A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

(cross-posted to my livejournal)

One of my (shameful) new obsessions is A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. I picked up the first book at my library in the shelf of books donated for sale. It had no dust jacket, but I thought it seemed pretty interesting from the first page and even if it sucked, I would only lose 50 cents. Well, I read it and the following books with increasingly morbid interest. Such drama, such violence, such powerful passion and even more powerful treachery!

It reminded me of the War of the Roses, a dynastic struggle in medieval England in which thousands of people died. The War of the Roses in fact was the inspiration for Final Fantasy Tactics, subtitled the War of the Lions for a reason. So there was part of the reason why I liked A Song of Ice and Fire so much! Huzzah!

If you really want to know more, you'd have to wiki War of the Roses and prepare for a looooooong read longer than longcat or read a couple of Shakespeare plays. But here are some interesting similarities. For example, both the books and the game start after a long civil war that you should know something about but you don't hah hah. Each warring family controls either the north or the south. A queen assumes regency for her son after her pathetic husband dies and directs her relatives to kill any other claimants to the throne. Many knights and even more peasants die. Corrupt churches get what's coming. Dragons rain fiery death. Female knights bust some nuts. Some unknown goes out to claim the throne for themselves, and to hell with anyone who gets in their way. Princesses are in another castle. A knight turns into a zombie, I shit you not about this one. But as far as I know, Final Fantasy Tactics does not have rampant twincest (I'm preeeeeetty sure), nor does A Song of Ice and Fire have a thunder god.

Sounds like fine entertainment? Well, they are thinking of making the books into a TV series and I would pay good money to see how they're going to cast a deformed dwarf or handle the dragons.

I would really prefer an animated movie based on Tactics, but no one cares about what I want.

Anyways, for those of you medieval history buffs who enjoy a good dose of fantasy and drama similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, this series is for you.

Japanese fanart sites: part 4

This is probably the last update for Japanese fanart sites that are hopefully link-free. Again, if you have other sites to recommend, please let me know!

Sky Lodge by maiyue

FFT, FF12. Beautiful watercolor and digital paintings in rich colors. I guess technically this is not a Japanese site, but it is a must-see!

ジャポニカラクガキチョウ by アスパラ

FFT. Graceful painterly sketches, plus a game blog with sketches of many NPCs. Also, an amazingly beautiful and sad animation of the epilogue. One of my faves!

Pine-Pinx by sueble

FFT, FF12, Vagrant Story. There's only 1 FFt fanart, but this artist has such lovely delicate paintings, I'll link it anyways!

APM by タカオ

FFT, FFTA, others. The artist has a cute retro style, sparkly-eyed and absolutely precious. Colorful art and oekaki that you just have to see.

mangetsu-an by mangetsu

FFT, FF12. Wonderfully rendered digital paintings and sketches, dreamy and natural. Actually, you'll have to search for FFT, but just enjoy the other fanarts!

7m by 藤縄
This last site I'm not sure about linking... I am terrible at Japanese so I'll not link it for now. Too bad! Because it was really funny and cute.

Japanese fanart sites: Pumpkin head!

http://pumpkin.sakura.ne.jp/

This is a Japanese oekaki board for Final Fantasy Tactics related fanart. I love looking through their giant archives (back to 2000!), there are tons of talented artists and super cute artwork about all of the Ivalice games, plus random stuff. People in Japan are ridiculously talented and goofy.

Errr sorry, I haven't been updating much. I haven't actually succeeded in poaching rare items and I haven't gotten further in the Cloud subquest, which I really need to get cracking on. Right now my brother is stuck in a battle and I am not able to play, heh heh.

Here's a goofy tegaki I did, I never finish these things.

Zeltennia Castle and Delita

Now it's a gorgeous FMV with Delita and Ramza in the church, speaking of important things, of course. I think I would die of happiness to see a movie of Tactics in this form. Although I wonder why they still use Ramza's chapter 3 armor instead of his blue and white butt-pad armor in chapter 4.

My thoughts on the plot so far? Delita is still being vague in his words, but I believe he thinks more of Teta than of Ovelia while contemplating his quest. (Poor Ovelia.) And even though Ramza knows his life is forfeit at Delita's hands, even knowing what lengths Delita would take to bring down the dueling nobility and the corrupted church, he remains so very polite. They seem to trust each other even knowing that they may cross swords in the future, and when Balmafula gives Delita some apple-sass after the battle, I sense that Delita may have some regrets. But not enough for him to give up.

Of course the battle in which we finally kill Zalmour, that was a cinch. Now it's off to save/recruit Orlandeau and all that. Exciting!

