So the thread I found for Shining in the Darkness made it look like no one has completed a run of this game yet. I thought I saw something on youtube about 9 months ago, but it doesn't seem to be there anymore. So I thought I'd try to revive some interest in this game. I've been off line I don't know, I guess too long now, trying to route this game. I'm keeping it single segment because I don't want my head to explode trying to get a perfect game (reference the new segmented Final Fantasy run to see about how many attempts this game would take) So I've come up with a few important strategies to try and cut off some time in the run.
The most important thing is to try and upgrade your armor as much as possible. It allows you to skip a lot of leveling. In fact I only have 3 planned grinding sessions for levels in my route. I also skip buying a lot of the in between weapons and armors; such as chainmail or a long sword. It helps you to budget your funds so you can buy the most expensive and most effective weapons and armor you can buy.
Inventory is almost always maxed out with one angel feather and herbs in every empty slot (I switch to buying healer fruits instead when I reach level 1 of proper)
I DO: collect all the arms of light so that I can exploit the blinky fountain on the fourth floor of proper
egress instantly when I have 5500G for a thorn whip. I do plan to get it before finishing the cave of truth
go out of my way to craft the hex whip for Pyra before buying any more armor when I get to Proper. As far as I can tell, it cuts out like 40 minutes overall for battles
backtrack for the storm sword and great flail after getting the magic rope. I'd like to find a way to skip this for when I come back to get the light shield, but I feel like I
really need the extra damage for floor 2 of Proper otherwise I fall too far behind on levels
get the barrier ring which casts quick 3
So while we're on the subject; the quick, slow, and boost 1 spells have a greater effect than their level 2 counterparts. So if you watch me run I will cast slow 1 and boost 1 rather than slow 2 and boost 2. The reason is that it saves magic for both with the benefit of doing more damage on boost, and lowered defense and speed on the monster. I will use quick 2 when I get it for the mini bosses, but for Dark Sol I need the extra speed for Milo so he has a chance of attacking before Dark Sol. Barrier 3 is essentially using quick one on each party member in one round.
I spend 30-40 minutes level grinding in the following areas:
1: I level up to level 7 to kill the Kaiserkrab. I buy gauntlets, a leather helm, and a bronze saber to accomplish this
2: I grind my allies to about level 7 so I can go through the cave of strength in one shot. The only thing I will really go out of my way to grind for is a morning star for Milo
3: The final floor of proper gains me 8 or so levels so that I can defeat Dark Sol
The heroes weapon upgrades get neglected for most of the run because he's a beast and one shots most everything anyway. Pyra's armor gets neglected for the same reason. I think at max level she has more natural defense (or close to it) than the hero does with all of his arms of light equipped.
Gila, Dai, and Jessa:
Gila is the only extra party member that you can get that has any kind of power behind his attacks. He does an average of 50 damage on each of his hits (or 70 with what I assume is a crit) and is understandably used in the TAS. However he is slow and always attacks last in every battle
Dai is kind of useless he does like 10-12 damage per hit (even on the crystal oozes that only have about 10 HP), but his speed remains on par with Milo's and Pyra's throughout the game for some reason. He also takes about 20 extra minutes to go for because at low levels, getting him requires you to egress an extra time
Jessa attacks for about as much as Dai does with a normal blow, but she does have a chance for a crit that I think does around 30-40 damage. You can also trade her off for a magic ring. Thanks to Dark Kobold TAS page, I was able to find out that the magic rings give you a 25% resistance to magic each (including demon breath) just for having them in a characters inventory.
So after weighing the pros and cons; I determined that Gila would be the only character worth getting, BUT you can't ever use the inn to recover your magic, or he will leave you. Because of the equipment that I need to buy, and when I need to buy it; I can't really afford the death abuse route that I was planning.
losing all of your members wipes out half your gold
losing one magic user then reviving them at the temple costs too much money and too much time is wasted un-equipping armor and finding a battle to death abuse on
Spending extra time to level and make up for the gold you lost from death abusing takes longer than the time you save by picking up Gila and Dai
Basically what it's come down to is the only character I could see using is Gila, but he would only be used at the final battle versus dark sol. At this time I don't see this really being any faster because it takes about 5 minutes just to get him and use the medallion to get to the last fountain. He would only save about one or two rounds overall in a good fight against Dark Sol. I'm open to suggestions if anyone tested differently on the extra allies.
So if you haven't played the game at all or in a while; the problem with running the game is the unfair status effects and overpowered attacks that enemies use.
