Something tells me we're not in Kansas anymore... =(
After a long time and some nagging, I finally managed to -start- it! Welcome to the Laggy Fantasy Wild Arms of Oz Tactics play log! Now, with 100% more purple prose! I'm going to skip straight to Mandalia Plain, because seriously who cares about the first Orbonne Monastery fight or Gariland?
Mandalia Yellow Brick Plain - Where We Meet the Wicked Witch of Thadalfus
First, let's go over with the setups I'm planning. Dorothy Beoulve, Capricorn, 72 Brave, 70 Faith, will be a dedicated Priest/Time Mage. Will probably invest heavily in Haste/Cure/Raise/Esuna/buffs/REFLECT and Short Charge+METEOR. Considering tossing Demis on her as well, since Lion's niche would be too difficult to fill in otherwise. Past that, this should be fairly faithful to Dorothy's WoO build. Heals, buffs, hastes and will get a heavy damage spell later. Strawman, 66 Brave, 67 Faith, Virgo, will be a speed-oriented (i.e. Thief Hats, Speed Shoes, whatever I can toss him in) Oracle/Chemist, both fitting his status whore/debuffer main role, his game-best speed in-game and the fact he was the best item boy in the party. This is also due to the fact I'll need a second healer in this playthrough. Tin Man, 70 Brave, 61 Faith, Taurus, will be a Knight/Archer, most likely aiming for mobility - will probably also beeline to Ninja sometime for Two Swords, since I'll need the offense at some point - picking Concentrate for select parts should also be useful, and he also will grab Secret Hunt in the meantime - not sure if I'll beeline into Move +2, but it's a thought. He is going to be the main offense frontliner and tank - this is relevant, since half the party will be egregiously frail. Lion, Pisces, 45 Brave, 67 Faith, will be a Monk/Mediator. This is because emulating Lion's actual skillset in FFT is very difficult, but there can be a few notable characteristics that translate: the accuracy issues, the hodge-podge of weird and varied skillset abilities that can be interesting, but aren't necessarily powerful, -and- the physical game that is actually awful without using skills. Using him will be a challenge in some senses, but I'm hoping the extra statuses make a difference. Finally, the fifth PC will be Toto, Capricorn, 70 Brave, 42 Faith, a female Mime. Toto isn't a PC in WoO, however, he LEARNS TRICKS HE USES IN THE FIELD. The idea came from Female Mimes having a dog mask, and Mime shenanigans are probably the closest to LEARNING AND USING TRICKS IN THE FIELD one can get. >_>
Anyhow, back to the fight. For this, Dorothy Beoulve is already a Priest with Cure and Raise. Strawman is a Chemist, and both Tin Man and Lion are Chemists. The fight goes by mostly smoothly - the Cuar loves missing his Charm, particularly, and Argath doesn't even fail at AI. The Thief likes dodging things from the front, but by the time he decides to be a dick, the entire field has been levelled by the swords of Tin Man and Lion. Little to worry about.
The Siedge Weald - AKA Wiegraf Flora Gives Really, Really Weird Names for Her Gardens
After an inelegantly shoehorned scene that implies light lesbiancest in Oz's Castle Eagrose, we get into the game's first real fight. Levels range from 1-3, since I fought two random battles between Mandalia Yellow Brick Plain, getting Dorothy access to Time Mage (but still staying in Priest, she just got Haste there), Tin Man access to Knight, Lion access to Monk and finally turning Strawman into an Oracle, whose first learned skill is... Foxbird. This proves shockingly useful later, though, as you'll see. The roster for this battle is Dorothy (Priest/TM)/Strawman (Oracle/Chemist), Tin Man (Knight/Archer) and Toto (Squire/Chemist). Early in the fight, Tin Man gets Blinded, Confused AND Charmed in the very second turn! Uh-oh! Fortunately, Toto has Heal, which keeps the big logger healthy and able to slaughter my foes rather than my party. Dorothy opened with Haste, conveniently positioned to affect my whole squad, who begins playing ye olde mowdown. One Goblin conveniently has 45 Brave and is in reach of Foxbird, which has a 91% hit rate on him - thus, the goblin gets the glorious distinction of being a chicken for the entire battle, which is very convenient - I lack OHKO offense to the stuff here, and only Tin Man can even 2HKO enemies. While the offense spread is quite reminiscent of Oz, the KO spread certainly isn't. >_> Fortunately, Argath and Delita help a lot in the offensive end here - welcome support, definitely. The biggest scare is when Toto gets KOed by a Bomb, followed by Tin Man reaching critical after a low-health Meatbone Slash from -another- Bomb, but otherwise, pretty mellow.
Currently, Dorothy has learned Cure 2 and the Protect/Shell spells, while Strawman got Tomato Bomb Confuse Song. Tin Man's likely beelining to Move +1, while Toto is an JL 3 Squire. Lion, meanwhile, still sucks and isn't even L2.