It’s not easy

Castrum Marinum

The liberation of Terncliff has led to the discovery of vital information regarding the Weapon project. A warmachina code-named “Emerald” is believed to have escaped by sea to an imperial installation, so you and Gaius make your way to Castrum Marinum, one of two likely locations. Retrieved data suggests that your foe is armed with floating manipulators, though how exactly these will be employed in battle remains to be seen.

This time around we are fighting the infamous weapon and I am slightly disappointed the enrage timer isn’t twenty minutes nor does it have an attack that does more damage with the more materia you have melded.

There are two questions I feel are the best questions to decide if I like the fight and I will go over these after I speak about the music quickly and the overall environment. The music of the fight is enjoyable and carries on the format from Ruby Weapon but it is nothing special. The environment itself is disappointing as I expected something underwater but it just a virtual like a village which you learn more about within the story.

The first question is “Is it fun?”. Well, the quick answer to that is the trial was fun and I did enjoy the first phase much more than the second one as it felt like a slightly new fight compared to how the second part just felt like a few fights in Castrum.

The second question is “Will I remember it?”. Well, sadly this answer is quite different as I don’t think I will remember this fight in the future. The reason for this is I don’t think the fight did anything well or brought in something new and this just shows how disappointing the weapon series has been so far.

Castrum Marinum (Extreme)

Not content to face a gigantic warmachina armed with an assortment of deadly blades and lasers just once, you rather recklessly decide to relive the battle via the Real Virtuality Combat Simulation Experiencinator. For some reason, your foe’s combat prowess has been increased exponentially, though it does provide an opportunity to hone your skills, and your pride as a warrior compels you to take up the gauntlet.

As with most normal modes of a fight, there will be an extreme version and it is now time to speak about this. My opinion comes purely from doing this as a static (thanks Taco Wipe Night!) and doing it in party finder may be different.

In my opinion, the fight is not that hard although I did often die to the part of the sword although I seem to be dodging the same way as everyone else and not sure why this is the case but the fight itself is split into two different parts – phase 1 and 2. Just like normal mode the first phase is pretty simple and beyond the orbs seem to be the same fight or at least that is how I remember it.

The second phase is another rehash of another extreme fight (Misshapen Memory) with a sword AoE which can be annoying to dodge. Beyond that, I don’t think there was much difference to normal mode.

Now its time for the important question – Was it fun? Honestly not really. If I didn’t do it with my static I likely would have only done it once for the clear and never enter again. As of writing this article I am going back in to farm weapons with the static as we get downtime.

For the second question which is will I remember it? Yes, but not for good reasons. I will not remember it like I do Thordon Extreme with how hard it was or Shinryu Extreme for how well together the fight was but rather for one part of the fight that seems to kill me randomly even if it is for possible lag reasons.