Part 111: Chapter C - Die.

Die.



- Final Boss Video (Part 2/3): The True Conqueror








The Conqueror is a bastard to fight. This fight is so long that I’ve split this video into half for those who want to take a break in the middle.




Gotta suck it up and stop these guys!

The Conqueror reinforces and attacks right after both Roeas and Castanea are dead, so I sure hope you’re all at full health…




Die.

…Because the Conqueror also uses Fatal Eclipse at the end of the same turn.






Ohhh!
Don’t let a punk like that take you out!




That really sets the tone for the fight. Irina dodged it because her union was going to use a unique art, but everyone else was put into critical. I have to have pretty much everyone heal.






Never mind Emma’s cutscene battle. The Conqueror’s blows can miss and be blocked just like any other enemy. It would be exceptionally difficult otherwise, of course.






Deep Impact is one of his specials. Moderate damage in a small AoE. It can be dodged.






That’s about 3500 damage for a regular attack. And naturally, there’s also a small chance for Instakill.




The Conqueror is immune to Blackout and Poison, but Paralyze and Silence status effects can land (but apparently don’t do anything).




Yeah! This is our big chance!












Ohhhh!
Uh, hello, why are you like, dead?

Masterblow is another special attack. It does substantial damage and can kill any moderately-wounded union, but probably not a full-health one.






This was not that effective. Seems to be more aimed at killing groups of enemies.






Summons have 9999 health, but they resist damage pretty well – but not from the Conqueror, which is appropriate.




That did 43,680 damage.




You’ll be all right now!






The Conqueror does have an 8-turn pattern in his attacks. He does nothing special on most turns, but on the fourth full turn since he arrives, he does Animalcule. On the eighth turn he does Fatal Eclipse. If we had finished At Hatred’s End, he would do Abyssal Gate on the 6th turn.

I don’t memorize what turn he shows up on or what the patterns are. It’s not like it would change my strategy, which is to keep morale and health as high as possible.




The hell are you doing?!

PAIN




Rush’s union is dead from poison. Everyone else is going to heal as best as they can. Wyngale’s union doesn’t have any herb heals enabled, so he can only attack. Only Irina can use Remedies, and that’s because Blocter’s Wonder Bangle cured all the status effects. She is being ordered to clear status effects. Gaou is going to clear the Silence status.

Having a summon is really important here because while it remains deadlocked with the Conqueror, he can’t attack anyone else. Of course, with his damage, that’ll only give me one turn before it dies, so I’d better make the most out of it.






Oh, what a fantastic time for Deep Impact’s AoE to hit more than one union.




Irina cures their status effects and Khrynia heals. Violet will restore Irina’s health.




We’re 12 minutes into this fight. The decision about whether to send someone to resurrect a dead union or lower morale is difficult.






Don’t underestimate them!




It’s tough having to spend two turns just to recover from one Arcana, because another one is coming in a couple more turns. I opt to send Rush to Rear Assault because that will also increase morale.






Thanks for being a good distraction.




Now get up and do it again!




An art got promoted… but I’m not putting it in the “New Arts Learned” section since it won’t be kept. Final boss fight.




33,000 damage – respectable.Ghor follows it up with a 22,000 damage attack of his own.






Stop slacking!








I’m glad I’ve been keeping my morale up.




Ugh!
Are you all right?

Otherwise that could have been much worse.






Rhagoh!




I owe you one!






We shan’t lose to the likes of you!




Khrynia goes down.











Cachexia works on the Conqueror, too. Little tip for you.




That… actually hurt!




Hit him harder!




Awww, five more minutes?




Acala’s Wrath is at max rank, so it deals tons of damage.




You should probably always be using special attacks when the chance comes up, especially because of the 98% dodge chance.






Don’t let ‘em take you out!

Looks like Wyngale’s union will die soon.




Or not. Thanks, Pagus!






Next time, you’re dead!






Nice one.






And Irina comes in to clean up the damage. Pre-emptive healing is important to learn.




Like, awesome defense!

Because of stuff like this. Luckily it did little damage, and didn’t even screw us over with status effects too badly.




This fight is 40 minutes long, so I’m splitting the video up here. Look down for Part 3.




- Final Boss Video (Part 3/3): The True Conqueror




Ugh!




The Valeria Heart falls from his hand.








This is the signal that the Conqueror is now under 50% health. You know how in most JRPG’s the cliché is that final bosses have multiple forms, each more mutated and hideous than the last? Not here!

All that changes for the Conqueror is that he starts fighting with his fists and gets a glowing red aura.




Protection at work.




Oh, and he gains some new moves.






Obliterate either does 0% or 100% of the target's health in damage.




Oh, and naturally, on the turn when he uses Savage, he uses Crimson Flare as his end-of-turn move. Crimson Flare is the highest-level Invocation Arcana, which requires us to use Grenade Impact.








Needless to say it hurts.




Music: Schismogenesis



The music changes in the second half of the boss fight to something even more serious and ominous. Rush is going to increase morale, which is dipping a bit too low.










Lob Omen dodged it. On my first playthrough, Seal seemed to miss a lot. This time, less so.




Rush, Emmy, and Wyngale’s unions will do a full-power attack, the other two will heal, but only because they didn’t get any full-attack options.












1.9 million is a lot of health, but thinking of it like only 19 shots of 100,000 damage makes it seem smaller. And 100,000 damage is well within my abilities to put out per turn, if not occasionally per union.




The Conqueror is easier than the bonus bosses in many respects. He doesn’t spam high-damage AoE attacks, nor does he use many status effects, nor does he use a nasty end-of-turn attack each and every turn. Everyone is doing a full attack this turn.








