Part 57: Part Fifty-Seven: World of Darkness III

Part Fifty-Seven: World of Darkness III


Starting with the teleport today. We're still in the World of Darkness.


On my way back into the hub, I ran into a new enemy: Yormungand.

Yormungand is the same thing as Jörmungandr, which is also known as the Midgard Serpent, as in Midgar Zolom from Final Fantasy VII.


Yormungand is, of course, completely unremarkable, but can cast Protect on himself.



It, uh, doesn't really work out.


Just in case you thought EXP gains had to be good in the last dungeon, they're not. I have no idea why this game is so bad about EXP.


Anyway, yes, southwest branch of the hub.


This one has three paths: one leads to the boss, one leads to a Ribbon, and one dead ends.


I actually skipped this Ribbon. There are five in the game, which makes one useless, and around here I was getting really tired of still being in the World of Darkness.


And here we are, at the third crystal, which looks like the Dark Water Crystal.



Time for the boss!


This is Echidna. 99,999 HP, attacks twice per turn, pretty standard.


I can't think of anything interesting about Echidna, mechanically.


She has some spells that can be ugly - Tornado, for example, lowers everyone's HP to single digits.


If it hits.


Her physical ain't exactly bringing the house down, either.


I wish these dark crystal bosses didn't have so much HP. In the original, of course, they didn't - Echidna had 32,000 HP.


At this point, by the way, it's essentially impossible for Sephy to miss an attack completely.




Death is another thing Echidna's got up her sleeve.


It never hits if you have a Ribbon.



Jecht has very high Magic Defense, which makes Drain completely useless against him.


Echidna silenced Kuja. I mean, that doesn't make the fight easier for me, but it's sure as shit not making it harder, either.


Quake, on the other hand, is the single dangerous thing Echidna can do.


It's pretty powerful, and even manages to kill Kuja. Well, I mean, it's pretty powerful unless you have tremendous Magic Defense and a Protect Ring.


I am slowed down slightly by her last-ditch hate for Kuja, I'll admit it.


But I managed to get everyone on their feet for the finish.


This really doesn't work for me. Why not just go 666 at this point? 66,666 doesn't have the same impact, guys.


And here it just looks stupid. Step up your game, Square-Enix.



Job Levels capping at 99 is another thing that doesn't really work for me. They don't need to go that high, and there's never any sort of really gradual benefit to it; everything that you get from Job Level is cut into chunks.


Oh well, let's just listen to the guy.

Warrior of Darkness: I am a Warrior of the Dark...one of the four who stopped the flood of light a thousand years ago. I have come to join you.


Why would the...? What?


I thought the Cloud of Darkness was, you know, a literal Cloud of Darkness. Why show up when Darkness isn't the threat?



Not gonna clear that one up, huh?


You know, it only occurred to me now, but why couldn't the crystals keep the balance regardless of Xande's tricks? I mean, he ought to be pretty small-time compared to these eternal cosmic forces, n'est-ce pas?



Hell, we don't even know what Xande did, other than tried to stop time, and I'm not really sure that's what he was trying to do.

Oh well, whatever, we only have two bosses left, so let's just get on that.