Main Walkthrough

Recommended Level: 45

The fifth and final chapter of Hikari's story begins in the Southern Ku Sands. To reach this area you must travel to the town of Sai, where Hikari first entered the larger world, and travel west, to the Western Sai Sands. Head south from here, to the Eastern Ku Sands, then west, to your destination. If you have trouble defeating the enemies along the way you may want to reconsider beginning Hikari's final chapter.

When you enter the Southern Ku Sands with Hikari in the party you'll immediately be prompted to begin the chapter. If you elect to wait and look around first you'll find a small camp on the west side of the area. There are shops, an Inn, and a 'Tavern' where you can trigger the chapter when you're ready. This place has some great gear for sale, and if you picked up a bunch of leaves making the trip out here you may want to outfit your characters for the coming battles.

Back in the exact place where he began his story, Hikari prepares for an invasion of Ku alongside his allies, intent on deposing his despotic half brother Mugen. Several cut scenes will line up all the players, and when you regain control you'll need to go see Kazan. He's down the hill from your starting point and a little ways to the west. Kazan will outline his plan, and you'll have a chance to explore the camp and speak to people before setting out. Talk to Kazan once you're ready to go.

Kazan's plan will force open the front gates of Ku - not sure that's how wind works, but whatever - and grant Hikari's army passage. Charge into Ku.

Ku (Castle Town, Castle Ku: Entrance / Castle Ku)

Enemies

  • Elite Ku Soldier - Weak to Polearm, Axe, Lightning, Light - Drop / Steal Inspiriting Plum (M)
  • Fire Sentinel Mk. II - Weak to Sword, Polearm, Axe, Staff, Ice - Drop / Steal Fire Soulstone (M)
  • Flame Curator Mk. II - Weak to Polearm, Bow, Ice - Drop / Steal Fire Soulstone (M)
  • Flame Guardian Mk. II - Weak to Sword, Dagger, Bow, Ice - Drop / Steal Fire Soulstone (M)
  • Ku Bowman - Weak to Sword, Staff, Lightning, Wind - Drop / Steal Herb of Valor

Ku is a battleground, and all you can do is head straight north as the fighting intensifies on either side of you. Use the save point in the north, then charge onto the castle grounds. Several cut scenes will see Hikari ushered into Castle Ku as the battle rages outside.

Save near the entrance, then begin climbing the central stairs. (There are chests in the rooms along the sides of Castle Ku, if you didn't play through Hikari's first chapter, though their contents are pretty useless at this stage in the game. The best you'll find is a Fortifying Nut and Oboro's Journal down a ladder on your right.) Outside the throne room you'll find a familiar face, and he's not interested in talk.

General Ritsu

Shields: 7 / 9 / 11
Weakness: Polearm, Bow, Fire, Dark
Drop: Refreshing Jam
Steal: Refreshing Jam

This fight was inevitable. Ritsu is a much more powerful opponent than when you fought him in the first chapter of Hikari's story, and without options for avoiding physical attacks you'll have a tough time defeating him. Ritsu uses the following abilities:
  • Normal melee strikes
  • Trifold Slash, a three-hit melee attack on a single target
  • Sunder Earth, a melee attack against your entire party
  • Sandstorm Strike, a melee attack against your entire party that can inflict Blind
  • Armor Cleaver, a melee attack against your entire part that debuff's defense
  • Severing Sword, a three-hit melee attack that reduces its target's attack strength
  • True Sandstorm Strike, a charged, multi-hit AOE attack that can Blind your entire party
  • Ritsu's hositility grows, granting him an additional attack per turn and nine shields
  • Ristu's hostility grows further, granting him a third attack per turn and eleven shields
Ritsu begins this battle a relatively unremarkable enemy, smacking your party around with swift melee slices. Do enough damage, however, and he'll increase his shields to nine and his attacks to twice per round, which makes his AOE slashes much more dangerous. Getting hit by two of them in a row - which seems to happen a lot - can decimate your party. Get Ritsu down to half of his health and his shield count and attacks will grow again.

Ritsu's moveset only changes a bit over time, and his true power lies in how often he attacks, how hard he hits, and how many party members he targets (which is usually everyone). As the battle wears on you'll need to find ways to not only quickly Break Ritsu, but dampen - or completely stop - his attacks. You have several options for mitigating Ritsu's extreme damage output:
  • Use the Thief Skill Shackle Foe. This will reduce his attack strength.
  • Dispel his permanent attack buff. Castti can use Forget-Me-Dos to dispel the buff.
  • Blind Ritsu. If you're fighting at night Castti can combine two Dual Flowers to Blind Ritsu for four turns, causing him to miss roughly half the time with every one of his attacks.
  • Use the Merchant power Sidestep to avoid Ritsu's attacks altogether. 
Ritsu's list of weaknesses make it a bit difficult to swiftly Break him with your characters. Perhaps your best option for eliminating a bunch of shields in a hurry is Precise Shot, a Hunter Skill that can obliterate half of Ritsu's shields at a time. If that's not possible then you'll want a strong healer to carry your party through Ritsu's attacks, and ways to dispel Blind, which pops up a ton in this battle.

Ritsu will fall in time, leaving Hikari alone to change Ku for the better. Run back down to the save point, fully restore your party, save, and head to the throne room. Two difficult battles are waiting.


