Valkyrie Profile Classic Jobs Part VI
Feb. 11th, 2025 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingThe sixth play session of this unusual Valkyrie Profile playthrough was done on January 31, 2025. This was pretty much entirely just the Tower of Lezard Valeth.
Spoiler alert: it turns out this variant playthrough is going to get complicated... and it all kind of happened at once.
I added a little feature to my setup such that I could hit a keyboard key to toggle between Jayle and Lenneth Valkyrie leading the party, which was done so that I could make use of the Creation Gem and Creation Jewel later on. Naturally, this would only be used outside of battle in order to follow my intended party restrictions. This isn't the complicated part though.
As expected, we went into Flenceburg.
This is Lorenta's recruitment sequence, although it also culminates in visiting the Tower of Lezard Valeth, which is essential for getting the game's best ending and is generally an important dungeon.
Important, yes... but I didn't want to spend nearly three hours here.
I used an Eye of Heaven very quickly to ensure I could get to every part of the tower. By this point - particularly since Shiho now has a holy spell to throw around - I mostly decided I wasn't going to swap weapons to trivialize fights with bulky enemies. We took down Chimeras and our first Zombie Dragon with regular attacks and PWSes.
Unfortunately, I underestimated the power of TWO Dragon Zombies together! Holy spells and lightning are nice and strong, but their attacks are nothing to sneeze at. I did force a Dragon Slayer sword into Jayle's hands, but not quickly enough to pull it off. Thus, a game over - the first in a while.
I had saved a while before, and this still involved a little bit of wayfinding and backtracking.
When we got back to the same point, I just made sure to ready the Dragon Slayer earlier and the fights went differently.
Shortly after this, I got near the end. I recognized it by the stylistic changes, so I was careful about where I went. I knew I didn't want to finish this dungeon without getting the Creation Gem... so I backtracked to get it.
Once I got the Creation Gem, this allowed me to change the Manual of Resurrection into an Orihalcon, and the Orihalcon into a Creation Jewel.
This allowed us to get all kinds of goodies! We transmuted Broken Armor into Glare Swords, some other broken thing into Glare Guards, Broken Spears into Crimson Edges (which I could convert into a very good amount of MP), convert some spell books into Mystic Cross for Shiho, and other goodies. I also changed the Unicorn Horn item into a Unicorn's Horn staff - which sounds stupid, but it's good.
Well... normally this would be good...
Hm.
So Gandar cast his first great magic spell and the game fully locked up.
This is vaguely familiar.
Ah yes. Captain K's FAQ/Walkthrough, section 23) Glitches:
Right. This game fully requires Lenneth Valkyrie to be in the party for great magic to function.
That's unfortunate. We'll have to go back to our prior save, get the Creation Gem again, do all of those transmutations again... and then beat the game without ever having access to great magic. That sucks, but it's probably viable. After having to reset, I skipped transmuting the Unicorn Horn entirely.
We got to Lezard. It was actually quite an easy fight, with Gandar taking him out quickly with Poison Blow.
This was fine. This was good.
Then we got to the end of chapter 4, and thus, the end of Disc 1 and I realized... I've never disc-swapped in the environment I'm playing this game in. Uh oh. It's rather convoluted. I figured out how to do it, but it requires a reset anyway. Argh, I should've saved before the sacred phase.
This is unfortunate. I had to reset to just before the fight with Lezard again. It was easy the first time, so what's the big deal?
Oh dammit. "During the fight against Hrist with Brahms, Arngrim, Mystina, and Lezard, the game will lock up if Mystina attempts to cast Great Magic."
This affects enemies casting great magic, too!
Every single time Lezard Valeth went to cast a great magic spell at me - which I just happened to avoid on my first attempt - the game crashes.
It took 3 more attempts to get that luck again, even with careful strategy to get Gandar to destroy Lezard on turn #2. Each time, I had to watch minutes of unskippable cutscenes.
Wow, this was rough.
Although I managed to swap discs now, I've learned that...
a) My casters, Shiho and Gandar, can never cast great magic. In practical terms, this also means there are several very good weapons like the Unicorn's Horn that are off-limits to them. Also...
b) If an enemy casts great magic, this will also lock up the game.
I am suddenly not very sure that this playthrough is viable. I remembered that several late-game bosses used great magic all of the time! But maybe I'm wrong about that? It seems that it isn't that many enemies that can use great magic: just Lezard (who I beat), Barbarossa, Gandar, Bloodbane (who is optional), and Surt (who I guess I wouldn't be facing anyway). I guess I'll press on. I might need some real shenanigans to beat Barbarossa though.
This casts quite a bit more doubt on my proposed Four Worst Characters playthrough idea though.
For now though... I guess we've got a path forward.
At the end of my session I transferred Lucian, but realized this was the wrong thing to do for a few reasons, including the fact that I technically never recruited him. I'll be back at the exact start of chapter 5 when I play again.
Looking on the bright side, with Mystic Cross and Spell Reinforce, I believe Shiho has a full white mage spell list now. As well, the Icicle Sword and Glare Swords are quite good as weapons. Although Lezard's tower brought to light some obscure factors that will certainly raise the challenge of this playthrough, we also got a significant power bump.
