#dimensional fiesta

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Okay, "short update ended up being not that short, but let's continue. At the end of the previous post the Dark Warriors pasted a group of soldiers with a boosted Doublecast Meteor. Let's see how things go from there.

After that the soldiers get back up and transform into monsters before summoning some more, and the Dark Warriors are swiftly overcome in the accursed cutscene zone. So back to the Light team.

And… he's right about that. They just took the skies when things happened and have now come back. But things ain't great out there.

Dusk is worried about something besides the end of the world. He quickly takes the party over to Lufenia, as apparently he overheard his sister getting the crap kicked out of her.

Before heading into battle I check out the interior of the airship (And apparently forget to take a screenshot). Rosie/Argy is there, still hooked up to the machinery, but she serves a secondary function from this point on. She can let you redistribute any Memories you've given the Memorists, so you don't have to be locked in to a sub-optimal build… if you can make it to the end of the game. Kinda late on that one. But besides that you can rest in some beds and save your game here.

Also as a side note, this version of the world is called the World of Dusk by the game.

The reunion has finally happened.

Though first we gotta put there mutts down.

There's a joke to be had here about Diana having a dirty or bizarre mind, but my own is not functioning right now. Sorry.

Aww…

AHH!!!

Fade to black, rejoin on the airship after everybody has exchanged notes.

Allurifying is a fun one.

Well Dusk insists on going back to Mysidia to report rather than making a beeline directly for Avalon, so that's the next destination.

Alba, don't disrespect the NPCs just because they don't have names.

Well after a long meeting it's decided that while they can't be sure that Avalon is behind the state of the world or the disappearance of the populace, but they still have monster soldiers and have been behind every other bad thing in the game thus far so they're the best place to start.

Which of course means…

Four Job Fiesta, Eight Character Edition. There's a reason I've also been titling this the Dimensional Fiesta. Time for the final rules!

You have 5 party member slots. As some of the jobs you roll for at the start can either be shared or refer to unique jobs obtained later, potentially you can have as many as 8 different jobs, or as few as 4. So, if you have 4 jobs, you can go ahead a double up on one of them. But if you have 5 or more available jobs each active party member must have a unique job.

In this run I just so happen to have 5, which is enough for one of each. Speaking of which, here is my final party:

I want my Thief to have access to the Ranger abilities, so Nacht is my Thief. I definitely want my Ranger, so Glaive is in. I need a Dragoon due to Fiesta rules, so Aigis can be here. Dusk is the best White Mage, but I don't have those so instead he's my Red Mage. And not only is Alba my best Black Mage but I also want access to Meteor, so she's definitely the choice for that.

As one final note, something to be aware of is that while I may have a Dark Warrior Black Mage, I still won't be getting the other two level 8 Black Magic spells. As the level 8 spells are locked behind advancing the Seer and Magus jobs. And well… I don't have those. Yeah, kinda sucks. Oh well, Meteor was the most valuable spell anyway.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Well there's a certain something I recall coming up here fairly quick in Dimensions, assuming that my memories are correct which given the amount of time quite easily might not be the case, so here's hoping for a mini-update to get to that point.

Yeah, don't think bracing themselves helped. Kinda like using duck and cover for an atomic bomb.

Plot twists that aren't happening: pieces of the world are all over the place at this point. It's gonna take a whole other RPG's worth of content to gather them together, and it will involve so many earthquakes there's not gonna be a single stone standing on another by the end.

Anyway, Sol is excited at the thought that the others might be back. Sarah is quietly jealous over Sol getting back with his friend who is a girl. But Sol wants to get back to trying to find them.

So the world has, theoretically, been put back together, but things have… changed.

It's not far to get to Mysidia. But in the meantime here's a view of the world and the mini-map. Things have certainly changed. Including the color palette. And once the heroes actually enter, well…

That's not a good. And yes, that includes the shops, I checked.

See, this is why you leave world repair to experts, like dogs with talkative fleas.

It's not that big of a world, how hard can it possibly be to find two people in it?

So Dusk grabs some fresh Whisperweed and the party sets out.

About five feet out, as they kinda lost their ride when things spontaneously stopped existing.

So there's some pieces missing. Oh, like you've never misplaced a few things while putting together a puzzle!

Apparently the Dark Warriors had an easier time of it. Didn't even stumble.

The Dark Warriors are also in someplace pink now.

Pink and empty.

You know, Diana's expression of relief upon being told that Sol and the others are fine brings to mind that you don't actually get a look at the religion of most Final Fantasy games.

