Welcome to my Final Fantasy Tactics Advance guide. Here you will find comprehensive information about how to play through FFTA, how to do engagements, and how to master the tactical approach to battle.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is a game for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. It was released in 2003. It was developed and published by Square, credited to SquareEnix. It is not a direct sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics for the PlayStation. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has a sequel on the Nintendo DS called Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift.
At the start of a new game, you see the main character that you will play: default name is Marche. He's new to the snowy town of St. Ivalice and he is participating in a snowball fight with his classmates. On his team are Ritz and Mewt. Ritz is the outspoken class leader, and Mewt is a shy boy, the class librarian. After Mr. Leslaie helps you learn the basics of snowball fighting, try out the different features of the game.
When it's your turn in the fight, you are given the option to move to any of the blue squares. You can also choose to throw a snowball at someone within the range of green squares. You are told that you have a better chance of hitting someone if you are behind or to the side of that person.
The order in which you take turns is based on your character's speed. You can see the current Turn Order by cancelling out of all of a character's menus, and then pressing the Start button.
If you choose to Wait, either before or after moving, it might make your next turn come around sooner.
No matter what you do in this snowball fight, it will end when an argument breaks out between Ritz and the members of the other team, all of whom are only throwing snowballs at Mewt. One of them throws a snowball at Mewt that conceals a rock. The other members of the team make fun of Ritz, saying that she secretly has white hair that she dyes red. After that, Mr. Leslaie intervenes and tells the members of the other team to go to his office. Ritz, Mewt, and Marche are sent home.
During the walk home, Mewt mentions to Ritz and Marche that he is going to buy an interesting-looking used book that he found. The three decide to meet up at Marche's house to read the book together with Marche's brother Doned, who has a chronic illness and just got out of the hospital.
Before they part ways, Ritz, Mewt, and Marche see a guy apologizing to a couple of other guys. Ritz makes some criticisms of the guy, but it turns out that the guy is Mewt's dad. Mewt explains that his father has lost direction in his life ever since Mewt's mom died. Marche doesn't have a dad, and mentions that to Mewt to help him feel better.
Later, Marche enters his room, where his brother Doned is in a wheelchair, looking outside. Mewt and Ritz come in, and Mewt shows everyone the book that he bought. Inside are some strange symbols, and drawings of strange creatures. The kids don't know what to make of the book, but they discuss the possibility that it's a book of magic. Ritz says that she likes games much more than books, and says it would be cool if she could enter the worlds of games. Mewt agrees, saying he would like to be in the world of Final Fantasy, which is his favorite game.
Later that night, Mewt's book opens by itself, and the people of St. Ivalice transform into strange creatures. Doned floats out of bed and disappears. The town of St. Ivalice is transformed into a desert.
Marche finds himself dressed in strange clothing, standing in an unfamiliar town square. He walks around, and ends up bumping into a lizard-like creature. Marche, in confusion, calls the creature a lizard, and the creature is very offended, saying that he is not a lizard but a Bangaa. He and his friend look ready to beat Marche up.
Fortunately for Marche, a fuzzy creature comes up and explains Marche's confusion to the Bangaa, claiming that Marche is from out of town. This creature is a moogle named Montblanc. But Montblanc's explanation isn't enough for the Bangaa, who engage Marche, meaning they choose to do battle with him. A judge appears nearby to oversee the battle. Montblanc explains that there are laws that affect battle, and it's forbidden to use Items in battles today.
In this battle, you don't have much to worry about. Marche is a soldier, armed with a shortsword. You should attack the Bangaa from the side or behind to increase the probability that you will successfully hit the enemy. Montblanc is a Black Mage and can use offensive magic against the Bangaa.
During the battle, Montblanc will explain Judge Points. These are special points bestowed by Judges for KOing enemies and doing other types of things, like doing the recommended action that corresponds to the things forbidden in the laws. Judge Points can be used to do combos and other special attacks and moves.
After the battle, one of the KOed Bangaa will try to use a potion, which, as Montblanc explained, is against the law today. So, that Bangaa gets sent to prison.
Montblanc asks Marche some more questions, and Montblanc trusts that Marche really doesn't know how he got to this place, and that the world that he came from is very different from this one. Montblanc takes Marche to the pub, where Montblanc's clan hangs out. Montblanc lets Marche join the clan and name it. The clan includes some characters of various races who have various jobs. You can tell any of these characters to leave, but you might want to just keep your current characters. You will want to have many characters in your party and train them up to have different job skills. As you do more missions, you will randomly get characters who want to join your clan. You can say yes or no to them. There's a limit to the number of people you can have in your clan, though.
