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sirsystemerror) wrote2014-11-18 01:04 pm
sirsystemerror) wrote2014-11-18 01:04 pm
FFL Solo Monster
This is a variant I did in the span of one night when I couldn't sleep and had nothing better to do.
The Final Fantasy Legend is not actually a real Final Fantasy game. It simply bears the name in North America for marketing purposes. Still, it takes heavy inspiration from the series, so we'll give it a play anyway. A game from my childhood...mostly after my cart of FFL2 fell into the great abyss in my aunt's trailer and I wasn't allowed time to search for where it fell. That was frustrating to say the least...
It's about a group of adventurers who are traversing a tower and its many worlds in search of Paradise. It has some disturbingly deep for a Gameboy game and possibly unintentional philosophical themes. It's probably most fondly remembered for the final boss, the "Creator", who due to a bug, is capable of being killed with a Chainsaw. It was even referenced in the main series: the creators of FF13 made the final boss of that game vulnerable to instant death as an homage to this.
With this in mind, I'll be taking on the infamous Monster SCC. So there are three things to keep in mind here.
1) Doing this without this bug is out of the question. There's no way for even a top-tier monster to do enough damage to the Creator (he has 5000HP) before running out of moves, although there are some that would otherwise be able to do it. So we'll play through with the intention to kill God with a chainsaw at the end.
2) Due to the weird meat system, it's entirely possible to become the second-highest tier of monster as early as the first world. While I will be eating meat strategically, I won't be doing this, since I'd just crush the game otherwise and be one monster for the whole game. Also, refer to this guide and site. It's a useful resource.
3) I could well do this on the WSC remake...however. While the Saw bug still works (a few other bugs did get fixed, strangely enough), there is one other random change that makes me want to avoid it for a monster SCC, especially one with the above restriction. Maybe for a full party of monsters, though.
So name? Well, we're going to kill God with a chainsaw, so let's name him Jedidiah "Jed" Sawyer, also known as Leatherface, anatagonist of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The objective of the first world is to gather a Sword, a Shield, and Armor from three kings and place them on a statue. Through messing around with meat, Jed eventually becomes a Ghoul before taking on King Sword.
Ghoul is not the monster to take him on with.
So in FFL, monsters can have weaknesses to elements, and weapons can have elements. If an elemental weapon hits a monster's weakness - the King Sword of which has all elements - they can take a Critical Hit and die instantly.
With this staring Jed down, I instead have him go for a Werewolf, who not only has oWEAPON to be more resistant to his physical blows, but no weaknesses and a strong attack. With this, it doesn't take long to cinch the victory.
The Shield is accessible after this, and just consists of avoiding walking into guards and beating a treacherous Steward. Simple.
Recommended first path for anyone with Humans and Mutants in their party is the Armor first, where you need to take on a Bandit threatening the King's love. A P(oison)-Frog, he has a special technique where contact poisons you, but it's no deal at all.
The Black Turtle of the North, Gen-Bu is the boss of this world. The Ssu-Ling of Chinese Mythology serve as this game's four fiends. He has three attacks: the physical TUSK, the magical GAS, and defensive SHELL.
The Gecko I was using was good, but not good enough. By eating a Zombie to become a Red Bone followed by a Wererat, I'm able to upgrade to a Rhino. This is able to break through his 250 HP easily.
It's possible to beat him with less, but whatever.
This gets you the Sphere to open the first door leading into the Tower, which has a ton of dangerous monsters. By far the worst are the Slimes, whose MELT not only deals a ton of damage, but also heals them. In the first picture, you see me experimenting with it. While a great monster type, it's too weak at this point.
This game can really fly by if you know what you're doing. The caves of the oceanic World 2 are annoying. I use a Hornet for a bit going in, then through a series of meat, become a Gazer. The Eye monsters' BEAM are great, defense-piercing attacks...
But the monster I eventually bump Jed into becoming is the Amoeba. It sports ACID, a weakish attack that hits all enemies, but more importantly, MELT. Because of the limited uses of these moves, I'm forced to run from most encounters. Not that they're worth anything for a monster, anyway...
I employ it against the next boss, Sei-Ryu. Who actually proves problematic.
