Insane Difficulty: My Playthrough - Insane Difficulty

Jackimus, on 26 January 2013 - 09:35 PM, said:

He turned them into giant rape trains.

Jackimus, on 26 January 2013 - 09:35 PM, said:

Do you really have to ask?

A week's worth of playing in one post!

Alright, Giants Claw. The first fight is against some lizardactyls, their wing blow is a OHKO for over 2000 damage, thankfully, ice sword 2 one shots the group. Also one hits the Leaper enemies. Gigasaurs are a bit on the nasty side with a huge HP pool and a powerful lightning spell, but you can steal Ruby Armours from them which is neat. A couple falcon hits kills fossil apes. I can also steal the now almost worthless megalixirs from them too. There's a couple rubble enemies in here later on, I tag in a Magus/Frog/Robo group for some quick TP, the first two may be useful in spots, and also Robo is forced for Geno Dome, which I may as well do. Boss time, I equip Red armour, vest and a ruby mail. Hasted party starts whaling on him with Ice Sword 2 (hereafter IS2, getting tired of typing these techs all the time) and a heavily nerfed triple kick. I manage to steal another red mail during the battle, nice. He gets off one flamebreath attack, killing no one, shortly before he dies.

Back to the present to complete this quest. there's some hilariously weak enemies, then I fight Yakra 13. Haste, IS2, triplekick, some hyperethers as needed, dead. This boss's attacks aren't very strong outside the counterattack move he uses when he dies, which is survivable at full HP. I gain another white mail upon winning. Thanks to the power of the Save, I compare my options and decide to take the 3 prism helms, prism dress does not seem to be as good as it used to be, in fact The aeon gown I've had for ages now is just as strong defensively, minus the auto-shell that the helmets appear to now provide anyway. Rainbow sword barely edges out the Swallow and has no speed boost, gonna keep using the Swallow. I never use physical attacks anymore anyways. And obviously, Crono's shades get an upgrade.

Now, I'll go try the sunken desert for reals. Unlike last time, the enemies pose no threat to me. Ice 2 + Falcon hit kills everything. Against retinite, I haste the party while Ayla steals. It now absorbs crazy HPs from the core, this is going to be different. After lowering it's defense with ice spells, I start spamming Falcon hit on the core/head, while reviving as needed (his sand cyclone is a OHKO). After forever, the core finally dies and I can start killing the boss, even though I'm now forced to deal with his stronger techs. The head goes down fast enough, as I guess I managed to keep some damage on it while falcon hitting, though it syphoned a lot of HP from the core. More of the same against the legs, though I do have to use lots of reviving and heal items due to the damn sand cyclone he uses every other turn. Eventually, I win. Robo tags in to complete the quest, and I get the Green Dream, which likely will be helpful in the Black Omen.

Now, I'll go do Ozzie's Fort. Flea goes down without much of a fuss, Slash puts up more of a fight due to higher defense, but still is really not a big deal. Some nice gear is gotten for Magus. Leave briefly to eat a shelter, and it's time for the real fight. I equip Red Mails and Vests before the battle. I go after Flea first. I steal the Flea vest while Marle hastes the party, the counter attack heals me! Take a guess as to which techs I used for offense. With Flea dead, there are no more counter attacks, or offense outside some weak physicals from Slash. Slash is next then, obviously, steal the Slasher 2, and kill. Lastly Ozzie, steal the pants, and kill. I used physicals for the hell of it, and to save some ethers- he never attacks anyway. Interesting, the Slasher 2 is now even better than the Rainbow. I still want my +3 speed though. Ozzie Pants seem great, I guess I'll see if they cause chaos like in vanilla though. Flea vest is pretty much worthless to me at this point, since my team already has ** Mdef. The extra dash ring from the chest will be useful for characters on my bench, namely a certain forced Robot for the next quest. Let's also give him some Prism helm, Nova Armour, a Giga Arm, swap him for Ayla and go ruckus some machines.

