Insane Difficulty: Final Fantasy IX - Unleashed v2.0.9 - Insane Difficulty

This mod is getting AWESOME, that Hades and Deathguise battle was so fucking awesome!!!

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put some feedback, but here goes.

I think Marcus needs a buff: he was already pretty weak in vanilla and in this mod he is just dead weight. I know he is there for a very short time in the game but after reaching the beginning of Disc 2 I was a bit annoyed to see Marcus so ridiculously weak.

(As I am typing this I am at the Gargan Roo, all 3 characters(Dagger,Steiner,Marcus) Level 9.)
To start off, Marcus has no access to skills, passive abilities, and trance. He's almost as fragile as Dagger but yet his regular attacks deal 20-40 damage w/ Mithril Sword, while Dagger is dealing 90-110 damage with the Multina Racket, and Steiner has almost 200 more HP than him but can deal 80-100 damage with MP Attack on. He does not sound "rebalanced" to me.

I don't think it would hurt to increase his base stats-
either make him be somewhat fragile with decent damage (he should AT LEAST deal the same damage as Dagger)
OR give him durability with crappy damage (he should AT LEAST get +150 Max HP).

I don't even mind if you make the last Black Waltz fight/ Snake(forgot the name ATM) fight more challenging to compensate for these buffs, but just overall this part of the games feels terrible.
I know this is probably very low on the priority list considering how short of a time Marcus is in your party but every part of the game counts.

Hi,LandonRay. I'm currently finishing FFVII HardType with a friend, and we thought we might try this afterwards.

Wouldyou say this is a "final" version, or at least close to it? We rather wait than start playing an unfinished version. We'dlike to help you test it, but unfortunately we don't have much freetime in our hands...



Well, thaks for your work and time, this looks amazing!

I'll probably do more work on it in the future, but for now it is finished.

LandonRay, on 10 August 2012 - 11:37 AM, said:

Thanks for the reply!

I have a part I have to complain about. Ordinarily, I wouldn't post since I'm doing the Let's Play of the series, but I am actually stuck, and I think it was because of poor design, unfortunately. I am at the part where Steiner and Beatrix fend off the Mistodons in Disc 3. Steiner is L13, Beatrix L18. Beatrix's moves do horrendous damage, and there is no possible way that I can progress the game. For some reason, the first Mistodon is not so hard, then the next 6 or so are so difficult. Too difficult, that I can't even SAVE STATE my way through. I've tried every combination, Auto Reflect, Distract, Auto Life, everything just fails. Can't grind, can't trance build, nothing.

I think others may have not had this issue if they grinded with Steiner earlier on, but I truly tried not to grind unless I absolutely had to. Now, it seems like it bit me in the ass since I can't even progress the game.

For the time being, I'm starting school and this project will probably go on hold for a bit. This part was so frustrating that I sort of lost interest.

pmac135, on 25 August 2012 - 03:18 PM, said:

Sleep Sword works great on them. Fire and sleep protection help a lot too. But yes, level 13 is really low. Levels impact a lot on damage dealt/received amongst other things. You mustn't have every abilities learned if you,Re that low level, right?

Best bet would be healing with Beatrix and sleeping one, then quickly kill the other.

XtraT, on 25 August 2012 - 03:34 PM, said:

It's just not an option when Steiner (front row) takes 900 damage from Fira, ~500-600 from Mist, and front row Head Attacks do ~400-500. If I throw him back row, yes, I can sleep sword, but that means I have to use Thunder Blade to actually do any damage (since Beatrix's attack does ~100, which is horrible.) and that means I have to use an ether/elixir everytime I want to do damage. All the while, taking crap tons of damage and barely being able to heal. I can't just farm Elixirs from the previous save point (since there's not even a place to do so, and its a ridiculous answer anyway,) and even if I farmed Ethers I would still have the HP issue.

The regular game never punished you for underleveling. You always had the option to grind a bit if you had to. And this particular part, Beatrix was so beast that you couldn't possibly get stuck. Not anymore.

Use Sleep Sword on the first Mistodon. Silence and Blind the second one, then the first one. At that point the only attack to worry about is Mist. Move Steiner into the front row and have him attack while Beatrix heals. If Steiner is equipped with the Coral Sword, Thunder Gloves, MP Attack, and Beast Killer his physical attacks should deal around 400 damage.

Level 13 is a bit low, I'd probably be at 15 or 16. However, with the right setup and strategy those fights are beatable.

LandonRay, on 25 August 2012 - 04:32 PM, said:

With intense save stating, I was able to do it once. I had all those things, the best equips, everything. I managed to put Level Up on Steiner and kill Beatrix for the first two battles, which gives him L18. But still, taking ~850 BACK ROW from Mist during some of those battles is too much. Sleep/Quiet sword isn't even 100%!

