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The Anomaly
-We report back to Jesse. Like any rational human, she can’t get over how frigging cute Alpha is.
-And like any great businesswoman, she wants to market Alpha.
JESSIE: “Why wouldn’t he grant us exclusive rights to use his likeness? Shall we start off with a simple clockwork version? They’ll be queueing up in the streets!” Lololol she’s not wrong.
-Biggs and Wedge had gone back to Omega’s control room. Let’s check up on them.
-oh shit, they’re unconscious! A dead catoblepas lies here too.
-Wedge wakes. The catoblepas appeared out of thin air. This was Omega’s motivational attack.
-Omega speaks. It acknowledges it failed to kill Biggs and Wedge, but it didn’t need to. “Alpha group members exhibit heightened levels of stress. Objective fulfilled.”
-It could do launch this kind of attack on a widescale. A new threat to ensure we play along with its tournament.
”I could instigate a massacre at any time, and you would be powerless to prevent it.”
-ALPHA SNEERED! A clearly negative reaction. Maybe Alpha really isn’t Omega’s ally like I feared.
OMEGA: “This is an order. A threat. A declaration of war. I am an enemy to all life upon this star.”
It’s nothing persona. Omega just wants the greatest challenge possible, and it knows that the presence of a unifying threat bring out hidden strength. It’s playing up its role as that threat.
-There’s a nice moment at the end here when Cid is blaming himself for all this, and Nero absolves him. Urges him to devote himself to “making the impossible possible,” being the freest scientist he can be.
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Return to the Rift
-omg jessie made alpha a custom garland ironworks uniform, i caaan’t
-Back in the rift. There are fewer of these metal eggs (like the Deltascape). Makes sense. We’re not the only ones fighting. For all I know, Ruby Weapon just beat Griever. They’re eliminating each other.
-Omega again shows us the images of Biggs and Wedge. It’s become interested in how weaker creatures beat the odds. It wants to acquire this ability.
MIDGARDSORMR: “Foolish machine. What has thou to show for all the years that have passed since the culmination of our war? Naught save thy continued existence. Hast thou no thought for what befalleth thy home star…?”
OMEGA AND MIDGARDSORMR BACKSTORY HINTS!
-Alpha helps us fight to the next section more actively. Nero too, who breaks out an Iron Man-style suit complete with red and gold color scheme. Makes sense, since he’s basically a more amoral Tony Stark.
-The final enemy before Sigmascape is Dadaluma (the Zozo monk), signaling an FFVI-themed world.
-In combat, Alpha pulled out certain cards that obliterated enemies. Odd, but powerful.
-More Midgardsormr and Omega convo. Omega destroyed Midgardsormr’s home world. He came here, found relative safety in Hydaelyn in exchange for helping the planet’s mortals.
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No Slowing Down
-The Deltascape screen showed Dimension Castle. This screen shows a grinning mask. KEFKAAA!
-The first boss is the Phantom Train. I can’t believe the awesomeness of this existing in the XIV setting.
-The Omega format means they don’t even try fitting it into the context of XIV, which is okay. It’s a rush of memory, a hit of nostalgia, and it does it well.
-The music is the FFVI boss theme. One of the best in the series.
-Ghosts periodically spawn, like the ones on the train. If they touch you, they send you to a passenger car where you have to kill a ghost add.
-Most of the fight takes place on a platform that the train is pushing. This is a nice way to translate the bizarre look of the fight in FFVI, where the party was just kind of running in front of a speeding train.
-Afterwards, the music changes to the quiet, haunting Phantom Train theme. Two ghosts appear.
“Traveler from afar… thank you for Doma.”
It’s Elaine and Owain and I have CHILLLLS
Outside, Cid’s still a bit confused: “If it was fictional, it seems safe to assume that the author had a bad experience with a train.” XD I don’t blame ya, you needed to play FFVI for any emotional impact.
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An Unfinished Masterpiece
-The next opponent is Chadarnook, the evil art-possessing spirit.
http://coldrungaming.blogspot.com/2015/01/ffvi-pa...
-Nero constructed a Chocobo Brush to let us influence reality by painting. Relm’s starting weapon!
-The main boss is Demon Chadarnook. Goddess Chadarnook flits about, attacking the off tank.
-Four elemental-themed paintings sit in the room, with a sketch in front of each. Chadarnook possesses 1-2 paintings at a time, and we have to use the sketches to counter each attack. For example:
1) Wind painting: Chadarnook spawns exploding wind sprites. One player sketches Typhon, transforming into him. They use a new ability to blow the sprites away, clearing a safe zone for the raid. FUNGAAAAH!
2) Earth painting: Chadarnook casts quake. We interact with a sketch of Air Force (the FFVI boss after Ultros/Typhon) and get a plane to fly above the quake damage.
-Biggs and Wedge meet us after, outside Omega. They’re recovering nicely.
-I love watching Wedge interact with Alpha AND HE PETS ALPHA’S BEAK AND FHDJKLSFHDJKLFDS
-Nero remained inside Omega to prepare for the final Sigmascape boss. “If I can find the patterns hidden in the chaos, then knowledge and reason will prevail.” No secret who he’s looking at.
-Ruh-oh. Omega looks down on Nero. He wants to re-up our stress, and attacks.
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Won’t Let You Pass
WEDGE: “If you keep taking it one battle at a time, you’ll be fighting Omega before you – I-I mean, it will all be over before you know it!” I’m sure he’s right, that Omega will be our ultimate challenge.
