| Since Allied Actions (or AAs for short) are such an integral part of the game, I'll dedicate this section on proper usage of them. They are split into 4 categories. Most are learned the moment you gain a new level in overall party trust (8 levels in all), buy them at guilds or gain a new party member that has a unique AA (these appear regardless of whether you have that new member in the party or not). |
| Offensive AA... |
| Converge Attack (Trust Lv.6)... All 3 of your front characters team up on one hapless monster. Each character's damage go up slightly. Strange that this one is actually an advanced AA, but is actually WEAKER than Double Slash, one of the first AAs in the game. |
| Sweep Attack (Trust Lv.5)... All 3 front attackers sweep across the front row of enemy ranks, doing damage to all of them. This one is only useful if you've got a long row of weak monsters in front of you, since the damage done isn't all that good. And it can miss as well, so don't try it on ninjas or other fast monsters. |
| Rush (Trust Lv.3)(Bought from Guild)... All 6 members rush forward, hitting everything in sight for minor damage. I find this useful only when I'm traversing through early areas of the game again, and forced to fight large groups of wimpy monsters again and again. You might also want to use it to finish off weakened monsters. One nice point is that it ALWAYS hit, so it's nice to clear off ninjas and other such fast moving monsters. The big disadvantage is that it uses up all your member's turn so if there are any survivors they will hurt you bad. Just so you know, the damage done by Rush is based on your member's levels, not their weapons. And as long as even one is equipped with a weapon that can't hit undeads, Rush will not harm them. |
| Ninja Attack (Trust Lv.8)(Bought from Guild)... You only get this at the highest trust level, and it's not really worth the effort, though it's powerful just the same. You basically need a ninja upfront with 2 fighters. The Ninja jumps up and the 2 fighters attack, and finally the Ninja comes down for a big strike. While it only targets a single monster, a great advantage is that fact that you can target ANY monster, even those hiding in the back row. And another advantage is the fact that the ninja's final attack has a ridiculously high chance of causing an instant kill - in fact, if you are fighting normal monsters you will almost always get instant kills. |
| Double Slash (Trust Lv.3)... You earn this after your training section at the start, and that it will be the one you use the most. 2 members will gang up to attack 1 opponent. Not only does the accuracy increases a fair bit (still can miss though), the damage nearly doubles that of ordinary attacks, making it very deadly at the right hands, and especially when either or both members have multiple hit weapons. By the time you gain Converge Attack, Double Slash will do equivalent damage, not including the fact you still have 1 front attacker left to fight. |
| Stun Attack (Trust Lv.4)... With a spellcaster of any sort at the back, you cast a spell on the character in front, which gives the weapon the ability to stun an opponent. When you hit the opponent, he will either stumble a little (no stun) or get electrified. Getting stunned means neglecting armor defence, so that translates to bigger damage. Stun does not work on all monsters, but if it does it's quite effective, especially teamed with Double Slash. Good for those really big monsters that attack by themselves (the Giants and Gaze Hounds of B5 are good examples). |
| Fake Attack (Trust Lv.6)(Bought from Guild)... 1 front attacker does a fake attack while the other goes and hits him from the side. Near useless as far as I can tell. Neither the front nor the fake attack does any decent damage whatsoever, and the attack still can miss (don't try it on high-agility monsters). |
| Hold Attack (Trust Lv.4)... This AA seems similar to Stun Attack, but it has another purpose in the game, to hit hard-to-hit monsters. Basically, your rear member will Hold an enemy with a spell while the person in front of him strikes for more damage than usual (if the hold is successful). Despite doing less damage comparatively, this ensures a very high hit rate, which is great for high agility monsters such as Ninjas and Wyverns. |
