Final Fantasy Tactics Community Playthrough

Ite

Save your valediction (she/her)
AKA
Ite
I renamed my black chocobo Blackie. Mostly, though, the monster names are pretty awesome.
 

ForceStealer

Double Growth
And hm...how long did it take you to get to where you played to? That was going to be he next chapter...but maybe I should lengthen it/shorten he deadline?

I dunno, a couple of hours? There is only three story battles until the next in game chapter:

Lionel Castle Gate
Zeirchele Falls
Lionel Castle Oratory

CHAPTER III: THE VALIANT

But I did die on Lionel Castle Gate 3 times and on Lionel Castle Oratory once. I changed jobs between battles trying to figure things out. The map has opened up again and there are plenty of errands and new stuff to buy. I'd suggest keeping the pace at 5 days.

Right, I knew it was short, but I personally think those first and third battles are pretty hard. But perhaps I will add the next two battles to it.

As you can see, I also have a goblin in my party, which is something that hasn't happened before. They also lay eggs but not as frequently as chocobos. I want to get a dragon and a ghost as well but I am honestly nearly out of space as it is (and I'm playing with permadeath!) Gotta save room to let story characters in.

Yeah, one nice thing about WotL is they expanded your roster size, although some of that is canceled out by the additional characters.
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
Random comments:

The first battle of the assigned Chapter 3 floors me, and I have no Phoenix Downs remaining from the previous battle. Luckily I have another save file before the end of Chapter 2, so I should be able to restock and try this again.
Phoenix Downs are super useful (duh). I've had a few fights already where my sizeable stock has been the only difference between winning and losing. Suppose everyone's dead except one enemy and two of my characters. As long as one of them can juggle everyone's countdowns with Phoenix Downs, I can win the fight, because, as I think Kimble pointed out earlier, the enemy will always focus on putting the revived characters back down again and will never attack my surviving healthy characters (watch out for AoE attacks though). Not a particularly cost-efficient strategy but I haven't been short on gil yet.

Of course, it could work in reverse too: if the enemies start reviving each other at some point in this playthrough I'm gonna be screwed. :P

And I like that it's hard. Wouldn't have it any other way tbh.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I was on a roll and didn't want to stop whilst I was winning so I kept on going past Golgollada Gallows and I just killed Cthulhu the Impure :wacky:
Yo, spoilers!

I died twice in the Mustadio battle. I changed the parameters of the fight after my first death, and still died. The last go around, Rad turned into a crystal. Goodbye Rad. You served me well.
You let your namesake crystallise? You utter monster!
 

ForceStealer

Double Growth
I was on a roll and didn't want to stop whilst I was winning so I kept on going past Golgollada Gallows and I just killed Cthulhu the Impure :wacky:
Yo, spoilers!

You are correct, but fortunately he's wrong about the fight, it isn't Cthulhu :monster: (sorry Yop)

Here are my write-ups for the last two chapters and then I will post the next chapter:

1. OST Thoughts
As I said earlier, I'm a big fan of this soundtrack, and though it's very obviously Sakimoto, I find it to be more memorable than his other works. Again, it could just be because of my affection for the game, but it could also be due to him having help in this game, or merely the PS1's chipset. But the main Tactics leitmotif is a favorite and often stuck in my head. "The Pervert," coming in the next chapter, is another great, atmospheric song.

2. Character motivations
I was confused as hell my first time through - specifically with regards to Delita's objectives. And him constantly speaking in riddles doesn't help. "The Church" tends to get a bad rap in video games, but I do like the sort of third party to the war they represent here.

3. If you're a vet, are you trying some different character/job combinations?
As we get towards the end of the game, I'm going to be jumping over to another playthrough that I had in-progress. I've done a lot more grinding in that game so I want to use those. As such I'm mostly jsut getting through with this party. I have my fairly standard jobs lined up. It's only a bit unusual that I'm not using a Dragoon yet, I suppose.

1. Have you been participating in any Errands?
Just the ones that I know are profitable so I have enough money to stay equipped. In my other game I've been doing absolutely every one.

2. Mustadio
He usually doesn't become a mainstay of my party, but rather a situational character. His Seal Evil is especially good against undead enemies.

3. Story developments
I love that my girl Agrias joins for good now. And getting into the Zodiac Stone business is exciting as I know all it leads to. I also think Gaffgarion is kind of interesting. He is unquestionably an antagonist, and morally bankrupt. But I find it interesting how hard he tries to dissuade Ramza from fighting him. I'm not sure if it's just due to their time together as mercenaries, or if Gaffgarion just truly believes in Dycedarg's plan.

