The October-November 2017 RPG Reload Play-Along: Final Fantasy Tactics

I just finished chapter 3. Belias was pretty tough even at level 70. He ended the fight with Stone 3 times in a row so I had to Tailwind to 50 and Focus to about 35 during the Weigraf fight. Then I was able to kill him before he got a chance to attack. It took some time but it's done.

 

Right! I'm very late to the party, but here begins my first ever campaign in Final Fantasy Tactics. (Only polished off Chrono Trigger last week, hence the delayed start here.)

My first impressions: that tutorial is so flipping long, I have started it three times, and still not seen it all. I'm getting stuck in, instead. I'm sure Squeenix will hold my hand at the start, anyway.

Second impressions: I love the FMV sequences, with that pencil-shaded art. Also, after the charming but rather goofy Chrono Trigger, I quite like returning to what initially seems a more po-faced story style.

Third impressions: Oops. Sorry, comrade. Someone on my team appears to have died in my first battle, as I defend a princess. Am I supposed to do something to save you? None of my team-mates seems bothered. And oh, the battle is over. Never mind. I'll light a candle for you, I guess.

 

I really enjoy Chapter Four. It only has a few locations with a few battles sprinkled in, but it uses those well. You have a few marathon fights ahead but they all have important developments.

I'd warn you, Limberry gates will be a tough fight. I'd recommend that if possible, you use equipment that can stop charm and stop. The Marquis' twin assassins have some 100% ranged attacks that can be trouble.

Also, if Ramza is a squire you can learn Ultima during the battles at Limberry, but I question if it's worth the effort. My Ramza has it, but I literally never ever use it. Ultima is just not that great in this game.

 

Good luck! It can be tough at the start but we will all answer questions. This may be my favorite game of all time, up there with Basion and Knights of the Old Republic.

 

In the depths of Midnight’s Deep I came face to face with the holder of the 13th stone. Ultimately Ramza prevailed but was denied the Zodiark summons.

At that point only the final battle awaited. One by one the Knights fell. And step by step Ramza drew towards his final destiny....

I finished the game right at 21 hours. I’d recruited all the side characters, and completed all the side quests and optional story scenes. I’d learned Ultima, but once again failed to learn the Zodiark summons. That goal continues to allude me. Oh well.

I’ve enjoyed the play through. As I’ve said elsewhere this is my favorite game, full stop. I think I’ve played it through more times than any other. It has such a deep well of possibilities and even with what I did in this run I feel I only scratched the surface. Thanks again Shaun!

 

Congrats! Even with the little time that I've spent with this game I can see that the possibilities are near endless. Replayability is through the roof.

 

Ok so far with my solo run the hardest battle has been the very first one. Mostly just came down to luck. The second hardest is the Chocobo fight I just finished in Chapter 4. First off, why are these Chocobo's so hell bent on murdering me? Second, how do they know how to caste Meteor?!? Took about 15 tries because I had to kill the red ones before they caste Meteor as it would take me out with one hit most of the time. Brutal.

 

Yeah, Tactics is a bit upside down on some things. Ultima isn’t that great, but FEAR the Chocobos. They can be out and out terrifying. I know the battle you’re talking about. It’s like it exists to teach you fear.

There’s a random battle you can encounter that is even worse...

 

Just figured out Arithmetic works on the enemies with ???? for stats. I used it on Andrammelech. I figured his level wouldn't change much so I just tried all the multiples until one worked. I think I might be getting close to the end.

 

Finath Creek is really bizarre, yes, but since the enemies are random it can be pretty swingy. If you get a pile of yellow Chocobos, it's not bad, but if you're staring down the barrel of four Reds, that's another issue entirely.

Math skill works on everything, even hidden information. Did you spend much time in Time Mage, RHess? Using Arithmetic on Graviga would be a really quick way to kill just about anything... assuming your Faith is still high.

Glad to see you got through Limberry, I was wondering how the battle against the Undead dark knight and his backup Ultima Demons would go in your solo game, since his faith is garbage.

 

I'm about 70 JP away from Graviga. Never gave it much thought but it shouldn't be too hard to get. I'll give it a try.

Limberry wasn't too difficult. I think I was Black Mage with Arithmetic. Used Arcane Strength and equipment to raise my Magic. Holy took out the dark knight and one of the twins with one shot. Being level 88 helps too.

