SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions |OT| So Good It Sells Itself

[Mizeris Lutz Ether Lanai]

I HATE the plasticky bobblehead look of Square's lower budget games. I can't wait for a technology shift to kick it into the dustbin of history. It put me right off this game...

...but the type of praise the game's consistently getting makes it sound like something I want to check out. Streamlined exploration + weird systems + good sidequests + tons of party customization = okay, I might be back in. My backlog is 30+ games deep and needs some pruning first, but I'll put it on the wishlist.

 

[Marukoban]

I'm getting destroyed in this game. Even on Normal matches I either barely survive or lose after several attempts.

I know it's still early with Urpina (second map), but even when I'm trying to upgrade equipment, set up formations and so on, I'm not improving.

I get that the idea is to anticipate the attacks enemies are going to do, and do whatever you can to mitigate the damage (interrupt the attacks, try to finish the enemy off, get Union attacks lined up), but the things you can do are so limiting. It really doesn't help that you have no idea how much damage an attack is going to pull. The game even says that the more BP it takes, the more damage it'll likely do, but my gamble to finish off an enemy rarely pay off.

Also, my wizard buddy (Solis)? He sucks. He sucks extremely hard. The damage he does after spending turns casting are not worth it, and he constantly dies.

I dunno, maybe I'm still doing a lot of things wrong or I need to progress more in the main story and stop getting sidetracked.

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Either you utilize block skills or play around with stun/paralyze/sleep.
Blocking has less RNG, but early on your block rate is low, so I found status effects to be better.
Club's Seismic Strike is awesome for applying cheap AoE paralyze. Otherwise, Short Sword's Mesmerize has not terrible application rate.

 

[Tfritz]

I HATE the plasticky bobblehead look of Square's lower budget games.

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drag dissidia nt!!!

 

[gazoinks]

I'm getting destroyed in this game. Even on Normal matches I either barely survive or lose after several attempts.

I know it's still early with Urpina (second map), but even when I'm trying to upgrade equipment, set up formations and so on, I'm not improving.

I get that the idea is to anticipate the attacks enemies are going to do, and do whatever you can to mitigate the damage (interrupt the attacks, try to finish the enemy off, get Union attacks lined up), but the things you can do are so limiting. It really doesn't help that you have no idea how much damage an attack is going to pull. The game even says that the more BP it takes, the more damage it'll likely do, but my gamble to finish off an enemy rarely pay off.

Also, my wizard buddy (Solis)? He sucks. He sucks extremely hard. The damage he does after spending turns casting are not worth it, and he constantly dies.

I dunno, maybe I'm still doing a lot of things wrong or I need to progress more in the main story and stop getting sidetracked.

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In addition to the other tips, Solon does kind of suck, though Thorny Fetters has decent damage and the speed penalty is nice. You'll get a better offensive mage a bit further into Urpina's story. But really I think the game requires a bit of persistence early on to really learn how to engage with its systems, and to open up more options. Don't be afraid to pop it down to easy. You can always pump it back up when you feel more comfortable with the combat.

I've just made my way into Urpina Act 2 and the game has suddenly opened up a whole bunch. Definitely glad I didn't start with Leo; I would've had no idea what I was doing if the game was this open from the start.

 

[Deleted member 18857]

I HATE the plasticky bobblehead look of Square's lower budget games. I can't wait for a technology shift to kick it into the dustbin of history. It put me right off this game...

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Not only that, it's a game made in Unity at a time the Unity documentation hadn't been properly translated into Japanese, for Vita, with a tiny budget because SQEX doesn't give two fucks about Kawazu but can't afford to get rid of him.
The technical aspect of this game is frustrating when you see the mountains of money they burned on FF13 and 15. And yet, it's still worth it.

 

[Saint-14]

Urpina's story.

Spoiler

so the father is back, is that the end of her story or there is more? I've been just running around doing random things

 

[Yu Narukami]

This night I dreamt Square added Geralt as DLC. I would buy that for 10€.

