Shining Force Minimum Party Part IV
Jul. 7th, 2023 01:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingSince I picked this back up I've been a bit spoiled by vacation or otherwise free days. Given I was playing pretty late at night I was a little more chill and perhaps a little bit less alert. Yes, that's the excuse I'll use for my performance in Dragonia. Sure.
I did three battles this time, from battle 19 (Dragonia, vs. Ckaine) through battle 21 (vs. Mishaela).
I started in Rudo, so I had to go through the brief story stuff at Dragonia and getting the treasures... which made some of my prior purchasing feel stupid, again. I really don't remember a lot of details of this game.
Battle 19 in Dragonia: Something that mattered greatly is that the majority of my team were now level 1 promoted units. It oughtn't be news to anyone familiar with this game that you take a pretty big stat decrease when you promote, whether you do so at level 20 or not. This really may partly account for how badly these fights went, with Faris the leader being taken out not once but twice.
The first time, Balbaroy had reached level 20 and I positioned Faris with a mind on risk assessment. I figured, losing here wouldn't be a bad thing since I wanted my weaklings to level up a bit (and the cost of losing a battle in this game is pretty much nothing). So, in this case, Faris died but I essentially let it happen, expected it, and sort of stood to benefit from it.
Balbaroy was promoted before I tried again. Characters were gaining levels, and Mae, who was already the first and strongest promoted unit, was super duper pulling ahead. We deal with most of the battle well other than Khris completely whiffing a needed Aura spell (I accidentally pressed a button and thus targetted the wrong unit) and then being taken out early. Earnest gained level 20. Eventually, I decided that this was a great place for my level 1 leader to stand:
I was wrong.
With Earnest's promotion, literally everyone was promoted from level 20 with the exception of our brand new recruit, Bleu. For most characters, when they gain levels after promotion, they get huge bonuses of at least 5 points in one or more stats. And most did! Even Bleu gained some much-needed attack.
In this third attempt, I was cognizant of the behaviours of the lines of Golems and Master Mages in the middle of this battlefield. For some reason, their movement AI doesn't seem to be triggered until you're directly beside them. I was able to have Mae, Earnest and Pelle all stand 1 square away from the Golems throwing spears at them for like four consecutive turns without the enemies taking an action. That said, only Mae was really strong enough for this to be effective so I didn't let it play out completely.
We won on this third attempt, although Balbaroy, Earnest and Khris (for the second time) didn't make it through. Pelle dealt the final blow to Ckaine with his new Halberd.
Battle 20 to the Ancient Castle: This one went considerably better. I was worried because the terrain is terrible for centaurs, who are three of my best characters. The enemies were spaced out enough - and Amon and Balbaroy were strong enough - that I was able to do the majority of the combat just using my flying units without them getting crushed. Every so often, I would have Amon, Balbaroy and Bleu regroup with Khris for an Aura spell.
The centaurs did contribute a bit, especially at the beginning, but Amon and Balbaroy were definitely the MVPs with Bleu being no slouch.
Again, the stat gains tended to be really strong, although Pelle's certainly dropped off quickly. Pelle had joined strong and been one of my strongest units before promotion. While he hadn't become bad or anything, he had a few early post-promotion levels with gains like a single point in two stats.
This battle went great. Bleu gained a couple of levels with good attack stat gains, too.
Battle 21 with Mishaela: I was on the fence about even attempting this, but I decided to proceed given my caffeination. I analyzed the battle layout and decided I'd get every treasure chest, and that I would start by going left. This was great until I triggered the movement of all of the Bowriders; they have rather high attack, and there weren't enough strong units near them to handle it neatly. I mean, they were handled, but there were some close calls.
After Balbaroy and Bleu got mangled badly by the Bowriders, Pelle was able to jump in and help them deal with the situation.
The next nasty situation came from Faris grabbed a treasure chest that I didn't realize would attract the attention of a Belial when Faris had no supporting units anywhere nearby. Eventually, it was Faris stalling a battle against two Belials on his own, at level 3. It ended up that I used his Shower of Cure item (I believe this is the game's rarest and best healing item) to stay alive... but it worked, so I don't regret that. Balbaroy was able to pop in to support Faris in time.
We got all of the chests, including the three magic rings, and then surrounded Mishaela with all of her backup eventually defeated. Given boss regeneration and evasion and whatnot, however, it didn't feel like defeating her was a given.
