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I know, i keep saying how how i've clocked (by now) 1k plus hours of elminage gothic... and yet it is only now on this current playthrough that i have ever bothered to do the quest inside Ulzir Hall Mansion where the reward is an L-range, any class, any race weapon that is sub-type; not only that i also went and did for the very first time ever the un-marked quest of learning the language of the future inside the mansion.
I've read that if you seek out the future-language pages inside the inner Sanctum dungeon after doing that in the Mansion dungeon it says you receive a message from the future: this was supposed to be the "next generation" code the player would enter in future versions of the game, or in the sequel.
Sadly...
1. translation team never got around to properly translating the message(s). probably due to lack of documentation.
2. thus in the eng. language ver. of elmi: Gothic (i.e. the PC version) that unmarked quest goes nowhere.
At least in elminage original they managed to properly translate the next generation code message (which can be used in elminage 2; the code works in both DS/PSP versions). it gives you 1x Power Medal and unlocks all classes for choosing regardless of bonus point roll.
- in elmi: original said msg. from the future is found by playing the post-game dungeon then going back to the dragon's fang's top floor.
Another quest i've never bothered doing (which i'm planning on doing on this final playthrough) is getting the staff of transformation in cave of the ancients. Hell, if Courtier hadn't mentioned the existence of this thing I don't think I'd ever even know it exists.
Not related to any of that but, in current 3ds playthrough, i edited the spells to make all of them do more damage, and tripled the damage done by enterook mista. Right now if an enemy casts enterook mista it's a possible party wipe for my party; with the only safety net being i have 1 character who is a Magic Doll and they have natural 50% resistance, so it has already been the case that he's the only survivor.
Really puts the fear of fucking god into me knowing I can get wiped by 1 enterook mista from the enemy so if i know that they can cast that it makes the fight much more intense.
(All told, the damage is basically back up to where it was in elminage: original, a bit higher. In E: Original, in dragon's fang / post-game dungeon, Vampire Lords will wipe out your party with 1 enterook mista or two. I wanted to have that feeling again).
Also QUADRUPLED the Elnam damage and since most devil/undead/ghost enemies can cast it I am constantly getting fucked with that spell. Have needed to smith holy resistance on everybody.
Obviously this means my own party's Elnam/Mista also do that kind of dmg but it's not the same: player fights millions of enemies so the danger far, far outweighs any possible benefit for the player.
Well, Don Mags from the volcano can wipeout party members with one E. Mista due to his high elemental attrubutes and war rite. Even the japanese wiki states that it is a dangerous enemy. He could deal between 140~180 points of damage to my party with one Mista spell
I'd like to try the 3Ds Remix, so I downloaded a ROM and Citra emulator, but aparently I have to decrypt the ROM, to make it work on the emulator. I'm searching google, and I don't see any straightforward way to make it without a homebrewed 3DS machine. Can anyone PM me a link to a decrypted ROM?
I personally don't care much about stats overall, they're pretty much just for class change(they do help but people worry too much about them...). I'd go with vitality then agi/luck I guess.
anyway you should probably start with something else and then change later to summoner so he got more tool than just his pet.
I don't think any stats help with summons. Might make him a dragon newt to at least breath fire and be useful in combat.
And like Dorarnae advised, teach him as many spellcasting classes as possible. Wisdom might help with healing spells and resurrections if he learns cleric spells. Int... well he won't be much of a nuker anyway, on the mage/alchemist side better focus on buffs and debuffs.
What does this moonspeak even mean?
Nobody on the internet seem to bother to describe in any detail how the barrier's decline with use works.
Where can see its relative strength? How many casts do I have? Does it increase with levels? What is drop rate (11%)? What are the steps in its decline?
this is my current version of my eng-lang 3ds elminage gothic ROM (don't expect NPC dialog/conversations, though, way too much work for 1 person even already having an english script):
I'm trying to upload this 3ds edited ROM to firedrop but my connection's upload is beyond crap and it times out (or firedrop itself is crap). Do you know where I can "easily" upload a 1.2 gb file?
alternatively, i am looking into making a "patch" that'll implement my work onto the 3ds rom but 3ds rom hacking is so new i wouldn't know where to start. (i.e. i'm too tired to google through countless gbatemp threads and/or ask for help).
(the point of this post btw is because you expressed interest in playing the 3ds version; i can offer you an "everything-except-npc-dialog" decrypted rom of 3ds gothic).
But, and this is super important:
I RECOMMEND PLAYING AND FINISHING ELMINAGE: GOTHIC IN WINDOWS PC, I.E. YOUR STEAM/GOG VERSION, AND NOT WORRY OVERMUCH (OR RATHER, AT ALL) ABOUT THE 3DS RE-RELEASE. YES, IT HAS NEW ITEMS, AND LIKE 5 NEW MOBS, BUT OVERALL IT IS AN INFERIOR EXPERIENCE/GAME TO THE ORIGINAL VERSION (pc/psp VERSIONS)--
--3DS REMIX ver. IS "DUMBED DOWN" (IN TERMS OF BEING MUCH, MUCH EASIER THAN THE ORIGINAL VERSION) AND ONCE AGAIN I RECOMMEND PLAYING AND FINISHING THE PC VERSION INSTEAD AND THEN, AND ONLY THEN IF STILL NEEDING/INTERESTED IN PLAYING THE 3DS VERSION THEN DOING SO.
I THINK PLAYING THE 3DS VERSION FIRST, REGARDLESS OF ITS LANGUAGE, IS A "MISTAKE", AS THE PC VERSION IS THE TRUE AND DEFINITIVE VERSION, EVEN IF IT DOESN'T FEATURE THE EXTRA ITEMS IN THE 3DS VERSION (WHICH, BTW, ARE ALL SUPER OVER-POWERED AND SIMPLY SERVE TO CASUALIZE THE GAME).
The game starts slow. The first dungeon is not very good and is a chore to navigate without Diomente. I wish they had designed the first dungeon with shortcuts like Wiz 1 until you get Diomente.
The combat and class system are top notch of course, but The first dungeon I truly enjoyed is the underground Church (Ice cave wasn't bad). Very tight level design design there:
- Shortcuts between levels. You need less diomente here than in first dungeon, lol.
- Some mandatory areas with no teleport zones to force you to not be lazy and up the stakes.
- Enviroment shenanigans with the teleports and rotate floor. But not too tough
- Solid enviroment storytelling and NPCs.
I wish I had manually mapped the floors, it would have been much more interesting. I hope the next dungeons keeps this high quality of level design.
Now my team:
- Human Thief -> Ninja, Mysterious bag. Dual wielding Kunai and Dawn Sword.
After playing Elminage original I NEED beheadings, it's like cocaine. If you don't hear the sound effect from time to time or watch the Big enemy dissapear I think you are not playing right this game. She is very bad disabling traps, they have nerfed ninjas trap defusal from original, or is my sensation?
- Weerebeast Brawler, Chi Wave. Hawk Talons.
Second best thing to beheading is a punch - kick - shoryuken combo finishing with Super like Street Fighter.
- Human Priest -> Lord, Stronghold. Flamberge.
Pretty standard, you need healing or you are fucked. He can fight too.
- Elf Mage -> Bishop, Magic essence.
I got some casts of diomente and tiltowait, adn changed her to Bishop to get extra healing. It's very convenient to have identified items, and variety of spells.
- Dracon Mage -> Samurai, Brace. Killer lance
Breath attack is great for early-mid game, and with the spear he can attack from the back row. Maybe I will change him to the front row once the Ninja gets other long range weapon.
- Human alchemist. Divination
The spells are insane, I feel like playing SMT with all the buffing and debuffing capabilities. Also the shenanigan spells. it's like the master of puppets of the battleffield. I think if I get other characer with alchemy spells, I break the game.
