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freshfeelingThis play session was played on January 2, 2021... finally, just a couple of days since the last time I played. Oh, and on the three year anniversary of the start of the playthrough!
There was a pretty big preamble and then we went to Germinas Peak. Straightforward. Bartz' Crystal Helmet was stolen, unfortunately. I chose to steal the Ultimus Bow in this fight, despite not being able to use it... perhaps out of spite. It happened that the archer with the Ultimus Bow was the last enemy standing in this fight anyway.
I stole his Black Costume, too.
Next was Poeskas Lake. Like the earlier Yuguo Woods, the enemies here are all undead and thus we're generally pretty effective against them, although here they start with a significant terrain advantage.
We managed the ghost fellas at the start and Faris went up to where the archers and summoner were. Krile aimed a Holy spell at the summoner, and the archers aimed shots at Krile to take her down before her spell could resolve. Faris epically stole the bow from a charging archer before their shot could go off.
With that, this battle was very effectively under control. It was nice when Bartz, who could barely approach the enemies to do anything effective in this fight, got his moment of redemption by taking out the last archer standing.
"Hm. Yeah, I forgot about this. Rofel - he got some goofy name in the War of the Lions version. Loaf... Loafer? No Loafing? Laufey? Maybe he's a frost giant?"
Now it was time for Elmdor in Limberry. These next two battles are crazy with Celia and Lede able to apply charm, stop, death, and petrify with high accuracy, not to mention those of Elmdor himself. All this, and you want to steal equipment, particularly when we're so dependent on Bartz in the knight job. I thought I might be able to wear appropriate equipment to mitigate the worst of it and still pull off some successful steals, but... well, let's discuss what happened here.
For the outside battle, Celia approached us and killed Faris, then Krile started charging a Holy spell on her and Lenna started charging a Flare spell on her. I thought I only needed one of those to work, so I thought we were sitting pretty! They did have me worried for a bit especially when an Apanda turned Lenna into a frog.
But Krile's Holy spell went off successfully!
"If the inside battle goes anything like the outside battle, it frankly might not be, uh, atrocious."
I gave Faris a Barrette and utilized other equipment such that I thought it would mitigate some of the worst status effects. Discussing this strategy, I said as long as my characters aren't petrified or bloodsucked, I can heal them. Characters being knocked out isn't really my biggest concern. Regardless, I was not optimistic.
When we started, I had totally forgotten that Elmdor has Teleport 2/Master Teleport and can just appear at any part of the battlefield. Immediately, Faris and the mages were badly damaged by Muramasa, Krile was confused, Faris was death sentenced, Bartz was stopped, and Lede was charging Ultima on Lenna. It was fantastically bad.
"I haven't even shown you the worst part of this battle! The worst thing that happens is when they get the Blood Suck status and your entire party turns into literal vampires who have this thing called 'Blood Suck'. The second thing there, 'Blood Suck'. It's like a mixture of undead and berserk, and you just walk around sucking each others' blood until the battle ends, but your characters are effectively considered dead during Blood Suck. You might say... that it sucks. Then again you might not."
I swapped some equipment around for attempt #2.
I found myself pretty quickly coming to terms with not stealing Elmdor's equipment. This didn't stop me from throwing out occasional theft attempts. I was planning to just try to end the battle, instead. No luck this time, though. Faris was the last one standing and Lede chopped him pretty badly.
Attempt #3. The big change this time was moving Bartz to the front of the formation. Faris was afflicted with death sentence by Elmdor's opening Muramasa, which isn't necessarily a terrible thing. Lenna did manage to defeat Lede, causing her to morph into a demon. The ultima demons, interestingly, are not immune to Steal Heart! We didn't take that chance this time though. Lenna came back with Ice 3 and defeated Lede's demon form.
I wasted a Raise 2 spell in the process but it was hard to feel bad about it given that we reduced the enemy offense so much. Celia came at us hard after beating Lede, though. There were a lot of things that went well on this attempt, but we couldn't pull it off.
Attempt #4! I swapped Faris' Caution reaction ability for Catch, although I kind of doubt that will make a difference. Krile aimed a Holy spell at Lede quite early on, and then Lenna aimed a Flare at her too. Unfortunately, the assassins only transform on their turn so Lenna's spell was completely wasted. There was good and bad in this attempt; this part was good:
Charming an ultima demon seemed really significant... but then on demon Lede's turn, she used Ulmagest on herself and Celia for 0 damage on both. Taking 0 damage broke the charm effect. Argh! We were able to draw this out a lot, but besides getting rid of one of Elmdor's assassin friends we didn't make meaningful progress. I said at the end, "I think enough things went right to show me that there's a way."
Attempt #5! I implied that I was still trying for steals by trying to take out the assassins first, and figured this time I'd just gun for Elmdor from the beginning. Krile aimed a Holy at Elmdor right at the beginning, the assassins focused on Bartz, and Lenna aimed a Bolt spell at Elmdor. It worked out before Elmdor's second turn.
