Via Infinito
-There is now a hotspot/mission for the labyrinth the Kinderguardians found beneath Bevelle. The Via Infinito. Fine. I’ll try that.
-Starting at Cloister 6. The monsters have been very easy.
-AND ALL OF A SUDDEN AN ELDER DRAKE WIPES THE FLOOR WITH ME
-Like, it was hitting me for 4000+, for 9999, and I was just not ready. Yeah, not ready for this place. What a weird difficulty spike.
-I seem to be able to skip past the Elder Drake, to dodge it, so maybe it’s just like an environmental hazard rather than a floor boss..
-Yeah, still able to progress. Onto Cloister 8.
-Haven’t found any treasure or choices here really. Just regular encounters and those visible encounters occasionally, like Tonberres and that one Elder Drake.
-I really dig the look of DarkKnight!Paine.
Her sword is this giant barbed greatsword, and she also has a helm that looks sort of dragoonish.
-Cloister 15. Starting to see Killer Hounds and those confuse-eyes, so time to equip anti-status and death stuff.
-Another Elder Drake that I dodge in Cloister 19.
-A THING IN CLOISTER 20! A new layout, and what looks like a master in the middle. Saving first.
-Is that Kinoc? Cause I’m just saying, that looks sort of like Kinoc.
-It is. Kinoc is unsent.
-And he turns into Boris. I guess that’s his fiend form. Good choice. Boris is a noble beast.
Aranea.
-He uses stop on all of us, but too late. We kill him.
-He drops Crimson Sphere 8.
-This one is more pleasant. They’re on the Mi’ihen Highroad.
-The leaders tell Paine they don’t know what they saw, but they were in tact.
-The person who ordered their deaths was a maester.
-The leaders agree to split up to make it harder for the maesters to track them down.
-WHAT THE FUCK NOOJ???
As Gippal, Baralai and Nooj all began to walk away on friendly terms, Nooj all of a sudden pulls a gun and shoots Gippal and Baralai in the back before turning his gun on Paine.
I wonder what made Paine not simply disembowel Nooj upon next seeing him. Perhaps Nooj didn’t have free will at the time, like if the maesters put a spell on him.
-Took down a Tonberry Oversoul with a ton of health on Cloister 21.
-Best guess about this place at this point: there’ll be 100 Cloisters, with a boss every 20 providing some story as a reward. I also predict I’ll be stopped dead in my tracks by the difficulty around Cloister 50 and not be able to finish it this playthrough.
-Shit. Looks like my demise might come earlier. In Cloister 27, I’m facing an Elder Drake I don’t know if I can dodge.
-I’m almost dead, but I’m pretty sure Berserker!Paine is single-handedly beating this Elder Drake. She’s evading every attack it makes, and chipping away while at 1000 health.
Imagine these two screenshots happening like 40 times in a row.
-SHE DID IT!! HOLY HELL, PAINE, BRAVA!!!
-Neat! I found a friendly Tonberry. I mean, they gave me a potion so it’s not like we’re BFFs, but still.
-Cloister 28 forces me to confront me most hated enemy: the Amorphous Gel. Keeping a Gun Mage active to scan it asap.
-Christ. Cloister 31. Another Elder Drake.
-Lol. Rikku and Yuna died super quick, but Paine is doing her thing. Evading and countering every single attack, unbeatable. This Elder Drake has 37,000 health, does absurd amounts of damage, and has innate Protect, but Paine is chipping her down like 600 HP at a time and never getting hit.
-Oh. Lord. I just noticed something. The floors that I thought required me to fight the Elder Drake have workarounds that I was missing. I can simply explore a couple of side paths, touch some pillars, and create a bridge to walk over the Elder Drake without having to fight it. *bonks self*
I really feel like a dorkus dingus mcgee.
-Cloister 38. Encountered an upgraded Behemoth named after a blast from the FFVI past.
Humbaba.
-Awesome. It comes complete with a deathrattle meteor.
-Cloister 40. Looks like it’s a Guado maester though I don’t know who offhand, and turns into a Black Elemental.
-It’s obliterating me with Flare and Berserk. Gotta equip anti-Berserk.
-Take two.
-Jesus. It also uses Ultima, which can’t be blocked by Reflect and does 9999.
-Take three. Trying out Festivalist!Paine in case silence works. I seriously, seriously doubt it does.
-I GOT TI HAHAHAHAHHA!!!!! I used Mix to pop Final Wall on us early. It never used Ultima, and all the Flares and Berserks bounced back to it. Berserk didn’t do anything, but Flare did huge damage. God that’s AWESOME!!
-Got Tetra Gloves, Moon Bracer, Shining Bracer, Speed Bracer, Recovery Bracer, and Cat Nip (??).
-I have never been more excited for an accessory than I am right now. Cat Nip’s description: “When all seems hopeless, its power, and its horror, are released.” It gives the character a passive ability called “SOS ????.” I can’t fucking wait to see what Cat Nip summons or does. Swarm of cats? Cait Sith? We’ll see.
-The first enemy I see in Cloister 41 is a Zalamander. So we’re gonna straight-up be fighting bosses. I can’t imagine I’ll possibly make it to Cloister 60, but no harm trying I suppose.
