"One to be born from a dragon..." -- Let's Play Final Fantasy II

What is the best way to fight MadOgres?

Two updates, Brick? You're just crapping all over my dreams here!

Thats it!

Christmas is CANCELED!

How do you know that this isn't, itself, Christmas?

Because I just cancelled it, Bongo.

Try to keep up.

That was fantastic.

Also

Yes.

I couldn't resist.

I remember this being the first time I really noticed Gameplay and Story Segregation. Mainly because I remembered this in my first playthrough of the game, so in the second playthrough I cast Float on everyone as soon as I entered this room - and fell into the pitfall anyway.

I emerged from that tower wiser, yet much older.

It's a non-sequitor for Edge to cast Flame, Rubicant to say "Was it Flame? I will show you how!" and then cast Glare. Rubicant should have cast Fire 3, which would have done the same damage and reminded the player how weak Edge's fire magic is compared to everyone else's.

It plays first at the Fabul dock before Cid joins, so I never associated it with Cid, just with optimistic moments.

It's been a long time since I've played so I've forgotten the prices and damage rates, but would it be effective to go back to an early town like Mist or Kaipo and buy lots of cheap daggers?

I've wondered how Edge gets the whole party through the wall. Is it like in Harry Potter where once people know where the fake wall is they can each run through it on their own, or does Edge need everybody to hold hands so he can extend his ninja magic through the party as they run through?

Since this game was intricate enough to make characters left and right handed, couldn't it have given charm spells different success rates depending on whether the caster or target is male or female?

I was one of those people who started imagining FF2 fan fiction after playing it. One was that in one of final dungeon battles, some monster would decapitate Rydia and in a panic Edge would cast Pin to try to sew her head back on to save her life.

I was a weird little kid, huh?

Edge must not have sufficiently charmed Rydia yet, because she apparently didn't consider being Edge's only way to see his parents again as compensation for having to remember two more bottom-level summon spells. Who knows, Brick? Maybe if you'd skipped getting Imp, Mage and Bomb, she'd have spoken up!

You can even walk away and save at this moment!

Now we know why Edge hates Golbez. He staged Edge's whole encounter with his mutated parents and Rubicant so that Edge would be too emotional to detect the trap floor.

I would take it a step farther. There should have been some way for one character to walk ahead, fall through the hole, then the rest jump over, get the crystals, then follow him down.

Claws still have utility! Charm Claw inflicts charm status, but more importantly it gets quadruple damage vs. giants. Cat Claw inflicts sleep, and since it increases Str and Agi, may increase Edge's number of hits. Finally, you should keep a Thunder Claw around, in case you run into a large number of mechanical enemies for some reason.

Glare is fire-elemental, and is more powerful than Fire3. It also casts instantly, costs no MP, and can't be reflected.

Just ask Wendy and Lisa!

Edge going through the wall makes about as much sense as Shadow smokebomb'ing out of the burning house.

I was always kind of bummed that the King and Queen Eblan monster sprites were never used for proper monsters - just that cutscene. I mean, look at how cool they are!

I'm really forgetful but did we ever cover how party position affects mechanics? Doesn't being in the middle slot give you a bonus to magic hit rate or something? I also remember there was a good reason to keep Cecil in the middle slot at one point (to act first?).

I don't feel like running back to the last page having had to sleep halfway through reading this amazing second update in as many days here, but that whole thing about seeing other parts of the dungeon that you won't be reaching for a while is so true. Heck, it's true enough to be the main reason I maintain Warrior Within is the secret best Prince of Persia, despite its horrible horrible art and music choices!

Well, that and how the sand-addict super-mode WW uses is actually cool because of a power it grants, whereas in Two Thrones going all half-demon totally sucks once you realize there really isn't any reason for the prince not to just wield a spiked chain all the damn time. But I digress.

I thought that was the Sailor Moon RPG that did that.

