6F (Northwest Segment): Find Iku and she will join
Play Notes
A fairly well-rounded character with some good supportive abilities, Iku's usefulness can vary greatly depending on who she's backing up. Her attack spells are in no way stellar for damage output, but carry the advantage of spiking an enemy's DEF very fast, although she herself cannot take advantage of this. However, when paired up with characters who wield powerful physical attacks, this really begins to shine - especially if she supports those attackers with Thundercloud Stickleback, which is one of the best attack power boosts in the game, especially for composite attackers. The Paralysis effect will really slow you down if you're not careful, so make sure to equip PAR-resistance gear on anyone you intend on using it on, or have a healer capable of removing it - if you do, it's one of the fastest, safest ways to improve already awesome attackers. Her very high MND growth can make her a surprisingly good anti-magic tank, especially if you opt to use her purely for support and focus her bonuses in it. Either way, Iku can be surprisingly effective, but you'll need to make sure your party can take full advantage of her for her to really prove herself.
EVA -150% DEF, MND, SPD -25% PSN (45) PAR (30) DTH (30%)
50%
Don't expect damage
Scythe that Chooses the Dead
54
Enemy (Single)
SPI
500% ATK - 100% T.DEF
DTH (75%)
40%
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Character Overview and Comments
Recruitment
7F: Find Komachi
8F: Find and defeat four Calamitous Spirits
7F: Return to Komachi
Play Notes
A tank who handles her job in a completely different way, using Komachi is different from many other characters in the game. Her HP will dwarf that of any of the character in the game, but to make up for it she has nearly non-existant DEF and MND, meaning the only damage reduction she will gain is from her affinities, making raising them very important to her. It also means that many characters' healing capabilities that would be sufficient on other characters might have trouble taking care of the large amounts of damage Komachi will take, so she may have difficulty staying out for long. However, while she's out, she's very hard to take down, and provides your first access to instant kill effects, which can be very useful for certain otherwise hardy enemies. On top of that, she has the highly useful Narrow Confines of Avici. Though it'll almost never be doing damage, it provides a large number of smaller debuffs and brief paralysis, and after a couple of uses, vulneurable foes will be left helpless for the rest of your party to mop up. It doesn't flat out replace the capabilities of characters who are better at debuffing many of those statistics, but its coverage of multiple aspects is definitely in Komachi's favour. Plus, Scythe that Chooses the Dead can deal decent damage if Komachi's ATK is boosted up, giving her another use when debuffing is simply not an option.
2F-8F: Find a total of 8 events in which Cirno freezes a frog. On obtaining the last Frozen Frog, Suwako will attack. Defeat her
Play Notes
An unassuming nuke, Suwako is overall fairly frail to both magic and physical attacks, but can prove very useful so long as she survives. Both her magic and attack power are high, and she uses them for different objectives. Her Magic is used for her multi-target attacks, which are sufficiently powerful but not awe-inspiring, and carry defense-debuffing side effects, which combined with Suwako's decent speed making them useful openers for the rest of your party when clearing random encounters. Her Attack powers her single-target moves, where she can really begin to shine as a boss killer. Moreya's Iron Rings isn't too powerful, but packs a particularly potent Paralysis side effect that can single-handidly keep foes that are vulneurable in a constant lock, making some into cake walk. For others, she packs Croaking Frog, which is comparable to many of the best attacks in the game for power (And, unfortunately, delay), and the strongest NTR-elemental nuke in the game.
8F: After recruiting 20 characters in total, visit Sanae's location and defeat Sanae's rival
Play Notes
While at first glance you might think Sanae is similar to Minoriko, the two play very differently in practice. Where they are similar is that they are a bit frail side, they have average ailment resistances, and their stat growths are fairly similar (Sanae's are higher, but she levels notably slower), but it stops there. Defensively, Sanae's affinities are more well-rounded than Minoriko's. Sanae carries a higher magic and higher damage potential on her attack formulas, but lacks the defense piercing aspect. Her supportive spells especially shouldn't be mistaken for being the same, either: her SP costs and delays are much greater than Minoriko's, meaning that despite her better MAG stat, her healing does not match the output and speed of Minoriko's healing. However, her healing will clear all ailments and debuffs off of a character, something that Minoriko cannot do, and her buffing spell raises offensive stats and even speed as well, making it a great way to power up a single character. While it's hard not to compare them, neither is always greater than the other, and your party composition can and will affect which will prove more useful to you.
8F: Find and defeat Nitori in another random encounter
8F: Talk to Nitori again
9F: Defeat Nitori as a boss
Play Notes
Sporting fairly low stats, Nitori doesn't seem to be a character with much potential at first. Especially since the formulas on her two multi-target spells aren't all that stellar, Nitori's usefulness for trash is definitely something others can do better. However, in a boss fight, Nitori will prove herself surprisingly powerful. She can boost up her questionable defenses and average speed to passable levels via Optical Camoflauge, if you want to take the time and SP, but where she really packs a punch is Megawatt Linear Cannon. The formula on it - especially if you're playing patch 2.06 or later - makes it one of the most powerful nukes in the game, and it carries the benefit of being non-elemental, making it great against anything without an incredibly overwhelming DEF. If you can back her up with someone powering up her attack, you'll find her to be packing an unexpectedly effective punch.
Active Characters: DEF, MND +20% Reserve Characters: DEF, MND +15%
40%
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Banquet of 12 General Gods
112
Ally (All)
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Active Characters: ATK, MAG +20% Reserve Characters: ATK, MAG +15%
35%
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Character Overview and Comments
Recruitment
1F: Recruit Chen
9F: Defeat Reisen in front of the 10F Stairs
Ran is required to complete the game.
Play Notes
Ran is a useful party member in almost any party configuration. For starters, while her offensive spells aren't stellar, they also aren't completely terrible and can be decent at clearing random encounters. She also boasts good ailment resistances, affinities, and defensive stats, making her surprisingly survivable, although far from being a dedicated tank. This in particular is important to her, as her most useful capability is in her supportive spells. They have the unique property of also buffing party members not in the active row (Although for slightly less effect), so even if they don't appear to be huge buffs, the total amount she is increasing your party's stats is much higher than it might initially look, and if you rely on glass cannon-type characters, the ability to buff them without needing them to be in danger is invaluable. The catch, of course, is the huge SP costs, which will be restrictive to Ran for quite a while and limit her to one or two uses before needing to rest. Once she has the SP however, she can sit out on the field for a few turns at the start of a long battle and pump up your party's defenses and/or offensive power, giving you a full party of characters who can come out looking their absolute best.