Part 84: Level 1 run - Chapter 04

CHAPTER FOUR: "Hold on," Kukri panicked. "We are driving right into a black waltz."


Dali is the first nonitem shop in the game. Naturally weird shit happens as a result.


My fortune, for those who care. This game has quite a few, for something a player checks once per playthrough.


My color's still the same as Mega64's, though.


For some reason "Makin' Crazy Money! Vol.2" mentions buying all the wrists...!?


So, out of Pinions, I sell Ethers. I can make those back later and don't use them much anyway.


Anyway, I buy all the wrists. Not immediately, but by the time I leave Dali I have 99.


With the shreds of money left, I get new hats and some gloves for Steiner (since I missed the pair in the Prima Vista).


Stellazio. Somehow I actually recall where they all are, though a few I forget the specific spot.


"This whole level 1 thing is actually a scheme for pity points."


Tetra Master is in-universe a mysterious game. This makes it really weird as the players do not know how the game works. Is it magical?

Anyway the second character is attack type. P targets the third value, M targets the fourth, X targets whichever is the smaller, and A does that but can target attack power too.

There are two big points, in early disc 2 and 3 respectively, where we'll get cards for the Battle City Tournament. Winning the Three Egyptian God Cards is somewhere between "literally mechanically" mandatory and ".002% chance you can survive without" mandatory.

A fair bit of the level one game is like that.


Not a whole lot else matters in Dali, so I move on.


Didn't need to steal this not-useful item from the Plant Brain after all.


I don't open the door since the Pinion isn't worth having encounters. Besides, one fewer Pinion is one more I have to steal as part of getting 834 cumulative.


I'm glad you get the bit with Morrid to equip Tinhank, so he can have his gloves on.


Because this boss happens really fast. By the way, Kukri has nothing but a Rod equipped.


Like the Plant Brain, the plan of action is Fire Swords.


Papito can't cast a thing without #2 countering rather painfully, so he and Kukri are on support.


Most of #2's attacks fall under barely surviable.


Except the Fira. I... left the Silk Shirt on Gitan.


Aaaaand teleport finishes Tinhank off. We're in deep shit.


A small part of the level 1 run is remembering tricks. The true test is the ability to respond to the deepest shit. It looked like an impending game over, but reviving Gitan meant I could get Tinhank upright before #2's next round. Without a specific trigger he hits one person, so I could have both Tinhank and Kukri around to revive and Gitan can shank him.

If he keeps me on the back foot then I never win because I'm never moving forward. The gap between just-revived and full health is barely any here, compared to having more people standing, so I just revive until I have both thing-doers and a turn.


Specifically, Gitan shanks him again and he falls over.

Oh yeah Papito is mostly useless. He's revived at the end to get a little AP for some reason.


I need to restock these things after that. I also need 1000 gil sitting around.


Transition shot.


Each Black Waltz has a different specialty element, kind of. #1 has his blizzard, #2 uses Fira on his own, and #3 will use Thundara on the entire party at a specific point in the fight.


This is a damage race. One we'll win.


Even Gitan has to go into attacking to get this fight to go right.


After a point, he'll flutter up. This makes Gitan not work but Papito and Tinhank are using abilities.


Papito just doublecasts Fire both rounds he has Trance. It's enough.


He used his first action to flutter, and his next is a multi-target Thundara.


16 attack, -7 from hats, halved by Gitan and Papito's shirts and Tinhank just has a beautiful massive 120 health pool.


Another Fire Sword ends the fight.


He doesn't give rewards like #1 or #2, so I had to have my 1k without this.


That's it for pre-Lindblum gameplay. Next time, contests are a farce before the power of technicality.

REGISTER OF RESETS:
One to Tidal Flame Garnet for the hell of it; Unknown number lost to plant spiders spawn numbers; died to Flans without Flee; Untimely crit pushed Sealion to fatally Blizzara.