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

Yeah, it amazes just how many technical details that affect the littlest things there are in the game. It's why I vastly prefer FFT over the two Advance games, since they just add that much more to the experience even if they are pretty minor.

does this work on the PSP?

Dunno, but I doubt it.

It was fixed.

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

Cellar of Sand Mouse

(Scene: Kidnapping Marquis Elmdor has turned out to be
disastrous to the Death Corps' cause. It has divided its
members, hurt their image, and has brought the full wrath
of the Hokuten down upon them. As a pair of lookouts keep
watch, the group of men guarding the Marquis discuss
their options...)



Archer: So I heard. What's going to happen to us?



Knight: Exactly. If we get a ransom for the Marquis like
Gustav planned, we can get outta this misery.

(One of the knights on watch becomes startled.)

Guard: Oh, God!! The Hokuten!!

(Ramza and the Hadouken Knights spread in and around
the building they're in.)



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

Welcome back to Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics! Cellar of Sand Mouse (whatever happened to "Sand Rat Cellar"?) is
refreshingly easy after the brutal time most players will have trying to beat Dorter Slums with minimal losses. No wacky
heights or wacky black mages means this is more or less a straight forward fight, and a quick one at that.

This fight has you split your units off into two small groups, with Delita accompanying group 1, and Algus going with
group 2. Given the choice, put a heavy hitter in group 1, and a unit that can hit multiple units in group 2, for reasons
which will become readily apparent: almost the entire enemy force can be trapped inside the building by plugging the
two exits!



Algus does a nice job of plugging that doorway up for us. The unit's presence there is enough to stupidify the enemy AI
into sitting around just outside, waiting for an opportunity to break through. If Algus doesn't end up cooperating with
you and refuses to block a door, you can use one of your own units instead.

The only enemy unit likely to have any sort of a ranged attack is the enemy Archer: the rest will be forced to try and
fight you two or three on one. Throw Stone would be your biggest worry, as it could knock your unit out of place.
Otherwise, any unit that can heal itself (probably via potions). You don't need to block the exit close to where Group
1/Delita starts as stupid (smart?) AI will prevent them all from running for the only exit, preferring to stand around to be
picked off.

It's very much nice to have the terrain more or less on your side for this map after the hell that is Dorter Slums.



With Junk (Oracle) and Jessica (Black Mage) just outside the walls, their bunched up units are perfect targets for
magic. Jessica is still exclusively using Bolt, while Junk tries targeting to give them "darkness" status with Blind. Junk's
low Faith usually makes his chance to "hit" a coin flip, but good zodiac compatibility ensures at least one enemy is
taking a penalty to hit.

Very early on, Jessica takes the opportunity to target just inside the door frame that Algus is guarding, and manages to
nail three enemy units with a powerful bolt of lightning. And uh, Algus. She knocks him unconscious.



But this is actually a great move! While units can step through fallen enemies/comrades, a unit cannot end their move
on a square that is being occupied by a dying unit! with Tabitha juuuust on the other side of the door, the Knights and
Monks have no way of getting into a position to attack her! The Knights waste their turns guarding in retaliation. This
allows Jessica to continuing cutting them down with her Bolt spells, completely safe from every enemy unit but the
Archer.

The bodies are piling up! We better get into our next class quick!

Knight

Knights are a very solid class, even into the late game. Their "Break" abilities either destroy equipment or lower enemy
stats, either of which can occasionally be more useful than dealing damage straight. Battle Skill works wonderfully when
paired with a ranged weapon like a Bow or Gun, and is one of the most useful skill sets in the game for drawing out a
battle (via Speed Break and Power Break) to nab Crystals and/or JP. They have excellent PA growth, and the ability to
equip the heavy armor means their HP will be amongst your highest. Shields are awesome, and best of all: they can
equip Knight Swords!

Knight Swords, even if we won't be seeing them for some time, are amongst the most powerful weapons in the game.
This is the ONLY basic class that can equip em; not even their Equip Sword ability will let them pick up with a different
class (basic swords only!).

You can use the various item breaks to increase the chance that a particular item drops from an enemy as well.
Assuming a non-monster unit doesn't turn into a crystal, the item that drops is chosen randomly from the equipment
that the unit was wearing. Breaking the stuff you don't want will increase your odds of getting (for example) any
accessory they might be wearing. Of course, stealing it with the Thief skill set is probably easier, but...

The Knights biggest weakness is that they lack any form of a ranged attack. Their piss poor MA means that your best
bet is to pair it with a skill set like the Monk's (Punch Art) or the Ninja's (Throw).

Their reaction ability, Weapon Guard, is kind of odd so let me explain it here instead of in the comments below. Every
weapon has an "evasion" value that you can see when you equip it (it's the second number listed after the weapon's
attack power in your status screen, listed as a percentage). That number only come into play when you have Weapon
Guard equipped! There are better reaction abilities, but Weapon Guard is cheap, and with the right weapon, can be
incredibly effective.



Skill Guide:
All abilities under the "Battle Skill" set have a range equal to the range of the weapon you have equipped. This means
that swords and Staffs will have a range of only one, but a weapon like a Bow can use this skill set on anyone within
its firing range.

Knight Traits:
Prerequisite: Lv. 2 Squire
Weapons: Sword, Knight Sword, Shield
Helmet: Armored Helmet
Armor: Armor, Robe

Move: 3
Jump: 3
Physical Evasion Rate: 10%

Abilities to get: Weapon Break, Speed Break, Weapon Guard, Equip Sword.

Class Skill: Battle Skill
Head Break: Used to destroy item equipped on enemy's head.
Range: Weapon. Effect: 0. CT: Now. JP: 300.
(The least useful of the break skills. You can skip this one.)