Once all that's done with, you will appear on the world map and will be able to place the Sprohm symbol. Symbols are locations, and you can choose where to place them on the world map. Some placements result in special items, depending on what other symbols are nearby. More about that later. You should save your game now.
At this point, you can shop in the shops of Cyril and Sprohm and get some better armor and items for your clan. When characters in your clan equip certain types of weapons and armor, they will learn skills using the ability points that they win in missions. Once a skill is learned, you can unequip the armor or weapon that bestowed that skill, and you'll permanently be able to use that skill in battle if you are using that job's abilities.
You should go into the Party view and choose abilities for your clan members. You can choose two A-abilities for each clan member, although usually you have to start out with choosing Item as the second A-ability. But if your characters learn a skill, and then change jobs and learn a skill for that different job, then you can choose the A-ability of the original job to be able to use skills from two job classes. Just be careful, because some types of abilities require certain types of weapons, so it might be impossible to use some of the abilities of a different job class if your current job has a different type of weapon.
Go to a pub and read the rumors. These rumors are just some bits of information that can help you understand what's going on in the world of St. Ivalice.
You should then look at the list of Missions in the pub. Missions are like tasks that people will hire your clan to do. But you have to pay some Gil to accept the mission. The missions list is where most of the important parts of the game come from.
So your next step is to accept the mission that's in the list (there's only one at this point). There is a series of mandatory missions that you must do to progress through the game. I will go through these in this walkthorugh, and then have a separate section devoted to the optional missions.
This mission, like many missions, is a battle. The objective for this one is simply to defeat all of the enemies. Marche and Montblanc automatically participate in this battle, but you are free to choose four more members of your clan to join in the battle. When the battle begins, you might want to start out by focusing your attacks on the Red Cap, because it has some pretty dangerous attacks, particularly Goblin Punch, which does random damage to its target. The Sprite is probably OK to leave for last, because it's really weak.
Once you're done with Herb Picking, you'll get some Gil for a reward, as well as Ability Points (which make all of the members of your clan who participated in the battle progress in whatever skill training they're doing). You'll also get some items.
Once you've completed Herb Picking, you can check out the missions list in either pub and there will be more missions that have opened up.
The next obligatory mission is Thesis Hunt. You should do other missions first to level up your characters and have them learn some skills. Once you are ready for Thesis Hunt, go to Lutia Pass.
You will be up against an Archer, two Soldiers, two Thieves, and one White Mage.
The White Mage is going to be healing injured enemies, so you should focus attacks on that White Mage to make the battle shorter. There's a thief in this battle who has the Counter reaction ability. This means that if you attack him while standing next to him, he'll turn around and hit you. But he can't do this if you use a ranged attack like Black Magic. So it's best to attack that guy from a distance. The Archer, also, will slow things down because it can immobilize and disable your party. So, the Archer and the White Mage are first priorities for who to take down.
After Thesis Hunt, you learn about the clan wars. There are other clans out there who want to take over the different regions of St. Ivalice and control what goes on there. They will randomly appear on the world map as red soldiers. If you and a red soldier end up on the same world map symbol, you will automatically fight. These guys give you an easy opportunity to earn EXP and ability points. The pub guy in Cyril will mention the clan wars.
When you're ready, do The Cheetahs mission. It's in Nubswood.
Enemies: Archer, Thief, Black Mage, White Monk, Fighter
Marche's classmate Ritz is in the forest with her friend, a Viera named Shara. Ritz's clan is called The Cheetahs. The most dangerous enemies in this battle are the Archer and the White Monk. So kill those first. Then you can target whoever, and you'll be fine. Ritz and Shara make this battle a snap.
After the battle, Ritz expresses how happy she is in this world, much to Marche's dismay. He says that he really wants to go back to the real world, and she says that she won't help him.
Now you can place the Eluut Sands symbol. At the pub in Cyril, Marche tells Montblanc how surprised he was that Ritz doesn't want to go back to the real world. When he saw her in Nubswood, he was so sure that she would help out, so now he's really depressed that she didn't want to help.
Desert Peril is the next required mission. The enemies are: Cream, two Red Panthers, an Antlion, and a Coeurl.
The panthers will really do a lot of damage, so if you can, take them down first, and maybe even use some status attacks to disable them or slow them down. Use Fire on the Cream and it will probably die with one hit because it's very weak to Fire elemental spells. But don't bother with physical attacks against it. It has a huge defense against physical attacks.
After the battle, Montblanc talks to you about the crazy monsters that have been appearing. One theory as to why they are appearing is that there are mysterious crystals hidden around the kingdom that have something to do with it.
