Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Cloud Strife Spheres Guide and Plans

Chronological order? What chronological order? Sigh. Honestly, I’d love to start from the beginning, but if I do that, I’ll probably end up not being able to post here for a long time again. Like I said in this post, I’m trying to go through my backlog of drafts and notes so I could turn them all into proper articles and post them already as soon as possible.

So I’ll talk about when I started playing the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia mobile game in another post. It was definitely a while ago though. Yeah, I have all sorts of notes and drafts for various topics, and a lot of them are from several months ago. 

My backlog of drafts and notes is no joke. Being able to post this one is hardly going to make a dent in said backlog. But it’s a start. And, hopefully, I can post many more to at least decrease the number even if it’s just little by little.

Favorite Final Fantasy Character

Anyway, back to the actual topic of this post - Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII (#ad) is one of my favorite characters in DFFOO. Not number 1 though. Currently, that title goes to Zack Fair. I’d say Cloud is more number 2 at the moment. Actually, now that I think about it, he’s consistently been number 2, so far. But, again, not the actual topic of this post, so let’s talk about that some other time.

Sphere System in DFFOO

However, there is a reason I started by saying I like Cloud. It’s because spheres aren’t really required in this game. They’re more of a luxury, and they’re a one-time use. You can’t get them back after giving them to a character. You could overwrite the sphere if you want to give the character a new one, but that still means the original sphere will be lost. Which is why the ideal thing to do is to either hoard them, or give them to your faves, or at least someone you’re likely to use as often as possible.

Well, for me, Cloud is a fave in this game, and I try to use him whenever I can, so I wanted to give him spheres.

Cloud Sphere Slots

Cloud can equip A (Attack), D (Support), and E (Jamming) spheres.

I actually looked through a list of currently available spheres to see which ones I could possibly give to Cloud.

A Spheres for Cloud

I thought Cloud should equip either an attack up (like Tifa Lockhart’s (from Final Fantasy VII) Critical Attack Long, which raises attack by 10% for 6 turns when dealing a critical hit) or max brave up (like Ace’s (from Final Fantasy Type-0) Break Hit Boost Long, which raises max brave by 10% for 6 turns when breaking target or attacking a broken target) sphere. 

In the end, I gave Agrias Oaks’s (from Final Fantasy Tactics) Full HP Boost A sphere to Cloud. It raises his max brave by 10% when his HP is max.

Would I have been better off giving him an attack up A sphere instead? I don’t know. I do know that I like seeing him get such a high max brave (I farmed him triple attack 108 and max brave 330 artifacts, too. Yeah, I like him enough to go through such trouble, and it was definitely a lot of trouble. Took days of farming before I could get those artifacts for him) even when he’s not one of the synergy characters. Besides, I feel he already hits hard enough anyway.

Do I regret giving him Agrias’ sphere? Well, really, there’s no point regretting it since it’s done already, and I can’t change what has already been done. I mean, I could give him another A sphere, but that would mean losing Agrias’ sphere, and I’d rather not do that. Besides, I think the sphere works well enough on him anyway. Or is that just me trying to justify what I’ve done? Honestly, I don’t know.

So far, the only issue I’ve really encountered with this sphere is with the “when HP is max part”. Cloud has no way of healing himself. So when an enemy decides to deal an HP attack and he gets hit, then he’ll lose the effect of Agrias’ sphere. And he won’t be able to get it back until the party’s healer can bring him back to full health.

From my experience, that usually only lasts for like 1 or 2 turns. Plus, enemies don’t HP attack every turn. So, for the most part, I have no problems keeping the effect of Agrias’ sphere active for Cloud. 

If it meant not losing Agrias’ sphere, would I give Cloud a different sphere? Hmm, that’s actually a hard question. Cloud has had this sphere ever since I purpled Agrias, which was during the time her Ex showed up on a banner alongside Faris’. That seems like forever ago. 

I think I got way too used to Cloud having this sphere. So I don’t know if I want to change it and give him something else. Maybe if I feel like he’s not dealing enough damage anymore, I might want to give him an attack up sphere instead. But, for now, I think he’s still doing pretty well with this sphere. 

E Spheres for Cloud

Yeah, the D sphere slot should have been next, but there’s a reason I’m starting with the E slot instead. That reason is because Cloud already has an E sphere, but he still has no D sphere.

There’s a lot of E spheres, but I feel that a lot of them aren’t really a good fit for Cloud.

Let’s take the Emperor’s Debuff Success Attack Long sphere, for instance. It raises attack by 10% for 6 turns after inflicting a debuff. The only way for Cloud to inflict a debuff is for him to paralyze an enemy. 

But you only get a guaranteed paralyze after using his second skill, Finishing Touch. The rest of the time, it’s up to RNG whether you can paralyze an enemy with Cross Slash. 

The sphere’s effect does last for 6 turns, but I still feel it’s a bit too unreliable and that something like this would be better on another character, particularly ones who can easily inflict debuffs with most, if not all, of their skills, so the sphere can be active all the time.  

