Is that character a variant? (I just love getting asked that in channel.) - Charis

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More Final Fantasy

Nice to see another System Error Final Fantasy variant! nod  The buffs that actually work combined with higher boss HP make it different from Sullla's NES playthrough, which I reread today to refresh my memory. Whenever you all do low-offense variants, do you use a fast-forward emulator function?  I'd never try something like this on my Final Fantasy Origins disc simply because of how slow the battles would be.


Are the PSX and PS2 "numbered" Final Fantasy games generally disliked among the players in this thread?  Even for FF7, the only variant I remember here was that Enemy Skill one.  FF10 is popular for variants outside Realms Beyond, with increasingly long acronyms used to represent different challenges.  And I have an FF10-inspired idea for an unrelated Nintendo DS RPG that I may do in another topic once I finish Chrono Cross.
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."







T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.


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I like 'em. It's just that I can't think of anything I'd like to do on any of those games. And yeah, FF10's challenge restrictions by some get so long, you may as well tack "Fox only, Final Destination" onto them.

And yes, lots of speedup use has been documented here. I even wreck my own ass in it in this very update.

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The WSC version was the first that messed up the river encounters. Now you'll run into the enemies found only in the northern rivers even in the southern ones. Strange change/oversight. But it's not the worst change to this version.

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I decided I'd reset any appearance of Piscodemons in the first room of the Ice Cave, just because fighting is slow and I didn't want to waste time. First attempt in proper ended courtesy of one of the most pissed off Dark Wizards (MAGE) I've ever seen. He got a preemptive with Fira, killed 3/4 people with Bane immediately after. What's that? You say they don't do that? Well, they do in this version! Instead of their first three spells being RUB, LIT3, FIR3, it's FIR3, BANE, LIT3.

So they can ambush you - and they have a fairly high rate of doing so, and just kill you on the second turn. Nothing you can do about it. It's incredibly dumb and I have no idea why they changed it to be this severe. In some ways, WSC/Origins is far harder than the original game!

Anyway doing this like I did in previous challenges. I ran from everything I could in the cave.

#2) Dead to Mindflayers. Well, that's at least expected from this place.
#3) Stunlocked and killed by the spike trap,
#4) All petrified in the first room by Cocatrices.
#5) An early death to Mindflayers.
#6) An early death to Mindflayers.
#7) Paralysis lock before the pit, Powr died so I decided to reset.

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#8) Now this was just insulting. Powr made an incredibly lucky escape. Let's talk about the Eye a bit now. It too got its spells changed: it starts off with Thundara and goes into Hold from there, effectively starting partway through its original script. It also uses its STARE special to deal damage. It's much more tame.

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And therefore it wasn't much of a threat.

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Then the spike trap ambushed me, stunlocked everyone, and I never got another turn.

#9) Three mages with surprise round. Dead.
#10) Oh, it gets even worse than my eighth attempt: I had a Frost Wolf ambush on the way out fro beating the Eye. This took out half the team. Tuff died to a Mindflayer, and the lone Acel was petrified. Also Oswan sucks. It has a strict screenshot limit of 100 and so I have a big gap here.
#11) All petrified
#12) Four mage ambush
#13) All petrified
#14) Four mage ambush
#15) Acel died to a huge massive critical in the spike encounter. I pressed on anyway. Rushed too much with speedup and fell into the pit again??? Excuse me??????

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#16) This one finally got through, but holy crap. Right here I had another undead stunlocking incident. Forget instant death, those encounters are easily the worst part of FF1 in my opinion. Amazingly I managed to escape from that eventually. My party looked like trash after it.

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Getting to Ordeals was amusing. Don't seem to run into these things too often, yet I ran into two, and they forced resets each time. It was on the overworld though, so no big deal.

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Ordeals itself went super smoothly. I barely saw anything, and ran from anything I did see. It's kind of the mentality I've been adopting with FF1 variants as of late, if you've noticed. I can do leveling on my own time. Run the dungeon straight through, so I don't end up wasting a ton of time in the event I get horribly killed by the boss. And in some of these variants the odds of that are quite high indeed.

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One weird quirk, because of the layout change you need to fight (or run from) the spike where the Heal Staff is twice.

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Nothing to say about the Zombie Dragon, either. Other than how Oswan is stupid: I somehow accidentally increased the frameskip. There's no option for it in the menu, and I don't know what I did, but I was thankfully able to fix it by opening the unaffected config file and saving.

