About to play this for the first time. Which character should I pick?
>>3294707
Most everyone will tell you Claude. The stuff and characters you get due to him being the main character are better.
>>3294787
I disagree. Claude might have the better unique story scenes, but he doesn't have the better extra character. Dias isn't better than Claude or Ashton, but he's better than Leon out of sheer virtue of being a KM user. Mages are only good up to a certain point, then KM users outdamage them by a ton. I like to keep one for interrupting across screen, but Celine's just as good of a choice for that imo.
>>3294826
To be clear though, you'll have no problem beating the game with any combination of characters, especially on normal. I've done runs with every combination, and 2KM/mage/Rena into 3KM/Rena is just the optimal run. Definitely recommend it for Universe though.
I like them both, but if you want complete and total rape mode, pick Rena, she gets the option of having Dias join the party. Claude, Ashton, and Dias can craft the best items in the game, and you can do it easily. Like, halfway through first disk easily.
I've played this game at least 40 times, and still pop it in now and again because I like to try different things.
Anyway: You can get Orichalcum and Damascus in huge amounts in the desert on the other side of the mountain. You'll know what I mean when you see it.
Experiment with the crafting system. All of it. Art, writing, all that. It unlocks talents which help you make good things because until you get to the hidden dungeon, the characters make the BEST items found anywhere.
The very first couple hours of the game are hellishly boring, but after the world opens up to you it becomes one of the best RPGs to ever exist. Explore, do private actions, customize, experiment.
As for your initial question though, I usually pick Claude because fuck Dias, you can get Bowman or Precis or Chisato to replace him easily. Bowman and Chisato do some straight up Jackie Chan shit, and you still have the benefit of Ashton and Claude being able to make badass accessories.
>>3294826
Dias has the highest DPS in the game tho
>>3294841
>I've played this game at least 40 times, and still pop it in now and again because I like to try different things.
Did you try playing through with only Rena and Claude in your party to see all their unique scenes?
Like remember at the end of Expel when Claude beams up to his ship and the party has to wait for him? What do you think happens if Rena's the only one there?
>>3294912
>What do you think happens if Rena's the only one there?
Why don't youmake a Youtube video of the scene, if you're so smart?
Don't get offended, it's Just a meme m8. Would love to see that scene though.
>>3294925
because I don't like getting attention I just want to make the world a better place
you can make the video if you want to
>>3294707
>Which character should I pick?
Rena is a healer, Claude is a standard Attacker, both are playable in each playthrough, what changes is the story parts you'll see.
As for party members, Bowman.
Anyone else is irrelevant.
On topic: could someone post quick tips for the second last boss battle, the one with two wisemen, one who shoots fire and another I can't remember. I got stuck in that part a couple months ago. I played without a guide so my party is probably utter shit, Claude, Rena, Celine and Leon. I got one of the wisemen down but the fire guy destroyed me after that (?)
>>3294949
HEY
IT'S
S P I C U L E
P
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L
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>>3294949
Just stunlock them with cheap spammable ranged killer moves while Rena heals.
Opera has her homing shots, Bowman can throw poison pills, Ashton has dragon breath, Claude has Ripper Blast and that energy sphere thing, Precis can kick her bobot at them, Dias can spam hawk scream blast at close range for damage (control Dias and place him on the other side), best waifu has almost nothing but stunlock skills with slow startups, Celine and Leon can actually use combo magic if you time their cast correctly.
I think I saw Celine, Ashton, and Leon do a single combo magic somehow, when someone else was playing, but I've never been able to replicate it and think it might be a dream now.
>>3294960
>I think I saw Celine, Ashton, and Leon do a single combo magic somehow,
Yeah spells cast at the same time can combo. It's really hard to replicate on demand (I've never done it intentionally) but rest assured you are not insane.
>>3294826
It's been ages since I've played this, and I really like Dias because of his air slash that can utterly rape the flying phoenixes in the bonus dungeon by hitting them all the way to the back (and god knows, flying enemies are annoying in this game), but isn't the magic system in this game weird that you can make weird combo spells, and Leon has something like imp gate that can combo into itself to hit 12983191238 times?
>>3295070
I think it's called "Gremlin"
Dias's Hawk Scream Blast is the strongest killer move in the game bar none, the entire wind up will do it's insane damage as long as your other allies keep knocking the enemy towards him, so it just spills out 9999s everywhere and really speeds up any of the boss fights if you can utilize it properly
>>3294907
No, he doesn't. Dias does some of the lowest DPS out of all the KM users.
>>3295112
You are not using Hawk Scream Blast correctly, it can easily do around 8 hits of 9999 damage while Claude is still doing 3k and not as many hits.
>>3295120
Ashton is the highest DPS character in the game.
>>3294707
Gonna give you the strongest advice I can; don't spend ANY skill points until you get and max out Perseverance (you get this in one of the early towns). Each level in perseverance reduces the cost of buying skills by a single point. Though it's a fairly expensive investment at the start of the game, it definitely pays off in the long run.
Also, the PSP port is an excellent port (aside from the new art). I recommend the undub version. If you play this, Perseverance was renamed to Determination.
>>3297000
Seconding this. On normal difficulty, you won't have any problems from not spending skill points, and once you actually do you'll skyrocket into broken everything.
>>3295238
No man, you wedge Dias between the enemy and a wall, or between the enemy and an ally behind him, and have him use Hawk Scream Blast at Point blank range, while having your other allies pepper the enemy with long range killer moves of pretty much any variety
it's the fastest way to kill anything
>>3297208
I'll have to give that a try. I haven't done a run with Dias in the main party in years.
