Board 8 > Andy plays Final Fantasy V (Blind playthrough)

(+) Yeah! (+)

andylt posted...

Unfortunately the Assassin Dagger comes back to haunt us here, Bartz hits a Barrier and the Death bounces off and kills Krile at a very bad time, and we lose. Oops!

haha, this really came in handy for solo games. That dagger + BoneMail makes a reflected Death fully heal you.

What was your final team composition? Did you try out all the jobs?

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The team I used for Exdeath:
Bartz- Ninja, with +10%HP- I never used the HP boost before but I wasn't gonna bother stealing from Exdeath. He had recently been Gladiator (switched off it once I was told it was OP), Knight (used Dual Wield for ability), and in the past he has been a Monk, Dancer and Thief. He had Sasuke's Katana and Assassin Dagger but I pretty much only used Throw in the final battle.
Lenna- Samurai, with Red Magic- Had a hard time finding one to stick her into, she had mastered Black Mage but for random encounters I generally didn't use magic so wanted a physical for her. Samurai was good, and I picked Red Mage at the end because I wanted a secondary heal and she was only using Zeninage for attacks so no need for Black Magic.
Krile- Mime, with White Magic, Summon and +10% MP. Again the MP boost was solely for the last fight, I had been using Equip Bow on her for random encounters so she could do decent damage with physical hits. In the past she/Galuf had also been Ranger and Mystic Knight.
Faris- Time Mage, with Recover. This was a bad choice, I originally had her as Blue Mage/Time Mage for final fight but I wasn't using Blue Magic so swapped, and I didn't realise Recover wouldn't cure Petrify. If I had failed again I would've switched her over to Chemist/Time Mage. She has also been Bard, Beastmaster and briefly Geomancer, and I usually had Learning on her when she wasn't Blue. Time Mage was like 90% for Hastega, so I always had that on her somewhere.

For random battles I had Hermes Sandals on Bartz/Lenna by the end and Protect Rings on the other two, for bosses where I was casting Hastega I gave Lenna the third Protect Ring and switched Bartz to Coral Ring (best defence one I had that didn't cast Doom!).

I never tried Dragoon or the two other new Sealed Temple ones. I also don't feel like I gave enough of a shot to Berserker, Mystic Knight and Geomancer to see them properly. I used Bard, Chemist, Dancer and Beastmaster for quite a while but would've liked to use them more. I'll probably switch things up quite a bit going into the post-game dungeon!

tcaz2 posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCA1PDJid10

Him punching a crack open through the void is great. Guess they didn't have you fight his tree form lol.


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I definitely wasnt saying to not use Gladiator! It may be stupid strong but so is Blue Mage, Chemist, Time Mage, etc

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Bartz is a Gladiator now, and Finisher is indeed super useful. I grind some ABP in the Void then head to the Sealed Temple, and find... a way more complex dungeon than I expected. This thing seems massive, with a bunch of different aesthetics, puzzle mechanics, pathways and monsters. The Movers are here and they give off 199ABP and a ton of Gil per battle, at this point I feel I should probably be grinding EXP more than that though, not sure what I'm supposed to be at but I beat Exdeath with everyone around Level 40.

I head right first, through a Corridor and past two glowing green dots- last time I saw something like this it was a boss so I'm gonna wait and get my bearings first. We enter a different locale with a bunch of hidden passageways revealed despite none of our party having that equipped (is it a passive of one of the classes or just how it's done here...), get some Shots for the Cannon class I still haven't used properly and fight some tougher enemies. There's an enemy here I can steal very appetising Elixirs from, but it also has a one-hit kill physical attack so I'm trying to be careful until I find an easier Save to get to.

We fall down some holes, face some tough Dark Elementals then I run back to the first save so we don't lose our progress. I then try heading to the left from the start, and go past a dungeon cell with a locked door and an NPC inside to enter some watery caverns with random stairway paths we have to trial and error our way across. I see an NPC blocking the path, which turns out to be a Gil Turtle. This thing has ridiculously high defences and takes a lot of work, but he doesn't usually attack until we do so we take our time and cast powerful spells/summons when we can. He's immune to all elements so Finisher's Elemental Attack is useless, but we eventually wear him down and survive an Earthquake scare as he dies.

Following the path ahead we face some new enemies including an odd looking Stingray. This thing has 30K HP, I only encounter it by itself and it barely ever attacks, not sure what its deal is but we steal some stuff from it. At the end of the path is an NPC who tells us to bring a captured Behemoth to open the path ahead. I run around the stair paths collecting all the chests I can and head back to the reliable save point again.

This is going to be a long dungeon, isn't it. I'm not complaining, but this looks way more elaborate than the rest of the ones in game, props to them for putting in the work for an optional area. Feel like I should be drawing a map as I go...

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Oh, one heads up about GladiatorLure does not do what it says it does. It actually increases the encounter rate. Its only active if you equip it though, its not an innate Gladiator ability.

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Oh thanks, I wasn't planning to use that anyway but it's useful to know. Is there any ability that lowers encounter rate >_>

We go right again and touch one of the green orbs, which are actually warps. It takes us to the Titan's Grotto, which is where we've been told to catch a Behemoth, so that's nice. Faris manages to Catch one on the first attempt, we then proceed to face about a dozen more on the way down. Catching them is actually an easier way to beat them than killing them, as they do that classic 'casting Meteor as they die' thing.

We warp back to the River of Souls (handy!) and take the Behemoth to the NPC who opens the front gate. Inside the gate are a new set of enemies, mainly dragons and Assassins. Faris recently acquired a whip with effectiveness against Dragons, so she's pretty handy here. At the end of the path a snakey monster appears on screen, so I foolishly run back to save before trying it out. Before going back I try out the other warp in the Corridor which takes me to pretty much the same place as the first, and instead of warping back to the River of Souls I go up and see another NPC to talk to. They mention having a super Soft kinda item to unpetrify anything, and I realise that that was probably the snake from before.

I head back to confirm that yes, it is indeed a stone snake, and then have to trek all the way back down again to get the item >_> . We have 5 minutes to get back to the statue, get there in plenty of time, and I debate whether to prepare for a potential boss here or just wing it in case there's a timer. There is indeed a boss (of course!), but no timer. Sadly I'm not very well prepared here but even if I were the Grand Aevis and its Dark Elemental pals hit me very hard and very fast with a lot of status effects and we go down pretty quickly. Guess I have some grinding to do, or other areas to find that I haven't reached yet.

My fav enemies down here so far:
3. Flaremancers. Pros: Can steal an Elixir from them! Cons: They retaliate by murdering two party members. Still, good to know so I can build up stock.
2. Stingray. After handing Behemoth over I decide to try out Beastmaster some more, and Controling this guy lets me cast Mighty Guard on my party, thus learning it as a Blue Magic spell. Yay!
1. Dinozombie. Oh man this guy is great. My Gladiator Bartz has Duel Wield equipped with Excalibur and Holy Lance, so in one turn he does over 10K damage. He's no threat to us and goes down in two turns, gaining us a massive 7500 EXP for no effort. If only he spawned more regularly! This is probably where I'll grind for a bit.

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andylt posted...

Oh thanks, I wasn't planning to use that anyway but it's useful to know. Is there any ability that lowers encounter rate >_>

The Oracle's Read Ahead ability. Again, the description for it is mistranslated.

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Grand Aevis is kicking my ass. He moves so fast and no matter what I do he's throwing zombie/petrify at me and I don't have time to heal or anything before I'm finished off. I've tried Mighty Guard, Reflect, Hastega, he has never once been hit by Slow, idk what to do. Maybe I'm underleveled, I'm getting absolutely nowhere on him.

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Levels are almost never the best solution to a problem in FFV. You need some combination of jobs, equipment, tactics, and possibly ABP. What are you bringing to the fight?
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The main problem is we're just too slow and I have no way to stop being Zombie'd/Petrified, and their hits are all way too hard and fast. I've been mixing around Blue Mage (for Mighty Guard and White Wind), White Mage (heals obv and also Reflect I tried but it's not really been helping) and Time Mage for Hastega, as well as the usual physical attackers that aren't doing much (Finisher sadly heals him :( ). I even tried putting Bartz back as a Dancer so I could equip a Ribbon, but he's too fragile there and gets knocked down by their regular hits. I have good weapons I think but that's not the problem, I can't even keep the party alive long enough to get hits in that aren't undone by the Dark Elementals. They just respawn if I manage to kill them, too.

I've been trying to mix around items but I don't have anything that seems to help, Reflect Rings wear off and don't allow me to cast Haste, even Hermes Sandals don't stop Aegis getting a hit in first that usually means Zombieing a party member. Right now I'm just grinding ABP back at the rift to hope for a useful ability, but idk. Are there some abilities I should be particularly trying for?

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To avoid Zombie, equip Angel Rings. I think they're buyable in Mirage Village. To block Petrify, you need Ribbons; only Freelancer and Dancers can equip Ribbons, but Dancer learns an ability that lets other jobs use them too. Given that you've found Dancer to be too frail, this sounds like a job for Freelancer. (If your Freelancers are suffering from a lack of stats, master a physical job on them to bring their Strength and Vitality up. Magic's less of a concern, as most magical skillsets include a Magic increase.) And if you really need to get the first turn - for Hastega, say - equipping the Masamune will do that.

Reflect Rings shouldn't wear off, I dunno what's happening there. The Carbuncle summon would set Reflect and could be cast after Hastega, but of course you don't have that. There are ways to get the effect anyway, though like messing around with the Magic Lamp - its effects are not random.

