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You shouldn't have any trouble beating Fiegmund before he switches sides, as it's perfectly doable on console (although with only one/maybe two buffed characters the damage might not rack up as quickly).
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I'm not sure all that use of Desperado was technically optimal, particularly in the battles where the enemies have to die 'separately'. Might just be quicker to whack them once each with a physical.
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The Yellow Scarf can teach Zidane Bird Killer, which may be important if you want to try taking on Gizamaluke without Quina. An extra Feather Hat for Dagger might be useful as well, because I'm not sure you're given a chance to nick Marcus' before the Black Waltz 3 re-fight. Otherwise, it depends on what abilities you want to have, or what elements you want to boost/block later on in the game.
Would Gamble Defence be useful at all in a TAS? While I was checking up on item abilities I ran into this:
==============
Gamble Defence
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The characters Defence stat changes randomly when attacked between 0 and
Defence * 2.
You could completely lock out physical attacks by manipulating that, but I'm not sure if there are that many to worry about (or that you wouldn't just be able to use Distract).
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At the point where Quina is mandatory, Zidane will already have Lucky Seven, and from disc 3 onwards crits should be doing close to 9999 anyway. It'd be interesting to see if Burmecia/Cleyra could be done faster without Limit Glove in a TAS as well.
While I'm at it, Quina should be able to do at least 758 damage to the Earth Guardian, so that it can be taken out on Zidane's second turn.
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janus wrote:
indeed. So I have to try to make ryu even stronger (or get the damn goo king sword).
No I meant that you'd hit the stat cap of 999, which can only be further increased via Focus. And I was wrong - you can cast Might a second time to increase Ryu's Pwr further. Last Resort must stack in a different way; assuming that it's added after all other bonuses, Ryu's current Pwr after one Might comes out to 878, which sounds about right for the damage you're getting with Super Combo (I thought it was a bit low). A second Might should cap him out at 999 Pwr, and give Super Combo a flat damage of 7500 or so.
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Didn't you use it for Angler and the Ammonites as well?
It's a shame you couldn't quite manage 6666 per combo on Myria so that that last Focus wasn't needed, but I'm pretty sure your Pwr is maxed out. It's possible that a full double-Focus'd Super Combo and one regular one could take her out, maybe with an attack from Momo to help; if not, it could still be faster to have Ryu do that and then crit/use Risky Blow, because you won't have to sit through the long combo setup animation.
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He currently buys a Flare Sword in Urkan Tapa to help defeat the Dragon Zombie and Huge Slug more quickly later on.
If you get rid of the Claymore altogether, then Scylla, Charybdis and Gaist will absorb all damage you do to them, and Mikba will also take slightly less. If you can find a way to beat S/C with the Flare Sword (I guess you could just equip the Broad Sword, but the combo will take slightly longer), then you could try buying an AshurasSword in Syn City, but you would have to get it before Rei goes in and wrecks the place. It might just be faster to buy the Flare Sword in Urkan Tapa, but the AshurasSword is both slightly stronger and a lot less heavy than the Claymore, so it might save some extra time here and there before you leave on the Black Ship.
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Atma wrote:
Also, would killing one/both of Gaist's torches save time on their flare animations that you see 4-8 times?
Ryu isn't strong enough to take them out in one hit with the Claymore using Risky Blow, so he would have to wait until after using Last Resort to be able to remove them efficiently. Even then, the turn taken to remove one will mean an extra action from both Ryu and Gaist, so the time they take to cast Flare is probably deceptively short.
Like the avatar by the way :]
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You don't technically need to use Frost Strike on Manmo, although it does add a touch of variety. However, it is possible that the Thorn Warrior's Gambit won't be strong enough to off him in two hits, so you may want to test that first.
Ryu in the Trygon form (Flame+Frost+Thunder) should be able to take the souped-up Lava Men out in one Frost Breath, as there's no way to resist breath attacks in this game.
EDIT: Naturally the other thing to check is whether or not all that armor is needed, or those Wisdom Fruits; I don't think I saw you use one in the entire run.
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Oh my bad, I thought you meant you were still getting the IRT Kaiser. If it does end up being useful, Force+Thorn+Gross gives basically the same boost, if the Gross gene is faster to get.
Based on that Elder fight, I have to wonder if it's possible to take out both the Chimera and the Dragon Lord (w/Dragon Blade) in one Super Combo as well, although it may just end up being faster to spam Gambit. I think in future that Ivory Dice would be better saved for the Chimera fight.
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janus wrote:
damn. Thorn warrior kicks some serious @$$es! And according to a FAQ I'm using, its attack rate goes up 500%, compared to 400 (450?)% for the mighty, controllable infinity dragon.
I'm not sure about that... with that kind of boost you'd be hitting nearly 999 Pwr in Attack formation already. The guides I generally use give it as 260%. You may also want to test out the Myrmidon form when you get it (Force + Trance), as I'm pretty sure it gives the largest Pwr boost of any dragon in the game.
janus wrote:
Are there anymore lightning-weak monsters? If not, I will sell the babarossa and buy a piercing edge
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The WIP so far is looking pretty optimised. I'm glad that not-fishing turned out to be faster. Just one notable thing so far; in the Stallion fight, if you swipe Garr's Titan Belt right away and give it to Ryu, it should let you kill him purely in three criticals, or at least with only Garr having to attack once. Probably best to do it then anyway so that you don't forget again :P
From here on, I think you should keep Momo alive this time. Doing so should let her learn Speed in time for the Ammonite fight, and keeping her alive during that will let her learn Might, which you didn't get in the first WIP. It may also prove faster to keep the Claymore rather than spend the time getting the FeatherSword. The Frost gene is no longer necessary for the Gaist fight, so Force + Thorn should let you EX-turn him and do full damage with Gambit. Or you could try the Wildfire :D
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I'm still interested to see what kind of strategies and manipulation a TAS can allow for. If you do use slots, you could just as well end the TAS after you get it and give the final time because everything after that point will be exactly the same.
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Actually I was waiting until after the WIP was finished (have some other stuff to add) but w/e. Notes on the notes:
-Fighting Claw before beating the Dodai will lose a big chunk of time, and it's shaky whether or not the handful of extra enemy attacks it saves (in a TAS) will be worth it
-Can't get Flare Swords in Junk Town, and a lot of bosses through that part of the game are fire resistant/immune
-Use Aura on the Angler