More Final Fantasy

[System Error]

lol @ Antlion of all things being a roadblock for a level 1 character.

Also for this solo FF4 challenge, I'll be streaming it on my twitch channel. This, this, and this are what I've done so far. Audio's fixed compared to when Picard fought Gil Turtle in FF5, so don't worry about that~ As for going live, I'll probably do it in the later hours of the evening in Pacific time.

(It messes up when I hit speedup, but not ear-bleedingly so - primarily do it in the third video, but won't do it moving forth now that I know)
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The hotheaded prince of Eblan, Edward "Edge" Geraldine, is a combination of the series' thief and ninja classes. The Throw command makes its formal debut with him, after Shruikens were present as consumable weapons in FF3. It has the notable trait of ignoring all manner of defenses the enemy has. Its damage formula is simply Level * WP + Random (0-98).

Steal is a weird one. The chance to steal is 1/20 if the target's level is over Edge's. If not, the formula is 4*(Edge's Level - Enemy's Level)/100. There's a chance to take damage if the steal fails. The item stolen is always the first item on the drop list of the enemy. He can steal repeatedly from the same enemy. There's an interesting bug in the SNES version where, if the item you steal is a weapon or shield and is the first of its kind in your inventory, you may equip the next character to take a turn with the item. This doesn't work on GBA, nor do I believe it works with Edge alone.

Finally, there's Ninjutsu. Edge has his own magic command. He begins with Flame, a fire-elemental attack with 80 power. He gains Flood and Blitz through the story, 120 and 160 power respectively and of the ice and lightning elements. Through leveling, he can gain Smoke (escapes from battle), Pin (Paralysis), and Image (a self-cast Blink).


Edge begins at what for most parties is the pathetic level of 25. For us, it's the absurd level. His Agility may not impress that much when you just look at it, but it's the highest of all the characters. Strength and Stamina, likewise, aren't as good as they look on-paper. The magic stats are lowish, which IS a factor, as Intellect is used with Ninjutsu.


With this in mind, all of the early game was pathetic. I'll spare you the details. Mist Dragon was dead in one hit, the guards in one Flame, Octomammoth survived for a while and only lost three tentacles before dying accomplishing nothing significant, Antlion died in two attacks. He couldn't kill Mombomb before it blew up, but he could take out all the little bombs in a single Flame. The Fabul battles were similarly not worth talking about.


The first battle that was even remotely scary was Scarmiglione. His drones died in a single Flame, but his Thunder barrage did manage to threaten Edge. Not enough to actually kill him, but it was something. Meanwhile, his undead form just died under a flurry of attacks, only getting in one missed attack.

Liliths on the mountain were the first interesting opponent in regards to Steal. They give up Kiss of Liliths, which act like Osmose, only twice as potent. Not a bad pickup.


I didn't do this as Palom, but did do so as Edge. The Dark Knight only has around 4400HP, so this is quite doable normally. It was even easier for Edge, who either dodged the Dark Wave or found out it was single target, and killed Cecil's dark side.


After arriving in Baron and making a solo exception to defeat Yang, Edge made a trip to Mist to pick up Dancing Daggers. These babies are...actually, better than what he has equipped? Wasn't expecting that. Edge liked them so much he bought 7.


Baigan wasn't anything special. Edge was able to kill the Right Arm before it selfdestructed. As for Cagnazzo...I'd planned to throw those Dancing Daggers at the shell form. It turned out to be unnecessary, because Edge was able to break its evasion and get the kill.


The Magnetic Cave was up next. While Claws are typically associated with Yang, Edge can use them as well. The Fairy Claw in the cave itself was of particular interest. Some weapons do extra damage - four times, in fact - against monsters of a certain species. The Fairy Claw really lays the smackdown against giants.

Edge also suffered his first wipe in this cave, to a Cait Sith casting Blaster on him. Bleh. He was at least able to get a measure of revenge on the reset, confusing one and having it cast Blaster on itself.


The Dark Elf...Edge intentionally got himself pigged here. Nothing special against him; Edge could just overpower his weak physical defenses. The Dark Dragon had an Hourglass thrown at it to render it helpless, then beaten to death.

Before heading to Zot, Edge bought some more knives, and also made a trip to his castle. He was able to destroy the Mad Ogres with the Fairy Claw, and took out the Couerls and Lamia without incident. He had to pass on the Skuldiers and Steel Golem, though. Oh sure, he COULD do it with Fairy Claw for the latter and Flame for the former, but that would mean removing Piggy.


