I've got a Job for you! - Let's Play Final Fantasy V!

Deeper in, we find... a library. Huh.

'The roiling skies let loose a vile beast without a soul; Omega was its name. The dragon Shinryu came upon its heels. Not e'en the legendary weapons twelve were able to subdue these evil beasts. Inside the Rift the demons were interred; so should they stay until forever's end, their names to stay unspoken evermore.

I can vouch for the veracity of this claim concerning Omega, at least.



When storing power for this magic, you become utterly defenseless for a moment... Casters, be wary.'

I bet that'll be important sooner or even sooner.



No matter; soon I shall rid you of your pitiful lives! The instant you touched this book, you activated the dimensional switch!

Wow, another boss fight? We are on a roll here!



♪♪ Battle 2 ♪♪

Haha this guy's just a Byblos palette swap. He even uses the same moves!



Let's see how he likes !Mimic'd Meteor.



Not very well, methinks! It's gonna take more than Drain to mitigate this hellfire storm!



♪♪ Victory Fanfare ♪♪

Even with a Toad advantage on Krile, he still falls like a bitch.



Outside the library it's different now! Must've been what ByblosApanda was referring to with that whole "dimensional switch" business.



Through another door, we find... a castle?



Unfortunately the way forward is blocked.



So down to the basement we go! Those old dudes look like trouble, so I'm going left first.



Some weirdo here is asking stupid questions. Just for fun, let's mess with his head.

Hah! I lied! Like a rug! Oh I slay me!



Bring it!



♪♪ Battle 2 ♪♪

This guy's gimmick is simple: any !Blue skill you use on him, he uses right back.



♪♪ Victory Fanfare ♪♪

ANY !Blue skill.



He rather politely created a save point for us upon death, to boot! I think this is as good a point to pause in our trek of the Rift as any. Next time we'll finish the Rift, so suggest those classes to use! This is the final countdown, everyone!

Current Stats
Bartz: Level 41
Freelancer Stats: 2053 HP, 259 MP, 44 Str, 41 Agi, 41 Sta, 36 Mag
Jobs: Knight L4 (76/150), Monk L4 (1/100), Thief L7 (MASTERED!), Ninja L4 (MASTERED!), Ranger L4 (MASTERED!), Mystic Knight L7 (MASTERED!), White Mage L2 (0/30), Black Mage L2 (2/30), Blue Mage L2 (9/70), Bard L3 (MASTERED!), Dancer L2 (152/325), Mime L0 (349/999)
Abilities: !Guard, !Focus, !Chakra !Flee, !Steal, !Mug, !Smoke, !Image, !Throw, !Animals, !Aim, !Rapid Fire, !Check, !Hide, !Sing, !Flirt, !Dance, !Spellblade L6, !White L2, !Black L2, Equip Shields, Equip Bows, Equip Harps, Artful Dodger, Barehanded, Two-Handed, Dual-Wield, Cover, Learning, Magic Shell, Vigilance, First Strike, Find Passages, Sprint

Lenna: Level 40
Freelancer Stats: 2204 HP, 345 MP, 51 Str, 38 Agi, 51 Sta, 52 Mag
Jobs: Knight L0 (8/10), Monk L7 (MASTERED!), Thief L2 (0/30), Ninja L4 (31/450), Berserker L1 (5/400), Ranger L4 (MASTERED!), White Mage L6 (209/300), Black Mage L6 (38/400), Summoner L5 (24/500), Red Mage L1 (3/40), Geomancer L3 (MASTERED!), Bard L3 (MASTERED!), Dancer L1 (43/50), Mime L0 (327/999)
Abilities: !Focus, !Chakra, !Flee, !Smoke, !Image, !Throw, !Animals, !Aim, !Rapid Fire, !Check, !Gaia, !Hide, !Sing, !Flirt, !White L6, !Black L6, !Summon L5, !Red L1, Equip Bows, Equip Harps, HP +10%, HP +20%, HP +30%, Barehanded, Counter, Berserk, First Strike, Find Passages, Light Step, Find Pits