Now you can place the Ulei River symbol on the map.
The next mandatory mission is Twisted Flow. It starts with Marche walking along the Ulei River, when suddenly he senses something strange. A mysterious circle of darkness flashes, and then it grows and engulfs the entire region.
Marche finds himself inside of a sort of temple, with a large, floating crystal at the center. A voice rings out, demanding "speak your name, you who profane the light." Marche answers nervously, and Famfrit appears. This creature is a Totema, a powerful boss.
Famfrit is very strong. You only need to kill the boss to win this mission, but defeating the floateyes and ahrimans might help reduce the difficulty of this battle.
Check on the Ahrimans to find out which one has the dangerous Roulette ability. This ability will randomly choose someone on screen (an ally or enemy) and instantly KO that person. You might want to kill this monster as soon as possible to avoid losing members of your party.
The only thing you can do in this battle is just bring down Famfrit's HP as quickly as possible. Anything that you can do to improve your chance of hitting him is a good thing. Famfrit is susceptible to sleep, which will give you a 100% chance to hit him.
Once you have defeated Famfrit, he explains that the crystal is a "world thread" that keeps this world together. Famfrit was born to the Moogles, and with his defeat, he offers to give his powers to the Moogles in your clan. This means that if a Moogle in your party has 10 Judge Points, he will be able to use the Totema's power to inflict damage upon every enemy on screen.
Famfrit disappears and the crystal shatters. Then you will see Mewt on the screen, shaking his head. He disappears. Then you are told that when all of the crystals are gone, this desert world of St. Ivalice will disappear and be replaced with a different one.
Next, you see a scene that takes place in Bervenia Palce, where Judgemaster Cid (Mewt's father) walks in to Mewt's room. Mewt is the prince, and he is troubled because he suddenly recalled having a snowball fight in a schoolyard. Cid is confused because as far as he knows, Mewt is a prince who has never gone to school, so nothing like that could have ever happened. Mewt quickly forgets about it, and his mother, Queen Remedi, walks in with Mewt's servant Babus. Mewt says that he wants the laws to be made stronger, and Remedi agrees to make it so.
Marche finds himself back at Ulei River after the battle. He knows now how to return home, and resolves to find the other crystals and destroy them.
Now you can place Cadoan (a city) on the map.
Go to Cadoan and you'll see some people complaining about the laws and the Queen. Then a Nu Mou tells them of Ezel Berbier, a mysterious person who has discovered a way around the laws.
The next time you go to Cadoan, you'll see that same Nu Mou from before being chased by the people he had been talking to before about Ezel Berbier. It turns out that that Nu Mou is none other than Ezel Berbier himself, and the group is chasing him because they feel that he is overcharging them.
Ezel is an Illusionist and his ability is to put all enemies on the screen to sleep. He will also use the fight ability. Don't let Ezel get KOed because that will make you fail the mission. You can't control him, but you can heal him if he needs it.
How you prioritize this battle depends on who you have in your party. When you choose your units, consider the fact that most of the enemies are stronger physically than magically, with the exception of the illusionist. You should probably choose units that have high weapon defense, and fairly good magic defense. Having units with strong ranged attacks will also serve you well. Aside from that, your decision of how to prioritize this battle depends on which enemies are hurting you the most.
After you win the battle, Judgemaster Cid arrives on the scene. Ezel is not willing to go to prison, so Cid is forced to use an Advanced Law to stop Ezel in his tracks. But Ezel whips out an Antilaw and disappears. Cid gives up and leaves the scene.
Marche and Ezel talk in the Cadoan pub. Ezel explains that law cards can modify the laws of the day, removing laws and adding them. He offers to trade law cards with Marche in his Cadoan shop. Trading consists of giving up some of your own cards in exchange for the ones he has. Each card has a point value, and you have to give up enough cards to match the point value of the card that you want.
Diamond Rain is the next mandatory mission. Bring someone who has a fire spell to make quick work of the Ice Flan. The Lamia and Icedrakes are the biggest concern, so choose one of those three to focus on, kill it, and move on to the next. There is also a Bomb, but it isn't too hard to kill.
Once you're done with the mission, Marche sees diamonds falling from the sky. He tries to grab one, but it disappears.
Now you can place Roda Volcano.
The next mandatory mission is Hot Awakening.
Marche enters the Roda Volcano area, and there is a tremor, and then a circle of blackness engulfs him like before. In the temple-like area, there is a giant crystal, and some butterflies floating around. Marche approaches the giant crystal, and then some smaller Ultima Crystals appear. These are the enemies that you must fight.
