{"id":54117,"date":"2022-04-13T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=54117"},"modified":"2022-04-13T04:17:11","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T08:17:11","slug":"a-travelog-of-ivalice-part-14-the-part-before-part-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=54117","title":{"rendered":"A Travelog of Ivalice, Part 14: To the Peak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once in the courtyard of the tower, the gate shuts behind us and the party is attacked by some sort of gray-brown smear on the floor. At least, that’s what it was after the battle; I didn’t get a very good look at it beforehand, and it’s existence had no bearing on anything. I do have to ask: are we not officially ‘in’ with the Occuria at this point? If Ashe and her cronies all get eaten by a giant tortoise on the way up the Pharos, what’s the Occuria’s backup plan? Do they have any other fallen heirs of the Dynast-King to half-manipulate into preventing their traitor from assuming absolute power over Ivalician affairs? Sure, they need some way to verify it’s us climbing the Pharos and not some very lucky shipwrecked Seeq, but the door to the Pharos’ interior doesn’t even open until the Dynast-King’s heir stands in front of it, so you’d think that would be a system they could rely upon.<\/p>\n

Fran neglects to mention how she knows the age of the message. I mean, everyone should already know because all the structures on the island are clearly ancient, but maybe radiocarbon dating is yet another unadvertised feature of the viera olfactory facilities.<\/div>
Fran neglects to mention how she knows the age of the message. I mean, everyone should already know because all the structures on the island are clearly ancient, but maybe radiocarbon dating is yet another unadvertised feature of the viera olfactory facilities.<\/div><\/p>\n

Standing before the entrance, the party stops to examine a message carved into the wall. Fran says it looks very old before reading it, but it seems the last 1,100 years has done little indeed to change the written word of Ivalice, because the grammar, spelling and diction are all indistinguishable from the party’s own. That’s lucky; if I found a note written by King Arthur in 1100 AD’s Middle English, I’d be pretty well fucked.The message is actually written in English, merely with a stylized font. The words with double letters stand out easily, in particular the signature, “In Blood, Raithwall.” Check the double-L by Fran’s elbow in the image above. The Galteans make the Al Bhed look like expert cryptographers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The note starts off, and I’m paraphrasing here, \u201cThis tower is tall.\u201d Eureka. Then it sermonizes for a bit: \u201cHe without power, want it not; He with power, trust it not; He with sight, heed it not. Rend illusion; cut the true path.\u201d Ashe is content to space out and pick her nose until Fran reads that it was signed by Raithwall himself. Wait, so Raithwall thought the whole, \u201cHey we’re the gods, we’ll give you nukes since you’re fucking aces in our book,\u201d deal was sort of sketchy, too? And he still went on to found a four-hundred-year golden age followed by seven hundred more years of relative peace that we’re only now just shitting up? Let’s never take that into consideration, okay, Ashe? Awesome, you’re the best.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They ponder the last bit for a moment, \u201cRend illusion; cut the true path.\u201d Of course, in thematic terms, it simply a tip from Raithwall to ignore all the bullshit various supernal entities are pushing around at the moment and \u00fcbermensch<\/i> your way to the brightest future possible, Ramza Beoulve style. In game terms, however, it simply means the tower is filled with various illusion-esque puzzles.<\/p>\n

Hey, Rocko has a better mystery for you, Ashe: when and why did Raithwall ever come here? Raithwall's three nethicite shards long predated him; he received them from the garif, who seem to have received them directly from the Occuria. He never cut any stones from the Sun-Cryst.<\/div>
Hey, Rocko has a better mystery for you, Ashe: when and why did Raithwall ever come here? Raithwall's three nethicite shards long predated him; he received them from the garif, who seem to have received them directly from the Occuria. He never cut any stones from the Sun-Cryst.<\/div><\/p>\n

Holy shit, more<\/i> proving our worth? We’re on the doorstep of the weapon the Occuria definitely want us to have, holding the tool they gave us to acquire it with, for us to accomplish tasks they deem invaluable! At what point do we stop proving our worth? Did the Dynast-King have to clear time off of his busy schedule of drinking Ordalian wine by the half-cask and having his Dynast-Beard fluffed by a team of young viera beard-fluffing maidens to attend to various tasks of regular worth-proving? Were all the various waypoints and trials left behind by Raithwall the product of constant badgering by spectral visions of his high-school sweetheart, pantomiming the Occuria’s will to him?<\/p>\n

