FF3 Solo Monk (NES) Part I
Dec. 1st, 2014 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sirsystemerrorThe Job System has been a part of Final Fantasy since its inception. The very first one stuck you with whatever your characters happened to get at the start. The second one had elements of it with the spellcasting penalty on heavier pieces of equipment. Wear those, your damage output with magic takes a dive and the odds of status magic plummet.
The fifth had arguably the best in the series, with several different formal jobs unlocked at each crystal. Between Sullla, T-Hawk, myself, and English Language, solo reports of every job class in the game has been done. Tactics had a setup where units could unlock jobs by gaining Job Points in other jobs, and even some unique characters had special job classes (that's also popular for job challenges, party-based and solo, though reports of it on Realms Beyond seem to be scarce for some reason). The twelfth even had a job system of sorts in the aptly-named International Zodiac Job System release. Well, aptly-named except for the International Part, since it never came out stateside. It also has a presence in games like the mobile-only (WHY?) Final Fantasy Dimensions, Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light, and the latter's spiritual successor, Bravely Default.
In this report, we'll be playing Final Fantasy III, the game with the most archaic representation of the formal job system. One catch: this game, particularly the NES version, is nowhere near as condusive to soloing as FF5 or...well, any other game in the series, really. Some bosses demand the solutions of particular job classes. Furthermore, several jobs simply exist as near or full-on straight-across upgrades of other classes. The White/Black Mages and Devout/Magus classes in particular, or almost every class and the Ninja/Sage. Furthermore, in NES version, there's a level requirement to use jobs from each crystal! One that we can bypass, but still. Regardless of the circumstances, I was curious as to how a solo job challenge would play out if one actually attempted it on this game. So that's what I'm doing.
It should be stated the DS/PSP release fixes some of these job nuiances - but has its own share of issues and retains some of the other problems. In fact, it could be argued it's even less friendly to soloing at times. So it's pretty much a wash. While I am capable of bringing you a report from the latter version, I figured I may as well do the NES version.
So of our six starting jobs, since we may as well start with the basics, Onion Knight is out due to being statistically weak. It would take a ton of grinding to get them far enough for the massive stat gains at the very end to matter, even though it would be fairly hilarious. Four of the other five get upgrades at a later point in this verison. The best case could be made for Monk - it has one good perk over its Karateka upgrade, compared to Warrior's one meh perk and the Mages' nothing. So it's a tossup between Monk and Red Mage. Power vs. healing and magic options.
One intro dungeon later...I may be committing some sort of copyright infringement here. But whatever. As did the Solo reports start as such in FF1 and FF5, so shall they start in FF3. For however long they go for before I get tired of doing them, because like I said, this game is not really friendly to solo job challenges. For this excursion, Solo is being joined by his old pal Dead. But since you can't name your characters the same thing in FF3, also joining him are Corpse and Mr. Boddy.
Solo picked up a pair of Nunchucks from the nearby village of Ur before setting out. The formula for unarmed damage for Monks' fists, along with the later Karateka class, is 1.5 times their level. This applies to each fist. So for now, these do more damage.
Umm...wow. Talk about your early wipes. See what I mean when this game does not like solos?
Solo tries to enter the first dungeon, only to run into trouble. Not shown is how these mummies can poison him and make his life miserable. Yeah. I think it's grinding time, and the game has just started. Shades of Solo's original adventure.
I took Solo to level 9 before entering the Cave of the Seal. This gave him a 4x attack multiplier on his attacks. I also made the quick decision to ditch the nunchucks due to their terrible accuracy. His unarmed attacks were doing more damage just on the basis of being more accurate, and eventually outclasses the nunchucks anyway.
The statistics are mostly as you'd expect them to be. Note that magic defense gets a bonus based off Intellect and Spirit. Solo is stuck with those stats at around that level, so he's going to be feeling any magical attack that gets hurled his way more than most classes might.
You may be noticing a trend with these screenshots...the random encounters can really rack up the damage. It should stop soon, both when Solo has the HP to fight through and the massive Potion stock to wipe away their damage, but for now, we'll just have to soldier on.
At least the first boss of the game we got to fight with him was a snap. Jinn cursed the village of Kazus and the castle of Sasoon, turning everyone there into flat 2D ghosts. Solo could punch him for over 100 damage a hit, and his Fire spells weren't much to talk about. An easy victory the first try he reached him.
Compared to the nasty undead mix in the previous dungeon, the birds on this short mountain dungeon called Road to the Summit were not particularly threatening.
The next "boss" is Bahamut. The objective is to run away. Somehow, this is difficult, and I end up getting killed once. When you run, you're rendered Defenseless for the turn, which lowers your defense and evasion to 0. This is, needless to say, very undesirable. While irrelevant for our challenge, any member of the party using Run renders the whole team Defenseless.
And now we have a problem and a solo exception. The next part of the game requires you to shrink down using Mini to traverse a dungeons. Making the switch isn't the problem - even though Dead can't actually cast the spell due to not having the spell charges (we're back to using those in this game instead of MP), Solo can switch over to do so, using a Healing Spring to get the charges.
It's this that the problem. No fighting ability. Yeah. You're intended to get through this part of the game by blasting through the opposition with mages. But we're stuck with one class, a class that cannot use magic.
This is what most of the random encounters looked like. The rest of them ended with the entire party dead. And remember, trying to run during a round renders you Defenseless. It wasn't actually too big a problem from the back row, since most of the enemies missed anyway. I kept this tactic in my mind for later.
This is also where the Karateka class has a pretty nasty fault in comparison to Monk. It has no Run command in its menu. What it does have is BuildUp; the Karateka can store power before using the Attack command to do double damage. It can also use the command twice for triple damage. The downside is, it gives the Defenseless property. While there is a part of the game where this is good to have around, I don't see it practical to get through here if you can't run from battle!! It's one good thing about the remake: every class can use Run.
The good news is about this place is, this is a short dungeon.
The bad news is, there's another one right after it. The Nepto Shrine. It's not too long either, but you need to walk back out after you go in. And remember, all the while, Solo will be unable to fight. He'll simply have to run from everything. A friend of mine underwent a similar ordeal before, doing a melee jobs only challenge. Of course, the big difference between that and this is, that I have only one character. Only one chance to run away per round instead of four. And if he fails to run, he'll be smacked around pretty hard.
I was doing a pretty poor job of getting screenshots. But those spiky guys have magic spells, and as alluded to before, Solo really felt them. He again ran from all of the fights. Those spiky things could kill him very quickly if they decided to cast magic several rounds in a row.
And there's a boss at the end. Now Solo has to fight. Ugh.
The good news is, Solo didn't have to whittle down its 450HP with just his dinky mini physicals. He could break out spellcasting items - such as this one to cast Ice2 - to deal consistent damage to the rat.
The bad news is, the rat has magic of its own. And it hurts. Umm, yeah. Solo only has three SouthWinds. That's dead. This is a roadblock battle for any class that has to go at it physically. What can we do about this?
Well, go back in time for one, as I forgot a few items. This Griffin is a monster in a box in Sassoon Castle, guarding a Red Mage exclusive weapon. It also has spellcasting items on its drop list, so Solo farmed for one. He also got a Zeus' Rage in Kazus, which casts Bolt2 on the enemies.
Finally, he went up to Level 14 to give himself some extra HP.
Even with the added buffer, this was still a ridiculously hard encounter. Spellcasting items I believe are not affected by magic stats, but can do wildly variable damage. Getting through the dungeon itself was no easy task either - he sometimes never even reached it. And the rat's magic is absolutely deranged. Solo survived one assault on his winning run with 1HP left!!
After his spellcasting items ran out and had done enough damage - and even in the best case it wasn't going to be enough - all Solo could do was beat away for 1-2 damage a hit. His constant Potion guzzling did not outrace the boss' magic. And stalling it out isn't an option in this game, since bosses don't have MP in this game, like they do in FF2 or FF5.
