I wish Kou was more special...

[Night8V]

What's all of your opinions on Kou? I feel like he's pretty weak both in plot and gameplay, he's the main character but all he gets is a borderline normal weapon... Bro, Asuka literally got access to some badass Omega mode... It'll probably make more sense if she's the main character instead, since she's a lot more interesting and stronger, she actually got a nice background story as well... Really bro, what's even special or noticeable about Kou??? I'm not too far into the game yet, but I'm close to stop playing this game due to the sheer uselessness of Kou, looking at other discussions I don't think Kou will get any power-ups in the future...

[Jupiter3927]

Kou has top tier charisma and holds the team together in a pinch.
He gets some good lines in on later bosses like straight up laughing in the face of the final boss because it's just a monster talking big.
He's the standard anime hero protagonist and does all the talking for his team.

His weapon and playstyle is adaptable to go up against basically every enemy.
He's balanced in basically every way, making him an excellent choice for backup in any team.
He also has the unique ability to swap out his weapon for anything else.
Swapping weapons only changes the stats and look of the weapon though so the attack pattern stays the same.

Asuka is better in a fight than Kou in most ways in a fight.
She excels in everything except weapon range.
Using her to hop in for the cross drive even stunlocks any enemy...
Asuka has a lot of prior combat experience of any team member you get.

Those friendship crystal thingies are meant to give you quality time with your favorite characters.
You could spend them on Asuka whenever you get free time for the most character development.
Asuka also tends to not want to work in a team.

[Flariz]

Asuka is better than Kou tier wise yeah but then again...
Its Asuka. Almost no one can match her. Its not a very fair comparison.

For what is worth I think Kou is a solid main character and tier wise he is up there, not quite on the borderline broken tier like Asuka or Mitsuki, but he is quite powerful on his own right and is definitely better than at least half the cast combat wise.

Basically he is powerful but without having broken elements.
Also dont understimate his normal, basic attacks. They charge SP really really fast and certain other characters benefit from this.

His heroic speeches are cool and all but I will have to be honest in that they were getting a bit too old by the Epilogue/After Story lol.
Tho the last one aganist the True Final Boss is golden.

[Fluff Fact⚙ry]

It's not about his power, it's all about his kindness, the ability to do any extra shifts in any places to help people even if his true intention was the opposite after that incident. That's why many sidequests of him involving helping people instead of just poking around the dungeons, trying to understand this and that, or simply self-rage practicing because "I'm too weak" aka Asuka. People and friends become united with him being around too. Thus why he's given the ability to switch to any cores he like, to be any supporter you need in term of elemental weakness and damage. In other words, balanced-all-rounder. And don't forget the "power of harem", "power of friendship"

[Gilgamesh, King of Heroes]

Man, I have no clue what most of this thread is talking about. Kou is one of the top units in the game, and he isn't 'balanced' or 'an all rounder' at all. The game might tell you that in the first dungeon but it's a flat out lie. Kou is extremely good at two things:
- Power attacks
- Normal attacks
His Power attacks execute fast and hit hard, if you gear him out for Power he's a damage machine. Grab those hammer quartz and the +power% accessory and watch the damage fly. His normal attacks combine excellent range with fast speed and good damage, and they can keep pressure on the enemy in circumstances where other characters can't (ex: Mist Witch moving around). He's strong both on the ground and in the air (his air normal is extremely fast and can be woven in between power attacks) too, unlike some other characters.

His ranged is nothing special - use it to keep combos going, finish nearly dead enemies, or sometimes hit multiple things lined up, but don't gear for it. Flying is serviceable, it isn't particularly strong or particularly weak. It's a source of magic damage if he needs to fight physical resist enemies, though I generally find that Kou is powerful enough to just gorilla through phys resist with Power attacks.

I'd say he's in the top 4, that being Asuka/Rion, Mitsuki, Kou.

Story wise, well that's a matter of personal taste. I can see disliking him but I think he's a bit less generic than most similar main characters (like Rean), he has some good lines here and there.

