FF1 Hardworking Capitalists Part IV
May. 5th, 2015 02:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sirsystemerrorSo two questions before we jump into the grinding. First, how high should we go? Well, I can't answer that, but I'll check next when the Fighters get to 5-hits. That's at level 36/37. 6-hits will take until 46/48. Second, where to grind? Some of the premier spots aren't all that due to the nature of this party: the EYE's GLANCE is obstructive, they don't have spellcasting items to make the Waterfall easy, dragons can hit with elemental skills. I looked around for some places.
The Hall of Giants is mindless and not dangerous, and close to the entrance. The GrSHARK spike that Sullla's Iron Fists used is good, too and pays out more - but loses the advantage of being able to easily keep up buff White Mage. Which is useless, but I want to keep it up because it's hilarious and I want to see a White Mage at full potential. I tried the dino desert outside Mirage Tower, but the things hit too hard there.
I settled on the GrSHARKs. It didn't require much attention, and paid out a healthy sum of experience every time. All I needed to do is move up and down and hold down the A button while on turbo. Mint is dead for strength-gaining reasons. It took a few trips in and out because it wasn't completely mindless - I needed to heal them every now and then, and make one trip in and out. But the Fighters soon hit level 36 for 5-hits with Silver Swords, and swapped over to them until the next level.
Oops. After I hit five hits with the swords, Zeni accidentally died. See what I mean? I left and got them up to 37 on the outside.
Leveling the solo Mint was a bit tricky. I tried a few different spots, including ASTOS' MUMMYs, which was a bit too slow. The Hall of Giants was out, as they ran from the buff White Mage. I settled on the desert, which worked okay against TYROs until they started to run.
Before I moved on though, I had her fight a T REX. This was dangerous before I got up the RUSEs, and even dangerous after due to the dinosaur's extremely high crit rate. She did get the job done in the end, however. I then moved her onto the first room of the Sea Shrine, where it was easy to run into GrSHARKs. In both cases, the strategy was the same: three RUSEs and go.
How good are all these levels of strength gains? Surprisingly good, but at the same time, surprisingly not very. I don't know if there's something about Silver Hammer that makes it have less accuracy or not (doesn't seem to be any indication of such things in the mechanics guide), but it sure seemed to be missing often. I tried a Wooden Staff too. Though only a small sample, against a TYRO, the staff hit twice eight times and hit once four times. Also against a TYRO, the hammer hit twice three times and once six times. It wasn't hard, but it was a bit annoying.
So here we are, after everyone is up to speed. We're still low on the damage stat, though going to 50 would only boost that to 59. It's pretty sad: if Masmune could be used, they'd have 90, more hits, and much higher crit rate on top of that. Or if they could equip the Catclaw, and get much higher crit chance. Will the extra hit make a difference?
And here's everyone's individual stats. Again, notice how Mint's Strength is as high as it can be for this level. It just worked out that way for the first several levels, so I kept it going. What I didn't notice until looking at it: Rich has eight more points of intelligence than Buck. Then again, considering the stat is broken in this version and he has no use for it anyway, it makes you question who the real intelligent one of the pair is.
Well, Gas Ds greeted me the first run in. But, I had a lot more magic resources at this level, particularly two more FASTs and three more HEL3s. So I could afford a bit of spread damage.
But more importantly, the extra levels of spells made a world of difference against KARY and KRAKEN, who I could sleepwalk through rather easily now. I saw my Fighters exceed 300 damage on both of them, especially useful on the latter because the sooner he died, the better. I could also use FAST on the former instead of mucking around with status. Even LICH wasn't too bad: he picked up a habit of not using NUKE, and could often be two-rounded.
The problem remained BANE. The first time I got a run going, it came to an abrupt end at TIAMAT.
Or maybe not. In what can only be described as a sick joke, Mint landed the desperation MUTE. She was therefore very slowly able to beat the dragon to death after three RUSEs and keeping her health high in case of critical hits.
In the end though, it really didn't matter. I had no resources left, and Mint dying early into the CHAOS fight put a swift end to any hopes. I did get a sneak peek at my offensive potential, though. And it seemed like it just might work, if only I could get there healthy.
So here's about how a typical run of the temple went. The first few rooms have a number of threats. I run from anything I can. Of the ones that I cannot, WORMs are no threat. Neither are ZombieDs. FrGIANTs and FrWOLFs are usually not a threat; I now have enough spell charges so I can FIR3 the latter with relative impunity, but I still don't really want to see a lot of FROST. Gas Ds are a huge threat. I still deal with them by using ICE3 and attacking with everyone. If they use too much POISON, it's not worth continuing.
