Forums · Gau kicks ass.
And you don't even know it.
(Holy wall of text Batman. If you don't read these, turn back now.)
I'm replaying FF6 (the GBA version, if it matters) these days in preparation for Chrono Trigger DS' imminent release, so I figured I might as well dedicate a rant (well, another one, if you count the one I did in my top 30 games list) to this awesome game. Today's subject: a crash course on one of the most underestimated forces in any game ever.
Now, before I begin, I'd like to mention a policy of mine: I never exploit glitches or blatant programming oversights (unless they're completely unavoidable, like the evasion glitch). Everything else is fair game. What that means, in essence, is: Wind God Gau is off limits. And before you argue if it's an oversight or not, keep this in mind: Gau can't use the Merit Award in the PS1 version, and neither him nor Gogo can use it in the GBA version. That's a very Blizzard-like way to work around a glitch/oversight, but I'll let it slide.
So, who's the best character in the game? The answers vary a lot. Terra's a big favorite for the excellent equipment, a special that makes it a fantastic boss killer, and overall greatness in the magic department (yes, Magic's universal, but Terra's better than most with it). Locke's nice, though not as much as the 80000-damage-per-turn hype would have you believe. He still has exclusive rights to one of the game's best weapons in the Valiant Knife, though. Sabin's good, but not THAT good: he's a beginner's trap. Still, he gets Bum/Phantom Rush ridiculously early, which earns him points. Celes... for a character of her quality, she rarely ever comes back in the discussion, because pretty much everyone's aware she's a carbon copy of Terra, but with a worse special. Good thing the Phoenix Cave, Kefka's Tower and the Dragon's Den are all multi-party dungeons, which allow her to shine brighter.
But they all wish they were as good as Gau. Now, I'll admit it, some features of Rage can be turn-offs. Let's get them out of the way:
1. A Rager is uncontrollable
2. The Rage attack occurs only half the time
3. The intricacies of Veldt training make it time-consuming and difficult to get the good Rages
However, as written in GameFAQs' Sketch FAQ, "Rage is the scrawny kid with glasses few people like to talk to who'll later make more money that the rest of class '96 combined". The meaning here is twofold: Rage looks like crap to the untrained eye, but has more potential than anything else in the game, and Rage isn't much better than Blitz or Tools in the WoB, but becomes immensely powerful in the WoR. So in the end, many people give up on Rage too quickly before it starts getting really good, sometimes because there's only four party slots, sometimes because people don't bother training Gau beyond the first mandatory trip, so they're stuck with Stray Cat, Templar and Hazer/Cloud for the entire duration of the game, and lemme tell you, a 50% chance of using Thundara isn't going to strike fear in... whatever replaces the hearts the baddies in Kefka's Tower, let alone the Dragon's Den. This yields a predictable result... who wants some Gau Salisbury steak? Not me, because not taking a shower for 13 years doesn't yield a particularly nice scent. And adding herbs would be like spraying perfume in a hotel room that reeks of piss, it makes the smell even more intolerable.
Now, I just named three of the mainstay Rages you'll be relying on until you gain full control of the Blackjack. Stray Cat is especially famous for dealing four times the damage of a regular attack, which effectively multiplies Gau's damage output by 2.5. It's the strongest physical attack Gau will ever get his hands on, too, so good thing you get it first thing in the morning. However, I've learned to appreciate another very early offensive Rage: Marshal/Guard Leader, who gives Wind Slash. It's a bit weaker than Fira or Thundara, but it won't swap between ST and MT damage: it's fixed MT, and its damage isn't split when it hits more than one monster, which actually makes it stronger than Fira and Thundara. Of course, these two are better against a single foe or for nailing a weakness. And let's not forget Primordite/Acrophies, which brings Numblade, a clone of Stop, to the table. The big deal with this Rage is that you don't get an esper with Stop until the Magitek Research Facility, and several bosses before then, including Hell's Rider (if you consider it a boss - the GBA bestiary does), the Narshe Kefka fight and Dadaluma, are weak to Stop. So while Celes can humiliate Kefka by spamming Runic, Gau can take a dump on his make-up with Numblade. Oh, and finally there's Telstar/Satellite, which makes you immune to every status in the game.
