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General Chat / Re: What Games Are You Playing 2025: Leaving a digital footprint in the ether

« on: March 31, 2025, 12:48:03 AM »

Adventures in doubleposting:

Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Finished my replay of the game.

Case 3: I think this is the most overall solid case of the game. While the game suffers from the usual AAI2 problem of taking things a convolution too far (mostly way too many things would have had to happen immediately following the murder and somehow nobody noticed that TWO people were doing crazy plots then) that's about my only complaint. This is a case where every character's role is interesting, including the victim, with a particular shout-out to Judy being Dorothea's magnificent bastard turn. Also an extremely emotionally effective case between knowing how important this is to Gregory Edgeworth and everything that follows from that, knowing that someone was imprisoned for 18 years for a wrongful conviction and seeing the effects that has (perhaps a bigger indictment of Manfred and the AA justice system than anything previous the games had managed). Also has bonus Larry.

Case 4: And here's where the game starts unravelling. The core sequence of this case is ridiculous and unbelievable (convenient Kay amnesia, convenient Lotta fainting, Niedler somehow not knowing who is blackmailing her) and as such isn't very fun to unravel. Also the doctor/nurse combo is supposed to be a comic relief witness but isn't funny (particularly not funny: the doctor being SO OLD when she's nearly a decade younger than Excelsius, I guess because old women are very funny to Japan) Excelsius logic chess is kinda nonsensical, why on earth is this guy spilling his plans to Edgeworth knowing he's gonna face him the next day, I get that the answer is "arrogance" but I don't buy it. And in general Kay's amnesia making her super-defeatist gives the whole case more of a Phoenix vibe than an Edgeworth vibe, except that it reminds me of a bad Phoenix case, like 1-5. On the plus side, I think the last hour of the case is pretty good , and Gavelle's face turn is a great moment even if I wish the game had telegraphed or explained it a bit better.

Case 5: A case with some great highs that is also very stupid. Let's start with the bad:
-holy shit the convolutions. At one point Kay even hangs a lampshade at it. Multiple overlapping kidnapping plots, really? Or the mastermind being wrong about who his dad is.
-the physics of the murder are complete nonsense
-The storytelling feels amateur, the prime example being Kanis breaking out of prison to monologue to you at the perfect time
-twelve years ago murder mystery feels very superfluous to the case and makes it drag.
-body double is a terrible character and utterly unbelievable that nobody noticed he was a fake for twelve years
-assassin showdown which the game thinks is very cool. The very forced drama with Sean there is also silly. (It's funny, I remember disliking the character and had no idea why until that scene, which I'd blanked out.)

But despite that I still enjoy the case for more than most "bad" AA cases because...
-Eustace logic chess is a great moment, a very unexpected but effective way to end that particular mechanic
-While the actual plot involving kidnapping is a bit silly, the resulting lesson that the people working with the law are themselves human is important and poignant
-The mastermind is just a brilliant character. The confrontation with them is one of my absolute favourites - their animations, their arguments, their fakery (particular shoutout to when they fake "panic" when you reveal your recording of their conversation only to be the biggest smugsnake in the world when Edgeworth figures out they'd switched off the recording before saying anything incriminating), their role in the story as someone motivated by spite, rather than greed or lust for power like the standard AA major villain.
-Edgeworth affirming why he still wants to be a prosecutor, in light of that character, makes for a very effective sequence and ties up the themes of the game nicely.

Ultimately I think I rank the cases as 3 > 2 > 1 > 5 > 4.

Overall I think I appreciate this game a bit more than the first time around. Part of it is the better translation, part of it is that knowing to have low expectations for the actual plotting of later cases made me appreciate the things the game as a whole was doing well. I'm happy with all the major characters of the game (unless Lang counts; his role in this game was needless) and Edgeworth in particular remains such a joy as a protagonist.


Brigandine 2 - Beat a run of Mirelva on Hard Mode, since it was the only route I hadn't beaten on Hard Mode.

To spice things up I decided to look at the custom difficulty settings, and made the following tweaks:
-2x enemy exp gain
-2x enemy mana gain
-100% enemy quest rate
-defensive enemy AI

I'm not sure if the latter strictly makes the game harder or not. The enemy will actually make good use of the castle square on defence, which they don't really by default, but they can also be a bit too passive sometimes.

The other three though are good fun. In particular I really like double enemy exp and mana; the enemies have a tendency to fall behind in levels as the game goes on because they don't attack as much as you do; this addresses that. Double mana seems to mostly just mean the enemy doesn't implode if they're reduced to one castle, from what I can tell; it's not a huge impact. 100% quest I'm mixed on, it means the enemy will basically pilfer all the good quest knights, but it does mean they can get really good equipment (which you can then steal).

Regardless it was fun! Best knights were Stella, Tommy (you were right about this one, Super), Ratka, Sophie, Adieu, Pluto, and Umimaru. Not sure on the exact order, my kneejerk is that Ratka is the second best (she gets lots of magic pool and sniper is a cool class) though you could argue me on that one easily.

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General Chat / Re: What Games Are You Playing 2025: Leaving a digital footprint in the ether

« on: March 27, 2025, 09:31:26 PM »

Brigandine 2 - Mirelva playthrough on Hard, the last nation I haven't cleared on hard mode. Notes when I'm done.

Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Nearly done this as well

Fire Emblem Fates - Did an all-women run of Birthright Lunatic. I had to break the rules in the pre-split maps, but nothing in Birthright proper. I used Jakob in Chapter 2-3, Kaze in Chapter 5, and Ryoma in Chapter 6 (though the way that little map is set up, it's almost impossible to not use Ryoma). When I did a similar playthrough of Conquest Hard I was able to do Chapter 5 without Kaze, but he felt essential this time, that map really is tuned quite tightly.

As usual these stories are probably best told in unit notes, so here we go.

Corrin (284/182): Cavalier with +Strength, got the first heart seal to do Cavalier->Paladin. Cavalier is really good (Shelter) and no Birthright women have access to it. Definitely a solid contributor with great overall stats and mobility, only downside is the lack of good 1-2 range (although Kodachi+1 occasionally snagged some clutch one-hit-kills).

Rinkah (145/61): Gets off to a shaky start with her E rank in clubs (which are already a remarkably weak weapon type) but by Chapter 9-13 or so really gets rolling quite well with her durability making her a valuable contributor. That said the def-over-HP-and-offence sure declines in value thereafter, and also Scarlet is the same thing but better, mostly. Still, the great pairup stats and the fact that she supported three of my best combat units made her nice to have.

Azura (10/2): Dances. Great as always.

Sakura (31/23): Onmyoji. Competent magical damage but not exceptional, used staves and provided her usual defensive aura. Was my only healer for a long time so was actually one of my first promotions, but the exp gain certainly fell off after that and she did not reach Tomefaire.

Hana (148/105): Swordmaster. Unfortunately got a bit screwed on strength which takes away most of her niche, obviously she still had incredible attack and situationally good evasion so could still player-phase-nuke some things.

Orochi (172/115): Honestly pretty great. Yes, her only super-high stat is magic, but that goes a long way, it turns out. With the option of Horse Spirit and various pairup partners (Sakura for offence, Rinkah for durability, Oboro for a balance) she provided essential enemy-phase sweeping at 1-2 range in the difficult lategame maps, probably the second best unit at this. Earlier she's less impressive relatively but eh, having magic damage is still very helpful for certain enemies.

Mozu (107/71): Stayed as villager for a while but eventually went over to Kinshi Knight. Considering how good her stats are supposed to be I did wish her atk and bulk were better, but she was still decent enough; Kinshi Knight is a really neat class that can troubleshoot a lot of problems.

Setsuna (101/80): Vanilla Sniper build. Pretty good offence thanks to yumi might and Quick Draw, but the lower str did catch up with her as time went on and enemy bulk got higher and higher. Plus she's squishy. Still, decent enough. Spent a lot of time as Hana's support buddy, both are competent but problematic so they could often handle different things with each other's help.

Hinoka (148/83): Kinshi Knight->Spearmaster. A bit of a late-bloomer on this run. Early stat gains weren't great so she was still useful but not as good as she sometimes is. By promotion I got her an A+ support with Setsuna which let her pick up Quick Draw so she blossomed into having rather excellent player phase offence, if lacking at 1-2. Then lategame she goes to Spearmaster and her stats just overall rule at everything (except 1-2, again, though hey Bolt Naginata works for gauge build of needed).

Oboro (91/48): She sure does exist. When my unit count briefly exceeded the deplyoment count midgame she was often the one benched. There are some cool lances but I had too many other lance users for her to really stand out. Mostly a support partner for others later.

Kagero (164/135): Really good, likely the MVP of the run. In a world with no Ryoma, someone has to try to be Ryoma, and Kagero was certainly the best bet on this run. Once she got rolling she could basically one-round everything except wyverns at 1-2 range (armours eat sting shuriken, dual shuriken allows full control) while having good evasion. Compared to Ryoma she doesn't have the perfect answer to bow knights he does (nobody on my team did) and the lower HP means I had to be more careful, but she could still thin out entire dangerous groups of enemies using pairup, and had silly damage for bosses thanks to getting overlevelled and having Shurikenfaire. Unfortunately she was also my only unit with Locktouch, which was at times distracting but certainly cements her MVP status. Ninjas good.

Reina (65/50): Take my Mozu notes above, give her better atk (though no Quick Draw makes it close enough on player phase), better bow rank, and requiring zero effort instead of a bunch. Very solid contributor, didn't do anything fancy with her and she didn't dominate, but one of the best in her early maps in particular.

Scarlet (42/31): Flying Rinkah with a strength stat and lance access. Plenty to like, though often she got tied up in pairup duty (particular to Corrin) since the stats she gives are so valuable. Again, nothing fancy done with her, but she was good.

Felicia (35/25): Strategist for early Inspiration as always. Too bad Demoiselle is useless. Her combat wasn't great but it didn't need to be.

Daniella (?/?): The boss of Chapter 14, captured and made to do my bidding. She's just another strategist, but didn't get anywhere near Level 15 needed for inspriation. Still, her stats are fine (nice HP, iffy otherwise) and she joins with an A in staves on 8 move so she's perfectly competent filler.

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General Chat / Re: What Games Are You Playing 2025: Leaving a digital footprint in the ether

« on: March 09, 2025, 05:41:44 AM »

Unicorn Overlord - Beaten on True Zenoiran.

Enemy stats are a bit higher and this does matter at points. Permadeath is also a looming threat. You get loads of Hallowed Corne Ash (I got somewhere like 40 over the course of the game, and you can buy more) so the end result is you CAN afford to lose units, but you try very very hard not to. Interestingly Alain is immune to permadeath, he recovers automatically after the battle, so he's Peter rather than Bowie.

Overall though the item limit is the biggest change. At only five per map you have to ration them well. This also makes the more powerful, expensive items more important relatively; I'm not gonna waste an item on ST healing in any fight outside the real short ones. Wind Fairie Charms (to restore projected outcomes), the stronger hourglasses, and tents are probably the most valuable, though the strong revival and MT healing items are certainly solid too.

My star characters/classes were, in no particular order: Josef, Alain, Virginia, Rosalinde, Berengaria, Cavalry, Griffon Riders, Saint Knights, Witches, Shamans. I doubt anything on this list comes as a surprise.

Snowfire mentioned that Bastorias was a step up on challenge, and on my first run I didn't really think so, but now I see it? I suspect on my first playthrough Bastorias just coincided with the point of the game I got good enough at unit-building to start steamrolling, but it put up more of a fight this time (at least the first half or so). More generally, a few of the short fights gained a bit more teeth in this mode, especially later in the game. The final boss is also kinda tricky because the combined power of the six bosses is relatively nasty with their TZ-level stats, even knowing the secret tools this time. Nothing too bad though, I don't believe I ever actually reset a fight. Challenge runs sometime? Maybe!

I do wish the game where a bit shorter, even skipping most scenes I got to 56 hours. That'd come down some if I started skipping all combat animations (I generally skip ones which are stomps, or repetitive, but watch ones where I'm struggling to figure out what's going wrong, and bosses because I enjoy the feel of drama even if I know how it's gonna end).


Fire Emblem Fates - At the end of an all-women run of Birthright Lunatic. Has been a blast. Details when I finish.


Ace Attorney Investigations 2 - Replay, playing the official version. Having a good time, have cleared the first two cases so far.

Case 1: I always enjoyed this first case and did this time, too. The killer is both fun and remarkably canny. My biggest complaint is that this case feels like it rarely actually lets you come up with the clever deductions yourself. Like figuring out that you defeat the killer's gambit by checking a certain unintuitive something(s) for fingerprints is very clever, I wish they'd let me think about it myself before the plot reveals it for me.

Case 2: This is a solid case that I think gets even better with a better understanding of the whole game. The new major recurring rivals and pseudo-rivals (Gavelle, Eustace, and Fender) are all fun, and every case-specific character feels nicely relevant. I like that Edgeworth is allowed to form some very wrong theories! My biggest complaint is that this case is too long, although I understand that this is partly just a result of the thing I just praised. It's complicated.

The official translation is definitely an improvement. Gavelle and Fender both work better with a bit more bite, I think, and the script is funnier, which is a big deal for me. No shade on the fan translation; they absolutely did a good job, and I fully understand how some of the differences might just be a result of the fan translators (rightly) wanting to be more conservative. But I think the new script is helping me enjoy the game more.

Or maybe it's just that I haven't yet reached the cases I wasn't a big fan of the first time out. We'll see!

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RPGDL Discussion / Re: Division Ranking Algorithm: The Final Frontier

« on: March 09, 2025, 04:48:22 AM »

Ooh, this is a very cool read! I kinda toyed around with the idea of something vaguely like this... probably around two decades ago, during the RPGmon days, so kudos to you for actually doing it. Sounds like a lot of work.

All sorts of random thoughts:

-Are there any places where you think the results you got are essentially "wrong", or do you generally trust the results more than your intuition? I'm very skeptical about Vinsfeld being that high, because I just can't hardly ever see him champing a Middle field, though I do agree he's probably a touch underrated historically. Dehuai's another one that jumped off your list to me as "wait, what?". There's no world where he should be above Ghaleon, and that's speaking as someone who views Ghaelon as a slug in a CTB sense. Speaking of which, Ghaleon and Royce also obviously shouldn't be in the exact same place; it's interesting that they never faced anyone who differentiated them (even if you view their offence as effectively identical, surely Ghaleon's significantly higher HP should tilt some fights).

-The lesson about "complete packages" is also an important one. The most memorable example for me is still Rika, who a lot of us (including me) at first thought was borderline H/G material (at best?). And it makes sense, because she's a got a H/G-borderline-level buffing/healing game and a also very fast ID, which is also is often enough to get someone to H/G. It wasn't until later that we figured out that the two strategies are effective against very different types of opponents and it's the combination that pushes her to straight G. Another good example of being a more complete package is status immunities being far more valuable to folks who are hard to defeat with damage (e.g. good healers/buffers or just people who are already very durable). Giving status immunities to someone

-I'm still a bit surprised that Tim is that good though. To some extent almost all the Brig 2 fighters are a bit higher than I'd have guessed, and I'm not sure if I'm underrating them or if you scale them in a nicer way than I would (monsters in the averages?), but yeah I would have assumed Tim's lack of status resistance or overwhelming durability combined with lack of answer for durable bosses starts losing him a bunch of fights in the upper half of Heavy. Maybe not!

-The idea of holding move rarity against bosses is interesting. One thing I've toyed around with is punishing bosses with rare moves more if there's a valid in-game reason for them to use others. Like... if a boss has a move that does 80% ST which is relatively rare, it would matter to me what the boss is doing otherwise. If most of their other turns are taken up with 40% MT, or status moves, that's fine! There are valid reasons for the boss to fight that way. But if most of their other turns are 40% ST, then I start to wonder if there is a reason they don't use the move more (e.g. it's secretly a random activation on an otherwise weaker attack, similar to a crit). But I think your way sounds pretty elegant.
One place I might disagree with you though is that in general, the harsher I get on boss AI, the more I'd want to dial down how much I scale their HP. I've long been of the view that "being nice to their AI, for simplicity reasons" (i.e. not knowing the probability of the moves) is one of boons bosses get in exchange for losing a lot of their HP.

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Discussion / Re: Theorycrafting! (Because I like competitive metagames too much)

« on: February 16, 2025, 11:07:49 PM »

Somehow I didn't notice this earlier. Yay FFT! Pretty good list, I agree with most of it.

My biggest disagreement is that I think Ramza is too low. I have had vanishingly few playthroughs where I felt Agrias was better than him. Sure, he's just doing something any generic could do, but with a few caveats:
-"generic who joins at the start of the game" is already one of the best characters. You placed Rad/Alicia/Lavian in 5th place, even though they miss out on a chapter's worth of skill acquisition, so surely Chapter 1 generics are notably better.
-Ramza starts with 70 brave/faith and the player's choice of zodiac sign. To put it in perspective, this exact setup is the 1 in 10000 holy grail that we're looking for when hiring generics in the soldier office.
-Ramza's androgynous PA/MA means he excels in any build which either plans to make use of both stats, or even spends time in classes which would normally penalize generics. For example, a female samurai will be significantly worse than Ramza will working through Knight and Monk.
-Ramza's squire class is an incredible carrier in Chapter 4 for just about anything, with access to Excalibur/other knight swords and all sorts of other equipment plus generally decent stats (only wizard opens up a meaningful lead in MA really). The synergy of Scream and Excalibur is also very good.
-Speaking of Scream, Ramza has uniquely good methods to raise brave; a 97% reaction is considerably more reliable than a 70% one, never mind if you use attacks which key off of the stat.