I considered giving him spheres like: 

• Vincent’s Full HP Critical Attack Down - inflict 30% attack down for 6 turns when HP is max and a critical hit occurs
• Fran’s Full HP Break Hit Boost Down - inflict 30% max brave down for 6 turns when HP is max and breaking target or attacking a broken target  
• Ultimecia’s Full HP Critical Guard Down - inflict 30% defense down for 6 turns when HP is max and a critical hit occurs
• Setzer’s Full HP Critical Speed Down - inflict 20% speed down for 6 turns when HP is max and a critical hit occurs
• Tidus’ Full HP Break Hit Speed Down - inflict 20% speed down for 6 turns when HP is max and breaking a target or attacking a broken target

to give him even more utility. 

But I couldn’t quite decide which one would be best for him. Perhaps the speed down ones were the best since he could be quite slow.

In the end, I decided to give him Faris’ Full HP Critical Poison All sphere, which lowers enemy brave by 30% of their initial brave at the start of their turn for 6 turns when HP is max and a critical hit occurs.

This sphere’s poison is invisible, meaning you won’t see it as a debuff on the enemy. It also poisons all the enemies in a wave even if Cloud only uses his Cross Slash, Finishing Touch, Critical Crush, or HP+.

30% of an enemy’s initial brave really isn’t that much, but it still pleases me to see the poison effect happening anyway. And I like how all the enemies are poisoned even if Cloud only attacks one of them.

So, would I have been better off giving him the other spheres I’ve been considering like Setzer’s or Ultimecia’s? Well, I don’t know about that. I do know that all those other spheres inflict a visible debuff on the enemy, so they could conflict with other characters who already give those debuffs. Or those other characters could inflict a higher version of a debuff, which would overwrite the sphere’s weaker version.

Do I regret giving Faris’ sphere to Cloud? Nope. When I was looking through the list of available E spheres and trying to decide which one was best to give to Cloud, Faris’ sphere was the one that really caught my attention. 

Admittedly, I had the notion that the 30% poison would be a lot more, but, well, the same could be said for the other spheres anyway. The fact is they’re really not necessary for anyone to have. They just give some added utility, which is good and which was what I really wanted for Cloud anyway. 

Just like with Agrias’ sphere, the only issue I’ve really encountered with this one is with the “when HP is max” part. So, just like with Agrias’ sphere, I’d need to wait 1 or 2 turns for the party’s healer to get Cloud back to max HP so he can get back to poisoning the enemies again. But the sphere’s effect lasts for 6 turns, so it’s really not much of an issue at all.

If it meant not losing Faris’ sphere, would I give Cloud a different sphere? Hmm, well, I just looked through the list of currently available E spheres (there were a number of new ones added since I last checked), and I’m not really seeing anything that seems to be better than Faris’. I think I’ll be sticking with this one for Cloud.

D Spheres for Cloud

Like I said, I don’t have a D sphere for Cloud yet although I’m hoping to be able to give him one soon, so I can finally complete all his sphere slots. 

There’s a lot of D spheres, but a lot aren’t good for Cloud at all, particularly the ones that require the user to “grant a buff”. Cloud doesn’t grant any buffs, so those kinds of spheres are automatically out of the question for him.

Here are the list of D spheres that I’m considering for him:

• Sazh’s Critical Attack All Long - raises party’s attack by 5% for 6 turns when dealing a critical hit

5% attack isn’t that much, but it’s for the entire party, and it seems to be the norm for D spheres anyway. Cloud has no trouble dealing critical hits, so he should have no problems keeping this sphere active. Of course, the problem is that I would have to pull for Sazh’s Ex, and I’m not sure yet if I want to purple him as I haven’t even taken the time to really look at his updated kit.

• Wakka’s Buff Attack Boost All 5 - raises party attack and max brave by 5% when 5 or more buffs are active

If I’m understanding this correctly, the “5 or more active buffs” refers to the entire party, so as long as there are 5 or more buffs, this sphere’s effect should activate. Besides, Cloud himself already gets a lot of buffs, so it should be easy enough for him to use this sphere. Plus, even if the increase is only 5%, this one actually raises both attack and max brave, which is great. It doesn’t even have a turn duration, meaning it will last as long as there are 5 or more buffs.

Just like with Sazh though, I would have to pull for Wakka’s Ex. Apart from not being sure if I want to use scarce ingots to purple him (assuming I even get his Ex in the first place), his Ex shows up with Aerith’s, if I’m remembering correctly. The problem here is that I already have Aerith’s Ex, so I can’t really justify using gems on this banner. Knowing my luck, I’d just end up with Aerith’s entire kit even though I already have her fully MLB.

• Ramza’s Buff Base Boost All 3 - raises party initial brave and max brave by 5% when 3 or more buffs are active

It’s similar to Wakka’s sphere, but this one only requires 3 or more active buffs. This one also increases the party’s initial brave and max brave as opposed to attack and max brave. Is it better to raise initial brave or attack? I guess attack would be better. 

But there’s nothing wrong with raising initial brave. For instance, Zack will certainly benefit from an increase in initial brave since his Ex’s barrier shield is based off his initial brave.

At the moment, I’m leaning towards this sphere, primarily because I already have Ramza’s Ex, so at least I don’t need to pull for it. I do need to MLB it though.