The Seal hurt a LOT. We did end up doing only 33,014 damage because the Conqueror dodged Rush.




Jager knocks the Conqueror into critical (under 30% health).




Hold still so I can tear you apart!

44,038 damage from this.




Every little 1806 helps




27, 468, but it would have been more if he hadn’t dodged Blocter’s Cyclone.




Another 68,365 on the pile.








And a flank attack critical Blackout to add on another 168,188 damage. That makes… 342879 this turn. Divide that into 1,979,784… This turn alone we did 17.3 percent of his maximum health. He was above 30 percent and now he is under 20 percent.




This is important because those thresholds trigger things. The turn AFTER the Conqueror goes under 30 percent, he uses Overdrive (attacks 5 times per attack). That caused a party wipe for me the first time because I was dumb and didn’t think I needed to look up his moveset before the fight.

The SAME turn as you take the Conqueror down to 20%, he uses War God at the end of the turn. The turn AFTER you get him down to 20%, he’s supposed to use Photon Field at the start of the next turn. (I’ll get to what that is in a moment).

Once below 20%, his end-of-turn special moves reset. He goes from an 8-turn pattern to a 12-turn pattern. First turn he uses War God, and he’s not supposed to use it again for another 12 turns. Just keep that in mind. Now, what is “War God”?




Note that we are all at full health and maximum morale (well we were until he started his animation).








OH FUCK






I still gotta…

War God is his biggest FUCK YOU move. It’s extremely deadly. If your morale is bottomed out, it can do 9999 damage to all your unions. (Your unions HP caps at 9999.) This ended one or two of my previous attempts.




I have no choice but to frantically try and find all our bones and scrape them up into a pile.








Photon Field just increases the Conqueror’s evasion by a lot. Since I’m not going to be attacking him, that isn’t going to matter to me. He has not cast Overdrive.




I’d say crap, but he has a ton of high-damage moves regardless.




Crap. For those keeping score, I have exactly ONE (1) union left alive right now. That includes the Summon which I would normally use to distract while I frantically try to revive everyone.






I have to pick up more fallen unions. He can only attack one of us. We’re in death spiral territory for sure, but I’m 26 minutes into the fight and am not giving up.




So now he’s using Overdrive for being below 30% health, which he couldn’t use last turn because the below 20% health Photon Field overwrote it. Luckily I’m still picking up bodies after War God so I won’t be attacking him anyway.






All right now?




The really obnoxious thing about Overdrive is that just one dodge or block isn’t good enough. You need about 5 of them in a row.




Your pitiful lives are ended.




Well, now we’re up to a 50% alive:dead ratio. That’s good, isn’t it? I send Rush to deadlock the Conqueror and raise our morale, because we are in a deep hole.






Fuck off.




We didn’t die, which is a bonus.








Your kung fu is strong.




WHAT THE FUCK?! NO!!




IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE A 12-TURN COOLDOWN! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS!!!

Last time our morale was up really high and we mostly all died. As near as I can figure, taking the Conqueror from >30 to <20 in a single turn confused the move sequence. First the game did the <20 sequence, then it did the Overdrive from the <30 sequence, and it seems like after the Overdrive was done, the game checked the Conqueror’s health again and went “Hey, it’s under 20 percent. Better use War God again!”




This is the end…

Fuck.




…

This is a death spiral. Lob Omen is not deadlocked with the Conqueror. I can revive one union, but will die once the Conqueror raidlocks me. Well, see you guys for Attempt 6, I guess.








I was literally so shocked at not being dead that I was late on my button press.




And NOW Lob Omen is deadlocked with the Conqueror, AND it blocked the first strike.




So now I get two turns with which to frantically run around and get all my guys standing up.






Correction: One turn. That should be enough to hang on, though.




This will block any Arcanas which he might throw at us.




Four out of five isn’t bad.






Why?
This isn’t over!

Easy come, easy go.




I need to stabilize our morale.




Looks like Jager’s union reassessed to prioritize resurrecting Irina over Lob Omen.




Irina will go bring back Lob Omen, the others will attack or heal.






Correction, Rush will fall in a crumpled heap. This is why I preemptively send multiple people to resurrect the Lob Omen.






Die.




Direct and to the point.




Jager is immune, at least.




Are you all right?

Not really, but I’ll try to deal.




Rejuvenating Water doesn’t bring back dead unions. Omnistrike gives a dodge chance. Omnistrike it is, everyone else revive the corpses.








Finally, got an interception to work in my favor.




And a critical chain, too!




I don’t want to…








Holy shit, Irina.






This chance won’t be wasted!
Quit dragging us down!




Music: Reversal


Wow, this music again. This is the “High Morale” music from the first half of the game. What it means here is that the Conqueror is now under 10 percent health. Quickly, press the attack with everything you have! Don’t hold back: finish him before he gets another end-of-turn attack!






1662 damage.




We’re all alive and at full health.




The Conqueror’s attack missed, and we hit him for 21,327 damage.




Ha!




Add another 19,102 damage.






I believe this should do it.




Add on 69,325 damage for a total of 111,416 this turn, and it’s over.






28 turns done in 40 minutes and 36 seconds. That’s all for today. Stay tuned for the conclusion coming very soon.




I really like this boss fight. All game long, the Conqueror has been sold as less of a villain as an unstoppable force. But even though she failed, Emma was able to draw blood. He’s not invulnerable. But he’s still extremely tough and extremely powerful, and you feel every ounce of his power. It is a true, lengthy struggle to triumph over the Conqueror, and it feels like a hard fought victory and not him arbitrarily losing power for the climax.




Final Boss (Part 2/3): The True Conqueror
Final Boss (Part 3/3): The True Conqueror


Next Time: What will you do now?