BOSS BATTLE DESIGN CONTEST - KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Oh man... this boss fight. This entry is actually my favorite in terms of playability (and I admit partly because of the game mechanics being to my tastes). Ok here goes...

You assign 4 commands and a Regalia. The 4 commands are absolutely vital for your survival. While the Regalia affects your stats and your elemental weaknesses, etc. This game is to be played through numerous trial and error and different builds. Once you get the pattern it's easier to understand.

The other thing that wasn't explained at all is the magnificent Judge System. The Judge System "judges" your playing style. Such cases are:

1.) If your HP is/almost past halfway, the player would usually heal the character before he reaches critical levels. But the Judge System likes it when you take risks, if for example you healed exactly when your HP is at critical levels, it will cause a BREAK! (Or Critical in some games) and will go towards your favor.
2.) Abusing Status effects to your liking (or trying to inflict them as much as possible) also goes towards your favor.
3.) A critical hit/BREAK will goes towards your favor.
4.) Hitting the enemy with their weakness goes towards your favor.

And when you achieved said things, I believe there's more, the Judge System grants your party more turns per round and increases the chances of your attacks to hit the enemy. So this game is about appealing to the Judge System and getting the court into your side. The enemy has the same advantage for this. That is why you can't just mash X here to win.

Which is exactly what this entry does. For one, the enemy is NOT CHEAP. If you think it is, then think again. What is your regalia? Are you sure that it's not your weakness whatsoever that hit you? Are you sure you weren't hit by a status effect and was used a skill that can instant kill you for having that status effect on you? Is the Judge System not lower than 22%? Etc. This game makes sure that all it's painful attacks have a MEANING. It isn't a cheap AOE STUN SKILL or some DEFENSE PIERCING SH*T, this game mocks you for going in with the wrong build. And I love it!

This is the type of game where you can be as crazy as you want, as much as your skills offer you. Which I think is great for an RPG (set aside the amazing musical atmosphere). Flaws-wise, I am not sure what kind of flaw I can bring out from it. There is the Missing/Accuracy issue, but that is actually game related. The higher the Judge points, the higher the chances you'll hit more and more. And the enemies miss too to give you that chance to recover, etc. So it's not like it's there to annoy you.

Oh yes, the enemy pattern. The enemy pattern itself is actually interesting and easy once you get it. For one, abusing their elemental weakness. Want to get rid of the two lackeys fast? Hit the shadow with Burst and the Angel with Void and just focus on the witch. They'll die on their own~

Want to get more Judge points? Flood the witch with status effects, look at her colors to determine what her element is right now (or check out her attack) and so forth. This game also gives you enough items to actually survive (and not abuseable). It makes sure that you take care of your healer and use supplies wisely. Overall, my experience with this game is great. I replayed it 15x and never got sick of it. Winning against the witch FELT GOOD. IT FELT GOOD. One thing that I don't recommend though, is to barge into battle without items. You're suicidal if you did that. It might be possible but I'm sure as hell I won't do it in any game or in real life.

The boss battle isn't easy or too hard. If you didn't pay attention to the enemy pattern then you're pretty much doomed. I will go in-depth here, but where's the fun in that? Or you could jump straight to the 3rd paragraph.

I don't find this complex at all as it reminds me heavily of Gust/Namco games. Basically, just read the tutorial. But for those who don't understand it still...

In a Nutshell, you need to have at least one square/block/whatever to swap party members with shift. Holding the Decision Key (z/enter) will extend your attacks and activate Link Arts if you see the rotating circle. Holding X/Cancel will use Crisis Recover that will recover your HP/MP. People get revived at specific number of turns (I think it was 3-5). That's about it.

Problem solving is pretty easy on this one. Just remember Balcruade's pattern, once he used Angelic Awakening and/or Iron Feather (I think that was it.) make sure to guard or else he'd swipe you off with Aegis Stream. They also have unique attributes to them. Balcruade counters against all Magical attacks against him (but they still take effect afterwards, provided you don't die). Zuleika on the other hand makes sure you won't get the chance to attack her at all. Reaper's Edge has a small chance to IKO.

