In vanilla, you want to hold off on leveling as much as you can so you can make sure your casters get, say, Zona Seeker equipped while they level so their base Magic goes up. If espers no longer give level-up bonuses, and characters' stats are unchangeable outside of whatever equipment they're wearing at the moment then there's no reason not to be as high a level as possible as early as possible. And I'm in a cave where the only enemy that can hit me with anything does it on its fifth turn or so -- far as I can tell, Desert Sahagins don't cast Dischord randomly.
So I might as well keep grinding here, where it's safe to do it. And since Celes and Sabin are the only characters I've got, then everyone else in the World of Ruin will have their levels adjusted upwards to meet theirs upon recruitment. So... back to grinding. Take out the DsrtSahagn first, then just hold down the controller's A button to auto-fight and the emulator's fast-forward button.
I figure I'll either keep going until I get bored with whatever YouTube is throwing at me, or Celes and Sabin know all the spells available from the Espers I've got. YT recs throws out
8-Bit Music Theory's analysis of Final Fantasy 6, which I figure, hey, appropriate enough. And just as they finish talking about Dancing Mad, I equip Kirin to Celes so she can pick up her last spell, and Catoblepas to Sabin, likewise to complete his list. So I guess I'm done! NeckHunters drop Crystal Shields sometimes, I now have seven. Dantes drop Diamond Helms, I have nine. That should alleviate cash flow problems for the foreseeable future.
Sabin and Celes are now at level 43, just over double where they were when I entered the cave for the first time. Celes has picked up Hastega and Blizzaga in the meantime, which should simplify the next fight somewhat. This also means that Sabin, with the worst Magic stat in the game, now knows more spells than anyone else except for Celes. Go figure.
If you're having trouble with the Tentacles, remember: the bottom-left can be instakilled with Death or Chainsaw, the bottom-right is weak to Ice, the top-left can be Stopped, the top-right can be Sleep...ed. Slept? Is vulnerable to Sleep. The mod doesn't change any of that. What the mod does change is how Bio works. Or rather, how the Sap status caused by Bio works. Or rather, it changes Sap (previously "poison, but worse because you can't cure it") into Disease (MP drain). Disease isn't prevented by the Ribbon, much less the Star Pendant, and isn't cured by the Antidote item. Poisona removes it, though.
So kill off three tentacles, Sleep the last one, and set up. Haste, Shell, and Regen on everyone, cure any lingering Disease or Poison, make sure Celes's MP is topped off, Blizzaga is 75 MP to cast now. Now we're ready for the bullshit second phase.
Once it's over I save state immediately. I rest up inside Figaro, watch the Coin Song cutscene since this is the first time Edgar and Sabin have been home together, go outside, and save game. Then save state again.
Now we can go to Kohlingen.
Setzer, once again, wants to equip the Blood Sword on the way to a dungeon full of undead. Other options are Darts (not the "it's a trap!" Viper Darts as in vanilla, they're not for sale here) or the unreliable and mod-nerfed Dice. I'll try... the Atma Weapon. Anyone can equip it now.
Step outside Kohlingen, save again. Yes I'm twenty levels higher and know to keep my Confuse-immunity accessories on until I'm in the tomb, shut up.
The Growth Egg is now a monster-in-a-box against a couple of ladies, one level 73, one level 93. Nothing like grinding up levels for hours and then getting effortlessly wiped out by another bullshit surprise encounter! Good thing I'm compulsively saving my game now. The CloudWraiths in here like to death-counter with Poison, and the Necromancers death-counter with Bio, which is not a pain in the ass at all, no sir.
Land the new airship just outside Maranda, save the game.
One tip in Maranda is that a woman got a strange rock, and now has dreams of a woman crying, and the roar of a sea serpent. Are there any women in the series history who have a history with sea serpents? I have a pretty good guess where this is going, and what replaced Bismark as the water-element summon esper.
Palidor has not washed up on the beach at Solitary Island, but I got the fish the guy in South Figaro wanted (reward: just-too-late Hermes Shoes). Cid namedrops Deathgaze, so I'll come back and see him once that's dealt with. Humbaba isn't ready to attack Mobliz again quite yet, but Duane appreciates the supply delivery from Nikeah. The reward from the Nikeah pubmaster is a Black Garb, and the next quest available is... to let the Dancer standing there (the one Cyan calls a "licentious howler") onto the airship.
