STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY BATTLE SKILL/TALENT FAQ Version 2.7 Written By: Aya Brea i_love_aya@hotmail.com This is very similar to my SaGa Frontier Skill FAQ. Yes there are awfully many FAQs written for this game but I felt that none of them explain all the battle skills in detail (until recently) and especially Talents so here it is. (This is still incomplete though.) (Note: Again, no walkthroughs nor lists.) CONTENTS (More sections might be included later) - Revision - Credits - About me - Introduction - Star Ocean: The Second Story - Starting the game - Status - Combat - Battle strategy - Formations - Elemental effects - Affection - Killer Moves - Link Combo - Magic/Heraldry arts - Spell absorb - Spell cancel - Spell reflect *NEW* - Characters - Claude Kenni *MOSTLY COMPLETE* - Rena Lanford *COMPLETE* - Celine Jules *PARTIALLY COMPLETE* - Ashton Anchors *PARTIALLY COMPLETE* - Precis Neumann *PARTIALLY COMPLETE* - Opera Vectra *COMPLETE* - Ernest Raviede *MOSTLY COMPLETE* - Bowman Jean *COMPLETE* - Leon Geeste *COMPLETE* - Dias Flac *UNDER CONSTRUCTION* - Noel Chandler *COMPLETE* - Chisato Madison *COMPLETE* - Tips - Talents - Acquiring new talents - Preparation - Putting it in action - Those impossible talents - Talent traits - The ugly side of the game! - #1 The bugs - #2 Item Creation - #3 The AI REVISION ======== V1.0 – 02/Aug/99 - Started writing this FAQ. V1.2 – 25/Aug/99 - Quit the damn Galaxy mode since it's no fun. Done all of the basic parts and written part of Claude, Rena, Ashton, Celine and Precis' section. V2.0 – 06/Sep/99 - Done all character's overviews except for Noel's. Some spell and KM descriptions are in. - Added the "Talent" section - Added "The Ugly Side of the Game" section - Added the "Cancel Ability" and "Link Combo Ideas" for most characters V2.5 – 18/Feb/00 - Do an update just to show you that I'm not dead and neither have I abandoned this project. It's just coming along slowly. There should be one more update before my copy of Vandal Hearts 2 and SaGa Frontier 2 arrives. - Filled in more KMs for Claude, Ashton, Opera and Precis, some spells from Rena and Celine too. - Fixed a LOT of typos - Derived the equation for the healing spells - Listed many MANY more bugs! - New tips section - Noel's overview - Some character's initial stats V2.6 – 12/Jan/01 - Hey guys, didja miss me? Been almost a year since my last update so here's another one. Filled in more KMs for Precis, Opera and Bowman, more spells for Leon and Rena as well. They're not completed yet as I have yet to raise their Proficiency, but they'll be in shortly. - Fixed a LOT of typos and changed some format to make it more readable - Updated Sixth Sense talent acquisition - 2 bug fixers are in - Bits here and there, and there, and oh, and ah missed a spot. Basically a bit of everything. - An extra tip. More comin' up, when I remember them. V2.7 – 20/Jan/01 - Completed Rena, Bowman, Leon, Opera, Chisato, Noel's sections. Almost completed Ernest and Claude's sections. Don't expect the next update in quite a while though, because I need a rest away from the game. - More bugs - More on Spell Absorption and Reflection - Bits here and there etc. - Added a set of AI priorities for Rena's actions CREDITS ======= * Enix and Tri-Ace for making this extraordinary game! * Links for the wonderful FMVs. * SCEA for porting it over. * Ian Kelley for his fantastic FAQ on the Japanese version of the game. BTW, his translations are, more often than not, better than the official translation. I'll take his script over the official one any day! * Ex-Death for helping me to get Precis' Mechinery Killer Moves, as well as his fabulous guides. * Shewin Tam for his most excellent guides, especially the "In-Depth Tips & Tricks" FAQ. * GameFaqs for being the best gaming site on the web. It's the only other site I check everyday. * Happy Matt for telling me about this game aeons before most people even knows about this game. Also thanks for helping me in various places in the game, giving me helpful tips and being a great friend! :-) (Have fun with your new games, hehe..) * FeralNoa who has shared MANY strategies, tips, bugs and other weird stuff with me, not just for this game but for many other games as well. Thanks! * for info on learning Sixth Sense * for info on Sixth Sense ABOUT ME ======== Like I said in my SF FAQ, I am a guy so don't call me "girlfriend" or something like that OK? Aya is awesome! Anyway, I live in New Zealand. I'm 17 now and am currently doing a Commerce degree in university, and yes I am 2 years ahead of my time but don't take me for a geek though. I'm only doin' this so I can graduate sooner and get it over with. (I HATE school/university!) I love RPGs but I have a very high standard in them, and Star Ocean 2 was one of the few RPGs that really impressed me and got me hooked on for god knows how long! (Geez, even Lunar failed my expectations.) My ICQ # is 15185682 and you're welcome to have a chat with me sometime, I'm usually free when I'm online. INTRODUCTION ============ Welcome to my in-depth Star Ocean: The Second Story Battle Skills FAQ. In this guide I will evaluate every single Killer Move and spell in the game in detail, how they change and where it's best used for. Also in the guide are the Skills you can learn in this game and hear my advice on them. Of course, no guides will be complete without discussing the abilities of the playable characters. And finally my tips, tricks, tactics and notes on various aspects of this game such as Item Creation, talents, glitches and lotsa miscellaneous stuff. Enjoy! (Well, that was then. I don't know if I'd include sections on skills and Item Creations but we'll have to wait and see.) Yes it's rather incomplete at the moment since I'm not too fond of that game right now, but I really want to complete this guide just for the sake of it. Note, it is assumed that you know the basic controls of this game, and I won't explain the menus like I did in my SaGa Frontier FAQ since they're self-explainable. STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY ============================ It seems that a lot of people didn't even know that this game is actually the second Star Ocean game, hence "The Second Story". (I'd refer to it as SO2 in my FAQ.) Released sometime late last year in Japan and was ported over to the US shore by the brilliant SCEA. Although the translation could use a little more work, it isn't nearly as bad as Final Fantasy Tactics, at least they got everyone's names right and no more of those stupid "bracelets". The game features a mixed setting, clichθd but somewhat interesting characters, a poor story and an awfully addicting battle system. Unlike most other RPGs, SO2 has its own fairly unique features, such as Private Actions, the "affection" system, the skill system, gaining Proficiency, Link Combos, the extremely innovative but poorly implemented Item Creation system and the 80+ bits of endings to keep you strolling back for more. Of course, nothing is perfect and this game is miles away, see what I mean under "The Ugly Side of the Game" section. ;) STARTING THE GAME ================= Upon starting a new game, you'll be prompt with a number of options, such as sound output, battle mode, vibration and then you get too choose from one of two possible characters to play through the game with: either Claude Kenni or Rena Lanford. If you're starting your third game and you have heard enough voice samples (ie, getting the empty spaces in your voice collection filled) then you may choose your difficulty setting. There are 3 settings: Earth, Galaxy and Universe. Earth is standard, Galaxy is hard where the enemies have more HP, attack power and are slightly smarter, Universe is for the extreme experts where the enemies gets a boost on ALL their stats and are REALLY smart. I'm currently playing the Galaxy mode and I must admit that it's VERY hard already, since your ally AI is so crappy, you basically have to take control of 3 out of 4 characters in able to win! Universe is possibly impossible! My comments: If this is your first game, I highly recommend that you choose Claude over Rena, even though parts of his game are slightly more difficult. When I played through Rena's quest on my second game, I thought her story was terrible, it was basically a watered down version of Claude's. She had less cut scenes to view, less story advancement and some cut scenes were irrelevant to her story. If you play her quest first, chances are you'll have no clue of what's going on. Yes this is a double scenario game (meaning the story remains mostly unchanged but are viewed through the eyes of 2 different characters, like that of RE2), but the attempt is only average. My comments #2: Remember that I do NOT recommend the harder Galaxy and Universe modes. They're THAT hard!!! Unless you're EXTREMELY patient or you can reprogram the game, I don't even suggest that you should give it a try. Just think why you bought this game for. To have fun right, not frustration! If somehow you played these modes and lived through it, good on you! ---Sound system--- Star Ocean 2 is the first RPG I've played that implements 3 different sound output systems (ordered form worst to best): - Monoaural - Stereo - Surround If you have 5 or more speakers, I highly suggest that you choose Surround sound. I'm not into this kinda stuff but you might. Stereo is ok for 2 speakers and Mono if you only have 1 speaker. ---Combat mode--- The back of the SO2 box says the game "features 3 battle modes", which might sound good at first, but there's actually only 2 since Semi-Active is just a mixture of the 2 with no new features, and they don't differ all that much. (Now if the game lets you fight turn- based battles, then that's REALLY something, although not very realistic in this game.) What's even more misleading about that statement is that you can actually mix-and-match the different features of each mode to create what really suits you! The 3 "different" modes are: | Manual | Semi-Active | Active -----------+---------------+-------------------+--------------------- Target | Manual | Semi-Auto | Full-Auto Camera | Normal | Leader centered | Leader Centered Movement | [] + D-pad | [] + D-pad | D-pad only Of course, Active battle is the most fun, although the AI gives you little target control, it'll usually target the closest enemy. (In battle, a green arrow will point at your current target.) If you want target control then change the Targeting mode to "Manual" or "Semi- Auto", but beware, time won't stop when you're choosing your targets! The camera options don't seem to be very different from one another, as both controls the camera terribly! However, DON'T use "Leader centered", because every time after someone casts a spell, the camera will drift away and you'll be unable to control your character effectively. This happens 99% of the time in "Leader centered", although "Normal" will sometimes do so as well. I think we can all agree on the fact that controlling your character with the D-pad (or left stick) only is much more convenient. STATUS ====== There are many statistics in SO2, but unlike most other games, they're quite confusing, so here's a summary of what each statistics does. Note, most stats will increase at level ups, and certain equipment can increase certain stats: HP: Hit Points, the most well known feature of any RPG. Your HP level decrease as you get hit by the enemies and when it drops to zero, your character faints and is unable to participate in combat. Parts of your current HP can be recovered naturally depending on your Stamina level. MP: Magic Points, but are not always used to cast magic spells, usable for fighter's Killer Moves as well. Every time you use a Killer Move or cast a spell, your current MP will decrease by the MP cost of that skill. Once your MP reached zero or below the required level to use that skill, you'll no longer be able to use that Killer Move or spell. Like HP, MP can also be recovered automatically after a battle according to your Stamina level. STR: Strength, affects the ATT (attack power). The higher this stat is, the more damage you'll do in your attack. Also affects the power of most fighters' Killer Moves. CON: Constitution, affects the AC (defence). You'll take less damage if you have high CON. DEX: Dexterity, affects the HIT (accuracy or hit rate). Measures how often you can successfully hit an enemy, very useful later in the game. AGI: Agility, affects the AVD (evade). Characters with higher AGI can dodge attacks more often than characters with lower AGI. INT: Intelligence, affects the MAG (magic power). A magic user will be able to deal more damage with their spells with high INT. Interestingly, all characters (even magic users) joins you with their INT at zero! LUC: Luck, affects a little bit of everything, or nothing at all. Luck can raise your hit rates or evade rates, how often Guts appears and the success of Item Creations minimally. Don't worry too much about it. STM: Stamina. IMO, the most useful statistic for any character. This determines how much HP and MP a character can recover after a fight. With high STM, a character can recover more HP/MP than they've used in battle! However, recovery is also affected by your actions in combat. Attacking, moving, casting spells will all waste energy, meaning your character will recover less as they take more actions in battle. GUTS: Guts and will-power of a character, this has a few effects. 1) The first is the DEATHBLOW EFFECT. When a character attacks an enemy, "GUTS" will sometimes appear above the character and they'll do MUCH more damage (usually twice as much!), and I think this can work with certain Combat Skills to a greater effect! It's even compatible with Killer Moves, making them much more powerful! 2) The opposite, ADVANCED GUARD EFFECT. When a character is hit, "GUTS" appear over their heads and they'll take slightly less damage. Enemies can achieve this effect too and it also applied to magical spells. 