Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (SO2 PCs, GBC, JPN-only)

[DjinnAndTonic]

Star Ocean: Blue Sphere is a direct sequel to Star Ocean: The Second Story which was released on Gameboy Color (!) in 2001 in Japan only. The game shows the reappearance of every playable character from the last game, and tells what happened to them two years after the previous game took place. Since all of these characters are already ranked, I felt it might be useful to know what their alternate forms are capable of – especially the mages, who were infinitely improved since SO2.

The game does present a few difficulties in deciding what is DL-legal. First of all is the leveling system, which resembles Final Fantasy X’s sphere grid in a lot of ways, just without the pretty graphical interface. Essentially, every character can be leveled up however you want, but the game prescribes ‘paths’ for each character’s strengths and weaknesses. Since the player has complete control over how to level up their character (but no control over what killermoves/spells/equipment options each character gets), there are lots of ways to interpret how strong each character is. Essentially, each character can choose to become a ‘melee build’, a ‘mage build’, or a ‘mixed build’. Fighters (Dias, Ashton, Claude, Chisato, Bowman) never want a ‘mage build’ since they never learn spells no matter how high their intelligence is (a few of them have some INT-based attacks, like Ashton’s Dragon Attack).

The way you level up is by spending SP, which you receive after every fight. Remember the item creation abilities from SO2? Yes, those are back, but now they are the ONLY way to increase stats. Each ability comes with a ‘stat boost package’ that increases your stats for every rank (up to 10) you purchase of the ability.
For example: The “Kitchen Knife” ability is required before you can learn to use the item creation “Cook”. When you buy rank 1 of “Kitchen Knife”, your STR and DEX both increase by 2. When you buy rank 2 of “Kitchen Knife”, your STR and DEX both increase by 2 again. When you’ve bought all ten ranks (max) of Kitchen Knife, your STR and DEX will have increased by 20.
Kitchen Knife is a “Technical” ability (represented by a wrench on the skill screen), which is opposed by the “Sensibility” abilities (represented by a hand). If you purchase a lot of “Technical” abilities, you can no longer purchase all of the “Sensibility” category. Likewise, “Battle” and “Knowledge” abilities oppose eachother. “Battle” abilities (represented by a sword) are recommended for melee fighters, while “Knowledge” abilities (represented by a book) are recommended for mages. Each character can have 2 specialties (they get nearly all the abilities, including the strongest one), and still get a few abilities from the opposing categories.
For example: Dias is a melee fighter, his order of prescribed abilities is Battle, Sensibility, Technical, Knowledge. He can max out all of his Battle and Sensibility abilities, and still be able to learn “Kitchen Knife”, a Technical ability, plus a few others from the Tech and Knowledge categories. If he follows this order, he reaches his maximum potential number of stat boosts (350 ranks of various abilities, I’ll refer to this as his ‘level’). If he had chosen a different order to specialize in (such as a magical build, for whatever reason), he maxes out at level 290, with a significantly lower number of stat boosts.

In SO:BlueSphere, beating the final boss pretty much requires your characters to have max level. The only exception to this is when you figure in its combo system (more on this in a second). For the purposes of this stat topic, I’ll be measuring the characters’ stats at max prescribed level. For the mages (and Precis/Opera, who are prescribed magic builds), who can potentially find use in having a melee build, I’ll list their maximum stats for both magic build and melee build.

The second issue I had with the game was that enemies do not have numerical values visible – the only way to determine damage is to view the enemy’s health gauge (think Kingdom Hearts’ bosses). So all of my testing numbers were done in percentages of an enemy’s health. Since there are quite a few attacks (such as Leon’s basic physical attack) that do less than 1% damage, I had to spam these moves until they did a visible percentage of damage, then divide the damage by the number of attacks it took (Leon does something like 0.06% damage with one hit, for reference). Since these percentages look ugly, I’ve multiplied the numbers out by assuming the test enemy had 10,000 HP (This seems reasonable considering how relatively easy it was for this enemy to decimate my max-level party, who all had HP in the 900s). The test enemy I used was the Hell Fighter Dragon-thing in the Final Level (that’s really what the place is called, BTW). He had pretty high CON and RES, so melee and mage alike were equally screwed by him.

The third issue, the most major and most open to debate and interpretation, is the game’s combo system, arguably the main focal point (and for me, the most fun part) of the battle system. The combo system does NOT work like the Tales games’ where multiple people are required and a combo counter increases with the hits. Nor does it work like Valkyrie Profile’s where special moves combo after a physical chain.

The combo system in SO:BlueSphere is essentially one VERY long physical chain, similar to SMRPG’s Mario’s Jump ability, where as long as you hit the A button at the correct time (just as the attack hits), your character begins a second (now unblockable) attack, then a third, and so on, until the character depletes their stamina meter. The stamina meter is based on a character’s GUT stat, and depletes a certain amount for every killer move, spell, and basic attack you use. Also, running around the field takes a small amount of stamina. Killer moves and Spells take up large amounts of stamina, while basic attacks and running take very little. When the stamina meter depletes, the character is forced to stop and rest (leaving them vulnerable to attack for what I’ll call ‘a turn’, more like 2 seconds in game). The reason that this poses a problem isn’t evident when you first start the game. At the beginning of the game, where characters only have like 10 stamina, they can only perform like 5-hit physical chains before they stamina out and have to rest. As they level up, ALL characters (even mages) learn the Spirit Force ability, which decreases stamina and MP costs by 20% for each rank (max 10 ranks), and their stamina raises to about the 150 range. This means that a large number of characters can now perform 150-hit physical chains that would only take one ‘turn’ since the enemy cannot counter it. In game, the average number of hits to actually get in a combo chain is between 15-30, but I’ve gotten as high as 80 hits with only minimal effort. Consensus from other people I’ve talked to who’ve played the game seemed to agree that hitting 80 hits is pretty commonplace with the four characters who combo the easiest (Bowman, Chisato, Ashton, Dias).