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I actually tried to clean this place out for once, but one of my warriors got squinted. I shrugged and decided to do some more 15 tile puzzle. This would get me the funds for what was left to buy.

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This version of the game added a little cutscene before entering the Undersea Shrine. This really made things annoying, actually: I used it as my grind spot later, and seeing that every time I entered or exited got obnoxious. It's unskippable in this version.

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I did some gathering after this, including getting the Aegis Shield and Dragon Armor which would go to Whak. I ran into a random Blue Dragon, which was kind of obnoxious. Amusingly the robot was right at the door in the waterfall so I could've skipped the spike, but of course I wanted the items in there too, so I had to fight them anyway.

I decided I'd do a bit of leveling before doing anything else after that. My goal was level 16 to give the Wizards two L5 charges.

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So what from here? I decided on the volcano next. And damn is the flashing ever bad on this version of the game. Blue flashes on red, very eye-straining to say the least.

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I probably should've made sure my potions were at full before heading in, but I had enough, which is what counts! I ignored everything in here. I'd very soon be getting better equipment anyway, or already had it. I tried using the healing items at one point, but that just didn't work out.

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It took a while to land the confusion against Marilith, which I can use due to my changed up ruleset. And in this version of the game the status is fixed, meaning enemies will properly use their own physical attacks instead of Fire spells. She could actually dish out fairly decent damage.

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Because Whak got blinded, I threw all the buff spells onto Tuff instead. He started belting out tons of damage, as expected.

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However, it was Marilith herself who dealt the finishing blow.

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Back into the Undersea Shrine. And here they are, the Giant's Gauntlets, aka the Power Gaunlets, in-play and functional in this version of the game. These cast Saber when used as an item, giving +16 to attack and accuracy by 10. The latter stacks with a character's own accuracy, increasing their number of hits as appropriate.

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I got to employ them in the very next battle against a group of these idiots. Before I would have to use L2 charges to get these things down in a timely fashion. Now? I could buff up for free and get to killing from there. Here you can also see hitting three hits before actually getting to the level otherwise required for it

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Kraken was a very strange fight, possibly the strangest I've ever had against the big octopus. At no point during it did he use Ink. But he mostly stuck to attacking the fighters, who were more than capable of taking his hits. I didn't get a chance to try and slow him until it was mostly too late, focusing on getting up the offensive buffs before that.

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This was near the end of the fight, and the finishing blow. Whak here had used the Giant's Gauntlets once, and had Haste and four Tempers cast on him. The damage got out of control.

My next goal: to go to grinding hell for a bit more. See you when I feel up to it, which I'm trying for one level a day or so.
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Wonderswan Ice Cave sounds like the Cave to Rhone in the NES Dragon Warrior 2, a game with a similar reputation for unfair dungeons.   shakehead


How long are the Wonderswan cutscenes when you enter an area?
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."







T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.


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A'right so. Part of the reason why I was doing this variant was to see just how long it took to do all the grinding. Answer: it took me four hours to go from about level 19 to level 25 grinding in the sea shrine. It's dull, it's boring, and that's why this was taking so long. Yes, I wanted to go higher, get it all done now. I left it undone for a long while, despite trying to keep it up one level a day, it just took so long and I didn't end up doing it. So I decided in the interest of not having enough time and not wanting to spend it on this, but wanting to not abandon something again, I'd "expedite" the process.

This involved downloading something called Mednafen (the only WSC-able emulator I could find with cheat search), getting through its esotericness, and also pretty much breaking the Alt key on my laptop keyboard when trying to lift it up to clean under it since I needed to use it. It was filthy and it fixed it, but I couldn't get it back in properly unlike other keys I've done this with. At that point I felt committed...least the thing still/now works.

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So is it cheating? Hell yeah it is. No regrets, but this is all I'm doing - speeding things along in the interest of finishing, not hacking in stats or items or anything egregious. Sorry if this delegitimizes it to some, but it was that, I guess use weapons for the grind (which would remove the point of intent above too), or leave it unfinished due to burning out on grinding hell. No idea how Sullla made it all the way to 50 on NES. I'm actually worse off for it: I had been watching the Red Wizards' strength gains to maximize them (or as close as I could), and I couldn't do so. Well I could've, but I took the hit.

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Run, run, run, run was the usual strategy from here on out. No point in fighting things, got all the levels I wanted. Blue Dragon was slightly obnoxious just because Acel didn't have a Ribbon yet, but he'd be getting one in the Floating Castle.

