Welcome to the middle of the end on November 20, Kramer Day. I don’t know what a Kramer is, but it sounds like the name of a coffee shop in a nice little surburban town. What a charming name…

Previously on Wild Arms 3: Beatrice destroyed her own castle and all the memories of (nearly) everyone on Filgaia. She retreated to the Ark of Destiny to utilize the Yggdrasil Core she had left there, but our intrepid heroes have arrived to…


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Find a ponytail?


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Oh no! That ponytail belongs to Lamium, the leader of the Ark of Destiny.


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And he’s not doing so hot.


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I guess some kind of energy blast was coming for our heroes, but Lamium soaked it. It was really unclear.


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“JC Penny never really puts things on sale… They just… They just say it is marked down…”


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Wow. Not only did Lamium turn around on the whole “The Saint” thing, but he’s correctly identifying her by her proper genus, too. Maybe he read a book on demons a while back?


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Lamium believed in Beatrice, but, since that didn’t work out, he is putting his faith in that girl in purple who keeps blowing things up.


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Who could have foreseen that we would be responsible for your death!?”


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Bad news: Lamium can only defend against one (1) dream demon energy blast.


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But it doesn’t matter anyway. Void time!


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Good of you to tell us that, as we knew practically nothing about the man.


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While Beatrice goes on about the whole “I control the dream realm” thing she has explained before, can we talk about Lamium? We are hanging a chunk of the ending on his noble sacrifice and how he decided to embrace the truth in his final moments and… Does it work?


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It is good that we get some measure of “if people know the truth, they will fight for it” here, but the last time we had to deal with Lamium was back before the raid on Siegfried’s first citadel, which was before Beatrice was even identified and introduced to the party. And that was one single piece of dialogue (that activated a dungeon)! The last time Lamium drove the plot was the start of Chapter 3, when he tasked us with blowing up a dragon mine. And before that… we met him.


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Lamium has been a likeable dude all throughout the story, and it is a shame that he got murdered… But do you think we maybe could have fleshed him out a little more? Made him at least as present as… I don’t know… Todd? Maybe involve him a little in the Mimir’s Well section or something so you remember the name of the dude that is going to take a (magical) bullet for you? I don’t know, just seems like a wasted opportunity in a game where we spent more time interacting with our sentient airship.


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Anyway, Beatrice was narrating because she thought she had completely beaten the heroes by sucking them into a dream hole…


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But since when does that kind of thing actually matter to intrepid protagonists?


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“Eternal darkness might exist deep down within people’s hearts…But…There…Though it may be small, you’ll also find a sparkle of relentless hope!!”

Eternal Darkness is locked onto the Nintendo Gamecube, Virginia.


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Gee, maybe because across three games, “Hope” is the most powerful force in the Wild Arms universe?


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Oh! That too! Would be cool if the most hopeful man on the planet ever had anything to do with anything.


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Uh… sure?


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Looks like we are going with avenging today.


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“Forget you, lady! Forget you right in the face!”


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The final battle begins!


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… Do we need to… uh… wear better shoes? Or… something? The floor is lava.


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Beatrice appears to be Fightin’ Beatrice again. Same gal as back at the castle.


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Yes, all very familiar.


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She uses the same attacks, including that faux summon that can inflict sleep status.


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So plan ahead on that one. There are no fights between the two Beatrice battles, so you can keep all your same equipment going.


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Dark Ward and Sleep Ward are what you are looking for here. And you’ll want Dark Ward again later.


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Also: never stop shooting.


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Yep, all the same attacks.


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Until at which point she explodes.


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So, if I am interpreting this all correctly, Beatrice is more or less dead now.


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But the world Beatrice was trying to bring into existence is ready to stand in her stead.


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I do not know why they even bothered with this. At least it means any “temporary” status effects used by Beatrice (like sleep!) will not last into the next fight.


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The final battle begins! Again!


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Hello world.


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Behold! Jellyfish world!


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Remember this one from a thousand updates back? Basically, the concept was introduced by the Prophets that Filgaia was a living organism onto itself, so logically it had to have a “baby phase”. We are looking at the earliest phase of Nega Filgaia. Note also that the Prophets’ lesson on the different phases of evolution are going to be relevant to this ”world” growing up.


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And we gotta kill it.


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Beatrice did make it, so it is probably evil…


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Let’s shoot ourselves a planet!


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(Jiggles menacingly)


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Alright, first thing is first: this is going to be one long battle with a billion phases. As such, status changes last from the beginning to the end, so cast Hyper and Permanence on your main attackers so they have boosted damage through the battle (or until they die).


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Now let’s look at Nega Filgaia. Nothing worth noting here yet.


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The first phase has high odds on not doing anything.


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But Jelly Filgaia will occasionally use a counterattack at the end of the turn against anyone that tapped it. Note that it counters regular attacks just the same as debuffs or other less direct moves. If you have low health (at the start of this fight?), do not touch the jellyfish.


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Also, it can duplicate after taking some damage. To my knowledge, it will only split once. This ain’t Final Fantasy 3.


