Revier's Chronicles of Ivalice - Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 3

 

The game chooses a rather interesting framing device, where the entire narrative is presented as an alternate account of history in contrast to the "regular narrative" often spouted publicly. We do not get to know much of this narrative, save that it involved a chaotic war that was eventually put down by a charismatic hero, Delita. Naturally, our historian-narrator chooses to focus not on him, but rather on our protagonist, who is apparently unknown to most people, and who is regarded as a heretic by the Church. For some reason, I'm allowed to pick his name and his date of birth.

Then, we cut to a panoramic cutscene sweeping over many a scenic locale, from lush forests to ruined towns. Eventually, it focuses on a band of knights rushing through the lands, mounted on chocobos rather than horses.

They eventually stop right outside a church tower, and it is here that both our protagonist, and their purpose, is revealed. The protagonist works as security detail for a princess, whom the knights are trying to abduct, presumably as political ransom. 

This queues forth a "battle" which, in true Tactics Ogre fashion, is more a showcase for how the battle system plays out in practice, with swords, arrows and potions all flying between guests, and no real odds of "losing", thanks to the presence of some overpowered companions on the "player's" side. In this case, they were a dark knight and a holy knight. Heh, clearly the best compliments to each other! The narrative even reflects this, with the holy knight being overtly polite and submissive to her lady, and the dark knight caring for little but coin.

The battle is won, but the commander ends up hoodwinking the princess' guards and stealing her from the back! He utters this very memetic line to the holy knight to utterly mock her, and then steals away on his own steed! But the protagonist recognizes him - it's Delita! The guy who'd become the hero of the land!

Our dear historian then finally cuts to the point and begins explaining how the protagonist and Delita got intertwined - it turns out they both studied at the same military academy, where they were reared to put down bandit infestations. Their kingdom had been economically horrific for a while, and thus, many people desperately resorted to banditry to feed themselves, leaving it extremely unstable and violent; hence their choice of career.

The town housing the academy was attacked, and they were pressed into action, thus leading us to our first fight! It was...pretty unremarkable, being mostly a matter of melee fighters beating up other melee fighters across a rather limited space, consisting mainly of two lanes of approach.

I then played a little with the units that had participated, and ended up discovering several interesting quirks.

Each class had its own pool of points, making customization more open ended than I had anticipated. I had also curiously unlocked two new classes already, and so tried them out; but none of them had any appropriate gear, so I settled for the starting fighter and item-thrower classes.

Continuing the story, I ran into another flashback flashing back even further into the past, right when the former war the kingdom was engaged in had ended. Unfortunately for the protagonist, it was also when his father passed away. His last words to him were that he should retain the honor of his house, and be just and righteous in his dealings. Hmm. Quite ominous.

The two lads then set off for the protagonist's family castle, but not before being accosted by a fight midway. This fight involved yet more weak bandits, but also a curiously dressed man in overalls. He, called Algus, turns out to be a rather curious and brash fellow, boldly asking the protagonist's eldest brother and current head of the family for an army to rescue his liege! Naturally, he is turned down, with the brother, Dycedarg, sensibly explaining the situation and assuring him that people wouldn't randomly cut down someone as exalted as a marquis.

He also clearly has an inferiority complex, as he then spends a fair bit of time talking about how, back in the day, his family too was highly regarded, and it was only one of his forefathers turning traitor that ruined their reputation and status. A very likely story, a truly important aristocratic family would have ways and means of covering up a scandal, and could just disown their "bad" members if worst came to worst.

Delita's and the protagonist's sisters then show up, along with the other brother of the family, Zalbaag. He's very casual about recent affairs, and slyly "hints" to the two young leads that they could go and rescue an informant who could provide more clues on the marquis' whereabouts. There's also a bit more dialogue that reveals just how stratified the world is, with Delita's sister getting mocked in her school for her low class and stature, being the only commoner in her class.

Storytime over. Their next destination is the far off city of Dorter. But before that, I find yet another quirk of the system - spells are not bought from any shop, but simply unlocked by spending class points, meaning that any wizardly class could, eventually, become all powerful on their own!

Oh, by the way, I did unlock two wizardly classes, to go alongside the two fighter-ly classes I had acquired earlier. The protagonist's castle sold gear for them, so I went ahead and made two knights and one archer out of my team. I would've made the chemist a white mage, but it turns out, he had no access to ethers, and MP was too limited to rely on casting healing, so I'll be keeping him in his starting class until he learns how to chug ethers. Lol.

That's all for now! Next time, I follow the lads as they decide to sneak out of the castle in what's likely an ill advised move. Until then!