Part 32: Twin Brave

29. Twin Brave



So our ascent to the final trial begins with dropping us in the Cave of the Summons. The damage tiles here are still damage tiles, much like with the Sylph Cave from before.



There's no new enemies, though our old friend the Chaotic Knight does turn up. For all 4 seconds before I decide to petrify him and all his buddies.



Our second floor is... the entirety of the Mist Cave.



Once again, there's no new enemies. There are lots of Goblins though, which we can wipe out with a single attack. That always looks nice, gotta say.



We can also pick up the Mist Whip, which is just useless. It's meant to deal Holy damage, but of course it doesn't, and it has nothing else going for it at all. If you really want a non-rod weapon then the Assassin Dagger is better in every conceivable way.



And lastly, we have the Giant of Babil. There's no new enemies here either, surprisingly!



...There are, however, plenty of Mech Dragons. Go figure, right?



And our last trial is for both Palom and Polom. We cannot enter it at all if we don't have both with us.



Also they're a much higher level than Rydia, jeez. I know I said before that she levelled the slowest, but it doesn't feel like it at times. Then you see that she's 10 levels behid these two and... yeah.



See, we need them both because this trial's split into two areas and they each handle one solo.



It's meant to be a puzzle, but it really kinda isn't. Note that this does not stop if being actually pretty decent.



Switches on Palom's path open more areas in Porom's, and vice versa.



We also need to induce ailments to continue, and the easiest way to handle this is to not remove them ever. Not only are they cured when we finish anyway, but you need them all several times.



There's also random encounters... constantly... but they don't even remotely matter. They're all really weak enemies that haven't been strong or relevant in like 18 hours.



It's pretty short and simple, except for the absurdly high encounter rate.



Just need to get both twins to the conspicuously different green switches at the end of their respective paths. It doesn't take that long, and it could be a decent puzzle area too... except for the paths being incredibly linear. Even the divergences just lead to the same spots in the end.



Ah well, it's a neat idea and it works for what it wants at least. Once we're done, the path in the central area opens up.



With that, we can go and meet the final Lunar Eidolon.

[Music: Fighting of the Spirit ~ Saitama Saisyu Heiki]



Now, I'm aware that usually complain about things at this point. That's not gonna happen this time.



I actually really, really like the Lunar Leviathan fight. It's pretty fun to actually do, it's not too easy but it's not too hard either. The thing doesn't feel like a slog, and there's no real indication that you could just lose at any random moment because you took too long or the RNG just decided to kill you.



What helps is that Levi has more than like 2 attacks. They're not new or anything, but the variety helps. Tidal Wave is, of course, a given and still deals 25% of your max HP.



That Lightning weakness helps you plug away at a reasonable rate for a not-terrible cost. Plus, he doesn't have any dumb counters either.



He does have a Blizzaga of his own, but it's just a token effort to keep you guessing. Since these are his only means of dealing damage, just keeping 1260+ HP means we functionally can't die.



But that's not necessarily easy. Maelstrom doesn't feel like it was thrown in here to ruin your fun for once. It actually gives the fight some element of risk without it being used explicitly to aggravate.



He also has Entangle which could be costly at times. It only lasts for like 2-3 seconds, but that's all it needs to. Since it resets your ATB gauge too, even if you're inputting a command as it hits, that might be just enough to make a difference.



Sylph is good for healing, as always. Of course we now have enough HP to make it so that we can't rely solely on it, and it can roll pretty low at times too.



We do have plenty of Elixirs, though. This fight's a good time to bust them out; not gonna get many opportunities afterwards to do it.



Could also use X-Potions, but they don't appear to be that effective. They do, however, give enough HP to not immediately die though, and that's really all they need to do.



Lunar Leviathan was a good swan song for what was something of a good idea marred by its execution. And I mean both this trial and the ruins as a whole.



I'm glad they could competently make at least one of these fights, but really they all should've been along these lines. Some kind of tried, but didn't really succeed.



Our reward is some stuff for Palom and Porom that is kinda worthless. If we do it again, we get both a Gold and Silver Apple.

They would be worth it, were it not for the trial being right at the back end of the ruins and taking a lot longer than Yang's just to finish.

Next time: let's put an end to this. The final challenges await.





Optional Bosses Fought: 27
Optional Bosses Killed: 27
Success Rate: 100%