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

Can't say I agree with that. If FFT's death system were like TO's, sure. But you have 3 turns to revive them in FFT, and that countdown factors into the tactics. Revive them now or attempt to finish the battle before they die? I think the game would be worse off if there were no potential for character death. It functionally adds another lose condition (I can't imagine anyone would willingly continue after a character bites it), but it's also far more forgiving than Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre.

Of course, if you let a character die in FE, you lose a lot less than when you let a character die in FFT.

Then again, if you let ten characters die in FE, you lose a lot more than if you let ten characters die in FFT.

[insert something about X-COM here]

I used to play that way. It was more out of being to lazy to replay a battle though.

Wizards are disposable,
Tiamats are scary,
ICE 4!

...eh, half-naked Beowulf will suffice for the rest of Murond.

Started playing FFT again, remembered this LP, wanted to remind everyone else of how fucking good eddie's work is.

Had not seen this before, read shivam's post, marathoned the entire thing in between writing a 20,000-word dissertation (write 500 words, read an update, write 500 words...)

Yeah, this LP is great.

I'm going to have to third this LP being pretty fucking awesome.

Eddie, if you're reading this, feel free to get yourself a cookie or pat yourself on the back or something.

Maybe once I finish this bloody thing.

You know what? I think I might just have an update in me this weekend...

- Eddie

Nice job with the subtle mind play shivam!

FINALLY, every time I see a new post in this thread I think there's an update, and then my heart breaks a little (except when there's actually an update, then my heart grows three sizes)

By the way, to anyone interested: I have a multiplayer online strategy RPG engine which bears suspicious similarities to this game. (Please don't sue.) It is playable, but it's buggy and in dire need of some testers who are willing to document any bugs so that I can fix it.

Mimes do not work at all, but as far as I can remember, every other class works. If you are interested, please let me know!

Good lord, there's more? I have this LP labeled "most complete LP EVER" in my head. I suspect you're going to hit 200% completion one of these days.

At least two updates with fights. One for the ending. And, if I've got any gas left in the tank, one showing off all the rare battles and any job items I missed.

So maybe 4 updates.

- Eddie

Welcome back! Degree done... must... plow... through... ending...



This is a pretty simple fight, with no particularly special tactics needed. My Ramza here is pretty typical, although the
Robe of Lords (+2 PA, Auto-Protect and Auto-Shell) would have been better in retrospect even with the loss of hit
points. Not that Auto-Potion isn't strong anyway, but when you're reducing the damage you're taking by roughly a
1/3rd (through Protect and Shell), then Auto-Potion becomes even more reliable.



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

(Scene: no turning back. Rofel's trap was successful, and without a miracle on the
horizon -- if such a thing as a horizon even exists in this dark underworld -- Ramza
may have to get used to this place.

Amongst the ruins of whatever civilization used to live here, Ramza finds another
one of Vormav's inhuman servants, and Razma realizes that he is closer to Alma
than ever before. Rofel made a huge error when he decided to drag Ramza here.

They've got nowhere left to hide now.)

(Bloody Excrement)

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




Kletian has a pretty decent posse behind him; Ninjas and Time Mages are all pretty decent units with innate Two
Swords and prospective Haste available. Any decent party should be well enough equipped to take this group on
though by this stage in the game.

Kletian's "All Magic" is basically just a best-of-the-best of magic, which is good but not particularly worrisome. As
mentioned, it's too late to return to the world map, but if you want a second Mace of Zeus Kletian has one you can
steal. Much like the one you can find in Deep Dungeon, it's nothing special, or at least nothing that a Wizard Staff
can't effectively replicate.

I was quite amused that this Samurai started with Walk of Water in the underworld.



Not that I would call the final sequence of fights in this game difficult, but this is by far the easiest. Kletian is a lot
easier than Rofel to defeat, not possessing the strong physical defense and having less HP. He even positions himself
initially in front of his cadre, and while a 10 Speed ain't bad, it's easy enough to top for most classes with a little help
from a Thief Hat. Anyone in the first group can easily reach him with enough movement, although the second group
won't have much luck without Teleport.

