Earth Tyrant
-I already regret pairing Bushi with Shikari. Bushi has a lot of magick boosters, but Vaan as Bushi/Shikari has no magick.
-Haven’t found the giant wyrm in the Westersand yet.
-Found an area in Westersand that causes the weather to change to sandstorm in all regions. I can’t progress here; the storm blows me back.
OHHH!! That must be the place I can only explore once I got a windvane.
-Found the cactus where two kids buried the halves of their windvane.
-I return to Rabanastre. The two kids are talking to the researcher, Rizmat. They saw an egg hatch. That hatching is related to the sandstorms.
-I go back to that sandstorm place. A huge dino is there. Earth Tyrant. The source of the sandstorm.
-I open with a series of Mist attacks that results in a “Whiteout.” It… only takes a small chunk. *straps in for a long ride* This boss has a LOT of health.
-ARRRRGH died with like 1% HEALTH LEFT ON HIM
-Okay. Chill. Almost got it. Some lessons to take away from that:
1) He got way harder when he went to critical HP.
2) Physical damage didn’t hurt him badly. Black Mage Ashe’s Aero did the most damage by far.
3) Slow landed.
I’m going to try keeping Slow up on him with Penelo, keeping Ashe out early for Aero to whittle him down quickly, and use Mist attacks only once he goes into his ridiculous-damage critical HP phase.
-GOT IT HOLY SHIIIIIT!!! The storms blow away.
-The bestiary entry calls it one of eight legendary wyrms. Major flashbacks to the World of Ruin in FFVII with the eight legendary dragons.
I mean, more than just flashbacks. It sounds like it’ll be a massive callback.
---
Hunt: Croakadile
-OH MY GOD – the Giza Plains during the Rains is one of the most beautiful things ever. I immediately want to run outside in the rain.
-I love the small environmental interactions in game. Knocked off two “withered trees” that fell into the river and floated away, south and southeast respectively. Dunno what that was for.
-A guy in the now-deserted Nomad Village asks me to hunt the Croakadile. It swallowed some sort of ring he wants back.
-Killed a rare Rain Dancer fish.
-I made a HORRIBLE MISTAKE: I tried taking on a Storm Elemental. Immediate regret. It Thundara’d me, had way more health than any similar-level enemy, took no blizzard damage despite Libra telling me it was weak to ice… I fled.
-Found the Croakadile. A giant frog. The fight goes pretty well until it uses “Growing Threat” and DOUBLES ITS LEVEL HOLY SHIT?? It then fully healed itself.
So I need to either silence it or do what I did for Earth Tyrant, spend a burst of quickening damage near the end.
-VICTORY! I waited until it got low on health and blasted it with a quickening chain to finish it off before it could use Growing Threat or heal itself back to full.
-I return the ring to Sadeen, the petitioner. He hasn’t got much time left, and asks me to take the ring to his beloved nearby.
-I search all over. No luck. Maybe she’ll come back during the dry season.
-Something about how disconnected he is makes me think that Sadeen is actually dead and just a ghost.
Like HE’S the one who was eaten by the Croakadile, and only his ring remains.
---
Hunt: Gil Snapper
-I raised my Clan Centurio rank and pick up another elite mark. A Gil Snapper.
-A hunter in the hall overhears me, Bansat. Sounds like he might join me on this hunt.
-Found the petitioners for the Gil Snapper. Some nomads who remain here. They call it the Rain Lord.
-As I kill the creature, I have to point a Silent Urn at it to capture its essence. The nomads revere it, but usually keep it in check during the dry season.
-Now I see why I’ve been chopping trees in the Giza Plains! All the deadwood collected downriver to form a bridge that leads to the Gil Snapper.
-Um… I feel like I shouldn’t be here. This island has Silicon Tortoises all over, level 36. About 11-12 levels above my party. (All my characters are level 24-25.)
-I’m still able to clear them, but it’s pretty tough.
-Hee! I found some feather in an urn that sounds like it’ll let me communicate with cockatrices or something.
-No Gil Snapper here. It has to be rainy weather. Currently, it’s dry.
-I wander a bit until the rain starts. Here it is.
-OH GOD IT USED “DISABLEGA” – I can’t do anything! I don’t have any immunities to it or ways to deal with it.
Wait, yes I do! I have three Black Belts in my inventory.
-It still hits hard, but going better.
-It’s weak to thunder. By which I mean it takes slight damage from thunder. Black Mage Ashe’s Thunder spell doesn’t do much damage.
-Mist chain ending in Ark Blast did about 26k damage, which is less than half its health. Yikes.
-Come on come on….
-Dropping like flies… One more mist combo…
-DAMMIT HE WAS AT LIKE 0.5% AND I DIED
-Attempt #3 going went better, but got destroyed at the end like before.
-Fifth and sixth attempts, same thing. Got close and died at like .5%. His damage and defense ramps up so heavily near the end.
-I’ll try one last time. I’m getting really frustrated now.
HAHAHAFJKDAHSFLDSHJFKLD OH GOD MY HANDS ARE SWEATING BUT I DID IT FHDJKLSFHDJKLSFDS
-So the thing that was killing me was its Blizzara spells. Equipping the Silence Shot ammo on Machinist Balthier from was the key. He landed it and kept it by plunking away from afar with Silence Shots the whole fight.
-I take the urn with the Gil Snapper’s soul in it. The petitioners have gone, though. They’ll be back during the dry season. I can turn the hunt in then. E
---
More Hunts!
-I return to Clan Centurio. New petitions await me.
-Picked up a Marilith hunt that I’ll deal with later. Nice FFI/IX callback there.
-WHAT ORTHROS LOLOL???? Better known as Ultros.
-Gil Turtle was a rank 3 elite hunt. Orthros is rank 5 (though not sure if he’s “elite”). No chance I can kill it now. And yet… I really want to see him.
-The petitioner is a Contrite Thief. She stole something from a wealthy man’s house but got caught in the act by some kids. They chased her to the Garamsythe Waterways, where Orthros popped out and scared her into dropping her loot.
Now, she needs me to retrieve the loot. If she can return what she stole, they won’t arrest her.
“Only, er, he’s particular about who he’ll attack.” Lolol – he only attacks parties of women. XD I’ve played FFVI and am 0% surprised by this.
-Orthros is in the Garamsythe Waterways. Those very same waterways filled with level 39 Malboros and lizards. No chance I can do it now, being still at 25-26, but I still want to see him.
-It’s a harrowing run. I nearly get wiped by the Bad Breath and Cloying Breath of the Waterway monsters, but I make it.
-Unfortunately, Orthros is just a giant dark-purple pudding monster. No dialogue or anything. Ah well – I’ll come back later.
I like the galaxy-feel of his coloring.
-I pick up another rank 5 hunt for a white pudding. The moogle who was complaining earlier about having dropped his sluice key said it was picked up by that pudding. Also in the Waterways, the next room over from Orthros.
-There’s only one more hunt I can do now: Ring Wyrm. It’s also Rank 3, a dragon that interrupted a Rabanastrian’s training in the Westersand.
-Found it in a sandstorm. Its design is pretty cool: a squat dragon with some stone ring around its head.
-The fight itself is very tough but also straight-forward. I have Fran tank, Basch heal, and Balthier plink away from the back row.
-Victory! Turned it in and got a Moon Ring and an Icebrand.
---
Next time: Done now with hunts. I get the sense I probably wasn’t intended to take on the Gil Snapper at level 25, and I don’t particularly relish bashing up against some brutal challenge-mode version of the game. For now, returning to the main story.
