Emmy

This has been fixed several versions ago. There's no more post on the forums to announce new versions (i'm on 2.55 now) since this site's change log actually works, unlike ID.

The Shinobi with ??? and immortal flag is actually a later game superboss. Extra battles have been primarily a place for experimental ideas I thought might be interesting to attempt. They have not gone through the same rigorous testing as the story battles, since they don't have to follow a difficulty curve/most of the same rules. Most of them I beat once in the version where I created them, and didn't touch again. For that battle, and one other extra battle I made, I had the idea of a very fast undead (superboss speed tier) unit supported by regular enemies. These were actually inspired by a random battle. **Edit** Forgot to mention that I made a lot of these bosses vulnerable to some statuses that are normally blocked by immortality, to make them easier to beat if you find them in random battles. This will carry over to extra battles if I didn't give them items/immortality there, as you saw.

For those of you who have ideas for battles in FFT but don't have the time/dedication to work on a full mod, I need your help! Also if you've ever played MT and thought to yourself "this combination of abilities/enemies will be interesting/nasty/etc" but haven't see it yet, let me know! I need ideas for enemies, formations, new abilities that lend themselves to interesting battles... Extra battles have 23 slots left, these can be of any difficulty level. Easier ones can unlock as soon as after Mandalia 2. Chapter 5 has 49 event slots left (about 24 battles). Difficulty must be consistent with the game's difficulty curve (9-10 on my scale for ch 5, or between the ch 4 and dd average). The kind of thing I'm looking for here is less "generic hard shit" and more clever enemy/formation setups. Non-boss enemies should follow similar rules to the rest of the enemies of the mod (no true blanket immunities, pseudo-blanket immunities caused by 0 faith or abilities only, stat distributions of HP/MP/PA/MA/Speed/damage reduction similar to other enemies, etc). The kinds of things I'm looking for with clever enemy setups: innate ability synergy (such as Poison Heal + Marvel Scale), enemies with some kind of theme/role to them (offensive status setter, healer, etc), built in strategies (Berserk + Hamedo). For formations, things with synergy to the map (Poison Heal + the swamp, Arc ranged skills + a large hill, etc), enemies with synergy to each other (Haste + Sunlight on separate enemies), etc.

Aww no commentary on the video. Only minor thing I noticed is you didn't seem to clear cursed or realize what it did (since you tried buffing cursed units a few times). Cursed grants immunity to positive effects (does not include Faith, Reflect; or anything innate to the unit since that can't be cleared), and turns your characters black. Heal Bell, Prayer, Energy, Holy Water can cure it. Queklain is also vulnerable to cursed, but it's not 100% necessary to curse him since he can't buff himself. I frequently do it as a safety if I have support units vulnerable to confusion.

Some of these ideas can't be done, or won't work exactly how you're thinking. However, thank you for the ideas. Innate Rasp on something might be kinda tricky if most of their set uses MP. As in, it would be too easy to stall them out and then use reaction abilities to deal with them if they're not given Boomburst or a similar attack. However if they just have a Rasp vulnerability, mid-level MP (around 800 max at lv 99), and a bunch of ways for the ai to rid itself of its mp (amplify, mana bomb, etc) that idea would be a bit more workable. Items are currently filled out but I can always sacrifice a useless item for a new one. Max bonus of anything that I can give it is 255 though, or 0xff in hex (thank you 20 year old technology!). Trust me, if I found a solution for playable monsters getting items yet, I would have allowed for it a long time ago. The reason that monsters currently can't equip anything is dozens of superfluous checks throughout the code. For example, the code will do a "check if unit is a monster" and then on the next few lines "check if item is equipped to unit". Why exactly would the first check even be needed if the monster class can't equip items naturally? I found over a dozen of these checks in documented code, disabled them, and it was still not enough to allow for monsters to equip items, which means there's more hiding in undocumented code. Monsters in battle that have items is done with a workaround. They are all humans with a monster sprite. Every ability that is not learned by the player (human classes) in any way has 0 jp cost and 100% learn rate, and several of the skillsets themselves are considered auto learn. The kinds of things I'm mainly looking for with battle formations is combinations of enemies that might be interesting. Think of ways that enemies can support each other or cover for each other's weaknesses. Minor spoilers:

