Breath of Fire 4 - 0 Exp Part 10: Ight
10Believe it or not, but before I attempted this challenge I used to think this was a scripted battle. Turns out it's not!
Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c3ilm03NGBn_GGmnY7aukpm
And it is a scripted battle in practice since it's highly unlikely Ryu hasn't gained a few levels (what with this being the end of the game's 2nd chapter). Kaiser Breath's damage is directly proportional to Ryu's level, and our lv. 1 weakling therefore fails to put much damage out. A normal berserked Ryu at an expected level would quickly destroy the boss on his second breath.
The fight starts with the boss packing immunities everywhere not to mention infinite HP. There's no way you can hope to win. However, Ryu getting KO'd (you can imagine how easy it is to accomplish this in a 0 exp run) triggers his fit of rage, transforming into a berserk form of Kaiser Dragon, Ryus' ultimate dragon form in the Breath of Fire series. A single breath breaks the boss's shield, strips him of his immunities and also exposes that his defence is, in fact, unusually low - quite contrasting his self at the start of the same turn.
For the sake of not losing the fight though (now that it can be lost), we don't want too many characters to be knocked down during the first turn. For this reason, everybody but Ryu (who should die ASAP for the shield to be broken on the 1st turn) got Winged Boots for that +20% Dodge, which is the best way to attempt to survive his first AoE strike.
It's actually the other characters and not Ryu with his berserked Kaiser Breath who will deal most of the damage next turn or two. With the boss's measly 15 def, Shining Blade's / Shadowwalk's defence-piercing effect won't add that much damage unto their regular attack, but any extra damage is appreciated. On the 2nd turn, Ight usually attacks a single target physically or casts Inferno on somebody - this can OHKO Ryu and cause him to revert back to his usual form. He's not actually KO'd in this shape and nor is anybody else on the same turn, so this is not a bad outcome - Ryu can follow up by using item magic on the boss next turn since he's too weak statistically to hurt the boss.
Excluding cases of especially poor luck, the boss can be expected to be dead on turn 3 or so - Kaiser Ryu's breath damage chips into the total pretty nicely for what it's worth.
How useful is Kaiser in the long run? It's uncontrollable for a while, diminishing its worth in boss battles to come, making Wyvern / Weyr the superior option for a tiny bit (about two boss battles in chapter 3). However, it's easily the best dragon transformation Ryu's got and one of the few actually worth using in the game. It also looks relatively cool and menacing in contrast to the goofy (and sometimes atrocious) dragon designs this game has graced the world.
The real treat for the party and this challenge, however, is Ursula who joins the party shortly following this battle, becoming easily its strongest member statwise.
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