Novelty Has No Inherent Value

I think Final Fantasy 7 was a great game. It felt fun to play. It was satisfying to play. You gain experience points for fights. When you reach a threshold, you level up. When you level up, your stats improve. You can customize your characters with equip-able magic stones called materia. You can swap them freely among your characters to make all kinds of combinations for your playstyle. When you fight, you also gain AP for your equipped materia. When your Materia reach an AP threshold, they level up and you gain more utility or power. When you fight, you get money. When you get to a new town, new weapons and armor become available for purchase that make your characters tougher. In dungeons, you can find unique weapons and armor and materia. Really simple gameplay loop. Make some progress to make more progress. You could see and feel how you get tougher. You could watch numbers go up. It was simple. It was elegant.

Then Final Fantasy 8 came out, and it was nothing like Final Fantasy 7. They changed almost everything. You earn experience points, and you can level up, but your stats barely increase! Worse yet, the monsters' levels scale to your levels, and their stats and powers do improve! It means that leveling up is disadvantageous! You can find these monsters called GF that you can equip, and they gain levels with exp, but they don't have stats that you can see. Instead, you're mostly keeping an eye on their AP. When AP is earned, they learn abilities. There's a hidden ability tree where certain abilities are prerequisite to others. What abilities are going to be valuable? You don't know till you get there! Instead of finding magic stones that you equip for magic, you have to go stock spells with a tedious, slow combat action called drawing, or by using special abilities to modify playing cards or refine various items you collect from monster drops. You had to collect items to use to upgrade your weapons, some of which were rare to find and rare to drop! Armor was gone. Instead, you equip magic spells to your specific stats, and the level of the spell, and the quantity of the spell effected the amount that the stats increase. It was a very micromanage-y, it was complex, and it was intimidating to learn. Mastery meant playing the game in a very controlled way to efficiently earn AP without getting so much exp. Ugh.

But it was different, so that means it was OK? Right?

Remember the Nintendo Wii and its nunchaku controller? Eff that. Sometimes I hear people praising games for being new and different. What was wrong with Final Fantasy 7? Give me more of that! I want more of that! I wish I was into sports games and FPS games and Assassin's Creed because those game devs look like they figured this out. People like the formula, keep it! How do you go from FF7 to FF8? It's madness! What a wild change!

So, my central complaint is novelty for its own sake sucks. Is the game good? I have heard people praise FFX for being a non-standard fantasy setting. Boo! It was the ugliest setting ever. The costumes were ugly and stupid looking. The unique hair styles were dumb and ugly. Machines were ugly and dumb looking. Monsters were OK. Buildings and boats were dumb when they were unique. How many people cosplay as characters from FFX? Better yet, when people cosplay as FFX characters, which ones do they pick? Auron, and the main girl characters. That's it. The game is so ugly, no one cosplays as any other character. Ronsos were in the game. Ugly effing game.

So for some reason, people think FFX is a really good game. It's not. They did some cool stuff. Being able to swap characters in and out mid-combat? Cool. Having to swap your characters in and out mid-combat because all the monsters in the game are functionally a rock-paper-scissors game? Meh. I just want to pick my favorite characters and use them. The game's best mechanics don't get fully utilized until late game if you fill out the monster arena, which is effortful, but I think you have to be into grinding to really enjoy yourself. It so happens that I am into grinding. Why can't the whole game be more like the late game? The equipment customization system doesn't even matter until this late portion of the game. You might be able to manage to make a few useful things throughout the main game, but that's it. Mostly, you would put elemental damage on weapons so you could do double damage. By the way, Str + 5, +10, +20, etc. in FFX is a trap when using the right element doubles damage! A trap I say!

I hate the story and characters in FFX. OK, I don't hate the story and characters, but it was a very, very delayed appreciation and even then, I don't actually like them. I just don't care. I enjoy Lulu's cleavage though. More of that please. Also, bring back the customization of materia. Powers are contained in objects that are tracked separately from characters, and they can be freely moved around. And there weren't that many fiddly bits. Very simple, very fun. You dumb dumbs at Square came up with a cool idea, you used it once, then that was it. The hell is wrong with you?

What's wrong with them is they pursue novelty for the sake of it. As if reusing something that works is a bad thing because we already did it. So in FFX, they give you this thing called the Sphere Grid instead of experience and levels. What is the sphere grid? It turns character improvement into a process of moving your character along a path on a game board and activating nodes with consumable items you collect after battle. The problem is it's linear, so why? What's the point? Again, it's something in FFX that only gets good late game when you can move freely around the sphere grid and earn whatever you want. It's undercooked.

Anyway, if you've stuck with me this long, thank you. Believe it or not, I am not here to complain about the Final Fantasy series, it just happens to be what I'm very familiar with. I'm here to complain about novelty. I don't care about new things because they're new. New is not a virtue. How about I get you a new turd? And so understandably, I get a little annoyed when I hear people praise something for being new. I could get you a new car or I can get you a new scratch on it. The new car is valuable if it's in new condition because that means its quality is intact. But a new car that's used is less valuable. But what if the used car still works better than the new one?

I think innovation must be a value to some people. I don't share it. Can I say I'm tired of people trying to be innovative? Are we done trying to invent new stuff? Or make old stuff seem new by adding a twist to it? Are we done? Can we just embrace tradition yet? If you don't like tradition, then by all means make something different, but be honest that you don't like tradition. Many of us just like being a male, human, fighter, with a sword, and that will never get old to us. When you eff with the thing that works, you alienate the people who come for something familiar. I think this is why media has generally sucked for the last ten to fifteen years. Especially Final Fantasy games. The FF7 remakes sucks too. Can we cut out the ten-to-thirty-minute cut scenes? I don't want to watch an effing movie! Oh, and bring back timed hits and defenses from Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars. Those were fun!

I think I made my point without ruffling too many feathers. Newness does not automatically mean good, quality, or fun. We have decades of good stuff we abandon. What happened to side-scrollers? Video games were 90% side-scrollers once upon a time. They didn't stop being fun! And isometric perspective games are missed. Did I piss off the FFX fans? Who cares. Wakka's hair sucks and you suck for liking it. Insert the Titas Ah-ha-ha laugh. Cue the outro. DUN da da dun dun dun duuunnn.

Star Ocean Till the End of Time's @#$%! Plot Twist

If you never played Star Ocean 3 AKA Star Ocean Till the End of Time on the PS2, there's a plot twist. It's controversial apparently. It shouldn't be controversial; it should just be hated.

The plot twist in SO3 was unsatisfying for two reasons. It comes down to placement and how spontaneous it is. By placement I mean it's in the middle. The end of Act I (about 10%-15% mark) is a good spot for a twist b/c the audience hasn't committed to anything too strongly yet, and they're more open to a story pivot. By spontaneous I mean it wasn't set up or foreshadowed at all. The plot twist wasn't done well because it was abrupt, without satisfying reasoning, and at the expense of the investment of the audience; By audience investment, I mean by the midpoint of the story we are invested in the story in-progress. When you get the audience's investment and then THROW OUT the thing we're invested in, that's an absolute rug pull and that makes it a, ahem, Richard Relocation, for a writer.

I think that was really concise. Go me.

Literary Critique of Final Fantasy VIII

This post is in response to a youtube video titled The Symbolic Purpose of Ultimecia in FF8 by @ScribbleRetrospective. For reference, his video is found here but is not required reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK1DHlaQ4Ng&t=1834s. I think his interpretation of the Squall character is fundamentally flawed.

