Part 36: Bartz vs. Breathing

Krile's close to mastering Lancer, and thus her fourth job. Reina will be swapping back to Sorcerer to continue working on Sword Magic, because that shit is powerful. Bartz still has a long way to go, as he has the most AP-intensive jobs (thanks to that fucking Red Mage).





Last update, we unlocked Flare and Holy. Holy's awesome because now White Mage Bartz has a solid offense. Flare's nice single-target damage, and it won't even be overshadowed much since Black Magic is the only magic Krile has. This also unlocks both spells for a Sorcerer, both of which are fantastic. Flare Sword simply boosts attack by a hundred and quarters the enemy's defense, while Holy works like the L3 elemental swords, except with the nifty Holy element. Overall, two really nice gets.



Next stop is that underground area, where Cid probably is.





There's Cid, getting his daily exercise.







Then Mid appears.

Hold it! We don't have time to be sitting around! There's a book with some new technology in it...



Cid doesn't even take a minute to notice that we're back from teleporting to another world, or probably to even notice that the worlds have merged together.



Let's go Mid!
Right!



Yep.

-----







Won't be long now.
Wow, you two really work hard.
...poor grandpa thinks it's his fault the world is the way it is.



I know, and deep down I think he knows. Maybe that's why he tries so hard to use his machines for peace.





Then the whole party comes in for Cid's tutorial.

Once you get in the water, push the X button and the down arrow, and you're submerged!



So now our airship can also be a submarine. We need this to access the last two dungeons, and more importantly, to get that last job I mentioned.



Bartz... I'm no warrior... In fact, about all I'm good at is modifying machinery.



Cid can't do anything for us anymore. This also means we don't have to see him anymore, so that's fine.





We can move underwater now, right?
Aye. To the last lithograph 'neath the waves.

Not the last, since you need the submarine to access both lithographs.











Before we dive down for goodies, let's take care of some unfinished business.



It's time for a rematch with Odin.





Start off with Flare sword.



Followed by the spell, Flare. A bit time-consuming under the circumstances, but the damage is worth it.



He gives a nasty slice that KO's Krile.



Magus Rod-boosting Hydra tears into him well.





Flare Sword significantly boosts Reina's weak daggers by more than 100%. Imagine how awesome this will be once she gets a class with better weapons.





Even Faris is getting in some good hits.







And with that, we've got the last L4 summon, Odin. As you may expect, he has a chance of instantly killing enemies.



Might as well kill a few statues on the way back!





Reina gets the L3 elementals for Sword Magic, and Krile masters Lancer with Equip Lance. The Equip Item things are never really that useful except in certain circumstances.



Now it's time to master Black Mage.



Since I don't want three mages, I switch Bartz to Dancer for some offense.







Remember Walz Tower? There was a crystal shard we couldn't get when the castle started sinking. Now we can finally get that shard.





You only have-glub-seven minutes!



Seven minutes should be enough unless you waste time fighting enemies.



They aren't that interesting anyway.





Also, here's the Assassin Dagger going off.





Along the way, there's a chest that will reset your timer.







Finally...





Of course, we have to do a boss battle first.





Gogo: Copycat extraordinaire! The art of impersonation... requires mimicry... Therefore, I shall copy all that you do! A fight for a fight... and a spell for a spell! Could you but imitate me you would certainly win!

However, it's not quite what you'd expect it to be. He's actually more theatric in the GBA version, if you can believe it.

As Gogo says, he'll mimic your party, and he can hurt. He's got powerful attacks and all sorts of powerful spells, to the point where it's pretty difficult to beat him unless you know the trick, which he outright tells you. What you have to do is mimic the mimic to win.

Which I do.











Gogo: This is exactly right! I will do nothing. Do exactly what I do! In other words...



Gogo: That's the way of mimicry! Now you are ready! Adeiu!!



The trick to this fight is to mimic Gogo. However, Gogo doesn't act until you do, so since he's doing nothing, you have to mimic him by doing nothing yourself.

This is probably one of the most clever fights in the series, in that you have to pay careful attention to win it the easy way.



HOT DAMN



Enough to get Faris to L6 Time Magic. She's actually closer to mastering Time Mage than Krile is Black Mage.





Our reward is the final job, Mime.



So, let's talk about Mime. Mime has only one ability, Mimic, which repeats the action the last character took. Nifty if you want to duplicate an effect. However, that's not why people use them.

For starters, they also get all the bonuses Bare gets from mastered classes, like stat boosts and passive abilities. What they don't have is the ability to equip everything that Bare gets, being more stuck to mage equipment, though I think the "Equip X" abilities will expand on that. However, in exchange for losing access for all equipment, they get...



...a third ability slot! Their primary ability is always Mimic, but the other three slots can be anything. This means you have to actively equip Fight and Item if you want to use those, but it also allows me to dualcast both Summons and all White Magic. Thus a Mimic Bartz will have a ton more versatility.

While I could let you guys vote, I'm treating it like the Bare class where anyone can be it. That said, only Bartz will really make use of it, because the girls are happy with using just two abilities each. Bartz however will appreciate dualcasting Curaga, Blink, Holy, and the L5 summons. That said, he still has other jobs to master first before I let him have fun with Mimic.

Next time, we'll tackle the third dungeon. The question is, which third dungeon? We can go to them in either order, so I'll let you guys decide this way:

Leviathan or Meteor?