Depths of Judgment
-Sat here a bit enjoying the music.
-Decided to do a bit of Materia Fusion before my next one. During the endless 1,000 soldier mission, I found myself constantly out of MP and full on AP. Steal was useless. In an effort to try utilizing my AP more, I fused myself an Aerial Drain materia. I’ll level it up, see how it goes. Maybe I’ll be able to upgrade it eventually to Aerial Drainra/Drainga.
-Also fused myself a new Curaga materia, one that gives 90% MP.
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Mission: Monster Research Project > Monster Reports > Nibelheim (3/6)
-This will feature Bomb monsters, so popping on a Blaze Armlet at the start to absorb fire.
(Non-rhetorical question for y’all: is there a way to quickly scroll down the materia list, skipping whole pages/sections at a time? It takes like 20 seconds to scroll from top to bottom for me.)
-Tactical change: I skip as many monsters here as possible instead of engaging them all.
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Mission: Monster Research Project > Monster Reports > Nibelheim II (4/6)
-Trying out this new method feels better. The missions in the last session killed any joy I had in “combat for combat’s sake,” so just having one or two fights per cave is fine by me.
-Some gargoyles and Funny Faces here is all.
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Mission: Monster Research Project > Monster Reports > Gongaga (5/6)
-Skipped to the end, fought a griffon. Not much to say.
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Mission: Monster Research Project > Monster Reports > World of Monsters (6/6)
-I wonder about this one. Will it be in Shinra’s lab? Just against a random assortment of the toughest stuff?
-Nooo! My bane. It’s in an open field. That least skippable of terrains.
-The Phoenix limit break, “Rebirth of Flames,” may be my favorite. It’s not funny like the Cactuar or Tonberry, or cosmically-freaky like Bahamut, but it’s the most beautiful.
The FF series always does phoenixes well. (Though the bird herself looks a bit goofy once the fire goes away.)
-uhhhh… that boss fight went downhill fast. It was a slow lumbering beast. I didn’t dodge one of it’s back leg kicks fast enough, and I was stunned the rest of the fight until I died. Never knew a stun could last forever.
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Mission: Monster Research Project > Monster Incidents > Unidentified Monsters (1/6)
-New campaign, though not really sure how monster incidents are different from monster reports. Gotta find an Epiornis. And kill it. For science!
-Got to the boss without incident, but it was accompanied by a Diceratops, the monster that stunned me last time. She got me again, and it’s effectively a death sentence because I can’t move.
The Diceratops turned slowly around, walked slowly towards me, and killed me. Nothing I could do.
-Gonna swap out my Blaze Armlet with an anti-Stun item. I choose a Sea Chocobo Armlet, anti-Stun and +80% AP.
-Woot! Got her.
…with a little help from my friend the Tonberry.
That Diceratops was so brutal in part because she took like 15% of my normal attack damage. The Tonberry’s knife is unaffected by the reduction.
-New store access is my reward: “Gongaga Trading.”
I have most of these items already.
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Mission: Monster Research Project > Monster Incidents > Mass Elimination (2/6)
-This mission is to kill a bunch of Titanis. These are what I know more fondly as Satanic Death Ostriches from Planet X. Hate these buggers.
-Ow. A surprise Firaga from one of the turnip-looking dudes kills me almost off the bat. Back to the Blaze… no. Screw that. Not getting stunned again. I’ll replace my Feather Cap with a Blaze Armlet. (Another non-rhetorical question: what does “increases parameter break by up to 3x” mean? I know limit verge and limit break, but not sure of parameter break.)
Locked in combat with a beast even more deadly than it is ridiculous. Which is saying something.
-The adjustment worked. Plus I try to not get in close to the death ostriches. Instead using my newly acquired Quake.
Success!
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Next time: More missions, normal difficulty and below.
