Part 248: Mission 52 (Zaft Route) - Gain Over

We open back in Paradigm City where, like in ZEUTH 49, Beck has done his work on the Big Fau.
The convo stays the same until the end where Alex mulls how the lesser world is reaching its climax; everything’ll be reset once more and Alex intends to be at the helm of that process.
Beck turns down Alex’s job offer and runs off, like before. After he leaves, Alex and Alan laugh at the simpleton hoodlum – he’s incapable of appreciating the significance of this city. When Alex asks whether Roger is coming over in pursuit of Dorothy, Alan believes ZEUTH’s actually in the middle of a scuffle with the OverDevil right about now.
That’s a suitable final opponent for such a foolish man, Alex sniffs, as Roger would’ve been safe from the hassles of the lesser world were he still in Paradigm City. Alan says that there’s one who uses a portion of “that power” within Roger’s group and Alex ponders if they can afford to ignore that as well… if our group prevails against the OverDevil, he’ll have another job for Alan.
Meanwhile, he’ll just enjoy the lesser world’s spectacle from the safety of Paradigm City.



We’re fighting the OverDevil again and the scene opens with Roger telling Dorothy to hang tight – he’ll be coming to get her back after the thing’s dealt with.
Asuham is leading his team straight towards a place called Liman Megalopolis but everything else plays the same as ZEUTH’s 50. This also includes the follow-up scene, with Gainer freezing Sara.



This scene is also the same but… Kids is now wearing some t-shirt and Chil asks what happened to his usual suit. Maria and Birin say it got dirty during the last battle, so they needed a replacement and that was the only thing that fit a man his size (Kids is miffed).
Fast forward and our people have the target’s destination: Liman Megalopolis. This city’s the location of the Siberian Rail’s HQ and the main hub that connects all their railways across the entire world.
Those rails are actually a system with which to freeze the whole planet – all tracks are equipped with special Muscle Engines and the OverDevil’ll use those to run the OverFreeze energy everywhere. These were part of Kids’ plan before the whole thing went awry and Bello isn’t happy with the Siberian Rail’s rotten antics.
Regardless, it’s now up to us to clean up this mess.



Mission 52 (Zaft Route) – Gain Over


Same deal as 50, there’s the scene with the frozen kids and whatnot. They have a plan, this time: the OverDevil is already getting to work and the world’ll be completely frozen in seven minutes.
Looks like we’ll have to save the three of them and society as a whole while we’re at it.



Mission Objective: Shoot down the OverDevil within 7 turns
Mission Failure: Any allied battleship or Gain shot down or turn 8 is reached
Skill Point: Destroy everything within 5 turns, the OverDevil last. (7 turns if your difficulty is on easy, 6 on normal)

OK, this is a complete reversal of the ZEUTH route: while in there, you were encouraged to take things slow in order to kill everything and have the morale, SP and EN left to deal with the distant OverDevil, in here the OverDevil is smack-dab in the middle of the arena and you’ve a rather harsh time limit if you’re on hard mode.

Prior knowledge of events is a godsend so, with that in mind, you should absolutely do your best to down Sara and then Gainer ASAP. Neither are resilient and, once you do that, everyone’ll max out their morale, all mooks (except the Black Dominators) will flee and the OverDevil’s morale is reset.
I had it all wrapped up by turn 3 but that’s with NG+ upgrades. To be safe, you should get that done by turn two and use the next couple turns to hunt down as much as you can before finishing everything off by turn 5. You won’t get the cash from all those mooks but it’s the best way to get this Skill Point on hard mode (make sure you send MAPers like Renton, Kira and Loran up to the Black Dominators).



When you attack any of the named Gainer enemies, Mel and Setsuko feel their Spheres reacting to something.
Marin sees what’s up when he detects a small dimensional quake happening nearby: it looks like an Orange was dropped in the region.


