Blame yourself or God! Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics!

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Windmill Shed

(Scene: Inside a dusty windmill, Wiegraf confronts
Golagros. Behind Golagros, Teta lays on the floor, bound
and helpless.)





Wiegraf: What... now you, Golagros?

Golagros: You putting me with Gustav? Think. The Death
Corps lost most of their men and now are surrounded by
the Hokuten (Golagros turns toward Teta). She was our
only ace in the hole to get us out of this. Because she's a
Beoulve.



Wiegraf: Even if we do escape, we'll get caught sooner or
later and be in their power! We must make it so our children
don't have to go through what we did.



Wiegraf: Even if we have to rust away here!

(Golagros turns to once again face Wiegraf.)



Golagros: Ludicrous! We'll die like dogs!!

(Wiegraf shakes his head.)

Wiegraf: No, there may be still be survivors at Fort
Zeakden. If you join them, you may get something!



(A monk enters the door and whispers a message to
Wiegraf.)



Wiegraf: Miluda... (Wiegraf clenches his fist in anger.)



Soldier: What should we do?

Wiegraf: Alright, Retreat!! You heard, Golagros. Go to Fort
Zeakden. Leave the girl here!



(The Monk rushes out the door.)

Wiegraf: Damn! Already?



(Wiegraf exits.)





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Wiegraf: It was you cadets who killed my sister!

Ramza: He's not a Beoulve! I am!

Wiegraf: Then Golagros was wrong. But he is with you,
correct?

Ramza: It doesn't matter who he is. You have his sister.

Wiegraf: Correct me if I'm wrong... Either way, the girl was
to be released anyway. We had no intention of keeping her.
But first things first! If you want the girl back, you'll
have to beat me!!

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Welcome back to Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics! This map is a pretty nice looking one, with a rotating windmill, along
with creeking noises to accompany the battle. Our objective today it to take down Wiegraf, a task which won't be
easy. Wiegraf is the toughest unit you'll face in Chapter 1. Luckily, he only needs to be taken to critical status (1/4 of
his max Hit Points) for Ramza to win.



Ha ha that Chocobo's name is Boco! BOCO! That's a stupid name, no ifs, ands, or Butz!

Let's talk about the map first. The party starts in front of a divide that leads down to either one of the monks and a
Yellow Chocobo-with-a-stupid-name, or up towards Wiegraf, with a Knight and another Monk. While Wiegraf is by far
the biggest threat on the map, that Chocobo is the only reliable healer on the map, and as such should be taken out
first. The height difference that divides the Chocobo from Wiegraf will likely hinder you, but it's no obstacle for the
monster, as it has a Jump value of 5!

The pair of Monks and the Knight are all very manageable threats, because they hit like girls (i.e. not very hard), an
unfortunate consequence to being in a game where female units under perform in physical combat compared to their
male counterparts. That does not mean you can ignore them; left alive, they're meager damage will add up, and some-
times they can end up blocking you from reaching the higher ground on the map by blocking the stairs. It's usually a
better idea therefore to take them out when you have the opportunity.

We'll talk about Wiegraf himself in a second; I just wanted to highlight something funny that happened before Wiegraf
properly began kicking my ass.

(This also makes the screen shots line up better too.)



It turns out that Jean is quite the charmer! This is actually less because Jean is actually charming (the formula for
"Steal Heart" is 50 + MA, and MA is hardly a stat that Monks excel at), and more because I got lucky and Jean found
himself hitting on a female Aquarius! Remember back to the Zodiac discussion: Leo and Aquarius units share a best/
worst penalty to success rate and damage against each other, with best occurring when they other unit is the
opposite gender. The result is a 50% bonus to steal this lady's heart! Amusingly, the Knight is a female Aquarius as
well, and I ended up charming her for a short while...

...until the charmed female Monk got mad at the charmed female Knight and punched her, breaking the Charm effect.

Women. Am I right fellas?

Lady killing aside, Monks actually make pretty good thieves, because their innate Martial Arts ability just so happens to
also increase the success chance of most of the Steal skill set (Steal Heart excluded).

It does this by modifying the effective Speed of the martial artist in regards to skills, effectively treating the Speed
value as being 50% higher than it actually is. Of course, this is only good for a few more percentage points of success
(the formulas do not involve multiplication, much like how MA factors into status effect magic), but as Stealing is
inherently risky (you have to be next to the unit in questions, and Reaction abilities will still trigger!) giving your Thief
Martial Arts can potentially save you a lot of trouble. [/mostlypointlessinformationforanyonebutFFTfanatics]



Wiegraf himself is a powerful enemy. His equipment is top notch for this point in the game, unavailable for purchase for
a few more battles. While you could theoretically strip all his armour off him with a Thief, it's hard to recommend such
an action give his dangerous nature and the risk of being on the receiving end of his powerful counter attacks. That
said, stealing Wiegraf's weapon (with er, Steal Weapon) is well worth the risk, as it would effectively neuter him (Holy
Sword requires, well, a sword.)

Wiegraf's sporting a special "Squire" class that might seem somewhat familiar if you think back towards the very first
battle of the game. "Holy Sword" is the same skill set that Agrias was using, and it's very dangerous. Wiegraf has two
skills from it that he'll use nearly every turn:

Stasis Sword: The skill deals moderate damage and has a 25% chance of adding "Stop" to a target. This targets like a
Haste spell, in that it has an Effect of 2, with zero tolerance for height differences.

Crush Punch: this skill deals moderate damage and has a 25% chance of adding "Dead" to the target. That's "Dead" as
in "0 HP." Single Target, thankfully.



Wiegraf will tend to use Stasis Sword when he can catch two or more units (easier than it sounds if Delita is running
around), and use Crush Punch when he can only nail one unit. Stop or Dead status is absolutely brutal to be hit with,
so ideally you don't want this battle to drag out. Of course, ending it quickly causes you to miss some of the back and
forth between Wiegraf and Ramza. Then again, losing a fight sucks. There ain't no way of saving mid battle!

Time for the moment that Shivam has surely been waiting patiently (?) for!

Monk

Monks are the Swiss Army Knife of Final Fantasy Tactics. They're one of the hardest hitters in the game, and have
great HP growth. Backing this up is one of the most versatile skill sets in the game, that will let you dish damage out
from a distance, heal, cure status ailments, and revive units, albeit with severe height restrictions.

A Monk's biggest weakness is that they can only wear light armour, and with an exception for the ladies, no helmets.
They make up for this with a bit with a high hit point multiplier and a pretty good Physical Evasion, but their hit points
will start lagging a bit once the Heavy Armor starts becoming amazing late in the game. A secondary concern is that
their Monk skills are enhanced with the Martial Arts support, which the class has innately, but will mean that their
abilities will lose a LOT of their punch without the Martial Arts support ability backing it up.

Mind you, even without Martial Arts, Punch Art can give a unit like a Knight or Lancer a solid (if not spectacular) set of
abilities to hit enemies from afar, and a weak Earth Slash is still an amazing attack.

And least we forget, Monks (particularly male ones) hit HARD.



Monk Traits

Prerequisite: Lv. 2 Knight
Weapon: None
Helmet: Ribbons (female only!)
Armor: Clothes

Move: 3
Jump: 4
Physical Evasion Rate: 20%
Inherent Support: Martial Arts

Abilities to get: Wave Fist, Earth Slash, Chakra, Counter.

Class Skill: Punch Art
Spin Fist: Attacks with spinning fists.
Range: Auto, Effect: 2,0. CTR: Now. JP Cost: 150
(Goblins will sometimes do A similar attack. A range of Auto and effect of 2 means it will hit units standing next to you,
in all directions. Rather worthless skill due to the height requirements restricting the attack to only affecting units on
the same Height as the user.)

Repeating Fist: Punch repeatedly with one's fist.
Range: 1, Effect: 1,1. CTR: Now. JP Cost: 300
(Does random damage to an enemy, potentially dealing a lot of damage, potentially hitting like a stiff breeze. In other
words, not worth it. You want to reduce random chance in this game, not increase it!)

Wave Fist: Attacks from afar by emitting battle
Range: 3, Effect: 1,3. CTR: Now. JP Cost: 300
(An awesome skill, this effectively lets a Monk act like he had a ranged weapon that hits about as hard as the Monk
can in combat!)

Earth Slash: Unleashes a spirit in a straight line, splitting the earth along its path.
Range: Straight line from user. Effect: 8,2. CTR: Now. JP Cost: 600
(One of the few skills that can nail a unit from practically the other side of the battle field! Earth Slash is amazing.
Combined with Wave Fist, your Monk can play an excellent "keep away" game. Or usually, rough up the enemy a bit
before closing in.)

Secret Fist: Causes death gradually, striking vital points and blood vessels (Add: Death Sentence).
Range: 1, Effect: 1,0. CTR: Now. JP Cost: 300
(Fighting a skilled Monk is practically a death sentence as it is. Skip, you can kill them a lot quicker than this.)

Stigma Magic: Recovers abnormal status by emitting the yin spirit (Cancel: Petrify, Darkness, Confusion, Silence,
Berserk, Frog, Poison, Sleep, Don't Move, Don't Act).
Range: Auto, Effect: 2,0. CTR: Now. JP Cost: 200
(The Height requirements on this skill kill a lot of its usefulness. Using this skill effectively requires a bit more
foresight in your battle tactics, but can come in handy.)

Chakra: Restore HP and MP by focusing one's mind on vital pressure points and blood vessels.
Range: Auto, Effect: 2,0. CTR: Now. JP Cost: 350
(An amazing skill, while it suffers from the same Height problems that most of the Monks defense skills have, Chakra
restores a good amount of both HP AND MP, making it great for keeping your mages fueled.)

Revive: Calls back dead units with a loud cry (Cancel: Dead).
Range: 1, Effect: 1,0. CTR: Now. JP Cost: 500
(Nothing wrong with bringing the dead back to life! This skill does still have those damn Height problems.)



Reaction Abilities:
HP Restore: Restore HP when terminal. Trigger: Critical.
JP Cost: 500.
(Brings a critical unit back to full health! The only tricky part is ensuring the unit is brought down to critical status,
rather than Dead status, with the attack. Can be great, but with enough healing/Chakra, a different Reaction ability
will probably serve you better.)

Counter: Counter with physical attack. Trigger: Physical attack.
JP Cost: 300.
(A basic, but very useful, reaction ability. Counter just like all those Monsters do!)

Hamedo: Attack before being attacked. Trigger: Physical attack.
JP Cost: 1200.
(This skill cancels the enemy's attack, then executes one of the unit's own. Sounds amazing, until you realize that only
basic attacks, Battle Skill, Charge, and Throw attacks will trigger this, and both Charge and Throw can be used at
range, completely limiting this reaction ability! Also, does not work on Monsters. Overall, a more or less worthless skill
that doesn't deserve to cost 1200 JP.)

Support Ability:
Martial Arts: Gain the bare-handed fighting strength of a monk.
JP Cost: 200.
(A very cheap, but nice, Support Ability. More units should pretend to be a Monk. Especially good on Thieves and
Ninjas.)

Move Ability:
Move-HP Up: Recover HP as you move.
JP Cost: 300.
(Recovers 10% of your HP if you move, while not Confused or Berserked. Stick with a different ability!)

Things start going badly for my team around these screen shots. I had taken care of almost all of Wiegraf's lackeys,
but Wiegraf nailed Jean with a Crush Punch that triggered the "Dead" effect, KO'ing Jean from full HP. Without Jean's
massive hits, I'm all of a sudden relying on a Summoner (who is out of MP), a Priest (who is also out of MP) and a
Mediator (who is the only one who can revive and heal via Item, using a knife).

Now, I won't lie to you. I thought this was going to end badly. Wiegraf's Reaction Ability, Counter, meant that attack-
ing him with my units (armed with rods and staffs) would likely deal some piddly damage, followed by Wiegraf's angry
sword countering their faces. I didn't have a reliable way to heal either, so given time, Wiegraf was going to eventually
overwhelm my party. I needed Jean up and alive, and that meant hoping that a crystal would drop.



For some reason this "Boco" guy refuses to turn into a chest or crystal! It's like he's being treated like a "guest"
character or something!

Oh well, I probably won't be meeting him again.

Anyway, I looked at my options, and here's what I tried to do to salvage the battle:

1) Revive Jean with Phoenix Down, try and steal Wiegraf's shield. I tried this, and it well, ended badly, with Wiegraf
countering Jean's failed steal attempt, and knocking him back to unconsciousness. In hindsight, since Jean had enough
movement and jump to reliably get behind Wiegraf (negating the shield); smacking him for 50 damage would have been
the smarter move.



2) Try and lower his Brave with Junk. Threaten reduces a target's Brave by 20, and since Reaction Abilities like counter
are tied to Brave, a successful admonishing would decrease Wiegraf's counter chance by 20%, potentially allowing my
mages to slowly (but safely) beat him to death. Of course, Junk was the only one who could revive the dead at this
point, so I only got to try it once (it failed).

3) Stall and hope a Crystal spawned, that Ramza could grab. I had to stall until the last unit, the Knight, produced a
crystal (both Monks dropped chests). I got lucky here; if that Knight had turned into a chest herself, you would have
likely been seeing a very different battle play out.

There's going to be a supplemental post before the next battle, showing how our guys look before heading them off
towards the conclusion of Chapter 1! Join me next time for Fort Zeakden, where the stone is cast into the raging
waters of history!

I'm going to let the screen shots and banter between Ramza and Wiegraf finish this battle. It's quite easy to defeat
Wiegraf so quickly that you miss this stuff!

See you next mission!

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Ramza: I had no intention of killing her! There are other
ways than fighting. Can we talk?

Wiegraf: You still don't understand why we won't surr-
ender! What good is talking anyway? Could you make
something happen even if you wanted to?



Ramza: My brothers don't want to fight!! Wiegraf, if you
put the sword down, they'll listen!

Wiegraf: HA! This's absurd! Your brothers don't want to
fight? You're so deluded!





Wiegraf: God, you're green! All leaders' hands are dirty!
Dycedarg - a sense of justice? Justice must mean different
things to different people!

Ramza: How dare you insult him!?



Wiegraf: Hmph - tough one, eh?





Wiegraf: Who do you think had Gustav kidnap the Marquis?

Wiegraf: One is a white lion, Larg. The other is black,
Goltana. Both want to know who their allies are. But, it's
hard to read strangers' minds.



Wiegraf: Gustav was deceived by Dycedarg's silk tongue
and kidnapped the Marquis!







Ramza: Wait, Wiegraf!! Take that back!!

Bonus Money: 3,500 Gil
War Trophies: Hi-Potion

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(Scene: Inside the windmill, Golagros and Teta are no where to be found...)









Ramza: Did Wiegraf lie to us!?



Delita: What happened? What went wrong?





Ramza: Delita...



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To be continued...

isnt taht the whole point of playing against a human? that you can't predict what they do, so you have to actually strategize and deal with rapidly changing scenarios?

I'm working through WotL and made it to this battle last night. Rushed Wiegraf with Ramza and two generics as Knights (all with Move+1 and Battle Boots) in an effort to Break His Shit, with a White Mage/Chemist as backup.

It didn't go well. Wiegraf KO'd my whm at the outset (why did he go for her when he was surrounded by much stronger enemies?), and I was picked apart by him and the monks. I don't think I lasted five full turns, and I never did manage to rend any of his equipment.

(also, this LP is fantastic. please keep it up!)

How do you strategize against something unpredictable? And I know a human is not random, but I've never been any good at guessing what people will do so it feels random to me.

A game like FFT isn't the best medium for meaningful strategy, in part because it's difficult to set a good trap. You can set bad traps, but only the AI is dumb enough to fall for them. Strategy works by creating a situation where your opponent has to choose between doing something you want and doing something else that you want, without yourself being forced into such a choice. However, in a TRPG, it's very hard to set up such a choice, because the choice to just run away from a disadvantageous confrontation is too hard to block off. It's balanced around the idea that the AI is too stupid not to pick a fight it can't win. Your opponent will presumably be smarter than that.

It's just too easy to be play defensively, is the point. Now, if you give the two sides some objectives other than just killing each other, it might work.

That's life, man. That's where the fun in multiplayer anything is--trying to read your opponent and plan against what it looks like he may or may not do given the situation at hand.

also, MONKS! FUCK YEAH.

once you get monks, there's no point in ever changing classes, cause they are the zenith of human evolution.

Are you a Cylon?

Yeah, I am bad at that. And coincidentally, not a monk fan either. >_<

When I get home I will look that word up.

for real. like i said earlier in the thread, i always sucked at this game and couldn't fully enjoy it, but then i just started punching things twice and everything clicked. Monks rule.

And so does this LP, good work Eddie.

You are wrong. Ninja + martial arts brings the monk to the next plane of existence, to the point where they are little but pure consciousness. Except with fists. Fists of death.

The question is, then:

Dual Wielding Monks, or Ninjas with Martial Arts + Brawler?

with a brave of 97 and shirihadori, it doesnt matter, cause they're dead before you decide.

monks look cooler

If you know the game well, and your opponent knows the game well, it's not about reacting to randomness so much as knowing what your opponent is going to do and countering it. Of course your opponent knows that you know what he's going to do, so he's going to try and implement his strategy as well as a counter to your counterstrategy. And of course you know that he knows that you know, so you're going to...

Playing games against other humans isn't much fun. Playing metagames is where the real enjoyment is. In those matches winning is fun and so is losing so long as you lose in an enlightening way.

not to mention, playing against predictable opponants is boring as hell, since there's no surprise, challenge, or chance to lose.

Of course that's fun sometimes too. =)

Oh. You're one of those Super Tact kids, aren't you?

Final Fantasy Tactics would be more challenging if it were capable of putting together intelligent set ups for its units. You know, useful equipment and secondary skills. And I guess if the enemies actually had access to higher level spells/abilities.

No, I'm mentally retarded when it comes to any tactics game. I'm just sayin'... in general.

Well, like I said before...

I disagree. FFT offers enough in the area of long range attacks that "hanging back" and "waiting for them to make first move" is potentially disastrous.

I think the following changes, minimum, would have to be made to "balance" any sort of FFT multiplayer:

1) 4v4 matches, generics and monsters only.
2) Ban Calculators.
3) Limit accessories, particularly ones that prevent lots of status debuffs like Ribbons.
4) Ban or limit particular weapons (Excalibur comes to mind).
5) Fix the level up/level down system so one cannot craft ridiculous characters.

I'm sure I could come up with five others if I thought about it some more, but those are the ones that come immediately to mind. 3 and 4 would probably be best served by having preset weapons/armor for particular classes/skills.

Well, I guess ultimately it would be a lot of work. Would it be awesome tho? Yes.

- Eddie

I don't follow.

It's not that it's hard to attack someone from anywhere (because remember, your opponent can do that as well), but that it's too easy to punish someone who attacks you first.

Mostly agreed, except the first one. I think a limit on special classes is what's in order. The only one that should be out-and-out banned is Holy Swordsman/Sword Saint, considering it's essentially three classes in one. Maybe Sky Pirate. And why only four characters as opposed to five?

There's enough counters and such built into the game that I still don't agree. Between Reflect, the "Catch" reaction ability, and shields, you can stand to block just about anything the player might throw at you when you move in. At that point the only things left that are pretty surefire are guns and Earth Slash.

The other thing that would need to be taken into account would be blade grasp/high brave/low faith thing as well. Blade grasp in general is too ridiculously good.

One of my favorite pointlessly cool tricks in FFT is the "X-Slash" - Performing Earth Slash with a Mime positioned to copy it from another angle.

Alternately, ban Math Skill as a secondary, because Calculators themselves are handicapped by extremely low speed.

I have never cared about bravery and faith in prior playthroughs. Not knowing the mechanics of FFT inside and out, can you explain why I would want to try and permanently affect these?

WotL multiplayer already bans Calculators and Arithmeticks, and I think parties are limited to 2 people (three?) per player during Rendezvous.