Rofel is more or less unchanged from when you last fought him. The hardest thing about him is getting past his Feather
Mantle, but with a mediocre string of luck you can easily beat him down. The battle is over if Rofel is brought to zero
HP, which shouldn't be too difficult a feat. While normally a Chaos Blade fueled hit should one-shot Kletian, Sagittariuses
have worst compatibility of Gemini's of the same gender, so two blows are needed from my Ramza.




To "Solo" this fight is nothing special. Auto-Potion or Blade Grasp will make you more or less immortal, particularly if the
Time Mages decide to try and fight you.

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

Kletian: We came to Death City to revive our master. He slumbers in this world in
incomplete parts.

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




You got it! You trigger this conversation by bringing Kletain to half health or less without killing him. Note: he won't tell
you where Alma is, because Kletain is a liar.

Amusing note: You still get Gil for winning these fights!

(Gil is entirely useless at this point. Not even a Gil Toss in the game to use it.)


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





(I'm sure the image editing I do to "capture" the flash in the game is completely not obvious and you wouldn't feel the need to point it out in
the thread at all.)

It's the moment I've been waiting for!

MONSTER SQUAD TIME





Full disclosure: I had planned to use these guys in the very final battle, but it turned out to be incredibly uninteresting.
Using them in this fight makes more sense, and gets to show off these units a bit.

And of course, I mean "show off how amazing Tiamat's are and how crappy everything else is". Sorry Zoidberg fans.

To recap these Monsters:



Metaneila, Tiamat: Tiamats are awesome. Ignore the fact that this one is level 83 (Deep Dungeon will do that to a
random monster), they've got solid speed, googles of hit points, and their Triple Thunder and Flame attacks are solid
gold. They act just like Rafa and Malak's skills (always firing three times), except that one shot will smoke most units,
and only very special units (i.e. big hp with bad Zodiac Compatability) will have any sort of shot at surviving two such
blasts. Oh, and they Fly.

While standing next to Ramza (who now has Monster Skill) Metaneila here will get a new skill, Dark Whisper which is less
powerful than Triple Flame, but will fire <i>six</i> times. Truly a fearsome beast.



Deashria, Dark Behemoth: My second favorite monster, Dark Behemoths are tanks, and they can clobber enemies pretty
effectively. Deashria here is a bit underleveled (well, a lot) but he can still Stab Up an enemy for great damage. Sudden
Cry deals a bit less damage, but has a 25% chance of outright killing the enemy. Using it requires the Dark Behemoth to
be on a level ground with it's target, making it hard to line up sometimes.

Monster Skill grants "Hurricane", a skill you may or may not have seen been using by those Arachic Demons that often
accomplany Zodiac Demons. It's not very good.



MALABORO, Great Morbol: yes, that Zodiac Sign is Cancer. Great Morbols (and Morbols in general) are pretty bad. Bad
Braclet (i.e. Bad Breath) is a decent enough skill, causing an small AOR Burst around the Great Morbol to potentially
cause a host of status effects, randing from mediocre to great. Tentacle sucks, particularly on this guy as his brave is
pretty much as low as he could concievably spawn with. He smokes because he is nervous.

Great Morbol's get a very unique skill, "Moldball Virus", while standing next to someone with Monster Skill. It has an
atrocious hit rate, only equal to the Great Morbol's MA (In MALABORO's case here, the chance to hit is 13%), but a unit
hit by it is turned into a Morbol! Sadly, it only works on generic units and other monsters.



Rurcipper, Mindflare: Mindflare's are fairly weak units (check out that MA score they can barely use!) but Mind Blast is
a pretty decent skill, causing an AOE Confuse/Berserk. It's incredibly annoying when the AI uses it against you.

Rurcipper here could do a unique skill called "Level Blast" while standing next to a unit with Monster Skill. The effect of
this ability is to reduce the level of a target hit by it by one. It's worthless to use in combat, but it's an important skill
to have if you ever want to make ridiculously powerful characters (combine one with a Level Down Trap).

Monsters have pretty severe movement problems in general (save for ones like our Tiamat Metaneila.

I'll level with you guys: compared to the other three, Metaneila is going to be the MVP of this fight. In fact, without her
this upcoming fight would probably be impossible. If you're using anyone who can used guns, I recommend equipping
hem with a Blaze gun if you've got it. Equipment that reduces elemental damage from fire and thunder is also a great
boon.

