[Classic] Final Fantasy VI Advanced

Actually it depends on what level you're at when you face them. And if you know what to equip before going into battle. The fact that you probably don't have much wind absorption equipment made Storm Dragon a bit hard. But for Ice Dragon and such, all you need is for each person to hold a Ice Shield, and you win.

How ya doing, buddy?

Yeah, thats what I meant. I just couldn't be arsed to be specific. Oops.

In other news, de-cursing the Cursed Shield is fucking boring.

How ya doing, buddy?

Yay I finally got Mog and the charm and crap. Now I can go get Locke...assuming I can find the stupid cave >_> I went all around the world and didn't see anything that looks like it could be the cave. Is it surrounded by mountains? I even forgot what it looks like -_-;

Yeah, I got no wind absorb crap when I fought the stupid dragon :( I'll prepare myself next time.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

You can't tell the terrain off the map, but the Phoenix Cave's shape is roughly a huge star of mountain ranges with a small spot of green in the middle. When you descend on it, you'll be asked to split your party.

If I remember correctly, it's on the same land mass as Kefka's Tower.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Hmm, I don't know if you guys tried this, but I have two questions:

1. Is the Intangir vanish/paint bug still active?

2. Are you still able to kill off 90% of the bosses/enemies using the vanish + doom/x-zone trick?

While fixing these bugs would be the most logical course of actions, I have to say it wouldn't be quite the same w/o them.

Originally Posted by Jamma

Yeah, thats what I meant. I just couldn't be arsed to be specific. Oops.

In other news, de-cursing the Cursed Shield is fucking boring.

Yeah. Too bad there's no auto-auto-fire switch on handhelds as there are on some game controllers for the SNES. I used to use one of those and go to the island where you start in the world of ruin. The enemies there are piss easy and won't do shit worth of damage on your team. The only thing you need to do is attack.

I was speaking idiomatically.

1. Is the Intangir vanish/paint bug still active?

I don't believe so as most of the Sketch bugs have been fixed.

2. Are you still able to kill off 90% of the bosses/enemies using the vanish + doom/x-zone trick?

No. Vanish no longer overrides Instant Death protection.

re:Cursed Shield

The best way I've found to decurse the shield is to go on the Solitary Island where the enemies kill themselves after a few seconds. Put Locke in your party and have him repeatedly try to get their rare Megalixers until they automatically die. Or have Shadow w/Thief Dagger, Gogo, etc. It's still monotonous but easy and you might be able to pick up a lot of megalixers.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Shaolin Samurai

1. Is the Intangir vanish/paint bug still active?

I don't believe so as most of the Sketch bugs have been fixed.

2. Are you still able to kill off 90% of the bosses/enemies using the vanish + doom/x-zone trick?

No. Vanish no longer overrides Instant Death protection.

re:Cursed Shield

The best way I've found to decurse the shield is to go on the Solitary Island where the enemies kill themselves after a few seconds. Put Locke in your party and have him repeatedly try to get their rare Megalixers until they automatically die. Or have Shadow w/Thief Dagger, Gogo, etc. It's still monotonous but easy and you might be able to pick up a lot of megalixers.

Damn. The sketch bugs were cool since they gave you all sorts of items in your inventory, including 20+ paladin shields, OVER 100(!) of some items, x ragnaroks, y ultima weapons etc. Only downside of it was that the "new" items replaced some of the old, including the chainsaw, so you'd have to re-arrange your inventory to where the items "landed" if you wanted to keep your old stuff (the new stuff always took the same position in the inventory space).

It's been a while since I played the game so I didn't remember that the ability was called sketch, and not paint. And yeah, the island I was referring to was the solitary island.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Sword Familiar

Yeah. Too bad there's no auto-auto-fire switch on handhelds as there are on some game controllers for the SNES. I used to use one of those and go to the island where you start in the world of ruin. The enemies there are piss easy and won't do shit worth of damage on your team. The only thing you need to do is attack.

Originally Posted by Shaolin Samurai

re:Cursed Shield

The best way I've found to decurse the shield is to go on the Solitary Island where the enemies kill themselves after a few seconds. Put Locke in your party and have him repeatedly try to get their rare Megalixers until they automatically die. Or have Shadow w/Thief Dagger, Gogo, etc. It's still monotonous but easy and you might be able to pick up a lot of megalixers.

