Wiegraf is a character in Final Fantasy Tactics on the PS1/PSP that doesn't start out as a boss, but rather has
alot to do with the first half of the game. Though the battles against wiegraf are not necessarily boss-fight
tough, they are above normal. Consider them like a really tough miniboss. Fights with him are way scattered
throughout the story, but every time he appears you know something cool is gonna happen.
I'f you don't know the story for FFT I recommend you play this, now. It's not only my favorite story in a final fantasy game, but also this is my favorite FF period. Wiegraf is the leader of a group of terrorists formed after a 50 year war that doesn't get paid what they're promised, The Corpse Brigade. They're a pretty big a group of soldiers who all they really want is to feed their kids, really. He is such a character that tries to steer his men away from kidnapping a marquis for ransom, after disobeying wiegraf something not so cool happens to these rebels gone rogue, check the video.
So you can see how he's a man of principle, and he's just really caught up with this whole war thing. Later in the game another one of the rebel troops kidnaps Ramzas (the hero/you) sister in order to escape. And while you go on the hunt for him confront Wiegraf's sister, Milluda, and eventually slain her. You catch up to Wiegraf for an awesome face-off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzrDyS-JsWA
Eventually Wiegraf arrives at his sisters grave to avenge her death, hating what all the aristocracy has brought upon his friends and family. It is here that he gets his ultimate chance for revenge and gets offered to join the church (remember that the church had awesome power in old times) as a holy knight, to turn the tide and help those in need. Blinded by his hate he joins them for a chance to kill Ramza and gets sent on a hunt for the virgo stone which they eventually take, sacrificing his soul with his last breath to said stone he becomes the evil entity of the Virgo stone and escapes to face off some other time.
The Moment: After arriving at the castle where Wiegraf is garrisoned you get to duel against him 1 vs 1 this battle is one of those OMFG should've grind'ed for an hour before this, as you have no real 'special' powers. And he well....hes a fucking HOLY KNIGHT. I remember that on my first play through I had to start the game
over because I saved right before this fight (without access to world map) and I'm a 1 save file kind of dude. After a lot of luck you defeat him, he turns into Virgo and you get to kill him for real this time(with all your party).
I didn't go into the whole 'Virgo' thing because thats not how I like to think of Wiegraf. When he was virgo everything cool about him was lost, he was blinded by rage, blood lust and revenge. Wiegraf was at his best when killing people for not doing what was right. He fought for what was right since the beginning but destiny had a cruel way of turning his path. All he really wanted was justice, is he really the 'bad guy' ?
So there, I don't really think these were HARD fights but they definitely were among the best, especially with all the emotion surrounding them. I salute thee, Wiegraf. For more detail on the whole "that one mook" posts checkout Ckarasu's post HERE
More info on Wiegraf, since I don't feel I'm doing him any justice HERE
The final Wiegraf battle was the hardest battle in the game for me. At that time, I was not able to lower my faith low enough to not be affected by the spells. Wiegraf really is a great character and I really wished what happened to him did not happen. But I guess that is what makes his story so good.
Also, I totally agree with you on FFT is the best FF game out there (and probably one of the best games out there!). However, you really need to play it 2-3 times before fully getting the really good, mature, and in-depth story. Very nice post!
I was able to defeat him one on one by using my speed plus move alot so I had like ten moves for each of his one, then I just ran around leveling up off of that until I was much much stronger than him. The rest of the game sucked though because random encounters off the world map have enemies of the same level as your hero.....
so don't do what I did, it's not worth being super special strong.
A lot of people had trouble with Wiegraf and the following Velius battle. I mean, people recommending Level 60 or higher(!)? Come on! I didn't resort to Accumulate or Yell spam, but I didn't have that much trouble. It's good to out-range him when possible and just hit-and-run since his attacks hit so hard. And, it's imperative to finish him near the top of the map where the Ultima Demons and all spawn, so you can lure them down instead of him being right in the middle of your allies for a quick dusting-off.
It's been a good long while since I've played and I can't stand the PSP port, so my memory may be a bit rusty. =P
I know wiegraf was tough, but I think theres some even tougher battles out there. Especially if you dont use the cheesey TG Cid. Personally I think this is the hardest battle. It's battle #05 you're barely starting out don't even have sophisticated classes yet, first time you see wiegraf in action (I believe), best fucking game ever. to hear your enemies scream, top notch.
The slums of dorter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vbfy9zANg4
@Benson
I loved that the random monsters where always 2-3 levels tougher than your strongest character, should be implemented into EVERY rpg.
I had the fortune of my friend telling me "don't save over your file when it asks you to save before the Wiegraf/Velius fight". I also power leveled Ramza into a two-fist monk with hamedo before him. Bitch-smacked his ass.
Slums of Dorter had some of the best music in the entire game, and I believe that was the only time it played. It wasn't even a story-critical battle...well...I suppose it was for that chapter, but even so! It's the first time you're faced with a Black Mage who can two-shot your party if you're not careful. I want to go back to that battle now!
Technically, if you tried hard enough, you could open up every single job class and have most of their skills mastered (especially if you used the JP Scroll glitch) as soon as you open up Mandalia Plains, which is pretty much after the first real battle. XD You could walk away at Lv99 and everything and just breeze through the story. ...just that random encounters would probably rape you because your gear wasn't up to spec.
@Dudemullet: The only traditional RPG I've played that had a system like that was FF8, where both bosses and regular enemies scaled (mostly) to your level, though I never quite heard if the game was harder at starting level or 100. Though yes, I do agree that scaling is nice, since it eliminates the need for grinding, in most cases that is.
