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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTo3FV995b4 Part 14 is out! A few cracks begin the form in the virtuous facade of the Shomonkai, indicating they're not quite the cohesive unit they portray themselves as. After picking up some very potent skills from the scuffle we end up in, we manage to secure the coveted devil's fuge to slay Beldr with, after cracking a few skulls of course. Demons Available Megami Ishtar (Lv. 29): Ishtar was actually available to use in the previous video but I was too out of it to notice I had hit level 29. Oops. Anyway, Ishtar is a strong mage, as per usual for Megamis. She has the same base 17 MA that Peri has but complete flexibility with her passive skills giving her a greater degree of build variation. She also has great resistances, with no weakness, an elec resist, and curse null. Her biggest drawback is having her command list locked down with Recarm and an unlearned Diarahan when fused, limiting her ability to contribute to fights beyond being support immensely. If you want her to be an efficient fighting machine, it's advisable to grind out a few Mag Overloads to overwrite her skill list. Good demon overall aside from that. Skills Available Blitzkrieg: The next auto skill we can pick up and easily the most generically useful of our starting selection. This is a party-wide buff applied at the start of the battle for a piddling 4 MP that gives the immense bonus of 25% extra damage to all attack types. It's essentially Omni-Boost and greatly improves the striking power of your team leader and demons, even more so when combined with Boost and Amp passives. This was the skill I bumped my ST to 8 for as it will make closing out kills so much easier and help greatly with the upcoming boss fight. Fortify: The defensive counterpart to Blitzkrieg, only costing one more MP to use, Fortify lowers all incoming damage by 25%. Definitely a useful buff to have for your slightly weaker teams who might not be able to finish their plates with the battles they get into. It's preferable to avoid damage altogether of course, but if that's not an option then minimizing it is the next best thing. Another generically useful auto skill that's great for any situation that's not calling for a specialized build. Recarm: Our first ability to revive fallen team leaders and demons alike, Recarm is stupidly broken in this game. When used, you can revive dead demons within anyone's team from anywhere on the map. If you revive a defeated team leader, they will be brought back to a space adjacent to the Recarm user and then immediately be put next in line in the turn order. That last aspect lends itself to some really silly strategies revolving around deliberately suiciding in fights and then using recarm to manipulate the turn order. I'll definitely be keeping Recarm around for the obvious tactical benefits it brings, but I'll refrain from doing broken Recarm Looping strategies. The only two limitations to the skill (which actually do matter a bit every now and again) are that you can't revive demons with the stock, and you can't revive demons within NPC teams. The latter can be pretty unfortunate in a number a fights depending on the dice rolls NPC allies manage in their inevitable battles. Mazan: Our multi-targeting Force spell, Mazan is mainly notable above others for its synergy with petrification skills. Spamming Petra Eyes and following up with Mazan can wipe out opposing teams that are not curse resistant with little effort, though I'm not really crazy about this approach due to the unreliability of it. Try it if you want. Elec/Force Boost: The final two Boost skills to round out our collection. Elec boost is very useful in the upcoming battle, while Force boost is just kind of there for now. We're dealing with a lot of Force resistant enemies at the moment, so it doesn't push up our damage quite as much as the other boosts right now.
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Oct 7, 2023 14:02
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5sMI4-oj_I Part 15 is out! After getting hyped up the whole day, the fight with Beldr finally comes around. He gets absolutely clapped and we move on with our day. Apparently though, this is just the beginning of our troubles, as if things weren't bad enough. Demons Available Snake Quetzacoatl (Lv. 31): My team building efforts have rewarded us with our next Snake. Quetzacoatl is a wall of VI with modest ST and that's about it. I fused him by ranking up Pendragon, so he's about as good for general purpose, though relatively he's even slower. Don't expect this guy to fire off Berserks or Brutal Hits at the start of the turn, and definitely don't expect him to go before anything without a Constrict/Tailwind Combo. He's more valuable for supporting stronger attackers in that sense. Skills Available Drain: The only skill we can crack that isn't stuck on Beldr, Drain is a famously valuable skill. For a piddling 2 MP, you launch a decent strength Almighty attack that restores 50% of the damage it deals to the enemy's HP and MP. This can greatly extend your ability to sling out high powered spells and completely debilitate the enemy. It's a good idea to stick this on any team lacking any other form of MP support. Don't fret too much if you can't get it here as it will be available in the free battles at the start of Day 4. Mana Surge: We can crack one of 3 skills from Beldr, and I opted to go for this one since I know for sure I can get the others from free battles in the morning. This is the upgraded form of Mana Bonus, giving a much more sizable 30% boost to your max MP, ensuring you'll be able to throw out 2 or 3 more high powered skills. If you're lacking in MP support, this isn't a bad idea to throw on your dedicated casters. Life Surge: Same deal as Mana Surge, this is a 30% boost to your HP. This can actually be a really strong survivability boost on most characters, and on Atsuro it is extra fuel for Brutal Hit which can definitely pay off massive dividends. We'll absolutely want to pick this up in the morning. Weak Kill: This is a skill that combos with ailments, should an enemy you attack with this be suffering an ailment, this skill will do additional damage. I can't really recommend this, Brutal Hit or even just Power Hit do great damage without any chance based conditionals. We can get this from a data card tomorrow, so there's no reason to grab this from Beldr.
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Oct 8, 2023 01:08
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lcFXoohkgY Part 16 is out! Unfortunately for us, Keisuke goes AWOL shortly into the day, reducing us back to a 3 person team. We continue our investigation into a means to end the Lockdown and get some promising leads. This episode is mostly exposition dumping with no battles to speak of (Unless you count me diving into free battles for skills I guess) but things will pick up throughout the day.  Demons Available Dragon Ym (Lv. 32): The way this game spaces out the tiers between demons is so weird, didn't we just get a new Dragon a little while ago? That aside, Ym actually has a bit more going for him in combat than Basilisk. Besides having a solid MA stat to work with and only one weakness, Ym is our first access to Holy Dance, the almighty Dance skill. This skill boasts good power and doesn't have to contend with any resistances, making it a good general damage dealing magic skill that can fit into any casters skill list. Ym himself is far from the best user of it, least of all because he needs to level up for it, but making a good Ym to learn it and then pass it on to a superior fighter is definitely a good idea. Not much else to say about this guy, just approach him the way you would any other Dragon when putting him on a team. Genma Hanuman (Lv. 32): Our next Genma, and like Heimdall he doesn't really light the world on fire. He does have a more complacent role as a physical attacker (albeit a rather mid one with 13 ST), but doesn't have any physical moves in his default skill list, requiring careful fusion to get him a good load out. He is one of our first ways to access the Endure passive, needing just one level up to grab it, but there's another demon we'll absolutely be using who also gets it and is generally superior to Hanuman save for AG. Pick one up for when Phantasma is useful, but that's about all I'd recommend. Skills Available Retaliate (Passive): Aside from the alternate Beldr skills we grabbed, this is the only new skill available from Free Battles right now. Retaliate is just Counter but the counterstrike launched is stronger. Counter is a bad passive, QED this is a bad passive, but you do want to be mindful of the enemies that have it. Nothing like throwing Berserk at a formation just to get deleted by repeated counterattacks.
