Rainbow Chara X
Impossible to gauge!
- 129
- Posts
- 8
- Years
- Shiny Hunting in Sinnoh
- Seen Apr 25, 2024
Well, would you look at that? The timelines are starting to diverge thanks to how I'm tackling this series. To specify on how different things are going to be:
Normal Timeline chapters are primarily the regular story bits and worldbuilding. Marche is nicer and the team isn't uber-super-broken, much to my everlasting dismay. There's more of an emphasis on Combos and the game is generally played out without much optimization - I just go on through.
Super Optimized Timeline chapters feature less story, recaps bits we've already seen and only covers new stuff if it's on the way. Instead, the emphasis is placed more on how to break the game and the secret hidden shit that lies within. Marche is more of a power-hungry asshole thanks to the decisions he'll be making and the team will be (more-or-less) completely optimized with all sorts of fancy weapons we shouldn't have... either because it's too early or just because using them should be classified as war crimes.
Both cover the entire length of the game, including the bonus missions. Due to how things work, even chapters themselves will be split into multiple parts... with parts themselves generally being shorter than normal (3-1 is only 86 screenshots compared to the normal 100+, for example) to compensate.
With that said, it's time to cause shenanigans.
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter 3-1 (Normal Timeline) - Antipyretic[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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We begin this chapter by reading about abnormal weather in Lutia Pass. Those kids are in for a world of trouble and they don't even know it yet.
The mission board opens up a bit more since the last time we were here. Being the person with zero chill or patience, I just choose all of them at once and do them in order.
... So someone challenged you to a duel, but you are so much of a pansy that you have to send someone in your place. What the hell happened?
At least you get a Javelin and some money. Javelins are neat because it teaches Dragoons Jump, which is a ranged physical attack... albeit one that requires a lance-type weapon, which you'll probably not keep if you keep switching classes like a maniac.
Sometimes missions will require you bring along a specific job to complete it.
Since Ardin is our only soldier, he's the only person that can do it. I find it deeply confusing because if he wasn't a soldier he wouldn't be able to do it, like he somehow magically doesn't count as a soldier despite having the skills.
Final Fantasy is weird like that.
Sometimes towns will have specific missions such as this one right here. So... for stopping the town from burning to a crisp, you get a knife... and a sprinkler.
The worst part is that this isn't even like the craziest reward we'll get.
Kids, snow and monsters do not mix, why are you letting this happen?
Here's the story-required mission, Thesis Hunt. A guy has his teacher's essay stolen and we have to get it back. What the hell was in it that prompted thieves to take it, though?
We walk around for a bit and the mission's already done, with no fighting required!
Excellent. The most amount of AP you can get from a normal mission is 80, by the way, but those won't come into play until later.
Oh jeez, we're actually timed on this one. What would have happened if we didn't take the job?
You get this cute little "Engage!" balloon whenever you get into a fight.
[Current OST: Companions that Surpassed Their Tribe]
Oh lord. Good thing we're on the case.
Okay, something I don't understand. The Judge is here, like in every fight, to watch what happens. But the thing is... he doesn't do anything to stop the bombs. So if Marche gets jailed or if we all get knocked out, the flock of Bombs will have their way and burn down the fucking town.
Man, I knew the law system was corrupt but that's just... wow. The weird part is that you can try this mission again if you fail it, which makes no goddamn sense. To make matter worse, Judges are not just monolithic law pushers, because they do arrest people for actual bad stuff like illegal logging and so on... so what the hell kind of morally bankrupt scheme is going on here?
26 / 42 / 90 / 80 /80 / 72 / 104
Bombs are a staple of Final Fantasy. They're living fire creatures with a signature suicide explosion attack that does massive damage. Stats-wise, they're alright, but not much of a real threat if you keep a distance. They have a weakness to Blizzard because I guess Water magic wasn't fully introduced as part of the elements yet.
They all had said suicide attack, but they never actually used it. I guess (aside from just being a low-health thing) if they did, it would be awfully pyrrhic because they'd recognize that we have Phoenix Downs if someone bites it.
To start us off, Wanda prepares a boost and dodges a Bomb.
