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The bosses of the Macalania Woods

Just gonna briefly go over how the different bosses of the Macalania Woods function, since I just finalized and tested all of them. But before I do that, there is one small change to talk about. The status conditions that lower a target's parameters have been renamed to fall more in line with their Final Fantasy counterparts, rather than names I thought were good at the time. :P

Fatigue is now called Power Break.
Shellshock is now called Armor Break.
Migraine is now called Magic Break.
Weakness is now called Mental Break.

Onto the bosses!

MINI-BOSS: OVERSOUL
Oversoul is a demonic pest that lures unsuspecting people into traps by projecting an image of a treasure chest. Once opened, he ambushes his victims, feeding on them and leaving nothing but a pile of bones in his wake.

This undead creature attacks your party mostly with draining attacks, meaning you'll want to have plenty of items to restore HP and MP, since you'll be losing a lot of both during the fight. What's worse, he drains with area attacks, hitting all party members, and draining HP and MP from each on independently. One might argue it's more strategic to let three party members perish, and make it a one on one fight to reduce the amount of HP and MP Oversoul can restore to himself, using only items to heal.

Feast of the Flesh drains HP from your party, while Feast of the Soul drains MP. He sometimes regularly attacks, but beware, his critical rate is very high. Sending this demon with no honor to the Farplane nets the party a pair of Relics that halve certain elemental damage.

BOSS: SPHERIMORPH
The boss of the area is the Spherimorph, a huge ball of collective energy capable of changing its density, shape, and resistances on a whim. It is incredibly important to keep Vicks and Wedge alive during this fight, as they have the highest damage capability against this foe. Spherimorph will commonly change his elemental weakness with Elemental Shift and follow up with powerful physical attacks capable of nearly destroying a party member in a single hit.

Players will have to pay attention to the abilities it uses to determine its current weakness, and use Wedge to exploit it. Every so often, Spherimorph will Solidify, reducing all physical damage by 75%, regenerating HP, and absorbing all elemental damage for a few turns while it rests. It cannot attack while solidified, so take the opportunity to heal yourselves or set up defenses again, like NulBlaze and Protect. Finally, the Spherimorph will use Flatten when it has suffered enough damage, dealing physical damage and applying Mini on a party member.

If you've got enough items to endure a long battle, it's a good idea to use Reeve to drain Spherimorph's MP away and apply Mental Break with Lancet, as Spherimorph will no longer be able to use magic spells or Solidify, making the rest of the battle much easier. Using White Draw to apply Armor Break periodically will also make Cid and Reeve's attacks a little more reliable.

HMMMMM
There is a third boss in this area, but I am going to keep quiet about it for now. Unlike the other two bosses, this one is optional and requires players to take certain steps to make it appear.

Posts

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Now this sounds like fun. Can wait to explore the area. Do you feel like your understanding of parallax mapping improved from working on this area?
author=rhb84
Now this sounds like fun. Can wait to explore the area. Do you feel like your understanding of parallax mapping improved from working on this area?


I am sure there are faster ways of me doing the stuff I've done, but it's been a fun first attempt.
Ok. Who was the most fun boss to you out of the three u made for the area?
author=rhb84
Ok. Who was the most fun boss to you out of the three u made for the area?


Spherimorph. Of the bosses in the game that players can fight up until this point, it is definitely the most challenging one, unless we're counting people going after Mission Marks long before they're meant to (which is something I encourage players to do for the challenge).

Security System, Burning Golem, Fire Elemental, and the Blue Aevis are all pretty standard fights with obvious strategies. This battle introduces some of the nastier enemy tactics I'm employing on bosses going forward. I suspect a few players will meet defeat against the Spherimorph. Those of you who keep up with the blog posts here should have it a little easier, though.
Since you renamed STR/MAG/DEF/MDEF status ailments to something more in line with FF terminology, maybe you could rename the status ailments which raise received elemental damage? I'm not a fan of names like "Waterlogged" or others (can't remember what else you're using), but I think attaching a word "wan(e)/weak..." could be better for players to remember the name of that "status effect which decreases my elemental resistance". "Waterwane/Waterweak" may sound a bit weird or silly, but gives more naming consistency which with the game as big as it appears to become is a must IMO.
Well that's great. Can't wait to see how he looks in game and I'll make it a personal mission to find the secret boss and all the other secret bosses once the game comes out.
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