voice goes from mechanical back to normal. It’s a subtle detail but really, really touching. There’s no indication for who the massive portrait on the wall leading into the monastery might depict... but with absolutely nothing to base this speculation on, my guess is that it’s Ajora Glabados.

At 12:40, you head into the wine cellars - another holdover from Vagrant Story. I didn’t catch it in this video, but the first people to follow Fran and Montblanc into the cellar will see three rats running across stagnant water in a way that can only be a throwback to Vaan’s intro in the Garamsythe Waterway. It was around this part during my first run of Orbonne that I told Molly, and the other Riskbreakers over voice chat, that I was going to lose it if the next boss was Agrias. Sure enough, the next boss was Agrias; sure enough, I lost it.

Agrias’ fight starts at 13:12. Her voice acting is so good; the lesbian paladin aesthetic in her boss design is to die for. (I mean, the Enhancing Sword and the Ritter Shield play a key role throughout this fight, and they’re the most WLW weapons in the game.) Some other great references find plugs in this fight, too: one of Agrias’ many moves, at 15:58, is Northswain’s Strike - Ashelia B’nargin Dalmasca’s ultimate Quickening! But what really hits me, every time, is her dialogue when you defeat her (see 22:30): “My Ovelia awaits...” Agrias was the princess Ovelia’s protector and best friend in Tactics; in the PSP remaster, she was also the one who gave Ovelia the dagger that later killed her.

The next area at 22:58 looks like it was taken out of the Palace of the Dead - which is funny, because when the Palace of the Dead’s final room was first revealed back at Fan Fest 2016, everyone I knew who was into Ivalice was like “VAGRANT STORY?!” And Palace of the Dead was based on Matsuno’s Ivalice predecessor Tactics Ogre. That said, a recurring concept in Ivalice games is that of the “necrohol” - a city lost to the dead. This necrohol is Mullonde, which got its origins in Tactics as a city which was destroyed when Ajora Glabados was hung for heresy. Like in XIV, Tactics’ Mullonde lay hidden deep beneath the Orbonne Monastery.

At 23:25, you fight four automatons. The last of them is Dark Crusader, a Vagrant Story boss. In Vagrant Story, the Dark Crusader was summoned by the knight Grissom, despite losing his life and his soul being trapped inside his decaying body. (Please play Vagrant Story.)

There’s only one remaining option for the third boss of Orbonne at 26:26, confirmed as soon as Montblanc makes a quip mistaking the man ahead for Cid: Count Cidolfus Orlandeau, the Thunder God. “T.G. Cid” is a game-breaker in Tactics; he’s so overpowered as to be capable of soloing certain late-game maps. Similarly, Orlandeau was (is) the raid-killer. A lot of the mechanics in his fight require consistent coordination throughout the entire alliance.

Somewhat strangely, the music that plays during Cid’s fight isn’t from Tactics at all: it’s the final boss music from Vagrant Story! It’s a bit of a strange choice thematically: although the circumstances of Cid’s (and Mustadio’s and Agrias’) transformation aren’t ever fully brought to light, it’s hard to think that he would have stooped to the same lengths of greed and power-hunger and detached cruelty as Vagrant Story’s final boss.

Though I did just realize that this fight, like Vagrant Story’s final boss fight, involves lots of running around the edges of a circular platform. And, you know, lots of praying.

Anyway, please play Vagrant Story.

At 38:00, you finally enter the High Seraph’s prison. She’s creating auracite stones one by one, casting them to the floor. She suggests that you have come seeking her power but says to take the auracite and leave - that “mortal agency in matters divine shall not be suffered.” That concept is the direct opposite of XII’s plot, in which the villains are seeking to overthrow a godlike power on the course of history!

Throughout this fight, Ultima summons three of the Espers you’ve fought before: Famfrit, Hashmal and Belias. Before she can obliterate you and your party, however, the three guardians of Orbonne - Mustadio, Agrias and Cid - appear to shield you. Ultima reveals her final form and readies to smash the barrier, only for Ramza Beoulve to emerge from the aether to lend his own soul to your defense. I yelled the first three times I saw that, I’m not even going to lie. The next phase of the fight gets even harder - though I should say that the brutal tankbusters make it one of my favorite fights to tank. Minions bearing Ultima’s Tactics appearance show up in this fight, too, usually to deliver powerful AOEs.

Ultima’s dying words: “I am your mother. I am your maker! I. Am. Ivalice!” Shivers.

[meimikana]

Meimiday 2022 Wall of Awesome

GET EXCITE!

January 28th is my birthday, dubbed Meimiday several years ago by my friends (I think it was hojo who started it). For those years, I would spend all day watching streams from said friends playing games for my birthday entertainment. Ten years ago, however, when asked what I’d like to see I kinda just went “Why don’t you just beat some games?” and so the festivities truly began. Most of us frequent the Backloggery, so it’s kinda easy to see why it has snowballed~

GET DEM X BUTTONS READY!

Neko :B: & :C: inbento :C: Piczle Cross Adventure :B: & :C: Travel Mosaics 7: Fantastic Berlin

cephiyumi :B: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance :B: Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire :B: Color Slayer :B: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow :B: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

bat boss :B: Dark Souls: Remastered

Pally :C: Battletoads :B: Sega Ages: Thunder Force AC

eski514 :B: Sid Meier's Civilization® VI: Poland Civilization & Scenario Pack :M: Final Fantasy XIV Free Trial: A Realm Reborn (all relics created on free trial before unlocking HW) :B: Sakuya Izayoi Gives You Advice And Dabs :B: Castlevania: The Adventure :B: Crayon Physics Deluxe

Hojo :B: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings :C: Rare Replay :C: Genesis Noir :C: Mega Man Legacy Collection :B: Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below :C: Kickle Cubicle (At lassssst~)

Sobou :B: Super Neptunia RPG

Geminias :B: The Darkside Detective :B: The Darkside Detective: A Fumble In The Dark

Drumble :C: Shantae :C: Rampage :C: Eschalon Book II :B: Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced

iErebus :B: Metroid: Zero Mission :B: Super Mario Land

SaintTweeter :B: Deathsmiles 2 :B: Samurai Warriors 5 :B: Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth

Lyndis :B: Daggerfall

Chris :B: Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

Trace Bullet :B: Retro City Rampage

Krile :B: Yoshi's Crafted World

kariohki :B: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call

Rarutos :B: Boyfriend Dungeon :B: Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythmic Adventure 1

Endaso :B: Hatred :C: Ego In A Coma (自我、状態、昏睡。) :B: Midnight Shift Remake

Try4ce :B: Guardians of the Galaxy

Slythex :C: Watch Dogs: Legion

Macc :C: Super Mario Bros. 2 :C: Kirby Squeak Squad

John :B: Azure Striker Gunvolt 2

fireemblemlord :B: Guilty gear -Strive- :B: Killer instinct

Honorable Mention: Floony (headed off on a trip to the ancestral birthplace of snow) :B: Final Fantasy IX

Honorable Mention: Young_Scott :B: New Pokemon Snap

Honorable Mention: PaperLink :P: Gal*Gunvolt Burst

Honorable Mention: Hojo :B: Mega Turrican

Honorable Mention: Ajora (My wonderful, amazing girlfriend~) :B: The FFV event in FFBE :B: The Jegran related event in DFFOO

[endeavorsreward]

Thoughts and Impressions of “Return to Ivalice, Part One”

This is the only in-raid screenshot I took; getting through it was a bit of a struggle as everyone learned the mechanics. I’m mostly going to be talking about the story stuff, but one amazing note: the tanks pulled Hashmal out of the arena before it locked, and he just ambled all the way up that hill and over the wall before vanishing; it was amazing, and after a series of wipes everyone started laughing so hard that morale instantly improved and we went on to clear.

This post has a lot of screenshots and talking about reveals and pointing out a ton of easter eggs - major spoilers and heavy images past the cut.

“Some live and die not knowing they play a part at all.”

The Prima Vista set is amazing - a ton of new assets, well-arranged, it was just sumptuous to look at - anyone notice that one dancer just looked like Sydney Losstarot for the Hell of it?

