Let's Play: Final Fantasy Tactics [1.3 Content Patch]

[Seerow]

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--r3iQG52c--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/18ah62mtx9ajwjpg.jpg

Don't blame us. Blame yourself or God.


We're now under way! First video is uploaded, and we have our set of rules. I have decided to dub this the Diplomancer Challenge.
0) Starting at Dorter Trade City, these rules come into effect.
1) Ramza must always have access to Talk Skill and either Monster Talk or Monster Skill.
2) The party for any story battle must contain a minimum of 2 monsters.
3) NPCs builds are randomly generated as they are recruited. Starting at Dorter we will randomly generate 10 generics, the thread will get to vote on 5 of them to keep.
4) At the start of each chapter, we will recruit 3 additional generics, which will be voted on whether to move into the party by the thread, as with the initial set. No generics may be recruited outside of these parameters.
5) No character except Ramza may enter two consecutive story battles in a row without being benched for at least 2 more battles after that.

The intention is to avoid overpowered builds, and to showcase as many different classes and monsters as possible throughout the game.


Video List
Part 1-Orbonne Monastary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQZDVZHrB6Y&feature=youtu.be)


I've had an itch to play FFT again for a few months now. I have played the game probably more than I would care to admit, but it's been probably over 5 years now since the last time I actually played more than a level or two of the game. So I want to go back and do it, and am thinking when I go through this time, I'll actually sit down and record it.

Before I start though, I wanted to get a little feedback from anybody interested:

1) Should I have any sort of voice commentary or not? I don't consider myself a particularly charismatic person, but I did recently get a new headset, so this is potentially an option.

2) Does anybody know of a way to get War of the Lions on a non-mobile device? I know it got ported to Android and iOS, but I don't have any way to record from my phone and honestly, even if I did I can't stand playing on my phone. (Seriously I paid for the Android version on my phone, made it as far as Dorter before abandoning it). Alternatively I am sure I can find a patch for the original game that at least uses the new translation, but it'd be nice to get to see some of the new cutscenes and jobs.

3) Playing with no restrictions can get boring, so I am looking for any suggestions to spice up the play through! My current thought is having a more dynamic team. Something along the lines of generating a half dozen random NPCs and getting another half dozen made with builds chosen by people in the thread, rotating out which ones I use from battle to battle.

I could alternatively go with a standard SCC, but I'd like to try something a little more unique. Also open to other suggestions for some sort of challenge or restriction to make the game more interesting.

4) On the note of making the game more interesting, there are mods for things like Hard Mode and/or Class Fix Patches floating around out there in the nether. I haven't looked at any of these in a long time but I know they exist and can implement them. Are there any that people would want to see showcased?



Anyway, all of that being said, my current aim is to start recording on Wednesday, so I'll have details locked down by then. From there we'll set a schedule and see how it goes!

[Illven]

Not much on the feedback, but I played Tactics advanced, so interested.

[Triaxx]

Let's see, No Squire Ramza. As soon as he is eligible for another class he must change. He can use squire powers, but is not allowed to play as that class.

Only Calculate Time Magic. You're only allowed to use time magic with your calculator.

2-2 rule. If an NPC participates in two fights, they have to rest for the next two.

[tyckspoon]

No Squire sounds.. interesting, but frustrating. Ramza's special version of Squire is quite nice, especially once you get to the later chapters where his special skills really show up. I suppose you'd have to combine it with some rule preventing certain forms of grinding, otherwise you'd be able to access most of what you want from that class via spillover JP from all the other Squires. You know, the JP they get while you're teaching them all Accumulate + JP UP so you can go on to train better classes for everybody who isn't Ramza. Or possibly some fully trained Squire that you continue having generate useless JP in that class just so they create more spill for Ramza. If you wanted to extend this, you could force ALL the unique characters to leave their unique classes as soon as possible.. although that would make everybody except Rafa and Malak into basically somewhat worse generics, since they wouldn't have the Squire skillset to train with (Rafa and Malak are, of course, already basically somewhat worse generics.) That might be a way to do an 'all generics' run without feeling weird about kicking out story-relevant characters like Agrias.

Re: Calculator - I would suggest just ignoring Calculator altogether. It's a huge pain to unlock, it's a worse pain to train, and once you've got it trained to a certain point things suddenly flip completely the other way and nothing is a challenge any more. But if you do want to use it, it definitely needs some restrictions. Status-effect spells only would be an interesting way to go, albeit possibly even easier to abuse than the Holy + Chameleon Robe thing. Keeping your Calculator as a Calculator could also work; the class is objectively terrible in every way aside from its skill, and less likely to destroy everything instantly if you don't have the luxury of changing it back to a Black Mage or something.

[Triaxx]

Maybe healing only Calculator? It's easily abused, but too cool not to want to use.

The other option I had was Class Locked. You can be of any class, but you're only allowed to use the abilities of that class.

The trouble isn't the Squire class Ramza gets so much as it is the fact that Ramza gets it. He gets female MA growth, meaning he ends up being the most powerful warrior and wizard on any battle field he enters. Squire class, Excalibur and Calculator skills, and the rest of the party is now completely optional. For being so bloody hard to learn, Ultima ends up being little more than a firecracker. Compared to Flare or Holy, it might as well be Throw Stone, except Throw Stone never stops being useful, since it pushes enemies around.

Perhaps Vanilla Squire? Ramza isn't allowed any abilities other squires can't get?