• Cait Sith’s Buff Boost All 3 - raises party max brave by 5% when 3 or more buffs are active

This is similar to Ramza’s sphere, but this one only raises one stat. This is another option for Cloud, like in case I decide not to purple Ramza’s sphere or something, because I already have Cait’s Ex. Ended up with like 3 copies of this thing while trying (and failing) to pull for Balthier’s Ex.

Currently, I have Cait at Ex+ 0/3. But I don’t have any plans of purpling him anytime soon, especially since I managed to lock him on to Dimensions’ End Entropy Tier 5 in his current state. At the moment, I have a lot of other supports to use, so it’s not like I really need him for anything.

• Deuce’s Buff Attack Up All 3 - raises party attack by 5% when 3 or more buffs are active

This is basically Cait’s sphere except this one raises attack instead of max brave. This is another option for Cloud, but I probably won’t be giving this to him unless we somehow get a surplus of ingots.

I have Deuce’s Ex, but I haven’t even given her a book. It’s unfortunate, but she’s already been outclassed by the likes of Rosa and Y’shtola especially since she can’t even heal. At least Cait can heal, and he is a physical support, so he can see some use in fights where magic is heavily resisted.

• Barret’s Break Hit Boost All Long - raise party max brave by 5% for 6 turns when breaking target or attacking a broken target

This is basically Cait’s sphere except with a different condition for activation. 

I don’t have Barret’s Ex. Well, I didn’t pull on his banner with Tifa since I already had Tifa’s Ex. And I don’t know if his Ex will ever show up again. 

Even if it does, I don’t think I’d want to pull for it since, like I said, this is basically Cait’s sphere, and I already have his Ex, so I don’t really need this.

• Freya’s HP Up All - raise party's Max HP by 10%

I don’t know if it’d be better to raise the party’s HP (well, I did get Leviathan’s Life Up passive from the Leviathan Summon Board) as opposed to raising stats like attack and max brave instead. I mean, of course, it’d be good to raise all the stats, but if I had to choose, I don’t know which one to go for.

I guess there’d be plenty of time to think about this since Freya’s Ex hasn’t even shown up yet. Then again, there’s no guarantee I’d get it unless I decide to pity it, but I haven’t decided yet if I want to do that. We’ll see, I guess.

•  Lyse’s Break Hit Attack All Long - raise party’s attack by 5% for 6 turns when breaking target or attacking a broken target

This is basically Deuce’s sphere, but with a different activation condition. I don’t have Lyse’s Ex. I didn’t pull for it when it showed up since I already had Y’shtola fully MLB. 

Since it’s so similar to Deuce’s sphere, and I already have Deuce’s Ex, I don’t think I’d bother pulling for this even if it shows up in a future banner.

• Beatrix’s Critical Boost All Long - raise party max brave by 5% for 6 turns when dealing a critical hit

I already have Beatrix’s Ex, and I’m considering purpling (need more ingots!) her, so this is another possible sphere for Cloud.

Hmm, so if I had access to all these spheres and ingots aren’t an issue at all, then it would be a choice between the following:

• Wakka - since he can raise 2 stats, attack and max brave
• Ramza - since he can raise 2 stats, initial brave and max brave
• Freya - max HP up seems pretty good, too
• Sazh - for attack up. He shows up later than Lyse and Deuce, so he might be better than those 2 although I’d definitely need to take a closer look at his kit to know for sure
• Beatrix - for max brave up. I’m pretty sure she’s better than both Barret and Cait Sith. Or maybe I’m just being biased? LOL

Notes:

• pics are from Amazon.com; link shown above
• screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account
• originally published on my main Tumblr blog on Feb 29th, 2020 11:29:58pm

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Lufenia Quests with Cloud Strife and Sephiroth

Lufenia Quests are currently the hardest kind of fight in the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia (DFFOO) mobile game. They’re level 200. Aside from the usual gems and tickets, winning will give you 20 High Guard Tokens, which can be used to buy High Armor.

The battles featured in this post include either Cloud Strife (from Final Fantasy VII) or Sephiroth (from Final Fantasy VII) as part of the team lineup.

Lufenia Quests Table of Contents

The Lufenia fights featured in this post are the following:

1. The Terse Turk
2. Mechanized Sentry (Guard Scorpion Raid)
3. Roses of May
4. Thrall of Darkness
5. Storming the Citadel (Mission Dungeon)
6. Tree for the Void

Introduction

After I ended up having to pity the Burst or BT weapons of both Cloud and Sephiroth, I wanted to use them as much as possible, especially in Lufenia fights.

I talk more about this in another post, but it was a back-to-back pity. Spent a total of 240,000 gems. It would have been more if their banners didn’t come with a free multi-draw as part of the game’s winter holidays celebration.

Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII

My Cloud is Level 80 and Crystal Level 80. His 15cp, 35cp, Manikin weapon, World of Illusions weapon, Ex, and LD are fully MLB. His Ex is at Ex+ 3/3 or Purple. He’s currently equipped with his Burst weapon and his High Armor. All of his Boards have been completed. He has his Bloom Stone.

He has 3 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330 Artifacts and

3 Attack 108 with Debuff Attack Up★★ (Raises ATK by 5% when an enemy is debuffed) Artifacts.

My plan was to equip Cloud with triple 108/Debuff Attack Up★★ whenever I have him in a party with chars who are able to constantly inflict a lot of debuffs. However, I usually just end up equipping him with triple 108/330 anyway.

