FFTA Speed Run Part IV: Magic Wood, Emerald Keep & Pale Company (BOSS: Adrammelech)

This video shows a lot of stuff but what I didn't put into it was the mission Hot Awakening (aka Ultima Crystals). I walked until Charm was banned because not getting it banned would result in a much longer and more annoying mission. I decided against uploading a recording of that mission because there wasn't much going on and also because it took a long time to finish nevertheless.

What's important to mention is that right before the Ultima Crystal mission the month during which you can hire Vieras was almost over and I wanted an Assassin. Thus I fired the Nu Mou magician and kept resetting until I would get an Assassin with good weapon attack, speed and MP.

By this time, Marche had mastered 2 soldier a-abilities so I switched him to Fighter, which will be his job for a long time but probably not for the remainder of the speed run.

AFTER Hot Awakening, I went to the pub and did the Moogle Wanted mission to get a Gadgeteer.

I wanted this job for Chroma Gem, an ability that attempts to put a random party to sleep. It's not as effective as having the blue magic skill Night and Fortune Rings on your whole team, but getting all that would require way too much time. So, if the Gadgeteer casts the spell on the wrong party, we restart. That's roughly half of the time.

In Magic Wood, you see me doing more damage than usual. This is not accidental: I made a decision earlier to grind in the previous mission by leaving two crystals alive and having one party member attack a crystal while another one heals it. I got 4 of my party members (sans Montblanc) levelled higher after the mission and the Gadgeteer that joined me did so at a higher level since I had a good party average. I counted around 7 minutes of grinding.

The idea behind the grinding was the ability to OHKO the mage units in the next mission but most importantly I wanted my attacks to actually deal decent damage to the Totema boss Adrammelech 2 missions after.

In Magic Wood, you see just how awesome Assassin is. She petrified two people and killed two more. That's four out of seven enemies handled by the Assassin! Rockseal/Last Breath is certainly more effective than Beatdown in normal missions but if Assasins were to fight bosses on their own, they would be slaughtered. We need Fighters with respectable defences and offence, as well as a bit of luck in using Beatdown.

I had to repeat Magic Wood too many a time for a good score and still finished not satisfied. But I guess that's just the way things go in this challenge. Damn 83% attacks missing that black mage moogle!

Babus went down quickly. I wanted my whole party present in the battle just to get the AP.

Adrammelech was not as hard as I'd expected. With all three dragons put to sleep (luck is needed), Adra remains alone and he can't really do much if you distribute your units on the field the right way (so that he can't use Firestream). The Assassin petrifies some dragons while they are sleep and Fighters concentrate on Beatdowning the boss. The moogle is just there if reviving is needed.

I managed to beat him rather quickly.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• final
• fantasy
• tactics
• advance
• gba
• ffta
• speed
• run
• speedrun
• rpg
• game
• boy
• marche
• montblanc
• moogleboss
• fighter
• gladiator
• black
• mage
• magic
• wood
• assassin
• gadgeteer
• emerald
• keep
• babus
• boss
• adrammelech
• totema

[ankoky]

... the job that anne has, wat is it?

[MoogleBoss]

Assassin

[Hisuke94]

You finish the moogle only of FFTA2?

[MoogleBoss]

No, I haven't.

[grassinigrassini]

wow somebody is doing it!

[Hisuke94]

Okay, thanx.

[MoogleBoss]

Yeah, characters that join with abilities already learnt are either secrets or semi-secrets.

I don't like the idea of having a Juggler because there's no reasonable way to get Smile right now and their other abilities are too centred around spamming status effects on a single target. There's a line where their use is beneficial to finish a mission quicker and when it actually gets in the way.

Snake Staff is correct.

[mapler90210]

that was a semi-secret? that's odd.....whatever, no way that'll work, then. and you in humans now? then forget the juggler, too. i wouldn't go with the black mage, cause then skipping over moogles would be a waste. what do you have for a bangaa? snake staff? javelin?

[mapler90210]

ah, do you have an orichalcum? how about a juggler then? smile wouldn't be such a bad skill to have. neither would ring from a rondell dagger.

i find it sad that i have to use my guide for these comments >_>.

[MoogleBoss]

That semi-secret unit, Eldena, you mean? I can't remember exactly how much should be done to get her, but I'm assuming you need to do some optional stuff to get her and we're in a rush.

iirc, where I am right now, the month when humans are hired has just begun. I'm thinking of whether I should sign a human now and give him that Flame Rod I've got or wait for a Bangaa for which I have just the weapon...