I find him vs. Orlandu will really depend on what you value (Orlandu's value is higher the less you know about the game, and also the faster you go through it I'd imagine), but I can't see him below second really.

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General Chat / Re: What Games Are You Playing 2025: Leaving a digital footprint in the ether

« on: January 26, 2025, 05:35:49 PM »

Kitsune Tails - Beat the aftergame. The aftergame has eight stages; the first four are just standard "hard platform stages", good fun though. The last four are straight-up Kaizo stuff. It says something that I enjoyed the game enough to conquer them, though not without literally hundreds of tries. Very enjoyable game, highly recommended to anyone who likes Mario, extra recommended to anyone who likes Mario but wishes is it had more women/queer people/fox people/Japanese mythology.

Final Fantasy 6 - Beat the Pixel Remaster. With half exp, most of my best characters were around Level 30-33, with some of the less-used folk being even lower. That said I know the game well enough that I mostly didn't have too many problems (the last few bosses are scary of course), with notable resets against Level 90 Magic and a Tonberry.

The Pixel Remaster version is overall pretty cool. I haven't played anything between SNES/PSX and this so I'm sure some of these changes were in GBA:
-Gameplay: I liked that the bugs all appear fixed (yay, Swordbreaker and Beads have a purpose now) but otherwise that the game was overall very faithful. I liked the addition of the sliders for exp/AP/gil which really let you customize your game experience. Rage having a 75% chance instead of 50% chance to use the signature move is a good change though. Some of the really slow-to-animate spells were made significantly faster, notably Flare and Ultima. I actually used Flare a lot this playthrough; it's a good spell but it was rarely enough better than the L3s to justify watching its slow animation IMO, now it is! My main complaint is that the Rage menu still sucks ass in 2025 and there's no reason they couldn't have fixed it either by adding a description of what special ability it uses or at least alphabetizing it.
-Translation: Retranslating all the monsters is stupid; I hate having to learn all the names again. Otherwise it feels pretty lateral? Some lines are clear improvements (the most notable one being the schedules of the Phantom Train being blank now having a good explanation). There's one Ultros line which stands out as a bad change, but otherwise I'm fine with it.
-Music: They took an already good soundtrack and made it even better. Highlights include the Falcon theme getting a second, more boisterous variation, and the opera songs now having actual voice acting instead of tinny SNES voices.

Unicorn Overlord - Started a replay on True Zenoiran. I'm enough better at the game that the earlygame has not acutally felt harder, but I can definitely see where the five-item limit will be an issue down the line. Just got Yahna.

Baldur's Gate 3 - Beat up a necromancer, getting near the end of Act 2!

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Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2024 Finals and Rankings!!

« on: January 17, 2025, 03:02:18 PM »

Godlike

Reicher Wallace (Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy) vs Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII): There's a chance Sephiroth could bring enough offence before the timed cards really start doing horrible things, but I think he falls short; with that shield considered, Reicher is actually pretty durable.

Heavy

Myuria Tionysus (Star Ocean: The Last Hope) vs Strawman (Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road): Confuse and Death are both things Myuria can't block, so Tomato Bomb followed by Falcon Swoop works.

Middle

Red Mage (Final Fantasy V) vs Merrin (Fire Emblem Engage): Dualcast Sleep does the trick. Merrin probably has enough magic evade for the first sleep to miss, to me, but not both. Incidentally, the stat topic should really have the status accuracy/evade formula - I'll add it later if I remember.

Light

Cecil Harvey (Final Fantasy IV) vs Canopus Wolph (Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together): Cecil's biggest advantage over Viktor is the healing which isn't really relevant here as Canopus just gets more time for a mean finisher.

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General Chat / Re: What Games Are You Playing 2025: Leaving a digital footprint in the ether

« on: January 14, 2025, 03:09:23 AM »

Mega Man 9, 10, 11, X1, X8 - Finished up the revisit to the series (which previously included MM1-5 and 8). Was fun! This series of replays had convinced me I was underrating Mega Man 10 a bit; in my old ratings I had it below 1/4/5 but now I'm not so sure! The design sensibility is pretty good. By comparison, I kinda feel Mega Man X1 really hasn't aged very well; some things take ludicrous numbers of hits to defeat with the buster and the stage design is bad (though I've always been strongly of the opinion on that one). Still has some fun bosses to be sure, but it was enough to make us skip straight to X8 (which is still pretty great, on the other hand).

Kitsune Tails - Beat the maingame. Basically "what if SMB3 had an actual story with strong LGBTQ+ themes", which is to say it's been a great time.

Final Fantasy 6 Pixel Remaster - About an hour in (right before reaching Vargas) I discovered the "boost" options which let you set exp/AP/gil gains to whatever multiplier you want. So I immediately set things to 0.5x exp, which meant I still had the earlygame levels to not make FF6's shockingly competent earlygame bosses even better, but the game should maintain challenge better in the face of someone who knows the game well. I got the Falcon at Level 20, so mission accomplished I guess. Having a good time, have done Mt. Zozo / Veldt Cave / Jidoor so far in the World of Ruin.

Baldur's Gate 3 - Got to Moonrise Towers. Feels like I'm getting steadily more into this game. It's obviously doing something right in that I'm over 40 hours in now but I'm not yet feeling the "are we done yet" feel I usually get with games of this length.

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Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2024 Week 4

« on: January 08, 2025, 05:18:36 AM »

Godlike

Reicher Wallace (Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy) vs Myria (Breath of Fire III): Myria probably kills in roughly 6 hits, and she's just shy of a 6-5 so that's five Reicher turns, plus a bunch of timed cards. Reicher should be able to do around 7PCHP damage in that time, which is enough.
Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII) vs T260G (SaGa Frontier): A bit surprised to be the first vote this way, since gravity is something T2 fears. Sephiroth is faster, and wins with Fly -> Super Nova -> Break. So T2 gets two turns, and the best she can do with them is Hyper Blaster + Magnify which is around 1.3 PC. I definitely see Sephiroth as higher than that. Actually, it's probably even worse, Sephiroth can just open with Wall and tank V-MAX + two Cosmic Raves which is only 1.12 PCHP (assuming T2 can get away with a power-over-speed setup and not eat a double in there, which is not a given).

Heavy

Throné (Octopath Traveler II) vs Myuria Tionysus (Star Ocean: The Last Hope): Throne has pretty good turn 1 damage for an Octopath character, but thar's damning with faint praise, and Myuria wins when she gets a turn since she isn't trying to use physicals.
Sienna (Chained Echoes) vs Strawman (Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road): Presumably instant death spam does its thing.

Middle

Estelle Bright (Trails in the Sky FC) vs Red Mage (Final Fantasy V): Doublecasting Toad is always a little risky because two hits is the same as a miss, but Toad + something else (Sleep? Mini? Not sure on Estelle's blocker situation) should be enough.
Chrom (Fire Emblem Awakening) vs Merrin (Fire Emblem Engage): Mostly just copying Snowfire math here.

Light

Lucius (Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade) vs Canopus Wolph (Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together): Yeah sure, even the Baldur Bow could usually outrange spells iirc, so I'm down for hyping Canopus's range. Canopus honestly might win even without this, since he 2HKOs and Lucius only 3HKOs.

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Discussion / Re: 2024 Gaming in Review

« on: January 05, 2025, 10:05:38 PM »

No bad games this year. No amazing ones either. But overall a year I am happy with.

5. Monster Hunter Rise (Switch, Capcom, 2021)

I'm not really sure if it was a good idea for me to play this, because for whatever reason 3D action games of this sort are something I've had trouble getting into for quite a few years now (notably I haven't even tried to play Bayonetta 3 or Devil May Cry 5). But I did, and I... finished it? I think? It's a game you can basically play forever but I certainly got to the credits and played it for around 30 hours so I think I'd say I finished it.

Anyway it's a 3D action game. Specifically, it's a 3D action game designed by folks who think boss fights against dramatic-looking large monsters are by far the coolest thing about 3D action games and y'know what, I can't fault that logic. There are plenty of boss-like monsters who have fun individual patterns to learn and counter. This is fun! I liked meeting the new monsters (complete with their very goofy introductory videos) and overcoming them. I don't really like the lack of health bars but you get visible HP damage at least so you know what's working and what isn't. I do think fights tend to be a bit longer than I'd like, but when they're basically all the game has (aside from a little exploring, but there are relatively few environments) it's probably better to err on this side than making them too short.

Ultimately though what prevented me from getting into this game more is that its long-term gameplay kinda seems to all about beating these same bosses over and over again to get steadily cooler gear and that's just not something I can get into. It feels like it'd be an incredibly grindy game to play for much longer than I did. I totally get why that's some people's thing, but it's not mine. I don't think I ever found upgrading gear to be anything but a chore to remind myself to periodically do between missions lest I end up feeling too weak.

Certainly a good game and I get why someone would be really into it, but for me it ends up as decent.

4. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (Steam, Rabbit & Bear, 2024)

Well, here we are, the long-awaited new Suikoden. The serial numbers are filed off and it's in a new world but that's hard to argue with that's what it is. It's not one of the better Suikodens. It's very easy to compare with Tierkreis which I replayed last year and notice that yeah the story is just not as good, and "Suikoden with a story that's only decent" is never gonna threaten to be an amazing game.

That said it's pretty competent. The story is decent, the game adds a much-needed coat of polish to the Suikoden norm, and the game's challenge level is in a pretty good place for a story-focused game (at least on hard, which I played): competent but rarely going to bog you down for long, because that's not the main reason to play. Like any good Suikoden there are some key sections where you use more than six people so you're rewarded for trying out various PCs you get.

It's a frustrating game because goodness some of its characters have some major potential and the game doesn't really make good on them. I can see the path to this being a truly worth successor to Suikoden 2/3/5 and it's just obviously not there. For that reason alone I'm confident in saying it's the objectively weakest game I played this year, but I still think it's pretty decent, and y'know "Suikoden, but the encounter design is more thoughtful" is something I am kinda the target audience for.

3. Baldur's Gate 3 (Steam, Larian, 2023)

I'm only halfway through this one, so the position is tentative. That said I've watched more or less the entire game so I know all the story beats.

I really respect this game! It feels like it's trying to drag WRPGs back on track after literal decades of the big ones flirting with terrible real-time systems or being first-person shooters. Yes, folks, it's an unabashed turn-based RPG. Also it just sold a bazillion copies, can we finally admit that there's a market for these still? Square Enix I am talking to you.

And the characters are basically all great! My lovely little balls of trauma. They all have really interesting backstories which really inform what they do in the present and they get some very cool questlines (which can end in very different ways!). They have wonderful voice acting too.

And the game is just really unabashedly progressive, great for representation, and the battle system is pretty fun when it's not tripping over itself... there's just a lot to like here. The game deserves all the credit it gets.

That said it's quite frustrating to actually play. Oh, to be sure, sometimes you get a battle which feels great, the way a good D&D combat does. And sometimes you get one which feels incredibly poorly balanced because of what you did to trigger it (in either direction! I've had deeply anticlimactic major fights as well as encounters where I got ambushed and killed before I could reasonably do anything). And sometimes the game just seems to not work properly (on several occasions I've been "out of range" for a melee attack but too close to an enemy to attack them with a ranged weapon, which is impossible in 5e rules). And almost everything the game does involving floor damage and traps is just deeply unfun (with extra demerits for how my allies will randomly just walk into them when not in battle! Like WTF, how did that get out of beta?). There's also a whole bunch of frustrations involving how annoying switching party members or inventory management is. My kingdom for SNES-level JRPG polish.

I keep hoping I'll reach a point where I'm not bothered by the game's jank any more and if that ever happens I could see this game shooting up this list, but for now this is where it lands.

2. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (Switch, Square Enix, 2023)

The best Theatrhythm fairly clearly, and I already really enjoy these games.

There's not too much specific to say about it. It's a rhythm game featuring Final Fantasy music (with plenty of non-FF Square Enix music as DLC, such as Chrono, Xeno, Saga, Nier, etc.). It's a game where you can very much find the difficulty you like; the hardest settings are pretty brutal. The RPG elements are fun, feeling relevant for certain game modes I found enjoyable but no longer act as a grinding bottleneck to unlock characters.

There's only so high I want to rate a game with no story and this style of gameplay, and there's only so much to talk about with it. But I had a lot of fun with this one.

1. Unicorn Overlord (Switch, Vanillaware, 2024)

Very fun game. It's far from perfect and it's relatively weak for a game I've had top one of these lists, but there's so much to like about the game that I don't begrudge its place in the top spot this year.

Ogre Battle and Soul Nomad were both games with similar squad-based gameplay but I can't say I really thought about how I assembled squads in those games, just throw good units together and it tended to work out. Unicorn Overlord, by contrast, really wants you do watch the battles, notice what works and what doesn't, and tinker. And boy does it ever give you lots of ways to tinker. The unit types have clearly defined niches in both offensive and defensive ways, there are detailed AI settings so you can get what you want of your units, and there's lots of interesting equipment to add a further layer of customization. There's a map layer of things which isn't exciting relatively but works pretty well too, for the most part. The overall battle design is a bit scattershot and not quite as tight as I'd like for a gameplay-focused game, but the core system is so addictive and so open that maybe it had to be this way.

The game's strengths aren't limited to battles. The graphics are lovely (the environments, the gorgeous and detailed sprites, the animations, you name it), the music is enjoyable, the voice acting is great, etc.

I just wish the story was better. The game is a love letter to Fire Emblem but unfortunately where story is concerned that's really just "old Fire Emblem" and that was never gonna be very engaging. There are support — er, sorry, rapport — conversations and I appreciate those in principle but they're mostly pretty dull. If the game had been better on this front it could have been truly great.

But overall it's still just a lot of fun, and is (for now) my favourite game of 2024.

11

Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2024 Week 3

« on: December 30, 2024, 02:51:45 PM »

Hmm I really thought faster PCs went first more often but I dunno for sure. Should be easy enough to test. Certainly I remember Throne's passive being the difference between "randoms are competent" and "randoms all die before doing anything" but that might just be the offence and then confirmation bias about the speed, though.

12

Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2024 Week 3

« on: December 30, 2024, 05:41:43 AM »

Godlike

Elvis (Wild ARMs 5) vs Reicher Wallace (Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy): Pretty strong kneejerk that they're just different tiers of Godlike.
Rubicante (Final Fanasy IV) vs Myria (Breath of Fire III): Rubi's around 3.6 PC to me, Myria around 5.4. Rubicant's big problem is being weak to ice, so Myria can do 1.33, killing him in three hits. No way he outraces that. If he closes the cape she uses Sirocco instead doing just 0.5, so Myria needs five of those. Rubi thus gets four turns of physicals which do... yeah nowhere near enough.
Alain (Unicorn Overlord) vs Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII): More flyin'. Pale Horse works for me, too.

Heavy

Throné (Octopath Traveler II) vs Clarissa Arwin (Wild ARMs XF): Throne's probably at or near the TB speed cap, and she can nuke well over half of Clarissa's HP with her opening turn, so I have to think she can pull it out from there. EDIT: Hmm, no, probably not that fast. Including Throne's speed boost in the speed average (at least for her) makes the mean 324 and the standard deviation 100, so she clocks in at +2.09, and I would generally take the SDs of Octopath 2 lower than advertised. But... that's less necessary now that the SD has gone from 58 to 100, honestly. If I double the normal SD to ~116, Throne still clocks in at around +1.8 which honestly feels fair, "way way faster than everyone else in this random system to the point where you'd definitely notice it" is often around there. And that's still faster than Clarissa to me.

Middle

Estelle Bright (Trails in the Sky FC) vs Warlock (Suikoden IV): I think?
Merrin (Fire Emblem Engage) vs Sonya (Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia): Sounds right.

Light

Elie (Suikoden II) vs Canopus Wolph (Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together): Another rando S2 physical fighter against Canopus, surely meets the same fate.


Data Mine

I've played these:

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
Unicorn Overlord

There's a few more I'm thinking about playing, certainly!

13

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: December 29, 2024, 08:42:28 PM »

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Beat Hard Mode. Competent fights towards the end but I'm so much better at the game now.

Baldur's Gate 3 - Finally in honest-to-god Act 2. The boss fight in the Githyanki Creche was pretty nasty.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Doing a goofy random run, near the end!

Mega Man 1,2,3,4,5,8 - Played through all of these with Amy. Went through stages in a random order and have tried to use energy tanks as little as possible. Lots of fun!

14

Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2024 Week 2

« on: December 23, 2024, 05:14:02 AM »

Godlike

Velius (Final Fantasy Tactics) vs Alain (Unicorn Overlord): Petrify.
Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII) vs Rudo (Brigandine: Legend of Runseria): Even if you somehow see Sephiroth as frail enough to be OHKOed, he's faster and can fly.
T260G (SaGa Frontier) vs Delphi (Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road): I feel like if there were Holly or Protea I might need to look things up to be sure, but surely smashcan is too much for the younger sisters.

Heavy

Ike (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance) vs Sienna (Chained Echoes): MLM vs WLW hostility here. First off it's worth mentioning that Human Slayer isn't listed in Sienna's damage figures in the stat thread. Assuming neither side doubles here. Sienna can frustrate Ike with Shadowstep which grants her 3 evades on average. The problem is most of her stuff triggers counters, and she doesn't have the TP to sustain a slow win with her MT moves. So I think the play is... Shadowstep, X-Slash, Shadowstep, Dragonfang, Dragonfang? She has the TP for that, and six evades deals with the four Ike turns and two counters she faces. Two Dragonfangs, an X-Slash, and four shots of Bleed is over 2PCHP damage... yeah, more than enough to win without taking a hit, and that's assuming Sienna never gets a CTB double which tbh is unlikely.
Oerba Yun Fang (Final Fantasy XIII) vs Strawman (Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road): While Fang can resist death, there's a stat hit, and Strawman can always lead with confuse and blind before fishing for death, which will still hit eventually. Strawman getting the first turn here is definitely a big advantage.

