Yeah it's nice that you get both weapons when you get to 40 instead of just the one. You should see the one that Dylan gives you!

What happened to me was people in my party kept continuously dying due to his HUGE CIRCLE range attack. You probably know the one. Eventually I had to exclusively use Valkyrie to beat it, but it was close. Don't be afraid to exclusively attack with one character, if it means positioning your characters where a splash damage of Lezard's moves wont hurt them. Valkyrie alone will do good damage. Once you get his health lower I think he does that HUGE CIRCLE range special attack move. What you'll want to do is stick a character or two as far away from Lezard, so out of range from that attack. So that in the case he kills someone who's on the attack, you have backups to use Revives. I did a ton of reviving in this battle, and using Free Item on one of your characters may not be a terrible idea. Always get behind Lezard of course. And try not to be afraid to use your good items.

Hope that helps. That Long Range special attack is really one of his clincher attacks that can kill in one hit to most characters. Keep your party revived, because then you always have a higher chance of surviving near the end. I'm really not sure if it's possible to win with just Valkyrie. You NEED one more, at least.

Odin, which wasn't too bad. I think fighting Bramhs, optionally in VP1 was tougher, but I actually managed to kill him in that one!

So all along he knew Alicia was actually not dead but escaped, and he pretended to play dumb to try to hide the work of the 3 mages?

Dallas was the one who pursuaded the king to "banish" Alicia to that tower you see her in at the beginning of the game. The king knew she was there, he just played dumb when the party saw him and the 3 mages for the first time in Dipan. According to Dallas, he truly loved her and was trying to find a way to make her "a whole person". Hope that clears things up for you.

Is it possible to go back to the world map once you've reached Yggrasil?

Since I rushed it, I'm now in Asgard. Found Chapter 4 to be extremely short otherwise, but with a ton of story.

So what happened in the 4th is the King gets killed, Queen commits suicide, Dylan is actually Brahms, Walther and Dyne cast the Sovereign Rite after Alicia battles Hrist and Arngrim, Lezard zapping somewhere else, Silmeria also teleported the hell out with Hrist inside the contraption, Freya casting that weird shit that encased Brahms in solid crystal as well as that zapping spell, Odin shunning whole of Midgard for knowing the Sovereign's Rite (basically 2 Mages knowing the Rite and Odin sends the whole damn world in flames. What the hell?).

Chapter 5. Alicia wakes up and knows what happened through the eyes of Rufus, Alicia having a different voice and a Soul Crush attack intro (which is much more tougher know than before), Forest of Spirits, Asgard, Bifrost, Alicia can't come to Asgard, Rufus telling her that he won't need the Ring when he enters Asgard, Forest of Spirits boss and an Asgardian person in dark clothing, They get chased, an elf saves them, they're rescued but Rufus is paranoid, Alicia and Rufus plans to get Ghoul Powder in the Lost City of Dipan, Goes back to the forest, Alicia drinks the ghoul powder, drama, MORE drama, MOAR drama, they get saved again after being attacked by the Asgardian in black, Elf woman saves them again, they go through the Ravines in under 8 minutes, Rainbow bridge, Asgardian in Black is actually Heimdall (watchperson over Asgard), defeats him, they continue forward.

Even Freya is skeptical. SUSPICIONS! And will I know who's the Elf girl, or is it someone else (like Leone = Hrist so the Elf Woman = ...Freya? Speculations!)

Will go back to Chapter 4 and actually level the hell up to like 70 or so. In the Palace of the Godforesaken Dragon.

Quite frankly Freya is a bitch, she doesn't feel compassion for anyone but Odin. I really hate that woman. Don't even think for a minute she'd give a shit about anyone that isn't from Asgard. She's just as bad as Odin.

