A lot of the fun of FFT is putting together a team that will lay waste to your enemies. If you're just starting out, you're not going to "lay waste" so much as "eke by".
Good tips from earlier in this thread:
Use skills that require no target to cheese up some JP. For instance, accumulate (or whatever they named the Strength+1 Squire skill on PSP) always works 100%, and you never need a target. A good strategy is to murder all your enemies but 1, then just crowd together and accumulate / heal until you're tired of leveling up.
Gang-banging is absolutely required until you've got the kind of skills to one-shot people. In most cases, you're going to want to hang back until one jerk gets close enough for you to swarm with 3 or 4 of your men.
There are three battles that will make you want to stop playing. The third story battle (where you first encounter archers and wizards), Wiegraf (Wiglaf?) pt 1: the Monkening & Wiegraf pt 2: solo rapefest. Always remember to stagger your saves so that you can go back farther in time if necessary. If you have an appropriate save, you'll be able to tough it out for the rich, gooey rewards this game has to offer.
FFT can be frustrating up front because the difficulty is challenging. In many fights, you have to wait for your enemies to charge you so you can take them down one by one.
Yeah, the beginning of the game is especially daunting. I got to Dorter last night for the first time after not having played the game in years. If you don't have a good grasp on the nature of the game by then, which is only about four story battles in, you're gonna get your ass handed to you.
I remember when I first bought the game back in the day, thinking it was great and then getting to Dorter and just getting the hell beat out of me.
Like I mentioned earlier, am really digging the new translation, but there's a bit of superfluous jibba jabba from time to time. Lots of, "YOU DARE BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!?!?"
I really, really want to get into these games but so far I am really struggling. I feel FFT may be a better starting point than Disgaea, but I'm finding the lack of hand holding daunting as hell. Can anyone give any general beginners advice or point me in the direction of some good guide? Any tips for a complete beginner would be worthwhile. I am determined to enjoy and finish a Final Fantasy game some time before the end of my 20's!
Tactics and Fire Emblem are really drastically different games. They're both SRPGs, obviously, but really operate under different rules. Where as Fire Emblem's "Rock Paper Scissors" type approach makes number crunching easier, FFT has a bit more of a leveled playing field. You gotta pay attention to the time gauge, what armor the enemy is equipped with, their chance to block or dodge and counter attack, auto potion, etc.
Just wait until you get further into the game and start taking things like Faith and Bravery into affect. The AI wasn't really well prepared for players who play using lots of stat affecting magic. An awesome time mage/oracle can bring any opposing army to it's knees.
It's kinda funny that Nintendo practically invented the genre, but there were (and to a degree, still are) no imitators. Sure, Hudson has Nectaris (which plays alot like the * Wars series, which Hudson developed for Nintendo a few times) and SystemSoft has Daisenryaku, which is similar to Nectaris, there were no real "rip offs", so to speak. Same thing for Ogre Battle. SRPGs didn't really hit their stride until Tactics Ogre came out, and then the genre kinda exploded with TO styled games. Most developers did have their own series pop up about a year after Fire Emblem debuted, though. The above mentioned games along with the Shining Force series and the Langrisser series. But really, it just seems like most people tended to emulate Tactics Ogre over the other releases. Of course, I could be wrong.
Which reminds me that I really wish Kartia would get a re-release.
Use skills that require no target to cheese up some JP. For instance, accumulate (or whatever they named the Strength+1 Squire skill on PSP) always works 100%, and you never need a target. A good strategy is to murder all your enemies but 1, then just crowd together and accumulate / heal until you're tired of leveling up.
I like to pump everyone up with tailwind whenever Ramza isn't within attacking range. The Square class really is a pretty solid class.
The battle could be made harder by the fact that he's got a blood sword on him that can only be found by poaching otherwise, so attempting to steal it from him was always a challenge.
I gave up trying to get his sword in the end. Which is a shame, as it's a pretty good one.
It's neat to have, but later when you poach the normal hydras, their common drop is the blood sword I think.
I usually slowed him and if he was susceptable to sleep, try to put him to sleep.
Charm was always fun to use because some enemies would have to spend time knocking each other around to break the charm.
