Hello Cerabow! I'd like to share my thoughts about your amazing mod, I played WOTL Valeria 2.0 mod this december (some weeks ago, mind you hahaha) previously, and after addressing some of my issues there, I thought that I should give your mod a try. For the last 10 days I've played Cerabows and, after Igros Castle showdown against Dycedarg (just like I did with Valerias mod), I thought I should share some of my impressions and complaints with both of you modders, because I really think that both mods could learn from each other while being distinct, unique.
Grind aspects, different approaches and different outcomes:
Firstly, I'd like to highlight that while Valeria required me some random battle grinds, during my Cerabows mod playthrough, I had one random battle during each chapter to poach some items. I really can't decide if its healthy to skip random battles, because in Valeria it was almost needed if I wanted some good abilities, while in Cerabow I got to chapter 4 with at one mastered job per character (my most used characters were the same on both: Ramza, Mustadio, Agrias, one female magic-oriented unit, one female melee-oriented unit), during my Valeria playthrough I had to grind in moderately, consequently raising enemies levels and items.
During my Cerabow playthrough I took Windows X recommendation in mind and fairly abused crystal abilities inheritance, this let me had better skills earlier than intended.
Now, what really gives Cerabow an edge is Propositions/Errands. Letting the player send unique units to Propositions/Errands surely sped up grind (addressing my complaint about characters that come way too late to prove useful), mitigating the need to engage in random battles. By introducing this matter, it is wise to discuss:
JP Cost issue:
I think that Cerabow approach to JP cost is healthier than Valeria, tuning down JP gain per action by removing JP Boost let the player focus on other Support abilities equally useful (Throw Item, Equipe Armor, Stat Boosts comes to mind). Lowering JP costs also gave slow yet steady sensation of progression within the current job, and let me choose which way to specialize my characters.
Though healthier, Cerabow approach ease the overall difficulty, by chapter 4, Ramza, Mustadio and my female-melee oriented unit had 3 mastered jobs and some neat support abilities, virtually giving them a defined identity to the rest of the game. While not cheesing the game, surely it let me deviate a lot more from the given identity I choose for them and try wilder set-ups without losing their previous identities.
Specific jobs suggetions and observations:
[Ramza] exclusive jobs:
Excluding Valerias Chicken-inducing OP ability, both approaches are well placed: Valeria gives Ramza a Holy Knight vibe with Dawnblade and diverse buffs to the party. Cerabow give Ramza great Dark Knight abilities with Void Strike and Night Sword, but takes nothing from him, he feels almost overpowered when equiped with a Sword/Knightsword. I say: either approach is valid and give Ramza interesting roles to play. Cerabow should nerf him a bit by removing some of his party buffs and make them self buffs.
[Mustadio] Vanilla-archer skin versus Engineer:
Even though Valeria approach lacks variety, Mustadios Aim trully does what it proposes to do: raw, pure damage. It feels nice, it's rewarding and let him be whatever he want to be (archer locker, gunslinger/debuffer Orator, healing Chemist), without losing his character and damage.
On the other side, Cerabow's Mustadio is a respectable support unit, but overlaps with Chemist fantasy, it fails to give him freedom of choice and locks him to a status-inducing, support-oriented unit.
[Agrias] Paladin versus Inquisitor:
Generally in Vanilla Agrias is a weaker Cid, and is easily shadowed by her peer. Cerabow tries to mitigate that by giving her nice healing tools with Oblation Blade and Wish, fulfilling a Paladin fantasy that fits well with her character. MP Costs are lower than they should be, allowing player to abuse her area damage.
Valeria opt to keep her offensive tools and weigh the damage down. By taking off Cid access to Holy Knight's abilities, it garantees that Agrias remains useful through the campaign as a consistent damage dealer.
Just like Ramza, both approaches to Agrias are promising and are equally interesting, I tend to like the Paladin approach more, but it doesn't outshine off Valeria's Agrias usefulness.
[Bewoulf] Drain Bot:
I've always liked Bewoulf, I really don't know why, his brief story arc with Reis, his abilities, his galant-looking garb. I've used him since my first time playing vanilla FFT all those years ago, and he never failed me to deliver his fantasy.
How can I say it? In either mod, his status inducing moves and consistent damage really delivers. Nerfing him would put him in bad position if compared to Orator and other status inducing classes, and buffing him would surely make him far too OP. In many, many cases, a team without Bewoulf is inferior to a team with Beowulf.
[Rapha] prodige child:
Oh boy, Rapha is a weird girl to use, but feels rewarding to. I tried my best to fit her in my comp, I benched my mage-oriented unit in order to make the best of her, and had quite success in both mods! Valeria keeps her identity intact, and strongly suggests the player to turn her into an outstanding magic-based Dark Knight, while Cerabow takes her casting time and equalize it by giving her Mantras MP costs, in either way, she's an amazing unit and her backstory is awesome too.
[Orlandeau] aka Thunder FUCKING God Cid:
He's a beast. Period. I guess there's no way to tune him down, and I really don't want that to happen. Valeria gives Orlandeau some neat equally protecting and destructive spells, while Cerabow keeps his multi-knight aspect, while he doesn't have the best of each XXXX-Knight abilities, he's still useful and hits like a truck.
I didn't use Malak, Meliadoul, Reis, Cloud, Balthier(PSP) and Luso(PSP) (Balmafula(Valeria) and Zenthar(Cerabow)) enough to share my impressions of them, but I'll try my best through this month and will surely use them wisely. Well, let's talk about generic units.
[Squire]
A basic melee unit has basic needs. Valeria chooses to let player skip it fairly faster, while Cerabow gives Squires some Beastmaster vibes. Since I tend to not use monster units, I'll praise the new weapon choices given to Squires in Cerabows mod, crossbows, spears and shields give squires some variety in early game.
[Chemist]
Auto-Potion still is one of the best (if not the best) Reaction ability in the whole game, and Cerabows make it far too OP by buffing X-Potion healing and giving them an awesome healing option in Mega Potion. Having a gun-wielding chemist always prove to be a choice, even though I didn't like Cerabow's Chemical Cocktail and Lion's Mane because of the clear counterplay with Panacea/Remedy or any other easily obtainable healing tool, I really apreciate Valerias Protective Charm and Maiden's Blessing, this approach furthers amplifies the healing capabilities of the Chemist.
[Knight]
Equipment break still are powerful abilities to use in order to criple enemies, and either approach is equally useful. Valeria focus on inflicting darkness/silence and Cerabow focus on lowering Atk/Mag power. Both are interesting on its own and are welcome changes to the job.
[Archer]
I'm not gonna lie, Valerias Archer is superior to Cerabows. Leg/Arm Aim are present in both interpretations, but in Valeria, Archer has better tools in Head Strike and Charged Strike than Poison Strike and Oily Strike.
[Thief]
I really like that in Cerabows mod, every job have ways to deal damage and inflict statuses. And Cerabows thief annoy even harder, while Valeria sticks to the vanilla formula.
[Monk]
Monk is... weak. Early game show its usefulness with ranged physical-based damage, but falls short in damage as soon as better equipment is made available, and never really catches back in damage department, at least his healing capabilities are good enough to keep them relevant up to midgame. Cerabows tries to fix Pole-wielding monks more movement and respectable evade rate, when equiped with shields they can bark loud, but bite softly.
[Lancer]
Well, Lancers and Ninjas are both speed-based classes in some way or another, so I'll try to review then I'll try to Lancers would benefit (A LOT, in fact) if Doublehand/Attack UP proc'ed with jump, well, it is what it is I guess. Jumping is a neat mechanic that requires well thought planning, and Cerabow alleviates by using the great Flux Armlet.
[Ninja]
Ninjas in Valeria are good reinterpretations of vanilla Ninjas, they hit hard with Ninja Blades (and hit twice, mind you), without losing options to throw some ninja stars here and there. While Cerabow ninjas, when equiped with Flux Armlet, transforms themselves in shuriken-throwing machines. Kinda dumb, but effective damage-wise. I tend to prefer Valerias approch, but well, it all comes to personal taste after all.
[Samurai]
Valerias Samurai wins this. By far the most interesting generic unit with good protection tools, fair magical damage and the best of all: costless casts. Not requiring me to bet a katana in order to use my abilities gives the player freedom to choose what will their Samurai do. He Protec but He Also Attac (and Attac HARD).
[White Mage]
Healing is a huge issue, and White mages as primary healers in the game have great impact in your composition. Valeria tries to mix healing potency and regen in one single spell, it has its uses, but fails to flat-heal when compared to Summoner healing tools. While that, Cerabow white magicks can easily be used by other classes with high MA, kinda rending White Mages useless. In both mods, I rely on potions to heal myself instead of using white magicks, I really don't know how to solve this issue, tho ): its either too powerful or too useless.
[Black Mage]
Cerabow gives Wizards nice elemental coverage with Aero and Water, Quake. they feel powerful, they feel fast enough to cast and don't fall short in damage when compared to Summoner. Valeria keeps their debuffing tools and gives them good range coverage while maintaining the high damage output. Well, just like Ninjas, it all comes to personal taste.
[Summoner]
Easily the best healers in Valeria, while kinda useless in Cerabow. Summons damage isn't a big showoff as their animations are. I guess that increasing cast time and increasing overall number outputs may be a good payoff to boost their potential.
Just like special characters, I didn't use all generic jobs, and will surely try to experiment with them in the near future. As soon as I play with them, I'll post here my impressions.
Well, I wrote quite a wall of words here hahahahahah but really, you modders work doesn't go unnoticed by me. I really appreciate every tweak and personal touch you guys give to this amazing game, and can't express enough gratitude to the AMAZING changes both mods do. It all comes to preference, really, but I thought that giving some feedback to both of you should really help improve next iterations of each mod.
Once again, thank you very very much, I tried to not take sides of neither mod, as both are outstading experiences to have. I'm just an average fan of Final Fantasy Tactics who don't have enough knowledge to put my thoughts in a mod by myself, but I am surely passionate about the story of this game-gem, the deep mechanics, the aesthetics, well, I really love FFT (:
Grind aspects, different approaches and different outcomes:
Firstly, I'd like to highlight that while Valeria required me some random battle grinds, during my Cerabows mod playthrough, I had one random battle during each chapter to poach some items. I really can't decide if its healthy to skip random battles, because in Valeria it was almost needed if I wanted some good abilities, while in Cerabow I got to chapter 4 with at one mastered job per character (my most used characters were the same on both: Ramza, Mustadio, Agrias, one female magic-oriented unit, one female melee-oriented unit), during my Valeria playthrough I had to grind in moderately, consequently raising enemies levels and items.
During my Cerabow playthrough I took Windows X recommendation in mind and fairly abused crystal abilities inheritance, this let me had better skills earlier than intended.
Now, what really gives Cerabow an edge is Propositions/Errands. Letting the player send unique units to Propositions/Errands surely sped up grind (addressing my complaint about characters that come way too late to prove useful), mitigating the need to engage in random battles. By introducing this matter, it is wise to discuss:
JP Cost issue:
I think that Cerabow approach to JP cost is healthier than Valeria, tuning down JP gain per action by removing JP Boost let the player focus on other Support abilities equally useful (Throw Item, Equipe Armor, Stat Boosts comes to mind). Lowering JP costs also gave slow yet steady sensation of progression within the current job, and let me choose which way to specialize my characters.
Though healthier, Cerabow approach ease the overall difficulty, by chapter 4, Ramza, Mustadio and my female-melee oriented unit had 3 mastered jobs and some neat support abilities, virtually giving them a defined identity to the rest of the game. While not cheesing the game, surely it let me deviate a lot more from the given identity I choose for them and try wilder set-ups without losing their previous identities.
