Breath of Fire Part #41 - Chapter Forty One: Overlord

Part 41: Chapter Forty One: Overlord

:…Okay. No distractions this time.

Well, the man in blue is no longer here, so we are free to proceed.

The first level of Scande has no random encounters, but the area is very large and spread out with three staircases heading upwards. Let’s take the left-hand route first, since that’s the only stair that doesn’t lead to a dead end.

We emerge onto the second level, which does contain random encounters. Before that, though, notice the yellow pads on the floor to the left. There are many of these scattered across this floor and the one below. They raise and lower metal gates that block or allow access to certain areas. They don’t pose any real challenges right now, though.

With that out of the way, what about the enemy encounters?

The Entity is the next enemy in the G.Knight / D.Knight series of foes. They have around 1000 HP and like to cast Deflect on themselves in order to bounce your magic back at you.

Claw is physically tough and likes to boost his own attack and defense. His physical attacks take around 50 HP off the average character, more if he manages to buff his attack first.

The Soldier is a pushover. With low defense and less than 1000 HP, a critical hit from Puka can oneshot him.

As are these guys, BowManX and Lancer X. A single round of Autobattle with the Tri-Rang takes them out.

:…I can’t tell if we’re getting closer to Zog or not. What’s the point of having all these winding passages?

The chest contains a Cure. Eh, there are worse things than an item that fully heals a character.

A healing fountain, eh? We must be getting close to the boss!

Remember this place? It’s the same area Jade walked through after meeting with Zog ages ago.

: Ryu. He’s beyond this door.

:…I know. I can feel him. And he can probably feel me.

: Zog!

: Proud…? Pride has nothing to do with it! This power should not be used to destroy and conquer as you have done!

: Ah, yes…power.

: This world does not belong to you, Zog.

: No? It will soon. Imagine it, if you are able – a world without borders. A world where there is only one nation, ruled by one man, with no neighbors to make war on, where everyone has their place and none need suffer. Such a world is possible with Tyr’s power.

: This world of yours is a fantasy. You speak of a perfect world, but how can such a thing be entrusted to a man who so eagerly resorts to violence and barbarism? This dream of yours would quickly become a nightmare.

:…Is that so? And what does the Light Dragon have to say about it? Having come so far, surely you know the value of power and strong authority better than anyone else.

: The foundations of a utopia cannot be made of corpses. My course has not changed; I will stop you here, Zog. It is for that reason I mastered the power of the Dragon.

:…

: You speak to me of mastery? To I, who have held the power of the Dragon since before you were born? How amusing. Allow me to show you…true mastery!

It’s time to throw down with Zog. Zog’s enormous body is reflected in his HP, which is similarly colossal. Most of it is contained in his second wind, so it’s hard to tell how close to beating him you are. He has a physical attack dealing around 80 damage that seems to miss very often, as well as a weak breath attack he rarely uses. Most dangerously, Zog also has access to all the top-tier elemental spells, each of which hit the entire party for over 100 damage. Thankfully Zog is very slow and will nearly always attack last.

For this battle I have Ryu transform into Rudra, the powerful dragon featured on the cover art of the Japanese SNES version of the game. He gets a neat cut-in showing his new form and attacks by blasting the enemy with meteorites. It is also possible to use the D.Hrt against Zog for a free 2000+ blast of damage, but doing so will also knock Ryu down to 1 HP.

(Video – Zog)