How far are you guys?

[Taka-kun]

Just finished ch 3. The boss was easier than the boss for ch 2 so it was mostly a cakewalk.

Now that I am running around doing the sidequests, I just realized these unbreakable doors in the dungeouns cutting off large sections. Does anybody know when I can breach them?

[Water Mage]

Just finished ch 3. The boss was easier than the boss for ch 2 so it was mostly a cakewalk.

Now that I am running around doing the sidequests, I just realized these unbreakable doors in the dungeouns cutting off large sections. Does anybody know when I can breach them?

The one at the entrance to 106 right?

You can open them later in the story.

[Taka-kun]

The one at the entrance to 106 right?

You can open them later in the story.

There are multiple ones throughout the dungeons, not just 106.

Alright, I guess it's some kind of a plot point.

[Leonarbow]

I feel absolutely pathetic at this game, no matter what I do I struggle on each boss over and over yet others do so really easily even not resorting to buffs/debuffs. I love this game but it makes me feel terrible at the same time.

I have no idea how to spoiler tag so I'll just say I'm now stuck on chapter 5's (presumably) main boss. I can't help but feel I'm getting somewhat screwed over though, turn after turn, at least a dozen long session attacks and no ad libs or duo arts.

I'd love to finish this thing and play more, but when I get stuck so badly on each boss..

Edited July 14, 2016 by Leonarbow

[carefreejules]

I feel absolutely pathetic at this game, no matter what I do I struggle on each boss over and over yet others do so really easily even not resorting to buffs/debuffs. I love this game but it makes me feel terrible at the same time.

I have no idea how to spoiler tag so I'll just say I'm now stuck on chapter 5's (presumably) main boss. I can't help but feel I'm getting somewhat screwed over though, turn after turn, at least a dozen long session attacks and no ad libs or duo arts.

I'd love to finish this thing and play more, but when I get stuck so badly on each boss..

It helps to know what everyone's strengths and weaknesses are but also how they work with one another. For me, with bosses, I usually have Itsuki, Mamori and Yashiro face off against the main boss. With Mamori's incredible defense and Yashiro's incredible speed and evading skills, I don't have to worry too much about their health because they can either endure it or they dodge them entirely. Like Mamori has a really really good Special Performance buff skills (Raindrop Memories), which increases attack, defense but also nullifies weaknesses and I believe any AOE attacks too for 3 turns I think.

Spoilers undercut

This battle was difficult and it took me 2 tries to beat it but once you form a strategy, everything else is rinse and repeat. The boss battle is with Dark Yashiro and he can duplicate himself right? My strategy was to have Mamori and Yashiro for the battle. It also REALLY REALLY helps to have the move that can reflect/nullify any physical AOE attack like DY's Heat Wave. I'm pretty sure Mamori is the one who can get this move so it helps to have it on her. Also, when DY duplicates, don't AOE them - aim for one. If you can get rid of at least one of the duplicates, he won't be able to summon that many again. For example, if you can get rid of one of the Yashiro's when they were four of them, when he summons them again, he'll only be able to summon three which will minimize the amount of turns he can dish out. Also, if you have Yashiro use Counter, that will help even more because he can just attack if any of the Yashiro's aim for him so he's essentially attacking during the enemy's turn.

One last thing, I don't remember if you can get these passive skills at this point in the game, but if anyone in subcast has passive skills that can push an enemy's turn back, that also really helps and they can be activated through Sessions. I know Touma and Ellie have those skills for sure. Make sure to have all the Radiant Unity skills that you are able to get just in case!

Good luck!

Edited July 14, 2016 by carefreejules

[Leonarbow]

It helps to know what everyone's strengths and weaknesses are but also how they work with one another. For me, with bosses, I usually have Itsuki, Mamori and Yashiro face off against the main boss. With Mamori's incredible defense and Yashiro's incredible speed and evading skills, I don't have to worry too much about their health because they can either endure it or they dodge them entirely. Like Mamori has a really really good Special Performance buff skills (Raindrop Memories), which increases attack, defense but also nullifies weaknesses and I believe any AOE attacks too for 3 turns I think.

