I must be honest, I've never actually sat through the... eye-catch, I think it's called, before. It's not uninteresting, but it is rather long. I can't find one now, but... hey, whatever.
Before I can begin a game, I must adjust my settings. Hm... okay, subtitles go on. Vibration? I had it on before, but I don't need it. Bam, off it goes. Let us begin.
And now, an opening I can find online.
But I said this was to be about gameplay. We soon see the game's real graphics, which are none too shabby. We are placed in control of Reks, a Dalmascan soldier. We are quickly introduced to Basch again, and Vossler * . After Basch dispatches a number of Archadian guards in a cutscene, we are given a tutorial of movement and battle. Snore.
After dispatching a lone Archadian guard, I am joined by three fellow Dalmascan soldiers and Basch. These are what I shall dub Support Characters; distinct from Guests in that they are not, officially, part of my party. Given that they are about on par with Reks, they will be doing most of the damage. For you fact-fans out there, these Supports all have a unique weapon: the Army Sword, which cannot be obtained by the player. It is substandard and thus doesn't suck too badly, but still...
But first, boss battle!
Air Cutter Remora — HP = 2200
Difficulty: None.
My pals in the army are quick to heal my sounds while Basch obliterates it's HP, so I can very easily relax while this boss isn't obliterated by regular attacks.
But before it's destruction, Basch chooses to obliterate the Remora with a Quickening. How interesting. Once the battle is concluded, we move on. A run-in with three Archadians is no trouble. After continuing on, we are taken to a labyrinth-like room; very simple, but you can waste time getting lost if you don't know what you're doing. Herein, we meet Imperial Magus, in addition to the previous Imperial Swordsmen. Nevertheless, this room is designed to make the player move forward, given the rapid stream of enemies.
In the next room, we meet our first Save Crystal. Upon saving, I discover that Reks actually has a really cool facial portrait. Anyway, progressing another room causes an encounter against three Swordsmen; this time, without your backup. Each dispatched in two shots, they're easily removed. Reks progresses through Nalbina, and quickly finds the bodies of his fellow Dalmascans upon the ground of the castle's throne room, and his king slain. He turns to find Basch staring down at him — we soon discover that our captain had, in fact, stabbed Reks. Basch is captured by Archadiaan soldiers as Reks dies, as an Imperial royal walks in; lording it over the captured captain. Basch is taken away, as Reks dies, saying Vaan's name.
Now, can I just say? I hated typing that. I doubt it was very interesting to read, either. The only issue with this game is it's slow start; it takes several hours to get good. As a result, in future, I'll neglect to hug the story as much.
In any case, Ondore explains that Dalmasca soon surrendered to Archadia. A quick timeskip later, and we're suddenly in the sewers. Herein we meet Vaan and his memetically bad abs; we must now track down three Dire Rats and off them. I'm too used to having Gambits when playing this game.
We are now introduced to Rabanastre. We are quickly shown some rather rude Archadian soldiers harassing a shop pedlar, and Vaan quickly establishes his character by stealing some money from one of them; shortly after, we are introduced to Penelo. She quickly establishes her character and their dynamic. Vaan relates his dream of being "a sky pirate". Penelo seems to find it amusing, and orders him to go off to Migelo's place.
I, knowing this city like the back of my hand. Thus, I head to Migelo's place and meet the lizard, bangaa Migelo, voiced by Bender John DiMaggio, who does a few other voices for this game. I'm asked to do an errand, which I do; for my troubles, I'm forced to hunt down a wild monster and get given a mind-numbingly boring tutorial. Ughhhhhh.
I'm given a Writ of Transit by Tomaj, which lets me access the Dalmascan Estersand and, equally importantly, a save crystal. Since it's quarter-to-two now, I think I'll take a break from XII.
And I haven't even gone up a level yet. Slow start...