-Encountered a GIANT ASS TONBERRY in Cloister… uhh… I think I’m in 46 or 47 now? But it is visible and I think I can avoid it.
-Yup. I can avoid it. I might try taking it on for fun if I see it again, but I don’t currently feel like getting my ass handed to me by Everyone’s Grudge.
-lololol my heart is in my throat because I almost ran into it by accident… barely avoided it.
-Some of my favorite enemies in the game are here, these taekwondo-bots.
-Cactuars in Cloister 48. Aw. Poor li’l guys.
-UHHH HI ULTIMA WEAPON???
-It has “Null Physical” and “Null Magic.” What’s even left to try against it?
-Hee! It’s description seems to be a reference to some kind of past translation issue.
-WOOHOO!! I learned a blue magic!! “Supernova.” I also got the fuck out as soon as I did, escaping. I wasn’t close to winning, so getting what seems like an awesome blue magic is probably as good as I can hope for.
-Cloister 52. Most of the monsters I’m facing I haven’t seen before, and most have some kind of upgraded moniker like “Chief” or “Heavy” or “King.”
-A Rukh Oversoul just used a huge attack called “Chicken Wing lv. 2.” It sounds like blue magic, but I didn’t have any gun mages out.
-lol wtf. Around Cloister 53, I found a friendly Tonberry that seems to have a kid. They both just went to sleep.
Adorably sleepy li’l tonberries, dreaming of murder. Like cats.
-Yuna almost has completed her Samurai abilities. I’ll have her do Thief next, since it feels like it’s been a while since I had an active thief.
-Cloister 60. Looks like Maester Mika time.
-I don’t have any hope of winning this first time, and would be surprised if I can beat him at all, but I want to at least use this first attempt to gauge his abilities. See if I might have any answers.
-His first attack does 9999 to Yuna. Bad start lol.
-He has an ability called “Megaton Press” that does 60,000+ damage. So that hurts.
Concherer.
-He has 343k health. Immune to pretty much everything. But the description ends with: “A powerful blow can supposedly shatter the shell, but can that be true?”
So there’s hope. The question is: do I have the ability to inflict such a powerful blow? What kind of blow?
-The game crashes midway through the fight, so I don’t die. Technically.
-I do much better on my second attempt, using Berserker!Paine to chip away at probably about 100k health, but the Megaton Presses beat me down. I tried giving Berserker!Paine that massive strength-boosting ring that also poisons her, but it didn’t count as the shell-cracking blow I hoped for.
-Supernova doesn’t do the trick.
-You know what? I’m gonna take this opportunity to try Cat Nip.
-A few attempts later, I see Yuna regularly hit the boss for 9999. Is that the Cat Nip at work?
-Must be. I feel like that’s the answer to this fight. I have to find a way to keep Yuna consistently alive and in the danger zone with Cat Nip.
-I D ID IT ??????
-LIKE
WHAT???? HOW??? FHDSJKLFDHSFJKLDHSFKLDS??? GOD BLESS YOU CAT NIP
My strategy was based on the power of Cat Nip to do full damage, and how he never damaged the full party. Whenever a character went down, the priority was to use Phoenix Down on them. Yuna had Cat Nip and kept chaining that 9999 attack. And… that was it. I went through probably 30+ Phoenix Downs lol.
-Paine says Trema isn’t here. The founder of New Yevon.
-He crawled down here a year ago. Was able to control the most powerful fiends. Paine thinks he was already dead. I’ll bet Trema is the master who controlled.
-Pushed onto Cloister 62 before calling it.
---
Quick Thoughts on Via Infinito
This isn’t my favorite dungeon ever. I don’t especially like these kind of grueling bonus dungeon endurance tests and usually avoid them. But for some reason, this is more tolerable than some others. Perhaps because of the dressphere system that lets me feel I’m making progress with every action towards unlocking cool new stuff. Perhaps because it’s optional, unlike the billion-level mandatory dungeon in FFIV: The After Years.
But mostly it’s the dressphere system. I’ve retread the same zones a lot in FFX-2 across each chapter, and it doesn’t bother me at all. I love seeing what little things change, and I love just seeing these three characters grow and exploring each dressphere, seeing what new awesome ability is around the corner.
Via Infinito tests that patience more than anything else because it’s so purely grindy, but even here, I haven’t thought “oh god yet another of the same floor layouts.” I’ve thought “WOOHOO!! Auto-regen for Berserker!Paine! Let’s switch back to Dark Knight and see what’s next there.”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m looking forward to finishing this place and being done with it. But I’m glad I am trying it. 60 floors of the Via Infinito is a million times better than the 4-5 times or whatever it was that I had to go through the Sealed Cavern in FFIV: The After Years.
---
Next time: As far as I can get in the Cloister. If all goes well, possibly even up to the next boss, but as surprised as I am that I made it this far, it took everything I had to get Concherer!Mika. I think the Cloister 80 boss will be Trema, and that he’ll wipe the floor with me. I’m expecting Omega-levels of destruction. But I’ll try.
