LogFAQs > #946380076

We start off with a rough battle in the snow at Goland Coal City, this was harder than I think it's probably supposed to be. We're allied with Astrologist Olan, Orlandu's protege (thanks for that info, Records). He has Galaxy Stop which is cool but doesn't seem to have a high hit rate. The problems here are threefold- the Thieves charm my mostly male party (didn't realise that until now) one attempt and my guys end up reviving the enemies and just screwing me over. They also steal the weapon right out of my Lancer's hands, rendering him pretty useless. Finally there's Phoenix Downs being used everywhere, nobody seems to want to stay dead on this map. Their Mediator gets revived no less than three times on my successful attempt!

I've cared about you being my half-brother but, after all, bad blood is bad blood.

We get through it in the end, and Olan promises another encounter upon recognising Ramza's name. At the city we have a rather cold encounter with Zalbag, though considering the circumstances he could've treated Ramza much worse tbh, he doesn't seem to have malicious intent.

Ramza is now an enemy of the church. Of all the frequently used RPG tropes, I never get tired of evil churches. This next battle against a Heresy Examiner (lol) is fine, a nice break from the recent few. Alma is with us temporarily and has a strange lack of survival instinct, wandering into danger instead of staying covered. There's little serious danger here though, and Heresy Examiner Zalmo soon flees with his life. Alma convinces Ramza to let her join us (on pretty flimsy pretenses, aren't we just forcing our way into the monastery anyway? No matter).

To Alma's credit she does concede to leaving us to protect Simon while we hunt for the next Zodiac Stone. Scary save time! The Underground Book Storage Second Floor (catchy name) battle feels flooded with enemy Lancers, who are very durable and guard against damage much more often than my own Lancer. This fight isn't exactly easy but we do manage to get through it first attempt, along the way stealing a cool helmet from the Chemist. The Time Mages are a minor annoyance but fragile enough for Mustadio to take care of after a few hits, and 4/5 of my current team having revive capabilities is pretty dang handy.

Certain sacrifices must be made for the revolution! Decadent royalty and nobles must pay! For the people!

We then get another save slot and are right into a battle on the Third Floor. This one is rougher, at one point I am certain I'll have to restart when my healer gets Jump'd right before reviving Ramza. The enemies are hitting so much harder now, and Izlude is jumping all over the place with horrible timing for me! Everybody dies at some point in this battle, and the countdown reaches 0 on multiple occasions. Thankfully I get lucky and manage to heal people up thanks to a well-timed crystal and the aforementioned abundance of reviving ability in the party. I'm quite enjoying Geomancer's gimmicks too, the guaranteed hits and wide range for Ramza is nice. We scrape through (barely) and take down Izlude for now.

Izlude is a pretty cool character considering he just appeared, he seems to have his own moral compass and isn't quite aware of the full extent of the church's plans. Curious how he'll react when faced with the truth, though judging by how the game has gone so far it will end tragically for him. The music on this floor is really good btw.

Our reward for that hard-fought effort is... another menu save? Another battle?? Wiegraf has returned?! I was not prepared for three in a row. I'm gonna have to take a break before attempting this one unfortunately, I'll come back to it later. Phew, this game isn't letting up anymore!

---

Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!