Installment IV
Day 8 Stocking up on new armor I head out to the tomb of Raithwall, alas guarding the tomb is by far the toughest boss battle yet. Hope you have long range weapons equipped to at least some of your players or this is going to be a beast. Have one character heal and cast protect on your party and let the hacking commence. Spells are fairly ineffective here so physical damage is the order of the day, though by now you should have at least a few quickenings. These abilities, of which I’ll discuss in detail a little later, should be carefully considered, as you will drain the MP of whoever uses it. Of course this will render your character completely useless outside of just hacking. Persistent attacking and healing will eventually bring you victory; just make sure to not hesitate to switch out characters when others are not being effective. Woot! A save crystal, with the ability to teleport, stands in the entryway of the tomb. You are saving your teleport stones aren’t you? Feel free to use it to head back to Rabanastre to upgrade your magics. Heading into the tomb you’ll come upon a mini-boss battle almost instantly so I pray you’ve saved just in case. While the mini-boss isn’t all that tough it does hit you with a lot of status changing effects and all it takes is that perfect combination to ruin your day. Anyway, making your way through the tomb is a pretty standard affair. After throwing down with some bats and a few skeletons you will come upon your first Esper battle. Espers, for those unfamiliar with FFVI, are basically your summons. After defeating the Esper in battle you will be able to unlock him on your license board. This battle can be tough depending on your level. You will instantly know which element and magic to not attack with. Have one character cast shell and protect on your party and have the others hack away with their strongest weapons. Quickenings can be used but be warned, the Esper has a pretty potent multi-person attack that can render your party pretty low on HP so a character with MP and the ability to use Cura is a must. After the inevitable victory, obtain the Dawn Shard and make your way to the save crystal at the entryway and prepare for a major plot development. With the Dawn Shard seized, your capture and a betrayal of an ally, things are not looking good aboard the Imperial Airship Shiva. That is until shortly after a plot break when one of your characters goes into an unexpected berserker rage and battle ensues. With one of your characters in berserker mode they are uncontrollable, though much quicker and stronger. While letting that character do their own thing, concentrate on picking off the henchmen, then healing your party to focus on the traitor. This battle is pretty easy as long as are vigilant of your HP and allow one character to focus on healing. Escaping the airship,our party heads back to Rabanastre to figure out what our next course of action should be and as such gives me a great place to call it a night
Quickening and Esper Explanation Upon defeating an Esper, an Esper Symbol will appear on your license board. Like the Quickening, upon purchasing the ability for one character the ability is removed from the other character’s license boards. Through the Mist option on the battle menu you have the choice to pick either the Esper or the Quickening that character has obtained through the license board. If you choose the Esper that Esper will appear to aid you in battle and will fight until it is either defeated or its timer is depleted. (All your MP will be consumed.) Choosing the Quickening option on the other hand sends you into a very Limit Break-esque screen of which you will notice a countdown timer on the left hand corner. During the attack you must link your attack successfully by pushing the button illuminated next to other characters in your party that have a Quickening ability, thus creating a stronger attack. If a name is not illuminated you can hit the R2 button to reshuffle the names in hopes for illuminating another potential link. Unfortunately time is of the essences so while it’s technically possible to link perpetually, it is inevitable that time will run out while you are reshuffling for a new potential link partner. (Again this will eat up all of your MP)
Jeremy Mravlja Gamer's Perspective Want to talk about it? Click here to discuss in the Gamers’ Perspective Forums. |
