CIEL SHELTERThe battles don't really begin until after I get Arnaud. So for the first bit of backtracking back to town, I only have Arnaud and Jude for the enemies. Although these are largely tutorial battles, Arnaud destroys Jude at the current moment against these randoms. Neither can OHKO, but Arnaud solidly 2HKOs without weakness. He OHKOs if hitting weakness. Meanwhile, Jude 3HKOs at best. Arnaud also starts 3 levels higher than Jude, giving him a negligble stat boost (no notable abilities). When the boss fight starts, Arnaud still has a decent edge against Jude at first. This is due to Jude not having Long Range and his originals being sealed off. Still when the soldiers do move in the roles reverse. Arnaud struggles to 3HKO occassionally with his magic, while Jude 2HKOs solidly. Let's not go into Arnaud's awesome accuracy because I'm pretty sure he missed everytime I used it as an attempt to conserve magic. Tony basically makes this go in favour for Jude unless you some how manage to bait Tony into standing on the Fire/Water HEX and moving Arnaud to the other (possible). Jude just has a fresh pool of MP, takes hits better, is faster and deals better damage without the set up. Overall, this is pretty even with Jude > Arnaud for Tony and Arnaud > Jude for the randoms, with Jude inching ahead (the randoms are largely non-threatening as the tiebreaker here).
1. Jude
2. Arnaud
FORSAKEN PATHYulie joins the team, but still no access to the CG graphs yet. Yulie doesn't contribute much, even though the first tutorial with her in it has the game screaming USE MATERIAL. Oh lack of FP, how you make this much more interesting. Instead, Arnaud's the bread maker here, getting the FPs via killing things with some minor gem use and Blast. The other enemies here are largely prey for Jude. Most of them hit defense, and on top of that, there is a flyer which he can also swat down. Most other things get blasted by Phantom Line. Arnaud takes second easily for being not made of a sheet of paper and offense worth noting when there is no FP.
1. Jude
2. Arnaud
3. Yulie
CULANE TEMPLEOur first dungeon with all 4 PCs and the CG graph + Force abilities unlocked. So yeah, lots of things to play around. I set up Arnaud with Jump & Act for randoms since mobility is very important for him to get good damage from gems and Blast. Raq, likewise, invests in Move & Attack along with Obstacle Smash. Jude and Yulie don't have much important things to invest in so they just get Class levels. The enemies here are notable for being largely bait to almost everyone's key attacks. Yulie falls notably behind because she needs to utilize the gems Arnaud is making or get a turn with 25 FP. Surprisingly, Arnaud is probably the best character here for randoms followed by Jude. Raquel at this point can't use Yulie's FP Advantage for her Intrude chains, so if she has to move, she only has a ST killer damage, which Arnaud does with his gems anyway. Plus he's faster. She's better in a few select situations (enemies in her surrounding HEX), but Arnaud can snipe off the upcoming enemies or more dangerous enemies so it isn't as huge of an advantage. When the turn order is unfavourable to her, she can't even see a turn, which sucks. Jude and Arnaud are pretty even (Arnaud needs a little more set up + gem use, but Jude has some issues with a Masa Gnomes due to their ARM jamming property) but Arnaud likely inches out by a tiny bit.
As for the bosses, Trask kind of mocks Jude something fierce. He's clearly the worst person in that battle. Meanwhile, Arnaud and Yulie and Raquel all have solid attacking options, with Yulie being the best out of everyone due to her starting position. Fire Gems are in abundance too since there was a chest earlier that had 8x Fire gems. Arnaud can also get gems boosted but needs Jump & Act + 25 FP. He's probably second best, then followed by Raquel since she's losing on speed and the lack of FP preventing her from making it up with Intrude. She also deals less damage than Arnaud if his gems get boosted. Tony reverse the situation with Raquel > Jude > Arnaud > Yulie. Raquel hits harder, tanks hits better and all of sudden with extra soldiers, you're generating more FP for Raquel to fuel her Intrude chains. One rounding here we go! And of course, to get her the FP, Jude is capable of one shotting the Novice Troopers. Arnaud can throw in Slow Down to keep people alive, but his offense here isn't good since everything halves his elemental blasts and his physical still has massive accuracy issues. Yulie has trouble just staying alive.
1. Arnaud
2. Jude
3. Raquel
4. Yulie
CELESTI RUINSYulie gets Sanctify. Meanwhile, Arnaud goes back to using Jump & Act, since again, mobility is key. Jude gets Long Shot, which is always nice since the added range means he doesn't have to waste MP if he needs to target something that is a little farther away. I also get new weapons and armor. Jude goes for the defense since the next few bosses are heavily p.hysical focused. Yulie gets the defense one as well due to Yulie evade and her RES already being godlike. Arnaud and Raquel get the armor that focuses more on RES and evade. Finally, I drop an Alter Part into ATP, since uh...lol1.25 ACN.
The randoms here are a notable knotch above the one in Culane Temple. For starters, some of those monsters can't get OHKO'd by Raquel. She's off by this very tiny margin, but it matters a lot, especially with that FP deficiency still in play. Yulie's Sanctify also doesn't OHKO. No, the only person who has reliable OHKOs are Arnaud and his Blasts. Go figure. Still, the most important person in this area for randoms is probably Jude. Without the Masa Gnomes, he maintains those few advantages over Arnaud here without losing out too badly on offense. Arnaud is still stuck to ST, but again, snipering with him works. Raq still needs FP Advantage support from Yulie or some better accessories since half the battles end before she gets a turn. And Yulie is Yulie. It's bad when you can barely do anything once your turn arrives.
