Lunar 2 Review with Fan Fiction
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 9:54 pm
Lunar 2 Lessons Learned
Art:
*For the time the graphics were decidedly retro but that fit the game quite well and helped give some continuity between the Sega CD games and this one. However, if the game was remade today the graphics are really dated and would need upgrading but I dislike how SSH did it. A serious effort to make larger sprites with plenty of detail and beautiful backgrounds with things probably zoomed in a little more would be a good idea. Camera angle would have to be played around with overhead, isometric, and over the shoulder (with rotation of the screen) being the obvious choices. All of the sprites and backgrounds would have even more detail if zoomed in, which means there should be close ups for cut scenes so that they look somewhat like the anime cut scenes probably with less detail with anime cut scenes being left for really important events. However, if the game art can be done with as much detail as the anime cut scenes zoomed in then such cut scenes are supplanted.
Sound:
*The musical score is rather nice but really needs full orchestration and the middle sections of many songs such as Ghaleon's theme and Jean's theme should be heard more regularly since they make rather simple songs into well composed arrangements.
Gameplay:
*Players should not be required to full clear dungeons to keep their levels up, a rebalancing of the dungeons where grinding monsters is made easier by completionism in earlier dungeons is desired and of course bosses should not change in difficulty by being reliant as they are in Lunar SSSC on the party’s level for their power level
*Starting with two attacks for melee attackers is genius as it makes battles feel faster and more furious even with just one character
*Having the standard choice in the battle menu be command instead of AI is genius
*Ruby actually being able to do serious damage to early monsters makes her more endearing and useful. As well as the revenge function she has should Hiro be hurt.
*I like how there are heavy hitters like Gwyn and agile attackers like Hiro in this game. It makes melee feel more diverse and requires more thought when using formation and actions.
*Having dagger type weapons have more attacks than swords but deal less damage is genius and should have been played up more with more equipment options for Hiro that can be dagger related. Honestly, why is Hiro using big swords when he seems more like the cloak and dagger type as he's much more the rogue.
*It would be nice if Ronfar should be balanced combat wise a little differently. He seems like a heavy hitter like Gwyn but lacks Gwyns higher damage numbers compared to Hiro and Ronfar is less useful in melee than Jessica in SSSC, which is the minimum that should be allowed. Also given Ronfar’s severe combat weaknesses compared to Hiro and his ridiculously short range. Ronfar should do 40-50% more damage than one of Hiro's attacks and have a crit potential through the roof seeing he is mister lucky. This means that beyond his attack magic he would be more useful in combat, which is good considering his MP is better used on healing spells.
*Lucia usually does smart tactics for herself until Zulan given her near execution. The main thing I would change would be that she only escapes if one person dies, she always guards, and she always casts a spell at bottom of initiative depending on what happened. If she was not attacked then she casts Magic Shield and if she was attacked she retributions the last monster who attacked her with Napalm Shot.
*Lucia should have been someone you could control as soon as you dealt with her issues at Zulan. Her infinite MP isn't that bad as long as she lacks healing spells and it would make it feel like she's more a part of the party. Also if Lucia does have healing spells why is between battle healing a problem at all for Ronfar if Lucia cares about her friends?
*Jean starting out as a ranged attacker is great to spice up the party composition in normal battles.
*The items that prock at the end of a turn don't prock if you kill everything in the first round, which is odd and reduces such items real effectiveness. Items should always prock at the end of combat.
*The auto upgrading of spells in this game from weaker to stronger versions shouldn't happen. Instead the more powerful spells should just be added to that character's spell list as the weaker spell versions can be tremendously useful in dungeons to save mp.
*Hiro and Jean should have 3 attacks at roughly the same time in the game with Hiro maybe having the 3rd attack during the white or blue dragon caves. Jean outdoes him in damage and utility for quite a while currently and then suddenly drops off as you get to Zophar's domain and the epilogue, Ronfar also takes way too long to get 2 attacks. That said by the time you take on Zophar Jean should be sporting 4 attacks and Ronfar 3 attacks. Leo will be outshone by Hiro once he gets Althena's sword in the epilogue and Leo should get 3 attacks early in the epilogue to compensate, possibly getting his 3rd attack before taking on Zophar.
*The power of poe sword, blue dragon palm, and flash cut damage goes down significantly in the epilogue. As the number of standard attacks increases their usefulness decreases and they should be linked in attack power to the number of attacks you have to keep them relevant.
*The initial dungeon design is quite well done in regards to the first dungeon where you learn the ropes, the blue spire, the Destiny, and the Illusion Forest. I especially like the blue spire design as it is one of the best dungeons in the game.
*The mansion is a nasty dungeon that is too difficult and gives no clues to the upcoming boss battle. The Magic Masher also has too many hit points. You need to actively conserve MP in the mansion to beat it and even then you'll use a starlight on Ronfar which is a bad idea in a dungeon where the enemies are strong against physical attacks and weak against magic ones, which means you'll think you should use magic. The best way to get rid of this problem is to either lower the Masher's hit points and make it consistent with going in half cocked on all characters or by having a restore point, possibly a Goddess Statue in the mansion for luxury's sake.
*The Mystic Ruins are well made and last just long enough with interesting battles. Although why the game in Nota says there is undead there is beyond me as this setting lacks undead and the enemies are constructs. Although I'd lower the number of dark knights in the treasure rooms since 2-3 seems a bit much with 1-2 being a better idea.
*Starting with Zulan there is no real weakness in the dungeon design. When they need a restore point for a big fight there is the ability to have one such as in Zulan or Meribia's sewers. Taben's Peak isn't too long or too short and the dragon kid parts are pretty nifty. The cave of trial is also not poorly designed given its role as a speed bump. My only beef with the dungeons is not how they are made but instead their place in the scenario design as I go into into that section. Of course this solid design ends rather nastily at the white dragon cave.
*It has become clear by Azado that the game is far, far too restrictive with giving out crests and accessories. Given there are two slots for each there should be enough for the entire party to start really customizing themselves by Meribia at the latest. Also Vane of all places should sell crests and accessories which isn't the case.