Kind of a non-answer there.

Oh hey, the Imperials made it!

What's that, Meteor? You want me to clown on these guys by pushing your button twice? Honestly Quake might have been preferable. Meteor deals around 2500 damage to four random targets. So you know, it's gonna be great for boss fights where I only have one, but for groups it's far less reliable.

And yeah, so much for a short update, gotta make a split here. Admittedly gameplay wise it's still pretty short. It's just, well, we're deep in the Plot Zone now, which means the image limit has reared it's head once more.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Time to finish up this section of Dimensions by seeing what the Dark Warriors are up to.

Back with the Dark Warriors after The Mask tells the heroes to draw their weapons he casts Firaga… right behind them, hitting the stealth mode Cocytus. Well after some banter it'll apparently be time to fight this general instead. But hey, I'm pretty sure I know her weakness at least.

Not very surprising that she opens up with Blizzaga. In the meantime I open with multiple Spreadshots and a bunch of Firagas and Comet. Apparently Comet is actually more powerful here, so I'll switch over to more of those, plus Flare from Mask. Cocytus shows off her own strength with a single target ice attack called Benumb, dealing a little over 7000 damage to Nacht. Yeah, no surviving that. I mean, maybe Glaive could with a Shell. After Diana also gets taken down Glaive uses his Alchemy skill to Phoenix Down two people at once. I like Rangers in this game! But soon after that comes one of those auto-battle enders, this time called Glacial Dance.

You heard it here folks. Turns out Meteo was the Power of Friendship all along (as delivered by Nanoha).

Um… shouldn't you, you know, try and stop the heroes from powering up?

In a fun change of pace, the party gets to use the scripted attack this time. I imagine Quad-Meteo would hurt. A lot.

She tries to counter with her own scripted attack, but Mask hops in the way to take the proverbial bullet.

Have you guessed the revelation to come yet?

Uh, I think this is supposed to be Glaive's line. Oops.

And with that Elgo dies... again... passing along his job like so many other guest characters before him.

But then the ruins start shaking as it's time for Harmonic Convergence, or whatever they're calling it in this one.

And as the world quakes and the lightning strikes the dungeons the heroes are in, the game decides it's time for a logo and save break, so I guess that's as good a stopping place as any for now.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Last time on Dimensions The Mask revealed he was split by the world splitting, the Crystals were acting suspicious, and both teams of Warriors managed to snag a summon. This time, we're starting with the Light Warriors heading to a cave for reasons Sophia can't be bothered to explain.

Here's hoping that name is not indicative to the length of the dungeon.

Soooo… when Mysidia aimed at the ground, they missed? That lake wasn't the original point of departure? Well Sophia still ain't talking, so down into the dungeon it is.

Yeah, you know you're getting close to the end when you start encountering these guys. Also, while the graphics may not be that great as, well, early mobile game, but still, not a bad looking Behemoth.

On the way down I find some pieces of Dragon equipment that Aigis can equip, each piece increasing a different elemental resistance. A neat touch as opposed to having them all resist the same thing, as it gives you a reason to actually want to use the full set. I also find another Chouchou, and decide that would be more valuable on Dusk than the Protect Ring. But other than that there's not actually that much to this one. Strong monsters, but not overly so, end of the dungeon just past the second save point. There's far worse than this.

Yep, time for the passing on of the Light Warrior's final job.

Still not gonna use it! But for the record, yes, this means that if you get the last job when rolling for a Fiesta run you are going to be waiting a while. I also get the last bit of JP needed to max out each character's fourth job here, which… doesn't mean much as I'm specializing with just two here, but for the record, this is when you can finally do it.

Whomst?!

Oh. Himst. Huh, wonder if the Thunder General is weak to Earth or Water? If it's Water there's not much I can do. I mean theoretically I have a Triton Dagger which can cast Flood when used but I doubt a Ninja spell would match the power of Double Comet. Double Quake however is quite doable. And funny.

So, is this going to interrupt the battle, or just serve as a backdrop to it?

Interruption! In more ways than one. This update has just a few too many screenshots for one post, so breaking here.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Well I left off getting ready to throw down against an Eidolon. Let's get back to that.

Well as I can't cast Demi anyway, my strategy for the fight is simple. Spreadshots and Comets galore. As for what Diabolos is bringing to the fight, there's Dark, of course, as well as some Comets of his own. Then he's got an attack called Evil Messenger which blasts the party for around 1000. But it only takes a few rounds to end the fight. Alba was doing 10000 a round with double Comets, and Glaive's Spreadshots were coming out fairly fast and dealing around 4000. One thing I am not hurting for with this Fiesta job selection is damage.