I saved up and decided to be done at this point, before doing the final Limberry Castle battle.
There was a pretty big preamble and then we went to Germinas Peak. Straightforward. Bartz' Crystal Helmet was stolen, unfortunately. I chose to steal the Ultimus Bow in this fight, despite not being able to use it... perhaps out of spite. It happened that the archer with the Ultimus Bow was the last enemy standing in this fight anyway.
I stole his Black Costume, too.
Next was Poeskas Lake. Like the earlier Yuguo Woods, the enemies here are all undead and thus we're generally pretty effective against them, although here they start with a significant terrain advantage.
We managed the ghost fellas at the start and Faris went up to where the archers and summoner were. Krile aimed a Holy spell at the summoner, and the archers aimed shots at Krile to take her down before her spell could resolve. Faris epically stole the bow from a charging archer before their shot could go off.
With that, this battle was very effectively under control. It was nice when Bartz, who could barely approach the enemies to do anything effective in this fight, got his moment of redemption by taking out the last archer standing.
"Hm. Yeah, I forgot about this. Rofel - he got some goofy name in the War of the Lions version. Loaf... Loafer? No Loafing? Laufey? Maybe he's a frost giant?"
Now it was time for Elmdor in Limberry. These next two battles are crazy with Celia and Lede able to apply charm, stop, death, and petrify with high accuracy, not to mention those of Elmdor himself. All this, and you want to steal equipment, particularly when we're so dependent on Bartz in the knight job. I thought I might be able to wear appropriate equipment to mitigate the worst of it and still pull off some successful steals, but... well, let's discuss what happened here.
For the outside battle, Celia approached us and killed Faris, then Krile started charging a Holy spell on her and Lenna started charging a Flare spell on her. I thought I only needed one of those to work, so I thought we were sitting pretty! They did have me worried for a bit especially when an Apanda turned Lenna into a frog.
But Krile's Holy spell went off successfully!
"If the inside battle goes anything like the outside battle, it frankly might not be, uh, atrocious."
I gave Faris a Barrette and utilized other equipment such that I thought it would mitigate some of the worst status effects. Discussing this strategy, I said as long as my characters aren't petrified or bloodsucked, I can heal them. Characters being knocked out isn't really my biggest concern. Regardless, I was not optimistic.
When we started, I had totally forgotten that Elmdor has Teleport 2/Master Teleport and can just appear at any part of the battlefield. Immediately, Faris and the mages were badly damaged by Muramasa, Krile was confused, Faris was death sentenced, Bartz was stopped, and Lede was charging Ultima on Lenna. It was fantastically bad.
"I haven't even shown you the worst part of this battle! The worst thing that happens is when they get the Blood Suck status and your entire party turns into literal vampires who have this thing called 'Blood Suck'. The second thing there, 'Blood Suck'. It's like a mixture of undead and berserk, and you just walk around sucking each others' blood until the battle ends, but your characters are effectively considered dead during Blood Suck. You might say... that it sucks. Then again you might not."
I swapped some equipment around for attempt #2.
I found myself pretty quickly coming to terms with not stealing Elmdor's equipment. This didn't stop me from throwing out occasional theft attempts. I was planning to just try to end the battle, instead. No luck this time, though. Faris was the last one standing and Lede chopped him pretty badly.
Attempt #3. The big change this time was moving Bartz to the front of the formation. Faris was afflicted with death sentence by Elmdor's opening Muramasa, which isn't necessarily a terrible thing. Lenna did manage to defeat Lede, causing her to morph into a demon. The ultima demons, interestingly, are not immune to Steal Heart! We didn't take that chance this time though. Lenna came back with Ice 3 and defeated Lede's demon form.
I wasted a Raise 2 spell in the process but it was hard to feel bad about it given that we reduced the enemy offense so much. Celia came at us hard after beating Lede, though. There were a lot of things that went well on this attempt, but we couldn't pull it off.
Attempt #4! I swapped Faris' Caution reaction ability for Catch, although I kind of doubt that will make a difference. Krile aimed a Holy spell at Lede quite early on, and then Lenna aimed a Flare at her too. Unfortunately, the assassins only transform on their turn so Lenna's spell was completely wasted. There was good and bad in this attempt; this part was good:
Charming an ultima demon seemed really significant... but then on demon Lede's turn, she used Ulmagest on herself and Celia for 0 damage on both. Taking 0 damage broke the charm effect. Argh! We were able to draw this out a lot, but besides getting rid of one of Elmdor's assassin friends we didn't make meaningful progress. I said at the end, "I think enough things went right to show me that there's a way."
Attempt #5! I implied that I was still trying for steals by trying to take out the assassins first, and figured this time I'd just gun for Elmdor from the beginning. Krile aimed a Holy at Elmdor right at the beginning, the assassins focused on Bartz, and Lenna aimed a Bolt spell at Elmdor. It worked out before Elmdor's second turn.
I saved up and decided to be done at this point, before doing the final Limberry Castle battle.