The crystals can't move, and their only ability is Logos, a spell that charms characters and lowers their attack and defense. The best strategy is to keep everyone but one person away from the crystals. A crystal will aways use its fight ability if one unit is standing right next to it, and it does not have good attack power. One by one, you can pick off the Ultima Crystals until they are all gone.
Once they are gone, Marche guesses that this Totema is for the Nu Mou. The crystal shatters, and you see Mewt, who doesn't seem to see you but asks who is trying to destroy his world. Then you're back in Roda Volcano.
The new Nu Mou totema damages MP of all enemies on screen.
Koringwood can now be placed on the map.
The next mandatory mission is Magic Wood. There are a bunch of people in Koringwood who are cutting down the trees because people think it's magic wood and will pay a lot for it. In this battle, you are outnumbered. You would do well do have someone in your party who can inflict status ailments that will prevent your enemies from moving or attacking. It will be up to you to decide who the worst threats are in this battle. Keep your units apart if you can, to prevent the enemies from casting spells on large numbers of your group. Try to prioritize such that you focus on the easier kills first. The fewer enemies in the fight, the better. Be sure to check on the enemies to see if any have healing spells, because you should get rid of those quickly.
After this battle, place the Salikawood symbol.
The next mandatory mission is Emerald Keep. You will discover Babus and some other enemies. Babus asks if you have information about Marche, whom he says has been destroying the crystals and threatening Mewt's world. Marche tries to hide his identity but Babus realizes that he's Marche, and he and his allies attack you.
The goal is to defeat Babus. The Bishop can cast cure, and also dispel to remove all status ailments. You might want to get rid of him, but to keep the battle short, just go for Babus and use status ailments to reduce the other enemies' abilities to hurt you.
Babus will disappear after saying that he knows what Marche looks like and therefore will have people pursuing him.
Now place Nargai Cave. The next mandatory mission is Pale Company.
This is a Totema boss battle. You enter the Nargai Cave and Marche sees a ghost, but doesn't feel scared. He follows the ghost farther into the cave. Then Marche is warped to another temple-like place. Marche follows the ghost and reaches the floating crystal. Then the Totema, Adrammelech, comes out with some dragons. The dragons are pretty much like other dragons you've fought, with Breath powers. Adrammelech knows the Firestream attack, allowing him to attack several of your party at once if they're all on the same line. This is a powerful attack. Try to keep your clan members from being in line with each other. If you have moogle or nu mou clan members, they can use their JP to summon their Totemas. It will certainly help. Be sure to focus your attacks on Adrammelech, because the battle is over once he is defeated.
When it is over, the crystal shatters. Babus comes up to Marche in the cave. After an appearance from Mewt, Babus asks why in the world you're trying to take away Mewt's world, asking what could possibly be so great about the other world that Marche would want to return to it at the price of destroying Mewt's world. Without waiting for an answer, Babus leaves.
With Adrammelech defeated, Bangaa get his Totema, which hurts all enemies on screen for a large amount of HP.
Place the Baguba Port symbol and go to it. Montblanc's brother Nono is there, and says that he lost his airship to some bandits who are hiding in Jagd Dorsa. Marche is eager to help, but Montblanc warns that the Jagds are zones where the Judges can't enter and enforce laws. This seems good, not having to worry about laws during a battle, but the problem is that the Judges are not only there to enforce laws, but also to protect all combatants from death. Those who fight will only get KOed in other parts of the world, but in a Jagd, permanent death is the consequence of losing all of your HP and not being revived before the end of the battle.
Place Jagd Dorsa on the map. Don't go there until you are ready for a fight, because it begins as soon as you walk onto the symbol.
In the Jagd Hunt battle that ensues when you go there, remember: your units can get KOed, but revive them as soon as possible because otherwise they are dead forever!
The biggest dangers are probably the assassin (who has an instant KO ability) and the hunter, who can inflict a random status ailment (including doom, which will KO an ally in a few moves). The ninja is also a high priority as he has some very painful attack power. The blue mage is a fairly big concern with his monster skills. The other enemies are an antlion and toughskin. They are the lowest priority.
After the battle, Marche expresses the understandable desire to never have to go to a Jagd again. Go back to Baguba Port and Nono thanks you for helping. He reluctantly takes the portion of the reward that Marche offers him, and Nono realizes that he will need much more money to repair his airship for good. So he turns his ship into a merchant ship. He will show up in the shop at Baguba Port with Trade Goods. To get Nono to bring more trade goods, you'll need to link up with another GBA.
The next mandatory mission is The Bounty.
