Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced 2: Vanilla Spiced

[haseo]

This is my first of my two or three analysis that might, with time and will, come here to help you form an idea of the current status of the mod and perhaps improve it, if you find out the necessity.

Ima focus on unit job combos I've tried for the 24 slots, having let them all growth at least 50 of their 99 levels in the most favorable class for his final stats. Also have speed up the things (otherwise my 80hr savegame wouldnt yield max level clanmates). Cleared the campaign but still on the way to clear the towers, but that will be a section for another report.
To the matter, and for improving visibility/format, the units are sorted by score and divided wheter if they use Magick Atk or Attack stats. A final disclaimer before starting, for these are my personal thoughs and even if its based on gameplay, might differ with others' opinions.

spoiler: Clan Meteoro - Magick Department

spoiler: 5.0 - Bangaa <Trickster/Bishop> R:Magick Counter P:Halve MP

What can I say except he is the fastest a highest spd & matk rated unit in my entire clan? Have almost every important impeding debuff at his disposal, yet it is unlikely to be cast due to water, aero, break and the all-powerful Holy awaiting my figers to play among his insane base Matk.
A faster, hard hitting mage is the zenith of the AoE dps, must say. He is also a Bangaa. In bishop clothes.
[5.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 4.5 - Luso (Hume) <Keeper/Seer> R:Reflex P:Halve MP

He is fun, in a broken way. Access to tanky equipment and having the second tankiest stats of my magick users; is  able to Doublecast Free Energy, or Mist Charge, and will eventually be at disposal of also double-casteable Flare Star and White Out which does tremendous amount of damage and in AoE. Have I mentioned access to survival tools like Raise and Esuna? Oh, and you can reach almost every tile with Absolute Zero, which happens to Slow or Stop sometimes. So much fun!
[4.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 4.5 - Hume <Ninja/Blue Mage> R:Absorb MP P:Geomancy

Second faster magic caster from my clan (yep, a Trickster is faster than a Ninja. Deal with it). With that in mind, is with no doubt one of the three jobs that costs an insane amount of time to complete. That aside, many tools to play with your team, providing right equipment (Against Sleep and KO). Yet he has a fantastic Matk, so my focus on him mid-battle usually involves spamming Quake, which is the highest damage spell in his arsenal. To support a more tactical aproach, veils does decent damage in this mod, so keep an eye on Earth (Slow) and Water (Silence) mostly. Finally, yet pretty much MP costly, Angel Whisper for Reraise & Heal and White Wind for an up to 750+ HP aoe heal.
[4.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 4.0 - Nu Mou <Alchemist/Time Mage> R:Evade Magick P:Halve MP

He has not a low Spd as one could fear, which makes him usable in the support role, even having the worst Matk in the magick department of my clan (he does not use it much anyway). The plan consists in starting with a powerful Hastega on himself and other 4 party members. Astra, Reflect and Extend can become in utility given certain situations, but your two signature spells after Hastega are the flipcoins (Stop and Toad) and Bio (which apparently happens to poison with perfect accuracy in a mod that is aimed at very high base health points). Also, Turbo Ether and Items access.
[4.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 4.0 - Viera <Summoner/Elementalist> R:Absorb MP P:Magick↑

Congratulations on having, for once, the summoner Job somewhat balanced. I do usually keep myself spamming Fire Whips or Earth Heal most of the time, yet when certain conditions happens, a well placed Maduin Summon will strike severely. But the strongest spell by far is the Phoenix Summon, cappable of 100% HP reviving en masse. Second wind? She gives you a fresh new continue coin every (yet) several turns.
[4.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 3.5 to 2.5 (worth keeping an eye)

spoiler: 3.5 - Penello <Red Mage/Dancer> R:Critical: Quicken P:Concentration

So, Viera's Red Mages got Magick Frenzy but their overall stats between Matk and Atk becomes too difuminated for my tastes. Then the (improved) Dancer Job, came to my clan and I said "Why not?". Gotta say she is a party debuffer who happens to also damage (a bit) the enemy in the process. With MP sheanigans and Turbo MP she can become a fearsome Seer with impressive magic dmg, must admit.
[3.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 3.5 - Gria <Raptor/Geomancer> R:Magick Counter P:Resistance↑

When Tanks meets magick casters, a Gria is born. She can also equip tanky items thanks to Raptor job, has free flying movement and her best damaging skill that comes from Raptors, not geomancers (Thunder Flare) will benefit from a close combat aproach, and from reaching the back of your victim. Can also disable and decent dmg with Shield Bash. Unfortunately, she is tied to mono targeting most of the time. Still, I do appreciate her unique way of play.
[3.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 2.0 and lower (broken hopes and bigger dissapointments)

spoiler: 2.0 - Nu Mou <Sage/Black Mage> R:Absorb MP P:Magick↑

Having access to 5 of 8 elements sounds neat for the elemental game, yet has serious issues with MP costs that results in a notable loss in potential dps, due to the unability to cast non-elemental and superior spells like Protometeor, Scathe, Gigaflare and Ultima. Attach a Bangaa Cannoneer or a Nu Mou Alchemist to him or dont go for it as first option for AoE DPS. Also happens to be the SLOWEST unit on my clan (a whooping 40% slower than my top tier ones).
[2.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 0.5 - Montblanc (Moogle) <Black Mage/Animist> R:Magick Counter P:Archmage

Got him far too late to train him in speed and resulted in the second worst Spd unit in my clan. Might had put him in secondary Time Magick but whatever, his bad stats on my game wont be saved with the superb Archmage's exclusive passive ability. He is even having but a mediocre base Matk score!
[0.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: Clan Meteoro - Physical Department

spoiler: 5.0 - Viera <Sniper/Spellblade> R:Evade Magick P:Turbo MP

Wellcome to the Physical dps section. Its headed with this monstruosity. Thanks to Turbo MP and the adding of MP cost on almost every skill, you can find out that your Sniper is doing from x2 to x6 normal damage per turn. And she is tied with my Trickster in being the faster unit on my clan.
Your spamming of choice should be Doubleshot (Which does total x3 dmg), and eventually or with little help you can access to powerful Spellblade Skills to Sleep, Slow, Charm, Disable or even Drain and recover your HP!
Worth to note: Snipe for nonstop damage, even if sitting in the other corner of the map. Also Poison via Beso Toxico.
[5.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 5.0 - Viera <Archer/Fencer> R:Reflex P:Turbo MP

Wellcome to the Physical dps section, alternative version. Consider this one the little sister of the sniper/spellblade monster, and  these two are sit in the highest physical dps output throne of my clan. She also shares with her sister toppest speed of the clan. To the differences: your spammable and strongest skill of choice is Fencer's Shadowstick which also happens to Delay and Lower Spd stat. Im not laughing that hard, yet, because you can eventually reach enough mana to cast your "ultima-like" skill which is Fencer's Nighthawk. This one combined with a back strike and the effect of Focus at her disposal, results in the highest scored hit ever recorded on my game (two numbers that summed around 999). Balanced? Hell no. Funny? A very lot.
[5.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 5.0 - Gria <Raptor/Ravager> R:Strike Back P:Monkey Grip

Two Key Skills: Raptor's Thunder Flare for when melee is not avaiable, and Ravager's Full Assault for when it is. It is expected for you to wear a Sleep protection item (a ribbon, mostly), to result in a extremely potent attack (by far the highest melee atk in my clan) with zero downsides. Its like a buffed Bangaa's Jump with even more damage and no accuracy penalties. She also flies, which means its extremely easy for her to catch the back of his sure-to-be-obliterated victim.
[5.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 5.0 - Bangaa <Cannoneer/Gladiator> R:Reflex P:Attack↑

This is one of the three jobs that costs an insane amount to complete (this time due to having him growing 50 levels outside from his two final jobs). That aside, happens to be in tie with my other two faster members of my clan. Combine a very high pressence and range with his two superb skills to form an incredible comebacker considering him to have the less base atk of my physical department in the clan (a whooping 33% less base atk than my Seeq). You will see him throwing free Ether Shells for eveyone to keep casting their Ultimas, and more sooner than expected, throwing Ultimas by his own and even overpassing the Seeq in overall damage and utility. And all that from the safety of a very high range. A must have if you ask me.
[5.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 4.0 - Support - Hurdy (Moogle) <Juggler/Bard> R:Critical: Vanish P:Ribbon-bearer