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
edited December 2007
How can I boost my chances of stealing? I've just got to a level where there are three female thieves and the little fuckers keep using steal heart and have a seventy odd percent chance to hit. I get barely fifty. Is this a bravery thing?
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Charm was always fun to use because some enemies would have to spend time knocking each other around to break the charm.
Also fun is charming a mage next to beefy warriors. They can't hit him to end the charm, because that will kill him. Without a physical attack to shake him out of it, charm actually lasts an absurdly long time in this game.
I like to pump everyone up with tailwind whenever Ramza isn't within attacking range. The Squire class really is a pretty solid class.
Tailwind/Yell is obviously better, but average troops don't get it, do they? I'm just talking about spamming easy skills on generic troops for JP when you have your enemy so completely defeated that they can't stop you.
Other candidates for JP farming are Thief: Steal Gil, Orator/Mediator: Negotiate (also steal gil), Monk: Chakra, Knight: Rend/Break stats, Priest: Protect or Shell, etc.
How can I boost my chances of stealing? I've just got to a level where there are three female thieves and the little fuckers keep using steal heart and have a seventy odd percent chance to hit. I get barely fifty. Is this a bravery thing?
Stealing is based upon your speed stat I think. So using Tailwind will help increase your chances of stealing.
Steal heart is based on magic stat I think and both are helped by compatibility with zodiacs. If someone has a 70% chance to hit thief B, thief B should have roughly the same chance of charming them.
You can increase stealing chances by attemptnig a theft on someone from the side or back. Immobilizing them or putting them to sleep also increases your chances to theft, as rending someone with the don't move ability removes most of their ability to dodge anything.
How can I boost my chances of stealing? I've just got to a level where there are three female thieves and the little fuckers keep using steal heart and have a seventy odd percent chance to hit. I get barely fifty. Is this a bravery thing?
No, it is only affected by MA and zodiac compatibility. (MA+50)/100 = percent chance. It's also the only thief skill to use MA, all others use SP.
Non-Steal Heart thief skills are based on SP and are increased by Martial Arts and Attack Up.
Charm was always fun to use because some enemies would have to spend time knocking each other around to break the charm.
Also fun is charming a mage next to beefy warriors. They can't hit him to end the charm, because that will kill him. Without a physical attack to shake him out of it, charm actually lasts an absurdly long time in this game.
Thing is, I typically don't finish chapter 1 until I have the class configurations I want for Ramza and 4 generics, so I'm usually like level 50 or something and I can walk over most fights.
If I don't powerlevel though, I find charm to be incredibly useful along with time mage and mystic abilities.
Auto-potion is a real life saver as well.
Otherwise, monks are all kinds of powerful with abilities that cannot be blocked and the free heal/revive abilities provided the target is on the same height as them.
You guys are a lot better at this than I am. I played FFT for like 2 hours on my psp, died repeatedly, and went back to Jeana D'Arc and Disgea
Some of it may very well be patience. It's hard to sit on your hands sometime and wait for enemies to come to you, but this game also requires a certain amount of grinding to level up for various story battles. I tend to get all that out of the way before I even go to Dorter the first time so I have the abilities I want after I went through the game once or twice the way you're probably supposed to go through it.
Thing is, I typically don't finish chapter 1 until I have the class configurations I want for Ramza and 4 generics, so I'm usually like level 50 or something and I can walk over most fights.
That just sounds like overkill. I don't overlevel except in preparation for those three fights I mentioned earlier, and even then I just coast on it until story battles catch up to me.
@Kris_xK: FFT is hard, especially starting out. Nearly every battle is weighted against you in terms of terrain, enemy equipment and sheer numbers. However, you can win every goddamn one with the exception of a couple of bullshit fights that get sprung on you with no warning. Those fights require Batman-like preparations.
Other candidates for JP farming are Thief: Steal Gil, Orator/Mediator: Negotiate (also steal gil), Monk: Chakra, Knight: Rend/Break stats, Priest: Protect or Shell, etc.
Or you can always do like I did and weaken one enemy to the point of retreat, then just attack your own guys.
Nearly every battle is weighted against you in terms of terrain
So is there any way to replay the game with your leveled up characters? or at least go back to the map?(I saved right before the last battle)
And what is the completion data for?
