Final Fantasy V Community Playthrough

[Flare]

Discussion: What did you think of the character reveal in this chapter, and did you see it coming? One of my feelings about this game is that the way its story is told isn't very nuanced; as The Engineer wrote above, things are played pretty straight. Do you agree, based on what you've seen so far? The boss on North Mountain is probably the toughest you've faced up to this point - did you have any difficulties?

It would be nice if people shared their job setups when they write their reports but I'm not going to keep asking about it.

Just finished chapter 2 this morning. Was an enjoyable chapter.

Spoiler: Chapter 2

Character reveal - Yeah I saw it coming. The scene where Bartz and Galuf see Faris sleeping and then get all googly-eyed clued me in. Then of course not wanting to get clothes wet was super obvious.

Is the story told straight? - Seems pretty straightforward to me so far, for sure. I feel like it's very classic? It definitely has this older, simplistic 'adventure and save the world' feel to it. I find it charming actually. It's a very enjoyable thing to play nowadays, and yet I'll admit I'd be highly disappointed if a new FF game were to be made with such a simple story nowadays. I think this charming straightforward adventure is further suited by the simple graphics. I love it.

North Mountain Boss - It was the toughest boss so far, but I had no major difficulties, none of my characters died, so woot!


On to general chapter observations~
I know you hardly know her, but losing Syldra was still kind of sad to me. Because dragon animal companions that are best friends from birth are awesome. Of course she may not be lost, I've never played the game so don't know if she'll pop back up later on, but for now it seems that she is and so I won't expect to see her again.

Even though it's still simplistic, I've been enjoying the story and the character interactions. They're quite an amusing group, and I still find myself giggling at the things they say and do. Galuf slapping everyone awake was entertaining.
The ship graveyard was a fun place to explore, I thought; found the flail, helped Galuf out while he was a white mage.
Carwen is a nice village, I absolutely love the song that plays in it. Realized you could play pianos and level up your skill in this chapter (though I only remembered to play the one in Carwen after visiting at the start of the 3rd Chapter, realizing that it was on the stage and thus...forced Bartz to get some entertainment again so I could play it... )

I like the poison flowers on North Mountain, I realized they did something funky after stepping on them, off course. And then you find Hiryu and heal him at the end of the chapter, which I loved. Traveling a FF world by dragon back? YAS
As someone else noted, there's a lot of different 'vehicles' available to you (or that you use) early on in the game, which is rare for a FF game. I'm really enjoying it, even with your movements naturally restricted.

Enjoyable chapter overall!

My job setup changed a bit in this chapter, and I ended with:

Bartz - Blue Mage
Lenna - Monk
Galuf - Black Mage
Faris - Knight

Lenna has learned a few Thief skills, she currently has Find Passages as her second ability, then I switched her to Monk. Galuf is a lvl. 3 White Mage so I've switch him to Black Mage now. I'm thinking of making someone else a White Mage pretty soon so more people know how to use Cure if needed. Bartz might be the likely candidate, I'm not doing so well at having him learn monster abilities so there's no point in me keeping him a Blue Mage at the moment. Just waiting for him to get 3 more ATB points to level it up, and then he'll be working a new job.

 

[Flintlock]

Hangout link. Starting in five minutes.

 

[Lex]

Also here's an embed of the stream, but don't forget to join the chat.

 

[Jason Tandro]

Here's my thoughts on Chapter 6:

Read The Journal Here

 

[Flintlock]

Chapter 7: Enough Expository Playthrough

Time: Monday 15/02 to Thursday 18/02

Target: After this event. Sadly, it's not a new party member.

You'll probably want to follow the little critter before saving - just don't enter the forest.

Discussion: What did you think of this chapter?

 

[AvecAloes]

Chapter 5

Discussion: what did you think of this chapter?

We got to do quite a bit of exploring in this Chapter! So many new places to see. Istory, Jachol (town and cave), Gorn, Crescent, Lix, Ronka Ruins, Desert of the Shifting Sands...jeez, we really got around. I managed to get the summon hiding in the woods near Istory pretty easily, and I even went back to the desert you needed to skirt around early in the game in order to get to the Ancient Library and picked up Aqua Lung/Breath/Rake whatever the version you're playing calls it, a seriously powerful Blue magic. I don't recall having much difficulty with this Chapter (I say that with uncertainty because it did take me several days to get through the Chapter due to other things getting in the way, so I can't actually remember whether it went completely smoothly or not), especially since I picked up Aqua Lung before going into the Desert of the Shifting Sands. Man, that move really made the Sand Worm boss a joke. Also, holy crap methods of transportation. They just keep coming. Now that I have the airship, and have no more need for Boko2, well...I feel kind of bad for just leaving him behind. I'm sure he'll be happy to be back home and all, but...

