Well, I beat him... spammed Thundara, Overdrive, and Ethers (and even my Elixir)... just gotta do the day 13 dungeon and then go forth and beat the game. But my friend called me last minute to DJ his wife's party so Imma be spending the next few days gathering tracks.
Glad you got past it, and the techs used in that playthrough guide aren't that bad.
I beat him in my first and second playthroughs. Second time was much easier than the first for obvious reasons. Most of Lightning Returns's success in combat
doesn't come from what you do in battle (and perfect guarding is pretty damn easy when you get the hang of it); it comes from preparation like the others said. I did it on Day 13, so I got Soldier of Peace and used Chaos's Revenge as my sword. Equipping a Preta Hood on your Quiet Guardian makes a whole load of difference (that's why I could just stand there during the Caius fight taking no damage and not being sent to the ground to interrupt attacks -- that thing can break the game if you use it right and combine it with a Runic Ring). Another thing is that the game mostly functions like the other two FF13 games in that ... well... don't look at Lightning or your party members; look at what the enemy is doing. Any time the enemy looks like it's going to animate, do something to cancel it or mitigate the damage quickly by swapping. Many of the later hunts in FF13 did that, many of the gimmick DLC fights in FF13-2 did that, and it mostly functions the same here. Honestly, after a while, I felt like I was playing the other FF13 games again but with a slightly more active interface since it felt like they ran on a similar battle engine with some tweaks.
It's especially useful to watch him when he wants to bring you closer to him. Some people watch him flap his wings, I usually watch his head. When he lowers his head with no text onscreen to say what he's doing, he'll use his ability to bring you closer. Just swap to your Quiet Guardian and Preta Hood to just guard it since you won't need to block.
Some people recommend using Fang but that's just really inefficient too. You're just waiting until the last day to finish everything off, and Fang can just Mediguard and not help as much as you'd like. I heard the Official Strategy Guide strat isn't that great either. There's also a glitch where if you launch it, he... gets stuck. Haha. you just use Imperil and various forms of Element spells to get him that way.
For what it's worth, the final boss and even the bonus dungeon's boss are easier since they aren't really that much of a battle of attrition.
I dunno, I found LR easier than expected. Lots of people complained that it was too hard when I didn't really feel it was the case. Just go at it like you would the other FF13 games and you'll be fine. I think out of all of the heavier fights in the FF13 games, I'd rank them like this:
- Attacus (FF13 Mission 51) - Fast, especially when you're cheesing it with a Defender.
- Gilgamesh (FF13-2 Arena DLC) - Great gimmick fight that forces you to make monsters specifically for that fight. Much better than
any of the in-game content.
- Vercingetorix (FF13 Mission 64) - Don't use Poison strat and it'll be way less boring that way. Trying to include the glass cannon Hope in your party would be an interesting challenge for some.
- Raktavija x2 (FF13 Mission 62) - If you don't put them in slow, they will wreck you. But it can be kind of fun that way. It's an interesting battle of attrition that you have to speed up to try to 5-star them.
- Aeronite (LR Mission mark) - I think I said what I needed to say. Sucks that you have to stagger it four times in the time it gives you before it runs away. At the same time, I think that making the player stagger it four times with how much HP it has can be kind of repetitive even if it has different modes.
- Ereshkigal (LR Secret Dungeon boss) - Zzzzzz compared to the rest. Really zzzzzz. It's pretty easy compared to the rest, imo. Feels repetitive, I guess. It doesn't need as much preparation.
- Yomi (FF13-2 sidequest target) - A Vercingetorix recolour and it doesn't hit has much and the game is really braindead easy and it doesn't cast doom and you don't really need buffs for it and...
The FF13 series' battle systems are used really well when the fights are harder and everyone in your party feels more versatile. The earlier fights in FF13 and many of the fights in FF13-2 are so easy and you can't work with everything you're eventually given so they feel really boring and like a chore. The major key to FF13 series fights is preparation, preparation, preparation. If you don't prepare, you've already fucked up. If you don't know how the enemy might animate after observing for a while, then you're going to get into trouble. Stuff like that. They're not bad systems. They just aren't used to their full potential often, which is a shame.