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Oct 9, 2023 23:26
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Demon Race: Fallen       *Mithras is exclusive to overclocked As you can see from their stat spreads, Fallens as a whole are exceedingly balanced. While their default skill sets generally favor magic, Fallens can be specialized towards whatever archetype best fits the components used to create them on account of their often dead even attacking stats. It's a bit hard to recommend demons from the Fallen race, not because they're bad by any means but because how good they are can vary wildly depending on your foresight with fusion or your willingness to grind out free battles in the interest of building stronger demons. Orobas is probably the easiest to recommend, having an obvious inclination towards Magic and learning Elec Amp (Though it is worth noting that demons we've gotten 15 levels lower have almost the same base MA), while Decarabia can be an extremely effective supporter due to learning Shield All. (Indeed I already a specific fight in mind where I'd like to have a good Decarabia at my disposal) Agares has the ever valuable Phys Drain, and his slight inclination towards ST is a nice boon considering he is available in the late game where physical attacks explode upward in damage potential. Mithras and Murmur might seem really bad at a glance due to their abysmal resistances for the late game, but they have complete flexibility with their passive lists and all those weaknesses can be eliminated with a single passive, so it's not hard to make these guys viable either. I know what you're thinking though, if Fallens are just merely decent if with some good flexibility, why should you use them over other more specialized demons? Sacrifice is the Fallen Race skill, a conditional passive skill that triggers in battle. When a Fallen scores a kill, a small portion of HP and MP is restored to the entire team. (And I do mean small, to the tune of about 8% of your HP and maybe 4 or 5% of your MP) Sacrifice is our earliest form of MP sustain, and unlike other options it really only functions as a mean of sustaining your ability to sling spells rather than as a means to fund it. Later skills with MP restoration as their main draw not only refund way more, they can often completely eliminate the cost of spells and actually give you a surplus of MP. Sacrifice is never really going to hit that benchmark, but if you have the dedication to make a bonafide slayer out of a Fallen demon, it can definitely keep your teams in the game without gassing out. There are other things to consider that make this ability more worthwhile. Demons like Tyrants are unique at every tier, and they only get new blood every 10 levels or so, so you can't realistically run Tyrants on every team. Divines don't have this limitation (usually), but their form of MP sustain doesn't recover HP and in fact costs them a hefty amount, in addition to being a command skill and all the limitations that entails. All that said, I don't care for this ability a huge amount, but I do recognize the utility of it if you're willing to experiment with the demons its available to.
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Oct 10, 2023 12:34
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kxq3IlLLek Part 17 is out! We finally catch up with Midori, and the gravity of her situation finally seems to be penetrating her thick skull. Unfortunately, Keisuke has gone a little off the deep end in scant few hours we've been separated from him. Afterwards, we get more evidence that not all of the Shomonkai are on the up and up, and we get a replacement for the recently vacated spot in our roster. Demons Available Fairy Lorelei (Lv. 33): Another base 18 MA demon, though at level 33 she has a slightly higher fusion inheritance cap. It's more than likely you can fuse her off of Ishtar or Peri, so she can end up with a very sizable MA out of the starting gate, but she has very restrictive skills in comparison. Lorelei is less flexible with her passives than Ishtar and doesn't come kitted out for combat like Peri, but frankly having more powerful casting demons at this point is only a boon, so I'd recommend getting the best you can out of her with one of the previously mentioned demons and then just putting in the effort to get the cash to pull them back out of the compendium afterwards. At the start of tomorrow, we'll be able to crack Holy Dance and write it onto any demon via Mag Overload, and a well fused Lorelei is a great recipient for that.
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Oct 12, 2023 04:20
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Unit: Midori Midori's Starting Stats: HP:209 MP:102 ST:8 MA:14 VI:11 AG:10 Midori At Level 50: HP:368 MP:177 ST:12 MA:21 VI:17 AG:16 Midori At Level 99: HP:704 MP:337 ST:21 MA:36 VI:29 AG:29 I know I've been pretty subtle about this but if you pay close attention to my comments you'll realize I don't much care for Midori as a character and find her pretty annoying. That's irrelevant to gameplay though, how is she in battle? Midori is decent enough, and I definitely prefer her to Keisuke. As I said in Part 17, Midori is extremely balanced with a slight focus on MA. Her striking power will never reach the same degree as a MA spec'd Hero or Yuzu, but she does enjoy greater durability than Yuzu and especially Keisuke, while only being slower than Yuzu by a single point of AG by the end of the game. She also puts less useless points into ST, though since she still fails to cap MA this is largely unhelpful and she still overinvests by quite a bit. MA focused builds are definitely superior in this game though, so it's not hard to get Midori rolling and contributing once you have good skills to spare for her. Past that, Midori has the standard 4 Move and 50 Speed, putting her next to Atsuro in the turn order most of the time while being able to keep pace with all other units without help, unlike Yuzu. She's definitely a welcome addition right now, but it's pretty hard to recommend her once we get into the end game and get access to more specialized characters who function better in the same roles you'd put Midori in.
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Oct 12, 2023 12:22
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llyj1SHuDLQ Part 18 is out! Things begin to boil over as tamers with ill intentions begin to seriously utilize the power of the COMPS, while the civilian populace has the poorly thought out plan to hassle a tamer that isn't Midori and is decidedly less forgiving. Oh and we agree to take Naoya's garbage tomorrow. Demons Available Divine Lailah (Lv. 34): Out next Divine demon, brining us back to the realm of magical focus. In that regard, Lailah has quite a bit going for her as we can fuse her off of Ishtar and let her inherit some serious firepower. Additionally, she is our first demon that learns an Amp skill, specifically Ice Amp, allowing her to fire off Mabufu with a 50% damage bonus. Ice Amp alone makes her worth picking up, get her to learn that skill and you have a powerful set of skills to pass down to a stronger demon. I'll likely fuse her via Ishtar and do a macca grind to get Ishtar back. Avian Babd Cath (Lv. 34): Our next Avian, thankfully much better than Vidofnir and is essentially Suparna 2. Like all Avians up to this point, how good he is depends on how much effort you put into fusing him with worthwhile inheritance, though he does have a decent amount of ST and we're at a high point for physical skills in the game. The biggest drawback to Babd Cath is his unimpressive resistance spread, having the desirable trait of being Phys resistant but having Force and Curse weaknesses with no other element resistances. Handle with care. Wilder Mothman (Lv.34): Our next Wilder, and the definite odd man out of the race, which seems fitting. Mothman has good MA with mediocre ST and a good amount of VI. Between that and his ability to learn Endure, he's definitely geared for tanking. Due to his skill constraints and his ST being juuuuust low enough that I don't feel he can realistically be a good striker, you can't really make a good Mothman via rank up fusion on an Afnac, so I'd recommend putting more thought into what components you want to use as a base. It'll be the end of the game before we get access to another Wilder, so it behooves you to make this guy as good as you can and then use the compendium to pass him around like a blunt. Oh and he has gutter tier AG but Devil's Speed mostly offsets that. Tyrant Lucifuge (Lv. 34): Level 34 is like a greatest hits reel for new blood in our roster. Lucifuge is a Tyrant meaning he's good by default, though in relative terms I'd say King Frost has a lot more going for him. Level scaling will quickly begin to push our frosty liege out of the picture though, so this guy is a necessary upgrade. Lucifuge is our first access to a -dyne level spell, possessing Agidyne, giving him some great magical punching power if you can get the right skills onto him. His biggest problem is having unfocused stats, meaning he needs good inheritance to put in good work in combat, and currently my best options for fusing him result in an advantage in physical attacking instead of magical. If you can get anti-fire onto him to patch out his ironic fire weakness and augment his offense with Fire Boost and good MA inheritance, this guy is top tier single target deleter for this stage of the game, and we're about at the point where Tyranny can completely refund the cost of magic with the potential for a surplus. Skills Available Diarahan (Command): Our next healing spell, Diarahan is great because it ignores your MA stat entirely and just heals you to full. It runs the same cost as Media as well, so it's about as economical as Media. I slightly prefer getting heals onto multiple people with a single action over healing just one unit, but this is a great filler skill for physical demons regardless since it completely bypasses their normally weak healing power from low MA. Makajamaon (Command): Mute Eyes but with better odds. I don't care for Mute Eyes, so I don't care for this, but I