Honest Question for the Devs Concerning the Super Dungeon [Spoilers]

[Alex Core Plus R]

Hi there, Zeboyd.

Enjoying the game a lot, but I'm at the point of wrapping up the last of the sidequests before I take on the final ship, and I'm finding the super dungeon in the Tower a very dramatic shift upwards in difficulty. I've played throught he game normally, with no grinding up to this point, and my Characters are in the mid 50's in terms of levels.

Simply put, they're all being one-shot in the super dungeon. I've been playing on Heroine difficulty, but I found I needed to crank it down to Tourist just to survive long enough to take on a fight. After having managed to beat the first two fights and unlock VR for the area, I find that if I hard reset the game to get the first group, I can relatively consistently kill them for XP.

I've cruised around the game looking for a decent grinding spot, but there really don't seem to be any aside from the above. At first I thought maybe I could refight Dem or Cthulhu, but that isn't an option, so the only reasonable fights in terms fo XP seem to be the super dungeon fights. I suspect in subsequent playthroughs the asteroid would be the best grinding spot maybe, but I can't go back to it. I also don't think I can leave the final ship once I go there, so that rules it out as a grind spot for the final dungeon?

I'm not going to lie, I honestly wondered if the dungeon was bugged, because it just seemed too hard given the rest of the game. I'm no stranger to JRPGs, and I've played all the classics that this one takes inspiration from, but this is grueling.

So my honest question: What were your visions for this dungeon when you designed it? How did you intend for players to prepare for it in terms of levels, what levels do you expect a party to be able to reasonably beat it, and are there any good places to prepare that I've missed? I just feel like I must be missing something here.

Thanks in advance!

[rwb36]

The intention was that you get all the best equipment, maybe a grind a little, and then do the rest of the grinding in the super-hard bonus dungeon. The whole thing is supposed to be a niche thing that people who like the grind & want the hardest content can do - if you've been playing the game on Heroine mode, the dungeon isn't really intended for you.

[Alex Core Plus R]

Thanks for the response! I just wanted to get your thoughts directly, rather than trying to guess at the design ideas that went into it. I actually finished up the game a few days ago, and I've dabbled in the hardest setting, which has been fun so far. It will probably take a back seat to the Final Fantasy Five Four Job Fiesta starting up on Tuesday, but I'm sure I'll be back for a full second playthrough at some point.

I found that grinding up to about 60 was sufficient to get a foot hold on the dungeon. Grinding in the super dungeon itself did seem to be about the only reasonable option that wouldn't take half of forever, and once I could reliably beat both fights in the first area with the right party combination, the rest was gravy. Of course, by the time I got out I was a bit over-leveled for the final dungeon, but that goes with the super-dungeon territory.

Lookign forward to your next game!

[Alex Core Plus R]

Actually, now that I think about it:

You stated that if one were playing on Heroine mode, then the super dungeon isn't for them. Isn't the Heroine mode designed for first-time players? Is the super dungeon designed to be for second-time playthroughs?

[Psionic Storm]

I'm with the same issue. I've beat and ejoyed the whole game. My characters were lvl 53 in the save before that Dungeon but after every other dungeon and obviously before the final battle (the game ending and no return point)
I guess that I was wrong to assume that the "Primer" archievment was related to this dungeon because it'ts too hard for beign an archievement easier than I.E scarvenger. So I'm going to try in other places... perhaps the 1Millon HP escorts? just talking to myself, no need to spoil :p

sorry, back to the dungeon thing! I can't find how to "farm" exp so I started to use VR (I've never grind in my game) and by doing this I've found that my best bet was by killing a single scorpion with 3 attacks and by doing that earning almost 5k exp. I lvl up 2 times fighting around 110 battles by pressing Y, pick battle and around eight times A until beat the scorpion...

other battles could be funnier but way worse rewarded in terms of exp...

perhaps if I try to grind by setting a lower difficult I can reach the higher lvl before in other spot but I've played the whole game in Heroine.
Also some harders VR Battles rewards with less exp and CR. I've taken some screens if you are interested in some examples.