Of those that I can run from, I do need to be wary of Frost Ds, CHIMERAs/JIMERAs, and MAGEs. The first two can use BLIZZARD and CREMATE respectively, and the latter can use LIT3 if they get an ambush. The reason why I keep Mint in the fourth slot is because the odds of the person in that slot running are low. Therefore, it makes sense to have somebody there who'd have something to do besides running, i.e. cast AICE/AFIR while the others are running.
PHANTOM is usually no threat. He can cause problems with STOP, ZAP! and GLANCE, but usually dies quickly enough for these not to become a factor.
The Earth floor only has EARTHs as an unrunnable encounter. They're easy to deal with: FIR2 or FIR3 and attacks. Everything else I run from, none of which is threatening. MudGOLs/RockGOLs can't do much, GrMEDUSAs are fine to deal with now that I can afford SOFTs, SAURIAs are 1/64. I heal at the start of this floor if I haven't already - I'm fine with using one HEL3. Quite naturally, I heal before LICH as well.
The strategy on him is fight, fight, QAKE, HRM2. I never did get a run to the end where he used NUKE, but from what I've seen, I would have barely enough resources to work with if so. If the QAKE doesn't instantly kill him, which it has a decent shot of doing, he's often dead on the next turn anyway. It would've almost been worth it to have Zeni use LIT3 or something instead, but it was never necessary.
Nothing to do in the Fire floor but run. 3/64 FIREs I do need to fight, and did in fact have to tangle with a few times. The strategy on them is ICE3 and attacks. It's not worth using AFIR on a run attempt since the AGAMAs don't hurt much, except for 1/64 Red Ds in which case I really want it much like against the Frost Ds. Since I have two extra FASTs, I can use them on KARY here. It's almost as effective as the SLOW - she can't hurt us if she's dead. I do go for the STUN when she's under 300 if I can. Mint uses AFIR then joins in the fight, for nothing better to do.
Unlike their human-like counterparts on the floors above, WATERs are much more common. ICE3 on them and attacks, and hope they don't hurt too bad, which they can if they choose to target Mint or Zeni, and sometimes even the Fighters can feel it. I can run from everything else. Heal before KRAKEN. Mint uses ALIT, followed by INV2 and HEL2/HEL3 as needed. Zeni uses two FASTs before attacking. All I can do besides that is hope his big attacks don't hit Mint.
The Air floor has a few unrunnables, including WORMs which are marginally more threatening in larger groups, and 1/64 IronGOLs. 3/64 SORCERERs usually don't get a chance to show up due to the floor's short nature, and can be run from anyway. But TIAMAT is gut chuck time. The BANE cannot be too destructive, and it especially can't kill Mint. It also can't kill Zeni or the Fighters too soon. Then there's THUNDER to worry about, not to mention his other skills. It's a real mess. Mint only uses and starts with ALIT, she spends the rest of her turns on HEL2/HEL3, and fishing with MUTE when they're not needed. Like before, critical hits are the way to go, though Rich and Buck are now strong enough so that their non-criticals can do a fair amount of damage.
A few more attempts later, the BANE only got Zeni, like in that demonstration above. I was in excellent shape before CHAOS. Plenty of the important White spell levels. If I can't win from here, it's either because of horrible luck or luck that isn't quite good enough. Let's go!
Round 1 sees the preliminaries: CRACK is the whole reason why I brought Mint along for this ride. If it wasn't for her and her ARUB, this would be another BANE to worry about. With it, the only thing to worry about is whether or not she goes before CHAOS.
CHAOS did go first, using ICE3 for 98/140/262/146. Buck followed it up with a 157 damage attack. ARUB triggered, Rich did a mere 3 damage, and Buck was FASTed. Yep. Again, the Fighters could sometimes do more than a single point on an attack, but it was pretty much up to critical hits to get the job done here. 1840HP left. After a bit of thought, I had Mint go with HEL2 for the second round. She went first, followed by Zeni, then Rich doing 150 damage on 7-hits. CHAOS used a physical of his own on Buck for 276, who retaliated with an 8-hit 196 damage attack. 1494. Looking good so far!
Next round: Zeni ICE3 for 41 (nothing better to do; if he had one more FAST, he'd have used it on Mint), Mint HEL3, CHAOS CRACK, Rich for 8, Buck for 11. Um. Could've gone better. CHAOS then used LIT3 for 170/84/120/226. Ewww. I had Mint ready with...AFIR, but she moved after the boss anyway. Buck delivered a 218 damage attack, Mint used AFIR, Zeni's ICE3 did 40, Rich then did 267! 909 left, we IN THERE!!
