Part 202: Gaia 3

I did try that but it... didn't quite go so well.

----

Welcome back!





Turns out that the Gaia Armor was standing on an Action Icon. Activating it....



... Causes that to happen. Okay.



Which opens the path to this intestine-like area.



Twister can inflict confuse, so watch out for that.



Their skill, Power Drain, lowers all stats by 3, which is actually pretty nasty.

... In fact, I think it's the only enemy skill in the game to debuff Max HP.



They can summon more zombies with The Dead Stir.



Critical Hit can instant-kill its victim, so try to avoid that. They can also drop Blue Potions, so don't be afraid to spend MP.



Not strictly new, but the last time we saw these guys I hadn't yet figured out how to do these stat cards.

Anyway, they are surprisingly vulnerable to paralysis, and can cast a few nasty spells if we let them.

... Okay, one nasty spell and a few annoying ones. Still, nowhere near as bad as their cousins in the Tower of Temptation.



Feena starts trying harder to catch up to Justin and Rapp in strength.



There are a few different zones in this third area, differentiated by color and connected by transparent tubes.



The enemies here tend to come in larger groups. It's usually considered the least-crazy place to level Feena's magic to get Time Gate.

But screw that noise. If you're gonna grind to an absurd degree just to unlock a single spell, might as well do it as soon as possible.



Whoops, forgot that Justin still has the sturdiness of a piece of wet tissue paper. Good thing Feena has Resurrect.



C'mon, Rapp, you'll never get stronger than Justin at that rate.



Eventually, we come to a tube that's blocked by multicolor... I'm just gonna call them teeth.



The room right next door has these pillar things. Oh, and some armor.



The Robe of the Sun. Tied with the Spirit Shield for second place in terms of defense, it also boosts IP Loss Resistance by 3 levels. And has some auto effect at 128 power. It's the only item in the game that has said auto-effect, and I'm still not sure what it does.

Anyway, touching the three colored pillars releases the door to the next area.



Where we find the final save point of the game, a Stashing Place, and a Spirit Potion. Once we go through that tube, we'll be on a one-way path directly to the final bosses. So heal up, dump what you don't need, and grab what you do.





There's some spheres floating around in here.





Stepping on that circle there will bring you up....



And push you through the sticky membrane of the floor above.



Whereupon everyone seems to notice something.



A giant ugly something.



A giant ugly something what is insulting us. Okay.

: Now that I have achieved the ultimate level of evolution, I am INVINCIBLE!



Oooh, that's what Baal's been up to. Okay.



There's four independent targets here, and they all do something different.



The Cyst is immune to all elements, but isn't too dangerous. Seed Smash does about 35 damage to all allies, while Death Mark does 50 to one. Nothing too scary there.



The Left Gaia Tentacle deals with the support magic.



While the other one goes on the offensive.



Finally, the former General himself.

Thankfully, Grand Cross doesn't take after the Final Fantasy move with the same name. He just smacks the area in front of him with both tentacles.

Gaia Tail targets a single enemy and does a slightly smaller pile of damage, but in exchange it neutralizes all buffs.

Vanish is, once again, a skill instead of a spell in Baal's hands. And Suck In is the same as it always is.

With the four of them tossing attacks and spells around, especially with the danger of Suck In followed by any of the AoEs, this fight can be a little hairy.



And here's a close look at the man hims-

Waaaaiiiiiit a second.





That's his right arm. The arm that's been a horrible tentacled monstrosity this whole time. D-did Gaia give him back his normal arm when it turned the rest of him into horrifying plant-bug-crab-thing?



Anyway, focusing down one part at a time helps to keep the barrage of spells under control, at which point Baal really can't do much to stop you from steamrolling him, too.



Fun fact, each of Baal's parts here has a drop of 100 gold, but a 0% chance of dropping it.

And the bastard doesn't even give a single level!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZRJhvdfJEM (Polsy link)

See you next time!