RPG Progress Report

[ExedExes]

I've been following the FFV talk and all this about a 4 Job Fiesta -- I couldn't do what AJ is doing. My long-dormant party consists of Berserker, Summoner, Time Mage, Mystic Knight. Berserker has Knight & Monk abilities, Summoner has White Magic, Time Mage has nearly all the Monk's abilities as well as some of the Thief and the Mystic Knight also has Black Magic and nearly all of the Thief's abilities. I just haven't played it in well over a month When I played the translated FFV years ago, I loved the Dragoon and made sure that I got as many abilities as I could for that.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Made it to Exdeath's castle at the end of the second world in FFV with my 4 job fiesta team of Thief, Berserker, Geomancer and Dragoon. My thief is my most reliable team member right now, doing the most damage (thanks to equip axes giving her respectable attack and the twin lance letting her attack twice). My berserker is actually pretty reliable too, and my geomancer is either awesome or useless depending on the areas spell set. She's not too bad in this place though as it's all wind spells and she has a wind element boosting dagger equipped.

My dragoon isn't quite as good though. It's amazing how the game doesn't really give you any decent weapons for them for pretty much the first two thirds of the game - the best weapon you can find early on needs to be stolen, and then it's only equivalent in power to weapons for other classes. In fact, the highest lance power until the legendary weapon is 53, and then the legendary one is 109 - that's gonna be one hell of a step up, Still, right now she's equipped with some heavy armour and good accessories, so she should hold on as my main defender until then.

I managed to steal 4 reflect rings in the castle too. Having a totally reflecting party is going to be my main strategy for some of the later bosses, seeing how I can't cast any spells on myself anyway.

Exdeath is a legit final boss. He gave me a lot more trouble than any other "mandatory" boss in any other Final Fantasy game, and defeating him is a true challenge. You will also be glad that you have a powerful Dragoon if you plan on tackling any of the optional bosses...

Also, do you have mime? I found it absolutely essential for taking down some of the bosses in FFV.

have fun with that one noise! drastically different compared to the other ff's.

I played through the GBA port of FFII last year, and I really enjoyed it. (I even enjoyed the screwy leveling system.) I recognize that I am in the minority here, however.

[alienjesus]

Made it to Exdeath's castle at the end of the second world in FFV with my 4 job fiesta team of Thief, Berserker, Geomancer and Dragoon. My thief is my most reliable team member right now, doing the most damage (thanks to equip axes giving her respectable attack and the twin lance letting her attack twice). My berserker is actually pretty reliable too, and my geomancer is either awesome or useless depending on the areas spell set. She's not too bad in this place though as it's all wind spells and she has a wind element boosting dagger equipped.

My dragoon isn't quite as good though. It's amazing how the game doesn't really give you any decent weapons for them for pretty much the first two thirds of the game - the best weapon you can find early on needs to be stolen, and then it's only equivalent in power to weapons for other classes. In fact, the highest lance power until the legendary weapon is 53, and then the legendary one is 109 - that's gonna be one hell of a step up, Still, right now she's equipped with some heavy armour and good accessories, so she should hold on as my main defender until then.

I managed to steal 4 reflect rings in the castle too. Having a totally reflecting party is going to be my main strategy for some of the later bosses, seeing how I can't cast any spells on myself anyway.

Exdeath is a legit final boss. He gave me a lot more trouble than any other "mandatory" boss in any other Final Fantasy game, and defeating him is a true challenge. You will also be glad that you have a powerful Dragoon if you plan on tackling any of the optional bosses...

Also, do you have mime? I found it absolutely essential for taking down some of the bosses in FFV.

I'm actually on the exdeath at the end of world 2, about 2/3rds through the game. But yeah, the real final boss can be a pain too!

Also, I don't have a mime, and as part of the challenge I can't have one. I can only use Thief, Berserker, Geomancer and Dragoon (all randomly picked) and I must have one of each at all times.

When I did my real first playthrough I used all the broken combinations I could - chemist & Blue mage, Ninja + Mystic Knight, Ninja + Ranger, Summoner + Red Mage - I had the works. Battles are a lot tougher with this party which consists of a lot of the games weaker jobs

[Ack]

All this RPG talk is giving me a hankering...

I like to threaten Bone with playing whatever is likely the worst in my collection, but generally my threats are just for laughs. I really do struggle with what to play next each time I wrap up a game, particularly in this genre. But input from you guys on what to play always helps with selecting a new title from my SNES collection to check out. So once again, I'll throw out the names of my current unbeaten RPG collection for the Super Nintendo and see which one you all think I should play!

Breath of Fire 2
Drakkhen
Eye of the Beholder
Illusion of Gaia
Lagoon
Live A Live (repro)
Robotrek
Secret of Evermore
Super Ninja Boy

I also have an import copy of Final Fantasy V, but it's just a showpiece, so I sadly can't get in on this FFV talk...

[alienjesus]

I vote for Live a Live, just because I'd like to hear more about it.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I'm actually on the exdeath at the end of world 2, about 2/3rds through the game. But yeah, the real final boss can be a pain too!

Also, I don't have a mime, and as part of the challenge I can't have one. I can only use Thief, Berserker, Geomancer and Dragoon (all randomly picked) and I must have one of each at all times.

When I did my real first playthrough I used all the broken combinations I could - chemist & Blue mage, Ninja + Mystic Knight, Ninja + Ranger, Summoner + Red Mage - I had the works. Battles are a lot tougher with this party which consists of a lot of the games weaker jobs

Since you are the one who has been through it more than once, I think you should be the one giving me advice. I barely scraped by exdeath when I played through it....

So once again, I'll throw out the names of my current unbeaten RPG collection for the Super Nintendo and see which one you all think I should play!

Breath of Fire 2
Drakkhen
Eye of the Beholder
Illusion of Gaia
Lagoon
Live A Live (repro)
Robotrek
Secret of Evermore
Super Ninja Boy

I vote for Super Ninja Boy. I own it, but I have not spent any time with it. I would love to hear your thoughts.

[BoneSnapDeez]

@Ack

Breath of Fire II is phenomenal. Though I dunno if you need a break after just finishing Breath of Fire I.

Secret of Evermore is a great game - a Western "JRPG". The atmosphere and music are unmatched. I actually prefer it to Secret of Mana.

Those are my top two recommendations. Illusion of Gaia is great from what I recall, but I haven't played it ages.

I do remember playing Robotrek as a kid and actually disliking it. And it's tough for me to find a 16-bit RPG that doesn't please me at least somewhat. Actually, I think Lagoon may be better than Robotrek. Seriously.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Oh and I need to fire up Shining Force II again. I've barely touched it. This parenting thing is consuming a lot of my time (no shit, right?).

[prfsnl_gmr]

This parenting thing is consuming a lot of my time (no shit, right?).

Quicksave will become one of your very best friends.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Yup. Thank god for these current gen remakes.