Final Fantasy V Advance

[Ichirou]

So I took you dudeses' and dudettes' advice and have started playing through Final Fantasy V on the GBA.  Really quite early on, as I just got the first jobs available.  Question about the new classes - do they appear automatically or do they have distinguished mentally-challenged requirements like the new classes in the PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

plus you only get them like in the last dungeon so they are useless for most of the game

[Ichirou]

Lame! This was a TOSE port, wasn't it?

[Ichirou]

I am still pissed off at finding out that the extra jobs are basically worthless. Grrr.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Question about the new classes - do they appear automatically or do they have distinguished mentally-challenged requirements like the new classes in the PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics?

You just get them by finding reasonably hidden crystal shards, there's no requirement to level up other jobs or anything.  Like Patel said, you only find them very near the end of the game though.

[CurseoftheGods]

Do you have a DS? Why not wait for the "3D" remake?

[FatalT]

Do you have a DS? Why not wait for the "3D" remake?

There's going to be a 3D remake of 5? I thought that was 4.

[TakingBackSunday]

Do you have a DS? Why not wait for the "3D" remake?

There's going to be a 3D remake of 5? I thought that was 4.

If III got the treatment and IV got the treatment, I'd say it's pretty safe both V and VI will be the same way.

[TakingBackSunday]

Eh, sure, why not.

[Ichirou]

Ehh, I'm enjoying it, distinguished mentally-challenged requirements for new classes aside.  Don't want to wait two or three years for a DS remake that might never happen.

[FatalT]

I might order it on Amazon soon. I have all the other Final Fantasy Advance remakes but never really played through any of them but 1. I might start doing them all in order soon since I won't really have money to get new games because my hours at work are horrendous (8 a week wtf).

[Ichirou]

8 hours a week zomg

[Ichirou]

So I started the second world a couple of hours ago...I'm about 12 hours in now.  My crew currently consists of a Mystic Knight, Summoner, Berserker (his love will hit you like a truck), and a Ninja.

Goin' pretty good, though WOW, the story really is primitive, especially when compared to its predecessor, Final Fantasy IV (which I am not a fan of).

[Vizzys]

Final Fantasy IV (which I am not a fan of).

 

[Ichirou]

What can I say? It sucks.

[FatalT]

What can I say? It sucks.

I liked it.

[Vizzys]

earthbound is better

[Ichirou]

What can I say? It sucks.

I liked it.

Admittedly, my experience with it is based off the SNES version, which had a pretty shitty translation and was based on the "easy" version that was released in Japan for younglings.  Still, I can't imagine enjoying the DS remake very much.

[demi]

What can I say? It sucks.

You have had a history of being wrong.

cough synbios

[Ichirou]

What can I say? It sucks.

You have had a history of being wrong.

cough synbios

I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about.

[demi]

I'm sure you don't either, being wrong and all

[Ichirou]

Tsk, tsk, my dear choggler.  Let us turn our attentions back towards Final Fantasy V, where it belongs.

[BlueTsunami]

Tose did the FFT port too right? They seem to like putting job classes in positions where they don't matter and aren't worth the trouble.

[Ichirou]

Tose did the FFT port too right? They seem to like putting job classes in positions where they don't matter and aren't worth the trouble.

I think it's the fact that they don't want to fuck with the game's balance too much (since they aren't the original designers), so they add classes where, by the time you get them, you're finished with the game anyway.

I never once used onion knight and never even got dark knight in FFT, btw. Once you get Cid, all challenge in the game evaporates.

[recursivelyenumerable]

at least for FF5a, the original battle/job system designer is listed as a supervisor.

[Ichirou]

at least for FF5a, the original battle/job system designer is listed as a supervisor.

Consider me corrected, then! I didn't know they brought some of the original people back, I just figured TOSE did everything and added what they thought was appropriate.

[recursivelyenumerable]

I dunno if "supervisor" means any real involvement though.  The DS remakes were directed by some of the original developers, but I dunno what degree of involvement they had with the GBA content.  Maybe not much since Tokita was listed as a supervisor for FF4A as well, but then apparently chose to dump all the GBA additions when he directed the DS version.

[Ichirou]

GBA additions for FFIV were just an extra dungeon and stuff, right?

[demi]

Extra dungeon, weapons, and that you could play with the dead characters

[Ichirou]

Extra dungeon, weapons, and that you could play with the dead characters

It's been about ten years, but if I recall correctly...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

...the folks who die are some old sage guy and Edward the gay prince.  But then there are all the "fake" deaths, like Cid, Kain, Palom and Porom, who seem to die and yet pop up again and again.