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
edited December 2007
Hello Wiegraf my old friend.
Also, does Onion Knight have some kind of use I'm not getting. The fantastic opportunity to not have skills and not gain xp/jp seems like a raw deal for the ability to equip anything.
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Also, does Onion Knight have some kind of use I'm not getting. The fantastic opportunity to not have skills and not gain xp/jp seems like a raw deal for the ability to equip anything.
I think it's more of a level 99ish class, but most to all of the dark knight and onion knight equipment comes from co-op missions I believe. I've been told that some of the onion knight only gear that can be obtained from the multiplayer function are quite awesome. I think the dark knight has some dark element swords that can also be found via the same way.
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
edited December 2007
Sadly I lack any friends with PSPs, never mind friends with PSPs and a remake of a game they never played.
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Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Also, does Onion Knight have some kind of use I'm not getting. The fantastic opportunity to not have skills and not gain xp/jp seems like a raw deal for the ability to equip anything.
I think it's more of a level 99ish class, but most to all of the dark knight and onion knight equipment comes from co-op missions I believe. I've been told that some of the onion knight only gear that can be obtained from the multiplayer function are quite awesome. I think the dark knight has some dark element swords that can also be found via the same way.
Onion Knight become significantly stronger once you have mastered, what, 8 jobs? I think that is the right number.
Also, does Onion Knight have some kind of use I'm not getting. The fantastic opportunity to not have skills and not gain xp/jp seems like a raw deal for the ability to equip anything.
I think it's more of a level 99ish class, but most to all of the dark knight and onion knight equipment comes from co-op missions I believe. I've been told that some of the onion knight only gear that can be obtained from the multiplayer function are quite awesome. I think the dark knight has some dark element swords that can also be found via the same way.
Onion Knight become significantly stronger once you have mastered, what, 8 jobs? I think that is the right number.
Good point, I forgot about that. The more jobs you master, the more onion knight job levels you gain. I believe you had to master all jobs to have a level 8 onion knight (job level) and supposedly they are beasts at that point. I think I got to a job level 5 with one but never bothered to try using it.
Ok can someone give me some tips for the first few levels. Is beating my own people up to grind the only option? I keep dying. Over and over. Sheer determination has gotten me to the Sand Rat Sietch entrance but good god, I just died again.
Ok can someone give me some tips for the first few levels. Is beating my own people up to grind the only option? I keep dying. Over and over. Sheer determination has gotten me to the Sand Rat Sietch entrance but good god, I just died again.
Try going after 1 enemy at a time.
Also, try to have one chemist who can throw potions, but also consider giving every person the secondary command for items, so they can at least use potions to help heal others.
I'm guessing you haven't gone after any random battles to level up or to get some more JP to help out.
As far as grinding goes, you can beat any battles like you normally would without grinding or hitting your own guys, but once you have a battle under control, it's typically thought to be a better, more efficient idea to beat your own guys up a bit.
For Squire, there are IMO, two great skills to get. JP Boost and Accumulate. Accumulate doesn't involve hurting anyone to get exp/jp and the boost helps you gain more JP.
EDIT: For your particular story battle, Algus usually charges into the knight-heavy side of the fort while Delita and your other characters first take on a monk. You might consider putting a character not in, but in frnot of the door on the knight-heavy side and have 1-2 people healing them. If you have the dash ability, you might make sure the person holding that spot has it so they can always hit the knight. Their shields make them tougher to hit from the front with a normal melee attack.
Then once the monk is down on the western side of the fort, Delita will charge in and you might consider letting him die since it may be tough to take that side of the fort on yourselves.
I can't emphasize this enough. Ganging up on a single enemy (and keeping everyone else a few steps behind with Items at the ready) is key to getting through the brutal early stages. Later in the game you can diversify, but everybody had Item or White Magic for the first 15 levels on my last game.
Also, monks do well on this stage, because the flat terrain makes casting Chakra that much easier.
Sand Rat's Nest battle
Sweet Mechanical Christ, you've got a good memory. I just remember "hur hur fort". I had my toughest guy hold the doorway on one side with heals from a chemist behind him, and a black mage launching divine justice over the walls. The other half of my team made a beeline from the other side to the team holding the first doorway. Delita and Algus (Argath now?) both died, but my troops performed admirably.
