Looking forward to this. In case anyone also has a recent Samsung phone, using SideSync to essentially play this on your PC works pretty well. And the window scales well. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Sounds like fun, I'm in to participate! I'll update my iPad to iOS 11 this weekend, and start on Sunday, October 1st. I'll leave the special rules and challenges to the pros, my goal is to finish before November ends.
Im in!!!! Just to make sure were starting this thing on the first of October right? Ive downloaded the game and will hold off. Im super excited about this and look forward to doing this as its not only my first time but also Im a huge FF fan and tactics is one of the greats.
Hey Shaun, is this part of your write up correct? Characters required for story battles aren't typically considered part of your party, right? For example, I don't think you can level up Delita in Chapter 1 at all, or Agrias until she formally joins. Guests as I recall don't join in on random battles. Once someone does join, you only ever need them again for optional battles, sidequests, or additional dialogue. The main story battles only require Ramza and your guest part members. That's really frustrating by the way early in the game. As I recall Dorter Slums has the added difficulty that you only get to use Ramza and 3 of your members, while also gaining the "benefit" of Delita and Algus, both of whom are starting to become dead weight due to levels by that point.
I am choosing the normal play through option because I am a baby at this genre and at final fantasy but am very curious to give this game another try. Downloading tonight (it's like 2:30am here) and will start in the morning after I take care of my kid..
Orator Challenge Fovoham Windmill Banged my head against the wall on this one a couple times, but bad guest/Traitor AI did me in even when I landed multiple early Entices. The AI in this game loves to go after healers first, so my freshly turned allies kept wailing on the Chocobo instead of, y'know, helping take down the boss. Realized I was getting nowhere fast, so I changed Delita to Monk and did a random battle so I could learn a new ability or two. I spread out equal measures of Mimic Daravon (AOE, literally boring your enemies to sleep with the tutorial lecture) and Insult (single target Berserk). It still took a few more tries, but the strategy of Berserking Delita in round 1 helped him do just enough extra damage to put me over the top. Fort Ziekden Much easier than the previous fight - I landed two early Entices, both on Knights, then Berserked them and watched them go to town on their own allies. I kept my distance and Threatened the boss down to 0 to avoid his counter ability, then got my own people into the fray when he KO'd one of them with a Pummel. We were down to 0 on her death counter when he finally dropped. End Chapter 1. Ramza and co. are at level 9. Playtime just short of 5 hours, a good half of which was just getting to Orator. Chapter 2 Dorter Trade City This battle is cruise control. I only took Ramza and just let the guests handle it so they could rack up some JP. Araguay Woods Again, cruise control with solo Ramza hiding in a corner. I ignored the new guest. Zeirchele Falls Back when I was in a challenge group on GameFAQs, this was a candidate for easiest battle in the game... if you know what's coming and Spoiler de-equip Gafgarion before the fight. Which I did. And sat back and watched the guests again. Zaland Castle City OK, I actually have to start trying again. A little setup goes a long way in this fight, though it can still be patently unfair. If the black mages have good compatibility with your guest, they can and will toast him before you get a chance to do anything about it. Don't get discouraged; try again and the zodiac signs, equipment loadout, and ability sets for the opponents will change, and they'll probably do something different next time. Despite only fighting a couple of random battles the entire game so far, my Orators were swimming in cash after selling off all the stuff from our Invitees. So, I bought sets of four Wizard Hats, Headgear, Spike Shoes, and Adamant Vests so I had plenty of options. Spoiler Gafgarion 's equipment went to Agrias. I made sure Agrias learned Move+1 and wore a set of Spike Shoes so she could jump into the fray early, and I threw Spike Shoes on a couple of my characters as well, so we could more easily storm the gates. Mustadio got roasted the first time we tried, but the second time, he and Agrias combined to off one of the black mages before I even got a chance to move. Good work, team. I landed an Entice on the other, which caused the Knights and Archer to panic and gang up on him. Agrias revived him and I landed an Entice on a Knight, turning the numbers in my favor. From there, my Orators ganged up on a Knight and threatened him into Chicken status while the guests picked off the Archers. I got a free Wizard Robe out of the Invited Black Mage! That made me happy - they're not buyable yet, and Orator skill success is based on magic attack, which the Wizard Robe boosts by 2. A couple more battles and I can buy firearms for my team, which will make the game significantly easier; I won't have to rely quite as much on turning enemies Traitor.
Great. I’ve played the game multiple times and I’ve been looking for an excuse to play it again. I’m going to run a two man group though with me and one other person.
"Ramza Solo: Are you tired of having fun? Want to see the true hell that Final Fantasy Tactics can be? Well then, you might be looking for the Ramza Solo run. This is just what it sounds like: you, Ramza, the occasional mandatory guest character, and a whole lot of bad guys to take down. You can beef up your Ramza as you like, but you can't bring any other characters into a fight unless the game saddles you with them. It can be done!" I accept your challenge Shaun! I figured if I have 2 months I'd give it a shot. I know I've got a low chance of success since this will be my first time (possibly) completing the game but I'm ok with failing miserably if it comes to that. So far the first real battle was an ominous beginning. Just when I was beginning to believe it was truly impossible I got some lucky breaks and got through it. It took about 30 tries so I'm not sure if 2 months will be enough.
2nd battle was a little easier. Tedious but easier now that I can use potions. I basically just attacked and then retreated and used a potion. Rinse and repeat. I doubt that this strategy will work well going forward though. There were no ranged attacks for one thing. I'm studying the abilities now to find some buffs that will make this easier. Any suggestions? The amount of options is a bit overwhelming.
