Part 45: Update Forty Three: Boss Bashing Bonanza

Update Forty Three: Boss Bashing Bonanza

Welcome back! Last time, on Final Fantasy IV, we went through a "bonus dungeon" that even Camelot would be ashamed of. Today, as indicated by the title, we're going to be kicking the shit out of some bosses, so let's mosey.





I don't go in any particular order here. We'll be starting with the new harp over to our left.



In order to get these weapons, the person who will actually be using the weapon (Champ, in this case), needs to be in your party. You also need to defeat the boss guarding the weapon, which is all we're doing today.



When you approach the weapon, the character who uses it appears.



And all of the monsters come spinning down in these golden sparklies.



But, time for our first boss!



I never saw him use anything but physical attacks. Matter of fact, if you treat this guy like a Behemoth, it's just as easy to defeat him.



He has no weaknesses to exploit and 55,000 HP to tear through, so this could take a while.





He also counters all attacks aimed at him with his own physical hit. This guy is pretty much just a Behemoth, which is kind of sad at this point.



Sure, he can put up some big numbers, but Blink neuters him, as do the massive amounts of HP that Cecil, Leave and Cid have. Mune is good enough at keeping the party healthy that it's not a big deal.



However, you're supposed to come fight these guys before fighting Zeromus on the Moon and beating the game. This entire dungeon, and these bosses, have their toughness based on you being relative to starting the Moon.



Doing it this way, we're massively over-powered.



And I love every second of it.



He also has Vampire, just as the Abyss Worms on the Moon do.



Cid's Agility is so terrible, it drags down his entire performance. Sure, he has incredible Strength, but he's so slow, it's hard for him to put it to any sort of use. Champ doubles his turns with ease, while everyone else gets about a turn and a half to his one. Combining that with his special ability, Study, and Cid doesn't have a whole lot actually going for him. All of his immense badassery comes from story stuff, while his in-battle prowess actually kind of detracts from that.



For a little while, I was going with the strategy of Blinking everyone and then playing it safe.



And then, y'know, I realized he's just a higher HP Behemoth, and then I stopped caring.





I had Champ Hide for most of it, too, since I didn't want to have his weaker hits incur counter-attacks.





Mune's Spirit stat is 99, so Holy is at max power.



Holy is immensely powerful, even when not hitting a weakness.





Anyways, let's end this fight. It's not terribly complicated or difficult, even if you're a far lower level than I am; it's just a matter of keeping Blink up and then you are invincible.



After the fight, we receive Apollo's Harp.



It deals Fire elemental damage, and is also effective against Dragons. It also raises Champ's Strength, Agility and Spirit +15; the Strength boost is more than welcome and the Agility boost makes him terrifyingly fast.



Next, we'll be heading over to get the Monkey's Paw.



Or it's some sort of claw. I calls 'em like I sees 'em.





The Storm Dragon has the potential to be a massively difficult fight.



Like the Red Dragon in the Lunar Subterrane, he can physically strike two party members at once (or one person twice) for good damage.



However, grabbing Apollo's Harp before this fight makes it much easier.



The Storm Dragon has 40,000 HP, with a weakness to Ice. He's also a Dragon-type, obviously.



Dragons best beware; Champ, Prince pussy of Damcyan, can destroy dragon kind through the power of rock.



Cecil is doing about his average damage, which is good. When you consider that Champ has an advantage against Dragons, suddenly, Cecil dealing this much damage is a good testament to his strength.



...Goddammit, Cid.





I will never get tired of seeing Champ whip out these kind of numbers.



Anyways, as for what can make the Storm Dragon dangerous, this attack is nearly top of the list.



As you can see, it deals some pretty high damage. If you come here as soon as you can, it's entirely possible you'll have trouble surviving just one of these, and that your healers just can't heal fast enough to counteract it.



Leave has his Ice Claw equipped, so he's hitting a weakness here. It's wonderful to see him and Champ tearing something apart like this. If either Kim or Masa were here, this fight would end so fast, it'd be fucking ridiculous.





But, alas, I can only crush him so quickly this way. It's not much slower.



And, uh, Mune is still doin' stuff. I like keeping my health as high as I can, even if I'm rarely in danger.



Especially when there is shit like this around the corner. You might remember Barbariccia doing this waaaaay back when.



It's just as dangerous here, because, seriously, anything that drops your health to single digits without fail is fucking scary.



You might have forgot that Champ will run off and Hide instantly when his health hits critical levels.



It's not such a big deal here, since the Storm Dragon is almost dead.





And now he's entirely dead!

Like I said, this guy has the potential of being difficult. It mostly comes from his Tornado ability, which deals a lot of damage. Coming here fresh off the Giant of Babel could be highly difficult. If you look up there, remember, Mune has 99 Spirit and Curaja didn't heal more than 2,000 HP to the entire party at once.





The Hand of the Gods, as seen here, may not look very impressive. However, it deals Holy damage, so Cecil and Leave are going to absolutely wreck anything that is Undead or weak to Holy. It also adds +15 Strength, Agility and Stamina. Leave now has 99 Strength and I think his Strength before was a natural 91.



Even as overpowered as I am, I'm still not enough to go into a boss fight when the highest amount of HP I have right now is 9.



