Neo Shinryu is one of the superbosses exclusive to the Advance and the 2013 Matrix Software versions of Final Fantasy V. He is found on the Sealed Temple's Shinryu's Lair in the chest containing the Ultima Weapon.

Defeating Neo Shinryu in the 2013 version earns the "Neo Demon Dragon" achievement.

Stats

Battle

Neo Shinryu has two forms active in the battle. One form is invincible, unselectable, and performs most of the attacks, while the other form can be selected, damaged, and is mainly responsible for Neo Shinryu's counter reactions. The vulnerable form can be damaged at set intervals, but it has no visual or auditory indications of when it can be attacked. If the vulnerable form is slowed, both the invincible and vulnerable intervals are extended, changing the timings as a result.

Neo Shinryu is susceptible to darkness, silence, and slow but only its vulnerable form can have these statuses afflicted. As the vulnerable form has no actions that rely on accuracy, darkness is useless. Slow only affects the vulnerable form, which only possesses reactions, and does nothing to slow the pace of attacks from the invulnerable form.

Unlike other enemies with multiple forms, the 2013 version is unable to tell when the vulnerable form can be damaged via enemy status indicators. Both forms are technically always visible, but the invulnerable form has no sprite. If the vulnerable form has an active status, it will always flash or have the tint of the status's color for the effect's duration, regardless of whether it can be damaged or not.

As there are always two targets on field, random targeting attacks, such as the individual hits from Rapid Fire or Meteor, have a 50% chance of hitting the invulnerable form and dealing no damage, even when timed correctly.

Neo Shinryu has two phases. It begins the battle mainly focusing on powerful non-elemental and elemental party attacks, as well as a variety of status afflictions. When it falls below 15,000 HP, it casts Mute to eliminate spell casting for the rest of the battle, then attacks physically with normal and Critical attacks 1–3 times every turn. It no longer uses any of its special moves except as counter reactions.

The invulnerable form performs these actions:

• Normal physical attacks. Always done as part of double or triple actions.
• Mighty Guard - Performed once at the start of the battle. Grants itself protect, shell, and float. Depending on the randomized ATB gauge starting amount, this may occur when the vulnerable form cannot be affected, resulting in no buffs on Neo Shinryu. Only the 2013 version can tell, as Neo Shinryu will flash teal if Mighty Guard was successful.
• Maelstrom - Attempts to reduce the party's HP to single digits.
• Ice Storm - Deals ice-element damage to the party.
• Blaze - Deals 1/4 of max HP fire-element damage to the party.
• Zombie Breath - Deals randomized non-elemental damage to the party, and if anyone dies to the attack, they become a zombie.
• Earthquake - Deals earth-element damage to the party. Does not affect targets with float status.
• Lightning - Deals 1/4 of max HP lightning-element damage to the party.
• Poison Breath - Deals poison-element damage to the party and may inflict poison status.
• Breath Wing - Deals 1/4 of max HP wind-element damage to the party.
• Curse - Attempts to inflict many different status ailments on one target.
• Tidal Wave - Deals water-element damage to the party.
• Almagest - Deals holy-element damage and inflicts sap to the party.
• Mute - Used only once, when Neo Shinryu's HP falls below 15,000. Prevents spell casting for the rest of the battle. Signifies its phase change.
• Critical Attack - Used after Mute. Deals the same damage as normal attack, and performed in double and triple actions with them. In 2013 version, it ignores standard evasion.

The vulnerable form performs these actions:

• White Hole - Used as a counter reaction a third of the time when it receives an attack. Attempts to inflict both petrify and death on the attacker.
• Zombie Powder - Used as a counter reaction a third of the time when targeted by Rapid Fire. Attempts to inflict zombie on the attacker.
• Doom - Used as a counter reaction a third of the time when targeted by Rapid Fire. Inflicts doom status on the attacker, killing them in either 15 or 30 seconds.
• Giga Flare - Used as a reaction to its death. Deals non-elemental damage to the whole party.
• Meteor - Used as a reaction to its death, immediately after Giga Flare. Deals four randomly targeted hits of random non-elemental damage.

