I disagree with this. Partly my own failing because I always feel like I’m watching wasting a turn when an offensive unit has to heal. But maybe more importantly is that those healing items have no range. So you have to rely on a unit that can reach your soon-to-be dead unit getting a turn. Clerics already have a pretty good RT stat and since they don’t need to move much, they get frequent turns. Yes, it sucks relying on Meditation and Mother’s Blessing to proc, but auto skill cards pop up everywhere.
I think it’s beast master or whatever it’s called that get’s a throw ability, which serves the ranged heal purpose for me. It’s also 100% heal instead of whatever fraction heal, which becomes a bigger deal when your units start having 1300 hps etc. I just find that cleric heals are woefully underpowered for the restrictions of mana usage, and general paper-baginess of clerics. I just got tired of my cleric healing someone for 170, and watching the NPCs dish out 700 hps a shot to me lol.
On a practical note, there hasn’t been a battle in the game I couldn’t win on auto-battle, with every unit equipped with 3 full heals, and one rez stone. /shrug.
Sounds like you’re still doing the main story missions. The post game content will put the auto-battle stuff on the backburner, from what I’ve dabbled in so far. If nothing else, be careful about cliffs and ledges into nothingness - it’s easy to walk away while your are letting the game battle it out by itself and come back and not realize you’re missing a character. That’s how I lost Vyce, I bet.
Scott, you’ve said that the real game begins at chapter 4 (or after chapter 4?). Are you able to say why without spoiling anything? I’m still inching along in chapter 2 - maybe 2 locations left (unless they add more)
It gets better at the end of ch2. I’m in ch 3 now
There is a lot of awesome post-game battles and content to dig into, quests that only trigger after the main story is completed, and dungeons like the Palace of the Dead to completely clear with incredibly awesome but difficult battles, new classes you can’t really get access to until the post-game, and etc.
Then you can take all that awesome stuff you’ve found and high level spells and equipment you’ve found/crafted and roll time back to play through the game in other story beats - doing so, at least in the PSP version, scaled the game to your party so even early game battles got crazy. I’m still in the end-game of Chapter 4 (though I did the optional Shrine quest and have some incredible gear and the powerful Shaman class at last, something I never did in my previous game sessions) but I’m close to wrapping things up. Some of the story missions in late-Chapter 4 have been nail biters.
At least now I know approximately where I’ll rage quit. ;)
100% sure I will do this, if I haven’t already lol.
Hey I finally started chapter 3. Like @Sharpe I am on the Chaos path from doing what I considered the better choice. I get the lawful / chaotic reasoning compared to the good / evil. I’m OK with my choice so far.
I made Denim a Dragoon, but I think I’m not happy with my choice. Too many battles don’t have beasts or dragons to contend with. His damage output is a bit low. I think I want to change to something else - but I need to stick with a 1 handed sword so I can make use of his progress. I guess that would mean I need to go to knight or warrior, because berserker and ninja don’t use 1 handed swords. Right now battles allow 10 units and I have 12 because I haven’t hired anyone because even with the automated training I haven’t wanted to bother with it, so I probably don’t have a lot of flexibility in who I field in a given battle.
You could spec Denam as a Terror Knight, that was my go-to. Also don’t be afraid to mix it up with classes on other characters, or even weapon skills - they level up really quick. Given Denem a Spear as a Dragoon, that’ll be fun! Or make him a Wizard! That early in the game almost all your stats come from the class which is whatever level your character is, so experimentation is easy.
And 12 characters is technically all you need given you can make any of them whatever class you need at the time. I am more a “these are my guys and this is their class unless something cool comes along” player, sounds like you are as well, but it’s an option here and there.
Yep, I’m like you and I leave them what they are unless I have a good reason to change. I did change 3 characters total:
Denim from warrior to dragoon (wanted to be able to do good damage to beasts and dragons)
Derwin from warrior to terror knight (terror knight seemed cool and Denim was a warrior)
Sara from archer to beast tamer (didn’t need 2 archers and wanted to tame)
I’m happy with Derwin and Sara, although Sara doesn’t get a ton of chances to tame beasts and dragons (I did get a griffin and dragon). She can potentially empower them too, which can be useful.
In retrospect I could have left Derwin a warrior and changed Denim to a terror knight, but it probably doesn’t matter too much. If I get some other 1 handed sword option I can take that for Denim. I can’t even make him a warrior again because I don’t have any of those available.
You can get basic class Marks from the shop, like Warrior, if you want to move him back to Warrior. One suggestion might be making Denem a Knight - great one handed/sword tanky that can heal and with Rampant Aura really hinder your opponents movement. Some really strong stuff Knights can do.
Also I think in Chapter 3 Chaos you’ll find some new classes pretty soon, like Swordsman and Ninja, so keep an eye out for new enemy types, killing them usually yields you 3 classmarks the first time you fight them.
I’ve been alternating my Denam between Rune Fencer and caster (either Wizard or Warlock depending on chapter). I prefer the latter, but caster Denam is too squishy for certain fights and Rune Fencers are pretty fun anyways. Damage output isn’t a problem with either, but spear is my Denam’s primary weapon. But, Rune Fencers can use 1H swords while I don’t think Terror Knights can (pretty sure I had to switch a 1H sword Rune Fencer to using 2H swords when he became a Terror Knight). Swordsmen are cool too, but use a unique weapon (roughly analogous to Samurai in FFT if you’ve played that).
I’ll be anxious to see what a swordsman can do. That sounds like it may be a good choice if their weapon falls under 1H swords. I’d do a knight now if I didn’t already have 1 - but maybe I will anyways until I find another option.
2H Katanas only, I’m afraid.
My dps is swordman and ninja. Ninja dual wield so essentially do double damage. Swordman has some interesting magic: a plus shaped heal, a strengthen buff and an aoe breach
Dragoon and beast master are cycled if beasts are in the map
Getting rid of archers and clerics as this thread suggests has been a great idea. They are too squishy and waste of turns healing
I like the flying guy because after collecting a few blue buffs he can one shot enemies with regular attacks
Is there a resource that shows what spells and skills are and what they do?
Just to take a random example, I’ve no idea what awaken does.
I’m starting to get victory conditions like buff or debuff and I’d like to make sure I stick the appropriate skill or spell on a few people to make sure I have a shot at accomplishing these.
Again, don’t be afraid to star learning a new weapon - it doesn’t take much time at all, half a dozen battles and you’re up to speed, especially in chapter 3 where you’re barely level 20. I can level up a weapon skill from 1 to 40 in no time just playing through normal dungeons - I just did it with one character switching her up from whips to swords when some powerful named swords came into my inventory.
All skills, spells, items, and etc. have a descriptive banner that ticks along the top of the screen when the cursor is on it. I’m not sure if you are serious about not knowing what Awaken does though, that throws me off and makes me think you’re kidding around.
There are super easy - almost every damage spell inflicts aversion to that element (so like dropping Flaming Sphere II will inflict Fire Aversion) and that counts for the debuff criteria. Buffing an enemy is easy as you should keep whatever that red flower is that Strengthens on all your melee fighters, and keep as many of those in your inventory as you can to auto-replenish them in the field without having to return to a shop, since popping one of these on round 1 is a viable way to always be ahead of the difficulty curve (same with items that Fortify, imbue with Spellcraft or Healcraft, and etc.).