Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

thri11ki11

Edit history:

thri11ki11: 2009-09-05 05:25:22 pm

2009-09-05 05:08:00 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed in the number of segments I used for Yang's Tale. My biggest reason for so many segments is to try to avoid as many random encounters as possible; against something you can run from immediately you use 5 seconds, against something around the same speed as you you use 10 seconds; and back attacks can use upwards of 20-30 seconds (except things like cave bats, which can take almost a minute sometimes). Luckily Yang doesn't have bats in his quest, but there was one run attempt where I ran into seventeen battles on my way back across Mt. Hobs, that was over three minutes wasted with back attacks.

I got that Palom run recorded, it was 0:43 with ~~7 segments~~ in the end. Actually it was 6 segments Tongue

Looking at Edge now, wow even segmented it will be hard for me to come close to the times you guys have already achieved!

thri11ki11

2009-09-06 06:20:08 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

Managed 0:27 on Edge's, but it took me 6 segments to do it.

Sir VG

2009-09-06 06:17:35 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

0:27? Nice.

Edited the first post to display the new times, as well as modified anything old on there to indicate whether it's SS or Seg.

thri11ki11

Edit history:

thri11ki11: 2009-09-07 06:11:52 am

2009-09-06 08:21:19 pm

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

Thanks Lord_VG, it's good to know someone's keeping up with this stuff!

I read that there was a :30 unrecorded Porom quest; I just recorded a :29 segmented one. It's not much of an improvement, but there's really not much room for more with the way it's structured. My time was actually :29:10, so if I could shave 10 seconds off I think I would reach the human limit. I'll see about doing that later in the day Wink

thri11ki11

Edit history:

thri11ki11: 2009-09-07 10:41:23 am

2009-09-07 07:24:59 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

I can't believe this: I just got 0:29:00 on Porom's quest. One more second and I would have had the 0:28. I don't have a stopwatch so I actually figured it out by looking at the clock, starting the save file, waiting until the clock on the menu changed to 0:30 and looking back at the clock; the second hand was on the 6 both times. I'm so miffed right now!!!

--edit--
I got 28:50! It wasn't as hard as I thought; I simply forgot to get a Chocobo from Mt. Ordeals back to Mysidia. The things we forget when we're not focused!

thri11ki11

2009-09-07 09:40:47 pm

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

So here are my currently recorded times:

Main Story: 1:15, 16 segments
Rydia's Tale: 0:46, 8 segments
Yang's Tale: 0:35, 7 segments
Palom's Tale: 0:43, 6 segments
Edge's Tale: 0:27, 6 segments
Porom's Tale: 0:28, 6 segments
Edward's Tale: 0:28, 7 segments

I have not yet purchased the Lunarian's Tale or the Final Story; I may do that tomorrow so that I may try my hand at them.

I wanted to add that I would not have been able to achieve all of these wonderful times, specifically Porom's and Edge's Tales and to a lesser extent Yang's (I didn't know I could buy a second Metal Claw until I watched VG's run), without the help of you folks. If my runs are verified and put up I will make sure and include kudos to all of you in my commentary.

Along with that, I must say that I'm more impressed with your single-segment times than I am with these times; I'm grinding out optimal times with repetition of small portions while you guys are gutting out the entire chapter at once. Bravo to those who have such mettle.

If I don't buy the last two parts, I may go back to some of the other chapters and try to shave a couple of minutes/segments off. Porom's Tale and Edge's Tale are pretty much at their threshold. My Edward's Tale would have to lose about 40 seconds to get down to 27 minutes, but that is solely based on what you run into in the Impact Crater. I was able to control most of the other dungeon encounters but for some reason the crater was too unpredictable; I ended up running into four or five fights on the way in and seven or eight fights on the way out. If that could be minimized to say, two and four respectively, a 0:27 time would be achievable.

The room for the most improvement would be Rydia's Tale and Palom's Tale. The Main Story could lose a minute or two as well, but I think that one is pretty close to optimal.