Fighting battles... yep

I have been poaching, questing and leveling my special characters, nothing too interesting. However, I died miserably when attacked by 6 ninjas once. Held out as long as I could, but I had my weakling characters at the time and they weren't enough.

Soon Ramza and company will be girding their loins to enter Zeltennia Castle.

"Dispose of Mustadio!"

Worker 7 get, yaaaay! Oh man, that cutscene always cracks me up! Ramza's panic is just so hilarious.

On another note, I also obtained the Tynar Rouge in the Agrias subquest. Mustadio is a darling. I do wonder if he actually has a crush on Agrias or something, it's adorable in either case. But you know, I think everyone loves Agrias.

Dragon+Knight love~~~~

I'm sure everyone in the party now thinks Beowulf is some kind of pervy weirdo, hah hah. But I am touched by how this game decided to turn the dragon and knight relationship upside down, so sweet!

I finished the third battle at Gollund Colliery (what's a colliery?) and enticed a cute widdle pig and blue dragon into my party. But when I signed Reis and Beowulf up, I had to dismiss 2 other monsters! Other than my chocobos, my animals are freaking sterile, even in the breeding seasons, and I haven't been able to poach many rare items. Hopefully I'll strike it rich with these 2 plague horrors I got.

Beowulf is hoss

On my way to get Beowulf!!! What a studly stud.

First, I fought the battle with 7 chemists. Easy enough with Beowulf in my party. I pretty much just rushed them, stole a couple of Lambent Hats (what were there original names?) I suppose. Chemists armed with guns are annoying, I must admit, but not so hard.

The second battle at Gollund, I decided to get Agrias, a summoner and an orator in my party. This made it extremely difficult when the chemist with the Glacial Gun dealt icy death from above while the Behemoth King rampaged below, but I struggled along, healing and often raising! At last I enticed the Behemoth King in (because I didn't get to with Luso's battle) and snatched the Glacial Gun away. With no help from Beowulf might I add, always raising his faith for some reason.

My brother has already fought the third battle and tells me it will be a challenge full of defending and enticing. Whooo?

Japanese fanart sites: part 3

Well, many of these sites haven't been updated in a while, but they still have lots of pretty art for those of you who are looking for more Tactics fanworks.


89 by ひたき
Tactics, Advanced. Cute sketchy style with soft colors, be sure to check the logs for tons more funny doodles.


okoanism by おこあん
Tactics. Very bold semi-realistic style, like graphic design. Lots of character and generic class sketches to delight your eyes!


e倉庫 by 藤沢 明
Tactics, Advanced. Bold lineart and bright colors, with a really unique SD. Lots of generic class and old-man art that never fail to amuse me.


キラメクヒト by toppy
Tactics, others. A gorgeous painting and dozens of cute little oekaki sketches scattered about in a cheerful style.


4cc by スズシロ
Tactics, Advanced. Tons of beautiful sketches and little paintings in a bold and colorful style. Lots of funny group pictures, generics and other cast members, too!


Q-m3 by ツミレ
Tactics, others. Lovely painterly sketches, not too many.


国立少年　by 今村陽子
Tactics. I managed to get a doujinshi from this artist and it is not only gorgeous but funny. Lovely soft shading with beautiful antique texture.


リセット by 扇
Tactics, Advanced, 12. Funny and adorable drawings with bright colors and a fresh vibrant flair.


RMKYU by きゅきゅ
Tactics. Cute sketches and comics that I wish I could read better! Lots of Ramza love = awesome.

Meliadoul, then Balthier! Hot!

That Meliadoul is a sassy girl, completely immune to Ramza's cuteness. But then again, most of the females in this story are. They're clearly not like me! Anyways, that battle at Bervenia kicked my butt all over the place and then kicked my face in as well. I decided to just gun for Meliadoul and to hell with stealing or whipping up on the other female soldiers. The rend ability in the hands of the enemy is so much more powerful than it is in your hands! I guess it wasn't a good idea having everyone on weak jobs for a story battle, hah. I keep thinking the AI will be dumber than it really is.

Then it was time to introduce the sexy "leading man," Balthier! His entrance FMV was super smooth, but I was really impressed by the animation of Ramza fighting the thugs. So pretty and elegant, if you can believe that. *cuddles Ramza some more*

And what can I say, Balthier certainly beats Mustadio on all counts of usefulness. Sorry, Mustadio! The battle was fairly easy and Ramza got to steal the 2 new items while Balthier blasted every enemy away into oblivion.

Poaching finally yielded a holy lance, which I use with much glee!!! But my behemoths are sterile and haven't breeded anymore, while my chocobos drop eggs every few days.

Proposition time.

My brother and I are going through and writing out whether our attempts to get bonuses in the propositions work out well. So far... they haven't! But well, we try to write down the hints and tips the tavernmaster occasional says for future reference.

Chapter 3: The Valiant

At last, we find out why this chapter was called "The Valiant."

Second battle at Riovanes: defeating Wiegraf as Belias, the blue and white ram using the Aries stone. That was a while ago so I don't remember exactly what I did, but it included Ramza versus Wiegraf, mano e mano. Ramza had to keep running just out of reach of Wiegraf's wicked holy sword skills to heal, all that while dealing as much damage as possible. Then after Belias was summoned, my team had to deal with 4 arch demons as well. Again, I used Agrias and a monk to deal the damage, but with such power-houses, I was able to silence Belias (mwa hah!) and take down the demons quickly.

The scene where Isilud speaks with Alma about his regret was sad. Of course I'd feel pretty regretful after I've been gutted alive, I suppose. But then Alma gets kidnapped again! Wow, way to go, Alma, way to inconvenience your loving brother.

Third battle at Riovanes, now that was a challenge. I was wondering how the hell can I defeat all three of these undead bastards and keep Rapha alive when my brother reminded that all I had to do was bring one of the assassins down to critical before they would all teleport away like cowards. Duh. Anyways, the second try Agrias dealt the final blow while Ramza lay on the rooftops, dead. See how I keep depending on Agrias? She is pretty much my staunchest warrior, at least until Cid joins, I guess.

I was thinking that these zodiac stones are actually pretty evil for bringing Malak back to life. I mean, who wants him?!!! I know I don't! Why don't they bring Isilud back to life? He's way more useful.

But now we're in Chapter 4, where the action will be coming fast and furious! Quest to fill, characters to recruit, skins to poach! The shit will be hitting the windmill, that's for sure!

Riovanes Castle: part 1

Sorry, I've been busy with finals these past few weeks and haven't gotten further in Tactics. My brother and I also decided to buy Puzzle Quest and well, that is one fun game. Even though it kicks your ass. Well, it kicks my ass!

I did fight the first battle in Riovanes, where Rafa and Malak do nothing for a bit and then teleport away to God knows where. I was left to deal with the evil female archers and not very useful abilities. No one died, but the battle was still a pain. However, my female monk can now deal 100+ damage, so *punch!!!*

Yuguewood

I just fought the battle at Yuguewood, not too hard. I still have difficulty enticing characters in, but I suppose that's a tricky skill to use. Also, I have a dancer now, and that is way amusing watching her dance. Still haven't made much headway in the mage path, though. I just finally got a summoner, how long until I get a calculator and a bard?!



Here's a fanart of Ovelia. I drew the lineart on tegaki which is why it looks kinda awkward, and finished it up on Photoshop. I have no idea why she's sitting like that, that's just how it turned out.

Does anyone have any tips on completing the quests and getting the bonus? Sometimes the tavernmaster tells you that a specific type of person needs to go on this quest, but I have yet to guess correctly on which one. Like for example, this latest Diving Expedition requires people with strength and endurance and I tried every combination of buffed up characters, monks, geomancers, knights, squires, dragoons, and it just won't give me the bonus!

Goodbye Scorpio...

Have some hideous oekaki fanart of Cardinal Alphonse Delacroix and Cuchulainn the Impure. Nasty fellow, but love the Scorpio demon design, so disgusting.

I know I'm missing a few deaths, such as Gustav, Bart and umm... people we suppose to be dead. Maybe later. I don't even know who's next, who's next? Anyone?

Since it will be a while before the next deaths, I guess I'll do some of the living characters now, hah hah.

Malak and Rafa!!!

Note: READ PREVIOUS ENTRY if you haven't already!

Oh man, the exploding frog always surprises me!

Anyways, fixing to get me the two most useless characters in the game, Malak and Rafa. I don't hate them, but man, it is difficult to justify keeping them in your battle party. Who here keeps Malak and Rafa? My brother always gets rid of Malak and keeps Rafa for treasure hunting purposes. I believe Squenix upped their heaven and hell abilities in the PSP version, though, so maybe they'll be more useful. Still, Rafa killed one of my warriors who was caught in the mantra range in the first battle against Malak. Ungrateful!

I do love how Ramza's super helpfulness. He always tries to save everyone, even complete strangers. I mean, that's how you get new members, am I right? I thought Rafa was especially insightful in how she says Ramza isn't just out to honor his family name, but to correct what's wrong in the world, to the best of his ability. That's the charisma of a true-born leader for you. Plus it doesn't hurt that my battle party has about 300k gold in their pockets.

