Laggy Fantasy Tactics: playthrough with screenshots

[Grefter]

I thought that it had been made consistent like Deep Dungeon has been (fix plz).

Shouldn't really badly need to solely use Ramza for it though,  you would need to strip someone down a lot even from 40 Br without doing any maintenance to really risk losing them if you weren't specifically keeping them at low Bave just for MFI.  You are already either grinding someone to control Brave levels or controlling a fight long enough get them into optimal setup, so I don't really see much argument for not doing some simple maintenance Br boosts >_>.

[Regdren]

The second Dorter battle is a lot less annoying than the first due to the overpowered guests I'm bringing with me. Penelope seems to have overheated due to repeated use in chapter 1 so I'm going to leave her on the sidelines for a while.



The fight has barely started but I like this crossbow already. I should give credit to Laggy for this; in Vanilla crossbows were entirely useless.



Slow2 here. This could have been much worse, but Agrias was the only one in the area of effect. Not that I could have known; on his turn the camera was angled so that the buildings were in the way and I couldn’t see what was going on at all.



I really wanted to try out Jump with my new lancer, but sometimes you just gotta go with what’s practical.

As befits a thief, Ramza is backstabbed to death. I had the bad fortune of being about 1 tick away from enemy turns turn so Ramza couldn’t really cast anything. All I could have him do was put a couple of Yells on Akintude.



Agrias disapproves of your conduct, good sir.



Gafgarion disapproves of your, uh, being alive, good sir.



Newly-revived Ramza turns out to be good arrow bait.



Oh hey. I've been curious about the changes to things like Haste2 and Slow2, so this is a nice find. I should probably wait until I have a better MP reserve though.



I think that works out to more than 700 per head. Who’s paying me, anyway?

[Regdren]

This turned out to be more than just a quick break and I apologize. Things have been pretty busy for me lately.

The Boco batlle is next. Being full of monsters, including tier 3 monsters, my choice for party setup is easy.









Poach until I can poach no more.

My first targets are the standard goblins. I don’t want my thieves to get confused.



Gafgarion getting confused is also kind of a problem. I have to smack him with a weak hit from Ramza to wake him up. He's hidden behind one of the trees that makes me hate taking screenshots on forest maps.



Agrias continually uses Fire to finish off one goblin after another before I can poach it. I think she's mocking me.



My approach isn't a complete failure though. I manage to poach the Gobbledegacks so I should have a couple of spare Blood Swords on the way in Chapter 3.



There isn't much to say about this battle, truth be told. Monsters have been altered to be more useful, but the heart of the game still lies with battles versus human opponents.

[superaielman]

Some of the monster fights were brutally hard in C1. Tonfa redid a bunch of the early random formations to include more humans. It's definitely worth looking at the optional battles in C4, but I enjoyed seeing fighting against stronger monsters and more humans. Definitely a fun change from FFT's randoms.

[Regdren]

Coming up: battle versus five knights. That's, um. I wasn't looking forward to this.









Gafgarion has his advanced armor, a longsword because it hurts less than his punches, and no accessory. I plan to see if I can steal an extra piece of armor or two.

Norris isn't part of my team because he's mostly built for direct damage and this isn't a good battle for that. Penelope is needed for double Frog and perhaps double steal.



Delita really should have brought Maintenance for this fight. He's almost a non-factor due to enemy Defense UP. I say almost because he managed to inflict Undead a couple of times.



Maintenance might have been useful for me too. I felt Concentrate was more necessary for thefts and I don't regret that decision. Still, this hurts. On the plus side, Penelope doesn't use gear so she's not in any danger from this sort of thing.



This probably doesn't happen often in Vanilla. Before going down he hurt Gaf enough to chase him away, which was pretty annoying for me. I did manage to steal Gaf's armor though.





It's ok, Frog has only about a 50% chance of working. Landing one is good enough.



Learning something new every day. Cure versus a zombied target bypasses damage reduction. Gotta remember this next time I fight a bunch of knights. Which will probably be pretty soon because knights are all over the damn place in this game.



