u/CompleteNegotiation8

Hi guys. I'm sad. Very sad. So sad that I replay RPGs that I like over and over. Right now I'm on blue dragon. Many RPGs, as you will know I'm sure, have "new game plus" modes. Blue dragon has this. Blue dragons, however, is a bit different in that it offers a downloadable add on called "ultra hard mod" and allows you to choose 3 difficulties; these are normal, hard and impossible. Now I'm not a fan of starting a new game with everything already, so I have started a new game (I haven't clicked on new game plus - just new game) with hard mode - NOT IMPOSSIBLE - selected. Hard mode, when you don't load in with everything by clicking new game plus, is very fucking hard. Yes, it's so hard that I had to do a swear :O

ANYWAYS, there is not a Walkthrough anywhere that I can find and all the FAQs are from 2009 and most people aren't THAT helpful. Hopefully I can be a bit more helpful. The only motivation I have for this Walkthrough of a game that is probably entirely dead is that if there is someone out there like me who wants an immersive experience in a game that they like by making it harder than the first time - they hopefully won't cry themselves to sleep whilst doing so.

BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME AREAS DON'T HAVE SHOPS, YOU CAN'T BUY ITEMS, YOU CAN'T FIND THEM. SOME AREAS OR PLACES BEFORE BOSS FIGHTS DONT HAVE SAVE POINTS. TREAT EVERY SECOND AS IF IT'S YOUR LAST IN THIS MODE. KEEP SEPERATE SAVES IN CASE YOU MESS ONE UP. ALSO, YOU WILL NEED TO BE HIGHLY LEVELLED UP COMPARED TO A NORMAL RUN THROUGH THIS GAME. An example of this would be me being at talta village at level 16 or 17 normally on a normal mode play through. I am level 21 there on hard mode.

I was very shocked by how hard this mode is. If you've played this game more than once or have a good memory then you will remember what I am about to tell you. When you first get marumaro you are told to go right. If you go left over to the gul mountains where the lazy bears are, that is meant to be where you go after going right. Usually, for me at least, I go there first. I get those nice accessories and some nice exp and then I continue the story by going right to the undersea cavern. When I tried to do that on hard mode, the last encounter of lazy bears (where there are 2 lazy bears) I got a game over. I even tried again. Both failures. This is where I will start my Walkthrough. I am doing this with the belief that the person(s) reading this will already know the game well, if not inside out.

So, go do the forest of the dead, make sure the get all the chests (you need level 4 - shina) and BEFORE YOU FIGHT THAT KING GHOST SAVE YOUR GAME JUST SAVE YOUR GAME. Keep switching all your classes around, don't do any hard fights on a low level OR ANY LEVEL WITH GENERALIST CLASS BECAUSE GENERALIST CLASS IS THE WORST ONE FOR STATS.

I've never done a Walkthrough before and I am lazy. This will not be in depth for chests and nothings and 10 golds. If you have DLC then go for those accessories (I am using them) and if you're sad like me get the nothings and search everywhere because when you get to jibral you will reap the rewards from the nothing man.

You need to ensure when you get to level 20,you have access to all classes from your characters. What I mean is DO NOT MAKE THEM ALL LEARN SUPPORT CLASS. EVERYONE NEEDS GENERALIST, EVERYONE NEEDS WHITE MAGIC. The rest is your choice, assassin is good for negotiate and control, guardian is not the best early on but still useful. BARRIER AND SUPPORT CLASS ARE A MUST FOR AT LEAST 1. ALL PHYSICAL FIGHTERS NEED LEVEL 13 MONK CLASS FOR CHARGED ATTACK.

At the time of writing this, I am only at talta village. I am guessing that when zola comes in, she is best as a mage and on the back row for most of the story. FOR NOW, YOU NEED SHU AND MARUMARO ON THE FRONT LINE AS PHYSICAL ATTACKERS BUT WITH WHITE MAGIC EQUIPPED, JIRO AND KLUKE MUST BE ON THE BACK LINE AS MAGES. REGENERATE MP IS A MUST FOR MAGES. Now I myself have been using wind on everything. Just charging wind up time after time so it hits all enemies, even with my physical attackers. I don't mind chipping away with 60 damage with shu and marumaro. You need to heal a lot, you'll find all this out in the semi-easy start of the game.

After that horrible boss fight with the king ghost (did anyone else know he could summon? I've never even seen that) you'll be back at talta village. Get all the spells and stock up on items and even try get the best accessories if there are upgrades available and check all the chests too. There are side quests available sometimes (now is one) but it is minor and I do not care for it. The reward is not that good and even if it was its only good for another 2 areas. If you didn't get all the chests on the way to the gul mountains, go do that. This is an open area so you can save at any time before gul mountains, so please do that. Lazy bears are hard, if you can make a monster fight happen with the shooter ghosts then do that. Their attacks against the bears are even stronger in hard mode. The ghosts in the gul mountains are hard so try and get a hermit crab thing to have a monster fight with them and have shina and/or shina sword ready. No boss fight here, so just fight all enemies for levels, keep switching classes for essentials skills like charged attack, negotiate, mow down 2 and all the level magics you have (level 4 is ideal right now.) Yes this is horrible painful, it's going to be until rank 50 on barrier class. You could prioritise that if you wanted but if you don't mind the grind keep getting into encounters for exp. Levels make a big difference once added up.