Spoilers undercut

This battle was difficult and it took me 2 tries to beat it but once you form a strategy, everything else is rinse and repeat. The boss battle is with Dark Yashiro and he can duplicate himself right? My strategy was to have Mamori and Yashiro for the battle. It also REALLY REALLY helps to have the move that can reflect/nullify any physical AOE attack like DY's Heat Wave. I'm pretty sure Mamori is the one who can get this move so it helps to have it on her. Also, when DY duplicates, don't AOE them - aim for one. If you can get rid of at least one of the duplicates, he won't be able to summon that many again. For example, if you can get rid of one of the Yashiro's when they were four of them, when he summons them again, he'll only be able to summon three which will minimize the amount of turns he can dish out. Also, if you have Yashiro use Counter, that will help even more because he can just attack if any of the Yashiro's aim for him so he's essentially attacking during the enemy's turn.

One last thing, I don't remember if you can get these passive skills at this point in the game, but if anyone in subcast has passive skills that can push an enemy's turn back, that also really helps and they can be activated through Sessions. I know Touma and Ellie have those skills for sure. Make sure to have all the Radiant Unity skills that you are able to get just in case!

Good luck!

Oh hey I learnt how to spoiler tag now, yay!

Thank you for the advice. My issue is that when they get to quadrupling themselves they can just pull off a session on Itsuki and really easily knock him down and from there someone else tends to go leaving (as of my last few tries) only Yashiro left. I also have been trying Mamori (and occasionally swapping out Mamori for Tsubasa/Touma for single Yashiro lance attacks since that's all he's weak to) because even if she's weak to swords she can tank massively, her SP skills are also brilliant for healing (and of course she tanks for others to...Mamori is just frigging amazing). For some reason I thought all Yashiros kept the same HP, so I would just attack who I could. My Yashiro will soon gain a wind spell which should help out as I think that'll mean he'll be effective against twice the amount of multi enemy Yashiros. I wish I could do more sessions though, the single Yashiro is both a blessing (no sessions) and a curse (only weak to lances, I do have a few javelins though).

I had the passive skills but gave them up for other things as I never needed them, even in other boss fights :( I could relearn them by forging and skill grinding, if I really have to. Ellie can do without null charm I guess, haha.

Thanks again, it just feels really...disheartening losing so much.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Leonarbow

[carefreejules]

Oh hey I learnt how to spoiler tag now, yay!

Thank you for the advice. My issue is that when they get to quadrupling themselves they can just pull off a session on Itsuki and really easily knock him down and from there someone else tends to go leaving (as of my last few tries) only Yashiro left. I also have been trying Mamori (and occasionally swapping out Mamori for Tsubasa/Touma for single Yashiro lance attacks since that's all he's weak to) because even if she's weak to swords she can tank massively, her SP skills are also brilliant for healing (and of course she tanks for others to...Mamori is just frigging amazing). For some reason I thought all Yashiros kept the same HP, so I would just attack who I could. My Yashiro will soon gain a wind spell which should help out as I think that'll mean he'll be effective against twice the amount of multi enemy Yashiros. I wish I could do more sessions though, the single Yashiro is both a blessing (no sessions) and a curse (only weak to lances, I do have a few javelins though).

I had the passive skills but gave them up for other things as I never needed them, even in other boss fights :( I could relearn them by forging and skill grinding, if I really have to. Ellie can do without null charm I guess, haha.

Thanks again, it just feels really...disheartening losing so much.

Oh, I never have any null status ailments for any of my characters because you'll eventually get a skill for Kiria and someone else called Amrita which will get rid of all status effects for everyone. It's always best to think about skills in ways where, you have to think about the skills that can't or can be replaced. Like with the null status ailments one. There's some really unique and helpful passive skills that I can get that can't be obtained through normal skills so those are the ones I wouldn't want to replace. With null status ailments, yes those can be helpful if you want to prevent your characters from getting that status ailment without wasting a turn healing your character, but since there is an alternative normal skill to fix it, it's not really needed.

