FF2 Pixel Remaster : Mandatory Battles Only

Chapter 1 : The beginning

I started up a new game and named my characters Avatar, Gaga, Dimitri and Andersson (don't ask me why. These were just random names). I went through the stupidly long intro cutscene (Square Enix, why did you have to make those unskippable, in the Year of Our Lord 2025 ?), skipped all the dialogue and immediately went in the menu to disable random encounters. We won't be turning this setting back on for the remainder of the run !

Funnily enough, the "No random battles" setting is precisely what makes this run even possible to try compared to the GBA version of the game. It seems that "random" encounters on the GBA version happen on fixed amount of steps, as I was not able to save-scum my way through the game as I could for FF1 and was forced to give up pretty much immediately (I could technically flee every battle I encountered, but that would probably have been more trouble than it was worth).

Anyway, I made my way out of the castle and started preparing my characters for what was to come. For whatever reason, on this version of the game you start with additional equipement, namely a Leather Armour, a Buckler and a Broadsword. I instantly equipped Gaga with the superior pieces of armour (which she would very likely need considering her low HP and Stamina), and sold everyone's weapons and Gaga's clothes in exchange for some Gil. I bought a third Buckler for Dimitri, as I planned to equip everyone with 2 shields at some point ; but for now, I didn't have enough Gil. Admittedly, I was quite stupid in my spending, as I bought a Fire tome in Altair, which was useless since you find one in the very first dungeon of the game. I also bought a Blizzard and a Thunder tome, and gave each one to a different character - I hoped to cover each boss' elemental weaknesses and resitances.

The beginning of the game went without trouble as expected : Go to Finn, talk to Scott, get his ring as well as the three Potions in his room, and go back to Altair. The lack of random battles made this section go by very quickly. After Hilda tasked us with retrieving Mithril for the Rebellion (not stolen from a certain 1977 movie, I swear), Minwu joins us and gives us his canoe.

I decided that Minwu would be the healer/white magic user as long as he stays in the party, which would prevent me from having to buy white magic tomes for now. I immediately swapped his Copper Cuirass for Maria's Leather Armour, as it has overall better stats, and Minwu, with his 175 starting HP, didn't have a need for it. I also unequipped his Staff with the intent of selling it for Gil.

From there, I went from Altair all the way to Semitt falls without stopping by Paloom, Poft or Salamand, as I didn't have enough Gil left to make any purchase for now. I looted the dungeon, careful to avoid this trapped chest on Floor -5 :

(The chest shows as opened here as this was a reconnaissance run ; I didn't open it in my actual run)

The rest of the chests mostly gave Gil, with the exception of one giving a Fire tome (which is why I shouldn't have bought one back in Altair :/).

After freeing Paul and everyone else on floor -3, I made my way to the first boss of the game : the Sergeant. His strategy is extremely basic : he will simply attack physically every turn, either with his sword or with his bow, until he is dead. I had everyone but Minwu in the back row as to reduce the amount of damage dealt to them, but he could still consistently one-shot them even with his basic sword attack, as long as he didn't miss. Avatar, Gaga and Dimitri cast their respective offensive spell every turn while Minwu either healed the party, revived fallen party members with Life or buffed everyone with Protect or Image. The fight was, at my own surprise, not that difficult, as anything the Sergeant did could be healed pretty much instantly by Minwu's powerful white magic. I knew I couldn't rely on him for the entire game, as he had to go eventually, but for now he was single-handedly saving the run.