(Sigh. Why did you quote that with the video in it when it's on the same page, dinosaur?)
I am returned, having taken longer to do something else before I left than I anticipated; thanks, computer.
Anyway, I'm still rather surprised that so far that at least a few people, who aren't new to
FFT at all, weren't aware of the Undead thing with regards to Reraise. I mean, it's mentioned in the
Battle Mechanics Guide as the very second thing under [Undead] status. While the Battle Mechanics Guide mentions a bunch of stuff that's minutiae, including the Faith glitch that only CT5Holy ever took advantage of, given how often Undead is used compared to Faith and how I'm pretty sure it's come up at least thrice in ARENA, I guess I just thought everyone knew.
Good to know to still not make assumptions about things.
Anyway, onward to something actually substantive. Having already started thinking about this
Embargo, I'm not entirely sure that Undead monsters are doable/worth trying to convert. Then again, this is slightly different (and perhaps better overall) in format from how I was considering doing a potential version of ARENA, so I'll just go with Undead as if they're guaranteed (or, hell, as if monsters are guaranteed).
I'll just go through each monster individually for now rather than comparing them to each other (for the most part):
1.
Chocobos:They seem fine, even if Move on Lava is a bit...odd, especially in combination with Fly. I'm guessing Choco Recharge only targets the self, correct? Otherwise, Chocobo Gift would become even more redundant seeming.
2.
Goblins: Ugh, innate Concentrate alongside what's essentially Shock and potentially obnoxious "Distract", depending on its range and speed, are make quite wary of Goblins. It doesn't help that "Prankster" isn't exactly a clear theme unless you meant "annoying". I'm also not understanding the Walk on Lava.
3.
Bombs: Getting this out of the way first, I have to say that Walk on Lava is utterly unnecessary here since Float Movement, unlike Float Status, already doubles as that. That said, when it comes to utterly useless RSMs, they would probably the monster that benefits the most (read: at all) from Any Weather. Then again, weather has presently been edited out of all maps, at least for the tournament, so....
Anyway, getting into their actual moveset, I'm a bit wary of Bomblet plus Self-Destruct, at least if Self-Destruct hits multiple units still. Also, does Spark still heal the user, because if it does, then I never see the AI using Bomblet in the first place.
("Boom!" technically isn't a theme either, but I choose to interpret it as "heavily offensive", Reraise aside.)
4.
Panthers: Despite vaguely knowing that some sprites of have Cannot Enter Water in vanilla have problems when encountering water with it, I'm not entirely sure we should saddle any of the monsters with Cannot Enter Water. It will probably require more testing though just to be sure we're not getting into any "breaks the game" territory.
Technique-wise, Reflexes seems dubious due to how the AI acts about temporary Vanishing/Invisible/Transparent/Clear/Whatever. It's probably even more problematic than usual due to be packaged with Haste, which makes it inevitable that its going to used by the AI. Somewhat similarly, Blaster seems like it would prioritized after that due to having both Petrify and Slow as well as Stop. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what to advise as a solution to either of these at present.
5.
Mindflayer: Eh, Counter Magic seems way too likely to backfire to be on a monster as a permanent innate. Counter Flood seems like it's generally better. Other than that, I'm not sure any monster needs an immunity to Silence, Counter Magic aside. Also, Wither and Fog shouldn't be on the same set given the computer doesn't keep track of what stat it's lowering if Thieves and Dancers are any indication. Separate them please.
6.
Skeletons: They seem mostly fine aside from the fact that Dark and Bane are rather repetitive. If you're going to keep them together, then please make Bane single target and unable to self-target. Outside of that, I have no idea how you plan to make Wake the Dead work or if you're just going to make Kill add Dead or do damage like Death & add Dead; Kill seems kinda redundant, but meh.
7.
Ghosts: While supportive Undead is "interesting" and perhaps justifies something as currently egregious as MP Switch, this current design has quite a few problems. First, though, I might as well address the ambiguities: Rising Dead and Blighted Armor take only Undead, but don't target the entire map, right? Also, I'm guessing these abilities would also hit the Ghost using it?
Getting past that, as has been stated by CT5Holy, Rising Dead would actually screw over the Undead at present due to Reraise. Additionally, Ectoplasm and Zombify are rather anathema to Drain Touch, which is something I only realized right away due to doing it myself with Ghosts in
Embargo like an idiot. As such, you're probably going to have to changing one or the other; changing Rising Dead to combat Raise 2 is something I'm not sure about yet, especially since having either Undead-only ability cause Innocent would be kinda busted.
8.
Ahriman: Currently the monster I like the most, which means I might steal from it the most. The only thing I'm sure about is the damage off Despair, but even that doesn't seem too troubling. Cannot Enter Water is probably fine on the few monsters that already had that can Fly despite what I said earlier.
9.
Cockatrice: Stone Beak might be a bit much on something so fast and with presumably such movement, though it's difficult to tell. Outside of that, much like Ahriman, I don't have much of a problem with, though Uplift is a bit vexing to me. I know it's from Celdia's patch--I suppose it's just because I'm used to think of Floating and Immobilized as opposites. Well that and the Float seems to serve no real purpose beyond thematic stuff, but I'd be somewhat hypocritical if I said that was invalid.
10.
Pigs: "Eccentricity" isn't a theme.... That said, I'm assuming that Toot causing Charm & Poison is intentional due to the reasons that Pierce pointed out. Beyond that, Bacon is a bit...ugh, especially combined with HP Restore, but I suppose it ultimately depends on the range and likelihood as with quite a few things.
11.
Treant: Defend Up and Magic Defend Up seem a bit much, but I'm guessing that they're still going to have crappy Move/Jump and offensive, so maybe it's justified. That said, Gift of Life is still somewhat to cautious of; I'm guessing it's "only" single-target unlike Spirit of Life from 1.3. Beyond that, are the persevering abilities discriminating or not?
12.
Minotaurs: Hamedo? Do not want. Just give them Counter please.
Outside of that, I kinda like these, to the point where I might steal Brawl. I don't really understand Enmity though. Is it supposed to persevere while healing the Minotaur to draw enemies in? Or...?
13.
Malboros: Ugh, AoE 2 Sleep is just asking for trouble with Bad Breath, even if it doesn't discriminate. Outside of that, I like this design too.
14.
Behemoths: CT5Holy already addressed these guys and I have nothing else to add at present, so let's just move on.
15.
Dragons: Don't really like these guys, if only because "Breaths" boils down to "Linearity with some elemental diversity that probably won't do much make the computer vary its attacks. As such, Dark Breath can probably stand to die for some type of physical attack given that Dragons are conspicuously lacking one.
16.
Tiamats: This is perhaps a bit hypocritical of me given that I'm going to institute Gambler soon, but I
really don't like the focus being "random hits" even that's just keeping true to vanilla Hydras. At the very least, it seems like Fallen One should become something else or, at least, have its range/possible AoE better defined.
As said, I currently don't have much in the way of suggestions to "fix" these problems, but I'm sure I'll come to suggest stuff in time. Regardless, thanks for doing this, Eternal.
Also I'm not sure what is meant by the Treant skills saying "Persevere HP Healing" or "Persevere MP Healing".
Almost forgot to answer this: "Persevere" means "repeated" here, as in "Performing" like a Dancer's Dance or a Bard's Song.