I really liked going to Bartz's hometown, even if we had to witness some of his sad backstory. (trying to be vague for newcomers)
I've been learning whatever Bard songs I can from the minstrels in towns various, even though I don't think I ever used a Bard in my last playthrough. Maybe I'll give it a shot this time. I've read that they're not incredibly useful, but I suppose it's all in how you play the game. There were SO MANY jobs that I just never touched when I first played the game, and so I feel like I should at least make an attempt to try a couple of battles using each job, just for the sake of being able to. I find the Job System to be pretty fun overall, so I might as well take advantage of it while I can. Having just played FF Tactics:WotL and only using a few choice jobs, I feel like I should probably expand my horizons just a bit. Maybe. I don't know, I guess we'll see what actually ends up happening.

I'm always reminded of how much I absolutely LOVE this soundtrack each time I play. The themes are all so good and unique. I looooove the various dungeon themes that I've come across already. I'll probably end up listening to the soundtrack at work (again) tomorrow, now that I'm thinking about it.

Current Jobs:

Bartz - Mystic Knight

Lenna - I just switched her to a Summoner with Red Magic as my secondary ability.

Galuf - Ninja with Blue Magic

Faris - Mystic Knight. I had her as a regular Knight for most of the chapter, but switched her to Mystic Knight as soon as I learned Two-Handed, so now she and Bartz are doing pretty massive damage with their Spellblade abilities.

 

[ForceStealer]

A-HA! Caught up!

Chapter 5: Sinking in the Quicksand

Fun flying around on the chocobo As Avec says, it's cool that you get to see the hero's hometown. And that it's as it was for him, and that he is/was on good terms with both of his parents. Pretty dang rare for an RPG hero.
I headed for Jachol originally but Bio Soldiers in the area wrecked my face, so I went up to Istory to get Ramuh. So my equipment was a little weaker for Ramuh but it went pretty smoothly. Then I upgraded my weapons and went through the cave with that stupid squirrel enemy. All about Throwing or Geomancy though, since those don't miss.
Also your first look at some of the high-tech stuff hiding in this world.

Chapter 6: The Last Crystal

I really didn't remember how rapidly this game drops all sorts of transit on you. True, you go through airships like candy in FFIV, but in under six hours in this game I've been on a chocobo, a boat, a wyvern, a black chocobo, and an airship (that transforms into a boat, no less).

I remember the Shifting Sands giving me a hard time before, and this time it didn't take me TOO long, but still a little embarrassing how many times I went through the same loop several times.

Here you see quite a bit more tech, something that the FFV anime really ran with. I actually had also completely forgotten that Galuf was a good old fashioned alien. I guess I thought his world was maybe a parallel universe, but nope, he straight up Jenova'd on over here.

In any case, I love the sequence with the flying ruins and your airship. Actually turning into Galaxian for a bit would have been extra fun of course, but it was still fun to have a top-down view and maneuvering to take out it's defenses before the big cannon comes out. I actually saw some flashes of Chrono Trigger there in the aesthetic of the technology and such. Interesting.

I love Exdeath's theme.

Chapter 7: Enough Expository Playthrough

So it took me a bit to think to use a tent on that starting island...what happens if you don't have one?
Then, more Exdeath Theme I remember being impressed the first time with how they managed to make him feel powerful even just using the little sprites and effects. He lacks the personality of other villains, but I do always find him intimidating.

And besides, Gilgamesh has enough personality for the both of them! Galuf's charge into the castle to rescue everyone was pretty badass. I of course didn't run into a single battle consisting of one enemy until I had the whole party together, so I had to keep fleeing with a Red Mage Galuf (figured it gave me the best chance). Then when the whole party was together I exclusively ran into single-enemy battles :/

Anyway I forgot that a Battle on the Big Bridge took place so soon. Great track, great sequence, great boss fight. This is why I like the game so much. The story and characters might be a bit one note, but it's simply fun.

That last segment was pretty tough, the random monsters definitely kicked up a notch, and the water caves had a pretty high encounter rate. At least the boss at the end was a pushover, because I was thoroughly out of MP.


