Part 5: Episode 6.5 - 9 coverage
So last time we went to Zozo. I had 4 potions to my name and nearly got obliterated off screen. I'm going back to Jidoor to restock.
Jean leveled up and did... this. Bear in mind this is before getting espers. His X-magic command wasn't just there because he ate a Gem box or something, it was there because he was a natural mage.
The Kodachi that dropped in the video, but liquidy lucked out, no one can use it. It's pretty strong, but with a 10% evasion penalty.
Dadaluma wasn't too fancy or difficult. Jean stole a tent, Dadaluma stole 5 grand. But since he's a boss he's not going to run, so all it acts as is a slap in the face.
Hato screwed up, he's the only casualty.
This is an AuraBolt from Shanon, unless Hato gets a good spell, she's the biggest damage dealer every round.
In vanilla, Dadaluma tosses several potions or tonics and then Safe as he gets to low health. Here, he tosses a tonic, an antidote (?) then Safe. It'd be scary if we weren't doing things doing magic damage.
From my last update, I wondered if Grand Train suffers from split damage, it does.
This is something that either I never noticed in vanilla, or it only applies in this situation. Normally you can't have equipment that boosts MP at this point. Once Espers show up, everyone gets MP and gets them filled up. Hiiro here is a little light, because the game apparently fills you to your base max MP, then applies equipment bonuses.
This is a dumb idea.
I may be doing something dumb, but I'm not stupid.
These jerks absorb water. They're also the ones that prevent escaping from formations.
These natilus guys do some weird things when hit with a physical attack. They either counter with something that casts imp, or exploder.
Nothing fancy with Gendo and Rachel.
I went back to get Legato, purely to demonstrate something.
This wasn't it. This... I just don't know any more.
Yeah, he just learned magic naturally too.
Blink and you'll miss it. Legato comes in when the opera starts.
But he's gone by the first solo. Up until now, if Legato leaves you either are in a place balanced for 2 or 3 characters, or you can go back and rearrange your party. Here, you're locked in for the long haul. Here, the game waves a big, "you done fucked up flag" and kicks him now rather than leaving you to deal with the fear of him probably leaving while locked into the Imperial continent.
I like how Nintendo Power in their initial coverage and giving the blurbs of all the player characters, the last word on Shadow's is "he hates the opera."
Do not do what Liquidy and I did if you want to try out the fight of your life. Hato is a liability. I would suggest Jean for his X-magic ability.
Liquidy didn't check the shop in the Blackjack. He was better for it.
In the strangest twist,
If you think I stopped at 2, you're crazy. I buy 6 earrings, even if it meant I had to sell a bunch of garbage I'd never use but have pangs of guilt for not having one of everything. I'm sure I'll get plenty of mithril knives and asuras to fill that loss.
I don't remember Celes being stripped in Vanilla, but Shanon is here.
My levels at the start of the Factory. While I could be silenced in the video, rest assured I am humming now!
So on for the main event. I beat this asshole twice, once because Hato Crusaded me in the next random fight without laying a savestate, and again because I wanted the prize even though I'll probably never bring myself to use it.
Master Pug has enough health do survive these events
8 GrandTrains
16-18 Magitek Missiles or Rockslides
20 Goners (damn his magic defense)
60 Suplexes.
Round 1 - Planned to go the MagiMaster route and berserk him. This was before I got Ifrit and Shiva, but wanted the proof of concept that if it worked, I could always head down to the pit and learn Vanish. MasterPug is immune to both berserk and muddle though, so that wasn't going to happen.
Winner by way of earthquake, MasterPug.
Round 2 - Enter the fight pre-floated, cast Slow and
. Also shifted Hato and Hiiro into the back row (no reason not to have done this earlier, aside from the fact they haven't been one-shotted by anything until now), despite being a boomerang sprite, MasterP's attack isn't long range. I used slow in the first attempt, but after berserk failed it was mostly just a test. Slow is absolutely critical, it means he is only slightly faster than everyone, rather than twice as fast. During this fight some new tricks show up besides the Elemental-3 spells and other dickery he did to Liquidy. First, he knows Clean Sweep, which if you saw what he did with other magic you knew the fear I felt.
...note the past tense. That feeling was replaced with confidence. Earrings have additional benefits than the magic boost in this seed. They absorb water and pearl element while halving earth (big deal, it only double kills everyone rather than 4 times over), at the expense of a fire weakness. A very good tradeoff, since even spells with no modifiers will oneshot anyone, so no reason to stop him from killing someone 20 times over. While the fight went well, I was losing steam from having to revive everyone in the face of the part of the combat script where he just relentlessly launches party wide Bio or -3 spells.