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One thing to note about it compared to different versions: WSC has only three layers: foreground, background, and sprite. Because of this the graphics are simpler here than in later versions: no scrolling cloud background. There's really nothing to note about it. I got the Ribbon, ProCape, and White Shirt and moved on..

Well. I'm not not fighting Warmech. So I'll be back later.

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Nothing to say about Tiamat. Between the Aegis/Dragon Armor on Whak and Ribbons on everyone else, her attacks did little damage.

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Once buffed, mine did a lot. The real litmus is going to be in the ToFR when I can't throw out all of the buffs willy-nilly due to spell charge limitations. So let's prepare to--

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Okay, what the actual fuck!? Yes, in this version and beyond there is no room that you enter to reach Tiamat's chamber, therefore random encounters can continue. It jumped me on the way out. Lucky for me I anticipated this possibility and healed after Tiamat (of course it hit me on an ambush), but I'm spell charges down. And that could be the difference-maker.

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Well I'm here, so may as well try. What dissuaded Sullla from doing this on NES is that buffing does not work there, and you would have to outlast its NUCLEAR attacks. Here, you can buff. So it's a race against time. Buff and kill, or be killed.

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It can as usual dish out insane damage. It's also worth noting that regeneration was fixed in this version of the game. Enemies with the property now properly heal 5% of their HP at the end of every turn. Yes, that's right. Your math isn't wrong: Warmech got bumped to 2000HP starting from this version. Not a big deal for Sofia, but it is here!

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One nuclear wiped out Powr and took Acel near-death, but the Knights ate it handily.

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And Tuff's retaliation strike was strong. I'd gotten off enough Tempers, but would it really be enough?

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Oh shit that's bad. I was buffing him and only because of the ambush on Whak and to just get my numbers up as fast as possible. But because of how things shaped out, if he went down that was it. Game over, climb the tower raid the castle and fight Tiamat again.

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Tuff hulked out, but this wasn't enough! Whak was doing 7hits/7 damage, and I had no time to buff him.

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Physical on Acel. Okay, have at least one more turn to do this.

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Tuff goes first, and I did it. Jesus christ, it doesn't get any ruder than that..

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Well no need to hunt it then. Just need to get ready for the final assault. Here's everyone's stats. Nothing special or out of the ordinary worth nothing.

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I do have to say. It was kind of catharthic running into these things and being able to outlast them. Only ran into one set though, compared to like three White Dragon groups. Still the same thing: buff/attack and heal. Other things I just dipped against where possible.

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Nothing to see here. I have enough Haste casts to give Tuff and Whak one for each of the bosses. However, only one can use the Giant's Gauntlets per turn.

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The Earth floor proved annoying. Ran into Earth Elementals twice! No problem fighting them, but just obnoxious unrunnable encounters. What's more, look at this. 3/256s are alive and well it seems.

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One interesting thing about the WSC version: in later versions, the fiend music plays against them in the ToFR. In this one it just plays the regular battle music. Note Powr's HP. There was a slim chance for them to get utterly ruined against Lich. Except, it seems at least, magic defense seems to be a thing starting from this version. Or I just got lucky

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I wanted to scrooge as much as possible here, so I just hasted the knights, had them use the Power Gauntlets once each, and went in. Most of Lich's attacks are status from there on out, and he just kept on using them to no effect. On the other hand, it meant getting back to Flare faster.

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Thankfully everyone stayed alive through the first two. The reds healed with the items throughout this, and I won before the third..

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Agama being my next encounter helped a lot. When it was down to just one I had Whak heal too as Tuff stalled with the Giant's Gauntlets, just to see how much he'd do at the very end.

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Marilith was mostly boring. Each Knight used two Giant's Gauntlet uses this time. She hit Powr hard enough to worry about them...

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But no worries. And here's my brain being cosmic: I waltzed around here after the fight to get another Agama encounter which I used to heal back up.

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Water Elementals were obnoxiously relentless. They were so bad that I swiftly realized I would have to use the White Shirt just to survive in these encounters. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to keep up on healing. And I ran into three groups of these! I tried confusing them, but they're immune. Ffs.

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Speaking of White Shirt though, the first two turns of the Kraken battle consisted of the Reds casting Invis2 and Whak the White Shirt. As usual, Tuff used the Giant's Gauntlets.

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Now you can see he still hit Acel with a critical hit. I actually had him cast Curaga on himself to get some buffer faster. Still, once the evasion buffs were up, this was a done deal.