suppose it is a good shut down in the situation where the enemies aren't resistant to Curse. Probably the skill to shoot for if you want to do a Weak Kill build. Life Aid (Passive): At a battle's conclusion, restore 10% of your HP. Not a massive amount, but it is enough to refund most physical skills at this point. If you got a spare slot, it's good filler I suppose but I personally don't care for it. The MP version of this skill is way more useful. Battle Aura (Auto): Battle Aura nullifies any damage received that is less than or equal to 50. At this stage of the game, this can essentially make your team leaders immortal as long as they have demons up, and with careful attention to your resistances you can expect that for the sturdier demons at your disposal as well. As I've said many times though, I prefer just crushing the enemy before they can dent me too much so I'd rather optimize for offense. Fortify is a much more consistent defensive boon as well, so I'd rather take that to bolster my entire team even if this more often than not benefits the team leader more. (Though this may have potential for securing Extra Turns since it's technically a null, I've never played around with that idea too much) Ban Fire (Auto): This was another Auto skill in the first battle I was too dense to check for, but this one is complete trash anyways so it's not a huge deal. Ban skills are weird, they prevent the very first skill of a specific attacking type from being used in the battle, from either side. After that, the skill proceeds to do nothing. Ban Skills are extremely situational, and frankly only Ban Phys and Ban Curse have any real use. There is a situation in the game where Ban Fire might seem like a good idea, but just simply having fire resistance of any kind is more prudent and you'd rather have Ban Phys in that situation. Null Force (Passive): Our first nullification skill, naturally if you're sending someone out to tank a bunch of Force hits, this is great to have. It also affords you some extra safety if you get petrified, though naturally physical attacks can still shatter you. Pay attention to what you're up against and equip this skill accordingly. Drain Hit (Passive): This will restore your HP on landing physical hits by 25% of the damage you deal. This does affect skills, much like the +Ailment skills, so there is some potential for good healing here. In ideal circumstances, it's probably considerably more than what Life Aid will get you. Again, I don't care for Life Aid so correspondingly I don't really care for this either, but the fact it affects skills does give it some decent potential. CullenDaGaDee fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Oct 14, 2023 |
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Oct 14, 2023 18:58
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANQ3zwLBAEE Part 19 is out! In this riveting video, Shoji hooks us up with some information, Haru once again stares death in the face, Kaido has beef with Keisuke and escalates the situation concerning him, and finally we reconnect with Miss Mari who is wrapped up in some paranormal business. Demons Available Fallen Orobas (Lv. 35): Our next Fallen demon and much easier to get something going for than Nisroc. Orobas learns Elec Amp at level 37, and with his good MA and built in Mazio, he can really clean house if you invest in him. Unfortunately, he also is available at a time where we want to dedicate our resources to creating demons that bring a lot more value than what a good Sacrifice user can bring. Now to be fair, money is essentially infinite in this game due to free battles, but free battles are slow and boring as hell and I'd rather not waste the resource of my time just to create strong versions of every potentially interesting demon we see. We can get this guy from the auction hall later at level 36, and that's what I'd recommend doing if you have interest in using him. Beast Orthrus (Lv. 35): Peak material demon right here. Orthrus has a bit of conflict of interest with his skills, possessing good physical stats but magic focused innate skills. The reason you want one though is because of the excellent passives he learns, making him great for fusing powerful demons. Orthrus learns Pierce at level 36, allowing physical attacks to hit all resistances except Repel at full damage, and Fire Amp at level 37 which makes him excellent for fusing up powerful fire casters. Orthrus himself is good enough, but he quickly finds himself outclassed by hyper specialized physical attackers we'll have access to once we reach the 40's for our fusion level. Still, I'd recommend making a good version of this guy and registering him at level 37 purely for fusion purposes.
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Oct 14, 2023 23:39
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiUx9d4o5ew Part 20 is out! Rounding out Day 4, it's safe to say everything within the Yamanote Circle has broken down and danger is in every corner. Beginning on Day 5, even the world itself seems to be changing around our protagonists. As if that wasn't enough, we have to scramble to prevent multiple disasters on Day 5, lest we want to attend the funerals of some friends after this is all over. Skills Available Might Call (Command): Here's some trash for you, this skill gives the entire party 1 guaranteed critical hit. We have a skill called Aggravate that does the exact same thing from outside of battle that doesn't require you to waste a turn within the battle. You also need to start with an Extra turn if the caster wants to benefit from it. This is about as close to a useless skill as this game gets, there are far better ways to secure more critical hits if you really want to run that kind of build. Mighty Hit (Command): For instance. Mighty Hit is about as strong as a normal hit but it's always critical and does not have to grapple with the accuracy penalty Anger Hit has. It's much more costly in HP though, and generally the power is less than what you get from Brutal Hit, so I can't really say this is a great skill. If you keep Marksman glued to Atsuro at all times like I do, there isn't any reason to run this over Anger Hit if you really like the sound of guaranteed crits. Ares Aid (Passive): Oh hey another skill that completely invalidates Might Call. This passive gives a staggering 50% additive bonus to your crit rate, meaning you'll secure critical hits more than half the time when you launch a physical attack. That said, I'm not a huge fan of this on its own, but there is one particular build that can really ratchet up what this skill can do for you. Unfortunately, all the pieces for it are only available by the end of Day 8 on Yuzu or Naoya's route, so it's largely something you'd use to style on enemies in New Game +. In lieu of better things though, this passive is just fine. Elec Amp (Passive): 50% bonus damage to Elec, yes please. Whatever is going to be the primary element a character uses, you always want the corresponding Amp to get the most out of it. Elec enjoys an early leg up with this, allowing us to delete enemy groups with Mazio so long as they don't resist Elec damage. Phys Boost (Passive): 20% extra damage for Atsuro, of course you want it. This skill is a good time to mention why it's so impractical to use more than one physical attacker, because there's only one set of boosting passives that can be used for them, that means one attacker is always going to be a fair deal weaker than the other. That said, I guess if you want to go that route, it gives Ares Aid more of a purpose. Anti-Phys (Passive): 50% reduction for physical damage is something I'll never say No to, and this is a great skill for your characters who are light on VI. If you're building the Hero the way I do, I'd highly recommend setting this on him, as he'll more often than not be your most vulnerable character to physical attacks and this relaxes how much you need to invest in VI. Alter Pain (Auto): Now here's an interesting skill. Alter Pain makes it so that when taking damage in battle, you'll recover an amount of MP relative to the damage you take. I'm not too keen on skills that operate on the basis of getting beat up, but this is a reliable way to pad out your MP if you lack good Tyrants or Divines. Even the most offensively optimized team will likely take damage now and again, so this can be a good way to make the best of an undesirable situation. Holy Dance (Command): If there's one skill that makes people really resent to One Per Human limit on skills in this game, it's this one. This is a fantastically powerful Dance skill that does Almighty Damage. The cost is steep, at 45 MP, but it's potent damage that works equally well on everything. This is a shoe in skill for your strongest casters, and while Amp boosted elemental magic does trump this by a fair amount, you will come across situations where enemies will resist everything BUT this. As absolute must crack skill, and thankfully it's super easy to get. Vigilant (Passive): The upgraded version of Watchful. Demons and humans in reserve get even more leaked experience, though again benched Human characters always get leaked experience regardless (just more of it with this skill). As for the boosting effect this has on active combat, this does stack with Watchful so it's a helpful skill for level grinding if you're behind the game's level curve. Cursed Dance (Command): This one's weird, it works like any other dance but the damage dealt is equal to a quarter of the HP of the enemy it hits. It's 50% if the enemy is weak to Curse. This can't kill enemies on its own, and the damage is often way lower than other options available. Easily the worst Dance in the game, not sure what they were thinking with this. Endure (Passive): I'm sure we've all seen this kind of skill before, if you have more than 1 HP remaining you can survive an otherwise fatal hit. You can only Endure an attack once per skirmish, but there's no limit on how many times it can activate in a full mission. It's a pretty good defensive passive for that reason, and it's not a terrible idea to stick this on characters engaging on the riskier battles in a given mission.