Apparently, although Grand Aevis is subject to Slow in theory, in practice getting it to stick is near-impossible. So you need a way to inflict Slow that ignores the normal status checks; that comes from the command you get through mastering Cannoneer; Turtle Shells produce a Slow effect. In theory, you could also use !Mix to level someone up a billion times or invoke the Bard's levelling song (as I recall, status accuracy is basically Base Hit Rate + Your Level - Their Level - Their "Magic Evade") to increase your chance of getting Slow to stick, but it seems to me that if you're struggling to stay alive then you don't have that kind of time.
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I don't have any Angel Rings, they must be one of those expensive 50K ones- just checked and I now have over 2 million Gil so that should be no problem at all now. I haven't tried Freelancer since the beginning, but now that I've mastered some classes perhaps I should give that a go. Not sure what happened with the Reflect Ring then, I was sure that someone died, I brought them back, then they were hit with Aeroga. Must've been mistaken!

I've been grinding ABP in the Rift for like an hour now (just equipping all 4 of them with Finisher is hilarious) and have learned some skills that seem useful- turns out the 999 ABP Red Mage skill is Dualcast! That should be very handy if it works as cleanly as it did in IV. I have gotten Equip Ribbons on a couple of them now too. I only have three Ribbons, are they buyable somewhere? I was sure I had just two before, maybe they're a drop from one of the enemies around here...

Thanks for the help, you've given me a lot of options to work with. I still haven't messed around with Cannoneer beyond getting the level up for EXP Up. Once I have Faris learn Dualcast (700/999 atm, one more Mover battle should about do it), I'll give Aevis another go.

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Absolutely annihilated him this time, I may have overgrinded ABP a little lol. Angel Rings were an absolute lifesaver, and I made use of Ribbons, Dualcast and Mimes. Krile and Faris were Mimes to fit in everything they needed (White/Summon/Dual for Krile, Time/Dual/Equip Ribbon for Faris). Still took several minutes with all the casting animations but removing his Zombie strats made it so much simpler, thanks a ton Malcolm! Whew, can finally rest on this for the night.

Minor disappointment: it seems Dualcast doesn't work with Blue Magic :( It does automatically give Red Magic to anyone holding Dualcast though, which seems to make it pretty pointless for anyone to stay as Red Mage now. Also is there a non-Thief class that casts passive Sprint? Cos I changed out of Thief and nobody has Sprint but I'm still flying around the map >_>

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Freelancer should pick up Sprint if you've mastered Thief

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Oh, so Freelancer abilities are permanently active, I see. That explains why I can see secret passages everywhere here too.

Turns out Grand Aevis was hiding a truckload of dungeon behind his stone self, and with Faris geared up with Read Ahead, Flee, Hermes Sandals and our new superspeed boost, traveling from room to room is a breeze. After the Arena room we are rewarded with a bunch of treasure chests, I was pleasantly surprised none of these are fake chests with monsters in. We enter the Heart of Ronka and run around a bit, discovering a Warp Zone further underground that only takes us back to the entrance for now, so no need to use that. Down, down we go further and further, zooming through the Abyssal Falls to see a magically blocked off entrance and a waterfall switch that allows us into the Hall of Tranquility.

This place lives up to its name, and comes fully equipped with the first Save point we've seen since the entrance to the temple. A friendly NPC has been waiting for us for some time, and tells us there's a mechanical beast to the left, a dragon to the right, and underneath us 'he who would thrust the world into darkest despair rests.' I smell a superboss! We are given a key to the Dungeons which is also the metaphorical key to moving forward, but for now I head left.

The Tomb of Memory awaits us, a puzzly sequence of rooms reminiscent of the Pyramid. Like the pyramid there's little critters wandering around on screen, but imagine my surprise when I come into contact with one and it's the ******* superboss Omega from the Rift! And there's a bunch of them just swarming around here like they're nothing! Thankfully we can flee, as I'm definitely still not prepared for dealing with this. It just means we have to properly navigate this area. The Decadent's path is filled with alluring switches to push, I fail to resist the temptation and fall down a sandpit, then drop down a hole that takes us all the way back to the River of Souls (That can't be geographically accurate, I'm certain we've descended well below the River by now!). This would be handy if I wanted to head to the Dungeon right now. But I don't. So we run all the way back down here, push a switch here and there, navigate Iniquity's Path, search 'Iniquity definition' online, and wind up in the Throne Room in front of what is certainly a boss.

I have a very bad feeling about this one so head back to save, and then fight... Omega Mk II. Lol. How many of these things are there?! No thank you, game. A quick game over later, I decide to try the Dungeon in the hopes that will be more manageable. The Archeodemon isn't too bad with our new Dualcasting status-immune (almost) party's powers. He casts Death on himself when hit with a physical attack, then immediately revives with full health. I consider casting Reflect on him, but the constant Arises would be tough to manage with his other spells, so I stick to summons/magic instead. Meteor (which tends to be very variable whenever it is cast) is incredibly useful here, and before long the demon goes down.

The warp down below opens up (but not the one in Abyssal Falls, so much for "all our barriers falling" when we kill Archeodemon, lying-ass NPC), and in it we arrive at Lethe's Court, which appears to be part of the Interdimensional Rift. A few warps later we have another fight with Guardian, very reminiscent of that one cool but tough cannon fight on the airship way back when. This thing isn't too tough, we basically use the same tactics we've been using since Aevis and focus on the launchers first (it's hard to tell where I'm targeting the cursor sometimes), then let all hell break loose when down to the main cannon. We kill it before it starts firing its massive laser, then head back to save.

