u/Vipes_3

It's still being worked on, and I forgot to fix a few pins after putting them up, like the Tonberry blackmage, but enjoy anyway!

I will point out when to view a picture.

Time for Kefka's tower, let's see if these limited teams stand up on their own. Team 1, Edgar and Shadow. Edgar is just good support, and can dual cast, where as Shadow is a super heavy hitter. Team 2, Cyan. Just Cyan. Someone had to be on their own, and I think Cyan can handle it. Then team 3 is Strago and Gogo. Much like team 1, Strago is on damage, Gogo is support.

Starting off with Cyan, his wind slash countering is doing super well, with him being the only target. Outside of that, Cyan can do great damage with Eclipse, which also casts stop on anything still alive. If he needs HP or MP, use Dragon. A very self sufficient party member. He handles enemies pretty well, and has no problem killing waves and wa..(see picture one) you bitch! Just gonna avoid those guys with Cyan.

He makes it to the Ultima buster, and I don't have to fight it, but I want to. Between counters, Dragon, and casting Flare, it takes a bit, but Cyan comes out on top, first try. (See picture 2) Its not long after that he makes it to the end of his current run, and we switch to Team 3.

Strago lacks healing magic, and there for so does Gogo, so I have him quickly learn cure. White wind is amazing, but its costly, and can't be used to touch up outside of battle. Any bosses they face, I go with the Debilitator strat. Setting their weakness to fire, ice, or lighting, then having Strago use the relevant level 3 spell while Gogo heals. This ensures an easy 9999 damage, without having to waste MP on flare, which was only doing 5000 to 7000. Strago and Gogo kill the last dragon, and we get Crusader. (See picture 3) I doubt I'll do anything with it. I put the muscle belt on Gogo, to make white wind that much better.

Now onto team 1. Both are equipped with Miracle shoes, making them even more reliable. Edgar making sure the duo is in top form, and Shadow murdering anything with his 3 different tiers of Shuriken. With that, they face little resistance in getting to the end. With the 3 teams now in place, they all hit the buttons, and move on to the statue fights. Though on the way there, Cyan met some guys who thought they were funny. Freezing him, confusing him, and shocking him all at once. (See picture 4) That's not very nice, he's only one guy.

Cyan goes up against The Goddess. It is time he got through his phobia of the humpty dumpties. I was worried he would have trouble, but he slices through pretty well. Edgar's team had a bit of trouble, but before Edgar died, he set Shadow up with a good shot at winning. Some hot pink shuriken later, and they walk away victorious. Strago and Gogo go with the saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Setting the statue's weakness to fire, and throwing Firaga at it, for constant easy big damage.

So here we are, the battle is about to start. (See picture 5) and as an added bonus for those who don't know, if you reach here without ever recruiting Terra, it cuts to her being like "it's happening, they need me" and transforms to fly up, arriving after the fight. (See picture 6) huh, I wonder if Terra is immune to ground damage in her Esper form. She should be.

Now the fight, the starting team is of course Edgar, Cyan, Shadow and Strago. Sorry Gogo, but you were always gonna be an extra. Fight begins, and because he can dual cast, I have Edgar put reraise on everyone, then focus on healing. Shadow throws, Strago casts Grand Delta, and Cyan does a mix of counters, flare, and Eclipse.

This gets us through the first two phases pretty easy, but phase 3 makes it a point to blind and silence everyone. Silence stops magic, which stops a lot of our heavy damage. Know what it doesn't stop though? Shuriken. (See picture 7) A few of those and this boss was also dead. It took Strago with it, but Reraise brought him back. Time for Kefka.

Strago no longer silenced since he died, but his low HP means no good white wind. So he instead uses remedy on Edgar, who then cures the party back to full life, as Cyan and Shadow get to work on damage. Kefka saw the full party heals and killed Edgar, then again, put silence on the party. He apparently wasn't watching the last fight, as he then gets a face full of sweet pink shuriken, ending his short life as a god.

So that challenge run...wasn't that challenging. Probably because of the extra levels people were getting by being in single or small teams. Though I am now reminded of the tentacle fight, and ya, that alone was enough challenge haha. It'll probably be a bit before my next challenge run, but I'd love to hear suggestions. The random job one was really fun, so if you wanna also suggest jobs, that'd be good to. Like right now, one I'd add to the 9 other jobs, is summoner. Can use summons, and tier 1 black/white magic.

I will point out when to view a picture.

With Deathgaze dead, we have the means to learn flare, and a 50% HP upgrade on level up. Strago may make use of that the most. His magic is already pretty strong, and with high HP comes a useful white wind.

To test our mettle, we head to the ancient castle, and see if we can take on the master Tonberry. It's touch and go, with Edgar providing heals, and Strago providing big heals if needed. The Tonberry seemed to noticed that, and killed both of them, luckily by then, the two main damage dealers were able to finish it off. (See picture 1)

Onto the broken down castle, we hear the story, and fight the Samurai, who went down pretty easy. We get the master's scroll, or Offering if you're old like me. I don't have much of a use for it, so I just put it away. We go say hi to Odin, ignore his stoned love, and kill the dragon, who gave Strago some nice magic (see picture 2)

We take a detour to Narshe, where we kill a dragon, beat and obtain the frozen Esper, and slap Umaro before telling him he can't come with. We ain't grabbing Mog, and we ain't grabbing him.