Middle

Serenoa Wolffort (Triangle Strategy) vs Merrin (Fire Emblem Engage): Serenoa 2HKOs but Merrin goes first and doubles and 2RKOs herself and counters.
Hahn Marley (Phantasy Star IV) vs Sonya (Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia): Yeah she probably reduces Elim to turn 2 and that's that.

Light

Lucius (Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade) vs Vessel (Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark): Uh yeah, Lucius 2HKOs before Vessel does... well, anything. "doesn't even get a meaningful turn against anyone with average speed and 33% damage" is pretty terrible! I guess Hallowed Soul might buff their resistance enough to survive one turn which but I don't think Vessel can win with one turn anyway.
Viktor (Suikoden II) vs Canopus Wolph (Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together): Canopus has just enough pdur to make Viktor's 3HKO absolutely borderline. Best case scenario is that Viktor still 3HKOs, but in that case Canopus has no reason to keep the shield, so he goes bow + axe. He's faster, so he attacks twice, gets two counters, then uses Dark Weight (easily hitting 100 TP by now), which is 1.88 damage, well past even Viktor's competent pdur.

15

Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2024 Week 1

« on: December 21, 2024, 06:21:08 PM »

Godlike

Avlora (Triangle Strategy) vs Elvis (Wild ARMs 5): Avlora just doesn't seem that impressive to me? Really depends on where you set the boss form's HP I suppose and that's a headache. But... Elvis probably better.
Reicher Wallace (Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy) vs Amalia (Unicorn Overlord): This is probably closer than it has any right to be because Amalia is so good against physicals, but the turn split is just SO massive and break is gonna land and that likely disables guard skills so that's probably enough.
Myria (Breath of Fire III) vs Dinah (Unicorn Overlord): Some status or other.

Heavy

Maya Schroedinger (Wild ARMs 3) vs Throné (Octopath Traveler II): Debuff attack, debuff defence, OHKO the limit boss.
Clarissa Arwin (Wild ARMs XF) vs Corrin (Fire Emblem Fates): She has the damage for this to me pretty easily, Sacrifice is borderline OHKO. And like... the arguments that it isn't tend to be rather blatantly unfair to Clarissa by saddling her with a much worse weapon than everyone else gets. If you're actually grinding everyone else up to +8 weapons or whatever you can grind Clarissa to Elementalist Level 3 and she'll have an even bigger damage adavantage than any version of the stat topic gives her, because yes Sacrifice is that good.
Tidus (Final Fantasy X) vs Myuria Tionysus (Star Ocean: The Last Hope): This entirely comes down to if Iceproof stops freeze. Tidus blitzing is good enough to 4HKO but Myuria is fast enough to get a turn before Tidus's fourth QH, so will get off Ice Needles->Deep Freeze. But Tidus can block ice. And I don't know if that would block an attached status... in either game, actually.

Middle

Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII) vs Estelle Bright (Trails in the Sky FC): I'm not sure exactly how I take starting SP but I don't think it matters here, "can burst damage at will" is gonna beat "limit fighter".
Warlock (Suikoden IV) vs Mu'ah (Brigandine: Legend of Runeseria): See Jo'ou.
Red Mage (Final Fantasy V) vs Hodrick (Unicorn Overlord): Hodrick is basically just a physical spoiler.

Light

Cecil Harvey (Final Fantasy IV) vs Kanone Amalthea (Trails in the Sky FC): Not much to say here.

16

Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2024 Noms!!!

« on: December 15, 2024, 10:35:28 PM »

Ranked: Myria (BoF3), Nailah (FE10), Tetri (MK2), Rika (PS4), Lenneth (VP), Charlton (XF)
Not Ranked: Nene (BlDr), Phantom (BD2), Spiritmaster (BD2), Satanail (SO4), Kaguya (SRTOGSEF) Elvis (WA5)

Ranked: Ayla (CT), Marcello (DQ8), Wakka (FFX), Starmie (PKMN), Edna (SH3), Percival (S3)
Not Ranked: Sienna (CE), Cthulhu (CSC), Rabbid Luigi (MRKB), Throné (8PT2), Berenice (UO), Virginia (UO)

Ranked: Tifa (FF7), Lightning (FF13), L'Arachel (FE8), Tharja (FEA), Lysithea (FE3H), Jessica (Lunar1)
Not Ranked: Della (Brig2), Niles (FEF), Chloe (FEE), Merrin (FEE), Bowser (MR2:SoH), Nightburn (WA5)

Ranked: Karn (BoF1), Cray (BoF4), Lucius (FE7), Ronfar (Lunar2), Oulan (S2), Chu-Chu (XG)
Not Ranked: Lenne (CE), Mender (FS), Azura (FEF), Reimi (SO4), Canopus (TO), Tin Man (WoO)

17

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: December 05, 2024, 12:49:33 AM »

Baldur's Gate 3 - At the end of Act 1 now. I wanna be Level 5! Truly this game captures the all-important D&D feel of obsessing over how cool the next level will be and wondering why the cruel DM hasn't let me level up to reach it yet. Floor-based damage is still bad.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Hard Mode. I guess this is for people who spam items or are really good; I'm certainly not the former and am still working on the latter. The first boss was crazy hard and the second wasn't much better, but since then it's settled into a more reasonable feel for the game, i.e. harder than Normal but in general by greater skill with the game can close the gap. Plenty of resets on Bloodless, Alfred (who got a substantial buff), and the sorcery lab -> fire cave sequence. Stuff I've gained appreciation for: Welcome Company, some directional shards (True Arrow early, Bolide Blast more recently), MP regen food, guns (mostly they just wrecked Craftwork after I thought he'd be a third consecutive hellish earlygame boss). Just got Invert.

Fire Emblem Fates - Beat Lunatic Conquest. This is the second time I've done this, and the first I've done it without losing a lot of people on the final map.

So the thing to understand is that the final map is silly. Probably overtuned, certainly overtuned when considering you have to do another (admittedly relatively short/easy) map before it without saving between. So using the knowledge of "Rescue and Pass lets you set up a quick kill" and "Samurai talent lets Corrin stack Life and Death with Swordfaire on the Yato which ignores half the final boss's damage reduction" I came up with a plan to one-round the final boss. (You need 78 attack and to double. 4 from Rally Strength, 15 from the aforementioned skills, 7 from Wyvern Gunter pairup, 2 from tonics, 19 from Yato and A swords yields a reasonable 31 str, and I additionally had Outdoor Fighter. There are other details like needing enough bulk to survive a Vengeance proc and reaching 29 speed before rally+tonic). Further to this strategy I captured both the rally dude in Takumi's map and a Falconknight with Pass in Hinoka's to use Rescue.

Final map aside (which tbh is a bit silly, if satisfying), the rest of the game is just generally super fun. Every map is recognizable from Hard with the same enemy stats, but a couple key improvements (extra reinforcements or new enemy skills) increase the amount of attention you need to pay. I was constantly sitting there planning out turns.

Notable units:
-Corrin was +Str/-Skl. Default class until 20/5, then Swordmaster until 15, then Master of Arms and finally Paladin. Kinda all about the final boss kill. Overall not too notable a unit before then, solid offence but a bit squishy.
-Effie was definitely the MVP of the (pre-Camilla) earlygame and remained real good thereafter. I went General for Wary Fighter but she did well on speed so perhaps I shouldn't have bothered (I forgot to set it on maps where it'd be useful again late i.e. Ryoma's map, oops). Then Great Knight. Outstanding str and def.
-Niles was vanilla Bow Knight. Was usually paired with Camilla since she gives him str and he gives her speed, relationship goals there. Niles could one-round frailer enemies (notably including ninjas, eventually getting Shruikenbreaker), was mobile and evasive. Lots to like.
-Camilla was a staple as always, I did Malig until 11 when I went over to Berserker, back to Malig for Trample at 16 then back to Berserker again. Could kill everything forever, and her defence was, though not as good as Effie/Xander, still good enough to frontline.
-Soleil (Laslow+Peri) went Master Ninja and had great 1-2 offence one-rounding all but the physically bulkiest enemies basically, particularly good against mages due to res and ninjas. Permanent +2 str/def/res from lesbian powers is certainly welcome.
-Xander was his usual tanky self. Charlotte supported him but could also do some decent fighting of her own, like Camilla with roughly 15 less def/res. Nina (Camilla+Niles) provided lategame utility and decent offence with the Shining Bow (had Trample from her mom). Percy (Arthur+Effie) was mostly a rallybot and anticrit aura, but he did some key tanking in Iago's map because he had really high def and wasn't weak to beastslayer or armourslayer. Jakob, Elise, and Dwyer did usual staff-and-aura stuff. Peri was a generically competent combat unit, if not as good as her daughter. Azura danced and made Ryoma's map bearable.
-Only deaths were Odin and Silas who both fell on the last turns of Chapter 10. That map is evil.
-The freeze staff rules. Rescue too but they limit that for good reason.


Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Started yet another goofy random run.

18

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: November 11, 2024, 06:02:35 AM »

Other people can post here too, really, it's fine.

Fire Emblem Fates - Beat Mr. Fuga's Wild Ride. Still on Lunatic. Still a wonderfully-designed game mode. It's not that much harder than Hard but the little changes do add up a lot.

Ace Attorney Investigations - In honour of the second game being localized for the Switch, I played this for the first time in a decade. It's been a while since I've really felt a compelling urge to replay an Ace Attorney game and in some ways I feel like I've fallen out of love with the series but then I ended up enjoying this a lot anyway! Honestly I was kinda pleasantly surprised. This is still one of my favourite AA games, case 1/2/4 are all solid then case 5 is real good, simultaneously a good mystery to unravel and one of the funniest cases in the series. Edgeworth best protagonist.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Replaying this as well (third Normal Miriam playthrough because I'm too rusty to try Hard, fifth playthrough overall), just got the ability to turn into a laser beam.

19

Tournaments / Re: Proving Grounds Heavy/Godlike: Can't touch this.

« on: November 10, 2024, 06:08:50 AM »

Alear & Marth (FE Engage) vs. Emelious (Grandia 3): The fact that Engage itself has ITE physical techs doesn't leave me with much respect for Alear dodgetanking here.
Alear & Marth vs. Rudo (Brigandine LoR): Clean Military Rule is just accurate enough for this.
Alear & Marth vs. Lenneth (Valkyrie Profile 1): Lenneth will usually have landed the hits she needs by turn 2, I think, and she wins the speed tiebreak.
Alear & Marth vs. Sir Leopold (Dragon Quest VIII): Leo doesn't really want to trigger counters here, so I guess Scream + Cold Breath it is? I would guess Alear kills on turn 3, which is turn 4 thanks to a Scream landing... so this comes down to whether Cold Breath is ITE in this case. And I dunno. Abstain for now.

Alear & Marth vs. Celes (Final Fantasy 6): Vanish.
Alear & Marth vs. Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy 5): Time Slip should land before Alear kills, and at that point it's Hurricane -> poke.
Alear & Marth vs. Neclord (Suikodens): Doubt I see anything Neclord has ignoring evasion, and certainly not his ID move which I have never once seen in all my S2 playthroughs. (I probably just vote on S1.)
Alear & Marth vs. Wakka (Final Fantasy X): Don't try to beat Wakka with evasion.

Alear & Marth vs. Hugo (Suikoden 3): Huh yeah, Lodestar Rush manages a OHKO. Wind of Sleep runs into evasion in S3.
Alear & Marth vs. Ephraim (Fire Emblem 8): Lodestar Rush is a nice trump card in this evade-off, though Eph's WTA does make things interesting. I think he'd win it if not for Rapier hitting weakness AND giving an evade boost.
Alear & Marth vs. Alain (Unicorn Overlord): Once again Rapier Lodestar Rush is a heck of a trump card, but... yeah Alain is just too durable.

-

So this is a mea culpa, but I noticed while playing around with votes here that Oracle totally has an Icefire Shield setup which retains above average speed (Wind Talisman instead of Sands of Time, they don't even lose magic because of the shield). That's important!

Oracle (Bravely Default II) vs. Emelious (Grandia 3): Yeah Oracle's only hope is to braveblitz, since Emelious does 90% turn 1 and Elemental Supplement won't stop Emelious's magic from finishing the job. And Emelious is durable enough to survive that, I think, even if his evade isn't seen as doing anything against Triplara (and I'm not sure about that call).
Oracle vs. Rudo (Brigandine LoR): Elemental Supplement reduces Rudo to a turn 3 win, and Oracle has a 4-3. So that's six uses of Triplara and that barely kills Rudo (1.51 damage against 1.49 mdur). Alternatively, Oracle could just tank Clean Military Rule and go for element absorption from there.
Oracle vs. Lenneth (Valkyrie Profile 1)[/b]: See opening comment. Agree that Lenneth would win this in the stat topic as presented.
Oracle vs. Sir Leopold (Dragon Quest VIII): Intimidating Scream kinda ruins Oracle here I think. Oracle's best bet is to null ice and use Elemental Supplement but Scream lets Leopold time out the clock. Oracle probably needs 9 Triplara casts and that's too much time.

Oracle vs. Celes (Final Fantasy 6): Oracle can ward off status with Reflect but the fact that it only lasts two turns is devastating. Oracle's other turns can be spent on Elemental Impairment, praying that this lands and then at least they have SOME damage. Meanwhile Celes probably just hits Oracle with a Man Eater over and over and honestly yeah that surely kills before Oracle can successfully land a BD2 status that then allows them to like 9HKO.
Oracle vs. Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy 5): Some sort of status hell or other.
Oracle vs. Neclord (Suikodens): Decently durable, probably close to 4PCHP against fire/ice/lightning magic. That's too much time since he has both damage types and Oracle can't really spoil both at once.
Oracle vs. Wakka (Final Fantasy X): Wakka can tank an Oracle turn and then uses Sleep Buster or Silence Buster, either is devastating. Oracle... can block both, but at a pretty severe cost (24% damage cut). So Oracle is now 8HKOing. That's still not awful since y'know, kills on turn 5 = Wakka only gets 3 turns. ... Except Drain exists, and Oracle is weirdly unable to handle that. Oh and there's also the TKO, I forgot that.

Oracle vs. Hugo (Suikoden 3): Go first and one-round.
Oracle vs. Ephraim (Fire Emblem 8): See Lenneth.
Oracle vs. Alain (Unicorn Overlord): Elemental Supplement shutdown but... Alain doesn't need to deal damage to heal himself with Lean Edge, so Oracle can't make headway and eventually runs out of MP, probably.

-

I'm taking Octopath speed at half effect, I think. I average the four damage averages so the kill point is 7070. Throne does 11560 with Aebar if she uses it while her buffs are active. I'm inclined to ignore the damage cap because it doesn't matter for most of the game and you have an "ignore damage cap" passive by the time it does.

Throne (Octopath Traveller II) vs. Emelious (Grandia 3): Emelious has a 5-4 to me. Throne can tie him up with Veil of Darkness (his magic kinda sucks) until he doubleturns and wins. So she gets three turns, plus her latent. Armour Corrosive into Aebar is 2.45 PCHP and that's a dead Emolicious.
Throne vs. Rudo (Brigandine LoR): Same strategy as above works.
Throne vs. Lenneth (Valkyrie Profile 1): Veil of Darkness only makes one attack of Lenneth's string miss, and that's not good enough. Lenneth just OHKOs even still. Throne can buy a turn by ALSO using Shackle with her latent turn (either alone isn't enough). That's not enough time.
Throne vs. Sir Leopold (Dragon Quest VIII): Once again if she gets to turn 3 she wins, and Veil lets her do that... probably? I suppose Leo could try breath + scream but that frees up her turn 2 for HP Thief. Leo can get off three Cold Breaths this way though, and that does kill... maybe? Throne's HP Thief heals her for 24%, and Cold Breath if it strikes MDef does 46%... yeah the healing's not enough.

Throne vs. Celes (Final Fantasy 6): Some horrible status or other.
Throne vs. Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy 5): Again.
Throne vs. Neclord (Suikodens): Neclord only 3HKOs with magic so Veil into Shackle/Aebar does its thing.
Throne vs. Wakka (Final Fantasy X): Veil stops the status hell. Wakka can still use magic and should win if you let Osmose kill MP but I don't think I do that these days.

Throne vs. Hugo (Suikoden 3): Wind of Sleep into Hellfire does its thing. Throne MDef might be bad enough for turn 1 Funeral Wind, too.
Throne vs. Ephraim (Fire Emblem 8): Veil probably misses on the second attempt, but it's not like one hit is enough to win.
Throne vs. Alain (Unicorn Overlord): Alain almost kills Throne out of the gate, and Veil just makes one of his hits miss, which isn't enough. So we don't get to watch Alain facetank Aebar.

-

Cthulhu (Cthulhu Saves Christmas) vs. Emelious (Grandia 3): Emelious gets two turns immediately after Cthulhu's first, allowing him to kill... he'd die to Shadow Strike so he uses Shadow Wave (look at these goth boys...), the combination of that and Spirit Wail barely kills thanks to the Insane damage boost. Cthulhu gets a desperate turn but physicals are out and Torment is out since it can't kill, so the best he can do is Fireball which isn't enough.
Cthulhu vs. Rudo (Brigandine LoR): Rudo can't even OHKO so Cthulhu gets three turns minimum and that's crazy levels of damage (Dark Blast -> Torment -> Shadow Strike).
Cthulhu vs. Lenneth (Valkyrie Profile 1): Tank a turn with Unstoppable, blow her up with Shadow Strike.
Cthulhu vs. Sir Leopold (Dragon Quest VIII): Leo kills on turn 2, so Cthulhu's best bet is Dark Blast -> Torment -> Shadow Strike once again. That's just over 2PCHP, specifically 2.03. What do I think Leo's HP is? If I arbitrarily set Marcello at 1.5, then Leo is 2.05. But he takes 5% extra from physicals, so maybe that's enough? Let's go with that. Super close.