So here are my currently recorded times:

Main Story: 1:15, 16 segments
Rydia's Tale: 0:46, 8 segments
Yang's Tale: 0:35, 7 segments
Palom's Tale: 0:43, 6 segments
Edge's Tale: 0:27, 6 segments
Porom's Tale: 0:28, 6 segments
Edward's Tale: 0:28, 7 segments

I have not yet purchased the Lunarian's Tale or the Final Story; I may do that tomorrow so that I may try my hand at them.

I wanted to add that I would not have been able to achieve all of these wonderful times, specifically Porom's and Edge's Tales and to a lesser extent Yang's (I didn't know I could buy a second Metal Claw until I watched VG's run), without the help of you folks. If my runs are verified and put up I will make sure and include kudos to all of you in my commentary.

Along with that, I must say that I'm more impressed with your single-segment times than I am with these times; I'm grinding out optimal times with repetition of small portions while you guys are gutting out the entire chapter at once. Bravo to those who have such mettle.

If I don't buy the last two parts, I may go back to some of the other chapters and try to shave a couple of minutes/segments off.  Porom's Tale and Edge's Tale are pretty much at their threshold.  My Edward's Tale would have to lose about 40 seconds to get down to 27 minutes, but that is solely based on what you run into in the Impact Crater. I was able to control most of the other dungeon encounters but for some reason the crater was too unpredictable; I ended up running into four or five fights on the way in and seven or eight fights on the way out.  If that could be minimized to say, two and four respectively, a 0:27 time would be achievable.

The room for the most improvement would be Rydia's Tale and Palom's Tale.  The Main Story could lose a minute or two as well, but I think that one is pretty close to optimal.

Sir VG

2009-09-07 10:50:14 pm

Fucking Weeaboo

You should get the last two and finish the game. The Lunarian's Tale is actually pretty cool, mostly because you finally get to kick Mysterious Girl's ass. I'm sure you could manage around 0:40 for segmented time.

slowbro

2009-09-09 10:52:35 am

Wow, congrats on all those times! I was simply too scared to make a real attempt at Rydia's or Palom's, but you destroyed those Smiley

And the main story ... I was estimating 1:25-1:30 would be a time to shoot for ... you must have really lowered the random battle count.

The Crystals:

This would take some doing of course Smiley

One thing - during the final dungeons, using a save spot can cost an enormous amount of time due to the cutscenes. Maybe you could choose No to 'Rest here?' and then save and/or use a tent/cabin?

I wonder which bosses can be skipped.

thri11ki11

2009-09-09 02:42:06 pm

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

Rydia and Palom's quests required "strategic leveling." They had to be at a level that was high enough for them to run away from most battles in a timely fashion, but not so high a level that the time it took to get to that level would outweigh the benefit. Plus, they needed to be able to beat bosses. (that's a big plus)

In the main quest, time was kept to a minimum for random battles, but surprisingly, a lot of time was cut in the main quest by keeping Ceodore dead. His stats never get good enough for him to be worth anything. The only thing he does is take up valuable combat time by standing there doing nothing and defending or whatever. There were only a couple of times that I found him useful in combat, otherwise he was just a meat shield (like the white and black wizards). My focus was only on the Hooded Man, and given the right situations he is more than capable of handling everything himself, with a little strategic leveling.

Come to think of it, I don't think I used a single band attack after Cecil & Rosa's Holy Edge or Holy Blade or whatever that's called.

"Look! I hit the Belphegor with a Holy Moly!"

Rydia and Palom's quests required "strategic leveling."  They had to be at a level that was high enough for them to run away from most battles in a timely fashion, but not so high a level that the time it took to get to that level would outweigh the benefit.  Plus, they needed to be able to beat bosses. (that's a big plus)

In the main quest, time was kept to a minimum for random battles, but surprisingly, a lot of time was cut in the main quest by keeping Ceodore dead.  His stats never get good enough for him to be worth anything.  The only thing he does is take up valuable combat time by standing there doing nothing and defending or whatever.  There were only a couple of times that I found him useful in combat, otherwise he was just a meat shield (like the white and black wizards).  My focus was only on the Hooded Man, and given the right situations he is more than capable of handling everything himself, with a little strategic leveling.

