I think the only thing you might wanna consider getting of the Seifer grind is get Quezacotl to learn Card Mod, which is nice. Grinding to get Curaga etc and +40 stat boosts is a waste, though it makes it easier to grind AP on the way back, which is much less of a waste in itself.
Played up until I'm about to go to the training center with Quistis. My favorite thing about this so far is seeing the cutscenes remastered. I don't know if it's because I know them already, but the beautiful remastered.
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Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc, the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
I haven't played any of the mobile games, so I looked up my FF song rankings topic and this was the highest rated one on there. It's pretty good, and it gives a great FF song some recognition.
I forgot to mention about bonding events. While it's a bit weird with all the romance options going on at the same time, Juna going HI. YES. PRESENT. was great.
Oh hey, there's Armin. Also, I was kinda hoping for a bit more drama in that Levi/Zeke showdown, but I ain't gonna shed any tears for Zeke getting punked when he asked for it. I'm guessing Eren is going to steal the Jaw Titan's power so he can break through Annie's cocoon next. But...would Eren become the Female Titan if he ate Annie...? How would that work? Maybe Mikasa can take the power next! I'd still prefer Annie survive and just defect though!
Also my prediction is that the first black guy in the show is the one responsible for all their upgraded technology. I'm sure we'll find out more about him soon.
Normally this would be a slam dunk for The Price of Freedom, but I've already used it, so I'll defer to another Crisis Core song I really like. The guitar in this song is very cool, so it stands out in a series where you don't hear this particular sound a lot!
Fun fact: that was the final episode that aired of the first season in the original run (sorta, but for all intents and purposes it was that episode). So the next day after school when you sat down to watch, it just looped back around to Raditz again. It was the most confusing and frustrating thing as a kid.
This was a tough decision, but I wanted to give Tactics a category win since I haven't done that yet and we've only got one more day left. As far as somber, emotion-driven pieces, I've always really loved this song. It might be a little too heavy-handed or overbearing for some, but I think it's great.
The other song I was considering was Feel My Blade from Final Fantasy IX. Vamo'alla Flamenco gets all the credit during that part of the game, but I've always thought this song was way better. If you needed VGMC nomination ideas, there are two songs that have zero chance of making it in or winning a match!
seriously, 9 of the 11 Nintendo characters in the bracket won
Only Tom Nook and Peach lost, and it's looking like Mega Man might actually be really strong there too since he's giving Snake all he can handle today!
Whew, after a few days off, let's get back to Cold Steel IV Act 3!
With our investigation of Crossbell complete, it's time to start the mission. It begins with selecting our party. Rean/Laura/Kurt/Machias/Sharon are required, and the randomizer gives us Jusis, Emma, and Sara, which is good. Word about the new Arc en Ciel show gets around fast, and then we get to see Sully and Schera do their thing on stage, with Estelle doing some backup dancing. Joshua is playing the harmonica, and Olivier is rocking some shades.
With that, Rean and company are able to sneak inside Orchis Tower. Kate and Franz help us get past the Imperial Defense Force inside, to boot. She also speaks to Sergei on the walkie talkie, but it's a shame we don't get to see him or hear him. Cutting back to the show, we get random cameos from Vita and Bleublanc. When we get to the Thaumaturgical Sector in Orchis Tower, it's glowing in psychedelic colors. Dungeon music here is strong.
Don't know if anyone here is a fan of standup comedy in general or Brian Regan in particular, but he released a new Netflix special today. Just watched it, and it's pretty great. He does a lot of Seinfeld-esque observational humor if you're into that sort of thing.
Still working my way through Orchis Tower. Fun dungeon. We have to disable all the locks preventing the elevator from reaching the top floor. When we manage to get to the top, Victor and McBurn are waiting for us. Laura is ready to face her father to prove that she has surpassed him and is a worthy heir to his legacy and the Sandlot name. Sharon asks McBurn what his motivation for doing all this is. He admits he doesn't care at all about the end of this world and all that. He just wants to find someone who can make him go all out and hang with him, and with that, he transforms into his Blazing Demon form. Apparently, Emma catches the significance of McBurn saying this world. Are we in a multiverse now?
