After completing your first mission, some sidequests open up. I won't go into much detail about them, save for when one of them seems particularly noteworthy. One mission that is, somewhat noteworthy, has the LCG Trio as zombies in Ivalice freezing people with ice magic, which could give you some idea of who's responsible for changing the world.
I will, however, say that a few of them are Dispatch missions, which, unlike ordinary missions, don't involve fighting battles, but involve sending a clanner apart from Marche and Montblanc for a certain time, whether a period of a certain days, a certain amount of battles, or a certain number of enemies being defeated. Depending on certain variables, your clanner may have a high, medium or low chance of succeeding, and the outcome will be determined when the time expires. If the clanner is successful, the mission is marked as done, and you get the reward. If the clanner fails, you get nothing and will have to try again. It's an interesting system for jobs that wouldn't realistically require multiple, aren't necessarily combat-related and would take a long time, but it can be annoying to lose access to one of your best clanners for some time, only for said clanner to fail the mission.
The next story mission is to recover a thesis, and is the first to pit you against opponents that are also playable classes. Upon arrival at the mission location, Marche wonders why the bandits would steal something like that, and Montblanc points out that they don't steal just for money. But then they hear a dispute between the leader of the bandits and their apparent client, a Nu Mou White Mage, who didn't get the one he wanted. Apparently, the bandits were after money, after all, and hoped to get it by selling stolen goods.
Marche calls out to the bandits to return the thesis, and they, realizing that he's been hired by the person who wants the return of his master's thesis (unaware of how the bandits were supposed to steal his thesis), put aside their dispute to fight against Marche.
An engagement ensues, and it's relatively easy to deal with the enemies before the White Mage in the back can heal them. They also don't have anything especially impressive; I'm not particularly fond of the Soldier job except as a way of getting the more useful Fighter job, and the same goes with the Thief, which mainly serves to unlock the Ninja and the ability to eventually get Dual Wielding.
Once you succeed, Montblanc, impressed with Marche's rate of improvement, decides to enter the clan into clan wars, resulting in you encountering roving bands of enemies on the world map. I tend to avoid them, unless I have a dispatch mission that requires defeating enemies to complete. And when you return to town, you'll get a brief scene with the bartender who gives you your missions, in which he evidently feels the same way.
You can also free areas, typically through dispatch missions. While freed, they grant you reduced prices and other bonuses, as well as access to new side quests, but you will ultimately have to occasionally do battles to help them, lest you lose control of the areas and have to liberate them again.
Through this, you can advance one of the side plots, which pits you against the powerful and evil Clan Borzoi. This is a nice diversion, but it's all to easy to miss one of the required missions, which is often offered in a specific town as a specific time, leaving you unable to advance until later.
Around this point, you may start to encounter missions that also require items that you may or may not have(for example, a mission to make a sword that requires two rare metals), along with more specific jobs (for example, a Fencer for Swords in Cyril), if not both (one mission requires having Jerky and a Blue Mage to dispatch). As such, I only do the missions that are feasible for me to do before moving on.
The third story mission involves dealing with a group of con men known as The Cheetahs. But when you arrive, you notice that you're not alone; you see Ritz, fighting alongside a viera named Shara; the former is a Fencer (despite being a human, Ritz has Viera jobs), while the latter is an Archer. The two new units take up slots in your lineup, meaning you can only field four units, but they tend to pull their weight, and the Cheetahs, while a step up from the bandits in the previous mission, aren't too difficult.
During the battle, Marche expresses surprise at seeing Ritz, but she says she's the one who's surprised that Marche is fighting in a clan. But while she's surprised that he's worried about her once they defeat their enemies, she's grateful for his help.
Oddly enough, the manual says, somewhat ominously, that "Ritz is nowhere to be found..." upon Marche's arrival in Ivalice, but she's the first person from the real world whom Marche meets in Ivalice. Doned's disappearing act seems more ominous, although Marche does eventually find him.
After the engagement, Ritz introduces Shara, who is to her what Montblanc is to Marche, a new friend in Ivalice. She says that she has largely the same theory about what the land of Ivalice is that Marche does, but doesn't particularly care to delve deeper. Shara points out that Ritz has no desire to leave, and Ritz suggests that Marche is free to find a way back, but she won't offer him her help, and with a slightly awkward goodbye, the two part ways.
In the pub, Marche says he's enjoying Ivalice, but feels discouraged. He'd hoped Ritz would know how to get back home, but the fact that she's not willing to help him is disheartening and he doesn't know what he can do. Montblanc comforts him by saying that he is who he is, and so is Ritz. Marche doesn't yet have a solution, but he decides not to let this setback get him down, which is nice to see.
Next Installment: Marche gets a breakthrough on his quest to find a way home.
