Final Fantasy III Classic Jobs Part XII
Oct. 14th, 2023 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingAfter a really bad run at the end of the game in the previous session, we tried again in this session on October 27, 2017. Once again, we had some technical difficulties and there was a short, mostly freeze-framed video before the main event. The only point of interest you'll be able to spot there is that I finally updated the sidebar to reflect how the party's performance seems to have changed over time:
This video with the bulk of the gameplay picks up after a few minor random encounters near the bottom of the Syrcus Tower. This whole session is more-or-less a repeat of the previous one, except more successful, so forgive any lack of detail about the enemies and whatnot.
I was able to reach the big mirror with the wyrms' curse by about the 10-minute mark, so that's nice. My second attempt at the battle with Xande went about as well as the first - after all, this time I was armed with information! By that I mean I knew certain things, such as the fact that Xande uses some physical attacks. There were actually some minor issues that I didn't have the information about, such as Xande using Haste on himself (that was new) and that his Thundaga spell would do 2200+ damage to Ingus. Ingus getting creamed on the same turn that I was trying to cast Haste on him was a bit of a sad moment.
We still won, of course, but Xande was at least annoying. I used two Phoenix Downs.
I remarked that a lot of earlier bosses, like Leviathan, weren't really that easy. I attributed this partly to the time I spent boosting my job levels and getting the special job weapons from the Legendary Smith.
Then it was on to the World of Darkness. Like last time, as we approached each of the four major bosses, we grabbed a Ribbon from a treasure chest and battled a Xande's Clone. The first Dark World boss we encountered this time was Ahriman. It was a pretty tame fight; Ingus was able to deal 9999 damage per turn even without Haste, but he did end up petrified for a while. On the turns where Ahriman used Curaja - which was rather ineffective - we were healthy enough that Arc even cast Aeroga a couple of times and I was surprised that its damage was over 3000. Anyway, we won.
The second Dark World boss we fought was Echidna, who I was calling "Upside-Down Death Lady". We ended up in a scenario where very early in the fight, a Tornado spell affected both Refia and Ingus at the same time, and then we got Quake'd on the next turn.
I actually ended up doing a Phoenix Down + Elixir combo to try and get those party members back up, which was interrupted by a Quake spell and thus pretty worthless. I was rather certain that we were going to be starting over yet again, but with a bit of persistence and a few squandered rare consumables we were able to get the fight back on track. It helped that the next Tornado spell missed everyone entirely.
With my lack of success in the prior session and these fights turning out a little worse in general than last time, I was seriously considering a bit of levelling up to make things easier. I wasn't sure whether I was able to exit this dungeon entirely - I didn't think so, but wasn't sure - but I was going to leave entirely to save. But the entire Dark World portion of the game is beyond this game's point of no return, so we were sort of locked in. I decided I would fight more of the random battles here at least, so the team might gain a couple of last minute levels.
Next up was Cerberus. Nothing too noteworthy here. We won!
Each boss you defeat here provides a full heal, so I took just a couple of intentional extra random battles before facing the final Dark World crystal guardian boss. I figured I could grind some battles and benefit a tiny bit more from the full heal. Luneth was pretty close to a level up right now anyway. It's not like it was going to make a big difference, but I may as well squeeze a bit more out while it's easy.
The final Dark World crystal boss was Two-Headed Dragon. It was also pretty straightforward. We won.
Overall, my general position wasn't any different going into the final boss battle. The biggest difference maker in play, if any, is that a friend in Twitch chat had told me that one tentacle was weak to magic and the other was weak to physicals. I was ready to play up this strategy, but I was also openly expressing my nervousness. Refia was still taking huge damage from the lightning attacks. I was really happy just to get one of the two tentacles down!
With some of the pressure off, I started applying my buffs. I wanted everyone to be under Protect and I wanted Refia affected by Haste. A few spellcasting items helps us speed that process up, too. On many turns, Cloud of Darkness just used two mid-powered physical attacks, and it finally felt like I was in control. When Particle Beam came out, that was still pretty strong.
We took another Particle Beam right afterward, but we had a pattern going. About a turn later, Luneth ended the battle by throwing out a very potent Chocobo's Wrath item.
I don't think it was ever in question whether someone could win at this game with a strict party of knight, thief, white mage, black mage, but now I've done it anyway. It was also my first time completing this game end-to-end. There were parts of the game whether I really felt I wasn't enjoying it at all, and losing in the final dungeon sucks, but the general power curve at endgame has a sort of satisfying payoff. I would say I generally enjoyed this game more and more as I progressed through it.
I know this version of the game had some balance changes to make more of the jobs more endgame viable... so I am not ruling out playing this game again, perhaps on the NES version, or since it's 2023 right now perhaps the Pixel Remaster. I bet that would be a fairly different experience. And, yes, I do mean using some slightly bizarre set of job restrictions like this.
<< Start | < Previous | Index
The next "Classic Jobs" run in the Final Fantasy series: Final Fantasy IV
The next "Classic Jobs" run that I played, chronologically: Final Fantasy VI
This video with the bulk of the gameplay picks up after a few minor random encounters near the bottom of the Syrcus Tower. This whole session is more-or-less a repeat of the previous one, except more successful, so forgive any lack of detail about the enemies and whatnot.
