Part 42: Update -XXXIV- Family Reunion Redux

Update 34 Highlights - Let's try this again


Alright, this is it. Final Boss... again.

After you beat the "Vestiges of Life" quest to get Tama back, Serafie will immediately trigger a scene where she'll ask if you're ready to get the plan underway. I answer "No", which allowed us to go and complete the other Intervention Quests that were still remaining. If you say "Yes", then the Final Battle kicks off right away and you'll miss the "True End".

Of course, "Miss" doesn't mean you can't get it. If you do it this way then you'll need to complete the remaining Interventions and then fight the last boss again. I recommend just getting everything out of the way first to save yourself time.



You need the True End to get access to a bunch of post-game content, so you may as well just do it the first time.

Anyway, if you said "No" when Serafie asked you, then you have to go and chat with her in Plaza 99 whenever you are ready.



Huh? Oh! Good. Then Operation Salvation is so on. Oh, you don't have to hunt down the summoners or the League of S. I can get the word out.

Oh, and just a heads up: "A Bridge's Woes" was a DLC intervention, so you don't need to complete that one for the True End. I'm still saving it until it's no longer considered a spoiler (which may actually not be until just before the end of the LP).



Okay. It's go time, Reynn.

Right.



Please tell me I don't have to climb that again...



*Meanwhile, in wherever the hell Brandelis is hanging out*

Hey!

Hm?

*Cloud outta nowhere*



What are you doing?



*Looks like Squall, Tidus, and Lightning are here too*

Hmph. The Champions have come.



*Also meanwhile, on the Chainroad*



Hee hee ha ha ha! What trick could ever redeem these wretches now?



*Shelke and Quistis show up just as Segwardies and Pellinore vanish*

So we weren't able to stop them.

That's not our objective. We're here to free the Architect's souls. The Ultima Gate-- we'll have to leave it to the twins.

Right.

*Even more meanwhile, at the Ultima Gate*

Update 34 Highlights - Divergence


This is not what I would call speedy.

They're trying to reverse-summon all of the Cogna at once. Give them some time.

Well--

What is all of this? ...! It can't be!

Villain tip: Never leave your magic doodad unguarded under the assumption that it's useless to the heroes.



Dad! No, don't!

*And Lann proceeds to tackle Segwarides, sending them both down the stairs*



So, you have at last remembered who this used to be. But it's too late for you!

Dad, I'm sorry. I should've listened to you when I had the chance... instead of acting like a stupid little brat.







You know, all I ever wanted was to be like you. You kept the world safe from Mirages. And how they loved you for it.

*Pellinore grabs her head and starts floating to the ground during Reynn's speech*

Still, I could see how hard you worked all the time. So I stepped up. Lann and I decided we would help. Right? We'd handle Mirages so you wouldn't have to. I never thought I was hurting you by taking them away. Without your strength, the world crumbled.



I could make your life easier. I just wanted you to be happy, Mom. What a know-it-all... Some things don't change. I still haven't learned.



Alright, here we go. Time to commit some patricide and--



Excuse me? Since when has he been able to do that?



Goddammit! This is what happens when you fuck with the timeline! Weird shit happens!

Ugh. So, we're doing this now. It's a father-son battle. Lann, Eyevan, and Optimus versus whatever the hell Segwarides has turned into.



Segwarides isn't particular strong in terms of pure offence. His defence is also pretty bad as Lann's stack hit him with a counter for 4400 damage. A basic Thunder also dealt 3300. I didn't have Libra to scan him at the time, but he should have around 25-30k HP. He likely has the same Light weakness and Dark resistance from the first battle.





Unfortunately, what Segwarides lacks in basic offence, he makes up for with this damn ability that he enjoys spamming mercilessly.



Disaster can cause Doom (with a 100 count timer), Oblivion (locks out abilities), Blindness, and Confusion. It's an absolute bitch and he.

Won't.

Stop.

Using.

It.

Update 34 Highlights - Segwarides keeps spamming Disaster

The son of a bitch used it five times, basically in a row, before the AI finally realized that it wasn't going to get anywhere. I healed it four times, Lann's stack got confused once, attacked Segwarides anyway for 4400 damage, he used Disaster again, then Lann's stack attacked itself and knocked it out of confusion, allowing me to Remedy a final time.

That's the only hurdle in this fight. If you have good ailment resistances to those four statuses, then this fight will be a breeze. If you don't have good resistances to those, then the fight is just going to be a frustrating back and forth of him casting Disaster and you tossing Remedies or other status heal items.



After that fight, we go straight into the mother-daughter smack down. This one proved more of a challenge for me. The twins compliment each other, so when you split them up it really tends to mess with your battle plans. You probably have one stack focused on healing/support while the other is focused on damage/spells. Lann without Reynn would normally be okay, except Segwarides directs all his energy towards blocking Lann's abilities and stopping him from taking his turn.

In contrast, my Reynn stack is more about abilities and less about healing or support.







Her attacks don't hit crazy hard (Bloody Claw only hit for 660, although it does have topple), but she has great elemental coverage. She has access to Fira, Thundaga, Blizzaga, and Quake. Presumably she also has Watera, but she didn't use it in this fight.



Granted, when I say this fight proved to be more of a challenge, that doesn't mean a lot. Chocolatte sells X-Potions in the Postscript, which you should have stocked up on before going into any end game stuff (Hi-Potions have been useless for a long time now).

She also still has her Freezing Dust attack, so be aware that she can hit with Ice damage and Slow at the same time. This is the moment where toppling becomes a major possibility since Pellinore is pretty speedy.







World of Final Fantasy Music: Unhappy Melody
Dad!

Unfortunately, Rorrick is definitely not alive. He doesn't respond in the slightest.


[Rorrick]: Thank you, son...


.....! Dad?



Oh, looks like he's able to force ghost himself for a final conversation with his son. Convenient.

It's my fault. You're gonna die... 'cause of me.




[Rorrick]: If only I'd kept you safe from all this. Instead, I left you with no one at all to turn to. This here is just the shadow of my soul. My very last hurrah... You see? There's nothing to feel bad about.


Oh. Well then I guess that makes everything okay then. Conscience clear.

Of course I feel bad about it!


[Rorrick]: Lann... My son... Ha ha...


Wh-what is it?


[Rorrick]: Lann... I'm very proud.


About what?


[Rorrick]: You've grown up, son. Look at you. When people hurt, you hurt. You fight for them. You've become someone who cares about more than your own cause.


"I'm so proud of you son. You aren't a shitbag anymore! You've acquired a basic level of empathy."

Actually, I shouldn't be ragging on that. Baby steps and all that. At least some progress was made with him.


[Rorrick]: Hang on to that, and you'll go far.




*And then Rorrick disappears while going for a hug with Lann. His body also poofs into magic light for a handy corpse cleanup*

Dad!

Okay, so that didn't really go any different than last time. I guess they got to have a reconciling conversation, but Rorrick is still dead. Maybe things are going better on Reynn's end.



Mom!

No! Stay back! It's still...



Welp, looks like Pellinore has her own super form now. Awesome.

Reynn!



HP/AP carry over from the previous fights, but at least Lann and Reynn are both back together for this one.



Pellinore's super form rocks about 5k more HP, but still maintains the same elemental weaknesses.

This is mostly the same fight as Reynn went through. Pellinore still has elemental multi-target spells. Her defence is a little better and her attack slightly higher. There is one change though.

Update 34 Highlights - Tri-Disaster








Freezing Dust is upgraded to Tri-Disaster, which is more than likely going to be super effective against you unless you've managed to get a balance of resistances to Fire/Ice/Thunder.

On the plus side, she doesn't seem to use it much. She only busted it out once in this entire fight for me, which made it easily recoverable from.

Update 34 Highlights - Everyone cries


Looks like Pellinore is a bit more durable than Segwarides, as she stands back up ready for another round.

Enouuugh!



Lann goes for the hail Mary again.

Don't! You have to stay in control of your power!



Boom! Headshot!



Lusse's force ghost then goes shooting out into the sky before landing in front of Reynn.

Mom... Mom, I'm sorry. I...

World of Final Fantasy Music: Hauyn's Melody (I'm not sure why Hauyn's theme is used here)



[Lusse]: Come on. Smile.










Reynn tries to hold it together, but breaks down crying. Lusse then slowly fades away while holding her.



And they both look to each other as a source of strength before gazing into the bright new world that--

Hold on a second. Guys? I don't think that's the heavenly "sunny new day" kind of light. I think that's the--

Update 34 Highlights - Oh, right. Brandelis.


Yeah. That kind of light. The explosion-y kind.





Sorry. We couldn't stop him!

Don't worry, we will!

Yeah!

Careful, he can transform!

Yeah, we already know that thanks to time travel nonsense. No big deal.



Oh, come on! Him too?! What the fuck is that thing on his back?!



This fight is very similar to the first time we fought Brandelis. There are no elemental weaknesses at work and his only ailment weakness is to Slow. I don't recommend trying to inflict that on him however, as it wears off very quickly and takes forever to actually stick (I tried 4+ times during the battle and missed almost every one of them).



His little weapon wheel on his back gives him a wide variety of abilities and magic. As for HP, he seems to have about 25-30k. Not too bad all things considered. It's only a minor change compared to the first time we battled him.

On top of stuff like Abyss and Double Cut, he also has access to Flare which can hit pretty hard (2,400 or more).

Other than that, there's nothing of particular surprise. He seems to enjoy rotating through Double Cut, Abyss, and Flare. Just as a heads up, go ahead and blow whatever Champion gauge you have available on him for a quicker takedown. I don't do it during my fight because I was trying to goad different attacks out of him.

No particular reason. Just friendly advice.



All right!

We won?

Reynn, you still remember the alternate timeline (at least I assume you do). You should know better than to think that.

No... Not yet...

Fools. I have hunted the worlds of A for ages! But yours was the very first in which I made true progress.



Observe!

We're not going to enjoy this, are we?

Update 34 Highlights - Final Boss








Not even the Champions of this A-World can vanquish me.





World of Final Fantasy Music: Last World of Battle


Mmkay. We're suddenly dealing with this now. As mentioned above, Champions are disabled for this fight, so there will be no defence bypassing tomfoolery from them.



Exnine Bahamut is a pain in the ass. Specifically for a reason that you are unlikely to notice for the first half of the battle.





He has an attack called Chaotic Impulse. It seems to be a fairly standard multi-target Dark attack. Looks pretty cool though.

Oh, and if you didn't take notice, your HP/AP still carries over from the last battle. You may want to use your first two turns to either pop a Megalixir or use X-Potions/Mega-Potions and Ethers to get back into prime shape.





He also has the third tier single target element "-ja" spells. They hurt like hell if he manages to pinpoint your weakness.





And then of course he pulls an attack straight out of Segwarides' playbook. Dark Revels can inflict Poison, Oblivion, and Confusion. He enjoys spamming this attack, so make damn sure that you have ample Remedies or Esuna coverage.



Here's the shitty thing. You will probably notice something as the battle drags on and you pile damage on him. See where his turn icon is in this screenshot compared to Reynn/Lann? Both his and Lann/Reynn's turn icons started at almost the same place when they were at the bottom of the turn bar.

That's right. Exnine Bahamut gets faster as his HP drops. It's not Auto/SOS-Haste or anything. His speed just naturally rises as his HP falls. Unlike his previous form, this one is not even slightly vulnerable to Slow. He will very quickly outpace your stacks, probably by the time his HP has dropped by a third, if not sooner.

Exnine Bahamut is a cheating bastard, is what I'm saying. I guess that's fitting considering the whole "We play by my rules now" shtick, but still a bullshit move, especially with his love of that multi-status multi-target ailment attack.

The one saving grace to Dark Revels is that it can be Reflected. If you maintain Reflect throughout the battle, then you'll be safe from a lot of his attacks.



Unfortunately, since he is technically a Bahamut, that means he also employs his own Megaflare. He starts using it at below half health. Since his speed increases as HP drops, this also means this attack is going to come faster and faster as the battle wears on.

Update 34 Highlights - Diablos Summon








Summoning an XL Mirage is a good way to dodge the damage from it, though.

Update 34 Highlights - Megaflare Cannon










Mmm, yeah. This is probably gonna hurt.



Okay, not as bad as I was expecting. I believe this attack has an automatic topple effect for regular stacks, though. Be careful of that.

He also has an attack in this phase called Chaos Pulse. It missed Lann's stack, so I'm not entirely sure what it does. From the looks of it, it's just a regular single-target Dark based attack.



For extra fun, EB will drop the charge time on Megaflare Cannon during subsequent uses. So not only does he get faster, Megaflare cannon goes from 5 turns to 3 to fire.

With all this bullshit he's pulling, you may be wondering how you're supposed to deal any meaningful damage during the second half of the battle. You're spending most of your time healing status ailments or trying to cast reflect for example. Well, Exnine Bahamut does have one critical weak point.



While charging Megaflare Cannon, Exnine Bahamut will pick up -200 weakness to every element save for one.



Which means you can really lay into him while he's charging his laser. Make sure you check on which Element he has +200 of before you make any moves though. You really don't want to accidentally heal him for 10k+.



That's your key to beating him. When he tries to pull Megaflare Cannon, take whatever opportunity you can to cast your strongest elemental magic (that he doesn't absorb, obviously). It's entirely possible to break him in half before he even gets the chance to fire Megaflare once.

Curse you, A... You and your infuriating power...



This is gonna be a two parter, so we'll call it an update here. We'll find out how all of this goes down in the next update.