Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions – Endgame and Conclusions

Agrias laying the smackdown on some poor monster

Past Posts

Chapter 1 and 2

Chapter 3 and 4

Remake/Mobile Gripes

Going to start this post with some negatives. This version had some changes from the PS1 version I didn’t like. Such as…

• Selecting a square. No D-pad that I ever saw so I had to select tiles with my finger. Of course, this led to fat fingerings or difficulty getting a tile from behind an obstacle.
• Many animations fired twice as fast. For some, this was welcomed. For others, it went too fast. Most notably, cutscenes are rendered in the battle engine with tons of custom animations. These animations were also sped up. The old speed was just right and now at double speed it took away from the scenes. Made me realize how good a job they did with these scenes in the original.
• Found out after finishing that WotL is primarily based on the Japanese original. There were some tweaks for the original US version that aren’t in WotL. For me most notable was Summons being less powerful and charging longer. Even with Swiftness it was taking longer than I remembered. Turns out I was right, some summons had a 50% longer charge time.
• They got rid of the quotes! On the PS1 10% of the time you use most special abilities your unit gives an ability-specific quote. Some were awesome and some were goofy and/or badly translated but I loved them. “Life is short…bury! Steady Sword!” “Scatter your chilly sharp blades! Ice!” “Inscript a dark god on a rotting body! Flare!”

Treasure Hunting

End of the fight against Elidibus, the boss at the end of Midlight Deep

Part of why I love RPGs is the thrill of getting cool new stuff, including legendary weapons in the endgame. FFT is pretty BS about hiding its treasures. Many endgame pieces are in an optional dungeon called Midlight Deep. It has some powerful enemies and interesting layouts with chasms and ledges to do those sick FFT jumps I love.

To find the treasure you need to equip the Treasure Hunter ability which lets the unit find treasure when they stop on certain tiles. This itself is a Guide Dang It unless you want to stop on every tile on a map. But worse is this: treasure tiles have a common and a rare treasure. If you get the common one the tile is still spent and you will never get the rare one. So permanently missable awesome equipment. Finally, what determines your chances is the finder’s Brave. I forgot to describe Brave but higher is better…except here. This is the only time low Brave is good as your chance of getting the rare item is (100 – Brave). The whole ordeal is a pain.

That said, the payoff is niiice. Most Knight Swords are found here, including Excaliber (high attack and Auto-Haste, amazing), Chaos Blade (crazy high attack and Auto-Regen), the Lordly Robe (lots of HP and MP and boosts magic atk), and most weapon types’ ultimates.

Orlandeau, a.k.a. Thunder God Cid

There is a secret character in the game that requires a bunch of extra battles and going across the whole map a few times with little ingame direction of where to go. Another character is handed to you for free late in the game. Guess which one is ridiculously overpowered. Yep, the one they give you!

After tons of hype Orlandeau lives up to it. He gets all of the Holy Sword and Dark Sword sword skills. He also gets the Unyielding Blade skills which break opponent equipment at a 100% rate. So he can break equipment, hit AoE, and heal himself, all from range and with no charge time. He also has really high HP and attack. Put another way, Agrias’s Holy Sword is great and Orlandeau is better at it than she is and has other amazing skills.

That alone would be OP. But he comes with Excalibur. It’s pre-Midlight Deep and is 50% more powerful than other weapons you have at the time. And Auto-Haste. Combine and you have a very fast unit that will OHKO half the enemies out there from range.

Fight Against the Dark Dragon

A fight added to FFT. You’re back in the crowded room inside Lionel. Enemies have Ninja, Samurai, Mystics, and the leader is a Celebrant, a special White Mage. The Ninja are dangerous but they advance too far and leave themselves open. Everyone else is too far away and slow. The Celebrant will try to revive the others. Beowulf, who has a personal vendetta against the Celebrant, will awesomely disable him with Atheist (set Faith to 0 and since Faith is multiplied as part of magic effect formulae this means his spells will have no effect).

Take out the Celebrant and he transforms into the Dark Dragon. Tons of HP and attack power. High Move in a crowded arena so can’t keep people away. Difficulty was my team had limited healers and no revivers. Someone would die and I couldn’t beat the DD in three rounds when that death becomes permanent. I could’ve made things easier on myself with a team switch but I kept it for a little challenge. After a few tries I won by making sure to keep Haste on and baiting the DD with tanky units that could take a hit.