Cthulhu vs. Celes (Final Fantasy 6): No transformation-like status in CSC.
Cthulhu vs. Gilgamesh (Final Fantasy 5): See above.
Cthulhu vs. Neclord (Suikodens): Neclord doesn't resist dark.
Cthulhu vs. Wakka (Final Fantasy X): Cthulhu has too many holes in his statusblocking. A rare fight where Triple Foul is decisive; neither blind nor silence alone would win the fight for Wakka (and I do see Cthulhu immune to sleep) but the combination does.

Cthulhu vs. Hugo (Suikoden 3): Oh yeah I just said I see Cthulhu blocking sleep, didn't I.
Cthulhu vs. Ephraim (Fire Emblem 8): Cthulhu goes for Dark Blast into Shadow Strike, which does barely kill Ephraim... if both hits land. Odds are one misses. And... Cthulhu doesn't get any other chances, thanks to insane the javelin counter + Siegmund kills. So yeah never mind that's a bad opener. Cthulhu can go for terrify instead (which won't miss) but he still needs to land two more attacks after that, and again odds are one will miss.
Cthulhu vs. Alain (Unicorn Overlord): Too durable.

Cthulhu 5-6 (he's probably real good to anyone who sees his status immunity as more perfect than I do)
Throné 5-6 (definitely better than I expected, the turn 3 damage is crazy)
Oracle 4-7 (as cool as the shutdown game is on paper it tends not to work if the opponent has good durability against elemental magic and ANY sort of backup damage, and that's lots of folks).
Alear & Marth 3-7 (solid FE dodgetank dueller, but those tend more toward high Heavy)

20

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« on: October 26, 2024, 09:04:46 PM »

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Replayed this for the line count project, but it's also the first time I've played it in nine years which is crazy for a game I like so much? I did a "lowest level only" run similar to what I've previously done for FE9/FE6/3H where I had to use the lowest level person all the time, along with recruiting everyone and keeping them alive. Interestingly this doesn't make some of the already hardest maps (e.g. Dawn Brigade part 3) any harder, since you can use everyone on those. The hardest maps were 1-Endgame (everyone still in tier 1), 4-1 (night map with Ike's team), and 4-Endgame-1 (everyone still tier 2), followed by maps like 3-11, 4-3, 4-4, 4-E-2, 4-E-4, and 4-E-5, so mostly maps where I'm a tier lower than normal plus the very end where being a few key stat points short really does add up.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - eyyy they released this for the Switch. New file so I have to play normal mode. Well surely this will be really easy for me - *dies a bunch to Blackmore, Eligor, and Dracula anyway* never mind. Not much to say past that; there was nothing notable about this run, but I had a good time. I approve of OoE having the prominent placement on the art of the Switch DSvania collection, good taste.

Chrono Trigger - Another random replay (Steam version in this case). I beat the game, then did a NG+ run to get all the endings. It's interesting that I used to think fighting Lavos with two people in NG+ was evil but now, even with levels still in the 40's, I was able to do it. Don't neglect your MDef, kids. (It's funny reading guides which say things like "this is super hard even at Level 55, what you need to do is use a Haste Helm + Nova Armour on Crono". WRONG.) Otherwise, this was my first time playing the game with the "new" (DS) translation, which while a bit less punchy at points does clarify some lines well. Also makes the slide show ending hornier than I recall it being. Otherwise, it's CT, still great. I want to force every game dev to play this and understand how a game can be this good even without exceptional writing or battle system; everything about the game's pacing and polish is so good.

Hyrule Warriors - Also got a Switch version, so sure, I'll play this again. Kinda fell down a rabbit-hole and spent over 100 hours on it, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy this game. Gameplaywise it's pretty clearly the best of the four Warriors games I've sunk notable time into, I think - both the action and the map aspects are engaging in a way that I'm not sure any other game in the series has matched simultaneously, and I love the huge variety of fighting styles available. I beat the maingame, essentially completed the first three adventure maps, and stuck me toes into a few more to get some of the multi-elemental weapons.

Baldur's Gate 3 - Started this, still in act 1. Really fun game when it's not tripping over itself with how clunky it is. I hate harzardous terrain on the ground which is both hard to see AND your NPC allies will randomly walk over it in a limited-healing system like this. I also hate how party switching, which the game encourages through both its writing and gameplay, is such a pain compared to how Chrono Trigger did it. On a positive note, though, the writing is very enjoyable, good characters and feels like a well-done D&D campaign (except the part where the game seems to expect me to constantly want to extort NPCs, which I guess is some people's idea of a fun anti-social character. I'm not even blaming the writers for the option, really, but it's weird because it wouldn't be socially acceptable in any D&D campaign I've actually played).

Fire Emblem Fates - Also started a replay of this. Lunatic Conquest, we'll see if I stick with it or something pushes me back to Hard.

21

Unranked Games / Re: Bravely Default II

« on: October 20, 2024, 03:21:33 AM »

reserved

22

Unranked Games / Re: Bravely Default II

« on: October 20, 2024, 02:21:20 AM »

Shieldmaster
HP: 6842 (130%)    MP: 424   Weight: 76/88   PAtk: 250   MAtk: 202
PDef: 233 (PDur 148%)    MDef: 178 (MDur 138%)   Speed: 114 (61%)   Aim: 75%   Eva: 76   Crit: 35%
Parashu, Parashu, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Dwarven Gloves

Specialties:
Protect Ally: The user will step in to take damage in place of allies who are below 20% HP, automatically adopting the Default stance in the process. Works on MT attacks, surprisingly (Shieldmaster will protect all allies at low HP).
Chivalrous Spirit: Performing Protect Ally, Bodyguard or Defender of the People restores 10% MP and 1 BP to the user.

Passives:
Dual Shields: The user can equip a shield in each hand. While doing so, the attack command cannot be used.
The Courage to Resist: Defaulting does not increase BP, but does nullify all status ailments except slow, stop and doom. The status resistance effect only applies to the default command, not the auto-default of various Shieldmaster abilities. [this sucks tbh]
Fast Hands: Any speed reductions caused by equipment in either hand become speed bonuses instead.
No Guts, No Glory: Def and MDef are multiplied by (1 + current BP / 10). This is about ~5% less damage taken per extra BP with the default setup (better with shields).

Attack: 222 physical
Bodyguard: The user will step in to take damage in place of a selected ally (including MT attacks), automatically adopting the Default stance in the process.
Blinding Flash (14 MP): Attempt to blind all targets.
Crushed Ice (44 MP): 164 physical, 75% hit. 6x damage vs frozen targets.
Reprisal (40 MP): For five turns, 50% of any damage received by the user will also be inflicted on the attacker.
Defender of the People: Take up to three attacks in place of allies before the user's next turn, automatically adopting the Default stance in the process. Does not apply to attacks that target all allies.
Heavy Hitter (1 BP): 1299 physical, 75% hit
Bumblewhacker (44 MP): 164 physical, 75% hit. 6x damage vs confused targets.
The Gift of Wisdom: Donates 33% of the user's max MP to a target. If MP is below 33% of max, all available MP will be donated.

Note: as a point of trivia, Heavy Hitter is like Body Slam in that its damage depends on the user's weight. Unfortunately, where Body Slam's damage boost is additive, Heavy Hitter's is multiplicative, so Shieldmaster still needs a good base attack stat to make it work (which flies in the face of Dual Shields).

Optimum 3-turn damage: Heavy Hitter x3: 2922

Comments: Shieldmaster is a cool job which just... does not function in a duel. Their only hope of dealing damage is to up their accuracy and weight by dual-wielding so Heavy Hitter does something, and hoping that plus Reprisal's backlash adds up. They really wish that their weight-based move had an additive bonus damage (like Body Slam) instead of multiplicative. The rest of their skillset is all built around defending allies, which aren't useful here. Puny.

Pictomancer
HP: 4414 (84%)    MP: 637   Weight: 28/52   PAtk: 215   MAtk: 249
PDef: 120 (PDur 78%)    MDef: 112 (MDur 76%)   Speed: 128 (137%)   Aim: -6%   Eva: 117   Crit: 14%
Nirvana, none, Mystic Hood, Manarobe, Adamant Bangle, Wind Talisman
Halves fire/water/ice

Specialties:
Self-Expression: Using Artistry debuffs on oneself costs nothing, and will cause a corresponding buff effect instead of a debuff.
Extra Coat: All buffs, debuffs, and status effects instigated by the user last a turn longer.

Passives:
Sub-Job BP Saver: The BP cost of using sub-job abilities is reduced by one. (Incredibly useful in-game, but does nothing here!)
Convert MP: Taking damage will cause the user's MP to be restored by a 3.8% of damage taken. (So e.g. losing 50% HP translates to ~84 MP.)

Attack: 0% hit rate. If it hits (somehow), 72-113 damage depending on hit count.
Disarming Scarlet (23 MP): Lowers target's PAtk by 10% for four turns (~12% damage reduction), or buff own PAtk.
Splatter (45 MP): Attempt to daub a target. Daub causes targets to have -1 resistance to all elements both phyical and magical (i.e. if they were neutral before, they now take 130% damage; no effect if target was already weak to the element).
Disenchanting Mauve (23 MP): Lowers target's MAtk by 10% for four turns (~12.5% damage reduction), or buff own MAtk. (~39% more damage dealt)
Purify (28 MP): Remove all buffs and debuffs from a target.
Incurable Coral Lowers target's restorative power by 10% for four turns, or buff own restorative power.
Freehand (30 MP): 1 to 5 hits of 300 fixed damage against random targets, average 900
Indefensible Teal (30 MP): Lowers target's PDef by 10% for four turns, or buff own PDef. (~2% damage reduction)
Zappable Chartreuse (34 MP): Lowers target's MDef by 10% for four turns (~29% more damage dealt), or buff own MDef. (~2.5% damage reduction)
Chairo (60 MP): 861 light pseudomagic
Scuro (60 MP): 861 dark pseudomagic

Optimum 3-turn damage: Disenchanting Mauve (self) x2, Chiaro/Scuro x4: 6123

Comments: They're fast and can rack up some nice damage multipliers, but their base damage is too low, and the HP doesn't help matters either. Their ability to feast on low magic durability (along with having Freehand for foes with good MDef but bad HP) keeps them in Light rather than Puny, probably.


Dragoon
HP: 5161 (98%)    MP: 424   Weight: 53/65   PAtk: 420   MAtk: 329
PDef: 146 (PDur 95%)    MDef: 166 (MDur 101%)   Speed: 140 (92%)   Aim: 101%   Eva: 126   Crit: 28%
Ryunohige, Wyvern Spear, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Wind Talisman

Specialties:
Momentum: Jump abilities will be performed more quickly, and will be more powerful the more weight the user is carrying. (+0.5% more damage per point of weight)
Highwind: Any additional effects applied to regular attacks also apply to Jump. Also, there will be no stat reduction for wielding two weapons as long as a sword or spear is equipped in the left hand.

Passives:
Comeback Kid: All status ailments will be automatically removed two turns after being inflicted, at which point HP and MP will be fully restored, and BP will be reduced by one.
Sky High: Performs Jump on a random enemy at zero cost as soon as battle begins.
Full Force: Multitarget abilities deal 1.5x damage. Only works if the ability is actually striking 2 or more targets.
Brave Front: Multitarget abilities deal 10% more damage per extra BP the user has. Unlike Full Force this works even if the multitarget ability only strikes one target. However, the damage boost is based on your BP when you attack, so using brave will reduce the entire chain.

Attack: 891 physical
Jump (1 BP): User leaves the battlefield. Next turn, user returns and deals 2632 physical. 3 clockticks for Jump to resolve (110% speed), 2 for the next turn after that (137% speed).
Sonic Thrust (27 MP): 1664 physical MT
Thunder Thrust (40 MP): 1782 lightning physical
Spirit Surge (44 MP): 1189 physical. Heals user's HP and MP in proportion to damage dealt (594 HP and 59 MP).
Angon (52 MP): 2378 physical. Ignores target's default state.
SUffer in Silence (30 MP): 594 physical. 4x damage vs silenced targets.
Soul Jump (3 BP): User and all allies leave the battlefield. On their next turns, they return and deal physical damage (3760 in Dragoon's case). 3 clockticks for Jump to resolve and again for Dragoon's turn after that.
Spirit-Crusher (2 BP): 594 physical, chance of lowering the target's BP by 1. A critical hit is needed to lower BP below -1.

Note: Due to Sky High, Dragoon effectively gets their turns at times equal the following opponent speeds: 110% turn 1 Jump, 122% turn 2, 110%, 105%, 102%, 100.2%, 99% ...

Optimum 3-turn damage: Jump (Sky High) + Angon x5: 14522

Comments: Though their speed is below average on paper, Sky High makes Dragoon pretty speed in practice as long as the fight ends in 2 or 3 turns, which is typical for them. They kill average with a brave-chain on turn 2. They're in trouble in longer fights, probably, although Spirit Surge could be useful as a pressure tool, to give them back a little HP while still adding some damage.


Spiritmaster
HP: 3735 (71%)    MP: 561   Weight: 25/46   PAtk: 219   MAtk: 290
PDef: 98 (PDur 63%)    MDef: 147 (MDur 70%)   Speed: 93 (110%)   Aim: 31%   Eva: 76   Crit: 25%   Res Power: 172
Nirvana, none, none, none, Sands of Time, Sands of Time

Specialties:
Spirited Defense: Instant-death effects and status ailments that render their target inactive (sleep, paralysis, dread, berserk, confusion, charm, stop and freezing) are prevented, and as long as HP is at 20% or higher, the user can survive any attack with one HP. Works on multi-hit attacks. [Without There in Spirit, this only works if summoned spirits are presents.]
There in Spirit: The effects of all spirit-summoning abilities learned so far are applied automatically when the user has 1 or fewer BP.

Passives:
Sub-Job Specialty 1: The first specialty of the user's sub-job is activated.

Note (SJS1): Since sub-jobs can be set without any JP investment in the job, some might allow this. (I'm on the fence, myself.) The best options are probably Barrage, which raises damage done by brave-chains, and Nuisance, which adds a chance of blind/charm to holy spells for stall-breaking. Not considered in averages.

Note (absout spirits): Spiritmaster has the ability to summon spirits. At the moment of summoning, nothing will happen, but then the spirit's ability will resolve three times at certain intervals (typically, faster than a normal turn), after which time the effect ends. Summoning one spirit will dismiss any previous spirits. HOWEVER. With There in Spirit, EVERY spirit summoning is automatically active, forever, as long as Spiritmaster's BP remains at 1 or below. These auto-summoned spirits do not count towards the one spirit maximum, so, one copy of an existing spirit can be summoned as well, doubling up on the effects. The check for whether the spirits from There in Spirit appear or disappear is made at the end of any turn Spiritmaster gets.

Attack: 94 physical
Healthbringer (22 MP): Summons a spirit which provides 1780 MT healing. Effect resolves every 2 clockticks.
Banish (10 MP): 478 light magic, ST/MT
Devotion (1 BP): Restore a target's MP by an amount equal to 20% of the user's max MP (112). Can self-target.
Regeneration (30 MP): Restore 10% of a target's HP at the end of their turn. Permanent until dispelled.
Banishra (38 MP): 977 light magic, ST/MT
Reraise (80 MP): Target will be automatically revived with 200 HP if knocked out. This still counts as a knockout and removes most status effects, etc. Effect will remain until target has been revived or dispelled.
Spiritbringer (55 MP): Summons a spirit which provides 10% MP healing (56). Effect resolves every 3 clockticks.
Basunabringer (33 MP): Summons a spirit which removes poison, blindness, silence, sleep, paralysis, contagion, freezing and daubing. Effect resolves every 3 clockticks.
Banishga (66 MP): 1521 light magic, ST/MT
Purebringer (77 MP): Summons a spirit which removes all buffs and debuffs (including Regeneration and Reraise). Effect resolves every 4 clockticks.
Holy (80 MP): 2173 light magic

Optimum 3-turn damage: Holy x6: 13038

Comments: Hahaha okay. To review: Spirited Defence means Spiritmaster can't die if they have more than 20% HP, nor be statused out. There in Spirit means Healthbringer is permanently active. Healthbringer restores more than 20% of Spiritmaster's HP every two clockticks. So you have to doubleturn that, or lose. They also can't run out of MP. There's not too much more to say, except that they really, really hate holy defence... but thanks to their immortality game, may beat a lot of holy-immunes anyway! Godlike.


Swordmaster
HP: 5535 (105%)    MP: 377   Weight: 39/65   PAtk: 367   MAtk: 252
PDef: 129 (PDur 99%)    MDef: 94 (MDur 91%)   Speed: 124 (110%)   Aim: 84%   Eva: 98   Crit: 29%
Excalibur, none, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Dwarven Gloves

Specialties:
Redoubled Effort: For each BP above zero, damage done by normal attacks and counterattacking abilities is multiplied by 1.1.
Double Duty: Equipping the same type of weapon in both hands will activate sub-job specialities. [See Spiritmaster's SJS1 and Bravebearer's SJS2. Note that Swordmaster's default setup does not have two weapons.]

