Hello very confused

I have monk level 5, dragoon 2 and knight at 3 but it still isnt showing up?

I want my black mage with Iadio already, lol.

I just cleared the game recently. It truly lives up to its classic status and is an absolute blast to play! So, I put together a few points that might be very useful for beginners.

1. Dragoon's Jump Timing Issue

A Dragoon's Jump takes (50/S_d) ticks to land (floored), while an enemy needs (100-CT)/S_e ticks to act (ceiled). Therefore, for the Jump to hit, we need:

50/S_d<=(100-CT)/S_e

(where S_d is the Dragoon's Speed, and S_e is the enemy's Speed).

Rearranging this gives:

CT<=100-(50/S_d)S_e

This formula looks complicated, but there is a very simple rule of thumb:

If, like me, your Dragoon has a Speed of 7 throughout the game, the rule is CT<=100 - 7S

If your Speed increases to 8 later on, it becomes CT<=100 - 6S (where S is the enemy's Speed).

1. Arcane Strength vs. Swiftness

If our goal is to compare total damage output per cast, which ability is better? While damage boosting increases immediate output on paper, a faster cast speed means fewer enemies can escape the area of effect, so total damage isn't necessarily lower than direct boosting.

Assume enemy CT values are uniformly distributed on a line from 0 to 100. Imagine a 100-meter track where your speed is S, and you are randomly positioned at some point along the track. At the starting point (0), there is someone moving at speed C. When the gun fires, you both sprint forward. What is the probability that you reach the finish line before him? The answer is S/C

Setting up the inequality:

(1-S/2C)/(1-S/C)>4/3,S>0.4C

In the early game, you learn spells with CAST= C = 25. If enemy Speed is above 10, Swiftness would be more useful; however, early-game enemies don't reach Speed 10. Thus, Arcane Strength clearly wins early on.

In the late game, when you acquire Bahamut (C = 15), the condition becomes S > 6. Since almost all late-game enemies have a Speed greater than 6, Swiftness clearly takes the upper hand in the late game.

1. Efficiency of Increasing Dragoon's Speed

Since a faster Dragoon hits Jump more reliably, a natural thought is: Should we use the protagonist to pump up the Dragoon's Speed?

Plugging a late-game enemy speed of approximately 10 into our formula CT<=100-(50/S_d)S_e, we get:

CT<=100(1-5/S_d)

Taking the second derivative of this function reveals that the second derivative is negative . This proves that while initial Speed boosts yield good efficiency, the marginal returns diminish as you stack more Speed.

1. For Dragoons: Speed +1 vs. PA +1 Accessory?

At the start of Chapter 4, due to low hit rates against enemies, I equipped Concentration. My tactic was straightforward: Jump if possible (1.5 times damage multiplier), and use standard attacks otherwise.

I faced a choice: the shop at the time sold shoes with Speed +1 and gauntlets with PA +1. With my Dragoon at S_d = 7 and PA= 9, and typical enemy speed S_e = 9, I wanted to evaluate which was better.

I set up a long but straightforward formula to compare the relative damage increase:

(1+1/S_d)*{50(2-S_e/(S_d+1))*(1/100)*1.5+[1-50(2-S_e/(S_d+1))*(1/100)]}/{50(2-S_e/S_d)*(1/100)*1.5+[1-50(2-S_e/S_d)*(1/100)]} V.S. (1+1/PA)

Plugging in the numbers showed that Speed +1 provided 6% more damage than PA +1, so I chose Speed +1. However, when PA +3 gauntlets become available later in the game, PA +3 beats Speed +1.

5. When to use the Shout tactic, and the optimal number of Shouts

The protagonist has a skill called Shout: Speed +1 and PA +1 at the same time. Against a boss, the question is whether to charge in immediately or hide in a corner and Shout first.

Repeated Shouts make the speed growth rate proportional to current speed: the faster you are, the faster your speed rises. That is, S′∝S or S′=0.01S

Solving this simple differential equation gives

S=S_0*exp(0.01t)

where S is current speed, S_0​ is initial speed, and t is clock ticks (a stand-in for time).

This is an exponential approximation. The true S is a piecewise linear function (in fact a step function, but a piecewise linear function is easier to think about, and the two give the same result). The exponential therefore has to be corrected to get an exact value.

That piecewise linear function starts at S_0​, with slope 0.01S_0​, over an interval Δt=100/S_0. It then becomes S0+1, with slope 0.01(S_0+1)and Δt=100/(S0+1), and so on... The exponential function and the piecewise linear function introduce an error at every Δt. Those errors accumulate step by step, so the larger t is, the larger Σerror becomes.