This battle is against Clan Ox. The clan leader asks Marche if he knows about the person that the palace has a bounty on. One of the clan members says that Marche looks a lot like the guy on the wanted poster. Marche doesn't hear that comment, so when the clan leader asks for his name, he answers truthfully, and the clan attacks, realizing that Marche is the guy who has a bounty on his head.
The Paladin, Fighter, and Black Mage have attacks that will do a lot of damage, so you should focus on getting rid of them first. The turn order is important to monitor, because you will really want to have as many of your units attacking one right after the other as you can, to make sure you can take down those three, with their high HP count. If you have a way to affect the turn order to your advantage, do it. Putting one of those three to sleep is a good idea.
You aren't out of the woods after getting rid of those three, but the other enemies are a lot less likely to KO you quickly. The Sage can poison your group with an area attack, so don't stand close to each other or you'll have several people poisoned. It would be wise to bring a strong healer.
Once that battle is over, you can place the Jeraw Sands symbol.
The Golden Clock mission is the next mandatory one. In it, you have to battle against some criminals who have been making fake clocks. You will fight alongside Shara and Ritz. Marche asks Ritz if she knows about the bounty on Marche's head, and she replies that she does, but she would never turn him in.
Ritz yells to the clock forgers in the area to come out of hiding. There is a Gadgeteer, a Nu Mou Time Mage, an Alchemist, and a Juggler. Ritz and Shara are a great help in this battle, but be sure to revive them if either one gets KOed, because you'll fail the mission if they aren't revived before all the enemies are gone.
The Gadgeteer's random status effects are pretty problematic. You might want to silence him to keep him from randomly affecting people, but on the other hand, if you're lucky, your party will get a beneficial effect like Haste, or the enemies might all get poisoned, or things like that. It's up to you whether you want to take that gamble or not. As for the Alchemist, his Aero spell is very deadly, but his other abilites aren't too devastating. The Time Mage has Demi, which is pretty harmful. He also has Slow and Stop, which can disrupt the battle a lot. As with the others, Silencing the Time Mage will help you out for a while. The Juggler can cause some status ailments like Confuse, Berserk and Frogshape. Personally I recommend getting rid of the Gadgeteer first to make the battle more straightforward, then either go for the Time Mage or the Alchemist next. The Juggler is probably OK to leave for last.
During the battle, Ritz and Marche will discuss Mewt's world. Marche doesn't understand what is so powerful about this world that would make Ritz feel OK about leaving behind her family and friends from the real world. Ritz doesn't understand why Marche doesn't feel that this world is better than the real world.
After the battle is over, Marche expresses his concern for Shara and Ritz, saying that he worries that they will get in trouble for helping Marche. Shara replies that if she and Ritz got in trouble, she would simply turn Marche in. Marche is downcast, and starts to leave. Ritz threatens that she might join sides with Mewt.
When Ritz and Shara are by themselves after Marche leaves, Shara asks Ritz why she was so cold to Marche, when it seems like he's just worried about her. Shara also expresses concern about the fact that Ritz is willing to leave behind her friends and family to stay in this world. Ritz reveals that the main reason that she wants to stay in this world is that her hair is red in this world, instead of white like in the real world. It made her Mom very sad to have to dye her hair red every morning, and for Ritz to do it herself when she got old enough. She would rather forget the old world so that she never has to be called "whitey-locks" again.
Next, we see Mewt, upset that the palace has not caught Marche yet. He demands that Cid catch Marche, and he flies into a fury about the fact that his mother seems to be gone, shaking Babus in frustration.
Now you can place Muscadet on the map. Go to it and there will be a scene in the pub where Ezel reveals that the judgemaster is now interrogating every clan in the effort to find Marche, to the point that they haven't even bothered looking for Ezel anymore. Ezel vows to stay on Marche's side, never turning him in.
The next time you go to Muscadet, there will be a series of difficult battles. Make sure Marche is at a high level.
This automatic engagement is called Scouring Time. It starts with a Moogle Thief being harassed by a judge about whether he's harboring the kid with the bounty on his head. Marche storms in and yells at the judge to leave to innocent Moogle alone and free any other prisoners they've taken for questioning, saying that he will turn himself in.
A battle ensues, featuring a Sage, two Mog Knights, two Templars, a Paladin, and a Gunner. The Paladin has some highly damaging attacks, and he has the Drop Weapon ability to disarm your allies, so he should be one of your top priorities. The Templars are also pretty tough, so defeat them early on if you can. You should try to use ranged attacks against them, because they have Bonecrusher, which is like Counter, except the Templar that you hit will deal you twice the damage that you inflicted upon it. It might also be a good idea to inflict status ailments on the Gunner to reduce its ability to hurt you, because it has such a huge attack range.