Yeah, I caught a Diabolos!

Time for the final section.

Honestly that might make for an interesting game premise. Two worlds to explore where everybody has had their consciousnesses split, dwelling in both at once, with each version of that person having certain aspects of the original.

Curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal!

Oh, uh, guess we're doing this first.

The Light Warriors leave the Crystal chamber as Mysidia begins shaking in its descent (with the camera lingering on a door to the back of the chamber), but have time to get back into the town and Sophia's chamber. Anyway, she tells the party to take a look outside.

Dang it, you're not supposed to cram a round floating island into a square crater lake!

You ever wonder just how much of "mysterious mentorship" is just people not liking having to explain things?

Got someplace to go before plot progression.

Behind the Crystal the dungeon goes deeper. And then through some doors you find a chamber called the Castle of the Protector. Can you guess what Eidolon that means?

Okay, the Light Warriors may not have Spreadshot, but both Sol and Aigis have mastered Dragoon which gives them… Holy Breath. Against the Light elemental summon.

So yeah, gonna have to rely on Sarah to carry this team. I think Sophia is gonna focus on getting Haste on her before worrying about Shell. Alexander voices his displeasure by punching Sarah a couple of times, but I've already got Protect up so it's not that bad. Of course then Alexander does the same so my "physical attackers" are even more worthless now. After the second round of Comet rain Alexander casts Shell to blunt that damage as well, but thankfully I still have Sophia on my team and she comes with Dispel as her level 8 White spell. I'd complain that she didn't get Holy despite that spell supposedly being unlocked now, but well, that wouldn't have been worth anything in this fight anyway. But Alexander loves to prove anything I can do he can do better, and casts Dispelga to remove all of my buffs before immediately following it with Divine Wrath, dealing around 1700-2200 damage to the entire team. OUCH. Still, the next round of Comets takes the big castle robot thingy down.

Still, I think with that Eidolon victory it's time to call it a night.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Okay, last time on Dimensions the Light Warriors unlocked the power of Holy for absolutely nobody, which was followed by Mysidia beginning its crash back down to the ground. Now back to the Dark Warriors, they got the Rosetta Stone and Glaive accused The Mask of being Elgo, which he promptly ignored. Back to their part of the story.

Which shall first involve getting out of the dungeon as the section transition didn't actually move them any. Oh well, I was gonna be grinding anyway.

I sure hope she's better at learning languages than I am.

Wouldn't it be great if it really was that easy? That'd be great.

Huh, usually it's a moogle passing along that info.

But anything more than that will have to wait until the grinding be done.

<<hours of violence in session - please wait>>

Okay, that admittedly took longer than originally planned, but hey, it's done now and unless a boss just stonewalls me that should be the last grinding session I need to do for this playthrough. …Still gonna do Eidolon acquisition of course, but actual "run back and forth killing the same d00ds over and over is done. And hey, along with mastering those secondary jobs for the characters I also wound up with more than enough gil to fully stock up on both X-Potions and Ethers. Granted an Ether only restores 50 MP and my Black Mage (now Alba once again) is using more than that each turn, but that's what the Alchemy skill is for! Assuming I don't have the time for Osmose. So pretty much they're only gonna get used in boss fights. But I don't have to worry about using them now.

Anyway, back to the adventure now that the Dark Warriors speak Lufenian.

Darn rocks and their planet breaking.

That's pretty much it. There was a bit more banter of course, but what mattered was "Here's your plot coupon, go get the shiny."

Okay, time for the transitional dungeon.

Aaaaand it's done. Only a few screens long. Found a better bow for Nacht to use.

On to the real dungeon!

See, now I just feel silly for having used a Cottage outside.

Anyway, just north of the save point is a non-functioning teleporter with three holes in the northern wall.

oh crap this place has a malboro infestation

Oh crap, they resist Earth! My Quake is useless!

Anyway, I find an orb in the dungeon and bring it back. Sticking it in one of the slots activates the teleporter. Apparently can't take it out once it's in, so I'm guessing this is just going to be based on how many you have in there rather than where each one is placed.

Honestly reasonable questions. Just what is the Crystal's plan here?

Does anybody here speak Crystalian? Unne just tutored the party on Lufenish.

Anyway, the second section has a bunch of moving guards in addition to random battles. The flames start a fight against a bunch of undead, while the guards start a fight against a big metal guy called a Giant Soldier.

Right, next section.