Galor hits Marche for... some reason. I think it was to get experience, which is hilarious considering this came out of nowhere.
: "Augh, what the hell man?"
: "It was to gain experience, you see."
: "Yeah, in what? The last time I checked, you don't use the staff for whacking people over the head."
: "Touche."
Marche stabs a Bomb and Montblanc demonstrates type weaknesses.
Only for his asshole friend to come along and give him a quick fix. To give a short refresher, the effectiveness system works like this:
Absorb > Immune > Half > Neutral > Weak
There's actually a Black Mage support skill called Geomancy that filters down the effectivness, so things that were normally Absorb are now Immune and things that normally took neutral damage are now weak to everything you have. Given how elemental resistances are non-existent for normal units and rare on monsters, that skill effectively knocks everyone down a peg and makes you even more powerful.
Pictured: Montblanc missing two Blizzards. Sure, they may be facing him, but I at least wanted to get one.
Marche slices the final bomb to pieces and we call it a day.
Good thing. Wait, other streets? Is that supposed to explain why we can do the mission again? If so, I'm still blaming the judge for not helping.
I'm curious as to what would a sprinkler do to a Bomb. It will either be hilarious or horrifying.
After a job well done, we make our way over to ye old shoppe and check out the goods. Weapons aren't the only thing that grant you powers, although equipment gives you reaction and support abilities instead. Learning A-Action abilities are the only way to proceed to a different class, so you could ignore bad reaction/support abilities to your heart's content.
Block Arrows is effectively useless as it only works against archer enemies... of which there are only two classes out of the entire game.
Catch allows you to steal a thrown item. This one is so situational that I don't even know why it was put in, seeing as the only classes that use throwing abilities are Ninjas and Jugglers... both of which are incredibly rare and are more likely to stab you than throw valuable items at you. Like come on.
While this may not be a monumental purchase, it's stronger than the sword we already have and teaches Ardin/Marche a new ability.
Blades are different than Knightswords, Greatswords and Broadswords in that they can only be used by human Fighters and bangaa Gladiators. Yeah, another thing that boggles me about Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is that if you switch classes, you suddenly can't use specific weapons anymore.
Like Marche has to become an Archer just so he can use a bow again.
... Oh damn that's actually really good.
While it is nowhere near as impressive as some of the other knives in the game, stealing accessories and chucking daggers like Dio Fucking Brando is always a plus in my book. (Dagger has the chance to render an enemy incapable of doing any actions for a short amount of time, hence the fuss.)
Staves are different than rods in that Rods are for Black Mages instead. I guess it's because staves look more saintly as opposed to a goddamn magical girl stick.
The Guard Staff teaches Protect to White Mages (increases physical defense) and Ifrit to Summoners, which brings about a hulking fire man to attack in a 3x3 square. Pretty sure Summoners get the cooler technique of the two.
The Rising Sun fist teaches Exorcise to White Monks, which allows them to remove an undead enemy off of the field... permanently. See, when you beat an undead enemy, they're due to come back in three of their turns, although by the time that happens you would have probably beaten the map already.
I'll elaborate more when we actually get to one, though.
Guns can only be used by the Moogle Gunner class, which I feel is a wasted opportunity given how this is a fantasy setting WITH GUNS. I'd need to raise a Moogle to become Rambo Jr., and that'd take a long-ass time.
Nobel changes into a Warrior because he needs to get the skills out of the way. Warriors are essentially the bangaa equivalent to Soldiers, so they're not that good.
Wanda becomes a Fencer so she can do a specific mission. That, and I think Viera Fencers are fancy.
Remember what I said earlier? Granted, we're probably here to get the monsters out of the way first and not rescue the kids from mortal peril. But imagine how many bad parenting awards that person would get.
Keep this in mind for later. (By the way, Dark is insanely rare - only undead enemies have it as an ability and there's only really two Blue Magic techniques that utilize it... so who cares, I guess.)
38 / 24 / 105 / 110 /80 / 80 / 108
Panthers are an enemy that appeared in Final Fantasy IV under the name Cait Sith and are generally big cat monsters. In here, they look like a hellhound. Panthers generally pack a punch and come with moves like Poison Claw and Rend, which are as as pleasant as they sound.
This one had Reveal, which is a support ability that discovers invisible opponents. It is really strange how the game has all of these interesting abilities that never get used due to how situational they are.
Swarmstrike is a low-damage Fencer attack that poisons the opponent. To be completely honest, the only status ailments you need to worry about are Stop, Don't Act and Zombify (because you need a special item to cure that one) because Poison does peanuts in a game where maximizing your damage output is always the recommended solution.
Wanda gets murdered by a Panther for her troubles, which really highlights how bad she is as a fighter.
Oh well, we can always give her a second chan--
Damn it, this is what I was talking about. I actually forgot Forbidden: Item was in effect, so the Judge slaps us with a Yellow Card because I wasn't paying attention. Oops.
... That is Montblanc missing a Fire at 70% accuracy. A kneeling, wounded Panther somehow dodges fiery wrath by standing still. What the shit.
Oh well, we cleared it anyway.
*sigh*
Take whatever you want as long as it's not something important. I can just buy another Antidote. What makes this bad is that he has a record now - the more cards he gets, the more severe the punishments will be if he breaks the law again.
The Judges are gonna be watching him like a hawk.
The Char Bow teaches Blackout to Archers, which inflicts the Blind status. It's pretty useful because Blind also reduces their evasion, so they'll run into our swords a lot easier.
Oh, and the guys mastered some skills. Now I can equip the fancier stuff on them. With that said, let's cap off the chapter with the actual story mission.
: "Kupo?"
: "Why would bandits be interested in a thesis, anyway?"
Simple - they're gonna use the thesis to create a magical super weapon powered by Mist (aka. the FFT universe's equivalent of magic essence) or a golem-mecha the size of a skyscraper to terrorize Ivalice.
Or, you know, someone just wants to make a perpetual motion machine to get brownie points at the next science convention.
: "Kupopo? Maybe they're nerdy bandits? Some thieves are interested in more than money, kupo!"
He does have a point.
: "Yeah, you're probably right... Hey, there's someone there!"
"I want Coleman's thesis, not Dalilei's!"
Keep in mind, Coleman was the person who put up the mission in the first place... so they stole the teacher's thesis instead of the student's. *Losing horns*
: "Hey man, we got you a thesis just like you asked."
: "Well, I can only give you half of the fee, then."
: "That's not an option, gramps. Pay up!"
"The bandits just wanted the money after all!"
I can understand the thief only wanting money, but what about the Nu Mou guy who arranged this debacle to begin with? I'm really curious as to what kind of screwed-up creation he was going to make using the stolen thesis.
: "Don't worry about that! Let's get the thesis back!"
[Marche faces towards the bandits]
: "Hey, you! That thesis is stolen property!"
Way to announce that you're here, genius.
: "That's no ordinary boy! Look - he's with a clan! Coleman must have posted a reward for that thesis!"
: "Ah, so this kid is here on business! No need for me to play nice, then, is there?"
[The Thief whistles and summons his gang]
Bring it on, you pirate-looking motherfucker.
33 / 15 / 76 / 76 / 76 / 64 / 110
Thieves are practically good-for-nothing as a combat unit, so thank god for their abilities. They hold some of the most broken skills in the game, as they can not only steal gold and accessories but also experience, weapons and even other people's movesets. Even Fire Emblem doesn't let you snatch weapons.
They're also the class you need to be in to learn Counter, which is universally helpful if your guy is melee-oriented.
Maintenance is a support ability that prevents your equipment from either being stolen or destroyed, of all things. I'm pretty sure you don't want to lose your one-of-a-kind Masamune 100, now do you?
36 / 18 / 72 / 72 / 64 / 80 / 106
Archers have some neat skills, but it's their promoted class that's actually worth a damn. See, Archers are all about boosting and hindering enemies from a distance, but they're not very strong and are generally made of toilet paper for what is supposed to be a physical class.
They're the only class aside from White Monks that can purify Undead and come with a support ability that rips the game's balance right in half, but we'll get to that one when the time is right.
40 / 14 / 88 / 88 / 60 / 72 / 100
Soldiers are pretty alright. Not impressive, just average. They're the standard human class that you learn the abilities of, forget they exist and move on with your life.
29 / 52 / 57 / 73 / 88 / 84 / 108
Nu Mou White Mages are an oddity. They're the second fastest job class of the entire race and have slightly lower magic attack... even though they're healers. White Mages have access to Cure- spells, Life spells (revives fallen unit) and the dreaded Turbo MP, which uses up double the MP for twice the damage and accuracy. It's risky, but you could make something out of it.
That said, all of these losers have no chance of beating the crew no matter how hard they try.
Wanda poisons a thief while Galor uses his brand new Protect.
None of the enemies here have abilities that do direct HP damage, so instead they have MP damaging moves. They... uh... are not very useful, given how you regenerate 5 MP every time your turn comes up. Now, if this were A2 where you started every battle with 0 MP... that'd be a problem.
This sucker thought he could get the drop on Nobel... although what I'm questioning is why the AI would be dumb enough to drop a fragile healer type in the middle of all of my melee powerhouses. I guess he was so distraught by all of the thesis garbage that he decided "screw it, just arrest me".
This is the first time Counter makes an appearance in gameplay, and it complicates things just a little bit.
Thankfully, you can dodge it seeing as it has the same accuracy as a regular attack. That, and at the angle the thief is attacking from, the worst he would do is stab at Ardin's shins.
Now this is a cool ability. This is the Archer's Aim: Leg skill, which brings up this cool reticle animation and immobilizes whoever gets hit by it. They also have Aim: Arm, which functions the same way but you can't use any actions like attacking instead.
[Ardin attacks the Archer!]
Ardin was so pumped by our team's morale that he got a critical and knocked the poor guy off of the ledge too. Overkill is the only kind I'll take.
The final soldier, desperate to cling to what dignity he has left, uses First Aid in vain as Marche shivs him in the back.
In hindsight, you should be glad there's a judge nearby and for the fact they don't lock you away for beating people up.
Good, you'll have to keep it up for another 200+ missions. Nobody ever said running a clan was easy.
: "Are all of the pages there, kupo?"
: "Yup, they're all in there! All we have to do is bring this back and we're done!"
Sweet. Although... you're not gonna peek and see what they wrote? Then again, Marche is in like... grade school, so he might not understand the ridiculously complex formulas and math behind creating adoomsday machine a perpetual motion device.
: "You're doing a kupo job!"
Sweet.
: "You really think so?"
: "I'd thought it would be best to wait a little longer... But I think we're ready for the clan wars!"
Oh lord, here we go.
METAL GEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAR
(i'm not apologizing)
: "It's not really a war, kupo! It's when we compete with other clans for turf. The bigger your turf, the cheaper it is to get info. And there's other benefits as well, kupo!"
Oh, well thank god then. It's not like we're swinging swords and throwing nuclear fire bombs at each other - OH WAIT.
: "Do we actually engage with other clan members?"
Why are you phrasing it like this is something you haven't done already? You've just beaten the piss out of a group of bandits!
: "Sometimes, kupo."
And by sometimes, he means every time we run into one.
[Marche glances to the left]
: "I'm... not getting in your way, am I, Montblanc?"
: "Kupopo! Not at all!"
: "It gets busier from here, kupo! Hope you're ready!"
You're both adorable.
Ah, sweet. This is where the game finally begins, in my opinion.
For now, we collect our totally-not-suspicious-knife and money for bringing back that thesis.
We get a new location for completing that mission. It's called Nubswood, and it's a dark forest that serves as a hiding spot for thieves. Cool stuff.
Here's the Clan menu - we can see missions we haven't already completed, along with the total number we've already done.
Report is effectively a catalog of every mission in the game, so you can check to see which ones you've already completed.
Clan Turf allows you to see a map of areas you've already liberated. Since we just started, nothing is under our influence as it is.
Mission items are the quest-important doodads that we get that don't fit in our regular inventory. You can have a total of 64 mission items and you can throw away unnecessary ones - funnily enough, doing that also neatly arranges the entire inventory so it's not a mess. A word of warning, however:
Again, there are some items that can never be replaced - if you throw those away, kiss goodbye to 100% completion. A similar thing happens in A2, to the point where I had to make a list of stuff to not throw away/sell just to get 100% completion in that game too.
Seeing as our only mission item is a sprinkler, I think we're doing just fine. So fine in fact, that I'll cut off the chapter here.
Next time on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, we take a look into the... other timeline. I can't wait to see you there.
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Missions completed: 5 out of 300
Team setup:
(Marche, level 4,
,
) - "I thought that went pretty well."
(Montblanc, level 4,
,
) - "The Clan wars are tough, kupo! We might even get some rare mythril items if we keep it up!"
(Ardin, level 3,
,
) - "I didn't see what happened with that archer, but I'm pretty sure I hospitalized him. Ouch."
(Nobel, level 4,
,
) - "You really did a number on him. Impressssive."
(Galor, level 3,
,
) - "It is quite interesting having Marche as a leader instead of Montblanc. They seem to work well with each other."
(Wanda, level 3,
,
) - "You know, when he handed me this rapier and told me to be a fencer, my first impulse was to throw the damn thing at the enemy. I don't know why I'm like this."
Normal Timeline chapters are primarily the regular story bits and worldbuilding. Marche is nicer and the team isn't uber-super-broken, much to my everlasting dismay. There's more of an emphasis on Combos and the game is generally played out without much optimization - I just go on through.
Super Optimized Timeline chapters feature less story, recaps bits we've already seen and only covers new stuff if it's on the way. Instead, the emphasis is placed more on how to break the game and the secret hidden shit that lies within. Marche is more of a power-hungry asshole thanks to the decisions he'll be making and the team will be (more-or-less) completely optimized with all sorts of fancy weapons we shouldn't have... either because it's too early or just because using them should be classified as war crimes.
Both cover the entire length of the game, including the bonus missions. Due to how things work, even chapters themselves will be split into multiple parts... with parts themselves generally being shorter than normal (3-1 is only 86 screenshots compared to the normal 100+, for example) to compensate.
With that said, it's time to cause shenanigans.
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Chapter 3-1 (Normal Timeline) - Antipyretic[/FONT][FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
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Spoiler:
We begin this chapter by reading about abnormal weather in Lutia Pass. Those kids are in for a world of trouble and they don't even know it yet.
The mission board opens up a bit more since the last time we were here. Being the person with zero chill or patience, I just choose all of them at once and do them in order.
... So someone challenged you to a duel, but you are so much of a pansy that you have to send someone in your place. What the hell happened?
At least you get a Javelin and some money. Javelins are neat because it teaches Dragoons Jump, which is a ranged physical attack... albeit one that requires a lance-type weapon, which you'll probably not keep if you keep switching classes like a maniac.
Sometimes missions will require you bring along a specific job to complete it.
Since Ardin is our only soldier, he's the only person that can do it. I find it deeply confusing because if he wasn't a soldier he wouldn't be able to do it, like he somehow magically doesn't count as a soldier despite having the skills.
Final Fantasy is weird like that.
Sometimes towns will have specific missions such as this one right here. So... for stopping the town from burning to a crisp, you get a knife... and a sprinkler.
The worst part is that this isn't even like the craziest reward we'll get.
Kids, snow and monsters do not mix, why are you letting this happen?
Here's the story-required mission, Thesis Hunt. A guy has his teacher's essay stolen and we have to get it back. What the hell was in it that prompted thieves to take it, though?
We walk around for a bit and the mission's already done, with no fighting required!
Excellent. The most amount of AP you can get from a normal mission is 80, by the way, but those won't come into play until later.
Oh jeez, we're actually timed on this one. What would have happened if we didn't take the job?
You get this cute little "Engage!" balloon whenever you get into a fight.
[Current OST: Companions that Surpassed Their Tribe]
Oh lord. Good thing we're on the case.
Okay, something I don't understand. The Judge is here, like in every fight, to watch what happens. But the thing is... he doesn't do anything to stop the bombs. So if Marche gets jailed or if we all get knocked out, the flock of Bombs will have their way and burn down the fucking town.
Man, I knew the law system was corrupt but that's just... wow. The weird part is that you can try this mission again if you fail it, which makes no goddamn sense. To make matter worse, Judges are not just monolithic law pushers, because they do arrest people for actual bad stuff like illegal logging and so on... so what the hell kind of morally bankrupt scheme is going on here?
26 / 42 / 90 / 80 /80 / 72 / 104
Bombs are a staple of Final Fantasy. They're living fire creatures with a signature suicide explosion attack that does massive damage. Stats-wise, they're alright, but not much of a real threat if you keep a distance. They have a weakness to Blizzard because I guess Water magic wasn't fully introduced as part of the elements yet.
They all had said suicide attack, but they never actually used it. I guess (aside from just being a low-health thing) if they did, it would be awfully pyrrhic because they'd recognize that we have Phoenix Downs if someone bites it.
To start us off, Wanda prepares a boost and dodges a Bomb.
Galor hits Marche for... some reason. I think it was to get experience, which is hilarious considering this came out of nowhere.
Marche stabs a Bomb and Montblanc demonstrates type weaknesses.
Only for his asshole friend to come along and give him a quick fix. To give a short refresher, the effectiveness system works like this:
Absorb > Immune > Half > Neutral > Weak
There's actually a Black Mage support skill called Geomancy that filters down the effectivness, so things that were normally Absorb are now Immune and things that normally took neutral damage are now weak to everything you have. Given how elemental resistances are non-existent for normal units and rare on monsters, that skill effectively knocks everyone down a peg and makes you even more powerful.
Pictured: Montblanc missing two Blizzards. Sure, they may be facing him, but I at least wanted to get one.
Marche slices the final bomb to pieces and we call it a day.
Good thing. Wait, other streets? Is that supposed to explain why we can do the mission again? If so, I'm still blaming the judge for not helping.
I'm curious as to what would a sprinkler do to a Bomb. It will either be hilarious or horrifying.
After a job well done, we make our way over to ye old shoppe and check out the goods. Weapons aren't the only thing that grant you powers, although equipment gives you reaction and support abilities instead. Learning A-Action abilities are the only way to proceed to a different class, so you could ignore bad reaction/support abilities to your heart's content.
Block Arrows is effectively useless as it only works against archer enemies... of which there are only two classes out of the entire game.
Catch allows you to steal a thrown item. This one is so situational that I don't even know why it was put in, seeing as the only classes that use throwing abilities are Ninjas and Jugglers... both of which are incredibly rare and are more likely to stab you than throw valuable items at you. Like come on.
While this may not be a monumental purchase, it's stronger than the sword we already have and teaches Ardin/Marche a new ability.
Blades are different than Knightswords, Greatswords and Broadswords in that they can only be used by human Fighters and bangaa Gladiators. Yeah, another thing that boggles me about Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is that if you switch classes, you suddenly can't use specific weapons anymore.
Like Marche has to become an Archer just so he can use a bow again.
... Oh damn that's actually really good.
While it is nowhere near as impressive as some of the other knives in the game, stealing accessories and chucking daggers like Dio Fucking Brando is always a plus in my book. (Dagger has the chance to render an enemy incapable of doing any actions for a short amount of time, hence the fuss.)
Staves are different than rods in that Rods are for Black Mages instead. I guess it's because staves look more saintly as opposed to a goddamn magical girl stick.
The Guard Staff teaches Protect to White Mages (increases physical defense) and Ifrit to Summoners, which brings about a hulking fire man to attack in a 3x3 square. Pretty sure Summoners get the cooler technique of the two.
The Rising Sun fist teaches Exorcise to White Monks, which allows them to remove an undead enemy off of the field... permanently. See, when you beat an undead enemy, they're due to come back in three of their turns, although by the time that happens you would have probably beaten the map already.
I'll elaborate more when we actually get to one, though.
Guns can only be used by the Moogle Gunner class, which I feel is a wasted opportunity given how this is a fantasy setting WITH GUNS. I'd need to raise a Moogle to become Rambo Jr., and that'd take a long-ass time.
Nobel changes into a Warrior because he needs to get the skills out of the way. Warriors are essentially the bangaa equivalent to Soldiers, so they're not that good.
Wanda becomes a Fencer so she can do a specific mission. That, and I think Viera Fencers are fancy.
Remember what I said earlier? Granted, we're probably here to get the monsters out of the way first and not rescue the kids from mortal peril. But imagine how many bad parenting awards that person would get.
Keep this in mind for later. (By the way, Dark is insanely rare - only undead enemies have it as an ability and there's only really two Blue Magic techniques that utilize it... so who cares, I guess.)
38 / 24 / 105 / 110 /80 / 80 / 108
Panthers are an enemy that appeared in Final Fantasy IV under the name Cait Sith and are generally big cat monsters. In here, they look like a hellhound. Panthers generally pack a punch and come with moves like Poison Claw and Rend, which are as as pleasant as they sound.
This one had Reveal, which is a support ability that discovers invisible opponents. It is really strange how the game has all of these interesting abilities that never get used due to how situational they are.
Swarmstrike is a low-damage Fencer attack that poisons the opponent. To be completely honest, the only status ailments you need to worry about are Stop, Don't Act and Zombify (because you need a special item to cure that one) because Poison does peanuts in a game where maximizing your damage output is always the recommended solution.
Wanda gets murdered by a Panther for her troubles, which really highlights how bad she is as a fighter.
Oh well, we can always give her a second chan--
Damn it, this is what I was talking about. I actually forgot Forbidden: Item was in effect, so the Judge slaps us with a Yellow Card because I wasn't paying attention. Oops.
... That is Montblanc missing a Fire at 70% accuracy. A kneeling, wounded Panther somehow dodges fiery wrath by standing still. What the shit.
Oh well, we cleared it anyway.
*sigh*
Take whatever you want as long as it's not something important. I can just buy another Antidote. What makes this bad is that he has a record now - the more cards he gets, the more severe the punishments will be if he breaks the law again.
The Judges are gonna be watching him like a hawk.
The Char Bow teaches Blackout to Archers, which inflicts the Blind status. It's pretty useful because Blind also reduces their evasion, so they'll run into our swords a lot easier.
Oh, and the guys mastered some skills. Now I can equip the fancier stuff on them. With that said, let's cap off the chapter with the actual story mission.
Simple - they're gonna use the thesis to create a magical super weapon powered by Mist (aka. the FFT universe's equivalent of magic essence) or a golem-mecha the size of a skyscraper to terrorize Ivalice.
Or, you know, someone just wants to make a perpetual motion machine to get brownie points at the next science convention.
He does have a point.
"I want Coleman's thesis, not Dalilei's!"
Keep in mind, Coleman was the person who put up the mission in the first place... so they stole the teacher's thesis instead of the student's. *Losing horns*
"The bandits just wanted the money after all!"
I can understand the thief only wanting money, but what about the Nu Mou guy who arranged this debacle to begin with? I'm really curious as to what kind of screwed-up creation he was going to make using the stolen thesis.
[Marche faces towards the bandits]
Way to announce that you're here, genius.
[The Thief whistles and summons his gang]
Bring it on, you pirate-looking motherfucker.
33 / 15 / 76 / 76 / 76 / 64 / 110
Thieves are practically good-for-nothing as a combat unit, so thank god for their abilities. They hold some of the most broken skills in the game, as they can not only steal gold and accessories but also experience, weapons and even other people's movesets. Even Fire Emblem doesn't let you snatch weapons.
They're also the class you need to be in to learn Counter, which is universally helpful if your guy is melee-oriented.
Maintenance is a support ability that prevents your equipment from either being stolen or destroyed, of all things. I'm pretty sure you don't want to lose your one-of-a-kind Masamune 100, now do you?
36 / 18 / 72 / 72 / 64 / 80 / 106
Archers have some neat skills, but it's their promoted class that's actually worth a damn. See, Archers are all about boosting and hindering enemies from a distance, but they're not very strong and are generally made of toilet paper for what is supposed to be a physical class.
They're the only class aside from White Monks that can purify Undead and come with a support ability that rips the game's balance right in half, but we'll get to that one when the time is right.
40 / 14 / 88 / 88 / 60 / 72 / 100
Soldiers are pretty alright. Not impressive, just average. They're the standard human class that you learn the abilities of, forget they exist and move on with your life.
29 / 52 / 57 / 73 / 88 / 84 / 108
Nu Mou White Mages are an oddity. They're the second fastest job class of the entire race and have slightly lower magic attack... even though they're healers. White Mages have access to Cure- spells, Life spells (revives fallen unit) and the dreaded Turbo MP, which uses up double the MP for twice the damage and accuracy. It's risky, but you could make something out of it.
That said, all of these losers have no chance of beating the crew no matter how hard they try.
Wanda poisons a thief while Galor uses his brand new Protect.
None of the enemies here have abilities that do direct HP damage, so instead they have MP damaging moves. They... uh... are not very useful, given how you regenerate 5 MP every time your turn comes up. Now, if this were A2 where you started every battle with 0 MP... that'd be a problem.
This sucker thought he could get the drop on Nobel... although what I'm questioning is why the AI would be dumb enough to drop a fragile healer type in the middle of all of my melee powerhouses. I guess he was so distraught by all of the thesis garbage that he decided "screw it, just arrest me".
This is the first time Counter makes an appearance in gameplay, and it complicates things just a little bit.
Thankfully, you can dodge it seeing as it has the same accuracy as a regular attack. That, and at the angle the thief is attacking from, the worst he would do is stab at Ardin's shins.
Now this is a cool ability. This is the Archer's Aim: Leg skill, which brings up this cool reticle animation and immobilizes whoever gets hit by it. They also have Aim: Arm, which functions the same way but you can't use any actions like attacking instead.
[Ardin attacks the Archer!]
Ardin was so pumped by our team's morale that he got a critical and knocked the poor guy off of the ledge too. Overkill is the only kind I'll take.
The final soldier, desperate to cling to what dignity he has left, uses First Aid in vain as Marche shivs him in the back.
In hindsight, you should be glad there's a judge nearby and for the fact they don't lock you away for beating people up.
Good, you'll have to keep it up for another 200+ missions. Nobody ever said running a clan was easy.
Sweet. Although... you're not gonna peek and see what they wrote? Then again, Marche is in like... grade school, so he might not understand the ridiculously complex formulas and math behind creating a
Sweet.
Oh lord, here we go.
(i'm not apologizing)
Oh, well thank god then. It's not like we're swinging swords and throwing nuclear fire bombs at each other - OH WAIT.
Why are you phrasing it like this is something you haven't done already? You've just beaten the piss out of a group of bandits!
And by sometimes, he means every time we run into one.
[Marche glances to the left]
You're both adorable.
Ah, sweet. This is where the game finally begins, in my opinion.
For now, we collect our totally-not-suspicious-knife and money for bringing back that thesis.
We get a new location for completing that mission. It's called Nubswood, and it's a dark forest that serves as a hiding spot for thieves. Cool stuff.
Here's the Clan menu - we can see missions we haven't already completed, along with the total number we've already done.
Report is effectively a catalog of every mission in the game, so you can check to see which ones you've already completed.
Clan Turf allows you to see a map of areas you've already liberated. Since we just started, nothing is under our influence as it is.
Mission items are the quest-important doodads that we get that don't fit in our regular inventory. You can have a total of 64 mission items and you can throw away unnecessary ones - funnily enough, doing that also neatly arranges the entire inventory so it's not a mess. A word of warning, however:
Again, there are some items that can never be replaced - if you throw those away, kiss goodbye to 100% completion. A similar thing happens in A2, to the point where I had to make a list of stuff to not throw away/sell just to get 100% completion in that game too.
Seeing as our only mission item is a sprinkler, I think we're doing just fine. So fine in fact, that I'll cut off the chapter here.
Next time on Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, we take a look into the... other timeline. I can't wait to see you there.
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Missions completed: 5 out of 300
Team setup: