Hard Mode No Damage

[Etherfly]

First, some background...
For those that have finished the game multiple times and learned all there is to the combat system Grandia II on normal does not offer much challenge. So some time ago, purely out of curiosity I decided to try and finish the game without sustaining a single point of damage (except for the first Millenia fight).
I did not finish the playthrough (it would take too much grinding and seed hunting), but I am pretty confident that it's possible. I made it past Valmar's eye where I could grind STR+ seeds and then I remember beating many bosses without taking damage on another playthrough even without the grind. The greatest challenge would be the first fights and bosses where you had to grind and max what limited skills and spells you had. Here are a few videos from this walkthrough (I hope there is no problem with videos uploaded to vk.com):
http://vk.com/video14882211_159858441
http://vk.com/video14882211_159881764
http://vk.com/video14882211_159888329

The key is to utilize cancel skills, Fallen Wings, multi-target spells and occassionally items

Now on to the topic. I am wondering if it's possible on Hard Mode. I already made it to Minotaur and I'm in the process of grinding for the fight. From what I read on this forum it's going to get worse. So, for anyone with lots of free time and love for Grandia 2, a challenge:

Finish Grandia 2 on Hard Mode without getting hit (e.g., every fight won should be flawless).
The exception is the first fight with Millenia - she finishes casting Burn before you can take action.

Optional 'Save your time when grinding' homerule: if you've beaten a certain group of enemies before and have access to a recovery spot, you may take damage when fighting this group - with due patience you could run back to the spot, recover, save, return and wreck them, but since the game doesn't track perfect fights, it's really a matter of personal feeling.

The plan:
1) Use Tenseiken and careful positioning (not without luck) to take care of mottled spiders, dodos and gargoyles.
2) Use Snooze and, when available, Tremor to take care of multiple enemies in Inor Mountains.
3) Use Zap to take care of enemies in Durham Caves. Use Fallen Wings in conjunction wih Zap, Tremor, cancel skills and evasion to defeat the three troglodytes (2 forced encounters).
4) Max out Fallen Wings and raise cancel skills to level 2-3 to defeat the Minotaur and troglodytes.
5) Grind like hell to max the cancel skills and mana eggs to defeat the Tongue and get Book of Wizards.
6) Max the fire chants from the book to cast instant Hellfire. Use it and other all-target spells and skills to destroy the eyes and cancel any dangerous attacks with cancel skills. Fallen Wings do great IP damage which makes them perfect for stalling enemies before other spells and skills hit.
7) Get enough STR+ seeds from the dragonoid-type enemies in Raul Hills to raise everyone's STR to 700-800. Save some for Tio and Millenia.
8) Defeat Claws and Melfice (it will be possible both times you fight him, even the supposedly hopeless battle).
9) Get to the Great Rift and get all the AGI+ seeds from Fenny Birds you need to raise everyone's AGI to values of 900+. This should pretty much allow you to take turns frequently enough to cancel out all enemy attacks and obliterate them while at it.
10) Storm through the game. The only problem I could foresee is Valmar's Core since its parts are immune to IP damage, meaning they cannot be moved back on the IP gauge, but they are still cancelable, so with fast enough characters it's pretty much possible.
11) Think about all the time you wasted on this.

Now then, I'd love to hear what you think of this.

UPDATE: Challenge changed from not taking damage to not getting hit.

[Etherfly]

Originally posted by Jyntax:

I've just beaten the Minotaur and got to Mareg, he actually gets me at the first turn pretty fast if I'm unlucky with the IP Gauge. tomorrow I'll keep going. Maybe I'll reach the Eye then too. :) So far here is my Minotaur kill:
http://www.twitch.tv/jyntax/v/13638649

Nice one! From your and Ra's videos I see that dodging just to skip turn and be ready to cancel is rarely effective as there is always someone else ready.
Good luck on Mareg. I had made about 6 attempts at him, failed, grinded, 8 more, some grind and finally on about 5th try I did it after discovering the effectiveness of Crackle.

Originally posted by tiornys:

Originally posted by Etherfly:

As for the Eye of Valmar, it is done.

Awesome. This was one of the fights I had the most reservations about.

And it was the hardest, though the most satisfying in the end.

[Xenomorphica]

Yeah, it's not going to be possible. Cancelling doesn't actually cancel their moves, they'll still just do the same move when their turn comes, and on hard mode their ip far exceeds your own, so even if you spent an entire round cancelling 4 times they would still get their attack off before your next commands came around.

Unless your plan is to grind vit and men seeds until your stats cap out and hope that you don't get hit by any attacks which ignore defenses, you're boned.

[tiornys]

I didn't do any grinding whatsoever, and I've come pretty close to just randomly achieving this on a lot of the later fights without ever touching Spellbinding Eye. Double-stacking Speed plus Move Recover on Tio for Lotus Bloom spam is sickeningly effective, especially if you have a super-Item user tossing Feathers and such.

Besides, there's this:

Originally posted by Etherfly:

Now I think I'll take it easy from now on. It should not be too hard to get past the next few bosses, but it will be highly advisable to farm Seeds of Strength in great quantities. Afterwards it's a journey to the great rift and an even grander farm of Seeds of Swift. With greater improvement and skill options it should be possible to go all the way.

I don't think he'll have a problem with any of the bosses past that point.

[Etherfly]

Originally posted by tiornys:

I don't think he'll have a problem with any of the bosses past that point.

I don't know how fast characters can ultimately be, but Valmar's Core on Hard looks threatening, with IP damage immunity and spells that charge almost very quickly.

[Etherfly]

If anyone is still interested, I got past the Claws and Melfice in Cyrum. The former is not worth going into detail, it's achievable without grinding. Still, posting the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgUulzhf5sI

As for Melfice in Cyrum, on Hard he is more durable if I remember correctly, and this is the only battle that really requires farming Seeds of Power. From my observations the damage boost in other fights is noticeable, but not essential to get a perfect win.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1CeI6AFUug

I got really close to being hit on ~7:00.
P.S.: Beating Melfice in Cyrum nets you "Brotherly Love" achievement.

[RKumono]

Not possible. Zera Valmar was stat modified. His ACT is so high, that unless you spend so much time and effort getting a character high enough in ACT, he WILL go first. You'd have to grind hours to do so. Level 52 he managed to attack first and be halfway to CMD before I got an attack off (tried twice--Ba-Boom and Crackle both hit me), and he was almost to ACT before Spellbinding Eye froze him. Once caught though, he never hit me again.

The longer you grind, the more chance you're going to get hit and damaged.

[Etherfly]

Originally posted by RKumono:

Not possible. Zera Valmar was stat modified. His ACT is so high, that unless you spend so much time and effort getting a character high enough in ACT, he WILL go first. You'd have to grind hours to do so. Level 52 he managed to attack first and be halfway to CMD before I got an attack off (tried twice--Ba-Boom and Crackle both hit me), and he was almost to ACT before Spellbinding Eye froze him. Once caught though, he never hit me again.

The longer you grind, the more chance you're going to get hit and damaged.

I've grinded a little for Seeds of Swift for Ryudo and Tio, so they are quite fast now. If Ryudo will be equipped with the Sonic Belt and given all the Speed enhancements, if think there mey be a chance for him to cancel Zera's first BA-BOOM. Maybe.

I will soon see it for myself, I am at the birthplace of the gods.

[Etherfly]

Good news, everyone. It is possible and done! A few interesting moments since Melfice on Garlan:
- Before I go any further, I strongly suggest to stock up on Exhaustion Nuts while you are in Cyrum and Speed Mushrooms while your are in Nanan!
- Decoy + 2 Abandonments + evasion equipment on a character (Tio for the most) equals every attack evaded if you do not get caught in the middle of attack or charging one. The only exception are enemies that do multiple hits on attack (e.g., Nyarmot) - they cannot be evaded (might be a bug).
- Seeds of Swift are best farmable near the entrance to the Ghoss Forest, East. There is a save cone and four stacks of Fenny Birds (mixed with other enemies, but you can maneuver between them). On average you will get 1 seed per 2 minutes of dedicated farm. I grinded about 2-3 hours and gave them all to Ryudo, the damager, and Tio, the current evader and canceller.
- Tio clone was the first boss after the grind, and it managed to give me some trouble, since she was fast, immune to IP damage and liked to cast Gale or Lotus Flower near instantly. Even though the "seeded" Ryudo and Tio can match her speed, she's better debuffed on ACT. I got lucky that she spent her first turns casting non-damage things.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99AltyuP-qY

- Most of the later bosses were a joke. Didn't bother to record/upload some of them, as they ultimately give in on 1st or 2nd try.
- Now, for the masterpiece: Valmar's Core. I switched the roles for the latter part of the game. Elena became the evader (the equipment and skills are still enough, even for her, to dodge anything) and the occassional BA-BOOM! caster, Tio adopted a role of item-flinger (equipped with Item Recover and Skilled Item Use she could throw items with little more than a second between actions!). Ryudo stayed the damager with Sky Dragon Slash and Flying Tenseiken. I used up all the great limited items here (Platinum Feathers, Gold Feathers, Hyper Mogay Bomb, and sadly only a single Exhaustion Nut), a few times was really close to being hit, but in the end did it. Sadly, Ryudo did not get to say "Heh! These guys were no real challenge."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFaOKVq-dgo

- The follow-up fight with fake Millenia was effortless. She didn't get a single turn.
- The boss rush was easy compared to the core. Even though a few parts/enemies were immune to IP damage, nothing is impossible even without the Spellbinding Eye. The attacks are all evaded by Elena, the non-IP-immune parts are controlled by Fallen Wings and Sky Dragon Slash.
- Zera Valmar ultimately gave in after 10 tries. I didn't realize he was THIS fast. Still, Elena managed to do a last-moment cancel, while Millenia (double-Speed equipped, along with glass slippers and sonic belt, no seeds fed) followed close behind with Spellbinding Eye. Can't see this being done without the Eye. The rest was slowly chipping at his massive HP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XwU0Z-Y8H4

In the end this was a very fun way for me to enjoy Grandia 2 once more, one of my favorite games of all times. The whole playthrough, along with retries, ended up in about 50-55 hours. The grind took less time than I anticipated. In the end you only need a speed of ~340 on two key characters to succeed.

Thanks for watching, everyone! Ask away, if you have any questions on particular setups at certain points in game.

[tiornys]

Congrats! That battle against the core was intense, watching Zera Valmar now.

[Culain]

wow I must have had tremendous luck then because I defeated zera valmar first try hard mode without even being hit at level 57 (no seed grinding), I wasn't even trying to do it flawless, in fact, I was actually doing a skill exhibition on him to see all the cool moves.

[RKumono]

Originally posted by Etherfly:

- Zera Valmar ultimately gave in after 10 tries. I didn't realize he was THIS fast. Still, Elena managed to do a last-moment cancel, while Millenia (double-Speed equipped, along with glass slippers and sonic belt, no seeds fed) followed close behind with Spellbinding Eye. Can't see this being done without the Eye. The rest was slowly chipping at his massive HP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XwU0Z-Y8H4

Okay, I stand corrected. I KNEW he was fast. I didn't think even with superspeed equips and stat boosts that you'd be able to avoid attack #1. As I said, Zera was doing attack #2 before I could act, so I didn't think you'd get it.

Guess it's boost 'em, boost 'em, boost 'em, and get DAMN lucky. LOL