Bosses, Arnaud > Raquel > Yulie > Jude for Earthbound Dead. Earthbound Dead's Absorb MP is extremely nasty on Jude and can totally drain any and all good offense he has. Arnaud is very important because him casting Slow Down works as a counter to Earthbound Dead's own Slow Down somewhat. And you really don't want to get Slow Down'd at this point since it is just so brutal. Also, Earthbound Dead has a good chance of moving around the Water HEX, which means Arnaud gets boosted damage (becoming the best damage dealer) and his evade actually keeps him somewhat safer than Jude/Raquel. Bonus points if you can match your HP for Crisis Evade. Raq's offense is good, but she's really dependent on Earthbound Dead not casting Slow Down on her last attack. Otherwise...ew, 43 RFX Raquel. Yulie's offense and durability isn't good and could give Jude the advantage, but she has Protect. And Protecting Jude/Raquel just makes them absolute tanks here. So she wins out. Jeremy 1 does reverse the situations with Raquel being the most important, followed by Jude, then Yulie = Arnaud. Neither Yulie/Arnaud are great here. Arnaud has some good support options and offense, but it cuts into Raq's Intrude chains. So his offense lead isn't huge. Raq needs time to get a turn, but when she does she easily bulldozes past him. Intrude once again, being the absolute broken that it is at 25 FP and once FP gets gathered. Jude's notable for being the person who helps add the most FP. Plus he's very good bait here with Protect on him + Ley Boost to offset triple turns from Jeremy. So, Raquel > Jude > Arnaud = Yulie
Balance here is very even overall. Counting the ranks each PC scored, Raq, Arnaud and Jude all very close to each other. Raquel barely inches out over Arnaud and Jude, but it is notably close. I'll call it even between all three, or at least between Arnaud and Raq, since even at his worst here, Arnaud isn't dead last in any situation. Yulie's notably terrible at this point though.
1t. Arnaud
1t. Raquel
3. Jude
4. Yulie
GREAT STAIRWAYYulie finally reaches level 9, which means at the cost of all other abilities, I can get FP Advantage. This is actually a very worthwhile tradeoff as much of Yulie's early skillset is sorta unimpressive (Revive/Sanctify). How I treat that for rankings...well it'll matter more for shorter fights obviously. Meanwhile, Raquel and Arnaud don't pick up anything new since they picked up their awesome early skills largely. I do skimp on picking up Obstacle Smash since it just not that useful. Jude meanwhile gets nothing. Joint Struggle is just too impractical to set up in a random battle.
Most of the monsters are here are largely fodder although a few spoilers stand out. Raquel has trouble with the Pordages. Even though they don't really attack, they steal items, which are annoying. Jude can take them down rather easily and Arnaud can swat them out of the air with his physical. The other two must use gems, which Raquel herself normally doesn't generate. The Pricklys spoil Jude somewhat, but they have terrible magic defense. So once again gems to the rescue. Arnaud isn't spoiled by anything here so I guess he's the overall winner. Yulie is still struggling again although this isn't really surprising. FP Advantage doesn't do much right now just largely because the enemies are fairly easy to destroy I suppose.
1. Arnaud
2. Raquel (tie break on enemey threat level)
3. Jude
4. Yulie
WHITE ORPHANAGEThe randoms here get a noticable step up again, and the spoiling potential rises further more. In particular, Arnaud hates Iron Maidens. They're extremely accurate and Executioner hurts like hell. It deals nearly 75% PCHP to him in a single hit. He has to take them out first with Freeze gems/Water Blast, but even then its ST and these things show up in groups of three. Iron Maidens can also jam ARMS which makes Jude hate them equally. Meanwhile the slug enemies stop Raquel dead since not even she can plow through it with her physicals. And if we're talking about gems, Jude gets the job done the best here simply because he can Mystic and OHKO. Empusa's are also in this place and they too have the ARM jamming property. The least threatening enemy are probably the Blue Books, which Arnaud and Yulie basically kind of mock. Hard to place a definitive winner, but I'll say that Raquel probably has the overall best performance against everything. No weapon jamming or taking massive amounts of damage is always good. Arnaud and Jude probably tie. Yulie doesn't do much unless she gets a turn on a Leypoint. Then she wins forever. Is that worth something over Arnaud/Jude? Hm...probably not.
Bosses! Miscreation is wrecked more or less horribly by Arnaud, who sets up the team for a good defense/offensive positioning. Yes, it matters this much. It makes it easy to defend everybody with 1 Protect, and Jude gets Joint Struggle off doing nearly 4k damage, which is higher than Raquel's strikes (plus he's faster!). Oh and he can cast Slow Down off of that same turn. Raquel dishes out the remainder of the offense when she gets the chance. Overall, everyone does something. I'll reckon the Joint Struggle is probably the least important here, just because Miscreation's Stone Bullets hurt so bad, Protect is almost a necessity when grouping everyone together. Plus Yulie tanks those like a champ when they occur. Arnaud > Raquel > Yulie > Jude. Jeremy 2 is similar in the same respect. Arnaud still helps the team group, but since Raquel starts over on the opposite side of Jude, and Jeremy just loves rushing down to the centre, it is harder for her to get within the same HEX. She still deals the most damage, and as such as is probably the most important person here. Yulie's Protect is not as important - casting it really just helps her out instead since Arnaud could double as an item healer if needed. Raquel > Arnaud = Jude > Yulie
1. Raquel
2. Arnaud
3. Jude
4. Yulie
AERIAL FORTRESS EUALIANot much in terms of randoms since so much of it is action segments. There's a fixed fight with some soldiers, where Yulie > Jude > Arnaud > Raquel in a pretty clear cut fashion. Lack of speed sinks Raquel in that pretty bad. Incubator, Arnaud is once again, the man for setting offense and defense up. This time he Jumps to the centre and similarly casting Slow Down. Instantly gives Jude 5000 damage or so and stops Incubator from dealing serious offense. Yulie can throw up Protect and Raquel usually just ends up mopping things down. Of course, FP Advantage is needed for this. Scythe on the other hand is weird since so much of it depends on how badly his evasion kicks in. In general though, Arnaud > Jude > Raquel > Yulie. Arnaud can win that battle without threat to himself as Scythe's damage is unimpressive (especially after Slow Down) and he can deal solid damage back with Wind elemental Blasts. Jude can Auto-win if there is a human shield in the centre. Raquel has offense, but may bite it to Suction (completely dependent on does Scythe evade at a cruicial moment). Yulie cannot do much without breaking boxes which is bad since Scythe can move and then get more damage. Well she can Protect to stop Jude/Arnaud/Raquel from taking damage I guess. Raquel's Poison bite is also largely useless due to 5% damage being terrible, even if Scythe is on a dodging streak.