I was interested in playing Hunter, so I have a benched Alchemist to change into Hunter, but I like very much my team.
I'd like to prove other unconventional classes like summoner, bard or Shaman but you have so many options... Fuck OCD. Maybe next walkthrough I make a Exotic class team.
Don't worry about the 3DS Rom if it's too of a hassle. If you can, it would be nice, of course, Thank you very much.
I actually fully agree with you that Elminage Gothic's opening dungeons are not impressive. The first Gothic dungeon that made me "think" and got me interested in its "layout" was the Great Tree simply because it was the introduction of secret doors and optional areas.
Exactly like you, my first "whoa this shit just got great!" dungeon was the first story dungeon, the underground church beneath the ruins of Igdra village's dilapidated monastery.
The entire experience of first getting there, beating the possessed priest boss, the first encounter with a re-animated villager (an easily-missed NPC standing about in penultimate floor of the Tunnel who, when spoken to, turns into one of those zombie/ghoul things that use Inhale a lot and look creepy); and then finally reaching the underground church and having the game introduce spinners, more secret doors, locked doors, proper usage of dark zones and of course: teleporters!
it was GREAT. it also was the first dungeon with great atmosphere and the first one to earn the Gothic nomenclature the game purports. The great thing about all of this shit is... IT JUST GOT BETTER AND BETTER FROM THERE!
The story dungeons got creepier and more hard-core, and the rest of all the other dungeons got... waaay better.
I can't fucking wait for you reach The Royal Tomb my man. It's Starfish's best dungeon in any of their games (right after their dungeons from Wiz Empire 2, ofc).
Empire 2 is Starfish's undisputed masterpiece and features the best Wizardry dungeons I've ever experienced (yes, better than anything found in Wiz 1-5, with possible exceptions arguably for Wiz 4's dungeons which are genius, but simultaenously badly designed because the intent behind their design is to obfuscate the person playing the game and not the player playing the game).
Seriously, you're in for such a fucking treat man. The dungeons in elminage: Gothic each keep getting better than the previous one right up to the Cave of the Ancients which is my personal favorite crawler dungeon of all time, not because of its design, but because it is a love-letter to Wizardry and dungeon crawlers in general, populated with NPCs who spout cryptic words of wisdom that cover topics ranging from Starfish's wiz-empire games' lore and, of course... Wizardry lore!
I'll stop myself here before speaking about Ibag's Tower as, while its deisgn cannot be honestly called "genius", it is truly the most magnificently intidimating and awe-inspiring 'crawler dungeon straddling the line perfectly between being "I FUCKING GIVE UP" to "I AM GOING TO FINISH THIS AND NOT OUT OF HATE, BUT OUT OF RESPECT TO THE TOWER...!".
unlike elmi: Original, elmi: Gothic's "post game" is not a post game at all, as the actual game's plot and story continues right along and the king immediately tells you to go to the 1st post dungeon (there are 3 total, the 3rd is the Tower, which, btw, needs to be unlocked!).
I would not even call it a post game as the entire game, its story, its energy, its everything, just simply continues onwards even though you get a screen with the Credits after beating the last "story dungeon".
Also, unlike Original's post-game dungeon, the 3 post-dungeons in e: Gothic do not need to be "unlocked" with exception of the Tower.
To unlock ibg's tower:
you need to map out the bottom floors, or the "last floor", of each and every single dungeon in the game until while walking around these last floors of each dungeon you will randomly (literally) receive a key item Tablet. to be worthy enough to enter Ibag's Tower you must present all of the game's dungeon's Tablets to the Tower's doorman, who will then challenge you to a fight to see if you are good enough to enter. He looks like a jedi complete with 2-handed light-saber style sword which you can STEAL (!) and usually party-wipes unsuspecting parties who think they're hot shit just because they're level 100 or whatever, hehe
I honestly didn't understand the true genius of all of the design work and interplay that went into elminage Gothic until after speing hours inside Ibag's Tower. I have never played any other game, or RPG, where the itemization and the encounter design and character advancement progression was so unbelievably well designed that even at hour 250, as you're knee-deep in the dead on floor 12 or whatever of the Tower, you will still be continually progressing each and every single system of the game.
it is truly a master-class in how a game can be balanced. I wish Sawyer would play it, but chances of that are obviously non-existent.
