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freshfeelingThis was played around August 11, 2018.
We started entering the void right away. Bartz, Krile and Lenna all had Hermes Shoes on for haste, but when Faris actually got a turn every so often, she could actually deal it out pretty well with her new Kaiser Knuckles. DPS-wise though, monks are pretty terrible in the late game.
Calofisteri was quick and easy. Krile used violence, Bartz used Hero's Rime, and Lenna used Air Knife-boosted Syldra. Faris may have been there too. This boss only really got one or two turns.
I dodged Omega and quickly reached Apanda. Ifrit is a bit long in the tooth, but can still do respectful damage especially with an elemental boost like the Magus Rod offers. I recalled that Apanda has a special behaviour for responding to Ifrit summons, too:
Thus, Lenna mostly summoned Ifrit. Bartz used Hero's Rime. Krile tried her usual attacks, which would've been nice and strong but kept missing. Faris actually landed some excellent criticals to end the battle and may have contributed more than Krile for the first time since world 1.
I entered the castle part of the void, and used Odin to slice up an Iron Giant. All party members were exactly level 40, so I chose not to immediately engage Azulmagia. Fighting an Alte Roite / Jura Aevis made me think I wanted the save point that Azulmagia ends up granting though, so I went for him after. The one thing I really didn't want to see was Level 5 Death.
Azulmagia is a weird fight. With that particular command set, there are so many things that just aren't effective at all, and yet so many things that are terrible. I had my defense reduced, for example, but none of Azulmagia's attacks are negated by defense regardless. I did get hit by Level 2 Old, which had me worried since I didn't have a great way to remove it, but I just had Krile, Lenna and Faris attack constantly hoping to "outrun" it. And it worked!:
I defeated the rest of the Alte Roite/Jura Aevises as well. The battles weren't too bad, despite things like Encircle from time to time. Odin works very nicely against the Aevis form.
I had picked up a fourth Hermes Shoes and put that on Faris, by the way. I am pretty sure that ends up better than Kaiser Knuckles even though the per-turn damage is worse, more turns tends to end up better especially when Faris lands critical hits.
After fighting all of the old men, we fought Catastrophe. Catastrophe's main gimmick is earth-based attacks you can avoid with float, which we had no practical means to apply, so we just rushed it. Given our lack of full-party healing, I was sure we were going down pretty quickly...
and then we didn't. Damage race won!
Halicarnassus was fine. Besides one super-powered physical attack there was nothing really interesting about the fight. They didn't get as far as their script as the highly-damaging spell(s) you sometimes see. It mostly felt like a damage race again.
I went back to save since Twintania can be a tough one. Twintania is a bit more of a high-stakes situation when you want to win a specific drop, since there are a few ways the battle can end. Anyway... Twintania mopped the floor with us using several consecutive tidal waves.
I revisited that fight and just... slowed down. I worried that some of Twintania's aggression had been caused by countering my own attacks, so I attacked less and waited for the Gigaflare charge at which point I summoned Odin.
I did a bit of a grind here, up to level 42 all around, in the room where Iron Giants appear.
Then, I went into the depths of the void. I actually managed to have Bartz steal Gilgamesh's Genji Shield using Thief Knife, even though I can't use it. I fought some battles and ran from others, and planned to fight Necrophobe with the Magic Lamp ready to summon Odin.
I used Odin as soon as the battle with Necrophobe began and I was surprised to see that Necrophobe and all of his barriers were chopped up... and re-appeared. I must've forgotten how this particular trick works. I really didn't want to lose or reset, given the long time between saves. I had Flame Rings on and every so often the barriers would use Firaga and I'd be able to get back on my feet. With a bit more of a damage press, I was able to get the barriers down.
So then, Lenna used Golem. Necrophobe without barriers mostly uses strong physicals, so I thought this might be manageable. It was close; there was a lot of revival. I was really saved by the fact that pretty well everything after the barriers are gone is single-target. And perhaps also by the fact that Necrophobe is very weak to essentially everything, with Syldra dealing 7000+ damage.
I tried to steal Genji Armor with the Thief Knife, but couldn't manage in time. That was really a matter of prestige though, since none of the party can even use it.
But hey, this means we opened the final save point!
We started entering the void right away. Bartz, Krile and Lenna all had Hermes Shoes on for haste, but when Faris actually got a turn every so often, she could actually deal it out pretty well with her new Kaiser Knuckles. DPS-wise though, monks are pretty terrible in the late game.
Calofisteri was quick and easy. Krile used violence, Bartz used Hero's Rime, and Lenna used Air Knife-boosted Syldra. Faris may have been there too. This boss only really got one or two turns.
I dodged Omega and quickly reached Apanda. Ifrit is a bit long in the tooth, but can still do respectful damage especially with an elemental boost like the Magus Rod offers. I recalled that Apanda has a special behaviour for responding to Ifrit summons, too:
Thus, Lenna mostly summoned Ifrit. Bartz used Hero's Rime. Krile tried her usual attacks, which would've been nice and strong but kept missing. Faris actually landed some excellent criticals to end the battle and may have contributed more than Krile for the first time since world 1.
I entered the castle part of the void, and used Odin to slice up an Iron Giant. All party members were exactly level 40, so I chose not to immediately engage Azulmagia. Fighting an Alte Roite / Jura Aevis made me think I wanted the save point that Azulmagia ends up granting though, so I went for him after. The one thing I really didn't want to see was Level 5 Death.
Azulmagia is a weird fight. With that particular command set, there are so many things that just aren't effective at all, and yet so many things that are terrible. I had my defense reduced, for example, but none of Azulmagia's attacks are negated by defense regardless. I did get hit by Level 2 Old, which had me worried since I didn't have a great way to remove it, but I just had Krile, Lenna and Faris attack constantly hoping to "outrun" it. And it worked!:
I defeated the rest of the Alte Roite/Jura Aevises as well. The battles weren't too bad, despite things like Encircle from time to time. Odin works very nicely against the Aevis form.
I had picked up a fourth Hermes Shoes and put that on Faris, by the way. I am pretty sure that ends up better than Kaiser Knuckles even though the per-turn damage is worse, more turns tends to end up better especially when Faris lands critical hits.
After fighting all of the old men, we fought Catastrophe. Catastrophe's main gimmick is earth-based attacks you can avoid with float, which we had no practical means to apply, so we just rushed it. Given our lack of full-party healing, I was sure we were going down pretty quickly...
and then we didn't. Damage race won!
Halicarnassus was fine. Besides one super-powered physical attack there was nothing really interesting about the fight. They didn't get as far as their script as the highly-damaging spell(s) you sometimes see. It mostly felt like a damage race again.
I went back to save since Twintania can be a tough one. Twintania is a bit more of a high-stakes situation when you want to win a specific drop, since there are a few ways the battle can end. Anyway... Twintania mopped the floor with us using several consecutive tidal waves.
I revisited that fight and just... slowed down. I worried that some of Twintania's aggression had been caused by countering my own attacks, so I attacked less and waited for the Gigaflare charge at which point I summoned Odin.
I did a bit of a grind here, up to level 42 all around, in the room where Iron Giants appear.
Then, I went into the depths of the void. I actually managed to have Bartz steal Gilgamesh's Genji Shield using Thief Knife, even though I can't use it. I fought some battles and ran from others, and planned to fight Necrophobe with the Magic Lamp ready to summon Odin.
I used Odin as soon as the battle with Necrophobe began and I was surprised to see that Necrophobe and all of his barriers were chopped up... and re-appeared. I must've forgotten how this particular trick works. I really didn't want to lose or reset, given the long time between saves. I had Flame Rings on and every so often the barriers would use Firaga and I'd be able to get back on my feet. With a bit more of a damage press, I was able to get the barriers down.
So then, Lenna used Golem. Necrophobe without barriers mostly uses strong physicals, so I thought this might be manageable. It was close; there was a lot of revival. I was really saved by the fact that pretty well everything after the barriers are gone is single-target. And perhaps also by the fact that Necrophobe is very weak to essentially everything, with Syldra dealing 7000+ damage.
I tried to steal Genji Armor with the Thief Knife, but couldn't manage in time. That was really a matter of prestige though, since none of the party can even use it.
But hey, this means we opened the final save point!
