Revenge of the Hand: MacDaddy Mike's playthrough topic part 2

I still had invisibility on for this fight, which is bad since invisibility is checked before reflect. This means Flare will hit and kill. AtmaWeapon spends enough time talking for everyone's ATB gauge to fill up, so ZoneSeek and Golem can be summoned right away and the third person can cast Slow on AtmaWeapon. ZoneSeek will set Shell and cancel the invisibility. From there, it's Rasp when you when can, Osmose when needed, and heal when needed. Shadow spends most of the time defending. Locke, Celes, and Terra's Rasps get rid of around 180-190 MP combined. This is a long fight.

Aside from being an extra target, Shadow served as turn management. During spell animations, everyone's ATB gauges are filling up, including AtmaWeapon's. If the trio with Rasp and Osmose are all casting at once, the boss is still getting a turn of each of theirs. With the battle mode set to wait, Shadow can sit in the Item menu while the spell animations play, effectively doubling their turns to his. This is very important! Unless you like the bosses having more turns to possibly kill everyone in one shot, then disregard this. If Shadow knew Rasp and Osmose, it'd be the fourth caster sitting in the magic menu.

...

If Celes isn't in your party when you catch up to Gestahl and Kefka, she just sort of joins up. With this in mind, I swapped Celes with Setzer since I haven't used him much yet. Another trip around the floating continent (Ninja free!) and it's time for the climax of the World of Balance! Celes is offered one last chance to side with the Emperor. She chooses to stab the clown instead. This sets off Kefka in a very bad way and Gestahl realizes he can't keep Kefka around anymore. Gestahl knows some mighty magic, but all for naught. Kefka's safely in the magic-absorbing field of the Goddesses. For whatever reason, the Goddesses respond to him and comply to his demands of power. Their power mortally wounds Gestahl to Kefka's delight. He literally kicks the Emperor around a few times, then throws him off of the floating continent. I really like how Gestahl's last words are "There'll be no one to worship us..." Egotistical until the end.

Here's the thing about Kefka - he's in your face for the entire first half of the game. He's the very first character you glimpse in the intro. You see him in Terra's flashbacks. He's setting Figaro on fire. He's poisoning the people of Doma. He's leading the second attempt to get the Esper in Narshe. He's draining the power out of Espers in Vector and talking about reviving the statues, which at that point seems like a non-sequitur. He's the one you're running from to escape Vector. He's the one who sets the two cranes after the airship. He's the one who follows you to the Sealed Gate. He's the one who wreaks havoc in Thamasa. He's the one Gestahl brings with him to find the statues. He's present for practically every major event... And he's getting stronger - and laughing - every step of the way.

The thing is, there's really no reason to.

Kefka's a very present villian. He doesn't need an elaborate backstory when his actions - and there are plenty - that we get to see as they're happening throughout the game are more than enough to get us to hate him. It's just as well - could you imagine if they tried to make a genocidal, power-hungry deranged clown a sympathetic villain?

...

(Ugh, didn't space these thoughts out well with the character limit on GameFAQs...)

Said clown at this point has done the unthinkable, something not even Gestahl would permit. Kefka has moved the statues out of place, disrupting the balance that held the world together. Shadow tries to stop him, which is ultimately futile, but it does let the party escape from a crumbling, floating landmass. Six minutes is actually a tight time limit with low levels and no Charm Bangles. You can get around Naughties by Imping them; they'll de-imp, then escape. I had to get through five or six of them. Nerapa is vulnerable to Doom, so you can use that or bounce Ice 2 spells off of your party. Either works, though the Ice magic is pushing it. I went gung ho with Ice to see if I could; I won with 10 seconds to spare. I waited 3 seconds for Shadow and jumped with him in tow.

The Floating Continent was floating over Albrook. You could talk with the uneasy populace about it. Well, those non-shut-in NPCs anyways.

The world's going to hell in a hand basket! The last shot from space with the continent splitting apart and explosions and eruptions across the globe absolutely floored me the first time I saw it.

Behold, the defenders of the free world! (Or what's left of it...)

Terra Lv 6
HP 114
MP 40
Vigor 31
Speed 33
Stamina 28
Magic Power 39

Locke Lv 7

Edgar Lv 6

Sabin Lv 6

Celes Lv 6

Cyan Lv 7

Shadow Lv 6

Setzer Lv 6

Strago Lv 8

Relm Lv 6

Mog Lv 11

Gau Lv 17

It'll be at least after the weekend before I can get another game going, but last night I had myself a few rounds of Melee with a couple of competitive tourney players. They heard I played so I got some challenges, and they were adamant about using tourney rules (which I never do) like some 4-stick, 8-min, no item, and only five or six playable stages (Final Destination, Battlefield, Fountain of Dreams, some other kind of bland ones) and some other stuff. We played about ten games and they were some of the best matches I've ever had, and I won all of them.