This battle is unique in that it's heavy in damage. Fairies are pretty passive though, but do have a few moves that pack a punch. IIRC I lowered their MA since the version you played on. The rest of the enemies there have high PA and MA. The battle is set up in a way that most of them heal from and can spam ice moves, and reflect is fairly common as well for those across the map snipes. Boomburst can reach any unit from the top of the house due to its bow-like targeting. Innocent does not affect any of the damaging moves. If you use a bulky enough party that the AI starts to use Enslave or Confusion on you, or lower their stats, Innocent can help here. Dragons and Goblins are among the more fragile units of the game. Most of the more dangerous damaging moves are PA*MA or MA^2 based, with no faith in these calculations. Oh, and as you may have noticed, Olan death no longer is a game over and you can still control guests. This allows me to make a damage heavy fight that's still fair to the player, because you're not having to rescue something that's fairly fragile and would tend to rush enemies.

Oh my.. First thought to come to mind = how will you beat Finath? (I guess you'll figure that out when you get there)

In more recent versions, babies get directly replaced at ch 2 start. This was partly inspired by your post ch 1 talk video. IIrc you had most of ch 2 already recorded/not uploaded yet by the time I made that change though. This means that players no longer actually *have* to get new guys as the first thing they do. It's been said also that ch 1 is more or less the tutorial to ch 2, and ch 2 is the tutorial to the rest of the mod. Ch 2's main differences, as you mentioned: very few baby units, formations have more synergy, more harder to deal with status effects ("trap the soul" and "bad bracelet" first appear in ch 2), and the first superboss (Queklain). Enemy "tiers" no longer exist outside of the babies. I had to uproot them for more class slots, and for balance concerns. Trying to make, say 50 playable monsters each serve a unique purpose in a game where the player only gets 16 player slots isn't reasonable. And considering how much I've expanded the game as compared with vanilla, I'd rather have the difference in unique enemies than in redundant monsters. As it was mentioned, speed is directly related to survivability. The defense stats for 6/7/8 speed monsters add to 100/50/20, respectively; and each tier also has approximately 200 hp at lv 99 separating its average unit. Moves themselves are largely separated by their distribution. For example, most "basic" stuff like Revive and Remedy have very high distribution, while moves like Trap the Soul are exclusive to Dragons and a few specific enemy groups. A majority of most monsters' movesets are filled with medium distribution moves. Stuff like Heal Bell which is given to both Chocobos and Birds, and Stone Edge given both to the Sacred and Behemoth. This allows for enough move overlap to conserve space in the game and fill up skillsets enough that each monster has a minimum level of viability overall, and enough variety for monsters to have their own unique purposes as combined with their innates. For example, a Steel Giant has a much more powerful Life Drink than a Ghost, but the Ghost has much more speed and maneuverability; so due to different playstyles they have different uses from each other despite having a shared move. Some moves in the game I admit have awkward targeting. Smart targeting has largely been removed, to allow for both the player and the ai to have to be cautious of how to target their moves. This is also a balancing factor for Amplify and moves that have impractically large aoe. An amplified Meteor has a ridiculously huge AOE but in order to get the most out of the move, the player needs to be weary of the placement of his own units. Stigma Magic likely doesn't really serve a niche over Esuna outside of being usable on units with Reflect (a niche served by Energy/Remedy). I could likely switch around some aspects of it (targeting, status group, etc) or outright replace it with Esuna on the Tiamats.

Yes. Squids have Siphon, which means they don't actually need to use MP to cast anything. As part of the balancing for MP as a whole, their MP is towards the low end to give them a weakness to invert. Full chart: Group A is the Ignite weaknesses/usually heals from Invert. Group B are secondary Ignite targets/primary casters. Group C is secondary Invert targets/semi-casters Group D is the Invert weaknesses/usually not targeted by Ignite.

Here's my one decent photo of the year.

Found this LP on Youtube.

Thank you for doing this. Would give you more +1's but I ran out of them for the day.

