VPDS: So yeah... it's becoming more and more apparent that this thing is very much sledgehammer tactics. It's also very much a snowball type game. The better you do, the more neat stuff the game gives you to do better with. The worse you do, the more the game punishes you. I guess that means I should be happy the game is pretty easy. Defense... doesn't really matter much since Union Plumes aren't that expensive and the revived unit still has their turn, and the real challenge of the game has been trying to consistantly get the best reward at 2x Sin Sought, which the game keeps at the hard but doable rate.
As for PCs. Wylfred has been a consistantly good unit, with his one range and 4 move made up for by the fact that he has the best stats in the party, and once per battle can double them for two rounds. Oh, and that double stacks with Might Reinforce, so you can actually quadruple his attack. This means that the mage is easily the second best character, for he is the provider of Might Reinforce and Sap Guard. 3 Range also helps, as does Great Magics being moved up to around 10-15 Hits making them viable first strike options. Aside from that, my lancer is definatly feeling the loss of missing whatever treasure Lance it is that get handed out in Chapters 4-5, and nothing really good being made available in the stores, but his combination of range and durability is nice. The samurai with 5 move helps the fact that he has only one range, and I gave him the Transposition skill, for all that I think it may have been better on the lancer. And Chalipha, the archer, is awesome. Has a great storebought bow combined with 4 Range, means that she excells at being a part of every rush, and is good at triggering attacks after the close range fighters use Dash to close in.
So, really, the only person I don't use, and don't see any use for, is the brigand. Same movement as the Samurai, but effectively half the range (think Range 1 in FFT, so doesn't get the diagonals), and bad durability. Helps get more cash, I guess, but I haven't hit a cash crunch in a long time, and it costs Exp to get this cash. And, her Feather ability is pretty awesome too, so the only thing saving her is that, at this point, I'm pretty happily settled onto the A Ending path and don't want to toss it away now that it cost me my shot at having a scottish spellcaster.
Nearing the end of Chapter 5, I think the game won't be too much longer. Though, it's very much a replay game, so this doesn't sadden me too much.