 

[gazoinks]

Back at it again with role questions: Does the dual wield role do anything for the character who has it outside of the special techs you can use with it? Does it add damage to normal attacks or increase block according to the other weapon or anything?

 

[Yu Narukami]

Back at it again with role questions: Does the dual wield role do anything for the character who has it outside of the special techs you can use with it? Does it add damage to normal attacks or increase block according to the other weapon or anything?

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You can see your Attack power in the formation menu.

 

[Kromeo]

I decided to finish the snes remasters before starting this properly, just want to say that 3 is 100x better than 2, there was so much that annoyed me about that game

 

[Kaitos]

So I'm in Urpina's story and I'm being chased by a ghost that's draining my total LP. What do I do?

 

[NioA]

Am I supposed to get some rewards in the end of the pilgrimage section in

Spoiler: Urpina act 3

provincia Yuxart? Where you need to visit the 12 shrines of the Celestials. I'm not sure I visited all of them and I'm not sure is actually useful, since there's no scarlet shard here.

So I'm in Urpina's story and I'm being chased by a ghost that's draining my total LP. What do I do?

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Let him drain all the LPs, when it get down to 1 it triggers a fight.

 

[Mistouze]

So I'm in Urpina's story and I'm being chased by a ghost that's draining my total LP. What do I do?

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Let it drain it all.

 

[Deleted member 4090]

Back at it again with role questions: Does the dual wield role do anything for the character who has it outside of the special techs you can use with it? Does it add damage to normal attacks or increase block according to the other weapon or anything?

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There's different Dual Wield Roles. Look at the Roles menu to see.

It is a ton of utility and damage output. Try to Rank up the basic Dual attack and whirlwind, as with the BP discount they become a massively efficient damage dump.

It lets them weapon block while they attack with their main weapon, which is a nice bonus.

 

[gazoinks]

There's different Dual Wield Roles. Look at the Roles menu to see.

It is a ton of utility and damage output. Try to Rank up the basic Dual attack and whirlwind, as with the BP discount they become a massively efficient damage dump.

It lets them weapon block while they attack with their main weapon, which is a nice bonus.

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Aah, cool. Thanks!

 

[Deleted member 4090]

Aah, cool. Thanks!

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Also, Longsword Cost- formation is super useful for both leveling and using dual wield. Knocking 2 or 3, or even 4 BP off of Dual Whirlwind is totally bonkers.

 

[Wingus]

Finished two playthrough so far and started my 3rd (Balmaint)

How did everyone approach his scenario?

Spoiler

Did you complete the Earth Serpent sidequest (head to Megdasse) and/or the Phoenix stuff (head to Yaxart)?

Or did you chase Sigrei? Can you come back and finish the above side quests if you opt to chase Sigfrei first?

 

[gazoinks]

Also, Longsword Cost- formation is super useful for both leveling and using dual wield. Knocking 2 or 3, or even 4 BP off of Dual Whirlwind is totally bonkers.

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lol I just glimmered dual torrent I take back any ambivalence I had about dual wielding.

 

[Saint-14]

Oh my god, it's finally over, that was a 25 phase last boss, one of the craziest bosses I've fought.

 

[Zen Hero]

Finally got a chance to dive a bit deeper into this game now that I'm on holiday. Played for a number of hours yesterday into Urpina's story. Just recruited my first new character which felt good.

I have to say I'm really getting into this game. I like the LP mechanic -- it adds just enough tension and consequence to battles, but not too much. Also it encourages me to swap out my characters which is nice. Other than LP, I like the fact that you can't "waste" anything in battle, like MP or weapon durability. It makes you feel like you should go all out in every battle.

One thing I don't understand is what materials are for. I thought they might be used for forging weapons, but so far they have only required crystals. So I'm not sure what's the point of collecting materials so far. Maybe they are used in weapon forging later in the game...?

 

[Saint-14]

Maybe they are used in weapon forging later in the game...?

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Yes.

 

[Zen Hero]

Yes.

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That makes sense, thanks. I guess I'll look forward to that then!

 

[Theswweet]

 

[Tfritz]

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it's what she deserves

 

[Zen Hero]

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Nice to see <3

I wish I could vote for it in my own resetera GOTY, but I'm just not far enough into it yet to say anything confidently. Maybe I can put in an edit if I get far enough into this game by the deadline. I am really enjoying it so far.

 

[decoyplatypus]

I finally got some time to dive into this today. The number of mechanics I only partly understand is staggering. What are the glimmer rates? How do you gain new roles (other than by chance)? Is the idea to continue leveling up a preferred weapon or switch around to get new skills?

In other circumstances I might run off to an FAQ, but playing with my siblings at home, we're having fun muddling through blind.

 

[Jakenbakin]

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Awesome, super happy to see this. I'm about 40 hours into my Urpina run, and it really has just got better. Once the game allowed me to felt explore I went to town on sidequesting, and while I definitely feel like a ton has been done out of order, it's been a blast. I love the little puzzles to do in all the areas, even if I messed one up and am not sure how to solve several others. The only issue I've had yet is that I've got so many characters I did eventually stop experimenting with them all lol.

 

[Deleted member 4090]

I finally got some time to dive into this today. The number of mechanics I only partly understand is staggering. What are the glimmer rates? How do you gain new roles (other than by chance)? Is the idea to continue leveling up a preferred weapon or switch around to get new skills?

In other circumstances I might run off to an FAQ, but playing with my siblings at home, we're having fun muddling through blind.

Click to shrink...

Glimmer rates can be fairly high, but are dependent on skills you're using. Look at the skills on a specific weapon. In the basic view the skills on that weapon form a branching skill tree descending down the list, with early skills allowing the glimmer of lower skills.

For example, let's look at some basic axes. The Standard type of axe will get Maim off of the basic attack, and Main will give both Vertical Smash and Dimension Break. Then different types of axes will get Smash off of the initial axe attack, and Smash will give some of the later skills for this types of axes.

It gets complicated when the same skill appears on multiple types of axes, but the primary way of getting it is always earlier skills on that same subtype.

Later skills can glimmer earlier skills, which is especially important for both Martial Arts and I believe Spears, due to any single skill being super resistant to glimmering a third or fourth skill, even if it is technically possible.

Roles are complicated, and I don't recommend going too hard on them on your first run. Focus on just getting the skills on whatever weapon you've selected and you'll get a few Roles along the way. High weapon skill level and skill ranks tend to be more valuable than roles at less effort or complication.

 

[Schopenhauer]

Finished two playthrough so far and started my 3rd (Balmaint)

How did everyone approach his scenario?

Spoiler

Did you complete the Earth Serpent sidequest (head to Megdasse) and/or the Phoenix stuff (head to Yaxart)?

Or did you chase Sigrei? Can you come back and finish the above side quests if you opt to chase Sigfrei first?

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Spoiler: I

did the shard quest first and then chased after the Phoenix. There are natural pauses in his quests while chasing Sigfrei anyway, after killing him 4 times and then two more times, and my guess is that if you do the chapter quests first there just won't be a pause in the Sigfrei hunt. Just a heads-up, after finishing with the Phoenix the game went directly to an endgame state where I could only travel between Kei and Azucahn to fight the boss, skipping the third scenario entirely. Don't know if it was the order I did his scenarios in or the choices that I made that caused it to do that though.

That makes sense, thanks. I guess I'll look forward to that then!

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The highest tier of crafting takes a ton of rare materials, dragon scale, luminescent oil, icelight, ect. It is probably best to always be on the lookout for those materials and go for easy battle bonuses that include them whenever you can.

Edit: also looks like a review popped up from RPGFan

https://www.rpgfan.com/reviews/SaGa_Scarlet_Grace_Ambitions/

 

[Deleted member 18857]

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Disco and SG are two of the absolute best games of the last few years, so that checks out. Don't know what the other games are doing on that list.

