FF The 4 Heroes of Light - Low Level Game Part 1: Minotaur, Greaps
15All right, starting yet another new challenge! Started playing this game very recently and got horribly addicted to it. Even played it at night when there was no available time in the daytime, lol. I beat everything in it in less than a week and found myself reluctant to grind the crowns and weapons, but still wanted to keep playing the game, so I came up with a challenge.
So what are the rules?
Low Level - you know, it means what it usually means. We try to beat the game with the party at the lowest possible level. Since in this game, crowns are literally so important you can't take a piss without equipping one, the party needs the Wayfarer crown/job in order to run from random encounters, maintaining their low levels. In the very brief period of time the Wayfarer job is unavailable, the party avoids more encounters by running only in the right direction, as well as cutting any space by stepping diagonally.
During the game, temporary guests will join the party. Obviously, we can avoid gaining levels by having the guests absorb the experience from boss battles; however, the low level rules apply to the guests as well. This means we're not permitted to kill everybody off besides the guest and run around farming gems to upgrade crowns and equipment.
Another note for the final part of the game... You lose all your jobs in the last dungeon and have to regain them slowly by fighting the bosses. However, the bosses are all optional. This means that we only fight one of the bosses to unlock the Wayfarer class, allowing us to escape from the random battles in the last dungeon (this also unlocks White and Black Mage jobs).
So optimally, our final aim will be to defeat the final boss with the humble jobs of Wayfarer, White Mage and Black Mage. Optimally. I have no clue if this is possible, but I have a good feeling it'll work out in the end.
Another IMPORTANT NOTE about the enemy levels. There is a consistently spread myth that the enemy levels depend on your party's. This is not quite precise. The bosses have very specific initial levels, and only when the party's levels start exceeding the boss's, their levels will scale to yours. So while the bosses in this challenge won't be quite as hard as when you face them at, say, level 90, they'll still be better levelled than we are, and due to the limitations on fighting imposed by the low level rule we'll always be lagging behind since we can't fight random battles and all that.
Oh, and I'll use such strats that aren't game-breaking. Meaning, I won't be farming millions of Gil to make Money Talks deal crazy damage or whatever, there's plenty of that kind of abusable stuff in this game.
Okay, so let's get to the bosses.
Minotaur is faced by Brandt (lv. 1) and Jusqua (lv. 5). The latter comes with the Fire spell which is the only reasonable way of dealing any good damage to the boss (he's weak to it, and physicals don't really do any good damage yet). The boss also goes crazy when his HP gets low so we want the interval between the time when we start attacking and when he dies to be as short as possible.
For that, we manipulate the AP system. Max AP is always 5, and you get 1 AP each turn plus 1 extra AP every time you "boost" (i.e. defend, skipping your return). Abilities, including a normal physical attack and using an item, all require AP. The Fire spell requires 2 AP. So to make the interval short, we first boost until we have 5, and then begin the magic casting.
Brandt should just guard as he's of no use here. No healing magic for him yet, and his attack is awful because he's still lv. 1.
Next boss: Greaps. The first boss faced with a party of four people, also the last one for a while. We get the Wayfarer job right after him, so until then we had to fight all the randoms on the way. And it wasn't easy I tell you, especially with the game's lack of targeting. In the process, people gain some levels (notably Brandt).
Greaps, like a lot of other bosses in this game, has two phases. When he's on the ground, he'll act just once. When he flies up, he'll act twice, often using his multi-target attack. When it's used twice per turn ,we're in big trouble.
The psyching up system is exploited here. When a unit is psyched up, his action is more effective. Also, when several units are psyched up at once and they use the same ability, they will combo. Attacks can be combo'd, magic as well.
Greaps is weak to fire so we dedicate two fire-casters for the battle (the ones with the best Intellect stat). I give Aire's weapon to Yunita to up her magic attack (Aire is just a supporter using Cure and Potions). Brandt also supports, defending when he needs to recover AP or when there's no other use for him. Physical attacks aren't very effective here.
Almost lost Jusqua here but that +3% Evade apparently works sometimes.