Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Playing: Final Fantasy Tactics] Let's Play (2024)

Hear ye, hear ye! 'Tis the year of our lord 2024, and it has come to pass that Ramza Lugria is beset by enemies on all sides, and knows not whom to trust - yet it may be they who err in not fearing him.

The Story So Far: Ramza, scion of the noble House Beoulve, was betrayed by his own kin, who allowed his childhood friend Delita's sister to die. Separated from Delita, betrayed by his family, Ramza has abandoned the life of a noble and joined up with a mercenary band, only to be betrayed again by his new mentor after finding Delita again. Now tasked with seeing Princess Ovelia to safety, Ramza heads towards Lionel Castle, where Cardinal Delacroix could ensure Ovelia's safety. On the way, he has met with the Machinist Mustadio, who is on the run from the nefarious Baert Trading Company…

I. Cardinal Delacroix

Last time, we cut our way through Baert Trading Company goons, and finally reached Lionel Castle, where we hope to rely on the protection of Cardinal Delacroix.

Agrias: "I am Agrias Oaks, a knight of the Lionsguard. My companions and I have journeyed from Orbonne Monastery seeking sanctuary. By the grace of Saint Ajora, I beg you, lay open your gate!"
Guard: "The graces of Saint Ajora are in the keeping of His Eminence here. All who seek those graces are given like treatment - the gates of Lionel stand open to them. Raise the gate!"

Well, this is a nice surprise. I was fully ready to have to argue our way in or be told to fuck off. Our party is led into the castle, where we meet His Eminence Cardinal Delacroix.

Cardinal Delacroix: "I see, Lady Agrias. In such circumstances as this, I am fain to lend you whatever help I can. I shall dispatch a courier to Mullonde at once. High Confessor Marcel will have this news from my hand. We will expose Duke Larg's misdeeds, and ensure that no harm befall you, Princess."
Agrias: "Your Eminence, think you the High Confessor will hear our plea?"
Cardinal Delacroix: "Fear not, dear lady. You are in my care now. Princess Ovelia can scarce feel at ease while those tasked with her safety are vexed with such worriment. You may enjoy the comforts of the castle - wanting though they are - while we await a reply from Mullonde."
Ovelia: "You are most gracious, Eminence. Thank you."
Cardinal Delacroix: "So long as Saint Ajora is our guide, we have naught to fear, child. As for you, my young machinist, I have given consideration to your troubles as well. I will send a hand-picked company of my finest men to Goug to put an end to this Baert Trading Company."
Mustadio: "Thank you, Your Eminence."
Cardinal Delacroix: "Conditioned upon this: I would hear the reason they chose to pursue you and your father."
Mustadio: "This is - I mean to say it's not - "
[Mustadio looks down, visibly hesitating.]
Cardinal Delacroix: "Come, come. Mayhap this will give voice to your words."
[He produces a red stone that visibly gleams.]

It looks like he, too, has a piece of auracite.

Wait okay hold on. This guy has a purple cape, but it's over a gray habit. And he is a Cardinal.

…

He is literally an éminence grise.

Oh, and he's a Cardinal with a French name? This guy could not be more Richelieu-coded if he tried. I would trust this man as far as I could throw him and no further.

…

Sorry, let me elaborate because this is kind of a messy combo of references.

An éminence grise, or "grey eminence," is a term English borrowed from French, meaning a powerful advisor or decision-maker who operates "behind the scenes." It's not quite synonymous with "power behind the throne," because the éminence grise isn't necessarily actually ruling, but their words have considerable influence on those who officially hold power.

Cardinal Richelieu was a French cardinal who served as foreign secretary and chief minister to Louis XIII of France; for decades until his death, he held considerable power over French politics, far in excess of the nominal terms of his religious or civil office. Because he dressed in red and was a cardinal (referred to as "His Eminence"), he was nicknamed the Red Eminence.

Richelieu, in turn, had his own advisor, François Lecler du Tremblay, who himself had outsized influence over Richelieu's decision-making, granting him nearly as much power thanks to the trust placed in him by the cardinal; because du Tremblay was a friar dressed in grey, and held as much power as "His Eminence" the cardinal, he was referred to as the Grey Eminence.

In this painting, you can see Richelieu and du Tremblay together, l'éminence grise and l'éminence rouge in collaboration. Also a bunch of adorable cats.