Does anyone else think Orran and Malak and Rafa come from the same ethnicity? I haven't played the other games (namely XII or Vagrant Story), but I don't know the name of the darker-skinned ethnicity in Ivalice. Is that even significant? *shrugs shoulders* I mean, there are no numou or viera around...

Japanese fanart sites: part 2

Gaea Studio by Mos (Chinese)
Tactics and XII. Elegant lineart with a beautiful painterly style, reminiscent of antique watercolors. One of my favorites, from China.


Wistarial by Touru
Tactics and Advanced. Gorgeous set of b/w oekaki with striking and stylized flair, lots of pairings.


Mitsuboshi by 星風スイ
Tactics Advanced and XII art with a little Tactics thrown in. Humorous and lovely watercolor style, very unique.


Tabiuta by 東雲みと
Tactics. Tons of art, both lovely and cute. Lots of the Beoulve siblings, which I highly approve of.


花斑月 by かのこ
Tactics, Advanced, XII. Lots of fanart from all 3 series, sensual and softly colored. I wish I could be this prolific and talented!


+ silk + by ふじやひよこ
Tactics, Advanced, Advanced 2. Lots of adorable art and comics! Check out the log and the chocobos made of food, there is so much cuteness on this site, it hurts.


趣味端座 by konton
Tactics, Advanced, Advanced 12. A very clean, sharp style with amazing coloring. Covers many FF series in a signature look.

Lusoooo!!!

Heya fans, I haven't been updating much because things have been hectic, but now I have Luso into my party! He's a cutie, with his little notebook and super bright clothes! And I love his CG introduction, Ramza's all like, "I'M A NINJA, I WILL SAVE YOU!" My baby's all grown up. *wipes tear*

I got the Dark behemoth into my party, hoping to breed it and poach some cool items. The King behemoth died last, so I couldn't poach it, even though my samurai had poach ability on, so that was annoying. They'll pop up later, I'm sure. Right now I'm running errands, finding treasure, and leveling Luso up, even though he is already super strong!

I'll continue my "death-count" oekaki sessions and site pimps later, but this week is going to be hell-week, so it might not be for a while. Sorry!

Delita + Ovelia

The CG scene with Delita and Ovelia is full of drama. How many times does he use the word "endeavor" anyways? "Try" is a real word as well, you know. But in all seriousness, it was really sweet and just a little chilling for him to speak to Ovelia in such a way, that manipulative bastard. I would fall for it, too. No doubt.

http://www.unowen.net/tegaki/uentries.php?u=13506
Sketch of Ramza in his chapter 2, 3 armor. I like how he's still wearing thigh-high boots, but hey, at least he looks like a male now and less like a trap.

I heard the Japanese version doesn't get voice acting, that is kind of weird, I think. It would be like watching a silent animated movie, I would get the feeling that I was going deaf, hah hah. I mean, why didn't they get Japanese seiyuu to act it?

Orbonne Monastery: Damn you, Wiegraf!

WHAT THE HELL, I had to restart the battle 3 times. Yes, I'm a girl and I suck at strategy, but come on, I had 3 healers and Ramza was a dragoon, punching away with his lance at a safe distance. How could I possibly die? VERY EASILY.

I finally had to follow the FAQ's suggestion of bringing in Agrias and aggro at Wiegraf before his bitches got to the rest of my party. Ramza still got KOed, but because the enemy was concentrating on killing either him or my healers, whoever they could reach, Agrias managed to slip through and she basically hunted down Wiegraf like the cunning fox he is. Unless your party is over-leveled, this may be the best strategy to use in story-battles with a boss. Have a super-powerful decoy with a lot of HP take down the boss before Ramza's timer runs out. There was no stealing possible in this episode, let me tell you that.

But finally, I am out of Orbonne Monastery. Isilud's fanatic wildly shouting self has taken Alma away and Wiegraf has made an unholy pact with a fluffy blue and white sheep with no eyes. Now Malak, the outlander, has commanded me to go to Riovanes. But before I do, to level up we go! Ramza, you can take a break, you've gotten killed enough.

Orbonne Monastery: Isilud, stop, it hurts!

Well, you should know how I feel about the re-translation of the names by now. I feel that "Nightblade" is even less relevant than "Knightblade", but whatever.

This was a hard battle before and it didn't get any easier now. I had to restart the first time because I chose to put Ramza in as a ninja, and I'm sorry if you like ninjas, but that was a weaksauce move. Then I figured dragoons was the way to go for Ramza, and we just barely made it out alive. I really like, and by like I mean hate, Isilud's fantastic Jump/Concentrate ability. You shouldn't be able to jump that high in a library vault!!!

