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

You know, I might have never mentioned about how great Life Drain, Demi and Demi 2 (And Lich by extension) work on the zodiac bosses.

They work pretty darn good!

- Eddie

I love math! I love math so much that I use vanilla magic whenever I run through this game, because then you get to watch CT and calculate turn orders. This is the reason that I completely forgot the righteous amount of math skilling Eddie was doing in the actual LP. You know those silly people who insisted that Street Fighter matches aren't "fair" unless you refuse to throw, ever? Like that, except with math skill.

Oh no, I'm not saying that those skills are useless, just that Short Charge isn't really a requirement when you have Arithmetiks.

Of course, of course. I'm just reflecting on the fact that I'm so used to doing without Arithmetiks that I completely glossed over the LP math skilling I had read not five minutes before that post.

*obligatory FFT gushing that's five minutes late to the party*

But then it really gets me down that I missed the opportunity to point out that SolOrlandu could have abused the Judo Outfit to get infinite immortality from Valera's death sentence. And that page 1 of this thread shows that my explanation of SCC was totally unnecessary.

Man join the club. This damn thread has gone on so long I doubt the author even remembers what he wrote almost 2 years ago.

When the hell is he going to update anyway? If this was a Brickroad LP we'd have people climbing the rafters talking about... I dunno, sales figures or some shit. Grad school blaaaaaaaaaaaaah

- Eddie

More games need awesome spell quotes.

Dude you're crazy. I couldn't get past halfway through the game in a full party Archer run, much less imagine soloing one.

I think the Planescape Torment LP over at Something Awful ran for like 4 years? And just finished up a few months ago IIRC. And besides, its not how quickly you finish the LP its how much people enjoy talking about it and the game in the process. 1,205 replies is a lot of talking funs.

The great thing is that I just got to the part where you totally beasted Velius with an SCC bard.
So you did mention how awesome they are against zodiacs!
Standard operating procedure in an SSCC is to power up Delita to an auto-potioning minigod in the Magic City Gariland opening battle, then pick either magic or physical pain for him to single-handedly beat all of Chapter 1. I always make him a monk because a lucky repeating fist by itself = two-turn Algus fight.

As for the rest of the game: Like I said, machinegun nest. Since speed save makes you faster and boosts your per-hit damage (except for the few battles where you need a crossbow), and since the only command you're inputting is the Attack command, the speed boosting automatically stops when you have More Than Enough Overkill for the battle. I usually got hilarious triple-quintuple-turns on the entire battlefield, including ninjas, by the time my hp dropped to around 20%.

The major stopping point (and where I kept on giving up my archer solos) is the Chapter 4 Elmdor fight, which pretty much requires: challenge level cap (Lv70); about three full criticals in a row, two of them Charges, through his Blade Grasp; and the lowest hp/MA rolls on the enemy that you can get. This is one of the things that generally makes SSCC Not Fun when you're using anything other than Ninja, Monk, or Oracle Summoner. The other is how you end up knowing the battle AI so well that FFHacktics' patch changes make perfect sense.

A Solo Class Challenge would be unplayable because you'd have to play through the first 3 chapters WITHOUT HIM, which would ruin the point of a Solo Class Challenge in the first place.

This is what I'm talking about!

Maybe next post I'll post what a Squire or Chemist can do? Follow it up with an explanation of the zodiac system...

- Eddie

Long time reader, first time poster. I've been following this thread since the very beginning, and I have to say Eddie, you are producing an astounding body of work here.

The LP is very well written, the format is great, and it is loaded to bear with info. I dumped countless hours into this game back in my PS1 days (replayed the game three times, leveling up to 99 with all the characters each time,) and you're touching on things in the game I've never heard about.

Many, many props to you sir.

PSP version question/statement: I'm not sure if its just been too long since I've played the PS1 version, but I find the slowdown that happens when anyone casts a spell or uses an ability to be really distracting.

I don't remember it doing that on the PS1 (or, at least, not to that degree,) but its perfectly possible that my memory is off. Am I having selective memory, or is this one of the hiccups of the PSP version?

It's just the PSP version. I don't know the details, but the framerate for all special ability effects was reduced to about half of what it originally was.

Blergh, I was worried about that. So, you mean to tell me I can play Dissidia at full speed with all of its crazy, epilepsy inducing glory, but the Squire's Throw Stone ability grinds the game to a halt?

SQUEEEEEENIIIIIIXXXX!!!!

Thanks for the clarification. I'll be going more melee heavy this time through then.

Clearly the slowdown was an attempt to balance Calculators. I can't bear how long CT5Holy takes in the original!

- Eddie

Nono, it's not exactly slowdown. Like Glass Knuckle said, Squex went and reduced the framerate for spell effects, and the music is unaffected. As to why Squex did this, your guess is as good as mine.

