Hi everyone! I want to clarify a few things that people have been asking about in both my combat guide and this video. - You can change characters you can control during battle, but you can't swap members of your current party with your reserves. - You cannot change the abilities mapped to the bumpers in the middle of combat. (L1/R1 or L/R) - Magic fusion does not exist in this remake. The PSP version removed this functionality due to other characters dealing faster and heavier damage, which made this function moot.
just make sure to spend all your SP on determination, reselience and effort on all characters for you to unlock the train specialty. it helps you level up faster thus gaining more sp and bp mid to late game. also make sure to use the free fight formation to gain total of +50% exp buff. in addition try to get the enlightenment super specialty so you can get more sp and bp per battle and every level up
Very soild tips all around but I do have a tip of my own that I will be doing more frequently once I can find the game. And that is for the endings in that while it IS easier to keep track of what endings you will get and that you can get the endings in one playthrough, I do recommend that you save just before you do a Private Action, do the PA and then make decisions to see what happens. If your choices have a positive effect then keep the save and if not and it instead made things worse, reload from a previous save and check again. That way you can get a better feel for what to say to characters if you want to get all of the endings in one run for Claude or Rena. I know that is a no brainer but you can't be too careful and if not, you DO have new game plus to fall back on if you do screw up. Again great tip video Alex!
For the troublesome enemy leaders (esp. in Universe difficulty), I've found that targeting leaders with Break-focused special arts to trigger chain breaks to be especially useful (Bowman's neck snap, Claude's Helmet Break, Opera's Photon Prison). During the stun period when all or nearly all of the enemies are stunned and vulnerable, I focus on the smaller enemies with damage-focused AOE attacks. Slowly but surely, I thin out the horde, leaving the enemy leader last. Enemy leaders are much easier to manage when you are able to mob on them without worrying about the other smaller buffed up monsters. My favorite Break-focused move is Claude's Helmet Break for a couple of reasons: it is fast and let's you jump over the smaller monsters, meaning that you can employ a hit-and-run strategy. This reduces the chance that smaller mobs would hit you from behind. If you time it right, it also let's you avoid AOE spells from enemy casters; if the enemy leader is a caster, it also interrupts healing healing spells. You can also drop Laeticia's assault AOE attack into the middle of the fray right as you trigger the chain-break, so most of the monsters in the horde won't be able to get out of Laeticia's AOE range in time (It usually takes about 4 Helmet Breaks to trigger a chain-break, so you can also drop Laeticia on the third Helmet Break, so Laeticia's attack will hit right as you trigger the chain-break on the fourth Helmet Break). Claude's Helmet Break is also an AOE attack on its own, meaning that smaller mobs surrounding the enemy leader will also take damage and have their own shields broken regularly, making cleanup by your other characters much easier. The biggest downside is that it is very MP-intensive, so when I use this chain-break strategy, I run through blackberries pretty quickly. Luckily, there is no item use animation unlike in some other Star Ocean games so using is items is practically free of risk. Your only concern is the cooldown period, which you can wait out while herding the monster horde or continuing your hit-and-run strat -- you can even use items mid-attack or while running without slowing you down. You could hypothetically run around indefinitely breaking enemy shields and dodging the monster horde as long as you still have blackberries and resurrection elixirs (Herbology skill and Familiar/Compounding Specialties are indispensable). It's a bit of a cheese strat, but it still requires careful timing and character spatial awareness. All this said, this game is not very difficult and leveling up is incredibly easy and painless to the point that it is way too easy to overlevel. I kind of hope they release an update with a Chaos difficulty to force players to get creative. So far, I've been having an absolute blast, though!
Ayyy, with this and David's Skills tutorial, everyone starting Second Story R is gonna be set to go! Mine's still not delivered yet, but I'm so happy to see so many people discovering the game for the first time
Found your channel looking for videos about sea of stars, chained echoes and now this game. I really enjoy your content and you gained a sub in me. I can't wait to pick up this game tonight
I don't understand how the dodge mechanic is important to learn, with the spells there's so much fireworks going on I can barely see what each enemy or myself is doing
I still wish we had full manual controls. Is the original if you were pretty good at combat you could use that to your advantage a lot more when trying to combo.
It’s really strange that they removed the ability to change to fully manual or auto attack styles; other than that the combat is only an improvement over all previous versions
There is no orange circle on the bottom left. Do you mean bottom right? If so, that’s the Bonus Gauge. I’d check the chapters and go to that specific portion of the video to find out more
It actually doesn’t matter who you choose first as protagonist only who is there exclusive character that you can get. You can change the leader at the get go making Claude as the main in combat even if you went with rena. You should definitely decide the main based on whether you like Dias or the other one that no one cares (yes just pick rena you get games hottest guy).
You forgot to mention a critical aspect for new players that they must counter elements other enemies cast on your party. Aka if a mage is using fire attack and you have nothing to dull that you will get wiped out fast.
I'm having a hard time getting into this game. It also feels like nothing is important since you get a lot in a short amount of time (allies, accessories, armor, food, skills, etc.) I'm sticking with it since I generally like it but I just haven't been excited by it.
Thank you for your combat tutorial. I don't understand the appeal of this JRPG. Any battle that doesn't begin with a back attack (against the enemy) is a swift trip to the Game Over screen. Leveling up doesn't help. Better equipment doesn't help. The "easy" setting might as well be the "impossible" setting. Switching from Rena to Clyde allowed me to make a tiny bit of progress, until the enemies began to obliterate the party again. I acknowledge that I'm not grasping the proper action combat techniques for this specific title, but I have managed to adapt to systems in other action JRPGs. Why do so many gamers rave about this sadistic wad of misery?
This might have something to do with the other secondary skills you can learn, as they also affect your individual stats. Have you put some time into that part of the game?
Yes. I usually prioritize the distribution of points to fulfill mission quests, while also coordinating with the characters' innate talents (assuming that makes any difference). I will follow your advice and attempt to invest some residual SP into skills that boost stats. Thank you.
I have this game since release. I did several attempts now to get into the game. And while I like the premise, graphics, atmosphere and sound, I just despise this combat. I just don´t feel it and i won´t get into it no matter how much I try. I watched your video now as the last bastion to overcome my hate for this battle system but sadly it doesn´t help, there is no aha moment. Have to drop this game unfortunately.
They only gave us 6 guest assaults... 6. That's rather lame. There's tons of characters they could've added. That aside, I am very much enjoying this remake.
My only issue with the combat system is "Fight with good balance" = characters using nothin but spells then standing around doing nothing afterwards. Thought they'd be a more conservative. And at least switch to auto melee.
Before making a purchasing decision on this game, I've been waiting to see a video explaining the combat in greater detail. So, thank you for this video!
Hey there! I just found this video. I’m really enjoying the game so far as I’m new to JRPGS. I just finished the Armory contest. I was wondering if you had any tips or advice for the parry system. I’m not sure what to d o when the energy’s flash red. Thanks!
Rena's healing AI could use some more work tbh. Most of the time post endgame dungeons, she heals way too late - esp since the cast time itself takes forever.