4. Did you struggle with any fights?
Not extremely...but as you might have seen on the stream. I got supremely unlucky in the Agrias battle, as a Knight broke her armor which made her incredibly difficult to keep alive. Somehow I still did until the archer got a lucky critical hit >_>

Then at the Gallows my fight was going SUPER well. Stole Gaffgarion's Blood Sword right off the bat so he couldn't use his Shadow Blade techniques, had everything under control. But then they knocked out my white mage, who was unfortunately the only person that could revive people. I considered letting him expire, but when Agrias also crystallized, I had to restart. The second fight went much more smoothly.
 

Flare

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Flare
I bought this game. Just now. From Amazon. I shall join this week finafuckingly. :monster:


Not a word about my lateness. :watchingu:
 

ForceStealer

Double Growth
Chapter 5: A man cannot prosecute a war on his own

Time: Monday Feb 20 to Friday Feb 24

Target: When you reach the cutscene pictured below, after the battle at Lesalia Castle Postern (Back Gate of Lesalia)

faNm874.png

There are some tough battles in this chapter as well. As Omega said, I would recommend saving in a different slot before approaching Lionel so that you can save between the two battles without being trapped. Also, be aware that you can pass THROUGH Lionel if you want to for any reason. The fighting won't begin until you specifically land on it.

For the first fight I would strongly recommend giving Ramza auto-potion (and make sure you only have X-Potions) and either a way to dish out of a lot of damage, or a way to stall for awhile (Like the Monk's Chakra). In the interest of role-playing though, I enjoy Ramza winning the duel without cheesing :P. For the second/third fight, I would recommend getting some Rubber Boot accessories beforehand (to absorb lightning damage). This is a difficult fight. If you're playing the War of the Lions, you will have an extra battle between these two, but it is basically a plot battle and is very easy.

After this the in-game Chapter 3 will begin, which will herald a bunch of story and a time-skip. Many more errands and equipment will be available, and two more story battles which shouldn't be TOO tricky by this point (the first one is much easier in the original than in War of the Lions, however).

Discussion:
  • Do you have any thoughts in Ramza's change as a person? This is always where it struck me.
  • Thoughts on Cúchulainn? Did you struggle?
  • LOTS of plot starting in the middle of this segment, any comments or questions?
  • How badly do you want Orran's/Olan's Celestial Stasis/Galaxy Stall? lol
  • Any changes to your Job lineup?

Also, when Alma joins up as a guest, she won't be fighting, so feel free to take all her equipment, it's pretty good!

The War of the Lions has officially begun!
 
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Joker

We have come to terms
AKA
Godot
Seriously. Save your game. The fights here are what dumpstered my first playthrough of this game, back when I just did story battles. Don't be like me :P

Also, yaaaaaaaaaay for in game chapter 3

Incidentally, has anyone played around with Ramza as a mage yet?
 

Fangu

Great Old One
^ I'm considering it. Black Mages is my way to go in this game. I was thinking of making him physical tanky (or an Archer)/ Time Mage initially. His HP growth seem to be fit for it. He's kind of like Vaan in that sense.

Does this game have Decoy though?
 

ChipNoir

Pro Adventurer
Oh man. I really want to participate, but I have PTSD from my first playthrough...which lasted all of thirty minutes. Being killed by red Chocobos gave me nightmares as a kid.

I don't suppose anyone knows of a good guide for people that have absolutely no skill at all in strategic gaming? I keep making dumb ass moves, and losing most if not all of my characters by the end of even just a normal encounter.

;-; Help a poor, idiotic ghoul out?
 

Joker

We have come to terms
AKA
Godot
^ I'm considering it. Black Mages is my way to go in this game. I was thinking of making him physical tanky (or an Archer)/ Time Mage initially. His HP growth seem to be fit for it. He's kind of like Vaan in that sense.

Does this game have Decoy though?
No ma'am.

I'm glad to hear you say yes, though. In my humble opinion, magical is the way to go with Ramza, at least for the early game.
Personally, I always spec Ramza down mage really early, so I can beat it toward Time Mage and pick up Teleport, which makes the Lionel Castle Gates battle (and the one with Wiegraf) much, MUCH easier, since you can just 'port away from danger immediately. Tactics IS a bit unique in SRPGS, though, where the enemies will still come toward you even if you're not in any kind of range, but say, Teleporting Ramza outside of the gates makes it impossible for GaffyG to hit you. Eat it, Gaffgarionm, you piece of shit.

