Insane Difficulty: General thoughts, ideas and opinions + Gamelog - Insane Difficulty

Spoilers are obviously ahead.

Hello, this is my first post on this website so I figured it would be polite to introduce myself briefly. My name is Andrew and you can call me that, Drew or my screen name I don't mind either way. I'm in my mid to late 20s and I've been playing RPGs literally my entire life. My older brother and grandpa (yes, my grandpa was into video games) were the ones who introduced me to them at a very young age.

I've been an avid player of lots of different romhacks for years, but never really sought to join the community actively and still don't intend to aside from a few posts here and there. I enjoy difficulty hacks/mods because I love the thrill of overcoming a challenge and utilizing strategy, yet with my style of play I tend to not find this in many vanilla games.

With that out of the way, it is my objective to just archive some jumbled thoughts I have while playing through this mod. I feel it relevant to mention that my preferred method of progression in FF9 is to generally learn all the abilities available to me at any point in time before moving forward in the plot. This often lends to me being higher level than the average player, I'm assuming. I would like to also mention though, in my humble opinion a challenge mod should expect a certain degree of grinding per new location. Now, I don't go overboard such as grinding Marcus up to level 99 for example. Large scale grinding removes any enjoyment I can get out of the game from me, but at the same time I do like to do mini grind sessions here and there.

Wew

I'm up to Disc 2 at the portion where you are going to the Outer continent for the first time, so for the parts of the game I have already played I will just recall anything on my mind and then from now on will be mostly spur of the moment notes.

I don't intend to try for Excalibur II, speeding through an RPG is really counterproductive to what I want out of a game such as this. Plus, I heard you can steal it from Ozma? Might try for that eventually.

Zorn and Thorn are still as annoying as ever, really hate these guys Ugh.

Having read the patch notes, I expected weapons to be drastically weakened but I was still surprised by how much so, it was especially apparent with the Iron Sword for Steiner early on.

Stole tons of potions from goblins and those wolf things in the Evil Forest. Didn't do any grinding until after getting Vivi and Steiner. Did all my grinding next to the healing spring. Bought/stole up to 99 potions immediately, along with 25 phoenix downs and 10 tents. Just arbitrary numbers I thought was good enough. Level 8 before fighting the plant boss. Can steal tents from the flower mob in this area, and that was a nice addition. Over-leveled as hell at this point, so he was easy as shit. Had to stall to get all the steals, this will be a trend throughout the game. Stealing everything without dying is much more difficult than simply beating the boss.

Outside Evil Forest, I grinded Garnet up to Level 6 before entering the Ice Cavern. Encountered Ragtime Mouse for the first time and got the question right. Took a slight detour to the nearest Gate, found the potion seller NPC through the gate, so I used her to avoid using any tents for the grinding.

Ice Cavern was uneventful. Yetis are very annoying, with their HP switching move. Steiners sword magic is the most useful in this area, I found. Specifically Fire for obvious reasons. The solo fight with ZIdane wasn't too tough, but i had to use a Hi-Potion at one point due to trying to steal and suffering blows from 2 enemies. I understand why Trance works the way it does, but I still really hate it. Goes off at the absolute worst times, often after already inputting a move such as an item or stealing, wasting trance gauge.

The 3 flan encounter in the last map of the Ice Cave would be the best for grinding if you wanted to at this point, Vivi's magic makes quick and short work of them.

Outside Dali, Zidane level 10, Steiner and Vivi level 9, Garnet level 8. Didn't do any grinding at this stage, but did make a detour to the observatory to chat with the old man and grab the items in the zone. Got the stellazio in the village. Didn't do any card games. I honestly do not like Tetra Master and it doesn't even offer any substantial benefits, so I mostly avoid but still try and collect 1 of each card I can. Had enough money to buy 99 Wrists, and so I did so along with equip upgrades and new abilities for the party.

Black Waltz #2 was quite easy, especially with Garnet's healing. Black Waltz #3 kept one shotting Vivi who has an annoyingly low amount of HP. Besides this, was quite easy as well. Had to reset due to accidentally killing him with Return Magic. Return Magic will later screw me over royally as well, so I no longer use this ability without thought ahead of time.

Lindblum is an amazing city, very colorful. First thing i did was head over and make cotton robes with those wrists for some profit. Ended up with roughly 60k Gil by the end of it, after having bought equip upgrades and synthesizing 2 of each accessory and The Ogre. Kept 3 cotton robes of course. At this point I went ahead and bought 50 antidotes and echo screens.

