HSUP B TCELES - Let's Play FF1! Again!

So I suppose Rubicante doesn't heal you to full strength before you fight him this time?

I guess he finally wised up.

I'm a little upset they didn't do a bit more with the old bosses then use their sprite and approximate their attacks. Other than some ATB trickery, they could have probably made it closer to their original fights.

(This is where Brickroad explains the limitations of the DoS engine in relation to the FFIV bosses.)

Epic update, Brick!!

Is it just me, or do the bonus dungeons like triple the size of the game? This one has an extra overworld as part of it? Srsly?

One thing I've often wondered is this: Is Rubicante supposed to be a red-head, or is he just wearing a luchadore's mask?

Red.


But as an LPer, Brick should have. You'd better not miss the Tantalus reference in the Lifespring Grotto!

I had already documented it, but hey, if you're going to be a turd about it maybe I'll just miss it on PURPOSE.

Teach you to tell me what I "should" do in my own LP.

Durn whippersnappers. Off my lawn etc.

You should defeat CHAOS.

Yeah, now what.

Now brickroad will grind the challenge dungeons for stat-ups until the end of days.

Hmmm.

Brickroad should go at least three days between updates.

♪♪ Shop ♪♪

Before going back in, we need to replenish our supply of healing items. Ethers are particularly important at this point in the game, since Zach and Percy can run their whole MP supply out with just a couple spells.

Did you notice there were no level-ups in Hellfire Chasm? That's the result of two things: the simpleton monsters there just don't give enough EXP to really matter, and abusing the lava floors allowed me to avoid a lot of encounters.


♪♪ Victory ♪♪

We manage to get some on our next visit, though!


No need to walk through the whole dungeon again, I don't reckon. Random treasures, blah blah, you know the drill by now.


♪♪ Boss Battle B ♪♪

Back on the boss floor, the boys pick a fight with Scarmiglione, the archfiend of earth. Like the rest of FF4's archfiends Scarmiglione has a gimmick... but his actually translates into DoS; you have to fight him twice.


The first fight is nothing special, so I pretty much just wail on him. He took a bite out of BlBelt but other than that it was no big deal.

In FF4 Scarmiglione's first form appears with some generic zombies. If he'd done that here I would have just had Ika melt them with Firaga.


And just like in FF4, beating Scarmiglione once causes him to come right back at you bigger, meaner, and... hornier.


Scarmiglione's trademark attack is this poison gas spell. Since it's not a fire/blizzard/thunder spell the only way to cut down on its damage is to use NulAll (which we can only access with consumable items) or to equip Ribbons. You can see what a big deal Ribbons make just by looking at the huge variance in damage here. This is why I wanted to take Rubicante down on my first trip.

The main difference between Scarmiglione and Cagnazzo? Scarmiglione uses his poison gas more frequently than Cagnazzo uses his tidal wave. Also, poison gas hurts more, to the tune of about a hundred damage.


The archfiend can't take much of BlBelt's supercharged fists, though. Our prize?


♪♪ Menu Screen ♪♪

...a consumable item made obsolete by the Protect Rings you can buy as soon as you get your airship. Yeah, this Lunar Curtain ties for Earthgift Shrine's X-Potion as the most horrendous middle finger in the game.

♪♪ Mt. Gulg ♪♪

Still to come is the fire shrine floor. Strength Tonics are pretty useful because they give Zach something to do in boss fights; like Percy and Ika he now has a way to charge BlBelt's fists'o'fury. And of course a Luck Plus is always welcome.

I'm pretty much pouring all my Plus items right down BlBelt's gullet at this point, except the ones that boost INT, which go to Ika.


Some throwaway items on another volcano floor.


♪♪ Main Theme ♪♪

Eventually we make it back to the World Map floor, with its bizarre urine-colored Ogres...


♪♪ Sailing Ship ♪♪

...and its bizarre phlegm-colored Sahagins.

The layout has changed, but the to-do list has not: find a ship, find Thule, find the airship, loot the treasure, find the exit.