Ok can someone give me some tips for the first few levels. Is beating my own people up to grind the only option? I keep dying. Over and over. Sheer determination has gotten me to the Sand Rat Sietch entrance but good god, I just died again.
-Make sure everyone can heal. If everyone can heal, make sure everyone can revive.
-A black mage with an elemental rod and level 2 spell will kick most of the first chapter's ass on her own. I'm using Ramza for his high natural faith and female MA, but any unit with 60+ faith will do pretty well.
-Keep Delita and Argath well-equipped. Yes, they're morons, but with shields and cloaks, they're morons who will distract the enemy for a few more turns.
-Squire is good for three things: Move+1, Gained JP-Up, and Focus. Get your characters these and get out. Don't bother for the guests, except maybe Move+1 if you want them wearing cloaks.
I can't really add much else without knowing your party.
I forgot to mention something else under the assumption you thoguht of it already.
If possible, try to wait for enemies to turn into chests or crystals so you can either get some extra money by selling stuff, better equipment you couldn't afford or buy yet or crystals to help with much needed skills.
When a crystal appears, you typically have 2 options (you can only use the heal option for monster crystals). 1) take a full hp/mp heal or 2) obtain skills.
If a knight dies and he has the rend helmet skill and your character who lands on it has the knight class available (level 2 squire I think to open knight), s/he can absorb the skill for free.
On your particular map, you've probably got 3-4 knights there, you might be able to get some knight skills off those. Your nps will almost always take crystals if they are within reach for the hp heal, don't let them do this or kill them beforehand (since they cannot die permanently).
I think I trapped the archer in a corner, killed Delita and Algus if they were both still alive and waited for enemies to turn into crystals or chests.
Ok can someone give me some tips for the first few levels. Is beating my own people up to grind the only option? I keep dying. Over and over. Sheer determination has gotten me to the Sand Rat Sietch entrance but good god, I just died again.
-Make sure everyone can heal. If everyone can heal, make sure everyone can revive.
-A black mage with an elemental rod and level 2 spell will kick most of the first chapter's ass on her own. I'm using Ramza for his high natural faith and female MA, but any unit with 60+ faith will do pretty well.
-Keep Delita and Argath well-equipped. Yes, they're morons, but with shields and cloaks, they're morons who will distract the enemy for a few more turns.
-Squire is good for three things: Move+1, Gained JP-Up, and Focus. Get your characters these and get out. Don't bother for the guests, except maybe Move+1 if you want them wearing cloaks.
I can't really add much else without knowing your party.
I'm...what, level 2? I think one guy is 3. I don't think I've had any chance to customize anything, really.
Ok can someone give me some tips for the first few levels. Is beating my own people up to grind the only option? I keep dying. Over and over. Sheer determination has gotten me to the Sand Rat Sietch entrance but good god, I just died again.
-Make sure everyone can heal. If everyone can heal, make sure everyone can revive.
-A black mage with an elemental rod and level 2 spell will kick most of the first chapter's ass on her own. I'm using Ramza for his high natural faith and female MA, but any unit with 60+ faith will do pretty well.
-Keep Delita and Argath well-equipped. Yes, they're morons, but with shields and cloaks, they're morons who will distract the enemy for a few more turns.
-Squire is good for three things: Move+1, Gained JP-Up, and Focus. Get your characters these and get out. Don't bother for the guests, except maybe Move+1 if you want them wearing cloaks.
I can't really add much else without knowing your party.
I'm...what, level 2? I think one guy is 3. I don't think I've had any chance to customize anything, really.
A level 2 (job level) chemist can become a white or black mage and a level 2 squire can become a knight I think. At your level you may not have either open yet, but something to consider.
You can also walk around the green dots until you get into a randmo encounter if you wanted to train your characters a little bit.
I'm not certain on your experience with the game, but higher brave is useful for all classes while if you want to train someone to be a magic user, they'll want higher faith. Typically, I look for people with 60+ faith if I want them to be a magic user.
