Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-08

World 2 is relatively short.  This post, on the other hand, covers a decent chunk of it and isn't going to be that short.  Anyway, we left off right next to the warp to World 2, so let's jump right in.

You end up on an island, which has only one type of random encounter-a Pao, a weak enemy that always drops a Tent.  I killed one of these, then rested to advance the plot.  Seriously, how are you supposed to know this!  Reina and Faris start some sisterly bonding, talking about their lost parenst when suddenly one of Exdeath's goons kidnaps them.  Bartz wakes up from his nap and engages the Abductor in battle.

Win or lose, it doesn't matter and the outcome is the same.  I elected to try to win but without expending any consumables-attackattackattackattack led Bartz the Ninja to victory.  Of course, he gets captured anyway due to a gas trap being left behind.  Meanwhile, Galuf is waging war on Exdeath's castle by trying to cross the Big Bridge.  Exdeath uses his newfound prisoners to dissuade further attacks, saying he'll kill them if they proceed.  aluf shows how awesome he is by borrowing his granddaughter's dragon, flying straight into the castle, dropping down 30 feet twice and decking himself out in the best equipment I have access to right now.

Four Warriors of the Dawn plays during this part, also known as Galuf's theme.  It's so amazingly good, and especially fitting for this part.  Give it a listen!  Right now, during this part.  So triumphant.  Anyway, I saved, blew up a Jail Bear and nearly wiped to 4 Tarantulas.  and then it was time to face Gilgamesh for the first time.

Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-07

Picking up right where I left off last time, I'm treated to a miniature boss rush type thing.  In order to enter the Ronka Ruins I need to defeat the 4 outer turrets, which are one of 2 fights.  The first, Flameguns, have 2500 HP apiece and attack endlessly with a fire elemental attack, single target.  Nothing too threatening.  The other set use only Gravity based moves, meaning they'll never kill me-but my confused party members might!

 Both sets of enemies died in a couple of Thunder Scroll tosses.  I'm not a member of Team 750 (price of a rod) but Team 200 is much more powerful AND economical!  Before taking on the big bad boss of the ruins I bought more Scrolls at 200 apiece, as well as healed up and saved.  I also switched Bartz and Galuf so I have more powerful overall Thunder damage.  Pretty sure Bartz's final build will be a Ninja with !Summon to boost Scroll damage, maybe !Dance or !Mug.  Not sure on the overall yet.

Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-06

Now with control of a Fire Ship, you're supposed to go to Crescent where a story event removes the boat from you.  I have another idea, as usual.  Around the forests of Istory there's another summon I can obtain, Ramuh.  Since I have summoner I want all 14 summons available in the endgame-and all available as soon as possible.  Specifically, there's a few bosses up ahead weak to Thunder element.  Along the way I found out that the Th.Anemones always dropped Thunder Scrolls, which give my Ninjas some Thunder Element attacks as well.

That's a normal attack from the Sea Avis-which have 90% evade AND 80% Magic Evade!  Thankfully they only have 25 HP, so one successful hit kills them and summons don't miss.  The Istory item shop had a secret passageway that leads nowhere, and the armor shop has Flame, Coral and Angel Rings for sale-for 50,000 a piece!  I've been pretty frugal with my spending, but I only have 20,000 right now.

Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-05

Since last time we left Cid in a depressive mood because he thinks he caused the Fire Crystal to shatter.  It kind of is his fault since he built the machine, but he's not really to blame for it because both Queen Karnak (now delusional in bed) and that suicide bomber soldier.  I did find out that after the Fire Crystal shatters, you can obtain a Fire Rod hidden in a barrel.

Yes, you're seeing that right!  I sold my 12 Elixirs!  Because I got Ninja, stealing one means stealing 99.  I was stockpiling Elixirs to prepare for the worst, but the worst that can happen now is getting Dragoon again, and that's only due to how repetitive it would be to last run.  If you're wondering where the 12th Elixir came from, it was in the Fire Ship-I missed it the first pass through.  I needed to go back there anyway because Cid was on the deck.  I had to return to the pub (agh, remembering arbitrary plot triggers out of order, my biggest weakness) to speak to Cid before heading down to the Ancient Library.

Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-04

Since I stopped last time not at full HP, I rested at the Inn in Walse.  Reina made the switch to the Summoner class, and then I sold my Daggers and (now spare) Training whatever.  I purchased 2 Cotton Robes, preparing to switch someone else to Summoner after obtaining Shiva, and also restocked on Potions.

Reina's stats as a Summoner are much lower Strength, much lower Agility, slightly lower Vitality but more importantly her Magic Power is nearly 40 points higher!  Nice to have some magical damage and even AoE this run, since last time my only magic damage was Holy and my only AoE was X-Fight-and that doesn't really count.  Before speaking to King Walse about his broken crystal, I purchased the Chocobo, Sylph and Remora summons.  The chocobo summon does single target physical damage-surprisingly, right now it does more than my Thieves, and from the safety of the back row >_>.  The Sylph summon deals about 200 base damage and drains it evenly into the party.  Group healing equivalent to throwing a Potion on everyone is much appreciated for this team.  Finally, the Remora summon has a base 100% chance to paralyze the target.  This changes based on caster and target level though, and is subject to Magic Evade.  I'm probably not going to be using this.

King Walse told me to go to Karnak to save the Fire Crystal, but screw that, I want redemption on Shiva.  With the ability to safely deal damage from the back row now, along with an upgrade to my Daggers and full party healing, I think I can take her now.

Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-03

North Mountain, though another short dungeon, proved to be quite the annoyance for my thiefy team.

Between high damage and enemies having evasion, I was using Potions after every fight, and having to use actual strategy with my row placement!  I eventually settled on the people with higher damage in the front row, and 2 people in the back row to steal/throw Potions around.  It worked, and I was able to mostly break even on Potions, sometimes through fleeing scary fights like the ones with Blocks.  At least everything died in 3 hits, sometimes 2 if I rolled high damage twice.  I also grabbed 5 Softs from Cockatrices, which I fully intended to sell at the next town for pure profit.

Whoa, that's a nice steal!  The Glasses accessory boosts defense, magic defense and makes the wearer immune to the Blind status.  Swoop made the Cockatrice fights a lot more dangerous since it does full damage irregardless of row (or would deal 100+ if the RockGarter wasn't there, I'm not sure which but neither outcome is desirable).  I reached the save point at level 8, so I fought a few battles to reach level 9 before taking on Magisa...

VVVVVV- Time Trial Mode

VVVVVV is a game I've found myself sinking hours and hours into, in no small part due to how simple it is-you control Captain Viridian, who can only move and flip gravity.  And he can only flip gravity while standing on solid ground.  The level editor included is also a big part of what's kept me coming back, and now there's another facet of the game that has me grinding out runs until I get what I want.

Well, 2 facets.

The first is simple-the game has a timer.  I want to beat it as quickly as possible, simply because it's fun.  Getting 100% in under an hour isn't that great, but I still had a blast doing it (and got some really nice first try rooms-like Not As I Do within Intermission 1).

The second plays off the first, but completely differently.  The Time Trial mode pits you against one of the games' 6 areas-Space Station 1, The Laboratory, The Tower, Space Station 2, Warp Zone and The Final Level.  You are ranked on your performance when you finish, starting at a B rank and earning one additional rank for not dying, for finishing within a par time and for collecting all the shiny trinkets (the games' collectibles, almost always out of the way past a more difficult challenge).  Completing one of those goals nets you an A rank, 2 nets you an S rank and all 3 awards the coveted V rank.

Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-02

Picking up where I left off from last time, I took the party over to Tule, where the pirates wanted BEER!  Amusing little thing in the RPGe translation.  As always, I looted the town before triggering the plot events hinting towards Faris being a girl.  Wait, you're not supposed to know that yet, but whatever.  Having Faris leave the party with the pirates has the amusing side effect of Reina leading the party, so when I went to play the piano anticipating the possibility of getting the Bard class later, I was greeted with a slightly amusing scene.  Before entering the pub, Find Passages proved how useful it would be during this run by exposing one in the Beginner's House-no hidden passage will escape my notice now!

Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta, Run 2-01

Final Fantasy V is a very interesting game, with the job system giving every class its own way out of every situation while also allowing endless customization.  The Four Job Fiesta is an annual event run by revenantkioku that exemplifies this philosophy perfectly- you get one job per crystal.  You are only allowed to use those jobs to beat the game, and if you're skilled and lucky enough, Omega and Shinryu, and you MUST have at least one of those classes in the party at all times.  My first run this year had a very good team consisting of White Mage, Mystic Knight, Ranger and Dragoon.  I streamed the entire run (aside from 2 hours of grinding the Chicken Knife) on my stream, defeating Omega, Shinryu and Neo Exdeath with very little difficulty due to access to White Magic and the broken combo of Spellblade and X-Fight/Rapidfire.  Before I got X-Fight, however...I had some memorable fights, especially this one with Exdeath in World 2 which I unfortunately lost in the end.  It was a lot of fun, put since my team was so overpowered I knew I wanted to do a second run.  Rather than stream it off my PS1 (I own the Anthologies version) I decided I wanted to do the run on the SNES version due to its faster speed of loading menus and scene changes.  Additionally, it will make the single class challenge runs I want to do with every class that much easier to accomplish-simply inputting an all jobs code gives me access to all of them as soon as I want, including Mimic in the beginning of World 1!  Anyways, enough intro, on to the report!