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Tournaments / Another mad creation from Hojo's lab: nominations and exhibition

« on: April 07, 2024, 07:22:46 AM »

  So I had this nutty idea for an exhibition match bouncing inside of my head for a while now and finally decided frick it, lets roll.  Seeking 32 duelers to combat a twisted mystery creation that Hojo has cooked up in his lab.

Nomination process -

Up to 8 noms per person; you're not compelled to use them all.

Order matters as the fighter list will be seeded by an equal number of top picks from each nominator, with the remainder chosen by RNG.

It's suggested to choose 2 fighters from each of the 4 divisions but I'm gonna be lazy and am unlikely to enforce it.  With the setup I have in mind, higher divisions are not necessarily an automatic superior choice.

And that's it.  Pretty simple, no?  Noms will be open for a week though I may extend it at my discretion depending on turnout.

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General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: April 06, 2024, 02:42:49 AM »

Believe I've reached a point in FFX postgame where I'm not progressing without some serious stat grinding (or Zamato, which I'm not going to use).

Dark Bahamut looks impossible with my 25-30ish Luck and 100-150 Defense.  Physicals barely land due to the Luck differential and it has stiff defenses so my only form of offense to get around that are Nova, items, and story Aeon Overdrives for one shot of 99,999 each.  Then there's Impulse, which is death at my defenses and total status havoc even with maxed Defense.

Dark Anima has the same issue of getting damage past its defenses as dark Bahamut: stiff defense and magic defense and inflated Luck to evade my Celestial weapon physicals.  Mega Graviton also causes status hell to all but my one Ribbon user.  (Doom taking someone out as a bad time can very well spell defeat) No counters to deal with at least but double the HP.  At least max Defense doesn't appear to be a requirement to handle this fight.

Dark Yojimbo also has high Luck but notably lower magic defense.  So I can damage him without stat grinding Luck.  Instead, it has sheer offensive brutality in Wakazashi to delete the party whenever it feels like it.  I don't think I'm getting past this one without max Defense. (as well as preparing to handle the status crap)

Yeah, could grind out the necessary stats and materials to craft the needed armors.  But nah, I'm good with peacing out of this one and calling it as done as I'll ever get it.

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General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: March 09, 2024, 04:59:58 AM »

FFX HD Remaster

  Picked up my postgame file again and finished up a bunch of captures for Nemesis.  Down to about 7 more species to go; one of the unfortunately being Tonberry so that's going to suck.  Beat up Earth Eater a few times for more Fortune Spheres during the process.  Somewhere, decided to give Dark Shiva a try.  Pulled off a victory with an underleveled party, to my pleasant surprise.  Well, underleveled relative to what the guides suggest for it.  The stat benchmarks:

Strength: 149 for Wakka, 255 for Anima.  Immaterial for everyone else.  Tidus and Auron both with over 160 weren't cracking 100k damage with Slice and Dice and Tornado anyways.  (doesn't help that I flubbed the Tornado input)
Defense: Doesn't matter as everything Dark Shiva did killed the target.
Magic: 100 or so for Kimahri for reliable 99999 Nova.  Ended up unused on anyone else.  Dark Shiva has extreme magic defense so spell weren't going to be doing a whole lot anyways.
Magic Defense: Doesn't matter, no attacks are subject to magic defense here.
Agility: 160ish for Rikku, 110-130 for Tidus, Yuna, Wakka.  Kimahri was on the right side of 98 with Auron and Lulu trailing around 90.  (those familiar with the game mechanics will know there's no really functional difference between 110 and 160 for a character not starting the fight)
Accuracy and Evasion don't matter as I never used a standard physical and every incoming attack ignores evasion.
Luck doesn't matter either but I have done a bit of Luck boosting and everyone has values in the 20s.

HP was at 9999 for all but Lulu but the only value that matters is anything above zero.
MP is whatever as I didn't use a single MP dependent skill in the winning attempt.

I've knocked off enough Greater Spheres to have Auto-Phoenix armor for everyone besides Yuna.  Yuna sticks with her Auto-Haste + Auto-Protect setup.

Overdrive mode is Comrade for all.  Auron, Yuna, Rikku is the starting lineup.

Auron goes first thanks to First Strike.  Swap in Wakka and Attack Reels.
Yuna gets a turn thanks to auto-haste.  Swap in Tidus and Slice and Dice; the delay on Blitz Ace is too monsterous here.
Rikku may or may not get a turn depending on starting RNG.  Use it on an overdrive from Kimahri or Auron.

  Attack Reels was doing around 200k damage, which was my best offense by far.  After that opening, it's let auto-phoenix handle revival and pray I get a turn.  Dark Shiva is constantly double-acting and may get a triple or quad action depending on how it spreads out who its murdering.  Hopefully, I get a turn right before its Overdrive to swap in Rikku for Hyper Mighty G.  Otherwise, splat.

  Things actually came together in only two tries.  On the first go, got into a situation where one more attack would fill up Dark Shiva's Overdrive but I only had one turn.  So I went for Jinx and prayed that someone could sneak in an action after the next attack.  Oops, it turns out even the non-damaging Jinx charges the boss' Overdrive meter.  Total annihilation follows.

  So basically, my turns are spent attacking with Overdrives: Entrusing Overdrive to Wakka if his was empty, the user's full, and his turn was coming up before the boss' (this situation never came up): or Hyper Mighty G to live through Diamond Dust.  Lulu stole once to meet the action quota and did nothing else of note.  Yuna's only role is to summon Anima to drop Oblivion as a finisher for the Overkill.  4 Attack Reels and some other overdrives from the dudes and Dark Shiva is worn down enough for Anima to deliver the killshot.

  Auto-Phoenix MVP; it was the decisive factor in being able to manage (read: flub) my way past this fight.  Had a good run where Dark Shiva tended to avoid bullying Wakka long enough for him to get turns to fire off Attack Reels and only needed to endure one Diamond Dust.  12 Phoenix Downs spent, a good return on item investment.  Equipment drop was a trashy weapon with only Icestrike but no way am I redoing this battle to try for something better. This marks my 4th dark aeon kill.  4 left though I don't know if I'll ever go after them for real.  I thought I'd peace out before Dark Shiva but it turns out I had the tools to win it without an enormous resource drain.

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General Chat / What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: January 22, 2024, 06:57:16 AM »

Might as well get things started with finishing up writeups from FFT Fiesta.

  Was being indecisive about what I needed for the final series.  For accessories, picked up 2 Rubber Shoes (just in case though I don't plan to use them) and a 2nd Defense Armlet.  Grabbed a 2nd Red Shoes. (should have picked up a 3rd as well) Most of my remaining funds went to extra katanas for Draw Out.  Kikus and Murasames mostly with a few more Kotetsus and Heaven's Clouds.

UBS4

  Priest with Draw Out, Dancer with Punch Art and Martial Arts, Samurai also goes Punch Art + Martial Arts.  Blade Grasp on all.  The only really meaningful threat on the field is the lower leveled monk.  He dies to a Bolt3 from the mediator's Blast Gun and an Earth Slash from the dancer.  After that, it's just taking out everyone else.  Other monk, then archer, knights last.  I checked the knights' secondaries for anything that would threaten a full team of 80 Brave Blade Grasp, danger level nil.  Elemental boosted Blast Gun, Earth Slash, and Draw Out > enemy evasion.
  Did stall for a bit at the end.  Could have dropped the last knight with Holy but the first monk would crystalize first so I opted to wait a round to go for all the marbles.  Crystal which Felicia picks up.  Learn Counter and Move-HP up off it.  She now can master the class.  Only damage I take all fight is one arrow and random Throw Stone.

UBS5

  Everyone but the dancer is set up with a spell gun and a Black Robe if they can.  Arrange PBF to draw Rofel forward with a Petrify.  Firing squad executes him in three shots.

Morund Death City

  Priest and mediator go in squad 2, everyone else in squad 1.  Mediator, monk, and samurai have Hamedo and keep Blade Grasp on the rest.  I give the dancer a Bracer and a Power Sleeve to go with her Thief Hat.  Punch Art and Martial Arts on her and the samurai.  Move Ramza exactly 3 panels from his default location.  Kletian comes forward to charge Holy on the dancer.  Ninja on squad 2 side goes for Throw on the Mediator, Hamedo.  Other enemies advance doing nothing.  Dancer advances with a Spin Fist on Kletian, a ninja, and a time mage hitting all three. (this is the only time I've used Spin Fist all game)  Mediator shoots ninja dead.  Priest does nothing of importance: using Kiku on a samurai just for the action.  Monk Ramza punches Kletian for 210.  Wave Fist from the samurai does enough to drop him.

Death City Presincts

  My female Gemini's turn to be the priest.  I give her Blast Gun, Thief Hat, Black Robe, and Red Shoes and set Hamedo.  Samurai Artemis gets a Blaze Gun, Black Robe, and Hamedo.  Everyone else sticks with Blade Grasp.  Defense Armlets on the members unable to wear Thief Hats.
  I messed up PBF placement putting the female Gemini in squad 2.  So Balk ends up shooting at Artemis on his first turn instead.  Gun Hamedo.  Priest moves up and Kiku on Balk for 160. (and the hyudra)  Enemy Chemist tosses a Hi-Potion on the hyudra, not that it matters.  Monk Earth Slash on two, 40 to Balk.  Samurai and mediator shoot the hydra dead.  Dancer starts Nameless.  Balk gets his second turn and shoots at the female Gemini.  Just as planned.  Gun Hamedo procs a Bolt2 leaving him at 124 HP.  She does 153 with the Blast Gun allowing me to end it right there.  Easiest Balk 2 fight I've ever had.  And hey, that 40 damage Earth Slash mattered.  Dancer doesn't get any actions this battle.

Hashulam

  Black Costumes for all but priest and samurai to ward of Spell.  Hamedo on monk and samurai with the rest sticking with Blade Grasp.  MagicDefend Up on all.
   Turned out to be very straightforward bashing.  Hash mostly stuck to hitting 3-5 units at a time with magic but MagicDefend Up (and Move-HP up on the two who had it learned) along with Chakra, Murasame, and the occasional Cure were sufficient to keep up.  If someone got low enough to die to a physical, well that's why I have Hamedo on the two units with decent physicals.  Priest supports and uses Draw Out.  Monk and samurai go between offense and support as needed.  Mediator shoots,  Dancer uses Kiku or Slow Dance if not able to get a good fining line/offense would require too much bunching up.  Hash couldn't really get damage to stick and went down like a chump.  No Slow procs from Heaven's Cloud but didn't really need it anyways.

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Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2023 Round 6, Winners Semi/Losers 3: Godlike is Doglike this week

« on: September 24, 2023, 08:16:37 PM »

Red XIII (FF7) vs. Elena (G2)  Uh yeah.  Even if Elena has something in her toolkit to avoid being two-shotted, I don't see her avoiding a Limit.

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Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2023 Round 5, Losers Pools 2: A Dispute Among Three Houses

« on: September 16, 2023, 10:39:44 PM »

Boco (FFT) vs. Selphie(FF8)  Boco could theoretically bypass limit range with a high damage critical.  Selphie will have gotten a decisive Limit long before that happens which means I'm not putting in the effort to math it out.  Rapture ends things on the spot.  Wall buys extra time to keep spinning for something good.  Even Aura is on the table thanks to Boco's low offense after which she might even get the The End spellset for overkill finisher, to say nothing of multi-Meteor, Flare, or Ultima.

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Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2023 Round 3, Losers' Pools 1: BERSERKER CRUSH PUNY HARPS.

« on: August 29, 2023, 03:42:10 AM »

Edward (FF4) vs. Berserker (FF5)  I don't recall if Berserker has any sort of Charm resistance.  Charm harp does horrible things here.

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General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: August 29, 2023, 02:55:58 AM »

FFT Fiesta Chapter 4, part 2
(priest, monk, mediator, samurai, dancer)

  Some very welcome upgrades after Bethla.  Flash Hats are fantastic.  Black Costumes will be very useful in some upcoming fights.  Kikuichimonji is nice not so much for swinging (though still an improvement) and more for its long rangel Draw Out.  Only Nall has the spare samurai JP for the skill at the moment but it's something. Finally get to restock on various katanas; haven't been in a trade city since before the Colliery series.  Also opt to bring my stack of 108 Gems up to 3 along with buying two more Angel Rings.  Had around half a million Gil before, spent around half or so before proceeding on.

Germinas Peak

  The ninja is the primary target to eliminate; everyone else is mostly shut down by Blade Grasp.  I actually messed up and didn't do quite enough damage to take him out, was fortunate he only did 80 to the dancer before retreating.  The enemies tended to spread out in ways that I'm not multihitting them with Draw Out or Earth Slash, necessitating taking them down one at a time.  Did get one instance where I was able to tag multiple with a Kiku, very satisfying damage from priest Nall with Wizard Staff, Flash Hat, and Red Shoes.  Mediator did most of the damage; spell gun, Black Robe and 81 Faith enemies lead to disgusting amounts of pain.   Holy was not relevant, CTs just not lining up.  The few Nameless Dances used didn't land anything more significant than Sleep but even one snoozing enemy is a decent help.
  But when it comes down to it, this is a very routine "beat down the enemies without getting killed myself" exercise.  Got a box from the ninja, finished fight before any other death countdowns expired.

Poeskas Lake

  Maybe I shouldn't have tried to off the lower level Revenant so early as it led to an undead Archer taking the high ground to take shots at the units busting that ghost.  Thus making it more tiresome to chase down that runaway spirit.  Basic battle plan of beat down the ghosts then chase down the undead humans.  Blade Grasp turns away the many incoming arrows.  Did get a cool moment where I reflected a Cure 3 off the samurai's Reflect Mail all the way across the map onto the undead summoner, which sent it into critical and it ran away without getting to do anything.  Undead oracle is sent to critical with a single Ice3 from the mediator's spell gun (boosted with Black Robe again) and joins the undead summoner in huddling in the corner.   While I was able to entice one archer to come to lower ground, the other stayed up high in the enemies' starting area and was an annoying git to close in to beat down.  One ghost revived but was quickly beaten down again.  Dancer did some Slow Dances as slowing the undead also delays how quickly they rise back up.  Summoner got nailed twice, oracle once.  None landed on any archers though which were the ones I most wanted to slow down.  Ironically, oracle was the last enemy to go down.  It did attempt a Blind Rage, which makes a comical "too little, too late" moment and got killed before it went off.  On the plus side, everyone has reached Lv 35 for the Speed point.

Gates of Limberry

  Everyone gets some form of status protection, be it Black Costume, Chameleon Robe, or Reflect Mail (turns away Apanda Bio spells).  Monk is female so has the Barrate. Celia opens with Shadow Stitch on Nall. (whatever, don't need him)  Lede can't reach anyone for Shadow Stitch so comes down and charges Ultima on the dancer.  Gunshot and a Kotetsu from the priest take her to critical and ends the fight right there.

Halls of Limberry

  The three 108 Gems go on the mediator, priest, and samurai.  Monk gets the Barette.  Only Dancer is vulnerable to Blood Suck but with her low HP, don't expect that status to become an issue.  Mediator gets Hamedo while the rest I go with Regenerator as I anticipate being hit by lots of things that bypass Blade Grasp/Hamedo.  Magic Defend Up on the team.  Mediator Nall sets Item.  Samurai Artemis has Punch Art secondary.  Dancer sets Draw Out and has a Flash Hat and Red Shoes for the added MA.  Priest goes with the standard Draw Out.
  Magic Defend Up on all may have been a mistake; leaving it off the dancer may have been a better option.  I completely messed up on baiting Ultimas.  Elmdor Muramasas the girls, confusion on the Dancer. (not good as I'm losing her Kotetsu damage)  Lede Shadow Stitch on Artemis.  Celia goes for Throw on Nall; gun Hamedo intercepts.  My turn.  Nall shoots Celia, sending her to critical.  Priest Felicia launches a Holy at Elmdor for 304.  Monk Earth Slashes Elmdor for 60.  Confused Dancer attempts a 40% physical on Celia, whiff.  Enemies turn.  Elmdor offs Felicia with a physical.  Lede instakills the stopped Artemis.  Celia finishes off the dancer and runs away.
  At this point, I screwed up.  Should have had Nall Phoenix Down Felicia instead of shooting Lede.  Another 60 Earth Slash on Elmdor.  Elmdor and Lede gangbeat the monk.  (another misstep, Hamedo would have saved her).  It's a full HP Nall and a field of corpses.  Have him Phoenix Down Felicia who gets an immediate turn due to CTs synching up and launches a desperation Kotetsu on Elmdor and Lede.  132 to Elmdor drops him low enough to run.
  So I won but it was a messy one with so many errors on my part.  Also, the rare instance of Phoenix Down making the difference between victory and defeat: the first time that's occurred during this playthrough.

Limberry underground

Preparations: Chameleon Robe on Priest and Samurai.  Black Costumes on the others.  Black Costume users all get Angel Rings too.  Hamedo on monk and samurai; Blade Grasp on others.  MagicDefend Up all around.  Red Shoes on Priest.  Germinas for Samurai.  Nall (the Priest) also learned Heaven's Cloud.

