RPG Progress Report

[Jmustang1968]

Yeah I forget the SNES release hit stateside. I think I've seen it at Vintage Stock off and on over the years for $50 or something, same for a PSX copy. The PSX version is up on PSN though, but I watched a bit of a LP of that one and it's got some nasty lag during magic attacks and stuff. I actually preferred the SNES music too from what I heard, but the music is great all around.

Knight of Lodis(?) on the GBA felt like a tutorial for the first game, lol, it was a cakewalk in comparison. Never lost any unit, but LuCT on the other hand... I pretty much had to make sacrifices to carry on, I think I lost 10 units in total. I'm usually really OCD about that stuff (like in Fire Emblem) and hate losing characters, but yeah it was that brutal, I just had to push forward lol. I definitely prefer these games to FFT personally. Get to use ~10 units in battle, key characters aren't overpowered, class system isn't as tedious as the job system, etc.

Whoa yeah, 7th Saga looks pretty cool. Maybe I did never try that one out actually...

Tactics Ogre didn't make it stateside on the SNES. It first came over as the PS1 port. You can only play it as a translated rom hack. Only Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen is on SNES (US)

LuCT is a sequel story wise but not gameplay to the original march of the black queen. OB 64 is a sequel to MotBQ as well in both story and gameplay that occurs about the same time as LuCT. LuCT and OB 64 each have different sets of playable recurring characters from MotBQ. The GBA Knights of Lodis is a prequel to LUCT and has similar gameplay.

My first playthrough of tactics on the PS1 I didn't let any characters die before getting revive spell. Though, I remember it took me so many tries to save Haborym on chaos route.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'm interested in how that dynamic plays out. I know from experience I would want my primary to be a physical tank, so the dwarf, the alien, the robot, or the human knight were the ones I wanted to pick from. What was the alien like to play as? And for those who played a lot of 7th Saga, who was your favorite character to play as?

You will not regret getting the human priest as your second character. Trust me.

The best fighter/offensive spellcaster is debatable, but no one can heal like Valsu.

Nice job so far. I think I was level 10 when I beat the first boss...

Bit of a spoiler, but it doesn't matter because you're past that point:

I believe that if you lose to the first boss you'll be transported back to town where you're given an item that insta-kills him.

[Ack]

Yeah, I have heard of the whistle before, but I ended up beating Ramos legitimately at level 9. Those B. Defense and B. Powers are nasty! I used them on the bounty hunter in the Cave of Earth too, and then defended and attacked twice, and that was that.

Oh, I played a little more last night before going to bed. I now have Kamil at level 15, and I found Valsu in the next town (he is level 14), so he is now my traveling companion. His equipment is way better than mine, but I'm getting there. I'm also making sure I'm fully stocked on healing, status, and support items and have the best equipment. Plus, now I've got the map! And I've been using every seed I find, but going to an Inn before I use them so I can get the maximum effectiveness out of them. I have a feeling I will need all those stat upgrades.

[BoneSnapDeez]

You are rolling through it like a boss.

I never save-scummed with those seeds because I didn't have the patience. Smart idea though.

Make sure you always have a full stock of those temporary stat boosters.

Don't bother with the opals, pearls, and other "banking" items. Just reset the game if you get killed.

[Ack]

You are rolling through it like a boss.

I never save-scummed with those seeds because I didn't have the patience. Smart idea though.

Make sure you always have a full stock of those temporary stat boosters.

Don't bother with the opals, pearls, and other "banking" items. Just reset the game if you get killed.

Heh, thanks. But for all my preparations, I feel a little surprised each time I enter a new area and suddenly feel underpowered again. Each new section presents an enemy that challenges me, so I try to level until they are no longer a real threat. The androids I'm facing are currently quite nasty, mainly due to that HP draining spell that can take off a fourth of my HP in one hit.

I was wondering, do I lose anything besides money if I get killed? Because it might be a quick way to return to town if I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere and need to get back.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I don't think you lose experience or progress when killed - just cash. I'm not entirely sure, I was super cautious and saved frequently. I believed I only died once, about 30 hours into the game (took me about 37 total from what I recall).

Don't leave a town until both characters have new and improved weapons and armor - and you have a full stock of items.

About transporting back to towns...

You eventually get an item that does that.

[Ack]

Yeah, I typically try to do that in most RPGs I play, to make sure my characters are as built up as I can get them before proceeding. I can tell it is vital in this one though. I expect I may take a while with this game though, as I'm being fairly cautious. But I look forward to checking this one off the list of SNES RPGs to play.

After this, I'm thinking maybe Lagoon, Secret of Evermore, or Robotrek.

[Ack]

I dislike double posting, but I've noticed some interesting things about 7th Saga that I'd like to share about secondary characters with other folks who might be interested in playing the game.

First, you don't have to take a partner, and there are certain negatives to taking them (inns cost twice as much to use, and experience values of monsters are cut in half). But the benefits far outweigh these negatives, as you now have a second character to make up for weaknesses, provide healing, help take down big monsters or annihilate trash monsters quickly in groups. I mentioned earlier I was playing as Kamil, the knight, and I've taken Valsu the priest as my companion.

The experience values for group combat is always the first thing I pay attention to when going from a single character to multiples in an RPG. Many split experience points across the party, so I'm used to it, though it means levels take much longer to gain. There are two things to note about 7th Saga's experience system with multiple characters: first, experience values from odd numbers are split to favor the second character. So if you fight a monster worth 3 points, character A (your main character) would receive 1 point while character B (your secondary character) would receive 2. Second, experience values are totaled based on the individual monsters, not the group. So if you fight two monsters that both give 3 points, these values will be treated individually for purposes of rounding and distribution. That means character A will receive 2 points while character B receives 4. Even values are distributed normally, so fighting a monster that gives 6 points will give 3 to A and 3 to B.

Enemies also attack whoever acted last, and they will always focus on character A if going before either of your characters go. So if character A goes, and then monsters X and Y go, they will attack character A. But if A goes, followed by X, and then character B goes, monster Y will attack B. Whoever is the focus will draw the attack. So if monster Y happens to be a heavy hitter and it hasn't gone yet, squishy wizard B probably ought to go ahead and defend. But if monster y happens to be easy trash, B can beat him to death and then let the turn go back to A, so he can deal with whatever the big monster is.

It's a fun game. I like it a lot.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Nice analysis, Ack. Glad you like the game, I find it very hypnotic. Isn't the music great.

It's the first game in a loosely defined trilogy, believe it or not.

[Homerzilla2k]

I really liked my Job system though. My ninjas with chakra and my holy sword users with Sword Boost...

er, it was kind of broken. I wish there was some more content to really test my skills, but the job system itself was a lot of fun.

Have you ever tried Final Fantasy Tactics 1.3 mod? It rebalances a lot of the classes and ups the difficulty of the game significantly. They've got two versions, one that adds the content but doesn't scale the story battles to your level. The other has enemies in story battles that scale with you, getting more powerful items and abilities and stuff. It really encourages strategy and cuts down on the grinding.

After playing the content mod I can't imagine going back to vanilla Tactics. Check it out.

http://www.insanedifficulty.com/index.p ... %201.3/faq