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Oct 15, 2023 23:19
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0CVBFn7YDs Part 21 is out! We hand off Mari's bag to Kaido and pray that he doesn't fumble it, we collect Naoya's garbage from the Shomonkai, order further breaks down with the borders of the lockdown, and Keisuke is doubling down on his mission to purge the world of sinners. Demons Available Megami Brigid (Lv. 36): Our next Megami demon, Brigid is a marginal upgrade over Ishtar that still enjoys a decent amount of flexibility with her passives. Like Ishtar, she'll be as good as the components you use to maker her, though one thing to note is that she is not a Unique demon and you can field as many Brigid's as you want. Brigid also learns Null Fire, so she's an easy way to fuse that skill around which can be helpful come Day 6. Jaki Legion (Lv.37): Another MA oriented Jaki, what are the odds? Anyways Legion has quite a bit more going for him than Loa, picking up Ice Dance and Ice Amp as he levels and having the MA to put in good work with it. Legion is mostly intended for walling physical hits with his high VI and Phys resistance, and while he does have the MA to take some magical damage as well, having weaknesses to the ever common Fire and Elec still gives him problems on that front. Not terrible by any means though, and his innate access to Petra Eyes actually has a distinct use coming up soon. Deity Odin (Lv.37): Our next Deity demon, and Odin actually has the novel attribute of being really good with magic, with a solid base 19 MA. He's also our first chance to access Shield All, a fairly decent buffing skill that you will despise seeing when the enemy uses it. Like Brigid, Odin is as good as you can make him with a decently flexible skill list, and he's the first Deity who can realistically benefit a lot from Awakening, rather than just supporting the team with it. Mitama Kusi Mitama (Lv.38): Our first Mitama demon! I'm not going to go too indepth on Mitamas right now, as like Elements they are not serious team members and are instead purely meant for fusion. All things will be revealed in time. Dragon Python (Lv.39): One of the few demons in the game with a completely open skill list, Python also comes in with an impressive 20 MA meaning that he has extremely high potential for being a potent caster with the right fusions. If you see a good fusion set up for this guy, then it's not a terrible idea to pull it off even if it requires some free battle grinding to replace good demons. The only thing holding Python back is his low max MP, which means he can run dry extremely quickly without good team support. Genma Cu Chulainn (Lv.39): The Genma race really enters a high point for the game starting around now and Cu Chulainn sets the trend here. Possessing a behemoth base 22 ST, Cu Chulainn also picks up Pierce and Phys Amp via leveling. This guy can hit like a runaway freight train if invested in, and once he starts to pass his prime he can be used to fuse up demons that will keep the train rolling. Absolutely look for a good way to make this guy, he can take Mow Down from being a mid-skill to being a tactical nuke. Femme Hariti (Lv. 39): The odd woman out for the Femme race, Hariti instead focuses on ST instead of MA. She's not very good in this regard, as we have access to several better attackers at this point, and she doesn't learn anything that terribly useful either. I'd pass on her unless you're chain fusing her into another demon. Avatar Airavata (Lv.40): Continuing the proud legacy Avatar demons have of being really crap, Airavata is a slow wall of hit points meant to take hits and fail to contribute to battles. He does learn Zandyne and Force Amp, but his horrible MA stat means he will accomplish little with it, so it's more meant for fusing off into a better demon. This guy runs counter to my entire playstyle so he was basically doomed to get condemnation from me. Grind him out if you want to fuse him off, but otherwise give this guy a pass. Touki Berserker (Lv.41): This guy is obscene. 26 base ST? AND I CAN FUSE HIM OFF OF AFNAC AND QUETZACOATL? Yeah we will be doing that, and this guy will be coming in with around 33 ST and Phys Boost at his disposal. Another demon who can turn Mow Down into instant death to the opposition. He's a little slow, and his MA is unbelievably terrible, but who cares when he can use Tailwind and Initiative to detonate the enemy before they can exploit that? He also comes in with innate Endure, making him very difficult to kill even considering that. Highly recommend picking this guy up if you follow my playstyle, he will be beyond over the top. Best Touki in the game easily. Skills Available Pierce (Passive): Another skill long time SMT fans will recognize and immediately feel nostalgia for, Pierce causes physical attacks to ignore non-repel resistances. This last bit is a fairly uncommon concern in this game, so this skill lets dedicated physical attackers really run roughshod on enemy demons. As far as cracks go, this is another skill that really makes the One Per Human limit rule sting and another factor in why it's hard to run multiple physical leaders. Obviously put this on Atsuro, or whoever your dedicated physical attacker is. Null Curse (Passive): A must have defensive skill when Petra Eyes is floating around. It's doubly important as it is the only passive that affords complete immunity to ailments, as Curse does not pick up a Repel or Drain type defense. Good idea to have your strongest fighter run this at all times. Ban Curse (Auto): The only Ban skill that's really worth running consistently, as you don't often see ailments flung your way more than once per skirmish. I think, though I don't know for sure and feel free to correct me if you do know, that this also prevents ailments from going through until the Ban is actually triggered. It's a pretty good counter to +Ailment skills if that is the case, and I do know one fight outside of that anyway where this can really come in clutch. Healing (Auto): I really bungle explaining this skill in the video, but it's really straight forward. If you enter a skirmish and anyone on your team has less than full HP, your leader will cast Media at the start before everyone can take their actions. This can actually go a long way in increasing your team's survivability as well as footing the cost of physical skills. If you're running a physically oriented team with a magic focused leader, this can be a great way to keep the whole team running like clockwork.
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Oct 17, 2023 12:42
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Ah, Devil Survivor. One of my favourite DS games, I loved the story and how it managed to keep a decent amount of mystery about what exactly is going on, and how the characters act believably as everything turns to poo poo. The death clock being visible to both the player and the people inside the game is a fantastic way to add pressure and tension for everyone involved, especially the fact that no one ever has a timer more than 7. And then the helpful facts from the system being cryptic as poo poo just adds to the stress, it's fantastic. I will say that as much as I do adore the story, it also crimps on the replayability. The story making it so we have to use the exact same people everytime hurts it for me. We're on day 5 now and we're having to use the same 4 people everytime. It does do a good job of making the story feel more personal the first time through though. As per Pierce, I was under the impression that it actually punched through all non-Repel attacks, not just physical. Of course, you'd only ever use it for physical because your mages can freely switch elements between maps but still.... The magical/physical imbalance for your leaders was always a bugbear for this game, since it really meant that every physical attacker had to be put up to the litmus test of Atsuro. As per this update, I liked this part where you're feeling the time crunch trying to save two different people at the same time. Let's just say I didn't think of giving Mari's bag to the guy my first time through.
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Oct 17, 2023 13:30
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Yeah, definitely one thing the sequel does better is getting you set up with a full team way faster and actually giving you options to mix things up throughout the entire game. It definitely has its share of balance issues, but I can at least appreciate having choice in who I will or won’t use. Man, Pierce would be unreal levels of broken if it worked with everything. Even with the restrictive skill system in this game, you can do some pretty silly multiplier stacking on elemental magic if you really commit to it. The funny thing about Atsuro is that in most any other game in the series he’d have a pretty bad stat spread. Due to the fact he’s your only deicated physical user for most of the game, the stat requirements for skills and the general overpoweredness of MA, he ends up just being easier to stick with than swapping him out when you do get another option. I’d say that only Black Frost is a superior choice to him. I have to imagine 95% of the players who played this game for the first time handed the bag off to Mari and sealed Keisuke’s fate. If you’re diligent about clearing out mandatory events, it’s very easy to end up just giving Mari the bag on Day 4 before the game drops a single hint it might be a good idea to give it to Kaido.