Frog isn't the only useful status, of course. Oracles: the anti-knight. I should have her learn Zombie sometime soon.



Good. Goooood.



So. 22 damage from bolt 3, huh. I checked the signs and they are worst compat, so my hitting power isn't quite as bad as I thought. Penelope follows it up soon after with a better cast.



Although the battle didn't go quite how I wanted, it's still good enough. I kinda forgot just how many battles require me to deal with guests. So far we've got all of Chapter 1, and we're looking at most of chapter 2 and a big chunk of chapter 3 as well. If I could only give one piece of criticism for the game, it would be: STOP MAKING GUESTS TAKE UP A DAMN PARTY SLOT!

Ahem. Other than that, it's pretty fun.

[Regdren]

Warning! This battle has a lot of screenshots. I was hoping this forum had some kind of spoiler function so I could put the screenshots in there and make this post easier to scroll past, but I guess not. You've been warned!

Sorry for taking so long to update this thread. Real Life issues kept me busy for a while.

Taking a look at the Save Mustadio battle:

With the wall and the plateau in front of me, it’s pretty obvious that some extra Jump will help a lot.

Some of the enemies have wizard robes. I want to steal at least one of them.

Enemy builds are starting to make more sense, sometimes. I need to be careful and look at what each enemy has before I start moving. Checking compat wouldn’t hurt either.

Mustadio’s starting gun is less powerful than I remembered it. Oh well.

Between story fights I went through one careful random encounter to earn some more JP for those that need it.



Ramza is well on his way to Short Charge. I don't need it yet, right now if I'm going that route Magic Attack UP would be better. Once I get more MP to work with though, Short Charge will make summons much easier to use.



It feels a little strange to put Concentrate on a lancer, seeing at his signature attack already ignores evade. Steal needs all the help it can get though, so what can I say?



Norris is going to mainly be a healer if the battle gets tough. He has the tools for it: health recovery, revival, and status removal. If things are going well he can go offensive, of course. The MP recovery and tankiness are nice bonuses.



With the Knights and melee-happy Oracles around, I want to make sure that Pamela has good evasion. Although she mostly uses white magic, I might need some of her status magic to deal with those Knights.

Right now Penelope is asleep and everyone is too scared of her to wake her up. We'll fight this one without any Mimicry.



Doesn't everyone love escort missions? This one is especially "fun" because the survival target starts out between me and the enemy. And right in front of some Wizards too.



I know Shell was slowed down to make Shell 2 more viable, but that makes this kind of a tough situation. I guess we'll have to tough it out and hope that Mustadio has bad compat with the wizards or something.



Boom. Sparkly!



Welp, that's that. Bad mission design, if you ask me. I don't know if there's anything Laggy can do about this, but it's kinda frustrating.



My second attempt. This time Mustadio moves away so only one wizard is in range of him. He also decides to take advantage of some good compat and make himself useful, so thanks for that.



I'm gonna see if this will help me kill knights more easily. Even if I don't end up using a heal spell on him, at least the enemy can't heal him either.



If you're wondering what Ramza does for most of his turns, just look at this a couple more times.



This surprised me when I saw it on the AT list. I was certain that they were going to throw a damage spell; I've even seen Fire4 aimed at him a couple of times. That doesn't mean I'm complaining, of course.



A knight with Item and Throw item. This is the kind of tanky support that I would expect from a competent enemy. Most of the other builds on this map aren't so good, but it's nice to see some effort. X-potion is a full heal for most of these enemies so I have to fully KO them between his turns.



This seems like a good place to start. I don't want any surprises on this wizard's next turn.



Oh, you were going to throw out a Summon, were you? Pamela says NO.



That's one mission accomplished right there. -2 magic attack also makes Mustadio a bit safer.



I was hoping that Agrias might finish off this knight after the Cure 3 spell hit him but no such luck.



Oh. OH. Um. So they do that trick too. This could be a problem if their zombie knight decides to start throwing X-potions at my zombie knight.



