Clearing Final Fantasy Tactics with Nothing but a Level 1 Ramza

The commentator explains that the game is built so that avoiding experience is difficult even in normal play. So after winning each battle with level 1 Ramza, they reset and redo the same battle with only the other party members. This lets them move on to the next stage while keeping Ramza at level 1. The commentator describes this as "shipping level 1 Ramza off to the next stage." Story guest characters do join the battles, so early on they start with the outlook that "the guests will fight alongside him, so it'll work out somehow."

The first battle, escorting Princess Ovelia, is a tutorial, and stats are reset afterward. Plenty of guests fight automatically, so Ramza only needs to hold his starting position. Meanwhile, the commentator lays out the story's background. Within the kingdom, a power struggle over the next throne is underway, and two factions are heading toward a major war. Into this comes a knightly order from Goltanna's army, one of the two factions, demanding that the princess be handed over. That is the setup.

The story jumps back one year, to Ramza and Delita's days at the military academy. Ramza is the third son of the prestigious House Beoulve. Delita is the son of a servant who, after his mother died of illness, was taken in by the Beoulves along with his younger sister. He was even enrolled in the academy so he could one day serve as Ramza's attendant. The enemy, the Corpse Brigade, are former volunteer soldiers drafted from the commoners for the war with a neighboring kingdom. After the war, the state paid them almost no reward, and they turned into a revolutionary organization. The commentator introduces them as "a tragic people."

On the way to guard a castle, there is a battle where Ramza helps Argath, a squire under attack from the Corpse Brigade. In this battle, the commentator explains the basic early-game tactic. When an enemy can't reach Ramza even after moving, on its next turn it closes in to a position where it can hit him with its maximum movement. Ramza's movement range is generally longer than the enemies', so if he steps in right after an enemy has repositioned, the speed difference lets him defeat it easily. On top of that, Ramza waits for the enemy while raising his own Speed with Tailwind.

Argath is a member of the guard of Marquis Elmdore, a neutral figure. The Corpse Brigade's attack wiped out the knights, and the marquis was kidnapped. The commentator explains that the marquis, who sides with neither faction, is an obstacle to both great powers, and that some conspiracy seems to lurk behind this kidnapping as well.

In the slums battle, enemies with bows are placed on high ground, which is troublesome, so they deal with the high ground first. Next, two black mages approach. Here the guest characters serve as decoys, and while they are being burned by Fire, Ramza descends and goes in for the kill while staying out of the enemies' sights.

The commentator says, "Whenever you have a spare moment, just speed up with Tailwind," and rates Tailwind as a Ramza-exclusive ability with extraordinary performance. In the commentator's view, it is what gets him through almost every battle. Indeed, in this battle the black mages' powerful Fire knocks Delita out and leaves Argath near death. Ramza seizes that opening to charge the black mages, judging that at his speed he can finish them before their next cast, and then mops up the stragglers for the win. Afterward, he gets the marquis's whereabouts out of a bandit, marches on the hideout, Sand Rat's Sietch, on his own initiative, and rescues the marquis. Though he is disciplined for acting without orders, he is allowed to take part in the next operation.

At the bandits' fortress, Ramza fights a unit led by Milleuda, the younger sister of the Corpse Brigade's leader. Echoing the nobles' lines, the commentator jokingly says that commoners are commoners from birth and should serve the nobility all their lives, and that those who defy them must be struck down by divine punishment. Then they introduce the black magic spell Thundaga, which they use from here on.

From this point on, battles end once the enemy commander is defeated, so the commentator likens them to "shogi." The battles against the swordswoman Milleuda, the brigade's leader and knight Wiegraf, and Argath, who broke away over differing ideals, are all settled with Thundaga "shogi." In the story, House Beoulve, left lightly guarded during a sweep operation, is attacked, and Delita's sister is mistaken for the family's daughter and kidnapped. At the fortress, the brothers have given the order to attack.

