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The snowball fight ends when everyone gets a turn.

In the first real battle, Montblanc's health resets to maximum every time he has to participate in a conversation. Since otherwise there's a very real chance that he'd be knocked out midway through, this helps keep the script on track.

Mysterion;

That's what I thought about the snowball fight.

That's an interesting note about Montblanc. I think the bangaa enemies got maybe one or two hits in on him in the entire battle, though.

I've never played much of this game, so I've always been pretty confused by Dmg2 laws, ever since I heard of them. If non-mission encounters require you to kill every enemy, does this mean the game can become unwinnable?

doctrainAUM

I forgot to mention that the laws change from day to day. That means that it's possible to manipulate them to your advantage by moving around on the map, but if you get caught by a patrolling group of enemies with a law that severely handicaps you, you're in trouble.

The Battle can become nearly unwinnable, yes. But you can always reset. And you can usually run away or just lose without major penalties. Only main plot missions (and one other scenario) can give you a game over.

A constant in the Final Fantasy Tactics series is that villains have the ability to teleport, except when the plot decides that they have to die. I know why it's the way it is, but it's still really weird.

The scene where Marche is unable to defend his actions here could have been better, whether you agree with him or not. Some answers Marche could have given are: "A family," "Peace," or even "Consistent laws."

Montblanc and the rest of the guild are conspicuously absent whenever Marche is arguing with the Totemas, apparently finding the portal just as the battle starts. The fight with Babus might be the first time any of them has a chance to hear how Marche's idea for how to get home have been developing. It makes you wonder how they would react to finding out what they've been fighting for all this time...

doctrainAUM

That seems to be true. Apparently, if you kill off anyone except Marche and Montblanc in a Jagd, they just teleport away.

Mysterion,

I agree that Marche could have mentioned his family, especially since Shara thinks of it almost immediately when talking with Ritz in Mission 14. On the other hand, I don't think, "My parents, even if my mom's working or taking care of my younger brother all the time and my dad divorced her" would have won Marche many points with Babus.

Montblanc knows from at least Mission 3 that Marche does, in fact, want to get home, and is relatively supportive of that desire but I'm not sure how the others feel. I do also have to wonder how exactly the portals to the Totemas' shrines take the clan along with Marche.

Probably, the portals take the others in the same way they take Marche. But Marche seems to be developing a habit of going off alone when there isn't an engagement to be fought yet. So, the others have to go look for him and stumble on the portal once the Totema and Marche have said their pieces.

Montblanc: That's common in the Final Fantasy community, as well as some other fandoms. Someone could be the most likable character around, and fans will still want them to die horribly if their stats are low.

I wish you explained how the flashback is different in Japan.

doctrainAUM

It's a flashback to Cid's first scene in the game, in the real Ivalice. In the English version, he's getting berated by people from work, who remind him that they have certain expectations of him, "regardless of circumstances." In the Japanese version, Cid walks over to Mewt, visibly drunk even though it's only the afternoon. The obvious difference is the references to alcohol being excised in the English version, which, in my opinion, works surprisingly well.

I'm actually kind of offended that people will bring up "But Doned is still in a wheelchair!" as an example of Marche's evil, as if that's even close to letting people suffer in a medieval fantasy world.

doctrainAUM

That's an interesting point. Of course, people seem to enjoy the engagements, although I do have to wonder what kind of standard of living people have in Ivalice.

One thing that's left open ended is what the Grimoire from the start really was, why it was made, whether or not killing Le-Grim destroyed it (as well as whether Le-Grim "died" in the usual sense), and what long term effects that might have.

Of course, there was no way for Marche to have found out, but it makes you wonder...

Mysterion,

Those are some interesting questions, albeit ones that, as you said, Marche will never find the answers to. The closest we'll get to an answer lies in Cid's explanation, as well as the fact that there's a sequel.

Marche does come back to Ivalice for the post-game missions, with Babus's recruitment mission seeming to indicate that Mewt has already left, but those missions raise their own questions without any definite answers.

I've looked up Judgemaster Cid. His abilities make him sound like he would be overpowered if he appeared for more than five missions.

doctrainAUM

You have Cid for the entirety of the Corrupted Judge campaign, which is about ten missions long, the first of which has him as an NPC ally.

His abilities are fairly strong, particularly those that manipulate the laws, but by this point in the game, I had units that could easily kill their enemies, so I didn't need to play around with his abilities that much.