You can't see it from a screenshot, but those orbs are moving along down there. On one hand they're giving me unfortunate flashbacks to the core of the Giant of Babil. On the other hand, they're helpfully making some black-colored secret passages more visible by getting covered by them.

Huh, accidentally went right to the thing this time. Only had time for a single fight. That won't do. Gotta get that exploration time in.

Like with this Hall of Demons place. I'm sure there's nothing to be concerned about with flames appearing on the pillars as I pass by.

Okay, so if I draw some Demi spells from him and then cast them on his I'd… be playing a much worse game than this. Instead I shall be making another post from this point due to image limit.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Okay, last time on Final Fantasy Dimensions, the Dark Warriors took a long FF1 reference to learn how to speak the local language, and then it was back to the Light Warriors in time to see Barbara save Sarah from going splat. But after that it was back to Mysidia, which is where we'll pick this up.

Was it the earth-shattering kaboom that gave it away?

Proof Sol is an absolute moron, he called Sophia Gaunt Girl again.

No thanks. Can't use it anyway.

Except not being able to use White Magic above level 4.

I'm telling her you called her that.

That actually sets off a flashback to when Dusk and Alba were around Palom and Porom's age, and he made the same stupid mistake Sol did. And got the same punishment. Albeit with a smaller bolt as he was just a kid. But after that it's back to business by heading out into town to find Sophia unlocking the dungeon entrance.

…Zap him twice.

Or you could zap Sol again. Honestly I can't complain about that too much.

But with that the Light Warriors finally have their guest party member of the section.

Sophia's class is called Seer. She's Got White 8 (with her one level 8 spell being Dispel), Black 6, and Benediction, which heals a bit of HP. I'm guessing it's about as useless as Clarity, but I'll have to double check once in the dungeon (It's around 350, even Cura is better, and it can fail to work). Speaking of which, noe that I have dungeon access it's grinding time. I need to get those jobs mastered. At least the second jobs. Admittedly there's not much point in more than that. I mean I guess the physical jobs could benefit a bit from Red Mage, but they don't need it that badly. I hope. Prepare to grind!

<<hours of combat in progress - please wait>>

Okay, grind complete. All Light Warriors have finished mastering a second job, and Aigis even took enough Black Mage while Sol was trying to finish up Dragoon to learn the Int boost. Dragoon Int is so low I don't expect it to make a difference on the rare occasions I do use a Breath attack but it's something and he had the free slot anyway. Everybody is back into their originally assigned roles. Barring equipment upgrades and levels the Light Warriors are as powerful as they're gonna get. On with the dungeon.

The next dungeon is the caverns below Mysidia. Seems like a silly dungeon to build on a floating isle, you don't exactly have a lot of basement space to work with on those things.

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? When will we get there? When will we get there?~

Don't know what he's complaining about anyway. The dungeon honestly isn't bad if you keep your MP up, and I got Osmose for that. Seem to be plenty of save points too. Anyway, their goal is the Crystal at the bottom of the dungeon, which has been keeping Mysidia afloat all of these years. Which means the island is likely to go splat by the end of the storyline. Well, go back to the ground anyway. Fantasy stories always seem to underplay just how devastating that amount of rock falling would be. And the pretty much 0% chance of survival if you're on it.

Gonna be a bit hard to fit that one in their pockets.

Oh hey, haven't seen this thing since the intro! Guess it's time for a pallet swap re-boss fight. Honestly not that worried about anything besides the inevitable scripted end. Sarah can Doublecast Comet to deal around 11000 in a single turn. And Sophia can cast Haste, so yeah… To be fair the Protector isn't completely helpless. It can cast Holy on a single target to deal around 2000. Which would be threatening if it was threatening. What actually is threatening is its party HP-to-single-digit attack that doesn't end the battle as a scripted event. Uh oh, actually have to heal from that. Well I manage to get mostly back from it, and it dies before it could launch it's next attack anyway. Wimp.

Too bad nobody knows the White Magic skill.

So, fun fact. That right there? It does not apply to the Dark Warriors. And it never will. The Dark Warriors can never actually master White Magic. Likewise, the Light Warriors can never master Black Magic. Hope you didn't invest too much into the wrong base job!

I would be so disappointed if I was that crystal. Imagine having your entire purpose to be giving an ability that would never be used because of a challenge run.

Hopefully in a controlled descent and not a body slam. But whatever it will be it doesn't wait for long, as the shaking begins almost immediately.

And with that it's back to the Dark Warriors.