[Rocketeer’s Note: if an image of Raithwall drinking and having his beard fluffed does not appear here, chances are good that Shamus has stolen the budget I set aside for this and flown to Atlantic City.]<\/i><\/p>\n

I guess we shouldn’t expect an express elevator to the top of the tower, then? And I guess we would be somehow fucked if we had tried just flying to the peak in the Strahl,<\/i> right? The answer to both of these questions may shock you.<\/p>\n

I'm guessing this entire Pharos thing is little more than a practical joke by the flight-capable Occuria.<\/div>
I'm guessing this entire Pharos thing is little more than a practical joke by the flight-capable Occuria.<\/div><\/p>\n

I’m actually going to spend some time talking about this dungeon, since it alone consists of more than just running through every room slaying monsters until you get to the boss. I mean, it’s not more by much, but still.<\/p>\n

The ground floor\u2014 and many of the floors to follow\u2014 consists of a large, circular central chamber surround by a labyrinth complex on the perimeter. Enemies in the labyrinth are unique in that black orbs will appear upon their deaths, which are used to power various ancient doodads around the Pharos. What are these doodads for? For the highest calling known to RPG characters: opening a door<\/a>. Each of the devices on this floor take only a single orb, but in addition to the tower itself, there’s a postgame area beneath the Pharos that requires scads of dark orbs to access some of the game’s best equipment, so it’s worth gathering a bunch of them up.<\/p>\n

Once three of the devices have been given a black orb, a door in the back of the labyrinth unlocks itself. Stepping through it seems to take us somewhere different entirely… the Sandsea, in fact. Wandering around a bit, a few shapes recognizable as the large tortoise-type enemies are scattered around, dormant in their shells. Approaching most of them merely warps the party back to their starting point. One of them, however, comes to life for a boss fight.<\/p>\n

Most of the turtle enemies have a head or face on the front of the shell. Pandemonium seems to have overslept the day they handed those out.<\/div>
Most of the turtle enemies have a head or face on the front of the shell. Pandemonium seems to have overslept the day they handed those out.<\/div><\/p>\n

Now, here’s the thing about the tower: there are threeactually five<\/span> of these bosses, and each corresponds to one of the guardian deities of the Chinese\/Japanese cardinal directions. This one is the black tortoise of the North, Genbu. Ironically, though Genbu is said to represent water and the Winter, this boss is seemingly earth-element, due to its weaknesses and immunities. But in both the original Japanese and its translations, this turtle is called ‘Pandemonium,’ a recurring name in Final Fantasy lore. In fact, none of the other guardian deities of the tower will be named for the mythology they are referencing.<\/p>\n

Upon beating the great tortoise into submission, the party finds themselves in the small, rectangular room the labyrinth door actually led to. I get that you’re trying to leverage the ‘illusion theme,’ guys, but if it’s effectively just a boss fight anyway…<\/p>\n

Raithwall pointed out in his note that the Pharos is pretty tall, and while that could have gone without saying, boy he weren’t kidding, neither. Altogether, the tower is 100 stories tall, Outer Heaven style, with the Sun-Cryst set in its dais in the penthouse.<\/p>\n

However, most of the floors aren’t like the labyrinth on the first floor. There are a few of those scattered about, but in between each of these levels are the so-called stairway ravels, which rapidly ascend the tower. Having beaten Pandemonium, we are free to use the teleporter to the first of the stairway ravels, which actually begins on the tenth floor. The stairway ravels don’t cotton to those dark orb shenanigans, and enemies here do not drop them. Rather, these levels have their own set of tricks: \u201cfool’s facades,\u201d which are merely false walls that can be knocked down, usually for treasure; and illusory bridges, which are required to progress. Throughout the tower, there are enemies called Brainpans, which look like stone statues with green flames spurting out of them. Defeating these will cause sections of bridges to to appear over otherwise impassable gaps. There are also red-flamed statues called Deidars, which will counteract your progress if you slay one while building a green bridge, but will build red bridges of their own which lead to bonus treasure.<\/p>\n

Maybe I'm not the only one having my art budget embezzled. Instead of a dragon deity, we get this gnarly goggle-eyed dorkfish.<\/div>
Maybe I'm not the only one having my art budget embezzled. Instead of a dragon deity, we get this gnarly goggle-eyed dorkfish.<\/div><\/p>\n