With these you're set to last a while, but as I said, once you get full control of the Blackjack you'll want to go back and get some more rages. Anguiform's Aqua Rake/Aqua Breath, General's Cura (with inherent Safe), the purple Magna Roader's Bio (still with inherent Safe), Rhinox/Destroyer's Reraise (in the freaking WoB, need I say more) and Slam/Veil Dancer's Blizzara are all ones you want to grab, but the big prize you ABSOLUTELY WANT is Aspik/Aspiran's Giga Volt. How strong is it, you ask? Giga Volt has 110 power. Thundaga - not Thundara, ThundaGA - has the same properties, and 120 power. That's right, you get a barely weaker version of Thundaga with a good chunk of the WoB still left to go. Now you understand why that attack was so darn brutal when you went through the Serpent Trench (why, it almost OHKO'd my Gau the other day). Speaking of which, nice middle finger from the developers, the fact that this uber powerful Rage comes along two minutes after leaving the Veldt and not returning for a while. Notice a pattern yet? WoB Gau is based around using powerful spells of most any element (plus Stray Cat for physical).
The last part of the WoB has some interesting Rages that you might want to bring around for the Ultima Weapon fight. Ing/Outcast is the only undead Rage you'll ever want to use, because it uses Lifeshaver, Which is over twice as powerful as Drain (84 power vs. 38). Baskervor/Briareus uses Cyclonic, which takes away 15/16 of all the opponents' HP, just like Diabolos, the optional esper obtained after beating the Dragon's Den. However, unlike Diabolos, it DOES check for instant death immunity, which makes its usefulness go down seriously. If you know when to use it, though, it's definitely something you'll want to check out. Chimera is a slight upgrade of Anguiform: the former has instant death protection, the latter a Lightning weak.
Now, I'd like to dedicate a whole paragraph to one Rage in particular - the infamous Intangir. It absorbs all elements, is immune to every status in the game, and has inherent Float, Haste, Safe/Protect and Shell. And the special ability, Pep Up/Transfusion, fully heals one party member. This looks like some kind of insane stalling bull****, does it not? If you're thinking this is too good to be true, come and claim your prize. The thing with Pep Up/Tranfusion is that Gau ends up with a slight case of dead. And you can't solve the problem with one of the Life spells or a Phoenix down - he's as dead as a phone in a horror movie. Only after the battle can you revive the guy.
As for the Floating Continent, it houses two amazing Rages: Behemoth's Meteor (yes, THAT Meteor) and Ninja's Water Edge/Scroll. The latter is the strongest Water attack in the game in the SNES and PS1 versions, and is essentially a clone of Flood in the GBA version, where the Leviathan summon is, of course, stronger. If you're going to fight Ultima Weapon with Gau, you might want to make a trip to the Veldt for these - else, they can wait until the WoR.
Speaking of the WoR, Gau's purpose there isn't to use strong elemental attacks anymore: here it'll be playing defense, defense and more defense. The Magic Urn is the perfect example. This one, like Intangir, absorbs all elements and is immune to all statuses. Its special move? Curaga! Enemies will have an impossible time taking this guy down, especially if you're equipped with the Snow Scarf. Because that's something else... did I mention Gau gets the Snow Scarf? Gau gets the Snow Scarf. If you want a more offensive, yet very tankish, alternative, Woolly/Baalzephon is for you. It absorbs all elements except Pearl/Holy and Fire (the latter is actually a weakness, unless you have the Snow Scarf, which makes it a resistance), and the special attack is the excellent Blizzaga.
However, there is one Rage that shines above all the others. It's so good, if Gau only had this Rage and nothing else, he'd still be the best character in the game - the rest's just icing on the cake. I'm talking, of course, about NightShade/Rafflesia's Charm/Entice (I'll refer to it as just Entice from now on). It's a move that puts a sort of confusion status on the opponent... except immunity to confusion doesn't work here. In fact, there is no immunity whatsoever to Entice. If you hit the enemy with it, whether it's a useless Peeper or the final Kefka, or hell, anything in the Dragon's Den, the target is only going to attack itself or other enemies until either it or Gau dies. Oh, did I mention the Enticed enemy being hit by a physical attack doesn't end the status, unlike Confuse? There's only one way for an enemy to break Entice without dying, and that's for Kaiser Dragon and Omega Weapon to use up one of their extra lives (a mechanic meant to bypass the 65536 HP cap). And that's only in the GBA version, so in the other ones you're safe.
