A high-ranking member of the secretive Khamja, a crime syndicate operating out of Graszton. Illua cruelly strikes down any who stand between her and power. She and Cid, the leader of Clan Gully, have had dealings in the past.
Description
Illua is the main antagonist of Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift. She is high-ranking member of the crime syndicate Khamja armed with a beautifully adorned katana.
Profile
Appearance
Illua is a young woman with mid-length blue hair and blue eyes. She has blue lipstick, eyeshadow, long blue fingernails, white pearl-like earrings, and a thick black choker. She wears a long sleeved white top with silver designs on the bottom, gold designs on the sleeves, a black undershirt and black arm warmers. She wears maroon shoulder pads with a black chain crossing her chest. She wears dark purple shorts with two brown belts, a thin red belt and long purple and red ribbons hanging from the back. She has knee-high heeled black boots with red ribbon-like designs and gold bottoms.
Personality
Illua is a cold and merciless woman who will stop at nothing to achieve her goals. As the leader of Khamja, she is embroiled in a variety of criminal acts and never shows any remorse for them. She is also as manipulative as she is cruel, brainwashing Adelle by manipulating the latter's fears of abandonment and loneliness as one of the Gifted. She also appears to see herself as the hero of some sort, even deriding Clan Gully by calling them a mere chorus, showing a flair for the dramatic and some kind of attachment to theatre. Even in defeat she never laments about her actions, merely gloating that her organization is so embedded in Jylland's infrastructure that her influence will never truly fade.
Story
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I am the hero of the tale, after all. A story needs only one. You... You are merely the chorus.
Illua
Illua first appears in a flashback at the Nazan Mines, where some of the memories of Luso, Cid, and Adelle are released after the defeat of the Oversoul. One of Cid's memories is that of Illua approaching him in a dark alley of Graszton, drawing a gun, and shooting the Revgaji at close range. It is not known as to whether Luso or Adelle are aware of the exposure of the memory, as they do not question Cid about it when the stream of memories fade.
Illua premieres in the flesh to Adelle at a Pub. Without any introduction at all, she invites Adelle to "work for her". Slightly intimidated, Adelle declines Illua's offer, her excuse being that she is a member of Clan Gully. Illua politely brushes off this rejection and mysteriously comments on Adelle's talents before taking her leave.
The next encounter with the Nightshade proves to be potentially deadly. Abandoning the pleasantries she showed to Adelle, Illua posts an anonymous request at the pub for Luso's clan to meet at the Ruins of Delgantua. When they arrives at the ancient fortress, Illua is waiting for them, next to Ewen, whom Clan Gully had previous run-ins with. Cid immediately recognizes her, and the conversation between the two hints at their enmity relating to Khamja.
He attempts to probe Illua about her aspirations and plots, but she cuts the banter short, unsheathes her katana, and steers the meeting into violence. She even goes so far as to draw out dark magicks from her Grimoire, barring Clan Gully's Judge from the engagements, unless the party had previously protected Ezel Berbier from an attack following him charging a party 20,000 gil for a useless weapon, after which he gives Clan Gully a card which he labeled as being worth 80,000 gil, protecting their judge from her magic.
When Illua is defeated, her Khamja allies flee and Luso, Cid, and Adelle surround her. They take note of Illua's Grimoire, and Luso withdraws his own magick journal. Immediately recognizing the journal as a holy Grimoire, Illua redraws her blade and attempts to slice the tome in two. The journal blocks the katana with an aura of light, and transports Clan Gully to Zellea, the Forbidden Land, where they must fight a hand of the the demon Neukhia before returning to Lezaford's cottage.
Illua appears later to Adelle when the thief leaves Clan Gully. Illua brainwashes Adelle and sends her to take Luso's Grimoire, but Luso manages to break through the conditioning and the scheme fails.
The Nightshade later sends out another invitation to Clan Gully, beckoning them to witness a ritual she plans to enact at the Hall of Blessings at the Ruins of Delgantua. Though she is defeated once more, she reveals that she has forged a pact with the God of Time, Zomala, and calls upon an ancient spell which transports Clan Gully and herself back to Zellea. Amongst the misty wasteland of To Touch the Heavens, she brings out her grimoire for the final time, intent on using it to open the Rift and receive its power.
Though she fell once more to Clan Gully and died on the plains of Zellea, Illua succeeded in opening the Rift and summoning the Neukhia in full fury. Before dying, she asked Cid to pity her because "Power is all I am". Once she was defeated, and her power broken, she was nothing. As she dies, she dissolves into a purple mist, and vanishes.