Passives:
Counter: 50% chance to respond to ST physical attacks with 782 physical
Out with a Bang: When knocked out, counter with 2302 MT physical
2 Hands Are Better Than 1: If the first hand holds a sword, lance, or axe, and the second hand is empty, the weapon's PAtk, MAtk, and Res Power are mutiplied by 1.4 (factored in)
Multitask: 33% chance to follow up a normal attack with an additional 506 physical

Attack: 644 physical. 33% chance of an additional 506
Solid Stance: Adopt a stance from which the attack command is performed twice every time it is selected.
Fluid Stance: Adopt a stance from which any ST attack is countered with 782 physical
Solid Right Style (22 MP): Only usable in Solid Stance. 782 physical. Delays target's turn by about 0.35 clockticks. (~7% of an average turn.)
Fluid Left Style (20 MP): Only usable in Fluid Stance. Until next turn, when attacked by a ST phyiscal, counter with 690 physical, which also lowers the target's BP by 1 on a hit.
Divide Attention (17 MP): For four turns, raises user's chance to be targeted to equal that of their most frequently targeted ally.
Fourfold Flurry (48 MP): 2371 physical dealt in 4 hits
Solid Slash (27 MP): Only usable in Solid Stance. 828 physical, 2 clockticks (137% speed).
Fluid Flow (36 MP): Only usable in Fluid Stance. Until next turn, when attacked by a ST phyiscal, counter with 920 physical, which also raises the user's BP by 1 on a hit.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Fourfold Flurry x6: 11949

Comments: Respectable offence, especially with Out with a Bang in the mix (granted, that's useless if the opponent has any healing, since Swordmaster will be hoping for it to deal the finishing damage after a braveblitz). Fluid Stance into Fluid Flow provides an interesting opportunity to store BP and power further counters up but realistically the average durability and lack of healing limits any countering potential. Solid Stance allows a decent amount of spammable damage if Swordmaster is MP-nuked or something, but realistically despite all the gimmicks it's Fourflold Flurry all day every day in most fights.


Oracle
HP: 5042 (95%)    MP: 637   Weight: 32/88   PAtk: 253   MAtk: 293
PDef: 163 (PDur 95%)    MDef: 172 (MDur 100%)   Speed: 153 (137%)   Aim: 54%   Eva: 147   Crit: 24%
Nirvana, none, Mystic Hood, Manarobe, Sands of Time, Sands of Time
Halves fire/water/ice

Alternate: Icefire Shield. Oracle gains fire/ice absorption and durability becomes 107%/116%, but speed drops to 92%.

Specialties:
In One's Element: Attacks targeting elemental weaknesses deal 40% more damage, and elemental magic costs 40% less to perform. (factored in)
Moonlighting: Sub-job stat adjustments and weapon aptitudes are applied to the user's main job.

Note: Since Moonlighting does not require any JP investment in the sub-job, I am considering it here. The best overall job to pick from is likely Bravebearer, which has mediocre weapon aptitudes but excellent stats otherwise.

Passives:
Noble Sacrifice: When the user is knocked unconscious, any unconscious allies will be revived with full HP. One use per battle.

Attack: 206 physical (309 under Quick)
Quick (21 MP): Enable target to deliver 50% more hits with the 'Attack' command for two turns.
Slow (26 MP): Decreases target's speed by approximately 17%
Haste (42 MP): Increases target's speed by approximately 39% for 3 turns
Elemental Impairment (55 MP): Attempt to lower the target's resistance to a selected element by one level for two turns. Counts as a status ailment. If successful against a neutral elemental resistance, Oracle deals an additional 82% damage due to In One's Element.
Triple (12 MP): 1-3 hits (probability ratio of 4:3:9) of 558 magic to random targets. Each hit is randomly either fire, ice, or lightning. Average damage is 1292.
Elemental Supplement (46 MP): Imbue a target's regular attacks and physical abilities with a selected element for two turns. Not a status ailment, so this works on everything. Can target enemies. >
Reflect (36 MP): Target will reflect most magic attacks (not pseudomagic, or magic attacks which strike both sides of the field) for two turns
Stop (44 MP): Attempts to stop the target (stop lasts about as long as it would take the target to get 2 turns)
Elemental Ward (32 MP): Increase a target's resistance to a selected element for three turns.
Triplara (33 MP): 1-3 hits (probability ratio of 4:3:9) of 1117 magic to random targets. Each hit is randomly either fire, ice, or lightning. Average damage is 2584.
Hastega (70 MP): Increases target's speed by approximately 79% for 3 turns

Optimum 3-turn damage: Triplara x6: 15504

Comments: They're very fast and their damage, while random, is borderline ORKO to average. Cool right? But that's not the real story here. They can also use that speed to cast either Reflect on oneself or Elemental Supplement on the enemy, shutting down either physical or magical damage. Note that Oracle already halves fire/ice with their default setup, and can upgrade that to absorption if they're willing to fall to below average speed. They're pretty bad against full elemental resistance themselves, though, and while Hastega can help tilt the action economy their way in longer fights, they do need to watch their MP supply.


Salve Maker
HP: 4788 (91%)    MP: 377   Weight: 37/65   PAtk: 211   MAtk: 250
PDef: 151 (PDur 104%)    MDef: 154 (MDur 107%)   Speed: 109 (110%)   Aim: 55%   Eva: 129   Crit: 37%
Highroad Star, none, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Dwarven Gloves

Alternate
Dual-wielding Highroad Stars: Aim becomes 77% (40% more offence), durability becomes 126%/130%, but speed becomes 62%

Specialties:
Master Medic: One healing herb and one magic herb are received after every battle. Also, items will occasionally not be expended when used.
Unencumbered: If Salve Maker equips nothing in their hands, healing item effects are raised by 50% (additive with Healing Item Amp), and compounding effects are boosted in various ways. [Unfortunately, Salve Maker with no weapon has 22% aim.]

Passives:
Status-Conscious: Increase status ailment chance by an unknown amount.
Thrust and Parry: -15% damage received for each weapon equipped. (The effect is factored into Salve Maker's durability figures listed above.)
Healing Item Amp: The effects of all healing items are increased by 50%. Does not affect Compounding.

Attack: 82 physical
Compounding: Combine two items. Many different effects. See list below.
Survey (32 MP): Reveal target's HP, weaknesses, and family; MT
Widen Area (55 MP): Use an item on all targets. This may make items legal for Salve Maker; see list below
Philtre (22 MP): Attempt to charm target
Revive (25% HP): Revive a knocked-out target and restore 50% HP.
Heartbreak (1 BP): 163 physical. 3.2x damage against charmed targets.
BP Tonic (7500 pg): Raises target's BP by 1.
BP Depleter (9000 pg): Lowers target's BP by 1.
Analysis (30 MP): 72 physical, 55% hit. On a hit, reveals target info similar to Examine/Survey. Also gives the user a buff which allows them to hit weakness on all members of the target's monster family (including the target). Weakness is +30% damage. Note that every enemy in the game has a family, so this works on everything.

Item list (for Widen Area; this is the base potency before Healing Item Amp):
Potion (40 pg): 250 healing
Hi-Potion (200 pg): 1000 healing
X-Potion (630 pg): 2500 healing
Phoenix Down (150 pg): Revive and restores 300 HP
Mini Ether (90 pg): 60 MP healing
Ether (220 pg): 180 MP healing
Status-healers (15-85 pg): Heal various status ailments
Remedy (300 pg): Heal poison, blindness, silence, sleep, paralysis, dread, berserk, charm, confusion and contagion
Elixir (10000 pg): Full HP/MP healing

Compounding list (lowest pg cost is listed for each):
Mega-Potion (730 pg): 5000 healing
Giga-Potion (2630 pg): 7500 healing
Turbo Ether (890 pg): 250 MP healing
Mega-Ether (1020 pg): 300 MP healing
Giga-Ether (15220 pg): 400 MP healing
Quarter Elixir (190 pg): 2500 healing, 100 MP healing
Half Elixir (320 pg): 5000 healing, 200 MP healing
Cure [status] (114-400 pg): 1000 healing, also heals one of poison, blind, silence, sleep, paralysis, dread, or confuse
[status] Bomb: 1000 fixed damage MT, 55% hit. Attempts to inflict blind (340 pg), poison (340 pg), paralysis (490 pg), sleep (1040 pg), charm (1740 pg), or contagion (2240 pg)
Big [status] Bomb: 2000 fixed damage MT, 55% hit. Attempts to inflict blind (2300 pg), poison (2300 pg), paralysis (2450 pg), sleep (3000 pg), charm (3700 pg), or contagion (4200 pg)
Resurrect (250 pg): Revive and restores all HP
Reincarnate (950 pg): revive and restores 300 HP and all MP
Note: Unencumbered, if active, will raise the effects of Compounding as follows: +100 to all ethers, +500 to all potions and elixirs (both the HP/MP effects in the case of the latter), and +1000 to all bombs. The hit rate penalty makes this not worth it for bombs, sadly.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Analysis x2 + Big [status] Bomb x4: 5799

Comments: Whew! Okay. Well their resources depend a bit on how much money you give them, but the basic idea is they can heal cheaply with Quarter/Half Elixirs, and fish for status with bombs. Bombs being tied to their aim stat is awful for them, sadly, so they'll need multiple tries to land anything. Fortunately, if one thing they land is poison that can do some killing for them. If they want to do a damage-blitz themselves, Analysis can help set one up, but this is not something they're ever good at.


Arcanist
HP: 4414 (84%)    MP: 637   Weight: 41/52   PAtk: 230   MAtk: 320
PDef: 151 (PDur 82%)    MDef: 179 (MDur 89%)   Speed: 70 (55%)   Aim: 38%   Eva: 93   Crit: 18%
Nirvana, Icefire Shield, none, Manarobe, Adamant Bangle, Wind Talisman
Absorbs fire/water/ice

Alternate setups:
-Minerva Bustier instead of Icefire Shield/Manarobe; speed rises to 68% and magic durability to 98%, and has dark resistance instead of fire/ice absorption (Doomsday backlash "only" does ~2390 to self)
-no elemental defence at all: durability becomes 76/79, speed becomes 108%, but any of Arcanist's big damage moves risk OHKOing them. Just useful for Death spam.

Specialties:
All In: Applying attack spells to multiple targets does not reduce the damage inflicted, but does cause them to target the user.
Wild Wizardry: Attack spells are 20% more powerful (factored in to damage figures below), and also reduce their targets' MP (equal to 1.5% of HP damage dealt; MP damage is not dealt to self). However, they will also occasionally target all allies and enemies.

Note: I haven't tested Wild Wizardry's backfire rate. I would be a little leery about recommending Arcanist spam an element they aren't immune to, though.

Passives:
MP Regen: MP is restored by 5% (31) at the end of each turn.

Attack: 130 physical
Dark (15 MP): 737 dark magic, ST/MT
Ardour (36 MP): 1341 fire/water magic, hits everyone on the field
Drain (30 MP): 838 magic, heals user equal to damage dealt
Darkra (38 MP): 1509 dark magic, ST/MT
Electon (50 MP): 2179 lightning/light magic, hits everyone on the field
Aspir (20% HP): 73 MP damage, heals user's MP equal to damage dealt
Darkga (66 MP): 2357 dark magic, ST/MT
Meltdown (70 MP): 4141 fire/wind magic, hits everyone on the field
Death (25 MP): Attempt to instantly kill target
Comet (45 MP): Two to four hits of magic on one target, average damage is 1374
Doomsday (80 MP): 3353 dark magic, ST

Self-damage mechanics: Damage dealt to self is ~157% what is dealt to enemies (ouch!). Elemental absorption (Icefire Shield + Manarobe does this to fire/ice) means Arcanist will heal about ~78% of damage dealt instead, much nicer.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Meltdown x6: 24846

Comments: Otherwise, Arcanist is very slow and kinda fragile. If they get a turn, though, they will probably kill you with Meltdown spam, which as a bonus heals them and even does a bit of MP damage. Death spam is also an option and as a bonus they can actually have speed while doing it. If the opponent blocks all of those they'll be in some trouble because while they can fall back on the Doomsday, a Wild Wizardry backfire from that will take just over half their HP (even halved).


Bastion
HP: 5042 (95%)    MP: 472   Weight: 38/88   PAtk: 314   MAtk: 254
PDef: 138 (PDur 92%)    MDef: 148 (MDur 95%)   Speed: 81 (90%)   Aim: 70%   Eva: 92   Crit: 21%
Ryunohige, none, Headband, none, Power Bracers, Power Bracers

Specialties:
Default Guard: While Defaulting, will automatically spend 15 MP to reduce damage taken to 40% (instead of 60%).
Fortitude: While Defaulting, will automatically spend 15 MP to earn 1 BP each time when attacked.

Passives:
Auto Guard: The user's turn will come around more slowly, but they reduce damage received by 40% when not defaulting. (I haven't yet tested how much more slowly; not sure if this is worth it.)
Critical Flow: Performing a critical attack may cause BP to increase by one. (Not tested.)
BP Limit Up: Max BP becomes 4 instead of 3.

Attack: 424 physical
Bulwark: (12 MP): 326 physical, 70% hit. Raises user's PDef by 15% for three turns. (~4% less damage received)
Phalanx: (12 MP): 326 physical, 70% hit. Raises user's MDef by 15% for three turns. (~5% less damage received)
Rampart (30% HP): Erect a barrier that will protect multiple targets from a single hit of physical damage (but any added status or other effects from that attack still land). Cannot be combined with Vallation.
Vallation (30% HP): Erect a barrier that will protect multiple targets from a single hit of magical damage (but any added status or other effects from that attack still land). Cannot be combined with Rampart.
Light of Justice (47 MP): 1240 light physical, 70% hit
Wall (38 MP): Raises user's PDef and MDef by 25% for three turns (~6%/9% less damage received)
Blindsider (44 MP): 326 physical, 70% hit. 6x damage against blinded targets.
Double Default (35% HP): For three turns, Defaulting will increase BP by two instead of one.
Sanctuary (1 BP): Everyone's HP, MP and BP cannot be changed until the user's next turn. (However, usage costs for any abilities used in the meantime will still be deducted.)

Optimum 3-turn damage: Light of Justice x6: 5208

Comments: Terrible. Their entire skillset either doesn't translate or is useless in-game anyway (BD2 defensive buffs...), and their damage move has a multiplier comparable to the basic Cross Cut. Even if Auto-Guard's turn penalty ends up negligible (which would give them decent durability) they're a bad Light at best.


Phantom
HP: 3735 (71%)    MP: 377   Weight: 43/59   PAtk: 429   MAtk: 350
PDef: 85 (PDur 62%)    MDef: 105 (MDur 63%)   Speed: 153 (110%)   Aim: 109%   Eva: 163   Crit: 51%
Highroad Star, Highroad Star, Headband, none, Wind Talisman, Wind Talisman

Alternates:
-Highroad Star, Wind Talisman, Dwarven Gloves gives 104% accuracy, 137% speed Flit; damage down ~60% before buffs
-Status weapons options... Assassin Dagger: 101% death; Angel's Bow: 92% charm; Blind Blade: 80% blind; Chaos Blade: 81% confuse; Sandman's Axe: 64% (110% speed) or 44% (137% speed) sleep; Chronos Glaive: 56% stop; Rune Staff: 52% silence. All have 137% speed except the 64% sleep. Most of them reduce physical damage dealt a LOT, although with dual-wielding they may be able to keep up damage if they're willing to accept bad speed. I'm not listing all the possibilities.

Specialties:
Achilles' Heel: Any attack that successfully exploits an enemy's weakness has a 50% chance of inflicting critical damage.
Results Guaranteed: When the user attempts to inflict a status ailment or activate an ability with a % chance of occurring, automatically spends 40 MP to make the chance 100%.

Passives:
Critical Amp: Critical hit damage is increased by 30% (to 1.8x).
Turn Tables: Evading an attack will cause BP to increase by one.
Rewarding Results: Inflicting a status ailment on a target will be rewarded with an extra action.
Dual Wield: Equipping multiple weapons will not reduce their effectiveness.

Attack: 925 physical
Recurring Nightmare (36 MP): 863 physical. If this attack kills the target, user gets a new turn immediately.
Become the Lightning (20% HP): Increase the user's PAtk and MAtk by 25% for three turns (~44% more damage dealt)
Dream Within a Dream (36 MP): 2469 physical over 3 hits
Shroud (46 MP): 2282 dark physical
Milk Poison (46 MP): 617 phyiscal. 6x damage against poisoned targets.
Flit (15% HP): Automatically evade one physical attack (do note Turn Tables...)
Sick Twist (46 MP): 617 phyiscal. 6x damage against contagioned targets.
Never-Ending Nightmare (106 MP): 3395 physical. If this attack kills the target, user gets a new turn immediately.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Dream Within a Dream x4 + Never-Ending Nightmare x2: 16666

Comments: Results Guaranteed may well be the most broken thing in BD2, and honestly pure Phantom only begins to scratch the surface of the silly things it can do. It's enough, though. With Phantom's high Aim and Speed, they can easily land any BD2 status via normally low-rate status weapons. If that doesn't work they also ORKO average with damage. If both of those are out they can try to spam Flit to farm extra turns against physical opponents (they can use it up to six times before running out of HP). They don't like durable mage bosses but otherwise, watch out.


Hellblade
HP: 6244 (118%)    MP: 424   Weight: 39/78   PAtk: 306   MAtk: 273
PDef: 151 (PDur 116%)    MDef: 136 (MDur 113%)   Speed: 82 (79%)   Aim: 73%   Eva: 87   Crit: 28%
Excalibur, none, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Dwarven Gloves

Specialties:
Deal with the Devil: 8% of HP and MP are restored at the end of each turn, but being knocked out will reduce BP to -3.
Strength in Adversity: Taking damage equal to more than 25% of max HP will cause PAtk and PDef to be increased by 10% for three turns. This buff cannot be dispelled. Does not trigger from self-inflicted damage. (~25% more damage dealt ~3% less damage received)

Passives:
Surpassing Power: The damage cap for user's attacks increases from 9999 to 99999. (Laughably DL-irrelevant.)

