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Hello! It's been a while since I've posted here, since I haven't been playing many video games in a while. I've been busy with work and reading books for Goodreads instead. Now, I'm thinking about a playthrough for a game that hasn't been featured here: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
Tactics Advance isn't nearly as popular as its PS1 predecessor, and it's easy to see why. The law system can be abominable if you get into a fight where your only method of attack is penalized. Jobs are restricted to race. It takes a long time to get from the beginning of the game to the first point you can save.
The game opens with a long, unskippable cutscene to develop the main characters, in addition to a snowball fight tutorial. Marche is our hero, who looks like some identical descendant of Ramza from the original Tactics. Ritz has pink hair, and fights both bullies and sexism. (It was weird hearing the antagonists make comments about her being a girl when several of the randomly generated NPCs were female. . .) Mewt is the boy who's always being taunted and beat up by the other kids. Including my team in the snowball fight so I could end the tutorial as fast as possible.
(I think the fight is programmed to end if Mewt goes down to 1 HP, but I'm not certain.)
Mewt buys the Gran Grimoire from a shop, and all the kids discuss which book or game they would like to live in. Mewt chooses Final Fantasy, of course! No, Sullla, not FF1. Mewt probably has FF12 in mind, since races such as the bangaa exist in both games.
That night, the world is transformed into Ivalice. Many people on other sites say Marche is a villain for wanting to stop this, but you see townsfolk changing into the fantasy races and such, so to me it seems more like the world is being overwritten rather than creating a new one outright.
A fight begins shortly after Marche calls a random bangaa "lizard". A Moogle Black Mage named Montblanc decides to help him. The fight was pretty easy. Marche's Soldier stats and sword made the fight easy, with a little help from the AI controlled Montblanc. The bangaa was thrown in jail after a post-battle cutscene because he violated the "No Item" law of the day. The justice system must be based on soccer/fútbol, because yellow cards are given for misdemeanors, and red cards mean "be teleported to the clink".
Montblanc invited me to join his clan and give it a name. I chose "Clan of 1". As you have probably guessed, this is going to be a solo playthrough, or at least as close as the game will allow. It probably won't be a single job version, but if I settle on a really good class, it might become one. After this scene, I saved for the first time, with a time of 22 minutes.
Abilities are learned from equipment, in a similar fashion to FF9. Stat growth is affected by your job, so staying too long in a melee job can be bad for your spellcasting if you want to change later. Therefore, it's important for me to pick a job route early. The human jobs work like this:
Base Class-Advanced Class
Soldier-Paladin, Fighter
Thief-Ninja
Archer-Hunter
Black Mage, White Mage-Blue Mage, Illusionist
I know y'all want to make me use Blue Mage, but you can't learn some of its abilities without a Nu Mou Beastmaster. I'm considering either Thief/Ninja, or Archer/Hunter.
Like Legend of Mana, the map is based around placing icons on a map. Also like Legend of Mana, I have no idea what beneficial effects icon placement has.
I won't be doing all the side missions, because there are way too many for my patience. I've still play some.
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."
T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.
August 7th, 2018, 11:44
(This post was last modified: August 7th, 2018, 12:36 by Herman Gigglethorpe.)
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The first mission in FFTA, "Herb Picking" was much more difficult for a solo character than the innocuous title made it sound. It took several tries to get it right. I finally succeeded with an Archer using the Char Bow.
Montblanc was mandatory, so I had him wander around the field while the goblins and fairy punched him to death. With this low of a stat advantage, you have to resort to tricks like this. Making him kill himself was a bit too much effort, since his spells had about 2/3 accuracy at best. (I have plans for Montblanc later on. He will suffer an "accident" in a Jagd. )
The Char Bow was essential for its "Blackout" ability, which has a 50-70% chance of inflicting blindness on an enemy depending on positioning. Blindness reduces accuracy and evasion, and sometimes makes the enemy AI try to avoid you instead of attacking. It doesn't heal with time either. With Blackout, I could give them status ailments and chip away at their health. Healing items take up an action slot, but there's no Chemist class requirement in FFTA. Believe me, I needed Potions and Hi Potions.
