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Part 1 - Beast Mode
Well Zerky! might a furious striker, and Walter is rapidly transforming into a god, but I thought I'd take the time to explore another side of the solo game. A side that's just a bit more... beastly.
That's right, it's time for a Solo Beastmaster run! Now, I'm going to try my best to do this without help, but I can't make any promises; I can only be stuck for so long before I start looking for outside assistance. It shouldn't be too great an issue, though, as long as I keep up with my monster testing.
The first battle went about how you'd expect; the starter goblins always go down in one hit from anything, so no worries there.
Uh... right. There's only one name I can think of that fits a dedicated beastmaster like a glove, and that name is:
This salty sally is our hero's namesake, one of two Beast Tamers available to the player in Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. Unlike the other option, who is some kind of mystical dragon tribeswoman, Ganpp is just a guy who really likes beasts. So much so that he carts around two griffins (and then breeds and trains two replacements when you horribly murder them). Oh, Tactics Ogre
Anyway, on to adve-
What's that, Ganpp? You hear the sound of more dead weight?
Yeah, that looks about right. And you're gonna stay that way, too. Nobody steals the limelight from Ganpp!
An odd thing I noticed: none of these scripted Goblins can be caught. I imagine it's because they're a unique enemy that differs from the usual goblin (and only have 1 HP besides), though I would have happily traded the ease of these fights for a chance to make an early Goblin capture. But we'll get back to that once we're inside the cave.
Well, would you look at that? It's our first Catchable enemy! Wild guess, I'm thinking these guys use Vampire when Released. Only one way to find out...
This message is going to be the bane of my existence.
The thing about Beastmasters is, in order to Catch a monster, you need to reduce its HP to less than 1/4 1/8 (or 1/2 with a certain accessory we can pick up later in the game). Later on that will become a bit easier, but for now there are a number of enemies for which it is practically impossible; the Knife you loot from Lenna's corpse receive as a generous donation from a concerned friend kills the bats in one hit, and even my fists can't quite do enough damage to reduce them to 1/8 in a single round. So for now, I'll have to run it beastless.
From there, Ganpp infiltrates a pirate base, steals a ship, and makes for the nearest port. Once there, he supports the local economy...
Displays his natural talent for the fine arts...
And, uh... swoons over a dead guy.
Listen, we can't all be perfect. Spend enough time at sea, and even dead guys start to look pretty attractive. Oh, but speaking of that dead guy...
Ganpp needs that dagger more than you do, buddy. Just add it to the list of things he owes you and will never pay you back for, right up there with your ship and your life.
Anyway, next stop: Wind Temple! I spent a bit of time experimenting with the monsters here, but only managed to capture two: Black Goblin, who uses a physical attack that currently does ~120 damage when released, and White Serpent, who uses Entangle. Nothing too exciting there, though I did manage to pick up my first job level.
Beastmaster L1 grants you the ability !Calm, which temporarily paralyzes monsters. It can be incredibly useful with a full party, since you can have you beastmaster focus on calming an enemy while your party grinds it into the dirt, but since it only lasts just a bit longer than it takes your ATB gauge to fill up, it's not quite as useful in a solo run.
With that out of the way, it's on to Wing Raptor.
ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK isn't exactly an exciting battle description, but that's because this is the easy boss. You'd normally only have Attack available to you at this point anyway, so like the scripted Goblins we fought earlier, this guy couldn't be too complicated. Honestly, the rest of the enemies you can encounter in the Wind Temple are more dangerous for a solo run, because many of them have attacks that seriously hurt if you take too long to kill them. White Serpent's Entangle, Mani Wizard's Fire/Ice/Thunder, and Moldwynd's Aera can all spell doom if you're not careful.
Like the other runs, I'll be keeping track of my level after each boss and the number of times that boss killed me. I'll also be keeping track of the beasts I've used; but rather than tracking uses per-boss, I'll be counting the total. What better way to keep track of Ganpp's steadily-growing monster army?
FINAL LEVEL: 6
DEATHS: 0
BEASTS UNLEASHED: 2
With the Wind Temple out of the way, it's time to take down our first true beast.
It's everybody's favorite, Karl-
Oh you son of a submariner. Looks like just trying to whittle him down isn't going to be an option. Maybe if I go back and level a bit more...
Woo, unlocked !Control. This lets me temporarily take control of enemy monsters; extremely useful when partnered with a Blue Mage, but still pretty great for Ganpp all by his lonesome. It won't help me against Karl, unfortunately.
Blast it! Even with a few more levels and the help of a friendly Black Goblin, I couldn't manage to take him down before he'd default to Feeler-Tail Screw-Feeler, which is a guaranteed instant kill. Not fun.
Starting to get a little frustrated, I decided to check out how Sullla handled this overgrown lunch menu. Surely he could share my pain, and shed some light on what level I'd need to get to in order to-
Oh you've gotta be kidding me.
Alright, well, victory achieved I guess.
FINAL LEVEL: 11
DEATHS (pre-Gob): 18
DEATHS (post-Gob): 1
BEASTS UNLEASHED: 3
Tune in next time, when Ganpp will brave the depths of the Ship's Graveyard in search of new beasts to tame.