Attack: 413 physical
Ruby/Sapphire/Diamond/Carnelian/Emerald/Quartz/Onyx Blades (25% HP): 612 physical of any one BD2 element, 73% hit. This damage is dealt two additional times at intervals of 4 clockticks (92% speed). Each damage makes a separate hit/crit check, and uses the buffs/debuffs active at the time it lands for its damage calculation. Only three recurring-blade-effects can be active on a target at once.
Dread Blade (44 MP): Attempt to inflict dread on target
Minus Strike (1 BP): Inflict damage on a target equal to the user's max HP minus their current HP, 73% hit.
Terrorise (44 MP): 306 physical. 6x damage to targets under the effects of dread.
Death Throes (10 MP): The user is doomed (dies five turns from now). PAtk and PDef are raised by 50% as long as doom lasts. This move has a cooldown of 4 clockticks (92% speed). (~126% more damage dealt and ~13% less damage received)

Optimum 3-turn damage: Death Throes + Default + Blades x3 + Minus Strike: 6453
*This is their optimum damage against an opponent that does not lower their HP. Should their opponent do that, they will need to switch to Minus Strike sooner.

Comments: Someone hit BD Dark Knight with a huge nerf bat. Minus Strike gets a BP cost, and the multipliers on their self-damage blade moves are just dreadful... even before considering that the damage-over-time is incredibly hard to use in a duel considering it drops their HP. That said, Hellblade is still pretty good against opponents with poor damage and evasion, since if they can get to low HP they can get off two damaging Minus Strikes. Their 8% regen will slow the opponent's route to killing them, which makes their limit a little harder to chip around.


Bravebearer
HP: 6842 (130%)    MP: 637   Weight: 28/88   PAtk: 306   MAtk: 273
PDef: 184 (PDur 134%)    MDef: 154 (MDur 130%)   Speed: 145 (137%)   Aim: 102%   Eva: 155   Crit: 21%
Excalibur, none, Headband, none, Wind Talisman, Adamant Bangle

Specialties:
Adrenaline: Defeating a target increases BP by one.
True Grit: BP increases by one at the start of each turn.

Passives:
Sword Lore: Sword aptitude is increased to S. (All of Bravebearer's default weapon ranks are B.)
Obliterate: Any enemy twenty or more levels below the user is instantly killed at the beginning of battle.
Sub-Job Specialty 2: The second speciality listed for the user's sub-job is activated. Not legal to me (due to requiring active investment into other classes), have fun with this if you feel differently!

Attack: 459 physical
Supergravity (36 MP): Deal fixed damage to all targets equal to 25% of the user's current HP.
Wall of Woe (84 MP): Full field. Causes all targets to lose one BP three times at intervals roughly equal to the time it takes Bravebearer to get a turn.
Practice Makes Perfect (2 BP): Deal fixed damage to a target based on the number of minutes the game has been played. ~3000 is probably reasonable? Easy 9999 if you leave the game on several nights in a row or something. I'm ignoring this.
Dawn of Odyssey (58 MP): Full field. Causes all targets to gain one BP three times at intervals roughly equal to the time it takes Bravebearer to get a turn.
Hypergravity (80 MP): Deal fixed damage to all targets equal to 50% of the user's current HP.
Equaliser (32 MP): Full field. Reduce BP by one for targets whose BP is at +1 or more, and increase it by one for anyone whose BP is at -1 or below.
Victory Smite (25% HP): Deal fixed damage to a target based on the number of battles you've won * 2. (Somewhere a bit under 2000? No clue. I'm ignoring this.)
Gigagravity (125 MP): Deal damage to all targets equal to 75% of the user's current HP.
Victory Double (3 BP): Deal fixed damage to a target based on the number of battles you've won * 3, twice (so x6 in total).

Note that all of Bravebearer's fixed damage moves are considered physical, meaning they are subject to physical evasion and affected by buffs/debuffs which directly modify physical damage. However, they ignore the MT damage penalty and all stats except the ones they are explicitly listed as keying off of.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Because their damage is basically impossible to predict, Bravebearer has been excluded from the damage average. Their offence is excellent if they are at full HP, but becomes quite bad as their HP drops (unless you respect Practice Makes Perfect more than I do).

Comments: Clarissa Plus, pretty much. Their strategy is simple: outspeed the opponent and use Gigagravity 4 times for roughly 2PCHP damage. Evasion and counters (which have to work against MT) slow this down but not much else does. They do fear foes who outspeed them, though their durability and good statusblocker access will help out in such fights.


Averages at the bottom

HP 5282, MP 527, PDef 154, MDef 144, Speed 110, Aim 57%, Crit 26%
Three turn damage: 12323
Kill point: 10269


Things that still could be done

I may do some of these if people ask nicely.

1. Tests for status in general, Wild Wizardry backfire rate, Critical Flow rate.
2. Listing more specials.
3. Factoring crit into the damage and damage average.

Appendix: Jobs that are theoretically (slightly) better with two Adamant Bangles:
Black Mage, Monk, Ranger, Pictomancer, Dragoon, Swordmaster

23

Unranked Games / Re: Bravely Default II

« on: October 20, 2024, 01:39:47 AM »

Averages up top

HP 5282, MP 527, PDef 154, MDef 144, Speed 110, Aim 57%, Crit 26%
Three turn damage: 12323
Kill point: 10269

Freelancer
HP: 5635 (107%)    MP: 548   Weight: 57/59   PAtk: 229   MAtk: 212
PDef: 166 (PDur 107%)    MDef: 131 (MDur 101%)   Speed: 105 (69%)   Aim: 51%   Eva: 111   Crit: 51%
Darksteel Kukri, Assassin Dagger, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Dwarven Gloves

Specialties:
Stand Ground: 50% chance of surviving with one HP when taking enough damage to be knocked out. This ability will not be triggered if the user has one HP. The activation rate is affected additively by luck boosts.
Late Bloomer: Boosts all stats based on the number of jobs mastered. Each mastered job (lv 12+) gives: 100 HP, 10 MP, 15 P.Atk, 15 P.Def, 15 M.Atk, 15 M.Def, 4 Res. Power, 2 Speed, 3 Aim, 2 Evasion, 1 Crit. Mastering Freelancer counts towards this total (factored in).

Special (activate by using attack command 12 times)
All-Out Attack: 1335 physical, 51% hit. Then adds +20% PAtk and MAtk, MT.

Attack: 133 physical.
Examine: Reveal target's HP, weaknesses, and family
Treat (20 MP): Restore 20% of a target's HP and 10% of their MP.
Forage: Search for items.
Lucky Charm (15 MP): Increase a target's luck by +15% for five turns.
Purge (20 MP): Remove berserk, confusion, dread, charm and doom from a target.
Square One (28 MP): Remove all buffs and debuffs from a target.
Body Slam (1 BP): 1848 physical, 51% hit. Delays target's turn by roughly half a clocktick (about 10% of an average turn)
Wish Upon a Star (42 MP): Increase luck by +20% for five turns, MT. (10% at day, 30% at night.)
Mimic: Repeat the most recent action peformed by the user or an ally without expending HP, MP, BP, pg or items.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Body Slam, Mimic x4: 4712

Comments: Having C ranks in all weapons is awful, and leaves them slow and inaccurate as they try to scrounge up anything to make Body Slam work. Against the truly offensively inept they can stall with Treat, but they lack the defence buffing of BD1 Freelancer so this is pretty questionable. Puny, but pretty good there!


Black Mage
HP: 4414 (84%)    MP: 637   Weight: 28/52   PAtk: 219   MAtk: 303
PDef: 131 (PDur 79%)    MDef: 123 (MDur 78%)   Speed: 86 (110%)   Aim: 42%   Eva: 99   Crit: 18%
Nirvana, none, Mystic Hood, Manarobe, Adamant Bangle, Wind Talisman
Halves fire/water/ice

Specialties:
Regenrative Default: Defaulting restores 48 MP.
High-Velocity Spells: Prevents all attack spells from being nullified or absorbed. Will not bypass damage-halving or reflect effects.

Passives:
Lunar-Powered: During the night, +10% MAtk/evasion/luck, and 4% of MP is restored each turn. (Half of this effect is assumed, so 13 MP per turn.)
Aspir Attack: Attack command restores MP equal to 3.4% of damage dealt.

Attack: 98 physical. User regains 3 MP.
Fire, Blizzard, Thunder (15 MP): 537 fire/ice/lightning magic, ST/MT
Poison (18 MP): Attempt to poison a target.
Fira, Blizzara, Thundara (38): 1099 fire/ice/lightning magic, ST/MT
Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga (66 MP): 1709 fire/ice/lightning magic, ST/MT

Optimum 3-turn damage: Blizzaga x6: 10254

Comments: It's funny, they might have had a healing game with Icefire Shield + Manarobe if not for that second specialty. Anyway Black Mage is great against the magically frail but rapidly falls off against more durable foes, usually winning in either three or four turns on average. They ignore immunity, but anyone who merely resists the big three elements really ruins their day. Kinda speedy at least. Light/Middle?


White Mage
HP: 4788 (91%)    MP: 561   Weight: 31/52   PAtk: 237   MAtk: 245
PDef: 135 (PDur 86%)    MDef: 94 (MDur 79%)   Speed: 94 (110%)   Aim: 22%   Eva: 98   Crit: 16%   Res Power: 180
Nirvana, none, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Power Bracers

Specialties:
Angelic Ward: 30% chance of any damage received being halved.
Holistic Medicine: Revival, status-healing, and healing spells which are normally ST-only can be used MT at no penalty.

Special (activate by using white magic 12 times)
9999 healing MT, also heals all status ailments. Then adds +15% PDef and MDef, MT.

Passives:
Solar-Powered: During the day, +10% res power/aim/luck, and 4% of MP is restored each turn. (Half of this effect is assumed, so 11 MP per turn.)
Drain Attack: Restoer 20% of damage dealt as HP.
Better than Ever: When the user is healed beyond max HP, their max HP is temporarily increased by the remainder. Max HP can not exceed 9999.

Attack: 138 physical. User regains 28 HP.
Cure (8 MP): 1863 healing, ST/MT
Protect (11 MP): Increase a target's physical defence by 15% for three turns. Stats cannot be increased beyond 200% of their base value. (Roughly -3.5% physical damage taken.)
Shell (13 MP): Increase a target's magic defence by 15% for three turns. Stats cannot be increased beyond 200% of their base value. (Roughly -3% magic damage taken.)
Raise (25 MP): Revive a knocked-out target and restore 2795 HP.
Cura (28 MP): 3727 healing, ST/MT
Benediction (15% HP): Increase the user's restorative power by 30% for three turns. Stats cannot be increased beyond 200% of their base value.
Basuna (22 MP): Cure a target of poison, blindness, silence, sleep, paralysis, contagion, freezing and daubing.
Arise (95 MP): Revive a knocked-out target with full HP.
Curaga (60 MP): 5963 healing, ST/MT

Optimum 3-turn damage: Attack x6: 828

Comments: Are you ready for 100-turn fights? I hope so. White Mage is fast and can heal for a very, very long time with Cure and Cura. They have no damage and their buffs are terrible, but they're a pain to put away. If you let them choose to fight during the day they get notably better because doubling the MP restoration makes them even harder to overwhelm. Light/Middle.


Vanguard
HP: 6244 (118%)    MP: 377   Weight: 43/78   PAtk: 534   MAtk: 231
PDef: 193 (PDur 125%)    MDef: 95 (MDur 103%)   Speed: 101 (79%)   Aim: 52%   Eva: 109   Crit: 35%
Parashu, none, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Dwarven Gloves

Specialties:
Shield-Bearer: Equipping a shield does not negatively affect speed, aim or evasion.
Attention Seeker: PAtk and critical chance are boosted based on the user's chance of being targeted. CoBT is a stat which various equips boost; with Vanguard's default louadout, this specialty multiplies Atk by 1.89 and Crit by 1.18.

Passives:
Pain into Gain: Taking damage while not Defaulting has a 30% chance of increasing physical attack power by ~2% (no duration limit).
Defensive Offence: Performing an attack or offensive ability with a weapon equipped will cause all damage to the user to be multiplied by 70% until their next turn. Does not stack with itself. (durability becomes 179%/147%)

Attack: 1059 physical.
Cross Cut (18 MP): 2913 physical dealt in 2 hits, 52% hit.
Shield Bash (10% HP): 971 earth physical, 52% hit. Requires a shield equipped. Delays target's turn by about 0.2 clockticks (~4% of an average turn)
Defang (12 MP): 1148 physical, 52% hit. Lowers target's PAtk by 7% for five turns (~9.5% damage reduction)
Skull Bush (12 MP): 1148 physical, 52% hit. Lowers target's MAtk by 7% for five turns (~8.5% damage reduction)
Aggravate: Increases user's chance of being targeted by 25% for two turns. (Due to Attention Seeker, each use also raises physical damage dealt by 18%.)
Sword of Stone (26 MP): 2957 earth physical, 52% hit.
Shield Stun (25% HP): 441 physical, 52% hit. Requires a shield equipped. Delays target's turn by about 0.4 clockticks (~8% of an average turn)
Enrage (24 MP): Guarantee that the target's next two actions will be aimed at the user (or must include the user, if MT).
The Gift of Courage (1 BP): Target gains 1 BP.
Neo Cross Slash: 6004 physical dealt in 2 hits, 52% hit.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Neo Cross Slash x6: 18732

Comments: Slow but punishing. If Vanguard gets a turn, they can unleash four uses of Neo Cross Slash which is enough to kill average even assuming only half the hits land... and due to their good physical durability and Defensive Offence, they can often expect to survive to a second turn to squeeze out even more. The highly evasive give them all sorts of headaches, though. Good Heavy.

Monk
HP: 6842 (130%)    MP: 487   Weight: 23/59   PAtk: 293   MAtk: 83
PDef: 201 (PDur 139%)    MDef: 149 (MDur 128%)   Speed: 87 (137%)   Aim: 119%   Eva: 98   Crit: 12%
none, none, Headband, Valkyrie's Coat, Adamant Bangle, Power Bracers

Specialties:
Concentration: Crit rate is increased by 1% of Monk's base crit rate (so +0.12%) every time Invigorate, Inner Alchemy, or Mindfulness is used. (Yes, this is junk. It'd be pretty bad even if it were actually +1%!)
Single-Minded: Prevents berserk, confusion and charming. Using Martial Arts abilities or Default causes the next turn to come around slightly more quickly. (The latter effect is subtle, and already factored in.)

Passives:
Bare-Kunckle Brawler: Boosts user and equipment's physical attack by 80% and aim by 30% when both hands are empty. (Factored in.)

Attack: 409 physical.
Strong Strike (18% HP): 1227 physical. Has a ~40% chance fo miss, even if the attack passes the aim/evade roll.
Inner Alchemy (20 MP): Restore 20% of the user's HP and cure poison, blindness and slow.
Firebird (15% HP): 682 fire physical. Target's resistance to fire is reduced one level for two turns.
Qigong Wave (20% HP): 819 physical, ignores default.
Mindfulness (1 BP): Restore 15% of the user's MP and cure silence, dread and contagion.
Flying Heel Drop (30% HP): 1227 physical
Invigorate (20 MP): Boost the user's physical attack by 15% for three turns. About ~40% more damage dealt per use.
Tortoise Kick (10% HP): 382 physical. Delays target's turn by about 0.3 clockticks. (~6% of an average turn.)
Flames of War (35% HP): 1638 fire physical
Pressure Point (1 BP): 2816 physical, ignores defence and default. (Only receives +15% from Invigorate.)
Focal Blast (99 MP): 2185 physical. Also reduces a random stat (PAtk, PDef, MAtk, MDef) by 20%. If PDef is reduced, +34% to Monk's base damage. If PAtk or MAtk is reduced, -28%/-27% damage received.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Invigorate x2, Focal Blast x4: 15853

Comments: Monk is so saved by their last two abilities it's not funny; this class has a worse reputation than the numbers here suggest and that's pretty much why. Anyway, Invigorate until they're about to die, then unleash four Focal Blasts; even one Invigorate will typically allow a KO. With their HP and speed, this works very well. Heavy.


Bard
HP: 5161 (98%)    MP: 722   Weight: 52/59   PAtk: 204   MAtk: 253
PDef: 183 (PDur 101%)    MDef: 214 (MDur 115%)   Speed: 105 (69%)   Aim: -6%   Eva: 102   Crit: 14%
Nirvana, none, Mystic Hood, Black Robe, Adamant Bangle, Dark Talisman

Specialties:
Extended Outro: The effects of Singing abilities last a turn longer. So all the "three turns" in the description below become "four turns", etc.
Encore: When a Singing ability is performed, there is a 25% chance that an additional Singing ability will be triggered.

Passives:
Born Entertainer: The effects of Singing and Artistry abilities are increased additively by round(Level / 15)%. So 3%, at Level 38-52. Factored in.

