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1* In a world of deceit, why does Ramza treat the Germonik Scriptures as, for want of a better word, gospel?
2** Because they are a religious document and that's how they're historically treated. "World of deceit" doesn't mean that everyone assumes everything they find is a lie.
3*** But they contradict the ''other'', more established religious gospel. Why does Ramza decide to discard everything he knows and accept these in particular? The only likely explanation seems to be that he was already doubting his faith after seeing a cardinal turn into a Lucavi, and the Germonik Scriptures provided an explanation that made sense.
4*** Given the circumstances involved (Ramza didn't exactly find the tome in a public library!) and that the person who gave the scriptures to him was a somebody who Ramza knew and trusted, there was no real reason for him to doubt it's authenticity. Also, we actually do read Ramza's opinions about the scriptures, and he did indeed admit that his faith in the Glabados church wasn't anywhere as strong as his brothers.
5* I know the real reason is technically GameplayAndStorySegregation, but still I can't help but ask: why did all the other squires alongside Ramza and Delita join the former in leaving the Northern Sky? They were just fellow students at the Military, why would they decide to join Ramza in going AWOL, fighting to support a heretic and in the process be seen as just as bad?
6** TrueCompanions
7** Ramza didn't become a heretic until after he fought the Cardinal, and anyone who was present for that battle would have seen him turn into a Lucavi. At that point they're all heretics, too - even if they wanted to go back, they now know too much.
8* So was Saint Ajora a man or woman? The Japenese ''FFXII'' Clan Primer and Ultimania call Ajora a ''Holy Woman''.
9** I always assumed the real Ajora had been a woman in life, and that the fact that the Glabados Church believed Ajora to have been male was a cynical comment on how religious legends are changed and rewritten, yet are always held up as immutable sacred "truths'.
10** Occam's Razor would imply that he is male, because the Germoink Scriptures, which were contemporary to Ajora's life, state him to be male. Also, FFT's Ajora wasn't even a holy person to begin with.
11*** Actually, it's probable that the "he's a woman" was mistranslated as a man in the ocidental version. The new (and more accurate) translation of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' eliminates all the gender-exclusive terms to Saint Ajora; less "he" -- which isn't different of "she" in Japan. Also, "him" being male needs a explanation as to "him" being called a woman in ''FFXII''.
12*** I should point out that the aforementioned Ultimania doesn't actually say the two Ajoras mentioned are indeed the same person.
13*** In either case, in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' at the end Ajora appears reencarnated in a woman and linked to the female sign, and cases of CrystalDragonJesus being female are not uncommom. If "he" doesn't receive any male-exclusive pronoun or a male-excusive term describing "him" in the japanese version, I guess it's more likely St. Ajora is a female in Japan.
14*** A dummied-out portrait of Ajora's true face exists... and it looks male to some people and female to others.
15*** See the portrait [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Ajora_Glabados here]].
16*** That portrait ''does'' appear during the game, in the reincarnated Ajora's dialog boxes. It's a modified Alma sprite. Is there another portrait which was dummied-out?
17*** Not the first, but the one at the end of the article. Taking on account the general design of males and females, I'd suppose it's a young man.
18*** This troper just sees Ajora as either a) transgender, b) bastardised by the Church, or c) male, but female when reborn in Alma's body. Potentially s/he has been reborn more than once sex-flipping each time, who knows.
19* What happened to Queen Ruvelia and Prince Orinas?
20** Ruvelia's profile indicates after a certain point that she was imprisoned on suspicion of killing her husband. Delita is not likely to have released her once he gained power. The Prince... well, if this MedievalEuropeanFantasy is anything like ''real'' medieval Europe, no ruler in their right mind would have a possible rival hanging about, so draw your own conclusions...
21** AllThereInTheManual, in-game at least, says the prince becomes a fugitive, settling down in Romanda...
22** At least in the PSP version, after the battle in the garrison the Queen's profile indicates that during the confusion she disappeared. Whether she was killed or escaped is not stated (as Alazlam Durai, who's the author of the profiles, doesn't know).
23* Did the other Zodiac Stones have demons in them?
24** Probably, but they seem able to "possess" only a few specific people. What's more, Malak was saved by his sister's honest wish for him to survive, so the stones must be similar to [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings The One Ring]], wanting to grant power and corrupt but otherwise inert on their own.
25*** It seems more likely to me that the Stones have power of their own in addition to the presence of the Lucavi within them, or that the Lucavi only responds to particularly evil or despairing personalities.
26*** My own theory is that the Zodiac Stones can connect to either Heaven or Hell, and which it does depends on a person's qualities. Since there's a lot more corrupt people than pure-hearted ones, Hell is the more common result. The Lucavi don't ''possess'' the Stones at all; they're just a convenient bridge.
27*** The above seems to be the accepted truth, considering the fate of [[spoiler: Rafa and Malak.]]
28*** Speaking of which, Rafa grieving Marach's death caused the stone she was holding at the time to grieve with her and then give Marach a convenient case of [[BackFromTheDead resurrection]]. Being that the stones reflect their owners and Ramza most definitely realizes their power, why the [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]] doesn't he use them for good ends?
