The time compression event was immediately followed by a series of battles against sorceresses. Luckily, I had death junctioned on my attack for all of my characters and they weren’t immune, so they were dying extremely fast.
Once all of that was over, the group appeared at Edea’s house. I got to the beach and that’s when all of the timelines merged, causing Ultimecia’s castle to appear in the sky above the sea. I started walking along one of the huge chains attached to it and soon got to the entrance, where I could save my game.
As soon as I entered the castle, it was obvious what I’m going to be doing here. The castle blocked all of my abilities apart from Attack, making me fight guardians to unlock them. The first boss was at the top of the stairs in the first room and it was easy to deal with, even if I only had the Attack command available. Once the Spinx was dealt with, I was able to pick which command to unlock next. I decided to go with Draw, thinking the bosses might have important spells on them.
Spinx was easy.
The second boss was a bit further, past a falling chandelier and in the basement below the room it fell into. It was called Tri-Point and it sort of looked like a giant, flying robot. This one hit for a lot more, so I actually lost one of the characters there. Still, I managed to beat it and decided to unlock the item command next. What I didn’t realize was that Resurrection is a wholly separate ability, meaning I couldn’t revive anyone, even if I had access to the items. Luckily, the second mechanic of the castle came into play now, so I didn’t need to revive anyone yet.
At the start, I had to split my party into two groups. It seems the idea was to use one group to clear the way to the second group and vice-versa. Killing Tri-Point meant I needed to switch to the other group now and move past the chandelier which didn’t fall this time. Past it was a balcony where I fought the third boss – Krysta. This one was quite harder, causing me to actually use items for healing. Sadly, it was extremely resistant to physical attacks, so I’m thinking I should have probably unlocked Magic or GF to make this fight a lot easier.
Krysta was the first to offer any real challenge.
With this one, I decided to unlock GF, since I already had healing via items and was foolish with not realizing I also needed resurrection. Luckily, the next fight was again with me controlling the second group, so I didn’t need resurrection yet. The fight was against a robot named Trauma and in order to get to it, I had to solve a puzzle involving some paintings. Doomtrain’s Meltdown was key to make this fight extremely easy, so I ended it without losses and finally unlocked resurrection.
I switched back to the first group and got further through the door and past a courtyard, to a bridge where I saw an item drop from a bridge to the area bellow. I got back to the courtyard with a fountain and switched to the second group. With this one, I got through a prison area to my next boss, the Red Giant. This one was, again, extremely easy due to Doomtrain and the Blindness it inflicts with its attack. I unlocked magic and moved on, finding the Armory Key in the water nearby. I’m guessing the key is the one that fell from the bridge with the first group. I unlocked the armory and fought the next boss, Gargantua.
The battle started out like a random encounter against the Vissage enemy and its hands. Once I defeated those, the whole thing actually rose from the ground and turned into the boss. This one, again, wasn’t extremely difficult, so I had no trouble beating it. I finally unlocked the Save ability and switched back to the first group.
Gargantua was, again, easy.
Past the bridge the key fell off from, there was a room with a save point, so I saved my game. I returned to the fountain and stumbled into another key, this one to the Treasure Room. I switched to my second party and went to the only area where I haven’t really been to yet – the room to the left of the stairs in the main room. It took me a while to figure it out, but the treasure room was on the left side of a hallway there. It involved a “turn off all the lights” style puzzle which, once I solved it, started the battle with the next boss.
Catoblepas was again, relatively easy due to Doomtrain. It used lightning attacks mostly, so they were mostly absorbed, thanks to Flare being bound to my defense. I unlocked limit breaks with the death of this one and moved on.
Past the room with Catoblepas, there was a green party switching circle on top of some sort of elevator. This took me ages to figure out, but I finally realized that the two parties need to meet up here, so that the heavier one can lift the lighter one to the room above, where I got the Flood Gate Key. I used this key at the prison, which allowed me to pull a lever there. The lever caused the water in the canal bellow to retreat, but I had no idea how to get to it. All I know is that it must be through the only door I didn’t get through yet.
There was a barred door to the left of the fountain courtyard. I decided to revisit it and noticed that some of the bars blocking the door were gone. After some messing around, I figured out the organ at the tower actually caused various bars to go away, so eventually, I realized I probably have to push all the keys on the organ to completely open the passage. The thing is, this isn’t easy to do on the PSP, so I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing. Eventually, after some walking back and forth, the passage did open and I found a Rosetta Stone there. This thing teaches any GF the Abilityx4 ability, so it was definitely worth it.
I always get nostalgic when I fight a recurring enemy, such as Tiamat
I got back to the tower and started climbing it. Near the top, there was a swinging pendulum which I used to get to a door and fought the last guardian – Tiamat. This one, again, was pretty easy and didn’t even get the chance to properly attack. With him gone, I unlocked the final ability – Command.
I was ready to face Ultimecia.