It took ages and several attempts, but the deed was eventually done.
That's not the last mini area we'll be seeing, by the way. But it's mercifully the only one with a boss. And with this, comes access to a ship.
Next | Index
The fifth had arguably the best in the series, with several different formal jobs unlocked at each crystal. Between Sullla, T-Hawk, myself, and English Language, solo reports of every job class in the game has been done. Tactics had a setup where units could unlock jobs by gaining Job Points in other jobs, and even some unique characters had special job classes (that's also popular for job challenges, party-based and solo, though reports of it on Realms Beyond seem to be scarce for some reason). The twelfth even had a job system of sorts in the aptly-named International Zodiac Job System release. Well, aptly-named except for the International Part, since it never came out stateside. It also has a presence in games like the mobile-only (WHY?) Final Fantasy Dimensions, Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light, and the latter's spiritual successor, Bravely Default.
In this report, we'll be playing Final Fantasy III, the game with the most archaic representation of the formal job system. One catch: this game, particularly the NES version, is nowhere near as condusive to soloing as FF5 or...well, any other game in the series, really. Some bosses demand the solutions of particular job classes. Furthermore, several jobs simply exist as near or full-on straight-across upgrades of other classes. The White/Black Mages and Devout/Magus classes in particular, or almost every class and the Ninja/Sage. Furthermore, in NES version, there's a level requirement to use jobs from each crystal! One that we can bypass, but still. Regardless of the circumstances, I was curious as to how a solo job challenge would play out if one actually attempted it on this game. So that's what I'm doing.
It should be stated the DS/PSP release fixes some of these job nuiances - but has its own share of issues and retains some of the other problems. In fact, it could be argued it's even less friendly to soloing at times. So it's pretty much a wash. While I am capable of bringing you a report from the latter version, I figured I may as well do the NES version.
So of our six starting jobs, since we may as well start with the basics, Onion Knight is out due to being statistically weak. It would take a ton of grinding to get them far enough for the massive stat gains at the very end to matter, even though it would be fairly hilarious. Four of the other five get upgrades at a later point in this verison. The best case could be made for Monk - it has one good perk over its Karateka upgrade, compared to Warrior's one meh perk and the Mages' nothing. So it's a tossup between Monk and Red Mage. Power vs. healing and magic options.
One intro dungeon later...I may be committing some sort of copyright infringement here. But whatever. As did the Solo reports start as such in FF1 and FF5, so shall they start in FF3. For however long they go for before I get tired of doing them, because like I said, this game is not really friendly to solo job challenges. For this excursion, Solo is being joined by his old pal Dead. But since you can't name your characters the same thing in FF3, also joining him are Corpse and Mr. Boddy.
Solo picked up a pair of Nunchucks from the nearby village of Ur before setting out. The formula for unarmed damage for Monks' fists, along with the later Karateka class, is 1.5 times their level. This applies to each fist. So for now, these do more damage.
Umm...wow. Talk about your early wipes. See what I mean when this game does not like solos?
Solo tries to enter the first dungeon, only to run into trouble. Not shown is how these mummies can poison him and make his life miserable. Yeah. I think it's grinding time, and the game has just started. Shades of Solo's original adventure.
I took Solo to level 9 before entering the Cave of the Seal. This gave him a 4x attack multiplier on his attacks. I also made the quick decision to ditch the nunchucks due to their terrible accuracy. His unarmed attacks were doing more damage just on the basis of being more accurate, and eventually outclasses the nunchucks anyway.
The statistics are mostly as you'd expect them to be. Note that magic defense gets a bonus based off Intellect and Spirit. Solo is stuck with those stats at around that level, so he's going to be feeling any magical attack that gets hurled his way more than most classes might.
You may be noticing a trend with these screenshots...the random encounters can really rack up the damage. It should stop soon, both when Solo has the HP to fight through and the massive Potion stock to wipe away their damage, but for now, we'll just have to soldier on.
