More Final Fantasy

[English Language]

Ok, this isn't getting anywhere. Instead of wasting time bashing my head against this brick wall, let's move onto something easier.


There we are. Main Gauche+Genji Shield+Elven Mantle for maximum evasion potential, Mirage Vest for a safe defensive cushion, and Wizard Hat for the bonus Defense and Magic.

First things first, Mighty Guard for Protect(for his physicals) and Float(for his dying Earthquake). Now about offense. Gil Turtle is level 57, which divides nicely for Level 3 Flare. I have something slightly different in mind however. Gil Turtle has a relatively pitiful 40% Magic Evade, leaving him open to Dark Shock shenanigans, dropping his level down to 28. Which means....


He's getting aged to dust. Once he's level down to 1 and his offense takes a nose-dive, I can pretty much blast down his his points however I want. I needed up just Chicken Knifing him to death.

As T-Hawk mentions during his Rathma run, this dungeon is long and uneventful, I ended up just running from nearly every fight.


Grand Aevis! His two Dark Elemental buddies are wind-weak and level 74, so a level 2 Old to slow em down a bit. Grand Aevis himself is level 97, so I can't Old him..right away, Dark Shock takes him to level 48, then to 1 once Old kicks in. He also has an abysmal(at this stage) 20% Magic Evade. And luckily, once Breath Wing knocks me down a bit, I can just Vampire off his Dark Elemental buddies and their own nonexistant M.Evade.

That said, his higher level makes landing Dark Shock more difficult than it was on Gil Turtle, and I end up dying a few times when Maelstrom inevitably gets me killed....and I also forget Zombie Powder is fatal, but Angel Ring is all I have in that regard and I need the Reflect Ring, so it's something I just have to live with.

What's difficult about this is the Dark Elementals spamming White Wind and the occasional reflected Aeroga for constant healing for Grand Aevis. Luckily, these actually cost MP and can be defeated by simply letting their MP run out....except with Zombie Powder looming, I want this fight over ASAP....but in order for that to happen, I need White Wind out of the picture. A problem with no easy answer, since Blue Mage doesn't have any way to drain MP.


OH WAIT, I totally have a way to drain their MP, with Mystery Waltz via the Dancing Dagger. This takes a while at 120 a pop at 1/8 chance, but also keep in mind they'll also be draining MP with White Wind and Aeoga spam themselves also(which both cost a lot of MP), this just speeds things up a bit. Ideally I don't want to actually kill the Dark Elementals just because doing so causes Grand Aevis to spawn a new pair of them.

Lucky for me, once Grand Aevis' level is dropped to nil, his odds of landing Maelstrom and Zombie Powder are nearly zero.


Unfortunately, as the game has so VERY abruptly reminded me, even with 1% chance of landing, enough repetition means it can land eventually.

I'll try this fight more and report back later. I'm sure this is a winning strategy, I just need the numbers to line up properly.

[Sofis]

A problem with no easy answer, since Blue Mage doesn't have any way to drain MP.

Magic Hammer?

[English Language]

A problem with no easy answer, since Blue Mage doesn't have any way to drain MP.

Magic Hammer?

......



I can't believe I forgot that. I'm an idiot!

[English Language]

So after my bout of derp there, I went back.

After dying way too many times to Zombie Powder, I leaned back and took a second look at my equipment. Ok, so Bone Mail and Aegis Shield are mandatory for instant death and petrify attacks. I'd like to keep the Gold Hairping for the half MP useage. Reflect Ring...how necessary is that really?

After dumping it in favor of the Angel Ring for Zombie Powder and Level 2 Olding the Dark Elementals right off the bat...not at all actually. The Aegis Shield actually blocked all but one 500 damage Aeroga.

So once I was able to Dark Shock and Level 2 Old Grand Aevis, the only threat was taking a Maelstrom followed by a Breath Wing before I could Vampire health off him. Now, as for damaging him?


Goblin Punch worked for starters. Once the first Breath Wing came out, I could switch to ??? for the extra damage, even more after a second. Once he got to the part of his script where he could fire off two Breath Wings in a row(interruptible thankfully) I hit him with Vampire to top off my health, and go back to Goblin Punch. I decided killing one Dark Elemental was allowable, he'd only respawn them if he was alone, so leaving one MP empty was fine. And finally, after 10 minutes of beating him up.


YES!


Wait, WHAT, NO!


Bwahaha. Not today. After I noticed they could use Exploder in their battle script I made ABSOLUTELY sure I had their MP 100% drained, as them using Exploder would OHKO me(I could have lowered his health, but then I risked killing him).

I'll carry on with this later.

[System Error]

So before we jump into our final FF2 magicians update, a handy resource for FF5 was introduced to me - a damage calculator. It's in Japanese, so you'll more than likely have to use translate to get much mileage out of it, but still might come in handy for future use.
_________________


Into the Jade Passage, the only way to reach the demon castle of Pandemonium. We essentially have two long dungeon romps on the way to reach the Emperor himself.


This is what most of the fights end up looking like. Malboros inflicts a lot of status ailments if they hit. Which they don't.