Round five: Rich 152, CHAOS 233 physical on Zeni, killing him, Buck 7, Mint HEL2 a bit too late. 750 remaining. Luckily, if anyone is expendable, it's him after he gets up the FASTs. Round six: Rich 8, Buck 103, Chaos 209 on Rich, Mint HEL2. 639 left. Round seven: Rich 65, Mint ALIT, CHAOS SLO2 on Buck which missed, Buck 69. 505 left, but that CUR4 is next.
Mint led round eight with AICE. Rich was next, doing 81. Buck did 7...and there's the CUR4.
This is troubling. Mint has one HEL2 and two HEL3s left. She did get up all the elemental walls, though. And INV2 exists. After thinking about it, I had her use the spell. If we can't heal off the damage, prevent it in the first place. Round nine: Buck cuts into the 2000 HP by doing 12. Mint uses INV2, CHAOS FIR3 for 43/27/26, and Rich 11. Awful restart. 1977 left.
Mint prepared HEL3 next on round ten in preparation for the big NUKE. Rich did 152. Much better! Chaos struck him for 50 damage. Buck only did 8. Round eleven: INV2, Chaos ICE2 for 25/31/23, Rich 199, Buck 171. 1447 remaining. Round twelve: INFERNO for 62/57/80, Buck for 10, Rich for 7, and a third layer of INV2.
Thirteen! Rich 8, CHAOS FAST, Mint HEL3, Buck 146. Incoming NUKE! 1276 left on him. How bad will it be?
195/163/238. Not very! Mint got up a fourth INV2, Buck did 9, Rich did 17.
On round fifteen, Rich did 153, CHAOS ICE3 for 56/110/62. Pretty bad numbers, Buck did 158, Mint used her last HEL2 to bring everyone's total to 283/355/237. Sixteen, Buck did 162, Rich did 148, Mint used her last INV2, and CHAOS missed Buck. They're paying off!
With no spells but pointless weak CUREs left, all Mint could do was take her hammer in her buff hands and join in on the beatdown. She did a mere 1 damage because she did not critical hit and only hit once, CHAOS did none because he missed Rich, Rich did 99, Buck did 9. CHAOS was left with 520 HP. Can we kill him before he kills us?
He threw out SWIRL next. Problematic. 108/104/182. Mint did 2 damage, Buck did 103, Rich did 146. CHAOS only has 269 left! But we're running dangerously low on health too!
Buck strikes out with 11 damage. CHAOS LIT3 for 45/46/38. Mint did 1 again, and Rich did 249! 8HP remaining! It's over!
HEY, MINT!!
FINISH IT OFF!!!
CAPITALISM WINS. After nineteen rounds of battle, these consumerists emerge victorious!
Verdict on this variant? It was fun! Who'd have thought, the designers really expect you to use the strong equipment you find in chests. It really did play out the opposite of Living Off the Land. That one was a desperate struggle for equipment up through the first couple dungeons after which the Mystic Key broke open the game, upgrading as usual through the midgame, before settling into normalcy by the end of the game. This run featured a routine trip through the early game, not really affected by the lack of equipment in the midgame, before the lack of elemental/status resistance and strong weaponry really started to hurt.
And of course, the worst encounter luck ever was a thing. Three runs into the Ice Cave with random Frost Ds, numerous bad fights in the Sea Shrine, five runs into Sky Castle with WarMECH, and basically the entire endgame sequence. I don't think I've ever had worse encounter luck than I've had on this playthrough, in any game. It was actually hilarious at times, and looking back on it. Can't be too mad about it at the end of the day.
Verdict on Rich and Buck? They did what Fighters do best for most of the game. They really weren't that hampered by the lack of chest-found weapons, up until TIAMAT. And CHAOS, well. It was always going be down to criticals, and the best thing I could do was boost their number of hits. No complaints about their performance.
Verdict on Zeni? Overall, the Black Mage was the better option in the end, I’d still say. A Red Mage would’ve come in handy during the midgame to be sure, but by the end, he’d just be reduced to FAST on the Fighters. Meanwhile, just LIT3 and ICE3 make a world of difference in the endgame when it came to clearing out trash like those Gas Ds, or even just contributing with the spells in general.
