Advice on game damage mechanics

[EbonySeraphim]

Almost done with my first play though and I must say, Square Enix did a great job at holding some of the original mechanics/core of playing this game. I wanted to share some of this so maybe folks can venture more confidently into hard mode. This game is all about damage, and the formula/balance for damage is quite simple and consistent in both magic and physical and works just like the original Seiken Densetsu III.

Increases or decreases to to any stat has 3 "levels" of that stat. It's either increased, unaltered, or decreased. Casually looking, these margins seem to be about 25~33%% up or down. You cannot generically decrease the same stat further from a decreased level, and you cannot increase it more than a single level unaltered in a generic way. This means skills like Kevin's Pressure Point will NOT stack your attack with a Drake's Scale (physical attack up item), or any of Reisz's attack up skills. However, things go further than this:

You can still lower your target's defense. You'll see the same increase in damage on a defense reduced target as if you increased your own attack. Consider that lowering the defense of a boss target means your entire party will do more damage versus just one fighter increasing their damage. So if you've already increased your attack, you can further do more damage by lowering your target's defense! But it continues:

Elemental damage can also be a boost (or nerf) to your damage. I think shifts to elemental weaknesses are even heavier than damage and defense buffs/debuffs. Pick the right element, and you do somewhere between 66%~100% more damage it seems, and this does stack with your base attack up / defense down increases. Keep in mind that if you pick an element that is absorbed, your amped damage is absorbed. There are conditions in the game where enemies may cast a saber on you to cause your high damage to high heals on them!

The final sources or damage buffs are the more conditional, uncontrollable, and maybe character (Kevin) locked. We of course have the game's ability system which have buffs that show you how you may do more damage. From what I can tell, those bonuses will always stack and aren't counted as generic attack up or defense down for enemies. Critical hits do more damage as well, and will stack with any buff/debuff once. Kevin's Werewolf form damage increase isn't considered a buff. So you can be a Werewolf and then attack up once from there (really keeps his light classes very strong with Pressure Point). The only downside to PP the cast animation makes him vulnerable temporarily.

If you've been following along, "game breaking" damage occurs when you create this scenario (not in this priority order): 1) attack up yourself, 2) defense down your target, 3) pick the right elemental saber 4) pick Kevin and make sure it's night 5) increase critical hits (Kevin has a class that does this, but rear hits work) and watch as you drop chunks off of bosses HP like regular enemies.

I'm close to being attack to test out out and confirm something that may tip the scales ridiculously: Charlotte has an "Attack Saber" ability which adds +25% damage on element sabers (need to increase her STR for this). I don't know if that +25% attack boost is counted as a generic stat boost or not.

Last tip here is to understand stat buff/debuff states for bosses or enemies that'll change it. If you have had a stat lowered by an enemy, you can chose to either remove status effects (putting you back to normal), or you could increase attack which will put you back into neutral. You can, stat up twice twice to get back on the positive side. The icons make it easy to track what is currently in effect so you don't have to remember what you've already modified to understand your current damage modifiers.

Happy hunting!