|
The only thing I remember about the Cloud cameo when this game was released was in a gaming magazine (maybe Tips & Tricks?). The magazine always had a long section for cheats on various platforms, and the longer ones would have their own sidebars. And I remember seeing this one there. I didn't really care though, since I hadn't played Final Fantasy VII. Still haven't played it all the way through, actually. But I remember seeing that one because it included a drawing of the dragon enemies from this game and I thought it was one of the dumber drawings of a dragon I had seen.
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2014 14:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 12, 2024 15:54 |
|
|
Is the "...phiros" in this text supposed to be "phiroth," as in Sephiroth?
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2014 21:02
|
|
|
War of the Lions posted:Cloud: Uhn...What is this...this feeling in my fingertips? The heat! Inside my skull...No, stop...Sephiroth - no! Yes
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2014 21:05
|
|
|
You are wrong Cloud just has a deep misunderstanding of Kabbalah
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2014 21:06
|
|
|
Tactics Cloud doesn't have the lisp 7 Cloud does.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2014 21:30
|
|
|
never trust an elf posted:Is the "...phiros" in this text supposed to be "phiroth," as in Sephiroth? That's a strange way to spell 'Aerith'.  Edit: Loving the thread so far. FFT was a great game, and though there's only so much one can do with a romhack this looks pretty good. Focacciasaurus_Rex fucked around with this message at 11:23 on Feb 7, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2014 10:51
|
|
|
Upper Class: Temple Knight Another job that 1.3 didn't much change, Temple Knight has seen some mild nerfs but otherwise plays mostly the same: a relatively durable status machine. The job only becomes available some time after status afflictions are at their most useful, and while 1.3 only directly weakened the job slightly, the whole new swathes of status-immune enemies do a number on its usability. Nevertheless, being able to pump out instant-cast Don't Act, Petrify, or Berserk is a pretty powerful trick when it does work.  Magic Sword has had its range and accuracy lowered across the board. 1-panel less range isn't much different, but the accuracy dip hurts an already all-or-nothing skillset. The job also lost a few of skills, namely the absurd Chicken and the useful Aspel, so it can no longer replenish its own MP, plus, oddly, Blind of all things. Finally, Drain has been turned into a Night Sword close, presumably to prevent Beowulf hitting the damage cap on ???? bosses (though another special character now does that instead). The reason behind the change is understandable, but it's rather odd being the only skill in the set that cares about WP and PA. Ignoring the skill in favor of a Shield and MA pumps seems to be the better play in many situations. --- Unlike its skillset, the Temple Knight's stats actually received several minor boosts, including slightly better HP, Speed, MA, and PA growth. On the other hand, the job's MP pool and PA modifier are lower than its vanilla incarnation. Aside from the MA increase, most of the changes aren't especially significant, and that one is somewhat canceled out by the decreased accuracy on Magic Sword. At least Temple Knight is better at using other Magic-based secondaries, as it will need to rely on them more than in the base game.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2014 20:36
|
|
|
One thing about Beowulf though, that guy destroys monsters. Most have no inherent status immunities and no way to cure statuses (some can rez, but only the trees can lift statuses I think). Petrify just flat-out stuffs them. There is also a particular build for Beowulf that takes advantage of an incredibly obscure equipment quirk to make Magic Sword really nuts. It should still be accessible in 1.3.0.6, but it's not as good in 1.3.0.8.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2014 21:11
|
|
|
J. Alfred Prufrock posted:Upper Class: Temple Knight I could see a sword with good parry + shield + mantle + Reflexes + insta-cast Blind giving Beowulf pretty serious evasion. hey girl you up fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Feb 7, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2014 23:57
|
|
|
PFlats posted:Evade stacking is already one of the big defenses in 1.3; since Blind is implemented by giving a Blind character's target double Evade, maybe the mod maker found it a bit overpowering? Blind still exists (ie. Oracle skillset). I feel like Beowulf's a little too situational in 1.3 and since he comes with 30-40 levels of fairly suboptimal growths it's hard to justify bringing him out for battles against non-generics. It's also not that useful to keep him in his base job either due to a certain generic class + gear combo, which makes a huge difference in reliably hitting with his statuses. Corvinus fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Feb 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 01:24
|
|
|
Nakar posted:One thing about Beowulf though, that guy destroys monsters. Most have no inherent status immunities and no way to cure statuses (some can rez, but only the trees can lift statuses I think). Petrify just flat-out stuffs them. What quirk is that, if Prufrock's OK with you sharing it possibly before he does? I know some of the obscure ones, but I don't know that one (unless it's new for 1.3.* in which case of course I wouldn't, I haven't really played it).