So ah... Do you guys have any idea where I can find a PSP in stores at? I just checked Best Buy's website, and all they have in-store is the Jak/Daxter pack or the Star Wars thing. I don't want anything but the PSP itself.
I'm...what, level 2? I think one guy is 3. I don't think I've had any chance to customize anything, really.
I'd love to have seen your eventual victory in Dorter, then. Not sure I could've gotten through it like that. How well or badly you customize is one of the biggest factors--probably the biggest--affecting how difficult the game is for you.
So all of my earlier advice still stands. But especially the Squire abilities; [strike]Gained JP-Up[/strike] JP Boost helps get abilities faster, Focus lets you spend every turn getting precious JP and Move +1 is just a good ability.
So some ideas for grinding if you don't have those abilities:
-Don't bother grinding with everyone. You can only use four of your characters in battle until mid or late chapter 2, one of whom is Ramza. Trying to get all seven starting characters going will make grinding even more tedious than it already is.
-Chemists have a free(?) support ability, Reequip. Since going into a random battle unarmed is unwise, you can use this ability to deequip weapons so that beating on each other doesn't hurt so much.
-If Ramza's Tailwind is cheaper than Focus, go ahead and grab it, since it's also an ability that can't fail and can target himself.
-Every time a character gains JP, every other character you have in battle will gain a portion of it, even if they don't have the class open yet. I.E. the more Squires you have gaining JP, the faster getting Focus will go for everybody.
-Monster experience levels are based on the level of the strongest character you have. So be careful not to get too high a level while grinding, or you might get yourself into trouble.
So ah... Do you guys have any idea where I can find a PSP in stores at? I just checked Best Buy's website, and all they have in-store is the Jak/Daxter pack or the Star Wars thing. I don't want anything but the PSP itself.
I got mine at Target.
It seems to be the only place that has had them around where I live... I'd check there.
Is Flare the highest level offensive arithmeticks spell? I'm consistently hitting for around 100hp damage when I use it in random battles and it feels like it should be more powerful.
It is BROKEN. I can pretty much one shot anything with it.
Really? Maybe I was using it in the wrong situation, but it seemed to do the same amount of damage-not to mention the lengthy animation.
I'll give it a shot, thanks.
Edit: If you're one shotting enemies-what level are you at?
I'm at level 31 with my WHM/ART with 67 Faith, Arcane Strength, Mages Staff (MAG ATT+1), Celebrant's Miter (MAG ATT+1), Chameleon Robe (Absorbs Holy) and Japa Mala (Boosts every element)
It is BROKEN. I can pretty much one shot anything with it.
Really? Maybe I was using it in the wrong situation, but it seemed to do the same amount of damage-not to mention the lengthy animation.
I'll give it a shot, thanks.
Edit: If you're one shotting enemies-what level are you at?
I'm at level 31 with my WHM/ART with 67 Faith, Arcane Strength, Mages Staff (MAG ATT+1), Celebrant's Miter (MAG ATT+1), Chameleon Robe (Absorbs Holy) and Japa Mala (Boosts every element)
It must just be a combination of the wrong equipment and the wrong job. I've tried Arithmeticks as a secondary ability on Dragoons, White Mages, Summoners & Dark Knights without much effect. My guys are all between level 89 - 94, so it must be poor planning on my part. I'll give it a go with a properly decked out Black Mage and see if that changes things.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited January 2008
I'm glad this got bumped. Almost done with Chapter 3.
Just got to Riovanes.
In other news, the new translation is mind-blowing. The scene at the Goltana council was amazingly deep.
The Delita/Ovelia cutscene was top-notch, too.
Some of the added details to Rafa/Rapha's story are just wrong, though.
You know what he did!
... And I thought they had it bad before.
Also, Luso is a killing machine. He went from being someone I'd never heard of to staying in my party constantly.
Is there any way for me to really screw over my characters by playing around with jobs to unlock more? Any tips? I just started recently, and everyone already has JP boost, and I've unlocked the time mage job so far. It's really difficult, but I'm getting the hang of it.
Is there any way for me to really screw over my characters by playing around with jobs to unlock more? Any tips? I just started recently, and everyone already has JP boost, and I've unlocked the time mage job so far. It's really difficult, but I'm getting the hang of it.
