Part 33: Apparently Metamorphosis is a More Common Ability Than I Thought

After all this time, we finally found Luna.



Uh, yes? You're being awfully casual about this.

: But... it's too late. My heart and soul already belong to Magic Emperor Ghaleon.

Oh. ...okay. Thanks for telling me? I dunno guys, something seems off.

: Alex, why do you persist? I told you... it's too late! Just go home. This is mankind's fate. Resign yourself to it.
: Liar! Luna would never give up! You're an imposter! The game's up... show yourself!



Oh, well. Whaddya know. I'm so surprised.




: You'll never see your precious Luna again, my foolish challenger! The only way to her is past me, and you don't have a prayer. Say "bye-bye" to everything you love in the world! I'm sending you on the one-way express train to obliteration, boy!





We finally, finally get to take down Xenobia! I'm not sure how she transformed into a sex-changed Marilith (who is also now half-squid?) but I guess that's irrelevant.



First thing you'll notice is her attack. That's not much damage, but as a compensation for low attack power she has four attacks.

Fortunately, it takes her awhile to get to your party. However, she also gets some spells. She gets a party-wide ice spell that's really only damaging to Kyle, and she also gets...



Is- is that a confusion spell?



Oh fuck it is. And of course the worst possible person to get confused got confused. Shit shit shiiii



Oh I won. Nevermind!

To be honest, unless Xenobia manages to get her confusion spell to stick (it took her two tries to just confuse Kyle) it's not hard. At all. Yes, she can do a lot of damage to a single target, but as long as you keep Jessica on top of healing (which really shouldn't be hard, as Xenobia is surprisingly slow) you'll be fine.



So that's the end of Xenobia. That's it.

As you can imagine, there's a bit more to her in the remakes, but... not much, really. She doesn't do the Luna impersonation (Royce does that instead) but instead she does the whole "mirror world confront your own fears things." It's also revealed that she was in love with Ghaleon, which is really lame. I honestly think that with the Vile Tribe's altered story she had the potential to be a really, really interesting character, but it turns out no one really cared. Oh well, c'est la vie.



Now that's done, so let-



Wait, st-





By the way, I didn't press any buttons after the fight. You move up automatically. And once you warp to this new room, you can't warp out again.



You also can't save, a rare moment in the Lunar series.

So, yeah, I'm thinking this is going to be... a rush of some sort. A rush of bosses. Thankfully, I can heal up after Xenobia, but at this point if you're running low on supplies you might be teensy bit fucked.





But not too badly fucked, as there is a Seed of Vigor right by the entrance (I was legit surprised when I found it. How many times have I played this game?) and four Herbs of Althena to the sides. The Herbs honestly aren't all that useful when Jessica can do the exact same thing, but a back-up is nice, I guess.

But we're just putting off the inevitable, aren't we?


: Good lord! Ghaleon has changed so much!
: Now that he's turn to evil, his transformation is nearly complete...

...transformation into what? A truck?

: Well folks... this looks like the final battle...
: Let's move in! Ghaleon and his minions are history.

And after so long, we finally get to talk to Ghaleon face-to-face.


: So little Alex became a Dragonmaster. How endearing. You've come to fight for the soul of your dear Luna but you're too late! I'm already in control of the Goddess! Face it, you don't stand a chance dragon boy...





All right! We are finally taking on the main bad guy himself. Now we get be on our guard, as Ghaleon might have some trick up his-



Oh. Oh well, it'll take him a while. He gets tired easily.

But when he finally catches up to you...!



What the... fuck?

Aren't you a powerful mage or some shit? Why are punching Kyle? Something about this attack animation just tickles me pink. Hell, even in still-frame it's funny.



HEEEEY MACARENA.

...yeah, this really isn't a hard fight. I think I'm over-leveled, to be honest. I've tried to avoid that, but I think fighting all those dudes in the Grindery pushed me over. Even if I wasn't, though, Ghaleon is not challenging. He has no spells, slightly more range and attack power than Xenobia, but less number of attacks. I have no idea how you could die to him.



Huh. He gave us experience. How weird.



Oh. Oh wow, we fucked him up!



I'd say! That's a lotta blood...





But we're still not done. Ghaleon may be gone, but the spell he put on Althena might remain. Who knows what's going through her mind, or whose mind it is anymore.











And from her perch, we hear her speak.


: Infidels! How dare you invade my inner sanctum! Prepare to die!