*The Water Ruins Forest is designed poorly by making you fight several fights where you have to go all out and then stopping suddenly. This just adds to the need to get rid of the dungeon aspect of the ruins altogether given its really just an annoying combat speed bump.
*The fact you have to use the Goddess Statues in Azado multiple times and then fight a boss at the end shows that that the whole dungeon is simply too long and should be truncated with fewer battles. I enjoyed the difficulty of the battles though but did not like their frequency.
*Pentagulia is well designed and well balanced. I really enjoyed that dungeon.
*The White Dragon Cave is a slap in the face after Pentagulia. It is easily the longest dungeon so far in the game even beating Pentagulia after you include the time spent fighting the boss in addition to the enemies being less lethal than just plain annoying. I mean why do the Shiro Mongrels need a paralyze effect given their speed? Their ranged attack should remain but it should poison people instead since that makes more sense for heaving up your guts at someone like they do. Also the enemies would have been much better handled and the dungeon made shorter if the party was able to use magic the whole way through. Here the problem becomes the boss. At least the boss is highlighted as a boss before battling it so there is no surprise but without a restoration point before it to get back hp and mp it boils down to using a lot of starlights expensively, or going into the fight half cocked which only works if you know about the dispel tricks Lemina can do, or just leave the dungeon to get hp and mp back and then fight back down without using magic. In any case its a bad surprise for the player and before the boss there should be a restoration point to make things easier and the dungeon should be a little shorter ~45 minutes instead of ~65 minutes before the boss. Although the boss was a very interesting battle due to his use of buffs and zone effects which made the battle all the more interesting and nice to fight.
*The one on one battles like the one with Leo and Lunn are really easy and formulaic. Use best single target attack over and over and heal occasionally with a healing nut. At least Jean has the dopple dance if you're crafty to mix things up.
*The Blue Dragon Cave is little better than the White Dragon Cave. Instead of a large dungeon with a huge amount of annoying enemies you now get a large dungeon with a huge amount of easy enemies that would be even easier if you could only use magic regularly. yet if you do so you run into the trilemma in the white dragon cave all over again. Also as with the white fiend the blue fiend is at least given away so you can prepare but without a restoration point the white fiend trilemma comes up again. Although the battle was probably too easy since the blue fiend has a very limited repertoire of actions: area attack that mutes (which is annoying if you aren't careful with formation), zone attack that creates water element (the most interesting ability), zone wind attack (why doesn't the white fiend have wind too I wonder), and healing itself (which it rarely does).
*The bombs in the Zaback mines should give you there exp even if they suicide detonate against you. Their damage is enough of a hassle.
*In the Neo Cave of Trial the Dark Lords should give much more exp due to their tremendous lethality, greater than that of anything else in the dungeon. The Scream Spheres should give more exp and be much slower so that their zone mute can be stopped more easily. Also none of these enemies in the game should ever be strong against Lucia's raw divine destruction magic as is the case with several creatures.
*The Black Dragon Cave is very well done if a bit too long. The monsters are weak against physical attacks which means you can conserve your mp for the boss and no monsters seemed overpowered, although the zombies seemed too weak but then again they are designed to be a real pain if not killed fast. The only real quibble with the dungeon is that it takes an hour to get through to the fiend which I believe is too long especially given the upcoming dungeon swarm as the game climaxes. The black fiend is a very rough battle, which is a nice change of pace but one attack is over the top. That is the one which damages the whole party and has a chance of paralyzing everyone. It should still exist but in an area of effect way instead of a zone spell. Also as with the previous fiends the black fiend is at least given away so you can prepare for it. Although this fiend at least allows for no real need for a restoration point due to the nature of the monsters even without a restoration point which avoids the white dragon fiend trilemma problem. Although since I am advocating restoration points in all those other dragon caves it only makes sense to have one in this one.
*Serak Palace finally gives good exp which is great and was challenging to boot, which most of the dungeons up till now have not been. The enemies were very powerful and the use of strategy was a definite plus to get through the dungeon. My only two problems are that it is a bit long and that there are way too many enemies given the dungeon's size. However, both of these can be fixed quite easily by just lowering the enemy count. Mauri's Id is a very interesting monster and given the nature of the story segments can be quite variable in its power for the final encounter, which I see as an interesting thing to do.
*The Red Dragon Cave is a bit too long and the enemies seem more like obstacles than threats considering their survivability and the lack of any really dangerous enemy types. Really this dungeon is no better than the blue dragon cave which gave a ton of easy enemies while this one gives a ton of not really lethal but very hard to kill enemies. It felt like yet another speed bump in the game's story. Also, the blood slimes should be slower in initiative and be more clumped so Lemina can take them out with area of effects especially since the only thing that seems to really hurt them is water/ice magic. This cave would probably go a lot faster if you could actually really go all out with magic regularly, especially given the annoyance that are the blood slimes that are all wiped out with one ice zone spell. However, if you do use lots of magic you run into the white fiend trilemma in the white dragon cave all over again. I will say that the steep exp rise for battles is certainly a plus. As with all the previous fiends the red fiend is at least given away on the dungeon map so you can prepare although running into it in the middle of a floor full of monsters seems a less than ideal idea since one could barge right into the thing if not careful. The fiend was really very easy, probably the easiest so far, with the most predictable repertoire of abilities: attack, buff, or use massive fire element attack. Only the latter was actually interesting since it could KO party members if not at full hp and required a zone dispel afterwards. However, it does this maybe twice in the whole battle and all in all the fight was a disappointment after the very challenging black fiend.
*The length of Althena's Fort is way too long at 90 minutes just to get to the Goddess Tower. The saving grace is the goddess tower is maybe 8 minutes after Fake Althena is beaten. Also, Althena's Fort seems intended to push your MP to its limits and force you to actually use some starlights just to get through the dungeon, which isn't bad, but then again it would be nice to know there is a restoration point waiting for you should there be a boss fight. My solution is to do this by making it a habit to have restoration points before bosses as standard dungeon design. The Fort does have a nice number of enemies per floor with maybe 1 or maybe 2 enemy groups per arena box. One change that is needed is that the plasma mirror's secondary attack is way too powerful and can one shot most people in the party. Having the attack do 125-150 damage on average instead of 225-250 would help things out a bit especially when taking on four mirrors at the same time. That said the goddess statue before the Goddess Tower is genius in a way since you can finally use your magic in the Fort, which you need to, but the problem is this game has practically beat into you to not using magic in dungeons so using magic, which is required to beat some of the enemies, will likely not be your first choice unless you know of the restoration point. Lastly, Fake Althena is either way too easy if you are level 50+ allowing you to defeat her on the fourth round before her insta kill attack hits or she is ridiculously difficult if you are not power leveled. Unfortunately most of her abilities aren't much to talk about. Her defense increase is pathetic, her throw staff is easily cured with Tranquil Litany, her poison attack is just an annoyance, her single target sphere attack is only dangerous should it hit a low Def character like Lemina or Lucia who should be in back. She only has one serious attack which is her last one, which can easily wipe several party members in one go causing the battle to become a race against time before she uses that attack again to wipe the rest of the party. The fact that if you don't want to go into hectic battle mode you MUST use white dragon protect on that round is poor design since she doesn't power up or give any cues such power is about to be unleashed save her shoulder snakes going wild that round. Really to mix it up the poison attack should probably induce paralyze instead, she could have an attack that poisons everyone, her throw staff can stay, her Def increase should be substantial given Jean and Hiro are the two main attackers and use physical attacks, and her single target attack should be an insta kill. I would remove the line insta kill attack and buff her HP so the battle is difficult. Lastly, it should be very difficult to have the level 50+ abilities, especially triple strike, when fighting her so that the battle doesn't seem extremely easy. As in the only way to be level 50+ is to intentionally power level. Now these abilities are key against Zophar the next boss but honestly I'd just reward them when the party's true power is unleashed battling Ghaleon or by making the enemies in Zophar's domain drop gobs of exp practically assuring the party will be level 50+ by the time you fight Omni Zophar.
*Ghaleon is far too easy when he goes all out but I cover this in more detail in the Story section.
*Zophar's domain’s first half has pretty solid monsters, battles, and great exp. The only change would be replacing the mecha stars with something organic since Zophar is a fan of bio horror. The snatchers are clearly great for this. The second half is too easy except the fiend gates, which are suitably powerful, given they are the rare enemy in the last dungeon. The mace mashers don't do very much damage and given Zophar's theme should have been something suitably organic. The exp also goes way down in the 2nd half for some reason and the elemental seeds are pathetic. I would make them more interesting by having them be strong against all forms of attacks, including physical, and weak against their weak element as in they get 1 shot if a spell of their weak element hits. This would have made the numerous seed battles far more interesting, but to do this would likely mean putting a restoration point at the half way or end point of the dungeon so running out of MP completely doesn't leave the party in big trouble given mp restoration items should be saved for Zophar.
*Now If Zophar is going to have two forms then the first form should at least be a real threat. I can understand that Zophar would take a diminished form so he could travel around the world and exalt in his dominion so I see no real plot hole here. However, the weakness of the form is what surprises me. Only 4 attacks that are in a pre set sequence make for a rather dull fight which seems more like a speed bump than anything else especially given the huge jump in hp from Ghaleon to Zophar. Zophar's single target laser attack can be easily healed, his zone attack is easily healable, why he even has an area arrack that does roughly the same damage is unknown given its plain weaker, his strike that mutes a character is a rather nice ability but it should have done more damage. Really Zophar in his first form just seems, well straightforward and underpowered given this is the lesser form, really Avatar, of a dark god. Some ideas to fix this would be to perhaps give Zophar more status anomaly causing attacks that can cripple the party and to randomize his attacks after the first sequence of them is gone through. One idea may be an area of effect paralyze attack that deals serious damage. Also Ronfar should always be the one muted with the mute attack Zophar does to show Zophar isn't a dunce. His single target laser should also likely kill a party member outright and his zone attack should be brutal causing slightly more damage than can be healed with tranquil litany putting in a new layer of worry in the mix over the course of the battle. The 2nd form was well done seeing Zophar is tapping Lucia's power and using her spells to play with the party now that his Avatar is destroyed. It seemed futile at first, gave time for set up for the next form, and had good bits of story. The 3rd form is an epic battle suitable for a last boss but going straight for the main body to kill it before any of the four arms and end the battle quickly should have a major penalty to it such as more vicious attacks should the head be at half hp or lower with less than 2 arms down. Another idea would be that attacking the head takes hp away from one or more of the arms until they are weaker, maybe half hp, but still alive. Thus to beat Zophar you have to beat at least half the combined hp of all his arms and the head's hp. Also the battle in its current form is way too damn hard if you don't abuse white dragon protect, which is what I did to make the battle really epic but not horrifyingly difficult. Without spamming white dragon protect the battle becomes less really epic and more just too damn hard especially with so many attacks in a round coming from Zophar. The 4th form was cool in that it gave more story and allowed the battle to end with a denouement. It was also a good idea to not have too many cut scenes after beating Zophar so you can be in Vane and save your game now that its been well over an hour of playing to beat Zophar.
*Lemina's spells become less and less useful as the game advances starting with Zophar's domain and continuing through the epilogue. The only spell of real power if the enemy does not have a major elemental weakness is Catastrophe which is MP intensive to say the least. Also major elemental weaknesses are pretty rare starting with Zophar's domain and often unless you use the Chiro crest and Goddess crest combo Lemina will act long after her spells would have been moderately useful.