In storytelling, the hero often has an internal conflict. For Squall, it's abandonment issues resulting with self-isolation. During the flashback to the light house, we learn he was separated from his big sis and in his own words he says, "I didn't turn out very well." The exact dialogue that the game shows us is young Squall standing in the rain and saying something like "Big Sis, I'm doing my best without you." There's another moment where the other characters said he was particularly fond of Ellone with regards to his days as a child in the orphanage, so we can assume the separation might have hit hard. Abandonment issues mean someone who felt the loss of being abandoned and who spends their life afraid of going through that again and taking measures to ensure it doesn't happen again. In Squall's case, he values his independence and keeps everyone at a distance. I forget where precisely in the script of FF8, but Squall either says or thinks that he doesn't believe in relying on others. He's also described by school faculty as being a student who has difficulty expressing himself.

All this said, protagonists must also have a goal in the story. In the beginning of the story, Squall does not have a stated goal in the script. He's either satisfied with being a SeeD or he's an adolescent and he's not thinking about what to do with his life as it's probably overwhelming to think about. Squall's goal is therefore whatever SeeD's goal is as long as he doesn't express otherwise. By the halfway point of the story, Rinoa becomes comatose, and his new short-term goal becomes helping her. When he learns that she is now a sorceress and that she's in danger of being a victim of this or that government or by Sorceress Ultimicia, then his goal of pursuing SeeD's ultimate goal of slaying the (bad) sorceress simply becomes personal for him.

To resolve the internal conflict of abandonment, Squall must allow himself to be vulnerable and open up to people and let them in, and to risk abandonment again, specifically with Rinoa. This is difficult for him. The internal conflict of abandonment and the external conflict of defeating Ultimecia are now connected. The theme of the story is usually found in the internal conflict. Squall has to risk being vulnerable in order to find love. He is fighting Ultimecia to protect loved ones now. He's no longer a SeeD without a purpose. He's no longer following orders because it's his job. He's fighting for love. Ultimecia does not symbolically represent anything, she's just an existential threat.

That's it. Now for geekiness.

Some early moments in the script that stand out to me as defining who Squall is comes during the Dollet SeeD exam when Seifer issues an order to abandon their post and Squall is agreeable because he wants to put his training to the test. This is the closest thing we get to Squall expressing a value or belief in the early portion of the game. He also tells Seifer something like "I feel like I can take on anybody, even if they do fight dirty like you." We can also take this example of Squall expressing that he thinks poorly of people who don't fight fair. This hints at some nobility in the character, or that the character has a sense of fairness.

One moment that I think you got wrong is in the scene in Galbadia Garden where the characters are discussing Seifer's death. In Squall's internal monologue, he's reiterating the words that the other characters said of Seifer, he is not expressing his own views on Seifer. He's not taking issue with the literal meaning of what their words, he's taking issue with the fact that they're saying it. I can speculate why. As a character who values his independence, he probably also values his privacy or he doesn't want his reputation to be subject to popular opinion after he dies, and therefore he probably does not want people talking liberally about him after he dies. Or perhaps as a person with abandonment issues, he's sensitive to the idea that other people might have true thoughts that they conceal till you're not around. In other words, Squall does not want people talking shit about him when he's not around. This might be a pain point for him, hence the outburst.

You bring up Seifer as a foil, but I think it's a shame that you overlooked the symbolism of the white knight and the dark knight theme that the game has. Seifer is the white clad knight of Sorceress Edea and later Ultimecia. Squall is therefore black clad knight of Sorceress Rinoa. They have symbols of crosses (Seifer's vest) and lions (Squall's necklace), like knights. They both have swords and mirrored scars that they gave each other (they have marked each other). Here's a nice touch. In the cutscene, where they scar each other, Seifer cuts high to low, like Squall does in battle, and Squall cuts low to high like Seifer does in battle. A for effort there. The symbolism is also in the colors of their outfits where Squall wears a black exterior, but inside he's white, and Seifer is the reverse. Seifer has a white exterior, but on the inside he's dark. In visual storytelling, color is a way of communicating things to the audience. Star Wars and cowboy movies famously used this (white cowboy hats and black cowboy hats).

Another criticism I have with your video essay is the scene where Seifer becomes Edea's servant. Here's the scenario. Imagine you just murdered people and took a government leader hostage with a deadly weapon live on tv. You retreat, but you're cornered and have no way out. Then a sorceress offers you a get out of jail free card and a position of political and military power. What do you do? Obviously, you take the job, right? By coincidence, being the sorceress' knight happens to be Seifer's romantic dream, so he's obviously happy about it in spite of some initial hesitation. I mean, it does seem too good to be true, right? And what if it's a trick? You're a SeeD, and Galbadia is involved with the Sorceress, whom your dutybound to oppose. It's a dangerous situation. What does Edea say? The immature part of you wants to run and hide, but the adult in you wants to accept. What kind of job proposal sounds like this? A proposal from a good employer or a bad employer? If you can take anything away from this, it's that Edea was not offering Seifer the job, she was manipulating him into accepting the job. Now that he's committed to it, can he really quit? Do you think this sounds like an employer who will let you quit? He's stuck. If anything, Squall saves Seifer from his fate by defeating Ultimecia. By the end of the story, Seifer is just fishing with his friends and getting mad at the fish, an earned end for the guy who made all the wrong choices and was a dick the whole way.

At some point in your video you said Squall is genuinely mean and you say this is one way that he is like Seifer. I don't know what you mean by genuinely mean, but I assume you mean to say that he is mean to others, and he sincerely intends meanness and to cause others harm or discomfort. I don't think this. I think Squall is just blunt and refuses to be sensitive or take on emotional labor. I don't think he takes pleasure in it, and I don't think he wants to cause harm. This is different from Seifer. Seifer is shown as a bully. He takes pleasure in picking fights and throwing his weight around. Quistis comments that Seifer was always trying to get attention with this behavior, and that's why he focused on Squall because Squall never gave Seifer the attention he seeked. Quistis called Seifer troubled. People understood Seifer was kind of a dick. There's another scene someone tells Squall that students in the Garden admire him or they look up to him. This was around the time that he was given his position as commander.  From other character's perspectives, Squall demonstrates competency and composure in most situations, and this is probably because he values being self-dependent. In the scenes where people tease Squall for tying to be nice, like when you have the option to cheer Selphie up because the stage was wrecked, those characters are just teasing him, and they clearly know they can get away with it.

Final Fantasy Tactics - Jobs Evaluation

Every now and then I come back to this 20+ year old game. Here's my list of essential or notable job stuff in this game. Thanks to the changes made in the War of the Lions version, some stuff is just too effortful to get IMO.

