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« on: August 29, 2023, 02:55:58 AM »
FFT Fiesta Chapter 4, part 2
(priest, monk, mediator, samurai, dancer)
Some very welcome upgrades after Bethla. Flash Hats are fantastic. Black Costumes will be very useful in some upcoming fights. Kikuichimonji is nice not so much for swinging (though still an improvement) and more for its long rangel Draw Out. Only Nall has the spare samurai JP for the skill at the moment but it's something. Finally get to restock on various katanas; haven't been in a trade city since before the Colliery series. Also opt to bring my stack of 108 Gems up to 3 along with buying two more Angel Rings. Had around half a million Gil before, spent around half or so before proceeding on.
Germinas Peak
The ninja is the primary target to eliminate; everyone else is mostly shut down by Blade Grasp. I actually messed up and didn't do quite enough damage to take him out, was fortunate he only did 80 to the dancer before retreating. The enemies tended to spread out in ways that I'm not multihitting them with Draw Out or Earth Slash, necessitating taking them down one at a time. Did get one instance where I was able to tag multiple with a Kiku, very satisfying damage from priest Nall with Wizard Staff, Flash Hat, and Red Shoes. Mediator did most of the damage; spell gun, Black Robe and 81 Faith enemies lead to disgusting amounts of pain. Holy was not relevant, CTs just not lining up. The few Nameless Dances used didn't land anything more significant than Sleep but even one snoozing enemy is a decent help.
But when it comes down to it, this is a very routine "beat down the enemies without getting killed myself" exercise. Got a box from the ninja, finished fight before any other death countdowns expired.
Poeskas Lake
Maybe I shouldn't have tried to off the lower level Revenant so early as it led to an undead Archer taking the high ground to take shots at the units busting that ghost. Thus making it more tiresome to chase down that runaway spirit. Basic battle plan of beat down the ghosts then chase down the undead humans. Blade Grasp turns away the many incoming arrows. Did get a cool moment where I reflected a Cure 3 off the samurai's Reflect Mail all the way across the map onto the undead summoner, which sent it into critical and it ran away without getting to do anything. Undead oracle is sent to critical with a single Ice3 from the mediator's spell gun (boosted with Black Robe again) and joins the undead summoner in huddling in the corner. While I was able to entice one archer to come to lower ground, the other stayed up high in the enemies' starting area and was an annoying git to close in to beat down. One ghost revived but was quickly beaten down again. Dancer did some Slow Dances as slowing the undead also delays how quickly they rise back up. Summoner got nailed twice, oracle once. None landed on any archers though which were the ones I most wanted to slow down. Ironically, oracle was the last enemy to go down. It did attempt a Blind Rage, which makes a comical "too little, too late" moment and got killed before it went off. On the plus side, everyone has reached Lv 35 for the Speed point.
Gates of Limberry
Everyone gets some form of status protection, be it Black Costume, Chameleon Robe, or Reflect Mail (turns away Apanda Bio spells). Monk is female so has the Barrate. Celia opens with Shadow Stitch on Nall. (whatever, don't need him) Lede can't reach anyone for Shadow Stitch so comes down and charges Ultima on the dancer. Gunshot and a Kotetsu from the priest take her to critical and ends the fight right there.
Halls of Limberry
The three 108 Gems go on the mediator, priest, and samurai. Monk gets the Barette. Only Dancer is vulnerable to Blood Suck but with her low HP, don't expect that status to become an issue. Mediator gets Hamedo while the rest I go with Regenerator as I anticipate being hit by lots of things that bypass Blade Grasp/Hamedo. Magic Defend Up on the team. Mediator Nall sets Item. Samurai Artemis has Punch Art secondary. Dancer sets Draw Out and has a Flash Hat and Red Shoes for the added MA. Priest goes with the standard Draw Out.
Magic Defend Up on all may have been a mistake; leaving it off the dancer may have been a better option. I completely messed up on baiting Ultimas. Elmdor Muramasas the girls, confusion on the Dancer. (not good as I'm losing her Kotetsu damage) Lede Shadow Stitch on Artemis. Celia goes for Throw on Nall; gun Hamedo intercepts. My turn. Nall shoots Celia, sending her to critical. Priest Felicia launches a Holy at Elmdor for 304. Monk Earth Slashes Elmdor for 60. Confused Dancer attempts a 40% physical on Celia, whiff. Enemies turn. Elmdor offs Felicia with a physical. Lede instakills the stopped Artemis. Celia finishes off the dancer and runs away.
At this point, I screwed up. Should have had Nall Phoenix Down Felicia instead of shooting Lede. Another 60 Earth Slash on Elmdor. Elmdor and Lede gangbeat the monk. (another misstep, Hamedo would have saved her). It's a full HP Nall and a field of corpses. Have him Phoenix Down Felicia who gets an immediate turn due to CTs synching up and launches a desperation Kotetsu on Elmdor and Lede. 132 to Elmdor drops him low enough to run.
So I won but it was a messy one with so many errors on my part. Also, the rare instance of Phoenix Down making the difference between victory and defeat: the first time that's occurred during this playthrough.
