Part 13: Legendary Saw

Update 11: Legendary Saw

This is it. The final run up the tower. We left off at Sei-Ryu to do some monster changing and then came back up.



Next up is Byak-ko. I should mention that most of the tower is made up of escalator like stairs, thus resulting in my being embedded in him. Nothing actually happens until you speak to him, however. Another weird thing going on is that if you check the status screen, you're always on the 1st floor. How very mysterious...



While hunting for monster meat I went ahead and got a Catcraw for Aika in order to let her use her main statistic again. I've mentioned that the weakness=instant kill thing isn't 100%, as you can see from the fact that the Sun Sword didn't instantly liquidate Byak-ko.



This doesn't help him much as he's dead in two hits. I'm not sure, but it's possible that I actually broke past the amount of damage the game can display in that second attack. Just over 1600 damage seems slightly low for a sub-boss at this stage in the game.



Su-Zaku, on the other hand, goes down like a bitch.



Even after Su-Zaku we have to climb a few more stairs before abruptly coming out here. I'm not sure why all of a sudden this part of the tower is above the clouds, but at least it's not confusing.



At the very top of the escalator is a door, just like the one we entered to get started..



Stepping through the door results in us appearing out of an orb on a nearly featureless plain. What the...



The only thing of interest here is the person who's been giving us hints throughout the entire game, standing between two trees. Warnings, incoming...



Aika: Game?

Creator: Yes,this world is a game I created.

Vyse: What do you mean?

Creator: People did not know what courage and determination meant. So, I created Ashura to see what people would do.

Cupi: You're crazy!

Creator: Ashura tested all of you.

Fina: So, it was a game?

Creator: That's right. I wanted to see a hero defeat this evil.

Aika: We were all pieces of your design!

Creator: You understand well. Many have failed the test, but it was refreshing to see courage in the face of danger. I want to reward you for your accomplishment. I will grant you a wish.

Vyse: We didn't do it for a reward! Besides, you used us!

Creator: What's wrong with that? I created everything.

Cupi: We are not things!

Creator: How amusing... You are trying to pick a fight with me!

Creator: Are you sure? It's the destiny of mortals... Very well. Remember the greatness of my power!



So, here's the bastard that's been manipulating everything and who as a result is responsible for all the evils of the world. He's got a lot of HP, great stats, and 200 defense. The last is rather important because...



Because of a famous, peculiar bug in this game. You see, the SAW is a weapon that was intended to cause instant death on an enemy if your strength is greater than their defense. For the most part that would make it a useful weapon on most random encounters, but not terribly useful against bosses and certainly useless against the final boss. However, shoddy programming rears its ugly head...

You see, the formula for the weapon had the operator reversed, meaning that the SAW only worked against enemies who had more defense than you had strength. For most purposes that rendered it useless, but with 200 defense the Creator is suddenly a very viable target as long as you haven't raised your strength to obscene levels. Vyse can't use the SAW (I tested to confirm what stat it uses) but the trick works for anyone else. In point of fact, with the way I raised my characters, the Creator was the ONLY enemy in the game that was still a viable target.

To summarize...we climbed a tower up to heaven, got pissed off at God for being a tool, and then shoved a chainsaw into his face in response.

But...what if we weren't going to use it?




Despite the sky high defense, he's very vulnerable to the Catcraw. Flare is a viable attack, and what better way to start a fight with God than by throwing a nuke? Unfortunately, Cupi's D-Fangs aren't much good. For the first couple rounds, the Creator doesn't actually do anything.



One nasty trick that he does have is a damage reflection ability, which might have been mirror. Basically the damage that was done to Creator came back and was split among our group.




After a few more attacks the Creator uses Repent, which does nothing to anybody in the group. I'd guess that none of the party are at all sorry for what they're doing.



You can see that Cupi is maintaining a zero for zero average. Quake is ineffective, and even tusk, our strongest attack, is ineffective. It's a sad fact, but a solo monster run using the highest tier of monster is pretty much impossible as none of them can do enough damage. You have to use a lower tier monster who has SAW as an ability. After a few more rounds without any significant damage, the Creator falls with its own custom animation.



What a cheap bastard. Nothing for our trouble?



After defeating the Creator our party comes forward and finds a door past the trees. What lies behind it? We'll never know. After some deliberation the group turns around and heads back down the tower, content with having killed God.

Cue the victory montage!



The funny thing about this image is that if you approach Ashura from that angle you fall down the pit.




As a note, during the replay of all the previous bosses, the character shown is always your party leader.



Thanks for reading everybody!