This week, I tried a single-class challenge for Bravely Default after completing an all-Patissier playthrough of Bravely Second. (Well, mostly. I had to switch to Thieves for one room in a dungeon where the party members are berserked in order to prevent overleveling.)
Monk seemed like a good idea at the time, so I used a New Game Plus file.
The rules:
-Level 14 Jobs carried over to avoid JP Grind
-Only Monk commands and passive abilities allowed, except for Obliterate to speed up grinding at high levels
-No Friend Summons, Abilink, etc.
-Hard mode
Essential Monk commands:
-Qigong Wave: This is your standard move. It does 25% more damage than a regular attack and ignores Default for 12 MP.
-Phoenix Flight: If the boss has low enough HP and your characters have full health, use this to help finish them off. Unfortunately, the damage cap prevents it from going over 9999 damage, but any HP over that amount is still drained for the user
-Hidden Dragon: Can be used over Qigong Wave if you want your Special buffs to go before your other attacks, or if you run low on MP. It's a bit like Vital Throw in Pokemon in that it has negative priority.
-Pressure Point: It's a physical attack that ignores defense, but has a 1 BP cost so you can't use it constantly.
Monks need Level 14 to get Natural Talent, which is the class's strength and weakness all at once. Remember Final Fantasy where Monks work best without weapons equipped? Bravely Default Monks work in a similar way, but Natural Talent is much stricter. To get the attack boost, they cannot wear ANY equipment at all. This includes accessories. Even with armor, using Monks is a similar experience to fighting a physical attacker with a Blissey. Bravely Default is a Final Fantasy game in disguise, and has the 9999 damage cap even if enemies have far more HP than that. Therefore, the Monk's only answer to anything is level grinding. There are Elixirs, but you can't buy them unlike in Bravely Second, and there are no "restore HP to maximum" potions. X-Potions barely heal them at all late in the game. The Special counter is reset in Bravely Default whenever you switch weapon types, and the triggers differ by weapon (i.e. get 5 critical hits in the case of fists), so you can't switch to a staff for healing unlike the sequel.
Some highlights:
Chaugmar: This is easy for Monks. Pressure Point ignores its force field that makes other classes do 1 damage to Chaugmar.
Braev: Pressure Point gets you through his high defense, and Qigong Wave ignores his frequent Defaults. Easier than I thought it would be.
Elemental Dragons: DeRosso is a jerk. He will only give you important plot exposition if you kill his 6 elemental Dragons to unlock his castle. I had to level up to 89 in Chapter 5 to beat them, and I still lost to the earth dragon sometimes.
DeRosso: His Gravity elemental attack will make your high HP useless if it hits, because it's percentage based. Fortunately, it misses often enough that you can win. He may also waste turns draining your BP, but beware of a certain physical attack that can KO your entire party at once.
Mephilia, Einheria, and Artemia: Yes, you fight them all at once in Yulyana's sidequest in Chapter 6. After a lot of failed attempts, I rushed Artemia, and then took out Mephilia while Einheria was jumping. (Think of them as a Ranger, Dragoon, and Summoner party from Final Fantasy).
Yulyana: He wasted several of his turns buffing rather than attacking, and the damage cap applies to enemy attacks too.
Airy 1 & 2: They were really easy. Yes, I was level 99 by this point, but I couldn't do the Chapter 7 sidequests, let alone 8 because Monks can't survive their attacks.
Airy 3: This convinced me an all-Monk challenge is impossible on Hard without Bravely Second. She can lower your elemental resistance to with Acedia, and then hit everyone with a 9999 damage Fire attack. Yes, this overrides the Iceflame Shield's immunity to Fire. Ouroboros heals her a few times throughout, so she has too much HP to take out with the Monk's single hit attacks before they die. She has a multihit physical attack, and can poison everyone and then use a move that instantly kills poisoned characters. Bravely Default is clearly a game designed for overpowered parties, unlike Second where you can get away with silly self-imposed challenges. My Patissier party in Second was about Level 72 at the last boss, which is about normal. In Default? My Monk team was 99, and they were still losing.
(Your SP is drained every time you use Bravely Second, whether the game saves or not. So that means 24 hours with your 3DS in sleep mode between 3 SP attempts at a boss. Maybe Monks could do Airy 3 with instant Megalixirs or Specials breaking the damage cap. . .)
The moral of this story is: Monks are bad in the Bravely series. Don't use your "4 Black Belt" party from FF1 here. It will choke at the last minute. Read my overly long post and save yourself the trouble.
My current Hawkeye run in Bravely Second is much easier because they can use equipment and use other weapons' Specials as needed. Most of the challenge comes from their lousy defenses and mediocre Speed (which affects turn order, but turn order is partially random unlike in Pokemon).
I also tend to do single class challenges for Etrian Odyssey games, such as all Princes in 3, and all Nightseekers, Runemasters, and Dancers in 4. Balanced parties bore me in those games. What kind of RPG self-imposed challenges do you like to try?
