This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: That One Sidequest: From YKTTW
Andrew: Not sure if the FFVIII example counts, as it appears to be Sequence Breaking. This should probably be limited to real tasks in the game that are required for 100% Completion.
wia: Removed the FFVIII example. Not so much 'That One Sidequest' as a Guide Dang It - it's only a hideously difficult sidequest if you've reached this dungeon without any of the following:- Aquiring Heros or Holy Wars (occasional drops or steals from Seifer, available from refining Gilgamesh and Laguna cards, both of which can be aquired before this point) Learning to pimp limit breaks (Squall, Irvine, Zell and Quistis can all be extremely useful here - Quistis' instant death limits can take down most random encounters, the others just do extreme levels of damage) Gaining rare junction magic (If the most powerful magic you've got to junction is a stack of Firagas, this dungeon will be next to impossible. A stack of Ultimas for each character, however... is a different story entirely.) Enc-None (This dungeon's encounter rate is pretty high if you don't have this active) Move-Find (There are three save points in the dungeon - one at the top, one at the bottom, and in the middle. The one at the bottom's hidden, and right next to the boss.) Aquiring Lionheart (to give Squall a chance to use the move of the same name.) Aquiring Tonberry (Level-Down turns those random encounters into a piece of cake... as it halves the monster's level in one shot)
At the half-way point in this dungeon there's a gate you need to open, and there are two methods to get it open. The first (use the minimum steam on each level, have Zell in the party) gives you the forced encounters that the original entry mentioned. The second (and only way without using Zell) is to find the steam room (Use slightly more then the minimum on each of the first two levels, it should be a side door on level three) and use that. Using the steam room removes the forced encounters - they're a penalty for taking the Zell `shortcut` instead of solving the steam management puzzle in the upper levels.
So, to sum up: There are several ways to prepare for the fights in this sidequest, and even a (fairly easy) way of avoiding them all (save the boss) and aquiring invincibility for the boss fight (usually with enough left over to make the final boss a cakewalk). The only reason this dungeon would ever achieve any sort of notoriety? Because of the number of people that sacrificed move-find (and so missed the save-point at the bottom) and didn't find the Steam Room (which takes no additional effort to the other method, it's just not immediately obvious how much steam to use at each point) or either of the cards that give invincibility when refined (Gilgamesh is available at a part-way stage in the Card Club sidequest).
Andrew Leprich: Removed
*Final Fantasy 7 had snowboarding: Ridiculously easy, completely pointless and a complete disruption of the mood and tone in the previous scene.
because it makes no sense here. Did you mean to put it under Unexpected Genre Change?
