FF6 - Brave New World

Cyan's got a neat paladin thing going with his 3-esper spell list, but I feel like it's not worth casting spells with him because his magic power's going to be crap and he's not going to have the MP to use any of the big ones twice, plus he's so slow that by the time the heal goes off the target's going to be dead.

Cyan's magic actually has its usefulness. Anyone who can cast Cure 2 can contribute in a healing capacity, and Regen is exceptionally useful to have around. Further, Empowerer makes Cyan's low MP max a non-issue; Synchysi touts him as the game's best OOC healer.

Sabin and Shadow are similar stories, although they get some versatility from Blitz and Throw as well as weapon effects I guess.

I'll admit not to using Sabin's magic much (although there was one dude that was getting some pretty good mileage out of spamming Quake with him), but the little that Shadow gets should see quite a bit of use if you utilize him much. He's a good buffer with Float/Safe/Haste(X), and his high stamina means that Regen will double as an effective healing spell.

I like the variety (I'm sure my like-bordering-on-fetish for variety has made itself known by now) and usefulness of (Gau's) Rages, but he's pretty useless other than them, which is a little sad. Getting Fenrir for Regen and HasteX will be nice I'm sure.

I deliberately limited Gau's spell selection outside of Rage since Rage sort of *is* his spell selection, and the choices I want the player to focus on is "what Rage should I use?" rather than "should I use Rage at all or just sling spells?"

Ideally, Gau will toss up a HasteX, maybe a Regen or two, and then it's off to Rageville.

Locke is my favorite so far. Great speed, evasion, and damage, plus healing, but steal is... kind of sad. At least the Thief Glove gives some nice stat boosts so I can Mug and not waste turns with stealing. It's nice to use it as a source of consumables and there are probably a few enemies worth stealing from (the 9+ Butterfly knives I got financed some nice upgrades), but it's always a little sad going through a whole dungeon and not even having enemies I can steal from. That last part is my main issue with it, since it pretty much removes 1/3 of Locke's use for large portions of the game.

This is a fairly common complaint we've been getting. The unlockable Printme file contains a full list of what can be stolen and who from, which actually makes it a bit more useful since it identifies exactly where your efforts should be focused (I personally find it most useful as a way to stock up on throwables for Shadow).

That said, I'm aware it's a lackluster ability compared to others. Something that may change in later versions is the possible addition of theft-exclusive equipment and/or having being stolen from somehow alter how the target fights you (like having it beserk them or something).

Along the same lines (and these are both mentioned in the ReadMe, I just didn't quite realize the scope of the changes), it's almost not worth it to go after treasure chests if they're out of the way, because a lot of the neat or potentially powerful items have been removed from chests. I still go for them in the vague hope I'll get something other than another X-potion or Tincture, but mostly I'm disappointed.

A *lot* of useful/rare stuff still comes from chests, though most of it is endgame equipment in the World of Ruin.

I also tried my best to make X-Ethers and the like actually viable, and made it a point to actually use them. One thing in particular I've been noting is the tendency for players to use end-game Sabin as a mana battery, whereas I favored using my Ether stores and keeping him on offensive duty.

I love how armor/weapons stay useful longer, but it means there are fewer upgrades, to the point where the Tiger Mask I have on Gau might be what he's wearing at the end of the game. Actually, looking at the equipment list again, about 1/3 of the equipment I have now is probably what I'll be using at the end of the game, assuming I don't go for things that are mostly side-grades. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, especially considering it's almost all store-bought from before the World of Ruin.

If you're at Thamasa, then the Tiger Mask should be the *only* piece of equipment you have that will still be useful in the endgame. And that's a bit of a special case, since Sabin and Gau are both very powerful characters whose primary drawbacks are their lack of decent equipment.

I would say "looks like I'll have lots of money to use with GP Rain!" except I don't typically use Setzer much. (Hmm... another side note, Setzer with some speed boosting items would actually be a really nice healer once I get the World of Ruin espers. Looks like I actually will be using him more this playthrough!)

We haven't heard back from anyone actually using GP Rain, so let us know.

Control is another skill that seems mostly ignored, to the point that I imagine we'll probably dump it in a later version of the mod (GP Rain will stick around though, even if we have to edit its formula to make it more useful).

The one typo I noticed was in the Beginner's School in Narshe (I think someone in the far right world, the word "character" is misspelled).

Good catch, I'll fix it.

1) Do some of Edgar's tools use Magic to calculate their damage?

Flash and Bio Blaster.

I try to note this in the Printme file: anything that doesn't specifically say "physical damage" is implied to do magical damage instead.

Otherwise Magic in general is pretty useless for him (except Cure 2; useful, but still only one use), which seems weird considering he has an esper that boosts it.

Siren was a very, very hard esper to think of a good, non-redundant boost for. Celes is the primary target of Siren's boost; Edgar just happens to be there, too.

2) Can I use my existing save with a new version of the hack?

Yes. I made a note of that in the Readme.