More Final Fantasy

[System Error]

Also, a bit of a vaguely related question. This wouldn't happen anytime in the near future, but if someone ran variants of Bravely Default and had a capture card to get screengrabs of it, would this be a thread to put them in, as it's basically a Final Fantasy game in all but name, and the Job system is almost identical to FF5's.

Well I did the FFL series in here, which are Final Fantasy games in (western) name only. Why not the opposite with ones that are FF in all but name, especially considering Bravely Default was pretty much spun off from FF Four Heroes of Light.

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Anyways, in the name of moving things along so I can get to new ideas, let's move on to the next set of VS. Omega. "can get it done even though this robot is overdesigned" tier. These aren't as sure a lock as the other five I've posted so far, but they can work with it.
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The Dragoon

He betrayed the Irregular Hunters and hid himself in a volcano.


Jump always hits, Trident is lightning-elemental. These two things allow the Dragoon to do actual respectable damage to Omega. Besides the usual Aegis for a shield-wielding class and Hermes Sandals, along with Genji Armor to guaranteed stop Rocket Punch confusion, I found the best head equipment was actually Thornlet of all things.


It's possible to be constantly in the air and avoid most of the Wave Cannons, but its big perk is a pleasant 10% magic evade all other heavy headware doesn't offer. If the HP Leak is an issue (Maelstrom trolling?), Hypno Crown is a viable alternative - though it's heavier and only offers 5% magic evade. Royal Crown as well if you're dipping into GBA equipment: the same 10% as Thornlet, but the same weight as Royal Crown. If you're using the status bug, Mirage Vest as bodywear gives an additional 3% - otherwise it needs to be Genji.


This aside, it's the usual affair for a Dragoon. Jump over things, come down hard. Aside, though I did fight it at 99, that shouldn't be strictly necessary for this one. A Dragoon will in any case need to grind out more than it'd naturally have to win out, mostly so the likes of Mustard Bomb and Atomic Ray aren't taking off half its health.
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The Gladiator

Just because these jobs don't have it as easy doesn't mean it's by no means implausible. Like with this one. It has all the tools, all it needs is the luck.


Just like with Gil Turtle, no !Finisher elements from any character will function on Omega. Good news: Bows also halve a target's evasion like knives do, so they can be used to hit Omega! That means Thunder Bow. Bad news: that also means no Aegis Shield and its handy blocks, but at least there's the status bug to get petrify immunity. And just like with Dragoon, Thornlet may well be the headwear of choice just for its magic evade.


There's not much to say here. Fight when it won't kill you with a follow-up Wave Cannon (one of the best times is, as usual, right before Search), hope it lands and you don't get Encircled, repeat. When stalling/waiting for an opportunity to attack, Aegis Shield should be equipped instead of Thunder Bow.


An important Elixir-saving technique is to use a Hi-Potion after a Wave Cannon at full health. If the next attack from Omega deals no damage due to Aegis or just not dealing enough if any, that's a Elixir saved. And Gladiator is speedy enough to not have to worry about Omega outspeeding it, short of poor ATB management. It can even Elixir immediately after a Wave Cannon and get another turn before Omega.


Like Dragoon, max levels aren't necessary, but high in general is usual are useful for more HP (especially in a job with lower vitality like this one) and protecting against Encircle.
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The Freelancer

All the tricks and equipment in the world against the baddest motherfucker vanilla FF5 has to offer. Just goes to show by it being here just how versatile the job is.


Today's list of equipment...
- Ribbon: Gives immunity to Rainbow Wind, Blaster death, Delta Attack. Good for its stat boosts anyway, so don't status bug it.
- Rainbow Dress: Protects against Rocket Punch confusion.
- Black Robe: Alternate to the above if using status bug for its 20% magic evade.
- Robe of Lords: Same as above, but GBA postgame and has 24% magic evade.
- Flame Ring: This can be used with status bug Hermes Sandals for Fire absorption and paralysis immunity.
- Reflect Ring: Or this instead for something a bit more kosher, though it can cause Omega to heal itself with reflected Atomic Rays or Flamethrowers after bounced Search.
- Sorceror's Mantle: One last option, this one from GBA postgame. Only halves fire attacks, but 20% magic evade.
- Masamune: Offers up Haste.
- Wonder Wand: Offers up Shell.
- Aegis Shield: Switch it in when healing/waiting.
- Thunder Bow: The weapon of choice.


