The title is a quest name in Final Fantasy XI, which I’ve never played. However, it’s the only bucket-related thing in Final Fantasy I can think of right now (other than the bucket in Quan’s Dwelling in Final Fantasy IX, but I can’t get a quote from that).
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Lately (mainly thanks to Brian, 1337, Emilyvine and Mandipi), I’ve been discussing Final Fantasy on MSN, Pwnt, etc. Final Fantasy has always been a game series I’ve loved, ever since I played VII and VIII over at a former friend’s (currently he’s someone I hate very much :P) house. This was around the time VIII had just been released. I loved both games and I wanted them. So, when I got a Playstation, I bought both games and Tactics (also a Final Fantasy game). And later on, when IX was released, I got it as a birthday present. For the longest of times, IX and Tactics were tied for first place in my favorites and VIII and VII were second. I also had acquired other FFs since then (X and X-2 for PS2, III for DS, IV, V and VI’s Advance versions, Dawn of Souls and Tactics Advance for GBA, Origins and Anthology [which I no longer have] for the playstation and I, II, III, IV, V and VI for SNES. Also, Mystic Quest, but I didn’t like that.), but those were not as good as these four in my opinion.
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WARNING! SPOILERS AND A LONG LONG RANT BEYOUND THIS POINT!
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Then Final Fantasy XII came out. I didn’t get it at the time, since I was poor. I had to wait until last December to finally get it and I went to immediately play it. I loved it and still do. It became my favorite FF, usurping IX and Tactics’ place. Once I reached the point where I had only some optionals left to do before completing the game, I took a break. A long break. From January to June. Then I finally continued. It took a few days, but I did everything I had left to do: Sell the correct loot to buy the Tournesol, get the three remaining Espers (Chaos, Ultima and Zodiark), defeat all optional bosses remaining (Shadowseer (and his four summoned helpers – bosses encountered in XII already) Fury, Humbaba Mistant, Chaos, Ultima, Zodiark, Omega Mk XII, Hell Wyrm and Yiazmat), kill all 80 Rare Games left (7 were left: Tower, Vagrant Soul, Luxollid, etc), complete the Sky Pirate’s Den (I had these tasks left: Defeat Hell Wyrm, Defeat Yiazmat, Complete the Bestiary [all you had to do was face each foe once, but I also chose to defeat them enough times to unlock the special pages in the Bestiary – Yay for St Ajora being mentioned in one :D], Defeat Ultima, Defeat Zodiark, Get all Espers, Complete each character’s Licence Board [required all Espers] and trigger all concurrences [I had Black Hole left].) and finally, complete the game.
After dealing with everything but Yiazmat and the Black Hole, I had to choose which one to go for first. Both would be challenges – Yiazmat for it’s 50 million HP and Black Hole for being hard to trigger. I chose Yiazmat, knowing I would then get all but one Sky Pirate’s Den unlockable.
In the first attempt I took him down to 13 million HP, but then my sister came over and I was forced to babysit my niece and nephew. Well, my nephew wanted to play. Naturally I couldn’t let a 4-year old (since turned 5) fight Yiazmat. Instead, I left the battle to save (yes, this is possible and is widely considered the only reason Yiazmat is beatable. However, if Yiazmat can’t target you for a long period of time, he will cast buffs on himself, one being Regen which heals him for 500k. If he does this before the user leaves the arena, he will regain all of his HP while the user is away) and changed the game to something he’d want to play.
After I got control of the PS2 once again, I changed the game back to XII, but chose to go online first. There I talked to Emily (and some users on a Pwnt chat) and mentioned my XII progress, saying I’d try to defeat Yiazmat before going to sleep (It was almost midnight) or continue the next day. After leaving the computer, I went to continue. I got Yiazmat down to three million but by then I was already falling asleep. I chose to go save again.
In the morning I continued and got him to the last one million (took some time, since he loves to be a real pain when below 5 million: Death Strike [Instant KO unless user has Shell], Death Strike, Death Strike, 12 hit combo [Total Damage with my defense: 20k-ish], Death Strike, 10 hit combo, Death Strike and so on) while one of my friends was watching. I had to save again, since I didn’t wish to lose the 2 million I had removed from his ridiculous health. I entered one more time, making it my fourth time entering the fight (shown by “Stage 4” in the upper right corner of the screen). By this time my friend had left and went to buy some snacks with my twin. While they were away, I continued. I got him to 500k, then 100k, then under 10k (these were how I counted it on paper :P) and then I defeated him (I won’t say ‘kill’, since…well, you’ll see if you read on). Yiazmat was finally down. And then my friend and twin came home and I told them the news.
After saving, I checked the new stuff in the Sky Pirate’s Den, talked to Montblanc (you may know him from Tactics Advance) to get the final reward (which I sold, along with the rewards for beating Omega Mk XII and completing the Fishing Sidequest, thus getting the third strongest weapon in XII – Wyrmhero Blade. I had the strongest and 2nd strongest already – Zodiac Spear and Tournesol) and got ready for trying to get Black Hole triggered. I tried 8 times that day with no success and then got bored of it. I saved the game and quit. The next morning, I continued my attempts. It took 7 more tries and then I finally succeeded in triggering it (ironically, 7 is my favorite number :P), thus completing the game 100% once I went to Sky Fortress Bahamut and obliterated the bosses there.
I was sad to have finally completed my favorite FF, but I was also glad to have done so. I also knew it wouldn’t be the last time I’d see Ivalice and some of the characters, since I still had Revenant Wings (sequel to XII) and Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift (‘sequel’ to Tactics Advance) left to play. I chose to play RW first and so I did.
It took a few days but I got 100 % before completing the game (easier to find out in this game, since it actually had the percentage shown, unlike XII). Now, about how RW was a sequel. Well, the following things made a return: Ivalice (world), Dalmasca Estersand/Paramina Rift/Giza Plains (locations), Vaan/Penelo/Balthier/Fran/Basch/Ashe (playable characters), Kytes/Filo (formerly NPCs, now playable), Ba’Gamnan (formerly NPC and boss, now playable for a time and boss/NPC) and his siblings (NPCs/Bosses), Larsa (NPC), Loot (some loot items from XII returned as Materials), the Scions (XII’s Espers returned, along with many new summons and former summons from previous FFs, totaling to 50-60 something summons)
, Gilgamesh and Enkidu (Gilgamesh is a reoccuring character, as is Enkidu and naturally they returned after being in XII. This time Gilgamesh becomes a summon after being beaten, but Enkidu doesn’t. I was sad when I saw that Enkidu was pretty much considered a normal summon by RW, as multiples of it respawn when it gets killed.), Nono (NPC), Tomaj (NPC), Rikken/Elza/Raz (NPCs AND bosses/guests this time), the Strahl (airship returns, but not useable this time), some XII marks/optional bosses (Gilgamesh and Enkidu were already mentioned. The others are Trickster, King Bomb and Yiazmat), Mist (term), two quickenings (Balthier and Vaan have one of their quickenings as their Quickening in this one. The others got new ones) and the battling system (however, the only similiarities are the fact that foes appear on map and gambits are useable). There are other stuff that was in XII too, such as weapons, races and mentions of Dalmasca, etc, but I don’t think those need to be mentioned. Also, since I love FF references, guess where Yiazmat (btw, his 11k HP in this one was SO much less than XII’s 50 million) was? He was in a dungeon called Midlight’s Deep (also known as Deep Dungeon), a familiar dungeon from Tactics (and, I assume, War of the Lions for PSP). Also, there is a location called Roda Volcano (Tactics Advance) and Glabados Ruins (Glabados being familiar from Tactics). Some might wonder why these have been included. Well, the answer is quite simple. The Ivalice of Tactics and the Ivalice of XII are the same and the timeline is the same, even though the games take place some years apart. Tactics Advance, as those who played it know, was set in an imaginary world of Ivalice, even though some Tactics/XII/TA2 things are in it, mainly Montblanc, Bervenia, Judges, Ezel Berbier, etc.
Now, after completing RW, I started Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, Tactics Advance’s ‘sequel’. This time it takes place in the real Ivalice of XII/Tactics/RW, instead of an imaginary version. However, there are Tactics Advance stuff in it too, such as Mewt Randell making a return, Montblanc (Although TA’s Montblanc was imaginary, he still seems to know Marche’s [protagonist of TA] name), Ezel Berbier, Aisenfield and laws. Naturally, aside from all the XII stuff this game is full of, there are Tactics stuff too. From the top of my head I can mention Goug, the Machine City from Tactics and some other stuff.
But anyways, for someone like me, Grimoire of the Rift is a fantastic game, since there’s so much familiar stuff involved. All the normal foes are now from XII (Yay, more Deadly Nightshades xD), some bosses seem to make a return (Such as Fury and Humbaba with special descriptions, instead of ones used for their monster class :o), there’s Vaan, Penelo and Montblanc, etc. Also, the moment you start the game, you’ll be sent to see Mr.Randell (aka Mewt from TA) and I hear you get to see him after the game 😛 If you don’t think it’s Mewt and you have this game, check the counter of the library for something of Mewt’s. You can also see Ritz from TA in the notepad with the questions you answer in the beginning of the game. Marche is (apparently) going to be mentioned by Montblanc. Once you get into the actual game, the first boss is Klesta, a Crushatrice (a stronger version of XII’s Cockatrices). Instead of being defeated, however, it flees the moment it gets into critical health. What a bummer. However, Klesta can be met several more times thanks to side quests until the time you finally defeat him. That series of side quests happens to have a sad backstory D:
Anyhow, I went on a FF rant for some reason xD At the moment I’ve played 23 Final Fantasies, if we count Origins, Anthology and Dawn of Souls as single games. However, even if we’d choose to not count them at all, I would still have played 20 FFs. Also, I’ve played and completed all three of the Kingdom Hearts games, in case someone counts them as FFs.
P.S. Seeqs are finally playable in TA2 😀
(This would be funnier in a battle, I guess xD)
Meaning of Life is Bucket 
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