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fronz posted:Please explain it to me Charlie Foxtrot you aren't allowed to read this for your own good. Every individual stat--Spirit, Magic, Strength, and Speed--has a hidden EXP counter. It's /32 or /36 or something for every level and never increases. Certain armors and accessories give you small boosts to your stats. Glass Buckle, for example, gives you +1 to everything. When you gain a level, it adds the total of all your equipment bonuses to the respective stat's hidden EXP counter. If you gained a level wearing a Glass Buckle and, I dunno, a hat that gives you +2 Strength, you would get +1 EXP to Spirit, Magic, and Speed, and +3 to Strength. When that total reaches 36, you get a permanent increase of 1 to that stat, and the extra EXP rolls over past 0. Assuming you gained 98 levels with this equipment loadout, you'd have an extra 2 Spirit, Magic, and Speed over what your regular stats at level 99 would be, and an extra 8 Strength. You can get the boost for Spirit as high as like 11 or 12, and Speed on Zidane as high as 7 or 8. If you use this system properly, you can easily get any character to the 50 cap on Spirit by the time they reach level 99 (iirc Quina's naturally caps at like 20). You can do other poo poo like make everyone almost as fast as Zidane and get Steiner's Strength so high that his normal attack does like 7000+ damage without crit or any crystal abilities attached. It's basically IVs in Pokemon except there's a finite number of them available throughout the game.
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Jul 22, 2015 20:47
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An interesting and in-depth system that I will proceed to never pay any attention to.
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Jul 22, 2015 21:02
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I just remember keeping Zidane on daggers over his twinblade late-game because the animation is way faster.
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Jul 22, 2015 21:58
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Yeah I have long since stopped caring about being completionist in games and I'm probably just going to take the path of least resistance, I just wanted to make sure that I didn't miss any easy things I should in the early game. Like, I'm not going to master jumping rope 1000 times for whatever item I'm sure you get from that
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Jul 22, 2015 23:33
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:Yeah I have long since stopped caring about being completionist in games and I'm probably just going to take the path of least resistance, I just wanted to make sure that I didn't miss any easy things I should in the early game. Like, I'm not going to master jumping rope 1000 times for whatever item I'm sure you get from that You get an item telling you you're really good at jumping rope.
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Jul 23, 2015 00:33
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I wish Tetra Master was fun
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Jul 23, 2015 01:09
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Do not try to play FFIX with the mindset of trying to steal everything from bosses. You'll save yourself a lot of time and stress.
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Jul 23, 2015 01:22
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General Morden posted:Do not try to play FFIX with the mindset of trying to steal everything from bosses. You'll save yourself a lot of time and stress. Please, this. The odds are not in your tavor. You can get equipment a bit earlier from stealing, but 95% of it is stuff you'll be getting within the next hour of gameplay.
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Jul 23, 2015 02:06
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Poonerman posted:You can get equipment a bit earlier from stealing, but 95% of it is stuff you'll be getting within the next hour of gameplay. The other 5% is only obtainable by stealing and it's all great poo poo 
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Jul 23, 2015 02:12
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I remember FF9 being the first game where stealing from bosses clicked in in my head between the slow pace of combat and Zidane not exactly being a combat god early on. As long as you aren't like dicking around using all your healing items on the solo fights or reloading if you don't get it I don't see it any more extraordinary of a thing to do on a first playthrough than some of the stuff that could be recommended for, say, FF8.
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Jul 23, 2015 02:16
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I don't think stealing from bosses is that bad. I've been replaying it (it feels more like it's my first playthrough though since I haven't played past disc 1 in like 10 years and I don't remember half of the stuff I'm seeing in disc 3) and IIRC there's only been a few bosses so far that were a nightmare to steal from: - Gizamaluke (This sucks because there's no healer in the party so you have to use items) - Beatrix (I actually didn't bother with stealing in any of these fights because I read that you can usually get her rare stuff like 10 minutes later) - That boss right after you get Eiko (I never got whatever he had) - The book in the castle library (I never got this either) - Ark (It took like 20 minutes of failed steal attempts to get the holy lance) - Taharka I think all of those guys must have some weird steal formula that makes their items super rare or something. It's usually fairly painless though, with most bosses you get all their items in the first couple of steals
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Jul 23, 2015 02:29
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Help Im Alive posted:I don't think stealing from bosses is that bad. I've been replaying it (it feels more like it's my first playthrough though since I haven't played past disc 1 in like 10 years and I don't remember half of the stuff I'm seeing in disc 3) and IIRC there's only been a few bosses so far that were a nightmare to steal from: It's really a chance thing. Most bosses have their rare steal coded in at about 1/16, but there's also a 'very rare steal' slot - Hilgigars has a 1/256 chance of getting the Fairy Flute, and you don't have Master Thief at the time, which would increase that chance to 1/8. Fortunately only a few bosses have valuable stuff in the very rare slot. It's mostly endgame bosses that start having four items to steal, and most of them don't have good stuff in the 1/256 section. Hilgigars is just the first notable one.
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Jul 23, 2015 02:37
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Forgot if there's any hot, missable poo poo FF9 offers to be stolen?