3) When a character's health is low and receives an attack that would usually knock them unconscious, "GUTS" appears and the character will stay at 1HP, sorta like that of BOF3 but this effect is quite rare until later. The below stats are not the natural stats of a character but are related to it: ATT: Attack Power, this is the combined value of a character's STR and the equipped weapon's power. Most important stat for fighters, as both their normal attacks and most Killer Moves are proportional to this value. Less useful for magic users. AC: Armor Class/Defense Power, this is the combined value of a character's CON and every single piece of equipped armor's defense power. Useful for all characters but becomes sort of irrelevant in the later levels of the Trial Cave. HIT: Accuracy/Hit Rate, basically the character's DEX value, but most weapons will give a bonus to this stat. Useful for fighters mainly, especially later in the game where the enemies blocks your hits like crazy. AVD: Evade/Avoid, the AGI value plus any AVD bonus from armors. More important than AC in the Trail Cave since most attacks can kill you in one hit regardless of your AC. You can avoid 90% of the hits if you have a high AVD and mastered the Parry Combat Skill. MAG: The magic power of your character, just the INT value of any character plus any MAG bonus associated with your armor or weapon. Quite useful for any magic user but are useless for all fighters. However, some of my fighters have a MAG level (well, INT actually, but they're the same thing) that rivals a good mage like Rena!!! I don't think this affects magic resistance, since all spells are elemental, equipping elemental defence items will reduce the damage taken from spells. CRT: Critical. Not a real stat (ie, cannot be found in your status screen) but many equipment have a CRT bonus. The chance of a critical blow (different to that caused by GUTS) increases with this, where your's attack makes a loud noise, makes the screen flash (slightly), does more damage (not as much as GUTS though) and instantly Peeps the enemy. COMBAT ====== Like most RPGs, combat takes place randomly when you're walking around in a dungeon or on the world map. When a fight occurs, the screen will flash and you will be zapped to a new screen. Combat takes place in a semi-3D environment, where you're given an angled side-view. Your fighting party (ie, first 4 party members) will usually be on the right side of the battle field in their current formation, while the enemies will usually be on the left. The battle is fought in real time and you can move in every direction but can only attack enemies when you're facing left or right, kinda like the classic side-scrolling games like Final Fight. You can control one character at a time (default is the first character) while your other characters will be controlled by the AI. Although this seems to play like an action game like Secrets of Mana, it's actually very different. For example, you can press the X button to do a regular slash, which in action games will make your character swing his weapon right where he is. However, in SO2, your character will move close to the targeted enemy so they're in your character's attacking range before making their strike. So if you press the X button at full screen length, you'll character will actually run across the screen to attack them, which is quite troublesome as the enemy can launch their attack before you can get close to them and nail you just when you're about to hit them. And if the enemy moves or runs away, your character will actually chase after them *UNCONTROLLABLY*, since once you press the button to attack there's no way of cancelling the action but you'll regain control if you get hit or you hit the enemy (or if you miss). In a way, the attacking system is very similar to Tales of Destiny/Phantasia. If the target enemy is airborne, your character will use their air attack. Most characters' air attack is a jump and attack in the peak of their jump, which gives you even less control! The targeting system is very similar when using Killer Moves for your fighters. On the bottom-left corner of the screen is the "range indicator", which marks the distance between the character you're controlling and the target enemy (I use Auto, so I don't know what happens in Manual). Pressing the L1 or R1 button will allow you to execute the Killer Move assigned to that button, and depending on your range (Long or Short), you'll execute the Long or Short range version of the Killer Move. (Some Killer Moves has only one version though.) Most Killer Moves have an execution point, which means that you must be exactly that far away from the target to execute the Killer Move. Again, if you're too far away from the execution point (regardless of whether you're right next to the opponent or at full screen length), you'll have to spend some time running to the desired distance. If the target moves or run away, you'll again loose control of your character as he/she chases after the enemy. Few Killer Moves can be executed at any place on the screen, take advantage of these. Note however, standing away from the enemy is not the only way to register a long range. You maybe also knock them high into the air, it's possible through the Float Combat skill combined with Strong Blow, some Killer Move can launch an enemy into the air and enemies will fall from the air at the beginning of the battle during a "surround attack". Of course, it's not very a good idea to control just one character, so you might want to swap characters when the AI slacks or someone is standing around idled. By pressing the O button, the time will freeze and you'll see a cursor above the character you're currently controlling, press left or right on the D-pad (or the analogue stick) will allow you to swap characters, press the O button again on the desired character to resume combat. This is also a good feature to use when you want to pause the fight or just get a better view of the surroundings without wasting combat time. Once you've changed your character, the L2 button will be available to switch between that character and the default character quickly. If you change characters again with the O button, the L2 button will exchange control between the default character and the character that you've switched to last. After the battle is over, the controlled character will revert back to default. Pressing the R2 button will put the character into Manual mode. In Manual mode, the AI will not control the character if you switched characters, so in other words, they'll just stand there waiting to get killed if you switched characters. I don't see what good this is for, unless you're resting or something (but then again, I wish you had more control over the camera angles.) There's an hourglass to the upper left corner, it indicates whether you'll be able to enter commands for the character currently under your control at a particular time interval. When it's blue it means you can control the character freely but if it's red then it means that your character is in the middle of another action, is moving, recovering from an attack or other frames of animation that makes them "occupied". This is not too important. Regular attacks and Killer Moves are not the only actions you can do in combat. By pressing the triangle, you'll be able to access the ring menu of your current character (which is similar to the spell menus in Secrets of Mana). There are 4 options: Magic/Heraldry (magic users only), Item, Tactics and Run. BTW, time is paused when you're selecting form the menu so don't be afraid to take your time. ---Magic/Heraldry--- Equivalent to the fighter's Killer Moves, mage can cast spells. Select Magic/Heraldry will give you the list of magic available for your magic user to cast, press the X button will allow you to cast the desired spell. Any spell name in grey cannot be used due to insufficient MP. Unlike the Killer Moves, you can cast a spell anywhere on the battle field, but a spell has a casting time associated with it. All spells will take sometime before it is executed Usually the more powerful a spell is, the longer it takes to cast. Beware, your magician is very vulnerable during this time since they cannot move, and if they take any damage, their concentration is ruined and the spell dissolves. Try to protect the magic user when they're casting spells or move them out of the way. You can also "absorb" spells by having 2 characters casting a spell at the exact time. The effects varies depending on the elemental of the spells combined, explained below. After the spell takes effect, an orange bar appears near the magician and starts to deplete. During this time, the magician must recover their mental strength and is unable to cast another spell. However, they can still move, and once the orange bar disappears, they'll once again be able to use magic. Fighter will have a red cross over their Magic menu because they can't cast spells. ---Item--- This is simple enough, to use a usable item during battle. Selecting this will give you the list of items in your inventory. IMO, this is rather badly done, as items both usable and unusable in battle will appear in the list. Items that cannot be used in battle are in grey. Sort your items by "combat" (double swords) will help out a lot. After using an item however, it gets more complicated. Similar to spell recovery, you'll be unable to use an item for a short period of time. (Reason?) If you look to the top of the screen to the right of your character's stats, you'll see a vertical green bar with the word "Item" down the bottom. If the bar says "OK" then items are usable during that time. When an item is used, the bar will turn purple and will begin to deplete, while the green will begin to recover. Until the bar turns back into green and the word "OK" appears again, your Item menu will be sealed (by a red cross over it). ---Tactics--- Changes your character's strategy during battle, similar to the menu. Explained below. ---Run--- Try to escape from the battle. This will put all characters who are not currently attacking/casting spells into their running animation (the characters who are occupied will finished what they're doing before trying to run.) While in the running animation, they'll be uncontrollable and will stay that way until they ran away or gets killed. IMO, SO2 has the worst "escape system" (yes even worse than Parasite Eve or Wild Arms) so my advice is to never use this option unless you're in the beginning of the game. You'll most likely to get a "GAME OVER" if you try to run later in the game or (especially) in the Trial Caves. You'd be better off using a Skanda to warp you out (duplicate lots and lots of those!!) or use a Dummy Doll to distract the enemies as you run. ---Negative Status Ailments--- As of any RPG, bad status ailments are unavoidable. There ain't that many of them in this game but the ones it does have are deadly. * POISON Like most RPGs, Poison is the mildest status. Your HP drops every few seconds. This will not disappear after battle, not even if you stay at an inn! You must cure it through the use of spells or items. On the field, you'll loose a bit of HP for every few steps you take. Sample cures: Cure Poison, Aquaberry, Spring Water; Antidote and Dispel spells. * PARALYZE The character is unable to do anything, so they're frozen in one place. He/she cannot take damage while Paralyzed. A Paralyzed character will not gain any experience points after battle. Like Poison, this status cannot be recovered even by staying at an inn. Sample cures: Cure Paralyze, Spring Water; Dispel spell. * STONE Also known as Petrify. Someone's too lazy to think up a new status effect so this is basically exactly the same as Paralyze. You cannot act but you won't continue to take damage so it's slightly better. A Stoned character will gain no experience after a battle and cannot be cured by staying at an inn. Sample cures: Cure Stone, Spring Water; Dispel spell. * FAINT Not a real status, but it's in the manual. The character is basically dead, unable to act or move. This happens when a character's HP drops to zero, as well as the effect of a few rare instant-death attacks. This CAN be recovered by staying at an inn. Sample cures: Resurrection Bottle, Resurrection Mist, Smelling Salt, Revival Card; Raise Dead spell. The following status ain't real ones, they're not in the manual, but I thought they're worth mentioning. * PEEP The game calls this status "Peeping" but it's commonly known as Dizzy or something like that. A Dizzied character will not be able to act nor move for a short period of time, making them very vulnerable. A character will become Dizzy when they got strut by a critical blow or is constantly taking hits. You can knock an enemy Dizzy as well, the higher your CRT the easier it is. Characters with multiple-hit Killer Moves can take advantage of this as well. You can also cast some spells to Peep an enemy, or use an item. The last way is through a successful hit with any weapons that produce stars when swung, such as Claude's Eternal Sphere or by wearing the Angel's Armband. Sample cures: None, but this will be recovered after a certain period of time, however, the enemy can Peep you again (since you're defenceless during Peeping time) to extend the Peeping time. Note: The accessories Peep Non and Peep Half will resist Peeping. * BERSERK When one of your party members gets knocked out in battle, there's a chance that another character will get angry. An berserk character will gain a huge status boost to all his/her stats and starts doing double damage to the enemies. The chance of triggering this is random but if the character who falls has a good friendship or passion with another character, chances of getting angered will be increased. It's kinda hard to spot a character who turned angry. However, if they calls out the name of the fallen member or shouts something like "You'll pay for this!" then it's a sign that someone has achieved Berserk. The bersek character will turn red for a second then immediately returns back to normal. The angered character will remain Berserk for the rest of the battle, even if the fallen member is revived, but the effect *may* wear off if they fall unconscious themselves. (I don't know.) I've tested this with magic users like Celine and found that the character's magic strength won't increase very much at all. Celine's Energy Arrow was doing around 500 damage and it increased to ~530 when she's in Berserk, where as her normal attack does around 50 points gets increased to ~100 when angered! Also, other stats like DEX and AGL will be increased too. So it's much more useful if the Berserk character is a fighter. * FROZEN This is the effect of the Deep Freeze spell. A Frozen character is basically immobile and cannot take any actions for a small period of time. I have encountered this once when I was fighting against Zand. Sample cures: Not too sure. Either no way, a fire spell or Neutral. * SILENCE A Silenced character cannot cast spells. If they try to they'll charge up for it but a message pops up saying you cannot cast spell when you execute it. This is most often the effect of enemy magic, but your magician characters can use this to their advantage. Note non-magic users can get Silenced but it won't do anything since they can't cast spells anyway. Sample cures: I think the Neutral spell can cures this, but chances are, it'll be the character with the Neutral spell who gets Silenced. I don't know of any other way to cure this. * OTHER Like Silence, there are a variety of spells that causes negative effects (like Delay, Deep Mist etc.) which I assume, can also be cured by Neutral, but the fact is that the enemy NEVER uses those spells so no worries. I personally have never seen the enemy cast any status spells but Silence (and Delay). BATTLE STRETAGY =============== The AI will control a character a certain way according to the tactic if give them. There are 3 sets of different strategies: ---Fighters--- Fighters are your main offense, they should dispatch the enemies quickly before the enemies gets to the mages. Always have at least 2 fighters in your team! - Attack with all MP! - Protect