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 01:32
|
|
|
Prism posted:What quirk is that, if Prufrock's OK with you sharing it possibly before he does? I think I know what he's talking about, but there's enough going on behind the scenes in this game that it could well be something I've never heard of. I'm thinking of Sage + Two Swords to combo Nagrarock + Faith Rod.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 06:15
|
|
|
J. Alfred Prufrock posted:I think I know what he's talking about, but there's enough going on behind the scenes in this game that it could well be something I've never heard of. I'm thinking of Sage + Two Swords to combo Nagrarock + Faith Rod.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2014 07:49
|
|
|
For those interested the Unsung Story kickstarter just ticked over it's goal. Probably not going to hit any stretches though since it is under 24 hours left.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2014 06:23
|
|
|
Sidequest: Cloud Today we'll be coming close to wrapping up the sidequest stuff.  Though the overworld map doesn't indicate as such, the next event takes place in Zarghidas. Hopefully you remembered a previous event here.  Zarghidas is where the player first encounters the suspiciously-familiar flower girl.  The game doesn't give you any other hints to find Cloud, so if you forget you're stuck wandering around until you happen upon this scene by chance.  Good luck with that!  Anyway, as Cloud leaves, the flower girl is accosted by a group of thugs.  Oh, and her name is Aeris, too. What a coincidence!  No arguing about whether it's really supposed to be “Aerith” thread.   Man, remember when 30k was a lot of money? Now we've got millions just sitting around, nothing to buy besides the odd Phoenix Down.  Cloud returns to play the hero.  Speaking of funny clothes, Cloud somehow managed an outfit change between FFVII and FFT.  At least he's not wearing that dumbass Advent Children getup.  I really like FFT's character design (yes, even the buttpants). Akihiko Yoshida does some drat fine work.  Tactics Ogre, Vagrant Story, and more recently, Bravely Default and FFXIV: ARR all look great, all thanks to Yoshida.  So anyway, Cloud has issues, no surprises there. Remember, if this is supposed to feature into the FFVII timeline, then we see Cloud just after his big breakdown. Dude's crazy.  Good thing we're here to bail his spikey-haired butt out of trouble.  It's actually been quite some time since we've done a rescue mission. In vanilla FFT, this battle was a piece of cake. In 1.3 it's probably one of the hardest rescues in the game.  The good news is that Cloud doesn't join at Level 1 anymore.  The bad news is that this fight has been completely overhauled. Yes, it still features six generics, but they all have expanded skillsets and, most notably, some really cool equipment. The main strength of the enemy party is Speed. Crazy crazy Speed. Obviously, Thieves are fast. So are Dancers, plus the both of them are wearing Initial:Haste accessories. Even the Monk is wearing Speed-boosting gear (which we'll be stealing later). The enemy simply killing Cloud before your units even get a turn is a very real possibility. (I should know, it happened to me several times.) To prevent that, it's important to bring some high-Speed units of your own. The three ladies in our lineup today (Meliadoul, Agrias, and Fluellen) are all rolling with 13 Speed + Initial: Haste, which is what it takes to beat the Thieves and Monk at this level.  Usually, the Dancer with a pair of knives will run up and try to gib whoever has the lowest health. (The 25% IHKO proc on the Tonberry Knives, plus the Initial:Transparent make that a very real possibility.) Sometimes she'll decide, for whatever reason, to dance.  Getting an early Charm off is really, really strong. The Thief that Agrias is charming is by far the best target for that, as he's both the fastest and most dangerous (he also has two Tonberry Knives).  