Come to think of it, I don't think I used a single band attack after Cecil & Rosa's Holy Edge or Holy Blade or whatever that's called.

"Look! I hit the Belphegor with a Holy Moly!"

slowbro

2009-09-10 05:25:11 pm

When I speedran the main story, after Hooded Man joined Ceodore was used for one thing only - using Hi Potions (and taking a few hits). If you can get by without him it sounds like a good idea, and it obviously worked.

In all the chapters I worked on, except for winning one early fight as Ceodore, my strategy was just a low-level run as fast as possible. I wouldn't know where to start, deciding which enemies to win against for strategic levelling. It's awesome we have you aboard, speedrunning this game! Smiley

thri11ki11

2009-09-11 03:10:02 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

I'm rerunning the main story. So far I'm 2 minutes below my best time so I'm on track for 1:13, and I used one less segment. All I have left to do is fight the Octopus and Kain?.

Here are some strategies I use for strategic leveling:

The biggest thing: stock up on Heaven's Wraths, Bomb Cranks, Arctic Winds and Red Fangs. I try to get ones that aren't horribly out of the way, and I ended up with 2, 2, 1 and 2 respectively. You can't buy these, and their purchaseable counterparts (Zeus' Wrath, Antarctic Wind and Bomb Fragment) suck and don't do squat for damage. These are the -ara forms of the spell with the exception of the Red Fang. You can use these to take out whole groups of higher level enemies if they have the weakness. Red Fangs are special because the amount of damage they do is based on your remaining health, so if you use them your best bet is to do it during a pre-emp.

Kill things that it will take you longer to run from. This is very important in Rydia's Tale. It goes for those damnable bats, specifically. This goes along with...

Kill things that give you a lot of experience. In Mist Cave, if you use a Bomb Crank on 2 Lamia, (with Ceodore dead) you earn like 2600 experience. In the Underground Waterway, use a Red Fang on 3 Blood Bats and you'll get around 6000 experience.

Generally I try to keep my level a bit higher than "lowest possible" so that I can run more easily from things - it saves a ton of time. You also get back-attacked less often.

In Ceo's/Kain's Tale, I honestly don't kill a single thing till I get to Mist Cave; I make sure Ceodore is offed by the Centaur Knight so that Hooded Man gets 900 XP, then I look for the 3 Bats & a Chick fight (can't remember what vampire bitch is called) and I Red Fang them. It gives the Hooded Man 2 levels right there.

If you run into 3 Goblin Captains on the Mist Mountain, you can kill them with an item, but you have to be careful... sometimes an item won't do all of its damage to all of the enemies so you may end up with a straggler who'll kill you. Those guys are worth a buttload of XP though.

The real place where the items come in handy is in the Underground Waterway, cause the enemies in there can eat you for lunch and that's where you find Blood Bats. With the Flame Sword, you can take out the bats in one hit, and I do that with the 2 bat fights; I use a Red Fang for the 2 Bat/1 Blue Snake Thingy fight, then finish off the Blue Snake Thingy with a hit from the Flame Sword - that fight gets you around 5000.

Anyway, I hope this advice helps a little bit, not just with speedrunning, but with the game in general Smiley

Thanks for the warm welcome.

I'm rerunning the main story.  So far I'm 2 minutes below my best time so I'm on track for 1:13, and I used one less segment.  All I have left to do is fight the Octopus and Kain?.

Here are some strategies I use for strategic leveling:

The biggest thing: stock up on Heaven's Wraths, Bomb Cranks, Arctic Winds and Red Fangs.  I try to get ones that aren't horribly out of the way, and I ended up with 2, 2, 1 and 2 respectively.  You can't buy these, and their purchaseable counterparts (Zeus' Wrath, Antarctic Wind and Bomb Fragment) suck and don't do squat for damage.  These are the -ara forms of the spell with the exception of the Red Fang.  You can use these to take out whole groups of higher level enemies if they have the weakness.  Red Fangs are special because the amount of damage they do is based on your remaining health, so if you use them your best bet is to do it during a pre-emp.