And thats what I have been doing. Trouble is, they only take a matter of seconds to commit suicide which normally leaves me only one chance to steal. So far I've had about 100 battles and stole just 3 elixirs. I could use one of the stop-inflicting weapons to give me a better chance of keeping them there longer, but it conflicts with the real reason I'm there... to get this over with fast.

Oh well, fuck it. I'll keep plodding on.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I can't remember but i think if you used the offering with the thief knife or whatnot, you'll steal 4X and have a MUCH better chance of getting [mega]elixers...

How ya doing, buddy?

No. The steal message will be shown four times, but actually the effect kicks in only once. This bug has been known since the SNES days of the game and I doubt they fixed it in the GBA port.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've been playing this game a bit. A decade has passed since I last played it, and I'm finally approaching this with a more strategic bent.

Whereas Vanish/Doom can kill almost anything back then, Vanish/Death isn't quite as effective anymore. For the bunch of you who desperately want to harvest Intangirs for the AP, try the Confuse/Smoke Bomb trick.

Confuse/Smoke Bomb:

Encounter an Intangir. Cast Confuse on one character not protected against it. While the spell is animating, have the targetted character use the Smoke Bomb item (buyable on Setzer's airship). The confused character will use the item on the Intangir, causing it to run after casting a single target Meteor spell on the confused guy. Voila, 10 AP, though you DON'T get the Bestiary entry until you actually killed one.

How to kill legitimately? Eh, STOP. Then wail on him.

Nice port, though. While I can't understand why they put the Bestiary in Options, the translation was much improved. You can actually sing to the Opera lyrics, and it rhymes as well. (I believe the Woolsey translation hews to the syllables, but does not always rhyme.)

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Originally Posted by Freelance Wolf

I've also heard that whoever worked on FFIVa also did FFVIa, but not FFV. If that's true, then the slowdown isn't too surprising. I've never played FFIVa, though. Just how bad was the slowdown in that game?

Here's some comments from several reviews:

Cons:

* Maybe too easy for hardcore players.
* Minor slowdown in battles.
* Sound is not always faithful to the original.

--

If only the battles weren't so slow. Even at the fastest setting, it seems the action gauge chugs along. The use of the spell "Haste" results in perhaps a 10% increase in speed. There is almost no difference in the configuration setting of level 3 speed to level 1 speed. When fighting hard bosses, the gauge just does not move fast enough.

--


Interestingly enough, another review didn't mention about slowdowns at all.

Can I add a Pro (Although to me, a HUGE con): No More Vanish/Doom Glitch. ;_;

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Phew, I finally got back into this game where I last left off.

Spoiler:

Choose your scenario, kupo!

Naturally a good deal of you are far ahead, but there's no need for me to catch up.

I've had fond memories of the whole Sabin scenario, and I was happy to see that it still holds up. I remember reading way, way back (I think it was EGM) how the Phantom Forest alone was praised for having "incredible graphics." Funny how I still agree with that, even now. There's just a certain majestic beauty in how all the trees and such are placed around. I was simply floored then, and I still smile with nostalgia now.

I noticed a minor change, though. When the Phantom Train first starts up, they begin to play the music; in the SNES game, the music didn't play until after the first cutscene.

There's another instance where the music plays during an originally silent moment, and personally I'm a bit letdown by its inclusion.

Spoiler:

it plays when the train is leaving with Cyan's wife and son. Originally, there was just silence, which I felt add to the drama. It only goes silent when the train is gone and you get that brief period where Cyan stares onward, silently

Also, there was some noticable (and annoying) slowdown in the cutscene where you're surrounded by ghosts. Nearly got my eyes crossed watching the slow moving trees.

How ya doing, buddy?

So... which one are YOU gonna choose?

Sword/Esper Spoiler:

The Ragnarok Sword can be wagered in the Colossium for the Illumina, easily the best weapon in the game. Although with that evade bug fixed, maybe its not quite as uber as it used to be.

The Ragnarok Esper can morph enemies into items, not great items, but items nonetheless. And it completes the Esper list (a high priority for many nerds people).

Which one do you normally go for then?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Yo.

I just have Umaro, Relm and Strago to get back in the WoR. Yay.

The scene where Gau is getting dressed in the store is hilarious. Haha.