>>3297000
While I completely agree, it should be noted that the game isn't exactly strict on skill points and when you reach endgame you'll literally have more than you can spend.
As for my advice, IIRC the game has some set parameters on who can spark which talent, although part of it is randomized each playthrough. The only exception being the talent to use spells, that a character either has and can use spells, or doesn't and instead uses Killer Moves (on an unrelated note, I still hate, to this day, the fact that the game only lets you set two killer moves, while KM characters are on average stronger still, it's incredibly limiting what the game could have been). So a character has 3 possible situations for a talent: either it's a starting talent, an hidden talent, or a talent he doesn't have.
Basically, if you don't have the talent for cooking, whatever its name was (good taste?), you can't cook for shit despite your skill level. IIRC Rena has it, and Claude doesn't (IMBW, but for now just consider this for example's sake). This means that Rena can actually make shit by cooking. Claude will always make spoiled milk and other 'failure' items. However, Claude might have a hidden talent for cooking! The only thing to do to find out is to just keep him cooking (possibly, cheap stuff). If he does have the talent, after making a number of failures, he'll reveal it, and will now be able to make good stuff. If you're interested further, you could look up a guide on who can spark which talent.
Except being able to make stuff, there's another very important factor to this: revealing a hidden talent gives the character 100 skill points. Now in endgame that's nothing, but 100 skill points at a low level is HUGE, I think you could max Perserverance and even get a few extra skill levels that now cost 1 SP and get like a huge strength bonus from cooking knife.
Kinda earlygame breaker.
Also: don't waste the sword you get from the arms tournament.
>>3297953
You're correct, but Perseverance is a pretty expensive skill, 100 won't max it. If I remember correctly the last rank of it alone is either 64/80, but its been a long time since I've played.
Also I don't recommend crafting the best sword in the game, which is what he means by not wasting the arms tournament sword. Its extremely overpowered and will totally break the already easy normal mode. You'll probably feel like doing a second playthrough as the other character with different party members afterwards though, I recommend doing that on a higher difficulty and trying out the Eternal Sphere. Its not necessary for higher difficulties, but it certainly helps on Universe.
>>3298015
Well, I'm not necessarily saying to make it, but I'd also keep it if endgame turns out too be troublesome.
Every character can learn every talent and fill up their entire talent list as long as you keep trying enough times, except for the one talent that's related to using symbology/arcane magic, I should know, I've done it.
Orchestra helps.
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
PEAR INTO PEACHES
Rena, Claude, Dias, and Ashton were the GOAT party. I never liked magic in this game unless it healed you. I didn't like how it paused the gameplay.
>>3294707
I tried to play this like a year ago because I loved the original SO, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it. Why is that? Should I give it a second try?
Also, the voice acting is hilariously bad.
>>3298872
It's honestly pretty hard to abuse Ashton's KMs like the others, even Chisato's slow as fck ones can be used to cover the downtime between other character's KMs and sustain stunlock
I guess he'd be okay if you control him and you're playing Claude and can't get Dias, Claude-Celine-Leon-Ashton is fun in a Claude game
>>3298651
I don't get this meme. Is everyone deaf? Claude's silly lines aren't that hard to make out.
>>3299145
>BICYCLE EXPLOSION
>>3294707
>3294707
Pick the faggot.
>>3294707
I replayed that some months ago and had completely blocked out how heavily Rena cucked Claude through the first half of that game with Dias. You spend the first couple of hours constantly saving her while she distractedly chases around Dias who doesn't give her the time of day, trying to get him to notice her. The rest of your party even expresses constant shock for how shitty she treats you in favor of Dias, even going so far as her getting some legendary sword for Dias specifically to beat Claude's ass with in the tournament.
Even the game files work against you. Rena has a higher romantic score with Dias than Claude, and Claude actually has a high "friend" score. He's built-in friendzoned by her.
S'fine. Shit rolls downhill and after Dias died and Rena came to claim her "consolation prize", I blew her off and stole Celine from Ernest.
>>3299304
Claude and Rena fuck in the third city while they're high on emotion from that life and death situation before.
When you get to the tournament Claude starts whining about Dias and Rena just blows off his insecurity to catch up with her childhood friend.
It's not even a big deal because Dias likes big tits and is still in his "don't wanna fuck my little sister" mode at that point.
Rena doesn't throw nearly as much of a shit when you help Celine or Opera during Claude's route
>>3299304
>Even the game files work against you. Rena has a higher romantic score with Dias than Claude, and Claude actually has a high "friend" score. He's built-in friendzoned by her.
That's to make it possible to 'lose' because it's so easy to get love points with Rena. Be sensible. You shouldn't be able to get the ending you want with no effort whatsoever.
This thread is somewhere around eighty points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CbZ6z4HDeg
>>3299304
Dias dies in Claude's story?
Also personally I like pairing trying to pair Celine with the prince, although I think I'd need a guide for that as it seems kinda hard to trigger.
Someday I'll have again a working PS1 and replay this, I kinda want to continue my universe run with Rena. Holy shit getting past the first few fights was a nightmare, she starts at level and doesn't have the free grinding crutch Claude has, everything was oneshotting me.
To be honest, right now I'm pretty hyped about SO5 in 2 weeks. Tri-Ace hasn't released anything in years (although they supposedly worked on games for other companies, like S-E)
>>3299430
Ashton is secretly an Atelier character.
>Di-ass
>Ernest
>Leon
>Noel
>Having to pick between Opera and Ashton
