UNIVERSE
Been a while, eh? Let's dispense with pleasantries and get on to it.Ashton was as I remembered him. A very fast fighter with some interesting special moves that nevertheless never superseded his regular attack directly. I tried going to the Lacuer continent with him directly, only to find that he was horribly outmatched there. Welp, back to Krosse continent!
Actually, he headed directly for Arlia after that failed incursion. Why, you may ask?
Because one of the ladies there has a Rainbow Diamond! Now, at this point, his pickpocketing skill was too pathetic to aim for it, despite him getting a fair amount of SP from talent fishing, but I would be sure to return for it later.
For now, he purchased a pair of Venomous Stingers, and crafted them into the Maiden's Aria. With that, some judicious retreating from tough formations, and the Linear Motion battle formation bonuses, he eventually got to Lacuer. At Lacuer, the Rainbow Diamond and some SP took his Pickpocketing to 4, and that was enough to attempt trying for the Arlian Rainbow Diamond again. He got it without much issue, it only took about 2 Relax Perfumes. With those, he upgraded his weapons all the way to Double Smashers.
That upgrade served him for the rest of the Lacuer continent. In the Sacred Grounds of Linga, he forged one of his ultimate weapons:
Why yes, I will take an HP Drain on it. Thank you so much, game!
Needless to say, he wasn't challenged for a long time after that. I actually started wearing his Rainbow Diamonds to many fights, as it was convenient to have the skill boosts and there was little need of overkill damage in them. Hoffman Ruins was a complete breeze, aside from a few archer lady and lizard fights. The Eluria Tower was even easier!
It was Energy Nede that finally forced me to take off the Rainbow Diamonds and start taking fights more seriously. He switched over to a Ring of Might he had crafted, alongside an old Chain of Might. He would've paired it with a Berserker Ring, but he couldn't craft it yet!
Not that the fights here particularly demanded it, mind. Healing from attacks adds a lot to your attritional capacity, and he had to dip into his Blueberry stash noticeably less than other characters. For those curious, no, I didn't equip Bloody Armor - while its property of offering invincibility at the cost of HP drain would go great with his sword, I still wanted to maintain some challenge in this game!
The Psynard was easy. as were the Arachnovias. They did block his attacks more, forcing him to use a few Blueberries, but it turns out HP draining auras aren't an issue when you can just heal off your attacks.
And now he could craft the Berserker Ring.
Well that would keep his offenses overwhelming for the foreseeable future! The Field of Might was easy, though the Ghasts got me flummoxed a few times with their paralyzing attacks. Ashton dealt with the Guardian's first two forms easily. I was stumped for a while by its third form, but the Linear Motion battle formation let his Piercing Blades hit, letting him down it quickly enough.
Well, if the Field of Might didn't offer much challenge, the Field of Courage wouldn't either. Let's just skip straight to the Field of Wisdom...which was also easy. Wow.
I should mention that I got a lot of use out of Hurricane Slash in regular encounters. Upgraded, it got in lots of hits and utterly devastated any enemies in its path! And it covered quite the area! Wow. It was a bit awkward to use as a ranged attack, but as an area cleaner it was nothing short of amazing.
The Field of Love is essentially just a beefed up Field of Wisdom. As such, he had little trouble even in this area. Lavarre got him a few times because he was a bit too slow to step out of her ground beams, but eventually he got her with little trouble.
We all know that Barchian and the first three Wise Men are merely a formality, so let's just skip to the Beam Trio. Okay? Okay. And yes, he was getting the Ring of Lightspeed, while the healing from the Gemini was good, there were still enemies that could outpace it, and the final bosses would definitely count as such!
The Beam Trio were...surprisingly easy! Ashton blocked a prodigious amount of hits, and aside from a few cheese attacks, they presented little danger. This comfortably proved that he was actually strong as a character, and wasn't just carried by an HP leeching weapon. I was glad to see that, I would hate the idea of his lucky finds "invalidating" the run!
Michael and Haniel were a bit tougher, but not by much. His evade continued to block most of their stuff, though he did fall to Haniel's beam a few times. He equipped a Silver Charm to block Lucifer's Word of Death and Demon's Gate, and that took out most of the danger, though the fight did drag as he lost considerable offense from the swap.
I would like to say Gabriel was a tougher fight...but he really wasn't. Once Ashton got rid of any weaknesses on himself, his spells did very pitiful damage, and he could wail on him whenever he stood in place for their animation. He's only a threat because of his cheesy long range attack that automatically connects, his Divine Wave, and his insanely inflated HP. Once I had a good handle on his windows of opportunity, he fell after a long, ponderous yet fairly unthreatening battle.
Ashton was a surprisingly strong character! I knew he was going to be physically stronger than both Rena and Celine, but didn't expect him to be so powerful! While he did miss out on some nifty spellcaster only(or women only) gear, he got a lot of solid stats out of his weapons, and made pretty good use of them. His special moves were a bit situational, but there were situations where they were quite useful, and Hurricane Slash proved to be quite a winner in regular fights.
Well, that's Ashton done. Next time I round out the list of swordfighters by taking a look at Dias. Until then!
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