Rounds 3 through whatever one I finally won on - Ground a bit to learn spells and get a little buffer to prevent being one shot by Step Mine. Put a pair of running shoes on Gendo (since I didn't want to give up my dual earrings on anyone else because I'm an idiot), and switched the force shield from Hato to Hiiro. This is why I regret bringing Hato, not for the highly variable damage (he is immune to whump!) or the risk of him Crusading (though that happened 2 or 3 times) but because R-Nuke completely and totally overwrites magic. Even though he "learns" it in the esper menu, Magic in battle or in the field is forever locked out, so Hato either R-Nukes or is an item-bot, he can't mass heal, or contribute to my Grand Plan.
Going to pick up the chest missed in the video.
It's a weapon from the second half of the game, though I think the "human" flag is no longer tied to humanoid sprites.
Going down to the Espers, and more importantly a savepoint to heal. Note Chekhov's crane entering stage left.
Not seen in the video since Liquidy pratically insta-gibbed him (Hato and Hiiro in my game alternated between Flare Star and other high output fire and elements he was immune to). Fire 3 wipes anyone without the Force Shield.
Thankfully Hato finally stopped being an idiot.
These guys are visiting the garbage as well. Faxi are immune to fire, which seems to be par for the course in this dungeon.
They're fairly weak; Gendo was able to back attack one for about 750HP to kill it, and are weak to space rocks. However, see that attack prompt?
death counter! The one who laid that one out just phased out. There's one more Faxi standing.
And he took Hiiro with him. So thankfully their death counter isn't a certain thing, otherwise it could cause a party wipe with our love of multi-target destruction.
Walking up to the crane in the pit lifts you back out...
To this other crane?
To succeed, I need tinctures to fuel Cure 2 and Rasp. Shanon has Life, but I honestly think she only had the chance to cast it once.
Hey, a new attack, haven't seen them in awhile!
Fuck this thing KILL IT WITH FIRE It heals for about 400HP, but the psychological scars of seeing something more horrifying than the Donnie Darko rabbit will never fade.
Definitely killed the hell out of that liquidyplu.
To win at these levels, you need everyone capable of healing and Rasping, plus one person to vanish a couple people at the end. MasterP has about 36000HP and about 1900MP. He's level 73. Besides the first few rounds where he tosses his boomerang, and his instant-kill when he gets close, all of his offense is MP driven. Hiiro and Shanon can take out about 70-80 per hit, Gendo does about 40, so around 10 rounds of terror are needed to be safe.
It doesn't help that he frequently counters everything, even Rasp with step mine, which takes nearly anyone to critical. Here's a basic rundown.
First round, someone eats a boomerang, hopefully they don't die and they can do something other than attack. Cast Slow, summon Kirin, cast Rasp, if he didn't counter too much, the fourth person should cast Rasp too (R-Nuke with Hato). This is why I suggest Jean against my own decisions, He can dual rasp, or rasp and cure. He also could have stolen a Tiger Fang or Coronet, so it was definitely a mistake in hindsight.
Second through maybe Fourth round - repeat this sequence.
This is where things go wrong. If you're unlucky, you'll be eating things that are not quake, Clean Sweep, or Pearl. -3 Spells and Bio will oneshot anyone without the force shield, even 30% magic evasion doesn't seem to block much. Gendo can runic here, and I've done it with some success, but runic stops Rasp, and prevents Cure-2. Usually once he finds a useful spell, it'll recast it for his next 3 or 4 turns, just in time for you to revive a second party member and get this close to getting their turn and see another Bio.
Ninethish round or so. Instant death attack. This can be blocked by image, I think shield too. Didn't try the safety bit however. Unfortunately there's no breather, he goes right back to doing horrible magic things after this attack. His MP will probably be half to 3/4 depleted.
Let's join in at the critical moment.
If you survive, and his magic is depleted congratulations, all you need to do is beat him down.
Vanish doesn't seem necessary at this point since he forgot about his boomerang but I wasn't going to be too proud to take any insurance.
He can still wall change without magic, so I just wail on him since I didn't feel like giving Hato the chance to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The prize for dozens of Fenix downs, about 10 Tinctures, several potions and hours of effort? A Megalixer. The Stunner was also in his drop table, but didn't get it either time.
And forgetting to savestate and getting Crusaded in the next fight.
Don't know why Hiiro was able to stay standing, it was a game over all the same. I think maybe its because the game doesn't have any sign of a character charging R-elem in its script to flip someone from living to dead?
There is one more thing to bring up. A very odd enemy shows up around Vector.
Yes, that is Dadaluma, the exact same Dadaluma from Zozo, including the minion summon and boss death animation. Of course being a couple levels higher and with Earring boosted Nukes and Fire Dances it ends much, much faster.