| Jump Attack (Trust Lv.5)... A back caster of any sort will levitate his front attacker, and the attacker can thus hit any opponent in any rank while opponents can't hit him. Doesn't really do big damage, so it's useful if you just don't want that character to be hit. You can do a flawless defence combining this with Restrict Shot, thus rendering your entire front rank un-hittable. A disadvantage is of course, he only attacks after everyone else (Including Monsters) have taken their turns, and the low damage makes it only useful against spellcasters at the back row... after they already did the damage. |
| Warp Attack (Trust Lv.8)(When Orphe joins up)... This is the MOST powerful AA you can ever obtain in the game. Basically, one spellcaster behind warps away your entire front row. Any attacks whatsoever targeted at them automatically misses. At the end of the round, when everyone else has taken their turn, your 3 front members warp onto a single monster of your choice (even back row monsters) and hits it for double their usual damage. This AA is incredibly overpowered, since it combines near flawless defence and offense simultaneously (despite using up 4 character's turns). Mix it up with Spell Cancel to have the ultimate combo attack. Bosses don't stand a chance! |
| Back Attack (Trust Lv.4)(When Rui joins up)... 1 front attacker acts as decoy while the other 2 attacks from the back. Decent damage as long as your decoy has plenty of life (he will not dodge any attacks, so don't act hero and put your ninja as a decoy). Another useful feature is that the 2 attackers will repeatedly back attack as long as someone is hitting the decoy, so you can indirectly have them attack more than once per round. But the disadvantage is that the monsters aren't guaranteed to hit the decoy, so you'll waste all 3 front attacker's actions if monsters hit your non-decoys instead. Useful if you mix in Back Attack with Restrict Shot on your 2 non-decoys so you'll guarantee that attacking monsters will always get countered one way or another. |
| Sacred Cross (Trust Lv.8)(Bought from Guild)... You will need a knight up front with either a priest or bishop right behind him. Basically a souped-up version of Dispel attacks, it targets "Immortals" (i.e. undeads - their names are in red, if you haven't noticed). Doesn't seem to be that much of an upgrade from your basic Dispel Attack, since a priest can dispel just as much undeads that the Sacred Cross does. So all the effort to actually get this AA (Trust Lv.8, exorbitant price) seems to be quite a waste. |
| End Lash (Trust Lv.5)(Bought from Guild).. 2 front attacks will attack all enemies on the extreme ends of their rows. This move looks pathetic, but with careful use it will become your most valuable AA. The point of the attack is that you will give a physical hit to the back row, which becomes invaluable when you start meeting spellcasters that just love to hide behind big strong warriors or some such. Combine it with shots from your rear group and you can pretty much guarantee the spellcasters will be dead before they can even cast 1 spell (and that's good since their spells will hurt much more than any of the warrior's physical attacks). And the other advantage occurs when one of the rows only has 1 monster standing in the center, this means he gets hit by 2 end lashes, 1 from each side. The damage is fairly low, but then again your target here are spellcasters, which don't have that much life in the 1st place. |
| Crisscross (Trust Lv.7)(Bought from Guild)... Your center front attacker knocks your opponent into the air, then the 2 side front attackers fly up and hits him hard. This one is really a hit or miss AA, literally. If it misses (and it does quite often) you will do pathetic damage, but if it hits, it usually does enough damage to kill whatever monster it's targeting. Unless he's a boss, in which case it will almost always miss. And it uses up the action of all 3 front attackers. So it's really your choice whether you want to take the risk or not. |
| Defensive AA |
| Front Guard (Trust Lv.1)... Your 3 front attackers guard everyone from some status changes or enemy Rush Attacks. You will want to use this if you eye 3 or more like monsters in 2 rows, since that means they are capable of using Rush Attacks. And Rush Attacks by monsters are BAD. Alternatively you can Front Guard while your back row attacks or cast spells for maximum protection. |
| Deploy (Trust Lv.6)(Bought from Guild)... Your entire party will scatter when attacked by breath attacks, effectively blocking or halving damage for each member. Obviously, you'd want to keep this handy when fighting monsters with breath weapons (and there are plenty, especially near the end). A good thing about deploy is that it doesn't use up actions of your members, so that can still freely attack (and perform one other AA). |