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Jul 23, 2015 03:03
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The Deathguise thing Kuja summons just before you fight him has a set of unique claws for Amarant, IIRC.
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Jul 23, 2015 03:26
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Pureauthor posted:The Deathguise thing Kuja summons just before you fight him has a set of unique claws for Amarant, IIRC. Man, is Amarant even any good? I never seriously used him. I think he has a skill that lets him recover from any status effect which actually sounds pretty neat.
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Jul 23, 2015 03:35
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Pureauthor posted:The Deathguise thing Kuja summons just before you fight him has a set of unique claws for Amarant, IIRC. They're not unique, you can actually synthesize them at the Black Mage Village in Disc 4. There's practically nothing you can only get from stealing. There's a missable item in that you can either get a Pumice from Ozma or steal a Pumice Piece from it, but that's it. Volt Catfish posted:Man, is Amarant even any good? I never seriously used him. I think he has a skill that lets him recover from any status effect which actually sounds pretty neat. He doesn't have a killer damage ability like everyone else has. Throw means you need to stockpile strongish weapons and No Mercy is decent but not amazing compared to everyone else. However he's got solid Strength and equipment options and Flair and Aura are great support abilities. If you don't want to use Zidane for whatever reason Amarant fills that slot decently, especially since he can actually hit elemental weaknesses. That said I don't go out of my way to use him. ApplesandOranges fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Jul 23, 2015 |
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Jul 23, 2015 04:09
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ApplesandOranges posted:He doesn't have a killer damage ability like everyone else has. Throw means you need to stockpile strongish weapons and No Mercy is decent but not amazing compared to everyone else. However he's got solid Strength and equipment options and Flair and Aura are great support abilities. If you don't want to use Zidane for whatever reason Amarant fills that slot decently, especially since he can actually hit elemental weaknesses. That said I don't go out of my way to use him. He also has an actually-interesting Trance ability, in that it takes all of his single-target skills and makes them target-all. But yeah, he's pretty much right in the middle as far as usefulness goes.
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Jul 23, 2015 04:58
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He's also got Chakra to heal and restore MP essentially for free. So he's good to take along on mage-heavy teams, since you can have your mages just use their strongest nukes all the time while Amarant works as a battery.
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Jul 23, 2015 05:20
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Excels posted:Grind out abilities before equipping new armor. Don't actually do this unless you hate yourself. A lot of skills can also be learned from armor later in the game, and most skills can be learned from accessories. It's a lot more fun to just wear the best armor and weapons you can and learn the abilities naturally.
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Jul 23, 2015 09:16
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Fister Roboto posted:Don't actually do this unless you hate yourself. A lot of skills can also be learned from armor later in the game, and most skills can be learned from accessories. It's a lot more fun to just wear the best armor and weapons you can and learn the abilities naturally. Well it depends, learning new skills is also fun. While outright grinding is not really necessary, wearing slightly older gear until you get an ability you want isn't going to cripple you or anything unless you're facing some boss you're having a really hard time with or you have a way stronger weapon available. Also I still remember Hilgigars and his drat Fairy Flute even though I haven't played IX in ages. I probably didn't have Master Thief so 1/256 chance sounds about right, it took positively ages to get the thing and I was determined not to leave a boss item unstolen.
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Jul 23, 2015 09:43
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Thanks for the advice on Lightning Returns. Once I got the Ultimate weapon and shield, it was much easier. I got to the final phase without them, but just couldn't stagger him. I was put off the trials thanks to the fight against two archangels, but since you can go back to Mog and refill your items after each battle, I was able to brute force it. The Earth Eater was also difficult.
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Jul 23, 2015 09:44
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zedprime posted:I remember FF9 being the first game where stealing from bosses clicked in in my head between the slow pace of combat and Zidane not exactly being a combat god early on. Hilariously he becomes pretty handy in combat if you're stealing early on, since the weapon you can steal from the first boss of the game will one shot most stuff. In my current playthrough I'm having Zidane steal 24/7 unless he's the only physical character and Vivi's magic doesn't cut it. Stealing stuff isn't that big a deal in this game but getting some decent consumables for free from time to time has its perks. That, and it means I'll be doing sick damage once I get Thievery.
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Jul 23, 2015 09:54
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The White Dragon posted:Charlie Foxtrot you aren't allowed to read this for your own good. Huh, interesting. This could actually be the mechanic of an RPG I would play, if everybody was a blank slate and it was more spelled out how to gain stats, so you could pick and choose equipment to make mages, physical fighters etc.
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Jul 23, 2015 15:55
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In Training posted:Huh, interesting. This could actually be the mechanic of an RPG I would play, if everybody was a blank slate and it was more spelled out how to gain stats, so you could pick and choose equipment to make mages, physical fighters etc. Sounds kinda like Final Fantasy Legends.
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Jul 23, 2015 16:40
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Golden Goat posted:Sounds kinda like Final Fantasy Legends. All the SaGas are maybe good examples of what goes wrong when the game is explicitly balanced around making informed decisions in that sort of system. Except Last Remnant because it took the Final Fantasy page of having all these deep systems and not needing to interact with them if all you want to do is finish the story.
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Jul 23, 2015 16:46
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zedprime posted:AKA gameboy SaGa. I don't know, I feel like Frontier and Minstrel Song handled it pretty well. I mean, yeah, if you tried to make every character perfectly balanced you'd end up underpowered and exceptionally bland, but I feel like that wouldn't be most people's first instinct. Ideally you give everyone one or two favored weapons, buy some magic based on whether you want them to be physical or magic-focused, and the game takes care of turning them into those things from there. Since stat growths are weighted by what you use, you're guaranteed to get someone who is at least acceptable at their chosen vocation if you use them enough. The real problem with these games is that they absolutely refuse to tell you what you need to do to advance, so you're either going to have to find a guide or waste a lot of time aimlessly wandering.
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Jul 23, 2015 17:42
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The White Dragon posted:Charlie Foxtrot you aren't allowed to read this for your own good. Sounds like a weird evolution of the Bonus abilities from FF8. They took a levelling mechanic from FF8 and made it worse.
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Jul 23, 2015 22:24
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In Training posted:Huh, interesting. This could actually be the mechanic of an RPG I would play, if everybody was a blank slate and it was more spelled out how to gain stats, so you could pick and choose equipment to make mages, physical fighters etc. the saga games are kind of like that, only the mechanics are insanely obtuse. loving love those games though
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Jul 23, 2015 23:46
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It's morally right to use Amarant because he's cool
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Jul 24, 2015 00:28
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i just can't break up the OG crew. thief/mage/knight/healer thats my poo poo
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Jul 24, 2015 05:39
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That loving Sned posted:Thanks for the advice on Lightning Returns. Once I got the Ultimate weapon and shield, it was much easier. I got to the final phase without them, but just couldn't stagger him. Yeah. I assume they put the ultimate weapon there so that people who didn't bother to find cool weapons can still have a good chance on the boss (there's some weapons that outclass the ultima weapon, especially on a new game +, but they're better than all the store-bought stuff). Same with the new garbs you're given then -- not the absolute best, but good enough to give you a fighting chance if you didn't bother with collecting lots of garbs. Though for stage four I actually just brute-forced it with Caius's weapon and onemanarmy like an rear end in a top hat
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Jul 24, 2015 07:40
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LR is pretty fundamentally different gameplay wise from the other two, right? Worth playing if I couldn't get more than about a quarter of the way through XIII, and never touched XIII-2 as a result?
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Jul 24, 2015 07:45
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Ciaphas posted:LR is pretty fundamentally different gameplay wise from the other two, right? Worth playing if I couldn't get more than about a quarter of the way through XIII, and never touched XIII-2 as a result? drat straight it is
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Jul 24, 2015 07:57
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I know they've collected FFIV, its interquel, and sequel all on one disc, but do these things have any connection to each other mechanically? Like does save data for one affect the other games? Cause I'll totally play through The After Years if my original save will make some serious changes to it.
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Jul 24, 2015 08:15
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SonicRulez posted:I know they've collected FFIV, its interquel, and sequel all on one disc, but do these things have any connection to each other mechanically? Like does save data for one affect the other games? Cause I'll totally play through The After Years if my original save will make some serious changes to it. please don't play through The After Years
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Jul 24, 2015 08:20
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zedprime posted:All the SaGas are maybe good examples of what goes wrong when the game is explicitly balanced around making informed decisions in that sort of system Actually I'm pretty sure SaGa games are balanced, nay designed around the player having no idea how any of it works.
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Jul 24, 2015 11:04
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SonicRulez posted:I know they've collected FFIV, its interquel, and sequel all on one disc, but do these things have any connection to each other mechanically? Like does save data for one affect the other games? Cause I'll totally play through The After Years if my original save will make some serious changes to it. Lol no
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Jul 24, 2015 11:08
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Dr Pepper posted:Actually I'm pretty sure SaGa games are balanced, nay designed around the player having no idea how any of it works.
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Jul 24, 2015 12:41
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corn in the bible posted:Yeah. I assume they put the ultimate weapon there so that people who didn't bother to find cool weapons can still have a good chance on the boss (there's some weapons that outclass the ultima weapon, especially on a new game +, but they're better than all the store-bought stuff). Same with the new garbs you're given then -- not the absolute best, but good enough to give you a fighting chance if you didn't bother with collecting lots of garbs. Though for stage four I actually just brute-forced it with Caius's weapon and onemanarmy like an rear end in a top hat You get better equipment by beating bosses on the last day, correct? I never did that in my first run, think I'll try that out for when I play on PC again
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Jul 24, 2015 12:47
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Dr Pepper posted:Actually I'm pretty sure SaGa games are balanced, nay designed around the player having no idea how any of it works. I tried to play the recently translated English patch of the original SFC romancing saga, I played for probably 5 hours and I don't think I made any plot progress whatsoever. It was a truly baffling experience though I did enjoy seeing another game that shared identical audio and visual cues with FFIV.
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Jul 24, 2015 13:51
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