Super Laggy RPG: *Laggy* Seal of Approval (an SMRPG mod)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Sounds like an invitation to Geno Boost him on randoms - which I'll bluntly say I have done time and again in SLRPG.

[Fuzzypickles]

Then Mallow dies in two hits instead of one. >_>

And I've been using Terrorize, which is effectively Geno Boosting my entire party. Enemies aren't immune to it yet. He's still just falling apart. And it's not like Geno would do much better in terms of durability -- he's Mallow with a bit more HP but he jobs to magic damage.

With the multi-acting and the harder timed defenses, I feel like there are times when the game just decides that someone is gonna die and there's nothing I can do about it. =/

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Talk to Laggy about that, then. I haven't been having much issues about it, but he wanted the game to not be horrendous without timed blocking, and depending on how much offense increases, this could not always be viable. But no, the part of Geno Boosting also relates to offense: killing things faster = they have less time to kill you, and Geno Boost helps with that to a degree, and Mallow has MT. Also, Zoom Shoes Bowser as well if Fear is so paramount - status is more useful when you can apply it faster. Also sounds like you'd want to have Toadstool spamming MT sleep on things as well.

EDIT: Speaking of shenanigans:

The Bundt fight was kinda funny. Mage Mario does wonders to make the fight simpler, since the better magic durability keeps the cake nicely under control. Bundt being fear-vulnerable surprised me a lot, but I'll take it for sure. There's also lul 3HKOing Raspberry with Super Jump - even at 14 jumps, that's a nice 370 damage figure after Geno Boost right there, though I know this is Fear-augmented. Deathcast Shredder was a nice touch, but not hugely relevant long-term.

[Fuzzypickles]

Geno Boost and Fear don't stack, at least from what I've read. Fear treats all attacks done by the Feared unit as the defender having Defense UP and all attacked done ON the Feared unit as the attacker having Attack UP -- this overrides other stat boosts.  That's why Terrorize is so wonderful... it's like Geno Boosting your entire party for three turns.

Maybe I'm underleveled (I've been skipping almost every fight except stuff prior to Croco1/Mack)? I've been getting through the game fine up to this point (only resets have been on Knife/Grate Guy prior to the pirate ship), which is why I'm hesitant to blame level. I'm doing a wee bit of fighting randoms to hit 10 on Mario/Mallow and I'll see if Kalamari goes better the second time around.

EDIT: Already doing Zoom Shoes Bowser! =]

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

You're supposed to hit L10 at the ship at latest - ideally, L10 at Star Hill sounds like the plan. I've been skipping a fair deal of randoms, but you don't want to be below a certain level threshold in SLRPG, and L9 mid-Sunken Ship I'd definitely call underlevelled. So yeah, that also makes sense.

EDIT: Says the person who was gnawing on Laggy due to Hammer Bros. 2HKOing MAGE MARIO at L2. >_>

[Fuzzypickles]

Level 10 gives Shocker.

That made things a lot easier -- and I even forgot to switch Mallow back to Cymbals for the fight!

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Geno Blast+Thunderbolt actually makes a lot of things easier, I've found! Zoom Shoes Mallow+Geno = MT 2HKO to a lot of stuff before they get going too.

[Laggy]

Terrorize and Boost do stack. Fear is a separate status that is completely distinct from the Attack UP and Defense UP status >_>

[Laggy]

In the first post, at the end, I put in a 'recommended levels' guide just to let people know what the bosses are *generally* designed for.

[jsh357]

I started streaming this with some IRC friends.

Made it up to the first star.  So far, good.  Funniest part was the Chain Chomp.

[Fuzzypickles]

Terrorize and Boost do stack. Fear is a separate status that is completely distinct from the Attack UP and Defense UP status >_>

Ah, guess someone made a mistake on GFAQs then. Good to know!

EDIT: Actually, I was curious so I went and tested this. Geno Boosted Mario deals the same damage regardless of if the target is Feared or not, so it looks like they don't stack.

I went into Land's End and I'm incapable of killing Geckos. Mario can deal 6 damage on a regular attack, Bowser/Mallow deal 1. If Mallow uses Shocker I can get up to 16 damage! I feel like I'm doing something wrong, but I can get past the bosses fine. It's... confusing.

