Final Fantasy Dimensions - DARK MATTER
Apparently Square Enix disagrees with Calvin on this one since they love this name. Regardless, I have to go find 8 pieces of it. And do lots of other sidequests because
I'm a compleitionist nobody is buying that one, NEB I don't want to get pasted by the final boss.
I'm in control of Alba, running Magic Blade Ninja still because it's great. The fused world is a depresing place with most people gone and more importantly a dreary colour palette. It's up to Alba and the Albaettes to save the day! I make a pit stop at Braska to restock on Hi-Potions which I'd burned through in the final dungeons pre-path merge, and then it's on to our next dungeon.
Deist Forest: After some trouble with sleep I eventually run a Chouchou to defend a bunch of statuses, absolutely worth the tradeoff in speed. Once that's in place and I know to take enemies seriously things aren't too hard.
-Ahriman: Oh look who's back. Stoning Slash kills 'em fast though not before they get off Doom. Fortunately I can end fights fast and they never appear with the dungeon's one bulky random.
-Earth Raptor: The dungeon's one bulky random, they can hit reasonably hard against my front-row setup and sometimes counter, while immuning all the status I can use except poison (who cares). No big deal; I control the turn split and Curative Slash patches me up faster than he can hurt me. Always appears alone.
-Goblin Prince: Can doubleact, using physicals or a Goblin Punch which can do 1600! Or can cast Sleep as the second action and that's bad, a couple resets convince me to block that. Vulnerable to Stoning Slash.
-Vorpal Bunny: Can we take a moment to appreciate how awesome their name is? Incisor hits for 2000 if they're in the front row, Smash to Bits is reasonably competent gravity. Vulnerable to Stoning Slash.
-Malboro: I quickdraw them every time I'm not ambushed and Chouchou stops most of their bullshit, but they are nonetheless still the first against the wall, where the wall is two petrify-inflicting slashes.
One cool thing about Dualwield Stoning Slash is that even in the rare time one swing misses, the other does the job just fine. This move is so good. Also good is Osmotic Slash which continues to heal over half my MP so I just do that at the end of any fight where I feel confident and my MP has dropped.
At the end there is a miniboss fight against two encounters in a row, but we've seen them before.
Imperial Elite x3 + Weresolder Z x3: I go in the back row with dual boomeranges to be safe. Both enemies immune petrify but they're vulnerable to Drowsy Slash so I put everyone to sleep then beat them down with more Drowsy Slash spam. This actually works, unlike in FF5 where it toggles sleep. Hahaha.
At this point I gain full access to the world map and I can go anywhere! Here's some of the stuff I do to help prepare for the assault on the Evil Empire:
-Grab the Bunny Ears from Harmonia which is a hat with solid defences and +4 speed.
-Head to the Moogle Cave and do some shopping. I can buy Dry Ethers now, which is certainly potentially handy, although Osmotic Slash has made this far less important. I also get some general equipment upgrades, in particular the endgame claws (for ninja) and bows/axes (for ranger). Armour I mostly am going to use all the utility stuff I already have, so I don't buy much.
-Grab the Tetra Bangle from the Crystal Temple, which has some key elemental resistances I may want later.
-Grab 100000 gil from Mathel.
-Fabrica lets me immediately put that gil to use, buying my second Dark Matter. I also pick up the Argy summon I'll likely never use.
Next I redo Mysidia Cavern to get Alexander. The enemies here are the same from before and can largely be Stoning Slashes or outslugged as usual; the only notable thing is that Alchemists can inflict Blind which matters now so I equip a hat which blocks that.
Alexander (2 resets) - Second very legitimate holy-alligned boss in this dungeon! Alexander can use Holy for around 3000, similar to Protector. The difference is that it's not his strongest turn, because he can doubleact, and Divine Shot (his next strongest magic) does 2000. 4000 total is a lot! He uses that combo first round and periodically thereafter, but he'll also mix in physicals which fortunately are weaker to back-row me. Anyway in order to be more effective I go back to Ranger with Backliner here and hit him with a mix of Quick Shots and Curative Slashes on myself, with Osmotic Slash to restore MP as usual. He periodically counters with either Protect or Shell which slows my offence some but I'm able to control the fight well enough (for all that any miss with Curative Slash is scary, I try to be conservative with healing for that reason). He can also dispel but I don't care.
Onto get more Dark Matter!
Gardenia Slums: There are three fights here against imperial soldiers: a General and two support. Generals look and sound scary, being palette-swaps of the imperial officer bosses who have given me a hard time in the past, but they're no bosses: they can be put to sleep. So can their support, which is either Weresoldiers Z or Royal Lancers, who can cast Slow. Not a big deal. Dark Matter #3 get!
Burtgang: Just some randoms here in a relatively small area, but yikes some of 'em are tough.
-Slagworms: They hit super-hard though are slow and vulnerable to petrify. The real problems are Tot Aevis, big birds with full status immunity, loads of health and the ability to petrify. Gross! Athena's Mirror is go I guess? But wait...
-Zaghrems: Monks who appear in trios. While status vulnerable, they can inflict paralyse with Glare then mercilessly punch me to death. So I need to block paralyse AND petrify... which means Gold-Spun Hat I guess. But mage classes get bodied here bad. I try Black Mage but I literally get 2HKOed by Slagworms before I get a spell off despite back row. And Red Mage offence is just pathetic at this point against anything that can't be petrified. So... whatever, this place is short, back to Magic Blade Ninja. Block paralysis and just try to run whenever I face Tot Aevis.
-Mykales: Mages. They hit pretty hard, low 4 digits with their -agas. Red Jacket can ward off one of those elements at least. Sleep works!
-Earth Raptors: Still bulky and hard-hitting but no real tricks. Now they can appear two at once! Another formation which forced me back into ninja.
Anyway there's Dark Matter #4 here, no fight to defend it though. There's also a Fang! I now have 50 FP worth of Fangs, so I take that to Moogle Cave and get a Shell Bangle, which is Auto-Shell (cut magic by 25%). Much later than you get Protect Bangle, but not a shabby option at all.
At this point I'm getting close to JL 10 on Ninja, and all I have left is boss fights. So I decide to go finally take down Odin and Leviathan and get some JP in the process. Odin is a total joke now, I doubleturn him and with his lightning-weak Arcing Slash carves him in half, he doesn't even get halfway through his countdown. Leviathan is tougher! I don't take him seriously and his Slow counter comes at a bad time. Next time he's easy enough since he can't do more than like 1500 or so which isn't much, just have to respect the possibility of Slow. I now have all summons except Bahamut, and I hit JL10! Which means...
BACKLINER. MAGIC BLADE. NINJA. Tremble in terror, enemies.
Hakagure: Has a Murasame for me, a katana slightly stronger than any other weapon available to Ninja at this point, so I run one of those and one Crystal Claw. There is also a boss.
Void Prisoner (1 reset) - He doubleacts with physicals and/or Cursed Gaze. He can alos use Glare for paralysis. My one reset here is having the wrong accessory on, I come back with a Chouchou and no status is a problem. Comet does around 1500, Flare does around 2000, some other spells do less; nothing I can't handle. Dark Matter #5 get.
Rended Void ~ Fire: The last three Dark Matters have short dungeons followed by a boss fight. This one features the return of Tot Aevis (so I block stone), as well as Creatures, who are vulnerable to stone but can use Bite for confuse, so I use the earlygame Headband to stop that too. There are also Belmodars who have decent damage but can be sleep-locked, and Salamanders who hate ice.
Revived Baugauven - Easiest boss in the game so far, holy shit. I run Red Jacket for fire resistance and a Protect Bangle, and nothing he has can do above 1000. And he has no status. He counters with Firaga sometimes I guess? lol who cares. Freezing Slash carves him up.
Rended Void ~ Earth: Not too much to say the enemies here. Creatures and Mykales return, as do Slagworms. Ogre Kings immune most things but aren't very scary. The boss is another matter!
Revived Asmodai (3 resets) - Okay he's a jerk, and certainly the best of the three revived generals. He can used Cursed Miasma to cause paralysis... but like the first fight with him, it's short=lasting so this isn't that bad. (He doesn't use it much, and never below half health.) He can also use Quake for a little under 1000... and can follow it up with a physical for 600 and Dark for around 1000, not a bad combo at all. Worst of all he sometimes counters damage with Comet which does 2200, so a nasty turn and a Comet is a lot of damage. He can also use Forsaken for some MP damage and confuse.
Below half HP his damage moves upgrade, replacing Quake with Upheaval (around 1300) and his physical with Takedown (about 900). This + Comet is now near OHKO. He can also now use a combo of one damage move and Sickly Miasma, which can do poison, frog, mini, blind, silence, and/or confuse.
On the winning run I use the Shell Bangle to make his offence more manageable, and block Confuse with the Headband since that's the one truly nasty control-denying status. A Remedy can cure up anything else, and I have a large speed advantage as always so that lets me control the fight well enough otherwise.
Rended Void ~ Water: Belmodars, Creatures, Mykales reappear here. Tumbleweeds can paralyse but I'm blocking that and they die to petrify. Undines probably have some scary status since they're lamia-type enemies but they die to petrify too.
Revived Styx - The middle of the three revived generals in quality. Double Waterga does around 2500, everything else does somewhat less. She's the fastest of the trio even before she casts Haste, at which point she's similar to me. She still has Siren Song so I block confuse/mini/frog with accesory and hat, leaving only Silence as a problem to be Echo Screened. She counters lightning with Discharge 100% of the time now, but this still doesn't matter! Arcing Slash, Curative Slash, and Osmotic Slash do their thing.
That's all of 'em! Next up, the (very big) final dungeon! Current level is 93, Ninja Level 12.
