FF6 - Brave New World

(Did the forum revert eat my post? I think so! Rar!)

Yep, and it also ate my reply. So, here we go again.

1: Can we please make it so Slot doesn't trigger enemy counterattacks? Setzer rolled Earth Rage against Chesticle, then died. I revived him, then he rolled Blackjack and again died.

That's kind of the idea with Setzer. He's all about chance/luck of the draw. We tried to port his gambler class over to his combat style between Slots and the Dice/Fixed Dice.

3: Doom Gaze: Compared to Umaro, he was easy. Not disappointingly so, but surprisingly so. (Sabin/Edgar/Terra/Gogo to kill Doom Gaze, but Sabin/Edgar/Terra/Mog for Umaro. That Snowstorm spam's lethal!)

A lot of bosses in the WoR will follow this trend, to a degree. You also had a powerful group for Doom Gaze, able to repeatedly nail weaknesses for huge amounts of damage (between Fire 3 and Aura Bolt).

Umaro the boss is the same as Umaro the character. Powerful, but not much in the way of tricks.

4: Since Gogo can mimic Steal, it seems logical for him to be able to open Narshe's structures. Can we include this?

Nah, that's not going to happen. It may make sense, but it gives the player much earlier access to some really powerful gear.

5: Sabin. He's my MVP. Aside from perhaps Serpent Trench, there is no point at which I regret having him along.

So far, pretty much everyone we've heard reports from has a different MVP. Really, the only two characters I would least expect to hear that about are Umaro and Shadow.

6: Party members come World of Ruin. I've discovered that 1000 HP is the cutoff point to where you're unlikely to be one-shot in the back row. Since Edgar has about 1600 HP, he's in good shape.

Unfortunately, everyone I waited to level (due to wanting them to have better esper bonuses) is a liability. It seems like a gentle breeze would kill 'em.

Well, if you intentionally kept their levels low, that's to be expected. We tried to give everyone attractive esper bonuses in the WoB so players don't feel like they're gimping themselves if they level up too early. That said, Strago and Relm are difficult since you get them so late in the WoB.

It also (hopefully) encourages players to use their entire roster when exploring the various dungeons of the WoR.

7: Setzer: When I have the choice to not take him, I don't. His spell selection is weak, his physical damage is pathetic (dealing double digit damage per hit with the best weapons available when I can cast Fire 3 for 7000+ and even 9999!) and his Slot ability feels meh. I like his in-combat no-MP party heal, but even then, that's low compared to a Cure 2, and enemies aren't waiting around for me to fully heal my party! I've given him the "Offering" relic and Sprint Shoes (because everyone should have Sprint Shoes!) and his damage is still meh. The best I can say about him is that he's an off-healer and can use the Switchblade and "Offering" to steal when Locke ain't around.

This can depend a lot on what esper bonuses he's gotten too. He has a lot of potential with a setup like dual Man Eaters/Daryl's Soul wrecking shop against humans, but that's obviously a bit situational. By pumping his magic, you'll be dealing a lot of damage when he nails his slots, and healing for a good amount when he misses.

That said, we have a few other players reporting that they never let Setzer out of their party. Any character (save for Umaro, for obvious reasons) can be quite powerful given the right setup.

8: Mog: I kinda like him. Unfortunately, I don't know what the revised dances do. Maybe I'd like him far more if I did, because dances I use tend not to work when it counts (like, oh, bosses). It ain't because of Mog failing to dance, but not using party-healing dances when I need it, and using effects that either deal no or pathetic damage. His Fight isn't doing that much damage (dual wielding) and Jumping is doing a bit better, but still shy of 1000 damage per round. Mog is cool in personality, but ends up feeling weak to me due to 'meh' or poor Fight damage and unpredictable dances.

Learning Mog's dances and the situations in which to use them is the key to being effective with him as a dancer. The new dance repertoires are in the Printme, so I won't go over which is the best for certain situations. Just like Setzer, we have quite a few people saying that they've been using him to great effect. I found a lot of success with him as a dancer too, and I normally dislike characters I can't control.

I will say that the native dance is usually a bad idea on bosses.

9: Gogo: I'm not sure what to make of the revised Gogo. (He's been dead most the time I've had him. Low HP kills!) Sabin can Bum Rush from the back row for about 2500, but Gogo does this for about 600. The best I can say about Gogo so far is that at least he can cast any spell of his companions, making him versatile in the Element3 and the restorative stuff. Oh, and Blitzing Chakra. Woo!

Bum Rush is a physical attack, and Gogo has very low Vigor. Just like Mog and Setzer, quite a few other players have reported using him to great effect, and Gogo is easily one of my favorites.

I won't give you any specific setups (since that's half the fun), but I will say this: Gogo's strengths are his high base speed, evasion, and selection of magic-boosting equipment. It's also no accident that he can equip daggers.

There are many, many extremely effective setups for Gogo.

10: Umaro: My previous FFVI experience has turned me off to him. Being totally uncontrollable (and with unchangeable Equipment) is a downside, even if he hits hard. (Sabin hits hard, too!) I'm not sure what to say about him, but I feel meh tending toward "no likey."

Yep. Umaro is the same as he ever was, he just hits harder. He'd be attractive to the new or inexperienced player because he takes no effort to hit like a truck, but he's overall the weakest character.

11: Gau: He's still level 18 in a party of level 30ishes. His HP is below 400. That's problematic, even for training purposes. I also wish I had a comprehensive list of what the revised rages did since I have to guess. I know Exocite, Albatross, Adamantite, and Zombone. Beyond that, I don't know nor much care. Gau is better this time around but gets shelved due to complexity.

This information is in the Printme as well. You would just need to cross-reference the list of rages with the list of attacks to see their effect.

*snip*

Everyone has their favorite characters. What we tried to do was bring players out of their comfort zone a bit by using characters they didn't normally use. Every character is useful, but some thought needs to go into how to build and use them as well. That's why we've supplied the information we did in the Printme file.

I like the idea of status effects being useful on bosses (I *hated* FF12, but that's one thing they did well). The problem here is that it's very hard to balance around. We couldn't count on the presence of these status spells (for example, Mute) because of how certain spells are limited to certain characters, so we couldn't make the boss too difficult if you didn't have a Mute caster. At the same time, we'd have to ensure that he's not a pushover if he is muted.

That said, a lot of people have found status spells useful in random encounters, though I personally rarely used them. Your boss strategy mirrors mine, simply because that's how I prefer to play. Then again, if you're sticking with the same basic cast for every dungeon, you're going to plow through the WoR with little effort until you hit Kefka's Tower.

14: When I get to Maranda, why's there this guy running around so frantically wishing me good luck? His grammar should also use 2 sentences instead of 1.

It's an Airplane! reference.