Verdict on Macho Mint? Worth it! ARUB and her healing were essential to the team, but that was just hilarious icing on the cake. How many White Mages can say they killed CHAOS, with a hammer, without being alone or in a party of White Mages? She actually got a few fiend kills here and there too. A role model for White Mages everywhere!
Shoutouts to money. Thanks for reading!
Index
The Hall of Giants is mindless and not dangerous, and close to the entrance. The GrSHARK spike that Sullla's Iron Fists used is good, too and pays out more - but loses the advantage of being able to easily keep up buff White Mage. Which is useless, but I want to keep it up because it's hilarious and I want to see a White Mage at full potential. I tried the dino desert outside Mirage Tower, but the things hit too hard there.
I settled on the GrSHARKs. It didn't require much attention, and paid out a healthy sum of experience every time. All I needed to do is move up and down and hold down the A button while on turbo. Mint is dead for strength-gaining reasons. It took a few trips in and out because it wasn't completely mindless - I needed to heal them every now and then, and make one trip in and out. But the Fighters soon hit level 36 for 5-hits with Silver Swords, and swapped over to them until the next level.
Oops. After I hit five hits with the swords, Zeni accidentally died. See what I mean? I left and got them up to 37 on the outside.
Leveling the solo Mint was a bit tricky. I tried a few different spots, including ASTOS' MUMMYs, which was a bit too slow. The Hall of Giants was out, as they ran from the buff White Mage. I settled on the desert, which worked okay against TYROs until they started to run.
Before I moved on though, I had her fight a T REX. This was dangerous before I got up the RUSEs, and even dangerous after due to the dinosaur's extremely high crit rate. She did get the job done in the end, however. I then moved her onto the first room of the Sea Shrine, where it was easy to run into GrSHARKs. In both cases, the strategy was the same: three RUSEs and go.
How good are all these levels of strength gains? Surprisingly good, but at the same time, surprisingly not very. I don't know if there's something about Silver Hammer that makes it have less accuracy or not (doesn't seem to be any indication of such things in the mechanics guide), but it sure seemed to be missing often. I tried a Wooden Staff too. Though only a small sample, against a TYRO, the staff hit twice eight times and hit once four times. Also against a TYRO, the hammer hit twice three times and once six times. It wasn't hard, but it was a bit annoying.
So here we are, after everyone is up to speed. We're still low on the damage stat, though going to 50 would only boost that to 59. It's pretty sad: if Masmune could be used, they'd have 90, more hits, and much higher crit rate on top of that. Or if they could equip the Catclaw, and get much higher crit chance. Will the extra hit make a difference?
And here's everyone's individual stats. Again, notice how Mint's Strength is as high as it can be for this level. It just worked out that way for the first several levels, so I kept it going. What I didn't notice until looking at it: Rich has eight more points of intelligence than Buck. Then again, considering the stat is broken in this version and he has no use for it anyway, it makes you question who the real intelligent one of the pair is.
Well, Gas Ds greeted me the first run in. But, I had a lot more magic resources at this level, particularly two more FASTs and three more HEL3s. So I could afford a bit of spread damage.
But more importantly, the extra levels of spells made a world of difference against KARY and KRAKEN, who I could sleepwalk through rather easily now. I saw my Fighters exceed 300 damage on both of them, especially useful on the latter because the sooner he died, the better. I could also use FAST on the former instead of mucking around with status. Even LICH wasn't too bad: he picked up a habit of not using NUKE, and could often be two-rounded.
The problem remained BANE. The first time I got a run going, it came to an abrupt end at TIAMAT.
Or maybe not. In what can only be described as a sick joke, Mint landed the desperation MUTE. She was therefore very slowly able to beat the dragon to death after three RUSEs and keeping her health high in case of critical hits.
In the end though, it really didn't matter. I had no resources left, and Mint dying early into the CHAOS fight put a swift end to any hopes. I did get a sneak peek at my offensive potential, though. And it seemed like it just might work, if only I could get there healthy.
So here's about how a typical run of the temple went. The first few rooms have a number of threats. I run from anything I can. Of the ones that I cannot, WORMs are no threat. Neither are ZombieDs. FrGIANTs and FrWOLFs are usually not a threat; I now have enough spell charges so I can FIR3 the latter with relative impunity, but I still don't really want to see a lot of FROST. Gas Ds are a huge threat. I still deal with them by using ICE3 and attacking with everyone. If they use too much POISON, it's not worth continuing.