*The Brave Labyrinth is absolutely unnecessary. The dungeon has stupidly powerful enemies in the living swords and lady charm that make Zophar's baddest guys look weak. Lady charm herself is a major problem since she can one shot a party if you allow her to do her standard attack. The dungeon relies on chance or a gamefaq to figure out the second puzzle involving the statues, and has an unheard of in the setting magic item boss that is more powerful than Ghaleon. It also adds nothing to the game other than the chance to do a dungeon of which there are plenty in the epilogue. Also the magic item you get is game breakingly powerful and seems designed specifically to be that way. To be frank, I do not like the idea of optional dungeons in this game. The narrative does not support such down time. In the SCD version I knew there were serious issues with having Lion's Head and Dragon's Nest available since they were best done as you were in a rush to save the world before Zophar revived which is not a good time to do miscellaneous dungeon exploration. The optional epilogue dungeons are no better since Hiro is rushing to be with the woman he loves. The fact none of the four optional epilogue dungeons adds hardly anything to the game except magic items and dungeon crawling, of which there is plenty with the three non optional dungeons, causes me to fail to see their inclusion as a good thing at all.
*The Lost Labyrinth was an annoying dungeon if you don't have a gamefaq, has enemies far more powerful than in Zophar's domain, and on top of all this only gives Alex's Ocarina which allows access to BGM. The dungeon, though not Alex’s Ocarina, isn't even hinted at in any of the towns and thus should be taken out of the game.
*Lions Head is one of the worst dungeons I have ever crawled through. The enemies are monstrously powerful really way too powerful since to actually beat them you have to go through tons of starlights, the dungeon is too long, has a boss more annoying than dangerous, and gives almost no good loot. I am convinced that the brave labyrinth, lost labyrinth, and lion's head should be taken out and without them the idea of an optional dungeon becomes a bad one and thus perhaps dragon's nest should be taken out as well. This despite the fact of all the optional dungeons I believe dragon's nest is the best. It has a dungeon design that feels like its a maze making it better than most dungeons in this game in terms of design, its suitably long but not too long, has enemies that are powerful but not too powerful with the exception of the harpie's double attack, which should be toned down, gives good exp, and gives great loot. However, the other three dungeons do not deserve to make the final cut and having an optional dungeon is thus weird, but I would like to adapt the dungeon design of Dragon's Nest to another dungeon in the game such as perhaps one of the dragon caves. Though I can see one optional dungeon or two making it into the game but the only one I believe makes the cut is Dragon’s Nest.
*The Dragon Ruins was a solid dungeon. Its enemies were decently powerful but not so powerful you had to use up lots of starlights. The problem with having enemies roughly as powerful as those in the last dungeon of the standard game is something that may need to be addressed but despite this the dungeon's length feels about right, it gives great loot, and allows exploration of an area seen at the very beginning of the game. I do believe there should have been a restoration point before the Phantom Sentry as I have argued in the past for most dungeons since it allows the party to use magic in wandering battles which makes them far more interesting. The Sentry himself is a fairly straightforward boss who has a healable zone attack, an attack buff which can be dispelled, a line attack which does serious damage (I would argue it should do clearly more than the zone attack), and a combo which insta kills the party. I had reservations about the combo but no other enemy does anything like this and I think its a good idea to include such an attack somewhere in the game. Now the real problem is that the Sentry in many ways is as powerful if not a little more so than Zophar's 1st form which seems like a terrible idea for the sake of internal consistency.
*The Water Ruins are a solid dungeon. The difficulty finally feels like that which you found in SSSC, the enemies are varied and powerful, the puzzle is nice, and the loot is great. I'd make the dungeon a floor shorter, likely that final hallway of monsters to the water guardian would be taken out. I do believe there should have been a restoration point before the Water Guardian as I have argued in the past for most dungeons since it allows the party to use magic in wandering battles which makes them far more interesting. The Guardian himself is very damage based but is also very easy. The zone attack which does slightly more damage than you can heal is a good idea, the area lightning attack which does huge damage I believe should have been made into a one member auto kill ability as it has the potential of killing several characters at once if not fully healed. The bubble is a great idea but only lasts one round, it should last two. Something else should have been added such as perhaps a powerful healing ability that also raises Defense. The biggest problem with this boss though is that it is very easy to kill it in 4 rounds. In fact in my play through I decided to go back and retake this boss and even with Hiro being bubbled most of the time it still took 4 rounds to kill the boss. The boss needs far more hp to count as a threat since the abilities it uses seem best for a protracted battle to be most productive for producing a challenging fight.
*The epilogue should aim for 3-4 dungeons at about 1 hour and ten minutes per dungeon after bosses considering that all the exploration, which takes hours, is prior to the dungeons for the most part and the objective should be to give the player a challenge that doesn't wear them down to the point of not wanting to play as the current 7 dungeon scheme does.
*The Star Dragon Tower, which although signifying the final closure of the game, is very long and fairly tedious as the enemies are unlikely to kill you and more likely to just be speed bumps. This is exacerbated by the fact there are so many enemies in this dungeon and the floors are fairly large. The enemies were also not terribly interesting. The mirrors acted so fast that strategies against them were impossible along with being very common and resistant against Lemina's increasingly useless magic, the bomb angels although powerful were rare, the steel sentinels died fast to magic but also died fairly quickly to physical attacks which they should have been strong against, and the creepers were perhaps the best enemy because of their paralyze ability and the fact they had decent amounts of hp. Given this is the last dungeon and that the final boss is a 1 v 1 it seems that it would be best to have a shorter but more brutal dungeon with the enemies made more powerful and more easy to strategize against. The point would be making it so that the party is forced to go all out to win the battles in the tower efficiently. Better to end with a bang than a long whimper. A restoration point before the last boss is something that isn't needed but which I would again argue as I have with past dungeons is a good idea to put in. The Star Dragon himself is an incredibly weak last boss with a bunch of very basic elemental attacks. I took him out in 5 rounds without ever having to heal or replenish MP. I'd make him more deadly and instead of doing elemental attacks I'd probably switch to more Lucia like attacks that are non elemental and therefore not able to resist by Hiro along with upping his hp and making sure his magic attacks do about 1/3 of Hiro's max hp (~150-200 hp per attack) in damage. This would mean that although the battle is fairly straightforward and requires healing items it feels like you worked hard to earn the victory.