 

[Deleted member 4090]

Disco and SG are two of the absolute best games of the last few years, so that checks out. Don't know what the other games are doing on that list.

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Fire Emblem and DQB2 are somehow surprising to you?

 

[decoyplatypus]

Glimmer rates can be fairly high, but are dependent on skills you're using. Look at the skills on a specific weapon. In the basic view the skills on that weapon form a branching skill tree descending down the list, with early skills allowing the glimmer of lower skills.

For example, let's look at some basic axes. The Standard type of axe will get Maim off of the basic attack, and Main will give both Vertical Smash and Dimension Break. Then different types of axes will get Smash off of the initial axe attack, and Smash will give some of the later skills for this types of axes.

It gets complicated when the same skill appears on multiple types of axes, but the primary way of getting it is always earlier skills on that same subtype.

Later skills can glimmer earlier skills, which is especially important for both Martial Arts and I believe Spears, due to any single skill being super resistant to glimmering a third or fourth skill, even if it is technically possible.

Roles are complicated, and I don't recommend going too hard on them on your first run. Focus on just getting the skills on whatever weapon you've selected and you'll get a few Roles along the way. High weapon skill level and skill ranks tend to be more valuable than roles at less effort or complication.

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Thanks!

 

[poncle]

Stuck on Taria's story, I need to obtain the "permission from the spirituals" in Provincia Jusitania, but there's nothing related to Spirituals there and I've exhausted all options. Every time I go out of the region, the honey quest starts from the beginning too

 

[Echizen]

How exactly does the difficulty scaling work with number of encounters? I'm in the third province/area of Urpina's story and it seems like a good place to stock up on material for forging (which I really need at this point since I've made pretty aggressive use of blacksmiths and don't have a lot of the basic elements left), but I'm not sure if that would make things a lot more difficult later on

 

[Schopenhauer]

Stuck on Taria's story, I need to obtain the "permission from the spirituals" in Provincia Jusitania, but there's nothing related to Spirituals there and I've exhausted all options. Every time I go out of the region, the honey quest starts from the beginning too

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You need to continue following the phoenix north and west. As far as I can remember Jusitania is just one of many stops the Phoenix makes.

 

[cosmicspooks]

So I've been playing Into the Breach (thanks to when it was free on the Epic Store) and I feel like it scratches a similar itch as Scarlet Grace. They're both games where you pretty much know everything that'll happen in battle and so it's all about reacting to that, and sort of dismantling the opponents actions instead of just full on beating them up. And in each case it isn't so much that the gameplay gets deeper as you go on, but rather you slowly start figuring out how to take advantage of the systems already in place.

I mean, I don't really have anything smart to say, I just think they feel kinda similar and people who dig Into the Breach might want to at least look into this! And vice versa, I guess! They are both dummy good!

 

[Deleted member 4090]

How exactly does the difficulty scaling work with number of encounters? I'm in the third province/area of Urpina's story and it seems like a good place to stock up on material for forging (which I really need at this point since I've made pretty aggressive use of blacksmiths and don't have a lot of the basic elements left), but I'm not sure if that would make things a lot more difficult later on

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IMO, don't stock up on things. You should just be spending as you go, because spending levels up blacksmithing and leveling up blacksmith will know low-tier crafting down to cost literally a single resource (of each type).

The best way to get materials is to be able to challenge Hard missions and/or do the side bonus objectives, especially ones that give you raw crystals. The bonus objectives are also a nice how-to guide on what types of things you should be paying to.

So I've been playing Into the Breach (thanks to when it was free on the Epic Store) and I feel like it scratches a similar itch as Scarlet Grace. They're both games where you pretty much know everything that'll happen in battle and so it's all about reacting to that, and sort of dismantling the opponents actions instead of just full on beating them up. And in each case it isn't so much that the gameplay gets deeper as you go on, but rather you slowly start figuring out how to take advantage of the systems already in place.

