Final Fantasy Tactics Community Playthrough

Flintlock · Feb 7, 2017

Well, they do that too. But anyway. I'm gonna stop talking and get back to playing before I fall further behind. :monster:

Jason Tandro · Feb 7, 2017

Ramza Beoulve said:
It's not really necessary to run everyone completely through squire and chemist. You need JP Boost from Squire, and Move +1 is very good. Counter Tackle is useful, but not crucial.

Chemist doesn't need much either. At this point, Potion, Phoenix Down, Hi Potion, and maybe antidote are all you NEED. After that you're better off saving up for Remedy then getting all the status-healing items. Auto Potion is of course very good, but I tend to just let points accrue for that naturally rather than grind for 400. They are better than White Mage though, so you'll probably leave your chemist as a chemist for awhile. Once they learn Throw Item they can be a formidable healer, but I am always hesitant about abilities that take the same slot as JP Boost.

And yeah, that "having to learn how to wear a hat" thing always bugged me about the license board, lol.

Squires are just not very good, and the added damage you get from being a Knight, or especially a Monk, outweighs any detriment from skipping some of their abilities. Ramza has some unique Squire skills that are important, but they don't unlock until Chapter 2 anyway.

I said run through, not master

Basically i make sure everybody learned JP, Throw Stone, and Move+1. From Chemist the ones I mentioned.

I'm toyijg with Oracle, Monk and Time Mage now and they have some fun side abilities!

Joker · Feb 7, 2017

Don't forget Accumulate and Move/Find!

Flintlock · Feb 8, 2017

Another chemist question: why is the "chance" of using a potion sometimes 00%? Example:

The target is in range and my mission objective is to protect him, so I don't understand why I can't heal him. Is Ramza in the way?

Joker · Feb 8, 2017

Yes. Items are thrown, so anything in their way (including terrain) will keep them from having the desired effect.

Jason Tandro · Feb 8, 2017

If I'm not mistaken, being higher up can help you avoid would-be obstacles. Can one of our resident experts confirm?

Flintlock · Feb 8, 2017

Ramza Beoulve said:
What are your first gameplay impressions?

Slow and complicated. I'm used to combat in Final Fantasy games being quite limited at the start, but at least the battles usually go by pretty quickly. Here it's the opposite. You have a million things to learn, each battle takes 20 minutes or more, there are no drip-feed tutorials and the game will punish you for making mistakes. I like a game that doesn't hold the player's hand too much but this maybe takes it too far. Yes, I looked at the pre-game tutorial but it seemed very long and boring; not the best way to start a community playthrough. Better to learn by doing, right? And as someone who has already played Tactics Advance and A2, I thought I'd know what I was doing. Apparently not. I think I'm getting the hang of it now.

Aside: the combination of the camera and the level design is frustrating. Often I feel like I can't really get the view I want, no matter how I rotate the camera. And I wish it would remember my preferences (zoomed out, tilted up) between battles so I wouldn't have to change it every time.

And what about your early impressions of the characters? They spit a lot of names at you and that doesn’t get much easier, but I’m sure that will be no trouble to you Game of Thrones types.

They seem pretty generic so far. I've noticed two people comment on Ramza not showing much emotion so I'm guessing that's going to be part of his character development as the game progresses.

Did you read any Rumors at a Tavern?

Yes, all of them. But the last one was so long that I skim-read the second half of it. Didn't seem that interesting. The rumours in the other Tactics games are mainly battle tips and things to look out for, but the three available in this chapter were all plot-related. I hope that that's just because it's the beginning of the game.

Did you struggle with Dorter? What’s your primary party makeup looking like after this first chapter?

I struggled with it to begin with because it was my first battle with magic(k) – on both sides. I didn't know it had a charge time and I didn't know you could choose whether to target a unit or an area (I thought it was area only, so it was a surprise when I moved my units out of the area and they still got hit). I had to try it a second time, which was a lot easier. I could have finished the battle quickly but I decided to wait for the chests and crystals nd it almost went wrong; Ramza's KO countdown was on 0 when I finally ended it. I'm not a fan of that mechanic so far – why can't I just wait on the battlefield after I've killed everything?

Party make-up: Aside from the guest characters, I had one knight, two squires and one white mage in Dorter. I would have taken an extra knight or an archer but I didn't have the equipment for them and I couldn't be bothered to go all the way back to... the left of the map (don't remember the name, heh).

