#final fantasy leila

[edgemis]

Pirates Ahoy!

[adalheidis]

I don't often show wips but I'm going through and deleting those that are past their expiry date so I thought I might just as well share this unfinished FF2 art. I liked the colours I was going for so this is my way to save them, just in case.

[sileniadream]

An Instant Before A Gaze

With @garlean-empire 's Leila's hands

[akimojo]

Hey square enix can I have some more sexy pirate captain ladies please

[ultimaweaponorigin]

transmasc ver.

[eschercaine]

In this clip, we have Leila Malcal, a kind person who doesn’t like violence and sees it as a last resort; who loves her friends and wishes to protect them, willing to sacrifice anything, even her own life, to do so; and has special powers (that stayed dormant until she activated it).

And she is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto (Aerith’s Japanese VA).

And then we have Akito Hyuga, a soldier with a cold and calm demeanor, may be mentally unstable, as he is shown to enjoy battle to the point of blood lust, but has a softer persona and care for his comrades.

Not gonna lie, they remind me of someone.

I’m talking about pre-Nibelheim!Sephiroth, not the current one.

Also, Akito didn’t venture on the dark path unlike Sephiroth. At the end, he and Leila end up together.

As I watched it again, I noticed some similarities between the characters. Or maybe I’m just being delulu. 🤷

Okay, I’ll stop now. 🤐

[freyayuki]

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Cid Raines FR and BT Banner

The banners featuring all of the weapons (15cp, 35cp, Ex, LD, Force or FR, and Burst or BT) of Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII just showed up in the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia (DFFOO) mobile game.

I talk more about this in another post, but I already pulled a bit on this banner using tickets and I was able to get a copy of Raines’s Force weapon.

Prior to that, I already have Cid’s 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD. Have the passives for all of these weapons.

My Cid has his High Armor, and it’s been Realized to 0/3. He has his Bloom Stone.

All of his Summon Boards and his Character Enhancement Boards have been completed.

He has the following Artifacts: 3 ATK 108 with Guardian Corps Officer Up★★ (When inflicting knock back: Raises own INT BRV, MAX BRV, ATK, DEF by 5% for 8 turns).

After getting a copy of Raines’s FR, I equipped him with it.

And that’s it. That’s all I did with Cid. Have yet to get any of his Force Enhancements. Haven’t bothered to fully MLB his FR or Blue his High Armor. Didn’t even give him any Spheres, real or otherwise.

Thoughts about Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII

I like Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII (#ad) well enough but wouldn’t call him a fave or anything.

Cid Raines is actually a really good magical DPS, especially now that he has his own Burst and Force weapons.

Raines can launch with every one of his moves. Some of his moves will even battery the party for these launches. He also has some turn manipulation in his kit. He can even remove the buffs of enemies and any debuffs afflicting him and his allies.

But although Cid is really good, I decided to skip fully building him and maxing him out. I talk more about this in another post, but that was the conclusion I came to when I thought about what I was gonna do about Raines.

I thought that was the end of that, and that I wouldn’t be revisiting Raines or his FR and BT banner anymore.

But now I found myself thinking about Cid Raines again. This was due to a lot of reasons.

For starters, there’s the World of Illusions Spiritus: Pandemonium Spiritus quest. This fight is listed as “quest level ???” so presumably, this is harder than a Shinryu (level 300; currently the hardest type of fight in the game) quest.

I talk more about this in another post, but I’ve already cleared the aforementioned fight with the following chars: Rinoa Heartilly from Final Fantasy VIII, Lunafreya Nox Fleuret from Final Fantasy XV, and Selphie Tilmitt from Final Fantasy VIII.

Aside from simply clearing said fight though, we also got a time-limited mission that wants us to “Achieve grade A or better in World of Illusions Spiritus: Pandemonium SPIRITUS with Raines in the party”.

Haven’t cleared said mission yet. However, I’ve seen some vids that show that this Spiritus quest can be cleared even with a Raines who doesn’t have his FR and/or BT.

But aside from needing to run Raines through said fight, I also want to beat the Pandemonium Spiritus quest with Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII in my party.

I don’t need to do that but I want to. I’ve already tried this fight with Sephi multiple times by now but the best I’ve been able to manage so far was getting the boss of the Pandemonium Spiritus quest down to 8% HP before running out of steam. I talk more about that in another post.

Since I’ve been thinking about Cid and actually fully building him, I now also found myself wondering if he’d be able to help me beat the Pandemonium Spiritus quest with Sephiroth.

Perhaps Raines could replace Rinoa as my main DPS for that fight and he can help carry Sephi to victory.

Even if that’s possible though, I don’t want to build Raines for just 1 fight. So I’ve been thinking of where else I could use him. I could try to use him as my main DPS in upcoming fights.

Cid can also help me clear a Dimensions’ End: Transcendence Tier. But the thing is, I already have him locked on to Tier 5.

If I want to use Raines for a future Transcendence Tier, gonna need to redo Tier 5 to free him. We’re up to Tier 11 by now and Tier 12 is coming really soon, so Tier 5 has long since been powercrept. It shouldn’t be that hard to clear this fight again.

Another thing that was making me hesitate to fully max out Raines was the state of my resources. A lot of the resources needed to build a char in DFFOO can be really scarce.

So I’ve always been super selective in who I choose to build and max out. More often than not, I don’t fully build a char even if I manage to get their weapons.

That’s kind of what happened with Raines actually. Althought I’d already decided that I wasn’t gonna bother to build Cid, I still ended up tossing tickets on his BT and FR banner anyway. Then I got his FR but didn’t do anything with it so couldn’t really use him in endgame content.

Now that I’m thinking more about this, I’ve come to notice that I seem to be doing this sort of thing a lot.

I toss tickets on a banner and get the featured char’s weapons but don’t bother to do anything with them so they’re basically just rotting in my inventory because why should I bother to bring a char who I didn’t build when I can just bring in someone who I did fully max out instead?