Yeah, something like that.


Other than the incredible item description, there is nothing to recommend this War Hammer. Actually, that's not true; White Wizards can equip it. So if you had one along, they'd have a decent Attack option now. (Or you could just have them use one of your many, many spellcasting items instead. You know, your call.)


Soma Drops increase max MP by 5. Every little bit helps! I'll be giving these to Percy, to help fuel his Haste- and Temper-casting.


Rounding out the treasures of the World Map level, it's time to look for the exit.


Forboding hole in the ground makes ten! Next floor should be the boss floor.

♪♪ Boss Battle B ♪♪

Fourth verse, same as the first. (And second, and third.) Percy and Ika are going to get BlBelt Hasted, then stack as many Tempers on him as his little heart can withstand before bursting open in a massive explosion of pure karate.


Barbariccia's gimmick in FF4 is that she would wrap her hair around her body as a sort of makeshift whirlwind. Thus shielded she would be resistant to damage, and the only way to break it was to have your dragoon Jump on her. The fight is pretty unique in that you really cannot lose. Her tornado attack cannot kill you, only drop you to single digits, at which point your hero's Cover ability would soak up her physical hits. Concentrate on healing him and you can stalemate with Barbariccia forever.

In Dawn of Souls she does not screw around. Her tornado attack hits everyone and deals boatloads of damage.


Like the Cagnazzo and Scarmiglione fights, victory is just a matter of piling more damage on to her as she does on to you. And like those two fights there is an element of luck here: if she chooses to use her tornado every turn, you're probably screwed. If she takes a break from it to Attack once in a while, you're in good shape.


♪♪ Victory ♪♪

Happily, the weapon she drops is actually worth using. Much, much better than another frickin' Curtain.


♪♪ Menu Screen ♪♪

Zach alone can use the Braveheart, which means he takes a serious hit to his ATK. Maybe the increase in ACC will make up for it, maybe it won't, but the trade is still worth it because Percy can put his hand-me-downs to good use. Percy stays alive longer in boss fights anyway and, thanks to Haste and Temper, could even solo them if he had enough Giant's Tonics and X-Potions.


That's two bonus dungeons down, two to go. All that broken incredible shizzats I've been talking about? Yeah, the last two bonus dungeons is where you'll find it all.

But we can't get in there until we do something about the remaining two fiends up topside.

Next: "Gloves that cast Saber when used."

hee hee hee

Is there anything neat that can spawn in the Hellfire Chasm, or is it all rather forgettable?

From here, it looks like the bonus dungeons are painful, fun-free slogfests whose sole redeeming feature is new equipment... which is only useful for the next bonus dungeon.

I was wondering if I was overlooking their advantages somehow, but then it occurred to me: the dungeons are a training mode for the misery of playing FF2. Clever.

There a couple of creative levels in the next couple sublevels, but they're still nothing to write home about.

The next bonus dungeon's source game should be easy to figure out by now, and if you know anything about that game, you can probably take a guess as to the three bad guys we'll be seeing. One's a dear friend, and the other two... well, let's just say that I've got my Masamune-sporting party ready to re-start when Brick gets there because they're the only two bad guys in the game I haven't beaten and at this point I'm shamlessly looking for help.

You know, I actually recently started a Warrior solo on Dawn of Souls.

I grinded a bit too much though (the hall of giants is actually pretty decent, and I ended up with enough money to go to Crescent Lake early to get the Mithril equipment. After that the Penisula of Power was ridiculously easy, and I ended up in the 40s when I beat Lich).

So, as of now, I'm at Level 96 (I seriously gained 56 levels just going through the game. They give that much XP. I think I gained like 23 of them in Sky Fortress alone) and going through Earthgift for the first time, with only one fiend defeated and a fully equipped Knight (Excalibur, Ribbon, Aegis Shield, Protect Ring, Diamond Armor).

I'm debating which Fiend I should rip through next.