Part of my goals for this game is to create a more consistent difficulty curve, while still retaining variety in encounter types. This is something I can't do without your help! I can test my own battles as much as I want to, however I'm not a blind runner and can't replicate how another player who thinks differently from myself will approach a battle. There are some battles that still seem out of place in my opinion, but I'm also not sure if anyone else finds them troublesome or not. Anyone who has played through a good portion of the game can write their own rankings. Use whatever scale you want, but please explain it if it's not the same one I'm using. Keep in mind some of the differences within versions - if a battle has changed drastically since you last played it, please note that. All of my rankings are based on battles in the newest version (2.55 as of this post) All newly added battles that didn't exist in vanilla are now in italics. No longer relevant notes removed. Note: Rankings in story battles are based off of not using sidequest equipment or characters. They assume a "normal" party (Ramza, Agrias, and whatever monsters are available at that point in the game; with reasonable stats/equipment/jobs and abilities available). They do not assume excessive amounts of grinding (i.e, Bard in ch 1) or unreasonable recruitment (all 74/74 units). Chapter 4 end sequence and chapter 5 ranking assumes lv 99 party (since reaching it at low levels in current versions is an unreasonable assumption). Extra battles ranking assumes a ch 4 party (but you are free to attempt those as soon as it opens for you for the extra challenge). Scale: between 0-10, where 0 is "must actively try to lose" and 10 is "evil" Note that the battles are ranked as compared with each other - it's not necessarily an even difference between a 1 and 2 vs. a 7 and 8. Added: Current average to each chapter, battle count. Chapter 1: Orbonne Intro - 1 Gariland - 1 Mandalia - 1.5 Igros Castle - 1 Sweegy - 2 Dorter 1 - 2.5 Sand Rats - 2.5 Miluda 1 - 1 Mandalia 2 - 3 Miluda 2 - 2.7 Wiegraf 1 - 2 Algus - 2.8 Current battles: 12 Ch 1 average: 2.1 Chapter 2: Dorter 2 - 2.5 Araguay - 2 Zirekile - 3.5 Zaland - 5.1 Zaland 2 - 4 Barius Hill - 4.5 Lionel Gate 1 - 4 Zigolis - 4.8 Goug 1 - 5.1 Goug 2 - 4 Warjilis Port - 4.8 Barius Valley - 4.5 Golgorand - 5.4 Gafgarion - 5.5 Queklain - 5 Current battles: 15 Ch 2 average: 4.3 Chapter 3: Goland - 5 Zalmo - 7 Outside Orbonne - 5 Book Storage 1 - 6.5 Izlude - 7 Wiegraf 2 - 5 Dorter 3 - 5.7 Lesalia 2 - 6 Grog Hill - 6.5 Yardow - 6.4 Yuguo - 5 Riovanes Gate - 6.5 Velius - 8 Riovanes 3 - 7 Rooftop - 4 Current battles: 15 Ch 3 average: 5.9 Chapter 4: Doguola - 8 Meliadoul - 7 Finath - 9.5 Zeltennia 1 (Ruins) - 7.5 Zeltennia 2 (Castle) - 8 Zeltennia 3 (Church) - 7 Zalmo 2 - 8.5 Balk 1 - 9.1 South Wall - 9.6 North Wall - 6.5 Sluice - 8 Bethla 4 (Final boss?) - 7.9 Zarghidas Slums - 7.5 Zarghidas 2 (Juiblex) - 8.1 Germinas - 7 Germinas 2 (Duma) - 8 Poeskas - 9.3 Limberry Gate - 7 Limberry Office - 8.5 Elmdor - 8 Zalera - 8.5 Igros Gate - 8 Adramelk - 9.2 Balbanes' Grave - 8 Murond Gate - 7.5 Murond Hall - 6.5 Zalbag - 9.1 Orbonne Chapel - 8.5 Book Storage 4 - 7 Rofel - 9 Death City Entrance - 9.1 Kletian - 9.2 Balk 2 - 9.7 Hashmalum - 9.4 Altima 1 - 8 Altima 2 - 8.9 Current battles: 35 (36 if you count both Altimas separately) Ch 4 average: 8.2 Chapter 5 (work in progress): Zeltennia 5 - 8 Fort Zeakden 2 - 7 Fovoham Windmill - 9.2 Fovoham 2 - 9.3 Riovanes Gate 2 - 9.8 Bervenia Volcano - 9.4 Inside the Volcano - 9.5 Zeklaus Desert - 9.5 Dorter 4 - 9.6 Sweegy 2 - 9 Gariland 2 - 9.6 Inside Military Academy - 9.7 Outside Murond - 9.7 Inside Murond - 9.8 Murond Chapel - 9.5 Goug - 9.1