Ramza uses an opportunity to KO an Oracle who was weakened by a gun shot.



Okay then. No X-potion bombs. Mustadio is a lot more useful in this fight than I expected him to be. I'd rather have 5 of my own party members of course, but in this playthrough my guests have done pretty well for themselves. As for norris, he can remove Undead with Stigma Magic next turn.



The rest is just cleanup, really.



Haste is probably what won the battle here, with honorable mention for Mustadio. There was a lot for me to do very fast to stop Mustadio from dying, and Haste helped me get in and put down key enemies.

As always, feedback is welcome.

[superaielman]

Yeah, Mustadio can get easily nuked in LFT. I had that happen in Vanilla as well if he had the wrong compat with the wizards and decided to be a dumbass with movement. I tend to prefer the defeat all enemies option myself.  You should try charge at some point instead of steal. Steal's nifty for slightly advanced gear and free cash, but charge definitely is a viable skillset in LFT. 


If you  want some fun, try and draw a pig for the swamp. They got tweaked a little in LFT.

[Regdren]

Putting Charge on someone with Jump seems kinda redundant to me. Both of them give increased damage in return for a delay, except Jump makes you invulnerable instead of extra-vulnerable. I might use Charge in the future, but not on a Lancer.

[superaielman]

I don't use LFT Lancers till the C3 shiny weapons come in myself, granted. Charge works well with ninjas and flails (LFT flails, man. I swear they're good, somehow)

[Dark Holy Elf]

Charge is really good on LFT (easily better than Jump overall IMO), erring on the side of being too good possibly even, but I agree that Jump+Charge isn't really great synergy.

[Regdren]

It's time to fight some hired goons. With two summoners and two geomancers, magic damage is going to be a pretty big concern. More from the summoners than the geomancers, but you never know what might happen. I am less worried about enemy lancers than I would be if they were knights; knights might not hit quite as hard, but they are much more difficult to kill.






With my new wizard robe, I decided to go all-out offense with Ramza. Haste was more important with the previous battle because I had a lot of ground to cover, but this next fight has open ground and enemies close at the start. Hopefully I can get a quick kill or two with his build.

Akintude now has Basic Skill in case their Geomancers get a lucky proc or two, and Reinforce might come in handy if there's a nasty spell incoming. Magic Defense UP should help him weather geomancy and enemy summons.

Pamela is pretty much unchanged. She will stick to the normal plan of healing if needed, inflicting status otherwise.

Penelope walked into battle with us of her own accord. Even if we wanted to tell her no, I think that would be unwise.



Mustadio moves forward with the kind of recklessness that only a Guest can muster. I'd prefer a Disable attempt over some weak damage, but I guess it can't be helped.



Geomancy. It's ranged, never misses, can hit multiple enemies, has a chance to proc status, and has no MP or item cost to use. It's still pretty horrible though. Actions are valuable, and I want more from an action than something like this.



Ramza is not impressed by your connection with nature. Good compat might have something to do with this damage, but I'm still happy with the results.



The lancer next to that unfortunate Geomancer survived just long enough to take a super-height spear attack.



Oh boy. Charging a summon. The target is Penelope, so it might not be a bad idea considering how squishy she is. I had some things charging beforehand though, and Penelope gets to move just in time. So...





Stand not in front of Penelope. The gaze of a mime is the gaze of death.

Not pictured: it takes a couple of turns, but Mustadio guns down the other summoner before she gets close enough to cast anything. I take back what I said about him.



The pictures make it look like the enemy isn't fighting back, but this isn't true. The lancers have tried to use melee on Penelope a couple of times, which I've fixed with a couple of self-targeted Cure spells. This jump is a one-shot kill, which might be a problem if the lancer wasn't the only enemy left on the map. At it is, I have prepared something for when he lands.



I was kinda hoping the first cast wouldn't be enough to kill so I could show Penelope mimicking it for a stylish end to the battle. Caster Ramza OP.  I'm afraid I didn't capture the Mission Complete screen so you'll have to take my word for it that I won.