Jobs:

Bartz: Still White Mage/Summoner. I do have to put off summons in battles for healing fairly often...but I think it's better than him not having any offensive capabilities.

Lenna: Ninja (with Counter from Monk). After getting Ranger I had her as that for awhile (as I want Rapid Fire), but after the flying ruin and the difficulty stepped up I switched her back to Ninja.

Galuf: Black Mage/Time Mage. The Time Magic has been pretty clutch, between Gravity, Haste/Slow/Stop, and near the end of this chapter - Comet. I'm a big fan. I hope I'm approaching the -aga Black Mage spells as they're starting to lose their potency.

Faris: Resident Bad Ass. For most of the night she continued to be a Mystic Knight with Twohanded from Knight. It's fantastic for bosses (although for that hard battle at the end of the flying ruin I switched her back to Knight as changing Spellsword for each weakness change wasn't worth the time). Then of course I unlocked my beloved Dragoon, but as I didn't have a spear yet, and Gilgamesh didn't have much in the way of elemental weaknesses, I actually made her a Samurai. I tend to shy away from the gil wasting class but let me tell you, Twohanding the Ashura did some serious damage with regular attacks. (Also, once Gilgamesh amps himself up, I did use Zeninage for 2200 damage, which was pretty cool.) However, once I got to Regole, I bought a spear and made her Dragoon. She actually can't dish out the damage she does as a samurai normally, but Jump is brutal.

And all of FFV's dungeon music is freaking phenomenal. Cursed Lands, Musica Machina, Intention of the Earth (especially), Exdeath's Castle, and the aforementioned Big Bridge. Also the world map theme in Galuf's World is great too.

 

[RedFFWolf]

Spoiler: Chapter 5 & 6

Everything below is just an order of random thoughts as I played. I hadn’t the time to play through chapters coherently, so I’ve just been keeping on track with a few sporadic thoughts.


Here’s what went down:

Bit of a surprise wandering a forest near Easterly Village and the boss music starts playing, but then I realised what that woman in the village meant by the old man wandering around. No issues, at least. And the 'Toad' spell works wonders on getting those MiniDragons - great EXP!

Crescent Island - This game just loves to laugh at misfortune. The old man in purple laughed at our ship being swallowed by the whirlpool. Suppose they deserve it for laughing at Cid earlier.

Jachol Cave was great for 5ABP Skull Eaters - Geomancer's "Stalactite" took care of 'em, and even if Will o' Wisp was used (which did 0), it at least confused them.

Found Boko after revisiting the Pirate’s Hideout. Get well soon!

I never went to Tycoon Castle until now.
I had a feeling they were sisters ever since Faris first mentioned the pendants

Figures we’d have to fight for the airship, but the boss was a cakewalk. Galuf as a Knight, 2-handed ability, equipped with a Coral Sword = 1,600HP regular hit.

Rikks Village – if you’re reading this and have not gone there yet, go there. It’s touching. You’ll even discover what is perhaps the definitive origin of Bartz’s fear of heights.

Went back to Tycoon Castle while searching for Earth Crystal –was treated to a really nice cutscene about Faris and Reina as children.

Then I went to Walz Castle and freed Lone Wolf

No trouble from the boss, Adamantaim

Cids, Mids, and fucking…Mids and Cids.
(They work fast)

Soul Gun was an interesting boss. Any boss that displays a number of messages before doing anything makes me wonder when am I going to die? After one more message? Did I save recently? But its attack wasn’t so bad, even when that Sap effect took place [I assume Regen can counteract this, but none of my characters had it available to use]. Still, the boss was no trouble really, especially with Galuf and that invaluable Coral Sword. Cure 2. Attack. Cure 2. Attack. And so forth.
(Sounds impressive getting a Dark Matter already – are they that big a deal in this game, I wonder.)

Some nice EXP to be had from the Ronka Ruins – and the boss, Archeoaevis, was no trouble at all. I suppose magic-heavy parties might have had difficulty, but I’ve only character with magic.

It’d be nice if there ends up being a little more backstory behind Krile’s appearance than just immaculate timing.

People should just stop dying in these shrines. Wind Shrine had the best music and no deaths. Just sayin’

Interesting that X-Death “begged” to be brought back to Galuf’s world – Galuf says this on the airship before his departure. I was sort of intrigued and went comparing dialogues. Another one said

Spoiler

“One of us insisted that we take him back with us. We should have done as he said.”

