Part 26: Gilg Amiss
Part 26 Gilg AmissLast time we got through most of the final dungeon, today we get through the rest of it.
Prelude to the Void
Normally I'd suggest not trying to break these old men out of prison, especially these three.
They've been institutionalized and don't want to leave.
I didn't get this to happen here, as I suspect they specifically code it to only happen once, ever. Even more strict than Zombie Dragons casting Pandora's Box in FFVII, at least that was once per save file.
Older versions this always happens. The very first time the first time I played the Pixel Remaster he just died.
I suspect he just died that one time so that the bestiary was properly populated, as normally he just transforms into Jura Aevis, which is technically not "dying".
Romeo's ballad doesn't work by the way.
This Beholder and lady are in the least secure cell in the jail. Stairs right there, just hit the bricks.
Thankfully this guy walks us all the way back towards the save point so we
The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)
I switched Faris to the reflect ring, because Catastrophe hates floating so much all it will do nothing but trying to stop something from floating. Otherwise it would petrify with Demon Eye or Earth Shaker the whole party.
There's no counter attacks, no tricks. He will 100 Gs forever as long as someone is floating.
Prelude to the Void
This is why I dislike the old men.
They really like to eject people from the fight.
Jura Aevis absorb wind so here's the rare instance of Bahamut use.
This chest might be worth picking up. The other chest up north is not unless you're going for full chest completion. It's a pair of Red Slippers. They do nothing different than the Rainbow Dress or Lamia's Tiara and come way too late to justify occupying an accessory slot.
Anyway let's resume progress.
*Smooch*
She then walks up the stairs in the back of the cell, so the "rescue" was 100% pointless.
Iron Giants can walk the halls too. They have the most experience drops in the game. There's a better place to fight them if you need to get levels.
The Man-Eater is the strongest non-Chicken Knife knife in the game. Its Dancer exclusive for some reason (Equip Ribbons allows the character to equip all Dancer exclusive gear). It also acts like a spear for !Jump calculations. As the name implies it does bonus damage to humanoid enemies.
Which honestly a lot of enemies are humanoid at the moment so it's not a bad property to have.
You can fight Yojimbo's walking along the outside of the castle (Ninjas were available when fighting the Dragon Aevis's as well)
They have a rare steal. This isn't it.
You can cast Return to try and steal again. I wasn't able to get it though. The Murakumo is the strongest Katana. You even get a better crit rate than the Masamune. However you lose the First Strike passive so if you've only got one Katana user I'd suggest against it.
While we continue climbing up the castle we get dragged away from the door.
You can leave, save or make general preparations at this moment if you need to (If you lack immunity to Toad I may suggest you cast Toad on everyone right now). Because walking towards the door drags you back a second time and starts the boss fight.
How rude! I don't give my kiss of death to just anyone, you know!
The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)
Halicarnassus has a fairly simple combat script compared to... well basically all the other bosses in the Rift.
They always start with Ribbit (HAHAHAHAHAHA! in the PSX due to the confusion on if the original "Kurururu" was them cackling or the Japanese onomatopoeia for frog croaking). So if you aren't relying on Ribbons everyone might benefit from starting the battle Toaded.
Halicarnassus lacks elemental weaknesses so Flare Sword again is the way to go.
While this is a much less complicated fight than others have been, it is not without a twist.
Halicarnassus hates being hit with summons.
The only other thing to look out for is on the 8th (and every 7th round after) attack will be Holy. It's a rare situation where you can't take out 33,333 HP before Holy goes off, and even rarer if the fight doesn't end before the 15th turn.
Now if you are playing along at home and haven't played the game before, I advise you to go back and save.
Prelude to the Void
There is one more room before you reach the roof of the castle. That room is the place to fight Iron Giants to grind if necessary.
The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)
Here's why I say you should save. For some Fiesta teams this can be a very tough fight.
Twintania has probably the harshest gimmick in the game.