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Oct 17, 2023 13:57
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Demon Race: Genma         *Tschaggatta is exclusive to Overclocked **Kresnik is a Special fusion and must be unlocked via completion of a Day 5 sidequest I always forget just how many reps this race has in this game since I don't use them nearly as much as I do things like Wilders or Megamis. That aside, Genmas have a pretty elliptical usefulness curve throughout the game. Early game, they're fairly unremarkable physical specialists at a time where physical attacks are crap and there are more specialized and potent demons than them. This all changes mid game when Cu Chulainn hits the scene and suddenly Genmas explode upward in potency. The trio of Cu Chulainn, Kresnik, and Seiten Taisei are among the best physical specialists for their stages of the game. While there are definitely stronger dedicated attackers, these three enjoy far better resistances than comparable demons and Cu Chulainn creates an easy access to Pierce and Phys Amp. One really big thing that benefits these three compared to other Unique demons is that Genmas are a race that can rank up via Element fusion. (Most Unique demons in Devil Survivor 1 belong to Races that strictly rank down via elemental fusion) Accordingly, once the next tier of Genma becomes available to you, you can just upgrade with an Element. This allows Phys Amp and Pierce to carry all the way down, and you can search out a good passive to round out the completely open passive slots. I highly recommend these demons, and frankly once you can fuse Seiten Taisei, Kresnik is still good enough that you could easily pull him back out of the compendium and have both of these guys support your teams. Genmas end on a lower key note afterwards. While Tschaggatta and Ganesha are far from bad, the former tends to be much weaker than things in the same level bracket and Ganesha has lowish MP with horrible AG. Still, Ganesha can easily cap out a stat via inheritance and he has a lot of room to grow, and with two free passive slots you definitely have options for him. Don't sleep on this Race, they can put in good work for you if you know how to game the fusion system. Phantasma is the Genma Race Skill. This is a non-conditional passive skill that affects movement. When Phantasma is in effect, you will be able to pass through terrain, enemies and barriers unimpeded much like Avian's flight. Unlike Flight, instead of getting a bonus point of Move, you get the less remarkable bonus of halving turn delay from movement. This isn't the most impressive effect in the world, but it does have one key advantage over Flight: this bonus stacks with Devil Speed while Flight's move bonus is ignored. When used in conjunction with Devil Speed, this ability essentially affords you 7 move for the same delay as moving 3/4. That can definitely give you a leg up in many situations, and it's a nice advantage even in situations where you don't need additional move and just happen to have a Genma fielded. And frankly, being able to ignore terrain and pass through enemies will always be a good thing regardless of the secondary effect. CullenDaGaDee fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 03:00
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Just as a random for fun miscellaneous post, I was making some preparations for the next video and rounding out some of the compendium when I got a really good example of how far ahead of the curve you can get if you make good use of fusion inheritance. Remember how I speculated in the notes for the previous update this guy would probably fuse in with about 33 or so ST? Yeahhhhh. I have a feeling this Berserker is gonna be going places. (For the record, his level pattern has him getting two points of ST on his first two level ups, so this guy will almost certainly be our first demon with a capped stat in the game)
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Oct 18, 2023 03:12
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I definitely handed the bag off directly to Mari. I actually was getting crunched to the point where I was being forced to deal with one or the other by that point, and I just plain liked Mari better. The sequel definitely did a better job for party variation and replayability on that end, but I still think the 1st game's story is much, much better. The death warnings in the sequel honestly end up looking goofy on occasion, and it also kind of reduces the mystique of it, I feel. Whereas in this game, the combination of death clock + vague rear end warnings is so deliciously tense. Plus honestly, the party just feels too 'safe' in the 2nd game for me. In the first game here, they don't even have a consistent place to sleep. I have a particular bugbear about physical humans in this game because I really did want to use them, but in some cases you're actively punished for trying. I'm glad that the sequel managed to let you use more than 1 physical character, that's a definite advantage for that game and again helped replayability as a result.
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Oct 18, 2023 03:13
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Yeah, I've always preferred the story of this game. The second game definitely has its funny moments, but I feel like the undercut tension goes against the theming of the game's story a lot of the time. Also the characters, while not bad, are noticeably shallower and some of them definitely qualify as static. Easily the biggest problem with alternative physical attackers is that they just join so late it's hard to care enough to work them in. It doesn't help that they have gutter tier MA stats so they get blown to bits by most of the attacks thrown their way. Izuna does get a boon in Overclocked, but they are so sporadically available and not in routes where they could even make use of it that it falls pretty flat.
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Oct 18, 2023 03:24
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I remember trying to use one of them and then Atsuro becoming a mandatory party member in the final mission there. And I certainly wasn't going to try to use 2 physical attackers. Say hello, 10 levels behind Atsuro. The sad thing is that it still worked because my magical team leaders and their parties just blew apart the encounters largely without his help.
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Oct 18, 2023 03:34
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Keldulas posted:I will say that as much as I do adore the story, it also crimps on the replayability. The story making it so we have to use the exact same people everytime hurts it for me. We're on day 5 now and we're having to use the same 4 people everytime. It does do a good job of making the story feel more personal the first time through though. Yeah, that's one of my main gripes too, for a game with so many routes, having the route split so late in the game is such a waste, specially when a significant number of characters are only available after said split. I definetly remember giving Kaido the bag in my first playthrough, it was probably dumb luck, although I remember someone gave you a clue in-game regarding what you had to do for the best outcome, something about keeping Kaido busy with something else.
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Oct 18, 2023 20:02
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It can really come down to your priorities when hitting events. On my first playthrough, I always took out battles first before hitting story events, so I was able to collect the bag and give it to Mari on Day 4, which is before the game hints at distracting Kaido. It is still possible to luck into that solution without the hint if you just feel Kaido is the more pressing person to talk to in the morning of Day 5, but I have a feeling more people were approaching the game the way I did than those who explored other options, at least on the first playthrough.
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Oct 18, 2023 20:23
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9ngR527zDw Part 22 is out! We set out to finally rid the world of Kudlak. Disaster strikes for our new game + aspirations, but otherwise things go smoothly. We also get a demonstration on why I'm none too keen on ailment based strategies in this game. Demons Available Vile Abaddon (Lv. 40): We lacked materials to fuse this guy in the last update, but he's available to me now. Abaddon is essentially Orcus 2 with his Phys Weakness, but he's available at a point where it's not impossible to get Anti-Phys into his one free passive slot giving him resistance to everything. The other notable thing about him is that he is the first demon that can learn Anti-Most, the skill that gives resistance to all attacking types except Phys and Almighty, adding that to your fusion pool. The next demon we'll discuss also does this though, so it's not a super critical aspect of Abaddon outside of the fact he's cheaper to pull out of the compendium. Abaddon otherwise has pretty middling stats, but this does make him able to flex onto anything you could want him to do. Tyrant Hecate (Lv. 42): Hecate is pretty awesome, with good MA and balanced stats in every other category, as well as being our first demon to learn the ever valuable Mediarahan. If you can get a -Dyne spell and Holy Dance onto her, she can really put it to most anything you fight. Her main drawback is her cluttered passive list. She starts with a redundant anti-most that's purely there for fusion purposes, and learns Pierce via level up which is not great since she has much lower ST than MA. I'd recommend dedicating her free slot to a phys resist or Dual Shadow if you can manage it. Skills Available Extra One (Passive): Extra One guarantees you'll start a battle with an Extra Turn and prevents you from losing it. This definitely has its uses if you don't particularly need another passive for a given fight beyond your typical boosts and resists, but I can't really say I'm a fan of it either. If you don't mind sacrificing a little attack power, Atsuro can often make use of this since his ability to secure Extra turns more often relies on random chance. Bufudyne/Ice Amp/Ice Repel: All of these are certainly tempting to grab, but require killing Kudlak personally to get just one of them which fails Mari's sidequest and denies us all sorts of goodies. We'll be getting a different -Dyne skill next video with the corresponding Amp not long after, so it's not the end of the world that we missed Bufudyne. Bufudyne actually becomes available from Data cards in free battles on Day 6, so we'll easily be able to pick this up for when we need it. The other two passives are good of course, but not worth failing the sidequest for.