Once you complete that battle, Judgemaster Cid comes along and takes you to the Sprohm prison to question you. Babus enters and confirms that you are Marche. Marche then demands that Cid release the other clan members, but Cid refuses, because they aided a known criminal. Cid and Babus chastise Marche for wanting to disrupt Mewt's world, but Marche tries to explain that this is a world that Mewt created so that he could avoid his problems in the real world--a dream world. To Marche's surprise, Babus claims that Mewt has said that if this world must end, Mewt would rather destroy it himself.
Suddenly, a seam opens up in the interrogation room, much to Cid's shock. Babus claims that Marche somehow called the seam into existence there. The group finds itself in a temple-like room, as with the other crystal rooms. The crystal is encased in a structure of tree roots, and there are Exodus Fruits all around.
Marche expresses his determination to destroy this crystal, but Cid warns that because Marche's clan is locked away, he must fight by himself. Marche is very nervous, but he still wants to try to destroy the crystal.
This battle is between just Marche and Babus, with Cid enforcing the laws. The goal is to destroy all of the Exodus Fruits, which have no attacks, but don't bother trying until Babus is dealt with. He is a formidable foe. It will help if you have items equipped that confer defensive status changes, particularly Auto-Life, Auto-Regen, Mirror, and so on. If Babus has a higher speed than you do, then he will get a chance to do something very damaging to you right at the start of the battle, so having something like Auto-Life will help you have a fighting chance. Otherwise, you need to have some highly damaging attacks of your own to quickly wear down Babus's hit points. Once Babus has been KOed, go around the room killing the Exodus Fruits. They won't do anything to you, and Cid will just sit there--unless you break a law, of course. To win this battle, I had Marche be a Ninja with Nosada equipped so that he could use Double Sword, and had the other sword be the one from my inventory that granted the biggest increase in Weapon Attack. I was lucky, and one of the sword hits was a critical hit, so I KOed Babus in one turn.
With the battle over, Babus recovers from being KOed, and the crystal disappears. Then, the version of Cid and Mewt from the real world appear, and Cid apologizes the way that he was in the opening scenes, with Mewt commenting on how Cid fell apart when Mewt's Mom died, as he did at the beginning of the game. Then the real-world Cid and Mewt disappear, and Cid expresses disbelief at first. But when the three are returned to the Sprohm prison, Cid admits that after seeing the version of himself from the real world, he remembers his life from the real world. He declares that he will separate himself and his judges from the palace, overseeing the law independently of Prince Mewt.
After this scene, you will be on the world map, on Sprohm. When you try to move to a different location, you will see a scene in the pub where various clanners are discussing Cid's departure from the palace. Marche overhears the conversation. Then we see Cid saying his goodbyes to Mewt, Babus, and Remedi. Cid is civil towards Mewt, but Mewt dismisses Cid, saying that he doesn't need a father; especially not one like Cid. Remedi brings in Cid's replacement, a mysterious boy dressed in red named Llednar Twem. What a strange name.... Now you can place the Uladon Bog symbol.
The next big mission is The Big Find. In this mission, Marche walks in to the area to discover a clan standing there waiting for you. Somehow they knew Marche would be there. In this battle there are two Thieves, two Bishops, and two Fighters.
You might want to take out the Bishops first, because they both have Cura and might slow things down as they heal wounded units before you can KO them. Another big concern is the thieves. They can steal weapon and steal ability. Having an ability stolen is pretty bad, because it means that, if successful, something that you spent a while learning will go away. Not that you can't learn it again, but that's kind of a hassle. Anyway, steal weapon is maybe even worse than steal ability if you have some rare weapon equipped and it gets stolen. So you should deal with those thieves quickly, whichever way you can. You can make Steal illegal, or disable or immobilize the thieves, or just KO them instantly with a spell or powerful attack. Whatever works. Some of the enemy units have reaction abilities like Strikeback (which means they will hurt you a lot if you use Fight against them, while not being harmed themselves) and Bonecrusher, which is like Counter but with more damage from the enemy.
When all enemies are defeated, you are done with this mission. Marche will wonder how that clan could possibly have known that Marche would be there. He gets a strange feeling of being watched, and is pretty annoyed.
Put Gotor Sands on the map. Once you do the Exploration mission, add Jagd Ahli to the map. The next big mission is Desert Patrol, in Gotor Sands.
When you begin this mission, you see none other than Doned walking by. Marche calls out to Doned, who runs away and tells a group of Bangaa that you are there and you are the kid with the bounty on his head. So it was Doned who tipped off the clan in the previous mission??
