Sunday, October 26, 2014

FFV – Part 59: Tree of Strife

Summary: Showdown with Exdeath. He morphs from human form to evil tree monster form, and then to his final form, a mish-mosh of monster similar to the Creator of FFIV:TAY. A tough fight, but we eventually take him down. With a little help from our friends, that is.


The Rift – Last Floor

-Slightly past the save point, Exdeath is waiting. Here we go.

-He says we’re too late. He already took control of the void. Uh-oh.

-WHAT THE FUCK

-HE TOOK TREE FORM

-MIND = BLOWN


Before.


After.

-I should have expected this. There were roots and leaves around, but I didn’t think he’d just suddently morph from human form to becoming a massive tree with a face sticking out of it.

-Exdeath wasn’t kidding about controlling the void. He summons one of those void zones to vacuum up Bal, the Pirate Cave, Catapult…

-Then us. He Void-sucks us.

-It happened.

-We’re in the Void.

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The Void

-A voice…

-Bartz’s dad! AND KELGER! AND XEZAT! Does that mean…

-HAHA YES, IT’S GALUFFFFF

-Is this heaven? I mean, not the FFII Emperor’s fucked up version of heaven, but actual heaven?

-GALUF: “Enter the Dawn Warriors!” This is SO COOL.

-They’ll hold off the Void, while we take on Exdeath. This feels a lot like FFII: Souls of Rebirth.

-The Dawn Warriors help us back out of the Void. Exdeath tries to summon a Void zone to vacuum us back in, but the Dawn Warriors keep shutting him down.

-King Tycoon: “Onward, Light Warriors!!!” Hell. Yes. It’s boss time.

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The Big Bad

-Holy CRAP. Exdeath’s tree form is legitimately terrifying.



I thought it’d be goofy or humorous, but it’s not really. It’s titanic – look at his roots in the background! - and in addition to his tree face, he has the human form growing out the top of his head.

-He casts some hard-hitting spells and kills Lenna a few times, because he’s a jerk, but other than that, the fight goes okay. He dies, and gets “engulfed by the Void.” Sorry, bud. That’s what happened to Enuo when he tried to handle the Void, that’s what happens to you.

That said, I give this fight approximately a 0% chance of being over.

-It’s not.

-WTF WTF WTF. HIS NEW FORM



-He’s now “Neo-Exdeath.”

-THIS MUSIC BTW - SO GOOD



-“I am Neo-Exdeath. All memories… dimensions.. existence, all that shall be turned to nothing. Then I too can disappear, for eternity!”

-Really interesting theme of loneliness carried over here. It was there with Gilgamesh, and I see it again here. The Creator in FFIV:TAY showed it as well. Zeromus in FFIV wanted to create an eeeevil paradise, but Exdeath seems to want the Void to consume everything, including him. Really interesting dynamic.

-His new form is like a mashup of monsters and generally evil stuff. Two possibilities come to mind about what this is:

1)They’re a general conglomeration of eeeeevil floating in the Void.
2)They’re the original forms of the creatures trapped in the tree that eventually became Exdeath.

My money’s on option #2.

-Neo-Exdeath is super fast. I wasn’t well-prepared for this second phase, as I was at low health with Lenna dead. He wipes the floor with me.

-Attempt #2: Got past his first form in better shape this time. He is generally nasty, but two spells really hurt more than the others: Almagest and Grand Cross, which zombifies some of my party on top of damage.

The graphics are mixed. They’re cool, but I get kind of a headache looking at them. Serious light show, to the point where I’ll give a trigger warning to any photosensitive who are considering FFV.


The powerful and eyeball-melting Grand Cross.

Dead again.

-Attempt #3: Ok, I’m pretty sure now that he is actually composed of four different targetable segments. AoE spells are less useful. Going to try killing each body-segment individually.

-One down…

-Two down…

-THREE DOWN… COME ON…

-VICTORY HAHAHAHAHA YES

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Next time: Aftermath.

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