Insane Difficulty: Breath of Fire IV LLG - Insane Difficulty

So, I've never been really big on self-induced challenges, but I knew that I wanted to play BoF4 on my Vita, and also knew that if I played through it normally again, it would get boring. So, I figured I'd try my hand at something of an LLG.

The (loose) rules are as follows:

• Run from all battles
  
• If an enemy has an ability I can learn that I don't already have, attempt to learn it
  
• Don't farm for OP gear (this mainly applies for the Moon Sword you can get off the Bandits) as it makes rule 1 rather pointless

This is my first LLG, so these are rather loose rules, only in place to make the game a little more interesting. I'm only at the woods near Kyria, and I can already see a spike in difficulty, which isn't only because of the exp; since I'm running from battles, my zeny income is rather weak, relying on treasure chests and boss battles for it.

I fully expect to break some of these rules later on in the game, but for now that's how they stand. Writeup for what's happened so far to follow.

The beginning was pretty straight forward, as was expected. I ran from all battles even as Fou-Lu (which, in the grand scheme of things, is probably a pointless endeavor, because Fou-Lu).

I picked up Burn straight away on Ryu so I could combo with Sever to make Firewind without transforming, though at the time of this writing I'll admit that I usually use Hwa instead of Burn for comboing as it does two hits and probably does more damage per hit anyways.

Kham was, of course, really easy since it's still the tutorial, and because Fou-Lu. Astral, Eraser, couple of attacks and reprisals, he goes down.

I expected Joh to give me some trouble since it's Nina by herself, but this actually makes it easier since the game does need to account for her being alone. She almost ran out of AP, but Sever spam and a Heal won the day.

Skullfish had me worried because of the status he likes to use, but it proved to not make a big difference. I made sure to pick up the Life Sandals and had them on Ryu, so he didn't get hit with status much. Right off the bat though he did get poisoned (I made it across the bridge, so he didn't start off poisoned) along with Ershin.

Since I didn't want to use two characters to heal the poison, I decided to just Meditate to Aura (since for most intents and purposes, Ryu and each one of his transformations are a different character; they each have their own HP pool and status tables) and toss off a Purify with Nina. After that, I chained Firewind via Hwa and Sever until Ryu ran out of AP. I was kinda worried since physical damage wasn't doing much to this boss, but it died on the next Sever, so I kinda dodged a bullet there (since you don't have Cray yet and only have three party members, there's no way to restore AP since you can't stick someone in the back row).

Will update this (and probably add more flair to it) periodically!

Oh, and my levels as of right now (in the woods near Kyria, not quite at the boss):

LLG? How fo they fucking WORK, man!?
Do you even know!?

I do not, sadly.

Writeup on Maman forthcoming.

So, after finally reaching the mayor of Kyria, the Town of Traps, we find him playing with an adolescent boar. The important thing to note is that the citizenry of Kyria aren't like normal people; No, their version of "playing" translates to "catching each other in traps, some of which can be potentially fatal." After berating this boar for being such a "stupid animal," and asking it if its stupidity runs in the family, we do, in fact, meet the family, specifically its... Mother, I would assume? This boar had clearly seen its share of combat, if the enormous tusks -- one of which was broken in half -- was any indication. A lovely bonding moment ensues.

Ryu: Hey uhh... Cray.
Cray: Yeah?
Ryu: Can you be my translator for a sec?
Cray: What?
Ryu: Well, I figured you could talk to it since you're.. you know.. kind of an animal yourself, what with the raccoon tail and all.
Cray: Oh, he's a dragon and a racist. Lovely.
Ryu: What? That's a perfectly logical assumption!
Cray: I'm a Woren! You couldn't understand a goddamn word Ni Ryong was trying to tell you when he destroyed that fucking dam, could you?!
Ryu: Who?
Cray: The Mud Dragon you idiot!
Ryu: Oh.. Good point. Welp, I'mma kill it.
Cray smacks his face with his open palm.
Ryu: Don't blame me when you get brain damage.
Cray: Oh, shut up and let's just kill it already!
Ryu: 'Kay!

And the battle ensues.

So, first off, Ryu has this really good idea of trying to blind it. Well, this might have worked, but since -- like ages past (Breath of Fire III) -- a status effect is not applied unless you do at least one damage. Yes, Ryu did zero damage, and Cray laughed at him for having noodle arms. Ryu then went to plan B and tried to poison it, which (surprisingly) worked! Luckily, it would appear that unlike in ages past, Poison does not fortify your flesh and bone, reducing the damage taken. This made the whole ordeal easier, shaving off 10% of its HP every turn.

