More Final Fantasy

[Wild Halcyon]

Remember that shields are also an option. As for cape vs. shoes, the cape would theoretically be better if you could roll a lot of dodges, but shield dodges should work just as well. You're definitely going to need to balance the offense and defense carefully. Besides Ancient Sword, maybe also try some other weapons that could proc spells, like Fire Lash and...well, mostly that if you have it.

Would be curious to hear any thoughts on the two variants I posted above, by the way~

I've been thinking of using the Fire Lash. I haven't raided the legendary weapons yet. Currently I have been using some back-row capable weapons like the Beast Killer whip and Aevis Killer bow. I plan on retry the battle later today with some front-runner two-handed weapons and my single mirage vest.

I read through the solo monster post. I was pretty impressed with it. FFL2 is a pretty unforgiving game, but there are quite a few solid strategies later in the game that you can't take advantage of earlier. I'm pretty relaxed with rules in these sort of games, so I'm not going to fault the use of Mask for a single battle. I would rather relax the rules than make the rest of the game a cakewalk after one battle (I would have rather seen Sullla change to bare and use a coral sword and berserk for killing Sol Cannon for instance). But there's not much you can do to make the game easier for yourself as a solo monster. There's no levels to gain, so if something is impossible now it will be impossible later, and I'd rather see you get past it than be stuck.

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Ah, but the Shield would increase the variance. Omni will always hit without the shield and Mirage Vest, but with them, there's a chance to deal more damage.

And after thinking about it, I do see a way to do it, almost foolproofedly, if all else fails. It'd be incredibly silly, but: if one were to go into the Rift, get the Tinkerbell off Twin Tania somehow (another puzzle, since it's a rare drop when he's not charging Giga Flare, though might be doable if you can take one Giga Flare, even with one person, and his elemental weaknesses are exploited, maybe even the Beastkiller or other whips), and the Genji Shield, mini someone, then fight Omniscient with that person as a Geomancer (they would need Equip Shield). Not only would the person have near-perfect evasion, but since bells function through mini, they could deal damage out to Omni as well. Obviously the Giyaman's Bell works as well if you still have it in your inventory (not to mention being more accessible), though would be much weaker.

Similarly, weapon magic should still be okay if even more people are minied, though they'll have to settle for Crystal Shields (which would give 90% after). Genjimini would still be an option even if the Tinkerbell couldn't be obtained, though.

And yeah, both statements more or less sum up FFL2 with monsters. There are so many "landmines" that you can come across if you haphazardly eat meat that it isn't funny. Yet you can do some good things with them if you know how that work. Honestly, I was surprised Ashura was the only true wall. Makes me more hopeful for the later solos - as long as human and mutant don't gain too much agility, they should be able to get through Apollo. He will be an exception for Robot though - no way around it - short of being able to push its HP past 4096, which is so silly that I'm just going to make the exception even if it does work.

[Wild Halcyon]

Ah, but the Shield would increase the variance. Omni will always hit without the shield and Mirage Vest, but with them, there's a chance to deal more damage.

And after thinking about it, I do see a way to do it, almost foolproofedly, if all else fails. It'd be incredibly silly, but: if one were to go into the Rift, get the Tinkerbell off Twin Tania somehow (another puzzle, since it's a rare drop when he's not charging Giga Flare, though might be doable if you can take one Giga Flare, even with one person, and his elemental weaknesses are exploited, maybe even the Beastkiller or other whips), and the Genji Shield, mini someone, then fight Omniscient with that person as a Geomancer (they would need Equip Shield). Not only would the person have near-perfect evasion, but since bells function through mini, they could deal damage out to Omni as well. Obviously the Giyaman's Bell works as well if you still have it in your inventory (not to mention being more accessible), though would be much weaker.

Fortunately it didn't take anywhere near those resources. I swapped out the weapons and got much better results. All 3 had Hermes Sandles. Faris dual-wielded the power rod and an air lancet and brought in a solid 1.5K, the other two had flame and ice swords. He had killed Faris and Leena but Krile finally got him.

Overall Sandworm is still the hardest boss I've faced. Your options really start to open up as bare once you reach the end of W2. Even Sol Cannon is cheese. Now in a solo game both Omniscient and Atmos would be awful, but probably doable (swap out air lancet for Wind Slash maybe?). The mirage vest would be a must. No shield - you need to dual-wield the power rod.

Now on to the final two tablets and maybe taking on Gogo.

EDIT: Gogo is totally dead. Thanks to T-Hawk for giving me the idea of darkness + Blood Sword. I ended the Fork Tower with two dead team members, so I decided to use that opportunity to track down a darkness-setting attack and kill off the fourth character. After heading into Catapult and getting the sub, I confirmed an old suspicion - the Fire Ship is still around! The Crew Dusts there use Flash when they're alone. There happens to be an encounter set with two crew dusts, and I got fortunate that the one crew dust used Flash almost immediately. Bartz was blinded and I went on my way. With everyone but Bartz dead, and Bartz blinded, I ran from every battle I came across. At this point, I'm not even certain that you NEED to be blinded, since the Blood Sword has such an awful hit rate, but what the heck, this was almost a sure-fire victory. It took about 11 turns of misses before Gogo gave his little speech. There you have it, SuperBerserkers can get the Mime job!

The Great Sea Trench was simple. The biggest worry was float (possessed characters lose their float status!), and of course the final boss. It was just a matter of wearing reflect rings and getting the attacks to line up. I had all four outfitted in some form of holy/undead damage: 1x Excalibur, 1x Holy Sword, 1x Apollo Harp, 1x Sage's Staff. The weakest of the bunch was the Holy Lance, by far. Excalibur dished out 5K in damage, while the Holy Lance only managed a measly 2K.

Istory isn't difficult. I'm currently farming Kaiser Knuckles and Mirage Vests there, but I don't anticipate anything deadly occurring. I don't really need the Kaiser Knuckles, but I did want to master Monks anyways, so I figured why not have a set of 4.

I really don't think the final boss will be a huge problem. I may have to level a little bit, and get a couple more rare steals with the thief knife, but my team can deal MUCH more offensive damage than a team of 4 berserkers. After that, I'll be entering the Sealed Temple and the superbosses. I don't think I'll be able to take on EVERYTHING, but I plan to at least beat Omega, Shinryuu, and hopefully Enuo.

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Good luck with what's left, Wild Halcyon!



