Cold Steel 2
"Oh, you need a donation for the flea market? Sure, I've got just the thing: my ass."
[spoiler]Anyway, for some reason this game is still going. And I'm not at all upset about that. Like, not even a little. I defeated the Big Red Mecha in a freaking amazing final boss sequence that had everything. All members of Class VII participate? Check. Real danger of losing? Check. Intense mecha battle to finish? Check and check. Loved it. Despite the challenge, only Laura came close to death, but she had just barely enough HP to survive the boss' "Thousand Arms" move or whatever it was called. Not being able to use Gaius Win Button for the first form had me worried, but the B-Team actually acquitted themselves incredibly well. Rean couldn't quite Delay him as often as I hoped, but Machias shielding everyone and Fie and Laura beating on him eventually made him succumb. After that, Gaius took out 3/4 of the second form's HP in one move and he went down like a chump. The battle with Rean and Crow fighting together against him was pretty intense. I was like "Where is all my free healing???" Still, the fight is balanced pretty well and a lot of fun. That lack of healing definitely gives it an edge appropriate to a gameplay climax.
Anyways, now I'm in the Reverie Corridor. Wow. This game is the gift that keeps on giving. FINALLY being able to take every character into a dungeon and go exploring makes me very happy. I'm already through 2 cryptids, with a main party of Alisa, Towa, Elise, Alfin, Sharon, Sara and Rean, with Gaius and Jusis coming in for the cryptid battles. Really enjoying blasting enemies with Towa and Alfin. Towa has mastered Aries MQ, which seems pretty OP in a typically awesome Cold Steel fashion, so she's just spamming Arts left and right. And Alfin is using level 4 Mistral. Between the two of them, they have every color covered and it's been pretty fun.
Elise is using a SPD build and is basically just Rean Lite with spamming Delay. She's not half as good, though, since she doesn't do as much damage nor can she regain her CP nearly as fast as he does. She is absurdly fast, though, with her SPD coming in around 150, while Rean's is about 120.
Alisa is there to use Heavenly Gift and revive everyone if they actually die (which never happens).
Sharon and Sara are both Evasion tanks that debilitate enemies with status and stat drops. Pretty darn effectively, I might add. The last time a group of supermonsters from a chest got a turn, one attacked my group with a line attacked, missed both Sharon and Sara, hit Towa, then promptly got blasted by Towa right after, who was right back to full health thanks to Aries. Ridiculous.[/spoiler]
So many fun builds in this game.