On a sidenote, why the nerfs to KeroKeroColas if you're buffing the storebought party heals? Early game I just used FroggieDrinks, now I'm using Elixirs, and I think I'll be able to buy Megalixirs by the time that Elixirs stop being a full-heal.  On the topic of items... Able Juice. It being nerfed means there's no way to cure most statuses except HP Rain early on. They seem pretty outclassed by Freshen Up anyway, since Scarecrow/Mushroom are pretty rare statuses and you usually know when they're coming. I dunno, I didn't understand why it needed to be nerfed.

[Laggy]

For exactly the reasons you stated: status not being easy to cure early on makes it more relevant aside from just "pop the Able Juice", or forces you to use Mallow's turn for that purpose. Freshen Ups only become readily storebought when MT status is a lot more common and there are bigger threats to begin with. If there's a universal status cure, it basically cheapens the role of status in a psychological sense, where otherwise people don't feel compelled to bother curing a status because you have to go through workarounds to do so (carrying 2 curing items instead of 1), which makes the status more relevant.

Keros get used regardless. You get a ton of free ones from chests and they're still guaranteed full healing as opposed to the storebought versions. Every person who's gone through has used them during fights, so I'm not worried about them being ignored or stockpiled.

That is ... really weird. I swear damage was being quartered when I had both Boost and Terrorize in effect. Can you test damage from enemies as opposed to damage on enemies, at the least?

[Fuzzypickles]

Keros get used regardless. You get a ton of free ones from chests and they're still guaranteed full healing as opposed to the storebought versions. Every person who's gone through has used them during fights, so I'm not worried about them being ignored or stockpiled.

That is ... really weird. I swear damage was being quartered when I had both Boost and Terrorize in effect. Can you test damage from enemies as opposed to damage on enemies, at the least?

I am such a hoarder in RPGs. I haven't used a Kero yet, yet I gladly drop all of my money on Megalixirs. I'll chalk this up to me being silly. >_>

And I just tested... you get the same damage whether it's Fear, Defense UP, or Fear + Defense UP. I read somewhere that the game handles Fear by just giving the opposite party Attack UP/Defense UP for all calculations, and it overrides whatever the actual conditions are. I'm not sure what happens if two people are Feared, but they definitely don't stack.

[dude789]

Just saved after beating the Hidon in the Sunken Ship. Randoms started out nasty, but I've gained a few levels because they give tons of experience and I've figured out a party configuration that does a good job of neutralizing them. Greapers are easily the nastiest of the bunch, Creepers hit hard but are slow and vulnerable to status. The rats are surprisingly durable which makes them really annoying due to poison damage. Not using the most updated with the weakened Clustars and King Kalamari. He didn't seem too bad,  a party of Mallow, Geno and Mario handled him pretty well.

I discovered another emulator issue. I'm still using the one that has problems with the inventory screen mostly out of laziness. In the final portion of the King Kalamari fight, the emulator seems to have trouble handling everything that's going on at once and will freeze up if a graphically complex skill is used when 1 or more of the tentacles is alive. This is most notable with Super Flame and when the tentacles use Lightning Orb. It can handle regular Fire Orb so use that until both of the tentacles are dead and after that it's safe to use Super Flame on the big guy.

Some balance thoughts, Whomp Glove and Zoom Shoes are overpowered. Mallow has the best attack out of the bunch due to Whomp Glove's +60 attack power. I know that the idea is that by using them he's sacrificing magic boost from the Cymbals, but it's not like his magic stat is bad without the cymbals. Adding a magic penalty to the gloves might make the decision a little more interesting. The problem with the Zoom Shoes is their defensive bonuses.  I've mainly had them equipped on Bowser and Mallow, but with them equipped only the strongest physical attacks can scratch Bowser and Mallow is moderately durable instead of dieing to a stiff breeze. I just got the Safety Badge and I suspect they may have a similar effect because the bonuses it gives are even better.

As for the characters, Mario is a good damage dealer. It feels that a lot more things are weak to jump and fire so he has solid physical damage and can sacrifice some FP to do pretty extreme damage if he hits a weakness. Mallow is feeling pretty broken now that I've given him the Whomp Glove and Zoom shoes. Whomp Glove and his magic makes him a very well rounded character and Zoom Shoes fix his weaknesses perfectly. Bowser is also very useful. He's more one sided than Mallow and Mario, but Terrorize is awesome and enemies who target him with physical damage are usually wasting their turns. Solid physical damage is helpful too.

