Lune Too Important in Combat? (rant)

[D-Rex65]

For reference, I'm currently in Act 2, just got to Old Lumiere. My party level is ~34. If something is gonna change to nullify my complaint, just let me know without story spoilers.

I just had the epiphany that Lune has literally never left my party rotation. And that is because she is the only person that can revive without items. I think this unbalanced within the other mechanics of the game. This game has plenty of enemies that can wipe out 1+ characters every turn. The fact that you have a very limited cap on items makes this a big deal. It'd be one thing if you could load up on a bunch of revive items at a shop, but you can't. Sure, in a normal area you can just find a flag to reset your tint count, but for bosses you're pretty much forced to include her to maximize your chances of winning.

If a boss can wipe out 2 party members per turn, then after 2-3 cycles you're screwed. If she comes in as a reserve, you're screwed as soon as she dies with no more items left already. For a game that emphasizes experimentation and different configurations everywhere else this seems like an oversight to me. Why can NO ONE ELSE revive without items? We can't even have like 9 AP skill on someone, or one of those that require you wait an additional turn? Revive is too critical to be relegated to one character when there is also a conservative limit on items.

I actually enjoy Lune a lot but I just feel a bit miffed that I'm essentially anchored to 1 character, not by story element but by combat min-maxing.

I just had a fight where it took me 53mins to beat, and 162 parries. Without Lune, I couldn't have done it because my ratio was like 162/185 (which is still pretty good) and I used all my items solely to revive Lune to then revive everyone else.

[strongled]

I literally only used Verso, Maelle and Monoco after I got Verso and Monoco. So no, Lune is not essential, dying is an issue of missing parries while playing on higher than Normal.

[['w']]

she is the easiest solution, you can even get two pictos, one can revive you with full health, another one saves your life and lowers your hp to 1

if you die too often, look into your builds or come back later, find a mechanic to break them

[archmag]

Never used her revive skill (completed the game and doing some post-game extra content). I got 11 revive items now. Why waste her ap to revive anyone when you can just use one of the items which recover when you rest for free? If you can't beat the enemy in 11 revives just stop and try it again and learn to do better. I never needed more revives and it was fun to defeat the final boss on the first try after running out of all revive and heal items and one of the three characters being downed already.

I still didn't remove her from my party ever. She is my favorite character. But not a healer.

Invest in def, hp and spd so that your characters don't die in one-shots. Most damage comes from weapon level anyway so focusing on survivability up to post-game game while you are learning is better. Invest in extra heals to deal with slowly accumulated damage (heal 10% on turn start, heal 25% on hitting an enemy with burn, heal 50% on killing an enemy, heal 3% on successful parry, heal 15% of hp healed by someone else, etc).

[aNv0idr]

You can also use Monoco to cast free shields and survive direct hits. There were also couple pictos that gave free shields.

[drg8888]

I also use Lune a lot, but for other reasons. I only had the revive skilled equipped like .. for a total of 3-4 hours out of my 100 hour playtime. It is not necessary.

[goodbye_bonito]

Benched forever after Monoco appeared

[archmag]

Originally posted by goodbye_bonito:

Benched forever after Monoco appeared

Yeah, if there is a character you need to always keep in the party it's Monoco, not Lune. You can't even see those leg symbols on enemies that you can get legs from unless Monoco is in your party so after he joined you always want him to be present in the main party to not have to search for all those enemies again. I kicked out Verso after Monoco joined. Used Maelle+Lune+Monoco for the rest of the game.

[Titan]

All party members are strong but Lune is probably actually the least useful party member in the entire game. Verso, Sciel, Maelle and Monoco all outclass her in just about every regard. And revives aint an issue when you have a functionally infinite supply of revive items.

[Ice]

She's most useful in acts one and two. In act 3, she's completely useless.

[Galdamon]

I've never learned her revival spell, unless you have characters die a lot, you should not run out of revival potions. I still used here for most of the game but that was because her abilities looked the coolest, tho.

[EnzoVic]

Sciel is better since she can party heal to almost full health. If you have to revive, it only means you're picking Pictos with only offensive stats -- I only equip Pictos with Health and Defense once I extracted the Lumina passives since Lumina passives don't give stat bonus. My main party is Maelle (dmg), Sciel (support), and Monoco (AoE). I swap Maelle and Verso depending on the enemy, then I swap Monoco and Lune for the same reason. Sciel is staple.

[elbentzo]

Originally posted by D-Rex65:

For reference, I'm currently in Act 2, just got to Old Lumiere. My party level is ~34. If something is gonna change to nullify my complaint, just let me know without story spoilers.

I just had the epiphany that Lune has literally never left my party rotation. And that is because she is the only person that can revive without items. I think this unbalanced within the other mechanics of the game. This game has plenty of enemies that can wipe out 1+ characters every turn. The fact that you have a very limited cap on items makes this a big deal. It'd be one thing if you could load up on a bunch of revive items at a shop, but you can't. Sure, in a normal area you can just find a flag to reset your tint count, but for bosses you're pretty much forced to include her to maximize your chances of winning.

If a boss can wipe out 2 party members per turn, then after 2-3 cycles you're screwed. If she comes in as a reserve, you're screwed as soon as she dies with no more items left already. For a game that emphasizes experimentation and different configurations everywhere else this seems like an oversight to me. Why can NO ONE ELSE revive without items? We can't even have like 9 AP skill on someone, or one of those that require you wait an additional turn? Revive is too critical to be relegated to one character when there is also a conservative limit on items.

I actually enjoy Lune a lot but I just feel a bit miffed that I'm essentially anchored to 1 character, not by story element but by combat min-maxing.

I just had a fight where it took me 53mins to beat, and 162 parries. Without Lune, I couldn't have done it because my ratio was like 162/185 (which is still pretty good) and I used all my items solely to revive Lune to then revive everyone else.

The short answer -- you think she is irreplaceable because of the specific strategy you chose to build your party for. You built a party that dies a lot and needs to be revived. I'm not criticizing you, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with taking advantage of the revive mechanic. But there are A TON of different playstyles, and in most of them you don't die a lot (or at all). Whether it's by focusing on defense and vitality (in pictos and levelling), utilizing shields, or healing strategies. If you try a completely different playstyle you'll find Lune is not necessary. I'd say that with my current party (expert difficulty, endgame) Lune is probably the least effective. Maybe after Sciel but that's just because I don't really like Sciel so I didn't invest any time in her. But Maelle, Monoco and Verso can absolutely plow through superbosses the way I play them (and the revive tints are more than enough for me).

[VESPA5]

Everyone's builds and approach is different. For me, I strictly use Maelle, Sciel and Verso (or Lune). I generally have 1 to buff offense/defense, 1 to heal, 1 to mark/prime enemies for more damage. Rinse, repeat. You eventually find out a team synergy that works best for you.

[Vox Maximus]

<3 Lune. She has the best personality, IMO

[Katzenspeck]

Lune is like the weakest character. Maybe good if you want to do burn build but thats kinda slow and the game is too easy to require it.