As a general disclaimer, this is my first time revisiting the game since it first came out on PC back in 2000. As such, do forgive me if I end up mistaking any parts of the original game as part of the mod or vice versa. I did get up to the beginning of disc 3 before restarting over with the mod so I have a good feel for most of the changes up until that point. Everything afterwards however is entirely new to me. I also did my playthrough in its entirety on the 1.1.2 version of the mod.
Characters and Junctions
(For the character discussion part, assume I am talking about Lvl100 characters with no extra stat gains from Devour or Stat Up items.)
Overall, there’s not much to say about junctions. I like how you made it so there’s more of a meaningful trade-off between where you junction high level spells. It’s a small but welcomed change that added a bit of character customization that was much lacking in the original. This combined with the more diverse growth you gave each character made it so that there’s no longer a single, most optimal junction setup for everyone. I enjoyed having to rethink my junctions depending on who was in the party or actually having to give up some offensive power if I needed survivability for a certain fight.
As for characters, I absolutely love the new identities you gave everyone. Really makes each character feel special for gameplay. I had some misgivings early on since I felt like Quistis and Irvine were really lacking compared to their counterparts. Rinoa is the obvious choice for heavy magic damage and Selphie is, in my opinion, the best for support casting due to her speed whereas Quistis didn’t really have any defining features. In a similar vein, Irvine felt like he did no damage compared to Squall or Zell while also not being able to tank like the other two.
Ironically, both Quistis and Irvine ended up being the two party members that I managed to beat Omega Weapon with. I don’t know if it was intentional on your part or not, but the two of them really shined end-game. In particular, once you had access to a decent supply of Aura and could utilize Limit Breaks reliably in a fight, I really felt like those two pulled ahead.
For Irvine, early on his biggest issue was his damage output but once you gained access to Aura or Ultima as a junction, you can still cap his Str at Lvl100. Obviously, both Squall and Zell can do it before 100 and with a weaker spell but the potential is still there for Irvine to reach them. As a comparison, neither Quistis nor Selphie can max their Mag stat even with best junction and a Mag+30% allowing Rinoa to maintain her dominance. Then there is Irvine’s limit which I feel is so much more versatile while being comparable in damage over a long fight. Don’t know if a boss is vulnerable to statuses or not? Fire off a bunch of dark ammo to check. High Vit boss and can’t get Vit0 to stick? AP rounds. Low Vit boss? Fast rounds. In addition, he still has decent Vit and Spr (unlike Zell) while having the highest Spd.
Simiarly, Quistis really came to be once you reach the tougher battles. Her higher Hp and Vit compared to Rinoa and Selphie made her a better choice in fights like Ultima or Omega Weapon where the other two simply cannot survive as well without sacrificing extra ability slots. A simple Aura + Mighty Guard to start off a fight before the boss can get anything deadly in can make a huge difference. White Wind is also a straight up counter to many heavy AOE abilities (Megiddo Flame, Ultima, etc) without relying on megaelixirs or multiple casts of Curaga with Shell on.
Now, I don’t really know if anything really needs to be changed and if so, how to go about it. I mainly wanted to share my impression on this aspect that I think was particularly well done in this mod.
Guardian Forces and Abilities
(I’m only going to list the things I feel are worth noting.)
Treatment: My absolute favorite ability (please don’t nerf it). Like you said, a higher level requirement for learning the 2nd one might be warranted. In the end, I had one for each of my main party members. In most cases, it feels just like using an elixir. The heal is usually enough to get whomever back into a healthy enough Hp for Regen to do the rest.
Step-mine: Or as I like to call it, the Cactuar farming ability. Hard to utilize normally. For a time, I put it on my casters but that was before I got Quake or Tornado. My playthrough clocked in at about 80hrs and I think it was doing about 3k at the end. Not too shabby for an AOE, but not really useful either at that point.
Darkside: Still extremely good even after the nerf in this mod. About the only real way most of your physical dealers will do damage outside of Limits. Which makes it most useful in the first half of the game before you get Aura, but also the most dangerous part of the game to use since I feel like monsters and bosses in general tend to hit harder relative to your Hp pool early on. I will elaborate more on this below.
Mad Rush, Defend, Counter, Cover, Return Damage: All still have their situational uses.
Absorb, Renew: These are the two abilities that I feel are still rather useless and could maybe use a buff or some changes. Absorb still doesn’t hit or heal for much even with ignoring Spr. As for Renew, by the time you get Alexander and learn the Ability, you’re pretty much in Esthar and can farm Toramas for Full-Life. Moving it to an earlier GF and giving it a lower AP requirement might help.
(In general, I didn’t make much use of GFs past disc 2 but I can still see their uses, especially for ones like Cerberus, Doomtrain, Bahamut, or Eden. However, I did make use of them extensively during disc 1 and some of disc 2 and that’s where I would like to talk a bit about.)
Quezacotl + Shiva:
I realized early on that GFs were just much better at killing than I was. As a result, for most of disc 1, I would basically just summon Quezacotl, Shiva, and Ifrit (except he never actually gets a turn) at the beginning of every battle and be done with it. Not very engaging I know. However, they summoned nearly instantly with max compatibility (I was playing on max battle speed), didn’t have that long of animations compared to later GFs, and would usually kill the entire group with just 1 summon. So why not? As a result, they massively out-leveled my characters (Quezacotl was almost double my Squall’s level at some point) and had much higher HP compared to my party members. I ended up just using them for boss fights too (they both tanked better than I did and did 2-3 turns worth of my damage in an AOE). X-ATM092, the 2x Cyborgs at Excavation Site, D-Prison fight, and the Missile Base fights were probably made too easy because of this.
Of course, this strat started to lose potency when I started getting better magic to junction and gaining some levels. At some point, bosses and some mobs in general started outright killing my GFs too. A small downgrade in power and Hp for the early levels of these GFs might help.
Cerberus: I was so excited to get this GF, but then he started at level 8 or 9 with 300 compatibility and he has no health in general. I understand why, but I just wanted to rant a bit for this one.
The extra status ailments added to the earlier GFs are a nice little touch.
Monsters and General Playthrough
(I want to preface this by saying that I feel like I might have been overleveled for some parts of the game, especially towards the end of disc 3 and disc 4. In general, I tend to fight most of the random encounters I come across. I would say a good 2/3 of them. However, I did not intentionally stop and grind for exp except for two occasions (one at the deep sea deposit to farm a dark matter from the fixed tri-face encounters and the other in disc 4 before Ultimecia’s Castle to get everyone to 100). If I recall correctly, my main party’s levels were as follows: around 20-ish at the end of disc 1, 40-50 by the end of disc 2, 70-80 before I entered Lunatic Pandora, and 100 before Ultimecia’s Castle.)
Disc 1:
Even though I abused the hell out of GFs during this disc, it was still decently challenging since this is when you have the least amount of options as a player. The hardest fights ended up being the ones where I stubbornly tried to draw full stocks of spells from (who would’ve thought.) Junctions were weak and limited, spells were weak, and physicals were weak.
On the other hand, bosses and enemies weren’t too crazy either. Elvoret in general had me excited for this mod since I couldn’t just auto-attacked him to death like in the original. T-Rexaurs, Wendigos, and Anacondaurs always had me on my toes when I met a group. I didn’t even bother trying to kill an Ochu. Saw one, drew some spells, tried a few attacks and just ran.
The highlights were definitely Diablos and the Brothers. Really well-tuned fights in my opinion and I had a blast with both of them. Not much I could add here.
Seifer was probably the biggest letdown. I had Drain junctioned to ST-Atk on my Squall and that was that. Probably not much you can do for balance since it’s a 1on1 fight. Maybe make him more resistant to drain so you have to rely on other forms of healing as well. Not much to say on Edea. Maybe a bit more Hp for her, since I felt like the fight was over too quickly.
Overall, a very solid start to get the player acquainted with the mod. Not too easy, but not too difficult either.
Disc 2:
This is, in my opinion, the hardest disc (not including a few optional fights) as well as the one I enjoyed the most from a gameplay perspective.
