Final Fantasy Thread

[Pandaprewmaster325]

@Pandaprewmaster325
i have a question to ask you about final fantasy tactics. is there any spot or point in the game where Ramza is unplayable for any reason? i was thinking of going about a different approach for my run through the game instead of how i normally do things.
i plan on just having 6 characters as my main party. ramza and 5 others. i already have 3 that i'm working on and i plan on adding 2 more. just wanted to know if there was any spot where he might not be selectable for battle.

No story character can be assigned to propositions.

No so far you don't switch characters or as I call it a narrative switch where you get to play as someone else other than ramza contrary to FF7 with cloud or 8 with squall , ramza or more accurately you are always present in story missions HOWEVER other characters once no longer guests can be added or removed from party or battle.

Although I advise on keeping any special character cuz they really good it shrinks the total of soldiers you have which can limit your proposition reach but gives you special abilities not available to normal soldiers idk how far are you into the story to have gotten them but you probably seen agrias spamming stastis sword.

 

[MasterEn]

No story character can be assigned to propositions.

No so far you don't switch characters or as I call it a narrative switch where you get to play as someone else other than ramza contrary to FF7 with cloud or 8 with squall , ramza or more accurately you are always present in story missions HOWEVER other characters once no longer guests can be added or removed from party or battle.

Although I advise on keeping any special character cuz they really good it shrinks the total of soldiers you have which can limit your proposition reach but gives you special abilities not available to normal soldiers idk how far are you into the story to have gotten them but you probably seen agrias spamming stastis sword.

okay. i wasn't sure since things are a bit different from the tactics advance games. your max battle party size is 5, not 6. i'm still in chapter 1, finalizing my party. i read that all generic characters recruited are level 1, and random encounters scale with your highest level character. and unlike in the advance games, characters don't get exp by just participating; they have to make an action to get exp and jp.

i thought that they would have started the unique characters are permanent additions to your party in the first one, so that's not surprising. do they join starting at specific levels, or are they lv 1 when you get them?

i'm still in chapter one, getting my last new recruit prepped and up and running. i have a screenshot of the next story battle location.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

okay. i wasn't sure since things are a bit different from the tactics advance games. your max battle party size is 5, not 6. i'm still in chapter 1, finalizing my party. i read that all generic characters recruited are level 1, and random encounters scale with your highest level character. and unlike in the advance games, characters don't get exp by just participating; they have to make an action to get exp and jp.

i thought that they would have started the unique characters are permanent additions to your party in the first one, so that's not surprising. do they join starting at specific levels, or are they lv 1 when you get them?

i'm still in chapter one, getting my last new recruit prepped and up and running. i have a screenshot of the next story battle location.

Pro tip: if they have low move value give them item if they lose health or get close to an ally they can heal them this ensures they get XP every turn.

Yes you always get troops at level 1 its annoying but there is no workaround.

Well seems like chapter one took you very long.

Oh and yeah 5 units only personally I'm interested in seeing if there is a way to edit it to have 10 soldiers per battle be kinda whacky to do that.

 

[MasterEn]

Pro tip: if they have low move value give them item if they lose health or get close to an ally they can heal them this ensures they get XP every turn.

Yes you always get troops at level 1 its annoying but there is no workaround.

Well seems like chapter one took you very long.

Oh and yeah 5 units only personally I'm interested in seeing if there is a way to edit it to have 10 soldiers per battle be kinda whacky to do that.

i did some checking on that the other day, they supposedly only get xp for successful actions. i plan on getting into a random encounter with a chocobo and set it up so my characters use focus and slowly beat up the chocobo while getting healed up by it. ramza is lv 7 now, everyone else is about 4-5 with the last member at lv 3.
i just did the battle at dorter. i'm going to swap some jobs around, everyone has mastered squire now.
i also looked this up, the game will allow for 16 units in total, an it breaks down to:
you - 5
guests - 2
enemies - 9
something like that. i found this on a website:

Battle party limit increase

Battle party limit increase

ffhacktics.com

the members there were discussing this very topic.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

i did some checking on that the other day, they supposedly only get xp for successful actions. i plan on getting into a random encounter with a chocobo and set it up so my characters use focus and slowly beat up the chocobo while getting healed up by it. ramza is lv 7 now, everyone else is about 4-5 with the last member at lv 3.
i just did the battle at dorter. i'm going to swap some jobs around, everyone has mastered squire now.
i also looked this up, the game will allow for 16 units in total, an it breaks down to:
you - 5
guests - 2
enemies - 9
something like that. i found this on a website:

Battle party limit increase

Battle party limit increase

ffhacktics.com

the members there were discussing this very topic.

Huh well that's out of the way guess 10 unit per battle ain't real.

Yeah the chocobo is da way I got my summoner (tirala I think she is called quite a baddie too) from lvl 18 to 31 yesterday with over 3000 JP its the best way to get too much JP just get haste on the party surrounding the chocobo to speed things up.

Honesty haste and slow are very strong in this game.

 

[MasterEn]

Huh well that's out of the way guess 10 unit per battle ain't real.

Yeah the chocobo is da way I got my summoner (tirala I think she is called quite a baddie too) from lvl 18 to 31 yesterday with over 3000 JP its the best way to get too much JP just get haste on the party surrounding the chocobo to speed things up.

Honesty haste and slow are very strong in this game.

i'll keep that in mind. i only got the basic jobs unlocked. squire, chemist, archer, white and black mage and knight. got to get a few more job levels before the rest of the jobs get unlocked. shouldn't be too long.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

i'll keep that in mind. i only got the basic jobs unlocked. squire, chemist, archer, white and black mage and knight. got to get a few more job levels before the rest of the jobs get unlocked. shouldn't be too long.

Wait until you get time mage gonna be a blast

 

[MasterEn]

Wait until you get time mage gonna be a blast

i just set up rydia as a black mage, she's lv 5 and already overpowered. she nearly one hit 3 different enemies in the last story mission that i did. sounds like time mages will be completely broken in comparison.

 

[solnK!]

Currently playing FFIII

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

i just set up rydia as a black mage, she's lv 5 and already overpowered. she nearly one hit 3 different enemies in the last story mission that i did. sounds like time mages will be completely broken in comparison.

There's an easy trick to level up Ramza and the Squires. With JP up just have him yell/cheer every turn while running away from enemies. Its kind of cheap but effective. Basically, never waste a turn not doing a command, cause that is wasted exp and job points.

 

[MasterEn]

There's an easy trick to level up Ramza and the Squires. With JP up just have him yell/cheer every turn while running away from enemies. Its kind of cheap but effective. Basically, never waste a turn not doing a command, cause that is wasted exp and job points.

yeah, i noticed that early on. i taught everyone a bunch of the squire abilities, like focus and stone. i did see some warnings on gamefaqs to not over do it too much since new gear at the shops is tied to story progression. i mainly need to bring maria up a couple of levels and then everyone will be more on par with each other.

Post automatically merged: Mar 1, 2025

Currently playing FFIII

which version are you playing?

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

i just set up rydia as a black mage, she's lv 5 and already overpowered. she nearly one hit 3 different enemies in the last story mission that i did. sounds like time mages will be completely broken in comparison.

Did you name every single person in your party after a character from the main games? Guess rydia in future is summoner

Yes black mage carries early game easily if you unlock flare and magic attack up you are in for insanity.

Time mage haste when placed on your whole party can get you a lot more turns which is a lot more XP and JP which is a lot better performance , just pay attention to faith and ensure magic attack is high (I discovered this yesterday despite me sinking in 40 hours well 43 by now , in light armor shops or non heavy infantry shops you can get mages specific mage robes that prioritize mana over health just remember this so you don't have them dressing normal/light armor the whole time like me )

Btw did you figure how to know what everything does or description ? I figured after like 30 hours in its the equivalent of the square shaped button on a PS1 controller not the orange one but the one in the center.