For now, I’m not going to look into it any further, in case I end up spoiling anything.

Went to Tycoon Castle again before Tycoon Meteor. Got another brief cutscene of Faris & Reina’s past.

Oh, those Byurobolos were no fun. Taking them out one at a time with mute then attack with the rest, and (after a while of other revivals beforehand) it all goes well until the last one, and mute must have failed or something, ‘cause he brought all 5 of his scumbag buddies back. Finished with a K.O.’ed Bartz, but I’m far from mourning his loss of 5ABP at this stage.
The other two bosses were no trouble.

I’m a sucker for areas or parts of the game that are just sound effects and no music. I look forward to playing ahead [thought I did partake in some battles; having won 3 tents in a row, I can safely say I know what to do next - this game has done stuff like this before, like having to shop at Karnak].
A brand new world in itself is a lot to anticipate (and I wanna see more Werewolves )


I apologise to anyone who has read through all this.

Everyone at level 23
Bartz - Monk (and Monk ability, Store)
Reina - White Mage (with Black Mage abilities)
Galuf - Knight (with 2-handed ability)
Faris - Hunter (with Critter ability), though I swap this with thief from time to time

I need to spread more magic about, but until I'm properly struggling I'm happy to master some jobs first and then taking whatever advantages forward to other jobs.

 

[ForceStealer]

^I liked the background for the Soul Cannon battle. It's cool seeing the airship flying behind you

Also the Amano artwork of it is pretty

Spoiler: amazing

.

 

[Flintlock]

Time to start my own write-ups. I played chapters 5 and 6 on Saturday with Lex and Minato.

Chapter 5: Sinking in the Quicksand

Did anyone get the Bowie reference? No?

I started the chapter with the Fire Ship and no memory of what I was supposed to do - I'd last played this save file over half a year ago (and in case Monterosa or Kuroto read this, I didn't save over it, so we can still play together!) - so I started sailing around, looking for places I hadn't been before. I visited the Jachol caves before the city, which was a bit confusing, because I didn't pick up the advice to "wait for the truth to be revealed". I almost got killed by Skull Eaters a few times but it was nice when they ran away, leaving 5 AP behind. I came back in chapter six with some tricks up my sleeve to beat them, namely, scrolls and the Gaia command.

Apparently I had already been to Easterly Village. I spent a while hunting for the old man in the forest, had no luck, then checked my inventory and found that I had already picked up Ramuh. It's strange that he is acquired as an item rather than being learnt directly.

This game really doesn't make it obvious what to do a lot of the time. Maybe Cid/Mid told me to go to Crescent Island before, but I had forgotten all about it. All I found were some hints from people in Jachol (I think) saying that it's a crescent-shaped island. And once I arrived, I spent a while running around in the town before realising the only thing I could do was leave and watch the Fire Ship sink. Transportation doesn't stick around long in this game, does it?

Speaking of transportation, black Chocobos are remarkably pink! I used mine to visit Lix. Great music, sad flashback. Then I got stuck again. If in doubt, visit Cid...

I made it through the desert on the first try but then got wiped out by some Bio Soldiers on the other side before I had saved. D'oh. Playing hide and seek with the King was silly. Getting the airship - and beating the boss - was quite straightforward. I don't think I'm particularly overlevelled but I'm probably comfortably levelled, maybe one or two ahead of what the game expects. That's quite rare for me in a Final Fantasy game, but it's all because of the job system. I don't need the EXP but I want the AP!

Chapter 6: The Last Crystal

Again, the game didn't give me much of an indication of what I should be doing. I accidentally triggered the cutscene at Gorn just by flying over it. I then went back to Tycoon Castle, after which I was lost. I thought about going back to the airship base and Minato confirmed it on the Hangout.

The bosses leading into the Black Omen (sorry, couldn't get the Chrono Trigger similarity out of my mind) took a while because I played it safe, going back to save after each one. They weren't particularly threatening in damage terms but they kept confusing my party members. I was expecting the boss, Soul Gun, to be worse than it was, especially with all the warnings. Everyone had access to lightning attacks to make short work of it.

