Saga and Final Fantasy Legend

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Mutants Part 7:  HP Of The Beast


I must have known Edo was going to be an annoying world for the Mutants when the Gae Bolg swords resisted fire, ice, and thunder spells.  P-Blast was effective and confirmed my suspicions of it being non-elemental.


Five Hatamotos blocked the way to the northern section of Edo town and fired a Bazooka at REMY to kill him.  They came better prepared than the military in X-Men 3 with their Mutant cure darts!  KURT fainted after two Katana slashes, and EMMA avenged her allies with her signature StonGaze.


CatClaws solved all the Robots' problems, but were useless in the hands of a Mutant.  KURT stabbed a Gae Bolg for 4 daamage!     Psi swords based on Mana were now available for 17,000 GP if the X-Men had to use a weapon against magic-resistant enemies like Gae Bolgs.


On the banana smugglers' ship, the Mutants found Hecate boots and gave them to KURT to increase his Mana.  Gazer eyes were fatal with their 314 power Beams, though they spent most of the time trying to blind or paralyze the party.


Echigoya and his 9 Hatamoto henchmen required 4 attempts to defeat.  StonGaze wasn't working, so the Mutants had to rely on their old elemental spells.  Abacus calculated 237 damage against KURT, Katana and Bazooka combined arms made REMY drop dead, and another Bazooka shot exploded on KURT to finish him off.  Flame from EMMA and Thunder from JEAN fried the Hatamotos at the end of Turn 1.  On Turn 2, Echigoya slashed JEAN with a Psi sword for 259 damage, then fell to her 198 power Thunder.



The mandatory encounter with Ninja, 3 Stonemen, and 2 Knights at the Sho-gun castle gate was rude on the 1st try and launched an "unexpected attack".  I reset after watching two Mutants die on Turn 1.  Take 2 wasn't much better when Taro the guest was the sole survivor for a short time.  He fought well with his Katana, but the Knights hacked him apart with a Thunder axe.  I'm not sure how I succeeded since I forgot to make a Switch video clip for that.


Sho-gun loved to confuse the party with his Riddle and watch the Mutants cast spells at each other.  I experimented with Psi swords here, which paid off when EMMA struck Sho-gun down for 210 damage at the end.


Magnate introduced the Robots to Odin, and was even more dangerous to the Mutants since he was immune to StonGaze.  Taro the guest was the best party member here when his Muramas sliced Sho-gun's master for 331 damage compared to P-Blasts which exploded for 201.  Even if my party survived Katana slashes, they were no match for Tornadoes which blew them away for 417-464 power.  I fought Magnate 5 times before resigning myself to more grinding.



The preferred enemy party for leveling was 2 Tarantlas, 3 Commandos, and 1 Wyvern.  Fortunately this was a common encounter.  For some reason, the game give Mana to EMMA and HP to REMY at the expense of other characters and stats.  Is the RNG as primitive and easily manipulated as in, say, Etrian Odyssey 3?


Another attempt at Magnate failed due to Tornado, but the Mutants were successful on Take 2.  The only fatality was REMY when Magnate shot 381 Vulcan bullets at him.  At least he unleashed a P-Blast on the previous round.  EMMA's Flame, JEAN's Thunder, and KURT's Fire complemented Taro's Muramas, and Thunder dealt the final blow for 203 damage.


Even the overworld of Nasty Dungeon lived up to its name.  3 FireMoths cast Flame for 224-330 damage, and EMMA happened to acquire a fire weakness mutation.  Mutants did not just anticipate Pokemon movesets and abilities, but also disadvantages like Fluffy or Dry Skin. 


By this point, everyone was wearing Battle Armor.  KURT put on a Dragon helmet found in Odin's palace in Valhalla.  Sharks were immune to fire like other "fish" enemies, while SnowCats were weak to fire and immune to ice.  JEAN acquired a Hypnos ability that was designed to put a group enemies to sleep, but was useless in practice.


I spent some time grinding for HP and Mana afterwards.  Agility was slightly boosted by hunting Race World enemies with Gold bows, but this was too slow to be worthwhile.  The last video clip on my Switch showed the Mutants being annihilated by more Volcarona FireMoths in Nasty Dungeon.  