friends! - Conserve Killer Moves! - Spread out and attack! - Stay away from enemy! - Do nothing! Comments: - Unless I was in the very early part of the game, I always set every one of my fighter's strategies to "Attack with all MP!" Why? Because their MP would regenerate with their Stamina (and equip the Fairy Ring so they use less MP) also you'll gain quite a bit of Proficiency by doing so. Also, Blackberries are cheap so you really won't loose anything if you choose this option. - "Protect friends!" is a good one to set one of your fighter to later in the game (especially in the Trial Caves) to protect Rena or any other magic user. Basically, use this for some of your characters in tougher areas. - "Conserve Killer Moves!" is good for earlier in the game where your Stamina is too low to be any good, but beware, the fighters tends to be very aggressive and forgets about defense with this at times. - "Spread out and attack!" will make your fighter attack the enemies who are not currently being attacked by another character, while generally a bad idea to get separated, it's quite good if you want the AI characters to target those annoying mages in the back row. - "Stay away from the enemy!" should only be used during "Time attack" battles when you're trying to last a full minute, otherwise, fairly useless. - Choosing this strategy is the same as pressing the R2 button which sets the character to "Manual". ---Rena--- Being the primary healer of the party, Rena has her own strategy! - Recover friends only! - Aid friends! - Aid self only! - Cast no spells! - Put self into attack! - Do nothing! Comments: - "Recover friends only!" is great for extremely tough fights and the lower levels of the Trial Caves, where you need her to cast Fairy Light constantly! Use it when you cannot afford for her to cast anything else but make sure that she's protected! In this mode, Rena will only cast healing and curing spells. Don't know about status-up spells since I seal them immediately. - "Aid friends!" is the all round strategy for Rena IMO. She will heal all allies as a first priority, and in her spare time she will try to aid allies with either stats-ups/downs or attack spells. Very important that you should seal her stats spells or she'll cast them constantly and waste her MP. Don't worry about her attack spells though, as they're actually quite useful. A weird thing about this is that if Rena runs out of MP, she'll start attacking physically! - "Aid self only!" is an extremely selfish command, I never use it, nor do I see any reason to. - "Cast no spells!" is another rather stupid (and dangerous) option, she will never cast a spell and stands around like a fool. If you want her to conserve MP, put her in "Recover friends only!" and seal away all the spells you don't want her to cast! - "Put self into attack!" is actually fairly good earlier in the game, as Rena is quite a decent attacker for a mage, and she might even do more damage than Claude!! (She did in my game!) A bit dangerous later in the game though. One thing of note, she will never cast a spell in this mode! Again, she'll be very aggressive and tends to forget about defense. - "Do nothing!" is useless. ---Magic users--- The advantage of magic users is that most of their better spells can hit multiple/all enemies. Make sure they're in the back row and protected! - Attack till all MP are gone! - Conserve MP! - Attack fleeing enemy! - Use no Heraldic spells! - Throw own body into attack! - Do nothing! Comments: - "Attack till all MP are gone!" should be the one to use, for similar reasons as fighters (MP refilled after battle, Proficiency). But it can get annoying with the camera constantly changing, maybe the best solution is to not have a mage at all. Anyway, this is the way to go if you like mages. - "Conserve MP!" is good for Celine earlier on, as some of her better spells (Ray, Starlight etc) drains her MP like crazy. Might also be good if you want a magic user in your party but don't want their spells to confuse you constantly. - "Attack fleeing enemy!" very good for attacking those hated mages in the back row, but since most of your mages spells are all- targeted, it doesn't make too much of a difference. Now the question remains is not whether you'll pull off a spell, but it's more like whether you'll be able to pull off a spell before the enemies! It's not much use if Celine's casting Explode that takes forever while the enemy casts Light Cross constantly! I found that to control the mage manually to be more effective. - "Throw own body into attack!" is a very dangerous option, avoid avoid! Attack magicians have lousy attacks, bad range/speed and running all the way into the midst of a battle could only mean suicide since their defense is terrible. Even standing around doing nothing is more favourable! - "Do nothing" is again useless. FORMATIONS ========== Like each character's strategy, your party's formation is also very important. There are 13 formations is this game and most of them has some use. (I'm not very good at Ascii art, so excuse me if they look terrible.) Linear Motion ------------------- | 4| Comments: | | Functional and standard, but your | 3| characters start too far away. Maybe | | ok if you want to stay defensive but | 2| there are better formations. | | | 1| ------------------- Square Shift 1 Square Shift 2 ------------------- ------------------- | | | 2 4| Comments: | 2 4| | | Good if you have 2 mages | | | | and 2 fighters. The mages | | | | are safe at the back, but | | | | it takes time for the | 1 3| | | fighters to get back to | | | 1 3| the mages if they are ------------------- ------------------- attacked. Tri-Shift 1 Tri-Shift 2 ------------------- ------------------- | | | | Comments: | 3 | | 3 | Good for 3 fighter and a | | | | mage party. #1 is you want | 1 4| | 1 4 | to protect your mage and | | | | #2 is you want to get to | 2 | | 2 | the enemies quicker. | | | | ------------------- ------------------- Free-for-all ------------------- | | | 2 4 | Comments: | | Not very good as your party is spread apart. | | Unless you have 4 fighters and they all have to | | be fairly strong. Put the long range characters | 1 3 | like Opera at the back. | | ------------------- Upper Guard Lower Guard ------------------- ------------------- | 3 4| | | Comments: | 2 | | | Both are basically the | 1 | | | same. It's defensive and | | | | good for harder dungeons | | | 1 | where you're constantly | | | 2 | outnumbered and over- | | | 3 4| powered. ------------------- ------------------- Astral Shift ------------------- | | | 3 | | | Comments: | 1 4 | I can't really see a use for this other than | | being pretty. The Tri-Shifts are better, unless | 2 | you have 3 mages or something. | | ------------------- Escape Shift Assault Shift ------------------- ------------------- | | | | Comments: | | | | You're bunched together | | | 3 | in both. The former if you | | | 1 4 | have to escape a lot, the | | | 2 | latter if you have 4 | 24| | | fighters and want to kill | 13| | | off the enemies quickly. ------------------- ------------------- Upper Caution Lower Caution ------------------- ------------------- | 2 4| | | | 3| | | Comments: | 1 | | | A variation of the Upper | | | | and Lower Guard with | | | 1 | similar effects. | | | 3| | | | 2 4| ------------------- ------------------- Note: The numbers represents the position of the character in your fighting party. Eg, if Claude is in your first slot, he'll occupy position 1. You cannot change which number occupies which space in the formation, but you can change the position of your characters via Replacement. ELEMENTAL EFFECTS ================= The manual for this game seems to be quite detailed, however, they didn't even mention a word about elemental effects! Like most RPGs, SO2 also utilizes the different forces of nature, commonly known as elemental effects. There are 10 (!!) different elements in SO2, although some of them are very confusing. Understanding them would help you greatly in this game. The first 2 letters inside the parenthesis are used by the game in battles (when you check the enemy's stats), the second note is the symbol for that element used in the menus. * Earth (Et, denoted by a brown cube) – Utilizes the forces of the ground, causing earthquakes or cave- ins to damage the target. Useless against flying/airborne enemies. * Water (Wt, denoted by a water droplet) – Utilizes various forms of water, from icicles to tidal waves, to freeze or drown the target. Useful against fire enemies. * Fire (Fr, denoted by fire) – Utilizes the power of heat and fiery explosions to scorch and burn enemies. IMO, the most useful out of all the elements. * Wind (Wd, denoted by a cloud) – Utilizes the forceful power of wind, forming whirlwinds and tonados around the enemies. * Thunder (Th, denoted by a lightning bolt) – Utilizes the power of thunder and lightning to shock the targets. * Star (St, denoted by a 5-pointed star) – Controls the mysterious extraterrestrial forces which falls from above to crush the enemies. * Vacuum (Vc, denoted by a star-studded vortex) – Has the power to extract and consume life energy from living beings, also known as "Negative energy." * Light (Lg, denoted by a yellow sphere with a smiley face) – Has the power over high intensity light that conquers evil. * Dark (Dk, denoted by a black sphere with red "eyes") – Manipulates the power of shadows and darkness that creeps up to an unsuspecting victim. * Void (Vd, denoted by a white cube) – Has the power to control the extra-dimensional-density, which can summon demons from another plane or crush its target with gravitational energy. Everyone in your party can be affected by one or more of the attributes, your overall elemental attribute can be viewed by pressing the Square button on their status menu. All symbols in grey suggests that a particular element does not apply for your character. The first row is used for your weapon, your normal attacks will do whatever type of elemental damage shown here. If you have none, then you'll do neutral or non-elemental damage. The second row is your elemental defense, you're not protected against any symbols that are in grey. Unlike weapon, you can have negative attributes too, denoted by a "-" next to the element. A character that has a negative defensive attribute is said to be weak again that type of element and will take more damage against that those types of attacks. Likewise, a "+" next to an element makes you strong against it, which may reduce the damage you take against that type of attack to half, nothing or even let you absorb it! ---Elemental defense--- Everyone will have neutral overall attributes naturally. Certain equipment will give you an attribute when equipped. Equip carefully though, if any equipment has a weakness, put something on that makes you strong against that element to negate the effect. Interestingly, if you put a positive elemental defense over a negative one, your overall attribute against that element will stay positive! Usually, 1 positive elemental defense makes you take half damage against that element, two of them will negate any damage taken and 3 or more of them will let your character absorb it instead. However, some equipment does not obey this rule, like the Angel's Armband, which will always absorb Star attacks no matter what. Most equipment has a "Element Resistance Ratio" which reduces a percentage of the damage taken, eg, 30%. If the culmulative bonuses adds to 100%, you will take no damage. Damage will be absorbed above 100%. The game does NOT tell you each piece of equipment's ratio though, which is really annoying! Elemental defense becomes increasingly more important as you progress through the game. Enemies later in the game will cast insanely powerful elemental spells which can wreck havoc on any party without protection. ---Elemental attacks--- Elemental attacks are less important, as a matter of fact, most of them are a hindrance since enemies later in the game will have multiple elemental defense attributes. This can be solved by equipping only non-elemental weapons. All damage-dealing spells in the game are elemental based, as well as some other support spells. Also, every fighter has a few elemental based Killer Moves as well. Try matching an elemental attack with the weakness the enemy. You can view the elemental attribute of any enemy by using a Spectacle on them. However, you can usually rely on the AI. The computer will always use an elemental attack that the enemy is weak against. Similarly, AI controlled character will seldom cast a spell that will do only half damage and will never cast those types of spells (or use Killer Moves) that won't do any damage or gets absorbed. AFFECTION ========= Like a mini dating game, you can match two characters together through affection. Each character has a pre-set affection level for each and every character when they joins your team, which includes "friendship" (measures the friendliness of one person for another. The higher this is, the better friends they become) and "passion" (measures the romantic attraction level of the two persons). One's affection can be higher for one person than another. For example, Opera and Ernest has high passion level for one another as they're lovers, while Dias won't get along with everyone as well since he's Mr Anti-Social by nature. There are a few ways of altering affection scores: 1) Private Actions, you'll often meet up with another party member. Depends on the situation, you'll usually be prompt with a choices as an answer when they ask you a question or as actions that you can take. If you help them or choose an option that would make them happy, there will usually be an increase in affection between the hero and that character. Likewise, if you piss 'em off, their affection towards the hero (or vice versa) will decrease. Sometimes a Private Action might not exactly be between the hero and another party member, but between 2 different party members as well, although those events are quite rare. That's going to be your chance to pair them up! 2) Pickpocketing when travelling together with your team will have all member's affection decrease toward the character who's picking the pocket. The Super Specialty Reverse Side will make everyone in your party's affection towards everyone else. Don't do it! 3) Books made by Publishing can alter the affection level to a fixed level. Each character can write 2 books, the common one that alters friendship and a rare one that alters passion. Having another member read the book that one member of the party wrote would alter their affection depending on which book it is. Careful though, this will alter their affection to that fixed level (semi- high of 8) regardless of their previous affection level, which means you're actually decreasing it if their affection level was high!!! Good for very early on in the game to give their affection levels a boost. 4) Fighting together can increase everyone's affection towards everyone else who was in the fight, but this is a very slow procedure! I think 100 fights equal one point increase in affection. Certain boss fights will also automatically increase everyone who participated in the fight's affection towards everyone else who was in the fight by 1! 