Then I decide I'd like Cyan to know all his sword techniques, so it's off to dream Doma! Dream world goes fine, no real hiccups, and I'm glad I know what I'm doing to get through fast. We get to the boss of it, and I'm glad you can't just X-Zone (banish now) this guy and be done with it, cause it's such a unique fight. When I was a kid, I didn't know vanish doom was a glitch, and thought using X-zone was the actual way you're suppose to beat the boss. Anyway we kill his ass and get a new and improved Cyan. (See picture 3)

Time to Gogo. Getting through the Zone eater's dungeon was pretty easy. Moved fast, got all chest, got Gogo, teleported out. Now Gogo, what to do with you? Could give him Blitz, since I can't use Sabin. (See picture 4) haha! That's a funny sight. Not even Suplex??

With Gogo, I decide to go do the Phoenix dungeon. I don't really need to, but hey, why not do all I can? So I split the team (see picture 5) and we hop in. Edgar Strago and Gogo cover each other pretty well, while Cyan is a dedicated all hitter, and Shadow is a dedicated single hard hitter.

Most of the dungeon goes fine, we get to the end, and I send Cyan and Shadow to take down the Dragon. Why the team with only two? Cause it sounded fun, and they still won (see picture 6) not by much, but they did. Getting the Phoenix magicite will help make Edgar a true healer. So that boosts him, and we just boosted Cyan, next, it's Shadow's turn.

We take him back to the Coliseum, loaded with Fuma Shuriken, he battles his way into making many of them pinwheels. Giving Shadow a significant boost to killing power. Something we make use of next, as it's Strago's turn.

We activate Ebot's rock, to go hunt Hidon. I walk in, and right away am met with a chest, who asks for something I don't have, and then calls me a skinflint. (See picture 7) Bitch. I get him what he wants, and we move onto the boss. Quick note, I remember as a kid, this spooking me. (See picture 8) The limited screen visibility makes his Sprite suddenly come on screen. That, with the fact that it's a unique monster Sprite, just adds a bit of spook factor.

Anyway we fight, I begin to slow down on killing him cause I want his move for Strago. That's the whole point. Shadow brings his hand back, shuriken between each finger, ready to throw. But then Hidon finally does the move we want, so it's time to kill. Shadow's hand twitches as the shuriken are instantly replaced with the pinwheels, and he throws, doing over 8000 damage, and killing it.

At this point I kind of wanna kill all the dragons, so before diving down Kefka's tower, I decide to climb up the magi tower. It's pretty touch and go the whole way through. Shadow doesn't have much use here, and luckily Strago knows Flare, as does Cyan. Edgar knows meteor, but no one knows Ultima, cause fuck that, it's too strong. Though I probably should go get the sword.

We climb, we fight and beat the dragon. We even open that secret room, which I never knew was a thing, until like, recently. Got to the top, and fought it out with the magic man. Luckily by now, Edgar knows reraise, and it stops Ultima from killing us. Well, Edgar. (See picture 9) Alright, I think next time, we go for the final dungeon. Can the team survive being split into 3 groups?? Let's find out.

(I thought I already posted this, but I can't find it on here or my profile, so posting now.)

I will point out when to view a picture.

Okay! Fire house, can only use Strago. That grenade and reflect strategy is really working out for the boss, killing Strago a couple more times. The old man gets so frustrated, he unequips the ice rods, and hurls them at the boss instead. Problem. Solved. Onto the cave where the Espers are hiding. The common enemies are being taken out pretty easily, and Strago learns white wind early, nice!

Then the Ultros fight. I thought it I got Strago to learn fire, the fight would go pretty well, but Ultros ain't having it. He gets upset, and does hard hitting moves. Relm shows up after a certain amount of damage, but now I'm suppose to Sketch to end the fight, but I'm not allowed to use Relm. Ultros starts pulling weird moves (see picture 1) what the hell is that??? That, is a magic counter. He blew Strago the hell up after he casted fire on him. Long story short? Hurled fire rods. Problem. Solved.

I know rods are a quick way out, but I at least try to win without doing them. Anyway, a few random battles later, we get a long ass cutscene. Found Espers, made peace, Kefka shows up, made bodies. Floating continent is up, but I'm now noticing how these characters are pretty high leveled, because they have been alone in parties. Maybe I should of set the EXP gain to 50%, but too late for that now.

Easily taking down the air machines and Ultros. The machine after it was harder, pushing back and causing a lot more heals, but we beat it. Reached the FC, and oh...Shadow is level 15, about 10 levels behind everyone else. May have to take care of that, so he doesn't catch up off screen later. (See picture 2 and 3)

FC goes pretty well. Wind Samurai doing so many all hits, and Shadow doing great single target damage. We reach Ultima, and oh my, do we stomp him. Yeah, pretty over level. We walk up, and Kefka traps us. Celes runs up to help, and trips. But we're so strong, we free ourselves while Shadow crushes Kefka with the statues (see picture 4)

We run off fleeing the continent and my god, I almost hit the button to leave Shadow. I would have to reset, I can't go forward without Shadow. Anyway luckily I didn't, and we all hop on the ship, as it smashes in half. Wait, all of my party is on the falling side of the ship! (See picture 5) is that a coincidence, or does the falling piece of the ship always contain your team??

Anyway the world ends, we wake up as Celes, and play one of the mini games of FF6, how many fish does it take to kill Cid!? I go out, and find him the slowest, dumbest looking fish I can find, give it to him, and pffft hahaha (see picture 6) okay, one more fish and he died. It takes two slow fish to kill Cid.

I turn random battles off, and walk to the town to meet "Edgar" and follow him to Figaro. On my way to the boss room, I don't grab any chests, cause I'd say I'm in a kind of free mode, without any of my actual characters. I'll grab them on the way out with Edgar. Okay, boss time!....its bad. They just keep dazing and grabbing Edgar. He hardly has any time to do damage, or heal, or breath, its practically a run ender.