Aside from Raines’s FR, I have a couple more Force weapons in my inventory that haven’t been limit broken at all.

Now I’m like - why did I bother to pull for these weapons if I’m not gonna do anything with them anyway?

Sigh. I really wish we got more resources so I can build more chars, so I don’t have to feel like I always need to save as much as possible.

Since I’ve been saving as much and as often as possible, I can see now that I do have some resources that I can spare for Raines. After all, he is a really good DPS.

But there’s no way I can fully build Raines if I’m still missing his Burst weapon. So that’s how I found myself going back to the World of Illusions Spiritus: Pandemonium banner 1. This is the banner that contains all of Cid’s weapons.

World of Illusions Spiritus: Pandemonium Banner 1

The World of Illusions Spiritus: Pandemonium banner 1 features the following chars and their weapons:

Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII - 15cp, 35cp, Ex, LD, Force or FR, and Burst or BT

Lulu from Final Fantasy X - 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD

Leila from Final Fantasy II - 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD

World of Illusions Spiritus: Pandemonium Banner 1 Tickets Pulls Results

Haven’t fully limit broken my copy of Raines’s FR so I thought it was better to pull on the World of Illusions Spiritus: Pandemonium banner 1 for a shot at more copies of said Force weapon.

I know there’s no way to guarantee that you’ll get a Burst weapon by using tickets but I thought I’d try my luck anyway. I have been able to get a BT just by using tickets. Of course, this doesn’t always happen but it’s really great whenever it does.

Anyway, I currently have 404 tickets on hand.

Got the usual bronze and silver trash and a few 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD dupes. But my pulls on this banner weren’t that bad. Actually got a number of golds. Here are the results of some of my more notable pulls:

3/10, came from a gold orb - dupes of Lulu’s 35cp, Leila’s 35cp, and Leila’s Ex

Was annoyed that I kept on getting dupes of Leila’s Ex. Because the B Sphere that it gives just raises its user’s MAX BRV by 10% when they’re targeted by enemies.

2/10, came from a gold orb - dupes of Lulu’s 15cp and Raines’s LD

Ugh. Wrong Raines weapon. Could I get his BT and more copies of his FR now, please?

Surprisingly, I was able to get a number of gold orbs. Too bad they gave me nothing more than dupes. Was getting kinda annoyed so I kinda stopped taking screenshots at some point. Or to be more precise, I stopped taking screenshots of everything.

Even got dupes of Lulu’s LD which I also found annoying. That’s because this used to be one of the weapons I was missing on this banner alongside Raines’s FR and BT.

When I pulled for Raines’s FR before, I was also able to get 1 copy of Lulu’s LD. Back then, I thought I was completely done with this banner so I went ahead and spent the 12 Power Stones needed to fully MLB Lulu’s LD so she can help me farm the Pandemonium Chaos quest alongside Raines and the other synergy chars for said quest.

To get dupes of Lulu’s LD now - sigh. Ah, well.

Since it didn’t seem like I was ever gonna get Raines’s BT, much less dupes of his FR, I was thinking of just stopping already. It seemed like it was better to just walk away from this banner now before I run out of tickets.

Was considering what to do now while still continuing to toss tickets on this banner (because couldn’t seem to help it. LOL) when - to my complete and utter surprise, a force orb suddenly appeared.

Welp, totally wasn’t expecting that at all. But super pleased to see this. This draw gave me dupes of Raines’s FR, Lulu’s Ex, and Raines’s LD.

Yay for my second copy of Raines’s Force weapon.

Probably should have stopped pulling now but decided to keep going for a bit longer. Still hoping to get a copy of Cid’s Burst and maybe even more dupes of his FR.

2/10, came from a gold orb - 2 dupes of Lulu’s Ex

Ugh. It’s also annoying how I keep getting dupes of Lulu’s Ex. Her Ex gives an A Sphere that raises its user’s INT BRV and MAX BRV by 10% whenever they deal weakness damage to an enemy.

Would have preferred to get dupes of Raines’s Ex since his gives an A Sphere that raises its users ATK by 10%. The only issue with this is that the user of said Sphere is required to inflict knock back in order to get the stat boost.

1/10, came from a gold orb - dupe of Leila’s LD

After a few more pulls, I got another gold orb.

I thought I was about to get the usual Ex and/or LD dupe. Well, I did get a dupe LD. This time, it was Leila’s.

But aside from that, I also got my third copy of Cid’’s Force weapon. Nice. Now if I could just get his Burst as well, that’d be really freaking awesome.

A bit later on, got another force orb. Welp, it’s like it’s raining force orbs on this banner. LOL. Wish I could get a Burst orb too. Raines BT, doko da?

Anyway, this draw gave me 2 more dupes of Lulu’s Ex as well as my fourth copy of Raines’s FR.

Now down to 134 tickets so I decided it was about time I stop pulling on this banner.

By now I already have enough dupes of Cid’s Force weapon so I can fully MLB my first copy without having to use a single High Power Stone.

It’s really too bad but it seems clear that Raines’s Burst just isn’t gonna show up from this banner unless I resort to using gems and possibly pitying it.

But I don’t want to do that, and I don’t want to spend any more tickets here so that’s it. This pulling spree is over now. LOL.

Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII Force Weapon

Went ahead and fused the 3 dupes of Raines’s FR that I just got to my first copy.

Now my Cid’s Force weapon is fully MLB. Yay. On a side note, I really like the blue background of a maxed out FR. It’s such a lovely shade of blue. What do you think?

Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII Armor

After maxing out Cid’s FR, I turned my attention to his High Armor. I already have a copy of his High Armor, and I’ve already spent a Book to Realize it to 0/3 a long time ago. So now I spent the 3 Ingots needed to upgrade it to Blue.

Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII Force Enhancements

As aforementioned, my Cid Raines already has all of his Summon Boards and Character Enhancement Boards completed. Did this a long time ago.