5) Does anyone know how/where the Twin's Tonic can be gotten from? Or more importantly, how it works? I've gotten one via a Treasure Box but it didn't seem to work very well when I used it, it's supposed to "Deepens the bond between friends". So why going through all that trouble just to increase the affection of some lousy virtual characters? Well, there are a few bonuses for having high affection: 1) The chance of someone getting Berserk when one member falls will be increased. 2) The characters will fight in a more harmonized manner. For example, some characters will back up another character when they're in danger more often, or the healer will heal a wounded character quicker. 3) The endings are based on each character's affection towards another to determine which 2 characters will pair up. That's why there are 80+ endings in this game!!! Basically, a character with the highest affection level towards another character (and the other character's affection is of similar level), they'll be paired up. However, characters who are of the same sex will be paired depending on their friendship which characters of opposite sex will be paired depending on their passion. (No LesBN action here, sorry. Hehe...) Read an another FAQ or Ian Kelley's FAQ for more information. How do you know how high the affection level of each character is? You don't, as there's no way of finding out. However, certain "traits" can be noted by the way some character fights that will give you some clue whether they have high or low affection. 1) Those characters that have high affection will tend to stick together and cover each other's back or help each other out when in danger. 2) Magic users tend to cast support or healing spells on the ones they have higher affection for first, but this can be quite annoying, as they'll basically ignore the ones they don't like (or don't like as much). For example (this happened to me many times.) In the Trial Caves, Opera and Ernest both falls from battle. Rena would cast Raise Dead on Opera first, then she'll cast Fairy Heal/Light to bring Opera to full health then (guess what?) she casts a Star Flare!!! I was furious and started taking over for the dumb AI! 3) In disc 2, you'll be able to meet the fortune-teller in Fun City. If you do a Private Action there, you'll be able ask the fortune- teller the passion between your main character and all your teams members of the opposite sex. She'll give you some kinda indication on how well your relationship is going. 4) Some Private Actions will only take place when your affection towards another character (or vice versa) is above a certain point. If you see a Private Action where a character shows a lot of interest in you or if they started to get kinky, you'll know that your affection is doing well. KILLER MOVES ============ There are 2 types of characters in SO2, every playable character in the game is either a fighter or a magic user, and each has their own distinctive skills. Killer Moves are the fighters' specialty, which are deathblows or various gadgets used for dispatching the enemies. Each fighter characters has 8-11 unique Killer Moves of their own, and up to 2 Killer Moves can be brought into battle at the same time, assigned to either the L1 or R1 shift button. Each fighter has only a small number of his or her total possible Killer Moves when they join you, but by gaining levels you'll be able to obtain all of them. (However, Ashton, Precis and Opera have a few Killer Moves that are gained through some other means.) Each Killer Moves has an execution cost, which uses up your MP during battles. What's great about Killer Moves is that each KM also has a Proficiency record. The Proficiency is increased by 1 each time you use a particular KM, to a maximum of 999. As the Proficiency levels go up, various things can happen to the Killer Move (usually getting better), such as increased power, faster execution time, amount of hits increased, different animation etc. Choose your KMs carefully as different KMs works better than others in certain situations. Every Killer Move has a range-dependence, which are mentioned under "Combat". The execution point each Killer Move is very important as miscalculating the range can mean an instant death in the Cave of Trials, so learn to familiarize yourself with the different versions of the Killer Move and their execution points. Note that many Killer Move has a very short long-ranged version, which I sometimes call "mid range". And a rule of thumb, the point blank spot at which the character's attacks becomes long range is about 5 character widths away from the target. In other words, walk about 5 character widths away from the enemy and the "range indicator" to the bottom left of the screen becomes "Long range". How do you execute mid range attacks? Now this is more complicated than you think, as if you stand at the execution point of the mid ranged Killer Move, you'll do the short ranged version instead! Why? Well, the game take that you're in short range at under 5 character widths away from the enemy (look at your current range to the lower left of the screen.) So to execute a mid ranged Killer Move when it already has a short ranged version, you must move away from the enemy until your range changes to "Long", which mean you'll have to run up to the enemy before executing the mid ranged Killer Move because you've moved away from the execution point. I know it sounds VERY confusing, so here's an example. Claude's Shooting Stars has a Short and Long ranger version. Claude punched the enemy during the short version and throws an energy ball at the enemy during his long range version. However, the Execution Point of the Long Ranged version of Shooting Stars is about 2 character-widths away from the enemy. Since anything under 5 would be considered "Short Range" by the game's means, to be able to execute the Long range version of Shooting Stars, you'll have to distance Claude until he's at least 5 character-widths away from his target. Assuming that the enemy does not move, Claude will run 3 character-widths towards the enemy, pause then execute his energy ball. So to repeatedly execute his Long range Shooting Stars, Claude must distance himself from the enemy after EVERY move. I hope this is clear enough. A few Killer Moves are "uni-ranged" type, which can be executed anywhere on the screen. Keep in mind though, the damage of most Killer Moves are directly proportional to a character's Attack power, which are affected by their STR and weapon, so these 2 stats are a must for powering up Killer Moves. Some Killer Moves are not terribly powerful, as a matter of fact, most of them do about the same damage as a normal attack, so don't expect them to be *really* great until later. So why use them? It's because that all Killer Moves can "evolve" with their Proficiency levels, and becoming more and more powerful. Also, all fighter characters have KMs that hit multiple times for lots of damage, so it would be your interest to take advantage of them. A few note on weapons, their power will affect all damage dealing Killer Moves, although it might make no sense whatsoever (like Claude's Burst Knuckle since he don't use his sword for it and Chisato's Tear Gas.) Gaining better weapons will significantly increase a KM's power. Likewise, weapons with an elemental alignment or special effects WILL be carried to the Killer Move. For example, Claude's Twin Slash is a non-elemental attack, but when Claude is equipped with the Flame Blade, it (and all his KMs) becomes Fire elemental! If Chisato is equipped with the Weird Slayer, all her KMs can kill "Weird" in one hit and gain HP, like if she's using normal attacks. I have no idea of what will happen when you execute an elemental KM while equipped with a weapon of a different element, the Killer Move will probably be "dual elemental" but I dunno. Likewise, most Killer Moves can successfully trigger certain Combat Skills too, although it might make no sense whatsoever how some cheap projectiles hitting Below the Belt or whatever. Characters with MASSIVE multi-hit Killer Moves benefit most from this feature though, as each hit in the KM is checked to see if it has triggered a Combat Skill separately, rather than an "all or nothing" situation as with a regular attack. So you'd find characters like Chisato, Opera and Claude achieving more Combat Skills than say Dias, Bowman or Precis. Since Killer Moves are specific to the character, it makes sense to put them under the Character's section. ---Link Combo--- Upon acquiring the Link Combo accessory and equipping it on a fighter character, pressing the triangle button in his/her Killer Moves Setting will take you to the Link Combo menu. A pop up window will ask you if you want to steal (the ability to use Killer Moves) from another character, and another window will pop up asking who you want to steal from. (You can only steal from characters that are in your fighting party or the Link Stock.) If the character's name has "LC" next to them, it means that they already have the access to Link Combos, and if it's "Stolen" next to their name, it means they have already been stolen from. You cannot steal from either character that way. If you stole from a fighter, they will no longer have the ability to use their own Killer Moves, but if you steal from a mage, it will function as usual and the mage character won't loose anything since they can't use Killer Moves anyway. Upon activating the Link Combo, you'll immediately gain 2 more slots to equip with Killer Moves, however, 2 Killer Moves will be assigned to the same button. (And thus, pressing that button in battle will let your character execute both killer moves one after the other, in the order you place them in.) The recovery frames for the first KM will be significantly shortend, thus use this to your advantage! Try out different Link Combos as some Killer Moves links wonderfully while others don't work quite as well. Beware though, as it can drain your MP fairly quickly, so equip MP cost reduction items if you can. Also, you must have enough MP for BOTH Killer Moves assigned to that button to use it, although the MP is deducted separately as you execute the Killer Moves. For example, I assign Claude's Air Slash (4MP) and Shooting Stars (7MP) to the L1 button. The L1 button will only respond if Claude has at least 11MP remaining (if you don't have enough you'll hear a "buzz".) MP will be deducted separately though, meaning if Claude failed to execute Shooting Stars for some reason (like if he gets hit out of it), the 7MP will not be deducted. When linking Link Combos, take into account each Killer Move's speed, range, recovery as well as their execution ranges, because the last thing you want is to leave your character wide open to attacks in- between Killer Moves. IMO, a combo with minimal character movement is quite effective. Another idea is to execute a projectile attack followed by a short ranged one, and during the time you run to catch up with the enemy, you're pretty much safe because if the enemy tried to hit you, they'll get knocked by the projectile. (Although if the enemy moves, you're back to the "chase the enemy" routine again. Also, it can be a disaster if the initial missile was blocked.) Another idea is to knock the enemy away with a short ranged then follow up with a longer ranged attack. The combinations are endless, use your imagination! More about Link Combos and sample LCs can be found with the Killer Moves under the Characters section. MAGIC/HERALDRY ARTS =================== Matching the fighter's Killer Moves, magic users has the ability to cast spells, which are mysterious energies and elemental forces channelled through and released from the spell caster's bodies. Each mage in the game has a total of 23 spells, most of which are gained through gaining levels. (Celine and Leon has a spell that has to be found.) Like Killer Moves, most spells can also increase in Proficiency with similar effects when powered up, such as faster casting time, increase in power or altered animations. The spells that cannot be powered up (ie, most support spells) will have no Proficiency. However, spells are a bit more complicated to use than Killer Moves, because other than having to be bothered with the MP cost, there's also a casting time and recovery time (not to mention the insanely lengthy animation time of some of the better spells!) The better and more powerful spells will take longer to cast (although they can be improved with Proficiency), but I think all spells have the same recovery time. One other thing of note is that spells usually take up a LOT more MP than KMs, usually more than it's worth, but that's another story. In the Speciality menu, you can press the square button on a spell name to "seal" it, the spell name will then turn grey. (Press it again to "unseal" it.) A sealed spell can still be used in combat, however, if the computer controls your magician, they will never cast that spell. Use this to your advantage when you don't want the computer to waste your MP on the useless spells like Deep Mist. You can sorta put the spells into 2 categories, static and non- static. Non-static spells are the weaker ones that takes effect in real time (ie, time won't stop as the spell's animation and effect take place.) Non-static spells are not very effective as they sometimes don't target properly and may take some time before the effect takes place. For example, Claude is fracefully wounded and you use Rena to cast Heal, a non-static spell. It takes a couple of seconds for those healing to take place and in that couple of seconds, Claude can be killed if you're not careful. Most spells in this game are static, that is, time will be paused while the spell effect and animation takes place, and the effect is more "instant", and is always a "sure hit". Note Rena uses Magic while the other magicians use Heraldry (Magic of Expel.) They both work exactly the same way, Rena uses Magic only because it fits the story. Spells are evaluated in details under the Character's section. ---Spell absorb--- Like Link Combos for Killer Moves, mages can combine their spells to a greater effect, but it's usually a difficult process. When 2 characters (friend or foe) executes their spells at the exact same moment, their spell effects will be combined. Only some static-type and damage-dealing (offensive) spells can be combined. A combined spell will have both spell animations taking place at the same time, which is quite cool at times. The damage of a combined spell is maxed out at 9999, except for the case of Gremlin's Lair. Also, a little note appears to the lower right corner of the screen, which goes something like: [Party] [Element] -> Absorb -> [Party] [Element] Everything's all bunched up together in the game so it's quite hard to see exactly what is says. The [Party] can be either "Friend" or "Enemy", and the arrows can point towards either way. The [Element] indicates which spell absorbs