One may wonder where Marche will go or what he will do next, but for now, he's taking a break from the main plot, albeit one that will gain him the services of a useful ally.
You have to place Baguba Port, the moogle city, on the map, and will get a story scene the first tim eyou head there. Montblanc meets with his brother, Nono, and introduces Marche. Nono's depressed, though; he, a gadgeteer apprentice, completed an airship, but there was a hit and run accident, and the perpetrators went to Jagd Dorsa.
Marche is eager to go there to deal with those responsible, but Montblanc says it's not so simple. Jagd Dorsa is an area where the judges can't go, meaning that there's no laws, but no protection from death. While in most cases, people suffer a Non-Lethal K.O. while engaging, in the Jagds, anyone who's dead at the end of the battle is Killed Off for Real. The Rumor suggests that even "hardened Class A criminals" steer clear of the Jagds, so it seems a bit odd that a hit and run perpetrator would go there.
But Marche isn't willing to let those who did that to Nono get off so easily, especially not when he has a younger brother himself, so Montblanc decides to accompany him there, as long as they're careful.
Speaking of Montblanc, apparently, some people like to take this opportunity to kill him off, finding him useless as a Black Mage. I don't know as much about getting optimal stastistic growth, and I do find Montblanc quite useful, so I keep him around.
As soon as you enter Jagd Dorsa, the mission begins, and the ninja who's apparently responsible tries to intimidate Marche, but Marche is, again, undeterred. The enemies are a mix of NPCs and monsters, but aren't particularly difficult, and don't have many abilities that would kill you quickly or without warning. After all the enemies have been defeated, the mission ends.
Oddly enough, the ones responsible for the hit and run aren't dead, because some time later, they do the same thing to Nono again, run off to Jagd Dorsa again, and are defeated by Marche again in another mission, with Marche demanding that they apologize and never do it again. But that's another story.
Nono thanks Marche and Montblanc for the help, and they offer them their reward. Apparently, "the clan already got its cut," which makes me wonder if part of the posted reward for a mission goes for other costs, like the pub that hosts the request, as well as where this money Marche is talking about comes from. Nono is convinced to accept, but since he'll have to borrow money to repair his airship, sets up a trading system to supply small merchants with special goods.
Unfortunately, if you, like me, don't know anyone who has Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and can't link with them, then you're out of luck. You can buy the first five items, and might just get something good, but you won't be able to get anything else.
The next mission involves Clan Ox looking for information about the palace bounty. Unlike most of the story missions so far, it involves finding them as they wander the world map, with them being represented by a blue soldier, rather than a red one. You have to chase down the clan on the map, and the place you fight them determines what the layout of the arena will be (often different from what it is for the missions), as well as what laws will be in play.
You can already tell that things are not going to end well, when you get placed on the field with the combat theme playing, and have to choose up to five clanners besides Marche.
The leader of Clan Ox, who's a Paladin, asks about the bounty, and Marche mentions how he'd hoped the leader could tell him what he knew. Then one of the members, a Black Mage, tells the leader that Marche seems to match the description, and when Marche identifies himself, they reveal that he's the one the palace wants, much to Marche's horror. The leader then uses Marche's clan title, saying that it's too bad that he's famous.
The battle isn't too different from most like it. After Marche wins, he remarks that he has to find the crystals, quickly.
Of course, Marche doesn't have any leads, so, as usual, he takes on whatever missions he can find until he sees natural phenomena that indicate a crystal's influence. One such mission puts him on a mission to hunt down clock forgers, who don't seem to have anything to do with the natural phenomena.
Arriving at the location, Marche sees Shara there, who reveals that Ritz is nearby, once again by coincidence. This may or may not be the first time you've encountered them since Mission 3, as one mission, S.O.S., involves fighting alongside them against some enemies in the Koringwood.
Shara and Ritz are once again hunting some criminals, but not Marche. They're after the clock forgers, who, in turn, are apparently after Marche, hoping to exchange him for a pardon.
Interestingly enough, the clock forgers' composition seems suited to making clocks, with an Alchemist (presumably for transmuting into gold), a Gadgeteer (presumably for making the mechanisms), and a Time Mage (possibly for ensuring the clock runs well), although I'm not as sure what the Juggler does.
The enemies are relatively easy, since there's not many of them. While you're fighting, Marche talks with Ritz, telling her that Mewt's the one who put the bounty on his head. Ritz concludes that if the "wimpy Mewt" is a prince (a possible indicator that as protective of Mewt as Ritz is, he does try her patience at times), then it's obvious who changed Ivalice, since he has everything to gain in it. Ritz wonders why Marche would change the world back when he, too, has everything to gain.
On Marche's first turn, he changes the subject to Ritz, who gets defensive and refuses to tell him anything. As the battle ends, you can see that things are souring between Marche and Ritz; he thanks her for the help, but she coldly tells him that she wasn't trying to help him.
After the battle, Marche expresses a hope that Ritz and Shara don't get in trouble for helping him, and Shara suggests that they would cooperate with the authorities if that happened. Marche sadly walks off, and Ritz points out that she's considering helping Mewt, which would make them enemies.