At least the first boss of the game we got to fight with him was a snap. Jinn cursed the village of Kazus and the castle of Sasoon, turning everyone there into flat 2D ghosts. Solo could punch him for over 100 damage a hit, and his Fire spells weren't much to talk about. An easy victory the first try he reached him.
Compared to the nasty undead mix in the previous dungeon, the birds on this short mountain dungeon called Road to the Summit were not particularly threatening.
The next "boss" is Bahamut. The objective is to run away. Somehow, this is difficult, and I end up getting killed once. When you run, you're rendered Defenseless for the turn, which lowers your defense and evasion to 0. This is, needless to say, very undesirable. While irrelevant for our challenge, any member of the party using Run renders the whole team Defenseless.
And now we have a problem and a solo exception. The next part of the game requires you to shrink down using Mini to traverse a dungeons. Making the switch isn't the problem - even though Dead can't actually cast the spell due to not having the spell charges (we're back to using those in this game instead of MP), Solo can switch over to do so, using a Healing Spring to get the charges.
It's this that the problem. No fighting ability. Yeah. You're intended to get through this part of the game by blasting through the opposition with mages. But we're stuck with one class, a class that cannot use magic.
This is what most of the random encounters looked like. The rest of them ended with the entire party dead. And remember, trying to run during a round renders you Defenseless. It wasn't actually too big a problem from the back row, since most of the enemies missed anyway. I kept this tactic in my mind for later.
This is also where the Karateka class has a pretty nasty fault in comparison to Monk. It has no Run command in its menu. What it does have is BuildUp; the Karateka can store power before using the Attack command to do double damage. It can also use the command twice for triple damage. The downside is, it gives the Defenseless property. While there is a part of the game where this is good to have around, I don't see it practical to get through here if you can't run from battle!! It's one good thing about the remake: every class can use Run.
The good news is about this place is, this is a short dungeon.
The bad news is, there's another one right after it. The Nepto Shrine. It's not too long either, but you need to walk back out after you go in. And remember, all the while, Solo will be unable to fight. He'll simply have to run from everything. A friend of mine underwent a similar ordeal before, doing a melee jobs only challenge. Of course, the big difference between that and this is, that I have only one character. Only one chance to run away per round instead of four. And if he fails to run, he'll be smacked around pretty hard.
I was doing a pretty poor job of getting screenshots. But those spiky guys have magic spells, and as alluded to before, Solo really felt them. He again ran from all of the fights. Those spiky things could kill him very quickly if they decided to cast magic several rounds in a row.
And there's a boss at the end. Now Solo has to fight. Ugh.
The good news is, Solo didn't have to whittle down its 450HP with just his dinky mini physicals. He could break out spellcasting items - such as this one to cast Ice2 - to deal consistent damage to the rat.
The bad news is, the rat has magic of its own. And it hurts. Umm, yeah. Solo only has three SouthWinds. That's dead. This is a roadblock battle for any class that has to go at it physically. What can we do about this?
Well, go back in time for one, as I forgot a few items. This Griffin is a monster in a box in Sassoon Castle, guarding a Red Mage exclusive weapon. It also has spellcasting items on its drop list, so Solo farmed for one. He also got a Zeus' Rage in Kazus, which casts Bolt2 on the enemies.
Finally, he went up to Level 14 to give himself some extra HP.
Even with the added buffer, this was still a ridiculously hard encounter. Spellcasting items I believe are not affected by magic stats, but can do wildly variable damage. Getting through the dungeon itself was no easy task either - he sometimes never even reached it. And the rat's magic is absolutely deranged. Solo survived one assault on his winning run with 1HP left!!
After his spellcasting items ran out and had done enough damage - and even in the best case it wasn't going to be enough - all Solo could do was beat away for 1-2 damage a hit. His constant Potion guzzling did not outrace the boss' magic. And stalling it out isn't an option in this game, since bosses don't have MP in this game, like they do in FF2 or FF5.
It took ages and several attempts, but the deed was eventually done.
That's not the last mini area we'll be seeing, by the way. But it's mercifully the only one with a boss. And with this, comes access to a ship.
Next | Index
