Final Fantasy Dimensions - NINJAS
Are you ready for wanky edgelord NPCs? I know I am!
Alba now has access to Dancer. The main thing Dancer has going for it is that Osmose Dance takes less JP/AP to access than does Osmose, otherwise the job offers little for a solo besides bad durability. Speaking of Black Magic, not having that at level 5 (due to not having done the grind for Deep Freeze that Dusk did) is going to make the randoms here harder than they were for Dusk. The randoms themselves fortunately are a bit less good than the corresponding ones in the early parts of the Paladin chapter.
Moonlight Wood: The game talks up how this is a hunting ground and hands you a new bow right at the dungeon's start (which several enemies are weak to) so I figure sure why not. Red Mage with Counter and HP+20 probably isn't what they had in mind but it works pretty well! A number of the enemies here are also seen from Mt. Wells.
-Clouded Eagles are not as scary as Caladrii were but they still do respectable enough damage and can rarely use blind. They get 2HKOed by bow attacks which is nice.
-Tanglethorns use a lot of turns trying to paralyse me and getting trolled by my sweet red shoes. They're weak to fire so MT Fira can clean 'em up fast enough.
-Clouded Wolves are a rather vanilla enemy, they do enough damage though that I often cast Protect at the start of fights involving them.
-Juggernauts are similar. Weak to fire.
-Clouded Bears are bulky and hard-hitting and can be confused.
-Mythril Dragons are even bulkier and extremely hard-hitting and can also be confused. Still uh those hits they land on me do hurt! So I sometimes heal myself with Cura mid-fight, imagine that.
-Coeurls can use Blaster (chance of instant death), which makes them grade-A douchebags. Sleep + Confuse double lockdown is worth it here.
I have a few resets, generally either from Coeurls or Mythril Dragons.
At the end of the forest I fight a wanky ninja. It's a plot fight of course and he retreats after a few rounds. I should really count how many plot fights this game has. For now I'll just settle for saying it's too many.
Shop upgrade with L6 spells and some new gear. For now I mostly just buy a new sword+shield so I can do Backliner red mage physicals better.
Akame Valley: Yikes, this dungeon is a huge drain on my Hi-Potion supply. I actually run out once, have to retreat and do it again, and almost run out again before clearing the dungeon. Not having L5 black kinda sucks! But unfortunately I'm not that tempted to fix this lack because I really want to work on Red Mage for my ninja setup I have planned (plus getting it to L10 for an extra slot then L13 to carry the skillset are both worthy benchmarks; I do achieve both this chapter).
-Purobolos: Vulnerable to Break, doesn't like Blizzara much either, but hits quite hard with Fira. If they're the last enemy left, they're a candidate for Attune Blade spam to restore MP.
-Blood Lamias: Slap counters are kinda annoying (damage that can confuse, but I block that permanently now with Red Shoes). Weak to fire. Various status can slow them down. If they have Embrace I don't see it.
-Beligians: I have no idea why they're called this; they're horses. They double physical for decent damage, or can use Roundhouse for damage + stun. Ew.
-Devoahans: They can also hit pretty hard and are weak to fire, confuse helps.
-Wild Ogres: Hit hard, lots of HP... Mini makes them a free win though. Mini is below 100% unlike most status at this point, but good enough.
-Undertakers: Can be hit by sleep, otherwise they're really annoying, bulky and Quake hurts quite a lot.
-Destroyers: The most annoying, they're bulky and have no status holes I can use.
Casting Protect at the start of some fights is actually worthwhile since my offence isn't too strong and most things can't be petrified. Ranger, when I switch to it, does actually work somewhat better. Otherwise I sometimes use -aras, which are by now quite weak unless hitting a weakness, and sometimes use Backliner sword physicals which are somewhat better and save MP but lift confuse/sleep from enemies which are my main ways of controlling them. I sometimes run Counter too but Counter and confuse don't have great synergy.
Underwater Tunnel: Easier than the previous dungeon because petrify is back in style after a dungeon where it was near useless. That said there are some very capable enemies here too and it does take a few tries, and eats about 70 of my Hi-Potions.
-Gelatos: Mmm, gelato. Anyway, they regenerate a bunch and are vulnerable to Break. They can use Curse Breath which is kinda annoying but they mostly show up in statusable formations so not that annoying.
-Sea Flowers: They can inflict slow, the jerks. Sleep too, though this matters less. But can be petrified.
-Grand Shells: They can inflict slow and be petrified... I think I just said that.