| Spell Shell (Trust Lv.6)(When Michelle joins up)... Your rear 3 members erect a spell shield that absorbs half the damage of attack spells and negate effect spells. This one is vital if there is a large group of enemy spellcasters in the battle, at least those you can't kill before they cast spells. Of course, this also renders your front attackers totally unprotected from physical attacks. |
| Spell AA... |
| Assisted Spell (Trust Lv.6)... One other back member will assist a spellcaster, which causes his spell to double in level. This generally means a huge improvement in damage (you can't cast effect spells using this option). Up to TRIPLE damage can be done using spell assist. In fact, a favorite tactic is to use Assisted Spell with a level 10 or higher Jakreta or Megadeth, it will kill nearly everything on the screen! Just don't try this on Bosses since most Bosses have barriers against these things. |
| Sweep Spell (Trust Lv. 7) (Bought from Guild)... This particular AA uses up the turns of all your back members, but it extends the range of an attack spell. A spell that targets one monster will target one row instead, and a spell that targets one row will target everyone instead. The damage doesn't change however - only useful if you have very high strength but low level spells (I would just spend some money upgrading your stronger spells instead). |
| Silence Breaker (Trust Lv.7) (When Grace joins up)... 3 back members will cure a front member of silence. But... why? You don't use front members to cast spells anyway so who cares if they're silenced or not? And it's way too cumbersome to swap silenced spellcasters to the front (and too dangerous too). And despite what it says, it doesn't cure death possession, so don't bother. |
| Spell Sword (Trust Lv.5) (Bought from Guild)... Despite what the description says, Spell Sword doesn't overcome enemy curses, it breaks magic barriers on monsters to ensure a spell cast by a back row member is guaranteed to hit. On higher levels most monsters can barrier against just about any attack spell. Use this successfully and they'll be vulnerable against any magic attack of the game! Useful, works great in conjunction to, say, Megadeth. |
| Assisted AA... |
| Assisted Shot (Trust Lv. 4) (Bought from Guild)... When 1 front attacker attacks, the shooters in the rear first shoots his target, increasing the front attacker's accuracy. In effect, this is letting your back row attack a few times each, which is good if you have a strong shooter (Thief or Ninja) behind. But that also negates any protection the rear group can offer with other AAs. |
| Restrict Shot (Trust Lv.3)... This is definitely your bread-and-butter AA, you will not survive this game without this AA! Basically, 1 or 2 of your rear members will guard 2 of your front attackers. Any physical attacks done on them will automatically be blocked, and the attacking monster also gets a face-full of Arrows/Knives/Shurikens. I've noticed that damage done by a Restrict Shot is also higher than usual. Also, you don't need to have a rear member armed with a ranged weapon, if he doesn't have one he'll just fling a rock instead. The protection lasts the entire round, you can have your rear shooters counter multiple times for nice damage. |
| Spell Cancel (Trust Lv.4)... Yet another bread-and-butter AA - this ability lets you cancel 1 spell an enemy is casting. The nightmare of spell-casting monsters everywhere, this AA is vital when you are fighting bosses that use spells fairly often (and there are a few). It's also useful to kill off spellcasters hiding in the back row. Like the Restrict Shot, if the shots hit they do higher than usual damage. At the highest Trust Level (Lv.8) you can cancel 2 spells instead of 1. |
| Possessed Party AA... |
| To obtain these, you must get your ENTIRE party
possessed by the Reaper. It's quite a tough chore, seems that the odds of the Reaper appearing decreases the more possessed members you have. Don't worry about members getting possessed twice, the Reaper will always go for an unpossessed member first. Once successful, you will now get a whole new set of Allied Actions that reflects the fact that you have just conquered your fear of death! When this occurs, you will definitely notice that the entire screen will turn a bright red hue. You will lose the use of ALL your normal AAs, and can only use the AAs below and Individual Actions. It gets quite challenging during this time, you lose even your most basic AAs such as Flee Together, and in place of those are these rather suicidal maneuvers. |