Now, since Nina thought it would be a good idea to use her AP to Heal everyone up before the fight, it turns out she had little to spare here. So, she decided to wait for Ryu to do his dragon thing and Meditate Aura while Cray took up the role of buffbot, much to the dismay of his Worgen pride.

Cray: It's Woren!

Oh, sorry.

While Ryu and Nina chained Firewind with Hwa and Sever, Cray was, as stated, busy sullying his Woren pride by playing second fiddle to a dragon with no memories and a little birdie. Ryu's AP was pretty low, so after two Hwas, he was bottomed out and reverted to his moral form. Since this is rather early in the battle, he makes a snap judgement to retreat to the back row, allowing Cray to attempt to regain some of his pride by allowing him to -- oh wait no, he's still buffing, while Ryu is replaced by a glorified trashcan who seems to always speak in the third person. Cray laments this, but does his job nonetheless.

After a few turns of weathering Mamon's attacks, allowing poison to whittle away its health while Ryu recharged some of his AP, Mamon decides he's had enough of our bullshit and starts spamming Rock Blast. While this does very little damage to Cray since he's sporting the new Earth Ward we found in a chest here, it hits Nina and Ershin pretty hard, showing it's capable of potentially two shotting them via divine providence (RNG). Luckily, we have enough foresight to keep everyone except Cray above half health. Nina also runs out of AP somewhere along the way, replenishing it with the Wisdom Seed we just picked up a moment ago.

And now, two turns later, we arrive at a point where two people are low on health, Cray is buffing, and one person will most likely die in the next turn. Ryu makes a judgement call once again, deciding he has enough AP and switches places with Ershin, hoping she (he? it?) can find a way to knock out the dents should he fail.

So once again, Ryu Meditates Aura while Nina heals and Cray buffs. Now, Ryu being the kind, benevolent demigod he is, figures that Cray needs a confidence boost, so he beckons Nina over while Cray is charging a Protect. After a bit of whispering (and Protect going off), they chain Hwa with Sever to create another Firewind, then turn to look at Cray.

Ryu and Nina: You feel good! You feel great! You! Can! Do! This!
Cray: Seriously?
Ryu: Just kill the damn thing already.
Cray: Fine!

And, begrudgingly, Cray brings his magnificent log (no, that's not a euphemism for his penis) to bear on Mamon's head, proving to all how overshadowed moody powerful the Worgen Woren are in battle, by caving the boar's skull in.

Next up is Kahn I! Stay tuned!

My levels thus far:

So, after making our way through the path to Synesta, finding those shit stain kids, listening to Ryu telling Nina he is not ready for Chimeras (Dragon/Bird) yet, we find ourselves face to face with Khan, and another heartwarming exchange between Ryu and Cray.

Ryu: Oh look, Cray, someone more your type.
Cray: The hell is that supposed to mean?
Ryu: Well, he's all big and muscley.. looks like he values brawn over brains.. kinda like you, with that log you carry around everywhere.
Nina: He's right, Cray. I mean, clearly you're compensating for something.
Ryu: Shots fired.
Cray: Wh-- Nina?!
Nina: This is why my sister left you, Cray. You came up to my room in the castle begging for me to help you "win her back!"
Ershin: Ershin thinks that you two should get a room.
Ryu: Someone lemme outta this vicious love triangle.

And suddenly the battle with Khan is on! He was roughly about as difficult as Mamon was. His Shout move could be kind of obnoxious if he spammed it, since it's AoE and its stun effect cancels a character's turn, but his most threatening move by far is Focus. Ryu knew he would be casting this throughout the fight from scanning him with his Dragon Eye (the square button ), and ordered Cray to buff everyone up accordingly, much to his dismay. Something about beating him with his giant log.

And boy, Ryu was glad he made that call, because after two Focus on Khan and three Protects (+60% Def) on Ryu, Khan's basic melee almost one shot Ryu outright! Ammonias being the precious resource they are (fuckin' 250g apiece, which is pretty damn pricey given the random battle restriction).

Khan, like Mamon, however, was vulnerable to poison. Ryu also figured out that, since poison always does damage equal to 10% of the enemy's current HP, that he could use it as something of a health meter. The same strategy for Mamon applied here; chain Hwa with Sever to create Firewind while attacking and keeping HP/defenses up. After Ryu changed back, he retreated to the safety of the back row to catch a much needed Heal with love from Nina, and started to charge his AP.