As I said, I started sobbing when I got to the first reveal - that this Alma and Ramza’s father was a writer who’d been censored and had his funding cut for inserting politics into his fantasy stories. I can’t imagine how it felt for Matsuno to get to come back, and then to get to put that in this story. I’m so glad he got to have this.

I reblogged before the mention of Ajora, Mullenkamp, and Ashley Riot. The sheer volume of references, though, was amazing. I guess he had to top FFXIV itself, which has so MANY references to Ivalice all throughout its being that to make this feel “real” he had to lay it on - and it worked!

Not in a screenshot: Alma talking about her dad locked away talking to nothing like Doctor Cid.

I wonder if the addition of the play being a musical was because he loved “Zodiac” so much - his reaction on Twitter was so enthusiastic when that album was released.

Tactics owes so much to theatre, of course - the monologues are what everyone remembers from it, and the War of the Lions cutscenes are filmed in a deliberately theatrical way. It’s a very classical tragedy.

Some might claim that the princess was spirited away at the last moment, though, wink.

DO NOT BE TAKEN IN BY THE EMPIRE’S LIES!

I’M CAPTAIN BASCH!

This Ramza’s mother has a name: Tia! Tia, of course, is Ashley Riot’s wife in Vagrant Story.

So after this is when the raid itself happens: battles with Mateus and Hashmal were advertised - the fact that the other boss was Rofocale wasn’t. The fact that Argath’s lingering will remained and became the Lucavi Duma (MAYBE - see below) was not advertised at all, and was an amazing goddamned reveal.

Other, smaller things to point out, though:

-Screwing around with valves in the Garamsythe Waterway

-Battling Seeq raiders

-Archaeodemons that looked absolutely perfect

-Argath having stolen one of Meliadoul’s moves, looking right out of the original game

-The black chocobo stampede having a hilarious sudden AOE check when a red chocobo drops its fucking meteor on you

-Everything out of Argath’s mouth

This Ramza is right out of chapter one, though - he’s got that Garlean in him, arrogant and concerned solely with his own family. He’s also racist - he called the bangaa “lizards.”

So Ba’Gamnan shows up, quotes the Corpse Brigade’s line about “crimson snow” (now sands), succeeds more than he ever did in XII, and escapes with the auracite and the journal. And he gets to do a THIRD rendition of Delita’s line on the way out, too!

Speaking of auracite, hey look: confirmation of my theories and explanations of how the crystals work, how XII’s magicite is similar to IX’s (on board the damned Prima Vista) and everything. Sweet, sweet satisfaction. You all owe me ten bucks. Except @lioncid who never doubted me.

Oh yeah man same

Ramza and Alma Durai. Unbefuckinglievable.

I was grinning like an idiot.

Oh yeah man sa--oh..

This raid is now a race against time to translate the Durai Papers. It’s like they made this raid solely for me.

Ramza’s culpability is reaffirmed by Matsuno in this, by the way, which goes back to my points about the game calling out his centrism and its strong political message that’s directly relevant to our time.

The story of how the Lucavi are made in this version implies they’re solely extensions of dark wants, amplified by the stones. This fits with the thematic element of Tactics where each of the ones we battle in the finished release are one of the seven deadly sins - and why Rapha instead is able to heal Marach with one.

The wording here is strange, though - is Duma a dormant stone, or is Duma a Lucavi? Duma was a Lucavi in the original plan, but Ba’Gamnan calls his stone “the duma” and it’s Argath’s, which would mean his form was Duma, and the game doesn’t describe him that way.

It’s possible that Duma will be a later boss, so that there can be another new design, but what exactly is the relationship here?

And, uh, what exactly does Ba’Gamnan want? I mean, “power” presumably but what specifically does he want?

Chasing a criminal with a book is how Vagrant Story started so maybe we really WILL go to Lea Monde.

Koji Fox stands with everyone else in not being really sure which localization of Argath/Algus’s name actually works better.

DUMA is the key word in this raid (all “Duma/Doma” puns are preempted by Matsuno having one of the bangaa do it for you already, sorry)

I DON’T KNOW YOU TELL ME

This has been such a fucking joy, every second of this raid. Going to delight in coming back to it again and again over the months to come.

