[PS2] Final Fantasy XII

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For a natural phenomenon, it sure is problematic. Funny how you chose Pyreflies and Mako, naturally occuring features in those worlds that either give rise to monsters or enable destruction. I guess the only difference here is in the degree. One was essentially, free-floating spirits and the other was akin to magma. The Mist seems much more sinister in its ubiquity due to it being just like... well, common mist. The only thing I can think of that is close to it in terms of scale and effect on the world is the miasma described in Crystal Chronicles.

Pyreflies are completely neutral. They are non-sentient and have no will of their own. They only become a problem when a person's soul remains unsent; then their Pyreflies can become a fiend. Even Mako energy isn't inherently bad. Mist, too, is not bad in itself. Fran even says that it can be a powerful aid.

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Well, that would explain Venat's seemingly instantaneous "warps". It/She wasn't warping so much as remanifesting elsewhere, and your theory also seems to hold true when taking into account Vayne's final transformation. Was Venat manipulating the mist it charged and distorted, causing it to flow into him? Or did Venat simply take control of him (hence the name of the final boss, also the name given to the Occuria, and the uneartly roar he let out when dying)?

I don't think she took control of him so much as joined with him. After all, she said "Let's walk together." She then infused him with her power, which he proceeded to use, or tried, at least. It makes me wonder if he was using her full power. If he was, perhaps the Occuria are really weaklings?

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Either way, there's a good chunk of the game that hints at them being the gods described. I tried to take a good look at those strange statues each of them had behind them, as well as the scenery. It's possible there were more of them, and we simply warped into a general meeting place.

I think that the biggest piece of evidence is the quote about the Gods going into a city of their own making. What else could it be but Giruvegan and the Occuria? I am forced to wonder why the bothered to build all of that, though. It's obvious none of it is being used or lived in. But certainly, they couldn't spend all of their time on that one platform.

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That one looks... ok. The beady, glowing eyes does nothing to soften them up in my eyes. That's a deliberate design move on SE's part to create a piercing glare effect, something not associated with kind creatures. Venat, for example, looks like it's/she's rotting. Must be something in the Mist outside of Giruvegan, or maybe it's simply one of it's unique features like that screencap Occuria's wings?

Something else I noticed about their eyes: Because they have no pupils or Irises, no matter where you stand in relation to them, it seem as though they are looking directly at you. Take this picture of Venat, for example:



Now, where is she looking?

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They would've looked even more frightening had they had arms, but it would've screwed with the overall feel. Arms would've dictated use, leading to a deemphasis on dialogue (it would be distracting, and take away from the raw yet motionless rage Gerun had).

Speaking of Gerun, he's pretty good-looking too. His "armour" is very ornate. Too bad he's such a jerk.

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I'd probably take a long look at myself and ask "Why?" Why would I have any right to decide not only life or death, but who flourishes and prospers, what nations meet, how long peace will last. You're right in that the Occuria would never utter something as shallow as "Let's kill for the sake of killing". Instead, they'd justify their actions with motives and ideas that could essentially be called evil. Or at the very least, a long shot from good.

But perhaps, in their view, they are justified. Try to put youself in the mindset of an extremely powerful and immortal being having existed for eons. Who has any right to challenge you? What hubris! Being a god, anything you do is, by definition, "right". Who can say otherwise? What do they know? They are only mortals, after all. Do they believe they have greater wisdom then you? Insufferable!

It seems like you would be the Venat of the group.

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Is it possible for what's inside to be similar to the ornate symbols (glyphs) that each summon is imprisoned in? But instead of this being a summon, it's simply power encased in a crystal.

That's what I thought; they look like glyphs of some kind.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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For the record, if I had been the leader of the Occuria, I would have been helpful and benevolent toward any races or people that were showing signs of great power. Why not become friends with them? We could rule (I mean rule in the positive sense, to help and to guide when it is needed, not in the sense of dominating or controlling) Ivalice together. Think of what we could learn from each other! I would forge positive and friendly relationships with all of the peoples of Ivalice. At least, that is how I see it.

FELIPE NO

Hey, MS, I finished the Garif Beastiary entry. Do you want me to write it out for you?

Just for fun, I filmed myself griefing the last Adventurer, to commemorate the hunt. http://www.sendspace.com/file/t6gp1g

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'll go ahead and type out the whole thing, in case everyone else wants to look:

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1/5

Dragons. The most feared of all creatures, yet, beyond mention in ancient tomes of their servitude to the gods in antiquity, little is known of the ecology and development of the great wyrms.

I have, in my studies, come across a certain fable concerning a god and a dragon. The stone tablet upon which it was written was only recently discovered, and though there are surely some ebellishments as might be found in any fable, I wonder with no little suirprise at its simple elegance. Perhaps. I find myself thinking, this tale has the germ of truth in it.

-Lecluse, Exegete of Tales

2/5

In times now ancient, a Dragon was born, stronger than anything that had been before, and in time, he thought himself superior to the God that had created him. One day, he said unto Him, "I am stronger than you, God." "Very well," replied the smiling God, "then let us play a game, and we shall see which of us is the stronger."

So began the Dragon's game.

3/5

Dragon and God agreed to three tests to see who was the strongest. "See yon mountain?" asked the God, "can you carry it here to me?" "As easily as an ant might carry a blade of grass.", the Dragon replied, and a moment later he had brought the mountain to the God's feet. "Next," the Dragon said, "it is your turn." "No," said the God, "I am not strong enough to move a mountain."

And so did the Dragon win the first test.

4/5

The next test was also one of strength. "See there yon rock?" asked the God. "It is of the strongest stone in the world. Can you pierce it?" "As easily as a sparrow might pierce an apple in the search of the worm," the Dragon replied, and a moment later, he had opened a gaping hole in the stone. "Next," the Dragon said, "It is your turn." "No," said the God, "I am not strong enough to pierce such stone."

And so did the Dragon win the second test.

5/5

And so they came to the final test. "See there yon magickal ring?" asked the God. "Can you pass through it?" "As easily as the ferret scampers through the warren-hole, in search of the hare," and a moment later, the Dragon's neck was through the ring. Yet the ring was too narrow for the dragon to pass through entirely. "You have tricked me," the dragon said. "I am cleverer than you," replied the smiling God.

Thus did the God with the final test, and thus did the Dragon become lesser than the God in all things.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Metal Sphere

Heh, I loved that. It's either the story of how Ring Wyrms came to be, or about Yiazmat. It could be Hell Wyrm, but it doesn't click with its bestiary info, while it fits in perfectly with Yiazmat. So.. apparently the clown could talk, eh? Should've said something when he croaked. The video was great BTW, Niho+Scathe = Victory. Say, I have a video that I recorded with my camera but it ended up as a 4.5GB (!!) AVI. Do you know any converters I could use to change it to something more reasonable?

It has to be Yiazmat, because he is the one described the strongest Dragon, and having been created by a God, and as the one who became a threat to his creator. I guess he wasn't that much of a threat after all.

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Edit: BTW, could this "God" be another Occuria? That little twist at the end coupled with the god simply agreeing with the dragon's request sounds like an Occuria manipulating an arrogant fool.

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I imagined it as being Gerun, since he is the leader of the Occuria, after all. Although I have a hard time imagining him smiling.



"Let us play a game... (you dumbass!)"

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Remember, it is the length of the quickening chain that really counts; not which level quickenings you use.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I finally got around to beating the Seer today. What a damn cheater. Everything was fine until Phoenix was summoned. It just kept attacking and attacking and attacking. I had to use my reserve team! Good thing I levelled them up! The scariest moment was when there was nobody left but Penelo with 503HP and 0MP. I sure did use a lot of Phoenix Downs in that fight...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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Oh, and the Shadowseer and his debuffing/buffing also got old fast (especially Fearga once his minions were dead).

The only thing that got me through Fearga was the Megalixers I got from the Magick Pots. I had to summon Zodiark and destroy the universe with his desperation attack to get those, damn it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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What the hell?

What the hell is right. I wasn't paying much attention because I was too busy rezzing, but I swear he was teleporting around and pulling off some serious karate moves on my team. Did you notice such a thing?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Chain secrets? I am not quite sure what you mean. If there was something special that I did, I must have done it without knowing it, because I didn't go in with any strategy in mind.

FELIPE NO

I killed every enemy I came across...

Anyway, I came in from the northeast side of the diagonal span.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

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Oh well, I Scathed his ass to death.