The Omen itself had some tricky enemies, and I got a bit lost at one point (I didn't see a door so I backtracked and then had to back-backtrack), so it took longer than it should have. I ended up fighting the Archeoaevis twice, because Galuf was wearing some of my best equipment, and I didn't realise to take it off him. Aside from Galuf, I had quite a magic-oriented party, so I thought the fight would be tricky, but it wasn't too bad. I didn't bother to scan and exploit the boss's weaknesses, but my level 2 spells were still doing decent damage.

Butz, level 24
Currently: Mystic Knight 1 + Two-Handed
Others: Knight 3, Monk 5, Thief 2, Red Mage 3

Lenna, level 25
Currently: Ranger 2 + Summon
Others: Monk 1, Thief 2, White Mage 3, Black Mage 3, Time Mage 3, Summoner 3, Geomancer 3/Mastered

Faris, level 24
Currently: Ninja 1 + Learning
Others: Thief 6, White Mage 1, Black Mage 3, Summoner 2, Blue Mage 3

Galuf had been a Ninja 4, Mystic Knight 4, Berserker 1, and some other odds and ends. Ninja/Berserker was a great combo for regular battles, and Ninja/Mystic Knight was useful for bosses, so losing him in this chapter forced me to change my plans for Butz and Faris to cover his absence.

Faris had been a Thief + Learning for ages, because I love the innate abilities of Thief, and because I don't know what Blue Magic is available in the game so I don't want to miss any. Now she's learning Ninja skills, I intend to switch either Butz or Lenna over to Thief once they've picked up a level or two in their current jobs. I already got them up to 2 in Thief while I was steal-farming some spears from Sand Bears. Red had been Butz's secondary ability for the longest time; at this stage in the game, it's so useful to have black and white magic in one slot. The next Red Mage ability takes 999 AP, though, so I'm not going for it yet.

 

[Flare]

Finished chapter 3

Spoiler: Chapter 3

Discussion: This is quite a short chapter - I'd make it longer, but I don't want to break up the next part of the game, which can be a bit tricky. There are some optional things to do in this chapter, however, which I'll hint at: you can visit a castle you saw earlier in the game, and you can unlock a hidden summon. Did you do either of these things? If it's your first time, did you find them yourself or did you follow a guide? What did you do about Lone Wolf, and why? How did your battle with Garula go? What do you think of your new jobs? Did you do any shopping in Karnak?

So first things first I did some exploring because, hello, I'm riding a dragon. Went back to Tycoon first and found all the goodies there and got the cutscene between the two girls--and yes most likely sisters--which was a nice addition. Then had fun running around Walse castle and the town, though the town was a bit small.

While in Walse castle, I hear mention of Shiva, so I explore a bit, come across a Jackanapes, and SOMEHOW managed to finally escape the damn battle after a few minutes of doing literally nothing against it and trying to keep my party alive. So yay, no game over screen for me yet! By a goddamn miracle... I didn't get Shiva this chapter but I'll see about it next chapter before I get into anything big... if I can go back that is.

I didn't release Lone Wolf, him and the other dude seemed pretty questionable.

I actually fought a Garula outside of the tower, I went there first before doing the cutscene at Walse castle. Then did the whole cutscene, went back to the tower, climbed it, and ended up missing one treasure that I wasn't sure how to get because... the tower sinks after you reach the top... >.> As for the Garula boss fight, it went well; Bartz got KO'd once but other than that no problems.
Also, Syldra did pop up again, only to save the crew with the last of her strength before dying. Aww.

For the story, I'm curious about these meteors and what the deal is with them. I have a feeling all the crystals will end up shattering every time you reach them and then everything gets really bad in the world. It'll be up to Bartz and the gang to save it!

And yes, I did go shopping in Karnak. How did you know? Got arrested immediately! The nerve..... I need to go back into the town and buy stuff now that I'm back out of jail. Also, I like the Cid here; him trying to bomb his way out of jail only to realize he bombed his way into another cell made me laugh. XD Seems like he's the character with the 'good intentions but things went wrong and now he's extremely guilty'.

As for the jobs, I just started trying out the new ones, and I'm loving experimenting with them. So far I have~

Bartz - Mystic Knight. Also has lvl. 3 Blue Mage and lvl. 2 White Mage.
Lenna - Monk. Also has lvl. 3 Thief.
Galuf - Summoner. Also has lvl. 3 White Mage and lvl. 3 Black Mage.
Faris - Berserker. Also has lvl 3. Knight.

I believe everyone is at lvl 20.
Edit: Er wait, sorry that's a typo. Everyone's only at lvl 15 right now, and when I finished the chapter they were at lvl. 13. Oops

 

[Flintlock]

Chapter 7: Enough Expository Playthrough

This was such a great chapter.

