Part 55: Update 52 – The End
The thread voted in favour of Drachma, and so Drachma ye shall receive. We haven't had a chance to use him since update 19, so let's have a recap on the old sea dog.
Drachma really does what he's always done – hit like a truck and take hits like a house. He has a full 1000hp and 100 defence over Vyse, so he's pretty much impossible to actually kill, but sadly he's started to lose out on the offence side a little. His base power is still sky high, but Drachma's weapons are actually weaker than Vyse's come the endgame so the advantage isn't what it used to be. He's still by far the most useful character when you want to be putting out massive amounts of damage, but for a different reason – Spirit Charge provides ludicrous amounts of SP, enough for Vyse to be dropping a Pirate's Wrath every turn. Don't go thinking that's all he's good for now, though, because Drachma still has one last trick up his mechanical sleeve.
And now it's time. We have our way into Soltis, the ship and crew are as ready as they'll ever be, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
This should be fun.
Click for video!
Good idea...I don't want to find out what that light beam above Soltis would do to us if we were to try to pass through it…
Aaah!
And here's the welcoming committee. Gadianos is the first of many fights in Soltis, although in all honesty it's not so much a boss fight as a floating piñata. By this point the Delphinus has enough firepower to swat it out of the air like a fly.
And here's why I say it's a piñata. You only get these drops if you kill it within the fist round, which is so laughably easy you'd have to make an concerted effort to drag the fight out longer than that. The Moon Gun completes the set of the Moon Cannon and Moon Torpedo from the Hydra fight, being the most powerful weapons of their kind in the game, but the real reward is the Sparkling Deck. To put into context how good this deck is, the second best deck in the game is the Alloy Deck from Obispo, which boasts an impressive 70 defence. The Sparkling Deck has five hundred defence, along with bonuses to Quick and Evade. It's, uh, quite good.
And with Gadianos swatted and looted, we finally have access to Soltis. Shrine Island itself is now drained of water, and it's a simple spiral path down to the bottom where we fought that guardian way back when.
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Guess we should have paid a little more attention to the symbols on the doors then, huh?
Said door leads to the second area of Soltis. This area is a maze of collapsed walkways and blocked passages, as you can see from the map in the lower right. The key is to look for the longest, most inconvenient route possible, and if you follow that you won't go far wrong. Also of note: Cupil being excited about the penultimate Cham of the game!
More things we should have paid more attention to the first time around. These little corroded robots were in Shine Island the first time we were here, although thankfully they weren't as strong back then.
Finally, we're into Soltis proper. The little robots here are identical to the ones in the ruined segment outside, but shiny and new rather than old and corroded. I love that little detail.
Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for the final Cham of the game. It's been a very long time coming, but here it is.
The Final Cupil. With a mighty 300 attack power, this is the single powerful weapon in the game. Yes, including Vyse's Legends-only superweapon. It was actually nerfed from the Dreamcast version, in which it had five hundred attack. Sadly, Fina's base attack and lack of any attack skills means she still can't hit for shit.
He attacks by inhaling enemies and swallowing them whole, Kirby style.
Oh yeah, and Soltis chests look really cool.
See? Just go very careful about opening the chests in this area, because one of them holds a nasty surprise.
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Lord Bane. Leader of the Zivilyn Banes and the final bounty fight. Like all (well, most) of the bounties, he can mess you up good and proper when he wants to, largely because of two things. Firstly, he can do a LOT of damage when he wants to.
Case in point. The second problem is that he can summon regular Zivilyn Banes to help out, and they can do a good 2000 damage with a Burst. If that happens on the same turn as an Explosive Powder, you have a dead character. Unless that character is named Drachma. Honestly, this is one of the fights you really want Enrique's Justice Shield for, but as it turns out Drachma makes a damn fine medic by virtue of being able to tank attacks with his face and toss out healing crystals while everyone else defends. This fight is a lot longer than most of my videos, mostly because I was making it up as I went along rather than sticking to a decent strategy, but I'd had two disc read errors by this point and wanted to get something recorded before my Wii exploded. But hey, he died and I didn't, so whatever.
