Game:

Chrono Trigger (1995)

Duration: 29:49

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3

I've been working on a challenge I call the ultra low-level game, or ULLG. For the rules, see the following video, since this description is too long to include them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQks0WMDJos

Zeal 1 is very easy; even in a ULLG, you'd almost have to be trying to lose.

Mammon Machine is easy once you understand how it works. When a message appears saying "The Mammon Machine alters all energy", that indicates several things. First, if you use magic against MM, you will increase the power of the energy release attack it uses later on. It doesn't take many magical attacks to power up MM to the point where I can't survive the energy release, so I just stick to physical attacks for the whole battle. Second, if you use a physical attack, MM's defense will increase. After three physical attacks, subsequent physical attacks will deal almost no damage, so at that point I just wait. Third, if you use a regular attack with the Masamune, a message will appear saying that the Masamune absorbed energy, and Frog will recover some health. Once MM does its energy release attack, these effects disappear. As long as I haven't powered up MM with magical attacks, Ayla can survive the energy release with Golden Earring and Barrier Sphere. One thing to note is that if a barrier is active, then using a Barrier Sphere will not extend the duration of it. Before I realized this, there were a few times when my barrier ran out mere moments after I used a Barrier Sphere, causing me to die.

Zeal 2 is the only difficult boss of the three and is one of the hardest in a ULLG. It's important to ban the Elemental Aegis here, since it would trivialize the battle; I think it might even make it impossible to lose (though I didn't test it). The head and the hands are all very fast, so I gave everybody Haste Helms and gave Speed Rings to Crono and Frog. Aside from their counterattacks, the hands' only attack is a moderately powerful single-target dark laser. The head has five moves:

* Starburst (SB): Whole-party water attack
* Gears of Darkness (GoD): Whole-party dark attack
* Heavenly Gate (HG): Single-target light attack
* Halation: Sets everyone's HP to 1
* MP Buster: Sets one person's MP to 0

The head's elemental attacks are all powerful enough to easily kill anyone. Zeal typically alternates between SB and GoD, with some number of HGs in between. At the start of the battle, there are two HGs between each pair of whole-party elemental attacks (WPEAs). When she loses enough health, she'll start using Halation and MP Buster. It seems that Halation can substitute for a WPEA. For example, she might do SB, Halation, SB, with some HGs and MP Busters mixed in, but without a GoD. Once she does this, the number of HGs between WPEAs declines; she tends to do SB followed immediately by GoD.

To survive the WPEAs, I wanted the party to have at least one plate for each of the corresponding elements (water and dark). Since Ayla has enough HP to survive the dark hand lasers, I gave her a Blue Plate and gave Black Plates to Crono and Frog. This way, everyone can survive the hand lasers.

Staying alive is largely a matter of keeping track of which WPEA Zeal is going to use next. If you stay on top of her patterns, then you will have a better idea of which party members to revive, which to heal, and which to attack with. This battle tends to consume Athenian Waters rapidly, so you need to be somewhat aggressive in order to kill Zeal before you run out of supplies.

Overall, I'd say Zeal 2 is not as hard as the Archaeofangs, but it took me a lot longer to beat her because every time I failed, I had to fight Zeal 1 and Mammon Machine again.

Party and equipment:

Crono: Rainbow, Haste Helm, Black Plate, Speed Ring
Frog: Masamune, Haste Helm, Black Plate, Speed Ring
Ayla: Fist, Haste Helm, Blue Plate, Golden Earring

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