Part 107: Episode XCVII: Our Broken Cycle

Music: Challenge



Time to throw down with the other THAT boss of Final Fantasy X for most people. Yes, we're very impressed you have beat this your first try and aren't sure what the big deal is. Everyone at home give a nice little golf clap to whoever inevitably posted that as soon as we got to this boss.

Yunalesca has a moderate 24,000 HP to burn through... initially at least. While she's immune to most all debuffs, she also doesn't have any defenses against physical or magical attacks. Heck she's even weak to Holy magic. Not that it's all that likely to have it unless you've been doing a bit of grinding at this point (it's at the end of Yuna's Sphere Grid.)



But, while she doesn't have any standard defenses against attacks, that doesn't mean Yunalesca doesn't have counters. Indeed, she has nothing but counters for all attacks against her. Physical attacks will result in a Blind counter.





Having Lulu or anyone else magically inclined will result in Silence in response. Special commands like Rikku's Use will result in the offending party getting put down for nap time with Sleep. The big thing with Yunalesca is basically you can only use an attack type once before she'll briefly lock it down. Well... mostly. She's not guaranteed to counter every attack against her. She will randomly just let an attack or two slide for no particular reason.

This phase of the battle is more obnoxious than any sort of real trouble.





On the offensive side of things, Yunalesca and her fabulous hair has a magical bitch slap. This only does a few hundred HP of damage, but it will negate any buffs our party may have like Haste, Regen, or Shell. Again, just kind of rude.



The only other attack in phase one of Yunalesca's battle is Absorb. Which, as the name implies, will absorb exactly 50% of the targeted character's maximum HP. Absorb and Buff-Negating smacks will remain in Yunalesca's arsenal throughout all phases of this battle.





Oh, did I mention this was a three phase boss rush? Cuz it's a three phase boss rush. Once we deplete Yunalesca's first form of its HP, the unsent summoner decides to really let her hair out and get serious...









Sooo... Yunalesca got her self some hair extensions at the salon. What do you all think?



Actually, hold that thought for a moment.





The Darkness. That was a pretty good game for its time. But ooof... Man don't try to go back and see if it's held up. Time has not been kind to those early Xbox360 graphics, let me tell you. So anyway, the entire party now has Zombie status. That's a thing now. Weird how both roadblock bosses fiddle around with Zombie status. It's like there is a death theme in this game's narrative or something...

In Form 2, Yunalesca has doubled her HP to 48,000. She's using very potent shampoo, you see.



This time around Yunalesca lays off on the Absorb business and instead starts throwing curative magic at our now Zombified party. Regen and Cura mostly. The former which will act like a much weaker version of Poison and the latter will just do a good 1500ish HP of damage.



Of course, we cannot heal Zombie status characters without clearing the status effect with Remedy, Holy Water, or in a pinch reviving a KO'd party member.



Much like Seymour, Yunalesca's AI isn't entirely bright and will randomly cast Regen and Cura even on our party that has been cured of Zombie. She will eventually do Hellbiter again and set everyone back on the walking dead train. But... there may be reason to leave at least one party member in a state of unlife.





Once we get Yunalesca down another 48,000 HP she will move on to her third and final phase. And this is the one that's a dozy...







JESUS TAP-DANCING IN SPACE CHRIST!



So THIS is happening... No, Lady Yunalesca didn't turn into a giant Medusa head. She's actually riding the demonic snakehead which in turn is connected to her scalp because... Look, being unsent for a millennium and frolicking about half-naked in a dead city filled to the brim with pyreflies does some freaky shit to your body, as it turns out...





Oh by the way, did you cure everyone's Zombie status in the previous round? Yunalesca lays off on Hellbiter when she's down to around 20,000 HP after all. You did, huh? Of course you did. Why wouldn't you. It was her main form of attacking and you couldn't heal.







Well congratulation on your diligence at dispelling negative status ailments. You done fucked up and now your entire party is dead!



Hello darkness, my old friend...