1. Arnaud
2. Jude
3. Raquel
4. Yulie
WUNDERWALTRUMVaccumons are bad. They have no offense, but they can Eject you back to the start of the dungeon, so they should be killed first for entirely different reasons. Unfortunately, Arnaud is bad against these due to elemental halving. Jude also has issues since there are Critters across various battles and they can jam his ARM. Instead, we get Raquel. The only issue is getting her a turn, which is sometimes a bigger problem then anticipated. Critters themselves are best taken care of by Arnaud. Just Jump to the most threatening one/grouped together bunch and use a gem and watch them explode. Raquel is fine at handling them too but speed suffers here. She does however, get a chance to learn Red Zone, which means if they hit hard enough, she auto wins. Yulie still auto wins when she stands on an elemental HEX with 25 FP and this time, it is enough to beat Jude since there are so many Critters and Jude's offense at this point is slowly descending into mediocre with Phantom Line.
The big cheese herself is similar in both battles, big difference being Yulie learning FP Advantage and Turn Shift in the 2nd one, making her probably more important than Raquel as a result. In fact, I wager, Raquel is probably the worst person in the Belial fights just because of lack of speed + Distortion being a massive pain in the rear. In terms of damage, she loses to Jude when he gets Joint Struggle going, which isn't hard either thanks to Arnaud being able to chain move the team with Jump. Jump really shows its colours in the second fight, where the first Jump gets Jude into prime position of launching massive Joint Struggles, lets Arnaud and Yulie get ready to smack her with gems and introduces a new line to Belial's algorithm to use her terribad basic physical.
Another dungeon where three people are relatively close together. I'm ranking Yulie/Jude/Raquel with Yulie being up slightly ahead since Belial is really one of the harder fights in the game. But FP Advantage + Turn Shift just gives you so much control over that fight. Jude and Raquel both have their good points (Jude is better against Belial where Joint Struggle set ups are more practical) and Raquel is better against the randoms so effectively tie score here.
1. Arnaud
2. Yulie
3t. Jude
3t. Raquel
SEA OF TREESShort and simple pecking order of Raquel > Arnaud > Yulie > Jude. Phantom Line is falling noticably behind now and Sextons have the Hard attribute, which just hurts Jude even further. Jude losing his potential to OHKO is really starting to hurt him. On the plus side? He now has Item Steal. Raquel is the best person here since she's developing more into the physical powerhouse now and despite lack of speed still existing, with Jude's offense dropping and Yulie now getting Turn Shift and FP Advantage, she's starting to see turns. And well, we know what happens when Raquel gets turns. Arnaud remains dominant otherwise by still being able to effectively snipe off some key targets like the damn toads or Sextons with good gem use and Jump, preventing people from sustaining too much damage. He doesn't have the battle-winning ability if given a turn like Raq does though.
1. Raquel
2. Arnaud
3. Yulie
4. Jude
CALUCION PASSI sell off 4 Gella Cards to raise 6000 Gella so I can keep everyone's equipment up to date. Jude is now going MDEF Armor over the DEF armor since the bosses upcoming use magic attacks and he already explodes when looked at by those. Arnaud and Raquel maintain MDEF Armors since it's the best type for both. Yulie gets the DEF Armor. Yulie also equips a shiny new Silver Sun, raising her HP to around 2200 or so. This is around the same tier as Raquel when she gets weighted down by ability purchases. So basically Yulie went from game worst to just bad for HP. Still an improvement.
I don't manage to Steal much with Jude although I do get some Potion Berries. The rest of the randoms here are largely trivial for Arnaud and Raquel. Jude is notably suffering since not only are enemies armored so his offense gets halved, but his gems don't deal much damage either, so he's in a pretty bad spot. Well he still has stealing I guess. The Orcs are around the only time when his offense doesn't suck hardcore, but they seem to be pretty rare. On another note, Yulie will most likley not be last from this point forth due to Turn Shift. In the event where her turn is a dead turn, she can simply pass the turn off to the next person. As a result, she can function as a less powerful Replay or Mime, and even if she can't be useful that turn, someone else can. And their failure to do much isn't reflective of her position. Between Raquel and Arnaud...well Arnaud gets his turns earlier so snipe, snipe, snipe. Sometimes he gets 2 before Raquel gets one, so double sniping. Awesome.
1. Arnaud
2. Raquel
3. Yulie
4. Jude
PALAPATA PASSAGEI grab most of the treasures I'm here. Most notable is the Fatal Stinger, which I can later synth into a Mythral Edge. The randoms here absolutely hate Arnaud. This is by far his worst performance so far and it is very notable since just about every enemy can spoil him bad. Miserys have Confusion. Due to how WA4 Confusion works, if it hits him, his evade is dead and he's pretty much DOA by the time his turn comes around. The Spartois are accurate, which is also bad for him. And the Efreets have Magic Blocker, which means he has to use Gems (so less power even if he could Blast otherwise). Just about every enemy also halves elemental damage except for Garms. In fact, Garms are the only enemies he can handle effectively, but so can everyone else. Even when he can hit the undead enemies' vulnerable points (Fire), he still can't OHKO; he's off by a very tiny margin, but yeah. Wow. It doesn't make up for how well he does against Grabboid. As for everyone else, Yulie's Sanctify has gained notable power at this point, and she's able to kill the undead much better than Jude or Arnaud. Raquel is Raquel, so she's still awesome when she gets a turn. Due to Arnaud kinda failing and Jude's offense sort of in the gutter, she's very likely to get those. Jude himself isn't terrible against any of the enemies. In fact, Phantom Line is able to OHKO Miserys and Spartois. He does however run a risk of running out of MP, and when he does, he's no better than Arnaud against them. Well, at least he has physical durability.