Mistake #1: Throwing people with 3 Jump into the water is a terrible idea; they're forced to take the long way out.  Should have just taken the lumps from skeleton physicals.
Mistake #2: Having the dancer open up with Nameless Dance.  She gets put to sleep by Nightmare before one activates.  A Slow Dance would have gone off before Zalera's second turn.
Mistake #3: Poor target prioritzation.  Would probably be smarter to get undead into dead or critical rather than go for a round 1 Holy on Zalera just because it would hit in time.

  Zalera has too much HP for a blitz strategy to be successful.  So I went with a defensive one based around drawing lots of Nightmare and hoping for Death Sentence while wearing down the opposition.  Mostly worked out, given that I still won first try, but execution could have been improved.  Maybe then I wouldn't have ended up in a situation with 4 sleeping team members and only the mediator awake.  At one point, Zalera drops a Confuse 2 on two of the sleeping units along with Meliadoul.  Game really had it out for me because Melly,

A. Had Battle Skill set.
B.  Had Head Break learned.
C. Saw fit to attempt Head Break on sleeping Dancer, connecting on the 2nd attempt.  Goddammit, my Flash Hat.

That was the only broken gear too; the undead knights took a few swings but thankfully missed.

Bone Snatch came back twice during the fight.  Other skeletons stay dead.  Undead knights were put into critical at some point and they retreat into a corner until Meliadoul wanders close enough to smack them.  All the while, I'm scrambling to keep people awake and unconfused with Stigma Magic and Esuna (first time I actually use Esuna all game) and taking what shots I can at Zalera.  There was a Spell on the Samurai at one point.  She has Stigma Magic for extra insult.  Still, Zalera doesn't really have the needed offense to kill anyone in one shot as long as I keep HP above Flare 2 range so just keeps spamming status while I have Chakra and white magic so I have the resources to outlast a war of attrition.  Dancer eventually gets turns and connects a Slow Dance or two, tilting things ever so slightly more in my favor.
  After a long time, Zalera does flit over to the gravestone side of the arena.   This makes me nervous as the Living Bone had dropped a crystal over there.  To my horror, it looks like he'll snag it before I can get any of my units to grab it.  If I hadn't landed a kill with one last Heaven's Cloud and Zalera had picked it up, I would have reset in indignation.  This fight took nearly an hour and this is without any of the stalling I often do in normal play, just to give a sense of how drawn out this fight turned out.

  Meliadoul is added to the roster only to sit there unused.  I do have one other stop to make before plowing on.  Hike back to Zhargidas for Thief Hats and replacing the broken Flash Hat just because.  The random on the way there had a funny moment where enemies were bunched up for a 3 target Mimic Daravon that hits two in spite of its poor accuracy.  This is also the only time I've bothered with Mimic Daravon all chapter, crazily enough.  Anyhow, the other reason I'm at Zhargidas is that I want a Blast Gun and the rare battle at Germinas Peak is available now.  So I'm going to invite some chemists.  Set up the Dancer with Talk Skill secondary to double up on invites (the only time I set Talk Skill as a secondary all game), save, and prepare for a lot of resets.

  Amazingly, I get the desired battle on the very first try.  The Blast Gun chemist is present and there's a Glacier Gun and a Blaze Gun to be had as well.  With Blade Grasp on everyone, I'm not too worried about getting shot up but I put up a Shell before reaching them anyways.  Start up some Nameless Dance as well hoping for something useful.  Both monk and dancer are using it.  Only relevant status was a confusion, which was still useful as it cost them a turn to clear it.  I needn't have worried about damage.  With Blade Grasp and my high Brave, the gunners weren't inclined to shoot my team at all, favoring 5 damage Dashes instead.  Mediators did Death Sentence my priest at 35% but that's all they got done before taking them out.  Start spamming Invitation and support as needed, for both my team and the chemists I'm trying to invite.  I would have been content with just the Blast Gun but I was able to successfully invite all three without the invited ending the fight by killing off the last enemy side unit.  Did spend a few Phoenix Downs on the chemists and the invited also guzzled some of my Hi-Potions but the payoff was very worth it.

  My formation screen was already full before the fight and I do need a slot to add the new recruits so.... bye Malak.  Add them one at a time replacing each other and I have three more shiny spell guns to play with.

  Didn't get a single fight on the way to Igros; too bad, I would have like some more Samurai and Dancer JP.  Before entering, I set up the monk and dancer with Equip Gun and a spell gun for each.

Igros

  Fly would be relevant here, if I had anyone with enough Dancer JP to grab it.  Priest Nall can't really do anything at 10 Speed without eating a midcharge swordskill so he just advances.  Mediator gets a shot on Dycedarg with the Blast Gun and advances under the ledge.  Dycedarg uses Stasis Sword on Nall, no Stop.  Monk and Dancer cannot get line of sight on Dycedarg so start up Polka Polka, intending to weaken Dyce's swordskill damage.  Of all the things Zalbag can do, he decides that stealing Dyce's Aegis shield is a fantastic idea (groan).  It lands but I would have preferred a physical.  Knights shuffle around doing nothing of great importance.  Samurai Artemis uses Kiyomori on himself, Nall, and mediator.  Polka Polkas go off, hitting various knights but missing the one target I care about.  Nall has enough time to get a Cure off on himself.  Mediator runs under ledge and shoots Dyce again.  As I've carefully positioned my team to prevent multi-hit swordskills, Dycedarg Stasis Swords Zalbag, no stop.  Still no line of sight for monk and dancer and they continue with Polka Polka.  Zalbag is still above 20% HP so he chases down his brother and lands his 140 physical.  Knights are going after Zalbag if they can but shield evade works enough to keep him upright.  He does have a fatal Charge +2 targeted on him.  But mediator gets a turn before it resolves and shoot Dyce down to zero HP first.  Meanwhile, Nall had locked a Holy on the same space in preparation for phase 2.

  Monk and dancer switch to Slow Dance; one of them connects which is welcome.  Adramelk's first turn is to nuke the monk with Holy.  Nall brings her back with Raise.  I just leave her at half HP and sure enough, Adramelk tries to off her with a 21% physical, Blade Grasp.  As for offense, monk does more damage with spell gun than Punch Art.  Samurai has bad compat so his role is to be an MP battery with Chakra for priest.  Priest favors Holy if MP is in a good place and CT lines up and Heaven's Cloud/Kiku if it isn't depending on positioning.  I avoid bunching up for Loss and Adramelk obliges me by going for another 21% physical on the monk.  Three turns is all he gets before the barrage of spell guns and magic take him down.

Outside Morund

  Another map where Fly would have mattered but still had no one with the JP for it.  The non-Virgos in team 2 had a blast.  Set them up with spell guns and Hamedo and bait the mediators into gunshots.  Team 1, had less fun.  Samurai with Punch Art, priest with Draw Out, and Dancer with Draw Out: they have issues with vertical tolerance while the summoner and geomancers have no such issues with height differences.  I'd given them Regenerator since there's very little they face that's subject to Blade Grasp/Hamedo and of course, the ninja geo just has to show up with Throw, something that Blade Grasp/Hamedo would help against.  Priest Luna doesn't have the JP for Kiku so when enemies do line up, I'm not in prime position to exploit it.  MagicDefend Up keeps the damage from getting too heavy but there's still the matter of the priest undoing damage and status effects from geomancy slowing things down.  Samurai keeps CT in sync with summoner so it was the first to go down with a midcharge physical plus some added damage.  The rest kept harassing team 1 and diverting turns for recovery until team 2 could make their way over for fire support.  One mediator boxilized before fight was won.

Hall of Morund (1 reset):

  Yes, there was a reset here.  Not because I was losing but because I'm not accepting a broken katana on a fight won in three actions.  Nall is naked except for Feather Boots.  Rofel walks up to swing at him, Blade Grasp.  Dancer Luna goes to Rofel's flanks and Kotetsu for 132.  Monk Artemis Earth Slashes Nall, Rofel, and Vormav:  96 to Rofel.  Priest Ruby Kikuichimonji and the same targets: 240 to Rofel sends him into the carpet.  Bye-bye Shrine Knights, no broken gear.

Underground Chapel:

  Zombag will focus on Ramza above all else.  It's his turn to be the samurai so I give him 108 Gems and Hamedo.  Monk gets Equip Gun and a spell gun, the others already have some form of magic based offense to bypass Defense Up.  Kikus and Earth Slashes take the Ultima Demon out of play before it can go.  Archaic Demons aren't able to inflict casualties thanks to MagicDefend Up.  They only live for one turn before going down and then I turn my focus to Zombag.  All the while, he's been failing to break through Hamedo, though his evasion has also been on and none of the counter swings get through.  While keeping Ramza around as bait, Threaten Zombag once and pummel him with spell guns and Draw Outs.  One Zombag swing does break through leading me to divert the monk to Chakra Ramza.  (Reflect Mail may have not been a good idea here) but I still wear him down decently quick, finishing the kill with a Holy when he's low enough for it to kill.  May have used a Slow Dance somewhere during this but it wasn't important to the outcome.

On the way back to Dorter, I deliberately trigger a random with the goal of getting everyone to exactly 80 Brave.  As a secondary objective, see what white magic I can pass on to the designated priest blue mage style.  I actually get Cure 4 on the first try.  Protect 2 and Shell 2 I only tried once or twice each before finishing off the enemies and moving on.  That 72% hit rate doesn't help things; shameful that the "advanced" versions have lower accuracy than the lower tier Protect/Shell.

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General Chat / Revisitng Beyond Chaos: Powertrip mode

« on: August 22, 2023, 11:44:45 PM »

Airship acquired.  Time for a party change.  Krissy is required for the next segment regardless.  Joining her are Gig and the other two members who didn't go to Vector, they could see some action.  Also, they're at Lv 18 while the Magitek factory group is at 19-20 so I give them priority.  I have enough cash to obtain all 3 Espers available at this point so they're the next priority.  Do a bit of grinding for some extra funds to upgrade defensive gear, no one is moving on with Bucklers unless they have no other option.  Make the required stop in Narshe and recruit Mog.  Mog is at Lv 23 so will be chilling on the airship for a while.

  First chest in the Sealed Gate cave is a Genji Armor.  Genji Armor with 51 Defense is highly underwhelming but I still like its stat distribution better than what Shania is already using so she swaps to it.  Grab the treasure in the next room and walk out.  Fight a few battles to expand the Rage list on principle (Rage command hasn't appeared yet).  Rest up and return.
  Once on the lowest level, the enemies only use physicals so I can summon Phantom and turn randoms there into a non-issue (one has Sun Bath but it's not being cast on my team so still harmless)  Hope Dances the snowfield dance, others use physicals/SwdTech/Steal.  When the enemies are not able to do damage whatsoever it's not like it's vital to kill things quickly.  Finding a Guardian elicits a groan as it's pretty much worthless as-is.  Bash my way to the save point with no issue.
  The randoms may be unnotable but some of the monsters-in-boxes made me pay attention.  Specifically the pair that can pull out Chokesmoke to zombify my invisible characters.  And they use a Zombie inflicting Special so can't avoid it that way either.  Having two zombie characters was a bit perturbing with only 2 Revivifies in my inventory as I was lax with keeping a stock of those.  However, I have plenty of Hair Bands that break for Tapir so I opted to use one when the time was right and just heal up the 0 HP no-longer-zombified after combat ended.  Treasures were a trolllish batch.  Cure Ring is Raiden only.  Scimitar is generally whatever but in this case was a better blade for Shania to swing.  Blizzard Orb is Hope only which likely means Umaro will be even worse than usual.
  The trip brought the group from Lv 18 to 20.  Once back in the airship, swap out Gig and Shania for the Lv 19 Raiden and Ryu.  Krissy has finished learning Float by this time and I make use of it in Vector to avoid damage from Magnitude 8 death counters.  Sp Forces die to a single MT Bio from Ryu.  The items from doing the banquet perfectly are another Rage Ring (useful for elemental resistance) and a Tao Robe.  Above vanilla values in both Defense and Magic Defense and no drawbacks, it's a decent piece but when it's competing for the same slot as the dozen Red Jackets I have, gets overshadowed.  The Crystal shield I found in Vector is of somewhat more use.  Just a straight stat upgrade but still better than Raiden's current shield.
  Make my way to the imperial base treasure hoard.  Despite no traps, it turns out to be disappointing.  Mostly just duplicates of stuff I already have enough of like RunningShoes (when I already have 5 of them) and Thief Glove (all but the first are extraneous).  Off to Thamasa with nothing of note occurring until I get there.  I was fighting outside of town a bit before using the inn and ran into FlameEater in the forest.  Yes, bosses sometimes occupy the 1/16 chance battle; it's part of Beyond Chaos' identity.  Wrath's Quadra Slice did the bulk of the damage, the other two mostly relegated to utility/picking off the summoned monsters.  Full team fire immune so only danger was random Flare or whatever the summoned enemies pull off.

  Strago joins at this point.  W-Limit, Quadra Slice, Item

W-Limit: 2 desperation attacks on random targets.  Now this is what I'm talking about.  Tears things apart other than the rare occasion where it goes for dual Soulsabre/Star Prsim on instant death immune enemeis.  Gamebreakingly overpowered offense.  And since desperation attacks abort on characters, a freak confusion after inputting the command will not result in the user murdering their allies.

Quadra Slice: It's SwdTech 7 without the obscene charge time.  Non-elemental and ignoring defense makes it very dependable damage.  I'd be more excited about this if the character didn't already have a Limit command.  It still has its moments against ID immune enemies (whereas Limit has a chance of whiffing) or hitting more than 2 low HP enemies in one turn.

  I named him Gio, after Arland's strongest swordsman and will be referred to as such going forward.  He cannot use the Red Jacket which leaves his defense very suspect (though with this much offense, I'm not overly upset).  Among his remaining options, went with Genji Armor.

  One would think this dungeon would be a pushover.  Hahahaha no, Beyond Chaos pulls a Beyond Chaos and pulls a mean one.  First fight is a pack of six which Raiden nukes with Bolt 3.  All six fire off a Sand Storm death counter which flattens Krissy and Raiden.  Gio only lived through the storm because of his very high Magic Defense.  I decide that two casualties in the first fight is unacceptable and reset to my last save.  Next go, I stick to single target Bolt 3.  Still getting Sand Stormed but only one at a time so it's not wiping out the party.  Still, less than ideal.  Turns out Raiden's physical also oneshots and doesn't trigger a Sand Storm.  So I'm taking out enemies in one or two at a time.  Krissy doesn't quite kill in one attack either until I wise up and give her a Hyper Wrist which is enough of a damage increase for Dispatch to kill.
  The enemies are not complete jokes either.  Schiller is a nuisance and Phantasm eats into my resources faster but it's the confuse Special which gets me to respect their danger factor.  After a few false starts, settle into a groove and pound my way through the house.
  So FlameEater. Already seen it and know its capabilities and this time I can prepare.  Gold Hairpin on Krissy and my one Wall Ring goes on Gio.  Give Gio a Rage Ring as well and FlameEater can do nothing to him.  Pretty much just a matter of how many uses of W-Limit it takes until it lands the three damage shots needed to reduce its HP to zero.  Stole a Power Sash off it, yawn.  The Tempest it drops is similarly unnotable, being the 5th one acquired.

  I do need to be wary of lightning resistance and auto-reflect but otherwise randoms crumble under the overwhelming offense of Gio and Raiden.  Ultros is a bit more notable in that he's arsorbing lightning, reducing Raiden to item monkey and knife stabs.  Though with Gio's sheer offense, it just takes a few extra turns.  When Relm shows up, she has Mimic so having her mime W-Limit puts out big numbers.  Krissy Steals when I don't need her to run utility but doesn't succeed in nabbing Ultros' item before the Thamasa duo bury Ultros.

  Relm has Mimic, X-Magic, and Item as her command list.  X-Magic always has the potential to become extremely strong.  Mimic is dependent on what allies are present: however the FakeMustache from way back in Albrook changes Mimic to W-Limit which I feel is worth the Relic slot outside of oddball circumstances where I'd rather have Mimic.  As someone with high gamebreaking strength, I named her Yukari, after Touhou's gap youkai who is overpowered even by that series' standards.
  With two W-Limit users, randoms get smashed.  Among the treasures are a Back Guard (convenience) and a Pearl Lance, a better poking stick for the next time I use any of the spear users.

  Leo has W-Limit so smashed his fight in one shot.  Also has Throw but that's not outdamaging a desperation attack at Lv 22, let alone two.

  Airship reacquired with the rejoining party members at Lv 22 (save for Mog who joined at 23).  This puzzles me given my team's 22/22/23/20 distribution but I'll take it.  Gio takes a rest and I bring out Hope to fill the slot while I tie up the loose ends in the WoB.  Remember to check the Jidoor auction house but the DaVinci Brush and Rune Edge I consider worthless.  Raid Doma for treasure; it's all so-so.  Hunt Intangir.  It just sits there doing nothing while Yukari pummels it with desperation attacks.  Maybe it started with auto-stop or auto-sleep; I don't know.  Just in case of starting sleep, I don't use any physical damage on it so Krissy isn't contributing damage while Raiden and Hope only do around 300-600 a shot due to high magic defense.  At least I steal Fixed Dice off it so that was a welcome boost in Krissy's damage potential.  Also hunted down some additional monsters to fill in the non-existent Rage list just because.  Sell off a bunch of low-tier weapons and buy a bunch of Shuriken and Invis Edges as I don't know whether they'll still be for sale in the WoR.

