Demon Emperor

So, I did it. I went back through the Arcane Labyrinth and got Maria's Artemis' Bow. I don't know why, either. I mulled over the idea of getting Firion's, too, but I didn't. I don't want to go through that again. AL fits in FFII really well, considering how tedious it is.

So, as strong as we're gonna get, we marched through the Jade Passage. On the peninsula, east of Mysidia is a small lake. It's actually the Jade Passage, which will take us to Hell. We'll be teleported down in a hole in the ground, leading us to a cave. At this point, none of the enemies are worth mentioning. The only treasure of note is the Aegis Shield and another protect ring. I didn't use the ring, but I'm sure many would. I think I got my 25th Yoichi's Bow, too. There is an interesting shop hidden behind a waterfall at the bottommost point of the river. No one is there, but something sells us high powered magic. Death and berserk aren't too rare, but haste and flare might be worth picking it. Or, they would if magic was worthwhile in this game... But the Jade Passage is six floors long and filled with a fair bit of trap rooms. At the very end is a teleporter to Pandemonium!

It's shiny and made of crystal, shimmering with pinks and blues. It's a very odd thing to be in Hell. But it's not the only strange thing about this place as I think the fourth floor doesn't exist. There's a fourth and a fifth, but no fourth. The Wikia says there are either eight or ten floors. Like the Jade Passage, nothing here is a threat to us. Lamia Queens drop ribbons if you want/need them. There's also a good chance of finding various chromatic dragons down here should you need their loot, as well. There's a full set of Genji gear in the fourth floor maze. They're all guarded by various mobs, some of which we've had to fight in the Arcane Labyrinth. I was going to skip the gloves, but they're behind Zombie Borghen, and I'm always down to kill him again. The best sword in the game, Masamune, is down there somewhere, too, but I missed it.

In a pure, black, crystalline room is a single entity (and random mobs). Emperor Mateus sits on his spiky throne north of our spawn. His speech and quick and to the point, telling us that beings who experience love and death could never defeat him. He then starts the final boss fight!
 
It's a moderately difficult battle. Mateus has a physical attack that seems to halve a target's health, restoring him in the process. Mateus hit Guy for 4000 HP, which would kill anyone else, but it was the only time I saw it happen. Protect might be worthwhile. I buffed Guy with berserk, aura, and haste. Then I did it again with Leon for the fun of it. Firion's Excalibur did decent damage, but it petered off halfway through, so I switched to spamming Ultima. Maria got some shots and a few Holy's in, but she was mostly keeping Guy alive. He almost has 9999 damage, so that's fun. It's rare I get to max HP with a character in any game. Thanks to Maria's weapons giving her max stats, Guy being the breaker of reality, Leon...being there, and Firion using the treasure of Deist, we were able to kill the Emperor of Hell! Again. He laments that mere mortals have defeated him twice and explodes away. Our long time friends look at each other contently and return to their home in Fynn.

Hilda and Gordon are there to greet and congratulate us.
Gordon says that the two of them will usher in a new peace and thanks us for helping him overcome his cowardly past.
Paul says he's out of work now that we've conquered the Empire, so he might have to steal from us now.
Leila offers Firion a place on her ship if he wants to be a pirate. She indicates Maria isn't down for that and implies Firion and Maria might be a thing...
Nelly is also there and says she'll be helping Hilda do stuff. Everyone then goes into the corner of the room for some reason, leaving the four playable characters alone.
Four spurts appear behind us. It's one last send off from Minwu, Josef, Scott, and Ricard. We all look at each other to make sure we all saw what we saw for a moment. There's a lot of nodding in this game that goes nowhere.
Guy remarks the war is over.
Maria is glad that the four of them can be friends and family again.
Leon, however, says that can't happen. There can be no "us" anymore because too much has happened. I think he feels guilty about what he did, which makes me wonder why he joined up the Empire in the first place.
Firion quells an upset Maria but agrees with Leon. Leon exits the room, and Firion tells their former friend that they'll meet each other again.
A narrator tells us that the people begin to settle down in peacetime once more. The monsters that roamed the planet start to disappear. Time moves forward, and everyone goes about their lives, but they'll never forget that the world was saved by four youths. The credits roll! I accidentally skipped them, but the Pixel Remaster version offers nothing new. So we're asked to save and toggle the clear data flag.

But none of this was why I played Final Fantasy II again. I'm interested in the Souls of Rebirth mode. How do our fallen comrades, Minwu, Josef, Ricard, and Scott, fare in the afterlife? We'll start that journey...

...tomorrow!

FFII is as tedious as I remember, but it's not as terrible. It's incredibly easy to make yourself overpowered without really trying. But, at the same time, how else are you supposed to play the game? I liked the idea of the stat growth, even if its growth is exponentiation, and you break the game. Maybe there are too many fights? I don't know, but balance could have been looked into way back in 1989... I'd love to see a remake that adds job skills to stats or weapons levels. Make the spell levels mean something by adding better scaling as you level them up or new skills as weapons grow. Let a sword user at level two use cyclone like Chrono. The framework for a decent experience is here, but it's missing something that probably couldn't be made 35 years ago. But I'll save the final grade for after we kill a finaler boss.