Next up on the challenge is Rena. Rena is a cleric. In gameplay terms, this means she is less physically robust than Claude, but has access to largely healing and buffing spells. Spells are interesting in that they differ greatly from special arts. They don't have to be equipped to the two special arts slots, a character can cast any spell they know in battle. They also ignore defense and evasion entirely. However, spells all have a charge up time, and getting attacked before they finish being charged stops them entirely. Thus, they are kind of a high risk, high reward mechanic.
As mentioned earlier, most of her spells perform healing or buffing duties. This leaves her ranged offense a bit underpowered, but to compensate, she is built more sturdily than most spellcasters, and can melee through most of the game in "regular" play. That said, I anticipate her journey to be much tougher when she isn't backed by any fighters, and doesn't have someone to hide behind to cast her spells. We will see.
GALAXY
Rena is one of two main playable characters, and is actually selectable as a primary character. I've never actually played through her perspective, I've always found Claude's personal story to be more appealing. This being a solo run though, it only makes sense to start as her!
Enemy encounters first started appearing in the Sacred Forest of Arlia in her scenario, which was a bit surreal for me. I'm always used to thinking of Arlia as a tranquil village, it's often easy to forget that the Sacred Forest is meant to be a dungeon! Her attacks were shorter ranged and slower than Claude, and took a while to get used to. Perfect countering with her was more valuable, as it let her quickly maneuver around the enemy to get around these downsides.
Salva Mines arrived soon enough, and she used Crush and melee attacks to dispatch of the foes fairly easily. Crush is her first spell, and a very basic one as such. It hits one enemy and a small area around it, and doesn't do much damage, but severely damages their shields, enough to break the enemies down here in one cast. I didn't expect it to last, but it was a very useful tool for now.
Allen Tucks was taken down without too much worry. I first set Claude to run instead of fight, then wore him down with punches. I tried using Crush, but he was just too fast for it. She would definitely need some investment into speeding up her spellcasting, and soon!
Rena starts with two levels of Cooking, and that proved helpful for the first guild mission, and for stocking up on mid dungeon heals.
Qiqong was the first skill she heavily invested into. While she would want Hasten Speech, this early in the game defense is more important and generally more impactful than anything else. Besides, Hasten Speech is kind of an expensive investment, and there are accessories that will grant it later, so it's best to hold off on it for a while.
She Crafted some interesting things, including this nifty earring:
Sadly, she couldn't actually wear it. Rena has a weird equipment selection, where some caster gear is randomly forbidden for her. Her best accessories right now were two Foot Insignias to improve her attack somewhat. I hoped that the Hasten Speech accessories wouldn't be barred from her, but well, that would be a problem for later.
The Insignias were enough to let her handle Krosse Cave, and the place was largely a breeze. Crush unfortunately was too slow for the enemies here, so it was good that her punches were able to handle it. She unlocked Cure Light, and that was enough to sustain here throughout.
The Gargoyles gave her serious trouble. After four failed attempts, I gave up, leveled up Alchemy, travelled back to Salva for some spare Brass Knuckles, and gambled on Customizing better fighting gloves. I discovered that she could get a special result on them at level six of Customization. Thankfully, a Hard Knuckles with Lone Wolf on it sufficed for them, alongside lots of healing. This encounter made me worried about Rena's future chances, when enemies would be considerably faster and would make melee far too dangerous to rely on.
I also discovered that Rena unfortunately couldn't wear Hasten Speech accessories:
Well that makes her life complicated, doesn't it? Doesn't have the durability or damage of a fighter, can't wear gear that helps casters. What was she going to do?!
I got Customization up to level 6 asap. This yielded her a Metal Fang, a pretty amazing fighting glove with 400 attack on it. I also got her Godspeed to help her dodge enemies better. I also switched to the Square Shift 1 battle formation, as I figured the Super Armor would help her more than the +70% evasion of Escape Shift.
