Some characters feel far more useful than others

[MabinoZerk]

Jusis has Noble Command and Platinum Shield, and is a very powerful arts user. Emma has Crescent Shell and Serene Blessing, and is a very good arts user. Alisa has Heavenly Gift and Blessed Arrow, and is a very good arts user. Fie is super fast and a good physical attacker, canceler, and delayer. Laura is the most powerful physical attacker you can have.

And then we have characters like Gaius, Millium and Sara, who while aren't bad, don't seem very useful in certain boss fights. I brought Gaius for the battle against Duvalie and Bleblanc in the finale, and he was totally useless, so I switched him out for Laura. He was a bit underleveled, yes, but he had okay equipment. It also doesn't help that arts outclass physical attacks damage-wise for much of this game. Machias and Ellitot have their uses, but they're not quite as good as the other characters I mentioned.

I really question this game's balance when you pretty much need to rely on certain overpowered characters and tactics in order to beat several bosses. You practically need to have art/craft protection in order to survive boss S-Crafts, or at least have someone ready to cast Seraphic Ring afterwards.

I don't know. Maybe this game's starting to frustrate me with the difficulty. I almost regret playing on Hard.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Gaius, Millium, and Machias were my go tos. Gaius because Chevalier + wildrage turns him into a nasty monster slaying machine, as well as on-demand access to arts and S-crafts. Millium works extremely well as a tank with Iron or Emblem for raw tanking, or Chevalier for damage boost. I used Machias for his 16 free consecutive turns every battle, which is a godsend on the Cryptids and the castle fights (and a must have if you are using Bison's rebalance on nightmare).

Elliot was also a great member on my team, because he can heal and cure immediately with CP, which is the only healing method that beats casting Seraphic Ring.

[Wilq]

Originally posted by MabinoZerk:

Jusis has Noble Command and Platinum Shield, and is a very powerful arts user. Emma has Crescent Shell and Serene Blessing, and is a very good arts user. Alisa has Heavenly Gift and Blessed Arrow, and is a very good arts user. Fie is super fast and a good physical attacker, canceler, and delayer. Laura is the most powerful physical attacker you can have.

And then we have characters like Gaius, Millium and Sara, who while aren't bad, don't seem very useful in certain boss fights. I brought Gaius for the battle against Duvalie and Bleblanc in the finale, and he was totally useless, so I switched him out for Laura. He was a bit underleveled, yes, but he had okay equipment. It also doesn't help that arts outclass physical attacks damage-wise for much of this game. Machias and Ellitot have their uses, but they're not quite as good as the other characters I mentioned.

All of characters have theirs pros and cons. There are better and worse strategies and combinations.

Originally posted by MabinoZerk:

I really question this game's balance when you pretty much need to rely on certain overpowered characters and tactics in order to beat several bosses. You practically need to have art/craft protection in order to survive boss S-Crafts, or at least have someone ready to cast Seraphic Ring afterwards.

Most people don't realise it but when boss uses his/her S-Craft he/she is also delayed a LOT. It's more than enough to swap Emma or other healer in and fully heal you party (even without cutting the casting time)

Seraphic Ring is the easiest way to surive S-Craft. BUT - good strategy and positioning will minimalize the risk of getting KOed. There are couple exceptions, but most bosses S-Craft is not covering all battle area so if you spread your party, you won't get affected that much.You can always use Alisa's S-Craft just before theirs to provoke them to target her.

To survive McBurn's S-Craft:
- Fie (Stealth status)
- Machias (Iron Master Quartz) + high HP
- Alisa (Angel Master Quartz)
- 4th character linked with Alisa (Auto-Thelas)

With that setup you don't have to use Seraphic Ring afterwards.

There are always options like AT delay or Nuke "strategy"

Originally posted by MabinoZerk:

I don't know. Maybe this game's starting to frustrate me with the difficulty. I almost regret playing on Hard.

Too easy ? Too hard ?

Originally posted by Val the Moofia Boss:

Elliot was also a great member on my team, because he can heal and cure immediately with CP, which is the only healing method that beats casting Seraphic Ring.

With right setup you can cut the casting time to nearly-instant.

BTW:

Chrono Burst + Seraphic Ring = Instant healing.

Seraphic Ring + Overdrive = Instant healing.

______________________________________________________________________

To conclude - In this game you kind find many, many combinations/character setups that you might not even imagine. It is kinda fun reading about other people strategies and discovering stuff that you would never thought of.

[Walke_893]

Every character in this game is viable in some way or other to the point that each is capable of breaking the game in some way. The difficulty with such a large cast is that most players tend to spend time with either their favourite characters or stick to a small set that they have more experience with, thus lacking playtime with and underleveling the rest.

Also arts don't actually outdamage physical in this game, they are pretty even most of the time. In fact, both can do almost equal amounts of absurd damage if you set up a character properly. It all really depends on how you play.

[Stabbey]

You can pretty much use whoever you want and make them work and be effective. That said, they do have strengths and weaknesses and not all of them always are the best fit for the specific situation. Millium's low HP and low speed tends to be an issue, Machias spreads his damage around, weakening it, Sara is good at groups of minions, but lacks a solid single-target craft suitable for tough enemies.

I like to give Alisa faster cast stuff, and she is the caster with the highest base speed. With that, Angel Quartz (Lv 5) + Golden Bell is another fast way to cast Seraphic Ring (the spell is part of Angel). She also has Fortuna on Angel, and her Mirage Arrow craft and both her S-Crafts are boosted by ATS, not STR.

[dchlebek2]

Arts damage does outpace physical damage in bursts (with one exception, detailled below), but physical damge is much, much more sustainable. Over time, i'd argue that it generally evens out, barring extensive consumable usage.

While i have gleefully used and abused certain overpowered characters and tactics in order to beat several bosses, i can't agree that I needed to use those tactics to win. It was just the less frustrating and uncertain route. Every boss is betable, even if the player deliberately uses less than optimal characters.

Frankly, I have to give Falcom props: while this game has a fairly large cast of playable characters, I can't say that anyone belongs in the trash tier. While some characters are better than others, and some are easier to use than others, each character can be built to be absolutely beastly. And that's not something that can be said about every RPG.

Laura, for instance, is both easy to build and effective. Stack strength, add a bit of hit so that she doesn't miss so often, profit. The fact that she can easily buff herself +50% STR and Insight with a 20 CP craft is just a thick slab of fudge to top off this cake of fear and win.

Personally, I think she's actually more effective with a crit hit build. This requires the Ice Crown (NG+ optional boss reward) and LV 5 Murakumo, but if you stack STR, Waterfall, and use these equips with her Zemurian weapon, she has an 85% chance to do 20K+ damage on each normal physical hit (These numbers are based on a completely overlevelled endgame party vs. endgame mobs and bosses). Add 10K if STR buffed, and this crit chance applies to all physical hits, including crafts and S-crafts. I don't have screenshots, but i want to say that a level 200 Laura with the above setup managed to S-craft crit both the vermillion apocalypse and the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man (actually last boss) for 300K+ damage. On Nightmare. It was quite a while ago, but it was hilarious.
(Damage might'be been even higher: in the 500K+ range. However, it's been long enough that i can't remember, so i gave a conservative estimate).
Incidentally, that setup frees up the Brave MQ, which i choose to put on Rean. Even with no STR building, that puts him up to 10K damage on average for physicals. I had a very physical heavy team.

My main team was Rean, Laura, Fie, Alisa. with Elliot and Emma as backup.

Rean: Stack speed and AT Delay. With SPD buffs, it's possible to have Arc Slash have as high as a 50% chance to delay the hardest bosses, even on Nightmare. I've literally killed McBurn without allowing him to have a turn, though that took some luck. Unfortunately, some (very, very few) bosses are entirely immune to AT Delay, like the actually final boss. This kind of tactic breaks the game's difficulty, though. Also, useless in the timed AP boss fights.

Fie: Chevalier + evade stack, with speed and delay to fill in. Fie is one of the few characters with built in evade (30%!), which means that she can actually reach 100% physical evade without having to work too hard at it. You'll need a phantom thief's cape, evergreen, Evade 2 quarz and Aeolus Gem, and evade + 20 armor (patterned shirt is the first available, found in bareahard. Aura Armor II is better). Bottom line, you pretty much only have to worry about magic and AOE attacks.

Alisa: Primary support, secondary magic damage. She was my primary healer and buffer, with a secondary emphasis on fire and space arts. Heavenly gift all the way! To support the cost of that, she always had my true gladiator belt. I gave her Mobius so that i could use a Zerum Capsule over a M circle to facilitate nuking.

Elliot: Unassuming but deadly. Fun fact: If you have the Aries MQ at lv 5, and stack all EP cut and casting time reduction quartz/equips(including Toby's special accessory), elliot will cast any art with a cast time of 2 and, above a certain amount of Arts strength that i can no longer remember, will regain MORE EP than he used to cast the spell in the first place. He will also regain quite a bit of health. Add his healing craft, his healing S-craft, and his analyze/debuff craft and you quite literally have one of the best characters in the game, and by far the most self-sufficient. The only reason he's a backup is that heavenly gift is more conducive to my preferred method of beating things to death.

Emma: Overwhelming arts damage. Ingenuity, Mind 3, one Gem of each color except red, Criminal MQ, stack Arts. I rank her lower than elliot because while she did substantially more damage per hit, he never needed to use EP charges, whereas she did. Quite often, in fact.

[randyorlando]

"Laura is the most powerful physical attacker you can have."

except she isnt

Hint: She is heavily outclassed by one of the three in your very next sentence

[MabinoZerk]

Originally posted by Wilq:

Too easy ? Too hard ?

Too hard. I beat CS1 on Hard so I dove into CS2 on Hard. Now I wonder if I made the right choice.

I just beat Xeno and Leonidas after several tries. Next up is McBurn, and I gotta admit, I'm a little afraid. What should I do to beat him?

[bossmanham]

My go-to team for basically the entire game was Rean linked with Fie. They're both fast and in so many battles it was just bullet cyclone/gale/done. Laura is just too powerful near the end game so she was there too. The last slot I swtiched Emma, Sara, and Jusius in and out as a mage.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Originally posted by MabinoZerk:

Originally posted by Wilq:

Too easy ? Too hard ?

Too hard. I beat CS1 on Hard so I dove into CS2 on Hard. Now I wonder if I made the right choice.

I just beat Xeno and Leonidas after several tries. Next up is McBurn, and I gotta admit, I'm a little afraid. What should I do to beat him?

Use the 16 free consecutive turn strategy from Machias to quickly buff the party. Max out def, ADF, speed, and STR. Maintain shields (adamantine shield/Crescent Mirror from Platnium Shield/Crescent Mirror) at all times, so your party isn't wiped out by a surprise S-craft. Take out the adds ASAP, as they can heal themselves. Then focus on McBurn. Make sure to either bring Elliot or a dedicated caster with Holy Breath to cure the party of burn and faint.

[Kyle G]

Machias is useful in that you can exploit his AT Advance craft very frequently. Combine that with Overdrive, and you can get powerful arts users like Emma to instant perform their strongest arts. He can be quite a powerful support character. He is also super useful against mobs that accompany boss fights, since he can instant petrify multiple enemies at once if you combine his petrification shell with petrify quartz. You don't want him for damage, but for his ability to cause wide range status ailments.

[Walke_893]

Just worth pointing out, McBurn's S-Craft hits through everything and has the all cancel attribute. At higher difficulties you need to implement either a revival strategy, or Artemis' Tears. I don't know the range of his S-Craft but I assume it's a hit all type.

You can also protect against his unique burn status using the appropriate accessories. I believe anything that blocks burn works although I haven't tried that yet. Use the block all ones for more certainty.

Also, although this is more circumstantial, McBurn tends to use his S-Craft at around ~80% his health but generally higher than 50% and lower than 90%. If you take too long in the fight after this, he will use the S-Craft again.

Edit: On reflection, you may be able to survive the S-Craft on Hard with buffs and the like but I'm unsure of the exact cut-offs for them. Another thing you could try is also boost HP to have at least someone to survive the S-Craft so you can then swap in a fresh team member for the heals.

[Bison]

Originally posted by MabinoZerk:

Originally posted by Wilq:

Too easy ? Too hard ?

Too hard. I beat CS1 on Hard so I dove into CS2 on Hard. Now I wonder if I made the right choice.

I just beat Xeno and Leonidas after several tries. Next up is McBurn, and I gotta admit, I'm a little afraid. What should I do to beat him?

Assuming you're talking about the late game fight - If you're going to fight an extended battle with him, then you will definitely need ways to deal with repeated S-Crafts (at least 2-3 times). Iron MQ (lv 4-5) is a surefire way to survive it, provided your max HP is high (your current health also needs to be high for the mitigation to kick in at its full potential). Angel is also another option, but its only effective 1-2 times (depending on level).

There's also Fie with "Concealing Wind" craft which provides stealth status. Stealth status allows you to avoid any/all damage. I would say give Fie or the Iron MQ user (or both) the Seraphic Ring art so that you can quickly revive the party after a S-Craft.

[Erpy]

McBurn's S-craft does indeed hit the entire field. Anti-burn accessories also don't protect against the Scorch status, nor do typical burn-curing items remove it. (yes, that's the official name, it was listed in the manual that was included with the console version) Only ribbon-type protection like the Grail Locket, Lionheart Medal or Wing Master Quartz do.

There's one more way to avoid getting atomized by his S-craft: the S-craft is a magical attack. (just like Vita's, which also has the All-Cancel property) Equipping a mastered Katze Master Quartz gives you 90% chance of absorbing it. A mastered Mirage Master Quartz has 75% chance of dodging it, which you can turn to 100% by equipping a Shield3 quartz. A mastered Wing Master Quartz has 50% of dodging it, which you can turn to 100% by stacking Shield1, Shield2 and Shield3, though I imagine that takes too many slots for people's liking. Likewise, stacking those three quartzes on any character gives them 50% chance of evading it.

Certain characters also have the Cover/Wall link ability, which occasionally makes them protect the linked character from damage, even during an S-craft, though it's generally too unreliable to form a strategy around it.

[Walke_893]

Oh, that's interesting to know. I usually assume that all S-Craft abilities are guaranteed hits due to player S-Crafts seeming to function that way and that it also applies to NPC enemies. Didn't think magic evasion worked that way. I'm guessing this doesn't work for physical evasion though?

Also yeah, I figured that it was likely Scorch was not going to be blocked easily. And wait, what manual? I didn't get a manual for the PS3 version, just a small booklet with controls and legal stuff. Was this part of the limited edition?

[MabinoZerk]

Welp, I just beat McBurn. I used Rean, Emma, Alisa, Laura, Machias and Fie in the fight. I used Artemis' Tears once and Seraphic Ring quite a bit to survive his S-Craft. I gave Rean and Alisa quartz that allowed them to revive once after being killed. I also used items non-conservatively. It was an epic and close battle, but I won. I feel on top of the world now. It should all be uphill from here.