"Snow in Lutia" was a side mission I could complete without Montblanc. It took many attempts due to unlucky accuracy RNG, but otherwise it was similar to Herb Picking.
"Prof in Trouble" was different enough to be interesting. The fight was against 3 zombies and 2 Flans, and both monster types had their gimmicks. Flans could only be hit for 1 HP without magic damage, and zombies could revive themselves 3 rounds after they were knocked out. With my Archer setup, I could defeat neither. Fortunately, the "Prof in Trouble" was Auggie, a competent Nu Mou AI. With his Drain spell, he knocked out the 2 Flans, and he used Potions on the zombies to harm them. I healed Auggie once with one of my Hi Potions and blinded a few of the enemies. After the Flans were dead, it was time to finish off the zombies with Hi Potions.
You'd have to pay close attention to notice it, but the zombies had the same names as the bullies in the tutorial. Undeath is what happens if you cross Mewt.
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."
T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.
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Quote:(I have plans for Montblanc later on. He will suffer an "accident" in a Jagd. )
That's so cruel, kupo
August 7th, 2018, 14:58
(This post was last modified: August 7th, 2018, 19:15 by Herman Gigglethorpe.)
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(August 7th, 2018, 13:56)Grotsnot Wrote: That's so cruel, kupo
Ha! I'm glad someone's enjoying this playthrough. I have an update on various side missions too.
One Wanted! mission was easier than I thought. It was my first confrontation with an entire party of humanoids. This included a few Bangaa fighters, a Viera Archer, a Human Thief, and their boss, a Nu Mou. Heavy use of Blackout was the way to go, and the Nu Mou had low enough health to be taken out with two shots or so.
"Fire! Fire!" had one blooper. I tried healing myself with a Hi Potion, only to get a yellow card. Stupid laws! The Bombs were too evasive for Blackout to do much good, so I settled for regular attacks.
"Frosty Mage" was a tricky one. I managed to enter the battle with a law banning "Ice", but the judge would only give yellow cards no matter how often Gelato the Nu Mou Black Mage cast Blizzard and Blizzara. The judges are about as fair as Professor Snape is to Gryffindors. This took many attempts until the RNG went my way somewhat. Blinding with Blackout helped as usual. One trick that can help early in the game is "Combo". Even with only one JP, it can work as a perfect accuracy regular attack.
After these missions, I finished learning Blackout and upgraded to the Thorn Bow. Aim: Leg isn't nearly as good an ability for a solo character, because immobilization is temporary. It's best to stick with Blackout. Still, I need to learn abilities to graduate to the Hunter class, and this is as good as any, I guess.
My current stats and equipment:
Level 8 Archer
HP: 94
MP: 23
Weapon Atk: 178
Weapon Def: 184
Magic Pow: 107
Magic Res: 137
Speed: 113
Move: 4
Jump: 2
Evade: 52
Thorn Bow
Chain Plate
Green Beret
Gauntlets
EDIT/UPDATE: The only mission left at this point was "Thesis Hunt". Some bandits had stolen an academic thesis , and only my solo character could retrieve it. (Bandits are always early game foes. Raiding the king's highway must not be a viable career in fantasy worlds.) These were especially stupid bandits who stole the wrong thesis! The Nu Mou White Mage tried to haggle the fee down, but the bandits told him to pay up. Then the battle started.
I used mostly the same tactics that carried me through the previous fights. Mostly blinding everyone with Blackout. The law prohibited "Swords", so the Soldiers didn't attack me as far as I could tell. The Thieves did, since "Knives" are a separate category. Maybe certain enemies are programmed to break the law, and "minor" characters are obedient? Whatever the case, it was an easy fight thanks to my level advantage. Montblanc was mandatory because it was a story mission, so he distracted the enemies until they all ganged up and killed him again.
After the fight, Montblanc brought up "clan wars". Think of clans as gangs that fight for turf, except oddly law-abiding. This opens up extra missions. "Clan" is included automatically in the name of your gang, but I didn't realize that at the time. Mine is always called "Clan Clan of 1" in the dialogue now.
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."
T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.