Krile: Level 41
Freelancer Stats: 2109 HP, 320 MP, 44 Str, 36 Agi, 43 Sta, 52 Mag
Jobs: Knight L4 (98/150), Monk L4 (4/100), Thief L1 (8/20), Samurai L5 (MASTERED!), Berserker L1 (0/400), Ranger L3 (270/405), White Mage L7 (MASTERED!), Blue Mage L4 (MASTERED!), Red Mage L3 (335/999), Beastmaster L2 (17/100), Bard L3 (MASTERED!), Mime L0 (327/999)
Abilities: !Guard, !Focus, !Chakra, !Mineuchi, !Zeninage, !Iainuki, !Animals, !Aim, !Check, !Scan, !Calm, !Control, !Hide, !Sing, !White L6, !Red L3, !Blue, Equip Shields, Equip Katanas, Equip Bows, Equip Harps, MP +10%, Barehanded, Two-Handed, Cover, Counter, Shirahadori, Learning, Berserk, Find Passages

Faris: Level 41
Freelancer Stats: 2053 HP, 346 MP, 45 Str, 39 Agi, 41 Sta, 50 Mag
Jobs: Knight L3 (1/100), Thief L4 (7/75), Dragoon L3 (MASTERED!), Samurai L2 (0/60), Ranger L4 (MASTERED!), Black Mage L3 (3/50), Time Mage L6 (27/250), Summoner L5 (264/500), Blue Mage L2 (2/70), Beastmaster L3 (MASTERED!), Chemist L3 (87/135), Geomancer L3 (MASTERED!), Bard L3 (MASTERED!) Dancer L1 (43/50), Mime L0 (349/999)
Abilities: !Guard, !Flee, !Steal, !Jump, !Lance, !Mineuchi, !Zeninage, !Animals, !Aim, !Rapid Fire, !Check, !Calm, !Control, !Catch, !Mix, !Drink, !Gaia, !Hide, !Sing, !Flirt, !Black L3, !Time L6, !Summon L5, Equip Lances, Equip Bows, Equip Whips, Equip Whips, Two-Handed, Pharmacology, Cover, Learning, Find Passages, Light Step, Find Pits, Sprint

Next time: Plumbing the depths of the Interdimensional Rift!

Yours or theirs?

So what do !Bladeblitz and Look Ahead do?

Typo fixed. Thanks.

!Bladeblitz is a full-enemy-party attack akin to !Kick, but far more powerful.

Read Ahead reduces the random encounter rate. Sadly it's not inherited as an innate bonus for mastering Oracle; you have to equip it for it to work. Its counterpart Lure (ups the encounter rate) works the same way.

Okay, I say we kick the tires on our three new jobs and keep one mimic.

I dunno, Oracle's pretty useless until you train it up to max (though I guess you could use its super high magic stat for some Flares).

Then you get an awesome 5 second Doom/Curaga. And if you know how it words, !Predict is pretty damn cool too.

Bartz should be a cannoneer because that hat is awesome.

Krile can be our Gladiator because the mask looks funniest on her.

Lenna can at least master White Mage before swapping back to Mimic.

Faris can do whatever.

Screw oracle. We already saw that's crap in the LAP section. I also vote you can swap jobs however you like for the final battle.

Bwuh? Oracle's been my main damage dealer ever since I figured out how !Predict works.

They're SLOOOW. I have no patience for that crap.

Anyway, a celebration of mastered classes:

Ahh, but you can equip an Oracle with a command like Equip Bows or Artful Dodger and have them be ultra-fast! Keep in mind, we are working with all the abilities at our disposal, so clever tricks like that are fair game.

Very nice. I'm sure more will be joining the ranks of mastered classes before we get around to beating the tarsap out of Exdeath.

Well, you can play with Oracle if you wish.

Reason I didn't obsess over packing the sprites together any more than that. Realized nobody's mastered Black Mage so toss Lenna in that if you get a chance.

In the five seconds it takes for Doom to activate, my Monk still hasn't finished charging !Focus, my Red Mage's ATB gauge is still filling up, and my Berserker isn't doing shit.

And that's not even counting the !Predict loop, which both nukes the field and fully heals my entire party every nine seconds.

If you missed any blue spells, Azulmagia knows most of them and will eventually teach them to you.

Oh I know. Fortunately we got our last missing one (the very one I goaded him into killing himself with) last update.

This was just awesome.

This isn't quiiiiite true. While he can use every blue spell, I think he only changes his script if you hit him with one of: L3 Flare, Aeraga, 1000 Needles, Vampire, Aqua Breath, Magic Hammer or Self-Destruct (unless they changed his script for the GBA version). The others are either part of his initial scripts, or have a lower chance of being used after you change his script (for example, he has a 1/3rd chance to use Dark Spark as his first action after you hit him with L3 Flare and a 2/3rd chance to use L3 Flare). This makes certain spells are easier to learn from him than others.

Apparently he comes with 17 of the 30 blue magic spells.

Also, cute name.

Sounds good to me. Doesn't matter who's what.

Now somebody else do it better.

Okay, what? I tried using an Oracle while playing on my own and couldn't get her (Faris) to do anything consistently.

!Condemn works exactly as it says it does, but it won't work on anything the game considers Heavy. This would be the majority of bosses, but most enemies (and your party) are totally fine.

As for !Predict, what you get is dependent on the last digit of your MP. To cheese the system, get your Oracle's MP to end in 0. Then repeatedly use Second Rank and Third Rank. This will loop Cleansing (heavy damage to enemy field) and Blessing (extreme healing to your party). With that going on, you can have your other three party members do whatever the hell they want; the enemy will die soon enough, and you're basically invincible.

Especially since the timers don't stop if the Oracle dies.

Really, the only weakness Oracles have is the fact they need to be mastered before !Condemn really becomes game breaking.

Actually, a L3 Oracle is pretty devastating as it is. The countdown timer goes from 20 at L0, to 15 at L1, to 10 at L2, to 7 at L3, to 5 at master. The extra two seconds isn't really that big a difference.

It does when you have a Berserker in your party and need to heal something/kill something before they do something stupid.

Part XXII - Void Take Thee!

Last time the party got their last summon, unsealed the final legendary weapons, got three new uber-classes, and began their descent into the Interdimensional Rift. Now they're going to finish their trek. But first... You know what? I don't like Omega's face. Let's do it a favor and smash it in, hm?



This calls for Freelancer power! Specifically, Bartz with his !Rapid Fire and !Spellblade, Lenna with her !White and !Summon, Krile with her !White and !Blue, and Faris with her !Time and !Summon. Of these commands, oddly enough, !Summon is going to be the least useful. Everyone has Ribbons on, because I actually had 4 after all.

(Today's update is in Classic Blue, because it's time to return to our roots.)



♪♪ Battle 1 ♪♪

A pre-emptive fight isn't absolutely necessary here, but it helps a lot. Our odds of survival rise tenfold that way.



Faris opens with her Masamune equipped and Hastegas the party.



Bartz !Spellblades himself up with Thundaga.



Lenna calls Golem, even though it won't help us any.



Krile Mighty Guards us.



And now the fun begins... Omega is weak vs. Thunder, so each hit Bartz lands on it does a healthy 10,500 damage per two-handed assault. That's 42,000 damage per !Rapid Fire. Omega has 60,700 HP, meaning he's guaranteed to be crispy-fried dead in 2 blasts of it.



The real trick is surviving long enough to land the second volley, of course... Omega counters all attacks with 2 Rocket Punches, and can use 2 attacks per turn out of his massive attack list:

Rocket Punch - HP halved + confusion to one target. Ribbons won't block confusion in FF5, so this can be bad.
Mustard Bomb - 3200ish magic damage + Sap to one target, affected by Shell.
Atomic Ray - 2500ish fire damage to all, affected by Shell.
Wave Cannon - Deals half of max HP in damage + Sap to all.
Blaster - Causes Paralysis to one target. Ribbons don't block it for some reason.
Earthquake - 6000ish damage to all allies. Death sentence without Float, basically.
Delta Attack - Petrifies one character. Ribbon prevents this from ever working.
Rainbow Wind - Causes Blind and Silence. Again, Ribbon nullifies this threat.
Encircle - Removes a character from battle. Very bad, obviously.

If he uses Encircle on Bartz, or kills our allies in just the wrong order, we're sunk. But if he behaves, he's toast.



Oddly enough, he behaves! Psh, greatest threat to mankind ever my arse.



♪♪ Victory Fanfare ♪♪

Our victory spoil is a bragging rights reward which does nothing. Hooray.



It's very satisfying to have Omega blow up after the fight, though. Very satisfying indeed... Ten seconds of undiluted exploding glory. Okay, now we'll do our Job change thang.



Our party's lookin' classy! Bartz is sporting !Rapid Fire as ever, Lenna's got !White and Equip Harps (it'll make sense soon enough), Krile has !White, and Faris has Equip Bows for the Agility boost.



First we need to exit the Rift (again...) to get some shot for Bartz, though. Can't very well use a Cannoneer with nothing to fire!



♪♪ Battle 1 ♪♪

Now it's time to explain the new skills available to us from these added classes. !Finisher either hits critical, misses, or does a super attack. The super attack will do 9999 damage with a random element. It's damn powerful, if unreliable.

!Open Fire just shoots a cannon, which doesn't do a ton of damage, but it's usually better than a raw physical attack. Usually. Turns out it doesn't use ammo, either; that's for !Combine, which we learn later. So I left for nothing, more or less...



Oh, it can cause status effects like confusion sometimes, so that's cool. It can also cause death randomly, which is really cool.



!Condemn has several commands, which start out kind of sucky. Don't count on them if you can avoid it, basically. By class level 3 it's a hell of a lot more useful, and a mastered Oracle can clean up house with their !Condemns.



Unfortunately for me, the Agility ratings are such that Lenna always gets a turn after Faris, so she's got very little to offer in this fight...



Anyway, now we're back to the castle dungeon and ready to take on some weird old men.



♪♪ Battle 2 ♪♪

Alte Roite ain't right, that much will shortly become obvious.



He's not an old man at all!



He's a dragon!



For some reason, Apollo's Harp doesn't recognize him as a dragon when Lenna uses !Mimic to attack. I don't get it either...



Unexpectedly, Jura Aevis is not immune to Doom!

♪♪ Victory Fanfare ♪♪



They were guarding an item that makes Dancers use Sword Dance more often. Unfortunately, I already have a few pairs via stealing from enemies in Phoenix Tower...



The other side has another Dancer item for Sword Dance accuracy boosting. Poor Bartz can equip this too, as a humorous image in the boss showcase thread demonstrated.



This guy, upon spotting us, decided to come out and play.



He plays rough.

♪♪ Battle 2 ♪♪

Really rough. Cheap shot, opening with petrification. But seeing as the alternative was Earth Shaker, I'll take it.



Unfortunately this guy is Heavy type, so !Condemn does nothing. Gonna have to brute-force it.



Oh NOW he uses Earth Shaker...



And he thought it was so nice he did it twice! I don't like this guy much... Still, he can't really kill me since I can keep up on healing, but he's keeping Krile from using !Finisher since she has to play healer with Lenna low on MP.



The other good thing about Equip Bows on an Oracle is that that lets them use an Artemis Bow. Which hits a lot harder than any staff will against most enemies.



A whole lot of attacking and healing from Earth Shakers later...

♪♪ Victory Fanfare ♪♪



*smooch*
*She tosses the heart bubble onto Bartz and runs off*

You got a reward from Madame Meow-Meow! L-l-lucky!



One of the side-paths finds us a new weapon that nobody in our current party can equip.



Back inside the castle, going down the steps leads to this familiar room. The switch opens the previously blocked door for us.



Trying to leave is having some unexpected side-effects...



Hm?



Hey, it's that lady from before.



Oh, that was a bad thing? Huh.

...Treat you to a slow death at the hands of the mater of this castle-I, Halicarnassus!

Whoa, not cool! Dude looks like a lady, as it turns out!



♪♪ Battle 2 ♪♪

His opening move is mean as hell and I don't have to take it.



Then he knocks everyone into the back row for no good reason.



So Krile just messes him up with an elemental attack !Finisher.



And again!



Yep, and again. I bet Halicarnassus is regretting fighting us about now.



That proved to be his undoing. Hooray for cheesing victory!

♪♪ Victory Fanfare ♪♪



For no reason at all, the party all equips Coral Rings before continuing.



Looks like we have yet another boss on our hands.



♪♪ Battle 2 ♪♪

Krile says "hi" to him the only way she knows how.



He responds with Tidal Wave, kindly healing our Coral Ring-clad cast of rogues.



Bartz decided to put on !Mug for this fight. He doesn't seem to be regretting his decision at all.

He hit everyone with Mind Blast! Can he do that?



♪♪ Victory Fanfare ♪♪

After some serious abuse, Twintania goes down like a bitch. He never got around to it (which is a pity), but he can use Gigaflare. And during the lead-up to it, you can hit him with instant death attacks like Zantetsuken. And if you do kill him during his pre-Gigaflare power-up, he drops the Tinkle Bell, a unique Geomancer weapon.



Twintania's death makes a bridge forward!



This looks ominous and I totally want to jump into it.



We're warping!



♪♪ Searching the Light ♪♪

Whoa, where the hell ARE we?



Hey, isn't that...?



Gilgamesh! And who are you calling a vile beast, you idiot?



Just for that, I'm taking your shield.



He still hasn't caught on...



So Krile says "hi" to him in hopes that'll wake him up.



It worked? Er, of course it worked!