If I could equip Edgar with Hermes sandles, or magicite, it would change the whole fight. Trying for over an hour, trying different tactics, like using magicite the item at the start, to see if I can get a beneficial effect. I got phantom a couple times, which helps a good bit, unless they used Entangle or poison. Casting regen on Edgar at the start to help combat the grab sapping, then using magicite to see if I get Phantom or something.

Got phantom again, use Bio Blaster to give 3 of them damage over time, and just try to heal as much as I can in between being grabbed. Often using X potions as fast full heals. Finally getting lucky enough that this strategy took 3 of them out, and I drilled the last one to death over a long period of getting grabbed, healed, and drilling. (See picture 7) What a damn hurdle.

Now with Edgar, I grab treasures, make sure I buy my beloved debilitator and go see Setzer so I can kill him in the party. Into the tomb, and I make sure to wear a Ribbon, with the amount of things that wanna Zombie you in here. I reach the boss, and it too, is quite strong. Luckily, I have a lot more room to customize this time, and figure out a strategy.

Boss keeps killing with harsh ice attacks. I put on a reflect ring to stop it, but it just heals the boss. What will I do??? (See picture 8) Heheheha, my beloved debilitator. So I beat the boss after that, and watch the Daril scene. I'm kind of surprised we don't see more art of her. (See picture 9) So I got my airship. That means it's time for our final roll! 4 is both Umaro and Gogo, 3 is just Gogo, two just Umaro, and 1 is neither. Rolled a 3, so Gogo it is.

I have Edgar run through Mt. Zozo, running from most battles, and just getting to Cyan, since there is no boss to do so. Together, they tackle the Veldt cave, and save Shadow. They then fly to the arena and kill Shadow. Whole squad is almost here, just gotta make our way through the mansion, and get Relm so we can get Strago, which goes....okay. The boss kept charming us, and Cyan using his wind BS on the team is practically an instant game over. But we still won, got a Relm, and traded it in for a Strago. Team is all together!! First order of business??? Death to that which is named Death. (See picture 10)

I will point out when to look at a picture.

So Zozo goes as Zozo goes. Up the stairs and killing slam dancers before they can kill us. With a team of 3, it goes really easy. Then we find Terra, Cyan refers to her as "Lady Terra" which is adorable. Next stop, opera house, with Shadow leaving the group, and Locke/Celes forcing their way in. I soon had them killed, and continued my adventure.

I never get tired of the Opera music, or the battle music here, and especially the theme when you fight Ultros here, so good! Sadly it was cut short this time as Cyan and Edgar demolished Ultros. Setzer comes down and shows us the sprite of Celes chained up, that we don't get anymore. (See picture 1)

Some high level cheating by Edgar and Celes, and the airship is ours, as we storm the empire. I quickly visited the towns for anything that could help, and ran into the factory. Place is a little tough, since the enemies have high physical defense I think. But Edgar's flash tool goes off of magic, and is kicking ass. Edgar and Cyan then earn magic yin yang style (see picture 2)

We drop down into a pit, where Esper corpses break our falls, and we fight Ifrit. He may be resistant to many types of magic, but know what he isn't resistant too? Drills...Now we rush up to the lab, try to kill Cid, but the game won't let us yet, and we lose Celes, which is funny cause I forgot her and Locke were in the party. Now it's time for, Minecart madness!!!

Even though we can't stop and heal, we easily beat all who come, and ride off into the Sunset! That's the name of the soldier we crashed into. May he rise again someday. We get Setzer, and let him die to the cranes. Edgar and Cyan then win, and now we are free to fly. Which means, it's time to go play Mog's intro, and roll that 4th die.

Get to Narshe, mayor wants to chat, then we check the treasure house and find a wolf. Follow him to the cliffs and save Mog. Its between him, Strago, and Relm. If I roll Mog, we get help in the sealed cave. If I roll Strago, I feel I'm much better off later. If I roll Relm, I'll, I'll get sad. And I got...Strago! Pretty damn good team so far!

Mog goes to the airship, and Cyan with Edgar, go to the sealed cave! (See picture 3) Oh, strike that. Let's go grab Terra, break her legs, and then we can go to the sealed cave! The cave wasn't very tough. Edgar flashing and healing, and Cyan, well Cyan is starting to play into that build I had planned for him.

Ya see, I'm having Cyan use that wind sword, and focus on magic building. That with black belt, he sends constant wind slashes at the enemies. (See picture 4) I have high hopes for this build. Between Wind Samurai Cyan, and magic flashing Edgar, they do well in the magic cave. We free the Espers, they go nuts, we crash a ship.

Now, it's time to send a political party to the Empire too negotiate a peace deal. Of course that means we send the two representatives of two kingdoms, Edgar and Cyan. The talks go well. We brought a skull that Edgar drilled a hole into, so we could use it when asked what to do with Kefka. Finish up talking, and Leo makes mention that Cyan is from Doma, which is neat. (See picture 5)

Stuck with Locke and Terra, they take a ship over seas and I get Shadow. I dead the other two up real quick, and train Shadow a bit for later. Moving the plot along, and now we have Strago to use, but no Shadow...boy, here we go. So the fire house goes mostly well. Strago breathing a lake of water at everything. He was like level 13 when we got here, so he is leveling fast.

Get to the boss, and I think for a second before going in. Giving Strago the reflect ring, and hero ring. Battle starts and Strago just keeps launching lakes. The boss uses fira and it reflects off, and only heals him for a couple hundred, where as it probably would of killed Strago. I'd call that a good trade. (See picture 6) The boss then summons a grenade, like, the black version of a bomb. Didn't know he could do that. The grenade physically hits Strago with berserk, but I had equipped him with an ice rod just in case, so ha!! Damage will keep coming, and that hero ring still helps!

Strago keeps hitting them with the ice rod, sometimes doing Blizzara, while remaining protected from the heavy hitting spells. The victory is coming, I feel it! That's what I thought, but then the boss gets reflect on itself...its next cast of Fira he aims at itself, which reflects, and kills Strago. (See picture 7) Ya know how in DBZ, when the final beam or hit zooms up and kills the villain, and then the villain gets like a squished messed up face? That's how I feel this just went down...oh Strago. Well, that's a good place to call it. See all you Magi in part 3.

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

So here we go, the next challenge run, limited party. Where the characters I play as, are a random few. For every 3 characters, I roll dice to see who I am able to use for the rest of the game. For example, the start of the game, Terra Locke or Edgar, if I roll 2, I get Locke. Anyone who doesn't make the cut, I can't play as, unless it's absolutely necessary.

Playing the pixel remaster, so if I find myself with only non playable characters, I'll shut encounters off. No encounters will not be an option, if I have access to playable characters. I will only allow myself to use Molulu's charm, if I rolled Mog as a playable character.

So for the main cast, its 4 groups of 3, giving one character per group. But what of the secret two characters? At first I just dismissed them, but comments have changed my mind, so here is what I'll do. When I get the WOR airship, I will roll a 4 sided die. If it's 2, I get Umaro, if it's 3, I get Gogo. If it's 4, I can get both, but if its 1, I get neither. We will have to see how that goes. Anyway, let's begin!

We march though Narsh, meet a snail thing, and get Terra's intro. Rolling those dice, we get, Edgar! Probably the best outcome, especially for this early trip. Terra falls, the moogles come to help, and Molulu's cannon death happens right in front of us. (See picture 1) So then we walk to Figaro, we get Sabin's intro, so that means its already time to roll again. It's between him, Shadow, and Celes. We get...Shadow! I'd say the 2nd best option maybe?

The armors got taken out by themselves thanks to the noise blaster. Edgar and Locke don't freak out over Terra's magic, and never will. In the next fight I have only Edgar run, and the rest die. Edgar then climbs the mountain himself. Going pretty well, he hides in the back row and showers bolts on enemies. Then 2 mammoths surrounded him, and beat the SHIT out of him. (See picture 2) Like he didn't stand a chance.

Edgar gets through the mountain and we get to Vargas. Little worried, but with a good balance of damage and potions, Edgar gets through. Now for Sabin to tell me to use raging fist, so I can...he isn't saying it...and Vargas killed him. (See picture 3) Okay, boss fight do over. Got back to Sabin's part, and yet again, Vargas does big damage fast. WHAT IS HAPPENING!? Does the game know I've sworn off from using Sabin?? You know what? It happens a 3rd time too!! That damn wind attack! I finally get Like 2 or 3 aura bolts in, which finally triggers the Blitz tutorial. Jeez!

Go to the returners hideout, I choose the Genji glove. I know the Gauntlet is more rare, but I like having the glove early. We hop on the raft, and I manage to let Terra and Sabin die without Bannon or Edgar dying. So the rest of the trip is just them, and it goes pretty well. Because it's just them, Bannon gets a few level ups, which really helps him stay alive against Ultros. (see picture 4)

For the first side quest I pick Edgar's group so I can take all his gear after it's done. Again, the trip goes very smooth, and is over before ya know it. Onto Sabin's quest, I grab Shadow and a buttload of shuriken, and let Sabin die. Making it to the camp, we get Cyan's intro, so let's roll. We are looking at Cyan, Gau, and Setzer. The roll is a one, and we get Cyan. Not bad considering the phantom train is coming.

One poison party later we are onto the forest, with my first two person party. Cyan and Shadow make quick work of any and all enemies, until the train. The phantom train took like 5 tries, as it's strength and use of status effects is nuts. But finally, Shadow survived long enough to throw many stars at the train. (See picture 5)

We lose Shadow, and say hello to the Veldt after Cyan goes fishing. Ya know...its kind of refreshing not having to worry about getting any rages. I head to town, get dried meat, and that HP walking relic. On our way to find Gau, I once again task Sabin with hitting himself to death, and, oh no, Sabin what are you...Tiger Break!? (See picture 6) Well I don't know how one flying kicks themselves, but it sure was interesting to see.

Down through the Serpent's trench. It was a little touch and go, but at every cave point, Cyan are up a bunch of dried meat. Got to town, and so ends Sabin's quest. Locke's quest is very straight forward and quick, the only real mystery is the tunnel armor I gotta fight with unused characters, which uhh, doesn't go well haha. Both Locke and Celes get oneshotted, and because of the rules, I can't do random battles to grind. So fuck it, and fuck him, LIGHTNING ROD! (see picture 7.)

Time for the war, and by that, I mean the Cyan and Edgar show! Starring...corpses...they're dead. They died. They've died like 20 times to Kefka. Kefka's magic is really so strong for just two people to take on. I've tried many tactics, like counter Cyan with black belt and sky, or even starting each fight at critical HP, so they just end him with a desperation attack, but one never happened. Maybe I don't know something about the mechanic...I keep trying, and finally, got him. That's right Kefka, run you fuck!! (See picture 8)

We win, Kefka runs, Terra gets fur and streaks across the sky. Apparently nukes someone's house on the way to Zozo. Of course, for the team we pick Edgar and Cyan. We go to Figaro, and stock up on potions and other goodies, as Edgar gets an actual discount at Figaro.

We stop by the next town and get Shadow, our first 3 person team! Zozo has no idea the storm that's about to hit them. But first we travel up to the Dragon Neck, to get that sweet Hero Ring for Cyan, and the build I have planned for him. We then grab a Chocobo near the cabin, as it takes us allll the way to Zozo.

Now in Zozo, and first thing's first, its 6:10:50 somewhere baby. We go in, get Edgar's chainsaw, and wall out of the building. Then, unprompted, Edgar runs up to the nearest enemy, and yells "HeyBartwannaseemynewchainsawandhockeymask!?" (See picture 9) I don't know what came over him...

And that's part 1!! Odds are by the time you read this, I'll be done with part 2, but I'm trying to pace these out, as someone (not the mods) is reporting my challenge run posts for spam. Anyway, I hope you guys like this run as well! It's fun so far, and I imagine will only get more fun from here.

Here we are, the final battle. The Kefka tower, has lead to a Tower of Kefka. I'll be honest, I've lost twice already, but hey, 3rd time's a charm, ya? Here is the lineup (see picture 1) Cyan as the white mage is invaluable, and Mog is not only a decent damage dealer, he, and he alone can tap into items. Relm knows Ultima, and Locke was built for high HP, so even if it's just him who lives, we will move on.

First round goes by easy. No one is really hurt, thanks to Cyan. 2nd round is a bit more touch and go, with big damage being thrown around. It finally ends, and no one is dead, but they're hurt. (See picture 2)

Coming in low on HP and kind of low on MP, Mog uses our only megalixer, for a good cause. The boss not only keeps the damage up, but it casts doom on Cyan. Something I quickly try to counter with reraise (see picture 3) he comes back, but now others are hurt, and have status effects. Nothing I can't heal, but as a goodbye, the boss hits Locke with Repose (see picture 4) leaving him behind.

Now General Gau is here to act as a back up healer. Mog quickly uses a Remedy on Relm so she can get back to the damage, and Cyan cures the party. While Gau chips in on the heals, Cyan gets reraise ready on himself. Gau then falls, and there isn't really time to get him back up. Then, Kefka uses Forsaken (see picture 5) a teeth gritting moment, but Relm and Mog survive, while Cyan comes back to live via reraise. He heals the party, as Kefka once again tries to murder Cyan. He comes close, but in his insistence to kill the white mage, he let's the damage dealers kill him, as the fight comes to a close. (See picture 6)

I'm sure I don't need to explain how the ending goes, but this is a fun shot of the end that actually represents the final fight well. Gau Mog and Locke worn out from the battle. White mage Cyan ever vigilant to heal, and Relm, giddy that she can nuke stuff, as any kid would be. (See picture 7)

So, what a challenge run. On one hand, the rolls went well, Edgar and Gau having their class skills. ALL the right people being black mages. But, some things like only one white mage, and NO merchant, were rough. Because there is a random element to it, I wouldn't mind trying again sometime, and if you try, please let me know how it goes!

Thank you for keeping up with these silly challenge run posts. I really enjoy knowing there are those here, who like them and look forward to the next post. So, until my next challenge run, (which is probably sooner than later) thank you for reading. The End! (See picture 8)

• 1 Warrior: Gogo • 4 Black mages: Terra, Sabin, Celes, Relm • 1 White mage: Cyan • 0 Merchants • 2 Specialists: Locke, Edgar • 2 Magic Knights: Shadow, Setzer • 0 Red Mages • 1 Ninja: Mog • 2 Monks: Gau, Strago

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

Alright, I've got Locke, which means I can possibly have Ultima. I slap it on Relm, and decide she will be the only one to cast it, so it isn't just spammed. While in Narshe, I decide to do the rest of the stuff here. Climbing the mountain, Terra, Relm, Cyan and Locke take on the Ice Dragon. It was a close fight, infact, only Terra and her high magic evasion walked away. (See picture 1)

Gotta run back now, so I can revive my party, and also grab Mog if I want Umaro. Back up the mountain, we wipe the floor with the frozen Esper. Just melted to those Fira casts. We jump down, we ignore that chest, and head to Umaro, who is also easily lit on fire. Now, at first I said I wasn't gonna use Umaro for this, but his fanbase is surprisingly large. So if I roll a 1, a 6, or an 8, I'll use him....it was a 3, which is a white mage. Which is the only other white mage I've gotten. We will speak no more of Umaro.

Okay, the Yeti was a dud, but what about the Mimic? He could still get white mage, or hell, even merchant! We mix up the team, and introduce Celes to vore. Inside the dungeon, we easily make our way to Gogo, Celes leaving many banished behind her. Let's roll Gogo!...1, which is warrior, which sucks on Gogo cause his stats suck. I officially will have no merchant.

Sadness has me, so I decide to do something fun, and become a Monster Hunter™ grabbing Strago Relm, and to go with the theme, Shadow. Entering Hidon's cave, I see my mortal enemy. This chest, this god damn chest (see picture 2) child me hated him, and current me hates him in honor of child me. I give him the middle finger as I use quick save to make sure I give him the right amount, and then fight Hidon. I get the move from him, and nuke him with Relm, who while exploring this cave, learned Ultima. (See picture 3)

From here it's a lot of cleaning up. I tip toe nto the magic tower, and got the magic urns right away. Lucky! This let me get them as a Rage so Gau has free Curaga. Went to the ancient castle, got the master scroll and gave it to Locke, who seems to have a thing with mug, when it comes to Ultima weapon and Blood sword. That they always do best damage regardless of current health. Neat!

Now with cleaning done, it's time to drop into Kefka's tower. I hope I only have to drop in here the one time. This is my party arrangement. (see picture 4)

Team Terra seems to be having the most trouble. Really should of swapped Shadow for Edgar, but I was just trying a new build with Shadow, and wanted to see it in action. Middle team was having a much better time. Locke mugging everything with decent damage, and if needed, Relm has the nuke. Every team also has a designated healer, with Strago Gau and Cyan.

Middle team comes across Ultima Buster, who I took down with Ultima weapon, in poetic justice. (See picture 5) Good job Locke. Team 3 seems to have the easiest time going through. I love the build I got Celes going since the start of WOR. Dual wield and counter, with the blood sword and soul sword. Most of the time when she is hit, she gets her HP and MP back. With that, she spams Banish, and any time it fails, she uses flare. Backed up by Mog who has holy jump and item use which are very handy, and of course Cyan. Easy to see why this team had the least trouble.

Everyone makes it to the end and does a pose (see picture 6) as the statues await us. The only statue that was trouble, was Fiend, on the left. It took a few tried, but Terra's team finally pulled It off. Now....its time for the final battle!!

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

We are free flying now! First order of business, let's grab Mog so we can grab General Gau. An easy trip through the Narshe caves, I grab Mog, and make the conscious choice not to grab the charm. If I wanna go places, I gotta earn it. Now with Mog, I can make a team of 3, which means I can grab Gau.

Now! There are a lot of things I could do right now, lots of characters to get, but...I wanna hunt Deathgaze. So, I track him down several times, both sides taking heavy damage each time. But I get to rest each time, he don't. Eventually I get him (see picture 1) and I get Flare and the 50% HP bonus early.

Now let's go get Cyan! A team of Gau Sabin and Edgar. Healer, magic damage, and physical damage. A trip up the mountains goes well for the gang. We stop for a moment to take in the view of Zozo in the pixel remaster. (see picture 2) Further in, I see a dragon, and I can't not fight it?

The dragon takes some doing, and I'm thankful its the only boss in this place. I finally take it down, but with heavy damage on the party. (See picture 3) Now, see this is why we are a party of 3. I dash a bit further in, running from a battle or two, and there he is! My white mage! With only a party of 3, Cyan joins the party, and is the only one who can use menu magic. He teleports us out.

Celebrating our recent victories, the Figaro brothers decide to take in a show. Heading to the Opera house, they find an earth dragon. My goal was to make him weak to earth, and watch him damage himself like last time. But instead, he became weak to poison, so we gave him the old Doma treatment. He was losing around 3000 hp every pip. (See picture 4) It was indeed, good entertainment.

White mage in hand, I want to grab characters you can get fast. I finish Phunbuba off and pick up Terra. Swing by the cave on the Veldt, and have a bit of a time working through it. The Boss gave me a bit of trouble, but then my white mage casts raise on it. (See picture 5) We grab Shadow's wounded ass and put him to bed. He then reminds me how much of a good boy he has before we leave. (See picture 6)

We go straight to the arena and actually grab Shadow. Now too his daughter. The mansion was a bit rough, as I didn't bring Cyan. Gotta spread those levels. The painting put up a bit of a fight, but died right after Shadow did. How poetic. With Relm, grabbing Strago is as easy as saying hello.

I think that's enough people, to where we can go for the Phoenix cave. This was quite the dungeon. To make up for one team having the only white mage Cyan, the other team had both General Gau and Strago. Sadly Gau got zombified part way through. We came up on the fire dragon, with Celes, Strago, Mog, and zombie Gau. Fight was rough, Strago died, so now we just gotta be careful the rest of the way (see picture 7)

So it was really refreshing to switch to the other party, who was all still on their feet. That was, until, some jerkass ghost banished 3 out of 4 of them to the shadow realm! (See picture 8) that's what I get for expressing thanks for them being alive. Anyway, we reunite with Locke, and he reunites with Rachel for a bit. How wonderful (see picture 9)....NOW UNLOCK THE DOOR LOCKE.

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

Alright here we go!! Celes stabs Kefka, Kefka blasts Gestall, and Gestall falls lifelessly to the planet. We rush off the no longer floating continent, until the end, where we waited 3 minutes for Shadow, and hopped aboard one half of the airship. The world was then changed forever. (See picture 1)

Celes is awake, and fed Cid 2 slow fish, which killed him. She then gives up on life (see picture 2) but her magic infused body is too tough. I raft over to the mainland and a housr is collapsing. Sabin holds it up, but I decide I need a nap before facing the monsters inside. The inn keeper won't let me nap, and heals me instead (see picture 3) that's funny! Never seen that.

I get in, get all the treasure, and I think I grabbed the kid too. Now with Sabin, that's two black mages. We swing by Terra's new place, and shame phunbaba, getting new magicite, and setting up Celes for a great build. Genji glove and black belt, with a sword that heals HP, a sword that heals MP, and she just spams banish. Its honestly beautiful.

Onto Figaro, through the cave and castle Sabin died. I tried to fight the tentacles with just Celes and Edgar, but it didn't work. Reloaded, kept Sabin alive, and by making sure he and Celes had haste on, the tentacles couldn't wrap them. That alone was a winning key.

We win, we leave, and we go get Setzer who asks us how we feel about grave robbing. Setzer dual wields death darts, hoping he can just spam insta death. Into the tomb, I realize the enemies spam zombie on us, and I have to make more than one trip back to town. We make it far enough in to fight the boss-in-a-box. I get scared after Edgar hits it's shell, but Setzer has his back, and insta killed it right after (see picture 4) cause that's what bros do.

Onto the boss, and yikes! What an asshole! The freezing, the killing, the spamming. It took more than a few tries, but we finally scraped by with a win. (see picture 5) Setzer then treats us to his past, and why do we never see art or cosplay of Darill? Big red coat, green top and shorts. Anyway, she gives us of my favorite lines (see picture 6) and we gain our new wings.

This, this right here is probably the best feeling moment in the entire game. You're about to have complete freedom to do so many things. The airship, rising out of the water, as one of the greatest overworld themes EVER kicks in. (See picture 7) I love it so much, and can't wait for next session.

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

Fancy peace talking dinner time! Considering the stakes of this dinner, I sent the only one I could for the job. General Gau! Gau attended the banquet with grace. (See picture 1) Talk to all the soldiers, and even beat up the elite guards during the break. The Empire was so impressed with his rank and stature at such a young age, that they gave us a lot of stuff.

Now we have Terra and Locke, a black mage and specialists as our party. I've been building Locke a bit weird, with both magic and strength in mind. Having him dual wield mug, with 2 elemental swords, so he strikes and often causes spells. Been working pretty well.

We take a boat to a new island, and have Shadow for 0.5 seconds, but that's enough time to train him a bit for later. Oh wow! A Shadow dream! (See picture 2) I didn't know those could happen in the world of balance, neat! Okay, now its time for a double feature of rolls! First, Strago is....a monk. So he can Lore, and use simple white magic in battle. Almost perfect, although I really want a merchant. Maybe Relm? I roll Relm, and...a black mage, another black mage. That's FOUR, and all 3 of the girls got it! I know black mage is pretty good for Relm, but maybe a 2nd white mage? A merchant?? Come on...

So a house caught fire, and Shadow said nah. Terra has ice magic, Strago has aqua, and Locke going in with 2 Ice brands. Even without being able to heal it went pretty well. For the boss fight, I even added berserk to Locke, to really drive the point home. (See picture 3)

Off to the cave, and still can't heal, but we are charging our way through pretty well. Here comes Ultros, and....oh, can we kill him without sketch? Yes, yes we can. Dual wielding firebrands and fire torch his ass. We hurry through the cave, getting all chests and being glad the boss fight is already done. We find the Espers, and a LONG scripted sequence plays.

Blah blah Kefka is an asshole, blah blah Leo dies. With his dying breath, he claims Gau is his son, and that Leo had to pick between his family and his career. So he gave his son to those he could trust the most. Veldt monsters. One origin of General Gau later, we have control of the airship again, and the floating continent awaits.

One thing before I go there, a thing I always like doing on any challenge run, fight Intangir. The strategy goes like this. Edgar uses debilitator to set Intangir's weakness to one of the 3 basic elements. Terra exploits that weakness to do damage each go. After he hurts us, General Gau keeps up with his infinite cura. Then there is Mog who got the Ninja job, being able to use items in battle. He keeps Terra in MP. This strategy easily won us the fight. (See picture 4)

Okay, now to the FC. I picked Locke Cyan, Gau, and Shadow joins too. Locke steals and is decent damage, Cyan is my only white mage, and General Gau is big damage, and can heal if needed. The air force was easy, but was wearing down Cyan's MP. The big ugly sky thing (not Typhon) managed to kill Locke, but Cyan knows Raise, so it's fine. (see picture 5) Oh, landing on the FC refills your stuff, nice! Cause from here forward, there is no such thing here.

The group does what they do, and Shadow focuses on dodging, and insta kills with the assassin blade. This goes well until a couple of butt ninja kill our white mage. With Cyan dead, General Gau switches to healing, and makes sure no one else goes down, cause they ain't getting back up.

Okay, here we go, Ultima Weapon. Game plan, General Gau constantly heals while Locke and Shadow do damage bit by bit. A plan that appeared solid for a bit, but Ultima shows that as the fight goes on, he gets serious. Fuckin, OBLITERATES us, by stopping us with all sorts of statuses, and then pulls out a nuke. (See picture 6) Locke and Shadow don't do enough damage, and I fear Gau's magic won't either. Time for plan D!

Plan Demon. Gau switches to physical boosting relics, gets in the front row, and uses cat scratch. After registering Stray cat, Shadow (a magic knight) hits him with beserk! (See picture 7) Now Demon Gau is hitting for over 3000. We have no way of healing, so risky. Gau does a lot of damage, but gets taken out. Locke and Shadow do what they can, and on a sliver of life, beat Ultima! (See picture 8) What a battle!

Now, I assume, because Shadow now leaves, and he could possibly be the only living member. The game revives the party with 1HP, but this allows me to heal with Cyan. Next time....World of Ruin.

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

Okay, let's try this again. Fresh off my victory from Ifrit and Shiva, I ran up the factory stairs before those blue mage bastards could get us. Entering the actual lab, we get a nice batch of magicite, and Cyan realizes he has two phobias. Machines, and humpty dumpties. (See picture 1)

We lose Celes and Cid has a convenient change of heart as he pushes us onto a mine cart (see picture 2). A great theme plays as we cut through...things, and get to the boss! He kills us. He killed the white mage, and by extension, us. 2nd time through, we win, and ram the cart into a soldier.

Setzer greets us and we sadly don't have the time to gear him up. Out on the airship, the giant metal claws come out, and Cyan expresses his 2nd phobia in the same arc. (See picture 3)

Now, one of these crane claws has the debilitator, and I want it! I know it doesn't get a lot of play, but I love the damn thing. Have you ever assined an earth weakness to the earth dragon, as it kills itself by spamming quake? I have...

Anyway it took fracking forever. Kept getting the damn hi-potion, but at least I finally got it. (See picture 4) Then I won, went to Zozo, had a flashback, and now had an Airship. Went to Narshe, and got Mog, who is....a ninja!! That's great! Not only can I make him a jumper, but he can use items in battle. Still can't use a tent, but it's something!

From here I stopped streaming so I could spam the Veldt to get General, so Gau can have Cura. That took way too long, but now into the cave of the sealed gate, and....ho boy. So I brought with me Locke, Terra Sabin and Cyan. A specialist, 2 black mages, and a white mage.

Cave is tough! We didn't make it far before a lack of MP made us retreat. I did learn Osmose for my mages, but these guys are undead. Speaking of, they zombified my white mage, which pretty much spells death. I didn't know how true that was however, as Cyan then turned, and wind slashed the whole group, killing everyone. (See picture 5)

We get further in, but it's becoming clear I gotta head back. By the time I exit again, 3 members are dead, and Terra limps out by herself. (See picture 6) Okay, we are throwing Gau in the party. Sorry Sabin, we don't need 2 black mages. We need Gau, and his new general authority! So we take General Gau (GG for short) and he provides a mix of group heals and wide damage, both for free. With his help, we make it through, open a gate, crash an airship, and we're off to a fancy dinner!

I'll mention in the post what pic is for when.

For our trip to Zozo, I picked Edgar, Gau, and Locke. Along with picking up Shadow along the way. That's 2 specialists, a monk, and a magic knight. To be honest, it was a little unfair bringing Gau. Between the wind move and cat scratch, he can handle anything. Though with no white mage or merchant, we can only heal via outside sources like an inn.

That said, there is no healing source after the town. So I had to walk to Zozo, get the chainsaw (cause I'm not gonna not get the chainsaw when Edgar can use tools.) Then walk all the way up to the boss. The boys had to pass around the Tintinnabulum, just to keep their HP up. Luckily Gau tore the boss apart after Locke got what he wanted.

Now, I put Shadow in the lead, cause I wanted to see what his sympathetic words would be (see picture 1) which is pretty cool. I think if its Gau, he howls for the fallen Esper when he realizes he is dead. Which is also pretty cool.

Now that we have magicite, it's time for the mages!....and Locke. (See picture 2) I fought enough enemies for Sabin to have thunder, before moving on. Now, its time to roll for Setzer! He got magic knight, so he can attack and use grey magic. A great job for him, but it almost feels too good of a roll. We all know what is gonna be doing later! I guess it does take awhile to get the items needed, so it's fine. Hmm, should I slap on the challenge, that I can't use molulu's charm? I already decided I wouldn't use that random battle toggle, but maybe the charm to?

Anyway! Enter the opera house, and just enjoy myself, taking in the great scene. (See picture 3 and 4.) Now fighting the rats went okay. Locke got the ability to mug in Zozo, and Sabin can use Thunder, and I have black belt on him. We reached Ultros, but decided to fight once more, so Cyan could learn cure, and heal us up before the fight, and ya, we needed it. Ultros didn't beat us, but he certainly held his own. Even turned Locke into an imp, which takes away mug! (See picture 5)

But we won, went on to meet Setzer, trick him into becoming our chauffeur, and off to the Empire. (See picture 6) Breaking into the factory, it becomes clear just how much they want you to use magic here. Happy I got a couple black mages. One battle was going bad, and I decide to try and run. Locke was a dead imp, Celes and Cyan got away, but they just kept hitting Sabin. Then Sabin would counter, which felt like it was making him stay longer. They're about to kill him, and I started to panic that I'd lose one of my black ma HOLY SHIT....so you can counter into a desperation attack! (see picture 7) I didn't know that!

Cyan heals Sabin, and we finish looting the factory and get to Ifrit and Shiva. In a weird twist, Shiva didn't fight at all, and Ifrit would flash step around, and if he got close, did Firaga, which of course is a kill. He beat us once, and we fought again winning.

Feeling great over my victory, I moved on, and immediately came across guys who know a bunch or Blue Magic. One of them casts level 4 flare, which kills Cyan. Then another casts level 5 death, which kills everyone else (see picture 8) ya okay, that's enough for today. See you all next time!

With Gau now on the team, we easily cut through the veldt, grabbing a diving helmet, and into the sea. It goes about the same as the Veldt, Gau just wind slashing crowds, accompanied by his black and white mages, who don't know any magic.

Easily get to town where we do a bit of shopping, and introduce Cyan to Humpty and Dumpty. Here he learns sword technique 9, Bushido in the bedroom. With that, Sabin's quest is finally done. That damn red fish added so much time.

So now Locke. Thankfully, all Locke needs to get through the solo portion of his quest is steal. I steal clothes, slip pass a child, steal clothes and cider, and it's off to watch Celes take a beating like a champ. Speaking of Celes, time to roll! She is a...black mage. Ya know, that's good. It is, she can use ice now. But like....I've already got 2 damn black mages, now 3. Oh well.

We ice and steal our way through the underground house, and grab that sweet hidden ribbon. MP and HP running low, we stop by Duncan's cabin, and into the cave. Easily make it to the spring where we once again refill, and then fight tunnel armor. With only being able to use ice, it took a couple tries. But on the 3rd try, Tunnel armor treated Locke like Frieza treated Vegets on Namek, and Celes was able to get in the number of ice needed.

Now for the war. I made one hot shot team, consisting of Gau, Edgar, Locke and Terra. They will make a mad dash for Kefka to retain as much HP as possible. Meanwhile left over characters will guard the 2 entrances. Plan worked well, we reached Kefka, and Gau gave him a cat scratch he wouldn't forget.

With the war over, Terra transforms, and flies off streaking and screaming to Zozo. Next chapter we make a group, and follow her.