In this battle, there is a Bishop, a Dragoon, a Defender, a Gladiator, a White Monk, and two Soldiers. The Bishop can heal the enemy units, so get rid of him to speed up the battle. The other enemies aren't too difficult to deal with. The Defender has Drop Weapon, so you might want to disable and KO him soon to avoid having your weapons unequipped. The Soldiers can provoke your units into Berserk, which can be problematic. With the others, just take them on one at a time and you'll be fine.
Once that mission is over with, put Delia Dunes on the map. Now you can do the next big mission: the Quiet Stands mission.
Marche stands in the desert and remarks at how quiet it is. Then Llednar Twem walks in and tells Marche to go away, but a seam opens and he and Marche get drawn into it. This is the hall of the final crystal. Llednar orders you to stop, but Judgemaster Cid appears and uses a law card to forbid Llednar's most powerful move, Omega. Llednar engages you. The goal of this mission is to defeat Llednar, but as you will discover, Llednar is immune to all attacks, taking 0 damage no matter what. But a quick way to end this battle, apparently, is to have Marche do a Fight attack against Llednar, who will then try to use Omega on Marche, and will subsequently get thrown in prison with a Red Card from Cid. Another way to fight this battle is to take out all of Llednar's allies (two Templars and two Titanias). Llednar will be sent to prison after the other enemies are gone.
With Llednar gone, Marche decides to fight the final Totema, Mateus, and destroy the final crystal so that he can go back home. When he approaches, Mateus transforms into Ritz, Doned, and Mewt, and Marche himself, all trying to convince Marche to leave the crystal alone. Marche, of course, refuses to stand down.
Mateus reappears, surrounded by the apparitions of Ritz, Doned, Mewt, and Marche, who transform into Vampires. Include people in your party who have curing powers. Be sure that most or all of your party has the ability to use a Phoenix Down or Life spell, because Mateus and the Vampires are powerful enough to kill several of your party in one turn. If you run out of allies with the ability to revive KO, you could find yourself in serious trouble. Include people in your party who have very high attack power so you can do a lot of damage to Mateus in one turn; over 400 HP is pretty tough, but up against an attack like a Paladin's Holy Cross or a strong Air Render from a Fighter, you will quickly chip away at Mateus's health. Note also that your starting squares to place your units are not in a very good place. There is a pit in front of your characters that will limit their movement a lot. I recommend placing your units near the back and to the sides so they can travel along the two sides of the room to the larger area behind the pit you start near (Mateus and the Vampires are likely to block the middle path unless you do so first). The Vampires will keep coming back to life, but they are too damaging to just ignore, so try to take down a bunch of them at once with curing spells or life spells. There are undead-killing abilities like the White Monk's Exorcise and Archer's Burial that can completely remove the Undead from battle, preventing them from resurrecting, so you might want to consider those moves. They have a low success rate, however. Blindness is a very helpful status ailment to inflict on all of the enemies in this battle, particularly on Mateus.
When Mateus is gone, the final crystal will shatter, and Marche will be happy that he will soon return to the real world. But to his surprise, the world does not change. Cid confirms that that was the last crystal, so he's confused, too. Queen Remedi then appears, saying that the world will continue to exist as long as it is wanted. She says that Mewt still wants this world because he needs his mother, and she says that even Marche hasn't fully let go of this world. So Marche realizes that he needs to have a discussion about this with Mewt. When the mission is over, go to any city and you will see a cut scene in a pub, where you overhear clan members talking about an event in the palace. Montblanc says that they are talking about Gift Day, officially known as Audience Day. This is a day when you can get an audience with Remedi and Mewt if you have connections, or if you bring a really impressive gift. Montblanc says he will ask his brother Nono (a skilled machinist) to make a really powerful gift so that Marche can get an audience with Mewt. When the cut scene is over, you can place the Materiwood symbol on the map.
The Materite Now mission is the next storyline mission. The mission starts with Marche entering Materiwood, holding some Materite that he found. He's about to leave when a group of Viera enter, saying that they were tipped off by a streetear about Marche being in the forest. Marche realizes that the streetear was Doned!