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As for Tiamat, the script was the same. I actually threw a few Tempers out during this fight: three went onto Whak and one onto Tuff. Felt I was close enough to the goal that I could safely use this much. Still, I could've buffed with the Gauntlets some more.

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I again used some Curaga in places when Acel got low on health. Though my offensive line was weaker than I wanted it to be, I just kept going and eventually won.

That just left Chaos himself. Running close to the image limit though, so a break in posts here.
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Okay, continuing from above: Chaos. His attacks are really elaborate on this version of the game, even more than they are on PSP. These did manageable damage.

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Well, I'll open up here on turn 4. My party looked like this. Tuff had used the Giant's Gauntlets thrice, and had four Tempers cast. Whak had used the White Shirt thrice, now he was buffing himself up as the Reds supported him.

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Next turn, more buffing and attacking from both ends. Tuff ripped out this one on the turn after that, but Chaos fully healed. By now my buffing was more or less done, though. One Temper left on each Red, ready to start the asskicking anew. 4000 to tear down in this version, let's go!

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Tuff started off with 869. Chaos retaliated with this. Um, should I have been healing instead of full on buffing? No time for regrets though. Whak did 861. Already over a third of the way there!

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Tuff did 754 next. Got in a bit of healing on him, but...

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...Tornado/SWIRL killed the Reds. It was just a damage race from here, and Whak continued it with 550.

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Tuff doing like nothing (257) worried me, but Whak did a solid 869.

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And that ended it!

So closing thoughts? Please let me off the grinding train for a while, or at least make it fun. I can put up with grinds to a point, but when they get too much is when I start to lose my mind. I feel a bit dirty for accelerating the grind, but I just knew there was no other way I was going to finish this with my time and general mood these days.

Besides that, this was an interesting challenge. Probably one of my stranger ones, between that incident, restarting again from the beginning, and making use of 15 tile puzzle. A stark contrast yet very similar to Sullla's original version of the challenge. Both centered around exploiting buffs to get around the deficiency of no weapons. But where the offensive ones were broken on NES, they're functional here, changing the situation entirely. Instead of becoming invincible and grinding things down, at times it felt like I was powering up and killing things before I could be killed.

The restart was the right move, I feel. The extra Haste charges definitely made a difference in the end. Strength grinding on the Reds when I was keeping it up turned out to be irrelevant - they usually spammed the healing items in ToFR battles, and when they didn't the battle was already won. There just wasn't enough time/spell charges to buff them up too.

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Cool thing about this version, you get to see several shots like these of the world in the ending.

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Glad this one is behind me. Didn't dislike it, but that grind nearly killed my interest.

As I alluded to, I think I have one more FF1 challenge in me before I feel I've done all I can with this - short of NES solos which I'm a bit shrug on. So hopefully that next. And I'm going to spoil it now: it's going to be on the NES, and it's called "No Start Menu". Look forward to it!
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(February 8th, 2020, 03:39)System Error Wrote: So is it cheating? Hell yeah it is. No regrets, but this is all I'm doing - speeding things along in the interest of finishing, not hacking in stats or items or anything egregious. Sorry if this delegitimizes it to some, but it was that, I guess use weapons for the grind (which would remove the point of intent above too)

I would've used weapons for the grinding, as I did with the FF5 solo white mage.  If there's a game state known to be trivially reachable within the variant rule, I'd prefer to shortcut to it within the game even if outside the variant, rather than outside the game entirely.  Just my preference.

Enjoyed the Warmech writeup.  I thought the NES version can have battles within Tiamat's room, including the Warmech, so that's not unusual here...?

(February 8th, 2020, 03:39)System Error Wrote: it's going to be on the NES, and it's called "No Start Menu".

That sounds pretty wild.  That's functionally a combination of nudists (can't equip) and no potions/magic/consumables outside of battle, plus you have to plan out exactly what spellcasting items to pick up in what order to slot them correctly since you can't move them.  I suppose Black Belts as always can deliver enough offense at least... actually, is there any reason at all not to just go with 4 BBs?
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FF 12 Zodiac Age Solo Machinist Part 1


Time for a variant in a game Sullla and T-Hawk won't touch!


I liked Final Fantasy XII well enough when it first came out for the Playstation 2, but the Zodiac Age rerelease changes enough mechanics to make it worth considering for challenge playthroughs.  The original game let every character unlock every ability, effectively turning them into almighty clones by the end.  Zodiac Age splits up the License Board into jobs similar to those in FF 5 or Tactics.  Grinding and movement can also be sped up with a turbo button in Zodiac Age.  Supposedly the 9999 damage cap has been removed.