Stats, Equipment, and Abilities


JEAN

HP:  567
STR:  9
DEF:  44
AGL:  18
MANA:  46


Gold bow
Battle armor
Gold helmet
Ninja gloves


Flame
StonGaze
Cure
Hypnos

8 Speed MAGI


EMMA

HP:  544
STR:  9
DEF:  43
AGL:  27
MANA:  69

Gold bow
Battle armor
Army helmet
Hermes shoes


Flame
Cure
StonGaze
Steal


8 Mana MAGI


KURT

HP:  506
STR:  10
DEF:  52
AGL:  17
MANA:  41


No Weapon
Battle armor
Dragon helmet
Hecate shoes


Blizzard
Cure
Fire
Warning

8 Ice MAGI


REMY

HP:  666
STR:  30
DEF:  45
AGL:  16
MANA:  39


Gold bow
Battle armor
Giant helmet
Giant gloves

Blizzard
Cure
P-Blast
Steal

8 Defense MAGI

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Mutants Part 8:  Spell Books At Last


This session may look short in writing, but I spent a lot of time in the upper floors of Nasty Dungeon fighting monsters for Mana and HP.  My Mutants didn't learn any new useful abilities.  Rather disappointing for an optional area where you'd expect them to get Flare and P-Blast.  Some treasure chests contained stat boosting items which were useless for Robots but good for the X-Men.


The worst monsters were usually FireMoths and LavaWorms.  Both were immune to the female Mutants' Flame spell, but were affected by Blizzard, P-Blast, and StonGaze.  These creatures also knew Flame, and sometimes sent the party to Odin if they cast it multiple times in one round.


Eventually I had enough of the monotony and decided to take on Valhalla.  Perhaps the chance of running away isn't entirely dependent on Agility because the Mutants could reliably run away from encounters, which were typically smaller parties of Nasty Dungeon monsters.  A Flare spell book in a treasure chest came just in time for the boss, and I gave it to EMMA since she had such disproportionate Mana growth in Edo.


OdinCrows started the battle by piercing JEAN and REMY with their Nails for 122-191 damage.  Odin hurled Gungnir at REMY for 921 power and impaled him before he could cast P-Blast.  Sleipnir's Tusk gored JEAN for 214 just before EMMA cast Flare to incinerate Sleipnir and both OdinCrows.  Odin himself took 1098 damage as well.  I'm glad to see 4 digit attacks again!  JEAN singed Odin at the end of the round with a 175 power Flame, and KURT chilled him with a 172 damage Blizzard.


On Turn 2, Odin tossed Gunginr at KURT for 893 for the kill, and EMMA and JEAN cast Flare and Flame again.  For Round 3, Odin cast Lightng (sic) for 224-262 damage against the women.  A final Flare from EMMA blasted Odin for 1106 damage and conquered Valhalla.


By this time, the Mutants had a lot of GP and nothing to spend it on.  That changed in Final Town.  They purchased 3 Doors to teleport between worlds now that there was no more Pegasus MAGI.  Ninja gloves were the next upgrade for Mutants who didn't already have shoes, and Dragon helmets offered more Defense.  Flare books with 10 uses were available too, but were too expensive for casual use.  I'll probably save them for Apollo through Arsenal.


(Can you strand yourself by using all of your Doors on worlds apart from Final Town, like being on Cinnabar Island without a Surfing or Flying Pokemon?)


Stats, Equipment, and Abilities


JEAN

HP:  648
STR:  9
DEF:  56
AGL:  18
MANA:  53


Psi sword
Battle armor
Dragon helmet
Ninja gloves


Flame
StonGaze
Cure
Surprise


EMMA

HP:  648
STR:  9
DEF:  50
AGL:  27
MANA:  73

Psi sword
Battle armor
Dragon helmet
Hermes shoes


Flame
Cure
StonGaze
Ice


KURT

HP:  660
STR:  10
DEF:  52
AGL:  17
MANA:  51


Psi sword
Battle armor
Dragon helmet
Hecate shoes


Blizzard
Cure
Fire
Fire


REMY

HP:  763
STR:  10
DEF:  56
AGL:  19
MANA:  49


Psi sword
Battle armor
Dragon helmet
Ninja gloves

Blizzard
Cure
P-Blast
O Quake

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Mutants Part 9:  Fighting The Random Number Generator


Turned out Laser guns were the way to raise Agility in the endgame.  Against small encounters in Nasty Dungeon, they worked well and didn't take the Mutants' low stat into account.  An Arthur armor boosted Defense for EMMA, but had no extra bonuses.  Sorcerers were high priority targets if I had to fight them since they could cast Stone.


