Part 25: Centre - Vexacion

Update 25: Centre - Vexacion

Welcome back. Last time we defeated Hortensia and took her key. Now it’s time to finish our journey through Centre and push through to whatever lies beyond.



Music: Centre Ministry Sector







It isn’t long before we run into more Buzz Militants. I don’t think I need to say anything more about them, so let’s skip the fighting and get on with it.







In the next room we find a solitary KanaphageDX.



They follow the same rules as their smaller cousins down in BioCorp - kill them quickly and they’ll drop more cash.



This might seem like a lot, but killing a KanaphageDX in one hit is worth a whopping 30,000 Zenny.





The next area contains two Creepstalkers. Nothing we haven’t dealt with before, but they do drop the Treasure Key for this floor.





‘Drop dead!’ is a defence-piercing skill for Lin. It’s nice, but ‘Shatter!’ is still king.



Back in the Creepstalker room we find a group of free MedKits. The door to the right leads to an empty room similar to the one en-route to Yezuit.



It’s about the same size and shape as a teleporter room, which makes me think there might originally have been even more possible routes through Centre planned at some point.



The real teleporter room is located on the opposite side of the room. I recommend making absolutely sure you’re stocked up on healing items, particularly Tonics and Trauma Kits, before stepping through. The Regent we’re about to fight is a cut above the others, and if you go in unprepared you will be destroyed.



Music: Remaining Traces







: I follow the law that rules us…and with the sword of justice, I enforce it.



: Dragon-dreamer…



: You shall be stopped!







: He has a dragon, and he can control it. He is to be feared.











Music: A Moment’s Joy



Welcome to the final and most difficult boss fight in Centre.



Standing against us is Vexacion, the sword of justice, and his two apprentices, Ryked and Nalaka. The battle will only end once all three are dead.



At the start of the fight Ryked and Nalaka will always move forward to engage you. Neither can reach the party in one turn, so it’s advantageous to simply stay put and let them come to you.



Vexacion himself won’t move for the first three turns. This is a very good thing since it gives you some vital breathing room and the chance to put the hurt on the twins before the fur really starts to fly.









Once the battle actually begins you’ll notice that Ryked and Nalaka wield some rather familiar-looking skills. They both have the same moveset, but their resistances and preferred targets differ significantly.



Red-clad Ryked resists shot damage and will always target Lin if she’s in range.



Blue-clad Nalaka resists magic damage and will prioritise attacking Nina.



Both twins are capable of counterattacking, although they clearly telegraph when they’re going to do it.







Ryked and Nalaka are tough enemies even by themselves. It’s almost inevitable that they will poison your entire party, and the defence debuffs from Lion Smash and Twin Wake will become a major problem once Vexacion joins the fray.



On the fourth turn Vexacion will stop standing around and decide to show his students how it’s done. This is where the battle gets tricky.



Vexacion isn’t like the other Regents. He’s not interested in talking it out like Cupid or Hortensia. Nor is he concerned about reliving past glory, like Deamoned, or treating the battle as a game, like Yezuit.





Vexacion simply wants to murder Ryu and the party as quickly and efficiently as possible, and he does this by spamming Quint Wake every turn until everyone is dead.



As it turns out this is a remarkably successful strategy. Quint Wake hits five times, but it’s an area of effect attack where the individual strikes are spread out amongst everyone inside its radius. If the target is caught out in the open with no allies to share the hits? They’re dead. No one can survive all five hits, not even Ryu.



If two or more characters are within the area of effect they’ll either die or survive by the skin of their teeth. You really want to keep the party bunched up for this fight, even if it means taking extra hits from Kirin Flight.



GameFAQs claims that Vexacion has all the same moves the twins do, but I’ve never seen him use anything other than Quint Wake. Thankfully it seems to require a lot of AP and he’ll only use it once per turn.



With all of the above in mind we really can’t afford to hold back in this fight. Now is the time to start using all those AP Charges, Power Boosts and 7th Senses we’ve been hoarding.





Your first priority during this fight should be to take out the twins. They’re simply too dangerous to ignore and their defence debuffs make Quint Wake even more lethal than it already is.