29** What does he actually know about them? Outside of a few fairy tales and the Church appointed/approved story, (which he later discovers is a total lie)all he knows is that they turn people into demons more often than save/resurrect people. Bestradio discovers a few "good" uses for them like the Robot and summoning Cloud, and maybe later changing Reis back to human form, but, if these things are actually related to the auracite crystals from the FFXII, then he is a medieval, runaway, Noble, teenager, in possession of possible alien technology from an advanced era, that he knows almost nothing about. What good ends could he use them for? Give them to dying people and hope they aren't upset and angry enough to fuse with a demon? Like Weigraf did? If he was smart, the most sensible thing he would have done, is leave ALL of those stones right there in the Airship Graveyard with Altima's corpse after he escaped. So no one would ever get to them, at least, not for a very long, long time.
30*** FFXII seems to confirm it in a crossoverific way: now we know the names of the rest of the Lucavi, asuming they are the same and in the same Ivalice: Chaos, Zeromus...
31*** Actually, their names were already known. The 'wheel' graphic that is used as the background for some screens in the game has the names of the Lucavi written around it corresponding to their zodiac signs. And no, they don't match up with the FF 12 Summons (Pisces is listed as Leviathan, for example).
32*** But in their back stories none of them(excluding Adremelech/Adramelk, Zeromus, and Zalera {Ultima was borderline}) were actively evil(not even Chaos). Though we should be thankful that only one who didn't even show any signs of aggression(throughout any of the Ivalice based games) was [[RealityWarper Zodiark]].
33* Why did Delita persist in manipulating the various characters ''even though it was that sort of evil planning that got his sister killed?''
34** Because Teta's death broke his idealism so badly that he's become too GenreBlind to realise that he's turned into what he hates.
35*** He seemed to realize quite well what he was, actually. His experiences showed him that he'd be forever a pawn to higher powers unless he beat them at their own game, and that's exactly what he set out to do. And did.
36* What did Delita mean when he said that Teta saved him?
37** Most likely she had just enough strength left to shield him from the explosion with her own body, or that's just the way the blast caused it to happen.
38*** No, I thought it was pretty obvious: He meant that she saved him from a fate like hers, that is, living and dying as a tool and being manipulated by others. She made him realize that he needed to gain power himself if he wanted to survive and avoid her fate.
39*** Original japanese version used a word that can only translate to actual physical protection. So that implies the other response is the more accurate.
40*** Perhaps both.
41* What ''did'' Ramza get? The ending of the game is at first RocksFallEveryoneDies. Then Olan gets to see Ramza and Alma riding by at the cemetery, with nobody else around to witness. Then there are now-king Delita's last words.
42** His sister. All of Delita's machinations to become a king (And thus have power in both it's mundane sense and over his own destiny) were created by the loss of his sister and his inability to save her; thus making him determined never to let such an event to happen to him again. While on the other hand, Ramza explictly lost everything ''but'' his sister.
43** Also, I'd rather be ruled by Delita (Who never striked me as a bad leader, just not someone you want to employ) than the Knights Templar using the power of Lucavi to rule the world. Essentially, Ramza gets boned, but he does save the world.
44** It seems to me that what Ramza ''got'' was what Delita wanted at the end: the freedom to be whoever he wanted to be. Everyone in the game was railroaded into their roles; everyone was using or being used by other people for their own purposes, trying to reach their inevitable goal. Ramza, however, was unique in that he ''rejected'' his role and chose another one. When that role (hero) was complete, he left it all behind, with the freedom to chose a new path in life, something that Delita would never have. More emphemeral, but I think more satisfying: Ramza defied everything to do what he wanted, and came out worse off in history, but better off in his own personal satisfaction. I doubt Delita ever really cherished his throne, while Ramza probably loved every minute of his life after the game.
45*** This is almost certainly what we're supposed to take from the ending. An important point (mentioned above on the page, as well,) is that Delita has long since turned into a symbol for the system that breeds people like Algus and got his sister killed, and, worse, has done so while seeing the world for what it really is instead of blind belief in religion or noble blood like everyone else. His stance of looking out for number-one came about because he believed there was no other way to live in the world around him, but Ramza proved him wrong by choosing to follow his morality instead of playing the same game. An interesting way to think about it: if Delita's final line continued instead of fading out where it did, it probably would've been, "Ramza, what did you get? I got nothing." (This also makes the "Are Ramza and Alma and everyone dead" stuff completely irrelevant to this subject. It wouldn't matter in the slightest.)
46** I wouldn't say Delita turned into the symbol for the system that he hated so much. All through out the game he claims to want to change things, that is how he gets Ovelia to trust in him, and why he is so legendary in history. He did what he set out to do, he was a simple Chocobo/horse breeder (i.e. a peasant nobody), who rose up above all expectations, against a system completely stacked against people like him to become the King of Ivalice. He got what he wanted, he gave the manipulators who used him and everyone else, a taste of their own medicine, he used everyone around him to claw his way to the top, and changed things for the better, by proving that it can be done, and by people like him. However, he trapped himself in a web of lies and murder that he can never escape from, effectively becoming exactly like them, but not a symbol of them or their system, and their is also no record of him leaving any heirs, so there is no guarantee that all the changes he could have made during his rule would ever last beyond him. He and Ramza are polar opposites in that manner, Delita couldn't save his sibling, so he joined in the manipulation and betrayal games to take his revenge, and became forever trapped in it, with no hope of freedom or peace of mind. Ramza saved his sibling, and secretly the world, and got to leave with what truly mattered, his sibling, his freedom, and peace of mind.
