I feel like No Magic run is the intended way to play in a way that the party is getting used to a world without esper (and magic) this early. I mean think of it as the scenario where Terra lost her magic (but not esper blood) from the contact with Valigarmanda, and Celes was stripped off her magic the moment she betrayed and joined the rebel.
When I first played the game I didn’t really vibe with the “everyone can use magic” thing so I only had Terra and Celes learn magic aside from putting Cure on a few people Honestly it makes the game way better. I pretty much always play that way now
@jackiespaceman i completely get your point, because it makes everyone develop more unique battle personality / mechanic on top of their initial special skills & desperado. In a world where magic is an exotic gifted-talent thing that's being hunted down, the entire party doesn't necessarily have to be able to use magic, they can with the help of espers, but should they in term of world-building? I feel like they should've made magics from espers learnable on certain gifted characters like the obvious ones and Strago & Relm too. That aside this is one of original FFXII's big flaws IMO, when everyone's able to do anything, nobody is special, stat-wise of course each of them is special, but with license to wield magics & equip types of equipments, they should've implemented job system in the original too.
I think 6 works better when not every character can use all the magic. I'll talk about it more in the summary, but magic being so omnipresent undermines the individual abilities of each character. I don't hate the magicite system in theory, but it really limits what characters can actually shine (aka, which ones have the highest magic stat). It's one of the reasons I really enjoyed playing through the game without magic. I also agree on XII. While I really enjoyed the original release, I much prefer the zodiac age remaster porting in the job class grids from the IZJS release in Japan.
I once read that the similar no-magicite challenge was quite fun, because it forces you to utilize players' unique abilities to their fullest. Also, since IIRC magicite is the only way to raise your core stats... yeah that definitely adds challenge.
Great start to the new year. It's funny. My preferred way to play this game is somewhat similar. I only use the magic command with the four canonically magical characters. It feels wrong using magic with everyone, especially since magic is so busted in this game. I like using each characters unique abilities.
@TheBlackSeraph I've never found speed to be all that important since the atb doesnt reset till a move is finished meaning you can't tend to overlap other characters
@@koseidubzgamez such excellent abilities from one of the first GFs you can obtain. Fun Fact: the first time I ever played FF8, I missed Quez and Shiva until after I beat Ifrit. In my defense, I think I was 14 or 15 at the time :P
The thing with Terra is that Trance doubles *all of the damage she deals*. When you pair that with her having the best equipment set and good-to-great stats across the board, she's a useful party member regardless of if she can use magic or not - just Trance at the start of any given boss fight and watch as she blenders anything and everything she comes across. It gets even more ridiculous if you give her the Genji Glove and Master's Scroll.
I go into detail in my Magic Only Summary video on why I chose the games I did, and the same logic applies. Basically, 5 is better served by class only challenges (and has/will be appearing a lot on the channel anyway).
I kind of feel like using Lore defeats the spirit of no magic as Lore is just Blue Magic with a different name. If you do FF7 I hope you forbid Enemy Skill so we can see what shenanigans you get up to without that crutch.
One of my favorites! I thought for sure you’d use Gau early game for some magic damage over Locke. But keeping Locke available for healing also makes sense.
i will not stand for this air anchor slander (for a no magic run it is amazing in the final battle because one of the arms in phase one and the lady in the center of phase two are both susceptible to instant death) fun video though! Getting to see Strago shine is always a fun time 😁
@Xephrost_Gaming honestly, it's not very relevant in most playthroughs because the endgame is kind of trivialized if you have decent gear and/or spells, but for a randomizer it can be really important depending on how the seed plays out! Air Anchor has saved me a lot of trouble in ffvi: world's collide seeds is the only reason I know 😅
Main problems. No early elemental attacks. Status effects always hitting. No good late game healing. No Ultima. Gau's Text Box: Uwaoo! Mr. Challenge no use Gau? Gau sad. Gau do that.