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Red Nega Filgaia will do the same counter nonsense as Blue Nega Filgaia, but both of them do not have enough health or attack power to really make a difference.


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And you have attack power to spare.


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Each Nega Filgaia phase ends with the current opponent bursting into the next phase. In the event there are multiple Nega Filgaias, this metamorphosis does not occur until every… uh… instance is defeated.


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So it is time for… Hm… Nega Filgaia Bug? I feel like that lower part is supposed to be an egg of some kind…


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Regular bug.


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This thing can use paralysis attacks. If you are not equipped to ward those off, make sure you cure the paralysis immediately. You do not want any team members out of commission for entire phases.


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Other than that, nothing of note for this guy aside from the worst thing ever. If you take longer than eight turns to defeat Nega Filgaia Bug, it will use a reset move that takes you back to the beginning of the jellyfish fight. This is annoying, but at least you are only two phases in. Wonder what would happen if you saw this attack later in the battle…


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Now for Slime Nega Filgaia.


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Gross.


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Slimey is invulnerable to physical attacks.


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And has no significant weaknesses to any elements.


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But…


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“The core is exposed” after it uses its own attack. This means that you can do physical damage if you have a super low speed stat. It will be back to invulnerable at the top of the next round, so only attackers who move after the slimy touch can take advantage.


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So magic is probably your best move.


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But, if you use the Time Medium’s Replay ability…


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Then the “replay” attack will be performed at the absolute end of the turn. Guess how that works out for jelly belly here…


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This fight might take a little longer if you are exclusively relying on magic, but it will reach a conclusion. Jelly is a defense-based beast, but is not a threat offensively. This fight is more or less training you for later phases where defense is a key with offense.


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Next form is Teenage Mutant Ninja Tadpoles.


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We’ve got four of these suckers, and they are all glowing different colors.


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You can shoot them, but…


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Any physical attacks will lead to a “counter” wherein Nega Filgaia heals the whole quartet.


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You can overwhelm the healing if you are strong enough, but using magic is highly recommended.


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The trick this time is that each of the amphibians are weak to one element and strong against another. Bluey here is resistant to ice, but weak to fire.


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They also utilize their own “strong” element as an attack. Bluey fires an arctic lance…


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While Greeny is all about playing twister.


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So you can either shoot these rejects from Chrono Cross as hard as you can…


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Or you can play along…


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The other trick here is that once you use an element, the frogs then become resistant to that element. After using a fire spell on the whole gang, they will all be strong against fire…


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And start using fire attacks.


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But they also become weak to the appropriately matching element. So if you want this fight to be over quickly…


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Have Virginia use Mystic on an elemental gem to grant those lizards one weakness across the board, and then get Gallows to follow up by hitting everyone square in that weakness.


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And they will be obliterated in a turn. Jet and Clive can rest for a round.


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Bye bye, thingy.


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And we have moved into the age of dinosaurs.


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Let’s call these two Blue and Mr. Pilkington.


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They both have the same scan-stats.


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Blue is the attacker. It will cast Hyper on itself to double its attack stat, and then attempt to stampede you to death.


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Mr. Pilkington does not attack often, but will start the battle by lowering your defense stat. Remember that this debuff will last not only through Blue’s tenure, but future phases as well.


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Here comes Blue, taking advantage of its buffed attack and your debuffed defense.


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Eat lead! Guess we don’t have to worry about Blue anymore.


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And this jerk is protecting against magic.


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Mr. Pilkington will use Critical Heal often. If you are not a superpowered monster that can fell Blue in one turn, you probably want to focus on Mr. Pilkington first. Not that the game does nothing to identify which dino is casting the healing spell…


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You never like to see that.


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Mr. Pilkington goes down after a sound thrashing.


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The natural evolution of the dinosaur is, of course, a dragon.


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Aren’t dragons in this universe supposed to be wholly unnatural? Or is this like saying that mechanical monster beasts are inevitable in the evolutionary line of the Wild Arms universe?


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Oh! I spy a weakness or eight!


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Try not to get barbecued.


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Nothing much to worry about there.


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This is the annoying attack.


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Not unlike Tiamat’s Final Disaster, Arcana Disaster will hit one target with literally every elemental attack. That is eight separate smacks utilized in one turn, and it is difficult to ward against all of them. That said, the Prism Crown does exactly that, so at least one party member is likely to soak the whole onslaught.


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And Puff here has an unusually named physical attack, too.


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So shoot ‘em and use arcana attacks.


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Note that Dragon Filgaia will gradually become resistant to any element you hit it with repeatedly, so try to mix it up a little. Your main mages should be able to alternate between at least two elements thanks to medium distribution. Feel free to juggle in other elements if your casters want to keep hitting weaknesses.


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You do enough damage with the initial strikes, though, and you won’t have to worry about those resistances growing at all.


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Saber Tooth Nega Filgaia is the final exam form of Dragon Nega Filgaia.


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I have good news, more good news, and then bad news.


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Good news: Saber Tooth has the same weakness issue as Dragon. It will gradually become strong to elements, but it will take heavy damage from initial offerings.


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Good news again: Saber Tooth only has one ineffectual physical attack.


