I hate this game. :(

[Loony BoB]

I sold the blood swords.

I'm at the final boss now.

He beat me up pretty bad.

I DIDN'T KNOW.

[Wolf Kanno]

Guess you're going to have to beat him the old fashion way.

[black orb]

>>> I didnt need blood swords to beat the final boss..

[sharkythesharkdogg]

Try up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, start.......

[Evastio]

Ouch.

Well, I'm guessing you've trained up your weapons quite well, but not your magic.

To defeat the game with minimum amount of effort/training, I suppose train up Cure, Blink, and Berserk, beef yourself up with the latter two before using physical attacks, and Cure as necessary.

You kept Masamune and the Yoichi bow at least, right? You can use them to cast Haste 11 and Berserk 3, respectively.

Also, what version of FFII are you playing?

[Loony BoB]

The PSN version (PSP). I have Masamune and a couple of Yoichi bows, but only one trained sword user and the bow user also is my main curer (rank 12 cure as opposed to rank 7 for others). I have Guy wielding Rune Axe and Poison Axe, I think, and Leon has a Holy Lance. It's not an ideal setup at all given what I've been told I should have after reading a few FAQs, but oh well. I might go switch Holy Lance for Excalibur assuming it's still available to me, which I understand it is. I think Leon comes with a good head start for sword usage anyway. Beyond that, I don't have many things at a high level, even things like Protect are only around rank 5 or so. Blink and Berserk I've never used at all in this game. Well, I might have one person with Blink rank 2. Ha.

I may have to do some serious grinding. I beat the 'next hardest boss' for the last of the Genji gear so I didn't think this would be that much of a step up, and I actually didn't die in my last battle... I just gave up. I was at a bit of a stand-still where he ran out of MP so was just attacking. I had some people full-time healing but knew that a loss was inevitable as he was draining more HP out of me than I was hitting out of his health. I had a few Elixers and about 50 Ethers, but that's futile when you can't hit him for more than he heals. =| I guess I'll have to hit him a lot harder and a lot faster if I want to win before he runs out of MP in the next attempt. The need to level up spells like Blink, Haste, Protect, Ultima and Holy by using them repeatedly is kind of annoying, but I think that will have to be what I do.

Still, I play the game on the 30 minute bus journey from work, so there will be a lot of time for grinding over the coming days.

EDIT: How do you use those weapons to cast spells? I didn't know about that.

[Evastio]

You use weapons to cast spells by selecting the Item Command, then pressing up to access equipment on your Left and Right Hands, then selecting the piece of equipment. Only weapons can cast spells, though.

Actually, since you're playing the PSP version and not the PS1 or NES version, I think there's a way that you can beat the Emperor without any extra training whatsoever (keep in mind I've never tried this tactic out, but it should theoretically work).

You'll have to escape the final dungeon and buy 5-10 Blink and Berserk scrolls (if you already have that many you don't need to worry). Blink scrolls can be bought in Mysidia and Berserk scrolls can be bought in a secret shop in a waterfall in the Jade Passage. Once you've got those, face the final boss and use all of your Blink and Berserk scrolls (and use the Masamune as an item once to cast Haste 11), healing when necessary. The Blink scrolls will (hopefully) render his HP stealing physical attack useless and the Berserk scrolls will beef up your attack so that you can damage him easier. You'll still get hit by spells, but they'll be easy to heal seeing how you have a level 12 Cure spell. You might want to buy a few crosses to heal Curse spells, in case your magic defense isn't high enough.

[Loony BoB]

I've been leveling a few things recently after teleporting out. I don't know how many of the tricks for leveling work, but I'm just having them cast (the non-lethal) spells over and over again around Mysidia to up their level. I have Ultima at around L5-6, Berserk, Drain and Haste are all being leveled as well. I got Excalibur, too, but haven't used it much so Leon is still on Sword8 or something. But yeah, I'll definitely look into buying some Blink scrolls although I already have a fair few. I have 99 crosses I think, as I had a lot of money to spend. Also invested in 30 Elixirs to ensure I never run out of MP when in the final battle, since I can't use Osmose (unless I want to die). I've been able to hit pretty hard with Masamune against the enemies, once hit for 7,000, so hopefully I'll be able to significantly increase the amount of damage I did to the Emperor next time I face him. I think I'll be prepared in another trip or two on the bus so I can finally beat the game.

Then it's on to FFVI and FFIX for future bus journeys. It will be a very happy improvement for me, going by the chunk of each game I've played so far!

EDIT: Had another go after leveling Ultima and a few other spells up to L7 or so in roughly an hour of battling. Destroyed the boss. Yay, that's I, II, V, VII, VIII, X, XII and XIII I've beaten now! Starting VI next so I can spend more time on IX (since there is a card game and I will probably end up playing it for longer).

[ReloadPsi]

Guide dang it! I beat the end boss without Blood Swords the first time around. It took me about an hour. It was boring. So boring. So horribly boring.

[theundeadhero]

I did the same thing my first playthrough. It was on the NES version. I managed to still beat him after many many failures.

[Hollycat]

Since everyone plays this game differently it is hard for me to give you any advice. I personally use maria as a speargirl and beef her and guy up until I can end him.