The first step in this fight is not to attack. Get Mighty Guard up if you want to be cautious but it will likely not be necessary.
Next, have some means of instant death. Break Blade will obviously be the safest and guaranteed method. If you are playing Fiesta rules the Killer Bow, Assassin Dagger or Black Magic Death would work. Death Sickles as well but that implies that you've got a Berserker. Kill your Berserker for the start of the fight.
Now while I am setting up Break Blade, I am not using it yet.
Twintania's Mindblast can hit everyone. Without Hermes' Sandals this can leave you in a very bad place as the fight is about to Really begin.
After Mind Blast Twintania will do two Wind Slashes.
While we wait, I should mention why we're playing War Games with Twintania, as so far the only winning move is not to play. If you physically attack there's a chance of countering with Tidal Wave for pretty big damage. If you cast magic he might counter with Mega Flare. This can be reflected back if you want to risk fighting fair.
After the second Wind Slash the screen will flash and we're told He's charging for Giga Flare.
Gigaflare is not much of an exaggeration, it might not be 1000 times stronger than Mega Flare but it's several times stronger and pierces reflect, so you can't fool him like Bahamut.
I wasn't going to cast Self-Destruct, I was just looking for the correct spell.
If you can't reliably instantly kill Twintania for whatever reason there are 3 other solutions. Toad can be cast while he's charging and will prevent Giga Flare from resolving.
Dancer's !Flirt will force him to skip his turn and Giga Flare will not be used.
The Bard can !Hide while Giga Flare is released. This is the worst option as you won't have much of a chance to attack before Giga Flare is used. During the charge phase he doesn't counter anymore.
I didn't confirm on this playthrough but since Odin now always Zantetsuken he could be used in this fight. Older versions wouldn't work because how the fight works it toggles between the heavy Twintania and the flimsy one, but the heavy one is still present in the script so Gungir would be used instead.
If you leave Twintania alive but unable to do his big move, it will return to its original status immune state until it casts Wind Slash twice again.
Seymour could also have used Death Claw to set someone up for a quick kill as well, but there is a simple joy in turning a gigantic demon into a toad.
Twintania was tough, its fitting that he was standing between us and...
In Search of Light (Pixel Remaster)
The end of the road.
The last crystaline sections of the Rift disables Teleport.
but we can always step back on the blue circle and return to the castle and teleport from there.
Being the last steps between us and Exdeath most enemies here could qualify as bosses.
I don't want an Elixir, I bought more than I'll ever use.
Give me your better item.
Apparently Return rerolls if a fight is preemptive or not.
This dragon refused to give me anything else but an elixir. I killed it eventually. FYI everything here only gives ABP and Gil, so if you're trying not to get too many levels but want to master some jobs you can spend time here. It's just at a bigger risk than the ocean since we're far from a save point right now.
Hey... do you notice anything?
The base game has no Behemoths, only King Behemoths. As with other entries to the series these guys don't do much if you leave them alone. Most of their attacks are counters to your attacks. Avoid magic since they follow the series tradition of Behemoths throwing around Meteor.
Hey guy, mind moving over a few feet for us?
Greg wasn't killed after all, he's just been blown clear and sitting on a teleportation circle.
He might have been alone for too long.
First thing's first, we need to continue our Genji collection. This is one of the best.
Greg will keep attacking until you do 7000 HP of damage. Since he dropped the Excalipoor he's back to doing respectable damage.
What follows is a very quick panicked stream of words. I don't remember this coming out so fast in the GBA release. But I do appreciate using the UI to demonstrate how distressed Gilgamesh is right now.
(edit: I apparently was pushing some button on the controller and forcing the text to advance fast, inputs also advance battle text it seems)
Zounds! 'Tis no beast, just Seymour Butz! You should have just said so from the start! Oohhh, I don't like it here... Creepy monsters lurk around every corner, and I can't find the way out... Cripes... *sniffle*... I'm gonna break down!