Putting together all this, in Cardinal Delacroix, His Eminence soberly dressed in grey and purple (admittedly not red, but the historical connotations are closed enough) and with a French name, who is likely working schemes within schemes, what might very well be a fusion of historical references, du Tremblay and Richelieu fused into one man, the Grey Eminence of… The Church of Glabados? One of the Dukes?
Either way, a man to watch out for.

Delacroix asks the group if they've heard the story of the Zodiac Braves; Agrias says it's a fanciful tale she heard at mass and he chides her for that small impiety, then Ovelia recounts the tale.

Ovelia: "Long ago, before the mountains had ceased their wandering and struck their roots into the earth, the Lucavi held dominion over the world. Twelve heroes there were, who came forward to challenge these Lucavi. In a long and bitter struggle, they succeeded in driving the Lucavi to the spirit world, and Ivalice again knew peace. The Twelve each bore an auracite crystal emblazoned with a house of the night sky. And so in time, they became known as the Zodiac Braves. Ever after, when discord and strife paid visit to the halls of men, they would return to save us once more."
Delacroix: "You have clearly been a most apt pupil, Princess."
Ovelia: "Elder Simon himself instructed me at Orbonne - which reminds me of another thing he said. Saint Ajora walked with the Twelve, and together they saved Ivalice from ruin."
Delacroix: "We call the crystals of the Twelve the "Zodiac Stones." The stone you see before you now is a stone from that legend."
Ovelia: "Auracite - it exists? I did not think it possible."
Delacroix: "Or that it held the sacred power to keep the Lucavi at bay, eh? I confess, I feel some power deep within, but my eyes see only a common crystal."

Okay.

Okay okay okay okay. We're going to be looking at this in the context of the game proper in a moment but I just need to take a moment to-

Twelve? Crystals?? With constellations in them??? Connected to a group of ancient heroes from the mystical distant past????

Motherfucker.

FFXIV really is just The Best Of Final Fantasy, I keep tripping into new references every time I pick up a new game.
Wait, the description of Gariland said it was once time to a guy called Elidibus, the Zodiac Braves are literally the Convocation!! My mind is opening!!!

Anyway. 'Before the mountains had ceased their wandering' is a wild line to just throw in there. What the hell does that mean? Did Ivalice just use to have floating islands all over the place? Saint Ajora's story initially seemed like it would have been taking place during the Rome-equivalent era of this setting, and later details made it seem like this Rome was also Atlantis, but now it even more starts to sound like the world in which Ajora was born was a world of high fantasy and sci-fi technology, full of roaming mountains, airships, and with demons ruling the world with an iron fist, until the sinking of Pharism brought an end to that age and set us on the course of this relatively low-key late medieval/early modern setting.

Also - wait.

"Saint Ajora walked with the twelve Zodiac Braves."

THIS IS JUST "WHAT IF THE TWELVE APOSTLES HAD ANIME SUPERPOWERS," GAME, I'M ON TO YOU.

With that said, I'll note that Ovelia's story differs slightly from the one we'll get next time we get the chance to hit up a Tavern:

Tavernmaster: "Long ago, before Ivalice was united as it is today, the land was divided into seven kingdoms: Zeltennia, Fovoham, Lionel, Limberry, Lesalia, Gallione, and Mullonde. Each kingdom clashed with the others in an endless effort to expand its own territory. The conflict continued for centuries, until a brave and ambitious young king appeared in Mullonde. This king dreamed of uniting all of Ivalice under his hand, but such feats are not with ease achieved. Turning to ancient tomes and the dark magicks found within, he summoned a demon from the netherworld to do his bidding. But once unleashed, the demon could not be controlled. It slew the king and set out to destroy the world of men.Twelve brave warriors were gathered to slay the demon and the foul horrors that it had summoned. They soon defeated the horrors and banished the demon back to the netherworld. These twelve warriors each carried with them a crystal engraved with a sign of the zodiac, and so became known as the Zodiac Braves."

This more specifically refers to a single demon being summoned by one man and causing destruction, as opposed to a species of spirits ruling over the earth. It's probably just a choice of emphasis, though.

Mustadio goes pale, and the Cardinal guesses that Mustadio saw a similar stone himself below Goug. Mustadio reveals that when one of the auracite stones is taken close to the long-dormant machinery below Goug, it stirs to life; though Mustadio does not know the true power of the stone, it's clear Ludovich Baert wants to harness it as a weapon. His father would not give them the stone, and so they took him captive.