[close]

[demi]

The player can change characters among Edward, Yang, Porom, Palom and Cid after defeating the Giant of Babel, although Cecil must be in the party at all times. Two new dungeons have been added: a new cave at Mt. Ordeals featuring powerful armor and stronger weapons for five additional characters, and the Lunar Ruins, accessible only at the end of the game.[56] New trials exist for each character at this location, reachable only after a particular character has defeated the final boss, for example Cid's trial involves ferrying people around in an airship, and Rydia's trial involves fighting her own summons. The Lunar Ruins feature some of the best items in the game and another version of Zeromus to fight. This is his alternate scorpion form from the Easytype version, dubbed Zeromus EG. Also available for battle are a superboss named Brachioraidos and lunar versions of the summons, comparable to the dark aeons in Final Fantasy X.

[Ichirou]

Yeah, those additions aren't really worth replaying the game for.  Hopefully the DS remake adds enough to make me want to play the game again.  Has that been announced for the US, or is it in limbo?

[demi]

It's coming... why wouldn't it?

[Ichirou]

lol, because 90% of DS gamers pirate their games thanks to R4.


I read it on the internets so it must be true.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

DQ4 hasn't been announced yet either.

[close]

[demi]

Give it time

[Ichirou]

My party is now Dragoon, Summoner, Samurai, and Ranger.  I just got to the second world and got a drake for transportation (the plot is so shallow in this game we get a virtual repeat of how you got a drake back in the first world ).  Fun times ahead...I will probably switch my summoner back to black mage soon so she can master that class.

[Ichirou]

On the third world now, and right in the middle of the quest for the 12 legendary weapons (I'm actually really near the end of the game, but I'm going to grind to master a few jobs before I finish).  My current party consists of a Berserker, Chemist, Knight, and White Mage.  I made a tiny huge mistake whilst in the Phoenix Tower.  I leveled up Krile as a Red Mage, but I shoulda leveled up Lenna instead, since a master Red Mage gets dual cast (two spells in a row) and Lenna had already mastered white, black, and summon magic.  I doubt I'm going to bother leveling Lenna up as a red mage now (since the last level of red mage needs 999 ABP to master).

I don't know whether to bother with the bonus dungeon that opens up when you beat the game.  It sounds kinda lengthy and all you get out of it is an extra job.

[Ichirou]

Mastered a few jobs while I was on the train.  My party is now a Samurai, Bard, Ranger, and Summoner.

[tiesto]

Mastered a few jobs while I was on the train.  My party is now a Samurai, Bard, Ranger, and Summoner.

Where are you mastering them? I like the spot right before the end, grinding lots of abilities is pretty easy, I think I mastered 6 classes in an hour. Mover enemies

[Ichirou]

There's this spot on the southwestern continent where I'm getting 1,100 XP per battle and 4 ABP.  That's the best place I have found, so far.

The classes the characters have mastered thus far:

Bartz - Knight, Dragoon, Ninja, Berserker, Mystic Knight, Geomancer
Lenna - White Mage, Black Mage, Time Mage, Summoner, Chemist
Faris - Knight, Thief, Dragoon, Ninja, Samurai
Krile - Monk, Berserker, Ranger, White Mage, Red Mage

As you can see, I'm doing things in a really cliched way...the princess is the magic user, the protagonist is the fighter, the pirate chick is the thief/ninja speedy type, and then Krile...back when I was using Galuf I was giving him all these tough guy jobs like Berserker and Monk, but when I switched to Krile I started leveling up her magic jobs, so she's a weird mix of things.

[tiesto]

You definitely should wait till the end to level up your jobs, unless you desperately need an ability... guys in the final area of the game will give you 20-30 ABP per battle, and if you're lucky enough to run into and strike down the Movers, you'll get I think 200 ABP. FF5 doesn't really require much in the way of grinding, apart from at the way end (the final boss is a total bitch).

[recursivelyenumerable]

FF5 doesn't really require much in the way of grinding, apart from at the way end (the final boss is a total bitch).

Last boss is a lot more fun if you don't grind, though.  I finished at level 34 with no ABP grinding (only 1-2 jobs mastered per character) and it was probably the most enjoyably challenging RPG battle I've ever had.

[Ichirou]

You definitely should wait till the end to level up your jobs, unless you desperately need an ability... guys in the final area of the game will give you 20-30 ABP per battle, and if you're lucky enough to run into and strike down the Movers, you'll get I think 200 ABP. FF5 doesn't really require much in the way of grinding, apart from at the way end (the final boss is a total bitch).