Armor Break: Used to destroy item equipped on enemy's chest.
Range: Weapon. Effect: 0. CT: Now. JP: 400.
(Remember: Armor in FFT does not grant defense, it grants extra hit points. This skill is therefore much more useful
on units that can wear heavier armor - Knights, Lancers, Samurai - than mages.)

Shield Break: Used to destroy equipped shield of enemy.
Range: Weapon. Effect: 0. CT: Now. JP: 300.
(Shields are an easy way to boost evasion; destroying them is therefore a very effective tactic against some
enemies.)

Weapon Break: Used to destroy equipped weapon of enemy.
Range: Weapon. Effect: 0. CT: Now. JP: 400.
(Most physical units become kittens once their weapon is destroyed. Just check to make sure they don't have the
Monk's 'Marital Arts' support ability. Some of the special enemies you fight cannot use their abilities without a weapon
in their hand, so this can be a quick way of neutering them.)



Magic Break: Diminishes enemy's MP.
Range: Weapon. Effect: 0. CT: Now. JP: 250.
(Incredibly situational. Most enemies don't live long enough to expend their entire MP pool anyway.)

Speed Break: Diminishes enemy's speed level.
Range: Weapon. Effect: 0. CT: Now. JP: 250.
(The best skill for killing an enemy... slowly. Remember that even small increases/decreases in speed can have a huge
effect on turn order.)

Power Break: Diminishes enemy's attack power.
Range: Weapon. Effect: 0. CT: Now. JP: 250.
(Another great skill for drawing out a battle, this skill reduces PA by three each time it successful hits.)

Mind Break: Diminishes enemy's magic attack power..
Range: Weapon. Effect: 0. CT: Now. JP: 250.
(Not as useful as Power Break, but some monsters use MA attacks more than PA ones.)

Reaction Ability:
Weapon Guard: Parry attacks with equipped weapon.
JP: 200.
(Surprisingly, this skill is best throw onto mages. Staves and Rods tend to have better evasion numbers than swords
and daggers do. There are some exception, but for 200 JP it's a easy way to fill that Reaction Ability up with
something.)

Support Abilities:
Equip Armor: Equip armor regardless of Job.
JP: 500.
(Can give a nice HP boost to a magic user like a Priest. However, there are usually better abilities one can use, and
Equip Shield is usually a better all around choice.)

Equip Shield: Equip shield regardless of Job.
JP: 250.
(Shields can help not only your Physical Evade, but give you a small chance to evade magical attacks as well.)

Equip Sword: Equip sword regardless of Job.
JP: 400.
(Once again, this skill does not allow a unit to equip Knight Swords. It's still an alright skill, and is incredible for many of
the special characters you can get that require a sword to be in their hand to use their special abilities.)



A small note on Tabatha here: crossbows (unlike bows, like what the enemy archer has) travel in a straight line. While
characters will fire over friendly characters/objects in front of them with a bow, crossbows can't arc, instead shooting
in a straight line (thus requiring a clear line of sight). Crossbows do have one neat trick over bows however.

Most ranged weapons have a "dead zone" that an archer cannot fire into that spreads out two squares from the
archer. Fire at an enemy that is "too close" to properly target (i.e. pick a 'red' square behind the enemy unit) and your
bolt will travel in a straight line into the enemy!



There's not much left to say about this battle, so I wanted to talk a bit about "JP Bleeding," as another supplemental
post is coming up. We're going to change a few classes before heading into the next battle, and explaining
it will explain why some of my mages have the Knight's "Weapon Guard" even though they've never touched the class.

Your characters gain JP for not only the actions they preform, but for the actions that your other characters gain. The
gain is hard to notice since it's not particularly large. Essentially, when a unit gains JP, the game gives 25% of that
value to each of your other characters on the battlefield:

JP Bleed for characters without Gained JP Up: 1/4 JP original character received.
JP Bleed for characters with Gained JP Up: 1/6 JP original character received.

Don't be concerned that a unit that has Gained JP Up "bleeds" less JP to other units, the value is actually the bleed
effect is actually identical, since Gained JP gives 50% more JP (in other words, the bleed does not factor in Gained JP
Up).

This JP however, is gained specifically in the same class as the "bleeding" unit. Thus, is Ramza gains 20 JP as a
Time Mage, than each other character in that battle gains 5 JP as a Time Mage. If Ramza had gained JP Up equipped,
he'd get 30 JP, but each other character would still only get 5 JP as a Time Mage. While a Knight won't gain Knight JP
by fighting along with an Archer (gaining Archer JP instead), he WILL gain Knight JP by fighting alongside a fellow
Knight.

The implications of this is that units can gain "class levels" via simply being in the presence of characters of that class.
Again, this JP gain is not particularly large (and since the game cuts off fractions, the effect is actually less than
gaining "25%" of what the core character is getting), but it not only gives you a head start should your unit jump into
that class, but allows you to occasionally pick up skills (such as Weapon Guard) without a bit of effort...

... at least not on the part of bleeding unit.

One last thing: A class can gain "bleed" JP even in classes he has yet to unlock. Thus, a White Mage whose Knight
class is level 1 can gain Monk JP by fighting with a Monk, and it will all be there once she finally raises Knight to level 2.



While Algus's corpse has made this fight rather trivial, we're still in for some tough fights in the future. We've got two
cut scenes to go through before our next fight. I'm going to try and devote Sunday to getting the next chapter up
quicker this time (I can't blame you Punch-Out!), so thank you for your patience!

Bonus Money: 2,200 Gil.
War Trophies: 500 Gil, Hi-Potion, Blind Knife.