Zivilyn Bane...well, he got away. I guess that's a victory for us. Kind of. He's on the Wanted List, too, right? Next chance we get, let's stop by a Sailor's Guild! We gotta go get out gold!!!So that's the second of the three chests in Soltis. But what about the third? The final chest in the game's gotta have something special in it, right?
Well, sort of. It's another Moonberry.
Yeeeeeessss
Long. Ominous. Familiar. Time to get down to business.
Click for video!
There's Zelos...well, we made it... Ramirez?!
Why...did you kill him? ...Why did you kill him?! Ramirez...it's okay...it's over now...come with us... Lord Galcian was the only man fit to rule this pathetic world...he was the only man capable of saving these fools from their wretched existence...and you...you murdered him!!!
(Another bit of censorship – in the Japanese version Ramirez squeezes the blade of his sword and drips blood all over the floor.)
The whole world shall pay! The Rains will wash away all of you!!! I swear it! It...it was what Lord Galcian would have wanted...you have sealed the fate of this world by killing the only man who could have saved it! And now you will die!!!
I will kill you...ALL of you!
Yep, Ramirez has officially snapped. He's learned a few new tricks to go along with his old Silver Eclipse attack, but he barely got a chance to use them, so demonstrating those is going to have to wait for a bonus update. Really, there's only two things you need to see about this fight:
Drachma.jpg
DIIIIIIIIIIIE!
And so Drachma reclaims his title as Asskicker Extraordinaire. Hand of Fate costs an utterly absurd 25SP, but puts out numbers other party members can only dream of. The chance of instant death is pretty useless because if something's vulnerable to instant death then Eternum will get the job done for only 15SP, but then Eternum isn't the most badass attack in the fucking game
.In the Japanese version Drachma's three attacks were called ERUPT!, ANGER! And DESTROY!. Yup.
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Giant mechanical hands wielded by indestructible old men can do many things.
Ramirez, stop! Please! I don't want to fight you! It is too late...Fina. There's no going back! I will kill everyone and everything in this world!!! I will not be defeated! Ramirez! What...what are you doing?! Have you forgotten? Zelos's power does not stop with the Moons! Zelos is almighty!!!
To control Zelos, I shall forfeit my life! Ramirez!!! Please, don't!!! The Ramirez you knew is already dead, Fina! Zelos! I sacrifice my life for you! Zelos...awaken...I command you!!!
And then Zelos ate him.
Drachma: Giving no fucks since 1882.
Ramirez...why did he...? Everyone! We have to retreat! If we stay here, we'll all be crushed!
You would think there would only be so many times things could get worse. You would be wrong.
Because then it gets worse again.
That's Zelos? How do you expect us to beat this thing?! Zelos has not yet finished taking shape. Once it does, it will be invincible! But, if we attack while it is still forming... I understand. This is our only chance! Everyone, battle stations! We must defeat Zelos here and now!
Oh well, we should have known it couldn't be as easy as all that. It's time to fight the final Gigas.
Here's the first thing you need to know about Zelos: Keep him silenced. Unlike all the other Gigas he knows a fair number of spells, including Driln. Driln will overwrite your Increm and can't be overwritten back. That's very bad news, so for the love of god make sure he can't do it. Sylensis is your friend.
The second thing you need to know is that Zelos hits HARD, at least compared to the other Gigas. His weakest attack is more powerful than the Hydra Cannon, and even with the Sparkling Deck they'll shave off a fair chunk of health. In all honesty though, I'd say it's still not as hard as Belleza was, the Delphinus is just that damn tough.
Oh, and Zelos's number is six, as made obvious by his second form.
And no, Zelos did not forget how to call down the Rains during the last cutscene.
It's still not going to help him.