Grabboid himself isn't notably threatening when you're not in a time crunch. Illusion does make Arnaud have the most notable offense, dealing 4x damage off Vortex gems without worry about accuracy. And again, opening Jump to get people together along with Slow Down or Illusion. Illusion lets him now do this with greater liberty to protect Yulie. Raquel then has the next best damage and she can move out of Illusion Hexes to attack. I reckon Arnaud is a little better, just because that Jump sets up Yulie for also gem use and Jude can now Joint Struggle for greater damage. Yulie's decent here thanks to Grabboid's weakness and Earth magic attacks, making her an absolute tank once Protect is cast. She just shrugs off the counters. And if Arnaud threw in Illusion earlier, even she can dodge the physicals too. She ends up better than Jude as Jude's only contribution is Joint Struggle, which needs set up and may prevent Raquel from moving around a bit more freely.
Boss Kresnik is boss Kresnik. So uh...yeah
1. Raquel
2. Yulie
3. Jude
4. Arnaud
NEVE'D ARGENTOWell Arnaud is now back to being fairly solid but still has some share of faults. However, this isn't necessary just him. Angels in this part of the world map are absolute terrors. They have accurate physicals and a solid magic back up. As a result, Jude doesn't like them either. Neither does Raquel since they fly and oh dear lord does she not like that flyer penalty. So who takes care of them best? Usually, it is Jude. They seem to prefer their physicals if they can use it. Plus he gets a flyer bonus here, so Jude can effectively KO with a basic physical. Most of the other enemies here are otherwise unremarkable. The Flaeretys have Hydro pressure, which can certainly cause death on an unlucky draw. Yulie's MDEF is therefore notable for that. However, they're not durable and everyone can OHKO these things with a fairly safe margin. Overall, a pretty balanced area it seems with no clear cut winner. Jude may win the toss up as the result.
1. Jude
2t. Arnaud
2t. Raquel
2t. Yulie
CERULEAN TUNNELThis is a weird place. Again, the enemies are set up so that some of them spoil certain characters so it's hard to call who is dominating. Arnaud hates dealing with Marids, who have Confusion. There is a Clear Chime here that he can use, but while he may not like confusion, the person who you never want Confused is Raquel (hi there massive OHKOing machine). So yes, he can circumvent it, but it may not be to the party's overall advantage. Raquel gets spoiled by Ameobas who have the soft attribute. Luckily, she can draw on the gems that Arnaud and Yulie made and can still Intrude effectively that way. Jude is just kinda mediocre overall. No OHKOs, and Item Steal hasn't really paying off. But at least he's fast. The other enemy of note are Mad Anglers. These things have a lot of offense and are very tanky. They can take a Raquel physical and still be decently off, so you have to Intrude to finish them. Alternatively, you can have Arnaud cast Fire Blasts on them and OHKO with a weakness. He occassionally misses and requires the Marcus Garb (also found here) to secure the kill. Still, it's notable in that he's the only person who can lay a claim to this. Between the PCs, it's really a matter of which enemies are the worst to encounter and off hand, I'll say the Marids are worse and place Raquel just above Arnaud. Arnaud doesn't have a MT way to take care of Ameobas, and their main status (POIZN) is just not as threatening as Confusion when they hit. Yulie retains third in the midst of all of this due to Turn Shift and FP Advantage.
Then we get Krakken and Hugo. Krakken is notably tanky. I want to emphasize this since this beast can eat 5-6 Raquel physicals. So unless you saved up a massive Intrude string, don't expect to 1 round him. Jude once again is terrible here. Krakken's physical having an Isolate effect really hurts him since he can't set up Joint Struggle effectively. This makes Jude's best offense a mix between his physical or Phantom Line, both of which are not outdamaging Raq or Arnaud's contribution. Yulie herself mainly uses Turn Shift and nothing but to effectively give her many turns to Arnaud and Jude for offense. Arnaud with gems and the Marcus Garb can deal a fairly solid amount of damage. That with Slow Down and good MDEF would probably make him the leader, but that ITE physical is not his friend. The Isolate effect hurts him too since it may push him away from a Leypoint to utilize boosted gems. This leaves Raquel as being the most uneffected (which is true). She still doesn't like Hydro Pressures but having the best offense + being not effected by Isolate sounds like a clear winner here. Hugo is a mixed effort, but Yulie is probably last in this since her durability is just so bad here. Even when Hugo uses that Magic Bow, it still high 3HKOs her notably (borderline 2HKO almost). Arnaud being able to bring control to the battle is second only to Raquel's offense in bringing Hugo down in record time. Clear ranking order here of Raquel > Arnaud > Jude > Yulie.
1. Raquel
2. Arnaud
3. Yulie
4. Jude
AUTUMN RIVERThere aren't too many notable enemies here. In fact, aside from the frog enemies which are a fairly rare encounter (20% or so), most of them are just pushovers. As a result it's not really worth evaluating each character's worth. However, the Evil Deads are extremely vulnerable to Sanctify, so Yulie is better on offense than usual. Hurray!
