Beating Omega in After Years?!

[DeadRinger1986]

Two parts to this post:

1) The After Years is underrated! I feel like FF4 in general was relatively highly-regarded, maybe not a 6 or 7 of course, but pretty well-respected. I totally agree, I thought it was one of the best of 1-5. My favorites in there are 2 and 4; I think that's probably a bit unusual. I love very long, pretty final dungeons with lots of bosses... and invested characters. But anyway, what I usually hear about FF4 is "meh the sequels suck." Here's why I think people say that: a) Interlude sucked. It was linear to the point of just listening to storyline while guiding your character through 2 or 3 -minute sections of just traveling somewhere. And it was like 30 min long. b) The first bunch of "stories" in The After Years CAN be tough to wade through. Some of them are quite linear, but the way they wrap together in the final story is a wonderful reward. Combining all those save files is like an old RPG-er in a candy store. And that final dungeon... SO huge, so fun, plenty of throwback to NES Final Fantasies, just plenty of good times down in there. For me The After Years was surprisingly great (oh also in terms of long-term team building, best game yet for this up to that point), even if took a long time to see the rewards. I've got, what, 30-some-odd team members with full libraries of weapons, armor, and abilities? That's gold.

2) Ok. Post title. So here I am in the middle of The Depths in The After Years, honestly pretty excited to see my old buddy Omega running around. He is the only boss I skipped over in any early title. In FF...2? He was just impossible to me. So I really wanna beat him here. Any strategies? The attack that gets me is "Meltdown." I can hold my own until that attack does 9999 damage to all characters, level 60 on average, shell and protect were still on (he hadn't removed them yet, which he can do). So what the hell? Could this be a simple matter of leveling even more so that it somehow does LESS than 9999 on everyone? Does one character have a resistance to it? Is there an armor for this? Is it fire-elemental? Man. Honestly though, another reason I love this game

PSP port, downloaded from PSN I think from a PS3.

If anyone can offer any thoughts, thank you, and I'm shocked anyone else has fought this guy recently :P

[Quindiana Jones]

Slowing it down is essential, so yeet Spider Silk asap to apply Slow. Keep Protect, Shell, and Haste up as much as possible, recasting after it clears them. Item cures are faster than magic cures.

Meltdown is a pain in the ass. IIRC, it deals Omega's current HP as damage, so there's no reduction or negation to mitigate beyond just smashing its health as low as possible as fast as possible. Bahamut does heaps of damage, Meteor is great, and Edge can throw trout without worrying about counters, which can ensure that he keeps his health pretty high. Omega is weak the Lightning but will counter Thundaga; can be worthwhile. Some of the better beatsticks are Holy type, which Omega resists, so switch out if you're using Excalibur.

Other than that, levelling up to get higher Max HP is the key.

[DeadRinger1986]

Some really good pointers, thanks. Had no idea about the current health thing.

This specific Omega actually has a great Fandom page too. More things I didn't know: Meteor goes through Reflect, and, crucially, Meltdown is a counter to using a Blue Fang. So. Three guesses what I used before he killed me.

Using those two facts, I spent about 50 minutes and almost all my vital items, realized I could win the battle of attrition if I didn't miss a move, and never saw Meltdown. Finally got him Bring on Nova Dragon...