I am so envious of you that you have two lines to write a description and likely unlimited space! Haha!
So I decided to start a new game all in all, as I feel I may have grinded a little too much, not to mention you hadn't actually messed with Agility at the time (still not sure if you have). Interesting to see that you're reimplementing Gradual Petrification's timer. I think it was disabled because the GBA version gives no visual clarification of what stage it is in.
So starting up I see you put Echo Herbs into the shops now, great.
Any thoughts on what to do with the Dwarven Bread? As I'm sure you're aware Sight is useless.
Wow! Just wow! First battle I get the Goblin summon!
And it still looks to be it's rarest drop... hah.
Good to see the Bestiary is now showing the actual drops. Terrific work!
Eh? Sword Rat's are referred to as Magic Beast, is that a new race you made out of an existing one?
Heh, I like how the Eyemoths have an attack called Poison Powder which Blinds! I'm not sure if that's an unfinished change or if it was always like that.
Last time I fought the Mist Dragon I was at a grinded Level 16, this time I am at Level 12, let's see how different it turns out...
That's an odd change from the SNES version... when you reach the Mist Dragon, Suspicion is supposed to play, it adds tension to the scene. This is absent in FF4A for some reason.
Not very different. Ah well, still dealt 40 or so damage per hit and I imagine ColdMist is now much more powerful.
There we go! Desert Sahagins and Hundlegs now have respectable strength, dealing a decent 30-40 damage to Cecil per hit. Quick question though, does FF4A still use that awful attack/defense/magic defense table that FFIV uses or do they use their wider space to just put that into the monster's stats?
Barely survived through the desert! And that's how it should be. There is such a greater feeling of accomplishment when you face comparable odds.
Wow! The Baron Soldiers do not fool around! This is Combat Boost level of trickiness right here, hehe. Thank goodness for Hourglasses!
Did you increase the Exp. gain from the solo fight? I have to admit taking out the General with even just one soldier was rather tricky after the Hourglass wore off!
Alright, now I always use this time for a little bit of mandatory grinding for Rydia up until Level 10 so she can survive at a decent tick. It should be a more fulfilling task this time around.
Oh... I just noticed another significant change... there are no Phoenix Downs at shops... Is this an FFIII reference and will I need to be very careful with the use of my current Phoenix Downs?
Maybe it's because I just got done dealing 120 or so damage to the Sand Worm but the Cyclone only did one damage.
The Desert Sahagins with 4 Magic Defense are being dealt 48-84 damage with the Rod.
Geez! I go to cast Thunder on all Vile Shells to check the damage and I get hit with a new counter which puts my party to sleep! So well devised! I never noticed, until I saw that you gave them an attack called "Lick" that the thing sticking out of the shell was a tongue! I thought it was a claw or something.
An interesting little fact, you can run while your entire party is asleep in FFIV but not in FF4A meaning that it is likely a bug that you can do so in the original.
I am also glad to see some actual defense put on the Vile Shell.
Killer Fish at 17 Strength (possibly 3 multipliers?) are a much worthier foe now. They are designed to be the opposite of the Vile Shell and possess no defense but have high Magic Defense for this point, how interesting...
Rydia is now Level 10 so it is time to move on.
Tents are not sold in Shops anymore either... I will have to be careful from hereon out, thank goodness I've been healing at the Inn. This does make those lucky drops of Tents and Phoenix Downs from foes all the more meaningful though and it adds back in a bit of the survival aspect of the earlier FF's.
Yes, I just fought another Sand Worm who had a bit more HP, maybe 30 or 40 left and he dealt 14 and 16, I imagine it will be quite high if it ambushes you!
To foes with higher Magic Defense the Rod deals 24-42 which is a very fair amount for it being defended against. Good balancing.
You raised Life's MP cost to 20, making it more inline with FFIV DS, interesting choice and makes sense with the rarity of Phoenix Downs.
Do Vile Shell's secretly resist Lightning or something? It says they're weak to it, but it doesn't deal nearly as much damage as it does to the Killer Fish who have a much higher Magic Defense.
...Did Vile Shell's just react with Drain to Dark Wave? Oh my... I'll need to be more careful!
Well that was quite a joy, I don't think Tellah has ever nearly run out of MP on the way to the first save point!
Incidentally that water drop effect may be the only sound that is better on FF4A...
Gigantoad's seem dangerous. I didn't really give them a chance to fight, but the one turn one got did use Toad. But that may be because they were on their own.
Toadgre's have a bit more HP, a possibly random AI where they will use either Toad or Attack (maybe Blizzara's in there?) and have decent defenses all around. A foe to be dealt with immediately with its weakness.
I noticed you increased the MP cost of Chocobo as well, it seems you may have made Goblin a twinge better, it's difficult to say.
So I dealt with TinyMage's and Sahagins. TinyMage's real weakness if Dark Wave, they have no counter to it thankfully but if you give them time they will wreck the party with hard hitting Thunder spells!
Sahagin's have no treasure? That's... a little odd.
Wh-wha? Rod deals 1 damage to Zombies...? Did... Cecil just deal 105 damage with a Critical Hit to the Backrow Unarmed? I take it you changed the way Unarmed works then? Maybe they defended against the Rod so well because they have 12 Magic Defense?