I decided to soldier through and kill as many of the other knights and archers before attacking Isilud to end the battle. Such a decision is usually foolhardy, but my own dragoon and archer managed to pick off a few enemy soldiers before Ramza charged in and cut Isilud down to critical. Whew! I think the thing that helped the most was Isilud not being able to attack on his first move (the first move of the battle), because he was able to attack first on my previous attempt and just slaughtered both Ramza and a healer in no time. Clever AI.

One more battle to go! What a marathon this is going to be. I'm sure Agrias, Mustadio and the rest are going to be asking for overtime.

doujinshi: Brave Commander by K.A.R.

Circle: KAR
Year: 1997
Pages: 26 pages
Characters: Ramza, Agrias, Mustadio, Delita, Ovelia, Alma
Rating: PG (a little blood)

Summary: A very pretty and clean style, quite detailed. The first story is my favorite, a gag story of Agrias getting decked out in dancer attire. A few more with Agrias beating everyone up, and then another funny one about Ovelia's married life. The last story is of course, about the epilogue, very sad.

page
Ovelia, now queen and married to Delita, is watching Delita sleep, and unfortunately what he says in his sleep pisses her off!!! *cracks up*

English links and more Ivalice cosplay!

My friend and I dressed as Moogles from Final Fantasy 12 and Tactics. Here I am as a gunner in my terrorist sniper ensemble! I have no idea why we decided to do these costumes, but they turned out really super cute for being ghetto and crafty. I made those bullets out of cardboard, paint and tape.

So here are some English links for those of you who habla ingles. Not a huge collection, as you can see. I am aware of a few English-speaking FFT artists, but their presence outside of Deviantart and Livejournal is minimal so I don't want to link their stuff right now...
FFTactics: Livejournal community for Final Fantasy Tactics, duh. Intermittent activity.
Ivalice_fans: news about the latest Ivalice Alliance games and its Deviantart club.
Ivalice Atelier: community for fanart based on Ivalice and classic art!

Ultima Edition: graphics and info for almost the entire game (1st version.)

Milk, please!

Drawing from Tegaki-e. I like to know who orders milk at a bar. That seems like ultimate in suspicion to me!

My brother has the PSP today, so I'm playing some Tactics Advance at the moment. I'm at the last battle now, but I haven't finished all the missions yet, so I'm wasting several years waiting for the right ones to pop up. Very annoying...

Insanity at Orbonne Monastery pt. 1

Urgh, last night I started the first round at Orbonne Monastery and it was killer! I had to restart a couple of times because I stupidly left some characters equipped with random "optimize" items. Finally I forced myself to stick with the battle and eventually won with everyone intact.

First off, the 3 dragoons were seriously powered up with mythril spears and of course, my healers kept on dying in one blow even though we were several levels ahead. Not just that, but one of them kept charming Agrias and making her do Judgment Blade on us. Good thing Ramza knocked some sense back into her with some shurikens. And you know what, I never use time mages myself, but they have some irritating spells that almost always work on my team. Grah!!!

Slowly but steady, healing and reviving at every turn, I managed to get rid of the time mages and chemist. Ramza and my white mage successfully ganked some nice armor while Agrias went around and collected crystal abilities, hah hah. Overall, I admit the AI was a worthy challenger. Looking forward to fighting Isilude and Wiegraf in the next battles.


He looks pretty fabulous with his fur sleeves, hah hah. Good old Gaff, I liked his attitude, all full of sassafrass. But a failure in the end.

Japanese fanart sites

This is for my own reference, some banner links to Japanese sites with Tactics/Advance/XII fanart. I was hoping to find other overseas fanart sites, but apparently not. For any of you who want to view these sites, have Japanese fonts available and of course, don't take any artwork w/out permission. The last thing I want is for these sites to close down because of my linking to them.


Ensemble by Azryu
Tactics, Advance, Advance 2. Very cute artwork faithful to the original style, mostly concerning gameplay, story characters and original generics.


Roda de Estrela by Nasu
Tactics, Advance, 12. A gorgeous unique style of painting, some cute stuff as well.


Astro Scope by 弓月 愛
Tactics. Hasn't been updated in a while, but has a large gallery of beautiful art faithful to the style. Also contains flash and flash games?


Hanairomoyo by 昼田
Tactics, Advance, 12. Elegant anime style fanart with cel-shading. Only a couple of Tactics, some 12, but very cute and purty!


Sasuraiyokotyou by Watami
Tactics, Advance. Adorable fanart, with beautifully painted cast pictures and quite a few cute drawings of the generic classes.


Toritoto by Hana
Tactics, Advance, Advance 2. Lovely and adorable painted/CG style, I think the the 10 year anniversary comic is the cutest thing to have ever cuted.