Limberry underground
Preparations: Chameleon Robe on Priest and Samurai. Black Costumes on the others. Black Costume users all get Angel Rings too. Hamedo on monk and samurai; Blade Grasp on others. MagicDefend Up all around. Red Shoes on Priest. Germinas for Samurai. Nall (the Priest) also learned Heaven's Cloud.
Mistake #1: Throwing people with 3 Jump into the water is a terrible idea; they're forced to take the long way out. Should have just taken the lumps from skeleton physicals.
Mistake #2: Having the dancer open up with Nameless Dance. She gets put to sleep by Nightmare before one activates. A Slow Dance would have gone off before Zalera's second turn.
Mistake #3: Poor target prioritzation. Would probably be smarter to get undead into dead or critical rather than go for a round 1 Holy on Zalera just because it would hit in time.
Zalera has too much HP for a blitz strategy to be successful. So I went with a defensive one based around drawing lots of Nightmare and hoping for Death Sentence while wearing down the opposition. Mostly worked out, given that I still won first try, but execution could have been improved. Maybe then I wouldn't have ended up in a situation with 4 sleeping team members and only the mediator awake. At one point, Zalera drops a Confuse 2 on two of the sleeping units along with Meliadoul. Game really had it out for me because Melly,
A. Had Battle Skill set.
B. Had Head Break learned.
C. Saw fit to attempt Head Break on sleeping Dancer, connecting on the 2nd attempt. Goddammit, my Flash Hat.
That was the only broken gear too; the undead knights took a few swings but thankfully missed.
Bone Snatch came back twice during the fight. Other skeletons stay dead. Undead knights were put into critical at some point and they retreat into a corner until Meliadoul wanders close enough to smack them. All the while, I'm scrambling to keep people awake and unconfused with Stigma Magic and Esuna (first time I actually use Esuna all game) and taking what shots I can at Zalera. There was a Spell on the Samurai at one point. She has Stigma Magic for extra insult. Still, Zalera doesn't really have the needed offense to kill anyone in one shot as long as I keep HP above Flare 2 range so just keeps spamming status while I have Chakra and white magic so I have the resources to outlast a war of attrition. Dancer eventually gets turns and connects a Slow Dance or two, tilting things ever so slightly more in my favor.
After a long time, Zalera does flit over to the gravestone side of the arena. This makes me nervous as the Living Bone had dropped a crystal over there. To my horror, it looks like he'll snag it before I can get any of my units to grab it. If I hadn't landed a kill with one last Heaven's Cloud and Zalera had picked it up, I would have reset in indignation. This fight took nearly an hour and this is without any of the stalling I often do in normal play, just to give a sense of how drawn out this fight turned out.
Meliadoul is added to the roster only to sit there unused. I do have one other stop to make before plowing on. Hike back to Zhargidas for Thief Hats and replacing the broken Flash Hat just because. The random on the way there had a funny moment where enemies were bunched up for a 3 target Mimic Daravon that hits two in spite of its poor accuracy. This is also the only time I've bothered with Mimic Daravon all chapter, crazily enough. Anyhow, the other reason I'm at Zhargidas is that I want a Blast Gun and the rare battle at Germinas Peak is available now. So I'm going to invite some chemists. Set up the Dancer with Talk Skill secondary to double up on invites (the only time I set Talk Skill as a secondary all game), save, and prepare for a lot of resets.
Amazingly, I get the desired battle on the very first try. The Blast Gun chemist is present and there's a Glacier Gun and a Blaze Gun to be had as well. With Blade Grasp on everyone, I'm not too worried about getting shot up but I put up a Shell before reaching them anyways. Start up some Nameless Dance as well hoping for something useful. Both monk and dancer are using it. Only relevant status was a confusion, which was still useful as it cost them a turn to clear it. I needn't have worried about damage. With Blade Grasp and my high Brave, the gunners weren't inclined to shoot my team at all, favoring 5 damage Dashes instead. Mediators did Death Sentence my priest at 35% but that's all they got done before taking them out. Start spamming Invitation and support as needed, for both my team and the chemists I'm trying to invite. I would have been content with just the Blast Gun but I was able to successfully invite all three without the invited ending the fight by killing off the last enemy side unit. Did spend a few Phoenix Downs on the chemists and the invited also guzzled some of my Hi-Potions but the payoff was very worth it.
My formation screen was already full before the fight and I do need a slot to add the new recruits so.... bye Malak. Add them one at a time replacing each other and I have three more shiny spell guns to play with.
Didn't get a single fight on the way to Igros; too bad, I would have like some more Samurai and Dancer JP. Before entering, I set up the monk and dancer with Equip Gun and a spell gun for each.
