Alondite is just an SS sword, anyone who can reach that level (Mist, Elincia, Meg, Makalov, Renning, Swordmasters) can use it. Ike too I guess but why. <_<
Grandia 3 Emelious Fangirl Playthrough: Haven't updated in a while.
Anyway, Dragon Valley was our next target. I had resets here, but after the first I hit on the skill setup that rips this dungeon apart:
ATK weapon, Perception, Counter, Lizard Hunter, Beast Hunter. All technique based, so the choice of book is pretty obvious. Think I used the Water+2 egg here.
Venom Bird - They poison on physicals, and summon lots and lots of each other... good source of cash if you let them, incidentally. Poison Amulet stops that nonsense. Anyway, super annoying at first, but Perception/Counter/Beast Hunter means dodging almost everything they do and OHKOing on counters. Yeah.
Hill Lizard - They use POIZN. Aside from that, which again is mocked by immunity and Alfina MDef, they aren't too bad. Physicals are a bit sluggish, but evade/Lizard Hunter owns them anyway.
Thunder Dragon - They paralyse regularly with Thunder Breath, Wind Ring reduces that. Usual setup owns them otherwise.
Lycanthrope - Another victim of the above. Their Howlslash seems like decent damage on paper, but Alfina MDef at this point is just psychotic, and Wind Ring doesn't help.
Lycan Knight + Thunder Dragon (1 reset) - Ick. Minibosses, basically a much improved Thunder Dragon and Lycanthrope tagteam. They kinda rip me apart the first time I face them. But the evade/counter/hunter strategy lets me largely mock them. Paralysis is annoying, but wind resistance helps as always, and they don't use it too often. They also use GRAVITY which is laughably useless right now.
Green Man (1 reset) - Super speed, Tornado Drill really hurts because it goes right thrugh evade and nearly 2HKOs. POIZN and Tremor are basically wasted turns, the physicals hurt some when they hit but don't with the evade strategy, and they have a draining ITE move. Anyway, after 1 reset, I decide that I really need more raw durability to survive, so I go for a mixed body/tech setup, dropping the slayers for things like Life Up and Warrior's Way. This works well. What works even better is when I realise that Tornado Drill is Wind and equip to block it. Ahaha. This lets POIZN through, and poison is a bitchy status in Grandia 3 (significantly slows you due to IP damage) but it's still totally worth it and makes them very manageable. Which is good, because eventually you fight 3 at once.
ULF IS A TRAITOR, he chose food over a life of stuffy protecting the Guardian from everyone, including Communicators! Fortunately Drak is less of a dumbass than the dragon knights. Orb get!
Uh oh, time for some really bad music, as we head to Baccula. We also get DAHNA PLOT. LOVE HAS NO PLACE IN MY WORLD. Dahna is emo because her bf left her for Emelious. Oh, hell, that would make me emo too. So we have to forgive her long enough for her to join the party, which is good, because I don't want to face the next boss with one PC.
Egg fusion~. In the interests of keeping things sane I am not breaking down any eggs made from fusion, yet. Still, BOOMOR is fair game, since Dahna starts with the egg it comes from. Yay! Dahna gets a Fire/Earth L2 Egg, Alfina Water/Wind. I buy lots of random accessories and other stuff. And get all the essential dodgy-related skills for both PCs. Also get Jolt Counter, which makes those all-too-frequent counters even better!
So yeah, Baccularn Desert. Fuck fighting the Desert Lord on Disc 1 with this party.
Dragonfly - Interesting little bastards. They summon more of themselves and physical things... nothing interesting there. What is interesting is four of them combo to do Dragon Dance, which is OHKO damage. Cancel that crap and keep 'em under control, not much to say.
Sand Lizard - Pretty decent HP for a non-miniboss, but it's not really good enough to do more than ward off quick counter deaths. Burn hurts, so Fire Rings help out a lot.
Undead Mage (1 reset) - These guys are bastards. Very fast, and have quite a few dangerous spells, including Boom, Burnstrike, and Snooze. The attack stuff can be evaded but it hits a lot so it's harder to. The 1 reset was before I equipped fire defence, which makes their damage really scary. They also have pretty good HP and excellent MDef/elemental resists (not sure which) so they're really tough against magic and not bad against physicals.
Lizard Soldier - I don't remember these guys. Not a good sign.
Sable - Aw, they're so cute. They are quick and bastardly with their attacks and not afraid to use Burn, but aside from some annoying evade they're not much different than a frailer, faster, Sand Lizard.
Skeleton Warrior - They use a moderately damaging ITE physical which there isn't much to be done about besides cancelling. Not too notable an enemy otherwise, dodge dodge dodge, HP is okay.
Baccula Condor - Kinda like those birds a dungeon ago.
Golem (1 reset) - Golems are badass. Immune to IP damage, immune to magic. There scary attack is Lightning, wind + paralysis to everyone. Wind Ring helps, but 1 reset was needed to learn this. Aside from that, they are very fast, but dodging them helps out a lot, as usual. Plenty of HP, but Boomor and Crackle take 'em out.
KORNELL & VIOLETTA (1 reset) - Yeah I'm glad I have two PCs. They are nasty and put on a lot of pressure. Kornell's Iron Fist is fairly benign, using magic that barely breaks Alfina's MDef, or a moderately damaging GT physical. Kornell himself has the dreaded Kornell Buster (borderline 2HKO) and his physicals cancel; he also has fire and wind GT physical techs. Below half HP he casts Wow ("NOBODY CALLS ME A PEABRAIN!"), which buffs every enemy and is thus scary. Violetta, meanwhile, has Burnstrike (huge IP damage is huge), as well as Freeshooter (powerful fan physical) while the scythe mainly uses Howlslash and more physicals. The money attack is a combo between the fist and the scythe, which does Kornell Buster level damage, MT. Obviously the priority to cancel. Below half HP, the Scythe uses Howlnado, solid magic damage + confuse. I use fire defence in my winning run but wind would work just as well. Largely just a matter of staying really on top of things; one PC will die quickly, so reviving quickly as soon as the battle allows is essential. Drak's Orb helps cut through the dangerous limit phase, and counters help a lot. When Violetta dies, Kornell revives her to half HP, but this doesn't bring back the scythe. When Kornell dies, Violetta casts Runner, but even one hasted enemy can't do too much at this point.
Did Emelious just try to kill me?
AHAHAHA THAT'S MY EMELIOUS! <3 <3 <3
Someone has issues.
Anyway, back to Baccula, Level 8 eggs; Dahna gets Fire 3/Earth 2 while Alfina gets Water 3/Wind 2. Ending Disc 1...
Mummy Demon - They have some nasty ice magic, Crackle and Diamond Dust. Not as dangerous as the undead mages they come with but not far from it, and they appear in larger numbers.
Now for Disc 2! Will Alfina and Dahna's quest to find the loser men who left them and went emo meet a happy ending? Stay tuned.
