Epic Battle Fantasy

Anna first appeared in Bullet Heaven, the Touhou-clone.

I find that my usual lineup is Anna, Lance, and Natz for most random encounters, and swapping Lance out for Matt when I need to start doing massive single-target damage. I like equipping Anna with the Alchemist's Bow and using Arrow Shower. Random status effects are fun, especially when stuff gets OHKO'd.

edited 18th Mar '13 4:48:06 PM by KylerThatch

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

I thought that I read somewhere that she appeared further back (again, I think that it was the first game) as an NPC in one of the shops.

I've been using Anna, Matt and Natalie, and pretty much ignoring Lance, as I recall. I've been changing Anna's bows as called for by the elemental weaknesses of my foes, but favour the Eagle Eye (I think that it's called) for its syphon and mana gain abilities, I believe. Aside from the occasional heal or spell that carries an element not available to me, I think that I've been almost exclusively using Arrow Rain and Combo Shot, the latter for tougher monsters or cases in which a monster would be healed by the current bow's element.

edited 18th Mar '13 7:52:33 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

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Really? If she did appear earlier, I never noticed.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

The game's pretty great in general, especially because the creator managed to get the game mechanics right and didn't break it (apart from chained limit breaks).

IMO the most annoying but not that dangerous enemies are the Bronze/Silver/Gold robot fishes. If you kill them, they will fire a missile attack into the air and this can hurt and cause stagger. Only way to not get hit is to kill the entire wave at once.

Finally, I know there's an achievement for getting to level 40, but killing those dragons at the end of the final area soon gives very little exp. I'm not sure if Epic difficulty increases experience gain.

...eheh

I just finished the final boss, but didn't use any of my limit breaks.

Most annoying enemies for me were those mage birds/dogs. The ones that can deal massive MP damage if you don't syphon or kill them right away.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

Just discovered a secret through a bit of hacking: Try setting your system clock to December 25th then visiting the first equipment shop.

Extra 1: Poochy Ain't Stupid

I used single-target moves on the Creator so that those Mage Birds/Dogs don't spawn. Their MP sucking move is extremely annoying and dangerous, so I just killed the boss then the flunkies. IMHO Destroyer Godcat is a lot easier because holy attacks tend to be very strong.

...eheh

I spent 12 hours of my life and I don't even want a refund.

They assed first. I am only retaliating in an ass way. -The Dead Man's Life

So am I the only one who just doesn't bother using Lance unless one of the others gets KO'd?

To quote myself, a few posts above, I believe:

:P

In fact, I don't think that I've even brought him in when someone gets K Oed: I just toss a cup of coffee towards the unconscious character, especially since being unconscious at the end of the battle seems to result, to my mild annoyance, in the unconscious character not getting XP for that battle.

edited 20th Mar '13 3:48:01 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

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I don't know what's wrong with you guys. My red-mage gear Lance was the team's powerhouse.

Your funny quote here! (Maybe)

Lance is one of the best for dealing damage to multiple targets. He's kinda lacking in raw damage abilities towards single targets though.

#IceBearForPresident

In my experience, usually by the time there's not multiple targets for Lance to be blasting there's only two or three rounds at most left until either the end of the fight or the next wave, at which point you'll be using magic attacks again, so you can afford to use Unload which is on part with the others damage-wise. Or just charge up your hyper cannon for the next wave.

Your funny quote here! (Maybe)

In all fairness, I don't select primarily on power output: I like Lance less than any of the others, so being asked to exclude someone, I choose Lance. It probably didn't help that he seems to be the default exclusion. *shrugs*

[edit]
Dragons are horribly tough. o_o

edited 20th Mar '13 8:41:58 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

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Especially the trio in the second wave of the encounter before the Final Boss.

One Fire, one Light, and one Dark dragon. Gah. And 2 monoliths and a Light dragon before that.