which other spell. What this indicates is (I think) which side will takes the priority of the combined spell. For example: Enemy Lg -> Absorb -> Friend Dk Say the enemy is the one who casts Light Cross (Light elemental) and the ally is Leon casting Shadow Flare (Dk). Shadow Flare is stronger so it will absorb the enemy's Light Cross, making it stronger. Combined spell lies mainly in the elemental alignment of both spells and whether the spell casters are a friend or foe, as well as the target system of the spells. Only static spells (those that stops the flow of time while they animate) can be combined and some of the best spells may not be combined. I think only certain elements will combine though, it's explained in Sherwin Tam's most excellent "In- Depth Tips and Tricks" FAQ, look there for more details. If 2 of the same spells (same element) are mixed: - It affects the opposite team at double strength if both spells were cast by the same team - It affects both teams at double strength if each team casts one spell - If the spells ain't of the "all-targeted" type, only the appropriate targets are affected If 2 distinct spells are mixed (regardless of element): - The stronger spell (usually the one with higher MP cost) takes the priority, affecting the opposite team at combined strength - If the stronger spell is not of "all-targeted" type, then the combined spell affects the appropriate targets (ie, the original targets of the stronger spell) - If both spells were cast by the same team, the combined spell affects the opposite party at combined strength. The target rule above still applies though. Also, with all Spell Absorption, there's a 5% chance that the absorption will "fail". A failed combo spell effect is that the stronger spell works normally while the weaker spell effect is omitted. ---Spell Cancel--- Occasionally, when 2 spells are combined something will go terribly wrong in that one spell cancels the other, causing zero damage to no targets. This will only happen with spells that are of opposite elements though, I know for sure that Light will definitely cancel Dark but I think Water and Fire works in similar ways. Spell Cancel happens rarely, probably a "spell backfire" (see above) effect when 2 of the combined spells are of opposed element. Otherwise, most of the time mixing 2 spells of the oposite element works fine. The one that I can swear that I have seen is Star Flare and Shadow Flare. (I have seen this at LEAST 5 times during the short period where I put Leon in the same party as Rena.) I think I've seen other "cancel" as well but I cannot remember which spells. It is highly possible that Eruption and Noah will cancel accordingly. ---Spell Reflection--- I have just seen this really weird phenomenon because of the dodgy spell absorption system in this game. While I was wondering around in the early parts of the Cave of Trials, Leon accidentally cast Star Light at the same time as the enemy mage's Light Cross. I saw the indicator on the screen and it went something like: Enemy Lg <- Reflect -> Friend St The result was that, each party's spell reflected off of each other and hurts their own side. I have been able to duplicate this a few more times with Star Light and Light Cross. However, I really don't have any idea of how or what caused it to happen. The 2 spells weren't of the same element and at other times when one team absorbs another team's spell, one almost always gets absorbed by the other. Anyone knows more about Spell Reflection? CHARACTERS ========== Star Ocean: The Second Story has 12 possible playable characters, however, you can only get a maximum of 8 characters in your party. It is not possible to try all of them out in just one game. Each character has distinctive abilities, strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own personalities and backgrounds. Also new in this update are their initial stats, skills and equipment, pointless as it may seem. Favourite Food: Every character has a favourite food, that when consumed by the right character, will recover his/her HP/MP to full health. There's a space for each character's favourite food in their status screen, but until you let them try their favourite food, it will be blank. Favourite Instrument: Every character has an instrument that they suppose to play very well, and the song will have greater effected when played by a character's favourite instrument. However, you don't have to believe this crap since Dias is just as good at playing the Violin as Celine with identical levels, the same goes with Opera playing the Trumpet etc.. I have never had ANY trouble playing a non- favourite instrument, as long as I have both of the required talents. Favourite Quotes: The voice samples of that character that I found amusing, or just funny. Favourite PA Moment: Minimal spoiler here, I'll try not to put any major details here. Any cool Private Action events are listed here. I'll use the below terms when describing Killer Moves and spells. MP Cost: The MP needed to execute that command. LV Gained: The level where the character gains that skill. (If "NA", it means that the character will start with that skill.) Range (KMs only): I'll put a number from 0-5, where the number represents the number of character widths between the character and the enemy when the KM is executed, 0 being right new to them and 5 being point blank long range. A "U" in here denotes a uni-ranged attack, meaning the KM can be executed anywhere. Target (spells only): * Single enemy: One enemy * All enemies: All enemies * Single ally: One ally * All allies: All allies * Line of Sight: Hit enemies on a straight line * Radius: Select the target, any enemies near the area will also be affected Elemental: The elemental alignment of that Killer Move/spell. Quote: The phrase/s that character shouts as they execute the move. Also, the texts inside the brackets are the descriptions of the skill. However, Killer Moves uses: - < > for short range - << >> for long range - [ ] for uni-range (KMs that can be executed everywhere) I'll use P(x) to denote the Proficiency, where "x" is the Proficiency level needed. A "~" means approximate. The following special sections applies for fighters only: ===Cancel Ability=== Just an overview of how good the character is at using the Cancel Combat Skill, as well as which KMs are compatible. Remember that when a character successfully triggers Cancel, their recovery frames will be omitted and the KM will follow the attack immediately, like buffering effects in most fighting games. Try to get used to the rhythm. ===Link Combo Ideas=== I'll put any decent Link Combos a character has in this section. Also, a rating is attached, 1 being so-so and 5 being a perfect link or a killer LC. => One note on healing spells!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | I think I've finally figured how out the healing spells work! | | The equation goes something like this: | | => Healing = Base + (MAG * K) + (Prof. * X) | | | | K and X are both constants and are different for each spell. K | | indicates how much of the caster's MAG stats is going to affect | | the healing (better spell = larger K) and X is the upgrade per | | Proficiency. It's usually a fraction that's why you don't get a | | linear/constant upgrade as Proficiency goes up. Base is damage | | healed at zero Proficiency and zero MAG. (Note that this is only | | an approximate. I'm not a great mathematician so don't sack me if | | it's incorrect.) | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CLAUDE KENNI ------------ Note: His name really should be Crawd Kenny, as that's his OFFICIAL Japanese name. (I've been to Enix' site and saw the name clearly printed as "Crawd".) Although Crawd isn't the best name around here, I prefer that over "Claude" (I've actually changed his name back to "Crawd" in my first game) but I'll use "Claude" simply for the sake of it's in the english version of the game. Claude's father is Ronixis Kenni, the captain of the space ship Calnus who is well respected throughout the Earth Space Federation. Claude admires his father very much, but also hates him due to the envy and sarcasm of his fellow cadets has towards him because he's the son of the great captain. While out to explore an unknown planet, Claude got sucked into some kinda portal which transported him to Expel. While on Expel, he was mistaken by the locals as the legendary "Hero of Light". Knowing that sitting around and doing nothing won't fulfil his desire of returning home, Claude accepts the mission of investigating the Sorcery Globe, a mysterious meteor. Claude is a nice guy who always comforts others, but some of his actions and/or speech ain't really believable. Initial stats: HP: 130 STR: 10 LUC: 132 MP: 20 CON: 5 STM: 15 LV: 1 DEX: 10 GUTS: 20 EXP: 0 AGL: 10 NEXT: 10 INT: 0 Initial equipment: None Initial skills: Scientific Ability LV1 Functionality LV1 Favourite Food: Steak (Cook with Meat, or bought from Giveaway for 600Fol) Favourite Instrument: Silver Trumpet Favourite Quotes: - "Crawd has advanced forward, heh.." (Sounds playful.. :) ) Favourite PA Moment: - Going for tea with Ashton. Choose the third one and they'll drink out of a shake with 2 straws! Claude is definitely the most powerful character in the game, having the best stats, most powerful weapons/armor and some of the most effective Killer Moves. One good thing about Claude is that more of his KMs has both a long and short ranged version than any other fighter in the game, making his attacks quite versatile. He fights with a sword, and uses both sword skills as well as some martial arts skills in his Killer Moves. His normal attack has good range, fairly good speed/recovery time and is very strong. His air attack is a jumping slash, but it's no better or worse than most character's air attacks, however, note that Claude's attack takes place on his way DOWN! Making his attack rather unreliable and easily gets hit out of. If you must use the air attack, use it at long range. Claude has the highest STR, AGI and (especially) CON in the game, his CON is unmatched and is usually twice as high as that of the character with the second best CON! What's even more is that his best weapons are also many times more powerful than other characters, and with the ability to equip the best armor, you have got an awesome powerhouse on your team! Most of his really great Killer Moves are at short range and you should definitely use him as a "short-ranged character". However, Claude has a few fairly decent longer range Killer Moves, although it can be a pain getting it to hit. One slight disadvantage is that Claude's Killer Moves takes more Proficiency to build up. His best Killer Moves are Ripper Blast (all round attack, especially against lotsa enemies. Unmatched when powered up!) and Mirror Slice (no doubt the most damaging attack in the game.) ######Killer Moves###### ---Phase Gun--- <> MP Cost: 0MP LV Gained: NA Range: 3 Elemental: Light (?) Quote: "Burn!" (You'll get to use this move if you're playing as Claude, but you'll only get to see this move if you're Rena.) This Killer Move is awesome simply because it's free and it does a huge amount of damage (around 700) at the beginning of the game! However, you'll only get to use it for the first fight and maybe just a few random encounters before you reach Salva. Claude will use his Phase Gun to blast through Alen's front door, then the gun runs out of power and you're unable to use it throughout the rest of the game. (Yes, that's how he lost it! For those of you who played Rena's quest first.) Well, it was fun while it lasted. ---Air Slash--- <> MP Cost: 4MP LV Gained: 3 Range: 1, U Elemental: None (Not Wind) Quote: "Air Slash" An ok Killer Move since it's the first one you'll get. The long range version will do the same damage as your normal attack but the short range version does only half of it. At long range, this move is actually "uni-ranged" meaning Claude don't have to move around to target the enemy, he just aim it at whatever direction the target is, at where he's currently standing. However, it's not a guaranteed hit since the shockwave is quite slow and won't home in, so if you use it when the target is far away, they can easily avoid it by moving away. After careful examination, I discovered that the long range version of Air Slash DON'T travel across the full battlefield. The shockwave will dissolve after travelling about 90% of the way. The short ranged version can hit multiple enemies if you time it right and will sometimes hit the same target twice if you're lucky. There's quite a bit of delay before the shockwave comes out and the recovery is horrible, plus the damage don't shine, making this move very dangerous to use at close range. You're better off using your normal attack. The shockwave in both versions of Air Slash don't rise high enough above the ground to hit airborne enemies. Because you'll do more damage at long range and Claude don't have to move around at all, Air Slash is MUCH more useful at long range. The best time to use this is about half a screen distance away from the enemy (at long range) so it won't miss that easily, especially if they're advancing on you, for decent damage. Also, this move is excellent if you wanna play "keep away" with the enemy, just stand on the same spot doing this over and over again and the enemies won't be able to get to you. This works even better if you have Celine or any magic users casting spells behind you. Using this strategy can, however, drain your MP very quickly at the beginning of the game. At P(200), both versions of Air Slash will turn gold, raises higher above ground (long range is barely enough to hit most flying enemies, but the short one doesn't) and is executed slightly quicker (still slower than Dias' Air Slash though.) Also, the damage is doubled, making this move a good one (and cheap) to use, until later in the game when he gets his best Killer Moves. ---Shooting Stars--- <> MP Cost: 7MP LV Gained: 7 Range: 0, 2 Element: None Quote: "Shooting Stars" This Killer Move is pretty good at short range. If you can somehow trap the enemy against a wall/another character, or the enemy is immobile, you'll be able to do up to 6 hits, each hit is about half the strength of a normal attack. Works best on heavier/bigger enemies. If you're using this on light enemies, it'll push them away after about 1-3 hits. The range of this attack is only about half a character width, meaning it's sometimes hard to even hit the enemy with Shooting Stars at close range. If you're sneaking up to an unoccupied enemy from the rear, you'll barely be able to hit them at all because they can and will move out of the way. You'll miss again fast enemies and do a max of 2 hits against the others. Also, once Claude executes this move, he'll stay in his "punching" animation for many seconds, whether he hits or not, meaning it's very easy for enemies to attack him from the rear during that time. Avoid using this when you're in between multiple enemies, because when you use this to hit one of them, the other ones will get a free hit and they might even trap Claude