CES completed!

As I mentioned in the CES Challenge announcement, the first half of the game can be played normally, and only after the surprise Apocalypse will playing decisions matter.

Well, nuts to that; I played the World of Balance differently anyway. First, I went out of my way to form parties with Edgar, Celes and Setzer with a reckless disregard to the development of anybody else. I did this to make sure they learned all the magic they could before entering the challenge proper, and so that they wouldn’t miss out on Esper’s stat boosts when leveling up at the various points in which the game averages the level of underutilized characters.

To that end, I got very reckless with optional characters. In the event in Narche where you choose between saving Mog from a deadly plummet (thus recruiting him) or taking the Golden Hairpin that Lone Wolf had stolen, I picked the loot and let the poor Moogle drop, knowing I’d never use him in the World of Ruin anyway. Likewise, on the escape from the floating continent, I didn’t bother waiting for Shadow and left him for dead.

If there was any doubt that Shadow died there, his image is removed from all the equipment shop screens afterward, which ordinarily shows all your characters even if you had not found and re-recruited them. It sent a chill down my spine the first time I noticed this; the ninja was truly gone forever.

However, it turned out Mog was not so unlucky. A cautionary check of the Moogle cave in the World of Ruin found him right where he’d be waiting for you had he joined your party in the World of Balance. If you don’t mind waiting until after you get the airship in the World of Ruin — and don’t mind missing out on the Water Rondo dance — you can recruit Mog even if you “killed” him.

Preparing to save (what’s left of) the world

It should be noted that my killing spree continued in the World of Ruin’s opening scene, in which I screwed up feeding Cid life-sustaining fish by walking onto the world map. Oops.

I marched Celes north, avoiding Tzen (and its mandatory Sabin recruitment) and turned east to go to Mobliz. I died several times trying to take down Humbaba with just Celes, but eventually triumphed and won the Fenrir Magicite. I would die often against bosses until I rounded out my party; it’s very rough going when short-staffed.

I walked up the Serpent’s Trench to Nikeah and set sail to South Figaro. From there it was a punishing journey through Figaro Cave and the basement of Figaro Castle, where Edgar finally joined just in time for us to get slaughtered by the Tentacles. I changed the order in which I attacked the beasts the second time around and managed to thin their number more quickly.

From there it was a quick walk to Kohlingen to pick up Setzer and complete the party. We then spelunked into Daryll’s Tomb to get our “new” airship. From there I flew back to Solitary Island to pick up the Quetzalli (Palidor) Magicite.

I flew to Maranda to talk to Lola (the merchant in Zozo will not sell the Rust Remover unless you do this first), and then went through Mt. Zozo, cleaning out the treaure, slaying the Storm Dragon and warping out before entering Cyan’s hideout.

The next step was the Cave on the Veldt, taking great care not to trigger a random encounter on the Veldt itself and risk finding Gau. Again, I cleaned out the treasure, fought the Behemoth King and rescued Relm (which does NOT recruit her, so it’s cool). I was rewarded with a cutscene I hadn’t seen before! In my old SNES copy, it didn’t matter if you rescued Shadow or Relm, you saw Shadow’s fifth and final dream of Clyde leaving Strago’s house with Interceptor. This time, I saw a scene INSIDE Strago’s house, with Relm protesting the departure of her “daddy.” While I often suspected the relationship, my plays through the old versions lacked much more than heavy allusions. This seals the deal for me.

Next, it was on to the Opera House to kill the Earth Dragon, followed by a trip to Owzer’s house in Jidoor to clean out the treasure and backtrack before entering the room where Relm is painting.

At this point, I used Figaro Castle to visit the Ancient Castle, hoping to score crucial pickups like the Odin/Raiden Magicite and the Master’s Scroll (The Offering) relic. The Monster-in-a-box guarding the Master’s Scroll, the Samurai Soul, wrecked me. Over and over and over. And over. The Samurai Soul uses the bane of my CES existence: Throw. Any enemy who throws a weapon is guaranteed to kill whoever they hit, as thrown weapons ignore defense, doing massive damage. I simply could not kill it fast enough. The only reason I ever defeated this foe was accidentally selecting Edgar’s Noise Blaster tool instead of the Drill; this fiend was susceptible to Confusion, and immediately killed itself by throwing an Assassin’s Blade. Crushing the Blue Dragon was a cakewalk in comparison.

