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Let's Play Every Final Fantasy Game In Order Of Release [Now Finished: Final Fantasy Tactics]

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Omicron said:
abilities like Dragonheart (which casts Reraise on self when critically injured)
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Akshually, it triggers off of stuff like basic attacks and, IIR, some abilities such as Throw Stone.

Omicron said:
now I have my eyes on a different prize: the Samurai job has a support ability called Doublehand, which allows it to wield a weapon in two hands to increase attack power. This seems like the perfect way to increase the Dragoon's already considerable Jump attack power.
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The alternative is Geomancer's Attack Up. They're both good, and here's the tradeoff:

Doublehand Dragoon does more damage.
Attack Up Dragoon can still equip a shield.

I mostly see it as a matter of personal preference (I generally go with Attack Up because I like my units tanky. Plenty of other people like Doublehand for the UNLIMITED POWER!!!).

Omicron said:
…the Tradesman now has items to sell us. They're kinda lame - Holy Water and Ether, which I can't use - but they exist! They're also less expensive to purchase than they normally are, so the point of the Poacher's Den appears to be "kill monsters with a special ability to unlock discounted items." Frankly I don't think I'm going to bother thinking about it much.
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Common items for common monsters. Try killing something more interesting.

Omicron said:
"The Thunder God has broken through our lines at Dugeura Pass." It looks like Count Orlandeau is not so washed up as his allies accused him of being.
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Every single person in that room knew that Orlandeau could kick their asses if he wanted to, but felt safe to taunt him because they could read the room and knew which way Goltanna was leaning.

Omicron said:
I find that a delightful bit of storytelling through mechanics. Ovelia doesn't know who to trust, and she uses her magic first and foremost to protect herself. Alma is thrown into battle with her brother, and she immediately lends him her aid, even though she's the one in most danger here.
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I never thought of it that way and you're 100% on the money. What a great way of integrating mechanics and story.

Omicron said:
I'm afraid I will never get tired of "White Mage with a Glock."
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I believe the original version is "White Mage with a 2H axe."

Omicron said:
Lmao, Alma. What a brat. Ramza in shambles, absolute sister triumph.
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She is absolutely the brains of the two siblings.
 
Omicron said:
A man named Orran appears to be trapped by a bunch of scoundrels.
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This is the second time that Ramza is just like walking down the street with his homies and comes across Some Guy that is about to get kidnapped by gangsters, now, after the Mustadio business. I don't remember that being an ongoing Thing in FFT but like! I guess we should keep an eye peeled to see if #3 makes it officially a pattern.
 
Omicron said:
Orran's Astrologer Abilities
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Omicron said:
Arise
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Omicron said:
Monk decides to beat up on a child
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I'm living in a weird space where I'm sort of annoyed at Omi for not naming the abilities that characters are using, but understanding that they wouldn't know which abilities come with chants. I can recognize the screen shots of some animations though. So...

Celestial Stasis/Galaxy Stop: "Destiny lies in my hands! Stop movement! Galaxy Stop!"
Arise/Raise 2: "Spirits of life, give a new life to the soul! Raise2!"
Pummel/Repeating Fist: "Fight for justice...fists of fury! Repeated Fist!"
 
Omicron said:
Oran's job is "Astrologer," and he attacks people by… Reading a book at them? That's not a joke; he literally opens a book on his turn and damage happens. I assume what's going on there is that Orran is casting some magic from a tome, but there's no spell animation, so it really does look like he's just reading so painfully it causes people psychic damage.
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Or what he's reading out loud :drevil:

Orran opens book: "Hi my name is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way-"
Thief: "Just kill me now!"
 
Omicron said:
​
Oh fuck off.

So, Ramza is Charmed. You can release a character from Charm by hitting them with an attack. I have Gillian hit Ramza with her stick, so hopefully I would only lose one turn.

Of course, this instead triggers Ramza's First Strike ability. He goes first, deletes half of Gillian's HP, cancels her attack, and takes his turn immediately after, still Charmed. At which point I just force quit the game and reload because there's no coming back from this humiliation.
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His inner misogynist awakened, Ramza whips a hard 90-degree turn and backhands Gillian across the face for speaking out of turn. He cannot afford to be distracted, he has Andrew Tate podcasts to listen to now.

Omicron said:
Alma: "Is it true that Dycedarg planned her abduction?"
Ramza: "It is. I am sure he had his reasons, but I cannot see them for the blood."
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This line goes hard, though. "Cool motive, still murder" but said more elegantly.

Omicron said:
I do have to respect that Ramza had his troops just. Waiting in the wings behind a wall in case his conversation with Alma went awry somehow. After the trap at Lionel Castle Gate, our boy knows to do his setup. "Oh no, here I am ambushed all on my own without backup! Hadrian, obliterate their spines."
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At this point I imagine Ramza calling in strikers like Ezio circa AC: Brotherhood, he just raises his hand and a dragoon drops out of low orbit at Mach 2 to impale the indicated enemy combatant.

Omicron said:
Meanwhile Gillian starts blasting.


I'm afraid I will never get tired of "White Mage with a Glock."​
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(found on GIS through KYM, no idea the source)

Omicron said:
Now, there's an obvious solution here - Arise as a very long casting time, and it would be easy to just kill Zalmour before he's done charging up. The problem is that this will instantly end the battle, and I will miss any other dialogue he might otherwise have. That's why my initial goal was to just clean out all mobs and then whittle him down progressively. But if he can raise an opponent I took several turns defeating at full HP with Arise… That becomes a lot trickier.
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I mean when you really think about it this is just more efficient grinding. You're getting xp and jp from keeping story enemies alive for their dialogue while beating them about the face and body with nerf bats!
 
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Zalmour: "I am taking you in for the murder of Count Delacroix!"
Ramza: "You mean the Delacroix who very famously died of illness? Every bartender in every town on the continent will tell you that."
Zalmour: "... Now listen here, you little shit"
McFluffles said:
So I ended up looking this up since I recall some talk of how Dual-wield tends to be much better than Doublehand... and turns out Dragoons might actually be one of the few classes where that isn't true, because of how spears work. So, probably not a waste, though I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
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Doublehanding polearms should work fine; the downside is that that only applies to running over and stabbing enemies like a peasant, not when Hadrian gloriously descends from on high like a majestic bird of prey.
 
ZerbanDaGreat said:
His inner misogynist awakened, Ramza whips a hard 90-degree turn and backhands Gillian across the face for speaking out of turn. He cannot afford to be distracted, he has Andrew Tate podcasts to listen to now.
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Considering he is being charmed by a thief, I think it's more like Ramza getting a girlfriend who tells him to get rid of his friends, and his chosen method is murder.
 
Speaking of which, is the Orator's first job command "Entice" the only command that breaks the rule "anything the Player can do, NPCs can do too"? I don't believe the AI is programmed to just like, permanently remove blorbos from your party.
 
daniel_gudman said:
Speaking of which, is the Orator's first job command "Entice" the only command that breaks the rule "anything the Player can do, NPCs can do too"? I don't believe the AI is programmed to just like, permanently remove blorbos from your party.
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Mechanics-wise, the devs probably blocked that particular skill from being used on us.

In story though, Ramza seems to do well enough monetarily to afford his men and not have them haring off with thieves. But now...

Who in their right mind wants to travel/work with Church heretics?
 
foamy said:
Omicron looking at the Thief class for his blorbos: "I dunno, seems pretty weak"
Omicron facing enemy Thieves: "WTF IS THIS BULLSHIT"
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Eh. Pretty standard for status effects in JRPGs that aren't by Atlus. Horrifically dangerous and deadly when used by your opponents, more or less useless when used by you without a game guide.

Games like this one where the enemy can usually do what you can are somewhat an exception... except most still are generally still going to avoid them because you've probably been trained to expect them not to work on bosses (and sure, Ramza is a boss from the enemy party's perspective, but that doesn't mean he gets overpowered hax and resistances like enemy party bosses probably usually do).
 
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Omicron said:
Dragonheart (which casts Reraise on self when critically injured)
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Is this a motherfucking reference to the self-same movie with Sean Connery in the year of our lord 2024?

Omicron said:
God, okay. I guess Orran's Astrologer Abilities manifest chiefly in the power to show our world as a pale blue dot drifting through a field of stars or something???
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Did he just weaponize the overview effect?

Thief: Oh, wow, I never knew our world is so... small and fragile. I-
*Orran sucker-punches the thief in the kidneys*
Orran: Ha! Gets them every time!

Alternatively, it's another reference, this time to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and its machine that shows you how insignificant you are compared to the universe. (If it doesn't work on bosses, clearly that's because they are, in fact, cosmically significant.)

That would mean that his little book contains the most devastating weapon of all: Vogon poetry.

Omicron said:
You can also see that almost the entire enemy party fits on the screen, because I tried to prioritize "keeping Orran alive" over "eliminate the enemy," which while not a bad idea in theory, can simply be done to excess until you forget that the first and best way to reduce enemy DPS is to kill them.
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Ramza: The sanctified action is to cut.

Omicron said:
Which is a neat nod to them being raised and taught together in a monastery school.
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Specifically, they've both attended Damseling 101: How to ensure your safety when men fight around you.

Omicron said:
In any other scenario, the obvious alternate answer would be 'one of our party members is a traitor.' Except our only party member when we arrived at Lesalia was… Well we had none. Agrias and Mustadio can both die, and so neither could be a traitor.
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Ramza: Just so you know, you're all dead to me. In a good way.

Though, if we allow for named characters to matter... Mustadio is above suspicion because it's because of him we even went against the Church to begin with. Agrias could theoretically be the traitor: she's loyal to Ovelia, who supposedly joined the Church. If nothing else, she could be promised a reunion with the princess.

Generics, of course, still don't exist.
 
Omicron said:
If it turns out there is some hidden mechanic that makes Jump incompatible with Doublehand or something, well. I'll have wasted a bunch of this update.
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Doublehand/Two Hands doesn't applies to the WP used for Jump; it only applies to the base Attack command. That said, it makes the Dragoon's attack stronger than their Jump without reducing the power of the Jump any, so that you can have an emergency option for extra damage if you ever need it and the enemy is close enough.

FunkyEntropy said:
The alternative is Geomancer's Attack Up. They're both good, and here's the tradeoff:

Doublehand Dragoon does more damage.
Attack Up Dragoon can still equip a shield.

I mostly see it as a matter of personal preference (I generally go with Attack Up because I like my units tanky. Plenty of other people like Doublehand for the UNLIMITED POWER!!!).
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Attack UP/Strength Boost also applies to a number of skills (notably, it applies to Agrias' Swordskills, whereas Doublehand/Two Hands doesn't, making it the best support ability for her), but for a Dragoon, it also only applies to the standard attack, not to Jump. Really, there's no real way to boost Jump other than getting yourself the highest atk Spear possible, AKA go poach a Red Dragon until you get the rare drop - or, if you're fine with second best, poach the third tier Minotaur (called Sekhret/Sacred, it's the bright purple one, not the violet or red one) in Zeklaus Desert for their common drop.

Omicron said:
not all cities include katanas in their stores
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Cities are divided into three types: Trade cities (like Dorter), Castles (like Lesalia) and Town (like Gollund). Trade cities are the ones who have a fur shop and sell Katana and Ninja gear, Castles are those who sell Spears and Heavy Armor, and Towns have the smaller inventory.

daniel_gudman said:
This is the second time that Ramza is just like walking down the street with his homies and comes across Some Guy that is about to get kidnapped by gangsters, now, after the Mustadio business. I don't remember that being an ongoing Thing in FFT but like! I guess we should keep an eye peeled to see if #3 makes it officially a pattern.
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I mean, I feel like Algus/Argath ought to count as the "third time" that happened? Surely the fact it was not a road on a city but an highway in the country doesn't disqualify the event from being "Some Guy under assault by an armed group", conceptually? And maybe Boco could also fit here, if you're willing to ascribe personhood to a yellow bird and a pack of goblins.
 
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Shadowdrakon said:
Someone needs to make that "trust no one, not even yourself" meme, but with Ramza.
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That's one way to make the traitor plot work with just Ramza.

ZerbanDaGreat said:
I mean when you really think about it this is just more efficient grinding. You're getting xp and jp from keeping story enemies alive for their dialogue while beating them about the face and body with nerf bats!
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And apparently killing enemies and waiting for them to crystalize is how you unlock the ultimate class (which was mentioned in this thread a couple of times). There was a discussion on how it affects Ramza's characterization, and, well, judging by @Omicron it actually makes Ramza more curious about what his enemies have to say, perhaps give them an extra chance to surrender. Truly, this playstyle is a perfect fit for him.

Zap Rowsdower said:
Eh. Pretty standard for status effects in JRPGs that aren't by Atlus. Horrifically dangerous and deadly when used by your opponents, more or less useless when used by you without a game guide.

Games like this one where the enemy can usually do what you can are somewhat an exception... except most still are generally still going to avoid them because you've probably been trained to expect them not to work on bosses (and sure, Ramza is a boss from the enemy party's perspective, but that doesn't mean he gets overpowered hax and resistances like enemy party bosses probably usually do).
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It's not even the issue with bosses... Status effects like that are devastating when they work, whether in your hands or enemy's, but they work rarely, making for inconsistent perfomance. If you can pull them off, they can turn a whole battle around, but more often they just fizzle out, making you feel like you've wasted a turn. Just going for damage is more predictable.

So the end result is that players remember the times when the enemies managed to pull off that bullshit on them because that's memorable, but if players themselves attempt to use status effects, what they see most often is failure.
 
Just FYI as I don't recall if you're aware of this Omi, but Jump does bonus damage to enemies if you're equipped with a spear.

Also Poach is situationally useful as it allows you to acquire a few weapons and accessories that aren't normally available in the shops.

Generally better items are poached if you slay monsters of a higher color tier.

It's also a nice counter for undead monsters, as Poach instead of leaving downed bodies that may resurrect after the KO countdown, monsters that are poached are completely removed from play.
 
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Zap Rowsdower said:
Eh. Pretty standard for status effects in JRPGs that aren't by Atlus. Horrifically dangerous and deadly when used by your opponents, more or less useless when used by you without a game guide.

Games like this one where the enemy can usually do what you can are somewhat an exception... except most still are generally still going to avoid them because you've probably been trained to expect them not to work on bosses (and sure, Ramza is a boss from the enemy party's perspective, but that doesn't mean he gets overpowered hax and resistances like enemy party bosses probably usually do).
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Maybe but even if it doesn't work on bosses, every 'boss' fight to-date in this LP except for ol' Oogie Boogie has had a whole pile of chaff characters alongside it that would be vulnerable, yes? Fix your action economy problems by stealing everyone's hearts away :V
 
It is absolutely possible to build for status effects and be deadly in FFT, and it is a lot of fun too, if you make it work.

The primary problem is that, well, you need to maximize hit-chances, which means paying extremely close attention to Zodiac and, preferably, have two (or more) different status-inflicting units that have a different spread of good and great compatibility so you have options, and that's after you've ensured every status-inflicting unit has high faith, and probably made them Black Mages for the extra MA, which is a factor in Talkskill accuracy especially - at which point the "why don't you just Black Magic them into ashes" question raises its head.

Also, status is one of those things that works better the more of them you have; if you have a 25% chance petrify, but you cast it five times every turn, it's gonna land, and if you have an area-of-effect debilitating status - say, Slow or Don't Act - which you cast multiple times, you're gonna hit the entire enemy team pretty quickly. Focus fire is deadly even if you're not focusing fire with damaging abilities.
 
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Egleris said:
It is absolutely possible to build for status effects and be deadly in FFT, and it is a lot of fun too, if you make it work.

The primary problem is that, well, you need to maximize hit-chances, which means paying extremely close attention to Zodiac and, preferably, have two (or more) different status-inflicting units that have a different spread of good and great compatibility so you have options, and that's after you've ensured every status-inflicting unit has high faith, and probably made them Black Mages for the extra MA, which is a factor in Talkskill accuracy especially - at which point the "why don't you just Black Magic them into ashes" question raises its head.

Also, status is one of those things that works better the more of them you have; if you have a 25% chance petrify, but if you do it five times every turn, it's gonna land, and if you have an area-of-effect debilitating status - say, Slow or Don't Act - which you cast multiple times, you're gonna hit the entire enemy team pretty quickly. Focus fire is deadly even if you're not focusing fire with damaging abilities.
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Yeah, and the amount of "screw you, totally status immune" bosses is actually... relatively minimal? Like, most 'immune' enemies are just equipping things that prevent certain statuses, which you could equip as well, and they can be broken/stolen (unless they have the Safeguard ability which you, too, can learn and use). The exceptions are the super-duper over the top bosses like the Vis from Binding of Issac the Cardinal, but by and large there are reasons things are immune, it's not just a "screw you, boss character" and they're rarely immune to every status. Even the Cardinal could be immobilized for what little good it did on his map.
 
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