Toadstool and especially Geno feel as though they've gotten the short end of the stick lately. Toadstool's early damage is better, but her healing and hp are worse. Mallow feels like the superior healer right now because HP Rain is better than Therapy and Group Hug is prohibitively expensive and doesn't even heal that much for it's cost. Sleepy Time is nice but that's really the only thing she has going for her right now. Is it possible to change Group Hug's targeting so it targets her allies but not herself? If so I think you could lower it's FP cost to 6 and it wouldn't be overpowering. Giving her status healing back to Therapy might also help to reestablish herself as the party healer over Mallow.

Geno has two good qualities right now, his speed and Geno Boost and that's it. He's really frail, Geno Beam and Geno Blast don't do that much damage for their cost, and he doesn't do that much with physicals because while his attack stat is good, his weapons aren't. I think the biggest problem is that his equipment is terrible. Looking at the list, Hand Gun has less than half the attack of Masher and Whomp Glove and the Sailor Cape gives 3/5 the defense and Magic Defense as the Nautica Dress, Sailor Shirt and Sailor Pants.

Hack is still a lot of fun so far.     

[Fuzzypickles]

I had the same opinions as you when I was in the Sunken Ship, but things completely changed rather quickly.

Geno gets Geno Whirl soon. This really helps in randoms. Plus you can get the Ghost Medal in Monstro Town which really helps his durability. This also begins to coincide with enemies becoming immune to Fear.

I'm using Mario/Mallow/Geno for the most part. I agree, Toadstool isn't really desirable at the moment... I'd rather just use items for MT healing than deal with the competition for the FP. I'd switch out Mario for Bowser if I could, but Mario isn't really a liability. Mallow's magic damage is fantastic (Snowy tore through Megaslimax), and Geno Boost is too silly.

[Laggy]

Re: Zoom Shoes. +10 Speed and +10 Defense/+5 M.Defense is good for that point, but compare it to the Amulet (acquired shortly thereafter). You take a -5 speed hit on it, but you get +7 to all stats (including defenses) and also get element halving on top of that, which pretty cleanly own the Zoom Shoes for durability reasons. Defense stacking to make things tink is fine and expected; there are spells that ITD that exist explicitly to get around that as well, and it really differentiates who's durable and who's not, which I like as a design aesthetic (might as well take advantage of that subtractive defense!)

Toadstool is designed more as a crutch than anything. It's true that storebought MT healing items make her somewhat obsolete for that purpose, but bear in mind that not everyone is going to keep those stocked up on a regular basis and they're pretty pricy and out of the way - no way you can argue 120 or 180 coin consumables are somehow more cost-effective than a 12 FP spell. In addition, she has Come Back, which given the new cost of Pick Me Ups is a big deal if you're stingy on consumables (and Sleepy Time keeps her relevant on randoms). If you find her underwhelming early on, remember the B'tub Ring is available immediately for her and boosts her healing significantly. I'll grant that Therapy is just flat out worse than HP Rain, but nor do I want it to be a clone of the same spell (and Toadstool still easily outclasses Mallow for healing just on virtue of having MT and revival). I can't change Group Hug's targeting, unfortunately, otherwise that would be a lot more interesting as a spell.

Geno rides on Geno Boost for a very long time, but I think it's fair to say that Geno Boost is just that damn good that it still justifies his use (and his speed and offense, while the latter not being cast-best, is certainly passable enough to give him purpose on randoms). Whirl and Flash give him niches that no one else gets later on as well, and as Fuzzy mentioned, the Ghost Medal helps him immensely.

Everyone so far I've seen has used quite varied parties, which has made me pretty happy as far as I'm concerned.

[Laggy]

I now have a fancy awesome modded logo courtesy of Hal.

The ROM has been updated accordingly (along with other relevant things like Magikoopa not being able to freeze your game and Group Hug being dropped to 10 FP)

[DjinnAndTonic]

Is that Logo just a modded screenshot JPEG or did you actually make the change to the ROM itself?