Now it's time for the hard rock boss theme. This is a pretty fun fight, and I made sure Laura finished off her father with her S-Craft for good measure. Punished Rean got the final hit on McBurn, too, so all in all, I'd say it worked out! In the cutscene, Laura manages to knock off her father's mask...which really means nothing since he isn't mind control other than being a symbol to show she won the fight, I guess! Well, it seems he's been loosed from the grip of the curse, at least! This is one of those weird situations where one boss is clearly beaten and the other is barely fazed since McBurn is still just standing there like nothing happened. Not sure we've seen this before! Jusis says he seemed less intense than other times they've fought him, and he said it was only to let Victor have his moment in the spotlight. Now he's really ready to go.
However, one of those Leviathan Zauber Soldats appears on learning Victor is out of commission. Looks like they had a backup plan in case we actually won in a rare display of not complete arrogance...! Naturally, McBurn is none too pleased with this development and just one-shots the thing himself, which is good since we can't summon Valimar here! Or so it seems, but apparently this thing has anti-magic armor that can even deflect McBurn's attacks, which is impressive because his S-Crafts go through barriers when we fight him! McBurn is about to destroy it with his own demonic sword, but the dual Vanders wreck it, with a little help from Kurt's mom to set up the strike! Apparently, Victor had his own backup plan in case things went south, too! I like how Mueller still calls him Olivier, even in Erebonia. It's a nice touch that shows how much their time together in Liberl meant to him.
The Vanders are about to challenge McBurn when Zechs realizes he's still holding back his power. With that, McBurn decides he's overstayed his welcome and gives us a quick glimpse of his real power before taking off. This apparently confirms whatever Emma's theory was. I like how McBurn is the one dude Class VII is legitimately terrified of. It really builds up his mystique, and you kinda need to do that if you're trying to sell me on him being Loewe's equal or even superior. Victor pushes us on ahead to destroy the barrier generator, and the Vanders agree to escort him to safety.
When we reach the top, there's an orbment charging station, so I imagine there's a Divine Knight battle ahead once we deactivate this barrier or something. Sharon advises we destroy the device rather than simply deactivate it in the event Mariabell has rigged some traps into it. Sure enough, she's right there as soon as her name is mentioned. It looks like we're going to have to fight her, but on the contrary, she takes down the barrier herself and says she doesn't intend to get in our way. Mariabell says we've proven ourselves worthy to face the next Rivalry, so she no longer sees the need to interfere. She says to consider it an apology for having to bring Alberich's hideous machine here. I like how all the other bad guys seem to really hate this guy, and rightfully so. He's Weissmann tier bad in terms of generic villainy. I guess every arc needs a guy like that. I guess that orbment charging station was just a red herring. Well played, game.
We switch back to the finale of the play, and we see that Elliot's dad and Neithardt showed up to the performance, as well as Lechter, Claire, and Principal Vandyck. Elie catches a quick glimpse of Mariabell, too. The biggest shocker of all is that Lechter left without doing the walkaway wave. Turns out Roselia and Thomas are also here. At this point, I'm waiting for Osborne to randomly be here! But Roselia says she has to attend Arianrhod's grand finale at the Rivalries, so she takes off.
With that, we're free to head on to the Stella Sanctuary. Victor joins the Courageous II crew and reunites with Olivert (and Toval for a minute, but then he runs off with Josette, it seems). Rean asks him to stay and rest, although Victor says he hates to not be able to help. Duvalie says she wasn't going to let the Arseids run the show anymore anyway. As the leader of the Stahlritter, it's her duty to lead the charge on this one. They all tease her about how she's one of them now, and she doesn't exactly deny it, which is nice. Juna insists on tagging along here as well, of course, and Crow is also required, naturally. We have an 8 member party again, which is good. The randomizer gives us Fie/Gaius/Altina/Randy for the other four. It's good to have the other Crossbell guy along for the ride here, so I'll take it.
