The shop at Trann Dome yielded Black Vests and Mid Tonics, which were both welcome. Black Vests would be especially useful for 2300 AD, thanks to all the laser attacks the team would be facing(yes, they are all Shadow element. No, don't ask me why). I also picked up the Megablast, it was actually a strong attack upgrade for Lucca and would let her remain relevant in fights without consuming MP.
Proto Dome had Robo, who was a great find. Frog was immediately dismissed; Robo would be a much better attacker with the MegatonArm, and he also had some strong dual techs with Lucca and Ayla. Things got scary for a moment when I ran into the four Bugger encounter at low HP, but two Cat Attacks, a Laser Spin and a Fire spell put the situation firmly under control.
The next stop was Arris Dome, and the whole team donned Black Vests before entering. The store had Memory Caps, which were technically better helms, but a bit too pricey. They protected against Lock, the CT version of Mute. Lock wasn't really used much by CT enemies, and certainly not a thing the team would face anytime soon, so they just left them be.
Black Vests trivialized Guardian; both its first main attack, and its counters were Shadow element, so the team was free to damage it at will. They still took out the bits first though; it was not worth wasting time by drawing enemy counters. Lucca was hit hard by a Bit and didn't survive the Fire explosion, but it was just a small loss. The rest of the dungeon was uneventful, and Doan handed the Clone.
With two party members learning skills naturally, there wasn't any pressure to do the Factory just yet, so off to Sun Palace it was. Lucca donned the Taban Vest back, Ayla wore a Ruby Vest, and Robo just put on a Gold Earring. The extra HP would be worth more than anything else. Lucca also took a Flea Vest, and Ayla, a Magic Seal, to survive Flare a bit better.
Lucca was moved to the front, and that put her in prime position to Flame Toss a group of 2 flames without hitting the Son itself. Both of them drew flame counters, meaning the right flame was on the other side. The team got a good bunch of attacks in, but the second Flare made things a bit critical, with Robo dying despite the Gold Earring HP. A few well timed revives salvaged this, and the right flame luckily didn't change position. Sun of Son dropped a Megalixir, and transformed into the Gate Key, thus validating my decision to hold off Factory for later.
Prehistory was unlocked, and so was Lucca's magic. I took the four Runner encounter in the mountain gulch since it was decent XP; however I had forgotten to heal up my team, and two revives were wasted here. Thankfully, Fire Punch cleaned up the Runners, and it was just a matter of moments before the Kilwalas fell. I checked the Prehistoric shop, and bought a Dark Helm for Robo. There was no illusion of me killing Nizbel in time with this team, so back to 600 AD it was.
Fiona's Shrine's shop had Ruby Armors, which were effectively endgame worthy. For now, I gave it to Robo, but stuck to the vests for the girls. Robo at the shrine himself had a PrismShard, which clearly meant that Marle was likely important for progression. I could now either choose to complete the Cathedral, climb up Dactyl Nest, brute force Reptite Lair, or slog through Geno Dome.
Dactyl Nest seemed the least time consuming of these alternatives, so up there they went. It was another unremarkable trip, save for finding a Time Hat. The Time Hat is actually a fairly nifty piece of headgear, blocking both Stop and Slow. Those statuses are much worse than they sound; Stop in particular not only blocks characters from taking turns but also weakens their physical and magical defenses immensely. Marle was thankfully at the top, and she replaced Robo. I wanted Lucca to quickly learn better magic, and Ayla to steal from Yakra XIII.
The Guardia basement gave out a free Ruby Armor, which was nice. The shell itself had the Dreamstone, which opened my path through the Tyrano Castle to the Dark Ages. It was now just a matter of getting through Yakra XIII.
Yakra XIII could have gone better. I should have healed Marle's Chaos as soon as possible(he always targets her first with it), and thrown more Rock Throws and Antipodes. Rock Throw is absolutely amazing when it works - it's just a shame that it's held back by its restrictions. His steal was a ZodiacCape, a nifty high defense armor for the girls with a considerable magic defense bonus. The finish was rather tense, with Ayla ending up dead and the others surviving with 11 and 1 HP! Moving forward, Marle was sent back to the End of Time, and Robo was now equipped with a FrenzyBand. Ayla also donned the Ruby Armor, and Lucca stuck to her vest.The tabs were now applied; Power Tabs went into Robo, since Ayla's attack would considerably go up with levels anyway. Lucca got both Speed and Magic tabs, to strengthen her magic and help out with her low starting speed.
The Reptite encounters within the castle went smoothly; Fire Punch dropped them all in a single blow. The Volcano and Terrasaur encounters were considerably less smooth; I had underestimated just how hefty Terrasaurs were, and tried(and failed) to take out the Reptites first with Ayla. In retrospect, targeting the Volcanoes first would have worked out much better. It was soon time for Nizbel II, however, and I made sure that Lucca atleast unlocked Napalm before moving on.
Nizbel II was surprisingly not too bad with just Tail Spin and Napalm. The FrenzyBands wasted some time here with their pitiable counters; it's quite easy to forget about your accessories sometimes. His steal was a Crisis Arm, which was a huge find; this would make Robo an amazing attacker with some HP manipulation. Right now, a Gold Earring made his last digit 7, so he took it gladly.
Azala and the Black Tyrano are no danger when you have Fire resistance, so I went in without much hesitation. The aforementioned FrenzyBand actually worked great with Lucca; nearly every roar was countered with a 330~ crit. Robo did some decent damage, as did Ayla despite being reduced to Cat Attack. Black Tyrano got one fire breath off, but was soon finished by a Napalm, a Cat Attack, and a gun counter. I took the time to get Azala's and Black Tyrano's steals before killing them. Azala had the Terra Arm, which was a good, safe alternative to the Crisis Arm, while Black Tyrano had the Demon Hit, a decent sword if I were still using Frog. A Gold Stud dropped from this fight, and it would certainly be a tempting choice for Lucca once she got strong enough.
The shop in Terra Caves was outdated, but the Nu shops in Kajar delivered, with a PrismDress, PrismSpecs, and Ruby Armor for sale. I made Lucca wear the PrismDress, picked up a third Ruby Armor for use against Golems, and set one Prismspecs on Ayla. I also bought a whole bunch of Ethers for out of combat MP healing.
The single Golem was pretty easy, especially for this team. They took the first Iron Orb, then stopped it with Boogie. It remained completely helpless for the rest of the fight. The Ocean Palace had some lengthy encounters, but it was worth it, since Lucca soon learnt Fire 2, which also allowed the mighty Fire Whirl(the one with Ayla, not Crono) to finally be put to use. One thing that must be mentioned though: Robo's Tackles didn't benefit from the Crisis Arm's bonus, oddly enough. It wasn't much of a setback, but definitely something worth looking into for future development.
The chests on the topmost floor of the Ocean Palace gave nothing particularly helpful for my team. Fire Whirl simply wrecked house on the stairway room. On the elevator, the first encounter went well. The second one was tricky, and took a lot more time than expected because Sleep hit Robo. I was however pleased to find that a single RocketPunch would kill Scouters in one hit. This made the third and final encounter a lot less dangerous, and the team pulled through with little hassle.
I switched Ayla to the ZodiacCape and PrismSpecs, and Lucca to a Gold Stud. Twin Golems were mostly another pushover; after the Boogie, the fight became more of an exercise in flexing the team's prowress. Of note was a 5129 hit from Beast Toss! This was also the last time it or Rock Throw would see any use; all of Lavos' forms can't be thrown. For Lavos' Shell, the PrismSpecs and Gold Stud switched places, since Blaze Kicks would demand much more from Ayla.
Lavos Shell proved to be quite tough. The thing that kept tripping me up was the complete lack of status protection; Chaotic Zone kept hitting multiple targets, and this proved to be quite troublesome, especially combined with the aoe at the end of every cycle. It soon also became obvious that Ayla was seriously deficient magic defense wise; it was becoming a chore to keep her alive despite Lucca and Robo's efforts. I quickly snapped a Barrier on her to deal with this, and it worked; she survived a cycle and got Robo's Heal Beam in time. Robo died to some bad timing later, and it became a frantic damage rush to the end. Thankfully, Triple Kick and Mega Bombs did win.
