Random Party Challenge

[ninjaluc79]

Has anyone tried this?

I tried it for the first time, but I eventually left Clive's quest incomplete (I only made it up to the gun duel scene in Radat, got past the 20h mark by Greenhill liberation) and 10 or so characters can no longer be recruited before Rockaxe liberation.

The rules I have set are as follows:

- Parties for each arc must be set beforehand so you can strategize ahead of time (sadly, I did not follow this rule the first time, and as a result ruined my game save. But to be fair, I wanted to make sure which characters are present by each major arc.)
- You cannot use the same character for two consecutive major story arcs. For example, if you picked Luc for Two River, you cannot use him for Greenhill Rescue, but you can use him for the Rockaxe mission should you end up picking him again. (I broke this rule during the Tinto arc so I can use McDohl, Hix, and Tengaar for nostalgia's sake.)
- You are allowed to field in semi-removables in the party if they are needed to recruit later characters (e.g. Gengen for Gabocha and Chaco for Sid, both after the Two River arc). But #2 rule still applies for them: you can't use them until after the next story arc.
- You can use the same party for the sidequest arc immediately after a major arc. The foremost examples are the Hix/Tengaar and Humphrey/Futch recruitment sidequests. You can use the same party you had for Two River and Rockaxe Missions, respectively, for both.
- You are allowed to grind for money for equipments and EXP up to level 35-38 before the battle vs Luca Blight.
- For added challenge, you can do Clive's Quest at the same time. (I only made it up to the Radat scene during my first (and later abandoned) RPC.)

One real problem with this challenge is money. You have to spend money for pretty much everyone's equipments (weapons, armors, runes, etc.), and you have to plan the strategy for EVERY conceivable party in EACH story arc ahead of time. If there's any better strategy for this one, please let me know. I want to do an RPC and Clive's Quest at the same time.

I had these party members by major arc:

Sindar Ruins - Rikimaru, Millie, and Kinnison
Highland Recon - Zamza, Shiro, and Gengen
Two River Arc - Gengen (to recruit Gabocha later), Oulan, Freed Y, can't remember the others.
Greenhill Arc - Millie, Luc, and Hix
Rockaxe Arc - Chaco and Nina
Toran Arc - Yoshino (yay, Freed!),
Luca Blight Battle (I did it with only Riou's party, so 6500 HP here I come!) - Humphrey, Hix, Nina, Mukumuku, and Anita
Tinto Arc / Neclord Battle - Riou and Nanami from 2; McDohl, Viktor, Hix, and Tengaar from 1.
Greenhill Rescue - Wakaba, Amada, Tomo, Sid, and Lo Wen
(I stopped before Rockaxe when I realized I can never complete the 108 SoDs.)

Any suggestions to improve this challenge?

[veeshadow]

Hmm, I don't know where to start with. Is there any other restriction like :

- escape random battles?
- can use any equipment?
- use any strategy or runes?
- can bring some OP party?

If there is no restriction like those, 108 SoD and Clive's event basically won't affected by any party challenge like Riou only/squirrel only, including this one. 108 SoD only matters the missable ones and Clive's event is matter of time that you have to do things quickly. My youtube playlist now is on pending currently, but my game is near Forgiver Sign check point and some videos ready to edit, upload, etc. After Golden Wolf boss there will be a scene about Shu and Kiba, then you'll be talk to him and ask to retake Rockaxe, answer NO first !!! This is your Forgiver Sign check Point, by this time you can recruit everyone you missed (as long not missable/hard ones like Futch/Humphrey, Clive, Gilbert, Mukumuku). My time by doing this is 18 hours 40 mins and that's even taking detours, doing 2 cook-offs, all 108 SoD + squirrels, McDohl quest completed, some castle stuffs completed (old books, seeds, sound set, etc the only ones that I missed are that obtained after Forgiver Sign plus recipes beside missable ones, 34, and from treasure/finds). So I'm really sure you can achieve this 108 SoD faster if you ignore those detours. And if you rush Rockaxe-L'renouile it only take 1 hour so I don't see how you won't get Clive's ending this way... This is even not related to random party itself, so I can just say more on other thread instead...

