Topic: Enough expository banter! Now Let's Play Final Fantasy V Advance! (Read 23617 times)

R^2 · « **Reply #320 on:** September 22, 2013, 02:22:43 AM »

Nah, I'm yankin' your chain.

See, the transformation to Exdeath's final form is scripted as a counterattack to be used when he hits 0 HP, like a Behemoth capping off the battle with Meteor.

But Chaos Cannon doesn't prompt for counterattacks, so the whole transformation sequence was skipped entirely, and the battle ended.

In the SNES game, you could mix a Kiss of Blessing to Berserk Exdeath, and Berserked characters don't counterattack either. Exdeath is immune to Berserk status, but Kiss of Blessing is supposed to be beneficial, so doesn't check for immunity. Why would you use it on anyone but your own party?

Final Fantasy 5 is actually the first game in the series to have a second form to the final boss that you also have to fight. This was probably a shocking twist back when the game was first released.

Anyway, being sucked into the Void has made Exdeath a bit of a nihilist. Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it's a philosophy.

I'd like to introduce you to my buddy here. He lives in a magic lamp.

...are we done now?

R^2 · « **Reply #321 on:** September 22, 2013, 02:32:42 AM »

Nah, I'm yankin' your chain again. Neo Exdeath has four parts, and only one of them dies to Zantetsuken. It's the part in the back, where the pile of skeleton bones are -- it's the part that has the most HP and takes the least damage, and if it's the last part alive, it uses Meteor every turn until one side of the fight wins. So knocking it out early makes the whole battle a lot easier.

The rest quickly reform and continue the attack. Neo Exdeath uses lots of different kinds of magic, and eventually charges up to use Almagest or Grand Cross. Almagest is just straight-up damage, and Grand Cross is damage plus status ailments. Warming up for Grand Cross gives the message "The laws of the universe mean nothing!", which got copied into Dissidia for Exdeath's EX Burst.

But I beat Neo Exdeath so fast, he didn't have time to use either one.

This is a two-part battle, and the first part against tree-form Exdeath is pretty easy to endure. You can set up Mighty Guard, Golem, and any number of !Mix benefits before Neo Exdeath shows up, and keep those benefits throughout the Neo Exdeath fight. A couple Dragon Powers (+20 to effective character level) and maybe some Giant Drinks (double max HP for the remainder of the fight) or Dragon Kiss (the target becomes Dragon-type, thus immune to several status ailments) means Neo Exdeath doesn't have a prayer.

I didn't do any of that, because at my experience level and job mastery, he didn't have a prayer anyway.

R^2 · « **Reply #322 on:** September 22, 2013, 02:40:20 AM »

Now where was I? Oh yes.

Hope blessed the earth.

Courage blazed into flame.

Care and devotion turned water into the seeds of life.

The passion for knowledge spread intelligence and wisdom on the winds.

If ever the Void threatens to engulf the world, so long as the four essences still exist in man, light will be born anew.

The four essences shall rise from the Void and weave light once again.

Krile: But-but we beat Exdeath!
Lenna: Is it because the crystals are all gone?
Faris: The world will be engulfed by the Void...

Yep, like the scholar back in the Library of the Ancients said, it's all moot. With the crystals gone, the world is missing the elemental forces it needs to make the wind blow and fire hot. Being sucked into the Void for a quick death seems preferable to watching the soil rot and water turn brackish all over the world while you slowly starve.

Oh well, I guess that's game.

Oh, wait! Mary Sue has the answer! (Of course Mary Sue has the answer.)

Everyone else follows Krile's lead, casting away the remaining shards of the crystals and focusing on the essences they were granted.

R^2 · « **Reply #323 on:** September 22, 2013, 02:44:45 AM »

In the Pyramid of Moore, the earth crystal reforms.

Behind Istory Falls, the water crystal reforms.

Inside the Great Sea Trench, the fire crystal reforms, and please ignore my utter inability to take a decent screenshot of the event.

With the crystals back in place, the Void starts spitting towns out where they were before, none the worse for wear.

