Atelier Sophie 2 - Elvira is a crybaby

 As with Atelier Ryza it took a boss battle for me to even get the battle system.

Until the Elvira encounter I went through the motions with enjoyment but without excitement. I adjusted the game to hard, very hard, back-tracked to hard (cause Admiral Puni et al).

The Elvira encounter helped me appreciate battle mechanics. Conceptually Sophie 2 is reminiscent of Blue Reflection Second Light. Strong bosses summon side-kicks, and activate barriers. 

A barrier is not a shield:

  • Barrier points (10, 20)
  • A normal, non resisted attack will take down one point.
  • A resisted attack may trigger a powerful react.
  • Attacking a weakness may scrape 2-3 points off a barrier.

I went in unprepared (regular field trip). A win took me 3 to 5 tries. What I learned:

  • Take sidekicks down. Worth using swap (double attack with one party entering, another leaving). On a takedown you earn 1 TP (needed for both defensive and offensive swaps). At my level this meant taking down the sidekicks on my turn, without taking heat.
  • Exploit the sidekicks vulnerabilities but beware of collateral fire - Collateral damage means attacking a sidekick may trigger a boss react
  • If a character cannot deal significant damage, use a bonus card or heal.
  • Down the barrier deliberately. When the barrier's up the boss is stronger but you'll weather it to accumulate TP. Nor is this going to be a fast rule. On a swap the second attack pierces the barrier, so you deal actual damage. 
  • Maximize damage on barrier break. When the barrier breaks you stun the boss (1 turn) and get 50% bonus damage (3 turns). This is the time to use swap and consume your TPs. Also, favor attacks with pushback (extends bonus damage period by delaying turns) and stack defense debuffs
  • Get free lunches - swap lowers MP cost for skills. Cheap skills get a cost of zero but what I did notice is more expensive skills aren't always more powerful - they're different.
  • Block effectively - boss specials are called. Heeding the warning (do block) is cheaper than a defensive swap.
I'll look into the underlying design principles in a separate entry.

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