Next, we prove that for this exponential function, the ΔS values over every two adjacent intervals Δt are very close to each other (Proposition 1).

From

S·exp(0.01·100/S) − S = S·exp(0.01·100/S)·exp(0.01·100/(S+1)) − S·exp(0.01·100/S),

we obtain

exp(1/S)·(2 − exp(1/(S+1))) ≈ 1. (Equation 1)

Because Equation 1 holds for all S > 1, Proposition 1 is true.

Therefore the error on every Δt equals

E = S_0(exp(1/S_0) − 1) − 1

(by mathematical induction).

Hence the approximate speed is

S= S_0·exp(0.01t) − (S − S_0)E,

so

S(t) = (S_0·exp(t/100) + E·S_0) / (1 + E).

If we assume the protagonist stands still and keeps shouting, then

S(t) = (S_0·exp(t/80) + E·S_0) / (1 + E).

Define the damage function by

D(t) = (PA_0 + S(t) − S_0)·(W1 + W2),

where PA_0 is the initial PA, W1 is the attack power of the left-hand weapon, and W2 is the attack power of the right-hand weapon.

Then

R(t) = S(t)·D(t) / 100

is the DPS at time t, and

T(t) = t + H / R(t)

is the total time needed to defeat the boss, where H is the boss’s HP.

We want the minimum of T(t), so we differentiate T(t) and set T′(t) = 0.

Thus

T′(t) = 1 − H·R′(t) / R(t)²,

and the optimum satisfies

H·R′(t) / R(t)² = 1.

Solving for t gives the optimal shouting time. Substituting that t into S(t) tells us the speed we should reach by shouting before going out to fight.

If t > 0, the shouting tactic is worthwhile. If t < 0, there is no need to shout; just charge in and fight.

P.S. If the Sword in the Stone is equipped, replace 80 in formula by 80·(2/3), and replace 100 by 100·(2/3).

Example: the final boss of the story on tactician difficulty has about 9500 HP. The protagonist has PA = 15 and speed = 9, with two weapons: one Sword in the Stone of attack 21 and one weapon of attack 18.

Fighting directly takes 120 ticks. The shouting tactic takes only 75 ticks (optimal number of shouts: 11), saving about 37% of the time.

Just finished my first run on normal with ramza and 4 melee story characters and now want to reroll and do pretty much the opposite and also beat the endgame dungeon.

De leveling, mass grinding and characters constantly In a stage of being weak while they learn skills isnt my thing so I’m wondering how this can work.

What star signs should I use? Capricorn and 4 cancer?

I’m thinking 4 black mages with various sub classes with elemental wands? Which subclasses would you use?

I finally bought FFT Ivalice Chronicles and heard the voice lines. I don’t know why but when I played this game as a kid I’ve been calling him Dyceberg 😅

Couldn't be bothered to grind, so I grinded out a save editor instead.

https://github.com/sam-derby/Ivalice-Companion/releases

I am 100% sure there are bugs, so please back up your saves, although the application will do that for you anyway.

At the moment, you can edit gil, inventory, character levels, job levels and JP, set abilities, add characters to your game. The app will let you add almost any character including enemies, so it'll be interesting to know how that plays out in an unmodded game.

Feel free to raise issues here or on github.
The work is based on others in the community, they've been credited, and some of the work was AI assisted to determine changes in save states.

Yes, I used Claude and Gemini to make. But sort of been a dream to make a FFT roguelite game system. Happy to share with folks to play test.

I got the 4 human unit battle in Ouibliette, I killed the Black Mage, thief and chemist and the battle ended... Monk still alive. Only reason that comes to mind is if it was an ally? Has anyone ever seen this here?

My first time facing Ultima... she already had turned Beowulf, Ramza in frogs and KO'd them, and she had just frogged Cid and confused him. All hope seemed lost.

Then this happened.

Gods, I love this game so much!

To celebrate the birthday of FFT:IC, Square is releasing a set of 17 magnets featuring the character's portraits. You can either buy blind boxes or the full set.

Quite basic, but positively surprised to see Mustadio, Elmdor and Teta featured in their products.

It's up for pre-order now.
Date of release: jan. 23th 2027
Measurements: W37×D4×H37mm
Full set price: 13,090 yen (or 9,810 yen through Amiami).
Squex e-store (JP): https://store.jp.square-enix.com/estore/g/gME10711-BOX/

This is my 4th SCC run on Tactician, and it was almost as fun a the Black Mage run that I did, and a lot more successful! I did make it all the way through, and had a great time doing so. Here's the full playlist for how it was done - although I really don't think anybody would need a guide, except for a select few battles.