[Laggy]

The latter.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

More logging madness:

Currently on my way to Bean Valley, at L14. I think it's reasonable to assume 13-14 for Belome 2, since there's -another- XP jump at Land's End and by god they give you a star that lands you tons of XP just there. At this point, I'm comfortably swapping people while keeping Geno in my ranks - too much speed there, and the MT is just sexy enough to justify that. My party is -indeed- frail - they only went past the 100 HP average by L13, if not 14, because holy crap making pure mage Mario and Mallow takes a toll on their durability and Geno still remains likely the second-most durable PC to physicals, which is hilarious and sad. >_> This is pretty cool for my anti-boss offense, though - particularly, Ultra Jump is horrendously painful right now. Mallow also deals great damage with Snowy, but that's expensive. Well, not so much with the Scrooge Ring I bought by hogging Frog Coins the whole game. <_< Toadstool is now relevant against randoms with Sleepy Time and Therapy is hands down the best post-battle healing in the game (NOT TO MENTION you actually have reasons to have a healer -in battle- now, especially post-L13, where you may find Come Back highly desirable, but that stands true especially for bosses), while Bowser slowly begins to dwindle in worth - his durability and damage with Poison Gas are great, but Terrorize began to face immunities (particularly, Shoguns) and his speed is highly undesirable for my blitzkrieg approach on randoms, for all that Zoom Shoes helps a bit (though not much if he uses Work Pants, which he -still- has an argument to use even at Land's End). I figure he may end up low-priority in my lategame party just like the original, but I'll see about that when his lategame spells show up. Meanwhile, Mallow is very frail as well, and almost as slow as Bowser, which means he also benefits from Zoom Shoes. Due to this, I -never- use both Mallow and Bowser in my party, because I can't afford to have no fast PCs in my ranks period. Growing pains of party dynamics here.

Anyhow, some particular eye-catching enemy thoughts:

Belome 2: was hilariously trashy. Clone Geno has Dark Star, but I just went "yeah whatever ST OHKO", 2HKOed him with Ultra Jump and revived with Toadstool. Besides that, he only cloned Geno and Mario, and Clone Mario is horrible in spite of double-acting. But that's okay.

Mokura: Cute, Laggy. Really cute. Mokura is quirky and brutal, particularly at L13-14. How you handle this crap: you need magical damage to bring him out, since he's unhittable early in the fight with physicals. Fortunately, his MDef is horrendous. I was dealing 500 damage with 20-jump Ultras, and I slapped a 700 damage tag on him with a particularly nasty Ultra Jump chain. Honestly, his scary stuff lies in Sand Storm and a Boulder next turn. Freshen Ups are necessary there, and you honestly want Toadstool if she can survive a Boulder (which Geno Boost should ensure). IN FACT, a durable enough Toadstool can borderline trivialize Mokura's offense, if I'm analyzing this right. But this is the easy part.

Later, he -undisappears-. He gets a single tripleact when he undisappears - Mega Drain/Water Blast/Ice Rock, which can ruin the day for 2/3 of your party if you're not on top of your game. Once -that- is past, though, you have to deal with getting to him. His MDef turns from suck to great, but his P.Def becomes egregious failure. Caveat? He is a PAIN IN THE ASS TO HIT. So, this really turns into a battle of endurance and luck unless you want to spend a ton of time chipping the MDef. It's -reasonable-, but I realized that trying to break his evade is actually far faster if you have better than complete shit for luck - 50% or so evasion is annoying, but when he's as frail as he is to physicals, it works out okay. Laggy actually seemed impressed that I beat it, even though I used savestates to actually figure out a deal of his patterns (I hadn't saved for half an hour and did -not- want to lose progress, and I actually accidentaly savestated into the fight). So yeah, figured it was worth posting.

Shoguns: Badass motherfuckers, especially on a party as frail as mine. Carni-Kiss is now unblockable OHKO to half my party, and you don't try to MT them unless you can 2HKO them before they act (I couldn't at L13) because of their Vigor Up counter to magic, which turns Carni-Kiss into "OHKO Bowser" shit. Oh, and they immune Fear. Don't dick around these kids! They're fortunately slow, but if you're not careful, they can easily ruin your shit. Of course, they prioritize their trashy physical (not bad unblocked, but it's really really easy to block. Sooooooooooooo), so they're entirely sane. I just have to wonder why Laggy fangirls randomly over some stuff like Lakitus and Snifits and now Shoguns. =D

Also, if you want to grind for Frog Coins? Land's End if you care so much. Still having fun, and holy crap Attack Scarf is no longer completely dumb.

[dude789]

Shoguns are nasty but Snowy still one shots them. Hits them all for about 300 damage, probably more for you since you've been consistently giving Mallow the magic bonuses. Mallow in general is really good in Land's End if you're willing to use FP liberally.

[Dark Holy Elf]

- Level up bonuses changed to require some actual thought and preference instead of autopilot to the best number.

I know you posted these in chat, but could you document these in this thread as well?

[Laggy]

All level up bonuses rotate through the following bonuses.

Phase 1: Attack +1/Defense +2, HP +3, M.Attack +1/M.Defense +2
Phase 2: Attack +1/Defense +1, HP +2, M.Attack +1/M.Defense +1
Phase 3 is char-dependant.

Mario: Attack +2/Defense +2, HP +5, M.Attack +2/M.Defense +2
Toadstool: Attack +1/Defense +2, HP +4, M.Attack +2/M.Defense +1
Bowser: Attack +2/Defense +2, HP +5, M.Attack +4/M.Defense +1
Geno: Attack +2/Defense +1, HP +4, M.Attack +2/M.Defense +1
Mallow: Attack +3/Defense +1, HP +4, M.Attack +2/M.Defense +1

I included it in the original post as well.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Time to feed the Lagbeast with another war story log. So, this will cover Bean Valley and Nimbus Land.

Bean Valley is pretty simple outside of the Chewies and Kriffids. Chewies used to be ID-vulnerable, so Geno Whirl to own their asses with great fury. When Laggy changed that, I never had to fight them again, so screw your evil, Laggy-chan. Kriffids, though, I find honestly more dangerous. 2HKO magic+silence is murderous if you're geared for randoms, and they're annoying as -fuck- to kill. Fortunately, they're still ID-vulnerable! Goooooooooooooooodbye. People saying Geno sucks are freaking out of their mind. However, I'm increasingly convinced that going pure mage Geno or mage+HP Geno is -the- way to go for him. Physicals being underwhelming for offense now that pdef was buffed+SMRPG giving you ridiculous amount of resources = you want magic to fry things, and Geno's got the most cost-effective stuff out there. I also slapped a Troopa Pin on him, which means he 2HKOs a lot of stuff and OHKOs some people too. Also, Toadstool -loves- them prop weapons. Sleepy Time works on a lot of stuff, and that+Geno-level speed = you kick ass on randoms. Late midgame kicks in and suddenly it's back to classic SMRPG dynamics for me. Anyhow.

Megasmilax was funny. First time, I come in with no Transform blockers! Predictably, Megasmilax comes in after I own the smaller Smilaxes and fweems my ass with Petal Blast+whatever tripleact. Second time was far simpler in spite of my lack of items, since I dropped two Transform blockers on my party and had Mallow rip Megasmilax in half with Snowy. Okay, this is it for Bean Valley - well, no. There are Birdies and Fat Troopas. But Birdies get OHKOed by Troopa Pin Geno, even though they're faster. Sure, they OHKO everybody but Bowser with unblocked Grinder, but who cares. >_> Meanwhile, the Koopas hate Ultra Jump like nothing else.

Then, Nimbus Land. I didn't bother fighting Dodo the first time. Randoms... well. I didn't fight all of them. Honestly, I skipped a -lot- of randoms on Nimbus Land, which weaved off my earlier overlevelledness and now I'm L16 for Barrel Volcano, but that's something else. The mage guys are funny in that they gave me a reason to use Mute! yesz. The Jawfuls giving up a turn to sleep turn = they're -awful-, so the most dangerous enemies I really fought were... the Shysters. Who get OHKOed by Geno Flash+Troopa Pin, but that's okay, since they're faster than Geno. Now, for bosses:

Birdo. Birdo. Laggy, you whore, why does the egg actually -act-. Well okay it was only a Meteor Swarm but that was a surprise. Well, a surprise that nearly OHKOed Geno. Then, Birdo herself. Birdo is funny in that she has a ton of in practice unblockable offense, but she's just so frail. The triple act with the overkill egg+Magnum is funny, but I had Toadstool and a couple Pick Me Ups to spare. And, as mentioned before, she's -so frail-. Mario 4HKOed her with Geno Boost'd Ultra Jump or something? Come to think of it, having mage Mario viabilizes Geno+Toadstool on bosses more, since you can have Geno boost stuff then item boy/attack in his rare spare time, Toadstool heal the universe and Mario dish out the jumps that make the peoples fall down.

