FFTA2 - Hard is suicide, I'm starting over

[RedWiz]

I got to the Pearls in the Deep quest (where you have to kill the enormous antlion boss thing that sucks you in), and I've decided that it's impossible for my clan. I honestly think the only way I can make it through hard is if I really know what I'm doing, and I get the most I can get out of each quest so my clanners aren't mutts.

Oh well. At least I'll be able to enjoy the game now, on Normal.

I've put 19 hours and 45 quests into it.

Oh well...

On a side note, I've been wanting to rant about the laws in this game.

It can be illegal to miss.
It can be illegal to use a certain race (ergo your beastly Nu Mou Black Mage is now barred from combat)
It is illegal to do more than 50 damage.
It is illegal to do less than 50 damage.

Those four laws right there are enough to make wonder what in the world the designers were thinking. They are Japanese, after all...

But in short, I never fail to facepalm/grumble loudly whenever I see one of those laws. That and Targeting an area, or something like that. BLARLARKAJSEKJASHDKJAHSKDJAj.

Anyways, this game is great nonetheless.

I'd like to see someone throw together a challenge or an Eyes on for this game. That'd be fun.

[Tama2]

I hate the laws!

[Zeromus_X]

I think that was one of the truly hard battles on Normal mode...so I can imagine how bad it'd be on Hard.


It can be illegal to miss.

I hate this one too, since in the end, it is completely up to luck.


It can be illegal to use a certain race (ergo your beastly Nu Mou Black Mage is now barred from combat)

I never really had a problem with this since I always had at least one unit of every race. Sadly I think I had just one lone Nu Mou at the end of the game, for some reason I just didn't like them in this one. =(


It is illegal to do more than 50 damage.
It is illegal to do less than 50 damage.

These are weird since it's like the game is seeing if you're over or underleveled or something, I usually ended up just breaking these since they were annoying.

I'm pretty happy they let you choose if you can break the laws or not because some of them (like only moving 1 tile at a time ugh) were really hindering. I remember one battle involving Vaan and Penelo being controlled by the AI, and you had to protect them. But you can only move 1 tile at a time...so it's almost impossible to win without breaking the law due to the AI not being the smartest and Penelo taking pretty heavy hits.

I agree, something like an "always obey the law" challenge or something could be interesting, especially with the many situations like the above they put in the game.

[RedWiz]

I agree, something like an "always obey the law" challenge or something could be interesting, especially with the many situations like the above they put in the game.

Oh my. Why didn't I think of that. But jeeze, that would be nasty...

I was thinking more along the lines of a single-character challenge, or single race challenge, or single job challenge or something like that. But following laws could get pretty hairy, too...

[Tama2]

I've been doing a don't break any laws and get all the treasure on normal.

[RedWiz]

Berry nice. How's that treatin ya?

[Tama2]

I want to kill myself.

[RedWiz]

And I don't blame you in the least. Sometimes it seems like the game doesn't want you to win. Like the Judges are sitting on a couch, eating donuts, and laughing at you. "Hah, let's make it so if they press they hit someone, it's breaking the law." :oscar:

I imagine a single character or single race/class challenge would be a little bit more fun...

[Tama2]

And I'm only at 132 quests done....

I hate myself.

[Yar]

And I'm only at 132 quests done....

I hate myself.Tama[2], Tama[2], he's our man! If he can't do it, no one can!

GO TAMA[2]! :hyper: :roll: :spin:

[Tama2]

You give my courage.

[RedWiz]

That's still a good deal of quests, m'boy. Keep on keepin' on. There's definitely some odd reward for someone as diligent as you.

[ljkkjlcm9]

The laws are specific to quests now. The same mission will always have the same law... so they don't put laws on missions to make them impossible. Harder sure, but not impossible. For the damage thing, or being a higher level etc... if you break the law on your last kill, it doesn't count as breaking the law. So after I got a beastly red mage summoner, who killed everyone in a single turn, those laws meant nothing anymore.

As for Hard Mode... it's only difficult up to that mission. Then you start leveling like crazy and the game becomes extremely easy. I never played the game on normal. As for that mission... I never really had that much difficulty with it because I did so many side missions and learned so many skills.

THE JACKEL

[pokigan]

it doesntr matter for you to break the law once in awile :o

[Darkswordofchaos]

I hate the law were you cant miss cause even if you have a nine to ten chance for hitting my luck is so bad that nine times out of ten will get that 1/10 chance and miss :mad2::mad2:

[Wolf Kanno]

The only two laws I truly hate are:

Don't attack anyone lower level than you.

The lowest level enemy is 18, Luso it level 38 and my lowest level character is the lv. 22 Viera that just joined...

Don't attack any opponents who are one tile away from you.

The way this one works for those who don't know, is that you basically are restricted to attacking enemies next to you and basically can't use magic. That is fine by me except for one tiny little thing the game forgets to mention. The law also counts if you accidentally knock an opponent backwards. Basically if you do any attack and it ends with the opponent being a tile away from you, you broke the law... This pissed me off so much cause I tried so hard to keep the laws.

