Final Fantasy VI "Ban Something" Part II
Aug. 8th, 2026 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingLast time, I introduced this community-driven challenge and the bans that comprise it (mostly from this topic on GameFAQs) and then played up until just before the Narshe battle. I played again on August 7th, and we're picking up there.
For the Narshe battle, I thought I'd want a strong team to rush Kefka. However, I needed to be mindful of my bans, one of which specifically forbids using a party of 4 at any point when I've got the choice. I made a team of Cyan (because I have to use him whenever possible), Edgar (because Autocrossbow is still great even though he has no pants), and Sabin (high level and Raging Fist) and more-or-less beelined Kefka. This went okay until Edgar died against the Hell's Rider. We ran into a regular brown-clad soldier after this and Cyan bit the dust as well.
My son, who was joining me, pointed out that if Cyan is dead I can use another team - Phoenix Downs are banned, so reviving anyone is fully out of the question. I swapped to my secondary team of Locke, Celes and Gau and although Gau using the Belmodar rage (with two Earrings) is reasonably strong, they eventually got walloped.
One thing I learned from that attempt is that the Pixel Remaster adds a healing bucket near the save point and that it actually remains present and active during this fight. Technically, I could've marched Cyan, Sabin and Edgar back up to the bucket except that they would have had to hastily defeat a lot of soldiers to get up to the top of the battlefield.
For the next attempt, I figured I could take a strong team and just endure every single fight, depending on the healing bucket between battles as needed. Gau raging Belmodar had proven himself, so my team on this second attempt was Cyan, Gau and Sabin. Another difference that I discovered in Pixel Remaster is that the backup line of soldiers that normally appears partway through the battle here (which my son and I had recently seen when we were playing FF6 in an Archipelago) just doesn't. We got to Kefka in perfect shape with little stress and won handily.
Then, Terra went on a journey!
So did we. I took Cyan (because my bans say I must), Locke (because I'll be forced to use him later and I'd like him to get stronger), and Edgar (because Autocrossbow is still great for random battles). There were a few points where there were no ladies present and I forgot to put armor back on Edgar but I have to think that, since that would have been a gameplay advantage it's not a terrible thing that I forgot. There are a lot of bans in play that I have to keep in mind!
I accidentally skipped buying a Drill! I intentionally skipped the Bio Blaster, Noiseblaster and Flash since they all inflict status ailments, but Drill would've been great. Oh well, in Zozo Edgar got his Chainsaw, and that's great. I would go back for the Drill after Zozo.
Zozo had a few iffy elements, like Veil Dancers killing Locke with some -ara spell - which happens sometimes. I went into Dadaluma with just Cyan, Edgar, and some hope that the big guy wouldn't throw weapons at us... and he didn't!
We finished up Zozo to find a way to hijack an airship to Vector - but, importantly, this is also when we get magicite.
We have to keep in mind CB_Archer's ban, which could be the one that shapes the way we play the most: "I'll ban equipping an Esper if you already have any of the spells learned 100% that it teaches."
This means anyone who learns Fire from Siren can never equip Ifrit or Bismarck. Anyone who learns Cure from Kirin can never equip Shiva, Seraph or Lakshmi/Starlet. Even these early decisions might be really impactful. Celes learns two of Cait Sith/Stray's spells naturally, but hasn't yet, so I figured I may as well put that on her for the magic +1 level bonus and to learn Float. Since she gets Haste naturally, she probably won't be able to use Palidor. It feels strange equipping anything just for Float, but there's a certain practicality in it.
I put Kirin on Locke. By the Opera House, his spell learning looked like this:
I was really wary of changing anything. If he gains Cure, he's forbidden from a bunch of other useful espers, but this is also the only way to even get Libra and Poisona. I think he'll be able to use Phoenix eventually, but that's ages away. I'd better stick things out with Kirin through getting Cura.
It's also worth a note that my party was entirely forced at this point: I'm not allowed a full group of 4, Locke and Celes are put in the party by the game, and Cyan has to be selected whenever I've got the choice. I kept espers off Cyan completely since Siren or Ramuh might forbid him from using Bismarck later, which I reasoned would be very useful since he'll be using Bushido/SwdTech forever. (He will never benefit from spells, at least never in battle.)
Ultros 2 would not be the last boss that Locke and Cyan would be a duo for. I almost went to throw a Green Cherry in battle (which is forbidden!) but thankfully Imp Song missed, which was most likely a lucky dodge caused by Locke's Thief's Knife.
We are on to the IMRF. Locke kept the Thief's Knife on for its stat boosts while Celes put on a Thunderblade when it was available. I started running from some fights here: Cyan has to use Bushido/SwdTech and Locke and Celes have zero offensive magic (Celes' natural magic is banned) so fights took ages and often meant a lot of damage.
The fight with Ifrit and Shiva was a tough one. Ifrit's Blaze attack is not subject to Runic and does 400+ damage when it's single-target, so the fight took a few attempts. I did a tiny grind after a few frustrating starts just to explore options, and after the grind we had a run where Ifrit didn't use Blaze at all and Celes was able to use Runic to avoid most of the Fira and Blizzara attacks. Locke was throwing Hi-Potions every turn. It might've been 5 attempts and one extra level for each character, but we got there.
Number 024 was pretty easy for a change. Locke stole a Rune Blade and then mostly threw Hi-Potions. Celes was using Runic most of the time, and Cyan was doing the overwhelming majority of the damage. Frankly, it's not a terrible way to run this fight.
The cart ride was a different story. Celes left the team, meaning I had to do this part that's normally somewhat tough for 3 characters with just two of them - and one of them is Cyan who is strictly limited to Bushido/SwdTech. The ride up to Number 128 was not hard at all - but I lost to Number 128 a lot so the cart ride was rather frustrating regardless.
Unless the previous few bosses, there's nowhere to grind for this boss - plus, I didn't want to. The first attempt went well, and I even stole the Kazekiri (which, given Cyan's state in this playthrough, really doesn't matter that much) - but it was all downhill after Cyan fell victim to Blaster. Most of the other attempts went worse: Blaster or Net can easily spell doom for a two-person team, particularly with Phoenix Downs out-of-play.
I was thinking about what options I had available and scrolling through the item list when I realized I still had a Thunder Rod from before Tunnel Armor. This seemed like it could probably do the trick. On the successful attempt - which had to be at least the sixth - Cyan was using Sky/Retort which had proven itself really strong and useful for not killing all of Number 128's parts at the same time, Locke stole the Kazekiri, and then we threw the Thunder Rod. That did the trick.
This was a high-investment battle! We threw the Thunder Rod but I also used one Elixir and one X-Potion to keep Cyan and Locke in the fight. I think that's reasonable though, there won't be that many fights where we're quite so disadvantaged.
The Thunder Rod might've been nice for the cranes. It worried me a little. For one thing, I can't re-equip in battle and can't use Setzer's right hand, so I just didn't have him take any actions using that hand. He died pretty quickly, actually. We just did our usual two-person pattern of Locke supporting Cyan while Cyan does Bushido, and that worked surprisingly quickly.
I was prepared to have to grind a little before this one, actually, but I was glad I didn't have to.
My son, who had joined me, provided some music for no real reason while we did the whole esper world segment. Then, since Mog is banned, we went and got a Gold Hairpin. I don't think I've literally ever done that.
Next up will be the Cave to the Sealed Gate, and probably a bit of a Veldt trip.
< Previous | Index | Next >
For the Narshe battle, I thought I'd want a strong team to rush Kefka. However, I needed to be mindful of my bans, one of which specifically forbids using a party of 4 at any point when I've got the choice. I made a team of Cyan (because I have to use him whenever possible), Edgar (because Autocrossbow is still great even though he has no pants), and Sabin (high level and Raging Fist) and more-or-less beelined Kefka. This went okay until Edgar died against the Hell's Rider. We ran into a regular brown-clad soldier after this and Cyan bit the dust as well.
My son, who was joining me, pointed out that if Cyan is dead I can use another team - Phoenix Downs are banned, so reviving anyone is fully out of the question. I swapped to my secondary team of Locke, Celes and Gau and although Gau using the Belmodar rage (with two Earrings) is reasonably strong, they eventually got walloped.
For the next attempt, I figured I could take a strong team and just endure every single fight, depending on the healing bucket between battles as needed. Gau raging Belmodar had proven himself, so my team on this second attempt was Cyan, Gau and Sabin. Another difference that I discovered in Pixel Remaster is that the backup line of soldiers that normally appears partway through the battle here (which my son and I had recently seen when we were playing FF6 in an Archipelago) just doesn't. We got to Kefka in perfect shape with little stress and won handily.
Then, Terra went on a journey!
So did we. I took Cyan (because my bans say I must), Locke (because I'll be forced to use him later and I'd like him to get stronger), and Edgar (because Autocrossbow is still great for random battles). There were a few points where there were no ladies present and I forgot to put armor back on Edgar but I have to think that, since that would have been a gameplay advantage it's not a terrible thing that I forgot. There are a lot of bans in play that I have to keep in mind!
I accidentally skipped buying a Drill! I intentionally skipped the Bio Blaster, Noiseblaster and Flash since they all inflict status ailments, but Drill would've been great. Oh well, in Zozo Edgar got his Chainsaw, and that's great. I would go back for the Drill after Zozo.
Zozo had a few iffy elements, like Veil Dancers killing Locke with some -ara spell - which happens sometimes. I went into Dadaluma with just Cyan, Edgar, and some hope that the big guy wouldn't throw weapons at us... and he didn't!
We finished up Zozo to find a way to hijack an airship to Vector - but, importantly, this is also when we get magicite.
We have to keep in mind CB_Archer's ban, which could be the one that shapes the way we play the most: "I'll ban equipping an Esper if you already have any of the spells learned 100% that it teaches."
This means anyone who learns Fire from Siren can never equip Ifrit or Bismarck. Anyone who learns Cure from Kirin can never equip Shiva, Seraph or Lakshmi/Starlet. Even these early decisions might be really impactful. Celes learns two of Cait Sith/Stray's spells naturally, but hasn't yet, so I figured I may as well put that on her for the magic +1 level bonus and to learn Float. Since she gets Haste naturally, she probably won't be able to use Palidor. It feels strange equipping anything just for Float, but there's a certain practicality in it.
I put Kirin on Locke. By the Opera House, his spell learning looked like this:
I was really wary of changing anything. If he gains Cure, he's forbidden from a bunch of other useful espers, but this is also the only way to even get Libra and Poisona. I think he'll be able to use Phoenix eventually, but that's ages away. I'd better stick things out with Kirin through getting Cura.
It's also worth a note that my party was entirely forced at this point: I'm not allowed a full group of 4, Locke and Celes are put in the party by the game, and Cyan has to be selected whenever I've got the choice. I kept espers off Cyan completely since Siren or Ramuh might forbid him from using Bismarck later, which I reasoned would be very useful since he'll be using Bushido/SwdTech forever. (He will never benefit from spells, at least never in battle.)
Ultros 2 would not be the last boss that Locke and Cyan would be a duo for. I almost went to throw a Green Cherry in battle (which is forbidden!) but thankfully Imp Song missed, which was most likely a lucky dodge caused by Locke's Thief's Knife.
We are on to the IMRF. Locke kept the Thief's Knife on for its stat boosts while Celes put on a Thunderblade when it was available. I started running from some fights here: Cyan has to use Bushido/SwdTech and Locke and Celes have zero offensive magic (Celes' natural magic is banned) so fights took ages and often meant a lot of damage.
The fight with Ifrit and Shiva was a tough one. Ifrit's Blaze attack is not subject to Runic and does 400+ damage when it's single-target, so the fight took a few attempts. I did a tiny grind after a few frustrating starts just to explore options, and after the grind we had a run where Ifrit didn't use Blaze at all and Celes was able to use Runic to avoid most of the Fira and Blizzara attacks. Locke was throwing Hi-Potions every turn. It might've been 5 attempts and one extra level for each character, but we got there.
Number 024 was pretty easy for a change. Locke stole a Rune Blade and then mostly threw Hi-Potions. Celes was using Runic most of the time, and Cyan was doing the overwhelming majority of the damage. Frankly, it's not a terrible way to run this fight.
The cart ride was a different story. Celes left the team, meaning I had to do this part that's normally somewhat tough for 3 characters with just two of them - and one of them is Cyan who is strictly limited to Bushido/SwdTech. The ride up to Number 128 was not hard at all - but I lost to Number 128 a lot so the cart ride was rather frustrating regardless.
I was thinking about what options I had available and scrolling through the item list when I realized I still had a Thunder Rod from before Tunnel Armor. This seemed like it could probably do the trick. On the successful attempt - which had to be at least the sixth - Cyan was using Sky/Retort which had proven itself really strong and useful for not killing all of Number 128's parts at the same time, Locke stole the Kazekiri, and then we threw the Thunder Rod. That did the trick.
This was a high-investment battle! We threw the Thunder Rod but I also used one Elixir and one X-Potion to keep Cyan and Locke in the fight. I think that's reasonable though, there won't be that many fights where we're quite so disadvantaged.
The Thunder Rod might've been nice for the cranes. It worried me a little. For one thing, I can't re-equip in battle and can't use Setzer's right hand, so I just didn't have him take any actions using that hand. He died pretty quickly, actually. We just did our usual two-person pattern of Locke supporting Cyan while Cyan does Bushido, and that worked surprisingly quickly.
I was prepared to have to grind a little before this one, actually, but I was glad I didn't have to.
My son, who had joined me, provided some music for no real reason while we did the whole esper world segment. Then, since Mog is banned, we went and got a Gold Hairpin. I don't think I've literally ever done that.
Next up will be the Cave to the Sealed Gate, and probably a bit of a Veldt trip.
< Previous | Index | Next >