between them! Otherwise, a fairly decent attack for trapping enemies. At long range, the energy ball will do double the damage of one hit from the short range version (ie, normall attack damage). Has little range and does only one hit, meaning the short ranged version is more useful in comparison as it can set up traps. Also, it'll dissipate soon if a target is not hit. Good for "hit and run" tactics. The best time to use Shooting Stars is to sneak behind an opponent when someone's attacking them from the front to trap them. It's a bit hard to trap them in corners unless you have some help. If you have Chisato or someone with long range multiple hit Killer Moves (Opera, Ashton) it's quite easy. Let them use their Killer Move to push the enemy against the wall from long range, then sneak up right next to them and use this. Otherwise, Claude'll have to push the enemy all by himself. Try using normal attacks or one-hit Killer Moves, then Cancel his normal attack into a Shooting Star when near the corner. If another ally may attack the enemy from behind, it will either set up your trap or ruin it for you by pushing the enemy away. At P(100), the short ranged version will have a slightly extended range (but still not too great), also hits a maximum of 8 hits. The energy ball generated in the long ranged version will be slightly bigger, not that it's of much good since there are no added bonus to the damage, but it will travel a bit more before dissolving. At P(200), the punches will turn gold and the range will be improved to about 1 character width, which makes it easier to hit the enemies. Also, Claude will punch a lot more times than usual, to a maximum of about 12 hits. At long range, the energy turns into an ugly oval that looks kinda like pizza, still only does one hit though, but will travel for a longer distance if not hit. No damage improvements though. :( ---Head Splitter--- [Claude jumps up into the air and lands up-side-down with his sword pointing downwards at the target's head] MP Cost: 9MP LV Gained: 12 Range: U Elemental: None Quote: "Hya!" Head Splitter is a good attack to use all through the game. This is one of the CPU's favourite attacks. Put this on Claude and he'll use it non-stop! (Drains your MP FAST!) Since Claude leaps so high into the air, he'll be invulnerable to most physical damage. Depending on the distance between Claude and the enemy, it might take some time before Claude lands and the enemy might be able to move away. If you're too close to the enemy when executing this move however, it's likely that Claude'll get hit on his way up, so avoid this in close quarters. Head Splitter only does one hit but the damage is about 1.5 time that of a normal attack. Since he's mostly invulnerable while in the air, this Killer Move is very good to use when you're trying to keep the distance from an enemy. Also, if you don't mind using up your MP, this is a great way of covering distance quickly. At P(130), Claude will be followed by a blue trail as he falls, causing twice as much damage as his normal attack. At P(260), instead of falling up-side-down on the enemy, Claude will spin around many times with his sword in his hand as he descends, which is similar to one of Garuda's/Hayate move from Street Fighter EX/2. This also only hits once but the damage is now doubled! (At ~P(500) with the Eternal Sphere, this will do 9999 damage.) However, I found this is harder to hit, since sometimes Claude'll land without doing any damage at all! If Claude has his blade towards the enemy when he gets near the ground then he'll hit, but if it's away from the enemy then he won't. The best time to use this is when Claude is about 3-5 character width away from the enemy, which is almost guaranteed to hit and still stays a fair distance away from the enemy. However, Head Splitter might have a harder time connecting in the Trail Caves where the enemies runs around at insane speed. Another way to use this move safely is not to occupy the same "plane" as the enemy's attacks. Meaning avoid standing in a straight horizontal line with the enemy. The height of his jump is quite unpredictable at times. I think the longer the distance between Claude and his target, the higher he leaps, which makes it terrible at full screen distance as it'll take forever for him to land. If you're too close to the enemy, Claude will do a tiny mini-leap. ---Energy Sword--- [Claude holds his sword in front of him, with one hand on the blade and one hand on the hilt. The yellow ring spears around him and he gets healed] MP Cost: 11MP LV Gained: 20 Range: U Elemental: None Quote: "Energy" I finally understand how this skill works now. This is basically a healing Killer Move, although its uses are limited. There's a bit of lag time before this move is executed, and since Claude mainly fights close to the enemy, the lag time will make him a defenseless standing target. An ok skill with some use, especially in the Cave of Trials where Rena's healing is sometimes not enough, but make sure you get away from the enemies before using it. Also, you only get 2 slots to equip Killer Moves with, equipping this means you have to sacrifice a perfectly good offensive skill. An idea is to equip this as a Link Combo with another fair Killer Move and assign your important Killer Moves to the other button. Keep using the other button throughout the fight and use the Energy Sword Link Combo when needed. The amount of HP this Killer Move (Healer Move would be a better name) is exactly one fifth (ie, 20%) of Claude's MAXIMUM HP, meaning it could take up to 5 uses to bring him back to full health. However, this will improve. At P(100), the yellow ring that appears will look thicker (it's quite obvious when it happens) and the amount healed goes up to 40% of his maximum HP. At P(200), the yellow ring evolves and flickers like fire, at this time Energy Sword will heal for 60% of Claude's maximum HP. So this KM can heal for a lot of HP later in the game. To build up the Proficiency of this quickly, look in the tips section. ---Burst Knuckles--- <> MP Cost: 12MP LV Gained: 28 Range: 0, 5 Elemental: Fire Quote: "Burst knuckles" Another fairly decent move, although it can be hard to connect with it. The short ranged version has less range than even Shooting Stars, has a _slight_ execution time where Claude draws his fist but it's VERY quick to recover from. It only does one hit, at about 1.5 times the damage of his normal attack. Because of the delay, you'll miss if you sneak up from behind the enemy and will probably get hit out of if you're right next to the enemy. The *safest* (and extremely effective) way of using this is to Cancel it off a normal attack, the link is perfect and since it has zero recovery time, almost any KMs can link fantastically after it. At long (mid) range, this move works like Shooting Stars. I often miss when I try this. This does one hit at the normal attack damage. IMO, Burst Knuckles is only effective at short range. At P(100), both versions will now do 2 times the normal attack damage. ---Ripper Blast--- <> MP Cost: 17MP LV Gained: 38 Range: 2, 3 Elemental: None Quote: "Teeeearrrr into pieces" I SERIOUSLY under-estimated this Killer Move in my first game, as it's very powerful and remains to be one of Claude's best attacks. The rocks formed in the short version are about 2 character widths wide. I think each spike can hit once, but only if the enemy is very close to Claude, you'll usually get only one hit though. It can hit multiple enemies if they're bunched up tight. The rocks are high enough to hit most flying enemies though, making this a good move to use against them. The start up time is average but since this move pushes the enemies back, you're pretty safe afterwards, and you can actually keep using Ripper Blast to push them back, stunning/damaging them in the process. The damage of each hit is about that of a normal physical attack. Although I must admit it's very annoying to hear "Teeeearrrr into pieces" time after time. :P The long range move looks awesome but is kinda hard to hit. It will send rocks 7 ways in front of Claude in a hemisphere formation, therefore, hitting multiple enemies surrounding him. What makes it harder to hit? Well, first of all, you must execute this at long range but the execution point of this move is about 2 character widths away from the target but the rocks only reach 2 character widths, so the rocks will miss if they move away even just a little. Still will be able to hit most flying enemies, and a good move to use when you're surrounded by LOTS of enemies to ensure the maximum number of hits. Again this only hits once per spike (per each enemy hit) and does normal attack damage. At each P(90) interval, Ripper Blast gets upgraded and another rock spike appears, to a maximum of 5 at P(270). This applies to both the short and long version, making the long ranged version more and more superior since it spreads in a fan shaped formation 180 degrees outward. Each spike hits once, but the number of hits is reduced if the enemy is standing too far away from Claude (ie, if they stand 3 character-width away, the first 2 spike will miss, doing at max 3 hits with the remaining spikes.) This makes the longer ranged version harder to hit deep unless the enemy advances on Claude, but it has the 7 way fan-shaped formation advantage than the short version. The WHOLE purpose of this Killer Move is to level it up, if you don't level it up then it's rather useless and costs too much for the lousy damage it does. If you do however, it'll probably become THE best multiple-target Killer Move in the game. ALWAYS try using this at long range, because you'll hit the same amount of times and do the same amount of damage and you can (most likely) hit ALL the enemies on the screen at once. It's almost impossible to escape this Killer Move if used at long range. Excellent if you want to play keep away games or to finish all the enemies quickly without getting hit. This move is even excellenter if you have mages casting spells at full blast behind you or characters with uni-range KMs! Beware though, as the rocks don't reach far enough to hit those enemy spell casters at the back. ---Twin Slash--- MP Cost: 15MP LV Gained: 45 Range: 0 Elemental: None Quote: "Twin slash" One of the more useful moves, but its uses are rather limited since it something tends to go wrong at times. Yes Claude does jump into the air to do his slashes but, it's not a very effective move to use against flying enemies. Why? Because Claude tends to execute this move at the wrong place and instead of meeting the enemy in mid air with his sword, he often clashes into the enemy from under them and the sword slices will miss. Sometimes it works fine though. I found this to be more useful on ground enemies though, and it's a good all round move until the point where he gets Mirror Slice. This hits twice and each hit is about the same as a normal attack. Twin Slash is basically a scrub version of Mirror Slash, except that Claude will travel forward quite a bit so even if you push the enemy back, you can still nail them with the next hit. Time it right and you can use it on air enemies, but beware of what I mentioned above. I usually use this to pressure ground and larger enemies. However, there's a teeny weeny bit of delay between the hits so later bosses can recover and block easily, making Mirror Slice a much better choice later on. At P(160), Claude will do 2 more slashes before he land, bringing it to a total of 4 hits, no damage bonus though. ---Dragon Howl--- MP Cost: 28 LV Gained: 53 Range: 3 Elemental: None Quote: "Dragon howl" Dragon Howl is an ok Killer Move, although its MP use seems a little too high for its worth. There's a little bit of start up delay but the mist travels at a fair speed, so it should be able to hit most of the time. Each puff of mist only does half of Claude's normal attack damage though. Since the dragon only breathes 3 puffs at start, the damage is quite low. I personally found this move rather inefficient in a serious right. I don't think the mist can hit multiple enemies either. Dragon Howl takes a hefty amounts of Proficiency to level up. An extra puff will be gained at P(250) and then finally another one at P(500). ---Sword Bomber--- MP Cost: 32 LV Gained: 62 Range: 5 Elemental: Fire? Quote: "Sword bomber" Sword Bomber is a cool looking move and it can be quite fun as well. Sword Bomber must be used at long range though and as an aerial projectile, it has certain unique benefits but it's also hard to control. As Claude leaps into the air, he is invulnerable to many physical and missile attacks, which makes this move an excellent one if you wanna stay away from the hostiles for a while and to evade missile storms. The meteors are fired quickly in a rapid succession. Even though each meteor explodes upon impact when it reaches the ground, it really does not seem to have an area effect at all. The blast effects and shockwaves are mostly there for a fancy light show, nothing more. However, to compensate this, each comet actually hits twice! Each hit is of normal attack damage and each hit stuns the target just long enough to get the next meteor to connect. So Sword Bomber is a great way to get offensive when you need to stay defensive. At each P(140), Claude will be confident enough to throw another meteor, to a total of 5 at P(420) and a long invincible air time! Sword Bomber sure is a great KM in the lower levels of the Cave of Trials where staying up close and personal will spell one's doom rather quickly. Of course, the aerial projectiles are not very effective again flying enemies. ---Mirror Slice--- MP Cost: 38 LV Gained: 70 Range 0 Elemental: None Quote: "Mirror slice" ===Cancel Ability=== The Cancel skill was made for Claude! Claude has a very good normal attack to Cancel from, since it's pretty fast, nice range, good recovery and can Peep the enemies easily with his Eternal Sphere, setting the trap for his KMs that follows up very nicely. What's more is that Claude's short ranged KMs are excellent attacks to Cancel into, since they're fast and powerful. Basically, if you manage to land a normal attack, you're basically gaining the upper hand. These Killer Moves works well: * Shooting Stars (cheap and many hits) * Twin Slash (harder since Claude has to first jump into the air) * Mirror Slash (fast and powerful) * Burst Knuckle (my personal favourite!) ===Link Combo Ideas=== Claude has a few good Link Combos since he has a variety of Killer Moves. However, since most of his KMs have 2 ranges, some of his Link Combos will occasionally turn out differently than expected. One slight disadvantage of giving Claude Link Combos is that his KMs are the most expensive, his MP can be drained very quickly. * Ripper Blast – Air Slash Rating: 4 MP Cost: 21MP Geez, talk about playing "hard to get". Use this and the enemies can't even touch you. Works even better if you have a pair of Bunny Shoes. * Air Slash - Head Splitter Rating: 3 MP Cost: 13MP Ripper Blast – Head Splitter Rating: 3.5 MP Cost: 26MP Hehe, you can deal lotsa damage to the enemy before they even get to