Althea Valara

I did not level up the Chicken Knife before heading into the Pyramid. I decided it was a pretty high level already, and that I'd probably get the remaining levels naturally before end game.

So, then Pyramid! It went well, thanks to my bard. When I couldn't Requiem things to death, I could Ballad them into stopping. That was very helpful. My Mystic Knight was the star of the floor with the mecha heads: thundaga spellblade one-shot them.

I was a bit nervous about the chest that can spawn Steel Fists, because in other Fiestas they have wrecked me, but again, my bard came through. This time it was Alluring Air, reapplied as necessary, and then wait for them to kill themselves.

The one thing that did give me problems is the chest with the Object d'Arts. I got unlucky, and they kept breaking my party. Thankfully, I had saved before I faced them, so I didn't lose any progress.

Melusine was a bit annoying. I didn't think I had enough firepower to kill her during her initial weak-to-fire stage, so I didn't use spellblade. I just melee'd her down, which took a while. I was never in any danger, just wasn't a short fight.

I now had control of the airship, so I immediately went to the Phantom Village and bought Hermes Sandals for everyone, the Arise spell, and the last Coral Ring I needed. I then went to Kuza Castle and picked up the three obvious weapons for me: the Holy Lance, the Assassin's Dagger, and the Apollo harp.

In the island shrine I considered farming mirage vests but ultimately didn't. It's rather annoying to do when you have only the thief knife for stealing. I ended up running from a lot of battles, not necessarily because I wanted to, but because the Chicken Knife did, LOL. Hey, more levels for it! The executors got me with Level 3 Flare & Level 4 Graviga (three of my party were level 36) but I was saved by Lenna surviving, as she was only level 34.

Wendigo wasn't too bad. I had no AoE attacks for it, but I guessed right fairly often, and the Chicken Knife did good damage.

I picked up three more weapons from Kuza, picked randomly, then rode Boko around the world to get a Mirage Vest. I also rode him to the waterfall to pick up the Magic Lamp. Then it was time for the thing I dread: Fork Tower and the fight with Minotaur and Omniscient.

I sent my Dragoon and Mystic Knight up the tower of power. My Mystic Knight died to Minotaur, but my Dragoon kept jumping and won. Then came Omniscient. I knew berserk was the key to this fight, so I berserker him right away... And he killed me. >_< Well, crap.

I ended up watching a YouTube video of someone's previous Fiesta run, and discovered my issue: I had failed to cast protect (important to survive the first hit) before setting berserk. And I should keep blink up at all times.

In the video, the person sent their bard with their berserker up the tower of power, so that their dragoon and white mage faced Omniscient. So I tried splitting my party like this, sending my bard and mystic knight to face Minotaur...and I lost to him. *sigh*

So I tried a third time with my initial party split. Minotaur went down with no issues. Had my bard and white mage cast protect on themselves, then berserker Omniscient followed immediately by casting Blink. Once both characters had Blink applied, I berserked  my Bard, who was wielding the Chicken Knife.

This time I won! Yay! Am very glad I did. Sure beats previous Fiestas, where bi had trouble . on one of them I ended up skipping the tower and last two tablets because I saw no way to win against Omniscient.

I couldn't play any today as I have a deadline for a project I'm working on, but I should finish my project tomorrow, so hope to knock out the other two tablets then.

When I last posted, I had just finished farming Reflect Rings. Time to climb Barrier Tower!

I was lucky enough to get Red Dragons in both monster boxes. They're undead and weak to ice, so between Requiem and Blizzara spellblade I made short work of them.

I remembered to leave the tower to get more phoenix downs before I climbed it, thankfully, as there are a lot of deaths in the Atomos fight. Sleep spellblade from my Mystic Knight and Dragoon really helped make the fight easier. No one was ever in danger of getting sucked in, and I won easily on the first try. I used about 10 of my 25 phoenix downs.

A quick stop in Moore for shopping. New spells, huzzah!

Next it was the visit to Ghido's cave. I love the Ghido's dialogue! Makes the trip through the cave worth it.

And then it was the Forest of Moore. I rather hate this place, because I am never sure if I've nabbed all the treasures or not. I really wanted the Morningstar, and was having problems finding it. My DS Lite was running out of battery power, so I stopped there for the night, once I saved in the forest.

Today I started my day by checking Caves of Narshe's walkthrough for the location of the Morningstar, and discovered it was north of the save point. I picked it up and went on, grabbing the Aegis Shield from the chest before jumping down the hole. Once the fires had died, I exited the forest to save on the world map, because the fight against the crystals can be tricky.

I had done an experiment to see if you could use the Healing Staff with Reflect Rings. Nope - it bounces off the reflection, just like casting cure. So I decided against wearing the rings in the fight, as they don't protect against all the spells anyway.

I entered the fight and put protect & shell on everyone. I also had my bard sing Mighty March, which helped. I lost my Dragoon and Bard during the fight. I tried to get my bard back up but she just died right away, so I left her down and continued with just the Mystic Knight (who had !White) and White Mage. I was kinda shocked when I won on the first try. That rarely happens!

After some scenes there's a line saying "We must hurry to Exdeath's Castle!" Sorry, I'm doing gil farming first. My usual place to farm is Drakenvale, because dragon fangs sell for 2500 each. But then there's this turtle...

...and I really wondered if I could survive him with my party. First, I swapped some jobs around, so I had a Dragoon with !White 4, a Mystic Knight with White 6, a White Mage with Lance (she had no better options) and a Bard with White 6. I equipped my dragoon and bard with main gauches, and my white mage and mystic knight with Elven Mantles. And then I made my way into the gil cave.

I made sure everyone had Blink on at all times. There were some deaths, of course, but this worked rather well. Basically, my Mystic Knight did Blizzaga spellblade (when it connected, that is; it missed a lot) while the other three babysat her. It was going so well I thought I would win, though it took an annoyingly long time... But then he did his final attack, Earthquake, and even with Shell on it wipedmy party.

Oh well. I don't think I can survive the attack. I don't have a time mage for Float, nor a Beastmaster to control a monster into casting it on me. Back to Drakenvale I go. Truthfully, gil turtle was taking too Ling, anyway. I can farm faster in Drakenvale.

(Yes, I'm aware of the GBA quicksave glitch. I'm not going to use it, as that feels like cheating and doesn't sit well with me.)