No, because Darted weapons do damage based on their Attack rating. By the time you get Edge, stuff like the Slumber Sword is already weaker than the standard Shuriken. Buying Shurikens is expensive (especially the more powerful ones later on), but they're your best bet if you plan on using Dart extensively.

Even if Charm had a 100% hit rate, it still wouldn't be worth using.

This just sounds like trivia to me. Removing one of Edge's swords chops his Attack in half, negating any benefit hitting a weak point would give him. I actually tested this while fighting Rubicant during an old lowball run, to see if Edge could get more damage out of Shurikens, IceClaw + IceClaw or IceClaw + Middle Sword. Shurikens are the best by far.

The hero in the middle of the party tends to act first. I think what happens is, if two heroes get their turns at the same time, the tie is broken by their position in the party in this order: middle, top, bottom, mid-top, mid-bottom. A particularly speedy hero (like Yang) will consistently override this, though.

Charm is not as useless as you say it is, actually! Used effectively on an enemy mage, it can make things quite fun indeed...

The ever-so-famous ATB system of later Final Fantasies was pretty primitive for this one, it's true. To get an idea of just how primitive, play FF4A with the turn gauges turned on and witness the insanity in action.

Hmm, that's true I guess.

Or you could just kill them. (I tend to just kill them.)

It should be closer to a third, even if you do have two equally-powerful swords.

I don't usually Throw outside of boss battles, but I'm almost 100% certain a Thunder Claw is more damaging, not to mention more inexhaustible, in The Giant of Bab-il, so at the very least there's that.

I'll try it, but if you're wrong, you have to do 500 push-ups.

I suppose the usefulness of turning mages on their allies isn't as clear in a regular run, especially not in this version. But in a low-level run, it can really turn the tide of some battles!

But in a low-level run, clearing battles is counter-intuitive! EXP is evil.

Oh I agree! Thing is, you don't necessarily have to kill the enemy party to confuse an enemy. And if your enemy is something really powerful and/or annoying, having them basting themselves with magic but not killing themselves with it is a good way to avoid taking excessive damage while you try to run. The cost of the confusion spell is generally a lot lower than the cost of healing and reviving a low-level party!

... Well, I am confident that SCIENCE will vindicate me.

It seems that FF3 split Edge into three characters, each of whom is good at their specialty: Locke's Steal command usually works. Shadow's shurikens are affordable and he looks and talks like a ninja. Cyan uses similar, curved swords, but he's among the strongest fighters.

The first bunch of times I played through this game I took pretty much this team (but swapped Rosa and Rydia because I'm a racist and think white magic goes above black magic.). Now I realize the best team is:


.....Rosa
Kain
.....Rydia
Cecil
.....Edge


This way, Edge is kept out of danger (but he always has to Dart), Kain can tank while he's on the ground, and Rydia makes the V shape with each move. And I'm still a racist. Many people put Kain in the back because jump does the same damage from there, but this makes Edge go squish.

One final aesthetic tip: If you want Kain to be a pain in the ass, put him in the bottom slot so each time he jumps he skims the rest of the team's faces. I decided to make Kain a gentleman and put him on the top, though.


They climbed the tower
to get the Crystals of power
but fell through the floor
like a wilting flower.

This one does work really well for bosses if you are going to have Edge stick to throwing shit. Especially fun if you use the dupe-item glitch so he can throw crystal swords and the best stars at everything!

One of my favorite things about the DS version is that there's an Augment that lets you attack from the back row with no penalty, so you can put Edge back there where he belongs.

There is no one who did not use that Augment on Edge.

No one.

My favorite thing about the GBA version was that after beating the game once you can trade Edge for somebody useful like Yang or even Edward.

GBA Edward is the secret best character.

I'm still pissed they took that out for the DS version.

It's back in for that PSP one, right? One day I may get a PSP and try it.

That's a HORRIBLE layout! It puts Kain between Cecil and Rosa, making the next round of treachery/kidnapping even easier!

You mean I can change the plot of After Years by having it load my end-game save from FF2? Amazing!