BUZZ by 極
Tactics. Amazing b/w sketches and painterly style. Lots of SD and AU art of the less-popular characters as well! Chibi-Weigraf blows my mind...


cor by 小町あんこ
Tactics, Advance. The front page has tons of cute and pretty fanart from various games in a vibrant and original style.

Battle at Lionel Castle Postern

I'm not sure what a postern is. This battle, we fought Head Inquisitor Zalmour and his knights and monks. Alma accompanied us, and of course, did her awesome Aegis spell on Ramza that unfortunately did not last the whole time. I did get her killed once, whoops. But overall, an easy battle, since we were so juiced up on powerful accessories and Zalmour kept missing his cure spells. I mostly took my time stealing diamond helms from the knights as well as Zalmour's white robe and elven cloak. Ramza finally had good compatibility with someone and stole Zalmour's items with no trouble at all.

As it turned out, some of those items could be purchased after the battle, but oh well, thousands of gold I didn't have to spend.

I am at a quandary right now in the development of my team's abilities. Everyone is starting to jump around classes with the exception of 2 mages and of course, Mustadio and Agrias. It is better to keep them on one path so they can become expert at it, but at the same time, I like learning other abilities. I just don't want to waste my time if I'm going to be kicking a few people out to make room for the story characters on down the line. Decisions, decisions!

"She saved my life, you know..."

Tietra Heiral. I had originally intended this to be an artblog as well, so I am trying to memorialize as many of the characters as I can, in my own... unique... style. I clearly need to plan my pictures out better.

Celestial Stasis!

Just finished the battle at Gollund in which you have to protect Orran. I kinda botched this one up and missed stealing the orichalcum. At least I managed to get the mythril guns and avant gauche. My problem seems to be that Ramza as an Aries has terrible compatibility with every enemy in the entire game, ever. And I should have increased the jump of my team, since I knew it was going to be a roof battle. Oh well!

Story-wise, I like Orran (why did they change the spelling?!), but this battle always amused me for being kinda... pointless, at least at first. I guess it was important that Orran meet Ramza at least once, before the epilogue happened and all.

doujinshi: TIME AND REALITY by tsuki no dango

Title: TIME AND REALITY (Toki to Jitsu?)
Circle: tsuki no dango (to the best of my knowledge)
Year: 2000
Pages: 34 pages
Characters: Ramza, Cloud, Elmdor, Delita, Ovelia, Alma, generics, some Vagrant Story art
Rating: PG

Summary: This is a fairly nice doujinshi with a lot of guest art in the middle, kinda amateurish style but probably better than my art, at least. The first 2 stories are pretty hilarious gag ones concerning Ramza's unique ability and then Cloud being stupid, it's great. The last story is longer, angsty and of course, about the epilogue. I do wish I could read it though, it seems like it has some good dialogue going on!

Page 1!
Basically Ramza is "Cheer"ing his teammates on, and they clearly do not want to be sped up, hah hah.

Anyways... I just defeated a flock of chocobos at Barias Tor, one of the hardest battles you can find, I think. Little bastards tried to take me out! Well, I finally got myself a red chocobo, so hah.

epic Tactics cosplay!!!

Oh snap, I seem to have forgotten about my Ramza cosplay. As if I'm not already horribly obsessed! Anyways, I made this costume in 2004 for Project A-kon and managed to bully my friends and brother into cosplaying with me as my devoted generic team.




(click for more photos!)

It was really really fun and I just wanted to share some photos because having huge groups from Tactics equals instant win! I hope to cosplay different costumes from Tactics in the future, if I ever get the free time and money to do so. I would love to do Agrias, but uhh... armor is so difficult to make, heh.

Chapter 2: The Manipulative and the Subservient (Lionel Castle)

Urgh, I didn't know that there were going to be three battles in a row at Lionel Castle. Finally offed Gaffgarion at the gate, which wasn't too hard if you have auto-potion on Ramza. Stole the Ancient Sword as well! On the other hand, the team outside the gate had some difficulty despite being levels ahead of the enemy. For some reason, the enemy knights had extra-good compatibility with everyone and my darned black chocobo kept getting hit for too much damage. At least it dealt major damage right back. I actually forgot about opening the gate until after Gaffgarion died, hah hah.

The 2nd battle, which I believe is new, had just Delita and Ovelia. Easy enough, plus we get a little insight on to how Ovelia accepted Delita's offer.

Now the third battle with Cuchulainn the Impure was interesting. I always liked the devils, they're so gruesomely designed and Cuchulainn is especially disgusting with his mouth-stomach. I managed to kill him in just a few rounds with Ramza as a ninja and a little help from Agrias, so it wasn't too bad. Of course, I wouldn't have been so annoyed if Ramza's armor hadn't been rent previously and I forgot to re-equip him before the battle. I don't use the knight's rent ability myself, but it is damn irritating when the enemy does it to you! Just that ability has been the reason for many a restarted battle!