One of Yashiro's Special Performance skills (should be the wind one) will activate Counter automatically after you use the skill so that can be helpful.

Make sure to complete the side stories that are available before the boss and sometimes Maiko will actually let you know if there's a new Duo Art available. I would talk to her just in case. That might increase your chances of activating a Duo Art the more you have them.

It's disheartening for sure and it's OK because everyone has their own level of experience but that's not something you should be discouraged by. Everyone has their own level of strategic thinking after all.

Edited July 14, 2016 by carefreejules

[Avk]

I feel absolutely pathetic at this game, no matter what I do I struggle on each boss over and over yet others do so really easily even not resorting to buffs/debuffs. I love this game but it makes me feel terrible at the same time.

I have no idea how to spoiler tag so I'll just say I'm now stuck on chapter 5's (presumably) main boss. I can't help but feel I'm getting somewhat screwed over though, turn after turn, at least a dozen long session attacks and no ad libs or duo arts.

I'd love to finish this thing and play more, but when I get stuck so badly on each boss..

The game isn't really easy even on Normal mode I think, it's true to its SMT heritage on that point, so no need to feel dejected, especially after managing to get through most of the game, chapter 5 is near the endgame.

[spoiler=Chapter 5]It seems like you have already been discussing strategy, but I'll still add my own approach.

I did the fight with Itsuki, Yashiro (both mandatory) and Tsubasa (I think I tried to switch to Eleonora for debuffs, but she died instantly so I stopped doing that).

I suppose if you don't want to use Tsubasa and rely on items to heal and buff your party, you can consider Touma or Mamori, but I don't know how much hit Mamori can take with her Sword weakness and the boss doing Heat Wave really often. I'm not sure about Kiria and Eleonora, both seem too fragile to last, and Kiria has a Sword weakness too. Tsubasa, while fragile, uses Lance making her resist Heat Wave (or even Null if you promoted Caeda to Dragon Knight and equip her with the right carnages), the main danger for her is a Gale Strike followed by a Session, she can't really survive that, unless buffed with Rakukaja and even then it's really close.

Keeping debuffs on him doesn't seem really that useful since it resets when he "regroups" or clones himself, but if you can setup a few at the start of one of the phases it doesn't hurt.

On the opposite, keeping yourself buffed is really necessary, I tried to keep Rakukaja/Sukukaja up as much as I could, it's true for almost all the bosses though, but against that boss, a Gale Strike dodged is the difference between life and death for Tsubasa.

Using Counter with Yashiro when you can't really hit a weakness or when you are in difficulty is also really helpful, keeping him safe since only Heat Wave will be able to hit him.

Try to use the phase when he is alone to heal yourself, rebuff, etc, I think I recall he has Nullify for all elements, so you'll have a hard time doing damage during that phase, and he can't Session you, so you should be safe.

The phase where you are struggling, when he creates 4 copies of himself is the hardest part of the fight. If you want an easy solution, I recommend you to stock Attack Mirrors and use them during that phase while trying to focus on one clone at a time. I don't recall having used Attack Mirrors, but these items are real lifesavers when you are in difficulty, against any boss or Savage Mirages.

Also, unrelated but really late Happy Birthday to Kiria, I must say I didn't expect to see this, wishing happy birthday to fictional character seems like a very japanese thing. Having birthday date for fictional character is already very japanese I suppose ?

Edited July 15, 2016 by Avk

[eclipse]

Ooh, strategy~!

My team was Itsuki/Touma/Yashiro. Having Rakukaja and Diarama on Itsuki was what made this battle possible. Itsuki spammed support, Touma used Javelin Rain with great prejudice (since the enemy can't counter it), and Yashiro used his SP1 skill to do sessions and end in counter stance. When I didn't have SP meter, I had Yashiro use Sukukaja (or whatever buffs evasion/hit). Touma used the occasional War Cry.