Sadly Relm is pretty useless without magic, but a fun use for her is to bring her to the Floating Continent. Dual-wielding Thunder Rods she can WRECK the IAF, and is reasonably strong against most of the others. And Setzer is wildly OP in the endgame, if you give him the Fixed Dice and the Warrior's Soul (works for no-magicite or low-level challenges, since it ignores his stats); with some decent armor he can carve through most of the late game bosses in a couple turns.
He's wearing the moogle costume armor which changes his in-game sprite. I had actually never equipped it before and was also very confused while reviewing footage.
Fun fact: if you do another run where you use the Ragnarok weapon, you should wager it in the coliseum. You'll have a great time. this isn't sarcasm, you get an even more busted weapon.
Pretty amusing that with Terra getting the most screwed over by these rules, the main party is the other most prominent characters (Locke, Figaro Bros., and Celes)...and then Strago.
Getting Runic really keeps Celes relevant when she otherwise would lose out from not being able to use magic. Terra does get her unique trance ability, but it's so short lived it's not super reliable. And yes, Strago is obviously the MVP.
@@Xephrost_GamingThe Trance timer is based on how much AP you got between uses, which caps out at IIRC 255 and each AP gives you 1 second of Trance time, which doubles physical and magical damage. Even if you only get about 30 AP, that can give her enough time to get off a Genji Glove + Master Scroll combo for 8 attacks that are almost guaranteed to do 9999 damage, and if the weapons can use a spell, that damage is also doubled. From personal experience, I had a physical build Terra do 12k damage with a single attack command.
I don' t know how to feel about that part where Strago's lores are allowed. Lores are Blue Magic. I know the challenge is "no magic command" but it feels to me like it goes against the spirit of a no magic style run. However, the run is still fun in its current form either way. But it makes me curious: How viable would this run be without using Strago's lores at all?
That's fair. I ultimately decided to allow it so all the characters could show off their unique skillset. It would be interesting without lores. The biggest benefit lores provided was mostly white wind. Without that you'd need to figure out how to heal. Comments have pointed out that Gau has some rages with healing ability (though that would also be questionable if it's okay to get around the restriction by having Gau cast cure spells via rage rather than the magic command itself). Other than that, you'd really need to work to get x potions or megalixirs. It looks like megalixirs are stealable from the land rays that teach Mighty Guard. So, honestly, it actually would have been super easy to just have Gogo and Locke steal a bunch of megalixirs, negating any need for White Wind in the world of ruin. Before that healing is less needed, but would still have been difficult.
Zero magic is very viable. For instance, you could keep your level low until you get Bismarck, then you can level up until you’re around 20 as each character one at a time so nobody levels up without the stat boosts. You can also use Gau with the Stray Cat rage to get an attack that’s x8 regular attack damage, which lets him out damage the rest of the party for half the game, and it’s available when you first get to the Veldt. In Zoro you can steal Gigas Gloves, which increases physical damage by 25%. On the floating continent, you can steal Genji Gloves for the entire party to greatly boost their damage. You can get the Offering / Master Scroll to turn regular attacks into a dual wielding Rapid Fire from FF5. You can steal an infinite number of Megalixirs and use Setzer or Shadow in the coliseum to get enough Miracle Shoes for the entire party, which gives automatic haste, protect, shell and Regen, which lets you take half damage from all sources, letting you act twice as often and heal automatically so you’d only have to worry about things like Fallen Angel, but we can get infinite Megalixirs, so it’s a non issue. FF6 without magic is way easier than people give it credit for.
Oh, I definitely did. Normally you can just flee from encounters, so turning them off just saves time and doesn't impact the challenge. But I try to remember to turn off no encounters in areas where it actually impacts gameplay. And because you can't flee from fights in the Cultist Tower, it was actually something I had to work around. By equipping the normal in-game item that disables random encounters. lol.
