Strong early party discussion.

[RobOda]

Not that it is particularly difficult to play but using the attribute spreadsheet flying around on Reddit, it seems like the best early party would be;


1. Iugo (one of the best frontliners, strong defences, strong attack power, and his level 15 rune is especially strong to finish off bosses.)

2. Garr (A great physical attacker and defender, with a great rune that should be used asap to buff his strength, and then used every time to refresh it. Capable enough to stay in the front row, where he can then hit the back row if he wanted to. Speed is an issue though.)

3. Yusuke (Physical attacker and defender, has grapple, so can bypass armour. When he faces bosses that require him to defend, he comes back even stronger (Kogan for example) because his defend boosts his attack power.)

4. Nowa (duh)

5. Kuroto (Long range anti flyer, super quick, technical and fairly strong. Can use shields which helps with survivability.)

6. Francesca (An All round mage, can dish it out in melee AND utilise her water rune for healing purposes. She is slow though.)

That would last you from the initial recruitment right through until you get the castle.

Who didn't make the grade?

1. Mio - unavailable anyway and that's good because she's rubbish. Can't take a hit or dish one out, and she's not worth a gamble on an IAI strike tbh.

2. Lian - She's good, but her defences do not scale at all. Eventually, anything that hits the back row will melt her so fast it won't be worth her upkeep. Yusuke can do grapples instead for less maintenance.

3. Mellore - She's average all round, so not unusable, but average doesn't do enough really.

4. Yume - Takes up 2x slots and offers nothing, she needs a higher power boost really.

5. Gigina - Fast and that's it, can't take a hit and can't dish it out either. Not worth a slot.

I'm pretty sure that's everyone in the early phases until you hit your castle. I think that team I picked will just melt through everything, and you have free healing with Francesca to tide you over if you need it.

How about you guys, who do you pick?

[Zandakar]

Francesca is incredibly frail. Zabi is the best mage you can get early game which isn't saying much since magic (aside from healing) seems to be trash in this game from what I can tell.

[SimranZenov]

Thanks for sharing. I like Francesca's personality - gotta keep her around.

[Zandakar]

Originally posted by SimranZenov:

Thanks for sharing. I like Francesca's personality - gotta keep her around.

I did too, but she just kept getting two shot in one turn and I couldn't take it any more.

[(deleted)]

Originally posted by SimranZenov:

Thanks for sharing. I like Francesca's personality - gotta keep her around.

There's a 100HP accessory just before the route split if you still want to use her that almost doubled her HP amount when the accessory was available. Upon equipping she has the same HP amount as Falward.

[AH-1 Cobra]

Kogen is a beast when you get him. He's got good power, good phys & mag defenses & HP. Mediocre speed (same as Iudo's). He starts with 2SP (guaranteed), and commonly starts a battle with 4 and can use his iron ball toss on an entire row that can deal double the damage of his normal attack (seems random between x1-x2). He's also an M range character, which means he can target back row enemies if he's up front.

[SimranZenov]

Originally posted by (deleted):

There's a 100HP accessory just before the route split if you still want to use her that almost doubled her HP amount when the accessory was available. Upon equipping she has the same HP amount as Falward.

Nice, I'll keep an eye out for that. Thanks!

[AH-1 Cobra]

Originally posted by SimranZenov:

Originally posted by (deleted):

There's a 100HP accessory just before the route split if you still want to use her that almost doubled her HP amount when the accessory was available. Upon equipping she has the same HP amount as Falward.

Nice, I'll keep an eye out for that. Thanks!

Francesca has a hero combo with Falward that's an AOE heal + buff. It's decent early on, but it falls off towards mid game when you start getting way better characters.

[Chief Spreading Bull]

I'd say the earliest competitor to replace the Francesca + Falward combo is Gieren once he gets his Rune of Conservation. That 20% discount to MP costs makes mass healing very affordable and two Magic slots means he can carry both Rune of Earth and Rune of Currents to be your primary healer. His only drawback is that he is as slow as Francesca and your party pretty much turns into a sausage fest LUL.

[RobOda]

Originally posted by Zandakar:

Francesca is incredibly frail. Zabi is the best mage you can get early game which isn't saying much since magic (aside from healing) seems to be trash in this game from what I can tell.

Zabi isn't available until you hit the castle, my point of that party is for prior to that stage.

And, Zabi only has 1 point of defence more than Fran up to level 40, so not quite a good swap.

I agree, Frans' physical defence is dire though, she's a good candidate to remove once a better all round mage comes onto the scene.

[Zandakar]

Originally posted by ChiefSpreadingBull:

I'd say the earliest competitor to replace the Francesca + Falward combo is Gieren once he gets his Rune of Conservation. That 20% discount to MP costs makes mass healing very affordable and two Magic slots means he can carry both Rune of Earth and Rune of Currents to be your primary healer. His only drawback is that he is as slow as Francesca and your party pretty much turns into a sausage fest LUL.

Yea =( This is the first game where I haven't really been able to have any female party members have a main spot on the team. I usually prefer them since they're better to look at.

[archonsod]

Originally posted by RobOda:

3. Mellore - She's average all round, so not unusable, but average doesn't do enough really.

Her first rune unlock is magic. Give her a water rune and you've got a healer who doesn't melt the first time someone looks at them funny, and with Cutie Shot being a skill she isn't entirely reduced to basic attacks once the MP runs out. Throw in her normal attack being ranged (with a chance of stun) and she can combo well with Kuruto to snipe enemies that like to skulk in the rear when she's not patching up your front row.

5. Gigina - Fast and that's it, can't take a hit and can't dish it out either. Not worth a slot.

Better defence than Lian (albeit not as accurate) with the drawback of being short ranged. Also has a nice hero combo with Garr. Doesn't really come into his own until you can put something decent in his rune slot though.

[chiyen]

In this game, you just push and advance the storyline ASAP, and make do with what you have is good enough.

The leveling in each stage is extremely fast that it virtually almost stopped after 10 combats. So just be careful you don't have too many low HP characters that can be killed by enemy first strikes that takes place earlier than any of your character can move.

That means, if you put too many SLOW characters in your party, you need to heal up a lot of damage all the time.

And in some cases, your healer may die first, and a typical one of them is Francesca. If you want to use that, make sure you have enough fast attacker that can clear up enemy back row shooters - and Garr is not one of them. It's kind of counter-intuitive that a Wolf-man character is among the slowest group of characters.

[shinryu495]

Originally posted by AH-1 Cobra:

Kogen is a beast when you get him. He's got good power, good phys & mag defenses & HP. Mediocre speed (same as Iudo's). He starts with 2SP (guaranteed), and commonly starts a battle with 4 and can use his iron ball toss on an entire row that can deal double the damage of his normal attack (seems random between x1-x2). He's also an M range character, which means he can target back row enemies if he's up front.

I really agree with this. I basically replaced Iugo since his taunt and counter is so inconsistent while Kogen can just defend against big hits.

[chiyen]

Originally posted by AH-1 Cobra:

Kogen is a beast when you get him. He's got good power, good phys & mag defenses & HP. Mediocre speed (same as Iudo's). He starts with 2SP (guaranteed), and commonly starts a battle with 4 and can use his iron ball toss on an entire row that can deal double the damage of his normal attack (seems random between x1-x2). He's also an M range character, which means he can target back row enemies if he's up front.

Yes. Despite I don't like that characters (graphics, and for the mage his vocal), his team is among the bests in early stage for simple reason - all of them can survive for a long time, and reliably deal damages. It's a sure way to win boss combats.

[chiyen]

Originally posted by chiyen:

In this game, you just push and advance the storyline ASAP, and make do with what you have is good enough.

The leveling in each stage is extremely fast that it virtually almost stopped after 10 combats. So just be careful you don't have too many low HP characters that can be killed by enemy first strikes that takes place earlier than any of your character can move.

That means, if you put too many SLOW characters in your party, you need to heal up a lot of damage all the time.

And in some cases, your healer may die first, and a typical one of them is Francesca. If you want to use that, make sure you have enough fast attacker that can clear up enemy back row shooters - and Garr is not one of them. It's kind of counter-intuitive that a Wolf-man character is among the slowest group of characters.

The opposite of this one is: Isha

(join in mid-game as fast healer, boosted in end-game as fast AOE attacker)

With the end-game "initial SP+2" emblem (and probably mage / back row boost emblem), she can clear up enemy back row (typically fast shooters), in one strike, before anyone else move on the battlefield.

That means you only have to deal with 50% of the enemy, the other 50% of them are just gone before they can do anything to you.