FSIII - Final Reminiscence Boss - Ketchup Man

Ketchup Man is VERY difficult to fight. In fact, he hits so hard, I highly recommend you have full Arena Legend equips and at least enough RBs to cap out your main stat, subclass stat, AGI, and have a decent sum of HP (maybe 6000~?)

Prerequisites: You must have defeated all the Hall of Reminiscence Bosses and obtained their crystals. If you don't know how to do these, you should look at other guides.

In order to actually WIN, you must have Formel's Charm. If you don't know how to get that...I'm sorry, I can't help you. Look around at the Q&A on the site; they'll give you a pretty good idea of where to get the Amulet of Hope. Of course, I know where to get it, but...the game is much less interesting if I just tell you, yes?

Spoiler:

Make sure it's equipped on to Zeto before entering battle or you will be very sad.

Hein, Form 1:
50% Fire, 200% Ice, 150% Thunder
70,000 HP
This form will use lots of powerful attacks like Star's Death, Scythe, and Flame Storm on you. You should keep your HP as high as possible while bursting him down. Stack Magic Defense for this battle using Ethan's Circle Soul Meditation, Soul Bless+, etc. Be wary of Flame Storm. It will burn your party, which in turn dispels all of your buffs. However, he only has a 1/4 chance of using it right now.

Hein, Form 2:
99,999 HP
200% Transformation Skills
Can't be affected by most major status conditions (i.e. don't try unless I specifically tell you otherwise)

~ Despair "Hei-An Stance"
~ Despair "Miserable Fate"
~ Scythe
~ Dark Pillar
~ Night Void
~ Desperation "Thunder"
~ Desperation "Ice"
~ Desperation "Fire"
~ Desperation "Wind"
~ Desperation "Ragnarok"


Reminiscence Blade I
50,000 HP
~ Blind Blade
~ Flame Slash

Reminiscence Blade II
50,000 HP
200% Transformation Skills
Can't be affected by most major status conditions (i.e. don't try unless I specifically tell you otherwise)
~ Frozen Blade
~ Ice Slash

Reminiscence Blade III
50,000 HP
200% Transformation Skills
Can't be affected by most major status conditions (i.e. don't try unless I specifically tell you otherwise)
~ Blind Blade
~ Circle Soul Doom
~ Circle Soul Liberation

Reminiscence Blade IV
50,000 HP
200% Transformation Skills
Can't be affected by most major status conditions (i.e. don't try unless I specifically tell you otherwise)
~ Poison Blade
~ Flame Slash


As you can see, every enemy here takes double damage from trans skills, which is pretty neat. Unfortunately, trans skills still aren't usually as good unless you need to clean Hein up during the end of the battle.

First of all, Hein will NOT die unless all his swords are already dead.
Second of all, Hein will use the Desperation skills randomly.
Finally, any time after Hein uses "Hei-An Stance," you MUST have Zeto (with Formel's Charm) use Soul React and cast "Light Aura." If not, Hein could use "Miserable Fate" which insta-wipes your party unless you have Light Aura cast.

Strategy: Start the battle by Slowing Hein. This is absolutely critical. Being able to get occasionally two or more turns in for his one is absolutely essential and is the most reliable way to win. If you're buffed up, aim for Reminiscence Blade III first. It will dispel your party and make you generally sad. Next, aim for Reminiscence Blade II, because Freeze is far too dangerous to allow to remain on the board. The other two Blades will hurt, but they aren't nearly as dangerous.

Now, Hein himself is very dangerous. On successive battles, he becomes more dangerous. I won't explain why, but let's just say that it's because Hein gets meaner on rematches.
All of his Desperation skills chunk for an immense amount of damage. Night Void and Dark Pillar are, by contrast, godsends since they still do a lot of damage, but only against single targets.
Ethan's Soul Reflect EX will reflect all of Hein's skills. This can make a huge difference if you time it correctly. I actually do not recommend summoning Ethan's Relics in this battle. They will all die within two hits because Hein likes using AoE attacks.

Finally, his ultimate attack, Desperation "Ragnarok" is one of the meanest skills in the game.
He will rarely cast it, but when he does...
First, it does a stupid amount of damage to your party. If it crits, it's almost a guaranteed KO.
Next, it REVIVES ALL OF THE FOUR SWORDS AND COMPLETELY HEALS LIVING ONES PUTTING YOU BACK AT SQUARE ONE. Do you now realize why it's so important that you Slow Hein now?

After trudging through his swords and then slaying the ketchup man himself, you get a 2x EXP ring. At a 100% rate. Given how difficult the boss is, it shouldn't be any other way.

That is the final reminiscence boss.


Additional Strategies that I haven't personally tested, but should work in theory:

Spoiler: