FFII battle tactics

Why do I feel uneasy playing this game? I don't know how to properly level up my characters!

This game drives me insane. Leveling up magic without using the 'cheat' is almost impossible. I can't even play through this game without feeling that I am doing something wrong.

What do you recommend for weapons for each character?

How did YOU do it?

Did you bother leveling up magic?

Did you use the 'cheat', where you cancel continuously until you level up? I feel bad using this, especially because the last person in your party cannot benefit from it.

Wielding 2 weapons at a time will double the amount of points you get for attacking per turn.
If you want a character who is skilled with multiple weapons (For example, I usually train Guy with Clubs and Axes), you can give that character one of each weapon in each hand to train him in both skills at the same time.

Once you reach level 4, I think, with a skill, you'll need to start attacking enemies more than once before the level goes up. (I could be wrong here, but I know that this happens around that time. But again,don't worry, you'll face plenty of enemies who'll want more than one hit before they're beat.)

Leveling up magic goes faster than you'd think, but there's one crucial rule, and it is EXTREMELY hard to follow but you must: Have your mage use magic and ONLY use magic every time you fight.
It's better to have your mage character choose to waste time or run from inescapable fights and flounder uselessly than to swing a weapon more than a few times per, like, hundred attacks.

To increase magic, you gotta wear it out. You can have your fighters attack eachother (Or pile up on a dead enemy or something to cause lots of "ineffectives) and have your mage use up lots of turns and magic and MP to wipe out weak enemies one by one. This will take up lots of turns, give your mage lots of chances to cast a spell, and, most importantly, give your mage the oppertunity to blow away magic points all in a single fight. That'll get the MP to increase.
Note: Dungeons are rough on a mage so try to get some decent MP early. But don't use MP boosting techniques in a dungeon, of course. :)

When your spells get high, you can keep lower level spells handy. That way, when you've got 6 spell points left, and fire5, you can still cast lots of your Aero1. Of course, you can modify that tactic all you want.
It's also fine to keep the spell levels equal if you want- But Fire is the best to have highest most often (lotta undead that you don't want to waste your cures on). Ice should be raised in the beginning 'cause there's lots of turtles to kill, and you can preserve bolt as you weak spell because water monsters will come soon enough to raise it quickly to the level of the other spells.

(Of course, attacking each other will raise your characters hps if you hit them hard enough)

In the beginning, ogres and land turtles can be found in the north. They are very tough, but still killable. Fairly soon, with the assistance of magic (You will increase your strength and fighting levels a lot, but until level 3 with 2 weapons, your fighters won't do much, especially with starting weapons.), you can get rich fighting them- one long, hard, leveling filled battle at a time. And if you manage to kill a wizard ogre, it may drop some spell books that sell for more cash than you could ever want.
Stay away from soldiers and mages though.(In the beginning at least. When you're strong, the Wizards will drop spell books like Aero and Fast, or whatever the "Fast" spell is in that game. They're worth lots of money, and they're worth it to use as well.) Remember that the turtles are totally helpless against ice.

You'll have to fight a lot. But you fall into a rythym after a while, and it works out fairly well. Don't worry too much; the enemies hit you often enough and hard enough that you'll grow strong quick; and they grow stronger fast enough that you'll be hitting them twice (For your leveling) soon enough too.

As far as teaching magic to your other 3 characters - It's tough. Magic will lower their strength and fighting will lower their magic power. With some careful work, you can make fighter's into healers of sorts, especially since you can raise healing ability outside of battle.
I try to give Cure, Heal,, Life, and the like to my fighters and not my mage. Then, after the battle, my fighters use up their spell points healing, curing, and reviving everybody outside of battle. The spell levels go up the same, if not faster, and then they're more effective when you're desperate in a battle.
Also, spells like Mini, Frog, Exit etc - These are all perfectly fine for outside of battle, and they can be trained outside of battle enough that they can be used sparingly and effectively in battle.
But, yeah, it's very hard to make a good black mage/fighter...


There is a cheat... but it'll ruin the game for you to know it - It'll make the game boring, and it'll make it far too easy to the point of being bizarre unless you have great control. And I assure you, you probably won't have the control on your first time around. Everybody gets impatient...
I won't tell you the cheat leveling tactic because I care about you and your gameplaying enjoyment and success, but I guarantee that it'll be the first thing out of the next 5 poster's mouths.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martyr

I won't tell you the cheat leveling tactic because I care about you and your gameplaying enjoyment and success, but I guarantee that it'll be the first thing out of the next 5 poster's mouths.

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I already know it :cry:

But I can contain myself pretty well. Thanks for the tips. I think I have a fair idea of how I will be able to play out the game. What I really wanted was a way to play the game without the cheat, because it is so cheap that I can't use it without feeling... cheap.

I can see how it is possible to level up without doing it, and I'll try.

I was thinking of keeping Gus as a club/axe or something, my mage would be the girl (I can't believe I forgot her name :eek: ) and white mage/fighter would be my main, who would carry a sword and shield I guess.

You asked the right question of the right person :D

To start with, you MUST get a clear picture in your mind of how you want to level up your characters and what you want them to be like in battle. If you don't they'll never be any good at anything.

Martyr covered a lot of good things that I won't re-hash, but I can't stress battle tactics enough. Remember that the more things you try to make someone do, the less good they'll wind up being at it. Making Frioniel a Paladin isn't a horrible idea, but you'll have to effectively double the training you do.

Another bit of advice I can give, and this isn't something the game wants you to know about, but magic and equipment HATE each other. Armor with higher defense cripples your evastion and magic abilities by a LOT. Weapons that do a lot of damage are just as bad. If you make someone primarily a magic user, give them weak armor if you want them to be any good at magic. Trust me, this WILL make a difference! :D

I could basically turn this into a VERY long essay of a post, but I'll spare everyone else that. If you want some more advanced strategies, PM me.

I might PM you, simply because that's exactly what I want; strategies.

I also thought that white magic would hinder my main character's weapon skills. I still don't really see much point in keeping people in the back row, though. 90% of the enemies.. all they do are physical attacks, and when you're not getting hit, you're not really gaining any HP! You're just going to die every time someone actually DOES cast a magic spell on you... I don't see the point really.

I know that when you 'level up' stuff theres a chance of deleveling something else I think. It's really hard for me to decide to give my characters bad equipment because I think it will help them? I need more concrete details why that is so... I simply don't get it :[. Will your endurance increase, decreasing your magic? Is it a trade off th game doesn't really give you much detail about?

There's only 3 tradeoffs

Intelligence decreases when Strength increases
Endurace decreases when Intelligence increases
Strength decreases with Spirit increases

Note that this does NOT apply to Dawn of Souls. If you're playing that one you can level anything up as much as you like, you'll only be weakened by what you aren't leveling up and what you have equipped.

Also, keeping mages in the back row is an iffy tactic. However, it IS a good thing to do for boss fights. Your more physical classes will take more hits (note that this doesn't apply for monsters that don't bother with physical attacks). I keep mages in the front, there's no penalty for increasing endurance, and they need it just as much as the physical fighters do. I only swap them to the back for REALLY bad fights.

what I think we are saying about attacking is that then your mage will not be attacking with magic every turn. But I would agree that weopens may decrease magic. Thats why my BM is a monk and my wM has a shield and sword. the back row is more useful for morons like leila who have 200 hp so late in the game. Oh yeah are u talking about DOS or the original? I'm playing DOS.