Elemental weakness plays a huge role in this game. Such example is, Balcruade and Gunnar are weak for each other. Because of this, Gunnar, while being the most versatile and most useful character, dies faster than the most because of Balcruade's attacks (like Aegis Stream) unless he focus'd on the right time. Skie obviously wanted you to make either a risky choice or not. I played this a lot of times with party combinations, and 2x I died because I hated 2 characters (haha). But it's possible to beat them with any combination if you know what you are doing and abuse Link Arts (My Video shows this). There are no CHEAP KILLS. and understanding the game's features is key to winning.

I loved playing this game and enjoyed it because of the different patterns I experimented over it while changing party members. However, there's something about it I don't like about it that most Gust games tend to fall over--- That is to focus mostly on damage, damage and more damage. You can't inflict status effects, you can't, idk, have more variety. After a while, I tend to follow one pattern to defeat the enemy which I find more cost effective. Hopefully, in the full game this will be avoided.

This game...where do I even start? Oh yes.

The skill set of the characters are actually straightforward and easy to understand. They do what they say will do. They make it pretty clear what kind of characters everyone is. And you can easily adapt to the situation you are presented in. The appearance of the boss characters should be pretty clear what kind of roles they play too and their possible weaknesses. Sun Flower Girl weak to Fire, Magician *cough* should be something you would be able to discover soon and Assassin-looking girl.

From what I played through it, there is no cheap tricks or attacks that makes you want to bite heads off. The game is pretty forgiving and warns you ahead of time. Yuka (sunflower girl) has a countdown to warn you if she is going to use an AOE attack, making you guard just in time. Marian (magician) does the same with the spinning book to show charging. Amelia, I actually didn't know what she did, I missed it.

Overall, spam as much status effects on this game. Silencer for Marian if you don't want her to cast spells at you, etc. While this is good and all, it also made the battle ridiculously easier. The item effects were pretty huge and the damage you deal with are strong enough not to be that worried. Overall, it just felt too easy. I'm probably used to super hard games though, so don't take my word for it.

I will say here what I said in youtube. I HATE THIS GAME. After multiple deaths and knowing the battle pattern, I just can't win against this damn bastard. AOE Stun Attack? ahahahahahahaa. Not funny. I don't think it's shown in the video, but whatever. I replayed this battle for like 25x and everytime I think I'll win, f*cking dominate gets me. This is a horrible sponge monster battle thing I don't even-

Okay, let me start from the beginning. I read the readme. I saw that the skills aren't exactly straightforward on what they do, but hey I tried to work around with it. The First form of the boss takes FOREVER to kill. The Second form is a f*cking cheat. He gets 3 turns while we get 1-2-3 if we're lucky. I don't even know what's going on here.

Okay, so let's play more strategically, Hart has an amazing-ish skill set and Ratenia whatever. The medic dude has decent attack. The girl who you have to absorb some Gnosis takes a while but her skill set is decent. The only thing that makes this game a f*cking annoying adventure is:

1.) You get 1 revive item and 10 items that only works on that one person who can't even revive party members.
2.) Rage/Whatever fills so slowly that you have a feeling you'll be fucked sooner or later if 3 characters die at once or something.
3.) AREA OF EFFECT STUN ATTACK. THAT IS JUST CHEAP.
4.) DOMINATE DOMINATE DOMINATE DOMINATE. Add in the LIMITED 2-3 TURNS FOR 4 PARTY MEMBERS THAT IS DOMINATED AND YOU WILL WASTE A TURN.
5.) The Healing whatevers don't work all the time. I can't get Dominate/Sleep/etc. at most times GARGHGHGHGHG.
6.) It takes forever to kill the damn bastard.

This video isn't the best playthrough I had, I had a better one but it takes forever and eating more than 5 gigs whenever I was recording. But overall, it's dragging for FARRRRR TOOOOO LOOONNG. It's those type of WRPG Battles that I don't even know how to react to it other than say, you hax boss!!!!!

*huffs* Okay, part of the reason I liked this game was mostly the skills, the ideas are pretty great and I can see what the author (I'm assuming Max) is trying to do. HOWEVER, its glaring flaws are so glaring that I can't appreciate this game than I should because of frustration.

I will end it here, I did enjoy the first 5, but when it was starting to get ridiculous like FUCKING DOMINATE AND AOE STUN and replaying 25x. I was just tempted to punch the developer in the face.