Khris' MP was exhausted, and Balbaroy was defeated by Mishaela's Bolt spells, but Amon eventually vengefully took Mishaela down with a double attack.
I did three battles this time, from battle 19 (Dragonia, vs. Ckaine) through battle 21 (vs. Mishaela).
I started in Rudo, so I had to go through the brief story stuff at Dragonia and getting the treasures... which made some of my prior purchasing feel stupid, again. I really don't remember a lot of details of this game.
Battle 19 in Dragonia: Something that mattered greatly is that the majority of my team were now level 1 promoted units. It oughtn't be news to anyone familiar with this game that you take a pretty big stat decrease when you promote, whether you do so at level 20 or not. This really may partly account for how badly these fights went, with Faris the leader being taken out not once but twice.
The first time, Balbaroy had reached level 20 and I positioned Faris with a mind on risk assessment. I figured, losing here wouldn't be a bad thing since I wanted my weaklings to level up a bit (and the cost of losing a battle in this game is pretty much nothing). So, in this case, Faris died but I essentially let it happen, expected it, and sort of stood to benefit from it.
Balbaroy was promoted before I tried again. Characters were gaining levels, and Mae, who was already the first and strongest promoted unit, was super duper pulling ahead. We deal with most of the battle well other than Khris completely whiffing a needed Aura spell (I accidentally pressed a button and thus targetted the wrong unit) and then being taken out early. Earnest gained level 20. Eventually, I decided that this was a great place for my level 1 leader to stand:
I was wrong.
With Earnest's promotion, literally everyone was promoted from level 20 with the exception of our brand new recruit, Bleu. For most characters, when they gain levels after promotion, they get huge bonuses of at least 5 points in one or more stats. And most did! Even Bleu gained some much-needed attack.
In this third attempt, I was cognizant of the behaviours of the lines of Golems and Master Mages in the middle of this battlefield. For some reason, their movement AI doesn't seem to be triggered until you're directly beside them. I was able to have Mae, Earnest and Pelle all stand 1 square away from the Golems throwing spears at them for like four consecutive turns without the enemies taking an action. That said, only Mae was really strong enough for this to be effective so I didn't let it play out completely.
We won on this third attempt, although Balbaroy, Earnest and Khris (for the second time) didn't make it through. Pelle dealt the final blow to Ckaine with his new Halberd.
Battle 20 to the Ancient Castle: This one went considerably better. I was worried because the terrain is terrible for centaurs, who are three of my best characters. The enemies were spaced out enough - and Amon and Balbaroy were strong enough - that I was able to do the majority of the combat just using my flying units without them getting crushed. Every so often, I would have Amon, Balbaroy and Bleu regroup with Khris for an Aura spell.
The centaurs did contribute a bit, especially at the beginning, but Amon and Balbaroy were definitely the MVPs with Bleu being no slouch.
Again, the stat gains tended to be really strong, although Pelle's certainly dropped off quickly. Pelle had joined strong and been one of my strongest units before promotion. While he hadn't become bad or anything, he had a few early post-promotion levels with gains like a single point in two stats.
This battle went great. Bleu gained a couple of levels with good attack stat gains, too.
Battle 21 with Mishaela: I was on the fence about even attempting this, but I decided to proceed given my caffeination. I analyzed the battle layout and decided I'd get every treasure chest, and that I would start by going left. This was great until I triggered the movement of all of the Bowriders; they have rather high attack, and there weren't enough strong units near them to handle it neatly. I mean, they were handled, but there were some close calls.
After Balbaroy and Bleu got mangled badly by the Bowriders, Pelle was able to jump in and help them deal with the situation.
The next nasty situation came from Faris grabbed a treasure chest that I didn't realize would attract the attention of a Belial when Faris had no supporting units anywhere nearby. Eventually, it was Faris stalling a battle against two Belials on his own, at level 3. It ended up that I used his Shower of Cure item (I believe this is the game's rarest and best healing item) to stay alive... but it worked, so I don't regret that. Balbaroy was able to pop in to support Faris in time.
We got all of the chests, including the three magic rings, and then surrounded Mishaela with all of her backup eventually defeated. Given boss regeneration and evasion and whatnot, however, it didn't feel like defeating her was a given.
Khris' MP was exhausted, and Balbaroy was defeated by Mishaela's Bolt spells, but Amon eventually vengefully took Mishaela down with a double attack.
