That One Level/Video Games/Turn-Based Strategy: Difference between revisions
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* Chapter 13 in ''Shadow Dragon''. Shooters and their 3 to 10 range all but flood the map. They are at least immobile for the most part, so you can shake off the mobile enemies--which are few at all, and easily taken care of individually even on Hard 5--and then proceed to drain their ammo....except each of them has more than 5 shots and the sole Fort on the map is covered by most of the Shooters. Either that or relying on luck and [[Leap of Faith|the fact that the AI Shooters won't necessarily attack people in their range when recruitable characters like the one in this chapter will attack the very people who can recruit them regardless of reasoning]]. |
* Chapter 13 in ''Shadow Dragon''. Shooters and their 3 to 10 range all but flood the map. They are at least immobile for the most part, so you can shake off the mobile enemies--which are few at all, and easily taken care of individually even on Hard 5--and then proceed to drain their ammo....except each of them has more than 5 shots and the sole Fort on the map is covered by most of the Shooters. Either that or relying on luck and [[Leap of Faith|the fact that the AI Shooters won't necessarily attack people in their range when recruitable characters like the one in this chapter will attack the very people who can recruit them regardless of reasoning]]. |
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* ''Thracia 776'' is renowned for being [[Nintendo Hard]], and there are many different levels in this game that would easily qualify as [[That One Level]] in normal ''Fire Emblem'' games, but the one level that takes the cake is Chapter 22. Lots of high-leveled enemies that all have a boosted 30% accuracy and avoid thanks to a particular character on the map, status-inflicting staff users (in this game, long-range staffs can affect anyone on the map, and bad statuses ''do not wear off over time'') and lots of ballistas that are subject to the same accuracy/avoid boost that love to snipe your weaker characters off. Although it is very easy to simply cop out and use a Warp Staff to kill the boss and seize the castle on the first turn, one of the bosses, who has an army of ''very'' powerful soldiers protecting him, gives a very nice sword to someone [[Guide Dang It|if you have her talk to him.]] So, if you want that sword, or if you ran out of Warp Staves... godspeed, soldier. |
* ''Thracia 776'' is renowned for being [[Nintendo Hard]], and there are many different levels in this game that would easily qualify as [[That One Level]] in normal ''Fire Emblem'' games, but the one level that takes the cake is Chapter 22. Lots of high-leveled enemies that all have a boosted 30% accuracy and avoid thanks to a particular character on the map, status-inflicting staff users (in this game, long-range staffs can affect anyone on the map, and bad statuses ''do not wear off over time'') and lots of ballistas that are subject to the same accuracy/avoid boost that love to snipe your weaker characters off. Although it is very easy to simply cop out and use a Warp Staff to kill the boss and seize the castle on the first turn, one of the bosses, who has an army of ''very'' powerful soldiers protecting him, gives a very nice sword to someone [[Guide Dang It|if you have her talk to him.]] So, if you want that sword, or if you ran out of Warp Staves... godspeed, soldier. |
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** Chapter 17 on the east path (17A) will make you feel like you had gone with [[Honor Before Reason]] and wish you had been sneaky. The particular character in question is also in this chapter, and there's a bunch of Shooters and Meteo mages around the castle to keep you from getting in quickly enough. What's that? You'll take your time and avoid the distance bastards until you wipe out everything else? No you will not, you will get torn up by [[Magic Knight|Mage Knights]] and Poison spell Dark Mages up the wazoo. Poison itself is a nasty status effect here, averting [[Useless Useful Spell]]; it actually deals passable damage on each turn....or rather it would be JUST that if it ''didn't last indefinitely and the means for getting rid of it wasn't overly limited''. Worse, the bastards with the poison spell can teleport themselves with Rewarp Wands, and thanks to the hyper accuracy, they ''will'' hit and poison you even if you strike first, and no you will not [[One |