In game, all characters who are not Bowman, Chisato, Ashton, or Dias are very difficult to combo with, and only with savestate abuse have I gotten higher than 10 hits with any of them. Claude is the biggest offender since he’s a primarily melee fighter, but he switches his sword attacks into a punch every once in a while and completely screws up his chance to continue comboing – I’ve gotten higher combos with Noel without savestate abuse. Since the enemies in this game are pretty difficult even at max level, the consensus seems to be that comboing was the intended method by which to deal lots of damage, since an 80-hit physical chain pretty much OHKOs every enemy/boss in the game (except the final boss, who is annoyingly un-combo-able).

As such, there are three ways to interpret this problem, that I can see. The first is to throw out combos altogether – since they are based on the player’s skill, they are too inaccurate to be counted, and view physicals as one-hit only. This makes sense, but there’s a precedent against it in all the ARPG stat topics (Tales, SO2, etc.) – physical chains are unique and really reflect in-game performance.
The second way to view it is to completely accept physical chains as damaging as they can possibly be. Since the characters have the in-game ability to perform 150-hit physical chains (they are not infinite since stamina drains eventually), then they should be able to perform them in the DL. There’s enough evade-tanks and physical damage-nullers in Godlike to effectively destroy this strategy, could add some variety, right? However, this does put at least 4 of this cast into Godlike simply on a side-result of their game’s battle system.
The third way to look at it is to choose some kind of middle ground that limits the number of hits in a physical chain. This is completely open to debate and interpretation, but I’ve come up with a way that satisfies me. This topic takes a nod from the Star Ocean: The Second Story’s stat topic. In it, they took a 3-turn damage output average for each character to give a representative of how powerful the character was, taking speed into account. I’m going to try to do the same thing with combos, though instead of trying to account for speed (since it doesn’t figure too heavily into this game), I’m going to account for ‘window of time in which the player has the chance to hit the A button to continue the attack chain’. By this, I mean, since each character has a different window of opportunity to continue their assault, the characters with the longer window are obviously easier to combo with. I used an emulator to slow down the game to count the number of frames each character had in their ‘window of opportunity’ (easier than you might expect since the game only shows a certain animation during the window). I have included this number beside each character’s physical-chain damage, and used it to determine the number of hits each character should be allowed to have to have in their physical chain. For example, Precis, whose relatively difficult to combo with, has 17 frames in which she can hit A to perform the next hit of her combo. On the other hand, Ashton, who is the second-easiest in the game to combo with, has 41 frames to work with. I list Precis’ average combo length as 17, and Ashton’s as 41, making things pretty simple all around.

If this is unsatisfactory to anyone, give me some ideas on how to interpret it, and I’ll do some more testing. Or you can do your own testing, dammit, this is a lot of work. ^_^

Last note is on equipment – I gave everyone their best weapons that were purchased from the final town in the game, Cosmo City. I also listed a few alternate equips that were easily obtained from item creation, bought from stores, gotten from PAs, or were unique to a character. I also listed their best weapon in the game (most from Cave of Trials) just for fun. All damage outputs were measured with the Cosmo City weapons (I may go back and do some testing with the ultimate weapons just for fun).

HP: Happy Points, lose these and you’re no longer happy. :-(
MP: Killer moves and Spells use this as fuel – unlike SO3, you can’t die from 0 MP
STR: Determines how much DMG physical attacks and physical-based Killer Moves do
CON: Determines how well you resist physical attacks and moves
DEX: Also known as Accuracy, determines how good your aim is.
AGL: Determines how good you dodge things, also seems to increase your running speed in battle.
INT: Determines how much DMG Spells and magic-based Killer Moves do
RES: Determines how well you resist magical attacks and status effects.
GUT: This is stamina, determines how many actions you can perform before you get tired and have to rest a turn. Killer Moves and Spells take a lot of this, running and basic attacks take a little. I’ll list the number of times a move can be spammed before stamina depletes for each move.

Status Effects in Star Ocean: Blue Sphere:
Poison, Paralysis, Stone, Stunned, Silence, Delay, KO, Haste, Protect

[DjinnAndTonic]

Precis F. Neumann

Precis’ prescribed path is Technical, Knowledge, Battle, Sense (giving her a magic build). This makes her the best Item Creation person in the game. However, it blows for the DL, so I’ve listed her ‘melee build’ as well. Precis ALWAYS wants her melee build. Numbers in parentheses indicate Precis’ primary equipment setup.

Max Level: 340 / Melee Build: lvl 370
HP: 477 / 945
MP: 518 / 413

STR: 112 (232) / 363 (483)
CON: 107 (292) / 183 (368)
DEX: 254 (344) / 264 (354)
AGL: 89 (429) / 209 (549)
INT: 296 (371) / 116 (191)
RES: 106 (256) / 121 (271)
GUT: 72 / 165

Equips:
Weapon: Hyper Punch (STR 120, INT 75, DEX 90)
*[Cave of Trials] HUGMA Punch (STR 200, INT 100, DEX 95)
Armor: Mythril Mesh (CON 80, RES 60, AGL 80)
Arms: Pallas Athene (CON 25, RES 25, AGL 95, 25% resistance to Fire, Earth, Thunder, Vacuum)
Head: Mythril Helm (CON 45, RES 35, AGL 80)
Feet: Mythril Greaves (CON 35, RES 30, AGL 85)


Single Physical Attack: 114 / 268
Max Physical Chain: 72 / 165
Max Physical Chain DMG: 15300 / 44000
Frames in Combo Window: 17
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 1900 / 4600

Killer Moves: Moves can be spammed a certain number of times before stamina runs out
Mole – 15 MP (10 / 22 times) – Quick, Earth-based attack – 80 / 100 DMG
Barrier – 12 MP (12 / 29 times) – Stuns enemy (lasts for a few seconds or until enemy is hit physically)
Missile – 28 MP (1 / 2 times) – Fires a Light-based missile at enemy – 320 / 460 DMG
YuraYura (Rattling sound) – 58 MP (2 /5 times) – Jackhammers the screen, damaging the enemy and causing them to fall over (interrupts charging moves, Earth elem) – 470 / 610 DMG
Dokkan! – 36 MP (8 / 14 times) – Dark-based cannonball attack – 720 / 880 DMG
Daruma Strike – 53 MP (7 / 10 times) – Light- based Bobot attack – 920 / 1200 DMG


Ashton Anchors:
Ashton’s prescribed path is Sense, Battle, Knowledge, Technical, and this suits him fine. In game, the only thing Ashton really does is combo and spam Leaf Slash. A small number of Ashton’s Killer moves seem to be based on INT rather than STR.
Numbers in parentheses are Ashton’s stats with his primary equips.

