So I finished Viper Manor. Gosh that was annoying. Roachester was a pain because of his high evade. Hell Cook was cake. Grobyc wasn't too bad, but he killed off Lynx. Right after that battle, Guillotine did HotEdge on 1HP Lynx as his opening move, killing him off and leaving Zoah and Zappa to clean up the mess. After the chase scene, I had to fight the damn thing AGAIN! I managed to restore Lynx's HP, but it wasn't enough and he was killed off AGAIN!!! Zoah and Zappa cleaned up the mess, though.
I remember when someone back in the day here at RPGFan referred to Kimahri (FFX) as a "useless kitten." Given how many times Lynx has gone belly up in boss battles, I'm calling him "useless kitten."
Then I went to Hermit's Hideaway, but forgot to switch Zappa out for Radius, so I missed another "I am you and you are me" moment. Dammit!
Anyway, everyone and their dog joins the party aboard Fargo's ship, and when Harle asked me if I'd choose the world or her, I chose the world, because what's the point of choosing a girl, any girl, if there's no world to enjoy time with her in? No brainer, there. And then she went poof.
So I decided to make Fargo pay a little visit to Fargo to hopefully knock some sense into Fargo so he'll knock off his nonsense. I did and the gang liberated Marbule, recruited Miki, defeated the water dragon (I finished him off with Miki's SexyWink), had a fight with Orlha, learned more about Karsh during an encounter with Solt and Peppor, and defeated the black dragon in Another World's Marbule. And, yes, I made sure to take Miki to Home World Arni to meet the fan (just like I did with Nikki in Another World). Oh and I'm now in Gaea's Navel, I found Leah (chibi-Ayla) and am exploring.
Who do I have now: Lynx, Norris, Viper, Riddel, Karsh, Zoah, Marcy, Zappa, Orcha, Radius, Fargo, Sprigg, Irenes, Van, Grobyc, and Miki. And Leah (temporarily, according to the game.)
EDIT: I think it's funny how so many of the in-game guys are all ga-ga over Riddel. I'm sure she's a nice young lady and everything, and she is pretty, but man she's such a textbook JRPG archetype. She's what you'd expect a JRPG female lead to be, and I like that she isn't a lead. Kid flipped that script. Riddel is a very sheltered and demure healer whereas Kid is a brash and world-savvy thief.
EDIT 2: I wonder if during a sidequest or the game proper, there's a way I can get Miki to confess to Nikki. That way that's resolved. Although if those two end up together, they'll have to keep that on the down-low. After all, Nikki being single is what will attract more female fans and Miki being single is what will attract more male fans who think they might have a shot with either.
EDIT 3: And Gaea's Navel is where I will bookmark Chrono Cross for a while. I've been tasked to review a game for RPGFan, so Chrono Cross will be on hiatus until that's done. I'd rather be playing Chrono Cross, though.
Hope you unequipped Harle before she ran off with all your stuff (I forget whether she actually does run off with what's equipped to her, but better to be safe than sorry), cuz she's gone till NG+ (this is btw, why Harle sucks so much; you only have her until the midsection of the game).
I also hope you've been bringing Fargo to those Dragon fights in order to fulfill his true destiny, cuz you ain't gettin' no Developers ending without, at the very least, the Green Plate (the Blue Plate is also ideal to have, but Green is the quintessential one; the Black Plate is also really handy for some upcoming bosses and the White Plate will help save you some trouble during Lynx's section in future NG+s).
I also also hope you checked the Black Dragon's cave after beating him since the legendary weapon of evil's bane 'the Master Hammer' is handed to you once you've beaten the Dragon right and proper (and because you really need it if you want any Rainbow tier equipment as its needed to unlock your #1 source).
Anyways, welcome to the part where the game just starts dumping its entire cast onto you. The plot has kept your numbers down for a while now, but this is the point where everybody and their brother starts joining you.
Viper is a cool dude who's probably the third best character you unlocked from the Viper Manor sequence behind Fargo and Riddel. He's a solid physical fighter and yet another Yellow Innate. He stands out though in both his Dual Tech with Radius and the fact that he can get a really nice sword exclusive to him (which needs to be seen to be believed). His biggest issue is becoming available at this stage of the game in amidst this recruitment glut (at least he's a standout at the front of the conga line). If that tier list was worth anything, he'd be right alongside Karsh in terms of ranking.
Riddel is the second best character from the Viper Manor section for four reasons. First, she's your first non-Serge White Innate. Second, she is, without question, the best Healer in the game. Third is that she's the best Magic User in the game. And finally, she's the other character needed for Dario's sidequest. You must bring her and Karsh as your wingmen to finish up that sidequest since one alone isn't going to cut it and doing so will unlock her Level 7 Tech (among other really nice things). Tier list wise, Guile, Pierre and even Nikki should at least be below her since she has utility over them and they don't really have as much availability over her as they like to think they do.
Marcy is more or less just there. She's another Blue Innate caster that joins amid a sea of characters and unfortunately being both female and a kid-sized character doesn't do her (or anyone in this game) any good since all the female &| kid exclusive equipment kinda sucks. Without that going for her, she's competing with Irenes for your Blue Innate spot and Irenes has seniority and a better weapon type over her at least. IMO, Marcy's way too high on the tier list since she's got so little going for her. She should be over Orcha and under Miki.
Orcha is another physical Red Innate with utensils as his weapon type, which, if you've been nice to Kid at all prior to the Freaky Friday swap, makes him your sole user of that type for the run (otherwise Leena and Macha will be competing with him for new gear). Other than that, I never really used the guy that much. He does have an easy to acquire Level 7 Tech, but he's competing directly with Zappa for your physical Red Innate and unless you fuck up the Marbleu sidequest or forget to draw the Master Hammer, he's going to have a high end weapon over Orcha. Poor guy really doesn't have that much going for him which puts him down low on the list. Too many people are showing up all at once and there's not much to recommend him over any of the others.
Grobyc is here to replace Harle as your secondary Black Innate and is honestly better at it than her. First, he's a physical type with tonnes of HP and defense to go around. Second, he can rocket punch. Third, his hair turns into a beamsaber. Other than that, he's another take him or leave him type, though he'll have more value once you get Lynx back. If the mid tier of that ridiculous list wasn't so completely fucked up, he'd actually be close to where he should be placement wise (maybe a bit lower but not Sprigg low).
Miki is a Red Innate caster which is a fairly rare and actually kinda valuable niche (Kid fills it in later on, but that's if you ever decide to get her) in this game and would be worth quite a bit on its own, but she's also got a Dual Tech with Nikki which is really nice if you're a big fan of Nikki (once you get him back of course). Her biggest problem is actually recruiting her since you can fuck it up and lock yourself out on her. Well that, and she's yet another Glove user. That said, her rock opera concert is pretty sweet if you do the sequence correctly and should be worth enough on its own to bump her up to mid tier on that list, let alone her spell crafting niche.
Leah is why your other Yellow Innates suck so much. They're all physical and she's the physical-ist of them all. Her HP and Str growths are the highest in the game and she'll cap both out by then. She's also got a Dual Tech with Draggy for what its worth. It's too bad that female/kid exclusive gear sucks so much in this game because if she were packing that gimmick on top of everything else, she'd be Razzly/Glenn tier easily. Being able to use Hammers would've also have been nice for Master Hammer shenanigans, but she's stuck with the vanilla Axes weapon type. Despite all the things working against her, Leah could've easily sprung for upper mid tier, if not lower upper tier (higher than Grobyc at least).