This is info that I could gather specific to abilities and mechanics I have added to the game. More will be added as I figure them out, however things that are well known and not specific to MT (such as DS abuse strategies) will not be mentioned here. The purpose of this is to clear up some misconceptions and to give more information to the player! It is a common misconception that r/s/m are invisible to the AI, when in practice maybe about 1/3-1/2 of the routines used by these abilities are actually invisible to AI. General mechanics: 1. Defense/Mdef by class - AI recognizes this mechanic, probably because it reduces the expected damage dealt. For example, it'll choose magical attacks/defense ignoring over physical attacks vs. a tree (which have 90/10 defenses), and chooses physical/defense ignoring over magical attacks vs. a bomb (which have 20/80 defenses). 2. M-ev by class - AI recognizes attacks as evadable even if the only m-ev comes from class, thus using unevadable stuff more frequently the way it does in vanilla. 3. Immortal check - AI will never use immortal immune abilities on an immortal target, unless confused. 4. Full/multiple skillsets on regular monsters - AI recognize these additional attacks the same way as it would on humans. 5. Cone AOE, Arc AOE/Range - AI uses these attacks perfectly, assuming that the cone moves have 0 CT. 6. Reflect - While it is well known that AI loves to/knows how to abuse reflect perfectly, it is not as well known that Reflect is coded in a way that it transfers the caster as the reflecting target, for the purpose of figuring out targets for secondary effects that affect the caster. This is important because abilities such as Static and Rough Skin, the AI recognizes, and will abuse their existence to land damage/status on you instead of them. 7. ENTD flags - While not specific to MT, I make some use out of these flags, for example to make some units behave more defensively than they would usually do; and not a lot of people know about them. AI such as vanilla Zalbag's tendency to go after Ramza above all other units is not hardcoded/unchangeable, but controlled by these flags. Unique Formulas: 1. Ignite (does damage equal to target MP to both MP/HP) - AI seems to prioritize this attack on units that have more current MP than current HP. Also will occasionally use it to intercept a spell or on a character who has just been revived at lower HP than MP. 2. Endeavor (Target HP = caster HP, will heal or do damage equal to this difference), Pain Split (Averages HP with that of target, healing/dealing damage where appropriate) - AI seems to use this attack the same way it would use any other 100% hit rate ability, except when it is poisoned and low on HP. In that case, it would start charging the move on one of its friends (perhaps, thinking that it would heal the friend to full, but without realizing that it can't have negative HP - it'll just die). 3. Psycho Shift (Faith based Inflict active status on target, cancel on self), Snatch (Faith based Cancel active status on target, inflict on self), Power Split (averages PA/MA with self/target, dealing damage/buff to stat where appropriate) - I have never seen the AI use these moves at all, unless under confusion. Maybe it doesn't recognize them? 4. Baleful Polymorph/Shriek (Faith based drop HP to 1, inflict indexed status at 100% if move hits) - AI seems to prioritize this exactly the same way as it would the status effect. For example if it's set to inflict Dispel, it will only cast this on targets with active positive status effects. 5. Firey dance/Exorcise (MA^2 damage to target, fa% stat buff/status to self), Fell Stinger (PA * (PA+Y) to target, indexed effect to self if unit kills with the move) - AI seems to use these slightly more frequently than other damaging moves, but only where appropriate. 6. Universal Stat Change formula (deals with everything from Quick to Foxbird, Songs/Dances, Circle/Square, etc). AI recognizes this formula and uses it appropriately. It will not try to stat drain Finger Guard (immune) targets. AI uses Quick rather poorly unless the ability to cast on self is removed, in which case it uses it exceptionally well! R/S/M: 1. Sicken (all physical attacks will inflict Poison 100% in addition to its regular effects, String Shot (all magical attacks will inflict Don't Move 100% in addition to its regular effects) - AI recognizes the presence of these abilities. I've occasionally seen a unit with Sicken use a physical attack dealing 1 damage for the sole purpose of inflicting poison, when the same unit will not consider a physical move on the same target unit. 2. Runic (Works as blade grasp for Math Skill flag), Bulletproof (expands arrow guard to include guns and specific formulas) - I'm unsure if the AI considers these or not. AI will seem to use moves that aren't affected by these abilities above ones that do, but will consider for example, a 33% chance to do 90 damage above a 70% chance to do 10 damage (keeping in mind that defense and m-ev mechanics have been added that the AI do recognize). 