Get the chests and search around talta village, get Heala in jiros house before going to the inn for the boss fight. This boss fight is not that hard, keep all of your characters at full HP, patience is key in hard mode. When all the summons are done and you've beaten the skeletons, the boss will stop defending and eventually get weak. This is why you've all got full HP (everyone needs 160+ with good equipment for defense and magic defense) cos he's gonna use tempest and try to team wipe you. Yes it hurts but you should all have turns after. Rest at the inn, STOCK UP ON ITEMS and grind like crazy.

Surely you remember the tigers at the end of disc 1? I'll not forget them. This is why you've got control from assassin class, you can stop them one shotting you with this. If you're like me and have no life you'll be rank 20 ish with every class you've got. You NEED level 3 everything but level 4 is better to have. I'd try not to use field barrier too much if you have that because you need exp. Trust me, when you're in generalist class levelling you're gonna wish you had a lot more levels because ranks are useless. Grinding is annoying, enemies stop spawning in areas and you've go to leave and go back. There's no shame in going back to gul mountains to grind as well as talta and the surrounding area.

Mural valley is self explanatory until you get to the boss. Get everything you can find and get the best equipment. Honestly it'd be good to keep the good equipments you've been getting like the wind ones for agility. If a certain boss doesn't use magic, you could take less magic defense for that battle in exchange for 5 agility. Now for the boss battle, normally without hard mode you'd just use wind or winda and winda sword. He'd get stronger but you'd be fine. Now, you cannot do that. DO NOT DO IT. Just use water and water sword instead. Keep your characters at full HP (hopefully you'll all be near 200 by now) at all times and you should be fine. Keep being patient and you will succeed. At least I did. Another thing to note is that bosses will have some decent steals. Steal is very easy to get from assassin class and although the RNG is never in your favour, some of the steals will help. I am being brave and not save scumming for rare steals. Honestly I do not know all of the steals on the bosses of this game, I only really know final fantasy 12 inside and out because, as noted at the start, I am so very sad. Time for the hard part now and the final part of disc 1. Hopefully you got the warp machine at mural valley and everywhere else so you can go back and level and buy items and just grind grind grind.

The tigers will probably kill your front line of shu and marumaro. That's fine, just have double item from white magic class equipped on everyone. This allows for 2 revives per turn using phoenix talons. They'll go down eventually, there is no need to heal as they're always gonna one shot you unless you grinded loads like I advised; its so painful fighting the same enemies again and again but I promise it is for your own good. MAYBE TRY NOT TO OVERDO IT AS YOU'VE GOT ZOLA COMING IN SOON AND SHE'S GONNA NEED EVEN MORE.

Dullahan isn't that bad really (the big horse sword thing.) I had a chance to steal from him. Keeping everyone at HP just in case is pretty much always pivotal (apart from the tigers we just did.... Erm anyways) and shine works well. YOU NEED TO START WITH A GROUND THOUGH AS THAT WEAKENS HIM AND KEEP USING IT EVERY COUPLE OF TURNS. He is going to mess up your formation and that is probably a good thing. You can use wall from barrier magic as that is effective. Don't be a sicko and attempt to keep everyone alive, its not worth the risk. I haven't had a game over yet (apart from when I first got to the drill machine and tried to fight the green giant for the magic crystal ring or necklace or whatever it was) but this was one was very close. Just beat him and get on with it,you can make up for xp loss later. What's that? You did it first try? Congratulations. I knew you could do it.

Search around for nothings if you're sad like me, SAVE INTO A DIFFERENT SAVE SPACE JUST IN CASE, and protect the caravans. Don't want to fight the tigers and rats? Me neither, good job we've both GOT FIELD BARRIER 2 AT LEAST RIGHT??? Just use that and it's nice and easy. Heyyyy... Nice achievement! Save your game into the slot you just saved in and let's go, end of disc 1.

All 3 of your front line gone, before you got a turn. Hi zola! Haha. You've got double item so start with a sleep power (you just got one from the last chests at mural valley) and start reviving. Yet again, don't worry about healing just attack and attack. Items work well, especially flawless ones. Zola will need to use one or use a phoenix talon. Not so bad, right?

I had 600 nothings getting to jibral, well I had 597 to be precise but it was easy to get 600. Make sure you go to the garden in the castle from the 2nd floor and check out all the gardens and plants there. You can get attribute elixirs. 600 nothings got me lots of accessories, increasing health and agility (maybe not needed but a massive help.