This is otherwise similar to the Gladiator, just with more equipment and status benefits in exchange for no natural stats and slightly less damage. Fair trade, I say.


Everything else applies, but the lower speed in particular affects it more. Can still get it done - probably in the 80s too thanks to all the defensive equipment and statuses. Slipped my mind to try it that way and I didn't feel like going back, though.
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The Summoner

I watched a friend take down Omega with only Ramuh casts for offense during a four job fiesta. You can do more than you think to kill this thing in a party setting. But a solo Summoner is on another level of crazy.


I've labeled some superboss fights with certain classes as super-technical before - and Summoner is the embodiment of it for Omega. It has all it needs: viable damaging options that go through Reflect, Shell status from the Wonder Wand...and what makes this super-technical while giving it a chance, the ability to protect against Blaster and Delta Attack via Carbuncle.

Because of the latter, Sage's Surplice for Silence protection or status bugging it is absolutely required. Summoner is just too slow a killer to try to go without, and needs to not have Delta Attack catch up with it. Note that Summoner can and should refresh Carbuncle even when it's active. It absolutely does not want it running out at an inopportune moment.


The best times to do this is after the third attack of its script (Atomic Ray/Flamethrower/Rainbow Wind) and after the no-interrupt combo. It's a bit weird on paper to use it so close together, but using it after the no-interrupt guarantees it'll be up for the potential Delta Attack/Blaster at the start, and using it after the third attack refreshes it for the potential shot during the no-interrupt sequence, while keeping it down to avoid bouncing Atomic Ray. This doesn't stop Maelstrom of course, only need to hope it doesn't land and if it does you can heal in time.

Because of Elixir limitations, it might be better to play a bit more aggressively, though - namely earlier on if John Connor was at full health after the no-interrupt (no Wave Cannon used), I'd try to use attack from there. I could get in two attacks, then heal before the next Wave Cannon. The only problem with this is that there's barely to literally not enough time to refresh Reflect depending on ATB. Needed a good sense of what I could do.


Odin (!) and boosted Ramuh are both viable choices for attack. Odin's damage is more variable, but Ramuh is consistent. I'd stuck with Odin due to being able to equip the Chicken Knife and turning up more damage on average.


Some luck, some perseverance, some masochism, and 78 Elixirs saw John Connor through this mess.
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The Blue Mage

A Blue Mage has a wide variety of spells. Too bad few of them work here.


In fact, Blue Mage really shines with its equipment, especially with the status bug, and even without it has Aegis at least. It is otherwise reduced to exactly five spells against Omega: Mighty Guard as a defensive option, White Wind as a healing option to avoid using too many Elixirs, 1000 Needles to do damage, and Dark Spark and Off-Guard but only if they're bounced and a miracle allows them to land. Everything else is useless to actively detrimental, gets bounced back if directly cast, or both.


But if you believe in miracles, particularly with Dark Spark, oh boy. Especially if Blue Mage is ridiculously high level. Suddenly it's the one with the level advantage, crippling the likes of Encircle, Maelstrom, and Rocket Punch as well as Omega's damage output. Because Omega has Reflect because it's overdesigned it has only a few shots per battle - able to get Reflect from the Magic Lamp and Wonder Wand. If you can lower its defense a bit after that...


...well. 1000 Needles is still the best option unless you land multiple - Reflect is still required though, but it won't be as unlikely to land. After one Chicken Knife slices beat it, but add up to less damage overall due to missing and flee attempts. Aqua Breath and Goblin Punches with strong weapons do damage after one, but very little. So better if you get the chance is another Dark Spark attempt.


