Palom's Tale returns us to squishy mages; however, both Palom and Leonora come to use some form of black magic, whether a strong Fira or a somewhat helpful Fire spell. Here is a bit of change from the usual repetition - there is some character growth for the brash young Palom helps the young epopt Leonora to train in black magic (in addition to her usual healing white magic).
Edge's Tale has a unique structure: the player starts as the ninja Edge, but later does four "missions" with students of his. Three of them feature his disciples in disguise in different places, giving one a slightly different perspective on some locations and characters. For instance, Palom half flirts with the "epopt" Izayoi, "dwarf" Zangetsu eventually impresses the real dwarves with a spectacular jump, and Tsukinowa spies on a meeting while turned into a toad.
Eventually, the focus shifts to Edge as he infiltrates Babil Tower again, and his followers slowly rejoin him. After nearly perishing to a Mysterious Girl controlled Ifrit, we meet another mysterious figure, this one called "the Man in Black."
It was a bit odd to enter the same room that exploded and "killed" Yang in the main game, but the presence of a trap door provides a neat explanation for both parties' survival. Despite echoing/repeating the events of the previous game, I still found Edge's Tale's ending in the Tower of Babil to be an interesting, and occasionally amusing, experience.
Edward's Tale was annoying at times, but mostly more repetition. Secretary Harley, noble as she is, (in)conveniently gets desert fever in Kaipo. Naturally, Edward volunteers to grab the cure from the Antlion Cave, way way back past where we started. (Even the people in the house note the number of important sick people they'd cared for.)
I liked how Kain's Tale was done. Play alternates between the evil "Kain," and Ceodore and the Hooded Man. It culminates in discovering that Kain too tried defeating his evil half, but failed. Here, we see his reconciliation with his dark half, and transformation into a Holy Dragoon. (Which means there's even more weak white magic users who are also strong fighters! Huzzah.)
My only regret was accidentally saving over my max-level Edward's Tale. I had to repeat the whole thing, leveling and all. Thankfully, I realized that grinding a solo party member made things faster.
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Image source: finalfantasy.wikia.com