The Forest of Symbols was rather routine. Rena didn't have a good way to cancel Star Lights, but she could dodge them just fine. She leveled up a bit, got Customization to level 7, and made this with a lucky Moonstone provided by ESP:
Why yes, I do believe she will be using that for quite a while! This isn't even counting the extra hit on it, or the Lone Wolf factor it rolled.
Rena's scenario had Azam Gille as the boss of the forest. He was accompanied by four Shieldmen, enemies who shielded their front from attack. They were a bit tricky, but not particularly tough. Azam Gille had a ranged attack and some decent strength, but he was considerably less dangerous than the Snow Ogre Claude fights here.
She got to Harley and did the usual item creation boosting that Claude did. She Crafted a bunch more, and finally found something useful for her spellcasting:
Yesss!!! And it's a pretty good accessory too, raising Hasten Speech by five levels. Now she could finally try out her spells on enemies. She paired that with a Ring of Absorption and cruised through Lacuer. While there, she also did a few Private Actions to get this:
Yes, that is indeed a Rainbow Diamond on Expel! This would help out item creation quite a bit. This discovery would be quite useful for future runs, and I would make a point to always nab it whenever I could.
Claude is AI controlled throughout the Armory Contest in Rena's scenario, and he was underleveled besides, so he was doing 0 damage to Dias. It was amusing to watch him constantly wail on him and do nothing. Dias eventually destroyed him with one blow, as expected, and the game continued.
Rena performed admirably in the Sacred Grounds of Linga. This dungeon is a steep step up, even on Galaxy difficulty, and she handled it with little trouble. Her offensive spells were rather cruddy, and her defense fairly low, yet she was able to easily survive the fights with a combination of Super Armor, her healing spells, and some careful movement. I deigned to explore the entire cave, and found...
A second Rainbow Diamond! This meant she could immediately take fuller use of item creation. She got some skills to level 10, and drew some nifty stuff, including Revival Cards and Illusion Dolls. I would have loved to create more things, but the lack of reliable access to the high end minerals kept me in check.
Rena learnt her first buff, Guard, within the grounds. This was a powerful defensive buff that dramatically cut down on the damage she took. It raised her defense by 50%, which meant it would only keep getting stronger as she found better armor. Her offensive spells sadly remained subpar, but her healing and buffing definitely offset that.
The Hoffman Ruins proved to be fairly simple. Only the Bowladies gave her any trouble, and they were easily mitigated with some careful maneuvering and healing. Rena maxed out Power Burst and Godspeed, invested five points into Hasten Speech, and began working on Guardbreak. She leveled up some more, and unlocked Power Up. This was an amazing buff, boosting her offense by 50%! With this and Guard, she was practically unstoppable, tearing into everything very quickly. Even the Halfnyxes proved to be no issue, she could easily outheal their lightning spells, and wear them down.
Rena backtracked and forged the Cestus of Poison using a Brass Knuckles and Damascus. This glove had higher base attack and a chance to poison, but traded away the extra hit of the Dragon Claw. She could easily make up for it with a Meteor Ring though, and its benefits proved extremely handy in future fights, especially the poison!
She had also unlocked all her single target healing spells. Her latest such spell, Faerie Healing, took a considerable time to cast. However, it was effectively a full heal, and with Super Armor, and some positioning, she could reliably pull it off without being in too much danger.
At Ell, she unlocked Reflection. This cut spell damage in half, and stacked with Witch Powders. With these buffs, Rena proved herself quite formidable! She fought a bunch of battles to rebuild her Super Armor, and switched over to a Chain of Might/Meteor Ring setup. She also started investing more seriously into Hasten Speech to not be so dependent on her Star Necklace from now on.
Cynne was fairly routine, only requiring the use of syrups twice. Rena quickly picked up the Lezard's Flask, then discovered, to her great delight, that she had many strong lategame knuckles available. Ah, but all of that happened on Energy Nede, so if you wish to hear about it, you'll have to wait till next time. See you then!
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