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On October 11, 2024, I was a bit bored. My wife and I had recently finished watching Umbrella Academy and, finding ourselves with a mostly-free evening, I felt like playing a game instead of just watching something. One of the kids had already claimed the Switch for the night... so what might I want to play? I had recently finished Final Fantasy VIII Classic Jobs, too, so I was between JRPG runs.
I had a couple of ideas, but RevenantKioku (of the Four Job Fiesta and related events) had posted that for the month of October there would be a Four Job Fiesta... using Final Fantasy III's Pixel Remaster. This one is based on rules as detailed by PJ and benefitting Trans Lifeline. Hm, may as well!
I haven't played any of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster games, and hadn't bought them, either. I bought them for the occasion and this was literally my first play.
This began with my getting my jobs.
Uh oh. My jobs are Warrior, Onion Knight, Viking and Magus. These are, uh... kinda bad.
I am somewhat new to Pixel Remaster as a version of this game, but based on what I know...
Warrior is fine for the early game, but fairly intentionally outclassed in most regards by several jobs later, like Knight, Dragoon, Dark Knight, and Ninja. I'll have four warriors until the second set of jobs are unlocked.
Onion Knight was left in the job selection for any crystal, and is basically the comical dud option of this game, mostly. Once I get the second crystal and the second group of jobs unlocked, I'll be carrying three warriors and an onion knight. It does have something of a secret power at absurdly high levels and with rare endgame equipment.
Viking is a bit interesting in that a lot of folks never use them, and I don't mind being forced to do irregular things (obviously). However, Viking is largely outclassed by its own contemporaries, Knight and Dragoon, and it doesn't have fantastic equipment options at endgame. Again, it's fully superceded in normal play by these classes and Dark Knight, and especially Ninja at endgame. I understand it's got a "Draw Attacks" option that may have some interesting potential though.
Magus is probably the best class of this group in that it's actually meant to be endgame-viable... although almost anyone would rather have a Sage.
Interestingly, after playing I happened to snoop at the list of runs to see if there were other unfortunate souls who lacked healing as well as excellent classes like Sage and Ninja that might carry the team. And what did I find?
PJ - the person who came up with the rules - has almost the same team as myself! His is probably a little bit better, really.
Okay, well, I started playing.
I decided to name the team after A, B, C, and D and ended up with Archibald, Borlon, Captain, and Drile.
We got to level 3 before fighting a turtle, and then we all became warriors without issue.
I had kind of forgotten about dual wielding being so easy and maybe sort of expected in this game. Consequently, my first shopping trip was very inefficient.
The early game was fine. Warriors are nice and tough. I wasn't 100% sure of the order to do things in the game's starting area. I went to Sasune Castle early and picked up the Wightslayer - pointlessly - and defeated the Griffon guarding it with a single character, Captain, left standing.
After talking to the king I knew I needed to go into the Sealed Cavern but I forgot how to get there and I thought I was looking for a canoe. I looked in Ur, and Sasune Castle, and even the Mythril Mine which was a pretty bad idea. Eventually, I realized I had to speak to the ghost of Cid to get a very early airship. Speaking to a 100% unidentifiable ghost being a necessary plot trigger feels very late-80s-early-90s-game-design.
Around this point, I flipped on the Boost feature doubling experience and gold. I wasn't sure how cheat-y it was, but as I said, it doesn't really adjust the difficulty, just the length of the grind. Between this and having wandered a bit, my characters may have been a tad overlevelled when we reached the Djinn.
From here everything proceeded normally. I was getting treasures, grabbing little upgrades like all of the mythril equipment, etc. I blew through Canaan and got to Bahamut without issue, other than Bahamut devouring Captain.
I ran from everything after I had to become mini in Tozus, at least for a bit, and then I think I flipped the encounters off. The next big thing to do is the Nepto Shrine.
Nepto Shrine is problematic. First of all, we've got the dumb situation where Mini is essential, so Drile spent a bit of time as a White Mage. Being minified is bad, although the music changes and that's pretty cute.
When you're fighting the Giant Rat while minified in the Nepto Shrine, all attacks do 1 damage.
Between the few spellcasting items I had and 1-damage attacks, I thought I might actually win! I held out for a long time and it didn't work out.
With warriors, this wasn't going to happen without more spellcasting items. I learned from PJ's document that the tiny bay near the Nepto Dragon is an okay place to get spellcasting items. I was grateful for the advice but this part was lengthy and unfun.
As a consequence of all of this fighting - and do note that I turned off the Boosts! - my characters were pretty overlevelled.
We went back to the Giant Rat with just 5 Antarctic Winds and 1 Bomb Fragment. This turned out to be enough.
I explored a bit, like Tokkul, but there wasn't much interesting, so I went to Gurgan Gulch and then Tower of Owen. Once again, Drile had to temporarily become a white mage to turn us into toads to proceed. This was fine, but in Tower of Owen, unlike in Nepto Shrine, you can promptly heal your froggitude. I did this, but I forgot to switch Drile back into a warrior so he was a white mage against Medusa. I decided I'm okay with this; it's not like a white mage without white magic offers any advantages here!