Is there any way of avoiding random encounters while moving between cities you've already visited?

P.S. I want to read everyone's chapter reports (after I've finished mine) but I'm already seeing spoilers for later in the game. :closedmonster:

Please use spoiler tags for anything a new player couldn't know by the end up the chapter you're writing up.

Jason Tandro · Feb 8, 2017

^ Unless you have shite luck I've found that once you've completed the first battle in a given area you can usually cross over it without an encounter. When I've been JP spamming in my run I usually have to cross the Mandalia Plains like 6-7 times before triggering a battle.

Ite · Feb 8, 2017

Yeah it's about 1 in 4 chance to have an encounter on a green dot. Sometimes you have bad luck though, damn sweegy woods. Woods in general bother me because I have to rotate the camera back and forth to get a glimpse of what I'm doing through the trees.

Flintlock · Feb 8, 2017

Ramza Beoulve said:
How did you feel about the rest of the "flashback" chapter?

In the grand scheme of things, the story definitely got more interesting in this chapter. Going from fight to fight, though, it felt a bit silly:

A: "I'm not your enemy."
B: "Fight me anyway."
A: "Okay, but I'll spare your life."
B: *runs away*

Some time later...

B: "Oh, it's you again."
A: "I'm still not your enemy."
B: "But you're mine."
A: "Fine, whatever."
B: *dies*

Later still...

C: "You killed my sister!!!!!!"

:facepalm:

How much do you hate Argath/Algus?

I don't hate video game characters. :monster:

Sure, he's a dick, but every RPG needs its antagonists. The game didn't give me enough time to care about... (man, I'm so bad with names, better look this up) Tietra before she got shot, so, yeah. I feel like Ramza's brothers are more deserving of contempt than he is.

Did any of the fights in this chapter give you trouble?

Only, uh, most of them. :monster:

Not the random battles, just the story battles. I think I Game Overed two or three times. But that's fine. If you've read my write-ups for any of our previous community playthroughs you'll know I don't like grinding. I'd rather have a TPK, figure out what I need to do differently and beat a story battle on the second attempt than spend time grinding without knowing what's coming up. The necessary changes are usually very small anyway, things like unit placement:

(Aside: Tactics Advance and A2 let you place your units directly on the battlefield, which is a huge improvement.)

Something like that might seem unimportant, but I've noticed that things tend to snowball very quickly in this game – if you get a bad start, it's difficult to recover. And I did get bad starts; in both the pictured fight and the one against Wiegraf, Delita was knocked out before I got to do anything with my non-guest characters. Yay.

I'm a bit tired of the guest characters, and I notice I just picked up two more at the start of (in-game) chapter 2. How long until I get full control, I wonder?

Other observations:

Potions suck. I've been playing the game for about five hours and already every single enemy attack is dealing more damage than a potion can heal. I ended up switching out the chemist in the screenshot above and completing the battle with two knights and two black mages. Offence is the best form of defence and the -ra spells seem a bit overpowered for this part of the game. My active characters are levels 4-6, my full roster 1-6.
The camera is even worse than I thought; not only does it not remember my preferences between battles, it doesn't even remember them across in-battle conversations. Gaaaah.
I'm not sure how I feel about the olde English. Sometimes it's great, but sometimes it grates. Having to re-read dialogue to understand its meaning isn't exactly my idea of fun; I can only imagine what it would be like for non-native speakers.
It might seem like I'm being very negative. I'm not trying to be. I'm enjoying the game despite all my criticisms. I suppose I don't feel the need to comment on the core gameplay, which is very good, because it's already familiar to me. If this had been the first Tactics game I'd played I'm sure I'd be writing very different things about it.
I forgot to mention this before, but I'm playing on the PSP. I gave up on the idea of playing on an Android emulator pretty quickly, because the controls are bad. The only good thing, and the reason I tried it in the first place, is that you can simply click on a tile you want a unit to move to, rather than having to navigate to it. Unfortunately, everything in the game takes two clicks, one to select and one to confirm, which is understandable in the context of touchscreens but frustrating with a mouse. The trade-off isn't worth it. On the plus side, the PSP version has animated FMVs which are missing from the Android version, so if I had stuck with the latter I might never have known they existed. And despite the rather bland voice acting, I like them; they definitely add something to the experience.