Approaching the Void, we come across our enemy here- Enuo! This is a very cool and surprising twist given that this temple didn't exist in the original version, as Enuo has been alluded to on several occasions, Exdeath and Phantom Villagers mentioning how he was sealed into the void he sought to control. Enuo steals Exdeath's background and we're in for our fight!

OK the first attempt is a mistake, I don't realise the battle will auto-trigger when we move forward on the final floor and fail to switch Faris to an appropriate set of abilities. I decide to take the opportunity to try and feel out what I can from him rather than attacking. I don't learn much, but he does cast a powerful Blizzaga before I reset. Next time round I gear up properly (but forget to use a Cottage at the save so have to waste Elixirs >_>), and we do pretty well for a while. He seems to shift up a gear when some text about the void powering up appears on screen, and I realise how fragile my success was when Bartz is turned undead. I had him use the Sorcerer's Mantle we recently acquired to try and block the elementals, not realising that the rest of my party didn't have Item and I couldn't cure him. Krile is then petrified and we seem totally doomed, so I restart again.

This time, everything is in place. I have three Mimes and a Bartz. Everybody has Angel Rings, Bartz and Faris have Ribbons, and everybody equips either a Fire or Ice Shield. Krile has the Genji gear. Bartz is a Gladiator, and the others have Black Magic (Lenna), White Magic (Krile+Lenna), Time Magic (Faris), and Dualcast (all 3). I give Krile Item too, to be safe. The battle goes very smoothly through the first part, but again he gears up and uses all the very powerful spells Exdeath used. We are thankfully immune to Zombie status, and get lucky with some Petrify/Ice/Paralysis hits on the wrong people and the party being immune to Level 5 Death, but there's still a lot of death to be had here. Dualcast is so friggin' OP it's ridiculous. Everybody dies a lot, but thanks to Dualcasting it doesn't take *too* long to get people back up and buffed most of the time. Bartz has the absolute worst luck when attempting Finisher that I've seen, and we even have a couple of (un)lucky sequences where I can Mime everybody doing Finisher but still fail all 4 times. The others cast Holy, Flare, Meteor and Mimic each other when appropriate, and Dispel Enuo's buffs (and our own debuffs like Berserk that can't be undone by item or Esuna) every so often.

Despite his ridiculous casting speed and several OHKO attacks, we eventually triumph and defeat the evil trapped in the Void. We're kicked back to the top of the temple, and granted a new job (!), Necromancer. Notably this one does not contain the spirit of a warrior. It looks like a finnicky class that'll take some figuring out, but I'm assuming it'll be powerful if we're getting it this late on. The Cloister of the Dead is unlocked so I guess that's next on the list, it sounds like a series of fights more than a proper dungeon but we'll see. After that we still have that other cave to try, and then I guess I might have to start training for the superbosses. Oof!


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I know you've been using a lot of time magic, but have you tried all the spells out?

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Er there's a few I haven't, I don't generally use status spells in random encounters and don't want to waste time using them on bosses so I haven't touched the likes of Mini, Toad, Old, Confuse etc, other than that I think I've used all of the others. With bosses now I generally just use Meteor/Flare/Holy unless they have a specific elemental weakness.

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I think I know what NDs hinting toward because I noticed you have not really talked about the Quick spell. Use it once and youll immediately regret that you havent been using it all along

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Ah, I haven't used Quick. I've seen it there but I assumed it'd be like Tactics and just max out someone's ATB or something, and I saw it cost a lot of MP so never tried it. Will definitely give it a go when I play today!

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Oh yeah... Quick. Quick is pretty broken....

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So uh... I may have overdone things.

Cloister of the Dead is just a boss rush so after clearing the first room once I decide to leave that for now and try the superbosses again. The problem is both Neo Shinryu and Omega Mk II just hit way too hard, even Shell'd up their basic spells do more damage than my party has HP, so I decide to knuckle down and level grind for some time. I find a really good spot (near where Omega II is) that spawns my beloved Dinozombies way more frequently than their earlier spot, and also has Medusas which give a bunch of EXP. I swap everybody to Freelancer so they can all equip Ribbons and not have to worry about being petrified, and set them all to have EXP Up. I then just sit there and mash A while listening to a podcast for a couple hours, going back to save every now and then in case of a crash.

This turns out to be an extremely effective method of grinding, and before I know it I've gone from Level 50 to Level 80! The party's HP now looks capable of withstanding a hit from the supers, so I gear up and try Neo Shinryu.

OK is this guy broken or something? Because like 80% of my attacks that connect (do the animation and everything) just don't have a number come up. This is super frustrating because occasionally numbers do come up so I know they're hitting, is this done intentionally to hide the hits so the player doesn't know how they're doing or were my attacks actually missing or what >_>

Anyway, for the actual fight. It takes several attempts even with our new superpowers. I quickly remember the Angel Ring is the perfect accessory for every single boss fight in this Temple, after foolishly attempting to use elemental rings to absorb some of his attacks. I keep Bartz as a Dual-Wielding Freelancer and the other three as Mimes. Meteor never shows any damage up, but then I know it's a weird spell anyway, and he absorbs Holy unfortunately. Bartz does 2K hits here and there but Lenna is the main force here, Flare is the only spell that even remotely reliably shows up as doing damage. One time I Mime Doublecasting Flare across the 3 characters, and the first four hits don't show damage numbers but the last two do.

The fight takes a long time, largely because Lenna is the only person actually doing proper damage. Fortunately we're immune to most of Shinryu's fancy attacks, he attempts to cast White Hole dozens of times and it never once succeeds, I'm guessing that's something to do with our Ribbons+Angel Rings. With Krile and Faris pretty much on support duty it's easy enough to keep everybody healed and buffed, and Quick helps in that regard. Eventually one of the Flares does him in and he casts a rather pathetic final couple spells that don't do much to us, and fades away. I may be a bit overleveled...

Ultima Weapon in hand (not literally, it doesn't recommend it above the other fancy weapons I have), we head to take down the other guy. Omega Mk II is an entirely different beast to Neo Shinryu, with his own gimmicks. The most key thing is his constant Reflect, that can't be Dispelled or removed in any way I could think of. Again it takes several tries to figure out a strategy here. Bartz's physical hits never connect, so I decide to try casting Reflect on our team (after buffing them, of course) and bouncing spells off onto him. This works, thankfully! But Omega absorbs most elements, and his one weakness keeps changing. Krile bounces Libra onto him to see his weakness at any given time, but I'm still having trouble making much headway. I would get a couple spells off, then he would cast several major damaging hits that seem to ignore our defences and I have to take a while to heal, during which time he learns to bounce his spells off of us to heal himself, or to bounce them off of him to hit us. Clever robot!

I gather that Quick combined with Dualcast is probably unstoppable, but given that it can only be cast upon the user Faris is the only one who can use it. I eventually decide to use it instead of Dualcast on Faris, and after Hastega and Quick she basically uses it to Dualcast White Wind on our Reflected party. Meanwhile several attempts in I finally have the bright idea to try equipping Aim on Bartz, his attacks connect now but do 0 damage. I then desperately try Rapid Fire, which... works! Obscenely well! With Dual Wield + two of the most powerful swords in the game, one single Rapid Fire command triggers 8 hits dealing around 30K damage total! I have no idea why this does damage but I will take it! Sadly Omega outcheeses us by deciding to just yeet Bartz out of the battle entirely with Encircle, and thanks to Reflect running out at a bad time we lose again.

I head raring back in knowing I have this super lame strat that works for some reason, and this time we succeed. Omega fails to Encircle Bartz the first time so he gets two Rapid Fires off, and then Lenna bounces a dual Blizzaga off of herself to finish things off. Force Shield get! I really didn't think I would be this overleveled from one session's grinding >_>

I still haven't done the regular superbosses or the boss rush, so that is to come tomorrow. Strangely upon returning to our world a cutscene plays where some structure seems to drop into the sea. I wasn't paying 100% attention but it looked like it was just a tall rock with a face on it, like those Moai things kinda. I take the sub around the world but can't find where it landed or what it was. I do discover Mr Clio who gives us some ingame stats, though.

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Are the regular superbosses harder than those new ones?

Should have just done the final dungeon first!

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I dont remember the bonus dungeon much at all, but given who the regular super bosses are Id have to imagine the ones he just beat were harder!

You also definitely can beat the regular superbosses without grinding a ton with the right strats.

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pjbasis posted...

Should have just done the final dungeon first!

Do you mean the Cloister of the Dead? It seemed like a side bonus thing so I was leaving it til the end. And yeah I just couldn't be bothered traveling all the way back to the Rift to fight the regular superbosses first when I had no idea how tough they'd be and there were some waiting for me right here.

I definitely think I grinded too much to take away some challenge there (and I do feel like I cheesed those bosses, especially Omega II) but hey at least I got through the main thrust of the bonus dungeon and Enuo without grinding ridiculously.

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The "misses" that you were seeing against Neo Shinryu are due to a special mechanic he has. There are two additional targets in the battle that are invincible and cannot be manually selected as a target, but attacks that randomly choose their target will end up hitting them sometimes. Basically a means of reducing the effectiveness of stuff like Meteor and Rapid Fire

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I haven't done the new content (and probably won't) but I assume the new bonus bosses are upgraded versions of the regular ones. Well Omega had the same reflect gimmick, it just didn't change weaknesses. And regular Shinryuu was more of a matter of surviving its opening surprise attack (don't remember much else about the fight).

I wouldn't feel too bad, since I cheesed the original versions (well, Omega I'm sure of) with Angel Kiss. Which is a lot more cheesing/cheating than just grinding up and stomping all over everything ha ha.

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In general I find the added content in the advance versions to be pretty poorly balanced.

5's is honestly probably the best though.