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

(Scene: the ruins of an ancient civilization continued to stretch before Ramza.
Before him stands a ghost. No matter; Ramza has killed ghosts before.)

(Espionage)

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





As far as I'm concerned, this is probably one of the more difficult fights you'll face in the game. The last few battles the
game has thrown at you are pretty much slugfests against human units; it's been sometime since the game has thrown
an honest to goodness monster fight at you. You probably remember those from random grinding, or possibly from Deep
Dungeon. Well, they don't generally get as hard as this one.

Let's start with the terrain first. This map is divide in half by a chasm, with your units somewhat split between the top
and bottom. The floors in this map are going to make some of your more reliable abilities, such as Chakra and Haste,
more difficult to use. Jump can be a stat that is somewhat useful on this map, although I still couldn't recommend it
over Move (Battle Boots however: still pretty good! However, Rubber Boots will be better here if you have them).

Monsters that can't fly are going to have a hell of a time walking around this map. Poor Malaboro is screwed in this
department! In fact, Rurcipper and Deashria are going to have trouble too. Deashria's best ability, Sudden Cry, is going
to be very hard to use on a map like this unfortunately, which is too bad because the opposition is pretty stacked!



Balk was a jerk last time, and he's a bigger jerk this time. Screw starting the battle poisoned, I'll take it any day over
having to face a fast son-of-a-bitch with a magical gun and Mustadio's skill set if I didn't have to face a Tiamat too.
You can steal his gun here again (it's Lightning elemental based), but you probably already have one, and unless you've
got a legion of Chemists you probably don't need another one (not that Brickroad could even steal it from Balk using
only chemists, ha!).

Balk's got a chunk of hit points (compare him to the Chemist!) and that Feather Mantle is going to ruin your day
sometimes, if Balk sniping your characters doesn't as it is. The Counter/Martial Arts thing would be pretty good, except
Counter doesn't work against melee attacks if the unit is using a ranged weapon. By this point, you've hopefully
graduated from Archers and Mediators.

His Chemist buddy comes with a magical gun too (FFT Fast Fact: Glacier Guns shoot fire. Remember?), and has a good
accessory. The biggest trouble this guy will give you is his ability to toss Phoenix Downs around on monsters you've
struggled to killed.



The Tiamat is the biggest worry in this fight. All three of his abilities are enough to critically injure your beefy units, let
alone kill outright the HP-shy ones. 530 HP is nothing to sneeze at either, as is the Tiamat's ability to fly. Tiamats have
an ice weakness, so if try and hammer them with Ice magic of a Blaze Gun to wear them down quickly. His Hydra buddy
is less of a threat, but still extremely dangerous. Triple Flame does MA * [(MA + 24) / 2] damage to three random
panels in the area of effect. But, the "area" cannot handle a single change in height... which is pretty bad for opposing
units on a map that has such broken up terrain. Do the math:

266 damage per shot (for Raodkei here; it's even higher for Musa), with the terrain likely stacking two or all three hits
on a single unit. No Blade Grasp or Auto-Potion is going to save you from that.

He's also got a Hyudra and his own Dark Behemoth, who should also both be considered threats. They hit hard too if
they roll a decent Brave, and as mentioned the Dark Behemoth's Sudden Cry can instant kill one of your guys. If you
still have Blade Grasp or Auto Potion on, then these guys aren't likely to hurt you too bad, but the Hyudra's
ability to fly behind your lines and attack your back-row units could be an issue if you're not careful.




This battle was pretty much a game of "keep my Tiamat alive and killing things". Balk's Arm Aim wasn't helping anything,
and neither was the slow speed and movement of the rest of my monsters. Ramza's "Yell" ability (from his Squire class)
was key in keeping Metaneila in the game and wrecking shit. I was determined to not have Ramza deal a single point of
damage in this fight, so that left Metaneila as the fight's superstar.

If you do want to ninja Balk to death and end the fight quickly, that's going to be tricky with his Feather Mantle.
Concentrate isn't a good solution, as even a swing with the Chaos Blade is unlikely to drop him to zero hit points, and
at that point he'll simply snipe and retreat, with the Chemist throwing some potions at him (while your unit gets
devoured by the Hydras)



Metaneilla got sniped by Arm Aim (again), but thanks to the range on Ramza's abilities he was able to keep his allies
(mostly) up by simply not moving from his spot if he could help it, which, coupled with Excalibur, meant he had plenty
of turns.

If you don't mind reloading your game, then feel free to try and all-in "move in with heavy powered hitters and gank
Balk" maneuver with either Two Swords or Two Hands (Two Hands will be more reliable at this). You don't even need to
worry too much about speed, since Balk will generally move forward to snipe someone anyway.

Deashria got ganked by the Hydra (that Triple Flame is powerful I tells ya!). Malaboro didn't stand a chance against
the enemy Tiamat. It was shaping up to be a grueling fight, since my only healer/reviver was Ramza.



Metaneilla went to line up a shot on the enemy Tiamat; I told you that their damage was ridiculous. This was 576
damage from one of the three possible shots. This wasn't a great position, but only one of the shots needed to
connect.



Nope.jpg

And the reviving game started. The enemy Chemist is annoying, but as long as the things he's reviving are far enough
away, the AI will have them briefly retreat until the enemy Chemist can heal them up a bit.

The Yell'ing I had done earlier allowed Metaneilla to get her turn before the enemy Tiamat did, and this time I could get
a bit better positioning, such that the terrain made it so there were only three possible squares that the Triple Flame
could hit.

I then messed up with Malaboro's "Bad Bracelet" attack, forgetting that it too has zero ability to hit anything that is on
a differnet plane of height than the Malaboro. Oops. The enemy Dark Behemoth then showed Malaboro why you don't
want to end your turn next to one.




More reviving to ensure that Rurcipper didn't crystallize (I was determined to finish the fight with all my monster
buddies alive), and more speed for Metaneilla, who used her next turn to gain some revenge for Malaboro.

Rurcipper even got back into the fight by performing his first useful action: confusing the enemy Hydra with Mind Blast.




Balk woke the enemy Hydra up immediately, while the enemy Hyudra got into it with Ramza (Auto Potion soaked most of
it however).

Additionally, some more revive games, each of us on our respective Dark Behemoths.

When Metaneilla takes out the Hydra, the battle finally shifts in our favour.



Even when Deashria doesn't get the insta-kill out of his Sudden Cry (and the Hydra gets a Phoenix Down), we're still in
great shape. With Ramza's speed, we can probably revive units faster than we can kill them, while their units will die
from a swift breeze. This is because Ramza's Raise spell gives them at least half of their generally beefy-monster hit
points back, whereas Phoenix Downs are only going to give a handful.

Well, never enough to survive a blast from Triple Flame unfortunately. We get some revenge by killing the enemy
Hyudra and knocking out that Chemist.

I ended up missing a conversation here with Balk, one that he has when he engages with Ramza in when he drops
below 50% health. I stole this from Tsogtsaihan Baatar but I can't make any claims to its complete accuracy:

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

Ramza: You turned into one of Lucavi's too... You'd sink that low just to live? What a
pity!!

Balk: It's pretty nice, kid. I'm finally a real human being!

Ramza: I wouldn't call selling your soul to the devil human!

Balk: I'm above 'death'. At the top of the human race. Now I don't have to endure
unjust treatment by you aristocrats!! I've won true 'freedom'! I'm a true 'human being'!
I will be treated 'equally' now!!

Ramza: A real 'human being'? Don't make me laugh!! How valuable is a 'freedom' you
didn't earn yourself? The moment 'pride' is lost, 'freedom' is also lost...!! You lost your
freedom when you lost your pride and confidence....!! 'Equality's not something you're
given! It's something you fight for!! Any 'freedom' gotten from Lucavi isn't true freedom.

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




There's not much to say after that; Balk might have a mighty gun, and Ramza might be pretty susceptible to magic
attacks thanks to his high Faith, but Balk is too busy trying to keep Deashria locked up to try and gamble that his
magic gun will trigger Bolt 3 (which only happens 10% of the time).