MIM'KRILU SKYWAYRemember the Angels back in Neve'd Argento? They're more powerful cousins are here. The Archangles still have the same high accuracy, flyer and magic combo, making them one of the nastier enemies here. Jude remains the best at taking care of them with Arnaud being a close second. Raquel has massive accuracy issues due to that flyer penalty. The Fairylights are fairly nonthreatening if alone. The problem is, they usually come in packs. And if they spam Hyperion Blaster continuously, it gets messy quick. Oh and they have Magic Blocker and are fairly evasive too, which makes Arnaud pretty bad against them. Raquel meanwhile handles them and is probably the best too since there's a good chance several of them will group together, letting one Intrude swing build enough FP for another. Finally, we also have Oses. To the surprise of no one, Jude really doesn't fair well here since his magic damage is terrible. Raquel isn't much better, but at least she can OHKO occassionally. A fairly close race overall. I haven't mentioned Yulie much, and that's because she doesn't really excel against any particular enemy. She has her typical strengths and can take out Oses too, so I guess that makes her Arnaud with some bonus benefits. Hmm...tiebreak on threat level would probably be Jude > Raquel > Yulie > Arnaud.
This dungeon is also notable for several powerups: Witch Badge, Macha Brand and Elder Record. Expect to see everyone diverge out more in the upcoming two dungeons.
As for bosses, Spriggan has a simple pecking order as well. Raquel > Jude > Yulie > Arnaud. Arnaud needs 5 turns to kill his mini-Spriggan fight. Raquel meanwhile takes 2 and Jude takes 3. This means by the time he reaches Yulie, both Jude and Raquel would've gotten a head start in CT and possible a few turns. Since everyone starts where Yulie is, Jude can get some pretty strong Joint Struggles off against the bosses support. Raquel meanwhile now has a massive offense boost thanks to the Macha Brand. And she crits more likely too. With Red Zone, this time around, I killed Spriggan before Arnaud even *entered* the fight. Yulie doesn't have any offense for the bosses, by Turn Shifting + Protect lets her cover herself, Jude and Raquel well enough so they can get turns relatively unharmed. The dolls vary slightly. I'm not sure whether to hold them against Red Zone here since I have to stress just how it is possible to let them smack Raquel right into Red Zone range. And when that happens, it's a gg. On the other hand, with the battles I fought, even twinking the CG gauge for pure MP, Raquel still can't reach Red Zone from one Banned Spell?! Considering that into the picture, and Arnaud easily leads here since he can Jump to move the team immediately out of the deadly centre HEX and can give himself and Yulie better offensive options too. Jude still has Joint Struggle so his offense is still pretty notable as long as Arnaud does the moving around. Raquel leads damage now fairly easily and is just slightly behind Jude. Still with Intrude, she more than makes up for it and is likely to take care of the dolls barring boosting your EXP and Gella gains. Arnaud > Raquel > Jude > Yulie.
1. Raquel
2. Jude
3. Yulie
4. Arnaud
DESOLATE RAILWAYOh boy. The randoms here are absolute assholes. Lots of physical offense and if Yulie starts in the centre HEX (1/7 chance), she is almost guaranteed to be dead. The main enemy of issue are the Jack-o-Laturns. These things have Confuse and fire magic that HURTS when it hits. Oh and if confuse hits, remember your evasion is dead in the water. So um...that + enemies with nasty physical damage = no. Thankfully, you have *2* characters that can take care of them. Raquel loses to Arnaud in speed, but Arnaud doesn't have multiple strikes that Raquel does with Intrude. It's pretty even since sniping one that gets an upcoming turn can prevent you from a nasty situation. The other members of the peanut gallery are: Mercurius and Gremlin. Gremlins are highly evasive, have an evade buff and are ARM jammers. They're pretty nasty, but they get OHKO'd by pretty much every sans Yulie (who needs Material). So in the grand scheme of things, they're only a problem if you let the battle carry out too long. Mercurius are like Empusa's but without ARM jamming. They also have a Wind Magic attack but seem to greatly favour their physicals. Superconductive Gimlet in particular is very strong and you never want to get hit by it. The weakness lets again, Arnaud and Raquel take care of them pretty easily. Jude sorta struggles, but can manage with Phantom Line and as long as his ARM doesn't jam. The scrub enemies are the Mollusk Hares which basically explode if you use gems and hit their weakness. Think Arnaud = Raquel > Jude > Yulie. Yulie exploding here due to the randoms with powerful physical offense really sucks.
1t. Arnaud
1t. Raquel
3. Jude
4. Yulie
ETEMANANKILots and lots of battles due to the dungeon's length. The most annoying enemy of the set here are the Jammer Imps. As their name implies, they basically just love to screw over your options. From Misery to FP Buster along with being ARM jammers. They suck. A lot. Raquel and Arnaud are both solid against them with the same issue again being speed vs. ability to hit more than one when FP is available. Due to FP Buster, both characters can be without their tools, in which case, Raquel usually does better since she doesn't have to be on a specific HEX or right beside them in order to score the KO. Kefa's have powerful physicals along with the Hard attribute and an elemental weakness. More bait for Arnaud and Raquel. Jude, meanwhile, hates life that the only monster he's relatively decent here against are the Calenos. They birds fly and spew status and steal items. Direct damage? None what-so-ever. On the other hand, if he steals a Tiny Flower off of them, well, he would easily be the most important person by far. But the rareness of the steal along with their speed and likelihood of escaping battles makes this unlikely. Raquel can handle these with gems although the flyer penalty kinda wrecks her day with Intrude (she basically needs to spend two turns now to have an effective KO). Arnaud handles these well enough. Mus also ruin Jude's day. Raquel is happy her magic score doesn't suck and again, can occassionally score that OHKO. Arnaud and Yulie of course don't have problems here. Nybasses are the scrub enemies since they are relatively slow and are extremely frail to the point where Yulie and Arnaud can OHKO with their physicals. They actually have Reflect, but the craptastic physical durability makes this not matter. They do a lot of damage if you give them turns to attack though. Usually they just spend it casting 5% regeneration in WA4.
