By the way, kupo...

Finished off Vayne again. Got further this time before I lost patience and had to end it, polishing off Gilgamesh, entering the hard levels of the Henne Mines, opening the Ascetic's Door, getting sandbagged by the "shocked and dismayed" Magic Pot, etc. etc. Great ending to that game, wish it were longer by about an hour. Someday I'd like to see these worlds realized in cinematic detail down to the last stairwell, bookcase and freckle.

Maybe that's what life is, and these games are just a bit of sublime recursion. Oh, well. The other day I turned 64 years of age, if not wisdom, unless wisdom is the realization that most of us just get old. I'm glad I didn't die when I was 63. If my obituary had read, "David Oshel, 63," I'd have died of embarassment. I want to be a prime number when I go — no sooner than 67, preferably 87 or 103. Maybe they'll have discovered immortality by then, and the deal is, courtesy of Mr. Obama, you gets your choice — Social Security or the Methuselah Vaccine. Not both.

Sort of like Asimov's 60, but in reverse.

Giruvegan

Stopped by. Quit the game. After Giruvegan, the plot is essentially over ... and it's dull. You can collect Espers. Dull. You can fight Gilgamesh. Dull. You can join the "rare game" hunt. Dull and stupid-headed. Don't pay off the bangaas, you can go directly to Archades Central if you prefer to cut out the middleman and be played for a sucker by the team's gentry client directly. You can play the occasional side game, like fishing in the river. Dull, stupid-headed and useless. You can try to learn the dark side of the magic arts — e.g., equip Nihopaloa and throw Phoenix Downs at the Aeronites on Lasche Span; they drop out of the air like ham sandwiches. But I don't like Giruvegan because the style changes — the quest is dark, indoors and full of mysterioso, with familiar enemies. Level up, team. Boring... Maybe there's something more entertaining left, but I haven't found it.

Beautiful downtown Balfonheim

Wish you were here.

Out of Order

I see McCain is calling President Obama a "socialist" — which seems a bit out of order to me, coming from an intellectually bankrupt laissez-faire know nothing whose bad luck and bad judgment overlap like red and blue make purple. When you need a government, you need a government that works, no offense there, oldtimer. <*Yaaaawwn*> Tampa Bay versing the Phillies is way more interesting, and should rip off just enough attention from politics for half the 14 or so days until the election. (My guess is the Phillies in six, but Tampa Bay is really fun to watch.)

Speaking of random non sequiturs, I've discovered you can play FFXII out of order, too. So, e.g., right now I've avoided finishing the Stillshrine of Miriam (it leads to another annoying boss encounter with the Imperials), and by dint of sheer fleetfootedness, I've managed to open up the Mosphoran Highwastes and the Salikawood, plus the north half of Dalmasca Estersands and the Barheim Passage's back door entrance. That's a big playground to level up in. I want to come out of the Stillshrine at about level 40 or 45 before heading off to the Phon Coast. [Update: 38, 37, 37]

More Elder Wyrm

I was stuck trying to spring Ashe out of the pokey on Leviathan — Judge A and Judge B kept cleaning my clock. So I leveled up, very tediously I might add, to about level 20, and made it a point to get all three quickenings set up for every character, all six of them. After that, it was a piece of cake, despite low abilities otherwise. The License charts looked like mining and sapping ops, a straight line to the edge of the board, and sparse else.

TMALSS, that made things pretty much dead easy from the Ogir-Yensa Sandsea through the Tomb of Raithwall to the Henna Mines to Bur-Omisace. Tiamat was kinduva joke. I remembered the Demon Walls in Raithwall, both of them, but couldn't remember which was which (one of them is easy). The first one fell to a chain of 15 quickenings (a personal best) followed by 7 more. But the second wall just crumbled. Oh yeah. Shoulda run for it in Round 1.

I remembered the Elder Wyrm^‡ from last time, but just forged ahead when time came to move along. Only one trick, I used my second team (9 quickenings) first to take the old boy down about half way, then sent in the first string — Vaan, Balthier and Fran, also 9 q's. That drained his life bar down to a stub with too much left for comfort, but by then it was just a matter of Phoenix Downs and attrition. Only Fran and Balthier were left standing.

Right now, I've forgotten the trick to activating the Stillshrine of Miriam, but it'll come to me... Hmmmmmmmmm...

^‡Obligatory reference to John McCain. Vote, people! Vote early! Vote now, today!