Of those that I can run from, I do need to be wary of Frost Ds, CHIMERAs/JIMERAs, and MAGEs. The first two can use BLIZZARD and CREMATE respectively, and the latter can use LIT3 if they get an ambush. The reason why I keep Mint in the fourth slot is because the odds of the person in that slot running are low. Therefore, it makes sense to have somebody there who'd have something to do besides running, i.e. cast AICE/AFIR while the others are running.
PHANTOM is usually no threat. He can cause problems with STOP, ZAP! and GLANCE, but usually dies quickly enough for these not to become a factor.
The Earth floor only has EARTHs as an unrunnable encounter. They're easy to deal with: FIR2 or FIR3 and attacks. Everything else I run from, none of which is threatening. MudGOLs/RockGOLs can't do much, GrMEDUSAs are fine to deal with now that I can afford SOFTs, SAURIAs are 1/64. I heal at the start of this floor if I haven't already - I'm fine with using one HEL3. Quite naturally, I heal before LICH as well.
The strategy on him is fight, fight, QAKE, HRM2. I never did get a run to the end where he used NUKE, but from what I've seen, I would have barely enough resources to work with if so. If the QAKE doesn't instantly kill him, which it has a decent shot of doing, he's often dead on the next turn anyway. It would've almost been worth it to have Zeni use LIT3 or something instead, but it was never necessary.
Nothing to do in the Fire floor but run. 3/64 FIREs I do need to fight, and did in fact have to tangle with a few times. The strategy on them is ICE3 and attacks. It's not worth using AFIR on a run attempt since the AGAMAs don't hurt much, except for 1/64 Red Ds in which case I really want it much like against the Frost Ds. Since I have two extra FASTs, I can use them on KARY here. It's almost as effective as the SLOW - she can't hurt us if she's dead. I do go for the STUN when she's under 300 if I can. Mint uses AFIR then joins in the fight, for nothing better to do.
Unlike their human-like counterparts on the floors above, WATERs are much more common. ICE3 on them and attacks, and hope they don't hurt too bad, which they can if they choose to target Mint or Zeni, and sometimes even the Fighters can feel it. I can run from everything else. Heal before KRAKEN. Mint uses ALIT, followed by INV2 and HEL2/HEL3 as needed. Zeni uses two FASTs before attacking. All I can do besides that is hope his big attacks don't hit Mint.
The Air floor has a few unrunnables, including WORMs which are marginally more threatening in larger groups, and 1/64 IronGOLs. 3/64 SORCERERs usually don't get a chance to show up due to the floor's short nature, and can be run from anyway. But TIAMAT is gut chuck time. The BANE cannot be too destructive, and it especially can't kill Mint. It also can't kill Zeni or the Fighters too soon. Then there's THUNDER to worry about, not to mention his other skills. It's a real mess. Mint only uses and starts with ALIT, she spends the rest of her turns on HEL2/HEL3, and fishing with MUTE when they're not needed. Like before, critical hits are the way to go, though Rich and Buck are now strong enough so that their non-criticals can do a fair amount of damage.
A few more attempts later, the BANE only got Zeni, like in that demonstration above. I was in excellent shape before CHAOS. Plenty of the important White spell levels. If I can't win from here, it's either because of horrible luck or luck that isn't quite good enough. Let's go!
Round 1 sees the preliminaries: CRACK is the whole reason why I brought Mint along for this ride. If it wasn't for her and her ARUB, this would be another BANE to worry about. With it, the only thing to worry about is whether or not she goes before CHAOS.
CHAOS did go first, using ICE3 for 98/140/262/146. Buck followed it up with a 157 damage attack. ARUB triggered, Rich did a mere 3 damage, and Buck was FASTed. Yep. Again, the Fighters could sometimes do more than a single point on an attack, but it was pretty much up to critical hits to get the job done here. 1840HP left. After a bit of thought, I had Mint go with HEL2 for the second round. She went first, followed by Zeni, then Rich doing 150 damage on 7-hits. CHAOS used a physical of his own on Buck for 276, who retaliated with an 8-hit 196 damage attack. 1494. Looking good so far!
Next round: Zeni ICE3 for 41 (nothing better to do; if he had one more FAST, he'd have used it on Mint), Mint HEL3, CHAOS CRACK, Rich for 8, Buck for 11. Um. Could've gone better. CHAOS then used LIT3 for 170/84/120/226. Ewww. I had Mint ready with...AFIR, but she moved after the boss anyway. Buck delivered a 218 damage attack, Mint used AFIR, Zeni's ICE3 did 40, Rich then did 267! 909 left, we IN THERE!!
