Think Pink

Of all the treasures found in the depths of the Lunar Subteranne, none is as special or rewarding as the elusive Pink Tail. This item can be traded to the tail collector for more Adamant rock, which in turn will provide the player the chance to obtain Adamant Armor, the best armor in the game. Besides having an incredibly high defensive value, the Adamant Armor can be equipped by all five characters. Of course, getting the armor requires getting some tail(s) and that, my friends, is another story altogether...

The Pink Tail is not found in any treasure chest, nor can it be located by randomly pressing the search button while walking around the final dungeon. The tail must be won, and its bearers are few. The only beasts that will drop the Pink Tail are Pink Puffs, little slime-like creatures that are among the rarest and oddest monsters of the game. They are only found in one small, otherwise unimportant room in the Subteranne. In the Super Nintendo version of the game, players had only a 1/64 chance of meeting and fighting a Pink Puff. In the Chronicles version, the odds have been decreased even further, as proven by the fact that I have twice gone more than 120 encounters between running into the petulant pink pests. What has stayed the same between the two versions is that they will randomly drop a tail at least once every 64 encounters, but getting those 64 encounters can be quite a hassle for even the most enthusiastic gamer.

There is a trick to overcoming these odds. If a player uses an Alarm item inside this room, 99% of the the time he or she will fight a Pink Puff. By using 64 Alarms in a row, the players is all but guaranteed that they will eventually acquire a Pink Tail. The key to this equation, however, is remembering to bring along enough Alarms to make this trick work. Alarms cannot be bought; unfortunately, they must be won from either Alerts or Searchers inside one of the Babil dungeons. Even more unfortunate is the fact that I completely forgot about this fact and did not steal 64+ Alarms while I had the chance. The game creatively prevents you from re-entering the Tower, making it inaccessible from the Underground, and sticking an Elban citizen right in front of the Overworld's entrance.

Fear not, I did get extremely lucky and managed to win a Pink Tail on my 11th try with the beasts. I did manage to get a set of the armor, which I equipped on Edge, as it seemed like his defense was much lower than it should have been at this stage of the game. Wandering around and attempting to encounter the Pink Puffs is a trying experience, but it is also very rewarding in terms of gaining experience. Even at the later levels, my characters still managed to level up two or three times in under 64 encounters. This is a good way to build levels while still focusing on a single goal.

One other thing about the Pink Puffs. When you fight these creatures, a message saying "Let's Dance!" appears, most of your characters become Berserk, and various Chocobo themes begin to play in the background. For the life of me I cannot remember this ever happening in the Super Nintendo version. While I am not insinuating that it did not occur, as I will be the first to admit my memory is occasionally faulty in terms of games I have not played in almost four years, but I really think that this would be something that would stick with me. I personally believe that the Pink Puffs were no different in the first American version, but were meant to be something special in the original version. I personally prefer this version, as it makes the fight a little more interesting and causes the Pink Puffs to be even more exciting to encounter than the other humdrum enemies of their chamber.