Is 60 the maximum level?

[redon]

I've got everyone to level 60 and strengthened some of the jobs to their limits depending on their roles.
However, there are still many bosses that are strong enough to devastate my party with one or two attacks.
I'm not saying my build is perfect, but even if I improve the stats a little from here, I don't think I'll be able to beat them.

Is the only thing I can do now to use a strategy?

[Melodia]

By default, yes. You can change it to higher, up to 99, if you want through the accessibility settings.

[redon]

Originally posted by Melodia:

By default, yes. You can change it to higher, up to 99, if you want through the accessibility settings.

Thanks! I didn't know about that setting.
Will it be a difficult challenge to beat the final boss and other bosses while remaining at level 60?

[darien]

Originally posted by redon:

Will it be a difficult challenge to beat the final boss and other bosses while remaining at level 60?

Yes it will. Not an insurmountable challenge, of course, but it certainly takes some effort.

[redon]

Originally posted by darien:

Originally posted by redon:

Will it be a difficult challenge to beat the final boss and other bosses while remaining at level 60?

Yes it will. Not an insurmountable challenge, of course, but it certainly takes some effort.

Thank you. I personally find it very humiliating to lower the difficulty level in an RPG game, so I'll try to put in a bit more effort in the current state.

[redon]

As I thought, the strength of the bosses that appear towards the end of the game seems wrong.
No matter what strategy you use, they can wipe out your party with just one or two actions.
If I focus on healing, I either run out of MP or collapse under the overwhelming damage from the enemy.
Percentage damage debuffs don't work properly because of the boss's passive.
The strategy of simply stacking DPS seems to be the most satisfying, but I just can't deplete the boss's massive HP.
Has anyone really defeated them at level 60?
I find it hard to believe.

[Balsion]

Even on the highest difficulty, all the late game bosses are perfectly beatable at 60. You have a lot of options with classes and equipment, if you combine them properly you can deal with anything in the game.

-Make sure to use buffs and debuffs as they're very powerful in this game.
-There are lots of ways to get HP regeneration and HP stealing, which helps keep your party healthy without being as MP intensive as direct healing spells.
-Nomad's Therapy stance can be used to turn single target heals aoe, usually making it very MP efficient.
-For enemies that use strong single target attacks, make full use of aggroo and protection skills to have a tank absorb them. It's possible to build nigh-invincible tanks in this game.
-Summons are very powerful as most of them can delay the boss for a couple turns.
-Rogue's Reflex Stance can be set on 3 characters at once so all 3 become immune to aoe physical attacks.

[Shneekey]

Originally posted by redon:

As I thought, the strength of the bosses that appear towards the end of the game seems wrong.
No matter what strategy you use, they can wipe out your party with just one or two actions.
If I focus on healing, I either run out of MP or collapse under the overwhelming damage from the enemy.
Percentage damage debuffs don't work properly because of the boss's passive.
The strategy of simply stacking DPS seems to be the most satisfying, but I just can't deplete the boss's massive HP.
Has anyone really defeated them at level 60?
I find it hard to believe.

Most of the late-game bosses require you to understand their strategy and counter it. Face-tanking simply isn't going to work here anymore, you have to understand how the boss operates and devise a counter-strategy.

If you're facing whom I think you are, lurking in the deeps fathoms below the light of the sun, know that these are optional bosses required to unlock the 'true' ending. You can achieve victory and beat the game without fighting them. As such, they are some of the most difficult encounters in the game, harder in my opinion than the actual (initial) final boss. But they are a foretaste of the challenges that defeating them will unlock.

Consider if you will each of the bosses in the Depths to be a test of your knowledge of a game's mechanic that is perhaps not explicitly spelled out but must be inferred through gameplay. Each one tests knowledge in different areas. You will need to understand and master these concepts, should you wish to unlock the True Ending.

However, if you are merely wanting to beat the game, turn your attention back to the Castle.

[redon]

Thank you both for your explanations!
I've realized that it's not an impossible challenge, and it's given me hope.

After taking the bosses' characteristics into account and reorganizing my strategy, I was able to defeat one boss that I thought I couldn't beat no matter how hard I tried!

[darien]

Originally posted by redon:

Thank you both for your explanations!
I've realized that it's not an impossible challenge, and it's given me hope.

After taking the bosses' characteristics into account and reorganizing my strategy, I was able to defeat one boss that I thought I couldn't beat no matter how hard I tried!

Awesome! That's a great moment. If it is one of the bosses Shneekey was talking about, I had a similar experience; went down there and got absolutely *clobbered,* got pretty discouraged, and then came back a few days later refreshed and with a cunning plan to work around the issues I was having, and got him. Crystal Project is a great source for that exact experience.

[redon]

I think the boss I defeated was probably not the one he was talking about...
But since then, I've been able to defeat bosses little by little!
I've realized just how little I understood about this game until now.
I'm really enjoying coming up with strategies now!

[Flux]

The percent damage protection doesn't affect debuffs- it is protection vs. stuff like gravity and DoTs that scale off max HP.

Basically if the boss didn't have percent damage protection, you'd be seeing DoTs tick for thousands of damage on some of the higher end HP totals.

[zeratulcraft]

The whole game has been beaten by a single character at L60 on Hard. It's all strategy at that point.

[me mushroom man]

Originally posted by redon:

As I thought, the strength of the bosses that appear towards the end of the game seems wrong.
No matter what strategy you use, they can wipe out your party with just one or two actions.
If I focus on healing, I either run out of MP or collapse under the overwhelming damage from the enemy.
Percentage damage debuffs don't work properly because of the boss's passive.
The strategy of simply stacking DPS seems to be the most satisfying, but I just can't deplete the boss's massive HP.
Has anyone really defeated them at level 60?
I find it hard to believe.

A lot of encounters, especially late game bosses, end up unfolding more as a puzzle than a traditional rpg fight. Sometimes there is something very cheesy that can trivialize a fight, and other times you just need to really iron out your composition and equips

Reading more of the thread, I see you're figuring things out - I hope you continue to have fun exploring the endgame. It certainly feels very rewarding when you finally beat a boss that's knocked you down a few times.