LogFAQs > #949802444

I did indeed miss that Lore for Strago, and Ultima absolutely does bypass Reflect, thank you for that!

First things first I head back to the Ancient Castle and try walking 5 steps from all different chairs (I misremembered a bed being here). In the end the trick is to walk in front of one of the thrones and just press A on the 5th step, and a secret stairway opens up in the Queen's room. Down here we finally find another dragon, at this point these guys are worthless and we quickly toss Blue Dragon aside. The Queen herself has been turned into a statue, but she still sheds a tear and merges with Odin to become Raiden. Cool finish to that story, they're together now at least. Crispy had mentioned losing an Esper to gain another, I guess this is what was meant by that. Raiden does take up a different slot to Odin, so is Odin's the one that stays blank? Also we have Quick now, aw yeah if it's as OP as in V. I hadn't learned Meteor yet though, oops!

Not knowing where else to go I head back to the Cult Tower, hopefully better prepared this time. I have two Gold Hairpins, two Reflect Rings, and decide to take Gogo with Strago and the girls, partially to try him out properly and partially to conserve MP. For some reason Gogo can only use Mimic, I loaded up his menu list with Magic stuff but oh well, I brought him here for that anyway. The trip up isn't so bad, we're definitely better equipped and know what to expect. We grind a ton of AP for handy spells and eventually hit the roof, where we collect a treasure and are then accosted by the framerate-shattering cult, and one ghost named Magic Master. This guy really likes to use Barrier Change! He's not easy but we get into a groove of Celes casting Ultima, Gogo Mimicing her, and the other two healing as necessary. After a while it looks like we have him, and with his dying breath he... casts Ultima himself? And kills the party? And I have to do this whole ****ing tower again?! Well... dang.

Time for another rebellious run, and this time I'm not messing around. Right from the first battle I just have Celes spam Ultima and Gogo copy her all the way up. No other spells, no other commands except Osmose when necessary, we have a one track mind as I am determined to be done with this damn tower. To solve the Ultima problem I make sure to teach Celes and Strago Reraise on the way up this time. Yes I could've cheesed with Mog, but that would be lame and besides the AP is nice.

This time we get to the top faster, and I think to actually investigate our treasure this time. Good thing too, because it's a Dualcasting Relic! It goes on Celes right away. It takes a while to get Reraise set up against the Magic Master this time, but once we're all ready I start the Celes+Gogo Quad-Ultima show, and he doesn't last long after that. The Reraise trick works (thank God), and we have our victory! Now... wait we really have to go all the way back down the tower again? Jeez! This time it's even easier thanks to the Soul of Thamasa, and once at the bottom we leave and I vow never to return.

I head over to Thamasa for a cheap heal (no new dialogue that I can see) but as luck would have it we are accosted on the way by Deathgaze! I'm still in the Ultima setup so we kick off with that, and before long he actually dies. Only two encounters, that wasn't so bad! And he gives us Bahamut and Flare! After getting Odin I had been wondering about where Bahamut+Leviathan magicites were, they've both been important in the other SNES games and are staple series summons so nice to have one. I don't remember any water area in the World of Ruin, the Serpent Trench is above ground now and the rapids are gone, perhaps I can take a few boat rides or something to look for Leviathan.

I'm a bit lost as to what to do now, so I decide I should try revisiting every single area with appropriate characters and hope something else shows up/I missed something. This seems like a pretty good idea because at the very first place we visit (Cid's Island) we get Quetzalli on the beach! I leave it here for now, but there's still two Dragons wandering around somewhere, and 8 empty Esper slots (7 if one really is blank, and I will be missing fewer than that if some are postgame). I also had a sudden thought earlier today when my mind drifted to this game- I haven't seen Banon since the world ended yet! I think he was last at Vector but Vector is gone now, but he might be in Kefka's Tower. Also whatever the deal with Siegfried is, we need that sorting sometime. I will try to have a think about what else I've been missing so I'm not just stumbling around when I next play.

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Slowly becoming a Final Fantasy aficionado. Currently playing: FFVI
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