August 10th, 2018, 08:47
(This post was last modified: August 10th, 2018, 11:50 by Herman Gigglethorpe.)
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Hello again! Now that I finally have a bit of time *knock on wood*, it's time to play some FFTA!
"Fowl Thief" was an unusually easy side mission. My only opponent was a solo Thief, and he was easily dispatched after I blinded him with Blackout.
"White Flowers" wasn't difficult, but I still played cautiously. The enemy rounds are a bit slow in this game, so a lot of the fight was spent watching giant ants and goblins shuffle around. After all of them were afflicted with blindness, I finished them off with arrows.
After those, there was nothing left to do but take on the 3rd story mission, "The Cheetahs". Ritz the fencer and her Viera Archer friend Shara joined the fight as guest characters. I needed them, too. The enemy party was a standard clan of bandits, with an Archer, a Black Mage, a Fighter, and a White Monk. (White Monks are a Bangaa-exclusive class that works a bit like the Monk from FFT.)
Unfortunately, the enemy Archer shared my passive Block Arrows ability! That meant Ritz had to finish him off for me. "Combo" ignores abilities like that, but I could only use it once by the time I bothered to attack the Archer. If I were smart, I would have hit the Archer with combo after each time I killed another enemy. Oh well, it was a victory anyway! Blackout helped somewhat.
After all those missions, I mastered enough active Archer abilities to unlock the Hunter class at last. Hunters are recommended for human physical characters thanks to their high stat growths and anti-monster active abilities. The test mission for the Hunter class was "Village Hunt" in the Eluut Sands arena.
"Village Hunt" was a standard battle against giant ants and wolves, but the arena had more tactical potential than the previous battlefields. There was a small alcove near the starting position, so only one enemy could attack me at a time as long as I remained there. The ants and wolves also suffered an accuracy penalty because they were attacking me from the front. The Hunter's Sonic Boom area of effect attack could damage multiple monsters at once too. No Blackout this time, because I needed healing items too much to use the 2nd ability slot on Archer abilities.
Although I have the Hunter class now, I may not use it for every battle. Future encounters with Flans and Block Arrows units could require different abilities.
Ramza Marche's current abilities:
Level 10, Hunter
HP: 108
MP: 25
Weapon Atk: 196
Weapon Def: 198
Magic Pow: 120
Magic Res: 153
Speed: 117
Move: 4
Jump: 2
Evade: 57
Weapon: Cranequin
Armor: Chain Plate
Hat: Green Beret
Accessory: Gauntlets
Active Abilities: Hunt, Item
Reflex Ability: Block Arrows
Combo: Combat Combo
MINI-UPDATE: "Desert Peril" was a doozy, and purely because of the yellow Flan. Flans take 1 damage from any non-magic attack. I tried doing it the slow way with a Hunter because I thought "Oust" could boot it out of the arena, but every time I was about to use it, it had a 0% success rate. Maybe it doesn't work in story missions? You don't know despair in a Final Fantasy game until you see a Flan heal itself with magic after you've hit it repeatedly with 1 damage attacks. . .
Then I switched to a Black Mage setup. Blizzara could kill the Flan in one hit. After that, I headed for the Eluut Sands alcove as quickly as possible. That's not easy for a Black Mage with a reduced Move stat. Blizzaras and melee Combos wiped out the wolves and ants. Heavy healing item use was necessary.
Stat growths are tied to what class you level up as, so I may have to gain a few levels as a Black Mage to have viable magic stats for future Flan encounters. In a solo run, you're not going for optimal stats, just the ones you need to survive.
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."
T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.
August 10th, 2018, 18:14
(This post was last modified: August 10th, 2018, 19:05 by Herman Gigglethorpe.)
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Time for another update, since this thread isn't on the top of the list.
"Clan Roundup" was a standard encounter with a diverse group of bandits, and they were defeated with the usual Hunter tactics. Their human Thief leader tried to shake me down for 3000 gil, but they didn't know how bloodthirsty a solo character could be.
