How is the game balance?

[Welene Wios]

I remember reading this years ago when it first came out, and a common complaint was that the difficulty was all over the place, like it was too easy then a sudden spike in difficulty.

Did they adjust the difficulty? Was it really ever an issue or am I confusing this with another game?

Thanks.

[Xєn]

Hello,

Difficulty didn't change (I may be wrong but I don't feel like it changed), The game balance is good.
There's no spike in difficulty if you keep a certain level of preparation. When a new zone is unlocked monsters and bosses will be harder to kill, you feel that there's a step but it's not like " i need to play 20 hours in the previous zone to beat the next one ".

More like, improve your equipments, unlock new spells, try other skills combination.

And then, Bosses are Bosses. If they were as easy as killing a zergling it wouldn't be fun. Everything is about preparation. If you plan to rush from start to end without " farming and looking for improvment " a bit you'll face a wall sooner or later in the game.

To me it's not an issue. The game is not difficult, it's more the approach the player has that is incorrect.

This my opinion on the game's difficulty, hope it helps. Since it's subjective I may be wrong.

[Koby]

There was only ever one spike in difficulty in my opinion, and it happened around mid-game but was easily circumvented by just running the past dungeons again to gain 2-3 levels. Which was ideal for loot anyways.

Garrison practically one shots everything, including the final boss once you've got a decent amount of Perk setup on him. So it's just a matter of having Gully taunt and defend him while giving him time to make his move.

[Behemoth]

The game balance is pretty good until you run into the final boss, which has ridiculous self-healing. The only way to get past it is to farm the 138 material components you need to craft the legendary weapons for your heroes. So incredibly annoying.

[Koby]

Originally posted by Behemoth:

The game balance is pretty good until you run into the final boss, which has ridiculous self-healing. The only way to get past it is to farm the 138 material components you need to craft the legendary weapons for your heroes. So incredibly annoying.

o.O Garrison will literally one shot the final boss with a good perk setup and high crit rate.

And his legendary weapon is obtained by just beating the Arena... which is pretty easily after a certain point thanks to Garrison's ability to one shot everything.

[Behemoth]

I see.

Well, I didn't have Garrison in my party setup, maybe that's my problem. Doesn't make the balancing better then if one of the six heroes can one-shot the boss and at least three others can't deal enough damage to kill the boss before it heals itself.

[Nibbie]

Originally posted by Behemoth:

I see.

Well, I didn't have Garrison in my party setup, maybe that's my problem. Doesn't make the balancing better then if one of the six heroes can one-shot the boss and at least three others can't deal enough damage to kill the boss before it heals itself.

The original three heroes simply make up the best team. They each excel at their roles and balance each other perfectly. The other three are more hybrid and seem to pay for that. Certainly not ideal as you say, but when three main roles exist and you have three character slots, using the dedicated characters will typically be the best.

[bigray1999]

I think the developers of the game have tried to discourage grinding. They only give you 6 heals while in a dungeon, and the pirates increase in level as you do.

I've never understood why developers do that. It makes it harder to beef up your characters in relation to the foes if they always increase in level with you.

I remember playing one RPG back in the 2000s that allowed you to grind as much as you wanted to make it easier to beat random encounters and bosses... until you reach the second to the last boss of the game. If you ground your way up to a huge level, the boss would be at the same level as you, and only one or two hits from him would kill all the characters.

[Koby]

Originally posted by bigray1999:

I think the developers of the game have tried to discourage grinding. They only give you 6 heals while in a dungeon, and the pirates increase in level as you do.

I've never understood why developers do that. It makes it harder to beef up your characters in relation to the foes if they always increase in level with you.

I remember playing one RPG back in the 2000s that allowed you to grind as much as you wanted to make it easier to beat random encounters and bosses... until you reach the second to the last boss of the game. If you ground your way up to a huge level, the boss would be at the same level as you, and only one or two hits from him would kill all the characters.

The only enemies that increase in levels with you are the Sky Pirates. The dungeon areas are pre-determined levels based on your difficulty settings.

Also levels have little to do with the difficulty to begin with seeing how you're capped to a max level of 30. After you hit around level 15, you can easily jump to level 30 in just a few rounds of fighting the Sky Pirates.

What matters more here is the Perks and getting max perks is going to take you at least 3 entire playthroughs of the game with lots of grinding Shadow Coins from fishing to buy Perk Point books... because that's the main way of getting Perk Points each playthrough.

