Summary: Gilgamesh. Hell Wyrm falls. Yiazmat does not. My final push before Sky Fortress Bahamut.
Lhusu Mines
-This place is decently high level, but after having visited the Great Crystal it feels almost relaxing lol.
-Some really great stuff here! Like, I got a Whale Whisker (a pole for Monk!Balthier) and the Scathe spell.
-Reached Gilgamesh. He’s been waiting. And I’ve been waiting for this music again.
-Gilgamesh breaks out a new weapon. Is that a version of Tidus’?
-The real test, as with so many bosses, is this final stage.
-Got him!
Only for Enkidu to jump in at the last minute. They fly off together magically into the sky. Phew. The LAST thing I wanted to do was be responsible for the big beautiful energetic man’s death.
-He leaves behind a sword. I can interact with it, but can’t pick it up. Is an “ordinary Sword of Legend.” So.. like, Excalipoor probably. Poor Gil.
-hahahahaha I’m about to leave, and Gil sneaks in behind me to pick up the weapon. BEST HUNT EVER.
-Vaan got the Masamune for his troubles, so it’s all good.
-I return to Montblanc to turn the hunt in. He rewards me with… Excalipur. It sucks, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
-That’s the last hunt I have. My hunt bar still isn’t full though. I imagine that it fills up once I beat some combination of Hell Wyrm and whatever’s at the end of the Great Crystal. And so it shall remain.
---
Phon Coast
-Bounced around to some more zones looking for stuff I missed without finding anything. I strike paydirt in the Phon Coast hunter camp.
-So there are apparently two different types of hunters. Hunters hunt marks, and headhunters capture criminals.
-There’s a huntmaster givng out these hunts. Heasks me to hunt a “thalassinon.”
-Aha! These are for rare game. I doubt I’ll spend much time on this since I don’t feel like messing around with how to trigger their spawns – unless the Huntmaster tells me how to spawn each time.
-So… I basically would have to find rare game and return here. Uh. No thanks. Not gonna go zone by zone killing literally everything to try sussing out how to spawn rare game. Maybe next playthrough with a walkthrough.
-Just hit me – I haven’t boarded our airship yet!
-…boo. It’s just a fast travel vehicle. I can’t actually go on the ship, explore it, interact with anyone. This is majorly disappointing.
-I do like the animation as it flies off. The Strahl strongly reminds me of the Epoch from Chrono Trigger.
---
Archades
-I think this is my last stop on the world tour. The last main hub to explore.
-There’s a cockatrice here, but he’s not an escapee from Giza Plains. He moved here by choice.
-Not seeing much else here.
Lhusu Mines
-This place is decently high level, but after having visited the Great Crystal it feels almost relaxing lol.
-Some really great stuff here! Like, I got a Whale Whisker (a pole for Monk!Balthier) and the Scathe spell.
-Reached Gilgamesh. He’s been waiting. And I’ve been waiting for this music again.
-Gilgamesh breaks out a new weapon. Is that a version of Tidus’?
-The real test, as with so many bosses, is this final stage.
-Got him!
Only for Enkidu to jump in at the last minute. They fly off together magically into the sky. Phew. The LAST thing I wanted to do was be responsible for the big beautiful energetic man’s death.
-He leaves behind a sword. I can interact with it, but can’t pick it up. Is an “ordinary Sword of Legend.” So.. like, Excalipoor probably. Poor Gil.
-hahahahaha I’m about to leave, and Gil sneaks in behind me to pick up the weapon. BEST HUNT EVER.
-Vaan got the Masamune for his troubles, so it’s all good.
-I return to Montblanc to turn the hunt in. He rewards me with… Excalipur. It sucks, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
-That’s the last hunt I have. My hunt bar still isn’t full though. I imagine that it fills up once I beat some combination of Hell Wyrm and whatever’s at the end of the Great Crystal. And so it shall remain.
---
Phon Coast
-Bounced around to some more zones looking for stuff I missed without finding anything. I strike paydirt in the Phon Coast hunter camp.
-So there are apparently two different types of hunters. Hunters hunt marks, and headhunters capture criminals.
-There’s a huntmaster givng out these hunts. Heasks me to hunt a “thalassinon.”
-Aha! These are for rare game. I doubt I’ll spend much time on this since I don’t feel like messing around with how to trigger their spawns – unless the Huntmaster tells me how to spawn each time.
