Can You Beat Final Fantasy 5 Using Only White Mages?

[@BacklogBuster]

Theres a joke about the ginosaji in here but I forgot to put it in. WHOOPS. Edit: Because a lot of you dont understand: White Mage can't smash rods.

[@matthewnelson465]

the horribly slow run with the extremely ineffective job?

[@sertiana2512]

I think the confusion stems from the misconception that Rods and Staves are the same weapon types.

[@stevemanart]

@@sertiana2512 which would not be a misconception at all if people played the games they walked about

[@VGPorage]

Gotta say many too times on youtube I have gotten invested in series only for the creator of it to suddenly stop and never finish it. You actually went through and completed this challenge and I deeply respect that.

[@BacklogBuster]

Well, dont discount me yet. I have definitely abandonned series on my old channel.

[@allenruff4401]

❤

[@ww6372]

​@@BacklogBuster, out of curiosity, can I ask why you retired your old channel? If not, I get it.

[@shirox11]

@@BacklogBusterwell this series at least you took to the end.

[@mas8705]

Byblos. The boss that has turned many “white mage only” runners away and this guy was able to find a way to outsmart it. Well played.

[@dryzalizer]

Leveling to 47 so you have the MP to run byblos out of MP when he uses drain and still survive isn't really outsmarting it. You can win at much lower level if you spam Scan and bait out his Toad counters until his MP is gone. Points for originality though I guess, and the levels will be needed later.

[@nameless3556]

Yeah, I have to say the "minimize grinding" part of the challenges has been pretty liberally interpreted.

[@coolcolorado127]

@nameless3556 do it yourself then and demonstrate your capabilities to beat the game at lower levels! You've implied that it's clearly not that hard, so be the example you wish to see in life and get it done.

[@nameless3556]

​​@@coolcolorado127fair enough, I'll give it a shot Edit: I don't mean to imply it's easy. Byblos and Atomos are... pretty fairly represented, although they can absolutely be done at much lower levels. Enkidu of all people is kind of a Byblos lite, as well, another enemy with Dischord and Vampire, whose mp has to run out.

[@coolcolorado127]

@nameless3556 I respect the potential endeavor and the logic behind your claim. I was a bit harsh in my tone. You certainly never claimed they were easy, just that there are ways around grinding.

[@MusicoftheDamned]

White Mage actually getting use out of Confuse, Berserk, and especially Staff of Light is the only surprising thing about a challenge infamous for 30+ min boss fights until it gets Holy. Congrats.

[@ShadowSaberBaroxio]

So basically, White Mage is the Anti-Berserker: Horrific grinding early game, but insanely breezy endgame.

[@AlbRomano]

@@ShadowSaberBaroxio except for the times when white mages are literally berserking around.

[@RoninCatholic]

LIQUIFLAME: "Four White Mages? It'll never work!" *hits himself in confusion*

[@HYDEinallcaps]

"Oh goddammit."

[@jasonguarnieri4127]

"We'll survive them all to death!" -Team White Mage

[@pockystyx4087]

“I’m your white mage” “I know; we’re all each other’s white mage “

[@mauricesteel4995]

White Mage and Chemist being the two jobs that turn the battle of magic into OOGA BOOGA TIME TO PUNCH slays me.

[@BaalFridge]

"I'm a healer... but"

[@regalstar]

Chemist has plenty of offense and is also a lot better at supporting than white mages are, as long as they have ingredients. Four chemists is the easiest SCC in the game, while WM is probably the second hardest one of the roster.

[@eldebo99]

I saw the thumbnail and reflexively cried "oh NO" despite knowing it was inevitable. Vaya con Dios.

[@CJOmega93]

He's done it, all real jobs complete, now just to see him freelance it then mimic that run again, great job!

[@xael0u073]

how about necromancer?

[@greenfox7657]

​@@xael0u073not in the pixel remaster

[@Suprapika]

Y'know, on that Crystals fight, I was looking for a good catch/release monster for a Beastmaster run I was doing, and I found a monster that released Almagest. So imagine my shock when it did nothing; I can't believe that Almagest is Holy, AND the Crystals are immune to Holy. Just why.

