![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingSession 2 of this playthrough was played on March 2, 2022 or so.
Thus far, I hadn't managed to remove Fari's useless Steal command, so she just had one completely unusable inventory slot. I decided that seemed kind of close enough to the normal behaviour of a thief in a Final Fantasy game that I oughtn't worry for now.
In the previous session, I lost badly to Ashura, so at first I was sort of wandering around hoping my stats would go up. I considered some options that could help specifically with Ashura but I didn't come up with anything revolutionary; I knew he had no elemental weaknesses and thought it was awfully unlikely a status effect would work against him. Status effects in this game, by the way, just aren't really a mainstay. Your party can be afflicted with status effects fairly often certainly, but there are very limited options the player has to inflict them... and even when you can there are a lot of immunities in play and usually better options regardless.
I bought some random filler items and a gold glove for my fighter and thief for a minor armor upgrade; this would be almost meaningless against Ashura, but it's something. I also grabbed a Psi Knife that would give Lenn a non-elemental damage option.
With that... the grinding began.
The grinding is funny. I had a lot of observations of how Final Fantasy Legend II happens to treat its very randomzied stat gains. Even though Fari can really only ever attack a single target, every so often she would win a battle in a single action, which prevents characters from even having a shot at stat gains other than HP. I remarked, "Faris is like the opposite of Ferris Bueller; she gives everyone else a day off."
With about 30 minutes of additional grinding, as I headed back into Ashura's tower, my HP values were now like this:
Maybe that can make a difference? The stats can help, too. I gave Kril the Fire magi so that she would resist Ashura's Flame, and she should be able to heal others.
Bart dealt a bit of damage, Fari was doing roughly 150 damage with her Sabre, and Lenn contributed a bit with his Psi Knife. In turn 2, I had Bart use his Silver Shield, as that had helped in the previous session, but Ashura pierced it... only for Bart to actually survive. I found this really encouraging and had Kril set up to heal Bart on turn 3, only for Ashura to use Flame and take him out. Next, Ashura used 6-Arms to take out Fari and I thought it was over, before Lenn finished him off unexpectedly:
This was a satisfying win, actually, because the solution was a combination of grind, strategy and luck. An equal combination? I am not sure.
Now we're heading to Giant's World to get the Micron so we can enter Ki's body to save her. In Giant's World, we bought Bart a Giant Glove which makes a pretty big difference both in terms of his damage and his defense. Later on, I might end up regretting this; in this game, stat bonuses from equipment impact your ongoing growth in the affected stats, so using the Giant Glove actually means you gain less strength overall. In the short term, however, it's pretty nice.
I've always really liked Giant's World for levelling, actually, because the enemies tend to appear without big "stacks" - mostly single enemies. It makes non-magic, non-explosive wielding characters feel more viable. It's also a nice place where enemies have "ranked up" a bit; for example, the Rhino boss from the first world is a regular enemy here. You also get to meet Worms, who just have an awesome sprite:
After making a bit more use of Giant's World for a short grind and then some window shopping, I decided it was time to return to Ki. Stats were as follows:
And I've saved just before Micronizing!
Thus far, I hadn't managed to remove Fari's useless Steal command, so she just had one completely unusable inventory slot. I decided that seemed kind of close enough to the normal behaviour of a thief in a Final Fantasy game that I oughtn't worry for now.
In the previous session, I lost badly to Ashura, so at first I was sort of wandering around hoping my stats would go up. I considered some options that could help specifically with Ashura but I didn't come up with anything revolutionary; I knew he had no elemental weaknesses and thought it was awfully unlikely a status effect would work against him. Status effects in this game, by the way, just aren't really a mainstay. Your party can be afflicted with status effects fairly often certainly, but there are very limited options the player has to inflict them... and even when you can there are a lot of immunities in play and usually better options regardless.
I bought some random filler items and a gold glove for my fighter and thief for a minor armor upgrade; this would be almost meaningless against Ashura, but it's something. I also grabbed a Psi Knife that would give Lenn a non-elemental damage option.
With that... the grinding began.
The grinding is funny. I had a lot of observations of how Final Fantasy Legend II happens to treat its very randomzied stat gains. Even though Fari can really only ever attack a single target, every so often she would win a battle in a single action, which prevents characters from even having a shot at stat gains other than HP. I remarked, "Faris is like the opposite of Ferris Bueller; she gives everyone else a day off."
With about 30 minutes of additional grinding, as I headed back into Ashura's tower, my HP values were now like this:
Maybe that can make a difference? The stats can help, too. I gave Kril the Fire magi so that she would resist Ashura's Flame, and she should be able to heal others.
Bart dealt a bit of damage, Fari was doing roughly 150 damage with her Sabre, and Lenn contributed a bit with his Psi Knife. In turn 2, I had Bart use his Silver Shield, as that had helped in the previous session, but Ashura pierced it... only for Bart to actually survive. I found this really encouraging and had Kril set up to heal Bart on turn 3, only for Ashura to use Flame and take him out. Next, Ashura used 6-Arms to take out Fari and I thought it was over, before Lenn finished him off unexpectedly:
This was a satisfying win, actually, because the solution was a combination of grind, strategy and luck. An equal combination? I am not sure.
Now we're heading to Giant's World to get the Micron so we can enter Ki's body to save her. In Giant's World, we bought Bart a Giant Glove which makes a pretty big difference both in terms of his damage and his defense. Later on, I might end up regretting this; in this game, stat bonuses from equipment impact your ongoing growth in the affected stats, so using the Giant Glove actually means you gain less strength overall. In the short term, however, it's pretty nice.
I've always really liked Giant's World for levelling, actually, because the enemies tend to appear without big "stacks" - mostly single enemies. It makes non-magic, non-explosive wielding characters feel more viable. It's also a nice place where enemies have "ranked up" a bit; for example, the Rhino boss from the first world is a regular enemy here. You also get to meet Worms, who just have an awesome sprite:
After making a bit more use of Giant's World for a short grind and then some window shopping, I decided it was time to return to Ki. Stats were as follows:
And I've saved just before Micronizing!