Now, Sei-Ryu actually has meat to drop. For a solo monster who isn't abusing leveling, however, this isn't much help. You basically need MELT and/or oPARA to survive, which means either this, a Slime, or an Undead creature. In the first two cases, you become Garlic, which is decent, but not a very good monster comparatively. In the second case, you become a Siren, which is probably weaker than anything that could beat Sei-Ryu on its own. So I don't sweat it.
Eventually, I'm able to get through all the his paralyzing STRICT attacks and get the victory. One short quest later, and it's off to World 3. Medusa monsters prove annoying and make me reload a few times with their petrifying gaze.
And in World 3, you can buy Elixirs in packs of 3. Now, the move usage issue is no longer an issue...well, I can't afford them now, but shortly thereafter am able to stock up.
To advance, you need to beat up some Mosquito guardsmen at a pub to become a guard yourself. They can use DRINK, which is just like MELT. So I mess around and become a Gunfish, to try to take them all out as soon as possible with the group-target SQUIRT. But I only face two, so it's not really that big of a difference-maker.
I eat a Siren to become an Ice Crab along the way to the next destination, which just greets you with a short fight. It may seem like I'm skipping around a lot...but this game really isn't that long when you know what you're doing, and there isn't too much to talk about. An annoyance pops up when trying to break out of jail, however. Jed needed to kill those Imps with Ice before they killed him with Fire. Took a few tries.
A quick trip back into the Tower to feast on the splintery corpse of a Woodman, and Jed became a Chimera. Why the diversion?
Chimera has a particular attack, you see. It's called 3HEADS, attacking with its lion, dragon, and goat heads. This hits up to 3 times...with a attack multiplier of 12. Since it's also used by ASHURA, I guess they gave it this huge buff. To contrast, 4HEADS does hit that number of times, but its multiplier is only 4 - so it's weaker.
Because of this, I massacre Byak-ko in two good shots, taking out his 1000 HP easily.
More time for experimentation in the tower...I settle on a Thunder bird here. Beak ain't half-bad, and Thunder is good for group-killing.
World 4 is interesting in how the Ssu-Ling shows up right away, is invincible, and tries to kill you. After dying once, Jed makes it to the Subway tunnels, eats a Mou-Jya to become a Minotaur, takes down some Atom Ants threatening a girl named Sayaka, who makes me curse not having my friend name a companion in a SaGa2 DS playthrough after So-Cho, and moves on.
World 4 is also an awkward spot...it's entirely possible for to hit the ceiling here. And if you hit the ceiling, you can't get back down. And actually, the only way down from the monster rank B is either going to Giant or Nue, which are only monster rank A with their second-highest having target levels of C.
Question of what to become for this world? Tororo might be good for bosses, but not exactly for trash-clearing. Jed eats another Dokuro (who's very rare in the tunnel I was in) and end up becoming a Cocatrice, taking me to that magic place near the ceiling...
And after recharging my PSP and analyzing, Jed becomes an Ironman, and remains as such for the rest of the world. His FLAME and GAS attacks are great for taking down random monsters, and KICK and BASH are good for dealing with tougher enemies.
After a few fetch quests, next up is the Nuclear Power Plant dungeon. There's an Evil Eye here who you can use to level to the max, but I don't want to do that. When you try to take the Plutonium at the end, a familiar face appears.
It's Warmech, yo. Called Machine here, but they share the same name in Japanese and basically the same sprite. He has a bunch of nasty attacks, including this beauty, which is an instant kill as far as Jed is concerned.
It's really just a matter of getting lucky. Machine has no mana, so magic attacks are the way to go - both of them did around 170-180. Eventually, he skips using the nasty stuff and dies.
Random commentary: the Skyscraper has some really weird dungeon design. Creative, though not exactly what you'd expect from a tower and deadly bird roost in a post-apocalyptic world.
So how can Su-Zaku fare without his defensive force field? He's got 1500 HP. His BLIND and FLAME attacks are useless on Jed, and BEAK only does 80-ish at best. He doesn't stand much of a chance.
Just more random commentary to pad this report out. There's lots of siderooms in the Tower, leading to various worlds. In this one, you see three dead children and a man, who reports that they barely made it to the shelter, but ran out of food and water. A man's last words told via his diary, apologizing to a Ken and Yuki for leaving them, telling his daughter Akira, to look after her brothers, and praying to the Creator to watch over them. Oh, and you get a Nukebomb for no reason.
My supply of Elixirs depicted there made my run through the tower fairly leisurely. I could blow up stuff if possible, run if not, and heal up to full after every encounter.
Still having stayed an Ironman for a bit, Jed eventually finds a nice floating eyeball on the way up that he digs into to become a Gummy. As previously discussed, Slime monsters are among the best in the game, held in check only by MELT's limited uses.
Just in time, too. Oh yes, talk to the man in the hat, or after an event, you'll won't be able to advance. It can be a source of confusion for veterans of the game.
Ashura is no joke. The only way for a monster to keep up with this kind of damage is by healing through and dealing heavy damage in return. Even so, it takes a good series of attacks to get through here, with him messing with GAZE and BLIND instead of murdering me. Even with MELT healing/dealing 250~ damage a turn, I just can't keep up with these monsterous hits.
This is where using the GB version over the WSC version is better for this challenge. MELT and DRINK both got hit with the nerf stick in that version, and no longer absorb HP. Similar draining moves don't work on Ashura due to his being undead for no good reason.
Now to climb the Tower a second time, though it's a much more straightforward version consisting of escalator rides.
Just like in FF1, the four fiends show up again to cause you havoc. None of them but Su-Zaku can get by Gummy Jed's constant healing, and even then just barely and not always. Though I have to run from just about every random fight.
Once they are all dead, Jed doors out. And one Redbull later, and he gets into his chainsaw-wielding form. No monster above this level carries SAW, hence our unusual way of going through this game without reaching the maximum level. There's another one as well - the Beetle, but it's strictly inferior for our challenge.
Then Jed needs to go all the way back up the Tower to meet his maker. Some people theorize that this version of the tower is its true form. Not as bad as it seems, due to the escalators and low encounter rate.
So what's up with this glitch, anyway, you ask? Well, how SAW is supposed to work is that it compares your attack to the enemy's defense, and if it's higher, you instantly kill the enemy if it connects. But the programmers got it backwards. So Creator with his 200 Defense, is prime bait for this attack. Unless you're a juiced up human (in which case you can probably murder him easily anyway), take a chainsaw to God and he's going down.
This fitting final boss death animation, brought to you with ANIMATRONICS!!
So yeah. That's about it for this shortish report. This was a nice way to kill a night, not to mention my sleep schedule. More Final Fantasy Legend games in the future? Definitely. But for now...
Index
The Final Fantasy Legend is not actually a real Final Fantasy game. It simply bears the name in North America for marketing purposes. Still, it takes heavy inspiration from the series, so we'll give it a play anyway. A game from my childhood...mostly after my cart of FFL2 fell into the great abyss in my aunt's trailer and I wasn't allowed time to search for where it fell. That was frustrating to say the least...
It's about a group of adventurers who are traversing a tower and its many worlds in search of Paradise. It has some disturbingly deep for a Gameboy game and possibly unintentional philosophical themes. It's probably most fondly remembered for the final boss, the "Creator", who due to a bug, is capable of being killed with a Chainsaw. It was even referenced in the main series: the creators of FF13 made the final boss of that game vulnerable to instant death as an homage to this.
With this in mind, I'll be taking on the infamous Monster SCC. So there are three things to keep in mind here.
1) Doing this without this bug is out of the question. There's no way for even a top-tier monster to do enough damage to the Creator (he has 5000HP) before running out of moves, although there are some that would otherwise be able to do it. So we'll play through with the intention to kill God with a chainsaw at the end.
2) Due to the weird meat system, it's entirely possible to become the second-highest tier of monster as early as the first world. While I will be eating meat strategically, I won't be doing this, since I'd just crush the game otherwise and be one monster for the whole game. Also, refer to this guide and site. It's a useful resource.
3) I could well do this on the WSC remake...however. While the Saw bug still works (a few other bugs did get fixed, strangely enough), there is one other random change that makes me want to avoid it for a monster SCC, especially one with the above restriction. Maybe for a full party of monsters, though.
So name? Well, we're going to kill God with a chainsaw, so let's name him Jedidiah "Jed" Sawyer, also known as Leatherface, anatagonist of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The objective of the first world is to gather a Sword, a Shield, and Armor from three kings and place them on a statue. Through messing around with meat, Jed eventually becomes a Ghoul before taking on King Sword.
Ghoul is not the monster to take him on with.
