Part 24: GBA Bonus Run Part 6

And now we must say goodbye to Leila. She sure could cast berserk. Goodbye berserk casting Leila.



And helloooo new status resisting equipment. The question at this point becomes who gets what. Between the Twist Headband, the Power Vest, and the Power Armlet we have mind, body, and poison resistance. Poison resistance has become a non-issue; for the most party the two front-liners are dodging poison inflicting attacks, and I've got quite a few antidotes floating around. The Power Armlet still a decent piece of armor, though. Charlie already has the Black Grab, protecting him against matter, and the Gold Hairpin. He gets the Power Armlet while Mac gets the other two new pieces. Not quite fully immune, but the party is building up a decent set of resistances.



Oh hey Richard.



While I'm killing Ricard, there's something odd I've noticed. I don't have access to the Haste spell, by the way, yet Mac here is hitting way too many hits. That's... quite odd. You'll also see characters hitting an inflated number of hits when they've been berserked. I guess they redid some formula or another, but hell if I know what. Kind of flummoxed.



Believe it or not, this is actually worse than what my characters are already using.



Ricard just 'cuz you're dead doesn't give you an excuse to swear Mr Potty Mouth

And the Roundworm is just as much of a pushover here, so we're out in no time.



And Charlie now has more MP than Dee, who's not attacked once since she got Osmose. That doesn't actually last for long, I just think it's funny.

Anyway, time to climb Mysidia Tower.



But now the little cutscene before you enter the tower is even lengthier and you still have to watch it every time. Goody.



Of the three staffs on the first floor, one of them are now an Ether. Just one, though. That seems odd to me.



But who cares, the real treasure is still here. Dee gets the White Robe, and now she's immune to everything but poison. The only poison inflicting attacks that can hit the back row are Scourge and Poison Cloud, and those are fairly rare (and don't always inflict poison). Again, I've got over 10 antidotes, so it's not a concern.





Unfortunately there are still a few gaps in the party's status protection.



Although I didn't really fall prey to any disaster. This is the worst Charlie did. He got confused pretty frequently, but it often wore off in the next round before he could do anything. Unlike the original, if a character gets confused before they act I believe your input is canceled and they just attack the party. However, since Charlie is so fast he always acted first. Just one of the many ways having a high evasion percentage really, really makes the game easier.



Most of the treasure on the fire floors is useless, but this sword is handy.



Even though Mac could take the evasion hit, since he's got a shield, I still wouldn't wanna go for the heavy armor here, since status protection means a hell of a lot more than protection from fire. Other than the Genji stuff and the Golden Armor (which protects against poison) none of the heavy stuff protects against status ailments. I know that the whole "heavy armor sucks in FF2" has been stated over and over again, but it really can't be said enough.

Now we come up to the first elemental gigas.



And it's gone. Single target berserk is really, really overpowered, you guys.



And another flame sword! Mac gets it, although it'll get outdated pretty quickly.





Case in point.



Basilisks were about the only enemy that I was scared of, and most of my party has resistance to stone anyway.



The second I started thinking "hey, maybe I should be so careful around these guys" they got Mac. Oops. Thankfully had some gold needles kicking around, so this didn't end the run. Even though Mac doesn't have matter resistance, he usually shrugged Gaze off, mostly thanks to his level 7 magic defense. And to think, if I were playing the Origins version his magic defense level would be even higher.



New gigas. Not even going to show you the battle since berserked Mac ends it so quickly.



Hey, this was a potion originally. Nice.



Aw, it's no longer called the Evil Stick.



For the Thunder Gigas, I decided to try to give it a chance.



Two thirds of the party has thunder resistance, though, so it doesn't do much.



Huh, that's something I never thought I'd see after getting osmose.

It also drops a Wizard Staff, which is... something, I guess.



Even for heavily-restricted Vivian, the only time she had much of a use for non-elemental spell was the final fight. This party has even less of a reason to use this. Dee gets it anyway.



And here is one of the two crosses I'll ever get. Then again, Charlie's the only one who is vulnerable to curse.



