I don't understand this Prison area wtfffffff

Jaster lvl 16
Lilika lvl 17
Simon lvl 13 (because you couldn't use him at all before the prison)

I am getting SLAUGHTERED.
Just EVERY single encounter is DESTROYING my party members. Wtf is going on here. I haven't run away from a single fight. Not once in the forest area...and now in the prison I had to run away because I just blew my last bit of heal potions and revives after 3 battles.

Is this even normal? Is this supposed to be happening?

I can't leave because I'm in a prison.

This game is kind of unfair right now holy cow.

You've hit THE difficulty spike. Time to shape up or ship out.

This is the turning point in the game when you first start getting spells (like Jaster's Desert Wind), and should begin spamming them every possible battle, to (hopefully) finish most battles instantly. You need to make sure to break shielded enemies first, though, and to use the barrier break shot on barrier enemies (you'll first deal with this a bit later).

"Large" enemies (jump-to-hit) are immune to spells, but Flash Sword usually makes quick work of them, like Illusion Sword on bosses.


Also, you'll find an ice gun for Jaster somewhere early on in the prison (forget exactly where). That'll be a huge help as well, as it is powerful and has a chance of freezing enemies.

You are a godsend thank you for the advice. Guess I just gotta grind a little bit and start using abilities like crazy. I guess I wasn't expecting the spike. It came just so out of nowhere. Sucks that it happens in a prison.

SolInstall posted...

You are a godsend thank you for the advice. Guess I just gotta grind a little bit and start using abilities like crazy. I guess I wasn't expecting the spike. It came just so out of nowhere. Sucks that it happens in a prison.

This is where the game shifts heavily to spamming abilities each battle. You CAN try and power through fighting "normally" like you have been thus far, but it'll make for a long and frustrating playthrough. So I'd get used to it as soon as you can, and always prioritize upgrading those abilities on the revelation flow over passive ones.

On the plus side, the prison is the main difficulty spike you'll encounter. There are a few more, but you'll generally handle them much more easily due to spells.

Also, some general tips to help:

-Regarding weapons, go with what has the highest power stat. Status effects are nice, but don't trigger often enough to sacrifice higher damage for. Element stats on weapons are purely a luxury; NEVER choose a weaker weapon because its elementals are better.

-Flash Sword for "tall" enemies, Illusion Sword for bosses. Live by this rule, and (hopefully) don't die by this rule.

-Once you can afford to stay stocked on healing items and status cures, set your party strategy to "Go All Out." You will save SO much time by having the AI use items without your explicit command to do so. I'd say chapter 5-7 is the time to do this, depending on your resources. After that point, I would say the game is nearly unplayable without using Go All Out.

-Attack or defense buff abilities that give your party a golden glow (like Drunken Burst and Gelnamin X) are godly, and all of them stack with each other (at least 3 times or so for attack and defense). You'll also get consumables that do the same effect that also stack.

What I've always done is finish my hunters log for each area before moving on. I'm still on juraika at the moment grinding out Shadowoods. (Arrrrrrrrgggggghhh!) I'm in my high 20s across the board from grinding weapon combos as well.

When you come across a shop with new weapons, buy them and fight until they're all maxed. Maxing and combining weapons will get you the best gear the fastest.

I remember my first trip to the prison and wondering what I missed for it to be so difficult. Just follow the guidelines laid out above and in my post here and you'll be just fine from here on out.

Keep an eye out for the characters' combined special abilities. They're the strongest of the spells and will be your main grinding tool mid to late game.

Mayus_Black posted...

What I've always done is finish my hunters log for each area before moving on. I'm still on juraika at the moment grinding out Shadowoods. (Arrrrrrrrgggggghhh!) I'm in my high 20s across the board from grinding weapon combos as well.

When you come across a shop with new weapons, buy them and fight until they're all maxed. Maxing and combining weapons will get you the best gear the fastest.

I remember my first trip to the prison and wondering what I missed for it to be so difficult. Just follow the guidelines laid out above and in my post here and you'll be just fine from here on out.

Keep an eye out for the characters' combined special abilities. They're the strongest of the spells and will be your main grinding tool mid to late game.

Shadowwoods are the easiest of the difficult hunts. But let me let you all in on a bigger tip:

You can automate grinding by setting L/R direction to normal (not inverse) in the menu and rubberbanding the two analog sticks together. The two AI characters will fight and win battles for you. Make sure you control whichever character has the weakest weapon(s), and make sure Jaster is AI if you'd need the barrier break shot.

Doing that, you'll go until either your party maxes out on a dropped item (sticking the game on the "what to do with this item" screen), dies (losing your progress), or the game just freezes (only happened on a couple of multi-hour occasions).

As long as you're strong enough to reliably kill enemies with no player input, it works like a charm. Of course, early on, that's a big issue, but after a few chapters you can easily do it back in chapter 1 and 2 areas. Just be aware that in later chapters that open new dungeons on Rosa and other planets, those dungeon's encounters are added to many of the earlier areas. If you're just looking to grind out maxing weapons for combining, though, Rosa's residential square always has only chapter 1 enemies.

This also earns a lot of money over the course of things, but unfortunately little EXP due to its scaling nature.

Yeah, I know about the rubber band trick. This run through is actually the first I've really struggled with finding monsters. I don't like doing the rubber band.thing because it feels cheap to me. I actually got all my shadowoods, so I'm heading out.

It sounds boring, but the easiest way to get your hunting log filled is to kill each set of monsters as they appear. Once you unlock all the monsters on a planet, you will have a harder time finding the weaker monsters from earlier chapters. This might not be 100% true, but I usually encounter stronger monsters in areas where they didn't appear after encountering them initially.

This game is very grind heavy, which is why its one of my favorites.

Did you get the items back on Rosa to learn desert wind? Or pirate guys Thunderbolt? Did you/can you buy the ap items to keep them near max?

The game will pretty much be spamming Desert wind, then supernova and carrying allies with hit alls and spamming them. You will get over this difficulty spike (with ease if you have desert wind). Only barrier enemies will slow your onslaught so you will always have barrier shot equipped foregoing other guns usefulness for 99% of the game and on you shoot them you will do the above.


If you have any hit all attacks on anyone use them. You will be suprised how easy its going to get. You should also be impressed how often every.single.npc.in.the.game updates their dialogue. I'm talking wandering warriors in jungles and towers you have no reason to revisit 3 chapters later. Whoever did npc dialogue needs a trophy and company car. They took their work serious.