Cardinal Delacroix tells him to put his worries out of his mind, as the Church will swiftly strike-

Actually.

Delacroix: "The Church will see this matter dealt with. Our forces will strike, and wrest the Stone from their hands."
Mustadio: "Of… of course, Your Eminence."

We know that Baert does not have the Stone. That's why his men are hunting for Mustadio. Mustadio is either carrying the Stone on him, or has hidden it in a secret location. But Delacroix doesn't know that - he heard the sentence "My father would not give them the Stone, so they took him instead," and assumed that this meant the Baert Trading Company already had the stone, and immediately focused on retrieving it, rather than Mustadio's father.

And Mustadio does not disabuse him of this notion. He allows the mistake to go unremarked upon. He is clearly more suspicious of the Cardinal than he appears - and with good reason.

This is where we hit an interesting divergence point - Ovelia is, of course, now going to stay safe(?) at Lionel Castle. Agrias will, of course, continue to act as her personal guard. But what about Ramza?

At this point Ramza is no longer acting out of anything but the goodness of his heart, essentially. No one is paying his wages as a sellsword; the Cardinal has not offered to recruit him into his guard; his task to see the Princess safely to Lionel is over; Gaffgarion has betrayed him, Delita is in the wind; he has nowhere to really go. He could decide to stay with the Princess, double up on ensuring her safety. But I don't think our boy longs for the comfort of a castle, quite the opposite in fact. And Mustadio, his new acquaintance, is of course joining the assault on the BTC.

Ramza immediately volunteers to join the company headed for Goug. Agrias and Ovelia thank him for his service, expressing gratitude that they would never have reached the Cardinal without him, and wishing they could do more than give thanks. "Your words are all the aid I could ever ask," Ramza says, and he's gone.

And this here is probably the ultimate spanner in the work. Everyone else is making their moves with orders from above, everyone has schemes within schemes and is hiding their true intentions, and then there's this fucking guy who is like 'me and my five friends are going to act on our own initiative with no idea of the full picture and topple everyone else's carefully constructed card castles.'

Hopefully, at least.

We take a brief detour, checking out the town shop and Errands; I decide to send my troops on another errand - this one is about Countess Zalmasse's "darling pet," a beast by the name of Carrot. Should be easy, right?

Why the fuck would you keep a malboro as a pet and how are you still alive.

Well, nothing for it. I put my top men and women on the job and then head back to Orbonne Monastery to do turns. This immediately results in disaster: It seems like random encounters are keyed off Ramza's level, which is 16, and my "B-Team" of Ladd, Alicia and Lavian is completely outmatched at lv 8. Even with Osric and a lv 14 Black Chocobo on the team I am unable to prevent a permadeath when we run into a random encounter. But after reloading and trying again, I get lucky and manage to complete the entire round trip without a battle.

"Throw your main team at Errands and just hope we don't run into a random encounter, reloading to try again every time we do" is… Perhaps a little against the spirit of the game. This is probably not something I can reasonably keep doing for the whole game. On the other hand, I really want to do Errands.

Fortunately, we'll have found a solution by the end of this update, at least I think so. For now, we return to a victorious party and are rewarded with a considerable sum of gil. We then send everyone on a second Errand - this one is another 'get some loot from a sunken ship,' separate from the Hindenburg. Easy peasy, and our reward is more JP and Gil.

Honestly, I'm really starting to have far more cash than I could possibly hope to spend. I wonder if the game will eventually give me a money sink to put it to use.

Alright, one last little thing before heading on with the plot: Ramza is almost at Thief lv 4. Let's just do one battle to bring him over the top…

And there it is.

Upon reaching Thief lv 4, Ramza unlocks Dragoon, and the JP spillover mechanic (I assume from having Hadrian in the party doing Dragoon stuff) automatically pushes Dragoon to lv 2. With Knight lv 4, Monk lv 5, and Dragoon lv 2, Ramza has unlocked Samurai - the first job we've unlocked to carry requirements from multiple jobs. Will it pay off? We'll see soon.

Oh my god.

Its signature Ability is literally iaido. Every single individual command bears the name of a katana or blacksmith and starts with the line "A TECHNIQUE THAT RELEASES THE SPIRIT IN THE USER'S KATANA."

