SomeColorMage unleashes Let's Play Golden Sun!

You're doing a good job. Keep it up!

You got some dirt on you. Here's some more!

OK, we're done the plot for this entire continent, so now we have some backtracking to do. You see, the Broken Bridge between Kalay and Vault has been fixed, so now we can return to Northern Angara. The Mogall Forest prevents you from exiting to the north once you've gotten through it, so we couldn't go that way.

First stop is Vale. We go and talk to Garet's family first. Isaac's house is still full of holes. We introduce Ivan and Mia and then there's boring stuff we don't really care about.

We talk to Dora as well. She's sick, but still has the energy to complain at us for being home without completing our mission.

Dora: Have you forgotten your promise, Isaac? You promised you wouldn't come back until you quest was complete, right?

No, we never said anything about not coming back. She then complains at us more for caring more about her than saving the world. Look, I just came here to get a Djinn, OK? We want to be more powerful so we can save the world. And since Saturos and Menardi are Travelling at the Speed of Plot, it won't matter anyway! We'll be at the next lighthouse just in time for an epic fight!

SO CALM DOWN DORA.

Next to Kraden's house, we use Lift to enter the Vale Cave. After some really easy pillar and log moving puzzles, we get the Halt Gem. Halt stops an object from being able to move until you try interacting with it in any other way. And that's a good thing, because a Jupiter Djinn is trying to run away from us. We Halt it so we can get it.

The Jupiter Djinni Kite joined Isaac.

Kite gives 8 HP, 4 PP and 3 Agility. In battle, it gives the user two attacks on the next turn. I don't know how the Agility of additional attacks are determined, but they're almost guaranteed to go last.

Kite goes to Ivan for now. And now we're going to move on to Vault.

In Vault, the mayor informs us that the three thieves have escaped. Interesting, but not what we're here for. We ring the bell on the watch tower, scaring a Venus Djinn to the exit of a cave. We now have to go through that cave.The entrance to Vault Cave is easy enough to find. We just use Reveal in a circle of gravestones. And inside, we immediately find a Mimic. Easy enough, Isaac and Garet both have Planet Diver. We get a Vial for winning.

Further on, we find a Vambrace, a glove that increases Attack. We give it to Ivan, mainly for the Defence.

We find and flip a switch, which moves the water from an earlier room into another area. Turns out it's one of the areas we went through to get here. So we have to find another path.

We encounter a torch that we have to move into position. But there are a lot of water drops on the path, so we have to time our movement carefully. It opens up a path to where we were earlier. From there, we can go through the area we drained using the switch, and get to the Venus Djinn!

The Venus Djinni Sap joined Isaac.

Sap gives 10 HP, 3 Attack and 1 Luck, in battle, it attacks at Attack plus 50 Venus Power then heals half of the damage done to the Adept that uses it.

I give it to Garet, making him a Barbarian. He's now really powerful. Next we head to Lunpa.

Now we can't save Hammet yet, but we can sneak in through the West Lunpa Cave and steal some stuff. Aside from a Water of Life and a Lucky Medal, there's nothing really worth mentioning though.

Onto Bilibin Cave then. We can now use Reveal to access a secret passage and get to a Psy Crystal and water of Life.

Well, that's it. We head back to Kalay, and I'll end it there. See you next time.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 18 Savage HP:285 PP:74 Attack:219 Defence:129 Agility:113 Luck:5

Garet: Lv 17 Barbarian HP:348 PP:79 Attack:232 Defence:133 Agility:110 Luck:4

Ivan: Lv 17 Mage HP:222 PP:152 Attack:154 Defence:121 Agility:129 Luck:6

Mia: Lv 17 Cleric HP:237 PP:133 Attack:157 Defence:133 Agility:75 Luck:7

Djinn: 5 Venus and Jupiter, 4 Mars and Mercury.

edited 18th Nov '10 5:59:07 AM by SomeColorMage

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Hi guys! Today, we're leaving Angara for the next continent over. Talking to people in the inn at Kalay reveals that there is a tour heading to Tolbi and Colosso, which are on Gondowan. When we leave, they start to leave as well, sans an old man they can't wait for.

We head for the Tolbi Docks. Garet sees the water and immediately gushes over seeing the ocean.

Wait a second, Garet, why are you talking about the ocean now? We were at a lighthouse earlier that looks over the ocean! Didn't you see it then??

Garet's hopes are crashed, however, when he learns that the Karagol Sea is just an oversized lake. We can't head further down the Silk Road because of a landslide that has a Venus Djinn on the other side of it, so we'll have to take the boat across the Karagol.

We buy 4 tickets for 600 coins, and board the Tolbi-bound Ship. There have been lots of monsters on the sea, but the captain still wants to sail as he has his Anchor Charm. They are, however, taking ages, annoying the passengers. Especially the big guy who hates water.

Some of the passengers talk to the captain, who's about to leave, but needs to find some people to fight off any monsters. The two big guys, Sean and Ouranos, offer to help on deck with one of the ship's crew, Kaja. But...

Captain: It's gone...

Crap. The captain refuses to leave without his Anchor Charm. So now we have to get that too. Mind Reading the crew reveals it's on the crows nest. But they still need someone to protect the oarsmen. We volunteer. Also, if we mess up (and we will), we need to ask the other passengers to help row. We're supposed to balance out people on the left and right, but screw that.

Now we can leave. The monsters we encounter are really boring, but in each fight, they manage to knock out one of the oarsmen. of course, this may be because Isaac is stupidly staying above deck between monster attacks. I have a few picks I want to make so we get something... special.

First battle, we pick the middle aged man.

Second battle, we pick the old man. The funny thing is, everyone else complements me on making a good choice. Values in Weyard are weird.

Third battle, we pick a young man.

We're close to making it to Tolbi, but then we're attacked by a Kraken. The Kraken is weak to Mars, can attack twice and mainly works around trying to poison and delude you. 8 turns gets him, Ivan reaches level 18 and learns Tornado (which would have made this battle a lot easier).

In a move that surprises nobody, we lost another oarsman. We pick the young lady. Isaac's really bad at picking people.

We finally reach land. But this isn't the Gondowan continent, this is some island in the middle of the Karagol.

Well, you see, if the rowers on the left (1st and 3rd) are much stronger than the ones on the right (2nd and 4th), we wind up here. We offer to explore the island to see if it's safe. But that'll have to wait for next time.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 18 Savage HP:285 PP:74 Attack:219 Defence:129 Agility:113 Luck:5

Garet: Lv 18 Barbarian HP:360 PP:81 Attack:238 Defence:135 Agility:114 Luck:4

Ivan: Lv 18 Mage HP:229 PP:158 Attack:157 Defence:122 Agility:135 Luck:6

Mia: Lv 18 Cleric HP:246 PP:138 Attack:161 Defence:134 Agility:78 Luck:7

Djinn: 5 Venus and Jupiter, 4 Mars and Mercury

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Mysterious island in the middle of the sea that would take complete blind luck to find for the average player? Smells like a Bonus Dungeon! Best of luck, and even if it would make for wonderful commentary, don't get too far in over your head!

Also, on the subject of classes, I think that Garet's fine. But, I also think that you should give Mia all five of your Jupiter Djinn when you can. 'Course, since you'll probably want a good healer, give Issac all of those leftover Mercury guys. And that sticks Ivan with the Mars doods, doesn't it?

edited 18th Nov '10 9:13:02 PM by EndarkCuli

OK, I'll keep that setup in mind.

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Hello! This time, we'll be exploring the mysterious island that somehow isn't charted on the world map (the in game map is really high detail).

First, I've been asked to rearrange the Djinn. Isaac gets the Mercury Djinn, making him a Cavalier (Venus), Garet keeps the Venus Djinn, so he's still a Barbarian, Ivan gets the Mars Djinn, making him an Ascetic (Jupiter), and Mia gets the Jupiter Djinn, making her a Savant. This is actually a good setup, it's got some really good attacks and enough healing to be usable.

Next, I run around the island about 20 times to restore all my PP. Strange, there's no encounters.

Maybe the valley in between the mountains in the middle of the island hold something. Okay, this place is called Crossbone Isle. There's a chest in this area with... 1 coin. Just what I needed! There's also a Mint, which I give to Isaac. The class he's in is quite slow.

Most importantly, there's a bush we can Whirlwind away to get access to a dungeon.

Okay, Crossbone Isle is the Bonus Dungeon of Golden Sun. It's a gauntlet of 10 floors of bosses and somewhat intellectual puzzles.

Floor 1 puts us up against a Hobgoblin and 2 Viragos. It's an easy fight. I'm not even bothering with counting the turns here. The first floor puzzle is a jumping puzzle. However, certain paths are blocked with pillars which we have to choose the right way or we get stuck and have to reset the puzzle. It's not that hard. We do, however, get a Hard Nut out of it. Mia gets the extra Defence. At the exit, we have to go through a Mimic. Also not hard.

Floor 2 has us fight a Succubus and 2 Grislies. Another easy fight, but trust me, this is the easy part of the dungeon. The puzzle is probably the easiest in the dungeon. It's log rolling. We get some Lucky Pepper, which we give to Garet. We also get the Mystery Blade, whose unleash can restore HP to the user.

Floor 3 starts with a battle against a Lich and 2 Fiendish Ghouls. The fights are starting to get tricky. I finish the battle one turn before a Death Curse tries to claim my first Down in the game. The next puzzle is also a jumping puzzle. We need to use Catch and Reveal to get keys which we can use to open chests and the exit. We get a Cookie from this, which goes to Garet, and a Fairy Ring, which can be used to remove a few status ailments.

Floor 4 is guarded by 2 Gryphons. We finally get a challenge here, but unless they both cast Tornado, Mia heals more than they dish out. We destroy them, but not before they claim our first Down. It turns out that Twin Beaks can really hurt Ivan at this point. Winning gets Isaac to leval 19, where he learns Revive. That would've been useful during that fight.

But that's it. We need Cloak to do this puzzle. Oh well. We can come back closer to endgame.

We head back to the ship. Sean and Ouranos ask us about the island, and we tell them it's safe to let the tourists get off and relax a bit. But before that happens, the crew figure out how to get to Tolbi; switch the oarsmen on the left and right. And we'll make it in time for Colosso, too.

And we make it to Tolbi. Turns out that aside from the old man, the people we picked as rowers liked it. We get two thank yous from the one guy for our troubles. And we can now never get back on the ship. Trust me, the other way to Crossbone Isle is really strange.

Next time, I screw up the element distribution of our Djinn!

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 19 Cavalier (Venus) HP:229 PP:100 Attack:224 Defence:154 Agility:104 Luck:7

Garet: Lv 18 Barbarian HP:360 PP:86 Attack:238 Defence:135 Agility:114 Luck:6

Ivan: Lv 18 Ascetic (Jupiter) HP:237 PP:126 Attack:176 Defence:134 Agility:121 Luck:8

Mia: Lv 18 Savant HP:278 PP:163 Attack:159 Defence:136 Agility:131 Luck:8

Djinn: 5 Venus and Jupiter, 4 Mars and Mercury

I think I'll do a special update about classes if people are interested.

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Also, Colosso? ...Ignoring the rhyme, but not ignoring how 'Colosso' sounds like 'Colosseum', it sounds like you're about to get involved in a Tournament Arc, dood. Sounds like as good a reason to mix the Djinn up as any, though if possible, keep Mia as-is. I admit that I checked a Game FA Qs guide, and Savant seems to be the statistically best class you can get with just five Djinn...and speaking of which, an update about what you think about the class system sounds good to me.

Y'know, I totally wasn't aware you could get to Crossbone Isle that way. I found the other way of getting to it, though I forget what it was now, but I don't think I ever went there this early on.

Isaac's the only playable character in Colosso, unfortunately. The other three can be used to rig battles in your favour, but I'll get to that when we get to Colosso, there's still a few Djinn, loot and plot before that.

I'm working on the class system update now.

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Hi guys, instead of actually progressing with the game, I'm gonna talk a bit lot about the classes. Feel free to skip this part if you want, you're not missing much.

Like I've mentioned before, by equipping Djinn to your characters, you change their class. Class changes change your stat multipliers and your Psynergy. In addition, classes are grouped together in series, based on the similar element distributions. Naturally, the best classes require more Djinn, which means if you want to be powerful at all times, you're pretty much stuck when it comes to Summoning. (That's another reason I don't summon in boss fights, BTW)

The elements of the Djinn and the Adept are reflected in the Psynergy and stats of a class. Venus, when not being archetypal of The Mario tends to be raw attacking power, Mars is more physical defence oriented, Jupiter is fast and Mercury has an increased PP pool and is lucky. Of course, these also have downsides. Venus doesn't have much PP to work with, Mars is slow, Jupiter is physically weak, and Mercury tends to have weaker attacks.

Of course, the stats aren't all that matters. The Psynergy is important too. There are four useful types of Psynergy: attacks based off the Attack stat, healing, buffs and Break (which removes all enemy buffs). Attacks not based off the Attack stat get outclassed by Artifact Weapons fairly quickly (although they can still be useful), debuffs are getting harder to connect with as the Luck of enemies is going up, and staus ailments are, well, status ailments. Enough said.

So, I guess the best way to see which classes are good and which are bad are to just go through each of them. This is gonna be long.

First, we have the mono-elemental classes. These are the ones that point out the glaring weaknesses of each character, but accentuate their strengths. They also fall strongly into Crippling Overspecialization.

Isaac's mono-elemental is Squire. This series has good HP and Attack, but poor PP. In terms of useful spells, there's Ragnarok, Cure and Revive. A by no means bad class, but will run out of PP pretty quickly. I intend to use this class during Colosso, BTW.

Garet's mono-elemental is Guard. Oh boy. Good HP and Defence, but everything else is poor. Agility is downright abysmal. And its only good spells are Heat Wave and Guard. I do not use this class without a very good reason, and people experimenting with class combinations should start with Garet.

Ivan's mono-elemental is Wind Seer. Excellent PP and good Agility, but HP, Attack and Defence are horrible. He gets Impact and Ward for good spells. This class series is usable, but a lot of his other classes are better.

Mia's mono-elemental is Water Seer. Good PP, excellent Luck, but poor Attack and Agility. As for good spells, there's Ply, Cure Poison, Wish and Restore. A very useful class for healing, but not much else.

Dual-elemental classes are usually pretty useful. They make up for most weaknesses and usually give the Adepts a backup in case their main element isn't usable. The first two listed classes are combinations available to two Adepts, the rest for one Adept.

Let's start with Venus/Mars. This gives us the Brute. Excellent HP and Attack, good Agility, but PP is still lacking and Luck is the worst possible in game. The class gets Planet Diver and Revive. It's a good class in higher tiers, but there's still some better options.

Jupiter/Mercury results in the Hermit. Excellent PP and Agility, good Luck, but poor Attack. It also gets Wish, Impact and Break. An excellent support class, but I wouldn't use it for pure attacking.

Jupiter on Isaac results in the Apprentice. Good HP, PP, Attack and Agility, with the only drawback being bad Luck. The good spells are Impact, Ward and Astral Blast. As you can see, the good stats are let down by a mainly supportive set (There are a lot of status ailment spells in this class).

Jupiter on Garet results in the Page. This class series is nearly the same as Apprentice, but also gets Guard. More useful, and its not as useful Psynergy is more towards attacking, but still has the problem of being the wrong set of spells for the class.

Mercury on Isaac results in the Venus Swordsman. Good HP, Attack and Defence and excellent Luck, but bad Agility and PP. And for spells, we get Ply, Cure Poison, Wish, Cutting Edge, Restore, Revive and Break. It's a brilliant class, but is less useful in long battles.

Mercury on Garet results in the Mars Swordsman. Same stats as the Venus Swordsman, but exchanges Revive for Guard. Slightly less useful, still a brilliant class.

Venus on Ivan results in the Jupiter Seer. Excellent PP and good Agility, with no real downsides. It gets Cure, Ward and Revive. The good stats are broken by a poor Psynergy set.

Venus on Mia results in the Mercury Seer. Same stats as the Jupiter Seer, with Ward replaced with Cure Poison, Wish, Restore and Break. This is a very nice class with no real penalties.

Mars on Ivan results in the Jupiter Pilgrim. Good PP, Defence and Agility, and Excellent luck, again with few downsides. But, it's spells lens more to non Attack stat based attacking, with the only useful spell being Ward. If you want a caster, this is an excellent class.

Mars on Mia results in the Mercury Pilgrim. Same stats as the Jupiter Pilgrim, but fares much better with spells, having Cure Poison, Wish, Restore and Break. This is probably the best dual-elemental caster class.

Finally, we have tri-elemental classes. The strengths of these classes heavily outweigh the weaknesses, and they get a ton of Psynergy of which at least one element is always useful. However, these are downright hard to keep if you like to use Djinn and Summons. The Djinn required are the two elements that the Adept does not have. They all need at least 6 Djinn, so they are purely late game classes.

Ninja is available to Isaac and Garet in a mix of Venus, Mars and Jupiter, with equal amounts of the two needed elements. Excellent HP and Attack, and pretty much godlike Agility, but Luck is bad. As for spells, we get Death Plunge, Shuriken and Annhilation. As a purely attacking class, it's good, but will need some backup.

Samurai is available to Isaac and Garet in a mix of Venus, Mars and Jupiter, with less Jupiter than the other needed element. Excellent HP and good Attack and Defence, but has bad Luck. And for spells, there's Guardian, Demon Spear, Magic Shell, Helm Splitter and Quick Strike. And most of the spells are cheap, so the slightly below average PP will last as long as other tri-elemental classes. This is an excellent class, and we'll want at least one of these.

Medium is available to Ivan and Mia in a mix of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury, with equal amounts of the two needed elements. Excellent PP and Agility, but Luck is bad. The moveset is among the best a caster can have, but the spells I care about are only Cure and Revive. It is great for casters, though, so while I don't think there are enough useful spells, you should find something good in there.

White Mage is available to Ivan and Mia in a mix of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury with less Venus than the other needed element. Excellent PP, Agility and Luck with no downsides. As for spells, we have Cure Poison, Ward, Wish, Restore and Revive. Purely The Medic, and it's very useful.

Ranger is available to Ivan and Mia in a mix of Mars, Jupiter and Mercury. Excellent PP and Luck, and similar godlike Agility to the Ninja, with no downsides. As for spells, it's a purely caster class, with a unique attack set for a tri-elemental class, and very cheap, but for what I care about, Ward and Break. An excellent caster class, and your PP will last forever.

Dragoon is available to Isaac and Garet in a mix of Venus, Mars and Mercury. Excellent HP, Attack, Defence and Luck, but has low Agility. We also get for spells Ply, Cure Poison, Wish and Restore. When you see the spell set, it's not much to talk about, but will have amazing results when combined with other tri-elemental classes.

That's it. I don't have much more to say, but maybe now that I've explained things, I'll get a few more class suggestions. I really don't have a favourite set myself, as it's practically impossible to have all four Adepts on tri-elemental classes.

See you guys on the next proper update.

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Hi guys. When we left off, we just got to Tolbi. Obviously this means we've got to look around there, find some problems, and fix them just in time for the inevitable Tournament Arc.

Screw that.

First, we follow the Silk Road, the path we would have taken if a landslide hadn't cut off the north part of Kalay Docks. And we follow that path all the way around to the Kalay Docks to get that Venus Djinn we saw earlier.

The Venus Djinni Ground joined Isaac.

Ground gives 9 HP, 3 PP and 3 Agility. In battle, it stops the target from taking their next turn.

For now, I'm giving it to Ivan. Next stop is on the world map near Tolbi. We encounter and fight a Mercury Djinn. We defeat it with its weakness to Mars. Planet Diver is so good. Garet reaches level 19 and learns Revive.

The Mercury Djinni Hail joined Isaac.

Hail gives 9 HP, 4 Attack and 1 Luck. In battle, it attacks at Attack + 40 Mercury Power and lowers the targets Defence by 25%.

We give this Djinn to Isaac for now. I'll reshuffle next time when I get another Mars Djinn.

However, for now, we're going to the Gondowan Cave. This is our way back to Angara and we may as well open it up now. It's the easiest dungeon in the game. Following the left part from the entrance takes us to an Apple. Mia gets the Attack boost.

We move a couple of logs out of the way and... That's it. Seriously. I just wanted to get that Apple.

Thus ends the shortest update of the Let's Play.

Or Live Blog. Whatever.

Next time, we actually go to Tolbi. Keep in mind if suggesting classes, that next update, we'll be able to start using tri-elemental classes. Only one or two though, depends on how far we get. And I'm not taking any suggestions for Colosso.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 19 Cavalier (Venus) HP:312 PP:100 Attack:230 Defence:154 Agility:104 Luck:8

Garet: Lv 19 Barbarian HP:372 PP:89 Attack:243 Defence:138 Agility:120 Luck:6

Ivan: Lv 19 Asetic (Jupiter) HP:256 PP:134 Attack:180 Defence:136 Agility:131 Luck:8

Mia: Lv 19 Savant HP:287 PP:170 Attack:169 Defence:139 Agility:137 Luck:8

Djinn: 6 Venus, 5 Jupiter and Mercury, 4 Mars

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Hi people! Today, we're actually going into Tolbi. First, we walk around the edge of town to get to a puddle we can use Frost on to create a path to a Mars Djinn!

The Mars Djinni Ember joined Isaac.

Ember gives 9 HP, 4 PP, 2 Defence and 2 Agilty. In battle, it restores about 7% of all your Adepts max PP.

Because there aren't any important battles between now and Colosso, I get into the mono-elemental classes now. As I've mentioned before, these classes are usable, but Garet's kinda crap and Mia is slow as hell.

We find some Power Bread in town. Ivan gets the HP boost.

As we try to head northwest, a couple of guards ask us if we've seen some person. We haven't. The guy's called Babi. Oh well. I'm sure this won't be important at all.

That Babi guy has a pretty good mansion though. Also, free beds. Good thing too, the inn's bokked out. In the mansion we see some guy called Iodem working on the search for Babi. They say they went to Altmiller Cave and found nothing. Apparently, Babi keeps sneaking over there, and whenever Iodem tries to follow Babi in, he vanishes. Everytime. Sounds like Psynergy.

In the basement, there's a ton of scholars. Kraden used to work here before he came to Vale, it seems. We also find a Hard Nut. Ivan gets the Defence boost.

We find a tunnel to the Colosso stadium. Fighters are proving their worth by trying to lift huge pillars. Unfortunately, Lift only works on boulders, so I guess we couldn't get in even if we made it in time.

Now, let's partake in the festivities! There are a few mini games in Tolbi, but there are only two we care about. Because we can win items.

First, there's Tolbi Spring. We throw in a Lucky Medal and get an item. Simple enough.

Let's see, I have 12 Lucky Medals. I can win some good stuff from that. While I can't use luck manipulation here, I can just save/load state and see what I can get.

Here's what I got, ignoring ones I didn't keep. If you want to know what these items are, ask me and I'll tell you next update.

Throw 1: Guardian Armlet. Given to Mia.
Throw 2: Earth Shield. Given to Isaac.
Throw 3: Assassin Blade. Given to Ivan.
Throw 4: Spirit Armour. Given to Garet.
Throw 5: Earth Shield. Given to Garet.
Throw 6: Grievous Mace. Given to Mia.
Throw 7: Ninja Hood. Given to Ivan.
Throw 8: Cocktail Dress. Given to Mia.
Throw 9: Ninja Hood. Given to Mia.
Throw 10: Assassins Blade. Given to Garet.
Throw 11: Spirit Armour. Given to Isaac.
Throw 12: Adept's Helm. Given to Isaac.

Good haul. The other mini game I care about is Lucky Wheels. You bet Game Tickets to win Boots, Shirts and Rings. These items almost never get outclassed, so it's good to get some things from here. Let's see, I have 40 Game Tickets, and I want to spend 2 a round, so I get up to 20 spins. I'm mainly going for Boots and Shirts, so I have plenty of spins for that.

Spin 1: Running Shirt. Given to Ivan.
Spin 2: Silk Shirt. Given to Mia.
Spin 3: Running Shirt. Given to Garet.
Spin 4: Mythril Shirt. Given to Ivan, his Running Shirt was given to Isaac.
Spin 5: Fur Boots. Given to Ivan.
Spin 6: Quick Boots. Given to Ivan, his Fur Boots were given to Mia.
Spin 7: Hyper Boots. Given to Ivan, the Quick Boots to Mia and the Fur Boots to Garet.
Spin 8: Quick Boots. Given to Garet, his Fur Boots were given to Isaac.

It's at this point I realise that took me much longer than it should have, and decide to not go for 3 more Mythril Shirts and Hyper Boots.

I'm gonna leave it there, and next time we'll head for the Altmiller Cave.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 19 Lord HP:394 PP:127 Attack:249 Defence:178 Agility:161 Luck:8

Garet: Lv 19 Warrior HP:346 PP:85 Attack:213 Defence:179 Agility:109 Luck:9

Ivan: Lv 19 Mage HP:253 PP:163 Attack:175 Defence:150 Agility:171 Luck:6

Mia: Lv 19 Cleric HP:265 PP:166 Attack:202 Defence:163 Agility:122 Luck:10

Djinn: 6 Venus, 5 Mars, 5 Jupiter, 5 Mercury

EDIT: Oh damn, I forgot the Djinn count. Added now.

edited 22nd Nov '10 4:10:55 PM by SomeColorMage

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Ah, Save Scumming. Is there a more time-honoured tradition when it comes to gambling in an RPG? I think not, my good friend. As for knowing more about your winnings, the Grevious Mace and Cocktail Dress have piqued my interest.

As for Djinn setups for non-Colosso combat, since it's actually possible to use tri-elemental classes this time around, give Garet 3 Jupiter and 3 Venus. That'll apparently make him a ninja, which I'm guessing will turn his Agility stat into something less...pathetic. Though really, ANY stat improvement might be a good idea right about now. If it wasn't for that Hard Nut you 'wasted' all those posts ago, he wouldn't even have the highest defense in his current state!

...Other then that, I'll be glad with whatever you want to do in this grand adventure you're taking us on, dood.

OK, will keep that suggestion in mind for next update.

As for the equipment you asked about...

Grievous Mace: 88 Attack, deals damage in Venus, unleashes Terra Strike (Venus, adds 20 damage)

Cocktail Dress: 29 Defence, Max PP +15

Equipment is stating to have a lot of additional effects, this is probably the part of the game where Artifact equipment really starts to overpower store bought stuff.

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

I'd make Ivan or Mia a White Mage as soon as you can (although this will require three more Venus djinni to do!). Having a fast, effective healer can only be a good thing.

Make either a Medium if this is impossible.

I'm also interested in the shirts and boots, what do they do?

edited 22nd Nov '10 9:01:36 AM by AweStriker

"Only now, after being besieged by a flock of talking ponies, did he really understand what he'd lost. "

Okay, I should be able to do that sometime next update when I get the next Djinn.

As for the shirts and boots, they have small effects, but every little bit is useful when the stat adjustments on the better classes get involved:

Shirts:

Running Shirt: 1 Defence, 15 Agility
Silk Shirt: 6 Defence, 1 Luck, Can only be equipped by Mia
Mythril Shirt: 10 Defence, 5 HP

Boots:

Fur Boots: 2 Defence, 15 Mercury Resist
Quick Boots: 3 Defence, 20 Agility
Hyper Boots: 4 Defence, Unleash rate +12%

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Hello you lot. Today we're going to find that Babi guy, and while we're at it, abuse the drop system for fun and profit.

First, I've been asked to make Garet into a Ninja. To try and compensate for the odd amount of leftover Djinn, Isaac becomes a Barbarian with the Mars Djinn, the remaining Venus Djinn go to Ivan, although there's only enough to make him a Diviner (Jupiter), and Mia stays as is. I'll change this a bit more when we get the next Djinn.

Altmiller Cave is north of Tolbi. We passed it on the way to Kalay Docks, but I was more interested in finding Djinn out of order.

The cave is getting darker and darker as we enter. Soon, all we can see is the area immediately around us and a few torches.

Isaac reaches level 20 and learns Clay Spire.

We find and kill a Mimic. They're just getting easier.

Further on, we see an outline of a person collapsed on the ground. He's veiled himself in Psynergy and is surprised we can see him. We ask him to show himself.

Even if I wanted to show myself... As you can see, I cannot move.

He explains that he's run out of his draught, which he needs to live. So now we have to get some more of it, hidden deep in this cave.

You'll find five rocks sticking up out of the ground. Rotate the rocks on the left and right sides. When you turn the rocks in the right order, five coloured lights will appear. There will be five colours: blue, green, white, yellow, and red. Turn the five rocks in accordance with those colours.

He then tells us the colours of the rocks. From left to right, it's blue, green, white, yellow, red. OK, I think we've got it.

Ah, now that we're near the bottom, the lights are back on. Wait, that makes no sense. Anyway, we have a log rolling puzzle to do. Easy. Solving the puzzle lets us fight and defeat a Jupiter Djinn.

The Jupiter Djinni Squall joined Isaac.

Squall gives 10 HP and 5 Attack. In battle, it attacks at 140% of Attack in Jupiter Power and inflicts Stun.

Now it's time to abuse the drops system. In Golden Sun and The Lost Age, the Random Number Generator is not very random. You see, the GBA is incapable of generating a seed to base random numbers off of so games that need them had a list of numbers loaded on to them. Golden Sun has two of these lists, one for battle and one for other. Most games had tricks to make things seem more random, like making things that don't need numbers use them anyway, or burning through a number every frame. And, if neither of those happened, the position on the list would probably be saved.

Golden Sun's battle RNG does not do any of this. So if you need a certain number at a certain point (in battle anyway, field RNs are a bit less predictable), you can get it.

As for item drops, most monsters have an item drop. The chances are determined by Item Chance Classes. ICC1 is 100%, and every ICC from there halves the rate, up to ICC9, which is about 0.4%. Killing an enemy with a Djinn it is weak to quadruples the drop rate (raises the ICC by 2).

Now here's how we can rig it. At ICC7 and higher, the 28th in battle RN after turning on the game will always drop an item. So what we have to do, is kill an enemy with a Djinn it is weak to, and make sure that the RN used to determine that enemy's drop (it is determined as soon as the enemy dies) is number 28.

Our target for today is the DreadHound. We can get Prophet's Hats from them, which gives us a small Defence boost over what we currently have. We get four of them by doing this:

Start with a battle vs 2 DreadHounds
Turn 1: Ivan uses Storm Ray, Isaac uses Earthquake, Garet uses Flare Wall, Mia uses Wish, enemies do nothing.
Turn 2: Ivan uses Storm Ray, Isaac Defends, Garet Defends, Mia unleashes Hail. DreadHound1 dies (dropping the Prophet's Hat), DreadHound2 uses Double Fang.
Turn 3: Ivan attacks, DreadHound2 dies and I get my Prophet's Hat.

I had to use the mono-elemental classes for this, and will have to for every RNG rigging method, BTW.

Now back to our regularly scheduled class set up. Garet becomes a Ninja again, I make Mia a Medium as it fits the given Djinn well, Isaac gets the Mercury Djinn, making him a Cavalier (Venus), and Ivan gets the Mars Djinn, making him an Asetic (Jupiter).

And it's dark again. We find a Cookie and give the PP boost to Isaac.

And it's light again. It seems like puzzle rooms are given ambient lighting. It's a log rolling puzzle, but the answer is to ignore it and just walk around. Oh look, it's the five rocks. The lights appear. We have to rotate the green rock first, then the red one. It then explodes the wall open revealing the Mystic Draught.

Let's go back to the veiled guy.

You... You came back... Please, the draught—-quickly.

We give him the draught, and he gets up. It's Babi.

Garet: Look! It's a man!

Captain Obvious strikes again. We ask if Babi's an Adept. He has no idea what we mean. We Mind Read him, so that 1) the Adepts realise that it's Babi, and 2) that wasn't Psynergy he was using. Just the remains of an ancient civilisation. Babi figures out what Ivan's been doing and thinks we're Lemurians. We have no idea what he means. The Lemurians have the power to grant eternal youth. Garet likens it to one of Kraden's speeches. Babi recognises the name, but before any of us can say anything more, Babi's guards show up.

The trials of Colosso are over, and the guards are glad to have found Babi in time for the finals. They ask about us.

Babi: I owe my life to them...

Alright! You can pay us off with the ability to rig Lucky Wheels, thanks.

Guard: We must have Iodem grant them a reward.

Like I said, ability to rig Lucky Wheels. I want my damn Mythril Shirts and Hyper Boots.

Babi: Say, I have an idea... Why don't you enter the finals? You have some interesting powers.

Guard: But, Lord, Babi, they have not cleared the trials. Only warriors who clear the trials can appear in the finals.

Babi: And you don't think that saving my life qualifies as a suitable trial? I look forward to seeing you battle!

So we don't get the ability to rig Lucky Wheels. Damn. Whatever, at least we get to beat the crap out of other people with our psychic powers.

Next time, we finally get to Colosso. See you then.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 20 Cavalier (Venus) HP:323 PP:108 Attack:243 Defence:178 Agility:124 Luck:8

Garet: Lv 20 Ninja HP:401 PP:133 Attack:268 Defence:170 Agility:219 Luck:7

Ivan: Lv 20 Ascetic (Jupiter) HP:282 PP:140 Attack:199 Defence:171 Agility:135 Luck:8

Mia: Lv 20 Medium HP:308 PP:198 Attack:224 Defence:168 Agility:162 Luck:7

Djinn: 6 Venus and Jupiter, 5 Mars and Mercury

EDIT: Forgot a lot of syntax.

edited 22nd Nov '10 6:32:17 PM by SomeColorMage

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Hello you lot. Today, we have a Tournament Arc to do. First, I set my Djinn to all mono-elemental. I know, boring, but I prefer to defeat my Colosso opponents by psychically shooting swords into their faces. As I won't be returning to Tolbi, I sell all my remaining Game Tickets and another Lucky Medal we found for some money. Due to how the Artifact re-buying system works, we can now buy more of these at any time. (EDIT: Nope, I was mistaken, you can only buy as many as you sold.)

We approach the stadium, and everyone already recognises Isaac. News travels fast, I guess. Either that, or we're just slow. People are also questioning Isaac's skill because he's young. Hey, he may only be 17, but still, psychic sword to face power tends to beat muscle.

We go inside, and it turns out only Isaac is fighting.

Garet: This is crazy! Isaac won;t survive against those Colosso warriors!

Thanks for the support. Anyway, the other three are allowed to watch with front row seats.

Anyway, we get to see one of the Colosso stages. How it works, is that warriors are given crappy equipment and have to race to the battle stage to get better equipment. Then they fight.

Now, we can't get to the battle first alone, as we'll accidentally waste time and end up losing, unless we miss some hidden Nuts, which we'll want. However, we can rig the fights in our favour by using Garet, Ivan and Mia's Psynergy to create shortcuts. Then we can just breeze through and get the better stuff.

To start, we swap a Venus and Jupiter Djinn between Isaac and Ivan, setting Isaac's Jupiter Djinn to Standby.

In part 1, we are meant to move a pillar into position to jump over a gap. We leave Garet to watch here.

In part 2, we have to reroute water to raise a platform to jump over a gap. We leave Mia to watch here.

In part 3, we have to time movements across a bridge that can drop and make us start that section over. We leave Ivan to watch here.

In part 4, we have to ride some logs.

We now are in the waiting room. Isaac's waiting circle has quickly been painted on the ground.

Wait a sec, this is a straight out tournament, and you planned on only having 7 contestants? You guys suck.

Now to help out. Garet uses Move to make the gap instantly crossable, Ivan uses Growth so we can skip the entire bridge, and Mia uses Douse to make that gap instantly possible. We now are guaranteed to win that race.

And we get an Iron Shield. Our first opponent is Azart. As all of the other contestants are non Adepts, we can pretty much destroy them with anything. Even if we lose (during the first two fights anyway), we start over. But since Ragnarok deals 111 damage against someone with 450 HP, I don't think that's a problem.

Time for round 2. We are healed, and have to figure out how to rig this match. First, I swap Ground and Squall back, to get Isaac at full power.

In part 1, we have to navigate a maze.

In part 2, we have to jump across a pool while the platforms move. We leave Ivan here.

In part 3, we have a log riding puzzle. We leave Mia here.

In part 4, we have to climb a wall, then slide off the right spot.

In part 5, we have to solve a log rolling and moving puzzle. We leave Garet here.

Now to rig the race. Garet uses Force to let us skip the entire last puzzle, Ivan uses Halt to stop the operator from moving the platforms, and Mia uses Frost to open a quicker path in the log riding puzzle. We are guaranteed to win again.

We get some Chain Mail, and now we have to fight Sartage. More easy fighting with Ragnarok. 570 HP + 117 damage a turn = easy kill.

The next fight is the final. We can lose this one, but we don't want to.

In part 1, we have to move a log to shift some scales to make a platform over a gap, but there is a puddle under one of the scales. We leave Mia here.

In part 2, we have a log hopping maze. We leave Garet here.

In part 3, we have to time our crossing on a path to prevent big metal things pushing us off. We leave Ivan here.

In part 4, we have to climb a wall. We could create a shortcut with Growth here with Isaac, but it would require me to be at less than full power, so no.

In part 5, we have to run against a moving treadmill.

In part 6, we have a log moving puzzle.

Time to rig this race. Garet uses Move to create a shorter path in the maze, Ivan uses Halt to stop the operator from using the pushy things, and Mia uses Frost to force the platform we need up. This one's as good as ours.

We get a Claymore, and now have to fight Navampa. He's a lot stronger than the other two, but still dies to Ragnarok. We are now doing 138 damage a turn due to the Claymore, and are up against 820 HP.

After winning, Isaac passes out. Crap, we've lost, haven't we?

Oh wait, he's just sleeping. Isaac is the champion!

Cut to Babi's palace. Isaac wakes up. He's been out cold for a while, and now we need to see Babi. Babi congratulates us, and we get the Lure Cap! This increases encounter rates. Not very impressive, but it will be useful much, much later. As in an entire game later. You will want this in The Lost Age. And now it's plot dump time!

Lemuria is an ancient city somewhere in the ocean. A hundred years ago, Babi and Lunpa the Noble Thief ended up there after a flood. The Lemurians are Adepts, like our party. The draught made in the town allowed it's residents to live for a lot longer than other humans. When Babi left the town, he took a lot of this draught with him. This has allowed him to live for so long. Babi has now run out of the stuff. And nobody can find Lemuria either. He has been using his team of Alchemists to try and create the Stone of Sages, to gain immortality, but to no avail. But nobody can keep their bearings when they reach the area they thing Lemuria is in due to currents. He has built a lighthouse, the Babi Lighthouse, to try and help ships keep theor bearings.

Babi now wants us to find Lemuria. Babi also took with him a Lemurian ship, which he hopes we will be able to use as Adepts. We are the only people Babi knows who can use Psynergy. He has some small powers as well, but nothing really helpful. In return for helping Babi, we can have whatever we want. So NOW can I rig those Lucky Wheels?

Nope. Instead, Iodem is going to help us get to Venus Lighthouse. We are to meet him at Gondowan Passage.

We talk to Babi before we leave, and he gives us the Cloak Ball. Cloak lets us hide in the shadows. We can now save Hammet. And we'll do just that next time. See you then.

Stats:

Isaac: Lv 21 Lord HP:421 PP:118 Attack:259 Defence:183 Agility:170 Luck:8

Garet: Lv 20 Warrior HP:358 PP:87 Attack:218 Defence:185 Agility:113 Luck:9

Ivan: Lv 20 Magister HP:321 PP:178 Attack:201 Defence:168 Agility:156 Luck:6

Mia: Lv 20 Cleric HP:273 PP:171 Attack:205 Defence:168 Agility:105 Luck:10

Djinn: 6 Venus and Jupiter, 5 Mars and Mercury.

edited 24th Nov '10 4:44:33 AM by SomeColorMage

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Wait, WHAT ? That's ridiculously broken. Never noticed that earlier, because I really didn't think the system could be abused that way.

I didn't know about it until I started this LP either. But as we can get infinite free Lucky Medals later (another RNG rigging drop), who cares!

EDIT: Turns out it's not as broken as it seems. It limits how many you can buy back to how many you sold. Sorry, I should really double check these things. It's still a hell of a lot better than wasting three inventory slots on stuff I'm never gonna use again though.

edited 24th Nov '10 4:38:48 AM by SomeColorMage

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Oh, okay. Limiting it to what you've sold makes a lot more sense.

Colosso always made me wonder, just how much of psynergy can muggles see? They established that people can't detect stuff like move and mind read in action, which kinda makes sense, as the white glove is clearly just a representation of telekinesis, but it starts straining my suspension of disbelief that they can't see a meteor/giant ass sword land on a Colosso warriors face. Or that, ya know, the Colosso warrior can't see it either. And that's not even mentioning using summons in those fights...

edited 24th Nov '10 6:13:29 AM by Blissey1

XP granted for befriending a giant magical spider!

I think it was somewhere along the lines of non-Adepts cannot see the casting (the hands and whatever), but do see the effects. Iodem mentioned that he saw your power during the fight, so non-Adepts must be able to see enough to figure out what's going on, but they can't see the whole thing, as the Colosso fighters think Isaac cheated if you transfer a file where Isaac won the last round to The Lost Age.

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!

Are you also gonna do The Lost Age?

You got some dirt on you. Here's some more!

I'm planning on it, probably early next year. If someone else really wants to do it though, I can always give out the transfer password.

Let's Play Final Fantasy IV!