Also, it's worth noting that Entice has 80% accuracy against enemies with 0 magic evasion, which is the case for most everything in the game. Throw in the 50% chance of doing a physical, and you end up with a 40% chance of wrecking your opponent every turn until you actually do so. Given the unbelievable power of that move, 40% is odds I'll take anytime. Every game more complex than a platformer has a move so horrifyingly gamebreaking you wonder what the game designers were smoking, and in FF6 that move is, unlike the common perception would have you believe, NOT Ultima. Surprised, huh?
While the mechanics of Veldt training can make it hard to find NightShade/Rafflesia in there (especially since it's in only ONE formation in the entire game), here's a little trick to get that Rage really easily. When you get Gau back, go to Owzer's mansion. Only fight Rafflesia in there, and not any other enemy at all. Also make sure you haven't fought anything in Ebot's Rock (Hidon's dungeon) either. Go back to the Veldt, and eventually you should run into Rafflesia.
Of course, you can use Rages solely for inflicting damage, but in the WoR Magic really catches up to what you can do with Rage, so you're better off staying with defensive strategies. There are still two offensive ones worth noting: Retainer/Yojimbo's Shock (yes, General Leo's attack), which is the strongest non-barrier-piercing MT move in the game, and Tyrannosaur's Meteor, which is NOT the Meteor from the Magic command, but rather a much stronger version that can actually miss once in a while.
Conclusion: Gau owns your soul. It's able to keep up with the best of them early in the game, and later on it becomes a near-broken force. If you know how to use Rage properly, there's no reason why he shouldn't be in your main party all the time. So do the right thing and take Gau along with Mr. Thou already.
I'm replaying FF6 (the GBA version, if it matters) these days in preparation for Chrono Trigger DS' imminent release, so I figured I might as well dedicate a rant (well, another one, if you count the one I did in my top 30 games list) to this awesome game. Today's subject: a crash course on one of the most underestimated forces in any game ever.
Now, before I begin, I'd like to mention a policy of mine: I never exploit glitches or blatant programming oversights (unless they're completely unavoidable, like the evasion glitch). Everything else is fair game. What that means, in essence, is: Wind God Gau is off limits. And before you argue if it's an oversight or not, keep this in mind: Gau can't use the Merit Award in the PS1 version, and neither him nor Gogo can use it in the GBA version. That's a very Blizzard-like way to work around a glitch/oversight, but I'll let it slide.
So, who's the best character in the game? The answers vary a lot. Terra's a big favorite for the excellent equipment, a special that makes it a fantastic boss killer, and overall greatness in the magic department (yes, Magic's universal, but Terra's better than most with it). Locke's nice, though not as much as the 80000-damage-per-turn hype would have you believe. He still has exclusive rights to one of the game's best weapons in the Valiant Knife, though. Sabin's good, but not THAT good: he's a beginner's trap. Still, he gets Bum/Phantom Rush ridiculously early, which earns him points. Celes... for a character of her quality, she rarely ever comes back in the discussion, because pretty much everyone's aware she's a carbon copy of Terra, but with a worse special. Good thing the Phoenix Cave, Kefka's Tower and the Dragon's Den are all multi-party dungeons, which allow her to shine brighter.
But they all wish they were as good as Gau. Now, I'll admit it, some features of Rage can be turn-offs. Let's get them out of the way:
1. A Rager is uncontrollable
2. The Rage attack occurs only half the time
3. The intricacies of Veldt training make it time-consuming and difficult to get the good Rages
However, as written in GameFAQs' Sketch FAQ, "Rage is the scrawny kid with glasses few people like to talk to who'll later make more money that the rest of class '96 combined". The meaning here is twofold: Rage looks like crap to the untrained eye, but has more potential than anything else in the game, and Rage isn't much better than Blitz or Tools in the WoB, but becomes immensely powerful in the WoR. So in the end, many people give up on Rage too quickly before it starts getting really good, sometimes because there's only four party slots, sometimes because people don't bother training Gau beyond the first mandatory trip, so they're stuck with Stray Cat, Templar and Hazer/Cloud for the entire duration of the game, and lemme tell you, a 50% chance of using Thundara isn't going to strike fear in... whatever replaces the hearts the baddies in Kefka's Tower, let alone the Dragon's Den. This yields a predictable result... who wants some Gau Salisbury steak? Not me, because not taking a shower for 13 years doesn't yield a particularly nice scent. And adding herbs would be like spraying perfume in a hotel room that reeks of piss, it makes the smell even more intolerable.
Now, I just named three of the mainstay Rages you'll be relying on until you gain full control of the Blackjack. Stray Cat is especially famous for dealing four times the damage of a regular attack, which effectively multiplies Gau's damage output by 2.5. It's the strongest physical attack Gau will ever get his hands on, too, so good thing you get it first thing in the morning. However, I've learned to appreciate another very early offensive Rage: Marshal/Guard Leader, who gives Wind Slash. It's a bit weaker than Fira or Thundara, but it won't swap between ST and MT damage: it's fixed MT, and its damage isn't split when it hits more than one monster, which actually makes it stronger than Fira and Thundara. Of course, these two are better against a single foe or for nailing a weakness. And let's not forget Primordite/Acrophies, which brings Numblade, a clone of Stop, to the table. The big deal with this Rage is that you don't get an esper with Stop until the Magitek Research Facility, and several bosses before then, including Hell's Rider (if you consider it a boss - the GBA bestiary does), the Narshe Kefka fight and Dadaluma, are weak to Stop. So while Celes can humiliate Kefka by spamming Runic, Gau can take a dump on his make-up with Numblade. Oh, and finally there's Telstar/Satellite, which makes you immune to every status in the game.
With these you're set to last a while, but as I said, once you get full control of the Blackjack you'll want to go back and get some more rages. Anguiform's Aqua Rake/Aqua Breath, General's Cura (with inherent Safe), the purple Magna Roader's Bio (still with inherent Safe), Rhinox/Destroyer's Reraise (in the freaking WoB, need I say more) and Slam/Veil Dancer's Blizzara are all ones you want to grab, but the big prize you ABSOLUTELY WANT is Aspik/Aspiran's Giga Volt. How strong is it, you ask? Giga Volt has 110 power. Thundaga - not Thundara, ThundaGA - has the same properties, and 120 power. That's right, you get a barely weaker version of Thundaga with a good chunk of the WoB still left to go. Now you understand why that attack was so darn brutal when you went through the Serpent Trench (why, it almost OHKO'd my Gau the other day). Speaking of which, nice middle finger from the developers, the fact that this uber powerful Rage comes along two minutes after leaving the Veldt and not returning for a while. Notice a pattern yet? WoB Gau is based around using powerful spells of most any element (plus Stray Cat for physical).
The last part of the WoB has some interesting Rages that you might want to bring around for the Ultima Weapon fight. Ing/Outcast is the only undead Rage you'll ever want to use, because it uses Lifeshaver, Which is over twice as powerful as Drain (84 power vs. 38). Baskervor/Briareus uses Cyclonic, which takes away 15/16 of all the opponents' HP, just like Diabolos, the optional esper obtained after beating the Dragon's Den. However, unlike Diabolos, it DOES check for instant death immunity, which makes its usefulness go down seriously. If you know when to use it, though, it's definitely something you'll want to check out. Chimera is a slight upgrade of Anguiform: the former has instant death protection, the latter a Lightning weak.
Now, I'd like to dedicate a whole paragraph to one Rage in particular - the infamous Intangir. It absorbs all elements, is immune to every status in the game, and has inherent Float, Haste, Safe/Protect and Shell. And the special ability, Pep Up/Transfusion, fully heals one party member. This looks like some kind of insane stalling bull****, does it not? If you're thinking this is too good to be true, come and claim your prize. The thing with Pep Up/Tranfusion is that Gau ends up with a slight case of dead. And you can't solve the problem with one of the Life spells or a Phoenix down - he's as dead as a phone in a horror movie. Only after the battle can you revive the guy.
As for the Floating Continent, it houses two amazing Rages: Behemoth's Meteor (yes, THAT Meteor) and Ninja's Water Edge/Scroll. The latter is the strongest Water attack in the game in the SNES and PS1 versions, and is essentially a clone of Flood in the GBA version, where the Leviathan summon is, of course, stronger. If you're going to fight Ultima Weapon with Gau, you might want to make a trip to the Veldt for these - else, they can wait until the WoR.
Speaking of the WoR, Gau's purpose there isn't to use strong elemental attacks anymore: here it'll be playing defense, defense and more defense. The Magic Urn is the perfect example. This one, like Intangir, absorbs all elements and is immune to all statuses. Its special move? Curaga! Enemies will have an impossible time taking this guy down, especially if you're equipped with the Snow Scarf. Because that's something else... did I mention Gau gets the Snow Scarf? Gau gets the Snow Scarf. If you want a more offensive, yet very tankish, alternative, Woolly/Baalzephon is for you. It absorbs all elements except Pearl/Holy and Fire (the latter is actually a weakness, unless you have the Snow Scarf, which makes it a resistance), and the special attack is the excellent Blizzaga.
However, there is one Rage that shines above all the others. It's so good, if Gau only had this Rage and nothing else, he'd still be the best character in the game - the rest's just icing on the cake. I'm talking, of course, about NightShade/Rafflesia's Charm/Entice (I'll refer to it as just Entice from now on). It's a move that puts a sort of confusion status on the opponent... except immunity to confusion doesn't work here. In fact, there is no immunity whatsoever to Entice. If you hit the enemy with it, whether it's a useless Peeper or the final Kefka, or hell, anything in the Dragon's Den, the target is only going to attack itself or other enemies until either it or Gau dies. Oh, did I mention the Enticed enemy being hit by a physical attack doesn't end the status, unlike Confuse? There's only one way for an enemy to break Entice without dying, and that's for Kaiser Dragon and Omega Weapon to use up one of their extra lives (a mechanic meant to bypass the 65536 HP cap). And that's only in the GBA version, so in the other ones you're safe.
Also, it's worth noting that Entice has 80% accuracy against enemies with 0 magic evasion, which is the case for most everything in the game. Throw in the 50% chance of doing a physical, and you end up with a 40% chance of wrecking your opponent every turn until you actually do so. Given the unbelievable power of that move, 40% is odds I'll take anytime. Every game more complex than a platformer has a move so horrifyingly gamebreaking you wonder what the game designers were smoking, and in FF6 that move is, unlike the common perception would have you believe, NOT Ultima. Surprised, huh?
While the mechanics of Veldt training can make it hard to find NightShade/Rafflesia in there (especially since it's in only ONE formation in the entire game), here's a little trick to get that Rage really easily. When you get Gau back, go to Owzer's mansion. Only fight Rafflesia in there, and not any other enemy at all. Also make sure you haven't fought anything in Ebot's Rock (Hidon's dungeon) either. Go back to the Veldt, and eventually you should run into Rafflesia.
Of course, you can use Rages solely for inflicting damage, but in the WoR Magic really catches up to what you can do with Rage, so you're better off staying with defensive strategies. There are still two offensive ones worth noting: Retainer/Yojimbo's Shock (yes, General Leo's attack), which is the strongest non-barrier-piercing MT move in the game, and Tyrannosaur's Meteor, which is NOT the Meteor from the Magic command, but rather a much stronger version that can actually miss once in a while.
Conclusion: Gau owns your soul. It's able to keep up with the best of them early in the game, and later on it becomes a near-broken force. If you know how to use Rage properly, there's no reason why he shouldn't be in your main party all the time. So do the right thing and take Gau along with Mr. Thou already.
Not so much a wall of text as an extraordinarily long post.
