Arc II's final boss is.. interesting. I won't spoil it, (though it's not something terribly epic or anything, not quite "out of nowhere" like FF9's last boss but nothing spectacularly MIND-BLOWING either) but this.. thing is more challenging than every other enemy in the game combined.
Considering it has 9999 HP and the most you can realistically expect to damage it per attack is
maybe 300 or so... yeah. Get some popcorn and sit back. It's actually quite possible to get "stuck" and not be able to beat it, considering the final dungeon is one of those beloved "areas of no return". In fact, I did have to restart from an earlier save my first time playing the game because of this. You really do have to level quite a bit to have a decent shot at this guy, I was really thrown for a loop because this game is not terribly difficult at all except the last boss.
So.... 35 to 60 minutes. That's what the strategy guide gives for how long this guy can take. And when the STRATEGY GUIDE, the thing that tells you all the secrets and best strategies, suggests a fight can take an hour or more to beat, you know you're in for a wonderful time. Especially if you weren't following its guide all the way through the game to get all the best hidden items and such.
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krile and I were playing through this game slowly but surely (she had never played any of the Arc the Lad Collection, though she'd sat with me while I played Twilight of the Spirits and some of End of Darkness), and the other day we finally got to the end. Thus, I had the fun task of doing this battle all over again.
The battle itself is not all that dangerous if you know what you're doing, it's just time consuming. So in between giving attack commands for 40 minutes or so, I began to get slightly bored. Krile wisely went upstairs to do.. something, peeking back to see how many thousands of HP were left every now and then. I, on the other hand...
- Browsed the internet! Thanks to laptop technology, I was able to read about OTHER games besides the one I was playing, while I played it!
- Got a soda! I needed to stay awake after all. Dr. Pepper, by the way.
- Flipped to other channels on the TV! There was nothing good on, of course, but it was worth a shot.
Then, as the boss's HP dwindled to only a few thousand, I decided to screw around in the game to amuse myself. I decided that there would be an impromptu game of catch to be played with all the characters that weren't doing much in battle. Poco tossed some kind of jewel object at Tosh, promptly killing him and gaining Poco a level. Who knew jewelery could be so deadly? I'm imagining Krile throwing one of her necklaces at me, blood squirting everywhere, while she did a little pose and felt slightly stronger afterwards.
I tossed some items at the boss himself, he kept the pair of shoes I threw his way. I guess they were his style. Maybe he's one of those kinds of people that has 300 pairs of shoes in his closet. His EVIL closet!
Eventually the boss died, the ending played, etc etc. I think it only took me 40 minutes or so. Still, he has to go down in history as the final boss that is most disproportionately difficult compared to the normal battles in the game, in SRPGs anyway. Most SRPG final bosses are either pathetically easy or reasonably challenging, generally speaking. This guy can definitely surprise you in the worst way possible. And if you don't have a back-up save before the final dungeon? Well, maybe you can just pop in Arc III and pretend you beat it. Watch the ending on Youtube, that's what living in these modern times is all about.
Additionally, I'm going to totally beat Wild Arms Alter Code: F tonight :D Now that I have all the hidden characters and done all the sidequests I was interested in doing, it's go time~
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