Enemies always keep getting smarter, deadlier, the rewards always keep getting more relevant and better designed, the dungeons keep getting better each and every time, the underlying systems like Enchanting/Smithing and the usage of Ex-Skills continues to get exponentially more tactical the further you get into the post-game.
this game is a masterpiece of RPG fundamentals and design of inter-dependant gameplay systems.
EDIT: fuck, I remember doing intensive "research" on the viability/usability/effects of each and every single Ex-Skill as I struggled through the floors of Ibag's Tower. It's still mind-blowing to me how everything you think is not viable right now... will be.
(if the player wants! because, since this an obviously well designed game, herp derp, this means thare are no traps and there are no skills/items/classes that are required to finish anything whatsoever. What I mean is simply this: right up to the very end of elminage Gothic you will still be thinking about and finding new shit / strategies / "concepts" that you'd like to try out).
EDIT 2: If you want to know whether or not your Hunter will serve you well click spoiler...
most ppl classify Hunter as unnecessary for majority of the game... until you reach the final story dungeons and then begin playing the 3 post dungeons. The hunter's access to "Lightning Strike" allows him/her to attack before the enemy party can roll Initiave or whatever and this can be a life-saver when faced with mobs that will act faster than your chars due to their high AGI and will have shit like behead/item-breaking on their attacks and shit.
hunter's Strike can easily put a stop to that shit by you having him/her "snipe" the problem enemies before they get going. This doesn't mean it makes Hunters "necessary" for post-game, i merely provide an example of how as the game gets more complex/difficult what previously didn't seem all that suddenly acquires new shine.
this applies to almost anything you can think of, like, for example: the ex-skill CHI WAVE. i won't tell you how to abuse it but that ex-skill comes into its own when you realize that the deadliest enemies tend to spawn in back rows, and obviously... will probably/almost-always be able to attack from their back row anyway.
Dude, I found viable strategy of use for fucking DRUNKEN FIST ex-skill, and a GOOD one.
This site works great usually, I use it to upload videos for my work and share with my partners. The only downside is the links expire after 2 weeks or so.
Thanks for your passionate post man, it's amazing share game experience and knowledge with true lovers of the genre, it increases the hype. I wish more people know this game, I'm sure they would like it.
The problem with Sawyer is that he is more concerned with equality than with fun and POWER.
In RPGs power is fun, they are power fantasies where you must be able to do crazy shit with your characters to complete the quest and the challenge. The correct approach is to make classes powerful if the player invest time and effort investigating the system.
You mustn't nerf characters, you have to make enemies very dangerous, to stimulate the player ingenuity and will.
He would never have the "cojones" to make the ninjas behead almost everything in sight. Because he wouldn't be able to make an enemy even more dangerous than that ninja without fear of unbalance.
the great thing about elminage is... that elminage is just wizardry but with more bells and whistles :D
after finishing elmi: Gothic i went and played through wizardry scenarios 1-6 and man, they are such amazing games. Wiz 5 specifically plays almost exactly like a "beta Elminage".
And it goes without saying the PC game wizardry empire 2 (translated by codexers mrrichard999 and helly; iso is available for download in the iso zone website and the language-patch in rom hacking dot net)--
-- that wiz-empire 2 is Starfish's magnum opus. I say this because i think you'll enjoy knowing that even after finishing Original and Gothic, you will still have Wiz Empire 2 to look foward to, which btw, plays almost exactly like an Elminage game.
Starfish made 3 wiz-empire games before losing the license and it was after that happened that they went and said, uhhh why don't we just copy/paste all our Wizardry shit, rename it Elminage, and instead of changing all of the gameplay systems instead... make them more polished and extrapolate their natural end points!
hooray. they did. There is literally no other game that can call itself a Wiz-clone more than Elminage. It is IMO the true modern Wizardry games (since Starfish's Empire games died, and also the Wiz-Gaiden series is in rocky territory plus the Gaiden wiz games usually don't get translated).
I guess my point is... once you eventually get bored of elminage but still want more of the same type of gameplay go seek out either Wizardry 5 (or Wiz 1-5, but since i assume you don't have unlimited time just play the best one of them first, it won't ruin the previous ones); and/or also Wiz-Empire 2 (PC) w/ the eng-patch.
Empire 1 will someday get translated as well (it's also PC) but currently in need of human-translation of the npc text for the game. once that happens i already have everything else done.
Empire 2 (and 1, for that matter) feature Starfish's best dungeon designs and most "hard-core" bullshit out of any of their games. These Wiz games were made by Starfish studio circa 2001 up to empire 3's release on ps2/psp in 2004 (i think); then elminage original for PS2 came out in '05 if i'm not mistaken.
So basically what i'm saying is that back then the dudes in Starfish studio were still young and fired up and still fresh off western Wizardry games (i.e. Wiz 1-8, and btw, Wiz 8 came out same year as Empire 1... imagine that, and Empire 1 kicks its ass like it's not even funny); so these guys were young and they had just gotten the Wiz license and they wanted to prove japan could make better Wizardry games than the west.
oh man, did they ever succeed. empire 2 (and 1, ofc) feature just flat out elite, top-tier level dungeon design and feature the kind of "balance" i spoke of previously regarding the elminage gothic game, though of course obviously nowhere near as polished as in Gothic.
anyway TL;DR wiz-empire 2 plays like proto-Elminage and you will love it, it has good dungeons, and also i recommend playing Wiz 5, or simply just playing first five Wiz games.
In my case, after doing that, it made me come back and appreciate elminage even more not because of how "better" it might be but because i truly grasped how passionate these dudes at Starfish are about Wizardry and the Wiz-formula of game design.
Oh, and also wiz-gaiden 4 (SNES) recently got english-translated as well, btw, and while I personally don't rank it as high up as Empire 1/2 it is still a fantastic Wiz game. (I rank it slightly below Wizardry 5).
i'm playing thru the recently released operation babel 'crawler from Exp Inc/Team Muramasa and it is painful how limited their skill is when compared to Starfish studios (in terms of making a Wiz-clone). but it's still an alright game, ofc.
(Stranger of Sword City is their best, indisputably, and if you want a Wiz-clone that is very removed from Elminage/Wiz-Gaiden/Empire/Classic-Wizardry... then play that. it's actually a very good game, just not as complex as elminage/wiz-empire. But very good regardless).
other than that the future doesn't look very good regarding upcoming eng-language Wiz-clones... (turn-based dungeon crawlers with focus on party and resource management such as, for example, limited spells).
Etrian odyssey games are also good but they're not wiz-clones. they're a very good attempt at making an accessible template/formula for turn-based, grid-based 'crawler RPG games and i enjoy some of them well enough, but... it ain't the same experience.
fuck, the entire reason i spend free time translating some of these japanese wiz-clones is literally because since i know there probably won't be many released i feel i should just man up and do it myself if i want to play them instead of waiting around. literallly only Wizardry is the only thing in this world that would motivate me enough to do something so retarded, heh.