Something that was not noticed in this fight, however, is that at this point, since Cray has Rock Blast (from the Mamon fight), two spells can be chained; Rock Blast into Burn/Hwa to create Eruption, and then throw Eddy/Sever into that to turn it into Firewind.

After a while, Ryu came back into the front row to Meditate Aura and chain Firewind with Nina to victory. All in all, not a terribly difficult battle, but challenging enough.

Much to Cray's ultimate dismay, however, we're forced to leave Nina with Marlok. We'll hear more about that later, though.

Next boss is Khafu, Fou-Lu's second boss. Stay tuned!

My levels so far:

So, sometimes during our journey, Nina likes to slip a little something in Ryu's drink while she does things to his body, and during such time, the euphoria activates Ryu's Dragon Eye and he thinks he's this really powerful dude named Fou-Lu. Crazy shit.

This time, during his dream, Fou-Lu has just recovered from a defeat at the hands of Yohm, and proceeds to make his way down the Zhinga Mountains after exchanging words with Bunyan. As he does this, we run into -- surprise -- Yohm once again, who reveals that by simply speaking Fou-Lu's name, he can find out where he is. That's fucking creepy, but kinda cool at the same time, because demigods*.

So, Yohm summons Khafu, and it's on! This boss is incredibly underwhelming, which I suppose is to be expected, because Fou-Lu is not only a demigod in the plot, but he shows it in battle. When you start out as like, level 60 or so, an LLG kind of loses its point, but nonetheless, we stay the course. Khafu is rendered a footnote in all matters but plot by simply Meditating Astral and either spamming Eraser or by simply using the Attack command.

After its defeat, a few choice words are exchanged, ending in Fou-Lu transforming fully into Astral and flying away, causing Yohm to shit a brick in response.

Here is where Khafu redeems itself; a chase ensues between the two, and after missing four shots with its laser, nails Fou-Lu in the back sending him falling into the forest.

Bam! Back to Ryu and friends!

So we make our way to uhh.. Kyoin after riding in the back of Marlok's sandflier** and unfortunately we're broke as hell, so we don't have much of any cash to spare for weaponry. A shame. At this rate, the grinding rule may have to be broken since I'm starting to not do any damage whatsoever to the bosses here, but we'll see how it goes.

We learn from talking to some of the guards that this is a magical gateway that links the continent of Levant -- the homeland of the Alliance, where we are now, the East -- to Hesperia -- the content that Fou-Lu is on, where the Empire resides, the West. So, with that in mind, we decide it's a really great idea to go shooting through the ether across continents! Yay!

Making our way to the top, we're about to head through the portal when Captain Douchenozzle -- I mean Captain Rasso -- decides it's a good idea to take on a Dragon, a Bird, and a Furry alone (since he's a pansy and lets his summons do all his work). Well, let's see how this works out.

Our heroes being in a hurry, it seemed prudent to skip the usual back and forth and get down to business, what with the portal closing slowly behind them.

This boss would've been absolutely brutal if not for the fact that he can be stunlocked. Viewing his information with his Dragon Eye, Ryu gets the bright idea to use combo magic against him. Every time Ymechaf is hit with either Eruption or Firewind (the only two combo magics available to us right now), he gets knocked off balance, making him take more damage and cancelling his attack. A simple strategy -- if the AP is available -- is to combo spell him, and on the next turn, hit him with either Cray or Ershin first, then combo spell him again. The only time this strategy falls flat is when the initial attack misses (Ershin, looking at you).

This guy uses -- with the exception of his physical attack -- all AoE. Both Whirlwind and Cyclone hit for stupid damage, nearly one shotting everyone, so keeping him stunlocked is borderline required. Ryu and Cray (in particular) also make very good use of the back row, along with Nina to replenish their AP. I've noticed that not only Ershin has special commands from the back row; Nina has an AoE heal she uses sometimes, and this saved us from the game over screen the one time she used it, so that was a much welcome leg up.

Once Nina would run out of AP for Sever, she'd switch with Cray who would use Eddy to trigger Firewind with Ryu. This went on for a while, and we were forced to use one of our precious Ammonias to bring Ryu back from the brink of death, but in the end we reduced Ymechaf to nothing but scrap metal.