So... huh. Going belowdecks for the first time, there's now a room to rest, the shop from the Blackjack, and a dressing room. The dancer lets you change outfits for characters, which I'm not going to mess around with too much just yet.
The moogle dwelling in Narshe has some surviving moogles, and the sylphs that saved them. Doubtless there's more to this later on, too. Mog joins up, and unsurprisingly Molulu's Charm is not available where he was standing. It's just an Elixir.
There's a magicite where Valigarmanda was dug up at the beginning of the game.
Titan doesn't ever cast Quake, only Magnitude8. He does punch people a goddamn lot, and counters with a strong physical hit. "Hey," says I, "It uses enough magic to get through Vanish, but Setzer has Fenrir equipped, and Image for immunity to a few hits should work fine." Friends, Fenrir does not cast Image on the party in this mod. It casts Berserk. Against a monster who counters the Fight command. So hey,
don't fuckin' do that.The "Freeze" Dragon does the thing it does in the Dragon's Den in GBA, splitting into four targets. These aren't decoys, though, every dragon is a full-fledged monster to fight. They like to use Freezing Dust, both in their usual move rotation and as a counter, then use a special to shatter anyone who's frozen.
Varigarmanda refuses to stir from its slumber, which seals off Umaro's cave, too.
Going back to Mobliz, Humbaba is back to menace us once more. So either recruiting a couple more guys, or just finishing the delivery from Nikeah has to be done first.
Chadarnook was probably the easiest fight in the game yet. He still attacks with lightning, and Diamond armor and helms are lightning-resistant now. Gau has the Thunder Shield instead. Terra has Firaga, Edgar has fire-elemental Flash, Mog lucked into Elf Fire with his dances, and Gau has holy-elemental claws and a 3.5x damage special attack. Chadarnook tried to hide behind the goddess painting briefly, but then switched back so fast that Terra and Edgar hit it with the attacks they'd been charging already. It didn't take long. I got Relm, but not Lakshmi.
Right where the Striker/Ichigeki was is the Narigitsune. Which... yeah, that person really
was saying it wrong.
The Behemoth King doesn't attack from behind with its own shambling corpse. The new monster is the... Behemoth Queen. You still only get one Behemoth Suit for winning, but at least they patched out the random Thunderblade you used to get instead of the second Suit? Whatever. Behemoth Suit now boosts attack power at the expense of magic, but can only be worn by Strago and Relm, so what's the entire point?
Deathgaze does not drop Bahamut, but we know Bahamut is already the boss waiting at the end of the eight dragons. Without Deathgaze's interference (????) Cid has managed to fix up the little house on Solitary Island, but I don't know why that's important. The beach is still empty of magicite.
Talking to Gau's dad without Sabin in the party has him ask where the repairman is, y'know, hasn't been around in a while, looks like a big ol' burly bear. This would be a great hint if the joke was established when seeing Sabin for the first time at Mt. Kolts! But the new script describes him as more like a Gorgias, one of the mammothlike enemies on that mountain. Vargas doesn't have any bears with him, either, he brings two lesser martial artists to that fight. So the whole reference just falls flat, because the script can't keep its own internal consistency straight.
Gau's dad also points to you where the mountains form a star, which is pretty out of nowhere. What he ever had to do with Locke or the Phoenix or the Emperor's painting/map/letter is not clear.
Gotta bring Terra to talk to Varigarmanda. The fight turns from a magic-draining gimmick into a typical ice-elemental monster battle. This is in contrast to the Freezy Dragon the next screen over, or the Coolness wisps, White flans, mammoths, and so on that serve as the rest of the random encounters throughout Narshe. Keep those Protect Rings on, they halve ice damage for some reason! Halfway through the esper breaks out of his icy prison and starts using fire and lightning attacks, too. I assume he absorbs fire/ice/lightning in this form, he sure as shit nulls every other element. Terra and Strago are on healing duty while Gau, downgraded into a non-elemental weapon, and Edgar pound on the dragonsnake.
The first thing Varigarmanda does once he's broken free is Tri-Disaster, his own summon spell. But since it's a
summon spell, it's the party that disappears, a second Varigarmanda appears just above and to the left of the enemy sprite, there's the zappy explosion, and the party reappears and takes damage. That... probably could have been done better.