Gameplay tactics questions for those who played this game

#01) Does having a monster destroy a location have any effect in the game or anything at all? It sucks having a year to kill 2 specific monsters that is the opposite side of the land.. and traveling can take more than a year.


#02) The Gestalt Board sucks! It is VERY hard to see the relationship between characters aside from those falling in love. Now I had a Warrior Mage (M) + Cleric fell in love (one heart)... but then let's say the Warrior Mage went... you know, not into females...

I was surprised that happened since I thought the WarriorMage and the Cleric was in a relationship... but I guess I need Double Hearts or something.

Any tips to assure the relationship stays and how long it would take to stabilize (without them going for their same gender or another person) and possible gain a marriage to produce an offspring?


#03) I'm only on Chapter 5.. but am I off to a bad start from this already? I got:
Blood (lv5), Flee (lv5), Leo (lv2), Miletta (lv3), I don't use Olga (due to no support ability and declining age)

I have one relationship going: Warrior Mage (lv3) + Cleric (lv3)

While the rest (sadly males: Warrior Mage, Shaman, Adventurer, Wizard, Knight) are all pretty much close to each other in relationship.

I can't find Clerics, Paladins or Sibyl with a good age (most I saw at the tavern doesn't even last 2 years!)... and I'm lucky to find that Warrior Mage and Cleric with an age of 17 and a lifespan to 38.

My ideal "Fate Knights" group would be lots of Warrior Mage and Paladins, with Clerics. It seems those are the best (and maybe a Wizard, Sibyl and Shaman for elemental/status type attacks as backup).

I got items (Book [Cleric heal up], Sword [Warrior Mage Atk up], Orb [Wizard], Orb [Warrior Magic Support Atk up], Club [Barbarian Atk up]).

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

1. IIRC, your safety rating will have a huge drop if the monster manages to successfully destroy a town. About the huge distance, all I can say is tough luck. Save and reload i guess since the spawns are random if i'm not wrong.

2. From your message, it appears that you do not understand how the dynamics of relationship work? Anyway,FYI the relationship between 2 generic characters is strengthend by letting them fight together ( as in side by side, or top and bottom). the more battles they fight, the faster the relationship is developed. Anyway, the key thing here is to put the couple together and to avoid letting another generic character come into contact with them. You can do so by placing story characters around them to sort of block them off. For example:

Generic 2 Generic 4
Blood Leo
Generic 1 Generic 2

As above, generic 2 and 4 will develop a relationship while 1 and 2 will do so.

With regards to your warriormage/ cleric, I think it's still possible to pair them up by keeping the 3rd party away and letting them fight as many battles are possible. The development of the relationship is dependent on battles fought rather than active time if i'm not wrong. The tough part is getting them to marry, the children to to come soon after that.

Anyway it's vital to create good offsprings because they will be your main fighting force in the future if you "breed" them well. Of course it would be best to get Warrior Mages and Paladins with good stats but if they are not available, I would suggest getting other type of members as long as they have good stats and an active period.(to allow sufficient time for the marriage to take place and kids to be born). For example, if you have a warrior mage but can't find a paladin to pair up with, you can get a witch or valkyrie instead if she has good stats. The gender of the offspring is totally random and the occupation is based on the gender. A warrior mage - paladin couple will produce a warrior mage son and paladin daugther and IMO this is the optimal couple. Archers, adventurers & ninjas are good too for making couples. I would recommand that you use paladins instead of clerics and sibyls for the late-game because of their low hp. IIRC, the high- end generic characters ( WMs, archers, ninjas and palas) are scare at the beginning and will appear more frequently towards the end of the game so don't worry. Hope this helps.

Just an additional comment but Namco X Capcom is a mediocre game. I finished it and all I can say is that It's a poor imitation of the SRW series.

Thanks for answering! Really appreciated it!

I got another question about the couples. I got the Warrior-Mage + Cleric dating already (finally)! Do I still need them be in battles or can I just keep them in Reserves?

I was thinking if they are already dating.. I was hoping not to use them (so their relationship won't be screwed up by someone else) and try to get another couple hooked up.

