No Island paradise

It’s my favorite time of the month — the day the someone on the Internet gets ahold of an early copy of the newest EGM, dumps the scores to every forum within arm’s reach and watches as hundreds of people commence frothing. At this point, no one actually need read the resulting message threads to know what they’ll say, as they all boil down to one basic theme month in and month out: These decontextualized numbers I have just seen are not suitably compatible with my preconceptions (which I absolutely believe will prove to be founded just as soon as I actually play the game in question). How dare they!

I imagine there will be some crankiness over my Yoshi’s Island DS score in particular, but such is life. I practically exploded in glee when the game was first revealed at E3, so giving it anything less than a great score caused me some crankiness. But the sad fact is that it’s absolutely not up to Nintendo’s first-party standards; my guess is that it slipped through the QA cracks because the company’s attention is wholly focused on more important things, like making sure the Wii launch actually happens and that Zelda is suitably amazing.



There are definitely some nice parts in Yoshi’s Island DS, but generally they’re the parts that were lifted straight from the original. It’s a very strange and uneven game; the first two worlds are almost soporifically similar to the SNES game, the third world demonstrates some actual originality, and the last two worlds go off on wild tangents that rarely work out as well as I suspect Artoon intended. Throughout the entire game, I kept coming to points where I would stop and shake my head and think, “An actual Nintendo-made game would never do this.”

It is, in effect, the ultimate doujin game. But oh well. There are certainly enough other totally great portable games out this fall to make the bitter aftertaste of Yoshi’s Island DS easier to mouthwash away — two of them, Final Fantasy V Advance and Elite Beat Agents, landed just this week, in fact. As in… today. Go on, run out and grab copies for yourself. They’re portable, which means they’re cheap, and you deserve them just on principle. Because gosh darn it, you’re totally swell.

That’s all for now. I’m up to 11,000+ words of Zelda previews and I’m pretty much out of words. I need to let my brain recharge, I think. I can tell my brain needs a rest, because the FFXII discussion that’s been going on lately has made me contemplate the possibility of resurrecting the Pit of Flames/Forums O’ Terror, and no good could come from that. Gotta rest before I do something we all regret.

Speaking of, my second Twilight Princess preview is now online. I had a harder time centrifuging the spoilers from the dry details, but I still did my best. Please to enjoy.

83 thoughts on “No Island paradise”

  1. A FFXII discussion board can’t be a good idea! Especially with all the intelligent comments I see routinely posted on your blog. Informative discourse is SO passe.

    …god I can’t stop playing it HELP ME

  3. Whoa, whoa, let’s not do anything crazy J. I’m gonna need at least a week to put together my awesome animated .gif for my sig; I still need to update my old one with my newest system specs and gamer tags and such. Oh man, and when am I gonna have time to rip a minute and a half of animation from my favorite anime DVDs to squish into my animated avatar pic?! Don’t rush me!

  5. What’s the line from the opening credits of Mythbusters? “I reject your reality, and substitute my own”? Well, in my reality, Yoshi’s Island DS is awesome, and since I’ll never play it (as apparently it really isn’t awesome, and who has the time?), it always will be.

    Also, as something of a Final Fantasy neophyte (having only played 7,8, and 9 extensively), would you recommend Final Fantasy III DS or Final Fantasy V Advance? I have some flights coming up, and one can only train one’s brain so many times each day.

  6. “An actual Nintendo-made game would never do this.”

    You really expected much out of Artoon?

    Yeah, I wish I was wrong too–but, screw the scores. On a scale of painfully mediocre to “this game would be just fine if it wasn’t the sequel to one of the greatest games ever,” where would you place it?

  7. I’d recommend FFV, but both are really good. FFIII = simpler gameplay (turn-based combat, in this day and age!? MADNESS) and a more limited job system but prettier graphics and gorgeous music; FFV = most robust character-development system of any FF game, fast-paced, gradually epic story that often veers without warning into slapstick humor.
    .
    If YIDS hadn’t been the sequel to YI it probably would have been a lot worse since, at the very least, the whole thing does maintain the original’s core gameplay pretty faithfully.

  8. Given that they’re trying to extort $40 out of me for FFIII, FFV sounds like the way to go.

  9. I never really noticed how completely awful that PS port of FFV was until now- its a lot easier to grind the heck out of job abilities when you don’t have 30 sec of load times on either end of a fight.

  11. I really want to pick up Final Fantasy 5 Advance, but I’ve beaten the game twice already, so it might become kind of sad. Still, it’s a really great game, so… Eh. Conflicted.

  12. FFXII fanservice: Did anyone pick up the nod to FF Tactics dialogue or am I just late to the party? Hint: it comes just as the group is about to leave the Ozmone Plains for Golmore for the first time.

  13. Awww, too bad. I think I’ll still pick it up. I guess the “Miyamoto cracking the whip” scenario you told me at E3 only counted for part of the game before he moved on to supervise something else and Artoon rubbed their hands together thinking, “Now we can implement what WE want!”
    .
    I do have to say that I like it when DS games acknowledge the space between the screens instead of pretending the two screens are seamless…but it sounds like that was actually a negative issue in Yoshi’s Island DS, no?

  14. Yeah, the way it works here feels really broken. It’s like they had this great idea and were so busy patting themselves on the back they forgot to test it in action. Too bad, because if the game had lived up to what was shown at E3 it would have been so, so good.
    .
    I think it’s a testament to FFV’s quality that I love it despite only having played it on PS1 until now. The Advance port makes it approx. twice as enjoyable.

  15. I’m really enjoying FFV- I played it on the PS1 and liked it too, and now that Faris has dialogue that doesn’t make me want to barf, I’m quite content.

    I liked your forums too, but past experience has shown me that moderating and administrating forums is needlessly stressful if you’re doing it right. I barely got through it working on somebody else’s board with help and not having a particularly robust life to speak of, so I don’t want to even think about how hard it’d be for real people (or worse, just one person) with, like, jobs and stuff.

  16. Alas! It sucks being broke/poor. But, FFXII will keep me happy for a while longer, backed by Contact when I’m not at home. And when all’s said and done, I can go back to playing Gran Tourismo 4 nightly online. Woot for backdoor hacks.

  17. So which will be my greater shame, budgetting for Gears of War before FFXII, or picking my portable FF based on the fact that one of them will look ugly protruding from the bottom of my DS Lite?

  21. Bring on the forums, it would be interesting to see what would come out of it…….ZOMGTOASTYFRAWGPWNZN00BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    couldn’t help myself

  22. No, no. In my experience, forums become hives of scum and villiany (and spam bots). Last time I checked, none of those are fun (well, villiany can be fun some times). Forums usually show me how stupid the human race can be. While watching what tends to amount to a stupidity contest can be enjoyable in a sort of sadistic way, I don’t think this site should be tarnished with such things.

    On FFV: I am pretty early on in it (my party is still made up of freelancers), but I enjoy most FF games, so I expect this will be no different. Plus, I love the Tactics series, so spending some more time with the job system sounds like fun.

    Finally schmit: Buy FFXII before Gears. I have both, and Gears is an amazing game; but if I had to choose one to play right now, it would be FFXII, no question.

  23. Interesting that you bring up the Pit of Flames. I was reading through the FFXII thread yesterday and I too couldn’t help but be reminded of them and think, “You know, conversations like this were what made the Pit a pretty awesome place.” Almost left a comment about it too. Not that I’ve been holding my breath for it or anything (let alone expected it), but a small part of me has always hoped they might make a return.
    –
    As RAC said though, moderating forums can be a suck task, and if I recall you weren’t too interested the last time around to hire out any mods. If you do decide to give it a shot though (assuming for a moment that it was even a serious consideration), well, here’s to a better Pit.
    –
    *insert Altered Beast quote of choice here*

  24. I wonder if Parish knows why Squenix and Nintendo decided to drop two of the most similar FFs during the same month, and one on inferior hardware? Am I the only one who thinks the impious “Zippers” Nomura and “Angstalicious” Kitase somehow persuaded their superiors to release “Fabula Nova…Geomanceryllis”. “A perfect rendition of the originals, except all the classes wear Death Cab For Cutie t-shirts and wield weapons made of entirely of sadness!” But I digress. Here’s a suggestion for Squenix: do everyone a favor and release FF Tactics on DS… preferably retranslated.

  25. at my local bar in japan, my buddy Yoshi was the bartender. One day he made a drink which was milk plus banana liquor plus amaretto plus malibu and something else. We liked it alot (it tasted like lucky charms in a glass) and named it Yoshi’s Island.

  26. Fear not. I know in your heart you wanted nothing more than to give Yoshi’s Island DS a radical score, and I salute you for the pain you undoubtedly felt when you were let down.
    –
    Have to say though, “YIDS” = best game abbreviation ever, and keep in mind we’re living in the age of “Zelda TP.” I’m carrying this mental image of Yoshi going around with one of those hasidic Jewish hats and beards.

  27. The only way a Jewish Yoshi could be better is if he rapped like Matisyahu.
    Also: 1up has completely refused to load for me for like the past three days. Anyone else ever had a problem like that?

  28. “I think it’s a testament to FFV’s quality that I love it despite only having played it on PS1 until now.”
    –
    Ditto that. I actually preferred it to FFVI, to be honest. I attribute this to the fact that by the time I had played FFVI, I had already played Final Fantasy’s VII-X-2, and was at that point already familiar and even cynical towards the story mechanics in it. FFV, on the other hand, being that it was such a gameplay-driven game was probably why I enjoyed it more. And that the gameplay was so thick and robust is likely why I enjoyed it as much as I did. In other words, I am totally boners for the GBA version which I plan on getting after I beat FFXII.
    –
    “Have to say though, “YIDS” = best game abbreviation ever”
    –
    Ditto that as well.

  29. “the fact that seafaring Faris no longer appears to be stuck in Talk Like a Pirate Day is in itself reason enough to applaud the new script.”

    Yes yes yes yes YES. I’ve been hoping and praying for just that. Great news.

  32. Also: 1up has completely refused to load for me for like the past three days. Anyone else ever had a problem like that?
    .
    Only all the time. It’s just a matter of persistance, if I hit refresh enough, it starts working eventually. For me, anyway.

  33. Okay, let me be honest. As much as I enjoyed the original Y.I when it came out on GBA it was DAMN ANNOYING. It may have partly been my fault as I have a perfectionist tendency sometimes but the red coins made me tear my hair out. And the way that every time you died it would ask you ‘do you want to play the level again?’ got repetitive and tedious very quickly. And thats not to mention some of the levels being really, almost supernaturally, hard (remember the poochy?). Meaning my memories don’t have the gloss of nostalgia seemingly everyone else has. I honestly don’t think the review score (nor even the review perhaps) mean anything. If you’re a fan you’ll buy it. If you’re me you won’t.

  36. Phrankster: You are not the only one who doesn’t feel the love of the GBA port. However, I chalk it up to the fact that all the Mario Advance games were subpar versions of the originals… well, maybe not Mario 3… I didn’t try that one. The rest of them left me totally unsatisfied though.
    –
    I’m crossing my fingers for a VC version of Yoshi’s Island. All Stars would be nice too (the ability to save in Mario 3 is kinda nice).

  37. “Is it a bad game, or simply not as good as you’d thought/hoped/wanted it to be?”
    .
    Well! That’s certainly an insulting question. It is a mediocre game built on the underpinnings of a brilliant game. So you tell me, what does that make it?

  38. Dunno, decent, maybe functional, but not a must-buy or the second coming?
    .
    I mean, “ultimate doujin game.” Is that an insult, or saying that it’s good for what it is? It’s hard to gauge whether it’s worth a look or not, especially knowing you didn’t exactly favor New Super Mario Bros. either, though you didn’t quite seem to hate it.
    .
    LBD “Nytetrayn”

  39. As much as Parish derides scores, they might prove instructive in this case. Yoshi’s Island DS got a 6.5 from him, a slight tick up from dead center. Meanwhile, he “didn’t quite seem to hate” New Super Mario Bros. enough to give it an 8, which is a rather high score. The numbers, though not especially useful in and of themselves, make a useful context for reading the words.

  40. Which is fair enough, but I had no knowledge of the score given until you made note of it here. Just “There are certainly enough other totally great portable games out this fall to make the bitter aftertaste of Yoshi’s Island DS easier to mouthwash away” followed by “No, no worries — this one is competent and functional on a fundamental level,” it starts to get confusing.
    .
    LBD “Nytetrayn”

  41. i would like to know just one thing…..did you enjoy the game? I mean when you played were you constantly thinking “god what crap” or did you play it and have a good time? My g/f loved the original and it all about this one, and I am all about her playing her DS (she just beat rocket slime :)

  42. I don’t think his impression of the game was that vague, but whatever. Yoshi is a punk, and I would have stayed away from this game anyway. I’ve never liked Yoshi. When he’s faced with adversity he runs away and you have to catch him. Unless there’s a cliff nearby then he’ll jump off. For all the time you’ll spend running after him, they should have subtitled Super Mario World as “Yoshi round-up”. And most people don’t know this, but Yoshi ate Donkey Kong, jr. It’s the reason you should never invite Yoshi and DK to the same party.

  43. Dang it, somebody made the Yoshi Infant Death Syndrome joke first.
    .
    And bring back the Pit of Flames Jeremy, it’ll be way fun. The trick to running a good forum is to institute severely restrictive, draconian rules about everything. Signatures can only be 48 characters long (no images, of course), and avatars have to be exactly 37×44, with no more than 6 frames of animation. Calling Shigeru Miyamoto anything other than Shigeru Miyamoto bans your IP address and any in a four mile radius. You have time for that, right?

  44. JP, will getting intensely angry at you personally make YIDS a better game? Because I am more than willing to do that if need be. You bastard.

  45. Elite Beat Agents is AWESOME.

    So is the news that they cleaned up the translation in FFV. Mid: “Okay, let’s go fight the really hard boss! Wait a sec!” YES/NO Me: “Uhh, shit, I need to heal. Yes, let’s wait?” Game: BOSS FIGHT GOOO

  47. Ooh that reminds me, I saw the movie poster for the new Castlevania movie today, which was awesome. I seriously always had thought that was just an ongoing forum joke until today. However, even I cannot think of any possible way to make a good Castlevania movie. I shall cherish the poster for being awesome, then forget it ever was concieved.

  49. Can I have condolences instead? I’ve fought to avoid being in the credits for the past year and a half but was ultimately arm-twisted into it.
    .
    Anyway, Yoshi. The thing about YIDS is that there are some really great levels… but for every one of those you encounter two that range from lousy to awful. Did I have fun playing it? Sure, sometimes. But I also found myself miserable a good deal of the time. Kids, you need to learn not to see matters of opinion in such black-and-white terms. The idea that I disliked New Super Mario Bros. is a silly fabrication of the Internet’s worst corners. I found NSMB to be very well-made and enjoyable, brought down only by its lack of the creative spark that makes the best Mario games, well, the best. Let’s be reasonable. It’s fun!

  50. “Here’s a suggestion for Squenix: do everyone a favor and release FF Tactics on DS… preferably retranslated.” Good idea. And could they maybe make it so that if your JP maxed out in one class it could overflow into other classes? And could they maybe re-balance the difficulty?
    .
    Actually what I think what I really want Square Enix to do is to make a “new” game:
    Dragon Warrior Tactics.

  52. Yeah, I would love to see a remake of the PS1 tactics on the DS, or (possibly even better) an all new one. I think the closest thing we’re getting from Squenix any time soon is Heroes of Mana. Although, from what I’ve read, it seems to be a real time strategy instead of turn based. Actually, it doesn’t seem very similar at all. Oh well, it still looks cool.

  55. Square’s Tom Sawyer Tactics! “With a revolutionary new system that allows you to switch between an unprecedented number or racist caricatures!”

    I win the “knowledge of obscure Square games” contest! But why do I feel empty inside?…

  56. JP> So what you’re saying is that the game can be good or bad, depending on the level, with the majority being in the latter. I think I’ve got that now.
    .
    As for New SMB, it just seems that despite the review, you’re usually saying it’s not that good. Rather, it’s like you thought it was good, but didn’t actually -like- it.
    .
    …man, trying to figure out some of this stuff is tough, unless it’s an absolute. “The J.Parish Code, now on DVD.”
    .
    LBD “Nytetrayn”

  57. LBD, I think the reason you’re having trouble with Jeremy’s writings on NSMB is because everyone else on the net was saying “OMG! SMB! Oldskool! Awesomes!” he felt obliged to provide some counterpoints, as he didn’t think it was as good as previous series entries. But as he’s said many times, he *did* enjoy it. So I think his consistent opinion has been that it’s good, just not as good as it could have been, or as good as previous main-line Mario games. Makes sense to me, anyway.

  60. The problem with “is this game good or not” is that there’s more that goes into a game than the sum of it’s parts, and there’s more between a gamer and the game then a number or ranking can encapsulate. Where in the score would you put the music in FFXII when it reminds you fondly of playing final fantasy tactics? There’s an ‘experience’ to a game, that reviews hardly ever touch.

    Sometimes a game full of horrible parts come together in an incredibly experience, and some times a game full of amazing peices just doesn’t click.

  61. You know, if they do decide to make a redo of FFT for the DS (why not, Squenix has been hitting the cash tree with a big stick lately), it’d be nice if they would use the top screen for character stats, map stats when not on a char. icon, that kinda thing. I loved FFT, but flipping through three or four menus to find out something gets old. That, and do something with Cid, that game-breaking slaughterer of opposition.
    .
    I meant that in a good way. I think. I disliked the fact that there was no challenge to FFT after you got Cid though, and no point to your collection of NPCs either after getting him.

  62. Well, they didn’t force you to put Cid in your party. You could always leave him our of the roster or, if it was too tempting, just send him packing.

  63. And who in their right mind would have done THAT? If the game goes out of its way to make it easy for you, why refuse? I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy using Cid in FFT, but from a game-balance perspective, he kind of ruins it.

  64. Collecting the special class characters always kind of put me at odds in FFT. You don’t start getting control of them until towards the end of Chapter Two, and by then the player’s already invested a fair amount of time and development into their party. Time that, I don’t know about anyone else, I don’t really like to let go by the wayside.
    –
    Usually I ended up striking a balance of some sort… aside from Ramza, I had one or two essentials that were always in (usually Agrias and a generic character), then a variety of people I freely swapped out. The only sacrifice was that they were a few levels behind.
    –
    And Cid a gamebreaker? Pssht. Everyone knows that it’s Rafa and Malak that needed nerfing..

  65. Heh…as far as Rafa and Malak went, they were only really overpowered if you took the time to learn all their skills and liberally apply Faith and Innocent to the enemies you were attacking, Cid gives you that instant gratification of instantly being able to kill anything you throw him at.
    .
    But yeah, I do agree about the NPC collecting, especially Cloud. I can remember grinding my generics to the point where they were all 5-10 levels above the storyline baddies and had several jobs mastered when I started to get all the NPCs. I think my usual party was Ramza, Agrias, Mustadio, Beowulf and either Reis or the Divine Knight girl depending on the situation.

  66. I never knew that Cid was a powerful character because, ah, I never used him. I don’t remember why, exactly, but my party was almost always Ramza, Agrias, Mustadio, and the rest were random characters I’d had since mostly the beginning of the game that I’d been leveling up.

    Hey, Bill.

  67. My party was Ramza, Strawberry, Beans, Harry, Agrias, and Orlandau. I love the FFT random name generator =)

  68. I never quite understood Mustadio’s popularity. I mean, yeah, Arm Aim and Leg Aim are excellent, and guns are generally useful weapons, but I usually found any of my default characters much more useful.
    –
    The other slayer about NPC collecting is that if you go through and collect all of them (and keep them), you only have two character slots to spare. If you have any love for your generic party… that’s just painful.

  69. As far as Mustadio goes, he’s the first NPC you get, so he kinda grew on me I guess. I won’t say I used him to the exclusion of other characters, but his skills always came in handy. Seal Evil’s awesome on the undead maps, as are the other two skillz.
    .
    Are you counting Rad, Alicia and the other female knight (an L name…escapes me atm) with that as well? I always went by the the unique messages you’d get when you would hit select and click on their names for determining NPCs. If you count them, you actually have 5 ‘generics’ you can send on the Quests.
    .
    I still kinda wish that Ultima had been more powerful, and that Ramza would have had access to that Mbarrier skill the Princess and Alma had. By Ch. 4, Ramza’s pretty much the ultimate Swiss Army knife with all the skills and equipment he can equip as a Squire. The Draw Out skill set always irritated me with the katana breaking. And yes I know about the Maintenance skill, but still. *Ramble Ramble*

  70. Preface: I love FFT and think it’s a great game but I do feel that some parts of it could be improved.
    .
    That’s odd. I didn’t think maintenance had any effect on katana breakage due to using Draw Out. Either way it didn’t bug me all that much.
    .
    I think the thing people liked about Mustadio was that you could still use his skill set effectively if you changed him to a class that used missile weapons.
    .
    I also would like to have had more room in my party for generic characters and monsters.
    .
    Also, I hated how most of the skill sets of the “NPCs” relied on having a sword equipped. I had better things to use my ability slots on other than equip sword.
    .
    I generally hated the guest characters because I couldn’t control them and couldn’t bring them into random battles to level them up. I also hated most of the “protect someone” missions because of the suicidal AI of the person I was trying to protect. About the only exceptions to that were Alma, who knew to protect herself and get her butt to safety, and Agrias, who could take care of herself long enough for you to get to her. I also hated how the guest characters kept getting their expensive equipment broken all the time (I eventually just started taking the good equipment off of them).
    .
    I also hated Algus, that little elitist richie rich punk ass bitch. I greatly enjoyed beating the crap out of him at Fort Zeakden.

  71. On my second playthrough, my first course of action was to kill Algus on any stage where it didn’t cause me to lose, whether he was on my side or not.

  72. I think the thing anyone who’s played FFT wants is a re-translated script. Seriously. Anything else is just extras to me.
    .
    The guests were okay as long as I removed the item command from their action option (Darn you Algus, using up my Potions…DARN YOUUUUU *cough*). They’re generally just an extra character that’ll run into the meat grinder for you anyway. I always made it a point of every playthrough to teach Alma Ultima at the last battle though lol.
    .
    Having to fight Zalbag was one of the sadder moments of my gaming career, wretchedly translated script or no. Algus is one of the few characters in any game I’ve played that I’d happily defenestrate.

  73. Everyone loathes Algus. I think it is one of the few things in gaming that we can all agree on.
    –
    One thing that always kinda disappointed me was never getting a Dark Knight in the game. Night Sword was such a sweet attack. I mean, sure, Cid had it… but yeah, Cid…
    –
    Anyone ever get that random fight at… Barius Field I think is where your party is pitted against nine or ten high level Monks?

  74. Haha…yeah, and I nearly got my keister handed to me that time too…fighting 10 level 95 monks is NOT fun.

  75. Yeah, I hated Algus way more than I hated Ajora. Although Wiegraf also kind of got on my nerves. Stupid Velius.

    While we’re talking about FFT (and this goes into super spoiler territory, though I guess that ship has already sailed), what do you guys think of that last little epilogue bit with Delita? Seemed pretty straightforward to me, but then when I talked about it with others, they had totally conflicting opinions about what happened and what Delita meant with that last line.

  76. Man, Velius kicked my ass so hard the first time I went through that I had to start over — I only had one save file and it was saved inside the damn castle.
    .
    The ending was always a little weird to me. I read it as Delita realizing how badly his life has turned out, despite attaining his goals, and wondering aloud if Ramza did any better in his own way.

  77. Ovelia attempted to stab Delita, but she failed since she wasn’t exactly a trained warrior. Since Delita was such a warrior, he reflexively struck back, slaying her whether he meant to or not. That’s how I saw it.
    .
    As for his “Ramza, what did you get?” line, I think it was intended to imply that, even though he had ascended in rank from a peasant to the king of the land and would always be remembered as a great historic hero, he realized that he had done so out of selfish aims of vengeance and methods of vile backstabbing. Whereas Ramza would be remembered as a heretic and a terrorist but nevertheless fought only to bring peace to Ivalice.

  78. haha, Velinus… yeah, that was a tough one. Heck, just getting past Weigraf one-on-one can be a challenge. One of my favorites was to stay out of range and use Yell so many times that Ramza ended up with like five or six turns in a row.
    –
    Or you can use a ‘duel wielding’ Monk and take him out before the battle has hardly started. Man that’s one deadly combo…

  80. Kishi — but wasn’t Delita holding his side as if wounded at the end? It’s been too long; can’t remember.

  81. Agh, I saved right before Velius, also. I did restart, but it was about two years afterwards, since I’d only rented the game that first time. Even then, I still had to use that Yell trick. And even then, it felt close.

    As for the ending, that’s about how I saw it, especially that last line. Although the first time I watched it, I thought made Delita was fatally wounded, but there’s no telling, I guess.

  82. Grog Hill is where you fight the horde of high-level monks. I won by using math skill to hit them with don’t move and don’t act. But that wasn’t the only uber (or really difficult) random battle :
    Bariaus Hill – dragons and hydras. I have never won that random battle. But I plan to win it one day.
    Araguay Woods – bunch of ninjas
    Finath River – Chocobos (I really hate being nuked by choco meteor).
    (cliff face) – flying eyes and minotaurs
    .
    I think the Wiegraf->Velius battle is a perfect example of how FFT could stand to have its difficulty re-balanced. Or it’s JP accumulation changed since I often maxed out Ramza’s squire JP by using Yell in that battle.
    .
    “Ramza would be remembered as a heretic and a terrorist.” Ramza considered a terrorist? That’s not surprising considering how powerful your party can become by the end of the game. You can make them into incredibly lethal nearly unstoppable killing machines. And I don’t just mean Worker 8.

  83. Brandon — The manual explicitly states that Delita had a long reign, so I always figured he survived the stabby stab.

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