Again, I give the White Dragon a chance. Charlie ends up being the one to cast Berserk, and since he's berserk is lower leveled and he has less intelligence Mac doesn't just rip the dragon's head off in a hit.



Charlie and Mac's evasion levels are starting to not be enough to dodge every hit, but as Vivian learned one or two hits getting through isn't the end of the world.



Bye Minwu. See you in Soul of Rebirth!



So I had a bit of a conundrum here. I wanted to go into Soul of Rebirth with Ricard at factory default, but he could easily grab one of these stat boosts.



So I kind of broke the rules for this. I decided that I would save scum to prevent him from grabbing the strength and agility orbs, which would matter for him, but not for the intelligence and soul/spirit orbs. He did grab the agility one time, but upon reloading it went to someone else instead. Ricard didn't end up getting any of the boosts, actually. Charlie got the strength and spirit, Dee got the intelligence, and Mac got the agility. Not bad!



So... Ultima. It actually works in this version. That doesn't mean it's useful, mind you, but at least it will grow in power. Apparently with level 16 weapon skills and spells Ultima ends up pretty fucking powerful, but again, if you've got level 16 skills and spells the game's not providing a challenge at that point. In any case, the spell goes to Charlie, since he's got the most diverse skillset.



This version gives Ultima some pretty fucking elaborate animations. They only get flashier and lengthier as the spell levels.



And it's kind of a let-down considering the actual damage it does. In all fairness, that's double what level 1 flare is doing, and that's level one flare cast by a now pretty competent Dee. At least with how stuff levels in this version it'll be quick to level Ultima up, but I'm not going to devote that much time to it. Again, it's a case where Berserk and Toad are simply better uses of my time.



On the way back to Fynn, I run into a group of sorcerers and sergeants. This is the result. Dee gets haste for now, but I end up getting a couple of haste tomes so Charlie ends up with one later. Again, Haste is not as power as Berserk, but I'm kind of curious about something, so I'm leveling it.

In addition to haste, there's another little special something we can get now.



Grab the Cyclone keyword.



Still kinda pervy, Paul.



There's three things we want here. First off, now everyone has matter resistance, although Mac will lose body resistance. Eh. There's an elixir, and finally...











And now we're ready for the next dungeon.



This tornado looks a little less sad than one in the original, although it's still underwhelming considering that this killed off half the world.







At least the emperor is keeping his flying cyclone fortress plenty lit.



I never did end up using this, but the Ripper actually works correctly in this version, and is kind of neat.



Instead of pools in the cyclone fortress we have electrified floors. Makes about as much sense.



Mac gets a sweet new axe.



And another one.



Sweet. Either now I can replace the rather outdated Main Gauche, or finally move Mac up to dual-wielding. Decisions... for now, Charlie gets it.



The RNG continues to coddle the party by only spawning one General defending the diamond armor.



Generals are still pretty nasty, but one of them is not worth worrying about. Even without berserk the gang takes it down without too many problems.



Oh, and there's a green dragon.



One would think Mac's poison axe wouldn't hurt it as much, but nope!





Turn into a toad?

He managed to slow Mac before toadifying, but that's barely worth registering.



Aw. He gave me a phoenix down last time.



At least this time Charlie and Dee join the party. Apparently pirates aren't allowed to dance, or Leila's too cool to bother with it. And I guess Ricard and Mac are on the balcony taking a smoke break.



And Dennis is evil, la di da di da, we all know how this goes.



Also I just want to confirm that Dee/Vivian assuming that her brother is brainwashed isn't a fault of fan translation. It's just part of the script. A stupid part (of a stupid script.)



Oh, and at this point I've decided Mac can move onto dual-wielding. He takes a pretty substantial hit to his evasion, but in-between his weapon evasion boosts and his high agility it's not so bad. I kind of plan on having him wear the Aegis Shield as his end-game equipment, but that does kind of depends on whether or not another ribbon drops. We'll see!

Next time, I hope to complete the game.