ForceStealer · Feb 8, 2017

As for the random encounters, I actually have a question about them that I always felt was true but I've never seen confirmation: I feel like I have a MUCH greater chance of running into a random battle when passing through a dot than if I just click on it, and then click the next one. I've had this feeling in my entire time with this game but I could never find anything about it online. I don't think it's just a perception of "running into a battle when I'm trying to get somewhere else, of course," because I've taken to passing through a spot when I'm TRYING to run into a battle there because the encounter rate seems so much higher. Anyone know for sure?

Flintlock said:
I'm a bit tired of the guest characters, and I notice I just picked up two more at the start of (in-game) chapter 2. How long until I get full control, I wonder?

In our Chapter 4 (I guess I should have called them something different than chapters...), though you will occasionally have them throughout the game.

Flintlock said:
Potions suck. I've been playing the game for about five hours and already every single enemy attack is dealing more damage than a potion can heal.

Switch to Hi-Potions, they should be available at shops now. Also, Auto-Potion will use whatever the lowest-class of potion is in your inventory. So if you sell all your regular potions, Auto-Potion will use Hi-Potions. If you get rid of all of those, it will use X-Potions.

Flintlock said:
The camera is even worse than I thought; not only does it not remember by preferences between battles, it doesn't even remember them across in-battle conversations. Gaaaah.

I'm so used to the camera I never really think about it anymore, but you're right, sorry about that.

Flintlock said:
(Aside: Tactics Advance and A2 let you place your units directly on the battlefield, which is a huge improvement.)

This, on the other hand, is always a criticism I have of Tactics. Placing your units is almost completely useless the first time through a battle when they don't show you the terrain.

Flintlock said:
It might seem like I'm being very negative. I'm not trying to be. I'm enjoying the game despite all my criticisms. I suppose I don't feel the need to comment on the core gameplay, which is very good, because it's already familiar to me. If this had been the first Tactics game I'd played I'm sure I'd be writing very different things about it.

I'm glad you added this, because I was afraid you were having an awful time, haha

Flintlock said:
On the plus side, the PSP version has animated FMVs which are missing from the Android version, so if I had stuck with the latter I might never have known they existed. And despite the rather bland voice acting, I like them; they definitely add something to the experience.]

I really like them. Fun fact: Agrias has the same voice as Yuna.

Jason Tandro · Feb 8, 2017

Just cleared Thieves Fort and man my Jo spamming is paying off. My party is around Level 10 and I've switched Ramza to my primary melee DPS as a Monk. And holy shit he is a beast. Repeating Fist on the offside deals as much as 128 damage, his counters anywhere from 54 to 75. My ladies are taking the Wizardly roles and I have two Wizards with all tier 2 spells and one with Bolt 3. The thirs is a Time Mage now but im going to eventually take her down Priesr and Summoner and have my own Yuna. I've got a dedicated Chemist man who I will eventually take down Mediator road to make him a buffer/debuffer and I gave him Martial Arts so his fists are quite tough too. My other two males are wildcards one currently running Time Mage (Any Weather) and the other Monk.

We decimated the forces at Thieves Fort with barely any effort. Lets see how we do at Zeakdan.

ForceStealer · Feb 8, 2017

Monks are outrageously powerful. And if you give them Equip Heavy Armor that fixes their only real weakness of low HP. (But, that ability does take the JP Boost slot, which as I said I'm always reluctant to remove.)

Jason Tandro · Feb 8, 2017

Ramza Beoulve said:
Monks are outrageously powerful. And if you give them Equip Heavy Armor that fixes their only real weakness of low HP. (But, that ability does take the JP Boost slot, which as I said I'm always reluctant to remove.)

And take a guess what the one bonus ability I taught Ramza from knight was. :awesome:

Edit: Also, my practice in most games where I have to choose like that is save EXP / JP boosting for spam battles and use the good stuff in story fights.

Ite · Feb 8, 2017

You ever notice that if you kill Weigraf's chocobo at the windmill, it just gets conked out?

Yes, it's THAT chocobo!

AvecAloes · Feb 8, 2017

Chapta 2

Ramza Beoulve said:
Chapter 2: But when the pillars of that life came crashing down, I did not watch them fall

Discussion:

How did you feel about the rest of the "flashback" chapter?
I liked it. It gives you a good amount of background information, and really sets the tone for the rest of the game.

Poor Ramza. He really is just a bystander in all of this class war nonsense, and to be betrayed by his brothers like that...ugh. Totally unfair and out of the blue, and then for Delita to blame Ramza for his brothers' misdeeds...blargle.
How much do you hate Argath/Algus?