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

(Scene: Inside, Weigraf confronts a frightened Gustav.
The bodies of a few men loyal to Gustav lie lifeless on
the ground, while Marquis Elmdor lays unconscious in the
corner.)



Gustav: What we need is good and a place to sleep, not
ideas! And we need it now!!

Wiegraf: You only see the present. You have to fix the
basics!

Gustav: And you think you'll do that? I don't think so,
Wiegraf. Never!

(Wiegraf advances.)



Wiegraf: Gustav, good-bye.

Gustav: Uggh.

(Ramza, Delita, and Algus enter the room as Gustav draws
his last breath.)



Algus: Marquis!!

Wiegraf: Freeze! (He points his sword in the direction of
Elmdor.)

Algus: You bastard!!!

Delita: Stop it, Algus.

Wiegraf: The Marquis is all right. Take him back to Igros.



Wiegraf: You can have the Marquis, if you just let me go...
well?

Algus: Don't trifle with us! You can't beat us!

Delita: Stop is Algus. He's serious!

(The Trio snake around the left wall as Wiegraf edges along
to the exit.)



(The unintentional distraction by the Marquis allows
Wiegraf the opportunity to escape. As Ramza checks on
Elmdor, Algus attempts to chase after Wiegraf.)





Ramza: He's all right. Weakened, but no serious wounds.

Delita: Let's go back to Igros...

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

IGROS CASTLE

(Scene: Dycedarg, furious at his brother for disobeying
orders, sits at the head of a table while Ramza, Deltia, and
Algus shamefully stand.)



Ramza: ..........



Dycedarg: Is this true, Ramza? Delita forced you to go?

Ramza: .... No, it was my decision. Not Delita's.

Delita: Ramza's lying. I was the one to....

Ramza: No need to protect me. I decided to ignore an
order!


If tornadoes were outlawed, only outlaws would have tornadoes!

Dycedarg: We Beoulves must show the importance of
observing the "law" as the Knights rule.



A man's voice: That's enough, Dycedarg.

(From the back room, a man emerges. Ramza and Delita
immediately bow, Algus embarrassingly following suit a
second later.)



A well dressed man: I know young soldiers are eager to
succeed. So were we.

Dycedarg: Don't spoil him. There's a line between right and
wrong.



Larg: You look exactly like the late General Balbanes... A
fine-looking young man. I'm sure that youthful energy didn't
come from just guarding the castle....

(Dycedarg looks at the table disdainfully.)

Dycedarg: The mission is nearly done. I'll allow you to join.



(The trio get up, and bow to Prince Larg before leaving.
Larg moves toward one of the windows.)

Dycedarg: I'm sorry.

Larg: Don't apologize Dycedarg. After all, Gustav wasn't
much of a soldier. The plan couldn't be changed after the
Marquis was kidnapped in Gallione.... Besides. He did save
the Marquis's life. They must accept our demands.



Larg: Yes, I'm counting on you, my friend....



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

to be continued...

That reminds me, I want to try equipping a Ninja with 2 Main Gauches, a mantle, Weapon Guard and Abandon. Just to see how much evasion you can get.
(Assuming that Two Swords stacks with Weapon Guard, which I'm not sure of)

EDIT: Oops, just hit me that Abandon is a reaction ability too. Guess that doesn't work. Had it in my head that it was support.

Welcome! This is just another post to show off how our group is doing. The changes aren't as drastic as the last post, but I'm hoping that talking about some of the decisions I've made will shine a light on both strategy and perhaps my own thought process.

Feel free to offer comments and suggestions!



Ramza has changed from a Time Mage into a Priest/White Mage, so he can start healing and buffing our guys for combat, hopefully allowing us to free up the amount of item usage we've had. It's a bit of a toss up between keeping his Squire "Guts" ability (using "Yell" to give speed boosts) and the Time Mage's Haste. Yell has the advantage of not using any MP, but Haste shines on the first turn, where you can potentially buff all your allies.

Of note is Ramza's movement ability! I personally feel a bit weird having Teleport at level 6, but it's going to be pretty useful. I will talk about the Teleport skill more in about two updates (we need to get White Mages done first) but it's more or less exactly how it sounds: instead of moving/jumping, Ramza will now be able to teleport anywhere he wants in the battlefield... potentially. The Battle Boots remain on the accessory slot because they improve the odds of Teleport's success!

Ramza's biggest liability right now is his MP. This is true for most casters in the early game however, so there's nothing we can do but gain levels and upgrade our equipment when we can.



Junk paid his dues as an Oracle, and was rewarded with the ability to become a Mediator! The Mediator's "Praise" and "Preach" abilities will let us slowly start to improve our characters' Brave and Faith skills. The Talk Skill abilities are Faith independent, which is good considering Junk isn't particularly devout. His brave is kind of poor too, but despite being able to pump himself up, I'm thinking of lowering both his Brave AND Faith eventually, so he really lives up to his name.

The plan, as always, it to turn him into a Geomancer. Geomancy is Brave/Faith independent, so he could us both skill sets even miserable Brave/Faith values, but Geomancers are also pretty decent at swinging a sword around, so I'm open to suggestions on which way to proceed.



Jean also changes from being a Thief into being a Monk. Jean HAS unlocked the Lancer part of his eventually combination of Lancer/Samurai combo, but we're going to unlock Samurai and probably stick him into Knight until the game ponies up Spears and Katanas for us to use.

Someone suggested using Equip Sword in the meantime, which isn't a bad idea, except that both Lancers and Samurai are rather dependent on their class weapons to operate. Samurai's class abilities are completely non-functional without them, while Lancers deal a lot more damage with their "Jump" ability with a Spear equipped. Since there isn't any benefit therefore to equipping a sword aside from gaining JP for the class, I'm going to instead raise his Monk level to 4, and then jump back into Knight for the time being.

