Gau (Day 263)

It's no surprise that magic is a big part of Final Fantasy VI. One of the characters that I find fascinating is Gau. Perhaps it's because he's really one that I barely used the last two times I played, or perhaps it's just that his story isn't too enticing for me. I guess it might be a plight by the developers to show that Japanese kids are thrown out to the world a bit unprepared and needs a bit more attention. I don't know, but playing this again, I realize that he's one of the most powerful characters there are in the beginning of the game.

You don't get Gau until you go on Sabin's quest after the split up at the Lethe river. His powers is that he can LEAP into the Veldt and learn characteristics (skills and spells) from enemies that your party meets. He will learn one enemy's art that he leaped into and also the enemy that you meet in which he returns to you on. It's essentially Blue Magic from Final Fantasy V, but on a mass scale. You can learn all of the skills in Final Fantasy VI, save the bosses'.

I've been dominating the bosses with Aspiran (Gigavolt), Stray Cat (Cat Scratch), and Aquiform (Aquabreath).

More to come later on.

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• Game Time: 15 Hours and 22 Mins

Final Fantasy VI begins (days 253)

So one game ends and another begins. We begin with three characters on a mountain, two soldiers and a woman. How do we know it's Final Fantasy VI? They're all in Magiteck Walking Armors, yes, welcome to the fusion of machines and magi. The outer world music is so nostalgic, just ten minutes into the game and I'm reminded of the hundreds of hours I spent on it. I played this one only twice, once to complete and once to get everything, and the second time cost me 100 hours plus. It was a waste of a teenage month, but they were good times of course.

Terra begins the story for us here, marking the first Final Fantasy game to start with a female lead (besides FF1, where you could've chosen a white mage). It might be an important step. The logo does have her riding a machine. I'm assuming that's her, as most of the story revolves around her. Most, but not all, as this is story includes a huge ensemble cast, with entertaining stories for each character. My favorite being Locke and Cellis, but I tend to put my name on Gogo; which I will do so again on this run.

The new thing here is the notion of Espers instead of summons. They are summons, but they are the essence of magic, and it takes about six hours in to acquire the first four.

So the story so far? After being lead to the Returners' hide-out by Locke, we are caught in a three-way split for the city Narshe. Returning there from the Veldt plains we have Sabin, Cyan, and Gau. Edgar, Banon, and Terra awaits at Narshe by foot from the river. And finally Locke rescues Cellis and brings her to the meeting point after infiltrating the empire's besieged city of South Figaro. From there we defend Narshe, but lose Terra to a terrible blast emitted by her and her contact with a frozen esper. We follow them to Jidoor and find that she's been held atop a tower at Zozo. Much of the world is politically claimed by the Gustavian empire, and being a part of the resistance makes it hard for you to travel quickly. Everything seems to be by foot so far, well besides the traveling sand castle of Figaro.

At Zozo we meet Ramuh, who gives us the break-down of magi, espers, and magicite (I'm guessing this was not the original term in FF3's translation). He turns himself into one, essentially killing himself, and we receive four espers: Kirin, Ramuh, Cait Sith, and Siren.

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• Game Time: 10 Hrs and 18mins

Medal of Smiting (Day 242)

Following up on your slaying of Neo Shinryu, I walked into Enuo's court. The last dungeon resembles the crystal palace and contains two uber items: Robe of Lords and Mutsunokami blade (the Sixth God?). Both items they made up just for Final Fantasy V's bonus dungeon. A sub-boss guards Enuo, and naturally his name is Guardian. This replica of the soul canon is not much of a challenge for a couple rounds of !Rapid Fire defeats it easily.

Onwards to Enuo. I won't lie, he beat me the first time because of my carelessness. He attacks with Maelstrom and Almageist, in addition to use constant use of Zombie Powder. I luckily survived because of my holy waters and elixirs. Yes, I had to use elixirs because my mages ran out of MP. With 600 MP and Gold Hairpins (halves MP cost), I still ran out of MP quick because of dual-casting. My word of advice is to not foresake healing at every chance. It shouldn't be too much of a problem if you keep at it with Bahamut and !Rapid Fire. It's going to be a long battle. My reward for defeating him? the last job class, Necromancer. Do I care about this class? Not at all. Why gain another job class when there's nothing left to fight? I have no idea.

I take that back. There is one more dungeon left, the Cloister of the Dead, which sounds like some place you'd find in Diablo II. There are six groups of five monsters here. You have to fight them all consequetively and are only allowed to refresh after defeating a group. This is totally easy after fighting the bosses in the bonus dungeon. Here is my configuration for the final fights:
Bartz (Freelancer) - Set him with !Sword Magic and !Rapid Fire to do damage on elemental bosses. Equip him with Ultima Weapon (from Neo Shinryu), Apocalypse, Ribbon, Maximillian, and a Coral Ring.
Krile (Mime) - Set her with !White, !Time, and !Zeniage so she can heal and do physical damage at the same time. By then you don't need money anwyay. I equip her with the Chickenknife (by now it was doing 250 dmg), Flame Shield, Gold Hairpin (halves MP cost), Robe of Lords, and Coral Ring.
Faris (Freelancer) - She became the tank with !Rapid Fire and !+30% HP. She ended up with 9300 HP at level 75. I equip her with Mutsunokami and Masamune (For some reason these swords do many critical hits). She wears a Ribbon, Vishnu's vest, and a Coral Ring.
Lenna (Mime) - She's set with !White, !Time, and !Summon as the designated mage. The dual-cast Bahamut comes from her. She equips the Gladius Knife, Force Shield (from Omega Mk.II), Gold Hairpin, Black Robe, and Crystal Orb (Guardian).

With this I defeat the monsters in the Cloister of the dead. My prize for this? the Medal of Smiting, or better known as, bragging rights. Or better yet, the right to move on to Final Fantasy VI.

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• Game Time: 49 Hrs and 32 mins (+70 mins lost time)
  
• Days: 242
  
• 14 Gameovers
• Charred by Lasers from the "Soul Cannon"
• Killed by Gil turtle
• Killed by Gil turtle's quake
• Killed by Possessed Crystals
• Killed by Possessed Crystals again!
• Nuked by Bahamut's Mega-flare
• Bashed by Twintania in the Castle within the Rift
• Poisoned by Shin-Ryu in the Crystal Palace
• Drowned by Shin-Ryu in the Crystal Palace
• Nuked by Shin-Ryu in the Crystal Palace
• Burned by Dark Elementals in the Sealed Temple
• Defeated by Grand Aevis in Sealed Temple
• Burned by Omega in Tomb of Memory
• Crushed by Omega in Tomb of Memory
• Zombified by Enuo