Another good dungeon crawlers I have played and worth a try are: Unchained Blades, Unchained Blades Exiiv (its on japanese only, but playable) and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (the dungeons are huge and its easy to get lost)
ahh strange journey is great. easily the best SMT game in decades, right after Nocturne.
i tried UB 1 on PSP but it was just too simple and had stuff like QT events and button-mashing moments. the sequel supposedly is much better and more "hard-core", but it'll be a long while before the fan-translation is finished on that one.
i been wanting to check out the 3ds game "beyond the labyrinth".
starts out 8-bit graphics first-person grid-based then after finishing intro it becomes over-the-shoulder view for the dungeon crawling and modern graphics.
i've read good things and bad things, but more good things than bad.
So I'm still slogging my way through Ibag whenever I can summon the desire to fire it up. I keep putting the game on Hold, but it always calls me back. So far I've made it up to Fl16, but it seems like depending on who I run into on those forced encounters it could be a face roll or a tpk with little in between, so I mostly savescum and I hope I don't get a bunch of stargazers, which is a bummer. Do I just need to level myself to the point that a stargazer in the backrow doesn't mean a total wipe on the first round?
you've seen me make post after post about how Elminage Gothic is this unbelievably perfectly balanced shit, etc. Right? Dude, of course there's a "trick" to easily killing Stargazers...
THEY'RE UBER WEAK TO INSTANT DEATH SPELLS.
Just make sure to have min-maxed the caster-types in your party to have sky-high AGI (i.e. having made them Hotlet/Fairy/Werebeast)--
nah, joking, just have whoever cast the single-target instant death spell (cleric spell school) if you want to guarantee removing 1 of them; or if feeling randy use the multi-target one.
BTW, there is a staff called the Death Staff, and also I think another weapon (not a staff, forget what it is); anyway i mean there is 1 staff and like 2 other non-staff weapons that cast the instant-death spells when "used" in battle, incase you want to spam that shit on the Stargazers even with chars who don't have those spells.
Now, i know you're gonna argue that they have such high AGI their initiative roll will make sure they wipe half ur party before you can fire off the spells...
well, truthfully, the best thing to do is to make sure ALL of your chars have good AGI. Going before the enemy is extreeeeemely useful in Ibag's Tower, which is also why
Hunters w/ their Strike skill absolutely OWN inside the Tower. Just enchant their shit w/ either "Silence" (silencing enemies stops them from using enemy-only ex-skills such as miasma wave, for example);
or "Confusion" (next best thing since you can't enchant weapons with instant-death spell, which are not the same as beheading; do not underestimate confusion my man, most enemies have surprisingly low resistance for it, such as Skillving who has 30% resistance to confusion and thus that is the key to killing him easily, and obviously it's not as good as paralyze/charm/beheading BUT... confusion only costs 1 AP point from smithing and it basically gives you a 60-70% chance that the confused enemy your Hunter just sniped via Lightning Strike will then behead/kill/Stargazer their own buddies.)
Also Gazers are 2nd best-weak to Petrification, so whoever doesn't have the cleric death spell(s) or the items i mentioned make 'em use stoma/rastoma (and there are also items that petrify, btw).
The petrification resistance on gazers is something like 40-50%, much higher than their weakness to insta-death (i.e. Dark attribute), but hey, it's way better than just using standard atk on them.
One quick fix if your party is full of slow-pokes w/ low AGI is find your party member w/ the highest AGI, and have him/her learn alchemist spells, and then always in 1st turn have that character cast Skorekh (the speed raising alchemy spell) on the party.
Best way to maximize your turn order. BTW, another great example of the game changing things up even 200 hours in:
that spell, the speed raising one, most consider it nigh useless... until you realize the difference between getting wiped and continuing to explore the tower floor is going before the enemy.
EDIT: and remember to have low AC chars (like a ninja or whatever) use their DEFEND option to protect the chars who will be casting stoma/insta-death/speed-spell shit!
that way you optimize chances of everything going well.
- the ex-skill Level Drain is fantastic versus Belial demons and basically any enemy that is very tough to damage or has behead-on-hit / item-break-on-hit abilities
- because every successful use of it drains the enemy of 3-4 levels and this drains the percentages of skills such as Phys ATK UP, MAG Up, AC DECLINE, etc.