Now that I’m planning to fully build Raines, I turned my attention to his Force Enhancements. Spent all the points and such needed to get Cid’s Force Enhancements to Level 30.

Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII Spheres

Equipped Cid Raines with the following real Spheres:

Noctis Lucis Caelum’s (from Final Fantasy XV) Smash Attack Up Longer A Sphere

When inflicting knock back: • Raises own ATK by 10% for 8 turns

Keiss’s (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers) Link Attack Up Longer A Sphere

After joining in chain attack: • Raises own ATK by 10% for 8 turns

Cid Raines’s (from Final Fantasy XIII) Smash Raging Attack Up A Sphere

When inflicting knock back: • Raises own ATK by 2% up to 5 times, once per turn

I’ve had these Spheres for what feels like forever already. They’ve just been languishing in my inventory since the chars who I wanted to give Spheres to preferred other kinds of Spheres.

Cid Raines is actually one of the best chars who can easily and consistently make use of the aforementioned Spheres since he can initiate launches with every one of his moves and he will always join in the chain attack if he does that.

Cid Raines from Final Fantasy XIII Burst Weapon

Now my Cid Raines is nearly complete. He’s just missing his Burst weapon now. Just need to figure out how I’m gonna get said weapon.

I can pull on the banners that feature Cid’s Burst but I don’t want to do that anymore. Already spent a lot of tickets on his BT and FR banner so don’t want to suddenly switch to using gems there.

If I pull with gems, I could end up spending up to 120k just to guarantee Raines’s BT, and I definitely don’t want to do that.

Which means I’m gonna have to use my Burst Power Tokens to exchange for Cid’s BT.

The Burst Power Token Exchange Shop features all the Burst weapons that are currently in Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia.

You need 50 Tokens in order to get 1 Burst. Unfortunately, at the moment, I only have 13 Burst Power Tokens.

Gonna need 37 more Tokens so I went to my weapons inventory. If you sell a Burst weapon, you’ll get some gil as well as 5 Burst Power Tokens.

So I decided to sell the dupe BTs that I have lying around. These Bursts belong to the following chars:

Noctis Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy XV

Terra Branford from Final Fantasy VI

Zack Fair from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII

Garnet Til Alexandros XVII from Final Fantasy IX

Celes Chere from Final Fantasy VI

Too bad I don’t have any more dupes. IIRC, already sold a few before.

Anyway, the 5 I’m able to sell now gave me 25 Tokens, bringing my total count to 38.

Now I just need 12 more Tokens. This time I went to the Dimensions’ End: Transcendence section of the game. Clearing the quests here will give you lots of rewards, including a few Burst Tokens.

We can only carry up to 50 Burst Tokens at a time. If you get any more, they’ll be sent to your gift box where they’ll stay for 90 days before expiring and automatically being deleted.

Didn’t want to risk losing any Tokens so I opted not to collect the ones from clearing the Dimensions’ End: Transcendence quests. Can just get these Tokens whenever I needed them so there was no point in collecting them now.

So far, IIRC, I’ve never had to get any Burst Token here. Well now, that’s about to change. Went ahead and grabbed the 12 Tokens I need to finally get to 50.

Now that I have exactly 50 Burst Power Tokens, went back to the Burst Power Token Exchange Shop.

Spent all 50 of my Tokens to exchange for Cid Raines’s Honor the Fallen (XIII) Burst weapon.

Then I went to level up said BT from 1 to 50. After that, spent the Book needed to Realize it to 0/3. Then I spent the 3 Ingots needed to upgrade it to BT+ 3/3 or Green.

After that, I went to equip Raines with his new Green Burst so I can take a screenshot.

I also have a Level 5 of 5 Fist-type Ultima Weapon so that’s what I’m gonna be using whenever I bring Cid to endgame content.

Now my Cid Raines is finally fully built and maxed out. Can’t wait to try him out in endgame content. I’ve already seen him in action in co-op quests, and he is really good. Will try to use him as much and as often as possible.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Did you pull on either of the World of Illusions Spiritus: Pandemonium banners? What do you think about Cid Raines? Did you decide to fully build him and max him out? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging or replying to this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account

[bomberqueen17]

while i've got the file out

So the last bit of time when I was at the farm, I finally gave in to the pressure of @sassaffrassa's art and started reading the Queen's Thief series.

It's... It's great, I'm not as obsessed with it as some (the selective concealment of stuff that POV characters know but the reader can't Until The Reveal is... clever but rubs me the Wrong Way, not enough to throw me out of the book but enough that I do find myself resenting it, but totally understand how it works beautifully for other readers) but it is extremely, extremely ripe for fanfic, I allow that. And I found that it made me think about the fics of Ciri in Nilfgaard again. It certainly made me realize my error in not including any slaves in the Nilfgaard settings-- that's a big dynamic I missed an opportunity to include, but it's not a thing I like to think about and so I had mentally assigned it all to just be slaves working fields etc., which as anyone knows is like. Only a percentage of what societies that contain slavery actually use slaves for. There should have been enslaved people in the households, all through the society, and Ciri objecting to and wanting to change that could have been an entire underlying theme.

But it's not, because I had meant to write that story as a 5k oneshot, and also I'd entered it right out of Goblin Emperor fic-writing, and whatever that particular fictional society contains, it doesn't have any enslaved people. So I just hadn't thought of it.

Anyway, a digression, but-- it made me, on one exhausted evening, reread the next bits I was going to publish of Not A Crest, and then I still didn't feel like writing but I wanted to keep reading so I dipped into my extras/cut scenes/written ahead docs, and I found an entire a/u I'd come up with and wrote 5k of and then realized i couldn't possibly fit in anywhere.

But. It stands alone somewhat, and I could strip it out of this world and create a new backstory and file all the serial numbers off that too, and...

well now I have another book to write, so I've started a doc with the serial number transpositions in it, LOL.