Meliadoul, meanwhile, does what she does best: break poo poo. Nobody has Maintenance, so Mighty Sword is really strong here.  Fluellen, finally, shows off the power of the Javelin II. Bear in mind, this is without Attack UP equipped. The charmed Thief, the Monk, and the Dancers are the heavy hitters on this map: each can put Cloud into critical, or even drop him straight to zero, in a single Attack, which means instant Game Over. An opening salvo that neutralizes these threats, at least for a round, is absolutely critical.  The second Dancer, now barehanded, nevertheless tries to punch Prufrock and fails thanks to Abandon shenanigans.  Can't dodge bullets, but that Engineer Rifle doesn't really hurt much.  Can't dodge Summon bullets, either.  But despite how scary a Summon Gun looks, a Thief really can't make much use of it.  Charm, meanwhile, works its magic.  What devilish moves did the Dancer decide to deliver?  Pffftt, haha, okay lady.  And we're back to the top of the AT. Without Transparent in play, Prufrock's Vanish Mantle makes him drat hard to hit.  No, I didn't forget about Cloud. He actually got lapped by the fast Dancer. Anyway, he starts charging up something with no visible target. Weird.  Agrias has high Speed, Concentrate, and good compatibility with both of our Steal targets.  Off to a good start.  Prufrock will spend the rest of the battle drinking potions and tanking the enemy.  Mighty Sword is great against generic sandbagging, too. Broken armor = lower max HP.  Fluellen can one-shot every enemy on the battlefield, never misses thanks to Concentrate, and never triggers Hamedo thanks to her reach.  Well that's interesting. Yes, Meteorain now automatically targets every enemy on the battlefield, regardless of positioning. Doesn't hit super hard, but it adds up against crowds. Oh, and it doesn't require Cloud's special weapon to cast, either.  Be careful not to let Cloud weaken himself on counter abilities.  Not impressive. Not impressive at all. What's odd is that the Thief has Item equipped, but seems to prefer to spend every turn shooting Prufrock instead.  Hamedo is pretty strong on this map, as a few of the most dangerous units will want to hit you with melee-range Attacks.  Nothing left worth Stealing, as the Monk is currently K.O.'d, so Agrias goes on beatdown instead.  Getting the Thief to Counterflood his buddy helps too.  There's the sandbagging we were all expecting.  Too bad Meliadoul is there to immediately wreck it.  No, nobody on our side dropped. Rather, we've got to revive the enemy Monk in order to Steal his loot.  Little bit of in-battle dialogue going on.   That boy ain't right, I tell ya what.  Mmm, best compatibility.  Secret Clothes now grant a whopping +2 Speed. Definitely worth snagging.  More of the same from the other Thief. He never figures out that trying to plink Prufrock to death via 80 damage shots is pointless.  Big Hamedo from Fluellen, as expected.  If you go in relying on Initial: Haste to keep it, you'd drat well better be sure you can get the fight under control before it wears off.   More equipment destruction makes their sandbagging even more hopeless.  Gotta keep this Monk standing, as he's got one more thing left that needs Stealing.  Cloud tends to spend the whole fight peppering the battle with mini-Meteors, which is fine so long as he does it away from the action.  Not even mad about Power Source. That Thief is trying to sandbag with no armor or helmet.  Abandon continues to earn its place as one of the best Reaction abilities.  And that's all the rare Steals. All the other unusual equipment (Tonberry Knives, Setiemsons, Engineer Rifle) can be acquired via Poach, though if you hate monster breeding or just haven't bothered to do it yet, there's no reason not to Steal them.   Rinse and repeat. We're pretty much done here.  Overall, this fight is actually pretty difficult, and can certainly catch you off guard if you do into it expecting the cake walk from vanilla.  