Final Fantasy VI is brutal! I reckoned whomever I had to face on top of the tower would be fearsome, but the MagiMaster truly is that. After stocking up on Wall Rings (to reflect all the spells) and Cherub Downs (to survive the occasional quakes) and potions, I barely managed to make it to the top of the tower. Then the MagiMaster showed up. I could reflect all the powerful spells he threw at me, but not his final Ultima spell when he killed himself.

So I resorted to online help. Most walkthoughs and hints said that I had to use the Reraise spell to survive his Ultima. But the problem is that I haven’t learned that yet. I probably should have, but I suspect that I’m missing quite a few Espers, although I did do most of the quests that were mentioned in the walkthoughs. I missing something crucial about how the Espers work. Or I’m to low level. I’m mid 30s.

Anyway, I wasn’t going to grind and climb that tower again. That was out of the question. The only remaining tactic that was mentioned was to Berserk him into using only melee attacks, Phantom myself so he couldn’t touch me, and Rasp him until his MP was depleted, occasionally cast Osmose to replenish my MP. But he had 50k MP and my Rasp only did about 300 damage. So that’s more than 150 Rasps. Rasp!

So I did that, it took almost half an hour, expecting that there would be a could cut scene and I would be back on the ground, but no. Now I have to descent the tower and face all the respawned enemies again. The first encounter completely wiped me out. Aaaargh!

The only way I got this far is by using savestates on the SNES Classic. I don’t know how folk used to manage this back in the day. First you’ve got to climb the tower, then face the MagiMaster, and then descend again. All without dying! And figuring out how to beat them. I have so much respect for all the OG FFVI players!

If I don’t manage to make it back to the ground, I think that I will take a long break from the game.