R^2 · « **Reply #324 on:** September 22, 2013, 02:50:21 AM »

Bartz: There was still power remaining in the crystal shards.
Krile: Thank goodness...
Bartz: Lenna... Faris... Krile... It's because you took such good care of the shards...
Lenna: Don't forget yourself, Bartz.
Krile: Or Grandpa!
Lenna: Now, wind will return to Tycoon...
King Tycoon: Correct, my dear.

Bartz: Dad...
Krile: Grandpa...
Lenna: Father...
Faris: Papa...
Bartz: Kelger, and Xezat...

King Tycoon: The world still needs you.
Galuf: It's too early for you kids to be meeting us!
Dorgann: Go, return to your world...the one you saved!

The five of them sparkle, and...

...turn into a Wind Drake... I don't even...

Oh and the wind crystal reforms too.

R^2 · « **Reply #325 on:** September 22, 2013, 02:59:40 AM »

Letter: Cid...Mid... How are you? It's me, Krile. Somehow, we made it back.

Letter: Feels like that fight was just a bad dream...

Letter: Since then, I've traveled all over. Seems like everything's become peaceful, like before.

Letter: Maybe I'll be queen! ...As if. ...It'd be pretty cool though, hee hee.

Did you just write "hee hee" in a letter?

Letter: Bartz went back to his hometown. He's not giving up traveling, but he said he wanted to spend time near his parents before he set out again.

Letter: Oh! Boko and Koko had children! Baby chocobos are the cutest! You simply must go see them!

Letter: It's been a year since then... Lenna and Faris are busy with running Tycoon and all, and Bartz is off on another journey.

Letter: No. I'm sure they'll come. Tell them I can't wait to meet again...
Cid: Krile... You worked so hard. Everyone fought well...

R^2 · « **Reply #326 on:** September 22, 2013, 03:04:12 AM »

There's a quick montage of Bartz's deeds of heroism, from standing up to Exdeath to challenging Kelger to staring at Faris's tits while she slept.

Lenna gets one too, including the time where she got poisoned and fell down, and that other time she got poisoned and fell down. (That other other time she got poisoned and fell down was not included.)

Faris's prime acts of heroism include rocking a royal gown and mourning Syldra's death.

Krile's montage shows her collecting Galuf's skills, then reminding everyone that she doesn't need them because she totally blasted the possessed King of Tycoon before that ever happened. Hee hee!

R^2 · « **Reply #327 on:** September 22, 2013, 03:11:31 AM »

Krile: The crystals have been restored, and everything's peaceful. But...for some reason, I'm sad... I guess it's just that... Since Grandpa died... I've been all alone...

Galuf's montage includes some actual heroism! Ending in his death.

"Hey, there's Krile!" "Yeah, but we have to stay hidden in the treetops while she mourns her terrible fate. Melodrama's a big part of being a Mary Sue."

Faris: Buck up, kiddo!
Krile: Everyone! You made it!
Bartz: As if there was any doubt. Like I'd forget about a friend after we were together for so long!
Krile: Everyone...you...
Lenna: Tears don't really suit you, Krile. You have to be strong.
Faris: Galuf's laughing at your blubbering, kiddo.

Krile: *sniffle* ... Heh heh...you're right... *sniff* He is laughing. The crystals have regained their power. This time it's up to us to protect them.
Bartz: Like Dad and the others did...
Lenna: Say, do you hear that?
Faris: ...Aye, that I do.
Krile: Grandpa's voice...?
Bartz: No...just the wind through the trees.
Lenna: The rippling of the water...?
Faris: Just the crackling of flames...
Krile: The settling of the earth...
Bartz: Dunno... I'm not sure what it is, but...
Faris: I can hear it...
Lenna: Yes... Something warm...

Lenna, Bartz, and Faris each get a chocobo to ride.

Krile, of course, is better than that.

The credits roll as the party runs around on chocobo and drake-back.

R^2 · « **Reply #328 on:** September 22, 2013, 03:13:15 AM »

You're given a quick recap of your party's level and the skills they learned. Which is largely redundant, because everyone i-- hey! Krile is missing two!

Finishing the game unlocks the postgame bonus dungeon, natch.