  Wrath not having a Magic command tilts the AtmaWeapon decision in favor of going for HP damage.  Lottery landed on the Krissy, Raiden, Yukari group and I deem them up to the task.  Swap in Jade to get him geared up and purchase some gear so that Wrath will have the most up-to-date equipment available for a dungeon I expect to be challenging.  The IAF monsters are of the only-use-physicals variety so summon Phantom and cruise.  Give Krissy Zoneseek before engaging the boss fights.
   Ultros retains his vanilla lightning weakness this time so Raiden does disgusting amounts of damage to him.  Chupon absorbs lightning though.  And the casters haven't gotten around to learning any of the key status spells that shut down Chupon from using magic.  But Yukari's raw damage output ends things before any Fire Balls come out.
  Air Force is a race to get Zoneseek out and pray not to get buried in high powered MT magic before casting it.  Once Shell is up, it's easier to keep up with the damage.  Yukari gets a turn after seeing one Tek Laser at the start and I opt to risk a W-Limit.  Takes out Missilebay in one shot which is a decent start.  Whole team gets WaveCannoned before Krissy can summon Zoneseek and I'm expecting a party wipe.  Get lucky and Lasercannon does the most useless thing possible: an Atomic Ray on a full team of fire immune.  This allows enough time to get the team's HP back up to safe levels.  Raiden Morphs and lobs Bolt3s at the main body.  Krissy Steals if free but her first job is support.  Yukari is secondary support but her offense is the best so I want her attacking more often.  Did snag a Czarina Ring, which is worthless to me as-is but at least sells for a good amount of cash.

  Randoms on the floating continent are a rather big step up from what I've been encountering so far.  The enemies have enough bulk to endure a round of my team's MT oriented violence so mashing A isn't an instant win.  The most dangerous foe can counter anything with Doom (even fatal blows) and has enough HP to survive one Limit, though not two.  It has low MP so Rasp is the main tool to neuter it.  Another enemy can randomly Charm.  Another always ambushes and can wither my caster's MP with Rasp or harass the team with status spells.  There's also a monster lurking around with a berserk Special and counters physical attacks with its own.  A few shots with W-Limit would take it out but the one time I encountered it, it berserked Yukari right off forcing a longer slugfest.  No auto-reflect or auto-Runic to beware of so that was convenient at least.

  katanaSoul was lurking in the Gigantos chest and it's a tier or five above my party's weight class.  Typically opens with Water Edge which either obliterates the party or leaves them on the brink of death.  Yukari and Wrath always die.  Krissy or Raiden might go down or not depending on random variance and how much chip damage they took on the way over.  Pretty much not winnable in a straight brawl.  Getting a win on this things involved hoping it didn't open with Water Edge, then taking advantage of its confuse weakness.  I've got access to three different item breaks that all do MT confusion so even lacking access to the Muddle spell wouldn't be an issue.  Pummel it with magic attacks until it kills itself with ID Special or my team wears down its HP first.  For cheesing it out, the game seemed to notice and it dropped a mere Super Ball.

10

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2023 Round 2: Two Tonys? I must be going crazy! Also BoF1 Scrub Match.

« on: August 22, 2023, 11:13:30 PM »

Boco (FFT) vs. Virginia Maxwell (WA3)  Yeee... I don't see Boco landing enough attacks through that evasion before Virgina unloads a full Gatling string into him.

11

Tournaments / Re: RPGVO 2023 Round 1: Crossfire on Crossfire Violence with a side of Peppor

« on: August 17, 2023, 09:26:39 AM »

Fafnir (WA3) vs. Elena (G2): I'd forgotten which fight was Fafnir and needed to look it up.  Yeah, not a lot of pressure in a 1 on 1.  Surely Elena can land a kill before running out of gas.


Selphie (FF8) vs. Berserker (FF5): Feels right.  Close but the longer Selphie can drag things out, the more likely Berserker is missing a swing due to FF5 axe accuracy.

12

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: August 17, 2023, 01:37:37 AM »

FFT Fiesta Chapter 4 - Part 1
(Priest, Monk, Mediator, Samurai, Dancer)

Story progress is getting put on hold to grind up Dancer for the three females.  I also purchase an Ice Brand, a Partisan, and another Platina shield so facilitate this.  One geo and one lancer per battle while the other three train in various other fiesta jobs as my whims dictate.  Nall spends some time in Squire too to finish up Move +1.  As a side benefit, the generics get enough spillover Squire JP to learn Move +1 themselves.
  Some of this training is done on the way to Goug as I need to go there anyway to unlock the Colliery series of fights.  Running into a flock of 7 chocobos at Baraius Hill was particularly miserable but I managed to power through.  Also did some propositions while having the second stringers handle any randoms that pop up in the duration.  Of course it's during this themed playthrough that Alicia nabs Fire 4 from a crystal when I'm not able to take advantage of it in the constraints of the playthrough.  The grind takes place over three days of real time due to not having the attention span to do a lot of it at once.  And when I finally pick up Beowulf, I choose to run back to Goug to do the contest proposition there.

  One consolation prize is that 4 out of 5 units accrue the needed Samurai JP for Blade Grasp with the 5th close.  Did a bit more Brave raising with the team at 78 save a straggler at 76.  Team is about Lv 29-31 going into the next story mission.  I've finished the Fiesta and there were barely any resets in all of Chapter 4 so I'm not posting a number unless it's something other than zero.

Colliery 1

  Luna doesn't have the JP for Blade Grasp.  She does have the needed JP for Hamedo and Equip Gun though so I set both and give her a Mythril Gun.  Mediator also set Hamedo for added fun.  Luna is the dancer and has the lowest HP so the AI loves going after her only to be shot instead.  Between Blade Grasp and gun Hamedo, the enemy chemists don't land a single shot while my side dismantles them.

Colliery 2

  The main reason I'm doing this sidequest is to nab the spell gun on this map.  General plan is chasing down the Blaze Gun chemist, Solution once or twice, then spam Invitation until it lands.  Leaning on Blade Grasp to keep my team safe from the magic gun.  First shot lands 153 through  Blade Grasp, which does slow my team down a little in taking out the close thief and behemoth to heal from it.  Dancer is using Nameless.  Second Nameless frogs the far behemoth so stop dancing after that and move on to other actions.  Leave behemoth be while I have the team converge on the chemist and take out other thief when I have an opening to gang up on it.  Beowulf helps disable the chemist with some Don't Act.  Takes 4-5 tries before landing that invite.  Grabbed crystal from first thief before beating up the frog, got some steal skills that won't see use.
  In hindsight, I should have given the Dancer Talk Skill to double up on Invitation attempts.  She's not doing a whole lot with other secondaries as it is.

Colliery 3

  Ruby gets slotted as the dancer again so sets Equip Gun and Hamedo again as she's still a bit short for Blade Grasp.  I need to keep her out of dragon range; the others have Magic Defend Up and White Robes so I'm not as worried for them.  Monk, Mediator, and Dancer in squad 1 with Priest and Monk in squad 2.
  The dragons are the biggest danger but I need the Chemists down first before I can really effectively remove them.  On squad 1 side, gun Hamedo plus a followup shot from spell gun toting Mediator should be enough to off that Chemist though if needed, dancer will chip in another shot.  Rather have her doing Nameless Dance though.  On squad 2's side, Holy is the plan with maybe a bit of softening up with 24 damage Earth Slash from the samurai.  Blasted dragon kept hovering too close to the Chemist for a safe Holy nuke.  All up to RNG as for how helpful Beowulf is with landing Don't Acts.
  Had some epic bad luck with the dancer getting two Nameless Dances off between ATs with the first frogging a dragon and the second unfrogging it.  Still won but geez.

Colliery 4

  Only 4 deployment slots but 5 jobs, hadn't thought about how to handle this situation.  Leaving out the 5th rolled job makes enough sense though.  So no one in dancer for this fight (though still allowed to set it as a secondary and use any learned RSM)  Germinas Boots on at least samurai, mediator, and Beowulf so that they get in faster.  Straightforward slaughter of enemies.  They did land a Death Sentence on someone but it's simple enough for the priest to Raise the victim after it kills them.  I guess Reraise could have helped too, had I remembered it (had the surplus JP in pirest).

Welcome Reis and Beowulf, who will spend the rest of the  game unused on the formation screen.
Luna finally has the Samurai JP for Blade Grasp so all 5 units set it for the next fight.

Dougula Pass

  With Blade Grasp, the Wizards are the most significant threat.  The closer one is taken care of with a monk Earth Slash and a midcharge from the Samurai, Mediator chipping in if needed.  Nameless Dance frogs the other wizard on the first attempt.  Pretty much a straightforward beatdown of the remaining units after that.  Priest supports or nukes with Holy, mediator shoots people with Black Robe boosted spell gun, monk bashes, samurai attacks or Chakras priest.  Lancers first, then whichever of knight/archer is within kill range, frog last.  No crystals, murdered them too fast.

Bervania

  Going for the assassination on this one.  Artemis turn as the priest; teach him Kotetsu.  Luna is a samurai with Black Robe and Equip Gun to tote the Blaze Gun.  They go in squad 2.  They're specifically arranged to manipulate the AI in a particular manner.
  Battle start.  Ninja goes to throw something at Artemis, Blade Grasp.  Meliadoul moves onto the box and does nothing.  My monk goes, does nothing of importance.  Artemis walks to Meliadoul's side and Kotetsu for 132.  Enemies go.  Arrows whiff.  One summoner charges something to hurt the monk on roof.  Other summoner has Germinas Boots and charges a summon on squad 1.  My turn.  Mediator shoots Meliadoul for 80.  Dancer whaps summoner with carpet.  Samurai shoots Melly, get an Ice 2 for 206.  More than enough to send her running.  No broken gear, just as planned.

Finath River

  3 reds, 3 yellows.  The high level on my formation screen was 33 so I was somewhat worried about 9 speed reds overwhelming my team.  Samurai, mediator with spell gun and Black Robe, and dancer did have enough offense to take out a red chocobo per round.  Combined with Magic Defend Up on most of the party (and enough help from Nameless Dance), this proved to be enough to keep up.  On the other side, nuke the closest yellow with Holy (with monk chipping in damage if need be), then move them over towards squad one to help support.  Minor oops is that priest Artemis actually had Kiyomori learned but I forgot to use it, which would really help out with survival.  Monk helps hurt stuff, is an MP battery with Chakra, or dances Nameless Dance.  Dancer has White Magic and tossed a few cures as needed, though the priest was the main medic.

Zeltenia

  Fly would be relevant here, except I don't have anyone with the JP for it.  Delita didn't have Lightning Stab so no quick kill to be had here.  Ended up going the long way.  Took out the two closest knights before I had the opening to gang up on Zalmo.

Bed Desert

  One of the few times where I was looking forward to this fight.  Normally, I dread dealing with Balk.  This time, I have the tools to humiliate him.  Set up my female Gemini as a priest with the Blaze Gun, a Black Robe, and Hamedo.  (also Equip Gun)  Because of best compatability, Balk will be drawn to shoot at her and Hamedo punishes him for trying, mwahaha.  I also teach the monk for this fight Stigma Magic.
  At the start of the fight, Balk's first shot gets through Hamedo for 175.  Manageable, she's still alive.  Monk Stigma Magic on everyone but Nall.  Priest heals herself.  Enemies go, with archers taking shoots but evaded by Blade Grasp.  Mediator Nall Antidote on self.  Samurai Wave Fists Wizard.  Dancer starts up a Nameless Dance.  Balk shoots priest again; Hamedo for 140.   Nameless goes off frogging a Knight.  Monk Chakra on priest.  Priest shoots other knight rather than risk putting Balk in critical and him retreating behind the support.    I was planning to bury the wizard with midcharge hits from mediator and samurai but the little punk Poisons the samurai instead.  Balk goes again to shoot at priest, Ice 3 Hamedo takes him down to 30.  Archer shoots at dancer, Blade Grasp.  Archer shoots at priest.  Hamedo but the gunshot hits my samurai, annoying.  Nall gets his turn now and caps Balk with no further fanfare.

North Wall of Bethla

  Or whichever one has the summoner and lnacers.  Blade Grasp is a massive help against the rain of arrows and, later on, lnacers.  Monk shows up with Earth Slash so I gravitate towards taking him out though I want the Summoner gone too.  Summoner gets off a Shiva on two people but between Magic Defend Up and Kiyomori (actually remembered I had it), it gets reduced to 22 and 33 on the targets.  First Nameless Dance Stops him and he doesn't live long enough for a second cast as I opt to Holy him out of existence.  Straightforward matter of wearing everything down and healing up from the few arrows that get past 78 Brave Blade Grasp.  At one point, I want to Secret Fist a lancer (first time I'd considered using it) but he had a Defense Ring to shut that idea down.  Really, game.  Used some Slow Dance when it was just down to one archer and the user wasn't in range for anything else.  Finish opposition and move on.

Bethla Sluice (1 reset):

  I had a reset here.  Not because I was in danger of losing, but because one of the switch knights snagged a crystal when I wasn't paying enough attention to his movement range. (and not realizing they would actively seek them out even if it takes more than one turn)
  Monk, priest, dancer in squad 1 with samurai and mediator in squad 2.  Opening round sees the predictable enemies shuffling around, archers shooting at people (Blade Grasp), left side wizard starts charging something big on team 2, and close knight walking up to Ramza and swinging (Blade Grasp again).  Team 1 opens with Earth Slash and Holy on knight and dancer using Nameless Dance and team 2 offing the wizard midcharge.  First use of Nameless puts an archer to sleep and silences the other wizard.  Hahaha, living wizard is now a non-factor.  Team 1 kills one knight and puts the other in critical before making their way up while the samurai's goal on squad 2 is to ascend and start lobbing Earth Slash at the switch knights.  Monk does the same.  I aim to put them into critical HP to get them to move off the switches rather than go for kills.  Sleeping archer does eventually wake up (whether from wizard bopping it or just enough time passing) but doesn't land a hit until I'm one Ramza turn from ending the fight.  Only one crystal from the left side wizard; Luna learns a Fire 4 she'll never be using. (a second one, geez game dangle this in front of me during a themed game why don't ya)  I do end up killing the Ultimus Bow archer.  All told, enemy survivors are three knights in critical, one archer, and a silenced wizard.  (maybe not the wizard, he could have been caught in Earth Slash and Draw Out AoE, forgot)

13

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: July 21, 2023, 03:06:04 AM »

FFT Fiesta Chapter 3 (priest, monk, mediator, samurai, dancer)

  Before going anywhere, got to unlock Samurai.  In addition to the usual gear upgrades, I also pick up a Mytrhil Bow, a Mythril Spear, and an Ancient Sword as people will be spending time in Knight, Archer, and Lancer during the grind.  (already have a Platina Dagger for Thief)  I also do a few propositions to get JP for the prerequisite classes while leaving any randoms to the second stringer squad of Rad, Alicia, Lavian, Agrias, Mustado, and the Chocobos.  Also make my way down to Goug to replace the broken gun.  Did about 4-6 grind fights to unlock Samurai on all 5 units.  Did a bit of Brave boosting during those grind fights; team is around 73-75 Brave at the time I choose to mov on.  Pick up 5 Asuras for Draw Out and head off to Goland, not bothering to do any skill grinding for my newly unlocked job.

Goland Coal City (1 reset)

  "This is an easy battle, what could go wrong?"  Thinking this was going to be easy peasy, went with two Samurai in this fight.  Yeah, turns out mediator and thief both stabbing Olan midcharge drops his HP frightfully quick and he died before I could get the priest in position to toss a cure up at him.  Olan waiting until his second turn to Galaxy Stop didn't help matters and it missed both enemies up on the roof leading to his death.
   Next attempt, I'm more careful with my priest's positioning.  Still start things off by focusing down the thief that comes to stab/steal from Ramza and then a chemist.  Help Olan kill off the mediator as well as the other two thieves.  The last Chemist, I intend to invite for his gear.  Olan is generally helpful with Galaxy Stop.  I gain the Main Gauche from the high level thief and the other Chemist's Mythril Gun from boxes.  Mediator drops a crystal; monk Ruby snags it gaining Persuade and Negotiate.  Um, sure, I don't really see either ever being relevant but still, free skills.  Land the Invite before the other two thieves death countdown expires.

Lesalia (0 resets)

  I'm running the two males as monks but only have one Judo Outfit for them, oh well.  Teach Artemis Earth Slash.  Only Nall can Chakra for 30 or more MP on Alma which complicates my intention of keeping the MBarriers coming but I'll make do.  General strategy is keep Alma able to cast while beating up generics until Zalmo is opened up.  Coral sword knight shows up with Elemental, making him a priority target.  This could have gone badly if he landed status procs as I've been stingy with status healing so far relying on Alma's Deathspell 2 isn't ideal. (forgot she had it didn't you; it's OK, I forget all the time)  But I'm able to get him down before any geomancy statuses land.  My non-Holy offense is still slow so getting swarmed is a bit of a concern when enemies are approaching both sides of the balcony.  Mediator Felicia lands a midcharge gunshot on Zalmo for 144 around this time though and (thanks to MBarrier Haste) quickly shoots Zalmo for a regular 96 best compat gunshot and he bails.

