Heckaton, the Karateka, and others...

[feioncastor]

Seem to have gotten way to stronger. I played the Famicom version of FF3 and I honestly did NO leveling up at all, aside from the random fights I encountered while progressing in the game. And I was entirely able to beat each boss as I got to them (except Garuda, he wasted me on my first attempt with my Dragoonless Party).

But on the DS version, I'm having a lot of trouble. For one thing, the stat system seems all screwy. If you have someone train as, let's say, a Thief until they're level 80 Thief, does that permanantly raise their agility, even when you switch to a different class? I mean, does the job of a character affect the way their stats increase when they level up? I'm almost positive it did on the Famicom. My Monk had a ridiculously greater amount of HP than any other party member because I kept him as a monk all the way until I got the Karateka, and then I kept him as that all the way to the end of the game. But my Monk on DS (Arc) actually has the lowest max HP of my party, even though everyone is the same level. He has lower HP than Refia, who has been a white mage for the entire game.

So I'm trying to fight Heckaton in the Cave of Shadows, and he is owning me. My guys are all level 40, I'm using two Dark Knights (because the splitter monsters in the cave), an Evoker and a Thief, who does about 3 times as much damage as my Dark Knights, or any other meleeing class. In all fairness, he is a level 83 Thief, so he's gotten quite good at swinging daggers, but still, I'd expect a level 20 Dark Knight with two Kikus and full Genji to be able to outdamage a Thief.

So am I missing the latest equipment or something? Heckaton is doing a lot of damage per turn, usually killing one character each turn, and if I try to bring him/her back, he'll just wipe them out as soon as I do. My Thief (Ingus) has had the Black Cowl and Black Garb for a LONG time, but I haven't seen anything better. Once I got the Invincible, I had access to its catalog of overpriced, but good equipment, however, none of it really suits my needs for this particular cave of Shadows. I'd like a better helmet for my mage than the Feathered Cap, but I can't find anything else that a mage can wear. I do remember when playing the old version that I didn't get a lot of new equipment, but I didn't care because the equipment I had seemed to stop guys like Heckaton from acing me. Which is weird because I don't think they even intended for Heckaton to be a really challenging boss. I think Heckaton was supposed to be as challenging as Sir Krawlie (from Chrono Trigger), but for some reason, he seems to be a real Warmech this time around. You know, except that Warmech kills your party in one turn and also looks way cooler than Heckaton, and has a way cooler name. I like Warmech.

And I don't know why the heck I don't have a Karateka yet. I've heard they're called "Black Belt" in this version, but I have all the crystals except one, and I still dont' have him. I could've sworn you get the Karateka in the same set as the Viking on the Famicom. And now, I don't seem to be getting him at all. And I also could've sword that you didn't get the Thief until you got the Scholar before, and I've had Ingus as a Thief since I got the first set of jobs, which means I had Thief a long way before Scholar.

Plus, the Freelancer isn't as god-awful as the Onion Kid was. I mean, he can use the W. Slayer, and can use level 1 magic, making him somewhat useful, even after you get the first set of jobs. I never tried to have an Onion Kid cast a spell. Could they use magic before?

So did anyone else have more trouble with this version than with the older one? I love the game, and I like this DS version. It's cool how they made the story a little more storylike, with the individual backstories and all that. Desh is still a tool, but at least now he'll sometiems cast "Thundara" to help out in battle. And I'm glad that every job class now has the option to "Run Away" from a fight. As I recall, several jobs didn't have that on their battle menu.

But as far as difficulty, I am struggling, a bit too much, actually. I've spent a lot of time leveling up and I'm still having trouble. It does take away from the game, too. When I lose to a boss or die in a dungeon over and over again, I just get frustrated and stop playing for a few days, which is uncommon for me.

EDIT - LOL. In my head, this thread was one or two sentences, something like "Any tips on beating Heckaton with 2 Dark Knights, an Evoker and a Thief?", and I (like always) managed to stretch it out into 83 paragraphs of tl;dr mayhem.

[Zeromus_X]

The Karateka (Black Belt in this version) was made an Earth Crystal job.

Your stats as a highly leveled job only increase as that job, if I recall correctly. This is why it's important to actually level up your job levels in this version, whereas I don't remember it being that important in the original other than staying as either a melee or magic class the entire game.

Your lack of healer is probably what's killing you. You should always have a healer on your team without exceptions for the entire game. Either a White Mage or a Bard with the appropriate harp should suffice (unfortunately I don't remember what all the effects and what names of the harps are at the moment). You can also use your allies' critical HP status to your advantage by having a Knight with two shields use the Defend option, which should nullify it's physical attacks (a popular strategy amongst crazy LLG people). I think I remember him having an Earthquake attack or something of that sort though.

Your Thief is outdamaging your Dark Knights because, well, he's a level 80 Thief and they're level 20 Dark Knights. Job Levels really do make a difference in this version. And the Thief besides (and most of the other jobs) have definitely been powered up with the rebalancing of the classes.

Anyway, I'd recommend changing whoever was a White Mage before (looks like Refia) and using them to heal your party.

[atlanteay]

arc seems to have the lowest HP for my game as well. Maybe it's just him because everyone is at the same level and Luneth has the highest HP out of them while arc is like 800 hp behind.

[Zeromus_X]

Has Arc been a mage character for the entire game?

[feioncastor]

Has Arc been a mage character for the entire game?

Actually, on mine save file, Arc is a level 58 Monk who is currently a Dark Knight, just for the sake of the Cave of Shadows.

On the Famicom version, my 2nd character was a Monk the whole time, and then a Karateka when they became available, and his max HP demonstrated that fact.

[Hambone]

Has Arc been a mage character for the entire game?

Actually, on mine save file, Arc is a level 58 Monk who is currently a Dark Knight, just for the sake of the Cave of Shadows.

On the Famicom version, my 2nd character was a Monk the whole time, and then a Karateka when they became available, and his max HP demonstrated that fact.

I think he was talking to atlanteay.

[NINJA_Ryu]

Well, to me its been as good as ever, and ive planned on only one job change for each charachter the entire game. From warrior-Knight, BM-Magus, WM-Devout, and Monk to BB

although, in the next couple go arounds, going to work in goodies such as thief, draggon and dark knight ^^ *hugs*

[atlanteay]

Has Arc been a mage character for the entire game?

no. he was a black mage for about 5 levels but his HP was fairly high. Actually, it was highest out of the four but then i turned him into a scholar and things started dropping. Then he became a dragoon, and finally a ninja.