Actually, you made the game much more interesting to watch with this challenge 😂 Magic is so busted usually late game is just ultima spam, healing+hastega and some character using genji glove + quadra attack
I feel like no magic or only magic are both interesting ways to play. But when you have access to everything in this game, there's just nothing to really stand up to you at any point.
I mean, offensively, they can only use attack, sure, but Morph can sorta help, and Runic would be able to absorb any spell without penalizing magic use in the party as they'd never cast anything. Though that could be a lot of her standing, waiting, and doing nothing....
I always play the Japanese SNES (SFC Super Famicom) version. If you don't have a piece of equipment (I always sell the helmets) and put the one of Edgar's tools in the last spot of the inventory, people can equip it instead of the equipment you don't have. Drills have 255 mdef, and with a bug in ff6 that makes def also maxed because mdef is calculated instead of def. I buy 14 drills so everyone can equip them (minus Umaro of course because he can't equip anything) and have one that can be used as a tool.
That's incredible. I've never played the SNES version, but my understanding is that it was pretty buggy with some abilities. My first playthrough wasn't until the GBA version which had ironed most of that out.
Every time I play FF6, I always wind up with Edgar, Sabin, and Gau in my party. I think their machanics are hlthe most interesting, especially Gau. So, yeah. Basically same.
@Catman_CM i use Shadow cuz ninja. Celes Terra cuz hot girl energy and Edgar. Was on an emulator so i couldnt do Sabins blitzs but now its Sabin Cyan Celes and a random 4th
@@bronysaiyan5236 Man, Sabin is very hard to pull off with an emulator. If I remember correctly, for diagonal inputs (let's say down -> down-left -> left, for example) I had to hold the down button, then press and hold left, then release down. And then hope I did it right. Cyan's Bushido (I think that's what it's called) is not that fun. Click, wait for a bit while the enemy hits my party, then click when the meter fills up. His story is compelling, though!
@@Catman_CM @bronysaiyan5236 You can actually do a weird input for Blitzes on emulators. For aura bolt, down, down left, for rising phoenix, left, left, down down, right, for razor gale, up up right right down down left. for phantom rush, left left up up right right down down left. I don't know if it works in the pixel remaster.
The Gau disrespect. Didn’t even bother to recruit him in the world of ruin.
I really just didn't want to bother figuring out what rages were actually worth using and getting.
Gay sucks
@@Xephrost_Gaming stray cat is the best in world of balance
@@lloydmeadorsTemplar can also be gotten in Sabin's scenario and lets you cast fira before getting ifrit
Personally I like blazephalon and the T-Rex monster. The mouse one is good for insta kill.
I feel like No Magic run is the intended way to play in a way that the party is getting used to a world without esper (and magic) this early. I mean think of it as the scenario where Terra lost her magic (but not esper blood) from the contact with Valigarmanda, and Celes was stripped off her magic the moment she betrayed and joined the rebel.
When I first played the game I didn’t really vibe with the “everyone can use magic” thing so I only had Terra and Celes learn magic aside from putting Cure on a few people
Honestly it makes the game way better. I pretty much always play that way now
@jackiespaceman i completely get your point, because it makes everyone develop more unique battle personality / mechanic on top of their initial special skills & desperado. In a world where magic is an exotic gifted-talent thing that's being hunted down, the entire party doesn't necessarily have to be able to use magic, they can with the help of espers, but should they in term of world-building? I feel like they should've made magics from espers learnable on certain gifted characters like the obvious ones and Strago & Relm too.
That aside this is one of original FFXII's big flaws IMO, when everyone's able to do anything, nobody is special, stat-wise of course each of them is special, but with license to wield magics & equip types of equipments, they should've implemented job system in the original too.
I think 6 works better when not every character can use all the magic. I'll talk about it more in the summary, but magic being so omnipresent undermines the individual abilities of each character. I don't hate the magicite system in theory, but it really limits what characters can actually shine (aka, which ones have the highest magic stat). It's one of the reasons I really enjoyed playing through the game without magic.
