Another FFVI Question

[Slothy]

I don't even remember where you get the cursed shield to be honest because I always picked the Esper. Using the same method to easily uncurse the shield, you could teach several people Ultima with the Esper. And the stat boosts you would get with the Illumina are pointless. Any character at a decent level casting Ultima is going to be a nigh unstoppable killing machine anyway, and hit every enemy on screen doing it.

[ljkkjlcm9]

The stat increases of Illumina are great, and 256 battles is not a lot. You get the cursed shield in Narshe, in another building, just like you get ragnarok. Honestly, get the airship, go to narshe and get mog. Go to the phoenix cave, put mog in a party with moogle charm, then the other 4(Celes, Sabin, Setzer, Edgar) in the other, get Locke, then get the ragnarok sword and the cursed shield. Equip the cursed shield with a ribbon on someone in your party the rest of the game, and trade the sword for Illumina. It'll be a big difference maker for everything in the WoR. Plus anyone can equip Illumina with a merit award on them. And you really should fight over 256 battles, at least if you never run away or avoid battles.

And to me, magic has never been my thing anyways. I started with FFI which was so limited in magic, I got a bad taste for it. Either way, I uncurse the shield more for how amazing it actually is, than for the fact it teaches ultima.

THE JACKEL

[Zeromus_X]

I never understood why the cursed shield was "time consuming" to uncurse. Just equip it with a ribbon and continue the game. You'll kill everything before the time counts down and you won't be doing anything extra or going out of your way to uncurse it.

Heh, that might be true. However, when I play the game I never go through random encounters once I hit the WoR and get Mog. So I'm stuck with going to the Solitary Island if I want the Paladin's Shield.

Well that's just silly on your part. I never run from battle, and I only use the moogle charm on areas with multiple parties, or Fanatics Tower.

THE JACKAL

You think so? I've played the game probably over ten times, and sometimes I like speeding through the game to go through the story. It isn't necessary to level up in the game, so that leaves me with getting a new time record each playthrough.

Unless, you're talking about this combined with the Paladin's Shield, in which case nevermind.

[Slothy]

If we're talking about a matter of time saving practicality though and just getting through the game; spending the time you could spend uncursing the shield just to start learning Ultima, instead, equipping the Esper could easily lead to a full party or more learning the spell. Osmose pretty much guarentees you'll never run out of magic points, and if you equip a gold hairpin and gem box you'll be sitting pretty. I can't even think of a time I've seen Ultima do less than 9999 except with Gogo who's magic stat hasn't received any boosting at all when I get him (even then, doing 9200 instead of 9999 isn't exactly a huge difference). I'm not saying Illumina isn't a great sword, or that its stat boosts aren't great either, I'm just saying that by virtue of the game being so damn easy, you're better off spending the time learning Ultima to begin with. A party full of people who can cast Ultima every turn and keep themselves stocked with MP will kill just about anything in the game in a few turns. Getting the Illumina only makes sense if you're out to make the best party you can for completion sake. It's far from necessary when it comes to beating the game.

[ljkkjlcm9]

If we're talking about speeding through the game... beat it with just Celes Edgar and Setzer... I mean c'mon people, that was by far my fastest play through!

THE JACKEL

[Zeromus_X]

Okay, maybe I should have added I enjoy speeding through the game while still recruiting all characters and getting relatively nice equipment. Regardless, I didn't mean to sway the thread off-topic.

[blackmage_nuke]

I just find it plain immoral to turn a carcass into a sword.

And im lazy, but really it depends on the players playing style.

[evaile=B.mage]-[/evaile]

[theundeadhero]

Instead I'm just going to carry their dead carcass around with me and extract magic with it?

[blackmage_nuke]

Exactly!! That's how Ragnarok would have wanted it

[evaile=B.mage]-[/evaile]