Neither Ryked nor Nalaka have Absolute Defence, but both have a respectable 2,500 HP to burn through. It’s hard, especially once Vexacion joins the fray, but if you focus your attacks and keep healing the damage you can bring down one of the twins before things get too dicey. I took out Ryked first, but it’s probably a better idea to prioritise Nalaka due to Nina’s fragility.





Once both twins are dead the fight becomes a lot less frenetic, but there’s still Vexacion left to deal with.





Vexacion is the toughest Regent by a country mile. Not only does he have the highest Absolute Defence of all the Centre Regents, topping out at 300, he also has an extremely beefy 4,500 HP to chew through afterwards.





Quint Wake still packs a punch, so make sure to keep everyone healed up. You’ll be using at least three MedKits / one Trauma Kit every turn, and if you’re unlucky a Tonic or two as well.



He’ll also take a leaf out of Zeno’s book and use Last Resort when his two helpers die, so watch out for that.





Abuse Discharge if you have it. It records damage even when the attack kills Ryu, so if you run out of MedKits but still have some tonics you might want to consider baiting Vexacion into killing Ryu over and over with Quint Wake as a desperation tactic.











Other than that, applying the standard anti-Regent tactics is the way to go.











Vexacion accepts defeat gracefully and disappears.



The experience gained for defeating Vexacion far outstrips the other Regents, even without our Gold XPs. This is because Ryked and Nalaka give out experience as well.



Using D-Dive against Vexacion is a little different than the other Regents.



Firstly, don’t bother trying to use Hurricane to dispatch them all at once. Vexacion and company are spread just far enough apart that it won’t work.





Secondly, Vexacion’s high HP and Absolute Defence mean you have to D-Charge four times instead of three to kill him in one hit.



After that Ryked and Nalaka will each die to a single Hurricane.







With Vexacion’s defeat we claim his key.



If you have Snatch equipped you can also steal Terabreak from him during the fight. It’s a sub-par skill for this point in the game, but can be useful in New Game+.

We’re free to leave Centre now, but before we do that there are a couple of areas we need to revisit.





I said before that you need to go through Centre four times in order to fully explore it. So far we’ve done the Cupid - Yezuit route and the Hortensia - Vexacion route. That leaves Cupid - Vexacion and Hortensia - Yezuit routes still to do.



I’ll briefly cover these routes, starting with Cupid-Vexacion.





The main enemies in the first part of this route are Darkstalkers/Creepstalkers.





The next area is a long underground passage full of Nervemen, upgraded versions of the Worm-men we fought in the Old Trade Sector.







Nervemen are probably my least favourite enemy in the game. They have all the same gimmicks as their lesser cousins plus an absolute shedload of HP. They will get at least two turns and inflict Virus upon at least one character before you manage to kill them.





The Treasure Chest is in the room past the Nervemen, and it contains possibly the most useless spell in the game.



Lag Valhalla is simply awful. It’s like regular Valhalla, but gives the enemy a whole turn’s notice to move out of its area of effect. Using it also ends Nina’s turn regardless of how much AP she had left. The real Valhalla skill is locked up in one of Dragon Quarter’s optional dungeons, which we won’t be seeing for a fair while.



The teleporter to Vexacion is opposite the chest.







Meanwhile, the first enemies we encounter in the Hortensia - Yezuit route are from a type we haven’t seen in a while - the Duke Knights.





Duke Knights are tough little bastards. They hit hard and have the same breakable armour mechanic as the Duke Battlers.



They are also the source of Reflect, a Shield Skill that lets characters counter magic attacks.



Defeating them allows us to challenge their leader, the colossal Duke Lord.



Duke Lords are the same as Duke Knights, only they have 20 points of Absolute Defence on top of their freakishly tough armour.





The chest is through a door right behind the Duke Lord, and contains a Lv. 2 Skill for Ryu.



Hyper Kick is kind of eh. It has more than double the knockback of Kick and deals significantly more damage, but at this point we have better Lv. 2 Skills to thread.







The teleporter to Yezuit is down a couple of corridors to the right of the Duke Lord.



With all of the alternate routes covered, we’re free to take the teleporter out of Centre. Where will we end up afterwards? Tune in next time to find out.

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Bonus Art: Vexacion


Bonus Art: Ryked / Nalaka