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[Ruuppa]

That's the thing though, I don't have Shell nor Petrify, so I can't resist Almagest and I can't instakill it either. My best strategy so far is to kill the back section with the Magic Lamp's Zanketsuken, and then Zeninage the shit out of everything else (my only attack that deals more damage than Zeninage on a single target is a critical hit from the ranger).

I had the same problem with some of my parties of yesteryear. One solution is to grind it out and get enough HP.

Hey wait. Doesn't Time Mage have Return? You could abuse that until you get Catoblepas to hit the part that casts Almagest. You might be able to get through the summons, and Return if needed, before he casts Almagest.

 

[Link Man]

Finally got 50 Dragon Fangs, should be ready to tackle the last part of the Rift now. This is probably the longest I've taken on a playthrough, but I did have to deal with a hard drive dying on me.

 

[antibolo]

I had the same problem with some of my parties of yesteryear. One solution is to grind it out and get enough HP.

Hey wait. Doesn't Time Mage have Return? You could abuse that until you get Catoblepas to hit the part that casts Almagest. You might be able to get through the summons, and Return if needed, before he casts Almagest.

If you cast Return during Neo ExDeath, do you have to fight the first form again?

 

[Ruuppa]

If you cast Return during Neo ExDeath, do you have to fight the first form again?

Been trying to find an answer, but no dice. Hopefully not, but possibly yes. Test it out.

 

[Barrylocke]

Beat the Red Dragon. Didn't even need to do anything fancy, just used Ice Rod charged Blizzara's until dead.

Atomos was easy thanks to the sleep spell. I imagine not having this trick would have made the fight a lot harder though. I remember him being hard, but barely beatable with my old WM/Summoner/Ninja/Dancer team.

I'm now in the Great Forest of Moore. I chose the Aegis Shield, and now i'm up against the Crystals. Thanks to Air Knife'd Aeroga power, I'm not anticipating a tough fight, but we'll see.

 

[Ourobolus]

I'm now in the Great Forest of Moore. I chose the Aegis Shield, and now i'm up against the Crystals. Thanks to Air Knife'd Aeroga power, I'm not anticipating a tough fight, but we'll see.

Do you have a Death Sickle for your Berserker? It'll work on 'em.

EDIT: I see that you do.

 

[Heropon]

Final run of the year completed. As it can be seen, this team was pretty much easy mode with three top tier jobs and Geomancer, that while not as good as the others had it's chance to shine thanks to all those areas with Wind Slash and total Minotaur domination in the Fork Tower.

Neo Exdeath only did physical damage because the Grand Cross part kept saying "The laws of the universe mean nothing" and not casting it. I don't know what causes that but it meant that no one catched nasty status effects so it was a smashing success.

 

[HiddenWings]

Final run of the year completed. As it can be seen, this team was pretty much easy mode with three top tier jobs and Geomancer, that while not as good as the others had it's chance to shine thanks to all those areas with Wind Slash and total Minotaur domination in the Fork Tower.

Neo Exdeath only did physical damage because the Grand Cross part kept saying "The laws of the universe mean nothing" and not casting it. I don't know what causes that but it meant that no one catched nasty status effects so it was a smashing success.

The pattern will reset if you kill a section. I had that experience the last time I had Time Mage, where that part would talk about the laws of the universe, a different section would die, and it would never get around to actually casting Grand Cross.

 

[Ruuppa]

So Leviathan was the last boss I was gonna do outside of the Void. Easy enough with Coral Rings. Which I had a single one. But Focus-firing Thundaga Blades with Chicken Knife did 9999 a pop, so one was all that was needed.

Off to the Void I go!
Calofisteri was extremely easy. For some reason she only used Poison. Oh well, three Flareblades to the face did her in.

Apanda had a case of Firagablade.

Azulmagia couldn't handle the Flareblade. Nor the Reflect.

Catastrophe was super..

Fun.

