Digimon Story: Time Stranger No Digivolution Part 12 - Final Boss

Challenge playlist:
   • Digimon Story: Time Stranger No Digivoluti...  

Previous Digimon Story finales for comparison's sake:
Cyber Sleuth No Digivolution Finale -    • Digimon Cyber Sleuth - No Digivolution: Th...  
Hacker's Memory No Digivolution Finale -    • Digimon Hacker's Memory No Digivolution Pa...  

This is it; the end of the storyline portion of the challenge, and what an anticlimactic end this is, though I can hardly say anything we faced in this challenge was all that gruesome. I may have enjoyed, say, the second Titamon fight, and also SkullSeadramon immediately afterwards, but for most of the run we were destroying the opposition even when I wasn't using the most optimal ways of doing so. Looking back, I really could've acquired Cross Art Break ASAP, causing the earlygame bosses to die even sooner than they did - not that there was an issue with them falling after too long a fight. I could've started visiting Outer Dungeon and using the Digimon hired from those way sooner, as TyrantKabuterimon was in fact the earliest Digimon I got this way. MetalTyrannomon would've been the best Digimon to use in the Parrotmon fight, to give but one example, but where I really would've liked him to be present is all the random battles before that, as he's essentially the earlygame equivalent of TyrantKabuterimon. I only got him post-timeskip, where he was of no use. Some personality skill manipulation could've been pulled off more skillfully.

While certain things could've been done differently, at no point did I face much of an obstacle in my way, and the final boss battle is hardly an exception. There is a lot of epic struggle and storyline exposition making the length of the fight relatively long, with Bakemon, Phantomon and ShellNumemon all teaming up to use fractional damage specials on the boss, tearing off 15% maximum health each time. They even penetrate his armor early on, though I'm not entirely sure if it speeds up the first sequence of the battle - I suspect you're just meant to wait it out, as the other attacks are hardly of any help. When normal moves work and the boss is as close to max health as possible, the fractional damage outclasses our strongest attack under perfect settings - 3 buffs, crit and Acceleration Boost, though not for very long and only because final boss Chronomon doesn't have an attribute weakness to Vaccine.

When the shield is broken, we also have to wait through a lengthy sequence, during which our allies are sent back to their In Training forms, patiently waiting for Aegiomon (he's in his Green form for the highest speed in the party) to digivolve everyone back - Phantomon being Ultimate level means everyone has to wait for him to be brought back. When they're back, we have to damage the final boss all over again. There's no cheating your way out of this portion of the fight with, say, switching the regular Mega Digimon party in, as the Switch command is disabled until everyone digivolves back to their final form.

The boss does strike fairly regularly and does so relatively hard, occasionally killing somebody with a double strike. This has a lot to do with the fact that the Champion/Ultimate Digimon with fractional damage don't have the best durability. This is obviously nothing a heal or a revive can't remedy, and I'm actually using Medical Sprays for the first time ever in this run! I suppose the final boss battle may not be so bad after all, but my Mega party would be better equipped to take punishment for certain.

During the last phase when the boss is low at HP, Slayerdramon and to a lesser extent MagnaGarurumon (an Outer Dungeon Digimon I never showed off because it has no Attribute advantage against anything) and Phoenixmon can start attacking. They'll attack once or twice each before the fight is over with, which does make this battle all too similar to other bosses we've defeated during this run, who also fell quickly under optimal strategies. Phoenixmon loses the nerfed Combo Magic and isn't the best attacker any longer, and getting him a different personality skill is impossible under the DigiFarm ban when he's already stuck in Astute. Meanwhile, Slayerdramon and MagnaGarurumon, who changes form to Detached after attacking once, have Stout Strength as their personality and deal 50% more damage than usual. Slayerdramon remains the MVP in terms of raw offence, as he benefits from getting the minor elemental-like bonus of each of his three fire moves being effective against dragons. Dragon is just one of the final boss's weaknesses that you can target, the other two not being very practical for a No Digivolution challenge run.

The verdict? I certainly did enjoy playing a challenge in yet another Digimon Story game, but if you compare it to the two Cyber Sleuth finales linked at the top, the difference is stark. The CS final boss was highly grueling, while the HM one was more tolerable but kept you on your toes. Time to play something else now.