Game:

Tales of Eternia (2000)

Duration: 17:12

44,610 views

192

No Items, No Death

Shizel by herself is pretty easy. At this point in the game she puts up less of a fight than the summon spirits. She has her typical spells, invincible/damaging casting, and her only physical moves are minor annoyances. Her orb means protects her front and forces you to attack at range or get over her, and her laser streaks up the field BUT becomes deactivated if you hit her (with Sonic Blade or the like) before it tags you. Her big thing is Eternal Finality, but Reid takes care of that.

The second stage is BS. It's one of the few times doing these runs that I genuinely had to struggle to win, even on this final take. Granted, it's also one of the many inconvenient times where I overlooked a detail which made a significant difference, and goes to show again that mistakes can happen to anyone. Between doing Nereid's Labyrinth and this I equipped Max's default weapon for reasons unknown... which means that Max, the main damage dealer, is dishing out about half damage (after some post-recording testing). That makes this more drawn out than it should be, but in the end losing that damage wasn't the reason behind the struggle. Nereid and Shizel together are just too damn cheap.

Their teamwork is a different type of cheapness than Regulus. Where Regulus just ends up swinging one-hit KO's and spamming Maxwell nonsense, Shizel really draws out the pain. It doesn't help that she's primarily a spell caster, so cheesing her shouldn't really work (didn't try) since Nereid casts a lot more here than with Regulus. Oh and she has 400k HP compared to Regulus' 200k.

Like Regulus, Nereid (this time more female in appearance) and Shizel are a two in one package, and Nereid can't be attacked or stopped in any manner. When it's chest/whatever lights up, it's of course holding a spell for the first chance it gets. The main problem from the get-go is that Shizel casts basic spells as well, and since Eternia doesn't have Guardian in any manner then it is nearly impossible to block everything. Shizel can shoot her stuff while Nereid uses Soul Shot, and even though you block all of that you are still in block-stun when Shizel casts Lightning, which means you can't walk forward to avoid it. If you stay close to her, she will end up using Thunder Blade on top of spam, and since she can MOVE FORWARD while it's casting, it's extremely difficult to escape. Even if you do escape, you just give the pair more ground (and they will DASH up any chance they get), in which case they will begin the same unblockable pattern. With Nihilistic Night providing her a shield up close, it's eternally frustrating on the frontlines.

The idea here was to put Max at the furthest away from Nereid, as Soul Shot will hit the first two casters a lot of the time if you are unable to push her back. Aqua Spiral is the strongest practical thing in the game, and whittling down 400k meant Max had to be on constant Spiraln', whiffs or not. Fortunately unlike Regulus, Shizel herself can be pushed back quite easily with the Lightning Blade family, even though it leaves Reid open much of the time.

For the other two members, the Craymel mages worked best for me. Even though Keele, who was at the front, tended to get interrupted a lot by Soul Shot, the benefits of status protection and Holy Bliss/Bless, which I found to be a profoundly vital part of victory, were a godsend. Sure you can get Holy Bliss' HP recovery from another passive skill, but having Keele and Meredy also meant healing and more chances to hog the spell channel.

Nereid's bag of tricks tends to affect the casters moreso than anything. Spells like Dark Force, Bloody Howling and Holy Lance are almost always targeted at the casters, which is a good and bad thing depending on if Max is in the crossfire. As Shizel's HP drops, she will randomly and occasionally use Eternal Finality, which in this setting is a BLESSING, and it marks where the real challenge kicks off.

Mid-way through, Nereid will constantly cast Fear Flare almost non-stop. While it's not that damaging, Shizel will be shooting her nonsense & minor spells while it goes on, and Nereid will cast another Fear Flare IMMEDIATELY afterward, making movement a dream. If the party is all on the same side, it's brutal. To top that off, Nereid will constantly cast Summon Demon as well. That spell is the most BS thing in the game. It takes up 80% of the screen, does pretty good damage, and lasts forever so Shizel can do what she wants while it takes place. The only thing you can really do against it is brace for impact, since it WILL leave you face down and open for r-

At the very end, Shizel starts using her own Tetra Spell on top of everything. That pretty much signals the depths of despair, which makes reaching the end so fulfilling. Thanks for watching this run, it was pretty fun to playthrough Eternia again after so long, even if this had me pulling hair.

Other Statistics