Gameplay
The exclusive Nightshade job belongs to Illua, granting her dominion over archaic and dark spells, such as Dimensional Rift, that make her a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Illua equips katanas as her weapon of choice, though she usually opts to fight with her legion of crippling magick. She also holds the Impervious support ability, granting her immunity to all debuffs.
Battle
Illua is faced three times. Overall, she acts the same in all three battles, first employing Saber to increase her Attack and Accuracy, giving her a substantial increase in offensive power. While she does not rush at the battle like Ewen, she can come quick and usually uses Dimensional Rift when close to the party, reducing their HP quick enough, so the player is advised to keep their units spread. She also has high HP and defenses so she will resist a while, so it is advisable to deal with any support before attacking her.
In the mission "A Request", she comes accompanied by Ewen, and several magickal jobs such as a Seer, Illusionist, Spellblade and Elementalist. Ewen comes with Dual Wield and is likely to be the first one to come in contact with the player's party. He should be defeated first, for he can inflict massive damage with his ability to attack two times, coupled with the nullification of the Judge can cause several losses. The Elementalist can cripple the party with her attacks so she should be next. The other two are not as threatening although the Illusionist can deal some damage when charged up with enough MP. Overall some long-range attackers and healers should be brought to keep the damage taken to a minimum.
In the mission "A Ritual", Illua is several levels stronger at level 47. However if the mission "I've Been Had, Kupo!" has been completed, the player will earn a card from Ezel Berbier which will prevent Illua from nullifying the Judge and can thus enjoy the privileges. Illua comes with a Summoner, Red Mage, Time Mage and Arcanist. The law forbids from harming males and only the latter are males, and they are at the right side of the field, so it is recommended to go left where the Summoner and Red Mage are. They should be dealt with fast for the Summoner has Halve MP and the Red Mage has Dualcast and Elemental Magick, allowing her to maximize her offensive provided she has enough MP. Fortunately the Time Mage and Arcanist are both crippled by the terrain for they cannot enter water. By the time the player plays this mission one should have a Parivir and Adelle developed on her Heritor job, which will prove helpful in defeating the two viera quick.
In the final encounter "The Two Grimoire", Illua will be a few of levels higher than the party, however if overleveled, she will be around the party's level, thus ensuring a challenge (she caps at level 60, however). Illua will attempt to nullify the Judge unless it was prevented from doing so in the last mission, she can also fail if Ezel was met before this battle. Illua comes equipped with Genji equipment and a Zanmato, giving her a tremendous boost in stats. She will remain mostly static until approached. Illua's reinforcement are sporadic and consist mostly of Behemoth monsters equipped with different skill sets and reaction abilities. Some react to physical attacks while others at magickal attacks, so one should be careful. At first two Behemoths appear but as the player approaches the crystals, more monsters from different categories like a Plague, or Lamia family can come, all are high leveled.
Illua comes equipped with more skills on her Nightshade job such as Abyssal Slash that can inflict damage and Stop. Rebirth that can fully restore her HP and remove debuffs and Sheol that can inflict Slow and Immobilize on foes and Haste and Regen for her allies, although she does not commonly use the latter two, one should be prepared. Units with debuff protection such as Ribbons (including with Ribbon-bearer) or Orb of Minwu can help. Some defensive equipment like Genji or Peytral can also help. Being the final battle the player should bring their best units, including healers and revivers with preferably high level spells and Halve MP to use them quick.
Other appearances
Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
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Illua appears on a card.
Gallery
Trivia
- Illua can be obtained as a clan member by using an Action Replay cheat device. She is permanently in the Nightshade job, but has mastered every hume ability as well as seemingly every support and reaction ability (including enemy-only ones). However, she can cause the game to lock up if anything that is not normally possible occurs, such as attempting to press Y for "Help" on her job menu (since there are no jobs listed to be examined) or if she happens to get an Opportunity turn, which is only fully preventable by not using her in battle. Like all preset characters, she cannot be sent on Dispatch quests; this may imply that, at some point in the development of FFTA2, she was set to join the party.
- Illua herself may, like Luso, be an otherworlder from the "real world" who has been in Ivalice far longer than Luso; it would explain why she even has a grimoire to begin with.
- Illua's appearance and personality is the exact opposite of Luso's.