I also agree on XII. While I really enjoyed the original release, I much prefer the zodiac age remaster porting in the job class grids from the IZJS release in Japan.
I once read that the similar no-magicite challenge was quite fun, because it forces you to utilize players' unique abilities to their fullest.
Also, since IIRC magicite is the only way to raise your core stats... yeah that definitely adds challenge.
Great start to the new year. It's funny. My preferred way to play this game is somewhat similar. I only use the magic command with the four canonically magical characters. It feels wrong using magic with everyone, especially since magic is so busted in this game. I like using each characters unique abilities.
Can't watch because trying not to spoil this game for myself at all but commenting for algorithm. Good series
I, for one, hope you have a great time with FF6. I think the story holds up fairly well, and the characters are pretty fun, for the most part.
I recommend. FF6 is available on a lot of consoles these days and it is genuinely very good.
Keep up the good work! I'm impressed with the quality and consistency of your videos.
The fact you get Bismarck so early the +2 strength esper should be absolutely huge in this run.
It's generally seen as best to get the two speed-boosting espers as quickly as possible as well for faster turns.
@TheBlackSeraph I've never found speed to be all that important since the atb doesnt reset till a move is finished meaning you can't tend to overlap other characters
I always love using Umaro in the Magic Tower. It's a shame that raging Sasquatch can't equip Espers.
Yeah, I didn't even think to bring Umaro until another commenter pointed it out. I feel very silly for not thinking of that.
Going from 2 to 6 has me excited to see which one you do next.
I'm hoping for FF8. There are so many interesting commands you can learn throught the GFs in the game.
@@Catman_CM Card, Card-mod ooh yes please
@@koseidubzgamez such excellent abilities from one of the first GFs you can obtain.
Fun Fact: the first time I ever played FF8, I missed Quez and Shiva until after I beat Ifrit. In my defense, I think I was 14 or 15 at the time :P
Runic in a no magic run is actually way better since ut won't accidentally eat your own spells.
Oh true. Another buff to make Celes more useful.
The thing with Terra is that Trance doubles *all of the damage she deals*. When you pair that with her having the best equipment set and good-to-great stats across the board, she's a useful party member regardless of if she can use magic or not - just Trance at the start of any given boss fight and watch as she blenders anything and everything she comes across. It gets even more ridiculous if you give her the Genji Glove and Master's Scroll.
The real star of the opera is, of course, Gogo.
I was surprised you skipped FFV then I remembered how busted Rapid Fire + Dual Wield is.
I go into detail in my Magic Only Summary video on why I chose the games I did, and the same logic applies. Basically, 5 is better served by class only challenges (and has/will be appearing a lot on the channel anyway).
Nobody wants to make 5 videos, Backlog got that game monopolized lol.
@@xxANBUxx There seem to be a lot of FF5 creators around, especially with the popularity of the four job fiesta challenge.
I kind of feel like using Lore defeats the spirit of no magic as Lore is just Blue Magic with a different name. If you do FF7 I hope you forbid Enemy Skill so we can see what shenanigans you get up to without that crutch.
Technically incorrect. The worst kind of incorrect. The Magic Command is not the Lore Command
Lore feels... kinda to close to magic. But still great video.
Lmao, nothing interesting happens in this scene. Love your style mate, you got me hooked 😂
One of my favorites! I thought for sure you’d use Gau early game for some magic damage over Locke. But keeping Locke available for healing also makes sense.
I considered Gau, but getting the best rages seemed annoying, so I didn't want to bother.
You didn't got Mog on the World of Balance?
He can randomly heal through some of his Dances (notably Water Harmony)
Oh yes this is what I needed today
i will not stand for this air anchor slander (for a no magic run it is amazing in the final battle because one of the arms in phase one and the lady in the center of phase two are both susceptible to instant death)
fun video though! Getting to see Strago shine is always a fun time 😁
Ooooh. Interesting. I didn't even think to check if any of the boss parts were vulnerable to death. Good to know.