So in FFL, monsters can have weaknesses to elements, and weapons can have elements. If an elemental weapon hits a monster's weakness - the King Sword of which has all elements - they can take a Critical Hit and die instantly.
With this staring Jed down, I instead have him go for a Werewolf, who not only has oWEAPON to be more resistant to his physical blows, but no weaknesses and a strong attack. With this, it doesn't take long to cinch the victory.
The Shield is accessible after this, and just consists of avoiding walking into guards and beating a treacherous Steward. Simple.
Recommended first path for anyone with Humans and Mutants in their party is the Armor first, where you need to take on a Bandit threatening the King's love. A P(oison)-Frog, he has a special technique where contact poisons you, but it's no deal at all.
The Black Turtle of the North, Gen-Bu is the boss of this world. The Ssu-Ling of Chinese Mythology serve as this game's four fiends. He has three attacks: the physical TUSK, the magical GAS, and defensive SHELL.
The Gecko I was using was good, but not good enough. By eating a Zombie to become a Red Bone followed by a Wererat, I'm able to upgrade to a Rhino. This is able to break through his 250 HP easily.
It's possible to beat him with less, but whatever.
This gets you the Sphere to open the first door leading into the Tower, which has a ton of dangerous monsters. By far the worst are the Slimes, whose MELT not only deals a ton of damage, but also heals them. In the first picture, you see me experimenting with it. While a great monster type, it's too weak at this point.
This game can really fly by if you know what you're doing. The caves of the oceanic World 2 are annoying. I use a Hornet for a bit going in, then through a series of meat, become a Gazer. The Eye monsters' BEAM are great, defense-piercing attacks...
But the monster I eventually bump Jed into becoming is the Amoeba. It sports ACID, a weakish attack that hits all enemies, but more importantly, MELT. Because of the limited uses of these moves, I'm forced to run from most encounters. Not that they're worth anything for a monster, anyway...
I employ it against the next boss, Sei-Ryu. Who actually proves problematic.
Now, Sei-Ryu actually has meat to drop. For a solo monster who isn't abusing leveling, however, this isn't much help. You basically need MELT and/or oPARA to survive, which means either this, a Slime, or an Undead creature. In the first two cases, you become Garlic, which is decent, but not a very good monster comparatively. In the second case, you become a Siren, which is probably weaker than anything that could beat Sei-Ryu on its own. So I don't sweat it.
Eventually, I'm able to get through all the his paralyzing STRICT attacks and get the victory. One short quest later, and it's off to World 3. Medusa monsters prove annoying and make me reload a few times with their petrifying gaze.
And in World 3, you can buy Elixirs in packs of 3. Now, the move usage issue is no longer an issue...well, I can't afford them now, but shortly thereafter am able to stock up.
To advance, you need to beat up some Mosquito guardsmen at a pub to become a guard yourself. They can use DRINK, which is just like MELT. So I mess around and become a Gunfish, to try to take them all out as soon as possible with the group-target SQUIRT. But I only face two, so it's not really that big of a difference-maker.
I eat a Siren to become an Ice Crab along the way to the next destination, which just greets you with a short fight. It may seem like I'm skipping around a lot...but this game really isn't that long when you know what you're doing, and there isn't too much to talk about. An annoyance pops up when trying to break out of jail, however. Jed needed to kill those Imps with Ice before they killed him with Fire. Took a few tries.
A quick trip back into the Tower to feast on the splintery corpse of a Woodman, and Jed became a Chimera. Why the diversion?
Chimera has a particular attack, you see. It's called 3HEADS, attacking with its lion, dragon, and goat heads. This hits up to 3 times...with a attack multiplier of 12. Since it's also used by ASHURA, I guess they gave it this huge buff. To contrast, 4HEADS does hit that number of times, but its multiplier is only 4 - so it's weaker.
Because of this, I massacre Byak-ko in two good shots, taking out his 1000 HP easily.
More time for experimentation in the tower...I settle on a Thunder bird here. Beak ain't half-bad, and Thunder is good for group-killing.
World 4 is interesting in how the Ssu-Ling shows up right away, is invincible, and tries to kill you. After dying once, Jed makes it to the Subway tunnels, eats a Mou-Jya to become a Minotaur, takes down some Atom Ants threatening a girl named Sayaka, who makes me curse not having my friend name a companion in a SaGa2 DS playthrough after So-Cho, and moves on.
World 4 is also an awkward spot...it's entirely possible for to hit the ceiling here. And if you hit the ceiling, you can't get back down. And actually, the only way down from the monster rank B is either going to Giant or Nue, which are only monster rank A with their second-highest having target levels of C.
Question of what to become for this world? Tororo might be good for bosses, but not exactly for trash-clearing. Jed eats another Dokuro (who's very rare in the tunnel I was in) and end up becoming a Cocatrice, taking me to that magic place near the ceiling...
And after recharging my PSP and analyzing, Jed becomes an Ironman, and remains as such for the rest of the world. His FLAME and GAS attacks are great for taking down random monsters, and KICK and BASH are good for dealing with tougher enemies.
After a few fetch quests, next up is the Nuclear Power Plant dungeon. There's an Evil Eye here who you can use to level to the max, but I don't want to do that. When you try to take the Plutonium at the end, a familiar face appears.
It's Warmech, yo. Called Machine here, but they share the same name in Japanese and basically the same sprite. He has a bunch of nasty attacks, including this beauty, which is an instant kill as far as Jed is concerned.
It's really just a matter of getting lucky. Machine has no mana, so magic attacks are the way to go - both of them did around 170-180. Eventually, he skips using the nasty stuff and dies.
Random commentary: the Skyscraper has some really weird dungeon design. Creative, though not exactly what you'd expect from a tower and deadly bird roost in a post-apocalyptic world.
So how can Su-Zaku fare without his defensive force field? He's got 1500 HP. His BLIND and FLAME attacks are useless on Jed, and BEAK only does 80-ish at best. He doesn't stand much of a chance.
Just more random commentary to pad this report out. There's lots of siderooms in the Tower, leading to various worlds. In this one, you see three dead children and a man, who reports that they barely made it to the shelter, but ran out of food and water. A man's last words told via his diary, apologizing to a Ken and Yuki for leaving them, telling his daughter Akira, to look after her brothers, and praying to the Creator to watch over them. Oh, and you get a Nukebomb for no reason.
My supply of Elixirs depicted there made my run through the tower fairly leisurely. I could blow up stuff if possible, run if not, and heal up to full after every encounter.
Still having stayed an Ironman for a bit, Jed eventually finds a nice floating eyeball on the way up that he digs into to become a Gummy. As previously discussed, Slime monsters are among the best in the game, held in check only by MELT's limited uses.
Just in time, too. Oh yes, talk to the man in the hat, or after an event, you'll won't be able to advance. It can be a source of confusion for veterans of the game.
Ashura is no joke. The only way for a monster to keep up with this kind of damage is by healing through and dealing heavy damage in return. Even so, it takes a good series of attacks to get through here, with him messing with GAZE and BLIND instead of murdering me. Even with MELT healing/dealing 250~ damage a turn, I just can't keep up with these monsterous hits.
This is where using the GB version over the WSC version is better for this challenge. MELT and DRINK both got hit with the nerf stick in that version, and no longer absorb HP. Similar draining moves don't work on Ashura due to his being undead for no good reason.
Now to climb the Tower a second time, though it's a much more straightforward version consisting of escalator rides.
Just like in FF1, the four fiends show up again to cause you havoc. None of them but Su-Zaku can get by Gummy Jed's constant healing, and even then just barely and not always. Though I have to run from just about every random fight.
Once they are all dead, Jed doors out. And one Redbull later, and he gets into his chainsaw-wielding form. No monster above this level carries SAW, hence our unusual way of going through this game without reaching the maximum level. There's another one as well - the Beetle, but it's strictly inferior for our challenge.
Then Jed needs to go all the way back up the Tower to meet his maker. Some people theorize that this version of the tower is its true form. Not as bad as it seems, due to the escalators and low encounter rate.
So what's up with this glitch, anyway, you ask? Well, how SAW is supposed to work is that it compares your attack to the enemy's defense, and if it's higher, you instantly kill the enemy if it connects. But the programmers got it backwards. So Creator with his 200 Defense, is prime bait for this attack. Unless you're a juiced up human (in which case you can probably murder him easily anyway), take a chainsaw to God and he's going down.
This fitting final boss death animation, brought to you with ANIMATRONICS!!
So yeah. That's about it for this shortish report. This was a nice way to kill a night, not to mention my sleep schedule. More Final Fantasy Legend games in the future? Definitely. But for now...
Index