So before reaching the final phase of the Yunalesca boss battle, we want at least one character to still have Zombie status. Zombie afflicted characters are immune to instant death and Mega Death inflicts just that. No getting cute with armor guarding against Death either. Mega Death doesn't care. It will murder Wakka stone dead right through that shit. Could have sworn it didn't care about armor but I was wrong. So if you really fucking have nothing going on in your life, you could go grind out like one Death Proof armor if you want to invest another five hours in Final Fantasy X.





I always found Zombie Yuna to work best since she's fairly speedy and can just revive and heal anyone downed in short order. Whoever is the designated driver zombie ought to be able to take a few hits since, obviously, they cannot be healed.



For round three, Yunalesca's health has once more ballooned to a sturdy 60,000 HP. And unlike the previous rounds where she kinda fiddled around being a jerk countering and the like, Yunalesca actually does have a semi-reliable pattern here.

Starting with Mega Death, she'll follow up by doing another round of Hellbiter if one or no characters are Zombie. Otherwise she'll cast Regen on a Zombied character.



Following that, she's guaranteed to do Hellbiter. Fuck you everyone is a zombie. By the way Hellbiter can hit for 500-800 now. Remember no healing while zombied.









After that, Big Head Yunalesca will use another new attack, Mind Blast. Mind Blast only hits for 300-600 like Hellbiter. But it does have the added downside of possibly inflicting Curse (prevents Overdrives) or Confuse. Considering the Zombie healing situation, a confused Wakka, Auron, or Tidus can be a real bad scene. I distinctly recall a wipe against this boss being a confused Tidus ganking designated zombie Yuna and then falling prey to...



Curaga. This will almost certainly kill anyone outside a full health Auron if they are in Zombie status as it'll dish in the ballpark of 4,000+ HP of damage.



I mean you could get lucky and you could have her heal a healthy party member for you. But guess what, nerd? That's the end of her pattern and it loops around to another Mega Death here before starting over.

The Curaga round can be swapped with another Hellbiter if everyone is unzombified. Or Yunalesca could just give someone a full heal before wiping the party. She's a real nasty bitch like that!



That's about all there is to say on the subject of Yunalesca. She isn't really all that difficult if you have prior knowledge of what is coming. But the first time through you won't and she will effortlessly smoke your ass out of nowhere.







On a final note, Lady Yunalesca will use Absorb every round on aeon summons. So even if you're pulling out an Overdrive, she's probably going to negate a decent amount of that 9999 damage sucking your aeon dry before it can be dispelled. Still doesn't mean we cannot tag in Trogdor at the battle's end to deliver the coup de grâce for a tasty Overdrive kill.









Suck it, Yunalesca!




Music: Hymn of the Fayth ~ Yunalesca



“And with it, Spira's only hope."



"Fool. There is no other way. Even if there was... Even if you did destroy Sin... Yu Yevon the immortal would only create Sin anew."
"Yu Yevon!?"
”Umm... Yevon following guys... Err... ex-Yevon following guys I'm assuming at this point... Whatever. Yuuuuu Yevon the immortal? That ringing any bells?”
*shrug*
*stink face and head shake*
“More bullshit.”
“I don't even wanna know...”
"Ah... Zaon... Forgive me... Spira has been robbed of the light of hope... All that remains is sorrow."



”BARF!”







And with that Lady Yunalesca dies... Again. Aren't we supposed to send the dead or the willful named ones will just come back? No. Not gonna do that...? Alright. Don't say I didn't warn you. Nah it's fine, she is actually dead for good.



”Boy we can REALLY never got back to that Bevelle joint now, huh. Ha!”
"Let's do something more unbelievable."
*shakes head* "What?"



“So it won't come back, and without the Final Aeon.”



Alright. Welp, we've broken the summoner's pilgrimage tradition by murdering the person at the end of the road, then stuffing their body and Final Aeon in a dumpster and lighting it on fire. Fuck it! Let's keep winging it breaking things and see what sticks!

Tune in next time for more Final Fantasy X: Adventures in Winging It!






Episode 96 Highlight Reel (Recommended Viewing!)





Yunalesca Boss Concept Art



Early Yunalesca Boss Concept Art – Nice fighting stance, Concept Art Tidus.