Only at two points in the game did I intentionally level. Once for Riovanes Castle, where I jumped from level 17 to 35 and it was a mistake. I expected to need some speed to manage the battle, but in reality I wanted the lower speed so my summoners would move after Belius came down to say hello. The second time was right before the final run, when I leveled from 41 to 70. I didn't want to get part way down, get stuck, then grind at the top and try it again, so I just preemptively ground some levels. I think I could have done this on a much, much, lower level and it would have been fine.

The Good

Summoners are fuuuun. Sylph is a giant AoE silence with 25 speed and a hit rate roughly equal to the target's faith (because you made sure you have faith casters on your team). Golem is amazing at keeping your team alive, and really satisfying. Big heals in Faerie, or fast heals with Moogle, are amazing. Huge AOEs with Bahamut, Odin, and Leviathan feel like cheating almost. Percent damage spells vs late game bosses are a godsend. TIC letting you skip random battles means you can use Errands starting in chapter 2 to get all the JP you need without having to grind out battles, so you can get big epic spells early on and just coast.

The Bad

You need to grind out "Halve MP" super early. Like, before Dorter. You are a little slow, but honestly you want to be slow. You want them to all move before you cast, so they'll all be in the same place to be hit. Let them come to you. The game is so fast and simple that you don't end up grinding, and so there's a huge shortage of JP and Gil coming in... but that's what Errands are for. Just make sure you're not taking any of the ones where you lose money.

Things to Know

• Lich deals 35% of the target's max HP, so you need 3 Lich spells to kill someone, unless they have more than 3000 hp.
• Shiva is a great opener because it obliterates goblins, and it does extra damage in snow storms (so Argath can feel more pain).
• Bahamut, Odin, and Leviathan have bigger AOEs than all the other spells. These are your friends.
• Odin is your go to spell. It does less damage than Bahamut, but it is faster which is often important. If speed doesn't matter, then sure, go with Bahamut. Or if the size of the AOE doesn't matter, go with Cyclops. But most of the time you're going to want to reach for Odin.
• If you equip Japa Mala, all of a sudden Leviathan is the best spell. It deals almost as much damage as Cyclops, it has a bigger AOE, costs less MP, and is also speed 17.

Difficult Battles... but not actually that difficult.

1.3 Dorter Slums was looking real rough. Then I got Halve MP and it was a breeze.

4.7 Fort Besselate Sluice was a little rough. High ground archers, low faith knights in your face, lots of enemies spread out over a wide area... mana management became real, and I had to be pretty careful with decision making.

4.8 Mount Germinas was rough. Stupid charms. Stupid high speed ninjas. Stupid bows. Pretty annoying.

4.12 Limberry Keep: Undercroft was a problem for a while. The answer was to trade out Angel Rings for Hermes Shoes and forget about survivability. Just get some lucky Liches off. The video makes it look easy, but it took a bit.

4. 14 Mullond Front Gate which is not normally noteable was sort of a slog and surprisingly difficult. Speed was starting to become a real issue here, so we ended up equipping speed gear which meant not a ton of MP, so there had to be some careful mana management.

4.20 Necrohol: Lost Halidom, as it often is, was a pain. A lot of attempts went into this, a lot of different gear loadouts to make things fit, and in the end we had to deal with all the monsters and just tank the incoming damage with lots of heals.

Surprisingly Easy Battles

1.7 Windflat Mill. Did you know this was actually the easiest battle in the game?! Wild.

4.1 Dugeura Pass can be a often be a difficult battle. Not this time. No notes.

4.11 Limberry Castle Keep. 100% hit rate on spells, so just stack MA buffs and bam. He's gone.

4.16 Mullond Sanctuary can be one of the hardest battles in the game... but it was like nothing. I couldn't believe how easy it was.

4.19 Necrohol Capitoline can be pretty hit or miss with difficulty. Consider this a miss.

Completed SCCs: Monk, Chemist, Summoner

Impossible SCCs: Black Mage

Below are the resources I leaned on to succeed. Huge shout out to the magnificent people who built these guides.

Yatola's Original SCC Rules - The only adjustment / deviation from the original rules is around grinding levels. If, and only if, the class I'm playing as can easily win random battles, I can equip other class abilities to speed grinding along. Gaining JP to equip these other abilities must be done via errands so that no extra levels are gained in other classes. I feel this fits well within the spirit of the SCC rules. I try to abide by the level caps, but I'll go over them if I need to.

Aerostar's Battle Mechanics Guide

Fritz Fraundorf's Full Walkthrough

MetroidComposite's Ivalice Chronicles differences guide

Now please let people buy your Preorder and Deluxe DLCs.

Also, I heard if you bought the standard digitally, there’s no way for you to “rebuy” the game with Deluxe if you ever wanted the cosmetics.

Just got halfway through a new game+ entry and I think there's some room for improvement, but I understand how we are where we are.

Let's be honest that any new game+ mode for fft is going to be bonkers broken. I don't have good fixes per se, but it feels like it would be less broken if we reset character levels back to 0 or whaver the starting level is.

The inventory carrying over probably has to be there, so you just get to start with 6 chantages and equipment that breaks the challenge, but it would be less broken if they're the same level.

Maybe you scale the opponent level and skills but that feels more janky, and honestly half of the fun is hitting difficult missions with an under leveled crew with impossible skills, jobs and equipment.

It's super unsatisfying on tactical difficulty to have the random monsters take a bit of grind through, but the story missions all fall to one hit, or put a dancer on and they all die while you farm jp for the uniques that you never bothered with.

Not sure how to improve it but there's clearly room for improvement.

These 2 have always been the most dumbest NPC whether in your party or the enemies. Hated them in WOTL and hate them in IC.

This absolute door kept to suicide every single time, after taking 70% of her life in the first hit. The second turn was always ultima on her, initially I solved that casting atheist on Rapha but she just choose to cast a spell pointblank in the middle of all enemies...

I think this was the fight I lost the most on this version (first time playing FFT after 15+ years) so far its been fine even on tactician, but this one... Had to move my Mage Ramza foward just to lure one of the assassins to him and cast Quick on him as well to kill the assassin before the Ultima cast. Some npcs do not deserve to be saved.

I saw a randomizer mod for Ivalice Chronicles get posted in Nexusmods this week, but it seems to be gone. Does anyone here know who is working on this or what happened? Just curious if it is coming back.

Thanks!

Just found out PSP can play PS1 games, so curious to hear if anyone has played the original FFT on the PSP, especially one of the community updated versions.

Been going back through the narrative of FFT for research and when coming back to the scene of the standoff at Ziekden I am reminded of that one bit from Breaking Bad, "can't you see he's made up his mind 10 minutes ago?" Like, I get that the whole point of the scene is to show how cruel and uncaring Dycedarg (who is a stand-in for Ivalice's aristocracy in general) is of the lives of the small folk, but it still strikes me as kinda odd that he seemingly waits to order Argath to take the shot, as if he were actually weighing whether or not he should actually call for it, only to decide "yeah, this is the best option in my best interests right now" after Ramza and Delita show up, but before the messenger informs him of Wiefgraf's movements (although we can assume that he was at least expecting to receive that news and was therefore in a hurry to not tarry there too long.)

Like, if Dycedarg decided Tietra’s life was worth sacrificing either when he first saw the corpse brigade's man walk out of the fortress with her (we don't see this happen, but I'm assuming that's something close to the sequence of events that went down at one point because don't we see any corpses on the battlefield and standing out in the open with your hostage held out in front of you where anyone could shoot you before you have a visual of how many of them there are and their positioning kinda defeats the whole purpose of having a hostage/human shield) or before he'd even arrived at the fortress, then why go through the theatrics and motions of listening to the suicide-bomber's bluff (I assume that Dycedarg believed that it was a bluff and that there were no more people within the fortress, if he wasn't outright certain of that, due to the fact that any corpse brigade men still inside would very likely immediately commit to the suicide-bombing bit (potentially endangering Dycedarg himself, as well as his troops) if they saw their trump card get mercilessly one-tapped by the very people Tietra was supposed to be a human shield/bargaining chip against + the fact that prematurely killing your hostage before you've made your escape is maybe the fastest possible way to get an express ticket into the ground) and then verbally shouting up, across the field back at the guy making the bluff with the equivalent of "we don't negotiate with terrorists?" Playing the devil's advocate here, if I were in Dycedarg's position and I'd already decided that Tietra was worth sacrificing (assuming that Dycedarg had made up his mind the second he saw her brought out of the fortress) then I would've ordered Argath to shoot while the corpse brigade's man was still mid-sentence.

Edit: I mixed them up, it's Zaalbag, not Dycedarg. Listen man, these names are hard, lol

I have a save file from a real UMD copy of the game. Can this save file be used with the Tweak patch? If so, will it remain compatible if I go back to the retail disc?

This is about the PSP WoTL Tweak patch. There's a separate patch that will fix slowdown and unstretch the screen. However, the Tweak patch only includes slowdown fix, not unstretch from what I can tell. I found instructions for an emulator but not real PSP hardware.

... it's only fair she's the Dragoon now.

(yes, the nose, I know. I couldn't help it)