YESZ. My kneejerk is to say Raquel > Arnaud > Yulie > Jude despite Raquel not fairing as well against Calenos. Probably not very surprising.
Guardian Chimera is a bit of a no-contest as Raquel clearly dominates. The biggest issue usually against him in solos is that the other characters don't necessarily have the offense to beat out his 10% healing due to speed. Raquel though, instantly fixes that and basically mocks him every turn he decides not to use his powerful Material summons. Between Jude and Arnaud, Arnaud gives you more control over the battle while Jude has more offensive input now thanks to allies powering up Joint Struggle. The control is usually more preferable since Illusioning Guardian Chimera and Slowing him down give you big advantages. On the off chance you have Reinforce, cast it on yourself and watch yourself mass build FP with Turn Shift to powerup Raquel's Intrude. Raquel > Arnaud = Yulie > Jude here. As for Enil...um. Scrub bosses are inherently hard to evaluate, but if we consider how to keep allies from dying while killing Enil into the equation, than Jude is usually the best due to his opening move just being a huge "Fuck You" to Enil. Hurray all the clones are gone! You are now dead! Otherwise, Yulie and Arnaud have some tools to handle this one with Isolate/Replace. But really, even if Jude 'wins' it's not a huge victory by any means.
1. Raquel
2. Arnaud
3. Yulie
4. Jude
SILVER STAR EXPRESSThe soldiers are actually fairly resilient and each one of them kinda has some tricks making each of these kinda like miniature boss fights. For the most part, Raquel > Arnaud > Yulie >= Jude. Raquel's offense is obviously a winner since she kills everything sans Dreadnaughts in one hit. Dreadnaughts also counter any attack with Misery and guess who really isn't effected by it. Hint: It is not mages or Jude. After Raquel, Arnaud has some tricks with movement to get the team into better attacking positions, usually setting up Jude for a Joint Struggle and occassionally OHKOing enemies himself with a Hi-Break. This lets him beat both Jude and Yulie who have very specialized contributions. Yulie's main contribution aside from FP Advantage and Turn Shift is also Material. There are times when it's more efficient to let Yulie just MT kill weakened soldiers from Arnaud and Jude as Raquel's turn or follow up turn is just too slow. She can also use gems, but at this point Arnaud also has a +45 MAG aside from his natural lead so she can't reach anywhere near close to his level of damage. Jude has Phantom Line and Joint Struggle to keep up. Joint Struggle is very specialized since it requires a grouping. But it's definitely powerful enough to keep him on par with Yulie. Jude's big worry though is MP. It may honestly be worthwhile just to give the Elder Record to him so he doesn't run out. There are also random enemies called Bullseye. Everyone laughs at them, but Jude needs to get Short Circuit in order to OHKO, so I guess that makes him the weakest since nobody else needs to go out and purchase additional skills >_>.
Tank Vehicle is a bit of a joke, but Arnaud > Raquel > Jude > Yulie. Yulie again is way too damn frail being nearly borderline OHKO'd. Arnaud auto-wins when he gets a turn AND keeps the team safe. Doesn't get much better than that. Raquel finishes the fight faster than Jude and also keeps herself safer since she can further invest in Blocker along with better evade. Simple. Balgaine, however, is more difficult to rank in that again, everyone has some good contributing factors. Arnaud has the last several Hi-Breaks he can break out for around 7000 damage and brings the team closer so Jude can use Joint Struggle for around 7000 damage as well. Yulie has Quicken and Turn Shift which means if you got Assault Buster with Jude, he can further power that up too for shits and giggles. It deals around 15600 damage so it's fairly nasty. Raquel is Raquel. The main issue for these tricks? You need FP. So FP Advantage shines even more than usual and Arnaud's Reinforce is a nice back up. Baron of Gore's a funky trick but since WA4 buffs are pretty awesome (especially in the right situations), Balgaine can't really stop you from powering right through him. Kneejerk Arnaud > Yulie > Raquel = Jude, although its pretty close here altogether. One could argue Yulie > Arnaud if Arnaud runs out of Hi-Gems, but I've never had this issue before. You have 8 of them and if you give Arnaud a strong MAG set up, he'll likely OHKO the soldiers in the gauntlet. And you shouldn't have to spend more than 1 per battle and sometimes you don't even need to use one since a normal game gives you more freedom to rely on weaker gems as well as Yulie and Raquel turns.
1. Arnaud
2. Raquel
3. Yulie
4. Jude
ABANDONED VILLAGENo Yulie, but this area is fairly small. The nastiest enemies are the Moles and their damn Stone Bullets. I've been knicked more than once by them and actually lost *3* times at the Breakpoint due to some bad positioning. Raquel handles most enemies easily and has even some play to her strengths here since she's also capable of resisting Cremation. Jude struggles notably because of lack of consistent OHKOs and things to steal. Arnaud joins Jude near this camp, as his gems and regular blasts are now starting to lose steam. Without FP, the entire team starts finding it harder to get going. Arnaud loses set ups with better gem damage, Raquel loses some of the fuel for her Intrude chains -> Win. Raquel still has a clear win though as she suddenly also gets more crucial turns without Arnaud's sniping and the team missing one overall memeber. Of course, this also leads to more harrowing situations since I can't snipe some nastier enemies, proving once and for all that the balance in WA4 may be closer knit then you think.