This is my home. I am never using anything else. Ramza is a Samurai now. With First Strike equipped to best represent iaido as a defensive technique. And… Martial Arts, probably? Or Mettle? Mettle is probably better but Martial Arts is real good.

Okay never mind it turns out I don't currently own a katana. I have played myself. Utterly bamboozled. Ramza will have to stick to Monk for the time being.

II. To the Clockwork City

Now it's time to get on with the show and head to Goug, the Clockwork City. Unfortunately, this will require us to go through the Tchigolith Fenlands, which are like if a Swamp card from Magic the Gathering had been turned into a battlefield map.

Wait, is that a pig!?

Ramza: "Just when I thought this fen could grow no fouler…"
Mustadio: "Solid footing scarce enough, and rain to rob us of that. Be careful!"

Mustadio's line is gameplay-relevant information, by the way. Unfortunately it's failing to convey the truly important part of the problem. You see, in addition to normal Elevation mechanics, watery terrain can also have Depth. A character in Depth 1 is, I think slowed down, and might have a penalty to accuracy? But more importantly a character in Depth 2 cannot Act. This is something I ran into in an earlier random battle, so I at least know to look for it.

What Mustadio hasn't told me and what the game is only now introducing in this specific battle for the first time…

…is that Swamps are poisonous.

Any character who ends their turn standing in the water gets the Poison status effect, which saps HP at the end of each turn.

Oops.

This is troublesome, although in truth it's trying to navigate the narrow paths of solid ground above the water to our enemy that's the more pressing issue on this map. Characters with ranged attacks at least can stand up on random islands or floating pieces of wood and try and get a character within their spell range, melee characters are in more trouble, requiring enemies to obligingly step forward to meet them.

I swapped Gillian over to White Mage because I honestly couldn't really figure out anything I wanted out of Speechcraft other than Praise and Preach, so I thought I might as well have her learn more white magic. This ends up fortuitous as most of our opponents in this fight are undead, who are damaged by healing spells.

Beyond this, and the inherently comedic factor of one our opponents being a bipedal swine, the battle is fairly straightforward and ends quickly. The new terrain factor is a fun complication, but monster battles in general are fairly simple tactical scenarios, so "monsters + new terrain you aren't used to" is a fun way to create medium-complexity maps.

"Ramza of the lake, what is your wisdom?"
"Never. Trust. Anyone."

Ramza: "Mustadio! Are you hurt?"
Mustadio: "No worse for the wear. The channel shore lies just beyond the fen. Goug is not far now."

Our goal lies in front of us. Surprisingly, entering the Clockwork City of Goug does not immediately trigger a battle sequence.

Pretty place.

Mustadio: "Baert's curs are nowhere to be seen. Yet there's no sign of a battle with Lionel's Gryphons. Something's amiss. I'm going to see what I can find out. We'll meet afterwards."
Ramza: "Where will I find you?"
Mustadio: "The Goug lowtown is just down this road. We're not like to draw much attention there."
Ramza: "All right. Watch yourself."
Mustadio: "Don't worry. I can take care of myself."
[He leaves.]

I find this beat and what comes next fascinating, because it's an insight into the specific limitations created by Tactics's choice of presentation. In a traditional Final Fantasy game, this would be a standard 'new town' beat; Mustadio tells us we'll meet up later, and then we are free to roam in Goug, talk to NPCs, visit shops, until we hit a specific trigger (likely going to rest for the night) that leads to the next plot beat. But FFT can't do that due to not having traditional FF exploration, but it still wants to convey that same feeling of hanging out in Goug for a bit, rather than just jump to the next cutscene. So how does it do that?

Well, it leads us back to the world map.

From this screen, we can access the Tavern, Outfitter, and Warriors' Guild. We can stock up on items, check out Errands (though this is a trap!) engage in Melees and Rendezvous if we're playing the actual PSP version back in the day when that was viable, check out our party roster…

As I had hoped and anticipated, Goug is where we can buy Guns such as Mustadio's, which immediately makes Orator a lot more appealing as a class. They can equip guns natively, which is pretty nice!

Oh, also.

We have a new Chocobo.

THE RED CHOCOBO OF DOOM.

It can cast Meteor.

I mean, Choco Meteor. Which isn't going to be wiping out encounters the way real Meteor might, but.