Cloud is equipped with the following Spheres:

• Tifa Lockhart’s (from Final Fantasy VII) Critical Attack Up Longer A Sphere

Raises ATK by 10% for 6 turns when dealing critical hit

• Sazh Katzroy’s (from Final Fantasy XIII) Critical Attack All Longer D Sphere

When dealing critical hit:
• Raises party’s ATK by 5% for 6 turns

• Faris Scherwiz’s (Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon from Final Fantasy V) Full HP Critical Poison All E Sphere

Grants effect for 6 turns that reduces enemy’s BRV by 30% of individual INT BRV at start of enemy’s turn when dealing critical hit while HP at MAX
*Does not stack with same sphere

Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII

My Sephiroth is Level 80 and Crystal Level 80. His 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD are fully MLB. His Ex is at Ex+ 3/3 or Purple. He’s currently equipped with his Burst weapon and his High Armor. All of his Boards have been completed. He has his Bloom Stone.

He has 3 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330 Artifacts and

3 Attack 108 with One-Winged Angel Boost★★ (Raises INT BRV, MAX BRV, ATK, DEF by 5% if HP is MAX at start of last wave) Artifacts.

If the fight only has 1 wave, then I equip him with triple 108/One-Winged Angel Boost★★. Otherwise, I go for triple 108/330.

Sephiroth is equipped with the following Spheres:

• Jecht’s (from Final Fantasy X) Critical Base Attack Up Shorter (RF) A Sphere

When dealing critical hit:
• Raises INT BRV, ATK by 4% for 3 turns

• Jack’s (from Final Fantasy Type-0) Critical Attack Up Shorter Power A Sphere

When dealing critical hit:
• Raises BRV damage by 5%, ATK by 5% for 3 turns

• Yuri’s (from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates) Full HP Attack Boost Up A Sphere

Raises own MAX BRV, ATK by 5% while HP is MAX

The Terse Turk Lufenia Quest

The The Terse Turk is the event that introduced Rude (from Final Fantasy VII) as a playable char in this game. Sephiroth's Burst was also featured on Rude's banner (this was where I ended up pitying said BT), which meant he was also synergy for all the The Terse Turk quests.

The The Terse Turk Lufenia Quest was the first Lufenia fight wherein I used Sephiroth. His team mates were Rude and Gladiolus Amicitia (from Final Fantasy XV). Both Rude and Gladio are fully MLB and Purple, including their LD. All of their Boards have been completed and they have their Bloom Stones. Gladio has triple Attack 108 with Max Brave 330 Artifacts while Rude has 1 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330 and 2 Attack 108 with Max Brave 200 Artifacts. Gladio is equipped with the following Spheres:

• Oerba Yun Fang’s (from Final Fantasy XIII) Break Hit Attack Up Longer (RF) A Sphere

When inflicting Break or attacking target afflicted with Break:
• Raises own ATK by 4% for 6 turns    

• Gabranth’s (Noah fon Ronsenburg from Final Fantasy XII) Critical Resist All Shorter (RF) B Sphere

After dealing critical hit:
• Reduces party’s BRV damage taken by 4% for 3 turns

• Garnet Til Alexandros XVII’s (from Final Fantasy IX) HP Heal Attack Up Longer (RF) C Sphere

When recovering own HP:
• Self: Raises ATK by 4% for 6 turns

I talk more about this in another post, but am really very pleased to have been able to get the win with this team.

Mechanized Sentry (Guard Scorpion Raid) Lufenia Quest

The Mechanized Sentry (Guard Scorpion Raid) is the event that came with the introduction of Cloud’s LD and Burst. The second banner of this event was where I ended up pitying Cloud’s BT.

The Mechanized Sentry (Guard Scorpion Raid) Lufenia Quest is the first time I used Cloud in a Lufenia fight. This is Sephiroth’s second Lufenia battle. I brought Rude as my third char because the enemies here loved to HP attack. Rude heals, he batteries, and he even provides some good auras and buffs for the party.

I talk more about this in another post, but I’m super pleased that I was able to get the win by using both Sephiroth and Cloud in the same team. Even managed to bring in Rude for a full Final Fantasy VII (#ad) party.

Roses of May Lufenia Quest

The Roses of May is Beatrix’s (from Final Fantasy IX) Lost Chapter event. For the Lufenia Quest of this event, I saw a lot of clears that featured Cloud, but the only one with Sephiroth that I saw also included Beatrix. I couldn’t find any clears that included both Seph and Cloud in the same team. Since this is Beatrix’s event, she has synergy stats, but I couldn’t use her because I didn’t have any more resources to spare to pull for her LD.

After reading more info about this fight as well as watching a few vids, I decided to try it with a team comprised of Cloud, Sephiroth, and Lightning (Claire Farron from Final Fantasy XIII).

My Lightning is Level 80 and Crystal Level 80. Her 15cp, 35cp, Manikin weapon, Ex, and LD are fully MLB. Her Ex is at Ex+ 3/3 or Purple. She’s currently equipped with her Burst weapon and her High Armor. All of her Boards have been completed. She has her Bloom Stone.

She has triple Attack 108 with Max Brave 330 and triple Attack 108 with Initial Brave 170 Artifacts.

Lightning is equipped with the following Spheres:

• Prishe’s (from Final Fantasy XI) Weak Attack Boost Up Shorter A Sphere

When attacking target’s weakness:
• Raises own MAX BRV, ATK by 10% for 3 turns
*Does not stack with same sphere

• Ardyn Izunia’s (Ardyn Lucis Caelum from Final Fantasy XV) Break Raging Attack Boost Up A Sphere

When inflicting Break:
• Raises MAX BRV, ATK by 2% up to 5 times, once per turn
*Does not stack with same sphere

• Hope Estheim’s (from Final Fantasy XIII) Buff Success Attack Boost All Shorter D Sphere

After granting buff:
• Raises party’s MAX BRV, ATK by 5% for 3 turns
*Does not stack with same sphere

Anyway, for this fight, I brought Penelo’s (from Final Fantasy XII) and Rude’s Calls for healing, in case things go wrong, as well as Reno’s (from Final Fantasy VII) for the debuffs. I chose Ifrit as my Summon because ideally, the bosses shouldn’t be getting any turns. I borrowed a friend support Amidatelion (from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers) for their ability to delete the turns of all enemies.

Right after Lightning's first move, I switched her out for the friend Amidatelion to delay the bosses as much as possible.

Cloud was so slow and his Ex charges fast so there were no issues with just spamming his skills every time he actually got a turn. What worried me was when the orbs were there and he needed to be able to move to dispel, but he was so freaking slow and Lightning just kept taking all the turns. His dispel and turn delay via LD helped a lot though. He also dealt lots of damage whenever he actually got the chance to move.

Sephiroth was... there. His damage was pretty meh. I guess the debuff from Scintilla and his speed down aura helped a bit. I mostly spammed his moves too although I used the occasional HP++, particularly when his Ex gauge was nearly full. Probably wouldn't have mattered much if I spammed his skills more though. He was faster than Cloud once he was at max Jenova stacks. Would have been better if Cloud was faster though so he could dispel more.

Lightning was the star of this team. She did most of the damage. She also took most of the turns so I had to use her HP++ a few times so as not to run out of skills. Also had to be super careful with her, particularly when the orbs were up because she just takes so many turns in a row, which causes the orbs to tick down, so it was necessary for Cloud to also be able to move to increase the count. Ended up having to summon Ifrit when one orb was at 1 because Cloud wasn't set to be able to move anytime soon.

The bosses only managed to take 2 turns. The first time - the boss got to move freely. I was debating Summoning to prevent her from moving, but I thought, surely it wouldn't be so bad since this would be her first turn since the fight started. So I let her have a turn. It was bad. She dealt so much brave damage that Lightning nearly got broken. As if that wasn't enough, she followed that up with an HP attack that nearly killed Lightning. Had Seph use Penelo's Call as soon as he could move. Since Lightning took so many turns, she was back to full HP before Penelo's Call effect ended.

The second time the boss got to move, I only let it happen because she was currently paralyzed. But - argh! She healed herself for like 250k. Eff! After that, I decided not to let them move anymore, especially if they weren't paralyzed.

Was debating which Burst to use - Cloud’s or Lightning’s. Didn't bother considering Sephiroth's because I didn't think his damage would be enough. Went with Cloud because both orb counts were low already, and I worried Lightning would take more turns after Burst.

Lightning and Seph didn't deal that much damage in the launches during Cloud's Burst mode due to not having any battery, and I had to brave attack for a few of the launches just to get more brave. So I opted to use Cross Slash+ instead of another Finishing Touch. Another Finishing Touch before Burst mode ended gave Cloud the option to use another Cross Slash+ after his Burst. Cloud managed to dispel all the buffs by the time his Burst mode ended so I really needed to finish the fight soon. Was also running out of turns for the turn count requirement.

Thankfully managed to win and get all the mission requirements.

Sephiroth was the one who dealt the killing blow on the last remaining boss.

Really glad I was able to make this team work.

Thrall of Darkness Lufenia Quest

The Thrall of Darkness is Xande’s (from Final Fantasy III) event. I was rather worried about the Lufenia Quest of this event because you needed dark damage in order to increase the count of the Lufenia orbs. The problem was that I didn’t have any dark chars built. 

Xande would have been perfect since this is his event, so he even has synergy stats. He’s also apparently the only char (so far, at least) who can Imperil enemies and Enchant the party with the dark element. So he would have been a great addition to my roster. Actually, my plan had been to pull on the Thrall of Darkness banner. Aside from all of Xande’s weapons, Cloud’s Burst was also featured there. 

Unfortunately, what happened was that I ended up pitying Cloud’s Burst on one of the banners that also featured his LD. So now I didn’t have any more resources to spare for Xande, especially since I followed that Cloud pity with another pity on the banner with Sephiroth’s Burst.

So I’ve been looking up vids and info about this Lufenia Quest, and thankfully, it looks like it’s possible to win without using a dark char. But aside from not having any dark char, I also wanted to use both Cloud and Sephiroth for this fight. I wasn’t able to find a vid featuring those 2 together, so I had to come up with my own team comp.

