FF6 - Brave New World

I did try fighting back,
The zone eater keeps beating the crap out of the underleveled party im using. Every attempt leads to death by its inhale attack. I could get my higher level heavy hitters and go to town. That by itself doesnt bother me, acctually its very cool monsters can beat me. (levels are terra: 20, strago: 17, relm: 16, shadow: 26. Their spell lists are pathetic, which im going to fix then retry. More ice spells!)

Inhale is a different attack than Engulf. Engulf is the one that will take you to see Gogo.

If Zone Eater is kicking your ass, I'd say you're just a bit underleveled. He was designed to be a beef gate, since a lot of what's inside of him is very good loot.

This and the striker thing change the circumstances of how a character is acquired, it just feels wrong.

You actually should already have the item you need to trade in for the Striker, unless you got rid of it.