Max Level: 340
HP: 918
MP: 414

STR: 341 (471)
CON: 163 (398)
DEX: 214 (294)
AGL: 208 (538)
INT: 85 (170)
RES: 132 (242)
GUT: 147

Equips:
Weapon: Zwei Slash (STR 130, INT 85, DEX 80, Wind elemental)
*[Cave of Trials] Bastion (STR 200, INT 150, DEX 90, Light elemental)
[Bonus weapon] Djinn’s Claw (STR, INT, DEX 0 – Used to learn “Spirit Dragon”)
Armor: Duel Suit (CON 100, RES 50, AGL 85)
Arms: Duel Guard (CON 35, RES 10, AGL 80)
Head: Duel Helm (CON 65, RES 20, AGL 80)
Feet: Mythril Greaves (CON 35, RES 30, AGL 85)

Single Physical Attack: 261
Max Physical Chain: 147
Max Physical Chain DMG: 39000
Frames in Combo Window: 41
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 10700

Killer Moves:
Leaf Slash – 14 MP (28 times) – Fast, Teleporting Earth-based Sword attack – 370 DMG
Hurricane Slash – 25 MP (3 times) – Ranged Wind Elemental Sword attack – 290 DMG
Dragon Attack – 38 MP (11 times) – Non-elem Dragon attack (INT-based) – 460 DMG
Sword Dance – 42 MP (1 time) – Non-elem Sword combo attack – 870 DMG
Dragon Bite – 78 MP (4 times) – Non-elem Dragon attack (INT-based) – 660 DMG
Tri-ACE – 55 MP (1 time) – Light-elem Sword attack – 1060 DMG
Spirit Dragon – 90 MP (3 times) – Non-elem Dragon attack – 4250 DMG (!)


Celine Jules
Celine’s prescribed setup is Knowledge, Technical, Sense, Battle. This makes her an excellent mage. The only reason she would want her melee build is for people who allow combo chains, which ups her damage significantly.
Numbers in parentheses indicate Celine’s primary equipment setup.

Max Level: 360 (magic build) / 310 (melee build)
HP: 379 / 583
MP: 999 / 623

STR: 90 (125) / 147 (182)
CON: 103 (268) / 150 (315)
DEX: 261 (346) / 189 (274)
AGL: 47 (407) / 105 (465)
INT: 358 (458) / 155 (255)
RES: 218 (378) / 202 (362)
GUT: 83 / 142

Equips:
Weapon: Holy Rod (STR 35, INT 100, DEX 85, Light elem)
*[aftergame PA weapon] Magical Stick (STR 60, INT 140, DEX 90, Light elem)
Armor: Ishtar Robe (CON 100, RES 100, AGL 90)
Arms: Duel Guard (CON 35, RES 10, AGL 80)
Head: Hermit Cap (CON 20, RES 40, AGL 90)
Feet: Bunny Shoes (CON 10, RES 10, AGL 100)

Single Physical Attack DMG: 46 / 78
Max Physical Chain: 83 / 142
Max Physical Chain DMG: 3800 / 11000
Frames in Combo Window: 7
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 320 / 550

Spells: I only bothered to test her spells on ‘mage build’, they’re worthless otherwise
Firebolt – 8 MP (7 times) – Can be cast VERY fast; weak Fire spell – 120 DMG
Windblade – 10 MP (7 times) – Only slightly slower than Firebolt; Air spell – 130 DMG
Thunderbolt – 20 MP (7 times) – average casting speed; mid-weak Thunder spell – 160 DMG
Star Light – 30 MP (7 times) – somewhat slow casting; mid-weak Star-elem spell – 200 DMG
Ray – 42 MP (6 times) – slow casting speed; mid Light spell – 390 DMG
Energy Arrow – 30 MP (7 times) – mid casting speed; mid Vacuum elem – 360 DMG
Eruption – 38 MP (6 times) – mid casting; mid Fire spell – 370 DMG
Thunder Storm – 38 MP (6 times) – slow casting; mid Thunder spell – 370 DMG
Southern Cross – 45 MP (6 times) – slow casting; mid Star spell – 640 DMG
Explode – 54 MP (5 times) – slow casting; high Fire spell – 630 DMG
Meteo Swarm – 72 MP (5 times) – slow casting; high Star spell – 1170 DMG
Atomic Dragon – 84 MP (3 times) – very slow casting; powerful Fire spell – 3200 DMG
Tempest Volt – 70 MP (4 times) – very slow casting; powerful Thunder – 2900 DMG
Ascension Choir – 75 MP (3 times) – very slow; powerful Star spell – 3800 DMG

Bless – 18 MP (12 times) – raises STR and INT for all party members by 10%, does not stack
Anti – 20 MP (12 times) – raises RES by 25%, does not stack
Angel Feather – 30 MP (10 times) – raises CON by 25%, does not stack
Neutral – 17 MP (12 times) – removes debuffs
Curse – 20 MP (10 times) – removes enemy’s buffs and party’s negative status (except poison and stone)
Lost Mental – 1 MP (30 times) – drains 30-50 MP from the enemy



Leon D. Geeste
Leon’s melee build isn’t horrible, but he’ll probably want his mage build for almost every situation. His prescribed mage build path is Knowledge, Technical, Sense, Battle.
Numbers in parentheses indicate Leon’s stats with his primary equip setup.

