Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Playing: Final Fantasy Tactics] Let's Play (2024)

Welcome back, class, to Final Fantasy 301. Today's lesson:

The Sorceress Joined My Party And All I Got Was This Lousy Junction

Last time, we got some explanations from Edea and SeeD, Squall decided he didn't care much about the metaphysics of the plot, and we got our next clear lead: Find the White Ship with Edea's SeeD to find a clue on Ellone's whereabouts. Laguna was also there.

(We're going to need to talk about the handling of Laguna's subplot once we have the full picture; it's very strange how it's simultaneously clearly incredibly important to the overall plot and yet sometimes bizarrely trivial. The last flashback was basically just a comedy skit serving to have Squall and Ellone briefly talk mentally, which was the thing that actually mattered in that scene, not what happened to Laguna.)

So, let's start… With some light card games, of course.

This is the first of the Card Club's elite; we beat him and acquire Fujin and Raijin's card, after which he tells us there are 6 members of the CC above him whom he's never defeated, so we are in full on anime school shenanigans. They're all named after suits ("Card Knight Club" and so on), plus a mysterious "Card Magician Joker, whose ability is still a mystery." What does that mean, their ability? Well, we'll find out eventually.

For now, let's head back to the ruined orphanage to ask Edea about the White Ship.

We are told that Edea's SeeDs move constantly to avoid detection, but that they have a particular liking for Centra's landscape, so we might be able to find them by exploring the inlets of the Centra continent; in case we find them, Edea gives us a letter of introduction to show our good intentions.

Just… Try to take a moment and imagine someone saying, "We don't know where X is, but they've taken a liking to the South American landscape; try to find them somewhere around the continent" and then having to act on that absurd request. That's like…

Like…

…

Never mind.

Cid has a little bit of a background to give us; it seems like originally, the White Ship only had Cid, Edea, and Ellone, and its goal was to protect Ellone from Esthar. However, Edea was the captain and she started picking up orphans along the way, which seems to just be a thing she does pretty consistently, until eventually the ship became an ad hoc floating orphanage, and the children became referred to as SeeD. Which means they're probably more like honorary SeeDs than Balamb Garden's killing machines.

With directions, finding the ship isn't particularly difficult.

White SeeD: "...We meet again."
Squall: "My name is Squall. We're SeeDs from Balamb Garden. I'd like to speak to your leader."
White SeeD: "I'm in charge. State your business. Depending on what you say, we may ask you to leave immediately."
Squall: "......I want to see Ellone."
White SeeD Leader: ".....!?"
Squall: "We pose no threat. Edea told us that you would be here."
WSL: "Edea… How…?"
Squall: "...Edea is no longer under Sorceress Ultimecia's control. She is now our ally. So there's no reason for you to hide Ellone's whereabouts from us. We want to take Ellone back to protect her from Ultimecia."
WSL: "....."
WSL: "Thank you for coming… But we have no reason to believe you. Please leave."
[The White SeeDs scatter and hang out around the ship. End dialogue.]

I have to admit I do find it very funny that Squall explains why they're here and the guy (totally reasonably) tells them he has no reason to believe that so fuck off because, I mean, yeah. Thankfully we have Edea's letter so this should be easy to clear up, but this is giving us an opportunity to investigate the ship a little. This is how we find out that, for instance, they seem to have continued to pick up orphans after Edea left:

The prevalence of orphans in the story is definitely angling for something to do with the toll war takes on children and families, though so far I don't think it's really gelled into anything deeper than "a world at war produces a lot of orphans, which sure is bad." Then we turn a corner and…

…yeah, I'm gonna be real, I had totally forgotten that Zone and Watts existed. Uh, long time no see, guys.

They're both happy to see us, unlike everyone else on the ship; apparently when the Galbadian soldiers came for them, they both tried jumping into the sea, and were barely rescued by the White Ship through sheer luck. Squall internally comments that he's amazed these "wackos" keep surviving, which, honestly, fair.