Now for the challenge itself, this is basically same as my youtube playlist with difference party you'll be used. As I said before, if there is no restriction like I've said, you can live with equipments that you found on treasures. I even only care spend money for runes and upgrade Riou's weapon. This way, money is not major problem. If you can escape battles, escape mostly except when meet 5-6 enemies because you know they always give great exp.. I found even normal battles can be more annoying than boss ones.

And while it's actually personal taste, I will keep out parties that can go to Greenhill for later missions (youngsters rocks). This means not using youngsters until Greenhill time. They also somewhat best party used for me on later missions, some will required for recruitment (Wakaba, Chaco, Gengen, Shiro/Mukumuku), some has great unite or great pair (Shiro + Gengen/Kinnison, Hix+Tengaar), some has 2-3 rune slots (Luc, Chaco, Futch. Okay count out Futch if you're not using glitch).

There is maybe more that can be told, but I don't have other idea or else this time...

[ninjaluc79]

Well, the only restriction I placed in my RP challenge is that no character can be used in consecutive arcs (like the example above, you can't use Luc for Greenhill if you have already picked him for Two River).

Using the glitch, hmm... I will only do so to recruit Futch early, and well, to make the RP challenge more bearable.

So maybe it comes to the party strategy for each arc. So semi-removables for each arc are maybe Gengen and Chaco for the Hix+Tengaar recruitment quest (though it's easier once you finish Toran, but both can be used for the Greenhill mission), and then maybe Clive for his hunt for Elza.

About the FS Checkpoint. After Kiba talked to Shu, I talked to Shu and said NO first to try recruit the remaining SoD's. Then I went to the Wind Cave to recruit Pesmerga and then to Radat with Simone to recruit Vincent. And then... oh crap, they were not there! I guess they need a level 4 castle to join.

Okay, I'll continue my previous RP challenge and try to recruit the remaining SoDs to make the castle level 4 (Alberto, Pico, and Jude) before the others.

[veeshadow]

Yes those two need castle lv 4. If you recruit every possible stars between Neclord's death and Golden Wolf battle you should have 100 stars while you need to liberate Greenhill and 101 stars to make your castle lv 4.

For Clive, it's best to use him on Two river (Lakewest), rockaxe first visit (Forest Village+Rockaxe), after Luca battle (Radat) then after Nanami "death" (rest of the game).

[Sasarai10]

Are you sure,that you cannot recruit any characters after recapturing Rockaxe???


Because i remember when i played the game for the first time,i recruited some characters,after the fight with the beast rune.

[ninjaluc79]

You can still recruit after Rockaxe, but by doing so you forfeit the chance to get Bright Shield's Level 4 spell, Forgiver Sign.

[veeshadow]

Are you sure,that you cannot recruit any characters after recapturing Rockaxe???


Because i remember when i played the game for the first time,i recruited some characters,after the fight with the beast rune.

you actually can but there are some events that need you to get stars as earlier as possible. The major ones and affect ending is get Forgiver Sign. Some events that happen on story like Nanami after Kyaro event, Tomo and Tsai, Freed and Yoshino, Gengen and Gabocha, Flik and Nina. Those will be missed if you don't recruit them and enough stars for lv x castle to trigger the event.

[ninjaluc79]

I still haven't figured out how to unlock Flik/Nina scenes. No matter how many times I climb up the castle at night, the scenes still won't appear, so didn't bother with them anymore. But I believe those are awesome scenes btw.

[veeshadow]

Flik and Nina scenes will appear on night before 2 major battles (Ridley ambushed and facing Luca) and before Greenhill liberation. But the unlock condition still mystery to me as well. The certain condition is castle lv 3 and recruit enough stars but not sure how many. However, by time I unlock this scene, Bob already joins me but I think that's insane if I assume to bring Bob's recruitment criteria because you can't recruit him before this night if you choose Valeria, unless someone can confirm me that 4 squirrels also count as 80 recruits to get him. I don't get squirrels at first because I think that will slow me as well (on Clive's event progress)...