More Final Fantasy

[jmas]

Kudos on the Brawler win, T-Hawk! Certainly a case for the superiority of the Fighter and BB, as Sullla pointed out. One nit:

this time I didn't sell the Dragon Armor, but it's still on the wrong, Ribbonless, fighter.)

Unless there's something I'm not understanding, the reason the Dragon Armor is on the "wrong" fighter in your screenie is that it is on the fighter who DOES have a RIBBON. I think that's what you meant, just not what the narrative said.

[T-hawk]

That. Was. Epic. Both the challenge and the report. Congrats!

When you leaked that it was a solo character, I figured that was all it was, a solo character with free rein over the job system. Never underestimate Sulla's variant capacity. I even thought you'd let him go back to Bare after Monk was mastered, so you could at least combine HP +30% with another option. But no.

Yeah, this game often acts more like a puzzle game than an RPG. There's always an answer, and that answer is virtually never more levels. It's very interesting, though sometimes you'd just never think of the answers without a little bit of outside help. FF5 is amazingly well designed and balanced - for a game that old to not have any problems akin to the Duriel Trap is amazing. A thousand poxes on the head of whoever thought FF5 was too complicated and we'd be more interested in Terra Branford.

Hey, at least this game makes it easier to kill off unwanted characters, since they can attack each other. How many times did Solo unload a clobbering on poor Lenna?

at invincible Galuf still having trouble in his Exdeath fight. I would've just put a brick on the emulator speedup button and let the fight run its course.

Good call on the Bone Mail, I probably would have just dismissed the idea. Turning off healing sure doesn't seem like a good idea for a solo character!

Re Atmos, yes, Comet can't be reflected. I used it a lot to kill Necrofobia's Barriers since it was the only spell that would work against the perma-Wall enemies. Between that and the non-level-dependent damage formula, Comet is an odd spell indeed.

When I played the game (only done so twice, it is a big game), I didn't really understand the behavior of the bosses that need simultaneous kills. Great work on managing that with Solo's kick ability. That would sure seem to be a tough hurdle for any solo class that doesn't get a built-in hit-all-targets attack. Which means it's a hurdle that you'll be sure to encounter and report on shortly.

I'd forgotten about Fork Tower and the implications of that for a solo character. I suppose true victory over that step would be for to the solo character to beat each side separately, then do what you did. Would Solo have had any chance at the magic side? Maybe via Magic Lamp?

Aww, Solo didn't want to fight Gogo? Heh. Gogo actually can be killed through (gobs of) damage, but that's way tougher than even Omega so I guess Solo wouldn't contend there.

On the lead character's name, the closest equivalent in Japanese kana is roughly "Batsu", which I like to use. There's no "z" sound to end a syllable in Japanese. Bartz/Butz makes sense only as a German name translated to English without going through Japanese.

Hmm, maybe I need to think up and play an FF5 variant myself...

jmas, you're right, my Dragon Armor was on the wrong, not-Ribbonless, or already-Ribboned, figher.

[Sullla]

Thanks. I'd like to take credit, but the idea came from some challenges posted on various FF5 message boards. Someone out there actually did a solo character challenge for every single job in the game other than berzerker! (And took a berzerker up to the final boss.) Even Solo Bard, which I can't for the life of me see how to do at the moment. Monk is actually one of the easier jobs to do, in all likelihood.

I really like FF 3/6 too; there's a lot of depth to that game as well. Of course, once you start abusing the Esper boost to stats on level ups, it all starts going downhill...

I normally had the monsters kill off the other characters, but yes, Solo did unload on the poor ladies on many occasions.

The Bone Mail is practically an uber item for a lot of solo characters. With it, a Black Mage can heal himself with Bio, for example! The inability to use Cure spells doesn't matter when virtually all of the jobs are unable to cast white magic. I found the Bone Mail useful for a surprising number of boss battles too; just have Solo focus purely on offense and try to take 'em down before his hit points ran out. It was weird being completely unable to heal ANY damage though!

I've already found out a better way to do the boss fight against the pig trio: their Delta Attack stoning spell can be reflected with a Wall Ring. I would have equipped one had I known that just to give myself a margin for error! Fortunately, any job can hit all foes at once with use of special items. I'm sure you can see at least one possible solution there...

Solo could do the magic side by equipping a Wall Ring and waiting for Omniscient to reflect himself to death with his own spells. Or, as part of that same attempt, waiting for him to run through his 30,000 MP. It's readily possible for any class (other than berserker) to win this way, just incredibly boring. Not something I was particularly interested in trying.

There's loads of FF5 variants waiting to be tried. Don't say I didn't warn you if you get sucked in...

[Deceptus]

Hehe, this article has got some points worth pondering over. :neenernee

I'm trying to beat FF1 finally with Fighter-BlackBelt-WhiteMage-BlackMage. Then I will go on to FFIV and VI.

Also, Sullla - although I doubt you will ever read that and there's no way you will listen anyway :P - I find it strange that you keep posting your "short job playthroughs", yet you never notify about it in the news - I just realized you posted an Arylon report. And what happened to Skulla? Or Winnie?

I mean, imagine this - a fifteen year old whose fingers dreadfully look at your site... check all the games that you've in progress... He has to do it because nobody will do it for him... He checks, and...

SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

...Nobody will sleep well in Poland anymore.

[Sullla]

I guess that article was supposed to be satire? OK, but I've seen poking fun at Final Fantasy done better.

Deceptus, the reason why you haven't seen update posts going up on my website is due to the fact that I've been working close to 12 hours/day for the past four weeks getting ready for my summer class, and then teaching it. You should see what it's like cramming an entire semester's worth of teaching into 3 weeks. It is... busy.

I know it may be hard to believe, but I have a life outside of online gaming stuff.

[Deceptus]

I see the updates. For example, the Arylon recently.

But I don't see any notices like "I've posted something, now back to my grumpy work".

I understand you have a busy life, but that's weird. :P

[T-hawk]

Wow, I had no idea Sullla had played any more FF5 since Solo the black belt. Thanks for the bump, Deceptus, and I'm off to read now.

Sullla, you really do need some kind of system for notice of updates...!

[Deceptus]

That's right.

And no need to scold me like this, Sullla. I felt guilty for a moment there. I'm rather sensitive, you know... (No, really, I'm serious.)

[Sullla]

Deceptus will be pleased to see that the ending of the Apolyton Demogame allows me to post a good deal of content that had to be hidden previously.

Generally speaking, I only post a notice on the front page if something noteworthy gets changed on my website. I will often do some minor formatting tweaks that don't seem to be worth a notice. I agree that I probably should have been a little more forthcoming this summer, but like I said, it was a bit of a crazy time...

[Deceptus]

Awesome!
It's nice to see your dark side. "Farking idiot"? "Hard-on for Imperio"? My, my... :neenernee