At this point in the game, you started having access to a much greater variety of spells and you actually have to make good use of them in fights. Protect/Shell/Regen basically became a staple for me for boss fights and I had to plan my limited uses of Double carefully. Junctions started to have a more profound effect on my characters and the difference in character growth really started to show. I had to start actively hunting for new/higher level spells. GF management was important as well in order to maximize junction spread and abilities. All in all, I felt like I had to really think and micro-manage my party correctly since fights were getting tougher and that is not a bad thing.
The Ironclad was actually still pretty challenging even with my Quezacotl spam. The second time around was actually easier (though that might make sense story-wise.)
I actually got a game-over from the Tri-face in Balamb Garden and had to start over in the Missile Base. :-\
NORG felt too easy if you just kept the orbs down. I feel like the fight should still be a bit challenging even if you do the mechanics correctly and be overwhelming if you don’t. Let’s be honest, those mechanics aren’t that hard to figure out even without a guide.
Highlights of the disc this time around were Tonberry King and Cerberus. I already gave my thoughts on Cerberus in an earlier post but I just want to mention that I really enjoy the difficulty of these optional fights.
I ended up doing a lot of exploration on this disc after getting the mobile Garden and went around looking for new spells to draw. Some of the harder fights for me were actually from random encounters I found while doing this. Blue Dragons, Hexadragons, Ruby Dragons, Abyss Worms, and Chimeras all were boss fights by themselves. I met a Malboro too but that was impossible.
Disc 3 (pre-Lunatic Pandora):
So nothing really happened for the first half of this disc, gameplay-wise. I actually farmed up a bunch of spells from the end of the last disc (notably quake and tornado) and basically didn’t get to use them at all only for me to get better spells right after the gameplay starts again (post lunar base.)
The difficulty took a big spike once you could encounter enemies like Behemoths, Iron Giants, and the likes, but once you managed to stock up on all their juicy spells things became a lot easier. Your characters also ended up gaining a pretty big power spike when you suddenly have access to Full-Life, Holy, Flare, and Meteor allowing you to pretty much fill up all your necessary junctions with high stat boosts. Felt pretty jarring coming from disc 2 actually, but I don’t really see a better time to introduce them.
The optional bosses this time around weren’t as exciting. Cactuar and Bahamut both didn’t pose much of a problem. I don’t know if it’s due to the power spike from the new spells or what, but I never felt like I was in any real danger compared to bosses like Diablos or Cerberus. I actually did Ultima Weapon but I want to talk about him a bit later.
Lunatic Pandora + Disc 4:
So this is what I really wanted to talk about when I mentioned how I might have overleveled. Before I go further in-depth, I want to mention that from this point on, every boss encounter (with the sole exception of Omega Weapon) felt very underwhelming.
As I stated before, I entered Lunatic Pandora at around levels 70-80 on my main party. At this point in the game, I pretty much had full stock of every available spell on my 3 main characters (including Aura, Triple, and Ultima.) This is where I am uncertain if I’m simply over-prepared or the balance is too weak. Nonetheless, I want to share my experience and let you make with it as you will.
Fujin, Raijin, Mobile Type 8, Seifer. None of them last more than a few turns of actual damage. I spent more time trying to mug them to see what they have than actually fighting them, if you can even call it a fight. And I think I know what the culprit is: Aura. I suddenly have access to pretty much unlimited Limits during boss fights when before I could hardly use them. Darkside + normal attacks and Double spell spam used to be my bread and butter for damage dealing and fights feel like they lasted an appropriate amount of time as a result. Now my fight opens with Triple + Aura (with expand 3x-1) and simply spamming Limits on my physical dealers while spamming Triple Meteors on my caster. Buffing up only takes at most 1 or 2 turns with Mighty Guard and Triple casts to fill in the rest. Bosses simply don’t have the health to last through that kind of punishment and they didn’t do enough damage to force a defensive style of play.
Adel lasted longer simply because of the nature of the fight.
