Poll: Hardest sidequest?(unmarked spoilers ahead, you have been warned)

I've just been playing FFVI and I've been wondering which sidequest is the most difficult(ie, Fanatics' Tower(aka Magic Tower), Ebot's Rock, finding Gogo, getting the Odin magicite(or the enhanced Odin, I forget the name of the enhanced one), the 8 Dragons(to aquire the Crusader magicite), Cyan's Nightmare(getting all of Cyan's swordtechs and the Alexander magicite) and of course, getting Mog(again if you got him in the WoB) and Umaro(and not to mention, the Tritoch and Rangarok magicite[or the Cursed/Paladin Shield], and finally the Auction at Jidoor-to get the Terrato and that other Magicite, Raiden, I beleive.)

I'm not bothering with the story sidequests regarding [spoilers]Gau's father or Shadow's past.[/spoilers] since they are purely optional.

I don't consider getting the main characters that are optional(recounting from memory: Relm in Jidoor, Strago at Fanatics' Tower(need Relm), Locke at Pheonix Cave, Terra at Mobliz[I believe you can get her to join after getting the second Airship in WoR], Shadow[betting the Striker at the Colloseum-IF you waited for him at the Floating Continent at the end of the WoB) sidequests. I see getting them as sort of a requirement to make getting through Kefka's Tower a whole lot easier(although you do have to defeat the last two Dragons there).

I personally think so far that Fanatics' Tower is the most difficult, mainly because:
1. You can only use Magic(have Ultima and Cure/Bolt/Fire/Ice/Life3 ready, plus at least 50 Tinctures)
2. Those enemies with the permanent Rflect on
3. The enemy that casts Quake and WWind
4. The enemy(L90 Magic) which casts Merton and Meteor
5. And of course...Magimaster! Cast Beserk on him, but cast at least twice-or else face death in the form of Ultima-unless you cast Life3 on somebody, that is.
I am also sorry to say I am still doing the sidequests, but with all the information about them I can pretty much post this poll, and see what other people have to say.

Fanatics Tower is usually easy for me because I use beserk, the Moogle charm and someone with Life3.

I don't particularly enjoy Ebot's Rock though. I tire of getting countless pieces of coral just to learn Doom Train.

I'll agree and say Ebot's Rock. It wasn't particularly hard, but annoying as hell. Everything else is fairly easy.

Cyan's dream can be tough at the point when your characters are seperated. Plus the Larry, Curly & Moe battle always takes a while (unless your characters are at level 40+). Delta Hit is annoying without the proper relics. Oh yeah, and Wrexsoul is hard when you fight him the way the game meant you to fight him.

Well I just beat the Fanatics Tower-thanks to the Moogle Charm(thank Flying Mullet for pointing that out), not to mention that three of my characters had Ultima and were Life3-ized. (and also that I didn't use Mog in the first place prior to this post, also my intent on going through the F.T. was to just get the White Dragon, not just the Gem Box relic). One other thing, when I was plugging away at the Fanatics Tower before, I did get three of my characters armed with Ultima(plus Fire/Ice/Bolt3).

One more thing: I did do Cyan's Nightmare prior to getting through the Fanatics Tower. I was(coincidentally and luckily enough) using Sabin when the party got seperated during the Cyan Nightmare thing and (of course) was using Blitzes(I don't know that Bum Rush one, is it found in WoB or WoR?). Combined with Shadow and a whole lot of shriukens and ninja stars for him to throw, and of course Terra, I was able to pull through that one. I acted quick regarding Larry Curly and Moe-they weren't able to pull that triple attack on the group so I'm lucky. I used Vanish + X-Zone on Wrexsoul later on-but, in a strange turn of events those two cronies of his got wiped out too.

You get Bum Rush in the WoR. Look for a little house on the world map. I think it's up north somewhere. There's another little house with a crazy old man in it. That's not the one :D

I didn't use the Moogle Charm at all in the Fanatics' Tower, but I equipped everyone in the party with Wall Rings instead. Most of the earlier fights are pretty easy, but it still gets really tough near the top, when the more powerful enemies can cast Merton and Quake to rough you up.