Actually, there's one more spell Blue Mage can try, after the level lowering - after an Ether to cut it to 9999 of course. That said its only real point is taking Encircle out of the picture completely. With equipment/status bug the only remaining threat is that and Malestrom.


As long as Blue Mage plays well and isn't horribly unlucky afterwards (try to line its turn up to always be able to recover from Maelstrom if possible?), or just stubbornly pushes through, it can eventually get this done.
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The Necromancer

Ready for the dumbest thing ever? You bet you are.


Offense is no problem for Necromancer. Boosted Chaos Drive does as much damage as you can ask for. It has as much defense as a magical job can really ask for in equipment and Shell from the Wonder Rod. It's healing that's the problem, and there is an answer at least: Death from the Assassin's Dagger. Oh boy, here we go again, only much worse and mandatory.


Aside from the oddball one-two Wave Cannon, the Necromancer has up to two chances to pull it out each time, and will get at least one each time. All the while, it can't see Delta Attack ever or a death Blaster. Rainbow Wind is also a nuisance that will mostly delay things, though you get a free shot of Esuna to get rid of it from the Wonder Wand. Further times require Eye Drops and waiting out the silence because this game doesn't have Echo Herbs. Or status bugging Sage's Surplice and Glasses. That said going without is more than possible with this job/does not affect it unlike its magical partners in crime.


The good part about this is that after Omega's no interrupt turn, assuming you don't need to heal right away (Maelstrom, also annoying but not as big as factor with magic defense and Shell), you have quite a bit of time to wail on the thing. Mustard Bomb won't hurt that much, and Rocket Punch deals percent-based damage. Necromancer can do this on its own, though as with Shinryu a hail mary is what makes a world of difference.
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The Time Mage

Already posted this one so I won't repost, but now you know the context for "I lied, this one is the dumbest thing ever".
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The Ninja

Hoo boy...or maybe it's this.


Throw ignores defense, so don't bother with Lightning Scrolls. Just throw Fuma Shuriken/Pinwheels. They outclass anything else unless you completely lose your mind and farm up Dragoon Lances anyway, and even then it's only two extra points of attack. If you're flexing GBA postgame, then the strongest (and equally insane to get) is Ragnarok - they're a rare steal from the back part of Neo ExDeath usually destroyed instantly by Magic Lamp. I guess given my definition of "no mercy" I could technically use this...


Of course even with the status bug, Delta Attack is running amok. Encircle too, and unlike Necromancer, it can't get Shell to mitigate that. It does less damage than Necromancer too unless it goes far enough to get those Ragnaroks. Facing potential Delta Attacks to face less potential Delta Attacks. It can also get one free pass if it sets up the Lamp to bounce a Search.


It's doable, though.
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The Oracle

Well I'd give dumbest thing ever to this actually, but in actuality, despite this being here, it's only here in the absolute technical sense. A cut above other jobs because it's possible, but it's still really damn impossible.


Unlike its fellow magically inclined solo jobs, Oracle has a serious issue - no way to deal with Delta Attack. Blue Mage has Aegis, Time Mage has Reflect Ring, Summoner has Carbuncle, and Necromancer (and Ninja for that matter has killing it quickly before it has too many chances to show up. It also can't get Shell like those can.


It's not all that bad, though. Oracle's usual perk of not triggering counterattacks with its !Predict moves is in-play here, and at level 99 John Connor would use the useful and powerful Cleansing every time at full MP. It isn't listed in the GBA Algorithms guide, but Cleansing can occasionally inflict Stop. If this happens Oracle can add a bit of damage with a Morning Star bonk, or Mace of Zeus if using postgame content. The big question is if the Elixirs will even outlast it - Rejuvenation is quick healing but also very weak, nowhere near enough to heal away Wave Cannon damage.


More alarming is the inconsistent damage of !Predict, and how Omega's magic defense does affect the damage, and seemingly its Shell too. Due to its nature, the damage is naturally wildly inconsistent. This is from when its HP ended in 5, it's for example a tenth of that when it ended in 0.

Other than that? Have fun with it. Probably possible to TAS piledrive it into the ground - or if you really want to show no mercy and bend the rules, status bug Aegis and Death protection.. But humanwise, it's definitely one of the worst jobs at fighting superbosses. Least it's not Geomancer...
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Some surprising omissions. Some of which could get it done if this thing wasn't so overdesigned. I'll finish up next time by briefly talking about them.

[Sullla]

Last job in this tier:



Red Mage
Overall Ranking: 16/26 [Tier 3, Rank 8]
Innate Command: Red magic
Stats: Strength +8, Agility +5, Vitality: -6, Magic Power +8
Equipment: Daggers, non-Knight Swords, Rods, Staffs, Medium and Light armor sets
Abilities: !Red 1 (20 ABP), !Red 2 (40 ABP), !Red 3 (100 ABP), X-Magic (999 ABP)
Total ABP to Master: 1159 points

Speaking of twinkery, the Red Mage is the class most associated with attacking the gameplay from odd angles and bending the rules to achieve victory. As the jack-of-all trades and master of none, the Red Mage finds itself with a little expertise in every area but no true strengths to rely upon. The Red Mage does gain access to the first three levels of White and Black magic, containing a surprising amount of goodies between the two schools. White magic provides Cure and Cure 2 for healing power, Size and Charm for some indirect forms of status attacks, and the best spell of the lot: Armor. That spell cuts physical damage in half and served as an integral component of my solo Red Mage run. Black magic mostly consists of Fire/Ice/Bolt in their tier 1 and tier 2 forms, along with Venom, Sleep, and Toad. Both of the latter two status attacks work in more places than you might think, and the Sleep + Venom combination is one of the more amusing ways to kill opponents. Poison them, put them to sleep, then stand around waiting until they bleed to death.

The signature ability of the Red Mage in FF5 is X-Magic, also known as Doublecast in the GBA translation. This allows the Red Mage to cast two spells in a row with one action, and the standard non-variant setup is to master the Red Mage job to pass this ability on to a Mimic for multi-casting of Black or Summon magic. For a solo Red Mage limited to the first three levels of spells, it's unfortunately a lot less powerful. Even so, I was surprised to find that the Red Mage was still able to hide in the back row and act as a spellcaster throughout the third world. Doublecasted Fire/Ice/Bolt 2 would deal about 800 damage per casting or 1600 damage per use of X-Magic to all opponents, and with Haste status that was just enough to be viable. Just barely. Where that didn't work, the Red Mage could also make use of Armor status and engage in melee combat from the front row, relying on the Chicken Knife to deal damage. Red Mages are highly versatile in their equipment setup, getting to use both rods and staffs along with non-Knight swords and the standard daggers. In this regard the class was most similar to the Blue Mage, and in many respects the Red Mage is a weaker version of the Blue Mage class. However, Red Mages gain access to staffs at the expense of using shields, and that's a poor tradeoff indeed since the Red Mage can already cast Cure 2 and doesn't particularly require the Healing Staff. At least this class can equip both the Medium and Light armor sets, and depending on the need for physical or magic damage, the Red Mage can shift their gear around at the drop of a feathered hat.

Red Mages suffer from two huge drawbacks. The first and more obvious issue is the lack of much in the way of direct damage capabilities. Red Mages have mediocre Strength and Magic Power, with their modest skill in both areas meaning that they're not particularly good at either physical combat or spellcasting. (I also found that the solo Red Mage was frequently on the verge of running out of magic points because the low Magic Power stat resulted in a small MP pool.) The only legitimate lategame physical weapon that the Red Mage can equip is the Chicken Knife, and this class has zero abilities to boost the damage beyond what normal attacking will produce. Similarly, the spells that unlocked at Karnak Castle in the first world aren't very impressive from a damage output in the ending stages of the game. There are a lot of different equipment setups to play around with, but even that can only take the Red Mage so far. My solo Red Mage was forced to break rods and staffs repeatedly throughout his run to compensate for his weak damage output, the sign of a somewhat underpowered class.