I know pc version doesn't allow changing ex-skills whenever you want, it only allows it if you class-change the character... but ain't no reason you can't just hex edit your save game. how to do it is listed in a super easy to understand guide in the E: Gothic american wiki site (which, btw, is where i started to learn how to use a hex editor, thanks to Gothic! I wanted to change some of my ex-skills).
Don't forget to have a character with Elnam actually use it, it's insanely powerful against devils and undead, and if you slap a rainbow charm / holy seal / some bullshit whatever with holy atk % enchantment, whatever... makes dealing w/ belials much easier.
Remember to keep tabs on the Neo Zadaar counter. use the info button in battle to view the current Spell Count, and once it's reached at least 5 counts, start spamming Neo Zadaars. It's the most potentially damaging spell and it counts itself on every casting.
EDIT: btw, floor 16 is where the Tower gets officially hard-core, so yes, you are supposed to get wiped a few times there. I have like 5 videos on my YT channel showing Gazers + their Dragon buddies wiping my party in 1st turn (though at the time of recording I had modified Bow weapons to remove their cap of 10 hits, so in the video below the damage they're dealing is because of that. After I realized it completely unbalanced bows and bow-using enemies I reverted them back to normal hit cap).
(also i had all enemies with 2x turn recovery regen and additional AC, which is why you see them recovering so much HP).
Devil Club = weapon has SP property that changes a Dragonewt's breath attribute to DARK. that means it will work wonders versus Gazers.
Dragon Emperor Sword (stolen from an enemy in CotA dungeon) = casts Pomedoom when used in battle.
magic shield = restores everyone's spells back to max.
dragon bone flute = stolen from master of nothingness in cota dungeon; also casts Pomedoom.
high king's sword = drops in CotA and in some floors inside the Tower; it raises the invoker's max HP by a 3d8+5.
(farming HKS's is a good way to increase a character's HP so they can survive floor 16 and up enemies and shit. With only 3 of them and save-scumming you can get almost +100 HP, which as you well know usually ends up being the difference between getting killed or not).
Witch of Death scythe = drops in the Tower; when used in battle it casts ENTEROOK MISTA. good shit.
FAIRY BOW = used in battle it casts Lorsekh, the alchemy spell which LOWERS enemy SPEED. It's great when combined w/ another char. casting Skorekh on the party, while the fairy bow user lowers the enemy speed. Great way to make sure that, if you survive the 1st turn, you will 100% win the fight as you'll go first in the 2nd.
Hollow shield = casts makaracha (multi-confusion) when used in battle.
puppet maracas = casts Bilufei, the spell that forces enemies to only attack the selected party member. great for making sure gazers/whatever target your ninja who is DEFENDING and has like, -42 AC so he'll be just fine.
magic stahl = casts makaracha as well!
i post this simply to remind that you can always use items to get the job done when a char. doesn't have the spell you want to use.
if only 1 char as alchemy school that means in any given turn only THAT CHAR can cast either speed up, or speed down spells... unless the other guys in the group use that item I mentioned above. then you effectively speed up and speed down in 1 turn, even though only 1 char had alchemy school.
etc.
EDIT: lastly, the club "Ame Shikou" (tower drop) casts Neo Zadaar in battle and the magician's crystal (stolen from one of the floor masters, but i can't remember accurately right now) also casts Zadaar.
once that NZ count is at like, 4-6, just spam that shit.
SMT Nocturne is awesome and very, very hard. One of the best RPGS I have ever played and a must play for any RPG fan, the high difficulty and challenge is one of the game's highlights
As for the tower, Archangels and Black Dragons are a nightmare, I mean Archangels are so broken: they summon Angels which summon absolute barrier like there's no tomorrow, have over 6000 HP and heal over 2000 HP per turn