Max Level: 370 / 310
HP: 382 / 590
MP: 999 / 581

STR: 94 (164) / 143 (213)
CON: 107 (272) / 144 (309)
DEX: 250 (340) / 186 (276)
AGL: 74 (434) / 132 (492)
INT: 367 (477) / 124 (234)
RES: 224 (384) / 198 (358)
GUT: 87 / 140

Equips:
Weapon: Millenium Saga (STR 70, INT 110, DEX 90)
*[Cave of Trials] Solomon’s Key (STR 90, INT 140, DEX 90)
Armor: Ishtar Robe (CON 100, RES 100, AGL 90)
Arms: Duel Guard (CON 35, RES 10, AGL 80)
Head: Hermit Cap (CON 20, RES 40, AGL 90)
Feet: Bunny Shoes (CON 10, RES 10, AGL 100)

Single Physical Attack: 65 / 104
Max Physical Chain: 87 / 140
Max Physical Chain DMG: 5650 / 14600
Frames in Combo Window: 9
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 600 / 900

Spells: His spells aren’t amazing in melee build, but I’ll list them since Leon’s melee might be useful to him.
Ice Needle – 8 MP (7/13 times) – fast casting speed; weak Water spell – 150/60 DMG
Star Light – 30 MP (7/12 times) – somewhat slow casting; mid-weak Star-elem spell – 220/110 DMG
Wounds – 16 MP (7/13 times) – fast casting speed; weak Dark spell – 170/60 DMG
Acid Rain – 21 MP (6/11 times) – fast casting speed; mid-low Water spell – 200/90 DMG
Shadow Bolt – 34 MP (6/11 times) – medium cast speed; mid-low Dark spell – 220/100 DMG
Deep Freeze – 45 MP (6/11 times) – medium cast speed; mid Water spell – 300/130 DMG
Shadow Flare – 50 MP (5/9 times) – medium cast speed; high Dark spell – 540/240
Gremlin Lair – 63 MP (5/9 times) – very slow cast speed; high Void spell – 660/310 DMG
Extinction – 66 MP (4/7 times) – slow casting speed; very high Void spell – 3150/1900 DMG
Ice Age – 70 MP (4/6 times) – slow casting speed; very high Water spell – 3300/2050 DMG
Dark Passage – 80 MP (3/5 times) – very slow casting speed; very high Dark spell – 3900/2200 DMG

Word of Death – 28 MP (2/5 times) – mid-fast cast speed; 16.7% (1/6) accurate Instant Death (Vacuum elemental) spell
Protection – 15 MP (14/25 times) – raises CON for one person by 20% (does not stack)
Haste – 15 MP (14/25 times) – raises AGL & movement speed for one person by 15% (does not stack)
Delay – 18 MP (14/25 times) – lowers AGL & movement speed for one enemy by 15% (does not stack)
Deep Mist – 11 MP (15/27 times) – lowers DEX of one enemy by 25% (does not stack)



Dias Flac
Dias’ prescribed path is Battle, Sense, Tech, Knowledge. He has gamebest STR and a unique weapon which puts him even higher which is really easy to get. For equality’s sake, his primary equips are still the Cosmo City weapons. He has a few INT-based Fire moves which he probably doesn’t want. Numbers in parentheses are Dias’ stats with his primary equips.

Max Level: 350
HP: 959
MP: 396

STR: 339 (499)
CON: 171 (396)
DEX: 215 (300)
AGL: 210 (555)
INT: 101 (191)
RES: 120 (245)
GUT: 146

Equips:
Weapon: Silvance (STR 160, INT 90, DEX 85, Light elemental)
[Dias-only Item creation] Kogamaru (‘Little Crow’) (STR 170, INT 95, DEX 90, Light)
*[Cave of Trials] Durandal (STR 220, INT 150, DEX 100)
Armor: Duel Suit (CON 100, RES 50, AGL 85)
Arms: Pallas Athene (CON 25, RES 25, AGL 95, 25% resistance to Fire, Earth, Thunder, Vacuum)
Head: Duel Helm (CON 65, RES 20, AGL 80)
Feet: Mythril Greaves (CON 35, RES 30, AGL 85)


Single Physical Attack: 293
Max Physical Chain: 146
Max Physical Chain DMG: 42000
Frames in Combo Window: 23
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 6800

Killer Moves:
Chaos Sword – 17 MP (25 times) – 2 hit ranged Dark sword attack – 310 DMG
Kogetsusen (Crescent Moon Slash) – 22 MP (3 times) – fast Light sword attack which never misses – 370 DMG
Houkouha (Hawk Scream Blast) – 26 MP (2 times) – Fire sword attack that shoots a phoenix of energy (INT-based) – 340 DMG
Engetsuzan (Full Moon Slash) – 40 MP (2 times) – Stuns enemy (lasts for a few seconds or until enemy is hit physically)
Mugen (Illusion) – 53 MP (1 time) – 4-hit combo Void-elem Sword attack – 820 DMG
Suzaku Shougekiha (Firebird Shock) – 48 MP (1 time) – powerful Fire sword attack (INT-based) – 1100 DMG
Byakko Sougekizan (White Tiger Shock?) – 52 MP (2 times) – powerful non-elemental sword/energy attack that can hit from anywhere on the battlefield – 3500 DMG



Bowman Jean
Bowman’s prescribed path is Sense, Battle, Knowledge, Technical – giving him a melee build. In game, Bowman is ridiculously easy to combo with, even the AI-controlled Bowman combos regularly. Numbers in parentheses are Bowman’s stats with his primary equips.

Max Level: 360
HP: 922
MP: 486

STR: 344 (489)
CON: 166 (381)
DEX: 215 (300)
AGL: 214 (539)
INT: 107 (177)
RES: 131 (251)
GUT: 158

Equips:
Weapon: Kaiser Knuckles (STR 145, INT 70, DEX 85)
[Bowman unique Item Creation] Titan Fist (STR 120, INT 40, DEX 75, max MP+30%)
*[Cave of Trials] Finishing Blow (STR 220, INT 70, DEX 80, Dark elemental)
Armor: Mythril Mesh (CON 80, RES 60, AGL 80)
Arms: Duel Guard (CON 35, RES 10, AGL 80)
Head: Duel Helm (CON 65, RES 20, AGL 80)
Feet: Mythril Greaves (CON 35, RES 30, AGL 85)

Single Physical Attack: 272
Max Physical Chain: 158
Max Physical Chain DMG: 43000
Frames in Combo Window: 48 (No wonder he’s so easy to combo with!)
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 13000 (!)