LEMME AT 'EM
Did any of the fights in this chapter give you trouble?
Well, the first in the string of three fights kind of did, but that was totally my fault. I changed my Chemist to a WHM, but she didn't have any healing magic, just Protect and Shell. I set the Item command, but forgot to equip the Throw Item skill. Once I realized that, I reset the game. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Ok, time for the next chapter? I want to keep playing!

Joker · Feb 8, 2017

I'd rather have a TPK, figure out what I need to do differently and beat a story battle on the second attempt than spend time grinding

you're playing the wroooooong game for that, I'll tell you now

*insert mr burns laughter*

at any rate, I'll FINALLY have some down time from work tomorrow, so I plan on blasting through a huge chunk of game...assuming I don't succumb to the lure of deus ex

Flintlock · Feb 8, 2017

Well, I know it's early days, but it's worked so far. I'll let you know when it doesn't any more.

Joker · Feb 9, 2017

I suspect it will be sooner than you think

Jason Tandro said:
If I'm not mistaken, being higher up can help you avoid would-be obstacles. Can one of our resident experts confirm?

confirmed, sorry; totally missed this one because new page

Roger · Feb 9, 2017

Ramza Beoulve said:
Chapter 2: But when the pillars of that life came crashing down, I did not watch them fall

How did you feel about the rest of the "flashback" chapter?

I feel Ramza doth protests much. He was entirely the aggressor in his first fight with Milleuda, killed all her friends, blocked her path as she was escaping the assault being made by his brother that he DID know about, then scratches his head wondering why everyone is so upset.

Gameplaywise, just looking forward too crystals being worth the wait.

How much do you hate Argath/Algus?

Just in between Zalbaag and Dycedarg in the top 3 of my sh*tlist.

Did any of the fights in this chapter give you trouble?

The first of the last three fights of the chapter stopped being problem once I decided this wasn't the time to class level grind. Second left me with everyone in party dead other then Ramza having only incapacitated the chocobo but I just managed to take down Wiegraf. First try, it was over fast but it was not painless. Argath and his flunkies really gave me trouble. Doubling up on Archers while having Delita out as a Knight so he can soak up some damage got me to victory though.

Click to expand...

Jason Tandro · Feb 10, 2017

I am at Zeakdan but my would be pincer attack didn't work for two reasons:

1. Forgot to give everybody "Item"
2. I brought a Thief to a Mage fight.

Gonna level spam a bit before wrapping up Ch 2 tomorrow and when I do it again it'll be two Wizards, my Monk Ramza and my Chemist and I will make them stick together.

Joker · Feb 10, 2017

It's worth mentioning that the AI is really, really stupid, in that it thinks like a person would. It tends to prioritize A) the biggest threat; B) the one closest to death/easiest to kill/physically closest target; and C) heals.

So it's entirely possible to lure enemies out of position for a murderfest with these things in mind

Jason Tandro · Feb 10, 2017

Discussion:
[*]How did you feel about the rest of the "flashback" chapter?
As a means of developing characters and world-building it did a fantastic job. It's definitely not easy on the player ("learn to wear hats" reference comes to mind) but for what it's worth it's not nearly as difficult as I remember. And I find that my memory of the story was shady at best because I could have sworn Chapter 1 ended at the Thieves Fort and not Fort Zeakdan. Also the spoilery content I forget completely, which shows you how long it's been since I played this. Seriously the last time I played this a decent amount was when I was still in high school. On the PSOne.

[*]

How much do you hate Argath/Algus?

I knew the POS was an obnoxious little Hitlerjuden and I'm actually glad that this game didn't try to cram in a redemption story arc for him. He served as a decent Chapter 1 "Seifer" and really helps drive home Delita's struggle between the "good" nobility of Ramza and the "bad" nobility of... well every other noble in the game it seems. Their struggle at Zeakdan also illustrates how completely naive Ramza is and serves well to harden Ramza (if I can break out the Dragon Age parlance there).

[*]Did any of the fights in this chapter give you trouble?[/list]
I was basically powering through the fights with no difficulty until the last three when I got too greedy and tried to go for a quick finish by killing only the target. Miluda and Weigraf were surprisingly resistant to dying however and in both of their cases I was forced to actually kill all the peons first and then kill the leader, though that task was actually not too challenging as my monk Ramza is nigh unstoppable and my mages are devastating.

