All hangs in the balance… It is all or nothing… Are you ready? Let’s begin.

First, you’re in a menu with all of the characters on the left. You’ll be selecting an order for them to battle in. The first four are your initial battlers. After a tier of battles, if someone is KO’ed, Petrified, or Zombified, the next person in the line-up (from the initial line-up, person number five) will replace them in the next tier. After each tier, you’ll get lifted up to the next battle. Between these two tiers, you’ll retain some things:

– HP/MP

– Statuses (except a few)

– Espers (whether they’ve been used or not)

– Jumping characters (via Jump or Quetzalli)

Some things are not retained:

– Rage/Dance; in other words, you can select new ones in the next fight

– Doom

– Runic and Sky “statuses”

– Force Field

– Golem’s or Fenrir’s summoning effects

– Cyan’s Bushido bar

Of course, as I said earlier, characters are replaced at the end of the tier if in KO, Petrification, or Zombification. Still note, though, that if all four party members are in one of those three states simultaneously, it is still a Game Over. You set? Let’s do this.

Visage, Long Arm, Short Arm¶

Visage can use Sapping Strike, Magnitude 8, Quake, Dread Gaze (Petrify), Reverse Polarity, Protect, and Haste. The Long Arm only uses a basic attack, Blood Claw (Drains HP), and Shockwave. The Short Arm will only use a basic attack and Razor Gale, which hits for 50% more damage than the basic attack.

Begin the fight by first ridding yourself of that annoying Long Arm – the use Break or the Air Anchor work well enough. Putting Slow on the Short Arm will kinda-sorta put it out of commission.

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Visage can sometimes spam Shockwave after a powerful attack. Use Float so you can avoid Quake.

Now, toss up Hastega, Mighty Guard, Reraise, and Regen – you’ve got a fair amount of time after Hastega. Since these carry to the next battle, why not save time? Single-target Firaga a few times on the Visage and it will pretty much die right there. If you want, I suggest casting Float on everyone as well, to avoid the potential Earth-based attack upon Visage’s death.