Really, the first round is key. The way it plays out largely depends on whether or not you can put together a setup that can outpace the enemy's enormous Speed.  Because a K.O. on Cloud means an instant Game Over, turn order can make or break this battle.  Here's a bit of a hint for our final Sidequest stop. We'll need to recover an important item to fully unlock Cloud's Limit command.   Makes sense...the Stones did bring him here, so they can probably send him back. He's got his own Final Fantasy to finish, after all.   Another SOLDIER joins the war.  A tough fight, but with good rewards. Remember, we stole another Summon Gun, a second Kaiser Plate, and the reworked Secret Clothes.  There's even a second set of Secret Clothes just for winning.  And of course, our newest party member. Next time, we'll wrap this Sidequest up. J. Alfred Prufrock fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Feb 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 01:33
|
|
|
Man, Cloud joins at a decent level and knows some of his limits? He might actually be useful.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 02:23
|
|
|
Maybe if his CTs are lower and he can target units and not just panels.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 02:32
|
|
|
ReturnOfFable posted:Man, Cloud joins at a decent level and knows some of his limits? He might actually be useful. Finishing Touch was pretty solid in Vanilla except for the whole "wildly underleveled" thing. In 1.3 though, I seem to remember the skills have been notably buffed too, simply by virtue of the fact they're much faster - so you can actually hit stuff without needing a pre-emptive Don't Move or equivalent.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 02:46
|
|
|
It's good to hear. Limit was basically unusable without the half CT ability.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 02:57
|
|
|
The worst part about Cloud in vanilla was Materia Blade. If you could give him a weapon that's actually useful, he could have at least been a good, fast physical fighter with situational Limits to use.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 03:28
|
|
|
Except that you have to build him like a mage to get much use out of limits since they're all MA based except for Blade Beam, Climhazard and Finishing Touch, which might have MA in the chance to hit but it's been forever since I checked them out. At least those 3 are pretty fast and don't need a lot of setup.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 03:31
|
|
|
J. Alfred Prufrock posted:I really like FFT's character design (yes, even the buttpants). Akihiko Yoshida does some drat fine work. Speaking of whom... I think this is a good time to mention Unsung Story. I forget if we already did that in this thread, but it bears repeating. Because, y'know. Yasumi Matsuno, Akihiko Yoshida and Hitoshi Sakimoto are all working on that now. With regards to the battle, it's good to see that this hack remains ridiculous.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 03:40
|
|
|
Cloud is one of the most improved characters; better PA/MA multipliers, way better speed, the Materia Blade is massively buffed, every skill resolves faster (Omnislash and CB are at least 3x as fast), Limits can target characters too instead of just panels, and his AoE Limits have decent vertical tolerance instead of 0. Only real nerf is that his last two Limits went from MA*40/60 to MA*25/28, which is fine since they still hit for several hundred damage with MA UP.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 03:53
|
|
|
Cloud is also one of the few characters to fully benefit from a truly broken boss-killing skill. His base growths are good most everywhere (except HP, I think) so a bazillion levels in Soldier isn't a big deal anymore (and better than coming in at lv1). The Materia Blade also got buffed considerably. It's worth using on Cloud, and it's even worth using on people other than Cloud. Well, mostly Ramza I guess, but Beowulf can sometimes get use out of it too.
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2014 15:28
|
|
|
Sidequest: The Sword in the (Molten) Stone The time for sidequest completion is nigh! There's just one other little thing we have left to do: in order to use his Limit skills (aside from Meteorain), Cloud needs a special weapon.  And to find it, we're headed to Bervenia Volcano, a location that pops up between Zeklaus Desert and Riovanes Castle in Chapter 4.  Like all random battle locations, Bervenia Volcano has four possible battles for each direction from which you can approach, one of which contains significantly stronger enemies than the other three. This is the hard fight for the South approach.  In addition to the many Red Dragons...  ...there are also some very special Lancers with the Dragon skillset equipped. Normally only available to Reis, the Dragon skillset, as you would expect, contains skills pertaining to Dragon-type enemies.  Each Lancer also carries a Holy Lance (so if you wanted to farm them for some reason, this would be a good place to do it). Smashing these spears is a really easy way to neuter their offense.  Case in point: this is Holy Breath, one of the Dragon skills. On a character with good MA, like, say, Reis, it can pack a decent punch. Lancers, however, have absolutely garbage MA, just about the worst in the game.  On top of that, Holy Breath is a random AoE spell, just like Truth and Un-Truth, and the AI isn't especially good at aiming it.  Since Cloud can't use his special skillset, he's stuck as a Marksman raining down status afflictions via Heartache Strike the whole battle.  The Lancers will largely act as support units for the Dragons. Here's Dragon Level UP, which gives a Dragon-type ally Quick 100% of the time.  The Lancers all have Monster Skill in their support slots, allowing the Red Dragons to use their hidden attack, Dragon Beam.  It shares an animation with the Steel Giant's chest lasers, and has similar range and damage, though it doesn't hurt the user. It hits Malak for about 250+ here.  See what I mean about poor aim?  One weakness of this formation is the inability to remove status afflictions from the Lancers, making Beowulf a strong choice.  This is Dragon Care, which provides a bit of healing and removes all debuffs from a Dragon-type ally.  It does cost the user half the HP it heals, however.  The team has a strong Evasion setup for this fight. Elf Mantles offer 25% Physical and Magical evasion, which is multiplied by Abandon and the Defender for some truly impressive defense on all fronts.  It's important to cover both bases because of the variety of attack types present.  The various elemental breaths, as well as Dragon Beam, all require Magic Evasion, while the Holy Lance attacks and the Dragon's Dash attack target Physical Evasion.  Fluellen is still rocking the Javelin II for some nasty damage. Dragons do have a ton of health, though.  An annoying feature of this enemy formation is that, while it has no revival capability, more than half the lineup has Dragon Spirit. If you fail to drop an enemy in one shot, there's a good chance they'll get a free Reraise.  The presence of lava and narrow, cramped standing room makes both Truth and Un-Truth quite effective, as the enemies are forced to bunch up.  Malak absolutely dominates with this Space Storage Back, dropping not one but two of the Lancers. Not hard to do when almost every panel targets an enemy.  More Hellcry Punch, more broken Holy Lances.   Dragon Spirit can fire on a miss as well as a hit. Also, the Red Dragons don't have the proper animation for it due to incomplete sprite sheets.  Both the Lancers and Red Dragons absorb fire damage, and will use their fiery breath attacks to heal one another.  Beowulf doesn't much care how much HP you have.   Unfortunately for setups that lean heavily on Evasion, the Red Dragons do have an attack that ignores it. Tail Swing is also one of those random damage skills, similar to Attacking with an Axe equipped.  Even if the enemy can get one attack through Evasion...  ...being able to dodge the rest of them is quite strong.  Really strong.  Working through the Red Dragons' massive HP pools can be a challenge if you don't have high-damage attacks. Go big or go status effects.  Can't dodge 'em all, unfortunately.  Even moderate healing can keep pace when the enemy can only get one out of every four or so attacks through.  Beowulf continues making statues. Petrification also ignores Reraise, so that's nice.  The Lancers do make good support, but forcing them off of offense is still a decent play, as it greatly reduces the amount of incoming damage you have to tank. Jump + Holy Lance can pass out some pain.  More Tail Swing. This one is enough to drop Meliadoul, for Team Dragon's first K.O.  Aww, dammit.  Double drat. Well, screw that, it's time to get what we came for.  The Materia Blade, found at the very top of the volcano, allows Cloud to use the full range of Limit attacks.  The location of the Materia Blade can be one of the harder secrets to find in Final Fantasy Tactics if you don't know about a certain thing.  Everything else can be gotten by either (A) visiting Goug frequently, or (B) talking to bartenders.  The only clue to the Materia Blade's location comes from “talking” to Cloud in the party roster screen, where he will tell you that “It is concealed at the top of the volcano!”  This makes it really easy to find if and only if you know that you can “talk” to your units on that screen, a feature that's rather easy to miss.  I'm sure there are some people out there who've played the game and still don't know about those little bits of dialogue.  Anyway, we've retrieved Cloud's weapon, so it's high time to finish this fight.  Unfortunately, we've got a lot of Red Dragon HP left to cleave through.  Also Beowulf has poor luck with Teleportation.  Still can't be hit, though.  Cloud can hit just about the entire battlefield from up near the volcano's peak. Good place for archery.  Time to show off something cool...  It's Zodiac!  The Javelin II has a small chance to cast the ultimate summon spell when it hits.  Not something to count on, but it's neat when it happens.  Anyway, Bervenia Volcano has some of the easier rare battles.  In this fight, the enemy has no revival skills and limited status removal, plus half of them are dependent upon breakable weapons for offense.  Not to mention their trouble cracking Evasion.  The other rare battle, which can be triggered when approaching from the North, simply features a team of Death Knights with Defenders.  They also have trouble with Evasion and are gear-dependent, plus Concentrate gets around their defensive gimmick quite easily.  I won't be showing that one because, to be honest, it's not all that interesting.  The normal random battles are, as you might expect, very easy.  It is worth noting that you can find Hydra-type enemies in one of the fights.  This is probably the easiest place to recruit them if you want to do some Poaching, and the stuff they Poach into is rather nice.  Plus you can get them at the start of Chapter 4, rather than wait until Nelveska.  Time to wrap this battle up.  And there you have it, folks. The end of our sidequesting. For our troubles, we've got several very powerful characters and a bunch of strong equipment. Definitely worth doing, even though starting out it can be a pretty big challenge.  Next time we get back to the plot already.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2014 04:09
|
|
|
Do you even have any team slots left for breeding and poaching? The extra characters this mod adds are great, but space was extremely limited even in the vanilla game.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2014 09:46
|
|
|
If you ditch Rad, Lavian and Alicia as well as your starting generics you should have 3 slots left. Except I guess those get eaten by our Onion Knight, Death Knight and Marche.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2014 09:58
|
|
|
I believe if you ditch all generics and pseudo-generics you have exactly enough space for every special character in 1.3.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2014 15:09
|
|
|
Nakar posted:I believe if you ditch all generics and pseudo-generics you have exactly enough space for every special character in 1.3. There's a recruitable monster (not possible to invite in any other battle) in a story fight that's coming up very soon, so that'd be 17. WotL's upping of party size to 24 is really handy for 1.3.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2014 15:41
|
|
|
Interesting battle. The lancers are basically just dragon batteries. Kinda cool.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2014 17:05
|
|
|
Stop making this game look so easy, you are making me feel bad about sucking at the original.  don't stop
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2014 19:08
|
|
|
Shwqa posted:Stop making this game look so easy, you are making me feel bad about sucking at the original.  I actually had to retry this mission twice due to a couple of misplays leading to one unit or another crystallizing.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2014 21:53
|
|
|
J. Alfred Prufrock posted:
My immersion   Seriously though, sticking with the game this long is an achievement. Keep at it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2014 22:54
|
|
|