3. Anger Point (AI does double damage if it is Critical) - AI recognizes this ability, and will be more likely to choose damaging moves over status effects. 4. Bane (Bonus accuracy/damage to unit with Haste/reraise active) - AI recognizes this ability, will target units with Haste/reraise (assuming they don't have other buffs like Protect/Shell that will reduce the damage enough that another target becomes a better one). 5. Synchronize (Reacts with all new/current status effects on the caster) - AI will prioritize casting buffs on a unit with this ability, which can cause a chain of buffs! 6. Aftermath (Deals damage equal to max HP to caster if unit dies from the attack) - AI will prioritize non-damaging moves/deprioritize attacking to a unit with this ability if it's low on HP. I've seen units ignore a unit with Aftermath for several turns. 7. Rivalry (Increases effects of compatibility to 1.5/1.75/.5/.25) - Not 100% sure if AI recognizes it more than it would for regular compatibility mechanics. 8. Sheer Force (Unit does 1/3 more damage, loses all status procs) - AI will no longer use attacks for the sole purpose of inflicting a (normally 100%, but 0% with Sheer Force) proc, for example. 9. Concealment (immunity to evadable attacks) - AI recognizes this ability, will prioritize status effects on this unit since they're likely to be the only non-evadable effects that it has! 10. Mold Breaker (Ignores Reflect, Blade Grasp, Runic, Bulletproof, Concealment) - AI recognizes the effect of this ability. Will, for example, cast a reflectable spell on something that has Reflect for the purpose of killing it because it knows that it can pierce Reflect. Doesn't change priorities vs. Concealment units, etc. 11. Shed Skin (fa/200 chance to remove all active negative effects from unit at the end of each turn) - AI sees this ability as the statuses being removed each turn. For example will use an attack that is affected by Silence when it is Silenced, under the assumption of a ~33% chance that its Silence will be cured before the spell goes off. 12. Marvel Scale (50% damage taken if under a negative status effect), Guts (50% extra damage if unit has an active negative status effect) - AI recognizes these damage differences, as far as I can tell. 13. Poison Heal (a poisoned unit will heal 1/4 instead of taking damage by poison) - Completely blind to the AI as far as I can tell. AI will not Poison itself (even if bundled with Haste/Transparent/other buffs in general!), will actively try to inflict Poison vs. enemies that have Poison Heal, will remedy itself to remove poison. The only way to get the AI to actively use this ability is via event poisoning or Shit's Creek (poison water maps). 14. Arcane Quickening (Reacts with Quick upon MP cost trigger) - Seems to be blind to the AI (as in, it won't actively try to trigger this ability with no other benefit, and will still use MP cost moves on enemies the same), however some clever moveset manipulation (such as by giving other units in the formation moves that will trigger it with a benefit that the AI loves to use) will create a world of pain for the player. 15. Barrier/CT Save/Dragon Spirit/Hayai (Grasp trigger buffs) - Again, seems to be blind to the AI/can be taken advantage of the same way as Arcane Quickening if you want the AI to actively trigger it on each other. 16. Rough Skin (PA * 4 residual damage upon damaging a target with this ability), Decay (Undead/Innocent upon dealing damage to a target with this ability), Static (Slow/DA upon dealing damage to a target with this ability) - These abilities are passive, and the AI recognizes them. While the AI won't refrain from attacking units with these abilities, it will whenever possible set up ways to transfer a target for these abilities other than themselves via reflect. Status effects: 1. Cursed (Permanent dispel unless lifted, is on Dark/Evil looking slot) - AI will use this exactly as it would use Dispel, will never prioritize it as something to lift from itself. 2. Mist (Regens MP 1/4 per turn, on Wall slot) - AI seems to have a high priority for using this, even on non-casting/non MP Switch units. 3. Rasp (Loses MP 1/4 per turn, on Blank slot) - I don't think I've ever seen the AI inflict this/heal itself of this on its own at all, except if it can heal itself via inflicting Mist.