Claws, while providing no bonuses to raw attack, are really nice on Edge to expose elemental and racial weaknesses. This Fiery Hound? Dancing Dagger + Ice Claw put it to sleep. Zot was the first place where the leveling curve caught up to Edge, but it just meant a few Hi-Potions every three battles or so.

The Magus Sisters' Delta Attack gave Edge a measure of protection in the latter half of the fight once Cindy was taken care of - Edge had a wall to protect against Sandy's status moves. Which actually wouldn't have worked anyway due to Pig and status priorities.


And Barbariccia, Edge completely took a dump on. I actually miscalculated something - apparently, gradual petrify ignores status priorities. Edge couldn't equip the Gaia Gear...but then something funny happened. Barbie hit Edge with all these Rays, and yet he was no closer to being petrified than he was. An undocumented bug? Was Pig really doing something? I'm not sure.

Only thing I was sure about was my strategy. Throw ignores her evasion, so Edge tossed out a bunch of knives and obliterated her. A Hi-Potion after every Tornado...I tried to steal Decoys, but the puppets kept detecting Edge. Bleh. Ninjutsu was out because Piggy - which may or may not have been pointless - prevented him from using Blink. Which he hadn't even learned yet, because he was only Level 37.


Ironic - the soloist who started at a higher level than any of the rest is now lower leveled than the rest so far. Not for running away either, nor for experience curve - as mentioned, Edge levels faster than anyone else. Also, I summed it up with just a dozen images - because he's just that good. Will Edge's dominance continue? We'll soon find out.

[Plus C]

Ooooh Edge; he was 10 year old me's favourite character, probably just because he was a ninja, but still/ I think the late game could get quite interesting for him!

Small update time!

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I cleverly/conveniently remembered to keep the Goblin in Tule alive to kill off Krile, then went off to the Antlion.

   

The Antlion went down as predicted, in a volley of Time Slips and Emissions.

Next up was to put the Gargoyles to Sleep and kill them with magic, right?

Sadly, not. I dun goofed, I'm afraid. The Black Mage is FAR too slow to get an action off against the Gargoyles before dying. They have a Speed of 34, and Black Mage Bartz has only 25. There's a little bit of RNG in how the ATB starts in a battle, but basically you need to be within about 2 or 3 points of the enemy to have a chance of moving first. Annoyingly, Krile as a Red Mage would have had 33 Speed, and have been able to pull this off. Drat.

So, Game Over? Ha, no. This is FF5 and I have access to the job system! A little bit of experimenting with the faster jobs found...

   

That a Bard can sometimes outspeed and Romeo's Ballad, to stop them both. It took a LOT of goes, but once I hit both once I could just keep using it, as they can't evade whilst stopped.

And thus I enter hell; The Pyramid is the worst place in the game for a low level run, simply because of the Aspis. They're an unavoidable, uncatchable uncounter who give experience; they're easily beatable, but so annoying to have to avoid.

Wish me luck...

[Plus C]

Well... That was quick. Seriously, I've spent days in there before.

   

This is a common sight. That room can just... That room. The trick is to sprint to here and then bide your time to slip through...

   

To here, where you can lure them over to the right and make a run for it.

Onto another underestimated battle, the Mummys. They pack a whopping speed of 50, and are capable of one shotting me.

How the hell do I get past here?

   

With ridiculous amounts of luck, of course! It only took a few goes to get all the necessary dodges, which I like to think of as good karma for my patience versus Siren. A Phoenix Down each killed them off.

Then onto the "Hall of Encounters Which Take Far Too Long To Run From" and then...

   

Merugene. I chose the Red Mage over the Black Mage for the higher speed, and also to help announce my next challenge.

I'm not starting a new run, much less abandoning this one. It's a challenge WITHIN this challenge. The whole reason I chose this variant was to play around with job system, and I've basically just stuck with my super powered Freelancer so far; well no more! My new challenge is this; Use every class to defeat at least one boss battle. I've already used a few (Freelancer against most things, Monk versus Karlabos, Knight versus Siren, Berserker for the Launchers, Samurai for Shiva, Bard for the Gargoyles and now Red Mage for Merguene) and I think I can pull this off; wish me (ever more) luck!

[T-hawk]

I'm glad you're doing a low level run so I don't have to. So many extra headaches, avoiding those enemies. I'd been considering a low level game myself for a long time, and played through the first world once, losing interest when I realized what was up with the LilChariots on the bridge. Great work so far.

[System Error]

Heh. That's a challenge idea that crossed my mind, but not under those kinds of circumstances. Keep it up.

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Edge made a side-diversion to the Old Waterway before heading to the Underworld. He threw some Spider's Silk at Baron Guards, prompting them to respond with Pig. I apparently was wrong in Palom's report - another boss that does not have the boss bit are these Calco dolls - but not the Brina dolls. An Hourglass locked them down.

In an embarassing moment though, I'd forgotten to reequip Edge's armor, having removed it to allow Pig to be inflicted more easily. Made the fight harder than it should've been. In a change from the SNES version, Golbez actually seems invincible before Mist Dragon appears? I don't know what was up here, since I swear Palom was able to attack him physically before. Not even Throw could hit Golbez. So no Rydialess this time. The fight was easy enough at least, though Edge had to guzzle a few Hi-Potions.


The Tower of Babel provided a source of Sirens. I'm probably not going to use them, but hey, doesn't hurt to have them around. All 40 of the ones I obtained.

A lot of the enemies in here were interesting fights. Chimera/White Mousse groups could be dealt with by stabbing the Chimera and Flaming the Mousse - the other order didn't work due to Chimeras absorbing Fire. There were also a lot of enemies vulnerable to either an elemental or racial attack.


Edge had two ways of dealing with Barnabas and Lugae. He ended up doing both after dying to Lugaeborg, but I'll get to him in a moment. The first was to go to the back row to reduce damage, throw knives at the robot until it was at low HP, then knife Lugae to death. The second, and easier, was to cast Flame until they died together.

I slipped up against Lugaeborg - he is, in fact, Lugaeborg. He's a mech, meaning Edge would've been able to equip the Thunder Claw to do heavy damage against him. The first time, Edge was flatlined by a 1300 damage Laser. The second go at him, Edge was able to do enough damage in enough time to render the attack harmless. With Prisoner's Wear to protect against sleep, the ninja won out.


The Eblan Cave provided Edge with a new weapon. The Boomerang is of the Wind/Throw element, and can be used from the back row. Again, there's a bug in the game where technically anything but bows can be used from the back row (and in the original release of GBA, nothing could be used from the back row), but I'm not abusing it. Nevertheless, Edge made the switch anyway. They weren't that much weaker than his Dancing Daggers, and it made him take MUCH less damage. It was also effective on floating enemies, such as these bats.


I figured Edge might be able to survive Rubicante's attack. Just watch this video to see what happens, because a lot of weird stuff happens. Idly, in the SNES version, the battle's script apparently loops instead of doing what it does here.


Paralysis, ugh. After this encounter, Edge started pulling out Pin against counterattacking enemies. Granted, with extra attack from not having the Boomerangs, he actually was able to one-shot the offenders. The Boomerangs and back row made for a good defensive combination, though.


Rubicante was a really fun fight. Before this battle, Edge learns Flood and Blitz. The former turned out to be better than an Ahura + Ice Claw combo, so to the back row it was. Rubicante counters physical attacks with Fira. Edge's strategy was to attack with Flood when his cloak was open, and heal when it was not.

I used a few Elixirs here, which were probably ill-spent. I also experimented around with Image, since Rubicante attacks with physicals when the robe is closed. It just wasn't worth it. He counters with Fira when physically attacked, so attacking during that downtime wasn't worth it, either. Edge died once here, to a Scorch that did close to his max HP in damage. He got him the second formal try at the battle, though!!


With the Trap Doors lying ahead, Edge had to figure out how he was going to approach them. After some tests, I found my simple answer - just throw stuff at the problem. I did have to set the battle speed to 6, just so I could sift through the menus fast enough to get off the needed attacks before they used Ninth Dimension.

Edge threw out two Shruiken and attacked the first, threw a Sleep Blade and attacked once to finish the second, and used the Blood Sword plus two regular attacks to take out the third that blocked him. As for the Demon Wall, some Spider's Silk, a pair of Hermes Sandles, and repeatedly attacking put it to rest.


The enemies in the Sylvan Cave generally weren't worth fighting. Edge could defeat a Bog Witch by Flooding out the frogs and attacking. Most other enemies called for falling back, What it did have for Edge was some nice pickups. The Full Moon is a much stronger Boomerang, the Avenger is a strong weapon to throw, and the Mage Masher is a mild upgrade that does huge damage on Mages.


