7th Dragon III: Curse you, VFD!!

Remember when I promised in my last post that I would write again once I stood on the final boss' remains? Well, said final boss is still alive and breathing, to my utter irritation. Still, I didn't completely break my promise: although I'm not standing on its remains yet, I still killed it somehow. Twice, actually. So I'm perfectly entitled to write that post, all the more so as I have some burning and whirling feelings to get off my chest.

That bastard VFD!! I had pondered the meaning of its initials before, settling on something like "Very First Dragon" or "Very Final Dragon"; but I'm now convinced that it means "Vile F*cking Douchebag". How dare that boss pull off a stunt that no boss in the game had pulled out before, namely to boast several forms? And how dare Sega play such a nasty trick on me, subverting my expectations for that final fight? That's so underhand, that really is.

Mind you, that's my fault to some extent. I went into the fight mostly unprepared to test the waters, and was careless and silly enough to waste all my carefully saved Dragon Hatchlings during the first phase of the showdown—which I thought would be the only phase then, in my defense. That first phase was easy enough, but I was in for a nasty blow when witnessing the appearance of the boss' second form. I switched teams and soldiered on, finally managing to snatch a resounding victory after a most glorious Unison attack. Oh, the joy! I was ready to execute a victory dance, but then came the cursed third form! I totally crumbled on the spot, I swear I did. Then I picked up my shattered bits from the ground, put up a brave front and kept fighting, although I was starting to feel seriously wretched at that point.

Things had gone on nicely and smoothly enough until then, despite the blows to my morale inflicted by the boss' unexpected rises from the dead; but this last phase was bound to change the story. VFD 3.0 managed to wipe out my whole team with one powerful attack, forcing me to make another attempt at eating away its mammoth HP bar. The game was fortunately merciful enough to let me restart at the beginning of the third phase rather than force me to undertake the full showdown again, which I'm immensely grateful for. Alas, this was not enough to change destiny: beginner's luck was decidedly not with me back then and winning that fight on the first attempt was not meant to be.

I could have won, mind you. After two subsequent tries, I was starting to figure out VFD's patterns as well as tricks to work my way around them; and I'm pretty sure that I could have taken that pest down with a few more tries, despite my initial lack of preparation. The reason why I was forced to surrender was a mundane yet unescapable one: I had to set out for work, dear fellow gamers. Time to work hard after playing hard! Now obviously, I could have put the 3DS in sleep mode and resumed the fight once I was done playing slave to the wage; however, I wanted to get a better start and snatch a clean victory from VFD's jaws. Just you brace yourself, you filthy protean abomination! I'm coming back with a revamped team, maxed-up skills, better equipment and strategies up the wazoo. Oh, and a good amount of free time with no obligations looming on the horizon, obviously.

With that, dear fellow gamers, I'll see you again once my dragon counter is down to zero—for real this time. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!