I mean, I don't really have anything smart to say, I just think they feel kinda similar and people who dig Into the Breach might want to at least look into this! And vice versa, I guess! They are both dummy good!

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I agree, I've been describing this game as a combination of Sunless Sea/Skies, Into the Breach, and Uncharted Waters (New Horizons), with a SaGa coat of mechanics. None of which are JRPGs, which is why I'm also hesitant to dump this game into the JRPG genre. Insofar as it has traditional RPG gameplay mechanis, they're mostly general RPG mechanics more than specific J formalisms.

 

[noyram23]

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WELL DESERVED

 

[Echizen]

IMO, don't stock up on things. You should just be spending as you go, because spending levels up blacksmithing and leveling up blacksmith will know low-tier crafting down to cost literally a single resource (of each type).

The best way to get materials is to be able to challenge Hard missions and/or do the side bonus objectives, especially ones that give you raw crystals. The bonus objectives are also a nice how-to guide on what types of things you should be paying to.



I agree, I've been describing this game as a combination of Sunless Sea/Skies, Into the Breach, and Uncharted Waters (New Horizons), with a SaGa coat of mechanics. None of which are JRPGs, which is why I'm also hesitant to dump this game into the JRPG genre. Insofar as it has traditional RPG gameplay mechanis, they're mostly general RPG mechanics more than specific J formalisms.

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I have been using the materials pretty quickly, which is why I need to farm some right now hahah. I'm at a point now where my smithing level is high enough to reforge a few new pieces of equipment, but I don't have nearly enough resources

 

[Deleted member 4090]

I have been using the materials pretty quickly which is why I need to farm some right now hahah. I'm at a point now where my smithing level is high enough to reforge a few new pieces of equipment, but I don't have nearly enough resources

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Well, the good news is that the game doesn't really punish grinding in any real way. On the Normal difficulty level, you want your Battle Rank to increase. In every character's game, unless you are doing the easiest version of Urpina's game, there's a big gap between when you can fight that and when you are actually ready for the final boss. So increasing your BR (and thus, all of your skills and levels, because your BR and max possibly skill level track along with it) is one of the things you generally do to prepare.

 

[DrROBschiz]

How exactly does the difficulty scaling work with number of encounters? I'm in the third province/area of Urpina's story and it seems like a good place to stock up on material for forging (which I really need at this point since I've made pretty aggressive use of blacksmiths and don't have a lot of the basic elements left), but I'm not sure if that would make things a lot more difficult later on

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Im no paying attention to it at all

Whatever advantages the enemies seem to get pale in comparison to the power increases and skill access i get

Plus there is probably a cap to how hard they can even possibly get. At the moment i have yet to hit a wall

 

[Echizen]

Well, the good news is that the game doesn't really punish grinding in any real way. On the Normal difficulty level, you want your Battle Rank to increase. In every character's game, unless you are doing the easiest version of Urpina's game, there's a big gap between when you can fight that and when you are actually ready for the final boss. So increasing your BR (and thus, all of your skills and levels, because your BR and max possibly skill level track along with it) is one of the things you generally do to prepare.

Click to shrink...

Im no paying attention to it at all

Whatever advantages the enemies seem to get pale in comparison to the power increases and skill access i get

Plus there is probably a cap to how hard they can even possibly get. At the moment i have yet to hit a wall

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Thanks y'all, sounds good!

 

[Annabel]

So I've been thinking of getting this game because of all the glowing praise it's been getting, but I'm curious if the combat really does take priority over exploration and side quests because that's kinda what I'm mainly looking for.

 

[Zippedpinhead]

So I started, and I have questions.

Am I supposed to target easy-normal at the beginning?
Is it normal for "hard" enemies to show up in the same area you start in?
Should I be trying to get unison attacks while trying to avoid "lonesome" coins that could give the enemies unison attacks?

 

[gazoinks]

So I started, and I have questions.