...yeap, we've got a lot of work ahead of us.





Tha- thank you Nall. I know.



Fortunately, a far more knowledgeable ally shows up at just the right time.


: Ghaleon is destroyed, but Althena's soul remains lost in a spell of darkness. But fear not... I will use my universal power to raise her back into the light.

And they're gonna do all the work for us. Wow, that was easy.

: Alex! We did it! After this, Luna will be with us again, right?
: Oh Nall! Never lose your vigor for life... But I'm afraid you don't fully understand yet... Luna is merely the temporary human form of the Goddess Althena. Once we awaken Althena from the spell of darkness, her memory of life on your world as Luna will cease to exist. I wish there were some other way... for you sake.

...oh. Figured there was a catch.

That's... a hell of a trade-off. On the one hand, that would save the world and that's kind of important. Although wasn't this journey really to save everyone and Luna?

But what choice do we have?






: Ghaleon is...

...not dead, is he?


: I've never seen such power! I'm scared!
: Geez... he's a stubborn son-of-a-bubo, isn't he? ...just won't stay dead!
: Here he comes! Alex... everyone... look out!

Well, we beat him pretty thoroughly the first time. What can he do now?






: I'm not finished with you yet! You'll never... make it... out of here... alive dragon boy...


: Cower... in fear... as I demonstrate my true power!

He- hey, I think you've got something in you-



Oh dear!



Yeah, I definitely think you should get that checked-





Oh god!





So. Actual final boss time!

In case you were wondering, no, none of that happens in the remake. The Dragon Angels don't show up (because they don't exist in that version) and Ghaleon does not turn into... that. Actually, in the remake (at least the PS1 version) Ghaleon only has one form. Yeah, they somehow made a JRPG final boss that didn't have multiple forms. I thought that was a law...

But, yeah, Ghaleon's final form. Well... he is very unique, actually. You know how he had to jog a bit before he could punch us in the face?



He's decided walking is for scrubs. So, yes, a boss that can teleport. Unlike every other boss in the game (except for the Water Dragon, weirdly) he won't just attack the nearest character. Meaning that if you're not on top of healing, he could take out some of your weaker members. He only gets one attack, but it's a nasty one. And remember that in this game, you can't revive a dead member in combat. Healing needs to be a priority.

In addition, he has a pretty high defense. Nash is pretty much useless. More useless, rather. In any case, remember to cast your Kiai Slice and Cascade Litany!



He also casts a bit of magic. In addition to ice, he's also got an earth spell. No real difference other than the animation; they both do a fair bit of damage, especially to Kyle.

A real danger of this fight though is that it's at the end of a boss rush. A boss rush that you're allowed to heal in-between, but a boss rush. If you've run out of supplies at this point, you could be in trouble. Especially if Jessica runs out of MP...



That said, I've never had a problem keeping a decent supply. I had... surprisingly little trouble with the final boss, actually. It only took me maybe one or two more rounds than the Xenobia fight, which I think took about six rounds.



However, we didn't really change anything. Althena's still entranced, and now we don't even have the help of the Dragon Angels. All that's left of them are tiny sparks.


: And yet, we are powerless to stop her. For you see, if we put her to death, your world would die too, for your souls are intertwined. As gods of compassion, we cannot execute that act. But you, Alex... you may be able to cut through the dark spell and connect with her. At this point, you are neither Dragonmaster nor she a Goddess, but two souls reaching through the darkness to find solace in each other. Alex, you must try to reach the girl locked within the spell. It's the only chance to break the spell and free the Goddess. Use all your intelligence and might to find a way to reach her!

But there might be another way. I'm not sure how we'll break the spell, but we've got to try! Perhaps... we could reach her.





Perhaps she could zap us with tons of lightning.



At least we're healed up at this point. That's nice.

Well, this may look bleak, but we're not making any progress all the way over here. Let's go!



Wha-? I think... is she starting to remember something? Perhaps this might be easier than I thought!



Ow.



Double ow. That was over half our HP! That's nasty.

Well, that was a lot of damage, yes, but we have a fair amount of Herbs and plenty of MP for Little Litany. I think we can do this!



It'll just take a lot of lightning-eating.



And a lot of healing. A lot. of. healing.



But we're getting close! We can totally do this.





We cannot do this.



Well, we're dead folks. Seems like it's impossible. Oh well. Bye guys!