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Post by Ex on Apr 25, 2021 22:26:08 GMT -5
Yesterday in FFL2, I made it to the "under the ocean" part that I stopped at in 1991. The area was just as I remembered it, including the cool "underwater effect" (cool for GB at least). I even recalled the underwater volcano dungeon as well. Well I got passed that part, and am now saved at the Guardian Base. I've got ~8 hours invested at this point. I'm still enjoying the game, but I think it's best in 20-30 minute spurts. That's probably how the designers envisioned this game being played anyway. If you try to long-haul it, the encounter rate will start to really grate. I'm over that now, but I'm not over how weak and ineffectual my monster has been thus far. I wish I'd just done a human, a robot, and two mutants.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 25, 2021 22:46:02 GMT -5
You'll eventually get your monster back up to snuff (just part of that semi-randomness), but I agree that a human/mutant/mutant/robot team is fantastic. Either that, or 2x human/mutant, since they're theoretically able to grow beyond everything else. But you're not likely to see them get that high in a normal play.
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Post by Ex on Apr 26, 2021 0:55:07 GMT -5
My mutant carries the bulk of the fight, because they have the multi-hit attacks with spells. My human and robot both are able to one hit/one kill, but just not multiple enemies at once. My monster tends to fart around in the back and fail at leveling up to anything worth having. Hopefully in the late game the monster will prove itself worth it's salt meat.
This is an above-average JRPG so far though, especially for its time and platform. Just best taken in small doses.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 26, 2021 9:33:10 GMT -5
I feel that about a lot of games these days. I definitely understand how the encounter rate could grate - I find my patience for prodigious random battles is not what it was. Thankfully, FFL2 gives you a save-anywhere option.
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Post by Moulinoski on Apr 26, 2021 13:49:34 GMT -5
RPGs are best when they are on a portable device I agree. It's really nice to be able to have a whole little world and all its characters in a portable format. I find that I get through RPGs faster when I can just pick up 'n' play them. You can take it with you to bed. You can take it with you on the bus. You can play it at the beach. You can play it at the waiting room. You can work on it in the living room. You can work on it while you poop. Portable RPG = good stuff. I think I wouldn't have finished Persona 5 if not for the remote play feature and the Switch has been great for RPGs considering that you can play it on the big screen and then take it with you to another part of the room or to bed. I wish they'd port some other RPG classics. Gee, it's weird sometimes getting to a comment I'm quoted in and it'd look like it's the last comment in the thread. Ex, there's actually method to the monster transformation. I'd say I'd recommend this guide but it's the only one available on monster evolution calculation paths: www.geocities.ws/kattdood/ffl2/evolve.htmIt's a bit difficult to understand at first, but you basically take the monster you have and note its value on Col 1. You then take the meat of the monster you're getting and look at either Col 4 or 5 of the meat and add either value to your monster's (either one works, whichever is easiest to do the math with, it'll result in the same result since it's a modulus operation where the upper value is 35). You then look at Col 1 again for the result you got and that's your new monster! (There's another modifier so it's not that simple.) So, for example, say that you have a Slime. Its Col 1 value is 6. You're getting the meat of a Pebble. Its Col 4 value is 21 and its Col 5 value is -15. It's easier to add 6 to 21, so the result is 27. My monster will transform into a Fly! Another example, I have a Fly now. Its Col 1 value is 27 and its rank is A. You're now getting the meat of a Baby-D. Its Col 4 value is 3 and its Col 5 value is -33 and its Rank is C. So I add 3 to 27 (because it's easier) making 30 which would make it a Goblin... except that we're going from a C rank monster to an A rank monster, so that's +1, turning it instead into a Fiend (Col 1 value of 31). I can't explain the math behind the monster level growth (going from a level 0 monster to level 1 monster) except that typically, your monster will take on the level form of the meat you're eating. I'm not sure what else plays into it. I know that I managed to get my level 1 monster down to a level 0 monster by accident one time.
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Post by Ex on Apr 27, 2021 12:19:27 GMT -5
MoulinoskiThanks for breaking all that down. Though I think the fact one has to reference a matrix calculation to evolve their monster into something useful, demonstrates just how broken the monster class is in FFL2.
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Post by Ex on Apr 30, 2021 15:54:00 GMT -5
Put some more time into FFL2 this morning. I'm now at the Venus World. I think this puts me at about halfway through the game now. My female mutant is still the star of the show. She destroys more enemies than the other three party members combined! Kinda wish I had a party of all mutants at this point.
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Post by Sarge on Apr 30, 2021 15:57:44 GMT -5
At some point, one of your humans will come into their own when they get the Excalibur. That hits groups. But yeah, Mutants are definitely powerful.
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Post by Ex on Apr 30, 2021 15:59:27 GMT -5
Right now I've got my human tossing grenades. Those at least attack stacks of enemies, though not every enemy on screen like many of the mutant's spells do. I'm looking forward to getting Excalibur.
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Post by Moulinoski on May 3, 2021 13:01:03 GMT -5
Moulinoski Thanks for breaking all that down. Though I think the fact one has to reference a matrix calculation to evolve their monster into something useful, demonstrates just how broken the monster class is in FFL2. True, I don't disagree. The game could have been more friendly and transparent with its system. I don't think it's a terrible system, just very opaque and doesn't lend itself to "at a glance" logic. Like, there could have been better rules built into it such as "if you eat a dragon's meat, you will turn into a dragon type monster" would have been simple enough. As it is now, even with the chart, it is a complicated mess that only makes sense in the purest, numerical sense- very unintuitive for most people. My human used a lot of Laser Swords and martial art skills. The more the martial art skills are depleted, the more damage they deal (another unexplained system, although it's more likely poorly explained in the manual). I never found Excalibur but he was still one of my heavy hitters (but it helped to build his strength and agility up). By the way! I finished Final Fantasy Legend 2! After 20 years, I finally did it!! Although it wasn't on my original save file. That save file is still around but my characters were built too nilly willy to be useful anymore, I bet. In any case, I have no desire to get back into it for a while. I ended up getting SaGa Frontier Remastered. I picked Red's story and I'm getting destroyed by some little forced encounter. This game does not mess around. I even stat grinded in Shrike after 1) I got destroyed by the Earth Dragon and looked up strategies on beating him after my 20th defeat and found out he's optional and 2) realized that Red wasn't gaining stats in his Alkaiser mode. Also, I saved Cotton so that's good for me. Currently, I'm just trying to build Fuse up and trying to just be able to keep going! I didn't know that I needed to leave slots open for more abilities, either. The SaGa trend of not explaining anything continues!
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