I miss not being able to screw with the laws. :(

[Skyblade]

The only two laws I truly hate are:

Don't attack anyone lower level than you.

The lowest level enemy is 18, Luso it level 38 and my lowest level character is the lv. 22 Viera that just joined...

Don't attack any opponents who are one tile away from you.

The way this one works for those who don't know, is that you basically are restricted to attacking enemies next to you and basically can't use magic. That is fine by me except for one tiny little thing the game forgets to mention. The law also counts if you accidentally knock an opponent backwards. Basically if you do any attack and it ends with the opponent being a tile away from you, you broke the law... This pissed me off so much cause I tried so hard to keep the laws.

I miss not being able to screw with the laws. :(

Reaction abilities are your friend.

That would be "don't attack opponents more than one tile away from you". And, yeah, crits suck there, but you can still use spells, as long as you use them at melee range (and you can target areas further away than 1 square, as long as no characters are in that square, so you can still use AOE magic without hitting yourself). Also, you can avoid crit knockback by boxing enemies in. If one of your characters is on the other side of the guy you're hitting, knockback won't do anything.

[Wolf Kanno]

I figured that, but it got annoying when I was doing the Clan trials in the early parts of the game when I was a bit limited. The building up of Mp didn't help considering those bunnies are faster that you...

Granted, storywise I still haven't gotten to the main point yet (I just met the guy who wants your judge) but level-wise I'm in my 40s now; so I've recently gone back to alot of the Clan trials and finally building up my privileges. I'm hoping I can unlock the privilege that doubles your MP growth cause my Nu Muo and Viera are lagging behind my "quick and dirty" Humes and Bangaa.

[ljkkjlcm9]

Nu Mou are clearly outclassed by Viera. As soon as you learn Blood Price, Viera easily become the best mages in the game. Slap an elemental robe on your Viera, Double Summon, and hit yourself while summoning.... you heal yourself back to full health and get a free double cast. Nu Mou can't compare to something like this.

THE JACKEL

[Roogle]

I have to agree that the Nu Mou get outclassed by Viera even early on.

Maybe they should eliminate the restrictions on job classes based on race and allow races to be more of an aesthetic choice with minor statistical differences like Final Fantasy XI?

The law system seems like a flawed way to implement a challenge or restriction to a mainly limitless character management system. I was turned off pretty quickly by laws that were not entirely in my control, and, unlike Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, I was not presented with the option to nullify laws during the time that I played.

I chose to play the game in Hard Mode. I may have gotten further in the game if I had simply selected Normal Mode.

[Wolf Kanno]

I still have issues with how unbalanced the TA series is in terms of job classes and skill acquisition. The law system doesn't really bother me terribly much; though I feel it lost its strategic impact in TA2.

On topic, I just finally lost my first battle in normal mode. I challenged that optional dungeon that randomly appears and got my ass handed to me by two of the more memorable boss battles in XII and their Malboro companions... I was kicking ass up until that point. The Fury used Sleepless Night and the enemy became both invincible and had 4 turns to my parties one. I could only do 1hp of damage to the Malboro's who happened to have Mana shield and over 700hp...

At least I managed to stock up on a massive amount of rare loot and was able to gain a ton of new equipment. Still, I feel sad for suffering my first real lost in the game.

[Skyblade]

Yeah, those guys can slaughter the unprepared. :D

[Wolf Kanno]

Tell me about it. I was decimating all the forces up until then and boom! they show up and I just sat there watching my forces get decimated. Finally started playing the main story again, Hurdy finally made an appearance.

[Zeromus_X]

I think I finally beat the first tower once I got a Red Mage Summoner and a few Mirror Item Rangers.

Only to be slaughtered by the second tower.

The thing about the monsters in those towers (especially the top floors) is that they're rigged to go a few turns before you do, regardless of speed stat; it's definitely frustrating having all the Malboros buff themselves and that dumb bunny using field attacks when your next turn is scheduled to come up next year.

Next time I go in I'll bring a Red Mage Summoner and a Juggler with Critical Quick so I can infinite loop them. Fight cheap with cheap.

[Skyblade]

If you're using Mirror Item Rangers, use Traps too. They are really great if you can get enemies to hit them, since any enemy that hits a trap has its turn ended immediately. Plant them in direct line routes to your units, and you can usually slow the enemy advance quite a bit if you can get them set up and force the enemy to come to you.

Blue Mages are your friends. They have two easy to acquire skills that remove all buffs, in addition to Matra Magic, which is awesome in this game (remember, everyone starts with zero MP. Switch MP and HP in the first one or two turns, and bam, super enemies get lowered to 5-10 health). Add in Dragon Force and Sandstorm, and you've got one awesome unit.

Parivirs also rock. Great elemental/status attacks and awesome physical attack stat. Give them Geomancy or Dual Sword (Geomancy makes their enemies progressively weaker to their elemental attacks, and the elemental attacks of the rest of your team), and they have a great set up. Giving Paladins Flair as a subset also works, since Paladins get far better gear, but I prefer Paravir's high attack power for stat training.

Snipers/Assassins are as awesome as ever. Stat train as Sniper, definitely, since Assassin's physical attack stats got a major nerf in this game. Concentrate got nerfed as well. It's probably still the best for them, but it's up to you.

Spellblades are a really nice A-Ability set when paired with an Assassin. All the Spellblade abilities gain the Assassin's Greatbow attack range. And Blood Price melds quite nicely with Ultima Masher (Blood Price + Doublecast and Cure/Attack Magic combo works great too).

Arcanists have some great abilities, but you really need to watch speed growth on Nu Mou, as their good magic using classes all have terrible speed growth chances.

Moogles have an interesting choice with their Flintlock. Some unique support abilities there, and a decent all-round class. Have you tried using Teleport Cannon on that protection quest where the law says move 1 space only?

Also, Chocobo Knights change their stat growth based on which Chocobo they are mounted on. They'll lose speed, but gain in most other stat growths, if you're using them. Overall, I'm not a fan though, since they lose their other abilities.

Hurdy rocks. If you take the optional side-quest for his mission, he'll get an MP restoring ballad that can really help out your casters (he'll get it anyway, but not until much later on), and he just gets better as he goes. He's not as awesome as Frimelda, but he is good nonetheless.

Master Monks are a great new Bangaa class. Cross Counter alone makes them worth using, but they get a good variety of abilities to use all across the board.

Gria and Seeq get some nice abilities, but they're much more limited than the other races, so they're easier to decide what to do with.



If you need items, master the Auction House, and advance the main story. You can get very powerful items very early (Ragetsu-Denbu for Dual Wield before you're halfway through the game, ha!), and it is always a viable source for new high-end gear. If you need loot, get a Thief or Bishop, and Steal/Pilfer. Hunters with Hunting also help a lot. Or, progress to right before the end of the game, and get Vaan! He has an ability that disarms surrounding traps to get loot. You have Rangers who can plant traps. Yeah, figure that one out. The level of the hunter determines the loot quality, so surround him with various levels of Rangers, and go crazy. Find a mission with no enemies (some of the Bonga Bugle ones are great for this), and do it until you have all the loot you could ever want.

EDIT: PS, Laws are specific to the mission. Law Rewards are not, they are sequential. The more missions you do, the better the rewards get (haven't checked what effect breaking the law has on the reward order yet, but I will soon), and early on, those too are a decent source of gear.

[aquatius]

To be honest, the law system is a godsend compared to the first game, where there'd be laws against using "Fight" or attacking animals, which I fell prey to in a flan-killing mission -_-.

[Orlandeau]

The law also counts if you accidentally knock an opponent backwards. Basically if you do any attack and it ends with the opponent being a tile away from you, you broke the law...

you made me remember those damn memories :mad2:

btw, it's already been a while since my play... actually i forgot that you can choose difficulty? then, what's the difference between normal and hard in-game? because i can't seem to recall which mode i played..
i guess it should have been hard.

brightmoon tor... i was pretty lucky i guess because i never game overed there, although i was pretty surprised when arrived at the last floor :tongue: it's amazing how the enemies move multiple times ahead of you :mad: i guess that's how it feels when we bullied the other monsters :D

and yes, this game really took a lot of time if you want to finish all the quest, i remember there're about 200-ish quest rite?

and.. the last bonus (unlisted) quest is pretty dang hard, i almost got decimated there.

[Skyblade]

The law also counts if you accidentally knock an opponent backwards. Basically if you do any attack and it ends with the opponent being a tile away from you, you broke the law...

you made me remember those damn memories :mad2:

btw, it's already been a while since my play... actually i forgot that you can choose difficulty? then, what's the difference between normal and hard in-game? because i can't seem to recall which mode i played..
i guess it should have been hard.

brightmoon tor... i was pretty lucky i guess because i never game overed there, although i was pretty surprised when arrived at the last floor :tongue: it's amazing how the enemies move multiple times ahead of you :mad: i guess that's how it feels when we bullied the other monsters :D

and yes, this game really took a lot of time if you want to finish all the quest, i remember there're about 200-ish quest rite?

and.. the last bonus (unlisted) quest is pretty dang hard, i almost got decimated there.

If you don't know the difference between Hard and Normal, you've only played one of them. Enemies recieved a very significant stat boost in Hard Mode. While the difficulty evened out past a point, since you could start infinitely training your characters, early on, the difference was obvious.

There are 400 quests on the quest report, and plenty of side quests that didn't show up on there.

[Orlandeau]

on the save file, only 300 quests listed though. well anyway afaik if you haven't finished all the quests, you can't get "The Final Quest" or the 301st quest which isa tourney, maybe about 5 rounds or so, i forgot. All i remember you'll fight 2 tonberry king which almost decimate my team

oh well. it seems my game was only normal mode not hard.:D