  Getting that second Mythril Gun saves me a trip to Goug so all I'm doing is picking up the relevant equipment upgrades before heading to Orbonne.  Judo Outfits are very welcome for monks and Holy Miters for preists and mediators, Chameleon Robes for manipulating Wiegraf AI (and instant death protection which will come into play in C4).  Got to make sure I have enough spares in case things get broken/stolen.  Have enough cash to afford an extra of key stuff so no problems there.  Also grab two Germinas Boots.
  Other prep: Teach the females Earth Slash.  Nall buys Hamedo.  Went ahead and taught Regenerator to the other two generics.  Luna picks up Mimic Daravon and Invitation for UBS2.

UBS2 (0 resets)
  Alma's Red Shoes go on the priest.  Nall is a monk with Hamedo.  Ruby is a Samurai with Punch Art.  Artemis ended up as the Priest this rotation.  Luna is the mediator and Felicia is a second monk with Alma's Barette.  Enemies advance, one Lancer poking Nall because I was too lazy to change his starting spot in the PBF.  Time Mages are leading off with Hastes, which could be worrisome but the first Hastes whiff.  Nuke one Lancer with Holy, Nall Chakras himself,  attack the Lancer who poked Nall with gun and Earth Slash the low offense mean they fail to drop him.  I do take care to position Nall to bait a Lancer into trying attack him from the side.  AI obliges and while Hamedo is blocked by shield, that one less hit of spear damage, which matters because one of the Partisan Lancers is a Taurus and has good compat with 3/5 of the team.   Time Mage goes for a Haste on the Taurus Lancer.  This round, I am able to get through the evasion and drop him while putting Nall and Ruby into the effect area.  Miss on Nall because he has worst compat with the time mage, lands on Ruby.  Artemis does some curing.  Another spear poke baited into a Hamedo, shield guarded again.  Next round of actions from my team, Luna puts the last Lancer to sleep with Mimic Daravon and I do some recovery while going after the Chemist and the Time Mages.  They're kind of a nuisance with one having Stop and the other one with Summon magic.  Turn order and positioning worked out favorably for me though with a Wave Fist from Nall and an Asura from Ruby dropping the summoner time mage without him being able to launch any Summons.  Other Time Mage did land a Stop or two but it was too little, too late with him unsupported.  Chased him down and ended him.
  And all the while, third lancer has been snoozing away.  Before I got around to dealing with him, Ruby got a Lancer crystal and a bunch of Vertical Jump skills. (possibly relevant during the Dancer unlock grind)  Other Lancer dropped a box with his Ice shield, which I didn't even notice until later.  Finally getting around to the last Lancer, had Ruby wake him up with Wave Fist and Luna lands Invite first try.  Hey, I wanted that helmet and I'm not complaining about a free Diamond Armor and N-Kai Armlet.

UBS3 (0 resets)

  After the dragged out previous battle, this was ultimately a straightforward assassination.  Take out the Summoner with gunshots and Earth Slash.  I still have one unit left to lob an Earth Slash at Izlude.  Next round, I'm able to tag Izlude with Holy, another gunshot, and some more Earth Slash bringing him down to critical.  The Germinas Boots were a huge help here for mediator and samurai, enabling them to line of attack they wouldn't be able to otherwise.

UBS1 (0 resets)

  I had a unit with the Lv 23 Speed point so she was one of the monks.  Chameleon Robe on the priest.  Wiegraf goes and Stasis Sword on two, no Stops.  Fantastic.  8 Speed monk Chakra on the two hit.  Enemies go.  Archer shoots the priest; others just advance.  My turn: samurai moves two panels behind Wiegraf and Asura on him and archer.  2nd Monk Earth Slash on Wiegraf.  Mediator shoots him.  Priest uses Holy.  The combined damage brings him down in a single round.

Power Sleeves are now buyable.  Oh yes, this is a large improvement for monk damage.  White Robes can be useful if expecting to face a lot of elemental damage.  Bought one Gold Staff for completion though don't expect to be using it.

Grog Hill (0 resets)

  Just a bunch of deserters in basic classes, oh shit they killed the mediator on their first set of turns.  Priest uses Raise; other three units beat on thief and a squire.  Enemies kill the mediator again.

Priest casts another Raise on mediator; other units finish off the thief.  Chemists are still hanging out of reach to effectively gang up on them.  Chemists and Archer snipe down the mediator another time.

Oh no, not again.  Priest casts Raise on mediator.  I'd like to supplement this with some Chakra but I need my other units' turns to finish off a squire.  Enemies kill the mediator again and also down a weakened monk.

God damn it.  This pattern keeps continuing while I try to concentrate enough offense on a Chemist to get it out of play.  It takes another round or two and I do bring down a Chemist but at the cost of another unit getting sent into the dirt.  Somehow, I manage to recover from having only a samurai, a priest, and three units on the ground but hoo boy is it a frustrating fight.  Landing a Mimic Daravon on the other Squire is the start of the turnaround and I'm eventually able to get everyone back up and chasing down that pesky archer on the high ground.  Whew, this was a rough one.

Yardow (0 resets):

  After the mess at Grog, this actually went smoother.  Nall and one other as a monk, 1 of each class for the others.  Nall sets Hamedo while the rest are still making do with Regenerator.  Magic Defend Up on most of my team in anticipation of summons.  One Ninja comes up on wall to throw something at my team and the others do the usual.  Malak charges up a Sky Demon Back with Rafa in its range; Sky Demon being exceptionally rare to appear given his Job level of 4.  Samurai Chakras whoever got hit, Priest nukes the ninja on the wall with Holy, monks Earth Slash at lined up ninjas, and mediator tries to line up to take a shot at them.  Rafa does some damage with Heaven Thunder, no kills though.  Summoners toss Moogle at the injured ninjas.  Next round has the ninjas filing out.  I'm only able to kill one of them on my team's next round of actions and there's a Summon or two coming as well.  It's alright though; ninja's next turn was swinging at Nall and Hamedo denied it.  Take it down while doing some healing from the summons and Malak stick pokes.  Battle is pretty much wrapped up with my full team up.  All that's left is chasing down the summoners while staying ahead of their damage and Malak poking with stick for 40-50.  Ninjas crystalize before I finish the mopup; leaving two boxes and one crystal which provides Stigma Magic for the lucky recipient.

  Doing all the equipment upgrades entails traveling back to Dorter.  Got some randoms along the way and did a bit of Brave raising while clearing them.  Everyone is now between 75-78 Brave.  After a bit of thought decide to grab a Bracer, which depletes most of my remaining funds.

Yuguo Woods (0 resets):

  Was undecided on what to do with Rafa but did settle upon turning her into a Chemist for this fight.  I won first try but still ended up redoing it to see if I could engineer something where Rafa gets more than one action.  White Magic > undead and I have Punch Art support too so the victory was never in doubt.  Still, I tried to have things play out where I got more midcharge physicals in and less getting multiple people caught in a single spell.  I had Solution learned on the mediator but didn't end up using it on the winning attempt.

  Change Rafa back to Heaven Knight with Item for the next battle.  Nall has the JP for Blade Grasp so he learns and sets it.  Pick up Invitation and Mimic Daravon for him as he's going to be inviting someone in the next battle.

Gates of Riovanes (0 resets)

  Nall is a Mediator.  Artemis and Felicia are monks.  Ruby is the requisite priest with Draw Out secondary leaving Luna as a Samurai with Punch Art. (for lack of anything more impactful since it's not doing much with 7 PA)   Luna is starting with Nall in squad 1.  Generics are making do with Regenerator as none of them have the JP for Blade Grasp and Hamedo isn't going to be much help against the rain of arrows.  Malak goes first, not in range to do anything as usual.  Rafa also moves and does nothing on turn 1.  My monks go and poke at the far left knight with Earth Slash while staying out of range.  Priest does nothing.  Knights amble towards my party while archers go and pick on Rafa.  Their combined gangup sends her running and Malak follows.
  I want a Crystal Helmet so I intend to invite one of the Knights.  I pick the high level one with the Platina shield as my target.  Nall's main role is to kite him and try to put him to sleep with Mimic Daravon.  This leaves the other units free to beat on the other knights.  It takes a while due to my low offense.  Actually make use of Protect here as insurance against archers all picking on the same unit and dropping someone.  Feather Boots knight provided the most trouble since I can't peck at him from outside his threat range with Earth Slash and his shield blocks most of my team's attack options.  Things worked out for me though; got off a Holy without being pincusioned by archers and enough followup attacks got through the evasion so that he only got one swing at a Protected unit, keeping the overall damage manageable.
  With two knights down and the third finally put to sleep after 4 tries (at 56% even because of good compat), time to chase down the archers.  Just as feared, at one point all three archers charge up on Artemis.  First arrow knocks him back with a critical sparing him the damage from the other two.  Probably could have recovered even if they all hit but a welcome bit of random chance.  While the rest of the team is trying to line up some offense, the archers are bunching up so I fish for some Mimic Daravon but am not landing any even when I can target 2-3 of them.  And when I finally do land a sleep or two, the rest of the team has caught up and it's unneeded at that point.
  I do stall out the fight to let the Earth Clothes archer crystalize.  The knights have also crystalized so I send some units to pick them up.  Felicia gets Secret Fist off one while Artemis adds Spin Fist to his Punch Art collection.  No Earth Clothes by the way.  All this stalling has given the snoozing knight time to wake up.  Well, I needed him awake anyways to have Nall invite him onto the team.  Those 144 swings on 4/5 of my team could hurt but 78 Brave Blade Grasp does its job, denying those painful physicals.  Invite lands on the second attempt and battle is won.

Inside Riovanes (1 reset)

  Priest Ramza with Draw Out setup here.  Wizard Staff, Gold Hairpin, Chameleon Robe, Red Shoes gives 10 MA and the important silence immunity for Velius.  Artemis is a monk, Ruby a mediator, Luna a second priest, leaving Felicia as the samurai.  Magic Defend Up on all for protection.  Artemis learns and sets Hamedo.
  One Holy and one Asura take care of Wiegraf.  Tried to bait a physical but he's not inclined to go for a 20% chance at 100 damage, instead sticking with Wave Fist for 60.  Move-HP up is recovering 20 HP a move to undo some of that Wave Fist damage leaving Nall at about120/200 going into Velius.
  Nall gets first turn so I have him toss another Holy at Velius.  He gets the turn after that too so I have him retreat.  Velius charges forth a locks a Cyclops on Artemis.  Being good compat with him, it gonna oneshot him even with Magic Defend Up.  Artemis lands a punch on Velus for 210.  Luna casts Shell on herself and Nall.  Two demons go, do nothing of significance.  Ruby shrugs and shoots Velius for 96.  Felicia Chakras Nall for a bit of MP.  I have Nall not act on his next turn to realign CT as he's not getting off spells otherwise.  Velius drops Loss on the priests, uh oh.  Not good as it prevents me from Raising Artemis.  Get a bit of luck as confused Luna charges an Esuna on Nall.  Demons are closing in to do a bit of chip damage to non-confused units.  Felicia Wave Fists Luna for 24 to break confusion.  Ruby goes for a three demon Mimic Daravon... dammit forgot to teach it to her.  Lands a Persuade at 35% but it still isn't enough in the end.  Nall is finally free to Raise Artemis but Velius opts to smack Ruby into the stone as the demons have softened her up enough for a melee kill.  I'm scrambling to try to bait Velus into Artemis' Hamedo.  Demons are upon my remaining team members though and Shells are wearing off.  When Velius Seals Felicia, I abandon hope and concede defeat.

  Next try, I toss the Bracer on Artemis and remember to teach Mimic Daravon to Ruby but no other adjustments.  Wiegraf is the same as before.  Instead of having Nall use Holy right off, have him Move/Wait twice to get his CT aligned to be able to get Cure/Raise off without Velus interrupting him.  Velius goes to nuke Artemis with Cyclops as before.  Artemis midcharge punch with Bracer does 390.  Holy from Luna takes off another 210 or so.  Gunshot for 96 and Chakra for a bit of MP like the last attempt.  Demons get a bit of hurt in with Giga Flare.  Nall Raises Artemis.  Velius doesn't take the bait instead punching out Luna.  Well damn, Had carelessly left her where she'd take a Giga Flare and it was enough for a kill.  I opt not to revive her.  Artemis gets a 260 punch in.  Felicia Chakras Nall for another 15 MP back.  Ruby goes to Mimic Daravon on demons landing one sleep.  Nall doesn't go for revival on his turn opting for support.  This time, Velius obliges my manipulation and goes for a physical on Artemis.  Hamedo for 260 wins the fight right there.

Riovanes Roof (4 resets)

 Have Artemis sit out to reduce potential Allure targets.  I stick on Chameleon Robes and Judo Outfits and Alma's Barrette for instant death protection in preparation for this fight.

First go: Elmdor Muramasas Rafa.  Rafa pokes Lede with stick.  Celia Shadow Stitch on Rafa.  Lede kills Rafa with physical.  If you've ever played FFT this far, you've probably seen this exact sequence dozens of times.
Next attempt: Muramasa on Rafa.  Rafa pokes Lede.  Assassins kill Rafa before anyone on my team gets a turn.  Gave Over.
3rd try: Muramasa on Rafa.  Rafa pokes Lede.  Assassins kill Rafa before anyone on my team gets a turn.  Gave Over.
4th try: This time Rafa tries a Diamond Sword at Elmdor and retreats.  Celia goes for a Charge +1 physical.  Lede targets Rafa with Ultima.  To my dismay, my priest is a Virgo and a Cure will not do enough to save Rafa from the incoming damage (and Cure 3 is too slow).  Wave Fist, gunshot, and 64 damage Wizard Staff whack are not enough and Rafa still dies, just 5 clockticks later than the previous failures.

  So I'm pretty much not winning this way.  Strategy change time.  Swap out Felicia for Artemis to be the mediator.  Have samurai Nall and the priest swap jobs as Nall is better suited for supporting Rafa having best instead or worst compat with Rafa.  Also, as an added bit of insurance, I remove Artemis' armor leaving just his hat.

  On this go, Rafa retreats with a Heaven Thunder on Elmdor.  Celia goes for an Ultima on Artemis, just as I planned.  Because the damage only brings him to critical, Lede is also drawn to Ultima him.  Holy from Nall and Wave Fist from the monk are enough to bring Celia down.

New Skills

Priest: Cure 3, Esuna (most)
Monk: Earth Slash (all), Hamedo (Nall, Artemis, Luna)
Mediator: Invitation (Nall, Ruby, Felicia), Threaten, Mimic Daravon (all), Praise (Nall), Solution (Artemis)
Samurai: Asura (all), Blade Grasp (Nall)

That really is it for Samurai due to not getting lots of Samurai JP with all the assassination missions.

Class thoughts:

Priest: Enemy HP has been rising faster than Holy damage so not as dominating on that front.  While not as much MA as I like in a caster class, Draw Out has strengthened the class' overall usefulness.  Pulls decent numbers even with dinky Asura.  The Speed multiplier does tend to come in handy only possibly being awkward on turn 1 against opposition exactly 1 Speed slower.  Been getting by with the basic set of Cure, Raise, and Holy, only occasionally dipping into Protect/Shell/Esuna.  (most fights status not being relevant, guarded by equipment, or something not covered by Esuna/Stigma Magic)
Monk: With PA armor showing up, this class is a lot better being one of the heavy hitters of the party.  Higher levels means better relative HP too.  Earth Slash is the main workhorse skill here with Wave Fist for floaty or earth absorbing targets.  Chakra for HP/MP support with Revive as backup revival.  Hamedo is very nice when one can bait the enemies into physicals.
Mediator: They get a gun upgrade this Chapter so they're a bit better.  64 damage at 8 range isn't a whole lot but usually enough to contribute.  More of their skillset got use too.  Invitation for nabbing early gear upgrades.  Mimic Daravon to attempt to put groups to sleep.  Praise for Brave raising.  Solution to weaken undead wizards in Yuguo if I can't interrupt an incoming spell with brute force.  Still mostly meh by itself as a class and debatably the weakest of the tier 3 options but the Brave raising pairs well with the powerful Reactions that Monk and Samurai have.
Samurai: To no surprise to a FFT veteran, Samurai is meh and very so-so with its own skillset.  This is exacorbated by a drought of JP when rushing through the chapter.  Blade Grasp is amazing of course but only Ramza acquired enough spare JP for it.  Samurais ended up being inferior Monks due to me giving them Punch Art.  Martial Arts would have helped, were I not so stingy with monk JP and also wanting Gained JP up on any Samurai to get them to Blade Grasp faster.  Pretty much stuck to heavy armor for them; the Wizard Robe not feeling worth the loss of HP when they only have Asura learned.

14

General Chat / Revisitng Beyond Chaos: Powertrip mode

« on: July 05, 2023, 12:24:22 AM »

At the Narshe snowfield, pass out what gear upgrades I have and distribute the few Relics I'll be using.  Having a long range weapon, Krissy gets the Black Belt while the Gold Hairpin is passed between the spellcasters on demand.  Hope was designated as the unit to sit out due to being tied for highest level with Shania and losing the tiebreaker.  The other two teams are Shania, Jade, Krissy and Naroha, Ryu, Raiden.