I was already suspicious of the random encounter algorithm in Nasty Dungeon, but it became the true villain of Final Dungeon.  A battle with 1 Nymph, 4 Cocatris, and 2 Falcons tended to result in KURT being petrified by the 2nd Cocatris attack even when I reset.  To try to get around this, I had Dad use the Heal staff to see if it would generate a new random seed or something.  That didn't work, so maybe enemy attacks aren't decided by the player's commands.  What DID work was to fail to run away on the 1st turn.  This made Petrify fail against KURT before everyone attacked on Turn 2.


It's bad when you have to manipulate random numbers in a regular playthrough, not a speedrun!


EMMA finally got P-Blast in Final Dungeon.  KURT gained Teleport in his 4th slot, a power similar to Door or the Pegasus MAGI.  


WarMach was almost as strong as its Final Fantasy 1 counterpart.  It launched salvos of Missiles at the whole party for 282-378 damage, or could launch NukeBombs for 434 to 600 damage to everyone.  Radiation is supposed to make comic book mutants stronger, not kill them!  It took 4 tries to get it right.  Dad used the Heal staff to keep everyone alive as the Mutants shot Lasers, Samurai arrows, and P-Blasts at WarMach for 376-559 each.  EMMA and KURT gained HP after their victory, but no new Mutant powers.


Apollo and Arsenal would be harder than anything else so far if the Robots were any indication.  I stocked up on Flare books and Tents at the shop and set out for the last world. . .


Stats, Equipment, and Abilities


JEAN

HP:  685
STR:  9
DEF:  56
AGL:  23
MANA:  57


Flare book
Battle armor
Dragon helmet
Ninja gloves


Flame
StonGaze
Cure
X Thunder


EMMA

HP:  769
STR:  9
DEF:  55
AGL:  34
MANA:  76

Flare book
Arthur armor
Dragon helmet
Hermes shoes


P-Blast
Cure
StonGaze
Flame


KURT

HP:  759
STR:  10
DEF:  52
AGL:  19
MANA:  54


Flare book
Battle armor
Dragon helmet
Hecate shoes


Blizzard
Cure
Fire
Teleport


REMY

HP:  834
STR:  5
DEF:  61
AGL:  23
MANA:  50


Flare book
Arthur armor
Dragon helmet
Ninja gloves

Blizzard
Cure
P-Blast
O Weapon



Heart MAGI

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Mutants VICTORY:  Fighting My Own Lack Of Preparation



Apollo was easier with Mutants than with Robots.  His Aegis MAGI couldn't block Flare spells from Dad and the X-Men, no matter how many turns he wasted taunting them.  Dad's Flare was a respectable 826, while EMMA's ascended to 952 power.  JEAN, REMY, and KURT's Flares were disappointing at 455, 392, and 428 respectively.  Apollo only had enough time for a 516 Masmune slice to KURT before he started melting.


Isis the goddess carried the party through much of the final area with Flare, but sometimes I had her attack with Masmune to save spell charges.  P-Blast and StonGaze were enough for the lesser enemies.  Musashi was strong enough to survive Flare from an Egyptian, but the combined spells of the X-Men could finish it off.


Just before fighting Arsenal, I was horrified when I learned that the spare Flare books and Heal staff were not in my inventory!  What happened?  The most likely answer is that I forgot to save after fighting them, but Collection of Saga sometimes fails to close correctly, which may have glitched it out.


It took 4 tries to defeat Arsenal based on my Switch clips.  Even with the equipment handicap, the X-Men had some Flare charges left over from Apollo.  Not enough to last for the whole battle, but it was still nice.  I tried out Samurai bows with the weaker characters on failed attempts, but those only hit for 255.  REMY's P-Blast was even worse when it rolled 218 for damage.


Arsenal is a gambler's boss compared to most others in Legend 2.  Sometimes Smasher pulverizes your party for over 600, while on the successful attempt it bruised EMMA and KURT for only 135.  By the end of the battle, only JEAN and EMMA were alive.  EMMA should have won whatever award the Professor Xavier gives for most valuable member when her P-Blast shut down Arsenal for 629!