I'm just getting Espers and levelling up before I go to the final dungeon. Everyone is learning magic and stuffs.

FELIPE NO

I usually take the Esper just to master the list.

I dunno, would a MASTER FFVI game have Illumina or a full esper list?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Can you get a complete esper list? It is my understanding that you STILL have to choose between the Odin and Raiden espers...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

Can you get a complete esper list? It is my understanding that you STILL have to choose between the Odin and Raiden espers...

That's very true. Hmm...I don't know now. How would one go about mastering Final Fantasy VI completely? For one, Raiden is the only esper to teach the spell Quick, so I suppose you'll have to get Raiden over Odin eventually.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Omnislash124

That's very true. Hmm...I don't know now. How would one go about mastering Final Fantasy VI completely? For one, Raiden is the only esper to teach the spell Quick, so I suppose you'll have to get Raiden over Odin eventually.

Gilgamesh teaches it now, so there's no point to switching over, especially since you lose Odin's Speed+1 level bonus if you do.

Worse yet is Cactaur's Speed+2 level bonus. By level 60 you can have 80+ speed and basically be in a constant haste effect. Combine with Hastaga, and you're getting four turns to Kefka's one.

As for the Ragnarok, take the esper this time. You can steal the sword from The Lady and now since you can save after beating the game you can keep it, along with the second Atma/Ultima Weapon. Wager that one for the Illumina/Lightbringer.

I haven't tested if you can go through Kefka's tower a second time for more of the sword, which wouldn't be a bad deal, since getting 8 of those bastards would be mighty swank. (4 if you don't want to bother with genji gloving it, but eh')

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Jamma

The Ragnarok Sword can be wagered in the Colossium for the Illumina, easily the best weapon in the game. Although with that evade bug fixed, maybe its not quite as uber as it used to be.

How would it be "not quite as uber" just because Evade now works properly? Illumina/Lightbringer still gives +50% Evade and +50% MBlock, so its effectively exactly the same as it was in the original.

The fact that you can steal infinite Ragnarok Swords from Lady seals the deal that you should get the Esper.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Unfortunately, I didn't know that you could keep the stolen Ragnarok after Kefka. On the bright side, I managed to uncurse the shield while leveling Terra, Edgar, Celes, and Locke to level 75. My real question about the two swords is would you choose the Ragnarok or Lightbringer because of the random spell it casts? Holy is an elemental.

I doubt it but, is it still possible to do a low-level game?? I did on the SNES version a couple years ago and enjoyed it immensely. I'm guessing the fixing of the evade bug screwed that possibility up. If not a complete low-level game, could one at least get all of the characters during the playthrough? Doing so would make your guys unbelievably stronger. o_O

PS: does a 100% bestiary give you anything? (other than satisfaction.. )

I was speaking idiomatically.

LLGs are still very possible. Theres a video out there on youtube that shows a guy beating Gigantuar with a party of Level 7s or so. MBlock is still pretty dominant in its own right, even without the added benefit of Evade.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

If anything it makes the earlier aspects of one much easier, since evasion actually has a point. It just makes the end a little harder but by then you have so much incredible equipment it really doesn't matter. You can make due without a cheap 128% mblock game. Most LLG walkthroughs don't even try and convince you to abuse it, nor to abuse vanish+doom in the first place.

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Originally Posted by Shaolin Samurai

How would it be "not quite as uber" just because Evade now works properly? Illumina/Lightbringer still gives +50% Evade and +50% MBlock, so its effectively exactly the same as it was in the original.

The sword might be just as good, but I'm saying - in a roundabout way - you can't abuse the bugs like you used to. In the SNES/PSX versions, you could have 2, sometimes even 3 people protected with the bug. To get 128% Evade and MBlock in this version, you've got to steal more Ragnaroks in Kefka's Tower before you get to full protection.

I guess it's not that big a deal though...

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

What do I do about Cactuars? The first one I found I actually killed, but every cactuar after that had such high evasion that I miss every single time :(

Am I too weak for the Coliseum? My guys seem to get clobbered against these tough enemies, and they range from level 36-42. Do I need anything special to win? The only one I won against was uh, forgot the name, but I bidded my Tinnia...whatever and got a Growth Egg after winning.

Jam it back in, in the dark.