Part 36: Chapter XXXIII: To Defeat The Enemy

Well met, all. We begin another battle-filled update with a showdown against the enraged leader of the dragon clan. Whatever that is. For this fight, bring in the mages. A character who has strong physical attack is also a must, because we're going to be facing the Kaiser Dragon and three Reapers, and you don't want to be bogged down in a magic-to-magic battle with them while the Kaiser is running wild.

In this case, Fiona and Sofia are carrying the team as far as physical attack, but I kinda decided poorly with Li Ra-Lua and Eva. Normally, I'd only have one of the scythe girls in a fight, just so they could have the best scythe uncontested, but I wanted to bring both in for this. What I did was I forged a Helheim and Hades, both rather powerful scythes, but I didn't have enough Orichalcum to upgrade either one, and certainly not both. Li Ra-Lua is kind of a dead weight in this fight, but everyone contributes something to winning. The last emperor of the dragon clan, overcome with rage - Versus Kaiser Dragon



At the start of the fight, all three Reapers are packed pretty tightly, which makes for a good time to use Eternal Gleam, Sofia's group Light spell, or Fiona's Febvre Lumire (but Moon Shine can also work, since both of her Original Skills hit groups). As long as we take one Reaper a turn, we'll take a lot of power out of the enemy's team before too long. The Kaiser Dragon is much too hardy to fight at the start, and besides which, Reapers can use Gloria to recover about 18,000 of the Kaiser's HP.

Oh, and I mentioned Sofia is primarily a physical attacker this time. Since I certainly don't have a second Calinou's Hammer, she has to make do with a Kounodaki, which has strong physical power but weak in actual magical damage. Eva and Fiona will be taking care of the magic side of things, while Li Ra-Lua hangs in reserve in case things get ugly for those three.



When it comes to attacking the dragon itself (the only reason I didn't go after the third and final Reaper is because it was in a yellow square, and I'm not wasting all that AP against an enemy I'm only doing half damage against or some such nonense), he takes more damage in Stunned, and has crazy high physical resistance. You'll be fighting for years if you use a melee-oriented team in this fight.



But, Finish Strikes are not without consequences. When the Reaper and Dragon began the final attack, I used R2 to rush through the enemy animations because I was sure there was no way Sofia was going to survive. Turns out things didn't happen the way I thought they would, but I wasn't too far off. But, she's still alive, and with 16 SP I have considerable leeway to do what I wish. I can turn Destiny (1 point), Genius (3 points), Satori (1 point, even though there's really no point in doing that), and Critical Break (3 points). That Reaper is completely screwed.



While not contributing much in actual damage, I did not use Avilight Scythe lightly. That extra bonus to break damage when you exploit an elemental vulnerability is going to make sure he starts taking more and more damage soon. While I couldn't tell you the actual multiplier for it, I think an enemy that has been completely broken takes about twice as much damage as normal. Fiona's going to have to shoulder my entire war effort, but if anyone can do it, she can.



The interesting thing about Black Hole is that the damage it does is based on Fiona's stats, not Eva's. This is also why Black Hole affects Fiona's Wait, and why magical counterattacks from Black Hole will only hit Fiona, not her partner. What this also means is that my most powerful mage is launching a Finish Strike, not weak ol' Eva. Fiona has seriously been about 90% of this battle so far.



And he's down. The dragon clan is finished.



Kind of messy, but I certainly didn't waste any time with these guys. Weiss definitely would have been a better choice than Li Ra-Lua, but I can hardly say no to the ladies.



Time for one of my least favorite fights in the game, against the monstrous beast Astral. The reason I dislike this fight is that Astral really has no openings. He has strong physical defense, strong magical defense, and is plenty fast. His buddies are pretty easily killed, but when it comes to the main event, he is not going down quietly. Well, let's see what we can do.

Oh, and Fiona ended up being used a lot more in the Plain than I honestly intended to. I guess the Hammer just compels me. Oh well, at least every character gets to be in at least one fight, which is more diversity than I usually attempt. Make super sure you have someone with See All / No Fear (combined with an HP into the 30,000s or so). See All is more convenient, so Georg worked out pretty well here. He also has Desperate Strength, which we'll also need this fight. A fanged beast seen by many as the god of destruction - Versus Astral



"God of destruction" isn't too far off from the truth. I already mentioned all the benefits he has coming into this fight, which means we need to play extra smart to win. Luckily, their futile attempts to kill Fiona were for naught, only taking off a little more than half of her HP. The most obvious thing to do is take out his pals, since the last thing we need in this fight is the peanut gallery.



Though the losses are certainly regrettable, it's not a total waste. The Astral has used both of his Original Skills, which means he can't surprise us with much. Vanessa and Fiona really took ones for the team, but there's a difference between doing us a favor and us winning. I'd much prefer the latter, but we're not even done with all his mooks.



But I soon will be. This game is all about planning ahead in battles. When you want to take advantage of a formation (in this case, Georg's attack bonus while the team in his formation), you plan ahead. If I wanted a heavy accuracy / evasion boost, I would have Weiss do nothing in an attack. Of course, much goes out the window when you want to throw everything into the attack and finish an enemy off. But, we're not even close to finishing this fight.



No use holding back any longer. Astral has annoyingly high evasion, which means unless Accuracy is on, Georg is not attacking. It's just as well, because Yumil has both Desperate Strength (from Georg), and Accuracy (from Vanessa). Not much works better than that. Oh, and Yumil's spear is the Gungnir, which is a rare drop from the Makhalas in the Calicai Volcano. Surprisingly powerful at level 5.



He's tough, but not invincible. While I don't care for Elgar Volcano as a level one, gotta love the heat wave. Just to make it clear, every level two Original Skill in the game is Void-elemental, even though Elgar Volcano is clearly turning up the heat here. Grey has the interesting distinction of being the only character whose Original Skills are Void at both levels, but that's because he's a mix of light and darkness, after all.



Yumil has been carrying this team so far in this fight. Part of the reason I like her in battle so much is because all her attack animations are very predictable, so I can get Wait bonus after Wait bonus very easily. With fighters like Vanessa, it can be kind of tricky timing things, but I never seem to have much a problem with spear users.

In fact, I used Seraphim Strike two times in one attack. I mean, in Over Wait, it's not like her Wait can go any higher, right? Yumil was even back in action a couple turns later, just because she's just that handy.



This attack I was really scared. The Astral is really low on life, but that means if he survives this attack, he's liable to put No Pain on. I needed to break him this turn, or I ran the risk of losing, so close to the end. Georg is missing way too much for unknown reasons, and Yumil I don't trust to close the distance in 75 AP. That's when I remembered, hey, Fiona, she's still in this fight, and more accurate than either of them.



Just barely managed to kill him, but dead is dead. The beast has been felled.



And how. Nice work, everyone.



Once Waffe, Rune Blade, and Kaiser Dragon have been vanquished forever, the eastern part of the Boundary Plains is open to you. Once you've cleared all the way to Satanael and Vermillion, you can now fight every normal enemy in the game. The bottom two areas, near Vermillion (his point is on the right), and Satanael (on the left) even have Cliones and Chickapedes, two super, super rare encounters, that are very powerful. Be wary of facing them. But, we're going to challenge Satanael first. An archangel from another world who has fallen from grace - Versus Satanael



Unlike the last boss, Satanael is much less of a slog of a fight. Thing about him is this: his magic power is unbelievable. Satan is clearly a min-maxxer, and as a result, his physical defense is very, very low. Makes him ripe for Team Girl Power to tear to shreds. We haven't seen Felenne on the battlefield for a truly long time. Satan is weak to Light and absorbs Darkness, but don't even think about fighting this guy with magic. It is a fight you are not going to win.

Oh, and I should mention Mervina and Victoria's new weapons. Victoria is currently using the Vajra, the third best spear in the game, and Mervina is using the Princess Sword, a considerable upgrade over the Gram. The spoils of our victories until now. Funnily enough, Georg can't use the Princess Sword. Guess it'd be a tad too effeminate for him or something. Anyway, I think Fiona and Mervina are the only two that can use that weapon. Soon we'll be getting the Augenblick, the second best spear in the game, and a few fights later, Scions of the Sun, by far the best spear in the game.



This fight was fun as hell for me, personally, because it gave me a chance to show off a lot of level three melee combo attacks, like Accel Rave level 3, and soon enough we'll be seeing Chiliadal Genocide level 3. Just you wait.



Oh, it starts off innocently enough. Just two characters delivering body blows to the target, but soon enough the target gets blasted into the Pain Dimension.



And in the Pain Dimension, suffering is king, as the target gets pelted with like 300 knives all at once.



In a single round of attacking, I was able to inflict 300,000 damage and defeat Satan. You got your ass handed to you, son. Also, since you can refight bosses in the Boundary's Plain, this is where you can grind Suzaku's Rings. Interesting.



Without the big boy around, these wolves are deader than dead.



Has Satan ever been in a game where he didn't get his ass kicked at some point? Granted, I can't think of many games where this happened at the hands of anime girls.