We can visit St. Ursula and the surrounding area before tackling the shrine if we want, but that's about it. I can finally tackle a Trial Chest that's been unavailable for a very long time now, so that's good.
CS4: Yeah, the Thaumatergical Sector is a fun dungeon. Great theme as well. You're right about Alberich and how it's great that Ouroboros just constantly shits on him when they speak freely. Campanella and Shirley when he blew up the Courageous in CS3, Mariabell at the end there, but my favorite was McBurn just before that when the Leviathan tries to interfere. Everyone hates him. Great luck with the randomizer there to get Randy for Crossbell stuff IMO.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
I don't know if I'd say any song has a "special meaning" to me in that it has had a real life impact or significance to me. I'll pick this song because it's probably the best song I haven't chosen, and I do like what the song represents within the scene itself. It's one of my favorite FF moments (maybe I should do an FF moments list next). The presentation of this part of the game is top notch, between the auto-scrolling dialogue at the beginning to make sure the song hits at the right moments, and the fact that the song just plays non-stop through the whole sequence.
also man they really did not understand SFF when they set this up
Nintendo is just too strong over there. Almost half of the Top 16 is Nintendo despite some Nintendo characters getting offed by other Nintendo characters. Mario being able to SFF older non-Nintendo characters doesn't help things either. ---
My bracket looked like random picks compared to his. Congrats to azuarc for winning the GotD 2020 Guru Contest!
Let's take a look around St. Ursula before we tackle Stella Sanctuary, Annabelle is still trying to get out of her arranged marriage with Kenneth's brother as her butler urges her to elope with Kenneth to save herself, but she still can't admit she loves him. What a weird sitcom situation this is. Also, I'm kind of surprised CS3 or CS4 never spoiled who the big bad of Zero was (or maybe they did and I missed it). They always focus on the Crois Family, but either way, good job there!
We also find the Priscilla talking with Cecile as she's come to visit the Emperor. Looks like she knows Olivert is alive. I was kinda curious about that. As such, they ask for permission for Alfin and Olivert to visit as well. We get a quick scene where Olivert and the Emperor exchange a few witty remarks at each other's expense, but there wasn't as much to it as I thought there'd be.
Oh hey, Patiry finally managed to find Kargo. So he was the kid hiding under the sheets when I came here before! Not much else to see here, so I'm off to catch a giant fish Kenneth told me about!
Closing in on the Stella Sanctuary. We get to explore an area of the wetlands we couldn't get to before since the IDF is no longer guarding the area. There's a conversation between Duvalie and Randy about how this area was where the Stahlritter nearly fought the SSS when they were looking for some bracers. Something else to look forward to in Azure! The Stella Sanctuary feels like the Fire Temple mixed with the Time Temple. I like the aesthetic of this place, and Duvalie even gives the motivation speech this time instead of Rean, which was cool.
The first person we run into is Ennea. Duvalie has a conversation where she says she left in order to ascertain what Arianrhod's true intentions are, and she won't let anyone stand in her way of discovering them. Ennea mentions that she was a D:G test subject (although she doesn't mention it by name), and the only good thing that came of it was her ability to use an orbal bow. Duvalie and Arianrhod were the ones who rescued her from it. The other party members whisper about the cult but still don't actually say the name. I guess it's a "that which must not be named" thing now, although Gaius said the church assisted in wiping them out, so I suppose that means it's gone now.
This boss battle is similar to the one against Gareth earlier because Ennea isn't actively on the battlefield but working from the background as we fight some archaisms. After taking them down, Ennea joins the battle directly. She isn't too tough to beat, and she wishes Duvalie good luck on her journey before passing out.
Ennea mentions that she was a D:G test subject (although she doesn't mention it by name), and the only good thing that came of it was her ability to use an orbal bow. Duvalie and Arianrhod were the ones who rescued her from it. The other party members whisper about the cult but still don't actually say the name. I guess it's a "that which must not be named" thing now, although Gaius said the church assisted in wiping them out, so I suppose that means it's gone now.
