Mana Khemia- Finished. It's a neat system, but it feels like it takes the game until about 70% of the way through to really give you access to all the features taht make it run at full strength. But always at least entertaining and the last few boss fights really do come together nicely.
There isn't really plot so much as a series of character arcs, so we can skip to that step.
Vayne- Struck me continually as a variation on your archetypal shonen main. The setting means he cn't be book dumb (he's obligated to be skilled at the task at hand, which is alchemy which involves study), but he's clearly a complete klutz about people and feelings (for at least justified reasons), more of an anchor for the madness around him than crazy himself, but hardcore Determinator for his friends. So nothing special really. endgame arc just made him seem immature, which again is justifiable but doesn't make him more interesting.
DL? He loves this useless little move called Overrealm. Unlike in game he can't manage a steady damage output thanks to SP limitations, but half turn charge time to unload all his SP at once works well. Half turn charge time also limits him to Heavy despite the comfortable margin of overkill.
Jess- She's portrayed a little schizo-esque. I mean, first half is all about her love of all things explosive, cute and all, second half focuses on her serious plot. I'm not sure what this balances out as, so I'll just hype the bag.
DL: more than anyone else, Jess is hurt by SP limitations. Healing Echo is possibly one of the best healing moves ever, but she only has, what, 7 castings? And that's before considering that she has no offense at all if she spends her SP that way. Still, Healing Echo's nature means she can stall well enough against people around her speed, and Silence is a good trick if one-note. High Middle.
Nikki- Catgirl.
Seriously, I'm pretty sure she is the archetypal catgirl incarnate. Funny though, and avoids verbal tics thankfully. Stupid Haircut Saga is too catchy.
DL- Nikki has the novelty of being good in the DL for exactly the reason she is in-game by endgame; high speed coupled with good non-SP offense. She lopped off like half the final's HP by herself with Bear Charges under Burst Mode. Heavy.
Flay- Ever wondered what Mystere might be like if he had no Leo persona? Play Mana Khemia.
DL: Like Nikki, works for exactly the reason he's good in-game. Raiden Charge -> Pain. On average did about 65% of the damage in boss fights, although Nikki surpassed him for the final, and the hardest boss (in both forms!) in the game negates this entirely. May be related to her difficutly, in fact. But, much slower than Nikki (especially since he needs to charge up, although Raiden Charge's quick recharge helps some), and more spoilable, so probably more of a High Middle.
Pamela- Adorably Chaotic Neutral.
DL: So high res makes up her HP at least somewhat, and she's physically immune. And has a variety of usably good statuses, including silence. Oh, they run off her HP which she can drain back fairly inexpensively due to The Grudge (she should be able to get away with Kiss 2 Bear...). Damage and speed are lacking, sure, but... High Heavy, if not Godlike.
Roxis- Obligatory Ho Yay.
Nah, he's more interesting than that. He tries to be the straight man of the group, but Vayne's already the nice guy version, so he's actually the Logic Jerk. Buuuuuuut, he gets himself owned this way due to Flay and ManaofLight being around. He's fun.
DL: Translates better than he probably has a right to. Ingame he's entirely about Purifying, since to do real damage he needs to plant time cards, which in turn nerf his go-to damage slightly. But in the DL, since there's only 2 time cards before dropping his own, it's back up to in-game performance, so he's able to batter away at opponents. Quick doesn't hurt neither, but kinda frail. High Middle probably.
Anna- Awesome. Although like Jess, her increased seriousness as the game went on makes herhard to really comment on in the final analysis.
DL: Basically ID dependant. In-game she chains together a few Quick Dreams, does her big damage, and swaps the hell out because she's got no SP left. She can't really do that, so spam ID off solid speed and Quick abuse and hope that works. She can probably muster a moderately quick kill at need, but it's easily spoiled by decent durability or speed. High Middle.
Muppy- Eh. Poke poke I guess.
DL: Y'know, I used him for exactly one fight in game. The hardest fight in the game, mind, but what he was there for was to be a sacrifice and take MT OHKO for me. Apparently Change! doesn't do that missing thing, though, so take hit -> turn into puni -> take wussy puni hit or two -> win. I mean, unless Giant Puni is a possible outcome, this is pretty effective, but his slowness definitely gives the opponent a chance to just kill him. Middle of some flavor.
Bosses! Three of note. the last is a tinyname.
Renee: Middle or High Heavy, depending on where you see Azureflame Mana fitting in. He own damage is competent only if she spends charge time on it, but she's got enough HP to get away with it in Middle at least. If you can silence her before her first turn, that's the end of it. Else, she summons Azureflame, which is only moderately more competent than her non-Double Up damage, but can cast Boost to shove her into OHKO territory, or boost its own damage up to... low 2HKO sounds right. In-game, once summoned Azureflame counts as a separate boss who must be defeated even if you knock out Renee, how you treat that is up to you and makes a big difference in the ranking.
Tony: Heavy. Hits 75% HP and starts dishing out some level of 2HKO damage, pretty straightforward. Sucky on the status immunities like Renee though, so there you are.
Isolde: Godlike. Passably durable, crazy fast, silence status, weakish damage but with time cards attatched, or at 75% HP charged up OHKO, or at 50% HP fast-acting (or maybe just zero delay? Whatever) 2HKO. Oh, that is practically guaranteed to inflict Break as long as all three hits get in. Murders PCs, outslugs bosses as long as they can't buff to get through the more dangerous phases quickly.
Hmmm. Reminds me of Chrono Trigger. There's not really any depth beyond the tropes, but it's fun to analyze anyway and the gameplay works better than it looks like it should and it jsut flows beautifully. I was waffling between 8 and 9 before, but writing it out I'm definitely going with the 9/10.
PS: PLAY MANA KHEMIA. Needs more writers.