And then there's the final Guts ability, which iirc he can learn somewhere in Chapter 3 or 4 in-game, and which deals magical damage. Ultimately, though, he's probably best as either a full-on mage, or something hybrid like Samurai. Either way, Ramza is one of the characters who you will always wants to give their base class (Squire?) skill to as their secondary, no matter what you take him down. POSSIBLE exception being Summoner Ramza with Math Skill (which is where I think I left him in my last playthrough).

tldr unique characters are always better in a class that lets them use their unique skill well, like Agrias or Mustadio

ed: also worth noting - in order to use things like Holy Sword Skill, Agrias (and other characters like her) must be equipped with a sword or knight sword (duh), otherwise they cannot use it. A Thief, though, can use the Knight's Battle Skill abilities (Power Break and the like) even without a sword.
 

Joker

We have come to terms
AKA
Godot
OH

right, @fangu

what you CAN do is look at the enemy characters, which allows you to see their stats, including movement, and then move your tankiest unit just inside the area they can effect; the AI isn't too bright, so they will attack the only thing they can (that unit), thus allowing you to draw them out of position easily by creating a more LITERAL decoy :P
 

Flintlock

Pro Adventurer
Oh man. I really want to participate, but I have PTSD from my first playthrough...which lasted all of thirty minutes. Being killed by red Chocobos gave me nightmares as a kid.
You can encounter red Chocobos in the first half hour? :huh:

I don't suppose anyone knows of a good guide for people that have absolutely no skill at all in strategic gaming? I keep making dumb ass moves, and losing most if not all of my characters by the end of even just a normal encounter.

;-; Help a poor, idiotic ghoul out?
I'm sure there's a decent guide on GameFAQs (PS1, PSP). The thing is, while a guide might give you things like good party setups for each fight, they can only ever give you hints on what to do once it's started, since each fight will play out so differently. The only way to really get better at the game is to practice. And there's no shame in dying; I'm resetting at least once on almost every story battle before getting it right on the next attempt. :)

Anyway. I just reached in-game chapter 3. Full write-up to come when I finish the playthrough chapter, but in the meantime I wanted to share a couple of screenshots:

I'm not sure that's the best place for you to be right now, Merewynn:

GDnc.jpg

This has got to be the most casual delivery of "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" I've ever heard:

IDnc.jpg


It was cool to see something I recognise from Final Fantasy XII, though I already knew the Espers from that game originated here. In case you're wondering, my setup for that fight was three knights, one holy knight and one black mage. It was all over in about three rounds. :)
 

Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
Chapter 5: A man cannot prosecute a war on his own


Do you have any thoughts in Ramza's change as a person? This is always where it struck me.

His continued faith in Zalbaag always astounded me.

Thoughts on Cúchulainn? Did you struggle?

After Ramza acquired the damage output neccesary to take out Gaffgarion as a pure mage, he became kinda unstoppable.

LOTS of plot starting in the middle of this segment, any comments or questions?

So I imagine that the Order of the Ebon Eye are Delita's true compatriots.

How badly do you want Orran's/Olan's Celestial Stasis/Galaxy Stall? lol

There is such a thing as too broken. I mean I don't even plan on using Cid or Balthier this playthrough.

Any changes to your Job lineup?

Right now I got Black Mage, Black Mage, White Mage, Chemist, Holy Knight. I want to have some class grinding left to do when I get Cloud.
 

Flare

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Flare
And.... I got the game already. :closedmonster: It literally said it shipped last night before going to bed.... jesus.

I can charge my PSP tomorrow after work and give it a go :D
 

Russell

.. ? ..
AKA
King of the Potato People
The battle with
Orran was a pain in the arse.

Game overed twice because the stupid bastard wouldn't move away from danger to save his life! I set Mustadio up as a chemist, he's powerful at long range and can heal/revive others from far away. Still have an all knight party except Mustadio & a single black mage. :P

This game is alot darker than I remember:
In game Rumor said:
A Stalemate

Three months have passed since the Battle of Groffovia - the first full-scale battle between the forces of Lesalia and Limberry on the plains that define the border of their two lands. Formidable knights, once allies in war, now meet each other as enemies on the battlefield in skirmishes with no clear victor - bloody clashes that have resulted in close to four hundred thousand casualties.
Many say that the two sides have reached an impasse, and the prospect of a protracted struggle does little to bolster the already low spirits of the people.