I fucking hate this. Out of the blue you get 3 characters? meh. I'm not gonna bother using any of them. I really want to use Hrist but at her current level, and the equipment I can give her she'll be a downgrade over my current group. Brahms I just don't like, never did. Lenneth I would use but same reason as Hrist, downgrade, plus I'd have to teach her EVERY skill, since our "Lenneth the creator" appearently got lazy and stopped learning skills. She comes with 2 skills!

I'll stick with Alicia, Arngrim, Rufus and Adonis for now. If I find a decent weapon that rivals Adonis's weapon I'll gladly replace him. I might replace Rufus is the time comes, but Alicia and Arngrim i'll keep till the end, even in the Seraphic Gate. I sure as hell won't go for the cliche overpowered newb group you can assemble there.

Was anyone actually surprised about him being from the future? I sure as hell wasn't. There were so many hints that he was.

1. He was in Dipan, you saw the time machine, he was a aprentice to the 3 mages? uh yeah.

2. He already has the Philospher stone, and knows all the forbidden magicks already.

3. Him calling Rufus the vessel of the gods was when I knew for sure.

I wonder how far this will go. I still have to do the tower.

Because by the end of the chapter, before the final boss those 3 new characters won't be there.

Why is it that he's laying around by the steps, just basically having a nice snooze and probably pitching a tent at the thought of Freya, but when he joins your party, there's still monsters running around.

"OKAY, I think I'll just lay down and take a rest, despite this place crawling with monsters".

First Arngrim and Leone, then Lezard and Dylan, then if what you say is true, Lenneth, Hrist and Brahms. It's fucking annoying, especially considering the amount of effort you have to put in to proberly gear them up and learn skills. For a while I was afraid to use Rufus, fearing that the last of my story characters would go away as well. I don't want to play in fear of losing all my characters that I've been using for freaking 60 hours.

I'm just fucking glad Arngrim is back. Broke my heart when he left.

Arngrim was on the Valkyrie's side prior to rejoining the group in Valhalla, and now since he's joined up with the "intruders", the sentry have viewed him as an enemy as well.

Actually, Brahms never leaves your party. The three valkyries do, however. But you get them back in Seraphic Gate, at the same level as when they left you, after you beat Odin (or "Woden" as his name reads during the fight, he's the third boss you fight [first is Dirna Hamilton at the entrance, then Gabriel Celeste on the first floor, then Odin at the second floor]. My party for the rest of the game was Alicia, Rufus, Arngrim, and Adonis too, good choice! :)

The ending was beautiful visually, despite it not having the same amazing graphics as the opening. I never played VP1, but this game has pursuaded me to find out what happens next, so I'll be purchasing VP1 for the PSP. It was a little unclear though...
1. Rufus takes Gugnir and returns it to Valhalla(?). Doesn't Odin somehow return for VP1? Where is he?
2. Brahms turns mortal and dies...but I've heard people say you fight him in VP1, even though he dies is Lezard's world which isn't Midgard(?).
3. Arngrim returns to Midgard with the Dragon Orb and restores the land(?).
4. The souls of Alicia, Hrist, Silmeria, and Lenneth disperse. The three Battle Maidens return to Valhalla and Alicia just...dissapears(?).
If anyone can explain these to me, that'd be great. Also, Lezard is is VP1 if I'm not mistaken, is there any contention between him and Lenneth throughout the story (since he had that creepy obsession with her)? Over all a great game, if FF12 can top this game's visuals I'll be very impressed and surprised.

Basically, Lezard went back in time and fucked everything up, so the future is no longer certain, and it's likely if they ever make a third game it will be about Lenneth dealing with the new and possibly better/worse future.

Foolin' with time is always confusing though, since if the events of the original game never happened, how could Lezard have even went back in time to ruin things in the first place? I think somewhere in the ending events they tried to explain that time is a pretzel and so altering the past wouldn't neccesarily ruin the future, but simply create an alternate future in some awkward way. The ending text did mention that there is another future, one that rests in Lenneth's wings, though, which is why I assume if there is a third game it will be about her again probably scoping out the alternate future Lezard's meddling created.