#1 tip = Read the FAQ and tooltips. Seriously, this can't be stressed enough! For those looking for individual battle help, please post a topic. The old topic has been deleted since 95% of those analysis are no longer relevant in the current version. Difficulty discussion topic is still being updated/analyzed for current version, feel free to comment there as well. What is 120 FPS and why do I keep hearing about it? - FFT, by default, runs at 60 FPS (Frames per second). A lot of people like to speed up the game so that animations take less time and the game runs at a quicker pace in general, but it is not required. For those who want to try it: Epsxe - The settings that work for 1.3 in its stickied topic also work for Monster Tactics: http://www.insanedifficulty.com/board/index.php?/topic/5479-the-official-13-epsxe-settings-thread/ psX - There is a hacked psx, which is set on 120 fps by default. http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=5185.msg112815#msg112815 What emulators does this work on? - It is confirmed 100% to work on psX and any version of Epsxe. Version 2.44 fixes several issues known to cause crashes on other emulators, but since I personally can't test on systems I don't own, I have no idea if it runs on them yet. If someone can confirm it works on another emulator now, please let me know so I can update this topic! What is the best class for growths?/I spent all of ch 2 as chemist, did I just brick my character? - All beginner's traps have been removed from the game! This means that growth differences by the class are gone. The way that they were handled in vanilla is largely unintuitive. It doesn't matter at all anymore which class you grow as, which means you can put your strategy's focus towards what each individual battle needs. I just cast Innocent on myself/the enemy, how is he still hitting me with Aqua Rake?/How is Monk's Revive failing on my Innocent character? - Formulas in this game are 98% custom. There never was a hard/fast rule that was intuitive to the player in vanilla, so it was created here for consistency. Abilities that run off of faith are fractional damage, MA based healing, all abilities that inflict a status effect (whether positive or negative) as its only effect, and revival. Abilities that do not run off of faith are ones that deal damage with no other effect, consumable items (Item and Draw Out commands), and exceptions as noted in tooltips. I never played Vanilla/played it way too long ago to remember anything. Should I refresh myself on Vanilla first? - While vanilla experience can be helpful to appreciate the mechanics and dialog changes here, it is completely unnecessary. In many ways, vanilla experience is detrimental because of the amount of changes made to the game. In other ways, it can be helpful to know AI quirks and base engine mechanics, such as how CT and Reflect work. Why is Aqua Rake doing single digit damage to Bombs?/Why can't I cast Poison on Chocobos?/Why is the accuracy of Missile so horrible on Bombs but 100% on everything else? - All innate status effects, resistances, immunities, abilities are listed in tooltips. For more information on the effects of individual abilities, see the FAQ. Damage reduction is listed per class. DR-P is physical resistance, DR-M is magical resistance. It is the final calculation done after all other modifiers, but before the damage cap of 999 is applied. For example, a magical attack that is 100 damage after all other modifiers applied to a target that has 80% DR-M will do 20 damage to that target. I have a save from vanilla/some other mod, do I need to start from the beginning? - Yes. Saves are not compatible between MT and vanilla or other mods. I have a save from another version, can I update or will it be incompatible with the update? - Any changes that could negatively impact saves are shared with players in the patch notes. In general, there are very few things that could negatively impact a save, and most of them are specific to a section of the game. For example, in the version where I rewrote Bethla sequence, due to restructuring it, players had to either revert to a pre-Bethla save or complete Bethla before updating to prevent a save corruption; but all other sections of the game all saves were compatible. If it's been a while since you last played, you might want to start from the beginning again; but as long as the save where you were wasn't part of a change which could kill saves, starting over again is optional. Help! I tried editing my save and it no longer works! - Editing saves is completely unnecessary/technically cheating and generally frowned upon. However, if you want to do this for shits and giggles, make sure you back up your save before you do anything like this. Due to changes made in the mod, you are very likely to corrupt your save or do something extremely silly and unintended if it can still be used in game. I am not responsible for any bugs caused by save corruption, and am not able to restore your save if you screw something up. Slavery is over? Where do I get more units? - Human generics no longer can be hired. Agrias is the only other human to permanently join you. Monsters can be hunted via random battles. The guest unit in any random battle (usually appearing near the middle of the screen) is yours if you can win the battle and the monster hasn't crystalized. Its brave, faith, and zodiac are randomized; but the species is specific to the random. It is noted in tooltips both on the monsters and on the locations where you can get things that are recruitable. Which should I try to raise my Ramza as, physical or magical tree? - Beginner traps have been removed from the game. Both sides of the tree are viable. In a worst case scenario, such as if you've raised yourself in the physical tree and suddenly feel like using a Bard, you could always grind yourself in the necessary classes during random battles. Later in the game (ch 4 onwards), it is a good idea to have all classes unlocked to make it easier to change strategies as necessary on the fly, but isn't 100% required.