Mutants play very differently from Robots.  Robots are simple:  equip the highest Agility blades you can find, and run from large groups of enemies.  Mutants are slow unless you go out of your way to train Agility, so they need much more HP and Defense to function.  Groups of enemies, however, are easy to kill with the starting Flame and Blizzard spells, or P-Blast and Flare later on. 


Learning new abilities is unreliable, and you'll learn to thank the developers by the end for making spell books available in shops.  Sometimes you'll get lucky and learn P-Blast, while other times you learn Fire 3 times in a row or receive an elemental weakness.  Cure gives Mutants sustainability in dungeons and helps make up for their sluggish pace in combat.


The best moment for me was killing Venus by having EMMA stare her down with StonGaze.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 All Mutants:  Days Of Future Past





Super Mario Odyssey is due to come in the mail in a couple of days, so I wanted a quick RPG variant run to pass the remaining time.  Final Fantasy Legend 1 was short enough to qualify.  The X-Men returned from Legend 2 because I didn't feel like coming up with more 4 letter names.





Mutants in Legend 1 seem similar to Legend 2 Mutants at first, but their mechanics are even stranger according to GameFAQs.  In Legend 2, Mutants only replace the 4th ability on their list.  In Legend 1, you can lose any ability at any time, and the game won't tell you it happened until you check the menu.  This caused a good deal of save scumming when somebody lost an important spell!





Mutant stat growth in Legend 2 is based on actions taken in combat.  In Legend 1, it's completely random and does not depend on how powerful the enemies are.  Stats always go up, thankfully, unlike Kawazu's previous game Final Fantasy 2.  Mutant stats cap at 99 instead of going to 255 (?) like Human Strength and Agility.





EMMA's starting SABER won the P-FROG "boss" battle in the 1st world with a 38 damage strike.  JEAN's RAPIER i was ineffectual and only hit for 3.  The lead character in Legend 1 starts with a considerable advantage over those recruited at the guild.





JEAN learned THUNDER early and would cast it for most of the game.  It was a group target spell that dealt much more damage than EMMA's FLAME, which only singed groups for about 10-11 at the time.





The first SWRDKING battle was a victory, but EMMA died and I didn't want to waste "life points" this early.  EMMA's SABER fencing gashed the boss for 60-66 damage while JEAN's THUNDER zapped him for 29.  REMY's RAPIER and KURT's HAMMER were pathetic and only tickled SWRDKING for 2-3 damage.  Still, the girls won on Turn 2.  REMY equipped the KING sword temporarily just to avoid being useless.





STEWARD may have been strong enough to kill the SHIELD king, but not enough to survive KURT's RAPIER for 14 damage and EMMA's FLAME for 14.    





JEAN and EMMA carried the team in the GEN-BU battle.  EMMA swung her SABER for 85 damage, and JEAN's THUNDER struck for 38-40 and won the team the 1st SPHERE.





The fake "paradise" pocket world restored the Mutants' HP, but not the PP for their spells.





In the 2nd world, PISTOLs and SMGs were used for damage aside from JEAN's THUNDER.  KURT unfortunately gained an X Fire weakness while traveling through the caves to find the island "ship".  Remember that you have to face the correct orb in SEI-RYU's room instead of standing on it!  That would have saved me a lot of trouble had I known it earlier.





SEI-RYU was immune to THUNDER, so the X-Men had to make do with firearms.  Professor Xavier would have disapproved, but 26-47 damage per round was too tempting.  SEI-RYU's own THUNDER jolted characters for 54, and BITE tore into them for 44.  STRICT missed the one time it was tried.





I wonder if it's because I'm more experienced with the game now, or whether Mutants really were that much more efficient than Humans.  They ran away more easily due to their natural Defense growth and sometimes even managed to do it on the 1st turn.  STEALTH was a passive ability that allowed "first strike" encounters, and often appeared on the Mutants' equipment sheet.





The lopsided stat growth became apparent by the 3rd world.  EMMA reached 99 Agility while other characters lagged:  REMY had only 17!  MUSKETs were the standard weapon in the sky, but EMMA switched to the L-SABER to take advantage of her stats.  FLARE books were available in a shop, but at 50,000 and 20 uses were too expensive to be practical.  