  Enemies are nice and cooperative and carry no resistance to mass electrocution.  So I can just smash my way through.  Raiden and Jade either oneshot every formation or leave them close enough to dead for followup attacks from the others to finish off.  Naroha's group uses Tonics to recover from the few hits they're taking while Shania's holds out as long as possible before I use a Cure 2 to top off.  Krissy isn't needed for offense so I have her Steal if she gets a turn before Jade but only pick up low level stuff like Antidotes and Hair Bands.
   For Kefka, I send in Shania, Jade, and Krissy first to try for a Steal with plans to make an attempt with the other group if this one loses.  Shania gets Gold Hairpin and Coin Toss.  First round has Krissy steal and Shania Mimic, succeeding in nicking a Thief Glove on that mimed steal.  Jade BoltX's.  Another round of attacks from my team is enough to send Kefka running, having done nothing other than a physical and MT Ice (with Shania reflecting it back at him for a mighty 45 damage).  Kefka drops a Morning Star; eh, whatever.  It will sell for a decent amount if I don't end up using it.

  Round up a party of Hope, Ryu, Raiden, Jade and run to the world map to save.  Then it's time to check out the town's goodies.  Treasure room provides among its spoils an Amulet, which is overall useful, and a Blossom, which is better than MithrilKnife stabs for Jade for those moments where Bolt3 won't work.  The armor shop also has Mithril shields for sale and I pick them up for the three members that can use them.
   Before moving on, I'm going monster hunting at the security checkpoint for the unique monsters there.  I get the formation with all three on the 3rd attempt.  Oneshot the whole pack with Jade at the expense of a counter Giga Volt sending him into the ground.  After running back to a healing spot, I look at my party composition and decide I will hire Wrath.  Drop off Jade at Arvis' before heading out.

  Figaro Castle has some new Tools for sale.  Looking at my bankroll (and also the lack of Tools users), I pass on them though.  Hire Wrath's services and grab loot from Kohlingen; the Charm Bangle in Rachel's house is a prized find that I will be using frequently.  -10 evade though so it will find itself on the member with the lowest evade when I want it.
  First random I get into turns up with enemies with auto-reflect, thus sending spells from Raiden, Wrath, or Ryu flying back at my party.  Scramble back to Figaro castle for recovery.  Next time I see that particular monster... well Throw and Missile + Qaudra Slice deals with them with no pushback.  Crazy man house has an Imp Halberd to nick, well OK it's great Throw ammo and maybe trades for something nice when coloseum comes online.  Ride chocobo to Jidoor.
  Do some shopping at Jidoor.  Pick up two Diamond shields from the armor shop.  Also wanted to grab a Tiger Mask but didn't have enough funds.  Potions, Phoenix Down, and Revivifies are for sale at the item shop and at non-inflated pricing.  Didn't grab any just yet but I do intend to come back with more cash for a stash of Potions.  Hit up the Inn and then take a Chocobo to Zozo.

  With the amount of MT offense my party has, randoms go down in a single round of mashing A.  The enemies do get some hits in because ATB randomnes though to wear down the team.  Shimshamm landing is especially annoying.  Mostly rely on Sun Bath from the native terrain Dance for HP upkeep though will reluctantly guzzle some Tonic is someone's HP gets really low.  Got the Tiger Mask I was eyeing from a treasure box.  It comes with a rogue +20 M. Block, which is cool.  Ryu gets it though going from 1 to 21 isn't that significant.  TunnelArmor is lurking in a chest and yields another SwordBreaker after being scrapped.  Also notable is that I got a bunch of Red Jacket drops from enemies lurking around, enough to outfit everyone who might want one.  I don't normally give Shadow limited gear because he might run off with it but this time, I have enough spare Red Jackets to let him have one.  Dadaluma gets pounded with my team's level of offense with Wrath, Ryu, and Raiden adding a morphed Bolt 3 doing him in in one round.

Amazingly, Wrath has stayed in the party the whole time and only takes off after the cutscenes.  I choose Ryu and Naroha as my companions for the trip to the southern continent.  Before leaving, I finish up with gathering the clues for the clock.  The Murasame I find for doing so is ironic as the character that could use it has just left but OK.  Hike back to Jidoor.  Scenes and purchase 10 Potions before leaving for the opera house.

  Rats provide some trouble as they don't all die to a combo of MT Bolt 3 and MT Bio.  Some may death counter with Elf Fire.  And of course, they nail the one member of the group that isn't immune (Ryu) sending him face down into the planks if two of them go off.  Well, this is what I have that emergency stash of Phoenix Down for so I don't need to resort to restarting or being down a member.  Naroha learns Cure from natural magic during this segment so she can play post-battle medic.  Thankfully, only one death.  Ultros goes down much easier.  Didn't randomize away his vanilla lightning weakness so morphed Bolt 3 zaps him for 2500 and once Ryu adds over 2000 from Tigerbreak, he slithers away having done nothing.

  Treasure raid in Albrook is so-so.  Sneak Ring is OK for later.  FakeMustache from the clock changes Mimic to W-Limit.  No one able to use it just yet but it has potential when a native Mimic user becomes available.  Do my usual sweep of Tzen and Maranda shops but nothing really catches my eye.  Fights along the way are routine other than being wary of auto-reflect.  Onto Vector.  Fight one formation in Vector; find out there's a Magnitude 8 death counter.  At least I know now for the Magitek factory.  Naroha has Float to nullify that threat.
  Jade oneshots every formation on the upper level of the factory but Raiden isn't up to that level of power to win solo.  So the enemies are able to get some licks in to wear down my resources.  Except another enemy drops Dried Meats and Potions so real attrition doesn't seem likely.  Monster in a box is more of a threat with auto-reflect to do more to my team with a Bolt3 than the enemies are doing.  Treasures grabbed before fighting Ifrit/Shiva are unnotable.  Light Robe that halves wind and weak to lightning just doesn't stand up when I have a surplus of 93 defense Red Jackets.  Hyper Wrist is only marginal increase in physical damage and the -10 M. Block makes it less attractive.
  Ifrit is mostly a non-issue as 3/4 of my team nulls fire.  Granted, the one member who doesn't is the one with the offense so mild complication.  I set up Raiden or Jade with a command changer for a Mimic command.  Have Ryu use TigerBreak and Mimic.  As long as Ryu doesn't bite it to a Fire 3, I'll take the result.  Ifrit has a +1 Mag bonus and Shiva comes with a +1 Speed, both of which are more meaningful than +1 Stamina or HP/MP +10%.  Finish raiding the treasures afterwards, mostly meh.  Trapped chest encounter drops three RunningShoes.  Not something I value overly highly but at least they'll sell for a decent chunk if I don't find a use for them.

  On my way to #024, there's a few complications to just smashing through with high damage skills.  One is an enemy that comes in a group of 3 and has a strong Ice Beam that kills in two shots at most and they seem to be fast enough to get a turn to use it.  So if the RNG is feeling mean, someone will die.  The other is that the BreakBlade spot is trapped with a Presenter.  And because this area becomes inaccessible, I don't have the option of putting it off for later.  Either find a way to kill it now or lose the chance at its item drops.
  My team does have the tools to win though.  Dischord + Bolt 3 on the head to open.  It absorbs lightning but Dischord still weakens anything it tries.  Tried it on the shell too but the shell isn't ID vulneralbe so no go.  Ryu attacks the head with Tigerbreak.  Naroha heals or casts Slow on the parts.  Jade can't contribute offense with his skills so after Dischord, he's limited to items to be productive.  Raiden is also similarly handicapped though a command changer to give her Mimic changes that.
  The shell has a few things to lash out with if it chooses to act.  Magnitude 8 is good for me; misses my floating team.  Mega Volt is low damage, just heal up with Cue or items.  Giga Volt, probably kills so hope I don't see it.  First attempt, while I do win, I did damage the shell by mistake and it countered a Slow with a Blow Fish.  Decided to reset for a better result.  On the successful attempt, was more careful to not attack the shell by accident.  Jade opens with Dischord + Bolt 3 on head, Ryu TigerBreaks head, Raiden Mimics Ryu.  Naroha cast Slow on whatever.  When the head retreats, just sit tight and do nothing but heal and maybe Slow. (which doesn't risk a Blow Fish counter if the shell hasn't been damaged)  When the head comes out, Jade breaks a Mithril Vest for Missile.  After which Ryu launches a TigerBreak, Mimic from Raiden and it's done.  Got another Moogle Suit for my efforts, oh well.

  Actually, I left something out.  The randomizer can randomly and rarely flag equipment that breaks for spells as unbreakable.  Secret items that break for spells also get this unbreakable property.  In this case, the Mithril Vest got that property assigned to it so it wasn't actually consumed when used.  Not permanently anyways.  There are some circumstances where an unbreakable item is still consumed, one of them being the user getting statused after entering the command, as well as some others.  But on paper, an unbreakable item has unlimited use.  Any skill that can show on an item is fair game.  Drain on an unbreakable item is highly busted, as one might guess, though it's very unlikely to appear in the first place.

  Moving on to #024, it's a straight damage race.  Most of my damage is elemental so I want to pound it before WallChange kicks in.  Confuse Special is a potential issue so Naroha is on standby to smack people out of it if it ever comes up.  To my relief, no confuse Special showed, leaving my team to pound it into scrap in two rounds.  The ThunderBlade it drops is meaningless to me except as elemental Throw ammo.

  Scenes and then save at the mine cart.  Party order is 1st slot empty, then Naroha, Raiden, Ryu as I want to encounter both enemy types.  Also change Espers now that I have a new batch.

  The most common monster on the mine cart has auto-reflect.  Ryu has Throw to bypass it but Raiden is limited to physicals, reflecting Bolt 3 off Naroha's auto-reflect for half damage (still better than hurting my team), or Mimicing Ryu's Throw.  I went with giving Raiden a Thief Glove for Mimic.  That same monster busts out Fire 2 on its second turn so dallying isn't desirable.  Still, I have the tools to deal with them.  Two of them are handled by Naroha controlling one, taking down the other with Throw and mimicing it, and repeating the Throw/Mimic combo for the second.  Boss does not have auto-reflect or lightning resistance so pounding it before Blaster can ruin my team is the way to go.  Net on Ryu is the worst that can happen but Naroha can remove it with Remedy so just delays the execution.  Boss drops a Fairy Ring, same as vanilla other than being Ryu only.

  Got into a fight before using the save point and it's those nasty Ice Beaming beasts for the stairway.  Ryu gets dropped and a Bolt 3 also comes out, mercifully only targeting auto-reflect Naroha.  Being two step away from the save point, I accept the death rather than reset for a better outcome.
  Party is at Lv 19, which I consider very high for this point of the game.  Thrashing a random or two on the way out bring Naroha from 19 to 20.  I was getting psyched to unload a Morphed Bolt 3 on the right crane but its elemental resistances got randomized to absorb lightning instead.  Boo, you're no fun game.  Aqua Rake from Setzer's Lore command along with TigerBreak from Ryu are enough to take out a crane.  Repeat for the second, battle over.  I wanted to have Naroha cast Float on her first turn but ended up opting to Cure when a crane opened up with a Fire 3 on Setzer.  Which didn't kill but still did a big chunk of damage.  But I still won before they could shake the deck so no long term harm done.

  Scenes and then control of the airship.  Setzer's command list is Lore, ?-Chaos, Item.

?-Chaos: This command I feel conveys the spirit of Beyond Chaos more than any other.  Totally random abilities that continue until the game decides to stop.  This includes gamebreaking stuff like Sneeze and Cold Dust, to the suicidal and counterproductive like Crusader and Spiraler, every skill in the game is on the table with the Chaos command.  Fun command to play around with but also dangerous if one's at risk of losing a lot of progress.

  I name him Gig, after a Disgaea character who has enough raw power to stand toe to toe with Overlords and call it light sparring.  Only a small selection of Lores; one side consequence of murdering things so fast is that the enemies barely get turns to use such skills to teach a Lore user.  Does start with Reflect???, which actually is useful for checking for auto-reflect status given how often reflectable magic is showing up in my characters' commands.

15

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: July 01, 2023, 11:35:45 PM »

FFT Fiesta Chapter 2: (priest, monk, mediator, samurai, dancer)

Dortor 2 (0 resets):

  Give Battle Boots and Item to both Gaf and Agrias.  Bring both males to have one less Steal Heart target for the thieves.  Males are monks with Gained JP up and Basic Skills.  Females are priests with Magic Defend up.  Agrias also started with Move-Find Item so might as well set that until she has Move +1.
   Gained JP up may have been too greedy.  Artemis gets focused down by the enemy forces early and I'm caught in a rez loop and not getting much offense in.  Gaf and Agrias are very slow about targeting Wizards.  Ended up with thieves downed first, then archers, which gave the wizards plenty of turns to rain spells on the monks.  Did stabalize the situation eventually but it was messy and more deaths than I'd like for this map.

  Buy two Mythril Vests and with nothing else on my shopping list, off to the next destination.

Araguay Woods (0 resets):

  Choose to save Boco.  2 monks, 2 pirests.  I choose not to use Holy here so that monks and Agrias can get more actions in.  Boco doesn't get cornered by black goblin so routine beatdown.  Agrias picking up a Phoenix Down is probably the most noteworthy event in this battle.

Nall learns Chakra after this fight.

Zirekile Falls (0 resets):

  Strip Gaf off all gear except helmet and armor.  Agrias is a Knight with Holy Sword secondary.  2 monk, 2 priest again with Nall as one of them.  Another straightforward map of beating on enemies and staying alive.  Delita shows up with Lightning Stab which speeds things along.  Try to get Nall over to Ovelia for Chakra to fuel MBarrier goodness.  No need for Holy.  Agrias gets just enough actions to hit job Lv 2 in Knight and also has enough for Move +1.  The rest of my team now has the JP for Gained JP up too.

  Afterwards, time for a shopping trip.  Dortor has Triangle Hats and Rainbow Staff for sale.  Finally, some MA gear and a better staff for bonking things.  Staff whacks are comparable to what 6 and 7 PA monks hit for.  Also hike to Igros to grab a Coral Sword for Agrias; might as well take every advantage within reach.  Got two randoms on the return trip to Zeland, which are welcome to obtain extra monk JP.  I went with a 2-2 Priest/Monk split again and teach the monks Wave Fist and Chakra.  Agrias is back to Holy Knight with Item and sets Weapon Guard.

  Zeland Fort City (1 reset):

   Choose to save Mustadio for bigger Brave boost.  MagicDefend Up on my units.  Mustadio goes right and shoots a wizard.  Miss a killshot Wave Fist at 85% on that Wizard.  Both Wizards target Mustadio and he dies.  Game Over.
   Next attempt, I switch to Gained JP up on the monks.  Mustadio goes left and shoots a Wizard.  The monks drop that Wizard but one had to hop over the wall to do it.  Knight, archer, and other wizard gang up on that monk and drop her.  I have Raise but need to watch CT so that she doesn't immediately go down again before using it.  Meanwhile nuke the other Wizard with Holy.  As Chapter 2 Monk offense is still low, takes a while wearing down the other enemies.  Raise the fallen monk back up at a time where she can retreat.  Make use of Chakra as an MP battery for the priests.  Knights come up over the side of the wall to duel Agrias while most of my team is making their way through the doorway.  I am lucky enough to obtain a Wizard Robe drop off the Lv 11 Wizard (will always have one) so that's useful.  Got more crystals; Felicia picks up Heal, heh.

Make sure Mustadio is geared up.  Change Agrias into a Knight with Holy Sword for the extra PA.  I went with another 2-2 class split for the next fight.  Magic Defend Up on all to soften up the incoming Summons.

Baraius Hill (1 reset):

   My 7 Speed team moves before the enemies so I try to position the team to bait archers into coming closer.  Mustadio lands an Arm Aim on the left side summoner.  I nuke the close Knight with a Holy, send a monk towards the disabled summoner, and take a few swings at an archer while staying out of the other Knight's movement range.  Sending someone after the summoner was a tactical mistake as she loses her Don't Act status right before getting a turn.  Drops a summon on the monk after her and while it's not fatal, an archer puts the monk down right afterwards.  She's dead in a bad position since I'm also trying to keep my allies alive and fending off summoner #2.  By the time I get someone in Raise range, it misses and my dead unit crystalizes before I get another chance.  Reset.
   Next try has a similar start.  Mustadio lands Arm Aim again on the same summoner.  I try to bait archers into coming closer.  Next round, Mustadio shoots the summoner, nuke the close knight with Holy again, heal up from arrows, and try to soften up an archer for Agrias to finish off.  I don't make the same mistake with sending a monk after that summoner.  Got some good luck on the next round as left side summoner goes for Protect on herself and the other summoner drops a summon but so-so Faith and Magic Defend Up means no deaths on my side.  Mustadio lands a fatal midcharge gunshot on the left side summoner.  Agrias and my team put the other summoner on the defensive and she spends her remaining turns on Moogle for herself or near death archers rather than offense.  Got a crystal off the close knight which taught Armor Break, heh.

