Made it to level 10 in Pandemomium late last night, and took on the emperor in the final battle. Surprisingly, it went well, and he dropped after about 15-20 panic-free rounds of combat. He shied away from using physical attacks on us, which helped a lot, because he, like Astaroth, hit for massive damage and regenerated about 75% of those hits. He only did that twice, which was fortunate for us.

We started out by tossing up some Blink, Haste, and Beserk spells, then shifted to pelting him with Holy and Ultima spells. We discovered that Drain did more damage, though, so we pretty much stuck with that for the entire fight.

And with that, the main section of Final Fantasy II is complete! However, we are playing the GBA Soul of Rebirth version of the game, so more fun lurks in the afterlife. Not finished with this one yet.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose, Moving on to Soul of Rebirth

Picture Credit: Video Game Sprites

Merry Christmas to everyone out there that celebrates the holiday!

Chugging along in Pandemonium now. Have made it to Level 8. We’re actually doing quite well now. Most of our enemies have some sort of magic, so we happily steal magic points from them to use for ourselves. The only one in our party who doesn’t know the MP-stealing Aspiru spell is Leonhart the Weak, so he is the only one who needs to drink our MP potions. Through seven and a half levels of pandemonium, we still have 90 of our 99 MP potions left.

In preparation for our final battle, we’re now trying to quickly build up our abilities at the non-elemental spells, like Holy and Ultima. We’ve also been working heavily on Blink, Haste, and Beserk.

Status: Killing Stuff with a Purpose

I took a peek at some great forums over at Eyes of Final Fantasy, and found a thread on fighting the Pandemonium bosses in Final Fantasy II. This led to a few tactical changes before our next rematch with Astorath.

Evasion skills rule over armor rating in Final Fantasy II. I took off my armor before this battle and equipped some light-weight robes.

The uber-weapon Blood Sword is all-powerful against some of the latter bosses. Unfortunately, I managed to not get it, and can’t get it unless I want to restart my game. I did equip a recommended Ancient Sword, however, which curses enemies.

The spells Beserk, Haste, and Blink apparently help quite a bit as well. All of these are extremely weak in my party at the moment. Still, I let Sir Wuss Leonhart chuck a few of these around in our battle.

Rather than steal her MP, which I usually do in combat against all magic casters, I let her keep it. Her magical attacks are relatively weak, and I’d rather be up against her magic than her physical attacks. (This one I figured out on my own.)

With this new approach, we took her out on our first try. I’m not sure the Ancient Sword helped at all, but we sure did take a lot less damage from her attacks. Also, most of the time she stuck to magic attacks, which are much less damaging than her physical attacks. Sir Wuss Leonhart died once, but other than that, we made it through the battle fairly easily!

From here on, I think I’ll be casting more of the Beserk, Haste, and Blink spells, which apparently can help in our upcoming final battle. Moving on!

Status: Back on Track, Killing Stuff with a Purpose

Picture Credit: Final Fantasy Compendium

I’m determined to take this witch out. I tried again for a half hour last night, but every single time she chews us up like doggie treats. We’re making quite a pile of graves. No matter what I try, I can’t seem to put enough damage on her to overcome the amount she can regenerate from attacking us.

Our defensive spell casting is extremely weak, but I’m wondering if that might be a way to get at her. If I can chain cast some defensive spells to reduce the amount of damage she can do, then I might be able to put more damage on her than she can repair.

Another thought is that there is a spell or weapon or some combination of spells and weapons that I am unaware of that works well against her. I did stumble onto an Excalibur sword last night that jacked up one of our party member’s attack strength, but it still wasn’t enough to make a difference.

I don’t need to kill her, however, as I found the exit to the next level in Pandemonium. So I have three alternatives: give up and move on; keep fighting; take a look at a cheat sheet.

What to do?

Status: Getting our Butts Kicked, Still.

Ruh r’oh. We’ve met Astaroth, who is another boss on Level 6 of Pandemomium. Unlike Beezlebub and other Final Fantasy II bosses, Astaroth is a kick-ass bitch of a vampire who hits for around 4,000 points. Worse, she absorbs about 75% of these points back to her health. Our regular weapons barely scratch her. Fire, thunder, blizzard, and holy attacks don’t put much damage on her either.

With frantic healing, I was able to last about ten rounds against her, but I haven’t found a way yet to tip the damage/regeneration balance in my favor. I’ve tried our defensive spells, but they don’t seem to stop much of the damage. I’ve tried a bunch of different attacks as well, but they don’t put more damage on her than she regenerates from attacking us. In short, we’re crashing and burning against her every time.

I suppose I could go around her, but that doesn’t seem quite right.

Status: Getting our Butts Kicked