Ennea heavily implies it back in CS3 in a scene where it's just the Stahlritter (end of Chapter 3 after everyone leaves Juno IIRC) talking among themselves where she similarly mentions she was part of a cult and I think Ines praises her for being able to break through the conditioning she was put through or something and I immediately assumed she meant D G. I know you didn't play Zero until after CS3 but I think that's the first hint towards that.
As for the Cult, IIRC in Zero it's mentioned that the Cassius-led operation crushed most of them and it was essentially said that the Gralsritter and Ouroboros cleaned up the rest. Joachim just managed to be the one guy who somehow escaped even that mop-up operation, I want to say he even mentions that himself. So, yeah, as of the end of Zero I think that was the end of them for real.
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Moving on in the Stella Sanctuary. Next boss is Ines, who thinks that the playing field is even now that we have Duvalie. You think a lot of yourself, huh. Crow has a great line to this effect: "The sass is strong with this one." Duvalie drops a reveal that Ines used to be a bracer and belonged to a disgraced military family. She apparently couldn't tolerate the idea that bracers couldn't meddle in political affairs, so when she saw Arianrhod mercilessly execute a criminal ringleader to protect innocent people, she realized this was the person she needed to follow. All the Stahlritter were enamored by her sense of justice, which is why Duvalie needs to know why she's doing this.
We have to defeat a couple of archaisms again, but unlike Ennea, Ines fights alongside them. The archaisms are no problem, but Ines proves to be quite annoying because she repeatedly uses a craft that has perfect shield and HP regen, as well as canceling out her break damage, so it prolongs the fight a good bit, but she eventually goes down. Afterwards, Juna thinks it's strange Ines was a bracer but joined Ouroboros. Fie says that donations and outside financial aid are what keep the guild going, but it doesn't mean they're always driven by justice. It was good to have Fie here to provide some additional commentary. Duvalie says that people's ideas of justice vary and even clash at times, but that's why she's here.
Now it's finally time to face the woman, the myth, the legend herself. She's wearing her helmet again, declaring that she is not Lianne Sandlot. She is now the Seventh Anguis of Ouroboros, the faceless Awakener of the Argent Knight. Right now, they are fellow challengers in the Rivalries. Rean says Arianrhod knows what true evil looks like, so he doesn't understand why she joined Ouroboros and why she's helping them destroy the world. She replies that it's a combo of her pride, regret, and something she couldn't remove from her heart (presumably her love and devotion to Dreichels).
Arianrhod explains that Dreichels feared the darkness of the Ebon Knight would haunt his soul for eternity, so she chose to wait for his reincarnation to ensure his fears didn't come true. Around the time she learned the truth about Osborne, she received an invitation to join Ouroboros. She didn't intend to join them, but they told her of an imminent catastrophe that would befall the world. She attempted to intervene, but Osborne bonded with the Ebon Knight before she could stop him. With that, she joined Ouroboros, with the goal of one day winning the Rivalries and destroying Ishmelga once and for all. All the characters are impressed with her goal, and I kinda agree with them! I wasn't expecting for her to come out of this looking good, and somehow she has!
Upon hearing that, Roselia appears and asks Arianrhod why she never told her any of this. She said that Dreichels told her humanity has to solve their own problems instead of relying on higher powers. He didn't want to repeat the mistakes they made with the Sept-Terrions. Plus, he was too proud to beg for help in the first place. In reality, it was the same for Arianrhod. She couldn't bring herself to place such a heavy burden on someone she considered a dear friend. Now Duvalie feels like she understands. She sacrificed herself for the future of the entire Empire. She had no desire to bring about the Great Twilight, but it was the only way she could accomplish her true goal.
However, while Duvalie respects Arianrhod's kindness and compassion, she feels she's made a serious mistake. This involves all of them, so she was wrong to try to bear the burden alone. With that, she removes the helmet, intending to put Duvalie's resolve to the test. She tells us we have no idea of the true horror of the Ebon Knight's curse, and time is running out. Rean activates ogre mode before the fight even starts to prove he's game enough to match Arianrhod's resolve.
