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Revier's Chronicles of Ivalice - Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 13

 


The fourth and final act of this game begins with Revier and Malak discussing the church's potential motivations for acquiring the stones. They reason that the church could perhaps have its interests in seeing the two factions grind themselves down, making the existing nobility lose their power and legitimacy, and opening up a space for them to step in and seize power. Yet, the stones having demonic power, or potentially demonic power, at any rate, cast some serious wrinkles into their plan. It was far more likely that the church itself was being played by the cabal, who had motivations more sinister, as most of them were demons in disguise.

Revier finally decides to try and speak with Delita, as he's in the cabal's employ, and thus would be better informed of their true motives - assuming, of course, that he himself wasn't being used by them and being intentionally kept in the dark.


We then cut to Orlandu and his son-in-law Olan. True to his word, they have been trying to investigate the cabal to try and foil their plot. Unfortunately, their efforts so far have been unsuccessful, as their spies kept getting caught whenever they tried infiltrating close enough to obtain new info. Orlandu also reveals that he himself is in possession of a stone, so they're bound to come for him sooner or later! And when that happens, he vows that there will be "true war". Damn.


The dawn of a new act means the introduction of some new shiny items, including rings that protect against instant death and grant reraise, meaning the character gets to revive automatically after their death! It's certainly quite powerful, but at the moment I choose instead to improve Revier's equipment, as he was back to being a full fledged dragoon!

I also turned the archer into a chemist, as his bows were starting to fall behind, and he hadn't got an upgrade in a long time! Besides, new and exciting items showed up in the stores, including hi-ethers and x-potions! Certainly would be nice to use those!


The fight at the pass had Revier's squad face off against Goltana's border guards. The dragoons were a bit concerning, but on the whole the fight was tense without ever truly getting out of hand. A nice change of pace from Act 3's ending fights!

Bervenia had them face off against a mysterious lady who wanted revenge for the deceased cabal leader, as he was her brother.


However, she started within the vicinity of my spellcasters, and poorly guarded herself, making her pretty laughable. Bye miss! 😆I also got a bracer. a humongous stat booster granting as much as 3 additional physical attack! This made Revier quite deadly, with his regular spear stabs now hitting for 143 damage!

The fight at the river was a bit tricky, thanks to the red chocobos knowing a decently powerful skill that ignored evasion and had a fair amount of range, but they were quite frail in turn, and were easily dispatched by both Revier and the black mage!


At Zeltennia, the capital of Goltana's faction, Revier finally gets to talk with Delita. He confirms that indeed the church does want to grind down the power of the two factions by making them exhaust themselves in the civil war, then assassinating their leaders and inciting further revolts, paving the way for their rule. Revier pointedly asks him why he's working for the church, and Delita claims that he isn't, before threatening Revier and also reassuring him that he's "working for the same goal", despite all evidence to the contrary. The awkward conversation is cut by a commotion outside, as the inquisitor from earlier arrives again with a considerable force!


This leads to a strange, largely non threatening fight where he started in vicinity of Delita's sword skills, and oracles casted all kinds of goofy status effects on the team. The oracle was a gimmicky class that relied heavily on status effects, and on punching things with poles. Poles were essentially some sort of magical spears, having attack power on par with swords and doing fairly good damage as a result. However, these oracles didn't elect to use them, and as such, with Delita on our side, the fight wasn't very difficult. I took advantage of this and finished the monk's training, getting enough skillpoints to unlock Counter.

After the fight, they discuss uncovering and foiling the church's plot, and another mysterious lady, this time one sent by the church itself, saunters in. She informs that Dycedarg's forces have already begun moving to besiege Goltana's main border fort at Bethla. Delita not so subtly cues Revier to hurry up and intervene, and she berates him for being such a schemer. Lol.

And that does it for this session! The fights were overall a bit goofy for my liking, but the first battle was still tense in a good way, and there was some decent variety to them. It's also nice for the game to remember the civil war side of things, even though Delita remains untrustworthy and the fact that he seems to get no repercussions from playing literally everyone on every side is more than a little weird. See you next time!

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