Kill things that it will take you longer to run from.  This is very important in Rydia's Tale.  It goes for those damnable bats, specifically.  This goes along with...

Kill things that give you a lot of experience.  In Mist Cave, if you use a Bomb Crank on 2 Lamia, (with Ceodore dead) you earn like 2600 experience.  In the Underground Waterway, use a Red Fang on 3 Blood Bats and you'll get around 6000 experience.

Generally I try to keep my level a bit higher than "lowest possible" so that I can run more easily from things - it saves a ton of time.  You also get back-attacked less often.

In Ceo's/Kain's Tale, I honestly don't kill a single thing till I get to Mist Cave; I make sure Ceodore is offed by the Centaur Knight so that Hooded Man gets 900 XP, then I look for the 3 Bats & a Chick fight (can't remember what vampire bitch is called) and I Red Fang them.  It gives the Hooded Man 2 levels right there.

If you run into 3 Goblin Captains on the Mist Mountain, you can kill them with an item, but you have to be careful... sometimes an item won't do all of its damage to all of the enemies so you may end up with a straggler who'll kill you.  Those guys are worth a buttload of XP though.

The real place where the items come in handy is in the Underground Waterway, cause the enemies in there can eat you for lunch and that's where you find Blood Bats.  With the Flame Sword, you can take out the bats in one hit, and I do that with the 2 bat fights; I use a Red Fang for the 2 Bat/1 Blue Snake Thingy fight, then finish off the Blue Snake Thingy with a hit from the Flame Sword - that fight gets you around 5000.

Anyway, I hope this advice helps a little bit, not just with speedrunning, but with the game in general :)  Thanks for the warm welcome.

slowbro

2009-09-11 04:14:31 am

Was there a Flame Sword in a treasure chest, or did you buy one? I know you can have a lot of money at your disposal by selling Cecil's armor and Mythril Armor ...

At minimum levels I absolutely needed to put enemies to sleep using Sleep Blade as an item. but I guess you probably wouldn't get much use from Sleep Blade.

... Wait, I've got to assume you won at least one extra fight in the first dungeon. Fighting Sand Worm at level 2 seemed like suicide to me.

thri11ki11

2009-09-11 06:32:04 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

Yeah, I fought a 4 goblin fight in the opening dungeon for the extra attack multiplier. I wasn't thinking about that cause I was only thinking about the Hooded Man's battles. He's DEFINITELY my coward until the Centaur Knight.

As far as cash goes, the only thing I sell is the Sleep Blade in order to get the Fire Sword. At the point at which I get the Sleep Blade I've already gained a couple of levels from something in Mist Cave, so running is a tad bit easier. Lots of restarts... which probably won't work for a single segment. If you're working on SS, then selling the Sleep Blade is probably not the way to go. I haven't played around with it much, but if I remember correctly it wasn't a huge damage dealer; the Flame Sword beat it out. That's what I'm going for is the damage so when I get to the Octopus I can club him more quickly. I can also kill a cave bat in one hit with the flame sword, which is imperative when you're being attacked by multiples and you want the XP; prevents them from taking forever sucking the life out of you.

Yeah, I fought a 4 goblin fight in the opening dungeon for the extra attack multiplier.  I wasn't thinking about that cause I was only thinking about the Hooded Man's battles.  He's DEFINITELY my coward until the Centaur Knight.

As far as cash goes, the only thing I sell is the Sleep Blade in order to get the Fire Sword.  At the point at which I get the Sleep Blade I've already gained a couple of levels from something in Mist Cave, so running is a tad bit easier.  Lots of restarts... which probably won't work for a single segment.  If you're working on SS, then selling the Sleep Blade is probably not the way to go.  I haven't played around with it much, but if I remember correctly it wasn't a huge damage dealer; the Flame Sword beat it out.  That's what I'm going for is the damage so when I get to the Octopus I can club him more quickly.  I can also kill a cave bat in one hit with the flame sword, which is imperative when you're being attacked by multiples and you want the XP; prevents them from taking forever sucking the life out of you.

slowbro

2009-09-11 09:48:07 pm

Wow, I burn a ton of Hi Potions, which I buy using money I got from stealing people's gear (Biggs, Cecil's party). Cecil's armor sells for 4000, and Kain's armor sells for 8000, but it looks like you don't need that. Did Sleep Blade sell for some huge number?