Oh, just go that way... I see! Let us egress posthaste! When we're out of here, what say we have a few spectacular adventures together, just us five? ...
Well, if you make it out safely- Hah! No ifs about it. I'm certain we'll meet again. And when we do, I hope you'll consider me a...
If you didn't open the chest way back before fighting Exdeath Gilgamesh wouldn't have been here and we could have passed by without incident, or a shield.
And it's a good one. Still not Aegis good but good enough to replace a Flame or Ice Shield.
Necromancers love to try and inflict Zombie. When they get lower on HP they start doing it even more often. They counter physical damage with Protect and Magical with Shell, they really aren't worth fighting.
Gorgimeras don't do too much unless you leave them alone (as in kill every other enemy on the field, not ignore them), then they begin launching strong party wide attacks. Their rare steal is an Aegis Shield so that might be worth it.
All but one chest here are either Fuma Shurikens or Elixirs.
Crystelle's have 3HP. They absorb all elemental damage but will die if you look at them harshly. Crystelle's main claim to fame is being able to !Catch them for a free Mighty Guard if you didn't find or bother with a Stingray.
Mindflayers frequently use Mindblast. Without Hermes' Sandals this would be problematic.
Round 2 with a Crystal Dragon. Maybe we'll be lucky this time.
Cripes.
One more time.
Finally. This is the best lance.
Effective against dragons, you say?
Let's put that to the test. But first we need some additional prep work. Krile is the only one who has enough levels in White magic to be useful.
I'm not giving Seymour the Holy Lance, I'm merely removing the Masamune from him. I think he ends up with Sasuke's Katana.
Krile needs to hit first.
I give Faris the Dragon Lance to see how it compares with a Chicken Knife.
Quicksaving because I plan to demonstrate things first.
This chest down a long flight of stairs is the only monster in a box of the Rift, and it's a doozy.
The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)
Shinryu is the second super boss. It is probably the easier of the two in both casual and fiesta games.
Yes, I said easier, despite the fact that Shinryu will always start the fight with this Tidal Wave.
Even the lucky dodge from Lenna was almost not enough. I almost needed that safety save.
While writing this update I realized I could have kept the Masamune on Seymour. He could have !Mixed a holy water and turtle shell.
But instead let's just cast Berserk. For those playing Fiesta rules and lacking a Chemist or White Mage another Staff user could farm earlier for Power Staves that inflict Berserk on hit. Or Rod users could attack with the wonder wand in a "safe" combat zone until they see the wonder wand cast Reflect. The next spell it casts is Berserk. Finally a beastmaster can capture a Mammon. However that requires someone sacrifice their Hermes' Sandals for a Reflect Ring and hope and pray that the Mammon hits the reflected character.
The worst of it is over. We've made a dragon that will almost certainly kill everyone every turn into a dragon that will probably kill one person per turn.
This was the fight that I mentioned that Flare would be better than casting our usual salvos of elemental damage, since Shinryu has enough magic defense that piercing it is marginally better than boosting through it.
In hindsight I should have had Seymour !Mix Eye Drops and a Dragon fang to inflict blind. Or use the Dark Bow. It wasn't necessary because Shinryu didn't do much to me today.
Chicken Knife (By the way as Shinryu is a monster in a box you can escape from this boss fight, therefore you MUST use the Chicken Knife in such a way that !Scram won't trigger)
Dragon Lance
I gave you a chance, you had one more chance to redeem Dragoon and spears as something other than a joke and you FAILED.
Oh well, Dragon Lance wouldn't benefit from Flare Blade anyway but still... come on you were supposed to do bonus damage you stupid stick.
Blinking instead of Blinding.
Much Better.
If you Fiesta you learn to hate that Shinryu has a normal death animation to rush to screen shot before he's gone. Here he gets a nice slow boss crumble.
Shinryu doesn't give a load of gil but gives the same ABP.
The Dragon Seal is like the Omega Badge, it's just for bragging.