you with these. However, timing is crucial. Execute this only if you're about half a screen away from the enemy so the first attack hits, while they're stunned by the Air Slash, they'll get hit by the Head Splitter, hopefully. (Air Slash may take a bit long to recover.) The latter is a great anti-air move too! * Burst Knuckles – Shooting Stars Rating: 4 MP Cost: 19MP Burst Knuckles – Mirror Slice Rating: 5 MP Cost: I've tried these once and it was brilliant. Throw in a normal attack then Cancel it into Burst Knuckle and they'll be stuck and will take a lot of damage. Mirror Slice is better since you don't have to be in a corner. * Energy Sword – Air Slash Rating: 1.5 MP Cost: 15MP Energy Sword – Head Splitter Rating: 2 MP Cost: 20MP The only decent Link Combos involving Energy Sword. Since you have minimum control over where Claude would end up after his first Killer Move, it's usually not a good idea to link Energy Sword after anything, 'cuz Claude might end up right next to the opponent after executing the first Killer Move. Both Air Slash and Head Splitter can hit from anywhere on the screen. * Sword Bomber – Ripper Blast Rating: 4 MP Cost: Again, a great Link Combo for staying away from the enemy, hits many times for lots of damage. Works best on those worms that can swallow you since they're slow. Against faster enemies, the Sword Bomber maybe harder to connect. It works the other way too, but you may have to run a bit out of range for Sword Bomber. * Twin Slash – Mirror Slice Rating: 4 MP Cost: I used this before I tried Burst Knuckles. It's not bad really, but there is a bit of lag time when Claude lands. Not sure if it's a good move against flying enemies, because Twin Slash will hit but some hits in Mirror Slice won't. There are many more good combinations, especially ones starting with Mirror Slice, but I like to use Mirror Slice only as a finisher. RENA LANFORD ------------ Rena lives in the southern end of Expel, in a village called Arlia with her mother. One day when she was strolling around the Shingo Forest like she always does, she was attacked by a monster. A mysterious stranger appeared to save her. In the muddled state that she was in, Rena instantly recognized the stranger to be the legendary "Hero of Light" and made a big commotion back in Arlia only to find that the stranger, Claude Kenni was far from being the hero that was prophesied to save their world. Quickly made up her mind, Rena decided to go with Claude in his mission to investigate the Sorcery Globe in hopes of finding her birth mother as well as the origins of her healing powers. Rena is very bitchy and reminds me a lot of Cecilia of Wild Arms, in that she has "morals" and tells everyone off for nothing, even when it's none of her business. Initial stats: HP: 100 STR: 5 LUC: 130 MP: 40 CON: 2 STM: 10 LV: 1 DEX: 10 GUTS: 30 EXP: 0 AGL: 8 NEXT: 10 INT: 0 Initial equipment: Knuckles, Robe Initial skills: Kitchen Knife LV1 Recipe LV4 Good Eye LV1 Favourite Food: Short Cake (Cook with Egg/Dairy Products) Favourite Instrument: Lyre Favourite Quotes: - "My strength is starting to overflow" (Sounds like Lisa Simpson) - "I won't loose" (The first quote I've ever heard from her) Favourite PA Moment: - After Celine caused a big commotion in Fun City with her potion, find her and the potion starts to affect Rena too, as she turned red and a heart pops up. Rena is the most useful character in this game. She basically provides heavy healing and support for the entire team, you'll want her in most fights just in case you accidentally get your butt kicked. Although a large portion of Rena's spells are used for healing or support, she has a handful of offensive spells as well, even though they're not as strong as Celine or Leon's. Her offensive consist of Light, Void and Star type attacks, which are more used for disrupting the enemy mage rather than heavy damage. Unlike the other magic users, she can actually fight pretty well too! Her normal is a punch, which is very fast (even faster than Claude's) and has decent range and excellent recovery, so it can be done in a quick succession to temporarily disable the enemy. Her air attack is very confusing, it's either an awkward downward punch or a back flip in mid air, not too good at all. Like I said, she can fight pretty well, so her STR is (although lower than any fighter) pretty decent for a magic user, around about 600 at later stages, that's just a bit lower than Opera's! Rena, being a magic user, has low STM (perhaps lower than that of Celine's) which makes MP recovery quite difficult earlier in the game so keep some spare Blackberries in stock just in case. She is quite weak defensively though, so keep her in the back. Remember that her primary job is to heal/support friends, not offensive spells or physical fighting. However, if everyone's healthy, feel free to cast an offensive spell with her. You should ONLY use her in physical combat if you have full control over her, but only in certain circumstances, such as self-defence (like if an enemy moves too close) or if you see a definite opening and it's not too far away, but everyone must be healthy first! After playing the game a lot, I think I'm beginning to understand how the AI likes to controls Rena. These are the desirable actions the AI likes to use, ranked in order of priority. 1) Healing spells (eg, Fairy Heal) 2) Raise Dead 3) Stats-up spells, if applicable (eg, Angel Feather) 4) Stats-down spells, if applicable (eg, Deep Mist) 5) Attack spells, if applicable (eg, Star Flare) 6) Physical attacks The priority however, is influenced by Affection values. For example, if Rena has high Affection towards Claude but low Affection towards Ashton, when Claude and Ashton both falls in battle, Rena's actions would go something like this: 1) Cast healing spell if Rena or 4th party member is injured 2) Cast Raise Dead on Claude 3) Fairy Heal or Fairy Light on Claude 4) Star Flare 5) Healing spell if anyone is injured 6) Cast Raise Dead on Ashton 7) Fairy Heal or Fairy Light on Ashton However, her AI is also dependant on Rena's strategy setting. So if you are in a tight situation, control Rena manually so she doesn't slack off. Being a magic user disallow Rena to wear very good armor, so concentrate on a good MAG boost with Robes, but do give her the best equipment available as she's the most valuable character of the team, if she falls, you'll have quite a hard time at healing yourselves. #####Magic##### ---Heal--- [Green sparks swirls around a character from head to toe] MP Cost: 3MP LV Gained: NA Target: Single ally Elemental: None Quote: "Heal" A very simple healing spell. It's very quick to cast, about 1 second but since it's a non-static spell, it'll take another second to take effect. The amount recovered is hopelessly low though, but it's enough to keep you going until around the Mars event. Healing = 100 + (MAG * 1/4) + (Prof. * 0.7) The first casting restores 100HP, and another HP is added per every 1 or 2 castings, so y' see, even at P(999) this spell still restores less than 1000HP. Good earlier on, on gets outdated quickly. ---Antidote--- [A small green ring encircles one ally] MP Cost: 5MP LV Gained: 3 Target: Single ally Elemental: None Quote: "Antidote" An early spell but it's likely that you'll need to use it until the end of the game. This will cure the Poison status. It's a non-static spell, is very quick to cast but takes a while (2-3 seconds) to take effect. This becomes extremely useful in the Trial Caves since the enemies there tend to be very cheap and Poisons you all the time. Never seal this, you'll never know when it'll be useful. ---Press--- [A 10-ton weight drops from above its target] MP Cost: 7MP LV Gained: 5 Target: One enemy Elemental: Void Quote: "Press" "Be crushed!" Rena's first offensive spell is a really weak one, I bet she can attack the enemy for more damage. This does about 50 points of damage when you first get it and at the end of the game, this can only do about 150 points of damage. The casting time is about 2.5 seconds, not too great but it's a static spell so it takes effect immediately after that. It can be ok when used to disrupt an enemy mage's concentration, but if you manage to get the Proficiency of her better spells (like Star Flare) up to around 400, they'll be faster and does more damage. Press is an ok spell to combine with Leon's Gremlin Lair, if the timing of Rena's other spells are a little long. ---Deep Mist--- [Clouds appear near the target to obscure their ision] MP Cost: 11MP LV Gained: 8 Target: All enemies (?) Elemental: Dark Quote: "Deep mist" "Oh fog" Ummm, I'm still deciding how useful this spell is. I ignored it pretty much in my first 2 games, then tried it a bit near the end of the game, but it wasn't really effective at all since it won't ever work, I guess I was just lacking Proficiency. Now in my third game, I actually find this quite useful during random encounters (it's a lot harder on Galaxy mode y' know) as it reduces the enemy's hit rates by quite a bit. I think this may also reduce their evade rates too. If an enemy gets blinded, some blue words will appear above them (can't read what it says 'cuz it's too small) and those who weren't affected will have "MISS" above their heads. It won't really work on the bosses though (especially most of them are strong against Dark) so stick to harder random encounter fights. Forget it if you don't want to waste your MP, as you can complete a game without ever touching this. I'd seal it immediately, and use it manually. The casting time is around 3 seconds. This may look like an area affecting spell, but I once cast this on a target in the middle of the screen and enemies that were miles away were affected too, so I guess this affects all enemies. ---Cure Light--- [A sphere of light appears above the target's head and heals them] MP Cost: 11MP LV Gained: 10 Target: Single ally Elemental: None Quote: "Cure light" This spell will replace Heal and works fairly well until you get to the Lacour continent. It's still fast (about 2 seconds) but it's a non-static spell so it'll take about another 2 seconds to take effect, you could be killed by then! Healing = 800 + (MAG * 1/2) + (Prof. * 1.3) The first casting will restore 800HP, and each casting afterwards will restore another 1HP, but it sometimes varies. It isn't good for a very long time but you're sometimes forced to use it, as the next single targeted healing spell (Fairy Heal) is quite a few levels away. ---Silence--- [Rena summons a 4 armed spirit, and the spirit extends 2 of her arms out] MP Cost: 14MP LV Gained: 12 Target: All enemies Elemental: None Quote: "Silence" This spell attempts to silence all enemies, but are only good against spell casters. When an enemy gets silences, an orange cross appears above the enemy for a second, those didn't get silenced will have "MISS". The success rate of this spell is quite bad, as it never works when you are desperate. I found to cast quick spells like Ray to disturb the enemy mages is more effective, however, if you do manage to silence an enemy spell caster, they'll be rendered powerless for the rest of the fight, which can be very helpful in the Trial Caves. I believe that higher Proficiency means higher success rates. I think Celine's Forget is more effective though. It's up to you if you wanna seal it. I usually leave it on. ---Ray--- [Countless rays of white light gathers in the air, as many slender beams of yellow lights are emitted and hits the enemies] MP Cost: 10MP LV Gained: 14 Target: All enemies Elemental: Light Quote: "Ray" "Oh light!" Ah, finally a dependable attack spell, but by the time Rena gets this Celine would have had it for quite a while and will soon get the much superior Star Light. Oh well. Still pretty good but won't do very much damage by the time she gets this. You can combine this with Celine's Ray or you can use this to disturb the enemies to buy some time for Celine to cast a much powerful spell, which is a good strategy later on. It's quite cheap but it takes about 4 seconds to cast. The damage done is around 80-100+, not too great. ---Energy Net--- [A large shockwave drops from the sky and explodes into a dome as it hits the ground, stunning all enemies caught in the explosion] MP Cost: 12 LV Gained: 18 Target: All enemies Elemental: ? Quote: "Energy net" "Don't move!" A fairly decent status spell. This will attempt to Peep all enemies and works more often than not. It takes about 4 seconds to cast. It can be good if you want your fighters to advance on an enemy or to escape. I believe the higher the Proficiency the more accurate this spell is. It probably won't work very much at the end of the game (where it's more useful) if you don't cast this spell throughout your game. Turn it off or Rena will use it a lot, cast it manually. ---Cure All--- [Rena conjures up a large cross and a light blue dome, all allies are covered in blue sparks] MP Cost: 18MP LV Gained: 20 Target: All allies Elemental: None Quote: "Cure all" "Oh healing light!" This is what I call "faith healing". :) This is the first all- affecting healing spell you'll have access to, and becomes quite useful from the Sanctuary of Linga and onwards, but will be replaced by Fairy Light later. Healing = 1200 + (MAG * 1) + (Prof. * 1.7) The first casting of Cure All will restore 1200HP and each casting following will gain either 1 or 2 HP. The casting time is around 4 seconds but it's a static spell so once you pull it off, you're pretty much safe. Since this restores more HP than Cure Light, it's a good spell to use even only if one character is hurt (badly), since you won't have access to Fairy Heal for a long while. ---Delay--- [Rena calls forth a large pocket watch, it hang over the target and resets itself] MP Cost: 18MP LV Gained: 22 Target: Single enemy Elemental: None Quote: "Delay" "Oh time" This is basically SO2's version of the infamous Slow spell from FF. It will take 4 seconds to cast, but once cast it'll have a decent chance of success and it even works on some of the bosses. Delay will slow the target's movement rate giving you the upper hand, but I'm not sure if it does anything else (like evade, accuracy etc.) It's a good spell but since it misses often, it might be a better option to Haste (see below) all your allies. Turn this off or Rena will use it constantly (if you set her to "Aid Friends") and cast it manually whenever you feel like it. ---Dispel--- [A large runic green circle appears below the character and gets showered by blue sparks] MP Cost: 24MP LV Gained: 25 Target: Single ally Elemental: None (?) Quote: "Dispel" "Disappear you impure people!" Another one of Rena's most useful spells, Dispel will negate Poison, Paralyze and Stone status. Becomes increasingly important as you progress though the game, as many enemies has really cheap attacks that inflicts status ailments, often multiple ones at one time! Of course, use this when someone's affected by all 3 statuses, but if it's just one status, you might consider using an item and let Rena do the healing in tougher fights. If the target is affected by Poison only, use Antidote instead. NEVER seal this