We are automatically taken to the next battle. We are confronted
◊ by some soldiers,
◊ some amazons,
◊ and a knight, Agres, who is the boss.
◊ He says a "Lord Nybbas" is on vacation, and then attacks us. Who is Nybbas?
Victory Condition: Kill The Leader
I'm not going to transcribe this battle, mostly because it's the exact same as the last one. Let the Zenobians do most of the work, hit them with rocks, avoid the boss. Simple. I only get to hit Warren once before the leader is killed.
Agres: I...I can't believe I lost to a bunch of kids and a chicken-man... impossible... I love that line. I get 1050 Goth and a Blessing. I'll explain what that does later.
Off-screen, we save Ronway. He thanks us for saving him.
◊ He asks Warren and Lans why they were banished from Zenobia, as both helped the current king rise to power; this exchange makes more sense if you've played the original Ogre Battle, but let's just say Lans and Warren were pretty high up. He then gets skeptical, asking if they secretly work for Zenobia; Kachua assures the Duke they have no ties to Zenobia. Satisfied, Ronway hires them to work for the rebellion. They leave. Ronway congratulates us and gives us a battalion. I name it "Liveblog."
Happy with the name, he tells us to go to the town of Krizar; his second-hand man, Leonard, disappeared in the town when searching for Nybbas (there's that name again!). To help us, he gives us 20,000 Goth, and more importantly, a group of 4 soldiers and 4 amazons.
Meet Leon,
◊ Bruno (I'd make a Bruno joke, but I didn't see that movie),
◊
Delta,
◊
Belgger,
◊
Julia,
◊
Dorony,
◊
Freesia,
◊
and Area (Area? Seriously?).
◊
Outside, Lans thanks us for getting him a lord and says he cannot come with us. Ah, man, those guys are awesome! Ah well, I guess I can fight with "Area" and "Bruno." *grumble, grumble*
He also gives us some very good advice: train. YES. TRAIN. YOU MUST TRAIN IN THIS GAME. I CAN'T STRESS HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS. IT. IS. VITAL.
We are taken back to the world map.
◊ Amorika is considered a town, so we get lots of options.
◊ They are, left to right, Shop, Training, Edit, Warren Report, Data, and Options.
You save in Data and change cursors and brightness and stuff in Options. Simple enough.
Here's the Warren Report.
◊ We can get character bios, re-watch old scenes, and get hints. Also, unlike FFT, where you had to go to the pub to get news, you can get news at Misc. Also, there are certain things you need to see in Misc that will get you extra scenes, and even open the way to a Bonus Dungeon that I might do. Keep this in mind.
Shop, is, well, the shop.
◊ They don't have anything we want right now. I'll explain Auction if I ever actually have a use for it. You can recruit new soldiers; this is only helpful really early on, as they come as level 1.
This is the Edit screen.
◊ It is really important. It's where you change equipment, view Loyalty, change classes, ect. As you may notice, everyone is either a soldier or an amazon. Time for a Unit Assessment!
Unit Assessment: Soldiers And Amazons
Soldier And Amazon Growths
- HP: 8
- MP: 4
- STR: 6
- VIT: 5
- INT: 6
- MEN: 6
- AGI: 6
- DEX: 6
Yeah, growths are the stat gains this class gains each level. As you can see, amazons and soldiers have the same growths. They are a very balanced class; just because they are basic, by no means are they horrible. Of course, you shouldn't have an "average" character, you need a character that excels at something, so these classes won't be that helpful, but if you want some even stat gains between all the chaos of switching from class to class to class so you can get the right stats for that one special class, these guys are probably best.
Back To The Gameplay
You can't change your class until you reach level 4, so we'll be stuck with these guys for a little while.
As you can see, everyone is level 2, except for Orcus, who is still level 1. Time for some training.
Training, as said above, is vital. You should grind so everyone is equal after every single battle, preferably gaining a level too. This is one of the down sides of this game, the constant grinding, but you really need to do this, because unlike FFT, this game is hard. Like, really, really hard.
I'm going to do a bit of training. Pretty much, you divide your men into two squads; you need at least one member in both. Then you can choose a bunch of options; you can have yourself control both sides, you can have the AI control 1 side, or you can have the AI control both sides. The best way to train is to probably put your squadmates into AI mode, turn the volume to zero, and listen to some show tunes or something. Beware, however, that if a character has a cure leaf in their inventory and they're controlled by the AI, they will use it, and it will be lost forever, so be sure to take any stat-boosting items out of a character's inventory before setting the squads to be controlled by the AI.
It's time for me to do some training!
Next time: we get into our first real battle!
