Part 28: Symphonia

25. Symphonia



For the first time in a while, this set of floors have the potential for fighting actual enemies. Our first one is meant to resemble the Giant of Babil.



They're not overly impressive or interesting enemies, but they exist all the same.



Being yet another Bomb recolour isn't enough for the King, though. He has Firagas that appear to hurt, but that's just because I've finally taken off the Protect Ring for at least a little while.

It's also nothing Sylph can't heal, so there's that too.



Speaking of Sylph, the second floor we drew this time around is from Sylph Cave. More specifically, it's the area where the Sylph's home was.



The damage tiles are still, well, damage tiles though. This doesn't spontaneously change.



Much like with the chocobo stuff from before, I always remember this being in the real cave. Not sure why, since it would be kinda ridiculous.



And lastly, we've got the first floor of the Magnetic Cave. It doesn't have the same no metallic equipment gimmick as before, though. Probably for the best, all things considered!



We had the Bomb King so why not the Coeurl Queen? She's just the same as her subjects, but with more HP.



This functionally makes her not at all threatening. Blaster can't kill us or do anything really, so it really serves to highlight how minimal effort this stuff is.



And just like that we're at the fifth trial. This time, we need...



Rosa. "White Mage" is probably meant to be vague enough to maybe make you think Porom, but not really. It should be obvious when playing from the messages we got before that this one can only be Rosa.



So this trial is probably the easiest to just get through. The entire jist of it is "a Lunar Eidolon is being a dick."



This is done by three nebulous spheres that are maybe symbolic of something. If you tilt your head and squint.



See, what we're meant to do here is run around the area and heal people. This is how we get the reward(s) for this trial. This guy isn't counted, though, because he can't be skipped.



After we've dealt with him, the trial proper begins. The three sphere things come back, and mess up the area a bit more.



They then circle the party and act as a timer. We have 1 minute 24 seconds to rescue the remaining 13 people. That's a lot of hassle for something unimportant, though.



After time runs out, the next scene triggers and we get ready to fight the boss.



As per usual, they come up with some arbitrary excuse for why you gotta beat 'em up.

[Music: Fighting of the Spirit ~ Symphonia]



Lunar Asura is hard. Like, jesus christ I didn't expect this fight to be as difficult as it was. Admittedly that is partially my fault but still!



See, what makes Asura hard here is that she does not fight at all like the original. On top of that, she's actually absurdly strong and can easily kill you on a whim.



Bear in mind that this is full damage since I don't have the Protect Ring equipped. Yeah, that's more than half my HP in one hit. And she could easily do it twice before you can heal.



Sylph comes close but isn't able to do a perfect job at healing it either.



Speaking of healing, yes, Asura can still do that too. Only she's gotten better at it.



A lot better at it. It's not unexpected for her to heal twice in a row, and at least one of them to be a Restore.



And, if you were curious, yes she has all three -aga spells. Seems to like Fire the most though.



Needless to say, she doesn't even drop below 100,000 HP on attempt one.



Since her spells are a big part of her arsenal (not exclusively, mind), we need to go and get some Lunar Curtains.



2 is easily sufficient to avoid getting hit by more than maybe two spells, but I just opt for the 1. Asura is just ever so slightly fast enough to slip her first turn in while Rydia's readying anything.



And, she might hit herself harder than she hits us... but it's still about half what we can deal. Adds up though!



The Curtains do wear off eventually, of course, which leaves us with one problem. How do we deal with it afterwards? Well, I opted for the Protect Ring just to be safe (as you can see it gets some nice results). A second curtain would be more effective but I got a bit too close to needing sub-65,000 EXP for the next level just trying for the one.



And just in case you're daft enough to not have protection against morphing ailments, she can use Toad and Mini too.

So, that's elemental damage, healing and status effects. Anything else?



Only, y'know, Globe One Hundred and Ninety Fucking Nine. Were it not for this, then this fight would be a joke in spite of Asura's magical capabilities. Sadly this makes it very, very luck dependant.

If she rolls to use it, game over you lose try again next time.



If she doesn't, then she's still got enough HP for you to need to top off your MP at least once. Elixirs are good for that as per usual.



And on the third try, Lunar Asura gets taken down. I was expecting it to take more once she threw out that Globe 199 cutting my second attempt short at ~96k left.



This is very definitely a good thing, since it means we're halfway done now. It also means I didn't end up giving up for a while because that minute long wait between fights feels a lot longer than it is.



Oh and since we never saved anyone we don't get a reward at all.

If you save all 13 the once, you get some ring for Rosa that's not important in the slightest. Do it twice you get a Perseus Arrow.

I assume it's a proper stack of 10 and not just the one arrow, but I've never done it more than once. Do not ever intend to either for that matter.

Next time: the once and burning king.





Optional Bosses Fought: 23
Optional Bosses Killed: 23
Success Rate: 100%