Four hundred thousand from a single battle? I mean were they fighting against Godzilla or what? That's pretty damn bleak.

I'm having a hard time picturing this world, it's set after FF12 right?
What happened that ended airships etc?
And where are the non 'hume' characters like whatever Fran was? :(
 

ForceStealer

Double Growth
This game is alot darker than I remember:
In game Rumor said:
A Stalemate

Three months have passed since the Battle of Groffovia - the first full-scale battle between the forces of Lesalia and Limberry on the plains that define the border of their two lands. Formidable knights, once allies in war, now meet each other as enemies on the battlefield in skirmishes with no clear victor - bloody clashes that have resulted in close to four hundred thousand casualties.
Many say that the two sides have reached an impasse, and the prospect of a protracted struggle does little to bolster the already low spirits of the people.

Four hundred thousand from a single battle? I mean were they fighting against Godzilla or what? That's pretty damn bleak.

Hahah, wow I'm not sure I ever took particular note of that number before. The US Civil War saw ~620,000 casualties, so maybe that's the sort of level of devastation they were going for? It really supports what Count Orlandeau was saying.

I'm having a hard time picturing this world, it's set after FF12 right?
What happened that ended airships etc?
And where are the non 'hume' characters like whatever Fran was? :(

Yes, this is something I'm eager to talk about about the big XII fans on the board as we move on in the playthrough, as it gets into some things I was hoping to get from XII but didn't see - but maybe some of the diehards found more.

Without getting too spoilery yet - yes, this game takes place well after FFXII (known as the Age of Technology). This is about 1300 years after XII, and the game's framing device of Arazlam Durai is speaking from 400 years after that. Obviously the airships and tech buried under Goug is from that era. About a 100 years after FFXII there was a calamity that wiped out cities and gave rise to St. Ajora and the Zodiac Braves that Cardinal Delacroix referenced. And this calamity is assumed to have either killed the other races like Viera and Bangaa or simply drove them off into seclusion to avoid the destructive Humes. (Though I believe Tactics specifically refers to Moogles as extinct, so they may well have been wiped out.)
 
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Russell

.. ? ..
AKA
King of the Potato People
About a 100 years after FFXII there was a calamity that wiped out cities and gave rise to St. Ajora and the Zodiac Braves that Cardinal Delacroix referenced. And this calamity is assumed to have either killed the other races like Viera and Bangaa or simply drove them off into seclusion to avoid the destructive Humes.

I'd guess it was the Occuria?

After Vayne had "put the reins of history back in the hands of Man" maybe mankind was getting to advanced so in vengeance the Occuria sent the world back to the stone age. The Zodiac Braves used Nethicite right? Just like the Occuria. Seems like they took back the reins of history. Sheds a new light on that "Vayne was right" thing.



Does that make any sense or am I talking out of my arse?

It's tired and I'm late :wacky:
I haven't played FFXII for years so forgive me if I'm not remembering this right.
 

Flare

Pro Adventurer
AKA
Flare
I started playing the game last night. So far I'm enjoying it!
Tactics Advance really does continue the gameplay and such, so I already feel familiar with this. That being said this game does have differences and it's been a slight learning curve.

Some thoughts so far (I'm still on the first chapter):
I've discovered if a character that's not a Guest or Ramza gets K.O.'d in a fight, and you don't revive them, they seem to stay dead. I lost one of my gals that I'd recently made a knight this way; didn't know that would happen.
Though since it's that way, also makes more sense that this game would give you a Game Over if Ramza is K.O.'d for 3 turns. Really makes you think "Oh they really are slowly bleeding to death".

Thank god I have a booklet to refer to for help. I was confused at the Fitting Room in the shop, wondering wtf was the purpose. Seriously, my first thought was that this was how you equipped your characters and that you had to pay every time.

Had to use the booklet again to find out "How DO I equip my characters and change jobs and shit?!"
Oh, click Party Roster and then click the triangle button >___> Why not just have a slightly bigger menu that includes the options :wacky:

Need to remember that when I change into a new job I should check for at least one ability to learn to use in that new job. :closedmonster: Just made Ramza a white mage.... guess who has no white mage spells in my current fight?

This seems funny to say but I'm not used to assigning literally everything to my characters in a game. I'm used to saying "Here, you're a white mage now" and them having abilities set up automatically.

Oh, the War of the Lions version has cool cutscenes, they're like a drawing-artsy style and I like it.