[Seerow]

Worth noting: I am not opposed to Hacking ramza's base class into regular squire or whatever else. But I would hardly consider it a big handicap either way. In any case I like the rule of two, and will likely use that. Calculator will be potentially allowed, but math skill banned as a secondary.

With the rule of two, I feel more inclined towards a highly diverse party. So I am leaning towards what I put in the OP of asking for you all to make a few builds you would like to see highlighted and randomly generate the others.

[Triaxx]

I haven't built characters in a long time. I'd say just go random.

[Hunter Noventa]

FFT is a great game, but it is bothersome that they haven't say, ported War of the Lions to PC like they have with VII, VIII, IX, XIII, XIII-2 and XIII-3. You'd think after porting it to Android it would be a no brainer.

There are android emulators, but you'd likely have to buy the game again. If you have an old PSP those had pretty decent video out capabilities, but you'd need a capture card of some kind.

As for challenge suggestions, perhaps make one character be a mounted combatant? Whenever you bring that specific character, you have to bring a chocobo for them to ride.

Or just making use of a monster in every battle in general.

[Greg_S]

I played around with this idea on the PSX version: Ramza the Zookeeper. Ramza can have any skills you choose, but by Dorter, he can't directly deal damage or kill a foe (Riovanes interior excluded). All fighting has to be done by monster allies.

It's not hard, especially if brave/faith manipulation is on the table, but it makes you use different parties.

[Triaxx]

It's not bad once you get a squad of Black Chocobo's. (I think it's the black ones with Choco Meteor.)

[Hunter Noventa]

I played around with this idea on the PSX version: Ramza the Zookeeper. Ramza can have any skills you choose, but by Dorter, he can't directly deal damage or kill a foe (Riovanes interior excluded). All fighting has to be done by monster allies.

It's not hard, especially if brave/faith manipulation is on the table, but it makes you use different parties.

Yeah I think the Ramza+4 Monster challenge is on the huge list of challenges over at gamefaqs. They have some odd ones in there.

[Triaxx]

I did a random challenge, but I couldn't get passed the 1v1 in Riovanes.

[Seerow]

Still debating on mods or no mods. After some research I am leaning towards doing FFT 1.3 Hard Mode. It includes some fun looking balance revisions on various equipment, buffs the bosses, and gives enemy units better equipment and more AP, as well as making story enemies stay on your level. My main worry is that some of the changes may affect the sorts of things that someone might want to see highlighted in FFT standard. Probably the most relevant thing is classes and monsters so check out classes (http://www.insanedifficulty.com/idwiki/index.php?title=1.3_Generics) and monsters (http://www.insanedifficulty.com/idwiki/index.php?title=1.3_Monsters) and let me know what you think!


As far as play style/challenge it looks like we have a lot of interest in monsters overall, so here's what I'm thinking:

1) Pacifist Ramza. Ramza is a set unit who will be a Bard with Talk Skill. So we use him to buff/debuff, and generally stay as far away from the real fighting as possible. Almost certainly need to make an exception at Riovanes, especially if doing 1.3, but other than that yeah pure pacifist.

2) Maintain a Roster of 5 NPCs. We'll pick skill sets for our first 5 recruits when I grab them at game start. As we progress through the game and pick up story characters (such as Agrias), we'll roll new character options for them and viewers can vote to swap the new member in or keep who we have.

3) Maintain a Roster of 5 Monsters. I'll probably recruit each monster at least once for funsies, we'll do a vote for which ones to keep once we get to the point where we have a lot of different varieties to worry about.

4) All Story Battles must contain at least 2 monsters.

5) No character except Ramza may enter two consecutive story battles in a row without being benched for at least 2 more battles after that.

[Hunter Noventa]

Still debating on mods or no mods. After some research I am leaning towards doing FFT 1.3 Hard Mode. It includes some fun looking balance revisions on various equipment, buffs the bosses, and gives enemy units better equipment and more AP, as well as making story enemies stay on your level. My main worry is that some of the changes may affect the sorts of things that someone might want to see highlighted in FFT standard. Probably the most relevant thing is classes and monsters so check out classes (http://www.insanedifficulty.com/idwiki/index.php?title=1.3_Generics) and monsters (http://www.insanedifficulty.com/idwiki/index.php?title=1.3_Monsters) and let me know what you think!


As far as play style/challenge it looks like we have a lot of interest in monsters overall, so here's what I'm thinking:

1) Pacifist Ramza. Ramza is a set unit who will be a Bard with Talk Skill. So we use him to buff/debuff, and generally stay as far away from the real fighting as possible. Almost certainly need to make an exception at Riovanes, especially if doing 1.3, but other than that yeah pure pacifist.

2) Maintain a Roster of 5 NPCs. We'll pick skill sets for our first 5 recruits when I grab them at game start. As we progress through the game and pick up story characters (such as Agrias), we'll roll new character options for them and viewers can vote to swap the new member in or keep who we have.

3) Maintain a Roster of 5 Monsters. I'll probably recruit each monster at least once for funsies, we'll do a vote for which ones to keep once we get to the point where we have a lot of different varieties to worry about.

4) All Story Battles must contain at least 2 monsters.

5) No character except Ramza may enter two consecutive story battles in a row without being benched for at least 2 more battles after that.

Those will be some interesting rules. I know what classes I'll encourage the use of, but that can wait til you open up actual voting.

[danzibr]

I always wanted to do a no-caster or pure-caster run.

[Triaxx]

I still say it's a bad idea to leave your geomancers at home.