Attack: 0% hit rate. If it hits (e.g. a sleeping target), 72 damage.
Don't Let 'em Get to You (20 MP): Reduce physical damage to multiple targets by 18% for three turns. Caps at -80%. (-35% in the PC version)
Don't Let 'em Trick You (20 MP): Reduce magical damage to multiple targets by 18% for three turns. Caps at -80%. (-35% in the PC version)
Step into the Spotlight (20 MP): Increase the likelihood of a target being the subject of enemy attacks by 23% for three turns.
Close Those Tired Eyes (12 MP): Sleep.
(Won't) Be Missing You (18 MP): Increase multiple targets' aim by 8% for three turns.
Right Through Your Fingers (18 MP): Increase multiple targets' evasion by 5% for three turns. (Useless in a duel, Bard does not have the base evade to make this work.)
Hurts So Bad (38 MP): Increase physical damage inflicted by multiple targets by 18% for two turns.
Work Your Magic (38 MP): Increase magical damage inflicted by multiple targets by 18% for two turns.
All Killer No Filler (60 MP): Increase multiple targets' critical chance by 15% (multiplicatively) for two turns.
Screamin' It Out (54 MP): 985 psuedomagic, MT
Shut Up and Dance (194 MP): Cause a target to act immediately after the user's turn ends. If used on multiple targets (via Brave or Encore), they will get their turns in a random order.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Screamin' It Out x6: 5910

Comments: Bard's gonna try to kill with Screamin' It Out, but that's an 11HKO. Buffs can help a bit, but not very much sadly. Their only hope is that sleep ends up decently accurate, but I'm a bit skeptical. Puny.


Beastmaster
HP: 7535 (143%)    MP: 824   Weight: 39/65   PAtk: 436   MAtk: 397
PDef: 326 (PDur 200%)    MDef: 308 (MDur 229%)   Speed: 111 (92%)   Aim: 93%   Eva: 133   Crit: 34%
Ryunohige, none, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Power Bracers

Specialties:
Animal Rescue: When an attack on the user reduces their HP to 20% or lower, Off the Leash will be used as a counter, choosing a random monster but not consuming a use.
Creature Comforts: Each creature captured gives: 5 HP, 1 MP, 0.4 P.Atk, 0.4 P.Def, 0.4 M.Atk, 0.4 M.Def, 0.2 Res. Power, 0.02 Speed, 0.02 Aim, 0.02 Evasion, 0.04 Crit. 400 captures is assumed.

Passives:
Raw Power: Every use of the Brave command increases physical attack by 10% (= 17% more damage) until the end of the turn. Note that Brave commands are entered before any attack resolves, so a full chain will get a +51% damage boost.
Spearhead: The user will act first in battle when a spear is equipped. (Yes Ryunohige is a spear.)
MP Saver: Reduces MP consumption by 20%. (Not factored in yet.)
Beast Whisperer: Any monster defeated has a 30% chance of being captured (see below).

Attack: 920 physical
Capture: Captures a target monster, instantly defeating it and adding it to the capture list. Capture chance varies linearly from 0 to 40% as enemy HP drops, but once enemy HP drops below 10 the chance quickly spikes up to 100%.

Off the Leash: Releases a single captured monster, which will use an attack based on its own stats (notably, this means they are not affected by Beastmaster's buffs/debuffs and Raw Power). Some notable ones are as follows:
-Siamese Cait / Holy: ~5500 holy magic
-Fallen Frond / Tornado: ~5300 wind magic
-Coppice / Quake: ~5100 earth magic
-Turan / White Wind: 4670 healing MT
-Amon / Volcanic Fang: ~4900 physical fire
-Reaper Sellsword / Flesh Cleaver: Damage equal to 50% of the target's max HP, caps at 9999, ~50% hit rate
-Reaper Lancer / Triple Thrust: Three hits of ~1350 physical against random targets
They also have access to good MP damage and loads of status attacks. I ain't testing the accuracy of the latter.

Staggering Swipe (19 MP): 889 physical. Delays target's turn by about 0.35 clockticks. (~7% of an average turn.)
Muzzle (12 MP): Silence, MT.
Mow Down (21 MP): 1460 physical MT
Mercy Strike (11 MP): 1333 physical. Cannot reduce a target below 1 HP.
Mercy Smash (35 MP): 2667 physical. Cannot reduce a target below 1 HP.
Off the Chain (2 BP): Releases a single captured monster. If the monster is a damage-dealing one, it deals triple its normal damage. Cannot exceed 9999 damage per hit (so the most powerful option is Reaper Lancer at a bit over ~12000).

Comments: Generally considered the game's most powerful job and it's not hard to see why. They may swing a bit on how many of any one monster you let them bring in, and the exact number of assumed total captures. That said? They have first strike, incredible damage (even a single Reaper Lancer at 3x power kills average), and can heal. Along with double average durability and good statusblockers. I didn't build them for speed because they have first strike anyway but they can easily trade away physical damage to get above average speed if needed. Godlike obviously.


Thief
HP: 4061 (77%)    MP: 527   Weight: 33/52   PAtk: 199   MAtk: 186
PDef: 116 (PDur 71%)    MDef: 101 (MDur 68%)   Speed: 152 (137%)   Aim: 61%   Eva: 142   Crit: 37%
Zwill Crossblade, none, Headband, none, Dwarven Gloves, Diamond Gloves

Specialties:
Sleight of Hands: 'Steal X' abilities will also steal one buff effect from the target and give it to the user.
Up to No Good: Defaulting no longer causes BP to increase, but all abilities that are usually performed using BP can be performed using MP (1 BP becomes 40 MP, etc.), and the cost of 'Steal X' abilities is halved.

Passives:
Attack Item Amp: Damage inflicted by items is increased by 50%.
Mug: The user occasionally steals items when performing regular attacks.
Magpie: 25% chance of acquiring rare items when stealing.
Rob Blind: When stealing, two items can be acquired at once.

Attack: 44 physical
Steal: grab an item
Steal Breath (27 MP / 2): 49 physical, heals user by that much
Flee (20 MP): Escape battle without fail
Steal Spirit (15% HP / 2): 4 MP damage, heals user by 3x that much
Sky Slicer (1 BP = 40 MP): 159 wind physical
Steal Courage (2 BP = 40 MP): Steals a BP from the target, 50% success rate. Doesn't work on targets with 0 BP (so anyone who has not yet gained BP).
Godspeed Strike (95 MP): 2755 physical, 61% hit. This damage will be repeated 2 clockticks later (half the time to Thief needs to get their next turn).
You Snooze, You Lose (2 BP = 80 MP): 39 physical. 6x damage vs. sleeping targets.

Note: Due to the fact that Thief has a passive which boosts attack items and can acquire them with Steal, you might allow Thief to use them. The only ones which matter have a pg cost of 2200 and deal 1500 (1950 with Attack Item Amp) fixed damage MT; there is one for each BD2 element. This isn't as strong as Godspeed Strike, but provides a backup option against physical walls.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Godspeed Strike (x2) x5: 16805
(braving for the full chain on turn 2 so that the echo damage lands by turn 3)

Comments: Thief skillset is entirely junk with one, shining exception: Godspeed Strike, one of the best attacks in the game. Their strategy is simple: use their game-best speed to strike first and unleash a flurry of Godspeed Strikes. The opening salvo will only take out the frail, but the followup damage half a turn later will finish off many more. Against stallers they can put on pressure more slowly, though the limited MP and their inability to store BP sucks. Heavy.


Gambler
HP: 5161 (98%)    MP: 414   Weight: 40/65   PAtk: 266   MAtk: 296
PDef: 115 (PDur 90%)    MDef: 119 (MDur 90%)   Speed: 105 (110%)   Aim: 36%   Eva: 137   Crit: 26%
Sylvan Bow, none, none, none, Adamant Bangle, Wind Talisman

Specialties:
All or Nothing: Experience, JP or pg earned after battle will drop to zero, but one of these three amounts will also very occasionally be multiplied by 15.
Born Lucky: Raises luck by 10%. Also increases the number of winning slots in roulette abilities (factored in).

Passives:
More Money: earns 10% more money
Night Shift: Luck +20% at night
Rare Talent: +10% chance to get rare drops (also lowers the chance to get common drops, even if they're better or no rare drop exists...)

Attack: 225 physical
Odds or Evens (200 pg): 307 physical, 36% hit. 60% chance of double damage on a hit.
Life or Death (666 pg): Revives, MT. HP restored varies randomly from 200 to 1000. 22% chance of killing the user.
Flash the Cash (2400 pg): 3120 fixed damage
Spin the Wheel (1 BP): gives a random amount (~462) of pg
Elemental Wheel (300 pg): Random pseudomagic damage, average 1323. Element is also chosen randomly from BD2 elements + non-elemental.
Triples (500 pg): 307 physical, 36% hit. 40% chance of triple damage on a hit.
Bold Gambit (777 pg): Randomly sets either all allies' or all enemies' BP to 3.
High Roller (10000 pg): 2255 physical, 36% hit.
Dealer's Choice (1 BP): "Trigger random effects that can affect enemies, allies or both." I ain't touchin' this.

Optimum 3-turn damage: Elemental Wheel x3, Flash the Cash x3: 13329

Comments: Above average speed and manages a low ORKO to average. I would love dearly to give them less money because they suck in-game, but they're probably good here unless you're harsh.


Berserker
HP: 6235 (118%)    MP: 480   Weight: 46/78   PAtk: 321   MAtk: 262
PDef: 161 (PDur 118%)    MDef: 113 (MDur 107%)   Speed: 63 (69%)   Aim: 21%   Eva: 93   Crit: 19%
Parashu, none, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Diamond Gloves

Specialties:
Pierce Default: Attacking a defaulting target no longer results in reduced damage.
Rage and Reason: 50% chance of being able to choose actions while berserk.

Passives:
Bloody-Minded: The user's physical attacks always hit, ignoring all accuracy/evasion (including "guaranteed" evasion). However, they also lose HP equal to 20% of damage dealt (cannot be lethal).
Free-for-All: When berserk, a random offensive ability (including the attack command) will be chosen, instead of always the attack command. Abilities used while berserk have no HP/MP/BP cost.
Unshakeable Will: Prevents sleep, paralysis, dread, berserk, confusion, charm, freeze, and stop.
Indiscriminate Rage: Attack command becomes full multitarget at no damage penalty, but recharge time becomes 16 ticks (31% speed) [should not be set in a duel, obviously]

note: Berserker's base aim is awful. They should always use Bloody-Minded, even though it makes them self-destruct.

Attack: 516 physical, 103 to self
Crescent Moon (1 BP): 1100 physical MT, 220+ to self
Vent Fury (18 MP): Inflict berserk, self, for 3 turns. Berserk raises Atk by 50% (2.18x damage dealt), lowers Def by 30% (~8.5% more damage taken), and results in a 50% chance of using a random offensive action, and a 50% chance of choosing the action instead. [doesn't play nice with Unshakeable Will]
Double Damage (55 MP): 1204 physical, 240 to self
Water Damage (32 MP): 1032 water physical, 206 to self
Shell Split (16 MP): 412 physical, 82 to self. Lowers target's PDef by 5% for five turns (~7% more damage dealt)
Scale Strip (18 MP): 412 physical, 82 to self. Lowers target's MDef by 5% for five turns
Level Slash (30% HP): 2752 physical MT, 550 to self
Amped Strike (120 MP): 2752 physical, 550 to self

Optimum damage: Amped Strike x4: 11008.
(They can manage more they have zero it invariably involves self-damage, so I'm not inclined to consider it in the averages. Crescent Moon adds an extra 1100 for 220 damage taken, Vent Fury CAN randomly add a lot more, but involves getting lucky.)

Comments: Berserker is slow, but powerful. Just hitting something in the face with an axe real hard works well enough for many. If they need more offence, they may want to consider giving up their Adamant Bangle for more MP, and either throwing in some chippy uses of Shell Split or going for YOLO strats with Berserk... if they manage a turn under control with that via Rage and Reason, their damage climbs to gross overkill. But with their terrible speed, they won't pull the latter strategy off often. Heavy.


Red Mage
HP: 3735 (71%) MP: 677 Weight: 29/59 PAtk: 193 MAtk: 233
PDef: 98 (PDur 63%) MDef: 147 (MDur 70%) Speed: 105 (110%) Aim: -6% Eva: 128 Crit: 12%
Nirvana, none, none, none, Dark Talisman, Dark Talisman

Specialties:
Nuisance: All attack spells also have a chance of inflicting status ailments. The ailment inflicted depends on the spell element. (wind: sleep and silence; earth: slow and stop)
Chainspell: All spells cast are performed twice at no extra MP cost.

Passives:
Magic Critical: Enables magical attacks to inflict critical hits.
Revenge: 25% chance of the user's BP increasing by one when attacked.


Attack: 0% hit rate. If it hits (e.g. a sleeping target), 30 damage.
Stone (15 MP): 198*2 = 396 earth magic, ST/MT
Aero (15 MP): 258*2 = 516 wind magic, ST/MT
Heal (14 MP): 1000*2 = 2000 healing
Stonera (38 MP): 447*2 = 894 earth magic, ST/MT
Aerora (38 MP): 581*2 = 1162 wind magic, ST/MT
Healara (36 MP): 2000*2 = 4000 healing
Healaga (49 MP): 3000*2 = 6000 healing
Stonega (66 MP): 695*2 = 1390 earth magic, ST/MT
Aeroga (66 MP): 904*2 = 1808 wind magic, ST/MT
Disaster (100 MP): 1485*2 = 2970 earth & wind magic

Optimum 3-turn damage: Disaster x12: 17820

Comments: Chainspell Disaster is a lot of damage off pretty good speed. However, it’s a lot less if either earth resistance or wind resistance enter play, especially the latter. For longer fights, healing + Revenge is an option, but MP resources will likely be a severe issue in that case.


Ranger
HP: 5161 (98%) MP: 414 Weight: 50/65 PAtk: 325 MAtk: 277
PDef: 124 (PDur 91%) MDef: 115 (MDur 89%) Speed: 122 (79%) Aim: 100% Eva: 109 Crit: 29%
Sylvan Bow, none, Headband, none, Adamant Bangle, Power Bracers

Specialties:
Barrage: For each previous action already taken this turn, +10% damage dealt. (So a full brave chain does 4.6x damage instead of 4x.)
Apex Predator: Species-slayer abilities are more powerful (factored in), and will earn one BP for every critical hit inflicted or enemy killed.

Passives:
Counter-Savvy: The user is always able to evade physical counter abilities. (That is, counters which are physical, regardless of their trigger.)
Who Dares Wins: While BP is 1 or higher, user gains +30 crit and immunity to blind. Note that using brave to go below 1 BP will remove the crit boost for the entire string of actions.

Attack: 531 physical
Shadowbind (14 MP): Attempt to paralyse a target.
Quickfire Flurry (7% HP): 5 to 8 physical hits against random targets dealing a total average damage of around 1026
Humanoid Slayer (66 MP): 1841 physical to humanoid targets, 354 otherwise.
Other Slayer abilities (28-38 MP): 1841 physical to the appropriate species (bug, plant, beast, aquatic, undead, and demon), 354 otherwise. Note that every BD2 enemy falls into a species type which Ranger hits weakness on, except spirits (Ranger eventually gets a Spirit Slayer too, but it's aftergame). Undead and Demon Slayer skills cost 38 MP, the rest 28 MP.
Sloth Hunter (42 MP): 708 physical dealt in 2 hits. 4x damage against slowed targets.

Optimum 3-turn damage: 6x Humanoid Slayer (=6.6 with Barrage bonus): 12150

Comments: Ranger is weirdly unremarkable. Due to the weight of bows they end up a bit slow and not that durable, and the damage is fairly average. They can default once and then have a ~60% chance to gain BP each turn thereafter but this is only useful in long fights. Shadowbind definitely merits testing since that'll likely be a big deal for them.

24

Unranked Games / Bravely Default II

« on: October 20, 2024, 01:38:11 AM »

Bravely Default II is the third game in the Bravely series, in yet another odd naming choice for the franchise. Like the previous games, it is job-based in the tradition of Final Fantasy V.

This stat topic showcases the 24 jobs, rather than the 4 mechanically identical playable characters. (As in the previous games, one could construct a stat topic based on each character receiving the jobs they are shown with in the "job preview" screen, but that's not what this thread is for.)

Useful resources

BD2 Abilities, Scaling, & Effects - basically the best resource out there on BD2 mechanics (credit: Tables). It's fair to say this stat topic would not exist without it.
Explanation of BD2 turn order mechanics (credit: thanderhop)
BD2 enemy stats (warning, it's sorted by formation, so it's huge)
The spreadsheet used to construct this stat topic - by me. Feel free to make a copy and mess with PC setups!

Brave, Default, and BP, oh my!

Returning from the previous games are the brave and default commands. They work similarly to said previous games, except the damage reduction from Default isn't quite as potent.

-Every PC can access the "Brave" command, which allows an additional action. Brave can be used up to three times in one turn, giving 4 actions total. Brave must be used at the start of the turn, before seeing how any actions resolve. Using Brave consumes 1 BP.
-Every PC also has access to the "Default" command. This cannot be used on the same turn as Brave. Using it immediately ends the character's turn, but they will gain 1 BP. They will also reduce damage received by 40% until the start of their next turn (this number was 50% in previous games).
-All characters start at 0 BP (unless one side surprises the other; surprise attacks are not considered in this stat topic).
-If a character is at less than 0 BP and their turn comes around, they will not be able to act; instead, they will gain 1 BP.
-Some abilities cost BP. This cost is paid at the moment the ability is used (unlike brave, which is paid when activated in the menu).
-The minimum BP is -3. If move's BP cost would lower the character below -3, the ability will instead fail.
-The maximum BP is +3. Default can still be used at +3 BP for its damage reduction and any other effects, but no BP will be gained.

It's Bravely, but CTB!

The biggest mechanical change from the previous games is that instead of the traditional Dragon Quest/Breath of Fire/etc. turn-based battle system, Bravely Default 2 is a clocktick-based game in the tradition of Final Fantasy X, Shadow Hearts 1-3, etc. When a character's turn rolls around, they choose an action, and faster characters get more actions.

