Final Fantasy VI Fewest Steps Challenge

[Integrity]

Just looking at some of those boss fights gave me headaches. I remember having fun with them with actual, balanced parties. ;/

[Life]

And... here we go. Time to take out the big man himself. Only takes 9017 steps to reach him. The problem now is stopping him.

I like how he says that he's been "practicing". Like Coach practicing Erinn's evil banshee sneer...

This is Kefka's philosophy in a nutshell. Everything's gonna die so... why don't I help it die quicker? If that's what motivates Kefka, that makes him ridiculously awesome.

Fine, let's just cut through all the bullshit. Can I kill you now?

And this is what it comes down to. The final 3. Celes, Edgar and Setzer. Let's go.

So we start with the first tier: Long Arm, Short Arm and Visage. Buff up your guys first. Hastega, Shell and Protect do the trick nicely.

The first tier is quite simple. Long Arm goes down to a quick shot of Death (now you know why we spent time learning it). Short Arm is a pushover since he only uses Attack and !Razor Gale. Visage is a little bit harder but the worst he can do is inflict Petrify with Dread Gaze. And that only happens when he's got 10000 HP left. Take out Visage and then Short Arm to move up the spire.

Tier 2 is significantly stronger than Tier 1. It's made up of Machine, Tiger, Power and Magic. Machine is the most dangerous if left alive but he also goes down to Death. Tiger can be poisoned ASAP to increase the damage on him. Since Tiger whips out stuff like Southern Cross and Flare Star along with !Zombie Fang, you want him dead next.

Magic and Power are the only ones remaining now. Usually, I'd Silence Magic at the start of the battle and that would be the end of that. But no Silence means that we're going to have to duke it out. Celes should now keep Runic up while Setzer and Edgar take out Magic. Use Mysidian Rabbit to heal if need be. After Magic dies, summon Phantom and you're home-free.

Welcome to Tier 3. Lady and Rest are waiting for you here. Taking out Lady ASAP makes Rest so much easier because she doesn't, you know, heal him and revive him. Plus, she's only got 9999 HP.

Once Lady dies, all you have left is Rest. He uses Tornado, Doom, Meltdown and Attack. When he dies, !Repose inflicts Death. *YAWN* Really, Kefka? These guys are simple.

And this is what it all comes down to. It's just us and a God. This is going to be a cakewalk.

So what can Kefka do? Heartless Angel takes everyone down to 1 HP automatically so you should heal up from that. Trine inflicts status effects so the first time you face it, Unicorn helps. Everything else in the basic script is old news (Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, !Havoc Wing...).

Soon in, Kefka will start getting mean. Forsaken will do a ton of damage to the party but you can always see when it's coming due to the head that appears. Just keep fighting away.

Keep plugging away until you get this. The great and mighty Kefka, conquered by some very unlikely heroes. This had happened on another try of Kefka where Setzer took a Repose to the face before I started fighting Kefka.

And there you have it. How to beat Kefka in 9017 steps. Thank you and good night.

[eclipse]

Nicely done. This brought back all sorts of memories, as FFVI was my entry point into the FF world.

[eranjial]

That was extremely entertaining to read and congrats on the just OVER 9000!!!!...steps.

And yeah Demon...bah.

[Integrity]

/clapclap

Well done, Life. I expected no less from you.

[Silvercrow]

Grats on finishing. Too bad you couldn't do any better than the record, but I guess that probably is the absolute minimum.

[Firebrandx]

This is very similar to a shorter challenge that Nintendo Power issued for the game back in 1995. It was fewest steps to getting Mog in your party (must show party menu screen with Mog and others in it). I wrote an article on my own mission to win the challenge here:

1995: The Year Nintendo Power Screwed Me

Long short: My attempt in 1995 ended up being 5,826 steps. Last week, I revisited the challenge and shaved my step count down to 5,748 steps. It's possible to get EXTREMELY lucky on talking to Edgar in the Returners hideout and save a couple steps there for a perfect run of 5,746 steps as far as I can tell. The rules are simple: No hacking, exploiting glitches, or any other form of defeating the game's intent. Grinding on the Lete River is allowed as is using the hidden shortcut in Locke's scenario. Using the pass-through glitch is not allowed.

Anyway, just from browsing the guide posted in this thread, it doesn't look like I missed anything, so I'm glad I don't have to go back and do it again!

Edit: AAACK!! There was one thing I missed! I didn't know you could skip the security path in Narshe cave. Cripes... Now I've got to add that into my run...And I missed the catwalk shortcut in the Opera House too. Ugh!

Edited December 9, 2012 by Firebrandx

[Life]

Huh. Nice revival. I was just checking this out a while ago too.

WRT Mog, I'm guessing that we're talking about his first recruitment (after the airship). I'd try doing it too but I feel like I've accomplished almost everything in this game. Good luck and you may use my strategies for stuff as much as you like.

Edited December 9, 2012 by Am Yisrael Chai

[eclipse]

Cool as you are Lifey, rules are rules when it comes to necroposting. If you wanna redo this with even less steps, lemme know. Otherwise, night-night.

EDIT THE SECOND: Per TC, reopened topic.

Edited December 9, 2012 by eclipse