LogFAQs > #927468895

alright I spent longer than I should have fighting random monsters in the Veldt, getting new skills for Gau, and testing them out to see what they do. I used the bed in the Relic Shop house to sleep for free. the owner doesn't seem to mind, and it saves money instead of going to the Inn.

I will say one thing that makes this easier. when you're selecting your action for Gau you can hit Rage to see the list of which ones you have already. if the enemies on screen aren't already on the Rage list, then I would do Leap. if they WERE already on the Rage list, I would pick a Rage that I haven't done before.

I noticed that most of them are around the same level of power, doing around 90-110 damage. which is about the same as Sabin and Cyan do with their BASIC attacks. meaning it feels like Gau is a bit weaker than them, because they are always doing way more damage with their special attacks that they can spam.

all that being said, it was still an interesting little experiment. I think I'm sort of starting to like the Gau stuff more than I did when I initially encountered it. it adds a really unique element to the game with a ton of depth. I don't plan to get myself very lost in it, but it was fun to experiment with it a little bit and still not even come near hitting the bottom of this well.

out of curiosity, what is so good about the stray cat? it didn't seem any better than the other Rage moves that I tried out. it would randomly Cat Scratch for higher damage at times, but this seemed random and unreliable. I guess it's good just for the raw damage?

oh, the most interesting thing about the Rage abilities... is that Gau seems to keep Raging infinitely after the first turn of combat? I actually didn't realize that at first because I was ending combat in one turn or less normally. but it's another aspect to consider when sending him into battle. once you select a move for him, he's going to keep spamming that one move for the rest of the battle. Hm!

all that being said, it's time to FINALLY make some progress!

actually as I was trying to progress to the next area I accidentally almost lost Gau. had to go back and get him. hah.

so we head into this cave where the Shiny is supposed to be. I like how there isn't just the diving helmet in here, but there's another scene you can trigger by looking in the wrong spot, where Gau plays a prank and Sabin gets annoyed with him. minor stuff like this make it feel like there is more going on beyond just moving to the next objective in sequence.

the next section of the game was... bizarrely difficult. there were these jellyfish enemies who counter your attacks by casting Gigavolt, which literally oneshots any of your party members. they will sometimes counter cast it even as they die. and since you can't use the menu between encounters while fighting in the current, this led to some annoying situations where I'd have a character start off dead at the beginning of the next battle. I was running low on phoenix downs. and the worst thing is that if you don't kill them quickly, they will stun lock your party with paralysis skills.

I honestly have NO idea how I got through this section in one try without needing to reload my save, but I barely managed to scrape through.

at this point I want to take a break, but the game dumps me in a town, one of the places where you can't save unless you go and find a save point.

first thing I do is go find the Inn in Nikeah, rest up all of my guys, and then go for the town exit. I'll save my game for now and worry about exploring Nikeah later. I did discover that the ferry here will take me right to Southern Figaro, so I'm basically ready to end this scenario and go reunite with the other party members as soon as I'm ready.

but of course I want to explore first!
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I saw the truth, I saw endless night skies; Understanding is pain.
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