The Let's Play Archive

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

by Mega64

Part 58: The Lunarians' Challenge Dungeon - Part 1

The Lunarians' Challenge Dungeon - Part 1

The good news is that this is the last tale with a challenge dungeon. Booyah!

The bad news is that the game still spites you by giving you two challenge dungeons in this one tale. Ugh.



As usual, talking to Namingway will get you to the first challenge dungeon.




There's no real gimmick here, other than long branching paths to treasure. It's actually pretty straightforward if you know the route, which is great considering how many times I go through here.



You have to crawl through a bunch of secret paths and extended branches to reach the treasure chests, but once you got all the treasures, it's just a straight shot to the end. Most of the treasures here are consumables anyway.



Most of the enemies are the same as the ones you fought before. Those damn butterflies like to inflict Blind, though.




Seriously, as far as challenge dungeons go this is probably the least interesting. This also makes it the most fun basically by default.



Picked up Quake, though.




Sometimes you'll run into Count Malboros. The reward is not worth the effort of fighting them.



At the end of an especially long branching path is the only notable item in a chest. The Master's Staff is nice in that it's a free Cura. The catch?



Fusoya can't equip it, though Golbez can. Since Golbez should be your main mode of offense anyway, the staff has a bit of limited use here. Still, it comes in handy for the boss of this place, and I'm sure other characters would love to have this once the whole gang comes together. It should especially come in handy next tale, no less.




Meet Kirin. No, he's not nearly as horrible as a Chimera Brain.




He can do physical attacks to everyone and likes to cast -aga spells as well as Quake. Casting Float beforehand isn't a bad idea.



There is one painful aspect about Kirin, though.






Kirin likes to counter magic with Holy, which hurts. Luckily, he doesn't really do it that often.

I kind of mucked around a bit this first time, but I've found the best strategy for this guy is having Fusoya cast Slow, while Golbez uses the Master Staff to heal whomever was hit.




It's pretty damn good even in Golbez's hands.






After that, spam Double Black Magic until the beast falls. It'll take three/four castings, depending on the moon and your stats.



Meh. I mean, it's far better than a Silver Apple or Soma Drop, but this isn't what I'm looking for.





Crap, crap, and pretty decent.



The Enhancement Sword, other than having a funny name, outclasses Golbez's other weaponry in attack, plus it has an awesome 7 point Intellect Bonus. Definitely a worthy upgrade.



After five times of abusing the RNG and steamrolling through the dungeon, I finally get this damn thing. So what does the Proof of Courage do?

Why, it opens the other Challenge Dungeon! So I just spent my time grinding through an annoying dungeon so I'd be able to spend more time grinding through another annoying dungeon.

So next time, I'll show myself going through that dungeon as well.