 

[MasterEn]

Did you name every single person in your party after a character from the main games? Guess rydia in future is summoner

Yes black mage carries early game easily if you unlock flare and magic attack up you are in for insanity.

Time mage haste when placed on your whole party can get you a lot more turns which is a lot more XP and JP which is a lot better performance , just pay attention to faith and ensure magic attack is high (I discovered this yesterday despite me sinking in 40 hours well 43 by now , in light armor shops or non heavy infantry shops you can get mages specific mage robes that prioritize mana over health just remember this so you don't have them dressing normal/light armor the whole time like me )

Btw did you figure how to know what everything does or description ? I figured after like 30 hours in its the equivalent of the square shaped button on a PS1 controller not the orange one but the one in the center.

i have some screenshots of my current party.
ramza will be like a red mage. "a jack of all trades, but the master of zero" as the song goes. he will be well rounded to deal with most situations.
rydia will be a summoner, probably with time mage and black magic for back up options.
faris will be a samurai, which should be a good melee and she's training as a knight right now.
lulu with be a black mage with either time magic or chemist as her second option.
and maria will be a ninja/archer.

i've been keeping a close eye on that when i was recruiting my lovely warrior ladies. 2 of them have nice numbers in those stats. i noticed that the shops in each town sell different equipment when i was swapping faris over to knight, but i didn't have anything for her to equip. that does make me want to progress more into the story to start getting the best equipment.

i'm using a nintendo switch controller to play this, but i did sit there and press some buttons to see if one of them would display a tip help box. it was the 'select' button, which is the minus button on my controller.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

i have some screenshots of my current party.
ramza will be like a red mage. "a jack of all trades, but the master of zero" as the song goes. he will be well rounded to deal with most situations.
rydia will be a summoner, probably with time mage and black magic for back up options.
faris will be a samurai, which should be a good melee and she's training as a knight right now.
lulu with be a black mage with either time magic or chemist as her second option.
and maria will be a ninja/archer.

i've been keeping a close eye on that when i was recruiting my lovely warrior ladies. 2 of them have nice numbers in those stats. i noticed that the shops in each town sell different equipment when i was swapping faris over to knight, but i didn't have anything for her to equip. that does make me want to progress more into the story to start getting the best equipment.

i'm using a nintendo switch controller to play this, but i did sit there and press some buttons to see if one of them would display a tip help box. it was the 'select' button, which is the minus button on my controller.

I see you are making a female only brigade XD

Oh well that's some really good stat numbers especially on maria.

Good for you , you discovered it earlier than me.

 

[MasterEn]

I see you are making a female only brigade XD

Oh well that's some really good stat numbers especially on maria.

Good for you , you discovered it earlier than me.

yeah, for whatever reason; when the game gives me option to do so, i will just make a bunch of female characters for my party. i do that in nearly every game that lets me.

i was trying to aim for recruits with good numbers, and 70+ seemed to be the highest numbers for bravery and faith. but then i saw that one number pop up, and i had to get those two ladies added to my party.

i played a game at some point in time and i accidently pressed a button and a help box popped up. it's usually the select button on playstation games or any system with a select button on it, like the nintendo ds. i remembered that and i use it if the game doesn't display any sort of info when checking an item or ability.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

yeah, for whatever reason; when the game gives me option to do so, i will just make a bunch of female characters for my party. i do that in nearly every game that lets me.

i was trying to aim for recruits with good numbers, and 70+ seemed to be the highest numbers for bravery and faith. but then i saw that one number pop up, and i had to get those two ladies added to my party.

i played a game at some point in time and i accidently pressed a button and a help box popped up. it's usually the select button on playstation games or any system with a select button on it, like the nintendo ds. i remembered that and i use it if the game doesn't display any sort of info when checking an item or ability.

You should keep a few males so you can see all of the job sprites. There are some cool artworks and callbacks to older games. I kept 2 males and 2 females as my generic soldiers. 2 that went into the squire tree (an Archer/thief and a knight/dragoon/geomancer), and 2 chemists (a black/time mage and a white mage/summoner/calculator).