The story returns to the present. It is revealed that the princess's kidnapping itself was a scheme by the Order of the Northern Sky: a staged incident meant to assassinate the princess and bring down the rival faction. The commentator sorts out the factions gathered on this battlefield: the princess, whose life is targeted by the faction backing the prince; Agrias, who protects the princess with the help of mercenaries; Gaffgarion, who slipped in among the mercenaries while working on a request from the Order of the Northern Sky; the Order of the Northern Sky, who kidnapped the princess disguised as Goltanna's army; Delita, a knight of another faction who had slipped into their strike team; the Order of the Northern Sky forces who came to dispose of that strike team; and Ramza, who has left House Beoulve and decided to stand against the Order of the Northern Sky.

The group turns to a neutral cardinal to shelter the princess. But the cardinal is scheming on his own as well, and the princess is taken from them. The cardinal is intent on collecting the Zodiac Stones, and had hired Gaffgarion to go after the stone Ramza happened to obtain.

Gaffgarion's attacks are powerful, so the commentator handles them with Mana Shield. Using Praise raises its activation rate to 100%, and combined with Manafont, it can trigger every turn. The commentator introduces this as "one of the game's very famous tactics." From there, Ramza stacks self-buffs with Tailwind and Focus, building up until he can take out everyone in a single hit before attacking. For the remaining small fry, the commentator offers two options: attacking one-sidedly through the gate with Shockwave, or deliberately opening the gate and striking the enemies as they pour in. They first took out the summoner who might attack through the gate, then opened it and dealt with the rest. Ramza took almost no damage throughout, and the commentator looks back on it as "a battle where Mana Shield's usefulness shines."

The cardinal, confronted inside the castle, makes a pact with his Zodiac Stone and transforms into Cúchulainn, a powerful enemy whose HP and stats cannot be viewed. The commentator notes that the cardinal's speech is absurdly long, so his bragging about the Zodiac Stones is cut for time.

Cúchulainn has several status-ailment attacks, but the commentator nullified all except petrification with equipment. Enemies in this game don't choose actions that have no effect. So the enemy's options are narrowed down to two: Biora or Attack. Attack is handled with First Strike, which both nullifies and counters it. As for Biora, all you can do is pray it isn't used or that it misses. Its HP turned out to be surprisingly low, and this was enough to defeat it. This approach—using equipment to strip away the enemy's options and turning the remaining physical attacks back with First Strike—becomes the foundation for later boss fights.

By slaying the cardinal, Ramza and company make an enemy of the Church. The Church faction apparently aims to fan the clash between the two great powers until both are exhausted, gathering the Zodiac Stones in the meantime to regain its former authority. Delita seems to have joined this faction with his own motives.

In the battle against the inquisitor Zalmour, Ramza's younger sister Alma joins and provides magic support with Wall. The enemies can't climb onto the castle wall, so Ramza spams Tailwind on top of it, raising his Speed to 20. Once he has accelerated enough, he jumps down and attacks. According to the commentator, Throw's damage is determined by Speed × weapon attack power, and a single thrown axe finished off the enemy commander.

In the underground library of Orbonne Monastery, Ramza defeats the Knight Templar Izlude with Shirahadori and Throw. Meanwhile, Alma is carried off, and Wiegraf, now a Knight Templar, stands in the way. Wiegraf has a powerful Counter, so Ramza attacked while praying for it to fail or miss, and turned Wiegraf's own attacks against him with First Strike to win.

At the castle Ramza visits in pursuit of Alma, he ends up in a one-on-one duel with Wiegraf. Here he reuses the procedure from the Gaffgarion fight. He raises his Brave with Praise so Mana Shield triggers reliably, and keeps his MP topped up with Manafont. Meanwhile, he stacks self-buffs with Tailwind and Focus. The commentator describes this as "devoting himself to self-improvement." Once he is sufficiently buffed, he slashes at Wiegraf from behind with considerable firepower.

Realizing he is at a disadvantage, Wiegraf uses the power of his pact with a Zodiac Stone to transform into Belias, the Gigas. The stats Ramza built up during the duel carry over intact, so simply walking up and hitting it was enough to win. On the rooftop, Ramza meets Marquis Elmdore again, who had also made a pact with a Zodiac Stone, but the marquis withdraws once his attendants are defeated.