Art:
*For the time the graphics were decidedly retro but that fit the game quite well and helped give some continuity between the Sega CD games and this one. However, if the game was remade today the graphics are really dated and would need upgrading but I dislike how SSH did it. A serious effort to make larger sprites with plenty of detail and beautiful backgrounds with things probably zoomed in a little more would be a good idea. Camera angle would have to be played around with overhead, isometric, and over the shoulder (with rotation of the screen) being the obvious choices. All of the sprites and backgrounds would have even more detail if zoomed in, which means there should be close ups for cut scenes so that they look somewhat like the anime cut scenes probably with less detail with anime cut scenes being left for really important events. However, if the game art can be done with as much detail as the anime cut scenes zoomed in then such cut scenes are supplanted.
Sound:
*The musical score is rather nice but really needs full orchestration and the middle sections of many songs such as Ghaleon's theme and Jean's theme should be heard more regularly since they make rather simple songs into well composed arrangements.
Gameplay:
*Players should not be required to full clear dungeons to keep their levels up, a rebalancing of the dungeons where grinding monsters is made easier by completionism in earlier dungeons is desired and of course bosses should not change in difficulty by being reliant as they are in Lunar SSSC on the party’s level for their power level
*Starting with two attacks for melee attackers is genius as it makes battles feel faster and more furious even with just one character
*Having the standard choice in the battle menu be command instead of AI is genius
*Ruby actually being able to do serious damage to early monsters makes her more endearing and useful. As well as the revenge function she has should Hiro be hurt.
*I like how there are heavy hitters like Gwyn and agile attackers like Hiro in this game. It makes melee feel more diverse and requires more thought when using formation and actions.
*Having dagger type weapons have more attacks than swords but deal less damage is genius and should have been played up more with more equipment options for Hiro that can be dagger related. Honestly, why is Hiro using big swords when he seems more like the cloak and dagger type as he's much more the rogue.
*It would be nice if Ronfar should be balanced combat wise a little differently. He seems like a heavy hitter like Gwyn but lacks Gwyns higher damage numbers compared to Hiro and Ronfar is less useful in melee than Jessica in SSSC, which is the minimum that should be allowed. Also given Ronfar’s severe combat weaknesses compared to Hiro and his ridiculously short range. Ronfar should do 40-50% more damage than one of Hiro's attacks and have a crit potential through the roof seeing he is mister lucky. This means that beyond his attack magic he would be more useful in combat, which is good considering his MP is better used on healing spells.
*Lucia usually does smart tactics for herself until Zulan given her near execution. The main thing I would change would be that she only escapes if one person dies, she always guards, and she always casts a spell at bottom of initiative depending on what happened. If she was not attacked then she casts Magic Shield and if she was attacked she retributions the last monster who attacked her with Napalm Shot.
*Lucia should have been someone you could control as soon as you dealt with her issues at Zulan. Her infinite MP isn't that bad as long as she lacks healing spells and it would make it feel like she's more a part of the party. Also if Lucia does have healing spells why is between battle healing a problem at all for Ronfar if Lucia cares about her friends?
*Jean starting out as a ranged attacker is great to spice up the party composition in normal battles.
*The items that prock at the end of a turn don't prock if you kill everything in the first round, which is odd and reduces such items real effectiveness. Items should always prock at the end of combat.
*The auto upgrading of spells in this game from weaker to stronger versions shouldn't happen. Instead the more powerful spells should just be added to that character's spell list as the weaker spell versions can be tremendously useful in dungeons to save mp.
*Hiro and Jean should have 3 attacks at roughly the same time in the game with Hiro maybe having the 3rd attack during the white or blue dragon caves. Jean outdoes him in damage and utility for quite a while currently and then suddenly drops off as you get to Zophar's domain and the epilogue, Ronfar also takes way too long to get 2 attacks. That said by the time you take on Zophar Jean should be sporting 4 attacks and Ronfar 3 attacks. Leo will be outshone by Hiro once he gets Althena's sword in the epilogue and Leo should get 3 attacks early in the epilogue to compensate, possibly getting his 3rd attack before taking on Zophar.
*The power of poe sword, blue dragon palm, and flash cut damage goes down significantly in the epilogue. As the number of standard attacks increases their usefulness decreases and they should be linked in attack power to the number of attacks you have to keep them relevant.
*The initial dungeon design is quite well done in regards to the first dungeon where you learn the ropes, the blue spire, the Destiny, and the Illusion Forest. I especially like the blue spire design as it is one of the best dungeons in the game.
*The mansion is a nasty dungeon that is too difficult and gives no clues to the upcoming boss battle. The Magic Masher also has too many hit points. You need to actively conserve MP in the mansion to beat it and even then you'll use a starlight on Ronfar which is a bad idea in a dungeon where the enemies are strong against physical attacks and weak against magic ones, which means you'll think you should use magic. The best way to get rid of this problem is to either lower the Masher's hit points and make it consistent with going in half cocked on all characters or by having a restore point, possibly a Goddess Statue in the mansion for luxury's sake.
*The Mystic Ruins are well made and last just long enough with interesting battles. Although why the game in Nota says there is undead there is beyond me as this setting lacks undead and the enemies are constructs. Although I'd lower the number of dark knights in the treasure rooms since 2-3 seems a bit much with 1-2 being a better idea.
*Starting with Zulan there is no real weakness in the dungeon design. When they need a restore point for a big fight there is the ability to have one such as in Zulan or Meribia's sewers. Taben's Peak isn't too long or too short and the dragon kid parts are pretty nifty. The cave of trial is also not poorly designed given its role as a speed bump. My only beef with the dungeons is not how they are made but instead their place in the scenario design as I go into into that section. Of course this solid design ends rather nastily at the white dragon cave.
*It has become clear by Azado that the game is far, far too restrictive with giving out crests and accessories. Given there are two slots for each there should be enough for the entire party to start really customizing themselves by Meribia at the latest. Also Vane of all places should sell crests and accessories which isn't the case.
