Final Fantasy Legend 2, Part 5 - Odin Sphere

 

The next world...is just this one cave. It has all of one Magi to get and then it's off to the next world. However, there's a lot more to it than that. This place is a sprawling optional dungeon that has a bunch of things crucial to beating the game.

The one Magi is right at the start of the dungeon, so you can turn right around and leave / continue on.

Pegasus is a super-important Magi, because it finally lets you warp to all of the worlds.

This means it's a snap to go back and pick up equipment from an earlier town, if need be. It's unfortunate that this Magi arrives so late in the game, and spoiler, I won't even have it for very long.

As for the rest of that cave...it turns out that it's the Nasty Dungeon, home to most of the best equipment in the game:

That's right, this ten-floor monstrosity of a dungeon is FULL of loot, so much that you'll need like 3 trips to carry it all out. Not sure why all of this stuff wasn't spaced-out over several lategame dungeons, or why so many crucial endgame items are in an optional dungeon...

...regardless, I proceed to spend about 30% of the game's total runtime making runs at this dungeon, gating out to heal/sell, and returning. There are a few very specific items that I'm after.

This place is BRUTAL, and even with my party all around 800-999 HP, they get absolutely mauled in here.

Parasuit is the best armor in the game, and fully replaces a character's helm/armor/gloves/boots.

Not only is it massive defense, it also boosts Str and Agi by substantial amounts, AND nullifies elemental damage (thus blocking the majority of enemy AOEs). BIS gear for both Human and Mutant. There are two of these in the entire game, which is perfect for this party.

Flare, the strongest multi-use endgame attack. Considering each Flare has only ten charges and the lategame is brutal enough to use them in regular battles, I'll take as many as I can get at this point.

The single-use super weapon to rule them all. I love the idea of the Glass Sword. A huge advantage, but you can only use it once, so make sure the fight you use it on is a fight where you need to. The last 3 bosses in this game are all extrenely tough, but my recommendation is to use this on Apollo.

Same goes for this, the other (and quite a bit weaker) single-use super attack.

Why is NukeBomb secondary to a Glass Sword in these games, anyway? If it were realistic, this would annihilate the enemy AND your party to cause a game over, and hence be useless for anything beyond selling (so much for Edo World once that seedy merchant gets ahold of this bad boy)

I'm pretty much just dying my way through Nasty Dungeon now.

Odin revives the party, and I run away.

Or try to. Like I said, dying my way through here.

Yeah, that place was nasty. It also had like four dungeons worth of content and I'm really not sure why it wasn't spaced-out over a couple of worlds. And why it was entirely optional, considering the player has basically no chance in the endgame if they don't do it and will probably end up getting softlocked.

Breaking this up into four dungeons (maybe each one has a Magi) over a couple of worlds would have been a good idea, and saved me the trouble of having to run the place multiple times to carry all the loot out.

Back to the Pillar of Sky, it looks like we've reached the very top floor. This is it, the highest world.

This is Valhalla, home to Odin, the second of the New Gods. The guy who has been reviving our heroes while they die their way through places.

Odin's Palace is the next dungeon, and despite the large size of this place, it's pretty barren of loot. Probably because Nasty Dungeon used up all the lategame loot and there's nothing left.

He's the nicest of the three by a mile, and has been waiting to test our heroes in battle.

LUX points out the obvious while vibrating wildly. Wait...we don't have to KILL the guy!

Odin has several allies to make this a real four-on-four. However, I have a weapon:

It's time to UNLEASH FLARE. Mina starts unloading this spell every round with both barrels, while Rei uses Aegis to protect against Odin's ferocious attacks and the robots do their usual bazooking.

An example of Flare's destructive power. The fact that you can buy more Flares in stores is why it was paramount to fully raid the Nasty Dungeon. Anything I don't actively need, I can sell to get more Flares (and Dragon Helms to pile onto my robots).

Odin...dies? and now you can no longer revive and redo fights. It's back to the title screen instead. Better save a LOT now. Also, it'd basically be a soft-lock (and probable restart of the game) to do this fight before Nasty Dungeon, since not being able to revive would make that dungeon a ridiculous PITA even for an endgame party.

Valhalla wasn't quite the final floor...turns out there's another floor right above it, and this one is the domain of Apollo. The last New God and a passive-aggressive weirdo who isn't nearly as nice as he's been acting all game. However, I'm WELL prepared after scouring Nasty Dungeon.

Apollo has the 77th Magi...and he isn't going to give it up.

"Matter of fact, give me the other 76 lolol" says Apollo.

He sics his minion, uh, Minion onto our heroes. This seemed like a throwaway boss, but it isn't. It has a TON of HP and is probably a distant fourth strongest boss in the game (still tougher than anything up to this point).

Apollo threatens some of the NPCs we've met to this point, so the heroes just give up all of their Magi without a fight.

It's so damn frustrating when things like this happen in games.

Apollo then zips off with his 77 Magi (and absolute power), leaving our heroes to dodder about.

But wait! Dad shows up and says all hope is not lost. There's a 78th Magi squirreled away, so Apollo doesn't have all of them after all. Turns out the "77 Magi" were a myth all along and the 78th was kept hidden to avoid this very scenario where someone gained godhood by getting them all.

Next time: Final battle and I figure out whether this game is really as good as I thought it was all these years.

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