Killer Moves:
Pillory – 16 MP (30 times) – Teleporting Dive punch, very fast – 290 DMG
Firebird Attack – 22 MP (5 times) – 2-hit ranged Fire punch – 310 DMG
Whirlwind Fist – 27 MP (24 times) – ranged multi-hit Wind attack – 280 DMG
Shihoujin – 30 MP (1 time) – fast Void-elem multi-hit attack that hits enemy from all angles – 480 DMG
Oukarengeki – 39 MP (2 times) – Martial arts combo attack – 1300 DMG
Ouka Sakuretsujin – 45 MP (1 time) – Dark-elem, cherry-blossom-explosion chi-blast ranged attack – 2600 DMG



Chisato Madison
Chisato’s prescribed path is Sense, Battle, Technical, Knowledge. Chisato attacks with a gun from a distance, but switches into martial arts moves when she’s about half a screen away from the enemy, and she’s very easy to combo with. The numbers in parentheses are Chisato’s stats with her primary equipment setup.

Max Level: 360
HP: 926
MP: 417

STR: 339 (489)
CON: 161 (376)
DEX: 230 (315)
AGL: 218 (543)
INT: 110 (230)
RES: 125 (245)
GUT: 154

Equips: All of Chisato’s weapons are Thunder-elemental, so she’s screwed against people who null/absorb Thunder
Weapon: Spark (STR 150, INT 120, DEX 85, Thunder element)
*[Cave of Trials] Electron (STR 170, INT 150, DEX 90, Thunder element)
Armor: Mythril Mesh (CON 80, RES 60, AGL 80)
Arms: Duel Guard (CON 35, RES 10, AGL 80)
Head: Duel Helm (CON 65, RES 20, AGL 80)
Feet: Mythril Greaves (CON 35, RES 30, AGL 85)


Single Physical Attack: 270
Max Physical Chain: 154
Max Physical Chain DMG: 41600
Frames in Combo Window: 38
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 10100

Killer Moves:
Burning Cards – 17 MP (15 times) – Ranged, inaccurate throwing-card attack (Dark-elemental) – 280 DMG
100,000 Volt – 18 MP (6 times) – Stun-gun attack, damages + 25% chance of stun (Thunder elemental) – 250 DMG
Flame Thrower – 20 MP (9 times) – Close-ranged Flamethrower attack (Fire) – 330 DMG
Maibo – 25 MP (12 times) – Void-elemental Robo-Dog attack (yeah… one of those Japanese Robo-pet things runs on-screen and does a breath attack) – 530 DMG
Preparation – 34 MP (5 times) – Chisato cell phones for missiles to attack enemy, can be performed quickly, anywhere on screen (Light elem) – 860 DMG
Fire Shot – 38 MP (2 times) – Soccer-kicks a ball of Fire energy at enemy – 780 DMG
Jinguu Senretsuken – 55 MP (4 times) – Dark-element martial arts attack – 1700 DMG


Noel Chandler
Noel’s prescribed path is Knowledge, Technical, Sense, Battle. Noel is kind of a middle-ground character – he doesn’t suck as a melee fighter, but he’s also an excellent mage (much better than in SO2) and his healing is almost as good as Rena’s. Of all the mages, his melee form serves him the best. The numbers in parentheses are Noel’s stats with his primary equipment.

Max Level: 380 / 360
HP: 464 / 923
MP: 999 / 699

STR: 113 (258) / 241 (396)
CON: 102 (317) / 155 (370)
DEX: 230 (315) 217 (302)
AGL: 80 (405) / 160 (585)
INT: 344 (414) / 138 (208)
RES: 215 (335) / 197 (317)
GUT: 83 / 135

Equips:
Weapon: Kaiser Knuckles (STR 145, INT 70, DEX 85)
*[Noel-only, Cave of Trials] Dragon Claw (STR 160, INT 80, DEX 80, Fire element)
Armor: Mythril Mesh (CON 80, RES 60, AGL 80)
Arms: Duel Guard (CON 35, RES 10, AGL 80)
Head: Duel Helm (CON 65, RES 20, AGL 80)
Feet: Mythril Greaves (CON 35, RES 30, AGL 85)

Single Physical Attack: 156 / 233
Max Physical Chain: 83 / 135
Max Physical Chain DMG: 12900 / 31400
Frames in Combo Window: 19
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 3000 / 4400

Spells:
Heal – 3 MP (15/20 times) – Very fast-casting, Heals 30-60 HP
Cure Light – 11 MP (13/17 times) – fast-casting, Heals 150-160 HP
Cure All – 20 MP (8/13 times) – fast-casting, Heals all characters 150-160 HP
Fairy Heal – 30 MP (9/15 times) – fast-medium casting speed, Heals 350-370 HP
Fairy Light – 40 MP (6/10 times) – fast-medium casting speed, Heals party 200-240 HP
Recovery – 9 MP (Infinite number of times?) – fast-casting, recovers a small amount of stamina
Refresh – 18 MP (Infinite number of times?) – fast-medium casting speed, recovers a large amount of stamina
Revival – 26 MP (Infinite number of times?) – medium casting speed, recovers a medium amount of stamina for the entire party
Dispel – 20 MP (9/15 times) – Cures all status effects except KO.