This is still very funny and I want to take it into battle soon, though maybe not in a story battle.

I believe this is the first time the "red chocobo who can cast Meteor" concept was introduced to the series, though I'm familiar with it from FFXIV memes - I doubt this'll be as much of a horror show, though, if for no other reason than because this Chocobo is on our side.

Anyway, as I was saying - we're given "access" to the world map, but it's actually just us being "in town" so we can use menu. As soon as we move to another node, we instead get a "Prepare for battle!" screen. Which is how the game replicates the feel of 'hanging out in town' from mainline games, was my point.

The diagonally oriented terrain being created by a collapsed windmill tower is genius.

Ramza is hanging out in the slums, standing atop a collapsed tower like a badass, waiting for Mustadio. Rain starts to fall and Ramza holds his palm up to it, pondering aloud whether Mustadio might have been captured.

Surely not, right? I mean, the last thing Mustadio told us before leaving was "I can take care of myself." Surely he wouldn't go on to immediately get himself captured.

Man's Voice: "A friend of Mustadio's, eh?"
Ramza: "Who's there?"

OF COURSE HE FUCKING DID. MUSTADIO YOU FOOL.

Mustadio: [He falls to his knees.] "I- I'm sorry, Ramza."
Ramza: "Have they hurt you?"
Ludovich Baert: "Not a step further. Prefer to keep a little distance, if you don't mind."
Ramza: "You must be Ludovich. Let Mustadio go. Now!"
Ludovich: "I'm a reasonable man. I just want the auracite. Once I have it, I'll loose him soon enough." [He turns to Mustadio.] "So, where have you hidden it? Tell me!"
Mustadio: "..."
Ludovich: "Is that how you want to play it? Maybe this will hasten your speech. You there! Out with the other one!"
[Another Thief emerges, pushing forward another, older, bound man.]
Mustadio: "Father! What have they done to you?"
Besrudio: "I'm… I'm fine, son. Don't tell them where it is."

All very dramatic.

You know, it would be nice to have a villain who actually abides by trades like "give me the thing and I'll let him go" sometimes. Every villain in fiction follows that ultimatum and gets the thing they're asking for with "now kill them," every time; it's the opposite of a twist. In fact, it's so much not a twist, that in the movie Game Night, when it turns out that the big bad crime lord who has the protagonists at his mercy does in fact just want the McGuffin they have in their possession and doesn't have any intention of killing them after getting it, that is actually played as a twist!

Anyway, it's very clear that Ludovich is lying, but he still has Mustadio's father hostage. Ludovich has the dad thrown into a room in one of these derelict flats and asks Mustadio if he feels like talking now.

Mustadio: "There's a chimney just behind Ramza. You'll find it there."
Ludovich: [To Ramza.] "Bring that to us, would you? Small enough work to spare your friend's life."
[Ramza says nothing, but follows the instructions, retrieving the stone.]

There's a brief back and forth of the 'cut them loose and I'll throw you the stone' 'throw me the stone and I'll cut them loose' variety but ultimately Ludovich has all the leverage here; short of having a means of destroying the stone, Ramza can't threaten him, so he ends up complying and tossing the stone over to Ludovich… Who allows himself a moment of gloating and in so doing commits the classic villain mistake of revealing too much.

"This should bring a smile to the cardinal's face."

So he was in cahoots with Baert the entire time. This - hm. Let's put a pin in that. For now…

Ludovich: "You've been most helpful, most helpful! Pity you've outlived your usefulness. Kill them."

Wow. Who could have possibly predicted this.

Ludovich leaves the scene as Ramza exclaims, "the cardinal was with them from the start!" and battle begins.

Unfortunately for these poor bastards, that is when my crew steps out of the shadows.

It's time for extreme violence.

Guys, I've fought off the Order of the Northern Sky. You ain't no Northern Sky. What are you? A bunch of cheap sellswords hired by a criminal corporation to do their dirty deeds? Who trained you? Where did you even find two summoners?

I appreciate that you thought this looked like a back alley murder, but unfortunately it is, in fact, small unit tactics.

Mustadio goes first, and, okay, this is actually kinda funny - Ludovich's men actually did the smart thing and took away his weapons before the fight.

Our machinist is fighting unarmed.