UmbreonMessiah posted:Seriously though, sticking with the game this long is an achievement... ... and no mistake. I'd have run screaming into the night around mission two. I've really enjoyed this LP, Prufrock, and usually good LPs make me want to play the games... this is the exception. Just too brutal for my tastes. If nobody minds, let me ask here... how hard is it to patch a PSP (not vita) for War of the Lions so that it gets rid of that bollocks slowdown? I bought that game and the strategy guide the day that it came out, and between that unforgivable problem and the fact that you can only get the best gear through multiplayer (WTF!?!?), I threw it down in disgust. If I could patch out the slowdown, I might be able to contain my bile long enough to enjoy the game. I know that it can be done, but even though I am quite tech savy I am terribly worried about turning my trusty old PSP into a paperweight.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2014 17:23
|
|
|
If you have custom firmware on your PSP it's trivial, the patch itself will explain how to do it. I managed to do it, but I already had CFW on there and I haven't used my PSP in quite a while. CFW itself is fairly risk-free provided you follow instructions, and there ought to be plenty of those available somewhere on the Internet.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2014 17:25
|
|
|
Episode 45: Outside Murond Cathedral After all that sidequesting, it's time to get back to the story.  Here's where we're headed: Murond, the center of power for the Glabados Church.  We're dashing into the jaws of our enemies because this guy, Vormav Tingel, the leader of the Shrine Knights (and host to a powerful Lucavi demon) has kidnapped our fair sister, Alma.  It seems that the possessed Templar has finally shown his true colors to the Church hierarchy. That's High Priest Funeral, the highest-ranking clergyman in the Church, bleeding at his feet.  Funeral directed the Templars to acquire the Stones, planning to use the legend of the Zodiac Braves to rally the people behind the Church...  ...not realizing that the Lucavi were only using that excuse to gather the stones and summon more demons into the world.   This might be a little confusing, since we're currently in Murond. Remember, however, that the current seat of the Church is built over the ruins of an ancient civilization from the time of St. Ajora. According to legend, when St. Ajora was executed by the Holy Ydoran Empire, the true God destroyed the center of the Empire's false religion, the city of Murond, with a massive tidal wave. St. Ajora's body was buried somewhere beneath the waves, and the new Church of Glabados took the tiny bit of Murond that remained above water as its base.  Of course, we know better than to take the legends at face value. The Germonik Scriptures paint a very different picture of Ajora Glabados.  And while we're still not entirely sure what Vormav could want with Ajora's resting place, it must have something to do with summoning the most powerful Lucavi, 'Bloody Angel'.  St. Ajora's tomb is both hidden away and sealed by powerful magic. His interment there was preceded by a great cataclysm. Its location is tied to a powerful demon.  Anywho, the High Priest is promptly murdered (presumably) along with a good bit of the clergy. The Church is likely in shambles, removing the last of the three original contenders for power over Ivalice.  But enough of that! We've got a sister to rescue.   They just never learn, do they? Anyway, the conditions for this fight are simple: kill everyone who stands in our way.  Well, that's new.  Yep, a brand new mini-boss! He's a Holy Priest, like Zalmo, and gets the usual boss defenses and immunities. He even has Zalmo's Damage Split and Regen, but this time with Protect from his weapon and Maintenance to keep his gear intact.  The Time Mage (who replaces a Summoner from vanilla) has some nasty Draw Out power. Also likes to use Koutetsu because the Holy Priest ignores Dark-elemental damage.  A pair of Monks with Item replace the two Mediators that appeared here in vanilla, adding some much-needed muscle to the team.  Fortunately, Hitoshi can tank them all drat day with Dragon Spirit for reraise + Night Sword to refill his health.  Our protagonist will spend most of this fight tossing Items to keep everyone in good shape.  We've brought Reis along, to show off her unique skill: Holy Breath.  Like Truth/Un-Truth, Holy Breath drops a random number of hits on randomly-selected panels within its AoE. It's MA-based, with pretty strong damage, and it ignores Faith. This map is full of sharp elevation changes and blocked tiles, making it absolutely perfect for Holy Breath and Truth/Un-Truth, as it's very easy to limit the AoE to two panels. Reis drops that Monk with two attacks.  This Geomancer isn't especially remarkable outside of having Short Charge but no skills with CT.  Night Sword would have healed Hitoshi up to near-full, but it wouldn't have done enough damage to one-shot that Geomancer. He's got Reraise up anyway, so it's worthwhile to risk it rather than watch her Power Source herself back to full.  Yeah, there are four enemies with Item on this map, plus the Holy Priest's healing magic. The theme of this enemy team is sandbagging.  