Ultimecia Castle
-Rang the bell that summoned monsters again, went to the castle entrance, and waited. Nothing happened.
-Rang it again, and this time staying put. Nothing happened when timer hit 0. Maybe it’s something like, I have to ring it, then run somewhere before the timer’s up? Won’t worry about it just yet.
-Further down, found a key to the Armory (must be the thing I knocked off a bridge) and the armory itself. A Vysage waits inside.
-Not too tough of a fight.
-AAAGH!!!
The Vysage pulled itself out of the ground entirely. That scared the crap out of me. Something about seeing a piece of a thing for so long and then being confronted with the entirety of it is just off-putting. Like seeing a shark fin in the water knowing the titan that it heralds. FF has done this before, notably when we finally saw the body attached to the Evil Mask head monster in FFIV:TAY.
The full Vysage got much tougher as the fight went on, but won.
-What do I go with now – convenience, or combat? If convenience, I’ll unlock Save. If combat, I’ll unlock Draw or Magic. Magic now, then Save, then Draw.
-Ventured on instead of leaving and saving, and ran into another boss quickly. Into a room where I picked up a Prison Key, the act of which summoned a red Iron Giant.
-Scan says he can only really be damaged by GFs. Shiva and Ifrit don’t do much.
Same with Leviathan, Brothers…
AHA! Diabolos. 9999. That’s the one. Red Giant: “Diabolos! Defeat is imminent.”
-Two more Diabolos uses destroy the Red Giant.
-On we go. The key opens the door out of the prison, and the other door has to be opened from the other end. A two-party deal I guess.
-Moving on! Found the treasure room. Brief little puzzle where I have to open four chests. Some trial and error nets me success.
-This summons an awesome-looking red and black behemoth.
-It’s Catoblepas. Now I’m a bit sad that I didn’t pick draw. Catoblepas was a summon in FFV iirc (wasn’t he?) and I’ll bet if I had draw I could draw “Catoblepas.”
-Tough fight near the end, when Catoblepas started ramping up from Thundaga to Meteor. When I won, I unlocked Draw.
-Reached an elevator puzzle that I can’t quite figure.
-Going to try putting one party at that switch again, maybe that’ll do something?
-Ok, getting a bit lost. Let’s get organized. There are a few main mysteries remaining:
1)How to get deal with the elevators
2)What the flood gates are for
3)How to open the prison door from the other side
4)What’s up with the music/organ puzzle
5)What the monster bell is for
-Hypothesis: the monster bell is intended for one party to ring the bell, then swap to another party that does something farther away. Let’s try that.
-SUCCESS! While the bell was ringing, the other party went into the chapel and a monster is there.
wait
no
no no no
Ringing the bell was a bad choice.
Yeah, it obliterated me and it wasn’t remotely close.
Not gonna touch this one. But hey! At least I solved the puzzle of the monster bell.
-I found a thing! Tried crossing the chandelier again and this time it didn’t collapse. I don’t know why, or what’s different thatnow it didn’t collapse, but it let me cross all the way to the terrace on the other side where I found another mini-boss.
-GF???? (Drew “Carbuncle,” which was a GF from a past FF. Defensive one iirc. We’ll see after the fight.)
-The boss is Krysta. Hits VERY hard.
-Shiva doesn’t do much, but Alexander and Diabolos wreck her.
-Yay, got Carbuncle!
SO CUTE! LOOK AT ITS TINY LIL FLIPPER HANDS
-Limit Break or Command Ability? Hm. Let’s do… Command Ability. Darkside is very useful, and depending on Ultimecia, I might use Revive or Treatment. I have to go on the assumption that this is the last one I’ll get. Not going for Omega, and while it’s possible he’s just an optional side boss unrelated to the sealed power, I won’t count on that.
-Elevators. The main issue with the elevator puzzle so far has been that when Party 1 is on the left/lower elevator and Party 2 steps onto the right/higher elevator, nothing happens. They’re equal weight.
This is… a weird theory, but hear me out. I’m trying out swapping all the male party members to one group and the female party members to another group. I’m betting that the game wants me to assume the male party members are heavier. Let’s try it.
-LOL IT WORKED WTF. The women reach the castle storage room and got the Floodgate Key.
-Used it outside the prison. Pulled a lever, and a dam door slammed shut, drying up the water. This is so fun and satisfying! I know where to go next.
-Went to previously filled waterway, walked down it. No new monster, but got Rosetta Stone. Lets me equip a fourth non-command ability, which I use for Speed +40% for my GFer.
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-I’m about set now. Ready to go. Going to take one last peek at the world to see if any of the seals have broken around the cities. If not, onto Ultimecia.
-Nope. Saw Deling City, saw that it’s still in a blue unbreakable aura, so not gonna check the other places. I have 60 hours logged in FF8 currently. I checked my watch. It’s Ultimecia o’clock.
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Next time: Ultimecia time.