-Poison Toads: Can not be petrified, but can be confused, and weak to ice and not too durable, so direct assault works well enough. Their firebreath is no joke, though, even though it's a MT move that doesn't focus, about 500-600 and they can show up 3 at once.
-Hoanes: Confusable. Can use silence so I block that via Scholar's Hat. Weak to lightning, not too durable.
-Leach Squids: From the previous chapter. Still hard-hitting even now. Still vulnerable to Break.
-Goblin Mages: They hit quite hard with their spells, around 1000! Confuse makes them use their (surprisingly respectable) physicals instead, and silence can shut them down more permanently. Leaving one for last = Attune Blade food.
-Mother Lamias: Unlike their brethren in the previous dungeon, they DO have Embrace (petrify). And a lot of status immunities. Know what they don't immune? TOAD. Experimentation pays off, no petrify 4 j00.
I reach Leviathan. Leviathan is a lot like Styx (a good start), hitting a bit less hard and with fewer statuses overall, but with one extra bit of annoyance: it can counter with Slow. I have no way to block Slow so this sucks. This fight is winnable especially if I use White Mage to counter Slow with Haste and am hyper-conservative with healing buuut the problem is this will probably need at least one Elixir, maybe more. And Leviathan's not really a good enough spell to justify this at this point.
Unfortunately not defeating Leviathan means there's no teleporter back, so I have to walk. This worries me a bit but knowing the enemies well and being able to take a very direct route back instead of taking all the detours for treasure makes my remaining Hi-Potion supply last long enough.
Tower of Trials: Miniboss right away. It's basically a random but I aproach it wrong.
Lesser Ninja x4 (1 reset) - They are reasonably fast and can double physical or use Shuriken for about 600-700 to the back row, and since there are four of them that can be tough. On the second try I cast Protect immediately, and use a combination of Confuse and Sylph to get them down; they're more durable than the average random but nothing super-special in that regard.
ninja plot nooooo. Fortunately Jinnai can kill himself off reasonably quickly thanks to being a ninja.
Anyway, randoms here are legitimate again, let's talk:
-Lesser Ninja: Just covered, they're pretty common here in a lot of formations actually!
-Kurohabaki: They are pretty much the "Greater Ninja"; they use a lot of ninja moves including various MT spells and Stunner (Red Shoes say hi), as well as double physicals. The bigger thing is they immune all status and have decent HP so I usually deal with/confuse their allies, get Protect up, Cura a few times if needed and take 'em down.
-Poison Toad: See previous dungeon.
-Nix: Can hit hard with magic (1100 or so) or use some status like Silence and Confuse, I block silence after dealing with this. Vulnerable to Break/Silence, or are a source of MP if needed.
-Attack Dog: Can Roar for an annoying turn-cancel. Vulnerable to Break.
-Devout: Along with Kurohabaki, the other main jerk of this dungeon. Divine Shot and Dark hit slightly less hard than Nix's magic, but they have no status holes... other than Slow anyway. They're durable enough that Slow is worth it. They sometimes cast MT Protect or Shell too.
-Helios: Like many other giants, can be Minied and thereafter can't deal damage. Not quiiiite harmless after that if they have support because they can still use Roundhouse for stun. I'm picturing tiny little versions of these guys using roundhouse kicks and it's adorable.
There are three trapped treasure chests containing some decent formations of the above but all are near save points. There's also a plot fight mid-dungeon zzz. Then...
Tobikage (5 resets) - Bascically a more well-designed version of Wendigo from FF5, there are four of him. Hitting the wrong one makes it immediately vanish, but will use a counter, either a Sweep for ~300 or a Wind Slash for ~600 (the latter unfocuses MT). The real one can use Displacement to revive any fakes and then immediately shuffle their positions (there's no pattern I could notice). He can also use it as a counter to taking damage sometimes, though never the first time he is hit between Displacements (he'll say "Hmph!" instead). Otherwise they use a combination of their counter moves, and physicals and MT ninjutsu which do anywhere from 200 to 600, but remember there are four of them so this can add up. The real one also has a few extra moves up his sleeve, and yes him using one will telegraph where he is: one is Flash for blind. Sadly, though, waiting for him to use these is a bad idea, because the other is Assassinate for ID. Can't block that, GG.
Anyway I try to win with a Ranger Ogrekiller (anti-human weapon) Quick Shot barrage and it works kinda well but his ability to use counter Displacement means I can't take advantage of my time advantage very well. And if I go on a bad run of picking targets he will be able to get off Assassinate eventually.