The Samto wannabe is way too tanky for a myrmidon, but the battle's definitely doable!

[Taka-kun]

I feel absolutely pathetic at this game, no matter what I do I struggle on each boss over and over yet others do so really easily even not resorting to buffs/debuffs. I love this game but it makes me feel terrible at the same time.

I have no idea how to spoiler tag so I'll just say I'm now stuck on chapter 5's (presumably) main boss. I can't help but feel I'm getting somewhat screwed over though, turn after turn, at least a dozen long session attacks and no ad libs or duo arts.

I'd love to finish this thing and play more, but when I get stuck so badly on each boss..

Don't worry, you are not the only one stuck on the bosses. The game is cleverly designed to give you a challenge while at the same time requiring careful thinking and resilience. Normal battles and boss battles are two different beasts altogether. The former you can just breeze through by stringing together sessions attacks and tanking light attacks, the latter is a brutal beast where you have to do everything to just survive. The difference can be overwhelming.

Just yesterday I spent a good hour just trying to survive Mamori's sidequest boss while simultaneously shaving off his HP, bit by bit. Although frustrating, I feel such moments are what makes the game so much more fun than I initially thought.

[Leonarbow]

Hey guys thanks for all the advice and the reassuring words. I really appreciate that you guys were all so happy to help someone else out, thank you~

I ended up doing it with a team of forced with Mamori I think because her survivability is just brilliant. I ended up doing it by really focusing on taking out one Yashiro when there were four, and I was able to do it a few hours after my last comment here.

I'm now on Chapter 6, and boy is the story getting interesting. Although I had to look up how to solve part of the dungeon because I got lost, and I was so close to figuring it out too >.<

Edited July 18, 2016 by Leonarbow

[Ownagepuffs]

At the start of C6 now. Just beat the second round of old school characters.

Yashiro is busted

Tsubasa is bad

Touma is amazing

Mamori is alright

Ellie is pretty good

Kiria is too slow

Itsuki is really good

I need more master seals

[Taka-kun]

Starting the last chapter. I am still schizophrenic about my Itsuki. At first I intended to have him stay in Great Lord class to have another healer besides Tsubasa and additional buffer as well. But I have been building him into a strength character more and more as I find the slayer skills very useful (as they transcend Null effects), buffs/debuffs are independent of magic stat and his magic stat isn't high enough to heal well anyway.

[Ownagepuffs]

Itsuki should always go Conquerer at some point because Wyrmicide is amazing. Healing isn't necessary unless you are going through the arena, as items in this game are pretty ridiculous.

[Taka-kun]

I agree Wyrmicide, Diamond Splitter and Espada are pretty good, both for the damage they deal and the ability to ignore attributes. The problem is that I have too few Master Seals. I have already promoted Itsuki twice and the other characters once, and I want to promote the other characters again as well to unlock more Carnages.

[Avk]

I agree Wyrmicide, Diamond Splitter and Espada are pretty good, both for the damage they deal and the ability to ignore attributes. The problem is that I have too few Master Seals. I have already promoted Itsuki twice and the other characters once, and I want to promote the other characters again as well to unlock more Carnages.

There are 16 Master Seals you can obtain through the game, plus a few more if you are lucky with the lottery. I think you are still fine, unless you want to promote back and forth other Mirages.

And Itsuki can learn Diarahan, so you can always learn that if you want to keep a healing spell, but Energy Drinks have the same purpose.

Edited July 30, 2016 by Avk

[Sentacotus]

Just ordered the game. Should be here Tuesday. Any tips I should know? Just plan on playing normal for now.

[Jave]

Just ordered the game. Should be here Tuesday. Any tips I should know? Just plan on playing normal for now.

The game is very good at explaining everything and it has a gentle learning curve, so you should have no issues getting into it. Normal is fine for a first playthrough.

Only real warning is that the difficulty tends to spike on bosses, but it's nothing that's not manageable. Also, this game does not autosave and only prompts to save when you finish a chapter, so get used to save often. There's nothing worse than running into a savage enemy and losing a whole hour of progress.