Starting Chapter 3 now. The little blurb after Chapter 2, narrated by Ramza, was really quite saddening. You get such a feeling of despair and hopelessness that resulted from the war between Prince Larg and Duke Goltanna. Orlandeau arguing with Goltanna about suing for peace, extremely moving.

Golgollada Gallows

This was a difficult battle on the PSOne and it still is! That Gaffgarion and his Blood Sword, I should have stolen his sword the first chance I got! At one point, I had 2 people down, poor Mustadio took some extreme damage. I managed to rally back aggressively and did not retain any casualties, but it was darn close. I sure was tickled by the fact that they actually made a different icon for Gaffgarion in disguise as the executioner, hah hah.

Other things of note - Mindflayers are quite annoying, but my brother and I developed a good strategy in avoiding them when they come in groups of three. It involves a lot of running away.

There is currently only one FAQ for this game up at gamefaqs.com, although there are plenty for the PSone version. I recommend it - it is very thorough regarding gameplay tips and sufficiently reticent on actual plot points. My personal preference is saving the game right before an important battle, fighting the battle and then reading the FAQ to make sure I didn't miss anything I would need later. Even though I am obsessive-compulsive, I enjoy playing the game without knowing (or in my case, remembering) exactly what is going to happen. More fun that way!

Regarding merchandise, I am debating getting the ultimania artbook/guide, the five action figures or the super rare trading cards. *lusts* They are all so expensive, though! Am I that hardcore of a fan? I don't know, I still need to grab the soundtrack CDs though. Which to get first?!!! I think I may get the trading cards from eBay and the figures from Amazon, since they're not any cheaper through eBay. *debates* I must get everything...

doujinshi: Flower Barrow by Kyofu no Miso Soup

Because I'm so utterly lazy, I'm going to review one of the Tactics doujinshi I bought off of eBay.



Title: Flower Barrow
Circle: Kyofu no Miso Soup, Kiriri Amasawa
Year: 2000
Pages: 38 pages
Characters: Ramza, Delita, Alma, Olan, Balmafula, Izlude, Meliadoul, Mustadio, cameos of pretty much every speaking character
Rating: PG

Summary: basically an adorable collection of gag stories, plus fanart from different artists. The art is as you see, cute, detailed, very pretty. The running gags seem to be Ramza's devotion to Alma, plus Olan and Balmafula's rocky relationship. There is a gag version of the epilogue between Delita and Ovelia that is just hilarious. This is pretty much my favorite one, if just for the variety of characters thrown in. Sheer genius, I say.


In this comic, Ramza and Delita are basically arguing about whose sister is cuter. Hah hah! Kinda creepy, but very true.

Final Fantasy Tactics doujinshi collect!

Here are the fronts of the four Final Fantasy Tactics doujinshi I currently own (scaled down). These cost me quite the pretty penny, but I managed to snag some of the prettiest or least offensive ones I could find on eBay. I don't go for the DelitaXRamza yaoi unfortunately, even though that is the most prevalent kind of doujinshi out there. I prefer cute or gag doujinshi, in case anyone reading this cares, and yaoi tends to not fall in that realm. My next project is trying to translate some of this, but without furigana, I am as helpless as a babe.

If I ever get the funds to do so, I would love to grab the figurines, the artbook or ultimania book, and any of the original merchandise from the first release. Hardcore, yes!!!

Mustadio hates me!

Over spring break, I managed to get into chapter 2, where Ramza is now 17/18 years old and working as a mercenary under Gaffgarion. Man, that extra F in his name is extra gay!

I love the CG cutscene with Delita and Ovelia by Zeirchele Falls, that was gorgeous. Delita is kind of a douche, with his vague and dark comments about everything, but I guess that's how he gets things done, by not letting other people in on his plans. Ramza still looks like a lost little puppy, d'awwww...

Oh man, getting Mustadio is always challenging for some reason. Sometimes Mustadio cooperates and sometimes he doesn't. Because Ramza is an Aries and he is a Libra, we have the absolute worst compatibility ever, hah hah. I'm not too hot with Agrias either, her AI is quite uncooperative and she often hits allies with the sword spells.

My other favorite scene happens soon after this, when Ovelia is confiding in Agrias and Ramza overhears them. Then Mustadio, that rascal, hollers at Ramza and he tries to shush Mustadio up. So cute! It was never clear if Alma taught Ovelia the leaf whistle thing, but Ramza's earnest effort to show her how to whistle properly was made of adorable-ness.