I had no access to Float on my characters, and his Earth Shaker did double my max HP, so clearly I had to do something sneaky.
So I got out of the Void and confused this little guy with some impromptu Tango, who promptly Mighty Guarded me.

Then I had to run all the way back to Catastrophe without Cottage/Tent/Healing Urns, and without dying. Flee was great!
Until Omega tripped me.

Lucky there was a savepoint right next to him, so I could just sneak past him and smash Catastrophe in with no fear.

Halicarnassus was easy as usual. Fun fact: A Mystic Knight with a Chicken Knife and Hermes Boots will hit with Focus nearly as fast as with a normal attack.

Twintania took some strategy. And by that I mean wearing an Ice Shield and a Coral Ring, and then waiting for him to drop his guard and Breaking him.

Gilgamesh! Wassap, my man?

This fight was horrifying. I think it took around.. 20 tries? Most of them ending when I couldn't pull a quick Phoenix Down off, or if I couldn't block with Aegis Shield. I did manage to get favourable RNG eventually, but I wouldn't want to do that again. Maybe I should have just skipped him, but ehn.

Going to ExDeath with single-digit Phoenix Downs doesn't sound fun, so I have to backtrack to restock, but I should be able to finish the game next time I go into it. Doing Omega and Shinryuu isn't really in my plans, even if there's a sneaky strat to do them with my team. Phoenix Tower.. Nah, too many forced battles.

 

[Barrylocke]

Ok, one thing that's always bothered me...

Is that glasses glare, or is that actually that white line actually his eyes?

 

[antibolo]

Ok, one thing that's always bothered me...

Is that glasses glare, or is that actually that white line actually his eyes?

He's Batman.

 

[Ruuppa]

He's Batman.

Or Leonardo.

 

[Tybolt]

This is kind of a left-field question but I don't know anywhere else where I can ask people actively playing FF5:

For those of you playing the PSN/PS Classic version, is the digital manual the hybrid 5 and 6 one (which seems super unlikely, but I just have to ask), just the parts from 5, or maybe a custom-made digital manual? I had the anthology a long time ago but lost the both manual and the disc for 5 in a bad borrow back in the day and I'd love to have it back in some form or another.

 

[Barrylocke]

Wait, I know you're half joking, but are you saying those are eye masks and not cool blue glasses?

...I don't know how I feel about that...

 

[Tybolt]

I think it's like Batman/TMNT masks.

 

[Barrylocke]

Crystals were indeed doable with Air Knife Aeroga power. Softened them all up and then took them out one at a time. One wound up getting Death Sickle'd in the process. The air crystal was fought with Flamethrower, Aqua Breath, and good ol' fashioned Beserkin.

RIP Galuf...


Exdeath was a tough cookie of course. My primary mode of damage was more Air Knife Aeroga, which did between 1000 and 1800 damage depending on who used it. My choice of an Aegis Shield seemed wise because a LOT of magic got blocked with it. Protect helped a little, but with all the hard hits and Exdeath knowing Dispel, it had its limits. It took a few tries, but we're moving on to the third act.

 

[Ruuppa]

Aaand done.
Took a bit longer than usual, so no second run this year.

Magic Lamp and Break Blade took out two parts, and Flareblade with Focus did 5000 damage a pop, so it wasn't overly hard. Still managed to wipe twice when I miscalculated the damage between the two last parts and Meteor OHKO'd me.

Last stats:

My first sub-20 game, woo! If I'd only have gotten Mystic Knight earlier than the very last Crystal it would have been so much easier..

Gg everyone, now the wait for next year's run begins.

Ps: I never knew the game had multiple endings! It's the first time I had someone K.O'd at the end of the fight, so was pretty surprised by that.

 

[Barrylocke]

The Pyramid of Moore was harder than I thought, especially those damned Damneds in the boxes. On the other hand, there was a lot of treasure in there that I really appreciated. Gaia Hammer, Black and White Robes, Black Garb, Gold Hairpin, and Protect Ring are all seeing some love now.