Zone: "So, how's Rinoa? Where's she?"
Squall: "...Rinoa fought with us against Edea. For some reason, she went unconscious after the fight. She's resting in the Garden now. I don't know what happened. We couldn't protect her. I'm… I'm sorry."
Zone: "YOU SON OF A BITCH!!! What did I say!!!? What did I say, HUH!!!? I told you to take care of her!!! That nothin' better happen to her!!! Scumbag! You pathetic, lyin' scumbag!!!"
Watts: "Zone! C'mon! Easy, sir! Easy. She's not dead. They just dunno what's wrong with her, that's all. Ain't that right, sir? Squall would never give up on her. Am I right, sir?"
Squall: "We came here to get Ellone because there's a new evil force after her. If we can get Ellone and Rinoa together, maybe… we can get Rinoa back."
Wattz: "Really!? See, Zone!? I told you, sir! Rinoa's gonna be fine! She promised she would come back! We all have to free Timber together. Don't worry, sir!"
Zone: "...All right. But I'm gonna say it one more time. If something happens to Rinoa again, I swear…"

Zone, my guy, I sympathize with being pissed at Squall, especially as you weren't there for most of his character development, but like… There really is nothing you can do to him aside from maybe trying to make him feel bad with your words.

At least we can ask Watts for some info.

It's very basic information, though it does confirm that there are no adults on the ship, only kids and "guys our age," which is information that can't really be easily conveyed visually with this game's graphics. Ellone left when some "other ships" came, ships crewed by Esthar soldiers; though Watts says that Ellone was smiling as she left, so it doesn't look like an abduction scenario.

Could it be that a decade after Esthar stopped looking for Ellone, she just dropped on their lap as if by the hand of providence, just as Ultimecia is threatening to take over/merge* with Esthar's Adel? How awfully inconvenient for us that would be.

*There's been some discussion about how weird the language surrounding Edea's description of Ultimecia and Adel's conjoining is in the thread that I want to acknowledge; previously, Ultimecia appeared to be in full control of Edea's body, with no access to her mind or memories, but Edea talks of Adel as if Ultimecia might in some way fuse with her in a being that has both Ultimecia's power and Adel's anger/ruthlessness. There are a few possibilities for why that would be, of which I'd guess the most likely is that Ultimecia had to do it that way with Edea because Edea 'invited her in' to draw her away from Ellone, but Adel might resist Ultimecia and force some sort of joint custody/merger of their two selves.

Anyway, Watts points us to the leader's cabin, though first we do a quick détour by the bridge to grab a Timber Maniacs and, uh, talk to Zone.

When we talk to him this time, Zone notices (somehow) that we have the… 'Girl Next Door' magazine… and asks if we can give it to him. We can ask for a whopping 25,500 gil for it (how did Zone get that much money?) but again, we have basically infinite money, so we just decide to give it to him for free. For this, he rewards us with the Shiva Card. You see, this is a joke about trading racy materials, because Shiva's model in this game is also - ah, you get it.

I really question the naughty magazine trading subquest's inclusion in this game, but whatever. It's done now. I don't know that we really have much use for Shiva's Card, but at least we have it. Let's just move on to the leader's cabin and show him the letter.

Once the air is cleared, Squall and the WSL bond over their similarities - they both call her Matron, they both remember her being a kind person, they both give the same kind of salute.

…hold on, what was that last part?

The leader says the salute hasn't changed "since SeeD was established," and it's like… These guys have military-style uniforms. They practice a military salute. They're SeeDs. The militarization wasn't something Cid brought to the table with Garden, it seems; Edea was already practicing it. This whole thing is messed up.

We grab Holy from a Draw Point then talk to the leader again, who explains to us that Ellone is no longer here.

After picking up Ellone from us near FH, they headed East. However, the Galbadian fleet soon caught up with them. In their escape, the White Ship broke down and left them stranded, just waiting for Galbadians to find them and grab Ellone. When the Galbadians found them, however, an Esthar ship appeared, and engaged the Galbadians in battle (from the way he says it, it sounds like this one ship was able to engage the entire Galbadian fleet in a standoff).

Esthar soldiers came aboard, and asked them to get on board their ship, which "sounded like an order to evacuate." The White SeeDs refused, as they didn't trust Esthar just like they didn't trust the Galbadians; the Esthar soldiers tried to convince them but, notably, did not use force. Instead, when the battle started turning against them, they began to withdraw, and it's at that point that Ellone rushed to the deck and yelled something to the Esthari, and jumped on board of the Esthar ship. The WSL still doesn't understand why she did that, and could not make out the words she shouted before jumping.

Hmmm. I wonder if Ellone used the tense standoff as a 'test' to see if the Esthari could be trusted - if they tried to force their way on board and grab her, they were still clearly the same monsters abducting little girls for Adel as she'd known in her youth; but them actually behaving decently, offering the White SeeDs an opportunity to evacuate and backing down when refused, convinced her that they had change and meant well? It's either that or some more mystical form of insight that just told her the plot required her to go to Esthar.

The Leader apologizes to Squall for being unable to protect Ellone (which parallels Squall's apology for not being able to protect Rinoa, of course), but Squall is uninterested in his feelings or in assigning blame. He now has a new lead, Esthar, and that's all he cares about. Flash back to the Garden Bridge, with a new lead: Esthar.

Always a great epithet to have added to your country's name.

According to Nida, the terrain of Esthar is unsuitable to fly the Garden, with a huge ring of mountains surrounding it, so we'll have to head there on foot. Specifically, we'll need to head to Fisherman's Horizon and, from there, take the intercontinental bridge to the Esthar continent. I was wondering when this'd come up.

Wait, sorry, I feel I may have misled you there. The game doesn't tell us that we'll need to head there through Fisherman's Horizon. It is entirely happy to leave us to poke at Esthar's impassable mountain walls for hours if we don't figure it out ourselves.

Including a few bullshit tricks where it lets us climb up to a land area, it's just not internally connected to the part of the continent we need to actually reach.

Because of the incredibly annoying and limited camera angle and direction, this could take a while. But eventually you'll figure out that it's not working and hopefully remember FH, and head there.

A few extra lore screens.

Now. This sounds simple, right?

Like.

There's a sensible thing to do here. First, we dock the Garden at Fisherman's Horizon. Then, our party of team-bonded badasses, all of whom are friends and want to see Rinoa get better, head out across the giant, ocean-spanning bridge. We reach the Esthar continent, infiltrate the Silent Nation, locate Ellone, and extract her.

If we wanted to make things more complicated but with a potentially more climactic payoff, we could take Rinoa with us. A coma victim would be much worse off in a long-distance trip than in the infirmary of BGU, but that way we don't have to worry about bringing Ellone back if she wants to stay in Esthar for whatever reason. Notably, we've established pretty thoroughly that Balamb Garden has cars, including Armored Personnel Carriers, that can cross large distance and which would be very convenient for carrying an unconscious person with us.

So, with all these facts established, what's the sensible next move?

Why yes, of course! Squall grabs Rinoa, pulls her on his shoulders, sneaks out of the Garden without warning everyone, and starts a trek through FH and across the full span of the bridge.

There's a line between big romantic gestures by characters who are so tormented they aren't acting rationally and just, insane person behavior, you know?

Like, don't get me wrong, I get why Squall is acting like this on an emotional level: He feels disconnected from the others because he's the only one to be affected by Rinoa's condition as severely as he is. This leads to a combined feeling of "I'm not going to bother the others with this, it's my burden to bear" and "I am the only one who truly cares about her and who can see her to safety." So he looks for a way to bear the (literal, as well as metaphorical) burden of Rinoa's condition on his own. But the behavior that emerges from that emotional crux is just. Ridiculous.

There's an actually kind of beautiful scene where Squall, too tired to go on, gently lays Rinoa down and takes a moment to sit by the bridge's ledge, watching the sunset as he rests for but a moment, and talks to Rinoa (which is really just a way of externalizing his own reflections about himself). It's a great bit!

Squall, mentally: "(I wonder what everyone's doing…? They're probably laughing at me. Or maybe they're angry…?)"
Squall: "What do you think?"
Squall: "To tell the truth… I worry too much about what others think of me. I hate that side of me… That's why I didn't want anyone to know me. I wanted to hide that side of myself. I hate it."
Squall: "Squall is an introverted, unfriendly guy. It made it easy for me when people perceived me that way."
Squall: "That's a secret between you and me, got that?"