[Alanzeign]

FFT 1.3 is a fantastic mod in my experience. You're probably aware but just in case you aren't, there are two difficulty settings: Content and Insane Difficulty. These are two separate mods so you can't choose the difficulty in game.

Content is all of the changes (including upgraded enemy AI and more useful abilities) without the scaling enemy gear/levels above your levels and the specially crafted battles.

If you end up doing FFT 1.3 I'd recommend playing a few levels of both difficulty levels before committing. Personally, I enjoy content a lot more and think it is significantly more difficult and enjoyable than the original. The insane difficulty setting, I think my laptop died halfway through chapter 3 and I hadn't backed it up. I have no desire to slog through that again and haven't played either version in a few years, so I may be a bit out of date.

I will happily watch, whatever you decide to go with!

[Seerow]

I always wanted to do a no-caster or pure-caster run.


Sounds fun, but probably for a different playthrough at this point. I like the ground rules established a few posts up, and am going to start playing/recording tomorrow.



FFT 1.3 is a fantastic mod in my experience. You're probably aware but just in case you aren't, there are two difficulty settings: Content and Insane Difficulty. These are two separate mods so you can't choose the difficulty in game.

Content is all of the changes (including upgraded enemy AI and more useful abilities) without the scaling enemy gear/levels above your levels and the specially crafted battles.

If you end up doing FFT 1.3 I'd recommend playing a few levels of both difficulty levels before committing. Personally, I enjoy content a lot more and think it is significantly more difficult and enjoyable than the original. The insane difficulty setting, I think my laptop died halfway through chapter 3 and I hadn't backed it up. I have no desire to slog through that again and haven't played either version in a few years, so I may be a bit out of date.

I will happily watch, whatever you decide to go with!

I had seen that a content version was put in, and yeah doing a few stages of each is probably a good way to test the waters. Do you know if Content includes the buffed Zodiac bosses? That's probably the bit of the patch I'm most interested in beyond the class changes (and honestly unless the mod removes the level traps from the game any difficulty based on "enemy levels to you" can be cheesed out starting pretty early in the game).


I still say it's a bad idea to leave your geomancers at home.


Hah. I actually very nearly listed Ramza as a Geomancer with Talk skill instead of Bard. I still might just do that to avoid any weirdness with having to change builds at Riovanes, since I am far more confident in being able to take out Wiegraf as a Geomancer without it taking 3 hours. But yes Geomancers are one of my favorite classes (and hold special nostalgia for me since they were my first SCC in this game), and I look forward to using some.

[Hunter Noventa]

Hah. I actually very nearly listed Ramza as a Geomancer with Talk skill instead of Bard. I still might just do that to avoid any weirdness with having to change builds at Riovanes, since I am far more confident in being able to take out Wiegraf as a Geomancer without it taking 3 hours. But yes Geomancers are one of my favorite classes (and hold special nostalgia for me since they were my first SCC in this game), and I look forward to using some.

Geomancers are fun, I'm a big fan of Oracles personally and hope they see some use.

[Alanzeign]

I had seen that a content version was put in, and yeah doing a few stages of each is probably a good way to test the waters. Do you know if Content includes the buffed Zodiac bosses? That's probably the bit of the patch I'm most interested in beyond the class changes (and honestly unless the mod removes the level traps from the game any difficulty based on "enemy levels to you" can be cheesed out starting pretty early in the game).

I have been removed from it for so long that I'm not entirely sure if the Queklain fight I'm remembering was from Insane or Content. A post over on their forums is probably the fastest way to find out. I do have some old Content save files on my computer but I won't be home for several hours yet. If I'm lucky enough to have a save before a zodiac fight then I'll let you know later tonight.

I'm at work and I can't do much involving youtube, but I did see the reaction ability on Queklain in a FFT 1.3 Content video and can confirm that it is the same as hard mode. So they have been changed in some capacity even in Content.

As far as I know there isn't a way to cheese around the difficulty in Insane other than save scumming RNG, but that's boring and lame.

[Alanzeign]

Sorry for the double post. I can confirm that the zodiac bosses are buffed in 1.3 Content. My older save file was from directly after the Queklain fight but I ended up watching the video from earlier and it holds up.

[Seerow]

Sorry for the double post. I can confirm that the zodiac bosses are buffed in 1.3 Content. My older save file was from directly after the Queklain fight but I ended up watching the video from earlier and it holds up.

Sweet, thanks for confirming that. In that case I'll work on getting 1.3 Content installed and we'll be starting this party in earnest soon!

[Alent]

I'll be looking forward to this, I haven't tried any of the FFT hacks.

My own personal "give it a shot" suggestion would be a Teleporting Magic Gun Mediator with Time Magic and magic boosters. They aren't very strong and there's some variation to how they can be built, but stacking the elemental multiplier items on them lets them be viable enough to be quite fun and useful as both damage and support. (Actually, if doing magic boosters, you might consider Draw Out for secondary, favoring the Healing and status boost katana.)

[Seerow]

So, finished getting everything patched and ready to play, in the test I found my microphone was barely audible in the recording. So probably first episode or two will not have any commentary in the video itself, while I either figure out what is causing the problem and/or find a better recording software to use.

[Seerow]

Alright, and first video is now live as you can see here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQZDVZHrB6Y&feature=youtu.be).

As I mentioned in the last post, no voiceover or text over commentary on this one. I'm going to look into what it will take to have that working properly, with the goal of having it working correctly by next week.

As for this week, the video covers the intro to the game, up through to the first save point. I really wanted to get the first two battles out of the way this video, but the first battle ran much longer than anticipated. In standard FFT this first battle is just a quick "get used to how the game functions"... and while that is still the case here, we are up against an enemy team with some synergistic abilities. Most notably we have three 'Item' users who all seem to know Phoenix Down; and one of those in particular is a Knight with Defense Up, Counter, and Move-Gain HP. This Knight is super tanky, and if you're not careful he can end your game by himself. But even when he's not ending the game, he does slow down this first battle dramatically, thanks to friendly AI controlling the rest of your side. It is a fun fight, but it does drag a little bit. I can't wait to get control over my team and really dive in.

At the start of the battle I do spend some time going around the field and checking everyone's abilities. I do this because I did a quick test run of the first battle the day before, to make sure the content patch was applied, and got some interesting surprises. It appears that in this situation, your allies abilities are randomized, but enemies are set (I had the same exact Knight and Chemist in two battles, but in my first battle Gaffy had Dark Magic and Agrias had White Magic).

On the Narrative Side of things, we get our introduction to the story. We are being told the story of Ramza and Delita, as recorded by the "Duray Report", a secret report held by the church for years, on the grounds that our hero is a heretic and blasphemer. Is it true? Is it lies? Let us dive into the story and learn the truth for ourselves!

We dive in, getting the only fully rendered cutscene in the game as far as I can remember, but for what it's worth it is very pretty for its time. It is also the cutscene that makes me most consistently sad that chocobo riding was never any good in game. Maybe that will change in 1.3, who knows? Certainly not me! (I suspect it will still be terrible, but want to try it nonetheless)

From there, we meet our hero Ramza, who at this time isn't much of a hero. He alludes to a history of being a Knight, but is currently riding with a rude Mercenary named Gafgarion (or as I am likely to refer to him from this point forward Garfgarog. For no real reason other than a silly post from years and years ago that caused the nickname to stick in my memory). After being a generally rude knave we get our first taste of battle. Garfgarog insists on killing all of these soldiers because that's the only way to make money. Personally I would have expected you make money by doing what your employer asks, but what do I know about the mercenary business?

Anyway, we follow his lead, murder the bad guys, only to find out while we were all distracted by the one Knight who just won't die, Delita snuck in the back and kidnapped our Princess! He rides off leaving Agrias to blame herself, and we get transported back in time even further, to a year earlier when Ramza and Delita were just cadets together. After some politicing, we get our orders: some thieves from the Death Corps have infiltrated the city, and it's our job to take care of them because all the real troops are busy elsewhere. Sounds like a good time, and we'll be taking care of that in the next video!


Speaking of the next video, since I didn't get as far as I wanted to in this one, I am thinking about doing an extra one or two out today to get us to Dorter and the game proper starting before the end of the month. So keep an eye out here for more updates!

[Illven]

The phoenix downs were so annoying!

[Seerow]

The phoenix downs were so annoying!

Fun fact: NPCs in FFT have an unlimited supply of all items. Like if the ally AI had continued to sit and pout, that could have gone on for hours. One thing that definitely made that fight easier in standard FFT is the sword skills that Agrias and Garfy bring to the table, but now both of those cost mana. And neither have a lot of MP to start with, so after turn 2 they suddenly need to be in melee.. but the map is pretty cramped and it's hard to close in. It works fine as a hard mode version of the fight, but as a standard introduction to the game I definitely prefer the original.

[Illven]

Fun fact: NPCs in FFT have an unlimited supply of all items.

Starts screaming in frustration.

Never stops.

[Alanzeign]

Ugh, I forgot about the intro fight. The beginning of the game has an awkward difficulty until you not only have control of the full team, but have customized them a little bit as well. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the next few fights.

[Alanzeign]

Just as a quick aside, some of the random encounters in the beginning can be obnoxious.

If I encounter 2 thieves and 2-3 goblins (the thieves are guaranteed to have secondary item ability and support monster skill, which in 1.3 gives the goblins a 3x hit on a single target attack if in range of the thieves), most times I reset. This specific early game random battle is unfortunately skewed against you.

[Seerow]

Quick update: I'm running a bit late on this due to some surprise overtime; but I got a couple episodes worth of gameplay recorded so should have the next video uploaded in the next day or two.

[Seerow]

Alright, delays are real, but update is here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bQcD_jM-KI)!

This battle goes much quicker due to a combination of having full control over the majority of my team and only one enemy on the map having access to Item.

Storywise there's not much to talk about. We pick up right where we left off, taking out some thieves from the Death Corps. We get a few memorable lines ("Surrender or die in obscurity!" is in my top 3 most memorable Ramza lines), but for the most part story picks up in the next video.


Battle-wise, I got thrown for a loop by my squires having crossbows! I don't remember if that was a thing in the base game, but I am 90% sure that was not standard equipment, even if squires could use them. I promptly pick every squire equipped with a crossbow, leaving Ramza and Delita to hold the front line. Crossbow squad is able to focus fire super efficiently, and together they make short work of the enemies on the map. Bonus points: The patch updates Crossbows in general to give them a chance to double shot. I believe we see it go off at least once in the map, but basically 10% of the time when you shoot someone it hits twice. It's pretty useful, if unfortunately inconsistent.

Also for those who haven't played FFT before: Line of Sight is actually pretty important in this game. The game will tell you that you have a 0% chance of hitting, but it is not afraid of letting you try if you ignore that. Obstacles and other characters can block LoS, and if the thing blocking is a character, then you can and will shoot the character in the way. Be wary of friendly fire! On the other hand this does mean if you're clever you can hit somebody who has you boxed in closer than you might otherwise like to be. I will show this off in a later episode I'm sure.

