The Battle at Riovanes Castle Keep is widely considered to be the most challenging battle in Final Fantasy Tactics—The Ivalice Chronicles. Like in the original PSX release and the War of the Lions version, it has a significant difficulty spike that requires extensive preparation before the battle.
NOTE: This guide outlines the specific Ramza setup and turn-by-turn strategy that I used and verified to defeat Wiegraf on Enhanced Mode's Tactician difficulty. This strategy is based on the same principles proven effective in the original PSX and War of the Lions versions and works well across all current difficulty settings and Classic Mode.
How to Win the Battle At Riovanes Castle Keep in Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles
Preparation
Ramza's Setup
In late Chapter 3, Ramza must head to Riovanes Castle to proceed in his quest, and win three consecutive battles. The second of them starts with a duel against Wiegraf, which can be very difficult to win without a proper setup anchored on a core strategy: automatic healing and defeating Wiegraf in a single strike.
| Category | Options | Notes / Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Job | 1. Ninja Or 2. Monk Or 3. Samurai Or 4. Squire | Any physical job works, but Ninja offers the best Speed and innate damage (Dual Wield). |
| Secondary Command | 1. Mettle (Squire Command) Or 2. Martial Arts (Monk Command) Or 3. Items | Requires unlocking Focus (Mettle), Chakra (Martial Arts). |
| Reaction Ability | Auto-Potion (Chemist) | CRUCIAL! You must discard all Potion types except X-Potions before the fight. Requires Bravery 80+. |
| Support Ability | 1. Dual Wield (Ninja) Or 2. Doublehand (Samurai) | Doublehand has no effect with Monk main job. |
| Movement Ability | 1. Movement +3 (Bard) Or 2. Teleport (Time Mage) Or 3. Movement +2 (Thief) Or 4. Movement +1 (Squire) | Necessary for keeping distance during the fight. |
NOTE: These are only some of the possibilities Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles offers to win this duel. However, as Ramza excels as a physical attacker, these are among the most reliable that work best with less grinding.
Battle Party
Before the battle begins, you will be asked to pick a battle party like always. Make sure to bring your strongest physical damage dealers and a Chemist for fast healing. Mustadio with his Aimed Shot is a great choice as well.
Riovanes Castle Keep Battle Phase One
The first phase of the battle is a one-on-one duel between Ramza and Wiegraf. The Templar will use his Holy Sword's Hallowed Bolt ability, and has a high chance of countering physical attacks with the Counter Reaction ability. As such, you must build up your attack power to defeat him in a single strike while letting Auto-Potion heal you automatically.
Turn-by-turn Strategy
- On every turn, try to get as far from Wiegraf as possible.
- Use Mettle's Focus to increase your attack power, Steel if your Bravery is not high enough for Auto-Potion to trigger on every attack, or Tailwind if Wiegraf's speed is high enough to grant him back-to-back turns.
- If Wiegraf's attacks exceed the damage X-Potions can heal, use a healing ability such as Iaido's Murasame, Martial Arts' Chakra, or an X-Potion via the Items command.
- Once you can take down Wiegraf in a single strike, attack him. Try to attack him from the back to increase your hit chance.
Riovanes Castle Keep Battle Phase Two
In the second and final phase of the fight, Wiegraf will turn into the Lucavi Belias, and summon three Archaeodaemons. Ramza will be joined by the rest of the party assigned before the duel began, making this second phase somewhat easier than the first.
Belias can summon Cyclops for massive AOE damage that can one-shot almost every unit in Tactician mode. He can also Silence and Petrify characters with his unique abilities, making magic-based units ineffective. As such, you want to end the battle quickly with physical damage dealers.
- Focus your attacks on Belias, taking advantage of when he is summoning Cyclops to deal extra damage.
- As you have already boosted Ramza's physical attack, make sure to keep him alive, as he will be the strongest unit in this battle, no matter the others' setups.
- If you have brought Mustadio to the battle, you can use Arm Shot to Disable Archaeodaemons and prevent them from acting for a few turns. This can give the rest of the party some breathing room to focus on Belias.
After Belias is defeated, the battle will end, marking the end of one of the most challenging fights in the game. Don't rest on your laurels, however: some challenges are still ahead of you. For a look at how the remaster enhances even the most challenging elements of the original, you can check out my full Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles review.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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