Boss mode a little underwhelming

[Michael K]

So I finished the game on a normal playthrough. It was really good, but I was always looking to play as the bosses. Particularly the katana demon one. When I started this up I was very confused on how ridiculously weak they are.

The katana girl does 4 damage a hit... in normal game you start with a gladius that does 6. Even a dagger that does 4 damage at least applies bleed.

The archer girl only real use I found was a bit of range the ability to roll. Arrows are really weak and I am not going up to enemies to try the kick.

The mage girl is somewhat acceptable. Still a bit on weak side comparing to some of the spells you get in the main game, but at least workable.

Do these characters get a buff or am I stuck with playing them like this?

[ch]

yeah you'll get buffs throughout the game (for example, katana that you are tasked to retrieve for Kana in a normal playthrough will give you a "passive" effect that increases your damage with Kana), although, to be honest, the archer girl would probably still be only for rolls :P At least I barely used her, way too slow attack animation.

[vinzi]

Kana is insane. You can either give her all sorts of staus effects on her basic attacks or run a battery with spell damage up and just spam down anything in seconds.

I didn't use the bow girl much but with a bunch of damage up bows equipped she can do like 116 damage on a single jump attack.

[Phantaeon]

Whilst Kana was basically my general use for my first boss mode playthrough, I genuinely found all 3 had good utility. Some bosses I definitely did far better against due to playing as Jun, purely cuz her dodge roll can be a lifesaver. I think all 3 are pretty well balanced throughout a playthrough in usability, even if it starts out as only Kana being decent.

[Xaneorath]

Hmm ... In my playthrough Kana was actualy the least used character. I usualy only switched to her, because she had the highest movespeed and switched to the other two when it came to fighting. The undead mage carried most of the early game for me, freezing the water and killing stuff (including bosses) with her laser beam. Later on I switched completly to Jun and stayed with her until the end, since she becomes a real killer with the ranger hood, fire bow and magic bow equipped ...

Inbetween I sometimes tried to use kana, but sadly she always felt outclassed by the other two for me and I switched back to those.

[happygiggi]

I mainly used Kana when I did the boss mode. She can easily just block everything, reflect back projectiles, and is the quickest of the trio. Just rush with block + vengeance shield.

But the 3 girls is balanced and have their useful moments.

Yuri is a good support, freezing water for safe killing, and burning.

Jun can dish a lot of damages with the DoT stacking but is very slow and may suffer from ranged enemies or the one that shields and bounce back the arrows to you.

Kana is the speediest and is easier for handling agile and ranged enemies. Her block stance combined with the quick slash make everything easy.

[Yvanoff]

I didn't use Kana much at the beginning because no roll and meh damage, but after getting her katana back she was the character I used the most

I used mostly the witch at the beginning, because her ray attack is immediately strong, then I switched to mostly Kana after getting the katana back. I used Jun as a bit of a side character all along, but her ranged attack remains useful throughout imho

[45]

the archer jump attack is what youre looking for. also accessories buff them as you go. Boss mode is really cool. So is witch mode, but assassin mode is the weak one out, its just a melee run which is probably what most people did on a first playthrough anyway and theres nothing fundamentally different about it. less health doesnt mean anything when you should avoid all dmg anyway

[Rhade]

Sorry to necro but if you put on the goblin dagger + the poison amulet that lets poison dots stack, Jun is OP. Melted bosses with ease. Just do the jumping attack to apply 3-4 poison dots, and then do it again and again.

For enemies that are immune or blocking I just used Yuri to freeze or burn them with her ray attack. Put on the accessory that increases the angle of her beam to increase it's range quite a bit, and if you jump while casting ice you instead cover the ground in flammable liquid. You can also have the goblin dagger on to change that into poison pools, and as long as you don't change character they pose no danger to you. Really good for the carnivore girl boss. Coat the floor and dodge till dead.