Breath of Fire - Low Level Game Part IX: Jade

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MoogleBoss

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Published on April 5, 2009 12:59:36 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyv8_RK7k0M

Game:

Final Fantasy (1987)

Duration: 8:41

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In this video we face Jade, the last and the hardest boss of the challenge if you don't count the final boss (who exceeds in difficulty). The unique thing about this battle is that the hero is absent from the party, and not because of an experience distribution but simply because there are four characters who are more useful against Jade.

Ox is obligatory. I haven't studied the game's mechanics extensively, but it appears that his slammed attacks with the Mallet (+255 attack power) can deal up to 999 damage when he's near death (we don't really want to risk losing him seeing how he does most of the damage here), but 500-600 per hit is reasonable to expect from him. He can easily survive the boss's physical attacks standing in the front row when at full HP, because high defences and 190 max HP make him a good tank. Ox knows Cura 3, but we want him to attack each turn instead of doing any healing.

Bo is the second best attacker and he sometimes does the same damage in two turns as Ox does in one, and even then not always. Nevertheless, he beats Karn and Ryu. His Curaspell is a good way of recovering a party member to full health.

Nina is there for magic, obviously. Her defences are decent enough and she has okay chances of surviving the boss's physical attacks. ATK Up in the beginning of the battle on the attackers, Cura2/3 on heavily injured allies, Fort / Lk Up when no aid is necessary (rare).

Karn replaces the hero in this battle, because he's the only character who is naturally quicker than the boss (those casting spells will still precede the boss's actions regardless of speed). He can save the party out of critical situations, or not so much critical as unpleasant. When his aid is not required, he can help Ox and Bo with attacking. He's not far worse than Bo at that, by the way.

Besides the physical attack, Jade has an abundance of special skills. His most common one, the particle rain, heavily damaged all four party members. It will never kill anyone at full health but whenever it is used, up to 4 (usually 3 because we must keep attacking) of our party members have to heal instead of attacking.

A likely spell to be cast is Blizzard. Bo will absorb it thanks to the Earth Robe, and Nina will reduce damage by 62,5% because of her equipment (Evil Robe + Icy Shield). Karn and Ox will also receive 25% less damage from the spell thanks to the equipment that protects from ice.

T. Bolt is normally a wicked spell that is not used too often that deals 400 damage to the target! Obviously, nobody can hope to survive it. However, the boss will cast this spell only on the character standing to the left. By putting Bo on the party leader position we can ensure that every casting of T. Bolt is a free turn to attack and buff up. Isn't that Earth Robe nice?

Finally, Shock is not seen often but it has a chance of killing the target. Good thing it often fails.

The main difficulty of the battle lies in healing after particle rain attacks that damage the entire party. If we keep healing with all four, we'll never win at all: Jade has 25 thousand HP.

We do have three items that restore HP to the whole party: 2 Cure2 items and the Water Jar (which also restores everyone's AP and revives the fallen, if any). Of course, two is a petty number and we run out of those way too quickly.

This battle required a lot of concentration and I'm glad I did so good in it. I don't think there's anything in the battle that I would want to change or an instance where I think I should've acted differently.

After the battle, we receive the Star Hammer and the Emperor Sword. The latter is useless as the defences of the final boss are ridiculous, but the former will be our main tool versus goddess Tyr.

Now to the final boss~

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