Yeah, I played it a bit last night after Glass Knuckle pointed it out, and its much more obvious now that its a lower framerate vs actual slowdown. I'm totally with you on "why the hell did they do that?"

My only guess is that it was to make sure I'd enjoy the game a little less when I inevitably played it on PSP. Sorry for mucking it up for everyone. :-(

Shitty portjob on the engine, so they reduced the data size of the special animations (i.e., the frames) to reduce load times.

That's my guess.

It still plays all the frames though, just at a reduced speed. I don't really know how that would reduce their size.

I actually believe this.

So I've started playing this again. As a quick reminder, I'm playing with a Geomancer, Knight, Thief, Archer, and Squire, with all characters using only the abilities in their respective classes. Nothing much of interest has happened since Meliadoul. My party is pretty well rounded despite the limitations, and the chapter four equipment gave them the boost they needed to put up a good fight. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get Elmdor's accessory (it would have helped Ramza's geomancy a little) as killing him at all was difficult enough, and I didn't feel like replaying it 20+ times just to get that one item.

I'm caught up with the LP now, but I'm stuck at Dycedarg. Only Ramza can damage units on the upper level, so everyone has to rush for the stairs before Adramelk shows up, otherwise he'll take them out before they can get hits in. The thief can charm a knight or two to help Zalbag out, but this usually doesn't affect the fight at all. It's difficult enough just to get everyone as far as possible without somebody dying from lightning stabs, and even the best case leaves most of them badly hurt for the second half. One oddity about this fight is that a charmed knight will remain on the field after Dycedarg transforms, which I might be able to make use of.

Anyone have any tips for this? Ramza is level 38, with everyone else a level or three lower.

The cheeser strategy or the sane person's strategy?
"The sane one, of course! Good God!"
Sorry, infinite SSCC instincts kicking in.

On some of my runs with more physical and less magic I found it more effective to set up camp in the starting corner and let the enemies come to you. This is much easier to pull off if you have 100% hitrate moves like Earth Slash, so I think the best thing to try for is to have Ramza knock Dycedarg into critical before he gets close enough to swordskill anybody. Take out the Knights as they come, try to steal Dyce's sword, then mob him with your party in position to start the smackdown on Adramelk as soon as he appears. Also, you want to deliver the killing blow as a Move->Act to cheese into Ramza's double turn for the zodiac fight, and to abuse your Knight's Speed Break on Adramelk.

Really Cheeser Strategy: The A.I. can't target Confused units with anything that does less than fatal hp damage, so if you could cut out his ability to cast magic (the mp-sapping Break ability?) and get him to Seal four of your party members, the remaining one (equipped with a Jade Armlet of course) would get hit by Loss and proceed to chip him to death without his even trying to stop the assault.

Whelp, I finally got through it with a little cheese. I gave my Thief the Chantage, Flash Hat, and speed +1 bag, with no armor to ensure Dyce went for her. She then ran for it and led Dyce down the stairs while charming a knight now and then. Everyone else rushed to the bottom of the stairs while Ramza threw Geomancy at him. He started breaking my Thief's equipment after a couple rounds, but I finished him before he got the Chantage. With everyone in position, my Knight (wielding Excalibur) had plenty of chances to get some speed breaks in while the Thief continued to draw fire.

I don't understand the strategy you suggested, as Dyce can hit anywhere in the starting corner with lightning stab. My problem was trying to get people out of that corner before he hurt them too badly. Ramza was doing roughly 70-80 damage with Geomancy, so taking him down quickly was not an option.

I'll have to take another look at the map, then. I've been running solo and duos so long I've forgotten how close a full party forces you to his lightning stab range. What I meant was pressing the entire party against the wall and the far corner so that he couldn't reach anyone with lightning stab, forcing him to move>defend his way slowly down the stairs. If that's impossible with five party members, you can proceed to disregard strategy>throw chantage at him.

What's this? A bonus fight An update?



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Knave: Selling flowers for your mom? Good for you...

Flower Girl: Ten more days.... No, just wait a week, please.

Knave: I'm gonna get my 30000 gil, one way or another!

Knave: Oughta try sellin' your body instead of flowers. Hee, hee.

(I love this monk.)

(The Flower Girl runs off.)

(Cloud grabs his head.)

Cloud: ...U, uggh...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *





Well Cloud, your heart was in the right place, but your brain wasn't. I'm not even talking about the fact that Cloud is
level one and that the enemies are around 47. I mean, that is dumb but we can hand wave that under the assumption
that no one in Final Fantasy Tactics has any concept of what a 'level' is (outside of a Calculator, I guess).

But Cloud was picking a fight with his bare hands. Against a monk. That is either world class balls or stupidity, and
having played Final Fantasy VII I'm betting on the latter.

Nevertheless, Cloud will happily run away while we mop up these weaklings. Their AI doesn't seem to even target him.
Speaking of weaklings, you're fighting a monk, three thieves, and a Squire. I control Orlandu, the Thunder God, and the
game is sending Squires at us. The only real danger is Charm Heart turning your good units against you, but that's
easily avoidable and not really a big issue anyway.



What more can I say? For all the time and steps it takes to find Cloud again, they pitch you a real softball in order to
win his fight. Enjoy the post-victory conversation, with a building in the way. Because as you know, I go out of my way
for my viewers.

Cloud: Ever since, I've been lost. Who am I? What should I do? What about this pain...

Ramza: Jesus Christ Cloud... there's someone in your world waiting for you. Hopefully a shrink. We
might be able to send you back where you came from by using the stone's power.

Bonus Money: 26,700 Gil

Cloud

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Orlandu ruins a lot of perfectly good characters. None are so ruined upon intro-
duction as Cloud is; not only does Cloud start at level 1 and need to equip a mediocre weapon in order to use his skills,
he has to compete with every other special character who by this point are leagues ahead in ability. Compounding
this? Cloud is received a mere nine fights from the end of the game (the final few battles being a string of back
to back fights!). It's no wonder that Cloud has a reputation as being a terrible character.

But Cloud isn't a terrible character. In fact, he's very solid; he just takes work. Cloud's biggest strength is his potential.
Agrais? Meliadoul? Orlandu? Give them a sword and PA boosting equipment and you'll get a character who is about as
effective as you'll get them. Cloud can hang with them all (even Orlandu!), but you've got to work for it.

That isn't to say Cloud doesn't have some weaknesses outside of being level 1:

1. He needs to use a Materia Blade to use any of his SOLDIER skills. And honestly, if you're not using him for his
   unique skills, why are you using him?
2. Even with Two Swords, the SOLDIER class can't equip Knight Swords, so that means no easy haste via Excalibur.
3. "Limit" skills target panels, not units, and the later Limit skills take a while the charge. This means you have to
   ensure any target units don't move away by the time your skill finishes (and particularly doesn't get a damage
   boost while Cloud uselessly charges a skill that will miss)
4. Cloud can't equip robes as a Soldier (No easy +2 MA boost!), and also can't use heavy armour or shields. Just
   Clothes and Hats.
5. Cloud's most expensive skills, Omnislash (CTR 15!) and Cherry Blossom (CTR 20!!), are more or less unusable,
   even with Short Charge. For comparison, Meteor is only CTR 13.

But, the SOLDIER class does have some benefits and quirks that work out in Cloud's favor:

1. The low power of the Materia Blade sucks, but Limit skills use MA, not PA, to boost their power. This means
   boosting the strength of your regular attacks (which would use PA through any sword attack, including Knight
   Swords) is largely counter to high LIMIT damage anyway.
2. Speaking of MA, the SOLDIER class offers a pretty good MA multiplier (120%) and even a decent growth constant
   ensuring a slightly better than average MA.
3. Cloud's limit skills are roughly equivilant to Summon magic, except that they ignore Faith, can't deal with height,
   and the aforementioned "target panels only" weakness. Still, Summoners are pretty dang powerful, even slightly
   'nerfed' ones. And keep in mind that ignoring Faith values lets Cloud deal a lot more damage than a simple
   equation might suggest. For example, Shiva deals MA * 24 damage before Faith, but once you factor in that
   enemies will never really have more than 70 Faith, Cross-Slash (which deals MA * 22) will end up hurting more.
4. The Soldier class has the interesting quirk that allows Cloud to equip Ribbons, like females. That's pretty random.
   I wonder why he can do that?
   
   
   
   
5. The Finishing Touch limit is powerful stuff! It's casting speed is low naturally, and has a 2/3 chance of outright
   killing or petrifying the target, and otherwise will hit them with Stop.
6. Climhazzard can be really good against bosses, dealing more damage as the boss takes more. The casting time
   can even work in it's favour, letting you sneak in a bit more damage before it goes off!
7. Seriously, between Agrais, Orlandu, Beowulf, Meliadoul, and Ramza you have spare Excaliburs just sitting around?

Cloud's LIMIT attacks charge time can be lowered with a Time Mage's Short Charge, which means you might as well
take advantage of it by throwing a magic skill in his Secondary slot. I like Time Magic the best, giving you access to
Haste (for more Finishing Touches) and Don't Move (which combos nicely with, well, everything else Cloud can do, and
makes it possible to hit with Omnislash or Cherry Blossom... but why not just Finishing Touch?). You could throw
Summon or Black Magic in there instead, but you've probably got the damage covered with LIMIT. You could use a
Samurai's Draw Out too, but you'll probably be sick of investing in him well before you unlock Samurai.