Balancing Ideas

With my recent thoughts on remakes I had some balancing thoughts on this game. I know there are romhacks that try to rebalance the game and perhaps I’ll have to check them out sometime. Anyway…

• Charge times. While made worse by WotL I remember it being an issue on the PS1. Powerful spells take longer to charge while the units grow faster. I think there should be a stat that goes up as you level for charge time. Then you can make certain classes quick charge experts. Make sure any equipment that quickens charging doesn’t increase attack. Then you could have builds where people fire of Bahamut like early game Fire but it’s weaker from no attack boosts. They also need to cut back on skills with no charge time.
• Special characters. This is tricky. Agrias I think should be the bar. She joins about 1/3 in so she will be behind the generics. But her abilities are powerful and useful to get her a spot and yet not game breaking. Other characters join late and are underpowered or Orlandeau. They need to give more early game specials. For late game ones, perhaps give more skill points and allow the player to distribute?
• I feel like the physical classes got shafted. Of the 9 classes on that tree, 1 is considered near useless, 2 have skills heavily dependent on their specialized weapon which restricts synergy, 2 are primarily powered by magic attack instead of physical. By comparison almost all the magic classes synergize well. The FFT Advance games, from what I remember, went too far in the opposite direction, making the physicals into destroyers and mages a pain to use while also having worse mage knight builds.

Difficulty

FFT scores a 47.18 on the difficulty spreadsheet, compared to a median of 16.63 and an average of 25.83, earning 35th out of 160 (78th percentile). This puts it next to games like Metroid: Samus Returns, Dragon Quest VII (PS1 version), and Mega Man X3. I’d say this is a good spot, with some comments. FFT is generally considered pretty challenging on a first playthrough. However, go to an FFT board, likely filled with players that do challenge runs all the time, and you’ll find they all say FFT is really easy. Even for me, this game is much, much easier than I remember it being on my first playthrough. But I do remember getting stuck at quite a few fights on my first try.

***** PLOT SECTION *****

Limberry Castle

Ramza heads for Limberry to meet Marquis Elmdor’s challenge. Meanwhile, a templar named Loffrey meets with Dycederg to convince him to lay down arms. Dycederg refuses and so Loffrey insinuates Dycederg poisoned his father, echoing Duke Larg’s final words, with mossfungus. He points out those killed with mossfungus have the mushrooms grow on their grave. Dycederg doesn’t take the bait. Loffrey gives Dycederg a Stone as a sign of good faith before leaving. Unknown to either, Zalbaag hears their whole conversation.

Folmarv is already there talking with Elmdor in a villain scene. The two discuss how they’re the last two Lucavi left, though it seems a host has been found for another. It seems their plan is to revive the High Seraph. If they manage that they’ll no longer need human hosts or the Zodiac Stones; they can come and go at will. But for that they need a host for the High Seraph, which Folmarv says is Alma, and they need to find the necrohol where the High Seraph is sealed.

Elmdor goes to fight Ramza as Folmarv leaves. Ramza defeats Elmdor’s human form so Elmdor baits him to the castle crypt. Elmdor uses the Gemini Stone to transform into Zalera, the Death Seraph. Meliadoul, pursuing Ramza, comes in at this point. Seeing a Lucavi with her own eyes she realizes Ramza was telling the truth. She joins Ramza and they destroy Zalera. They talk afterwards and Meliadoul tells Ramza her father had a Stone given to Dycederg. Ramza’s forces make for Eagrose.

Meanwhile, there is trouble in Zeltennia. A wounded Orran runs into Ovelia’s room. He tells her that his father did not slay Goltanna but rather left with Ramza to stop the High Confessor. Delita and Valmafra walk in. Delita says Orran should be thankful that he took care of Goltanna and faked Orlandeau’s death but Orran doesn’t buy it. Ovelia’s trust in Delita is shaken. Delita appeals to her trust and sends her away. However, Ovelia fakes leaving.

Delita says he won’t kill Orran. He declares he will take down the Northern Sky and the High Confessor to build a new kingdom for Ovelia, with him as the hero the people long for. Orran asks if he means to use everyone for this ambition, which Delita doesn’t deny. Valmafra draws a dagger as Delita has admitted to using the church. Delita challenges her and the camera pans up as we hear Valmafra’s scream.

Eagrose Castle

Zalbaag hires a chemist to examine Balbaneth’s grave. Sure enough, there are mossfongus shrooms on it. The chemist is eager to leave, saying the shrooms are an ill omen, heralding the end of the house whose grave they grow on.

Ramza enters Eagrose to find Zalbaag confronting Dycederg. Zalbaag cannot forgive his elder brother for killing their father. Dycederg insists ot was necessary; the honorable Barnaneth refused to take advantage of the wars while Dycederg wanted to see House Beoulve achieve greater power. Zalbaag asks Ramza to forgive him for doubting Ramza earlier. The two join forces and defeat Dycederg.

The Capricorn Stone transforms Dycederg into Adrammelech, the Wroth. Adrammelech blasts Zalbaag away. Ramza fights and destroys Adrammelech. As the beast dies Ramza reflects that House Beoulve has met its end.

When you get into an argument with your brother and he gets so mad he turns into a dragon demon. #FinalFantasyTactics pic.twitter.com/5deMRXd49n

— Craig Romanowski (@Romojr50) April 16, 2019

Mullonde

Ramza goes to Mullonde, capital of the church. He arrives in the middle of a coup. Folmarv has decided the High Confessor has outlived his usefulness. The HC begs for his life, telling Folmarv that the portal he seeks is in Orbonne Monastery and the spell to open it is in the Scriptures of Germonique. As the Scriptures are witg Ramza Folmarv is angered and mortally wounds the HC.

Ramza finally confronts Folmarv. Folmarv demands the Scriptures and the Stones for Alma’s life. Unaware of the rite in the Scriptures, Ramza gives those up but keeps the Stones until Alma is freed. Folmarv double-crosses Ramza and they fight. Ramza wins and Folmarv flees.

Ramza pursues Folmarv who has prepared a wicked trap for him. Zalbaag’s corpse is reanimated to fight Ramza. Even worse, Zalbaag has consciousness but is clearly in agony and unable to control his body.

Orbonne Monastery

The plot ends where it began: at Orbonne Monastery. Ramza fights through some templars, including Loffrey. When he dies Loffrey opens the gate to the Necrohol of Mullonde: the sunken remains of the capital of the Holy Ydoran Empire that sunk into the sea with St. Ajora’s death. Loffrey then destroys the gate, trapping Ramza and his group in the necrohol. Ramza presses on, defeating more templars as he goes.

He comes to the Airship Graveyard where he finds Folmarv and an unconscious Alma. Folmarv is confused as Virgo refuses to react to Alma now. But then he realizes more blood is required for his master’s resurrection. That was the real reason the Lucavi orchestrated the War of the Lions: so that there would be a lot of bloodshed. As there is not yet enough Folmarv decides he needs to rampage to meet the quota.

At long last, Folmarv pulls out his Stone, Leo, and transforms into Hashmal, Bringer of Order. I liked the PS1 version of title better: the Regulator. Finally Ramza gets to fight the Lucavi that has been the cause of so much misery. Hashmal is defeated and Virgo still doesn’t react. Hashmal puts his claws into himself and bloodily kills himself with the hopes it will revive his master.

Virgo begins to react. Alma gets up but she is being possessed. Her body is transfigured into a reincarnated St. Ajora. However, Alma’s spirit fights against Ajora’s. She can’t prevent Ajora’s return but somehow this causes Alma to expelled from Ajora, such that now Alma has her own body and Ajora has his own. Ajora, the host of the High Seraph, then transforms into the Lucavi.

Ultima, the High Seraph, appears. Ramza and Alma enter combat against Ultima and her demons. They wound Ultima. Ultima realizes that Ramza has the blood of the one who last defeated her. It isn’t stated but given how big a deal is made of Ramza’s and Alma’s commoner mother that makes me think the bloodline of Ultima’s slayer runs through their mother. Of course, it could be that bloodline goes through Barbaneth and their mother’s bloodline was the one that could reincarnate Ajora.

Ultima calls upon more power and becomes the monstrous Arch Seraph. However, even that is not enough as Ramza is victorious. Ultima tries to call more power but begins to break apart. However, she has taken in so much power that her death causes a violent explosion, destroying the airship that Ramza, Alma, and their allies were on.

The WotL version made another change I didn’t like. I love when games use their own patterns and UI to enhance the storytelling. In both versions every battle in the game ends with a message, “This battle is complete!” In the PS1 version the battle with Ultima ends with a message, “This game is complete!”

Ending

Some mourners have gathered for the funeral of Alma Beoulve while the peaceful Pray is played; the same theme that played right at the beginning of the game when Ovelia was praying at Orbonne Monastery. The mourners lament how young Alma was, that her heretic brother is denied a funeral, and that the long-standing House Beoulve has ended. After they leave Orran and Valmafra sneak over. Orran talks to the grave, addressing Ramza and Alma. He says that Delita has married Ovelia and officially become king. A commoner rises to become king and saves the land from civil war, a tale that will be told for generations. He has decided that Delita is not evil as he spared Valmafra when he could have killed her. He then sadly wonders if they’re really dead and asks the grave if his father died fighting bravely.

After that he sees Ramza and Alma ride by on chocobos. The two leave before Orran can catch them but it gives Orran hope. He excitedly exclaims to Valmafra that they’re alive.

We see a scene of Ramza and Alma riding through the countryside on their chocobos. The narration tells us that they weren’t seen again. Orran spent the next few years investigating Ramza’s journey and chronicling all he could find. He then released the Durai Papers telling the tale of the true hero. However, the church couldn’t let the truth undermine them so they confiscated the Papers and burned Orran at the stake.

If you recall, the game’s framing device is that a scholar named Arazlam has been studying Ivalice history, found the Durai Papers, and has been looking into the truth. Arazlam writes that now Ramza’s story can be told so that future generations will know who the true hero was and learn from his example. He signs himself as Arazlam Durai, revealing he is a descendant of Orran’s.

There is debate among the FFT fandom on what exactly happens in the ending. How did Ramza and Alma escape the necrohol? Did they really survive or did Orran imagine them alive in his grief? For myself, I think they lived. As for how they escaped, we’ve seen the power of the Stones throughout the game. Normally an evil power but with Marach’s resurrection we saw a good power. And Ramza’s group has nearly all the Stones by the end.

The credits play at this point. Credits songs often are a good summary of the game’s music but I’m particularly fond of FFT’s Credits Theme.

Epilogue

Finally, there is a post credits scene. On Ovelia’s birthday Delita finds Ovelia hiding away in the church ruins they often visited. He asks her why she ran away when suddenly she pulls a dagger and stabs him. Ovelia says that Delita uses everyone for his own schemes, including his friend Ramza, and that she too is to be used and discarded at his whim. Delita pulls the dagger out of himself and stabs Ovelia, killing her. Wounded but not dead, Delita looks to the sky and asks Ramza what he got from all this; he bitterly says, “I…I got this.”

Always loved the end of #FinalFantasyTactics . Bittersweet but fitting end. pic.twitter.com/D1Ivc4ou6K

— Craig Romanowski (@Romojr50) April 26, 2019

I absolutely love this final scene and how it wraps up Ramza’s and Delita’s stories. From the beginning we learn Delita became a legendary hero-king while Ramza, until Arazlam’s work, was unknown. We then find out Delita was a commoner who lost his sister Tietra to the schemes of the nobility. Bitter, he decided that if you can’t beat them join them and so became a schemer himself. He manipulated and murdered his way to the top. Meanwhile, Ramza started as nobility but Tietra’s death showed him the injustice he had been blind to. He discarded his nobility and endeavored to do the right thing, even when it hurt him and his loved ones. In the end, he was the true hero who saved the land from Lucavi but would long be denied his due credit.

The ability to protect loved ones becomes the task that contrasts the two. Delita comes to love Ovelia and wants to protect her. His schemes seem more effective than Ramza’s morality at first as Delita is able to save Ovelia from seemingly certain death. But ultimately his manipulations break Ovelia and cause her to attack him and force him to kill her in self-defense. Meanwhile, Ramza tries and fails to protect Alma but ultimately the two survive and leave Ivalice together.

Conclusions

I’ve long loved this game and my first playthrough of it in many years did not disappoint. The gameplay remains fun, there is a lot of replayability with all the different builds and the job system in general, and the plot is great. FFT fans, including myself, have long wished for a “true” sequel to FFT. The Tactics Advance games are meant to be so but have a much lighter tone and easier gameplay. FF12 has a similar tone but is closer to FF main series gameplay. On that note, playing this game makes me want to return to Ivalice. FF12 was recently released on the Switch. In fact, its remake which implements a job system was released. Perhaps I’ll pick that up later this year.