Game Swap, Week 1: Phantasy Star IV vs Wild ARMs 4

[Cmdr_King]

So a little diversion idea I had.  How might casts from one game fare if transferred to another game?  How specialized are the skills of some PC casts, and how heavily to the enemies in some games play to the strengths and weaknesses of their PCs? 

Our first test case is the cast of Phantasy Star IV.  For purposes of this topic, we're assuming a final party of Chaz, Rika, Wren, Rune, and Demi.  Which is good, because they get to run through Wild ARMs 4, land of the speed and home of the gimmick.

Voting is straightforward.  Each match is taken individually.  Enemies should be taken as literally to their in-game performance as possible.  On the PC side, while I'd definitely enjoy reading analysis based on the party's relative performance throughout the game based on when each boss is fought, realistically that's a lot of extra work.  As such, feel free to vote on the PSIV cast as though each battle is endgame.

PSIV vs Earthbound Dead
PSIV vs Miscreation
PSIV vs Jeremy Non (Rd. 2)
PSIV vs Belial
PSIV vs Kraken
PSIV vs Balgaine Ales
PSIV vs Super Soldier
PSIV vs Divine Weapon

Bonus!
PSIV vs Black Box

[Dark Holy Elf]

I'm assuming the PS4 team has a level of about 7/8 the level of the WA4 boss they are fighting, given the two games' respective endgame levels. Obviously Rika a bit higher, Rune/Wren a bit lower.

PSIV (Lv 8) vs Earthbound Dead: Rika already has Saner! Saner overwrites Slow Down counters letting the PS4 team go all out then Rika to patch up their speed with Saner. Demi has Medic Power if Rika falls, Chaz can heal as Earthbound Dead tries to focus on her, it's all hopeless.
PSIV (Lv 10-11) vs Miscreation: Barrier stops Stone Bullet counters from being evil. But uh Stone Bullet is evil before they come up. Both bots have it at least. I think Miscreation guns down Wren first. Demi will put up Barrier to give her team a shot, so nobody can heal her and she as the only revier gets gunned down second. Rika uses Saner to speed everyone up, but Miscreation is still much faster. And he's still 3HKOing, and countering if a blitz happens. I think doing this carefully with lots of healing, and only Rune attacking, may work, but I'm not sure... Miscreation will poison Rune in his attempts to make sure Rune dies. But... PS4 can probably pull through, barely, only having Rune attacking when he isn't doubled? And hey Chaz can heal poison if need be!
PSIV (Lv 11) vs Jeremy Non (Rd. 2): Rika probably has Deban by now, lucky them. It doesn't matter much though. Jeremy doesn't instant double her so he guns her down. Demi can revive her, but he'll keep gunning her down, so they team is better off ignoring her. (This didn't work for Miscreation because gunning Rika down just leads to a horrifying Medic Power/Barrier/healing combo.) Still, the other three can unleash hell on Jeremy as he does this. And he'll get lots of doubleturns... heck, he instant doubles Demi and instant doubles her, by my numbers. I think PS4's fucked, here. He could miss some shots but eh.
PSIV (Lv 14) vs Belial: Oh geez. Okay. Belial again REALLY wants to keep Rika from getting a turn. 4D Pocket her right away, put up the distortion which only Rune can pierce (okay, Chaz has a single Airslash and Zan). Blitz out Demi. Blitz out Rune. At this point she'll probably have to 4D Pocket Rika again, but... she's making very clear progress. I just don't think she takes enough damage at any point.
PSIV (Lv 20) vs Kraken: Kraken's not fast enough to instant double or kill Rika, so she uses Saner. To make matters worse for him Psy equips aren't just storebought, but optimum defensive equips at this point, so Slumber Fog is out. All he can really do is try to clear out the water hex and then move there... but yeah, won't matter, Barrier happens, Deban happens. Slaughter.
PSIV (Lv 27) vs Balgaine Ales: Now PS4 has three revivers. If you guessed this would make Balgaine suck, well, you'd be right. (Yes, I let PS4 PCs use the hex system to stop his gimmick from working.)
PSIV (Lv 30) vs Super Soldier: Fails to instant double Rika, Rika gets a turn, Barrier happens, Saner happens, Deban happens.
PSIV vs Divine Weapon: Prismatic Laser causes misery and one of sleep/confuse/petrify which are all horrifying. This MUST get a Medic Power in response. Of course Divine Weapon is faster so on a doubleturn can try to Claymore or just kill Demi with something (non-fire damage not that great so this might not work). Though... apprently the PS4 team can go into form 2 with built-up CT, so Rika can go first, and they have a counter to this. Final form... also hugely problematic, if it gets Accelerator at the wrong time PS4 can get mauled, due to the actual MT. Eh. They could win this, though, which I wasn't expecting. Abstain for now.