I then try to win with Summoner. This works better, surprisingly: Summon takes out everyone at once and makes me eat three counters but "Hmph!" also appears to reset his AI so that I don't see Assassinate, that or I just get lucky. However the offence adds up fast against Summoner's poor speed/HP and it's easy to get stuck casting Sylph in a heal-lock until enough time goes by for him to throw in ID, or just overwhelm me with damage because I have to be at least somewhat aggressive.
The solution is to gain a couple levels in Summoner so that I can cast Titan as another class, namely Red Mage of course. Now I can cast Protect at the start of the fight, then use Titan or Sylph as necessary with far better stats than what Summoner could pull off, so I never have to Sylph twice in a row. Titan like 7HKOs him too. Not an easy boss by any means and I did have to resort to a little grinding (I might have been able to win with MT Dark, probably should have tried, but it is a lot weaker...) but not too bad.
A little more dungeon with some tougher formations (a sneak attack by Devout + Kurohabaki is one I have to run from) and I reach the final save point. Then another plot fight as invincible Jinnai plotkills Tobikage. Then...
Elder (3 resets) - Man 50000 HP is a lot at this point. The fight has three phases, 15k/15k/20k each, let's talk about 'em.
In the first phase he is a generic ninja. His physical ignores row and hits for a bit over 1000 depending on setup, and his ninjutsu do somewhat less but are MT. He'll rarely counter magic with Slow (agh) or physicals with a physical of his own. Aside from the Slow counters this is easy-peasy and his damage here is low enough that even Slow counters wouldn't be a bother.
The second phase is the Real Problem. When he takes 15000 he'll counter by "putting his back to the wall" and powering up. Now his ninjutsu does over 1000 too. Worse, he picks up Noxious Gas (Toxify, must be healed or blocked), Assassinate (so sayeth the guides, I never see it), Great Gale (HP-1), and Wind Slash, which does a staggering 2600 ITD magic damage (unfocuses against a team). He's reasonably speedy. A Great Gale used while charging may mean you're dead next turn. Hell, even if I heal with Sylph, I may die next turn because Wind Slash does more than it can heal! This happens at least once. The one good thing is that Elder's defence drops during this phase.
The third phase sees the emergence of the Mind Parasite, the true boss. At this point the Elder loses his old skillset but he continues with the ability to output loads of damage. -aga spells can do over 1500. Not so bad you say? He can doubleact them after Spellshock (Deshell). Still not that bad? In the second half of the final phase (... the fourth phase? I dunno man) he can doublecast them for over 3000 damage even if you're not in Deshell, the highest damage of any boss to date. He'll also counter periodically with Mind Blast (does around 600, but also adds Sap and Paralyse). The one nice thing about this phase is that it will waste some turns on Forsaken (some MP damage and confuse).
This boss is kinda custom-made to overcome Sylph spam. The threat of ID and Great Gale->Wind Slash in phase 2, and then the huge damage of phase 3, mean turtling is no bueno. But hey, I have other plans. See, the Elder is, unlike Avalon's generals, weak to human-slaying weaponry, even when the Mind Parasite comes out to play. And the strongest weapon available to Ranger at this point is the Ogrekiller, which hits weakness on humans. A Ranger with Ogrekiller Quick Shot can do around 1400 per swing (four times a round), 1800 during the second phase. So it actually only takes around 8 rounds of offence to down the entire boss this way. Quick Shot does produce a few more counters than I'd like, but they're uncommon enough and none of them inflict Slow, so that's acceptable.
Setup is thus Ranger with HP+20%, MP+20%, and Counter; we don't need no stinkin' healing skillset! Front row since no reason not to, Red Shoes to block confuse/paralyse and equip for speed past that. The plan is to spend as little time in phase 2 as possible, in particular. X-Potions can be used to heal when my HP drops (I make sure to go into phase 2 healthy even though Great Gale is a threat). I use one Elixir as well midway through the fight to restore both HP/MP (Quick Shot does burn through it), and probably 3-4 X-Potions in all. I get a little lucky as his one use of Spellshock misses but all that does is save me some items and I had others to spare.
Ninja chapter complete!
Alba Level 79
Ranger L13
Red Mage L13
Dark Knight L7
Summoner L7
Warrior L5
Black Mage L5
White Mage L1
It's worth noting that she's 6 levels higher than Dusk now; some of that is the Asmodai grind but a lot of that just seems to be that the Ninja chapter is longer and grants more exp than the Paladin chapter; every dungeon in Ninja is longer than the corresponding one in Paladin except for Moonlight Wood versus Mt. Wells.