This is what I want most of the fights to look like. These guys sling Tornado 13 our way, which is perfect for building HP needed to survive the nastier pure damage spells. I actually had to hurt my own party members with spells, just to get enough buffer room.


There's a magic shop here behind a waterfall. We don't need any of the spells here. We already got what we need!


There's a few monsters in boxes here. The two dragons are dealt with by hitting their elemental weaknesses - Poison and Ice respectively. The golden Behemoth, I simply hurl nonelemental spells at.


The Red Dragon also drops us this. It's of no use to us - the only purpose it would fulfill is giving Patchy elemental protection, but there's a freebie along the way and it would mean giving up the White Robe - which is far more important for its status protection.


Speaking of Status protection, also with the Dragon Armor is the Aegis Shield. Hijiri holds onto it, giving the full monty of protection along with her Black Robe.


Into Pandemonium. The first thing that happens: Defense Ring drop from a Lamia Queen!! Hijiri got hold of a fixed one in Jade Passage, but having another doesn't hurt.


Yes, full protection from status elements really is nice. Other enemies, like those Death Riders, couldn't hit Alice. With the front/back row mechanics, evasion stands as the killer stat of FF2, to FF5's speed. With most of the threat being physical, you can end up with virtual invincibility.


What's not nice are these guys. Their Blast 10 special inflicts paralysis on the party, and it is non-elemental. That means if it hits, it works regardless of any resistances.


Within the crystalline walls of Pandemonium are four optional bosses, three of which guard a piece of Genji equipment and one of which guards a Ribbon. The first I take on is Tiamat. This dragon has level 16 breath skills of all four basic elements to sling at us. With everyone but Patchy having resistance to them, it's not much of a fight.


Next is Astaroth, who guards a Ribbon. Astraroth has a nasty supply of spells, an 8-hit physical, and 7000HP. And he likes to single-target your characters with level 16 spells. The biggest threat would've been the non-elemental Drain 16, but it never showed.


On the way back, I run into a Lamia Queen who drops _another_ Ribbon. So I guess everyone's getting a Ribbon. I later get another Defense Ring drop, so everyone but Patchy (the one with the highest magic defense) gets one.


"Satan", as this fanslation calls it, also has level 16 spells, including Flare 16. I just keep blasting the overgrown lord of the flies until it dies, not accomplishing anything helpful.


Finally, the worst for last - Zombie Borgan doesn't even get the honor of the boss music playing. I kill him with fire and move on.


And hidden near him is the Masamune!! Shame that we don't get to employ it, because it - having no spellcasting penalties - is the best weapon for any mage...well, anyone, really.

There's not much else to say about the trip through here. Everything gets blasted into submission with Holy or Flare, except large groups of Krulls, who I opt to take out with multitarget Exit or Warp. It took about three hours in total. I felt like streaming it and I did.


The last boss awaits.


Our inventory, for the hell of it. Didn't even use most of those Elixirs, thanks to the Aspil spell being around.


Marisa didn't manage to hit Flare 11, though Patchy did hit Holy 11. I mostly used Patchy's Cure through Jade, hence why it went up to 8. Hijiri didn't disappoint, Flare 7 isn't half bad. That aside, I hardly used any of the other spells. Alice's agility hit 70, boosted to 80 from her Black Robe. With just the Main Gauche on her, she has 99% evasion.


It's go time.


The festivities kick off with Alice casting Blink on herself. This is actually pointless - the Emperor gets 8 hits at 100% odds, but Alice gets 10 dodges at 99% odds. The Emperor has a nasty array of spells, though. Slow 16 can cripple a physical attacker, as can Blind 16. Curse 16 reduces Attack and Defense by half if it lands. Dispel 16 is as worthless for him as it is for us.

Then there's Flare 16. This does 800-1000 damage to a single target, which is why I needed the higher HP. Finally, he rounds it off with Meteo 10, which does around 300 damage to all targets.

The Emperor is resistant to six of the eight elements, and absorbs Death and Matter. There's a way to abuse killing him by casting Wall followed by Toad, Exit, or Warp on him. The animation of those spells is what kills the opponent, and when a black magic spell is blocked by Warp, the full animation plays. But we don't need that.


The Emperor has only 540MP. A few castings of Aspil wipes his stock clean, and he's left with his physicals. Which can never hit Alice.


Game set and match. All that's left to do is to blast away. Hijiri's Flare 7 does around this much. The others do over 600. The win is inevitable.


Goodbye, Emperor!! This is actually one of the harder final bosses in the series if you don't know what you're doing, but if you do, he's among the easiest. As a bonus, here's a video of the Emperor battle.


FF2 NES completed!!


So, closing thoughts? Playing through FF2 NES was definitely an experience, to put it one way. It's a game riddled with issues and abuses, but I wouldn't say it was not worth my time. I'm interested in seeing how a solo character would perform; even though it would be fairly straightforward late game, the early game is what would be interesting. That definitely about describes this as well. Once I got hold of Holy/Flare, the strategy just became throwing those out all the time except when elemental weakness was available - both for efficiency and in preparation for the Emperor. I think the most I came to being threatened in the final runthrough was with the Abyss Worms, but they were irritably rare and chose not to all throw out their spells at once. The Krulls were annoying, but they could never hurt Alice physically.

And of course besides a solo playthrough, we can swing the other way and go melee only. This would rule out several of the abuses the game has to offer, including Evasion and Aspil abuse, and make healing difficult aside from potions, though the Blood Sword would still be an option. Or cross the streams and do both.

We'll see what happens though, and if I feel like embarking on another trip through FF2. There's still that other challenge in FF5, and that other thing I want to do. If I'm able to do that in a few days, that's what it'll be. If not, we'll see.

[Plus C]

I wonder which else of the classic solos stand a chance in the bonus run? The hyper offence ones probably can... Hmmm... I may have to break out a Freelancer solo and have a go at it all myself!

Loved the FF2 finale end; I remember just using the Blood Sword when I played that game all that time ago, and being very underwhelmed :P This is much more interesting!

[English Language]

This LP also details an incredibly amusing way to kill the Emperor.

http://lparchive.org/Final-Fantasy-II/Update%2017/

[English Language]

Next up, Archeodemon. After reading through the Cannoneer taking him on, I was a bit worried. But once Sofis very kindly reminded me, I have Magic Hammer, so I can just bop his MP away(after using an Ether to drop it to a more manageable level of course). Also, another weakness of Archeodemon...


He has zero Magic Evade, which is a godsend for a boss this late in the game. That plus his pitiful level of 17! makes landing Dark Shock a joke, followed by using Level 2 Old once again to age him into oblivion.


And there goes his MP in large chunks, much easier than triggering his Death counter over and over again :P. This also means I can wipe his MP dry and never have to worry about his ??? counter either. I DID trigger it occasionally however, just to make sure the constant stream of reflected spells didn't knock him below 20,000(not needed looking back, given his 50k total).



And with his MP dropped to nil and his stats at 1, even Giga Flare has it's teeth pulled and is a complete nonthreat. The only way he can possibly kill me now is if he Hurricanes me right as I leave the room with the game unpaused and spend 3 turns doing nothing while he Giga Flares me. Thus Archeodemon goes down with zero issues and 2 Elixirs on the first try.

Unfortunately, Wave Cannon has me completely stumped. The Wave Cannon itself and the Launchers have abysmal magic evade and can be aged to dust after Dark Shock(though the level difference is painful)...which won't matter when the Guardian revives them anyways. The same is true for the Guardian part at least.

The biggest issue however is, as Sullla has mentioned in his Blue Mage run, the Blue Mage is not a very fast killer at all. All of my fights so far in this area have taken quite a while, using the combo of Dark Shock, Level 2 Old, and Magic Hammer to nullify the enemy's offense...which doesn't work when the enemy's offense is Valiant Attack and double Surge Beams, and because of that I simply don't have time to let Level 2 Old do it's work. Delta Attack from the Guardian I can handle with the Aegis Shield easy.

As far as equipment goes...

Weapon-Magus Rod(to power Aeroga, probably my strongest spell)
Shield-Aegis Shield(mandatory for Delta Attack)
Helmet-Gold Hairpin(for MP, unless I find something else better)
Body-Whatever boosts my magic the highest. NOT the Bone Mail. With the number of % health attacks flying around, I can't afford to go without Elixirs in this fight. There's always Vampire, but with the level difference pre-Dark Shock, it's not really something I can risk.
Accessory-Very torn. I REALLY want Hermes Sandals for Haste so things go faster.....BUT at the same time, the Launchers are going to be launching Age missiles at me the whole fight, and I really can't afford to have Old get inflicted, and I highly doubt the Blue Mage can kill the Launchers before they'll inevitably hit me with it.

The one bright side here is that all enemies in this fight, as I mentioned, have completely abysmal Magic Evade and Magic Defense, meaning I can deal full damage to everything.

After some testing, I'll need at least 11 Aerogas to do in the Launchers. I get about 1.5 turns to each Launcher's and Wave Cannon's 1. The Launchers will likely get off at least 4 Valiant attacks each. This might be trouble.

[Plus C]

Isn't the Death counter just in response to physical attacks?

One Dark Shock will let you spam Lvl 3 Flare, if that helps.

[English Language]

Yeah, the MP drain was mostly to avoid triggering the ??? counter, which would instant kill me if it showed up.

And I thought of that, but shied away at first because I'd still need to land 3 Dark Shocks to take out the Cannon and Launchers. I'll try that a few times though and see how it works. I tried Level 4 Graviga, but that deals zero damage.

After a test, Level 3 Flare does...a little over 4000 damage. Think I'll this a bit more, that's quite a lot of damage for a Blue Mage.

Weirdly enough, I managed to hit a part with Doom(as in, the flame and skeleton animation played), but no timer appeared and I can't figure out what part I hit, and all parts are listed as having the Heavy flag in the code . What a mysterious game.