Now that I'm done at the farm, I have December, January, and probably February without any major commitments. If only I can wrangle my ADHD-or-whatever into some kind of shape, I can hope to bang out at least rough drafts of a couple of these things, or at least enough of them to know whether there's anything to pursue. And, I hope, I can achieve some of my other personal goals around the same time as well. If only I could miraculously learn how to operate a to-do list and make/keep a schedule........

Behind the cut, I'm gonna summarize the a/u snippet and my plans for it. We'll see how this goes.

So this plot depends on Ciri's powers of teleportation and time manipulation, so it can't possibly be in the same continuity as the mammoths and the tall ships, but that means I have a ton of leeway in worldbuilding. It needs to be fantasy-ish but it could be sort of cyberpunk if I wanted. Really it could be just about anything, provided that not-Ciri (I've already renamed her Leila) can still uniquely manipulate time and space, and the mechanism of how she does that is unimportant. It should have a cost, of course, which will be part of the worldbuilding.

So the backstory would be that a larger kingdom/nation-state/whatever kind of polity gobbled up Leila's when she was a young teenager, and she spent her youth as a guerilla, fighting or fleeing and honing her survival skills. There was some larger existential threat, related to the as-yet-undone worldbuilding, but the reveal is that the larger polity attacked and absorbed its neighbors in order to fortify itself against a yet larger invading power-- could be another kingdom, could be like, space invaders, I really haven't decided yet.

Leila meanwhile has come into her powers finally, and has begun to be able to manipulate time and space. i'm going to give her a wise and powerful sorceress mentor, Yennefer-like; instead of Geralt she might have a sword tutor slash captain of the guard or something, an older man who loves and protects and teaches her. Undecided; don't know whether he's important for more than backstory.

And this is all backstory, mind. In this backstory, she finally comes to aid the armies of the polity she had been fighting against, to resist this greater existential threat/invader/whatever. And as part of that she's paired up with this universe's version of Morvran-- I've renamed him Corbin since it means Raven but I'm still open to changing my mind on that. Anyway he's got the important bits of Morvran-- he's both a hostage and a presumptive heir, far too young and far too responsible, a strange balance of overly powerful and completely vulnerable. And for the duration of the backstory, he is helping this mystical enemy-turned-ally (Leila) fight a desperate, scrambling battle using powers that none of them entirely fully understands.

And he has an underling, an aide-de-camp, a young woman who keeps track of things and isn't much of a fighter, and that's where Luliana comes in, and I think I'll keep her name since i made it up anyway. She's a relative of his perhaps, a little older than he is, but allowed to be close to him because she's so unimportant, and she's really his only friend. And she of course falls in love with Leila, who to everyone's surprise falls in love back. Corbin is secretly delighted with this.

The war is long and difficult and horrible things happen to everyone, but in the end they triumph. And Leila is brought back to Expansionist Polity, her own homeland being so thoroughly encompassed and destroyed there's no restoring it, and the leader (perhaps he was injured in the war? perhaps he was already dying? perhaps he's just a guy who wants to retire?) begs her to become his heir, which effectively deposes Corbin, who silently doesn't mind it. But the rest of the government does mind it, and insists she marry Corbin to give them stability. Corbin privately proposes that they have a paper marriage; he is not inclined that way himself, you see, and he would be delighted if Leila and Lu kept their relationship and just let him be nearby, the way they did in the war. Leila counter-offers; she'll stick around long enough to make everyone feel safe and happy, but then she and Lu will run off someplace to live in peace, and leave Corbin to rule and to marry whoever he actually likes. Corbin, too used to not letting on his feelings about anything, agrees to this. And so they all rule together for a year and a day or whatever, Leila gets a bunch of the reforms she'd wanted pushed through, they get along marvellously, and then Leila disappears mysteriously, as agreed.

She and Lu go off and live happily somewhere peaceful. She is unexpectedly bored, Lu is homesick and sad, and her sorceress mentor finally finds her and scolds her for running away. "Haven't I done enough?" Leila asks, and her mentor is like obviously not, but doesn't have anything to convince her with. Until a little later, when the sorceress comes back and tells Leila that Corbin is dead, assassinated. He could not in fact get by without her.

Leila uses her powers to go back, but arrives too late, finding Corbin's head on a spike and his hands nailed below. She notices his hand still has both their wedding ring and the ring she'd given him as an engagement gift on it. He was supposed to have moved on and found himself a better partner.

She musters the last of her power and jumps back a little farther, interrupting the assassination attack, but she is again too late; Corbin is mortally wounded. She sits with him as he dies, and with his last breath he admits that he has always loved her and never wanted her to leave. She needs to jump again, and doesn't have the power for it, but sucks the last of his life-force out to do it, which is unethical-- she also draws from his would-be assassins and the guards who betrayed him, knowing it's a terrible thing to do but will be largely erased by her abandoning this timeline. There'll be a cost and I'll worldbuild that in too, however it makes sense once I've written it.

And this is all still backstory, and the story begins as she arrives, just in time, to interrupt the attack and save Corbin's life, wounded but not mortally. But this time Corbin has some self-possession left, and he is still wearing her rings and apologizes for it and merely admits that he was relying on his enemies' remaining respect for and fear of her. We the audience have not seen Leila's two previous attempts and do not know what she knows.

(Yes, yes, I was complaining that the Queen's Thief series relies too much on this, but I admit I'm trying to figure out whose POV this is from, and I may well not use Leila's, in order to make it not dishonest to exclude this knowledge. We'll have to see what seems honest to me as I'm writing it.)

And the story goes from there, as she tries to restore his rule and tries to figure out which version of him is lying, the one who said he loved her with his last breath before she stole the rest, or the one who calmly, collectedly bled all over her and politely apologized for his inability to do as she had asked him to and find a different spouse.

Obviously I need more plot than that, but it will come to me, I'm pretty sure. But that's where I'm starting. As I've said before, I'm a pantser, and that means I can't outline the plot or I'll paralyze myself.

[sindirimba]

@bossymarmalade tagged me and did 20 songs so i'm going to do 20 songs too even though i was only tagged once. i can do whatever i want!

Rules: shuffle your “on repeat” playlist and post the first 10 songs, then tag 10 friends to do the same.

queens of the stone age - mexicola

metallica - the four horsemen

joan baez - the night they drove old dixie down

soul II soul - back to life

OMC - how bizarre

final fantasy XV ost - rodeo de chocobo

zebra katz x leila - you tell em

nitty scott & the polish ambassador - gettin outta the city

tupac - keep ya head up

pj harvey - the whores hustle and the hustlers whore

woody guthrie - miss pavlichenko

tom waits - flower's grave

boyfriend - jealousy

a tribe called quest - electric relaxation

the animals - house of the rising sun

tre mission ft thes - stigmata

rage against the machine - guerilla radio

george michael - freedom 90

naughty by nature - OPP

the ronettes - be my baby

but also adding a cheeky little 21 with the stooges - i wanna be your dog because that coming up right after 'be my baby' was delightful. twin confessions of love, equal in devotion and sincerity.

tagging: @gaal-dornick @nevermindirah @aliceat97point3 @cerise-hood @what-alchemy @meinenaffenhosen @mongoose-bite and anyone else who wants to play, i'm reaching my 'oh god i want to tag everyone but i don't want to be annoying' limit. mental illness.

[invisibletinkerer]

Some FF2 echoes

There are traces of and nods to Final Fantasy II all over the Final Fantasy games, but especially in Final Fantasy IV. FF2 was the first Final Fantasy that tried using a large and varied cast of individual characters, many of them playable (something that 1 and 3 didn't do), and it also tried making a story with some personal stakes for the heroes (also something 1 and 3 didn't do). On top of that, it introduced a lot of Final Fantasy staples, such as the Chocobo and a character named Cid.

Some particular character callbacks:

Yosef FF2 and Yang FF4. The middle-aged, bald martial artist. Has a family. Sacrifices himself to get the other heroes out of a trap.

Prince Gordon FF2 and prince Gilbert FF4. The cowardly prince who loses his castle during the war and needs to find his courage to fight back. Is inspired by a loved one who was killed in front of him (Gordon's brother Scott, Gilbert's girlfriend Anna).

Leila FF2 and Faris FF5. The kick-ass female pirate captain. (Although it's arguable if Faris is a woman. I think they're very easy to read as transmasc. Still a callback to Leila, though.)

Cid, of course. The very first Cid is - what else - an airship engineer. All the Cids are airship engineers throughout FF2-FF5, though not in FF6. And the only Cid that is playable in the Nintendo games is FF4's.

Baron Bogan is a minor villain in FF2, who has echoes both in Baigan FF4 and in Kefka FF6. Echoes in Baigan: High ranking official in the "good" country, and then turns around to the "evil" side. Gets turned into a monster by his new overlord. Echoes in Kefka: Dresses outrageously, is petty and cruel, and has a funny laughter sound effect that goes "ohohohohoho".

Some other minor similarities/callbacks:

Casting a spell so powerful that it kills the caster: Minwu FF2 does this to open the way to Ultima for the other heroes. Tellah FF4 does this to try to kill Golbez.

Saved by being eaten by Leviathan: In FF2 Richard is saved from the battle that kills all the other Dragoons on Dist because he was eaten by Leviathan. Your party finds him inside it there when you're eaten, too, and then you fight your way out together. In FF4, of course, Rydia is eaten by Leviathan and taken to a safe place to spend her childhood.

The ball dance: Both FF2 and FF5 have a ball dance celebration when people think the war is over (and then it turns out it's not). This dance is animated almost exactly the same.

[toa-secretsanta]

flowers we are - for leo

i reach'd my home – my home no more.

"Ah! Watch your step!"

It was a silly thing to say, he supposed, with her legs hooked through his arms such as they were, with her weight on his back, but Matthew heeded his own advice and hopped from one foot to the next, bootsoles gently tapping against the bark of fallen logs until he had passed the bush peeking out from underneath.

Azaleas. His lips curved, and he shifted her weight against his back, gestured to them. "P'rhaps I'll come back for them – would you like that? A bouquet of them, a whole bush for you. Lovely things, amazed they grow in such a place."

But they thrived in the cool and damp, in the shadows. Just as he did, just as Leila did. She was often likened to a rose, something that he had started (and don't let anyone tell you different), but it wasn't quite an apt comparison. She was lovely, of course – one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen, and funny and charming, and when he took in her scent he found himself being dragged into the fantasy of a time and a place where they might merely have been other people.

And the thorns, couldn't forget those, neither the two she kept at her hip nor the barb of her tongue, ready for whatever throat or stray hand came too close.

But roses were fussy things, preening and needy, keening for more and wilting when conditions weren't just so. Not Leila. She was hardy, she adapted, thrived under pressure and the swift turn of the howling winds at their backs.

And she reminded him of home.

It had been quite a while since he had gone home, hadn't it? In the literal sense, not in the fields of his memories, nor in the crook of her arms. A few years, by his counting, and Saints he had been a skinny thing, hadn't he? All knobs and knees and eager eyes, taking in everything that his fingers couldn't.

"This seems like the spot, don't you think?"

His feet sank into the soft, loamy soil as he came to a halt, a rolling embankment shrouded in moss and greenery and dappled light. Tipping his head skyward, he let out a slow breath from his nose. If he ignored, for a moment, the intense quiet and the scent of the sea, he might have been able to convince himself that he was faraway, in a little village tucked into the hills of Ostia, with the fog rolling in from the mountains to envelop him like a cloak.

"You'd have loved it there, you know," he said as his fingers found the earth. "Not the bustle of the city you're used to, no, but there's a charm to getting one's hands dirty. Hah – not that we'd know anything about that. A poor joke, I know, but it's different, watching things come to life."

Matthew almost laughed at the thought, a dry, strangled sound that built in his throat but did not crest – that the blood on their hands could have been replaced with earth, tilling the soil for fruits and vegetables, or flowers, even.

Once he might have looked forward to it, but he supposed their hands weren't mean to bring life, only to take it.

He took her hand in his, for a moment – it had always slotted so neatly into his, the shapes they made, their callouses the matching puzzle pieces for one another – and, for a moment, he could imagine that it wasn't as stiff as it was.

I've always got cold hands, she would have said, slipping her fingers against his skin to make him jump with a laugh, that's why I've always got to keep them moving. You might say this work was made for me.

He pressed his palms together around hers in a practiced movement and breathed into the space they made, the heat of his breath brushing tenderly against her fingers a final time.

"My father would have loved you," he said softly, drawing back long enough to heave himself from the pit he'd dug. "My mother, too, of course, but he and I are of a similar humor – I think he'd like to have seen you laugh. My jokes are better, though – obviously – so it might take him a few tries to figure out - "

He could hear her laugh then, the song of it flowing into his ears and sending a shiver down his spine, and he huffed gently, feeling the chastisement; "Yes, just like it took me a few tries, but who could blame me for being so stricken – ah, yes, tease me all you like, but even a man such as me gets the shakes."

She might have reminded him that the shakes were blood loss, two spirits of the night meeting in a safe house that scarce would have been so safe if she hadn't taken such quick action. Matthew laughed it off, called her his guardian angel, but she didn't seem to find it as funny as he did.

But you needed humor in their line of work, didn't you? Better to let them call you mad for laughing than to actually be mad, to toss oneself into the line of fire like that over and over again, and to stroll out whistling a jaunty tune.

"My mother would conspire for children, of course – take you to market, show you off, look at the catch her Mattie pulled, but it would just be a ruse for the hens to peck for kiddos. A matching set, if they could manage it – but you don't have to worry, I never wanted – ah, sorry I just – merely the mist – something in my eye - "

His voice shivered then, a great wrack against his frame, a warble in time with the rise and shake of his shoulders. Very suddenly, he felt rather small, a speck in the long dark green of the forest around him, the gaping grasping branches that reached, threatened to strangle him, to drag him underneath and Matthew felt his throat constrict around his breaths, increasing shallow.

He would drown here, if he stopped moving, stopped struggling against the tide. He could feel himself being held underwater, though there was no arm to scrabble against, no hand at his throat, just the gentle cold squeeze in his chest.

Matthew slumped, his back finding bark, and cradled his head in his hands.

Sharp brown eyes found him as he emerged from the mist and slunk back into the fold – they always seemed to know where he was, bar when he did not want to be found. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be found now, but let it happen nonetheless.

Mark cocked their head at him, eyes assessing as they took in the set of his shoulders, the cant of his head. If they saw the streaks that had dried on his cheeks, the rim of red around his eyes, they elected not to say so, merely a soft, "Matthew?"

He slipped a grin onto his features – the same as he always wore, but ill-fitting now, as though it was tailored for another. Perhaps it was, and he was only borrowing it. "Fighting fit, oh great mind. You can't think to move forward without me, could you? And leave me behind?"

There was an edge to his voice, but they elected not to comment on that either, merely tilting their chin upwards once in acknowledgement – still quiet, still assessing.

Finally, they seemed to come to a conclusion, and tipped their head in the direction of his young lord. "Go see Hector. If he assents, I assent."

Odd phrasing about it, but he didn't let it rattle him, didn't let the hard edges of his smile slip, his armor.

They thought to protect him, surely – to defend him in his fragile state against the blades of the Fang, those bared teeth from the rotting maw. They didn't seem to understand that those teeth had already sank into his tender parts, and they couldn't have held him back from putting the beasts down with all the might of Ostia behind them.

Or perhaps they did. Perhaps they knew that once they found the bastard that had killed Leila, it would be Matthew's turn to bare his fangs.

[freyayuki]

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Characters Upgrades Part 22

After finding out that, sadly and unfortunately, the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia (DFFOO) mobile game will discontinue or end its service on February 29, 2024, started spending my saved resources and upgrading the chars who I ended up skipping before.

The end of service announcement news came as a shock. I talk more about that in another post, but I really wish the news wasn’t true. Wish the game wasn’t ending at all.

But since the game is unfortunately ending soon, there’s no longer any reason to save resources.

Started working on maxing out chars who I may have skipped before or who aren’t fully built yet.

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Characters Notes

All the chars in DFFOO are currently at the max of Level 90 and Crystal Level 90. Too bad Level 100 and Crystal Level 100 never got unlocked for any char, not even in the Japanese version of the game.

Note about Spheres: some of my chars have real Spheres while some have RF Spheres while others have no Spheres at all.

Some chars have RF Spheres which I now replaced with real Spheres while some chars have no Spheres but I now gave them some.

Will talk more about Spheres in another post so won’t bother to mention them here.

Note about Artifacts: most, if not all, of my chars already have perfect Artifacts. So will only mention if a char doesn’t actually have perfect Artifacts.

Note about Bloom Stones: all my chars already have their Bloom Stone so won’t bother mentioning this anymore either.

Note about Summon Boards: most of my chars already have all of their Summon Boards completed.

But for a lot of chars, particularly the ones that I’m not currently using, haven’t bothered to unlock the tiles that would complete all of their Boards even though I already have all of the points needed to do so.

This is in order to avoid collecting the gems and tickets that come with completing these Boards so I can use said resources for future banners.

IIRC, only chars that have just recently been added to the game and who I ended up skipping don’t have any points needed to complete all of their Summon Boards.

Will only mention it if a char doesn’t have all of their Summon Boards completed.

Note about Character Enhancement Boards: if I decide to fully build a char (as in maxing out all of their weapons and such), then I make sure to also complete all of their Character Enhancement Boards.