After heading through the Causeway (the portal), we make our way to Astana, where the Carronade -- the weapon that created the hex we went through in Chamba -- is housed. One of the guards generously gives up the location of the Aqueducts that are used to cool the weapon after firing. And, as anyone who has ever watched any movie ever would know, this is the de facto way into any fortress, as Ryu's Dragon Eye has shown us.

So, after fooling the guy at the Aqueduct, we make our way inside. After following the dream to a T, we're confronted by Lord Yuna.

Yuna: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Everyone else: What.
Yuna: Oh, wrong game, sorry.

After telling us that Elina isn't here, we're captured and whisked back to the Alliance, where Cray's dumb ass stands trial as the Chief of the Worens. Poor guy, but who cares, Nina's with me now, and we have another furry to replace him, a fucking dog samurai. How awesome is that? Scias is pretty awesome, and compared to the rest of my group, rather OP at present. Let's see how he sizes up against Khan, who is waiting for us at Worent... next time!***

My levels so far:



*I refer to Ryu and Fou-Lu as demigods -- despite the Endless being gods -- because of plot reasons that will be apparent later on, if you're not familiar with the game's storyline.

**I know I'm jumping around a bit here, but I did all this last night before bed.

***You can probably tell that I rushed this one a bit. I'm kind of exhausted, and wanting to get on with the next one, but I needed to get this one out before I forgot about it.

Don't think anyone is reading these, but just in case, I haven't given up on this just yet. I'm going to the beach this weekend, and imagine I'll have a little time to make some more progress. Will update when I get back!

I read it

It's been a while since I've updated this, I know, so here you go!

So, making our way to Worent, we decide it's a good idea to go see Cray's Mom. As it turns out, horses hate dragons, which presumably feed on them from time to time. Shocking. But apparently giant shellfish love them, so we go to take a Whelk to the Golden Plains when.. bam! Khan attacks, wanting to prove his power (or lack thereof) to us!


Khan



So, after we meet Cray's Mom, she decides it's a good idea to make Ryu pay for breaking the King's Sword (even if it was to protect his little birdie) by making a new one. So, we head to Mt. Glom, which fortuitously I had already found on the Golden Plains prior to visiting Tarhn, so off we go.

While it's possible to grind quite a bit of exp rather easily in Mt. Glom (when you use a fire spell on the Wyds, it transforms them into Fire Wyds, which give more exp; and if you find the Fire Wyd in a formation with normal Wyds, it will transform them on its own), due to the nature of this run we decide not to partake.

Picking up some stuff along the way, we finally make our way to the Blacksmith, who tells us that he needs a Faerie Drop to forge it. Odd, but whatevs and stuff. Back to the Wychwood to find those Faeries!

So these little shitheads tell us that we need to save their homes or something. Okay, we're down for that. But then they drop heavy things on our heads to knock us out.

Apparently there's these nightmare things here that we need to kill, so let's get to it!


Kyo



I'll note here that after every fight here I leave the Wychwood to rest and save at camp, since I use Shining Blade quite liberally here, and Scias can only get off about three of them before going bone dry on AP.


Chkom




Udy




Nmago




Nmago




Fantam



So once we get the Faerie Shit Drop ("That was a big one!" ), we take it back to our friend the Blacksmith and get a new King's Sword forged, but wait! Once we get back to Lydia, we find out that the Empire has returned the King's Sword and made demands to change the treaty! Odd, considering that we have the only King's Sword in the world (the only one that isn't broken, at least) right here. Oh well, I don't mind keeping it, especially since you can use it to cast Protect, which I can see being of much use later on.

That being said, we decide the most sensible course of action is to.. infiltrate the castle, kill the guards, and rescue Cray! No, I'm not kidding. I am dead serious. That's exactly what we do.


Guard



After a guard is killed, you can see the deceptive sleep status indicator over their body, but this is just the time before they bleed out and die.

So we pick up Cray, and decide it'd be prudent to visit P'ung Ryong, Wyndia's Wind Dragon, to find out why the Empire is looking for Ryu.

I'm not gonna really talk about Ahm Fen, since it's pretty simple to begin with. You step on the cracks in the planks, and the snake moves. You keep doing this until you can walk across.

So now we're at Wyndia, which just happens to be where I am currently. Stay tuned!

Edit: Oops!

My levels so far:

Advent, on 11 June 2014 - 09:00 AM, said:

Advent, on 19 June 2014 - 06:27 AM, said:

You lying slut.