<< First | < Previous | Index | Next >
Spoiler alert: it turns out this variant playthrough is going to get complicated... and it all kind of happened at once.
I added a little feature to my setup such that I could hit a keyboard key to toggle between Jayle and Lenneth Valkyrie leading the party, which was done so that I could make use of the Creation Gem and Creation Jewel later on. Naturally, this would only be used outside of battle in order to follow my intended party restrictions. This isn't the complicated part though.
As expected, we went into Flenceburg.
This is Lorenta's recruitment sequence, although it also culminates in visiting the Tower of Lezard Valeth, which is essential for getting the game's best ending and is generally an important dungeon.
Important, yes... but I didn't want to spend nearly three hours here.
I used an Eye of Heaven very quickly to ensure I could get to every part of the tower. By this point - particularly since Shiho now has a holy spell to throw around - I mostly decided I wasn't going to swap weapons to trivialize fights with bulky enemies. We took down Chimeras and our first Zombie Dragon with regular attacks and PWSes.
Unfortunately, I underestimated the power of TWO Dragon Zombies together! Holy spells and lightning are nice and strong, but their attacks are nothing to sneeze at. I did force a Dragon Slayer sword into Jayle's hands, but not quickly enough to pull it off. Thus, a game over - the first in a while.
I had saved a while before, and this still involved a little bit of wayfinding and backtracking.
When we got back to the same point, I just made sure to ready the Dragon Slayer earlier and the fights went differently.
Shortly after this, I got near the end. I recognized it by the stylistic changes, so I was careful about where I went. I knew I didn't want to finish this dungeon without getting the Creation Gem... so I backtracked to get it.
Once I got the Creation Gem, this allowed me to change the Manual of Resurrection into an Orihalcon, and the Orihalcon into a Creation Jewel.
This allowed us to get all kinds of goodies! We transmuted Broken Armor into Glare Swords, some other broken thing into Glare Guards, Broken Spears into Crimson Edges (which I could convert into a very good amount of MP), convert some spell books into Mystic Cross for Shiho, and other goodies. I also changed the Unicorn Horn item into a Unicorn's Horn staff - which sounds stupid, but it's good.
Well... normally this would be good...
Hm.
So Gandar cast his first great magic spell and the game fully locked up.
This is vaguely familiar.
Ah yes. Captain K's FAQ/Walkthrough, section 23) Glitches:
"During the fight against Hrist with Brahms, Arngrim, Mystina, and Lezard, the game will lock up if Mystina attempts to cast Great Magic."
Right. This game fully requires Lenneth Valkyrie to be in the party for great magic to function.
That's unfortunate. We'll have to go back to our prior save, get the Creation Gem again, do all of those transmutations again... and then beat the game without ever having access to great magic. That sucks, but it's probably viable. After having to reset, I skipped transmuting the Unicorn Horn entirely.
We got to Lezard. It was actually quite an easy fight, with Gandar taking him out quickly with Poison Blow.
This was fine. This was good.
Then we got to the end of chapter 4, and thus, the end of Disc 1 and I realized... I've never disc-swapped in the environment I'm playing this game in. Uh oh. It's rather convoluted. I figured out how to do it, but it requires a reset anyway. Argh, I should've saved before the sacred phase.
This is unfortunate. I had to reset to just before the fight with Lezard again. It was easy the first time, so what's the big deal?
Oh dammit. "During the fight against Hrist with Brahms, Arngrim, Mystina, and Lezard, the game will lock up if Mystina attempts to cast Great Magic."
This affects enemies casting great magic, too!
Every single time Lezard Valeth went to cast a great magic spell at me - which I just happened to avoid on my first attempt - the game crashes.
It took 3 more attempts to get that luck again, even with careful strategy to get Gandar to destroy Lezard on turn #2. Each time, I had to watch minutes of unskippable cutscenes.
Wow, this was rough.
Although I managed to swap discs now, I've learned that...
a) My casters, Shiho and Gandar, can never cast great magic. In practical terms, this also means there are several very good weapons like the Unicorn's Horn that are off-limits to them. Also...
b) If an enemy casts great magic, this will also lock up the game.
I am suddenly not very sure that this playthrough is viable. I remembered that several late-game bosses used great magic all of the time! But maybe I'm wrong about that? It seems that it isn't that many enemies that can use great magic: just Lezard (who I beat), Barbarossa, Gandar, Bloodbane (who is optional), and Surt (who I guess I wouldn't be facing anyway). I guess I'll press on. I might need some real shenanigans to beat Barbarossa though.
This casts quite a bit more doubt on my proposed Four Worst Characters playthrough idea though.
For now though... I guess we've got a path forward.
At the end of my session I transferred Lucian, but realized this was the wrong thing to do for a few reasons, including the fact that I technically never recruited him. I'll be back at the exact start of chapter 5 when I play again.
Looking on the bright side, with Mystic Cross and Spell Reinforce, I believe Shiho has a full white mage spell list now. As well, the Icicle Sword and Glare Swords are quite good as weapons. Although Lezard's tower brought to light some obscure factors that will certainly raise the challenge of this playthrough, we also got a significant power bump.
<< First | < Previous | Index | Next >