After this, I warmed up my Reflect Rings and hit the Fanatic’s tower. I slew the Holy Dragon and began the excruciating task of defeating the Magic Master after berserking him and rasping away all his MP to prevent him from casting Ultima upon death, which would really ruin my day.

The next stop on my trip was going to Narche. Sadly, I couldn’t unlock the doors for the sweet, sweet items within, but I could do everything else. I savaged the Ice Dragon, fought and claimed the Valigarmanda (Tritoch) Esper, and went into the Yeti’s Cave, where I was murdered by the Tonberrys. I fought them again wile Vanishing my party, and won the Minerva Bustier for Celes. Fighting Umaro went off without a hitch and I claimed the Midgardsormr (Terrato) Magicite.

At this point, I attempted to fight the bonus boss fight with Levithian to get its Magicite, but was doomed to failure. My fights with Death Gaze were not so futile, and I collected the Bahaumut Magicite.

Up next was a trip to Triangle Island and the hidden dungeon through the Zone Eater. It was a rough crawl, but I made it through, took the treasure and skipped Gogo.

I had finally powered up to the point I felt I was ready to tackle the Phoenix Cave. It required splitting my party in two, of course, so I had Celes go off on her own and paired Edgar and Setzer together. This arrangement mostly worked, as Celes was well armored and magic’d, but I had to be very careful of her getting Zombified. Without a second party member, it’d be game over, man. GAME OVER! Eventually, I worked my way down to the bottom of the cave and easily defeated the Red Dragon. With Teleport (Warp) disabled in this dungeon, I had to endure the switch puzzles in reverse to get back out without recruiting Locke.

I tried fighting Levithian and also Gigantuar, and was again rebuffed. Knowing I had to boost my HP, I headed to the forest north of the Veldt to level-up quickly by beating the dinosaurs found there back to the stone age. Sadly, in all this effort, not one Brachiosaur dropped a Celestriad (Economizer).

With the HP to sustain 10 consecutive 1,000 Needles attacks, I emerged victorious against the Gigantuar, following that with a long-in-coming win over Leviathan. At this point, I had more than enough gil to win the Excalipoor at Jidoor’s auction house, and was able to defeat Gilgamesh at the colosseum, finally rounding out my list of Magicite.

With all of that behind me, it was time to face the end after some more grinding in the forest north of the Veldt.

We’re Going in!

This conversation is a bit different without Terra and Strago present.

Edgar, Celes and Setzer had each been powered up to level 65, and taught all the available spells except for Meltdown (as I would not get the Crusader Magicite until I slew the two dragons in Kefka’s Tower) and Gravija (as the Dragon’s Den — and the Diablos Magicite therein — does not open until those same dragons are dead).

Edgar was statted for speed and stamina, as he would mostly be spamming his tools command, which does not rely on his attack or magic attack power. Celes and Setzer were statted for Magic, as each would (eventually) be using a weapon that relied on their HP or Level to determine damage.

As for the gear, Edgar is sporting a Holy Lance (later Radiant Lance), a Genji Shield, a stat-boosing Royal Crown, and magic-diluting Force Armor. Celes is equipped with the Ultima Weapon (and later, Excalibur), an Aegis Shield, a Genji Helm, and the Minerva Bustier, which zeros out damage from Fire/Ice/Lighting/Wind, halves all other elements and boosts MP. Setzer is equipped with the Fixed Dice (found by Edgar in a chest before I have to move Setzer for the first time), a Genji Helm, a Genji Shield (later Aegis Shield) and Genji Armor.

Danger around every corner

Going down like a sucker so you don’t have to

Kefka’s Tower has many dangers along the way. To prepare for this considering the fragility of one-member parties, each character was outfitted with a Ribbon and a Safety Bit. Well, I only had the one Safety Bit (and had to open a chest in the tower to get the third Ribbon), so I went through the time-consuming task of swapping it out every time I swapped parties. Except when I wanted to use a different relic for a boss fight (which didn’t always work out).

The pair of defensive armaments protected me from instant losses due to the many incapacitating attacks of the Kefka’s Tower denizens. With one-character parties, all it takes is one Death, Zombify or Petrification to end the game, after all. I spent most of the trudge shrugging off Lvl. 5 Death, Roulette, Doom, Delta Attack, Crypt Dust, Blaster and more would-be killers.

Of course, what I had equipped didn’t matter for some attacks; the Safety Bit only blocks magical death attacks, not physical. The Great Marlboro’s Infernal Kiss will kill you anyway. Gamma’s Gamma Ray attack will give you a death timer. Yojimbo’s Eye for an Eye attack will likewise leave you bereft of life, and Outisders can Banish you into the bleeding choir invisible. Ribbons will not block Stop or Frozen status, so it is best not to fight InnoSents, Prometheans and Muud Suuds, but you’ll have to tough out the Fiend and Demon bosses.

To make matters worse, there are some simple attacks that make your one-man bands extra squishy. Dark Force’s can use Revenge Blast, possibly killing you outright if they’ve taken enough damage. If you fight a trio of Junk and they all use Self-Destruct on the first turn, you’re eating 6,000 damage. The aforementioned Outsiders can throw weapons at you and, naturally, any fight with Fiend Dragons must be avoided at any cost, for reasons displayed in the above video.

Boss Rush

While some of the bosses (namely the dragons) were pushovers, others required Quick action (get it?) due to attacks I just couldn’t afford to take. I also spent a frustrating amount of time forgetting I had Setzer equipped with the Fixed Dice weapon and the Master’s Scroll (The Offering) relic, which would allow him to make four likely powerful attacks each round, instead just casting a lot of magic with him. The Guardian had to be put down quickly, before he could run the program of the old Dadaluma, allowing it to throw weapons, causing 6000+ damage for each one you fail to block.

I spend a lot of time trying to beat the top tier of Kefka’s pregame show. With a depleted party, Lady and Rest make for a frustrating experience. When killed, Rest will use a physical attack called Repose (Stillness) that will instantly kill you if not blocked, ignoring immunity to instant death. I had no desire to move on to Kefka with a dead party member (in a normal run-through, the dead are removed from your party in-between bosses and replaced with the next character in the lineup. This still happens EVEN WHEN there are no characters left to sub in). Complicating the issue is that Lady always casts Arise (Life 2) on her turn when Rest is dead. So, I repeatedly kill Rest until I time it right that I can revive Setzer and kill Lady before she can revive Rest. Whew!

I then blast through the fight with Kefka before he can spam Ultimas on me, the punk.

A different take on the ending

Facing Kefka without Terra results in a new cutscene shortly before the final fight begins. This allows her to show up after Kefka is killed, and lets her play her mandatory role in the ending scenes without the need for further changes.

So what’s next after this? This is the Advance version, so there are brand-new challenge bosses in the brand-new challenge dungeon. Do I dare enter the Dragon’s Den, where some fights might be impossible without Re-Raise (Life3)? Where the party split would mean that I would only have one character to fight the Czar Dragon? And then have to do it all over again for the Omega Weapon? That might just be too much fun.

Status report

Just started: Diablo III, Snuggle Truck

Still Playing: Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy XIII, Ghostbusters (iOS), Gundam: Battle Assault 2, Monster Tale, Picross 3D, Professor Layton and the Last Specter, Sonic Generations (PS3)

Lagging behind: Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, The Incident, Infinity Blade, Metroid: Other M, Persona 3: FES, Starcraft: Brood War, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, Torchlight, Wii Sports Resort

Just Finished: Final Fantasy VI Advance, Jetpack Joyride

 

Up Next? Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Cubivore, Dissidia Duodecim, Dragon Quest IV, Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman: What Did I Do to Deserve This? 2, Jumping Flash 2, Kingdom Hearts, Mega Man 9, Sam & Max: Season One, Scourge, Secret of Evermore, Star Ocean: The First Departure, To The Moon, Zach & Wiki