On Proud, third-level spells were a necessity for that battle, plus being level 80+. Normally on Expert he would give me no problem with second-level spells, but doing so on Proud, both characters have been killed by the clock by the time I've got him down to yellow health. Plus those hand swipes do so much more damage. Can I just say how traumatic Sora's dying sound/montage is? lol I heard it quite a few times playing Final Mix Proud for the first time.
Oogie 2nd battle is strangely hard for me on Proud. I think it's because I insist on killing the flame-holders in his hand and around his neck for the tech points. Chernabog also gave me more of a challenge, and Behemoths are terrifying now whereas they were a joke to me before.
*The Hercules thing: you just play the Time Trial like normal, but when you get to the last match with Hercules, mash Start and select Re-start--the clock will freeze so you can fight Hercules without worrying about time. Also, your HP/MP will be re-filled.
The third-level spells I already figured, but I boldly(or foolishly?) tried to tackle Phantom already at Level 75 (which was more than sufficient on normal) because I didn't have much trouble with Ice Titan on Proud.
My biggest problem so far is that despite Sora having 12 MP (with Lionheart-Keyblade) in the last third of the battle I often run out of MP when all Ethers are used up and Goofy also has no more MP left to use MP-Gift.
I always renew the stop spell on the clock every two minutes or so, and with that and using MP to attack I end up at least once in a situation where I don't have enough MP for Aeroga when he does his "Nazgul-projectile"...<__<
Unlike the Ice Titan, where I didn't see much of a difference in battle between Normal and Proud, the Phantom is certainly a bigger challenge on Proud.
With 2nd Oogie I didn't have many troubles, but I can imagine Chernabog being a pain, even on normal some of his attacks like the eruption can be quite nasty to survive.
*I need to try that out sometime, simply because fighting Cloud on Proud costs you so much time that you barely have enough left for Hercules anyways.
I see, lol, I never quite understood that gimmick anyways as it makes no real sense. Why would Herc's "godly" aura go out of order when hit by an ordinary wooden barrel, but not when hit by a magical special weapon like the Keyblade (or certain magic, for that matter)?
It somewhat reminded me of the old SNES-Days with Donkey Kong Country, lol.
Herc is King K. Rool and Sora is Diddy Kong (He's to scrawny to be Donkey!).
@Sephiroth0812: Well, I've played quite a few games with battles that you can't win: Final Fantasy IX against HER, Mega Man X against Vile, and...sorry, my brain died. I know there's TONS more, but I'm out at the moment XD
Whoo, I'm of to a GREAT start, aren't I?
Anyway, yes: I get mad. But I'm not giving up without a fight! I'm even ok with games where you get them down a certain amount before story or sumthin cuts in. I just don't like the idea of sitting there and just TAKING it is the only option. Bleh to that!
In all honesty IX and XII are my favorite FF games~
I guess the main reason such scripted battles exist is that the player losing is simply
required for the story itself regardless of any grinding or optional sidequests that were fulfilled.
I agree though that the way how such an unwinnable battle unfolds plays a big role.
Two of the worst examples I remember are the first fight against Weiss in Dirge of Cerberus which you have to lose as Vincent in order to progress.
No matter how good you play and how much
ammo you waste you cannot put a dent in Weiss' HP at all and the fight doesn't even end in a cutscene, you
have to let him kill you which then results not in a game over but the required cutscene starting.
Final Fantasy XIII also has one such fight in Palumpolum when you have to face a boss with Hope (the weakest party member in terms of HP) alone.
Even if you play heavily tactically and have strengthened Hope beforehand, any damage done to the boss will not count until Lightning and Fang come to your aid, which is triggered by letting Hope's HP fall into the red zone.
Although I as a FF-fan like nearly every title and don't have a distinct favorite,
I think especially IX gets way too few love within the fandom and from Square themselves as well.
The cast of characters was very endearing and the music score one of the best of the series.
Beatrix is, besides Edea from VIII, one of my favorite "powerful" female characters from the FF series. The fact that you can use her as a temporary party member makes it even better.