AI script

Invulnerable

Default:

1. Mighty Guard, set First Phase flag

If First Phase flag set:

1. Maelstrom
2. Ice Storm (66.6%) / Blaze (33.3%)
3. Zombie Breath
4. Earthquake (66.6%) / Lightning (33.3%)
5. Double action:
   • Attack
   • Attack
6. Poison Breath (66.6%) / Breath Wing (33.3%)
7. Curse
8. Tidal Wave (66.6%) / Almagest (33.3%)

If Cast Mute flag set:

• Mute, Set Final Phase flag

If Final Phase flag set:

1. Double action:
   • Attack (66.6%) / Critical Attack (33.3%)
   • Attack (66.6%) / Critical Attack (33.3%)
2. Triple action:
   • Attack / Critical Attack / Nothing
   • Attack / Critical Attack / Nothing
   • Attack / Critical Attack / Nothing

If alone:

• Revive vulnerable form to full HP

Vulnerable

Default:

• Toggle False Image status
• Nothing

If HP < 15,000 and Cast Mute flag unset:

• Set Cast Mute flag, Toggle False Image status
• Nothing

React on Death:

• Double action:
  • Remove invulnerable form
  • Giga Flare
  • Meteor

React on Rapid Fire:

• Target last attacker:
  • Zombie Powder / Doom / Nothing

React on being targeted by an offensive action:

• Target last attacker:
  • White Hole (33.3%) / Nothing

Strategy

Neo Shinryu requires the player to make several equipment preparations and choices depending on their chosen strategy.

Weapon

• Dragon Lances are the most effective weapons due to its type advantage against dragons. Very powerful combined with Dual-Wield and/or Jump.
• Apollo's Harp can deal great damage due to its x8 multiplier against dragons.
• Dragon's Whisker is also effective against dragons, but has no actions that boost it further.
• Masamune is good to have equipped at the start of the battle, and guarantees an action before Shinryu uses Mighty Guard. The player can try to reflect Mighty Guard onto the team and prevent the buff. Can be swapped afterwards for other weaponry.
• Main Gauche, Defender, and Sasuke's Katana have added block chances for Shinryu's physicals. If the party doesn't go for max damage strategies, the final phase can prove problematic without some physical attack prevention.

Shield

• Force Shield dropped by Omega Mk.II nullifies every elemental attack.
• Aegis Shield can sometimes block its magic attacks (33% chance), as well as prevent petrify from White Hole.
• Flame Shield / Ice Shield absorbs Blaze and Ice Storm, respectively.
• Genji Shield has high evasion. If the wearer is mini, this allows them to reach a perfect 99% evasion for physical attacks.

Headwear

• Ribbon can block many status effects including the petrify and instant death from White Hole, but some effects from Curse may still break through (such as confusion and mini), and will not protect a wearer from zombie status.
• Gold Hairpin can be used for casters, especially if Dualcast and/or Quick are used.

Armor

• Angel Robe nullifies Poison Breath and poison status.
• Bone Mail absorbs Poison Breath and the instant death of White Hole and prevents many statuses. This is best combined with Hide or well-timed Jumps, as the wearer takes 1/2 of max HP damage from Blaze and Almagest deals double damage, and the wearer cannot be revived. Can work well with Force Shield and Ribbon.

Accessory

• Angel Ring is the only way to prevent zombie status. This should be equipped on any one that is going to use Rapid Fire to counter the Zombie Powder reaction.
• Coral Ring can absorb the Tidal Waves and nullify Blaze, but will take 1/2 of max HP from Lightning.
• Flame Ring can absorb Blaze and nullify Ice Storm, but will take double damage from Tidal Wave.
• Elven Mantle can occasionally block physical attacks.
• Sorceror's Mantle halves all elemental attacks.
• Hermes Sandals allows the party to keep pace with Neo Shinryu's high speed. The other accessories may be better if the player has a Time Magic user in their line up.

Every non-Rapid Fire attacker should have petrify and ideally instant death immunity (can be added during the battle with Lifeshield Mix) to block the White Hole responses. Float should be pre-cast before engaging to avoid Earthquake.

The effects from Neo Shinryu's Mighty Guard can be dispelled if not reflected. The party should preemptively cast support spells like Hastega and Mighty Guard and have the Quick spell handy to allow the multiple uses of healing and support magic, as well as single-target attacks.

The main difficulty of the battle is timing attacks, due to Neo Shinryu's periodic invulnerability. One way is to time actions on every other one of its attacks. With the battle mode set to Wait, the player can wait until Neo Shinryu starts the appropriate action animation, then select their attack. For the first phase, this would be during the animations of Maelstrom, Zombie Breath, the double attack and Curse. Slow status should not be inflicted, as the timings will change to occur partway between Neo Shinryu's actions, requiring estimations.

