Grandia 3: Overcompensation Edition Indeed.
So yeah, Melc Ruins. Compared to the boss, the dungeon won't be that bad, right? ... right? Yeah not so much. Turns out Melc Ruins has some fairly nasty randoms, and the one I remember being nasty is... probably the nastiest random so far on this challenge. Unless we count the Forest Protectors as one. Anyway.
Some setup notes for this dungeon... it is big, and I am increasingly leaning on spells, so the big skills that come out to play for this dungeon are Wind and Water Mastery. The dungeon features one enemy weak to each of those elements, as a bonus.
Melc Birds - I think these guys exist to make you feel better about the rest of the dungeon. They have horrible HP, are weak to wind, and all they do is summon more of each other until there's a lot at which point they can unleash a combo attack which they never get off and isn't that good anyway. Nowhere near as good as the birds from the Vejas Jungle, nowhere near as good as almost anything.
Madai - Also pretty scrubby. Weak to physicals, so Ripple Shot rapes. They have some weak, evadable fire magic (Boom and Burnstrike). Susceptible to confusion at an alarming rate, and since they're weak to confuse physicals, the result is lulz.
Lesser Demon - Not as bad as the previous two, they can actually run effective interference for competent enemies. They have Fiora, which is still very annoying due to the lack of blocker besides the Gold Ring, and Zap-All, which isn't too impressive unless it gets lucky and paralyses. Decent enough HP though.
Okay, now for the ones that matter.
Lich (3 resets) - They have three special attacks. One is Hellburner. Remember how Melc Crystals' Hellburner is a notable 2HKO? Yeah, so's this. Resist fire or expect extreme pain. The second is Dark Mist, an NE magic attack you may remember from Excise Psi. It's a bit weaker than Hellburner (2-3HKO border), but unresistable. The IP damage it does isn't negligible. Finally, there is their favourite attack, Curse of Death. It doesn't inflict Death, but it does inflict Silence. And does 3HKO physical damage, and cancels, and is super fast. And they say "braaaaaains" when they use it. So they have style while they are dangerous. You fight one fairly often, and that's manageable enough; usually I have to take out any Lesser Demons they come with quickly. There are a couple fights with two at once, though, and this is where they become deadly. They're fast, every move they have is highly dangerous, and their HP, while not good, is just enough to make them stick around (generally I 3HKO them). Status is a pretty good way to deal with them; Stun Force in particular (I get it to L5 against them).
Red Beast (2 resets) - They have good HP (high 4 digits), are nearly immune to IP damage and stunning, respectable speed. The usual makings of a competent random. They resist fire, which is annoying, but they make up for it by being weak to ice, which means Crackle and Diamond Dust come out to play. They have a large skillset; the worst is Rampage, a powerful ST cancelling physical which is almost as dangerous as Hellmixer. They also have a weaker physical tech which hits enemies around them (this is rare), Fiora (we still hate it), Ba-Boom (moderately powerful MT fire; resist it!), and Dark Blitz, which is evadable, but inflicts paralysis, so... better not let it catch you where you can't dodge unless you're blocking paralyse (and Dahna can't block both paralyse and fire). Like Liches, one isn't too bad, but two is a nightmare. Diamond Dust does take down their HP really quickly if fired at point blank, at least, but they're never frail, and unlike Liches, status isn't really an option. Only reason I found them easier is because they're not quite as fast, and because they have useless moves (Dark Blitz against someone who can dodge, Fiora against Alfina). Still nasty.
But the real source of the pain is this one dude you have to fight two of. Well, technically, they're optional, but they guard some pretty cool loot, and besides, I never turn down a challenge. Even if this is the first random I think I may not be able to beat at first.
Hyudra (4 resets) - Well, let's see. They have three heads, with the centre head having 9600 HP and the sides having 7200. They're speedy, so they get a bit more than 1.5 turns per round each. They have high magic defence, and good but not amazing physical defence, so those HP numbers are better than they look. So far, competent but not notable. So, skillset time.
Regeneration: This move is evil. Each head will always use it first turn and if it runs out it will be used again. It grants a regen status which restores 5% mHP about 3-4 times a round. So we have a reasonably durable enemy who regens 15-20% HP a round. Alone, this can be overcome. But of course, as soon as you stop to heal, your work starts going down the toilet. This regen is powerful enough to annoy a party of four, something I remember well. Against two PCs? Uh oh. The status lasts like 10 turns, i.e. too damn long.
Crackle: The most common attack of all three. Does notable IP damage, airs a character and renders them very vulnerable to comboing. Only about 300 damage if it's halved. And if you're not halving water in this battle, you're doing something wrong.
Tri-Bite: A powerful ST physical attack that cancels (not quite as good as Rampage or Hellmixer, but still borderline 2-3HKO). I'm getting sick of these. Used by the main head only.
Aqua Breath: A fan physical attack which is water elemental. A little weaker than Crackle. Used by the side heads.
Poizn: Poison is actually super annoying in this battle. Unfortunately Dahna can't block both poison and ice at once. Her poor armour options are getting really annoying.
Diamond Dust, Crackle Fang: Once you down one head, the centre head gets ANGRY. Crackle Fang is as good as Ba-Boom, only water elemental, which means it's 2-3HKO if you don't resist it, and this is why you damn well should. Diamond Dust does variable damage and can be dodged, but it's not easy because it tracks.
The real issue is rather simple. Getting attacked five or so times a round means that their damage, while not super-impressive with water resistance (aside from Tri-Bite) really adds up, and they're tanky enough to force you to start healing before you kill them. At that point the regen is just... something I can't seem to overcome. A bad run that forces me back on my heels can easily see the Hydra heads recover to full HP. This makes me more inclined to take risks instead of healing, and that makes me more likely to end up dead. Three speedy competent enemies can kill pretty effectively if not taken seriously.
I actually despair of winning this one. It doesn't seem possible. For the lulz, I try a totally different setup: physical (Tech/Body), featuring the skills Berserker, Brute Strength, Lizard Hunter, Perception, and Passive Defence. The basic idea is this. Hit the hydra as hard as possible with 6-hit physicals and hope to tie them up.
This works much better than expected. Hyudras have a reasonably long "recovering from weakness hit" animation, and as long as it is going on, none of the Hyudra's turns can advance past the Command line. So... basically, a Lizard Hunter/Berserker physical can tie up a Hyudra for quite a while if it isn't actively getting a turn.
Adding to the mix is Dancing Cards, which I basically never used before this but get to L2 in my battles against these dudes. Dancing Cards are cool because I can lead into my offensive bullrush against a hyudra head with a card-blitz, either off a counter or a critical, which sends them all to attack at once. Wow and Runner also are good buffs to be used before I start going, particularly on Dahna, who has by far the stronger physical at the moment due to the Judge's Cards obtained in this dungeon. (They also have the bonus of sometimes silencing the hyudra head, though this lasts for less than half a round.) A Wow'd, full-on Dancing Card strike can take off half the HP of the weaker hyudra heads, starting me well on my way to victory.
So the strategy ends up being: buff, then physical blitz one of the heads into oblivion, heal and repeat. In some ways things get tougher with one head dead, because Crackle Fang is a pain in the ass, but no big. On the other hand, it's easier to catch all the heads not acting, and that leaves the hyudra open for a locking, berserker blitz. If Alfina and Dahna's turns sync up perfectly, I can keep a hyudra tied up indefinitely like this. hax.
Worth noting that Seiba's Orb was probably practically a free kill on a Hydura (5 free turns + all stats up? Eat it, regen). But I knew I'd have to kill at least one without, so once I found a way to do it, I just applied the same strategies to the second hyudra. Fortunately there aren't more, because each one ate through ~3 Healing Gems (when forced to heal, no reason to go with anything but the best).
Once the hyudras are dead, the rest of the dungeon is a breeze. The last floor is really a bit of a joke, no more Hyudras or Red Beasts, very few Liches and never more than one at a time. Guess they figured you deserved a break. To maintain the interest through this area, there is one last enemy, the Lucky Mink, aka Liquid Metal Slime wannabe. Very fast, takes 0-1 from everything, 18 HP, likes to run away or cast Runner. My strategy for them is to Berserker physical -> Crackle -> Aerial combo, but I never get especially close to killing one with just two PCs anyway.
blah blah blah dolphin blah blah. Emelious hangs out in his ridiculous world of overcompensation, Kornell wonders what the fuck is going on, Violetta is a crazy fangirl, and nobody cares about the other two villains.
Next time, the swarm of fire-weaks make their return, I get to deal with Violetta (uh oh) and La-Ilim (will he continue his run of the only non-Minotaur boss not to kill me?). Happy times for all.
Oh yeah, levels, since I am bad about reporting them, are 34 for Melc Crystals, 38 for finishing the dungeon.