IS2 makes for some dead robots. Robo watches, he is Slow. I learn Lifeline in my first battle, I could see this being incredibly useful and may use Robo outside this sidequest yet. Some stuff happens then I fight Atropos, giving Robo a red mail before the fight. I barely tank the laser spin and uzzi punch tech (both did over 900- but not enough to kill me!) before the boss starts spamming Area Bomb, meaning I can't lose. A shitpile of robo tackles later, I win. And robo gains the best boost ever, 3 spd and 10 mdef. I give him one of my speed tabs to cap his speed with a dash ring equipped. Switch armours over to Black Mails before fighting Mother Brain. Marle hastes while Robo and Crono start killing a display. Wow, 7500 HP healed. Hopefully, I don't have to kill all 3 to win this. MAN those displays have a lot of HP, has to be at least 15k per. IS2 / robo tackle is my offense. With one display left, I can barely outdamage it's healing move, so I guess I had better kill that one too. And now the fight isn't as nice, because I can be damaged. Robo goes down pretty quick, I ignore it and spam IS2 until I win. Robo gets some weapons, and now all the side quests are done. Many a level was gained in this update, my team is now Crono 59, Marle 60, and Ayla 59.

Next time, I fight some presumably awful Mutants and might add to my Game Over count again.

Jackimus, on 01 February 2013 - 03:21 AM, said:

Friendly note: You would have gotten it for winning the battle if you hadn't stole it. That's just the odd way the game handles enemies who don't have a charm-able item.

It's possible I overdid the Swallow... but giving up a Safe Helm is a decently large sacrifice, so it's hard to say.

Well now you're up to the good stuff! Some vids of the bosses would certainly be appreciated.

Don't worry, I'll provide videos!

---

ITS GO TIME.

I falcon hit some laser guards, and then there's a Mutant. I really have no idea what to expect, so on my blind attempt I'm just trying optimal equipment (status protect + autoshell) rather than gambling on whatever elemental spells the boss might use.

http://youtu.be/9Na_eYOwLrc

It looks like status resist _is_ the way to go for this battle, he has lots of would-be nasty status moves. Oh, and double turns. A physical and Blacken one hits my guys. Or maybe not everyone, Blacken must be a physical tech since Crono tanked it easily. Good thing I screwed up my equipment and gave him safe instead of shell? Thanks to my deep pockets, and playing very conservatively a few rounds in once I noticed this boss wasn't going to screw around, I got past it on my first attempt. I am likely going to need to track down more Lapis though, at this rate. Also, check out 'dem steals! (Question, like with the Red mail, would I have gotten these items if I didn't steal them during the battle?). Also, now that I'm actually watching the video, I noticed I hasted Ayla a second time unnecessarily. Whoops!

Lastly for this post, a fiendish idea for this boss in a future update- give him that move that either the second Lavos or the Core has (in vanilla) that negates your characters' status protection. THEN this guy is a rape train, as a previous poster suggested.

Jackimus, on 01 February 2013 - 02:54 PM, said:

Yes, all the end game bosses EXCEPT Ozzie's Fort are like that.

Jackimus, on 01 February 2013 - 02:54 PM, said:

*chin rub* That's not a bad idea, considering I don't really have any other boss with that theme. Though Mega Mute is only the gate keeper, and the last boss to still have a touch of mercy to him, so you still have one more stepping up of difficulty to go.

So how do you like the Multi-tech to Single-tech balance compared to the original game?

I have to say, I prefer the balance of dual to single techs in this version. You're using two (or three!) valuable turns for one attack, it had better be well stronger than the sum of its parts (and it is). The only point against I can really see, is that this might make Magus a much weaker party choice (though to be fair I haven't used him much outside death peak and don't have a real feel for how much damage he can deal). Also, some single techs seem to be nerfed a bit too much, Triple kick for example barely out-damages rock throw for five times the MP cost.