I tried gaining just a couple extra levels back when I was working on this, but as far as I could tell it didn't substantially help my ability to win fights or run away. I'm not sure just what I did wrong. Heh, quite possibly having Ceodore alive was dragging me down Smiley

Anyway, I'm not working on this now (I'm just normal-playing The Crystals over and over), and I don't think anything I say will help you (you have things well under control Grin

), so I'll probably stop bugging you about this. I'm just very curious how you got your awesome times, especially in the main story.

thri11ki11

2009-09-12 03:22:11 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

Sleep Blade sells for 14000.

Don't worry! You're not bugging me at all!

I buy/use a lot of Hi-Potions as well. When I get out of the Serpent Road I buy 3 Spider Silks and then spend the rest on Hi-Potions, and I grab the ones that aren't too far out of the way. I don't sell anything during the whole game with the exception of the Sleep Blade. At the end of the run I've been left with as many as 10 Hi-Potions and as few as 1, so it's very variable obviously. I'd think it would be nearly impossible to use my strategies in a single segment; getting enough luck to get as few battles as possible and keep everyone alive would be... phenomenal.

Level gaining makes a huge difference late in the game, as long as Ceodore's dead. Ceodore's leveling is useless and won't help squat. Your ability to run, avoid back attacks and surprises is based on your fastest character's statistics and Ceodore will never be your fastest. With only about four lucrative fights and the armor and weapons I gather, by the end of the game monsters who do 400+ damage to Ceodore only do 20-50 to The Hooded Man, who ends the game somewhere between levels 20-21. The Hooded Man's ending equipment is: Flame Sword, Ice Shield, Mythril Helm, Flame Mail, Bone Wrist. I never give Ceodore new equipment, not even Kain's castaways - his greatest contribution to the group is his ability to DIE QUICKLY.

Sleep Blade sells for 14000.

Don't worry! You're not bugging me at all!

I buy/use a lot of Hi-Potions as well.  When I get out of the Serpent Road I buy 3 Spider Silks and then spend the rest on Hi-Potions, and I grab the ones that aren't too far out of the way.  I don't sell anything during the whole game with the exception of the Sleep Blade.  At the end of the run I've been left with as many as 10 Hi-Potions and as few as 1, so it's very variable obviously.  I'd think it would be nearly impossible to use my strategies in a single segment; getting enough luck to get as few battles as possible and keep everyone alive would be... phenomenal.

Level gaining makes a huge difference late in the game, as long as Ceodore's dead. Ceodore's leveling is useless and won't help squat. Your ability to run, avoid back attacks and surprises is based on your fastest character's statistics and Ceodore will never be your fastest.  With only about four lucrative fights and the armor and weapons I gather, by the end of the game monsters who do 400+ damage to Ceodore only do 20-50 to The Hooded Man, who ends the game somewhere between levels 20-21.  The Hooded Man's ending equipment is: Flame Sword, Ice Shield, Mythril Helm, Flame Mail, Bone Wrist.  I never give Ceodore new equipment, not even Kain's castaways - his greatest contribution to the group is his ability to DIE QUICKLY.

thri11ki11

2009-09-12 03:56:53 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

I'm so happy right now! I got my Main Story time down to 1:12 - by 1 second, no less. It's like - if you load the file, it turns to 1:13 by the time you bring the status screen up. I'm so happy about it because I had busted my rear end to get to the Waterfall, shaving 2 mins off my old time, but the DVD player ate the DVD so I had to start back at Mt. Ordeals and redo everything, and I ended up losing 13 seconds somewhere. I knew I'd get 1:13 and did, but I was like 1 second away from 1:12, so I replayed the end over and over again (waiting through 6 mins! of credits each time) and finally... relief...

slowbro

2009-09-13 12:08:27 am

Your strategy sounds really, really good to me, and it obviously works Smiley

And that's awesome that you shaved off that minute with perseverance!

