The Shoat summon petrifies a single enemy on the battlefield, at base 99%+(caster level-target level) odds, capping at 99%. Could be useful, but I'm finding attacking more generally useful than cheap instant kills. The boss encounter with Shoat is similar, countering any damaging attack with Demon's Eye, a petrifying attack. On its turns it will either attack, or Drain at 1/3 odds. Altogether not that threatening to mow through 5000 HP, especially since Faris is immune to Stone through the Ribbon.
Shoat is the last of the Level 3 Summons, which can currently be cast by Reina or Galuf. Bartz picked up Throw around here, so I shuffled jobs around a bit to maximize potential damage-Bartz became a Summoner with Throw and Reina switch to Ninja with Summon4. Scrolls were doing base 1000 damage to all targets-I wanted more of those now! and so Team Sidequest returned to Kelb with 3 million gil and purchased 99 of each Flame, Water and Lightning Scrolls-and 99 Shurikens too. They then finally trekked off to the Forest of Moore to stop Exdeath.
Of course, before I left Kelb I had to play with the werewolves. There are 3 running in circles that turn left when they hit an object, and speaking to one nets you the Requiem song. However, your character counts as an object, so I stuck them behind a friend next to the big house. I don't know why I enjoy messing with these 3 so much, but I do it every time after finding out about it last run.
The Forest of Moore itself was fairly boring, with most encounters dying to a toss of a Flame Scroll and a couple attacks, and no treasures for my party. The most interesting thing that happened was Faris pulling a draining dance from critical HP. Exdeath sets the forest on fire, which was my cue to equip the Wall Ring on Galuf.
This chest is pretty interesting. I picked up the Aegis Shield because I hate leaving such a valuable treasure behind while waiting for the Moogle to show up. After jumping in the hole the Moogle dug, the chest contains a Flame Shield if you did not obtain the Aegis Shield. It absorbs fire and has higher evade%, but the Aegis Shield protects against a few status effects and has a 33% chance to block magic attacks, making it the better shield. A moot point for Team Sidequest though, as they can never equip a shield. I hit level 24 right before the boss, and went into what I expected to be a simple fight.
Inside the tree, the Seal Guardians awaited.
Like that was going to work. The way this fight works is there's 1 crystal for each "classical" element: fire, wind, water and earth. They all have 7777 HP, and once they reach 3000 they switch from always attacking to always casting a target all spell of their element-Fire3, Aero3, Aqua Rake and Earth Shaker. The only unanswerable spell here for a normal party is Aqua Rake, but this party has no cheap answers...right? Well, I decided to switch a few classes around and try again with Water Scrolls.
After 4 Water Scrolls, I'd dealt 3000-I messed up though and thought much more damage would put the crystals into critical HP, so I threw Shurikens. naturally, the Fire3 counterattack wiped out everyone but Galuf with the Wall Ring. I summoned Golem and used a Hi-Potion, hoping I could find a way to take out the Fire Crystal and bring the fight back under control. I couldn't use Titan because that would bring the Wind Crystal to critical HP, which though it could be reflected would likely trigger Earth Shaker or Aqua Rake-neither of which I could survive.
Galuf had the Dancing Dagger equipped though! I used it to try to kill the Fire Crystal with a Sword Dance...but it just regular attacked. Then the Earth Crystal was brought to critical HP by a reflected Fire3, and it did not look good for poor Galuf.
Being forced to use a Hi-Potion every turn or die (in hindsight, I could have used an Elixir on the Earth Crystal to survive this) didn't bode well for attempt #2. The next reflected Fire3 hit the Earth Crystal-two more of those and I may win this yet! But then the Earth Crystal got 2 turns in a row, and that was that.
The third attempt I realized I could equip Flame Rings-Fire3 was no longer a wipe, it was my greatest ally in this fight! I killed the Wind Crystal right before a 2nd Aero3 would put me back in terrible shape, the Earth Crystal nearly wiped the party again but 3 characters held on and killed it with more Shurikens.
Aqua Rake was avoided with 4 Shurikens and a Sword Dance, which left a harmless Fire Crystal healing for 600 a turn-my Shurikens dealt a lot more than that.
Another win for careful equipment setups! The answer didn't lie in leveling up, but preparing for what the enemy could do. Then Exdeath reveals he WANTED these Seal Guardians destroyed, Team Sidequest gets trapped, Krile saves the day but Exdeath traps her, and Galuf is best old guy in Final Fantasy again.
This is why I brought the Wall Ring-Galuf enters into a 1v1 duel with Exdeath, whose reflected spells dealt more than 2000 damage! Adding a few Titan summons for 1500 apiece would cut through Exdeath's 7000 HP before long...