I had learnt my lesson. I transferred the PrismDress over to Ayla, since its Auto Barrier bonus would be more helpful than the ZodiacCape's magic defense boost. Lucca went back to the Taban Vest so that she could synchronize better with Ayla. Protect would basically be more effective than any armor anyway. Robo got the Amulet, since he was my healer and so the most important part of the team to keep control of.
The fight was challenging, yet exciting as it kept veering between dominance and near defeat. One especially surprising moment was when Shadow Doom Blaze hit, and Ayla survived with 5 HP. Eventually, the fight boiled down to Ayla beating up the body a bunch, and Mega Bombs keeping her company. A single Megalixir snuck in before the body died.
The core itself was... not pleasant. A combination of bad speed, low magic defense. and lackluster attacks kept pulling them apart. Finally, it dawned on me that the real problem was too much time being dedicated to recovery, something that could be remedied with two Gold Earrings. A few tries later, it was found that they worked best on Robo and Ayla; Lucca was still too fragile even with the extra health. As a bonus, they also boosted the damage of Dino Tail, which was definitely a great boon. After several attempts, it was defeated by throwing lots of Dino Tails and Uzzi Punches, and giving the Time Hat to Ayla to prevent Lavos' Song from rolling Stop on her.
This was an interesting team, but it had some serious deficiencies. The lack of magic defense was really felt towards the end. Robo's heals are decent, but not amazing and certainly not enough to keep up with the final few bosses without a Dash Ring, Haste, or several Speed Tabs. Lucca's physical defense is definitely a giant mark against her, especially since she has a poor health pool compared to fighters.
If there's anything the team does well, it's getting through the other parts of the game, since it has plenty of raw damage with its techs. However, anything that even resists Fire, is immune to Rock Throw, or has enough effective speed to outdo them presents a serious obstacle. The team also boasts two great aoe status moves, but they are mostly only helpful against regular encounters, i.e. the things the team can already deal with in ease. While I enjoyed my time with them, I wouldn't actively seek them out again without some strong equipment that would counter their deficiencies, i.e. Haste Helms, Robo's Rbn, or even Dash Rings.
Proto Dome had Robo, who was a great find. Frog was immediately dismissed; Robo would be a much better attacker with the MegatonArm, and he also had some strong dual techs with Lucca and Ayla. Things got scary for a moment when I ran into the four Bugger encounter at low HP, but two Cat Attacks, a Laser Spin and a Fire spell put the situation firmly under control.
The next stop was Arris Dome, and the whole team donned Black Vests before entering. The store had Memory Caps, which were technically better helms, but a bit too pricey. They protected against Lock, the CT version of Mute. Lock wasn't really used much by CT enemies, and certainly not a thing the team would face anytime soon, so they just left them be.
Black Vests trivialized Guardian; both its first main attack, and its counters were Shadow element, so the team was free to damage it at will. They still took out the bits first though; it was not worth wasting time by drawing enemy counters. Lucca was hit hard by a Bit and didn't survive the Fire explosion, but it was just a small loss. The rest of the dungeon was uneventful, and Doan handed the Clone.
With two party members learning skills naturally, there wasn't any pressure to do the Factory just yet, so off to Sun Palace it was. Lucca donned the Taban Vest back, Ayla wore a Ruby Vest, and Robo just put on a Gold Earring. The extra HP would be worth more than anything else. Lucca also took a Flea Vest, and Ayla, a Magic Seal, to survive Flare a bit better.
Lucca was moved to the front, and that put her in prime position to Flame Toss a group of 2 flames without hitting the Son itself. Both of them drew flame counters, meaning the right flame was on the other side. The team got a good bunch of attacks in, but the second Flare made things a bit critical, with Robo dying despite the Gold Earring HP. A few well timed revives salvaged this, and the right flame luckily didn't change position. Sun of Son dropped a Megalixir, and transformed into the Gate Key, thus validating my decision to hold off Factory for later.
Prehistory was unlocked, and so was Lucca's magic. I took the four Runner encounter in the mountain gulch since it was decent XP; however I had forgotten to heal up my team, and two revives were wasted here. Thankfully, Fire Punch cleaned up the Runners, and it was just a matter of moments before the Kilwalas fell. I checked the Prehistoric shop, and bought a Dark Helm for Robo. There was no illusion of me killing Nizbel in time with this team, so back to 600 AD it was.
Fiona's Shrine's shop had Ruby Armors, which were effectively endgame worthy. For now, I gave it to Robo, but stuck to the vests for the girls. Robo at the shrine himself had a PrismShard, which clearly meant that Marle was likely important for progression. I could now either choose to complete the Cathedral, climb up Dactyl Nest, brute force Reptite Lair, or slog through Geno Dome.
Dactyl Nest seemed the least time consuming of these alternatives, so up there they went. It was another unremarkable trip, save for finding a Time Hat. The Time Hat is actually a fairly nifty piece of headgear, blocking both Stop and Slow. Those statuses are much worse than they sound; Stop in particular not only blocks characters from taking turns but also weakens their physical and magical defenses immensely. Marle was thankfully at the top, and she replaced Robo. I wanted Lucca to quickly learn better magic, and Ayla to steal from Yakra XIII.
The Guardia basement gave out a free Ruby Armor, which was nice. The shell itself had the Dreamstone, which opened my path through the Tyrano Castle to the Dark Ages. It was now just a matter of getting through Yakra XIII.
Yakra XIII could have gone better. I should have healed Marle's Chaos as soon as possible(he always targets her first with it), and thrown more Rock Throws and Antipodes. Rock Throw is absolutely amazing when it works - it's just a shame that it's held back by its restrictions. His steal was a ZodiacCape, a nifty high defense armor for the girls with a considerable magic defense bonus. The finish was rather tense, with Ayla ending up dead and the others surviving with 11 and 1 HP! Moving forward, Marle was sent back to the End of Time, and Robo was now equipped with a FrenzyBand. Ayla also donned the Ruby Armor, and Lucca stuck to her vest.The tabs were now applied; Power Tabs went into Robo, since Ayla's attack would considerably go up with levels anyway. Lucca got both Speed and Magic tabs, to strengthen her magic and help out with her low starting speed.
The Reptite encounters within the castle went smoothly; Fire Punch dropped them all in a single blow. The Volcano and Terrasaur encounters were considerably less smooth; I had underestimated just how hefty Terrasaurs were, and tried(and failed) to take out the Reptites first with Ayla. In retrospect, targeting the Volcanoes first would have worked out much better. It was soon time for Nizbel II, however, and I made sure that Lucca atleast unlocked Napalm before moving on.
Nizbel II was surprisingly not too bad with just Tail Spin and Napalm. The FrenzyBands wasted some time here with their pitiable counters; it's quite easy to forget about your accessories sometimes. His steal was a Crisis Arm, which was a huge find; this would make Robo an amazing attacker with some HP manipulation. Right now, a Gold Earring made his last digit 7, so he took it gladly.
Azala and the Black Tyrano are no danger when you have Fire resistance, so I went in without much hesitation. The aforementioned FrenzyBand actually worked great with Lucca; nearly every roar was countered with a 330~ crit. Robo did some decent damage, as did Ayla despite being reduced to Cat Attack. Black Tyrano got one fire breath off, but was soon finished by a Napalm, a Cat Attack, and a gun counter. I took the time to get Azala's and Black Tyrano's steals before killing them. Azala had the Terra Arm, which was a good, safe alternative to the Crisis Arm, while Black Tyrano had the Demon Hit, a decent sword if I were still using Frog. A Gold Stud dropped from this fight, and it would certainly be a tempting choice for Lucca once she got strong enough.
The shop in Terra Caves was outdated, but the Nu shops in Kajar delivered, with a PrismDress, PrismSpecs, and Ruby Armor for sale. I made Lucca wear the PrismDress, picked up a third Ruby Armor for use against Golems, and set one Prismspecs on Ayla. I also bought a whole bunch of Ethers for out of combat MP healing.