If it would have worked, I would have spent the time trying to turn Balk into a Morbol with Malaboro's "Moldball Virus"
attack, but as mentioned earlier, it won't work on a unit like Balk because of his fancy-smancy special character traits.

So I hit him with Dark Whispers, 180 damage a pop, six times, with zero chance of avoiding it with his Feather Mantle.



One more update left to go until the game is beaten! I CAN DO THIS. I'm pretty sure. Maybe.

Next time on Let's Play FFT: Vormav, and... !? Let's finish this game!


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













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

To be continued...

It also may inflict Sleep and Death, as I recall.

Excellent.

I, too, have just marathoned this LP, and I must now express my disappointment on two fronts:

- Bloody Strings is the best weapon in the entire game. No, seriously. In a SSCC*, there is no better weapon in the game. I will not hear any more of your anti-bard discrimination.

- Reis has the best growths in the entire game, not only putting Orlandu to shame in every single category, but possessing the highest HP and MA growth of any non-monster. (And which monster has the best MA growth? Oh, that's Reis, too.) She is also tied with Meliadoul for second-best PA growth of any playable non-monster (beaten by Mime, the Shrine Knights, Zombag, and some of the Lucavi). Want a great character? Use Orlando. Want the best character? Use Reis.

* The Bard SSCC is still stalled on Zombag. I completed the "Omnipriest" SSCC, a gameshark-only class that is identical to the Priest aside from slightly lower evade and the ability to equip anything. Bloody Strings was invaluable, despite other available forms of healing.

I don't think I hate bards that much, aside from their crappy growths...

I find it difficult to truly compare Orlandu and Reis that way; yes, Reis has better growths, but only really shines when paired with a Tiamat or Hydra (since then she can use her awesome Dragon PowerUp ability). Otherwise, she's got some middling breath attacks, including her Holy Breath attack that makes Rafa and Malak's look good. Meanwhile, Orlandu has two and a half great skill sets mushed together.

Also, keep in mind that even if Orlandu doesn't quite get her PA growth, he still does have the natural PA advantage of being male. If you're concerned about making your characters tiny gods through deleveling/leveling, then sure this won't matter, but in long term this means that (if my calculations are correct), Reis will never beat Orlandu in terms of raw PA, even if you stick her in Dragoner (a relatively poor skill set that can barely wear equipment) until level 99.

Certainly, she can make a great wizard tho.

- Eddie

I was curious about this, so I did the math...

Males have a RPA of 81920, while females have 65536. Orlandu's PAC is 42, while Reis's is 39. At level up, their RPA increases by (RPA / (PAC + Lv)).

At level 99, Orlandu's RPA is 268610 (16 base PA, or 20 PA as Holy Swordsman), where Reis ends up with 226060 (13 base PA, or 17 PA as Monk). So, yes, Reis will never cross the gender gap in terms of physical attack. Best calculator/samurai/wizard in the game, though? 26 natural MA as a Wizard? 2496 Zodiac damage before calculating Faith? Yes.

Discussing the last battle, even though your team can't reap any of the material benefits of it, using Poach here isn't too bad an idea, since it removes the enemy monster corpses from the field and prevents their revival by Balk or his chemist buddy. It works pretty well in some of the Deep Dungeon battles too, or those ones at that mine where there are a bunch of monsters and chemists.

Last time I played FFT I think I used Reis as a Knight/Dragoner. I remember it being good times. Her stat growth may cater more to a magic-based skillset, but man, if I'ma use a special character, I want to use that special character's stuff, and Dragoner was built for close-range combat.

Except for her HP.

Don't Dragoners have medium-to-high HP growth to make up for the fact that they can't equip armour? In any case, you could just load her up with heavy armour like the Maximillion in this instance since you're (Torgo's?) making her a knight.

(Personally, I opted for Lancer for reasons that should be obvious :P.)

Right. Which gives them even more HP when they're put in jobs that have high HP multipliers (like Knight or Dragoon).

The problem with getting the Maximillion is having to go into the Deep Dungeon to get it. And the problem with going into the Deep Dungeon to get it is by the time I can go get it I don't need it any more.

I am the worst min/maxer.

I would get the Maximillion but was always worried about some random Knight breaking it. So I just used the Crystal Mail or Reflect Mail instead.