  Arrive at Lionel and now the 3rd class has opened up.  Teach Nall Move-HP up as he can spare the JP and I want it for Lionel so might as well.  Return to Zeland for armor upgrades and two Battle Bamboos for the Mediator unlock grind.  With Gained JP up, got it done in two fights with two Oracles at a time and the 5th unlocking Mediator through spillover.  First fight was Mindflares at Zirekile, ick.  Nuked most of them with Holy and thankfully, the only status they land is a Berserk on a monk.  Random at Baraius was bombs and a chocobo, very mundane.  With Mediator unlocked on all 5 units, Fiesta can continue.  Bought a Platina Dagger at Lionel but nothing else there is of use to this party.

Zigolas Swamp (0 resets):

  Mustado has Seal Evil so he made statues.  Went with 2 priests, 2 monks, and 1 knife wielding Mediator.  Priests MVP, monks help out with 36 or 40 damage Wave Fists, mediator is carried by the others and throws rocks for JP.

At Grog, snag a second gun and go with 2 mediator, 2 monk, 1 priest.  Toss on Magic Defend Up on most of the team to soften incoming summons.

Goug Machine City (0 resets):

 Got a good start with Mustadio landing an Arm Aim on a thief.  The non-statused Thief goes down to my team ganging up on him.  5 Speed summoner gets three people for about 60 each, no casualties.  6 Speed summoner has no attack summons (as is usual).  From here on, stay healed up and beat down enemies one at a time.  Starting with attack summon caster, other thief, other summoner, and lastly the archers.  It took long enough for a couple of enemies to crystalize but they don't yield anything interesting.  Actually, nothing of note really occurs in this fight.  It's dull writing about it and is likely nearly as dull reading about it.

Baraius Valley (0 resets):

  2 Mediators, 2 Monks, 1 Priest.  Both Mediators go on the Ramza side while priest and other monk go in squad 2.  My whole team goes first so I soften up the Ramza side Wizard with a few gunshots while the other team positions themselves to lure their wizard forward.  Agrias next, she obliges my planning with a Stasis Sword on Knight and Wizard with wizard dying.  Enemies go.  Knight tries Shield Break on Agrias, blocked.  Lightning Bow archer shoots someone.  Other Knight has Elemental and goes for a 20 damage Carve Model on Agrias.  My turns again.  Nuke the other Wizard with Holy.  Mediators shoot at Lightning Bow archer (mistake, should have softened up the Knight that Agrias tagged earlier).  Monks play medic with Chakra, a task sometimes compounded by uneven terrain.  Agrias procs a Death Sentence on previously injured knight with Split Punch.  Squad 2 tries to move in to help out,, leaving that archer for last.  Another Shield Break attempt, miss.  Enemies poke at me but nothing I can't handle.  Finish up putting bullets into Lightning Bow archer.  Next Split Punch lands another Death Sentence.  Another Shield Break attempt, miss again and that was his last action.  Last Knight can hit for 64 but he's unsupported now and Chakra can keep up long enough.  It did take a while to be able to converge on the last archer, enough for some crystals to appear from the wizards.  One yields Protect and the other gives up Shell, among the typical expected stuff.  So now I have white magic other than Cure/Raise/Holy.

Return to Warjias for Brigandines and Wizard Staffs.  Get prepped for Golgarand with Artemis and Luna as Priests, Felicia as a Mediator and the other two as monks.  Teach Ruby Revive.  Levels are around 14-15 and Nall has reached 8 PA in Monk.

Golgarand Execution Site (1 reset):

  Virgos in squad 1 and the others in squad 2.  I expected Gaf to go after Artemis because of mage HP and good compatability but he comes over to Night Sword Luna instead.  Um, OK.  Makes it easier for me as Luna can oneshot him with Holy.  With Gaf taken out on round one, what could go wrong?  How about Ice Bow archer having best compat with Artemis and dealing inflated damage to him?  And a Hasted Time Mage being able to reach him and bash him into the ground before my team gets their second turns so I'm down a member early?  And the other Time Mage raining down black magic from up high?  And getting pinned by all three Knights before I've even downed a second enemy?  Felicia does have Item and can Phoenix Down Artemis but I only have 5, having never bothered to stock up.  I believe I made a tactical blunder with the mediator's target priority (crossbow archer instead of time mage) but still, fell behind early and just kept falling further behind in momentum until I gave up and reset when down to just the two monks standing and all three Knights still pressuring the team.
  Next try starts out the same as before with Gaf Night Swording Luna and the crossbow archer plinking Artemis for 20.  Nuke Gaf off the battlefield and no more best compatibility archer at least.  Instead, I get a 74 Faith Time Mage who Slows him and the other Time Mage, who despite low Faith, keeps landing Stop at 40% on Luna.  Cue scrambling like ants trying to stay alive and dreading Luna getting chopped up by knights while stopped.  I made a positioning error when Artemis was trying to Cure Luna and any allies I could get into the effect range and Ruby got her armor broken.  Crap.  Keep playing on.  Somehow, Luna avoids death and is able to contribute to the fight again.  Though not before getting Stopped a second time before I'm tired of the Time Mage and have Artemis nuke her with Holy.  From this position, I am able to successfully turn the tides of the battle.  Starting with the other Time Mage who has been landing Hastes and Slows all over the place.  This actually ends up helping me when Ruby drops several times.  Because the CTs have been split, I get situations where I can Raise Ruby and she gets to act before any knights put her back into the ground.  Ruby learned Spin Fist off geo Knight's crystal as well as some geomancy which may be relevant for the dancer grind later.  Got Shell for a second character as well off a time mage crystal.  Wasn't trying to stall; it was simply slow taking out all the enemies as the team's offense without Holy is low and it takes 2-4 Chakras to recharge the MP for 1 cast of Holy.

Back to Warjias to replace the broken armor.  Got a random on the way out.  5 chocobos, ugh.  First fight I make use of Threaten in as it generally takes 3 attacks to off one without using Holy and they're very capable of swarming.  Random as Baraius Hill on the way too but it thankfully wasn't chocobos and my team is well rounded enough to pound through it.

Gates of Lionel (0 resets)

  Nall is a priest and I run two monks and two mediators down below.  MagicDefend Up on all because my team doesn't have the tools to take out the summoner on round 1. One Mediator has the Lv 18 Speed point which works in my favor.  After opening gunshot on summoner, she retreats out of summoner range.  7 Speed archer goes to charge something on her which lets me have some midcharge hits on it (or just breaking the charge with Throw Stone knockback).  Nall oneshots Gaf with Holy.  Pretty much just play defensively this fight, kiting the knights as much as I can and not letting summoner and archers gang up on anyone.  Summoner goes down on my team's second set of actions.  Getting an archer out of play is the next priority.  6 Speed archer kept trying to steal Artemis' Green Beret.  Got three attempts, all missed.  Knight does break his gun after two attempts though, which is annoying.  Pisces Knight is especially durable facing two female Virgos, a Gemini, and Taurus mediator punches.  In the process of taking out everyone else, priority becomes feeding Nall enough Chakras to have the MP to Holy her for the win.  Gafgarion's crystal teaches Antidote to someone, hilarious.

Office of Lionel Castle (0 resets)

  Nall is a Mediator, Artemis a Monk, the three ladies are Priests.  Use the PBF which has Queklain dropping a Nightmare on the dudes.  One Sleep, one Death Sentence, not that the result matters.  Lock 2 Holies on Quek, the third priest bonks the sleeping unit awake with a rock.  Artemis was never doing much on offense with worst compat but I have him try a 30 damage Wave Fist anyways, miss.  Nall shoots Quek for the JP.  Holies go off, battle over.

New stuff learned this chapter -

Priest: Regenerator (Artemis and Luna), Shell (2 units, already forgot which), Protect (1 unit)
Monk: Wave Fist, Chakra (all),  Revive (females), Move HP-up
Mediator: Threaten (Luna)
universal: Gained JP Up (all), Antidote (all)

Various class thoughts -

Priest: Chapter 2 is their time to shine.  With all the MA gear that becomes available in C2, even their physical becomes decent.  Holy will generally oneshot anything at this stage.  Only enough MP for one cast but that's OK because they got paired up with...
Monk: C2 I feel is a low point for monk.  Their statlines are such their HP isn't that much better than a priest at these levels.  Their most important use is providing MP for priests with Chakra.  Wave Fist still helps in dealing with randoms.  Still hoarding monk JP for Hamedo so not a lot of their skillset online yet.
Mediator: Haven't had much playtime yet but right now they shoot things with guns and provide emergency item usage as needed.  They have other uses that will come into play later on once they've earned more JP to use.  Threaten weakens monsters when I see that they'll get a turn despite my efforts.

16

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: June 28, 2023, 07:14:45 AM »

  Talk about 4 Job Fiesta drove me enough to try a variant for FFT.  The format is meant to be similar to the FF5 one with various details below.

Ramza and 4 generics (with one oddball exception)  Gender split can be whatever.
5 Jobs will become available over the course of the game.  Once a Job is unlocked, at least one member of the party must have that Job as a primary class during story fights.  Abilities and RSM can only come from those 5 Jobs or universal skills (detailed later).  Guests are not restricted by this and can be whatever the hell they want.
Like all other challenges, the restrictions don't officially begin until Dortor.
Anything goes while grinding to unlock jobs with a few exceptions.  Move-Find Item, equipment theft, and Invite and Brave and Faith altering are not allowed unless their corresponding Job is unlocked.

One job will be selected from the following groupings by RNG and become available on the following schedule:

Group 1: Knight, Archer, Priest or Wizard  Available at start
Group 2: Monk, Thief, Oracle, or Time Mage.  Available after Windmill Shed
Group 3: Geomancer, Lancer, Mediator, or Summoner.  Available after arriving at Liionel Castle in Chater 2.
Group 4: Samurai, Ninja, Bard, Dancer, or Calculator  Available at start of Chapter 3 (I'm playing on console so Mime is a "hell no")
Group 5: Any of the above plus Chemist.  Available at start of Chapter 4

I also threw in Agrias, Mustadio, Rafa, or Malak into group 5 for spice.  Haven't made any rulings on how to handle special characters; I'll mull over it if I roll one.

Universal skills

  I chose to designate various skills from Squire and Chemist as universal and usable by anyone much like how all characters in FF5 can use Item.  For Squire, it's everything but Accumulate.  For Chemist, it's Potion, Antidote, Eye Drop, Echo Grass, Phoenix Down, and Equip Change.  At a bare minimum, Gained JP up is allowed for quality of life.
   Ramza's unique Squire stuff is banned.  Unless Mediator is rolled in which case he's permitted Cheer Up once he learns Praise (purely for the convenience for Brave raising and only in randoms)

  Probably forgot to mention something but feel free to ask.  I rolled (with outside help) Priest, Monk, Mediator, Samurai, and Dancer for my 5 Jobs.  And with that wall of text, onto the game.

  For the first time ever, Ramza got plastered in the intro battle.  Head Break landed on him which was followed up by the archers picking on him and the knight smacking him again.  He was at critical but I had him run in to kill someone despite that and the last archer dropped him into the stone.

  Gariland went to plan without disaster.  Despite not intentionally farming for crystals/chests, Ramza got a crystal anyways for Potion and Equip Change.  Maybe I should have though and at Mandalia because of how tight money is early on and every box is another item to sell off for added cash.  Get enough actions for Delita to teach him Throw Stone, important for my plans this chapter.

  Stopped by at the soldier office for my first three hires.  Got two females and a male.  I'm not aiming for specific Zodiac, just good Brave and Faith values, but can afford to skimp a bit since I can make it up later with the classes I rolled.  Both females are Virgos and the male is a Taurus which is alright for my Virgo Ramza.  Change all four units into Chemists and teach them Throw Stone and Phoenix Down.  Also teach Delita Throw Stone and set Item on him.

  Mandalia: Choose the usual option for the Brave increase.  I am willing to reset until Algus doesn't die early as I'm relying on him and Delita for offense during the chapter and would rather he remain to get training in.  Things played out in my favor on the first attempt though.  Use Potion with Ramza as necessary but tried to be thrifty with them as money is super tight this early.  Got two boxes despite not stalling so yay, another 100-150 Gil.  All three generics have Priest unlocked by the time the battle is over.

  After Igros scenes, back to Gariland.  I scrape up the funds to get staffs for my priests and two Feather Hats.  Do 2-3 randoms with a starting generic filling in the 5th slot until I have enough saved up to hire the 5th unit.  As Dancer is one of the Jobs in this run, I opt for a 3rd female.  She's a Gemini which could spell trouble.  Bad compat with 3/4 of her allies and very vulnerable to Balk.  Eh, I'll manage somehow.

  Randoms are such a slog with just priests.  Priests with rocks so they're better off than SCC priests but their offense is terrible.  And this early in the game, running out of steam is a real risk with only 3-4 casts of Cure per unit.  Gotta be careful to not have someone get ganged up on.  Multiple Chocobos are a death sentence due to danger of attrition and 3 chocobos is might as well reset and spare oneself the agony.  Getting those 2-3 randoms done felt like it took forever and then there were 2-3 more to unlock Priest on the 5th generic.  At least I got two Holy Water drops, which were sold to fund equipment upgrades.  And I was still not fully geared when I went to Sweegy before the monster levels could inflate further.  Delita and Algus had their best stuff since they're the bulk of the offense but my priests were stuck with starting Clothes and one was left without Battle Boots because I didn't have the money for another set.  I've been playing with a self-imposed restriction of no more than 3 Phoenix Down in one fight but so far it hasn't come up.  For one, money is so tight at the start that I don't have extra funds for consumables.  So I pretty much avoid using them.  Also, I haven't actually set Item on anyone, relying on careful positioning and hoping someone doesn't get ganked by an ill-timed critical in randoms.  Not that hard to manage when the inhabitants of Mandalia all rely one range 1 physicals for offense.

  Sweegy was slow but pretty safe.  Have my team use rocks to soften up targets for Delita and Algus to kill and avoid extending too far that we end up in attack range of every enemy.  Toss Cures as needed to prevent deaths.  My priests do 3-6 or 4-8 with rocks so I'm depending on Delita and Algus to do the heavy lifting.  Will go for a staff bonk if something's low enough and will get a turn before the guests but my units' focus is defense.

  After the fight, head back to Igros for a set of Knight gear for Delita later and do another random (sigh) to finish up gear upgrades.  By the time I'm back to Sweegy ready to challenge Dortor, two of the females have their Lv 6 MA point.

  I'm likely to refer to my units by the custom names I gave them from this point.  The common theme is characters that look like cats but aren't.  Ramza is Nall, first female hired is Ruby.  After that comes Artemis and Luna.  And Felicia brings up the 5th slot. (more often seen as a catgirl but she does have a cat form so she counts, nya)  I teach Raise to a couple of my units before entering Dortor but I hope to not need it as 30 MP isn't going to last very long.

Dortor 1: (0 resets)

  It's intimidating with a gang of priests with the main risk being having enemies gang up on someone and dropping them.  Artemis sits out being the highest leveled generic.  I actually have two units with stronger staff bonks and I end up sending them up with Delita and Algus to help with the Long Bow archer, heh.  Nall and Felicia advance on the ground with the eventual intention of baiting the close wizard into getting midcharged.  The Wizard does oblige them on its third turn and foolishly leaves itself open to two staff bonks.  It's a Pisces against a male Virgo and a female Gemini so it's left at 1 HP.  But a rock from the roof drops it before it gets its spell off.  On the roof, one priest knocked the archer off with a rock and Delita and Algus go to finish it off.  This results in Algus being targeted by both remaining archers and the other Wizard.  Clutch C. evade moment dodges one archer attack which enables him to live through the storm which would have killed him had all the attacks landed.  Next round of actions involve the knight hitting someone, but it's not enough to kill, and the living Wizard being nice enough to go for a spell in range of two more midcharge staff whacks.  And this time, they're enough for a clean kill leaving me free to Cure up injured units.  Fight is pretty much under control at this point and it's just a matter of mop-up.  Longbow archer drops a box and I do get the Long Bow out of it, neat.  Delita and Algus finish up the Knight before anyone else's countdown expires.  It's fine, I'm not planning on stalling out fights for crystals/chests unless I'm hoping for a specific drop.

  After the fight, Delita learns Gained JP up and I change him into a Knight with Guts secondary for Sand Rat Cellar.  He also gets the Iron Sword.  I'll be leaning on him to help kill things in the next map as my own offense still sucks.  Teach any remaining allies Priest, give the Linen Robe to Ruby, and that does it for preparations.  Nall has enough Squire JP from spillover to pick up Gained JP up so I do so and set it.

Sand Rat Cellar (0 resets):

   Not counting the reset from forgetting to set JP up on Delita.  The plan on paper is to have Nall and Felicia support Delita and Ruby and Artemis supporting Algus, try to get the enemies to separate, and beat them down one at a time hopefully avoiding dying.  At least before half the enemies are down.  At Lv 6 with upgraded gear, my priests have over 60 HP so enemies generally need to land 3 hits to kill someone unless the monks roll high with Brave.  Things go awry early when the Delita side monk decides to wander over to toss rocks at Algus.  Things get really dicey when Artemis dies with most of the enemies clustered nearby.  I do get a Raise and a Cure off on him but expect to see a restart in my future.  Got really fortunate with enemies splitting up their attacks so there are no further deaths.  At which point, my plan gets back on track and I slowly wear them down while healing as needed.  Did need to play defensively though, sometimes tossing rocks and retreating instead of going for an immediate kill to avoid overexposing people.  I tried for the Silk Robe drop but the Knight who had it was the fifth enemy killed so time to stall.  Intentionally offer up units to the remaining Knight so he'd smack them and bait Delita/Algus into healing instead of attacking.  It works and he stays alive long enough for a chest to appear.  Only got the Buckler though.
   I did win but it was a close one with 3 of my 4 units out of MP.  Forgot to set Counter Tackle on Algus, which would have helped with wearing them down.  Crystals for Artemis and Felicia.  Dash and Heal for Artemis which slightly speeds up randoms.  Felicia gets Weapon Guard, which is cool but I'm unable to use it in the constraints of the Fiesta format.  And of course, Potion because I was too cheap to spend the 30 Chemist JP.