It's been my experience that it takes a frustratingly long time to pick up ZoneSeek and Golem from the Jidoor Auction House. I know it's just luck of the draw, really, but. . . man, I must have some bad luck. Trying to kill the Storm Dragon is also pretty tough, too, even after levelling up a bit.

EDIT: About what i90 said about the Bum Rush, it's actually (SPOILER)a cross made up of five trees to the northeast of Narshe. Walk into the middle of it, and you'll find Duncan's house, and he'll teach you the Bum Rush if you have Sabin in your party.

I voted for the Jidoor auction house, mainly because I forget that all the time. And it's annoying because it takes a while. I've had enough money to outbid that rich bastard for the chocobo, too, and it doesn't let me.

And El Mariachi, I always use Wall Rings, too. I don't even pick up the Moogle Charm.

What makes getting Umaro, Mog, and Gogo more optional than getting anybody else?

Gogo and Umaro are more optional than the others because I believe they were implemented as sort-of "special" characters, since:
1. Gogo has that Mimic ability which was first implemented in FFV(which is semi-useful to the point of mimicing characters using strong attacks, ie. Sabin using Bum Rush or one of the other characters casting Ultima or something)
2. Umaro...umm, I think he's just there as a beserk attacker
As for Mog? Well, since he appeared at the beginning of FFVI as part of the Moogle "battalions" which helped Locke save Terra from Gestahl's soldiers he's kind of a character(I found him in WoR, didn't bother with him in WoB), I would say he *is* a main character and should be brought in for some ease in the form of the Moogle Charm(which is cheating, per se-but not if you're doing something difficult like getting to the top of the Fanatics Tower, or doing a tricky part of Kefka's Tower, or just getting to the Red Dragon in Pheonix Cave). Well that and his "dance" attacks are useful sometimes.

But for those who just want to beat the entire game, well, the three of them are just there for the sake of completing FFVI inside and out.

About the main characters, umm, getting them is kind of semi-necessary to get through Kefka's Tower with realtive ease.

Technically everything between gettin the airship in the WoR and Kefka's Tower is a sidequest. You can finish the game with just Celes, Edgar and Setzer (you have to beef 'em up proper, though).

Cyan's dream would be the hardest, I think. Brontosaur hunting can be perilous as well - but that's levelling up and not actually a proper quest.

Fanatics tower for sure. It took me forever too get to the top, then when I did, a couple battles to kill Magimaster.

Once I spent a good amount of time fighting leevers in order to get enough money to outbid Papa on that airship piece.

I end up getting 1,000,000+ GP and going to the auction house.

Turns out you can't outbid him...

I'd say Jidoor auction house was the toughest sidequest, if you were allowed to outbid Papa that is.

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Technically everything between gettin the airship in the WoR and Kefka's Tower is a sidequest. You can finish the game with just Celes, Edgar and Setzer (you have to beef 'em up proper, though).

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Done it. (See, that's what you get when you cross an excellent game with a guy who had absolutely no life at the time.)

Damn Papa. It's rigged! I kept trying to buy the Chocobo, which if I remember correctly is only half a million, and they wouldn't let me bid again.

The Phoenix Cave gave me an awful lot of trouble first time through. I could hardly move from the first room without being killed.

Finding Master Duncan is a nightmare; I couldn've done it without the walkthrough.

2nd from it is the Auction House. Getting the Magicites to auction is a pain. Damn Hero rings...

I remember the first time I entered Phoenix Cave. My party's average level is 40-45. I was proceeding well and just when I was somewhere at the middle of nowhere, I found out that I have run out of tents (for the heal_both_party_at_one_shot_bug) and worst of all, I had only 20 potions left O_O!!!

I was grim striken; I didn't know what to do. My last save point? Uh...just after I tented about 1 minute ago. Backup save point? Uh...wtf? 4 days ago?

I realizedthat I have no choice. Upon seeing the 'weak magic' (fire 3, Flare..yada...), my saviour happened to be none other than Celes. We were retreating halfway and soon, everyone except Celes and Sabin was dead. I threw all my evade% stuffs at Celes (I have full Force Armor at that time I think) and have her Runic-Evade-Run all the way out.

2nd time I went in, I got a whole stock of potions (99), Fenix downs (99) and Tincture (99). We survived of course.

