Game:

Final Fantasy VI (1994)

Duration: 2:19:31

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2

There isn't one particular thing about the Fanatics Tower that is really all that difficult. However, its sheer length, and the large number of different battles that I need to be prepared for become very difficult when taken as a whole. This is especially true because I have to constantly be managing my MP, which is something I've avoided until now because it is a pain while blindfolded. The battles also make it very difficult to remember where I am on the staircase; usually I remember my position visually, but here I can only remember a number and where I am in the cycle of my movements. Also, I made the mistake of making this attempt directly after my previous fail, which meant that I had already been playing for about half an hour by the start of this segment. Playing so long caused me to get mentally fatigued about halfway through the segment. I'm fine until Magimaster; at that point, I basically just spend the next twenty minutes slowly losing it, and then stay discombobulated for the rest of the segment. This comes very, very close to getting me killed by a random encounter at 1:34:40. As an aside, that single random encounter took me about as long to defeat as Isis, showing how messed up I was by that point.

This is one of the few dungeons that I chose my party for, since it's also one of the few areas in BNW that is heavily geared towards certain characters. Celes/Terra can achieve great magical defenses and have great spells, and Strago/Relm are my two Osmose users. I don't think there was much question which team I would use. I know some people like characters like Shadow or Locke to hit Magimaster hard (given a Fire weakness for Locke), but I really couldn't care less because Magimaster basically can't hurt this team.

In order, what I need to deal with:

-Encounters on floors 1-3 - Not very difficult, usually Meteor + Black Omen does a number on everything, and the Level 70 Magics are weak to the Ice 3 spells that I sling around. If I identify a Level 80 Magic, I can hit it with a single target Fire 3 spell to destroy it easily. However, these encounters contribute to the MP management issues by consuming MP. Also, Level 10 Magics are undead, and tend to come in swarms on the first floor. On the way up this is no issue as I shouldn't need to Osmose yet, but on the way down this makes it hard to restore MP. These encounters aren't threatening, but they are time-consuming and make the logistics of the dungeon more difficult, which makes the rest of the dungeon a lot harder. If none of these encounters existed, this segment would have only taken an hour, which would have helped a great deal.

-Magic Pots - These guys will sometimes heal me with Elixirs, but sometimes they will attack with HFBs. This is awful for me, as my version of the game still has no animations for HFBs. Therefore, at any moment, any number of my characters can die without giving me any indication whatsoever of what is happening! Black Omen will end the fight, and Flare/Holy can kill one of them, but I was worried about Strago/Celes/Relm dying before they act, leaving me searching for a dead character in the menus, and dying in the meantime. Instead, I decided to bring my own HFBs for a big happy fun party. These also do a great job of piercing the Pots' defenses, and since all my characters can use them there's no chance of me getting lost in the menus.

(Continued in the comments)

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