 

[MasterEn]

You should keep a few males so you can see all of the job sprites. There are some cool artworks and callbacks to older games. I kept 2 males and 2 females as my generic soldiers. 2 that went into the squire tree (an Archer/thief and a knight/dragoon/geomancer), and 2 chemists (a black/time mage and a white mage/summoner/calculator).

i debated on that when i was settling on my party formation. i know from playing tactics advance 1 and 2 that jobs were locked behind specific conditions. only veria could be red mages, bangaa have white monk as an exclusive job. i found a job tree map on gamefaqs and i noticed something weird with it, so i checked my characters. and barring the dancer and bard classes; anyone can pursue any job.
i would have probably gone with a 3/2, 3/3 split with my team. 2 guys, 2 girls, and ramza or 2 guys, 3 girls and ramza for a total of 6; and then continued from there.
i might go that route when i play the psp version at some point.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

yeah, for whatever reason; when the game gives me option to do so, i will just make a bunch of female characters for my party. i do that in nearly every game that lets me.

i was trying to aim for recruits with good numbers, and 70+ seemed to be the highest numbers for bravery and faith. but then i saw that one number pop up, and i had to get those two ladies added to my party.

i played a game at some point in time and i accidently pressed a button and a help box popped up. it's usually the select button on playstation games or any system with a select button on it, like the nintendo ds. i remembered that and i use it if the game doesn't display any sort of info when checking an item or ability.

I'm a man of diversity but oh well female only ain't that bad expect the samurai variant looks way less cooler compared to the male one

Yes getting the stats you want is random you need to shuffle through some trash to finally find high stat soldiers.

Usually the help is automatically displayed.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

I need to finish my FFII playthrough. Those mechanics are so alien to me though lol.

Finish it so you won't have to play it in the future

 

[MasterEn]

I'm a man of diversity but oh well female only ain't that bad expect the samurai variant looks way less cooler compared to the male one

Yes getting the stats you want is random you need to shuffle through some trash to finally find high stat soldiers.

Usually the help is automatically displayed.

i do try to make or recruit a variety of characters nowadays when playing rpgs. but they usually incentivize you to try out new party combos and jobs with quests and missions that require you to have such jobs at your disposal. if they don't. then the motivation isn't there to do so.
tactics advance 1 and 2, and disgaea do this quite well; i usually have 30+ characters by the time i reach the end of a disgaea game in my party. i don't end up using them all, but i do go and get them in case i need them.
well, so far, the help box only shows up when i press select. but i don't mind bringing it up when i need it. i sometimes check something 2 or 3 times before i make a decision on something.

Post automatically merged: Mar 1, 2025

I need to finish my FFII playthrough. Those mechanics are so alien to me though lol.

is there something that you aren't getting the hang of? i've played through the remake of 3 to the final dungeon. i could help you out if you are stuck on something.

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

do try to make or recruit a variety of characters nowadays when playing rpgs. but they usually incentivize you to try out new party combos and jobs with quests and missions that require you to have such jobs at your disposal. if they don't. then the motivation isn't there to do so.
tactics advance 1 and 2, and disgaea do this quite well; i usually have 30+ characters by the time i reach the end of a disgaea game in my party. i don't end up using them all, but i do go and get them in case i need them.
well, so far, the help box only shows up when i press select. but i don't mind bringing it up when i need it. i sometimes check something 2 or 3 times before i make a decision on something.

I try to try every job , been wondering how to unlock the ninja and figured out yesterday its through genomancer yeah that's how the game rewards you for trying out new jobs with more jobs

 

[MasterEn]

I try to try every job , been wondering how to unlock the ninja and figured out yesterday its through genomancer yeah that's how the game rewards you for trying out new jobs with more jobs

i found these two charts on gamefaqs. they cover the original and psp remake. this is how i was making my decisions on what my party members will learn.