"Twisted Flow", the fifth story mission, was more significant. It took place at the Ulei River, but the battlefield wasn't the typical swamp. Ramza Marche was sent through a "wrinkle in space" to some ancient ruins. (The FFTA writing staff owes Madeleine L'Engle royalties for that line.) Marche was mistaken for an intruder out to damage the crystal, so it was time to fight the first Totema, Famfrit! Totemas are summons tied to JP, and can deal either HP or MP damage when called.
Famfrit took a while to fight. He had many of those one-eyed flying monsters ("Ahriman" in some FF games. Maybe "Tuerto", the Spanish word for "one-eyed", might be a better name?) with him, and the combined damage output from their regular attacks hurt. Famfrit itself could use Demi to drain half my health, slap me with a regular attack, or unleash Breath of God to deal around 77 damage or so. 77 damage was a big deal in a game where I had a max HP in the 120s!
Eventually, I managed to head to a corner where I could try to hit them with Sonic Boom and heal with X Potions. One low point of the fight was missing all four or so enemies with Sonic Boom and activating a counterattack. After all the eye monsters were dead, I hit Famfrit with basic arrow attacks until it was defeated. Famfrit turned out to be a Moogle-exclusive summon, and I don't think the human Totema comes until much later. The crystal was destroyed after the fight, and a mysterious voice said if all of them were destroyed, Ivalice would dissolve and reveal a new world.
A cutscene played revealing Mewt was the prince of Ivalice, and his father Cid controlled all the judges. They decided to make the laws harsher after the first crystal was destroyed. Marche met the Nu Mou libertarian Ezel, who hinted at the possibility of magically nullifying the laws.
EDIT: The 6th story mission "Antilaws" began after that cutscene by walking back to Cadoan. The usual Hunter setup won this battle. I tried Soldier at first, but that wasn't strong enough to defeat the powerful band of enemies. They had a Ninja, a Gladiator, a Fighter, and an Illusionist. Ezel was an AI partner in this battle, and he spent most turns casting Azoth, a sleep spell that hits all enemies. (Think Olan from FFT, but much weaker.) Ezel died during the fight, so I had to carry on with Sonic Boom and regular attacks. When the fight was over, law and antilaw cards were introduced in a cutscene. You can trade them at Ezel's shop in Cadoan.
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."
T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.
Posts: 3,135
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Joined: Feb 2018
I played a bit of FFTA today. Random battles are good for grinding ability points in this game, since they give 50 each and usually aren't too difficult even for a solo character. I took advantage of this to max out two throwaway Thief abilities (Steal Gil and Steal Exp) in order to unlock the Ninja class. Ninjas work much like you'd expect in a Final Fantasy game, with high Speed, dual wielding and the ability to throw weapons. They also have ranged status ailment inducing skills.
Why am I doing this? Hunter skills can only take you so far. Random enemies, including monsters, have an annoying tendency to have Block Arrows. Unlike FFT, reaction abilities seem to be 100% reliable in this game. Anyone with Block Arrows is immune to all Archer and Hunter attacks and abilities. Only Combo is exempt. This happened with one of the eye monsters in the Famfrit mission. So I want a melee class as a backup, preferably a fast one. FFTA is a clocktick turn system, not a "Player Phase/Enemy Phase" tactical RPG like Fire Emblem, so Speed is the most important stat.
Thieves are surprisingly good if equipped with an up-to-date knife. When I changed Ramza Marche to a Thief, his melee attacks hit considerably harder than the Hunter's bow attacks. The class can learn Counter when equipped with the Brigandine, so every melee fighter will be stabbed even if their attacks miss. I may stay in the Thief class long enough to master it, then switch to Ninja.
However, Black Mage will still be necessary for the next story mission. It features my favorite enemy, the Flan.
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."
T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.
Posts: 3,135
Threads: 25
Joined: Feb 2018
After grinding ability points to unlock the Counter ability, I started the "Diamond Rain" mission. It was pure story filler, and was just an excuse to fight a few monsters. The previous time I tried this fight, the ice dragons' high attack power (47 damage or so) was too much for me. This time, I had a plan: Start the mission when the laws ban "Ice". Turns out monsters are subject to the Ivalice justice system, and will obey its arbitrary statutes. Who knew?
The ice Flan was mostly helpless, and the only thing it could do was try to use a low accuracy random status ailment ability. The dragons still had their regular attack, and the correct answer was to head to a corner and heal with X Potions when necessary. The Lamia poisoned me, which was a minor hindrance. Poison isn't nearly as deadly in FF as in, say, Etrian Odyssey. Thundara was the best spell here because there was a Bomb who would absorb Fire. I guess I should have gained some ability points to learn the -ra spells permanently, and maybe I will do that before the next mission.
Current stats:
Level 16 Black Mage
HP: 146
MP: 44
Weapon Atk: 226
Weapon Def: 229
Magic Pow: 168
Magic Res: 237
Speed: 126
Move: 4
Jump: 2
Evade: 37
Weapon: Thunder Rod
Armor: Blaze Robe
Accessory1: Dash Boots (+1 Move)
Accessory2: Scarab (Immobilize, Disarm, and Frog immunity)
Hat: Green Beret
You can see how much leveling up in physical classes affected my stats. That Magic Pow is pathetic for a Black Mage, but I only need it to kill Flans! I'm a melee character pretending to be a wizard.
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."
T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.
August 14th, 2018, 13:52
(This post was last modified: August 14th, 2018, 13:54 by Herman Gigglethorpe.)
Posts: 3,135
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Joined: Feb 2018
"Hot Awakening", the next story mission was rather strange with my setup. It was a totema boss fight against several stationary Ultima Crystals. They had a basic melee attack and an ability called Logos that could debuff my attack and charm me. I guess the developers intended the boss to charm various party members to make them kill themselves, but that strategy was useless against a solo character!
I used the Black Mage with Blizzara to win, because I was expecting a fire-themed boss, and Black Mage could wear the Blaze Robe. Charm couldn't kill me, but it could make the fight take as much time as it takes Mary Worth comics to resolve a storyline. Ramza Marche spent much of the fight sitting around waiting to "come to".
After the fight, Mewt yelled at Marche for making his memories of the "real world" return, such as his mom's death. Our protagonist then realizes he's trapped in Mewt's dream.
EDIT: Before Hot Awakening, I took on the side mission "Hot Recipe". It was a fight on a volcano with red dragons and Bomb enemies. Guess which armor and job I used.
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."
T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.
Posts: 3,135
Threads: 25
Joined: Feb 2018
The mid-game mission of the FFTA story involved. . .preventing a clan of Moogles and Vieras from chopping down trees in the Koringwood? Why does Ramza Marche care? He wants to replace Ivalice with the real world, so he has no regard for this fantasy world's laws. There's a throwaway line at the end involving looking for the next crystal, but that's it as far as motivation goes.
A Sniper, a Black Mage, a Summoner, an Archer, a Time Mage, and two Thieves were my opponents. They were about 9 levels lower, but the enemy turns are so slow-paced it still took a while. I went with Ninja in case I leveled up and gained Speed. Unfortunately, the katana that grants dual wielding isn't available in the stores, so I have to get lucky with side missions or random battles. My tactics were mostly just regular attacks and Combo strikes. The Ninja's temporary status ailment abilities probably aren't worth it at this point. (Think the Geomancer in FFT and you'll have the right impression.)
The fight may have gone faster if I went with Black Mage and Block Arrows. I made sure to master Blizzara and Thundara in case a future mission throws a rainbow of Flans at me. Side quests are harder to obtain from here on out, because many of them require you to raise your clan's stats. How do you do that? By sending generic party members on "dispatch" missions. No, Montblanc isn't eligible. It might be impossible to do most of the side quests if I don't have a dummy character solely for dispatches. But it would feel dirty if I had an extra member in "Clan Clan of 1"!
What do y'all think? Should I just press on with the story and ignore the side missions I can't access purely with my solo character, or should I get a dispatch mule?
Current stats:
Level 20 Ninja
Weapon Atk: 267
Weapon Def: 243
Magic Pow: 200
Magic Res: 244
Speed: 130
Weapon: Osafune
Hat: Green Beret
Armor: None (A Moogle stole my Brigandine!)
Accessory 1: Dash Boots
Accessory 2: Scarab
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."
T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.
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