There is a Sniper, Red Mage, Elementalist, White Mage, Assassin, and Summoner in this battle. You should probably get rid of the Assassin first because she can instantly KO your units. If you have items that protect against KO, use them on your units. Don't equip any rare weapons or armor on your units, because the Sniper can destroy those with her abilities. Protect yourselves against Stop as well, because the Assassin can stop your units. And the Sniper has Doom Archer, which is bad if you deal a lot of damage to her in a single turn. If you have a law card that forbids status changes, use that to save yourself a great deal of trouble in this fight. The Red Mage can use Doublecast, but interestingly, she hasn't mastered it, so if you have a thief steal her weapon, or have a Sniper destroy her weapon, she won't be able to Doublecast anymore, which is good, because Doublecast can be devastating. Keep your units far apart because the Summoner's spells affect a big radius.
Once you win the battle, Doned comes in and grabs Marche's Materite, then shatters it. He taunts Marche, and says that Marche has everything that he could want in the real world, while Doned can't do much of anything that he wants in the real world because of his illness, so he will always work against Marche's efforts to return to the real world. But after Doned runs off, Marche says to himself that Doned doesn't realize that Doned has something really important in the real world that Marche doesn't have.
Once that scene is over, Bervenia Palace will appear on an island in the map. If you go to Bervenia Palace, the next storyline mission, Present Day, will automatically take place. But before you do that, be sure to put an Angel Ring on Marche if you have one, and make sure that he has White Mage abilities, and give him the Auto-Life ability and the Curaga ability if you can.
In Bervenia palace, you learn that Marche still had enough Materite for Nono to be able to make a Lugaborg to give as a gift to get an audience on Gift Day. But after you go inside and wait around for a long time, Montblanc realizes that maybe something is wrong. Indeed, a bunch of guards come in and attack you, saying that a concerned citizen (Doned, no doubt) tipped them off.
There is an Alchemist, a Mog Knight, two Gladiators, and a Templar. This room is pretty small, so use units that can do area attacks, because you're likely to be able to attack more than one unit in a turn. The Templar and Gladiators are very damaging, so you might want to deal with them first. The Alchemist can instantly KO, so disable that one if you can. You can steal his weapon to stop him from being able to cast Death. Bring some Maiden Kiss with you to deal with the Alchemist's frogshape spell.
After these are defeated, more guards rush in, but Babus appears and Stops them. He transports Marche to the throne room so he can talk to Mewt, because Babus has some concerns about the nature of this world. If it is truly just a dream that Mewt has created to avoid reality, Babus wants to convince Mewt that it's unhealthy. But Mewt, upon hearing this, feels that Babus has betrayed him, and says that he needs this world because he needs his mother, and if he went back to the real world, people would just pick on him. Remedi appears and comforts Mewt, but Marche tries to warn Mewt that she isn't really his mother, but just an illusion that Mewt has created. Remedi warps away with Mewt.
Then Llednar appears. Babus will go searching for Mewt and Remedi, and says that Marche's only hope against the invincible Llednar is to try to survive until Cid shows up to stop the fight.
This encounter with Llednar is dangerous. You have to survive for five turns without dying. And Llednar has the Omega ability, which is sure to KO you. If you have an Angel's Ring on Marche, then he will be revived, but if you don't have the White Mage Auto-Life ability, you can only do that once. So, try to stay out of Llednar's reach, because he can't cast Omega unless he is standing right next to you. I found it helpful to hide behind the throne. Then, use Auto-Life on yourself if you can, and hope that you make it through this battle. If you survive for five turns, Cid arrives and ends the encounter.
Llednar disappears as soon as Cid arrives. Marche explains what happened, and asks Cid who Llednar is and where he came from. Cid's answer is stunning: he's Mewt. Llednar is actually the manifestation of the most violent and dangerous aspect of Mewt's personality. Like the Totemas, Mewt created Llednar to protect the crystals and his dream world. Cid leaves to help find Remedi and Mewt. Marche realizes that he needs to try to convince Ritz and Doned to go back to the real world before he can try to persuade Mewt.
Hidden Vein is the next required mission.
At this point in the game, the Tourneys at Bervenia Palace become available as missions. These Tourneys are for specific types of battles. You are not permitted to use Law Cards, and for certain types of Tourneys, sometimes you are only allowed to do a certain type of move, like with the Mage Tourney, where only Color Magic is allowed, and if you try anything else, like Fight, Item, or skills or techniques that aren't Color Magic, then you get a yellow card.
For the Mage tourney, the White Mage you fight against has the Life spell, so focus on taking him down as soon as possible, and don't waste time attacking the others until that White Mage is gone. Don't have any of your units use the Damage > MP ability. That ability is better suited to a battle against enemies that use weapons and not magic. If you can, have your units use the Return Magic or Absorb MP abilities. The enemy units use these abilities, too, so watch out. Put as much magic-blocking armor on your units as you can.
The Tourneys are great opportunites to get really good item rewards, so I strongly recommend trying them.