Enemies have skills that don't use MP that will burn your party for around 20 or 40 damage each, freeze for around 60 or 120 damage. It just depends on which enemy makes the attack. Enemies can also shuffle their feet which can cause up to 15 on each of your party members for each monster in the group shuffling their feet
Mandrakes and Triklops can also drain MP using skills
Both you and your enemies can use sleep which usually lasts 1-3 turns
Both you and your enemies can use quick or slow which raises or lowers speed and defense respectively
Paralysis has the same effect as death until you've removed it or walked enough steps in the labyrinth. Some enemies like to glare at you with bloodshot eyes. If it's effective on all of your remaining party member, it's instant death
Instant death attacks are a thing in this game. In fact Mandagora's will howl in pain. This attack attempts to use instant death on all of your party members one after another. It's always fun getting back attacked and having this attack go off
Poison is more annoying than anything and costs 3 MP to remove it.
FYI detox 2 is not useless it is used to remove paralysis
So the final notes are as follows:
I have a required equip list that optimizes each characters equipment when I need it
Depending on what source you check in gamefaqs you are likely to get incorrect or incomplete information on herb water and the miracle herb. I just now found out that the herb water is not a broken item and does increase magic resistance (which I'm guessing is just for the ally using it in combat). The miracle herb does revive an ally to full HP (NOT MP), but it only works in combat, and can only be used once
I guess if anyone cares, holy water removes curses which would only be used once anyway
Every other item has been listed correctly in gamefaqs as far as I know
I would like to see someone else running this game so we can compare notes and finish optimizing the run
I would like to know if there are notes about how to effect when enemies spawn (is it frame and/or position based or random but just manipulated by LUA script)
I would also like to see what factors affect running away. I'm guessing speed and either luck or levels affect this the most. Pyra does get away much more often if the other two are dead. This could be cause for major rerouting.
Also if the Magic rings give 25% magic resistance, does the barrier or heal ring give any type of bonus?
So I'll try and keep updates posted on this thread for this game. My last attempt ended in a failure because of a mis-menu and neglecting to pick up an elven or magic hood for Milo, which would have increased his magic defense in the Dark Sol fight. The attempt would have ended at around 10 1/2 hours. With my current route I could easily cut 2 hours off with more solid gameplay and better execution.
There's still a lot of untapped potential in the run, and I'm still working a lot on routing it. So I will be trying to stream around a third of the run a day so I don't get burned out trying to get it in one go before I'm even ready for attempts. Especially because I think the run that got removed from youtube was 6 1/2 or 7 1/2 hours. This may or may not have been a finished run (I didn't watch more than 5 minutes of it).
So yeah, just let me know if you have feedback or questions about my current route. It's a really fun game, I just want to make it much less long.
The most important thing is to try and upgrade your armor as much as possible. It allows you to skip a lot of leveling. In fact I only have 3 planned grinding sessions for levels in my route. I also skip buying a lot of the in between weapons and armors; such as chainmail or a long sword. It helps you to budget your funds so you can buy the most expensive and most effective weapons and armor you can buy.
Inventory is almost always maxed out with one angel feather and herbs in every empty slot (I switch to buying healer fruits instead when I reach level 1 of proper)
I DO: collect all the arms of light so that I can exploit the blinky fountain on the fourth floor of proper
egress instantly when I have 5500G for a thorn whip. I do plan to get it before finishing the cave of truth
go out of my way to craft the hex whip for Pyra before buying any more armor when I get to Proper. As far as I can tell, it cuts out like 40 minutes overall for battles
backtrack for the storm sword and great flail after getting the magic rope. I'd like to find a way to skip this for when I come back to get the light shield, but I feel like I
really need the extra damage for floor 2 of Proper otherwise I fall too far behind on levels
get the barrier ring which casts quick 3
So while we're on the subject; the quick, slow, and boost 1 spells have a greater effect than their level 2 counterparts. So if you watch me run I will cast slow 1 and boost 1 rather than slow 2 and boost 2. The reason is that it saves magic for both with the benefit of doing more damage on boost, and lowered defense and speed on the monster. I will use quick 2 when I get it for the mini bosses, but for Dark Sol I need the extra speed for Milo so he has a chance of attacking before Dark Sol. Barrier 3 is essentially using quick one on each party member in one round.
I spend 30-40 minutes level grinding in the following areas:
1: I level up to level 7 to kill the Kaiserkrab. I buy gauntlets, a leather helm, and a bronze saber to accomplish this
2: I grind my allies to about level 7 so I can go through the cave of strength in one shot. The only thing I will really go out of my way to grind for is a morning star for Milo
3: The final floor of proper gains me 8 or so levels so that I can defeat Dark Sol
The heroes weapon upgrades get neglected for most of the run because he's a beast and one shots most everything anyway. Pyra's armor gets neglected for the same reason. I think at max level she has more natural defense (or close to it) than the hero does with all of his arms of light equipped.