It won't be for long, Spears appear in shops at the start of Chapter 2, and we're only 4 battles from that.

Of course, maybe I should keep him as a Monk until then for Shivam's sake.

While Jean could learn Weapon Guard, Monks gain no benefit at all while using it due to uh, not using a weapon. Personally, I think using your bare hands should be bad-ass enough to deflect weapons, but I can't complain since Jean is eventually going to be able to pluck arrows from the air and stop the mightiest of swung blades with a 97% success rate. He'll pick up the Monk's reaction ability "Counter" when he gets the JP.



Sullivan meanwhile is sticking with Black Mage for now. We'll switch him into an Oracle later; for now he'll be the Dark Destruction on the battlefield, raining hail and thunder over the unwashed which stand in his path. He's also picked up Ice 2 to compliment Bolt. Of course, as much as I love Wizards... they are kind of boring. Still, there's very little to complain about when they're so dang effective on the battlefield.

Unlocking Oracle requires Sullivan to become a level 2 Priest, which he is currently 37 Priest JP off of. Ramza being a Priest should let Sullivan unlock it (via JP Bleeding, as mentioned during the last update), and if we're lucky, any fights where Sullivan has been with Junk (as an Oracle) will give him the 200 JP needed to grab Absorb Magic, which will let the nuking continue!

He's still missing a reaction ability, and while I'd love to give him Weapon Guard, he's still missing 20 JP. I'm hoping we can bleed that in as well.



Tabatha meanwhile needs a variety of classes to help her unlock the Ninja, but we're going to rely on JP bleeding to do that dirty work for the moment. Becoming a level 4 Thief is part of it, and that will take a while relying on someone else, so we'll put her as a Thief for the time being. The plan is to go Ninja/Chemist (Chemist/Ninja would be cool, except that the Ninja's dual wielding ability does not allow you to use two guns at once), so we're going to have to eventually spend a lot of time as a Chemist.

As mentioned, Weapon Guard is not particularly effective with traditional bladed weapons. Combined with the Blind Knife, the skill is only adding a paltry 5% to Tabatha's evasion! Still, 5% of better than nothing at all.

Speaking of the Blind Knife, it has a chance to inflict Darkness status. Darkness doubles the evasion of a defending character, but this can be mostly neglected if the Darkness inflicted unit attacks their enemy from behind (I suppose a discussion about "evasion" is in order, maybe next update). In otherwise, while the effect is nice, it's not great since it's being applied from a melee weapon (giving ample opportunity to attack units from behind).



Sissie is going to stay a Monk till she masters it, probably. The Punch Out... I mean, Punch Art skill set is incredibly versatile, so there's no reason not to grab most or all of it. I've given her Chakra for now, which will compliment the number of magic using units I've got (it restores HP AND MP), as well as upping her survivability. Wave Fist is likely to be next, but I do love me some Earth Slash. Her Brave can really use some polishing, so Junk is going to be spending most of his time raising her confidence.

The worst part about Sissie is that she hits like a girl. Compare her PA stat to Sullivans: it's two lower! This is of course, entirely because the game prefers females to be using magic, and it stinks, but we'll make do.



Jessica has leapfrogged (with Ramza's help/JP Bleeding) into Summoner. The plan is to put her secondary skill set as a Calculator (which I'm pondering reconsidering given how broken it is), but for now we'll keep Black Magic in the second slot, despite the redundancy and also I accidentally learned Moogle. Whoops!. We'll probably learn Haste and throw that in once Jessica learns a few of the early Summon spells.

Weapon Guard is shining here, raising Jessica's evasion by 20%! There are a few other options we could throw in the Reaction slot in the future, but for now this is a pretty sweet deal, considered it was essentially free.

Turning into a summoner has multiplied Jessica's speed just enough that she's dropped one point below everyone else. Sadly, she'll be like this for a while, hence she'll be one of the targets I'll always try and Haste with Ramza (or potentially herself) at the beginning of the battle.




Not much to say about these two, except that I've turned them into an Archer and Knight respectfully, not only because they'll be a little more useful, but because I want to give a few of my characters a little extra Archer and Knight JP (again, via JP Bleeding). Their levels are quite low, and since you can't use them during the random encounters, they won't improve much either.

This is actually quite a big hindrance, and contribute to making Chapter 1 harder than it needs to be! Since you can't level them without drawing out the battle for their sake, and the enemy levels will rise faster than theirs, it's like taking in two gimped units every time. Boourns!

That's it for now! I continue to ask for comments and questions, I'm always worried that I may not be doing justice to the game or making this LP interesting, so your feedback is appreciated! See you next time!

- Eddie

male monk is my favorite sprite in the game. I'm all for keeping him there.

Eddie, this LP is fantastic and I love it like my own son. Maybe more than my own son. I can't wait to see how you handle some of the crazy shit that Chapter 4 throws at you, where the game seems to expect you to OHKO the boss on the first turn, or get in a very lucky Weapon Break.

Also requesting you grind random battles until you get the one on Grog Hill that throws like 12 monks at you.

I'm completely convinced that teleport is an ability wasted on mages. Monks (or ninjas with Bare Hand) with teleport are absolutely unstoppable. I'm wondering what a game where Ramza starts as a mage and pulls back into a role as a fighter with support magic would be like.

I've always wondered: Why Geomancers? They're good for learning Attack Up (which is excellent until you get Two Hands or Two Swords) but their special ability is beyond mediocre.

Earth slash.

Why even use them for bleeding? The cost of outfitting them appropriately at this point in the game is a little prohibitive, but you seem to be grinding more than I ever like to.

Funny story: I once decided to dick around, and was fighting random battles only using Orlandu.

He did not survive the Grog Hill Monk Special. It wasn't even a contest.

It's because someone requested I have one. I'm not a particular fan either.

Algus and Delita are simply using the hand-me-downs that my former Knight and Archer were using, so it's not costing me anything.

But I don't know, you might be right about the grinding thing. It doesn't FEEL like I've been grinding at all (I think I've fought a total of three random battles), but it does seem like I'm doing too well. I'll see how the next few battles go.

- Eddie

This is the way!

I think it's interesting! (Hooray, look at Bungle with all his useful advice!) I'm loving the in-depth looks at the character classes and the development of your party. I am engorged with information and it is glorious.

Geomancer is popular because it's so flexible. They can be physical or magical powerhouses. Or somewhere in between. It's fun to tinker with.

Elemental doesn't matter much. It's a free area-attack while at range. One that causes a status effect 1/4 of the time to boot.

Here's a fun setup.

Ice Brand
Ice Brand
Twist Headband
Black Robe
Genji Gauntlet

The Black Robe powers up the Ice Brands and occasional Ice 2 proc as well. A magical secondary would also benefit from the "strengthen" effect. You can switch in Power Sleeves and 108 gems to power up all elements, which might better if you want to power up Elemental for some reason or if you want to use Titan, Leviathan, or Holy. Or you can sub out the Genji Gauntlet for a Bracer and go with a physical secondary if you like.

You can get surprising power from them despite their not being able to equip the strongest weapons, or not being real mages.

also, it sucks so hard that you can't steal the genji gear in fft wotl.

I don't have anything to say regarding FFT (because I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo bad at this game), but I'd just like to say I like this LP a lot and it's helped make my not-really-even-close-to-annual attempt to play this game a lot more enjoyable (ordinarily I die a lot and then play something I'm good at). It's fun to look back on these early missions and see what people who know what they're doing did.

You kidding me? I mean, the part of me that loves sweet loot agrees, but the inability to steal it completely relieves me of the pressure of doing so. Trying to mug Elmdor turns a relatively easy fight into one of the game's most tedious, and I'm glad that it isn't even an issue.

(I guess it sucks though for those who love the challenge and have the patience to deal with the single digit success rate of robbing him.)

Loving every minute of it Eddie.

Just a quick proof reading comment. In the skills list for the Knight, you have all of the break abilities with the same description: "Used to destroy item equipped on enemy's head."

Also congrats for getting further in the game than every other LP I could find for this game on the internet. (My search consisting of the first page of results on google)

You can increase the odds. Threaten, Foxbird, or Chicken to drop his Brave, an thus eliminate Blade Grasp. Martial Arts or Attack UP to boost success rate.

Taeryn Proofreading level up!

What really? I'm pretty amused to see that I'm #3 on the Google results to "Final Fantasy Tactics LP" tho. I thought there was one started on the Something Awful LP stuff that got decently far? I remember reading the first bit of it, and remember it being a lot funnier than anything I could scrawl, but not much past that.

We'll be looting and pillaging Elmdor this LP, because why not? The magic of the internets will make it seem like it happens in five screenshots!

- Eddie

NAKEDNESS!
WHAT!
CHICKEN!

There were two, if I recall. Possibly three? Only one made it, I believe the first. All the others kind of petered out after awhile.

Thieves Fort

(Scene: Rain falls upon one of the last surviving bases of
operation the Death Corps still have. Miluda, Wiegraf's sister, discusses the grave situation with her comrades...)

Miluda: My brother.... His views are too optimistic.

Death Corps Guard: Enemy attack!!

(Ramza and the Hadouken Knights enter from the north.)



Algus: I'll stay on till the end!
We'll see about that.

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

Welcome back to Let's Play Final Fantasy Tactics! The reign of the Death Corps is drawing to a close, but what role will
they play in shaping history?

Thieves Fort returns us to a more or less even map in terms of tactics; the brunt of Miluda's forces are melee, so there
is no advantage they gain from holding up in their fort. A few ranged attackers might have been more appropriate for
them. One big advantage that Ramza et. co have on this map is that winning only requires the player to defeat Miluda,
who will come out of the fort pretty early, leaving herself vulnerable. Her shield does make most attacks against her a
little uncertain, and a pair of Priests will see to it that she doesn't kick the bucket too early, but if you're not concern-
ed about treasure or crystals, it's not too hard to simply gang up on her.

This difficulty of this map is often determined by the random abilities the game sees fit to hand Miluda and the White
Mages. With only White Magic, the Priests will happily stay in the fort, making themselves difficult targets as they heal
their allies. You'll be forced to move through the rest of their force to get to them, and in such a small space it'll be
hard to take them out with only a single character. If one of them has Black Magic, they're likely to move outside the
fort on the first round, making them easier to clobber with melee units.

The strategy is usually to try and gang up on a single unit (usually the thieves) before the priests can start tossing
Cure spells their way. Without significant amounts of healing yourself, this is not a battle you'll win with endurance, so
focus fire!



Of course, female priests are pretty apt with magic, especially when it's raining and they're using Bolt! Luckily my
Ramza being a Priest helps negate this to some degree. Taking that Priest out become a priority! I don't want to give
her the opportunity to nail more than Algus with it! On the bright side, it kept Miluda and the Thieves back for an extra
turn, since they didn't want to move next to the Algus (and subsequently get fried).

Junk is going to start the long and difficult task of raising our stats! As you'll see, the chance of success is nothing
spectacular; having good zodiac compatibility is a big help here. As a reminder, units keep 25% of the Faith/Brave
change they experience in a battle, so every +4 faith points will translate into a permanent +1 faith at the end of the
battle (ditto for Brave).