Heh, that makes three of us now.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I just remembered something that I thought about a while back.

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When Bahamut is crashing into Rabanastre, Zargabaath (Hah, I love that name) says he will ram the Alexander into it to knock it away. The question is, do you think his intentions were selfless, or was he trying go out with a bang and achieve some kind of recognition?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Actually, you can fight Yiazmat without having beaten the Seer.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm pretty much done. I might play through again with cheat codes on, just to re-experience the story without having to worry about leveling or dying.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I have a question. I've been wondering about this for a while. Does anybody have any idea what the etymology of the word "Nethicite" is? The suffix "-ite" is common for many real life minerals, (e.g. calcite), so I know where that comes from. But where does the "Nethi" (or "Neth") part derive from?

"Manufacted" was also one of my favorite words from the game. At first, I thought it was simply a modified version of "manufactured", but I later found out it has its roots in the latin phrase "Manu Factus" (from which the word "manufactured" itself is derived); literally: made by hand. In this case, it would be hand-made Nethicite. I'm wondering, however, if it could be a play on words. You could combine the english word "man" with "factus" and then change it to "manufacted", or man-made. This would make sense when comparing it to deifacted. You have MAN-ufacted Nethicite, and DEI-facted Nethicite. Deifacted was a little easier to figure out. Dei is an inflected form of Deus, usually meaning "of God", but it can also be a plural of Deus. So, we can say deus factus, or dei factus, meaning God-Made. Alter it slightly to make it sound more english, and you get deifacted; made by the Gods.

Another question: How did "factured" (or factus) become "facted"? I know that the word "fact" has its roots in the Latin word factus, and that an archaic use of the word "fact" means action, or to be doing something, performing something. My guess is that they simply took the word factus, removed the -us and put an -ed on the end of it, making facted. Or you could take the word "fact" (the archaic sense) and add -ed, making "facted", having done something or performed an action in the past.

I find it all very interesting.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I don't know. The word "nether" means down, below, or under. It doesn't make sense to me.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

But it didn't come from hell. It was originally creates by the gods themselves.

FELIPE NO

Well, I just remembered a line from the game. The Garif leader says that the dawn shard is has a terrible thirst. A desire to drink the entire world dry, and that people who desire Nethicite are themselves desired by the Nethicite.

Perhaps your interpretation isn't too far off the mark.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Tomahawk

Yes, as unfortunate as it is, you will dispell all your positive buffs. There's a good counter for Reflect though - Opal Rings. You can heal your party members without worrying of the casted magic being relected to Yiazmat. This may be tough and it may not work, but maybe try switching in between Opal Rings to Power Armlets, and back.
Without Opal Rings, you could cast Scathe against an ally to triple it vs Yiazmat. Then equip the Opals when you need to heal (which will probably be most of the time).

Anyway, I don't get this. I got Zodiark down to 1/8 of his health, then he got healed every time I attacked him with the Excalibur (didn't notice if he casted anything on himself). To make it worse, my guys were equipped with Black Masks/ Demon Shields and 2 of my characters at a time got killed by Darkja. Such BS!!!!!!!!! Disease is so wicked as well, since it lasts after you revive them to 1 HP.

Espers are holy creatures. Using any kind of holy-based weapon on them (such as excalibur) will heal them.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Zodiark is not immune to Scathe, because I killed him with a Scathe mote. Just use it whenever the magical paling is not up, if you can. Using the mote MUCH faster than casting the spell.

Also, check this out. I got bored and created it for a Wikipedia page. I had to take three separate screenshots and stitch them together, but the end result is pretty damn cool:



I put it on the FFXII characters page under "Gerun" and in less than a minute another editor had added it to the Occuria entry in the Races of Final Fantasy page. Sweet.

How ya doing, buddy?

I don't think you can buy Scathe motes. Hopefully you've been saving the ones you've been getting. (Assuming you've gotten them.)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

My name is Piccolo, and that sucks that you've sold one of the most useful items in the game. Hopefully, you didn't sell your Hastega motes.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Don't listen to those losers. The gambit system is awesome. In my opinion, the game would be nearly unplayable without it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Congratulations. Welcome to the winner's circle. Also, it's Yiazmat. (Or Yazmat.)

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?