Malik
(6/11/09)
I hate being in a
constant battle between work and responsibility versus my desire to
be able to relax and have fun. It's a lot like the constant flood of
fighting between my party and the random encounters in FF4: The
After Years. Now this has to be one of the few games out there that
make me want to get rid of random battles...and that's saying
something since I may be one of the tiny minority of RPG fans who
actually enjoys random encounters.
Anyway, I'm still
trying to find the time to get through Rydia's Tale. It's been slow
going since I've been having those real world type things to keep me
occupied. In fact, Rydia's Tale has only, from what I understand,
around one and a half dungeons to get through. Although this number
seems off to me. I mean I've gone through the cave to escape the
land of summoned monsters (that felt like half a dungeon since it
was one way and pretty quick), I completely explored the Sylph Cave
(feeling like a good whole dungeon to me), and have explored half
the Sealed Cave (feeling like I did half a dungeon). I know there's
more in the future for Rydia's group, so I think the one and a half
dungeon description floating around many message boards has to be
off.
Anyway, I think
one of the single most broken RPG characters in any RPG I've played
is in Rydia's Tale. I'm not talking about either of the two main
characters (Rydia or Luca). I mean (this may be a minor
spoiler...but I don't think so) the puppet Brina who joins shortly
after you get Luca (who basically joins right after you start the
sub-game).
All you have to do
is trade a dagger and some ore to the blacksmith (who can make you
weapons if you give him some ore you find scattered around Rydia's
Tale) to make a dancing dagger. This is the same dancing dagger from
the original FF4. You can equip it for some good damage, or you can
use it as an item for good damage to the front or back row from the
front or back row.
Next you go
through the Sylph cave and find the clown suit armor for Brina. You
can give the dancing dagger and clown suit to Calca (the other
doll...get it? Calca and Brina...Calcabrina). Now you have your
broken character. Keep Brina in the back row and have her dance (her
special ability) for constant healing or status buffs. With the
clown suit, she gets about three actions per enemy action. This
means you can either snipe some monsters with the dancing dagger and
thin the heard or do some dancing before they get a chance to
attack. Now the main thing is that you will keep healed with her
dancing since most effects of dancing are the cure family of spells
(including cureaja, formerly Cure4), but you can also get shell or
protect to buff your magic and physical defenses of the entire
party. Best of all, I find haste comes fairly regularly, which now
boosts the speed of the entire party. This is all you need to
dominate the enemy.
Once your party is
hasted, you have Rydia and Luca attacking at least twice per enemy
action, Calca averaging around two attacks for every 1.1 enemy
actions (he's a bit slow), and Brina keeping the entire party
healthy or the enemies sniped with six attacks per enemy action.
Sadly I know this
cannot last. I'm not going to include spoilers, but the simple fact
remains for any FF4 fan; the dancing dagger is awesome when you
first can get it, but it does lose it's value with time as it
becomes weaker and weaker compared to the enemies and the other
weapons available. However, while you're still in the start of
Rydia's Tale, this makes for the most broken fighter and healer you
could ever ask for. Best of all, it's entirely your choice on how to
play Brina. If you need damage, you can do so without changing her
equipment, and if you need healing you can also do so without losing
her fighting edge. It's win-win...and it's also a way to definitely
make the massive random battle encounter rate tolerable when you
don't have a conventional healer (who can heal between fights).
Malik |