-So… I basically would have to find rare game and return here. Uh. No thanks. Not gonna go zone by zone killing literally everything to try sussing out how to spawn rare game. Maybe next playthrough with a walkthrough.
-Just hit me – I haven’t boarded our airship yet!
-…boo. It’s just a fast travel vehicle. I can’t actually go on the ship, explore it, interact with anyone. This is majorly disappointing.
-I do like the animation as it flies off. The Strahl strongly reminds me of the Epoch from Chrono Trigger.
---
Archades
-I think this is my last stop on the world tour. The last main hub to explore.
-There’s a cockatrice here, but he’s not an escapee from Giza Plains. He moved here by choice.
-Not seeing much else here.
---
Hell Wyrm Revisited
-Am I done? You know what… not yet. It’s late at night, and the urge to try the Hell Wyrm again strikes me. I have new gear, spells, and levels strikes me. Let’s go.
-Starting out with my A Team: Basch (healer/spear guy), Ashe (black mage/red mage), Fran (tank).
-Ashe burns through mana, so midway through I swap to Time Mage Penelo. This is the key for me. Her haste is just so powerful, amplifies everything.
COME ON COME ON PLEEEEASE
HAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FUCK YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS I GOT HELL WYRM I GOT HELL WYRM
LIKE
I DIDN’T THINK I COULD DO THIS?
AND I’M PROBABLY OVERLEVLED BUT IDCCCCCC IDGAF IM DANCING IN MY APT AND IDC
-I didn’t have a hunt for Hell Wyrm, but I have to imagine Montblanc will give me something awesome.
-….I was wrong. He gives me 50,000 gil. I have gil coming out my ears, and no use for it. I guess Gil Toss will be especially useful if I want? Meh.
-But a new hunt opens up!! Yiazmat.
-For anyone interested, here’s my party set-up and gambits. The gambits themselves were cobbled together through trial and error mid-fight, so it’s not meant to be perfect or whatever. Was just what I used to get through the fight.
Knight/Foebreaker!Fran:
White Mage/Uhlan!Basch:
Time Mage/Archer!Penelo:
---
Hunt: Yiazmat
-This is new. The Yiazmat poster is pink. No prior posters were pink.
-It’s hard for me to tell what YIazmat is from looking at this. My best guesses are that it’s a Doomtrain or a big magic pot.
-WHOA MONTBLANC BACKSTORY??
-Montblanc has five brothers and sisters. Each does their own thing. Machinists, chocobo wranglers, more. They all learned their trades from one wise master.
One day, Yiazmat appeared. Their master fought Yiazmat for weeks. Yiazmat won. Time for revenge.
(And by “time for revenge,” I mean “time for me to get a look at Yiazmat, die, and move on.” I have zero expectations.)
-Oh. Never mind. Its whereabout are unknown. Boooooo.
Okay. I hate doing this, but in this case I can’t help myself. I’m so close, and I at least want to SEE this thing. I look up its location. *flogs self* It’s in the arena below Pharos.
-She’s a dragon. Same model as Hell Wyrm basically, and a real beauty.
-The fight is long. I didn’t think it was possible, but Yiazmat seems to have more HP than Hell Wyrm. Much more.
I get bored a few health bars in. I’m absolutely NOT saying “it’s so easy and if only if it were shorter I’d do it!” Part of what saps my will to continue is that I’m sure at around 30% Yiazmat would go into Super Saiyan mode and obliterate me.
So I’m gonna go afk and see how far my party can get without me.
*a while later*
Yiazmat keeps using Death Strike to instantly kill me. I keep having to go back and change party leader, and it’s super slow. So I’m quitting.
But like I said, I don’t care. I BEAT HELL WYRM EEEEEEEE!!! Mission accomplished.
---
That’s about it for me.
There’s plenty left. I haven’t found all the cockatrices. There are huge swaths of the Great Crystal I haven’t explored. No clue what was up with the fishing thing on the banks of the Nebra. Plenty of bestiary entries that I haven’t completed. A moderate number of spells I haven’t found yet. Many pieces of gear I haven’t gotten. The entirety of the Phon Coast hunters stuff.
But that’s all okay. I’m ready to move on.
---
Next time: Sky Fortress Bahamut.