Got the first tablet, beat Melusine on the first try, and saved Lenna. I chose the Assassin's Dagger (anyone can use it), the Rune Axe for my Beserker, which I may pair with Blue Magic for a boost, and the Magus Rod. Unfortunately, the Magus Rod is weaker than the Air Dagger, and Wind Magic is really the only elemental spell I've been using, so that one might be a wash unless I put my Blue Mage in the back row. I suppose the Sage's Staff would be useful, but nothing else for my Blue Mage/Thief/Red Mage/Beserker team. I'm currently parked outside of the Sealed Castle, deciding on if I REALLY want to do all of the tablet stuff now. I might just do what's applicable (Chicken Knife, maybe visit dungeons with useful stuff) and blow it off for the Rift. As much fun as I'm having with this, I need to get back to Trails in the Sky

 

[Link Man]

Finally finished my 3rd run.

Pretty easy with this team.

 

[Barrylocke]

I went for the 2nd Tablet, at the Island Shrine. Wendigo was pretty easy, just guess until you hit the right one. He had no real chance of killing the team. Got the Sage Staff, and I think the Masamune and Yoichi's Bow. I already have all of the items that I can use from the Sealed Castle, so at this point any Tablet runs are for loot, exp/ap/gold, and Runs to tack onto my Chicken Knife.

 

[JC Lately]

Fuck, how did I forget about this again?! Third year in a row!

11 days left and I stopped at the Fire Ship? No way I'm going to make it.
Ok, going to need some help. Current party is two white mages and two time mages. About to start the escape sequences at Karnak Castle. Are there any treasures I absolutely must get? Running low on rods to break and my damage output is somewhat limited to flails and Gravity, so battles are going to eat up time something fierce.

 

[Kaelin]

Nothing is really necessary. Esuna is definitely not important, because you can buy it before you fight the canons (3000 gil, I believe). For optional items you might care about:

The Ribbon is very handy if you get a Dancer, as you won't get more until world 3. You have a 1/4 shot of getting the Dancer job if you're playing a regular fiesta. It's not far off the path, but you will have to suffer through a monster attack. You will eventually be able to get more, though, and enough for your entire party (including a fourth if you really want it via Thief Knife steal), but it's a huge help for a Dancer mid-game, who will otherwise lag normally until scoring a Rainbow Dress (for Sword Dance boosting).

Elven Cloak is hard to get extra copies of (there are three that are "easy," including one in Karnak). It's not a required item, but it's nice until you're messing with Flame Rings and the like instead. Normally it would be obsoleted in world 3 by Hermes Sandals, but Time Mage can eliminate the need for those accessories, still potentially giving Elven Cloak a niche (although you likely prefer Flame Rings for Neo Exdeath).

Main Gauche is nice (dodge chance, potentially useful for a Time Mage) but definitely not required (you can get another in world 2 if you want one for your Time Mage eventually). Like the Elven Cloak, it is a little out of the way.

 

[WilyRook]

I want to marathon through the rest of my play-through before the week is out. I have 2 Knights, a Thief, and a Black Mage. I'm up to Drakenvale. What would be the most likely snags for this party during the rest of the game? Or can I pretty much crush everything with pure might and magic? I've beaten it before, normally, but that was...a really long time ago. The only thing I think I remember about fighting the last boss was throwing a lot of money at it until it went away. Alas...

 

[chaosblade]

I want to marathon through the rest of my play-through before the week is out. I have 2 Knights, a Thief, and a Black Mage. I'm up to Drakenvale. What would be the most likely snags for this party during the rest of the game? Or can I pretty much crush everything with pure might and magic? I've beaten it before, normally, but that was...a really long time ago. The only thing I think I remember about fighting the last boss was throwing a lot of money at it until it went away. Alas...

You should be fine, all those jobs are basically varying degrees of awesome and you've got a good physical and magic damage output. Plus the black statuses can be useful.

Take advantage of the Magic Lamp and Break against the final boss and it should be easy.

 

[WilyRook]

You should be fine, all those jobs are basically varying degrees of awesome and you've got a good physical and magic damage output. Plus the black statuses can be useful.

Take advantage of the Magic Lamp and Break against the final boss and it should be easy.

Sounds good. Thanks, I don't even remember the Magic Lamp. Wiki says it's in Istory Falls so I can definitely get that.

 

[Barrylocke]

Wow, here I was getting a little worried because I have a week to do two of the tablets and the Rift, but looking at the last couple of posts (no offense), I feel a little better about procrastinating till August.

I decided that there were enough treasures in the last few tablet dungeons to make it worth it, so I went off to the Fork Tower. Climbing its easy, of course, and I grabbed all the loot. Only special thing is the Wonder Rod, which could possibly prove useful. Minotaur was fought by Beserker and Thief. Thief Krile basically chucked Hi Potions and occasionally attacked from the back row with the Rising Sun. Beserker Bartz had the Rune Axe powered up with Blue Magic for a better Magic stat. He did the majority of the damage here.

Omniscent was a bit of a luck battle for me. With the Tycoon sisters both equipped with Blue Magic and an Air Knife + Magus Rod for powering up Air, they were able to slug it out. The problem was that the -Aga spells at the end of the fight would guarantee a death and then the final attack Flare would finish the job. I gave Blue Mage Faris an Aegis Shield so she could block some hits. Eventually she lucked out and blocked the -agas so both party members could be alive for the final Flare. I'm now in the Great Sea Trench at the boss, although I suppose I don't actually need to fight it. I may just find the Flame Ring and get out of there.

 

[Chris R]

I need to go shopping to buy a ton of potions to deal with the stupid lava tiles in Exdeath's Castle

 

[Barrylocke]

After I remembered/looked up that you can kill the Great Sea Trench bosses with Zantetsuken from the Magic Lamp, I went with it for the AP. I'm currently in the Stingray area, trying to trick one into teaching me Big Guard. I'm in a fight with one and I've managed to land confuse a few times, but he keeps knocking himself out of confusion instead of Big Guarding. Is it even possible for him to use the move on his own, or do I have to Control him (which means I'm screwed for this ability)?

EDIT: Nevermind, I just got it. Let it be known that you CAN Confuse the Stingray into Mighty Guarding you. Got a Rune Blade too, and since it's apparently not a Knightsword, that could be useful.

 

[Chris R]

I'll make it yet.

Act 2 done, had to bust out a calculator though to get my Carbanuckle timing just right and equip everyone with throw gil.

 

[WilyRook]

Legendary weapons acquired. Entering the Rift. ;_; (I suspect a hasty retreat followed by manic grinding) What a great game. I'm looking forward to doing a normal run to mess with all the jobs again. Anyway, hopefully #victory soonish.

 

[Barrylocke]

I'm at the final save point. I tried fighting Neo Exdeath once and got smashed, though it was without real strategy (didn't even know which part did which attack). I might have to consider retreating because I forgot to refill my Magic Lamp, but with a Thief, I should be able to jet back out of the Rift pretty easily. I've got a little over 2 days left to finish this run, but I think I should be fine.

 

[Chris R]

Two tablets down, thinking I might skip the others.

At least I found a nice place to grind.

 

[Barrylocke]

Not having a Dancer like last year is really reminding me why Grand Cross is such a sucky move to be hit by. TBH, Almagest isn't that annoying in comparison thanks to Mighty Guard. All the same, I feel like I may want to level up more (my team is around Level 35) just so I can have more survival power. I'm also really thinking I should go for that Magic Lamp refill. I think the best plan would be to try to take out the Grand Cross, Almagest, and Physical parts in that order, and then finish it off with the Lamps Odin.

I also need to decide if Artful Dodger or !Blue is better for a Beserker with a Rune Axe. The boost to power due to !Blue's magic increase seems to be pretty close to the extra hits with Artful Dodger.

This Beserker/Red Mage/Blue Mage/Thief party is really making me miss my Dual Weilding Swords Dance Ninja, my supercharged Syldra summon, and the ability to heal no matter the hp level and even do damage while reviving.