I think it's time to start talking about Brave and Faith in a little more detail!



Brave

Brave affects the following:

• Damage done with your bare hands, Knight Swords, and Katanas. Higher Brave results in more damage. Most
  "basic" monster attacks are affected by Brave as well.
• The chance MOST reaction abilities will trigger, the exceptions being the Knight's Weapon Guard and Ninja's
  Abandon. Every other reaction ability will have a chance of activating when the conditions are met equal to your
  Brave value.
• How likely you are to find an item on the ground when using Move-Find Item. Higher Brave LOWERS the chance
  you'll find an item, instead encountering a trap. This is the only real reason to have a low Brave!

Brave values can go from 1 to 100 in battle, but outside battle can only go from 6 to 97. A unit with less than 10 Brave
gains "Chicken" Status! This causes the unit to turn into a Chicken, take extra damage, and be unable to to anything
but run around with their head between their legs. They will gain 1 Brave each turn until they hit 10 Brave, and which
time they'll revert to normal (albeit, with a 10 Brave).

Faith

Faith helps determine the effect of nearly all magical attacks. Higher Faith increases the damage and healing you cause
AND receive, as well as increases the chance of status effect magic, both when inflicting and when being inflicted.
Thus, magic works best when cast from a high faith unit against another high faith unit, and works worst when a low
faith unit uses magic on another low faith unit.

Faith values can go from 1 to 100 in battle, but outside value the maximum range is 3 to 94, the exception being
Ramza, who can go to 97. The status spells "Faith" and "Innocent" cause a character to act like one with 100 Faith and
0 Faith respectively, although they do not actually alter the base Faith value.



The Extremities of Brave and Faith

Characters who reach a Brave of 5 (or lower) or a Faith of 95 (or above) will leave permanently after battle! The only
exception is Ramza, who needs to stick around the entire game. While a Brave of 3 is probably not too desirable on
Ramza, he CAN reach a permanent Faith of 97 unlike every other character (since he'll never leave. You can give him 3
Brave too, I guess if you wanted...)

(well, Guests can too, but what is the likelihood/boredom for that to happen?)

When characters start getting too close to 5 Brave or 95 Faith, they'll start complaining too you. Units with Brave
scores between 15 and 6 will start making comments about how scared they are, while units with a Faith from 85 to 94
will start getting all philosophical about how pointless conflict is, and how hard they've been reading whatever counts
as a bible in Ivalice. There is no reason to panic when you see these messages! Despite seeing them at the end of
EVERY battle, the unit is in no danger of leaving... at least as you don't lower their brave/raise their faith into one of the
high extremities.

Why have a low Brave or Faith?

There is very little point to having a low brave except for item finding, and in that case you really don't need more than
one low Brave character. Since nearly every Reaction ability triggers off of Brave, you're essentially gimping your char-
acter by purposefully going too low.

On the other hand, there are real arguments for having a low faith character; those dreaded Wizards et al. that will
wreck your average to high Faith characters are a lot easier when you don't believe that magic is all that. The lower
healing is easily worked around with items, either Chemist or other wise. Females work the best with low brave on
account of female-only perfumes they can get later in the game that give them a pair of buffs automatically, such as '
Salty Rage' (Protect + Shell) and 'Chantage' (Reraise and Regen). You can even still work with the female's naturally
high MA stat by going with classes like Samurai and Geomancer, which don't use Faith (but do use MA!) in calculating
their attacks!



Here's the list of all the classes which use Faith in calculating their attacks:

Priests
Wizards
Time Mages
Oracles
Summoners

For special characters, some of the "Truth", "Untruth", and "Magic Sword abilities" (not all!) use Faith in calculating
damage, as does several unique enemy magic (too many to list).

If you haven't played the game before, you might be wondering why I pick on Algus so much in my commentary. Well,
this battle more or less shows his true nature. While he is always somewhat zealous, his association with Ramza has
started to get to his head! I will be talking a bit more about Delita and Algus in a few posts from now, but for now we
get to see some of his noble logic put on display here. We'll be jumping into the Priest class immediately after this
mid-battle cutscene!

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



Miluda: We're human, just like you! There's no difference
among us other than our families!



Miluda: Why do we have to suffer? Because you nobles
deprive us our right to live!

Algus: Human? Hmph, ridiculous!



Algus: From the second you were born you were our
animals!!

Miluda: Says who!? That's nonsense! Who decided all
this?!

Algus: It's the Will of Heaven!

Miluda: In his eyes, all are equal! He'd never let this
happen! Never!



Miluda: !!!!



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

Priest

Better known as "White Mages," Priests are the premier healers in FFT, and are armed with a small amount of defensive
buffs that allow them to be both preventive and reactive when it comes to damage.

Priests are somewhat tricky to heal with, since their heals do not tend to be very powerful when it comes to healing a
single target (at which Chemists tend to be better). You also need to contend with enemies who will take the oppor-
tunity to jump into empty squares in the same area that a Cure spell will land.

Multi-area damage spells are powerful however, and there's no class better than a White Mage at picking up the
pieces! While their healing usually isn't strong enough to nullify the pain a Wizard of Summoner brings, they can give
you that extra turn or two to get in there and take the caster out! Their Protect and Shell buffs are also great spells to
start combat with, much like the Time Mage's Haste spell.

White Magic makes a terrific support ability on a caster class, but even a small dip into Priest to grab Cure or Cure 2
along with Protect and Shell can be decent on a melee unit like a Knight or Thief, who would might otherwise spend
their first turn waiting for buffs. Skip the middle man! You weren't using that MP for anything anyway!



