Part 45: Abyss Saga: Part 3; Fury of 6370 Suns

Alright, no more Random Text God. It was a fun gimmick, but now I think it's time to put him back on the shelf for now. Last time, I finished most of the Abyss, leaving myself only two Monster Medals left to get. The medal on Floor 1...and floor 100. Which means prying it from Ragu O Ragula's cold dead hands.




I take of the irrelevant PS skills and put on the Fire Breaks. All of the grinding up to now will finally have a use.


Knowing the limits of humankind, are you going to challenge Ragu O Ragula, the incarnation of power in the Abyss?
: Yes || No.


The purple spirit things begin to flow into the petrified Ragu, and blur effects centered around Ragu happen periodically as more spirits flow in.


Eventually the pulsing from Ragu stops, although the controller still continues to vibrate, like a heart beat.


Ragu gets up, slowly takes a few steps forward...



Ragu's awesome enough that he gets his own boss theme, although I'm not too fond of it. It does a good job of being intense as if you really were taking on the combined power of Filgaia's Hell manifested into a physical form, but I have to admit it's not the most interesting thing to listen to.


Krysm vs. Ragu O Ragula. Round 1! FIGHT!
So, what makes Ragu so dangerous? Well, for starters he's Level 100 with 400k HP so no matter what you do, this is going to be a long slugfest. His ATT and MAG are both above 900 so this fellow's got powerful hits. He's got four moves. First is Feeble Mind, which Ragu's AI seems to favor if the party doesn't have it inflicted on them already. Giant Impact is his basic attack, but keep in mind the power behind it. Agony Effect is about as powerful, which he'll also use to counter everything. Because it's an enemy skill and not a "spell", it cannot be reflected with Mirror Mirror or Hamedo.

And then there is 100 Billion Degrees, but before we talk about how dangerous it is, I'd like to go on a little bit on simple math and physics. I'm assuming the 100 Billion Degrees is in Celsius, which Japan uses. To convert to Kelvin, you just subtract 273.15 degrees. So 100 Billion Degrees is theoretically 99,999,999,726.85 degrees Kelvin.
The hottest point of the Sun is theorized to be the center, and burns at an estimated 15,700,000 degrees Kevlin. Quite a bit of a difference there, huh? Basically, 100 Billion Degrees attacks you with about the power of 6370 Suns. Let's see how powerful this attack is if you don't resist it at all.


So...that's about somewhere between 0.6 to 0.7 points of damage per Sun? Granted, this was with the guys who had the lowest RES so they'd take the most damage, they had no Fire Breaks or HP ups equipped, and they were most certainly not defending. Jack and Rudy both will both die at full HP, and Zed would be at critical HP. So, not as powerful as the name sounds, but still holy shit I do not want to take that to the face.
So, how do the girls handle it?


We've just trivialized Ragu's most powerful move. What's next?


Remember how I said that Ragu loves spamming Feeble Mind if the party isn't inflicted with it already?


Feeble Mind is an actual Spell, and gets reflected.


And bounces it right back at him. Better yet, if you put Infinity on top of Mirror Mirror, you can keep reflecting Feeble Mind. I think Mirror Mirror and Hamedo are supposed to disappear (even with Infinity) after you bounce back something damaging, but since Feeble Mind isn't...Ragu's AI is just going to spam this move and make himself weaker for us.


I mean, it's not perfect as sometimes Ragu will use Giant Impact, Agony Effect of even 100 Billion Degrees at random times, but with Mirror Mirror up, he'll really favor Feeble Mind enough that you can buff everything up while waiting for him to do anything.


Oh, did I mention Ragu has a vulnerability to sleep? Ragu has a vulnerability to sleep. 40%, and 30% to Confusion, which also basically prevents him from doing anything. I used Slumber Fog, although in hindsight I should have used a move that tried to use both of those so that I could stop when one of them made it through.


With Cecilia's Ice Crystal and Frostbite, Emma's Arctic Lance and Freezing Zone, and Jane's occasional Finest Arts and Zed randomly getting an attack in as well, Ragu doesn't stand a chance with his Ice weakness. It's just a matter of patience to grind down his 400k HP.


...Just make sure you heal every once in a while and make sure Ragu is either sleepy or confused, because Agony Effect can dish out some serious damage if you keep Rinse & Repeat on like I do.