*The Water Ruins Forest is designed poorly by making you fight several fights where you have to go all out and then stopping suddenly. This just adds to the need to get rid of the dungeon aspect of the ruins altogether given its really just an annoying combat speed bump.
*The fact you have to use the Goddess Statues in Azado multiple times and then fight a boss at the end shows that that the whole dungeon is simply too long and should be truncated with fewer battles. I enjoyed the difficulty of the battles though but did not like their frequency.
*Pentagulia is well designed and well balanced. I really enjoyed that dungeon.
*The White Dragon Cave is a slap in the face after Pentagulia. It is easily the longest dungeon so far in the game even beating Pentagulia after you include the time spent fighting the boss in addition to the enemies being less lethal than just plain annoying. I mean why do the Shiro Mongrels need a paralyze effect given their speed? Their ranged attack should remain but it should poison people instead since that makes more sense for heaving up your guts at someone like they do. Also the enemies would have been much better handled and the dungeon made shorter if the party was able to use magic the whole way through. Here the problem becomes the boss. At least the boss is highlighted as a boss before battling it so there is no surprise but without a restoration point before it to get back hp and mp it boils down to using a lot of starlights expensively, or going into the fight half cocked which only works if you know about the dispel tricks Lemina can do, or just leave the dungeon to get hp and mp back and then fight back down without using magic. In any case its a bad surprise for the player and before the boss there should be a restoration point to make things easier and the dungeon should be a little shorter ~45 minutes instead of ~65 minutes before the boss. Although the boss was a very interesting battle due to his use of buffs and zone effects which made the battle all the more interesting and nice to fight.
*The one on one battles like the one with Leo and Lunn are really easy and formulaic. Use best single target attack over and over and heal occasionally with a healing nut. At least Jean has the dopple dance if you're crafty to mix things up.
*The Blue Dragon Cave is little better than the White Dragon Cave. Instead of a large dungeon with a huge amount of annoying enemies you now get a large dungeon with a huge amount of easy enemies that would be even easier if you could only use magic regularly. yet if you do so you run into the trilemma in the white dragon cave all over again. Also as with the white fiend the blue fiend is at least given away so you can prepare but without a restoration point the white fiend trilemma comes up again. Although the battle was probably too easy since the blue fiend has a very limited repertoire of actions: area attack that mutes (which is annoying if you aren't careful with formation), zone attack that creates water element (the most interesting ability), zone wind attack (why doesn't the white fiend have wind too I wonder), and healing itself (which it rarely does).
*The bombs in the Zaback mines should give you there exp even if they suicide detonate against you. Their damage is enough of a hassle.
*In the Neo Cave of Trial the Dark Lords should give much more exp due to their tremendous lethality, greater than that of anything else in the dungeon. The Scream Spheres should give more exp and be much slower so that their zone mute can be stopped more easily. Also none of these enemies in the game should ever be strong against Lucia's raw divine destruction magic as is the case with several creatures.
*The Black Dragon Cave is very well done if a bit too long. The monsters are weak against physical attacks which means you can conserve your mp for the boss and no monsters seemed overpowered, although the zombies seemed too weak but then again they are designed to be a real pain if not killed fast. The only real quibble with the dungeon is that it takes an hour to get through to the fiend which I believe is too long especially given the upcoming dungeon swarm as the game climaxes. The black fiend is a very rough battle, which is a nice change of pace but one attack is over the top. That is the one which damages the whole party and has a chance of paralyzing everyone. It should still exist but in an area of effect way instead of a zone spell. Also as with the previous fiends the black fiend is at least given away so you can prepare for it. Although this fiend at least allows for no real need for a restoration point due to the nature of the monsters even without a restoration point which avoids the white dragon fiend trilemma problem. Although since I am advocating restoration points in all those other dragon caves it only makes sense to have one in this one.
*Serak Palace finally gives good exp which is great and was challenging to boot, which most of the dungeons up till now have not been. The enemies were very powerful and the use of strategy was a definite plus to get through the dungeon. My only two problems are that it is a bit long and that there are way too many enemies given the dungeon's size. However, both of these can be fixed quite easily by just lowering the enemy count. Mauri's Id is a very interesting monster and given the nature of the story segments can be quite variable in its power for the final encounter, which I see as an interesting thing to do.
*The Red Dragon Cave is a bit too long and the enemies seem more like obstacles than threats considering their survivability and the lack of any really dangerous enemy types. Really this dungeon is no better than the blue dragon cave which gave a ton of easy enemies while this one gives a ton of not really lethal but very hard to kill enemies. It felt like yet another speed bump in the game's story. Also, the blood slimes should be slower in initiative and be more clumped so Lemina can take them out with area of effects especially since the only thing that seems to really hurt them is water/ice magic. This cave would probably go a lot faster if you could actually really go all out with magic regularly, especially given the annoyance that are the blood slimes that are all wiped out with one ice zone spell. However, if you do use lots of magic you run into the white fiend trilemma in the white dragon cave all over again. I will say that the steep exp rise for battles is certainly a plus. As with all the previous fiends the red fiend is at least given away on the dungeon map so you can prepare although running into it in the middle of a floor full of monsters seems a less than ideal idea since one could barge right into the thing if not careful. The fiend was really very easy, probably the easiest so far, with the most predictable repertoire of abilities: attack, buff, or use massive fire element attack. Only the latter was actually interesting since it could KO party members if not at full hp and required a zone dispel afterwards. However, it does this maybe twice in the whole battle and all in all the fight was a disappointment after the very challenging black fiend.
*The length of Althena's Fort is way too long at 90 minutes just to get to the Goddess Tower. The saving grace is the goddess tower is maybe 8 minutes after Fake Althena is beaten. Also, Althena's Fort seems intended to push your MP to its limits and force you to actually use some starlights just to get through the dungeon, which isn't bad, but then again it would be nice to know there is a restoration point waiting for you should there be a boss fight. My solution is to do this by making it a habit to have restoration points before bosses as standard dungeon design. The Fort does have a nice number of enemies per floor with maybe 1 or maybe 2 enemy groups per arena box. One change that is needed is that the plasma mirror's secondary attack is way too powerful and can one shot most people in the party. Having the attack do 125-150 damage on average instead of 225-250 would help things out a bit especially when taking on four mirrors at the same time. That said the goddess statue before the Goddess Tower is genius in a way since you can finally use your magic in the Fort, which you need to, but the problem is this game has practically beat into you to not using magic in dungeons so using magic, which is required to beat some of the enemies, will likely not be your first choice unless you know of the restoration point. Lastly, Fake Althena is either way too easy if you are level 50+ allowing you to defeat her on the fourth round before her insta kill attack hits or she is ridiculously difficult if you are not power leveled. Unfortunately most of her abilities aren't much to talk about. Her defense increase is pathetic, her throw staff is easily cured with Tranquil Litany, her poison attack is just an annoyance, her single target sphere attack is only dangerous should it hit a low Def character like Lemina or Lucia who should be in back. She only has one serious attack which is her last one, which can easily wipe several party members in one go causing the battle to become a race against time before she uses that attack again to wipe the rest of the party. The fact that if you don't want to go into hectic battle mode you MUST use white dragon protect on that round is poor design since she doesn't power up or give any cues such power is about to be unleashed save her shoulder snakes going wild that round. Really to mix it up the poison attack should probably induce paralyze instead, she could have an attack that poisons everyone, her throw staff can stay, her Def increase should be substantial given Jean and Hiro are the two main attackers and use physical attacks, and her single target attack should be an insta kill. I would remove the line insta kill attack and buff her HP so the battle is difficult. Lastly, it should be very difficult to have the level 50+ abilities, especially triple strike, when fighting her so that the battle doesn't seem extremely easy. As in the only way to be level 50+ is to intentionally power level. Now these abilities are key against Zophar the next boss but honestly I'd just reward them when the party's true power is unleashed battling Ghaleon or by making the enemies in Zophar's domain drop gobs of exp practically assuring the party will be level 50+ by the time you fight Omni Zophar.
*Ghaleon is far too easy when he goes all out but I cover this in more detail in the Story section.
*Zophar's domain’s first half has pretty solid monsters, battles, and great exp. The only change would be replacing the mecha stars with something organic since Zophar is a fan of bio horror. The snatchers are clearly great for this. The second half is too easy except the fiend gates, which are suitably powerful, given they are the rare enemy in the last dungeon. The mace mashers don't do very much damage and given Zophar's theme should have been something suitably organic. The exp also goes way down in the 2nd half for some reason and the elemental seeds are pathetic. I would make them more interesting by having them be strong against all forms of attacks, including physical, and weak against their weak element as in they get 1 shot if a spell of their weak element hits. This would have made the numerous seed battles far more interesting, but to do this would likely mean putting a restoration point at the half way or end point of the dungeon so running out of MP completely doesn't leave the party in big trouble given mp restoration items should be saved for Zophar.
*Now If Zophar is going to have two forms then the first form should at least be a real threat. I can understand that Zophar would take a diminished form so he could travel around the world and exalt in his dominion so I see no real plot hole here. However, the weakness of the form is what surprises me. Only 4 attacks that are in a pre set sequence make for a rather dull fight which seems more like a speed bump than anything else especially given the huge jump in hp from Ghaleon to Zophar. Zophar's single target laser attack can be easily healed, his zone attack is easily healable, why he even has an area arrack that does roughly the same damage is unknown given its plain weaker, his strike that mutes a character is a rather nice ability but it should have done more damage. Really Zophar in his first form just seems, well straightforward and underpowered given this is the lesser form, really Avatar, of a dark god. Some ideas to fix this would be to perhaps give Zophar more status anomaly causing attacks that can cripple the party and to randomize his attacks after the first sequence of them is gone through. One idea may be an area of effect paralyze attack that deals serious damage. Also Ronfar should always be the one muted with the mute attack Zophar does to show Zophar isn't a dunce. His single target laser should also likely kill a party member outright and his zone attack should be brutal causing slightly more damage than can be healed with tranquil litany putting in a new layer of worry in the mix over the course of the battle. The 2nd form was well done seeing Zophar is tapping Lucia's power and using her spells to play with the party now that his Avatar is destroyed. It seemed futile at first, gave time for set up for the next form, and had good bits of story. The 3rd form is an epic battle suitable for a last boss but going straight for the main body to kill it before any of the four arms and end the battle quickly should have a major penalty to it such as more vicious attacks should the head be at half hp or lower with less than 2 arms down. Another idea would be that attacking the head takes hp away from one or more of the arms until they are weaker, maybe half hp, but still alive. Thus to beat Zophar you have to beat at least half the combined hp of all his arms and the head's hp. Also the battle in its current form is way too damn hard if you don't abuse white dragon protect, which is what I did to make the battle really epic but not horrifyingly difficult. Without spamming white dragon protect the battle becomes less really epic and more just too damn hard especially with so many attacks in a round coming from Zophar. The 4th form was cool in that it gave more story and allowed the battle to end with a denouement. It was also a good idea to not have too many cut scenes after beating Zophar so you can be in Vane and save your game now that its been well over an hour of playing to beat Zophar.
*Lemina's spells become less and less useful as the game advances starting with Zophar's domain and continuing through the epilogue. The only spell of real power if the enemy does not have a major elemental weakness is Catastrophe which is MP intensive to say the least. Also major elemental weaknesses are pretty rare starting with Zophar's domain and often unless you use the Chiro crest and Goddess crest combo Lemina will act long after her spells would have been moderately useful.