** Chapter 17 on the east path (17A) will make you feel like you had gone with [[Honor Before Reason]] and wish you had been sneaky. The particular character in question is also in this chapter, and there's a bunch of Shooters and Meteo mages around the castle to keep you from getting in quickly enough. What's that? You'll take your time and avoid the distance bastards until you wipe out everything else? No you will not, you will get torn up by [[Magic Knight|Mage Knights]] and Poison spell Dark Mages up the wazoo. Poison itself is a nasty status effect here, averting [[Useless Useful Spell]]; it actually deals passable damage on each turn....or rather it would be JUST that if it ''didn't last indefinitely and the means for getting rid of it wasn't overly limited''. Worse, the bastards with the poison spell can teleport themselves with Rewarp Wands, and thanks to the hyper accuracy, they ''will'' hit and poison you even if you strike first, and no you will not [[One-Hit Kill]] them unless you have a seriously overleveled character, and the hyper avoid makes it quite possible that a second character will have to attack and risk being counterattacked and poisoned. It's so bad that [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfu9PnzlUlM&fmt=18 MageKnight404 got upset having to deal with it and was relieved when the character finally left], and he has experienced Chapter 22. |
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** And those chapters actually pale in comparison to Chapter 24x. The whole chapter consists of a never ending swarm of berserkers with ridiculous [[Critical Hit|crit rates]] and the mentioned Dark Mages with the stupid Poison-inflicting tomes. |
** And those chapters actually pale in comparison to Chapter 24x. The whole chapter consists of a never ending swarm of berserkers with ridiculous [[Critical Hit|crit rates]] and the mentioned Dark Mages with the stupid Poison-inflicting tomes. |
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*** If that weren't bad enough, the map is full of invisible trap tiles that warp any unit unlucky enough to cross it to an ''inescapable room full of said enemies'' and the only way to get them out is to use a Rescue Staff to bring them to the staff's user... The problem is that particular staff only has three charges and there only 2-3 of them in the entire game, and you've likely used them up at this point and/or are saving them for the final chapter. And to make things worse, this is an escape chapter meaning your troops has to make it to the exit and leave before your Lord can, otherwise any units left behind will automatically be captured. And since 24x is AFTER the chapter you are able to break your captured units out of prison (Chpt 21x), anyone abandoned/captured here will be considered [[Final Death|DEAD]] at this point. |
*** If that weren't bad enough, the map is full of invisible trap tiles that warp any unit unlucky enough to cross it to an ''inescapable room full of said enemies'' and the only way to get them out is to use a Rescue Staff to bring them to the staff's user... The problem is that particular staff only has three charges and there only 2-3 of them in the entire game, and you've likely used them up at this point and/or are saving them for the final chapter. And to make things worse, this is an escape chapter meaning your troops has to make it to the exit and leave before your Lord can, otherwise any units left behind will automatically be captured. And since 24x is AFTER the chapter you are able to break your captured units out of prison (Chpt 21x), anyone abandoned/captured here will be considered [[Final Death|DEAD]] at this point. |
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** Even getting access to the chapter is a pain, due to the sheer amount of luck involved. In the previous chapter, you have to rescue children being pursued by those Dark Mages and carry the right child to a door who will unlock it, revealing a room with a chest that has the item required to unlock Chapter 24x, the problem with this task is that carrying another unit(even a child) cuts the unit's stats in half making attacking enemies very risky, the child who can unlock that door is totally random, this chapter is ''full'' of chapter-lasting [[Standard Status Effects]], and the children are far away from that room and you have to fight those Dark Mages for them. If one of them captures/kills the child you need, you are ''screwed''. |
** Even getting access to the chapter is a pain, due to the sheer amount of luck involved. In the previous chapter, you have to rescue children being pursued by those Dark Mages and carry the right child to a door who will unlock it, revealing a room with a chest that has the item required to unlock Chapter 24x, the problem with this task is that carrying another unit(even a child) cuts the unit's stats in half making attacking enemies very risky, the child who can unlock that door is totally random, this chapter is ''full'' of chapter-lasting [[Standard Status Effects]], and the children are far away from that room and you have to fight those Dark Mages for them. If one of them captures/kills the child you need, you are ''screwed''. |
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*** And going thru all this trouble gets you a few useless (at this point) items and the now crappy [[Jeigan Character|Jeigan you lost earlier]]. Which means the only reason to even go there is if the player is doing a [[Self |