R^2 · « **Reply #329 on:** September 22, 2013, 03:17:04 AM »

Oh, there's the problem. I never made Krile a Zerberker, probably because an occasion to show off her tiger pajamas for patito's sake never came up.

Anyhow, I do some level grinding before the postgame nonsense. Since the crystal cavern area that finishes off the Interdimensional Rift gives no experience for any of the monsters that appear there, that means the castle area where I fought Alte Roite, Catastrophe, Azulmagia, Halicarnassus, Twintania, and a partridge in a pear tree. These Iron Giants only seem to appear in one room, but they give more experience than any other monster I've seen yet.

And look at those adorable little tiger pajamas!

There's another cave underwater I haven't explored.

patito · « **Reply #330 on:** September 22, 2013, 06:42:04 AM »

You're the greatest R^2

R^2 · « **Reply #331 on:** September 23, 2013, 12:19:00 PM »

Quote from: R^2 on September 22, 2013, 03:17:04 AM

And look at those adorable little tiger pajamas!

R^2 · « **Reply #332 on:** September 23, 2013, 01:29:55 PM »

Only one thing left to do: the postgame dungeon.

Early on, most of the monsters found in the Sealed Temple are just rehashes of the ones from the Rift, in new mob formations. Grenades came no more than one or two in the Rift, now they attack in groups of five.

And you know what? I don't care. This whole dungeon is such utter horseshit I'm hacking my way through it -- in the cheat code sense, not the swordsmanship sense. Lyrai got me a Codebreaker code that instantly wins battles, and I use it to skip almost all the random encounters here. The encounter rate is too damn high, quickly turning fights from "engaging resource-draining challenge" to "utter tedium". I'm skipping them, and have no regrets for doing so.

It doesn't help that much of the treasure to be found here is ammunition. You know, the stuff that's now available in stores, and unusable by 110 of 111 job skills.

Oh, and don't forget the warp points scattered around, just to further interfere with any conceptual model you might be trying to build of how the dungeon fits together.

One room is full of Behemoths. To avoid backtracking later...

...I capture one.

By the by, did you know that if you catch a plain ol' regular Goblin, it performs Flare upon its release? Odd considering how weak they are, fitting considering how much of a pain that makes them to capture in the first place.

R^2 · « **Reply #333 on:** September 23, 2013, 01:36:17 PM »

Quite a bit of wandering later...

I find my first boss fight. A monster as strong as the Gil Turtle isn't going to stay optional if the postgame dungeon has anything to say about it!

Later areas have Stingrays as fairly common encounters. In addition to granting Mighty Guard, Stingrays sometimes drop one of the best whips in the game. If I used whips, I'd care about that a lot more.

Other random encounters are new monsters. Naturally, one of them is the "I have way too many goddamn hit points!" species of giant bird, a step up from the Zuu and Tot Aevis that came before.

Huh? What are you doing here, little guy?

O... oh. (Soul Eaters are actually rather easier than the Skull Eaters were back when I was fighting those.)

Holy shit, it's Peppor Shaker from Chrono Cross.

Catching one before saves me several screens of backtracking through monster-infested caves. Furthermore: thank sweet merciful Christ for the Kornago Gourd.

As a reward, Peppor opens the door to the arena area. Now I have to backtrack all the way back to the beginning anyway, but at least nabbing the Behemoth means I don't have to do it twice.

R^2 · « **Reply #334 on:** September 23, 2013, 01:42:46 PM »

Here we are in the ~~village of Marinade~~ first screen of the Sealed Temple, ready to explore a different branch of the dungeon.

And too solid to pierce with a Gold Needle, not that anyone bothers to try.

This area mixes new monsters with the old. Most of the encounters are against Mini Satana, but those Flaremancers are from Fork Tower -- and behave like they're still there. If you hit them with a physical attack, they punish you with a super-powerful counter.

This guy you run across while traversing into the caves to open the Arena door, but why bother screencapping him when this section is going to be ridiculously long already?

He gives you his Supersoft medicine -- not explicitly called that, but there was stuff in Final Fantasy 9 that served the same purpose. But this is the prototype formula, and doesn't have any preservatives in it, so you have a five-minute timer to get it to the big statue before it spoils and you have to start over.

It's no small trek, and you're still getting into tough fights every few steps. The only reason I made it is the aforementioned fight-skipping Codebreaker code.

Surprising absolutely no one...

...the animated statue tries to kill you.

R^2 · « **Reply #335 on:** September 23, 2013, 01:49:35 PM »

Grand Aevis is fond of Blaster, Zombie Powder, Poison Breath, and Maelstrom. He's the wake up call boss for the optional dungeon.

Oh, and those Dark Elementals will either nail you with -aga black magic, or use White Wind to keep Grand Aevis in fighting condition.

Okay, mental note: Ribbons do not prevent Zombie status. And that's a problem, because fixing it puts the party on the defensive.

And the defensive is a shitty place to be against a monster like that. You're bumped to the last save point, but since those are scarce in this dungeon, you now you have to visit the statue, talk to the chemist, and make the five-minute run all over again.

Fuck that noise. Load state, equip everyone with Zombie-negating Angel Rings, and let Grand Aevis have it.

As a small boon, the room after Grand Aevis is a treasure trove of... well, mostly useless consumable items.

And Iron Giants and Ironclads, who make it a prime spot to level up. 5000 EXP for every party member is typical after a fight in this room, and Ironclads give even more than that.

Earthbreaker is a crazy-strong axe, but being an axe, it can't be enchanted with Spellblade. And my physical fighters fight with Spellblade, so its actual utility is somewhat limited.

I skipped showing off this "puzzle" in Ghido's cave, because it's even more dull to describe than it is to actually complete. Placing the heavy stone in another chest opens an otherwise locked door, leading to... well, probably leading to a dead end. Pick the right chest and the door to the next area opens. Pretty dull, huh?

R^2 · « **Reply #336 on:** September 23, 2013, 01:55:19 PM »

Unlike Earthbreaker, Apocalypse is a sword -- and one almost as strong as my almost-full-power Brave Blade.

Out of spite, I give it to Bartz, the only member of the party who isn't a princess.

I am 100% okay with this door remaining sealed for a while.

It's the waterfall switch obstacle from Istory Falls, only this time you need both the B-button dash and the Sprint ability to get around the cliff and through the place where the water flows.

Does it seem like I'm making rapid progress? Because getting this far took several hours, and that's skipping the random battles.

Well, I did pause for a bit to grind on Iron Giants and Ironclads. Still, it's a big dungeon full of tedious roadblocks.

Sealed Temple Tour Guide: To the left lurks a mechanical beast; to the right, a fearsome dragon. Choose a path, or go beneath, where he who would thrust the world into darkest despair rests. Take care, warriors. If you truly wish to go forward, you must defeat he who is locked in the dungeons of the Sealed Temple. Defeat him, and all barriers to your progress will fall.

The guy gives you the cell key and a full heal. Which is redundant, because one of the dungeon's very few save points is just north of him, and the treasure in the dungeon itself has given you multiple Cottages by now.

As he said, the way forward is blocked until you go all the way back to the beginning and fight an arbitrary boss in a cell you passed by before. And Teleport doesn't work in this dungeon, so hoof it.

R^2 · « **Reply #337 on:** September 23, 2013, 02:01:45 PM »

The least you could do is step out from underneath that ceiling so I can get a decent screenshot of you.

Archaeodemon looks like Twintania, and behaves mostly like him too. Only when this guy charges up Gigaflare, he doesn't drop his defenses and become vulnerable to instant win moves.

Oh, and if you hit him with any sort of physical attack, he casts Death on himself. Since he's undead, he immediately reforms at full HP. Hope you're not counting on !Rapid Fire to win you this fight!

If he bullshit gimmicks physical hits, the party resorts to hitting him with Magic Hammers instead.

plunk

plunk (hey, notable progress!)

plunk

That oughta do it.

Now to do the exact same thing to his HP!

With extra in-battle notifications after every move!

Oh, and Gigaflare doesn't cost any MP, so keep healed up anyway.

yayyyy

y...yayyyy...?

R^2 · « **Reply #338 on:** September 23, 2013, 02:11:50 PM »

Down the left passage, we discover the tour guide didn't lie, but he sure didn't give the whole truth, either. Those aren't Mecha Heads wandering around like in the Pyramid.

Those are Omegas.

Yes, the original superboss of the non-Advance version. That Omega.

There are six of them wandering around.

There's some stupid traps and stuff, and a button to get rid of the sparkles blocking the door in the waterfall cave, but this is what we're here for. It's not really a surprise attack if you have to approach the monster and push a button to initiate it, though...

Although it's arguable that the surprise part is that there is a second, stronger version of Omega to fight.

Oh, and this one doesn't keep his weakness to electric attacks for long. Furthermore, if you try to use !Rapid Fire of any sort, his counterattacks get even worse: he either uses Remedy to restore all his HP, or Encircle to remove the offending attacker from the battle entirely.

Once again, your only hope is to extend his pre-fight Stop status as long as possible. Who would have thought that gimmicky bardsongs would be the key to beating killer robots?

!Mixing up some Dragon Kiss cocktails for everyone helps too, since it makes the Mustard Bomb and Rocket Punch counterattacks Omega Mk.II is so fond of useless.

Mighty Guard is a must in every boss fight. It's probably why Stingrays showed up as common encounters earlier.

Once the party is adequately buffed and ready to take on any counterattacks that come their way, the time has come to press the attack. Unfortunately, Omega Mk.II is so goshdarned strong that Bahamut barely breaks four-digit damage. Bartz wins this battle by !Mixing Dark Matters together into a 3000-damage-or-so Shadowflare every turn.

Pretty sure a requirement for these superbosses is that the fight can't take less than half an hour.

The reward is a shield! It's a nice one, too. Despite its middling Defense boost, it halves all elemental damage. But... it's a shield, in a party of dual-wielders. Even the mages are carrying two magic-boosting rods.

R^2 · « **Reply #339 on:** September 23, 2013, 02:24:46 PM »

Past the previously-sparkling door is a lava cave. Every fight in the lava cave is with some breed of Dragon. Check your subscreen, and it'll tell you explicitly: this is Shinryu's lair.

So you can guess what's in the last chest in the area.

Neo Shinryu is even stronger than regular Shinryu! Hooray. And despite appearances, there are four targets in this fight. Three of them do nothing, but they're utterly invincible and absorb hits from multitarget attacks (like !Rapid Fire... sensing a pattern?). The actual Neo Shinryu toggles invincibility on and off, too, so statistically 50% of attacks against the right target still miss.

Neo Shinryu attacks with all the usual stuff, from Tidal Wave to White Hole to Earthquake and... erm, Almagest.

Oh, and he always starts the battle with Mighty Guard, because nothing makes fights with superbosses better than when they Haste, Protect, and Shell themselves.

Despite being a native Level 97, Neo Shinryu is somewhat vulnerable to Dark Spark, and once that's set, he can be aged to slightly decrease his damage output as the fight drags on.

And boy does the fight drag on. Everyone has Coral Rings, Ice Shields (except Faris, who has a two-handed harp as shown), and float status from Mighty Guard, so several of Neo Shinryu's attacks are absorbed or nulled. Ice Storm, Tidal Wave, Earthquake, and Blaze are simply ignored by the party. The Ribbons everyone is wearing null his Curse, Doom, Poison Breath, White Hole, and Zombie Powder procs. So Neo Shinryu is wasting as many turns trying to hit us as we are trying to hit him! looooool

Anyway, that harp Faris is equipped with is the Apollo Harp, which does octuple damage to dragon-type monsters. So whenever Faris lands a hit, it's 9999 damage. Lenna spends most of the fight healing everyone, while Bartz keeps everyone buffed up with !Mixtures. Krile... spends most of the fight hiding.

Because after a while, Neo Shinryu will cast Gigaflare...

...followed immediately by Meteor. I wasn't sure how fatal that combination was going to be, and god damned if I'm going to lose the fight to Neo Shinryu's death rattle.

Oh yeah, that combination is his dying counterattack. So I won. It took almost an hour.

The reward is the best weapon in the game.

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Author Topic: Enough expository banter! Now Let's Play Final Fantasy V Advance! (Read 23617 times)