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Oct 19, 2023 12:29
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Demon Race: Snake       *Yurlungur is exclusive to Overclocked Snakes as a whole are physical bruiser demons, but they often come in with magic oriented commands and defensive passives. This makes it hard to for them to hit the ground running, but they are some of the most lopsidedly powerful and/or tanky demons for their stage of the game if you can manage it. Pendragon in particular enjoys ludicrous ST for when he becomes available, and Quetzalcoatl is a near unbreakable physical wall. Past that, Snakes become a bit more balanced with a noticeable emphasis on bulk, with high HP and decent VI and MA and great resistances with a single weakness to cover. Yurlungur boasts no weaknesses at all and can easily cap his ST and VI off of a good fusion. It's a bit hard to recommend specific Snakes since the Race as a whole grows pretty linearly and the back half becomes available at a point where demons who simply specialize better and come in with better skills start to hit the scene while Snakes begin to generalize their stats. Still, it's far from a bad idea to have multiples of the highest available tier (With the exception of the Unique Ananta of course) for one particular reason. Constrict is the Snake Race skill. This is a non-conditional passive that has two effects. The primary one is much less useful, restricting the Move range of adjacent enemies to 1. This mostly is intended to work against you in the handful of times you square off against Snakes, and like Bind it can be countered with Devil Speed. The secondary effect, on the other hand, is ridiculously good: when an Enemy initiates a skirmish against you, you'll get +10 initiative in the turn order. This essentially eliminates the enemy's initiative and gives you the same turn order advantage you'd get from being the one to initiate the skirmish. Combine this with something like Tailwind, and suddenly situations where you'd have the potential to take a ton of damage instead become clean sweeps in your favor. You can very easily slap a Snake onto a team and have them hold down an area solo and detonate any enemy team that runs into them. This is also pretty much the ideal way to grind free battles. I had a very negative opinion of Constrict until I realized this aspect of, and now I'd say it's probably one of the best passive Race skills in the game. Does the primary effect of this skill have any use? Well, unlike Bind you can pull in a Snake in the middle of a turn to utilize this, so it has that going for it. Anytime I thought this might have use though, I was always able to find alternative solutions that work just as well or better. If you know any situation where the move restriction effect of Bind is amazing, don't hesitate to let me know, but in my mind this aspect of it is purely meant to be used against you.
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Oct 20, 2023 12:46
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n89BF6cQH90 Part 23 is out! With the Mari situation resolved, now we move onto Keisuke. There are three ways Keisuke's fate can play out on today, and we're going to explore them all! There's a variety of bonuses you can obtain depending on which solution you end up taking, though the one with the greatest potential gains overall is probably resolving the battle at 13:00 peacefully. For this let's play though, we'll elect to kill Yama and proceed with the game from there. As a random aside, I fought Kudlak without the Day 4 death buff on the new game+ file, and that version of the fight has him with way more HP and more defense, but he doesn't hit nearly as hard. Interesting how they balanced that out. Demons Available Pazuzu (Lv. 35): We won't actually have access to him in the succeeding videos, but I may as well mention him here since I most certainly won't remember later. We can end up unlocking both Pazuzu and Yama for fusion on Day 5, but Pazuzu is the only one we can fuse at the moment due to Yama being Level 45. He's kind of pointless in any playthrough except one that is ignoring Free Battles, as at this point we can already fuse a superior Vile in Abaddon. He's far from bad for today, and he has pretty decent stats and resistances, but he'll rapidly be outclassed come Day 6. Fuse him if you want him, but I can't really recommend since he comes too late. We'll have a chance to pick him up later in the game, where he'll be even more useless. Skills Available Agidyne/Zandyne (Command): This is our first real opportunity to grab -Dyne spells, so I'll actually elaborate on what these are now. -Dyne spells are immensely stronger single target spells of each element, costing 12 MP to cast but boasting roughly triple the damage. Naturally this ramps up further if you apply the relevant Boost/Amp. Now if a Dance skill rolls three hits on a single enemy, that will still deal more damage than a -Dyne spell, but the -Dyne spells are way more consistent. When I was younger I mostly stuck to dances, but these days I prefer the -Dyne spells as a reliable way to nuke single enemies off the face of the earth. They aren't perfect for every situation, particularly if you really need to spread damage around, but you also can't go wrong with a line up of single target nukers either. Additionally they're much more sustainable than Dances, so they have that going for them too. I highly recommend having your best casters run these. Fire Amp/Force Amp (Passive): Again, our first real chance to pick up these types of skills. 50% bonus damage to an element is killer, and Yuzu and the Hero can easily one shot anything with this combo. Despite my excitement at seeing these in the video, reviewing the cracks unfortunately reveals that most of these overlap on the units we can crack them from, meaning we aren't really able to pick up Amps and -Dynes at the same time in the Kaido & Midori battle, though you can snag Ice Amp and pick up Bufudyne at the start of Day 6. We'll get all of these with time regardless, but I guess if you feel augmenting your multi-target magic is more prudent than getting strong single target magic right now, you can go for these. Magic Yang (Auto): Missing out on the Yama battle also causes you to miss this skill, but thankfully it's not a one-shot and you can get it later. It's pretty darn good, though. Halving MP costs is one of the easier ways to keep your team from running dry, and for most of the game this is a price cut that essentially keeps the team that has it from ever running out of MP. It's great for the Hero who has miserable MP compared to other casters for most of the game, but Midori can also make use of it if you'd rather focus your Hero for maximized damage. Fire Repel (Passive): Man, Black Frost really makes me wish Joint Skill Cracks were a thing in this game, he'd be a new skill piñata if they were. Anyway, this nullifies incoming fire damage and bounces it back at the enemy. Rarely does this result in good damage since enemies casting fire spells tend to be resistant to them, but it is extremely likely to nullify the enemy's extra turn and grant the reflector one in exchange. Do be mindful though, this is a game where repelled spells can trigger the Drain resistance. Nothing like having the enemy bounce there own spells back at themselves to restore hundreds of HP.
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Oct 21, 2023 23:36
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Demon Race: Dragon      *Fafnir is exclusive to Overclocked Get excited, this is the first time I'm going to have a mostly negative opinion in one of these breakdowns. Dragons are pretty bad, often having really generalized stats in their level bracket and a serious problem to contend with in their Race skill. I'll cover that more below, but it's pretty hard to recommend any of these demons due to the associated problems Evil Wave has on your teams as a whole. The high point for Dragons is probably Day 5. Ym has decent stats and access to Holy Dance, while Python has really good stats and excellent skill flexibility. Making a strong Python is probably worth your while if you can run it on a team that can consistently close out skirmishes on the first turn. Other than that, Culebre is valuable to have multiples of for one specific fight on Day 6, and past that Dragons will always have situational use but I'd never recommend having them in a team full time. Evil Wave is the reason why I have such a hard time trying to sell anyone and myself on these demons. Evil Wave is a non-conditional passive that extends your attack range to 2, letting you attack enemies without being directly adjacent to them. This also works on defense, allowing you to counter enemies that also have Evil Wave, rather than being completely defenseless. On its face, this sounds pretty good... and it is! HOWEVER, because it's so good, Evil Wave has two extreme drawbacks to it. First off, Evil Wave prevents a team from having Extra Turns, period. Even a skill like Extra One which otherwise guarantees you have an Extra Turn, does not overturn this penalty. The big problem with this penalty is it still applies even if you attack/defend at range 1. This flatly makes any team that has it weaker, and for almost any stage of the game this will prevent you from wiping out any enemy you are evenly matched with in a single skirmish. The other major drawback, which again also applies at range 1, is that this increases the amount of turn delay from Attacking and Defending by about 50%, meaning that your units will take much longer to get their next action which can devastating. (Infuriatingly, most enemy units blatantly cheat and ignore this penalty and seemingly even get a bonus, scoring way more turns than you could over hope to get while having this ability) If Evil Wave's penalties only applied at Range 2, it'd be a much easier recommend from me, but they way over corrected in making sure this ability wasn't broken and instead made it a massive liability in most fights. I can only ever advocate using Evil Wave on defense, pulling out a Dragon when you're parked in the range of an enemy that also has Evil Wave. More loosely I guess it also has use if it extends your attack range enough to kill the last enemy in a fight and end the battle. Evil Wave is a severe detriment to an entire team when it's not useful, and all Dragons have way less potential because of it. As an added kicker, the Vile Race has a stronger version of this skill and much stronger demons in their ranks, making Dragons look even worse in practice.
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Oct 22, 2023 21:03
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KlulTK4noQ Part 24 is out! After a rather chaotic previous installment, this part is remarkably straightforward. And by that I mean we get a MASSIVE exposition dump thrown our way. Several dangling plot threads are resolved while a good number more are opened up. And for the first update in awhile, I don't have any new skills or demons to write about. Crazy.