I decided to solo grind Zidane for an easier Festival of the Hunt and also just because I could and felt like it. Wanted him to be able to carry the others in the upcoming part of the game. This was very difficult because the orange beaked dinosaur looking things kept putting me to sleep and I did not have insomniac available, combined with the spiders constantly slowing me. Made great use of MP attack to be able to kill the spiders in 1 shot which was crucial. Had to reload a lot of times due to bad RNG. Eventually ended up at level 15 with Zidane. Attempted fighting the bombs and even with putting them under silence (soul blade) to control that monster fire damage, they still weren't worth the effort so I avoided them. This was the part of the game where I realized I was using abilities I never did in vanilla such as MP attack and soul blade.

Festival of the hunt is always fun. I let Freya win for the Coral Ring, since I had so much Gil already. I love Freya's character, so I knew immediately she was going to be in my final party. Her skills such as Dragon Armor and Reis's Wind are an amazing boon for random encounters and bosses alike. Interesting that she has a Red Mage design but is a Dragoon.

Outside Lindblum I was surprised to see Freya join in at Zidane's level of 15, which was a great help. Before doing anything else I headed over to the marsh to recruit Quina. After doing so, I went over to the Chocobo Forest to do Hot n Cold a little bit but I did not plan to go all out here like some people do. I dont really like the game, but I'll eventually do it to unlock Ozma. Grabbed a few chocographs and found 1 of them besides a beach, had an ether i think, an elixir and 2 germinas boots. More accessories are always welcomed.

At this point I did some grinding outside the gate to the East I believe of the Lindblum exit. This gate has a healing spring and the forest outside has mandragoras. These are great for getting tons of Gil for the upcoming Treno section. Add on to this the Millionare ability that Quina gets and you have a recipe for success. I learned most skills available to me on all 4 of them and I think my final levels were around:

Zidane: Level 18-19
Freya: Level 18-19
Vivi: Level 14-15
and
Quina: Level 14-15

Somewhere in that ballpark, give or take a level.

The dragons in this area were quite annoying with their poison counterattacks, they often were not worth fighting typically so I ran from them. Also the Ironite in the plains area around the chocobo forest has this Flame attack that often ends in a game over screen. In my opinion, the first unfair thing I've seen in this mod especially considering I'm a bit overleveled. I would normally farm him a bit on freya for dragons crest, but i heard that was removed so I didn't bother. The ironite flame attack wouldn't be so bullshit except for the fact he can often do this on his first turn before you can even act and without Quina's blue magic is difficult to one shot.

Speaking of blue magic, Quina is often a character i ignored and neglected in vanilla. This is not so here as she is sort of an all star in Unleashed. Already having access to useful spells such as Pyro and the all useful Mighty Guard. She is quickly rising on my favorites list.

Gizamaluke's Grotto was a cool area, although quite short. The Lamia's in the area can buff their power to crazy 1 shot levels. Killing them before they reach this point is pretty paramount. Like most people, I did try my hand at the crazy Grand Dragon's outside. This did not go well, as expected. Even with the coral ring, he still one shot me. I even tried using reflect and other strats such as Jump spamming, but I didn't dwell too long before deciding to proceed.

Gizamaluke was a very climactic boss for me. Mostly because I simply could not steal from him and had to stretch the fight out for many more turns than I would have liked. Again, this is a trend in this game. Yes, I did have bandit ability equipped. I've had 30 fails in a row, followed by a reset and acquiring the item in 2 tries. Very very fickle this mechanic.

Glass armlets I believe were MVP in this boss, reducing his water spell damage by 50%, coupled with Reis's Wind and he wasn't too hard to tank and spank.

Burmecia is always one of my favorite areas in the game. The atmosphere, the music it is all so beautiful. Not so beautiful though were those pesky Ironites showing up and hitting me with flame or the Basilisks petrifying Freya over and over. A little upsetting that she was the only one without access to jelly but it worked out in the end. Beatrix was extremely easy, as most people here know. I even got her steals very quickly.

Did some ability grinding after Beatrix, due to the newly acquired equips. Ended up around levels 22/22/20/20. Did it in the room before the plaza with the shop moogle. All you encounter here is either 2 or 3 basilisks and Vivi one shots them with all target Blizzara. Quina could sometimes take them out with Aqua Breath, but rarely and needed help finishing them off.