Did Rydia's party ever become more able to run away? The farthest I ever got speedrunning Rydia's chapter segmented was: Manipulate so there's only one fight between the save point and the Wall boss, get fairly lucky and beat the Wall with Berserk/Haste Luca with Mythril Hammer, die trying to run back to the save point.

thri11ki11

Edit history:

thri11ki11: 2009-09-13 03:26:47 am

2009-09-13 03:15:18 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

I guess it boils down to how healed you were when you were offed. It might be a good idea to get the Crescent Axe instead of the Hammer, that way you can put Luca in the back row and she deals more damage; make the fight go more quickly so you have more healing items left afterward. Defend while you're running, too.

thri11ki11

Edit history:

thri11ki11: 2009-09-14 07:29:38 am

2009-09-14 06:07:02 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

I managed the Lunarians' Tale in 0:39 segmented; I was 12-15 seconds away from 0:38, so I'll probably work on some of the segments to get the time down. Sir VG's run was very influential in my strategies. Here are a few things that I did differently:

-Bought a couple of extra tents at the beginning which saved me from having to grab some "on the road"
-Put Golbez in the back row to decrease the amount of physical damage he had to endure
-Skipped grabbing the Dry Ether in Bahamut's cave (I don't remember if Sir VG did or not)
-Skipped grabbing Phoenix Downs (being able to restart from save points makes this a no brainer)
-Manipulated to get the lowest random battle count I could (also not possible in a SS)
-Only brought Thundaga and Flare to the top of FuSoYa's spell list (the others were used so infrequently that time saved was questionable)
-Never healed during combat, only between, and used regular Cure spells instead of Curaga
-Grabbed the Hi-Potion in Lunar Subteranne to heal myself for the next point
-Grabbed the White Fang to use on the Lamia/Goblin battle at the beginning (if you have close to full HP it will kill them instantly)
-Used Bio on all other beginning battles (will kill all instantly except sometimes not the Chimera, which might take one more physical blow)
-Used only regular Ethers 1) after the first fight with Mysterious Girl and 2) during the last Malboro fight

I may have done some other things differently; will have to go back and watch the recording to see what they were. FuSoYa died during the final battle but I only needed 2 Thundagas at that point to finish off Zeromus.

edit: Managed 0:38 with better random battle luck during the last segment.

I managed the Lunarians' Tale in 0:39 segmented; I was 12-15 seconds away from 0:38, so I'll probably work on some of the segments to get the time down.  Sir VG's run was very influential in my strategies.  Here are a few things that I did differently:

-Bought a couple of extra tents at the beginning which saved me from having to grab some "on the road"
-Put Golbez in the back row to decrease the amount of physical damage he had to endure
-Skipped grabbing the Dry Ether in Bahamut's cave (I don't remember if Sir VG did or not)
-Skipped grabbing Phoenix Downs (being able to restart from save points makes this a no brainer)
-Manipulated to get the lowest random battle count I could (also not possible in a SS)
-Only brought Thundaga and Flare to the top of FuSoYa's spell list (the others were used so infrequently that time saved was questionable)
-Never healed during combat, only between, and used regular Cure spells instead of Curaga
-Grabbed the Hi-Potion in Lunar Subteranne to heal myself for the next point
-Grabbed the White Fang to use on the Lamia/Goblin battle at the beginning (if you have close to full HP it will kill them instantly)
-Used Bio on all other beginning battles (will kill all instantly except sometimes not the Chimera, which might take one more physical blow)
-Used only regular Ethers 1) after the first fight with Mysterious Girl and 2) during the last Malboro fight

I may have done some other things differently; will have to go back and watch the recording to see what they were.  FuSoYa died during the final battle but I only needed 2 Thundagas at that point to finish off Zeromus.

edit: Managed 0:38 with better random battle luck during the last segment.

Sir VG

2009-09-14 08:33:30 am

Fucking Weeaboo

Quote:

-Skipped grabbing the Dry Ether in Bahamut's cave (I don't remember if Sir VG did or not)

I have to have it to make it through there in 1 go, for how I do my SS run. BTW, yeah I'm using Bio now too on all the first area fights.