Physical Jobs

Squire
Yell / Tailwind (for Ramza, I use it for most of the game. Did you know Knives and Ninja Swords use ((PA + Speed) /2) * Weapon Stat for their damage calculations?), Move +1, JP Boost, Focus / Accumulate (very useful for grinding. In any real fight, wait for the enemy to come to you while boosting your PA). Ramza's other Ramza-only skills are good, except note that Ultima is only as powerful as a Fire 3 / Bolt 3 / Ice 3, which are half as powerful as Flare or Holy.
Unlocked: At the start

Archer
Speed Save / Adrenaline Rush (take a hit, gain +1 speed; Knives and Ninja Swords use PA + speed for their damage calculations), Concentrate (improves success % of some stuff, and makes your attacks hit at 100% if every you find someone particularly dodgy)
Unlock: Squire 2

Knight
Speed Break (speed break the last enemy while grinding so you don't have to put up with them, or just any enemy in general. Synergizes very well with Dual Wielding / Two Swords from ninja, works with ranged weapons like longbows and guns), Power Break (reduce your own characters PA to 1 and have them attack each other to grind exp and jp)
Unlock: Squire 2

Monk
Chakra (restores HP and MP for free! amazing for grinding), Stigma Magic (cure conditions), Revive. other stuff is fine shrug. Brawler from the Monk and Two Swords / Dual-Wielding from the Ninja is supposedly the highest damage dealing combo in the game, but I don't use it.
Unlock: Squire 2, Knight 3

Thief
Move +2, Steal GP (not bad for grinding, amount of GP stolen affected by speed stat! triggers an enemy counter)
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 3

Geomancer
Attack Up (it's been a while, but I remember this boosts the damage of Holy Sword for Agrias and Orlandu)
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 3, Monk 4

Lancer / Dragoon
Auto-raise / dragon spirit, Ignore Height (ignore height is amazing for one fight in particular in CH4, at Zeltenia Castle against Zalmour the Heresy Exclaimer)
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 3, Thief 4

Samurai
Blade Grasp / Shirahadori (get this on someone cursewording ASAP). I don't use anything else from this class but Draw Out / Iaido skills are affected by the Magic Attack (MA) stat, so this skill set might suit a female magic character or synergize with a male character using the Bard's MA Save. 
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 3, Knight 4, Thief 4, Monk 5, Dragoon 2

Ninja
Two Swords / Dual Wield (too bad the duplicate weapon glitch was patched out), Shuriken and Bombs are fine
Unlock: Squire 2, Archer 4, Knight 3, Monk 4, Thief 5, Geomancer 2

Dancer
Too much effort for me. PA Save / Attack Save for possible niche strategies with female physical attack characters
Unlock: Squire 2, Knight 3, Archer 3, Monk 4, Thief 4, Dragoon 5, Geomancer 5

Magic Jobs

Chemist
Potion, Phoenix Down (all outdated by Monk IMO, except that Phoenix Down has a 100% success and Revive doesn't); Note that general use of auto-potion is just a good way to waste potions; specific-use only. There are better reactions for general use. 
Unlocked: At the start

Black Mage / Wizard
Frog (get this asap! Frog doesn't wear off on its own. It makes a character do damage in the single digits and stops characters from casting spells. When grinding, kill off all but one enemy, then turn them into a frog so that they are basically useless)
Unlock: Chemist 2

White Mage / Priest
Cure 3, Raise 2, Esuna, Holy, Wall (all excellent for Math Skills. Get anything else and I think it clutters up the Math Skill list. Holy is cheaper and more powerful than Flare from the Black Mage / Wizard spell list).
Unlock: Chemist 2

Oracle / Mystic
Repose / Sleep is notable as a poor-man's Frog. I don't really use anything from this class, but its spells look cool.
Unlock: White Mage 3

Time Mage
Haste, Teleport (ignores height and obstacles, can increase the number of squares you can move with a chance to fail of 10% per square beyond you Move stat, so Move +1 90%, Move +2 80%, etc.)
Unlock: Black Mage 3

Calculator / Arithmetician
I think you need a dedicated magic character in your roster to learn all these action abilities. All the action abilities are essential for this classes' skillset. 
Unlock: Chest 2, White Mage 5, Black Mage 5, Mystic 4, Time Mage 4

Mediator / Orator
Entice / Invitation (want to steal an NPC's gear? Just add them to your party roster instead), Preach, Enlighten / Solution, Praise, Intimidate / Threaten, Equip Gun (this is actually one of my favorite support classes although the stat growth is poor)
Unlock: Chemist 2, White Mage 3, Mystic 3

Summoner
I don't use this class or anything from it. Best MP growth (chakra and Math Skills roll eyes)
Unlock: Chemist 2, Black Mage 3, Time Mage 3

Bard
Too much effort for me. MA Save / Magic Save for possible niche strategies with male magic characters, Move +3
Unlock: Chemist 2, White Mage 3, Black Mage 3, Mystic 3, Time Mage 3, Orator 5, Summoner 5

Others

Mime
Too much effort for me / I don't use this class.
Unlock: Squire 8, Chemist 8, Knight 3, Archer 3, Monk 4, Thief 4, Dragoon 5, Geomancer 5, Chemist 2, White Mage 3, Black Mage 3, Mystic 3, Time Mage 3, Orator 5, Summoner 5

Dark Knight
I unlocked this class once. Once.
Squire 2, Knight 4 (Master), Monk 4, Archer 4, Thief 4, Geomancer 8, Dragoon 8, Samurai 8, Ninja 8, Chemist 2, Black Mage (Master), also supposedly you must kill / crystalize 20 enemies.

Onion Knight
Too much effort for me. Apparently, this class starts off poor and gets better after MASTERING all the other jobs. The exact mechanic, I've read, is the Onion Knight's job level goes up by 1 for every 2 jobs you master, and when the Onion Knight reaches job level 8, it gets some big boosts to its stats.
Unlock: Squire 6, Chemist 6

Pokemon Yellow Legacy - Please Fix This Cursed Back Sprite!

 Hi Pokemon Yellow Legacy team! I have a request: Please fix this cursed back sprite! I have redrawn it three different times, taking a few liberties with each iteration.

Fantasy Adventure Guilds for RPGs

Historically speaking, the entire purpose of a guild was regulation of goods and services. A guild is an organization that regulates a profession, its members, its practices, and its impact on society.  In games, this is a little unclear; Runescape especially.

Diegetically speaking, Elder Scrolls III Morrowind's three Imperial Guilds for adventurers, the Fighter's Guild, the Mage's Guild, and the Thieves' Guild, which were ALL very clever because they were all implemented by the government, yes even the Thieves' Guild, to control the more dangerous elements of the society by channeling their dangerous behaviors rather than just imposing laws to restrict their more dangerous behaviors.

The Fighter's Guild was implemented to control independent mercenaries and give wayward soldiers and vagabonds something productive to do and keep them from becoming brigands. Membership grants you training, an income, work that is productive for society, opportunities for advancement and a good reputation, etc. The fighters police themselves.

The Mage's Guild is like the Fighters Guild, but there's the addition of what is considered acceptable magic and unacceptable magic. Now your mages are restricted from doing the "bad magic" to keep their membership. The mages police themselves.

The Thieves' Guild is the most clever. The Thieves' Guild is the ultimate government psy-op. Members are given expectations about what crimes are OK, and what crimes are not OK. This means thieves' guild criminals are less dangerous than non-member criminals who have no such rules. Further, if you're in the thieves' guild and you get caught by the law, the guards will accept bribes and let you go to thieve again. If you're not in the thieves' guild, the guards will NOT accept bribes. Independent criminals and competing criminal organizations cannot compete with the thieves' guild. The thieves' guild police themselves and they police other thieves' without even trying. Additionally, by accepting bribes from the thieves' guild, the government just found out how to tax crime. 

All these organizations are incentivized to keep their charter, which is the document from the government that permits them to operate, by operating effectively. If they go rogue or fail to operate effectively, the government does some culling or some quality control for the members and leaders. Thinking of guilds as regulatory bodies makes them more believable and gives them real political weight in your world.