Dawn of Souls in 2 sounds the most interesting conceptually since it's a separate bonus episode instead of just having an endgame bonus dungeon, although I haven't played it and it probably still doesn't really add much of actual value to the gameplay or story.

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2's is the only one I've never played because I can't stand actually playing 2 enough to finish a 2nd playthrough of it.

I actually like the bonus dungeon for the most part, it's a nice substantial size with quite a bit of variation and trekking around, and aside from the optional superbosses pretty much everything is doable normally. Grand Aevis was the biggest hurdle by far for me, I needed to grind ABP and go buy some stuff to have a chance (they should sell Angel Rings right around the entrance or something to give a hint). Apart from that it seems to be balanced OK. The end boss being a very fitting plot related character helps a lot in making the whole place feel like part of the regular game. Of course I haven't done the boss rush yet, will see how that goes.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

The "misses" that you were seeing against Neo Shinryu are due to a special mechanic he has. There are two additional targets in the battle that are invincible and cannot be manually selected as a target, but attacks that randomly choose their target will end up hitting them sometimes. Basically a means of reducing the effectiveness of stuff like Meteor and Rapid Fire

This makes sense thanks, but there were several single target attacks that didn't come up with damage either! Flare only gave numbers like 1 in 4 times.

Also lol at Neo Shinryu being in a chest too, they couldn't be bothered making an overworld sprite for him huh.

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Spells that you bounce off reflective party members target a random enemy.

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Omega is the one with Reflect, I was targeting spells directly at Shinryu.

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tcaz2 posted...

2's is the only one I've never played because I can't stand actually playing 2 enough to finish a 2nd playthrough of it.

Shields bro. Grind agility early on and never worry about grinding again.

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I definitely should've done the Cloister of the Dead before overgrinding, there's no threat here. It is cool to see the old bosses again and exploit some of their weaknesses I now know in ways I didn't before. Ending on Necrophobe is a bit weird but it gives us a chance to actually fight him instead of 'Mesh putting in the work so that's something. Some of them seem more powerful than before but some don't. At the end of the six rooms we are given a Medal of Smiting, then it's off to finish the other superbosses.

Omega is very similar to Mk II, he gets an Encircle off but two sets of Rapid Fire do him in. Shinryu is a bit different, there's no more secret hidden targets and he catches me off guard with a very strong Tidal Wave to start the battle, killing two party members outright (Faris is immune thanks to the Force Shield on her). Other than that it's just the same tactics, much easier as there's no missing and he doesn't attack as often. Each super gives me a reward, and looking at my inventory there's like 5 separate ultimate sword weapons that all seem really similar in stats lol.

While I'm here I decide to go for the true ending, so it's Exdeath time. You know, I'm more thankful for Dualcast, and I regret not using Quick for much longer, but pound for pound Rapid Fire seems the most ridiculously OP damaging move in the game when combined with Dual-Wield and the top tier weapons. Exdeath only gets off one single attack on us in his second form, an Almagest that barely touches us. He quickly goes down and I get the proper ending finally.

Honestly this ending is way better than the original I got, it's not too sugary and keeps a sense of emotion and what was lost while just generally being more satisfying. I genuinely got sad when Krile was by the Guardian Tree remembering Galuf. She's framed like the actual lead protagonist here, a really interesting choice considering she only joins the party like two thirds through the game. Also lol at Lenna's memorable moments being her being poisoned 2 of the 3 times.

My final Bestiary rating is 89%, not too bad. The music player (this game's OST really is very good) seems to list the original names of the tracks, with Reina (guessing Lenna) and X-Death. Lenna and Boko are the only characters with their own named themes here, oddly enough. So... I think I might be done? :( Is there anything else I've missed out on? There's lots I'd like to do with the jobs but they all make much more sense to do in another playthrough, should I ever get around to one. I'll gather my thoughts more tomorrow but if this is it for the game, it's been a blast.

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Glad you enjoyed it!

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pound for pound Rapid Fire seems the most ridiculously OP damaging move in the game when combined with Dual-Wield and the top tier weapons

Bartz's super move in Dissidia is literally just him using Rapid-Fire Dual Wielding with Spellblade. They completely recognized how crazy powerful it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhqQQq744rM

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I'm really glad you dug it so much. It was really fun to read along!

Also glad someone stuffed the poll.

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pjbasis posted...

Shields bro. Grind agility early on and never worry about grinding again.

I'd rather just not ever play 2 again tbh

Congrats on finishing the game! Maybe I'll go back to my old file one day since I stopped at the bonus dungeon.

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Thanks for the comments everyone!

Grand Kirby posted...

Bartz's super move in Dissidia is literally just him using Rapid-Fire Dual Wielding with Spellblade. They completely recognized how crazy powerful it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhqQQq744rM

Lol that's great, I should've used Mystic Knight more.

I won't be doing a full character ranking like with Tactics and I've said most of my thoughts throughout really. I really enjoyed this game! It was a way bigger step-up from IV gameplaywise than I expected- the job system is surprisingly robust and lends itself to replays more than any other entry in the series that I've played (even Tactics and X-2 with similar systems), the dungeons were a massive step up from the previous entry and in general there were just a bunch of really neat additions. It kind of feels like VIII to IV's VII for me, a super imaginative entry that throws a bunch of stuff at the wall and isn't afraid to innovate, quirky cast and all. Having one set party worked very well and the three 'worlds' each had distinct feels. The towns are still a bit bland but better than IV's, and it felt like there was notably more side stuff to do and freedom on the maps. The world map itself was great, I'm still super impressed at how the two maps slide onto each other so well.

The story was fine, nothing special but it was a fun ride. World 2 is probably my fav, being on the villain's home turf and all the great plot stuff that happens there. The game also takes a massive step into ridiculousness here (much like VIII!) which does it a world of good, really separating it from most other entries. There's a stretch from around Moore in World 2 to like the Pyramid in World 3 that is just phenomenal. The music is again surprisingly great, it feels really cohesive and centred around a particular theme, much like the aesthetic overall. There's a cold machine style present and even the usually calm nature tracks usually have a melancholic element to them. The battle tracks go off, doing their own thing entirely and not being beholden to any norms!

Characterwise, people are pretty broadly drawn. The dialogue is a huge benefit, which I gather is largely down to the GBA translation. The banter helps the party feel more like real friends, and overall the party seems less a destined group of heroes and more a ragtag band of misfits just stumbling forward however they can (again like VIII!), which I liked a lot. The Dawn Warriors are more typical 'heroes', and I wasn't very interested in them (aside from Galuf) or King Tycoon, but then I don't think I was supposed to be. I was disappointed that the game has wolfmen in it but does nothing cool with them. In general there's a simplicity to the characters here, I guess they didn't add so much complexity til the later entries, but they generally felt less like archetypes than IV (not saying this as a negative for IV). Again, the dialogue is great.

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I like Bartz quite a lot. I guess it's not a rarity to have a simple everyman as a hero, but in this series he does kinda feel different to the others, even with Dorgann being plot relevant he never really feels like he's being forced into a hero mold. It helps that the party feels like they're generally on equal terms- Bartz isn't a reluctant leader in the way Cecil/Cloud/Squall are, they're all equally important. He has great dialogue with Galuf and the Lix stuff gives him a more personal side, still he's not super complex but I enjoyed him a great deal. His best pal being a Chocobo is great.

Lenna is easily the weak link of the main 5, imo. In any other game she would obviously be a White Mage, a Pure Good Hearted Girl trope that I guess they didn't start giving nuance to til Aeris, or even Yuna arguably (I like Aeris a lot but she does fill a lot of those tropes). She doesn't really have as good a dynamic with the others imo, Faris is her natural scene partner but they don't really do much with the sister thing and beyond that she doesn't have too interesting a personality. Yeah her dad died, but so did everyone else's! The most interesting thing about her is her constantly poisoning herself to help out Wind Drakes, they could've leaned into that more to make her more fun, imo.

Faris is a cliche for the first couple hours, thankfully they sort out the gender stuff early on so the classic anime tropes can disappear. I like that she keeps her personality and her piratey ideology without losing sight of what's going on, and doesn't just disappear into Stock Princess once that's revealed (cough Tetra). The game kills mounts and parents/grandparents all over the place but Faris's mourning for Syldra feels more organic than most of the others. If I never hear her say 'Papa' again though it'll be too soon.

Galuf... is probably the best character here. He was the biggest surprise for me, at first being a bit of a creepy lecherous old man to Faris I was prepared to hate him, or at the least be bored by the 'I'm old!' shtick. But that's a deliberate mislead to make the later reveals seem bigger, and unlike the other party reveals his actually has a massive impact. In World 2 he just hits godmode- his banter improves tremendously, he's pretty much the lead protagonist for that world and of course his sacrifice is amazing. Easily the most shocking moment of the game given we only had 4 characters, and a very badass exit. Somewhat undercut by his constant returns, but I love the one in the true ending where Krile just thinks she hears him or maybe senses a sign, that's all they needed to do really. Still he's great.

I started off pretty neutral on Krile, she has a great entrance with BTFOing Exdeath for a second but it was hard to see her as much more than Galuf's personal investment. Of course that changes when she joins our party, in her brief time with us she has a more natural connection to Bartz than Lenna ever does with anyone, and I don't know how old she's supposed to be but she's pretty mature for her age. I really like the little nuances she's given, like how you can see her longing/mourning for her now lost childhood when talking to Mid, and just the general sense that you get of her constantly holding back from breaking down completely. Her being the main character of the ending was a great choice, she'd be the worst equipped to be alone so the four of them journeying on together feels especially optimistic with her centred.

