Let's Challenge: FFXII - NLCNQNGNGNITNUECRC
No Level Challenge
No Quickening
No Grinding
No Glitch/Cheating
No Item Farming
No Ultimate Equipment
Class Restricted Challenge
..Say that ten times fast!
Yes this is in fact every possible challenge at the same time, and yes I am that crazy. I am going to attempt give the FF Game designers, Testers some serious props.
For anybody that hasn't played played FFXII, here's the short version:
It's one of those $50 million titles that took a team of 200 people 5 years to make. Yes, it really happened like that. It's also IMO the best in the series (more on this later), and is one of those games that is only helped by the fact that it is surrounded by crap - FF 8, 9, X, X-2, XIII, XIII-2 to name a few (don't even want to mention the remakes here). It's entirely possible Square will never be able to put out anything better, sad to say, but here's hoping I am wrong.
Anyway, back to the challenge:
-No Level Ups for any person, ever. If this happens (accidents happen) we must reset.
-No Quickenings can ever be used. Period. (These are way overpowered, so this makes the game much harder by itself)
No Grinding at all. (If it's not on the way from point A to B, or a sidequest/hunt, it is forbidden)
No Glitch/Cheating. (This means that no bugs or glitches, aka; obvious non-intended behaviors, can be exploited.)
No Item Farming. (Self explanatory. Items make the game too easy. The only exception to this rule would be aquiring the first firefly accessory.)
No Ultimate Equipment. (It is known that you can get access to some uber weapons somewhat early-on, so this is forbidden for the main game)
Class Restricted Challenge! (Characters can only learn abilities, use equipment, etc, somewhat related to their class.)
It is unknown what exactly the classes are, but here's how I see them.
Vaan - Thief, Ninja.
Balthier - Gunner (whatever that is)
Fran - Ranger
Basch - Knight
Ashe - Battle Mage
Penelo - Mage
Basic breakdown:
Only the first three characters can equip light armor. Balthier is the only character that can equip a gun. Basch can only equip heavy armor, Penelo - Rods. So on and so forth. Vaan, Balthier, and Basch are more teck oriented, while Fran, Ashe, and Penelo are more spell oriented. Since LP is going to be hard to come by the other details of this are unimportant as there's no way in hell it's possible to fill even half or a quarter of the board, so characters will be uniquely specialized.
The Goal:
Beat the game /and/ finish all extra post-game content, and finish every hunt, no matter how ridiculous.
It's also worth mentioning that I haven't played this game in over four years or so, so things could go terribly wrong very quickly. I also don't remember much of what items are in what chests, since many of them are random, so I won't be abusing many chest/item"tricks", if any, that some people might know, simply because it's not necessary, and I don't remember where anything is...
So, who's going to try this?
Any wagers as to whether it's even possible to finish this?
So lets begin!
Chapter One:
Vaan - Lord of the Rats; The Power of the Sun in the Palm of my Hands; and, The Hunt's Begin.
(puns intended)
Not much to do here but watch the pretty cinematic scenes, kill some rats for exp (oh noes, exp! - we will only ever be earning exp twice) and try to get re-acclimated with the game itself.
The rogue tomato should be easy enough, and running the giza plains loop charging the sunstone is a good time to test out something we will probably be using a lot in the future: STEAL. Yep, we may not be able to kill any enemies but nothing wrong with pilfering goodies and then fleeing for our lives! Money is going to be hard fought in this challenge, so every opportunity to straight daffle some shit yo wez gonna hit up dat booooy. -Every gil goes straight into the potion budget!!
On the next episode: Palace Plundering, Sewer Swimming, and the Dark Dank Dungeon Cage Fighting Challenge.
update:
Chapter Two:
What's a guy gotta do to get a decent meal round here? What's up with that fanny Franny? What exactly is a Flan anyway? Why are the princesses always so difficult?.
All these questions answered, and more.
First things first: Go buy all the potions we can afford, sell anything you don't need. Forget phoenix downs, they are overrated, don't buy them. (We will be utilizing some fundamental math skills throughout.) Next stop, the Palace.
Run through here calling the soldiers "bucket-heads", which for some reason makes them just angry enough to run down a single corridoor before tiring out. Gotta love the Empires training program.... Go through some fake walls, and enter Balthier and Fran.
Introducing Fran, the character that confused interracial furry fetish lovers around the world. Too bad fellas. She's left the wood for good. (omg I made it rhyme lol) :P
By now we should be getting used to the pilfer->hold R2->repeat a few times->run for your lives! mechanic. The great thing about this game so far is that we are making great time running through all the areas at full speed. If it weren't for the other challenge mechanics we have to consider this is resembling a speed run!
So back to: The Sewers: The goal here is to use 1 or 2 potions tops on the Flans until we get to the boss fight, for the worst-case-scenario, otherwise, the goal is to not use any. Pretty straight forward; run through the area.
Boss Fight: Fire Mane
SANITY CHECK - Did you buy the Blizzard spell? I hope so, because you will need it for the next 3 battles. (Note: Don't bother buying any other spells. All you need is Fire, Ice, Cure for a while.)
This fight is easy. All you have to do is run around and cast Blizzard. If you get a Game Over here, then you probably have bigger problems.
After the fight you get caught...which brings us to our next easy fight: Galeebo (or whatever) and friends. After the fight you get your stuff back, make your escape, and conveniently find over 1000 gil in the same room as a merchant. Nice! My advice: buy more potions! :P
Mimics and the Darkness:
This area is too much fun, so I'll let you figure it out for yourself. Note* You can kill max 2 mimics before you level up.
Boss Fight: Queen Mimic
The charge?
- 30 potions
- 2 ethers
- shit equipment
The Task?
- Kill the Queen without killing any of the Baby Mimics. This can get ugly. Fortunately there are some options regarding strategy available, and is not too difficult.
Next up: Running through mines, running through ships, and running through sand.
Chapter Three:
The killing labyrinth, more running, and running at high altitudes.
Free at last! So what to do next? Seeing how we're broke it's a good time to pass go and collect $200 dollars by finishing up the easy Hunts, and doing some sidequest action in the Estersand... which BTW I have not yet spotted the Ester-bunny. narf.
Now for the first time in the run we have money that we can spend on something other that potions! yay!! I suggest saving it until later, however.
Head to the floating city and recruit Larsa, err Lamont. Now that we have a potion dispenser handy let's setup our gambits:
Foe any: Steal, and enter the mines. This works as follows:
Lamont should be preoccupied with healing your party while they get smacked trying to steal loot. When someone gets low on HP you should run until you are engaged again. This keeps Lamont from doing anything else.
Run out of the mines and play the shouting minigame. Afterwards sell EVERYTHING you don't need and upgrade your equipment. I'm not sure what the best ratio is, but I have 18 potions and a few of the best Light Armor available. If you are really low you can sell off any ethers, phoenix downs you have as a last resort, but it shouldn't be needed.