For this Lufenia Quest, I found myself trying Cloud, Lightning, and Sephiroth again. Well, since it worked so well last time on Beatrix’s Lufenia Quest, I was hoping that it would work just as well for this fight too.

For my Summon, I had no choice but to bring Diabolos for his dark damage so I had some way of dealing with the orbs. For Calls, I found myself bringing Rude’s and Penelo’s again for healing, just in case, and Reno’s for the debuffs. For my friend support, I was debating between Vivi Ornitier (from Final Fantasy IX) for more orb control and Cloud with LD and Burst for more damage. In the end, I decided to try with Vivi first.      

The Thrall of Darkness Lufenia Quest has 2 waves. For the first wave, I spammed Cloud’s and Sephiroth’s skills. I used Lightning’s skills sparingly though, mostly using her HP+ unless it was a free skill. Used 1 Cloud LD, 2 Seph LD, and 0 Light LD. Lightning and Cloud only attacked the main boss. I had Sephiroth deal with the add-ons if they needed to be broken.  

For the second wave, I had to reset once because I let one enemy attack. Things were actually going well although it was pretty nerve-wracking trying to hurry and get the enemies to below 80% to get rid of the orb. Managed it, but the red aura was annoying me because it was wasting my delays unless it was via break. 

The in-game info didn't mention anything about how to get rid of them, so I thought letting them attack while paralyzed might be the way, but that didn't work. Maybe actually letting them attack might get the aura to disappear. I thought, how bad could one attack be? And I did have Rude’s and Penelo’s Calls for healing. So I let them attack. Big, big mistake. The attack killed Sephiroth and Lightning. Cloud survived, probably because of synergy stats. Note to self: find more info about the fight first before trying it.

So I reset and resolved never to let the enemies get a turn unless they were paralyzed. Like before, I managed to get the enemies below 80% to get rid of the orbs. A few turns after the orbs appeared for the second time, I switched out Sephiroth for the friend support Vivi that I borrowed. 

I actually debated using Seph’s Burst just for the effect to help with delaying the enemies, but I didn't think the damage would be enough. Cloud moved right after Vivi so I had him use his Burst already because the enemies were moving after him. I didn't want to summon yet since Vivi was still there to help with the orbs. However, I did end up summoning a few turns after Cloud's Burst mode ended even though Vivi was still there since by then, the enemies were nearly dead anyway.

Vivi helped with the orbs. His damage was okay enough. With him there, I didn't have to worry about the orbs. I ended up worrying more about the health of my party. I had Lightning use Rude's Call, but it wasn't enough. Too bad I had Sephiroth equip Penelo's Call. Should have given it to Cloud instead. It didn't really matter though as long as the enemies didn't attack or were currently paralyzed if they did get a turn.

Lightning was really, really good, as always. Her being able to rebreak helped a lot when the enemies had the red aura since that was the only way to delay them. She dealt so much damage and took all the turns. Had to use her HP+ a few times so she won't run out of skills so soon. She still basically ended up running out anyway. Good thing the fight was nearly over by then.

Sephiroth dealt decent enough damage, I guess. Would I have been better off bringing either Kurasame Susaya (from Final Fantasy Type-0) or Amidatelion instead of him? Yeah, definitely, especially since Kurasame inflicts a debuff that increases HP damage taken. Even Amidatelion provides more utility than him since they can delete the turns of enemies. But Seph did help me save from having to use Lightning's skills on the first wave since I spammed his instead. And the debuff from his LD was useful enough, I suppose?

Cloud was so, so slow. I feel like he hardly got to move since he still had plenty of skills left over, and I wasn't even trying to save them. At least he got to deal a lot of damage every time he did get a turn. His paralysis helped a lot too. Should have spammed his LD more before the red aura showed up. At least it was also helpful in removing the shields since it dealt a lot of damage.

Super glad I was able to win without having my own dark char.

Wonder if I can do the next Lufenia Quest with this same team? Really want to use Seph and Cloud as much as possible since I pitied their Bursts, especially Sephiroth because at least I got to use Cloud on all his events, but for Seph, I literally only got his Burst right after pitying Cloud's, so by then I was done with his and Ciaran's (from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles) Lufenia Quests.

Storming the Citadel (Mission Dungeon) Lufenia Quest

I found this one of the worst Lufenia fights ever. I absolutely loathe this freaking quest. Oh, I have no doubt that I wouldn’t hate this battle half as much I do right now if I wasn’t trying to get the complete using both Sephiroth and Cloud in the same team. I’d seen plenty of clears featuring Cloud, but I couldn’t find any that included the both of them.

I wanted to try the Lightning, Cloud, and Sephiroth team again, but I worried that it wouldn’t work because of the Lufenia orb. The orb has a very short max count of only 8, and the only way to increase it is whenever your party receives direct healing. I doubted that I could finish the fight with Lightning, Sephiroth, and Cloud before the Lufenia orb got triggered. So I didn’t bother trying, but maybe I should have anyway. Who knows? It could have worked. It’s too late now though because at the time I’m writing this post, the Storming the Citadel (Mission Dungeon) event is long over.

Since I didn’t think I could get my usual team to work, I decided to try the fight using Rude, Cloud, and Sephiroth. Rude is one of the chars who can fulfill the orb’s condition. Unfortunately, things weren’t working out at all. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve tried this quest, but it was a lot. I kept trying and trying with this team, but I couldn’t win.