The stairway ravel will lead us all the way to the 49th floor, after which we pass through a door to another illusory landscape: a series of shallow terraced pools. They don’t even bother with any fakeouts this time and just spring the guardian boss after a few steps: Slyt, a large blue fish-creature, representing Seiryu, the azure dragon of the East. Slyt is obviously a water-based boss, though the mythical Seiryu was a deity of wood and the Spring. After pushing its shit in with a few Firaga spells, we once again find ourselves back in the tower, after which it’s a short walk to the 50th floor and the teleporter to the second \u201cascent\u201d of the tower.<\/p>\n

The gimmick of this labyrinth section is binding abilities; to progress, you have to pick an altar which will prevent you from using either standard attacks, magic, items, or\u2014 if you aren’t a total fucking idiot\u2014 the minimap. Although the minimap disappears in these areas if you take that option, you are still able to check your main map to figure out which of the many identical rooms you’re in, rendering the sacrifice trivial.<\/p>\n

It may appear that you are intended to complete a short section under each of the restrictions to proceed, but this isn’t so; though each altar unlocks only the door next to it, they all lead to the same place. Regardless of which altar you choose, there’s nothing stopping you from merely running past the enemies for the short distance to the next floor.<\/p>\n

Okay, a twelve foot tall man-tiger with an 800-pound knife is a more credible threat than the walking rock and the psoriasis carp.<\/div>
Okay, a twelve foot tall man-tiger with an 800-pound knife is a more credible threat than the walking rock and the psoriasis carp.<\/div><\/p>\n

Arriving at the 65th floor, it’s time for another boss. Passing through the door, we find ourselves whisked to a snowy mountain crevice. The battle begins immediately with Fenrir, a bipedal white tiger. This boss represents Byakko of the West, a deity of metal and Autumn. Although Fenrir seems to be a wind-based creature in-game, he still sort-of matches Byakko’s element, for once, by virtue of carrying a massive fuck-off sword. Unfortunately for him, the swirling maelstrom of overcompensation and penis envy that is our party can’t really be beaten as far as massive fuck-off weapons go, and he is quickly done in by the aforementioned.<\/p>\n

That was the last guardian deity, by the way. Yep, of the four guardian deities, we only fight three, none of whom correspond with their inspirations beyond their appearance. Fantastic.<\/p>\n

However, one of the game’s final hunts is for a creature called the Shadowseer<\/a>, who summons these three bosses for a rematch, as well as the fourth and final guardian, Phoenix, based on the Vermilion Bird, Suzaku. Suzaku was the deity of fire, Summer, and the South, and therefore matches the in-game boss better than any of its mandatory kin. While in Chinese myth there is an earth deity called Huang Long, the yellow dragon, which represents the center, the Shadowseer is more in line with the Japanese tradition, in which the center represents the Void.<\/p>\n

This all has to be part of an Occurian game show, like Ninja Warrior or MXC. ''Okay, one of these buttons takes the elevator to the next floor. All the other ones flip the elevator over and dump the passengers out. Can they figure it out? Watch and find out after these messages!''<\/div>
This all has to be part of an Occurian game show, like Ninja Warrior or MXC. ''Okay, one of these buttons takes the elevator to the next floor. All the other ones flip the elevator over and dump the passengers out. Can they figure it out? Watch and find out after these messages!''<\/div><\/p>\n

After Fenrir is defeated, the party may at last dispel the binding magic, which summons a \u201cDais of Ascendance,\u201d better known as… wait for it… \u201cthe fucking express elevator,\u201d which will take us to the next floor, and eventually will freely transport us between any levels of the ascent we wish to explore. It proves to be rather limited right now, since it only takes us up one level, which contains nothing but a teleporter to the next ascent.<\/p>\n

Well, enough faffing around. With the last guardian defeated, it’s time for more stairway ravel nonsense. This time, we need to pick from different colored teleporters, one of which takes us to the next set. The game doesn’t really give you much to go on here, but if you fuck it up twice you get transported to an area with a map of the level and some pillars which tell you the answers straight out… as well as a massive swarm of undead.<\/p>\n

Lacking anything else to say about it this time around, I’d like to relate that the entire tower is filled with inscribed pillars. Some of these, especially the earlier ones, give hints about how to progress, but some of them are just for flavor. All of them, however, drop at least a few lines to explain that humans suck and are lame, and the Undying\u2014 the Occuria, that is\u2014 rock and are cool.<\/p>\n

