Toggle Background Color
4: FreeFoxbird!
Welcome to chapter two.
As stated last time, it's time to roll another class. The jobs available this time are Monk, Oracle, Thief, and Time Mage. I rolled 
Oracle! It is a powerful class I have never spent much time in (because it doesn't do all the damage all the time and then what good is it?)
On the less awesome side, it is another caster-type - I'm still very, very squishy. However however, Oracle gets Defense Up, so if I ever find my party crumbling, that might be worth using. I'll probably still stick with MAtk Up for the most part though, because all the damage.
Wow, look at all these characters I'll never use. They actually come in at a considerably higher level than my squad - we're all level 4 at this point, whereas the generics are level 8 and the NPCs are both level 10.
Also this is kind of easy to miss, but the game gives you some background if you check the files, like Ramza's secret identity. I don't believe the name Ruglia ever comes up in the game proper.
Delita's entry is a lot less interesting.
Anyway. Oracles!
- Oracles use Yin Yang Magic, a status-focused skillset which contains a wide variety of effects, including some brave and faith manipulation, and the ability to absorb HP or MP and inflict various regular ailments, up to and including petrification. The downside is that it's another skillset with casting time, and several of these abilities are quite expensive - petrify alone is 580 jp (I miss Gained JP Up so much) - but a fully kitted out oracle can be a tremendous pain in the ass.
- Oracles have a reaction ability which lets them recover MP when hit with a spell, based on the spell's MP cost. Since we have Spell Absorb to steal MP directly, it's not a priority, though it's cheap at 250jp.
- Oracles have the Defense UP passive ability, which is a ~1/3 reduction in incoming physical damage. At 400 jp, this is a pretty good ability, especially considering we're stuck with robe/cloth type armour and thus don't have a lot of health - but it does compete with Magic Attack UP for a slot, and I'm guessing I'll rather take the latter most of the time.
- Oracles gain two movement abilities, perhaps to make up for the wizard having none.
- Any Weather is cheap at 200jp, though that's still more than it's worth - it lets you cross swamps when it's raining without taking a penalty to movement. WOW SO USEFUL. ...It also removes the weather modifiers to magic - like storms strengthening lightning and weakening fire - but you probably want that effect most of the time because fuck yeah lightning.
- Move-MP Up restores some MP when you move. At 350jp, it's not terribly expensive, and might be worth investing in if we ever reach a point where we start running low on MP in fights. ...Still, given the skillset contains the ability to actively steal MP from enemies (or friends, should you be so inclined!), it probably won't see much use.
- Oracles have greater equipment options than wizards, being able to use all their old stuff but gaining staves - which are a lot like the rods we've been using but use MA instead of PA to calculate damage and are therefore considerably more deadly in a caster's hands - as well as sticks, which are an interesting weapon with a range of two tiles straight and use the same formula. They also gain the use of dictionaries, which have range 3 and use half of PA+MA to calculate damage. We haven't been able to get our hands on either of the new pieces of gear yet, but they start showing up in stores in this chapter, so we should be able to get a look at them before too long.
I still don't have MAtkUP on everyone, so I've only changed Ramza and one of the girls for now.
Then, on to the first fight of the chapter. It can be a bit of a hassle. We have Agrias and Gafgarion as NPCs, doing whatever the hell NPCs do, and a bunch of speedy opponents with height advantage and a couple of bows. Fortunately, magic has good reach.
Also, some more neat unique sprites. 
(There's some weird distortion here that I can't figure out what's causing, it's kind of distracting and off-pissing, but not enough to make me stop and spend hours changing every single fucking setting in my epsxe until it unfucks. Onward.)
We're done with the assassinations for now.
Instead, we get shot across the entire fucking map. Hate archers.
One of the wizards spawned with summon. He's casting Moogle.
We nuke a bit. Hopefully this guy will stay out of our hair now that he's low on health, and maybe we can loot those mages for crystals.
This one isn't very hard either.
Though Ramza does get shiv'd at one point.
That's a good boy, Bruce!
...
Wait, Gafgarion spawned with sing? Seriously?
...
Game, do you have any idea of what's appropriate and what's not...?
Well, it does save me another phoenix down, at least.
Now I just have to take Agrias out before she hunts down Bruce.
Not helping!
You're not helping either! Goddammit Bruce. Well, I guess I shouldn't expect more from anyone named Bruce.
Of course, it takes a lot less time for Agrias to Holy Sword him in the face than it does for a party less than half her level to wipe her 200 HP.
There is only one way they could have gone...
emulator
emulator?
emulator!
There's some new gear in stores,
but nothing we want.
The rest of the party is getting closer to the coveted power-up. Alfador actually has the jp for it right now!
Then, on to the next map.
A chocobo?
We don't need no stinkin' chocobo.
Haha.
If I had remembered that we were up against goblins and nothing but goblins, I might have replaced my lightning rods with ice ones for this. Or I might hare realized that they're so weak against ice that we don't need to boost it in order to one-shot them.
As such, it's a short fight.
Singing Gafgarion, always hilarious.
Trying out my new Yin-Yang magic. Most of my characters have auto-learned Blind, which would not be my first choice, but hell, we have it, might as well use it.
Blinded, the black goblin turn-punches his friend (and Boco) instead of using a normal attack.
And keeping with my long-standing tradition of killing recruitable NPCs for their experience points...
Oops!
Battles won by bopping someone on the head with a wooden stick: 3
...the hell?
No, god damn it, no!
...and here I thought you had to save him to recruit him, and then he goes and not only survives my attempt at murder but even tries to join up after it!
Anyway, you know the deal.
Too bad you seem to have uh misplaced your equipment...
Five knights... one naked Gafgarion.
Delita could solo this map.
I mean holy shit look at this, the guy has been working out since the last time we saw him.
All his old Squire abilities are gone, replaced by Holy Knight abilities... except for Wish.
Agrias maybe not so much, but she does manage to Stasis Sword crit this guy so he falls off the bridge! I don't think I've seen that before.
All the NPCs and enemies go before us - a weakness of being half their level, I suppose.
The princess does her usual thing, which is to say she's functionally immortal.
Wizards casting spells 
Even our high-faith characters don't really care.
The reverse is a lot more effective.
Our first round wipes Gaff and one of the knights.
With Delita's help, the rest soon follow.
I've always liked this exchange.
Pictured: The most dangerous moment in this fight.
Agrias stuck herself in the deep water and never bothered to come out. She just sat there and watched us work.
She's soon back to her old habits, though.
And Delita is acting all cool and mysterious.
And with that, our destination changes. Next up, Mustadio... and then...
...Bariaus Hill.