Final Fantasy Hacktics

Several of these bugs have more to do with misrepresentations in online help than with game mechanics, though I found a few screw-balls.  The Master Guide ought to get updated, once Uni starts treating Dome nice (or he can get someone else to do it).

Zalbag's Arts of War:

Sometimes the animation for this power will go super fast in bursts, especially when using non-traditional weapons with it.

Speed Ruin's Success rate is independent of Direct Evasion, unlike Power, Mind, and Magic Ruin, perhaps because it inflicts a status effect according to a magic calculation rather than a physical one.  It means it's easier to cast Slow than to cast other ruin abilities, perpetuating a bias in the AI; if your character has heavy direct evasion but no Slow Immunity, that character gets hammered with Speed Ruin.  Was this deliberate?

Occasional Speedy animation when delivering a Ruin technique, usually with a weapon for which the original was never truly designed.  Nothing game-breaking--just goofy when it occurs.

Destroy Sword's Ruin Techniques trigger Counter Magic.  Counter Magic affects a boatload of almost anything with an MP cost these days.  It was fun and even productive at times, but I'm unsure if this was intentional or just came with the package from which it was derived.

Zero Vertical Tolerance Policy (and other online help goofs):

Attack with spinning fists; Range: Auto, Effect 3V1 Air.  The revised Online Help lies.  Spin Fist/Cyclone retains its old zero vertical tolerance and not 1.  Ditto Repeating/Pummel and Secret/Doom Fist. 

Chakra's range is similar to that of the Item command when used one panel away; it has no vertical tolerance because it accepts any vertical.  It's exploitable as it is with the Item Command.  Same with Stigma Magic.  Other than reviving or curing undead curses, Punch Art as a command remains superior to the Chemist's Item Command and it's cheaper.

The White Magic Regen Spell's Online Help says R3E2V0.  The Vertical Tolerance is actually 1, like the changes made to Protect and Shell.

Edited Monster Techniques based on existing Class abilities do not display their information properly.  Case in point: Goblin Punch is claimed to have Range 2 Vertical 2, but is actually Range 2 Vertical 3, which affects your strategic positioning.  After studying online help, I entered Araguay Woods and positioned characters so one could be out of range and concentrate on healing and defense.  It backfired--the character got wiped out upon their approach--and I lost control of the match.  Pitched the controller at the monitor.  (I won that fight eventually, and sailed through the rest of Chapter II without further incident.  Go figure.)

Secret/Doom Fist no longer deals Death Sentence as stated.  Instead, it cancels the enemy's positive status effects.  A Dispel with miserable range?  Either that was an attempt to further "Balance" the Monk or it is a glitch on par of remedies curing everything and inflicting Undead and Poison.

The Squire's Online Help for Cheer Up claims its Range has vertical 3.  It does not; the original was Range 3 Effect 1, meaning Ramza could be at the bottom of a cliff and still be heart.  Also, Cheer Up used on oneself begins to out-class a standard potion very quickly, thanks to working immediately upon casting, unlike the magic version that is cast while out of turn.

Finally, according to the Master Guide, Steal is not countered by anything, which would put thieves at a major advantage.  However, theft can be countered, or counter-flooded, since it is considered a direct attack at some level where direct evasion is involved.

Graphical Bugs/Glitches:

The new Pounce technique of the Coeurl series of panther monsters is interesting.  Watch them sail straight over one of the tall pines of Bariaus Valley for a few good WTF giggles.  It's too bad the ability cannot be scripted to take line of sight into consideration, so obstructions limit the ability's range.  Still a nifty technique; throws my party into morbid fear when the kitties show up in crowds.

Boco's online help claims he has Move in Water, Any Ground and Any Weather, but Boco cannot act in Water Depth 2, gets stuck, and animation stops (yes, stops, including ripple effects; Chocobos were never intended to be unable to act in Depth 2 Water).  I happened upon this first in Zirekile Falls while moving beneath the small bridge to prevent one of the Lancers from trying to jump my healer.  Instead, I fell in the drink and lost initiative.  Was this intended?  Might be better off with a traditional Chocobo if that is the case!

Two instances where Knights were replaced with Monks in Chapter Two; in both instances, the event script claimed they were different classes, such as using titles like "Fencer" and "Lionel Knight".  It's because the game-play is changed from the original, while the original story event scripts are untouched.  That's not game-killing, but it is a presentation issue, and thus the game looks like a hack.

Deliberate or not, when Frogs or Berserk characters attack, they use the Marlboro's Tentacle attack, incurring damage and possible Slow.  Either this is a bug or this is how Berserk and Frog/Toad are supposed to work in this version.  I'm guessing Berserk characters are supposed to use their weapon attacks, though.  That would make boatloads of sense.

Wincing at the AI:

This is just a nag, but since every human target has Move~Find Item, they could be walking along and then they take an Elixir out of the ground.  It's just annoying when this happens, because their battle scripting pegs them to moving to specific places and they'll just do it all over again after a soft reset.

Those are the bugs & errors I've found so far.

Is there a way to make Tactics un-grindable?

I followed the link from this site and patched it fine.  The version reads 1.01.  It's probably an earlier version and all my bug-reporting has been in vain (I've been keeping a tally).

I've cooled down since the last post because I devised evil ways to kill Goblins that let me through Araguay Woods, where I got perversely frustrated.  I just beat Cuchullain/Queklain earlier, didn't die once, though it took forever thanks to Auto-Protect and Defend Up running non-stop.  This is great because, in Chapter 3, you're introduced to the underground poaching circuit.  Thank God.  (I make it a point to murder every monster I meet with Secret Hunt anyway, or Train them, or poison them until they die, which is something you can do nowadays).

Knowing that all human targets during random encounters will have maintenance equipped does two things: it tells me to trade certain abilities over others, notably Steal and maybe Battle Skill, and that I know Classes will play their Classes and not have weird things like Equip Spear and Jump on a Priest.  Of course I have been committing thefts.  Getting it right on the first round at the Execution Site is the only way to keep Gafgarion from ruining your week.

If you want to rearrange or subdue the morale mechanics to prevent misuse, that's okay, but offer something in a trade-off.  Since it is possible to dismantle run-off from battle-to-battle, did you consider retooling Praise and Preach into a hard-hitting formula like (100 - Br or Fa)/ 5 + 5 and Threaten/Solution to (Br or Fa)/3 - 25?  You know, make them even more horrifying if caught in the hands of opponents.  Restructuring the Orator's abilities, other than Invite, is another matter.  The only improvement is giving Finger Guard/Earplug the ability to protect from common evil status effects (Sleep, Death Sentence/Doom, Don't Act/Disable, Berserk), which makes it a worthy ability at last.  Otherwise, whatever a Mediator/Orator can do, a mage with decent Faith can do just as well or even better.

Don't get me wrong in thinking I'm having an absolutely horrible time playing this game, or that I consider it one of the most horrible games out there.  I would not have been so critical if I thought the premise sucked entirely.  I would simply pass it by.  I didn't.  I stuck through and endured sleepless nights figuring a game out all over again, just to make sure there aren't any major bugs.  Why?  Because the original game wasn't hard enough.  It seemed half-finished, or they never considered the extent that some people would take the game.  Here, it's almost equitable.  For that, I applaud your efforts.

I'm still writing that FAQ, too, for everyone's sake.  There are some lucid moments when the challenge rating extends to the point where even a hardcore player needs a breather.  Though that was certainly the intent, the more casual players will be ripping their hair out.  If anybody designed a game like this from scratch with similar challenge rating, would it sell?  There have been games where it's hard enough to be unplayable.  This almost became one of them.

Oh, and anybody who claims that they breezed through any version of FFT+ without resorting to dirty tricks or suicide solutions is a complete braggart.  It's not kosher to assume the cloak of an IT guy who knows more about everything than computers and laugh it up when someone is genuinely struggling with a problem.  If you didn't want such extensive feedback from an alleged ranting lunatic, then you should have capped the word counts.

Is the first play-through supposed to be this difficult?  Die every battle three times before--having had your eyes glaze over in disbelief of God or anything good being left in the world--you devise a solution that requires you to squat in a corner in an elaborate formation and nickel-and-dime your quarry?  Did Dome assume we all use save states?  I don't.  And if save states are required to get anywhere in the game without pitching the controller at the monitor from sheer exhaustion from hour-long white-knuckle tangents, then I'm afraid this game requires a lot more play-testing before it is advertised.

The game just gets worse and worse and worse if you're the type who prefers to have the proper ability set for the right situation.  Means you gotta go learn it.  Upwards of two or three levels earned per battle just to break even.  And the monsters just get even more freakish without lifting a finger.  Reminiscent of those days when you looked at Fighters, Wizards, and Dragons.  Dragons gain power just by hanging out across a couple eons, while Wizards grow in power in towers.  You never see a level twenty Fighter--those guys earn levels only by going out to war--it's almost a peculiarity, really. 

So monsters are still annoying in their own way.  Only this time, they're literally rigged to kill no matter how deft the player is.  When monsters begin to level up like crazy wahzzu, they leave your party dead in the water.  If you keep getting beat in early battles and resort to leveling without inner-game progress that reveals the latest hardware in shops, then you start to see a superb discrepancy between your characters and the monsters you face.  Only recourse is to recruit monsters (tricky since Train requires damage that brings the beast to critical).  Even though they are tougher than human units, that's just it.  They're not human units.  Relying upon at least one monster per fight means another human unit misses out on leveling up, something that is close to required for this game.

In other words, no matter how many interesting changes have been made, it's all for naught if a standard game player becomes more frustrated, outraged, and powerless than genuinely challenged.  Some of the familiar mechanics (upgradeable/downgraded Bravery and Faith, for instance) have been subverted beyond reason, leaving some of the thematic elements without its original magic.  In the attempt to avoid having to grind levels, I got forced into subscribing to every ability I imagined could thwart the bad guys with minimal trouble.  When enemies started to have 3+ Levels if only "to make it interesting," levels started going up quickly, leaving the level of technology with something to be desired.

And that only allowed monsters to escalate in power well beyond what I ever dreamed was "fair", leaving my party with little else than pea-shooters.  Did you think it was funny that all the Chapter One random encounters with human targets feature opponents who always have Maintenance as a Supportive Ability?  Is there a moment in time where it's possible to have a Thief rob them blind or something?  It is considered very bad form to preempt character abilities simply because you don't want them to get their hands on anything that might allow them a much smoother ride, just because you want to force them into pursuing alternatives that are crippling and burdensome in a bid to be fair.  If you're so self-conscious about it, figure out a way that human targets--unless stated otherwise--equip items based on the current shop line-up and not according to a level rubric.  Pepper in the secret stuff as you progress deeper into the game.  It's probably much harder to do, but it beats having thieves lose out on their best skills just because you don't want them to work in situations where they were meant to be applied.

You don't mind if I compile a FAQ about this game, do you?  It's not enough to peruse the lists you've made--people will get pissed if they discover everything they strove to understand suddenly doesn't apply.  I sure was.  I was entertained at first, but then I noticed how long the first battle became--the very first battle--and I realized that If my character died, the battle could have been a Game Over.  While many changes are all for the good, some of them just drag things out forever.  Every day is a struggle just to survive and not pitch the controller.  If a soft reset didn't exist, then this game would get real annoying.  So, having such mixed satisfaction that borders on the unplayable-yet-see-all-the-features rage, I'm compiling a FAQ, if there isn't one out there.  Of course, it'd be easier if I finish the game first.