The orbs were a constant issue. Their count is really way too freaking low that I’d have runs wherein I couldn’t get Rude to keep up with increasing the number, especially since the enemies were really fast. They have high turn rates and they would sometimes get back-to-back turns, which was automatically minus 2 on the orb count.

There were a lot of tries wherein I’d end up using my Summon pretty early on just to help me deal with the orbs.

The enemies also love dealing group HP attacks so my team was often not at full health. There were so many runs wherein I worried that my party would die since the enemies often brought them down to very low HP.

As soon as one enemy gets down to 49% HP, both of them will “begin a powerful chant” and start floating. They’ll gain 4 buffs and an even stronger BRV damage reduction when compared to earlier in the fight. If one of the enemies was already floating when this happens, then only the one who wasn’t will get these buffs. So, ideally, you should only get one of them down to 49% while one of them is already levitating. 

I’ve had numerous runs where I couldn’t do that though. There were so many times wherein I just couldn’t get the timing right. I’d end up getting one of them to 49% while they were both still on the ground, so they’d both levitate and get all the buffs. This made things even more difficult for me since my team’s damage really dropped when this happened. It wasn’t that high to begin with since I only really had Rude to provide party-wide buffs and auras. Cloud would have done better if I’d paired him with another support. As for Sephiroth - he’d need way more support to deal decent damage.

Anyway, there was one run wherein I actually managed to get things right in terms of only dropping the enemies down to 49% HP while one of them was already in the air. Was so pleased when this happened. I thought I actually had a chance to win. I Summoned, I activated my Cloud’s Burst mode, I used the friend support that I borrowed, I attacked and tried to deal as much damage as I could. But it wasn’t enough. I ended up running out of skills before the fight was over.

Using HP+ wasn’t cutting it because I needed more damage. I also needed to finish the fight ASAP, otherwise the orbs were going to kill me. After dropping the enemies down to 49% HP, the orbs will disappear. They will reappear after the enemies use their Globated Crush+ move. Sooner or later, my chars always ended up getting hit with this, so I had to deal with the orbs showing up again.

There was also the fact that once the enemies start floating, their turns can’t be delayed other than via break so Cloud’s LD was useless. I’d have to wait for them to get back on the ground before using Blade Beam.

Because of that, I even tried a run wherein I used Sephiroth’s Burst instead of Cloud’s, just so I could make use of his BT’s effect, which drops all the brave of all enemies down to 1 for 3 turns. This made it easy to keep delaying them even while they were floating. I couldn’t kill them though because my damage was lacking, so, eventually, Seph’s BT effect would end, and the enemies would soon be able to get a turn.

I kept trying and trying but, eventually, I got sick of doing this quest over and over again. I just wanted to get it over and done with already. Moreover, I was running out of time because the event was ending soon. I couldn’t keep doing this.

In the end, I decided to do this fight with Sephiroth, Rude, and Desch (from Final Fantasy III). This was inspired by a run I saw that featured this exact same team although we had different equipped Calls. 

I had Sephiroth equipped with Rem Tokimiya’s (from Final Fantasy Type-0) Call, which heals the party, but I should have given him a Call that inflicts debuffs instead so that I could have used it when the bosses floated and gained their buffs at 49% HP. Thankfully, the friend support Cloud that I borrowed had his Deadly Rush passive equipped. This passive allows him to dispel buffs.    

Desch is another char who can also increase the orb count in this quest. He works very well with Rude because Rude makes it so that any over healing is converted to brave. So whenever the party was at full health, Desch ends up batterying them with his moves aside from just dealing damage.

He also provides some pretty good buffs and auras, including resistance to physical or magical attacks (depending on his current stance). It’s RNG, but he can also paralyze enemies. It’s really freaking awesome whenever it gets to proc. More than that, he also makes enemies weak to the thunder element and he Enchants the party so they can hit for weakness damage. Thanks to him and Rude, Sephiroth actually dealt pretty decent damage in this fight.

Between Rude and Desch, the orbs became much more manageable. Anyway, Sephiroth was the one who finished off the last remaining boss. By then, he only had 2 uses of Fervent Blow left. He was all out of Octaslash and Scintilla. 

I didn’t get the chance to use Rem’s Call earlier since Rude and Desch handled the healing very well on their own. So I found myself using it now. This gave Seph more brave, which was more than enough to finish off the last boss who only had 1% HP left. I could have just used Fervent Blow already, but I decided to use his Additional Ability (AA) first. This was actually the turn after he cast his Ex so he had a free skill use. I opted to use his AA for the attack up before finally casting Fervent Blow.

And it’s finally done. At long last, I’m finally done with this Lufenia Quest. It only took one run with this team to get the win, which is great, of course. I’m glad I was able to win.

But I still can’t help but feel rather disappointed anyway. I was really hoping I’d be able to use Cloud and Sephiroth together in this Lufenia Quest. Sigh. I suppose I could do another run of this fight with Cloud this time, but eh, I already know he can do it, and I’m really sick of this battle by now so meh. Never mind. Here’s to hoping the next quest will make it easy for me to use both Sephiroth and Cloud together. Gotta use the Bursts I pitied back-to-back, you know? LOL.

