Phantasy Star IV Gratitude Challenge Part VIII

[freshfeeling]

[This entry is adapted from the original GameFAQs posts written around the time the gameplay took place in February of 2016. It is actually being posted in April of 2023 around the origin of this blog. There may be minor edits.]

The unlock list got a bit confusing at this part, because of some people generously offering gifts that were already on the list and some confusion about what they do and such. Here is my current understanding of it, for now:

Motavia

Equipment:

• Hunt-Knife (Elrick75)
• Crbn-Suit (Jeremy3eb)
• Wood-Cane (looked)
• Struggl-Ax (ZomBULL)
• Crmc-Mail (SatoruMasamune)
• Crmcshield (trenzer1)
• Lasr-Sword (boonoob)
• Stun-Shot (Theysaidit)
• Psy-Mail (c_s_tadsen)

Techniques:

• Foi (boonoob)
• Wat (Elrick75)
• Hinas (looked)
• Ryuka (trenzer1)
• Gires (Theysaidit)
• Deban (c_s_tadsen)

Skills:

• Crosscut (SatoruMasamune)
• Hewn (Jeremy3eb)
• War Cry (ZomBULL)

Dezolis

Equipment:

• PlsmDagger (Elrick75)
• Silvshield (boonoob)
• Silv-Crown (Theysaidit)
• Silv-Mantl (c_s_tadsen)
• Flamesword (SatoruMasamune)
• Silvr-Tusk (Jeremy3eb)
• Elst-Armor (ZomBULL)
• Guard-Rod (looked)
• Defeat-Axe (trenzer1)

Techs:

• Githu (boonoob)
• Nazan (Theysaidit)

Skills:

• Spark (looked)
• Sweeping (trenzer1)
• Flare (ZomBULL)
• Rayblade (Elrick75)
• Burstroc (Jeremy3eb)
• Tandle (SatoruMasamune)
• Warla (c_s_tadsen)

 

Third Planet

Equipment:

• Silvcirclt (c_s_tadsen)
• Torndagger (Theysaidit)
• Swift-Helm (Jeremy3eb)
• Genocyclaw (boonoob)
• Pow-Shield (looked)
• Elsydeon (SatoruMasamune)
• MahlayMail (Elrick75)

Techs:

• Deban (c_s_tadsen)
• Gisar (Theysaidit)
• Megid (SatoruMasamune)

Skills:

• Barrier (Jeremy3eb)
• St.Fire (looked)
• Astral (Elrick75)

---

Except for the fact that Anothrgate is still going to absolutely slaughter my team, I think these gifts are going to make the rest of the game pretty doable without further overlevelling... or at least, not too much of it.

 

Honestly, when I levelled as much as I did for the Xe-A-Thouls, I kind of thought, "Well, I'm overdoing it... but at least Lashiec and DF2 won't be bad!". It turns out I was wrong. But once I hit Rykros I think things will be pretty smooth. Gisar, Saner, Barrier, Elsydeon, Swift-Helm and Guard-Rod could each make an incredible difference, let alone when they all come together.

 

I know I'm a while off but maybe we should think about endgame.

I'm guessing the masses would like me to keep a core-4-party save and try with each member, seeing as they all have a ton of potential (except Demi... who can only use items, Barrier, Spark and Stun-Shot). Does that sound right?

I didn't level any more, though I gained one incidental level for Chaz by taking on enemies that seemed trivial when I got surprise attacks against them. The real differences here were Chaz and RIka having Psy-Mail instead of Crmc-Mail (a minor but welcome upgrade!) and Rune and Kyra having Silv-Mantls instead of no armor. Oh, also, WARLA.

 

Getting the new gift of Silv-Mantls was, in minor ways, a bigger benefit than you'd think. I've literally been carrying around Whitemantl and Psy-Robe since each time Rune joined just in case someone gave me access to those. Getting two free inventory slots back when Trimate is so important is nice.

 

Lashiec

The fight with Lashiec was great. I used Warla. He used Thndhalbrt. It did ~190 to Wren, less than 10 to Rika and Kyra (decked out as they are!) and ~100 to Chaz and Rune. That I can deal with! I even got a few free Posession turns. Rika was always healing (except turn 1: Flamesword), usually Kyra helped out.
 

 

If it was all Thndhalbrt, it wouldn't have been bad at all, but there was still Anothrgate, which Warla doesn't help with and which still does ~190 damage to Chaz. Every round after Anothrgate, the whole team would have to individually heal themselves! Well, at least after the Star-Dews were gone. Kyra, Rika and Chaz would Gires, and Rune would use a Trimate. Often, Rune would use the Trimate on Chaz, who needed more healing, and Chaz would Gires Rune. It mostly worked out.
 

 

After a Posession turn, I actually took the time to revive Wren, and I had him hang in at least until his Burstrocs were gone at which point I left him for dead.
 

 

It felt really good to see Reinforce.
 

 

Then things got tougher. Usually, I think of Reinforce as the move that Lashiec uses to bolster his defense, but it is indeed ALL stats... and you notice it quite a bit more without things like Saner or reasonable armor. Lashiec suddenly started mixing in with my overlevelled, high-agility turn order and his Thndhalbrt was now hurting Rika and Kyra a non-negligible amount. After observing the damage from Thndhalbrt, I knew I was on thin ice: if he interrupted an important heal, everything would be screwed... and chances are Anothrgate could one-shot (or nearly one-shot) Rune and Chaz.
 

 

Thankfully, things worked out, and with the generous gifts of c_s_tadsen I was able to take out Lashiec on my first try (though it was close!):

 

 

So why not let it roll? I mean, really, has anyone ever had trouble with DF2 after the nightmare that is Lashiec? :P

 

Garuberk Tower

I mostly ran from encounters but I fought a few surprise attacks. I got ambushed once or twice, since some of the enemies step up a bit here. I also had a failed run attempt, but it really wasn't that interesting. I grabbed a lot of treasure boxes but I also happen to know that the only non-consumable treasure of any significance to me here is the Pow-Shield, which I grabbed. It was nice to restock some dews, though.
 

 

I know there were a few parts I didn't explore fully and I'm sure I abandoned some chests but my inventory was full so I don't think it mattered.

Dark Force II

The problem with DF2 - probably an obvious problem to those experienced with this game - is that its repertoire consists of Shdwbreath, Lightshowr and Evil Eye. No physical attacks! That means Warla doesn't actually help here (I used it anyway because I'm stupid). The good news is that there's no mid-battle tactical change like with Reinforce. The main thing that tends to make DF2 so much easier than Lashiec, though, is that Shdwbreath is single-target. Without Barrier it's a near OHKO on anyone, and Lightshowr I needed to treat almost like Lashiec's Anothrgate in that it often required full-party attention to healing.
 

 

For funsies and reference, Thndhalbrt, Anothrgate, Lightshowr and Shdwbreath are all configured quite a bit differently.

Thndhalbrt: ability power is 0 plus Lashiec's Attack stat (228), overall power is 228, electric-elemental, resisted by Defense

Anothrgate: ability power 148 plus Lashiec's Mental stat (91), overall power is 239, physical-elemental, resisted by magic resistance

Lightshowr: ability power 120 plus DF2's Strength stat (99), overall power is 219, electric-elemental, resisted by magic resistance

Shdwbreath: ability power 112 plus DF2's Attack stat (176), overall power is 288, physical-elemental, resisted by magic resistance

Corrosion: ability power 64 plus DF3's Mental stat (172), overall power is 236, physical-elemental, resisted by magic resistance

Seeing enemy values for stats exceeding 99 is odd. The enemy ability Corrosion can be used by Haunt (mnt 1), Spector (mnt 35), Chaossorcr (mnt 49), Illusionst (mnt 65), Imagiomage (mnt 83), Zio (mnt 38) and DF3 (mnt 172). None of the other Corrosion users are supposed to be quite so threatening as a near endgame boss. The values going so high to make the attack distinct when used by wildly differently-powered enemies seems like a kludge.

There are only a handful of enemies whose mental exceeds 100:

Dark Witch (172), Sa-Lews (178), Xe-A-Thoul (118), Re-Faze (I have 597 recorded but maybe that's erroneous because I didn't think it was possible), DF3 (172), final boss part 2 (152), final boss part 3 (199), Prophallus (129)
Enemy stats are pretty weird in general, though. Trying to reason them out or find lore-base explanations seems a lost cause.

 

 

Anyway...
You can kind of see from the above that Barrier - which boosts magic resistance - is the big DF2 killer, but also that Wren is generally in much worse shape against DF2 than he is against Lashiec. With the abundant electric attacks used by both, Wren usually just Recovers or keels over.

Without defending or Barrier, Shdwbreath is nasty. It targeted and killed Rika twice during the battle and I actually had another character - usually Rune - use a Sol-Dew on her. I didn't overthink this, but really you can use your dews pretty indiscriminately here since you can purchase them afterward (something I often forget... or don't need to make use of so desperately).
 

 

Once Chaz's Rayblade was gone, I had the choice of Githu and Crosscut. The difference wasn't super significant and I settled into using Crosscut, keeping Chaz's TP for Gires. He was still my very best damage-dealer. Thankfully he was never targetted by Shdwbreath because he'd never survive.

 

It was a pretty long and bloody battle but I pulled through on the first try with only a couple of characters having levelled at all from my last status update:

 

I went to Meese and spent nearly all of my money on dews. Hell, I even sold all my Moon-Dews to upgrade them to Sol-Dews. I have nearly a screen each of Sol-Dew and Star-Dew now. That probably wasn't necessary, but we'll see.

 

Back to Motavia

I got Seth. With my full inventory I felt like a nincompoop because to strip him of equipment I didn't want to sell a dew or something, so I got rid of an antidote and took things off to sell one-at-a-time. I decided I'm very unlikely to use Seth at all and instead just take a direct, non-confrontational route to the Aero-Prism... but why not make use of gifts, since I've got them? I travelled around and got Seth a Crbn-Suit and two Silvshields.
 

 

After that I had only about 70000 meseta, so I chose to do a few Hunter's Guild jobs, including starting Silver Soldier and just entering the front door of Vahal Fort so that if something from there is unlocked later I'll be able to get it.
 

 

So... here's my status outside the Island Cave:

DF3's big thing is hard-hitting physical crits. He'll still be criticalling me but at least I'll have Deban. Unfortunately, his Corrosion is almost the same as Anothrgate. Well... I think this is doable.

Current status:

Wren (Level 37, 133 Def, 24 Res, 119 Atk)

Equipment: Stun-Shot, Elst-Armor

Techs: (none)

Skills: Flare [203 power, 20 uses], Spark [13 uses], Burstroc, [219 power, 4 uses]

 

Rika (Level 46, 164 Def, 61 Res)

Equipment: Silv-Crown, Silvshield, Silvshield, Psy-Mail

Techs: Gires

Skills: (none)

 

Rune (Level 38, 144 Def, 96 Res)

Equipment: Silvshield, Silvshield, Silv-Mantl

Techs: Foi [104 power], Wat [112 power], Hinas, Ryuka

Skills: Hewn [144 power, 13 uses], Tandle [224 power, 6 uses]

 

Chaz (Level 43, 104 Def, 55 Res, 150 Atk)

Equipment: Flamesword, Psy-Mail

Techs: Hinas, Ryuka, Gires, Githu [149 power], Nazan [181 power]

Skills: Crosscut [230 power, 15 uses], Rayblade [229 power, 6 uses]

 

Seth (Level 39, 110 Def, 71 Res)

Equipment: Silvshield, Silvshield, Crbn-Suit

Techs: (none)

Skills: (none)

 

Common Itemcasts available:

Flamesword (3) [112 power]

Wood-Cane (2): [32 power heal

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