BYAK-KO the white tiger died in only 2 rounds, and its one attack was a SWORD against EMMA for 87.  KURT must have learned THUNDER from JEAN, and had the Mana to cast it despite not having used many spells before.  Their electricity shocked BYAK-KO for 143-174, and KURT had the honor of ending the battle.  EMMA's L-SABER was the strongest move when it cut BYAK-KO for 363.  Even REMY's MUSKET was relevant when a 150 power ball bludgeoned the boss.





THUNDER was still useful on higher floors of the tower against enemies like CLAM and MANTCORE.  A P-KNIFE in a tower chest went to KURT, while JEAN picked up a P-SWORD in the castle in the flooded pocket world.





In the main town of the 4th world, everyone bought ARMY helmets.  CATCLAWs were purchased in honor of the Robots from Legend 2.  They proved useful against SU-ZAKU the phoenix when REMY and EMMA swiped for 182-289.  If only there were a 5 character limit so one of them could be named LOGAN.  KURT's P-KNIFE missed on all 3 rounds, hinting that his Agility was too poor to hit the bird.  JEAN's P-SWORD at least swung once for 299 on Turn 1. 





SU-ZAKU's performance was as bad as KURT's.  BEAK missed EMMA on round 1, BAND helmet blocked BLIND on round 2, and FLAME was no use against everyone's DRAGON armor from the 3rd world.  EMMA's CATCLAW destroyed the 4th fiend.





FLARE from the secret library went to KURT since he had 85 Mana, while JEAN got the GLASS sword from a tower chest after reaching 99 Strength. 





ASHURA took 3 rounds to kill and was the hardest boss in the game.  REMY's CATCLAW was noticeably weaker than other attacks with a 73-75 range.  EMMA still pretended to be a Jedi with her L-SABER and slashed for 142-160.  KURT cast FLARE for 320 on Turn 1 before dying to an 819 (!) power 3HEADS on Turn 2.  JEAN's GLASS sword followed the American way and partially shattered at the end of each turn for 369-414 and ended the fight.  KURT was dead and JEAN was cursed with GAZE, but it was worth it when they could be cured in the base town.





(Supposedly the GLASS sword only has 1 durability in the Japanese version, and works that way in all versions of Legend 2.)





Remember when I said that enemy stats don't matter for Mutants?  I exploited that to grind for a while in the 1st world with Rapiers before climbing the final tower when I got bored.  To prepare, everyone bought DRAGON helmets and ELIXIRs.  EMMA purchased a DEFEND sword and REMY bought a GR. BOW for some reason.





It was easy to flee from enemies in the final tower, which was a good thing when I wanted to conserve weapon durability.  The fiend rematches were too anticlimactic to be worth mentioning, except that THUNDER failed when I tried it on BYAK-KO2.





CREATOR was too shocked by the Mutants' decision to attack him that he failed to do anything on the 1st turn.  REMY's GR. BOW was used more because he was insecure and wanted to prove his worth rather than dealing 68-82 damage.  EMMA had replaced her DEFEND with MASMUNE by this time and made CREATOR shudder for 230-285 per swing.  KURT's FLARE exploded for 349-445 per cast. JEAN's GLASS sword wounded CREATOR for 520-582 and destroyed him at the end of Turn 4. 





CREATOR's other actions had threatening names like LIGHT and REPENT, but both missed EMMA.  The only damage the party took was on Turn 3 from an unnamed group attack for 109-161.  And so the Mutants were too incurious to open a door after fighting their way through a tower.    





This variant felt different enough from the Legend 2 Mutants that it was fun.  The X-Men never got an ability better than THUNDER, so they were more dependent on physical weapons.  Stat growth wasn't as specialized to magic either since it was random.  Some gained a lot of Mana, while others relied on Strength or Agility.  Legend 1 is faster paced and easier in general than Legend 2.  Hopefully you enjoyed reading this variant as much as I did 

playing it!



EDIT:  ELECTRO isn't a superior THUNDER spell, but an Agility debuff like Legend 2's Blitz.


