Part 95: Bonus - Lord Dragon

Bonus - Lord Dragon

So the main game is finished, but we've still got a couple of loose ends to finish before this LP is finally done for good. The main issue is that we still have one little superboss to take care of.




I speak of Lord Dragon, better known as Shinryuu from FF5.

Now, there's a slight problem with fighting Lord Dragon.




His opening attack utterly destroys the party before I even have a chance to move. I don't have nearly enough apples to survive it even with my highest-HP character. There's no way around it, in order to beat Lord Dragon I'll have to grind for levels.



Here's the party I decided to use for Lord Dragon. Edge's speed plus Haste is important to let the party keep up with Lord Dragon. Edward of course is necessary to heal the party from Dragon's crazy attacks. Palom and Rydia are my nukers, as their job is to spam the shit out of Flare. Cecil's role is the most important, as he's the one who has to actually survive Lord Dragon's attacks.

I have to grind around ten levels for each character in order to have the HP necessary to survive. That will take forever normally, but luckily I have a secret weapon in my arsenal.

Cheat codes.

I'm not playing by this game's rules anymore, so I set it so that I gain 65535 EXP every battle, enough to not make everyone overpowered yet make grinding significantly quicker.




Thus what would've taken one-two hours is achieved in ten minutes.



As a plus, I also pick up some much-needed magic for Palom and Rydia.




Palom can now do 9000 damage with Flare, before Doublecast. Before, he needed a weakness to hit that. Palom is awesome.




I also pick up Flare for Rydia, and Meteor for Palom because why the hell not?



Here's my team post-grinding. Aren't cheat codes wonderful?

I switch to a Full Moon to boost the mages' power, and we're ready to go.




I probably should've grinded just a tiny bit more, but I decide to let luck dictate my fortune.






Finally, I survive Tidal Wave, and we can really begin the battle.



The obvious first move is to revive Edward.



Lord Dragon's second move is Maelstrom, which doesn't affect me at all.





Lord Dragon's full of nasty attacks like Flare.




He can also Protect/Shell himself, which will drag the battle out longer, something we don't want.




Thank god for Hero Shield + Protect Ring.



This is what Cecil should've done immediately after reviving Edward, to be honest.




Lord Dragon hits like a truck, but Cecil still blocks out a ton of it thanks to his natural tankiness.



Lord Dragon will still use Tidal Wave a lot. That's why Cecil must always be at max HP.




Shell negates a bit of damage, but I'm still getting off three Flares a round thanks to Palom and Rydia. Flare's probably better than Meteor just due to the much quicker cast time, but then Meteor will do much more damage.









I think Flare's still the safer option because Lord Dragon can simply kill Palom whenever he wants to and Meteor takes a long time to charge, but god damn is it worth dealing nearly 30k damage in one turn.










And the lack of grinding bites me in the ass, as that one kills Cecil. Shit.

New plan.



Remember those apples I gave Rydia against Bahamut? I kept a save before using them in case that strategy didn't work out and fell back on that one after Rydia couldn't pull it off. Glad I did that, because now Cecil can make use of them.

Serious Attempt 2.



Edge is actually fast enough to pull off a Haste before Lord Dragon releases his initial Tidal Wave. Awesome.




Now I know to spam Slow ASAP.



This time, Lord Dragon starts off with Doom. I really prefer Maelstrom as a second attack.



Cursed Elegy inflicts Slow, which is the worst thing he can do besides Tidal Wave since Edge has to take forever to undo his damage.




Luckily, Dragon doesn't use his Protect/Shell combo this fight, so I can hit for slightly higher damage. Makes me wish I tried out Meteor this fight, but I stick with Flare.




Flare alone does more damage just because of the moon. Bahamut's still solid, but Flare is faster, cheaper, and does more in this situation.



I used a Lunar Curtain on Cecil in case of Dragon casting Flare, and I decide to try to make Cecil insanely fast. Instead, I Haste Dragon and have to spam Spider Silks all over again. Oops.





One more trick Dragon has is Embrace, which heals a character and petrifies them. Nothing a Gold Needle can't fix.






Dragon will end the battle with Meteor, which scared me because I didn't have Edward hide. Luckily, Cecil's awesome defense pulls through and the Dragon finally goes down.



That power...as if he was a god!
I give up... My magic hardly even scratched him.

The fuck, Palom? You were dealing nearly 20k damage a turn and responsible for 2/3's of the damage dealt to him. Don't sell yourself short here.

That dragon's power surpasses that of Bahamut himself!
Are...are we still alive? Seriously?
Did the Crystals resurrect that monster...or did he come from another place?



Ragnarok is a nice sword, but oddly they decided to make it weaker than the Ultima Weapon. Considering both share the same group of characters that can equip it (Cecil, Ceodore, and Kain can equip both, Golbez just the Ultima Weapon), it's a strange choice to make. Still, it's tied with the Phase Cutter and Gigant Axe as the second-strongest weapon in the game. I guess it's nice if you want to use, say Team Final Fantasy and have Cecil and Kain in your party, or do a Harvey/Baron crew thing, but it's still a bit underwhelming considering how much you have to level to beat him.

So that's it for superbosses. I've got one more tiny update, but besides that I have only one more thing to show off. And you think the items I've picked up so far have been overpowered. You ain't seen nothing yet.