Final Fantasy IX: Trance Kuja [Hard Mode-No Shared Abilities/Gear-No Deaths]

His true power has been awoken! Now there's no one, hero or goddess, who can defeat him! Battle on at: 0:14 Kuja doesn't have anything too fancy, he's just a straight level/gear check. He does damage and lots of it. He has Flare, Holy, Reflect, Curaga and Flare Star at his disposal. Most of the time (3/8) he will cast Flare, dealing huge non elemental damage to the target. Holy and Reflect are next most common (2/8), unless of course he already has Reflect on himself. Flare Star is his rarest attack (1/8) and for good reason. Let's break it down. Flare Star deals non elemental damage equal to Character Level * 35. At level 36, with 1.5 * Ally Damage, this is 1890. Dagger's sweating a bit. This damage cannot be mitigated in any way, but we can dodge it with Magic Evasion. To make matters worse, when Kuja's HP starts to run low, he can counter any action (including debuffs) targeted against him with Flare Star. This is why Steiner goes on standby after a while. We can't risk eating 2 Flare Stars. Sometimes he casts Curaga instead, which is honestly preferable as it only heals around 2300~3000. As soon as this fight starts we're in danger of a KO. Flare has a chance to KO everyone except Amarant at this stage, so we need to slap Shell on asap. This would be easy with Pearl Light or Mighty Guard, but Eiko's HP is too low to survive Flare Star (same reason Vivi isn't here) and White Wind can't heal as much as Chakra with Power Up, let alone heal MP. Now casting Shell with Dagger on everyone isn't very practical, as the duration is so short, so we have to use a new strategy, Steiner's break arts! Now the reason we haven't really seen them much this run is because they have terrible accuracy, 50% by default, but it feels a lot lower sometimes. I couldn't find a source saying the chance is modified by anything, but it seems unlikely it'd miss 10 times in a row at 50%. Either way, if they do land, they're very effective. Power/Magic Break reduce Strength/Magic by 25% and Armour/Mental Break reduce Defence and Magic Defence by 50%! They also stack, which is important to note here! The chances of KO if Kuja casts Flare with no mitigation are: Zidane very high, Amarant safe, Dagger medium, Steiner high. Flare with 1 Magic Break: All are safe but will require Dagger to heal. Flare with 2 Magic Breaks: Damage is low enough that Chakra can heal Zidane, Amarant and Steiner enough to avoid Flare Star killing them. This is very important to prevent the fight from dragging on for 20+ minutes. Whilst not crucial to the plan, I threw out that singular Armour Break for a laugh and it actually worked, which was incredible! With all this done, we can start methodically taking down Kuja's HP. If he targets Zidane or Amarant with Holy, we have Zidane Attack and Dagger queue Curaga, that way if Flare Star comes out, everyone will be fully healed after it and won't get taken out by Kuja's next attack. You have to be very quick inputting commands, Kuja's Speed is very high and inputting after Reflect whilst Dagger's ATB is charging can be too slow. If Flare hits Zidane, Amarant or Steiner, or Holy hits Steiner, we use Chakra on them first to get their HP over 1890, then input Attack and Curaga. If Dagger is hit with Flare, she must heal herself as she only has a 9 HP margin to survive Flare Star. I can't remember if Holy is safe to heal on Dagger with Chakra, but it might be. Quite frankly I should not have won this take, there were two very Sketchy James Moments TM, but after the pain that was Deathguise (and honestly all the failed attempts at this fight from frame 1 Flare or Magic Break whiffing 10+ times in a row) I feel like having some tension in the video helps convey how stressful this fight was. [Important Levels/Gear/Abilities] Zidane: 36 | Thief Hat, Chimera Armlet, Gaia Gear, Power Belt | Accuracy+, MP Attack, Bird Killer Amarant: 36 | Circlet, Bracer, Power Vest, Pumice Piece | HP +20%, Man Eater Dagger: 36 | Golden Skullcap, Jade Armlet, Light Robe, Pearl Rouge | MP +20%, Concentrate, Boost (forgot to swap this to Half MP back from when I had planned Dagger to attack lol) Steiner: 36 | Protect Ring | HP +10% [Run Restrictions] (See playlist description for details:    • Final Fantasy IX [Hard Mode-No Shared Abil...  ) • Hard Mode • 0.5 * Enemy Damage • 1.5 * Ally Damage • No Shared Abilities • No Deaths • No Broken Abilities • No Trance • Same level or lower (76) [Extra Credit] • No Items [Modifications] • Moguri Mod • Memoria Engine • PSX SFX • 100% Steal • AP gain modifier [Music Used] • Eclipse of the World (Menu) - Hyrule Warriors • Eclipse of the World - Hyrule Warriors • Eclipse of the World (Enemy Keep) - Hyrule Warriors • Eclipse of the World (Focus Spirit) - Hyrule Warriors