Starting off with nowhere to go and nothing to do was brilliant. I love the way V hints at what you need to do without always telling you. Yes, there was a "let's pitch a tent" cut-scene, but it took a while to appear. Arguably the bigger clue was that the island's only enemy dropped tents. I farmed a dozen or so.

I don't really understand X-Death's logic. Galuf admitted to Butz that he would have been killed if he had carried on with the attack, so X-Death basically spared his life and the lives of Butz, Lenna and Faris. Since it would apparently have been easy for him to kill them, why didn't he just do it? I see two possibilities: 1) he's not actually the game's Big Bad, or 2) he plans to use the playable characters to advance his own goals. Both have been used in other Final Fantasy games. I suppose "writer's oversight" is a third possibility.

Anyway, mirrors don't work like that, but OK. Maybe it's a magic mirror.

Is the Wind Drake in this world somehow connected to Hiryu in Butz's world, or did the developers just re-use the sprites? I'm sure I'll find out.

It was cool getting to play as Galuf on his own for a while. Good to have him back in general, really. And all those plans I made at the end of chapter six because he left... never mind. It can't hurt to have two characters with Ninja and Mystic Knight levels.

Gilgamesh was pretty awesome right from the start. He's developed such a mythical status in the series, but this was my first time seeing him "at the source". I chuckled when he randomly appeared from behind a door.

Clash on the Big Bridge / Battle at the Big Bridge doesn't sound so great on the GBA so I listened to this version a few times instead. Dat synth.

Lots of new magic to buy in Regole. Also the first opportunity to buy Hi-Potions, unless I'm mistaken. I've been stealing a few but the steal rate in this game, or maybe just with certain monsters, seems to be very low. I didn't have much left for weapons or armour afterwards but I think my equipment is decent enough.

I paid a quick visit to the Sealed Castle, which wasn't so sealed. Got wiped out by a Shield Dragon. Equipped the Flee command and went back. It's pretty neat to be able to see all the legendary weapons - I'm sure they'll come up again later. Spotted a few familiar names - Yoichi Bow, Masamune and so on.

I couldn't help but laugh when I jumped down to the Underground River to rescue a moogle and my first encounter was with an enemy called Moogle Eater.

I had a feeling that the Tyrannosaur boss was undead, but I had tried using Raise on the undead-looking Shield Dragon earlier without luck, so I wasn't sure if it worked in this game. Resorted to Fira instead and it was super easy anyway.

I accidentally clipped a corner of the sand when following the Moogle and got into an inescapable battle with a Sand Crawler immediately - fun! It was pretty tough. All my characters finished the fight with single-digit HP. I rode my luck a bit, thinking "it must nearly be dead, no point healing", when it wasn't anywhere close to dying. Somehow, its physical attacks kept missing me so nobody died.

I'll do a job/level update after the even-numbered chapters. Speaking of which, I'm away this weekend so I won't be able to hang out with you guys unless we start a couple of hours earlier. Maybe that would work for the Europeans.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Chapter 4

I loved the feel of Library of the Ancients. As several people have already mentioned, the OST of this game is spot on. I liked how once you get Ifrit, the library more or less "calms down".

The timed run-though of the castle is a nice touch and I got everything in the castle except a few Elixers... but I've got tones of those from grinding, so it's no biggy. I think I did two run-thoughs of the castle so I could get both all of the items and the Aera spell from Giggas.

Speaking of Blue magic, I've got a nice collection now. The only Blue Magic spell I've "missed" so far is Death Claw because I didn't know you could get it from the Iron Claw boss. Probably the most annoying one to get was Level 5 Death because in the Steam version, you actually have to get hit with the Level X spells to learn them and all my characters are only a few hundred EXP off from each other. I was also at Lvl 28 at the time when I finished the chapter, so I whet and ground for AP/EXP up until one character was Lvl 30 so I could get Level 5 Death without KOing the entire party. I don't know how it works in the other versions, but in the Steam version, all the Magic skills are in one pool for the whole party. So you only need to learn a spell once for everyone to be able to do it.

