AVAST, AN FFV NEWBIE APPEARS!

[Wolf Kanno]

Well I sure lucked out. I think. Galuf's Geomancer Find Hole ability thing saved me a lot of problems when raiding this treasure room in the Floating Ruins or Ruins of Ronka or whatever. I would have been very irritated had I found that room full of goodies and promptly been dropped down a hole.

Well happy to see you liking Geomancer, it tends to be one of the more overlooked jobs in this game.

Are you serious? I did all that for smurfing Throw? I have never used Throw in any FF game, ever. And let me guess, Dual Wielding is the ability that will take 450 ABP. Holy smurfing trout, I'll be trying to get that for the rest of the game!

Ugh...beginning to think wasting time on Ninja wasn't worth it...

Yep, but Dual Wield is one of the two best melee moves in the game. You may want to have one or two characters master Ninja for that. Generally the best skills are the most expensive and require you to master several less than stellar skills to reach it.

Anyway...Galuf mastered Geomancer and I wasn't sure what to switch him to. He's a Red Mage now. Now say what you want about Red Mage - about them being the Master of None and all that - but they are by far the most stylish of mages. I love the look.

They are snazzy. I like Blue Mages Domino masks and berets as well.

THE KING IS EVIL???? Well, I'm shocked! Who could have ever predicted this development???

If you mean possessed by evil, then you would be right.

Gonna point out a fact I realized some time ago - the FFX Party is the only party in the series that isn't directly responsible for dooming the world. Good job, Tidus and friends.

Well they did kill the only person who could create the Final Aeon and they only beat Sin due to Jecht's weakness to choral music. Not to mention the whole thing with Seymour though I guess he really wasn't much of a threat. Also FFII and III's cast say "hi".

And the Earth Crystal shattered, also something no one could have ever foreseen. Poor King Tycoon though, reunited with his one daughter only long enough to die.

Yeah King Tycoon gets the short end of the stick in this one.

X-Death's Theme is pretty badass. It made that whole scene quite memorable. That and Krile crash landing in a meteor and then blasting the king with a bolt spell. Contrived and useless but awesome.

ExDeath does indeed have a pretty badass theme which I always use for him when playing Dissidia. Krile... is the master of contrived scenes. Meet FFV's resident Mary Sue.

Oooh these new classes sound awesome though... Dragoons are Lancers in this translation? Meh, makes sense. I wanna try out that and Dancer.

Dragoon is pretty cool and Dancer is a blast actually. They seem weak but they are pretty good damage dealers and have some good abilities. Samurai and Chemist are also pretty awesome.

For more serious Plot Talk, I guess Cid's machine weakened the crystals so X Death was able to revive in the first place? So there's a vague environmental message. Although it's Galuf's and the other's fault for leaving their planet's supervillain on Earth. Very selfish of them.

Observation: in everything ever, the old Ultimate Evil can only be sealed away. Invariably, during the course of the story, the Ultimate Evil is awakened. Yet this generation of heroes can actually destroy it permanently instead of just sealing it. Is this a trope? Because it should be. It's in a ton of different fantasy works. The old heroes were terrible at their jobs and only locked the evil up until a better group of heroes actually put an end to the threat forever.

My general feeling is that FFV's theme was inheritance. I'll talk about it more in-depth when I reach this point in my article series.

[Forsaken Lover]

I really wasn't feeling Dancer... Does it get better as it levels up? That would make sense. Right now, I had to switch it out for the "Kima Brain" boss guarding the last meteorite. Dancer Reina just wasn't doing anything so far as I could tell and I ended up dying. Meanwhile, when I switched in Time Mage Reina, I obliterated the boss no problem.

Congrats our heroes, you screwed up again. It looked like Galuf was leading an army to take down X-Death but nope! He had us hostage so that plan was thwarted immediately.

I gotta say, the music in this part is smurfing awesome. It's not very ominous or imposing music for the main villain's castle...it's actually quite heroic and epic. But yeah, Galuf riding in on a dragon to that theme to save us was great.

And speaking of amazing music, I thought Battle on the Big Bridge was the Gilgamesh boss theme. But nope, it's just the theme for every battle on the Big Bridge. I really dig it. I was overly prepared for the fight with Gilgamesh though, Hasting everyone and casting Protect. This wasn't THE fight with him, I guess. Poor guy was screwed though because I had Bartz decked out with two Mage Mashers and so when he tried to buff himself at the end DIDN'T WORK DIDN'T WORK DIDN'T WORK.

Loving these new Halcyon Blades I got for Bartz. He now hits for 450 a shot which means he deals 900 damage per turn.

If I felt badass though, I had a nice reality check in the form of "Shld Drgn."I tried going intot his Sealed Castle place and that enemy wrecked me. Its attacks are fearsome enough but they also inflict...I think Berserk and Confuse? It appears to have Auto-Reflect while also having ridiculously high physical defense. I see no way at all to beat it. Maybe it has some sort of elemental weakness you have to exploit with Sword or an elemental weapon but I have no idea.

I should have listened to that NPC in the previous town who told me not to go in here...

So Galuf is KING Galuf huh? Interesting. So right now we are rocking a team of three royal personages who actually do something. And Bartz, who's family still hasn't been explained really. Will it be? Will i find out just what his father was up to later on?

You know what this game is really about? Being nice to animals. Dragons, Chocobos, Moogles, Hydra....there are so many lovable critters in this game and they get a relatively large amount of focus. We're off to save Krile's dragon right now which will mark the second time in this game we've saved a dragon. Granted, there are pragmatic reasons for doing this but you get my drift.

So I think this game is smarter than I realized. I was exploring Galuf's castle and found the basement. Enemy attacks out of nowhere! Rock Statues huh? And they give 4 ABP!"Aha...." I said as I clap my hands in glee. Then after a couple fights with two of them, the random encounters spawn five of them. "Oh dear..." I think. It's not so bad though and it gives 8 ABP.

Now, if you were some sort of demented madman, you might be tempted to grind and get all 999 ABP here. Me? I'm not quite that crazy. I was thinking mainly of getting the rest of Ninja's 450 ABP as well as Time Mage's 250. I'm guessing I will Master both Jobs after that? Time Mage is Level 6 and I can't see it going any higher than Level 7/Master.

Anyway, I spent a good while killing these things. Then in my latest encounter, I noticed they were hitting a lot harder. Doing like 600 damage to Bartz. They also seemed to be taking a bit longer to kill. I can't remember what level they were when I originally scanned them but I remember they had about 2700 HP. Now they have 3300.

Maybe I'm crazy and imagining it but the game realized I was grinding and was superpowering the encounters to keep me from doing that.

Anyway, I gave up on that and just left the castle to go find the Dragon Grass. Bard is Mastered, working on Chemist and Lancer for Faris. But yeah, with Red Mage Galuf taking 999 ABP, Ninja Bartz taking 450 ABP (well, it's like another 250 at this point) and Time Mage Reina taking another 250 ABP, I think Faris might be the only Job I'll be switching around in the near future.

I am liking this new world though, in Plot News. I don't know what's going to happen while in World 1 I knew that our heroes were going to fail repeatedly and the crystals would be destroyed. Right now though, all bets are off.

[Wolf Kanno]

I really wasn't feeling Dancer... Does it get better as it levels up? That would make sense. Right now, I had to switch it out for the "Kima Brain" boss guarding the last meteorite. Dancer Reina just wasn't doing anything so far as I could tell and I ended up dying. Meanwhile, when I switched in Time Mage Reina, I obliterated the boss no problem.

There are some special Dancer only gear that raises the probability of Sword Dance to be activated when the dance move is used. There is also the Dancing Dagger which will make a character randomly use one of the dances regardless of class.

Congrats our heroes, you screwed up again. It looked like Galuf was leading an army to take down X-Death but nope! He had us hostage so that plan was thwarted immediately.

TV Tropes joked that this was "Nice Job Breaking it Hero" The Game.

I gotta say, the music in this part is smurfing awesome. It's not very ominous or imposing music for the main villain's castle...it's actually quite heroic and epic. But yeah, Galuf riding in on a dragon to that theme to save us was great.

Told you FFV was rocking a killer OST.

And speaking of amazing music, I thought Battle on the Big Bridge was the Gilgamesh boss theme. But nope, it's just the theme for every battle on the Big Bridge. I really dig it. I was overly prepared for the fight with Gilgamesh though, Hasting everyone and casting Protect. This wasn't THE fight with him, I guess. Poor guy was screwed though because I had Bartz decked out with two Mage Mashers and so when he tried to buff himself at the end DIDN'T WORK DIDN'T WORK DIDN'T WORK.

Loving these new Halcyon Blades I got for Bartz. He now hits for 450 a shot which means he deals 900 damage per turn.

Yeah, it pretty much is the Bridge them though I think it does play out in one of the other Gilgamesh fights. Don't expect much from him though, he's nastier in other games than in his own. Though his big ultimate showdown with the party is hilarious and begins one of the persistent running gags in the series.

If I felt badass though, I had a nice reality check in the form of "Shld Drgn."I tried going intot his Sealed Castle place and that enemy wrecked me. Its attacks are fearsome enough but they also inflict...I think Berserk and Confuse? It appears to have Auto-Reflect while also having ridiculously high physical defense. I see no way at all to beat it. Maybe it has some sort of elemental weakness you have to exploit with Sword or an elemental weapon but I have no idea.

Want to take those bad boys down easily? Raise a Trainer up until they learn Control and then just have the Shield Dragon destroy itself with Flame.

So Galuf is KING Galuf huh? Interesting. So right now we are rocking a team of three royal personages who actually do something. And Bartz, who's family still hasn't been explained really. Will it be? Will i find out just what his father was up to later on?

You'll get a few more bits of info but don't expect anything ground breaking.

You know what this game is really about? Being nice to animals. Dragons, Chocobos, Moogles, Hydra....there are so many lovable critters in this game and they get a relatively large amount of focus. We're off to save Krile's dragon right now which will mark the second time in this game we've saved a dragon. Granted, there are pragmatic reasons for doing this but you get my drift.

See we've got that environmental message still kicking about being kind to the planet and all it's inhabitants. Nice that it's not quite in your face like Seiken Denetsu and FFVII were.

So I think this game is smarter than I realized. I was exploring Galuf's castle and found the basement. Enemy attacks out of nowhere! Rock Statues huh? And they give 4 ABP!"Aha...." I said as I clap my hands in glee. Then after a couple fights with two of them, the random encounters spawn five of them. "Oh dear..." I think. It's not so bad though and it gives 8 ABP.

Now, if you were some sort of demented madman, you might be tempted to grind and get all 999 ABP here. Me? I'm not quite that crazy. I was thinking mainly of getting the rest of Ninja's 450 ABP as well as Time Mage's 250. I'm guessing I will Master both Jobs after that? Time Mage is Level 6 and I can't see it going any higher than Level 7/Master.

Anyway, I spent a good while killing these things. Then in my latest encounter, I noticed they were hitting a lot harder. Doing like 600 damage to Bartz. They also seemed to be taking a bit longer to kill. I can't remember what level they were when I originally scanned them but I remember they had about 2700 HP. Now they have 3300.

Maybe I'm crazy and imagining it but the game realized I was grinding and was superpowering the encounters to keep me from doing that.

A Blue Mage with Lv. 5 Death will wreck these guys and is the fastest way to kill them. Also, using a Soft/Gold Needle will instantly kill them.

Anyway, I gave up on that and just left the castle to go find the Dragon Grass. Bard is Mastered, working on Chemist and Lancer for Faris. But yeah, with Red Mage Galuf taking 999 ABP, Ninja Bartz taking 450 ABP (well, it's like another 250 at this point) and Time Mage Reina taking another 250 ABP, I think Faris might be the only Job I'll be switching around in the near future.

I am liking this new world though, in Plot News. I don't know what's going to happen while in World 1 I knew that our heroes were going to fail repeatedly and the crystals would be destroyed. Right now though, all bets are off.

Don't bother with Red Mage just yet, there is a better dungeon that will mostly guarantee 999ABP if you have enough elixirs in your inventory which makes mastering Red Mage and Mime so much easier. After that it's Mover hunting in the final dungeon.

Have you ventured into the Gil Snapper's cave just yet?

[Galuf]

Its awesome to see you are enjoying this awesome game. I dont knw why its so overlooked. But you are not safe yet. 3 very powerful bosses await you in the future. And thats not including the 2 dickishly placed superbosses.