Final Fantasy Tactics: Difference between revisions

no edit summary
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 2: Line 2:


== The Basics ==
== The Basics ==
- Play it on PSP, if you can. The story is better, there are neat bonuses, it looks nicer. It renamed some classes and most of the abilities, so if a tip's confusing you, that's probably why.
- Play it on PSP, if you can. The story is better, there are neat bonuses, it looks nicer. It renamed some classes and most of the abilities, so if a tip's confusing you, that's probably why.
 
- Read the Tutorial for the basics, if you're playing PSP. Understanding how charge times and clock ticks work is a huge help. The PSX tutorial is a horribly-translated mess, and worthless for anything but comic relief.


- Lots of enemy bosses are Virgo. Make Ramza a Capricorn or Taurus (for good compatibility) and he'll be able to OHKO them with a strong magic attack.
- Lots of enemy bosses are Virgo. Make Ramza a Capricorn or Taurus (for good compatibility) and he'll be able to OHKO them with a strong magic attack.
Line 13: Line 15:


- Unless you want to drive yourself crazy, don't bother trying to get all of the rare/unique items. It takes forever and is not necessary for a normal play through. I think the best way to enjoy this game is to just follow the story, grinding where necessary.
- Unless you want to drive yourself crazy, don't bother trying to get all of the rare/unique items. It takes forever and is not necessary for a normal play through. I think the best way to enjoy this game is to just follow the story, grinding where necessary.
- Triangle will bring up a turn listing-which will also show when spells will go of.


== Mechanics ==
== Mechanics ==
- Equipment and abilities tend to matter more than level unless there's a massive gap.


- Offense > Defense. Enemies typically can't heal/revive themselves worth crap so a bum rush strategy is usually the most effective.
- Offense > Defense. Enemies typically can't heal/revive themselves worth crap so a bum rush strategy is usually the most effective.
Line 30: Line 36:
- When a character earns JP, everyone else present earns a small amount of JP in that class as well. This can be very useful for teaching characters one ability from a class you otherwise don't want them to bother with.
- When a character earns JP, everyone else present earns a small amount of JP in that class as well. This can be very useful for teaching characters one ability from a class you otherwise don't want them to bother with.


- Don't neglect counter/support/movement abilities, and play around with secondary skills. Most of the classes with the best abilities don't have the stats to take advantage of them.
- Don't neglect counter/support/movement abilities, and play around with secondary skills. Most of the classes with the best abilities don't have the stats to take advantage of them. And don't be afraid to mess around, there are lots of effective combinations.
 
- There is no benefit to mastering a job. If you ever feel you have all the worthwhile abilities for a job, move on to another one.
 
- Randomly created Crystals from dead humans (even your guys) could give you their learned abilities if your character doesn't know them. Kill your old guys off if you want to buff up late characters.


== Jobs ==
== Jobs ==
Line 36: Line 46:
- JP Boost should be the first ability you teach all your characters, and Move +1 provides a great early-game movement boost, but aside from that, they're not really useful. Ramza's Squire class is special. As you progress through the game he'll get more abilities and better equip options, making Squire his best all-around class by the last chapter. Don't be afraid to abuse his abilities during hard fights.
- JP Boost should be the first ability you teach all your characters, and Move +1 provides a great early-game movement boost, but aside from that, they're not really useful. Ramza's Squire class is special. As you progress through the game he'll get more abilities and better equip options, making Squire his best all-around class by the last chapter. Don't be afraid to abuse his abilities during hard fights.


- At the start of the game (and arguably later on), Chemists are better healers than White Mages, as their healing is instant speed, consistent, and doesn't use MP, MA, or Faith. It's not uncommon to keep a Chemist around the whole game (Protip: They can equip guns). If you can't decide on a secondary skill to give someone, consider Items. Auto-Potion has a Brave% chance of going off, and automatically uses the cheapest potion available. Don't bother with Find Items unless you're using a guide.
- At the start of the game (and arguably later on), Chemists are better healers than White Mages, as their healing is instant speed, consistent, and doesn't use MP, MA, or Faith. It's not uncommon to keep a Chemist around the whole game (Protip: They can equip guns). If you can't decide on a secondary skill to give someone, consider Items. Auto-Potion automatically uses the cheapest potion available. Don't bother with Find Items unless you're using a guide.


- Past Chapter 1, Knights tend to suffer from their lack of range and movement effects, and are mostly useful for what they offer other classes. Break is great on ranged classes, especially Break Speed. Weapon Guard is very useful for upping mages' early-game survivability, and the Equip Skills are all useful for certain builds.
- Past Chapter 1, Knights tend to suffer from their lack of range and movement effects, and are mostly useful for what they offer other classes. Break is great on ranged classes, especially Break Speed. Weapon Guard is very useful for upping mages' early-game survivability, and the Equip Skills are all useful for certain builds.
Line 44: Line 54:
- Black Mages will be your early damage dealers, and have the best MA in the game. Bolt 1 and Frog are the best early-game BM spells, and Arcane Strength raises MA by 33%. This is ''huge''.
- Black Mages will be your early damage dealers, and have the best MA in the game. Bolt 1 and Frog are the best early-game BM spells, and Arcane Strength raises MA by 33%. This is ''huge''.


- White Mages' abilities are based on faith, both the user's and the target's.
- White Mages are especially dependent on Faith, and, to a lesser extent, on Zodiac compatibility. Their healing is more potent than Items, but also requires a bit more micromanaging. Holy is the most powerful single-target spell in the game, but it eats MP like nobody's business. Healing also does damage to anything with the Zombie status, which can be a neat trick.
 
- How effective Monks are is directly proportional to how high the character's Brave is, as the damage raises exponentially. Chakra, Purification, and Revive do a lot to help Monks survive, and keep your party up and running. Among their secondary skills, Counter's good on front-line fighters, and giving other characters (hint: NINJAS) access to the Monk's potential damage output is just scary. Healthfont can be very useful, especially on Ramza.
 
- The success of the Thief's various Steal commands is based off Speed, except for Steal Heart, which uses MA. Poaching doesn't do anything until Chapter 3. If you're going to bother with it, use a guide. Move +2 is one of those great skills you give anyone who doesn't have something better.
 
- Oracles/Mystics can be disturbingly powerful. Drain and Osmose (HP and MP drain) are percentage-based, rather than a fixed sum. Their unique weapon, the Stick, is based off Magic Power, not Physical power, and it has a two-square range. Manafont is fucking amazing, full stop.
 
- Everything about Time Mages is good, but Haste and Teleport are absolutely the best. Teleport's guaranteed to succeed in the character's normal movement range, and gets less and less likely as you extend beyond that. 3 is always safe, and 4 or 5 will backfire only occasionally. It also completely ignores elevation and obstacles, and is very much in the running for the single best movement skill in the game. Don't bother with Stop, Slow usually does plenty.


- The following skills are awesome: Concentrate (from Archers, 100% hit chance), Blade Grasp (from Samurai, your Brave score becomes your evade chance against almost every weapon), Teleport (from Time Mages, move to any square that you could normally based on your move, but ignore height and obstacles like enemy units)
- The following skills are awesome: Concentrate (from Archers, 100% hit chance), Blade Grasp (from Samurai, your Brave score becomes your evade chance against almost every weapon), Teleport (from Time Mages, move to any square that you could normally based on your move, but ignore height and obstacles like enemy units)
Line 51: Line 69:


- Don't use monsters for combat.
- Don't use monsters for combat.
== Specific Builds ==
- Build Ramza to be a decent melee fighter, he has two solo duels, one of which is notoriously hard.
- Monks with Attack Up make the best item stealers, due to slightly-wonky coding.
- A Monk with Dual Wield or a Ninja with Martial Arts will destroy anything that so much as looks at him funny. The latter is preferred, as it has higher speed.


== Other/Unsorted ==
== Other/Unsorted ==
Line 62: Line 88:


- Never jump on a target that has more than 50 CT.
- Never jump on a target that has more than 50 CT.
- The success of the Thief's various Steal commands is based off Speed.
- Oracles can be disturbingly powerful. Drain and Osmose(Hp and MP drain) are percentage-based, rather than a fixed sum. Their unique weapon, the Stick, is based off Magic Power, not Physical power, and it has a two-square range.
- Assuming the commands are still roughly the same as PSX, Triangle at any time will bring up a turn listing-which will also show when spells will go of.
- Save after every battle, and if the game specifically asks you to save directly after a battle, make sure to save it in a different slot. This is of particular importance at Riovanes Castle.
- Knights suck past the first chapter.
- Item is a life-saver in the first chapter. Don't forget you have to actually buy the Potion and Phoenix Down abilities to use them.
- Males have better physical attack while females have better magic attack.
- Read the Tutorial for the basics. Understanding how charge times and clock ticks work is a huge help.
- In general you want high brave and faith for your units. Good zodiac compatability between your units is important too but I wouldn't worry too much about that.
- Press Select on everything.
- Offense >>> Defense. PA and MA (phy. and mag. attack) are far more important than HP and MP. For this reason, never use Best Fit in stores.
- There is no benefit to mastering a class. If you ever feel you have all the worthwhile abilities for a class move on to another one.
- Equips and abilities >>>>> levels. Buy Gained JP UP ASAP and literally never take it off unless you have to to win a battle.
- Keep at least two save slots, for the love of God. I always make three for any new game.
- Characters of different classes can gain about a fourth of the JP of any other character with a different class gains. A Ninja attacks once per turn and gains 8 JP, so everyone else who isn't a Ninja gains 2 JP.
- Use "Gain JP up" on everyone for most of the game.
- You can use up to five characters per battle most of the time and Guests could alter the amount. This eluded some dumb people.
- Use Thieves to steal equipment, as you will always run short of money.
- A Knight's skill can break equipment or stats. Breaking 2 speed will cripple any opponent.
- Randomly created Crystals from dead humans (even your guys) could give you their learned abilities if your character doesn't know them. Kill your old guys off if you want to buff up late characters.


- Spam Accumulate/buffs to build 10 experience.
- Spam Accumulate/buffs to build 10 experience.


- The more advanced classes gain more stats per level and the Mime has the best growth.
- The more advanced classes gain more stats per level and the Mime has the best growth.
- Too much Faith will make your characters defect and the screen effect is troublesome.


- Press the right direction over your attacks. It should show character turns and display if your spell will hit in time. The higher speed of weak spells is much faster and reliable.
- Press the right direction over your attacks. It should show character turns and display if your spell will hit in time. The higher speed of weak spells is much faster and reliable.
- Don't be afraid to play around with different skill sets, there are many interesting and effective combinations. For example the range of a Knight's Battle Skill is dependent on your weapon. So a gun user with Battle Skill is a long range crippler. Even more effective if it's Mustadio. Or the effectiveness of Samurai's Draw Out is based on magical attack. So it makes an amazing secondary skill for a wizard or summoner.


- Despite Males being better with physical classes and females being better with magical classes, Bard is a male only magic class opened from magic jobs, and Dancer is a female only physical class, opened by physical jobs.
- Despite Males being better with physical classes and females being better with magical classes, Bard is a male only magic class opened from magic jobs, and Dancer is a female only physical class, opened by physical jobs.


- Speaking of Dancers, they're most effective earlier in the game.If only because of the speed difference between dances and your enemies. A pack of dancers can cripple an enemy team, giving you free reign to loot all their stuff.
- Speaking of Dancers, they're most effective earlier in the game.If only because of the speed difference between dances and your enemies. A pack of dancers can cripple an enemy team, giving you free reign to loot all their stuff.
- Don't bother with Archers except to access better classes.
- For line of sight weapons like crossbows, guns, harps and dictionaries, you can hit a target that's too close to you by targeting a panel in the same line behind them.


- Summons will only target enemies or allies, never both. So you can target an ally who will move before the summon goes off and march them up into a group of enemies for some nice damage.
- Summons will only target enemies or allies, never both. So you can target an ally who will move before the summon goes off and march them up into a group of enemies for some nice damage.
- Try and get Counter on all your melee units. If you do go for Hamedo be sure to switch it out when fighting monsters, as it won't work.
- Speaking of counter attacks, the chance of a counter attack activating is a unit's brave. Brave can be increased to 97 without any downside.
- Cure spells damage undead. I want to say Raise/phoenix down will kill them but I can't remember for sure.


- Never use flails or axes, their damage is too random.
- Never use flails or axes, their damage is too random.
1,220

edits