Wind Blade – 10 MP (9 times) – fast-casting, weak Wind spell – 100 / 60 DMG
Grave – 22 MP (9 times) – fast-casting, weak Earth spell – 110 / 70 DMG
Magnum Tornado – 25 MP (7 times) – medium-fast casting speed, medium power Wind spell – 240 / 100 DMG
Earth Grave – 36 MP (7 times) – medium-casting, mid-power Earth spell – 290 / 120 DMG
Energy Arrow – 30 MP (8 times) – medium-casting, mid-power Vacuum spell – 340 / 180 DMG
Foehn – 50 MP (6 times) – medium-casting, high Wind spell – 1100 / 560 DMG
Earthquake – 55 MP (6 times) – mid-slow casting speed, high Earth spell – 1500 / 800 DMG
PANDA!! – 88 MP (3 times) – mid-slow casting, powerful non-elemental spell that summons Pandas to attack the enemy – 2100 / 1300 DMG

Bless – 18 MP (12 times) – raises STR and INT for all party members by 10%, does not stack
Neutral – 17 MP (12 times) – removes debuffs
Curse – 20 MP (10 times) – removes enemy’s buffs and party’s negative status (except poison and stone)
Silence – 14 MP (10 times) – 66% chance to induce silence status effect on enemies (cannot use Spells or INT-based Killer Moves)
Blood Sucker – 12 MP (30 times) – drains HP from an enemy and Heals Noel by the amount (Thunder elemental) – 340 / 120 DMG
Lost Mental – 1 MP (30 times) – drains 30-50 MP from the enemy


Opera Vectra
Opera’s prescribed path is Technical, Knowledge, Sense, Battle. Opera’s basic attack is ranged and can hit the enemy from all the away across the screen. She’s difficult to combo with, but not impossible. A number of Opera’s Killer Moves are INT-based for some reason. I’m only listing Opera’s ‘magic build’ for simplicity’s sake. I may test her melee build later.

Max Level: 360
HP: 742
MP: 664

STR: 237 (282)
CON: 162 (357)
DEX: 215 (305)
AGL: 152 (477)
INT: 248 (393)
RES: 177 (312)
GUT: 139

Equips: Opera uses energy boxes to power her energy cannon.
Weapon: Pulse Box (STR 45, INT 145, DEX 90, Light)
Freeze Box (STR 35, INT 105, DEX 90, Water)
Burst Box (STR 35, INT 115, DEX 90, Fire)
Electro Box (STR 35, INT 120, DEX 90, Thunder)
*[Cave of Trials] Nova Box (STR 50, INT 160, DEX 90)
Armor: Mythril Mesh (CON 80, RES 60, AGL 80)
Arms: Duel Guard (CON 35, RES 10, AGL 80)
Head: Mythril Helm (CON 45, RES 35, AGL 80)
Feet: Mythril Greaves (CON 35, RES 30, AGL 85)


Single Physical Attack: 169
Max Physical Chain: 139
Max Physical Chain DMG: 23000
Frames in Combo Window: 14
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 2400

Killer Moves:
Flame Launcher – 13 MP (10 times) – Midrange Flamethrower Fire-elem attack (INT-based) – 240 DMG
Alpha on One – 24 MP (10 times) – Multishot energy bullet attack – 560 DMG
Spread Ray – 27 MP (8 times) – Wind-elem ray beam attack (INT-based) – 600 DMG
Cold Wind – 30 MP (8 times) – Water-elem flamethrower-like attack (INT-based) – 630 DMG
Gravity Shell – 41 MP (7 times) – Gravity-elem missile attack – 530 DMG
Lightning Blade – 44 MP (7 times) – Lightning bolt gun attack (INT-based) – 700 DMG
Holy Star – 19 MP (16 times) – Heals whole party 100-140 MP
Hyper Launcher – 60 MP (3 times) – Light-elemental explosive shot attack – 1200 DMG
Blitz Tactics – 70 MP (2 times) – Light-elemental gun attack (INT-based) – 1500 DMG


Ernest Raviede
Ernest’s prescribed path is Sense, Battle, Knowledge, Technical. In game, Ernest is horrible, his whip is mid-ranged, meaning he can’t hit anything close to him before it hits him, and he can’t attack from far away. He’s also difficult to combo with. But his stats look nice on paper and he has lots of elemental equips, so maybe he could win some matches.

Max Level: 360
HP: 945
MP: 399

STR: 346 (466)
CON: 159 (364)
DEX: 222 (317)
AGL: 220 (560)
INT: 121 (176)
RES: 112 (247)
GUT: 167

Equips:
Weapon: Photon Wire (STR 120, INT 55, DEX 95, Light)
Aqua Whip (STR 80, INT 60, DEX 90, Water)
Flare Whip (STR 90, INT 40, DEX 90, Fire)
*[Cave of Trials] Garroted Bute (STR 200, INT 100, DEX 100)
Armor: Mythril Mesh (CON 80, RES 60, AGL 80)
Arms: Pallas Athene (CON 25, RES 25, AGL 95, 25% resistance to Fire, Earth, Thunder, Vacuum)
Head: Duel Helm (CON 65, RES 20, AGL 80)
Feet: Mythril Greaves (CON 35, RES 30, AGL 85)

Single Physical Attack: 255
Max Physical Chain: 167
Max Physical Chain DMG: 42500
Frames in Combo Window: 11
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 2800

Killer Moves:
Cloud Dust – 15 MP (2 times) – Cracks whip to spin a Earth/Wind elemental tornado at enemy – 180 DMG
Broken Heart – 28 MP (2 times) – Thorny whip Earth-elem attack – 270 DMG
Thunder Whip – 35 MP (2 times) – Lightning bolt whip attack (INT-based) – 460 DMG
Sonic Whip – 46 MP (1 time) – Wind-elemental ranged whip attack – 770 DMG
Grand Slash – 60 MP (1 time) – Earth-elemental ground-based ranged whip attack – 2100 DMG
Final Whip – 65 MP (1 time) – Void-elemental ranged whip attack – 2300 DMG

Rena Lanford
Rena’s prescribed path is Knowledge, Technical, Sense, Battle. You get Rena pretty late in the game, meaning you have to level up a whole new character even though you started the game with 8 good choices to begin with. She’s the best healer in the game and her combo-ing is relatively easy, so she’s not a horrible choice, but Noel is just as good, really. Interestingly, she equips the best weapon in the game, the Glance Reviver, dropped from the game’s optional super-boss. Kinda cool. Rena’s magic build and melee build are surprisingly close in numbers, so I just tested her magic build. The numbers in parentheses represent Rena’s stats with her primary equipment from Cosmo City.