Glad to see I was of help for your stuff. Smiley

thri11ki11

2009-09-14 09:38:03 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

Oh yeah that reminds me; I don't buy any Antidotes either. I just run around poisoned. I like how the screen flashes and you hear that splat noise Smiley

and the Cottage takes care of the status.

And I started playing the final chapter - that's going to be an utter bitch to run. I've just been playing it normally without any files loaded and correct me if I'm wrong but there's no real clues as to where to go/what to do next. I've run into some fights that just kick my ass, so I take that as a hint that I need to do other stuff first.

Oh yeah. Not having a white mage in that thing sucks. And Golbez needs his dark armor back, and he needs to be able to summon that big daddy dragon thing.

thri11ki11

2009-09-17 05:35:45 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

Don't know if anyone has been running "The Crystals," but I just test ran the first half that brings you up to the moon (the Gathering Tale) in 1:19. I haven't started the run on the moon at my current level and I'm curious as to whether or not anyone is level grinding in the Overworld before going to the moon, or if you all are just sucking it up and taking what comes when you get there?

Sir VG

2009-09-17 06:39:28 am

Fucking Weeaboo

I haven't been working on The Crystals, so I don't know what it'll take. Sorry.

slowbro

2009-09-17 10:10:18 pm

Sorry, I don't think I'll be any help either. I've played through The Crystals twice, once on a no-importing save, but I fight every battle and try to open every treasure chest.

The first enemies worth really good exp. are on B12 of the Subterrane; it might be impossible (or just not worth it speed-wise) to get there without grinding. You'll definitely want Blizzaga by Cagnazzo (woops, Golbez probably takes care of that), and you'll want either someone at at least 4000 hp or killer damage potential by the time you reach Bahamut (near the very end).

I'm thinking a good party may possibly include both Golbez and Rydia, then again Palom learns spells at lower levels than Rydia I think. To me Edge seems like a given ... if you use him seek out Rising Sun maybe (+10 speed), and probably don't use Murasame (lowers speed). Maybe switch someone out for Cecil once he is himself again (after Subterrane).

I wouldn't have a clue which optional crystal bosses to fight. Maybe none, but you'd miss out on tons of good equipment.

Good luck!

Sorry, I don't think I'll be any help either.  I've played through The Crystals twice, once on a no-importing save, but I fight every battle and try to open every treasure chest.

The first enemies worth really good exp. are on B12 of the Subterrane; it might be impossible (or just not worth it speed-wise) to get there without grinding.  You'll definitely want Blizzaga by Cagnazzo (woops, Golbez probably takes care of that), and you'll want either someone at at least 4000 hp or killer damage potential by the time you reach Bahamut (near the very end).

I'm thinking a good party may possibly include both Golbez and Rydia, then again Palom learns spells at lower levels than Rydia I think.  To me Edge seems like a given ... if you use him seek out Rising Sun maybe (+10 speed), and probably don't use Murasame (lowers speed).  Maybe switch someone out for Cecil once he is himself again (after Subterrane).

I wouldn't have a clue which optional crystal bosses to fight.  Maybe none, but you'd miss out on tons of good equipment.

Good luck!

thri11ki11

2009-09-18 02:57:57 am

Don't MAKE me come down these stairs

I don't know about the "optional"-ness of crystal bosses. I skipped all of them and went straight past Scarmiglione, and there was a "dark force" blocking my path. I killed Scarmiglione and came back and there was still a "dark force." I think you have to kill all of the crystal bosses to advance; if you can skip any of them, I'm not aware of which ones.

I'm using Golbez, Edge, Rydia, Rosa and Kain. For speed purposes, you kind of have to use Rosa and Kain because their levels are higher, Kain's damage is greater than anyone else's, and Rosa's spells are more advanced. Golbez is a no brainer due to his -agas. Edge and Rydia I chose because I was able to level them a bit during play and I had garnered some decent equipment for them during the first portion. Plus, Sylph is too useful a spell to let go of in my opinion, and Edge's quickness makes him great for emergency item use. I'll call them the power party for reference.

