Final Fantasy XVI - Drake's Spine (Ultimaniac, S-Rank, 90.31 million, No Wykes)

this level is unfortunately extremely anti-gigaflare. going back to using conventional aoes after so many levels with gigaflare is a real reminder that ice age is by far the best of its kind. maybe it was just my setup with gigaflare, but this honestly might’ve been harder than crystalline dominion for me. the enemies with extremely low hp makes it difficult to build up the technical meter. plus, they’re often equipped with war cry or protect to punish going in for aoes, AND they hit just as hard as regular enemies. so much more is able to go wrong in one of those encounters. then there’s the fact that the bosses, both behemoth and ultima are actually not complete pushovers compared to something like liquid flame. ultima’s neutron flare combined with mark of the storm fucked me over so many times. behemoth is what really makes this level annoying as fuck. the qte you do at the end of his first phase is ridiculously unnecessary and overly drawn out (even the first time i watched it), the way he can spam comet/meteor, and the choice of attacks that you can’t stagger him out of make zero sense. take his spin: it’s neither a labelled attack, paticularly sustained in its length, and doesn’t involve any lateral/aerial movement. but you can’t stagger him during the ending of the animation. besides that, the encounters with like 10+ enemies can be fun, but what’s not so fun is the camera not being pulled back enough when locked-on midair to let you see what’s going on on the ground. also, you seriously have to go through ultima’s powerpoint dimension before the boss??? the amount of unskippable junk that makes it into arcade mode with these levels floors me. anyway, my next s-ranks are likely gonna be stuff i haven't done without wykes yet. stuff like drake's head, rosalith, kanver, naldia narrow, all that stuff. then origin to cap off the base game, and then the dlc. skill loadout: phoenix - rift slip, wicked wheel garuda - gouge, thunderstorm shiva - upheaval, ice age accessories: breath of earth +1 (upheaval), escapement bit, reflection of ice Intro - 0:00 Leg 1 - 0:11 Leg 2 (Behemoth) - 2:15 Leg 3 - 13:08 Leg 4 - 14:32 Leg 5 - 17:29 Leg 6 - 20:43 Leg 7 - 23:25 Leg 8 - 27:53 Leg 9 - 29:19 Leg 10 - 32:30 Leg 11 - 34:29 Leg 12 (Wave 1) - 38:14 Leg 12 (Wave 2) - 42:41 Leg 12 (Wave 3) - 44:42 Powerpoint Dimension - 49:47 Ultima Phase 1 - 51:39 Ultima Phase 2 - 55:30 Ultima Phase 3 - 1:00:52 Stage Results - 1:07:19