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Heading through the tower now.
Since there's not much else to talk about right now, might as well clarify why I was so dismissive of Tristam's resistances earlier: He is only resistant to Fire (not special) and Instant Death (not likely to even be used while you've got him).
Here we are in the third region, or Fire region, if you prefer. This place is quite annoying to speedrunners and casual players alike for one very good reason: Every time you change locations, you get an earthquake that prevents movement or even entering locations for about a second. The only thing that will stop this is killing the local major boss, after which you're probably done here.
Anyway, off to the local town to kick Tristam out. I'll start rampaging around the local battlefields when I'm done here.
The specific illness this guy claims to have is randomized; here, he's pulling out a Metal Gear reference.
Reuben's magic selection and resistances are pretty much just as bad as Tristam's were, but at least he has the advantage of being a physical juggernaut. Guy's got 175 attack power!
Here's where you can potentially recruit Tristam 2 (as FFMQ runners typically call him); he also has the best shield in the game here.
Relative to the Venus Shield I had before, this gives +4 defense and immunity to Petrify, conveniently before I even meet anything capable of inflicting it.
If I had money, I could theoretically buy this, but why would I when it's a downgrade? I mean, sure, I wouldn't actually equip it, but still- I have absolutely no incentive to buy this at all.
Nothing left in Fireburg right now, so off to the local battlefields!
Definitely worth the time invested. Also got another level here, making it even more worthwhile.
True, this is my weakest weapon at the moment, but it's also a Go Mode item, and gives +5 Speed when equipped, should I need to use items or cast spells in a hurry whenever I get them.
This won't take long.
I forgot to mention before, but some enemies are actually weak to Axes (which Reuben's Morning Star counts as), which means he can dish out some extreme damage to those enemies.
Much closer call than I'd like, but at least I've got a bit of funding in case a future merchant has a required item later.
After patching myself up from the ambush that wrecked me in that other battlefield, off to blow up another one!
There's that Sand Coin I mentioned as potentially required to find some of the Go Mode items. Not gonna go chasing that just yet, though; there's still a little left for me to do here.
Specifically, I can go here for a few checks. If there's no claw here, though, I'm probably gonna have to use the Sand Coin.
Worthless. (Don't worry, I'll go back to the Battle Axe as soon as I switch off of this.)
Don't be fooled by the lack of visible encounters; this is one of two locations that require an item to be able to see them- in this case, you need a gas mask.
Another change made by the randomizer: Every minor boss locks at least one check even if they didn't in vanilla. This may or may not involve a chest appearing in their place after you fight them.
Behold, the first enemy capable of petrifying me! ...unless some of the other enemies around here can do it too and I just killed them too fast for them to try it, but whatever.
Anyway, I'm expecting this to be a lot more of a train wreck than Flamerus Rex was, because I'm drastically underlevelled for this area and can thus be taken down by a stiff breeze. Reuben, unfortunately, is not immune to Petrify, so I can't guarantee I won't wipe at least once here.
Took a few turns to blow away her helpers (because, again, axe accuracy is trash). Now that they're gone, though, a quick reminder that bosses hit HARD. At least she's the slowest combatant here, so that's something going my way.
Here's her second sprite. She's still mean. Case in point: All the HP I'm missing right now were lost in one hit.
Yes, she goes bald when she's about to die. Unfortunately, this is an extremely precarious situation I'm in: My healer is paralyzed, and I'd go down in two hits to basically anything she can do. I'll try the "damage race" approach for now and hope she gets distracted by Reuben.
...or she could go down on my very next attack and drop the best sword in the game, that works too.
Very nice weapon, and it still has the +5 Speed from the Knight Sword. Anyway, nothing left to do in this region until I get a claw, so back to the Tower!
I'm not particularly surprised the Sand Coin turned out to be required; I'm just surprised by the relative lack of other rewards from my first trip to that region. Only other worthwhile things turned out to be Excalibur and the Aegis Shield; even the Knight Sword, much as I celebrated it before, turned out to be useless to me!
Oh, hey, I finally learned magic! This should help me keep myself topped off in intense battles.
I can basically guarantee that this region will lead me to a claw somehow; basically everything else is locked by it! In fact, I'm pretty sure that at this point the only way I could not find a claw here is if I find the item that lets me recruit the vanilla first partner instead and she gives me a claw.
Quick stop here to pick up the local partner.
This is a joke on the fact that Phoebe 2 is, in vanilla, the last partner you get, and thus the strongest one in the game by a pretty wide margin (combined with how, in races, you're gonna be absurdly underlevelled pretty much 100% of the time).
A large part of the reason for this is that she's the designated "mage" partner, and thus actually comes with spells. In this case, she's got Cure (which I just got), Heal (status restore; kind of redundant with Life around), Fire (self-explanatory), and Thunder (also self-explanatory).
She's also the other partner who requires ammo. Related to the Axe weakness mentioned earlier, some enemies (mostly birds and the like) are actually weak to projectile weapons.
As for her resistances... she's got Water, Wind, and Silence. Not the most robust set, admittedly, though she does add Paralyze and Sleep resistance when she levels up to make it less terrible (and, incidentally, makes her the only partner whose resistances improve upon leveling up).
Oh, the battlefield?
Nothing noteworthy after going to Fireburg. But at least I got a claw! (insert confetti here)
Claw weapons are pretty weak in pure damage potential, but can inflict a plethora of status ailments- Paralyze, Sleep, Confusion, Poison, and Blind in this case. They also give +5 Magic, to give your spells a bit more punch.
Next update's gonna start off taking a side-trip to the local town before looting the rest of the region (then going back to finish up Fire, if I've got the time to do so); pretty much everything here is in logic by now, after all. Hopefully I get some offensive spells soon.