Difficulty?

[Quarie]

Hello! Just finished FC and holy crap the story ending was intense so i bought SC right away. Sadly i got work in the morning so have to wait. Meanwhile i wanted to ask a question about the difficulty in SC.

Played FC on hard and enjoyed the challenge so i was planning to start on hard in SC aswell but then i did hear that SC is a more difficult game so normal in SC is the same thing as hard in FC. Can someone with knowledge confirm or deny this?
Don't want it to be a playthrough with me just stomping on all the enemies.

Thx!

[EdgarAllenSwole]

I played both games on Hard and definitely noticed a difficulty spike in SC. It's manageable for the most part, though there are certain encounters that border on bad design: the tutorial is especially brutal due to a lack of viable abilities. That said, the game mellows out once you unlock useful arts and crafts. There are a few roadblocks toward the end, but by then you should have a comfortable grasp on your preferred playstyle.

Long story short, I recommend playing the game on the same difficulty as FC. Just don't be discouraged if you struggle early.

[butterbattle22]

The SC prologue is the main issue. You will notice that SC prologue on hard has some unsually challenging hurdles, but once you're through that, the rest of the game is fine. In fact, if you already sailed through FC without too much frustration, you might even find the bulk of SC to easier since you're already familiar with the battle mechanics.

In other words, same as the guy above me. I disagree with the statement that SC normal is equal to FC hard. If you enjoyed FC hard on a first playthrough, SC normal will be too easy.

[Serval]

Pre-final boss is hard no matter the difficulty. Prologue is insane on any difficulty above easy. Which means that if you manage through prologue on hard, then the rest of the game will be quite enjoyable.

[Quarie]

Ok thanks for the replies guys!

[Berahlen]

I'd suggest doing it on Normal just because it did spike the difficulty and the prologue really is that bad. Hard will start with a massive hurdle until you clear the prologue, but will be doable after that, so don't exactly be afraid of it as long as you know what you're getting into.

If you completed FC with perfect BP, you'll get a goodie bag at the start. It's all replaceable items, but you'll definitely want it on Hard because it includes a quartz that gives you early access to Earth Guard, and the first boss will probably hit harder than you can heal.

Worst case, there's a shining pom before you fight the second boss. It's basically mandatory to farm on Nightmare :P

[butterbattle22]

If you get stuck, Raz's nightmare thread already has, like, a research paper level of detail on getting through the prologue.

[Quarie]

Got past the prologue without any major problems so hard should be fine for me but thanks for the advice and tips!

[Blood Flowers]

I'm at the Boss Jaeger in the Prologue on Hard... good god this guy is busted. He gets double turns and my characters are getting 2-shot...

I walked in assuming it'd be similar to FC difficulty, so no grinding, skipped half the enemies I came across and went in with little to no items prepared. Sigh, time to take it slow.

Edit: Decided to try something since the boss jaeger likes to use knockbacks pretty liberally.

Setup that worked for me on Hard:

Estelle (Lv 40): Mind 1, Cast 1, Attack 1, Luck, Heaven's Eye, Glove Gear, Proxy Puppet
Anelace (Lv 40): HP 1
Both characters have their equipment from the chests.
Used Consumables: Celestial Balm + Tear Balms + Teara Balms + the proxy puppet + the surprise cookie

Tactics (this is the part that I think made a huge difference): I put Estelle and Anelace in the opposite back (furthest from the enemy) corners for their starting position - with Estelle being 1 square forward from the corner (forward being towards the jaeger starting position). When the "jaeger" attacks either character with the knockback (which he uses pretty liberally it seemed), they get knocked even further apart. He then is forced to spend turns running between the two characters (hopefully on a diagonal, thus making him take 2 turns to go from melee range to melee range) to use his melee attacks (and he does tend to switch with a fair amount of frequency). With some good RNG (I got hit by a double ranged attack on Estelle that I survived due to the Proxy Puppet), he shouldn't be able to kill anyone (I hope). Whittle him down to ~1400 with arts and the cookie then use both S-breaks to finish.

[persocom01]

I didn't use any puppets for him, or any cookies for that matter, and it was my first playthrough on hard. Imo, the key to beating him is to use AT delay skill anelace has as much as you can.

[HunterRassius]

Originally posted by butterbattle22:

If you get stuck, Raz's nightmare thread already has, like, a research paper level of detail on getting through the prologue.

Tbf I did say i'd add a Hard version of that particular fight as it doesn't require the absurd amount of preparation it does for the Nightmare variant and you can fight it more "normally".

@Blood

...And here I was wondering why you'd suddenly popped into the thread. It seems I misunderstood your intentions. There is no "leisure mode" for NG Nightmare SC Prologue and it's certainly no Cold Steel series. You'd gotten yourself into a bit of trouble on Hard due to skipping through the content you could and paid a price. While I appreciate the sentiment that a strategy for an "oh crap" moment where you find yourself a tad underprepared would be helpful to those who find themselves in said position do you really think NG Nightmare is that... forgiving?

Well I can't be mad at my new toy friend for trying to help. It's like finding a lost puppy in the middle of a war zone.

Originally posted by persocom01:

I didn't use any puppets for him, or any cookies for that matter, and it was my first playthrough on hard. Imo, the key to beating him is to use AT delay skill anelace has as much as you can.

Thankfully you can actually get a bit "ahead" on Hard because the spd difference isn't so... disparate. It's certainly a sound basis to come from. Now i'm a little curious myself at the "best" path to take in this regard. I'll have to answer that after I finish up with my The 3rd thread however.

[Dragon]

I beat FC on Hard, but encountered a lot of OP stuff in that on which I had to use the Retry button a bunch of times, especially in the final dungeon.

Then I started the SC also on Hard, and also had to use the Retry button a lot to get through the first few hours.

I wouldn't say SC "a more difficult game" than FC, given that both games have tons of brokenly-OP enemies on Hard mode.

People who say SC is "more difficult" are probably just saying that because the start of FC is easy on Hard, and the start of SC is not easy on Hard. But I don't think that's a good measure of comparison.

Better to compare both games on the whole in which case, neither is balanced properly on Hard, and both are vastly unfair to the player. The enemies win solely because they are OP, but never because they out-played the player with solid strategy & tactics.

However, I am not sure why many comments are making a big deal of SC being too hard, given that the Retry option allows that problem to be bypassed via making the enemies weaker each time (albeit it's a time-consuming pain to have to lose so often in order to weaken them).

[Stabbey]

Probably because people don't like to use the "retry and weaken the enemies" option?

SC's prologue is hard largely because you have limited resources and only a small subset of equipment and quartz available.

It is actually true that the higher difficulties aren't balanced well, they were not part of the original games design, but added in later to the PSP ports and just give stat boosts to enemies.

[Hagen2900]

I don't agree. FC and SC are reasonably well balanced on Hard and Nightmare precisely because there weren't trying. When Falcom makes an effort to balance stuff the outcome is invariably far too easy.

@Dragon: You should be careful what you ask for. I shudder to think of the whining that would occur on message boards if these games had weaker opponents but really good AI. It is much easier psychologically to excuse a loss with unfair enemy stats than if you get beaten by superior tactics.

[EdgarAllenSwole]

Originally posted by Hagen2900:

When Falcom makes an effort to balance stuff the outcome is invariably far too easy.

I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion. Have you ever tried Boss Rush in a Ys game? Falcom is no stranger to making fights more difficult in their "balanced" state.

[Hagen2900]

Hm, that's probably a different team doing the balancing. I was talking about Trails.