TO PSP - So my Blowgun Ninja was becoming less fun and more dead weight, so I moved him to using Daggers. Mostly because I read hinode talking mechanics and go ooookay, I need more dex based equips okthanks. So now he does about an extra 60% damage or so. Breaks defense on randoms now as well as just plot fights (where he was mostly running interference and sniping enemy mages).
If you haven't spent too much time building up his dagger level yet, you might want to switch him over to Katanas. Daggers are slightly better stat-wise, but Ninjas get a very limited selection of them. Noticably, there's nothing between Baldur and Damasc (which isn't storebought until you beat the game), so you have to craft Baldur Dagger +1s or get Damascs to drop from random enemies to give him something non-sucky. I'd rather just use Katanas and keep up with the shop upgrades, personally.
This game is very silly. I missed Ozma and I am not 100% certain why. I think it is because I read some Talk files or something from what I gather. Info online is also pretty vague. Whatevs, not like I care. I only used any special characters because I wanted a different sprite and the dude is used to recruit Ozma. Now that I say that out loud maybe I should get someone better looking the Jeunan to be my dagger ninja. Maybe Hobyrim. Zatoiichi is a cool ninja dude riet?
All the new PCs in the remake have ridiculously complex, time-sensitive recruitment reqs. In Ozma's case, the steps are
1) Read a Warren Report entry before the third plot battle (Mount Hedon, which is second if you go in unarmed at Brigantys)
2) Visit Krysaro in-between Hagia Banhamuba (fourth plot battle, the one where you save the old Priest from his daughter) and the Barnicia Castle sequence (where you fight Tartaros)
3) Deploy a decently-loyal Hobyrim (his starting value's enough, thankfully)
4) Pick the right dialogue option in-battle (this one is pretty obvious, at least)
5) Reduce Ozma's HP below 10% WITHOUT killing her and make the other boss flee to end the fight
6) Pick the right dialogue option post-battle (not totally obvious due to a questionable translation choice)
Oh, and for extra fun that optional fight in Krysaro has a minimum level of 21/22 for the enemies, which is probably way higher than your levels at that point. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if it's higher than your levels right now. On the upside, Ozma is vulnerable to status effects in that fight, so you can petrify her while you get rid of Volac and not have to deal with her dangerous finishers.
The one complaint that confuses me though is special classes starting at level 1. It is everything around that You throw one dude in there and they soak up exp like crazy and get up to speed relatively quickly. That is fine. That isn't the problem. The problem is that it means you can't equip anything so they are pretty much a glass cannon (if even that). so they are dead weight. I get that. Whatevs. Ones I have done it with are usable in like 3 or 4 fights? That isn't like Nino level babying here. We have all babied characters in SRPGs way more than that needs. What shits me is the impact it has with skills.
The problem for me is that sometime around level 5-7 or so they actually don't gain exp all that fast, at least if you're deploying a full team. I was able to get the uber-classes like Lord and Knight Commander caught up easily by soloing easy random battles, but Ranger was pretty painful because Vyce couldn't stay alive solo. Meanwhile I opted to raise Catiua as a Princess in preparation for the postgame, and it took literally every last optional battle in chapter 4 save for PotD* for her to get caught up in levels, and there are 40+ sidequest missions in C4. Thankfully a dedicated healer who does nothing but cast Heals and Boon of Swiftness while hiding in the back rows can actually get away with being massively underlevelled and not a major liability.
*Note that just in case the Palace of the Dead's 100+ floors of undead, stat-boosted palette swaps, and pain-in-the-ass terrain weren't tedious enough to begin with, the game decided to give you total crap experience for every floor except the 5-6 story battles.
Also the skill system is batshit insane. At its core, it is okay I mean you get SP for taking part in fights. You learn new skills! Cool! There is upgraded skill ranks for some skills. Cool, you unlock them with levels. Wait some rank up from use instead? Okay I guess that makes sense. Wait you get like 1.something experience per use of skills? That is okay for weapon skills in theory. But they level super fucking slow. Like my bow guys that have been archers since the start of the game are Rank 4. You learn the last Limit Break style skill at Rank 8 if my reading is accurate. I am in the last chapter of the game. I get that there is a lot of postgame shit in this game. Just wow though man.
Personally, I maxed out Canopus' Crossbow levels while sidequesting in C4, just because range 5/6 move + ranged attacks gave him so much more opportunity to attack than anyone else. The Archers were around L6 when I beat the final boss I believe, and every melee attacker was under L4.
For most weapons it isn't that big a deal, as long as you have L2 at least for some sort of finisher. Crossbow is the big exception because the L6 finisher, Deathwail, is a
three-hit attack that OHKOs basically everything save the final boss and trivializes assassination battles even further. There was one insanely annoying fortress fight with a Lich whose undead minions clogged all the movement lines and would get replaced by summons if you exorcised any of them, plus it was a fortress battle so archers have some trouble targetting stuff. I basically just had Canopus shoot the squishest enemies in his range until he got 100 SP and then sent him in to OHKO the boss while the entire rest of my team basically served as distraction for the 3-4 turns until Canopus got the job done.
Where it gets really batshit though? Pretty much every skill other than weapon skills that level up the same. Meditate is an okay example, you get MP at the cost of TP (limit break bar). It starts off giving you SFA mana, but hey it slows your casters down a bit for some pretty precious mana. That is cool, I don't mind my casters going last in all honesty, it lets you control the flow of battle pretty well. It is off the deep end with things like Deflect and Parry though. They seem to get exp at the same rate as weapon skills unless I am mistaken. Unless they level up every time they have a chance to go off goddamn, they must take forever to level up. Random chance to maybe get 1.something point of experience. RNG chance got to go off 100 times to get a chance to go off. Woooooooowwwwwwwwww. Even if it levels every time you get attacked? That is still reliant on you being attacked rather than something you are likely to do every turn like weapon skills do. They are going to level insanely slow unless you do some crazy pointless grind for it.
That isn't even the part where they go completely off the deep end. The skills you can learn to counteract those skills. They also level up. HOLYJESUSWHAT? Do they only level if they go off against a target that actually succeeded a Parry or Deflect roll? Just enemies that have the skill? That ain't a lot of enemies in the main game at least. Or do they level up with every attack you make? I don't even know what to think if they do. I guess that means if you levelled them you would shit all over enemies with Parry or Deflect? But there isn't that many? And you unlock the skills pretty late?
A lot of those skills just aren't meant to be levelled up to any meaningful extent. Parry/Deflect feel like they exist mainly for enemy bosses, who often get assigned L4 or so on them. Overpower, on the other hand, feels like it's there just to fill up space in the skill list, not for anyone to actually use.
One cute thing you can do though, if you don't care about a perfect fatality record in your Warren Report, is to recruit a random enemy with a levelled skill in his/her/its top 4 skill slots, then kill him off and salvage his skills onto a permanent PC. Some veteran players will actually salvage easy-to-recruit special PCs for skills like elemental Augments and Parry, then World back and rerecruit them.
Also, a quick note on Meditate: storebought Wizard's Hat and Magus Robe have +1 Meditate each, along with some pretty decent Int/Mind boosts. If you're willing to go through the tedium of crafting, the upgraded versions are +2 Meditate apiece, making them some of the best mage equips in the game, especially Wizard's Hat +1.