@Xephrost_Gaming honestly, it's not very relevant in most playthroughs because the endgame is kind of trivialized if you have decent gear and/or spells, but for a randomizer it can be really important depending on how the seed plays out! Air Anchor has saved me a lot of trouble in ffvi: world's collide seeds is the only reason I know 😅
Main problems.
No early elemental attacks. Status effects always hitting. No good late game healing. No Ultima.
Gau's Text Box: Uwaoo! Mr. Challenge no use Gau? Gau sad. Gau do that.
Sadly Relm is pretty useless without magic, but a fun use for her is to bring her to the Floating Continent. Dual-wielding Thunder Rods she can WRECK the IAF, and is reasonably strong against most of the others.
And Setzer is wildly OP in the endgame, if you give him the Fixed Dice and the Warrior's Soul (works for no-magicite or low-level challenges, since it ignores his stats); with some decent armor he can carve through most of the late game bosses in a couple turns.
40 minutes and 128 views already?! You're taking off! 🤩
Why did Strago turn into Mog around 19 minutes in?
He's wearing the moogle costume armor which changes his in-game sprite. I had actually never equipped it before and was also very confused while reviewing footage.
Oopsie Doopsie I did a bit of a war crime, uWu -Kefka probably
Fun fact: if you do another run where you use the Ragnarok weapon, you should wager it in the coliseum. You'll have a great time. this isn't sarcasm, you get an even more busted weapon.
Pretty amusing that with Terra getting the most screwed over by these rules, the main party is the other most prominent characters (Locke, Figaro Bros., and Celes)...and then Strago.
Getting Runic really keeps Celes relevant when she otherwise would lose out from not being able to use magic. Terra does get her unique trance ability, but it's so short lived it's not super reliable.
And yes, Strago is obviously the MVP.
@@Xephrost_GamingThe Trance timer is based on how much AP you got between uses, which caps out at IIRC 255 and each AP gives you 1 second of Trance time, which doubles physical and magical damage.
Even if you only get about 30 AP, that can give her enough time to get off a Genji Glove + Master Scroll combo for 8 attacks that are almost guaranteed to do 9999 damage, and if the weapons can use a spell, that damage is also doubled.
From personal experience, I had a physical build Terra do 12k damage with a single attack command.
I don' t know how to feel about that part where Strago's lores are allowed. Lores are Blue Magic. I know the challenge is "no magic command" but it feels to me like it goes against the spirit of a no magic style run. However, the run is still fun in its current form either way. But it makes me curious: How viable would this run be without using Strago's lores at all?
That's fair. I ultimately decided to allow it so all the characters could show off their unique skillset. It would be interesting without lores. The biggest benefit lores provided was mostly white wind. Without that you'd need to figure out how to heal.
Comments have pointed out that Gau has some rages with healing ability (though that would also be questionable if it's okay to get around the restriction by having Gau cast cure spells via rage rather than the magic command itself). Other than that, you'd really need to work to get x potions or megalixirs.
It looks like megalixirs are stealable from the land rays that teach Mighty Guard. So, honestly, it actually would have been super easy to just have Gogo and Locke steal a bunch of megalixirs, negating any need for White Wind in the world of ruin. Before that healing is less needed, but would still have been difficult.
Zero magic is very viable.
For instance, you could keep your level low until you get Bismarck, then you can level up until you’re around 20 as each character one at a time so nobody levels up without the stat boosts.
You can also use Gau with the Stray Cat rage to get an attack that’s x8 regular attack damage, which lets him out damage the rest of the party for half the game, and it’s available when you first get to the Veldt.
In Zoro you can steal Gigas Gloves, which increases physical damage by 25%.