While I'm playing through this mod I'm taking some notes on what I think of it, my likes and dislikes and so forth. My final opinion will be reserved for after I finish everything though, I don't want to provide criticism until after I have the full picture.

[Regdren]

I'd like to apologize. I tried taking screenshots of the swamp fight, but I looked it over and it just didn't feel interesting at all. I was essentially a random encounter in the middle of the story. Mimicked cure 3 was all I needed. I did draw an Uribo but Mustadio killed it in two quick shots. That thing had almost no health.

I'm hoping I can make the Goug Fight look better, at least.

[Grefter]

You could have made that work.  Single screenshot of Cure 3 going off  "Fight over" would have been pretty punchy delivery and covered it off.

So it goes.

[Regdren]

Grafter, you're right. I could have used a couple of my screen shots for a very quick summary. Live and learn.

Goug City! This one gave me some trouble at first, mostly because I wanted to run around with a thief instead of something well-suited for the fight.

A quick look at the enemy says:

Two enemy archers, one of them has a strong crossbow. I should bring Arrow Guard for Ramza. The rest should be durable enough to survive an arrow or two.

This is a rain map. I should bring a Thunder Rod and favor Bolt spells.

Their thieves are fairly fragile and have to get close to do anything. I might be able to make them overextend and put them down fast.

One of the archers has a poison bow that may be worth stealing. However my thief has worst compat with that archer so never mind.

Enemy summoners again, and in a good position to get a spell or two on me. Magic Defense Up should help.







There are going to be a lot of screenshots for this one. This is going to clutter up the thread a lot but I guess that's what happens with a screenshot playthrough.



It looks like this thief realized that Battle Skill and Steal do exactly the same thing from the perspective of the AI. Break is just much, much easier to hit. And there goes a key part of Ramza’s damage.



Mustadio, down in one. Sometimes he goes for a fist snipe before the KO, but I didn’t get anything so useful this time.



Akintude desperately needs move+2. For the time being he’s on reraise duty, which will be important once the summoners get in spell range.



Fortunately Magic Attack UP alone is enough to deliver a one-shot on this thief. Penelope gets a mimic on one of the summoners but doesn’t kill because of bad compat.



With two summons on the way, reraise on the squishier targets seems like a good precaution. Penelope gets a move between the two summons so I figure she should be able to escape the AOE. Ramza doesn’t get a move so he gets reraise priority.



Oh. It turns out that the second Shiva was targeted directly on Penelope. Well played. At least moving out of the way saved her teammates some damage.



Return Fire! Or lightning, whichever. I just barely get a one-shot on the fresh summoner. As a side benefit, his charging draws arrow fire which is handily deflected by Arrow Guard.



Charging another summon? Too bad, my Bolt casts faster.



Akintude and Norris finally get a chance to take the offensive. One archer down, only a couple of physical-based enemies to go.



After a Life spell I decide to do what I should have done earlier. Penelope has been a primary target for the enemy for most of the battle.



And not a second too soon. Quick attack gets past the mime’s formidable c-evade.



I decide to pull a little cleverness of my own. Ramza is charging Cheer Up to trigger right after Pamela’s turn, so she’ll be able to empty-poke twice. Norris also moves soon to provide a little insurance.



Unfortunately the thief mantle-blocks both follow-up attacks. 82% is sadly not 100%, and Penelope gets knifed again soon afterwards.



Pamela is forced to take down the thief manually. Penelope doesn’t get much experience for this battle, which is a rare thing.



A worst-compat punch finishes the fight.



In retrospect there are several things I could have done to make the fight easier. With distance and terrain problems between me and the enemy, melee is not very effective. Giving Norris Equip Bow and a crossbow would have helped. Magic Defense UP and Counter Magic on Ramza might have also done a lot of damage to their summoners. Keeping Penelope away from my other party members is a good thing in general. This is all okay, learning things that I can apply to later maps is one of the things I enjoy most about the game.