Zeakdan was the toughest one, and it's hilarious because I beat you know who by complete luck. I took in two Wizards (one with MagicAttackUP and Bolt 3- which in a random battle in Fovoham did 256 damage to a PiscoDemon) and despite the fact that I had not killed any of the enemy units apart from a single knight (killed hilariously by my Chemist's Counter) and Ramza and Delita were down - my Bolt3 still managed to rip you know who a new asshole and I won the fight within like 3 rounds.

As an aside - I did something which maybe you can tell me if this is good or not - I trained all my units in Knight to learn "Equip Armor" and did so for my mages. Any downside to this? If it follows form I gather it might hamper their magic if I don't use "mystical" armor? Also going to do a Thief run for Move+2, and actually now a Monk run because I want all my characters to learn MartialArts, Counter and Chakra.

Holy crap, you weren't kidding when you said Chakra was insanely powerful. Free HP/MP healing in a cross? My best healer now is Ramza. I get the feeling that I could go through most of the rest of the game with team PunchSpell (monks and wizards) and pretty much dominate.

ForceStealer · Feb 10, 2017

Jason Tandro said:
As an aside - I did something which maybe you can tell me if this is good or not - I trained all my units in Knight to learn "Equip Armor" and did so for my mages. Any downside to this? If it follows form I gather it might hamper their magic if I don't use "mystical" armor?

It doesn't hamper their magic in the D&D sense. With a few exceptions though, characters' magic stat growth isn't great, and so the 'mystical' armors will often do that. In the next the chapter, a Wizard's Hat and Robes will be available which will combine for a +3 magic atk boost and is substantial. That said, if you're throwing -aga spells around and dealing 256 damage to piscodaemons, the HP boost may be of more use for you for the time being, eventually you'll just want the magic boost.

Jason Tandro said:
Also going to do a Thief run for Move+2, and actually now a Monk run because I want all my characters to learn MartialArts, Counter and Chakra.

You are a grinding fiend, JT.

Jason Tandro said:
Holy crap, you weren't kidding when you said Chakra was insanely powerful. Free HP/MP healing in a cross? My best healer now is Ramza. I get the feeling that I could go through most of the rest of the game with team PunchSpell (monks and wizards) and pretty much dominate.

How much do you hate Argath/Algus?
Always hate this guy, as you might guess from the question. While it exposes Ramza's naivete, I still hate that he turns Delita against him, at least in that moment. In one of my earliest cases of "role-playing," I always went out of my way to make sure Ramza got the killing blow, as a show of solidarity with Delita.

Did any of the fights in this chapter give you trouble?
Not at all this time, in the second to last battle the enemies were very kind in bunching up and allowing my black mage to wreak total havoc with their lines. The last battle got a LITTLE hairy only in that a couple people were downed, but I still finished it before anyone's counter expired.

ForceStealer · Feb 10, 2017

Chapter 3: Are you friend or foe?

Time: Friday Feb 10 to Wednesday Feb 15

Target: When you see the dialogue pictured below after the battle at Zaland Fort City

Now that it's a new in-game Chapter, Ramza's Squire job will have new abilities to learn, just so you know. All the towns will also have new merchandise in their stores (castle towns sell heavy armor). Also, Errands (or Propositions) become available. These are little events in taverns that you can send members of your party out to complete for some JP and gil. They're not at all necessary, but they're a good way to make some money, get some JP for your B-teamers, and often contain references to past FFs (though a lot of the references get kinda bungled in the old translation). Remember you have to pick your guys back up from the same town you sent them from, so the most efficient, if kinda lame, way to do it is to find two locations without battles (such as Dorter and Orbonne) and just walk back and forth until the required number of days pass.

Beware that last fight, if you choose to defend Mustadio up there, you lose if his HP falls to 0, and his AI seems to have a bit of a deathwish. You'll want magic, archers, or people with a good Jump stat in order to get to him quickly.

Discussion:

The third battle in this chapter has one of my favorite tracks (entitled Battle on the Bridge). What are your thoughts on the OST so far?
This chapter really starts to get into the shifting or unclear loyalties/goals. What are your thoughts on the different parties' motives?
If this is your first time, are you starting to gain some comfort with the game's systems? If you're a vet, are you trying some different character/job combinations?

I would be available tomorrow to stream this chapter if anyone's interested (and I can remember how to do it, haha). Was there a best time determined for the various time-zoned people in past playthroughs?

Final Fantasy Tactics Community Playthrough

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