Max Level: 360
HP: 725
MP: 999

STR: 167 (237)
CON: 159 (324)
DEX: 203 (298)
AGL: 114 (474)
INT: 229 (324)
RES: 262 (422)
GUT: 136

Equips:
Weapon: Elven Dagger (STR 70, INT 95, DEX 95, Light)
*[Aftergame reward] Glance Reviver (STR 250, INT 200, DEX 100, Light)
Armor: Ishtar Robe (CON 100, RES 100, AGL 90)
Arms: Duel Guard (CON 35, RES 10, AGL 80)
Head: Hermit Cap (CON 20, RES 40, AGL 90)
Feet: Bunny Shoes (CON 10, RES 10, AGL 100)

Single Physical Attack: 142
Max Physical Chain: 136
Max Physical Chain DMG: 19000
Frames in Combo Window: 18
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 2600
Spells:
Heal – 3 MP (20 times) – Very fast-casting, Heals 30-60 HP
Cure Light – 11 MP (17 times) – fast-casting, Heals 150-160 HP
Cure All – 20 MP (13 times) – fast-casting, Heals all characters 150-160 HP
Fairy Heal – 30 MP (15 times) – fast-medium casting speed, Heals 350-370 HP
Fairy Light – 40 MP (10 times) – fast-medium casting speed, Heals party 200-240 HP
Recovery – 9 MP (Infinite number of times?) – fast-casting, recovers a small amount of stamina
Refresh – 18 MP (Infinite number of times?) – fast-medium casting speed, recovers a large amount of stamina
Revival – 26 MP (Infinite number of times?) – medium casting speed, recovers a medium amount of stamina for the entire party
Antidote – 5 MP (15 times) – Cures poison status effect.
Dispel – 20 MP (15 times) – Cures all status effects except KO.
Raise Dead – 45 MP (10 times) – Slow-casting, revives Character from KO status with about 40% HP

Ray – 42 MP (6 times) – slow-casting, medium Light spell – 380 DMG
Press – 18 MP (10 times) – mid-fast casting, low Void spell – 270 DMG
Light Cross – 50 MP (5 times) – slow-casting, strong Light spell – 640 DMG
Tractor Beam – 42 MP (6 times) – slow-casting, medium Star spell – 530 DMG
Star Flare – 48 MP (3 times) – medium-casting, strong Light spell – 730 DMG
Gravity Press – 53 MP (3 times) – slow-casting, powerful Void spell – 1200 DMG
Celestial Arrow – 70 MP (2 times) – slow-casting, powerful Light spell – 2000 DMG

Protection – 15 MP (13 times) – raises CON for one person by 20% (does not stack)
Haste – 15 MP (12 times) – raises AGL & movement speed for one person by 15% (does not stack)
Anti – 20 MP (12 times) – raises RES by 25%, does not stack
Angel Feather – 30 MP (10 times) – raises CON by 25%, does not stack
Delay – 18 MP (12 times) – lowers AGL & movement speed for one enemy by 15% (does not stack)
Deep Mist – 11 MP (14 times) – lowers DEX of one enemy by 25% (does not stack)
Silence – 14 MP (10 times) – 66% chance to induce silence status effect on enemies (cannot use Spells or INT-based Killer Moves)
Fixed Cloud [Energy Net] – 22 MP (8 times) – 33% chance to stun enemy (Void-elem)



Claude C. Kenni
Claude’s prescribed path is Battle, Sense, Knowledge, Technical. You get Claude near the end of the game when you already have 4 good melee fighters to choose from, so he’s a pain to level up for not much reward. His combo attacks alternate from sword to fist, and his fist attacks almost always miss. He’s not so bad on paper, though, so this form could win a few matches, though his SO2 form is just as good really. Numbers in parentheses are Claude’s stats with his primary equipment setup.

Max Level: 350
HP: 999 (!)
MP: 391

STR: 329 (489)
CON: 160 (385)
DEX: 249 (334)
AGL: 218 (563)
INT: 126 (216)
RES: 128 (253)
GUT: 172

Equips:
Weapon: Silvance (STR 160, INT 90, DEX 85, Light elemental)
*[Cave of Trials] Durandal (STR 220, INT 150, DEX 100)
Armor: Duel Suit (CON 100, RES 50, AGL 85)
Arms: Pallas Athene (CON 25, RES 25, AGL 95, 25% resistance to Fire, Earth, Thunder, Vacuum)
Head: Duel Helm (CON 65, RES 20, AGL 80)
Feet: Mythril Greaves (CON 35, RES 30, AGL 85)


Single Physical Attack: 267
Max Physical Chain: 172
Max Physical Chain DMG: 46000
Frames in Combo Window: 21
Frame-based Physical Chain DMG: 5600

Killer Moves: Claude’s Phase Gun is probably his most useful move in-game, spam it all the time
Phase Gun – 22 MP (20 times) – Fast ranged attack with Claude’s phase gun – 460 DMG
Energy Sword – 9 MP (12 times) – Recovers about 40-60 of Claude’s HP
Ripper Blast – 26 MP (3 times) – Earth slash that also hits flying enemies – 390 DMG
Dragon Howl – 30 MP (2 times) – Light dragon energy attack (INT-based) – 410 DMG
Sword Bomber – 40 MP (1 time) – Fire bursts from Claude’s sword (INT-based) – 530 DMG
Mirror Slice – 55 MP (1 time) – 6-hit close-range Sword combo – 1100 DMG
Fukuryuu Shichiseiha [Subterranean Stream Seven Holy Strikes?] – 60 MP (1 time) – Magma dragon erupts from the earth to cause Fire damage anytime it contacts the enemy – 2400 DMG

[DjinnAndTonic]

HP Distribution:
999 Claude
959 Dias
945 Precis melee
945 Ernest
926 Chisato
923 Noel melee
922 Bowman
918 Ashton
742 Opera
725 Rena
590 Leon melee
583 Celine melee
477 Precis magic
464 Noel magic
382 Leon magic
379 Celine magic
Mean: 684.8
Prescribed builds-only Mean: 736.5

