Via Infinito HD: Who has made it already?

[Sephiroth]

So, who has descended to the final floor already? And was it the first time you did? Did you think it was a good dungeon or would you have expected more?

Tell me what you think.

[Mirage]

I've yet to finish my first HD playthrough actually. I started doing VI before trying to get to the last story dungeon though.

[Karifean]

I did it in an unsatisfying fashion for the sake of getting 100% ASAP so I could then go back and really enjoy it, but I haven't done that so far. Got sidetracked with all sorts of things. Generally I really like the Via Infinito since it's one of the few optional dungeons in Final Fantasy that is pretty much never easy, although the most interesting part of the dungeon is definitely Level 80+ and it always takes a while to get there.

It's just a shame that you can circumvent the challenge it presents so easily.

[Mirage]

Can you? How?

[Sephiroth]

Can you? How?

Cat Nip, Spit Plant, Lulu, Iron Duke though normally you won't have that without Trema or the fiend arena which means you are too strong already anyway, Adamant, Ribbon, High Luck, many Oversouls, Status Ailments, Alchemists, Anti-Magic Dance et cetera. It can still be challenging but not as much as it is without it.

[Karifean]

Can you? How?

Oversoul the bosses and run from all the random encounters (manually Escape, don't use Thief's Flee, it's slower). Makes everything up to Trema pretty easy and you can defeat Trema without much trouble with 3 party members and as much defense as you can get.

You can avoid any and all Mega Tonberry encounters. Elder Drake field encounters are also all avoidable and when they start appearing randomly on the last 20 floors you can just flee. Though if you have Evade & Counter they're harmless anyways.

Whoever designed the oversoul forms of those bosses really should've looked into what "Oversoul" was supposed to be.

Edit: And as Sephiroth's post hopefully made clear, there are many many more ways to cheese the Via Infinito ;)

But I feel it's most fun not to do that.

[Mirage]

Sounds to me like you say it's easy because you've spent forever increasing your power before entering there. Just like every other side dungeon in a game would be easy if you did so in other games.

[Sephiroth]

Getting such an item/monster is no effort except the Anti-Magic Dance which requires you do dig alot and a bit of running around for the Cactuars to get the Lucky Charm. Aranea - Adamant, Bl. Elemental - Anti-Magic, Choncerer - Lucky Charm, Chac - Press X, Paragon - 2 Characters to not make him use his super attack, Oversoul Omega WEAPON, Trema - Adamant and Reraise.

Catnip: Via Infinito Floor 40
Adamant: Gunner's Gauntlet Lv. Max - 15 minutes as you can use a Blind Spot (many exist in that mini game and one of them is very good to Multi away your enemies)
Anti-Magic: Complete Djose
Lucky Charm: Defeat Jabotender
Plant/Lulu: Creature Creation - the Plant is better as it is more bulky though it costs one slot more.

Catnip in international Version: Either hit yout character to critical mode while they ready a multiple attack move such as Happy Trigger, Dice or Dark Sky or Meteor (can be done only once per Berserk as you cannot control your character then afterwards of course) or use a standard-berserk multiple attack character or creature like the Plant or Lulu.

The Via Infinito is hard from the normal point pf view and still has a certain amount ot challenge with them. But it is a fact that the effort to ease it greatly is not that great in comparison to other optional boss easing effort stuff.

[Mo-Nercy]

I remember I breezed through it on the PS2 version because Catnip was awesome back then. Sounds like a bit more prep will need to go into the HD playthrough though.