[tenebrismasque]

Just mere seconds before the more dragon like creature that she had seen in scrolls since she was a youngling had shapeshifted yet again; this time to a Twili much like herself. She had to smirk at noticing the minute look of displeasure at her little nickname for the creature. "And what exactly do females of my kind come to seek at your temple?" She was more curious what such a creature could be implying. "Your true form? And that would be?"

☽◯☾ Majora was in no mood to play games at this point in time, especially when his fun was being ruined already."Nothing to see for your eyes, that is for sure." Only those who actually attended his temple could see it. "You are unimpressed now, but if you come inside, I could show it."The creature, even in borrowed Twili form held a deadened look in the eyes, and the smiles and gestures seemed wrong even coming from such a flexible species. Luckily for Midna, Majora had an oddly playful personality mixed with the deadly side.

[ajoraverse]

3x5″ post-it note doodle. Angry Scottish Lion Hashmalum/Hashmal from Final Fantasy Tactics. The round thing on his tartan is supposed to be a clan crest badge, but I couldn’t get a lot of detail in. Also, I’m just kind of guessing at his crown because the in-game art cuts it off to fit his face in. 

[ajora]

Something I wish was, er, better examined is that while there is an element of a trans narrative in Faris’ background, it’s not the one that Western fandom runs with. Points:

She was born one way and assigned another way when she was found by pirates

She did not get a choice in this. She was 5 years old. May I point out another character who did not get a choice in this? Oscar from Rose of Versailles, who I suspect is at least a contributing factor to Faris’ development as a character (not to mention generations of East Asian stories about women assuming male identities to access male privilege)

It would have been dangerous to come out as a woman in a society that’s implied to be pretty sexist (cf: her lines expressing concerns over the pirates treating her like a fool for being a woman; this is more apparent in Japanese and I’ve never seen it really translated well*)

Most importantly: I have never seen a Japanese fan say they see her as a trans man. There’s some implication that she might be nonbinary in a secondary publishing, as pointed out by a Japanese fan I shadow-stalk, but I do not have that book and can’t say for sure. 

* My translations, and please forgive the roughness as I should be in bed by now: “Around the time when I was small, I was found by pirates and grew up as one.“ “So then you pretended to be a man?” “The pirates would make a fool of me because I’m a woman.“ [the line where Galuf says she’s too pretty to be a man is here] “But hey! Don’t treat me like a fool because I’m a woman!“ (thanks to this page for providing the dialogue in Japanese)

She is very, very explicit about identifying as a woman and says she is one twice.

[ajora]

Uploading オペオム screenshots while I wait for teleconference to start. Commentary in captions.

Notes:

The Dissidias bank on nostalgia and wow do I not mind. It’s good to see old faves and remember why I didn’t like others.

The older I get, the less I like the ladykiller-type characters. Petition to throw Edgar, Edge, and Zidane off a floating continent

The older I get, the less I like Laguna, too. He’s too old to be acting like he has no responsibilities. I also seem to remember that he’s a president of... whicheverstan. I wasn’t a huge fan of FF8

tbh it all feels like the crossover fanfics of old and I am not complaining.

Once you level Maria and Yuna nicely, they’re fantastically powerful. 

You get the FF5 girls through lost chapters, rather than the main story, and I’m side-eyeing that decision.

Bonus:

Seifer is a mess. I do like that they’re expanding on his knight complex though.

[ajora]

Hey. Fam. Guess who finally got a game working on the Galaxy tab. 

And yeah, it’s Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia. And pretty much for the singular reason of my FF5 gang is in it. 

Been playing at the local library, which has free wifi, because I don’t have wifi at home. So, my time on it is limited, which is just as well. 

P.S.

I’m kinda terrible at screencapping tbh.

Also! I don’t know how to switch to Japanese text, if I even can.

[ajora]

Continuation of Lenna scenes because I love her, foolhardiness and all.

And you can bet I stocked her with all the stuff I was collecting for her as soon as I could.

I need a ton more of those higher level crystals if I want her to reach her full potential, however.