*** And going thru all this trouble gets you a few useless (at this point) items and the now crappy [[Jeigan Character|Jeigan you lost earlier]]. Which means the only reason to even go there is if the player is doing a [[Self-Imposed Challenge|AAA or SSS Ranked Game]]. |
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** As one user on GameFAQs puts it: [http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/577344-fire-emblem-thracia-776/58428050/658107494 "People skip Ch 24x not just because it's not worth it; they skip it mostly for the] ''[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/577344-fire-emblem-thracia-776/58428050/658107494 sake of their own sanity."]'' |
** As one user on GameFAQs puts it: [http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/577344-fire-emblem-thracia-776/58428050/658107494 "People skip Ch 24x not just because it's not worth it; they skip it mostly for the] ''[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/577344-fire-emblem-thracia-776/58428050/658107494 sake of their own sanity."]'' |
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* ANY "Defend" mission if you actually defend, or attack in the wrong place, or send in the wrong units, or send in the wrong level units... Any defend mission. |
* ANY "Defend" mission if you actually defend, or attack in the wrong place, or send in the wrong units, or send in the wrong level units... Any defend mission. |
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== [[Nintendo Wars]] == |
== [[Nintendo Wars]] == |
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* The "Kanbei's Error?" mission of the original ''Advance Wars''. The normal Campaign version of it is quite easy, with the biggest challenge being ''if'' you're trying to unlock an optional series of missions that requires you to finish this mission and the two previous in a certain number of turns (and even that's not too hard). The Advance Campaign version, though, cranks the difficulty way, ''way'' up, making it borderline impossible to win without a day-by-day guide or ''lots'' of trial and error. |
* The "Kanbei's Error?" mission of the original ''Advance Wars''. The normal Campaign version of it is quite easy, with the biggest challenge being ''if'' you're trying to unlock an optional series of missions that requires you to finish this mission and the two previous in a certain number of turns (and even that's not too hard). The Advance Campaign version, though, cranks the difficulty way, ''way'' up, making it borderline impossible to win without a day-by-day guide or ''lots'' of trial and error. |
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** Unless you have a grasp on the [[Tactical Rock |
** Unless you have a grasp on the [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]], any naval-based Drake mission can be really frustrating. And even some of the land ones; in "Captain Drake", Andy has to capture X amount of cities before Drake does. Except Drake has more units than you to start with. Oh, and he already has infantry on the center island. And you have to make infantry from factories. And you have only one lander and no way to make more. And Drake has a submarine. And... |
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* ''[[Advance Wars]] Dual Strike'' has a number of levels that stray away from genuine challenge into [[Fake Difficulty]] and general annoyance: |
* ''[[Advance Wars]] Dual Strike'' has a number of levels that stray away from genuine challenge into [[Fake Difficulty]] and general annoyance: |
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** Crystal Calamity is the scrappiest of many teeth gnashing missions. Your first objective in the level is to fire off all nine Silos in the level whilst operating under a ''real time'' timer in an otherwise ''turn based'' game. The [[Timed Mission]] is one thing, but if the enemy secures even ONE Silo, you lose. What's worse than ''that'' is that if you spend too much time fighting and do too much damage to the enemy forces you charge their special moves, leading to the very definite possibility of an enemy tag break that grants Black Hole ''two'' turns for each unit meaning they'll almost certainly reach at least one silo. Talk about [[Fake Difficulty]]. Plus on [[Non Indicative Difficulty|Normal Campaign]], Black Hole could send the Black Bomb toward red team and [[Luck Based Mission|screw you over that way]] [[Character Select Forcing|if you didn't cheap out a Day 1 T-Copter]]. And it doesn't even end there, as there's a second objective once the first one is done, and if you mess up there, you have to ''repeat the whole thing again''. The level is so bad that [[Totally Flaked]] mocked it mercilessly. |
