Final Fantasy VI

[OCH]

2 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

I have not looked into Gau at all though, and probably never will. Don't really like those RNG mechanics.

I did grind for 30 minutes on the Veldt (NOTE: Another area that offers no EXP for fights). From the ability list, I had 21 unique encounters. But nothing I looked into told me how many I should have by this point? Only what the final total is. But when I did look into it. There was a suggestion for save scumming to reset the RNG. I don't like the sound of that. Especially since the Enemy Skills don't actually tell you what they do. You have to either try each yourself or look up a guide. 

[Metroid66]

Well I did a couple of hours on my flight to Tenegrief. I got to the part where you choose from three scenarios. I did Locke first and came to realise what gaming used to be before the emergence of directional markers and yellow painted ledges etc - when you had to walk around talking to NPCs and getting hints in how to progress. Needless to say I wasn't used to this and it took an embarrassing amount of time to get the little thief out of danger. 

 

The raft trio was more straightforward, and I was happy to have a pray caster in my team.

 

I'm up to Sabin now (think that's his name) who has some very powerful tricks up his sleeve. And because the game has taught me the value of talking to everyone I've managed to recruit a little bit of shadowy help towards his episode.

[OCH]

Todays session ended at the floating continent. I'm getting as many loose ends completed as possible before that point. I forgot how some new characters are really fun (Kupo!) while some are not (gamblers and little kids)...

I have a day off tomorrow. So I'm quietly confident I'll be wrapping up the game in the very near future.

[Metroid66]

What's your time in game?

[Maryokutai]

Unless I got this entirely wrong, I found out yesterday that the only stats that increase on level-ups are actually only those the game displays. I thought this was just some sort of visual simplification, but no, you do really just grow HP and, occasionally, MP values. Everything else is entirely dependent on equipment and whichever Esper you have equipped. Which is actually even more interesting than I initially thought and it kind of makes early game grinding like the stuff OCH did rather suboptimal if you want to benefit the most from the limited range in which you can level (1-99). Because every level you gain without having an Esper attached is a potential stat increase lost. Unless there's a mechanic later on that allows you to respec or something, but this being a 90s game I highly doubt it.

 

It's probably completely irrelevant if you're just doing the main story stuff, which I'm planning to, but really interesting to see these mechanics and layers in a game that starts off so simplistic. It's also probably super hilarious for anyone who has known this for 30 years to read this post, but hey, we all have our knowledge gaps.

 

Where are you at @Metroid66 ?

[Metroid66]

I'm getting trounced by the phantom train at the mo. If there's a trick to it I haven't worked it out yet. Plus I spent about half an hour walking up and down the damn train before I, by pure chance, walked through a door that triggered the cut scene that moves you to the engineer compartment.

 

Old school gaming. I signed on to this, and have no complaints.

 

I wonder if this featured in that Sunday question from a couple of weeks ago about being able to 'forget' a favourite game in order to play it again fresh. I might be living someone's dream.

[Maryokutai]

There's an old-school FF trick to deal with undead enemies. I think someone in Narsh mentions it, too, but I'm not going to spoil it here unless you really want to know. It's funny but a bit cheap, so I fought the train the conventional way – he/it can be a bit tricky because the fight starts as a back attack, that's true. I just brute forced him with Sabin's piledriver (which looks hilarious).

[Metroid66]

Ah. I know that trick from other games. I didn't know the train itself was undead though. Although the rather untoward generosity of chests bearing the relevant concoction should have clued me in.

 

The train dies. (Or lives🤔. Whatever....)

[OCH]

I do love that fan art exists for this moment!

[OCH]

7 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

it kind of makes early game grinding like the stuff OCH did rather suboptimal if you want to benefit the most from the limited range in which you can level

I did know to stop the grind, post-Esper.😉

 

Meanwhile, I'm on the Second half of the game now. Currently getting the band back together. Unfortunately I am stuck with one party member I'd rather not have. But this is a set party for the moment. Technically had to cut my session short. As I was killed by one boss and the fail state screen simply went blank and the game crashed.

[Metroid66]

This is a great forum playthru. The game is top tier, maybe the best I've played so far in this franchise. It's deep, nutty and populated by solid characters and momentous set pieces. 

 

Could all turn to shite, of course. But the game's reputation goes before it. I'm glad I continued my big franchise playthru with this classic. And I haven't had to resort to Google yet to get on, although certain hints in the thread have put me on the right path. I won't lie.

 

I'm not sure about that suplex thing. I don't know, even after cheesing the boss with chemicals, how I'd do that. And I'm not sure what to do with gau.

 

I've decided to just grind that area until he's got five or so moves and then move on to see w and noat happens

[Maryokutai]

Sabin should have three Blitz moves at that point. The Fist of the North Star Thing, the Kame-Hame Ha and then this Zangief Piledriver we keep mentioning. The latter is the strongest but it has a higher chance of missing (which makes no sense when you think about it, but that's RPG RNG for you).

 

I'll admit I have used a FAQ whenever the game asks me to split up the party, because those moments make me paranoid about running into a dead end five hours later due to suboptimal team comps. For everything else I'm going in blind though, I think having the genre experience and knowledge from today is already kind of a cheat code when playing this vs. experiencing it as a kid in the 90s.

[Metroid66]

Battle of Narshe. Any tips for setting up my 3 teams?

[Maryokutai]

The best way I found is to simply make one team with your four strongest characters and just mow down everyone while ignoring your other two 'teams' at the top. I think I had Terra, Edgar, Sabin and Cyan, but Celes would probably have been even better than Terra because of Runic.

 

I struggled there a bit, too, because I thought you really had to go with three teams as the game clearly recommends it. Lying bunch of MBs.

[Metroid66]

Well I've got 3 characters with mad moves, and then there's gau, who ended up with about 15 attacks by the time it finished building him up. Maybe 3 big hitters and that pray caster.🤔

 

I haven't struggled. I haven't had a go at the battle yet, so I don't know what's coming.

[OCH]

3 hours ago, Metroid66 said:

and then there's gau, who ended up with about 15 attacks by the time it finished building him up.

Two words: Stray Cat

If you haven't got it, do so. If you have, use it.

8 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

I'll admit I have used a FAQ whenever the game asks me to split up the party, because those moments make me paranoid about running into a dead end five hours later due to suboptimal team comps.

I must admit I have used a FAQ. Because there is a moment wherein you can permanently lose a party member. I couldn't remember offhand what the conditions were.

[Metroid66]

Yeah, my 4 man team was unstoppable against the cannon fodder in the battle of Narshe, and pretty decent against the two bosses, with a couple of hairy moments against Kefka who flatlined a couple of my team early on but then, I felt, started to ease up on me in the second half, just casting confuse and poison but not dealing much damage. 

 

I definitely would have picked three teams of two and got ravaged if I hadn't asked here. Nice one @Maryokutai.

[OCH]

1 hour ago, Metroid66 said:

I definitely would have picked three teams of two and got ravaged if I hadn't asked here

🤔Maybe I was overlevelled at that point? None of that sequence (nor the Phantom Train) even dented my three parties. Kefka also fell pretty quickly with a couple of Blitz' to the face.

 

Meanwhile, hit a roadblock (optional) boss. So I've broken away from the set path the game put me on and re-recruited some more of the crew (even a new one). Not much beyond that. Aside from lamenting the limitations of Esper spells that have no multiplier.

[mfnick]

Finally made a start on this. Only reached South Figaro but already hooked. Music is fantastic as always with FF.

 

Playing the pixel remaster and had to immediately change the font though. Even after everyone else complaining about it, it doesn’t prepare you for just how bad it looks with the new font. So weird they’d pick that. & surprising how much of a difference it makes. Music wise though I’m struggling to pick. I keep swapping between them, love both but think I’m leaning towards classic. 

 

Confused by the formation thing if anyone can help though? I’ve set mine out below.

 

 

Want Edgar and Locke front, Terra back. Which is how it looks here. But in battles it keeps being the opposite way round - however since changing formation my battles have always been facing left so is that why? May as well just keep them all the same position if random battle direction messes it up. 

[Metroid66]

I'm not sure about that formation thing. I haven't even looked at that. Probably something that will help as the game goes on, to have your caster slightly out of harms reach etc.

 

Having said that, the battles are so fast I sometimes can't follow who's where and who's doing what. I've had people die on me before I've even noticed their hp dropping. Game certainly keeps you on your toes. And in a good way. Not in the FF7 remake's 'is this bastard's health bar ever gonna drop' way

 

Welcome to the playthru @mfnick.