Tree for the Void Lufenia Quest

The Tree for the Void is Exdeath’s (from Final Fantasy V) Lost Chapter event. After the hell that was the last Lufenia Quest, this one was like a breath of fresh air. Super pleased that I was able to use both Cloud and Sephiroth here. In fact, I was able to get my team of Cloud, Lightning, and Sephiroth to work in this fight, which is just all kinds of awesome. Hell, yeah!

As usual, I ended up bringing Penelo’s and Rude’s Calls for healing, in case things go wrong, and Reno’s for the debuffs. I brought Ifrit as my Summon for his attack up and because the bosses shouldn’t be getting any turns at all. I borrowed a friend support Cloud for his paralysis, turn delay, and damage.

Anyway, as soon as it was Sephiroth’s turn, I had him use Reno’s Call to apply its debuffs then I immediately switched him out for the friend support Cloud. It took way too long, but I reset until I managed to get both Clouds to paralyze with their Cross Slash. At first, I started by using Finishing Touch with my Cloud then just reset until the friend Cloud paralyzed with his Cross Slash but it wasn't working out because Lightning ended up taking a lot of turns so the enemy who wasn't paralyzed yet would get their aura before Cloud could move again.

But once both enemies were paralyzed, it was pretty smooth sailing from there. Just needed to make sure the enemies never get to move. Used the friend Cloud's Burst then his LD for more turn delay.

Lightning took all the turns as usual. Mostly, I spammed her moves with the occasional HP+. Cloud dealt a lot of damage too. Ended up using his Burst for even more damage. I feel like he didn't get to move much though since he still had plenty of skills left over whereas Lightning was down to 1 use of Sparkstrike near the end.

Sephiroth was... there. He's faster than Cloud so he got to move more often. I guess the debuff from his LD helped too. His damage was... okay? Oh, and he was the one who finished off the last enemy. Surely, that counts for something, right? LOL. In all seriousness though, Seph was the weakest link in this team. Bringing Kurasame instead for his increase HP damage taken debuff would have been much better.

Super pleased I was able to win with this team.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Which chars did you use to complete these Lufenia Quests? Did you pull for either Sephiroth or Cloud Strife or both? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging or replying to this post.

Notes:

• screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account
• originally published on my main Tumblr blog on Apr 26th, 2021 10:16:39pm

Thoughts About The End Of The Hetalia: Axis Powers World Meeting Scene

Also known as "Feeling disappointed and sad about the end of the Hetalia: Axis Powers world conference scene". Why did the aforementioned scene have to end? I’m definitely going to miss it. I wonder if I’ll get to see another episode with a similar scene like this?

But, you know what, that feeling of sadness and disappointment isn’t just because this awesome scene has come to an end. It’s also because of how it ended and what came after it, which certainly can’t be described as a good thing.

The world meeting scene happened in season 1, episode 1 of the Hetalia: Axis Powers anime and manga series by Hidekaz Himaruya. This scene introduced us to characters like America, Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, and more.

Some of the good things about this scene:

• Being able to meet many of the countries of the world
  
• Getting to know some of the characters
• This was the perfect beginning to the series thanks to how funny, humorous and interesting it was
• This scene definitely has rewatch value - you can watch it over and over again and not get sick and tired of doing so

Don’t want the Hetalia world meeting scene to end

It was definitely sad when this scene ended. I wish it could have gone on longer considering how interesting it was. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing a scene like this again in later episodes of Hetalia (there are more scenes like this, right? I certainly hope so). 

Another reason to feel sad and disappointed about the end of the Hetalia world conference scene

It feels like this scene ended so abruptly, actually. After Italy yelled “pasta” and we saw the opening credits of Hetalia: Axis Powers (#ad), I thought that, right after that, we would get back to the world conference and we can see other countries or we can find out more about the countries that we’ve already met. I thought we might even get to see more speeches.

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened at all. Italy yelling “pasta” was pretty much the end of the aforementioned scene. After that and the Hetalia opening credits, we move on to another scene.

Abrupt scene change

You know, that wouldn’t have been so bad if the scene change hadn’t happened so abruptly and if we’d actually gotten to see any one of the characters that we just met during the meeting.

Meeting a new Hetalia character - the Roman Empire

But, no, instead of seeing characters that we already know, we get introduced to yet another new character - the Roman Empire. He didn’t even show up during the first part of this episode so his sudden appearance was abrupt and it seemed like he came from out of nowhere. What happened to the world meeting and the characters present in that meeting?

Moving from the present to the past - why?

Another problem with this scene change is how we clearly moved from the present to the past. This was made more obvious thanks to the appearance of the Roman Empire. 

• What’s the reason for this scene change? 
• Even if the world meeting had to end, why did we get introduced to this new character now? 
• Why did we go from the present to the past? 

It would have been much more interesting and definitely better if we got to see what each of the characters did after the world conference ended. 

Conclusion

So, what about you? What’s your take on this? Do you wish that the world meeting scene didn’t have to end or that, at the very least, we didn’t suddenly change scenes from the present to the past? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging this post.   

Notes:

• pic is from Amazon.com; link shown above
• originally published on my Hetalia Archives blog on Mar 27th, 2015 10:57:21am