"With the Snow Scarf and Dueling Mask, Gau is the bulkiest character in the game even before additional benefits from a shield are taken into account."
"Three relics of note for Gau are the Genji Glove, the Gauntlet, and the Master's Scroll. The effects of these relics affect not only Gau's normal attacks, but also special physical attacks, such as Cat Scratch and Critical. The Genji Glove and Gauntlet only take effect if the user is equipped with a weapon, which is where the Impartisan has utility for Gau since it is the only weapon he can use. With these relics, Gau's physical attacks can hit twice, deal additional damage, or hit four times."
"A particularly powerful strategy for Gau was so effective that it was removed from all versions of Final Fantasy VI after the original Super NES release. Equipping Gau with the Merit Award to enable him to use a wider range of equipment allows him to use the Kazekiri ("Tempest" in the Super NES translation), which has a chance to cast Wind Slash when attacking. The coding to randomly use Wind Slash is identical to the coding for casting spells when attacking that other weapons have, but is a separate mechanic, and because of this it is not disabled when using the Master's Scroll.
With this combination and the Stray Cat Rage, Gau will attack four times every turn, and each attack has a chance to use Wind Slash. Further, if Gau uses Cat Scratch, his attacks will be much stronger and the Wind Slash cast from them will also be more powerful. This allows Gau to reliably hit all enemies for maximum damage, potentially multiple times each turn. The only drawback is that the strategy is much less effective against enemies that are immune to or absorb wind-elemental damage, but very few enemies in Final Fantasy VI are. This strategy was nicknamed "Wind God Gau" by the fanbase.
The PlayStation Anthology release made Gau unable to equip the Merit Award, but the "Wind God Gau" strategy was not entirely gone, as Gogo could also do it, just less effectively since they have poorer stats and cannot equip magicite for level up bonuses to their Strength. The Game Boy Advance version made both Gau and Gogo unable to equip the Merit Award, and the mobile and Steam versions retain this."
THIS IS BEAUTIFUL
May 16, 2021
by
Gau