Final Fantasy X (FFX) Celestial Weapons / Ultimate Weapons Guide

FINAL FANTASY X

Celestial Weapons / Ultimate Weapons

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Celestial_Weapon

Cloudy Mirror

Location: Remiem Temple to the east of the Calm Lands. Race the champion chocobo there, and win.

Celestial Mirror (Cloudy Mirror Required)

Location: Macalania Woods. Speak to the woman at the Thunder Plains entrance. She mentions something about her missing husband, who is also in the woods in an area near the Bevelle exit. Speak to him, and he will return to his wife. Once they are reunited, talk to them again and they mention something about their missing son. Go up the crystal pathway to an altar resembling a giant plant bud. Examinging the altar with the Cloudy Mirror changes it into the Celestial Mirror.

Tidus

Caladbolg

Location: Calm Lands, north west end down a ramp. You must beat the chocobo trainer in a race, and the person guarding it will move out of the way.

Sun Crest

Location: Search the room in which you fight Lady Yunalesca for stairs. Go up and down them until they teleport you into a identical version of the room with a treasure chest. 

Sun Sigil

Location: Chocobo Trainer; Race them, and get a time of 0:00:00. Very RNG. Good luck.

Yuna

Nirvana

Location: Monster Arena in Calm Lands. Reward for capturing 9 different species from the Calm Lands.

Mood Crest

Location: Beach in Besaid.

Moon Sigil

Location: Remiem Temple east of the Calm Lands. Must defeat all Belgemine's aeons, then send her. Requires Yojimbo and Anima.

When the player defeats Bahamut, they receive the Flower Sceptre. Then, the player must capture 1 of every species in Mt. Gagazet and earn the Blossom Crown as a Monster Arena reward.

Use the Flower Sceptre and the Blossom Crown on the door behind Belgemine to unlock it and obtain the final aeon, the Magus Sisters. Defeat Belgemine's Magus Sisters Aeons, then send Belgemine to finally obtain the Moon Sigil.

Wakka

World Champion

Location: Luca, in a cafe. Player must place in at least 3rd in a tournament, then speak to the owner and agree to show her the Celestial Mirror.

Jupiter (or Mercury) Crest

Location: Locker in the Aurochs locker room.

Jupiter (or Mercury) Sigil

Location: 50% chance it appears as a prize in a Blitzball League game once the player has won all three of Wakka's Overdrives in previous competitions.

Kimari

Spirit Lance

Location: Thunder Plains. The player must pray at three different Qactuar Stones which makes a spiritual Qactuar appear at either the North or South end. The player must have also read the text of Gandof and the Qactuars (book) located on the counter in Rin's Travel Agency in the Thunder Plains. The player must follow the Qactuar to the broken tower and press square (or its equivalent) to pray at the tower.

Saturn / Jupiter Crest

Location: Mt. Gagazet, just past the spot where the players fight Seymour Flux. The treasure chest is hidden from view among the pillars on the left.

Saturn / Jupiter Sigil

Location: Butterfly hunt mini-game in the Macalania Woods after obtaining the airship. ?The Sigil appears the second time the player wins?

Lulu

Onion Knight

Location: search for coordinates "12, 57" while aboard the Airship to locate Baaj (temple). Geosgaeno must be defeated, then search the underwater area for a chest that is hidden out of sight.

Venus / Mars Crest

Location: Farplane in Guardosalam. Visit the Farplane after Tidus mentions Seymour's departure for Macalania Temple. If missed, return here after obtaining the airship.

Venus / Mars Sigil

Location: Thunder Plains; dodge 200 lightning bolts consecutively, without leaving the area, and without reseting / loading your save data.

Auron

Masamune

Location: Djose / Mushroom Rock Road. The north-wester passage leads to a rising platform that leads to a statue of Lord Mi'ihen. Players must place the Rusty Sword here to reveal a glyph. The glyph reveals the sword. The Rusty Sword is located on the eastern cliff outside the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth, north of the Calm Lands, south of Mt. Gagazet.

Mars / Saturn Crest

Location: Near the entrance to Mushroom Rock Road along the final area of the Mi'ihen Highroad. 

Mars / Saturn Sigil

Location: Monster Arena reward for unlocking a total of 10 Area Conquest or Species Conquest monsters (any combination of the two).

Rikku

Godhand

Location: Mushroom Rock Road. The player must enter a password "GODHAND" on the Airship, and going to the new location.

Mercury / Venus Crest

Location: Bikanel Desert. Found in a treasure chest in a shifting sand pit in the final area.

Mercury / Venus Sigil

Location: Complete the cactuar sidequest on Bikanel Island, which is available after obtaining the airship.

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Cactuar_Nation#Village_of_the_Cactuars

Breath of Fire II Hints and Tips

Cooking Recipes
     Crafting is an illusion in many RPGs. What you're really doing is interacting with a custom shop that accepts specific items instead of money and returns specific other items. It's essentially ye olde timey bartering. The problem with the wife of the carpenter who makes western style houses is that she doesn't tell you what items she'll trade. Below is a list of all the stuff she cooks that I think is good. The ingredients can be conveniently purchased from Hanz in house 5 and Daiye in house 6 in Township, and the item shop in Guntz.

HEALING ITEM   EFFECT         INGREDIENTS          
WiseBL         +100 AP        Stamina + 2 Tuna
Biscuit        Cure 4, Def.Up 2 Dinkers
Extract        +all HP        4 Herbs or 2 HelpBL  

STAT ITEM      EFFECT         INGREDIENTS
PwdFood        +1 Strength    3 Shave Ice or 2 Medicate
Stamina        +1 Stamina     F.Spice + 2 Tuna
Dinker         +1 Agility     2 Frizbee or 2 Cond. Up or 4 CuraAl
MisoSoup       +1 Wisdom      2 F.Spice
LuckCndy       +1 Luck        mix any 2: F.Spice, Shave Ice, Frizbee
GutsBL         +Guts          2 Shave Ice
 
MISCELLANEOUS  EFFECT         INGREDIENTS
GoldBar        sell for 6k    3 Cond.Up or 2 Frizbee + 2 Dinker
                               or 2 F. Spice + 2 LuckCndy
GoldBar x2     sell for 6k x2 3 Cond.Ups + 1 Tuna
G8bait         catch anything 2 Tuna
Octopus        Atk-Up: party  2 PileWm + 2 Roast

Fishing Shops
     To be honest, I hate mini-games, but the incarnation of the fishing mini-game in BoF2 is simple, so I don't hate it much. Strangely enough, their are merchants that can be fished in this setting. You have to find a rare fishing bait called Gold. You must catch the merchants to shop. Gold is dropped by some enemies at really low drop rates and is found in maybe one or two locations, so be prepared to buy everything you need in one visit. The merchants usually have better stuff than other shops or they have unique stuff.

Northeast of Coursair
MERCHANDISE   PRICE    EFFECT
SilverDR      1200     Atk+14, Damage: Holy
IronML        1400     Def+20, Vig-6
KnightHT      790      Def+8
SilkGL        1200     Def+7
IronSH        1200     Def+10

West of Wild Cat Restaurant
MERCHANDISE   PRICE    EFFECT
BusterSD      2200     Atk+50
WiseRB        3000     Def+18, Vig-4
NationHT      1800     Def+15, -Fire

North of Whale Beach
ITEMS         PRICE    EFFECT
Cond. Up      1000     Improve Condition
F.Spice       100      Cast Flame
ShaveIce      100      Cast Freeze
Frizbee       100      Cast S.Boom
Medicate      500      Cast Atk-Up
FireRock      800      Cast Fireball
KamikzeBL     800      Cast Typhoon
IceChunk      800      Cast Hail

Sea travel required

West of Tunlan
ACCESSORIES   PRICE    EFFECT
Charm         1000     Immune to Curse
IronBR        1000     Def+10
D.Earing      1000     Immune to Sleep
WiseHoop      1000     Wis+10
GutsBT        1000     Increase Guts

Northeast of Akky's Hut (West of Sea of Trees)
ACCESSORIES   PRICE    EFFECT
FastShoe      10000    Vigor+10
HolySF        5000     -Encounter Rate
HeroBT        2000     Atk+10
KramerBR      2000     Immune to Zombie

West of Thieve's Tomb (South side of river)
EQUIPMENT     PRICE    EFFECTS
BrassST       8200     Atk+56, Casts Cure1
ThndrRP       8400     Atk+65
LopOffWP      2000     Atk+10
MystryHT      3100     Def+20
SlashGL       4100     Def+15, Atk+5

Flying required

Island Southwest of Tunlan / Northwest of Guntz
EQUIPMENT     PRICE    EFFECTS
DamageSD      12000    Atk+92
EmblemRP      12000    Atk+79
WorthRG       9500     Atk+52, Casts Death
SlicerDR      20000    Atk+90

Southwest of Cot Land    
*On an island accessible only by Great Bird or Big Frog. The fishing spot generates after a battle on mainland.
EQUIPMENT     PRICE   EFFECTS
BraveAR       10000   Def+60, Agi-6, Atk+5
SpiritRB      7500    Def+12, Resist: Fire, Thunder, Holy
MedusaSH      50000   Def+55, Casts AtkUp
ThndrGL       9000    Def+27, Resist: Thunder

Final Fantasy III (DS ver) Class Tier List

Hello and welcome to my complete Final Fantasy III class tier list! Yes, that's right, I said complete (Note, this is not complete on purpose). Ladies and gentlemen and those of unspecified gender, I want to tell you what! So, without further adieu, a summary of the jobs of each crystal and a final summary at the end.

Wind Crystal
Wind crystal jobs tend to have lower stats on higher levels than later jobs, however the trade off is if you stick with a wind crystal job for the whole game, you'll be fairly high in job level which kind of balances out. Also, you may be eligible for a legendary blacksmith items without any extra grinding. If you try to earn job level 99 with a non-wind crystal job, you may have to grind hard. Consider using at least one wind crystal job the whole game. Trust me, you'll be fine.

Warrior
You may want a warrior for consistent melee in the early game. The warrior is kind of a shit melee class, so don't get too attached. They can only use early game equipment and the Excalibur. I recommend upgrading to a knight ASAP.

Monk
You can alternatively use a monk for the early game melee and you can't go wrong with punching in Final Fantasy games because punching in Final Fantasy games is usually slightly worse than the chosen one wielding the power cosmic. The only problem with the Monk class in FFIII is that they are shit at first. Get your job level to about 14 or so and you should begin to see a solid return on your investment. Weaknesses: They are glass cannons.

Thief
I used a thief in my previous play through all the way to the end game. The thief is broken! It gains JP faster than any other class and will be 30 job levels higher than the party average before your know it. The game will give you knives to keep your thief competitive late game. My thief consistently outdid my knight in damage output and could reliably one-hit or two-hit anything. In addition, with its high speed, my thief would be likely to act sooner in turn order, dispatching an enemy and reducing the amount of damage received by the party each battle. By the time I got to the evil dark knight dungeon with duplicating enemies, I could do 5000 damage or max damage on a crit and I was one-hitting almost everything. My other party members would defend every turn because anything they could contribute was too little to matter. Thieves are amazing!


Red Mage
I love the red mage in concept!!!! There's a reason why you don't see red mages in FF games after this game, and it has to do with the later job class systems allowing you to customize your characters and effectively build a red mage. The FFIII Red Mage class in my experience is crap. One of its perks is that it can use that one early game sword that does extra damage to undead. Cool. This class is just too well rounded. It's not the star of anything; it's your backup at everything. This class doesn't hit hard enough to hit, it doesn't magic well enough to magic, it has less MP, access to weaker equipment, etc. I find that in RPGs, you usually have to specialize to be successful.

White Mage
The white mage has a lower JP rate than other classes, so to keep your white mage falling too far behind, you should use the defend command instead of wasting your turns planning another action that doesn't go off because another character defeats an enemy before your white mage's turn. The white mage is essential for healing during boss battles. You can not get away with relying on items alone to heal. Pick a white mage or die.

Black Mage
I hate black mages, but you're required to have them for some boss fights. Whatever, this game is balanced to allow your black mage to be helpful outside of boss battles. The whole concept of crowd control is gone though. Seriously, if I was confident that I could kill everything with melee, I would only use melee.

Fire Crystal Jobs
I couldn't name all the fire crystal jobs when I began writing this, but you're looking at Geomancer, Knight, Ranger, Scholar.

Scholars
Scholars are interesting in concept; I wish you could get more attack items. When they use items, the effect is doubled. They're like a prototype Final Fantasy Alchemist/Chemist class with a scan ability. The game tells you that you need that scan ability for at least one boss. You don't. I can't justify this class, but I would like to. I think the scholar has a very low JP gain rate.

Ranger
I've never used a ranger because of a little thing called ammo system.

Geomancer
I really like this class in concept as well. They have spells that don't use MP! The downsides are that their spell list is determined by the terrain, meaning you will most likely be fighting fire enemies with fire or water enemies with water. See the problem? Also, they use spells at random so they aren't reliable. I really, really like reliability in my RPG party. If I have some real badasses and thus I have some discretionary room to fuck around, I may invest in a character who might waste their turns or one shot everything on the screen like a geomancer. I think the geomancer has a low JP gain rate.


Knight
You know the end game is going to give you cool knight shit. That's why you have to pick a knight over a viking when deciding what class to have for tanking even in the early game. Deal with it. Excalibur, Ragnarok, and Ultima. If dual wielding shields is a thing (I think it is), a Knight is more effective as tank than a Viking because they have a Defend command which lets them intercept attacks for allies. Therefore, they're better at being a super tank than a viking.

Water Crystal Jobs
The water crystal offers jobs: Viking, Dragoon, Dark Knight, Evoker, Bard.

Viking
I have seen a let's play where the player used a viking just to do something different. Vikings are surprisingly effective at melee and as tanks. I recall that you can dual wield shields in this game and make a viking a super tank, or maybe I'm full of shit.

Dragoon
I shit you not, you are required to change your entire party into dragoons for one boss battle. After that, you don't need to use them ever again. Dragoons are bad at being tanks because they're special ability Jump removes them from the battle for one-two rounds. This means your squishy characters can take more damage before your dragoon hits an enemy for double damage once every two turns. Also, math makes that attack seem redundant. Jump will do 4x damage to flying or air themed enemies which are not the majority of dangerous enemies. Even if jump damage scales exponentially with job level, I can't find myself recommending it because healing spells won't target it while it's airborne.