Spoiler'd if you want to find out what classes there are on your own.
Dragoons are a godsend, they are amazing for me. They're good tankers and damage dealers with good speed. The ninja is the best choice if you need someone to do big amounts of damage in one attack, I usually use ninja blades since flails have a huge damage range, you could do 200 damage one hit only to do 32 damage the next hit.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
edited January 2008
If you get an Archer(and you'll probably want one for long range), try to give him or her the Knight skill as a secondary.
Alright, thanks. I love how customizeable everything is. I'll probably try out an archer tonight, as combining knight skills with an archer definetly seems like a good idea.
EDIT: Also, are there any major differences between male and female units, other than the whole zodiac thing?
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Good tips from earlier in this thread:
Yeah, the beginning of the game is especially daunting. I got to Dorter last night for the first time after not having played the game in years. If you don't have a good grasp on the nature of the game by then, which is only about four story battles in, you're gonna get your ass handed to you.
I remember when I first bought the game back in the day, thinking it was great and then getting to Dorter and just getting the hell beat out of me.
Like I mentioned earlier, am really digging the new translation, but there's a bit of superfluous jibba jabba from time to time. Lots of, "YOU DARE BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!?!?"
Tactics and Fire Emblem are really drastically different games. They're both SRPGs, obviously, but really operate under different rules. Where as Fire Emblem's "Rock Paper Scissors" type approach makes number crunching easier, FFT has a bit more of a leveled playing field. You gotta pay attention to the time gauge, what armor the enemy is equipped with, their chance to block or dodge and counter attack, auto potion, etc.
Just wait until you get further into the game and start taking things like Faith and Bravery into affect. The AI wasn't really well prepared for players who play using lots of stat affecting magic. An awesome time mage/oracle can bring any opposing army to it's knees.
It's kinda funny that Nintendo practically invented the genre, but there were (and to a degree, still are) no imitators. Sure, Hudson has Nectaris (which plays alot like the * Wars series, which Hudson developed for Nintendo a few times) and SystemSoft has Daisenryaku, which is similar to Nectaris, there were no real "rip offs", so to speak. Same thing for Ogre Battle. SRPGs didn't really hit their stride until Tactics Ogre came out, and then the genre kinda exploded with TO styled games. Most developers did have their own series pop up about a year after Fire Emblem debuted, though. The above mentioned games along with the Shining Force series and the Langrisser series. But really, it just seems like most people tended to emulate Tactics Ogre over the other releases. Of course, I could be wrong.
Which reminds me that I really wish Kartia would get a re-release.
I like to pump everyone up with tailwind whenever Ramza isn't within attacking range. The Square class really is a pretty solid class.
It's neat to have, but later when you poach the normal hydras, their common drop is the blood sword I think.
I usually slowed him and if he was susceptable to sleep, try to put him to sleep.
Charm was always fun to use because some enemies would have to spend time knocking each other around to break the charm.
Tailwind/Yell is obviously better, but average troops don't get it, do they? I'm just talking about spamming easy skills on generic troops for JP when you have your enemy so completely defeated that they can't stop you.
Other candidates for JP farming are Thief: Steal Gil, Orator/Mediator: Negotiate (also steal gil), Monk: Chakra, Knight: Rend/Break stats, Priest: Protect or Shell, etc.
Stealing is based upon your speed stat I think. So using Tailwind will help increase your chances of stealing.
Steal heart is based on magic stat I think and both are helped by compatibility with zodiacs. If someone has a 70% chance to hit thief B, thief B should have roughly the same chance of charming them.
You can increase stealing chances by attemptnig a theft on someone from the side or back. Immobilizing them or putting them to sleep also increases your chances to theft, as rending someone with the don't move ability removes most of their ability to dodge anything.
Non-Steal Heart thief skills are based on SP and are increased by Martial Arts and Attack Up.
Edit: Hi5 Ardor!
Thing is, I typically don't finish chapter 1 until I have the class configurations I want for Ramza and 4 generics, so I'm usually like level 50 or something and I can walk over most fights.
If I don't powerlevel though, I find charm to be incredibly useful along with time mage and mystic abilities.
Auto-potion is a real life saver as well.
Otherwise, monks are all kinds of powerful with abilities that cannot be blocked and the free heal/revive abilities provided the target is on the same height as them.
Some of it may very well be patience. It's hard to sit on your hands sometime and wait for enemies to come to you, but this game also requires a certain amount of grinding to level up for various story battles. I tend to get all that out of the way before I even go to Dorter the first time so I have the abilities I want after I went through the game once or twice the way you're probably supposed to go through it.
@Kris_xK: FFT is hard, especially starting out. Nearly every battle is weighted against you in terms of terrain, enemy equipment and sheer numbers. However, you can win every goddamn one with the exception of a couple of bullshit fights that get sprung on you with no warning. Those fights require Batman-like preparations.
Or you can always do like I did and weaken one enemy to the point of retreat, then just attack your own guys.
Wait till he fights
That fight is ridiculous.
And what is the completion data for?
Also, does Onion Knight have some kind of use I'm not getting. The fantastic opportunity to not have skills and not gain xp/jp seems like a raw deal for the ability to equip anything.
I think it's more of a level 99ish class, but most to all of the dark knight and onion knight equipment comes from co-op missions I believe. I've been told that some of the onion knight only gear that can be obtained from the multiplayer function are quite awesome. I think the dark knight has some dark element swords that can also be found via the same way.
Good point, I forgot about that. The more jobs you master, the more onion knight job levels you gain. I believe you had to master all jobs to have a level 8 onion knight (job level) and supposedly they are beasts at that point. I think I got to a job level 5 with one but never bothered to try using it.
猿も木から落ちる
Try going after 1 enemy at a time.
Also, try to have one chemist who can throw potions, but also consider giving every person the secondary command for items, so they can at least use potions to help heal others.
I'm guessing you haven't gone after any random battles to level up or to get some more JP to help out.
As far as grinding goes, you can beat any battles like you normally would without grinding or hitting your own guys, but once you have a battle under control, it's typically thought to be a better, more efficient idea to beat your own guys up a bit.
For Squire, there are IMO, two great skills to get. JP Boost and Accumulate. Accumulate doesn't involve hurting anyone to get exp/jp and the boost helps you gain more JP.
EDIT: For your particular story battle, Algus usually charges into the knight-heavy side of the fort while Delita and your other characters first take on a monk. You might consider putting a character not in, but in frnot of the door on the knight-heavy side and have 1-2 people healing them. If you have the dash ability, you might make sure the person holding that spot has it so they can always hit the knight. Their shields make them tougher to hit from the front with a normal melee attack.
Then once the monk is down on the western side of the fort, Delita will charge in and you might consider letting him die since it may be tough to take that side of the fort on yourselves.
Also, monks do well on this stage, because the flat terrain makes casting Chakra that much easier.
Sweet Mechanical Christ, you've got a good memory. I just remember "hur hur fort". I had my toughest guy hold the doorway on one side with heals from a chemist behind him, and a black mage launching divine justice over the walls. The other half of my team made a beeline from the other side to the team holding the first doorway. Delita and Algus (Argath now?) both died, but my troops performed admirably.
-Make sure everyone can heal. If everyone can heal, make sure everyone can revive.
-A black mage with an elemental rod and level 2 spell will kick most of the first chapter's ass on her own. I'm using Ramza for his high natural faith and female MA, but any unit with 60+ faith will do pretty well.
-Keep Delita and Argath well-equipped. Yes, they're morons, but with shields and cloaks, they're morons who will distract the enemy for a few more turns.
-Squire is good for three things: Move+1, Gained JP-Up, and Focus. Get your characters these and get out. Don't bother for the guests, except maybe Move+1 if you want them wearing cloaks.
I can't really add much else without knowing your party.
If possible, try to wait for enemies to turn into chests or crystals so you can either get some extra money by selling stuff, better equipment you couldn't afford or buy yet or crystals to help with much needed skills.
When a crystal appears, you typically have 2 options (you can only use the heal option for monster crystals). 1) take a full hp/mp heal or 2) obtain skills.
If a knight dies and he has the rend helmet skill and your character who lands on it has the knight class available (level 2 squire I think to open knight), s/he can absorb the skill for free.
On your particular map, you've probably got 3-4 knights there, you might be able to get some knight skills off those. Your nps will almost always take crystals if they are within reach for the hp heal, don't let them do this or kill them beforehand (since they cannot die permanently).
I think I trapped the archer in a corner, killed Delita and Algus if they were both still alive and waited for enemies to turn into crystals or chests.
I'm...what, level 2? I think one guy is 3. I don't think I've had any chance to customize anything, really.
猿も木から落ちる
A level 2 (job level) chemist can become a white or black mage and a level 2 squire can become a knight I think. At your level you may not have either open yet, but something to consider.
You can also walk around the green dots until you get into a randmo encounter if you wanted to train your characters a little bit.
I'm not certain on your experience with the game, but higher brave is useful for all classes while if you want to train someone to be a magic user, they'll want higher faith. Typically, I look for people with 60+ faith if I want them to be a magic user.
I'd love to have seen your eventual victory in Dorter, then. Not sure I could've gotten through it like that. How well or badly you customize is one of the biggest factors--probably the biggest--affecting how difficult the game is for you.
So all of my earlier advice still stands. But especially the Squire abilities; [strike]Gained JP-Up[/strike] JP Boost helps get abilities faster, Focus lets you spend every turn getting precious JP and Move +1 is just a good ability.
So some ideas for grinding if you don't have those abilities:
-Don't bother grinding with everyone. You can only use four of your characters in battle until mid or late chapter 2, one of whom is Ramza. Trying to get all seven starting characters going will make grinding even more tedious than it already is.
-Chemists have a free(?) support ability, Reequip. Since going into a random battle unarmed is unwise, you can use this ability to deequip weapons so that beating on each other doesn't hurt so much.
-If Ramza's Tailwind is cheaper than Focus, go ahead and grab it, since it's also an ability that can't fail and can target himself.
-Every time a character gains JP, every other character you have in battle will gain a portion of it, even if they don't have the class open yet. I.E. the more Squires you have gaining JP, the faster getting Focus will go for everybody.
-Monster experience levels are based on the level of the strongest character you have. So be careful not to get too high a level while grinding, or you might get yourself into trouble.
It seems to be the only place that has had them around where I live... I'd check there.
PSN: PalaceBrother
It is BROKEN. I can pretty much one shot anything with it.
Sometimes I Stream Games: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/italax-plays-video-games
Really? Maybe I was using it in the wrong situation, but it seemed to do the same amount of damage-not to mention the lengthy animation.
I'll give it a shot, thanks.
Edit: If you're one shotting enemies-what level are you at?
PSN: PalaceBrother
However, Holy seems to still hit harder than all other damage spells.
Plus, you can equip your characters with the chamleon robe or other items that absorb holy, allowing you to heal your own units as well.
I'm at level 31 with my WHM/ART with 67 Faith, Arcane Strength, Mages Staff (MAG ATT+1), Celebrant's Miter (MAG ATT+1), Chameleon Robe (Absorbs Holy) and Japa Mala (Boosts every element)
Sometimes I Stream Games: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/italax-plays-video-games
It must just be a combination of the wrong equipment and the wrong job. I've tried Arithmeticks as a secondary ability on Dragoons, White Mages, Summoners & Dark Knights without much effect. My guys are all between level 89 - 94, so it must be poor planning on my part. I'll give it a go with a properly decked out Black Mage and see if that changes things.
PSN: PalaceBrother
Just got to Riovanes.
In other news, the new translation is mind-blowing. The scene at the Goltana council was amazingly deep.
The Delita/Ovelia cutscene was top-notch, too.
Some of the added details to Rafa/Rapha's story are just wrong, though.
Also, Luso is a killing machine. He went from being someone I'd never heard of to staying in my party constantly.
Spoiler'd if you want to find out what classes there are on your own.
Archer + Break skill = weapon slayer.
EDIT: Also, are there any major differences between male and female units, other than the whole zodiac thing?
My Arithmetick damage jumped from 95-100 hp per enemy to 500+. Italax, it's one shotting pretty much everything. Thanks for the tips!
PSN: PalaceBrother