[XtraT]

Hello friends, extraordinaire pro gamer XtraT here After beating the 1.0 version it is time to tackle this new version, yay. In this topic I'll give my impressions and progress of this mod and unlike some hippies I will actually beat the whole game. I will use some screenshots and maybe some videos for the tough fights but it will mostly be text.

Note that I don't use save states because I don't suck Also, I will name my characters with a prostitution theme because my mind is juvenile like that. For the reader's pleasure I will refer to the characters using their original names.

So as in any RPG, the first thing we do is go to Config and put the text speed to max. Next, we name Zidane Pimp, because that's what his journey is all about. Now let's see if we patched the game correctly

Spoiler

Yup, sounds about right. After finally stealing everything, Blank defeats the mysterious man-dragon-pig by himself (and a Potion)

After appropriately naming Vivi ''Dealer'', we fast forward trough amazing music and an amazing atmosphere (did I tell you this is my 2nd favorite FF?) to the oh-so delightful sword fighting mini-game. After seeing this screen a handful of times

Spoiler

the stars align, I see the matrix, become one with my controller and impress all those fucking nobles who shower me with all their gold (err). This also make the queen happy enough to give Steiner (who I happily renamed Retard) a Moonstone for some reason.

After kidnapping the princess and Steiner barely avoiding a jihad (to be fair, we did warn him)

Spoiler

we make it out alive in the Evil Forest.

First plant mini bosses are fairly simple. Since there's nothing to Steal you just turret damage and heal accordingly. Note that Tidal Flame is not so great here . After recovering from the plant's poison, Pimp, Retard and Dealer venture deeper in the forest to find the princess. While delivering the moogles' mail of course. Now, time for the first real boss: Plant Brain(wtf?).

Anyway, pretty simple boss fight. Steal while Steiner and Vivi hit like trucks. Swd Mag-Fire deals 300+ damage and the boss barely have over 1000 HP. I actually had to reset because I killed it too fast. Note that you can manually bring Zidane in critical to make Blank appear faster.

Next time we tackle the Ice Cavern but with such a balanced party it should still be easy.

[Hart-Hunt]

Funny stuff. Will be reading.

[XtraT]

As expected Ice Cavern is pretty straightforward with this balanced party - Vivi use Fire, Zidane use Restore, Garnet heals, Steiner does nothing. Restore is Zidane's new ability where you heal 7% of the party's HP and MP - mildly useful at the start of the game, you mostly use it to fuel MP to your casters but the heal is nice too.

Super side note: did you know Robes make you take 50% increased fire damage? Because I didn't. It's mentioned nowhere in the game except for one flavor text on ONE Robe (the Silk Robe). No wonder I would sometime take huge amount of fire damage for no reason. I always blamed the level difference or the RNG component of spell damage calculations.

Anyway on to the boss - Black Waltz and his Sea Lion. Since this boss (along with 75% of the disc 1 enemies) use a fire attack, make sure you don't equip a Robe. Otherwise it's just the usual Steal->Potion rotation until you go in Trance and wipe them out with Scoop Art.

After saving everyone, our pimp Zidane continues his journey to expand his harem and Garnet is his first target. With typical pimp mind tricks he subdue her in being called Whore. Dali is pretty uneventful for our party, but Whore was able to learn some Dali slang in the ''Whore tries'' and ''Whore tries harder'' ATEs while Dealer gets captured and Retard doze off somewhere.

Upon rescuing our Dealer, the team fight more monsters that remind us why we don't equip Robes. After Dealer learns there are many others like him (no monopole for him) we engage Black Waltz 2.

With a full balanced party this boss is cake, just don't equip Robes Garnet had Shell a that point which made his Fira far from lethal. I stole his shit and pounded him with Steiner/Vivi. BW2 really needs a Sealion too =(

Let's hop on the airship and go directly to the next boss, BW3.

A bit harder since you don't have Garnet but if you don't equip you-know-what the damage should be sustainable. Steiner is basically invincible thanks to Rejuvenation, you just have to watch out for Vivi's low HP. Other than that, same old Steal n' kill.

Woah, Lindblum already. Pimp does what he has to do and tries to expand his harem by visiting the local bar.

Spoiler

Success!

Now to prove his dominance Zidane enters the Festival of Hunt but then realize he was really dumb to ask for Gil since we just did the Cotton Robe trick. So he just AFKs until Zaghnol spawns, steal his Needle Fork and then tell Slut to suicide herself because why the fuck not, not like it matters since this mini-boss doesn't reward you for beating him. Plus Freya gets some bling in the form of a Coral Ring if Zidane doesn't win (unless you try REALLY hard to make someone else win).

Spoiler

Oh I have an idea how...

Until next time!

[Advent]

The first thing I did before I read anything was check the second spoiler.

I fucking died.

[XtraT]

There's a lack of Garnet/Whore screenshots sadly because I forgot to take them but to me it's pretty hilarious too

[XtraT]

Unfortunately for us Whore decides to quit Pimp after the festival, leaving us with no reliable healing. To help lessen the blow Pimp tries to find a replacement for his harem and quickly finds a transgender person who likes to eat frogs. He's instantly adopted and named ''Latisha''. Freya is really inspired by him/her.