It's a sweet bit of character growth, that Squall is able to fully admit to himself that he really, really cares how people see him, and he hates that he does, and his abrasive behavior is a way of coping with it, of managing and controlling his perception. Squall can't make sure people like him, he can't make sure they think he's cool, but he can make sure they perceive him as unfriendly and introverted as opposed to lame, uncool, or cringe. It gives him control over the narrative. And like, I get it. I think it would be nice if he were able to voice this to someone who isn't currently an unconscious whiteboard, but hey, baby steps.

But also this is like, a thirty seconds break and then he pulls Rinoa back onto his shoulders and continues crossing the hundred mile bridge.

So now, I want you to take a wild guess: What happens when Squall reaches the end of the bridge, the shore of the Esthar continent on the other side?

…

EVERYONE IS ALREADY THERE WAITING FOR HIM, OF COURSE.

And gently ribbing into him for being 'late' because this is meant to be the emotional moment where Squall finds out his friends had anticipated his ridiculous behavior and taken it with good-natured acceptance and let him get the whole savior complex out of his system by sweating a bit on the journey there before revealing that they were already at his destination, waiting for him, there to make light fun of him and tell him he can't escape his friends..

The problem is I am fully not bought into this moment. Squall went on a straight line across a single bridge that literally has no room to hide on either side, how the hell did everyone even get ahead of Squall? Did they took one of the Garden's smaller boats and simply sail along the side of the bridge? Couldn't Squall have done that instead of bodily carrying Rinoa on his back all the way?

I'm sorry, I shouldn't be thinking that way here, it's missing the point. This scene isn't about logistics, practicality, or common sense, it's about big, dramatic expression of romantic feelings and fire-forged friendship bonds. It's just the ridiculousness of the behaviors involved is such that I can't really immerse myself into the Vibe of it and am just left interrogating how all this works and why anyone would act this way. It's whatever. Let's just move on to the actually good part here: When Squall asks the others if they followed him all this way just to make Prince Charming jokes, they reveal that no, they are here on official business… As Edea's escort.

Wait a minute. We left Edea back at her old house on the Southern Continent, then sailed straight to FH, and there landed the ship with our whole party inside before heading across the bridge. When did they get back to Edea and then all the way to - never mind. This isn't the point. Just don't think about it.

The Sorceress Edea is here.

Now, remember how in Disc 1, Rinoa had this plan to use Dr Odine's gizmo to shut down Edea's power? Well, while everyone else seems to have forgotten it, Edea remembers.

Sorceress Edea: "Sorceress Ultimecia is alive. She is able to take control of my body at any time. If that were to happen… I would once again bring terror."
Sorceress Edea: "I, too, value my well-being. I want to protect myself. If it were possible, I would like to rid myself of the sorceress's power."
Sorceress Edea: "Dr Odine may know a way. He may be able to save me."
Squall: "...I understand. Let's all go to Esthar."

What I appreciate about this exchange is that - as @Revlid pointed out earlier - it makes sense for characters like Squall (who just remembered and regained his kindly Matron) or Cid (who is a terminal Wife Guy) to not even consider the possibility of killing Edea rather than let her be possessed by Ultimecia again, but if Ultimecia is such an apocalyptic threat that she can't be sure won't take her over again, you'd expect Edea herself to, at one point, at least address the question. And here she implicitly addresses that question with the simplest and most realistic answer possible: She just wants to live. It's selfish, but also completely understandable. Despite her kindly demeanor and all the orphans she saved Matron is not, it turns out, some altruistic saint who will willingly volunteer her life to prevent the threat of Ultimecia possessing her again, at least not while she still has viable options like seeking out Odine's magic-nullifying technology. This inherently presents risks (the tech could not work, she could be possessed before she can access it) but, well, she values her own life. And who doesn't? She's even willing to sacrifice her magical power to protect her life. I appreciate her more for this tiny, relatable touch of selfishness.

And so, Edea joins us, and soon after, Irvine and Selphie are back from scouting ahead (which is a thing they had time to do after teleporting ahead of Squall by magic I guess).

This comments actually makes Squall blush.

And then, we head to the character selection menu…

…where Edea is now a playable character!?

…

I wish I could be more excited about this. Like, "the bad guy from the first two discs of the game joins up with the heroes" is a killer twist, I love it, and I do feel some degree of excitement over it. It's just, well…

I find it interesting how, compared to other characters' portrait illustration, Edea retains a distinct pallor and cold/hostile look, more reminiscent of Ultimecia than her alleged changes since then.

Mechanically Edea is Just Another Character, you know? Her stats aren't particularly noteworthy (although I am kind of squinting at that Vitality 6, which is absurdly low for her level), she has no abilities until Junctioned, and she is squarely in the middle of the pack in terms of character levels for this party. There is nothing new or exciting about her as part of the gameplay, at least not until we trigger her Limit Break.

It's genuinely kind of sad how much of a letdown this is - this is the Sorceress Edea. She inherited the power of a sorceress of old, she is explicitly capable of using magic, on her own, without the need for GF Junction that SeeDs are using to catch up with the power that was passed on to her, and none of this is reflected in her character, except in one small respect - her basic Attack has her flick a spell at the opponent instead of using a weapon. That's it.

Still, I'll add her to the team, how can I not.

She kept her swooshy cape from the Deing City parade, because why would she not.

We leave the lonely train station at the end of the bridge's railway, and soon we find ourselves facing some kind of… Icy passage…

…that's not ice, it's weirdly blue-white rock again that just looks like ice from a distance. Could this be the site of the Centra Excavation Site? We'll eventually learn that this area is called the "Great Salt Lake," so not quite - this is all salt, not rock.

The protagonists pause briefly (Squall is STILL CARRYING RINOA ON HIS BACK, this visual has stopped being romantic and just become utterly goofy, is he just going to spend days of trekking in the wilderness like this?). Selphie can't see Esthar past the rocky formations, Edea says the trip will be long, and Zell says everything will be alright and we'll be by her side. Edea, however, somberly reminds him to be alert in her presence, and that, should Ultimecia possess her again… "You all know what to do."

Well, actually, Edea, I don't. Are we supposed to kill you if we can't keep Ultimecia from taking you over again? At this point I'm not sure! We drove her out by beating you up once, so if she comes back are we supposed to just do that again, or just to write it off and kill Edea? I'm genuinely not sure what it is everyone 'knows to do'! Although everyone strikes a sad pose and Selphie comments that she wasn't paying attention and now the air is heavy, so I guess they do plan to kill her if she falls to Ultimecia again?

I love you, Selphie.

Selphie tells everyone that she once heard if you speak about bad things, they'll come true, and while it's a 'silly superstition,' she wants to believe it right now, so nobody is to bring up the topic anymore.

So let's proceed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHS3ZH0OShU

Incidentally Alexander has one of the coolest summon animations I've ever seen.

OF COURSE THEY'RE BACK.

…or not.

Remember Marlboro? It's a classic. Well, I just ran into it for the first time in this game, and, uh…

…yeah.

Bad Breath is absolutely brutal in this game, because status effects are brutal. If all my characters are hit with Confuse, then I get to just sit out the rest of the fight and watch the battle auto-resolve (this can take upwards of five minutes during which I am not able to enter any inputs). Now, this normally wouldn't be that problematic, because my group hits really hard and Squall is supposed to have 100 Confuse junctioned to Status Defense and be immune, so he can cast Esuna on everyone. He does not, however, have immunity to Silence (which makes him unable to cast Esuna) or Berserk (which also takes away control of the character), so in this case I just spend three minutes watching both Squall, Edea and Zell attack each other randomly while the Marlboro pings them down, until eventually Edea gets petrified.

That's… painful. I really need to shore up my status defenses, but the problem is, obtaining defenses against specific status effects requires me to go out and draw them (or refine them from items which isn't necessarily less time-consuming) and getting 100 Confuse for just one character was enough of the chore, I don't know what I even need to do to get, like, 300 Confuse, Berserk and Silent. I could just accept that weakness - that's what I've been doing so far, going 'well one character with Confuse immunity is enough, I'll try to problem solve on the fly if the need arises', but as you can see, this can easily mean 'no you don't get to try and compensate for your mistake you just Stop Playing for a while.'