The other major problem comes from the low Vitality on this class. There's no beating around the bush here: the Red Mage has absolutely terrible HP growth. Only the Bard and the Dancer are worse in the whole game. This makes it difficult to engage in melee combat, even with Armor status, and constantly leaves the Red Mage in a vulnerable position. Yes, the Red Mage has a lot of twinkery to exploit between monsters with elemental weaknesses and the various different status ailments that can be inflicted with spells or gear. However, the Red Mage is essentially forced into those tricks because the class has no choice otherwise. This is a class with a high skill cap to pull off, as it's forced to do all sorts of crazy stuff to compensate for the lack of direct power. The overall combination is just enough to avoid falling down into the next tier, but only by a hair. I have this job rated as the worst of the "average" category for a reason.

The gameplay for this job ultimately reflects the personality of the Red Mage class: no terrible matchups because of the wide range of class abilities, but no crushing damage in any one area either. Average at everything.

[T-hawk]

In a regular game, how powerful is it that you can mix and match two abilities from any previous jobs, together with any equipment? E.g., have a mage with a huge amount of defense.

FF5 doesn't really have a huge amount of defense by any means. The danger is kill spells and disabling status effects, not really the numeric values of enemy attacks or your defense. Really the best defensive abilities are Equip Ribbons and Mix. You could master Dancer or Chemist to put that on a mage. But there's not much else that would matter to do that with; anything else like Equip Armor or the Monk's HP +30% will be fairly marginal.

Combining two jobs gives you either more offense or a utility ability in the second slot. Take a physical fighting class plus Dual-Wield or X-Fight, or Time magic for haste or White for healing or Blue for that bag of tricks.

Where the job system gets overwhelming is combining multiple mastered jobs as a Bare, since all the highest stats and passive abilities carry over, plus all equipment.

[T-hawk]

Anyways, in the name of moving things along so I can get to new ideas, let's move on to the next set of VS. Omega. "can get it done even though this robot is overdesigned" tier. These aren't as sure a lock as the other five I've posted so far, but they can work with it.

I like these reports. But the one thing I'm not getting is any sense of how hard or long it is for each class. I don't know what you mean by "the dumbest thing ever" - is that easy or hard? Are these fights a guaranteed win if you time everything properly, or ten retries, or a thousand retries; and how long and how many attacks to make the kill? 78 Elixirs gives me a good idea of how the Summoner battle went, but most of the snippets don't really give these clues for the length and difficulty.

[System Error]

Anyways, in the name of moving things along so I can get to new ideas, let's move on to the next set of VS. Omega. "can get it done even though this robot is overdesigned" tier. These aren't as sure a lock as the other five I've posted so far, but they can work with it.

I like these reports.  But the one thing I'm not getting is any sense of how hard or long it is for each class.  I don't know what you mean by "the dumbest thing ever" - is that easy or hard?  Are these fights a guaranteed win if you time everything properly, or ten retries, or a thousand retries; and how long and how many attacks to make the kill?  78 Elixirs gives me a good idea of how the Summoner battle went, but most of the snippets don't really give these clues for the length and difficulty.

I guess that's partially a side-effect from my style, that I was mentioning last page. I don't really fuss or complain unless something is really ridiculous or out of hand, like getting Warmech'd five times or the nonsense with P-Blast with the FFL2 solo mutant. :P And also what happens when try to rush an update out. >_< So a rundown I whipped up...

Time taken is variable between jobs, though note that Gladiator/Freelancer and Mystic Knight all have variable damage output. The first two of those in particular need to be careful, since they could potentially run out of Elixirs if Thunder Bow keeps missing. Mystic Knight of course does so much damage that it only delays the inevitable. Dancer and Mystic Knight both took about 7 minutes on the winning fight, as an example. I think the Thunder Bow duo took like 20-30.