But I am afraid if I don't use them in battle.. their relationship won't go anywhere at all (I'm not too clear about this thing.. hopefully you can answer this clearly for me).

"B) Relationships are pretty easy. Anyone who is not a "story" character or married/sworn siblings to someone else can be influenced by the actions of those in battle around him/her. Here are the basics:

- Characters in the front row are impressed by the attacks of those standing directly beside them.
- Characters in the front row are impressed by anyone who provides an offensive/defensive assist (i.e. middle-row characters) to them.
- Characters in the middle row are impressed with anyone standing directly beside them who executes an indirect attack.
- Characters in the back row are impressed by anyone who row-heals them or anyone standing directly beside them who uses a self-heal.

After each battle, a character will move on the Gestalt Board towards the ally who impressed him/her the most that battle. Basically, the character will move towards the one ally who provided the most benefit that battle (e.g. Ninja A deals a max damage of 38 while standing beside Shaman B, whose highest damage dealt was 11, while Witch C standing behind Ninja A provides an offensive assist of 23 in one round and a defensive assist of 18 in another: at the end of the battle, Ninja A will move towards Witch C and Shaman B will move towards Ninja A). The distance each character covers depends on the value of the benefit -- the more damage/healing/assisting the ally did, the more the character will move towards that ally on the Gestalt Board. If two characters get close enough to each other, hearts will start flying between them, and you'll have a shot at establishing an intimate relationship the next time you return to town."

That's a repost of something I told someone else quite a while ago... luckily, that thread is still around to copy from.

It might also help you see relationships better if you use the "free movement" commands on the Gestalt Board: hold L2 and R2 and you can rotate the board using the bright spot as the axis of rotation. Hold L2, R2, and L3 and then press R3 to go into Free Movement mode, where R1 zooms in, L1 zooms out, D-pad/left analog Up and Down changes camera angle, D-pad/left analog Left/Right rotates the board, and X returns you to "normal" mode.

Also, if you have no patience for breeding, you can try shooting for a Goddess Tear' and a Great Witch's Hat instead. Even a scrub becomes mighty with a +30 HP/+20 Attack Great Witch's Hat equipped (especially if she's a Ninja or Sibyl, heh).

Once an relationship is established (dating, marriage, summon ability).... are they still required to be active in battle or you can just leave them on the reserves (so you can try to get other people hitched)?

That's my biggest concern right now.. as I have a Knight and a Cleric I want to get them hitched.. but if it doesn't allow my current pairs relationships to get any further (having a child or marriage) if those aren't active in battle, then it's something I must consider when planning who to fight and who doesn't.

Once you have an opposite-gender pair "hooked up", it's perfectly safe to leave them on the sidelines for the rest of their careers -- they will reproduce normally without needing to fight any more battles. If you have a "spirit sibling" pair, though, you probably don't want to leave them on the sidelines -- summons aren't active unless both spirit siblings are in your active lineup.

Thanks both of you for your help!

I got 4 couples so far... well one is more of a "friendship bond":
Warrior Mage + Cleric (have a child named Lion)
Adventurer + Cleric
Knight + Cleric
Wizard + Warrior Mage


The 2nd and 3rd couple was a little hard to pull off.. but I used the 1st and 4th couple to use a buffer so that way while it'll make sure the relationship goes the way I want, the items they equip will level up and also them (since Blood, Flee, etc are lv5 already).

I love this game... it's so beautiful. Although I can see how annoying management can be a problem sometimes.

Not to mention random monsters, items and hiring is a pain too (although it could work to your advantage if you reload and hope for better).

Remember to do Reis/Rhys (Story's Paladin) event. It's optional, so some people may miss it or skip it.

Thanks, I'll keep in mind about that.

Damn.... enemy difficulties jumped big time... and I'm only on Chapter 5 still (after Flee leaves). Fighting lv7 enemies that can hit pretty hard.. making it pretty much impossible (or near impossible) to try to use new recruits to get a relationship going (I have to use my main characters as well those that are married already since they can survive the multiple attack damages [over 15-20+ damage total]).