Game:

The 7th Saga (1993)

Duration: 56:23

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I face Monmo at a meager 16/16, then deal with the aftermath of that battle as well as preparations for the transition to the Past. This video consists of 11 segments.

I start out by draining Lux's MP then throw in another Sword farm. I only get a Saber but they're worth nearly as much. I don't want Lux to have any MP because Monmo is impossible to kill as long as he's using HPCatcher, and he'll steal my party's MP to keep that going.

2:20 I make the run to Monmo. This battle takes over three hours. I've kept the first 20 minutes or so here, as they give a full demonstration of what Monmo's like as well as several scenarios of what can go wrong. For those curious, the full battle can be found here: https://youtu.be/weYgzuecBfs

The first stage of the fight is draining Monmo's MP. He uses cheap spells so this takes a long time, but there's nothing I can do until it's finished. I burn out Valsu's MP early to avoid him being caught by MPCatcher in spite of the Amulet.

6:11 I demonstrate that with my current Valsu build I can't overcome Monmo's magic defense even with B.Fires.

6:38 Monmo lands three MPCatchers in a row on Valsu, proving the wisdom of draining his MP. Shortly after Valsu is hit with four HPCatchers in a row as well. I must be in the weird formulaic dead zone where the Amulet doesn't help, one of the most annoying quirks in this game.

9:20 Monmo finally runs out of MP and I can finally start whittling down his 750 HP, one at a time.

The idea here is to keep Monmo hitting Valsu while Valsu's defending, minimizing his damage output. If Valsu drops below 69HP Lux needs to heal him, otherwise Monmo can kill him on a crit. Lux needs to be kept above 130HP for the same reason. If performed perfectly without making mistakes, it's almost impossible to lose and should require 0 items. Given the extreme duration, however, I was not willing to retry until I made a run without mistakes.

11:20 I make my first mistake and attack Monmo with Valsu. If Monmo crits here it would cost me a Magic Water. I should never leave Valsu open to an attack when he's not defending.

16:50 Lux dodges Monmo. This is the best thing that can happen because it gives me a turn where I get to have both Valsu and Lux perform attacks, essentially doubling my damage per turn. It's a small win when you're talking about going from 1 to 2 damage, but it's a moral victory. It happens again 2 turns later, although Monmo dodges Lux, taking the wind out of my sails.

20:11 Monmo gets his first critical on Lux, for 124 damage. The only way Monmo can defeat my strategy is by doing this multiple times back to back. The guaranteed way to recover is to have Valsu cast Heal 2 then have Lux Water Rune himself. I typically settle for the double Water Rune approach, as seen here. I then make another mistake and let Valsu use the Sky Rune on a turn Monmo's going to hit him. Once more Monmo doesn't punish me.

20:36 Another crit on Lux, this time for 126 reducing Lux to single digit HP. Here you see the Heal 2 then Water Rune method.

23:09 Another crit on Lux. I play this riskier, leaving Monmo an opportunity to kill Lux with a high-roll crit. He doesn't.

23:52 I take a similar risk and leave Valsu with a mere 66 HP so I can get an extra hit on Monmo. He finally punishes me this time, landing a high-roll crit on a defending Valsu for exactly 66 damage. I consume my first M.Water of the fight here. There will be a similar incident later where he hits me for 68, consuming the second and final M.Water of the fight. That event is not shown but is in the full three-hour video.

25:00 After fully recovering from Valsu's first death, I jump-cut to the last minute of the fight.

As a final note on Monmo: under normal circumstances, even a brutally low-level run like this, the advisable approach here would be to trade your apprentice for Lejes just for this fight, then swap back after. Lejes will come with Fire 2 and it should be possible to get him enough Elnard buff to deal decent damage to Monmo with it. I can't make use of this technique as I'm avoiding the Elnard buff entirely in this particular run.

27:00 I collect the final Trick's Emerald in the game. With my ability to farm Swords I'm no longer worried about money, but as I had gotten every other Emerald I wanted this one to complete the set. Since I'm only doing this for completion's sake, I use a Magic Water in this run.

You'll notice I actually kill an Unded here. This is because I've reached the point in the game where many enemies are easier to kill than Escape. That will change once Lux gets his +20 speed boost in Melenam.

35:55 With the K.Trick slain I proceed into the basement to collect the final Seed of the present and the FortSW.

38:03 I farm another Sword, perform a major shopping trip to prepare for the Past, spend some time with the boy in Dowaine, then proceed to Melenam to finish of Lux's current level.

53:55 Lux gains level 17

55:39 Valsu gains level 17

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