I really need to finish the FF6 nudists. Also start doing variants that I'm 100% sure can be completed. Anyway, this one was started a year ago, abandoned a year ago, and finished over the course of the past few days. Final Fantasy III: Solo Red Mage. See how a class a certain GameFAQs guidewriter said to be the hardest besides Onion Kid under his no-Onion-equipment-even-if-its-dropped-in-a-black-mage-game ruleset gets through the game all on its own!

[System Error]

All right, new game time!! The other Final Fantasy game from my childhood! And screw it, let's break up FF6 Nudists more. Because some people were requesting it, I'm streaming this one on my Twitch Channel. Here's Part I and Part II that I have so far.


Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest was released first in the US. It is also known as Final Fantasy USA in Japan, or Mystic Quest Legend in Europe. It was marketed as a beginner's RPG, and is most notable for its rockin' soundtrack. There are certainly ways to make this simple RPG more interesting, though.

The story is typical RPG fare: when the Vile Four (this game's equivilant of the Four Fiends) steal the power of the crystals and divide the world into four by sealing the doors of the Focus Tower. At that point, it's prophesized that a Knight will appear to save the world and restore power to the crystals. Unfortunately for this Knight, Benny, he's more suited for a supporting role.

The rules of this challenge are simple:
1) Benny may not do anything to harm an enemy monster, unless absolutely necessary
2) The partner character must remain on Auto

Because Benny isn't going to be doing anything but helping and giving the AI his best regards, I call this the Cheerleader challenge!
WE HAVE SPIRIT, YES WE DO!
WE WILL DEFEAT ALL OF YOU!
ALL THE CRYSTALS WILL BE SAVED!
JUST WISH MY FRIENDS WERE WELL-BEHAVED...


As the game begins, we're presented with the first instace of rule number one. Benny fights this Behemoth solo. You have four commands to choose from in battle, as well as running from it.
- Attack will not be getting used, of course.
- Magic casts a spell, Benny will be using White Mage exclusively: Cure, Heal, Life, and Exit.
- Item uses one of the game's four consumable items: Cure potions heal around 1/4 HP, Heal potions heal any status in the game, Seeds restore all spell charges, and Refreshers restore any stat loss.
- Defense can be used to either reduce oncoming damage or cover your ally character.

Anyway, this fight can actually go wrong. If the Behemoth lands a critical hit in this tutorial battle, you're pretty much done unless you roll one as well. Also, check out this game's default way of displaying health. I'll leave it on because it looks sleek, but I'd like to think that it's more complicated for a beginner to understand than numbers are. Each "tick" represents 40 HP, as does the visible health bar itself. We can move on and begin the variant after beating him.


The annoying thing about this, as I find out as soon as I get the first partner character - Kaeli - presents itself. The AI itself loves to play a supporting role. She kept trying to heal Benny with Cure potions! I had to wait until they were all used up before I could proceed. Thankfully, she could kill everything here in one hit.

An interesting thing about this is that it chooses its action when its turn comes around, rather than at the start of each round. So it can do things like instantly revive you after you've fallen. If it does that mid-round, your action will even execute after. The flipside of it is for this challenge, it can get caught in a loop of Cure or Heal.


I got Benny up to Level 3 before taking on the first boss: the Minotaur. It only took two battles to to reach level 2, then I left to heal and did the two more in the way to hit that level. This wasn't difficult. His two attacks are Roundhouse (a basic physical) and Scream (a weak attack that lowers defense), which runs contrary to how he's apparently able to poison Kaeli and trees. Kaeli attacked for 30 damage at a time. He has 240HP. Pretty uneventful, and he can't even poison you like the game suggests he can. It didn't take too long.


Things don't get much less annoying in the Bone Dungeon, especially when I try to fight these Roc monsters. They can inflict Blind status on my characters. Not a big deal for Benny, but definitely a big deal for Tristam! I have to retrieve some Heal Potions from the Level Forest to protect against this.

This was also where Benny got his first equipment upgrade: a Steel Shield which provided an extra 5 defense. There was also another available in a Battlefield, the Charm, but it would only provide one extra defense. I decided on skipping it, as I wasn't sure how long Tristam's Ninja Star stock would hold out. Turns out, I overestimated, heh. Anyway, he's the next party member.


Palette swaps of the boss you fought are common in this game, and Minotaur Zombie is one such monster. They - along with the Skeleton monsters - could inflict Confusion status. Not too big a deal since it's uncommon in the Skeletons and you can encounter a max of one Minotaur Zombie at a time, but it would make Tristam use his turn on a Heal Potion.


I fought one more extra battle to get Benny to level 6 before facing the first boss.


The first of the Vile Four is Flamerus Rex. He was an easy encounter. Benny guarded Tristam almost every round possible, who went to work throwing ninja stars out. He got a ton of criticals, and was able to beat him before Tristam ran out of Lifes. Though I unfortunately wasted a Seed before the battle, thinking Benny might need his Cure charges.

Benny twice was knocked down to a single HP, as shown here. Guess that extra battle helped!! Anyway, it didn't take long before he fell and the Earth Crystal was saved.

By the way, one thing I love about Mystic Quest: enemies' sprites change as they take damage. It's a neat touch.


Next up is the frozen land of Aquaria, home of the Water Crystal! I unfortunately did not fight enough battles, having skipped most of everything, and did not have enough for the Steel Helmet. Not overly important at least, as in the long run, it'll be obsoleted.


Anyway, the wizard Phoebe is the latest party member. The AI is extremely wasteful with its spell charges. She was out of her Fire and Thunder spells halfway through the next dungeon, the Wintry Cave! Instead of using a Seed to restore her, I pressed on.


Note her claw. This is the weakest partner weapon. She used it against that Land Worm on the left there, and didn't even push it into its damaged graphic. I had to have Benny Defend on himself instead of her. Otherwise, she would be caught in a loop of trying to heal him (you might just be able to see the blue healing sparkle there)


Luckily, she hands it off to you after a plot event to allow you to climb walls, and instead takes up a Bow of Grace after. A much stronger weapon!


I suffered my first defeat in the next room against a group of turtles. But in Mystic Quest, you're offered the chance to repeat any battle you lost. So nothing lost at all. Unless of course, you didn't save and end up in a fight you can't run from or win!

At this point, I was very low on resources...but is there a way to conserve what I have left? Yes there is! I found that if I got a Strike First! against the enemies, Phoebe could kill them all without taking a single point of damage. She'd kill one on the first round, another the second, Benny would guard her from the third's attack, which she would kill the next round.


Except then I couldn't get it to work on the Sparna enemies before the boss. I did have to use a Seed there, so Phoebe could kill them quickly.