Suspecting that the mastermind behind the demons is among the Knights Templar, Ramza arranges to talk with Delita. Inquisitor Zalmour attacks the meeting, and the two have to cooperate to fight their way out. Delita is level 1 but has already learned Holy Sword, and he whittles down the enemy knights' HP while protecting Ramza.

Meanwhile, Ramza uses Shout to boost both his damage and Speed, watching for a chance to defeat the enemy commander in one hit. Zalmour knows Curaga and begins casting it once his allies' HP drops to a certain point. So Ramza devised a plan: have Delita whittle down the knights, then strike while Zalmour is casting his healing spell. As intended, the knights' HP dropped, Zalmour started casting Curaga, and Ramza defeated him while he was defenseless. The commentator adds that the remake significantly raises enemy HP, so the difficulty starts climbing around here compared to the original.

At Limberry Castle, Ramza first baits the attendants Celia and Lettie into casting Ultima. In the meantime, he closes the distance with Teleport and attacks lightly to make them retreat. Inside the castle, to wipe out the 730-HP Marquis Elmdore in a single turn, he adjusts his equipment to bait Attack and Ultima. The commentator says, "Thank goodness the attendants were airheads."

Driven into the basement, the marquis unleashes the power of his Zodiac Stone and transforms into Zalera, the Death Seraph. A single Knight Templar joins this battle. Here the commentator sums up the story so far. Most of the Church faction follows the High Confessor, but even he does not know the Zodiac Stones' true power, regarding them only as precious relics tied to heroic legend—antiques for winning over the people. Only some of the demons know the stones' power, and they intend to exploit even the High Confessor's ambitions. To regain their power, the demons are plotting to revive the High Seraph, and they took Alma to serve as its vessel. In other words, the fate of the world hangs on rescuing his sister.

As for the battle, the Knight Templar fights hard in the back but has no effect on the outcome, so he is left alone. Zalera normally fires off powerful magic attacks one after another, but with the right equipment, Attack can be baited every time. So here too, First Strike allowed a one-sided victory.

Learning that House Beoulve also possesses a Zodiac Stone, Ramza returns home. There, his second brother Zalbaag, having identified their father's murderer, is about to clash with the eldest brother Dycedarg. The demons apparently saw the highly ambitious Dycedarg as a promising candidate for the stone and had given him one in advance.

Using the brief time Zalbaag buys him, Ramza does nothing but buff himself with Shout. It's a race against time before the enemy forces close in. When Dycedarg arrives, Ramza baits him into casting with his equipment and finishes him off with two attacks during the opening. But the Zodiac Stone activates, Dycedarg becomes Adrammelech, the Wroth, and casually obliterates Zalbaag.

In this battle, all the buffs Ramza built up by shouting carry over intact, so he can fight with considerable speed and firepower. Here the commentator explains why First Strike keeps working. When an enemy can defeat its target in one hit with Attack, it prioritizes Attack rather than doing anything more complicated. First Strike's effect lies outside the enemy's awareness, so the enemy always chooses Attack and gets taken down by Ramza each time. It is precisely because level 1 Ramza has low HP that the enemy keeps concluding "I can kill him by hitting him"—that's the structure of the strategy.

Pursuing Alma, Ramza finally comes face to face with the leaders of the Knights Templar. The commander, Folmarv, is advancing the plan as a demon. The other two, on the other hand, seem to act out of a belief that faith and the salvation of the people are right, and the commentator observes that they are not a monolith.

As a countermeasure against magic attacks, the commentator used Mystic Arts to temporarily enter the Atheist state, neutralizing magic. Lowering Faith before battle is also an option. But because "it would take the tension out of the battles," the commentator states clearly that they won't manipulate Faith on this adventure. After this battle is won, Folmarv summons Zalbaag's undead spirit as he leaves. Ramza baits the controlled Zalbaag, who begs to be killed, into using Attack and defeats him with First Strike.

