(no subject)

[eighthphase]

Finished the first Maximum Ride yesterday; started the second yesterday and finished it today. It's interesting, though the internets tell me that the plot doesn't really go anywhere. ): They also tell me that there's an "adult" version of the series which may or may not be more interesting, so I may or may not end up checking that out sometime soon.

Mostly this weekend, though, I played FFXII. Yesterday I went through Raithwall's tomb, doing such things as mercilessly slaughtering the Garuda with an eleven-quickening chain followed by a concurrence and almost dying when fighting Belias but... not actually dying, then being an idiot and giving it to Basch, who summoned the gigas and kicked around the boss on the Shiva after Fran and Balthier killed off the accompanying soldiers. I think I left off yesterday at "Let's go visit the Garif!" but I don't really remember, because I was half-asleep when I finally turned off the PS2.

Then, today, it was lots and lots of grinding. 31000 gil for weapons and armour, then the Osmone Plain --> Jahara quest leg, then "Let's go to Mount Bur-Omisace! But not really because we'll cut you off five minutes into the jungle!" then Eryut Village (which... ugh, hate viera culture in FFXII), followed by 35000 gil for weapons and armour (which was really only like 15000 because I already had the other 20000) and swapping out Basch (lvl28) for Ashe (lvl16), giving her better equipment, and trying to level her up by turning off her attack gambits so she wouldn't get herself killed and making her heal everyone. It's not working all that well; she's like level 19 right now v Balthier and Fran's level 30 (and Larsa's level 29, but hi there static guest party levels!). I figure by the time she's at a relatively decent level, I'll have to swap her out for Basch again and powerlevel him up 10+ levels, too. /:

Did I mention everybody's got full Quickenings now? Also I took on a bunch of marks, got myself mercilessly slaughtered by a Ring Wyrm (level III mark), reset from the save I'd made right before trekking off to fight the Ring Wyrm just in case I got myself mercilessly slaughtered by it, and then very decidedly did not go to fight it again and instead went to progress the plot. I love the sandbox-ness of this game. You can spend ~3 hours grinding for gil for new weapons and armour, taking out marks, and doing side-quests, with full access to all of the world that you've explored so far, and then pick up the plot right from where you left off (only to then grind there for another ~3 hours for gil for new weapons and armour just to spend another twenty minutes on the next bit of plot + half hour of relevant cutscenes). It's so easy to access all the bits of the world you've already been to, but at the same time, you can walk straight through from Raithwall's tomb to Eryut Village, if you wanted to (did I mention that the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea = great grinding area? I easily gained like five levels just from fighting Urutan-Yensa and getting over 200 Earth Stones in drops... and a 107-chain, haha). It's all connected, and it's very cool.

...mmm, wall of text.

Tomorrow I get to balance dad's house, history IDs, and possibly Folklore. But probably not Folklore, because hi there weekend video game quota! Between yesterday and today I think I spent seventeen hours playing FFXII, which doesn't sound like much until you realise that I tend to get my gaming done in 1-3 hour snippets and am probably now going to hop over to 358/2 Days if I can ever get mum and the cats off my blanket.

Also, for complete derailment, STAR OCEAN 4 INTERNATIONAL COMES OUT FEBRUARY 9 HOW DID I NOT HEAR ABOUT THIS SOONER