Part 98: DS I'm Sick of This Place! part 2

DS Update 40: I'm Sick of This Place! part 2

Hello again, gentle viewers! It's time. Time to clean this hellhole out!

When last we left off, we had just beaten (another) dragon and picked up Cecil's ultimate weapon. Things are looking up! If you'll recall, last time I missed completing a floor by, like, one pixel, so:




There! It was that liiiiiittle smidge right at the entrance. Sometimes the game will do that, spawn you too far forward of the entrance to a floor. It's annoying, but less so now that I can just slap on Safe Travel and pixel-hunt in peace!

Obtained Elixir

And a nice prize to boot!


Well, the way forward is this staircase to the south, so let's go!


Another fixed map room, and another treasure chest.


A booby trapped treasure chest. What did you expect?


... Are you kidding me with this, Game? Seriously?

A couple minutes of wanton murder later...


We already have a Minerva Bustier, thanks to a lucky drop from a Moonmaiden. Now we get another one! If I were so inclined, I could kit both Rosa and Rydia out with physical builds. (A Yoichi Bow/Arrow for Rosa, and a Flame Whip for Rydia.) I don't do that, but it's an option!

I forgot to mention this last time, but Minerva is the ancient Roman goddess of wisdom. Her Greek counterpart is Athena.

Here's some more info:


I actually knew that, but didn't mention it because... laziness, I guess!


I picked up another one of these last time. Did you think I forgot?


Down the hatch, Cecil!


And more MP for the murderess! (I got that Soma Drop from a Dark Sage. I forget when.)


Down the staircase we go.


And we come to a brand new floor! Excitement!

This floor is long and linear, with three doorways in a row to the east.


First, what's behind door #1?


A handy save point! If you never found that bullshit pathway leading to Dark Bahamut (and his save point) this will be your only mid-dungeon save point here in the Lunar Subterrane. I suggest you make good use of it! It's a long way down.


In an uncharacteristically kind gesture, the game even provides you with a free Cottage to use.


After healing and saving, we're ready to tackle door #2!

(I know this looks just like door #1, but trust me, they're separate screenshots.)


Hmm, looks empty, doesn't it?


Well, it isn't! If you were only going by the bottom screen map, you might assume there's nothing here and miss this. (Unless you've played Metroid games, in which case you would assume there are no dead ends.)


And it would be a shame to miss out on this treasure. It's a nice one!




Who's ready for another mini-boss?


Hey you guys!


Er-hem. Anyway, this is Plague Horror. He has 33,333 HP and no elemental weaknesses. He resists Earth and Dark.

He's a complete joke.


Oh, you might think he's tough, what with the ominous music and casting Doom on your whole party at the start of the fight!


The key is he won't actually attack you. Ever.


So, don't bother with any buffs.


Just unload on him with everything you have! (Nice damage on that Ragnarok, huh?)


This is the only other thing he will do.


Cast Haste on the party. Saves me the trouble of doing it myself. Thanks, guy!

This is the gimmick of the fight. Like the Demon Wall, this fight is on a timer. A timer which will run out faster thanks to Haste.


But, considering Haste also let's you whack the asshole even faster,


and considering he only has 33 thousand-ish HP,


it's really a non-issue.


I mean, I could maybe see it being a problem if he had twice as much HP... but he doesn't.




He'll just sit there and let you go to town on him with your most powerful attacks.

Oh, and there's one other reason the timer is a non-issue.


See that? When Kain is in the air, his Doom timer freezes! That means, even if I run out of time, he'll be the last to fall, and Phoenix will bring everyone back. Even if I didn't, though, he'd have plenty of time to toss a couple Phoenix Downs before his timer ran out.


As it is, that's enough to finish him. I seriously doubt you'd ever see that timer go below 5 if you just whale on him from the word go.


This boss is a gimme. It's kind of refreshing, actually.


And we may now claim our prize!


Now, if I hadn't gotten that absurdly lucky Wyvern Lance drop, equipping this thing would be a no-brainer. It's a huge step up from Kain's Gungnir lance. As it is, the Holy Lance still has 30 Attack over the Wyvern Lance, which is nothing to sneeze at! However, that effective damage against dragons is damn handy, so it's not an "equip it and forget it" kind of situation. Fortunately, you can change weapons mid-battle, so I can just toss on the Wyvern Lance at need.


Kain gets the Holy Lance for now. A lot of enemies down here are week to holy.


In the case of the Bone Dragons, they're weak to Holy, and also dragons! Either way, Kain rams the damage cap on them.


I heal up and save,


and we're ready to check out door #3.


Ooh, two treasure chests?


I wonder what's guarding them this time? Let's crack 'em open and find-


Or we could just get ambushed halfway into the room? That works too.


Oh hey. This looks familiar.

Lunasaur is basically a Bone Dragon on steroids. It's packing 46,000 HP, and weaknesses to Fire and curative magic (not holy, strangely). It resists dark.