Well, I will try to beat the 3 robots (before the grinding I've beat the first guys) to access to the VR in the dungeon itself


Thanks Weeknight Wizard and rwb36 for your thoughts. I'm just sharing my game experience!


Edit: about my remaining archievement, Primer... I'm back at the right lab (the first one) and the scimerex tell me the door code so it seems i did it :) now, after that, it's time to retry the bonus dungeon

Edit 2: Here in the new part of the lab (after beat Primer) 70k I can earn 70k exp points using VR.... ! that's a lot... I don't know why but VR didn't work in other finished dungeons.. IDK if that's something related to leaving the place or I was trying at the wrong place. Here works and rewards with a lot...

Sorry for the whole text! and my english!
Thanks for reading, as I said before, just sharing my experience!
GG!

[Alex Core Plus R]

Originally posted by Psionic Storm:

I'm with the same issue. I've beat and ejoyed the whole game. My characters were lvl 53 in the save before that Dungeon but after every other dungeon and obviously before the final battle (the game ending and no return point)
I guess that I was wrong to assume that the "Primer" archievment was related to this dungeon because it'ts too hard for beign an archievement easier than I.E scarvenger. So I'm going to try in other places... perhaps the 1Millon HP escorts? just talking to myself, no need to spoil :p

sorry, back to the dungeon thing! I can't find how to "farm" exp so I started to use VR (I've never grind in my game) and by doing this I've found that my best bet was by killing a single scorpion with 3 attacks and by doing that earning almost 5k exp. I lvl up 2 times fighting around 110 battles by pressing Y, pick battle and around eight times A until beat the scorpion...

other battles could be funnier but way worse rewarded in terms of exp...

perhaps if I try to grind by setting a lower difficult I can reach the higher lvl before in other spot but I've played the whole game in Heroine.
Also some harders VR Battles rewards with less exp and CR. I've taken some screens if you are interested in some examples.


Well, I will try to beat the 3 robots (before the grinding I've beat the first guys) to access to the VR in the dungeon itself


Thanks Weeknight Wizard and rwb36 for your thoughts. I'm just sharing my game experience!


Edit: about my remaining archievement, Primer... I'm back at the right lab (the first one) and the scimerex tell me the door code so it seems i did it :) now, after that, it's time to retry the bonus dungeon

Edit 2: Here in the new part of the lab (after beat Primer) 70k I can earn 70k exp points using VR.... ! that's a lot... I don't know why but VR didn't work in other finished dungeons.. IDK if that's something related to leaving the place or I was trying at the wrong place. Here works and rewards with a lot...

Sorry for the whole text! and my english!
Thanks for reading, as I said before, just sharing my experience!
GG!

Nice to hear from you. The final dungeon turns out to be doable, but I think it's overall poorly tuned to the rest of the game. I quite enjoyed CSH, and the super dungeon was fun enough, but I think in a game that didn't require any real grinding up until that point it was a bit weak in terms of execution.

[Hashlamon37]

this might be late, but for the people who are searching for a grinding spot it would be in planet Rhomu, the same dungeon where we talk to an AI, but this time talk to psybe in the spaceship and it will start a side quest and the elevator that was not hackable will open now for new area, here there is two turret enemies who will give 80,000 exp each time u kill them, put the difficulty to tourist and support for (no VR penalty) and grind them with alyssa and orson ultimate attacks.
for me each battle just took 30 sec, and i have finally beaten everything in this game on super-spy difficulty....man it feels good

[Alex Core Plus R]

Originally posted by Hashlamon37:

this might be late, but for the people who are searching for a grinding spot it would be in planet Rhomu, the same dungeon where we talk to an AI, but this time talk to psybe in the spaceship and it will start a side quest and the elevator that was not hackable will open now for new area, here there is two turret enemies who will give 80,000 exp each time u kill them, put the difficulty to tourist and support for (no VR penalty) and grind them with alyssa and orson ultimate attacks.
for me each battle just took 30 sec, and i have finally beaten everything in this game on super-spy difficulty....man it feels good

I'll have to check this spot out the next time I visit CSH. Thanks for the followup.