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Oct 23, 2023 01:30
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLzOinp8hx8 Part 25 is out! We have a relatively uninteresting battle to blast through, after which we get more exposition. Thankfully, all these things will be coming to a head within the following Days, so things will begin to pick up rapidly and the game becomes a lot more difficult at this point. Demons Available Avian Rukh (Lv. 43): Our next Avian, and essentially just an upgraded Babd Catha, swapping out the Phys Resistance for higher VI and less weaknesses. One thing he has going for him is that we can fuse him off of Cu Chulainn by combining him with a Legion, creating our next demon with Pierce and Phys Amp. I've done so off screen and pulled Cu Chulainn back out of the compendium, so now we have 3 very potent physical attackers between Rukh, Cu Chulainn and Berserker. Phys specialists really take off at this stage of the game and it's not a bad idea to fuse as many as you can.
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Oct 23, 2023 19:28
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Demon Race: Avatar      Oh sweet, we're on a roll with another Demon Race I really dislike. Avatars have the dubious distinction of being the only Race besides Elements and Mitamas to not get new reps in the transition to Overclocked, which sets a good tone for the under cooked nature of these demons as a whole. Now being completely truthful, these demons aren't really bad per se, in terms of raw stats they're usually more combat capable than the average Avian at most tiers. The problem is that none of them really excel at anything, either being low grade tanks or underwhelming jacks of all trades. Both of those archetypes are pretty lousy in Devil Survivor due to the micro battle nature of combat, making it genuinely hard to advocate for any of these demons. Even as fusion material, most of them just lack anything I really care about. I guess Shiisa is an easy way to fuse Power Hit onto something, and Airavata is the earliest access to Zandyne and Force Amp for fusion if you level him up. Past that, there are just always more specialized demons who hit the ground running compared to Avatars, resulting in me never sparing a glance at any of these chumps. For all the problems I have with Evil Wave and Chaos Wave, those at least give Dragons and Viles situational use, so I do end up using those demons semi-regularly. With that being said, Switch is the Avatar Race skill. This is a command skill that costs about 12% of the demon's MP to use. This allows the Team that uses Switch to swap locations with another team up to 6 spaces away. This is by far the most useless Race skill in the game and I legitimately struggle to think of uses for it. Maybe you can use it as a means of movement to slingshot a team deeper into the map, but the combo of Devil Speed and Animal Leg is much easier to use and set up. Maybe you can use it to fish a damaged team out of a difficult spot, but that's a situation that can easily be avoided by just playing smarter. This skill is the big reason why I feel no Avatar is worth using. Even if they have similar stats to demons that are good, the fact they have a dead slot for their Race skill means they just inherently contribute less than most any other demon. While this doesn't actively hurt you to have like Evil/Chaos Wave, it does really beg the question of why don't you just use a demon that can aid a team with it's Race skill? If this had any kind of secondary perk, like giving a turn order bonus to the Team that was swapped away from their position, maybe it'd have some interesting situational uses. Alas, it doesn't and it just drags down Avatars as a whole. I try not to bring up Devil Survivor 2 since obviously nothing in that game has any bearing on this one mechanically, but when given the opportunity to buff this skill into something not trash, instead the dev team just gave the upgraded version of Switch an even larger range you will never make use of. Grand. Now I did get a reply from Lord Koth about Switch's potential use in escort focused missions. While I find this to be inferior to smart usage of Devil Speed and Animal Leg/Double Up, it is at least something worth considering if you happen to have a well fused Avatar in your line up. Lord Koth posted:From what I recall, the main thing about Switch is that it can be used on friendly NPC teams too, so in a number of the "don't let civilians (or whoever) die" scenarios you can just Switch them to a safer place. The ability is still very niche, and of extremely minimal use when only your teams are on the field, but there is some use for it. CullenDaGaDee fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Oct 24, 2023 |
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Oct 24, 2023 14:15
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From what I recall, the main thing about Switch is that it can be used on friendly NPC teams too, so in a number of the "don't let civilians (or whoever) die" scenarios you can just Switch them to a safer place. The ability is still very niche, and of extremely minimal use when only your teams are on the field, but there is some use for it.
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Oct 24, 2023 17:04
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Lord Koth posted:From what I recall, the main thing about Switch is that it can be used on friendly NPC teams too, so in a number of the "don't let civilians (or whoever) die" scenarios you can just Switch them to a safer place. The ability is still very niche, and of extremely minimal use when only your teams are on the field, but there is some use for it. Now that actually is something interesting it could do. Unfortunately, every NPC mission can be trivialized with the much more useful Devil Speed, so I'm still skeptical of how helpful that is. It would probably be more worthwhile in 2 with the upgraded variant, but that game heavily de-emphasized escort missions and usually lock the NPC's in place for a defense mission instead. I updated the breakdown to mention this, since it is at least a potential use for the skill in the event you do have it. CullenDaGaDee fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Oct 24, 2023 |
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Oct 24, 2023 17:37
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAbbx2gGvWo Part 26 is out! We finally catch up with Naoya, who's willing to give us some more concrete answers if we can impress him with our power. While he does raise some questions of his own, we do mostly walk away with a cleared idea of what needs to be done. Day 6 is up next, and this is when the game begins to wake up and actually throw some more meaningful challenges our way. Additionally, while this day doesn't have distinct routes like Day 5 did, it does quite a few variable events depending on what has and has not been done up until this point. I doubt we'll be able to cover all of them, but we are at least set up to unlock every ending route in the game. Demons Available Fallen Decarabia (Lv. 44): This guy is remarkably balanced, with a sub par VI stat being offset by having innate phys resistances. With completely open passive slots, Decarabia can flex onto anything but his innate commands makes Fire casting the smart idea. The real reason you'd want this guy, though, is due to his access to Shield All once leveling up. This is an extremely powerful defensive buff that you will absolutely resent seeing when used against you, but is extremely helpful when you can apply it. I'd highly recommend picking up something that has this for Day 6's boss fight, but we're also at the point in the game where we can pretty cheaply fuse any skill onto any demon, so Decarabia himself isn't strictly necessary to have it. We'll go over this more once I can put it in action.
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Oct 25, 2023 19:27
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Demon Race: Megami        *Ishtar and Black Maria are exclusive to Overclocked What's there really to say about Megami's at the end of the day? They're just some of the most straightforwardly useful supports in the game, and having high MA naturally also gives you a lot of potential as a fighter. Megamis have one of the straightest lines to follow from tier to tier in the game, with every Megami available having good MA and balanced stats across the board, often with solid resistances and one or no weakness. They'll come kitted out with the best healing you can have at the points you can fuse them, and they have flexible passive lists giving them good combat potential if you write onto them with Mag Overloads, as I demonstrated with Ishtar. Amazingly, only 2 of the 8 Megamis in the game are Unique, meaning most of them can be passed around to every team via the compendium if you are so inclined. If I can recommend specific demons, Laksmi is quick and easy access to Mediarahan and Samarecarm, two very useful skills. Norn has excellent resistances and can be fused with Phys Repel to become a phenomenal wall. Black Maria is notable for being up for purchase in the auction hall, making her cheap and easy to access if you just care about Affection, and just in general you can't really go wrong with these demons. Sometimes we'll need certain race skills in missions with secondary objectives, but for knock-down, drag-out slugfests (which we'll see a lot more of in the end game) there aren't many demons that give you an advantage in the damage race like Megamis, since they can often just completely undo the damage being thrown your way. Affection is the Megami Race skill. This is a command type race skill that costs about 20 % of the MP of the demon that uses it. It's a stiff cost, but Affection makes up for it by being hands down the best healing race skill and just one of the best healing spells in the game. This skill can target any ally team within a 4 space range, healing all members of said team with a spell that has about triple the base power of Media. On top of healing for a huge amount, Affection also cures all ailments the targeted team may be suffering. It is wild how good this skill is, wild how much it invalidates the other healing race skills, and wild how rarely you're limited from using it by the demons that have it being unique. Once you have reliable MP restoration, you can spam this skill like crazy and invalidate any non-lethal damage the enemy throws your way. Now, because of the frequency of time sensitive secondary objectives like escorts or escaping enemies in this game, you can't always have this skill out on every team since you'll need stuff like Devil Speed, Phantasma, Flight, etc. But as mentioned previously, when secondary objectives aren't at play and the mission is comparable to a kid crashing his actions figures together and making explosion noises, there are few skills better than Affection for keeping your teams alive. And hell, even in escort missions, the massive range of this skill makes it by far the best way to heal those you are escorting if you're in a situation that calls for it. Always make sure you have a good Megami on hand for any situation, Affection always has the potential to save the day.