Then, there's Dodo and Valentina. Dodo's duel eats a 3HKO from Geno physicals, and his two actions being Flutter Hush left me thoroughly unimpressed. Then, Valentina. The first phase is pretty repetitive and owned by Group Hug. When Dodo rejoins, the fight actually starts, though! Dodo isn't very impressive (fully blockable and easy to block), but Valentina gets pretty scary, being able to one-round Toadstool at will, having Shredder and dropping MT sleep that deals damage like nobody's business. Of course, she also derped some with mixing up with her awful physicals. My damage here was entirely done by Mario, and I used my Crystallizes here too in order to mitigate the insanity her damage can rack up. Of course, she also isn't that durable either, and once Dodo died, she kinda bit it to Mario Ultra Jumping on her overgrown lap. Mage Mario is awesome.

[dude789]

Finished the hack. Lots of fun overall. Final party was Mario with Jinx Belt, Bowser with Feather, and Toadstool with Rare Scarf. Levels were 25 for all.

Mario: Pretty much the best damage dealer throughout the hack. Jump is good until late and the Fire attacks where an acceptable substitute when they were resisted. Jinx Belt and Ultra Hammer make him ridiculous and he's able to blow past even the toughest physically defensive enemies with sheer attack power.

Bowser: Excellent tank early on until enemy offense gets ridiculous late. Would have been really bad at the end except that I discovered Poison Gas against Exor. Poison Gas is completely ridiculous. It tended to do around 350 damage and was almost never resisted. The poison is a nice side effect not only because of the damage but it provides a sort of pseudo-Psychopath effect with the way SMRPG poison works.

Toadstool: Gets better and better as the game goes on. Her hp starts out pretty bad but eventually she surpasses Mallow. Healing is pretty expensive early, but by the end of the game it's much more manageable due to Royal Syrups becoming common and having 99 FP instead of ~65.  Of course she also gets a big offense boost between War Fan and Frying Pan so that also helps. Mute and Sleepy Time are amazing when they work.

Mallow: Hit and Miss. Early on he's pretty good because Thunderbolt is cheap and you don't have any better options. Solid also in the Pirate Ship because of the Whomp Glove. After that him being good coincides with enemies being weak to Snowy, and if they're not he's worthless. Terribly weak to phyicals and the low hp doesn't help his durability against magic.

Geno: Probably LVP of the game. With the exception of Geno Boost everything he does can be done by someone else better and items can cover for Geno Boost. Granted, part of this could be because I never was able to get the timing on Geno Whirl, but still. His damage specials are expensive and Poison Gas and Snowy do more for less. Made of paper against physicals and his magic durability wasn't that good either.

Around Monstro Town I started using savestates in boss battles, mostly because their offense started getting pretty insane. With that in mind the most difficult boss was probably the Axem Rangers, then Valentina and then Boomer. Smithy probably would have been up there if I hadn't been stocked with a load of the best items. 

Some balance notes: I wish there was a little bit more that I could do against status. Do Freshen Ups eventually become storebought? If so that helps but they still take up an inventory slot and those are a rather precious resource. In particular, as far as I know it's not possible to block both Mushroom and Sleep at the same time and a number of bosses use both statuses liberally (Valentina, Megasmilax, and Countdown come to mind immediately). If it's possible to make one, an ID blocking pin that give minor defense boosts like the rest of the pins would also be nice because ID is used rather liberally and the current ID blockers have pretty big downsides.

Also, late game boss offense could stand to be toned down some. I'm not a big fan of making Crystallines and such required, but Boomer and Smithy 1 and 2 have the potential to do pretty extreme damage. If Blue Boomer uses Solidify and Corona in a row that's a wipe if no one is defending or buffed. Similarly, for Smithy1 Sledge does 165 which only Bowser and Mario could survive and he's faster than everyone on the team. Smithy2's mage form also would have OHKOed my team from full health without the Crystallines with pretty much any 2 spell combination that involved Sword Rain or Meteor Swarm and he's also got the Body who throws around 140 damage physicals and 500+ Mega Recovers. Toning down the offense and giving the body Shredder could really help to make buffs less of a necessity.

I'm also a bit curious, do Bowser's Poison Gas and Mario's Jump work off of the same "get stronger with more uses" counter? It would explain why Poison Gas was so good at the end of the game despite never using it before.