Am I supposed to target easy-normal at the beginning?
Is it normal for "hard" enemies to show up in the same area you start in?
Should I be trying to get unison attacks while trying to avoid "lonesome" coins that could give the enemies unison attacks?

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Also started recently, but:

1. That's up to you, really. I've found the difficulty markers somewhat unreliable, but a lot of hard is totally doable it's just... hard.
2. Yeah. Since the game's pretty non-linear, you'll generally be able to swing back around and take on stuff that was too hard the first time you entered the area.
3. Yep. That's kind of the core dynamic of the combat system.

 

[DrROBschiz]

So I've been thinking of getting this game because of all the glowing praise it's been getting, but I'm curious if the combat really does take priority over exploration and side quests because that's kinda what I'm mainly looking for.

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The side quests are actually far more interesting than i thought!

The non story ones are numerous and are a combination of choices, puzzle solving and other quirks. It doesn't hold your hand but most of it can be figured out naturally! The localization is quite good

Story has interesting options to with multiple playthroughs, branching paths, and other things

But the largest draw is definitely the combat, gear and so on. Absolutely amazing game

 

[Deleted member 4090]

3rd character done, no "meaningful" gameplay carry-over between runs. 25, 30, and 35 hours on the save files, roughly, but there's a lot of "lost" time due to having to reload. Overall, Balmaint's has been my favorite, followed by Leonard, then Urpina. I didn't really care for either of the Urpina leads, and so the writing generally felt flatter and less interesting.

I think I'm going to try Stronger modeon Taria, but I will use the NG+ stones as a safety valve.

Truly a phenomenal game. Heading into my fourth playthrough and there's still a lot to learn. I don't think there's been any RPG I've ever played that has been this elegantly balanced and deep.

 

[Yu Narukami]

How different are following playthroughs? Isn't it always Phoenix, Shards, Earth Snake and Siegfrey?

 

[deepFlaw]

Started earlier and played like 5 hours, I'm hooked. Playing Urpina, got to the third region (Hibernia?), recruited an axe-user and a mage with healing on the way.

I am starting to find some things pretty frustrating though. I think Urpina is still the only character with a tech that can directly delay enemies, which is making dealing with groups of strong enemies difficult. There's been a number of fights I had to reattempt several times before I won purely because there was no way to deal enough damage to the main enemy if I didn't get a Unison on every weaker enemy. Finally getting some stronger techs and status effects has helped make one or two characters surviving easier, but the positioning is still a problem, to avoid it getting to that point..

...I also find all the stats and equipment completely overwhelming in general so far. I have no idea who is better at what or who is actually stronger than the others. Especially when multiple people have techs that require a lot of BP, I can't tell which is going to be best to use across all of them.

Also. I somehow have like 300 of the terra/yellow/whatever crystals and only like 30 of all the others?? Which has scared me away from upgrading many items. That's probably not helping.

 

[Yu Narukami]

Started earlier and played like 5 hours, I'm hooked. Playing Urpina, got to the third region (Hibernia?), recruited an axe-user and a mage with healing on the way.

I am starting to find some things pretty frustrating though. I think Urpina is still the only character with a tech that can directly delay enemies, which is making dealing with groups of strong enemies difficult. There's been a number of fights I had to reattempt several times before I won purely because there was no way to deal enough damage to the main enemy if I didn't get a Unison on every weaker enemy. Finally getting some stronger techs and status effects has helped make one or two characters surviving easier, but the positioning is still a problem, to avoid it getting to that point..

...I also find all the stats and equipment completely overwhelming in general so far. I have no idea who is better at what or who is actually stronger than the others. Especially when multiple people have techs that require a lot of BP, I can't tell which is going to be best to use across all of them.

Also. I somehow have like 300 of the terra/yellow/whatever crystals and only like 30 of all the others?? Which has scared me away from upgrading many items. That's probably not helping.

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Are you using Nessa? She's really good at interrupting and poisening.