[dappa]

This will be a long reply so here goes. There is an element of truth to what people in this forum are saying about luck. For me it tends to be what ozmas first attack tends to be. If its curse you usually are on a losing streak but if its not you should have a half decent chance if you do what I say. First during the game you will come across several animals that wont attack you but ask for things like ore,diamonds etc give them what they want and it will remove ozmas absorbtion of elemental spells and will allow you to hit it with physical attacks. Their locations are as follows 1. the forest outside of the ice cavern. 2. run around the land outside treno. 3. the forest outside blackmage village. 4. the forest next to the lifa tree. 5. the forest near the chocobo tracks near eikos home. 6. The forests on the popos heights. 7. The chocobo tracks on the ice continent. 8. The forests near oilevert. 9. The forest on vile island. Note all these locations require you to run around fighting monsters till the animal or spirits as some people call em show up so patience is required for this one. Ozma can be defeated if you dont perform this quest but its a lot more harder. Have the following set up for your party. Make sure they all have learned their abilities and be at level 99. You need to have all characters on 'auto life' auto haste, all on 'clear headed', 'auto regen' ,auto reflect if possible then as many beneficial abilities as possible with the remaining ability stones. You should make sure you have 99 phoenix pinions in your inventory, I'll explain later. Have quina, eiko and steiner as zidanes companions. Have steiner cast his sword art spell 'magic break' as soon as possible this is very important as this will weaken ozmas spells by a third, do this at least twice and your characters will be able to survive the curse spell no probs, dont do it anymore than three times as they will miss all the time. Then have him concentrate on attacking ozma with his 'shock' swordart as much as possible,occasionally have him healing his comrades if needed with inventory items. quina should every three or 4 turns cast 'mighty guard' then concentrate on healing everyone with whitewind and 'angel snack' to remove effects from the 'curse' spell. You can if the party is in good health attack ozma with 'frog drop' but only if everyone is o.k. (99 caught frogs equals 9999 damage to ozma) (remember zidane and steiner are meant to be dishing out the punishment to ozma) Eiko should cast 'curaga' as much as possible. Even if the party is in good health and cast 'holy' every now and then and call upon phoenix to damage ozma and revive fallen comrades. Because you have eiko in your party and this applies to all battles not just ozma because you have 99 phoenix pinions in your inventory it increases the chance of phoenix automatically reviving your party by a third so if ozma overcomes you you might have a few extra chances at it. Zidane should concentrate on using his spell 'thievery' as much as possible or his trance moves if available but not if he has been hit by curse only deviate from this pattern for him if the party are hurting seriously. If ozma is hit by magic he counter attacks with berserk so you really need auto reflect to stop your characters been hit by this. If you fullfilled the animal quest ozma will damage itself with the doomsday spell and all attack spells that are reflected off your party but if you didn'nt this strategy will heal it as you haven't removed its absorbtion of spells. When ozma starts getting weaker it will use more of its turns trying to cast 'curaga' on itself but steiners magic break spell will reduce it to around 1000 to 2000 restored hp. Only deviate from the above strategies i've mentioned if eiko and quina get ko'd they are central and must participate as much as possible Ozmas attacks are doomsday, flarestar, meteor, berserk, death, mp absorb, flare, holy, lv4 holy, lv5 death (there may be others aswell but cant remember them all) last of all make sure eiko and quina have the pumice piece equiped as this will absorb the holy and doomsday spell and give zidane and steiner the protect ring or ribbon as this will limit the damage from ozmas holy and doomsday spell also equip your characters with armour or weapons that increase the magic attack and magic evade and magic defense of your characters. This strategy has always worked for me and I never lose with it. (unless ozma got a curse spell then meteored everyone before steiner could weaken its spells) hope this is of help for you and everyone else who is stuck on ozma. Sorry for the long reply everyone who is reading this. I'm off for a cuppa. lol!