Maybe the Pharos was actually slipped into the Occurian budget a few thousand years ago as a good, honest porkbarrel jobs program by whichever Occurian Senator represents the Naldoan Sea. ''We can't afford NOT to protect our strategic nethicite assets!''<\/div>
Maybe the Pharos was actually slipped into the Occurian budget a few thousand years ago as a good, honest porkbarrel jobs program by whichever Occurian Senator represents the Naldoan Sea. ''We can't afford NOT to protect our strategic nethicite assets!''<\/div><\/p>\n

Each and every one of these inscriptions takes time to explain how humans are foolish, violent, chaotic, and ephemeral, while the Undying are wise, everlasting, and set the world into a necessary order. A likely story, given who wrote it, but there are a few passages of note scattered among the posturing. It seems the Occuria once took a far more active approach in governing the world’s affairs, controlling the passing of events with an indomitable hand. But eons ago, they relented, choosing instead to grant human scions the responsibility of altering the world’s course only once every few ages, when necessary. The inscriptions go on to say that this changed at the will of \u201cOur King.\u201d So it would seem that the Undying themselves have some sort of hierarchy we aren’t privy to, and at the very least there is one among them to whom they all bow.<\/p>\n

Don’t bother remembering all this; the game sure as hell won’t.<\/p>\n

After the final teleporter, we reach another elevator which brings us up to the 90th floor, which has a large platform in the center of the circular wellspring rather than leaving it open like all the others. It should be noted that the waterfall curtain plainly visible in all these screenshots of the Pharos interior seems to be rising, not falling. Trying to admire that from within here will get you ganked, though; from outside the circle leaps a new challenger: Hashmal, the Bringer of Order!<\/p>\n

As ever seems to be the case, if you're looking at this boss thinking, ''I have no fucking clue what I'm supposed to be looking at,'' congratulations! That's the genuine Final Fantasy XII experience. You're welcome.<\/div>
As ever seems to be the case, if you're looking at this boss thinking, ''I have no fucking clue what I'm supposed to be looking at,'' congratulations! That's the genuine Final Fantasy XII experience. You're welcome.<\/div><\/p>\n

Hashmal is some sort of wolfman with giant horn\/claw things instead of arms. Must make it inconvenient to wipe. You people should know how it goes by now; I have better things to do than sully my hands fighting Lucavi. Hashmal, prepare to face Zeromus, the Condemner!<\/p>\n

In defiance of tradition, Hashmal barely manages to defeat my Esper, mainly due to Ashe sandbagging unhelpfully and chomping popcorn while watching them wreck each other’s shit. Once Zeromus falls, she swoops in to killsteal the last tiny bit of Hashmal’s health, because our party is all class, all the time.<\/p>\n

<b>Basch:<\/b> ''Because if it's not, I think I'm going to have a heart attack. I'm 36, that's like 60 in JRPG years. I think I'm technically older than Fran.''<\/div>
Basch:<\/b> ''Because if it's not, I think I'm going to have a heart attack. I'm 36, that's like 60 in JRPG years. I think I'm technically older than Fran.''<\/div><\/p>\n

With that out of the way, nothing remains to challenge us as we climb the last quiet stair to the peak of the great Pharos. Fran points out that the mist is becoming much stronger, because mist detection is one of two whole character traits she possesses. Penelo, Vaan, and Reddas wonder aloud if Ashe will really go through with the Occuria’s plan, as if she wasn’t standing two arms’ lengths away, clearly hearing every word they say. At this point, she fucking better<\/i> go through with it or I just climbed this damn tower for nothing. Amusingly, Ashe politely stops and waits for Reddas to stop guilt-tripping her behind her back.<\/p>\n

With that out of the way, the party uses one last teleporter to reach the seat of the Sun-Cryst itself in all its blinding radiance. For this purpose the tower was built in ages long risen and fallen: to enshrine the marvelous, terrible power that made Raithwall Dynast-King a thousand years past, and his forebear before him, and his before him, and so on beyond mortal reckoning.<\/p>\n

Neat.<\/div>
Neat.<\/div><\/p>\n

I hope, despite all odds, you enjoyed the game so far. Once atop the Pharos, the game explodes into a maelstrom of lunacy. Get ready, because there’s no going back.<\/p>\n

The Travelog continues next week.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once in the courtyard of the tower, the gate shuts behind us and the party is attacked by some sort of gray-brown smear on the floor. At least, that’s what it was after the battle; I didn’t get a very good look at it beforehand, and it’s existence had no bearing on anything. I do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[616],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ffxii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54117"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54245,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54117\/revisions\/54245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}