LogFAQs > #949954310

I've bookmarked Dancing Mad to listen to at some point, thanks Seabass. It's a shame the last fight is over so quickly, they could've just doubled Kefka's HP for GBA or something!

Onto the postgame, our first goal is to... figure out where the next dungeon is. We were told to go to the Dragon's Horn, so I head to Dragon Neck Coliseum and wander around the pointy bits of land nearby, then try landing on each of the islands. One of them actually works, and we're into Dragons' Den!

It's another 3 party dungeon (yay!), I swap Gau out for Setzer but otherwise keep the parties the same as in Kefka's Tower. This place is pretty sprawling and filled with dozens of different enemies (including many names that I recall from V's Sealed Temple), and slightly more complex switch hitting and puzzle solving than Kefka's Tower. There's no AP gains here which is a little annoying but at least I don't have to continually keep an eye on and swap out Espers between the 12, I just lock everybody into a stat gain that seems good for them. The biggest change from the rest of the game becomes readily apparent when we face off against the Ice Dragon- the game has taken a big step up in difficulty!

The first boss takes me 4 tries to complete with team Celes, the Ice Dragon has replicated itself into 4 and retaliates to any attack on each of its bodies, much like an enemy back in the final dungeon. I soon learn that I should avoid any multi-hit attacks and just focus on one hit at a time, and this is how we get through this one. It's still not easy though, the moment we win everybody is frozen or dead. Still, I'll take it, and we get a new weapon for Setzer for our troubles.

I eventually get into the swing of how to manoeuvre in this place, the teams should be completely split up but I need to remain aware of their relative placements for all the puzzles here. Note: The Vilia enemy is very annoying. We mess around for a while getting one chest in the lava, and then it's Celes again who ends up facing our second boss, the Storm Dragon. This guy is much easier than the first, and we take it down first attempt. I breathe a sigh of relief and hope the first was a one off, but turns out that is not the case. We luckily find a save point and I keep Celes on top of it while the others run around so we can heal+save at a moment's notice.

Good thing, too, because team Sabin runs into the Earth Dragon and gets Quaked right away. Second try I cast Float on everyone before we begin, and the Dragon... casts 50Gs then immediately Magnitude 8s and Quakes us dead. Well that's just cheating. Luckily I have exactly 4 Angel Wings, which are a lifesaver in this fight. He can't ground us anymore but that doesn't stop him trying or following his pattern. Seriously I have no idea how you're supposed to do this without these Relics. It's not over and done just like that though, he heals himself with every Earth attack until I cast Float on him too, and we can't drop our guard because he has some nasty physical hits every now and then. After a while he starts raging and whacking us with several physical hits in one go, often knocking a character out, letting them Reraise, then knocking them down again before finishing his cycle. We barely scrape through just before he takes us down, phew. Seems like every Dragon here gives a weapon reward tailored to a specific character.

Next up team Terra enters a more well-built location and takes a ride on a turtle. She clicks open a door letting a Red Dragon out somewhere, and goes to fight the Blue Dragon. This fight isn't easy but having team Jump here helps a lot. Edgar spends most of his time in the air, we don't even buff him really, Umaro's fancy Berserker Ring means he straight up tosses party members at the Dragon for decent damage (lol), and Terra doesn't get time to attack as she's busy reviving/buffing as necessary. We're halfway through already!

I'm enjoying the difficulty increase here, particularly as each boss fight has its gimmick to figure out and it's not just artificially hard due to increased numbers or something. The next one up tests me, though. Sabin finds his way down to the Red Dragon, and this guy is straight up invincible to everything I try. Physical, Magic, special moves, nothing touches him. After a couple deaths I pay closer attention to the initial text box telling us the Dragon is draining its own life force to increase its strength, so decide to just try to stay alive as long as possible. I gear up the party with Flame Shields and a Red Jacket to nullify and absorb many of its attacks, and spend the entire time buffing and healing. It's a bit of a guessing game but eventually the plan works, and the Red Dragon depletes its own life force enough for us to win. Phew.

We then engage on a long stretch without any boss, picking up a bunch of items and Lores from the enemies here (seriously, there's so many Lores. It's only now I learn you can pick up one max per battle!). Some of the enemies are very annoying, I begin to really notice the encounter rate in the Labyrinth with multiple enemies you can't escape from, and there's a trio of Magic Dragons that love to triple cast Aero upon entry to battle. There's another guy who Spears us to death once so I just run from him in future encounters. Sabin and Celes run around and around, until eventually Sabin finds the Skull Dragon. We're a way off from a save so I don't fight this guy right now, instead heading back to get Celes up onto the save point so there's no danger. We also pick up a Celestriad, which drops all MP cost to 1! Woo! Though I'm gonna have to swap this around between each team lol.

I'll do the rest of this tomorrow, we still have Skull, Gold and Holy to do (I hit a switch which according to a gravestone should have unlocked some door to the Holy Dragon), and I'm not sure if there's more postgame after that. Probably. They're not letting up in this place!

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
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