In Search of Light (Pixel Remaster)
But also the box contains the Ragnarok, the strongest non gimmick weapon in the game.
Deep in the Crystal Rift you can rarely find Movers. You want to kill them fast as they can shuffle positions effectively reviving themselves often. Usually accompanied by Encircling or Delta Attacking the party first.
If you can kill them easily the rewards are great. Just over 5 mover fights will master Mime or Red Mage. Sadly the quicksave exploit isn't available here to make things easier.
the right stairway leads to the final teleporter to Exdeath, but this little platform has a strange sparkle to it.
The last of Exdeath's miniboss squad, since he's off the beaten path he's optional but worth your attention.
The Fierce Battle (Pixel Remaster)
Frieza here is escorted by 4 barriers... he'll explain them soon enough.
He used to say immortality. I guess he's set his goals a little bit more realistic here.
He seriously is immortal right now. I think this version even prevents you from targeting him (or I got very lucky in this fight). If he could be targeted attacks just whiff, no damage, no zeros, no Fraulines.
While invincible Necrophobe doesn't do anything, but his Barriers will so Mighty Guard is helpful.
Barriers alternate between casting Holy or Flare, and casting an -aga spell on themselves, they have innate reflect so it ends up in the parties face.
If it wasn't for Shell this would be much worse. Hell even with Shell if all the barriers hit a single target they might die anyway.
There's 2 things about the barriers, one is that they can be petrified. The other is that they don't have too many MP, so if you have problems with enduring their attacks and balancing that with going on the offensive you can focus on surviving until they burn out.
Strangely enough this !Rapid Fire went and killed the Barriers one by one.
Now the fight really begins. Too bad the only person vulnerable to Blind is dedicated to casting.
So Necrophobe... that means someone who fears death. What does an endgame boss fear death so bad it's his damn name?
Seymour isn't using an Air Knife and doesn't really have particularly high magic.
Let's scan Necrophobe and see what his deal is.
That's a pretty big pile of health we've got here, I think only Omega and Shinryu has more that we've seen yet.
Huh... that's... that's a lot to be afraid of.
This was just a regular attack, I don't want to kill Necrophobe yet.
While Necrophobe is incredibly flimsy on the defense he isn't a slouch on the offense.
He can throw out 2 consecutive Vacuum Waves and they can sting if they land.
Once you get Necrophobe at low health the music ch-
THAT'S GILGAMESH'S MUSIC!
Battle on the Big Bridge
Why hello there! Am I fashionably late to the party? Surprised to see me? Hah! If I'd left you in the lurch I'd look like a jerk for all of history! As if I'd let that happen!
Oh you poor fool.
Wanna bet on that? Do your worst, baldy!
Necrophobe decides to see if he can make Greg's blazing flame burn hotter and faster.
I'ts pretty strong all told but we know that Greg's got plenty of boss health to shrug this off, compared to Necrophobe being under 10,000 now.
It's tradition, Greg understands.
The fight is already over, this is just a cut scene now.
Your grandfather... was a pretty strong guy!
Greg, why are you getting all mushy?
And you, Faris! Try falling in love, or something. You might learn a thing or two about yourself!
Maybe a bit rude of Greg to impose, but his heart is in the right place. Better than previous translations trying to press Faris to be feminine.
Greg doesn't attack at all while he monologs, he just heals periodically.
You're always so caring towards animals... Never lose that pure heart of yours!
... And Seymour Butz... I wanted to fight you one more time... Mano a mano, of course!
Alright Greg, knock it off.
I believe that's MY line!!!
Godspeed you colossal himbo. While for the longest time we just had to chalk this up as an unfortunate death, that changed when FFVIII came out, after that game most mainline Final Fantasy games have a cameo with Gilgamesh. He apparently didn't actually explode himself, he was blown clear and started falling through dimensions.
All that for a save point. Wait. Necrophobe feared death and camped out on a save point, what's stopping him fr-
...the next update might take awhile as I try and figure things out.