Part 27: L.Bullshit Dungeon

Fanatics Tower is the worst dungeon in Beyond Chaos. I kept putting it off and putting it off until finally today I sat down and dove in. And you know? It was as bad as I expected.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OjB0abkWnE
Final Fantasy X - Seymour's Ambition

These cultists are so stupid they didn't even close the gap left when we snagged our party member. And those staircases? That's literally the entire dungeon, just going up, up and up.



There's also a naming convention going on here, everything goes from L.10 to L.90. There's a general progression to the higher numbers as you climb up, and these little ones are fairly weak.



Here's my general strategy: Quake the hell out of everything. It's not perfect, as Scar doesn't have any Earth nullifying gear so needs to wear a Cherub Down (because no one in this party knows Float) and elemental damage is a problem if I find something that absorbs it. Naru has the Economizer for 1 MP Quakes, and Rein can Mimic it for free. MP healing items are expensive and I don't have a lot.



Some are more dangerous than others.



At least, for the people that don't absorb the elements.



Can I gush about the sprite work some more? Because these are great sprites, even the little green gimp.



And then there's this thing. I don't know why they show up here but they'll also be somewhere in the final dungeon. A couple Quakes take care of it.



Starting to get a little more painful now. L.40 Floats so I have to reflect some Flares instead.



Oh no!



No biggie. I don't THINK encountering a dragon in a chest counts towards killing all eight, so we'll revisit this one in the Final Dungeon.



Getting harder but still nothing that goes through my Wall Rings.



I like these, when they're alone, even with the Earth absorption.

They generally stick to Cure 3, Life 3 and Reflect. They're also vulnerable to Doom so I just used that and Mimicked it until it worked.



No free heals for me, with these Wall Rings. They're smart enough to target my party instead of themselves.



Normally the White Dragon is here, who is a total pushover. You know how is also a pushover? THIS GUY.

Honestly, this fight is very boring. None of its spells can hit me and its attack stat is too low to worry about.



Quake hurts it bad.



Absorbs lightning but has paltry power behind it, so very little healing.



The worst thing it does is put up Reflect so I have to bounce Flares off when I use them.



Five dragons down, three to go!



And here we have it, the bane of Fanatics Tower and perma death runs everywhere. Most people just skip this place entirely, since Moogle Charms don't really work in this location.

Immune to Death, Mute, Sleep.



Quake does nothing.



For reasons I don't know, it only casts Life 3 on my party instead of itself. This is good because:



The only way to survive Meteor is to have high HP. It ignores defense and has real good power behind it.



All the L.XX monsters have "Can't Escape" flags.



This, in fact, isn't even the worst thing!



Everyone but Scar absorbs Fire/Wind though unfortunately so does the monster.



Finally we reach the top, and find the vanilla treasure waiting for us. I won't complain TOO much, as double casting magic can be good.



No, please, I just want to leave, you can have the stupid relic!



MagiMaster is renamed L.255Magic, I guess to fit in with the theme of the tower. He's usually not too bad, if you have a way to dodge Ultima. Watch the fight HERE.



Wall Rings are still a must; his Flare is hitting for half damage after being Reflected.



He's also got auto Float on. Not that it would matter too much, as he uses WallChange whenever an elemental attack hits.



"Fire Beam? That thing you have at the beginning of the game? Pfft, that's weak."



Not so fast, friend.



Basically elemental damage roulette. You can't rely on elements unless you want to Scan every round.



Sometimes you get lucky! The poison damage increases every turn, maxing out at 8x damage after eight turns. This means if L.255 happens to be weak to Poison when it ticks, he takes decent damage.



One more Flare and it's toast, doesn't even get a regular boss animation.



Probably because of this!



You WILL die to this, even at level 99 I'm sure. You need to drain its MP to below 80, have Life 3, or be in the air with Palidor when it dies. Palidor is doable but you have to make extra sure it'll die after 1-3 characters land, since you can only use Palidor once a battle as an Esper.



Merton strats! Get a party of Paladin Shield users and heal yourself. Except only Ukyo can equip this Esper. "LV - 1" as a level up bonus means you'll actually go DOWN a level instead of up. You'll also lose a handful of random stats (I believe) but this would allow you to re-level again, with more Esper bonuses. Entirely too much work but it's an option. I believe this was in the vanilla game but dummied out.



WE'RE NOT DONE YET!



I'm back for blood!



And didn't plan very well! I forgot which dragon was here and didn't feel like starting the fight over, it's fine.




God damn that hurts, real glad it doesn't use it very often.



About here is where I realize I don't have any Life magic.



Fenix Downs and near useless X-fights it is!



My initial plan is to make it weak against elements I have, the strongest of which is Quake or Ice 3.



I can see this is going to be a problem.



Rein has no trouble at all, though.



At this point I say "fuck it" and don't bother reviving those two. Rein and Ukyo got this!



Flare Star? Nah.



A chainsaw to the face? Yeah, that's the ticket.



Two dragons to go, both of which are in Kefka's Tower!



WE'RE STILL NOT DONE YET!



For those of you not in the know, this is Gau's (Red XIII/Sakura, to the left) father. He tossed Gau onto the Veldt when he was born because he's lost his mind.



This makes Sakura sad, and Videl wants to help.



First, dining and etiquette lessons. Ukyo just down there taking a nap while Rein and Sahara are conspicuously absent. Probably because they're technically "optional" characters.



Sakura's terrible secrets are revealed when they're taken to get some nice clothes.



Sakura's really a boy! Are they wearing a red dog thing costume, or was it magic all along? Who knows!



Surely this blathering old man will appreciate the son he doesn't know he has now that said son is wearing a suit.



He doesn't give two shits.



Videl threatens to evacuate the old man's bowels by force but Sakura stops him.



Sakura knows this man will never be a true father to him. It's kinda depressing and doesn't give a lot of closure.

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ALL TREASURES
Relic Ring
24,500 GP
24,600 GP
Magus Rod
Gem Box
Pearl Lance
Blizzard Orb

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Magus Rod trades for an Aegis Shield, and ValiantKnife for an Offering. However, with Ragnarok, I can in theory go about getting the items I'm missing, like some Ribbons. Might not though, it's a lot of work. We'll see!

Next update will be part of the Final Dungeon. I haven't decided how I'm going to do it yet; either two or three updates. Two for the dungeon and bosses, and a final update for the last fight, probably. That'll give me a nice even 30 updates, as well. I'll try not to make anyone wait for weeks and weeks for that final update though.

Please VOTE for which TWO characters we will be LEAVING BEHIND.