The next boss is Squidite, who was accompanied by two of those Sparna enemies. Phoebe took them out without issue, and only he was left. He had a few obnoxious attacks, including that one which really hurt if all the hits connected. Of least concern was an Electropulse attack that lowered Magic power and did low damage. Unlike with Flamerus, I couldn't just defend Phoebe all the time, because she would get caught in a Cure loop. Took a bit to get the rhythm right.


By the way, check out the dungeon on the world map. That's totally Lavos.


Falls Basin is the next dungeon, a frozen waterfall with some block/jumping puzzles. With some ingenuity, you can actually skip two fights. I did them anyway for the experience, but still.


The Heal Spell is a nice pickup, and it's right there! This spell heals any status ailment, and though irrelevant for our variant, can be used on enemies to inflict status ailments on them.


Snow Crab sucked. He could sometimes one-shot Benny with his attacks, and could confuse the party members too. A couple times, this wiped out the group. Twice he was at very low health, and twice Phoebe shot herself in the face with arrows. Can't blame that one on the AI.


I had enough for the Steel Helm, so I went ahead and picked it up. Now there's another piece of equipment around to get from the Battlefield south of Aquaria: the Magic Ring. It gives 3 defense and protects against Silence status. However, the Silence status never actually works in this game. It exists in the code, and has all its effects in preventing you from casting magic, but it's never actually applied. It's not a high priority to pick up.


This encounter group was in Falls Basin too, but it showed up again in the Ice Pyramid. The AI really sucks against it. Phoebe would wastefully Thunder the Lamias individually, then Fire the Desert Hag. By contrast the alternate group, she would Thunder all the Lamias and kill them.

There's definitely a strategic element to this variant in that regard. Which way to fight each encounter? Which encounters to fight, and which to reroll? Defend Benny, or Defend the partner? For this reason, I picked up the technically optional Magic Mirror to see what's coming up, since I don't have them memorized.


Anyway, besides those two which showed up in the previous dungeon, this place has a lot of annoying enemeis. Mages could Cure themselves if not one hit killed, probably the weakest of them. Stony Roosts could petrify, which thankfully only happened once. Sphinxes could not be one shot with Phoebes arrows and could confuse, and Gathers could blind, making Phoebe miss or use Heal instead of attacking. The latter would at least sometimes kill themselves, and the Sphinxes would use Heal on themselves if Phoebe's bow procced blind.


There was a great armor upgrade here though in the Noble Armor! Protection against water (including ice) and poison. The former definitely was nice for here.


I had to use my one remaining Seed when I got to this bottom floor. The Lamias would not roll into anything but two Lamia/one Desert Hag, meaning Phoebe wasted several charges on the two in the way. On the bright side, I did pick up this. While weapons are useless for Benny, holding this in-hand gives him an extra 5 speed.


The last encounter before the boss, a two Sphinx/one Gather group proved highly annoying. I got it done after Phoebe killed one of the Sphinx on the first turn, and the Gather Self-Destructed.


Ice Golem has a variety of attacks. The most annoying three I found are Stomp Stomp, which did 294 to Benny - over half his health - and made Phoebe use Cure on him, Sleep Lure which does as you might expect, and Snowstorm, which targets both party members and heals him. With the spiffy new Noble Armor, he resisted this along with his trademark Ice Block attack. His other physicals didn't push Benny over half HP, which is when Phoebe would Cure him.

It took two goes at this battle before I won it. I came close the first time, and made a miscalculation the second time - I was trying to get Phoebe to heal herself, but she was out of white magic spell charges, so she didn't stand a chance at the end. Third time was the charm though; Phoebe rolled around 6-7 crits on the monster and put him to rest.

[Wild Halcyon]

Brilliant challenges. I have a couple I plan to tackle next month. I'm getting a new PC, so I'll be able to get some screenshots for the two games I'm planning. The first is a relatively easy and relaxed variant, the second will definitely be more challenging.

Minor update for FFV SuperBerserkers:

Leviathan went down quicker than I thought. I actually didn't even have Coral Rings equipped. With 4 hasted, berserked samurai he didn't last long. Not a single tidal wave in the entire fight. This opened up the Sealed Temple where I got the first 3 of the new jobs! I mostly only care about Gladiator with !Long Reach, but Oracle provides a very nice bonus to magic for freelancers and the cost to master is less than the other mages, along with !Read Ahead, so I will definitely be mastering Oracle as well.

I got REAL tired of farming for items. Mirage Vests are only marginally useful towards the end of the game, and after killing about 18 Iron Fists and not getting a Kaiser Knuckle drop I gave up. I also gave up on getting any special equipment in the Phoenix Tower. I do still want to buy some Coral Rings to take on Shinryuu, but for now I went ahead and dived into The Rift. I'm currently level 41 and everyone has mastered Ninja and Monk, and one job level away from mastering Samurai, and just beat up poor Apanda. Not much of note other than picking up the fourth Ribbon and a second Enhancer.

I will definitely try to set up a camera on my DS (I'm playing the GBA version on a non-3DS) so I can post the ExDeath battle on Youtube.

[System Error]

Looking forward to whatever those challenges are!
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Relevant stream link: Here!


Moving onto the Fire Crystal area of the game, Fireburg. I really like this place, with its electric music, the rock band in the hotel, being able to buy Seeds for the first time, and looking like something out of the Flintstones.


There really wasn't much to note in the Mine. Some of the enemies could inflict Paralysis or Poison, but the latter was stopped by the Noble Armor, and the former by the Venus Shield Benny was able to pick up in the tower.


He was quickly (and I do mean quickly, about two and a half minutes) brought to the boss, Jinn. His Beam hurt, doing over 300, Dragon Cut which did around the same, and Hypno-sleep. This attack did around 270 to Benny and 80 to Reuben, who resisted it. He killed me once by using it repeatedly, weakening Reuben and killing Benny repeatedly, before finishing Reuben with a Beam.


Heh, forgot these guys could do this. No big deal, just some extra experience on the way out. Also, if they try to do this when all enemy slots are full, they'll do nothing for a turn instead.


Next is the Volcano. A normal playthrough would spike in power here with White being claimed. Notso for Benny. The Mask item lets you see the enemies inside the dense smoke, but unlike the Ice Pyramid, this is a short romp. I mainly got it because I got lost, though it built a few levels anyway, so no complaining. The enemies here weren't tougher, but still not too bad. The Nitemares could occasionally confuse, as could the Were Wolves (who could also cast Quake), but at least dealing with them was easy.


Ghosts could also multiply themselves, but liked to spend a lot of their turns on Power Drain, which did a whole of 1 damage. It is true to its name in how it lowers attack, but of course, Benny was not attacking.


Medusa is the boss of this dungeon, accompanied by two of those wolves. Reuben's damage on her was 644 a swing. She and the wolves could both confuse, with Bark and Screechvoice respectively. Benny actually attacked her a couple times, which was out of my control. He also attacked (and paralyzed!) Reuben, after which I made sure to switch to the Axe whenever he got confused from there.


And naturally, Medusa is capable of petrification. Other attacks included Snake Head, which could hit up to 6 times for heavy damage, Poison snake, and Para-snake which both do as you might expect. The wolves could also paralyze Reuben with Body Odor.


I'm honestly surprised she cooperated as fast as she did. Reuben pulled out the victory by the skin of his teeth - a miss there would've been a death from poison - but a win's a win.


There were two great pickups in the Lava Dome. The first of these is the Life Spell, which will come in handy for Benny not being doomed if his partner goes down. The second is the Moon Helm. This carries Fire resistance. Very useful when you're in a volcano.


These things were the most annoying enemy in the dungeon. Reuben could not kill Avizzards in one hit, and they would occasionally use confusion. One memorable moment actually came from the battle this screenshot is from. The confused Benny went right after the center one with his axe, hitting it three times. Reuben finished it off after that.

Other enemies included Jinn and Medusa palette swaps called Iflyte and Stheno who could do similar things, though died much quicker, the first in two and second in one. Ninjas could inflict status but were quite weak, and Hot Wings, much like Cockatrices, could petrify. Didn't see much of the latter, fortunately.

Lava Dome is also incredibly long. I spent nearly an hour in there. At one point, I learned that under Blind status, defending your partner doesn't seem to work. Which makes sense, and was no problem to fix.


Dualhead Hydra I figured was going to be easy. And indeed, the battle had every makings of being like that from the outset. Benny could endlessly defend Reuben, and was immune to the status effects of . But as a friend and actual WR holder for speedruns of this game eLmaGus warned, he had a nasty surprise once his tactics changed around half HP: Stone Gas.

This would eventually be pulled out, turning Benny into a statue. Reuben would not be able to win from there, either getting turned into one himself or killed via accumulated damage.


Thankfully, I was able to come up with a quick solution to this after dying twice to it, and a few times to Reuben being paralyzed before he could revive Benny: I went out and got some Heal Potions from the previous rooms. Reuben would then use them to heal! I figured 9 would be more than enough. And I did need to be careful to save beforehand, as item resources seem to stay consumed after continuing a battle.


Still, he was not in a good mood, and twice killed off the party at low HP by moving before Reuben. Once via petrification, and once via critical hit. You can see this around 1:23:50 and 1:27:36 respectively in the Twitch highlight.


This leads into the second exception of this variant...


Being undead, this Mummy is vulnerable to Cure. It is not vulnerable to Life: due to a programming error, it instead instantly kills non-undead. Benny had to survive a round, which was a problem since that round could bring out Sleep Powder or Stone Gaze, First try got wrecked by petrification right away. Second try got through after several turns.

You do get Tristam back after this battle, so Benny did not have to go alone beyond this.


Which is not all good news.

See, Tristam's Ninja Stars are actually very weak. You fight more of those Mummies in the Alive Forest ahead, and he needs three shots to kill them. They still have their petrification moves as well. Benny needed to take actions that were more about self-preservation here.


And just like their palette swaps, Spectors can multiply themselves. What started as a 2 Mummy/1 Spector encouter became a 3 Spector encounter, and the last one multiplied itself again. Funnily enough, since they keep their HP and statuses, both of them died from poison (from the Ninja Stars) shortly after the second one. The only reason why they weren't one-shotted to begin with was due to Tristam getting power drained.

[System Error]

As usual, here is the next part of the streamed version of this challenge. 37:35 is when I engage Gidrah, 1:11:10 is when Dullahan is fought. And here and here are also parts of it. 23:20 is when Pazuzu is fought.

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Before moving onto the next area, I went and picked up the Exit spell from a battlefield in the Aquaria region. These areas present you with a series of ten battles, with an experience, gold, or item prize after. This was technically accessible as soon as it was dethawed, but it would've required fighting alone or backtracking with Reuben. Since none of the Fireburg dungeons had long walks to get out, I waited.

The enemies here were long past the point of relevancy. Only thing worth noting is that the Phanquids resisted wind, and Kaeli now comes with Cure, Heal, and Aero. She failed to one-shot some of them because of this.


To my displeasure, Kaeli was actually worse at fighting the Mummies than Tristam!! See, the AI does know about undead reversal on Cure spells, and Kaeli repeatedly used them in spite of them being weak to Aero as well and doing far more damage. It got even worse inside against this group of three. I had to retreat a couple times when the battle got too out of control, and even then, I believe I only won after she'd run herself dry and started throwing out Aero.


Thankfully, there were none of them after the first floor. The enemies varied; these Leeches and the Live Orks were weak to Kaeli's axe. Snipions' only real problem was their Doom Stinger.

The Ooze are an enemy worth noting. They're immune to white magic, and have a reflect effect against other magic. The AI doesn't know or care about this; it'll sometimes happily cast against them and get ravaged by its own spells. Kaeli never actually did this in the dungeon, but I was well aware that she could've.


Then you have the Mad Toads, who I believe are the first instance of a counterattacking enemy in this game. In their case, they poisoned. Not a significant threat since Kaeli had no White charges, but the flipside of it is, situations like this.


Gidrah was an encounter that took some thought. He's accompanied by two Skuldiers, enemies who are capable of using Spooky Laugh to confuse, Sleep Gas to sleep,, and Doom Powder to instantly kill. Gidrah itself has a poison-touch counter much like those Mad Toads, as well as Stone Gas. Thankfully, Kaeli is immune to petrification. I went in at first with Kaeli with no White spellcharges. This naturally did not work so well, so I tried it with...only to find her spending too many turns healing, and again attacking the undead enemies with Cure.


So what I tried was to go in without any, then use a Seed on her after the Skuldiers had fallen. during the switchover. This proved too unreliable. I did need her to have White charges, and had to have Benny healing.


The biggest problem when the Skuldiers were down was poison-touch. I didn't want Kaeli to get caught in an alternating loop of heal, so I sometimes aimed a Heal at her. This was an extremely chaotic battle, consisting of predicting whatever came next. It certainly didn't help that she didn't start using Aero - which Gidrah is weak to - until late in the fight. I also used a Seed on Kaeli in the fight during a free turn, just to make sure she had enough spell charges


Thankfully, some of my status problems changed in Windia. The Cupid Locket protects against silence (useless), blind (a minor thorn), and confusion (YES!). With this, there are now more situations where Benny can cover his partner with impunity.


On Mount Gale were more of those Skuldiers, so this was welcome. What was not welcome were the Water Hags. These palette swaps of the Desert Hags (who appear green on the map, much like they appear gray) will use the Cure on any enemy in battle that's damaged. Extremely annoying, but they only seem able to use it so many times.

The other way around it was if Kaeli decided to use Aero. A single target spell would wipe one out in a single hit via 716 damage, and a multi-target one wouldn't make them Cure themselves, and allow the next Giant's Axe swing to bring them down. Another thought occurred that's technically within the ruleset was healing them myself after Kaeli damaged them above their own Cure threshold, but not all the way. I never got to employ it


I did find the ultimate helmet here, the Apollo Helm. It has no special properties over the Moon Helm aside from increasing stats a bit more, but no harm in picking it up.


Dullahan. The Vampires were only slightly annoying until I removed them. As for he himself, the esoterically named Headoomerang was his least threatening attack. Unfortunately, Sleep is one of the statuses that Benny still does not resist, so Hypno-sleep was a problem. More dangerous than that is Doom Dance, an attack that could instantly kill. Thankfully, it isn't guaranteed - fortunate because he once used it twice in a row. It nailed Benny and Kaeli a few times, necessitating the other springing into action.

A big problem I found in this fight, and in several actually, is Benny being at a low enough level so their attacks do over half his HP in damage. Rapier and Thunder Beam both did over 440 damage. So if the boss moves first and hits Benny, his partner would heal him instead of attacking! Pretty annoying, but not too painful to counter: just heal every round. I actually won it on the first attempt.

Aside: I saw him as some weird-faced monster, in his first form with the helmet as an eye, as a kid.


The next area of the game is the obnoxious Pazuzu's Tower. It's not necessarily as long as Lava Dome, but it is convoluted and can be just as annoying. Some of the more notable enemies here are the Beholders. Just like the Oozes, they repel magic. This time, I wasn't so lucky, and Kaeli did Aero a few of them. They also have a Doom Powder attack.


This dungeon is sort of a puzzle. Pazuzu is omnipresent on every floor at first. When you talk to him, he'll taunts you and moves to a random floor except the 7th.


In the meantime, you have a tower of annoying enemies to climb. Kaeli cannot kill these things in one hit, and they have a few annoying attacks like Stone Gas. The worst I found, however, was not an attacker.


It was the Sorcerers. They often came in huge groups, and like their palette swaps, they love Cure. I eventually took to just holding down the speedup key on these bastards. They weren't any problem on the offensive side, it's just that they were a pain on this end. And they were everywhere. Thanatos were also capable of using this, though they were much less prone to doing so.


Fifth floor Pazuzu. In a speedrun setting, this is the third-best, after sixth and first. To battle him, you need to flick the switches on the even-numbered floors to stop the elevator from going by those floors and trap him. Otherwise, he'll run away when you encounter him again.


Before all that, I had to get through more Sorcerers, ugh. They took so long, holding down speedup felt smart. Nagas were the second-worst, with plenty of annoying status attacks. Chimeras often came with Sorcerers, and had poison-touch and Stone Gas much like Gidrah.


If he's stuck, you fight him!


Pazuzu has a lot of annoying attacks. Sky Attack which damaged both party members was of the least concern. He seemingly has an obnoxiously high crit rate. Piledriver and Typhoon can both do extreme damage on a bad diceroll. But the worst is something that isn't a true attack, rather something he activates on his fifth turn, then flips on and off every third turn after that. If you attack him with magic when he has Psychshield up...


This happens. Pazuzu despite being the wind-aligned of the Vile Four, is weak to the element. So when it wasn't up, Kaeli's efforts with this were not in vain. When it was though, I had to be very prompt in healing her. A critical before reviving her would've been disasterous, as would a successful Stone Beak.


As before, I had to deal with attacks that did slightly more damage than my maximum HP, and a partner who could get into a healing loop because of it. The scariest moment came near the end of the fight. A bad sequence of attacks could've meant a restart, but Benny pulled through to heal.


It's quite amazing that I managed to win this on the first go at it. Pazuzu can just screw you if he's in a bad mood. Four Vile Four down, four crystals restored, four coins to the tower. All that's left is a small mini dungeon called Mac's Ship and Doom Castle!

[System Error]

Last two parts of the Twitch VODs: here, and I'll edit in the second part when I restream it! EDIT: Done!!
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After Pazuzu's Tower, you get Reuben back for a short dungeon. He comes with the White spell, which helps for wiping out groups of enemies.


Really not too much to say about it. Groups of two Thanatos were present here, but the only new monster were these Shadows, who multiplied from one accompanying a group of Gargoyles. They have Doom Dance, and could blind Reuben, but spells can't miss and Benny could just cover him if need be. If only he would've used White more often throughtout this dungeon.


There's also this goodie, for free and easily accessible in the final room! It adds Wind and Sleep resistance to the pot.


There weren't a lot of new enemies in Doom Castle. Most of them are the boss palette swaps, with Shadow and the new Cerberus being the only others. The last equipment upgrade was here, too. As is usual for the series, Aegis Shield protects again petrification! Yay!!


In Doom Castle, you fight palette swaps of the Vile Four. Normally, Skullrus Rex is roadkill. He only has 10000HP, and can actually be instantly killed by Dragon Claw petrification or Exit. Benny had a much tougher endeavor, and he actually managed to kill me a couple times. That's probably the first time in the history of...anything, really, discounting things like both Shadows Doom Dancing.


After the first time, I tried getting rid of all of Phoebe's White charges. Her Bow actually did less than Cure at only 280, but it did make her use her stronger spells. See, ordinarily, you'd just blow him away. Notso this time!


Fights like this one highlighted how bad the AI is with decision-making in regards to conservation. She would go after the Phanquid first with Fire, Thunder the Thanatos, and then Thunder the Shadow. Slow, but no problems so far.


Stone Golem was somewhat annoying. Corrode Gas is an instant deaths spell, and its Stone Block special did heavy damage. Not much to this one.


An interesting note: Phoebe does not have Aero. Yet she can cast it on Auto. It didn't do spectacular damage here, but it's interesting.


Now here was an annoying enemy group. Phoebe would try to fight trios of Cerberus by casting Fire, which they're weak to. She would multi-target the spell, but it would take five casts to get them all! All the while, they could throw out instant death, petrification, and confusion. I came this close to wiping against a group of them.


Just had to show this animation, heh.


Twinhead Wyvern was the easiest fight here. He has no dangerous status spells, only damaging attacks most of which Benny resisted. Infinitely defending Phoebe worked perfectly as she set to work thundering him to death.


Zuh was a nasty fight, but not for he himself. He has a weakness to Phoebe's Arrows, and she was doing quite a few crits. No, getting by the two goons was tougher. Phoebe would shoot the Chimera, and the Thanatos would heal it. Repeatedly. I needed turn order to line up to get by.


After dying a few times to the Doom Dances, Phoebe was finally able to get rid of the two minions. The fight was easy from there. He too, uses Psycheshield, but since Phoebe only shot arrows, it was a non-factor. He also has a bugged attack where he attacks with Psycheshield, to no effect.

And with this, the fun could begin...


The Dark King proved to be a very difficult fight. He has 40000HP and tons of nasty stuff. He's infamous for being able to kill him via a bug with using Cure on him. Not an option here, as those Cures count as harming him!! In his first phase, he didn't do much.

He has four attacks in his first phase: the only notable one was Dark Cane, which did 521. Para-stare was useless since both Phoebe and Benny are immune to the status. Spark and Iron Nail are weak attacks that are stat-reducers. Spark in particular reduced attack, eventually making Phoebe do paltry damage, so I countered with Refreshers. Never thought they would be useful in a playthrough, heh.

Eventually, I figured the optimal strat for this portion was for Benny to endlessly defend Phoebe. He would want to pop a Refresher after the Dark King transformed to his next phase at around 36000HP, but no big deal.


Dark King's second phase has all sorts of attacks. In order of strongest to weakest of his blades and their damage on Phoebe: Mirror Sword (529), Ice Sword (633), Fire Sword (729), Dark Saber (849). None of these are elemental, despite their names. The other two were more interesting. Quake Axe did 489 to Phoebe, hitting both party members unless Defend was involved. The last and worst was Cure Arrow, not for the damage it dealt (which was around 489 on Phoebe), but for how it heals Dark King by about 1000 each time.

Worse was when critical hits happened. A Dark Saber critical hit in particular could flatten either party member, and if it happened when one was down, that was it. Nothing I could do. The more he used Cure Arrow, the longer the fight drags out, and the less likely I am to win.


The next changeover at around 22000HP doesn't make things much easier, with him revealing his true form as a giant spider. He has a ton of nasty moves here. Silver Web and Golden Web are his signatures, inflicting paralysis/poison and petrification respectively in addition to doing damage, though the latter doesn't if it petrifies. These were naturally worst of Phoebe. Spider Kids is his other special. Nothing fancy, just an attack that uses spiders for an animation.

Mega White and Mega Flare really weren't all that. Benny actually resisted the latter due to it being technically fire-elemental. Didn't even do half his HP. Mega White did, and hit both party members unless Defend. Lazer looked electrical, but did over 900 damage. It did 1758 on a crit.


8500HPish is when the final changeover happened. This phase, despite looking like an octopus, uses the same attacks as the previous phase. Anyway, in my first fight, I was doing spectacularly.


Then he pulled out around five critical hits in a row to murder me. Check at around 1:24:30 in the first VOD to see this happen.

I kept on trying from this point, but never managed to reach the octopus again. Sometimes I'd get one-twoed by crits, other times Phoebe would be Golden Webbed or Silver Webbed and things would get out of hand. There were many instances where I was critically hit, but survived! Yet nothing succeeded.


I pulled out to raise Benny's level a bit before heading back in, fighting in Battlefields. I left them at one remaining in case I needed to exploit a bug to save time later.


I also tried running Phoebe out of Arrows to see if she would use magic more. No luck. She did seem to crit a lot more often (like she did here), but it wasn't worth it. I proceeded to lose several more times at level 28.


Again, I never could reach the octopus. Fights died in much the same way, although Benny would now not be healed by Phoebe after being hit with Silver Web. I figured 1200HP for the next stopover point, as that's when Benny would not be healed after being hit by Mega White. I did come up with a new tactic here: defending Phoebe was more important to guard against Silver/Gold Web.


Before heading back, I added one last trick to the pile: running Phoebe out of Black spells to increase the chances of using White in the first phase. This meant I had to lock in the cutscene of the statue of hero, which I forgot to do. It worked well, at least! The best way to do this was go to the Pyramid and have her use Fire on Desert Hags.

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The best place to level was the first floor of Pazuzu's Tower. Phoebe could one-shot the Garudas, and all Benny had to do was guard against Blinder. I ended up going to 31.


There was one last piece to the puzzle: I had to fight some Shadows to get in. Phoebe would willingly Thunder them...unless I tried to run away, failed, she was killed, and they Selfdestructed! Because of this, I was able to get in with all 10 of her Wizard charges. Still, miscalculated a bit on my counting, but getting rid of the rest of the Black charges was easy due to those three Cerberus encounters.


Once again, this message was like the worst thing I could see. In the first attempt after this, Phoebe moved, Dark King went Dark Saber, critical hit, Benny dead. Dark King moved, Dark Saber, criitcal hit, Phoebe dead. Nothing I could do.


In the second and real fight - which was actually a test run I happened to be recording off-camera - the only thing that happened of note in phase 1 was a critical Dark Cane to open. It was completely smooth besides.


Second phase went off to a good start; I used a Seed instead of a Refresher. I didn't actually catch this error until rewatching after the fact. Even stupider, I really should've Seeded before going in. Thankfully, it didn't matter. The strat in this phase was to heal with Cure constantly. A few counts from this fight:
- 9 Cure Arrows
- 6 useless Benny Cures
- 5 Dark King criticals, all in a row
- 3 Phoebe criticals
- 2 Phoebe misses
- 2 Phoebe deaths
- 5 Whites
- 2 Thunders
- 1 near-death experience when Blizzard Sword crit a lone Benny. I started slinging Life spells at Phoebe at this point, calling any nonsense before it happened.

My Seed on Phoebe was mistimed; she had two Wizard charges left (using three Thunders after that), but it was probably the better option in the end.


As mentioned, the only thing to do in the spider and octopus phases were to constantly Defend Phoebe. Because of my lack of a refresher, Mega White was doing 613 instead of 593 (actually, every attack was doing around 20 more than usual), but due to Beny being Level 31, it still didn't trigger a Phoebe Cure. Benny ate floor tile a total of eleven times in this phase. But all eleven times, Phoebe went and revived him on the same turn.


I believed she was out of Wizard spells halfway into the Octopus phase. But I decided the safe option was to keep defending. I didn't want her eating a Golden Web or anything. It and Silver Web would wreck Phoebe with status, whereas they bounced off Benny. Mega White could even prove problematic, because if Benny died and Dark King attacked, Phoebe's chances of survival were lower.


And in the end, it was the right option. Phoebe eventually finished him off with one final Arrow volley. According to the hex data that I looked at, she had two uses of white magic left at this point. Two more than I needed!

Closing thoughts on this? The AI in this game is pretty stupid at times, especially with Cure vs. Undead. Yet it was amusing at times, and the fact that Benny was able to support it every step of the way without contributing too much effort until the final boss meant it was a worthwhile variant in the end. It was an interesting variant, too, trying to figure out the best way to defend and work with the AI, and not letting it get caught in any dumb loops or killed repeatedly.


And so Benny bids his female friends farewell to instead become the captain of a ship with an ninja adventurer as a crewmate who kinda forced his way on. At least he still has someone to cheer on as he sails away to parts unknown!

[System Error]

The recent destruction of FF1 that finishes in a ridiculously short time got me in the mood for more of that game.

I recalled Sullla's Living off the Land variant. While a desperate struggle in the early game, by the end of the game, it really wasn't all that difficult. The game hands all the great equipment to you: Ribbons, armor, spellcasting items, and all the best weapons of the game. At the end of their journey, it played out like almost any other four Fighter party, just with a lack of potions, which isn't that big a deal due to the Heal staff and the such. So why not do an inversion of circumstances?

This party will not be scroungers at all: in fact, their one policy is that opening treasure chests is strictly prohibited unless they need to do so to advance. These hardworking capitalists will have to earn their way through this game by battling monsters and spending money at the store, living off their wallet instead. Never shops, only what they buy along the journey. For similar reasons to LotL, the Black Belt will be excluded from potential consideration. A class that has no use for its wallet defeats the purpose of this variant! Because this by extension is a no class change game, the Thief is out.

So what do we want? We'll start with a White Mage. ARUB is the only way to protect against the nasty instant-death attacks out there, including CRACK. We'll want at least one Fighter, and we want something to use FAST. Red Mage vs. Black Mage is a good question. Without class change, Black Mage doesn't get NUKE, but Red Mage only gets FIR3 at best. Best if one of our party members is a Black Mage. And with our low offense (Silver Axe is our strongest weapon!), a Red Mage might end up a liability short of strength manipulation (read: resetting a lot until it goes up at every reset).


So two Fighters, a White Mage, and Black Mage. I would ironically consider a Thief in place of the second Fighter if the TAIL were mandatory, just for the hell of it and because their Strength turns out higher on average than Red, I'd still have two FAST users and I'd still end up with two attackers. I can't afford it here due to weaker weapons. Oh well, some other time.

In keeping with the spirit of money, I've given every character a name that's related to it. Rich, Buck, Mint, and Zeni. That's our party!


The starting 400 Gold was easy to figure out. Two Rapiers, Two Chain Mail, Two Cloth, a FIRE spell, and...an Iron Hammer! Yeah, see, if I had gone with a CURE spell, Mint's turns this early on in the game would be wasted. With a Hammer, she can fight. Even though the difference is one battle, it made that one battle a bit less of a pain.


Because of the nature of this variant, this party is going to play like almost any other Fi/Fi/WM/BM party, up to looting the Mystic KEY. The only thing notable about Garland, who I fought at Level 2, was Mint getting the kill off a critical hit. The trip to Pravoka was annoying due to several missed hits, but not dangerous. The Pirates couldn't put up any resistance, though took four rounds to kill because of missing repeatedly.


The two weapons competing for early game attention happen to be found in the same spot, here in Provoka. Short Shord has 15/10 attack/hit, and Hand Axe has 16/5. Which one Rich and Buck want to use depend on their level. Levels 5-6 is where the Hand Axe will be inferior to the Short Sword, but after that, it has a point more of damage and critical hit percentage. It's worth skipping them; those two levels are at a point where it'd make a difference, it's only a single point of damage, and by the time I'm past that point, it'd be more prudent to save up for stronger weapons.


This has got to be the earliest time my party's experience was made unequal. A GrWOLF took out Zeni, and on the way to Coneria's clinic, a single KYZOKU attacked on the seas. Can't run! Not worth stressing over, though, especially when it's only a difference of 20.

Before heading to Marsh Cave for the first time, I did a bit of cash grinding and made the following purchases: two Short Swords, a LIT spell, a HARM spell, 6 HEAL potions, 2 TENTs, 2 PUREs. This definitely isn't enough, but I decided that I may as well try with what I have. Besides, I can't always abuse the penninsula of power. I upped it to 28 HEAL potions and 6 PUREs after a bit of moving around Elfland.


Ways not to earn money, by the way: 15-tile puzzle. It's really abuseable in some of the remakes if you're fast at solving it, but here, it's not worth it for all but people who demand low levels with as much money as possible. Which is its best use in the remake too, but you don't have to do it 100G at a time.


I ran into a GrOGRE/OGRE pack close to the Marsh Cave, which paid off quite healthily. The variant sort-of begins from here, as there's nothing to loot but the CROWN. The first trip into the cave ended in failure at the WIZARDs (which came in a pack of three and was a close fight), which is fine by me because that trip in was stupid, featuring 3/4 monsters strike first and very unprofitable fights. I reset the second instantly because of the same two steps in, and the third died to four WIZARDs.


So I went back and got some Iron Armor. These sturdy things would be on Rich and Buck's torso for a while. 24 Defense for just 800G? Yes, please! The Steel Armor isn't a practical investment right away, and the Silver Armor's only advantage is having less of an evade penalty.

By the way, Copper Bracelets are not worth the price tag on them. Iron Shield and Wooden Helmet get outclassed eventually. I should get Caps eventually since they're the best the Mages get, though.


With Iron Armor, and the minimum draw of two WIZARDs, this fight was a snoozer. The only thing was that I had forgotten to heal Zeni on coming in due to liberal use of speedup and the fights generally also being snoozefests. Not as bad as the first trip through the cave, which consisted of five SHADOWs, two groups of three SCUMs, and a MUCK, but still could've been better.

The only encouter of note was this sad scenario, where a deceased CRAWL paralyzed Mint, so she couldn't HARM away all the BONEs. Had to clean them up manually.


3303G by the time I got back to Elfland and saved. I was one fight removed from Level 7, so I went and did that. How to spend it was a good question! All I got for now was FIR2 for Zeni, as well as some supplies. I got to fight a lot of OGREs and even three KYZOKUs on the ship, so I'd made it back by the time I reached the northern castle.


ASTOS was a silly fight. My first go at him, he skipped using a spell on all three turns that he got at 1/4 odds each time. I would've reset if RUB connected anyway, but this made things a lot easier. Zeni carried with FIR2 for around 50 damage each time, but the Fighters chipping in and finishing with this critical also helped to deplete his 168HP.

Now the variant really begins.


Normally, the advent of the Mystic Key means a looting tour for a party. Notso here. These shopaholics have one thing to get: the TNT. Anyway, their gold count was 6352. I actually decided to skip out on Silver Swords for the time being. Silver Axes are better, except on Levels 14-15 by which time I'd have enough money to have both. They cost 4500G apiece.


So I went and did that, and by the time I got there, I had made enough from the random battles to give both one! The Fighter's damage jumped up to 38! Of course, this town had other nice things in it as well. Silver Shields and Silver Helmets in particular are the best equipment of their kind for this party. Next though, I figured doing something about the mages' 1 Absorb might be wise. That meant saving up for some 5000G Silver Bracelets, which will be a mainstay for a while given the absurd price tag on Gold Bracelets.


Because these were such a high priority, I got these before heading to the Earth Cave. It wasn't so bad to build up the necessary cash for them. With their new axes, they could reliably take out OGREs in a single attack.


I chose to conserve Zeni's last FIR2 against the VAMPIRE, in case I needed it later. I underestimated his defense, I suppose. The fight lasted longer than a round because of it, and he smacked Buck for 104 damage.


Pictured: why you don't enter a dungeon in a variant such as this one with only 6 HEAL potions. It wasn't so bad: I fought the more appealing enemy groups like OGRE/GrOGREs and BULLs, and ran from the less appealing ones like wolf and spider enemy groupings. The trip in was easy, but the trip out was a bit tense because of this. Still, I did it with no casualities thanks to 2 PUREs and general continuing my fighting habits, though it came down to the wire at the end there.

Now there's 9271G in the bank. Our priorities are a bit harder to figure out at this point, so let's whip up a list of everything these capitalists might immediately want.

- Silver Shield x2: 5000G
- Silver Helmet x2: 5000G
- Silver Sword x2: 8000G
- Silver Hammer x1: 2500G
- Silver Knife x1: 800G

- CUR2 & HRM2: 3000G
- ICE2 & FAST: 8000G
- FIR3: 8000G

We're still a ways from Level 14-15, so we can rule out the Silver Swords. Mint's actually gained every point of strength possible so far, but the Hammer won't be too big of an upgrade at this point. But since she has only CURE and HARM, it made sense to get more spells for the White Mage. Speaking of, while FAST is nice, Zeni is probably going to be better off with a FIR2/FIR3 or two on LICH, so we'll rule out FAST.


So I decided on the Shields next, but by the time I got there, I'd made enough money from the fights around Crescent Lake to get more, so I picked up the Helmets too. This took the Fighters to 38 Absorb. As the party was only Level 11, that meant no level 5 charges. I did get ICE2 to go along with everything, however, as well as buying LIT2 in case of WIZARDs. A few HEALs and PUREs, too!


The rest of Earth Cave in two words: screw COCTRICEs. I neglected to buy SOFTs, and didn't feel like spending money on them. They killed three runs into the cave, including this one outright. Next on the crap list was any large group that have a low payout. WrWOLF/GrWOLF groups, ASPs, ARACHNIDs, and so on. Obviously, GIANTs, OGREs/GrOGREs, and WIZARDs were welcome sights.


LICH wasn't too hard. The Fighters' performance was a bit disappointing, especially Rich who only did 21 on the first round. The first round saw a total of 208 damage from my side, and an ICE2 from the boss that, in particular, did high damage to the mages. Before he could attack again, Mint pulled out this strong HRM2 on the second round to seal his fate.

Next up is the midgame...duo!! That's right, Ordeals isn't even worth setting foot into for this party, as the only reason to go in there are optional chests. This party can't open optional chests! But first, we have 21664G to spend. I chose to spend it on LIFE for Mint, FIR3 for Zeni, and 99 HEAL potions.

With that in mind, I chose to send the party through the Ice Cave first. They won't be fighting much at all in Gurgu Volcano, so the extra levels they get from this will help against KARY.


It was good and hilarious fun. Frost Ds kept showing up in random battles, once ending my attempt by killing Mint. The SORCERERs went on stunlocking rampages, the undead trap once had a single enemy, and so on. I once got through with just Rich and Zeni, but decided to reset that. Another time I accidentally walked off where the FLOATER was instead of fighting the EYE. Not a problem, until Buck and Zeni got petrified. Yeah, COCTRICES were still around, and I still refused to buy SOFTs. 800G is highway robbery!


Because the game was being obnoxious, I left to pick up Silver Swords due to the Fighters being close to Level 14. I also got AICE because of those Frost Ds. First fight in: Frost Ds!! Who used BLIZZARD before AICE could be used. Mint was killed by a physical on the next turn. That's got to be some sort of record for fastest failed attempt at the Ice Cave.

Eventually, things lined up. The Fighters hit 14, and took their Silver Swords in-hand for 3 hits. The most notable encounter of the winning run was this solo MAGE who refused to cast magic. He died without doing much of anything. The EYE used XXXX on Buck. That spell only works if the target has under 300HP. I made sure to heal before the battle this time so he didn't get offed.

A bit of preparation later, and I was ready for the Volcano. It's a ridiculously short dungeon when you're just passing through without getting the treasure, thanks to all the lava tiles. Even mostly avoiding them, I had minimal encounters. I did fight one more battle before KARY to get my party to Level 15.


The six-armed snakelady got off a FIR2 to begin that did 116 to Rich and paltry damage on everything else. Mint threw up AFIR to make that damage even less. Then Zeni stepped in with HOLD. Where your party can recover from paralysis at a 25% chance every turn, enemies only have a 9.8% chance to do so. So she was more or less done as soon as this was down. With nothing else to really do, Zeni then gave FAST a whirl, the Fighters already having done around 300 damage in the meantime between themselves. They somewhat disappointed from here. Ultimately, it was Mint who got the kill.

Next, cash grinding for the BOTTLE. Not opening chests leads to a money shortage. The game really actually begins next time.