The single Golem was pretty easy, especially for this team. They took the first Iron Orb, then stopped it with Boogie. It remained completely helpless for the rest of the fight. The Ocean Palace had some lengthy encounters, but it was worth it, since Lucca soon learnt Fire 2, which also allowed the mighty Fire Whirl(the one with Ayla, not Crono) to finally be put to use. One thing that must be mentioned though: Robo's Tackles didn't benefit from the Crisis Arm's bonus, oddly enough. It wasn't much of a setback, but definitely something worth looking into for future development.
The chests on the topmost floor of the Ocean Palace gave nothing particularly helpful for my team. Fire Whirl simply wrecked house on the stairway room. On the elevator, the first encounter went well. The second one was tricky, and took a lot more time than expected because Sleep hit Robo. I was however pleased to find that a single RocketPunch would kill Scouters in one hit. This made the third and final encounter a lot less dangerous, and the team pulled through with little hassle.
I switched Ayla to the ZodiacCape and PrismSpecs, and Lucca to a Gold Stud. Twin Golems were mostly another pushover; after the Boogie, the fight became more of an exercise in flexing the team's prowress. Of note was a 5129 hit from Beast Toss! This was also the last time it or Rock Throw would see any use; all of Lavos' forms can't be thrown. For Lavos' Shell, the PrismSpecs and Gold Stud switched places, since Blaze Kicks would demand much more from Ayla.
Lavos Shell proved to be quite tough. The thing that kept tripping me up was the complete lack of status protection; Chaotic Zone kept hitting multiple targets, and this proved to be quite troublesome, especially combined with the aoe at the end of every cycle. It soon also became obvious that Ayla was seriously deficient magic defense wise; it was becoming a chore to keep her alive despite Lucca and Robo's efforts. I quickly snapped a Barrier on her to deal with this, and it worked; she survived a cycle and got Robo's Heal Beam in time. Robo died to some bad timing later, and it became a frantic damage rush to the end. Thankfully, Triple Kick and Mega Bombs did win.
I had learnt my lesson. I transferred the PrismDress over to Ayla, since its Auto Barrier bonus would be more helpful than the ZodiacCape's magic defense boost. Lucca went back to the Taban Vest so that she could synchronize better with Ayla. Protect would basically be more effective than any armor anyway. Robo got the Amulet, since he was my healer and so the most important part of the team to keep control of.
The fight was challenging, yet exciting as it kept veering between dominance and near defeat. One especially surprising moment was when Shadow Doom Blaze hit, and Ayla survived with 5 HP. Eventually, the fight boiled down to Ayla beating up the body a bunch, and Mega Bombs keeping her company. A single Megalixir snuck in before the body died.
The core itself was... not pleasant. A combination of bad speed, low magic defense. and lackluster attacks kept pulling them apart. Finally, it dawned on me that the real problem was too much time being dedicated to recovery, something that could be remedied with two Gold Earrings. A few tries later, it was found that they worked best on Robo and Ayla; Lucca was still too fragile even with the extra health. As a bonus, they also boosted the damage of Dino Tail, which was definitely a great boon. After several attempts, it was defeated by throwing lots of Dino Tails and Uzzi Punches, and giving the Time Hat to Ayla to prevent Lavos' Song from rolling Stop on her.
This was an interesting team, but it had some serious deficiencies. The lack of magic defense was really felt towards the end. Robo's heals are decent, but not amazing and certainly not enough to keep up with the final few bosses without a Dash Ring, Haste, or several Speed Tabs. Lucca's physical defense is definitely a giant mark against her, especially since she has a poor health pool compared to fighters.
If there's anything the team does well, it's getting through the other parts of the game, since it has plenty of raw damage with its techs. However, anything that even resists Fire, is immune to Rock Throw, or has enough effective speed to outdo them presents a serious obstacle. The team also boasts two great aoe status moves, but they are mostly only helpful against regular encounters, i.e. the things the team can already deal with in ease. While I enjoyed my time with them, I wouldn't actively seek them out again without some strong equipment that would counter their deficiencies, i.e. Haste Helms, Robo's Rbn, or even Dash Rings.
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