1. Raquel
2. Arnaud
3. Jude
GARRA DE LEONThis is a long dungeon, but the enemies remain largely the same. The regular soldiers are all OHKO bait for Raquel. Arnaud buys Hi-Blasts and manages to join Raquel and actually fares better against one particular enemy: The Militiaman. Hi-Blasts just doesn't trigger Defender, which lets Arnaud take care of them AND additional enemies in the HEX in one fell swoop. He does have some MP issues though if you start spamming it, so he needs the Elder Record. Outside of that, Raquel is also the more durable PC here for once due to cross attack. Cross attack causes all surrounding sodliers to attack with a physical if possible. While Arnaud's evade is godly, it can't beat Raquel having better raw defense AND occassionally countering, splattering everyone inside that HEX from the cross attack in one strike. Kresnik is around for the first portion, but he doesn't perform notably well compared to Arnaud and Raquel. He does sport some shiny OHKOs against the soldiers, but he's also fairly ST oriented. He trades off the MT Material and FP advantage for better physical durability and physical damage. Is it a winning trade? Well considering that I keep Yulie safe enough as is, losing the opportunity to instant win when you start on elemental HEX is a tough loss. Plus, do you really need another PC who's good at physical tanking? Funny that, since usually people complain that they rather take Kresnik over Yulie. He's still however, better than Jude because Jude for the first half of the dungeon cannot OHKO anything. Most of his turns are dead turns, and without Arnaud helping him group allies, Joint Struggle is just too weak and Phantom Line is long past obsolete. Once Yulie finally rejoins, then we can add the Alter Part and Dragon Fossil to his ARM. NOW he has a decent chance of OHKOing most soldiers except for the Militiaman. Yulie has the same advantages that she normally brings, but cross attack is a notable threat to her. Later portions of this dungeon features machines. But they're similar to the regular soldiers anyway, aside from the fact that they hit harder. I'm pretty certain these versions don't even resist any elements, which is of course, terrible.
Half the bosses in this long dungeon are terrible jokes (Tony 3, Augst 1/2) so no comment on them. Of the ones worth nothing, Prototype Gear has Arnaud > Raquel > Yulie > Jude. Prototype Gear's physical if you didn't know has two hits. This makes it such that, not even Raquel can take these for a long time and everyone is consistantly at risk. Arnaud however, can bring the battle down under control and he and Raquel can probably just finish it by themselves from there. Due to this, Raquel is also more durable and has more damage, but can't prevent Prototype Gear's offense from simply escalating to the point that the fight may result in a loss. Why? Because Prototype Gear is durable enough to take a few hits. Yeah, he's nasty. Between Yulie and Jude, both are pretty bad here, but Yulie at least can throw in positive support to make the fight easier. Jude deals damage but Joint Struggle is a no go due to the Line fire ID. So he has to rely on the weaker Short Circuit, which just isn't good enough considering he too gets 2HKO'd easily. Super Soldier has Raquel > Yulie > Arnaud > Jude. Jude is once again, the weakest link as for some reason this time around, he can't OHKO the spellcaster, which just basically ruins what he can do. He's also likely to die from the opening two Blasts. On the other hand, Raquel can (even if you are not looking for it) enter Red Zone from it and proceed to more or less clean house. She doesn't even need Healing at this point due to Dragon Edge. Yulie tanks the Blasts better than Arnaud due to them being the corresponding element + better MDEF and she can provide the better support as a result for once. Arnaud's not bad, but as Super Soldier starts far away, Illusion is of limited use. His best bet is still Slow Down but it just loses so much steam if Raquel gets a Red Zone going, and even when she doesn't, it just doesn't end up doing much here.
Overall...Hm. Raquel >= Arnaud > Yulie > Jude. Kresnik is somewhere between Yulie and Jude I suppose. Raquel and Arnaud are very close with both of them being noticeably important in one boss and can OHKO most randoms. Raquel has to her a slight of advantage of not needing to worry too much about MP and being able to occassionally counter and splatter the soldiers' obnoxious cross attack.
1. Raquel
2. Arnaud
3. Yulie
4. Kresnik
5. Jude
DRAGON FOSSIL MINEEnemies are notably more difficult than those back in Garra De Leon. They hit harder, have nastier status and more offensive options. Regardless, Raquel shows no mercy in slowing down. Effectively being able to OHKO most enemies here with ease while everyone else does some struggling. Yulie is also worth noting here on offense for once. I was actually wishing for Yulie turns because of Hi-Sanctify. Hi-Sanctify rapes much of the enemies here as many of them are undead. And it costs less MP than Hi-Blasts, and hits hard enough to OHKO. Arnaud has some notable issue. Helter Skelters are the upgraded forms of Spartois, meaning they have accurate physicals here. They also pack Blast so Jude also no-likey. Worse for both, neither of them can OHKO effectively. Arnaud can still KO most of the field with Hi-Blast, but the undead enemies halve everything that isn't non-elemental or fire. He also doesn't have as much liberty in throwing Hi-Gems around since those only spawn at a 50% rate and he's the only producer of them. This results in some MP issues in this field map, although he still manages. Jude is good against one particular monster, but it is worth mentioning. Armordrakes can take 2 Raquel hits. They also hit hard and otherwise can only be OHKO'd by Arnaud via Hi-Blast on opposing elemental HEXes. Jude is actually relatively solid against them if you have Assault Buster. They start with RFX Up unfortunately, but it costs less MP to Dispel -> Assault Buster than trying to set up all the pieces right for Arnaud to OHKO or Raquel to have enough FP. Overall, a fairly balanced area although some PCs are better than others.
1. Raquel
2. Yulie
3. Arnaud
4. Jude
VALLEY OF OBLIVIONStop by Frontier Halim first and get the second half of the huge power boost: Tiny Flower. I equip this on Raquel for pretty obvious reasons. I buy a Titanium Edge for Arnaud so I can craft a weapon later, but for the most part, I save as much Gella as I can since there's another store very shortly.