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Bad news: Like Paralysis Bug earlier, if you spend eight turns with Saber Tooth, it will reset the battle back to the beginning. You know, the whole battle. You absolutely do not want that. So do as much damage as you can as quickly as you can.


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Most people probably kill this thing so fast, they do not even know there is a super annoying countdown involved. Focus on those elemental attacks, and move this fight along.


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There. That is the last reset threat in this battle.


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Onto Spirit Nega Filgaia.


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In grand Lavos tradition, we have a main middle man, and two little helpers.


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In anti-Lavos tradition, you are aiming for the center. This is the first time in this fight something is not named Nega Filgaia. As such, you do not need to kill the Spirit Servants to proceed.


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Sorry, all out of weaknesses.


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Boo.


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So here is the latest annoyance.


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One Spirit Servant is always immune to physical attacks, and the other Spirit Servant is always immune to magic attacks. If you use either offense option, and the anti-that Spirit Servant is still alive, it will take the hit for Nega Filgaia, and you will do zero damage to anything.


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Physical attacks or arcana…


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Spirit Servant jumps in, and…


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It ain’t gonna fly.


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And Nega Filgaia will pummel you with a Dark Attack that hits everybody.


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Other than taking blows, the Spirit Servants don’t do anything.


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So the basic answer here is to eliminate the proper Spirit Servant, and then “clear the way” for someone to later directly attack Nega Filgaia.


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The Spirit Servant that is weak to arcana blocks physical attacks, so have Gallows and Virginia focus on that helper…


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And hope to Zephyr that Nega Filgaia does not use its ability that revives the servants. Dammit! That one always stings.


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So here’s an option in Wild Arms 3 that most people forget exists…


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Formation allows you to manually rearrange turn order for your characters. This is the final battle, and this option has never been useful at any other point in the game.


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But we will use it now! Because if you put Clive, our slowest character, first, then everyone else will act after Clive. And that means the whole gang acts after Nega Filgaia could use its revive spell, so now we can go hog wild on obliterating a Servant and then knocking Nega Filgaia around. Score one for this esoteric battle option!

Note that this technique could have worked against Slime Nega Filgaia earlier in the phases… but only if Clive was slower than the slime. In both of my playthroughs, Clive was miraculously faster than a slimy little pile.


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Next form is the RPG standard of Angel Nega Filgaia.


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Like with Dragon and Saber Tooth before, Angel is basically the upgraded form of Spirit.


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Magic is not going to work with its natural reflect status.


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And the Messengers are about what you would expect.


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Still doing that nonsense where you cannot do any damage while a Messenger survives.


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And you still have to randomly distinguish which Messenger is weak to which kind of attack. Couldn’t you guys be color-coded?


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So magic time?


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Not magic time. Watch that reflect ability!


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And this time we have a light-based attack to worry about.


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The previous Spirit “guards” did not actually do anything but block attacks, but the Messengers will use light attacks on their own, too.


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So the trick this time is “clued” by the reflect status. The only way you can get magic past a reflect mirror is by summoning a guardian. So here at the near-finale of all these fights, it is time to whip out the guardian summons.


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Shoot the messenger (ha!) resistant to that summon, and Angel is defenseless.


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And if you have FP for a Replay attack, this is all going to be over quickly.


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Blammo.


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And thus concludes the million phases of Nega Filgaia.

You may have noticed that this battle is thematically similar to some significant events in Wild Arms 2. Extremely long story of Wild Arms 2 short (though available in Let’s Play form if you are curious), the biggest threat to the Filgaia of WA2 was another dimension attempting to encroach on “ours”, and that crash was going to kill everyone. The heroes had a devil of a time fighting a generally incorporeal planet entity, but the problem was finally solved thanks to some light incest. A woman was sacrificed to “birth” the new world, and that created a freaky creature that our protagonists could shoot with guns and thus save the day.

Did I not say it was a weird plot?

Regardless, this meant the (mostly) final boss of Wild Arms 2 was the physical manifestation of a new universe, and that wound up being represented by a giant fetus attached to an amalgamation of an RPG angel monster and a reproductive system. It was confusing on many levels.

And it is hard to object to the theory that Beatrice’s Nega Filgaia is an attempt at a do-over on that concept as a final boss. Nega Filgaia is essentially the same kind of creature as the final boss of Wild Arms 2, but this is a much more interesting battle with its quasi trip through evolutionary theories. We still wind up with an angel beast at one point, but starting with a spineless sea monster and working our way through dinosaurs and tigers presents a better, more understandable “battle story”. And, hey, it doesn’t hurt that it is an excuse for all sorts of fight configurations, so the match isn’t just a matter of your biggest bruiser using his limit break.

I’m not going to say this is my favorite final boss battle (it goes on way too long for there to be any real tension, at a certain point you just want it to be over), but it is definitely an improvement over Wild Arms 2’s vaguely nonsensical finale (which, admittedly, does recover with its “real” final boss).


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Anywho, now we have reached the climax: the last Nega Filgaia. And… I’m tired from all that fighting. Can we take a break?

Next time on Wild Arms: Remember that guy?

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