So we've got Cloud and we've got the Materia Blade. Let's see what they can do together.  This is Finish Touch, which adds one of Stop, Petrification, or Instant K.O. Absolute murder against generic enemies.  It's AoE too.   Yup, gotta love (haet!) that sandbagging.  Two can play at that game, however!  Okay, so maybe not. This team can just plain sandbag better than you, due to having four units that can throw Power Sources. Rather than trying to play the endurance game, it's better to hit hard and hit fast.  Oh, and sapping the Holy Priest's MP can help too, since he's really quite crap without it.  Holy Breath can be blocked by M-Evade, so watch out for Aegis Shields and Elf Mantles.  Of course, while the enemy gets lucky with blocks, Reis gets even luckier landing multiple hits, and she only needs two for a K.O.  Now Hitoshi can Night Sword himself back to full health, dropping a Monk in the process. He's still got Reraise, too. That dude can tank damage like a champ.  Cloud goes for a repeat performance with Finish Touch...  ...but it can, unfortunately, be blocked.  More revival. Bleh.  Not too sure what the AI was going for on this one. I guess our team does tend to throw out a lot of magic attacks.  Yeah, I'm sick of this crap too.  Not liking this so much either.  Just about worked through the Holy Priest's MP pool, so at least that helps.  Anyway, one of the best ways to beat single-target (Item-based) sandbagging is with AoE attacks.  Without Throw Item, the enemy will naturally have to clump up in order to through Phoenix Downs at each other.  And while Power Source may be a full heal, it still only heals one unit at a time.  By spreading damage around, you avoid playing into the enemy's strengths.  And with a little teamwork, you can take down multiple units, leaving the survivors to walk into even more AoE damage trying to revive.  Being able to one-shot anyone who doesn't bunch up helps too.  Much to my relief, the Holy Priest decides to focus on offense instead of revival. Not that the team couldn't keep up with his healing, but this way shaves off a lot of time.  This kind of offense would be more impressive if we hadn't already shredded most of their team.  And that's the last of his MP. Granted, he can get some back through a means we'll see later, but only a little at a time, so he's largely neutralized.  Even with favorable terrain, sometimes Truth just whiffs.  This happens sometimes too.  Unable to reach the last Monk, Hitoshi resigns himself to debuffing the Holy Priest. Going for his PA might seem odd, but there's a reason behind it.  Yeah, buddy, that's not gonna cut it. Rafa's standing right there.  Works for me, anyway.  And here's where the PA-ruining comes into play. The Holy Priest will use Chakra when his MP runs out, but with a little debuffing it's possible to keep him from recovering enough for a Full Life.  Cloud tries to Finish Touch the last generic standing.  To no avail. Not having a lot of luck here.  So instead we Berserk him to keep him from using Items...  ...and then Cloud drops him to critical with Hamedo...  ...before turning to good old Braver to finish him off.  In case you didn't notice, all of Cloud's special attacks save one are named after his Limit Breaks from Final Fantasy VII.  The Holy Priest was getting cheeky trying for a regular Life spell, but Hitoshi is having none of that.  Draining a caster's MP to fizzle spells is always fun.  Rafa gets in there with some solid Hydragon damage.  Though it's rare to see them, the Holy Priest's sword skills include some of Beowful's Magic Sword skillset, including Silence, shown here.  This Night Sword is enough to put the Holy Priest below half health, which wouldn't normally be notable, except that we've got Cloud along.  Cloud has a lovely skill in Climhazzard, which deals to the target an amount of damage equal to the damage they've already taken.  It's probably the easiest way to hit the damage cap against ???? bosses. Incredibly useful in the late game.  And that does it. Time to bring the fight to Vormav. 
J. Alfred Prufrock fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Mar 13, 2014 |
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2014 19:21
|
|
|
Welp, my PC is hosed (again) so this thread will be on hiatus (again) until I can get it fixed (again). Sorry all!
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2014 02:31
|
|
|
Your PC has discovered the joys of sandbagging.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2014 02:36
|
|
|
I'm pretty sure this is a sign that you need to quit this. Not that you aren't a great LPer (you are!) but this hack doesn't really deserve it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2014 03:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 12, 2024 15:54 |
|
|
Prop Wash posted:Your PC has discovered the joys of sandbagging.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2014 08:11
|
|
