Pandamonium is Too Hard! (Rant)

[Martyr]

First of all, there's no such thing as a fight.
Every encounter, random or otherwise, is an ambush.
I understand that these heroes have been fighting a ton because there's monsters everywhere, and now they're walking through Hell to reach a fortress of evil and monsters and such in order to fight an evil emperor, so it's understandable that nobody would be expecting opponents and an ambush would be very likely. Who would expect to be attacked in their situation? Seriously. But WHY does it have to happen SO often! Can't the game drop away from such vicious realism for just a moment?!?

And then those mythril colored rider knights in Pandamonium? I come charging through, all beefed up on 3000 HP. "C'mon, hit me. Do your uber damaging 1800 DMG. I ain't sc'rrd."

Crit 2900 Damage, kills Guy. (Why the hell would I keep him at max 3300 HP? Nobody hits for 2900!)

But that was just a crit, right? Wrong.
Next hit, not a crit, 2200, sends Lionheart to his knees.
Oh, and a Mythril Golem. Who could forget.
*Murders Lionheart*
Then I get this message:
"Lionheart can never be raised from the dead again, even if you reload a saved game. Bitch!"

Well, I didn't get that message, but i may as well have.

Frionel was slammed before he could do another 171 Damage to the golem with his Excalibur, and then all Maria could do was attempt and fail in a pathetic effort to run. Then she got whacked for more than twice her maximum HPs. And, since she was the last character left, you just KNOW that her corpse got hit 2 more times, even though all the game allowed me to see of my obliterated crew of children was the slightly less gruesome image of their fallen bodies splayed out across the battlefield (Or in a line, one on top of the other. Whatever.).

So... Has anybody else reached the climax of this game, giving it a hard fought go, winning here, losing there, collecting treasure, and ultimately making it all the way to the beginning of the end just to be SMASHED like a boulder falling on top of a wounded platypus?

Or is it simply the Krulls, who hit your 3000HP char for 46 damage and end up killing him in that one hit ANYWAY, who pike your undying fury?

Or is it that Lionheart the traitorous jerk joins your party instead of allowing you to keep Richard (AKA: Dick) or reacquiring Layla (Who gives me a reason to get the Catclaw, and looks almost beautiful when turned to stone. And being turned to stone hapens mighty frequently, I might add.)

Or maybe your problem is simply that, in the very end, after casting the ice spell 600 times, you still can't kill a Fire Basilisk with a shot of it, and you have to take 600 damage before your fighter can finish off it's remaing 50 HPs?

Tell me, when did you throw your hands up and say, "Well alright!"
And then...
"But it's probably going to get a whole hell of a lot worse."

[Sefie1999AD]

Which version of the game are you playing? I didn't get ambushed all that often in NES and DoS versions, and actually, I'm not sure if the amount of getting ambushed depends on your stats (maybe speed or luck). I didn't really find any of the Pandemonium enemies that hard, except for bosses. Golems or some other giant enemies take a while to kill, but there are ways to defeat them too (Curse, Berserk and Haste, and maybe Safe and Blink). What I'd suggest is that you leveled up your characters more.

[Jowy]

I always seemed to run into the knights near the end of Pandaemonium. And then I'd get to start over again!

[Martyr]

Which version of the game are you playing? I didn't get ambushed all that often in NES and DoS versions, and actually, I'm not sure if the amount of getting ambushed depends on your stats (maybe speed or luck). I didn't really find any of the Pandemonium enemies that hard, except for bosses. Golems or some other giant enemies take a while to kill, but there are ways to defeat them too (Curse, Berserk and Haste, and maybe Safe and Blink). What I'd suggest is that you leveled up your characters more.

I'm playing the NES version.

I think I literally get "ambushed" more than 1/2 the time. I started counting.

Maria and Frionel, when in battle, almost always attack first, before any enemies, even those in Pandamonium, and almost all the 'ambushers" from Jade can be run from by Maria. So I really don't think that it's a matter of Dex/Speed/Agility.

And I don't think I need to level because I can kil my enemies fine. My elemental spells are 6-8, which should work. Maybe I should get Ice and Bolt to 8, but my main objective these days is just having my mage back my fighters with lv. 11 (and rising) Beserk. Frankly, those very deathknights who kill me in one hitt also have low HPs, and I can kill them in one hit too.
The difference, you see, is that there's 4 of me, not to mention 400 MP of CURE12, and there's 2-4 of them every 10 steps or so.

But the BIGGEST problem is that I casually ignored the importance of evade, and made some very big mistakes just SUPER recently.
1. I sold my Black Robes and outfitted Maria with Diamond Armor. This successfully makes her slower and more likely to take elemental damage (she's in the back row, so it's the only damage she takes). And her speed- Ability to run, ability to cast Bezerk/Haste/ASPL/BREAK/CURE/LIFE/Flare/Elementals before anybody else was always very important to me.
2. I sold a bunch of other Awesome light armors in exchange for the heavy diamond crap, and now my evade is garbage, I'm thinking about outfitting my guys with Gold Armor or trying to target enemies with particular armor drops just so I can return to better dex. *sigh* I just wish I'd researched the Evade/Armor Value situation before I played this game, and definitely before I came to the point where all that's left is Genji (bleach! I'm reading on here that you take more damage for wearing it, and and because it's the best defense armor in the game!)

But I'll dive back in. I'll raise Frionel's magic up to 700, research monsters util I figure out what drops something useful (that I can still locate), fix my stats. Maybe i'll give somebody else healing magic, just for the sake of it, and it will be a hard, long journey through hell.

But let's be honest here. I'm going through Hell. I should expect this. If it was called "leasant" or "Happiness" or "ULTIMATE SIMPLICITY," then it would be cause for alarm.

But it's Hell. It's absolute Pandemonium and absolute Hell.

[Ender]

But the BIGGEST problem is that I casually ignored the importance of evade, and made some very big mistakes just SUPER recently.

Evasion is everything is this game. But you really need to be committed to it from early on to develop it fully.

On my recent playthrough of the NES version I never got ambushed in Pandamonium, not once. And I rarely got hit by a melee attack, let alone for over 1500 damage. That meant I could basically just stand there and hack at every enemy as long as I needed to.

You shouldn't be having that much trouble with the battles at this point. And it's really actually a shame, because Pandamonium is one of the few shining bright spots to the game IMO.

For an improv solution, try Thief Gloves for everybody--I believe they can be bought somewhere near the end of the game--they actually provide an evasion bonus.

[Martyr]

I went to the Collusseum to fight Wizards and Captains, even though it's a rare battle.

I found a Quartz Armor, which is okay defence w/ good Evade.
I also figured out which Diamong Armor is my Good Evade Diamond Armor.

Question 1: Will shield level help my evade if I'm not using a shield? (Like, if I use a shield to up my levels, and then drop the shield at lv. 10 or 16 or whatever. Will it add a basic amount to my evade? I know that HAVING a shield will then add to def and evade, but I just want to know if there's a side effect of having just the level of shields high that also adds to the evade.)
Question 1-B: Since my Evade seems to rise with levels in my weapon of choice, would it offer better evade to gain levels in more weapon skills? (I don't think so, because, in that case, Lionheart's evade would be naturally MUCH better than it is... but tell me what you know. Please.)

Question 2: Do Wizards ever drop ASPL (The spell that steals MP)
Question 3: Do you have any other suggestions for hunting for decent armor drops from monsters.

I think I can go to Pandemonium and actually hunt Ribbons and Defenst Gauntlets by killing Lamia Queens, but let's face it. If I'm going to wander through Pandemonium, I'm not leveling or item hunting anymore. I'm trying to beat the game, so it isn't very useful to do that.

It sucks that paramekia Castle is gone. Are there any other high level dungeons? Even the Mysidia tower is a joke to me now.

[Cruise Control]

That was the first rant in a week I found mildly amusing. Unfortunately for you, I never had a problem (Save State Abuse), so I have no advice.

[Ender]

Question 1: Will shield level help my evade if I'm not using a shield? (Like, if I use a shield to up my levels, and then drop the shield at lv. 10 or 16 or whatever. Will it add a basic amount to my evade? I know that HAVING a shield will then add to def and evade, but I just want to know if there's a side effect of having just the level of shields high that also adds to the evade.)

My understanding is that evading attacks is what ultimately raises your evade skill (through raising your agility stat), so equipping a shield, thereby raising your current evasion rate, will raise your evade skill faster. Unequipping the shield, thereby lowering your current evasion rate, will result in slower advance in your evade skill...so when you do not have a shield equipped your skill level in shields is irrelevant. That's my understanding anyway.

Question 1-B: Since my Evade seems to rise with levels in my weapon of choice, would it offer better evade to gain levels in more weapon skills? (I don't think so, because, in that case, Lionheart's evade would be naturally MUCH better than it is... but tell me what you know. Please.)

As far as I know you are right, the weapon skill only affects evade if you have that type of weapon equipped.

Question 2: Do Wizards ever drop ASPL (The spell that steals MP)
Question 3: Do you have any other suggestions for hunting for decent armor drops from monsters.

Don't really have an answer to either of these.

It sucks that paramekia Castle is gone. Are there any other high level dungeons? Even the Mysidia tower is a joke to me now.

I'm not sure. Maybe the first few "underground" levels before reaching Pandemonium Proper so you can easily get back to the surface to restock and refuel? It has those annoying things that fling status effects at you though.

[DarkLadyNyara]

I'm torn between laughing at you, and feeling sorry for you.

(Why the hell would I keep him at max 3300 HP? Nobody hits for 2900!)

They take a percentage of HP, if I remember correctly.

Question 2: Do Wizards ever drop ASPL (The spell that steals MP)

They do on DoS, so they should on this one too. But it's their rarest one.

My advice- sheilds, now. And ditch the armor. Evade is way more important than defense. Really, at this point, your almost better off running around naked.

[Zeromus_X]

Pandaemonium was so awesome I could forgive it.

[Martyr]

I beat it.

I can't believe it.

I've finally got 1-6.

That was one of thr roughest FFs I've ever done - Just because of the pure gruelingness of it all.

But it's finished. Still not harder than FF3j. Nothing beats those 4 end bosses that unlock the Dark Warriors. That's definately been the most infuriating and hateful group of enemies I ever had to kill and travel long distances to get to in all FFs. But this was rough. And the space scenes and the music was all great, but nothing could overpower my dread of the next fight that could be my doom. But I stopped my doom short, and sent it in the direction of the Mistitled Immortal Emperor. And now it's over. O-V-E-R.

Good day to all of you!

[Zeromus_X]

Congratulations.

I still think this one takes the cake of 'overwhelming tediousness', but I won't argue about those end-bosses.

[Crossblades]

Pandaemonium was so awesome I could forgive it.

[Sefie1999AD]

Congratulations for beating the game. Now finish it again on FFII DoS and play the Souls of Rebirth extra quest for an even greater challenge.

[Martyr]

I already did that.

That wasn't too hard at all.

But I've heard you mention it a few times. It's definately alright.

I'd say, yet again, that the DoS versions of FF are really a simplified version of this Famicon stuff.

And, on another note, FF1 nes is the BEST game of all time, and so DoS is perhaps one of the greatest desecrations against all rpg gaming.

What I need now is Playstation. Maybe a PS2. Maybe I gotta get up at 6 some Saturday morning and go garage sale hunting because I want to try out the new stuff (Even though my expectations of 7 and 8 etc are very low)