I'm not usually particularly drawn to FF villains, particularly those of the 'evil for evil's sake' variety. Exdeath does it much better than some others, thanks to the game not constantly telling you how cool he is, not having him be super godlike all the time, him having a cool creepy eldritch origin story, and just generally getting the sense that he's actively working to stop us. He's not sat there winning because the plot dictates he's winning, he's making moves towards his goal all the time. He recognises the party as the threat they are, and you know he can be defeated because he already was before. His entrance at the end of Act 1 is a nice badass intro. Him being a tree actually works for me, really helps make him more unique than if he were just regular bad knight dude. Definitely an upper tier villain for the series, though that's not a high bar for me. I like that he's not above getting involved in the quirky side of the narrative, the splinter reveal then fight with the turtle was so good.

As far as the minor characters go, the only one of note for me coming to mind is Ghido. Dude is great. His absolute antipathy towards Bartz, constantly making snide comments during vitally important exposition, him being a straight up turtle and having an epic fight with Exdeath, just a great little character. Again seems like the GBA translation did him a great service here. Would support getting this guy into SMFFFC.

Feel like I should mention Boko, but there's not much to say. It's a nice novelty having a chocobo be a real character, and as said earlier him being Bartz's best friend helps colour Bartz's character well. At least he has a better fate than most of the game's mounts.

Last but not least is obviously Gilgamesh. It's a bit unlucky for him that he's become such a series comical mainstay, because my expectations were very high. I'm trying to imagine coming to this game with no knowledge of him at all and gradually realising what a wacky wonderful guy he is. Starting off as Exdeath's number 2 and becoming a lovable weirdo by the end of the game, it's a wild but well done journey. He actually has more of an arc than most characters, and gets a legit great sendoff into the unknown at the end. I didn't expect the game's tone to be so wacky overall, so that's not why he stands out here (unlike his other appearances), he's just a legitimately well drawn character.

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Krile is suppose to be 14, btw

Some of my fav tracks:
Lenna's Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WATPOPngiTc
Cursed Lands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePGHrO6WMlI
Sorrows of Parting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CSexDiQ-NQ
Beyond the Deep Blue Sea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaizBK7jLxU
Slumber of Ancient Earth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQLYEpDeYm0
A New World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDyqQp6tBE8

Big Bridge is of course the GOAT but I knew that going in. The OST really is so good, there's a bunch of others I wanted to single out but it'd be half the whole thing.

Overall the only reason I can see for FFV not being as beloved/famous as the others of its time is that it wasn't released out of Japan for ages. It deserves much more recognition and absolutely holds up alongside the great SNES games, imo. It's a shame Square has done like... nothing with it. No sequels, prequels, spinoffs, remakes, they have a great property here that a lot of people have no idea about, and are just... leaving it there. Ugh Square. Thank you to whichever mysterious person stuffed the poll, I'm very glad I played this.

I - II - III - IV - (TAY) - Final Fantasy V - VI - VII - (VIIR - DoC - CC) - VIII - IX - X - (X-2) - XII - (RW) - XIII - (XIII-2 - LR) - XV - Tactics - (TCB)

Next FF: The bootleg held up pretty well considering, only a handful of crashes and only one was during proper gameplay. So I see no reason not to move right ahead chronologically with Final Fantasy VI Advance! Will probably give myself a slight JRPG break but who knows.

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There was actually an anime OVA sequel or something to ff5, but it's apparently notoriously bad.

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Can't wait to follow along with your 6 topic too. I don't think 6 is as replayable as 5 is personally but its still very, very good.

Really looking forward to VI. Its my favorite game, and Im curious to see what you think of it. Loving these topics!

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VI is probably my second favorite FF after V, so Id definitely read a topic about that!

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LordoftheMorons posted...

VI is probably my second favorite FF after V, so Id definitely read a topic about that!

same here

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Just a couple quick notes while I remember: does anyone know what the building/structure thing that fell from the sky was? It happened after I went from the Sealed Temple world back to the regular world after beating Enuo for the first time. Also I was going to ask what the dragon in the V logo is supposed to signify but I looked it up and apparently it's just a Wind Drake. Whoops >_> From head on they look nothing like that!

Seems like V and VI share a lot of fans! VI was way out in front of the poll I ran before the stuffing started, and I know of its reputation obviously, but there were a handful of detractors too so I'll try not to keep my expectations too high. One of the best things about Tactics and V is that I knew like nothing about either game beforehand, I do know one or two things about VI but hopefully nothing that'll impact me too much.

As I said I might give myself a bit of a JRPG break before I start VI, not sure yet (I won an auction on eBay for what is almost certainly a bootleg VI Advance but I don't actually have it yet). But thanks to everyone who has been following and helping me through V and to anyone who left a comment at all! I very much appreciate it.

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I really loved reading this topic and all your thoughts on FFV. They mirror mine a lot. Anyways, I highly recommend doing the Four Job Fiesta one day. It's always interesting to explore how each job was made for the whole game. You also really get a sense of how to get past each boss, especially around World 3.

I really appreciate Dissidia/Duodecim's respect for FFV. They did so well with all 3 playable characters (Bartz, Exdeath, and Gilgamesh), especially since it's pretty much the first real depiction of FFV. And yes, Bartz's super is basically perfect. They also have Bartz's dancer outfit as an alt costume.



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