[074]

Taking against endgame PS4 because I honestly can't compare points in game that well.

PSIV vs Earthbound Dead - Robots immune Slow Down, largely carry this battle.  Even without, Deban, Saner, Shift, Chaz and Rune get one shot of Grand Cross off, the one who doesn't get slowed by that gets another shot of either Crosscut or Efess, and Rika gets at least one Doubleslash off--Silver Tusk empowered if EBD is weak to holy.  Buffing ruins EBD's game, largely.

(note: applies against non-endgame as well.  You lose a bit of the high-end offense, but Saner and robots still apply.)

PSIV vs Miscreation - Right.  First thing's first, Rika's getting Stone Bulleted to death before she acts.  Then someone else probably gets SB'd before Wren puts up barrier--which makes this fight more manageable.  Emphasis on more--since I'm certain Miscreation taking out Rika might end this team otherwise.  Even if Barrier tends to cut into damage pretty heavily.  Leaving this one up in the air for now, but leaning Miscreation.

PSIV vs Jeremy Non (Rd. 2) - ...ow.  Before anyone can act, Rika dies, Demi dies.  Demi can't be brought back, to boot.  Fight goes way downhill from there.
 
PSIV vs Belial - Bad news for Belial--everyone on the team's got MT (except maybe Wren, if you don't take him as endgame).  Good news for Belial, she can take out Rika before she can Deban or Saner thanks to 4D Pocket, and still have a turn left to put up Distortion.  At this point it's largely a blitzing war.  Belial has a pretty sadistic choice here--she either tries to take out Demi or Rune--and Demi's used Phonomezer at this point (if not Silent Wave).  Takes out Demi to prevent clutch Medic Power.  At this point...?  Coinflipping.  Belial's durability is nothing special without Distortion in-game, and that's against a party with a lack of Full MT outside of Material and maybe one or two combos.

PSIV vs Kraken - Ah, Kraken.  You only get one turn or so before Rika acts and uses Deban and screws your physical.  Then Wren uses Barrier and screws your magic.  Pretty sure you get slugged down after that pretty effectively.

PSIV vs Balgaine Ales - Balgaine's got an argument for getting slammed with Hyper Jammer.  Let that sink in for a while.  Outside of that, it's just too easy to blitz him down.  They just get way too many turns to smack him around.

PSIV vs Super Soldier - As scary as Super Soldier is in a duel?  PS4 cast beats him pretty handily.  Saner goes up, Barrier goes up, and Blocker-ignoring attacks start flying.  Even his good RES doesn't really slow this one down.

PSIV vs Divine Weapon - So, buffs don't carry over in any of the three "rounds" of this fight.
-First round, he gets splortched by magic, and any damage he does is quickly patched up, so it's a nonfactor, all things considered.  And after that...Prismatic Laser does horrible things to everyone not the robots.  And things just go downhill from there.  Demi can heal everyone's status, but then DW basically gets a 3-2 and Prismatic Laser->Claymore.  And as awesome as Wren and Demi are at not getting statused, they're not going to be able to take on Form 2 DW when it starts spamming Claymore.  Walled here, even with status-immunity, Barrier, and god knows how many shots of full healing, DW's going to be getting too many turns cancelled for the androids to win this, which they have to.

