FFTA - Bangaa Only Challenge: All Boss Battles

Channel:

MoogleBoss

Subscribers:

6,600

Published on July 14, 2022 6:23:27 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNcVVm4kbVk

Game:

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (2003)

Duration: 1:17:17

1,849 views

49

On this very day 15 years ago, I posted my first challenge video on YouTube - a recording of the Moogles Only challenge I was playing at the time. The first video series I completed, the run was a perfect fit for my YouTube s/n, which has stayed the same for the channel's entire existence, though the 'challenge' aspect of it was rather sketchy - why did I spend so many hours in the earlygame unlocking endgame weapons, e.g. to give Jugglers Smile? Anyway, to date FFTA remains THE game where I finished the most challenge runs, though it might have something to do with the fact that I don't tend to run the same exact game over and over.

I'd been thinking of a way to make this channel come full circle with something related to my first ever run, initially entertaining the idea of redoing the Moogles Only challenge with more variety in classes than just Jugglers and a Mog Knight, omitting the ludicrous earlygame effort to obtain a Cinquedea and an Orichalcum. However, common sense prevailed and I decided to do a run with a completely different race. Bangaa are the "dumbest" race in the game in that they rely excessively on brute strength and defence, with just a single mediocre magical caster class in Bishop and an overall scarcity of tools for inflicting negative statuses - the latter being indispensable for boss battles where access to ailments like blind and sleep can really tip the scales in your favour.

I stopped on the following rule set for the challenge:

Bangaa Only
No Item
No Combo
No Totema
No Law Cards

Marche isn't used during the battles where he's mandatory, though he's forced to beat up the enemies in the Exodus battle (mine had a crappy weapon apparently, dealing 1 dmg at the start of the fight and levelling all the way to lv. 15 by the time it ended - didn't feel like restarting the previous, proper, battle to fix that mishap). No Item use puts us under far more extreme conditions where X-Potions can't be spammed to get out of disadvantageous situations, and banning Totema means there's no win button to press for the tough fights. Law manipulation is okay as long as I enter the battle on the day I see fit (I tried to abuse it as rarely as I could), and the combo ban is mostly to save myself the headache from having to farm the mythril weapons and learn the skills.

Aiming for diversity, I planned the following builds for my party:
-magical Bishop (hired as white monk for speed)
-Ultima nuke Gladiator (gladiator bases for high attack and okay MP)
-attacker Dragoon (hired as dragoon for attack and above-average speed)
-attacker White Monk (hired as dragoon to fire off stronger attacks)
After killing Montblanc in the Jagd - support Templar (hired as white monk for speed)

I mostly stuck the plan, looking back at these early notes. The gladiator didn't become an Ultima nuke until the endgame, but was an Ice Sword nuke before then. The offensive White Monk ended up spending more time as a Templar, as the class has way more potential starting at the midpoint (skills like Air Render grow worryingly weak later on, but then again, so do the breaths and sword techs when not powered up).

0:00 Famfrit
For early quests, I found a simple solution that I stuck with for much of the game. The 'Fire! Fire!' quest, where you beat up some bombs, grants the Sprinkler item, which can power up both ice and water elemental damage. The former applies to Dragoon's Ice Breath tech and Gladiator's Ice Sword, giving us menacing crowd control / ranged damage and a tool for OHKOing squishier enemy class and heavily denting the rest respectively. When Bishop learns Water, we can enjoy strengthened castings of the spell, too, but physicals is where it's at.

This is a relatively easy boss battle, with Famfrit being the only enemy capable of atrocities in terms of heavy damage. One of the Ahrimans (Ahrimen?) can kill somebody with Roulette, and before we start mass-learning White Monk's Revive to stand a chance in the more demanding wearisome battles without hoping for RNG and resetting in lieu of proper strategy that can be a nuisance indeed. I generally ignore the minions here because of how wimpy they mostly are, unless they happen to be bunched up together, where an Ice Breath can nail several at once. Ice Sword and Ice Breath techs are at their strongest at this point, so this Totema boss feels unusually easy.

(out of space; continued in the comments section)

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