spell! NOTE! I am not 100% sure about this but Dispel may have the effects of Celine/Noel's Neutral as well. What proof do I have of this? Well, one time Rena was affected by an enemy Delay spell, and the AI had Rena cast Dispel on herself. Now I dunno whether it was a feasible reaction or if the AI is just plains stupid, but the AI is usually smart enough to cast only the spells that they need. For example, Rena would never cast Silence if none of the enemies are magic users, so it may just have that extra bit of Neutral effects. :) Note my "?" next to the "Elemental". This is probably a non-elemental spell but the animation is very similar to Anti (a Void spell) and it kinda makes sense for a status-dispelling spell to be Void elemental (remember Vortex from SaGa Frontier?) Well, I have no idea why I'm making such a fuss about something that ain't even gonna affect the gameplay... *sign* ---Gravity Press--- [Dark clouds forms in the sky and countless 100-ton weights drops from it and crushes anything beneath them] MP Cost: 24MP LV Gained: 28 Target: Radius Elemental: Void Quote: "Gravity Press" "Hit it!" Wow, great! Even Celine don't have a spell as powerful as this at LV28! It deals a solid ~600 points of damage to most enemies on screen. Although the enemies gets knocked Dizzy during the animation of this spell, Dizziness does not last after the spell finishes. A fairly good spell for the time being but gets replaced by Celine's spells quickly, especially that it uses so much MP! The casting time is about 4 seconds. A great way of using this is to combine with Leon's Gremlin Lair, for an added 1400 damage to each HIT!!! Although this may sound a little crazy, but I found it a little hard to time that spell combination because Gravity Press actually takes longer to cast!!! ---Light Cross--- [Multiple beams of light hits battlefield causing mild explosions] MP Cost: 18MP LV Gained: 30 Target: All enemies Elemental: Light Quote: "Light cross" "Oh holy cross!" A very disappointing spell after Gravity Press, as the damage is only slightly better than Ray, and you gets it so late. When I first got this I did around 290 points of damage, not very helpful at all. Ignore this, as Celine'll soon get a very powerful Thunder Storm (if she hasn't already.) Casting time is 4 seconds. ---Protection--- [A shield falls from heaven to protect an ally] MP Cost: 18MP LV Gained: 33 Target: Single ally Elemental: None Quote: "Protection" "Oh shield of light!" This spell will raise the target's defense by I don't know how much. It's good against bosses especially flying ones since most of your fighters will be very vulnerable when jump attacking. Costs a bit much earlier on and doesn't gain Proficiency so seal it. ---Tractor Beam--- [A rainbow colored, cylindrical force field envelopes the target and any surrounding enemies, lifts them up into the air and drops them head down back to the ground] MP Cost: 22MP LV Gained: 36 Target: Radius Elemental: Star Quote: "Tuactor bea" (weird!!!) A unique but average attack spell in Rena's possession. The casting time of 4 seconds makes this spell a bad choice for disturbing enemy spell casters. The area of impact of this spell is not bad, but not as good as other spells of this type. It's useful for a while when you first obtain this, which is around Sanctuary of Linga. Note, airborne enemies or enemies gets propelled into the air will not be affected by this, which makes casting this spell on those "Bunnies" less effective. Although the AI is quite bad sometimes and casts this on flying enemies. The damage is around 700+ when you first gets it and at the end of the game it can do 1000+ damage, pretty weak huh. You can also combine this with Leon's Gremlin Lair, but the damage is about the same as if you use Gravity Press instead. ---Haste--- [A pocket watch appears above the ally and fast-forwards itself] MP Cost: 20MP LV Gained: 42 Target: Single ally Elemental: None Quote: "Haste" "Oh time!" This spell will raise one ally's running speed and will never miss, although it's not as good as it is in theory, as your character will only be a teeny-weeny bit faster that you won't even notice it!! Use it if you want but I'd rather save my MP. Seal this though or else Rena will cast this during random encounters and uses up her MP faster than expected. ---Growth--- [An orange sphere of energy clouds one ally and enlarges them temporarily] MP Cost: 22MP LV Gained: 47 Target: Single Ally Elemental: None Quote: "Growth" "Power up!" A very good spell for most boss fights as it increases the damage done by one ally by a LOT, possibly by an extra portion of their regular attack power. I was doing about 800 damage and after this spell was cast, my guys started hacking away for 1100!! I think the effect will wear off when that ally dies in battle, and this has no Proficiency, so seal it and use it manually during boss fights. Fighters are probably the only ones who benefits from this spell unless you want your mages to attack in front line. This combined with Berserk can cause MAJOR damage and use it against tough bosses for a big power boost. ---Fairy Heal--- [A beam of light shines upon a character from the heavens and angels descends.] MP Cost: 30MP LV Gained: 52 Target: Single Ally Elemental: None Quote: "Fairy Heal" "Please!" GREAT spell. If you've been leveling Rena up a LOT then you can get this as early as when you get to the Eluria Tower. It's really useful as at ~P(300) you'll be curing over 8000 HP! Here's the equation for the spell: HP Restored = 2800 + (MAG * 2) + (Prof. * 4) So every time you use it, an extra 4HP is restored so it really gets powerful quite quickly. ---Anti--- [A large magical rune is summoned by the caster and all allies are protected by orange sparks] MP Cost: 40MP LV Gained: 54 Target: All Allies Elemental: Void Quote: "Anti" This is another great spell. Anti will protect every one of your allies from enemy magic attacks, so it's absolutely essential for later bosses and the ones in the Cave of Trials. Seal this one as well and use it manually. It does not have a proficiency counter either. Some of the lesser spells are even negated by this spell!!! ---Raise Dead--- [A cone of light is cast upon the fallen ally as angels descend to heal him or her] MP Cost: 45MP LV Gained: 60 Target: Single ally Elemental: None Quote: "Restore mercy!" One of the best spells in the game, Raise Dead will save your life many times. The risen ally will be at 50% of their max HP when they're revived, so it might take another Fairy Heal or Fairy Light to get them healthy. The casting time is a little long, at about 5 seconds without Motormouth and cannot be improved, since this spell gains no Proficiency. If you need to revive somebody urgently, use an item instead. ---Star Flare--- [A large star hangs over the battle field as shards of it breaks off to crush the enemies] MP Cost: 26MP LV Gained: 63 Target: All enemies Elemental: Light Quote: "Star Flare" The opposite of Leon's Shadow Flare. Star Flare is a great spell for Rena even though it does not do heavy amounts of damage. It's a spell unique to Rena though, but it's not th best Light spell in the game (Celine's Lunar Light is). Star Flare is quick to cast, with Motormouth, it only takes one and half second! When you have high Proficiency, it'll be just as quick without Motormouth, so this is a dependable spell if you wanna disrupt the enemy mage's concentration. Damage is not that great, later in the game, it'll do 2000-3000 damage. Not bad for Rena. As a bonus, Star Flare is also extremely quick to animate! ---Fairy Light--- [Many beams of light shines upon the allies from the heavens and multiple angels descends.] MP Cost: 40 LV Gained: 65 Target: All allies Elemental: None Quote: "Fairy Heal" "Heal everyone!" HP Restored = 2200 + (MAG * 2) + (Prof. * 4) Fairy Light is another one of the most useful spells in the game, it heals everyone on your team for an ungodly amount. It has a lower Base HP than Fairy Heal, but since it doubles your MAG and each Proficiency point is worth another 4 HP, it really gets stronger quickly. Later on in the Cave of Trials, Rena will have to cast this spell repeatedly. ---Angel Feather--- [An angel descends from the heavens to give a character her blessing] MP Cost: 30MP LV Gained: 72 Target: Single ally Elemental: None Quote: "Angel Feather" Angel Feather will give a character an all-round stats boost, effectively a Haste + Growth + Protection + Bless combination, except each of the singular effects don't seem to be as effective as the seperate spells. It also gives a boost to evasion though, and a few others like magic defense and such. Use this during hard boss battles, but if you have access to the other stats-boost spells, feel free to use them also. CELINE JULES ------------ Celine is a free willed young woman from the Mars village famed for her abilities in Heraldry Arts and her beauty. Sick of the pre- arranged marriages from her parents, Celine leaves home to find excitements in treasure hunting, and maybe, just maybe, finding someone in the world that really takes her for who she really is. Celine is a very typical "sweetie darling" type of girl, who like expensive and classy objects. She's very open minded though, and can be quite romantic at the right times. Celine is also very generous, always giving her friends gifts. Initial stats: HP: 400 STR: 15 LUC: 154 MP: 100 CON: 8 STM: 14 LV: 8 DEX: 12 GUTS: 45 EXP: 735 AGL: 5 NEXT: 325 INT: 0 Initial equipment: Rod, Robe, Pin Heels, Ruby Earring, Prism Ring Initial skills: Mineralogy LV1 Craft LV1 Esthetic Sense LV5 Scientific Ability LV2 Fairyology LV2 Favourite Food: Baby Rabbit Risotto Favourite Instrument: Violin Favourite Quotes: - "Oh, is it already finished?" - "Behind me??" - "I deserve this!" - "I have no choice" (ALL of her quotes sounds really cool!) Favourite PA Moment: - Not a PA, but when you go to the clothes shop in Clik with Ketil, choose to dress up Celine and you'll get to see her in a bikini!!! - She got angry with me when I tried to steal from her and failed! - Who can forget the romantic side of her when she got engaged to a certain blond guy Not only is Celine one of the classiest chicks ever to be in an RPG, she's also quite a powerful character. I think Celine is the best attack magician in this game. Celine joins your party pretty early in the game, where her spells are unmatched, but like all magic users, their spells gets out classed by fighters as they can do much more damage in less time and don't have to bothered by the lengthy spell animations. What makes her more useful than Leon is that her spells controls more useful elements than Leon, that the enemies are often weak against. Celine is the master of Fire, Thunder, Star and Light, with a few spells of Wind, Void and Vacuum elemental, although a few of her better spells takes forever to animate. :( Physically, Celine is THE weakest character in the game, she has the lowest STR and her normal attacks are pathetic. Her ground attack is a swing with her rod. She obviously hasn't had any training as it has basically no range! Don't try to attack the enemies or it'll leave her VERY open to attacks. Her air attack is even worse, a swing that has no range. I can NEVER get her air attack to connect. Don't try, as she'll get hit instead. Celine can only wear the crappiest armor, so concentrate on a good MAG instead, and keep her at the back at all times. Celine also runs extremely slow in battles (the slowest) so it's almost impossible to escape (without Bunny Shoes) if an enemy gets on her tail. The AI controls magicians very badly in this game (although Celine is better than both Leon and Noel) as they'll just stand at the same place. The enemy casts a Firebolt and they'll just stand there. The Firebolt approaches and they just stand there... and gets hit by the worst spell in the game, time after time!!! Also, if enemies get to them, they'll only move at the LAST SECOND possible, therefore usually gets killed very quickly (there isn't even a strategy to make them move!) And lastly, magic users tend to stand there and be idled during the fights, even on the most aggressive AI setting, casting a spell occasionally whenever they feel like it. So if you're planning to use magic users in a serious fight, make sure YOU'RE controlling them. Celine has low STM earlier in the game, and since her spells are all quite expensive, her MP gets drained very quickly. Also, equip the weapon that gives her the best MAG, as you won't need her for attacking. Another thing of interest is that Celine is very gutsy for a magic user, with a GUTS level that rivals Claude's but I suppose it's not as useful for her as for a figher. ######Heraldry##### ---Firebolt--- [Celine launches a ball of fire at the enemy] MP Cost: 2MP LV Gained: NA Target: Single enemy Elemental: Fire Quote: "Firebolt" The weakest attacking spell in the game has many flaws, obviously. The first is that the Firebolt will pause in front of Celine for about 2 seconds before it launches itself. It also travels quite slowly. This spell is non-static so a hit is not guaranteed, but at that speed, it would be a miracle if it did hit an enemy at full screen. The casting time is 2 seconds. I only managed to do 15 points of damage when Celine first joined, so give this spell a break. Note around the 4th floor of the Cave of Trials, those Goat-head-like enemies can cast Firebolt but their Firebolts do around 2000+ damage to a character with neutral resistance!!!!! ---Wind Blade--- [Celine fires a slim tornado at the enemy] MP Cost: 2MP LV Gained: NA Target: Single enemy Elemental: Wind Quote: "Wind blade" The Wind elemental version of Firebolt, has identical drawbacks and same casting time. Wind Blade is better though, as the tornado is launched immediately upon casting, making this easier to hit with. The damage is also greater, I managed to deal 25 points! Put this on your ignore list, even if the enemy is weak against Wind, because Celine has much better spells. ---Thunderbolt--- [A small bolt to lightning blasts the enemy] MP Cost: 4MP LV Gained: NA Target: Single enemy Elemental: Thunder Quote: "Thunderbolt" The weakest Thunder spell. Unlike Firebolt and Wind Blade, this can actually hit the enemy most of the time, as the lightning appears right above where the enemy is standing. A bit more stronger, at 35 points damage. Only worth casting for the cute voice sample or when you're very early in the game. I sometimes cast this for fun (not that it's that much fun watching a lousy spell.) ---Ray--- [Countless rays of white light gathers in the air, as many slender beams of yellow lights are emitted and hits the enemies] MP Cost: 10MP LV Gained: 9 Target: All enemies Elemental: Light Quote: "Ray" "Go!" Unlike Rena, when Celine first receives Ray (the Cross Cave event) it's godly powerful, although takes a lot of MP to cast. It will deal about 80 points of damage at first, but won't rise very high. This is exceptionally useful when fighting the Gargoyles in the Cave of Cross. ---Energy Arrow--- [Numerous purple energy darts accumulates and explodes about the enemy] MP Co