I see Dorter labeled on my map now so I'm just going to get used to this battle system and gain more skills and stuff before I attempt what I think must be the infamous battle there. :monster:
 

Jason Tandro

Banned
AKA
Jason Tandro, Doc Brown, Santa Christ, FearAddict, Thibault Stormrunner, RN: Micah Rodney
Chapter 5

Discussion:
  • Do you have any thoughts in Ramza's change as a person? This is always where it struck me.

  • Actually, I wouldn't say he has changed as a person so much as he has become more experienced and less naive. His main motivation - a sense of justice - seems to be the same thing. He was naive to believe that knighthood automatically instilled a sense of rightness, but nonetheless he fought under the assumption that his was the correct way of thinking... until
    Algus/Argath/Draco Malfoy showed him that was rarely the case.


    [*]
    Thoughts on Cúchulainn? Did you struggle?

    I feel like the snot-nosed punk that everybody knows but... no I didn't struggle with him at all. Team PunchSpell just facerolled through him and with tier 4 magic (which correct me if I'm wrong but does Tier 4 not target allies?), Flare, Holy and Ramuh I was able to take him down in two rounds. Ramza barely even did anything. In fact he got put to sleep and I just let him sleep.

    [*]LOTS of plot starting in the middle of this segment, any comments or questions?
    I get the general gist of what's going on (war is being stirred up by nefarious bastards for nefarious purposes) but the exact who and what is involved and to what end is still kind of confusing for me at points. I get that Ovelia is being used, that Delita is being used, and to an extent that Dycedarg and Zalbag (to say nothing of Prince's Goltana and Larg) are being used. But that's basically it. I assume things will clear up later in the story.

    [*]How badly do you want Orran's/Olan's Celestial Stasis/Galaxy Stall? lol
    The Olan fight was a good memory for me. It was one of the later fights that I recall playing, mainly for that ability and the amazing song that goes along with the fight. Galaxy Stop is cool, but my strategy has up this point not utilized debuffs at all (except very early on when I was in Chapter 1 and 2 I would use Magic and Armor Break). My strategy has been why disable when you can deadify? :monster:


    [*]Any changes to your Job lineup?

Somewhat, Team PunchSpell has remained my active roster but I am in the process of bulking up Agrias and Mustadio as occasional sub-in physical fighters. I have switched Harry back to Chemist (from White Mage) so he can learn Hi-Ether (done) and Elixir. Then I'll put him back on Priest to learn Reraise and maybe Regen and then from there I think I might have him walk through some other jobs to get useful sub abilities. A Teleporting healer would be nice.

One of my Wizards, Penelope, just graduated to Summoner, having learned Ice4 and Flare (she still has Fire4 left to learn of the essential Black Magic spells but I want her to get summons since Summons don't target allies and Olan had a death wish... :/ ). Also I have taught none of them Death. Is it really useful? I mean my Tier4 spells have been one-shotting most opponents I've put them up against. I once let a Bolt4 fly which dealt around 400 damage to three targets and wiped them out so...

Ramza continues slowly along the Samurai path but so far I'm not finding his attack abilities all that special. Now his HEALING ability is freaking astounding. I stocked up on Murasame's just in case they break because that thing is hella useful. That said, he knows "Two Hands" now, so after I teach him one more skill I'll take away the Punch-Art, doublefist him and let him loose.

I spent most of Chapter 5 leveling, training and doing jobs. I have done every Proposition available up to this point. I have been using Rad, Alicia and Lavian for them, as well as my two male fighters. I also used the Soldier Office for the first time just to hire a character (a female Chemist I named "Rookie") to go with those two. [Side Note: You CAN name soldiers you hire from the soldier office. Pro Tip for new players, if names are important to you and you don't mind a bit of a catch-up grind, use the soldier office early on to get the named troops you want.] I'll never bother getting them to catch up to the levels so they're just my outsourced knights. I always set the maximum days if you are wondering.

As far as levels: Team PunchSpell is around Level 30-31 (Ramza is actually a bit lower since I was leaving him out to train Agrias), my two male fighters are Level 15 and Rad, Alicia and Lavian are still Level 8. I also have a gaggle of Chocobos but I haven't used them as of yet. Even got a couple black chocobos.

And it's June of Year 2 for me if anybody is wondering, lol.
 

Joker

We have come to terms
AKA
Godot
Keep in mind that Two Hands means they're using both hands on their weapon, which increases their damage output by 1.5 on basic attacks.

Also, raise MA if the damage of Draw Out isn't to your liking.
 
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