Dragon Quest IX's still got some fight in it

Well, Corvus doesn't quite follow in Zoma's footsteps, but his final form still overwhelmed. Two attacks per turn and quite powerful ones at that.

So it happened like this.

After a few more oddly easy mini-bosses and more climbing I reached the game's big bad: the fallen Celestrian Corvus. Dragon Quest IX's end was in sight.

My party first fought a semi-Celestrian, semi-demonic Corvus. In this fight I was forced to shift tactics since he regularly used a technique that nullified my stat boosts. So my troubadour, thief, and wizard attacked while my priest healed. This fight went well. A fine success.

Then my party was pitted against the dragon Barbarus. Another steady battle, one in which my old stat-boosting strategy worked perfectly. The only problem with this fight was that it took a toll on my party's MP.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but Dragon Quest IX's quick save feature seems to trigger a bug that breaks the Goddess Ring. This accessory is supposed to recover its wearer's MP with every step he or she takes. But after loading quick saves this power, more often than not, de-activates. Unfortunately, I was working off of a quick save.

Nonetheless, I had curatives to spare so I bolstered my party's MP and then faced Corvus' full demon form. Without bothering to manage my in-battle inventory beforehand. Who needs a Yggdrasil Leaf (this game's revive item) when two characters have the equivalent spell?

I'm convinced that is just what decided the fight.

My priest, my party's steadfast healer fell first. My main character and troubadour tried to sing her back from the brink of death, but with no luck. Not before he joined her there.

Then the battle became nothing more than a window onto Corvus' attacks. Interestingly, he flashed no stat-boost nullifier in all twenty or so turns of the battle. The most frustrating moves being a healing technique that recovered 500 HP and another that restored all of his MP.

So, having been the mop rather than the mopper in the answer to "who will mop the floor with whom?" I'm left with three choices. Extend this game's time on this blog with quests and more grinding, things that could well stand to make that final fight a breeze; re-configure my battle inventory and try again, this time fighting much more conservatively (healing every round); or just grind and give it another go.

Considering Dragon Quest IX's fairly full post-game game, I'm drawn to just trying again. Maybe after just one more helping of this game's grinding.