Seriously, Why is Umaro Even a Thing?

[spindaspinda]

I've wondered this even when I played the SNES version years ago. Everything about him doesn't seem quite right.

Umaro in general seems flawed. For one, when you fight him, he has around 20,000-30,000 HP, but when he joins the party, it goes down to a measly 1500 HP.

It's not like he brings anything interesting to the table either, he feels like a crummy knock off of Gau (whom has much more options, can actually equip items, and you can still control him before you let him become a rage lord), vs the other optional character, Gogo, whom had a pretty unique set up to him.

Also on that note, both side characters don't really have very much plot. The difference I see is that Gogo is supposed to be the "mystery man" who's just helping the party in order to save the world. Backstory would be nice, but I can get over it.

With Umaro however, there's obviously something else. You fight him, he's defeated, and suddenly Mog just decides to Shanghai him onto the adventure. Makes me wonder why he's even here! Pretty much a throw-away character all round.

[Bamethyst38]

Originally posted by Ryu Fireheart:

Originally posted by ChrisH36:

I did manage to beat the Kaiser Dragon, Omega Weapon, Kekfa AND Soul Shrine with the God Emperor in tow without any of that abusive ♥♥♥♥. However, I did do some stat increases.

I did everything in the game and i can say the stat increase from espers are not really necessary. Of course people will say that you can beat anything in low level by using some tricks.
But in most FF games i played so far using natural stats (or minimal stats) you can play normaly and still kill all super bosses. I used to go for max stats years ago but i started to feel like i was breaking the characters gameplay styles, so i started to let them be what they should be since the beginning.

Well breaking the character's styles is when you basically do what most people end up doing and Ultima/Quick/Master's Scroll/2 Ultima Weapon/Valiant Knife spam everything. I have seen a few videos where people did things like that and it was boring as all hell. DarkKefka was notorious for this when he beat FF6. He beat the Soul Shrine with fewer party members than intended but it was all the aforementioned spam with Meltdown and the occasional Phantom Rush. What inevitably gave me the motivation to do the Anti-Norm run was him and Veteran0102 bad mouthing Cyan even though his videos were all cookie cutter spams, played on Wait and he played like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ on Gold Dragon.

You can have stat increases and still stick with the special abilities that character has. Like raising Strength on Cyan and you can use Bushidos outside of Eclipse religiously. Or you can do a Drill only Edgar or Jump build. Or play Rage Gau. Hell, I even used Gogo quite a lot even though I originally never liked him, but his ability to customize his command card is a godsend, despite his stats. The only restrictions are what you place on them.

And even without Stat increasers, your Level is a huge deal as it is thrown into the multipliers for damage outputs and the like.

The problem with FF6 was they gave too much freedom with customization and it allowed ANYTHING to be possible except in a few characters and certain gear. Not to mention streamers and online players tend to showcase cookie cutter strategies to slay everything and there are people who care about just beating the game than the challenge of it.

[Ryu Fireheart]

When i said "breaking the characters gameplay styles" i was talking about keeping their pros and cons with stats instead of maxing everything and making everyone almost be a clone of each other. Also by keeping all of them at minimal stats made the team more balanced for Gogo and Umaro.

[Bamethyst38]

Originally posted by Ryu Fireheart:

When i said "breaking the characters gameplay styles" i was talking about keeping their pros and cons with stats instead of maxing everything and making everyone almost be a clone of each other. Also by keeping all of them at minimal stats made the team more balanced for Gogo and Umaro.

True, but Gogo's modification of the Command Card makes him effective, even when people are stat modded.

You can still keep their pros and cons, you just amplify the pros and deal with the cons accordingl . Even if you milk every level for what it is worth, it is impossible to completely Stat Max your characters. The best you will get is 1-2 Stats with HP/MP.

But as I also said: Things like Ultima, Quick and the Master Scrolls also kind of ruin the whole balance thing.

[Aviticus Dragon]

I remember back in the day when I got all the characters to level 99 training everyone with different espers to learn all the different magics. I think I fought some strange small little cactus guys in the desert that gave the most magic XP. How many hours I put into that game is crazy but I can hardly remember it

[spindaspinda]

Originally posted by Aviticus Dragon:

I remember back in the day when I got all the characters to level 99 training everyone with different espers to learn all the different magics. I think I fought some strange small little cactus guys in the desert that gave the most magic XP. How many hours I put into that game is crazy but I can hardly remember it

Oh yeah, out there in the Maranda desert. That's where I started grinding the characters I didn't care about,(Locke, Relm, Umaro, etc) because they were too weak for the dinosaurs. Using Air Anchor immediately defeats that one Zone Eater Wannabe for some nice XP with two characters

[Bamethyst38]

Originally posted by Aviticus Dragon:

I remember back in the day when I got all the characters to level 99 training everyone with different espers to learn all the different magics. I think I fought some strange small little cactus guys in the desert that gave the most magic XP. How many hours I put into that game is crazy but I can hardly remember it

Gau with the Ahriman (Roulette) Rage also works. The spell bypasses evasion checks and ignores your allies in the selection.

I think both enemies can be instant killed by it as well.

The Dinosaurs are better but you run the risk of facing a Brachiosaur, which can Meteor by chance on it's 2nd turn or Ultima on it's 4th. Meteor does ~2.5K and Ultima is 5.5k but it can be stopped by Runic.

[spindaspinda]

Originally posted by ChrisH36:

Originally posted by Aviticus Dragon:

I remember back in the day when I got all the characters to level 99 training everyone with different espers to learn all the different magics. I think I fought some strange small little cactus guys in the desert that gave the most magic XP. How many hours I put into that game is crazy but I can hardly remember it

Gau with the Ahriman (Roulette) Rage also works. The spell bypasses evasion checks and ignores your allies in the selection.

I think both enemies can be instant killed by it as well.

The Dinosaurs are better but you run the risk of facing a Brachiosaur, which can Meteor by chance on it's 2nd turn or Ultima on it's 4th. Meteor does ~2.5K and Ultima is 5.5k but it can be stopped by Runic.

I went to the Dinosaurs after Kefka (to grind for the Dragon's Den), but I realized that everybody that wasn't a character I frequently used (Gogo, Edgar , Sabin, and Shadow were very high in level~) couldn't fight them. So the Maranda desert was a nice balance to get the others up to that point.

[The Why Button]

Because people like fun

[tantegel]

I still think Umaro is underrated. Anyone who can kill a dinosaur by chucking a 12-year old girl at it deserves some respect.

[Bamethyst38]

Umaro's biggest advantage is he helps in the Cultist Tower since he can toss allies into enemies and that ignores their stupid high Defenses and Evasion. It saves on having to berserk an Ultima Weapon and/or Valiant Knife Locke.

[Lost Froggy]

Originally posted by spindaspinda:

Originally posted by ChrisH36:

I did however see a guy beat the final boss on the Advance version with Gau, Mog, Umaro and Gogo using command loss abilities. Mog danced, Gau used Catscratch, Gogo used Destroyer (Reraise) and Umaro used the Blizzard Orb. He won.

Now that sounds like an incredible run! I remember spending days grinding trying to do the CES (Celes-Edgar-Setzer) run on the GBA. I (eventually) beat Kekfa and completed it, but good lord am I never doing it again!

I did this more than one..because I was training to also do it at the same time as a low level run, so I kept working my way to lower level clears. I managed it lower than I thought but took lots of World of Balance prep required and a crap ton of luck and even some bug exploiting to pull it off.

Oh and more save scumming than any sane human should ever do.

[Yandy]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.