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Oct 26, 2023 14:11
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I find Megami's a bit silly overall as I think literally every one of them is good and useful in its own rights as a demon body. And then you add in Affection.
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Oct 26, 2023 20:42
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Oh absolutely. There’s a reason Devil Survivor 2 made most of them Unique so you couldn’t have strong ones on every team.
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Oct 27, 2023 00:33
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Are we voting on the (first) ending or is it LPer's choice?
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Oct 27, 2023 01:34
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LPer’s choice for this one. As you guessed, I do plan cover all endings, but I have a very particular one in mind since it’s a nostalgic pick for me and I feel it’s the best one to take given how I plan to approach the remaining endings.
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Oct 27, 2023 02:06
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They'll be nice to see, my patience wore thin on ending hunting around the 3rd one or so.
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Oct 27, 2023 12:45
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Yeah, tragically this game doesn’t do much to keep New Game + interesting. Save for the ultimate bonus boss, every new fight on a second playthrough can be beaten pretty easily on the first go around, and there’s nothing left to challenge you by the third playthrough until you are ready for the bonus battle. Given the game’s slow pace, this makes scooping up the remaining endings and titles boring as hell.
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Oct 27, 2023 13:19
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFDma2XFkHw Part 27 is out! The 6th day starts with a battle double feature, one mandatory and one tied to a sidequest. We've got a lot of story events to punch through today, so you can expect the next video to be heavy on the dialogue. Demons Available Deity Yama (Lv.45): Our reward for rescuing Keisuke, Yama is none too shabby with the right inheritance considering he has innate Fire Amp and picks up Agidyne. Like a lot of Deity's though, he has a conflict of interest with a disposition towards magic in his innate skills but having stats that lean more towards physical attacks. Yama does still have pretty potent single target damage and good spread damage with Berserk, but he also has to contend with low MP for this point in the game. He's definitely got more going for him than Pazuzu, and the damage potential off of Awakening definitely makes it appealing to try and make a good one. Fairy Vivian (Lv.45): Not too much to say here, Vivian has good stats and excellent resistances albeit slightly held back by a cluttered skill list. Still, Holy Dance gives her an easy way to contribute in any fight and she's worth picking up so we can swell our ranks with strong casters again after physical bruisers have taken a sudden dominance of the game. It's worth noting that at this point, any demons that can rank up via Element fusion are ridiculously cheap and easy to make that way and it's likely how we'll be getting most of our demons who have the option. Getting good passives into those fusions does require a little more attention to detail, but by now the catalyst cost for creating an Element is nothing and it doesn't take much more money to get fusion fodder with the skills you want. Skills Available Null Ice (Passive): If you need to nullify Ice attacks, here you go. That being said, Ice attacks are weirdly uncommon in this game, at least in the context of being used against you, so this isn't exactly super critical compared to other resistances. Anti-Most (Passive): Anti-Most has obvious consolidation value. Why make yourself resistant or immune to one Element when you can be resistant to almost all of them? True it's not the absolute best damage mitigation, but it definitely gets you the most bang for your buck when dedicating a passive slot. Combine it with Null Phys or better and you've got an absolute tank of a unit on your hands. Dual Shadow (Passive): An interesting passive, Dual Shadow gives you a 25% chance to repeat the action you just took, be it attacking physically, magically or even healing. The follow up strike does have the same HP/MP cost of the initial strike, so it is possible to not be able to launch an extra attack if the Dual Shadow user is already on empty. Right now I wouldn't really recommend it, because while it does technically double your damage, it only does so rarely. Later in the game, we'll have a specific team build that makes this skill ridiculously powerful, but for now it'll just be gathering dust in the skill pool. Revive (Auto): If you have any dead demons at the start of a fight, this triggers and revives them with a relatively weak Recarm spell. This skill is mostly intended for tankier builds, and the game helpfully demonstrates what you'd want to use this for: a team with bulky demons that have Endure and Paladin Soul. This does falter against multi targeting attacks, but in your hands the build can be functionally immortal against single target attacks so long as you have the MP to keep activating Revive. I'm not a huge fan of it, but maybe you'll like it. Null Phys (Passive): One of the more important resistance passives. Physical attacks are very scary at this point in the game and they only become scarier going into Day 7 and 8. This walls them out in any situation where you don't see Pierce in the skill list, and it combos great with Anti-Most. This skill is why a minimum of 12 ST is desirable, as it'll cover you against physical attacks in 95% of the combat situations in this game. Ban Phys (Auto): The other Ban skill aside from Curse that's actually worth a drat. As I said, Physical attacks get nasty at this point and being able to prevent even just one of them being thrown your way has at least some situational strategic use. Just be mindful, as this does also work against your own team until the Ban is triggered.
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Oct 28, 2023 14:04
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CullenDaGaDee posted:
And then there's Evil Flow not caring at all about the range Viles (even those with Chaos Breath) have in the sequel.
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Oct 28, 2023 20:31
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I'm mostly trying to avoid mentioning how demons function in the sequel, since obviously that's of no help in this game, but yeah Dragons got a serious glow up in 2. Not only do they have far more potent demons at their disposal, Evil Flow just lets you nuke anything from well beyond their effective range with Amp'd Multi-Strikes or Yin boosted Megidos.
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Oct 28, 2023 20:46
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Demon Race: Divine        *Sraosha is exclusive to Overclocked **Remiel is a special Fusion, and must be unlocked by clearing the final battle of Yuzu's Day 7, or the first battle of Naoya/Kaido's Day 7 ***Metatron is a special Fusion, and must be unlocked by either clearing Amane's Day 7 or Naoya/Kaido's Day 8 A race of demons whose main draw is supporting casters yet themselves tend to be sub optimal casters. In all seriousness, Divines are a demon type I feel like should be awesome but I seldom ever use them. For the most part, they tend to be good but not great on the stats side of things, and rarely do they bring unique or interesting skills to the table. The big problem for a lot of the game is that almost none of them can be bought from the auction hall, and they need to be fused off of demons who are usually more specialized and effective in combat. When it comes to magic they tend to underperform when stacked against Faeries or Megamis, and when it comes to physicals they're usually outclassed by Genmas, Snakes or Toukis. When it comes to MP sustain, Tyrants usually offer a much greater degree of support in that area. Obviously good fusion inheritance can offset their inherent problems, but it just requires a degree of meticulousness with fusing that I seldom bother with since it's far from necessary or even useful. That said, they do get quite the effectiveness bump come the late game, with Sraosha having great MA and Prayer access, and Remiel and Metatron being outright designed to be some of the best demons in the game. Earlier than that, Lailah is perfectly serviceable as a multi-target nuker, and Kazfiel has well rounded stats that let him function in most any role. If you're willing to invest the funds into making strong Divines, there is certainly a pay off there, but I've just never been a fan of these and usually ignore them until New Game +. Blood Wine is the Divine Race skill and the primary reason you'd use them. This is a command skill that, in exchange for about 20% of the demon's HP, will restore the MP of a team by about 12%. That's not a terrible trade, and using it every turn will likely allow you to kill everything you come across well before running out of MP becomes a concern. There does need to be some healing support to keep this one going, both in order to use it and in order to make sure the Divine doesn't waxed on defense, but Blood Wine is by far the most consistent and easy to utilize form of MP sustain. Tyranny can falter if your damage output isn't there, and Sacrifice requires that you make Uber Fallens to utilize without sandbagging, but Blood Wine is a simple fire-and-forget MP restore that can be put onto any and every team due to most Divines not being Unique.
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Oct 28, 2023 20:48
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