*The Brave Labyrinth is absolutely unnecessary. The dungeon has stupidly powerful enemies in the living swords and lady charm that make Zophar's baddest guys look weak. Lady charm herself is a major problem since she can one shot a party if you allow her to do her standard attack. The dungeon relies on chance or a gamefaq to figure out the second puzzle involving the statues, and has an unheard of in the setting magic item boss that is more powerful than Ghaleon. It also adds nothing to the game other than the chance to do a dungeon of which there are plenty in the epilogue. Also the magic item you get is game breakingly powerful and seems designed specifically to be that way. To be frank, I do not like the idea of optional dungeons in this game. The narrative does not support such down time. In the SCD version I knew there were serious issues with having Lion's Head and Dragon's Nest available since they were best done as you were in a rush to save the world before Zophar revived which is not a good time to do miscellaneous dungeon exploration. The optional epilogue dungeons are no better since Hiro is rushing to be with the woman he loves. The fact none of the four optional epilogue dungeons adds hardly anything to the game except magic items and dungeon crawling, of which there is plenty with the three non optional dungeons, causes me to fail to see their inclusion as a good thing at all.
*The Lost Labyrinth was an annoying dungeon if you don't have a gamefaq, has enemies far more powerful than in Zophar's domain, and on top of all this only gives Alex's Ocarina which allows access to BGM. The dungeon, though not Alex’s Ocarina, isn't even hinted at in any of the towns and thus should be taken out of the game.
*Lions Head is one of the worst dungeons I have ever crawled through. The enemies are monstrously powerful really way too powerful since to actually beat them you have to go through tons of starlights, the dungeon is too long, has a boss more annoying than dangerous, and gives almost no good loot. I am convinced that the brave labyrinth, lost labyrinth, and lion's head should be taken out and without them the idea of an optional dungeon becomes a bad one and thus perhaps dragon's nest should be taken out as well. This despite the fact of all the optional dungeons I believe dragon's nest is the best. It has a dungeon design that feels like its a maze making it better than most dungeons in this game in terms of design, its suitably long but not too long, has enemies that are powerful but not too powerful with the exception of the harpie's double attack, which should be toned down, gives good exp, and gives great loot. However, the other three dungeons do not deserve to make the final cut and having an optional dungeon is thus weird, but I would like to adapt the dungeon design of Dragon's Nest to another dungeon in the game such as perhaps one of the dragon caves. Though I can see one optional dungeon or two making it into the game but the only one I believe makes the cut is Dragon’s Nest.
*The Dragon Ruins was a solid dungeon. Its enemies were decently powerful but not so powerful you had to use up lots of starlights. The problem with having enemies roughly as powerful as those in the last dungeon of the standard game is something that may need to be addressed but despite this the dungeon's length feels about right, it gives great loot, and allows exploration of an area seen at the very beginning of the game. I do believe there should have been a restoration point before the Phantom Sentry as I have argued in the past for most dungeons since it allows the party to use magic in wandering battles which makes them far more interesting. The Sentry himself is a fairly straightforward boss who has a healable zone attack, an attack buff which can be dispelled, a line attack which does serious damage (I would argue it should do clearly more than the zone attack), and a combo which insta kills the party. I had reservations about the combo but no other enemy does anything like this and I think its a good idea to include such an attack somewhere in the game. Now the real problem is that the Sentry in many ways is as powerful if not a little more so than Zophar's 1st form which seems like a terrible idea for the sake of internal consistency.
*The Water Ruins are a solid dungeon. The difficulty finally feels like that which you found in SSSC, the enemies are varied and powerful, the puzzle is nice, and the loot is great. I'd make the dungeon a floor shorter, likely that final hallway of monsters to the water guardian would be taken out. I do believe there should have been a restoration point before the Water Guardian as I have argued in the past for most dungeons since it allows the party to use magic in wandering battles which makes them far more interesting. The Guardian himself is very damage based but is also very easy. The zone attack which does slightly more damage than you can heal is a good idea, the area lightning attack which does huge damage I believe should have been made into a one member auto kill ability as it has the potential of killing several characters at once if not fully healed. The bubble is a great idea but only lasts one round, it should last two. Something else should have been added such as perhaps a powerful healing ability that also raises Defense. The biggest problem with this boss though is that it is very easy to kill it in 4 rounds. In fact in my play through I decided to go back and retake this boss and even with Hiro being bubbled most of the time it still took 4 rounds to kill the boss. The boss needs far more hp to count as a threat since the abilities it uses seem best for a protracted battle to be most productive for producing a challenging fight.
*The epilogue should aim for 3-4 dungeons at about 1 hour and ten minutes per dungeon after bosses considering that all the exploration, which takes hours, is prior to the dungeons for the most part and the objective should be to give the player a challenge that doesn't wear them down to the point of not wanting to play as the current 7 dungeon scheme does.
*The Star Dragon Tower, which although signifying the final closure of the game, is very long and fairly tedious as the enemies are unlikely to kill you and more likely to just be speed bumps. This is exacerbated by the fact there are so many enemies in this dungeon and the floors are fairly large. The enemies were also not terribly interesting. The mirrors acted so fast that strategies against them were impossible along with being very common and resistant against Lemina's increasingly useless magic, the bomb angels although powerful were rare, the steel sentinels died fast to magic but also died fairly quickly to physical attacks which they should have been strong against, and the creepers were perhaps the best enemy because of their paralyze ability and the fact they had decent amounts of hp. Given this is the last dungeon and that the final boss is a 1 v 1 it seems that it would be best to have a shorter but more brutal dungeon with the enemies made more powerful and more easy to strategize against. The point would be making it so that the party is forced to go all out to win the battles in the tower efficiently. Better to end with a bang than a long whimper. A restoration point before the last boss is something that isn't needed but which I would again argue as I have with past dungeons is a good idea to put in. The Star Dragon himself is an incredibly weak last boss with a bunch of very basic elemental attacks. I took him out in 5 rounds without ever having to heal or replenish MP. I'd make him more deadly and instead of doing elemental attacks I'd probably switch to more Lucia like attacks that are non elemental and therefore not able to resist by Hiro along with upping his hp and making sure his magic attacks do about 1/3 of Hiro's max hp (~150-200 hp per attack) in damage. This would mean that although the battle is fairly straightforward and requires healing items it feels like you worked hard to earn the victory.