[@FoxyFiremelon-fp1ww]

The idea with the crystals is that each one absorbs its own crystal element and is immune to elements that aren't one of the four crystal elements. Also if you want a good catch/release for them the Landcrawlers in the Gloceana desert do Maelstrom which can potentially knock multiple down to single digit HP at once (just be ready to finish them off with whip attacks so you don't die to AoE spam).

[@Suprapika]

My next point would then be, how come WE'RE not immune to Holy and those other elements? Pretty wack, if you ask me. Also yeah I did end up doing the Maelstrom thing, but I had to do it a few times to get the move to hit more than 2 crystals.

[@Vulkypsin]

Would have genuinely been cool if each of the main characters had innate resistance or even immunity to their Crystal's element, kinda like how the Gladiator's !Finisher uses their element. On that note, that's something that has always irked me in most RPGs; you usually ain't resistant or immune to SHIT while other enemies get to be. I know it's supposed to be that way since you can usually augment your kits while enemies cannot and its supposed to encourage you to do so, but Shin Megami Tensei shows you can give players innate resistances/weaknesses and still encourage them to engage with augmentation with equipment/moves. It has always been especially frustrating in FF that you ain't resisting a damn thing while even the most basic of enemies have innate resistances that make trying status move almost entirely useless at all times and that's not even going into the expected Omni-Resistant Bosses. I feel like Toad and Mini are expressly so useless because FF2 shat the bed with them by having them basically be instakills. At least enemies here try to untoad themselves, why not have the same for Mini or even other statuses? It would be nice if status moves were more useful, and if you had innate resistances yourself and some jobs/equipment switched them up and gave you more to consider. It was always legit frustrating that the goddamn BERSERKER was the only job with any inherent resistances, where it feels like it's only the case because you cannot influence the Berserker at all in battle beyond turning them into an obituary with your other party members. And on the subject if statuses... Zombie. Zombie is a really cool status but it feels so frustrating in its implementation here. Why does stuff like Zombie Breath have a chance to NOT inflict Zombie on kill? Why does a move that does like 300 damage basically do all your HP just because Zombie stuck? Whats the point of even giving Zombie Powder damage; it should either whiff or proc. Why does the job LITERALLY CALLED NECROMANCER have NO INTERACTION WITH OR WAY TO USE THE ZOMBIE STATUS AT ALL? At least FFX fleshed it out more, but Zombie is still a pretty irritating status starting out; the best thing it did was no longer have it be ENEMY EXCLUSIVE and allowed it to be inflicted on enemies, which is nice.

[@emperor_prime2011]

With fights taking that long, your characters should have the old status by the end of the fights by default. xD

[@dryzalizer]

Nicely done, esp. when you got berserk and staves of light. Some of the strats are actually pretty cool after that. For example, the undead three little pigs boss in the trench are all non-heavy so a single curaga on each one takes them to single-digit HP and then an AoE cura finishes them off in a single round of combat. Honestly I think this is a one-job challenge I wouldn't personally do because it's the most tedious of all. Congrats to you for pulling it off! Edit: Since you mentioned it, there is a mythril staff in the original game's code which for whatever reason they chose not to use. It would presumably be at Karnak with the other mythril gear and it's only stronger than the flail by a few points, but it would have helped a bit. There are very few of these "dummy" items in the game's code, the cursed shield that gives lots of def but has like 1% chance to block is the only other one I can think of offhand.

[@rikaclawfal4835]

the #1 take away from all these single job runs: this game was never meant to be played using a single job.

[@sertiana2512]

It is still possible, otherwise he wouldn't have made the seties. It's just some jobs are better than others in a standalone settings.

[@DisplayThisOkay]

@@sertiana2512 Just because it's possble doesn't mean it was even remotely considered. The fact that this game even lets you get multiple copes of endgame equipment was probably more use to the thief job more than the idea that people would be running 5 of the same job.

[@twelfthknight]

@@DisplayThisOkay According to developer interviews, when they decided to implement the Job system for FFV they play-tested every Job to ensure the game was at least feasible with them. They didn't want a repeat of the FFIII Job system where Jobs were too niche in their applicability or quickly rendered obsolete by better Jobs, you were supposed to freely use whatever party combination you wanted in FFV.

[@greenfox7657]

​​@@twelfthknight I've also heard this. They even tested with freelancer-only. Which I'd really like to see

[@rikaclawfal4835]

@@twelfthknight thank god for that

[@ArtUndertheArch]

I've never been invested in a yt series like this one before; brava on its completion

[@Chad_Thundercock]

"4 white mages? It'll never work."

[@jaxm666]

@@Chad_Thundercock "i like swords."

[@HYDEinallcaps]

"Oh goddammit."

[@HYDEinallcaps]

@@jaxm666 "Welcome to Corneria."

[@jaxm666]

@@HYDEinallcaps "I like swords"

[@eldrind213]

The Final Villain being defeated by four White Mages, three of whom were essentially asspulls, is one of the greatest callbacks in early webcomic history.

[@icyblue878]

I know you aren't finished yet but great job Wes, what an awesome idea for a series. Gonna be sad to not be getting a bunch more of these on the reg but you really powered thru and I must say kudos. Would love to see more challenges like this in the future.

[@patrickcole7896]

this one was diligence and patience, and your jokes were especially on point for it. really nice work, man.

[@normanchiu847]

This was an amazing series. Thank you for your hard work. This reminds me of beating ff1 with only 1 white mage.

[@shawnaustin1037]

45 more seasons later and still counting Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast is still the logo of Survivor

[@TheEcoolarg]

This challenge explains why the Aero and Quake spell family became white magic lol

[@bradpike2729]

Another great day to be alive

[@MalachiLper]

If you don’t know, Lix sells Ethers in world 1 for 750 apiece instead of the full 1500.

[@hypermodecrits5891]

“Arise chicken” fuck yeah.

[@thewhitelodgery]

CHICKEN, ARISE! ~(..,)~

[@Jujuwhat]

The "good behavior" quote killed me.

[@Endarire]

FINALLY!

[@leargamma4912]

Wonderful! I never took solo jobs into account when thinking about FF5's jobs and their abilities. Great work Wes

[@kroganshepard6594]

Remember when White Mages could deal damage? *Pepperidge Farm remembers.*

[@kamikaze9699]

This brings back FF1 NES memories... White Mage vs Astos- Silence hits, then I weighted down the button, ordered pizza, hung out with my sister, enjoyed life, then returned when Astos expired. I had never been so thankful for Lich 1 in my entire life, as he's usually the nightmare. But as one of the elite few bosses HARM actually works against, Lich 1 was an extreme breather.

[@TheTamally]

No matter how many times I heard the same story jokes, they never got old. I'm gonna miss them.

[@medikor9190]

He could always do the same challenge with FF III. :P

[@Suplup]

​@@medikor9190 But FFIII doesn't have Zezat's wonderful billionaire funded homemade submarine

[@screwtokaiba]

@@Suplup ...of the dawn warriors (TM)

[@Shinky]

This is the episode I've been waiting for!

[@aaronfarmer4129]

“But I’ll be forced to edge a little longer because Atomos is here, and he needs to suck” ts caught me off guard, literally crying laughing 💀

[@MilkoExistindo]

I'm praying that whe have extra episodes with the gba exclusive jobs.

[@enlongjones2394]

Not sure what you can do with that, seeing as your have to freelance it until all the tablets are collected. You can then immediately grab ‘em, but there’s not a lot to be said about doing just the Rift with each job. Necromancer is even worse, since you need to beat the bonus dungeon too, and you can’t beat that with freelancers. You need Beastmaster for one boss unlock, and you need Thief’s dash to solve a puzzle.

[@angelodegiule1753]

@@enlongjones2394cheat code to give it at start maybe?

[@kemix1006]

That's what hex editing is for, just give you the jobs straight out and enjoy suffering permenant zombie as a necromancer. ​@enlongjones2394

[@toddb7947]

@@enlongjones2394You’d def just have to hack them in. Probably for the best that way since you don’t really get to use most of the jobs anyway. He said no when I asked a video or so ago anyway unfort.

[@magicslinky]

He already said no

[@henryptung]

For Byblos, it's probably more efficient to unequip weapons when draining his MP - each barehanded attack should have its own chance to trigger the Protect reaction, and the damage itself is of little consequence (doing less damage will also trigger fewer Drains).

[@RaynmanPlays]

Not only was that ending very similar to the ending of 8 Bit Theatre, but a couple of the outfits even lined up.

[@dextervepps8794]

Been waiting for this since the first video. I've learned so much I missed playing FFV watching these.

[@PLMMJ]

We'll all miss this series...

[@ZenithSage]

I wish they had the Sage job, for obvious reasons in FFV.

[@Jikkuryuu]

Level 16 in the Wind Shrine. I'm often 18 after Liquid Flame D: Wouldn't it be great if Silencing Magissa made her unable to shout for her hubby? Self-damage not triggering the form change is not at all how I thought that fight would go! Level 47? Holy moley! Book based boss Byblos better be beaten, badly! A largely fine Archaeoaevis fight is definitely a win. Oh, Blinking through the Dragon Flower status pollen is nice! I was thinking you'd be relying on your 47 levels and Shell to gird you against the ailments. Wow, Berserk is deep into World 2. I was hoping it would be earlier, to give you _something,_ but better late than never. 800+ damage has never looked so good! Those Staves of Light are unexpectedly great! 1700 damage? Pffft, get Vacuum Waved ExDeath! XD Triplets getting Curaga'd was a nice bit of variety! Odin being weirdly inconvenient again :P I was wondering how long it took to surpass level 47, and I guessed pretty well. FF5, you really don't want anyone to hit 50+ without Chemist/Bard. "We Magus Sisters now boys!" Haha! Nice one! The one and only party who would rather tank Almagest instead of Grand Cross! Not that Grand Cross is a threat with Shell and Esuna/Dispel. Thank you for this video. This is a triumph, I'm making a note here. "Huge success!"

[@LarryJ2022]

Been watching the entire series and it's been quite a ride. Learned so much about this game!

[@thewhitelodgery]

What about the Mecha Head's having an anti-dragoon jump attack? lol that's nuts

[@jasonskidmore1632]

Nice! I've been waiting for this one to drop! I'll watch next time I'm at work 🙂

[@CmotDribbler]

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened”

[@greatrieck]

I can’t believe this journey is almost over honestly. It was fun seeing you do every job and seeing the challenges, and as such seeing the highs and lows of it all. Have you considered doing this for a game like say FFX-2?

[@khgaming_kai]

I'm gonna miss this series when it's over...

[@Mothuzad]

7:55 I took summoner here and immediately swapped 3 of my white mages to it. Looking forward to seeing how you handled the rest of this run!

[@MrJessig120]

"Arise Chicken, arise" I see ATHF I upvote

[@thewhitelodgery]

~(..,)~ (Dancing is forbidden)

[@rustyjones7908]

You know it's the real deal when you need to be higher level to beat byblos than most people get to beat Exdeath in a standard run...

[@vsolyomi]

White mages are kinda like an undead horde themselves. You kill them, they raise back, and then you just eventually succumb withering to time...

[@Vulkypsin]

Rather ironic considering their abhorrent view towards and methods to deal with the undead

[@thepretzel2]

2:12 For when the run truly starts.

[@Gaararason]

Been waiting for this one. I'm so happy to see this

[@blakeyi6015]

So white mage is basically having to solo Pokémon with just magikarp and holy is its gyrados evolution...

[@ShinMajin]

If magikarp evolved after the 8th gym.

[@thewhitelodgery]

White mage tried Splash! It had no effect!

[@BassForever]

Gonna miss this series when it's finished :(

[@mikeyj1987]

The ATHF reference was golden!!

[@soulivy3590]

liking and commenting that i feel bad for you after the Byblos part :(

[@dimon7086]

These are great challenge series❤

[@gzsprout]

Harder than I expected. I never realized how little damage they could do. Kudos, crazy man!

[@Xarestrill]

I've been really enjoying this series. It's sad to see it drawing to a close.