Round five: Rich 152, CHAOS 233 physical on Zeni, killing him, Buck 7, Mint HEL2 a bit too late. 750 remaining. Luckily, if anyone is expendable, it's him after he gets up the FASTs. Round six: Rich 8, Buck 103, Chaos 209 on Rich, Mint HEL2. 639 left. Round seven: Rich 65, Mint ALIT, CHAOS SLO2 on Buck which missed, Buck 69. 505 left, but that CUR4 is next.
Mint led round eight with AICE. Rich was next, doing 81. Buck did 7...and there's the CUR4.
This is troubling. Mint has one HEL2 and two HEL3s left. She did get up all the elemental walls, though. And INV2 exists. After thinking about it, I had her use the spell. If we can't heal off the damage, prevent it in the first place. Round nine: Buck cuts into the 2000 HP by doing 12. Mint uses INV2, CHAOS FIR3 for 43/27/26, and Rich 11. Awful restart. 1977 left.
Mint prepared HEL3 next on round ten in preparation for the big NUKE. Rich did 152. Much better! Chaos struck him for 50 damage. Buck only did 8. Round eleven: INV2, Chaos ICE2 for 25/31/23, Rich 199, Buck 171. 1447 remaining. Round twelve: INFERNO for 62/57/80, Buck for 10, Rich for 7, and a third layer of INV2.
Thirteen! Rich 8, CHAOS FAST, Mint HEL3, Buck 146. Incoming NUKE! 1276 left on him. How bad will it be?
195/163/238. Not very! Mint got up a fourth INV2, Buck did 9, Rich did 17.
On round fifteen, Rich did 153, CHAOS ICE3 for 56/110/62. Pretty bad numbers, Buck did 158, Mint used her last HEL2 to bring everyone's total to 283/355/237. Sixteen, Buck did 162, Rich did 148, Mint used her last INV2, and CHAOS missed Buck. They're paying off!
With no spells but pointless weak CUREs left, all Mint could do was take her hammer in her buff hands and join in on the beatdown. She did a mere 1 damage because she did not critical hit and only hit once, CHAOS did none because he missed Rich, Rich did 99, Buck did 9. CHAOS was left with 520 HP. Can we kill him before he kills us?
He threw out SWIRL next. Problematic. 108/104/182. Mint did 2 damage, Buck did 103, Rich did 146. CHAOS only has 269 left! But we're running dangerously low on health too!
Buck strikes out with 11 damage. CHAOS LIT3 for 45/46/38. Mint did 1 again, and Rich did 249! 8HP remaining! It's over!
HEY, MINT!!
FINISH IT OFF!!!
CAPITALISM WINS. After nineteen rounds of battle, these consumerists emerge victorious!
Verdict on this variant? It was fun! Who'd have thought, the designers really expect you to use the strong equipment you find in chests. It really did play out the opposite of Living Off the Land. That one was a desperate struggle for equipment up through the first couple dungeons after which the Mystic Key broke open the game, upgrading as usual through the midgame, before settling into normalcy by the end of the game. This run featured a routine trip through the early game, not really affected by the lack of equipment in the midgame, before the lack of elemental/status resistance and strong weaponry really started to hurt.
And of course, the worst encounter luck ever was a thing. Three runs into the Ice Cave with random Frost Ds, numerous bad fights in the Sea Shrine, five runs into Sky Castle with WarMECH, and basically the entire endgame sequence. I don't think I've ever had worse encounter luck than I've had on this playthrough, in any game. It was actually hilarious at times, and looking back on it. Can't be too mad about it at the end of the day.
Verdict on Rich and Buck? They did what Fighters do best for most of the game. They really weren't that hampered by the lack of chest-found weapons, up until TIAMAT. And CHAOS, well. It was always going be down to criticals, and the best thing I could do was boost their number of hits. No complaints about their performance.
Verdict on Zeni? Overall, the Black Mage was the better option in the end, I’d still say. A Red Mage would’ve come in handy during the midgame to be sure, but by the end, he’d just be reduced to FAST on the Fighters. Meanwhile, just LIT3 and ICE3 make a world of difference in the endgame when it came to clearing out trash like those Gas Ds, or even just contributing with the spells in general.
Verdict on Macho Mint? Worth it! ARUB and her healing were essential to the team, but that was just hilarious icing on the cake. How many White Mages can say they killed CHAOS, with a hammer, without being alone or in a party of White Mages? She actually got a few fiend kills here and there too. A role model for White Mages everywhere!
Shoutouts to money. Thanks for reading!
Index