| Reaper's Blade (Trust Lv.3)... Your entire party gets double the chance of scoring a critical, and everyone's damage will increase by 1.5 times. However, one of your members (except the party leader) must sacrifice half his HP. This lasts throughout the battle. |
| Soul Smash (Trust Lv.4)... You sacrifice any one member (except for the party leader) to kill everything on the screen. Those who survive (usually only bosses) will suffer small damage. The character sacrificed will be totally erased from the game, so be sure you want to do it before trying it! |
| Stealing Voice (Trust Lv.6)... All members except the party leader loses half their HP, but the entire party of monsters loses their special attacks (Glare, Breath, Paralysis, etc...) for a few rounds. It doesn't prevent spellcasters from casting spells, despite what the description says. It's also fairly random, sometimes it only lasts for the round you use it in, sometimes it lasts about 2 or 3 rounds. But it will wear off quickly, so it isn't all that useful. |
| Spirit Healing (Trust Lv.6)... Your party leader's HP is restored in the amount equivalent to the all the damage of the rest of the party added together, ie. the more injured they are, the more HP your leader will regain. |
| Deceptive Slip (Trust Lv.2)... One of your members (except party leader) acts as a decoy, and all the others flee. The result is a 100% escape rate, but the decoy will suffer 5 HP worth of damage. Note that you still can't escape from boss encounters. |
| So is it really worth it to attain a Possessed Party condition? Not really, the new AAs aren't all that great. And in this condition, all party deaths are quite permanent, they get erased clear off the game! To their credit, these AAs do look the most visually impressive of all the AAs of the game. |
| If you're really interested in getting a Possessed Party, Here's a few pointers. The best place for a sure-fire Reaper encounter is at Sham Sanctuary (B8), near the exit. The Reaper almost always appears there. So warp from B1 to B8, then go get possessed. Return to town, save the game, exit to the Title Screen (this will negate the reduced Reaper encounter rate) and reload. Then repeat. This may take a while since it's still not sure-fire that he will appear, so you have to be patient. |
| Combat Hints... |
| Upon raising your Trust Level to 4, you will then
learn how to perform 2 Allied Actions. From then on combat will consist of mixing together these 2 AAs for maximum effort. AA combinations found to be useful are: - Double Slash + Restrict Shot, You'll do this is nearly every other combat. - Double Slash + Spell Cancel, Great if there's a single spellcaster (or 2 at higher trust levels). - End Lash + Restrict Shot, You'll kill spellcasters and guard your party from physical attacks at the same time. - End Lash + Spell Cancel, If you meet a group of 4 or more spellcasters this will end their misery. - Stun Attack + Double Slash, Great for Monsters that fight alone. While it doesn't work all the time, the combination will produce damages nearly 4 times the usual. - Restrict Shot + Jump Attack, Renders your entire front row un-hittable by physical attacks. - Restrict Shot + Back Attack, Ensures physical attacks will always get countered one way or another. - Spell Sword + Assisted Spell, Make sure your faster members perform Spell Sword, then hit with an assisted spell for mucho damage against a single strong Monster. - Double Slash + Assisted Shot, The best combo if maximum damage is what you want, but there's no defence in this one. - Crisscross + Assisted Shot, More of the maximum damage category; use on single monsters. - Double Slash + Spell Shell, Great for battles against spell-happy Bosses like the Vampire Lord. - Double Slash + Deploy, This one is really for Monsters with breath weapons, you can have your rear members cast spells for more damage. - Front Guard + Spell Assist, Use Jakreta or Megadeth to cause untold havoc, at least to those who don't have spell resistance. - Double Slash + Spell Assist, Great with Bosses, the Spell Assist clears out his sidekicks while the Double Slash hurts him bad. No defence though. - Warp Attack + Spell Cancel, The ultimate in flawless defence, superior attack. |
| If you want you can replace Double Slash with Converge Attack, though a word of warning, it's not as good damage-wise. Another option is to replace it with Ninja Attack or Warp Attack, if you have them. |