[Taka-kun]

There are 16 Master Seals you can obtain through the game, plus a few more if you are lucky with the lottery. I think you are still fine, unless you want to promote back and forth other Mirages.

And Itsuki can learn Diarahan, so you can always learn that if you want to keep a healing spell, but Energy Drinks have the same purpose.

I believe I have used 10 Seals at this point. I have been pretty straightforward with my promotion in that I just think of the class I want my Mirages to be in, which made me totally forget that the alternate class unlocks more Carnages.

Yeah, there are items so I don't know why I have to keep a single-ally healing spell.

Just ordered the game. Should be here Tuesday. Any tips I should know? Just plan on playing normal for now.

Skill acquistition. You will be pretty overwhelmed by amount of skills you get because they work separately from leveling up and especially Itsuki get crazy amount of skills but you have only so many skill slots. It will be possible to reacquire skills after a certain point in the game, but I advise you to think early where you want characters to be. Don't neglect buff/debuff skills.

[Avk]

Just ordered the game. Should be here Tuesday. Any tips I should know? Just plan on playing normal for now.

The game is very good at explaining everything and it has a gentle learning curve, so you should have no issues getting into it. Normal is fine for a first playthrough.

Only real warning is that the difficulty tends to spike on bosses, but it's nothing that's not manageable. Also, this game does not autosave and only prompts to save when you finish a chapter, so get used to save often. There's nothing worse than running into a savage enemy and losing a whole hour of progress.

Well, that was my main advice.

You can save anytime, so don't hesitate to save often, especially whenever a Savage Mirage appears on the field (mirages in a black cloak instead of the usual red), since even on normal, you have a high chance of dying to them. After the first few chapters, you'll also be able to buy items called Smoke Machines that gives you 100% escape rate, useful to keep around.

Buffs and debuffs are really useful just like in SMT/Persona games, so the -kaja and -kunda spells, in tough fights, you are likely to have to rely on them.

Side quests are really enjoyable and give you nice rewards after accomplishing them, so I recommend you to try to do them as early as you can (you'll probably get a few that are too high level at some point, these can wait, but I've heard of some people that managed to do them while underleveled).

I see the question "can I relearn X skill later if I decide to pick Y skill ?" asked fairly often and the answer is yes, the ability to improve your weapons after some point in the game allows you to relearn skills from your previous weapons.

That's most of what I can think right now, I think the game is pretty straightforward so you should be fine, especially if you aren't new to turn based RPGs, and SMT/Persona in particular. The game is slightly more difficult than other games, even on Normal in my opinion, so I thought I should mention that.

I believe I have used 10 Seals at this point. I have been pretty straightforward with my promotion in that I just think of the class I want my Mirages to be in, which made me totally forget that the alternate class unlocks more Carnages.

Yeah, there are items so I don't know why I have to keep a single-ally healing spell.

Skill acquistition. You will be pretty overwhelmed by amount of skills you get because they work separately from leveling up and especially Itsuki get crazy amount of skills but you have only so many skill slots. It will be possible to reacquire skills after a certain point in the game, but I advise you to think early where you want characters to be. Don't neglect buff/debuff skills.

Healing spells are still useful if you intend to do the Arena, but for the rest of the game, I tend to rely more on items for healing/curing ailments/reviving. Characters like Mamori and Tsubasa have some healing special performances with bonus effects that are really good (Rakukaja+Sukukaja on Tsubasa's Debut Smile, and Mamori can use hers without wasting her turn). These and the many Duo Arts that have healing properties make healing spells less useful but I like to keep them on Tsubasa just in case (and for healing after battle).

Edited August 1, 2016 by Avk

[Pikmin1211]

Nearing the end of my second, Lunatic playthough (first was Normal).

To add, Healing spells aren't that great aside from Prayer, but they're kinda handy as field spells after a fight. Healing items are cheap and abundant, aside from Bead Chains.

I tend to have made a habit of saving whenever I open the menu to do something.