[Fluff Fact⚙ry]

Originally posted by Gilgamesh, King of Heroes:

Man, I have no clue what most of this thread is talking about. Kou is one of the top units in the game, and he isn't 'balanced' or 'an all rounder' at all.

Yes he could be a monster + evading, but others can be super monster as well if built correctly. Besides, having Asuka, Rion, Mitsuki and Sora as main damage dealing are enough for me, thus I'd prefer Kou and the rest to be tankable to balance out their glass cannon builds, and of course to buy time to heal/recover them as well.

[Flariz]

Originally posted by Ysna Eideen:

Originally posted by Gilgamesh, King of Heroes:

Man, I have no clue what most of this thread is talking about. Kou is one of the top units in the game, and he isn't 'balanced' or 'an all rounder' at all.

Yes he could be a monster + evading, but others can be super monster as well if built correctly. Besides, having Asuka, Rion, Mitsuki and Sora as main damage dealing are enough for me, thus I'd prefer Kou and the rest to be tankable to balance out their glass cannon builds, and of course to buy time to heal/recover them as well.

One of the differences though, is on how fast their animations and thus attacks can be. How fast you can cancel them with a dodge and such.

No amount of gear building to make a character a "monster" can save Shio, simply because his core moves have too much lag, for the most extreme example there is.

Nothing you can do about bad EX Skills either. Again, no matter how you build them, no one will ever match Asuka or Rion there, thus already making them inherently better characters at that aspect.

My point being, yes, optimal gear building can make anyone better, but it also makes the already top tier characters even better so... kind of a moot point.

Even if you for some reason disagree on who is better, the same point stands. Of course good gear will make anyone better.

[Fluff Fact⚙ry]

Originally posted by Flariz:

One of the differences though, is on how fast their animations and thus attacks can be. How fast you can cancel them with a dodge and such.

No amount of gear building to make a character a "monster" can save Shio, simply because his core moves have too much lag, for the most extreme example there is.

Nothing you can do about bad EX Skills either. Again, no matter how you build them, no one will ever match Asuka or Rion there, thus already making them inherently better characters at that aspect.

Indeed certain characters have better agility and EX version than others, but we have to take the bosses into consideration as well. Obviously Misty Witch is a nightmare for Shio, but the one like Nine-tail Fox could be a great recipe for his ramen dish.

[Gilgamesh, King of Heroes]

Originally posted by Ysna Eideen:

Originally posted by Gilgamesh, King of Heroes:

Man, I have no clue what most of this thread is talking about. Kou is one of the top units in the game, and he isn't 'balanced' or 'an all rounder' at all.

Yes he could be a monster + evading, but others can be super monster as well if built correctly. Besides, having Asuka, Rion, Mitsuki and Sora as main damage dealing are enough for me, thus I'd prefer Kou and the rest to be tankable to balance out their glass cannon builds, and of course to buy time to heal/recover them as well.

Sure, you're free to build Kou with defense and HP if you want. But that's how you choose to gear, it doesn't mean that's what Kou is good at. He's good at power attacks and dealing big damage, nothing about his abilities enhances his ability to play defensively. Whereas Mitsuki's barrier makes her far more of a tank than Kou will ever be, no matter his gear.

[Night8V]

Of course, the two who had prior knowledge of the Eclipse is the most top tier out of the team, props to the devs for making Mitsuki and Asuka like that. Sigh.

[Flariz]

Of course, but to be fair, Kou is also very strong althought that might be by virtue of being the MC plus he also technically has plenty of experience by the end of the story considering. All these dungeons...

Rion is alluded to be some sort of fast-learner as well for some reason I dont remember but yeah. She is also top tier.

And then there is a certain other very late character that is also experienced in-story and ALSO top tier....yeah it may indeed be some sort of pattern going on here lol.

Oh, and the worst (or 2nd worst depending on who you ask) character tier-wise also has literally no experience at dungeons so... who knows? Maybe its actually intentional.

[Fluff Fact⚙ry]

Talking about OP characters, if only we were able to play Yakuza boss Gotou and Mitsuki's secretary Kyouka as well, them two are definitely badass.