I avoided most fights in Cleyra honestly, running from them. After farming in Burmecia, I didn't need exp or ap and they were more annoying than they were worth. Especially the sand golem dude, who counter attacks for crazy damage. Quina finally got white wind here from the Zuu which seals her as a very flexible character and crazy good for boss fights at this point. Toss a few ethers on her and have her mighty guard and white wind all day long.

It was at this point where I finally realized Zidane was better for spamming restore and supporting my mages than he was attacking. Late to the party on that one.

Antlion was extremely easy to kill but a nightmare to steal the Gold helm from. I think it took me atleast 25 tries. After sandstorm I just used a single white wind and Freya kept spamming dragon armor/reis wind to stall for Zidane to spam steal. Once I wanted to kill him, he went down without effort.

At this point you can safely assume whenever a new vendor is available I clean them out and afterwards, grind out all available abilities. Sometimes I leave one ability left per character, just so the ap i get isn't to waste. Zidane missing ability up is noticeable at this point as he is dragging behind.

Second Beatrix fight went exactly like the first. Easy to steal from and was easy over all. No real thoughts here.

Regarding the segment with Garnet and Steiner in Treno. I went ahead and bought all the key items from the auction house and 2 magician robes and 1 of each accessory. My 100,000 gil from those mandragoras earlier was reduced to a pitiful 10,000. I got one of the stellazio and the other in the cave nearby Treno. However, I missed the one in the entrance with the wishing well or whatever it is giving it gil lots of times so I missed out on early Blood sword action. Oh well, I don't need it.

With my other party in their 20s and reading about the segment with the mistodons and Beatrix later, I knew i was gonna grind a lot here. I also love how the crawlers give such good exp/ap for this part of the game. I grinded Steiner up to about level 21, Garnet to 21 and Marcus up to 20. Afterwards I took on the bird beast thing in that cage, the solo fight. Had to use wind dmg reducing armor, along with counter but I managed a victory. Steiner's Rejuvenation ability is god like. Really enjoying that change from vanilla.

After that grinding my Gil was back up to a respectable 40,000. Crawlers give a lot of exp and ap, but not a ton of Gil.

Arriving back in Alexandria, the third Beatrix fight was again like the first two fights. The part with her and Freya I just had Beatrix spam Climhazard for easy wins and fed her ethers. Steiner finally questioning himself and his actions, thank fucking god. Queen Brahne is really disgusting, both physically and personality wise. I really don't know how anyone could justify her actions or see her as a victim to Kuja. Easily my least favorite character in the game, for the wrong reasons. Please share or explain if you feel differently I am extremely curious to read.

The boss here in Gargan Roo was the other point in which return magic screwed me. He kept casting Thundara which in turn healing him as he returned it. Ended up having to kill Vivi off to win, because I didn't want to reload and do those lengthy cutscenes again. Interesting enough after having stole the final item I realized you can set him in a perpetual loop by attacking him physically, letting him curl up and then waiting to attack as soon as he comes out of this. I'm assuming curling up uses his turn since he never got an action after realizing this.

Pinnacle Rocks was over as soon as it began, I think I only ran into 2 fights here and just ran away from them. This is also a trend, I tend to do focused grind sessions and then when I'm going through an area, I like to run a lot. Really enjoy the story Ramuh tells the characters, shows the imperfections of being human.

The cutscene with Atomos is still amazing even today. Rip industrial district. I supplied up with new equips and the inventory at the Synth shop and proceeded past the no turning back point. Went and re-recruited Quina. Now, I'm ready to tackle the zone with Lani. Beforehand though, I'm likely going to grind out the new abilities on the equips I just got.

My overall impressions thus far are positive. There are a few hiccups here and there. I do still find the boss fights a tad too easy, while some random encounters a bit too tough for what they give you. The boss fights being easy is likely due to my ability grind sessions, but I still find it a valid complaint.

Having 99 potions at all times seems like a great idea for the parts without Garnet, since you go through them like crazy and they're super cheap. Blue magic is way more useful and is quite noticable. Mages are more squishy than vanilla and is honestly making me not want Vivi for my final party.

Still undecided on final party setup. All I know so far is I don't want to include Vivi and I do want to include Freya. Suggestions on party setups is extremely appreciated. I kinda feel Steiner is worth using even without Vivi because his sword arts are so nice. I will likely include one of the two healers. Still very unsure which I will prefer moving forward. Amarant is a character I don't typically use in vanilla, so I know almost nothing about him.

I will update this or make new posts with my experiences as I find the time to do so. If you have read all of this, wow! Thanks a lot! Leave feedback or criticism if you'd like. My skin is pretty thick, so you can be honest.


I would like to also quickly thank everyone here. I have enjoyed and will enjoy these difficulty mods and wish for many more in the future. You guys are a bit underappreciated and your community you have built here is truly special. I mean that.

Roninja, on 22 December 2016 - 07:49 AM, said:

Hey! Welcome to ID!

Yeah, I don't know if you know this, but levels in FFIX are pretty important, so being as overleveled as you've for the entire game (roughly a consistent 7 levels all of the time) will make the game a lot easier. You're welcome to play any eay you want, but if you want to exoterience the teeth grinding experience that Unleashed is (it's easily one of my faves in the site) then yeah, you're gonna have to avoid battles for at least two full sections / dungeons to let the game catch up. I mean, you're playing a difficultt mod, might as well let it be difficult right?

The roles of each character (and the entire game im general) are pretty similar to vanilla, so your gut instinct will be right most of the time. The one character that I used very differently from vanilla is Zidane, who with his nerfed weapons, and his durability became a really efficient item bot, in boss fights when things are getting tricky.

But yeah, this mod becomes great in the intended levels, I'd like to emphasize that. So much, that since you're still in Disc 2 (and honestly, Disc 1 is short if you know what you're doing), I'd recommend starting over and getting your ass kicked a little bit more. And having all of the skills learned? Well, that IS part of the early game challenge. I did learn all of the abilities but that was once I got a vehicle. Because there you can go to a place with low level mobs and get AP easily without fear of overleveling.

Have fun! It's cool to read these posts. And thanks for the kind words, we hope to see you around.

I think it's great that you do the mini-grinding sessions, since it's your own thing. Like Hart said, you're obviously welcome to play however you want, after all. That goes without saying. Perhaps, once you finish the mod this way and enjoy the changes and stuff, you can go for a less grindy run (if you liked it enough) and experience Unleashed in its true form.

I personally hate grinding, so much that I got to Trance Kuja with an average lvl of 30, and I haven't finished it because I suspect I will need to gain levels to get through the rest, but I really don't want to grind. q_q So, yeah, it's probably better if you do it that way, since you can just tackle the game in a way that feels natural to your playstyle.

Welcome to ID, and enjoy the mod, I certainly did and it's nice to read someone's progress in it.

As others have said, the mod is balanced around natural leveling (no grinding no running away) so it's normal you find it a bit easy. And in case you didn't know, most Robes have a hidden effect where their wearers take 50% increased Fire damage, which is why you had trouble with Ironites.

Been a bit sidetracked lately, starting up some Brave New World and Super Mario RPG Armageddon..

Hoping to get back to this game either this weekend or earlier next week though.

As for robes enhancing fire damage, shouldn't that information be available in game somewhere? Or perhaps it is and I missed it? If not, that's something I would correct because it was a huge issue throughout Burmecia and running into that pesky Ironite who loved to use Flame on the first turn.

Also, I guess I just like to be at a comfortable level, but at the same time I like to utilize strategy and win by the skin of my teeth for bosses. I think the mundanity of regular battles wears me down though and I definitely prefer to blow them away. Mostly because there's just so damn many of them. I like to have all my abilities so I can perhaps use a skill I wouldn't have before, but by the time I get all the skills i don't need it because of my levels.

Maybe a No Exp. option for when you want to grind AP/Gil? Such like Brave New World has?

Cheers for the replies folks, hopefully I return and hit this bad boy hard soon. I tend to play in large doses, so if I get in the mood I imagine I'll clear atleast a disc of content.

(I almost cleared BNW + SMRPG in less than a week) So yeah...

The game does mention fire weakness on the Silk Shirt description. It's pretty cryptic and pretty much irrelevant because vanilla is easy but it's there.

I remember that. But since it only says it in that description, and doesn't state it as something that affects all robes, and on top of that it says in the description of the second robe you get, as opposed of your starting one... Then I always thought it was a bizarre feature of that particular item.

Yeah I didn't know about it until I finished my first playthrough of Unleashed. Knowing this...''feature'' made my 2nd run much smoother, especially the Lindblum->Cleyra segment since it seems that half the enemies there have Fire elemental attacks. I clearly remember watching Vivi getting 1 shot'd by fire attacks (those fucking Sand Golems) while the rest of my team had no problem surviving it. I thought it was my low levels or the randomness of the damage formula. You also have no fire reducing equipment at that point so it's not like you can do anything about it if you don't know certain armor are fatal.

If I'm being honest, I wish that was removed.