Zelos's claws...they're falling off! Just a little more...just a little bit more! We've almost got him!!
This is our chance! Let's finish this! Ready the Moonstone Cannon! We'll put an end to this!
And that's all she wrote.
Click for video!
So much for the Silver Gigas.
Zelos! It's...it's... Yes...it's finally over...
THUD
What the?!!!
Nyaaaaaaaaaaagh!
It's not over yet!
Here we are. It's been a long road, not least because of my update schedule, but we got here in the end. The final boss of Skies of Arcadia, in all his twisted glory.
Before we talk about the boss himself, I want to talk about the music. This is, hands down, my favourite track in the game. Like the regular boss music it has three different versions for winning/losing/neutral, because when you have a music gimmick that good you don't throw it out for the final boss. But what I really love is the tone of the music. For want of a better term, it has a hopeful feel to it, as if the fate of the world hangs on this battle, and we're going to win.
So let's talk about the actual fight. As you'd expect from a final boss, Ramirez is no pushover. He still has the Drilnos and Eternum spells from his previous fights, so Delta Shield is essential. But that's not the real threat in this fight.
The real threat is that he can take control of a character and force them to use a special move against the party. Depending on who he chooses, this can either be completely harmless or utterly devastating. Thankfully, all he accomplished this time was petrifying Drachma, which is easily fixed.
Man, Ramirez does not like Drachma. Not that it matters, with the power of Oldmantium the damage was so minor I didn't even bother healing it.
And every day I grow a little more grateful that I saved all the HP boosts for Fina. Ramirez is on the ropes by this point and really only survived this long because I tried to finish the fight in style with Blue Rogues. It didn't work out, and I blame you guys for picking all the defensive crewmembers
.
And so it falls to Drachma to clean up the mess, with a little help from Final Cupil. Yes, the final boss being swallowed and spat out by a little silver blob is as hilarious as it sounds.
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In the Japanese version is final words were "L, Lord Galciannn!!”
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And so ends Ramirez, leaving behind only his crystal.
...Fina. Ramirez lived in the skies, and died in the skies...we sailors...when one of us dies, it is cutomary to return the body to the sky. Would you mind if we did the same for Ramirez? ...No...please, go head... Ramirez...may you rest in peace...
And there goes the Silver Crystal, never to be seen again.
Without Zelos to support it, Soltis sinks back into Deep Sky.
Soltis! It's...gone... Goodbye, Ramirez...
Well...what's next? We've already sailed around the world...and there's no use for the Moon Crystals any more... What are you talking about? Since when did we need a reason to sail? We're still young...who knows what kind of trouble we can still get into? Hahaha...so, Captain Vyse...where do we go from here? Vyse...Aika...I...I have something to ask of you...I would be honoured if you would let me continue to sail with you. We wouldn't have it any other way...
Thank you!
Why don't you all come with us?
That doesn't sound like such a bad idea, but I should probably return to my own ship. My men must be going crazy without me. I'll return to the Claudia and continue my search for...the good life...
I've decided that I want to be a fisherman again. I want to live the rest of my life in peace, out of respect for Jack...and for Rhaknam. Well, Enrique, how about you?
I must return to Valua. Someone needs to organise the survivors and start rebuilding... I understand. Good luck everyone!
Hey! What about us?
Yes, what about us? Aren't we your friends, too? Why should they get all of the attention?
Clara, please...we just saved the world together...can't you just enjoy the moment?
Son, I'd be honoured if you called me Dad from now on...
Hey, when can we get something to eat around here?
Aye! The big guy has a point! I think this calls for a party! Ha ha ha...I never thought I'd agree with Baltor. Everyone, back to Crescent Isle, for the biggest feast in history!
And it was good.
Video List
Shrine Island Entry
Return to Soltis
Lord Bane
Ramirez
Zelos
Ramirez Final
The End
It's not over yet! Stay tuned for the epilogue and bonus content!