was turning in a quest for someone who looked like they were dying here and i thought the emptiness meant they'd succumbed to it. PS2 disease

been knocking out those hunts. or i was a while ago until i became bedridden, but now i've loaded back in and i'm ready to continue. i didn't realize i could buy teleport stones so that makes me feel better about taking on hunts at the glacial pace of one at a time. it also really makes me feel those loading times though having to travel between small zones constantly. i assumed there would be an emulator setting to alleviate symptoms of PS2 disease but apparently not

a woman stopped me to tell me about some stupid ring i had. i didn't remember what who or when she was but she didn't even give me anything for it. please don't interrupt me during the specifically doing things so that i will get things in return cleanup portion of the game. turned out the reason i didn't get this interaction before was the weird real-hours-long weather cycle affecting only this part of the world and drastically changing its layout, and how annoying it makes hunts taking place in this area

i'd heard murmurs of a "hunter hunter" when accepting marks, but i wasn't running into them so i assumed they were on hiatus still. but then this guy showed up! this guy who early on in the game really seemed like would be a major character considering he kidnapped never mind i peeked at his wiki page in the middle of this sentence, what i was GONNA say was this dude ended up dying in a sidequest?? but apparently he's playable in Revenant Wings after going "sike! i did not die in that sidequest from the first game". moving on

i did a quest about some kids who were exploring a whatever and they dropped a key to wherever. one of them remarked that maybe it would wash up ashore somewhere which meant obviously it would. but on the other side of the world? in a random huge zone? and not even on the shore?? i'm trying not to rely on walkthroughs because it makes the hunts more enjoyable but who the hell would ever. just wanted to complain about this. moving on

that key to wherever lead to Gilgamesh!! i should have figured it out. they'd tasked me with finding a mystery man who'd been stealing swords. a girl was watching me play and i'm so embarrassed i was too stoned to even realize it would be gilgamesh stupid stupid

i should've relied on a walkthrough. i beat him just fine (the first time)....but he had super powerful missable gear i could've stolen from him and didn't!! so the super powerful gear became missed!!! i usually steal from every big enemy i come across until it says they've run dry, but apparently giggleman had special requirements. so the genji shield is totally dead to me but in this version there's another opportunity to earn the gloves, after doing some other long side hunt things that aren't hunt hunts, and then paying almost half a million gil. so then one of my guys can wear them after all. instead of TWO

i guess i never considered the possibility that the main story wouldn't take me on a complete tour of Ivalice. it definitely felt like that; like each story beat essentially boiled down to "now go unlock this new area". yet here i am consistently stumbling across huge new clusters of zones, complete with introductory cutscenes and sometimes dialogue. i think i'm already way more engaged going through side activities than i was during my first 30 hours

used an airship for maybe the first time because i noticed, alongside the fast travel option when boarding there was also a sit back and relax option ooh. when i played MapleStory as a kid i loved the realtime airship travel, made going places feel like a big deal. of course i had other people to talk with while we waited. i figured there must be a specific reason i could do this, like there's a quest i can initiate here or something. talked to everyone onboard and nothing. gave up and talked to the fast travel receptionist – something

had to deliver letters to every one of this Nurse Joy nepotism situation to protect them from a weird guy across different flight routes, which was a little difficult to keep track of. speaking of, i should've listened to that guy about the perils of ""disease"" because it caused many fruitless attempts against a difficult hunt mark, and for some reason the vaccine item is only sold onboard airships, and only on the Nalbina-Archades route

there's also a spell that heals it that for some reason only has a small chance to spawn in one specific area upon entering it. seems like the biggest danger of """disease""" is not having the obscure wiki knowledge on how to get vaccinated. but suspiciously whenever there's an election in Ivalice they're suddenly more widely available huh. whatever think i'll stick with my previous solution

putting aside finishing off Gilgamesh as well as other high-level hunts until i get stronger slash learn how to use gambits better. took me several attempts just to get out of the damn cave he was in. it happened! i reached the point of the game where combat semi-consistently asks something of me! here's hoping what it asks of me isn't stupid

what the hell

i'm starting to understand what people mean when they call FFXII "MMO-ish"; it's the grinding and nothing else. i mean there isn't even a sidequest tracker so when i speak to every NPC i come across out of habit they'll talk to me like i'm in the middle of doing something for them. buddy i'm taking a 30+ hour detour before fighting the last boss and leaving the world on the precipice of chaos, i hate to say it but i may not be the most reliable guy for the job

took a peek at what's in store for me in terms of endgame fights and golly. part of me was hoping i could simply grind my way out of having to be super meticulous about combat but i'm finding myself making frequent trips to the gambit menu, as well as to specific locations containing important treasure that i missed. you hear about Expose? yeah it's a technick [sic] that reduces an enemy's defence, and it can be used repeatedly with stacking effects making it incredibly powerful. all the guides really stress that i should pick it up. anyway no one in my party can use it because their classes are all wrong

so to focus on gearing up i've taken a break from "hunts" to do "hunt club" which is totally different (it's a club). in theory i like this version of hunting better because there are all these weird fun spawn conditions (even if there's absolutely no way i'd figure any of it out without a guide). in practice i hate it because going in order of rarity has taken me back to the ironically-named Great Crystal which may be one of the worst dungeons i've experienced in a game. i've decided what i said before when i compared it to annoying Pokémon teleporty rooms was overly harsh on Pokémon

at the 50-hour mark, if you believe this liar screen that doesn't take into account lost progress from game overs. i should probably level up the other half of my guys. the only function they serve currently is panickedly setting off a limit break after my main guys die, in which they also usually die before i can navigate to it in the menu. it's hard out here for an ATB Active Mode gamer