Magic Skill Guide:

In an effort to create some homogeneity with the Archer list that used "Clockticks until Resolution" (CTR) versus the
game's "Clockticks/Speed" values, I'm listing everything in terms of "Clockticks until Resolution."

Essentially, if you see "SP" when you get help on an ability, the game is taking 100 and dividing by the CTR. Thus, a SP
of "25" means the spell takes 4 Clockticks to complete. Doing it that way I think probably causes more confusion than
it's worth, and I think describing them as "CTR" is easier to understand, and I'll be going back and changing my previous
class descriptions to reflect it. Thus, higher CTR = longer casting time. It scales equally as well, so a CTR of 6 takes
twice as long to cast as a CTR of 3 (as opposed to saying a CTR of 17 takes twice as long to cast as a CTR of 34.)

As a refresher, the game uses 'clockticks' to determine whose turn it is. Every character has a "CT" value that goes
from 0 to 100, and increases by a value equal to the character's Speed each clocktick. If anyone is still confused about
this, let me know! I just really felt that listing stuff as "Charge Time" or "Cast Speed" or whatever was somewhat
meaningless since a number like "25" or "10" has a hard time reflecting its meaning, particularly when trying to compare
how much faster a cast time of "25" is to "20." This way also eliminates rounding problems!

Priest Traits

Prerequisite: Lv. 2 Chemist
Weapon: Staff
Helmet: Hat
Armor: Clothes, Robe

Move: 3
Jump: 3
Physical Evasion Rate: 5%

Abilities to get: Cure, Cure 2, Protect, Raise, Esuna.



Class Skill: White Magic
Cure: White magic cures physical injuries and restores HP [R/C].
MP: 6, Range: 4. Effect: 2,1. CTR: 4. JP Cost: 50.
(It's cheap. It heals. Get it.)

Cure 2: White magic cures physical injuries and restores HP [R/C].
MP: 10, Range: 4. Effect: 2,1. CTR: 5. JP Cost: 180.
(The next level up is much more useful, curing for about 40% more health than Cure, and still maintaining a reason-
able cast time.)

Cure 3: White magic cures physical injuries and restores HP [R/C].
MP: 16, Range: 4. Effect: 2,2. CTR: 7. JP Cost: 400.
(Cure 3 is useful, but you start getting into the problem where it may not be fast enough to save a character who is
low on health, and woe be you if an enemy takes the opportunity to move close to said character specifically to be
healed themselves!)

Cure 4: White magic cures physical injuries and restores HP.
MP: 20, Range: 4. Effect: 2,3. CTR: 10. JP Cost: 700.
(You'll likely find that in most situations, Raise 2 works better. Still, this skill is awesome against the undead, allowing
you to target an undead unit and run away, while simultaneously healing any unit who ends up next to it.)

Raise: White magic revives dead units from abyss [Cancel: Dead. R/C].
MP: 10, Range: 4. Effect: 1. CTR: 4. JP Cost: 180.
(Essential for a Priest. Grab it!)

Raise 2: White magic revives dead units from abyss [Cancel: Dead. R/C].
MP: 20, Range: 4. Effect: 1. CTR: 10. JP Cost: 500.
(This skill is somewhat similar to Cure 4, but is particularly useful to cast on a unit that you know is likely to be
knocked to 0 HP before a Cure spell could be thrown on them. Target the unit preemptively and move away!)

Reraise: Divine protection. Once cast, will raise units automatically upon death [Add: Reraise. R/C].
MP: 16, Range: 3. Effect: 1. CTR: 7. JP Cost: 800.
(Not particularly useful. Reraise will essentially reset a unit to 10% hp when they die. That's not a bad thing, but you
can probably get more or less the same effect by buffing said unit with Protect or Shell to reduce the damage they
take, for less MP, and for multiple units.)



Regen: White magic restores a unit by gradually replenishing its HP [Add: Regen. R/C].
MP: 8, Range: 3. Effect: 2. CTR: 4. JP Cost: 300.
(Gives a unit 12.5% of their HP back every turn they take. A solid buff, particularly on slightly uneven terrain that
would prevent Protect or Shell from hitting multiple units.)

Protect: White magic protects units from physical attacks by covering them with invisible armor [Add: Protect. R/C].
MP: 6, Range: 3. Effect: 2,0. CTR: 4. JP Cost: 70.
(A great lead-off buff. Effectively reduces physical damage by 2/3rds.)

Protect 2: White magic protects units from physical attacks by covering them with invisible armor [Add: Protect].
MP: 24, Range: 3. Effect: 2,3. CTR: 7. JP Cost: 500.
(More difficult to use, and a hefty JP cost for only the benefit of being easier to cast on uneven terrain. Skip.)

Shell: White magic protects units from magical attacks by covering them with an invisible magic veil [Add: Shell. R/C].
MP: 6, Range: 3. Effect: 2,0. CTR: 4. JP Cost: 70.
(Protect is usually more useful, but in certain battles Shell is the superior buff to lead combat with. Note: Shell is a
very poor defense against status ailments!)

Shell 2: White magic protects units from magical attacks by covering them with an invisible magic veil [Add: Shell].
MP: 20, Range: 3. Effect: 2,3. CTR: 7. JP Cost: 500.
(I don't think I've ever cast it, but I could be wrong. Same problem as Protect 2: More MP and cast time for a slightly
greater effect probably isn't worth it.)

Wall: White magic protects units from physical and magic attacks by covering them with an invisible barrier [Add:
Protect, Shell. R/C].
MP: 24, Range: 3. Effect: 1. CTR: 4. JP Cost: 380.
(A great buff, but MP expensive and only single target. Great mid-battle however, if you can afford to spend the MP.)

