Part 9: Saber's Mansion

Hello friends! Today we're going to rescue a prisoner and beat up a clown.



We start by witnessing WuFei getting comfortable with himself and how he dresses. Shine on, WuFei!



Unfortunately it doesn't last long as I don't get a prompt to keep the clothes on.



I'm surprised they let her keep her cape on while being held prisoner.



Uh..I guess being chained to a wall enables some kind of shape changing ability?



Hey. Hey, everyone. Do you want to break the game even more wide open? All you need to do is have Ragnarok as a regular command!

I'm sure you've noticed the "Morph (%):" entries on most of the monsters before. As I mentioned earlier, those are the four items that are possible to get from using Ragnarok, with the % being the chance of the skill actually going off. Each item has an equal chance to drop if the skill goes off. This can (and will) lead to some very nice items.

R-Miss is..OK. Meteo can do decent damage and if the enemy is vulnerable to the Instant Death/Confusion stuff it can help. Unfortunately it's just more RNG on top of RNG.

X-Zone and Stone are a Black Magic and Lore spell, respectively.



Here is what the Fenrip has, as a reminder. The game tells you what item you will get before you find out if it actually hits.



Since I have a 99% chance of it going off, I snag myself a Stout Spear!



It's not spectacular but just a good upgrade.



Nice little upgrade for anyone that can wear it.



The Fla Syl (soldier) is new here and with that 3% chance of Ragnarok working I decide just to kill them. The Encrut is a different matter:

All good items!



I pull these from a couple of battles. Fixed Dice are better than Dice but these are still good and give a bonus to Speed. The Charm Bangle is funny; it halves my encounter rate but also gives double XP like the Exp. Egg. Makes grinding that much more unappealing.

I also pick up some vanilla Goggles, a Heavy Shield, MithrilGlove, X-potion, vanilla Hyper Wrist, and some new goodies.




Eventually, someone will get a big damage boost from equipping a Tack Star. The Gold Hairpin is vanilla and that's perfectly fine. Halving MP costs is an amazing get at this stage. Murasame has an extra 15 attack. Gaia Gear is the next big drop; Earth absorb is the key to victory in Permadeath, and overall very nice at this stage. You never know when a monster is going to have Quake or Magnitude 8 even as a death counter.



Dangerous territory! Dahle is a discount evil goblin wizard, Gazet is a dog in armor that looks very uncomfortable. They're not as bad as I expected though; the Dahle even Morphed into that Gaia Gear I got!



DRILL, BABY, DRILL

A deadly boss in most BC runs, depending on your RNG. If your Locke/Celes have garbage commands or you don't have a Thunder Rod, your run may very well end here. Tek Laser really hurts but luckily for me, the only thing it does is a regular attack and a MT Ice. If it absorbed or nullified Pearl I would have been in danger.



Final Fantasy IX: Hunter's Chance - This is a good tune and I should really get around to playing 9 some day.

That brings us to this, the defense of Narshe and the Esper held within. Same rules as the Moogle fight at the beginning; waves of monsters slowly make their way up. If any of them touch Banon, that's a game over. Losing a fight isn't a game over, that team just appears on the save point and can fight some more.



My preferred method is to make one shitkicker team, then one OK and one good character in a party, and someone that can potentially hold their own in the last. This is just an insurance policy in case I miss one of the roaming monsters and they make it up to Banon.



The conga line method of defense is underrated.



I'd like to get an Air Anchor but I didn't spend the time with save states to guarantee one.



Cure Ring is acceptable, the Thief Glove is hot garbage. R-Miss isn't great to begin with and replacing it with Morph isn't much better. Pipimi isn't here to do damage, she's here to melt enemies into items.




I also pick these up. Trident is pretty vanilla but the Blizzard Orb has a bonus +5 Magic Power, once I find my berzerker.



I love when enemies have the Escape skill, it makes my life easier.




Cherub Down is the other anti-Earth tech that makes PD runs hum. No need to absorb Earth if you can just avoid it! The Mithril Shld is slightly worse than vanilla but the Beret has a wonderful +50% MP rogue effect!

Enough looting, let's meet this dog on the battlefield.



We're in for a bit of a slog here. It has decent HP and absorbs Pearl, as well as toting a x3 attack with plenty of power behind it.








Just kidding I turned him into a gag gift instead.



Now're talking. Vulnerability to Control is random as well. Some bosses can be controlled, and anything super dangerous that is vulnerable will no longer be super dangerous. NOW we're going to have an actual battle.



Time to end this forever, Kefka.



Treasure of the Rudras: The Spirit Chaser - Kefka gets his own special music for this fight.

We start by flashing then throwing some snow balls. Kefka is not amused.



Virite has a pretty nice animation, even if it is just a Poison spell.




Mind Blast won't work on Kefka but throwing a bunch of asteroids at him certainly will.



This is Disaster, from Pipimi's R-Miss. None of the things it does will affect him though. Looks neat at least!



Ice 2 kinda hurts but not enough to be worried about yet.



As you can see, Kefka is a coward when faced with actual shitkickers. He drops me a vanilla Sniper Sight.



Go on now, git!



We're back to cutsene territory. Is the Esper OK?



OH GOD HELP



Saber is drawn to the creature. Something primal within them is stirring.

Tales of Phantasia: Biting Cold - Saber can't resist.



Saber approaches the frozen Esper. It feels like the Esper is calling to them..



This may have been a mistake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_XHnTsxWjo