Monk seemed like a good idea at the time, so I used a New Game Plus file.
The rules:
-Level 14 Jobs carried over to avoid JP Grind
-Only Monk commands and passive abilities allowed, except for Obliterate to speed up grinding at high levels
-No Friend Summons, Abilink, etc.
-Hard mode
Essential Monk commands:
-Qigong Wave: This is your standard move. It does 25% more damage than a regular attack and ignores Default for 12 MP.
-Phoenix Flight: If the boss has low enough HP and your characters have full health, use this to help finish them off. Unfortunately, the damage cap prevents it from going over 9999 damage, but any HP over that amount is still drained for the user
-Hidden Dragon: Can be used over Qigong Wave if you want your Special buffs to go before your other attacks, or if you run low on MP. It's a bit like Vital Throw in Pokemon in that it has negative priority.
-Pressure Point: It's a physical attack that ignores defense, but has a 1 BP cost so you can't use it constantly.
Monks need Level 14 to get Natural Talent, which is the class's strength and weakness all at once. Remember Final Fantasy where Monks work best without weapons equipped? Bravely Default Monks work in a similar way, but Natural Talent is much stricter. To get the attack boost, they cannot wear ANY equipment at all. This includes accessories. Even with armor, using Monks is a similar experience to fighting a physical attacker with a Blissey. Bravely Default is a Final Fantasy game in disguise, and has the 9999 damage cap even if enemies have far more HP than that. Therefore, the Monk's only answer to anything is level grinding. There are Elixirs, but you can't buy them unlike in Bravely Second, and there are no "restore HP to maximum" potions. X-Potions barely heal them at all late in the game. The Special counter is reset in Bravely Default whenever you switch weapon types, and the triggers differ by weapon (i.e. get 5 critical hits in the case of fists), so you can't switch to a staff for healing unlike the sequel.
Some highlights:
Chaugmar: This is easy for Monks. Pressure Point ignores its force field that makes other classes do 1 damage to Chaugmar.
Braev: Pressure Point gets you through his high defense, and Qigong Wave ignores his frequent Defaults. Easier than I thought it would be.
Elemental Dragons: DeRosso is a jerk. He will only give you important plot exposition if you kill his 6 elemental Dragons to unlock his castle. I had to level up to 89 in Chapter 5 to beat them, and I still lost to the earth dragon sometimes.
DeRosso: His Gravity elemental attack will make your high HP useless if it hits, because it's percentage based. Fortunately, it misses often enough that you can win. He may also waste turns draining your BP, but beware of a certain physical attack that can KO your entire party at once.
Mephilia, Einheria, and Artemia: Yes, you fight them all at once in Yulyana's sidequest in Chapter 6. After a lot of failed attempts, I rushed Artemia, and then took out Mephilia while Einheria was jumping. (Think of them as a Ranger, Dragoon, and Summoner party from Final Fantasy).
Yulyana: He wasted several of his turns buffing rather than attacking, and the damage cap applies to enemy attacks too.
Airy 1 & 2: They were really easy. Yes, I was level 99 by this point, but I couldn't do the Chapter 7 sidequests, let alone 8 because Monks can't survive their attacks.
Airy 3: This convinced me an all-Monk challenge is impossible on Hard without Bravely Second. She can lower your elemental resistance to with Acedia, and then hit everyone with a 9999 damage Fire attack. Yes, this overrides the Iceflame Shield's immunity to Fire. Ouroboros heals her a few times throughout, so she has too much HP to take out with the Monk's single hit attacks before they die. She has a multihit physical attack, and can poison everyone and then use a move that instantly kills poisoned characters. Bravely Default is clearly a game designed for overpowered parties, unlike Second where you can get away with silly self-imposed challenges. My Patissier party in Second was about Level 72 at the last boss, which is about normal. In Default? My Monk team was 99, and they were still losing.
(Your SP is drained every time you use Bravely Second, whether the game saves or not. So that means 24 hours with your 3DS in sleep mode between 3 SP attempts at a boss. Maybe Monks could do Airy 3 with instant Megalixirs or Specials breaking the damage cap. . .)
The moral of this story is: Monks are bad in the Bravely series. Don't use your "4 Black Belt" party from FF1 here. It will choke at the last minute. Read my overly long post and save yourself the trouble.
My current Hawkeye run in Bravely Second is much easier because they can use equipment and use other weapons' Specials as needed. Most of the challenge comes from their lousy defenses and mediocre Speed (which affects turn order, but turn order is partially random unlike in Pokemon).
I also tend to do single class challenges for Etrian Odyssey games, such as all Princes in 3, and all Nightseekers, Runemasters, and Dancers in 4. Balanced parties bore me in those games. What kind of RPG self-imposed challenges do you like to try?