[Random Consonant]

PSIV (Lv 8) vs Earthbound Dead: Rika already has Saner! Saner overwrites Slow Down counters letting the PS4 team go all out then Rika to patch up their speed with Saner. Demi has Medic Power if Rika falls, Chaz can heal as Earthbound Dead tries to focus on her, it's all hopeless.
PSIV (Lv 10-11) vs Miscreation: Barrier stops Stone Bullet counters from being evil. But uh Stone Bullet is evil before they come up. Both bots have it at least. I think Miscreation guns down Wren first. Demi will put up Barrier to give her team a shot, so nobody can heal her and she as the only revier gets gunned down second. Rika uses Saner to speed everyone up, but Miscreation is still much faster. And he's still 3HKOing, and countering if a blitz happens. I think doing this carefully with lots of healing, and only Rune attacking, may work, but I'm not sure... Miscreation will poison Rune in his attempts to make sure Rune dies. But... PS4 can probably pull through, barely, only having Rune attacking when he isn't doubled? And hey Chaz can heal poison if need be!
PSIV (Lv 11) vs Jeremy Non (Rd. 2): Rika probably has Deban by now, lucky them. It doesn't matter much though. Jeremy doesn't instant double her so he guns her down. Demi can revive her, but he'll keep gunning her down, so they team is better off ignoring her. (This didn't work for Miscreation because gunning Rika down just leads to a horrifying Medic Power/Barrier/healing combo.) Still, the other three can unleash hell on Jeremy as he does this. And he'll get lots of doubleturns... heck, he instant doubles Demi and instant doubles her, by my numbers. I think PS4's fucked, here. He could miss some shots but eh.
PSIV (Lv 14) vs Belial: Oh geez. Okay. Belial again REALLY wants to keep Rika from getting a turn. 4D Pocket her right away, put up the distortion which only Rune can pierce (okay, Chaz has a single Airslash and Zan). Blitz out Demi. Blitz out Rune. At this point she'll probably have to 4D Pocket Rika again, but... she's making very clear progress. I just don't think she takes enough damage at any point.
PSIV (Lv 20) vs Kraken: Kraken's not fast enough to instant double or kill Rika, so she uses Saner. To make matters worse for him Psy equips aren't just storebought, but optimum defensive equips at this point, so Slumber Fog is out. All he can really do is try to clear out the water hex and then move there... but yeah, won't matter, Barrier happens, Deban happens. Slaughter.
PSIV (Lv 27) vs Balgaine Ales: Now PS4 has three revivers. If you guessed this would make Balgaine suck, well, you'd be right. (Yes, I let PS4 PCs use the hex system to stop his gimmick from working.)
PSIV (Lv 30) vs Super Soldier: Fails to instant double Rika, Rika gets a turn, Barrier happens, Saner happens, Deban happens.
PSIV vs Divine Weapon: Prismatic Laser causes misery and one of sleep/confuse/petrify which are all horrifying. This MUST get a Medic Power in response. Of course Divine Weapon is faster so on a doubleturn can try to Claymore or just kill Demi with something (non-fire damage not that great so this might not work). Though... apprently the PS4 team can go into form 2 with built-up CT, so Rika can go first, and they have a counter to this. Final form... also hugely problematic, if it gets Accelerator at the wrong time PS4 can get mauled, due to the actual MT. Eh. They could win this, though, which I wasn't expecting. Abstain for now.

I'm lazy and I assume this mostly works for me.

[DjinnAndTonic]

This concept is fascinating to me but I cannot remember any of these bosses except for like Belial.

[Cmdr_King]

Consensus is that Team Phantasy Star loses to Jeremy and Belial, and probably Divine Weapon except headache.  Looks like they Fail.
New challenge forthcoming.

[Dark Holy Elf]

How are success and failure defined for a team in this, CK?

[Cmdr_King]

Winning each match.  I don't (... currently) have any plans for winners to do anything else, so it's just sort of a summary.