Specific jobs suggetions and observations:
[Ramza] exclusive jobs:
Excluding Valerias Chicken-inducing OP ability, both approaches are well placed: Valeria gives Ramza a Holy Knight vibe with Dawnblade and diverse buffs to the party. Cerabow give Ramza great Dark Knight abilities with Void Strike and Night Sword, but takes nothing from him, he feels almost overpowered when equiped with a Sword/Knightsword. I say: either approach is valid and give Ramza interesting roles to play. Cerabow should nerf him a bit by removing some of his party buffs and make them self buffs.
[Mustadio] Vanilla-archer skin versus Engineer:
Even though Valeria approach lacks variety, Mustadios Aim trully does what it proposes to do: raw, pure damage. It feels nice, it's rewarding and let him be whatever he want to be (archer locker, gunslinger/debuffer Orator, healing Chemist), without losing his character and damage.
On the other side, Cerabow's Mustadio is a respectable support unit, but overlaps with Chemist fantasy, it fails to give him freedom of choice and locks him to a status-inducing, support-oriented unit.
[Agrias] Paladin versus Inquisitor:
Generally in Vanilla Agrias is a weaker Cid, and is easily shadowed by her peer. Cerabow tries to mitigate that by giving her nice healing tools with Oblation Blade and Wish, fulfilling a Paladin fantasy that fits well with her character. MP Costs are lower than they should be, allowing player to abuse her area damage.
Valeria opt to keep her offensive tools and weigh the damage down. By taking off Cid access to Holy Knight's abilities, it garantees that Agrias remains useful through the campaign as a consistent damage dealer.
Just like Ramza, both approaches to Agrias are promising and are equally interesting, I tend to like the Paladin approach more, but it doesn't outshine off Valeria's Agrias usefulness.
[Bewoulf] Drain Bot:
I've always liked Bewoulf, I really don't know why, his brief story arc with Reis, his abilities, his galant-looking garb. I've used him since my first time playing vanilla FFT all those years ago, and he never failed me to deliver his fantasy.
How can I say it? In either mod, his status inducing moves and consistent damage really delivers. Nerfing him would put him in bad position if compared to Orator and other status inducing classes, and buffing him would surely make him far too OP. In many, many cases, a team without Bewoulf is inferior to a team with Beowulf.
[Rapha] prodige child:
Oh boy, Rapha is a weird girl to use, but feels rewarding to. I tried my best to fit her in my comp, I benched my mage-oriented unit in order to make the best of her, and had quite success in both mods! Valeria keeps her identity intact, and strongly suggests the player to turn her into an outstanding magic-based Dark Knight, while Cerabow takes her casting time and equalize it by giving her Mantras MP costs, in either way, she's an amazing unit and her backstory is awesome too.
[Orlandeau] aka Thunder FUCKING God Cid:
He's a beast. Period. I guess there's no way to tune him down, and I really don't want that to happen. Valeria gives Orlandeau some neat equally protecting and destructive spells, while Cerabow keeps his multi-knight aspect, while he doesn't have the best of each XXXX-Knight abilities, he's still useful and hits like a truck.
I didn't use Malak, Meliadoul, Reis, Cloud, Balthier(PSP) and Luso(PSP) (Balmafula(Valeria) and Zenthar(Cerabow)) enough to share my impressions of them, but I'll try my best through this month and will surely use them wisely. Well, let's talk about generic units.
[Squire]
A basic melee unit has basic needs. Valeria chooses to let player skip it fairly faster, while Cerabow gives Squires some Beastmaster vibes. Since I tend to not use monster units, I'll praise the new weapon choices given to Squires in Cerabows mod, crossbows, spears and shields give squires some variety in early game.
[Chemist]
Auto-Potion still is one of the best (if not the best) Reaction ability in the whole game, and Cerabows make it far too OP by buffing X-Potion healing and giving them an awesome healing option in Mega Potion. Having a gun-wielding chemist always prove to be a choice, even though I didn't like Cerabow's Chemical Cocktail and Lion's Mane because of the clear counterplay with Panacea/Remedy or any other easily obtainable healing tool, I really apreciate Valerias Protective Charm and Maiden's Blessing, this approach furthers amplifies the healing capabilities of the Chemist.
[Knight]
Equipment break still are powerful abilities to use in order to criple enemies, and either approach is equally useful. Valeria focus on inflicting darkness/silence and Cerabow focus on lowering Atk/Mag power. Both are interesting on its own and are welcome changes to the job.
[Archer]
I'm not gonna lie, Valerias Archer is superior to Cerabows. Leg/Arm Aim are present in both interpretations, but in Valeria, Archer has better tools in Head Strike and Charged Strike than Poison Strike and Oily Strike.
[Thief]
I really like that in Cerabows mod, every job have ways to deal damage and inflict statuses. And Cerabows thief annoy even harder, while Valeria sticks to the vanilla formula.
[Monk]
Monk is... weak. Early game show its usefulness with ranged physical-based damage, but falls short in damage as soon as better equipment is made available, and never really catches back in damage department, at least his healing capabilities are good enough to keep them relevant up to midgame. Cerabows tries to fix Pole-wielding monks more movement and respectable evade rate, when equiped with shields they can bark loud, but bite softly.
[Lancer]
Well, Lancers and Ninjas are both speed-based classes in some way or another, so I'll try to review then I'll try to Lancers would benefit (A LOT, in fact) if Doublehand/Attack UP proc'ed with jump, well, it is what it is I guess. Jumping is a neat mechanic that requires well thought planning, and Cerabow alleviates by using the great Flux Armlet.
[Ninja]
Ninjas in Valeria are good reinterpretations of vanilla Ninjas, they hit hard with Ninja Blades (and hit twice, mind you), without losing options to throw some ninja stars here and there. While Cerabow ninjas, when equiped with Flux Armlet, transforms themselves in shuriken-throwing machines. Kinda dumb, but effective damage-wise. I tend to prefer Valerias approch, but well, it all comes to personal taste after all.
[Samurai]
Valerias Samurai wins this. By far the most interesting generic unit with good protection tools, fair magical damage and the best of all: costless casts. Not requiring me to bet a katana in order to use my abilities gives the player freedom to choose what will their Samurai do. He Protec but He Also Attac (and Attac HARD).
[White Mage]
Healing is a huge issue, and White mages as primary healers in the game have great impact in your composition. Valeria tries to mix healing potency and regen in one single spell, it has its uses, but fails to flat-heal when compared to Summoner healing tools. While that, Cerabow white magicks can easily be used by other classes with high MA, kinda rending White Mages useless. In both mods, I rely on potions to heal myself instead of using white magicks, I really don't know how to solve this issue, tho ): its either too powerful or too useless.
[Black Mage]
Cerabow gives Wizards nice elemental coverage with Aero and Water, Quake. they feel powerful, they feel fast enough to cast and don't fall short in damage when compared to Summoner. Valeria keeps their debuffing tools and gives them good range coverage while maintaining the high damage output. Well, just like Ninjas, it all comes to personal taste.
[Summoner]
Easily the best healers in Valeria, while kinda useless in Cerabow. Summons damage isn't a big showoff as their animations are. I guess that increasing cast time and increasing overall number outputs may be a good payoff to boost their potential.
Just like special characters, I didn't use all generic jobs, and will surely try to experiment with them in the near future. As soon as I play with them, I'll post here my impressions.
Well, I wrote quite a wall of words here hahahahahah but really, you modders work doesn't go unnoticed by me. I really appreciate every tweak and personal touch you guys give to this amazing game, and can't express enough gratitude to the AMAZING changes both mods do. It all comes to preference, really, but I thought that giving some feedback to both of you should really help improve next iterations of each mod.
Once again, thank you very very much, I tried to not take sides of neither mod, as both are outstading experiences to have. I'm just an average fan of Final Fantasy Tactics who don't have enough knowledge to put my thoughts in a mod by myself, but I am surely passionate about the story of this game-gem, the deep mechanics, the aesthetics, well, I really love FFT (: