Shining Force: ShininGeek's SFI Mod

[Siel]

LE of wooden bridges of maps early on:

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							Vanilla		ShininGeek
Ch 1 Overworld				0			15
Ch 1 Alterone				 0			0
Ch 2 Overworld				0			30

[ShininGeek]

I used thesame terrain. im not sure how or why it changed

[Sniper Lyle]

Working my way through chapter 5... Gonna be honest, I'm finding this second ship battle pretty boring. When I killed five enemies and they all respawned I just kinda lost motivation for it. Gonna come back later because I've had a lot of fun with this mod so far, but bleh.

Casualties:
Balbaroy (Cavern of Darkness)
Earnest (Rindo Circus, Bustoke Quarry, Pao Prairie, Fortress Entrance, The Shining Path)
Torasu (Rindo Circus)
Lyle (Bustoke Quarry)
Tao (Bustoke Quarry, Uranbatol Port, The Shining Path, Sea Voyage 2)
Pelle (Pao Prairie, The Shining Path)
Zylo (Uranbatol Port, Sea Voyage, The Shining Path, Sea Voyage 2)
Jogurt (Uranbatol Port)


The Sorcerer in the shining path was not a nice guy.

Is there not a chest on the second ship battle? In the original game there is one.
And I found it. Not very intuitive but it could have been in a worse place, like out in the middle of the water.

The Rudo weapons shop sells the Steel Lance twice, is that intended?

[ShininGeek]

That was not intended, Ill fix it. The chest locations were unchanged from vanilla

[Sniper Lyle]

Grinding levels a bit before Dragonia. I've gotten my ass handed to me by Kane enough times to know that I should be prepared.

[ShininGeek]

Yeah, Kane is nasty. I actually had to nerf him a few times when i playtested the battle

[Sniper Lyle]

Is the Youji secret item still useless? Passing it around but nobody seems to want it.

[ShininGeek]

still useless. i couldnt think ofa way to use it

[Siel]

I had a bit of trouble getting to the entrance at Uranbatol Fortress since it seems it reverts to the original fortress's passability post-battle. I'm about to face Balbazak.

Really narrow passages seem to be a common reoccurrence in the custom maps, but the one at Uranbatol Port is the longest one by far so far. The whole map is a 1 or 2-tile wide line the whole way through. I guess 2-tile width isn't too bad, but the slow pace of the 1-tile width for 17 tiles at the beginning made me take a break for the moment.

As a side note, the gimmick enemies casting giant AOE support spells every turn no matter how far away the player currently is could've been pretty annoying, but there's thankfully frameskip.

Edit: So, Balbazak has:

Spoiler

-decent defenses
-high health and regeneration
-high evasion
-ranged single target 1hko
-frequent magic immunity

These mean it's a race to burst him down before he kills off the Force's offense too much, but he also blocks the magic damage that could've assisted in this burst. Max becomes unable to contribute to this fight because he'd get killed right away. There's also the infinitely respawning bat, so some measures have to be diverted towards taking care of it too.

But then I realized I had a Shield of my own in Torasu. A Shielded Max grabbed Balbazak's attention and rendered him harmless long enough to take him down. The engagement was also timed with Balbazak's Shield being temporarily down to get some more upfront damage.

[Lock It Lynx]

This is awesome dude!! I love using all of the KNT/PLDN class. They are great for some solid rush tactics for the tougher bosses like Mishela or Kane

[SaCred]

How about the Birdmen?
They have bows!

[ShininGeek]

I'm glad you enjoy it! Have you used it against Mishaela and and Kane yet? The bosses in this require a bit of sustained fighting to take them down.

And yes, the birdies are pretty powerful in this mod

EDIT: Uploaded a patch to fix an issue i came across in the Mishaela battle. Please update before you fight her! It also changes the Youji to the Mystic Horns, a unique item for Bleu.

EDIT2: I'm an idiot. I didn't realize that making the Mystic Horns a weapon would remove Bleu's attack animation. I personally do not want a bleu that does not spew lightning from his face. The Mystic Horns are now a ring and Bleu's attack range has been changed to what it would have been with the Mystic Horns origionally. The patch will still be 1.12

[Siel]

I haven't faced Mishaela or Kane yet. I was stuck on the battle on way to Dragonia for a few days. Not stuck-stuck, but just that I didn't have the motivation to finish it all in one go, due to the Aura4 and 15 range shenanigans. Near the end of it, I found out that the golems were pretty much impervious to physical attacks, but I fortunately had enough charges of magic left to kill them (since I was saving them for the enemies at the town). Shield did once again prove useful, since it let me safely deal with the Blast 4 mages.

I then arrived in Dragonia:

Spoiler

Checking around the map, I first saw that there are golems again right at the start. They're tough, but don't hurt too badly, and although it'd make me use up loads of MP right away, spells can take care of them. I then noticed the single Dullahan next to a bunch of Attack/Shield/Boost priests. I guessed it'll make for a fight against a souped up Dullahan right before Kane. Kane himself seemed probably manageable. Although his HP is pretty high, his DEF is as low as Balbazak's and he doesn't have the pesky Shield spammer.

But then I found out that the priests have global range buffs. This changed the situation with the golems to them being able to kill one character each on the first turn if they would get their turn after receiving the +15 ATT (since my mages are once again starting at the front). Fortunately, it didn't seem like the Shield priest had global range, so they're actually killable if events align properly to let me survive the first turn.

I'll probably also need to expend MP on the other +10 DEF enemies too, so I wonder if I'll have enough left for Kane.

[ShininGeek]

The fight was designed to leave you with a choice at the end. Thore priests (which will not show up again until much later) will move to the house in the far northeast. By the time you reach Kane's shrine, you will have a choice of fighting him with his buffs or going after the priests. The priests themselves have no offensive power whatsoever, which is why they have a durahan with them. Once he falls, the priests should be no problem. Also, be sure to send Bleu up to get the hidden item. If he is promoted, it will give him +15 attack.

[acsound]

Bringing it back a few chapters...

I'm at Battle 5, in Rindo; my team's trying to get to Manarina.

Team:

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Max ("the Mandatory") SDMN
Lv. 6 | XP: 26 | HP: 15 | MP: 14 | ATK: 24 | DEF: 10 | AGI: 11 | CRI: 4
Magic: Egress
Weapon: Middle Sword-E

Mae KNT
Lv. 5 | XP: 25 | HP: 11 | ATK: 16 | DEF: 13 | AGI: 10 | CRI: 3
Weapon: Spear, Bronze Lance-E

Pelle KNT
Lv. 6 | XP: 85 | HP: 18 | ATK: 21 | DEF: 17 | AGI: 13 | CRI: 3
Weapon: Spear-E, Bronze Lance

Earnest ("Ernie") KNT
Lv. 6 | XP: 50 | HP: 19 | ATK: 19 | DEF: 12 | AGI: 10 | CRI: 37
Weapon: Spear, Bronze Lance-E

Arthur ("Artie") KNT
Lv. 6 | XP: 9 | HP: 10 | MP: 10 | ATK: 16 | DEF: 7 | AGI: 9 | CRI: 3
Magic: Blaze 1, Freeze 1, Bolt 1
Weapon: Spear, Bronze Lance-E

Anri MAGE
Lv. 5 | XP: 73 | HP: 11 | MP: 17 | ATK: 9 | DEF: 6 | AGI: 11 | CRI: 3
Magic: Freeze 1
Weapon: Wooden Staff-E

Alef MAGE
Lv. 5 | XP: 73 | HP: 12 | MP: 22 | ATK: 11 | DEF: 6 | AGI: 14 | CRI: 3
Magic: Bolt 1, Drain 1
Weapon: Wooden Staff-E

Tao MAGE
Lv. 6 | XP: 13 | HP: 13 | MP: 20 | ATK: 12 | DEF: 6 | AGI: 19 | CRI: 3
Magic: Blaze 2, Sleep 1
Weapon: Wooden Staff-E, Speed Ring-E

Khris HEAL
Lv. 6 | XP: 69 | HP: 14 | MP: 16 | ATK: 15 | DEF: 8 | AGI: 7 | CRI: 3
Magic: Heal 2, Blast 1
Weapon: Wooden Staff-E

Balbaroy ("Bally") BDMN
Lv. 6 | XP: 24 | HP: 14 | ATK: 22 | DEF: 10 | AGI: 12 | CRI: 4
Weapon: Wooden Arrow-E

Bleu DRGN
Lv. 4 | XP: 77 | HP: 14 | ATK: 15 | DEF: 9 | AGI: 5 | CRI: 3

Zylo WRWF
Lv. 6 | XP: 16 | HP: 21 | ATK: 24 | DEF: 11 | AGI: 12 | CRI: 4

UPDATE: Placed my commentary on my team in spoilers to shorten the page.

Spoiler

Max ("the Mandatory") SDMN

He has strong ATK, but only solid DEF; thus, I have him attacking as needed and a healer nearby (mostly to protect the Force's funds). (Seeing as Egress is now free to cast (at 0 MP cost), it will be interesting to see why Max has a mana pool at all...)

Mae KNT

Right now, she's the weakest of the Four Horsemen. Her DEF is higher than Ernie or Artie, but at the moment, Pelle's outclassing *everyone*. (No wonder Kane was able to pimp-slap her in that cutscene.)

Pelle KNT

He started out weak, but first his DEF shot up, then his ATK. With the B. Lance, his ATK is 24: equal to Brian and Ain Max and Zylo's.

Earnest ("Ernie") KNT

Ernie's ATK is almost respectable, and his DEF is actually solid--only a point behind Mae's. He started out with the highest ATK, but Pelle caught up handily.

Arthur ("Artie") KNT

Artie is physically weak, with the lowest ATK and DEF of the Four Horsemen, but those spells of his come in handy to offset these weaknesses; this is the reason he's at the same level as Ernie and Pelle (Lv. 6)--whereas poor Mae is straggling at Lv. 5.

Anri MAGE

Anri has a decent mana pool building, but at the moment, her HP is low and her DEF stat isn't quite up to the challenge. But, as she's the ice-oriented DPS, she should be behind a knight, Max, or a melee fighter anyway. Still waiting for Her Majesty to develop an AOE spell, or even to find a second spellbook.

Alef MAGE

Foxy Loxy here, much like the new queen of Guardiana, is powerfully fragile; she has power as the lightning-affinity DPS, but a sneeze from a Dark Dwarf will end her due to her low HP and DEF. Alef does, however, have a second spellbook; it remains to be seen what purpose Drain will serve.

Tao MAGE

Despite her spell loadout being the weakest of the Black Mages, Tao's AGI stat (even without the Speed Ring) gets her out of hairy situations: a good thing, as while Tao's HP is the highest of the trio, her DEF stat is the same. Also, her fire specialty means lots of spells cast that are easy on her mana pool, leaving Tao as the only Black Mage with an AOE spell in her element; she also has a second spellbook with the chance-based Sleep.

Khris HEAL

The team healer of the Shining Force, Khris keeps everyone healed and occasionally uses Blast. Her mana pool is fairly low, so the team has Herbs and Seeds on them in a pinch. (Also, the other members of the Force will pass their healing items to her when she's out to help increase her XP and mana pool.)

Balbaroy ("Bally") BDMN

Balbaroy has turned in his sword for archery, and he has a respectable ATK only two points behind Brian and Ain Max and Zylo. He also dodges well. His DEF stat isn't quite up to snuff, but he's a BDMN archer--he's not supposed to be on the front lines.

Bleu DRGN

Bleu's ATK is decent, though his DEF is starting to flag; his low MOV and AGI is hurting him in levels: currently stuck at Lv. 4.

Zylo WRWF

Our "warwolf" rounds out our team. With ATK equal to Max's and his HP and DEF (at the moment) even higher, Zylo's definitely very versatile: he can't be contained.

= = = =

Enemy I hate so far in this hack: the damned Bats. They hit my melee fighters like trucks, and can kill Bleu if two of them gang up on him. Tao's the only MAGE who won't be OHKO'd by these obnoxious creatures.

In Battle 5:

At the start, there's a "Commander" (likely a magical clone of Lemon's grandpappy) who's map sprite looks like Elliott's. The trick here is that he respawns.

Also, apparently in this version of SF: The Legacy of Great Intention, Runefaust has no problems building fences to prevent the Force from bypassing the arduous desert trek to Manarina.

While I'd like to have the ground fighters deal with the dangers on the ground and have my fliers--Bleu and Bally--face off against the Damned Bats, my fliers aren't up to the challenge.

Any tips here?

While stats have gone up a bit for Alef, Anri (who has Freeze 2 now), Mae, Bleu (who had a SPD/AGI stat level up), and Max; Max ended up dying to a combo of that cheap Dark Elf sniper and a *respawned* BAT. (Seriously: *frag* those dudes.)

[Siel]

Each bat will only start heading towards you when you get close enough, so you could lure them in one by one if you feel like abusing that.

Also, be sure to send Bleu up to get the hidden item. If he is promoted, it will give him +15 attack.

None of my fighters are promoted yet since I've been planning on reaching level 20 before promoting. I think the closest ones are Amon and Lyle who are both at level 19. Bleu is behind at level 16 due to his terribly late ATT growth.

[ShininGeek]

The commander should not follow you into the desert, so ignore him after you reach it. The bats should hit you hard, but if you are able to lure them in one at a time, they fall fast. The dark elf with the sniper bow should only take a few hits to fall. Just try and get the enemies alone (should be pretty easy in the movement- imparing desert). try taking out two of thebatsby sending some of your force upto the east wall. the bats should ometo you where you have more movement and LE.

Bleu has a late growth of 30 in attack; his attack should skyrocket soon.

[Siel]

Yeah, I've been trying to get him to catch up, but these last 2 battles haven't really allowed me to. The way to Dragonia had the artilleries making it too dangerous for Bleu and high defense enemies everywhere. The battle in Dragonia also has high defense enemies plus I'll be having to save the Power Ring for Kane. Time to hope the battle on the way to Demon Castle is more lenient. He's still at 30 ATT while nearly everyone else is at above 40, but the late growth is what's making reaching level 20 first even more important, to not skip out on it.

[ShininGeek]

he should get about 13 more attack by level 20, so he should be able to hold his own once he gets there. thebowriders on the way to demon castle should allow some easy levels for him; they have pretty low defence.

try and be promoted by Mishaela; she has a bit of an ugly surprise for you

[Nyttelost]

I think I'll also give this a bash to give me a bit of a break from overcoming the iniquities of Darksol in Doomblade's Challenge Mod (as well as Colossus's terrible taste in music). Now I shall prepare to make a force. Also expect my battle reports to come back!