Igros
Fly would be relevant here, if I had anyone with enough Dancer JP to grab it. Priest Nall can't really do anything at 10 Speed without eating a midcharge swordskill so he just advances. Mediator gets a shot on Dycedarg with the Blast Gun and advances under the ledge. Dycedarg uses Stasis Sword on Nall, no Stop. Monk and Dancer cannot get line of sight on Dycedarg so start up Polka Polka, intending to weaken Dyce's swordskill damage. Of all the things Zalbag can do, he decides that stealing Dyce's Aegis shield is a fantastic idea (groan). It lands but I would have preferred a physical. Knights shuffle around doing nothing of great importance. Samurai Artemis uses Kiyomori on himself, Nall, and mediator. Polka Polkas go off, hitting various knights but missing the one target I care about. Nall has enough time to get a Cure off on himself. Mediator runs under ledge and shoots Dyce again. As I've carefully positioned my team to prevent multi-hit swordskills, Dycedarg Stasis Swords Zalbag, no stop. Still no line of sight for monk and dancer and they continue with Polka Polka. Zalbag is still above 20% HP so he chases down his brother and lands his 140 physical. Knights are going after Zalbag if they can but shield evade works enough to keep him upright. He does have a fatal Charge +2 targeted on him. But mediator gets a turn before it resolves and shoot Dyce down to zero HP first. Meanwhile, Nall had locked a Holy on the same space in preparation for phase 2.
Monk and dancer switch to Slow Dance; one of them connects which is welcome. Adramelk's first turn is to nuke the monk with Holy. Nall brings her back with Raise. I just leave her at half HP and sure enough, Adramelk tries to off her with a 21% physical, Blade Grasp. As for offense, monk does more damage with spell gun than Punch Art. Samurai has bad compat so his role is to be an MP battery with Chakra for priest. Priest favors Holy if MP is in a good place and CT lines up and Heaven's Cloud/Kiku if it isn't depending on positioning. I avoid bunching up for Loss and Adramelk obliges me by going for another 21% physical on the monk. Three turns is all he gets before the barrage of spell guns and magic take him down.
Outside Morund
Another map where Fly would have mattered but still had no one with the JP for it. The non-Virgos in team 2 had a blast. Set them up with spell guns and Hamedo and bait the mediators into gunshots. Team 1, had less fun. Samurai with Punch Art, priest with Draw Out, and Dancer with Draw Out: they have issues with vertical tolerance while the summoner and geomancers have no such issues with height differences. I'd given them Regenerator since there's very little they face that's subject to Blade Grasp/Hamedo and of course, the ninja geo just has to show up with Throw, something that Blade Grasp/Hamedo would help against. Priest Luna doesn't have the JP for Kiku so when enemies do line up, I'm not in prime position to exploit it. MagicDefend Up keeps the damage from getting too heavy but there's still the matter of the priest undoing damage and status effects from geomancy slowing things down. Samurai keeps CT in sync with summoner so it was the first to go down with a midcharge physical plus some added damage. The rest kept harassing team 1 and diverting turns for recovery until team 2 could make their way over for fire support. One mediator boxilized before fight was won.
Hall of Morund (1 reset):
Yes, there was a reset here. Not because I was losing but because I'm not accepting a broken katana on a fight won in three actions. Nall is naked except for Feather Boots. Rofel walks up to swing at him, Blade Grasp. Dancer Luna goes to Rofel's flanks and Kotetsu for 132. Monk Artemis Earth Slashes Nall, Rofel, and Vormav: 96 to Rofel. Priest Ruby Kikuichimonji and the same targets: 240 to Rofel sends him into the carpet. Bye-bye Shrine Knights, no broken gear.
Underground Chapel:
Zombag will focus on Ramza above all else. It's his turn to be the samurai so I give him 108 Gems and Hamedo. Monk gets Equip Gun and a spell gun, the others already have some form of magic based offense to bypass Defense Up. Kikus and Earth Slashes take the Ultima Demon out of play before it can go. Archaic Demons aren't able to inflict casualties thanks to MagicDefend Up. They only live for one turn before going down and then I turn my focus to Zombag. All the while, he's been failing to break through Hamedo, though his evasion has also been on and none of the counter swings get through. While keeping Ramza around as bait, Threaten Zombag once and pummel him with spell guns and Draw Outs. One Zombag swing does break through leading me to divert the monk to Chakra Ramza. (Reflect Mail may have not been a good idea here) but I still wear him down decently quick, finishing the kill with a Holy when he's low enough for it to kill. May have used a Slow Dance somewhere during this but it wasn't important to the outcome.
On the way back to Dorter, I deliberately trigger a random with the goal of getting everyone to exactly 80 Brave. As a secondary objective, see what white magic I can pass on to the designated priest blue mage style. I actually get Cure 4 on the first try. Protect 2 and Shell 2 I only tried once or twice each before finishing off the enemies and moving on. That 72% hit rate doesn't help things; shameful that the "advanced" versions have lower accuracy than the lower tier Protect/Shell.
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is countered by breaking a Buckler for Harvester to dispel slow on Baal. I have over 20 of those lying around so sparing a few is no big deal. They got randomly flagged as unbreakable so none were actually consumed. Actual attempt went favorably. Opening L? Holy misses everyone. My one use of ?-Chaos rolls Palidor which lets the team dodge an attack or two. Jade tosses a Magicite when everyone was healthy at one point just because but it summons Terrato, who whiffs. No unlucky deaths from a counter + focused Ice3. Drops yet another 51 Defense Genji armor, whee.