I was able to reach the big mirror with the wyrms' curse by about the 10-minute mark, so that's nice. My second attempt at the battle with Xande went about as well as the first - after all, this time I was armed with information! By that I mean I knew certain things, such as the fact that Xande uses some physical attacks. There were actually some minor issues that I didn't have the information about, such as Xande using Haste on himself (that was new) and that his Thundaga spell would do 2200+ damage to Ingus. Ingus getting creamed on the same turn that I was trying to cast Haste on him was a bit of a sad moment.
We still won, of course, but Xande was at least annoying. I used two Phoenix Downs.
I remarked that a lot of earlier bosses, like Leviathan, weren't really that easy. I attributed this partly to the time I spent boosting my job levels and getting the special job weapons from the Legendary Smith.
Then it was on to the World of Darkness. Like last time, as we approached each of the four major bosses, we grabbed a Ribbon from a treasure chest and battled a Xande's Clone. The first Dark World boss we encountered this time was Ahriman. It was a pretty tame fight; Ingus was able to deal 9999 damage per turn even without Haste, but he did end up petrified for a while. On the turns where Ahriman used Curaja - which was rather ineffective - we were healthy enough that Arc even cast Aeroga a couple of times and I was surprised that its damage was over 3000. Anyway, we won.
The second Dark World boss we fought was Echidna, who I was calling "Upside-Down Death Lady". We ended up in a scenario where very early in the fight, a Tornado spell affected both Refia and Ingus at the same time, and then we got Quake'd on the next turn.
I actually ended up doing a Phoenix Down + Elixir combo to try and get those party members back up, which was interrupted by a Quake spell and thus pretty worthless. I was rather certain that we were going to be starting over yet again, but with a bit of persistence and a few squandered rare consumables we were able to get the fight back on track. It helped that the next Tornado spell missed everyone entirely.
With my lack of success in the prior session and these fights turning out a little worse in general than last time, I was seriously considering a bit of levelling up to make things easier. I wasn't sure whether I was able to exit this dungeon entirely - I didn't think so, but wasn't sure - but I was going to leave entirely to save. But the entire Dark World portion of the game is beyond this game's point of no return, so we were sort of locked in. I decided I would fight more of the random battles here at least, so the team might gain a couple of last minute levels.
Next up was Cerberus. Nothing too noteworthy here. We won!
Each boss you defeat here provides a full heal, so I took just a couple of intentional extra random battles before facing the final Dark World crystal guardian boss. I figured I could grind some battles and benefit a tiny bit more from the full heal. Luneth was pretty close to a level up right now anyway. It's not like it was going to make a big difference, but I may as well squeeze a bit more out while it's easy.
The final Dark World crystal boss was Two-Headed Dragon. It was also pretty straightforward. We won.
Overall, my general position wasn't any different going into the final boss battle. The biggest difference maker in play, if any, is that a friend in Twitch chat had told me that one tentacle was weak to magic and the other was weak to physicals. I was ready to play up this strategy, but I was also openly expressing my nervousness. Refia was still taking huge damage from the lightning attacks. I was really happy just to get one of the two tentacles down!
At that point, the magic-weak tentacle used Haste on itself. I decided to prioritze taking out the other tentacle with even Ingus throwing out spellcasting items. Using a White Musk was particularly effective.
That very turn, the second tentacle was defeated. Now I decided to mock the Cloud of Darkness. "You are just a green lady... with a heart tattoo! You look less threatening than Zoe Saldaña."
That very turn, the second tentacle was defeated. Now I decided to mock the Cloud of Darkness. "You are just a green lady... with a heart tattoo! You look less threatening than Zoe Saldaña."
With some of the pressure off, I started applying my buffs. I wanted everyone to be under Protect and I wanted Refia affected by Haste. A few spellcasting items helps us speed that process up, too. On many turns, Cloud of Darkness just used two mid-powered physical attacks, and it finally felt like I was in control. When Particle Beam came out, that was still pretty strong.
We took another Particle Beam right afterward, but we had a pattern going. About a turn later, Luneth ended the battle by throwing out a very potent Chocobo's Wrath item.
I don't think it was ever in question whether someone could win at this game with a strict party of knight, thief, white mage, black mage, but now I've done it anyway. It was also my first time completing this game end-to-end. There were parts of the game whether I really felt I wasn't enjoying it at all, and losing in the final dungeon sucks, but the general power curve at endgame has a sort of satisfying payoff. I would say I generally enjoyed this game more and more as I progressed through it.
I know this version of the game had some balance changes to make more of the jobs more endgame viable... so I am not ruling out playing this game again, perhaps on the NES version, or since it's 2023 right now perhaps the Pixel Remaster. I bet that would be a fairly different experience. And, yes, I do mean using some slightly bizarre set of job restrictions like this.
<< Start | < Previous | Index
The next "Classic Jobs" run in the Final Fantasy series: Final Fantasy IV
The next "Classic Jobs" run that I played, chronologically: Final Fantasy VI