Once Ramza heads deep into the underground library, there is no turning back. In the battle against the Knight Templar Loffrey, Ramza first turns invisible to separate Loffrey from the rank-and-file troops. While Ramza is invisible, the enemies other than Loffrey wander off on their own, and Ramza uses that time to approach Loffrey. Loffrey has Protect from his weapon's effect, so either taking his weapon away and hitting him or using non-physical attacks becomes effective. The commentator chose the Samurai ability Iaido. They also adjusted Ramza's facing so his back pointed outward too, to keep him out of range of healing magic. With that, the mages' support couldn't arrive in time, and one more Iaido secured the win.

With a dying spell, Loffrey sends Ramza to the otherworldly space where the ritual to revive the High Seraph is taking place. The commentator interprets this as Loffrey, who harbored slight doubts about the commander, deliberately inviting Ramza in. Ramza then defeats the next Knight Templar, Cletienne, as well.

Of the Knight Templar Barich, who appears next, the commentator prefaces, "I think I beat him somewhere, but skipped it for time," and introduces him as having become a demon's minion and come back to take up screen time again. Here Ramza is surrounded by powerful beasts and gun-wielding units. But Ramza has resistance to elemental attacks and countermeasures against physical attacks, so the enemies can't lay a finger on him. He buffs himself with Shout and then picks them off one hit at a time. In fact, there was exactly one enemy that could have defeated Ramza. But the surrounding enemies got in its way so it couldn't get into attack range, and the commentator says it ended up just watching Ramza until the very end.

Finally reaching Alma, Ramza faces Folmarv in a one-on-one duel. Folmarv seems to have met the conditions for reviving the High Seraph but lacked enough sacrificial blood. He apparently intends to make up the shortfall by crushing Ramza here.

First, Ramza shouts to raise First Strike's activation rate to 100%. Ramza's HP is low enough to be taken out by Attack, so the transformed Hashmal, Bringer of Order, keeps choosing Attack as usual and keeps getting turned back by First Strike. After a while of hitting it, the fight was settled.

In the final boss battle, Ramza works with Alma to defeat the demons. Alma holds out for a while with Wall and takes some of the demons' attacks in Ramza's place.

The commentator describes the demons as opponents with many actions you'd rather they not use. Besides Hurricane, which shaves off a third of the target's max HP, and Almagest, which deals damage equal to max HP minus current HP, they also have Unholy Darkness, Nanoflare, and more. They also have Counter, so attacking carries risk when Ramza can't defeat them in one hit. Even so, the commentator says there is a path to victory by combining several factors: positioning can control their actions to some extent, Alma can take attacks for him under certain conditions, and depending on stats and weapon effects, some demons can be defeated in one hit. The High Seraph itself can be baited into using only Attack, so in this fight it's something like "a bit of background noise."

The last remaining demon had bad zodiac compatibility with Ramza and was outside one-hit range. Attacking carelessly risked getting killed in return. So Ramza moved adjacent to reliably bait Attack and shouted to buff himself until it was within two-hit range. Then, after the next First Strike triggered, he finished it off safely. Once all the demons are gone, only the High Seraph, which can do nothing but Attack, remains. Alma, with nothing to do, moves around nearby, but she has no further role from here on.

In the second half, the High Seraph changes form. The commentator remarks that the angel, which had been in a rather risqué form, now has "a form that seems more biblically correct, if anything." The BGM is "Ultema, the Perfect Body," and since there was a boss fight in FF14 where this song plays as well, it's a track the commentator personally feels a deep nostalgia for.

Ultima, the Arch Seraph, has a variety of spells at the ready, but here too the enemy's actions can be narrowed down to Attack alone. The two circle around each other trying to get behind one another while Ramza keeps hitting nonstop, shutting it out completely.

With Ultima defeated, Ramza and company saved the world. The commentator looks back and says that precisely because it was a journey of continually deploying a level 1 Ramza alone, the characteristics of the enemies and guests stood out vividly, making it all the more memorable. Many of the tactics used in each boss fight depended on reading the habits of enemy thinking—habits like not choosing ineffective actions and prioritizing Attack when they can defeat a target in one hit. At the same time, there were many moments when Delita, Alma, and the guests supported the battle as shields or as damage dealers wearing down enemies. The commentator closes by saying that over the course of this adventure, they strangely came to feel strongly what it means to have companions who fight while risking their lives.