Oh snap physical attacks. I don't know how I'm expected to win this, I don't want to have to fight the crystals again...
...BUT I DON'T HAVE TO BECAUSE GALUF IS A BEAST. Look at that, still dishing out the big damage at 0 HP left. Poor guy doesn't know he should be dead. "WHY WON'T YOU DIE" "Not yet...I can't die yet...even if my flame burns out...I will defeat you!"
"I can not be defeated by anger or hatred" "This isn't anger...nor is it hatred...!!" Such a powerful scene for me. Cure3, Life, Phoenix Downs and Elixirs can't save Galuf from his eventual fate, and he dies a hero, saving the Light Warriors from Exdeath. Also, my party is still 75% royalty because Krile is a princess. This translation says "Galuf has died", but I much prefer the PS1 translation: "Galuf's flame has flickered out". The symbolism with what he says in the fight with Exdeath makes it work that little bit more for me.
Anyway, down one old guy but up one little girl Team Sidequest went to Exdeath's castle, where I alertly noticed I could obtain more Wall Rings. They're a rare steal from Wall Mages, who are a very common encounter before Kelga sacrifices himself to dispel the illusion. It took so long to steal one I actually ran it out of MP...
...but I did get one eventually. You should know by now that when I say 1, I really mean 99. 95 of those will help cover 99 MagiShurikens for World 3. Faris actually took out all 3 Wall Mages with Sword Dances, going 3 for 3. Don't mess with her. Having a Thief in my party revealed a few shortcuts through the castle, which is good because I don't care for most of the treasures in here, just 2 weapons I can throw later. Right before the first save point I nearly wiped on a Blue and Red Dragon encounter-the Red Dragon chose Fight and not Atomic Ray though, saving me.
The Double Lance served as an upgrade to my Air Lancet, attacking twice at slightly higher power. I put it on Reina to boost her damage, though perhaps Faris would have been a better choice. Reina could nearly oneshot a MagicDragon with 2 Air Lancets equipped-always nice when tough random battles just fall like that. Before long it was time to take on Carbuncle, another optional boss and summon. Carbuncle bounces 3 spells off himself then drops his reflect and defense and heals for one turn.
Rather than mess around I took the cheap win of summoning Shoat after the healing turn. I'm not sure how often I'll be summoning Carbuncle (reflect on the full party) but I have it available now, since if I don't pick up Carbuncle now it becomes lost forever. On the way to the next save point, last encounter again a Blue Dragon gave me a nasty shock!
Nearly wiped there...but anyway, it was time for the 'optional' Gilgamesh fight. I equipped Angel Rings for high Magic Defense and to negate Time Slip, summoned Golem and threw empty space twice.
This just wasn't a threatening fight, the random encounters were more threatening than this. Poor Gilgamesh-he didn't even know Exdeath killed Galuf. Anyway, Gilgamesh morphs and I stole 99 Genji Helmets-more money for those MagiShurikens and novelty, and Exdeath throws Gilgamesh into the Void. I went back to the save point and equipped a Wall Ring on Reina, along with !Image. I have a genius strategy for Exdeath, turning one of the hardest fights in the game into a complete joke.
But before the battle lol enemy confusing itself. My offense here is summons and the Throw command, so I put everyone but Reina, who can physical attack for comparable damage, in the back row.
First turn Faris was Condemned. Second turn Exdeath flipped everyone's rows with Dynamo. My stable offense kept banging out good numbers. His 3rd turn knocked out Faris, as did his 4th after I revived her. 5th turn was Earth Shaker, which I spent a turn healing from. His 6th turn was Flame, and I revived Faris again who banged out a Sword Dance. He attacked Reina then Vacuum Waved Krile for 1500, while I kept attacking-Faris pulled another Sword Dance!
He cast Bio on Bartz, then Vacuum Waved Faris before Condemning Krile. However, I'd forced the turnover into his 2nd phase, where the Wall Ring and Image would come together seamlessly. I let him take down Bartz and Krile, and sat there refreshing Image whenever it was removed. Slowly but surely, Exdeath wiped himself out with reflected magic spells.
I was in no danger during the 2nd half of the fight, in small part to a bug with the !Image command. If you use it when you have 1 Image up, it brings you up to 3 instead of 2 as it should. I intentionally abused this bug-though I would have refreshed on 1 Image left anyway because Attack+Vacuum Wave would wipe me otherwise. One of the hardest fights in the game, completely shut down by a solo underleveled Ninja. This game is great. However, Exdeath's plan succeeds and the 2 worlds merge, dumping the party right outside Tycoon.
4 more posts left until Exdeath is stopped for good-but will it remain smooth sailing for Team Sidequest?
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