On the floating continent, you can steal Genji Gloves for the entire party to greatly boost their damage.
You can get the Offering / Master Scroll to turn regular attacks into a dual wielding Rapid Fire from FF5.
You can steal an infinite number of Megalixirs and use Setzer or Shadow in the coliseum to get enough Miracle Shoes for the entire party, which gives automatic haste, protect, shell and Regen, which lets you take half damage from all sources, letting you act twice as often and heal automatically so you’d only have to worry about things like Fallen Angel, but we can get infinite Megalixirs, so it’s a non issue.
FF6 without magic is way easier than people give it credit for.
Should have brought Umaro to the cultist tower. Also, research Odin and the Offering accessory.
.... I'm very stupid. I didn't even think about Umaro for the tower.
FF6 is my favorite in the main line series
Didn't use the PR perks this time? Like no-encounters?
Oh, I definitely did. Normally you can just flee from encounters, so turning them off just saves time and doesn't impact the challenge. But I try to remember to turn off no encounters in areas where it actually impacts gameplay. And because you can't flee from fights in the Cultist Tower, it was actually something I had to work around. By equipping the normal in-game item that disables random encounters. lol.
I like the run but using lore is a bit meh...
Just in time
Kafka dies that's the end of the game and all the living espers die due to magic being detroyed.
Actually, you made the game much more interesting to watch with this challenge 😂
Magic is so busted usually late game is just ultima spam, healing+hastega and some character using genji glove + quadra attack
I feel like no magic or only magic are both interesting ways to play. But when you have access to everything in this game, there's just nothing to really stand up to you at any point.
Sad Terra and Celes noises
I mean, offensively, they can only use attack, sure, but Morph can sorta help, and Runic would be able to absorb any spell without penalizing magic use in the party as they'd never cast anything.
Though that could be a lot of her standing, waiting, and doing nothing....
if you are down here, please leave a like!
honestly, i would have preferred this in the SNES version. it looks better. and sounds better. and plays better.
bruh we are like 3.5 minutes in and this man already has a ribbon and genji glove. this game is just *hurling* items at you
I always play the Japanese SNES (SFC Super Famicom) version. If you don't have a piece of equipment (I always sell the helmets) and put the one of Edgar's tools in the last spot of the inventory, people can equip it instead of the equipment you don't have.
Drills have 255 mdef, and with a bug in ff6 that makes def also maxed because mdef is calculated instead of def.
I buy 14 drills so everyone can equip them (minus Umaro of course because he can't equip anything) and have one that can be used as a tool.
That's incredible. I've never played the SNES version, but my understanding is that it was pretty buggy with some abilities. My first playthrough wasn't until the GBA version which had ironed most of that out.
@Xephrost_Gaming vanish + doom on the SNES version was broken...
Just started but this definitely feels the easiest. Mostly cuz i almost always play this way lmfao
Every time I play FF6, I always wind up with Edgar, Sabin, and Gau in my party. I think their machanics are hlthe most interesting, especially Gau.
So, yeah. Basically same.
@Catman_CM i use Shadow cuz ninja. Celes Terra cuz hot girl energy and Edgar. Was on an emulator so i couldnt do Sabins blitzs but now its Sabin Cyan Celes and a random 4th
@@bronysaiyan5236 Man, Sabin is very hard to pull off with an emulator. If I remember correctly, for diagonal inputs (let's say down -> down-left -> left, for example) I had to hold the down button, then press and hold left, then release down. And then hope I did it right.
Cyan's Bushido (I think that's what it's called) is not that fun. Click, wait for a bit while the enemy hits my party, then click when the meter fills up. His story is compelling, though!
@@Catman_CM @bronysaiyan5236 You can actually do a weird input for Blitzes on emulators. For aura bolt, down, down left, for rising phoenix, left, left, down down, right, for razor gale, up up right right down down left. for phantom rush, left left up up right right down down left.
I don't know if it works in the pixel remaster.