Nice job with the article. I played the game a while back. It was a fun and challenging game. Most of the bosses required quite a bit of grinding to beat them.
Algus wasn't a terrible battle, but Auto-Potion was annoying (seemed to always trigger with him grrrr). I hear he has a second battle in the PSP port, but I never heard how bad that was, and of course never got that far. =P
I'm starting to think I really should sometime. If only there was a way to break the FPS limit coded into the game!
Boo to having to grind just to continue the story. I'm all for side quests and random encounters, but it chaps my hide when I get to key part of the story only to find out I'm way underpowered because I was supposed to take some self-finding sabbatical and gain some levels between quests.
Boo to having to grind just to continue the story. I'm all for side quests and random encounters, but it chaps my hide when I get to key part of the story only to find out I'm way underpowered because I was supposed to take some self-finding sabbatical and gain some levels between quests.
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your formatting is a bit off.
Great read nonetheless.
Its really cool to see all the video games that stick with people throughout the years!
Sorry, typed it in chrome. Should be fixed now, and thanks ^_^
The final Wiegraf battle was the hardest battle in the game for me. At that time, I was not able to lower my faith low enough to not be affected by the spells. Wiegraf really is a great character and I really wished what happened to him did not happen. But I guess that is what makes his story so good.
Also, I totally agree with you on FFT is the best FF game out there (and probably one of the best games out there!). However, you really need to play it 2-3 times before fully getting the really good, mature, and in-depth story. Very nice post!
What is this "Mook" I keep seeing lol
FFT is so full of tatics, its kinda hard for me to get into it w/o some frustrations throughout.
His fights weren't hard? I too was one-save-file-only guy until the fight with him. I never could beat him and ultimately had to restart the game.
Great write-up though. FFT is one of my top games ever!
I was able to defeat him one on one by using my speed plus move alot so I had like ten moves for each of his one, then I just ran around leveling up off of that until I was much much stronger than him. The rest of the game sucked though because random encounters off the world map have enemies of the same level as your hero.....
so don't do what I did, it's not worth being super special strong.
A lot of people had trouble with Wiegraf and the following Velius battle. I mean, people recommending Level 60 or higher(!)? Come on! I didn't resort to Accumulate or Yell spam, but I didn't have that much trouble. It's good to out-range him when possible and just hit-and-run since his attacks hit so hard. And, it's imperative to finish him near the top of the map where the Ultima Demons and all spawn, so you can lure them down instead of him being right in the middle of your allies for a quick dusting-off.
It's been a good long while since I've played and I can't stand the PSP port, so my memory may be a bit rusty. =P
I know wiegraf was tough, but I think theres some even tougher battles out there. Especially if you dont use the cheesey TG Cid. Personally I think this is the hardest battle. It's battle #05 you're barely starting out don't even have sophisticated classes yet, first time you see wiegraf in action (I believe), best fucking game ever. to hear your enemies scream, top notch.
The slums of dorter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vbfy9zANg4
@Benson
I loved that the random monsters where always 2-3 levels tougher than your strongest character, should be implemented into EVERY rpg.
Oh god not the slums of dorter...I remember grinding the plains and the swamp area for hours just to barely beat that stage.
@Jozo
Def:Mook
I had the fortune of my friend telling me "don't save over your file when it asks you to save before the Wiegraf/Velius fight". I also power leveled Ramza into a two-fist monk with hamedo before him. Bitch-smacked his ass.
Slums of Dorter had some of the best music in the entire game, and I believe that was the only time it played. It wasn't even a story-critical battle...well...I suppose it was for that chapter, but even so! It's the first time you're faced with a Black Mage who can two-shot your party if you're not careful. I want to go back to that battle now!
Technically, if you tried hard enough, you could open up every single job class and have most of their skills mastered (especially if you used the JP Scroll glitch) as soon as you open up Mandalia Plains, which is pretty much after the first real battle. XD You could walk away at Lv99 and everything and just breeze through the story. ...just that random encounters would probably rape you because your gear wasn't up to spec.
@Dudemullet: The only traditional RPG I've played that had a system like that was FF8, where both bosses and regular enemies scaled (mostly) to your level, though I never quite heard if the game was harder at starting level or 100. Though yes, I do agree that scaling is nice, since it eliminates the need for grinding, in most cases that is.
Nice job with the article. I played the game a while back. It was a fun and challenging game. Most of the bosses required quite a bit of grinding to beat them.
i think algus was a bigger annoyance...
but this guy pissed me off as well, go that game was full of twist and turns...
Algus is a prick.
Leave it at that.
I liked Wiegraf :D But no-one in FFT is as cool as Zalbaag, he's a fucking bad-ass.
Algus wasn't a terrible battle, but Auto-Potion was annoying (seemed to always trigger with him grrrr). I hear he has a second battle in the PSP port, but I never heard how bad that was, and of course never got that far. =P
I'm starting to think I really should sometime. If only there was a way to break the FPS limit coded into the game!
Boo to having to grind just to continue the story. I'm all for side quests and random encounters, but it chaps my hide when I get to key part of the story only to find out I'm way underpowered because I was supposed to take some self-finding sabbatical and gain some levels between quests.
Anyhow, nice write-up on a pretty cool bad guy.
Boo to having to grind just to continue the story. I'm all for side quests and random encounters, but it chaps my hide when I get to key part of the story only to find out I'm way underpowered because I was supposed to take some self-finding sabbatical and gain some levels between quests.
Anyhow, nice write-up on a pretty cool bad guy.
Wiegraf was an amazing battle. I just sat there and looked around wondering how I was supposed to beat him. good write up