The improvement in song's range makes him easier to use. He is also in possession of one of the highest speed stats in my clan, which is key for a Support. After an Angelsong and the two stat improvement songs, proceed to throw daggers or even basic hitting. He is not great as a healer or as a dps, but his stats-up should paid his slot. If you feel lucky, start throwing Rings to attempt to Stop enemies instead of Disabling them. Bonus points for having an unique way of play.
[4.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 3.5 to 3.0 (worth keeping an eye)

spoiler: 3.5 - Seeq <Lanista/Berserker> R:Dragonheart P:Attack↑

My only Seeq happens to be the highest rated base Atk stat of my clan. You will find yourself spamming Smite of Rage when melee is avaiable and Ground Shaker when is not, with Sword of Darkness as your sustain (Drain) attack on even skirmishes. That said, dont know why but he is not hitting as hard a he should, and that concern lowers my score. Also worth to note: Block! has a nice impact when being cast on up to 5 team members at the beginning of the battle.
[3.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 3.5 - Adelle <Heritor/Seer> R:Strike Back P:Doublehand

Perhaps not the best aproach for her, mind myself after the testing, yet I find her exclusive job, hard to pair with anything. Damage wise, she is underwhelming unless spamming Doublecast Lennart on two or more enemies (Fairy Shoes will help a lot here). Nesiaam is the second best alternative, if you want to flip a coin for Addle status.
Outside that, Adelaide is nice, as having Raise, Recharge and Esuna, yet only useful in conditions in which your real healer isnt avaiable for these needs.
[3.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 3.5 - Tank - Moogle <Moogle Knight/Animist> R:Evade Magick P:Ribbon-bearer[/spoiler

He exists for one single purpose: Cuisine. Unless being MP-infused by a Cannoneer or an Alchemist, save your precious Mana Points for it and keep just using Moggle Knight Abilities. His basic attacks also hits harder than expected for a tank-oriented support, and can also put his MP on Hidden Mog (dps) or Sheep Count & Toadsong (coinflip status) in pressence of another dedicated healer. Also, second higher tier in Spd on clan.
[3.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 3.0 - Frimelda (Hume) <Paladin/Paravir> R:Counter P:Dual Wield

Good and bad news here: she is a decent yet underwhelming (in comparison with others) Doublehand Basic-Hitter that happens to lack on critical↑ and attack↑ buffs, and outside from melee she is limited to a low damage Wind Slash ability, or just Covering an ally. Stadistically she is between the first and second place in tankiness. Alas, this mod aims to hit player tanks hard. The tank role is also oftenly out of real utility, for there arent chokepoints to stand the ground.
[3.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 3.0 - Hume <Hunter/Soldier> R:Reflex P:Attack↑

Consider him an imitator (with a second place in spd) of the duo of ranged Viera monsters. Should ask why in the hell his ultima shot cost freaking 120MP while other ultimas not (Gladiator's costs 32, lmao). He is however an unit of two main skills: Counter Force overrides his basic attack with higher dmg and secured Addle status, and eventually will gather enough MP to cast his ultima shot. Once. In a whole battle. With luck (seriously, its too much MP cost).
Other notable skills come from his secondary job, for Provoke is a secured Frenzy that can somewhat deactivate enemies like Flans, and the Crushes but mostly Break Assault might prove useful in durable monsters (which happens to be the 75% of the enemies in lv99)
[3.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 2.5 and lower (broken hopes and bigger dissapointments)

spoiler: 2.5 - Moogle <Flintlock/Fusilier> R:Return Fire P:Concentration

If someone incarnates better the prhase "look how they massacred my boy", is him. From Concentration directly going from S on FFTA to trash tier on FFTA2, and from having halved the accuracy of his two strongest shots that makes him exist: Stop and Charm. Not even considering to waste a turn into prime for a shot that wont worth two turns, and that any dedicated healer or best suited ranged weapon hitters will do twice as better. You either rennounce at charm and stop shot to perhaps cast one or two ultima shot a battle, or keep using them with a very rare chance of success in seeing any status proc within that mediocre dps.
This is also one of the three jobs that costs an insane amount to complete (this time due to having him growing 50 levels outside from his two final jobs).
[2.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 2.5 - Tank - Cid (Bangaa) <Defender/White Monk> R:Bonecrusher P:Pugilist

Perhaps it was another poor job choices for him, but I've tried to make Cid a hard hitting Tank as it is intended to happen with his special passive skill and his starting job, but the reality is tanking's not even a choice on this game and even less in this mod. Can, still, shine a bit in certain conditions with Revive, Holy Sign (Dispell) and Exorcise. And can also combo-ing a suicide Meltdown with Aura (Reraise), yet its only adviced when the enemy is stopped or sleeped.
[2.5/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 2.0 - Vaan (Hume) <Sky Pirate/Fighter> R:Bonecrusher P:Vigilance

Another unique character with unique class that seems to not pair with any other job im particular, so I put him a Fighter so he can still hit while outside from melee range. But happens to have a very bad dps output... unless you have tons and tons of time and fights to waste him spamming Swipe in order to empower Life of Crime to have a decent damage (still not spectacular, if you ask me).
[2.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 2.0 - Al-Cid (Hume) <Agent/Items> R: P:Item Lore

First of all, it gives me a lot of anxiety to have nothing avaiable forever on the reaction slot, and to be forced to have Items in the subjob slot. That downsides said, combined with bad overall in every stat, makes him very undesirable... but there is an "unless". You have to build a team with 4 or 5 females. This way he can cast his highest damage skill, Flourish, to make decent damages (yet nothing impressive for an almost one skill worth unit).
[2.0/5.0] - Personal Score

spoiler: 1.5 - Bangaa <Templar/Dragoon> R:Blink Counter P:Defense↑

By far my biggest fail in trying to make an atk, lance wielder Hybrid between dps and tanky support. The result is a stadistically decent tank which does pretty much chip damage with his skills (unless hitting a stop or sleep unit with Jump). Astra, Silence, Haste and the dragon related skills arent worthing enough to justify his low (yet not disastrous) Spd and dmg values. A shame.
[1.5/5.0] - Personal Score

Alright, thats 5 hours of condensed writing and formatting. hope it becomes useful for anyone.

Hi, im very interested in your builds, could you explain how did you level up your units? Thanks

[matchet]

Selfquoting what I wrote:

[...]having let them all growth at least 50 of their 99 levels in the most favorable class for his final stats[...]

For which specific jobs, is something cannot exactly tell, but I followed a gamefaqs guide about leveling minmaxing stats depending on the one or two stats you want to rise.

And by speeding up the things, it means what you think. Yes. Exp multiplier cheats since im not manually levelling a full 24 team roster with the game been beaten more than three times already.

[Kazu]

Loving this mod so far.

Few things:

1. Units definitely learning random abilities. Luso learned Elusion and etc. lol
2. Maybe a change to Templar's Soul Sphere would be great. Templar having 2 skills that damage MP seems redundant.
3. Bishop can't learn Arise, says 0 AP required and doesn't even appear on skill select when weapon is equipped.
4. Slightly bothers me that Assassins don't use bow, mainly because of Lore. Guns are from Goug which is a Moogle machine city, hence the reason they're the ones with Fusiliers/Fusils, Flintlocks and Tinkers. Vieras are more attuned to nature, hence Elemental Magicks, Summons, Bows etc.
5. Summoner in Speed Battle Quests just keeps trying to use Carbuncle/Kirin etc through Magick Frenzy, ending up in nothing.


Also, what's Luso's unique class stat growth? Are the skills Magic based?

[chacaceiro]

I went ahead and made some changes to the last patch available to fix the issues you mentioned.

I tried to fix the Soul Sphere issue by adding a low MP single target skill that removes debuffs.
I think I have solved bishop arise too.

Chocobo Knight still had many issues and I just tweaked the damage of chocobo meteor and flames, and also added resilience up to chocobo barrier.
I also increased move and jump of Chocobo Knights by 1 across the board, because it really felt underwhelming.

[pith]

If anyone has the same problem I had trying to apply the patch and getting bugs in the tutorial, you probably have the wrong version of the game. Can't be (E), has to be (USA).

[JonWoo]

Ran across a bug where I'm getting penalized for using MP when the abilities I'm using don't cost MP. I believe it was the Dragoon's Jump I used.

Also I'm not sure if it's gambler fallacy, a bug in the display, or a hidden modifier but it seems to be a lot harder to hit dreamhares than the 21% miss chance implies. After multiple mission encounters and 4 attempts at a clan trial where I have to kill them it just doesn't seem right. I'd be buying lottery tickets if I hit as many misses as I've had at 21%.

[Tsukuyomi64]

When I download the patch (as a .rar) file and manually change it to .xdelta and use delta patcher I keep getting this message: An error has occurred: xdelta3: not a VCDIFF input: XD3_INVALID_INPUT. Does anyone have an idea on how I can fix this ?

[Safcar]

Been playing this ROMhack on a softmodded 3DS, 20 hours in and already loving this purely because it doesn't feel like I'm missing out by doing the usual emulator trappings (Speed Hacks, Svae States, etc). Also loving the adjustments to stuff like Black Magic or Tinker. Solid stuff, even if I'm a bit offput by the MP costs thrown in/elements added in if only because it's more Law complacency to be worried about. (Negotiation-Teamwork Clan Trial was a near nightmare!)

Ran into a game crash on "Speed Battle, Kupo!" Though. Red screened, happened after I finished the fight. Seems like an issue with Twilight Menu++ unfortunately as I tried again to no avail.

When I download the patch (as a .rar) file and manually change it to .xdelta and use delta patcher I keep getting this message: An error has occurred: xdelta3: not a VCDIFF input: XD3_INVALID_INPUT. Does anyone have an idea on how I can fix this ?

You need to use a program like WinRAR or 7zip to extract the files and get the desired .xdelta file for the patcher.

[chacaceiro]

Solid stuff, even if I'm a bit offput by the MP costs thrown in/elements added in if only because it's more Law complacency to be worried about. (Negotiation-Teamwork Clan Trial was a near nightmare!)

Please share your ideas about how to change MP costs!
I can change stuff in the mod editor and then post here.

As for the 3DS stuff,, I've never tried it so I can't help you about it... Hope you managed to solve it!

Ran across a bug where I'm getting penalized for using MP when the abilities I'm using don't cost MP. I believe it was the Dragoon's Jump I used.

I honestly have no idea about why that happened. Can you confirm it was dragoons jump?

[Kazu]

Maybe give Hunters/Rangers guns, might make them more interesting. Seems more fitting too.

[silenthill27]

i'm having a blast with this mod, im about 120 missions in. the changes to the gameplay keep things really fresh and the added challenge is appreciated, if a little bit wonky in some cases

for example, im at a point where most characters have 250-350 health and sometimes i will come across fights with similarly leveled enemy casters like scholars or illusionists and their spells will hit for around 200 damage, or black mages with insane scaling on the damage

the first fight vs ilua turn 1 walks forward a few steps and brings the entire party down into like double digits

i want to say i run into this about....30-40% of the time in fights against casters

the only other issue is accuracy, something is definitely wacky with it. it is not uncommon at all to miss 3-4 times in a row at above 80% chance to hit (personal longest streak i saw like this was 7 times), even "99%" will still miss a few times in a fight

despite all this the mod is still very fun and engaging, and some of the changes really cut out a lot of the really lame overpowered cheese you could do which i only see as a good thing

[JonWoo]

Ran into a game crash on "Speed Battle, Kupo!" Though. Red screened, happened after I finished the fight. Seems like an issue with Twilight Menu++ unfortunately as I tried again to no avail.

I ran into the same crash too from that same fight. I could never get around it, though I'm not sure what Twilight Menu++ is either.

Please share your ideas about how to change MP costs!
I can change stuff in the mod editor and then post here.

As for the 3DS stuff,, I've never tried it so I can't help you about it... Hope you managed to solve it!

I honestly have no idea about why that happened. Can you confirm it was dragoons jump?

It was indeed the jump, I tried it several more times to make sure. Unfortunately I don't have my save file anymore after a drive failure.

[Safcar]

Okay so update on "Speed Battle, Kupo!"

I avoided it for a while but I remembered that Dispatch exists for like 80% of quests so I did that instead to cross it off my list. No crashes afterwards!

I'm currently at Pirate Problems, ~230/300 Missions in. Gonna drop my opinions since I started playing:

• Keeper kinda SICK with the attacks you gave it. Was NOT expecting Climhazzard to be that cool but man I had to share it with a few FFT buddies. I might have made it too strong because Luso learned Elusion somehow and it's a fun Passive to work around. Sure he negates distant attacks, but support skills also fail from a distance. Honestly I feel like this belongs for him, it's inherently balanced somehow.
• Cannonneer almost feels a little too potent. Not only am I able to pull off the combos I rarely got to do in base FFTA2 but it also has the benefit of making it easier to charge Scions like Ultima or Zodiark. Fun as hell though.
• Trickster is actually insane TBH. With so many more Dual Debuffs and Break Assault existing it's almost too easy getting the 7-8 Debuffs necessary for a 640/999 Nuke. Bangaa seriously has one of the most fun job suites I've tried this time around.
• My woes on MP Cost kinda go away in the late game. Between Halve MP, Clan Blessings, and some truly absurd options (Doublecast Recharge, Magick Ballad, Grimoire Stones) it's also nice to just look at a fight, go "no thanks" and pop off.
• Thunder Flare is cracked. Can't believe you can get it so early, this feels like cheating lol
• Good job on the nerfs to some of the classes too, for that matter. Removing Item Lore from Ranger was a smart choice since it was my go to in Base FFTA2, and Juggler consuming MP was great for Smile Toss nerfs, though I feel Summoner got a little too nerfed? I understand completely why, but it's not only frustrating to try and make it work, but even the AI runs into issues trying to use it. Maybe an increase in Range to 3 so that it can actually hit groups? I do like that its targeting is adjusted to avoid further cheese, I just feel like the actual range could use a retouch to make it usable in this mod compared to how little jobs like Elementalist or Time Mage got touched.
• I'm absolutely in love with how you handled Nu Mou balancing. Sage getting Ranged Ultima is great, and the nerfs to Illusionist actually made me enjoy building up Scholar comps. I do wish though that Scholar or Beastmaster (or hell, maybe even Alchemist) could have some Physical Attack builds, it always baffled me why that was encouraged by them in Growths but not in Kit. Not even a Counter or Strike Back...
• I do really appreciate you making Tinker actually viable, it's fun to finally give Hurdy more support options outside of Juggler.

Outside of maybe a few weird themeing changes (I still feel like the Magick Frenzy/Doublecast swap is an odd choice, even with a Red Mage/Spellblade combo) from the rebalancing though, good work. Kinda excited to see your changes to Vaan, Penelo, El-Cid, and Montblanc in action!

[Safcar]

I ran into the same crash too from that same fight. I could never get around it, though I'm not sure what Twilight Menu++ is either.

Basically a DS ROM emulator you can run on 3DS. This was before people started to straight dump DS games onto 3DS Home Screens, but I prefer file management with save files easily changeable anyway. Makes for a good time in any case (I even got AAI2 working before they made the localization!)

[Safcar]

Oops, might have ran into a bizarre oversight. Was doing Three Point Strategy and managed to land Sleep on Ribbon'd enemies by using Tinker's Chroma Gem. I tried it multiple times and I even checked to make sure Ribbon prevented the other Statuses, but it seems there's something in the attacks making it so when the Tinker's attacks (or Chroma Gem specifically) land they will ignore any resistances and land the debuff. Unfortunately this did not make it possible for me to steal said Ribbons, but oh well.