Xenosaga - Pleroma | Part 5
9Here we start playing as Ziggurat 8. He's a cool emotionally stunted cyborg that's "lived" for hundreds of years after donating his body to cybernetics after death, and is considered more like equipment than a human being. At first, we have a cloaking device active making it where enemies can't detect us and we can even eavesdrop on them. But as we near the exit to the first room, cutscenes will ensue and cause it to malfunction, because of course it does.
This part of the game is one of the harder parts, for a number of reason. We're back down to one party member and often fight groups of 3, so the damage piles on quick, and some enemies can use Mustard Gas which poisons. Poison is very dangerous when you only have one party member that can't heal himself without items. When you enter the first area with enemies, the game actually warns you to walk slowly to avoid battle. I actually got a gameover in the first fight at 5:40, if you want to see how easily fights can turn bad for you. Poison alone will deal about 80 damage to Ziggurat 8 if left unattended. You can however find a Snake Hunter accessory in here, which prevents being Poisoned, so that makes it a lot easier. Also, all items you had with Shion will carry over to Ziggurat 8.
Ziggurat 8 - Ziggurat 8 is the tank of the party, boasting higher HP and PDEF than even KOS-MOS. His EDEF isn't as good as his PDEF but still isn't bad by any means. His STR is high, about on par with KOS-MOS I think, but his AGI is pretty awful, so enemies tend to get turns before him. He starts with an Ether that buffs his PDEF, and gains more that buff him, as well as a self-heal. He also has weaponry he can use for Circle attacks to do party-wide attacks.
At 24:36 we fight Gardis M1, which isn't really a sub-boss since you fight it as a common enemy later, but does stand out a bit here. Gardis produces Assault Units every time it's attacked, up to a total of 4 I believe. Ziggy's laser gun can hit all enemies so that can lower their numbers, but honestly, you're better off just focusing down Gardis itself since it doesn't have that much HP to go through anyways. It can also lower Ether attack, but Ziggurat 8 fights better with physical anyways.
After defeating it and returning to MOMO, we'll free her from her cell and she'll join the party.
MOMO - Get used to her flashing the camera in almost every scene she's in. Easily the weakest party member, meant to be more of a support unit. Her attacking stats are low and her HP is abysmal, with low EDEF and middling PDEF. Her DEX, EVA, and AGI are high at least. She starts with Life Shot, a middle healing Ether, and Sheep Beam, which can put M-type enemies to sleep. Very useful in the right situations. The game very much wants you to put her in the backrow of your Formation, which is something I haven't really fiddled with yet. In backrow, characters are less likely to be hit by enemy attacks, but they also can't hit them with their regular attacks, so they'd have to either just stick to healing or use attack ethers if they have them. MOMO will learn a variety of ethers, from healing, to attack, to turning into a magical girl. I'm not even kidding.
33:25 - Sub-Boss #1: Mercurio - This is first sub-boss, and optional boss, you can fight. If you don't beat it here, you can come back later and curbstomp it with a better party. But Ziggurat 8 can handle it with MOMO's support. She can heal him while he does all the heavy lifting with physical attacks. Ether attacks do little damage. Just don't attack it when it's shield is up, you'll deal reduced damage and it'll counter. Use the time to build AP. MOMO can also put it to sleep to give you more turns to heal up. Sleep will wear off when an enemy is attacked.
As we move forward, MOMO will rename Ziggurat 8 to Ziggy in a cutscene, and this reflects in the game's menus too.
50:28 - If you played Xenogears, you may recognize this scene as a callback to a scene in that game, where a robot spat out small drones to pursue you in a sewer.
59:08 - Boss #4: Zolfo - This is a stronger AGWS than Mercurio, and comes in with two of those as backup. For this fight you want MOMO in back behind Ziggy and having her put the Mercurios to sleep. While asleep, the Zolfo will start wasting his actions SHOOTING THEM to wake them up, which deals good damage and wastes turns.
1:12:39 - Boss #5: Margulis - This boss is a difficult one, to the point it's actually a "supposed to lose" fight. Margulis hits like a truck and can one-shot MOMO if she's in the front row. Keep her behind Ziggy, both to keep her safe and to prevent him from being knocked into the backrow by Margulis's attacks, which would make you waste turns moving him back up. I'll go into his mechanics later in the boss video, I've run out of text space in this one.
00:00 - Pleroma
28:40 - Rescuing MOMO
33:25 - Sub-Boss #1: Mercurio
59:08 - Boss #4: Zolfo
1:12:39 - Boss #5: Margulis