LogFAQs > #958791750

12/9

They're making me pick between Sharon and Claire for who I bring?! I'm going to kill myself, this is the hardest choice I've ever had to make in my life. I like Claire slightly better, but I settle on Sharon. For one, she's the new girl on the block so I want to try her out, and for two, I figure she will have more interesting dialogue than Claire does on average. I also bring along Alisa and Machias for my classmate selection. I like Fie more than Machias, but he's definitely more useful in battle and I need some testosterone in the party. Also, I'm considering the last 3 I'll be meeting up with in Laura, Emma, and Jusis and how they will interact. Alisa and Sharon for starters is a no brainer, Machias and Jusis is another, and Alisa and Laura were pretty good friends from what I remember so they may get some screen time. I'm super bummed out that I have to leave Claire behind though, hopefully that's something they stop doing soon and give us full freedom.

I reequip the master quartz that Sharon comes with to Machias, since it has a 30% chance to inflict (I'm assuming random) status effects by default, and give Sharon Fie's to make her into a speed demon. Also I link up Sharon and Alisa since they start off at level 4 which is insane. That leaves Rean and Machias which is suboptimal, but I figure I'll put in Jusis or Laura instead of him since they're both pretty OP in the last game.

Walking around town to start the day off, the maid Maple says that she's jealous of her coworker maid Purple, because she has bigger boobs. Alright then! She asks if Rean agrees and Alisa gets jealous, while Sharon watches amused. This is the quality content that I play this game for. Nothing else of note happens around town though so I go off to Valimar to get this party started. He lets us know now that only two life forms are detected in Legram and not three as he said before. Drama! I'm predicting those to be Laura and Emma, and Jusis is off doing some royal shit somewhere else. Though to be fair, it could just as easily be Laura and Jusis, while Emma is off doing some witch shit. So I guess I'm not really sure, but I'm leaning towards the former. They also let you repick your teammates again if you're dissatisfied with the decision you had made 5 minutes ago, so thanks for that Falcom. I'll be back for you soon Claire! Unless Sharon is completely broken, I figure I'll end up getting back with Claire after today, assuming that the game will continue to let us gather and choose between teammates in this linear fashion.

After teleporting over, we get to Legram's outskirts and it's pretty foggy. I remember this place being foggy in the last game, but I think it's gotten a little worse. More importantly though, I get to try Sharon out in battle here and here are her starting crafts: A dark matter-esque suction move that does crazy damage in a huge aoe, a move that reduces speed by 50% and movement by 100% (!) and also does crazy damage also in a huge aoe, and a full-team heal that restores 50% of HP, 50Cp and also cures all ailments. Holy shit, this character is broken as hell. I'm not sure how this could be balanced? I guess you could make the argument that she has no strong single target moves for bosses, but all of her attacks do so much damage it doesn't really matter. She has to only be temporary or something because she's so much stronger than any other character it's a little silly. Compare that heal I just mentioned to Alisa's Blessed Arrow - Alisa's does cost 10cp less, but in exchange she does 20% less healing, grants 10 less cp to all other teammates, has no ailment cure whatsoever, and it's in a medium radius instead of full map. It's so much worse than Sharon's it's silly.

Slowly realizing that Sharon may be taking over Claire's spot in my party full time, I explore this area and find some armor that grants 10% evasion. Putting that on Sharon bumps her up to 40% evasion stat with just that one piece of armor due to her natural 30%, which is pretty insane. Evasion tank is beginning to form pretty early here. I also get to try her S craft for the first time, which is a 100% KO chance for all enemies on the map. Now I'm slowly realizing that she is supposed to be a boss character and will not be with me permanently, much to my dismay? Maybe? I'm very conflicted right now. I do appreciate the fanservice of letting her join for a bit though, shoutouts to Ouroboros teammates.

After getting to town, the gang heads to the bracer guild to get the lay of the land. Inside are Klaus, Laura's family butler, and Miles, the new receptionist for this branch. They mention that Laura and Emma are staying in town (+1 prediction point for me), but they just left to go investigate the castle across the lake. They also talk about how strange monsters - presumably cryptids - have been spotted nearby, along with the fog getting worse. Us people that have played Crossbell know that those two things happening at once are no coincidence! The gang decides to go after Laura and Emma to help, but I'm wondering why they decided the castle was the place to investigate in the first place. I guess it's just...generally spooky so you can assume there's some no goodery that will come from there, but I don't know. The real reason has to be asset reuse. Before leaving though, I take some time to explore the town and find a mysterious girl at the inn who has very strong opinions on the swordsmanship and ruling abilities of Viscount Arseid. Spoiler alert, they are not very positive opinions. Rean makes a side comment that he detects a lot of strength coming from this girl, but Sharon gives a little laugh and tells Rean not to worry about it. I have my suspicious that this girl might make a reappearance later! If you talk to her again she complains about "getting paired with HIM", but that she's doing it for her lord so she must bear with it. Mysterious, mysterious...but I will forget about this for now.

Inside the church we find Vivi, the loveable prankster known for messing with her twin sister and hardcore flirting with Rean in CS1. Definitely one of the top tier classmates, so glad to see her safe. She is not her usual self however, and mentions that she lost contact with her twin, and is very worried about her. Hopefully we will see them reunited soon! The other classmate in town is Casper, hanging out at the Arseid training school. I don't remember him at all really, but my best guess is one of the sword club guys? He is here training after all. There's another dude at the school, not a classmate, but his name is Fritz and he has a giant buster sword and spiky blond hair. Cheeky Falcom.

Nothing left here, so I head towards the castle. Celine drops some lore while sailing over the lake: apparently, there used to be a divine knight hiding somewhere in this castle, but it's vanished without a trace. I'm gonna go with it being the one Crow was using since that's the only other one we know of right now, but we'll see. After you get to the island the castle is on, the gang can immediately tell that Emma is fighting someone inside, so they rush up to help. Another Cryptid just like the one we saw in Nord awaits us inside, and Emma and Laura are already fighting it. I prepare for a battle but they take it down on their own in cutscene, without any of our help. I do remember saying the Nord boss was really easy though, so with all the levels we've gotten since then I can see those two being able to take it alone. As soon as that one goes down however, a much more menacing looking Cryptid appears. Not a dragon reskin this time, but some giant lizard looking thing that does look pretty intimidating.


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