It’s been a long road since I first began this challenge. Near the start there were some people who thought that it wouldn’t be possible, but here we are, the disc 4 recap.
I actually started disc 4 shortly after finishing disc 3, but then life interrupted and forced me to have to put it down for a bit. In that short starting time I downed Nova Dragon with relative ease and began the preparations for Ozma. As expected, Ozma became the biggest pain in the entire playthrough.
There was quite a bit of mechanic learning going on in the fight. I realized that he would only use certain spells if I met certain conditions. Namely, he would only use Flare if I didn’t have reflect and Lv.4 Holy if my level was a multiple of 4. Taking this to my advantage, I brought Zidane up to level 68. Around here is where I had to take my break unfortunately, but when I returned I went head on into Ozma attempts.
The first batch of level 68 Ozma attempts ended in complete failure. It quickly became apparent that I was going to need a lot of luck to win this fight. In order to get some more magic stones (and of course more valuable HP for higher meteor survival chance), I decided to do one more push up to level 72.
It was attempt #50 at Ozma that it finally happened. Curse didn’t destroy me, he used the right amount of spells to help heal me, and Meteor didn’t just destroy me. There may have also been a trance in there. Unfortunately, following the win it would appear Twitch decided to that the part where Ozma died on my stream didn’t need to exist anymore. Alas, Ozma did at long last die and the disc could continue.
Maliris almost went off without a hitch. Well, at least until the part where Flame Slash hit Zidane for around 6200 damage, cause my Auto-Life to trigger. Shortly after she triggered my counterattack which just so happened to kill her… and once again kill Zidane. She went down the second time however. Tiamat was extremely easy, knowing not to attack him when I was floating. He was also nice and only absorbed Zidane’s strength once, deciding to mainly focus on draining his magic – oh no, not my magic!
Hades was next and after Ozma, Hades felt like a bit of a victory lap. He was incredibly easy and went down without much issue. A quick trip back to the save point later, Kraken was up next. Again, Kraken proved to not be too much of a challenge and went down without too much hassle.
Finally there was Lich. Lich should typically not be too hard, especially if you just have Auto-Float on and aren’t a level that is a multiple of 5. Unfortunately, this doesn’t account for the fact Doom is not my friend. Doom is especially not my friend with Auto-Haste, as that causes it to tick down faster. On the third attempt at Lich I finally took off Auto-Haste and then he played very nice by not using Doom until the end of the fight.
A quick trip through to the crystal world brought me to the final bosses at long last. Deathguise was amazingly easy. He stayed open the entire time and Meteor barely even hurt. Following him was Trance Kuja.
Perhaps before I talk about Trance Kuja I should jump ahead and talk about Necron. Necron took two tries, the first ending in a very unfortunate way. Remember how I mentioned about Doom and Auto-Haste on Lich? It happened again on Necron. Also, I decided to be fancy and bring along different party members – Freya cannot hit the broadside of a barn, and especially cannot hit herself. Anyways, the first try and Necron ended in Doom ticking down and killing me, and then as soon as my Auto Life went off… Neutron Ring happened. Thanks, Necron.
Anyways, back to Trance Kuja. The first time against Trance Kuja I decided to try Auto Reflecting him. This lead to a spam of Flare Stars which eventually Tranced me. The second time around, I decided to go without Auto Reflect and wow was it ever easier. Doing it this way around also didn’t trance me during that fight which lead to some nice things during Necron.
Necron round two. It’s amazing how smooth this fight went this time. Necron only landed Silence through Grand Cross meaning I was able to easily go into Neutron Ring and survive. Additionally, before the Grand Cross went off, a Blue Shockwave had tranced me. While I could have just let Auto Regen take care of the damage, I decided to Elixir because of Neutron Ring. Of course, with how long the animations for both Grand Cross and Neutron Ring are it was unneeded, ah well. With the Trance I was able to power through Necron and claim my long awaited victory on this challenge.
What’s next? Likely the return to my Final Fantasy VII challenge. Quale also still needs to die but I won’t be doing that until I can get someone else to catch frogs for me. It’s been a long journey, one some thought would be impossible. To finish this off I only have one thing left to say…
Who needs Thievery?
Final Fantasy IX Zidane Solo Disc 4 Difficulty (Excluding Ozma)
1.5/5
Everything proved incredibly easy and beating Lich just involved a slight change. Additionally, who knew that Lich was harder than Necron?
Final Fantasy IX Zidane Solo Disc 4 Difficulty (Including Ozma)
3.5/5
While Ozma was mainly luck, it did also require a fair bit of skill in manipulating him so that I didn’t instant-fill his ATB gauge.
Overall Final Fantasy IX Zidane Solo Difficulty
3/5
Most issues were solved with either just slightly adjusting my setup, leveling a little, or just getting lucky. The spots where I thought I’d have troubles proved to not be too difficult after all.
You can find the Disc 4 Finale on YouTube and on my Twitch channel.