LogFAQs > #949992746

I haven't been using Terra's morph (if that's what Trance is) or really anyone's special abilities at this point. Except... Strago, I guess.

First up is the Skull Dragon, and after a quick fail (Level 5 Death hits all of my party, oops!) and a brief levelling expedition and re-equipping with anti-zombie gear, Sabin and co take it down pretty solidly... but then it immediately returns and a text box helpfully tells us it won't die if it still has MP. Could've told us that at the start, game! This thing isn't difficult once we know what to do, but it just... takes... so damn long. There's probably a faster way than what I was doing, which was just casting Rasp over and over and over and over. But it eventually works.

Into the Holy Palace, team Celes faces off with the Holy Dragon. This thing's gimmick isn't so bad, it just gets outside help for healing but we can Reflect the Curagas back at us. The main problem is its superior moveset, including Heartless Angel and Saintly Beam (which it can cast several times in a row). We plow through by casting Reraise and hoping for the best, and Celes Dualcasting Ultima for 1MP each doesn't hurt. Got a bit lucky here with the move order.

Finally we find the source of all the Lightning Seals, the Gold Dragon. He absorbs all magic- including our own heals! It's Terra's turn, but even more than Umaro the MVP for this fight is Edgar. The key is his Jumps keep him offscreen for the vast majority of the fight, and therefore he can't get spammed with the annoying spells this thing has. Again we get a bit lucky I think, I forego regular strategy planning and just try to off it before it overwhelms us. We also have some elemental immunity. Whatever works.

With the 8 down we unlock a whole host of areas, and I'll spare you the details but it took me ages to figure things out here. You don't want to know how long it took me to realise you can call the turtle back to the middle from the other side. Whew. Anyway we find a Treasure Room which has a few more minibosses inside- Plague casts Doom on us all but we can still get around it with Reraise and the gang overpowers it easily enough, Naslug is the biggest problem thanks to lack of control over Umaro and its annoying insta-kill counter (Vanish helps somewhat), and the Flan Princesses are thankfully no trouble at all.

After a lot of back and forth, and me getting very very sick of random encounters, we get the three teams in the right spot and unlock Kaiser's Lair. I take Celes here to face our true boss, the Kaiser Dragon. Now this is a boss fight. After a miserable first attempt I load up on Ribbons (we have exactly 4 thanks to the Treasure Room) and try my best. This thing hits hard, and switches its pattern up constantly. I soon realise that playing it defensive at the start is helpful, as it counters any attack. Once everyone has Mighty Guard + Haste + Reraise I try fighting, but it still takes several tries. I can't quite figure out its pattern, but some of its counters are very deadly, particularly the insta-kill Hyperdrive.

I eventually come up with a strategy- to avoid attacking entirely while it cycles through a bunch of barrier changes, then start up once it settles down into a pattern. Ultima does the max 9999 here but we can only cast it once every few turns thanks to all its other attacks. With Ribbons, some elemental immunity and Float some of his attacks miss us entirely, which gives an opening. By the end it's not even worth using Curaga, his attacks either do 0 damage or one-shot no matter how much HP we have, Reraise is far more crucial (and Float). As he goes down he takes a cue from Magic Master and casts Ultima to finish us off, but this time around we have Reraise up and ready to go. We get Diabolos, and access to another dungeon, apparently the final one this time. For all that, Diabolos's attacks don't seem that great. Gravija won't touch any boss, I'm sure.

This dungeon took way longer than I had anticipated, but it was a nice challenge. I can only imagine how hard the last one will be! Next time, Shadow will get some rest.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
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