He still has access to his special abilities, he just has to use them with punches. So what are these abilities? They are Leg Shot and Arm Shot. While this seems like the Knight and Thief's laundry list of 'ability targets a tiny piece of an enemy's character sheet, there are too many of them with too little impact to matter' abilities, Mustadio only has the two, and they're both incredibly powerful: Leg Shot inflicts Immobilize, locking the unit onto their tile until it wears off, while Arm Shot Disables the enemy, rendering them incapable of acting at all, as well as react or evade. Upon reviewing my screenshots, this is what caused one of the summoners to flee to a corner of the map during our battle at the big mountain - Mustadio disabled her and so she couldn't do anything for at least one turn.

Those are extremely useful status effects, of the 'it doesn't matter that Mustadio doesn't have any others, they are enough to make a character viable on their own' kind, provided their success chance is up to snuff. As for that part… We'll have to see later. Here, Mustadio succeeds, locking a Thief into a 1v1 with him. The second Thief immediately climbs down to flank and stab the poor machinist.

Inevitably he's going to go down, and we don't really care. Our objective isn't "protect Mustadio," so we won't lose the battle if he goes down, and without his gun he's simply not worth the effort of reviving (Arm Shot and Leg Shot are nice but without the ability to use them at range it's not enough).

Now, this map is actually quite similar to our previous fight with the Company: the terrain is convex, with a rising spine in the middle and two valleys on each side (though not nearly as pronounced as the previous one), and our enemies are two Summoners, two Archers, and two Thieves, which is relatively close to their previous set-up with the Thieves filling in for the knives. There are, however, three crucial differences. The first is that the elevation rises much more softly, allowing even characters with low Jump rating to move relatively freely. The second is that the enemy is poorly placed, with both Thieves on one side, both Archers on one side, and the Summoners on the peak.

The third is that we have achieved total ranged dominance.

Back to Mystic, now equipped with a gun, Gillian is able to hit pretty much the entire map from a single position. Hadrian isn't quite as fortunate, as he still doesn't have his Vertical Jump 8 Ability, but I can still hit most enemies simply by finding a tile with a specific elevation score and hitting any enemy who shares the same elevation anywhere on the map. The map does not constrain me; it constrains my enemy. Ramza is free to go punch the daylights out of these two Thieves you can see and the Archers are on the other side of the cliff, unable to come to help. From there, Hester can sneak through with her high mobility (I have equipped her, and Ramza, with the Move+2 Ability of Thief) to go stab their summoners directly, then move Osric over to blast the Thieves with Ramuh.

One of the Archers attempts to enter the alleyway horizontally crossing the map to get a line of fire to someone important, probably Osric, and that just means she gets a spear to the face.

The enemy Summoners are relegated to summoning Moogle to try and heal their party instead of any of the high damage nukes Summoners are best at. And to be fair, Moogle healing is a decent fallback position; it's a wide AoE heal that does not cure enemies, especially good as the enemy withdraws and pulls together into a tighter cluster. But its damage doesn't outpace mine.

There is one hair-rising moment, when an enemy Thief actually pulls off Steal Heart on Gillian.

Charm means Gillian is now on their side, and this is pretty scary. Not because she has the ability to turn the tide of battle - her gun is good but not that good - but because I just bought her the ability that lowers Bravery in case we ran into a Monk or an enemy with powerful counters, and if she uses it, she could permanently lower Ramza's Bravery, and we can't have that.

Fortunately the solution to Charm is extremely simple: you literally slap some sense into them. As in, any physical attack will end the effect. Convenient!

And with this, it's basically just a matter of mopping up the remaining enemies.

And the battle is won!

Thankfully, Ludovich did not park a man inside the shack he threw the father in, so he's unscathed after the fight.

Mustadio: "Are you all right?"
Besrudio: "My wounds will heal. But the auracite - they have it. Ludovich will use it to wake the machines beneath the city. In time, he may even learn to harness the sacred power of the Stone itself. *sigh* I'd never thought the man we turned to for help would turn on us. There's naught we could do to foresee such treachery."
Mustadio: "Ha. Are you sure?"
Besrudio: "What do you mean?"

Mustadio: "I thought something of the sort might happen, so I took the precaution of readying a false stone."
Ramza: "And that's the one I gave Ludovich!"
Mustadio: "The same. By now they've probably realized. Ah, to see the looks on their faces."