 

Managed to beat Belias and take tje story a bit further. I have some more story ahead now I believe

 

I finished up chapter 4 last night at just over 19 hours. I went with Black Mage with Arithmetic to maximize my magic on the last battle. Took a couple tries but at level 89, Holy hits pretty hard. The hardest part was finding a stat and multiple that would hit.

Overall the solo run was definitely tedious for about half the game, but not too difficult. The hardest battle was the first one. If you can get past that one, it's downhill from there. Just watch out for those Red Chocobos. I will say that Arithmetic kind of breaks the game. At high levels, if you find the right multiple it's a one hit kill for everything but bosses and then it's maybe 3 or 4 hits.

I've been putting this game off for 20 years and it took this play-a-long to finally finish it. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Thanks Shaun.

Here's my Ramza at the end.

 

Oh and I'm glad this was a two month play-a-long. Super Mario Odyssey is going to be keeping me busy for awhile. Friday can't get here soon enough!

 

Congratulations!

In a game with Auto Potion, Shiradori, Chemists, etc, it’s amazing it’s the Arithmetic ability that breaks the game wide open but it does. It really does.

I’m glad this is a two month one too as it gives me a chance to get back to my Dragon Quest play through. See you all in December.

 

Just realized you didn’t increase Ramza’s brave or faith. What makes Ramza so broken as a wizard is that he’s the only character that can hit sky high faith and not abandon the party. FFT has this weird mechanic where if a characters faith gets too high they may leave permanently. But Ramza can’t leave.

There’s really not much downside for raising brave too. Brave is used to trigger reactions. Shiradori plus Brave of 97 means you just absorb nearly all physical attacks with out an issue.

 

I've noticed you and falcon talking about raising or lowering faith and brave but I have no idea how to do it. I must have missed something.

 

Me too, don't even know what they are for and I have probably put in 50 hours by now, maybe more.

 

No problem. General idea: Any raise of 4 points in a battle for Faith and Brave translates to a permanent increase after the battle of 1 point. So raise your brave 12 points during the battle, get 3 points permanently after.

To raise Brave, you'll need Ramza. He can make massive gains in Brave using Shout (+10 brave) but it only targets him. For others you can use Steel (+5 brave). You can get Ramza to 97 Brave in a few battles. Brave is used for two things: Brave corresponds to triggering reactions (Brave=% react triggers), but Brave also corresponds to the percentage you get the lower tier treasures when using treasure hunter. So you want a low brave character for treasure hunting, high brave for your warriors. If a character's brave falls too far, they'll leave the party.

For Faith, you can raise it using the ability Preach from the Orator skill set. High brave corresponds to high magic damage, while it also corresponds to taking high damage. You want High brave for magic users, and typically low brave for physical fighters (though that means they'll take less in healing magic too). A character with too high a faith score will leave the party.

EDIT: I really wanted to emphasize: Faith is a double edged sword. The forumlas in the background that make magic work check both the faith of the caster and the target. If your faith is low, you can't get as much benefit from healing magics, raise spells might not work, and buffs can fail. But you also don't take as much damage from magic, debuffs are more likely to miss, and you can no sell death spells. If your faith is high, your magic gets supercharged, but you also take more damage, are easier to hit with debuffs, etc. But you also get healed more by magic, have an easier time with raise and buffs taking effect on you, etc.

I boosted Ramza's faith all the way up to 97 because I was planning to use a lot of elemental absorption along with arithmetic. But I've also seen builds for Ramza that emphasize very low faith with backups provided by Chemists (who don't check for Faith with their items). Low faith builds tend to deal their damage via physical damage and try to tank the magic they come across.

BTW: I kinda screwed myself out of the Zodiark summons because I boosted Ramza's faith. You can learn Zodiark by surviving being hit by the spell in the bottom of Midnight's Deep. Because my Ramza had a faith score of 97, Zodiark did 999 damage every single time. That made my survival impossible. So once again Zodiark was a spell I missed.

That help?

Also: Orators can raise and lower both Brave and Faith. They really are great for stat manipulation. Praise/Intimidate/Preach/Enlighten all give big enough bonuses or penalties during battle that they'll give permanent stat changes after battle.

 

Yeah that helps a lot. Thanks for the break down. It just shows how deep this game is. I think with my situation at a high enough level it might not be as important but I can see with a full party at lower levels you could really individualize your characters in this way. You could have a pure 100% Mage and a pure 100% Warrior.