Now time to do battle with the penultimate boss of the Plain: Vermillion and his two arms. This is a fairly easy fight, actually, and there's a ton of good items to steal here, so Jude, Jainus, or Mervina in this fight is a very good choice. Let's roll. A doll made from graphite who brings only death - Versus Vermillion



Although the main body of Vermillion is our biggest enemy, we'll have to deal with his arms before we may do battle with the doll himself. In Agarest 1's and Zero's post-game dungeon, you had to fight all three parts of Vermillion at once, but not so here. Anyhow, these two have a similar dynamic to the Gurg: one focuses on magic (the one I'm highlighting), and the other on physical attacks. Neither has very much defense though, so you could easily defeat both in one round of attacking. I wouldn't recommend rushing things, though.



At some point down the line, I decided to equip Jainus with Qutuga, which is a physical and magical Darkness attack that has a chance of inflicting insta-death. Not many party members have great affinity to Darkness magic, so I haven't gotten the chance to throw out too many Darkness abilities. Oh well.



One of these days these morons will learn. Schwarz has the honor of activating No Fear AND Rile. One of the little noticed benefits of Rile is that it significantly increases physical and magical defense, too, as well as offense. Combined with Schwarz's formation bonus (Attack and Defense Up), we're a goddamned iron wall.



Oooh la la, a Rusty Ring. Hello, Mighty Ring.



Can this be true? is AINA kicking this guy's ass? She sure is, with Rile and Critical Break on. With Iron Wall on, our dudes' melee attacks are very below par, even with Rile on. Aina is just going to be taking this one away.



WOOOOO! We broke 1 million damage! Against a single enemy, no less.



Flawless performance, everyone.



A bit of an intermission as we give our two scythe girls something to value: a Gate of Heaven. It's still not quite up to par with artifacts, but it is very, very powerful, especially since I had enough Orichalcum to fully upgrade it. Now Eva gets to do the one thing she hasn't been able to do since the start of the game: fight enemies with physical damage.



Now time for the final battle of the Boundary Plain: the Holy Dragon. Let's cut this bad boy down to size. A creature borne of the blood vessels of the first dragon - Versus Holy Dragon



He's certainly no pipsqueak. You may notice Nill hiding in the back there. Needless to say, he's quite a bit weaker than the Holy Dragon. Oh, and Fiona is using the Rune Blade Shard. We got the ingredients to make it from the commission for defeating the Rune Blade, obviously. It's slightly better than Calinou's Hammer, actually, and tied with the most magically powerful staff in terms of quality. Basically, the Rune Blade Shard has more physical attack power, but the most powerful staff, called Nemesis (named after the goddess who took possession of it), is more magically powerful. The Shard looks better, though. It counts as a staff, so Fiona, Sofia, and Aina can use it.



Now that's just silly. I just wish he had used Square Cross, since that would have meant four Holy Dragons would have been on-screen at once and completely obscured everything going on. Anyway, the Holy Dragon is incredibly physically powerful. Almost absurdly so. He is weak to Darkness, so that's why I'm using Grand Cross and Darkness abilities for once. Accordingly, he takes very little damage from physical attacks, meaning magic is going to do most of the damage here.

Oh, and I threw in his second Original Skill, from my first, failed attempt, simply because it looks so cool. Did the same thing with the Danaos fight.



Feels nice to throw Absolute Fierce at enemies for once. The version I used was just level two. Wonder what is added on for level three. I shall find out in time.



Seriously, I just cannot get over how incredibly powerful the desperation skills are. It's just absurd. With one of them on, I'm doing like four times as much damage as normal. The difficulty of many a foe is considerably lessened if you're doing four times as much damage. And when an enemy gets broken, then you're gonna start seeing some fireworks, like normal spells hitting for 20,000+ damage. I nearly Over Killed the Holy Dragon in a single attack. I love Eva so much.



Great day in the morning.



But, that's the entire Boundary Plain boss line-up! We have crushed each and every boss who has stood before us, some taking more time than others. Satanael actually has the honor of being the only boss of the Plains I beat on my first try, but Lindwor was the one who took up most of my time. The "Event" over the Holy Dragon's spot doesn't mean anything. If you go there, you just fight the Holy Dragon again.

Next time, it is time to do battle with the Gods of Darkness. This tale of love and war is rapidly approach its end, and only the strength of our faith will save the world. The Oathsworn will fulfill its destiny of drastically altering the fate of the world, for good or ill. Truly, the ones who wield it hold the world's destiny in their hands.