Mustadio's defining character trait so far is how little trust he extends others, and it's interesting how the game is validating him for this. He refused to reveal his goals to Agrias and Ramza, he concealed from the Cardinal that he still had the Stone in his possession, he did not trust Ludovich's offer of a trade, he did not confide to his father or Ramza that he had made a false stone. In this, he was correct at every turn, and has scored us one of our few unambiguous wins on a strategic scale - we've retrieved Mustadio's father, we still have the Stone, and we've uncovered Cardinal Delacroix's treachery.

Speaking of which.

Ramza: "Then Princess Ovelia and Lady Agrias are in danger!"
Mustadio: "Danger? How?"
Ramza: "The cardinal was working with Ludovich to get the Stone. His gambit failed, but he may try to ransom the princess and Lady Agria for it now instead."
Mustadio: "That's ridiculous! He would only make an enemy of the Crown!"
Ramza: "Why do you think he wants the auracite in the first place? The people tire of war. They tire of these endless struggles for power. They are afraid, and they seek salvation. The cardinal means to use the legend of the Zodiac Braves to bring it to them. Only once he's gathered the Stones, he'll summon the Zodiac Braves and use their power to rule."
Besrudio: "Just so. We cannot give the Stone to the cardinal."
Ramza: "Then we must rescue the princess and Lady Agrias!"
Mustadio: "And we will. But the roads leading to Lionel Castle will surely be blockaded. We'll never be able to approach from the fore. We go by ship, to take them unawares."

…

Okay, there are several things to address here.

One: This is the first time I am kind of raising my eyebrow at the plot developments and how they're conveyed. Namely, where the hell did Ramza pull "Cardinal Delacroix wants to use the auracite to summon the Zodiac Braves to rule Ivalice" from? How does that leap of logic make any sense? How do we know the Stones can summon the Braves? Why would these ancient heroes help him? Why are we assuming a plan this esoteric instead of just a political alliance of convenience with one of the Two Lions? This is such a wild swerve.

Also by the same token, Mustadio's line about "he would only make an enemy of the Crown" is once again referring to a very strange and nebulous concept of "the Crown," similar to when Agrias does it, only when Agrias says it it seems to be because she is talking about some platonic ideal of "the Crown" as loyalty to a greater concept of 'the righteous ruler' or 'the royal family as a whole' (possibly to justify to herself protecting Ovelia), but we know that the main representative of 'the Crown' right now would be Queen Louveria, who is currently wielding her power to eradicate any threat to her son's inheritance including her mother-in-law and Ovelia, so who exactly is Delacroix supposed to be making an enemy of by hurting Ovelia?

This beat would scan so much more cleanly if it just said something like, "But he would make an enemy of the Crown!" "No, Duke Larg and the Queen want Ovelia out of the way to strengthen Orinus's claim to the throne! The cardinal will probably sell her to them to further his own agenda!" We would have the same immediate goal, the same stakes, but we wouldn't have the "Cardinal wants to summon the Zodiac Brave to rule Ivalice" randomly dumped on us with very little justification. It kinda feels like the game just needs us to have that information now regardless of how much sense it makes to come to that conclusion, so it just throws it at us.

Anyway. Ramza has once again been betrayed, and now we must hurry to save Ovelia and Agrias. The themes of trust and deceptive authority figures continue to build up; considered in light of what we said earlier, Mustadio not entrusting the Cardinal with his Zodiac Stone proved correct and Ramza entrusting him with Ovelia's keeping proved incorrect. Once again, an older, wiser figure in a position of knowledge and authority has deceived him. It seems that we are building towards the idea that none of these people can be trusted - only those who are Ramza's equals, and whom he is gathering around him.

Speaking of which: This "Mustadio Joined" screen? That represents Mustadio joining our party as a playable party member. Going forward he will not be the unplayable 6th party member acting on his own; he will be a member of our Party Roster whom we can choose to deploy or not, and have full control of when deployed.

…

Which means that in order to field him I have to keep one of Hadrian, Osric, Gillian and Hester out of the field. My previous blorbos that I have labored over for eight hours of gameplay. Just as they are starting to fully come online. And now instead I would have to find what toolkit to teach Mustadio to support his unique Machinist job that other characters can't unlock.

Bluh.

Let's not think about this for the time being. For now, we must reach Lionel Castle through sea.

Let's take a break for image count.