Hand Axe is now a little weaker than the Shadow Blade and it reduces Agility by 5 making it a risk to equip. A much better tradeoff.
...Looks like Bomb Fragments were made more powerful, dealing 800-1000 damage to Mousse, though they may be x4 weak to Fire.
Hmm... is it such a good idea to have some of these rare drops be so worthless? It is something I tried to do with Combat Boost was to have every foe a drop worth getting. To me there would be no benefit to fighting Red Mousse again when they have nothing I'd actually want. Though I imagine a lot of this is still in the planning stages and more normal type foes will end up having a drop table more akin to the Sword Rat with a unique or powerful item.
Well I stupidly used magic on weakened TinyMage's and it wasn't enough to take them out so they proceeded to Osmose Tellah down to nothing... and I was in the waterfall section, so instead of using an Ether like a sane person may do I used Osmose on several foes to try and get back up, with some bumps along the way, in any event I did manage to snag a Silver Apple from an Alligator! Giving Rydia a crucial +50 HP!
Whew, it looks like OctoMammoth does some sort of desperation attack near the end, he must have attacked at least 5 times! He dealt 110 damage to Cecil but both Rydia and Tellah were under Blink so they were fine. - He was beaten at 17 Cecil, 14 Rydia, 20 Tellah
All in all a very satisfying boss, I love the remade area, so much more satisfying in every single way!
Did you fix that bug where Misses don't keep the Auto-Battle script going? Because I recall reading somewhere that was a bug in FF4A, maybe only the original version of it? Also when Tellah attacked barehanded the animation looked slightly glitchy.
I know it's not the Barehanded Graphic which is glitchy because I used Cecil to punch a couple of Zombies in the face.
Ruby Ring now protects against Poison? Good to know.
Hand Axe sells for 0 Gil still, hehe.
Well, I bought 99 Potions and I'll grind Edward up to Level 10 as I did with Rydia.
Well that was a little disastrous went back to the Waterfall and ran into 4 Toadgre's I use Dark Wave and my entire party is Toaded, thankfully I used Song of Toad and blasted them again with Dark Wave. Still... ouch.
...A Soma Drop from the Tiny Mages! Tonight really is lucky for me!
Edward is now Level 10 so let's head off to the Antlion's Den!
Adamantoise lives up to his name with great defense all around!
Yikes, you were not kidding about the Speed of that Petrification! Turned Rydia into Stone in roughly three turns. I'll need to head back to Kaipo to pick up some Gold Needles.
I see some random AI use here with Leshy using confuse, interesting idea.
Hmm, I wonder if the Exp. adjustment is shared here, a battle with a challenging Adamantoise and Basilisk only yields 100 some exp. at the end of it, where a battle with four Sahagins and two Tiny Mages is worth around 250, I'm not sure the benefits outweigh the cost here.
Looted the first room and then was forced to retreat, off to heal at Damcyan.
Wow, Leshy's have a bit of magic, using a Blizzard that dealt over 100-150 damage! Song of Silence is actually quite useful here!
Ah, Leshy's have that Spectral Robe...
Does the Dreamer Harp have x4 to Spirit or something? An attack dealt 84 damage to a Leshy.
I had my doubts but Edward is exceptionally useful here! His Dreamer Harp can put difficult foes to Sleep and his Songs are actually useful on certain foes.
I do think the combination of Paralyze/Gradual Petrify is a bit much though, especially since Basilisks don't yield anything that impressive anyhow.
I also feel that the Poison/Paralysis from the Yellow Jelly is not worth it. Because of their higher magic defense and HP they can't be wiped out with one Thunder spell, meaning that to take them out (really only for the Bestiary entry) you have to use attack items, and if you're unlucky multiple attack items. And their drop table, exp, and gil are not worth the effort in the end, especially considering the real possibility that they could Poison and Paralyze the entire party, let alone Paralyze the only character that can damage them.
So onto the Antlion...
Let's see... no Counter, interesting... Slow, Restore (ouch), Poison and a normal attack, should be interesting. Counter Horn... for a Summon? Hmm... he didn't do it the first time. Digestive Acid as well, this fellow really has the picnic basket of moves! Since he restores for 270 that must mean he has 2700 HP... Vampire as well, because why not? (A weaker version of Digestive Acid)
And the entire party is Paralyzed by both Gaze and Entangle...
And I lost... Well, let's try that again.
Talk about an intense fight! His random AI continually keeps you on your toes but you can mitigate a few of his tricks. First, equip Ruby Rings, neutralizing Poison is a god-send (and probably part of the reason why you gave Ruby Ring poison resistance) they also give some much needed Magic Defense and Evasion to Rydia and Edward who can even shrug off a few of his attacks due to this evasion. All in all it is an exciting battle! You never know when he'll bust out with Restore and undo your hard work or use Entangle and force you to turtle while (likely Rydia) is incapacitated.
My levels were Cecil 18, Rydia 15, Edward 12.
I am Loving this mod so far! You are bringing FF4A into the next generation of FFIV hacking standing strong with the likes of Unprecedented Crisis and Threat From Within!
I was on my way out of the Antlion's Den and ran into an encounter with 2 SandWorms, after dispatching them I got Another Silver Apple!