Specifically it's back to The Mask awkwardly trying to avoid answering Glaive's suspicion by claiming there's no time to talk. Despite having a ways to walk and most people being capable of walking and talking at the same time. But I don't actually have to wait a while to get to a stopping point this time as there's a save point just one floor down. And while that may not have been a long update, it was a very long grind session. Which I will have to replicate soon with the Dark Warriors, so I'm calling it here.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

The Dark Warriors must climb a tower to learn a new language. But you don't need to go through all that trouble thanks to the sponsor of this post, Ro- *shot*

There's a couple of dungeons, but as the one furthest south is obviously blocked for now and a transition dungeon anyway, so let's head to the tower instead.

Got jumped by monsters before I even reached the front door, and the ones here aren't joking around. They can do things like inflict poison, paralysis, and confuse with their physicals, or have mages that cast Quake. And when I tried to doublecast Osmose on the mage enemy to regain MP I discovered they were undead and lost most of what I had. Ended up having to abandon mission to go outside to rest and recover. I think the Light Warriors definitely had easier time with the soldiers and robots. There's one point where you have to guess the right door at the end of a hallway, and a wrong guess boots you back to the start. I also find the Wonder Wand here, which can cast a random Black Magic spell when used as an item. But it's got less of an INT boost than my current one, so I doubt it'll see any use. On floor 5 I find an oddly named accessory, Chouchou, that prevents Berserk, Confuse, Sleep, Paralyze, and Curse. Basically anything that can be cured with Basuna or wears off after battle. I go ahead and give it to Alba as she's my current Red Mage and some of those are rather debilitating. At one point I run into a hydra-like enemy called a Radon that nearly beats me. Had attacks like Tri-breath or multiple hard hitting physicals. The game definitely stopped holding back at this point. Can't even say I'm underleveled, as I'm pretty much tied with the guest I got. Finally get a save point on floor 6. REALLY needed the chance to use that cottage.

Right after that is the top floor, with this svelte fellow.

Dang it. Alright, gotta go talk to the mermaids after all. Alba, how long can you hold your breath?

Did… did Glaive not know that? Huh, guess it was never actually stated.

Right, boss time. I just take a wild guess and say I have to worry about physicals, so Protect and Blink will be a good idea here.

Or it could end it in one blow as a scripted battle.

Unfortunately Time Mage isn't available in this game, so no. Though that might be an interesting spell option for them. You have Old as a status effect for biological opponents, and Erode to inflict damage on mechanical/material ones. And got nothing to handle undead, they don't really care about the ravages of time.

Anyway The Mask gives the Warriors of Darkness a pep talk about how their friends need and they have to get up and try again, so it's time for the actual boss fight. I start with Protect on the party and Blink on Alba. So of course the Guardian opens with Quake, bypassing my attempted prep. That one's on me. I made assumptions. Though in my defense, his physicals also hurt. Still, it's nothing unmanageable. Nacht goes down at one point but it's not hard to bring him back up, and the Guardian falls soon afterward.

Diana, don't ask some people to explain themselves. They're allergic to it. But Glaive actually has thought up of an explanation.

Dun dun dun! The Mask doesn't have anything to say to that though. Instead…

Back to the other team! Yeah, the Dark Warriors didn't have nearly as much plot going on. Instead they got all of the actual violence. But regardless, back to the Light Warriors. Sol has decided to jump from the airship to try and catch Sarah. Which… he might be able to do if he's still got Dragoon equipped, though I think the landing is more of the concern here.

Oh hey, got rescued by a Dragoon after all. Hi Barbara!

I kinda like how Vata is just kinda standing awkwardly off to one side during all of this. Like… should he ask them to let him off somewhere, is there still a way to gracefully teleport away?

Huh. I'll admit I hadn't thought of combining Dragoon and Geomancer before. Probably because that combination has absolutely nothing going for it, why would you do that?

So yeah, as several characters have mentioned the worlds are about to recombine. For reasons. But as they contemplate that they can watch the Heliogabulus go kaboom and become an oil slick over the ocean surface. Which Dusk has an idea about.

Honestly I still say all the lightning attacks being flung around is a better explanation, but sure, Vata sabotaged things I guess.

In other words, he's claiming he does what he wants to avoid answering anything.

Two. He's the only reason you guys survived that, much as you don't want to admit it.

So no Dragoon round two. Probably just as well, it's not a very good class.

Dusk is quick to pass the buck on actually using brains.

Nice of the game to tell me to go and shop now. But besides that as the Dark Warrior section is complete it's time to call it a night. After shopping, of course.