Machinist seems to be a gimmick class, so I wanted that to be my first solo.  It sounds a lot like the Chemist from Tactics because of the emphasis on guns and healing items.  Magic may be possible if the solo hero can unlock spaces disconnected from the main Machinist license board.  And Machinist has some odd skills including one based on step count.  If that's combined with turbo button running. . .   mischief 


After the tutorial with Rex, I started off with his younger brother Vaan, fighting off rats in a clean sewer for yet another tutorial.  That brings back memories of the PS2 version!  Vaan is whiny enough that most of the Realms Beyond readers will probably hate him, but that's what the cutscene skip function is for.


Vaan's first real mission was to cut down the Rogue Tomato in the Dalmasca Estersand desert.  He hacked at Cactites and Wolves which had nothing better than minor melee attacks, and grew to Level 2.  The Rogue Tomato ran away after Vaan smacked it a few times, leaving him free to drink a Potion.  Round 2 versus the Rogue Tomato was more close combat until the boss breathed no more fire.  


Dalmasca Estersand teaches players not to fight every monster they encounter.  The obvious lesson is with the T-Rex like Wild Saurian.  Cockatrices proved too strong for Machinist Vaan in this playthrough, so he had to retreat.  Unfortunately, no Yakety Sax played while Vaan was jogging in turbo mode.


The first license for Vaan cost 5 LP, and enabled him to equip the Orrachea Armlet.  This is a kind of tutorial meant to explain the system.  LP work like JP in Final Fantasy Tactics, except that the job skills and stat bonuses are placed on a board a bit like the Sphere Grid from FF 10.  To become a proper Machinist, Vaan bought Guns 1 for 30 LP and purchased the corresponding Altair weapon and Onion Shot ammo.


Guns are one of the reasons Machinist is a gimmick class.  The disadvantage of firearms is that they're slower than other weapon classes.  They ignore both enemy and player stats, so only the power of the weapon and ammo affect damage.  Guns also never miss.  Machinists have other strange weapon classes like Measures, which I'll cover if Vaan decides to use one.


It's clear that FF 12 is the game that inspired Mewt to make Tactics Advance Ivalice with his magic book, since all the races except for Nu Mou are here.  And Montblanc runs Clan Centurio.  Vaan joined the clan so he could participate in more hunts and purchase items later.


Vaan battled more Dalmasca Estersand monsters to unlock Light Armor 2 for 15 LP.  He purchased Headgear and Chromed Leather from the Rabanastre shop, and prepared to go to the city's underground.


Stats and Equipment
 

Level 3 Machinist
 
HP:  181
MP:  41
Attack Power:  7
Defense:  6
Magick Resist:  6
Evade:  10
Magick Evade:  0
Strength:  24
Magick Power:  23
Vitality:  25
Speed:  24
 
Weapon:  Altair
Off-hand:  Onion Shot
Helm:  Headgear
Armor:  Chromed Leathers
Accessory:  Orrachea Armlet


(If nothing else, it's clear Evade works properly in FF 12, unlike Super Nintendo FF 6 where magic evasion blocks everything).
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."







T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.


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FF 12 Zodiac Age Solo Machinist Part 2


Don't expect a DEATH COUNT like in other solo challenges, because Vaan will be prone long enough to make it hard to keep track.


Thextera the giant wolf of the Dalmasca Westersand was the next side quest Hunt.  But this optional boss wasn't alone.  Thextera came with Wolves, and could summon more when hurt.  Trying to bag Thextera at Level 4 was suicide when all the dogs chewed Vaan like furniture.  Thextera's bites sometimes had a chance to poison Vaan.


On the 3rd attempt, a sandstorm was blowing in the Dalmasca Westersand.  Don't ask my how it happened.  It occurred after reloading the autosave at the entrance of the area.  


Vaan dropped dead multiple times trying to explore the Westersand further while battling Cockatrices and some other monster that cast spells.


When our hero was Level 6, Vaan spent 70 LP on Measures 3 due to it being a prerequisite for the better Technicks.  He then struck down Thextera with the help of many Potions and gunshots.  Even though guns ignore stats, they still have damage rolls and occasional critical hits.  Vaan told the relevant NPC that the mutant wolf was dead, and received a Headguard that gave him +10 more HP.  Fortunately, the Headguard was available through the Light Armor 2 license.