If a screenshot of a char says they have 0 Char Boards completed, this doesn’t necessarily mean they really have 0 Boards completed. Usually, I unlock parts of a char’s LD Board, particularly the tiles that would give me their LD Call and/or LD extension passive.

If it’s available, I would sometimes also unlock parts of their Force Board, particularly the tiles that would give me their Force Echo and/or Force extension passive.

Will only mention it if a char only has a few or some of their Boards completed.

Oerba Dia Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII

Currently, my Oerba Dia Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII (#ad) has her 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD fully MLB.

Spent the Book and 3 Ingots needed to upgrade Vanille's High Armor to Blue.

Completed the rest of Vanille's Character Enhancement Boards and got her to Force Enhancements Level 50.

The only things she’s missing now are the following: her Force or FR weapon, her Burst or BT weapon, and the Force Board and Force Echoes feature but sadly, none of these are available in the Global or English version of DFFOO.

Eight from Final Fantasy Type-0

Currently, my Eight from Final Fantasy Type-0 has his 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD fully MLB.

All of his Summon Boards have been completed. The Character Enhancement Boards for his 15cp, 35cp, and Ex have been completed.

Bought Eight's High Armor then spent the Book and 3 Ingots needed to upgrade it to Blue.

Completed the rest of Eight's Character Enhancement Boards and got him to Force Enhancements Level 50.

The only things he’s missing now are the following: his Force weapon, his Burst weapon, and the Force Board and Force Echoes feature but sadly, none of these are available in the Global or English version of DFFOO.

Cinque from Final Fantasy Type-0

Currently, my Cinque from Final Fantasy Type-0 has her 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD fully MLB.

Bought Cinque's High Armor then spent the Book and 3 Ingots needed to upgrade it to Blue.

Completed the rest of Cinque's Character Enhancement Boards and got her to Force Enhancements Level 50.

The only things she’s missing now are the following: her Force weapon, her Burst weapon, and the Force Board and Force Echoes feature but sadly, none of these are available in the Global or English version of DFFOO.

Jack from Final Fantasy Type-0

Currently, my Jack from Final Fantasy Type-0 has his 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD fully MLB.

Bought Jack's High Armor then spent the Book and 3 Ingots needed to upgrade it to Blue.

Completed the rest of Jack's Character Enhancement Boards and got him to Force Enhancements Level 50.

The only things he’s missing now are the following: his Force weapon, his Burst weapon, and the Force Board and Force Echoes feature but sadly, none of these are available in the Global or English version of DFFOO.

Eiko Carol from Final Fantasy IX

Currently, my Eiko Carol from Final Fantasy IX has her 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD fully MLB. All of her Summon Boards have been completed. Her High Armor has been Realized to 0/3.

Spent the 3 Ingots needed to upgrade Eiko's High Armor to Blue.

Completed the rest of Eiko’s Character Enhancement Boards and got her to Force Enhancements Level 50.

The only things she’s missing now are the following: her Force weapon, her Burst weapon, and the Force Board and Force Echoes feature but sadly, none of these are available in the Global or English version of DFFOO.

Leila or Reila from Final Fantasy II

Currently, my Leila or Reila from Final Fantasy II has her 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD fully MLB.

Bought Leila's High Armor then spent the Book and 3 Ingots needed to upgrade it to Blue.

Completed the rest of Leila’s Character Enhancement Boards and got her to Force Enhancements Level 50.

The only things she’s missing now are the following: her Force weapon, her Burst weapon, and the Force Board and Force Echoes feature but sadly, none of these are available in the Global or English version of DFFOO.

Aphmau from Final Fantasy XI

Currently, my Aphmau from Final Fantasy XI has her 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD fully MLB.

Bought Aphmau's High Armor then spent the Book and 3 Ingots needed to upgrade it to Blue.

Completed the rest of Aphmau’s Character Enhancement Boards and got her to Force Enhancements Level 50.

The only things she’s missing now are the following: her Force weapon, her Burst weapon, and the Force Board and Force Echoes feature but sadly, none of these are available in the Global or English version of DFFOO.

Conclusion

So what about you? What do you think about the news that DFFOO is ending its service on February 29, 2024? Did you build any of the chars mentioned above? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging or replying to this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account

[bluebudgie]

listening to a recently uploaded two and a half hours review of final fantasy 2 (the nes version no less) by a channel with 100 subscribers (bless their soul) and they just said "leila is probably the most important of the temporary party members"

that's a hot take i havent heard before. minwu enjoyers can be heard gasping from several miles away

(i'm enjoying this review you don't hear people have elaborate opinions on this game every day)

[raul-volp2]

Ontem (Dia 20 de setembro de 2023) foi a tentativa de aprovação imediata da PL 2796/2021 sobre Marco Legal dos Games, uma PL que seria para regulamentação do setor de videogames do BRasil mas na verdade seria só para defender os Fantasy Games ou Fantasy Sports, os jogos de Bets que inundaram o Brasil nesses últimos anos, que cooptaram a PL para se enquadrarem na categoria de games e fugirem das possíveis taxas para esses tipos de "jogos". A PL de autoria do deputado Kim Kataguiri (União Brasil) colocaria toda a categoria de videogames (e incluiria os fantasy games dentro dessa categoria) como área de tecnologia, excluindo os jogos de serem tratados como forma de cultura e fazendo com que eles não pudessem usar esse tipo de captação para desenvolvimento do mercado nacional, o que seria um dano desastroso para a setor brasileiro.Para isso não foi consultado um único desenvolvedor, empreendedor, pesquisador e outros profissionais relacionados a áreas de jogos, apenas advogados e representantes da área de Fantasy Sports, que fez um lobby pesado não só dentro da política mas também dentro do setor midiático nacional, onde eles ja estão de maneira muito forte com marketing junto a celebridades do sport como Ronaldo Fenômeno e Rivaldo e a influencers digitais como Felipe Neto com a Blaze. As poucas matérias jornalisticas que falavam do assunto eram sempre voltada para mostrar a PL e os Fantasy Sports como algo positivo, sem mencionar o impacto ou opnião de pessoasl relacionadas a área de videogames, essas quase unanimes desfavoráveis a PL, os sites e áreas jornalisticas de games também em sua grande maioria pouca importância deu ao projeto o que acabou fazendo com que movimentos de Organizações de videogames do BRasil como a Abragames fizessem uma luta isolada contra a PL que se valeu muito de informação e movimentação orgânica nas redes de profissionais brasileiros para informar e chamar atenção a necessidade de discussão do projeto.O texto passou pela Câmara dos Deputados e no Senado estava nas mãos do Relator Irajá Silvestre Filho (PSD) que colocou o projeto para ser aprovado com ugência, mas graças a toda movimentação e apoio da senadora Leila Barros (PDT) houve dia 20 uma convocação de profissionais da área de games para debater a PL, sendo ouvidos pela primeira vez pessoas ligadas ao setor de games e não apenas de Fantasy Sports, incluindo Marcio Filho (Ring) e psicológa Ivelise Fortim para colocar em evidência o perigo reald e vício dos Fantasy Sports e defenderem o setor e a inclusão dele na área de cultura.No final houve uma vitória pois a PL saiu da aprovação imediata e o projeto será encaminhado para Comissão de Educação e Cultura, assim temos possibilidade de mudanças no projeto, retirar Fantasy Sorts dele e focar em atender as necessidades do setor fazendo com que desenvolvimento de games no Brasil tenha chances de maior prosperar, e uma esperança pessoal, que envolvam outros aspectos da áreas de games não só ligados aos digitais, como boardgames e rpgs de mesa

[nochi-quinn]

candela obscura chapter 1 episode 1: 🎶who you gonna call🎶

I'M HERE I'm just gonna stop playing totk on thursdays (lie)

background!!

matt!!

matt's scandalous naked wrists

oh the spotlight

oh auggie's art is good

the unintroduced characters being in shadow is nice

I need anjali in period dress forever

I'd vote for him

maybe even….president…..

ashley's face sjdflks

"I just GOT HERE"

don't keep ice atronachs in your furnace

the art camera panning around a desk instead of just the fade-in

"tol hat"

"as I expected" rude

laura noticing the light on her and perking up

murder hand MURDER HAND

voice!

art!

that is the correct response

donald :(

not the swamp gas

"who are you >:["

auggie (ashley?): mark me down as scared AND horny

robbie and laura already gossiping

"candela's recruiting fetuses now?"

void stuff

auggie is surrounded by posh weird women and is utterly unable to enjoy it

"we ain't found SHIT"

howard's kind of a bitch

she said the thing

"imagination!"

force hands

CHARLIE

"I don't think that was charcoal"

familiar (derogatory)

"well let's go home" mood

the more arlo talks the more I love her voice

"auggie's education goes far beyond book smarts" I love charlie

"did you need some help pulling that stick out of your ass?" I also love auggie

auggie is reminding of my kid when we ask her one clarifying question too many

I don't mean this in any kind of negative way, it's a totally valid frustration

"trauma bonding" sdkfjsl

calling panic attacks brain marks from now on

deeply enjoying auggie vs howard

not a chair

"we need a distraction. I'll go :D"

I love matt's Dumb Guard voice

"I'd love to help but I'm off flirting"

"I'm not very good at seeing things that are here"

"this is wood" dlkfjsl

Ghost Donald

"are you okay" auggie.

"you're so warm" that's. not great.

charlie

"it's FINE 👿"

"ROLL THEM BONES"

"I know who you are charlotte" lmao rip

fuckin leila

donald no. have you tried consent.

laura picking apart no matter what game system they're in

tiny magic messenger pigeons

Abodeless Individuals

ghost hand GHOST HAND

fable npc voice

"you're a bit older than I remember" "yeah, that's what happens"

oh bless her

mala: the circle learns about poor people

I was about to say "r.j. maccready vibes" and then I Remembered

roll for vibes

I like charlie as a bridge between the classes, as it were

"what's so funny?" "usually doctors are useful"

"rikers over it"

"sorry about the laughing at you" (lie)

howard has a death note

unecessary parkour

that one bit from arcane

can't wait for this ride at critical role land

"the children" howard

"help him, doctor!" AUGGIE

I'm a DOCTOR but not THAT kind of doctor I have a DOCTORATE but you can't HELP people with a DOCTORATE you just SIT THERE and you're USELESS

I may have seen treasure planet one too many times

this music is a+

charlie I don't know what you expected

mala: you're not his real mom

"I don't like the way you said 'great'"

oh ow

miroku

is this going to be the equivalent of trying to drive stick

"NO my sweet student"

not the final destination

fuck! all fails

vax get back in your own game

"you did it to yourself!"

mala: Matt: good rp. suffer more

"did it work?" "no! :D"

arlo and howard are A Pair of Characters

any time ashley does that half-lean shrug question thing

The Food Of Our Woes

hungry hungry ghosties

"you're bleeding out of your head"

not the chetney noises

oh shit

rip auggie

everybody keeps forgetting they can roll again

"SPOILER ALERT"

"leave it up to fate - no that's stupid"

robbie's so into this sdlkfjnls

old as balls

eddie? whomst?

"the gilded rainbow" gay as shit

"we were part of an industrial accident" swamp gas

:(

"I crashed a truck into a building! it didn't work!"

"there's a reason he's a professor" it's bc he's a bitch

"don't set it on fire"

"your club tried to kill me, not sure if want"

in a few hours the sun will rise

gay

ah the true fantasy setting - free rent

"I slathered a nice man up" hate it

acted bizzare

they got a good grade at ttrpg

oh I love arlo

of course it's doc cochran

I heard the "mmmmakinmway" in my head

[averrse]

ooc. look i know there's a brand new final fantasy out but i'm playing the pixel remake of II rn and obsessing over leila