LogFAQs > #947892416

The prisoner lady turns out to be Halicarnassus (I like that it makes you walk to the door twice and bounces you back). She's not difficult at all, I quickly learn not to cast spells as she retaliates with an instakill hit, and her gimmick of turning us into toads only takes a few Maiden's Kisses to solve. I manage to steal a Staff of Light from her, and she's really not a problem.

Up on the castle roof we fight Twintania, and this one is tougher. It counters attacks by casting the top level summon spells, so we sit ourselves down and Shell everybody up. It begins charging Giga Flare, and thanks to reading a library book I know this is the time to attack. A few minutes into the battle Bartz's Assassin Dagger triggers its Death effect and we win the battle. Oh. I figured the bosses would all be immune to that but lol, I'll take it.

We finally get into the void itself, I like the look of this area and love how Exdeath's roots get more and more prominent the further in we go. The enemies give a lot of AP but we have to be careful not to trigger their bad sides (King Behemoth x2 + Meteor = oof). We talk to a familiar figure on the map and enter a fight with Gilgamesh! I didn't expect to see him here! After a brief bit of fighting he recognises us and we have a very sweet chat where it is made clear he sees us as his pals. Sadly we can't let him join our team, but he leaves us alone and heads off to the next dimensional portal. Thank you, Gilgamesh.

I avoid the treasure chests here as I know one of the ones at the end of a staircase has a superboss, and we make our way eventually to a spot of light that turns out to be Necrophobe. This guy is invincible til we take out his four Barrier chums who bounce magic off of each other onto us. Unfortunately the Assassin Dagger comes back to haunt us here, Bartz hits a Barrier and the Death bounces off and kills Krile at a very bad time, and we lose. Oops! Oh well, it gives me an excuse to replay the Gilgamesh fight and this time remember to steal his Shield.

I swap weapons out for the Necrophobe fight and this time it's not much trouble, Necrophobe himself isn't too tough once he is vulnerable and we get into a rhythm of- what's this? The return of Gilgamesh! He truly becomes a hero here, and sacrifices himself to help save the world. We love you, Gilgamesh! The dialogue in these last two fights of his is very good, and it's nice that he gets a goodbye for everybody (poor Faris's isn't as nice as the others though). Hopefully Bartz and he can have a one on one fight someday. I like that he probably canonically survives this given his later appearances, but it's a great exit to a great scene stealer who livened up the whole game and took the game's tone from slightly quirky to outright wacky and wonderful.

We get our final save point here now. I come across the Mover enemies that apparently give great ABP but the battle just cuts out back to the map partway through. No animation or anything. Well, I'll take that over crashes! I decide to not bother grinding a bunch and simply head up to the final encounter. Exdeath awaits us, and before our eyes transforms into his natural tree state and teleports a bunch of areas to the Void, including... us? What is this, a void inside the void or something? The Dawn Warriors and King Tycoon help us out somehow (that's right, Galuf gets the front spot. Good.) and we're into the final boss fight!

Tree Exdeath has a pretty cool design, and puts up a bit of a fight but honestly it's not worth saying much about it, it's the obligatory first form. Cool to take a step back and realise we are fighting an evil demon tree in the space between worlds though! I do waste some powerful items on him too. After a bit he is taken into the void himself and transforms into Neo Exdeath (badass name for a final boss), giving a really cool brief monologue that is very similar to Ultimecia's final fight one, guess she ripped him off. The background goes crazy here, pretty colourful for a void, and Neo Exdeath himself is a true eldritch abomination.

I am Neo-Exdeath! All memories...dimensions...existence... All that is shall be returned to nothing. Then I, too, can disappear... forever!!!
(Seriously is this not an Ultimecia 'All Existence Denied' line?)

Now this is a final boss fight. There are four different targets to hit, he has a lot of health, and continually casts devastating new attacks. The game slows way down at several points here. His most annoying attacks are Almagest, and the incredibly devastating Grand Cross, which takes forever to cast (rising my anxiety every second!) and can just kill people instantly no matter their defences, and often petrifies a dead body too. We use everything at our disposal here but things go against us just a bit too much, and I have to try again.

This time I swap classes and abilities a little bit (Black and Blue magic get no use here so I dump them) and save all my best disposable items for the final phase. Fuma Shurikens do a crapton of damage to Exdeath's front, and Lenna's Zeninage is the single most useful attack in this entire fight, hitting every part of Exdeath for 3K damage at once. It's still a tough fight, I prioritise buffing whenever possible, and freely drink up the Elixir supply as necessary. Faris's Meteor is helpful too, and when Krile isn't healing I have her Mime one of the more powerful attacks for a free hit. We hit a scare when we kill the third of the four targets, and he casts a string of Meteor, Comet and Vacuum Wave. At one point Krile gets Silenced, and this is the first time I realise there is no anti-silence item in this game! Where's the Echo Herbs, Square? What gives?! I consider killing Krile myself and reviving her, but that's too risky so I just abuse Elixirs and Phoenix Downs until she's herself again. Faris goes down and instead of reviving her I go for one final hit, which kills Neo Exdeath and wins us the game.

The ending sequence is pretty decent if a bit standard- the crystals still contain their base elements and thus can restore the world to its true state thanks to the Warriors of Light imbuing their essences. The dead gang show up again (why the hell is Galuf not at the front this time??), and poor Kelger and Xelzat seem like afterthoughts that Bartz has to mention given that everyone else has a relation lol. Faris fails to rejoin the world of the living with the other 3, and I am very pissed that I didn't just wait a single turn to revive her before finishing Exdeath. I'm assuming this is why she 'dies' here as there was no plot buildup for this.

In a way though, having one party member absent gives the ending a bit more weight, Lenna is a lone princess and Bartz remembers those who have been lost. Cid even has a black and white flashback of Faris's memorable moments (they were mostly in the first part of the game, huh), and Faris eventually is revived. The last lines are nicely underplayed, gentle musings on a far off voice the four can hear. They set off together on another adventure, and cue credits, ending in a very fancy Word Art version of The End bouncing around the screen.

The End

...Of all the games to get direct sequels why did they not pick the one where the main 4 are actually together at the end going off on another adventure >_> OK so clearly I didn't get the best ending here, though I kind of like how it went anyway. I'll save my proper overall thoughts on the game until I'm done with the extras, but it was a strong series of ending battles and I like that the gang stays together. Spoilers: I liked this game quite a lot!

Checklist of post-game stuff:
-Do the Sealed Temple
-Beat Omega
-Beat the other superboss
-Replay the ending with everyone alive (Are there different sequences for every permutation I wonder? I don't want to have to do that last fight 14 times!)

If there's anything else to do feel free to let me know!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFV
Congrats to azuarc, Guru Champion 2020!