Other battle highlights included the Chemist with Weapon Guard just blocking Delita left and right, and me being absolutely shocked by how many items my chemist already knew how to use. You can see the moment when I realize this and do a double take to check her skills... I found out later that Phoenix Down and Potion are now free, and a bunch of the status curing items got reduced to 25jp, so pretty much any character has access to a solid assortment of items.


I actually did find a good recording software that can cover voice as well as video. This video and the next 1 or 2 will still be video only (combination of not having the software earlier and having a pretty bad cold and trying to avoid losing my voice), but after that I should be able to keep some live running commentary as I play. We'll at least test it out for an episode or two and see what you guys think. Next up is to find some decent free/cheap editing software so I can cut out/speed up spots where I am flailing around with the camera/menus (though both of these will happen less as I get reacquainted with the controls).


Anyway, my plan is to get video 3 up Sunday, Video 4 up Tuesday, and at that point we'll be going in to Dorter and will be kicking in to challenge mode. So after I post video 4 I'll put up a list of 10 randomized generics to vote on.

[Seerow]

Episode 3 Is Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1_4HoJ77Ho)

This week we start out with a bit of story time. We get a flashback to Balbanes (Ramza's dad) death, getting a snapshot of the end of the war and a little bit of insight into Ramza's relationship with Delita, who is apparently supposed to be some sort of servant to Ramza, not something you would have gathered from their interactions up to this point in the game. We saw in the (future? present? What time is real? Damn you jumping Narrative!) Delita working openly against Ramza... but during that time Ramza also claims to no longer be a Knight. Is the more recent exchange, we've seen him working side by side with Ramza, as a fellow cadet in the academy.

Anyway, Balbanes last words to Ramza are to tolerate no injustice, and live true to his heart. And also to take care of Alma. In many ways this conversation frames almost everything Ramza grows to become. He is at his core an idealist. One who won't accept the gray route, but will fight for what he feels is right, even after losing everything. We'll see more of that side of him as we get back closer to the starting point of the story (in Chapter 2), but I really love this little scene with Balbanes for fleshing out Ramza.

As an aside, here we also learn that Ramza and Alma, the youngest children of the family, are only half-siblings to Dycedarg and Zalbag. A neat little tidbit, but it doesn't mean all that much to us yet.

Anyway, moving on to the meat of the video, after that little flashback/interlude we progress towards home, but at Mandalia Plains come across another cadet, Algus, being beat down by a bunch of bandits. What are we to do? Ignore the dude and destroy the death corps!

Why? Honestly, I don't like Algus much, so saving him is low on my priority. Also if we choose to rescue Algus, him dying becomes a secondary loss condition, even if we could revive him, we don't get the chance, and he starts out surrounded enough it's a very real possibility he dies before we can get in position to help. (Not a common one, but it does happen and I didn't want to take chances with the patch screwing with me). Also by choosing to destroy the death corps the whole team gets +10 brave, which translates into 2 permanent brave for the party. While Ramza is likely the only one sticking around, the lack of brave/faith manipulation in the patch makes that 2 extra points pretty enticing. So altogether? Sorry Algus, but you're secondary priority.

On the bright side, Algus in this map turns out to be a Ninja. In his first round he dodges several Beat Down attacks (a new Squire ability that deals massive damage with a relatively low hit rate), pretty much any of them connecting would have taken him out, but he matrix dodges his way out of there and manages to survive the fight because of it.

In terms of our team, I didn't touch abilities before coming here, which turned out to be a mistake, but not a fatal one. I hadn't realized yet that Potion/Phoenix Down were free to learn, or everybody would have had item at the very least. Our team comp is basically the same, we just traded out a controllable crossbow archer for Algus, a crossbow archer who occasionally likes to break loot instead. This is a more or less acceptable trade.

On the enemy side, we see our first higher tier class so far in the game, a Thief. Not normally particularly scary, this one comes equipped with Gil Toss and Steal Heart. Gil Toss turns out to be shockingly effective dealing way more ranged damage than I would have guessed, and Steal Heart actually lands on my one female squire I brought with me. Luckily Charm can be broken by tapping the target with any sort of damage, and the CTs lined up right that my Chemist could poke her before her next turn came up, effectively negating it.

We also see our first monster in the game, a Toneberry. Toneberry besides just being our first monster is actually a monster 100% unique to this patch, it does not exist in the base game. So it's pretty exciting! We take a peek at his abilities, and it has Voodoo (inflict some annoying status conditions), Chef's Knife (a 'meh' melee hit that has a chance to inflict instant death), and Everyone's Grudge (deal damage based on damage taken). With its high HP pool, that last one is actually pretty scary, so we want to deal with this Toneberry pretty carefully. Luckily, he hangs in the back at the start, staying mostly out of the way for the fight. When he does close, he sticks to using his Voodoo ability. He lands one on Ramza, but we manage to take him out before taking a melee hit.


Anyway, besides those two it's pretty much all standard squires on this map. The fight drags a little bit longer than the last one, but overall it goes pretty smoothly, thanks to the squires all wasting so many turns on Beat Down. We do get to see one other new ability highlighted: Squires using Wish. This is basically a % chance at reviving a fallen ally, it can be pretty useful but its unreliability means you're usually better just using a phoenix down. But it is a nice bit of utility to have for a basic class like squire, making it a little more well rounded as a support unit.