---

Awesome, Goons still have stealable Nova Armours. I had a really bad fight against some synchrites and a martello, I needed 3 revives and an Elixir of all things to scrape by that fight. I'll know better than to take those robots lightly again. FUCKING YES panels still have stealable Speed tabs. I finally get to use my accessories!... at least I will, once I reload the save and kill the panels. Yes, I died to fucking PANELS who have way more HP and attack than they're worth- also, probably didn't help that I was too high on stealable speedtabs to bother watching my health. Anyway, Marle is now wearing sunshades, gonna have some mighty IS2 I think, yes. Boss orbs and sidekicks are still TP farms from the looks of it, so gonna swap the team right quick to learn moves in this hallway. Magus learns Darkbomb, and Robo learns Uzzi Punch. Hah, them Metalmutes don't like water, IS2 clears 4k on those guys. And, the flyclops are durable enough to drain my guys' MP 10 at a time, little twats. Just so ya know, you can steal Aeon gowns from Cybots if you somehow don't have 2 already. Ruminators are still (now worthless) megalixir farms, have 6600 HP and are hilariously weak to water. Reached the shop, bought many full tonics and hyper ethers.

Holy christ, tubsters are strong, his "attack" OHKO'd my party... try again... yikes, same. I died two more times in figuring out what in God's name was going on. When one of your guys dies, he casts a ridiculous magic that hits over 1k on the party. The solution is to only attack with a character his counter can't one shot (in my case, safe'd Crono). Confuse/cure incessantly until dead. Don't know if this was how this monster's AI worked in vanilla, never saw that attack before. Mercifully, the remaining encounters in the area go as planned, and I'm prepared for the second tubster (now with annoying flyclopses). I find another speed tab in a chest, Ayla is now capped without equipment also, giving her a third eye accessory to cap her evade for the hell of it (does evade work on anything in this game, really?). Aliens no longer have charmable magic tabs... and they, as well as the blobs, actually attack. I have to heal a LOT in between falcon hits to get by these assholes. The encounter drops a magic tab, at least. Hurray, no blobs in the second Alien battle.

Another save point reached, and it's time to battle a giga mutant. Like last time, autoshell/status immunity for my blind attempt (this time, I had Crono's equipment correct). And, in my first attempt, before I enter my first command, my party is one shotted by a Luminaire/Ice 2 combo. Uhh... Let's try this with white mails then. Yep, died again, though it took a lot longer, although I was _entirely_ on the defensive. The fourth time he cast Hexagon Mist is where I got too far behind on healing to keep up. So, I will need Blue mail as well. And probably poison immunity, that's what wore me out on this second attempt. On the plus side, it does appear as though the boss has a totally repeatable attack pattern...? (from my second battle, looks like Luminaire/Ice 2, Fire 2/Blackout, Lightning 2/hexagon Mist, physical/poison cloud, repeats) Gah, flipping through my equipment, I can't get all the auto abilities on that I want. Hmm, this is going to be interesting. Gonna sleep on this one, no sense in getting myself killed repeatedly at this point.

Game Over count: 21 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank, sewers twice, Nizbel once, Magus thrice, Azala once, 3 hexapods once, Panels once, Tubster four times, Giga Mutant 2- and counting?)

Died once more, though this fight went much better since I know the attack pattern. The only problem I'm having is that Ayla still gets one shotted from hexagon Mist, and the lost turns to revive/haste her eventually caught up to me and I died. the solution? Swap her for Frog, who has some innate Water resistance.

http://youtu.be/4Fjjz5O_7N4

yeah! That was all I needed. My fight got a little nuts late when the body started being slower than the head and their pattern got out of synch, was panicking like crazy when Crono unexpectedly died. And, clearly, I was trying very hard to mentally adjust for the switch in the pattern with all the time spent in the menus fumbling around. Lastly, I appreciate the drops!

And, for anyone else stuck on this legit rape train, his attack pattern is below. Note that the body seems to be slightly slower, and these moves will go out of synch after a couple rounds.