-Nero is… okay? He doesn’t even bring up Omega’s attack. That makes me especially nervous because I think he’ll betray us under some threat from Omega.
-This next boss is Guardian, a boss rush boss who used mechanics from various FFVI bosses.
-It loads four separate “programs” throughout the fight: Air Force, Dadaluma, Ultros, and Bibliotaph. It draws abilities from those enemies then summons copies of them.
For example, when it loads Ultros, tentacles attack and then Ultros himself appears.
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Test World of Ruin
-Nero doesn’t seem well. Coughing, sick. He doesn’t share anything though.
-This final Sigmascape battle is against Kefka.
CID: “According to the data, his preferred mode of fooling didn’t just bring the house down, but the whole world. Apparently, he found comedy in the tragedies of others, and condemned countless thousands to death for his own amusement.” Sounds about right.
-Kefka will try to deceive us. Nero will try to point out these deceptions.
-I’m nervous about this fight, and not just for mechanics. Nero admires Kefka at least a bit, his willingness to upset the status quo in jolly fashion. (Though Nero’s tendencies are less genocidal.)
Even Alpha’s worried about Nero.
-Kefka looks amazing. He even uses the classic barking laugh.
-His attack telegraphs are deceptive. Sometimes they’re full of question marks. Those are Nero indicating we should do the OPPOSITE of what we’d normally do.
Like, if Kefka starts casting blizzard in an area around him but the area has question marks, then you stand in the circle when normally you’d run away. The safe zones and danger zones are reversed.
-He also raises a tower of statues, the same one you fought in the first half of the FFVI final battle. Each stage uses different abilities, such as gaze attacks or knock-backs.
-Victory over Kefka and the Sigmascape! The graven images crumble.
[Later edit: This only mirrored the first half of the Kefka fight, only using the first half of “Dancing M**.” No winged angel Kefka. Disappointing. All set-up, no payoff.
I have no plans to do Kefka (Savage), so I checked it on YouTube. This hard-mode version is where the second phase occurs. See 7:25 here for that epic phase transition and music:
Boooo. We saw tree!Exdeath in Deltascape (Normal). We should’ve gotten angel!Kefka in normal too.
[Later later edit: I go back and forth on this. Maybe I shouldn’t mind this. It’s an extra reward for the hardcore raiders. That’s not me, but as long as it’s not locking main story content behind that wall, it’s okay for them to get an extra phase.
I just wish that phase felt more like a bonus than something core, the way I view Kefka’s god phase.
I also looked around at some other savage fights and the “cool extra phase” seems to be a thing. I forgot with Exdeath that the tree form wasn’t his final form. That was Neo Exdeath, who made an appearance in an AWESOME final phase in Deltascape V4.0 (Savage):
See 5:14 for when the new phase starts.]
-Cid starts to celebrate when Nero collapses. He’s been hiding injuries from Omega’s attack.
-Cid starts to express guilt at leaving Nero alone, but Nero slaps that down quickly.
“As if I would trail after you like a sniveling lapdog. This was my victory! It was my ingenuity that defeated these foes!”
He’s not wrong. Without his Chocobo Brush, Chadarnook would’ve beaten us. Without his guidance on which of Kefka’s attacks were tricks, Kefka would’ve beaten us.
I legitimately feel bad for assuming Nero was gonna betray us.
-Cid starts to run to get help when Nero stops him: “You can’t keep holding back… It’s time to unfetter that brilliant mind of yours. To do what must be done. And I’m not just talking about what becomes of Omega. You cannot preach ‘Freedom through Technology’ and keep yourself locked up in chains.”
JUST KISS ALREADY! Seriously, I love how this raid develops Nero on his own, Cid on his own, and their shared dynamic too.
-Omega has a theory how we beat the odds consistently. We subconsciously limit ourselves in everyday life. Only when tested do we expose our true strength.
(Zenos should’ve found Omega instead of Shinryu. They would’ve gotten along swimmingly.)
OMEGA: “You will exhibit your full potential, unrestricted by self-imposed limits.” Omega wants from me what Nero wants from Cid.
-He grabs Ququshu, traps her inside some prism. A giant, CREEPY AF Omega eye watches.
-Omega is going to kill me in two minutes. He wants to see me escape.
-Alpha tries to help me! He uses a card to transform into a frog to hop up and bust me out.
It doesn’t work, but bless him for trying.
-WAIT WTF??? Midgardsormr rips through a tear in reality. The full-size dragon form. He’s using the last of his strength to save me.
What a turn from the Father of Dragons! He’s so often sneered at me, but not because he hates mortals. It’s because he wants me to be worthy of Hydaelyn’s grace. He now believes in me. Omega helps, clarifying Midgardsormr’s values in opposition to Omega’s.
-It sounds like he won’t totally die, but he’ll definitely has to go into some sort of long recharge.
OMEGA: “Midgardsormr… again, your actions are incomprehensible.”
MID: “Heed me, empty vessel. Thine all-too-clumsy effort to draw out that which – by thine own admission – defieth thine understanding is the very height of folly.”
GET REKKKKKKKKKT OMEGA! MIDGARDSORMR IS RIDING HARD FOR TEAM MORTALS
-He fades.
-Back to Rhalgr’s Reach. Omega’s attack wounded Nero badly. Even Alpha is worried, if determined.
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Next time: The next raid wing, Alphascape, came out recently. I’m not ready for it. My gear isn’t strong enough to queue up. I’ll come back to it down the line…