Lunasaur has a wide variety of nasty attacks and it's quite fast. You'll want to come in swinging. Rosa's first action will be to Blink the team and Slow the boss.


Now, Lunasaur may not be weak to holy,


but that doesn't stop Cecil from hitting the damage cap! Ragnarok, folks!


Now, since Lunasaur is not weak to holy, but is a dragon,


Kain will break out his Wyvern Lance again.




Bam! Now, as you can see, Lunasaur uses Counter: Reflect in response to physical attacks. That can make using spells on it a risky affair.


Here's another of Lunasaur's attacks.


It bounces it off its own Reflect,


and... that's not so bad, actually.


Now, here's how you can counteract the Reflect problem. Have Rosa cast Dispel.


Doing so will also remove Slow, but you can always re-apply it if you have Dualcast (or drop a Curaja on it).


However, I opt to set up Protect instead.


Wyvern Lance in hand, Kain prepares to do his usual.


Meanwhile, Cecil sets up the last of our buffs.


Ooh, now here's the Lunasaur's trump card. Get ready.




Rosa and Cecil are both immune, thanks the the Ribbon and Crystal Armor, respectively. (Yeah, remember that Ribbon I got waaaay back at the beginning of the dungeon? I've gotten stupidly lucky with drops lately, huh? I'm not going to complain!)


If Rosa didn't have the Ribbon, she'd get Silence/Blind/Confuse/Toad as well. Nasty!


However, thanks to that lucky Ribbon, she doesn't.


And thanks to Omnicasting, she can heal up everyone else!


(And thanks to Dualcast, Haste everyone too. I love Rosa!)




Cecil whacks it again, it it duly sets up Reflect again. Easily dealt with!


Now there's some effective damage for ya!




Another Bad Breath, and this time Kain got caught in it too. (Also note that Crystal Mail doesn't guard against Confusion. Bah.)


This is easily dealt with.


Two birds, one stone, bitches!


Now that the Reflect is gone, Rydia's free to unload on the bastard.


To great effect!


And it goes right back up.




So now I'm free to hit it with Physical attacks.

That's the pattern you want to go with, assuming no one needs status cured. Attack with Kain, Cecil, Edge. Then, Rosa Dualcast Dispel and Curaja, and Rydia nail it with Firaga. Rinse, repeat.


Once you have the pattern down, it really doesn't take long. Victory is ours!







Triple level ups! Now, I should note. Up to level 70, your stat gains on level up are fixed. From level 71 onwards, your stat increases depend on what Augments you have equipped. If you're going for maximum you'll want to optimize your Augment loadout for stat gains. There are guides on Gamefaqs for how to do it. In any case, it's meaningless on your first playthrough, so don't even worry about it.


Enough of that, though.


We have treasure to collect!


Ribbons are great, and now we have three of them! Rosa already has one, so these two will go to Cecil,


and Rydia! Now Cecil should be immune to pretty much every status effect that matters (including Berserk), and the girls to everything except Berserk, Slow, Sap, and Doom. This is a good day.


I put the Holy Lance back on Kain, because I like it.


And he joins the levelling party soon afterwards. (It was an Armored Fiend. They can sometimes drop Cottages.)


Kain and Edge are dangerously close to hitting level 70 as well!


Heal up and save,


and get Rosa a level up on the way to the next area.


Nothing in the northwest corner, just map completion points.


This stairway just shy of it leads forward.


And that's another floor complete! We're getting close. I can feel it!

Obtained 3 Coeurl Whiskers

An... odd prize.

Oh well. Onwards!


What's this? A new tile set? Most intriguing!


The music changes, too!


Oh yeah. Behemoths are a normal random encounter now, by the way. Good thing they're easy to kill!


Nothing to find to the west, just map completion.


Time to head south.


Moving right along...


More Behemoths...


And it only occurs to me now that keeping White Magic around is rather pointless when I just Dualcast everything anyway! Rosa re-equips Pray.


New tile set means new thought bubbles, hooray!


These are a continuation of the previous thought bubbles.


You doing all right, Kain? You're acting kind of weird.


You sure it's not because you know you'd get torn apart if you tried to leave them? Because I'm pretty sure it's that.


Cecil's in good hands.


Another one of these for the pile! Edge is gonna rip Zemus a new asshole!


Ah hah! Finally, something besides a Behemoth!


This is a Deathmask. They have 37,000 HP and no elemental weaknesses. Their first action will always be to cast Reflect on itself.


After that it will bounce Reflect off itself in order to hit you with it. (Your whole party, I might add.)


All of this is leading up to a rather nasty combo it does, so you don't want to let it get away with it for long. Use Dispel ASAP!




Hmm. That damage isn't so great, is it? That's because the Deathmask resists every element (except earth, bizarrely).


That takes care of the Reflect problem. Let's see what it does now.