Head/Body
Lumimanire/Ice2
Blackout/Fire2
Hexagon Mist/Lit2
Poison Mist/physical

Game Over count: 22 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank, sewers twice, Nizbel once, Magus thrice, Azala once, 3 hexapods once, Panels once, Tubster four times, Giga Mutant 3 times)

Back to dungeon trekking, Some uneventful battles happen. Now faced with four panels, I wisely wear Black Mails before the battle. Afterwards, I have 5 more speed tabs. Crono's now maxed and using the Slasher 2. I have spare speedtabs for other party members as I may (or may not?) need them.

For my blind attempt at the Terra mutant, I have Crono/Marle with autosafe/shell, and Ayla with autoshell/status immunity. Let's see how this goes. And, before long, I am dead, as this guy has a couple status inflicting moves that ruined me. So, let's actually give my whole team status immunity and see what's for here.

http://youtu.be/XiW4npmomV0

And, he's not so tough compared to the last one. He has a mix of status attacks, percentage attacks, and pretty strong non elemental (I'm guessing) spells. Basically, this feels like a straight up fight. A little tougher than Mega, but a handful of tiers below Giga. Also, you can see my very real complaint about Triple Kick firsthand in this fight, in that it barely outdamages rock throw for 5 times the cost.

Actually, at this point, while Ayla has served me pretty well, I'm considering swapping her for Frog (use less Lapis) or Magus (more offense). I never use Falcon Hit anymore, and her single techs are clearly not very good.

Game Over count: 23 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank, sewers twice, Nizbel once, Magus thrice, Azala once, 3 hexapods once, Panels once, Tubster four times, Giga Mutant 3 times, Terra Mutant)

Jackimus, on 01 February 2013 - 11:12 PM, said:

I think this is more about Rock Throw being strong than Triple Kick being weak. Triple Kick is 23% stronger than Rock Throw, which isn't a huge deal, though many enemies are immune to Rock Throw, so there's that. But the question of how strong or weak Triple Kick is would be answered in how Triple Kick compares to Leap Slash, Uzi Punch, Flare, Shock, etc, not in how it compares to Rock Throw. But perhaps thematically there could stand to be more difference between the 2 skills. Damage dealing single techs in general are pretty weak, though, with the exceptions of Magus and (to a lesser extent) Crono. The reasons for these exceptions being Magus doesn't get any dual techs and Crono isn't a part of any of the best triple techs (and is the main character).

I think that is a perfectly reasonable explanation for the changes, and yeah, rock throw doesn't work on everything. I still think the move costs too much, but changing that would unbalance the combo attacks it is part of, Dropkick for example, when I was using that on Death Peak, was crazy strong, and definately worth 20 MP a shot. I don't particularly find Cronos single techs to be less strong than Magus, but granted I haven't learned all magus's moves and I've been wearing prism specs for awhile now.

---

Ayla tags out for Frog, I'm low on Lapis. Frog gets a couple speed tabs to cap his speed with a Dash Ring. I died once to the Lavos Spawn, it got a double turn of needle disaster early in the fight, which wiped me. So I'm thinking safe/status immunity is the way to go. Even with autosafe, Marle can't survive a double needling, and I died again soon after (the boss also has chaotic zone, good call on the status gear, me). That non maxed stamina stat is troublesome. So, I think with better equipment and throwing shields at her, I'll be fine?

Yes, yes I will. This guy is a one trick pony, but it's a pretty potent trick, lots of speed, and almost exclusively uses a high power entire party physical attack. I'm assuming attacking the shell is very bad, I certainly wasn't brave enough to try. Didn't bother with a video, it's just a lot of IS and heal after initial hasting, and tossing Marle a shield.

Backtracking to eat a shelter, Ayla tags in, Black mails equipped. Kill panels, steal 5 speed tabs. Shelter, save, and time to fight some Zeal. Went in with safe/shell gear on all three members. Zeal has one attack, a spell that gradually gets more powerful as the fight goes on. It was hitting 600+ on my party before I killed her. Mammon machine actually attacks now, and it's counters are the same as before. Only use magic techs to not give it crazy def. frog Heals while IS2 is spammed. Zeal with hands, is underwhelming, lots of magic attacks. I cried when I saw her casting Hexagon Mist, but this is the kiddie pool compared to Giga Mutant. The hands still take no damage and counter attack with down to 1 HP, so I don't attack them after seeing this. Skygate is a very strong move, but survivable at max health. Frog on healer duty while spamming IS2, gone.

Lavos's shell... the boss rush is actually a Thing now. Good thing I have lots of megalixirs to use between every battle. DT has no attack power but tons of health. haste, and arc impulse until dead. Guardian, the right bit has no HP for some reason (an oversight I assume?), and attacks are no threat. For Heckran, Magus tags with Crono, borrows his prism specs and eats 4 speed tabs. I give Frog a magic ring for this battle. Darkbomb/Glacier until dead. Also, I am now noticing Magus' Darkbomb has been buffed considerably- awesome. Magus and Crono tagback for Zombor, arc impulse the head, spire the body. Attacks still no threat. Masamune is lots of arc impulse until dead, slashing when storing energy just in case. Nizbel eats lightning, then lots of arc impulse. Magus is the same as in my initial video, except I am never in danger. IS2 kills Azala, then Arc Impulse kills the Tyrano. I ignore Gaia's arms and blitz him with a few Arc impulses.

NOW the real fight begins. And, FFS I died. No status protection = confused party. Killed all those assholes again, using the same strategies as before (had a close scrape with the Mammon Machine, low health at the start of battle and he got the first attack), and this time I wear autoshell/status immunities when I finally eventually get to the real fight again. Yeah, die you prick. his AI is unchaged, but his attacks are beefed up considerably. I'd be dissapointed in the lack of a new AI here if it wasnt the 13th consecutive boss fight between save points.I get a haste helm, neat I guess.

Next time I'll take on the final battle. I have some Lapis left, and was impressed with Magus's darkbomb, so I may switch him and Frog for that fight, I don't know yet.

Game Over count: 26 (blue imps, guards on bridge twice, omnicrone twice, dragon tank, sewers twice, Nizbel once, Magus thrice, Azala once, 3 hexapods once, Panels once, Tubster four times, Giga Mutant 3 times, Terra Mutant, (Super) Lavos Spawn 2, Lavos' Shell once)

Where's the Lavos fight???

Clearly I have some unfinished business here. I completely forgot about this until just now, due to some stuff I can't bother explaining having happened to me around the time I was nearly done of this mod, a couple years ago. I still have my save at the last boss, so I'll whip something up soon... ish.

Nearly two years late, but I'm done...!

Inner Lavos:

Had to give Marle a power seal to have even a chance of surviving the physicals from the hands. They clear 1000 damage easily on anyone without protect. Fight is more than manageable after one goes down. Also, I seem to have triggered a glitch with the boss' AI in the fight, I saw the message "Engaging Main Body" twice, though I appreciated the wasted turn by the boss.

http://youtu.be/v5QXbsDlZ6g

Lavos Core:

Picking up right after, it's the core. I chose Magus as my 3rd more so for this fight than the last, I wanted enough firepower to maybe (and in practice, successfully) kill the core in one cycle of Active Life. Went for the center bit, whereas in Vanilla I normally go for the weaker bit as it has lower HP. Here, with the center bit gone, I can ignore defense completely and blitz the core while it's defences are down. The boss' attacks are manageable with protect and shell up at all times.

http://youtu.be/s8OBoZ-Ds0k

And,,, that's it! I'll write some final thoughts on this later on, I gotta go play bass for some hours.

Dude, you're right about retnite. He's the hardest sideboss quest. I've tried many different ways of taking him down. But i just can't.

I'm probably just a baddy. Tried your party and build, tried the youtube build, but man, I just can't survive. I'm thinking if I can't beat him, i dont stand a chance in Black omen.