  Afterwards, shop upgrades.  I grab 3 more Linen Robes and 5 Red Hoods.  Also a Leather Vest for Algus.  Got into a random at Sweegy Woods, which is slightly less of a slog than randoms have been.  Cures and Raise to get Skeletons into critical and hide in a corner.  Black Goblins and Bombs have less HP than Mandalia monsters so there's less HP to grind down.  And Artemis' Dash improves the damage output ever so slightly.  I needed the money anyways so better here than Mandalia.  Pick up armor upgrades for Delita at Igros.  Got into a random at Mandalia, which I slogged through but maybe I shouldn't have taken it.  Everybody has their Lv 8 Speed point afterwards.  Which means the Priests at Thieves' Fort will go after my team and be able to rain down Bolt spells with impunity and I'm unlikely to be able to midcharge them.

  Thieves Fort (0 resets): Delita is still in the same Knight setup from Sand Rats, just upgrades gear.  Algus is an Archer with Item and the Long Bow.   I remember to set Counter Tackle this time and also give him Move +1.  All my units have Magic Defend Up as they're all at Job Level 8 from the last couple grindy fights and have more than enough to spare.  Ruby sits out so there's one less target for Thieves to charm.
   General strategy is still the same.  Support Delita and Algus, stay mostly defensive, and soften up targets for Delita and Algus to kill.  Black Magic Priest having best compat with Artemis made things dicey.  She mostly has free reign to unload Bolts on my team.  And I wasn't watching the AT list close enough and just when I'm wearing her down, other Priest gives her a Hi-Potion undoing all my work.  Dammit.  Had a couple of deaths which stretched my MP reserves but made it.  I wanted to try for a Priest's Silk Robe but that one was one of the last to go down and all the support was wiped out before the end.  Luna snags the Priest crystal that appeared, giving her Black Magic that I'll probably never use even in randoms, Hi-Potion (again going unused), and Dash so she can do slightly more in randoms.  The Silk Robe Priest dropped a box but I only got her hat, meh.  I had manipulated AI so that Delita/Algus would spend turns healing rather than attacking while stalling.  Another side benefit: Delita got just enough Knight JP for Equip Armor.

  No random fight on the path back to Igros. (thankfully, I was not looking forward to another Priest SCC pre-Holy slog)  Rather than buy a 5th robe, I give Artemis the Leather Vest for Miluda 2.  Delita has class changed into a Monk with Equip Armor and Guts secondary.

Lenalia Plateau: (0 resets)

   The Priest slog: 4th rodeo.  This one looks scary.  Three mages that can cause all sorts of trouble.  Everyone on my side goes before them so they'll have free reign to pick on whoever they want.  Knights are less of a concern as they only hit for 25 but I can't ignore them as they're quite capable of bringing down someone weakened by attack magic.  Then there's Miluda who I'll try to keep 5 panels away from until most of the enemies are down.  On my side, I have Magic Defend Up, Cure and Raise, and Delita punching for 50.  Needed to play defensively and try to avoid having the same unit get ganged up on.    Positioning is important as well as paying enough attention to the AT list to realize that I have a double turn to safely get in range of Knights to staff bonk things and retreat before they can act.  When I can afford to attack, the focus is to soften up targets for Delita to finish off rather than try to kill them myself.
  Had a fortunate opening.  Time Mage Hastes but a single Wizard.  This could have been bad but the Haste had him come forward to go after my team.  One rock weakened him enough for Delita to drop him on my second turn.  This relieves a lot of pressure on my team.  Still had a death or two thanks to the other wizard raining Bolt 2 on my units and a knight dropping a weakened target.  He only started with 28 MP though so was out of gas after 3 casts.  Some Raise followed by Cure got KOed units back into the fight though.  Meanwhile Delita's third action was to punch the Time Mage for 50 out of her 54 HP so she retreats without her doing much to complicate the fight (her 2nd Haste spell missed and her 3rd on self wouldn't have mattered when she's running for a corner).  After softening up a Knight for Delita to punch out, the fight was pretty much stablized.  Still took a while to wrap up with my low damage.  Got Delita to punch out the MP-less Wizard and the other Knight because my units do so little.  Then it was a slow wearing down of Miluda.  Easy stuff when she's alone, just heal up people that she hits.  I helped Delita along with a bunch of rocks and the occasional Dash.  Got some black magic from crystals as well as Dash for another generic but nothing of note really.  Delita hits Lv 8 in this fight so he's going into the next one at 7 Speed.

  Shops have upgraded so shopping time.  My units are around Lv 9 at this point and with Silk Robes, some have the 56 MP for Holy.  Huzzah.  Pick up some gear at Igros as well, including a second set of armor for future use.  Also bought a Small Mantle for Zekaden.  Got one random on the way back to Windmill Shed but nuking two enemies with Holy really speeds things along.

Windmill Shed (0 resets):

   I suppose I could have stretched this out long enough for Delita to take the 7 actions needed to reach the 300 Monk JP for Move HP-up.  But that felt too risky with the threat of death from Crush Punch.  And when I'm packing two people who have the MP for Holy, went for the assassination.  I'm not counting the reset where I forgot to teach Nall Holy.  Or the one whiere I misplaced a Cure because I forgot Delita would move before it would go off.  Or the one where Delita got Stopped by the first Stasis Sword.
  For the battle itself, first set of actions see me moving into position and Delita lobbing a rock at Boco.  Enemies go.  Wiegraf Stasis Sword on Delita, Boco pecks Nall, Monks punch Delita.  My turn.  Luna heals Nall.  Felicia places a Cure where Delita will walk into it, other priests lob rocks at monks because they can and retreat, and Delita punches out Boco.  Wiegraf stops Delita with next Stasis Sword and the monks punch Delita some more.  At this point, I'm able to safely lock two Holies onto Wiegraf; the first is enough to send him running.  Had Delita been unStopped, he would have gotten another action before the Holies go off but oh well.
  Whew, this was a relief.  I'd been dreading having to do this fight without Holy but my levels were just high enough to prevent it from turning into a slog.

  At this point in the Fiesta, the 2nd class is available.  Due to spillover JP, 2 of my units already have Knight unlocked and a third is in the 190s.  Those two class change into Monks with Basic Skill to start getting that monk JP and two others change into Knights.  Thanks to spillover, I have Monk unlocked on all five units in one fight.

Fort Zekaden (0 resets):

  I went 3 priests and one monk for this one.  Delita is a Squire with Item and Equip Armor.  I meant to pick up a Mytrhil Sword for him but forget so he's stuck with an Iron Sword.  I want him to have exactly 4 Move so might as well throw a Small Mantle on him.  The intention is that Algus will move into a position to shoot him where Delita cannot reach him for a sword hit.  This serves to draw Algus forward while the two chase each other around.  Magic Defend Up on all my units just as a precaution though it's intended to be over before they're at risk for magic damage.
  Well, that didn't quite happen.  My units go first.  Monk is in formation 2 and goes around the side of the fort while the priest back there comes towards squad 1.  I move my squad 1 units just out of spell range of the closer Wizard.  Algus moves to a lower elevation to take a shot at Delita.  Delita then goes for a physical on Algus, whiffs his 72% swing.  Enemies do their thing with a Knight whacking Delita and a Wizard frying him for 47 with Fire 2.  At this point, I'm able to lock 3 Holies on Algus and there's nothing the enemies can do to stop it.  Monk beans knight with a rock (yay, JP), Knights just move, and other Wizard locks a 70 damage spell on Delita but my Holies go off first and end things in two casts.

Chapter 1 end - Skills learned
Priest: Cure, Raise, Holy, MagicDefend Up
Monk: nothing yet
Universal: Throw Stone (all), Dash on Artemis and Felicia, Heal on Artemis, Gained JP up on Nall

17

General Chat / Re: The Phantasy Star 4 cast takes on FF6: Beyond Chaos

« on: June 19, 2023, 01:01:52 AM »

The scenarios:

  Nothing of note on the Terra, Edgar, Banon path really.  Ryu and Krissy bash through monsters with whatever offense is suitable to what they're fighting.  Banon risks an R-Esper or two early but mostly Jumps to keep his hide out of reach.  The team has no healing besides items so I take the safe path through the security checkpoint rather than the short one.  De-equip all Relics upon reaching Arvis'

  Locke next.  One Bolt 3 removes the heavyarmor on the map but I still end up detouring for the item shop to pick up some Dried Meat now that I have more cash to afford them.  Rescue Celes who comes with Dischord + Bolt3, Tritoch + Bolt 3, Item.

Dischord + Bolt 3: Forced single target, this is handy for when fighting something bulky enough to not die right away that's also vulnerable to instant death.  Or if I need to focus on a particular enemy or avoid hitting a different one because...

Tritoch + Bolt 3: Forced multitarget.  Primarily a random sweeper though the tri-element nature of Tritoch means it's not that uncommon to fight something that resists it.  Does good damage when the targets don't though.

  With all the Bolt 3, I rename Celes Jade.  Both because it's a gender flexible name and also to reference the bug from Breath of Fire who loves his BoltX.  Gets to use the 3rd Red Jacket I won on Mt. Koltz for a welcome defense boost.

  Enemies in the basement are cooperative and die as soon as either fighter gets a turn.  Useful loot includes a Pearl Rod (finally something non-lightning that Raiden can use to bash things that resist Bolt 3 spam) and another Heavy Shield, which likely will come in handy on the Sabin scenario.  Rest up at the cabin and then plow through the cave to South Figaro.  Early on, I encounter randoms who can counter damage with a vanish Special, even when the damage is fatal.  So at the price of 12 damage, both characters end up invisible quickly.  Enemies are cooperative again and die to being zapped.  And they don't use anything but physicals. (if they have magic, they're dying too quick to use it)  TunnelArmor uses its initiative turn to Bolt both members for about 90.  At least it's not oneshotting with Poison; that might create danger.  One Bolt 3 reduces TunnelArmor to scrap and I win a SwordBreaker for the minute effort required.

  Sabin up.  Recruit Shadow whose command list is Sand Storm + Bolt 3, Missile + Quadra Slice, Item.  Yeah, this randomized game seems really fixated on handing out Bolt 3 in the custom commands.

Sand Storm + Bolt 3: Standard forced MT random sweeping.  Sand Storm I regard as rather meh as far as MT offense options go as its accuracy is lower than nearly everything else and its spell power is merely on par with Wind Slash.  Decent enough for early WoB sweeping but looks positioned to fall off later on.

Missile + Quadra Slice: Now this is pretty neat and complements Shadow's other command well.  It's fun on single targets, moreso if they don't immune instant death.  Missile softens them up and then Quadra Slice inflicts defense-ignoring damage.  And due to the physical attack formula, this will be climbing faster in power as levels increase.  So as Sand Storm + Bolt 3 falls off in effectiveness, this skill will be catching up to keep Shadow relevant.  Being reliable damage, this puts Shadow above Raiden and Jade in my view.

  He joins at Lv 18, which is insanely high for this part of the game.  I rename him Wrath, for reasons that are a spoiler to disclose.  Buy two Mithril Vests from the Chocobo merchant for the raw defense increases but none of the consumables interest me.  Wrath solos randoms on the way to the Imperial camp, no surprise here.

  Over at Doma Castle, a new character is introduced.  She comes with Control, Jump, and Magic and natural magic.  Joining at Lv 14, her spell list is Fire, Poison, Bio, Rasp, and Float.  Mostly whatever though Float is of interest to circumvent Magnitude 8 death counters and Fire and Poison may end up helpful backup options for high defense enemies.  Rasp is unlikely to cripple casters in one cast at this point.  So it sucks now since if I'm not crippling a caster in one cast, I'm more apt to go for HP violence to neutralize them.  I rename her Naroha because I had anime on the brain when I was playing this segment.  First character able to equip that SwordBreaker from TunnelArmor so she gets it.  Try out Fire and Poison on Leader then Jump only to find that Jump would have oneshotted.  The Goggles he drops are probably relegated to filler until more useful Relics enter the picture.
   Fight the Dobermans to clear their Rage.  I haven't encountered a Rage command and it's not even guaranteed but I do it on principle.  Missile + Quad Slice KOs Kefka in the scripted encounters.  Not that it changes anything; I just find it entertaining.  Battles are pretty much Wrath carries and Shania chips in MithrilBlade physicals because I'm unwilling to risk death by Crusader from R-Esper deep in the camp.  Loot was mostly uninteresting.  Barrier Ring provides a small Magic boost.  The Kaisers were mostly pointless as no one on the team can equip them but they are elemental ammo for Ryu's Throw if a holy weakness is present.

  Took a few resets before I managed to reach the train without Wrath getting bored and leaving early.  Save before recruiting a ghost because I have been trolled by ghost with Moogle Charm before which interferes with my objective of encountering all enemy types.  Ghost comes with Mimic, SwdTech, Item.  Very so-so all around with limited options I'd care to mime.  Enemy encounters were pretty much mundane though getting nailed by a Shimsham was annoying due to my limited healing.  The ghost merchant has regular priced Phoenix Down and I finally purchase my emergency stash of 10.  Also been getting fairly frequent Tonic drops which is nice enough this early in the game.
   Most of the treasure is trapped, including the invisible one in the caboose with the first save point.  Wrath carries, the others chip in/disable someone with Control, zzzz. Waterfall boss fight is stuffed in a box here in open defiance of physics and that's the trapped chest that takes the longest because there's no choice but to wait out the wave of pirhana.  Found a ThunderBlade so Shania now has a decent weapon to swing around unless enemy resists lightning.  Found a Black Belt too, which isn't really useful for my current party as they all have no reason to be using Fight or have elemental weapons.  Also, FF6 physical hahahaha.  But maybe later on someone will have suitable weapon options to consider it.  Also won another Red Jacket off a random so Naroha gets to take advantage of a defense boost.
   Missile works on train boss and Quadra Slice removes most of its remaining HP so a couple more swings from the others and it's done without getting to do much.  Waterfall boss was a bit more eventful as I found out Rizopas absorbs lightning.  I still won with two Jumps but Shania got imped so I did reset to spin for a better outcome.  Thankfully didn't see El Nino as that would have splattered the water weak Shania.

  Gau joins.  Sprite is a nun but that's not a conclusive indication of gender as pre-transition Bridget has shown the internet.  I rename them Hope, an utterly generic name of genericness.  Command list is Poison, Dance, Item.  Doesn't make the cut for my "overpowered" threshhold.

Poison: It's a free Poison spell, whee.  Still subject to the same limitations as spending the 3 MP to cast it through Magic would have.  Tremble with fear, mortals.

  Hope's Dance list is very so-so overall.  Some are decent, others are terrible.  They are as follows.  I do have the Dance names randomized but will be referring to the by vanilla names for ease of conveyance.  Also, only including the two most frequent ones as they're generally the only ones I look at when evaluating a Dance with a few exceptions.

Wind Song - Harvester and Rage
Forest Suite - Pearl Wind and Absolute 0
Desert Aria - Plasma and Storm
Town Sonata - Sunbath and Wind Slash
Earth Blues - S. Cross and Poison Frog
Water Rondo - Kitty and Lullaby
Dusk Requiem - Megazerk and Revenger

Water and cave dances are basically useless under Dance due to lack of damage and not having effects worth losing control over.  Plains dance is bad too as 7/16 Harvester is often a wasted turn.  Mountain Dance is overall stronger on offense but desert does have the advantage of having no moves in the other slots that hit allies so it can be safely used under the effects of Phantom.  The other two are similar levels of useful with a MT heal and an MT attack.  Forest is stronger on offense while town has more dependable healing.

  I do make it a point to use forest until Pearl Wind shows up to log it under learned Lores.  Stopping by to help the wounded soldier in Mobliz was worth it as I gained a Ribbon for that quest, a good trade for 2500 GP.  Bought a Trident for Hope simply because it's stronger than the starting knife as well as some armor upgrades.
   On the way to crescent mountain, monster gets an Acid Rain off, tearing away nearly all of Shania's HP.  The sane thing to do afterwards would be Cure2 on the party.  But I chose to live life on the edge and try to get Hope to do a Sun Bath through dance.  Game actually obliges me in the trench and before Shania dies to chip damage from monsters.  Power Sash from the trench has a rogue half ice effect, which is neat but the defenses are significantly lower than the Red Jacket and for the people that can't use Red Jacket, Shania doesn't care because her shield already nulls it and Ryu can't equip it.  So obsolete.  Flail is weaker than what its available users already have access to so it's use is going to be limited to a non-element backup weapon for Raiden at this time.  Nikeah inn clock has monsters.  They drop to a single Wind Slash from the town dance but the clock being trapped means the randomizer has denied me a high grade item.  Nothing I particularly desire in the shops so muck around outside town a bit, stay at the inn to refresh MP (important for the two magic users here since Narshe snowfield will not give them an MP recharge) and take the ship to  Narshe for the showdown to occur there.

