I only had time for a short session last night. Time to grasp Real Power in the dungeon of Eureka, and then, just for fun, see what’s at the top of the Crystal Tower… Time to step back and see what I’m going to need to do before I can finish the game.
Like most Final Fantasy games — most RPGs of all types, really — there’s a point where you can just forge on to the end of the game, or just dally around working on other goals so much so that the end game isn’t really a challenge. I’m there with Final Fantasy III now.
The game sets up a few tests to see if you’re ready for the final push.
Have you made it through Eureka?
This optional dungeon holds the two locked jobs, Sage and Ninja, as well as some pretty powerful swords (Masamune, Excalibur, Moonblade, and another whose name escapes me). Each of those is granted after a boss fight, and those bosses will be using new abilities that will be used by yard trash in the final dungeon.
Is the Crystal Tower, like, easy for you now?
The Crystal Tower is the home to dragons who drop pieces of Onion Armor. Everyone starts out as an Onion Knight, the weakest job — unless they are equipped with full Onion Armor, and the job is leveled up to 99. Then they are the most powerful job, immune to nearly everything.
The Ancient Maze is easy for me, now that I have the two new jobs and all the magical firepower. The Crystal Tower is a work in progress. I did kill a Green Dragon and got an Onion Sword.
Is your party level 50?
No, they are in their low 40s, so not terribly far away. Me (Ninja) and Tom (Sage) are still leveling up our jobs. I assume that level 50 is the target, as there is a Steam achievement for it. It seems reasonable that the Crystal Tower will be more or less trivial by then, even though the trash mobs have 99,999 health.
Are you overthinking this?
This was my worry — that, in fact, I was good enough to beat the game and should just give it a shot and see what happens.
There is a point of no return in the game. I went past it, and was shepherded into a fight with Xande, the last of Noah’s disciples. The fight was long, but not terrible. The real boss of the game, the Cloud of Darkness, one shot killed us all, as they were meant to do.
I quit out of the game at this point. The next dungeon is the World of Darkness, and I know from Final Fantasy XIV what a trial that will be.
Wait — Final Fantasy XIV?
Yeah. This whole tower was used as a series of three raids in Final Fantasy XIV. Almost every one of the boss fights is there. And, in Shadowbringers, the initial base of operations is a city built around the Crystal Tower, which has been airlifted from its original home in Eorzea.
I was only able to progress this far in the tower by running from most of the fights. Not because I couldn’t do them, but because I only have limited magical resources, and no place to recharge. Having to crawl down the tower and back through the Maze to the Invincible every time I want to rest is tedious.
The Eureka dungeon was a little better. I saw from the map that there was a healing wellspring at the bottom, so I ignored all the side fights, went down to the bottom, healed up, then fought a boss, got their reward, went back to the bottom to recharge, and so on. It made Eureka easy. I can’t expect the World of Darkness to have an easily-reached recharge point.
Money.
Ninjas are devastating with Shurikens — they do north of 5,000 damage each throw. They cost 65,000 gil, though, and I just don’t have that kind of money laying around. I had to buy expensive spells. I’m sure if I had a hundred of these, most fights would be pretty trivial, but that could only happen after a lot of grinding.
So, I’ll see how many I can get with the money I have when the group hits 50. Because I’m coming for the CoD after that. (I actually have mixed feelings about the Cloud of Darkness — they were one of my powerhouse hitters when I was just starting out in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, and remained on my team for a long time. They worked FOR me, then — now I’m going to have to feel what it’s like as their enemy.)