[Taka-kun]

In chapter 6 and just faced

Gharnef

. I fought in a battle of attrition for 40 mins and then he downed me with two successive, Almighty, multi-hit skill. Fml.

Healing spells are still useful if you intend to do the Arena, but for the rest of the game, I tend to rely more on items for healing/curing ailments/reviving. Characters like Mamori and Tsubasa have some healing special performances with bonus effects that are really good (Rakukaja+Sukukaja on Tsubasa's Debut Smile, and Mamori can use hers without wasting her turn). These and the many Duo Arts that have healing properties make healing spells less useful but I like to keep them on Tsubasa just in case (and for healing after battle).

Items for multi-healing are rare however. Maca Leafs (which heals decently), I can't seem to find reliably. So I have found Mediarama (which my Itsuki now has) and Mediharana very useful after a round of enduring enemy attacks. Having healing spells on more than just one character gives me more flexibility (whether to use thunder/sword skills or wind/lance skills). In longer boss battles (like the above mentioned), it's almost a requirement to have healing spells as well.

I see the question "can I relearn X skill later if I decide to pick Y skill ?" asked fairly often and the answer is yes, the ability to improve your weapons after some point in the game allows you to relearn skills from your previous weapons.

One thing I just discovered is that when you reforge/improve your weapons, you can learn an ADDITIONAL skills that you couldn't learn before. Wish I had known that earlier instead of running around with mastered Carnages.

[Sentacotus]

The game is very good at explaining everything and it has a gentle learning curve, so you should have no issues getting into it. Normal is fine for a first playthrough.

Only real warning is that the difficulty tends to spike on bosses, but it's nothing that's not manageable. Also, this game does not autosave and only prompts to save when you finish a chapter, so get used to save often. There's nothing worse than running into a savage enemy and losing a whole hour of progress.

I believe I have used 10 Seals at this point. I have been pretty straightforward with my promotion in that I just think of the class I want my Mirages to be in, which made me totally forget that the alternate class unlocks more Carnages.

Yeah, there are items so I don't know why I have to keep a single-ally healing spell.

Skill acquistition. You will be pretty overwhelmed by amount of skills you get because they work separately from leveling up and especially Itsuki get crazy amount of skills but you have only so many skill slots. It will be possible to reacquire skills after a certain point in the game, but I advise you to think early where you want characters to be. Don't neglect buff/debuff skills.

Well, that was my main advice.

You can save anytime, so don't hesitate to save often, especially whenever a Savage Mirage appears on the field (mirages in a black cloak instead of the usual red), since even on normal, you have a high chance of dying to them. After the first few chapters, you'll also be able to buy items called Smoke Machines that gives you 100% escape rate, useful to keep around.

Buffs and debuffs are really useful just like in SMT/Persona games, so the -kaja and -kunda spells, in tough fights, you are likely to have to rely on them.

Side quests are really enjoyable and give you nice rewards after accomplishing them, so I recommend you to try to do them as early as you can (you'll probably get a few that are too high level at some point, these can wait, but I've heard of some people that managed to do them while underleveled).

I see the question "can I relearn X skill later if I decide to pick Y skill ?" asked fairly often and the answer is yes, the ability to improve your weapons after some point in the game allows you to relearn skills from your previous weapons.

That's most of what I can think right now, I think the game is pretty straightforward so you should be fine, especially if you aren't new to turn based RPGs, and SMT/Persona in particular. The game is slightly more difficult than other games, even on Normal in my opinion, so I thought I should mention that.

Healing spells are still useful if you intend to do the Arena, but for the rest of the game, I tend to rely more on items for healing/curing ailments/reviving. Characters like Mamori and Tsubasa have some healing special performances with bonus effects that are really good (Rakukaja+Sukukaja on Tsubasa's Debut Smile, and Mamori can use hers without wasting her turn). These and the many Duo Arts that have healing properties make healing spells less useful but I like to keep them on Tsubasa just in case (and for healing after battle).

Thanks for the tips everyone! I'll be sure to save early and often!