The actual dungeon itself features mostly fodder type enemies. Except one (gee this is a recurring trend). Bruisers are notable durable for randoms. They're significantly difficult for Arnaud or Jude to KO. I'm not sure if it's because they have very good MDEF in Arnaud's case, but it does give Raquel a significantly leg up on both of them. There's also more birdies who steal items. These evolved cousins are by far the worst with Misery and Sleep. Raquel is actually hurt by Misery since it stops her from Intrude, move and then using a Break gem. So she's usually unable to KO these. Jude and Arnaud have their physicals so they don't care. Baphomets are basically upgraded Nybasses. So they have absolutely horrible physical defense and just about everything takes them out sans a Yulie physical. Speaking of Yulie, Material starts showing problems in that it has some problems scoring consistent OHKOs against some of the enemies here (Trolls/Bruisers). Trolls are...trolls. They do nothing but move back and forth and counterattack when struck. They also have constant regeneration. Raquel however, openly mocks them by being able to OHKO them with relatively. Arnaud can too with the right gem or Blast. Jude struggles here. There's supposedly a 5th random here (an undead horserider) but I didn't see it this time. To Jude's credit? Item Steal finally pays off and he manages to snag a second Tiny Flower. This creates more options and boss smashing. See below.
As for bosses, Arnaud wins on both. Superior movement abilities to the rescue! Grouping everyone together just once again boosts overall team offense/defense options.
takes a lot of damage from the Hi-Vortexes found at the beginning of the dungeon and some Joint Struggle from Jude. Raquel's slow speed even when Tiny Flower'd is a hinderance since each delay means
can spawn more explosive clones. Yulie does get Jude set up with Gather though so hm...Arnaud > Yulie > Jude > Raquel here. Goldrake...well thanks to his starting position + Exploit Weakness, Arnaud can effectively OHKO it with one Hi-Vortex. On the off chance he cannot, you can also Tiny Flower Yulie and she can follow up Vortex to win. I'm not sure who is notably worse here, but my kneejerk is Raquel doesn't fare too well compared to everyone else since once Goldrake flies, her offense just sinks down the gutter. Whereas, Jude and Arnaud still have good options and Yulie still has support. Arnaud > Jude = Yulie > Raquel.
Hard ranking here. Arnaud clearly rules on the bosses here. Meanwhile, Raquel has a fairly easy time with most of the randoms except for one or two but they're largely non-issues. Jude however, finally pays dividends with that extra Tiny Flower steal. I wager the rank works something like: Raquel > Jude = Arnaud > Yulie. Raquel's dominance in the bosses would probably be more notable without the extra Tiny Flower. Likewise, Arnaud wouldn't rule so much face without a second Tiny Flower'd teammate. Still, he does fare overall better on the randoms then Jude, so it probably evens out.
1. Raquel
2t. Arnaud
2t. Jude
4. Yulie
BLUE AMITY BEACHAnother big boost right after Valley of Oblivion. The workshop is open, which means a bunch of forging gets done. Most importantly, I turn several of my normal gems into Hi-Gems, giving Arnaud more cannon weapons in randoms. I further craft a Gold Sun for Yulie, effectively pumping her HP to around Arnaud level. Finally, I forge a Mithral Edge for Arnaud, which is significantly stronger than his best storebought. It's similar to the Aglaia in strength, although worse of course due to no MAG boost. I further get more abilities with Raquel now picking up Exploit Weakness, Jude picking up Assault Buster and Yulie picking up Conserve MP.
Anyway, Arnaud is easily the winner here, after a somewhat disappointing performance earlier. Of all the monsters in this field, Arnaud handles them the best. The most obnoxious enemies by far are Loup-Garous. These things have *massive* amounts of evade and start with EVA Up. This results in Raquel and Jude both struggling to get damage off on them. I've seen Raquel miss an entire 3 hit swing. On the other hand, Arnaud's Hi Blast mocks puny evasion and can easily taken them out. They can also drain MP, but Arnaud would still be the winner because he has gems to fall back on now that the Halim Workshop is available. His game best MAG easily lets him deal the most damage with those compared to anyone else using them. The Skyfish here as their namesake may suggest are flyers. Raquel basically dislikes them with a passion and requires Exploit Weakness to score KOs on them consistently. Jude gets a flyer bonus and Arnaud has no accuracy penalty *and* two weakness to play off of. So yeah, they both handle that fine. Heck, so does Yulie, although she needs Hi-gems for it. Sea Bishops are pretty slow but they hit really hard. Arnaud walls them the best with his evade and Resist Water. Nobody else has a claim to this. Sea Urchins are the last enemy in the area, but they're pretty scrubby. They stop Jude but are basically FP fodder for Raquel. Yulie's loss of consistent KOs with material continues to kick in, usually being just a bit short on some key enemies (Sea Bishops/Loup Garous)
1. Arnaud
2. Raquel
3. Yulie
4. Jude
PORT ROSALIA, TAKE IIRaquel loads up on class levels and even barring the fact that both Arnaud and Jude got turns, it is still far more efficient to just let Raquel waste Jeremy OHKO speedrun style. I'm not sure how well Jude necessarily fares normally, but Raquel > Arnaud > Jude > Yulie is probably my kneejerk for both fights. Yulie has an actual risk of dying before Raquel gets her turn even when Tiny Flower'd. Assuming you want to drag this out longer (Gella Card/Lucky Card) then Arnaud > Raquel > Jude > Yulie since Arnaud will be able to guarantee everyone's safety while still being able to contribute offensively. Jeremy is just so frail that the offense lead that Raquel has if you're not going for pure efficiency doesn't end up mattering. Illusion Jeremy and he kinda fails bad if you wall him with the right characters in front. Mmm...I'll call it a tie here.
1t. Arnaud
1t. Raquel
3. Jude
4. Yulie