** Crystal Calamity is the scrappiest of many teeth gnashing missions. Your first objective in the level is to fire off all nine Silos in the level whilst operating under a ''real time'' timer in an otherwise ''turn based'' game. The [[Timed Mission]] is one thing, but if the enemy secures even ONE Silo, you lose. What's worse than ''that'' is that if you spend too much time fighting and do too much damage to the enemy forces you charge their special moves, leading to the very definite possibility of an enemy tag break that grants Black Hole ''two'' turns for each unit meaning they'll almost certainly reach at least one silo. Talk about [[Fake Difficulty]]. Plus on [[Non Indicative Difficulty|Normal Campaign]], Black Hole could send the Black Bomb toward red team and [[Luck Based Mission|screw you over that way]] [[Character Select Forcing|if you didn't cheap out a Day 1 T-Copter]]. And it doesn't even end there, as there's a second objective once the first one is done, and if you mess up there, you have to ''repeat the whole thing again''. The level is so bad that [[Totally Flaked]] mocked it mercilessly. |
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** Metro Map in ''Days of Ruin''. The blue team not only starts with a property advantage, but get to work with a nasty forest clump that is even more bothersome to the player. It desperately needs a Day-To-Day guide, but the sole one available is for the high score that [[Luck Based Mission|requires too much luck]], even with [[Save Scumming]]. |
** Metro Map in ''Days of Ruin''. The blue team not only starts with a property advantage, but get to work with a nasty forest clump that is even more bothersome to the player. It desperately needs a Day-To-Day guide, but the sole one available is for the high score that [[Luck Based Mission|requires too much luck]], even with [[Save Scumming]]. |
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** "A Hero's Farewell" in ''Days of Ruin''. The sea throws a Battleship ''and'' an Aircraft Carrier at you and the rough seas and lack of your own predeployed Battleship keeps you from doing much about either one quickly enough to avoid letting your Cruiser get shot, and if you don't kill the Battleship in one turn, your Submarine will inevitably get hit by the enemy Cruiser. The Aircraft Carrier, meanwhile, sends out Seaplanes. As for the land front, you're not going far quickly because of a terrain-covered Rocket Launcher, which allows Forsythe to build up. |
** "A Hero's Farewell" in ''Days of Ruin''. The sea throws a Battleship ''and'' an Aircraft Carrier at you and the rough seas and lack of your own predeployed Battleship keeps you from doing much about either one quickly enough to avoid letting your Cruiser get shot, and if you don't kill the Battleship in one turn, your Submarine will inevitably get hit by the enemy Cruiser. The Aircraft Carrier, meanwhile, sends out Seaplanes. As for the land front, you're not going far quickly because of a terrain-covered Rocket Launcher, which allows Forsythe to build up. |
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*** The best part: if you go into the Tactics Room, instead of Lin, ''Forsythe himself'' tells you how to go about the mission. He's an [[Anti |
*** The best part: if you go into the Tactics Room, instead of Lin, ''Forsythe himself'' tells you how to go about the mission. He's an [[Anti-Villain]], yes, but still... '''''the enemy CO takes pity on you!''''' |
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** Before that, "Greyfield Strikes"... ''you''. Greyfield, in order to show who's in charge, randomly shuts down one of your units every third day. There's a fairly reliable day-by-day guide out there... but if Greyfield decides to call out any but one of ''three'' units, it falls apart. |
** Before that, "Greyfield Strikes"... ''you''. Greyfield, in order to show who's in charge, randomly shuts down one of your units every third day. There's a fairly reliable day-by-day guide out there... but if Greyfield decides to call out any but one of ''three'' units, it falls apart. |
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** Some people consider "A Hero's Farewell" more of a [[Best Level Ever]], but just about ''EVERYONE'' hates "Lin's Gambit", a [[Fog of War]] [[Timed Mission]] where Greyfield's units make advancing quickly extremely frustrating. To top it off, if you're not good with naval combat, you're not going to do well in this mission. At all. |
** Some people consider "A Hero's Farewell" more of a [[Best Level Ever]], but just about ''EVERYONE'' hates "Lin's Gambit", a [[Fog of War]] [[Timed Mission]] where Greyfield's units make advancing quickly extremely frustrating. To top it off, if you're not good with naval combat, you're not going to do well in this mission. At all. |
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*** [[Paul Power|This troper]] has never got the hate for Sinking Feeling, [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3109651&pagenumber=19&perpage=40#post367821852 he usually beats it pretty easily]. Now Sea Fortress, on the other hand... |
*** [[Paul Power|This troper]] has never got the hate for Sinking Feeling, [http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3109651&pagenumber=19&perpage=40#post367821852 he usually beats it pretty easily]. Now Sea Fortress, on the other hand... |
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** Probably the biggest [[That One Level]] of all in ''Black Hole Rising'' though is Liberation: Hard Campaign. Even though it's only mission 8, even though you're facing [[Joke Character|Flak]]. Having a factory with Hard Campaign production orders on such a small map is just brutal. |
** Probably the biggest [[That One Level]] of all in ''Black Hole Rising'' though is Liberation: Hard Campaign. Even though it's only mission 8, even though you're facing [[Joke Character|Flak]]. Having a factory with Hard Campaign production orders on such a small map is just brutal. |
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* Bissum Desert (Campaign 36) in ''Game Boy Wars 3'', although potentially managing healthy difficulty, may give players grief even if they do manage to get past the [[Do Well |
* Bissum Desert (Campaign 36) in ''Game Boy Wars 3'', although potentially managing healthy difficulty, may give players grief even if they do manage to get past the [[Do Well, But Not Perfect]] issues of the Campaign Mode in general. The gist is that the game's overly [[Glass Cannon]] mechanics generally work in White Moon's favor on this map. This isn't a bad thing in and of itself, even though the mechanics generally favor the player in plenty of maps in Campaign. However, the later part of the map does have its annoyance factor. |
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** To elaborate on the difficulty of the map, it starts with White Moon having a bunch of planes deployed, among them 2 Interceptors, which can snipe your air units and can be very hard to get at safely on Day 2. The simple solution would be to not send out your air units right away, but navy is unavailable and since White Moon also has a bunch of tough land units predeployed to the east, you will need air units to help handle those buggers. This isn't so bad on its own, you just need to {{spoiler|use any Interceptor units you have to hammer the enemy's, and set up an anti-air perimeter to keep your units safe from flanking}}. However, as soon as you try storming White Moon's HQ, things get truly irksome as you have to deal with crossing a most likely Artillery-covered area with a lot of Desert terrain--yes, you read right, not the terrain template you would know in ''Dual Strike'' or ''Days of Ruin'', but terrain tiles that are similar to the Desert terrain in ''Fire Emblem''. And unlike the Plains and Forests and stuff like that (which in this game actually have some Movement Costs at 1.5), the Desert gives off painfully high Movement Costs to the point where your land units being able to move more than one space at a time is the only reason why it's not a surprise that they're far less likely to be slaughtered than {{spoiler|Cuan, Ethelin, and their group of Lenster Lance Knights}} in ''Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu''. |
** To elaborate on the difficulty of the map, it starts with White Moon having a bunch of planes deployed, among them 2 Interceptors, which can snipe your air units and can be very hard to get at safely on Day 2. The simple solution would be to not send out your air units right away, but navy is unavailable and since White Moon also has a bunch of tough land units predeployed to the east, you will need air units to help handle those buggers. This isn't so bad on its own, you just need to {{spoiler|use any Interceptor units you have to hammer the enemy's, and set up an anti-air perimeter to keep your units safe from flanking}}. However, as soon as you try storming White Moon's HQ, things get truly irksome as you have to deal with crossing a most likely Artillery-covered area with a lot of Desert terrain--yes, you read right, not the terrain template you would know in ''Dual Strike'' or ''Days of Ruin'', but terrain tiles that are similar to the Desert terrain in ''Fire Emblem''. And unlike the Plains and Forests and stuff like that (which in this game actually have some Movement Costs at 1.5), the Desert gives off painfully high Movement Costs to the point where your land units being able to move more than one space at a time is the only reason why it's not a surprise that they're far less likely to be slaughtered than {{spoiler|Cuan, Ethelin, and their group of Lenster Lance Knights}} in ''Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu''. |
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* ''[[Battalion Wars]]'' has some levels that fall under this: |
* ''[[Battalion Wars]]'' has some levels that fall under this: |
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**** Ultima can only be learned by Ramza, if he is a Squire, and it is cast on him by one of the assassins and he survives. Technically, it is possible to get it the first time the assassins, but the odds of the assassins casting Ultima at all (let alone ignoring Rafa and attacking Ramza) are basically non-existent, so you need to get it this fight. Even though the odds are much, much higher, it can still easily take numerous rounds for either to decide to cast Ultima, let alone use it on Ramza. |
**** Ultima can only be learned by Ramza, if he is a Squire, and it is cast on him by one of the assassins and he survives. Technically, it is possible to get it the first time the assassins, but the odds of the assassins casting Ultima at all (let alone ignoring Rafa and attacking Ramza) are basically non-existent, so you need to get it this fight. Even though the odds are much, much higher, it can still easily take numerous rounds for either to decide to cast Ultima, let alone use it on Ramza. |
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**** Samurai abilities require specific swords to be in your inventory before they can be used. Masamune (an AoE, instant, no MP, Regen and Haste buff) requires you get Masamune, which can only be acquired by stealing it from Elmdor. The Genji equipment is lost forever if you don't steal it, but if you don't steal Masamune an entire Samurai skill can never be used (you can learn it, you just wouldn't be able to use it). |
**** Samurai abilities require specific swords to be in your inventory before they can be used. Masamune (an AoE, instant, no MP, Regen and Haste buff) requires you get Masamune, which can only be acquired by stealing it from Elmdor. The Genji equipment is lost forever if you don't steal it, but if you don't steal Masamune an entire Samurai skill can never be used (you can learn it, you just wouldn't be able to use it). |
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* "An Earnest <s>Two</s> [[Two |
* "An Earnest <s>Two</s> [[Two-Timer Date|Five Timer Date]]" in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2]]''. |
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** Side mission "Time to Act" in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2]]''. You are in charge of protecting 5 moogles (Black Mage, Moogle Knight, Fusilier, Tinker, and Thief) and you're only allowed to send out ONE person from your clan to support them. What makes this extremely aggravating for most players is some of the moogles can be downright stupid and suicidal. The Tinker will constantly spam Red Spring if no one on your side has Haste or he will use Green Gear to try and cause Poison to the enemy. Tinker abilities can hit either friend or foe, which makes this a [[Luck Based Mission]]. The moogle Thief may spend more time trying to steal than actually fighting. If one of the moogles gets knocked out, you lose. |
** Side mission "Time to Act" in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2]]''. You are in charge of protecting 5 moogles (Black Mage, Moogle Knight, Fusilier, Tinker, and Thief) and you're only allowed to send out ONE person from your clan to support them. What makes this extremely aggravating for most players is some of the moogles can be downright stupid and suicidal. The Tinker will constantly spam Red Spring if no one on your side has Haste or he will use Green Gear to try and cause Poison to the enemy. Tinker abilities can hit either friend or foe, which makes this a [[Luck Based Mission]]. The moogle Thief may spend more time trying to steal than actually fighting. If one of the moogles gets knocked out, you lose. |
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** This is on top of the way that the AI chooses the target to attack. Does the enemy on the entirely other side of the map suddenly have less hit points than your current target? Better start wandering over there! |
** This is on top of the way that the AI chooses the target to attack. Does the enemy on the entirely other side of the map suddenly have less hit points than your current target? Better start wandering over there! |