18

General Chat / Re: The Phantasy Star 4 cast takes on FF6: Beyond Chaos

« on: June 13, 2023, 01:48:53 AM »

Every now and then, I get this urge to rampage through a game crushing all opposition with overwhelming power.  Beyond Chaos has several optional settings that can enable this but the one that becomes the primary feature of this playthrough is the one that makes desperation attacks far more frequent.  Normally, desperation attacks don't show up as commands or options within R-command skills,  With good reason, their unblockable defense-piercing nature will overshadow nearly every other option in the game.  But this optional setting adds them to the command pool and guarantees at least one character will have a Limit command (uses random desperation attack).  It took a few tries before I generated a randomized game that was up to the power levels I was aiming for.  And with that, onto playthrough highlights (and any lowlights that come up)

  Terra started at Lv 7, an auspicious start for a playthrough aiming for big numbers.  Vicks and Wedge start at Lv 9.  Terra has Heal Force so no trouble whatsoever for the intro.  Bolt Beams at Whelk's head and ATB didn't tease me into accidentally hurting the shell.  Terra wakes up with a MithrilBlade and a Barrier Ring in the inventory, neither of which she has much use for.  Not with a command set of Steal, SwdTech, and Magic.  This may be a powertrip playthrough but it's not starting here.  So she doesn't get named after an overpowered character.  I randomly set her name as Krissy, after one of the counselors from NES Friday the 13th who doesn't suck.

Steal: Steal is Steal and works exactly the same as the vanilla game.  It's worth will be determined entirely on what the enemies are carrying.  At earlygame levels and no Sneak Ring, the success rate is also going to be disappointing until later.

SwdTech: Beyond Chaos makes every weapon SwdTech compatible, for a bit of added convenience.  Also, it skips the weapon check in regular battles so the command is usable even without one.  Only in the coloseum is a weapon required for SwdTech to be used.  Otherwise still the same as vanilla with the same major issue of not being able to enter commands for anyone while waiting for it to charge while the ATB continues to run.  So verdict is still "mostly scrubby."

   Arvis' clock has a Gold Hairpin.  And it has auto-reflect so will be of some use once I have someone who uses MP.  Solo Krissy just spams Dispatch; with no source of recovery, not worth spending turns on Steal.

  Meet Locke, who has Morph, Bolt3, and Item as a command set. 

Bolt 3: Free Bolt 3 at zero MP cost.  Sounds broken but numerous things will thwart it.  Elemental resistance, reflect status, Runic, or just insane magic defense will thwart the power of this command.

She (female sprite) slings Bolt3 for free.  Or can Morph for stronger Bolt3.  Raiden felt like a fitting name for how one-note she is.  Enemies able to thwart Bolt 3 spam, she becomes deadweight  Moogle segment was a bit spicier than usual with a number of Cursed shield users and another with a Cursed Ring but still earlygame speedbump.  2 out of 3 enemies resist lightning so took a few extra turns to clear randoms.  Mog has nothing interesting to steal so I leave his equipment alone.

  On the way to Figaro Castle is Krissy Steal and Raiden oneshot everything with Bolt 3.  Zzzz...  Saw regular priced Tonic at the Figaro castle shops to spent some of my starter cash on 20 of them.  Regular price Phoenix Down on sale too but I made the tough choice (tough because there won't be another chance at this shop) to skip them as it would have emptied the team's wallet.  Went outside to safety save with Edgar.

  Edgar's commands are Throw, Bio + TigerBreak, Item.  Oh yes, this is what I'm talking about. 

Throw: As noted from previous posts, BC enables throwing all weapons.  Targeting will be affected by whatever spell each weapon has attached.  If a weapon's spell can be MT'ed normally, throwing the weapon will also multitarget.  If an attached spell is ally only, (Antdot, Remedy, and the like) such a weapon can only be thrown at an ally.  And so on.

Bio + TigerBreak: Regular Bio spell followed by Sabin's desperation attack.  If MT'ed, TigerBreak will fire on a random living enemy.

I set his name to Ryu, specifcally referencing Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden NES and its Jump and Slash art which decimates boss fights.  With Tigerbreak on demand, Throw isn't seeing a lot of action besides scrolls for utility and MT functions and enemies with auto-reflect when I don't want to deal with reflected damage.  Cannot use weapons but with that skillset, when will he ever need a standard physical?  Magitek armors are oneshotted by Bolt 3.

  Everything in the cave to South Figaro resists lightning so Raiden only has knife stabs to add.  MT Bio does enough to handle everything though so another run through skipping all the treasure scenario.  There are enemies on the South Figaro plains which can poison.  Bit of a nuisance since I have very few Antidotes but Duncan's cabin is right there so it's just a few extra battles before I make it to South Figaro safely.

  I will maintain that randomizer really doesn't begin until South Figaro and everything before then is going through motions.  This trip turned out profitable.  Monsters-in-box live survive a Bolt 3 but the followup Bio finishes them and they leave two Red Jackets, a nice defensive boon.  Thunder Rod is Raiden only.  Not useful since if Bolt 3 is failing to damage, the Thunder Rod won't either.  Coin Toss changes Item to Mimic.  So it may be of some use for a weaker character to mime a strong attack from an ally.  Also acquired some miscellaneous defense upgrades from around town though nothing as impactful as those Red Jackets.

  Took two trips to clear Mt. Koltz.  Got pincered by monsters-in-box and they got an attack off as well as nailing the one unit who couldn't wear a Red Jacket with Fire.  With Ryu at 19 HP, I'd planned to leave after grabbing the Atlas Armlet box anyways so I didn't bother to heal him.  Then the very next fight, a monster got a turn first due to ATB randomness and smacked his remaining HP down.  Cue scrambling back to Duncan's cabin because I have no revival.  The second trip went according to plan though.  All the enemy formations die to MT Bolt 3 so randoms end as soon as Raiden gets a turn.  Krissy Steals since she's not needed for offense.  Took some scratch damage due to ATB hax but with this much offense, didn't feel a need to dig into my Tonic stash.  Found a Gold helmet, which like the Coin Toss, changes Item to Mimic, and a thunder elemental Poison Rod, so the team still has no use for it.  Vargas' bears survive a MT Bold 3 so I need Ryu to finish them with MT Bio.  This allows Vargas enough time to get a Gale Cut off but whatever.  Krissy Steals, nabbed a Shuriken.  TigerBreak from Ryu takes Vargas down to zero HP which suits me fine as Sabin isn't really up to the task.

  Sabin rolled R-Esper, Magic, Item.  Sounds neat on paper but like the Magicite item, not amazing in practice.  Most offense Esper summons are low power and therefore not great at sweeping randoms.  Defensive summons tend to be situational rather than something one wants to see every fight.  R-Esper leads to too many situations such as rolling Carbuncle against opposition with no reflectable magic, Odin/Raiden on bosses or monsters immune to ID, or Phoenix with no dead allies.  Or just screwing you over with Crusader.  Fun command to play around with from time to time but not one highly desired for effectiveness.  Sabin came with a Flame shield, kind of neat.  I rename him Shania, after Shadow Hearts 3's harmonixer.  Also rolled a female sprite so maybe her is the proper pronoun.  Joined at Lv 14 with natural magic: Cure 2, Life, Ice, Berserk.  The recovery stuff is a nice backup option at least.  She gets the Coin Toss relic since miming Raiden or Ryu is far more reliable than uncontrollable summons.

  Returner's hideout shop is double priced so I pass on buying from there as there's nothing I desperately need right away.  The reward options from Banon are either a Rage Ring or a Bone Club.  Rage Ring is by far the more useful option here.  Even if I had someone able to equip it, Bone Club is rather meh as a weapon option.  Other useful loot from the Returner's hideout are a Star Pendant (more for out-of-battle poison removal) and Cards to replace Krissy's MithrilKnife.  Banon comes with Jump and R-Esper to go along with the requisite Item.  Using R-Esper with someone whose death results in a game over is a dangerous venture.  Banon comes with an Imp Halberd so Jump is doing less harm than being poked by a needle, even more so with his single digit Vigor.  The main perk of Jump is that it keeps him from harm for a bit.

  I have Shania swipe the Gold Helmet that Raiden was using before setting out.  First chance I get, Ryu tosses an Invis Edge and Shania Mimics so that I have two invisible people on the raft.  This cuts down on the scratch damage since it will add up and my healing supplies are very limited.  Ryu does most of the heavy lifting here with Shania and Krissy chipping in small amounts with Fight and Dispatch.  Banon Jumps a lot for defense.  I did get two Genji Helmet drops while trying to get all three enemy types to show.  Did get a Bio reflected back at me but I kept it instead of resetting as I would have lost the Genji Helmets.  They have a rogue holy immunity but also -10 Evade so not as exciting to see as they might be otherwise.  Ultros goes down like a chump to a Tigerbreak and Shania Miming it.

19

Tournaments / King of RPGDL: Bonus match

« on: May 21, 2023, 12:20:10 AM »

Because it wouldn't be a King of Fighters inspired tourney without getting shredded by the iconic Genocide Cutter.  Repeatedly.

  So of course this bonus bout will be against the first SNK boss of the series, Rugal Bernstein.  In line with being a cheap SNK boss, he'll also deal 20% more damage and take 20% less as well as having nearly complete blanket status immunity.  Also, he needs to be defeated twice to be victorious.  One more fight for the heavy division champs to prove themselves.

It's a bonus match so there's more freedom on how to interpret Rugal for this context.  Also, I wouldn't be opposed to giving the RPG characters some extra options outside their normal dueling skillset, though nothing too crazy.

Team Speed Manip: Fie (Cold Steel) / Arnaud / Tidus vs Rugal Bernstein (king of Fighters series)

20

Tournaments / Re: Proving Grounds: Turtle & Tyrant Overlords vs. High Middle

« on: May 17, 2023, 06:47:10 AM »

Write in time;

XX vs. Nash Latkje (Suikoden 3)
XX vs. Alena (Dragon Quest 4)
PSP Meliadoul vs. Meliadoul (Final Fantasy Tactics)  Oh hell no, I'm not going to try to work out who lands the first weapon break.
PSP Meliadoul vs. Crono (Chrono Trigger)  Rubber Shoes and weapon break.  I don't think PSP Meliadoul changes anything about this match.
XX vs. Cherche (Fire Emblem Awakening)
XX vs. Adachi (Persona 4)

XX vs. Danette (Soul Nomad)
XX vs. Miranda (Legend of Dragoon)
PSP Meliadoul vs. Bart (Xenogears)  Surely.  Can't evade Unyielding Blade.
PSP Meliadoul vs. Kimahri (Final Fantasy X)  weapon break again
PSP Meliadoul vs. Gryz (Phantasy Star 4)  Angel Ring to stop instant death.  Break weapon and Gryz can do nothing.
PSP Meliadoul vs. Lemina (Lunar 2)  A case where the PSP buffs make a difference.  Lemina had an argument for going in without gear before as it doesn't influence her spellcasting that much.  That will not fly on the PSP incarnation and Melly's damage is significantly higher so will land the killshot first.

21

Tournaments / Re: Proving Grounds: Turtle & Tyrant Overlords vs. High Middle

« on: May 02, 2023, 11:30:49 PM »

Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Nash Latkje (Suikoden 3)
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Alena (Dragon Quest 4)
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Meliadoul (Final Fantasy Tactics)  Believe so.  Flame Shield to nullify nearly all of Wilbell's damage.  Break armor, break weapon, break accessory if applicable.  If Wilbell is still standing after all that, Melly will most likely get two physicals in the time it takes for Wilbell to refresh Element Call.  Meliadoul's physical durability is such I see her still standing after a limit.
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Crono (Chrono Trigger)  Has the speed to get off 2 Luminaires before Wilbell can get her defensive game going.
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Cherche (Fire Emblem Awakening)
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Adachi (Persona 4)

Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Danette (Soul Nomad)
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Miranda (Legend of Dragoon)
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Bart (Xenogears)  Think so.  Bart's anti-physical tricks aren't much use against someone with mostly magical offense.
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Kimahri (Final Fantasy X)  Feels right.  Lancet does horrible things to Wilbell's MP but she's getting at least two casts off before then.  Believe she can hold out until then even if forced to attack into Evade and Counter until her limit builds and it's death by meteors.  And her limit will build faster.  If one holds Lancet to ingame mechanics (where it doesn't affect enemy spellcasting at all), it's an even more clearcut smash.
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Gryz (Phantasy Star 4)  Crash lands first due to innate fire resistance.
Wilbell (Atelier Ayesha) vs. Lemina (Lunar 2)  Lemina needs to oneshot with Catastrophe to win and I don't think she has the punch for it.  Even with a first round silence landing, still thinks she loses the resulting slugfest.  Opening dragon summon from Wilbell takes out most of Lemina's HP and regular physicals if silenced still leave a mark on Lemina's low physical durability.

22

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

« on: May 02, 2023, 04:47:35 AM »

Played some games for the first time recently.  Impressions -

Touhou New World (demo):

  Advertised as an action RPG though I played it more like a hack and slash with RPG elements.  Either of Touhou's primary leads can be selected and even though Marisa is my fave character, for other reasons I picked Reimu. 
  Action takes place from a primarily overhead perspective.  At a glance without looking at a manual or controls list (which would have helped if I'd asked about them), each character has a variety of attacks to beat on Touhou inspired enemies with stronger ones needing to recharge between uses.  There is a jump button for avoiding enemy fire as well as platforming.  Settings look like something from Gensokyo and the enemy bullets will look familiar to Touhou players.
  An Xseed representative told me that the player stats were boosted for the demo.  So I could mostly bash my way through making mostly token efforts to avoid enemy attacks and still progress.  Not so for the boss battle at the end which still requires paying attention to their actions and I did end up losing.  Game did provide an option to retry from the last checkpoint (the start of the boss fight) but with a line of people also wanting to try behind me, ended my session there.
  Controls well and enjoyed the gameplay loop for what it is.  Bodes well for the upcoming release of the full game.

Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith

     I really haven't played this one before.  Jumped in semi-blind on Normal with only a knowledge of the basic controls and no recollection of the game's special scoring mechanics. Playing Touhou with default controls doesn't bode well for my performance.  I'm so used to movement on the left hand and actions with the right hand so I'm already handicapped before even starting.  Game over on Stage 1 so I gave it another shot from the beginning.  Still with little familiarity with the patterns, the next try ends on stage 2.  No spellcard captures.  Crisscrossing bullets are a nightmare.  Fairly standard outcome for me as far as shmups go really.  Also not helping was thinking C is the focus button and only later realizing it's Shift.

Touhou 14: Double Dealing Character

    This may be the only Touhou I have the capacity to 1cc on Lunatic.  But that requires learning a path through the game and being familiar with boss patterns and enemy placement.  So I stuck to Normal for this playthrough.  This went better and I actually got a spellcard capture on my blind attempt.  Game over on stage 2 though not upsetting being that I went in cold.  Still had forgotten that Shift is focus and not C.

23

Tournaments / Re: King of RPGDL: Grand finals

« on: April 26, 2023, 09:42:46 AM »

Results

Heavyweight

Team SMASH: Geno / Alexia / Zerase (winners) vs Team Speed Manip: Fie (Cold Steel) / Arnaud / Tidus (losers)

Lightweight

Team Servants: Gremio (S1), Brey/Borya (DQ4), Jakob (FE Fates) (winners) vs Team Cats & Frogs Living Together: Cray (Breath of Fire 4), Lethe (FE9), Frog (CT) (losers)

There will be a bonus match, whenever I get around to posting it.

24

Tournaments / Re: King of RPGDL: Grand finals

« on: April 22, 2023, 04:15:59 AM »

Heavyweight

Team SMASH: Geno / Alexia / Zerase (winners) vs Team Speed Manip: Fie (Cold Steel) / Arnaud / Tidus (losers)  Seems right.  Does Zersae even have the high level spell charges to blow up all three opponents if she were able to get them off?

Lightweight

Team Servants: Gremio (S1), Brey/Borya (DQ4), Jakob (FE Fates) (winners) vs Team Cats & Frogs Living Together: Cray (Breath of Fire 4), Lethe (FE9), Frog (CT) (losers)  Respect check.  I haven't looked at this matchup closely but Servants cruised to the top on coinflips while Cats and Frogs needed to work for their victories.  So I have more respect for their capabilities.

25

Tournaments / King of RPGDL: Grand finals

« on: April 15, 2023, 12:23:06 AM »

Sorry, it's late.  The final round is here.  Rather than having the same matchup two weeks in a row, I'm ruling that the team coming in from losers need to obtain double the votes or more of the team from winners to take the crown.  Any other result (including no votes whatsoever) and the team from winners will be declared victorious.

Heavyweight

Team SMASH: Geno / Alexia / Zerase (winners) vs Team Speed Manip: Fie (Cold Steel) / Arnaud / Tidus (losers)

Lightweight

Team Servants: Gremio (S1), Brey/Borya (DQ4), Jakob (FE Fates) (winners) vs Team Cats & Frogs Living Together: Cray (Breath of Fire 4), Lethe (FE9), Frog (CT) (losers)