Post by Shenox on Mar 18, 2016 11:23:23 GMT -5
Alright, here's my suggestion for a game that's not Final Fantasy. I'm actually running this challenge myself semi-blind (kind of, the project itself is rather inactive atm) and even though the ruleset seems to be simple, I made some tweaks to the whole thing so I wanted to explain it here.
__________________________________________
NM - No Magic: Well, this is the very simple part as the rule itself already explains pretty much everything. No. Magic. None at all. If someone has access to magic, you're not allowed to use it. If not, read below.
This doesn't really matter for the first two characters of your party anyway as they don't have access to magic, but you want to make sure they will never get any access to magic. Characters in Grandia learn magic by spending mana eggs in shops to learn one of 4 elements per egg. (you gain access to this after the third boss) You can simply sell mana eggs in this run though, as no magic means no magic so there is absolutely no reason to spend mana eggs on elements when you don't have the possibility of using magic afterwards. Mana eggs are actually worth a lot so spending the money you get from selling them to buy restorative items is a smart idea, otherwise you will end up having a lot of trouble.
IE - Initial Equipment: My idea of Initial Equipment is a bit different in this challenge compared to a Final Fantasy VII IE run for example. Initial Equipment does not mean you are never allowed to change your equipment in your run. You actually have to change weapons at least once if you don't want to overlevel.
The use of weapons in Grandia levels up weapon skills on the character using the weapon type. Every weapon level up increases your SP (Special points, used for weapon skills) by one and two additional stats. The most important stat in this challenge is Vitality, as it increases your defense and you definitely won't be able to swap armor pieces on anyone, so knowing which weapon type increases which stat is key.
Blunt weapons are the only weapon type that increase Vitality, but not everyone starts with a blunt weapon, even if they might be able to use it. So the whole idea of my version of IE in Grandia is giving other characters access to ANY piece of Initial Equipment so that you won't have to overlevel too much. For example: Justin - the main character - starts with a Wooden Rod (Rod-type blunt weapon) equipped but instantly gets access to a Wooden Sword before you get to do anything on your own. This way, his initial equipment consists of two weapons. Sue - the other character you pretty much instantly have access to - is a glass cannon, so you might want to increase her Vitality by a bit. She is able to use projectile weapons and blunt weapons, so by equipping the Wooden Sword to Justin you can give the Wooden Rod to Sue to level up her mace skill to prevent her from going down in a few hits.
The other exception are Zero Weapons later in the game. Zero weapons do exactly what they sound like: nothing. If you equip the Zero Sword for example, you will get +0 ATK. These weapons seem useless, but they actually help a lot with leveling weapon skills later in the game (after you got access to them). Since they actually do nothing and even make the game harder if you use them, they are allowed to be used aswell.
__________________________________________
So yeah, that's the whole idea of NMIE in Grandia, which I kind of made up as I only saw an IE run where the runner ended up overleveling a ton right in front of the fifth boss which destroyed the whole idea of a challenge run in my opinion. If you have any idea how to tweak stuff in this challenge simply based on the fact that you will probably have more experience with the game than me, let me know as I usually love to play challenges even though I don't know the game 100%. xD
__________________________________________
NM - No Magic: Well, this is the very simple part as the rule itself already explains pretty much everything. No. Magic. None at all. If someone has access to magic, you're not allowed to use it. If not, read below.
This doesn't really matter for the first two characters of your party anyway as they don't have access to magic, but you want to make sure they will never get any access to magic. Characters in Grandia learn magic by spending mana eggs in shops to learn one of 4 elements per egg. (you gain access to this after the third boss) You can simply sell mana eggs in this run though, as no magic means no magic so there is absolutely no reason to spend mana eggs on elements when you don't have the possibility of using magic afterwards. Mana eggs are actually worth a lot so spending the money you get from selling them to buy restorative items is a smart idea, otherwise you will end up having a lot of trouble.
IE - Initial Equipment: My idea of Initial Equipment is a bit different in this challenge compared to a Final Fantasy VII IE run for example. Initial Equipment does not mean you are never allowed to change your equipment in your run. You actually have to change weapons at least once if you don't want to overlevel.
The use of weapons in Grandia levels up weapon skills on the character using the weapon type. Every weapon level up increases your SP (Special points, used for weapon skills) by one and two additional stats. The most important stat in this challenge is Vitality, as it increases your defense and you definitely won't be able to swap armor pieces on anyone, so knowing which weapon type increases which stat is key.
| Weapon Type | 1st Stat Increase | 2nd Stat Increase |
| Sword | Wit + 2 | Strength + 1 |
| Blunt Weapons (Maces/Hammers, Rods/Staves) | Max HP + 2 | Vitality + 1 |
| Axe | Strength + 2 | Max HP + 1 |
| Projectiles (Bows/Throwing Weapons, Shurikens/Boomerangs) | Strength + 2 | Max HP + 1 |
| Knives | Agility + 2 | Max HP + 1 |
| Whips | Wit + 2 | Max HP + 1 |
Blunt weapons are the only weapon type that increase Vitality, but not everyone starts with a blunt weapon, even if they might be able to use it. So the whole idea of my version of IE in Grandia is giving other characters access to ANY piece of Initial Equipment so that you won't have to overlevel too much. For example: Justin - the main character - starts with a Wooden Rod (Rod-type blunt weapon) equipped but instantly gets access to a Wooden Sword before you get to do anything on your own. This way, his initial equipment consists of two weapons. Sue - the other character you pretty much instantly have access to - is a glass cannon, so you might want to increase her Vitality by a bit. She is able to use projectile weapons and blunt weapons, so by equipping the Wooden Sword to Justin you can give the Wooden Rod to Sue to level up her mace skill to prevent her from going down in a few hits.
The other exception are Zero Weapons later in the game. Zero weapons do exactly what they sound like: nothing. If you equip the Zero Sword for example, you will get +0 ATK. These weapons seem useless, but they actually help a lot with leveling weapon skills later in the game (after you got access to them). Since they actually do nothing and even make the game harder if you use them, they are allowed to be used aswell.
__________________________________________
So yeah, that's the whole idea of NMIE in Grandia, which I kind of made up as I only saw an IE run where the runner ended up overleveling a ton right in front of the fifth boss which destroyed the whole idea of a challenge run in my opinion. If you have any idea how to tweak stuff in this challenge simply based on the fact that you will probably have more experience with the game than me, let me know as I usually love to play challenges even though I don't know the game 100%. xD