Corona Jumper: Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 5

Saturday, October 18, 2025

Final Fantasy Tactics, Part 5 - Backside of Ivalice

At the center of the map is the Imperial Capital, from which all roads - and all power - emanates.

Originally posted March 2016, now remastered for 2025

This is a good time to talk about the deleted scene on the back cover of the game:

Great back cover here, with the classes represented and a compelling description. The screenshots are colorful, too. The only problem is...that top screenshot isn't actually in the game. It's a battlefield that doesn't exist, and the Bahamut summon doesn't normally get that up-close and personal with the field either.

It's the best shot on here, so it's pretty weird that it isn't actually from the game. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if it was a scene from a secret battle, but we can probably file it away in the same category as "Culex in FFIV". A red herring, nothing more. The upper part of the wall in the image doesn't even look like it's walkable, and it's peculiar how all of the characters are defending.

Maybe they originally wanted to have Bahamut as a boss fight before you get him, and defending before he Megaflares was a mechanic for said fight. Who knows. Always thought it was weird that Bahamut is in the middle of the Summoner ability list, despite being the strongest and most-expensive summon.

Ramza narrates. The tide is against him, but he's going to find a way to stop this war. He's basically Jack Bauer in Season 2.

A ton of new weapons become available at this point. No lances yet, but we've got weapons for Ninja and Samurai now.

I'm gonna regret this, but let's check in with my army and see how things are going...

::"Freeek" by George Michael plays::

Oh COME ON! What the hell is this, Boco? Some kind of chocobo orgy? This is an outrage!

"Deal with it! Wark!"

Look, man, no offense, but the neighbors are complaining at this point, and...

"A homie's gotta get his beak wet! Wark!"

You've really turned out to be a jerk, Boco.

The next battle is an interesting one, and takes place in a snowy mining town.

There's an interesting guest character here: Orran, the son of Orlandu. He isn't playable, which is too bad because he has a very interesting ability. Seen here, it spins the battlefield around and freezes every enemy in their tracks (if it works).

It might be the most impressive-looking ability in the game. Too bad this is the only time you see it. Would have been an amazing ultimate ability for Time Mages instead of the weirdly out-of-place Meteor (which should have gone to Black Mages since it's more potent than their strongest spell).

Orran with a fairly badass statement.

Time to show off some new moves from summoner-grinding. Here's the Ramuh summon, which unleashes electricity as usual.

Here's Titan, the earth summon and the strongest of the first tier. This was a big one in Final Fantasy VII too.

Golem is the most useful summon overall, and provides a shield for the party that absorbs a set amount of melee hits.

Ramza confronts his brother...only to find that Zalbaag is also drinking the war kool-aid.

Ramza is concerned about Delita throwing in with the New World Order. Fuh-fuh-fuh life.

A very polite emissary of the church arrives... to haul Ramza in for a hanging. Turns out that killing the Cardinal has some repercussions, and Ramza is now an enemy of the church. They have to inquisit somebody to sate the people's bloodlust, and quick.

Alma is an AI-controlled guest in this battle...and the squishy priestess immediately runs to the front line to tank. Yeah, great.

The good news is that Ramza can teleport right behind the enemy leaders and plaster them with a devastating attack. Usually takes two shots to end the battle.

This guy is woefully misinformed and basically accuses Ramza of everything he didn't do.

Ramza tries to explain, but it falls on deaf ears. This guy already made up his mind that Ramza is Satan.

When it comes down to it, this is actually a pretty sad game. Most of it consists of Ramza having to fight people he doesn't want to fight and has no legitimate reason to fight, because they believe he's Hitler Plus or whatever.

For the Inquisitor, I break out the dark-based summon: Hades. This guy is from Final Fantasy IX, and he's very creepy.

This is a second-tier summon, but not a particularly strong one. Probably about on par with Titan. Looks very cool, at least. It seems like the highest tier of summons is pretty much just Bahamut and Cyclops, with Odin/Leviathan in the second tier and Titan/Hades/Salamander after that.

Next, we return to Orbonne Monastery to visit Simon, the kindly gent from the intro. He explains things that are already quite apparent vis-a-vis the NWO.

Speaking of, the NWO is here, infiltrating the vaults to find more Zodiac Stones and break out more of their Lucavi allies. This means lots of goon-slaying as our heroes battle floor-by-floor The Raid style. Dragoons show up on the enemy side here, and they're actually armed properly. The good news is that Ramza can teleport in and decimate their Chemist immediately with his new Dual-Wield ability. That's right... Ramza has finally moved on from Monk and become a Ninja.

Ninja abilities (Throw) aren't that great from the looks of things, unlike Monk abilities, but Dual-Wield is a total killer. Blade Grasp might be a good counter too, not sure. Haven't un-equipped First Strike (the best Monk counter) since I got it. I'll look into this.

Isilud is a formidable Temple Knight who makes his first appearance here. He's an NWO member, but he isn't possessed. He's extremely dangerous, but the battle ends when he's defeated (or reduced to critical, even). He bumrushes the party, so all you need to do is focus all attacks on him.

After a quick skirmish with Isilud, we get to have a quick skirmish with Wiegraf. He's NWO now, having donned the shirt in the previous post.

Wiegraf proceeds to annihilate half my team before I even have a chance to move, knocking out my Summoner and vastly diminishing the HP of Agrias and Lavian.

This is a short, very brutal fight. Wiegraf has goons on the way, but they don't even really get a chance to do anything. This is basically Wiegraf Vs. Party, and even 5-on-1 he has a legit shot of winning. Knock him off before he knocks off all your characters.

Note: I mentioned earlier that Zaland Fort City's theme only played for that one battle. Well, it plays again here. Either this is a new PSP addition or I was wrong. It's entirely possible I just didn't notice in the past because this fight is so short. If it's a new addition, hopefully it made it into more battles later.

Wiegraf is still himself, despite holding the Aries stone. After he loses (barely), he retreats from the monastery.

Isilud has Alma captive, and most of the remainder of the game will revolve around Ramza's attempts to recover his sister.

For his part, Wiegraf lays down to die here. He was a formidable opponent, and he will be missed.

But wait. His despair is so palpable that it wakes up the Aries stone.

It hovers and speaks. Well, that's creepy.

Wiegraf makes the ultimate deal with the devil, giving himself over to the stone in exchange for power. He was already NWO, but now he's NWO...fuh-life.

Wiegraf is possessed by the demon Belias (Velius in the PS1 version), the deadliest boss in the game and the bane of many players. Belias is named after Belial, devil prince of the fourth layer of Dante's Inferno.

He'll always be Velius to me though.