Maybe I ought to say: this area was really easy.
With that, we wrapped up for the day. Soon we'll get the next crystal to unlock... Onion Knight. Hooray.
Index | Next >
I had a couple of ideas, but RevenantKioku (of the Four Job Fiesta and related events) had posted that for the month of October there would be a Four Job Fiesta... using Final Fantasy III's Pixel Remaster. This one is based on rules as detailed by PJ and benefitting Trans Lifeline. Hm, may as well!
I haven't played any of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster games, and hadn't bought them, either. I bought them for the occasion and this was literally my first play.
This began with my getting my jobs.
Uh oh. My jobs are Warrior, Onion Knight, Viking and Magus. These are, uh... kinda bad.
I am somewhat new to Pixel Remaster as a version of this game, but based on what I know...
Warrior is fine for the early game, but fairly intentionally outclassed in most regards by several jobs later, like Knight, Dragoon, Dark Knight, and Ninja. I'll have four warriors until the second set of jobs are unlocked.
Onion Knight was left in the job selection for any crystal, and is basically the comical dud option of this game, mostly. Once I get the second crystal and the second group of jobs unlocked, I'll be carrying three warriors and an onion knight. It does have something of a secret power at absurdly high levels and with rare endgame equipment.
Viking is a bit interesting in that a lot of folks never use them, and I don't mind being forced to do irregular things (obviously). However, Viking is largely outclassed by its own contemporaries, Knight and Dragoon, and it doesn't have fantastic equipment options at endgame. Again, it's fully superceded in normal play by these classes and Dark Knight, and especially Ninja at endgame. I understand it's got a "Draw Attacks" option that may have some interesting potential though.
Magus is probably the best class of this group in that it's actually meant to be endgame-viable... although almost anyone would rather have a Sage.
Interestingly, after playing I happened to snoop at the list of runs to see if there were other unfortunate souls who lacked healing as well as excellent classes like Sage and Ninja that might carry the team. And what did I find?
PJ - the person who came up with the rules - has almost the same team as myself! His is probably a little bit better, really.
Okay, well, I started playing.
I decided to name the team after A, B, C, and D and ended up with Archibald, Borlon, Captain, and Drile.
We got to level 3 before fighting a turtle, and then we all became warriors without issue.
I had kind of forgotten about dual wielding being so easy and maybe sort of expected in this game. Consequently, my first shopping trip was very inefficient.
The early game was fine. Warriors are nice and tough. I wasn't 100% sure of the order to do things in the game's starting area. I went to Sasune Castle early and picked up the Wightslayer - pointlessly - and defeated the Griffon guarding it with a single character, Captain, left standing.
After talking to the king I knew I needed to go into the Sealed Cavern but I forgot how to get there and I thought I was looking for a canoe. I looked in Ur, and Sasune Castle, and even the Mythril Mine which was a pretty bad idea. Eventually, I realized I had to speak to the ghost of Cid to get a very early airship. Speaking to a 100% unidentifiable ghost being a necessary plot trigger feels very late-80s-early-90s-game-design.
Around this point, I flipped on the Boost feature doubling experience and gold. I wasn't sure how cheat-y it was, but as I said, it doesn't really adjust the difficulty, just the length of the grind. Between this and having wandered a bit, my characters may have been a tad overlevelled when we reached the Djinn.
From here everything proceeded normally. I was getting treasures, grabbing little upgrades like all of the mythril equipment, etc. I blew through Canaan and got to Bahamut without issue, other than Bahamut devouring Captain.
I ran from everything after I had to become mini in Tozus, at least for a bit, and then I think I flipped the encounters off. The next big thing to do is the Nepto Shrine.
Nepto Shrine is problematic. First of all, we've got the dumb situation where Mini is essential, so Drile spent a bit of time as a White Mage. Being minified is bad, although the music changes and that's pretty cute.
When you're fighting the Giant Rat while minified in the Nepto Shrine, all attacks do 1 damage.
Between the few spellcasting items I had and 1-damage attacks, I thought I might actually win! I held out for a long time and it didn't work out.
With warriors, this wasn't going to happen without more spellcasting items. I learned from PJ's document that the tiny bay near the Nepto Dragon is an okay place to get spellcasting items. I was grateful for the advice but this part was lengthy and unfun.
As a consequence of all of this fighting - and do note that I turned off the Boosts! - my characters were pretty overlevelled.
We went back to the Giant Rat with just 5 Antarctic Winds and 1 Bomb Fragment. This turned out to be enough.
I explored a bit, like Tokkul, but there wasn't much interesting, so I went to Gurgan Gulch and then Tower of Owen. Once again, Drile had to temporarily become a white mage to turn us into toads to proceed. This was fine, but in Tower of Owen, unlike in Nepto Shrine, you can promptly heal your froggitude. I did this, but I forgot to switch Drile back into a warrior so he was a white mage against Medusa. I decided I'm okay with this; it's not like a white mage without white magic offers any advantages here!
Maybe I ought to say: this area was really easy.
With that, we wrapped up for the day. Soon we'll get the next crystal to unlock... Onion Knight. Hooray.
Index | Next >