Because of the 'no targeting units, just panels' quirk of LIMIT skills, Cloud combos very well with Mustadio, who can
Leg Aim up some juicy targets.

Soldier Traits
Weapons: Sword
Helmet: Hat, Ribbon
Armor: Clothes

Move: 3
Jump: 3
Physical Evasion Rate: 20%

Abilities to get: Climhazzard, Finishing Touch

Unique Skill: Limit
Braver: Limit skill that blows enemy away with Samurai spirit.
Range: 2. Effect: 1. CTR: 3. JP: --
(A fast and moderately damaging skill. Not great, but Cloud gets it for free so. Deals MA * 12 damage.)

Cross-Slash: Limit skill slashes enemy 4 times.
Range: 2. Effect: 1. CTR: 5. JP: 250
(A pretty decent skill, but if you're taking the time to level Cloud up by punching a high-level character, you can safely
skip it as Finishing Touch is way better. MA * 22)

Blade Beam: Limit skill lets you inflict more damage depending on how damaged you are.
Range: 2. Effect: 1. CTR: 3. JP: 250
(Yet another skill that deals more damage based on your Max HP - current HP. Pretty bad, although probably better
than Beowulf's "Shock!" skill since it costs 1/2 of the JP.)

Climhazzard: Limit skill lets you inflict more damage depending on how injured the target is.
Range: 2. Effect: 1. CTR: 7. JP: 450
(Deals damage equal to a target's Max HP - their current HP. Terrible for most enemies, but can be great on bosses
as their HP is so high.)

Meteorain: Limit skill causes meteor to fall on enemies.
Range: 3. Effect: 3,0. CTR: 10. JP: 560
(You generally wouldn't use this over Cross-Slash because it's only a bit stronger, dealing MA * 26. Also: not as cool
looking as Meteor.)

Finish Touch: Limit skill causes abnormal status (Add: Dead, Petrify, or Stop).
Range: 3. Effect: 2,0. CTR: 5. JP: 670
(I've hyped this one enough, but one other good thing about Finish Touch is that it gets around those high HP
Behemoths and Hydras.)

Omnislash: Another Ultimate Limit skill.
Range: 3. Effect: 3,0. CTR: 15. JP: 900
(Hurts like hell, but even Quick Charge isn't going to make this one too useful. MA * 40)

Cherry Blossom: The most powerful limit skill.
Range: 3. Effect: 3,0. CTR: 20. JP: 1200
(Sure it's MA * 60, but you would basically need to be fighting an enemy with 4 speed or less to reliably hit with this
skill. On the bright side, between this and Ominslash you're saving 2100 JP by not getting them! Non-elemental by the
way.)



The only Materia Blade in the game (although, why would you want more than one?) can be found on top of the
highest point in Bervenia Volcano. It's a guaranteed find as long as you have Move-Find Item on, although you'll need a
Jump of 5 to reach it. Any Jump +4 class (Thieves, Dragoons and Ninjas) can reach it was an accessory boost.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

One more thing to do for this supplemental post! Presented without words, so I can push this out faster for you guys.








I disagree Adramelk.

I disagree.

See you next time!

Remember Don Corneo?

Likewise, I keep saying that Orlandu gets too much credit - give the devil his due, but no more! Cloud would be a disappointment even if Rafa were the only other special character.

These are the big ones. (The 0 vertical range on the AoE attacks is usually a bad thing, too.) Charging attacks are largely useless by the time you can recruit Cloud because characters are so fast, especially with the Thief/Flash Hats they should be wearing. If you do live to get that Meteorain off, and good luck with that, the enemy will usually be long gone. And, unlike summons (to which you made a comparison), Limit skills don't have target differentiation, meaning you can screw yourself out of a good positioning opportunity while Cloud's charging. They're all worth using just to see, and Difference -> Climhazzard completely wrecks the few remaining Zodiac bosses, but otherwise Limit is no more worthwhile than many generic skillsets. Cross-slash and Finish Touch are the only Limit skills you should use with any regularity.

The second most interesting thing about Cloud is that he's actually the perfect Nagrarock user. Train him as a Soldier while using that 50% physical block for defense, and the frogification/low damage for leveling.

Don't mind me, just bumping everything to the next page.

- Eddie

Cleanup time! The most heartbreaking part of this LP, I'm sure you'll agree. There is only one sort-of special character
left, and this time even Mustadio doesn't need to be around to recruit him.







Ha, nice one Cloud!



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

(Terror 2)

Vormav: I didn't mean to take such drastic measures, but I don't have much time
left.

Vormav: But now that the kid took most of them, it was all for nothing.

Funeral: S...Spare me...

Vormav: The wound is deep, but not fatal. If you treat it soon, you'll be ok. Now if
you value your life, tell me where the entrance to Murond is!!

Funeral: I don't know... it might be written in the scriptures.

Vormav: I'm through with you.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *