Can I take my time in this game?

[Shadou]

I read so far you are pretty free to do stuff in easy difficulty but can I do like "everything" and still beat the game? Obviously I mean by being as pure as possible in one run and not the next.

Sorry I'm not a fan of timed games I'm just so bad at managing and really enjoy doing everything the game has to offer.

I'm still buying the game regardless, really like the demo just want to know if it's possible to at least be able to take my time with the game and still reach the end.

[TentacleMayor]

I've never done a pure run or a low-difficulty run, but it's worth noting that there is no timer that's ticking down in real-time, and there is no timer period, only creeping Corruption. I think there's also not a ton of non-H side-content, so in terms of being able to do everything without running into a Game Over, it's very doable if you allow for some mental changes as a way to dump Corruption. If not, and you truly want a 100% pure run with no mental changes, it's going to be more of a struggle since you lose the main way of managing Corruption, and you basically also lose your superpower, and you'll be spending money on Blessed Water instead, and you'll also be spending money just to progress the plot.

[Bookman]

You can definitely take your time and get to basically all the content on lower difficulties. In fact, the way I see it, that's why they exist, and why they're split into both Story and Explorer Modes.

I've heard someone say that bosses power up if you don't reach them before a certain day, like day 40 for clearing the Festival of Greed quest and day 100 for the other Demon Generals. I can't confirm that's how it works yet, nor how much stronger they become, but a cutscene at the end of FoG strongly implies something like that.

I don't think that would make them unbeatable though, certainly not on Story Mode. So if that worries you, I'd definitely pick the lowest difficulty.


Other than that, the gradual Corruption build up effectively puts the player on a clock because having too much Corruption with no outlet for it means you hit your limit and get the Soul Break Game Over. But Soul Break is disabled on Story Mode and Explorer Mode, so when you reach max Corruption, nothing happens, and what's more you can't gain Corruption past your limit.

Corruption has a few other effects, like lowering Aura's Willpower by an equal amount, which combined with the Womb of Lust and other curses you pick up as the game goes on means that you will frequently suffer from debuffs, decreasing Aura's stats. On Normal and Explorer Mode, these debuffs are fairly gentle, Cursed I/II/II only slice off 10%/20%/30% of her total stats. You also have more gold to work with, so you can afford most upgrades you want and still buy or find a few Blessed Waters from time to time. You could also selectively choose lewd scenes instead of paying for Blessed Waters, saving plenty of money and gaining other benefits, at the cost of gaining some Lewdness.

At this point I want to stress that, even gaining Lewdness and maxing out Corruption don't make you lose the game by themselves. The game doesn't force you to spend Corruption in the mental world, so if every night you have Alicia go to Aura and skip taking an action, you can avoid the worst drawbacks that come from mental changes adding up their effects over time.

Finally, you can also play Story Mode and simply stay near 0 Willpower and Cursed III without worrying about it. Even though Aura is debuffed, all the enemies you face in Story Mode are debuffed by 50% - it's like they have a permenant Curse V on them, regardless of your Willpower score. So you still come out ahead and can beat them even under Curse III, and from time to time you can pop a Blessed Water or trigger a lewd scene to become much more powerful for a few days. And if that's not enough, without Soul Break you can just Remove Collar in every boss battle that's giving you trouble, and breeze through the content that way. The game can certainly take it, events won't break from you doing this, while you don't have to worry about missing anything.

There's a few caveats to this - when you start the day with 0 Willpower already, you will trigger a lewd scene and skip that day, but then start the next day Uncursed. It's a small price to pay when on Story Mode, you're so powerful and so rich that you will have more than enough days to beat all the content and stop Richard. Then there are missions tied to Vice, which you cannot unlock without making mental changes as Alicia, but honestly I'd keep those out of a pure run and just come back to check them once you start a lewd run later, because without focusing on Vice they're difficult to get right, not that you need them to finish the game, it's side content honestly.


There are probably a few things I am forgetting or I haven't discovered for myself, but I hope this answer helps you make a decision. the TL; DR of this should be "play Story Mode and don't worry about anything, just enjoy yourself". You won't run out of days, and the debuffs and penalties that Corruption brings might slow you down but can't actually stop you.

[TentacleMayor]

Originally posted by Bookman:

I've heard someone say that bosses power up if you don't reach them before a certain day, like day 40 for clearing the Festival of Greed quest and day 100 for the other Demon Generals. I can't confirm that's how it works yet, nor how much stronger they become, but a cutscene at the end of FoG strongly implies something like that.

AFAIK nothing happens on day 40, except if you manage to clear the Festival by then you can get a little extra reward at the Refugee Camp, but it's definitely not worth rushing into the Festival and having to use more items. Demon Generals power up at day 100, but you can still crush them with Star Knightess and some extra work, like clearing Belphegor's barrier.

[Shadou]

Originally posted by Bookman:

You can definitely take your time and get to basically all the content on lower difficulties. In fact, the way I see it, that's why they exist, and why they're split into both Story and Explorer Modes.

I've heard someone say that bosses power up if you don't reach them before a certain day, like day 40 for clearing the Festival of Greed quest and day 100 for the other Demon Generals. I can't confirm that's how it works yet, nor how much stronger they become, but a cutscene at the end of FoG strongly implies something like that.

I don't think that would make them unbeatable though, certainly not on Story Mode. So if that worries you, I'd definitely pick the lowest difficulty.


Other than that, the gradual Corruption build up effectively puts the player on a clock because having too much Corruption with no outlet for it means you hit your limit and get the Soul Break Game Over. But Soul Break is disabled on Story Mode and Explorer Mode, so when you reach max Corruption, nothing happens, and what's more you can't gain Corruption past your limit.

Corruption has a few other effects, like lowering Aura's Willpower by an equal amount, which combined with the Womb of Lust and other curses you pick up as the game goes on means that you will frequently suffer from debuffs, decreasing Aura's stats. On Normal and Explorer Mode, these debuffs are fairly gentle, Cursed I/II/II only slice off 10%/20%/30% of her total stats. You also have more gold to work with, so you can afford most upgrades you want and still buy or find a few Blessed Waters from time to time. You could also selectively choose lewd scenes instead of paying for Blessed Waters, saving plenty of money and gaining other benefits, at the cost of gaining some Lewdness.

At this point I want to stress that, even gaining Lewdness and maxing out Corruption don't make you lose the game by themselves. The game doesn't force you to spend Corruption in the mental world, so if every night you have Alicia go to Aura and skip taking an action, you can avoid the worst drawbacks that come from mental changes adding up their effects over time.

Finally, you can also play Story Mode and simply stay near 0 Willpower and Cursed III without worrying about it. Even though Aura is debuffed, all the enemies you face in Story Mode are debuffed by 50% - it's like they have a permenant Curse V on them, regardless of your Willpower score. So you still come out ahead and can beat them even under Curse III, and from time to time you can pop a Blessed Water or trigger a lewd scene to become much more powerful for a few days. And if that's not enough, without Soul Break you can just Remove Collar in every boss battle that's giving you trouble, and breeze through the content that way. The game can certainly take it, events won't break from you doing this, while you don't have to worry about missing anything.

There's a few caveats to this - when you start the day with 0 Willpower already, you will trigger a lewd scene and skip that day, but then start the next day Uncursed. It's a small price to pay when on Story Mode, you're so powerful and so rich that you will have more than enough days to beat all the content and stop Richard. Then there are missions tied to Vice, which you cannot unlock without making mental changes as Alicia, but honestly I'd keep those out of a pure run and just come back to check them once you start a lewd run later, because without focusing on Vice they're difficult to get right, not that you need them to finish the game, it's side content honestly.


There are probably a few things I am forgetting or I haven't discovered for myself, but I hope this answer helps you make a decision. the TL; DR of this should be "play Story Mode and don't worry about anything, just enjoy yourself". You won't run out of days, and the debuffs and penalties that Corruption brings might slow you down but can't actually stop you.

Very informative tyvm I'm glad I can take some time makes me extra excited to play, I think I'm OK with managing the corruption part of the game and not get to that point I was definitely worried that I needed to plan and prepare b4 x days and such I'm just really bad at it.

But I learned a ton from your post that I'm glad to know b4 diving in thanks!

[Eisvogel]

To answer your question directly, the 2 lower difficulties are very lenient and remove the max corruption game over ending... so yes you can take your time. Also, if corruption is no longer a worry.... you can rely on SK skill (once per day full power action) to obliterate any obstacle, but since you have more gold and more room to work with your skills.... you'll also face any challenge more prepared and with more options.

Things will change from normal, and to be honest.... it's extremely useful.... almost necessary i would say..... to know some of the events and story progression, so you can chose in optimal order how to proceed. Maybe not an absolute blocker but it can hurt your playthrough on normal (in some cases it may even kill it beyond repair since corruption exceeded is game over)

Finally, regarding fixed day thresholds.... as mentioned above, there are some changes in rewards if you get some things done early..... for the festival of greed there's like three different days..... there's one for doing it super early which is insane (and i could only manage it in easy mode..... im on normal now and couldn't get anywhere near that ... if i remember was something like less than day 20). The only hard date which is mentioned and explained in game... is day 100..... which is when the enemies from the prologue are supposed to recover completely..... haven't reached that far yet..... but it is likely from the greed festival experience that they will be too hard to defeat (or maybe impossible) without using the collar skill that gains corruption in exchange for that 1 time daily use for full power mode

[kurayami1234]

There are more time-wise issues one might want to consider. Potential minor spoilers ahead!

One would be how fast you make it to Winterfall and start killing monsters there. They drop cursed gourmet meat, which gives you a disadvantage if you carry any in certain battles. Disposing it either costs 50 willpower or kills the slime for the day, meaning you need to gradually kill the monsters and remove the meat over several (many?) days.

Another might be how quickly you raise the daily exp gain of the other adventurers, Charlotte in particular. As you very likely want to learn Fire2 from her, she needs to be lvl6 to teach you the spell. Later on, you will encounter many plants that cannot be burned with Fire1 and the only other way to get Fire2 is enroll in Pasciel.

Not hard limit like the day100 powerup of the demon generals, but frustration from too much meat or being unable to burn certain plants can be avoided with careful planning what to do when from early on.

[Bookman]

Originally posted by kurayami1234:

There are more time-wise issues one might want to consider. Potential minor spoilers ahead!

One would be how fast you make it to Winterfall and start killing monsters there. They drop cursed gourmet meat, which gives you a disadvantage if you carry any in certain battles. Disposing it either costs 50 willpower or kills the slime for the day, meaning you need to gradually kill the monsters and remove the meat over several (many?) days.

Another might be how quickly you raise the daily exp gain of the other adventurers, Charlotte in particular. As you very likely want to learn Fire2 from her, she needs to be lvl6 to teach you the spell. Later on, you will encounter many plants that cannot be burned with Fire1 and the only other way to get Fire2 is enroll in Pasciel.

Not hard limit like the day100 powerup of the demon generals, but frustration from too much meat or being unable to burn certain plants can be avoided with careful planning what to do when from early on.

Oh yes, for someone like me, these are the hints I'm looking for to know what parts might require time. Maybe not a hard deadline on getting there, but if you want to do it optimally and stretch things out over multiple days, then you have to get there and start on it early enough that you can afford to take your time like that. Thank you for sharing.

I already knew about Draknor Fortress limiting your exploration based on your MDEF score, so you want to do it across multiple days, try and go different directions to map it out, and use Ropes to set up shortcuts so that when you're ready for the big fights, you can get to them fast.

There's probably more things like that, but that's pretty advanced knowledge/spoilers so, for the beginning it's not really necessary. Also, I'd say as long as you do the Festival of Greed quest to end chapter 1 before day 40, you're doing okay - before day 30, you're doing good and have some leeway for the rest of the game - before day 20, you're either underpowered to attempt it that fast or you're gaming out of your mind.

My first Normal playthrough, I reached Festival of Greed on day 32, so just past the day 30 limit, but I wasn't really optimizing and I met Desmond too late to even have the chance to go there sooner. And I did okay, winning the battles and even the boss gauntlet on my first try, but then again that was Normal and I took my time upgrading Aura's stats to be really prepared. On harder difficulties and/or while rushing, I'm sure it gets a lot harder than that.

[Hexagoros]

The demo runs to day 40, so unless the demo is literally the entire game, I very much doubt the game ends on day 40.