Shining Force Minimum Party Part I
May. 12th, 2017 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeeling[This entry is adapted from the original GameFAQs posts written around the time the gameplay took place in May of 2017. It is actually being posted in May of 2023. There may be minor edits.]
I am considering starting over mainly because I was playing on Wii VC and I'd rather play on PC.
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I've been gradually doing the start of a minimum party challenge in Shining Force for a couple of weeks off and on. I've been doing it on my Wii of all things, so streaming and screenshots aren't easy. Then again, who the eff would ever want to watch this? What an incredibly tedious challenge!
It's pretty clear that the dude who wrote the minimum party challenge guide only played on an emulator.
Battle 1: Clearing the first battle took me about 9 tries, no lie. Hero was level 7, I think, when I won. I didn't think to go save at the priest near Gong, so I was repositioning the blond guy to leave Guardiana every time. I only realized I could've saved myself so much trouble at the beginning of battle 2.
Battle 2 took two tries.
Battle 2 took two tries.
Battle 3 took two tries. It was nice having Mae, and you start to learn a lot about the stupid enemy AI when you've got a single fast-moving potentially ranged attacker. I think Hero was about 7 and Mae was 5 or 6.
Battle 4 took two tries because of a critical miss by hero against the mage. I feel like I notice misses and enemy criticals much more when playing this way. Khris (which autocorrects to Khrushchev - heh) was probably a solid level 5 by the end. I actually used two maxed power potions on her because my inventory was full, so gaining her some XP was fairly painless. And that's a thing: managing inventory with 2 and 3 characters is a pain. I haven't been maxing levels but I made sure my stat items uses were maxed.
Battle 4 took two tries because of a critical miss by hero against the mage. I feel like I notice misses and enemy criticals much more when playing this way. Khris (which autocorrects to Khrushchev - heh) was probably a solid level 5 by the end. I actually used two maxed power potions on her because my inventory was full, so gaining her some XP was fairly painless. And that's a thing: managing inventory with 2 and 3 characters is a pain. I haven't been maxing levels but I made sure my stat items uses were maxed.
Battle 5 took two tries. I was dumb. I took the far right path and then went across the very top of the big desert and, given a chance to sneak Hero into Manarina, I thought, "Lets take a swing at this mage". Got criticaled by a zombie.
Battle 6 (increasingly unsure that I've numbered things correctly) was my first battle won in a single attempt! Lots of Mae hitting zombies with a spear at range for 1 damage. At this point, having skipped the initial crew, Anri, and anyone else more obviously optional, I had Hero (actually named Faris) at level 10 or 11, Mae at level 11, and Khris at level 8 or 9.
Battle 6 (increasingly unsure that I've numbered things correctly) was my first battle won in a single attempt! Lots of Mae hitting zombies with a spear at range for 1 damage. At this point, having skipped the initial crew, Anri, and anyone else more obviously optional, I had Hero (actually named Faris) at level 10 or 11, Mae at level 11, and Khris at level 8 or 9.
Battle 7 (Circus/Marionette): This took two tries... barely. On the first one, I had cleared the field when Hero took a nasty Freeze 3 to the face that barely crept up to his HP. I had the Marionette surrounded by my three characters - all of whom were level 8+ and able to consistently do ~8 damage, but there were also lots of misses and the boss regeneration feature working against me. So yeah, I lost, but it was close.
That said... unlike most enemies, the clowns and puppets still provided actual experience, at least for Khris. Dreading the upcoming Shade Abbey battle, it provided a good excuse to get Khris up to level 10. I remembered that I had the Power Ring (equipped on Mae) and, by using it on Hero/Faris, the ring allowed me to beat Marionette much more safely and easily.
Battle 8 (Shade Abbey): This took two tries. The first was going really well but Hero of course took a skeleton critical to the face that he wasn't prepared for.
I felt like I had a really good strategy here. The whole team would hide amongst the pews, with Hero facing the aisle, Mae behind him (she's tankier and less risky, but has range!), and Khris in the back supporting mostly with heals. I expected this battle to be much worse than it was as I recalled Mae doing 1 damage to zombies over and over a few battles ago, but it wasn't bad at all... especially with a few Power Ring uses and my strategy allowing only one enemy to hit anyone on my team at a time.
I felt like I had a really good strategy here. The whole team would hide amongst the pews, with Hero facing the aisle, Mae behind him (she's tankier and less risky, but has range!), and Khris in the back supporting mostly with heals. I expected this battle to be much worse than it was as I recalled Mae doing 1 damage to zombies over and over a few battles ago, but it wasn't bad at all... especially with a few Power Ring uses and my strategy allowing only one enemy to hit anyone on my team at a time.
I'm up to the quarry, my Force now has 5 members. I skipped Diane: the published minimum party guide mentioned earlier says she is mandatory, but in fact it's very easy to avoid her. Anri and Diane are funny characters to skip as you meet them and you're instructed to talk to them... you even stand directly next to Diane. I can't blame people for thinking they're mandatory, but they aren't. The game's actual minimum party is Hero/Max, Mae, Khris, Balbaroy, Amon, Pelle, Earnest, Bleu, Alef, Torasu, Adam. 11 members.
I think my three veterans (Faris, Mae, Khris) are all level 12.
I think my three veterans (Faris, Mae, Khris) are all level 12.
As crazy as it sounds I think Adam might get my eventual turbo pepper.
I am considering starting over mainly because I was playing on Wii VC and I'd rather play on PC.
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