Before setting out on the next Hunt in the Dalmasca Estersand, Vaan poached Wolves, Cactites, and even Cockatrices to get 20 LP for Light Armor 3, and more importantly 20 LP for Potion Lore 1.  (The latter license required the former.)  Now the solo character could restore about 144 per Potion instead of 120.  Whether this skill applies to stronger medicine, I'm not sure.


It seemed that Vaan's increased Vitality made the difference in the Cockatrice fights.  He was noticeably sturdier than before.  Most battles so far are auto-attack with occasional Potions, though this will change later once the more exotic licenses are unlocked.



Stats and Equipment
 

Level 6 Machinist
 
HP:  255
MP:  54
Attack Power:  7
Defense:  6
Magick Resist:  7
Evade:  10
Magick Evade:  0
Strength:  26
Magick Power:  25
Vitality:  26
Speed:  24
 
Weapon:  Altair
Off-hand:  Onion Shot
Helm:  Headguard
Armor:  Chromed Leathers
Accessory:  Orrachea Armlet
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."







T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.


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FF 12 Zodiac Age Solo Machinist Part 3:  Hey, Buckethead!


In this episode, Vaan shot more wildlife than Allan Quatermain as he gained levels and LP.  Flowering Cactoid in the Dalmasca Estersand was as cowardly as Rogue Tomato, though Vaan could fire Onion Shots from his Altair before it could escape.  Of course Vaan chased down the plant in turbo mode for comedy.  Just before it was about to die, Flowering Cactoid made Vaan into a pincushion with 1000 Needles, an attack that always deals 1000 damage and ignores defenses.  Ouch.


Hunts can be postponed until later in the game, unlike arcane side quests in games such as Tales of the Abyss. So our hero wandered into Giza Plains by mistake.  This location is shared with Tactics Advance, but the FF 12 version has a wet season and dry season gimmick.  Vaan's first visit was during the dry season.  Hyenas might as well have been palette swapped Wolves, and Giza Rabbits mostly tried to flee while casting Protect.  Bipedal Slaven dinosaurs and Urstrix birdmen were only a little more dangerous.


Vaan proceeded with the main quest by visiting Lowtown in Rabanastre, which sent him back to. . .Giza Plains.  There, he talked to a boy named Jinn and powered up a Shadestone into a Sunstone by interacting with the glowing rocks in the region.  Penelo temporarily joined the party for this sequence, and Vaan returned the favor with about 4 Onion Shot bullets.


To my disappointment, I learned that Technicks have to be bought like magic spells.  So the attempt to get Traveler early was a waste of LP.  It was only a minor setback since all random enemies yield at least 1 LP.  One nice feature of FF 12 is that other characters and enemies will sometimes interfere in combat to make it feel like the player character isn't the only force in the world.  Wild Saurian eats nearby Wolves, for example, and hunters in the Giza Plains occasionally fight against Hyenas.


With his new Sunstone, Vaan snuck into the Rabanastre palace via the Garamsythe Waterway, a euphemism for "mandatory sewer level".  Dire Rats, Icthons, and Steeling bats acted as generic melee opponents. 


Vaan wasn't thrown out of the palace immediately for his unintentionally funny voice acting when he shouted "Hey, Buckethead!" at the guards.  I'd forgotten about that line.  Balthier the self-proclaimed "leading man" and his partner Fran the Viera joined the team, so Vaan will have to eliminate them as well.  An almost fixed damage weapon is an inefficient way to murder your friends.


As for licenses, Vaan bought Light Armor 4 and Headman as prerequisites for another Potion Lore upgrade that will come in a future update.  Headman restores MP when an enemy is killed, but Vaan knows no spells or Technicks yet.


Stats and Equipment
 

Level 8 Machinist
 
HP:  308
MP:  68
Attack Power:  7
Defense:  6
Magick Resist:  7
Evade:  10
Magick Evade:  0
Strength:  27
Magick Power:  26
Vitality:  27
Speed:  25
 
Weapon:  Altair
Off-hand:  Onion Shot
Helm:  Headguard
Armor:  Chromed Leathers
Accessory:  Orrachea Armlet
"I wonder what that even looks like, a robot body with six or seven CatClaw daggers sticking out of it and nothing else, and zooming around at crazy agility speed."







T-Hawk, on my Final Fantasy Legend 2 All Robot Challenge.


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