47
48*** Assuming that wasn't the ghost of Ramza and Alma seen in the end, which would still leave the answer mostly the same: Ramza got what Delita didn't- to live a hero, and to die a hero.
49*** If it was their ghosts, why would they be riding chocobos? And the credits of the PSP version, at least, clearly show the two of them stopping at a stream to get water. Again, if it was their ghosts, they wouldn't need water.
50*** I think a better question than "why would they need water if they were ghosts" is how did they get out of the Death City? The only way out was destroyed when Ramza and the party went through the first time. This troper always assumed they had died as escape was pretty much impossible.
51*** Well, assume what you want to assume, I'm going by what the ending shows. And the ending shows them doing things it would make zero sense for a ghost to do.
52*** The Original PSX game also shows the same FMV ending, there are volumes of EpilepticTrees about whether the FMV is real or not, because if they survived somehow, then where is everyone else? And I am not talking about the generics, I mean, where's [[TheEngineer Mustadio]], [[LadyOfWar Agrias]], [[ActionGirl Meliadoul]], [[HalfIdenticalTwins Rafa and Malak]], and [[GameBreaker Grand Daddy-o Mr. Thunder God]]? Olan even asks ''"Did my dad died bravely?"'' or something to that effect. Yeah... I love this game.
53*** Yeah, all those characters you could have kicked out of the party at any time past their introduction. Same reason that Yuffie and Vincent don't show up in any of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'''s FMV cutscenes--they didn't want to make a bunch of different variations, so they made the cutscene showing all the characters you're guaranteed to actually have.
54*** Been a while since I played this game, but did Olan even know that Orlandu switched places with an imposter? If not, could imply that Olan thought Cid died during the battle at Bethla.
55*** For the record, WordOfGod (tweeted by Yasumi Matsuno) is that Ramza and Alma survived. It is even suggested that they went on adventuring in another country.
56
57* I can't believe this hasn't been brought up yet... Why, of course, the ridiculous break of (Gameplay and Story Segregation) in the mission when Teta dies. Even if you go to a ridiculous length to get a chemist up to her to heal her, or use a white mage, nothing you can do can save her. For goodness sake, though, it's only a crossbow bolt! Even level 1 mooks can survive that, and even if they don't, you have three rounds to revive them. That Just Bugs Me.
58** The battle system really isn't a simulation, so that kind of flaws the logic of that. The whole purpose is to provide the actual mechanics to play the game, not that a person actually needs to be bashed eight times in the head with a sword before they die.
59** An arrow to the midsection could do all sorts of damage to a person, especially fatal damage on the spot. Punctured lung, spinal damage, pierced her heart, organ failure from blood loss, half of these take mere minutes, even less, to be fatal to the victim. Level 1 mooks on the battlefield might take it to the gut or in a bone to stop, Teitra just didn't seem to be as lucky.
60** She's a level ??? Commoner. She's lucky she survived that long, probably because Golgaros didn't seem to have a pet cat.
61** Plus, if you look at Algus' gear, he's got a nice crossbow from a little later in the game that has On-Hit Poison. Chances are, she's in shock. She's got to get back up to shield Delita anyway.
62** The explanation is probably that the player party is canonically in too much shock at Tietra's death/their own defection to think to revive her. I picture the frame story going like this at this point:
63->Ramza: So then, Delita rushed towards Argath, and the rest of us ended up following.
64->Agrias: After using a Phoenix Down on the hostage, I presume.
65->Ramza: Huh?
66->Gafgarion: A phoenix down. They're sold in every store.
67->Agrias: Or a Raise spell. I seem to recall you mentioning that one of your fellow squires had graduated to White Mage...
68->Ramza: Uh, Ah yes. We tossed a phoenix down at Tietra... and uh... missed. That's right.
69->Agrias: Missed? That's the most transparent-
70->Gafgarion: I was starting to wonder why it was so easy for me to take command of this band when you had apparently been running it for weeks. Now I know. Ramza, you are a complete imbecile. Do you realize that Zalbaag probably was so willing to leave after he saw you because he ''took for granted'' that ''you'' would take care of her afterwards?
71
72* Just what DOES happen at the end with Delita and the princess? She..stabs him, then he stabs her, then he talks a while and...what? It seems really quite nonsensical, and for the life of me I can't figure out what it was supposed to mean.
73** That scene is set an indeterminate amount of time after the end of the game. It shows how Delita and Ovelia ended up. For an unknown reason, they wind up killing each other; it is implied that this is Delita's inevitable end. From Teta's death onward he doesn't have friends, just pawns. Even the woman that he loves, he used as a tool to obtain his status, and my pet theory is that Ovelia attacked him in self defense, knowing full well that he was coming to kill her. I'm sort of assuming that she needed to die for his purposes, and she overheard his plan... With his dying words, Delita thinks back sadly on Ramza. We know from the opening that Delita wound up taking all of the credit for ending the war and saving the world, so Delita is thinking back on the real hero of the story (see above).
74** It is fairly likely that he didn't actually die in that scene. It is a historical fact of the setting that he had a long and prosperous reign, and he was behaving very awkwardly about bringing her flowers. Had they been together for a long and prosperous reign over a (relatively) peaceful kingdom, he probably wouldn't have had the early-relationship jitters.