It's hard to quantify tries taken - though that said aside from a Chemist playing well or a Time Mage that just says "screw you, quick, hp leak, now i wait two and a half hours for you to die" nothing is a guaranteed win against Omega, actually maybe not even them if they get dunked by an instagib before they can set up. It's due to Encircle and - even in the case of a Cannoneer not triggering counters - Maelstrom HP leak destruction. The ones in the first set of five have an excellent shot if nothing goes horribly wrong and/or otherwise have tons of defense against its myriad of BS. Ranger being a special case that can just potato it in a matter of minutes with the right rolls.

That said with protection, Omega's default script isn't that dangerous besides the HP Leak/Maelstrom counter. It just wears down your resources over time. It has three big threats to deal with that need protecting against. If they or something uncounterable show up on a vulnerable class, there's nothing yo can really do.
- Rocket Punch confusion is the first and easiest - all jobs can stop it. Mage classes with Lamia's Tiara, armored classes with Genji Armor, Dancer with Rainbow Dress, and everything else with status bug Bone Mail.
- Blaster death. Anything that can equip Bone Mail can status bug death protection, Dancer of course has Ribbon. Summoner and Time Mage have their own unique way of dealing with it. Necromancer just has to pray.
- Delta Attack petrification. Only Aegis and Ribbon stop it. Summoner/Time Mage can again reflect it, but Necromancer and Ninja just have to hope it never shows up.

So how many tries it takes really comes down to dodging those middle fingers from this overdesigned boss. I've had a few attempts just die to Encircle or Maelstrom HP leak - including Gladiator to the latter with less than 5000 to go. They're surprisingly not as big a threat as I thought, but they still lurk around waiting to screw you over at a moment's notice.

By "the dumbest thing ever", that was variable depending on what I was referring to. In Necromancer's case...it's asking for crazy luck with Assassin's Dagger heals. That is pretty stupid. In Time Mage's case, it's referring to how stupid the strategy is for just waiting around a lot, either for Regen or with the HP leak strategy. And in Ninja's case it was over "get a bunch of Ragnaroks from beating the last boss several times on GBA".

I guess Blue Mage is also pretty dumb, too. For Blue Mage, remember how you tried to Dark Spark Shinryu with your Nudists at like 1% odds? Imagine that but limited chances to inflict it per battle.

So yeah. As I alluded to and am going to say again in my postscript, Omega is not a well-designed boss in FF5's context. There's too few answers, and too few classes have access to said answers. I mean, more classes than you expect can soldier through, but against to reiterate, this report is more of a "how can it get it done?" more than Gil Turtle or Shinryu were. Because like I said most of these are fighting it at 99 and that's just insane in itself...yet kinda very welcome because of Encircle and friends.

Speaking of twinkery, the Red Mage is the class most associated with attacking the gameplay from odd angles and bending the rules to achieve victory.

I thought that was Freelancer. Or maybe Blue Mage. Or even Chemist - though I guess it outright breaks the rules rather than bends them. And I thought casually Red Mage is most associated with "get 999AP, kill everything with doublecast". :P

Maybe when I finish my solo Wildling playthrough of Etrian Odyssey 3, I might get back to Bravely Second.

Hell yeah, EO3. I should try to play that game sometime. And get back to EO5 for that matter.

[T-hawk]

It's hard to quantify tries taken

Can't you just count?  Or at least think through a decent approximation.  For Rathma-Bare doing Omega, I found that he'd need to avoid roughly 9 Encircle responses, at a chance of 2/3 not to use it times 1/3 for Aegis to block it times roughly a 1/2 hit chance through Shell.  That is quantifiable.  From your reporting style I really can't tell if a character makes five tries to dodge a handful of Encircles/Maelstroms or hundreds to dodge thousands.  Sullla is very good at communicating the pain when he spends hours and days of retrying on a difficult boss.

Speaking of twinkery, the Red Mage is the class most associated with attacking the gameplay from odd angles and bending the rules to achieve victory.

I thought that was Freelancer. Or maybe Blue Mage. Or even Chemist - though I guess it outright breaks the rules rather than bends them. And I thought casually Red Mage is most associated with "get 999AP, kill everything with doublecast". :P

That's different if you're restricting jobs or not.  As a permanent Red Mage, he has to make use of the game's entire array of spell and item twinkery.  Combined with other jobs, he's what you say.  Doublecast Red Magic with Fire 2 doesn't kill anything significant, it's doublecast Meteor/Flare/Bahamut that does.

[System Error]

Can't you just count?  Or at least think through a decent approximation.  For Rathma-Bare doing Omega, I found that he'd need to avoid roughly 9 Encircle responses, at a chance of 2/3 not to use it times 1/3 for Aegis to block it times roughly a 1/2 hit chance through Shell.  That is quantifiable.  From your reporting style I really can't tell if a character makes five tries to dodge a handful of Encircles/Maelstroms or hundreds to dodge thousands.  Sullla is very good at communicating the pain when he spends hours and days of retrying on a difficult boss.

Fair, ha. Though I didn't think to keep track of attempts here because I expected much of them would be "a lot". What I meant by this is that sometimes lightning strikes, like when I got Berserker through Shinryu then failed when trying to record it 50+ times after that. To borrow a term, Omega is just luckshit, really. Like even on my winning Summoner run as I posted an image of, it came down to a 9HP Maelstrom at low odds that I was just able to heal - it took an unusual number of tries at like 30-40 after I got the strat down. To contrast I got insanely lucky with Necro, it's honestly really impractical even if it is possible. I started trying to calculate that one out, but stopped a short way in.

A rough estimation though for anything that can consistently hit - assume one hit per cycle at least, taking the damage I show. Divide by Omega's HP and that's the bare minimum amount of cycles. Calculate the odds to dodge stuff that needs to be dodged or for things like Encircle/Maelstrom/Blaster to whiff - that happens pleasantly often at max level but you can still get screwed. I could've done it, but I didn't want every snippet to be a string of math/calculations, complaining about the boss, or counts like I did for some of my FF1 runs.

But sure, I don't mind a little pain~. Let's try 99 Necro vs. Omega attempts again.

1: Dead to Blaster on 1st no interrupt
2: Instadead to Delta Attack
3-5: Missed first Death procs.
6: As about on second cycle, Wave Cannon showed.
7: Dead to Blaster on 1st no interrupt
8: Instadead, Blaster
9: Instadead, Delta Attack
10: Got a Chaos Drive off due to a preemptive, missed Death proc.

At this point I started throwing out anything that wasn't a preemptive, so I'll restart the count.

1. DA 1st round
2. DA 1st round
3. Failed to land second AD heal
4. DA 1st round
5. DA 1st round. Stop.
6. DA 1st round. STOP.
7. Blaster 1st round. Not this either. Least it can miss but it hit
8. DA 1st round. 1/3 my ass.
9. Menu lag and I clicked defend instead of attack? Been a while since I've done that.
10. DA on 1st interrupt.
11. Failed to land first AD heal.
12. From here I started lamping after Shell at the start. Eat shit, Delta Atta-oh I'm going to bounce Death. Well I bounced it off Omega once. Missed the second...then Reflect wore off before the no interrupt and WEEEEEHEWEHWEWHHEHWEHWEHEWWEHEHWEWEEWEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWDdead. Okay guess I can't do that.
13. DA 1st round again?!! RNG???!??!??!?!!!
14. Big balls and tried to aggressively do two Chaos Drives at the start after I still had high health after the first. No Rocket Punches landed but I got Encircled?
15. I took on a new approach from here - Magic Lamp Carbuncle in between the first and second Wave cannons if possible, and if not right after the second. Hope I don't get two in a row as it starts its no interrupt and instead get a bounced Blaster/Delta Attack. Of course I got two in a row.
16. Blaster, instadead.
17. Survived and made it through with an active Carbuncle into the no interrupt portion. I relentlessly attacked and got it down to 24486HP! Then I missed the AD heal and died to the last Wave Cannon before the script restarts.
18. DA 1st round.
19. DA 1st round. This isn't a luck manipulation thing, this is the game fucking me in the ass repeatedly.
20. DA 1st round. This is so rigged.
21  Blaster, instadead.
22. Made it through the Wave Cannon phase, but because I got the AD heal after the attack in between, needed to Carbuncle after. 30381HP, missed the AD heal before the next Wave Cannon.
23. Failed second AD heal.
24. Landed the overaggressive second Chaos Drive at the start and got away with it, it didn't matter because I got the back to back Wave Cannon instead of Blaster/Delta Attack.
25. Failed first AD heal
26. DA 1st round.
26. Failed second AD heal.
27. Did this one without a preemptive because I was bored. And then wow, Maelstrom. Rude.
28. DA 1st round.
29. Landed overaggresive Chaos Drive, again got back to back Wave Cannon.
30. And again, though this time just missed the second AD heal.
31. DA 1st round.
32. Blaster, instadead.
33. I can't believe I can't keep getting away with overaggressive Chaos Drives. I also can't believe I keep getting screwed over for other reasons when I do.
34. DA 1st round.
35. Encircle. Huh. I'm all right with that given it happened right away and it wasn't DA 1st round.
36. Failed first AD heal. By the way when I write this, it means John Connor got Rocket Punched and I needed to heal, and didn't. Second AD heal is after the first Wave Cannon.
37. DA 1st run. It stands for dumbass.
38. Insta-Encircle.
39. Failed first AD heal.
40. Failed first AD heal.
41. Did not get away with an aggressive Chaos Drive.
42. Did get away with it, but I needed to bounce a Death off Omega because I used Carbuncle second. It hit but didn't proc.
43. Blaster, insta-death.
44. Blaster, insta-death. These and DA are the worst, 'you don't even get to try, bitch'
45. Failed second AD heal. What happened to my luck from before?
46. Blaster, insta-death.
47. Blaster, insta-death. Hello?
48. Blaster, insta-death. Now it's doing this garbage.
49. Aggressive Chaos Drive, made it through, then couldn't get the next AD heal. It had 17115HP at this point.
50. DA 1st round. A fitting way to end, for now at least - stuff came up as I was doing this and 50 is a nice round number. Maybe I should've picked something less insane? I'll probably try it with Dragoon when I have more spare time.

So yeah. That extreme trolling aside...if Necro can survive until after the second no-interrupt section it should be able to get it done from there. But man, apparently the game had it out for me when I was trying it - never seen it anywhere near that bad before. Jesus. >_<

[T-hawk]

FYI all, I split the Bravely stuff out into a new thread. There's enough activity here with Final Fantasy.

[English Language]

Sorry about that, wasn't expecting it to turn into a full-on discussion when I first brought it up there.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

It's nowhere near as impressive or masochistic as the stuff others here have done, but I did a 4 Freelancer run and a 4 Blue Mage playthrough on my Playstation 2 some time ago after reading a few of Sullla's reports.  The solo runs are fun to read about, but they don't sound like they're fun to play based on the luck factor.  (i.e. Will Exdeath start the fight with Condemn or not?) 

Few traditional Japanese RPGs have equipment with effects as diverse as Final Fantasy 5, so the Freelancers were much more fun than a class with no abilities would make you think.  The Bravely series doesn't have an experience quite like that.

Which FF game will y'all do next now that you've pretty much exhausted FF5's possibilities?  Tactics is the obvious choice, but a lot has been written about that game elsewhere.  Final Fantasy 3 has a job system, but there are obnoxious parts such as areas that require the party to be in Mini status and a long final dungeon with no save points.