Blue Magic Available
Aqua Breath
Level 5 Death
Pond's Chorus
Flash
Moon Flute
Aero
Aera
Goblin Punch
Off-Guard
Transfusion
Vampire
Self-Destruct
???
Missile

Jobs/Character Info before Chapter 5

All characters are Lvl. 30

All Jobs are at:

Knight: Mastering
Monk: Mastering
Thief: Mastering
Ninja: Lvl 4
Berserker: Lvl 1
Mystic Knight: Lvl 6
White Mage: Lvl 6
Black Mage: Mastering
Time Mage: Lvl 6
Summoner: Lvl 5
Blue Mage: Mastered!
Red Mage: Lvl 3
Beastmaster: Lvl 3
Geomaster: Mastered!

Ninja... Duel-Wield... that skill is awesome. Which probably means it's going to be next on the Mastery list once Knight/Monk/Thief/Black Mage are finished. I'm thinking it's going to be replacing Two-Handed for the best physical DPS skill. Beastmaster is pretty much used for getting all the OP Blue Magic spells it looks like (or at least, it makes it easier). Geomaster has some interesting abilities that'll make dungeons easier if someone goes Freelancer (especially when combined with the Thief abilities). The Gaia ability itself is interesting in that even though it does semi-random spells, none of them cost any MP and it's based on the Magic stat so it's a good ability to have on mages when you don't want them using MP up (good for grinding basically). I went ahead and mastered it as it only take 175 AP to do it.

Character Set-Up

Faris: Monk w/ Blue Magic
Galuf: Knight w/ Two-Handed
Bartz: Black Mage w/ White Magic
Lenna: Thief w/ Spellblade

Still mastering all the early classes for the stats for the Freelancer Job. Blue Magic now has enough spells learned to make it worth equipping on someone and Spellblade is a nice ability for physical DPS. Faris makes for a way better Monk then Galuf did because she's fast, so the move Kick now gets used to it's fullest potential a lot more.

 

[Roger]

Finally caught up after I got stuck at the end of the Hangout on the Bomb fight where they kept spamming Arise upon death. Getting Galuf back was a relief, my party sucks without him.

Current character setup (party level 22):
Butz: lvl 4 Monk w/ White Magic or lvl 3 White Mage with Red Magic, switches depending on what need is greater
Lenna: lvl 3 Mystic Knight w/ Twohanded, does awesome damage against any single enemy with an elemental weakness.
Galuf: lvl 6 Black Mage w/ Summon
Faris: lvl 4 Monk w/ Chakra

Been trying to get Mystic Knight going on Butz as well and Ninja on Galuf but i generally go back to this when the going gets tough. Faris has Thief stuff when neccesary.

The attack on the Floating Fortress has been the most memorable sequence for me, nice round of gimmick boss to start with and decent dungeon.

 

[RedFFWolf]

Chapter VII

Crawling along past the troll-like guards – love these little touches that aren’t necessary; they add to the appreciation (even when Galuf just storms past them earlier).

There’s a nice touch of melancholy to this new world map music – one that has a continuous hope that lingers, yet aware of its own struggles, but embodies the group’s “let’s try” and “let’s get ‘em” attitude.

The Big Bridge – So, once I was here, I reset. I had saved my game right before the bridge, and decided this was worthy of having a second save file to return to! (And that it was best to have it on File 2 instead, in case I were to accidentally overwrite it in the future )
Once that music began, and Galuf says something like it’s all monsters from here on out, things felt “real”. The group had just travelled to another world, almost immediately imprisoned by X-Death, and have now bust out thanks to the friend whom they came here to help – it’s like there’s this unique bonding dynamic from this, and they’re experiencing it with the right music

Gilgamesh wasn’t hard, and I’m glad he got a bit stronger as the battle went on, due to his buffs. But, with Galuf and Bartz hitting hard with Monk and Knight, respectively, and Reina with her Heal Rod and Cure 2 and Faris’s also healing with Nightingale popping up so much, it was an easy battle (which may have been aided by Ancient Sword causing ‘Old’ status on Gilgamesh)

Ferry Walk enemy is not so unusual or unique for its appearance as it is its name. I had to check this out, and it seems like in other versions it’s known as “Fairy Orc”, which makes a little more sense

Lugor Bordertown had some great items to purchase (and a girl hinting at owning a Ribbon), we got a free night in the Inn, where afterwards Bartz & Galuf shared a drink, but seeing Bartz dance his way to earn 100GP was the real highlight. Well, not just Bartz. All 4 of them; I’d have them do anything for 100GP. Though Galuf wasn’t as graceful a spinner.