I didn't say I'd do it right when I got back, to be fair. Just that it wouldn't be over that weekend.

So! After we meet with Nina and Elina's Father, we make our journey to see the Oracle of Wind, and then below Castle Wyndia to get the Wind Flute. Pung'tap isn't much of a dungeon, to be quite honest, it just consists of some jumping puzzles.

So, we get to the top and are faced with Ilgor's Saibamen.

Seriously, look at these fucks.




Saibamen Ilgor's Assassins (Grunt A, Grunt B, Grunt C)




Ilgor's Assassins (Grunt A, Grunt B, Grunt C) + Scias



So, having beat the piss out of the little Saibamen and getting Scias back, we head to meet with P'ung Ryong, who basically confirms what we've been told already; that Ryu is indeed one of the Endless, the Yorae Dragon in fact, and then sends us off to the "Place of Summoning," otherwise known as Chek.

So, we head down the mountain (and missing a few items along the way, which I'll pick up later), and head into Chek. First things first, we have a hefty amount of zenny at the moment, and this upcoming boss fight is the one that I'd like to be prepared for, so we pick up two new pieces of gear and restock some of our consumables.

Once we meet with the Abbess, she tells us that she has Force Vision and that Ryu is a Jedi Knight, pretty much. She can see the aura of people, and the aura of the Endless are massive to the point that the auras near them get caught up in their flow and can change the planet's flow as well. She then sends everyone off to sleep.

Except she doesn't let Ryu sleep; she meets him inside of his dream, stating that all the other dragons we've met so far (P'ung Ryong, the Wind Dragon, Ni Ryong, the Mud Dragon, and Sa Ryong, the Sand Dragon) were all summoned by the villagers of Chek, as were all the other dragons except for the Yorae Dragon -- Ryu.

Then Ershin steps in and it's revealed she, too, is one of the Endless, and the next morning we're sent inside Ershin's mind to free her from that suit of armor. Given Deis's personality, I'm still wondering how I made it out of there without seeing something akin to a Persona 4 dungeon.

This dungeon is very short, but the boss easily makes up for it.


Elemental Pillars (Umadap, Azeus, Agiel, Yeleb)



So Deis comes out, and whines at you to go find her a medium since she doesn't have a body of her own, which we begrudgingly set out to do.

Or at least, we plan to. Next time, that is!

Status:

This post has been edited by Advent: 06 July 2014 - 06:44 AM

So from now on I might only do boss fights unless I feel like talking about other stuff (plot, a certain dungeon, etc). Luckily this is one of those times.

Papan




Marl




This brings us to probably my favorite part of the game, the Abandoned Village. You're captured by Ursula on the way there and arrive to find Captain Rasso has tortured the innocent women and children of Chek to find out Ryu's location. He then proceeds to summon Ight to do battle with you.

Big mistake.

I'm not going to spoiler tag this fight, because it needs no strategy as you cannot lose. Ight is invulnerable until Ryu dies; his shield prevents any and all damage whatsoever. He'll do this stabbing attack that does a ton of damage to everyone, which for me killed off Ryu and Nina immediately.

This of course, triggers Ryu's rage, as he rises up from the ashes with the unbridled fury of a thousand suns, transforming into the magnificent Kaiser Dragon, annihilating Ight's shield with a single breath attack, and absolutely murdering Ight itself with a second.

After the battle, Ryu has manifested Kaiser's physical form, which to everyone's delight, turns Rasso and his summoned spirit to ash with its breath. Ursula foolishly decides to order her soldiers to capture Ryu and friends. With a single glance in their direction, Kaiser leaps down from the pillar he's standing on and smashes the soldiers into the canyon below along with a pillar in a single swipe of its massive arm.

When it seems Ryu is about to kill Ursula, Nina throws herself at him in a true anime-style fashion, wrapping her arms around his waist and begging him to stop. Ryu lets out probably his only real voiced "dialogue" in the game: a blood curdling howl, and then falls asleep.

After some more dialogue, the decision is made to head into the Empire itself to meet with Fou-Lu, since Nina deduces that Ryu's instability is caused by him being split from his other half.

We're getting closer to the end of the game, and I'm not sure when exactly, but sometime soon we're gonna be tackling some sidequest stuff, such as getting the powers from the different dragons, and getting some important stuff from some Masters.

Stay tuned!

Status:

This post has been edited by Advent: 06 July 2014 - 09:21 PM