Needless to say, most of Ultimecia’s minions suffered the same fate. I was level 100 on all my characters at this point (mainly to see what their final stat values looked like.) As I didn’t bother to mug any of the fights, they all ended in 1-2 minutes if even. Tiamat actually died before he got a turn since Squall proc’d a lucky Lionheart. Irvine’s AP rounds took care of Krysta and Red Giant. In the aftermath, from Fujin + Raijin all the way to Ultimecia’s final form, I didn’t drop a single KO on my main party (the other 3 got sucked into time
)
I feel like a health boost to a majority of these bosses (minus Ultimecia which I feel is solid in length but lacking in damage overall) will go a long way in making them feel more worthwhile and actually getting to see some of their attacks.
And finalllllyyyyy, Ultima and Omega Weapon:
(As a side note, I avoided using the few invincibility items the game gave you to adequately get a feel for the fights.)
Oh boy, these two fights alone probably took me a solid 5-6 hours of attempts. Remember when I said I feel overleveled? Well, not for these guys. As important as I think having the right stats was for these fights (a major reason why I ended up benching Rinoa), it really came down to proper execution which I feel is how a worthwhile boss fight should be designed.
Ultima Weapon had me scratching my head for a long time. I remember reading how you said Light Pillar is now survivable but I just couldn’t figure out how. I ended up beating him once by sheer brute force (and a lot of ressing) but it just didn’t feel good. So I sat down and actually figured out how Light Pillar worked. I was actually approaching it from the complete opposite direction which is one of the reasons why it took so long. After my dumb brain finally figured it out, the fight was like 100x easier. He felt almost like a one-trick pony at this point. Regardless, still a top-notched fight.
Now, after having figured out Light Pillar, I thought Omega was going to be a piece of cake. He shoved my face in the first attempt. Then the attempt after that, and the one after that…and many more after. Now, I haven’t actually done this fight on the original game so I don’t know how it compares but I absolutely loved it on this mod. Best fight. Hands down.
I understand that he is supposed to have a fixed attack pattern in the original and that the mod mixed things up a bit. Incidentally, I actually ended up beating the fight mainly because I ended up noticing a pattern in his attacks. Needless to say, I don’t think this is a flaw but rather well-done on your part to mask it so subtly. After all, I don’t think the fight would be fun at all if it was entirely RNG-based given the nature of his attacks.
Random thoughts
Physical versus Magic:
Overall, I think this actually turned out rather balanced in the end. However, early to mid game I feel like magic casting definitely had the advantage.
For one, it is much easier to take advantage of elemental weaknesses compared to physical which had to be junctioned beforehand. As such, it is much easier to fight normal encounters with magic. Even with bosses, you would need to consult a guide beforehand to find out their weaknesses or wait until a second attempt to redo your junction where all you need is a scan for spell casting.
Once Double became more abundant, I felt casting really pulled away for that period of time. In comparison, physical had Darkside which acts as a pseudo Double. The only difference is that for situations where the enemy doesn’t have that high of defenses, a double cast of a spell will always outdo a capped 2x damage hit. I think removing the damage limit on Darkside will allow physical some much needed viability in the earlier portions of the game while maintaining its uses into the late-game. I don’t see this being too overpowered since there are very few scenarios where you would be able to push Darkside past 20k damage (the point at which it would be stronger than a Double.) And in cases where you can, it’s usually trivial encounters you’re fighting.
Once Triple-Meteors and Aura-Limit spamming becomes a thing, I feel like the two avenues of damage dealing are pretty close in output. So no problems there.
Drawing Limit: The best feature of the mod.
Extra Quests: Really loving them, however minor they might seem. They really add a bit of extra flavor and personal touch to the base game. Would love to see more.
On that note, might I suggest a possible quest related to the little girl on the beach in Dollet? If you talk to her a bit, you find out that her Grandpa is no longer around and her mom has gone missing. I always feel sad when I see her playing alone in the sand. As to what the quest would be about, I have no idea. I’m not very creative, you see.
FINAL THOUGHTS (I promise)
Excellent mod. I rate Chicobo/10.
Seriously though, I had a ton of fun and really appreciate all the work you’ve put into this. I am excited to see what you have in store for the next patch and am even tempted to start up another playthrough with it with limited leveling to see how I feel about the balance that way.
As a last note, I would love to see a separate version of the mod where the main story fights are more akin to some of the optional bosses in terms of difficulty.
