Dark Dawn Gameplay/plot discussion (SPOILERS!)

[thenightsshadow]

It's very interesting to try out the optional bosses with a low level.  After beating Ancient Devil with an average level of 41, and the final boss with an average level of 43, I decided to try Star Magician at Level 43.


Except, my classes were different.
Front: Karis (Pure Mage), Matthew (Protector), Amiti (Pure Mage), Sveta (Pure Mage)
Back: Himi (Curse Master), Eoleo (Hull Reaver), Tyrell (Warrior - basically all the spare Djinni), Rief (Pure Mage)

I'm surprised at how easy that battle was, and I gained 4 levels with everyone in the front and 2 in the back.  It was ridiculous.

[Awec]

I guess you like Pure Mages...

Too much XP is given out in this game. I level up every 5 or so battles and on every boss battle. It's getting annoying.
Also, the forgeable items are epicness.

[thenightsshadow]

I would prefer other classes but that would screw over another two people not named Tyrell.  At least with this setup only one member suffers.

Edit:
Yes yes YES!  Dullahan has Crucible!  Awesome~

[Salanewt]

Those are nice classes. I have my team as...

Karis (Oracle), Matthew (Protector), Amiti (Aqua Master, and the only one using a base class), Sveta (Gladiator)
Himi (Diabolist), Eoleo (War Adept), Tyrell (War Adept), Rief (Guru)

But I always mix it up, so I do not have an actual front or back team. I was also not sure how to mix it up enough to give Eoleo and Tyrell different classes without messing up the others. Eoleo was once a Hull Reaver, but I wanted to mix it up a bit. Of course, Sveta ends up with the lowest amount of psynergy, but she does come with the Boon* set (basically like the Wind Cure, which none of the base classes seem to have) and Revive. Karis is probably my best though. She comes with the Cure set, Revive, 842 Agility (Zol Ring, which Obaba seems to make very rarely), 24 Luck (Iris Robe), 604 Attack (Masamume), and a few weak psynergy sets (like Bolt and Growth). Her Attack isn't much to brag about at her level, but it is still nice enough to consider it good. Himi is the class that comes after Curse Master. I think you should already know what most of her good stuff seems to be, such as the Undead psynergies. She has the lowest HP though, still below 1000.

Could you please tell me how you get Pure Mage again? I kind of forget...

Certainly, and some enemies do not give enough. For example, Tua Warriors are much easier than most of the monsters near Crossbone Isle, yet they give almost 3/4x as much experience. I mean, one Tua Warrior gives almost the same amount of experience as a Great Dragon, which seems to be about 4x as strong.

*Boon is like the Cure set, but each psynergy only costs 1 PP more than its Earth counterpart. Also, Potent Cure heals 300 HP (costs 10 PP), and Vital Boon heals 600, costing only 11 PP. So yeah, Karis and Sveta are my two best units. Matthew and Tyrell follow closely though, and then the others are not used as often. They are all good, just not as good as these two.

Have a nice day.

[Aile~♥]

Why on EARTH are you using the Seer series, Sala? Seer is a horrible class. Sure, it gets Revive, but Karis' base class has a more useful healing spell than Cure, and she gets Impact, as well as the all-powerful Spark Plasma. (Which looks an awful lot like Thunderbolt in Pokemon, and a lot like Thunder Blade in Tales of Phantasia.)

[Salanewt]

I barely use psynergy anymore, to be honest. Besides, I go for the Agility and Luck stats, or are they better in her base class? I also kind of like the name, and I am worried that I will mess up the other units if I make too many changes. Both Matthew and Rief have the Wish set, and I rarely need to heal anymore. Not to mention that Karis seems to be very good at unleashing Rising Dragon, which more often than not releases two heads instead of one. She is at the point where she can kill a Tua Warrior in one hit if her weapon unleashes the stronger Rising Dragon.

Mind, I don't need Revive anymore. I have over 60 Waters of Life, probably nearing 80 or 90. I never really use the stat boosting/lowering ones either though... I guess I can mix it up with Tyrell or something, to see what I get.

Have a nice day.

[Aile~♥]

I don't know about Luck, but I know her base class has higher Agility than Oracle.

[Salanewt]

Well, she is a Wizard now. Tyrell is also a Ronin. However, Amiti is a horrible Elder, which I can not really change without messing up the new classes. On the positive side, Karis now has 957 Agility and 30 Luck. I think Attack went down, but it can go back up easily if I train her some more.

But wah! Amiti kind of sucks now... upgrading him will make the others suffer.

Have a nice day.

Edit: Fixed! Tyrell is now a Chaos Lord, which makes Amiti a Wizard.