Final Stats and Equipment
 
EMMA
 
HP:  546
Str:  45
Def:  65
Agl:  99
Mana:  56
 
STEALTH
KINESIS
ESP
FLAME
 
MASMUNE sword
DRAGON armor
BAND helmet
HECATE shoes
 
 
REMY
 
HP:  810
Str:  44
Def:  76
Agl:  71
Mana:  33
 
NIMBLE
ESP
STENCH
 
GR. BOW
DRAGON armor
DRAGON helmet
GIANT gloves
 
 
JEAN
 
HP:  813
Str:  99
Def:  49
Agl:  63
Mana:  99
 
POWER
BARRIER
BARRIER
THUNDER
 
GLASS sword
DRAGON armor
DRAGON helmet
BRONZE gloves
 
KURT
 
HP:  625
Str:  70
Def:  54
Agl:  64
Mana:  99
 
ELECTRO
NIMBLE
ELECTRO
X FIRE
 
FLARE book
DRAGON armor
DRAGON helmet
GIANT gloves

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Found the Final Fantasy Legend 1 manual online.   Here's what it has to say about 4 Mutants.  Some of the lines omitted here are about Monsters.


"Both of these parties have serious disadvantages in HP levels. . .The 4 Mutant party can carry up to 4 items each, but will find themselves in trouble when their powers begin to develop and they become short of offensive attacks.  Both of these parties cannot use most of the treasures that are to be found in the world of The Continent.  And ultimately, treasure is most important to your success, if not survival!. . .Unless played with extreme guile, these parties would rarely survive their first few encounters".


Mutants do have low HP at the beginning of the game, and their inventory is more limited than a Human's since 4 slots are used for abilities.  However, they can still take advantage of the same weapons, armor, and healing items.  And Humans don't use Mana, so the FLARE book and HECATE shoes have to go to the Mutant.  Humans need to spend much of their earnings on stat potions, which Mutants don't require since they grow naturally.  Mutants also use weapons less often when they have spells like THUNDER which can be restored using inns or ELIXIRs. 


As for endgame HP, Humans rise to about 600 unless you're willing to get carpal tunnel by buying 1 HP200 potion at a time for hours.  Two of my Mutants grew to the 810s range by the time they fought CREATOR.


Some of the manual's inaccuracies can be attributed to less knowledge of the game mechanics at the time, but it's still fun to laugh at bad advice.  Now I know what players online mean when they talk about the manual and the 4 Mutant party. 

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Final Fantasy Legend 1 Joke Solo Farewell Tour


A user on GameFAQs named either "s-p" or "s/p" posted a "Meat Transformations FAQ" for Final Fantasy Legend 1.  Since I wouldn't be playing this game for much longer, why not play around with Legend 1's favorite glitch?  It's even referenced by a character holding the weapon in the game select screen in Collection of Saga.


Monsters have fixed stats and only become stronger by transforming into a different creature by eating meat dropped by enemies.  Abilities are similar to Mutants and Pokemon since they have "PP" that can be recharged by resting at an inn or drinking Elixirs.


Transformation doesn't work the way you might expect.  Eating a LIZARD won't turn you into a LIZARD, but instead depends on rank and family of monster you are.  Monsters have 14 ranks, but somebody on the development team must have messed up when they allowed players to grow to the 13th rank before even climbing the tower!


But this solo doesn't reach rank 13-14.  Instead, the process went like this:


1.  Start as WERERAT
2.  Eat ZOMBIE to become BODACH (called O-BAKE in the guide)
3.  Eat ALBATROS to become ONI
4.  Eat ZOMBIE to become PHANTOM
5.  Eat GOBLIN to turn into GECKO
6.  Eat ZOMBIE to transform into RED BONE
7.  Eat REDHORN to turn into HORNET (REDHORN was once REDBULL)
8.  Eat LIZARD to become CATWOMAN
9.  Eat SKELETON to transform into EAGLE
10.  Eat WERERAT to become MOSQUITO


At this point, I decided to fight P-FROG to resolve the armor king's quest, and for the novelty of playing as a blood-sucking MOSQUITO.  Two DRINKs "dissolved" 51-54 HP as P-FROG failed to BITE my exoskeleton.


11.  Eat ALBATROS to turn into BEETLE
12.  Eat ZOMBIE to transform into OGRE
13.  Eat ZOMBIE to become BURUBURU
14.  Eat WERERAT to turn into BEHEMOTH
15.  Eat SKELETON to become GIANT
16.  Eat LIZARD to transform into WARRIOR


Why stop at WARRIOR?  Look at its stats and moveset.  PP for abilities is listed on the right.


