Before we go to our next event, there's a bit of prep work we need to do. Not much, but still. Namely, we're removing everyone from teams 2 through 4. This is actually important, and makes the next bit possible and not a complete slog.

Won't stop me complaining, because it gets really annoying, but whatever.



See, we have a fight here. But it's a very special fight.

So we get our first optional boss fight. And we gotta do it solo. What fun.



Out of the crackable skills, Force Dance is the obvious choice to get here. It's the best option available and it helps us out in this very fight even.



Because Ghost Q is a level 26 demon who resists every other element we have a dance for. We can't even get Fire Dance until we go to Nagoya anyway, so that's out.

Ghost Q is a Fiend. Fiends are primarily boss dudes who suck to fight, and aren't anywhere near as good when you get them (there is one exception, which we'll get to much later). They were exclusively bosses in Devil Survivor 1 and their racial skill let them hit from a range of 3 but couldn't move. The race itself is primarily based around things that aren't actually mythological deities or creatures. Things like Dante. As in Devil May Cry's Dante.

Neither of these things hold true here. Ghost Q is one of a whole 2 fiends who aren't based on mythology (the other being the final one) and their racial skill here is Uncanny Form. Uncanny Form costs something ridiculous like 80% the user's max MP to get what is effectively a second turn then and there i.e. you can move and attack again like your turn just started. Fiends still kinda suck to fight, still are not even half as good when you can use them, have gently caress all MP even discounting how expensive Uncanny Form is and the best one is NG+ exclusive.

I really wish we could crack Beast Eye here. I would have cracked that instead. It's a really, really good passive ability that lets you get 2 hits per skirmish. So 2 normally or 4 with an Extra Turn. But, of course, its enemy only so we never get it.



The fight itself requires we play very, very smart so I'm letting the Waira come to me via its Devil Speed. Making it waste its own HP like this makes killing it that tiny bit easier and lets us nab Force Dance with less hassle.



Like so. This is most likely the only fight where I won't be focusing on wiping out every demon in the enemy formations. Not only is it a massive bother to do, it wastes our MP which is hard to restore right now (Angel gives like 11 a turn via Blood Wine) and would give Hibiki absurd amounts of EXP.



He gets a ton either way, but at least this way it's not quite as crazy.



The Toubyou enemy unit has 2 of those things in it, for all that doesn't matter. It tried to sneak up behind us, but we're not exactly going to let that happen.



Aquans has the MP to spare throwing Ice Dances around. They're not gonna help against Ghost Q anyway so he can focus on this and healing quite nicely.

It's hard to see, but the Toubyou in the middle took 81 damage. It's quite dead.



The only enemy unit left that poses anything resembling a problem right now is the Moh Shuvuu. Not only can it keep pace with us thanks to Flight, but that Makara stops us moving at a nice speed too.



We'll focus on killing the Makara right now and kill the Shuvuus as they try and attack us.



Like so. They should get in the way less, and they'd survive a bit more.



At this point we're within range of hitting Ghost Q, so we're gonna do something a bit special here. See, he has Nigayomogi and can actually hit with it. We want to mitigate that a bit.



Aquans is pretty useless in that particular skirmish, so he leaves the party now. This seems like a bad thing, since it leaves Hibiki with just Angel but...



Hibiki can then turn around and summon a new second demon.



The catch, of course, is that it cannot be a demon in any team. Even if Teams 2, 3 and 4 have no leader and aren't fielded their demons are still offlimits.



I opted to summon Waira here, because he's immune to Mystic and so cannot be poisoned. Or paralysed.

Oh and Ghost Q is fast. So fast, in fact, that he gets his two hits in before anyone on the party gets to attack. Also he gets Extra Turns because of course he does. Bear that in mind.

Ah well, at least he used his first attack to use Nigayomogi. It only affected Angel, which is annoying but managable.



His second attack, of course, is a bit more of a nuisance but we'll live.



Ghost Q has 350 HP, so he's not very hardy. Once you get to fight him, he falls pretty fast. The hard part is getting to him.



And since he has no weaknesses, you can't really get reliable extra turns. At least Waira's balance lets him punch Q pretty hard.



No, what makes Ghost Q a pain is that he takes the rules we thought we knew and throws them out the window. Because he can then proced to do this:



He has an attack range of 3. Looking at his skills, you would not know he has an attack range of 3. Being a Fiend in this game does not grant an attack range of 3 (I double-checked just to make sure; no, he has an attack range of 3 purely because this is a boss fight). This is just a big ol' gently caress you to anyone who thought they could cheese it by bringing a Dragon and plinking away at a range. He will be able counter you, take a step back and then attack you safely.