Esuna: White magic cancels abnormal status with its purifying light [Cancel: Petrify, Darkness, Confusion, Silence,
Berserk, Frog, Poison, Sleep, Don't Move, Don't Act. R/C]
MP: 18, Range: 2. Effect: 2,2. CTR: 3. JP Cost: 280.
(Essential. One of the best reasons to be a White Mage!)

Holy: White magic attacks by enveloping enemy within a holy light [Holy elemental, R/C].
MP: 56, Range: 5. Effect: 1. CTR: 6. JP Cost: 600.
(One of the most powerful spells in the game, even stronger than the Wizard's Flare. The best spell to use as a
Calculator; it helps that barely anything in the game is resistant to holy elemental magic! On the downside, expensive,
but who cares!)



Reaction Ability:
Regenerator: Receive Regen when attacked.
JP Cost: 400.
(This can be an alright reaction ability; who doesn't like Regen status, undead aside? But there are a lot stronger
options.)

Support Ability:
Magic DefendUP: Magic attack damage is lessened.
JP Cost: 400.
(Effectively reduces all magic damage taken by 2/3rds. Can stack with Shell, if so inclined. A rather ho-hum Support
Ability, further crippled by being only a marginal defense against status effects.)



I do want to talk about why Shell/Magic DefendUP are poor against status ailments, but we're close to the end of the
battle, and it combined with the discussion about Brave and Faith might be too much mechanics for one post. We'll
save it for next post.

I stupidly forget to restock my potions and Phoenix Downs, so once Miluda takes Junk down I'm left in a position where
I can't stick around for the crystals, which is too bad considered one of the Priests clearly had Cure 2. Jean does
manage to snag 'Steal Shield' from one of the enemy Thieves however (which is a pretty good 350 JP I won't have to
spend!). Regardless, if you're using a lot of items (like I am) never forget to check into a shop when you can! This is
the second time this has happened and it's making me sad

Miluda is a tough unit for this stage in the game, but not so tough that she can take five units on at once, especially
once her friends are down. There's a long string of story coming up, which will extend into the next update.

As always, questions, comments, complaints, and suggestions are welcome! See you guys next time!

Bonus Money: 3,300 Gil.
War Trophies: 700 Gil, Iron Sword, Bronze Shield

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

(Scene: At the fort, Miluda kneels before Ramza, defeated,
as the rain continues to pour.)







Algus: She's your enemy! An enemy of the Beoulves!
Understand? Your enemy! She's a loser. Who's lost sight of
life! Losers cannot remain alive!



Algus: Kill her, Ramza! With your own hands!!



Algus: What did you say? Are you mad, Delita?

(Delita and Algus turn to face each other.)

Delita: She's not an animal..... She's human just like us...

Algus: Are you betraying us!? You, too.....!?



Miluda: You're my enemy as long as you belong to the
Beoulves. Don't forget it......

(Miluda hobbles off to the south.)



(Delita shakes his head, unable to reply. Algus steps
forward and angerly crosses his hands.)



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

Meanwhile, at Igros, capital of Gallione...

Beoulve Castle

(Scene: with Prince Larg's troops out, a bold move is
executed by the Death Corps. Things have not gone
entirely according to plan however...)

Teta: Let go! Stop it. Let go of me!!





(A thief exits the castle, dragging Alma along with him.)



(Zalbag rushes out and knocks Alma from the kidnapper's
grip.)



Golgaros: Damn... That's it!!

(Golgaros exits on his chocobo.)



Zalbag: Yes, I know.

(Dycedarg limps out the front, wounded during the surprise
attack.)

Zalbag: Brother!!



Dycedarg: I never thought they'd come here. They're after
me.

Zalbag: Five people were killed, and Teta was kidnapped.



Dycedarg: Death Corps..... bastard.

(Dycedarg slumps to the ground unconscious.)

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

To be continued...

The Miluda scenes always get me emotional. Phenomenal job Eddie.

I never messed with Brave/Faith, or even looked at it... uh, ever actually. I'll try to do that next time around.

Teta!!! ;_;

I didn't get to say it before the next update, but I played the sand rat cellar and boy was that cake compared to the last battle. It was litterally like shooting fish in a barrel.

I'm really enjoying some of the story sprite work. When I saw the guy get stabbed, I was like, "Wow, that was kinda cool." Part of it is that I didn't have a PS1 of my own. My girlfriend did, and I played like Crash and Spyro, but that's about it. I was a Nintendo kid and I'm so used to the old Nintendo sensorship, so when someone actually "dies" I kinda flinch a little. The other part is that I just have a really big soft spot for sprite animation.

Nice work as always Eddie. I'm going to have to play more to get ahead of you again. (that is a good problem to have)

Miluda's story precipitated so much long-lasting grief for everyone. But I don't know whether to blame Algus or her --she's not exactly willing to lay down her sword, either, even at a point where Wiegraf probably would have.

But man, speaking of Algus... rob him of his purple dialogue from WotL, and he really does come off as a thug. I sympathize with Delita's view that Ramza just coasts along, spouting off high ideals but without truly getting involved in the affairs of the commoners.

(Oh, and those Thieves must have had some MAD SKILLZ to get the drop on Dycedarg the Rune Knight and wound him.)

Also, my usual strategy consists of charging gung-ho against the enemy, so I appreciate the time you take discussing the various enemy/ability configurations and the most effective strategies against them

That's "Lune Knight", dangit!

It's actually how likely you are to get a phoenix down instead of a good item. Life Drain and Spell Absorb have Faith-based accuracy, like the rest of the Oracle's spells.