Hope you dont mind me adding in Marisa to it. Some of the info from the Japanese wiki seems inconsistent with the ingame info. Point, Asteroid Belt. Ingame says pierces enemy magic defense, but it gives it in the formula, if I got what the page-maker was doing to get the formula right. Also it clams Master Spark to be 700%, while ingame it says 800%.209.240.91.239 21:24, December 10, 2009 (UTC)
There's actually quite a few consistencies between what's stated in in-game spell descriptions and what it actually is in-game. Another example is Nitori's Megawatt Linear Gun, which is fire elemental in description (and when used as a boss), but non-elemental when used by the player; most of these seem to be caused by creator updates to the spell without updating the spell description.
If there are discrepancies, I'd say it's fairer to assume the in-game spell descriptions are less accurate compared to the information on the JP wiki.
Thanks for the help. Go with the JP Wiki information, it should be most accurate, as with what's said before. I'll go back and correct stat grades afterwards, so don't worry about em too much XD Garlyle 05:39, December 11, 2009 (UTC)
Resummarization Attempts
What follows are attempts to re-summarize the characters to expand the amount of gametime it covers and generally be more 'fair' to the characters by finding reasons to use everyone. Hopefully these come off as neutral, but it's sometimes hard to be that way about certain characters. Please add in any comments you have to a new line -following- the proposed description, instead of just editing it flat out, and feel free to sign your comments, too.! --Garlyle 09:59, July 7, 2010 (UTC)
Reimu Hakurei
Arguably one of the most important party members you can have, Reimu boasts otherwise average stats that are greatly aided by her fast levelling speed. This is important, as nearly ever stat is important to her. She's the first character with access to PAR and composite-based attacks, and for much of the early game will mow down enemy parties with Fantasy Seal. As the game progresses, however, more enemies will be carrying high defenses in both stats or a resistance to SPI, and her usefulness in random battles will be slowly pushed more towards the PAR effect of Evil Sealing Circle, if at all. In the meantime, her SP pool will continue to grow and grow, and make Reimu stand out even more in boss battles. Great Hakurei Barrier is your best defensive option in the early game, even if it is expensive then. Even as other characters join that can perform defensive buffing, Reimu's Exorcism will shine even brighter, being the strongest party-wide heal spell in the game. As there is no mid-battle revival, avoiding death in the first place is a key aspect of Labyrinth of Touhou, and Reimu will be invaluable to nearly any party as a result.
Marisa Kirisame
In the early game, Marisa begins as a fairly standard mage - she's on the frail side, wipes out enemy parties with Asteroid Belt, and... doesn't do much else. As your party roster begins to expand, however, Marisa will gain the SP to begin performing Master Spark, and her role changes dramatically. Master Spark boasts the single highest damage formula in the game, and it only gets better as Marisa's max SP continues to grow. To make the most of it, you want to use her Concentration or other buffing spells from allies to raise her Magic stat high, then swap her into the back row and allow her to restore SP. Once it's full, switch her in, let her loose, and swap her back out and let her SP recharge for another. A great deal of later bosses - especially in the Plus Disk - enter a desperation phase in the final chunk of their HP, at which point they become incredibly dangerous, and Marisa's ability to burn off a huge chunk of a boss' HP in one shot can save your hide. Just be aware that Master Spark is greatly neutered against foes with a high MYS resistance.
Remilia Scarlet
The first tank to join the party, Remilia boasts some excellent stats, though they are slightly offset by her slow levelling rate and an unusually low starting attack power. Despite that, early on you're going to be having Remilia soaking up damage and giving it back out, and she certainly won't be lacking in those abilities later on either. Her high defensive stats and ability to self-buff make her a good all-around tank without any glaring defensive weaknesses, though there are options which excel in each of those individual qualities later on. As for active battle strategy, Remilia only boasts two spellcards with very obvious applications. Spear the Gungnir's single-target limit does diminish Remilia's usefulness in many random encounters, but does its job well against a single target. Meanwhile, the powerful Curse of Vlad Tepes is very risky to use at first, but its detriments can be offset at first with a character who can heal those ailments, and later by equipping ailment resistance gear to Remilia.
Sakuya Izayoi
Sakuya begins the game mostly effective as a wide-range physical attacker, able to sweep aside enemy parties with Soul Sculpture and her decent attack power. Unfortunately, this begins to fall behind other characters in damage output, and her use in random encounters will begin to falter. Once her SP begins to rise higher, though, another use for her begins to shine through as a speed buffer. Her sufficient defensive stats in all areas will help her stay out on the field long enough to throw out a Luna Dial or two, doubling up the party's speed, and thus significantly increasing the amount of turns they get, which can make a huge difference against bosses. You can eventually even use The World to maximize Sakuya's speed in an instant, helping even further. Ultimately, she is set apart not by her ability to buff speed, but rather by being able to buff several people's speed at once, which no other character can do.
Patchouli Knowledge
Blessed - and cursed - with the best and worst values in a large number of stats, Patchouli is the game's purest black mage. Boasting a variety of enemy group-frying spells (Choose which one to use based on element for maximum effect), and a powerful single-target, non-elemental spell that has limited defense ignoring properties, Patchouli is a strong source of magic-based damage for both encounters and bosses, and retains that quality from start to finish. If you're going to use her, be careful - she has some abysmal speed, and her lack of HP and DEF means that almost any physical attack will wipe the floor with her, excluding row-based attacks if she's in the farthest slot. Of course, this doesn't necessarily hold true for some boss fights focused on magic attacks - Patchouli's incredible MND will allow her to be near-invincible in those cases, so feel free to go wild!
On Marisa, using Concentration, moving her into the back row to recover SP, and then swapping her back out is largely a waste of time(unless she doesn't have enough SP left to cast Spark in the first place). If you concentrate twice, that's 144 SP you would be recovering, which is less than a 10% boost to the power of Master Spark. Not worth spending two characters actions on (not to mention the time you spend waiting).
With Patchouli, I think it needs to be noted that later on you will see Magic attacks strong enough to damage her, and that those attacks can actually be pretty dangerous since her HP is so bad, along with the fact that she's extremely vulnerable to most status effects. Also her bad speed is mentioned, but not the fact that it makes her kind of useless in random battles later on, where the enemies will almost always be faster than her.
Sakuya probably needs more mention of her downsides, namely that she'll have major SP problems early and that she's arguably outclassed by another character as far as Speed buffing goes.
Those are the only big things I see, rest looks good. Fishin 17:08, July 7, 2010 (UTC)