Alrighty, time to refocus the topic. Games of immediate interest are Mana Khemia 2 and the 20+ crowd sans Star Ocean 1 (my understanding of the split between them, unfortunately, leads me to feel that unless the PSP version could stand on its own, it's not really ready) and SRW:OG (hit hard by DNR). This gives us...
Mana Khemia 2: Djinn, Nama, Yoshi, Super, Soppy, Doma, Shale, MEEPLE, Snowfire, Magic, Twil, Mage, Scar, Tonfa, Random, Sage, Rozalia, CT
Dragon Quest V: Djinn, Monkey, Nama, Dhyer, Soppy, Shale, Ciato, Elfboy, Magic, Twil, Mage, Tonfa, Random, Rozalia, Andrew, CT
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume- Nama, Yoshi, Soppy, Doma, Bard, Ciato, Snowfire, Eph, Nitori, Magic, Scar, Trancey, Tonfa, Andrew, CT
Soul Nomad: Alanna, Yoshi, Soppy, Doma, Shale, Elfboy, MEEPLE, Snowfire, Nitori, Magic, Twil, Random, Rozalia, Andrew, CT
So those with the means to play these games, if you could do so that'd be great. For those that lack copies of games, we'll see what we can do.
re: Soul Nomad-
Since everyone seems content to complain about the game without really discussing the matter, I suppose I should summarize some viewpoints.
Case against is in largely two points 1) the DL cast is completely alien to the in-game cast and 2) Revya is headache.
To elaborate, Soul Nomad uses an unusual mechanic in which characters are organized into Rooms. These rooms have a variety of traits (for example, they might impart First Strike, deal damage upon being summoned, a number of things). These rooms may have anything from 1 to 9 characters, and on the field are summoned, move, attack/defend, and gain turns as a unit. Rooms are arranged in 3x3 squares, with 3 slots on the front, middle, and back row. Each unit has a different attack based on what row they are placed in. The movement, affinity, turn speed, and what field tactics are available to a Room is determined by its Leader. The precise number of slots available to a Room, and what bonuses it imparts, are randomly determined with a Room is generated. There is no direct way to control what sort of traits a Room has, so essentially you have to roll the dice every time you make new rooms and keep trying until you get what you want. Additionally, at the start of any given level, only one Room, Revya's, is deployed. Revya has a unique command which allows her to summon other rooms to battle, and always acts first. This can be used as many times as desired (as long as there is room in range to deploy the Room) per turn, and does not cost Revya anything aside from that Room already being deployed. Revya additionally has special items which allow her to interact with town members. These items can steal items or money from them, but a third interaction allows Revya to 'Fuse' with them, essentially draining a portion of their energy to permanently raise one of her stats. While each NPC can be used once, and the scale of the reward draws from a limited pool, the precise stat and how much is gained is randomized.
These issues are traditionally resolved as such. The rankable cast is assumed to be the leader of a room containing only them. The character may place themselves on whatever row is beneficial, but the Room is assumed to impart no bonuses (a check against the insane randomness of the Room generation system). With these in play, the characters are all fairly distinct and, while an invalid strategy in game, is an adequate representation of how the cast would preform solo and is imitable by players wishing to see how the cast performs using DL parameters.
Revya is assumed to be unrankable. The ability to summon an army, coupled with the fluctuating nature of her stats, makes her unsuitable for the DL setting. Additionally, given full use of the system, she can summon overwhelming offense in the form of First Strike Rooms which she summons on her initiative turn- in other words, not realistically beatable in the DL setting.
I believe this covers everything.
