Some thoughts on interpreting Skies of Arcadia in the dungeon. Possibly irrelevant for me now that I'm not going with my planned team, but figured I might as well post this anyway in case others find it helpful.
** Special moves
FAQs fail on this regard. Nobody can agree as to what the moonberry cost of various moves are; Epsilon Mirror is claimed to be both 2 and 3 MB; same with Skull Shield (but from different sources!), one guy claimed Drachma's ultimate only costs 3 MB, some claim Aika's Delta Shield costs 2 MB vs. 1 MB... ARGH. I believe that Vyse is 0-1-2-2-4 (he starts with Cutlass Fury); Aika & Fina are 1-1-2-2-4; for everyone else, it's 1-2-4. I'm not 100% sure, but if it's off, it's not off by much. The fairest interpretation for special move gain seems to me to use Monopoly house building rules - equal build-up, tempered by who's actually in the party (Enrique isn't stealing early moonberries). Here's roughly what I would propose to be a fair order:
"Stages" for the various equal spreads:
Lvl. 1 on core (1-2 MB)-> lvl.1 on Drachma (3 MB)-> lvl.2 on core (4-6 MB)-> lvl. 1 on Gilder (7 MB)-> lvl. 3 on core, lvl. 2 on Gilder (9-15 MB)-> lvl. 1 & 2 on Enrique (16-18 MB)-> lvl.4 on core (20-24 MB)-> lvl. 2 on Drachma (26 MB)-> lvl. 5 on core and lvl.3 on everyone else (30-50 MB).
The first number is "total moonberries acquired for a single character to learn a move in this group," the last is for all characters to have learned them. So, if you let the Dungeon characters get first in line, then Aika would get Lambda Burst (her level 3) at 9 MB for example, or if you assume they get it exactly in the "middle," then Aika would get it at 12 MB. I doubt it makes much difference.
Very rough game-by-floor chart:
F1: Pirate Isle, Sailor's Island, Valua (~4 MB)
F2: Nasr, Maramba (~6 MB)
F3: Ixataka, Deserted Island (~11 MB)
F4: Valua Part II, Esperanza, Dark Rift (~17 MB)
F5: Yafutoma, Glacia (~21 MB)
F6: Maw of Tartas, Dangral Island, Deep Sky (~25 MB)
F7: Silver Shrine, Soltis
These MB numbers are more like lower bounds (I got them from the magic of CTRL-Fing through a FAQ); they'll drop from random battles as well, especially toward the end of the game. I for one certainly had two level 5 moves by Glacia without neglecting the temps TOO much, so I can certainly see handing out ultimate moves on Floor 6 rather than Floor 7.
Results:
Aika:
F1: Alpha Storm, Sacri, Noxi
F2: 2 SP, Delta Shield, Sacres
F3: Lambda Burst, Noxus, Sacrum
F4: Sacrulen
F5: 3 SP, Epsilon Mirror (?)
F6:
F7: Omega Psyclone
F8: 4 SP
Yeah, definitely remember if Aika could Delta Shield on Floor 3 coming up before, and... not seeing it. Checked a Youtube video, and Aika definitely has 2 SP in the Temple of Prynn (Nasr dungeon) which isn't that far into the game at all. Also giving a somewhat aggressive magic schedule assuming that Aika is spending most of her time in Green magic, since that's all she can get in the DL anyway.
Aika's confusion weapon comes at varying parts of the game, I believe? I got it stupidly early, 'cause I was playing on my college roommate's Dreamcast and he had bothered to activate the web-only content. That's Floor 2-3ish IIRC (the merchant is in Maramba, just that it's pricy) and also gives Aika an excellent physical for the time. On the GameCube, you have to beat the Vize / Anita/ Faina battle, which is accessible on Floor 5 but probably pretty tough. If you played the original and didn't go on the web, no Swirlmerang for Aika at all. Yay for horrific interp splits!
Also of note, yes, all Aika's special moves are magical and Red-elemental. This means she single-handedly beats Rampage Drive if someone can keep her healed, but it also means that her specials damage tails off toward the last half of the game.
Gilder:
F1: Gilder's starting spells (Not 100% sure, but at least Curia, Pyri, Pyres, Increm, Crystali, Crystales, Wevli, and Quika.)