King Mugen

Shields: 6 / 9
Weaknesses:
  • Polearm, Axe, Lightning, Light (phase one)
  • Sword, Ice, Wind (phase two)
Drop: Energizing Pomegranate (L)
Steal: Energizing Pomegranate (L)

Built up as a horror on the battlefield throughout Hikari's storyline, Mugen is understandably a powerful opponent. He employs a combination of heavy melee attacks and the Terror status ailment to keep your party from getting the upper hand. Mugen uses the following attacks:
  • A normal melee strike
  • The Conquerer's Rule, which Terrorizes everyone in the party
  • The Conquerer's Tyranny, a heavy melee attack against a single target
  • The Conquerer's Might, which smashes everyone in the party for melee damage
  • Decapitation, which reduces one character to a single HP
  • Know Your Place, which buffs Mugen's attacks
  • Ordained Punishment, a heavy melee strike that inflicts Terror
  • Gates of Hell, a charged attack that reduces to characters to a single HP
Mugen begins the battle with two attacks, and will use them immediately to inflict Terror and some pain on your party. He'll thereafter batter your team, constantly keeping everyone Terrorized as he goes along. Get Mugen down to half of his health and he'll start to buff himself, as well as add Decapitation and Ordained Punishment to his list of attacks. He'll also charge up for Gates of Hell. Get Mugen into the red and he'll change his weaknesses.

Mugen is arguably easier to defeat than Ritsu, though... not by much. The big killer here is the Terror status ailment, which prevents your party from using BP. Castti's Concoctions are the easiest method for getting rid of Terror. Mugen never has a ton of shields, but the inability to Boost attacks makes getting through them difficult. Try to use moves that hit multiple times without the need to Boost. Whatever abilities you used to keep Ritsu from overwhelming you with melee attacks will also work well here.

Once Mugen hits red health and his weaknesses changes the battle gets a teensy bit easier, thanks to one fact: His first weakness is to Swords. This will allow Hikari (and any other Warriors you might have brought along) to use Aggressive Slash, which can cut through a minimum of three shields at a time, and more if you manage to Boost it. A fully-Boosted Aggressive Slash will keep Mugen under wraps for the remainder of the fight, and do plenty of damage on top. Maintain this kind of pressure and Mugen will bow out sooner or later.

After you defeat Mugen Hikari will be forced into a Challenge duel with 'Hikari', his dark alter-ego. Aggressive Slice will bring 'Hikari' down. After a while the fight will become scripted, and you shouldn't have any trouble finishing off Hikari's shadowy alter-ego... though your battle isn't over yet.


Enshrouded King

Shields: 10
Weakness: Sword, Polearm, Bow, Staff, Lightning, Wind
Drop: Bow of Carnage
Steal: Refreshing Jam

You thought Mugen was the final boss of Hikari's chapter? Not quite! The Enshrouded King is fantastically difficult, and if you don't enter this battle with the capacity to target a few specific weaknesses multiple times this thing will wear you down through sheer attrition. The Enshrouded King uses the following attacks:
  • Diabolical Spear, which hits random targets a number of times for melee damage
  • Triple Poison Sting, which does damage to one character and removes some BP
  • Brimstone Arrows, which hits the whole party with several waves of Bow attacks
  • Diamond Destruction, which inflicts Terror and several offensive debuffs on a single target
  • Infernal Judgment, which damages and inflicts Unconsciousness on a single target
  • Rending Slash, which does damage and reduces a character's max storable BP by one for the duration of the fight
  • Eternal Suffering, a charged attack that hits all of your characters multiple times for melee damage
The Enshrouded King spends the entirety of the fight using a variety of melee attacks, and which attacks it uses depends on which weapons it's currently preparing. At first it will have two attacks per turn, though over time this amount will increase to three and four, essentially allowing the Enshrouded King to use any attacks it knows, at any time. By the end of the fight the Enshrouded King will be attacking you four times per round, which is... yeah. As the Enshrouded King takes its turns it will rotate its weapon weaknesses, though its two elemental weaknesses will always be exposed.

This fight is brutal. Not only can the Enshrouded King quickly deplete everyone's health, its Rending Slash attack will rob you of valuable BP the longer the battle lasts. Early on you should find ways to debuff the Enshrouded King's attacks (Shackle Foe works nicely), Blind the thing (Bottle of Blinding Dust works if you have no other options), and, if you have time, buff the defenses of your own characters. You'll need to heal constantly, so expect one of your characters to be on healing duty more or less the entire battle.

The Enshrouded King's weakness rotation makes it difficult to pin it down. You have some options for exploiting each weakness, however:
  • Hikari and other Warriors can use Aggressive Slash to go after the Sword weakness, making those sections of the fight the most desirable.
  • Hikari can Learn a few Skills that strike Polearm weaknesses multiple times.
  • Hunters can use Precise Shot to exploit the Bow weakness, though the effectiveness of this will be limited if their BP gets cut down.
  • Clerics can use Mystical Staff to hit the Staff weakness twice per move.
  • Scholars, Clerics, and Castti can all take advantage of the elemental weaknesses at any time in the fight, making these Jobs desirable when forming a party. (Just make sure they have lots of HP.) You can also use Soulstones in a pinch.
For the most part you need to do your damage during the Enshrouded King's Break periods, and Hikari is your best choice for doling it out. His Tenretsuzan Latent Power can do a ton of damage even when Hikari isn't Boosting it, and you'll find Latent Powers going off a ton over the course of the battle. Ochette can similarly use her Latent Power to hit the Enshrouded King nice and hard. Anyone else who can inflict heavy damage without using too much BP is also invaluable. Regardless, you should expect this to be a looooong fight.


Successfully defeat the Enshrouded King and the ending will roll on Hikari's storyline. Well done! Hikari will learn the Shinjumonjigiri EX Skill in the aftermath of the battle, and if he was your starting character you'll be allowed to remove Hikari from your active party from this point on. You'll also regain access to Ku, which is worth exploring now that the war is over. Story complete!