Gila, Dai, and Jessa:
Gila is the only extra party member that you can get that has any kind of power behind his attacks. He does an average of 50 damage on each of his hits (or 70 with what I assume is a crit) and is understandably used in the TAS. However he is slow and always attacks last in every battle
Dai is kind of useless he does like 10-12 damage per hit (even on the crystal oozes that only have about 10 HP), but his speed remains on par with Milo's and Pyra's throughout the game for some reason. He also takes about 20 extra minutes to go for because at low levels, getting him requires you to egress an extra time
Jessa attacks for about as much as Dai does with a normal blow, but she does have a chance for a crit that I think does around 30-40 damage. You can also trade her off for a magic ring. Thanks to Dark Kobold TAS page, I was able to find out that the magic rings give you a 25% resistance to magic each (including demon breath) just for having them in a characters inventory.
So after weighing the pros and cons; I determined that Gila would be the only character worth getting, BUT you can't ever use the inn to recover your magic, or he will leave you. Because of the equipment that I need to buy, and when I need to buy it; I can't really afford the death abuse route that I was planning.
losing all of your members wipes out half your gold
losing one magic user then reviving them at the temple costs too much money and too much time is wasted un-equipping armor and finding a battle to death abuse on
Spending extra time to level and make up for the gold you lost from death abusing takes longer than the time you save by picking up Gila and Dai
Basically what it's come down to is the only character I could see using is Gila, but he would only be used at the final battle versus dark sol. At this time I don't see this really being any faster because it takes about 5 minutes just to get him and use the medallion to get to the last fountain. He would only save about one or two rounds overall in a good fight against Dark Sol. I'm open to suggestions if anyone tested differently on the extra allies.
So if you haven't played the game at all or in a while; the problem with running the game is the unfair status effects and overpowered attacks that enemies use.
Enemies have skills that don't use MP that will burn your party for around 20 or 40 damage each, freeze for around 60 or 120 damage. It just depends on which enemy makes the attack. Enemies can also shuffle their feet which can cause up to 15 on each of your party members for each monster in the group shuffling their feet
Mandrakes and Triklops can also drain MP using skills
Both you and your enemies can use sleep which usually lasts 1-3 turns
Both you and your enemies can use quick or slow which raises or lowers speed and defense respectively
Paralysis has the same effect as death until you've removed it or walked enough steps in the labyrinth. Some enemies like to glare at you with bloodshot eyes. If it's effective on all of your remaining party member, it's instant death
Instant death attacks are a thing in this game. In fact Mandagora's will howl in pain. This attack attempts to use instant death on all of your party members one after another. It's always fun getting back attacked and having this attack go off
Poison is more annoying than anything and costs 3 MP to remove it.
FYI detox 2 is not useless it is used to remove paralysis
So the final notes are as follows:
I have a required equip list that optimizes each characters equipment when I need it
Depending on what source you check in gamefaqs you are likely to get incorrect or incomplete information on herb water and the miracle herb. I just now found out that the herb water is not a broken item and does increase magic resistance (which I'm guessing is just for the ally using it in combat). The miracle herb does revive an ally to full HP (NOT MP), but it only works in combat, and can only be used once
I guess if anyone cares, holy water removes curses which would only be used once anyway
Every other item has been listed correctly in gamefaqs as far as I know
I would like to see someone else running this game so we can compare notes and finish optimizing the run
I would like to know if there are notes about how to effect when enemies spawn (is it frame and/or position based or random but just manipulated by LUA script)
I would also like to see what factors affect running away. I'm guessing speed and either luck or levels affect this the most. Pyra does get away much more often if the other two are dead. This could be cause for major rerouting.
Also if the Magic rings give 25% magic resistance, does the barrier or heal ring give any type of bonus?
So I'll try and keep updates posted on this thread for this game. My last attempt ended in a failure because of a mis-menu and neglecting to pick up an elven or magic hood for Milo, which would have increased his magic defense in the Dark Sol fight. The attempt would have ended at around 10 1/2 hours. With my current route I could easily cut 2 hours off with more solid gameplay and better execution.
There's still a lot of untapped potential in the run, and I'm still working a lot on routing it. So I will be trying to stream around a third of the run a day so I don't get burned out trying to get it in one go before I'm even ready for attempts. Especially because I think the run that got removed from youtube was 6 1/2 or 7 1/2 hours. This may or may not have been a finished run (I didn't watch more than 5 minutes of it).
So yeah, just let me know if you have feedback or questions about my current route. It's a really fun game, I just want to make it much less long.
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