Part 53: Kain's Challenge Dungeon

Kain's Challenge Dungeon

Time for another Challenge Dungeon. I can't wait until I get to stop doing these things.



Free Ice Armor in the equipment shop. Make sure to pick up a Killer Bow and Psycho Spiral for Rosa to make your life easier.




This place doesn't really have a gimmick, other than a couple of different paths. No multitude of trap doors, no spending money, no random floors. It's kind of refreshing.



So this dungeon is a combination of Ceodore and Kain's CD's due to the developers combining both tales. The castle part is Kain's, I believe. At any rate, the PSP version splits them back up, so what you see may differ if you played that version.



Kain's a beast, by the way. And this is with the moon decreasing attack.




Risk Strike kind of sucks. Not that it matters since Cid won't get a chance to actually do much anyway.




Medusa Arrows also suck, as their attack power is 1 and they only inflict Gradual Petrify. Sure, the effects could stack, but it'd be much faster to kill them or even just cast an instant death spell like Break and hope it works.




This guy was the boss of Ceodore's CD. Here, he's just guarding a chest.





This guy's gimmick is that he gets closer, during which he'll inflict more damage.




He's still a pushover, though. We get a piece of Adamantite as a reward, which is pretty sweet.





Blessing in action. It has a chance to fail, and the HP healing sucks, but the MP recovery isn't trivial, so it's not a bad way to use Rosa's turns if she has nothing else to do.



There are a couple of points in which you can descend to the next level.



This exit leads to a small room where we can't access most of the good loot.



Still, we do get an Ogrekiller, which means Cid can actually contribute against Ogres and Giants.



We go further down to the Underground Cavern, which I believe is part of Ceodore's CD. May be wrong, though.




Ceodore, Rosa, and Kain all have status protection of some kind, and are thus all immune to Malboro's Bad Breath. Even if they weren't, all three know Esuna anyway.



Won't hurt to cast Float for this part. Ceodore can even cast it!



Thank God Kain knows Teleport.

I leave the dungeon, regather my strength, and give it another try.




Hahaha, I love doing that.






More loot. I also get another set of Ice Armor opposite the Ice Shield. The Angel Arrows are nice in that they have a nice damage boost and can inflict Confuse, meaning I now have an excuse to actually use Rosa offensively.



Remember how I said Ceodore, Kain, and Rosa weren't affected by Bad Breath? Cid's vulnerable, which isn't a big deal.



Bad Breath isn't what makes Malboros dangerous. Their attacks hurt.



Gold Hairpin is a nice helmet upgrade for Rosa that resists lightning.





Note that she has the helmet on.



Yeah, don't fuck with this guy.



In an act of mercy, this dungeon actually has a save point before the final boss.




The boss of this dungeon is the Curse Dragon. He can hit hard and do all kinds of weird stuff.




Kain is your main offense. The others work best as support for Kain.




This guy can hurt if you're not careful.



He also casts Curse, which makes sense. Of course, he Curses my main attacker, halving his attack power. At least Esuna heals it.






The Curse Dragon comes back, deadlier than ever.




Of course, being undead, Kain's holy lance deals much more damage.




The Curse Dragon can instantly kill someone with Black Fang, the same move Golbez's pet dragon used on your crew.




He can also cast Firaga and Doom. Wonderful.



He can't handle a face full of lance, though. Decent battle overall.



what the hell is this



Oh, nice. It's sad to give up the Dragoon Lance and its 3+ stat boost to everything, but Obelisk does give +5 to Strength. Surely Ceodore can make use of one of these spears, too.

Alright, finally done with Kain's Tale. Next time, we take a look at a tale even the developers of this game can't screw up, though they try. Oh, how they try.