75** Well, she spells out why she stabs him: She saw how he manipulated everyone, including his best friend, and believed he would continue to do so, including to her. She believed [[HeWhoFightsMonsters he'd become the very thing he had always hated,]] and she hated him for it. The tragedy is, he was bringing her ''flowers'' for her birthday, and his actions leading up to that implied that he really had fallen in love with her (that's my interpretation, anyway). It wraps up the dichotomy between him and Ramza: Ramza may have been branded a villain by history, but he got what was really important, his sister and freedom. Delita would go down in history as a Hero King, but end up with [[LonelyAtTheTop no friends, and no love]]. What I don't get is, with all his strength and fighting ability, he couldn't have just ''disarmed'' her?
76*** Maybe he had counter equipped. In all seriousness, most soldiers would probably go for a kill on instinct. And since he didn't expect her to do, that he just reacted to being attacked. Excuse me if my memory of the scene is hazy and he had plenty of time to disarm before killing.
77*** It's over in a few seconds, but there is a noticeable pause between Delita getting stabbed and Delita stabbing her (presumably during which he's wresting the knife from her). But yeah, it probably was more of a gut reaction/reflex than anything, though.\
78As a sidenote, it bugs me when someone says they're confused over something, then summarize it with phrases like "so and so talks awhile..." '''Read the lines''' maybe and it'll clear things up a bit. They're not just there as window dressing, you know.
79*** There was too big a pause for this troper to believe it was justifiable self defense. I think he easily could have disarmed her and was able to fully consider his actions before he did them. The reason he didn't disarm her though is because she just stabbed him while declaring how much she hates him. He likey shares a castle and a bed with this women, he could disarm her now but that wouldn't stop her stabbing him in his sleep or poisoning his wine. She was too dangerous to live and he couldn't really arrest her since his crown stemmed from her. So murdering her and covering it up was the most logical option. It's only immediately afterwards does Delitia reflect on the fact that he's sunken so low he could kill the women he loves out of self interest.
80** In any game with [[TalkingIsAFreeAction written dialog]] and occasionally slow and deliberate sprite work, the literal time it takes for something to happen is not in itself reliable.
81** To be honest, it is hard to tell if he used her knife, or was carrying one of his own, but it would makes sense that he came prepared for such a thing, given how much he back-stabbed and murdered everyone else up to that point.
82* Is the continent used in this game's setting related at all to the one used in any of the other games set in Ivalice?
83** Yes, but apparently it takes place after the downfall of technology and some of the other races went extinct.
84** From what I understand, FFT takes place west of where ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' does. One of the pages on this wiki has a link to a picture with both maps put together.
85** There's still points of contention. The Ultimania Guide gives us [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ivalice-time.jpg this timeline]], which gives the possibility that the past of FFXII Ivalice was concurrent with the past of FFT Ivalice... but [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:Ivalicemapmisconception.jpg the map that fans stitched together]] supposedly contradicts the actual games. Maybe Ivalice is meant to be a land of legends, home to many tales and myths, and the histories we've seen are interpretations from distant observers. At best, Olan and Alazlam might have gotten bits of geography wrong; at worst, "Ivalice" is a different region in every different game, and the references between the various Ivalices are {{Shout Out}}s for fans rather than {{Continuity Nod}}s.
86** It seems we have a [[VideoGame/WildArms Filgaia]] BroadStrokes situation where it seems to be the same world but it's different enough that they might not be.
87* How did the mourners know that Alma was dead if she and Ramza were trapped in Murond Death City? Did they just assume she was after a few months? Did Altima's final attack send them back somehow?
88** Alma and Ramza never die(at least that's what's implied), but yes they just assume that since neither of them returned.
89* How did Alma gain approximately 50 levels from when she fights as a guest at the beginning of Chapter 3 to the final battle?
90** Perhaps being possessed by St. Ajora gave her that power, which stayed after she came out.
91*** She spent a lot of time level grinding when Folmarv wasn't looking.
92*** Fighting off possession ought to be worth ''some'' XP...
93* If we allow the possibility that Ramza and Alma (at least, but possibly even the rest of Ramza's troops) survived the final battle, how did they escape Mullonde at all? The portal connecting the city to the monastery was destroyed. Also, Ramza spent the game saving people, so why would he just vanish instead of saving his friend Olan/Orran from being burned at the stake?
94** We've seen Zodiac Stones save people in the past. They revived Marach, for one thing. Also, we've seen people affected by the stones teleport. The scene with Marach also implies that the stones aren't good or evil, they simply react to the one who wields them; therefore, my theory is that the stones saved everyone in the end by teleporting them out just in time to escape the explosion.
95** They all switched to Dragoon and jumped out. Seriously, though, if you've got 20 soldiers with you (possibly including a machinist and a robot) you can improvise some sort of escape. As to why they didn't save Olan...Well, we're not given an exact time frame for ''when'' he published his report; if it was months after Ramza and Alma fled the country, then they simply weren't around to help. There's also the fact that Ramza is branded a heretic, and if he shows his face, he's going to be hunted down.\
96\
97Honestly, I just don't like the RocksFallEveryoneDies ending theory because it makes Ramza's quest almost pointless. I mean, he was in it to save his sister, so then you make the ending where she--and everyone else--dies anyway? What was the point, then?
98*** But Ramza was ''already'' a heretic that everyone was hunting down. He killed (and was charged with killing) high-ranking Church officials, people probably heard how he killed a Marquis and other nobles, and so on and so forth. Unless they all fled Ivalice for another kingdom, they ''must'' have heard about Olan's report and subsequent incarceration. While I firmly believe that everyone did escape the Dead City and lived out the rest of their lives in peace, the fact that they let Olan face his own fate alone Just Bugs Me. It's even worse in the PSP version, which shows that Agrias cares enough about Ovelia to keep in touch, but she never went to check up on her Queen after the FinalBattle either.
99*** Yeah, he was already branded a heretic. And at the end of the game, everyone thinks he's dead, and thus nobody's hunting him any more. If he shows up to save Olan, that means everyone finds out he's still alive, and he's right back to being hunted. Plus, as was mentioned earlier, we don't have a solid time frame for when Olan was executed. If Ramza's already fled the country, then he's simply not ''there''.
100*** Olan was burned at the stake five years after the game's ending.
101*** Having engineers and whatnot in your party to come up with hare-brained escape plans doesn't help you escaping from another dimension that was opened up by crazy mage guy and then the apparent only way in or out was destroyed by said mage guy. I also don't think the teleporting thing works out because for one, not everyone who can teleport has a stone (Zalmo) and all the people who did have the stones wanted to get into Murond Death City, so why go through the whole complex ritual to open the gate if they can just teleport in with the stones? I also don't think dying after saving the world renders your quest pointless. Certainly he was fueled by trying to save Alma, but he was doing things to stop the bad guys before Alma was kidnapped.
102*** And none of the villains use the stones to bring someone back from the dead, either. They clearly do different things for different people, and if whatever power behind the stones is willing to pull off a full-on resurrection for the deserving, I see no reason they couldn't help Ramza out and get him out of the hell-hole as a reward for saving the world.
103** It was established that a Zodiac Stone could power an ancient robot, perhaps they could do the same for an airship. Take a look at the final battleground... Sure that airship looks pretty beat-up, but not so much that a GadgeteerGenius with some strong friends couldn't get it back to working order.
104*** Keep in mind that there's no guarantee that the player will have Mustadio in their party. While most players would want to keep him because he's unique and needed for sidequests, the game does allow you to dismiss him, and he can also die permanently.
105** Mullonde seemed to be a pocket dimension rather than a physical space in Ivalice, so perhaps its very existence hinged on Ultima's soul being trapped there - with the bodily destruction of Ultima, Mullonde may have collapsed in on itself and spat the party back into Ivalice proper.
106*** Actually, Mullonde is a physical space in Ivalice. It's under the ocean, to the East. The plot tells that Mullonde sank in the ocean, and game data show that Mullonde in fact has a marker in World Map, which the player never gets to see. It's in the sea, not very far from Midlight's Deep (Deep Dungeon). Maybe the party escaped from Mullonde through the Midlight's Deep?
107** There's no proof that there was only on entrance, they could have found another for all we know.
108
109* How can Balthier be killed in the remake of the game? He's the leading man, and the ''leading man never dies''!!
110** Because he's a cameo instead this time, and he realizes it.
111** If I recall correctly, he doesn't actually ''die'', per say, he just disappears. According to his profile, anyway.
112* Why are Ribbons gender-specific in this game when they could be worn by anyone in the mainline games? What reason did the developers have to make that change?
113** Probably for gameplay balance.
114*** Calculators, Blade Grasp, TG Cid, Agrias etc etc all laugh at your game balance.
115*** Not to mention that status effect negation doesn't really balance it much, given that statuses aren't really used.
116** Because it's bad enough that Agrias can solo the game once she gets a Ribbon and a Chantage. Give those two items to [[PurposelyOverpowered Orlandeau]] and the game almost literally [[InvincibleHero cannot be lost at that point.]]
117* Certain combinations of Ramza's birth month compared to Alma's (which is canonically August because her sign is Leo) can lead to UnfortunateImplications: you can make Ramza and Alma twins, or make it so that either one or the other was born several months premature (to the point of biological impossibility). I know it's a [[GameplayAndStorySegregation concession to]] [[HelloInsertNameHere allow the player to put their own birth date in for Ramza's ]], but still, ouch.
118** But what about the years? Alma is a couple years younger than Ramza, isn't she?
119*** Nope. I checked the PSP version and Ramza and Alma have the ''exact'' same age in their profiles.
120*** Well, the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' wiki gives Ramza's age as 17-21, and Alma's as 15, so it could be that SE just made a mistake on the PSP profiles.
121* Bringing the discussion over whether Delita ripped out Balamfula's tongue here from the main page. Original cut in the folder:
122
123[[folder: Ow, my tongue!]]
124** Having said that, the original [=PS1=] translation (and possibly the remake too) [[strike:imply]] [[EpilepticTrees some people seem to think]] that [[spoiler:Delita ripped out her tongue, rendering her mute. Also note that after the "killing" scene, Balmafula never speaks again in either version]].
125*** If by "imply" you mean [[spoiler:she simply doesn't talk. She's only in one scene after the "killing", and that scene is entirely about Ollan musing about Ramza and Alma, two characters that, you'll remember, Balmafula met for maybe 20 seconds total, so what are you expecting her to say anyway?]]
