Back in part 3 I expressed my worries that this game was going to ramp up the grinding significantly, with monster-given experience not matching up to the growth in experience needed to level — I was right. It’s kind of disappointing to me, because the game started out fairly promising with regard to grinding … I could either choose to wipe out mob after mob of small, easy bad guys, or blow all my resources and fighter bigger bad-guys for more reward. Earlier in the game I was going for this latter strategy, and I was managing to level up every ten or so fights. Though a level every ten fights might be too easy (depends on how hard they are!), a level every twenty or so challenging fights seems about right. Consider that a challenging fight means at least a minute of prep time and perhaps a minute of fighting and a minute of downtime, this means a level every hour. I think that’s respectable, both in terms of time invested and challenge.
Instead of that, I find myself fighting hundreds of bad guys to level up. Good for my license points, I suppose, but bad for my interest in the game.
Currently my three main characters are roughly level 40. I’m supposed to be heading towards Mt. Bur Omisace, and have Larsa in my group as a guest. Most of my characters have completely explored the augmentation side of the license grid, gotten all of the magic spells I currently have available, have half the technicks and half the accessories. Most enemies I can wipe out with little thought or care. The exceptions to this might be (a) Creatures in the Feywood (b) Creatures in the Garamsythe Waterway (the Malboros) (c) Some of the creatures in the Zertinian Caverns.
I believe I mentioned this in my previous post, but I find running around and exploring more rewarding than following the story in a linear path. For the most part I’ve explored everywhere I can get to — I explored all of the Sandseas, all of Raithwalls tomb, all of Ozomone Plain, all of Olmore Forest, around Mt. Bur Omisace, into the Feywood (but I had to turn back because the monsters were too hard), into the Garamsythe Waterway (see previous), into the Mosphoran Highwaste, the upper Estersand, defeated the Wyrm guarding the pass between the Estersand and the Westersand, and explored up to the Salikawood.
Here’s what I find irritating: My characters are level 40. I am fighting basically every creature I come across. I’ve explored almost all of the license grid. I have the best equipment I can buy or steal* with money left to spare. So I fight this Wyrm between the Estersand and the Westersand. This fight takes me literally something like 20 minutes because the boss clearly has something like 50,000 HP or more and my attacks only do 100 damage to him. Meanwhile, my characters, though they all have about 2,500 HP, are taking 300-500 damage from his attacks.
I don’t mind the hard fight, and it was a hard fight, but I got no experience for it, no obvious reward. It’s like the game is saying, “Here’s a boss monster, he’s only 100x harder than a normal monster fight. Have at it.” This isn’t the only time this has happened either. In the Salikawood there is a King Bomb boss monster who I simply cannot kill because he has a renew ability that restores all of his HP and activates nearly instantaneously. As soon as I get him down to 50% HP, or 25% HP, he activates Renew, restores himself back to full health, and laughs in my face. Even though my characters have level 3 Quickenings, I can’t do enough damage with them to kill him outright, and every time I get him down low enough that I might be able to, he Renews before the Quickenings activate.
So what can I do? I can run around and kill hundreds more monsters to level up, then try to beat the boss after levelling up. For some reason that doesn’t sound enjoyable. Either way, it’s kind of obnoxious to be running around an area with level 29 Bad Guys who I can defeat in two hits and then be faced with a boss monster who is so strong that I can’t beat him no matter how much I prepare or how many resources I burn.
*Note: I haven’t been able to buy new weapons for about 20 levels now, but I have found some new stuff from chests and stealing. I also have my suspicions about how the “Loot” system works with the “Bazaar” to introduce new equipment, but that’s another post.
I should have read this post before I wrote my comment on the previous post. Anyways, you are still far to overleveled. As I said, I’m level 32 right now and I’m at about the same part in the game you are. Eight levels is quite a bit when it comes to this game. As for the Bomb King, that renew ability will only trigger three to five times before you are able to just kill him outright. The alternative is to use a quickening chain when he gets to about half life. He has under 40,000 HP and when he reaches half hp, you only have to deal about 20,000 damage which is a cake walk if you are decent with using the quickening system. And if you are still a bit upset about how easy the game seems, just wait until the final hunt you can do. The boss has about 50,000,000 HP and will take you a few hours to beat. And by a few hours, I don’t mean a few hours of just sitting there and watching yourself attack him. I mean a few hours of very difficult fighting where he will kick your characters into the dirt and then laugh as you try to come back from the ass-whooping.
Yeah, I’m aware I’m overleveled. Thing is, I’m usually not trying to level up — My level is pretty much a side-effect of exploring all of the areas of the game as soon as I can … And usually then having to come back to that area as part of the storyline.
The only reason it bothers me that I’m not levelling is when I encounter a foe I can’t beat (such as the Bomb King, though I did eventually beat him using Quickenings). I also don’t particularly like backing down from a challenge, at least not one that I know is winnable. The Bomb King is by far the most difficult opponent I’ve faced yet (I’m in Archades now), and I can’t help but think there’s some kind of trick to beating him that I missed. Perhaps I was supposed to use Mateus…
I know how ya feel. I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to backdown from a fight too. Well most of my characters right now are around 35 or 34. I hate the king bomb dude. Yet i’ve tried silence on him, yet he still is able to cast renew on himself. Around the third time battling him i used warp motes which took out his minions then i cast silence on him so he can’t use Fira. Then do ur quickenings. ONLY USE LVL 2 QUICKENINGS!!! if u do about three lvl two quickenings that’ll give you the Torrent attack after time’s up. takes off about 75% of king bomb’s health. and hopefully with my help and the guy before me ya should be able ta beat him.Good Luck!
The reason why bomb king is so tough is because in beating him you get the most powerful weapon in the game: the zodiac spear.
%name said:
So I’ve heard. Unfortunately, I’m trying to play through the game without consulting strategy guides, and since I didn’t know what chests not to open, I didn’t end up getting the spear. Oh well.
Does anyone know who or how Olmore Forest was named? I’m related to someone with that last name and it’s a very unique last name. Any help is appreciated.
@John Adams:
Good question. I’d assume that any names in Final Fantasy are first made in Japanese, and then rendered into English. I would assume that translation into English is partially phonetic and partially based on meaning. Main characters with names like “Cloud” or “Squall” are probably translated based on the meanings and associations of their name. Names without obvious meanings, or at least meanings beyond my understanding, like “Salika wood” or “Olmore Forest” are probably just reasonable phonetic approximations of Japanese words — At least that’d be my guess.
I’ve been stuck at Salikawood FOREVER cuz I can’t beat King Bomb for the obvious reason…his Renew ability. But I have a greater problem: I don’t know how to use Quickenings. I’ve gotten this far in the game without them cuz…I don’t know; I figured I didn’t need them. And now I realize I need to use them to beat this monster but I’m jus so lost…….its ok, call me dumb, lol.
%name said:
@Sarah: All I can recommend is to keep fighting monsters in Olmore Forest (or where-ever else you get good experience) until you’re ready to take on the King Bomb. Keep levelling up your characters and, if you’ve got them, practice your Quickenings. King Bomb is probably the toughest boss I faced in the main storyline of the game.
King Bomb is NOT a main storyline boss..
You don’t have to face in, and you’re not supposed to at that stage of the game. Even if you beat him, you have no chance at all at surviving the area behind him.
Lol, I found the King Bomb when I was like lvl 50-something! Probably cause I couldn’t be bothered exploring the whole Salikawood. He’s pretty easy to kill when you’re that high lol.