Dark Knight
A dark knight in the remake of FFIII is a sort of samurai / ninja themed non-ninja character who can use katanas which are effective against enemies that duplicate. You know what else is good against enemies who duplicate? A character who hits hard enough to one-shot that enemy. You also have the dark attack attack which sacrifices the users HP for extra damage. Dark Knights are not tanks by the way; they're armor is just OK.

Evoker
I want to give it a fair try, but I didn't and I won't. I'm just too comfortable with my party by this point in the game. In case you don't know, Evokers are baby versions of summoners.

Bard
I want to use a bard too, but I hear nothing stellar about them.


Earth Crystal Jobs
Unfortunately, I don't like spellcasting classes in JRPGs. This crystal offers 4 spellcasting classes and it's clear (to me at least) that you're meant to pick and commit to only 2 at most and it's supposed to be a difficult choice. The deal with these spellcasting classes is that they are overall better than their lower tier counterparts, but in some ways the lower tier counterparts are better. For example, the White Mage has a higher Magic Power stat and more lower level MP than the Devout. I think you're supposed to trade being really good a using low level spells for being OK at using lover level spells and having access to end game spells. This kind of makes sense for the white mage because having more Cures is better than having fewer, slightly more potent Cures for dungeon crawling. Other than that, Earth Crystal jobs will be at job level 1 and your other jobs may have quite high job levels.

Magus
The big boy Black Mage. Has access to higher level black magic, has more MP, etc. Flare, Meteor, Death.


Devout
The big boy White Mage. Has access to higher level white magic, has more MP, etc. Can cast Life 2, Cure 4, and Holy, which is cool.


Summoner
The big boy version of the Evoker. Access to higher level spells, more MP, etc. Can cast Odin, Leviathan, and Bahamut.

Sage
This is the big boy red mage if the big boy red mage can't hit or wear armor anymore. You have access to all magic. I don't know how much more or less MP you have or how much more or less potent your spells are, but I suspect that a jack-of-all-trades super wizard sacrifices something. Oh well, I can choose to cast any three of Bahamut, Full-Life, Holy, Flare, and Meteor plus Odin with one character. That's cool.

Black Belt
I think this class is amazing for 2 reasons. 1, you don't need a weapon to be a good DPS, however this game actually gives good fist weapons so you'll still hit like a truck. 2, very high HP growth. If you want to get your HP significantly higher, make your characters into black belts and grind out 10 character levels each. You'll be happy you did. This class is still kind of a glass cannon though.


Ninja
In the NES version, this was a secret class that could use ALL weapons and armor making it super fucking duper! In this version, it is a more traditional ninja: glass cannon melee! It has low HP and Defense. I find they get KOed more easily than your magic classes. You can throw ninja stars which do tons of damage. It's amazing if you don't plan on grinding out tons of job levels, but if you do plan on job level grinding, ninja stars are not so impressive.

Summary
For the length of the game, I recommend a dedicated healer, a dedicated tank, and a dedicated melee attacker. I only keep someone prepared to do attack magic stuff because the game seems to like to throw the occasional boss at you that can only be hurt by attack spells and you want something like a black mage with a decent job level for the sake of potency. Just have your bases covered for the whole game; the game is kind of balanced for that. For your final party, I think it sounds risky to leave out a White Mage or a Devout. Notable classes (IMO) for your final party include Knight, Ninja, Black Belt, and Sage. Ninja probably beats Black Belt. I think you have some real leniency to have one wind crystal job with a job level of 99 for that sweet legendary black smith item, in which case I recommend the thief for DPS based on experience. End game grinding is required.

You can't in my experience avoid a balanced party. You can't have 4 Black Belts for instance. I've tried. Longer dungeons will make you burn through too many resources. The game will throw 1-3 enemies at you per battle; 1 or 2 on average with 3 being rare or more common at mid-late and end game. I think any way you roll, your party's damage output will generally be enough to defeat one enemy per round. Your party will on average take 2 to 3 hits per round of combat. That's just the way this game is balanced. Bosses will be threatening enough to give you a game over if you get unlucky or you make a poor decision.

The game will make resources available (such as weapons, armor, spells) to encourage you to choose different classes at different phases of the game and free resources (weapons or armor found as treasures) are available to encourage or limit use of specific classes. You will not have enough swords and armor to equally equip 4 knights for instance.

Breath of Fire 3 Strats

Character Strats

Ryu
One of my favorite games is Breath of Fire 3 for your ability to configure character growth. I think the most valuable stat in the game for Ryu is agility because you can get EX turns, a bonus turn in between rounds of combat, in your dragon forms. EX turns in dragon forms don't cost AP. This effectively means you double your AP for sustaining your dragon forms. The sad thing is that this is not something you can enjoy the benefits of until mid to late game. How do you get agility? Massive, massive amounts of agility?

There are three methods: 
One: The master Meryleep.
Two: Farming Swallow Eyes.
Three: Chain Formation + Rei
 
Method One
Meryleep can actually be unlocked after completing the light house and defeating the pink dolphin monster in the fairy village. She gives 2 agility per level. The cost of 1 AP might not be worth it to some, but remember, EX turns as a dragon do not cost AP.

Method Two
There are actually two methods for farming swallow eyes and they both involve having a lot of progress with the Fairy Village mini-game, which isn't available until part two when Ryu is an adult. It takes about 6 hours of gameplay to max out fairy village. Farming items can be done by making 15 copy shop fairies or 15 gift shop fairies. 

Gift Shop Fairies
Gift shop fairies are much more consistent. They  give you an item for visiting. The item is determined by the number of fights you've gotten into since you spoke with them, starting at 0 if they're brand new. You do not have to win the fights, you may run! Gift shop fairies will give you a swallow eye when the number of fights you've accumulated is 71-76, 78-80. Set up your copy shop, put your fairies in it, then leave and get into 70+ fights. When you talk to the fairies after that, they will have a gift for you, one swallow eye each! Up to 15 at a time! Yummy.


Just so we're clear, you can make up for any stat penalties from masters at the end of the game, with work and time, using gift shops. You can re-evaluate the pros and cons of a master based on on how much work some items are to farm. Gift shops can give the following stat boosting items:
#Battles    Items
7    *Fish Head
31-40    Life Shard
41-50    Magic Shard
51-60    Power Food
61-70    Protein
71-80 (except 77) Swallow Eye
81-90    Fish Head
 *Note: Intelligence is a useless stat. Nina with 400 intelligence still can't compete with Ryu for damage. Tried it.

Copy Shop Fairies
To use the copy shop to begin with, you have to have a bunch of Swallow Eyes to begin with, and the game only gives you two. Copy shops also have a chance of failure and you lose your item. However, it only requires 30 battles for the copy shop to complete the process. 

Summary
The most consistent way to farm Swallow Eyes is to use Gift Shops. You should get Ryu's agility to 110 to 130 while wearing his heaviest equipment before you can be sure you'll always be fast enough to have EX turns. 

Method 3:
Oh yeah, these strategies are unnecessary if you apprentice Rei under Meryleep, unlock the Chain Formation and put Rei on point which makes everyone else have Rei's Agility score. I think Rei sucks though.