For the final phase, Neo Shinryu should be invincible after casting Mute, but becomes vulnerable again on the double attack afterwards. The final phase alternates between 2 attacks and 0–3 attacks every turn. Attacks should be timed on the animation of the 2 attacks, but if the following turn is 0 or 2 attacks, it can be very difficult to know which turn Neo Shinryu is on. However, Neo Shinryu's health is very low when this phase starts, so the player should only need to time it correctly once or twice.

For physical attacks, Flare Spellblade can greatly increase damage. Dual-Wield can also amplify damage, but comes at the cost of shield protection, and may result in two counter reactions. Rapid Fire is a powerful attack option but may result in Doom and Zombie Powder reactions, so the user should be protected against those ailments through Angel Ring and mixing Dragon Kiss. Jump with Dragon Lance(s) equipped can deal very heavy damage while dodging many attacks, but the player will have to get used to the timing. With 8 Dragon Lances being dual-wielded by all characters, it can be possible to instantly end the fight with 4 well-timed Jumps. Combining Dragon Cannons (Dragon Fang + Blitzshot) are also a strong option. Finisher can do 9999 damage regardless of the user's stats and weaponry, but is inconsistent.

For magic, due to Neo Shinryu's 120% magic evasion, the player should only use spells that automatically hit. High level Black Magic such as Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, and Flare, are effective. Elemental spells can be amplified with Magus Rod or mixing Elemental Power. The player can also Summon Bahamut or Leviathan. Spells can be Dualcast for double damage. Dualcast combined with Quick can result in pentuple casts, MP allowing. If the player has several Dark Matters, they can mix Shadowflare.

The player can alter Neo Shinryu's level to make certain abilities connect. Mixing Samson's Might or Dragon Power can increase its level up to 255. The mixes must still be timed when it is vulnerable. The player can check Neo Shinryu's current level with Libra.

• If made divisible by 3 (one Dragon Power or two Samson's Might), Level 3 Flare connects and is very light on MP cost.
• If made divisible by 5 (must maximize to 255, 16 Samson's Mights or 8 Dragon Powers), Level 5 Death can kill instantly.

It is possible to skip the final phase if a heavy multi-hit attack is used, such as Rapid Fire, Dual-wield, or Dualcast. If damage is not high enough to skip the final phase, the player can use Golem, Blink, or Image to avoid taking damage from the physical attack barrage. A mini Genji Shield wielder can also avoid the normal attacks, but can still be hit by Critical Attacks. One party member can help Cover allies with Guard active during the final phase.

If the party is incapable of surviving Neo Shinryu's heavy party-wide attacks, a useful strategy is to have one member with the abilities Hide and Revive, with Hermes Sandals, Force Shield, Mirage Vest, Ribbon and one of Main Gauche / Defender / Sasuke's Katana equipped. A character equipped like this can only be affected by Zombie Breath, Curse, or physical attacks. Their sole purpose is to Hide and only reveal during safe windows to use Revive and resurrect the whole party. This allows the other members to set up and then destroy Neo Shinryu (e.g. stacking Dragon Power on someone dual-wielding Dragon Lances). For more safety on the Revive-using member, one other member can be devoted to Cover for added physical protection. In the GBA version only, swapping weapon/shield will also refresh Mirage Vest's Image status, in the event the Revive-user is struck.

For Neo Shinryu's final attack of Giga Flare and Meteor, it is suggested to have a party member with Hide to definitely survive. It is not possible to skip Neo Shinryu's final attack reaction (e.g., by killing Neo Shinryu with Counter to skip), as if the vulnerable form's death reaction did not trigger, the invulnerable form will stay on field and revive the vulnerable form to full HP.

Other appearances

Pictlogica Final Fantasy

Gallery

Etymology

[view · edit · purge]Neo is a prefix from the ancient Greek word for "new" or "young".

[view · edit · purge]Shinryu is the Japanese on'yomi name for Shénlóng, literally "god/divine dragon", an important ancient dragon in Chinese mythology. It is said to preside over storms and rain, and can bring disastrous drought, thunderstorms and general bad weather if it feels neglected and/or angered.

Though Shinryu's name is taken from the East Asian dragon which normally is depicted with four claws and no wings, it does not greatly resemble the mythological Shénlóng, as it originally had five claws on each hand as opposed to four as a way to show higher-rank (as well as sharing the same azure color as another mythological dragon, the Qīnglóng/Seiryu).

The Final Fantasy depiction of Shinryu's most iconic recurring design more closely resembles the European wyvern, a dragon-like serpent with two claws and two wings.

Related enemies

• Crystal Dragon
• Shinryu