I suppose I can continue on, but my two cents is that Beatrix got nerfed too bad. I don't mean to yell, since I think LandonRay has done a fine job with most of this, but there's a clear difference between hard and nigh-impossible difficulty.

With good ATB usage and Rejuvenation you shouldn't have to use elixirs/ethers on Steiner (and he shouldn't die). If you want you could probable turtle until you trance. Mist hurt but shouldn't hurt that much. You had your best defense equipment right?

Don't want to be mean but it is a hard mod, so you should know the game somewhat. Being lvl 13 on Disc 3 isn't really the mod's fault.

Assuming you're equipped with a Gold Helmet and you aren't weak to Shadow damage, Mist will deal around 500 damage (Gold Helm - 13 magic defense; Mist - 23 attack power; Mistodon - 48 magic). Which Auto-Potion with High Potions and Insomniac can easily deal with.

Sleep Sword and Quiet Sword have a base hitrate of 100%. Mistodon's have 4% magic evade and are level 19. If Steiner is at level 13 that would give the Mistodon a 10% chance to evade.

That series of fights is hard, probably as hard as anything on disc 1 or 2. However having developed a proper strategy and setup on my first playthrough, I was able to beat it in a single attempt on both my second and third playthroughs, without using save states. The point is, if those fights are giving you that much trouble it is likely you're doing something wrong.

First of all, I'm aware that it's a hard mode mod- I never was caught up until this point. Every other battle I've planned a fix for (as evidenced by the youtube series.) Being level 13 is a result of not grinding, and being trapped here is a circumstance out of my control. And in regular mode, this circumstance would be a no-brainer because of Beatrix.

Anyhow, I think something may be buggy. Landon I know you probably don't remember this particular part exactly, but the very first Mistodon behaves very differently than all the rest of them in the fight. Is there some invisible game mechanic at work? At first, my levels are Steiner 13 and Beatrix 17, and that first fight is easy. Then, someone levels up, bringing the average of my team over 15. The next fight is a HUGE difference. Steiner goes from taking ~400 dmg from Fira at L13 to about ~900 at L15-16. I'd be glad to make a video of it if it helps.

He's probably halving his magic stat through his AI. Fira should deal around 800 with the Gold Helm. You can give Beatrix's Cross Helm to Steiner which will reduce the magical damage he takes from Fira to about 650. If you also give Steiner Chemist and Auto Potion (with High Potions) it should be difficult for a Mistodon to kill him. However, the fights can still take a long time.

This is what I was talking about. Look at the Fira differences.



Anyhow, thanks for the help. I'll come up with a solution. I just think its a bit frustrating only because of this particular instance of the game- I can't really get more equips from the last save point, can't level up, on and on. But I'll get it down.

You play way too offensively on that video. I remember having auto reflect which completely negated Fira, and it was hitting them for 700+ damage. Then with a mix of sleep and blind they could barely hurt me. I actually died before that when you control Freya/Beatrix because I wasn't prepared (and tents didn't work). Speaking of tents, I'm not sure if they work on Mistodons. Tents are great on hard random battles.

Btw, the Monster List FAQ I use doesn't list Mistodons as Beasts, only Undead.

... Uh, that was not a serious effort, it was only to show the weird damage differences of the Fira damage, which still doesn't make sense to me. Anyhow, I don't need to explain it anymore, I managed to record a success run. I'm not posting here to complain, hard mode is supposed to be hard. The difference is that there are parts that will make people lose interest in the game if they are not programmed right, and I'm pretty certain the point of this thread is to bring attention to those issues.

The damage formula for Fira

Base = Spell Power - Mag Def
Bonus = Mag + Rnd MOD ([(Lvl + Mag) / 8] + 1)
Damage = Base * Bonus

Basically, the Rnd MOD is a number between 1 and 100, that's why the damage fluctuate a lot. That's true for about every non fixed damage in FF9.

I altered Mistodon's class, making them beasts.

And that first Mistodon is lowering its magic stat through the AI. Magic stat AI alterations do occur on a few enemies, Ghost and Ladybugs for instance.

Equip Steiner with a Gold Choker and Beatrix's Cross Helm (you'll take around 600 damage from the more powerful version of Fira). Give him Auto Potion, Beast Killer, and Insomniac (and HP+5% if you have enough magic stones). Have Beatrix (in the back row) cast Blind and heal with High Potions, have Steiner (in the back row) use Silence Sword (and Sleep Sword if there are two Mistodons) then move to the front row and attack with the Coral Sword/Thunder Gloves/Beast Killer combo.

Quick question: are all the in-game descriptions of items accurate?
Great mod, nearing the end of disc 1 (I think...been forever since I played this game).