Ive unlocked the first random battle stage along with Tailwind on Ramza. This is where it begins. Ive had a lot of success with Tailwind and Focus together withJP Boost for turning Ramza into a walking embodiment of death. I plan to do some grinding now to prepare for moving forward. Free tip: if you want to easy grind JP for story characters, get the purification ability from monks and find a swamp stage. Step into that poison water, get poisoned, and use purification and stand still. Get poisoned, purify, repeat. Story characters tend not to get easy grind abilities like Focus so this can net you crucial JP boosts for those characters.
In the early game, the easiest way to win as solo Ramza is probably by having him in Monk with Squire secondary. Monk has great physical attack power, several ranged attacks (Aurablast, and can't remember the new name for it, but Earth Slash), self-healing, and a revival ability that you can use to help your guests out. Having Squire as a secondary is good to have Focus to build your physical attack power, which enhances every Monk skill. Squire also gets Tailwind for extra speed, as some have already noted. Focus and Tailwind are a great way to build EXP/JP in a solo game - once your speed is high enough, you can avoid pretty much any enemy and build JP to your heart's content by Focusing. Monk is also nice because it upgrades in Speed slightly faster than other classes. You're going to want JP Boost from Squire ASAP, and keep it around for a while. Move+1 from Squire is the best movement ability you'll have access to for a bit. Auto-Potion from Chemist is a great counter ability that's available early, but make sure you have plenty of Potions handy if you're going to use it. I wouldn't worry too much about counter abilities right now, though there will be some good ones later.
Orator Challenge Balias Tor I had plenty of JP to go around since I hadn't been learning abilities for a while. Gave all of my team Mimic Daravon, and gave Mustadio Seal Arm to help nullify one of the Summoners. Mimic Daravon was the star of the show here - the Knights and Archers tend to bunch up, and I frequently had 2-3 of them asleep at any point. I Enticed one of the Knights to speed things along. Tchigolith Fenlands Normally I like to give Mustadio Seal Evil for this fight, but he didn't have enough JP. So, I swapped him to Chemist and had him chuck Phoenix Downs around while I put enemies to sleep and pounded the Floating Eye. Goug I had more than enough money to stockpile the following equipment for now and for later: five Romandan Pistols, five Protect Rings, and five Mage Cloaks. This is a mini-point of no return, so when you get here, folks, don't send any of your main team on missions... The battle itself was quite easy - now that my team is packing heat, we put the Thieves to sleep and peppered the enemy with bullets for the win. The only enemy that was a real problem was the Archer that had Concentrate, since she could get around our evasion.
Thanks for the tips. Very helpful. I picked up Tailwind, JP Boost and Focus. I figured that buffs would be the key. I just switched to Chemist to pick up auto potion. That should help a lot with not wasting a turn to heal. I don't think money for potions will be a problem as I only have to buy weapons and armor for one character. This is definitely going to take some time. I just spent about 20 minutes on a random battle. There is a lot of running around to avoid attacks while I try to get some buffs going.
I'm in. I've tried to play this game like 5 times and always get stuck somewhere in chapter 2 i think. With the advice here tho, i bet i can make it and I've always wanted to play through the rest of this.
I think I just hit your stopping point! It's a common one, especially in challenge games. Orator Challenge Balias Swale Harder than it should have been - I lost an Orator turn 2 to the Archer on the high ground, who nailed me with a critical and bonus Thundara blast off of it. (I would have nuked my Faith already, but I plan on using magic guns later and I really don't need the time commitment to use Preach several hundred times.) Luckily, Agrias got a one-hit KO off Northswain's Strike and we had good Zodiac compatibility on our side, and the bullet rain was enough to get everything dead before my KO'd Orator crystallized. I went back to Warjilis and stocked up on Green Berets before moving on to the next battle. Speed is going to be my friend... so much so that I *might* have to stop and level to 18 to get my next Speed point. But I'm only level 12, so I'd really rather not. We'll see... Golgollada Gallows, A.K.A. Golgorand Execution Site Hoo boy. This one is a doozy, as always. I'm currently starting my third attempt. Thankfully, the enemy leader on this map is susceptible to Sleep, so I can juggle him easily enough with Mimic Daravon. The problem is that his mooks outnumber me pretty badly and the only healing I have access to is either (A) kill them and hope for crystals or (B) turn them Traitor and hope they have Item secondary. Haven't quite landed enough Entice hits to get through this yet, but some combination of Sleep and Traitor is going to carry me through eventually.
All of this is good. Auto Potion especially as a reaction ability is clutch. Id also mention that something worth trying would be turning Ramza into a master magician with the arithmetic ability. This will not be trivial to do, especially solo. But if you have a good set of armor and weapons with JP boost/Tailwind/Focus you can with patience master each magic class in one battle and aritmetician in one battle. That last one will be tough because youll start sooooooo slowly as an aritmetician, but if you can sustain yourself with auto potion tailwind will eventually make you unstoppable. Im mentioning this as any class with Arithmetic, enough magic, and an elemental absorb armor/item can turn into a one man army capable of ending some battles in a single shot.
With patience is kind of underselling it, some of the magic classes take 8000+ JP to master. I would like to elaborate on something Dr. Traveler said - there are several battles where your equipment means more to your success than anything. You'll want to at least unlock Geomancer, for example - they have the widest variety of equipment potential for nullifying elements and status effects. But if you're spending time in solo Monk, that won't be an issue.