 

[starseeker300]

I need to finish my FFII playthrough. Those mechanics are so alien to me though lol.

Good Luck!

what version are you playing on btw? (i played gba dawn of souls)

 

[MasterEn]

Same as you which is interesting because it seems like most are content with classic or pixel remaster. I know there are some differences, but gba version is convenient and I like the added features that are unique to them. I also have been playing the DQ games starting with the gba ver as well.

the gba and psp versions have the most content with all of the quality of life improvements and both are portable from the get go. not that means much nowadays.
you said that you were having some trouble with the mechanics of ff2. was there something that you were having problems with?

 

[Pandaprewmaster325]

well Final Fantasy tactics is finished.

Here is a short review of what I think of this unique take on Final Fantasy:

Spoiler: Gameplay

starting off by gameplay its the biggest strength of this game the game is well a tactical turn based game I have played this kind before but for a very short time so Tactics is the first proper experience of this sort of game genre.

The gameplay loop goes like this:

Walk over to a destination , you get to plan your battle formation prior to the actual battle , short scene plays followed by game objective and there goes the battle begins its full of evasive maneuvers from flanking enemies to hitting their rear which should be impossible to evade , the game provides you with many jobs or "classes" to choose from each with its own unique set of attributes and skills , naturally some jobs are gonna benefit from other job skills like monks with geomancer attack boost or samurai with counter and archers from squire ability accumulate , changing job changes stats like speed or movement or damage monks for example are a glasscanon of sorts with high damage but low health this can be helped by "equip armor" from the knight skill set to boost a monk health as I said jobs can benefit other jobs in a variety of ways , you level up by Doing successful actions in battle whether its casting a support spell or attacking all give you XP this means in order to come out stronger from each battle you will need to ensure that every turn an action is taken to keep the XP coming to level up , most importantly to gain Job points and you can further boost the gain of JPs through abilities called "gain JP up" a very useful ability when changing jobs allowing the character to gain way more JP unlocking strong abilities much faster.

The game only allows 5 soldiers per battle on story missions the player character is always present and can't be removed while other random encounters you can place any soldier without being present in the battle yourself , you can hire more soldiers from soldiers offices the process however of making a level 1 squire to a useful part of the team takes quite an effort if only the game had newly hired soldiers scale up automatically depending on your level like FF7 where other characters gain levels even if not in your party currently.

You get better equipment as the game goes this equipment and who can equip it depends on job , some unique and rare items can be acquired throughout the game those aren't usually available at shops , most jobs can equip light armor while only very select few classes can equip heavy armor and shields these are of course what I call "heavy infantry" or "assault troops" like knights , lancers (dragoons) and samurai the latter can't equip shields but has an ability that makes him master at evading damage.

Story characters however are built different each with their own unique job and ability agrias has holy sword , mustadio has the most useful crowd control skills with leg shot and arm shot that disables enemies and takes them out of the game for a while by making them unable to act or move , disabling movement is more effective on melee enemies than casters or archers or any ranged enemy really.

In terms of usefulness mustadio is a must be in every battle after you get in the party , less impressive however are rafa and malak with a stupid area of effect special ability that is very random and only useful few times you can however regulate both for other purposes since malak brave is 69 and rafa faith is 69 , those 2 are just not of much use so I found it better to not use them that much.

Agrias and mustadio however are very capable with agrias ability to both tank and deal damage from afar and mustadio crowd control he can also work as a chemist to heal but better switch back to engineer when you are done with chemist for higher health and higher speed values.

I got mustadio to level 50 the highest leveled up character in my team , with emulator save you can arm shot everything that has a chance of hitting.

I would like to mention spears having extra reach which is a welcome addition I always found it weird how spear wielding units in age of empires games lacked the extra range the spear gives glad square acknowledged it.

In terms of difficulty the game is pretty challenging chapter 1 offers little money making knight play a bit hard , it eases up on money in act 2 with propositions , the game difficulty however goes out of the window once T.G cid joins up.

Up until that point fighting a lucavi was very hard , I killed marquis without much challenge or dycedarg even the final boss proved to be quite easy.

Fighting red chocobos however and purple ones is pain same for mindflayers oh guess what? Remember those pisco demons from FF1 that could damage warriors ? Yeah they are here too with their annoying mindflayer brethren who were OP in FF1 here they are still annoying with mind blast causing a character to go berserk.

Overall gameplay is the strength of this game you can spend a good while changing abilities and optimizing your party to your heart desire.

Spoiler: Graphics

while square moved on from 2d format this game was something of their last projects in that field I guess it sports 2.5d graphics with good sprite work and a unique artstyle that doesn't have everyone looking like midgets which is a welcome addition the game also has an expressive amount of animation that make the game fee more lively and responsive I would rate it above FF4 and 5 in graphics but it can't surpass FF6 in artstyle

Spoiler: Story

well its square so a good story is expected and the game does a good job in terms of story from fleshing out the world through the catalogue of "brave story" from treasures and zones you find to small graphs about propositions that all help the game world feel alive , the characters are interesting from our friend delita to Prince larg and goltana the game goes from rescuing the princess to hunting after stones and going after vormav to rescue your kidnapped sister.

Chapter 1 main villain is the death corp which sports the theme of commoners vs nobles and aristocrats the higher ups vs the common man a theme continued throughout the game along with ton of betrayal and schemes , each character with their own goals wiegraf selling his own principles for power , delita using everyone and everything around him and gafgarion selling you out along with the cardinal and the church constantly covering up every mess up its not a very happy world to live in especially considering the backstory of rafa and malak.

Throughout the game we are constantly reminded of saint aijora who is clearly inspired by "Christian jesus" and the church inspired by the medieval shenanigans the church in Europe used to do.

The game in the end revealing that aijora himself or herself being the villain all along was a big "whaaaaat" moment when you read the scriptures about him and how he is seen as this hero for him to be the one behind all this is rather a plot twist.

Although I don't understand whether saint aijora is a guy or a girl well going by bloody angel I guess its a girl with a respectable booty uhm yeah , killing em in the end proved to be easy with my elite squad of cid , daughter of vormav and agrias , mustadio and finally ramza as ninja made short work of everything by being able to focus on a single character only I surrounded bloody angel and just killed her that not even losing 1 health in process I got lucky with mustadio shooting the altima leg or whatever final phase is called.

Well I thought we died in the end but it seems we live a life in the shadows in the end along with sister alma away from all turmoil like a legend.

One thing I don't understand is if delita died or not was ovelia stabbing him first or did he kill her? And also she dying in the end was like whaaa? We went through all that trouble to save her just to die like broooo.

Its story didn't get me as iinvested as other FF games but still a good story didn't evoke strong emotion or anything really but good one I guess.

Spoiler: Soundtrack

the weakest part of the game is the soundtrack nothing stands out save for the lucavi boss fights theme and the shop theme along with the world theme I will for the sake of it throw the battle prep theme too overall not as memorable as any other soundtrack.

Spoiler: Intro

yes I dedicated an entire section to the intro why? Cuz if an intro doesn't grab your attention then what good it is? The intro is short and has this pure music of sorts hehe I still don't understand who it refers to by the opening sentences is it ramza?st aijora? The 12 braves? I dunno it got a very cool title drop with the game name ignited by fire presenting you with the main menu and that epic music good one not great just good

Spoiler: Conclusion

overall tactics is a good entry its nothing groundbreaking or mind blowing but a nice entry of its own

Btw here are the 3 MVPs

They all survived in the end along with the companion of agrias

Was working to get her +2 move when I unintentionally beaten the game.

I also wanted to create my elite samurai vanguard here are the 2/4 members

I rate FF Tactics 7/10 , surpass FF1&2 but ranks below all other entries.

Note: the logo looks pretty different from usual FF logos which usually depicts a single or 2 things in Tactics case it depicts a bunch of soldiers of whom I could identify the white/black mage the knight and lancer.