#since then didakus has sent me some alpha versions of epic wisdom to test so i haven't been back to actual games lmao

[claire-starsword]

The Guardiana Magic School Run - Part 13

Short one as I mentioned last time.

So, last time I was rudely interrupted by a storm and didn't have the time to explore Pao, let's do that.

We get a Steel Sword which is finally a weapon Max needs promotion to use. He's still overpowered for now though and a single level away from Supernova 2, so I think I'll wait for that.

But never mind that, the deals section decides to get even more busted and gives me two new offers.

The Repel Ring is absurdly pricey, but blocks enemy counterattacks. Because bosses in particular love to counter in this game, this is a very precious item.

The Soulbuster meanwhile is a sword against human enemies, which I think includes Cain and the priest enemies and such. Not many people, and Max is overpowered enough for now, so I think I'll be saving money for the ring unless something in common shops picks my attention. Which they don't here, the selection is the exact same as it was in the previous Pao. So I just sell a bunch of weapons from the characters out of this playthrough, and redistribute a bunch of healing items between the newcomers Narsha and Domingo.

Oh I just remembered, there's promotion whining to do as well.

Narsha is already level 12, which means she can be promoted. However, by delaying her promotion I can get Aura 2 in the next two levels, then Attack 3, Step 3 and Aura 3 again from two on two levels, the frequency she learns new spells is wild actually. Her only promotion exclusive spells are Boost 3 and Aura 4, which would be delayed by not promoting now.

With that said I'm not sure I care. She's already very busted with her current spell set, and doesn't get MP to use the fancier stuff very much. So I'll be promoting her as soon as I find a weapon that requires promotion. Btw I don't remember if I mentioned before, but shops don't sell weapons for Narsha, all her weapons come from chests. Easy to find chests though, nothing special. This does bring an annoying thing as well where her weapons count as special and clog the deals section when sold.

With this discussion done, let's go bomb a fortress.

Clear bonus is just money, which I guess I want for that ring. I expect this battle to be easy, so whatever.

Also unlike the original game, the Hellhound is the only boss here, the artillery no longer counts, and you no longer get two different entrances for the fortress depending on the order you defeat them.

It is as easy as I expected. I should point out that by now, Narsha has more defense than Max, the overpowered special boy. Despite being three levels behind him. Domingo is also very close to them in defense, because Domingo is epic. He and Gong are tied in this stat.

The actual annoying part of this battle is having to pass these narrow and blocked stairs, while Pegasus Knights can hit you from the sides. Max is taking some damage at this point so I'm worried about sending him to tank everything. It would be a good time to have fliers but Domingo is our only one. I'm sure he'll be working hard though.

I'm so confident for this battle I'm even already wasting Khris and Lowe's heals to get exp, if things go south I have healing items, and they are not walking well enough to reach people right now. Narsha's Step spell could help with their movement, but not with the narrow terrain, so I'm holding off on it for now, I might need Narsha's MP for something else, and she's being more helpful as a fighter right now anyway.

We get annoyingly stuck in the stairs until turn 4 but that's it, the enemies aren't doing much. Also while I chill here I realize Max has the Power Ring for some reason??? I don't remember why I left it with him, maybe Arthur was stronger when he got the Elf Slayer, but that's definitely not a thing anymore, he should have it again.

Not that he's weak or anything, he's doing more than half of the enemy's HP. But good management is important you know.

As I was saying though, Arthur is definitely strong. I send him to beat up a Pegasus Knight on the side, and he takes down a whooping 2/3 of their HP.

It's risky to send Arthur on his own like this but the Knight has Max in reach so I'm assuming they'll attack him as usual. And they do! And get countered by Max for their trouble! Game's easy!

shrieks

OKAY LET'S BE LESS CONFIDENT MAYBE

this guy definitely had Max in reach, I guess the AI is not that predictable.

Good grief if this guy did a second attack to kill Arthur it would have been so stupid.

The situation is still resolved because almost all of my characters are faster than the enemies so anyone can get to Arthur and heal him. I'm still concerned that we're on Turn 5 halfway through the map. The Hellhound has good evasion so defeating them in time for the clear bonus might suck. I decide to use Attack 1 on Arthur in hopes that he'll one kill things and thus not get hit by them. This should also speed up the battle.

I'm also speeding up the kills by telling Max to shoot these annoying gatekeepers.

It's still Turn 8 and I haven't climbed up the fortress, I'm fairly sure the bonus is impossible. I could have likely done something better with Narsha to wreck this place, but I couldn't decide what, and was too confident to pay more attention I guess. I was also trying to keep the group together so that everyone could train a bit, but the mages and priests still lagged behind. I managed to get Anri and Khris a kill but that's it, and the dark priests are so outclassed at this point they're giving 4 exp. Khris would get more by tossing heals into the void.

Tao got a few kills in the beginning but I didn't expect much of her here because the Hellhound is immune to fire anyway, she wouldn't be the ace in this battle no matter what.

So yeah it's Turn 10 and I'm barely climbing up! I hate narrow passages. It takes until turn 12 to kill the Hellhound even though it did nothing useful against us. The battle was easy as expected but the bonus required some way better turn management. I also fail to let Anri take the kill because Max decides to counter the hound, as he does. He did get to level 16 though and I feel he's lagging behind in defense so let's promote this man already.

Hoo boy that's such an annoying drop in stats, especially since the next battle is one where everyone surrounds Max very quickly. The Steel Sword more than compensates for the drop in attack at least. Anyway, that's a worry for next time.

Losses: 0 Deaths: 2

#shining force #ressurection of the dark dragon #guardiana magic school run #this was written a while ago i can't remember when #since then didakus has sent me some alpha versions of epic wisdom to test so i haven't been back to actual games lmao #it's been good fun i don't wanna show anything before he shows it on his website though #man i would not do well with an actual nda lmao