 

[Zero-Crescent]

WM/MysKn/Monk/Sam random run almost done. 4 tablets down, Fork Tower complete. Did some grinding in the Phoenix Tower for Reflect Rings and Hermes Sandals, along with the Magic Pot bonuses. Just need to go through the Rift and I'm done.

Playing through without Bard this year really made me realize how much I relied on !Sing the previous years. Last year, I could plow through battles by constantly using Romeo's Ballad and/or Alluring Air on all of the enemy mobs (and Requiem for the Undead mobs). This year, if I want to confuse enemies I have to do it one-by-one, using MP each time. At least I have the Samurai's !Iainuki ability again; that made the Phoenix Tower mobs a non-threat when I got a pair of Hermes Sandals.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

Done. I had to turn battle speed down to 5 for Exdeath and Twintania though.

Exdeath was crazy at battle speed 1, by the time I had sorted out one white hole another one had been cast...this was with haste (via Hermes sandles), I did managed to get to Neoexdeath at that speed and died pretty quickly.

In the name of time I had to resort to battle speed 5...of course the emulator decided to crash during neo exdeath so another attempt was needed.

Had I lacked white mage it would have been a different story. Black mage was the damage powerhouse in the end though (haste monk was too weak and kaiser monk was too slow, even then kaiser monk was doing the same as one black mage cast).

As for Fork tower. Flare isn't that useful with Magus Rod (you out damage flare most of the time with -aga spells), Holy was great but there very few moments to use it.

Magic Lamp with Magus rod was good though (of course it would be better with that geomancer bell...).

 

[Mazre]

Slacked off really badly this year. Got to the void and lost all motivation. Spent like a month at Twintania and finally sat down and pushed through the end. Team was super fragile this year, BLM, BST, zerker, and dancer, used flame rings except for exdeath where I popped on hermes sandals for everyone and just burned him down.

This year has certainly cemented beastmaster as my least favorite fire crystal job. I know they can drop a lot of damage but I honestly feel like they're more trouble than they're worth, having a zerker along doesn't help, even so capture can be a pain with a lot of parties. Outside of that they don't have much in the way of upshot.

 

[Chris R]

I'll be to the void here in an hour or so... Eastern Falls and Phoenix tower left. Tried grinding out stolen Coral Rings but that got old quick so I just sold the ~20 rainbow dresses and bought them instead. If I need $$$ to toss I'll farm the dots at the end of the game.

 

[HiddenWings]

I finished my first run early and slacked off on the second, but that's now done as well.

Melusine was the only boss that game me anything in the way of problems, because I always forget that she's immune to wind. Exdeath went down to Meteor/Holy spam, reminding me what Time Mages are actually good for.

 

[Zero-Crescent]

#Victory!

My party was able to steamroll through most of the Rift. Even Necrophobe didn't pose much of a threat thanks to White Mage Krile's Sage Staff-enhanced Holy.

Before the battle, I equipped Samurai Faris with a Chicken Knife and the !Spellblade ability. That way, she and Mystic Knight Bartz could take turns using !Spellblade Osmose on Exdeath, reducing his MP down to 0. This is done both to make Exdeath utterly defenseless and to allow White Mage Krile and Lenna the Monk to buff everyone with Protect/Shell/Blink. Bartz, Krile, and Faris were equipped with Hermes Sandals to ensure that they got more turns in. When Exdeath's MP was gone, I switched Bartz to !Spellblade Break (to prepare for the next battle) and equipped the Masamune on Faris.

Neo Exdeath didn't pose too much of a threat. First, I used Magic Lamp a few times, until it got down to Odin, which took out the part that was weak to Zantetsuken. Then, I used the !Spellblade Break I prepared beforehand to kill the part that's weak to Petrify, and switched Bartz to !Spellblade Flare. From there, it was a matter of Faris using !Zenigane, Krile using Holy, Lenna using Kaiser Knuckle-enhanced punches, and Bartz hitting with Flare blade. When the Dragon part fell, the last part of Neo Exdeath managed to get off a Meteor, which killed Faris and Lenna, but 2 quick Arises got the party back on its feet. From there, Neo Exdeath just used physical attacks, while I decided to go with the aforementioned all-out onslaught to eliminate the last part.

Finished!

I doubt I'll go after Shinryu and Omega this year. I don't feel safe confronting them without my Bards.

 

[HiddenWings]

I doubt I'll go after Shinryu and Omega this year. I don't feel safe confronting them without my Bards.

You should at least do shinryu, because white mage makes it an auto-win. Berserk on Shinryu, blink on your party members, watch as he flails ineffectually at your entire party.

 

[Chris R]

Phoenix tower and then the void. Those rings made the Leviathan fight too easy

 

[Zero-Crescent]

You should at least do shinryu, because white mage makes it an auto-win. Berserk on Shinryu, blink on your party members, watch as he flails ineffectually at your entire party.

Thanks, good point. I forgot that I could Berserk and Blink pretty quickly with the sandals. Sure enough...

#VictoryShinryu

Berserk, Blinkx4, !Spellblade Flare, Masamune, Kaiser Punches, keep up the Blink. Took down Shinryu without much of a problem once the Blinks were up. (Though I had to fight him two times; in the first battle, I made the dumb mistake of casting Dispel on Shinryu, removing Berserk, and he countered with a party-wiping Tidal Wave)

 

[WilyRook]

The End

I guess the fourth time was the charm after all.

 

[zashga]

Finished. My party was stronger this year (thanks summoner!), but I got a late start and hit a motivation wall once I hit the rift. Whatever... this makes four in a row! Also, I think it's safe to say that FF5 is now my most played game in the series.

 

[antibolo]

Finally, on the morning of the very last day, I gave it another shot, and won on the second try.

I continued casting magic lamp until I got Golem, whose physical protection saved my ass every time I was scrambling to revive and heal everyone after Almagest one hit killed everyone except my samurai.

That was fun. Will definitely play again with different classes next year.

 

[transience]

I was racing to finish today but my son came over to my computer and loaded an old save state which wiped out my save. I was at the Pyramid too, argh!

Here's my haul this year:

 

[JC Lately]

Failed to make it again. Fourth year in a row. Never even got the last two jobs

[Dr. Claw voice] I’ll get you next time, Four Job Fiesta! Next Time![/Dr. Claw voice]

 

[Chris R]

Bosses falling left and right. I think I'll be good to beat this before MIDNIGHT my time

 

[Mman235]

A little late now but I thought I'd post my victories here:

My first run was classic with White Mage/Thief/Black Mage/Knight:





...Yeah, I basically hit the jackpot on a no-redundancy classic party, even if the unlock order was slightly awkward; there's probably some classic parties with redundancies that technically have more overall survival power and brute force, but none with the overall versatility of this. Outside of one or two small lapses in strength and the slow early game I pretty much walked over everything, including Neo-Exdeath. I was also able to go kill Shinryu easily due to image+berserk+Knight. I couldn't think of any easy ways to beat Omega though so I didn't bother.

Second time I decided to try a no 750 party and got Monk/Mystic Knight/Beastmaster/Samurai:





Mystic Knight and Samurai held this run together and made it mostly smooth, plus I got Monk at the best time I could so at least I got full use out of that class before it's strength dropped off. Beastmaster had it's moments but I admit I didn't make much use of it's abilities, but the other two non-Monks were good enough for it not to matter and Zeninage spam sorted out any potential endgame brick walls. Neo-Exdeath? LOL Between Break Blade, Magic Lamp and Zeninage it didn't even get the chance to use any of it's nastier attacks. Due to Calm+Spellblade I was also able to kill Omega pretty easily. This time I couldn't think of any good Shinryu strategy (although I imagine there's some Beastmaster releases that could do it), so I didn't try.

 

[Man God]

Going to beat the game TWICE tonight.