replaying... w/ Mericious/PyanPau/Grace vs. first play

[euthanatos]

first time I played through w/ Charlotte (?--the blonde rifle girl), Kaltos, and Enshadu aka the same party everyone else uses

I found a lot of fights e.g. the Count hard, but granted it was first time I played

but this time I'm playing w/ 2 priests and 1 rifleman (Meric. Pyanpau and Grace)

Maybe it's solely b/c I know the mechanics, but I am finding the game far easier in battles, in a matter of 3-4 hours I am already at the Institute and only suffered two defeats (but keep in mind I am rushing the entire time through fights, being lazy)

Most fights are pretty easy, I damn everyone, grace unloads, and PyanPau does trick

To really collapse enemies I have both Pyanpau + Meric spamming Wrath and Grace doing empowder

I don't need Grace wasting time on smoke barrels usually b/c I can also spam heal with each priest to recover entire party quickly

Meric. has the staff + book dropped by the Inquisitors so his damn/wrath are really good

And finally I can sometimes have one priest spam Aurora and another Heal, and grace just deal empower + aimed shot for example to drop bosses--I literally just set the combat speed on fastest, walked off, came back and Cloud Child was dead

So I am wondering does anyone else feel 2 priests + rifleman is a killer party?

Plus it's fun listening to Mericious and PyanPau argue or debate, and the former mock the latter's "grandfather" invisible friend

lol

[Mark Pay]

Dodge backed by multiple heals should be very good at tanking damage too. Are you playing on normal difficulty?

Grandfather was going to have a real speaking part in the finale ( heard by PyanPau only of course ) To my regret, I decided to drop it to save time.

[euthanatos]

Normal difficulty, unlocked

Just beat the game w/ this party, 8.75 hrs total

I should have played it on Locked Hard

Anyway, based on end-game tallies, my KOs were half that of my Kalt/Char/Enshadu playthrough, and I got through most fights easily

--

Itemwise, I gave the one evil book to Mericious, the one that poisons everyone in combat every minute or so that you get by defeating the priests in the snow town. This worked out wonderfully, it would infect guys who had fled to the back ranks, which would knock them off. Further, it would easily knock out revived targets, so basically once an enemy died, they were gone for good.

The Inquisition subplot was awesome, I figured halfway through the dialog that things were going to come to a fight, but it was still shocking b/c Mericious was willing to possibly kill members of his own priesthood.

I don't recall PyanPau or Grace Winters having a deep subplot role, the story certainly revealed interesting facts about them, and at the time I didnt realize it, but now I wish there had been a bit more to it, like PyanPau having a subquest or combat etc.

But that's just a minor quibble--overall, even on playthrough 2, game was just as amazing as first time, and more insightful since I knew the core plot going in. Now what Mama Yaga was saying to the party makes way more sense... hopefully what she says is correct, that mankind will go to the stars again.

I hope all the Rakari weren't killed by Batiste, they were awesome...

BTW, I think the best art/background of the game, is just all the subtle propaganda the Rakari have made, like "Protect" "Serve" etc., and also how in the Trader Town, the traders have written propaganda all over the pro-Rakari posters.

[Mark Pay]

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your second play-through euthanatos!

Your experiences with the poison book are also interesting. I didn't take the time to fully test/ calculate the numbers on it myself. It is supposed to do less poison damage to the party than opposing creatures.
It's good that you didn't find normal difficulty... hard a second time around. That's how it should be, hopefully.

Thanks for sharing your feedback.

[Withnail]

Did the exact same thing - so much for me having free will haha. Agree with everything you said, and would also add that an enpowdered strike is GODLY. At least as good of an armor-breaker as charged slays, and possibly slightly better since it doesn't have to be set up. That was also the playthrough where I discovered how awesome black bullet was. So much damage!