Krysmphoenix: 1, Ragu O Ragula: 0.
So, curious about what the Sheriff Star does? Well first off, it costs 100 PS points, so you can't equip any other PS with it. But here's what it gives you:
60% resistance to all status effects.
80% resistance to all elemental damage.
Doubles DEF and RES.
Doubles HP and MP.
Gives Critical, Counter, Blocker and Defender 1 and 2.
Penetrator, Life Charter, SOS FP Up, FP Advance.
Enemies killed by this character drop 50% more gella.
HP Recovery is increased by 20%
+1 to the Tech Constant in a lot of abilities, including basic attacks.
Every battle Zed wears this counts as an extra battle for Star Blast.

Simply put, it's awesome, although it doesn't give Finest Arts which means it's actually bad for Jane, but the Tech Constant bonus is basically a Necronomicon that is always active so the Cecilia and Emma could use it too. For the guys, it's an obvious fit, perhaps even more so for Zed.


After defeating Ragu O Ragula, the purple wisps fly away from where Ragu was standing, and you get the Monster's Medal.


After defeating Ragu O Ragula, I go back to Mariel to check on the Garden. I almost had enough Revive Fruits to max it out, but I suppose not. The Nectars are maxed out now, and I could probably max out the Mega Berries, except I want to hold on to them for now. I mostly just took this trip back to Filgaia to use an inn to restore everyone's MP.


So, what happens when you get all 100 Monster's Medals? This is a scripted event, because if you try to pick up an item when you have 99 of them, it gives you an error message; except for this.
The Monster's Medals are eating each other, as if they were alive. An ominous light shines from the last metal, as it changed to the Hundred Monster's Medal!


All 99 Monster's Medals vanish, and you are left with the Beast Medal. Kind of boring. Let's get out of-


-here? Oh shit. Now the purple wisps are flying to the exit out of the Abyss.


Doing so triggers one more boss battle.



Krysm vs Ragu O Ragula. Round 2! Fight!
This battle just plays Ragu's battle theme again. However, I've been holding onto this song for a very long time just to play it now.

Considering how much this game took from Wild ARMs 3, you shouldn't be surprised you have to fight Ragu twice. Although, I really like this fight because it gives you a chance to use the Sheriff Star on a worthy foe.
So, what has Ragu done different besides a new blacker color scheme? For one, his ATT is at 999 and Mag is at 940. He's completely dropped his status vulnerabilities, halves all elemental damage except for Fire (Activate, was Resist before) and Ice (Normal, was Weak before). Now give Ragu 600k HP and you've got a slugfest.

His move set has changed as well. He's got two basic attacks, Giant Impact again, and Genocidal Blow, which I think is a bit more powerful. He'll also counter with Counter Sweep now, instead of Agony Effect. This makes him a bit easier because you can dodge Counter Sweep and use Hamedo on it if you really wanted to.
Ragu has completely dropped Feeble Mind and will use Dispel every once in a while, which is a lot worse, considering you know how much I love to buff up my party members. Agony Effect has been upgraded to Paradigm Pollution which Ragu will randomly use at the end of the round. This is worse than it sounds. Not only will he use it in addition to whatever action he took, he will also use it multiple times per end of round, and I've heard he'll do it up to 5 times in a row sometimes.

Oh, and 100 Billion Degrees is gone too. It got replaced with 100 Trillion Degrees. How dangerous is that?


The fury of 6,370,000 Suns is enough to break 10,000 damage. Nothing in this game gets close to this powerful. So, here we are at a boss with a game breaking Fire-elemental attack, random non-elemental attacks and counters everything with powerful physical attacks, in addition to randomly dispeling all of your buffs. How do we take him down?


Step One: Fire Break still works on 100 Trillion Degrees, and the Sheriff Star's 80% Fire Resist and +100% RES really helps.


Step Two: Put the Sheriff Star on either Jack, and only put critical buffs on. This means Brave Seal and Great Booster. Then, put Infinity on Jack and use Jane to possibly prevent Ragu from taking actions. If you are brave, try putting Rinse & Repeat on Jack and Chop-Chop on Ragu. (Ragu can't dispel Chop-Chop, but you can't Infinity it either.)


Step Two point Three: Pray that Ragu doesn't spam Paradigm Pollution.


Step Two point Six: If Ragu uses Dispel, use Reset.


Step Three: Jack uses Accelerator-Laser Silhouette. Cecilia uses Cosmic Cog. Jane uses Mystic-Force Carrot. Repeat as needed.
However, this plan does have a couple problems. Jack's damage drops to about 20k you didn't use Chop-Chop on Ragu, and because of Accelerator, Jack will move before Cosmic Cog and possibly take damage from Counter Sweep. If you put Rinse & Repeat on Jack, his second move will happen during the time stop phase of Cosmic Cog, so that one will be safe. Using Cosmic Cog will also prevent Ragu from using Paradigm Pollution completely, so as long as you have enough Force Carrots, you'll be fine.

If you didn't put Rinse & Repeat on Jack, you'll probably need to use Chop-Chop again, but whenever Cecilia is buffing/debuffing, have Jane use What Can You Do? Just have Jack toss a Mega Berry on himself to restore some of that missing HP he lost from Counter Sweep. This is a completely viable strategy, but the Chop-Chop makes it a bit risky. What if you used Rudy instead?


Krysm vs Ragu O Ragula. Round 3! Fight!
Rudy comes with his own risks. A naturally lower RES means he takes more damage from 100 Trillion Degrees and Paradigm Pollution, meaning bad luck could stop you during the Buffing phase without Dispel being used.


But, Gatling Raid activates during the Cosmic Cog's time stop, so Rudy is safe once you get to the next step. This is Rudy's damage with Chop-Chop. Without it, he does around 40k damage, and this is probably because I'm using a 10-bullet Gatling Raid instead of an 18 Bullet. With 18 Bullets, he might do more damage with Chop-Chop, but a lot less without it. But, with Best Luck and 15 Gatling Raid uses, you can take out Ragu without using Chop-Chop.


So, to recap. Jack almost needs Chop-Chop, making him risky later on. Rudy can do without, but takes a lot more damage early on. However, both are completely good options, and yes, I fought him twice to test this.
That makes the score Krysm: 3, Ragu: 0.


We get a new Ex File Key for our troubles. And to prove that the Sheriff Star increases Gella gains, Ragu was only supposed to drop 600,000 Gella.


The wisps swirl away, and the crystal back to Elw Borea returns.

So, I' ve defeated Ragu O Ragula twice now, and I'm sure you may be thinking, "What else are you going to do?" Well, I've still got four Ex File Keys to get, so lets get that over with.

EDIT: So, thought I curbstomped Ragu O Ragula enough? Apparently not. Polsy found this, and I'm including it in this update.
The first screenshot simply shows that 100 Billion Degrees wasn't exactly named that in the Japanese version, or perhaps more literally named that, take your pick.
The second screenshot...


First things first, I sell a lot of my crap to get my Gella up to max so I can send this save file over to Wild ARMs 4 with maximum benefits. MP Repairs, Finest Arts, FP Advance, all the 1 million Gella PS except for the Sheriff Star. I've still got one last use for it I'm sure you'll enjoy.


Now...I've got a bit of a confession to make. I got the next to Ex File Keys...but I accidentally deleted the recordings I had so you're not going to get any special "congratulations" dialog. Suzanne here is at Curan Abbey, and she'll give you an Ex File Key for listening to every single song in the game. Specifically, every Field and Battle song. Pretty much it boils down to entering Malduke and fighting Ragu at least once.


The next Ex File Key you get is for 100% completing the Gardening stuff. Although Mega Berries are blacked out, that's because I actually used them all to 100% that, I still got the Ex File Key from Mariel.



Now, as I'm sure I mentioned, I was going to fight the final series of bosses with a special condition. And here is that condition: Only Zed my actually make any offensive action, and he gets to wear the Sheriff Star. The rest of the party can only either guard or do pointless actions (like Emma using Download), and cannot wear any personal skills. I wanted to use this just to show off Zed. For this reason, I'm playing Zed's Rocking Heart theme now.


You can also press Start to skip almost every cutscene in the game. Naturally I'm doing that here.


Zeikfried goes down very fast. A single Star Blast with Full Power wipes him away. Zed's probably the strongest of the group without any major buffs, but he falls behind once buffs get into play.
Also don't mind Jack there, he's just in the way.


Motherfried also is hiding one of the last Ex File Keys, you have to steal it from her. This counts as a non-offensive action.


So I get creative with Motherfried, trying out Ruin Blade, which increases with power the more Zed is hit during that round. This backfired, because the Amadeus minions focused on Jane and Rudy.


So I use a Heaven's Wrath to take care of that. Because Zed used Full Power, Motherfried won't revive them until next round.


So I use it one more time, and wipe Motherfried away.


Alright, so I'll be honest. I kept one last FP Advance for Cecilia so she could use Brave Seal on Zed while Emma uses Great Booster on him as well. It's still Zed doing damage, he's just getting boosted. Does it really matter though? 7000 damage is easy for Zed, and the fight won't end until 5 rounds are over.


Secret Sword is still a great technique against high HP enemies, because of Zed kills the enemy, he takes some serious damage in backlash. However, with a TC of 6, on top of Full Power, Great Booster and Brave Seal, it's deadly.
Damage total: 26,200.


So I got hit with Negative Rainbow a couple of times, and I think I figured out how it works. It attacks each party member randomly up to eight times, each hit dealing a specific elemental damage. I say this, because it seems like the more Nullifiys that appeared for Zed (I saw up to seven at one point), the more damage he took oddly.


Round two and three, more Secret Swords. Cecilia even puts on a Rinse & Repeat during round two so he can deal more damage.
Damage total: 81,272, then 135,812


I decide to give Ruin Blade another shot, because Zed's going to get hit at least twice (normal attack + counter attack) before his second Ruin Blade hits. The second one does 11,842 damage.
Damage total: 150,982.


Then I notice something truly unusual. For some reason, Brave Seal didn't get hit by Infinity during round 3, and Zed's damage output isn't as high as it could be. Or maybe Brave Seal has special conditions for when it wears away. Still, it's round 5, and I've got just the thing to use.


: This!


: Victory!


: Belongs!


: TO!


: ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!
Damage total: 213,894


:
Damage total: 214,117


Yes, that Fuck You RNG!! was necessary. If you use it against Zeik Tuvai after you deal 7000 damage, he'll also drop the final Ex File Key.

End of update status:
: Level 100
--ATK Bonus: 114 (Lv. 8)
--Bullets: 10 (Lv. 7)
: Level 100
: Level 100
: Level 100
: Level 100
--Bullets: 20 (Lv. 15)
: Level 100
--I'm the Sheriff of this town!
Migrant Seals: 20
Ex. File Keys: 25/25
Fuck-Ups: 51

Version Differences:
You fight Ragu twice. The key to beating him is still negate to his ultimate move and survive the rest.
You can steal and get drops from Motherfried and Zeik Tuvai, although the last one is scripted.

Ex File Keys
We've finally got all the Ex File Keys. The 21st key I got was Key 22, for defeating Ragu O Ragula the second time. This is Illustration Gallery 18, and has the largest amount of pictures in it, and in my opinion, the coolest. This Ex File Key was worth it.


I don't know how this dragon is, I'm just going to assume it's Lucadia.


We've got the main trio here. Shows off cool details in the Arctic Blade, and Rudy's ARM.


This one represents the prologues, I think. Jack running through the dungeon, under Rudy's arms we see the dark silhouettes of villagers, and Cecilia's in a library praying.


This picture is on the front of the game case.


The main three again. Rudy's got his eternal smile, Cecilia looks a bit odd though.


It's weird seeing the characters in other clothes and... I don't know why, but it's really strange to see Cecilia in fanservicy clothing. No, just no.


This looks like it's got a different art style here. I have no idea why Emma's head is so big, but it's a good picture of the main six, minus Zed and plus Magdalen.


A cool picture of the Fenril Knights. This image appears on the game disk.

The 22nd Key I got was the 5th Key, Illustration Gallery 03. This is for getting all the songs. The prize is pictures of Cecilia, Emma and one of Jane






The 23rd key is the 20th Key, Mariel's Key unlocking Illustration Gallery 16. More Guardians






Motherfried's key was the 24th, the 21st key for Illustration Gallery 17, still more Guardians!






And the final Ex File Key, the one from Zeik Tuvai is Ex File Key 24, ED Movie, which just shows the credits sequence again. Good if you want to listen to Footprints again.

A Saying A Day
: (October 29th) Today's saying is, 'punish both Gob's wife and Gob's mother.' A wife and a mother fight a lot. They pour boiling hot water on each other, cook with dirty water and so on. Seeing the fighting, Gob may panic, and make a big mistake. He has to punish both of them, even though it is hard for him. Well, men have many troubles.........
: (October 30th) Today's saying is, 'like asking for cutlet with stew.' If it's curry, it would be all right, but I don't think cutlet goes with stew. They don't work together. I think the best pairings are stew with hard bread, and beer with BBQ beef.
: (October 31st) Today's saying is that when you give up, the water becomes shallow. Alan Smithee carved this on a stone. People have really tried this, and many people drowned. I wonder if they missed the point. When you fall in the river, don't panic and start splashing around desperately. Relax and see how deep it really is. Then again, maybe they had it right and it just doesn't work..........
: (November 1st) Today's saying is, 'respond in kind.' When you are attacked in one fashion, you should attack back the same way. That's what the saying says. If you are attacked with words, use words. If you are attacked with ARM, use ARM. I don't think this applies to everything though.

Next Time:

Do you remember how this game started? The next update will be my final update.