Unfortunately, it's a fair bit more complicated than your average CTB game. The big thing you need to know is that after taking an action, a character can not start their progress towards their next turn until ANOTHER character (ally or enemy) gets a turn on a different clocktick.

So, strictly speaking, Bravely Default 2 battles would probably malfunction if there was ever only one character on the field (this never happens in-game, there has to be one on each side). And in a battle involving just a single PC and a single enemy, no doubleturning would ever be possible, because each fighter would have to wait for the other to get a turn before their own turn gauge starts to fill. Thus, you could argue that BD2 speed in a duel will do nothing past the first turn.

However, that is not the view I take. In-game, you never fight with fewer than three PCs, and there are usually multiple enemies as well (even many boss fights). If you set up two PCs, one fast and one slow, the former will get more turns, potentially many more, and Hard Mode bosses are speed demons; it seems silly to erase these facts because of a mechanical quirk. Therefore, this stat topic makes the following assumption:

-After a BD2 gets a turn, their turn gauge will begin filling 2 clockticks later.

(In-game the minimum is 1, so I figured 2 is a reasonable mean, given the spread of endgame tick counts by both PCs and enemies.)

What the stats do

HP, MP, BP: One of these is explained above, the other two merit no explanation.
PAtk, PDef, MAtk, MDef: Attack and defence operate in a subtractive system (see damage formula, below)
Restoration power: Base stat for White Mage's Cure series and Spiritmaster's Healthbringer. I will only list the stat for those jobs, as nobody else uses it.
Aim: Accuracy. I have assumed 200 enemy evade; the in-game stat is 200 points higher than what is shown here.
Evade: Evasion. This stat is mostly useless; even the most evasive jobs, taken 10 levels higher than I was and equipped for evade, will fail to break 0% against average enemy accuracy. While this stat can theoretically be potent, it basically requires farming evade stat boosters and/or layering a lot of buffs.
Crit: Crit rate; applies to all physical attacks. Critical hits do 50% more damage. I haven't accounted for it in damage figures, even though critical rates are reasonably substantial, so if you want to add a respect check to physicals and a disrespect check to (non-Red Mage) magic and non-typed damage, feel free.

Speed: Has a linear effect on how quickly a character's turn gauge fills up (though the fixed 2 clocktick addition makes it less than linear in practice). The number listed in brackets includes modifications from weight.

Weight: Each job has a maximum weight, and each piece of equipment has a weight stat. The weight of all equipment is added together to equal the character's current weight. Weight is an incredibly important stat with several effects:
1. If weight ever exceeds maximum weight, all of the character's stats drop by 10% or more, and speed will receive an additional penalty on top of this. Basically no character wants to exceed their max weight; any benefits to skills which scale off of it are offset by these losses.
2. True speed is multiplied by a number which ranges from 1 (if weight = max weight) to 1.5 (if weight = 1/2 max weight). The multiplier goes below 1 if weight exceeds max, as low as 0.7.
3. True speed is divided by weight or 22, whichever is lower.
So in general, once a character exceeds 22 weight, they begin to get slower. Once a character exceeds half their max weight, the rate of getting slower increases. You will notice that most characters in this stat topic do not go too far above half their max weight.

Physical and magical durability: Derived stats which reflect actual durability; higher is better. Includes HP, the effect of defence, and Salve-Maker's Thrust & Parry passive ability.

Luck: luck is a hidden stat which by default is zero. Certain abilities can raise luck. Luck affects the chance of most abilities/passives with percent-based chances of kicking in, but does not affect accuracy or status rates.

Abilities, Specialties, Specials, and Passives

Abilities refer to spells, skills, etc. Every job has them. Characters can use any ability from their list as an action, in addition to the attack command and default command (and the item command, but that's not considered here). Abilities may cost MP, BP, HP (as a percentage of max), or pg (money). If a character attempts to use an ability they cannot pay the cost for, the ability will fail and the action will be lost. In-game, any character can set a sub-job, which gives them the access to abilities of one other job which they have already learned, but this is not considered here.

Every job has two specialties, one gained at Job Level 1 (called specialty 1) and a second gained at Job Level 12 (called specialty 2). These are always active while in the job, and cannot be turned off (which is occasaionlly unfortunate!). Naturally, specialty 1 will be listed first in the job entries.

Every job additionally has a special attack (which isn't always an attack). To use the special attack, the job will need to use a certain command (usually 'any ability from their own job') a certain number of times. After being used, special attacks also raise the party's stats by a certain amount; this effect can not be dispelled, and lasts a certain amount of real time (until the song ends; in-game this duration will vary greatly with animation speed, etc.) Only likely to come up in extremely long fights, and I have only bothered listing the ones that I think are potentially DL-relevant.

Finally, every job has passives. Passives are learned by reaching certain job levels, and once learned, can be used even if the character changes jobs. Setting them costs SP; characters have 5 SP, and can switch their loadout between fights. In this stat topic, passives are assumed to be legal, and no job has passives totalling more than 5 SP cost anyway.


Key formulas

Damage = (Attack - Defence) * 2.3 * Ability Mulitplier * Random variance
-Physical attacks use PAtk and PDef, magic attacks use MAtk and MDef.
-Healing magic uses Restoration Power instead of Attack and treats Defence as zero.
-Random variance is 1 to 1.2 for physical attacks, but 0.8 to 1 for magic attacks and healing.
-Critical hits multiply damage by 1.5
-Hitting a weakness multiplies damage by 1.3.
-If an ability affects more than one target, its damage/healing is multiplied by 1/SQRT(n)-0.1, where n is the number of targets. This can result in anywhere from 61% (two targets) to 31% (six targets). Fixed-damage moves are exempt from this, but only a very few other moves ignore this.

Chance to hit = Aim - Evade. Only applies to physical attacks; BD2 does not have magic evade or anything which resembles it.

Basic attacks work a little differently. They make 2+round(Level/5) separate hit checks (= 12, at the levels assumed here). The attack will only miss if every hit check fails, so even low-accuracy characters can reliably land basic attacks. Basic attacks have a multiplier of 0.9 + 0.05 * (number of successful hit checks), i.e. they range from 0.95 to 1.5.

Clockticks to get a turn = 250 * [ Weight*9/200 , minimum 1 ] / ( [ 2 - Weight / Max Weight, minimum 0.7 and maximum 1.5 ] * Speed )
-This figure is rounded up at the end.
-If that's too much of a mess: the short version is 250 / Speed, with both numerator and denominator being modified by weight in different ways.
-Notice that a lightweight character with at least 84 speed can get a turn in two clockticks. The average in this stat topic is between three and four.
-The "250" which appears in this formula will vary based on the command a character has just used. 250 is used by the attack command and numerous abilities, but different abilities may substitute different numbers here. Mostly they hover from 225 to 300. Specifics can be found in the Abilities, Scaling, & Effects resource.

Stats granted by weapons and shields are multiplied by the character's proficiency in each, as follows:
S = 135%
A = 119%
B = 100%
C = 90%
D = 80%
E = 70%
For weapons: PAtk, MAtk, Aim, and Crit are mutiplied this way.
For shields: PDef, MDef, and Evade are multiplied by this way.

If wielding no weapons, Aim is raised by 100. If wielding two weapons, the PAtk, MAtk, Res Power, Aim, and Crit granted by each weapon is multiplied by 58.5%. Passives which allow unpenalized dual-wielding remove these penalties, except the ones for Aim/Crit which will remain (though note that wielding two weapons is almost always a source of better Aim than wielding one).

Status hit rate is increased by the attacker's level and magic attack. I do not know how much. I also do not know what target stats, if any, affect this rate, but presumably something does (level and MDef are both possibilities).

Buffs and debuffs

All buffs and debuffs wear off at the end of a fixed number of turns the target gets. Buffs and debuffs typically stack and add additively with each other, e.g. if a character receives Atk+25%, Atk+10%, and Atk-7%, they will have Atk+28%. Each buff/debuff wears off according to its own timer; unlike BD1, using buffs on a later turn does not reset the timer of earler ones. Buff/debuff effects cap at +100%, or -35%, unless otherwise noted.

Buffs and debuffs usually (but not always) affect the value of stats directly in a multiplicative fashion, which means that buffs to PAtk/MAtk are stronger than the raw numbers suggest due to the subtractive system, while multiplying less effective stats such as PC defences and evasion does little to nothing. Specific effects will be listed for the default equipment loadout of each job.

Elements

BD2 has seven elements: fire, ice/water, lightning, wind, earth, light, and dark. Any references in this stat topic to ice or water independently refer to the attack's flavour.

There are five levels of resistance in Bravely Default 2; by default, each character starts at 0. Various equipment raises resistance by 1 or 2 levels, while other effects can raise or lower resistance by 1 level. Enemies can start out at any of the five levels. Restiance caps at +3 (I think?) and -1; i.e. you can not make a target "extra" weak to an element.

+3: Element is absorbed.
+2: Element is nulled.
+1: Character takes 50% damage.
0: Character takes normal damage.
-1: Character takes 130% damage.

Some attacks carry two elements. Such attacks will hit the higher of the target's resistances, except that weakness takes priority over everything else. Such attacks can also be strengthened by equipment which strengthens either element, to full effect.

e.g. Red Mage's Disaster (earth/wind) is boosted 30% by the Nirvana staff (+30% wind damage dealt) but will be nullfied by an enemy who nullfies earth regardless of their wind resistance level, as long as they aren't weak to wind.

Assumptions

The stat topic is taken at Level 48, which is the average of the three playthroughs made between Amy and I. Higher levels would make status attacks more accurate and also raises PC accuracy, along with making MP pools slightly deeper, but all effects should be quite subtle.

Freelancer is taken at Job Level 15. All other jobs are taken at Job Level 12. It is possible to exceed Job Level 12 on other jobs, but requires defeating bosses which are, for the most part, clearly stronger than the final boss.
-Note that one job, Bravebearer, likely requires some JP-boosting items saved for them in order to reach JL12, or some grinding, since it is gained right before the final dungeon. I've decided to allow this in the stat topic since any level below 12 is arbitrary, but it would be reasonable to be harsher.

All figures are listed against the average of final dungeon randoms, which are as follows:
Level 68, 729 PAtk, 185 PDef, 563 MAtk, 185 MDef, 184 Spd, 325 Aim, 202 Eva (treated as 200)
(Lategame BD2 enemies kinda tower over PCs for stats. It doesn't save them even a little bit.)

Speed is calculated by adding 2 to clocktick counts, as detailed in the section on CTB mechanics. Since I don't know how turn 1 speed works, I simply did the same for turn 1 speed, even that's almost surely not exactly how it works.

The stat topic includes accessories. Without them, some PCs have unrealistically low accuracy. I recommend ignoring the elemental defences granted by accessories, as such effects are not usually considered in other games.

Although Adamant Bangles (+1800 HP) are storebought, no PC is assigned to use more than one by default. Although a few jobs might technically be slightly "better" (in terms of maximum product of durability, speed, and damage) with a second Adamant Bangle, it's never by a large amount, and this assumption has the effect of normalizing the HP curve to resemble in-game more closely.

Storebought equipment costing under 50000 pg is allowed. Notably, Ribbons are storebought in this game, but cost 200k. There is no "unique" equipment in BD2; every job can equip everything.

I've assumed Gambler and Salve-Maker have 9500 pg to work with. This was chosen so that Gambler's three-turn damage is an even mix of the relatively pricy Flash the Cash and the cheap Elemental Wheel.

BD2 has a day/night system. Some abilities are more effective in day than night or vice versa. All such abilities are taken at a point halfway between day and night.

No job is permitted to gain JP in any other job.

25

Discussion / Re: RPG line counts

« on: October 05, 2024, 11:21:51 PM »

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Remember when this was considered the story-heavy Fire Emblem game? Elferidge Farms remembers.

Anyway it's still a big game with a lot of lines, even with its lack of real support conversations (I am not counting the poor little vestigial RD support lines for this).

Total lines: 9274
(includes extended main plot as well as all info conversations, talk conversations, and boss conversations)

Part 1: 1809
Part 2: 896
Part 3: 3722
Part 4: 2860

By character:

1. Micaiah - 862 (9.3%)
2. Ike - 750 (8.1%)
3. Sothe - 455 (4.9%)
4. Elincia - 316 (3.4%)
5. Pelleas - 286 (3.1%)
6. Ranulf - 279 (3.0%)
7t. Narrator - 276 (3.0%)
7t. Yune - 276 (3.0%)
9. Sanaki - 238 (2.6%)
10. Tibarn - 214 (2.3%)
11. Zelgius - 179 (1.9%)
12. Sephiran - 170 (1.8%)
13. Lekain - 161 (1.7%)
14. Skrimir - 145 (1.6%)
15. Jill - 137 (1.5%)
16. Zihark - 126 (1.4%)
17. Nailah - 125 (1.3%)
18. Soren - 124 (1.3%)
19t. Almedha - 120 (1.3%)
19t. Geoffrey - 120 (1.3%)
21. Lucia - 117 (1.3%)
22. Kurthnaga - 114 (1.2%)
23. Rafiel - 108 (1.2%)
24. Tauroneo - 104 (1.1%)
25. Jarod - 99 (1.1%)
26. Aimee - 97 (1.0%)
27. Izuka - 96 (1.0%)
28. Reyson - 93 (1.0%)
29. Mist - 90 (1.0%)
30. Haar - 88 (0.9%)
31. Sigrun - 82 (0.9%)
32. Dheginsea - 80 (0.9%)
33. Tormod - 77 (0.8%)
34. Brom - 74 (0.8%)
35. Valtome - 73 (0.8%)
36. Lethe - 69 (0.7%)
37. Ena - 67 (0.7%)
38. Naesala - 63 (0.7%)
39. Nasir - 62 (0.7%)
40. Levail - 60 (0.6%)
41. Ashera - 57 (0.6%)
42t. Janaff - 53 (0.6%)
42t. Kieran - 53 (0.6%)
42t. Marcia - 53 (0.6%)
45t. Bastian - 52 (0.6%)
45t. Ludveck - 52 (0.6%)
Rolf - 48 (0.5%)
Meg - 45 (0.5%)
Nolan - 45 (0.5%)
Titania - 45 (0.5%)
Edward - 44 (0.5%)
Heather - 42 (0.5%)
Shinon - 41 (0.4%)
Boyd - 40 (0.4%)
Hetzel - 39 (0.4%)
Laura - 39 (0.4%)
Numida - 39 (0.4%)
Leonardo - 38 (0.4%)
Lyre - 37 (0.4%)
Calill - 34 (0.4%)
Gareth - 34 (0.4%)
Oscar - 34 (0.4%)
Tanith - 34 (0.4%)
Fiona - 32 (0.3%)
Leanne - 31 (0.3%)
Ulki - 31 (0.3%)
Aran - 30 (0.3%)
Caineghis - 30 (0.3%)
Muarim - 30 (0.3%)
Nephenee - 29 (0.3%)
Rolf's mother - 27 (0.3%)
Ilyana - 26 (0.3%)
Stefan - 26 (0.3%)
Nealuchi - 25 (0.3%)
Oliver - 24 (0.3%)
Astrid - 23 (0.2%)
Mordecai - 23 (0.2%)
Jorge - 22 (0.2%)
Kyza - 22 (0.2%)
Volke - 22 (0.2%)
Daniel - 21 (0.2%)
Yeardley - 21 (0.2%)
Misaha - 18 (0.2%)
Septimus - 18 (0.2%)
Vika - 18 (0.2%)
Renning - 17 (0.2%)
Laverton - 16 (0.2%)
Makalov - 16 (0.2%)
Lombroso - 15 (0.2%)
Muston - 15 (0.2%)
Volug - 15 (0.2%)
Mia - 13 (0.1%)
Nico - 13 (0.1%)
Zeffren - 13 (0.1%)
Roark - 12 (0.1%)
Veyona - 11 (0.1%)
Amy - 10 (0.1%)
Largo - 10 (0.1%)
Maraj - 10 (0.1%)
Radmin - 10 (0.1%)
Silvano - 10 (0.1%)
Alder - 9 (0.1%)
Giffca - 9 (0.1%)
Yuma - 9 (0.1%)
Callum - 8 (0.1%)
Djur - 8 (0.1%)
Goran - 8 (0.1%)
Zaitan - 8 (0.1%)
Gatrie - 7 (0.1%)
Rommit - 7 (0.1%)
Tashoria - 7 (0.1%)
Agony - 5 (0.1%)
Altina - 5 (0.1%)
Istvan - 5 (0.1%)
Pain - 5 (0.1%)
Pugo - 5 (0.1%)
Rhys - 5 (0.1%)
Sergei - 5 (0.1%)
Wystan - 5 (0.1%)
Burton - 4 (0.0%)
Danved - 4 (0.0%)
Isaiya - 4 (0.0%)
Jacob - 4 (0.0%)
Catalena - 3 (0.0%)
Saron - 2 (0.0%)
Other (Begnion soldiers) - 107 (1.2%)
Other (Daein citizens) - 52 (0.6%)
Other (Daein soldiers) - 39 (0.4%)
Other (Crimean citizens) - 32 (0.3%)
Other (Crimean soldiers) - 28 (0.3%)
Other (Crimean nobles) - 16 (0.2%)
Other (Senators) - 15 (0.2%)
Other (Gallian soldiers) - 13 (0.1%)
Other (Begnion messengers) - 10 (0.1%)
Other (Disciples of Order) - 5 (0.1%)
Other (Bandits) - 2 (0.0%)
Other (Goldoan) - 1 (0.0%)
Other (Phoenician soldiers) - 1 (0.0%)

I've attached the full by-chapter breakdown in a text file. This file has not been cleaned up and I make no guarantees for how easy it is to parse.