You might be asking how did I escape blow fish attack. I didn't. The blow fishes hit me everytime but as I said, Celes Runic-ed once every battle to gain mana enough to heal herself.

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Technically everything between gettin the airship in the WoR and Kefka's Tower is a sidequest. You can finish the game with just Celes, Edgar and Setzer (you have to beef 'em up proper, though).

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I think it went in this order: Celes ---> Sabin ---> Edgar ---> Setzer ---> etc.
Think you missed Sabin.

Bah, who needs the other 11? Sabin and Edgar can do the job =\, or at least that what i did. I didn't bring setzer tho, there's eomthing wrong with my emulator...

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The Eight Dragons/Crusader Magicite

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Tip: For Ice Dragon bring Umaro and watch some TV.
I was sooooo forunate to bring him up Narshe that time :)

The hard part is to find the dragons without a walkthrough tho (no, I didn't use walkthroughs at this part). Fighting them can be a pain at first (bah to Lightning Dragon) but with Celes, almost everything's fine.

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Fanatics Tower(AKA Magic Tower)

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What Flying Mullet said.

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Ebot's Rock(getting Strago's GrandTrain Lore magic)

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It should be annoying? Then my ROM is bugged. Oh yeah, I used Moggle Charm :P

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Cyan's Nightmare(Alexandr Magicite and Cyan's other swortechs)

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duuuuh *yawn*

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Narche Revisited: Getting Mog and Umaro, the Tritoch and Rangarok Magicite(or Cursed/Paladin Shield)

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Ragnarok Magicite(or Cursed/Paladin Shield)? Why is there an 'or' there? You can get both the shield and magicite. It's the SWORD :D and Magicite.

The Mog part was annoying with Moogle Charm (gosh, I must be addicted to it...). The option between the sword and magicite is annyoing too =\ There goes my 'perfect' game...

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The Odin Magicite

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Nothing much, except that I enjoyed searching for Offering there :)

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Triangle Island(acquiring the mimicing enigma known as...Gogo!)

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probably the most ridiculous of all. The bridge part was annoying (I want the treasure!), the falling pit is annoying, but the auction house is still the most annoying.

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Originally posted by Edgar
I think it went in this order: Celes ---> Sabin ---> Edgar ---> Setzer ---> etc.
Think you missed Sabin.

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Sabin's optional too. You only have to get Celes, Edgar and Setzer to finish the game.

I'll agree that the auction house is annoying. Why can't you exit if you don't see what you want? There's nothing worse than hanging out watching an auction on a Hero Ring or a Cherub Down. And the one time that I wanted to buy a Hero Ring all tha twas offered was Cherub Downs!! :aimmad:

Ban Hero Rings!! Ban Hero Rings!!

I would prolly give Setzer that incredible makeup (can't remember the equipments) tho.

The Phoenix Cave always creates problems for me. There are a lot of irritating random encounters in there, and it's a fairly long dungeon.

For some reason I always have trouble defeating the Katana Soul in the Ancient Castle to obtain the offering.

But I would have to say the toughest side quest is defeating the Storm Dragon immediately after finding Cyan in the WOR. I think it has more HP's than the dragon's in Kefka's tower.

sigh...
if i had to say, i voted for fanatics tower, cyan's nightmare, and ebot's rock.
Reasons why:
Fanatics Tower - takes too goddamn long to kill MagiMaster
Cyan's nightmare - DAMN Dr. Seuss characters! (three dream stooges) but that was before i learned X-Zone
Ebot's Rock - i brought my strongest party (sabin, locke, mog, edgar), but since i didn't bring strago along, the chest wouldn't move, so i must've collected about 3563 coral when i only needed about 12. :P

and if i had to include something else that wasn''t on the poll, i'd have to say THE hardest thing to do was kill goddess and doom in Kefka's tower. i fought poltergeist first and since the instant kill combo didn't work, i thought it didn't work on any of 'em. So doom kept killing me and when fighting goddess, she cast something like a Death Sentence that hits all my characters at once, and i didn't know Life3, and i killed her with Terra and Cyan (Shadow and Mog dead) when they were on the 01 seconds left mark.