[Grefter]

You one shot (?) Goug which as a scrub I personally consider a bit of a meat grinder.  Looking forward to Gogolegoland execution site in a couple of posts.

And reading it back last post sounds douchier than I meant it to.  Comedy finds a way was all I meant to be communicating.

[Laggy]

Yeah I am curious, was that the first attempt? Rad if so, but I am definitely as interested in any failed tries as I am the winning one. Creator sadism and all (for all that you are remarkably good at the game and I don't expect this to come up much).

[Regdren]

If I have any skill, it's only because I study under a very demanding teacher. I appreciate the compliments regardless, thanks very much.

Good question about Goug. I did lose on my first attempt. This was because I was greedy and made Akintude a Thief. I wanted that move+2 NOW, never mind that he would run around not doing anything useful on a map like this. My second lineup was more sensible and the result was the battle above.

Grefter, I didn't think your advice came across as douchey at all. It was direct, maybe, but I never got the idea that you were being a jerk about it.

It's Saving Agrias time! We've got a split party map which should be favorable to our mime. Two knights are on the left side so I'll need some special measures to deal with them cleanly. Some status removal will also help ward off the oracles. What I brought:







The biggest change is that I removed white magic for this battle. It looked to me like Hatse and disables would be needed more urgently than healing. My plan was to have Item, Punch Art and Basic Skill deal with any problems that got sent my way.

Geronimo!



Agrias starts the battle with something really helpful, putting the enemy in on the defensive. That's doubly useful considering it's an escort mission.



Thanks to Penelope I can put buffs on both sides of the river at the same time. As usual, Haste is my best friend when I need to defend someone.



Penelope is my best source of offense on this side of the map so it might help to give her better protection than I did last time. Considering that she's only facing a white mage and an oracle right now, I don't foresee any severe problems.



Good compat, Magic Attack UP, rain, and a fresh Thunder Rod make Ramza more lethal than ever.



Penelope unfortunately doesn't have nearly as many factors in her favor. Gear and passives are starting to outstrip her monstrous base stats, though she still makes up for it in other ways.



It's not quite an instant kill but it's a kill in one action. That's good enough for me. In fact it's probably better in the long run than an instant kill, considering that Doom is a lot harder to remove than Dead.

P.S. I should quit Skype while I'm playing this game.



In response, the Doomed knight takes advantage of the fact that MA is not a huge factor in status attacks. I can't easily wake him up at the moment but that's okay, he's already pretty much contributed all he needed to.



This would be not all that impressive for Ramza is his target didn't have Magic Defense UP. Being a knight he does have that defense, but Agrias weakened him enough that this is a kill shot. With him down and the other one a dead man (not) walking, all I need to do now is finish off the flimsier targets.



Penelope finishes off her side at the same time. Akintude was fairly helpful with his own attacks but they aren't as shiny so they're not pictured here.



That white mage doing her white mage stuff. I managed to set up something in preparation though.



My plans didn't quite work out. The revival was perfectly timed so that their oracle could silence me before my Doubt Faith went off. Good for them. Agrias is having none of that, putting the Oracle back down soon afterwards.



Drain Life follows the second revival. They are quite tenacious in their attempts to survive, but I'm used to dealing with this kind of thing. My entire party had closed in and there's not much they can do anymore.



My final move is pretty clumsy but I'm not going to complain about the results.



Hi Agrias. I don't know if I'm ever going to use you in battle but sure, you can come along.

[metroid composite]

Good question about Goug. I did lose on my first attempt. This was because I was greedy and made Akintude a Thief. I wanted that move+2 NOW, never mind that he would run around not doing anything useful on a map like this. My second lineup was more sensible and the result was the battle above.

Sounds like about the difficulty we are targeting, yeah.  If you go in with a serious party, and play well, you should win.  (Excepting some of the boss fights, which might take some experimentation if you haven't seen them before).  If you go in with thieves and calculators, you might get punished for it (for all that it's probably not unwinnable).