Apologies in advance, this chapter's a little boring. It's kind of a transition; there are no important fights, and just one reasonably important scene. There IS a decision at the end, but it's not a huge one, nor does it have all that great of an impact.
Anyway. Chapter 12s are go!
Yes it will. It really, really, will.
After a short bit more down the rapids, we show up RIGHT outside Narshe. It's not visible on the screen but the generic crack in the mountain range is slightly up and to the left.
See? That wasn't so hard, was it?
Now just to go in and find the old guy.
....
"No I'm not."
Guard: "Palpatine! You thought you could show your face back here after that Death Star kerfuffle!"
...Did you just punch an old man?
Maybe they're just having a bad day.
How do you know they're men? They're wearing so many layers of bandages that they could be dinosaurs for all we know.
This looks familiar.
And onward through Chekhov's Cave!
We arrive at the only interesting section of the whole cave.
That little glowing light travels in a bit of a twisty, arbitrary pattern through the rocks before arriving at the exit door.
...Wow. That explains a lot. They make sure that the guards can follow an arbitrary path from memory, and that's it.
Tag the orange light? Uhm.... maybe that represents getting lost or something? I dunno. This test is retarded.
Made it through on my first try. No trouble at all. That explains why every guard ever in videogames sucks ass.
Because obviously they all took this test.
Hey, that looks familiar!
And so does this guy! What a feeling of nostalgia!
...Heh. Remember how way back then, Fire Beam seemed powerful?
Back to the old guy's house we go. Heh, remember how he said that Bitch would remember stuff soon? Yeah, he lied. Serves him right.
"Nothing's been going on between you, has there? Because I was thinking, uh, if you were interested...."
Okay I swear that I didn't read that before writing the previous line. It just leads into it perfectly, though, doesn't it?
"Sure, she may not remember anything short of her own name from before the crown removal, but we're certain that she knows something that she doesn't know she knows!
"We discussed this before. The lightning bolts that one time may have just been a fluke."
"Tune in to the next episode and find out!"
...Okay, no, I'll show you the pre-battle cutscene too.
"I don't think that a sacrifice to any pagan gods will help our chances much."
"Maybe we should sacrifice virgins instead."
So, umm, all we know about the War of the Magi is that it was a big mistake. Sounds about right. We don't need to know anything else, so don't bother telling us stuff like... why it was a mistake.
"Cripes, how long has it been since you showered?"
"Is that... a raccoon? Didn't I tell you you're not allowed to bring pets home?"
He seems to have recovered well from the loss of everyone he's ever known and loved.
...I hate You.
What the hell does Uwao mean!?
"...The last child being Owain, Thou's son. He watched him die and couldn't do a thing about it. And then he saw Owain and his wife get on the train to the afterlife and was powerless to stop them. Yeah. We had some pretty crazy adventures, right bud? :p"
"It's not like they've ever attacked us before, right?"
"And who might SHE be? :stressed:"
Cocke: "By any means necessary, if y'know what I mean!"
"IT'S TIME TO DUEL!!!"
Big business! Always steppin' on the little guy!
"So from now on we're going to act like she's never committed a single atrocity, and that's final!"
"...Unless it's Bitch. Sorry, but you can't say I didn't warn you."
...This is not a good time to be jealous, Bitch.
Eunuch: "...Okay, not all of its citizens unless they're attacking us RIGHT THE FUCK NOW."
"Ready the virgin sacrifices!"
"I mean, I'm not even sure he's ATTRACTED to women."
"Love is not necessary on the battlefield."
Bitch: "...Do I know you?"
"I dunno, it's a little... colder, maybe."
"Unfortunately it also made me sterile and removed my ability to feel compassion. But enough about me."
Ouch. Rejected.
Store is getting understandably short-tempered. GET ON WITH IT.
And so we assemble at the top of the mountain, right in front of the place where they moved the Esper! Sure, we're completely powerless to defend the civilians that Kefka just expressed dislike for, but this is a MUCH better position, right?
I need to split into 3 groups that I will control individually to fight Kefka's soldiers. You can see the party members that are available. There has to be at least one member per group, and a maximum of four per group. Other than that, you're free to choose the groups.
An example. From left to right, Team Fodder, Team Badass, and Team Broken.
Yeah... the choices don't matter too much here because my party's levelled up enough that any party member but Cocke could win single-handedly.
Anyway, go crazy. Again, it's not all that important of a choice, so I'll probably just pick someone's layout at random, unless you show support for a single one.