That, in turn, leads to the area being flooded in Antibodies and Holland wonders if Dewey deliberately made these spawn in a bid to take us out.
Obviously, this is hardly the time or place for such shenanigans but Gainer sniffs that such is the nature of humans and it’s precisely why people like Sirius and the Frost Brothers turned their back on us.
Garrod tells him to zip it and Renton demands to know what happened to the passionate “bro” he knew – the bro who pushed him to work even harder? Gainer doesn’t feel like wasting his breath of a kid and Renton’s starting to worry that we can’t save him.

Eureka believes we can pull this off, though – if there’s one thing she learned speaking with Sakuya, is that there are no obstacles for love and friendship. Tifa ponders that Gainer and Cynthia’s OverSense is being used as nourishment by the OverDevil, so our best option at melting Gainer’s ice will be if we get Sara back on our side.
So, for now, our first step in turning this around is to stop Sara’s Overman and get her rescued ASAP; Holland tells us to ignore the Antibodies and keep focusing on the OverDevil’s team.
Sara objects that her heart and soul belongs to Master Gainer and Lady Cynthia but Adette counters that she’s too young to be playing both sides: time for the teacher to slap her students back to reality.



Destroy Sara’s Jinba and both her and Gauli free themselves from the OverDevil’s ice, like in ZEUTH’s 50.
Kids comes over and tries to get in on that world-freezing action, so Kejinan and co. tender their resignations and all that’s left is to get Gainer back before wrecking the OverDevil.



Once Gainer’s down, everyone says their part and the kid comes back to normal. Interestingly, this bit gets flashier in this version:

: Gainer! Go get King Gainer and Cynthia!
: Right!
: Gainer!


*Giant Gainer runs into the OverDevil!*

: He was absorbed again!
: No, he’s--!
: It’s time for a new Exodus!
: Roger that!





: There’s the King Gainer!
: Don’t relax yet, Gainer! The OverDevil’s coming for you!
: !





: Gainer, you can’t fight that OverFreeze with more ice!
: Then, HOW ABOUT THIS!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAGsYvYPrG0
Yet another special event that I had no idea was hidden in the Zaft route.


As the scene continues the same way as before, Asuham’s aghast that the OverDevil’s ice was defeated and things only get worse for him when all the Breaker mooks turn tail and run off.
Their minds were being controlled by the awe they felt towards the OverDevil’s power and Duke figures the fire from Gainer’s soul set them free – that said, the named folk are still around.
Greta is fired up after this display of “power of love” and now just wants a good brawl, OverDevil be damned, and Renton’s a bit intimidated at the old lady’s gumption. Timp’s also interested in just letting loose and doing whatever he feels like, which means whacking that Melonhead that’s always messing with his life.



The Coralians bail as well, Holland figuring they were also touched by Gainer’s passion and this further boosts his hope that humans and Coralians can communicate with each other. A very happy turn of events, this.
Finally, Kids sacrifices himself to the OverDevil and the scene follows the rest as per ZEUTH’s 50 – everyone maxes out their morale at the end.



Everyone buggers off in the same way as the other side and the follow up scenes are all the same, including Asuham, his sister and whatnot.
Gainer and his friends steel themselves for a new Exodus and, nearby, Banjou and Roger ponder all the potential for the future that lies within these youngsters.



This is interrupted when Norman shows up to inform that they’ve a visitor inbound. Considering the location, Roger figures it ought to be someone unwelcome but it’s actually Angel.
She says she’s got something important to him with her: that morose android…



Over by the Skull Moon Base, we’ve Teral getting the memo that Gagarn wants to take over the universe. The scene goes just like in ZEUTH’s 53 but it changes after Teral’s taken away.
Kazami has been given his troops with which to crush God Sigma and seize full ownership of the Trinity Energy, so he’ll be heading down to the surface with those and some other folks. Gagarn sniffs that those people are useless anyway, so he can do whatever.
While all that’s going on, Gagarn says the Alliance will be pulling from this base and asks Kazami to take care. Dr. Wily isn’t concerned, what with all the knowledge he has on us, and quietly vows to get both the Trinity Energy and the Dimensional Power from our people.



Finally, check the bazaar to finish the Haro secret.