Asura is classified as a Mage. Once I wised up and actually healed in the battle, the fight was a breeze. Who needs Reflect? Mage Masher is very viable even when at lower levels.

The path to her was pretty nasty. Edge had to equip a Diamond Armlet to avoid being two-shot by Thunder Dragons, whose Blitz does half the victim's max HP unless they resist lightning, in which case it does 1/10th. Bloody Eyes could stunlock Edge, though the Prisoner's Wear prevented this from working. Both were at least easy prey for the Full Moon. Edge also picked up a weapon upgrade in the Kikuchimonji along the way.


Kikuchimonji + Thunder Claw did more damage to Leviathan than Blitz, so Edge went in physically on the sea serpent. It took two Elixirs to get the job done, all two that Edge had on him. They were barely enough to get Edge through the battle. That combination also beat Odin.


Before moving on, Edge ran a few errands. These are some of the rarest enemies in the game, and are for some reason only found on a three-step penninsula at the west side of the Underground, or the very southernmost part of the Sylvan Cave continent. Speculate about that as you will. Whatever the case, they made a great source of Spider's Silks to steal. Edge also completed the quest for the Knife; a single-shot 255 attack power throwing weapon.

The Behemoths in Bahamut's Cave, as I learned, are unique in how they will do physical attacks in addition to counterattacks. For Palom this was a problem, but with Edge, I could simply cast Image and laugh off the attacks. Edge also found a set of Genji equipment in this cave. Only the helmet was of particular use to him.


Conveniently, a Lunar Curtain dropped from a Lunar Virus right before I entered the cave. After trying to get away with not using it, Edge threw it up to render his Mega Flare moot.


Every enemy in the Giant of Babel is classified as a mech, including the Last Arm. Edge took it out before any stunlocking nonsense could happen, claiming an Elixir - which would happen to be the only one he would have on him for the four fiends, because I am stupid and forgot to buy more.


All told, this was a very interesting fight. Edge could hit the elemental weaknesses of Scarmigilione, Rubicante, and Cagnazzo using the Fire, Ice, and Thunder Claws respectively. The fire lord was the trickiest this time around: he killed Edge twice using Scorch. I had to throw out some Spider's Silk, use that one Elixir, and pray a bit, but eventually was able to move on.

Barbarricia called for more eloquence in execution, due to not being able to exploit her Holy weakness. Edge was able to use Image to protect against the physicals, completely ignoring the fact that he was at critical HP from Maelstorm. With a Gold Needle to counter the odd Ray, he was able to put this one to rest.

Finally, the CPU. I forgot to get off a Spider's Silk before Reflect, but since Hi-Potions could outrace Piercing Laser's 1/10th HP damage for eternity, Edge was in no danger at all during the fight. Edge completed this leg of the game at Level 62.

[System Error]

Into the Lunar Subterrane it is. Edge has more to gain from doing it before the Cave of Trials. The first opponent to knock off, once I was done dying to monsters in boxes I really shouldn't have opened, was the White Dragon. It guards Edge's Murasame. It notably casts Protect when used as an item, and gives +5 to Strength, Stamina, and Intelligence, though penalizes the other two stats by 5.

This was basically Barbarricia all over again. Image up, and it could never hit me regardless of how often it tried Maelstorm. It countered physicals with Slow, so in its favor, it at least remained on neutral ground in that regard after Spider's Silk...


To obtain the Masamune - which, like in FF2, casts Haste when used as an item - Ogopogo is the opponent. Beating him was just a matter of healing with Elixirs as necessary, while keeping up Image. It gives a +3 to Agility, which doesn't quite offset Murasame's penalty, but is nice anyway.


At this point, and after some more testing, I decided to leave. But not before making one last trip to get something I missed near the start. These Giant Warriors got wrecked by the Fairy Claw, and Edge claimed his ultimate armor.


Completing the Excalibur side-quest actually has a purpose for Edge. It gives him a supply of Shruiken to buy. Most of which he would not be buying at the moment, because they are insanely expensive. He actually had quite a few problems with money...I never noticed it until this playthrough, but the difficulty really spikes when you get to the Moon. Edge was having trouble with the randoms. Which meant no money.


As I told a friend of mine in midst of playing, Edge then proceeded to defang an unborn baby dragon so that he would later be able to kill a pair of long-dead skeletal dragons. But before that, it was time for the Cave of Trials.


Gigas Worm was pathetically easy. Image locked it down so that only its weak Vampire was of any significance. T-Rex was similary neutered. Master Flan continued to be an obnoxious problem.

Just know this: it took an hour of attempts to get by him. I had to go and fight an additional battle against a Golden Toad to mess with the RNG, then enter the fight. If I didn't, Edge would always die to the first Flare. With it, he would always survive the first Flare. Really messed up. The Mage Masher at least allowed him to completely tear through the master.


Once it was dead, Edge truimphantly left, came back with Yang and Cid in tow, and massacred the other two. Death Mech is a mech, so Thunder Claw allowed Edge to do over 8000 damage every attack. Storm Dragon called for some heavy offense at the start to weaken its non-critical Tornadoes (which are based off its HP), and some healing to help with the critical Tornadoes and Maelstorms.


Before heading back to the Moon, Edge robbed one of these things of its many hammers to sell for some cash. Plague was just a matter of equipping the Full Moon (to go after its weakness to Wind) and Masamune and attacking. And also making sure I actually had strength-boosting equipment on for the attack multiplier.


And now the reason why I got all those Blue Fangs. The Lunarsaurs counter physicals by casting Reflect on themselves and using Bio repeatedly. This does not trigger with magic, so Edge was free to cover them in silk, Haste up with the Masamune, and throw out his fangs. A Red Fang I picked up from the Flan Princess room in particular did 4000+ damage to each one. The Blue Fangs did about half as much, assuming Edge was at max HP.

That just left Dark Bahamut. While it was possible to beat him, it would've meant farming Elixirs. So Edge didn't do it just yet.


And speaking of which, the five Elixirs (technically four plus a may-as-well-be-one Megalixir) Edge had on him were not enough to beat Zeromus. I even had him try throwing out Excalibur and the Holy Lance; they were not enough to push Edge through. So that meant backtracking. He entertained himself by fighting some Flan Princesses. They took ages to beat, but Edge could get the job done eventually.


With four more in his stocks, Edge was able to make it through. He threw four Fuma Shruikens towards the end of the battle, in attempt to push Zeromus through from his throwing out Flare to his desperation Meteors. It worked. None of the weak Meteors landed.

Incidentally, due to my streaming it and not wanting to mess around with the randolevels, Edge retained his position of lowest level solo to make it this far, sitting on 70. The main game is done, but the postgame is still there. How will Edge fare, I wonder...? Only one way to find out.

[English Language]

Being the unoriginal dork I am, I'm going to copycat PlusC and do a Low-Level FFV Solo, though locking out jobs instead of equipment. I will be using Bartz so he will be starting at level 2 as opposed to level 1. I don't see it making that big of a difference, but whatevs.


So thinking on the name, I went with Robin because this is going to be like Sullla's run(who was Batman), except far weaker, with less fun toys(because I have no access to non-boss drops), and not as rich. I'm going to use a code to turn off random encounters so I don't have to deal with those, at least until I get the Healing Staff(because I don't have any of those fancy shmancy cure spells) possibly. I will not, however, be cheating off the Gil Turtle for infinite money because that defeats the point of the challenge. Other than that, I'll be cheesing as much as possible that isn't outright cheating.

I make a point to pick up every item possible, so I have what options I can, and so I can sell the extras for much needed gil.

Wing Raptor went as usual. Needed 2 potions, but nothing notable beyond that.

Now then, beyond that, first roadblock...


Namely, how to beat Karlabos at level 2 without magic. Bonus problem is I need to make sure I can fight Siren afterwards, so I can't use too many items here. I have 16 potions that need to last me for a while. Luckily, at level 2, they might as well be Elixirs for me. For the same reason though, I can't take more than 1 hit from Karlabos before I need to use one. Feeler is essentially instant death as well. In fact, nearly every attempt so far has been me dying from him opening with feeler, then using anything but Tail Screw. As far as I can tell, I need to smack him 21 times, with him using nothing but "Fight/Tail Screw/Tail Screw" sequence over and over again. Assuming he sticks to this exactly, I can hit him about twice a round, using up 1 potion a round, costing me about 10 potions, give or take. Of course, him using Fight twice in a row, Fight on the third round, or Feeler at all means game over(he can use Feeler on the first turn in the sequence, but he still needs to follow up both turns after with Tail Screw. This costs me a potion with no attacks done and is not very good).

Near I can tell, this fight's possible, just need a metric ton of luck. Will update when I eventually beat this.

And then I realized I forgot to unequip my allies and steal Faris' shield. This should help a bit.

[English Language]

..or maybe not.

After hacking past Karlabos so I can experiment with Siren fights in between Karlabos runs, any attack from Siren instantly kills me even in the back row. I can defend to cut it down to 3 attacks(I survive the second by 2 hp), but the Poison kills me. I also can't defend from the magic attacks, so I have to pray she uses nothing but her nondamaging magic the whole fight.

Welp, that was the fastest challenge shelf I've ever done. I'll think of something else.

EDIT: I'm thinking I might try a FFIV solo game(I tried FF6, but found a lot of characters can't be hacked due to the way guest party members are programmed), but how do I go about hacking in party members when they aren't normally available?

[Plus C]

I'm glad you're doing a low level run so I don't have to. So many extra headaches, avoiding those enemies. I'd been considering a low level game myself for a long time, and played through the first world once, losing interest when I realized what was up with the LilChariots on the bridge. Great work so far.

Garkimasra's aren't actually challenging for a full party to catch, since Control neuters them completely. But yeah, I can FULLY believe that a LLG would not be everyone's cup of tea.

Being the unoriginal dork I am, I'm going to copycat PlusC and do a Low-Level FFV Solo, though locking out jobs instead of equipment. I will be using Bartz so he will be starting at level 2 as opposed to level 1. I don't see it making that big of a difference, but whatevs.

Oh man, this should be quick

Yeah, some challenges just can't be completed. One I've had in my head, that I've never attempted is a "random" solo, or "random" low level run (full party), where after every boss I use a random number generator to select what class each character ends up as. That could make for a fun report.

Oh, so very much stuff.

You've outsped my ability to comment with your updates so I'll simply say "Well Done!" and that I'm greatly enjoying reading them.

And sadistically awaiting stuff like Tellah and Edward

Keep up the good work!


So... Can you say, montage?
   

And here's a table of which class beat which boss;

Code:

Class           Used Versus    
Normal/Mime     Most Bosses
Knight          Siren
Monk            Karlabos
Thief           Gargoyle
Dragoon         Catastrophe
Ninja           Minotaur/Wendigo                
Samurai         Shiva
Berserker       Launcher
Hunter          Gargoyle
Mystic Knight   Gargoyle
White Mage      Apanda            
Black Mage      Odin
Time Mage       Omniscient
Summoner        Calofisteri
Blue Mage       Antlion
Red Mage        Merguene
Mediator        Twintania
Chemist         Halicarnasus
Geomancer       Piggy Trio
Bard            Gargoyle
Dancer          Gogo

Yes, Gogo counts

So... let's begin.

The Solitary Island Gargoyles were outsped by the Thief and sleep-spelled. The ninja then used it's high speed to sleep all of the Wendigo's; you have to hit all of them in one go for this to work. Scrolls finished it afterwards.

I originally planned on using the chemist against minotaur, but it wasn't quick enough to buff before getting pasted, so I ninja starred/legendary weaponed him to death instead. Omniscient was Berserked and Aged.

Sea trench gargoyles faced the Ranger, who had enough HP to take a hit from the back gargoyle, so put them to sleep one at a time, then poisoned them for the kill. The Geomancer used the Magic lamp to kill the Piggys with Odin, then the Black Mage used the Magic Lamp to kill Odin with Shoat.

The Dancer faced one of the most powerful bosses; Gogo. She didn't fight him or anything, but she definitely faced him. (She also later fought Gilgamesh in the Void, if that counts more!) This unlocked the best class in the game (for me), the Mime.

The Mystic Knight took down the Istory Falls gargoyles a little differently, using Golem from the lamp (I haven't had to refill once yet!) then spamming Meteor (the damage of which is independent of level, so is glorious). They kept dying and reviving, but were never fast enough to actually act.

Leviathan was a bitch, I had to keep Blink up, then keep mimicing Meteor and pray he never Tidal Waved. Amusingly, you can actually just walk out with his tablet and not fight him, if you want to.

Bahamut met a similar fate, with a Reflect thrown in at the end for his Mega Flares.