Yeah, I remember forgoing Gau the first time I played through FF6, but now I've seen just how good he is. I trained him on the Veldt as much as possible, although I don't have the patience to do it for hours at a time (only about 40 minutes at a time mashing A with the speed button held down). In fact, I'm trying to train up all of my characters this time so that Kefka's tower and the final boss won't be so hard.
Except Setzer.
Yeah, I remember forgoing Gau the first time I played through FF6, but now I've seen just how good he is. I trained him on the Veldt as much as possible, although I don't have the patience to do it for hours at a time (only about 40 minutes at a time mashing A with the speed button held down). In fact, I'm trying to train up all of my characters this time so that Kefka's tower and the final boss won't be so hard.
Except Setzer.
Hey, don't underestimate Setzer. If you can go through the tedious process of swapping the Offering/Master's Scroll between him and Locke every time you change parties, he can be worth it, since the damage penalty doesn't apply to Fixed Dice. Better yet, since Fixed Dice's damage isn't related to your strength stat, you can focus on boosting solely his magic power, giving him the ability to excel both physically and magically.
No, the two I leave on the ship for Kefka's Tower (and the Dragon's Den for that matter) are Umaro and Gogo. Umaro because he's unquestionably the worst character in the game by far, and Gogo because no boosting stats via espers really hurts his damaging and curative abilities. In fact, I think Gogo's better kept as a second Rafflesia spammer for those multi-target boss fights.
No, the two I leave on the ship for Kefka's Tower (and the Dragon's Den for that matter) are Umaro and Gogo. Umaro because he's unquestionably the worst character in the game by far, and Gogo because no boosting stats via espers really hurts his damaging and curative abilities. In fact, I think Gogo's better kept as a second Rafflesia spammer for those multi-target boss fights.
I didn't read any of it because I don't need to be told Gau is amazing. He's my favorite character period and I go out of my way to make sure he has everything he needs to clean- no, eradicate- the floor.
Too many fun combinations I like using, though my favorite rage is definitely Io with Flare Star.
Too many fun combinations I like using, though my favorite rage is definitely Io with Flare Star.
...actually I completely forgot about Flare Star. It's good enough, since it hits all targets, but at the same time it's fixed damage, which can be a problem. In non-boss, non-Dragon's Den battles the most it'll ever do, Fire weakness notwithstanding, is 4720 against a few foes in Kefka's tower. I wonder how Firaga would fare in comparison, especially with enough esper boosts to magic power. Bosses? Entice is way, WAY better. Dragon's Den? Flare Star does a lot of damage with all the enemies with levels in the 60s and 70s, but not enough considering the place's extreme difficulty (read: that 50% chance of a weak physical is a pain in the ass if you don't use one of the uber Rages like Rafflesia or Magic Urn).
Edit: I just read Flare Star's damage was divided by the number of targets. Uh-oh, Firaga might be better more often than I thought.
Edit: I just read Flare Star's damage was divided by the number of targets. Uh-oh, Firaga might be better more often than I thought.
Entice gets boring after a while, though I still use it from time to time for the fun of it.
Also, I happen to be an immense fan of LLGs where Gau is not only king, but Flare Star is death in a can, and whereas Entice remains disgustingly broken Flare Star still whittles their health down quickly.
But back to boredom. I often use something other than the "statistically" ideal rage in many fights simply because while I love Gau I can get tired of seeing or using the same thing over and over and don't mind forsaking an elemental weakness or some other great attribute for some other powerful attack.
While I don't know the numbers off the top of my head I know I did a perfect stats game at one point and Gau was simply ridiculous.
Also, I happen to be an immense fan of LLGs where Gau is not only king, but Flare Star is death in a can, and whereas Entice remains disgustingly broken Flare Star still whittles their health down quickly.
But back to boredom. I often use something other than the "statistically" ideal rage in many fights simply because while I love Gau I can get tired of seeing or using the same thing over and over and don't mind forsaking an elemental weakness or some other great attribute for some other powerful attack.
While I don't know the numbers off the top of my head I know I did a perfect stats game at one point and Gau was simply ridiculous.