FFTA Speed Run Part VII: Desert Patrol & Quiet Sands (BOSS: Mateus)

Channel:

MoogleBoss

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6,670

Published on January 26, 2009 4:27:25 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p20JBuTcf24

Game:

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (2003)

Duration: 8:17

1,615 views

12

We're slowly approaching to the end of the speedrun. Still, plenty of difficult missions ahead, most troublesome being the final battles presumably.

Desert Patrol was the mission when I realised Gadgeteer's Chroma Gem is no longer enough to allow me to finish a battle more or less quickly. Enemies wake up by the time I reach them and those who don't fall asleep (a very likely scenario for every particular enemy) rape me quickly since almost anything is a one-hit kill at this point given the level difference that just keeps growing with each mission.

The decision made here was to teach the Gadgeteer Red Spring which grants Haste to either party. While a combination of sleep on the enemy and haste on our team is a great one, it also means we reset 75% of the time knowing how likely Gadgeteer is to cast the spell on the wrong party. That's, of course, not counting the times when resetting is necessary for whatever other reason (as usual, there's plenty).

Most of the enemies on this attempt were finished by the combo of Assassin and Bishop. As expected, Fighter and Gladiator are nearly useless right now.

Then there's Quiet Sands. The first part of the mission is ended the quickest way by having the Assassin murder Marche. The mission is over either once the boy is dead or after a few turns, the former is obviously achieved far faster.

The second part is, as expected, a huge pain in the arse. I somehow got a time of five (!!!) minutes once but placed the Materi area on the wrong spot on the map, save stating over that godly attempt, so I had to do it all over again. I couldn't get a time better than 9 minutes afterwards, and I quit trying after 4 more hours of trying with loading state after Assassin's first turn and the turbo button.

Basically, if you enter this mission without anything banned, you have absolutely no chance to survive the first couple of turns. The multi-target Bio spells, or whatever the undead love to spam, are bad news. Poison/Status must be banned, as must Fight. This makes the undead much more useless but they'll still waste time taking turns and they are especially likely to block the way to the boss, making us waste even more precious time. On this attempt, they don't follow the boss for some reason. I don't think I understand their AI too well.

With Fight and Poison banned, it's just a matter of time before Mateus dies. However, time IS the crucial thing in this challenge and really the only aspect we care about so that's practically saying nothing. Red Spring cast on the wrong party pretty much cancels the efforts of the first turn, and Beatdown will keep missing to spite you.

I had two Beatdowns miss on this attempt, and normally I would reset, but I didn't want to spend another few hours getting this far so I waited for Marche's next turn and voila! a frontal Beatdown connected (which doesn't happen very often).

Bishop and Assassin are useless here (can't petrify anything), and Fighter's and Gladiator's offensive lameness is obvious compared to Marche. They don't have the levels he got from soloing the Exodus part of the game, nor the Excalibur blade that's a lot better than anything else at this point that is acquired quickly (gotta love Treasure Hunt!).

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