Chapter 27: The End

As we get through the assault of the Silver Dragons and impact the barrier to this new area, we are immediately confronted by this game’s version of Shinryu, the Nova Dragon.

We enter Memoria through portal that Quina had discovered back on Terra. Memoria is an interesting place that was conjured by the memories of everyone. A voice speaks to Zidane and we get to reform our party. Again, we want Amarant, Eiko and Vivi.

Memoria is a very straightforward area. I’ll simply point out special areas since there’s no way to really get lost here. All of the enemies here can be petrified via the Sargatanas+Soul Blade trick but petrifying them gets us no EXP or AP. So we really don’t want to do that. It’s a good idea to have status preventions on though, especially Locomotion, Jelly, Antibody and Body Temp. Move foward when you are prepped and ready.

The second screen  has a few things of note. On the landing that we start on we have a warp back to the Invincible. There is an orb that resembles one of those novelty electro-static balls, these serve as save points. The third is the hidden treasure. Heading towards the door at the top of the screen, hug the right wall, you’ll find a hidden path. Follow it until you see the “!” and examine. Head through the door. In this next room (Stairs of Time), before taking the staircase, if you examine the left hand corner, you’ll find a Card Phantom. You can challenge him if you want to try and win a rare card or two. In the next room (Recollection) you can find the Tower, another weapon for Zidane, located in the offshoot nearest the exit. Alright. Before you proceed, equip Auto-Reflect and Body Temp. Be sure that Amarant has Aura. Giving Vivi equipment that boosts Ice Magic isn’t a bad idea either (Ice Staff, Magician Cloak, Magus Hat,

Proceed through the next room, an arcing slope. At the top of this room is the Chaos of Fire...

After putting this medusa in her place, remove Auto-Reflect and replace the abilities you had to de-equip. Heal and move on to the next room. In “The Past” we get to see a short scene. Inspect the platform to find an Angel Flute for Eiko and a Save Point, Tent and Save.  Equip the Ribbon back and make sure you have Body Temp on before heading on your way through a few more rooms and seeing a scene or two. In the rainy room, just atop the first set of stairs, in a little nitch, you can find the next Card Phantom. He has ALL RIBBON cards. Before heading up the long stair case, inspect the leftbottom of the staircase for Amarant’s Ultimate Weapon, Rune Claws. Give Eiko the Rosetta Ring so she can absorb fire-elemental and be available to heal others. Proceed into the Eye and face the Chaos of Wind...

Two more screens, in the corner of the pathway is the Strong Card Phantom. The next point of interest is the Portal, where you see a Save Orb. Tent and Save before going to the next room, Birth. After the right wall we need to do some prep before finding ourselves an optional boss to fight. Egoist Armlets or Pumice Pieces, Auto-Regen, Body Temp, Clear Heaed, Anti-Body, Bright Eyes, Auto-Haste.

You will see, beside the stairs in this room, what looks like a path. Walk down it and mash the X button until you trigger the encounter. Choose Don’t Leave and you will meet...

Heal and save back at the Save Orb and then proceed up the stairs to the Ocean. Climb up the stairs to trigger...

In the next room, Time Warp, you can find a hidden save point by the balcony. Up the stairs and in the little alcove is the next Card Phantom, Rare Phantom. Before moving on, be sure of these four notes: No level is divisible by 5, you have Antibody and Locomotion and you have Earth-Absorption items (Gaia Gear, Feather Boots). In the next room, Gaia’s Birth, climb to the first landing and search for the Mace of Zeus. Equip this on Vivi right away. It will be very useful very shortly. Head up the next ladder aand face:

When Lich is gone, if you by some miracle made it to this spot within 12 hours of gameplay, in one of the pillars you can find the Excalibur II, Steiner’s true ultimate weapon. However, this is a pointless matter because most likely, you did not make it within 12 hours. It requires a lot of work, opening and closing the disc cover to skip cutscenes, missing other important items and is just not worth it.

After dealing with this fool, pass through the Space room (it’s confusing, just keep moving upwards towards the glowing light at the end). You’ll eventually wind up in the Crystal World. The only enemies are either Crystal versions of the Chaos Fiends. They are slightly easier and give out 7 AP each! This is a great time to get some last minute abilities.

When you reach the Save Orb towards the end of the area, Tent up to full health (might take 2 tents), Save and go through this opening. We find Kuja and face an FFVI reference...

After the battle, go back to the save orb. We have one more loose end to tie up before we go after the end game bosses. Teleport back to the beginning of Memoria and go to the pad we use to teleport back to the Invincible. Find Choco and hop on. Find the Air Garden on the map and fly there.

Zidane and Amarant should wear the Ninja Gears. Eiko and Vivi should get the Pumice Pieces. All four of them should wear Chimera Armlets. Abilities: Auto-Haste, Auto-Regen, Auto-Potion, Clear Headed, and Antibody. Zidane should of course have Bandit, Mug and Master Thief. Give Vivi and Eiko the Mage’s Hat. Amarant and Vivi should have Return Magic.

In the Air Garden, take Choco over to the second last mass, to the little mound of earth there. And it’s time for...

Beating Ozma nets you a full Pumice. The Pumice will give Dagger her ultimate summon, Ark. A little pointless at this stage of the game but it’s better than a guardian acorn and at least you can say that you beat the hardest boss in the game. Way to go. And because we never, never want to do this again, save immediately upon leaving the Air Garden. If you are playing with an emulator, Save State immediately.

Heal and return to Memoria. It might be a good idea to restock on healing supplies somewhere. You will have to traverse the whole thing again, but it’s worth it for the extra experience anyway. Back at the Save Orb just before you fought Deathguise, save and proceed in to challenge, Kuja. Leave the Shadow absorb items on so that Vivi can use Doomsday with impunity. Give Amarant the Kaiser Knuckles.

When Kuja loses his mind, he uses the Ultima spell, supposedly killing everyone. The party wakes up on the Hills of Despair. We are given a chance to regroup and prepare. Zidane, Eiko, Vivi and Amarant, like we’ve been using. Set up: Remove all abilities that will have no point from here on like Master Thief, Alert, etc and reallocate those stones to all Status Protections, Auto-Haste, Auto-Regen, Auto-Life, Bird Killer. Leave the Shadow-absorption stuff. Exit the menu and save state (If you’re on an Emulator) and it’s time for the final battle, against: Necron...The Giant Space Flea From No Where.

With that, there is nothing more I can guide you on. This is the end of the game. Enjoy the end scenes, you’ve earned them. Next chapter: Conclusive Review. I would include the cutscenes here as usual but there's just too many.

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