FFT - Level 1 Random Reclass MBO - Part 1: Dorter Trade City

Channel:

MoogleBoss

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Published on June 17, 2014 12:45:02 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRextkb7Auo

Game:

Final Fantasy Tactics (1997)

Duration: 6:28

1,007 views

8

Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c0e87aLa76GTNS4ISZz81CT

Some of you might be aware that I have been trying my best to find interesting and challenging new ways of playing the classic Final Fantasy Tactics for the PSX. One common theme to many of these past runs was the 'MBO' - mandatory battles only - limitation, that focused on playing through the game in an efficient manner while skipping random battles and optional content, and with it grinding and other ways of breaking the game in half, in addition to other rules.

Something really clicked recently as I was very happy to come up with yet another restricted challenge playthrough of the game, which is considerably different from the past runs I've done. I'll introduce the rules:

Level 1

Just as it says, I control an army of level 1 characters for the entirety of the challenge, including Ramza. Maintaining the party at level 1 is achieved via GameShark. The particular code I have managed to produce (by modifying existing ones found elsewhere) reduces the exp value to 00 before each character's turn, effectively making it impossible for a unit to level up. I suspect that later on in this challenge the level difference will be big enough to cause my units to instantly level up by gaining 100 exp in one action, so I might have to come up with a more advanced code. I hope that moment is not coming (soon) though!

There also seems to be a very strange and unpleasant effect of keeping this one GameShark code on - as soon as the battle starts, everybody... loses their shields (!!!)... Quite a big deal when we're already at a level disadvantage, because evasion (and elemental protection later on!) grants that boost in staying power we definitely require.

As you can expect, staying at lv. 1 makes characters rely on equipment to have enough HP to take blows and have enough MP to cast spells, and the enemies gradually outstat our party. The most troublesome difference in stats is definitely that in speed, as level 1 characters have around 6 base speed, so lategame foes will be taking twice as many turns - as if they weren't already threatening enough with the current rules.

Random Reclass

Another fresh idea I'm trying out. Here's how this works - before each storyline battle, I use the Online RNG (found at random dot org - integers) to decide which of the currently available classes each playable unit will reclass to. For example, Ramza has unlocked Squire, Chemist, Knight, Archer, and is currently in the Chemist class (1). The RNG gives me a random number between 1-4, which is 2 - Ramza has to reclass to Knight for the next battle.

This makes planning very tricky and planning is very directly related to what characters are doing on the battlefield. It also makes the challenge really unpredictable as we never know what classes we'll find ourselves in during any battle.

This rule is really dangerous (what with playing with a level 1 party) in that it can result in 'impossible' battles, such as Ramza being stuck in a horrible class for one of the fights he has to solo. And just generally being susceptible to the RNG screwing us over by giving us random awful classes for a tough fight sounds extreme enough.

I keep using the same party for the whole run, that being:

Ramza (RamzmaR) - you know the guy. Capricorn.
Crono - generic male, Taurus. High Brave, good Faith.
Lenneth - generic female, Virgo. High Brave, good Faith.
Mitsuru - generic female, Taurus. Very high Faith, good enough Brave.
??? - mysterious character that will appear when

I don't think unique characters like Agrias will join me at lv. 1 (party level) when they join, but if they do, then I will definitely consider using them. Or I might not - we'll see. I think they'll join at a higher level though.

Since the two girls started out as Squires rather than Chemist and weren't used as Chemists in the first battle of the game, they STILL haven't unlocked any of the magical classes as of the end of chapter 1. Imagine my frustration.

Oh, and lastly,

MBO - Mandatory Battles Only

Only playing storyline missions, and clearing the maps as soon as is reasonably possible (i.e. no grinding by attacking our own guys or drawing the battle out just to get a ton of JP).

I think that's it!

This video shows the Dorter Trade City battle, the first battle hard enough to be worth recording.

The RNG gave me the following party for this map:

Ramza - Knight
Crono - Thief
Lenneth - Archer (the RNG knows who she is I guess!)
Mitsuru - Archer

Archers don't have the best damage potential, but long range attacks are immensely useful in this map as I have found. The Thief class is inferior for all purposes besides reaching distant foes with higher than average Move.

Overall... I think I got a little lucky on this attempt? It's not like I don't know how to play this map properly, but it tends to get pretty hard in many of the challenges I have played.

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