Other bosses at least tell you that this is a thing they can do.



Oh and he STILL gets Extra Turns even at range. So with Beast Eye that lets him hit you four times with you unable to do poo poo about it. Ghost Q is your wake-up call that boss fights are actual threats rather than marginally tougher than normal.



He just goes about it by blindsiding you with things you had no real way of knowing about. At least he only comes on his own, and crumples in like 2 skirmishes max once you can hit him.



One last thing: you might think at this point to save him for last. Ahahahaha of course that's not an option. If you kill the other demons first, Ghost Q runs. You can try and stop him, but he's faster than you, and will hit you from a range knocking your turns back so you can't catch him.



Once Q is beaten, the only hard part left is taking out whatever's left. It just happens that in this particular case that would be a level 19 Abraxas that has full HP and MP.



Their dual-weakness of Elec and Force makes it clear that we need to Force Dance in this instance. Abraxas are also relatively balanced between physical and magic so they can't hit us quite as hard as anything dedicated towards one or the other.



The Gagysons would be a potential threat if they ever tried to do anything, but they have a tendency of dying perhaps a bit sooner than they'd have liked.



The final enemy team is 2 Tenong Cuts and a Makara. Compared to almost everything else, they're colossal pushovers. At least now we're done with this.

And our reward is getting to fuse Ghost Q himself. At level 26. That ain't happening for a while.



Plus side, is that Hibiki gained 3 levels so he can relax a bit for now. That gives us access to like 7 new demons, including Bai Suzhen who you may remember from when we saved Daichi's rear end way, way back on Sunday.



One of the three level 19 demons is another one of my particular favourites for this part of the game. She gains Diarama (the mid-tier healing spell) at level 20, which sounds like a problem but we do have an add-on that helps with that.



By fusing Angel and Heqet together, and adding the Lv+1 Add-On we start with, we get a Sarasvati who has Diarama already. She's also the lowest level Goddess Megami demon, which have the Affection racial skill. Affection restores a lot of HP and cures all ailments on any team up to 4 spaces away.

Affection is really, really good. I like it more than Devotion right now, but for pure healing Devotion's better at higher levels.

I also buy back Angel from the compendium, since we'll be using her a bit more.



We can't make Q yet, but he's special in that there is exactly one way to make him. Let's see just what that combination is so we can get it rea-



Oh. Well, so much for that then.



Since we're gonna fuse a fair few things now, let's take the opportunity to grind up some free money from Data Cards in the Free Battle.



This map is kind enough to place them exactly 6 spaces away from your closest starting point. Flight on its own looks like it should be enough to get you there, but its not because the perspective in these maps is weird at times.



This one also doesn't even give us money. It just hands us Berserk. Like, the skill itself doesn't need cracking any more. Data Cards are nice like that, but it doesn't give you anything too major. (Edit: Except for once, at the very backend of the game. We'll get to that when it comes up.)



Time to fuse a whole lot of new things since we can. We'll start by fusing a 5-star Gagyson and a Toubyou from the compendium to make a Nekomata who doesn't have an Electric weakness.



I opted to make a Bai Suzhen as well by combining Angel with Jambavan. Grimoire's going to be a nice skill when we unlock it, even if Suzhen herself can't make use of it. It makes ailments more likely to stick, so poison/paralysis/etc. skills work much more often. Once we get it, it becomes part of a power trio of skills that completely wrecks everything it can work on.

Also that 17 strength is impressive, but...



I also made an Ubelluris who hits stuff even harder by combining Angel and Mokoi. Ubelluris is the first Kishin, and his racial skill is Double Up.

This is a pretty nice skill in that it lets you use the Attack command twice in a single turn, albeit with the usual turn delay penalty in both instances. It has its uses and even if it didn't, Ubelluris can punch stuff REAL hard so he'd be worth it for that alone.



Bai Suzhen and yet another Angel makes Abraxas (the second reason I love Angels is they become so many neat things). This particular one would easily murder himself if given the chance, though Force Dance is a default skill for some reason.

I also bought back Bai Suzhen and even more Angel from the Compendium. Suzhen to use, and Angel because, well, she makes good fusion fodder. There's one in particular I want to make with her, but it works best once I have access to Grimoire. We could make it now, since it's a level 18 demon, but I'd rather hold off for the time being. Let Suzhen soak up the EXP as I grind up characters who are lagging behind Hibiki (i.e. everyone).



We can do that much easier, hell we can do that period, at Nagoya, so let's go.

Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Mar 10, 2014

Feinne fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Mar 6, 2014