Has anyone here played a game where you don't activate a single node on the Sphere Grid, often referred to as an NSG or No Sphere Grid game? I've been playing through one recently, and I have to say its a fun challenge. I find myself using abilities I'd never even consider before, like SOS Haste.

The basic idea is this: try and complete the game using everything available to you, except by using the Sphere Grid to raise your stats. You can use Aeons, although Zanmato is banned for obvious reasons, and in fact if you wish to go further and fight the Arena Monsters or Dark Aeons, building up an Aeon using the Aeon's Soul is the only way to beat them.

Obviously, some abilities become useless (Break HP Limit, Break Damage Limit) become useless, while others (First Strike, Auto-Haste) become essential. You'll find yourself using the system like you'd never thought before? Thought Kimahri was useless? Not when he can eliminate a lot of your problems in one shot with Stone Breath. Rikku? Her Mix combinations and Use items become an essential backbone of your game.

Some people like to put further restrictions on their games, such as No Summons, No Mix, No Blitzball, No Customising and so on. I personally think that's silly, but each to their own. I just prefer a basic NSG with No Zanmato to remove frustration but to give myself enough of a challenge.

If you don't have a lot of free time however, this isn't for you. Since, especially later in the game, only one or two characters will be capable of dealing enough damage (Rikku), you'll find boss battles taking a lot longer. Don't be afraid to Customise some powerful armour or weapon abilities. A Stonestrike and Deathstrike weapon makes it easier, since very few normal enemies are immune to both, and it helps to customise those to Capture weapons if you wish to do the Arena. Which, by the way, you may need to do anyway just to beat certain enemies (I ended up using Shining Gems to beat Seymour Flux, and customised - a now useless - Auto-Haste armour for Rikku to beat Yunalesca)

If you want to take on the Arena Monsters, most of them can be beaten using a combination of Trio of 9999 Mix, and Tidus and Wakka's overdrives. A few you HAVE to use a powered up Aeon, and powering up one is an exercise in patience. I find it helps to increase Anima's Strength to at least the point where she can OHKO Kottos, throw a Distiller then Grand Summon -> Oblivion. Saves you some items for Trio Mixing later (it takes 3 Mixes of Trio of 9999 to beat Kottos normally for example, and those items aren't always easy to get back).

If you're crazy enough to power up an Aeon all the way, you can even take on the Dark Aeons. Note that certains DAs require you to still use characters, Dark Ifrit and Ixion's (first fight) attack (Meteor Strike and Thundaja) all have a Delay effect so aeons wont get a normal turn.

There are a few monsters that cannot be beaten in an NSG. Shinryuu is one, since he is fast, you are underwater so cannot use an Aeon, and has that rather cheap Eraser attack. Nemesis IS possible, however getting through him to Shinryuu isnt happening. Dark Anima has not been beaten without Zanmato yet, however I know of at least one person who is working on trying to beat her (DarkKefka of YouTube fame). And of course Penance, which is also impossible.

So, rethink your game and try an NSG today. You'll appreciate the challenge, I know I did :-)

I might try it sometime, but it seems like it'd be difficult.

I thought it would be much harder than it was when I first started. The most annoying fights before you get Rikku would have to be either Sinspawn Gui (the NSG equivalent of Penance with those regenerating arms lol), or the underwater fight with the Rikku-controlled machina. After Rikku joins your party things become a heck of a lot easier since she can steal a whole load of useful items and Use them too.

Early in the game you can get a First Strike weapon for Tidus, so just keep Rikku in reserve, when battle starts you switch out Tidus since he's going before everyone for Rikku and she can either throw items or Steal stuff.

Customising armour is almost essential for certain parts, Lightning Ward or Lightningproof armour for the Thunder Plains, and so on. You'll find Fireproof armour the most useful since a lot of enemies use Fire, the various Bombs, and those Yevon warriors with the flamethrowers for good examples.

Oh and don't neglect the usefulness of status either. Throwing Poison Fangs work great on certain high HP enemies, Seymour Natus and Flux especially, as well as Behemoths and Sand Worms. Very few enemies are immune to both Death and Stone, so like I mentioned earlier having both of these on at least one weapon each is great, just be aware that you can Customise Deathstrike and Stonestrike weapons by doing monster capture and using the items you win for unlocking certain arena monsters.

Check out the videos by Dark Kefka on YouTube, they are very instructional for an NSG game, showing you a few tricks I'd never learned by playing the normal game.

I've got a NSG game going myself and it may be differcult but i'm having a hell of a lot of fun trying all the different combitnations and items with mix. This has also allowed me to use kimahri alot more.

Ok, Penance in NSG. While it would take about 6 hours compared to the 40 minutes or so for a normal game, I'm struggling to think how this would be possible.

No seriously. Even with 99999 HP and 255 in all stats (even Luck, and you will need to max Luck to even hit Penance), even the Aeons will struggle here.
You couldn't use your characters, because even under Auto-Haste they would move way too slowly to do enough damage. It would take 3 attacks of Blitz Ace and Attack Reels (assuming both Tidus and Wakka were alive and had Trio of 9999 status) to take down even one arm, and that would only be a temporary measure.

Auto-Phoenix only works on Phoenix Down, it does not work for Mega-Phoenix. So you'd only have 99 Phoenix Down to deal 12 million HP damage, or put simply you'd need to mix Trio 101 times times for Wakka to even do this under Trio.

Dying, and reviving also has another problem, you have a delay before your next attack, which allows Penance to get 3 or 4 hits per character (and don't forget he's hitting all characters each attack so you can't Mix Hyper Mighty G enough times)

The arms are throwing all sorts of stuff on you, including Stone/Shatter, Mega-Graviton (with Doom), Dispel.

Then there is the problem of Judgement Day. Surprisingly, Judgement Day CAN be predicted, but the damage cannot be reduced by any means (even an Aeon's Shield command), so you WILL lose an Aeon. And of course, he will do that a lot more times than you have aeons. Again, Hyper Mighty G (to preserve an Aeon use for later) won't help you either because of the delay effect or reviving.

So, youd have to use Aeons, at least for a while. While you cannot really use the Magus Sisters for long because of their weird command system, they can do a lot of damage while they last between their attacks, and can last out for a while with some support magic (but if Cindy goes down say goodbye to the sisters basically, and she doesn't heal herself so that won't be for long)

Note that as soon as an Aeon goes down, Penance and the Arms can get at least 4 turns on Yuna before she can summon again. An aeon can last out for a good while against most of their attacks, but as soon as Judgement Day comes out, thats it, since it will have several opportunities to use it before Yuna can summon again.

In short, unless you use Zanmato, you cant beat Penance in an NSG. It has way too many HP and is too fast even for the best prepared party.

sounds really hard ... since you need to up the stats on yuna to do dmg with aeons. and the most fun is doing so much damage with the overdrives ... like wakkas attack reels ... 20 99,999 dmg hits

you haven't convinced me yet. is it possible to get the magus sisters playing with NSG? considering you have to beat the other aeons.

Well I could do with a new challenge so this seems like a good idea I will try it as soon as I'm finished with my current FF9 LV1 game