Part 49: Payoff

Trump the Samurai - Part 10 - Payoff


Last time, I was an idiot and forgot to pick this up from Phantom Village. Now I have to fight back through the Rift to get back to where I was.


There we go.


After the weird sky area, it's time for the Dimensional Castle Boss Rush!


First up, Azulmagia.


He drops Level 2 Old, but I guess something I have equipped makes me immune to it. Oherwise he just casts spells that do little.

Azulmagia

LEVEL: 46
DEATHS: 0
GIL THROWN AT BOSSES: 113,500G


Catastrophe is much more dangerous, because I don't have any of the stuff to cheese him.


Curses!


Chicken Knife does almost as much damage as Zeninage does, so it just takes a volley of stabbing (and attempted Fleeing) to get rid of him.

Catastrophe

LEVEL: 46
DEATHS: 0
GIL THROWN AT BOSSES: 113,500G


Hooray. Now there's something important the Thief Knife is needed for here...


Nope, not that.


There we go. The Murakumo can only be stolen from Yojimbos (and Neo Exdeath), and it is the strongest katana in the normal game. It doesn't have Masamune's initiative, but I can just instantly switch weapons anyway.


Oh no, it was a ruse!


Halicarnassus is perfectly content to just Holy himself in the face over and over.


However, he also keeps turning me into a frog.


He hastens himself, which would be bad, but his normal attacks are all wimpy anyway.


All it really does is cause him to kill himself faster.

Halicarnassus

LEVEL: 46
DEASTHS: 0
GIL THROWN AT BOSSES: 113,500G


Time for the end of the Castle gauntlet.


I just play this one defensively, waiting for the perfect moment.


There!


Another boss cleaved in twain.

Twintania

LEVEL: 46
DEATHS: 0
GIL THROWN AT BOSSES: 113,500G


Now it's time for the crystal area.


Wait, how did you sneak up on me? I started the conversation!


First I stab him with the Thief Knife until I snag his shield.


Then I throw money at him, to let him know it's the real me.

Gilgamesh 5

LEVEL: 46
DEATHS: 0
GIL THROWN AT BOSSES: 115,800G


The Genji Shield has a really good block rate, and a couple immunities. However, there aren't really any bosses with just physicals, so the Aegis Shield is much better still.


Shinryu is not as bad as Omega, but he still does a crapload of damage constantly. Pass.


I wanna save, you jerk


First of all, I needed to grind to Level 50 in order to take these Barriers out in 2 turns. Otherwise 4x Flare/Holy would instantly kill.


Even with the barriers down, this guy hits REALLY hard, and he gets 2 actions per turn.


But then he gets Hurricane off while I'm sapped from Vacuum Wave.


And that's that. He has several ways to instantly kill you, his most notorious being the Maelstrom/hit-you-in-the-face combo, but he also has Death. I tried several gear setups in the hope that maybe I could avoid Death or keep from getting punched constantly, but then I realized something.

This fight is optional. The only thing here is a save point and a very, very slim chance at some actually useful Genji Armor. On the other hand, I get the super secret and totally canon ending where Gilgamesh doesn't die. Here, enjoy this footage of me getting my ass kicked.

Necrophobe

LEVEL: 50
DEATHS: 10


At this point, I realized I forgot the Magic Lamp. Cue me running out of the Rift AGAIN, picking it up, then going back in...

Safe to say I am glad this ends here.


Power of anime force ghost friendship!


Now it's time for Treedeath. Here is what the damage is like.


Holy and Flare hit extremely hard. Good thing I have a decent supply of Elixir.


I have to heal up from his normal attacks because of how much damage his spells do.


Luckily, i was able to race through the last 10,000HP before he dropped Meteor on me. Now for the final battle!


Oh. Welp.





Finally I get back to Neo Exdeath. First step is to immediately use Magic Lamp Odin to kill the back part. iainuki could kill it, but it has an extremely high level, and high magic evasion, and I don't have time to attempt it over and over with Grand Cross looming.


Here is the kind of damage I have. Because Zeninage hits evenly and the 2 other pieces have 55,000HP, there's no danger of hyper mode here.


Almagest is decently strong, but not nearly as bad as Treedeath's spells.


Grand Cross is a completely different story.


The first just does poison. Poison damage is so trivial that I don't even cure it.


Wait, what did it do this time? And why can't I control my character?


OH GOD IT'S BERSERK


Oh, thanks buddy.


A third Grand Cross does seemingly nothing. The Vacuum Wave part goes down...


...and the other two shortly follow. And that is that.

Tree Exdeath and Neo Exdeath

LEVEL: 51
DEATHS: 3
GIL THROWN AT EXDEATH: 122,400G


Oh no not my corpse buddies





Oh look, they all came back and everything was right with the world.


So this challenge was interesting. As I have demonstrated, Samurai is not very complex in terms of what it can do, but it is REALLY GOOD at what it can do. This has the odd effect of making certain bosses, like Cray Claw, much more challenging than they would be for most parties or even other solo challenges. On the other hand, really strong and consistent AOE damage and pretty great defense mean that several of the bosses that are absolute pains go down with relative ease, such as World 2 Exdeath. Plus, Iainuki is basically an "I win" button for most random encounters and several bosses, because fighting the Seal Guardians with Zeninage is a recipe for disaster. Overall, relatively easy but really fun and sometimes silly.



FINAL LEVEL: 51
TOTAL BOSS DEATHS: 46
TOTAL GIL THROWN AT BOSSES: 238,200G