The first time I played through (and I'm a lot like you, being a completist and grabbing every chest and fighting every fight :)) I went against the grain and used Edge, Palom, Porom, Yang and Luca. I really liked my party, but BOY they were a BITCH to get strong enough to deal with ANYthing. I'll call them the twins party for the sake of reference.

The power party I'm using now is weird. I massacred Baigan, and blew the Magus Sisters away. My twins party got slaughtered by the Magus Sisters and I had to level a bit in order to survive them. With the power party, I skipped Lugae and went straight to the "dark force," went back and handled Scarmiglione pretty easily, but still couldn't get through. I decided to go back to B3 and work down, and guess who I can't get by? Frickin' Dr. Lugae.

So I get past Lugae eventually when Barnabas (BALNAB, dammit!) stops offing two characters simultaneously with his big attack. But at that point I restarted because I had wasted so much time floor-hopping and wanted to retry the first part. I decided not to use tails, which may be a mistake. The only things I can see that would be of use is a "Haste Ring" and an armor that is +45/+25 and strong vs. dragons and machines and giants and +5 to Str/Sta and can be worn by any male character. That's the Blue Armor - that's reeeeeally tempting, as is the Haste Ring, but spending time gathering Tails and then going through the Eblan cave seems like a huge waste to me for a party that I'm probably going to have to level grind with anyway.

But thanks for the B12 suggestion. I'll try to get there without leveling much and see if I can even handle it.

And yeah, Bahamut is going to be a bitch. Black Hole/Mega Flare is BADASSSSSSS.

Thanks for the response!

I don't know about the "optional"-ness of crystal bosses.  I skipped all of them and went straight past Scarmiglione, and there was a "dark force" blocking my path. I killed Scarmiglione and came back and there was still a "dark force."  I think you have to kill all of the crystal bosses to advance; if you can skip any of them, I'm not aware of which ones.

I'm using Golbez, Edge, Rydia, Rosa and Kain.  For speed purposes, you kind of have to use Rosa and Kain because their levels are higher, Kain's damage is greater than anyone else's, and Rosa's spells are more advanced.  Golbez is a no brainer due to his -agas.  Edge and Rydia I chose because I was able to level them a bit during play and I had garnered some decent equipment for them during the first portion.  Plus, Sylph is too useful a spell to let go of in my opinion, and Edge's quickness makes him great for emergency item use.  I'll call them the power party for reference.

The first time I played through (and I'm a lot like you, being a completist and grabbing every chest and fighting every fight :)) I went against the grain and used Edge, Palom, Porom, Yang and Luca.  I really liked my party, but BOY they were a BITCH to get strong enough to deal with ANYthing.  I'll call them the twins party for the sake of reference.

The power party I'm using now is weird.  I massacred Baigan, and blew the Magus Sisters away.  My twins party got slaughtered by the Magus Sisters and I had to level a bit in order to survive them.  With the power party, I skipped Lugae and went straight to the "dark force," went back and handled Scarmiglione pretty easily, but still couldn't get through.  I decided to go back to B3 and work down, and guess who I can't get by?  Frickin' Dr. Lugae.

So I get past Lugae eventually when Barnabas (BALNAB, dammit!) stops offing two characters simultaneously with his big attack.  But at that point I restarted because I had wasted so much time floor-hopping and wanted to retry the first part.  I decided not to use tails, which may be a mistake. The only things I can see that would be of use is a "Haste Ring" and an armor that is +45/+25 and strong vs. dragons and machines and giants and +5 to Str/Sta and can be worn by any male character.  That's the Blue Armor - that's reeeeeally tempting, as is the Haste Ring, but spending time gathering Tails and then going through the Eblan cave seems like a huge waste to me for a party that I'm probably going to have to level grind with anyway.

But thanks for the B12 suggestion.  I'll try to get there without leveling much and see if I can even handle it.

And yeah, Bahamut is going to be a bitch.  Black Hole/Mega Flare is BADASSSSSSS.

Thanks for the response!