[@PMSeymour]

I have Never heard of that staff until now I must track it down

[@aberlol]

Woo! I've been waiting for this one! Happy Suffering Mr. Backlog Buster! Edit: Technically you've suffered already since this is a recording so i hope you Suffered well is more appropriate i guess? Oh well I Hope you Suffered Well.

[@Red_Sutter]

"Flash just koolifies the gang" Excellent

[@toddb7947]

Gonna miss these crazy difficult runs, but excited for a few victory laps to close it out.

[@pumaloaf]

I knew Byblos was going to be a roadblock but you handled it better than I thought you would, in general you made this run easier than I thought it'd be, those staves of light came in clutch.

[@thewhitelodgery]

I think editing made this seem easier than it was. Like imagine watching the 50 minute Byblos fight where he still loses.

[@kingofthelosers210]

I can’t believe it’s over 😢congratulations 🎉🎉

[@mindlessmeat4055]

I kind of miss the Dia spell from ff1.

[@mauricesteel4995]

the Cure spell from the following Final Fantasy games are the Dia Spell, they combined Heal and Dia into the Cure line, Heal because now spells can multitarget like Heal did, and Dia became Cast Cure on undead, only difference is that if you cast Dia on the living, you get 0 damage, if you do that with Cure, you heal them. Still, i do miss having a dedicated spell to turn undead.

[@silverventhil8462]

@@mauricesteel4995 honestly i kinda feel like the Dia line could have become what was basically basic holy spells though ideally the spell "Holy" would basically be Diaja (Holy4) obviously base power/accessibility would probally want to be less base power or i suppose even making the deal with Holy Damage that most living enemies are at least somewhat resistant to holy. always odd that the older FF games had a whole damage type that was limited to like a single spell and a few rare items and yet still have enemies have noticable weakness to it when they wouldn't be accessible yet.

[@Endarire]

Looking forward to your post-completion analysis & summary video! What about going through the game again "casually" with your preferred jobs knowing what you know now? Thankee!

[@BaalFridge]

The final boss of single job runs. Congrats.

[@ferplaysyt]

I'm not ready for the end of this serie 😢😢

[@anthonydelfino6171]

flashbacks to the Dorkly "white mage is a jerk" videos with a party of all white mages.... "naw white mages are badass AF, bro, check it out!" 2 damage "BOOM CRITICAL HIT!!"

[@Dunneldeen]

Wow, great job, legendary patience on this run

[@stevesamuals2651]

Its a bit of a shame this challenge will end soon, would have loved to see the astrology and cannoneer runs. But its also nice to see you finally complete this soon enough.

[@derekminna]

The last time I saw a person try this, they quit at a Book Based Boss. This was a great run to watch. Amazing series. Im really hoping that there is an hour long recap at the end.

[@ArchivistVile]

My love for you is like a truck... berserker. Can it now be time to [____].... BERSERKER. What a callback. Thank you for the laugh.

[@yeeloongong]

Longest Setup for a joke in webcomic history - 8 Bit Theater Black Mage - Four white mages? It'll never work (Episode 7, March 20th 2001) ...... White Mage - That's because you weren't here when… White Mage, Priest, Shaman, And Healer, Killed Chaos. Black Mage - Oh, goddammit it. (Episode 1221 , February 10th 2010)

[@knightky975]

The early sadness, the ending brilliant Holy light

[@IrrelevantOaf]

Damn this series was great. It was super binge worthy. Excited for your future content.

[@costby1105]

I his solo White Mage playthrough T-hawk to use the run Byblos and Atmos out MP Strategy and was done at level 28, he didn't start damaging Byblos until he was out of MP. Sullla had to do the same thing with his solo thief. To beat the Dragon Pod T-Hawk confused all of the flowers and then cast blink on them so they didn't break their own confusion. I believe Ship graveyard would be a good place to grind elixirs for White Mages.

[@dryzalizer]

T-Hawk and Sullla, the original legends who did these challenges long before PR were indeed inspirational for all others who came after them (and usually figured out better strats even back then).