If I remember correctly, it's said by one of yellow helmeted redsuits and goes something like "All trespassers will be burninated!", give or take some words.

Yeah, that floor is horrible, especially if you don't realize the spiked spots are marked by shiny stuff.

Three? I distinctly remember four, sir!

(but only because the fourth has a really distinctive sprite and I never played the source game, it is mediocre in all other respects)

Also yeah, most of these dungeons are just drudgery, but a few of them are genuinely interesting or amusing. My favorite, for whatever reason, is the dancer level.

I always found that level with all of the broken robots to be nice.

Though really, the bosses of Healspring Grotto are just an exercise in casting Blink, powering up your attacker, and spamming Healaga.

Naturally, since Brick doesn't have a White mage, that last part is going to be slightly harder.

Yup, there are definitely four. It's also a gimmick boss in the source game, so I'd imagine it doesn't translate too well.

What are you talking about?

Gilgamesh was no gimmick boss.

Neither was Atomos for that matter.

And if you're talking about Whisperwind, I don't think Ultros counts either.

Does Zach have to paint his face blue and yell before tossing this sword into the air?

Does it really make it a gimmick boss if you only have the option of utterly abusing one of its functions?

Besides, I was totally anal about making sure my character's XP matched up when I first played that (not that it helped much, what with the party shifting that went on at that point), so I actually battled Atomos. Pain in the ass let me tell you.

It's a boss that's unrealistically difficult if you fight him normally and laughably easy if you do one thing. That's a gimmick.

I've played through the main game a couple times and done some of the new dungeons, and I got to wondering what the best party would be in Dawn of Souls.

Temper/Haste is a big deal this time around. Black Mages outlive their welcome a bit as Flare seems less crucial than it used to be, and Red Mages and Ninjas can enjoy the benefits of Temper/Haste as well as casting them. How many casters is ideal, how many targets, and is it good to have a lot of redundancy?

Monks get a lot more opportunity to show off their potential in DoS but they're still kinda flimsy. The Warrior's great defense matters less than it used to, but it's nice that he's a Temper/Haste target who's unlikely to die and put all those buffs to waste. Considering how good any decent attacker gets after repeated Temperings the Warrior seems like a better choice.

And then there's White Mages. They can't fight, they can't temper/haste, and a Red Mage is just as good at recovering HPs outside of battle, but Healaga and Full-Life are irreplaceable. My recent party of Warrior/Monk/Red Mage/Black Mage was a powerhouse but I wonder how they'll do against some of the new bosses.

Well, Black Wizards eventually stop doing massive amounts of damage compare to your physical attackers, but their spells are their strong enough to kill everything on the field, and they're godly for the main game.

White Wizards are simply invaluable. Their use in the bonus battles is to maybe cast Blink a few times then spam Healaga/buffs.

Masters and Knights simply get buffed and attack for massive damage.

Ninjas... can do the same, but I generally just have them buff my main attacker as well.

As for Red Wizards... well, they get to equip some special weapons...?

My party on my latest iphone playthrough was Knight/Ninja/Red/Black. I highly regret using the Red mage and wish I had gone White instead, forgetting the changes/bug fixes that make the White Wizard's endgame much more desirable (and irreplaceable). I mean, sure, I've still been able to beat almost all of the superbosses, but not without grinding EYEs in the Ice Cave long after I could have kicked Chaos's ass. LAME.

I've been trying to beat Omega with my Warrior/Monk/Red/Black team and I really miss Full-Life. I kind of hate to admit it because up 'til now it's been fun having such a powerhouse team, but I think the White Mage is too good in the endgame to pass up, with Full-Life, NullAll and Holy(even if Holy is kind of disappointing). I think I'd still rather have a Red Mage than a Black Mage because there's so little going on in the upper levels of black magic besides Flare.

Thinking about trying Warrior/Thief/Red/White next.

Omega?

Grab your Defender and start spamming Blink.

Same goes for Shinryu.

And I guess you might want your Red Mage spamming a healing item in case of Particle Beam. Warrior too if you have another one.