Wizards Should Apprentice Under Fahl
The most valuable stats for spellcasters are AP and Def. AP is valuable because of how rare AP restoring items are. Fahl does not take away from AP! He takes away from Intelligence, but that's fine. As we've established, Intelligence sucks in this game and Fish Heads are the easiest item to farm! Defense is more valuable than HP. Put Nina and Momo under Fahl for 10 levels for 40 HP and 30 Defense and they'll never take damage again except from enemies using breath weapons, Berserkers and Arch Mages. I recommend using Nina and Momo because they are your best buff/debuff/crowd control/support units.

Rei and Garr are not for Dealing Damage
The first time I played this game, my main party included Rei and Garr. I thought they would be good melee fighters. The fact is, the amount of damage Ryu can do in his Warrior and Kaiser forms makes any other damage redundant during a boss fight. They barely contribute during random battles. In fact, in boss battles, what I needed from non-Ryu characters was healing and buffs, at which Rei is subpar and Garr is shit.

Rei is clearly a support unit. He has the ability to use a healing item before the enemy has a turn and he can steal or use debuffs, though less effectively than Nina or Momo. If you unlock the chain formation, then Ryu can benefit from Rei's Agility to get Dragon EX turns, but I got tired of commanding Rei to defend all the time. He can use Disembowel at the start of a fight to maybe instantly remove one enemy from play.

One thing you can do with Rei is apprentice him under a master that gives a lot of AP and have him heal AP using the Transfer skill. I've never tried this, but in theory, you could give Ryu a few extra rounds in his dragon form. Just farm little AP restoring items from fishing, get a shit ton of AP, or make do.

Garr is a tank. Apprentice him under Fahl, pick a formation that gives him the highest chance of taking hits, put him on point, spam counter. I found him almost completely useless after Duana Mines. Because of his Life Armor, Ryu has some great advantages as a tank. You could get that advantage for Garr too using a Cupid's Lyre accessory.


Make Battles Last Longer with Peco
Peco has a counterattack rate of 50%. This is a good way to draw out the length of a battle with numerous extra animations. If Peco can hit really hard and reliably 1-shot enemies in random encounters, use him. If not, you're better off relying on concentrated deliberate damage. An additional downside to relentless counterattacks is that you can't do a lot of stealing if Peco keeps killing all your marks. I only use Peco for learning abilities from masters. I hear some people really like Peco and think he's OP. They must be playing this game wrong.

Everything you need to know about skills and masters

General Tip: Use your levels wisely.  It's easier to learn all the skills/spells you want if you keep your levels low.  For example, Peco starts out on level 1. That means if you save him for when you meet Deis, you're only 15 minutes of grinding away from unlocking all the best attack spells.

The only important masters are numbered.
I've provided my amazing 2 cents on which masters beyond that have what value. 

#1. Meryleep!
The best skills in this game bar none are Shadowwalk and Aura. Shadowwalk comes from Meryleep. It is a guaranteed crit that costs 8 AP. She also gives Charm which is very useful for getting certain special late game item drops. She also gives 2 Agility at level up.


#2. Falh
He gives invaluable stat boosts for spellcaster types with low HP and Def. Defense is very valuable in this game! Most attacks have to get through your defense. For other attacks, such as Magic which  essentially does it's base damage + some amount of Int, and breath weapons which do damage based on current HP/Max HP, they need to beat sheer HP. I don't recall using his skills except Resist during Berserker and Arch Mage fights, but I'm usually not happy unless I learn it from Balio and Sunder.

#3. Ladon.
Get Aura. Maybe. Actually, I recommend Aura over Shadowwalk for Berserker and Arch Mage. The extreme stat growth he offers works best for characters who a) don't need AP, can afford to sacrifice HP, and who you would like to improve their overall stats. This is if you want a more powerful car with less fuel economy. or b) if you're grinding out levels over level 50 when all your stat growth tanks; There's no point in doing that though.

#4 also #1 D'Lonzo
Steal and Monopolize are wonderful. Her stat growth is terrible however. It's such a meager difference to natural growth. I don't know who it complements, but probably Momo for the early game because she also gives a slight bonus to Attack hit chance.

#4 Bunyan
I recommend Bunyan for any character who will rely on melee damage. His skill Focus is also worth noting. Focus can be stacked and combined with Shadowwalk and Aura to do the best damage in the entire game: 2,000+ damage with Aura. Super Combo is an expensive pain in the ass. I will gladly never play a mini-game to make sure my attack works. Disembowel is probably useless. I never bothered getting it from him after I earned it.

The Rest.
Deis 
She gives you the best attack spells in the game. These can be good for Momo. I've heard that Peco makes a good wizard too. Nina learns them later. I have never used Celerity, but it might be amazing.

Giotto
Like Ladon, this guy alters your stat growth in an extreme way. His actual quality is that you can get Ruy a lot of HP and AP early to mid game. This is the option for if you want a weaker car with more fuel economy. His skills are ass. 

Emitai 
He teaches Mind Sword. It's a very cheap single target attack spell that a wizard can use over their Attack command. In my experience, this is stronger than Magic Ball and generally useful. Barrier and Enlighten are good on paper, but I seldom need Barrier or rely on Magic to do a lot of damage.


Hachio 
A crappy Bunyan clone who teaches a skill called Demonsbane which I found to be a lesser choice for skills and Mighty Chop which is just an easter egg. In theory, your wizards can use Might Chop instead of Attack indefinitely and be able to contribute without using AP, but they nerfed it.

Mygas
Magic Ball is OP at the beginning of the game. You can do 40~60 damage to one enemy for 2 AP. I don't think this spell gets any stronger. If you unlock Typhoon from him in the early game, it's useful for grinding and emergencies. I think Meditation might be useful but I've never experimented with it.

Yggdrasil
Shield is the only good spell he offers, though you may find it redundant. Face it, the only reason you use Yggdrasil is because it's early game and you're done with Mygas and you don't want to spend your mage character's levels on a non-magic master.

Durandal
I think this master is a waste of perfectly good levels.

Hondara
You can't unlock Hondara without learning everything from Durandal. That's a shame because I like this guy's spells. Well, I like them on paper. In case it's not clear, I never used his skills.


Other Skills worth Learning (This list is Short)
Snooze
This is a secret skill learned from Eye Goos. Defend or wait for 10 rounds, then the Eye Goo gets bored and falls asleep. Snooze restores some HP and some AP, making it kinda useful for recovering AP.

Burn
Have Ryu learn this from Mage Goos in Cedar Woods. It's cheap and effective against Nut Troops on Mt. Myrneg and that's all it's for. Actually, you can also use it on Vulcan's in Mt. Zublo to wake them up and power them up for exp!

Blind
This can be learned from Rippers and has a pretty good success rate. Blind the Nue boss. I stop using it very early on. It has a secret use. If you blind Eye Goos, they drop 30 experience.

Frost
Ryu can use this on mud men at Mt. Myrneg to paralyze them an make them drop 70 experience. You can give it to Momo after that so she can have a reliable attack.

Double Blow
Stronger than a regular attack but weaker than a crit.

Bone Dart
I've heard good things but I always gave up on learning it!

Rest
Restores some HP and some AP.  It's like Snooze. 

Air Raid
I'm putting this down as an honorable mention. It never seems works when I really need it.

Tsunami
For 8 AP, you can halve everyone's HP. It's neat.

Lava Busrt
An AOE, medium powered fire spell and you get it pretty early. That's cool!

Flame/Wind/Ice/Holy/Thunder/etc. Strike
Really cool on paper. I haven't relied on exploiting elemental weaknesses with melee characters in this game before, I'm not going to do it now.

Wall of Fire/Thunder Clap/Chill
These are skills that would be good if they gave them to you earlier.

Cure
Secret powerful healing skill learned from the paralyzed enemies in the desert level. You have to cure their paralysis using a panacea and then they might use it. I forget how to make them use it, but I don't think it's hard.

Evil Eye
A very late/end game spell. Has a high chance of paralyzing one enemy. I don't bother.


Low Level Strats
Why low level? Because you want to maximize your opportunities for stat growth and learning skills from masters.

Get Magic Ball and Typhoon Skills Early.

• Keep Teepo (or Ryu) on level 1 until you unlock Mygas. Apprentice Teepo under Mygas and you can be ready to learn all his spells by the time you complete McNeil Manor. These skills automatically go to your Skills book in your camp after you lose Teepo. Give Nina Magic Ball and Typhoon right away for easy fights.
• Run all the time. It's fine. Your defense drops for that round of combat though.
• Kill Teepo a lot.
• Have extra Healing Herbs.
• Clear the ? Forest blocking the path to Mt. Glaus while you still have Rei in your party.
• Why would you do this? Because leveling up to level 8 from level 7 is actually a lot more work than leveling from 1 to 7.

Lots of Money Early Game

• Earn a ton of money for equipment and healing items by farming Silver Knives from the Manilo Fishing Shop. Silver Knives go for 600 Zenny each. It might take you 2 hours to farm 6,000 Zenny. You don't have to worry about missing money from escaping all the fights.

Armor and Weapons aren't Important until The Contest of Champions

• Fun fact, you can get away with not buying any gear until the Contest of Champions. If you do your fishing, you can actually get better armor from the fishing spot near Momo's Tower and since you're running away from most fights, weapons aren't important.

AP Restoring Items
Having any AP restoring items in the beginning can make a big difference if you're underleveled.

• Rainbow Trout restores 5 AP.
• Sea Bream restores 5 AP.
• Black Porgy restores 20 AP. Located in fishing spots near Momo's tower and southeast of Mt. Zublo. Use frog bait. Get 10.
• Wisdom Seeds 20 AP (Steal from ghosts and spectres at the lighthouse. Spectres also appear at angel tower.)

Boss Strats
NUE
Blind it and do your best.

AMALGAM
Equip Silver Knives from the Manillo Shop. This fight is actually not dangerous at all. 

MUTANT
This creature regenerates 250 HP each turn. You can make him lose his regenerating ability by hitting it with fire attacks until he stops. You shouldn't go all out or use your dragon forms until then. Spend the first few rounds preparing any buffs you might have, healing, defending, and using Molotovs on him. 


Contest of Champions Round 1

• Claw: Honestly, I don't remember. Luck?
• Cawer:  same as above.
• Patrio: same as above. Remember to steal from these three.
  
• Dodai: If you target the Dodai under your opponent, your opponent will target your Dodai. When your Dodai is low on HP, use a multi-vitamin on him which you can purchase at the item store at the arena. Dodai is worth 3000 exp.
  

 Contest of Champions Round Two

• Ematai: Not a threat.
  
• Golems x2: Concentrate on one at a time and keep your HP up. Do not bother learning Spirit Blast, it sucks when you use it.
  

Stallion
Balio and Sunder fuse. He can use Jolt and when his HP gets to about half or less, he starts using a skill called Utmost Attack that does 50 damage to everyone so keep your HP up at all times!

Gazer
Ryu should be some sort of fire dragon and everyone else should defend, heal and buff Defense. Don't bring any party members who can't take a hit because gazer has AOE attacks.

Dolphin
His weakness is electricity.


Gisshan, Scylla, and Charyb
Ice moves!

Garr (Angel Tower)
Nothing to worry about.

Dragon Zombie
Fire and High Defense.

Mikba
Ryu can use either the Holy Dragon form or the Fire Dragon form. Holy will hit harder with Radiant Claw but consume more AP. Rei is useless. 
  
Huge Slug
Fire Warrior form. Not even a fight. Basically, this is how every boss fight will go from here on.


Shroom
Fire Warrior form.


Gaist
I think his weakness is Ice. Make sure to examine his ashes after the fight before you leave the room!

Angeler
Inoculate yourself so you are protected against electricity before the fight. He has no weaknesses, just throw down.


Ammonites
I think I lost to them on accident once. Use the Thunder Warrior form. It's not even a fight.

Elder
I don't remember this guy being a threat.

Manmo
Non-challenge.

Chimera
I don't remember a damn thing about you. 
 

Arwan
Totally forgot.


Dragn Lord
This was unsatisfyingly quick. I felt cheated. Fake boss.


Myria
Speaking of fake bosses, I remember this one being too easy too. She might have had a cheap spell or two.




Level Grinding Strats
Experience is divided among the surviving party members. You can kill off one or two to get one party member extra EXP. You can use the Monopolize skill from D'Lonzo to have one character get all the exp. This is also a valid way to keep characters from earning exp if you want to control their levels.


Low Levels
There are some enemies that give bonus exp if you do the right thing to them.

• Eye Goo: Blind them and they drop 30 exp. 
• Tar Man: Use Frost or ice magic to paralyze them and they drop 70 exp.

Medium Levels
Go to Mt. Zublo and fight Vulcans, giant boulders with faces. If you use a fire skill on them, not a fire/wind skill, they will wake up and become worth 900 exp each. This is really the best way to grind experience until the late game.

Level 30+
This game is basically designed for you to peak at level 35 or so. That's when the experience to next level gets really high!  Here's what you do if you want more levels late game.

Lava Men
This strat is not recommended because I haven't achieved it yet, so I can't say what you're really in for. Go back to Mt. Zublo and fight the lava men. You can power them up casting fire skills/spells on them. You can do a combination of powering them up and using an item called Ivory Dice, see the next paragraph, to get the max possible exp in a single fight, but they're wicked hard. Give it a shot and see what happens, but don't have expectations of pulling it off.
 
Ivory Dice
These can be farmed from a late game Manillo shop. If you use one in battle, the EXP you'll earn doubles. The effects stack if you use multiple Ivory Dice in one fight. See the next paragraph "Secret Enemies."


Secret Enemies
If you want to much higher, go to the Container Yard and fight some Berserkers and Arch Mages. They are very challenging, but they can drop a ton of exp. Use your Ivory Dice here. Get inoculations for Fire and Electric property damage too.


Dragon Gene FAQs

What is the difference between Thorn and Gross? 
Thorn affects the elemental genes, Fire/Ice/Thunder/Shadow/Radiance so that instead of taking 0 damage form the corresponding elemental attack, your elemental form will recover HP from corresponding elemental attacks. Gross improves your HP, Power, Defense, Wisdom, Agility. Gross and thorn are interchangeable if you pair one of them with Eldrich, Defender, or Force genes. Either Thorn or Gross will cause the same improvements to the Defender, Eldrich, and Force Forms. Stacking thorn and gross will get you a stronger form, but is not going to get you any significant improvements. 

How does Fusion work and is it useful?
I have no goddamn idea!

Warrior vs Kaiser Form?
Infinity + Failure or Trance + Radiance + Infinity combined give you a Super Saiyajin Ryu. Kaiser can use Focus and Shadowwalk or Focus and Aura if Ryu knows the skills. The warrior is more AP affordable,  has slightly higher Power, and has Focus and Aura built in.

Puzzle & Mini-Game Strats