[@costby1105]

@@dryzalizer Sullla often resisted using Rod breaking as he believed it to be overly cheesy. He only broke Rods against Purobolos(which is a massive pain for single target jobs), Atmos and Exeath(who needs to be taken down to half health before he comes back to condemn). Their reports are nice reads.

[@TheNN]

I do wonder how he is gonna handle Mime and Freelancer. After all, the run will basically be the same for both, with the only real change being at the end. If anything Mime is the weak point (unless there's something I don't know/forgot) without any actual other job mastery compared to Freelancer, which at least can use any gear you want. ...putting aside rod smashing, of course.

[@sertiana2512]

There are few pieces of weapons and items that can emulate certain job commands and spells.

[@TheNN]

@@sertiana2512 True but that is quite limited. Things like the Magic Lamp and Wonder Wand are good but lack major utility unless you really are limited in more ways than even these challenge runs provide.

[@sertiana2512]

@@TheNN when things get rough, always remember to smash

[@Starsoulklr]

Rapid Firing Staff of Light on the first Exdeath fight is always a treat to see.

[@bryongroesbeck7129]

"Please, just let me bust!" -Wes 2024

[@davidklein8608]

Mime will be interesting for science. For instance can a rod smash be mimed to get the effect for free or any item be magically created out of thin air by miming? Or can the magic lamp be mimed to not use its charges or do the same summon again? I would guess the answer is no, but think of the cheese potential if the answer is yes.

[@BacklogBuster]

The answer is yes.

[@briancashious4771]

Not gonna lie, I'mma be sad when this series is done.

[@patrickaycock3655]

Ngl it was fun watching poor bartz flailing around everywhere

[@angelodegiule1753]

The true final fantasy challenge run. White mage only. God I love this series. Please do more ffv stuff when it’s done

[@Mothuzad]

I did a 4JF with White Mage, and getting to water jobs with only that was very silly. Even with the flail.

[@bdhuffman42]

Lmao adding adamantite makes them lighter. Never thought about that. Although I guess the lore of that game implies that adamantite has levitation properties.

[@Frendlu]

Metamorph in fact is vulnerable to mini (one of the few enemies than mini can hit because nearly everything its inmune to toad and mini😅) so you can beserk him and then make him mini. If someone wants to farm staff of ligths, this is a safer way to get them.

[@last1standing663]

I expected this episode to be longer.

[@andrewschmitz9756]

Omg i got late to see Zok! Everybody loves him! And Zezat!? 😊😊

[@Nowaylarry]

I'll admit I forgot about the staff of light. Still possible without it but it'd make Exdeath's castle much longer. Funny thing I do remember farming one years ago.

[@OracleofWuffing]

35:07 Pour one out for the Berzerked Galuf that forgot he was holding a Healing Staff.

[@Xephrost_Gaming]

I respect the tenacity. I never made it past slamming my face against Byblos.

[@Calintares]

There's one possible strat for Odin; Magic Lamp for Catoblepas to try to petrify him. It's got low odds and is a cheese strat anyone can use so I get why you didn't.

[@Kiaxiou]

I dont want it to end yet, we had been for several months with this and i will hate to see it go, wait arise chicken arise, mega ultra chicken!!!

[@thewhitelodgery]

Mega Ultra Chicken? No - Shhhhh - He is legend!

[@TylerMireMusic]

That is indeed still the motto for the show. Season 47 btw

[@thetruestinsanegamer10]

I believe I said in a prior thing, that Thief would be hardest of what was left (at the time), Mimic and Freelancer would be a bit tough but not impossible, Chemist the easiest, and White Mage would be very rough in the beginning due to lacking attack, but once they get access to Holy they would sweep very easily, due to their support and healing. So far I have been 100% correct.

[@audreyii5087]

Just started the video but praying that you kept your sanity through Byblos

[@Silvitewolf]

Oh god... this is gonna hurt isnt it?

[@thewhitelodgery]

Don't worry, we can cure it!

[@godknightomega]

42:23-42:25: Omniscient: I cast...IRON! Lenna: Iron...what? - Omniscient swings a cast iron pan - Faris: You still missed...

[@thedeaderer8791]

Please let me bust 😂😂 🎉🎉🎉 had me dying