HP:  501
Str:  60
Def:  42
Agl:  44
Mana:  77


BONE-25
AXE-10
SWORD-15
SAW-20

O PAR/WP
X FIRE


All that Mana is wasted on a physical Monster, but it resists many ailments and can kill enemies from the first few worlds with AXE or SWORD.  The true advantage is SAW, which instantly kills any opponent whose Defense is higher than your Strength, including bosses.


The playthrough still required many reloads to function.  SWRDKING scored a CRITICAL HIT!! with his KING and felled SOLO the WARRIOR before he could act.  On Take 2, SOLO clubbed him with a BONE for 106 damage.


My Fast game speed turned against me when I beat STEWARD for the 1st time.  Accidentally threw away the KING sword and potentially made the game unwinnable!  Good thing I didn't save after that.  


GEN-BU's Defense was too low for SAW to work, but its TUSK and GAS were equally useless.  SWORD hacked at the Black Tortoise for 82-166 per strike.  Only needed 2 hits to win.


SEI-RYU fell to 4 SWORD slashes for 150-165 damage each.  STRICT failed, but BITE pricked the WARRIOR's skin for 8.


SOLO still fought random encounters early in the game since I wanted all the GP I could find for healing items.  WOODMAN in the tower above the 2nd world gave 400 GP and was easily chopped down with a 174 power AXE.  Enemies like HORNETs started appearing here, giving an indication as to how out-of-depth even the earlier transformations were.


The main town in the 3rd world sold ELIXIRs for 10,000 GP each.  Didn't need to buy equipment or stat potions, so SOLO purchased a few while leaving some slots open for key items.  One funny thing that happens in solo playthroughs is that a placeholder character named OOOO speaks in conversations.  I like to think that OOOO is SOLO's imaginary friend. 


Perhaps the hardest fight in the game was in BYAK-KO's prison.  To get out, you need to battle IMP guards to get the key.  The problem was that WARRIOR was weak to fire, and IMPs loved to cast FIRE for 52-58 damage and usually appeared in groups of 5.  I solved this problem with some luck by finding a party with only 4 IMPs.  Sometimes the IMPs wasted a turn using NAIL instead of FIRE, and AXE and SWORD hacked at them for up 178 each.  With two hits required to kill each IMP, SOLO survived with only 5 HP (!).


Wasting a turn with SAW against BYAK-KO proved fatal.  ICE chilled SOLO for 112 damage or SWORD for 53.  BYAK-KO's SPHERE did nothing at all.  On Take 2, the WARRIOR sliced with SWORD for around 130 damage and won with 139 HP.


BYAK-KO was the last boss with Defense fragile enough to withstand SAW.  Everyone from SU-ZAKU onwards "went to pieces", including CREATOR and the EVIL EYE miniboss in the 4th world.


But there was still some challenge in fleeing from random encounters.  Bad luck with the encounter RNG generated WIZARDs on the 17th floor who cast FIRE for 248.  The final tower was a little easier than I expected when some of the battles only had a single VAMPIRE.  RAKSHASAs sent SOLO to the Pleistocene epoch with 147-159 damage ICE spells.  DRAGON 5 must have come from Hailfire Peaks when it cast FLAME for 214 and ICE for 197.


Still, with the help of save scumming, SOLO made it to the top of the tower with 6 full stacks of ELIXIRs and another with 2/3 remaining.  It was a novelty playthrough, but what experience with Final Fantasy Legend 1 would be complete without the chainSAW?

[System Error]

Huh, interesting FFL challenges. Done a number of my own, including four robots and solo monster. Notably on the latter, I didn't use SAW until the very end, and went for a more natural gradual progression instead.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Huh, interesting FFL challenges. Done a number of my own, including four robots and solo monster. Notably on the latter, I didn't use SAW until the very end, and went for a more natural gradual progression instead.

Haven't seen you on Realms Beyond for a long time!  I did read some of your playthroughs.


Every player has to use SAW for a Legend 1 playthrough.  It's even referenced in the "box art" in the Collection of Saga game select screen!


Probably the only way to make Legend 3 interesting for me is a solo challenge.  It might work like my Trials of Mana (Super Nintendo) solos where not everyone is killed off at first because they come back to life with 1 HP.  But when unequipped, the companions should fall behind soon enough to be useless.