Praise be to Elf Cloaks for allowing me to evade enough attacks and eventually—EVENTUALLY—escape the Shield Dragon

and the water caves had a pretty high encounter rate.

Yes. Yes it did :\

The Tyrasaurus was easy. I mean, most of its attacks missed, but when it eventually landed a blow on Bartz, possibly critical (and Bartz was a Monk), it took over 4,500HP :\

Fought a Sandcrawler - with this game more than any other, since it's new to me, I start by experimenting with status effects to make certain battles easier (after a scan told me it had 15,000HP!). 'Break' will kill it.

(I confess to having a sneak peek into the Moogle Village, but I promise my save file begins outside before visiting it )


All characters at level 25.
Haven't experimented with the jobs since the last chapter.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Chapter 5

Playing this chapter reminded me why I will never be on the side of gamers who don't like things like quest markers on mini-maps. I think literally circled the globe with the black chocobo 3 times before I figured I had to go back to the Library of the Ancients. On the other hand, I did find a lot of interesting stuff.

It's cool that there's quite a few towns that (currently) have nothing to do with the main story and are optional at this point in the game. You tend not to see that a lot in more modern games (that aren't open sandboxes). I like how in the Jachol Caves it's obvious that other adventurers have opened treasure chests before you. Also, new grinding spots there! I went to Tycoon Castle and found it cool how Lenna is okay with Faris not wanting everyone to know they're sisters.

And we also finally figure out who the Big Bad is! On the other hand, this is the first time that the world starts turning some of the fantasy tropes on their heads. Apparently there's forgotten tech lying underneath the continents. It'll be interesting to see where the setting takes this.

Job Stuff

Picked up Dark Spark, another Blue Magic spell. I wonder how it halves odd leveled monsters. If there's a Level 2 or Level 3 Blue Magic spells it might be useful.

All characters are Lvl. 31

All Jobs are at:

Knight: Mastering
Monk: Mastering
Thief: Mastering
Ninja: Lvl 4
Berserker: Lvl 1
Ranger: Lvl 3
Mystic Knight: Lvl 6
White Mage: Lvl 6
Black Mage: Mastering
Time Mage: Lvl 6
Summoner: Lvl 5
Blue Mage: Mastered!
Red Mage: Lvl 3
Beastmaster: Lvl 3
Geomaster: Mastered!
Bard: Mastered!

Mastering Jobs is going to go a lot faster with the Jachol Caves grinding spot (mastering Geomaster for Gaia was so worth it). Ranger doesn't look that impressive of a job, except that it's last ability looks crazy strong (Rapid Fire + Duel Wield?). Bard is well... Bard... Thank goodness it's easy to master so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

Character Set-Up

Faris: Black Mage w/ White Magic
Galuf: Thief w/ Time Magic
Bartz: Monk w/ Blue Magic
Lenna: Knight w/Two-Handed

Pretty much still in the same place as last time, but with different characters.

 

[Flintlock]

Whoa-oh, we're half-way there! Whoa-oh, living...

Chapter 8: On a Wing and a Prayer

Time: Friday 19/02 to Sunday 21/02

Hangout: Not sure. As I said in my previous post, I'll be away for the weekend and I won't be able to stay up as late as I usually do for the Hangout. We can either start a couple of hours earlier than usual or you can organise your own Hangout at whatever time is best for you. Or just not have on this week. It's your playthrough, let me know what you want!

Target: After finding some more Dragon Grass and seeing this scene play out.

Discussion: What did you think of this chapter?

I think this chapter is a bit shorter than the last few (assuming you don't get distracted), so this is a good time to catch up if you've fallen behind!

 

[AvecAloes]

I will be catching up this weekend! I've had a very busy/social week, and I have to work tomorrow morning, but I should be able to get caught up by the end of the weekend.

 

[Roger]

I vote for starting a few hours earlier tomorrow

 

[Flintlock]

Noted. I should also say that I've already played to the end of chapter 8 so it would be nice if someone streamed.

 

[Lex]

I'll stream, but I'll be starting from where I left off last week so I don't know how far I'll get? If we start earlier I can probably get up to the end of chapter 8.

 

[Flintlock]

Alright, what time should we start? Something like 8 or 9 PM UK time would be best for me.

 

[Lex]

I should be good for 9 flintybaws

 

[Flintlock]

Hangout link. I'll be there in ten.

 

[Lex]

I'll be there in a few