[thenightsshadow]

Pure Mage - Level 5 Jupiter, Level 5 Mercury, Level 4 Venus.

[Salanewt]

Sweet, thanks for telling me.

And... what should I do at this point? I still have my team at level 68+, because I have been a bit busy with some work. However, if I have every summon, and have killed every boss...

Have a nice day.

[Awec]

The bad thing: Challenging Star Magician with weak weapons, poor tactics and a level 38 team.
The good thing: The last sanctum being in Tonfon and having just rescued Ryu Kou and it his sister. Massive journey with annoying random battles skipped ftw.

Does anyone else find the way they prevented you from going to Indra, Osenia and other places rather irritating? (I can understand the land changing due to the Golden Sun's effect but why on earth would half of the ocean sink down like that?)

[Salanewt]

I hated the oceans being lower as well, it made little sense when compared to the past two games. Gaia Falls is eroding, so we need to light the lighthouses to... enhance the effect? Besides, how would people on the other continents get around? There is a chance that the Eclipse Tower did that though, since we are never actually on the ocean until the tower is activated. Still, it shows up on the map...

I would rather have been blocked by icebergs than waterfalls, since it is known that the icebergs were growing due to the eclipse. There was even a bit of ice in Tonfon, which was not directly in the darkness.

Have a nice day.

[Aile~♥]

Gaia Falls was always there and always will be. Unleashing Alchemy causes the constant creation of more water, so you don't have to worry about ever running out. Unleashing Alchemy also causes the land to stabilize, so it no longer erodes into the abyss.

[Menaus]

Also, the start of the two machines in Ei-Jei (Tell me if this is wrong I forgot the real name) made even MORE water, so now Weyard will either overflow, or just increase in size until it because another version of earth.

[Salanewt]

There is one problem with that though. It is well known that Eoleo and Piers have travelled the world, which would mean that Eoleo probably travelled the world within the previous 10 or 12 years of his life (he is not likely to travel when he is still a teenager, at least not by himself). He could have travelled with Briggs, but what about the waterfalls and that "artifact" ship? And then we still have Piers. According to what characters say, Piers is still travelling the world. He might have the ship from the Lost Age, but I almost have a feeling that Sheba is more likely to inherit the Hover Jade than he is (or that it is given back to the Shamans for... the next party to get).

Maybe, but it is making fresh water. I have a strange feeling that it will eventually mix in with the salt water, and then that is when the fish will return to the waters near Champa (since after all, the fish might have left because it became saltier).

Also, I think that is the right name of that region.

By the way, has anybody seen Chaucha in the game? When Briggs died, he told Eoleo to tell his mother (aka, Chaucha). Is that the only reference to her? I have not been able to find her, and none of the corpses near Champa think of anything that Chaucha would have thought (at least, none of them ever really referenced Eoleo or Briggs as family for them). I am starting to think that there might have been a translation error, where they thought that Obaba was Eoleo's mother (Briggs + Obaba sounds creepier than the Nowell + Piers thing to me, which has been stated as so).

Have a nice day.

[Hoopa]

You know that the encyclopedia specifically says Weyard is a disc shaped right? Its not a sphere or anything, and you can literally fall off the edge of the world.

[Aile~♥]

I think Ivan probably ended up with the Hover Jade, being the one who was supposed to fulfill the promise in the first place.

The reason the fish left Champa was because Poseidon's return caused the warming of the oceans. That would have been fixed as soon as Alchemy was released.

Yes I do know that Weyard is a disc planet.

[Awec]

Anyone else think that stat boosting items like Apples are given out way too often and weapons not often enough?
Seriously, there was a huge chunk of game where there were no Bows that could compare with other weapons the bow characters could use.  Also, there were several large parts where all Axes I found were substandard to the swords I found and even the ones in shops.
Also, I swear there are only 3 or so weapons actually found as Artifacts in shop lists and all others you have to find.

[Aile~♥]

Anyone of the opinion that you should be able to buy Spark Shuriken and Psy Grenades?

Considering you get, y'know, ONE of each of those items in the whole game?

I mean, at least you can buy Rice Rations and Plump Dumplings in Kaocho, but you never have access to the Psy Grenades used by the Stealthy Scouts, except for the one you get after the battle. And you get a Spark Shuriken from your first fight with Blados, but you can never get any more than that.

[Salanewt]

Yeah, and there is no chance of getting them from Tua Warriors either. It is the same with the Illusion Perfume. At the very least, they should have been reusable items.

As for Rice Rations and Plump Dumplings, I think you can also get those in Tonfon when the store is blocked in Kaocho. Still though, all of these items should be sold at stores, or dropped by other monsters.

Have a nice day.