Zounds! 'Tis no beast, just Bartz! You should've just said so from the start! Ohh, I don't like it here... Creepy monsters lurk around every corner, and I can't find the way out... Cripes...*sniffle*...I'm gonna break down! Anyway, how did you get here? Or rather, how does one exit?
Bartz: Oh, just go that way, then...
Gilgamesh: I see! Let us egress posthaste! Say...afterwards, what say we have a few spectacular adventures, just us five?
Bartz: ...Um.
Gilgamesh: ...Oh yes, that whole saving the world thing...phooey. If you make it out safely... Hah! No ifs about it. I'm certain we'll meet again. At that time, I hope you'll consider me a... Uh...er. *cough* Never mind, ha ha! Hasta la bye bye!

Well that was amusing. Guess we hadn't seen the last of him after all!



And there he goes. Have fun, Gilgy!



This chest just reeks of trouble. This calls for some preparations... Let's see, !Mug on Bartz, !Attack, !White and Equip Harps on Lenna, !White on Krile, Equip Bows on Faris... Yep, we're set.



I knew it. Well, what horror will we be fighting today?

♪♪ Battle 2 ♪♪

Hey, isn't that the other ultimate evil that was sealed into the Rift alongside Omega? Yeah, it is. And you know what? I don't like this guy's face, either. Let's do him a favor and smash it in.

Fun Fact: Shinryu always opens with Tidal Wave, which Coral Rings absorb.



Fun Fact 2: Shinryu is not immune to Berserk.



Fun Fact 3: Physical attacks are RIDICULOUSLY easy to make ineffective.



Fun Fact 4: Shinryu is still a Dragon type, and Apollo's Harp still hits dragons like a mack truck with Superman tied to the front grille. (As long as you don't !Mimic someone else attacking, apparently. That still weirds me out...)



Fun Fact 5: Shinryu is not immune to !Finisher either.



♪♪ Victory Fanfare ♪♪

Fun Fact 6: Yes, that really just happened.



Our rewards are the Dragon Seal and Ragnarok, the ultimate sword! (Excluding bonus dungeon weapons, of course.)



Well, sort of ultimate. Since we've never run even once, Brave Blade outclasses it. Hehe...



By the way, enemies here give ludicrously good ABP. But we're not going to take advantage of this ultimate grinding location just yet!



What a strange glowing light...

Necrophobe: This light... I will never give it to you!

Oho, another boss fight!



♪♪ Battle 2 ♪♪

I've achieved invincibility! Do you really believe you can defeat me?

Yes, I do. See, the problem with barriers to protect yourself?



There's nothing protecting the barriers.



They like to reflect Flare and Holy off each other and onto me. BOO!

Eventually we get the upper hand, though. Now you're screwed, Necrophobe babe.



You've left me with no choice! Have a taste of my true power... ...It's all you can eat!

This guy's as bad as Gilgamesh, innee?



He Flashed us! Eww!



Now he's getting serious!



He has a nice item for stealing, at least! This fight takes forever and is boring and monotonous, so let's just skip to the next interesting bit, shall we?



♪♪ Clash on the Big Bridge (TAMUSIC Violin Mix) ♪♪

Suddenly awesome approaches!

Gilgamesh: Made it!
Gilgamesh: Why hello there! Surprised to see me? Hah! If I'd just left you in the lurch, I'd look like a jerk for all of history! Thought I'd let that happen? As if!
Necrophobe: Hmph... You've a big mouth. If you're so eager to fight, you can be the first to die!

Oh man this is gonna be epic.



You cannot even hold a birthday candle to the blazing flame of my winning spirit!

Hehe. Don't mess with Gilgamesh.



Your grandfather... ...he was a pretty strong guy!
Krile: Grandpa...
Gilgamesh: And you, Faris! You must fall in love, or something, and try acting a little like a woman-if you still know how!
Faris: Hey...

Aww, you sure know how to make a party member blush, Gilgamesh... And how to make them want to kill you, too. Just for that...



...I'm taking your armor. Thank you.



Always so selfless towards animals... Never lose that pure heart!
Lenna: ...
Gilgamesh: And Bartz... I wanted to fight you one more time, mano-a-mano. You have admerable companions. I envy you.
Bartz: Gilgamesh...

What is he saying all this for, anyway? I mean it's almost like he's saying goodbye.



Oww! Don't beat up Gilgamesh, he's our buddy now!



I believe that's MY line!!!

Gilgamesh gets all the best lines, so yes.