[bigray1999]

Originally posted by Koby:

Originally posted by bigray1999:

I think the developers of the game have tried to discourage grinding. They only give you 6 heals while in a dungeon, and the pirates increase in level as you do.

I've never understood why developers do that. It makes it harder to beef up your characters in relation to the foes if they always increase in level with you.

I remember playing one RPG back in the 2000s that allowed you to grind as much as you wanted to make it easier to beat random encounters and bosses... until you reach the second to the last boss of the game. If you ground your way up to a huge level, the boss would be at the same level as you, and only one or two hits from him would kill all the characters.

The only enemies that increase in levels with you are the Sky Pirates. The dungeon areas are pre-determined levels based on your difficulty settings.

Also levels have little to do with the difficulty to begin with seeing how you're capped to a max level of 30. After you hit around level 15, you can easily jump to level 30 in just a few rounds of fighting the Sky Pirates.

What matters more here is the Perks and getting max perks is going to take you at least 3 entire playthroughs of the game with lots of grinding Shadow Coins from fishing to buy Perk Point books... because that's the main way of getting Perk Points each playthrough.

I am trying to complete the cemetery dungeon now and my characters have been killed 8 times while doing so. I don't know what I am doing wrong. All of my characters are at least level 16. I cannot beat the Flaming Undead Wizard towards the end. He casts a fireball spell which takes away half of my characters' health with one hit. It ignites then for over 100 HP per turn. I've gotten him down to 1/3 of his health but by then the ignite effects have killed my party. I try to heal at least once a turn but the ignite effects quickly wear down the heroes.

[Pavlus]

I've played having Breto, Gully & Monica in my first playtrough. It was never to easy for me.
I want to do second playtrough (not ng+) with other three as main party. Can they do that or i will hit the difficulty wall with Garrison, Knolan and Alumon in my party?

[peddroelm]

Originally posted by Pavlus:

I've played having Breto, Gully & Monica in my first playtrough. It was never to easy for me.
I want to do second playtrough (not ng+) with other three as main party. Can they do that or i will hit the difficulty wall with Garrison, Knolan and Alumon in my party?

any of the 20 possible party combinations can wipe the floor with the final boss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMbqeWTV9Nc

for regular play from low level .. going without a healer is hard on consumables ..
Garrison, Knolan & Alumon is a very strong permutation .. (2 healers, 2 heavy hitters , .. )

[fakename]

The game's progression is more or less broken. Everything is determined by level scaling, so getting new equipment is almost meaningless. If your level is lower than the enemy, every random battle is brutal. If your level is higher, nothing can touch you including the last boss. And in all likelihood, your level will be higher than the final boss, strangely making it the easiest battle in the game. It's a bizarre system. I never saw a game like this.

[bigray1999]

Originally posted by fakename:

The game's progression is more or less broken. Everything is determined by level scaling, so getting new equipment is almost meaningless. If your level is lower than the enemy, every random battle is brutal. If your level is higher, nothing can touch you including the last boss. And in all likelihood, your level will be higher than the final boss, strangely making it the easiest battle in the game. It's a bizarre system. I never saw a game like this.

I'm trying to beat the boss in the cemetery dungeon now and I've been stuck on that dungeon for 2 weeks. The final boss is able to kill Knolan and Monica in only 1 hit each. It's ridiculous My hits on him are barely doing 100 hp damage.

[fakename]

Originally posted by bigray1999:

Originally posted by fakename:

The game's progression is more or less broken. Everything is determined by level scaling, so getting new equipment is almost meaningless. If your level is lower than the enemy, every random battle is brutal. If your level is higher, nothing can touch you including the last boss. And in all likelihood, your level will be higher than the final boss, strangely making it the easiest battle in the game. It's a bizarre system. I never saw a game like this.

I'm trying to beat the boss in the cemetery dungeon now and I've been stuck on that dungeon for 2 weeks. The final boss is able to kill Knolan and Monica in only 1 hit each. It's ridiculous My hits on him are barely doing 100 hp damage.

From what I remember the final boss is at the level cap but regular enemies exceed the level cap. So by the time I got to the last boss I'd been fighting battles all game vs enemies constantly up to three levels higher which are able to wipe me if I make a mistake, but the final boss went down in a couple of turns. On NG with the base party, and NG+ with Monika/Knolan/Alumon, it didn't make a difference.