We started off with a 3-player FFA, to warm up, with myself as White Marth, and the other two as Fox and Falco. It was a close match but I came out on top, and then we decided to do a 1-on-1 mini-tourney with just the three of us. I decided to switch to Light-Blue Falco for this one since I saw their playing styles and figured I'd get use out of the speed on this one, and a super-close and thrilling match against the first guy's Falco ended with me victorious at around 100% damage. He then played the Fox player and lost, so I figured I'd be up for a tougher final match, but I actually won with my last life at under 50% damage and I had one self-death near the start of the match.

We played a couple more FFA games where I switched to White Marth and then got duel challenged with him, and won (OF COURSE). We then all swapped to our secondary characters for another FFA, one of the guys playing as Samus and the other playing as Kirby, and since I'd already played with my secondary character (Falco) I decided to go tertiary and played as Dr. Mario. I dominated the beginning of the round but it got more evened out towards the end, where it was left with myself against Samus and a couple stock each. I got knocked far off the right side but high in the air and still had a jump to reach the mainland, and while I was falling down Samus was charging up her beam for a good kill, and I had absolutely perfect timing with my cape to send it back and get the kill. After I won this round I used one of my old Dr. Mario taunts (VGMan should remember this from his old SSB topic here), giving my "Diagnosis: Ass-whoopin'!".

After another round where I got every single kill that wasn't against myself, I decided to play it really cocky and had one of the spectators pick my character for the next duel. He picked Ice Climbers for me, whom I hadn't played with as a main since I first got the game--when the game came out Ice Climbers were actually my #1 (and #2, I guess), but I got so good with them in so short time that my friends actually banned me from playing as them, and that's how I ended up discovering Marth (who they would then also ban me from playing as, and then ban me from using Mewtwo when I switched to him afterwards). I was up against the Falco player from earlier, and unlike the other matches where we were real close, I absolutelydecimated here. I knocked off three of his stock before losing one of mine, and then I unfortunately self-deathed after that so I ended up winning the match with two stock left over instead of three.

One last challenge from him later had me switch back to White Marth, where I set a new record for taunts in a single fight, taunting after almost every knockback I got on him throughout the match.

****, it was a great night.
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Attractive people love Mac's playthrough videos ~ Reliable Internet Personality
http://www.youtube.com/user/MacDaddyMike

I've been running around the WoR a bit today. I recruited Sabin, then went and fought Phunbaba with just him and Celes. It's a lot like the fight with TunnelArmr where Celes is on Runic standby and Locke/Sabin handle damage and recovery. The main hiccup is when Phunbaba uses Blow Fish for 1000 damage, but with a little luck, he's not bad. I got Fenrir from him. I bought an Enhancer at Nikeah (20% Magic Block and +7 Magic Power HELL YES), then followed the thieves to Figaro. The Tentacles are easy with RunningShoes on. With auto-haste, you can't be slowed and they can only grab you if you're slowed. Wall Rings deal with their magic. One Tentacle can be killed with Doom, two can be poisoned so they die for you, and the last one can be Stopped. Edgar didn't fare too well since he can't be equipped before the fight. Celes and Sabin only needed a few potions to get through it. I bought a Debilitator from Figaro. It'll come in handy very soon.

After picking up Setzer and using up most of my remaining Smoke Bombs in Daryl's Tomb, I fought Dullahan. By "fought," I mean I had Celes in constant Runic status to absorb his spells until he ran low on MP, at which point he was Rasped to death. Boring, but effective. Airship time! The guy onboard who offers to unequip party members was with Setzer in Kohlingen. That's dedication. Sabin's learned Bum Rush. I picked up Palidor as well, then went back to fight Phunbaba again. Wall Rings and RunningShoes on everyone! Phunbaba absorbs lightning and is weak to poison, but with Edgar present, that weakness eventually became lightning. Phunbaba likes to retaliate to magic with Bolt spells. He might as well hurt himself with his own magic, y'know? When Terra joins the fight, Edgar has to change his weakness again. It's much easier with at least three teammates. It took a long time though since no one has enough MP to cast Bolt 2 twice.

I need to hunt some Cactrots now; I need some damn money and each one killed gives 10 magic points, 0 experience and 10,000 GP.

Though I'm really itching to play Tales of Symphonia again.

NO, MAC! NO!

Bad Mac.
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I went to the Cave of the Veldt first. The encounters here are either Toe Cutter(s) or Rhyos, the latter being a fight you can't run from. Rhyos is a 1/16 chance encounter and the cave is pretty short, so no worries.

Using a Phoenix Down on Allo Ver kills it instantly and gets Sabin a new claw, Tiger Fangs. He doesn't give any experience. At the end is a wounded Shadow and SrBehemoth. It likes to cast spells, multi-targeted castings will kill everyone, but it's vulnerable to Stop and Slow. Celes stays in Runic mode while Sabin uses Bum Rush and Edgar drills. Terra offers moral support. After killing it, it rises from the dead! But that makes it vulnerable to Life spells and Phoenix Downs. I think the idea here was for each version of SrBehemoth to drop Behemoth Hides (so you kill it and skin it, then kill it and skin it AGAIN. Not sure how that works...) but I got one hide and a Jewel Ring from it. You can fight the undead version on the Veldt for more hides. Shadow's been rescued and taken to Thamasa - to add insult to injury, the party refers to him as 'her'. He then shows up at the Colosseum (not sure how he found his way over there...) when you bet the Striker you find in the cave.

The Colosseum is a terrific example of a great idea with horrid execution. Betting items for other items with the results based on 1v1 fights is pretty cool. Not being able to control the character you send to fight sucks. Having a good AI handle your characters would make it less egregious; however, FF6 just chooses an action at random. Send Gau and see if you can figure out which Rage he's using! Send Strago and see if he kills himself with Exploder or Pep Up or Roulette!

With Shadow in the party and not knowing magic, he's ideal for a couple wagers in the Colosseum now. He won't use Throw or items, so all he can do is fight. With a knife that can randomly cause instant death, it's possible to win some matches in only one turn. This is good since Shadow rarely lives longer than one turn. A Falchion bought at Maranda becomes a Flame Shield becomes an Ice Shield, for example. A Behemoth Suit becomes a Snow Muffler. Eventually.

I went to get Gogo next. His dungeon has some nice treasure. The Red Jacket, which is Sabin's best armor, unfortunately, Hero Ring, and Thunder Shield are pretty nice. The big hang up is the Coverts that you can't run from in this dungeon. They're Ninja palette swaps, continuing the proud tradition. Gogo joins at level 8, heralding the return of the Steal command in the WoR. He'll hopefully be shining in the Colloseum later. Also in this dungeon are rare encounters with the 'Woolly' enemies, Nerapa palette swaps that make for a nice Rage for Gau.

I forgot about two forced encounters to get Relm, so I picked Gau up from the Veldt. I also got more Rages for him, including Nightshade. At this point, it's easy to get Nightshade by encountering them in Owzer's, but not triggering the forced Dahling x2 fight. With the Veldt mechanics, you end up with a 7/8 chance of the Dahlings and 1/8 for Nightshades. I won't use it for serious attempts, but it's fun to mess around with. There's also a forced Still Life fight in the mansion. I used the Behemoth Rage for Meteor and Death protection. Gau levelled up to 18 with ZoneSeek for 2 more Magic Power and was then unceremoniously dumped back on the Veldt.

(4 KB limit reached yet again)
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We just don't have any use for [classy head shots] and also, as people on Fark love to point out, we look exactly like Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. - Gabe

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I then decided to go hunt down a dragon or two instead of getting Relm. First up was the Dirt Dragon in the Opera House. He's vulnerable to Sleep and Poison, so use those. Also, use Gaia Gear to absorb his non-physical attacks. The Magus Rod is a good reward.

Upon defeating Tritoch, Umaro's cave opens up. Of particular interest is the fight with the Pugs and the Terrato magicite. The Pugs are dealt with by having the entire team vanished and muting them. They can then be poisoned and Bum Rushed without worry. They rarely drop Minervas, top tier armor for Celes and Terra. I got one from the fight. Keep everyone vanished, cast Berserk on Umaro, and then poison him. The fight will win itself then; speeding it up with Bum Rush and the like is advised.

Chadarnook is its own bag of fun that'll be handled tomorrow, should I have time. It's much more annoying than difficult.
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We just don't have any use for [classy head shots] and also, as people on Fark love to point out, we look exactly like Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. - Gabe

After taking out Rogue Tomato, I usually like to chain wolves until I reach Wolf Z. I'm wondering if I should powerlevel Vaan Solo to give every character a head start in levels and licenses by exploiting Dustia in the Westersand. At the very least, it's nice to have the kind of gil that can buy the first few Forgotten Grimoires / Monographs.

I've been looking at the job license boards from the International Zodiac Job System version, the one I really wish I was playing. I'm thinking of adapting chosen license restrictions on each character so they don't all end up virtual clones. This already isn't going to be a No-LB or 122333 challenge anyway; nor will I exploit treasure RNG resetting this time around.

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Fair Lucrezia could not sate her appetite for lovers.

I want to do Card/no-level with FF8 cause I want to do something different, not because I want to do something difficult. As interesting as such challenges sound.

@SK - While "No-LB" seems obvious enough (but in a really...boring way), what's a "122333" challenge? I played through a Zodiac Job System playthrough myself a while back, and I found it a lot of fun, though you have to take some liberties with what licenses you teach certain characters because they either follow a weird path (like one job learned no White Magic other than White Magic 7 or something crazy like that) or they learn licenses that don't really exist in this version of the game, so I make them learn to separate licenses that make up the same effect, but I can't remember the example for that one. And it's always helpful to pick from the start which character you're going to have use the Zodiac Spear.

@Bear - I did a Card/no-level with FF8 and really enjoyed it, but it depends a lot on how you enjoy the card game. The first part of the game will go super slowly, especially if you want the Lionheart early. I think I spent something like 20 hours on the first disc, but most of that was just playing cards. The rest of the game went great, though, and it's nice to not have to worry about random encounters in the game as you're going along. Some of the bossfights don't balance as well as they should at lower levels, which led to me absolutely brutalizingSeifer every time I fought him.
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