This is the Deathmask's main attack, and it's a doozy.


First, a laser,


than an explosion.


Followed by very nasty damage! Damage which is rather difficult to heal thanks to his Reflect shenanigans.


Bahamut is non-elemental and ignores Reflect, so it's your best bet.




Ehhh, good effort, but that's not really going to cut it.


Edge gets a lick in.


As does Kain.


Uh oh...


Fucker!


Yeah yeah. Laugh it up, why don't ya?


Cecil ain't exactly the fastest car on the track, so the Death Mask gets to move again. Casting Reflect, on a character that is already Reflected...


Hey, at least it wasn't another Laser Barrage!


Up you get, Rosa!


Thank you for joining us again, Kain.


Oh boy. Here's the Death Mask's main gimmick.


How obliging of it to show it off for me.


It bounces powerful spells off itself, just to make sure you can't avoid them. Dick.


Again, Reflected spells are randomly target, so Rosa's face hits the floor again.


He casts Holy, and Flare, with annoying frequency.




This is why you don't want to let him keep his Reflect up!


Let's try this shit again.


Oh goddamn it!


Bah! Reflect. It is the worst.




Kain saves the day! Thank you, Kain!


Cecil and Kain, best bros.

Also these things can drop Light Curtains. I think the game is laughing at me...


Whatever, though. More levels for our designated tank.


And Kain pulls ahead of Edge at last. Look at that, their victory poses almost match. How cute.


Time to get everyone back on their feet.


And with that, we can move on.


Ugh. Another one of these, huh? Well maybe this one'll turn out better than he last one did!


It certainly can't go much worse!


I'm not worried. Yet. I'd prefer he do this now than after he hits me with Reflect!


Rosa has a Dispel at the ready.




And she Slows it too. (These things are vulnerable to Stop, by the way, if you're in really dire straits.)


Ah, there's the Reflect.


Bahamut. It's good for what ails ya!


Goodbye, Reflect!




That's better!


Another Laser Barrage, and Kain takes a dirt nap.


It's OK though. It was almost dead.

The key to fighting Deathmasks is to Dispel their Reflect, quickly. Laser Barrage you can weather as long as you can actually heal!


Edge catches back up to Kain.


And finally, here's our treasure! This is the last major treasure of the dungeon and our last stop for today.



Obtained 3 Gold Hourglasses

Beautiful, just beautiful!


Now, let me just refill the girls' MP,


change up Cecil's equipment a bit,


and Kain's,


and let's do this thing!


Ooh, smoke. That's a new one. What could possibly be in store for us?




Ah. That. What an... odd name. Does he look familiar to you?


How about now?


This guy is the "dark" version of Leviathan. He's packing a massive 50,000 HP, and no glaring weaknesses. Warning: he resists every single goddamn element- except water, which he absorbs.


Edge's strategy will not change.


Chuck Shirikens all day, every day.


Kain's got the Wyvern Lance for extra damage, and he Darknesses himself to boost his damage even further.


Ogopogo's most devastating attack (Deluge) is magic-based, so it behooves you to set up Shell.


You'll want to Slow him, of course,


and cast Haste, to give yourself even more of a speed advantage.


Ogopogo counters magic attacks (including Summons) with Blaze. He doesn't counter physical attacks. Rydia will be on psuedo-healing duty with Sylph.


Up, up and away, Kain!


Cecil pounds Ogopogo's face with the Defender. Good thing I kept it around!


Rosa's on healing duty. (What else?)


She also sets up Protect. Ogopogo does have a physical attack, but it's not nearly as threatening as Deluge.


Rydia flings another Slyph his way,


and we incur a counterattack!


Looks fancy.


And... from the looks of it, the damage isn't even that scary. Huh. Well, it does add up, and Sylph heals us for about that much.


Uh oh. Brace yourselves!


Oof!


Kain comes down hard, for some respectable damage!


And Rosa heals everyone back up.


And Blink, because why not?


Another smack from Cecil.


Everyone's pretty healthy, and all buffed up, so Rosa Prays instead.


The MP recovery is helpful, at least.


One more whack from Edge and,


the snake goes down!


Bam, there you have it! That's the last mini-boss, done and dusted!


Rydia is pleased.


Yay! A Japanese-sounding sword. Must be Edge's.


And so it is! Masamune is Edge's other ultimate weapon. Yes, he gets two, because he's just that special.

Masamune is another recurring sword in Final Fantasy games, and probably more well-known than the Murasame. The blade is named after Goro Masamune, a legendary ancient Japanese Swordsmith.


Now, let me just equip Safe Travel,


and hoof it back to the save point.


Phew! With that, we are done for today, and pretty much done with this dungeon. There's only a liiiiiitle bit left. The final boss approaches!

Next time, I'm going to clear out the remaining floors of this place, and collect some rare items in preparation for The Final Boss. See you then!