Anyway, we wrap up the fight and Algus tells us that Marquis Elmdor has been kidnapped by the Death Corps! Ramza reveals himself to be a Beoulve, and from Algus' reaction we can tell how big of a deal that family name is in this world. He's immediately certain Ramza will be able to help him track down the Marquis and save him. Delita makes the right call in suggesting we go back to Igros to report, which is just as well since that's where we were heading to before this impromptu rescue/elimination operation anyway.


Next time, we'll get to see what Dycedarg has to say about all this.

[Illven]

What do you get if you save him?

[Seerow]

What do you get if you save him?

It gives you the feels of good roleplaying. It's juxtaposed so cleanly with Balbanes death scene that I feel like it's intended to encourage the player to pick saving him. But I even just checked a guide in case I forgot something, and yeah literally all it does is make the game marginally harder.

[Triaxx]

Isn't there a brave bonus for saying you'll save him?

[Alanzeign]

For some reason, you get the brave bonus for saying your priority is to destroy the enemy rather than saving Algus. I always felt that was a bug but maybe it was a translation issue? Perhaps putting duty before emotions or something similar.

Looking forward to Dorter and getting some job diversity!

[Seerow]

So I am running a bit behind today and will be posting the next video when I get home, but when it goes up it will technically be Wednesday instead of Tuesday.


So in the meantime we're going to go ahead and start the voting on what to do next week. Below we have 10 randomly generated NPCs. I did reserve right to reroll an ability that has literally no use for the character (for example "Throw Item" on a character with the Chemist class, or a character who does not have the Item ability).


Character 1:
Female
Primary: Lancer
Secondary: Time Mage
Reaction: Arrow Guard
Support: Monster Skill
Move: Move in Water

Well our first option is kind of a weird one. Female Lancer is... a thing. Actually both main jobs are quite good though lacking in synergy. Monster Skill is actually quite nice in this style of game. Arrow Guard and Move in Water are meh, but over all a solid unit capable of fair support and ranged damage


Character 2:
Male
Primary: Thief
Secondary: Squire
Reaction: Catch
Support: Martial Arts
Move: Ignore Height

This unit is pretty basic, but thief can cause some trouble with its tricksy abilities. Nothing super exciting, but definitely usable!


Character 3:
Female
Primary: Oracle
Secondary: Geomancer
Reaction: Auto Potion
Support: Concentrate
Move: Float

This one is surprisingly good. Concentrate looks useless, but Oracle gets staves which are magically powered melee attacks, and Concentrate makes those attacks always hit. Auto Potion makes for a super tanky unit. Overall I like this one a lot


Character 4:
Male
Primary: Chemist
Secondary: Summoner
Reaction: Absorb Used MP
Support: Gained Exp Up
Move: Move+1

Summoner who can gain extra MP is always useful. Item is a hugely useful command. I just kind of wish the primary and secondary were switched.



Character 5:
Female
Primary: Geomancer
Secondary: Summoner
Reaction: Counter Magic
Support: Magic AttackUP
Move: Move-HP Up

This is one of my favorite characters of the bunch. Everything synergizes well. Summon provides damage and support, and Geomancer is awesome. MA Up boosts both primary abilities, and move-hp up makes for a self sufficient tank.


Character 6:
Male
Primary: Oracle
Secondary: Sage
Reaction: Barrier
Support: Train
Move: Walk on Water


This is our second Oracle, but this one instead of Geomancy gets Sage as a secondary. Sage is new to the 1.3 patch, replacing the calculator. Sage provides access to abilities previously unique to bosses, which is pretty sweet. Train makes my life in recruiting monsters slightly easier. Overall a really well balanced unit that is super useful.


Character 7:
Female
Primary: Lancer
Secondary: Oracle
Reaction: Abandon
Support: Train
Move: Move +1

Another lancer with a caster secondary. I wonder if the RNG realizes Lancers have the worst MP in the game and is just trolling me. Still can do more with less mana with Oracle than we could with Summoner, so it's definitely not a bad option. Abandon on a character who can equip shields makes for a pretty tanky character overall (it doubles all evasion attributes).


Character 8:
Male
Primary: Knight
Secondary: Chemist
Reaction: Counter Throw
Support: Equip Katana
Move: Move +3

It's a Knight with Item. Probably one of the first builds most players try, very solid, actually probably one of the best we have here since Knight got buffed with the patch. Counter Throw is nice since it provides counter at mid range, and Move +3 is pure awesome, making this Knight our most mobile character in the lot by a long shot. (we got pretty meh luck on movement abilities across the board


Character 9:
Female
Primary: Dancer
Secondary: Priest
Reaction: Meditation
Support: Equip Katana
Move: Walk on Water

Pure support unit who can wear Katanas. Meditation is a %chance to raise faith when you are hit by a spell, which is neat given it's the only way to manipulate brave or faith in the game. But it is dangerous because faith going above 94 permanently can cause your character to leave the party and we have no faith lowering in the game. Probably the least useful unit in our selections, though Dancer by itself does provide some potential shenanigans.


Character 10:
Male
Primary: Marksman
Secondary: Squire
Reaction: Counter Throw
Support: Maintenence
Move: Move-HP Up

Marksman replaced the Archer, and had some fun new toys. As we've discovered Squire's Basic Skill has a fair bit of flexibility and is more useful than normal. No huge synergy or great supports, but Marksman by itself is potentially fun and I am looking forward to toying with it



Okay, so that's our options! Pick your top 5, if there's any ties on the breaking point between 5 and 6, I will be the tie breaker. Voting ends next Tuesday, and we will start next Wednesday at Dorter with our new party. Also accepting suggestions for names for any of these characters.