GREAT exp though. And you can make the battle easier by having two of your chars summon Frost Wraith against the red one, which should take it down, spam holy attacks (especially Holy flare which lowers Magic Defence) on the black one, then the single gold dragon shouldn't be that bad.

...eheh

So after I first beat the game, I noticed there was a medal for defeating the final boss on Epic difficulty and thought 'Challenge accepted!' And after a long, grueling battle, I just finally got that medal. Some tips in case anyone else is trying to do the same:

• Max out your buff skills and Heal More.
• On odd-numbered waves, attacking is useless, since the battle always proceeds onto the next wave after 3 turns. Heal and buff and your whole party, especially Defense, Magic Defense, and Evade. You should start the even-numbered waves with at least +50 in each. Including the backup member. I suggest casting the full-party buff skills (Reflex, Barrier, and Protect) on the same 3 members, then swap in your backup member and cast Guardian on them. If you can, cast Reflex a second time.
• Cast Dispel whenever enemies are buffed.
• Matt's Cleaver and Lance's Oblivion Limit Breaks are also very useful on The Creator; for maximum effectiveness, have Matt use Temper first and another character use Debilitate.
• This goes without saying, but go in with full HP/MP/SP/Limit Break meters and lots of coffee.

edited 21st Mar '13 5:26:53 AM by PoochyEXE

Extra 1: Poochy Ain't Stupid

Already finished it? Dang. I want to get back into this, but I'm really busy and I only have my laptop available, and it doesn't get along well with Flash.

I think I just traded my firewalking boots for a shovel. Is that permanent? Am I never gonna walk on lava again?

#IceBearForPresident

Different pair of boots.

Extra 1: Poochy Ain't Stupid

Good, I liked that hardcore Jesus thing I had going on.

#IceBearForPresident

Odd. Now that I tried the game again at Epic difficulty, it's Lance that gets put in the backup slot most of the time.

It doesn't seem to be that much harder than Normal (so far—I'm currently in the factory), though that might just be a combination of experience and having fallen into a habit of always devoting the first turn or two to buffing.

edited 26th Mar '13 3:49:40 AM by KylerThatch

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

I just recently discovered some of the benefits of taking the turns to syphon powerful foes (or at least powerful magic-using foes): I was in the hidden ruins after the jungle maze, and was being fairly badly beaten by the Sky Monoliths until I happened to syphon one of the them — a result, I think, of one of the special effects of one of my equipped weapons — and discovered that they appear to be completely incapable of doing anything at all, attacking or defending, while syphoned. Thereafter I simply had Natalie cast Talisman Seal (if I recall correctly the name of the spell) alternately on them and had Anna and Lance hammer them without fear of response.

Suffice it to say that I've added the standard mass syphon spell to my spell-list now (Lance's, to be specific), I believe.

edited 26th Mar '13 7:06:33 AM by ArsThaumaturgis

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It seems kind of hard to tell when syphon is actually useful outside of experimentation or accident. So far, I've only noticed significant difference with mage birds/dogs (the ones with the MP drain ability) and with monoliths (where they end up becoming totally useless). And possibly the tower looking things in the factory area.

Makes me wish the bestiary included a list of attacks they can use.

This "faculty lot" you speak of sounds like a place of great power...

For syphon, I've found a couple general rules of thumb:

• Syphon is extremely useful against monoliths. The only thing they can do while syphoned is charge themselves, and if you syphon them again after that, the charge is useless anyway.
• Syphon is also quite useful against anything that can heal or buff other enemies.
• If it can inflict Syphon on your party, it probably has a couple other nasty things it also can't do while syphoned.
• If it has 100% or higher holy resistance, Syphon is probably useful against it.

edited 26th Mar '13 12:09:24 PM by PoochyEXE

Extra 1: Poochy Ain't Stupid

Syphon also prevents the ghost enemies from using their deadliest attacks, the ones that can cause instant kills. They still get a passable physical attack but it's not AS bad.

Your funny quote here! (Maybe)