Shara then points out that Marche is worried about Ritz, and asks why she doesn't help him, since she is no friend of the Palace. She then points out something that many of those critical of Marche's decision to change the world back overlook; the fact that Ritz's family, as well as her friends besides Mewt and Marche (she can't see the former, and is at odds with the latter) are back in the original Ivalice.
Ritz then brings up the fact that her hair is not white in this world, and how she had to dye it to escape bullying at school, with the worst part being how her mother always crying as she did it. Shara's at a loss for words regarding this, even when there's something she could say in response. Ritz says that she can find new friends and family in Ivalice, but can't change her hair, and believes Mewt found it too.
Meanwhile, back in the palace, Mewt becomes increasingly frantic to get Marche, ordering that the Judges search every town for him and demanding to see his mother.
The next time you return to town, Marche ponders how he has two crystals left to destroy, no clues as to where to find them, and a lot of pressure to destroy them before the palace finds him. Ezel arrives, remarking on how Marche has replaced him as Ivalice's most wanted criminal, updating him on the search and giving him some encouragement.
The next time you go to Muscadet, you see some people being hauled off by the judges and some of their foot soldiers (It seems Templars are the main minions of judges, followed by Paladins, Defenders, Mog Knights and others), including arresting one moogle just because Marche was seen with a moogle.
Marche is tired of these blatantly prejudiced tactics, and surrenders on the condition that the innocents be set free. But the Judge, unsure of whether he's the real Marche, refuses and orders his men to attack Marche, leading to a somewhat unnecessary battle.
I found this mission and the next to be quite difficult when I first played the game, since, for the second time, you're outnumbered seven to five, and the enemies have some fairly strong units.
I did, however, find a nice trick. If you have Marche stand between the two Templars and attack one of them, he will react with Bonecrusher, which, given that he's wielding a spear, will hit two spaces in front of him. Marche is relatively likely to dodge that, since the attack is hitting him from the front, but the other Templar will take a lot of damage, since he's being hit from the side.
After defeating all the enemies, Marche tells the judge, (who doesn't lift a finger while Marche is defeating his subordinates so long as he stays within the law) to call Cid, who will recognize him.
Cid recognizes Marche from their previous encounter, and despite being less than fully convinced, he decides to take in Marche and his entire clan. Marche protests that his clan isn't involved, but Cid tells him that they are, since they aided a wanted fugitive. Marche weakly protests, but has no choice but to go along to prison.
In prison, Marche is apparently in one of the interrogation rooms, when Babus arrives, and recognizes Marche, believing his story after Marche names the Totemas, which is apparently highly classified information. Marche begins to explain himself, causing Babus to be enraged by his informally referring to Prince Mewt, and disdainful of his idea that the world is all a fantasy.
Cid says that destroying the crystals will cause chaos (even if he doesn't give any specifics as to what would happen, since the previous crystals had been involved in troubling and potentially problematic supernatural phenomena, which would likely make the opposite true). He concludes that Marche should find another way to return home, or, failing that, accept life there, since he's head of a successful clan. He also suggests doing so would be for Mewt's own good, but Marche disagrees.
Before the debate can go any farther, a seam opens, and Marche, Babus and Cid are sucked inside the fourth Totema's palace. The Totema is, for some reason, weakened and can't defend its crystal by itself, so Marche sets out to destroy the fruits. But Cid points out that Marche is alone now, and none of his friends can help him.
Marche then acknowledges this, and says that usually, he'd give up in a situation like this. He says that he enjoys and feels stronger in this world, but he knows it's just an escape and he has to face reality. Babus, unimpressed, says that he won't let Marche do as he wishes, and prepares to stop him.
Thankfully, Marche still has his weapons, armor and abilities. But Babus has several fairly strong attacks, such as Explode and Demi.
During the battle, Marche tries to get Cid to remember who he is, but Cid insists that he is, and has always been, Ivalice's Judgemaster, making Marche wonder if what happened to him is Mewt's doing or Cid's own. Marche then tries to debate with Babus over Ivalice being an escape for Mewt, but Babus catches him off guard by saying that Mewt wants to be the one to change Ivalice back to normal if anyone ever does.
Babus is one of those bosses that is easy if you have adequately prepared (for example, a Flame Shield or Angel Ring), but quite hard if you haven't. It's generally easier to defeat him first, then destroy the Exodus Fruits.
After the battle, a flashback of the past is shown, specifically Cid's encounter with Mewt the day the world changed (which, naturally, varies based on whether you're playing the English localization or the Japanese version).
After returning to the prison with Marche and Babus Cid, realizes that he used to be this person. He suspects that either Mewt didn't want to believe that his mother was dead and his father was so pathetic, or he himself didn't want to believe that.
Cid announces that the judges are splitting from the palace since he no longer feels comfortable being by Mewt's side as "his false father," much to Babus' dismay, and orders that all the prisoners they took in the manhunt for Marche, including Marche himself, be released, since he no longer feels qualified to determine whether Marche is a threat to Ivalice. Cid warns Marche that the palace will still be hunting him, even if the judges won't help them. Marche thanks Cid, who says that he should thank Marche for opening his eyes to the truth.
Next Installment: Marche searches for the final crystal, unaware that a powerful enemy is searching for him as well, or that his foes have help that is closer to him than he thought.
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