RYDIAMIST'S PROFILE

@LightningLord2: It's been pointed out, but that image definitely sums it up! Game's had pretty good luck so far, for sure.

@fharden: They were given to you with the quest, all you need to do is head to the Inn on the Plain and speak to the NPCs.

The checkpoint will open up with story. You have to finish the events in Cecille, and then some events in Rosalia before you can get through. If you're stuck, you need to talk to the unique looking guy at the bar, then head to the manor and speak to the guard inside.

@Noel: Chainspell essentially gives Dag an extra turn with a no cast-time Dualcast immediately. If it didn't burn some MP to activate, he'd be way overpowered compared to the other mages until you get the Soul of Thamasa waaaay later on. As is, while he generally learns spells later than the dedicated mages and has lower relative Intellect and Spirit, his chainspell combined with his ability to use better armor and weapons makes him really solid, I feel. Once you get his more unique spells like Quick and Bubble, he becomes really fearsome.

As for Limits, I had considered it, but ultimately decided that with the ability to swap in party members it might be pretty abusive, as you could just build everyone's limit gauge and then just completely waste a boss immediately with limit break spam from 8 people.

One thing I was considering that I kind of wish I'd just taken the extra time to do was Band-type skills between characters. Ultimately what stopped that was the ridiculous amount of work doing the animations would have been, and the fact that it would have kind of forced certain character combos, along with practically eliminating using the characters' individual skills. That said, I might consider it in the future, if nothing else I do plan to have FF Dimensions style combined attacks in the next game we do if we do it, and I might just toss a few into this game as a testbed.

As for party talk, I'm usually kind of hesitant to say who I use, as people may be like: "Hey, if the dev uses those characters, they must be the best!". I will say I worked pretty hard to ensure that the characters are fairly balanced. At some points in the game certain characters may shine more than others, but they even out pretty nicely towards the end. It just depends what kind of setup you want to go for. Ash's brute force setup works well, but a more tactical setup like Rebel is using works great too. Orophin used an interesting group, and was able to effectively play defensively to the point that only a couple of bonus dungeon bosses were able to pose any sort of threat to him.

I tried to really set stuff up so that people could create all sorts of interesting setups and make almost any combination of characters work. It's pretty awesome reading about all the setups people are using, even ones I hadn't even considered myself!

I will say I'm fond of a couple of setups. Karina(with ultimate weapon), Marz or Ashiee or Azran(with Conqueror's Mark), Aeth (with Offering) or Abelia (with Soul of Thamasa), and Dag (for healing/refresh) is one of my favorite setups. I also like the setup Rebel uses, as Divinus can also use Mix to make all sorts of cool buffing/healing items and has access to AoE haste and Reflect. I'll also say Elysia is definitely worth a look, as while her own attacks are only moderately strong, her buffs can be absolutely crazy. Also, if you just like seeing huge damage, Abelia with a Soul of Thamasa dualcasting Ultima is pretty hard to beat. And while a lot of people discount her as just a WHM, Cassie is really good to have, especially if you are lower level or playing on hard, as her ability to essentially fully heal the party with a single cast, along with spells like Blink, Arise, and Reraise makes her pretty much the best at keeping the group alive. Also, no one's mentioned Miko! His damage shields on Adlo spells are amazing, and let people survive huge hits they normally wouldn't be able to. Azran always had him in his party.

Press tab (or start on gamepad) while outside on the world map.

@Devhyn: I counter with

I am planning to write up a sidequest/hidden item guide so that people won't miss anything. I was planning to have a basic one up this morning, but I've been busy trying to track down a few nagging bugs people are experiencing. It should be up within the next couple of days, and I'll try to keep it as story spoiler-free as possible. Good idea though, the game does have a lot of sidequests and stuff hidden that a lot of players might miss.

Hmm, still having trouble recreating the issue. Can you tell me the specific enemies you're fighting? I went into Gurgu Volcano with Genji Gloves and an Ice Claw equipped and was hitting weakness but I wasn't getting any noticable slowdown even after killing a few enemies. Does it persist after the battle is over?

Sorry to be a pain, I just want to try and get this tracked down for you!