Outfitting Fate

So in hype for SaGa Emerald Beyond, I decided to start up a SaGa game. I'm still playing Harvest Moon 2 in the evenings; now Final Fantasy Legend II is my afternoon naptime game.

But before I move on in FFL2, I want to do a little calculation (even though this will literally become obsolete in like 15 minutes after moving on... but it's FUN so just let me OK?!)

Basically what I want to do is see how 'optimal' I can outfit Fate (my robot) at the first town.

Here's the options we have and the stat changes they give:

Item	HP+	Stat	Cost
Bronze Gauntlets	9	DEF+2	25
Bronze Helm	9	DEF+2	50
Bronze Shield	9	DEF+2	50
Gold Gauntlets	27	DEF+10	3400
Hammer	9	STR+2	50
Bow	9	AGI+2	50
Punch	9	AGI+2	50
Rapier	18	AGI+4	400
Long Sword	18	STR+4	400
Whip	18	AGI+4	400
Psi Dagger	27	-	1400
Kick	27	AGI+6	1400

Normally I go for a STR build because it just "feels right" (robit hit hard!!) but TBH there's only two STR-raising items and they're not that good. Plus, you still have to worry about accuracy, which is determined by AGL. The Rapier, however, has damage that is also determined by AGL, and then your initiative is determined by AGL... so overall AGL is a much more useful stat. We only get 7 item slots to work with (the 8th is always occupied by OPa/Po) so trying to build a STR build when we'd still need AGL actually seems counterproductive.

We basically have three options if we're not going for STR -- A pure tank build with a shield (sadly we have to go for the Bronze shield for now), an AGI build revolving around the Rapier, or a mixed build.

With Kick adding 27 to Max HP, we still can build a pretty beefy AGL build, so it's tempting to go for that, but without DEF, Fate will still lose a lot of HP quickly so having a ton is not TERRIBLY useful. We also don't have Meta beefed up enough to tank yet, so we're more in need of a tank than a decent-HP attacker. Plus with Snez and Clak's magic attacks, we don't terribly need a lot more damage output right now.

Also, Fate comes equipped with a Pistol which gives 27 HP and 6 STR. Guns do fixed damage, and for this early in the game, the Pistol is actually one of our stronger weapons, and would probably even outclass the Rapier even if we went with 6 Kicks and a Rapier (er, maybe. 6 Kicks is a LOT of AGL for this part of the game).

So it seems for the best to build a tank build, beefing up DEF and HP, while keeping the Pistol for damage. The Bronze Shield allows us to completely negate incoming damage possibly (though it also uses our action for the turn), so it's going to be useful even with its poor stat upgrades.

The next problem is cost -- if we're wanting to go with the Pistol, Bronze Shield, and 5 Gold Gauntlets, we're going to have to cough up some SERIOUS cash. I don't really mind grinding, but it will take a LOT to get enough for the Gold Gauntlets -- their price is there to make them appealing to maybe buy ONE or wait until you revisit later in the game. Five is... lol.

Then there's the point that we might still want some AGL to get our Pistol attacks in early. Now, Robots start with the following stat spread:

0 STR
6 DEF
5 AGI
0 MANA

AFAIK there's no way to raise a Robot's MANA so we're just going to ignore that stat (even MANA-based weapons like the Psi Dagger do nothing for their stat boost).

Now, we're at the beginning of the game, and even with armor on, our Meta's defense is a whopping three, and he's surviving well enough (can take 2-3 hits before KO). So a defense of 16+ (one Gold Gauntlets) should be enough to tank, especially with big HP. So we're going to boost HP with Kicks, which will also boost AGL as a nice bonus. Kick is also kind of expensive, but not nearly as bad as Gold Gauntlets. Then we'll get the Bronze Shield, so our loadout will look like this:

Pistol
Bronze Shield
Kick
Kick
Kick
Kick
Gold Gauntlets
OPa/Po

I did a little big of grinding last night to try to get some stat boosts (the game uses a random-stat-up system like sagafro and minsaga) and got a few HP Ups for Meta and MANA Ups for Snez. (Clak's stats are determined by form, and Fate's are determined by equipment). I'm going to be buying Rapiers for Meta and Snez to try to increase their AGL for now, as well.

With the little bit (er, lotta bit really) of grinding I did when I booted the game up last night, I got 3756 GP, so enough to go ahead and grab one of the Gold Gauntlets. Since Meta still has a Long Sword and Snez has access to magic, we don't need to buy the Rapiers right away. So I think I'll grab the Bronze Shield and Gold Gauntlets, then grind out some more money while getting Meta's HP and STR up and Snez's MANA up, then buy the Rapiers. Then while trying to raise AGL I'll farm for the rest of the money to buy the four Kicks.

I'll also equip Fate with the two Hammers we found along the way for a little bit of a boost to HP while we wait to replace them with Kicks.

This puts Fate at these stats before the grind starts:

132 HP
10 STR
18 DEF
AGL 5
MANA 0

And now we have our tank out front and we're good to go! Only 94 GP left until we can buy our first Rapier.

And an afterthought I just had -- with all the Kicks we'll have pretty high AGL, so it might actually be better to use the Rapier instead of the Pistol at that point, so maybe after getting all the Kicks, I'll grind out enough for another Rapier and test this theory.