After resting up, Mune casts Float on everyone. It'll be handy in the next boss fight, even though I probably don't need it.





You might think that we're heading toward that pickax thing. I mean, with casting Float, you're thinking that we're fighting something Earth-based, right? And that pickaxes go along with that.



Nope! We're going toward this fancy looking pimp stick.





Remember, when we're done with this fight, Mune is going to be a five year old girl who is a better White Mage than Rosa, who knows the only offensive white magic spell and also has a pimp cane.



And that we had to kill a fucking dinosaur to get said pimp cane.



The T-Rex is, possibly, the easiest boss around here.



It might look like an Undead enemy, as well as a Dragon.



It's not a bad thing to think that, since that's what I thought at first, too. However, it's neither; it's a fucking Insect, of all things. No weaknesses to exploit, and 60,000 HP.



Leave's new claw is this neato-torpedo gray color.



His Strength really shows here.



But not as well as Cecil's. If Leave's claws added attack power, he'd be hitting like this, too, but all of his attack power is purely natural.



I honestly have no idea how much damage this attack does. I'm sure it hurts, but with Float, it's nothing to worry about.



Cid is...Certainly in my party.





Holy remains powerful and a good use for Mune's MP, as healing isn't a big concern of mine right now.





I've said all I can about this fight, really.



I really would like more to say here, but I got nothin'. He missed with his physical and he has Earthquake. I don't know much else about this guy.





I was caught a tad off-guard here, as my inventory is full again. I've gotta get around to pitching some shit out.



Seraphim's Mace is a tad better than the Sage's Staff, and adds +15 Spirit. When used as an item in battle, it casts Esuna, so it's not super-useful there, but it's something.



Alright, let's grab this thing.



I like these shots of the gold sparklies coming down. I don't know about you guys, but I think they're neat.



Death Mech is guarding Cid's weapon and...



Well, he's something. He's a Mech type with 50,000 HP.



I have Leave's Thunder Claw on the other hand and the Bestiary on GameFAQs doesn't say it's weak to Thunder. I guess Leave is just that strong.



It's gotta be the Thunder Claw.



Oh, and Seraphim's Mace is green. I thought that was neat.



Don't let the numbers fool you; the pimp stick is mighty.





Cid's hammers are effective against Mech types, so that's something. It's the only thing I can think of, off-hand, that he has above anyone else. Cid is good against Mechs and it shows here.







Death Mech has not attacked during this time. I've just been wailing on him this entire time.





Leave really takes it like the French when it comes to being hit with magic. Thank God he's got buckets of health.





And a low tolerance for bullshit, it seems.



For that, we win the fucking Hammer of Thor; Mighty Motherfucking Mjölnir.



It only adds +15 Strength and deals Thunder damage, but it's still fucking Mjölnir. It can also be used in battle to use Blitz, but I think Cid is better off fucking smashing things in the face with it.



We're almost done here, but first, I rest up.

I also run out of here and back to Mysidia. We need Masa around for this next boss fight, as it's finally time for his weapon.



I also took Kim, as magic is basically required for this next fight, so having my two magical shit-wreckers is going to be perfect.



Masa's Intellect is amazing. He also knows every single Black Magic spell in the game.



His new weapon is also a different type than his usual weapons.





His boss fight, however, is a bit of a pain in the ass.



The Flans are just your run of the mill enemies; we've encountered them before. The Master Flan, though, is entirely new. He's a Mage type, so if you kept the Mage Masher, it might not be a bad idea to bring along someone like Goemon to use it on this guy. If not, he only has 35,000 HP and it's easy to tear through.



He's got quite a few powerful spells at his disposal.



And Leave's shitty magic defense rears its ugly head again.



But, whatever, Curaga is cheap and instant, so it's not too big of a concern.



Cecil's physical attack is fucking ridiculous.



And Meteor seems to cast much faster in this version. In the SNES version, it seemed to take at least ten Goddamned minutes to cast.



It's every bit as powerful as it should be.



Now, I read in a Boss FAQ that Master Flan can't be targeted normally. That's bullshit. I was wailing on his ass even when his Flan flunkies were around.



He'll also occasionally bring them back, but it's not a big deal.



Flare, one of the other spells he knows, can be a big deal, though.



Pictured: Flare being a big deal.



Pictured: A Bigger deal Flare.



I love seeing those kind of numbers plastered across the screen. It warms my heart.





Single target Curaga, to me, is what full-party Curaja should be.









Master Flan also has Drain. I don't know why. I think it did an entire 82 damage to Leave here, even with his awful Magic Defense.





Either way, Master Flan is now gone.





As is everything else.



I won these for that fight. I ended up pitching them out as I don't really need them.



Anyways, Masa gets his hands on a dagger.



It's got a pretty decent attack power, too, considering it's in the hands of a five year old. It adds +15 Intellect, and can be used in battle to cast Flood. I can't think of a situation where I'd specifically need Flood, but if I ever do, I've got it on hand.



And with that, we're done for this update!

Next time, we'll start on those Lunar Ruins dungeons. But, first, I've gotta go defeat Zeromus again. I won't bother to show you that, since it won't be any different from the first time, barring who's actually there.

Until then, have a Merry Christmas, a Helluva Hanukkah or a Krazy-Kwanzaa!