[Alanzeign]

Is one of these builds for Ramza or is he a wild card plus these 5 characters?

It looks like there are two characters that you might want to reroll some abilities on. Character 2 has Throw Item as a support, but doesn't have the Item ability. I only mention this because your example says you wanted to reroll skills that were unusable.

Also, Character 5 has Maintenance as her reactionary ability but Maintenance is a support ability. Currently she has 2 support abilities and no reaction.

I have a good idea of what combinations I will vote for but I'll wait to see if any abilities change. Also, if Ramza's build is included as one of these then I'll probably decide slightly differently. :smallsmile:

[Triaxx]

If Chemists still get guns, then that Chemist/Summoner will eventually become a monster.

That Move in Water Lancer on the other hand, is already hilarious. Since she'll be able to get into deep water, and still jump where nothing can reach her, except ranged units or one or two that can also MiW. On the other hand, if she can't jump on it, she can blast it with a summon.

[Seerow]

Is one of these builds for Ramza or is he a wild card plus these 5 characters?

It looks like there are two characters that you might want to reroll some abilities on. Character 2 has Throw Item as a support, but doesn't have the Item ability. I only mention this because your example says you wanted to reroll skills that were unusable.

Also, Character 5 has Maintenance as her reactionary ability but Maintenance is a support ability. Currently she has 2 support abilities and no reaction.

I have a good idea of what combinations I will vote for but I'll wait to see if any abilities change. Also, if Ramza's build is included as one of these then I'll probably decide slightly differently. :smallsmile:

Oops. Replace maintenance with counter spell. Throw item becomes martial arts. Should be edited above now.

Ramza's is a wildcard, intention is he stays a mediator, but I may choose his other abilities at my discretion.

Chemists do have guns still

[Triaxx]

In that case, my vote is for 1, 3, 7, 9 and 10.

[Alanzeign]

My vote is for 3, 5, 7, and 10. For the last slot I'm torn between the combos either being really good, too similar to others, or kinda boring. I think I'll settle on 2.

So 2 (thf/sq), 3 (ora/geo), 5 (geo/smn), 7 (lnc/ora), and 10 (mks/sq).

[Seerow]

Sounds good so far. Remember voting will stay open until Next Tuesday, so we still have most of the week left.


In the meantime, I have Episode 4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG9mL_rcwzU) now available for you!


We left off last time after saving Algus, we pick up at us reporting in to big brother Dycedarg, who praises us in our victory over those worthless peasants. He lets us know Zalbag is handling it, and smacks Algus down hard for trying to pick up a bigger role in the event. We then get stuck on guard duty. Yawn.

While we're guarding the castle we don't have much to do so we talk to Algus some more. He tells us his family used to be as respected as our own, but his grandfather was a traitorous **** who didn't even survive after betraying his allies, and Algus's family is still suffering from the shame of it. The shame of getting caught, not of being a traitor, I'm sure.

Zalbag, stops by to see us before going off on his errand to save the Marquis. After a little catching up he lets us know that we had sent a spy out who never came back. He obviously thinks higher of us than Dycedarg does and implies we should go check it out. And well, guarding castles sure is boring. I'm sure the castle won't miss a handful of cadets who want adventure instead of manning their post. So off we go!

Oh and we also meet Alma officially (I don't think she said anything in the flashback scene with Balbanes), and Teta (Delita's sister). We learn that kids in medieval school are mean to the poor kids, who would've thought. Though you'd think with the Beoulve's being such a big deal Alma could shield Teta from more of that just by being there, but apparently not. Anyway minor sideplot is minor, nobody cares so we will move on!

Before our next battle I actually make two shopping trips. One on screen and one off screen. Off screen I grabbed a bunch of potions, a few phoenix downs, and also went and equipped all of my units with item and whatever skills they were able to learn. Except for one squire who I forget to put item onto. I promise even with the mic off you can hear the sound of me facepalming when I realize she doesn't have item in the map.

The on-screen shopping trip I ultimately end up not buying anything, just checking out equipment but most of it is intended as armor upgrades for units going into the Knight class, which I didn't bother with here. Maybe I should have, as a single Knight may have made the difference... but that's just the way things go sometimes. After a lot of menu fiddling, we enter Sweegy Woods where we get ambushed by monsters. Delita reminds us that it's better than guarding a castle, as a kid I agreed with him... looking back now though? Algus has a point. This fight has nothing to do with our objective, and it is objectively a very difficult fight. We're risking our lives here for literally nothing, and that is unfortunate.

In this fight we get our first peak at two enemy types, Goblins and Bombs. Goblins we actually get two varieties of: Black Goblin and Regular Goblin. Black Goblins get the ability to Revive allies, regular Goblins get a wicked spin punch ability. Remembering the first battle, I focus down Black Goblin first, but in retrospect I might have been better off taking out the regular goblins. If I had realized just how powerful spin punch got buffed to in this patch I may have.

Bombs are really wicked. They have their Douse ability that makes your unit take more fire damage. Their flame attack has a range of 4 (competitive with our crossbows, for close to double the damage), and their signature self destruct ability. On top of that they get Critical Quick, which means if you drop the bomb to critical hp without killing it, it gets a brave% chance to get a turn right away. So as soon as they're low on health and will die in another hit, they take another turn then blow up on as many enemies as possible. Guess who manages to trigger critical quick on both bombs? That's right, this guy!

This fight actually wound up being much tougher than I had anticipated, with me pulling through by the skin of my teeth relying heavily on items. I'll be really happy to have a real party next go around. And am looking forward to stealing a few of these beasties to turn against my enemies. Monsters may be 1-2 trick ponies, but they pack a lot of power here, and if you have a big enough hammer you don't need a whole toolbox.


Anyway, with that disaster of a battle behind us, we are ready to move on to Dorter. So anyone else out there don't forget to cast your votes, the game starts for real next week!

[Illven]

Sucks that apparently explosion is keyed to fire damage.

[Alanzeign]

Well done! Once you have a little more crowd control under your belt I think things will be a bit simpler. Monsters in this patch are always as much a breath of fresh air as they are frustrating. But seriously, Critical Quick is the most devious reaction ability imaginable on a bomb! Especially since they like to douse people with Oil on earlier turns to make that explosion extra tasty.

[Alanzeign]

If anyone else is reading and is hesitant on giving a job suggestion, don't be! Just vote for w/e sounds good to you. I know if I was asking for a vote for a let's play I would want quantity feed back. It's hard for Seerow to make a decision with only 2 posts, and the youtube views certainly show more than 2 people paying attention ;).

[Alent]

I feel bad because I forgot to finish writing this reply, it was left open on one of a bajillion chrome tabs when I left the house and I apparently alt tabbed back to the wrong playground window.




Character 1:
Female
Primary: Lancer
Secondary: Time Mage
Reaction: Arrow Guard
Support: Monster Skill
Move: Move in Water

Well our first option is kind of a weird one. Female Lancer is... a thing. Actually both main jobs are quite good though lacking in synergy. Monster Skill is actually quite nice in this style of game. Arrow Guard and Move in Water are meh, but over all a solid unit capable of fair support and ranged damage

I really like this one. I don't remember Time magic requiring much in the way of MA, so this might synergize better than it seems? The deep water combo mentioned earlier is funny. This goes REALLY well with your Train character. From the sound of how they buffed monsters, I'd actually expect you to run this girl alongside some tamed critters.



Character 2:
Male
Primary: Thief
Secondary: Squire
Reaction: Catch
Support: Martial Arts
Move: Ignore Height

This unit is pretty basic, but thief can cause some trouble with its tricksy abilities. Nothing super exciting, but definitely usable!

This is quite a nicely built thief. I'd switch it to female and set the Zodiac appropriate for a Best match with Elmdor, for obvious reasons.



Character 6:
Male
Primary: Oracle
Secondary: Sage
Reaction: Barrier
Support: Train
Move: Walk on Water


This is our second Oracle, but this one instead of Geomancy gets Sage as a secondary. Sage is new to the 1.3 patch, replacing the calculator. Sage provides access to abilities previously unique to bosses, which is pretty sweet. Train makes my life in recruiting monsters slightly easier. Overall a really well balanced unit that is super useful.

I want to see this unit, because I'm curious to see what Sage adds to the game.




Character 8:
Male
Primary: Knight
Secondary: Chemist
Reaction: Counter Throw
Support: Equip Katana
Move: Move +3

It's a Knight with Item. Probably one of the first builds most players try, very solid, actually probably one of the best we have here since Knight got buffed with the patch. Counter Throw is nice since it provides counter at mid range, and Move +3 is pure awesome, making this Knight our most mobile character in the lot by a long shot. (we got pretty meh luck on movement abilities across the board

This one looks fun. Could I talk you into replacing Equip Katana with Equip Spear and naming him Abel? :smallamused: For reasons? :smallbiggrin:




Character 9:
Female
Primary: Dancer
Secondary: Priest
Reaction: Meditation
Support: Equip Katana
Move: Walk on Water

Pure support unit who can wear Katanas. Meditation is a %chance to raise faith when you are hit by a spell, which is neat given it's the only way to manipulate brave or faith in the game. But it is dangerous because faith going above 94 permanently can cause your character to leave the party and we have no faith lowering in the game. Probably the least useful unit in our selections, though Dancer by itself does provide some potential shenanigans.

"C'mon Celia! Er, um, My mistake."

Now that I've got the Valkyrie Profile quote out of my system, this vote is non-viable if you aren't willing to replace Meditation with another randomly rolled counter, strictly because of the faith issue. If you aren't willing to do that, I would instead vote for the other Lancer Girl.

[Seerow]

Luckily I am a procrastinator and had decided to put off getting teams set up until tomorrow. So Alent's votes are able to be accounted for! I am counting that last one as a vote for Character 7, because I will not change the reaction that was rolled.

Our end tally then is:

1-2 Votes
2-2 Votes
3-2 Votes
4-0 Votes
5-1 Vote
6-1 Vote
7-3 Votes
8-1 Vote
9-1 Vote
10-2 Votes


So it looks like our party is going to be 7, 10, 1, 2, and 3. That's a solid 5 picks and works for me. A little sad that only one person voted for character 6 (the Sage option), but then it probably would have been pretty overpowered this early in the game and we will have more opportunities as the game progresses I am sure.

I'll be getting the party assembled and do some beast taming off-screen tomorrow, and should have enough time after that to get Dorter up tomorrow evening.

Edit: ran into some technical difficulties with the patch/emulator, may have to skip this week but still trying to get resolved by weekend.

[enderlord99]

This (http://magiccheese.ytmnd.com) is the only thing I know about Final Fantasy.