This is a long fight because she has a lot of HP. Her S-Craft was pretty fantastic. Her Saint's Aura is crazy because it ups all her stats AND heals 50,000 HP! She made us earn the win and Duvalie got the last strike in, so that was nice!
Gotta go for now, but hopefully we can finish this part off later tonight!
It's Divine Knight time! Somehow I have access to the entire party as partners, which is nifty. I roll with Alisa and Laura for their CP boosting and Alisa's healing abilities. Arianrhod is very strong, but having a 2-on-1 advantage certainly comes in handy. Randomly, this just occurred to me, but in order for Valimar to properly stand up to the Ebon Knight, won't he eventually have to absorb Ordine, which would kill Crow? I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!
For now, it's the aftermath of beating the Argent Knight. It's time for Arianrhod to start fading away and giving power to Rean. She says their victory was due to their trust in their allies, implying that Duvalie was right and she should've trusted them. Roselia starts chewing her out for deciding it's time to give up, and Juna says they'll need her help to stop this war if it gets out of their control. It looks like they're slowly convincing her to stick around. She says she would've been content to die in the presence of those carrying on Dreichels' will, but she's remembered how precious life is.
And then out of nowhere, it's Rufus. He stabs the Argent Knight from behind and somehow the power stops going to Rean and goes to him? This feels like a rather cheap loophole! He didn't actually win a fair and square duel! Roselia tries to incinerate Rufus, but to no avail as he effortlessly absorbs her magic. Rufus says they shouldn't let their guard down in a war, and old legends have no place in this modern day war. He talks about some sort of omen about Operation Jormungandr starting tomorrow and says he'll see us at the final stage before taking off. Okay, I've actually been a fan of Rufus up to this point because he generally doesn't act outright evil, but wow, that was just an all-around bad move on his part. Arianrhod deserves better than this crap, and she even says so herself! Now it's time for the tearful goodbyes as she gives what little strength she has left to Valimar.
With that, we're warped out of the Stella Sanctuary back to Crossbell. Emma and Celine say that while Valimar looks the same, he feels different. Sure enough, he begins to speak, as does Millium. Her power freed them from the hold the curse had on them. Of course, Campanella has to be the buzzkill and ruin the happy moment. Although it turns out he's having a rare moment of sentiment, as he, Vita, Bleublanc, Joshua, and Renne show up to say their farewells to Arianrhod and reminisce about what kind of person she was.
Campanella says it was a shame Ouroboros had to lose a pawn as valuable as Arianrhod for the sake of the Rivalries, but he figures the Grandmaster won't mind too much in grand scheme of things. He seems to be genuinely surprised he feels sad about her death. Vita takes this opportunity to ask what Rufus meant about an omen and the final stage. Renne assumes it has something to do with why McBurn and Shirley aren't around. Campanella isn't exactly in a giving mood, so he won't answer her question and takes off.
Suddenly, there's a giant flash in the sky, and it knocks Rean and Crow to their knees. I'm guessing this is the "omen" Rufus mentioned. The Courageous II shows up and Towa says something strange is happening all over the Empire. It started at the Osgiliath Basin, and so we cut there to see...something. It looks like a floating island/city like the Liber Ark, but it also has eyes like Ameno-sagiri from Persona 4. Apparently, there's a bunch of them showing up in different cities. Bardias Wallace says it looks just like the thing that destroyed North Ambria.
Cedric says this is their ultimate weapon in the war against Calvard and calls it the Empyreal Fortress. This thing apparently kicks the curse into high gear. Alberich says the Gnomes built it 1,200 years ago and also calls it the Tuatha de Danann, which was also the name of the Mithril submarine in Full Metal Panic, if I remember right! It's hard to forget a name like that. Anyway, Alberich says this will be the location of the final Rivalry. All the Ironbloods are dressed in black body suits with white overcoats now for some reason.
Thus ends Act 3, and I got an A for the chapter. I'm pretty sure I got one of the questions wrong during the Alster sidequest, so I think that was what cost me the S rank.