I played through it on emulation back when it was fan-translated and I made it all the way to Gogo's tower (unfortunately, the emulation was glitchy so I was never able to get past that part).  Now I just finished Gogo's tower, so I think I must be really near the end....do you mean the final dungeon?  Also, is there a trick to beating these Mover guys?  200 ABP sounds like a heckuva lot...they must be tough foes.

BTW, recursively, I know that for a lot of people beating the game with really low levels and doing speed runs is how they have their fun, but I'm sort of the opposite.  When I first played Final Fantasy VI (III back on SNES), I went out of my way to max out all my characters and tried to do everything possible to raise their stats.  That first playthrough probably took me about 86 hours (my second playthrough was 50 hours or so).  I love to waste time on RPGs if I'm having fun, and I'm having fun with this one.

[recursivelyenumerable]

I guess I don't really understand the motivation.  You're fighting the same enemies over and over again to gain EXP, which is repetitive and tedious, and then once you're leveled up, all the fights become super-easy and pointless. I can understand doing something boring for a while that makes the rest of the game more fun, or doing something fun for a while even though it makes the rest of the game more boring, but I don't understand doing something that's both boring in itself and makes the rest of the game boring.

[Ichirou]

That's why you'll never understand humans, Spock.

[tiesto]

You definitely should wait till the end to level up your jobs, unless you desperately need an ability... guys in the final area of the game will give you 20-30 ABP per battle, and if you're lucky enough to run into and strike down the Movers, you'll get I think 200 ABP. FF5 doesn't really require much in the way of grinding, apart from at the way end (the final boss is a total bitch).

I played through it on emulation back when it was fan-translated and I made it all the way to Gogo's tower (unfortunately, the emulation was glitchy so I was never able to get past that part).  Now I just finished Gogo's tower, so I think I must be really near the end....do you mean the final dungeon?  Also, is there a trick to beating these Mover guys?  200 ABP sounds like a heckuva lot...they must be tough foes.

BTW, recursively, I know that for a lot of people beating the game with really low levels and doing speed runs is how they have their fun, but I'm sort of the opposite.  When I first played Final Fantasy VI (III back on SNES), I went out of my way to max out all my characters and tried to do everything possible to raise their stats.  That first playthrough probably took me about 86 hours (my second playthrough was 50 hours or so).  I love to waste time on RPGs if I'm having fun, and I'm having fun with this one.

The main trick with the Movers is to try and take them down all at once, or they'll run away and you won't get credit for the battle... I just remember using Coin Toss or really powerful physical attacks and that seemed to work well. By the final area, I mean taking your airship into the Cleft of Dimension (which is the black hole right near Tycoon Castle), and progressing all the way through there until you get to the blue, crystalline area, where the music changes.

[Ichirou]

Can you leave the cleft of dimension (I think it's called the Rift in the GBA version - they re-translated and re-named a lot of things) once you go in?

[tiesto]

Can you leave the cleft of dimension (I think it's called the Rift in the GBA version - they re-translated and re-named a lot of things) once you go in?

Yeah, I forget if a warp/exit/whatever they are called in the game again spell will take you out... you may have to go to the area right before entering the actual Cleft section and cast it. You might have to backtrack all the way back to the beginning of the final dungeon but I do know for a fact you are able to get out.

[Ichirou]

In the GBA version it's called Teleport, I think.  I'm gonna try that later tonight after I get the last two tablets.  Thanks for the advice, I woulda wasted hours on the world map otherwise.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Humans are pretty dumb in many ways.

[Ichirou]

Humans are pretty dumb in many ways.

I think it's fun to be able to take foes down in one hit.

[recursivelyenumerable]

when I make my RPG I'll be sure to include a "super awesome mode" where not only can you kill all the enemies in one hit from the start, but they all run away from you and the challenge is to hide your awesomeness so they'll stick around long enough for you to kill them and get their swag (not that it's actually useful for anything)

[Ichirou]

when I make my RPG I'll be sure to include a "super awesome mode" where not only can you kill all the enemies in one hit from the start, but they all run away from you and the challenge is to hide your awesomeness so they'll stick around long enough for you to kill them and get their swag (not that it's actually useful for anything)

Does the swag change your character's physical appearance?  'Cuz that's a game I'd play.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Does the swag change your character's physical appearance?

Yes, but there's only one armor slot (codpieces)

[Ichirou]

Current jobs:

Bartz - Gladiator
Lenna - Oracle
Faris - Mime
Krile - Beastmaster

Gladiator, Oracle, and Cannoneer are REALLY easy to get, the only problem is that once you get them, the game is basically over (they're accessible just before the final dungeon).