Into the void, the Summoner took down Calofisteri by keeping Reflect up. As long as it's there she just tries to buff her self. Lots of Reflecting and Dispelling went on, then she ran out of MP.

Omega dies to Mix, it's a known thing. I have no other way of surviving ANY action of his, besides the reflectable stuff and I guess Hide/Jump shenanigans.

Apanda was Berserked and Blink, with Haste and Slow support. Never stood a chance.

Azulmagia just ate Meteors, there was nothing else I could really do.

I forgot to screen shot the Catastrophe fight, so that's an artists impression. I'm sure you didn't notice. Enter floating, then just Haste, Slow and keep Float up whilst spamming Meteor.

Halicarnasus died to the Chemist, just focusing on keeping Haste, Blink and appropriately timed Reflects up. I did very little damage of my own here.

And Twintania... Was a pain. I expected to just Hide, then jump out and release my Executor to level 5 Death his weakened form. But he was too quick. Instead I went with Shirahidori, which blocked the physcial parts of his first actions, then had Carbuncle from the Magic Lamp reflect his Mind Blast. Then he goes weakened and get killed.

Shinryu is completely impossible in any no equipment variant, since he always outpeeds you and always one shots you, I'd just Berserk and Blink him whilst spamming Meteors anyway. Similarly, Necro's Barriers always out speed and kill you in this particular run too.

So only the finale remains. This... may take a while.

[English Language]

So figured out the FF4 character swapping.

Let's see, what isn't done yet?...Rydia seems like an interesting choice. After all, she's the summoner, how hard can it be?


....oh. The enemies around here are pretty lethal when you die in 2 hits. Let's fix that. I'll let Kain and Cecil kill 2 goblins, then kill them off before Rydia kills the last one to speed things up a bit.


Ok, better. Have Cure and Blizzard now at least(not that I have the MP to use them much yet), so Rydia can start killing Goblins herself while Kain and Cecil beat each other to death.

I went ahead and sold Cecil and Kain's armor after that screenshot because even here Rydia needs to visit the inn after every fight and can't last for enough fights to break even yet(ah, it's just like playing a FF1 Solo all over again). I kept their weapons though so they can kill each themselves easier. Once Rydia learned Blizzard, things got much faster when she could just all-cast it at enemies to kill them all and the level up process got much faster(especially when those great 6 Goblin parties appeared), and by level 5 or so she was at least breaking even on Inn usage.

I tried to focus on killing Goblins for the off-chance of them dropping the Goblin summon, but if they don't I won't lose any sleep over it, and indeed none of them did. If one drops it later, fine, but I won't go actively hunting for it.


There we go, that should be enough for now. To the Mist Cave.


Welp, I feel like a jerk now. Well, since this is the first boss, this should be cake! My magic was tearing through Goblins like tissue paper, and this should be no different.


......

Thunder is about as effective. Looking at the Bestiary, Goblins have 0 Magic Defense. Meanwhile, Mist Dragon has a whopping 31 Magic Defense!...I wonder how Chocobo works?


Ah, much better. Needed to use my 1 Ether, but I won without much trouble.


Not a very difficult boss, just the massive magic defense threw me for a loop.


Uh..last I checked Rydia, you killed your mom's dragon. Just saying .


Oh game, you so crazy. Didn't need to worry about her equipment changing on me thankfully since she already had her base equipment.


?? Not sure what to make of this boss fight. I took out 2 of the soldiers first(one's already missing above). The general took more damage from magic than Mist Dragon, but not very much, so I put him to Sleep and pulled out Chocobo, which flattened him for a massive 140+ damage. 2 finished him. I had enough magic left for a Blizzard...and then the last soldier attacked himself and ended the fight then and there....???

Moved on, grabbed Tellah, had him cook himself to perfection in-battle, then again when him and Cecil got revived, bladybladyblah. Picked up Cecil's new equipment for selling later(gave him the sword though so he can kill himself faster)


Next up, Octomammoth. Lightning weakness, plus Lightning magic, plus heavy magic user should make this easy. I also finally remembered to stick Rydia in the back row, which could have helped a bit during Mist Dragon.


....or he has decent Magic Defense too(Ice Rod powered Blizzard was as effective as against Mist Dragon)...sigh. Maybe Chocobo again...for 150 damage again, nice.


Another easy fight, but took me 2 Ethers to get through(maybe less if I hadn't wasted those Thunders/Blizzards earlier, but meh).

Went outside and saved. More later.