MP Distribution:
999 Celine magic
999 Leon magic
999 Noel magic
999 Rena
699 Noel melee
664 Opera
623 Celine melee
581 Leon melee
518 Precis magic
486 Bowman
477 Precis melee
417 Chisato
414 Ashton
399 Ernest
396 Dias
391 Claude
Mean: 628.8
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 640.1

Raw STR Distribution:
363 Precis melee
346 Ernest
344 Bowman
341 Ashton
339 Dias
339 Chisato
329 Claude
241 Noel melee
237 Opera
167 Rena
147 Celine melee
143 Leon melee
113 Noel magic
112 Precis magic
94 Leon magic
90 Celine magic
Mean: 234.1
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 237.6


STR Distribution (Cosmo City Equips):
499 Dias
489 Bowman
489 Chisato
489 Claude
483 Precis melee
471 Ashton
466 Ernest
396 Noel melee
282 Opera
258 Noel magic
237 Rena
232 Precis magic
213 Leon melee
182 Celine melee
164 Leon magic
125 Celine magic
Mean: 342.2
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 350.1

CON Distribution (Cosmo City Equips):
398 Ashton
396 Dias
385 Claude
381 Bowman
376 Chisato
370 Noel melee
368 Precis melee
364 Ernest
357 Opera
324 Rena
317 Noel magic
315 Celine melee
309 Leon melee
292 Precis magic
272 Leon magic
268 Celine magic
Mean: 343.2
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 344.2

DEX Distribution (Cosmo City Equips):
354 Precis melee
346 Celine magic
344 Precis magic
340 Leon magic
334 Claude
317 Ernest
315 Chisato
315 Noel magic
305 Opera
302 Noel melee
300 Dias
300 Bowman
298 Rena
294 Ashton
276 Leon melee
274 Celine melee
Mean: 313.4
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 317.3

AGL Distribution (Cosmo City Equips):
563 Claude
560 Ernest
555 Dias
549 Precis melee
543 Chisato
539 Bowman
538 Ashton
492 Leon melee
485 Noel melee
477 Opera
474 Rena
465 Celine melee
434 Leon magic
429 Precis magic
407 Celine magic
405 Noel magic
Mean: 494.7
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 493.7

INT Distribution (Cosmo City Equips):
477 Leon magic
458 Celine magic
414 Noel magic
393 Opera
371 Precis magic
324 Rena
255 Celine melee
234 Leon melee
230 Chisato
216 Claude
208 Noel melee
191 Precis melee
191 Dias
177 Bowman
176 Ernest
170 Ashton
Mean: 280.3
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 299.8

RES Distribution (Cosmo City Equips):
422 Rena
384 Leon magic
378 Celine magic
363 Celine melee
358 Leon melee
335 Noel magic
317 Noel melee
312 Opera
271 Precis melee
256 Precis magic
253 Claude
251 Bowman
247 Ernest
245 Dias
245 Chisato
242 Ashton
Mean: 304.9
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 297.5

GUT Distribution:
172 Claude
167 Ernest
165 Precis melee
158 Bowman
154 Chisato
147 Ashton
146 Dias
142 Celine melee
140 Leon melee
139 Opera
136 Rena
135 Noel melee
87 Leon magic
83 Celine magic
83 Noel magic
72 Precis magic
Mean: 132.9
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 128.7

Max Damage Distribution:
13000 Bowman (48-hit Physical chain)
10700 Ashton (41-hit Physical chain)
10100 Chisato (38-hit Physical chain)
6800 Dias (23-hit Physical chain)
5600 Claude (21-hit Physical chain)
4600 Precis melee (17-hit Physical chain)
4400 Noel melee (19-hit Physical chain)
3900 Leon magic (Dark Passage)
3800 Celine magic (Ascension Choir)
3000 Noel magic (19-hit Physical chain)
2800 Ernest (11-hit Physical chain)
2600 Rena (18-hit Physical chain)
2400 Opera (14-hit Physical chain)
2200 Leon melee (Dark Passage)
1900 Precis magic (17-hit Physical chain)
1600 Celine melee (Ascension Choir)
Mean: 4960
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 5550

Max Damage Distribution: (Single-hit Physicals only allowed)
4250 Ashton (Spirit Dragon)
3900 Leon magic (Dark Passage)
3800 Celine magic (Ascension Choir)
3500 Dias (Byakko Sougekizan [White Tiger Shock?])
2600 Bowman (Ouka Sakuretsujin)
2400 Claude (Fukuryuu Shichiseiha)
2300 Ernest (Final Whip)
2200 Leon melee (Dark Passage)
2100 Noel magic (PANDA!!)
2000 Rena (Celestial Arrow)
1700 Chisato (Jinguu Senretsuken)
1600 Celine melee (Ascension Choir)
1500 Opera (Blitz Tactics)
1300 Noel melee (PANDA!!)
1200 Precis melee (Daruma Strike)
920 Precis magic (Daruma Strike)
Mean: 2330
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 2580

Max Damage Distribution: (Max combo Physicals allowed)
46000 Claude (172-hit Physical chain)
44000 Precis melee (165-hit Physical chain)
43000 Bowman (158-hit Physical chain)
42500 Ernest (167-hit Physical chain)
42000 Dias (146-hit Physical chain)
41600 Chisato (154-hit Physical chain)
39000 Ashton (147-hit Physical chain)
31400 Noel melee (135-hit Physical chain)
23000 Opera (139-hit Physical chain)
19000 Rena (136-hit Physical chain)
15300 Precis magic (72-hit Physical chain)
14600 Leon melee (140-hit Physical chain)
12900 Noel magic (83-hit Physical chain)
11000 Celine melee (142-hit Physical chain)
5650 Leon magic (87-hit Physical chain)
3800 Celine magic (83-hit Physical chain or Ascension Choir)
Mean: 27200
Prescribed-builds-only Mean: 27800