126*** But [[spoiler: she quite noticeably tugs on Orran/Ollan's sleeve and points somewhere, which could have used a speech bubble with her saying: "I'll be over there" or some such, AND you'd have to explain her scream, I doubt Delita would pull another stunt like Cid, pulling a Balamfula look-alike out of nowhere.]]
127*** [[spoiler:Her not speaking doesn't mean she ''can't'' speak; perhaps she just wanted to be quiet out of respect for the dead. And her scream could have been in anticipation, a shout of surprise. Plus, ripping her tongue out is a pretty grisly thing to do (I doubt she would've just stood there and let him, at least without him saying something first; so if he does it right then and there, he's got to wrestle her to the ground, force her mouth open, reach in, and yank the thing out), and is just as likely to kill you as if he had just stabbed her. You can bleed to death pretty easily just by biting through your tongue.]]
128*** [[spoiler: And creating an action that's never used before (or, you know, after, but it's the final scene of the game) is easier than just giving her one lousy line? you raise a good point and perhaps he DIDN'T cut her tongue but we still have an unexplained ''female'' scream discretion shot; should we move this to Headscratchers?]]
129** Just to answer the last point: There are a ''lot'' of one-time-only actions in that game. The thief stomping on his hat, for instance. That guy right in the beginning that gets stabbed, rather than using a regular slash (as cited in GoingThroughTheMotions). Clearly, the guys making this game weren't about what was "easier" to do, as evidenced by all the unique sprite poses in various in-game cutscenes.\
130\
131And the female scream discretion shot isn't unexplained: It's for narrative tension, and we know vaguely what's happening and why there's a scream. Delita attacked her. Him going so far as to cut her tongue out seems unnecessarily brutal, and the only evidence is that she doesn't talk in a scene that she's only in to show that Delita didn't kill her.
132*** Not to mention, what would cutting out her tongue even accomplish? Given that she's spellcaster employed by the Church, Valmafra is presumably well-educated. It's ''highly unlikely'' that she would be illiterate. If she could no longer talk, Valmafra would still be able expose Delita to the Church by ''writing a letter''. There were only two ways Delita could have kept her from revealing his plot: killing her or convincing her to switch sides. Cutting out her tongue would hardly have helped him accomplish the latter.
133** Orran's dialogue at the end (in both versions, but especially the PSP version) seems to contradict this theory. He was in the room at the time, and he wouldn't be speaking so highly of Delita if he had just witnessed him mutilating his own subordinate in his last scene.
134-->Orran: I believe Delita may be just the man you [Ramza] said - pure of heart, in the end. When Valmafra revealed herself for an agent of Mullonde, he made it appear as though he'd killed her, then let her run. I think he must have caught a glimpse of himself in her - a tool manipulated by Lord Folmarv.
135
136[[/folder]]
137[[WMG: Back to regular stuff]]
138* This supports my opinion that there's a way out of Murond/Mullonde, but why would the bad guys destroy the only way out if, indeed, it was the only way out? The place is a wasteland and has nothing of value. Unless Vormav/Folmarv's plan was to resurrect Ajora and then just relax with him/her and whatever underlings survive Ramza's rescue attempt, he HAD to have a way out planned, or something that someone could have found. Which is why after everyone survives the explosion (seriously, Agrias has Chantage and just hops back to her feet and then Phoenix Downs everyone), Ramza probably grinded his way to Kletian's level and ripped a hole in space using nothing but his now absurdly powerful magic.
139** It doesn't seem likely that anyone else knew that mage (can't remember his name) had destroyed the portal. He was the last one through because he was busy fighting Ramza, so by the time he got through and destroyed the portal, the remaining knights were ahead. It does make a Good Job Fixing it Villain moment though, if that is the case.
140* Fanfiction JBM: There are a number of stories which essentially retell the story with a twist, and inevitably Rad, Lavian, and Alicia are minor characters who get a bit of development, almost always with Rad being Gafgarion's evil sidekick while Lavian and Alicia serve under Agrias. Which I'm fine with. No, what gets me is that there is a third female knight at Orbonne, who warns everyone about the attack. This knight is NOT Lavian or Alicia... And I've yet to see a fanfic which covers the Orbonne event and even mentions her beyond recycling her line from the game script. She comes in bleeding, everybody goes out to fight, and then poof, she's gone.
141** She's probably dead.
142*** Which, in the game, is fine. However, in a story which focuses more on the characters than the adventure (as most fanfiction does), it's a little jarring to have someone be completely ignored when two other characters get completely fleshed out.
143* Ramza can shout at himself to make himself go faster. The mental image is hilarious.
144** He must be a Sayian!
145*** Especially since in Chapter 4, he gains the ability to boost his speed ''and'' attack power by screaming. Is there any chance at all that the developers ''weren't'' thinking of DBZ when they came up with this?
146* Something I noticed when I played Tactics Ogre (pretty much FFT's predecessor) was at one point of that game you got the chance to give a name to your army/squad. It was a cool way to personalize your army. But here, I guess what bothers me is that Ramza's army/squad was never given an official name during the game, despite the fact it (potentially) got so big and important enough to become its own faction gameplay-wise. It's also strange when you consider that over the course of the game Ramza's squad was at first connected to The Order of the Northern Sky, then became mercenaries, and finally vagabonds/heretics. As a squad of knight apprentices at the beginning, I think they should at least been given a platoon/squad/regiment number to differentiate themselves from other groups when they started out.
147** Platoon/Squad/Regiment numbers and names don't really make sense in the context. This was a small number of nobles, not grunt soldiers. Each one would be identified and recognized by their individual name. The mercenary phase wasn't an individual group, they worked for Gargarion. They weren't a faction during the heretic/vagabond phase. Also keep in mind they weren't a big group. The smallest named groups still numbered in the hundreds, if not thousands.
148*** That's not strictly true; we only ever saw four verified members of the Lionsguard (Agrias, Alicia, Lavian and a third member who gets killed in the prologue). Even if Queen Louveria and Prince Orinus each had ten times as many bodyguards offscreen (which probably on the high end; it's likely that their personal bodyguards would only be the innermost circle of protection) that would still be less than a hundred.
149** Not all StrategyRPG games go with the idea of a named squadron/platoon/regiment/[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance clan]]. ''VideoGame/BlazingSouls'', for example, has you in command of a literal RagtagBunchOfMisfits, with affiliations coming from all sides and total independence. ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'' justifies the platoon naming with the scene where Ronwey asks Denam to name his platoon, which he does. Another example is ''VideoGame/PhantomBrave'': Marona [[ISeeDeadPeople can summon dead people]], but to the outside world she's totally on her own unless Ash manifests himself physically.
150* So Larg and presumably Dycedarg and possibly Zalbag arrange a false flag operation to kidnap Ovelia and pin it on Goltanna. And for the most sensitive part of the mission - the man that will actually kidnap and transport Ovelia, they choose the guy whose sister they killed?
151** They didn't choose Delita - he killed and replaced the men they sent. In fact, they didn't even know who he was at that point. In one of the cutscenes between Gafgarion and Dycedarg, Gafgarion complains that the kidnappers aren't following the script (since he was attacked by mercenaries trying to kill him.) Dycedarg says that the men they sent were found dead in the forest near the monastery and that he has no idea who actually kidnapped the princess. Delita was a spanner in the works - that's why he ultimately ''actually'' delivers the princess to Goltanna, giving Goltanna a way to claim the regency and prolonging the war. In the original plan, Goltanna was supposed to be framed for the kidnapping so Larg could dispose of him, but he almost certainly wasn't actually supposed to receive the princess.
152* When you try to dismiss Ramza from your party, he is actively aware of you, and claims that you cannot find the truth without him. Normally, I'd chalk this up to breaking the fourth wall, but this happens in the updated, more serious translation as well. Is Ramza somehow still alive, talking to a person who represents the player with the scholar studying the War of the Lions?
153** The various in-game biographies refer to characters having a relationship with the player. For example, Alazlam says in Alma's biography says she is "Your younger sister". The player is Ramza, not the scholar Arazlam. And even then, Arazlam, who is a descendant of Orran Durai (an ally of Ramza), is implied to be publishing his report about 400 years after the events of the game. Ramza isn't even alive by the time the scholar narrates the story.
154* There's one thing I totally do not understand. In the start of chapter 2, when the party tries to save a chocobo from a gang of goblins, why is it a GameOver if it dies (other than the obvious "you failed to protect him" game mechanic)? Seriously, the story ''does not change'' afterwards and you can get rid of the damned bird if you want to!
155** You actually don't HAVE to save Boco if you don't want to. Just choose the first option listed when you have the choice. Still, it's actually a bad idea to NOT choose to save him. If you choose the first option, you lose 10 brave for the battle, 2 of which is a permanent loss. And besides, it's one of the easiest 'Save X' battles in the game, right next to the very next story battle at Zeirchile Falls, where you need to rescue Ovelia. Honestly, failing either of these battles requires either horrible luck, or actively sabotaging your own efforts.
156* How can you use jump techniques when you're indoors?
157** Let's just say Ramza and company won't be paying for the roof's repairs, and call it a day.
158*** But you can Jump in the Underground Book Storage, then you have another fight on the floor above and there's no holes. In fact, there are a number of enemy dragoons in that fight.
159** They're apparently jumping into an alternate dimension that contains the skybox. (Don't believe me? Have Ramza jump on someone with Blade Grasp. Ramza then becomes a useless sky-walker unless he has a gun equipped.)
160* Why does Agrias just give up on protecting Oviela after chapter 2? Why does Ramza give up on reuniting with her? As far as I can see, they have no reason to believe that she's no longer in danger.
161** Well, the immediate problem with rescuing Ovelia is that her trail runs cold after Lionel. She naturally turns up with Goltana some time later, but Ramza and co. can't exactly snatch her out of the headquarters of the Southern Sky. Furthermore, with the Church having revealed itself as not a safe place for the princess, there's really not much they can do for her besides hoping that staying with Goltana works out - which it does for a time.
162* At the end, after Alma [[spoiler:escapes Ajora]], some of the flavor text of her job and abilities changes as if to justify/imply [[spoiler:that her possession/involuntary activation of the Zodiac Stone]] has given her new powers, or has become some sort of a Demigod (at least in the original translation). Does this mean that [[spoiler:she separated herself from Ajora by making a wish to Virgo, much like Rapha accidentally did to revive Marach]]? Or did she gain the same knowledge that [[spoiler:Ajora once had]]? Or did she simply decide that the gloves are off and remembered her clerical training? Just how did she become so... ''competent?''
163* Why did the church keep the Durai papers? Why wouldn't they just outright destroy something that paints the church in such a bad and heretical light? And being released centuries later only paint the church as such.
164** The real-life Catholic church also has a library in the Vatican containing copies of texts which can't be dated to an actual period of history and/or contains stuff that has since been classified as heretical. If I had to guess, the thinking is that they hold onto those texts just in case any of it is validated later. Presumably there were some Ivalician clergy who were more like Simon who had enough political influence to keep the papers around for them to be released once the politics shifted.
165* Who is Prince Clemmense? He was mentioned in the ending as the person who had Olan executed and confiscated his papers but who was he to the royal family?
166* Here is a major headscratcher. When Ajora/Altima is revived, and the final battle begins, why didn't Altima just summon or revive all of the other Lucavi to assist him/her in the battle against Ramza? The whole purpose of the War was to revive Altima/Bloody Angel so they could come and go as they please right? So they wouldn't have had to depend on the Stones and host bodies. Adramelk was implying this just before he exploded, and later Vormav and Elmedor practically confirm it. Why not summon ALL of them there to that spot to protect her, or at least the ones who Ramza had not yet defeated, like Taurus or Libra, or at least buy her enough time to flee the area? If Altima needed the stones, well Ramza did have them with him, he collected most if not all of them beforehand, and Hashmal's Leo stone was there on site too. Power for such a ritual? Altima had plenty of power to summon other demons to the fight, and transform and blow up the area, so why not summon the the other Lucavi, or just instantly teleport away like Weigraf/Belial did? Don't you think a final showdown with ALL of the Lucavi at once would have made for a final boss fight truly worthy of a Final Fantasy game? Altima/Ajora's escape with Ramza and Alma hunting for her, would have also made for an awesome sequel too.
167** Probably (s)he couldn't do so without their respective Zodiac stones, which were in Ramza's possession. Just being near them wasn't enough.
168** That is what I am talking about, with Altima revived now, they didn't need host bodies, the stones were just receptacles for their power, they could now manifest on their own. Even if they needed the stones, they were all right there on site in Ramza's bag, at least 12 beacons (13 if you count the Leo stone) for them to home in on and manifest from, we also know they didn't even require a ritual for summoning, as proven in the scene with Weigraf, they can just activate and can move on their own. Even if the ones who were recently defeated needed time to recharge before coming back, all of the others didn't. One would think that with their boss who (provides that much-desired advantage) is now under attack, why wouldn't they come to protect her, or at least buy her time to escape?
169* How is Ramza able to recruit new soldiers in the later part of the game? At that point you're a wanted criminal widely believed to have murdered a bishop (and, well, technically you did kill one, even if it was self-defense after he revealed himself as a demon.) Ramza can't just walk into a bar and hire people, and even if he used intermediaries, lots of people would balk at working with him once they found out who he was.
170** Because he has a lot of money. He doesn't walk into bars, he walks into adventuring guilds and such. Just because he's "officially" a wanted criminal doesn't mean that there's no such things as morally ambiguous mercenaries.
171** Remember the kingdom is also in a time of financial hardship, the main government is split in a civil war, and they are doing it at the expense of the common people. Meanwhile, the church (those that aren't demons anyway), isn't doing anything to help either. It is perfectly reasonable that a lot of people desperate to make money would gladly work for a "criminal". After all, the money is legit from killing monsters and other mercenary jobs, if it means feeding and housing their families, why not?
172* Why does Agrias pretty much drop out of the plot after she joins your party? As a Holy Knight who was present for Cardinal Delacroix's death, she should be as noteworthy as Ramza (who is ultimately just a noble's bastard); furthermore, depending on the composition of your main party at the time, it's entirely plausible that the majority of your group is loyal to her and not Ramza. She ought to be taking point in discussions with the Church whenever you're accused of heresy, and ought to be prominently accused of heresy herself. Yet outside of one optional cutscene she essentially ceases to exist near the end of Chapter 2; nobody seems to notice or care that she is hanging out with the "heretic" Ramza. She doesn't even have any reaction to Delacroix turning into a demon right in front of her!
173** It's the same with all guest characters joining your party. The game can't force you to keep them, so they're given no presence in the story in the scenario that you ditched them.
174** It's kind of a [[FranchiseOriginalSin problem Matsuno's games]] had back from ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'' where once you recruit special characters, they get sidelined. Unlike that game, the characters here don't get any [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot closure in the ending if you kept them alive]].
175* What are the Holy Swordsman's techniques? They're not effected by silence, charge time, or faith scores, so they aren't magic. They don't seem to just be fancy maneuvers. Some of the descriptions make reference of "holy energy," but the existence of God is at best an open question. How can some characters swing a sword around and get supernatural effects, and why is it something only a select few can learn to do?
176** Holy / spiritual energy just seems to be a thing in the setting. Given that Orlandeau can learn them and doesn't seem particularly religious (his starting faith is an ok-ish 65), given that many evil villains use similar techniques, and given that the techniques themselves work off Bravery and not Faith, it seems likely that channeling it just requires intensive training rather than religious fervor, which means they're not really proof of the existence of God any more than any other magic. They're just more difficult to master, so not everyone can do so.

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