Again with the Delita being vague towards Ramza, his bestest friend! But I like the dialogue of the Warjilis dock CG cut scene, very moving. It makes me wonder if Delita guessed the truth behind the Zodiac Brave stones or if he knew but just didn't care, as long as he could use it for his advantage. Ramza's lack of eloquence never fails to amaze me. Such the innocent!

Chapter 1: The Meager

Finished chapter 1 last night. That battle with Argath was grueling, I still don't understand the utter and shameful weakness of my buffed up characters. But trying to steal items always makes an easy battle much more difficult.

The CG movie afterwards was lovely but rather anticlimactic. I seemed to recall the original explosion at Fort Zeakden having much more impact. But that may have just been a first impression and possibly a sound quality issue on the handheld console.

The dialogue throughout the battle was pretty damn heartbreaking. Argath's reasoning and constant barrage against Ramza and Delita sounded just as cold and callous as it did the first time I played the battle, especially when you consider he is only 16 or 17 years old and not even a knight. But then, he did have a shameful past to compensate for. And alas, Delita's anger with Ramza, TEARS.

Homage to Mileuda Folles, it was especially sad having to kill her.

Milleuda Folles

I like the translation of the two Milleuda battles, the exchange between Delita, Milleuda and Ramza flows a little better now. Do you think Milleuda and Wiegraf are low-born knights or high-born? They do talk so very posh, it seems out of place with their supposedly low-born background. Not that I'm expecting some Shakespearean-fool accents, but clearly some of the truly low-born characters have been speaking in a very rough dialect with contractions and rude epithets whatnot. I am inclined to think that the Folles siblings were middle class knights now thrust into poverty, clinging to some past dignity.

I don't know about you, but even at 5 levels past the enemies, my thieves and monks keep getting slaughtered. I only managed to steal a couple of things from Milleuda, it was that devastating. I also realized that a couple of my characters, the mages, had really crappy brave/faith stats (after I leveled them to 11) so I had to dismiss one male (I always hate that) and put the female down the crazy job class path. Cursed brave/faith and zodiac compatabilities! At least there aren't judges and laws, sheez.

Well, this isn't my perfect game, the only purpose was to go through the storyline and see all the new cutscenes, goodies and classes. That's what I keep telling myself, anyways...

Leaf Whistle

Those silly leaf whistles will always bring tears to my eyes!

The voice acting of both Delita and Ramza kinda crack me up, since they're trying to pitch their voices so high, but I very much approved of this CG scene. The animation is so eerie and beautiful, with cross-hatching and an antique color scheme. I think one starts noticing Delita's desperate search for the meaning behind the past events, frustrated with the class struggles, while Ramza only sees that his best friend is hurt and confused. I love you Ramza, but you are quite the innocent.

Brigand's Den

Ramza is at level 8 right now and I am about to fight the Brigand's Den battle with Mileuda. Unfortunately, my thief hasn't gotten the "steal" abilities yet, so I think I will level up some more even though the items I want to gank may be available after the battle.

I noticed the introduction has changed from a slideshow of the zodiac stones to a somewhat eerie animation of black and white unfurling vines. I have no idea what the significance of this change is, possibly something to do with the other Ivalice games that I have yet to play or maybe part of the Ivalice Alliance theme.

The change of the ability names has been a little confusing. Not that the original translation was perfect, but I have already gotten a few skills mixed up with each other because the names are now more ambiguous, hah hah. Oops.

Anyways, the link of the day is of course, my own FFT fanlisting! Over 1200 members! Please join!
http://www.insomniel.com/tactics

Welcome!

Greetings, noble reader! I just wanted to start off with a warm welcome to whoever is reading this, if anyone at all. Probably not...

My brother and I, with great cost to our pocketbook and grievous injury to the truck, purchased a refurbished PSP just for this precious game. At this point, I have logged in several hours and leveled Ramza (an Aries) up to level 7. The gameplay is as delightfully challenging as ever. The opening CG movies are gorgeous, and the voices are as stuffy and medieval as I would have wanted. (Though what was with changing Ramza's infamous "Surrender now or die in obscurity!" line?!! It was classic! I dislike the new version, doesn't have the same ring of arrogance to it.)

My greatest complaint is the terrible load time during certain moves, which I hear was even worse in the Japanese version. I also miss the random Engrish spell and attack names, that was a charming and amusing component of the original, but I guess it would have made the lag worse. Also... Argath Thadalfas? That thounds thuper gay.

Overall, just as fun as I remembered, and the translation is much smoother and classier. Here's to further adventures!

Recent fanart!
Save the Queen (Agrias Oaks)
Ser Agrias (Agrias Oaks)
Gunner and Knight (Mustadio and Agrias)