But that playthrough likely won't happen for a long time, at least if Mario Odyssey comes in the mail this Tuesday.  *Crosses fingers*

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Let's Attempt To Play Romancing Saga 3 Part 1:  I Know Kung Fu


Romancing Saga 3, similarly to the first entry, asks the player to select a player character and follow their story.  The fact that there are 8 of them here means Romancing Saga 3 was probably the inspiration for Octopath Traveler.  Unlike in Romancing Saga 2, there is no generation system over centuries where emperors are expendable.  Life Points that cause permanent death when exhausted still exist, but you can be more cavalier with them since you can restore them at the inn.  Saving anywhere was necessary in 2, and is still valuable in 3.


After several abortive attempts, I began the challenge with Ellen, picked the Ares star, and picked Martial Skill as my primary weapon.  What does the Star of Destiny choice mean?  I don't know!  Don't pick Khalid or Mikhail at the beginning unless you want to be thrown into Suikoden war battles with no idea what you're doing.


The story began with Monika, sister of Loanne's marquis Mikhail, riding on horseback in an attempt to warn her brother of a coup.  Her horse could run no further, and she had to enter a tavern along with many other potential player characters.  Julian and Ellen seemed to have once been a couple, since she insisted they were just friends even if they played house when they were kids.  Sarah was Ellen's younger sister, and I don't know much about Thomas yet.  Khalid, the famous mercenary known as Tornado, recognized Monika.  All characters rested for the night and entered the forest to look for Mikhail.


Khalid protected the weaker party members with his sword skills, high stats, and the Desert Lance formation that placed him in the front.  I took advantage of this to power level Martial Skill for Ellen, Thomas, Sarah, and Julian, since the local enemies were feeble and Khalid was temporary.  Kick was a free upgrade to the basic Punch, and would be everyone's main attack for some time.


Caldawing the "tutorial" boss suffered the most damage from Khalid's special sword move Demilune.  The bird retaliated with physical attacks to up to 2 characters.  Sarah, the supposedly weak character on the team according to Ellen, dealt the final blow with a 47 power Kick.  Weak compared to Ellen's 119 Kicks, or Demilune which could go to 237, but still worthwhile.


Monika told Mikhail about Godwin's rebellion, and Khalid left with Mikhail to lead the Loanne army.  Monika traveled with us to seek sanctuary in Poduroi, where Count Leonid lived.  Anyone who's reading this will be delighted to know that Herman Gigglethorpe has accidentally run into another game with vampires!  Mikhail warned the party not to let Monika get her blood sucked:  "Of course, our friendship does not preclude him from his vampiric activities.  You will need to make certain that Monika does not return with an aversion to sunlight and a thirst for blood".


In another forest called Path to Poduroi, the useless Monika replaced Khalid.  She could barely damage any enemy, and I had to put extra armor on her to prevent her from dropping dead.  Whirlwind was the standard formation for its Speed boost.  Julian, Thomas, and Ellen were in the front, and Sarah and Monika occupied the back row.


Even this early in the game, Kawazu means to teach the player strengths and weaknesses of different damage types.  Martial Skill didn't work so well on Heptopus cephalopods, but Archanoid and Beetle exoskeletons were weak to Kicks. 


Poduroi was a snow town where women either feared Count Leonid, or wanted to become immortal vampires.  No doubt some of them would have loved Twilight!  Leonid might as well have been auditioning for a Dracula movie with his outfit and greeting of "Velcome".  Monika insisted on sleeping in the same room as the other party members even though she had her own room. 


Monsters were inside Leonid's castle, such as Warbats, Lurkers, and Melting Men.  None were too tough to overcome with Kicks.  The Putrid Gigants in the basement had low enough defenses that even Monika could deal token damage, but enough offense to destroy Thomas in one Slam.  Unlike in most other RPGs, in Romancing Saga 3 you can benefit from seemingly hopeless battles.  Flee costs nothing and seems to always work, and new abilities learned in combat are kept after running away.  A few more fights on the main floor, and Julian was able to teach Thunder Kick to everyone.


Thunder Kick was so strong that Monika shocked a Lurker to death with one hit, and that wasn't even a monster that was weak to Martial Skill!  It was especially impressive considering she only had 3 Martial Skill at the time compared to 9 (?) for Ellen.


The next stop for our heroes is a cave north of Poduroi that Count Leonid recommended for some adventuring experience.  Romancing Saga 3 has a map similar to Romancing Saga 2:  it's divided into different square "regions", and you have to be told about a location in order to go there (like Baldur's Gate 2).