F2: 2 SP
F3: Gunslinger, Aura of Denial (solid argument for Gunslinger Floor 1 if you pretend he joined earlier, mind)
F4: Sylenis, Panika, Crystalum
F5: 3 SP, Crystalen
F6:
F7: 4 SP, The Claudia
F8: 5 SP
Weirdly enough, hypothetical early-game Gilder is a bit of a mage (despite him being no good at this in-game). Skies Magic sucks, but Purple is the one sphere of magic which isn't insanely overpriced (it's ST damage costed at 1-2-3-4 SP for the increasing power), and Skies magic power is rather fixed. As in, according to a seemingly reliable FAQ, physical moves have multipliers while Magic and Fina & Aika's specials have addends. In other words, each extra point of Will increases magic damage by 2 points, while each point of Attack increases physical damage by... more, potentially lots more (Pirate's Wrath has a multiplier of 7.5 for example, so +15 damage for each extra point of Attack). So magic starts out passable and steadily loses ground as stats increase.
Also of note: Now that I look it up, Aura of Denial is 3 SP. Meaning that Gilder's main move to recommend him doesn't come online 'till Floor 5. Ouch. I definitely think that in light of that, Gilder could use a discount to 1.5 points... arguably even to 1.0? Not sure he's ever been used anyway. (If someone can also check if Gilder starts with Risan? The stat topic doesn't list it, but since it's irrelevant in 99% of duels, that might just be an oversight. It'd certainly help his standing if he did have it, though.).
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As another random comment, if Skies chararter gets to Floor 9 and above... well, according to FAQs, spirit growth goes crazy at high levels. As in, 20 spirit a turn when in the level 90s meaning Fina is flinging Eternums and Lunar Lights left and right. Since this is totally at variance to how they work the entire game, and I never saw it myself, unsure of how much respect to give that.
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Thoughts on other Skies characters:
Enrique: Doesn't translate to the Dungeon alone at all, below average speed and Justice Shield is 4 SP. Could be handy with other Skies characters, admittedly, but Justice Shield might come too late (Floor 4?).
Drachma: Really doesn't translate to the Dungeon. Slow and backloads his damage too late.
Vyse: Could actually be interesting. Beats things up with decent speed, and Skull Shield is kinda broken late if paired with other Skies characters. Not great, but a possibility.
Fina: An amusing puny! I can think of two ways of using her.
Fina (w/ SoA Magic)
Pros: Above-average speed! Lots of options including revival, instant death and status healing! Complete team restoration in Lunar Light! Plenty of MP! Cupil gets your team cute points!
Cons: ...and the worst SP growth in the game to power those abilities. Epic physical durability. Direly needs to be paired with another SoA character to get much use.
Fina's a 0.5 point pick and kinda like Shiho in that she *needs* a partner from the same game. And even if she is paired with another SoA character, she's "stealing" their SP in order to do anything. Flip side, she does have revival very early (always handy), she's putting SP into the pool for other SoA characters, she can also play the early-game Ice mage like Gilder does, and SoA Defend has initiative for surviving physical beatdowns when her skills aren't needed.
Also of note: the Cupil Ring, upon which DL Fina rests a lot of her strength, isn't happening until ~Floor 7-8 (1% drop rate in the final dungeon? Ugh.). The Cupil Ring's huge Will boost is what makes Lunar Glyph not entirely suck; without it, she's got only a ~40-50% chance of Stone, so ugh. IIRC, magic statuses have similarly bad hit rates (but at least Silence is cheap if you're giving it a shot, and both Gilder & Fina spamming the 2 SP Sylenis should shut up an average speed mage).
Note that due to SP concerns, high level magic isn't much help except that it can reduce the resource load on a team's healers (paralyze last enemy, let Fina Focus a bunch, then heal the team), and maybe occasionally hit elemental weaknesses. I'd propose something like:
Floor 1: Level 2 Silver Magic
F2: L3 Silver, L1 everything else
F3: L4 Silver, L2 everything else
F4: L5 Silver, L3 everything else
F5: L6 Silver, L4 everything else
F6: L5 everything else
F7: L6 everything else
ALTERNATELY:
Fina (w/ Restoration Items)
Since the various "X Crystals" are very cheap and do exactly the same thing as the spell, except cost no SP and thus don't suck. Fina becomes a competent healer with this allowed, though she's got the same durability concerns, and her MT healing falls off rather noticeably in later floors (unless she pulls off a Lunar Light somehow). This'd be something like:
F1: Sacri Crystal, Curia Crystal (500 ST healing, status healing)
F2: Sacres Crystal (1000 ST healing)
F3: Sacrum Crystal, Risan Crystal (1000 MT healing, 50% chance of 50% HP revival)
F5: Sacrulen Crystal, Riselem Crystal (Full ST heal, Full revival)
Unsure of the cost here - 1.5 points perhaps? Comparable to Marle in the physical durability woes and the fact that most of her healing is ST. Faster, but doesn't have Haste or Provoke. I'd say that Item-Fina's probably a bit better than Marle, but Marle could probably use a discount to me anyway, so not sure that'd knock her up to 2 points necessarily.