Spoiler

I remember this part of the game being noticeably tough because of the lack of burst AoE healing. So this time I decide to grind 2 levels and some abilities while learning every Blue Magic possible. There's a healing...tree bark? near the Chocobo Forest that make this process easy. I also find every Chocograph possible (man I love this mini-game).

After that I venture in Gizamaluke's Grotto and get to the boss slowly but surely. Vivi's spells and their more manageable MP costs plus Zidane's Restore make random encounters a bit faster. I make sure to Soul Blade/Silence Lamias as they counter almost everything with Might which will quickly kill your party. I get to the boss with my party's level being 11-12.

Gizamaluke can counter physical attacks with his tail and counter spells with Silence. Again since we lack burst healing I prefer the slow but sure approach. Zidane Steals, Vivi Focus for the first few rounds then use Drain as it's his best spell, Quina cures Silence from Vivi if necessary/use items/use Full Fork while Freya Rei's Wind/Dragon Armor/Attack depending on my party's health. Water resistance helps. Vivi gets the killing blow with a Return Magic'd Water

After the boss we see how Whore and her Captain Retard of the Pluto Knights are doing.

Spoiler

Spoiler

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Seems like she's having a hard time without her Pimp. Oh well.

We quickly go back to the main party and hunt for more Chocograph chests. Choco inhale smoke from one of them and turn light blue as a result. Wtf. Learning Blue magics on the way, I head to Burmecia.

Spoiler

This is so childish, I love it.

Thanks to the Ice Staff we stole from the last boss and a Magus Hat, Vivi can do a lot of damage now with Blizzara which can easily dispose of Ironites (the pink dragons).I eventually equip Jelly on everyone to avoid Petrify and make my way through the town. I then get to the Moogle, deliver his fucking mail which he promptly reward me with Kupo Nuts. I quickly backtrack to the Grotto to give them to the Moogle there since otherwise I'll miss a reward later on.

I quickly go back to Burmecia and go straight to Beatrix, I equip full evasive/thunder resistant/defense gear.

Spoiler

One of the few places she didn't hue hue.

Beatrix itself isn't tough since you simply have to survive. I'm able to do so and Steal all her stuff on the first try before getting plot'd.

Well that's it for disc 1, overall I like the changes made from the 1.0 version. Physical damage seems much better and Vivi gets to kill more stuff thanks to Zidane's new Restore ability. I love Dragon Armor's change to a party wide Shell, great to use against spell-centric enemies. Still hate Jump because it's on a tanky character though but there's not much to do about that.

Disc 2 next time!

[nate]

awesome cant wait to see your strategy with necron also greatest names ever

[XtraT]

Onto disc 2 we switch back to the Garnet/Steiner sitcom.

Spoiler

After getting reunited with Marcus we get a rematch against Black Waltz #3.

I'm not sure if it's possible to lose this fight because in vanilla it's not. Anyway, Steal/Cure/Heavy Strike does the job.

We then make our way to Treno by picking every side item possible including the elixir/99 wrists (Cotton Robe trick) in Dali. When we get to Treno, lots of shopping is due with tons of new equipments from the synth shop and the auction house. The most important item is probably the Magician's Robe, that armor has like 3 times the defense of the next best robe. NERF! We can also fight the mini-boss in the weapon shop, a Griffin.

My level 8 Steiner was able to beat him but it's tricky. Best equipment+Blood Sword, back row, open with a Tent on the Griffin. If the Tent misses or if he cast a spell, you die. If it works then you hope that he misses you enough that you can kill him. We get a card as our reward

Anyway, we fast forward through the story and let Doctor Tot guide us to Gargan Roo so we can reach Alexandria and talk to Whore's mother. I decide to grind Steiner and Garnet a bit because
1) these 2 characters are already lagging way behind the rest of the team in term of levels/abilities
2) this is an easy place to do it thanks to Blood Sword+Counter
I get to level 16 while leaving Marcus dead the whole time. After that, we get to the boss, RALVURAHVA (yes I copy/pasted it, that's why it's in caps)

Forgot he inflicted Poison so he took a bit longer to kill since I had to use antidotes, but other than that Steal/Cure/Heavy Strike will make quick work of him. I didn't even see his counter phase. I remember bosses having way more HP in the last version but I might be wrong.

Now that we're back in the castle, Steiner does his usual thing

Spoiler

Spoiler

Sigh.

Back to the main party, Zidane and his team recovers from a tough night.

Spoiler

We slowly fight our way through Cleyra's Trunk, picking up everything and learning every Blue Magic as usual. One enemy is worth mentioning: Sand Golem. This guy Counter you when you attack his core, can Fira for 600+ and has Sandstorm, an AoE physical attack. Best way I found to deal with him is Soul Blade/Blind him with Zidane and then kill him with a Focus'd Blizzara+Full Fork. Again, I feel like he has less HP than before not that I complain, this part was really tough. Maybe I'm just more prepared?

After we finally get to Cleyra we loot the place like we do in every town, we watch the ATEs involving Quina to get those extra treasures and we prepare to save the glorious prince of Bumercia.

Spoiler

Antlion is a pushover because he's still weak to Sleep. He's so easy I actually re-patched disc 2 with another fresh ROM because I thought it didn't patch properly. The second time I fought him I actually beat him with him only attacking once (even after Stealing everything). I casted 3 Blizzaras in a row and killed him while he was asleep. But yeah other than that he cast Fira and has a unique Sandstorm spell which statuses Trouble on everyone and puts you in double digits HP.

After we beat that ''boss'', Quina intelligently shows her crush on Dealer (to be continued?)

Spoiler

Next chapter we get owned by Beatrix again!

[Advent]

XtraT, on 19 June 2014 - 03:36 AM, said:

We slowly fight our way through Cleyra's Trunk, picking up everything and learning every Blue Magic as usual.

Given the whole naming schema here, I figured "Cleyra's Trunk" was some kind of clever metaphor for Zidane's penis.

I was disappointed.

[XtraT]

While defending Cleyra we meet someone who is trying way too hard

Spoiler

Oh man, that Fratley subplot. Was interesting until he completely vanishes after this point

Spoiler

Spoiler

As promised from last chapter Beatrix use plot hax and stomp us hard with Shock'ing techniques huehue but not before we reset 2 times so we can Steal an Ice Brand that we can loot from a chest 10 minutes later. Must. Steal. Everything.

Note that a big part of disc 2 is story-heavy and since I haven't played FF9 in a while I savor every bit of it, so there isn't a whole lot in this update (except a super side-boss

Spoiler

that dies

)

After we lose to Beatrix we cowardly escape Cleyra before it gets Odin'd (dat FMV yo) and we get to Alexandria because the princess is in another castle.

Spoiler

I lol'd.

After reuniting with Steiner, we prep up for the hardest boss yet - a book named Tantarian. Now, this boss is optional and can be re-fought on disc 3 but I wouldn't be me if I didn't try to kill him here. In vanilla he's pretty easy due to skills we don't have in Unleashed (while also doing much lower damage). Ironically enough, he's beatable here because of Unleashed-only skills. Oh, we're also on a 30 minute timer to kill this boss plus another one later(remember, FF9 has long animations )

The boss has 2 phases - closed and open. Closed has 3 attacks:

1) Paper Storm (AoE physical that deals around 1400-2000 damage, can be back row'd, Protect'd)
2) Doom (10 second timer and the character is dead)
3) ST physical attack, around 2000 damage.

Open phase has 1 attack, Poison

Note that my party is level 17 and has at most 1000'ish HP (Vivi is in the 400s)

Now we obviously want to open him and be in phase 2 so that he's forced to cast Poison which we're immune to thanks to Antibody. After a few attempts I made a pretty solid strategy.

First, you have to cast Magic Armor with Steiner for a full party Protect. If Tantarian use Paper Storm before Steiner act, just reset. Now, to reach phase 2 you have to deal at least 150 damage, which takes about 2 full turns of every character attacking. Vivi use Fira for 35-40 damage, Steiner use Swd Mag Fira for the same result, Zidane and Freya Attack for a combined amount of 30'ish damage. This will start phase 2.

In this phase Vivi and Steiner can simply go ham with the same spells they use in phase 1, Zidane of course Steals (the 2nd hardest part here is getting the boss' Demon's Mail) and Freya use items (Phoenix Downs to revive Doom'd people, Ethers to fuel Vivi and Steiner's attacks) and Rei's Wind to heal damage from phase 1. make sure Steiner is ready to cast Magic Armor when phase 1 resume.

Now that's the general strategy. The boss has a lot of HP and will take a while to kill. On my first kill I only got two phase 1s but I wasn't able steal his Demon's Mail. On my 2nd kill I stole all his shit and got 3 phase 1s.

Also to note is I was very careful with the ATB and made sure that no character got double turned at any point. This is extremely important in phase 1s as the boss is really fast. Manipulating the ATB also greatly helps in making Protect last for all of phase 1.

Well all in all, the boss is killed, I got tons of EXP, a pair of Running Shoes (!), a Silver Fork and a Demon's Mail. Yay. *victory fanfare*

With 12 minutes left on the timer I quickly make my way to Garnet and fight another boss - Zorn and Torn. After the hardest boss yet, we get the easiest. This fight is literally impossible to lose since their AI is the same as it was in vanilla so I steal their stuff and quickly dispose of them. They only take about 5 minutes off the timer to beat.

Spoiler

Pimp is very happy.

Next chapter we fight Beatrix yet again

[Hart-Hunt]

Amazing. I didn't even think it was possible to kill Tantarian on Disc 2 in Unleashed. I'd die to see a video of that in the current version. Props.

Edit: Also, the things I'd do that last Dagger sprite.

[XtraT]

Yeah I don't think it would have been possible in the 1.0 version since Magic Armor wasn't party-wide. When I saw I could tank Paper Storm with it I was able to come up with a strategy.