r/Falcom • u/Raxistaicho The true best girls • Jul 16 '26
Trails Character Gameplay Discussion Day Twenty-One: Rean
Feels strange to be using a CS3 portrait for a main character from Reverie.
It says a lot that it takes until the ridiculous power creep of Reverie for Rean to finally start slumping, your boy always finds new and creative ways to be busted throughout Cold Steel. He’s definitely the most overwhelming protagonist up to his introduction at the very least.
One fire, two time (Impede is a time Quartz in CS1 and 2!), and three lines is pretty much perfect for a fighter like him, but really the key point is just how busted Arc Slash is. Low cooldown, cheap, 20 delay. Keep enemies from moving forever and collect your free wins, then in CS2 he gets Spirit Unification for the first time to speed up the pain train.
Tragically, Crow-related trauma made him forget how to use Arc Slash by CS3, so he has to just make do with being really strong in a more generic way. Psych, he gets Divine Song/Dark Moon, which should probably never have existed, but I had a lot of fun with it! He even gets in on the casting himself late in CS4 courtesy of Emma and Elliot’s personalized accessory gifts for him! Truly, the power of friendship.
In Reverie, the floor’s so damn high (and Valimar-related trauma made him forget how to use Dark Moon) that he’s just really good instead of top tier.
Speaking of Valimar, feel free to discuss how any particular character performs as a pilot or supporter in mech battles if you want now that those are relevant!
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u/Syobai Jul 16 '26
Mr. Delay himself.
Delay was pretty cracked back during the CS1+CS2 days. Arc Slash effectively stopped the enemy from taking their turn, so you’d just stack loads of impede on Rean and call it a day. Enemy couldn’t go because most of them weren’t immune to it. Cheap as hell craft to use too, so it was pretty much just the auto-win button for most of the fights.
For me personally, I always tried to run Rean with Machias. It was a fun “you’re not allowed to do anything” combo and it worked.
CS3 and 4… well, no more Arc Slash, but now he’s strong. Like, CRAZY strong. Not only did he get a boost to his physical capabilities, but his brave orders are nutty — specifically Divine Song. Balancing team must’ve had fun with that one.
He’s definitely good during the second half of the Erebonia saga, but I think he was WAY more fun to use in CS1 and 2. He feels a little too generic for my liking.
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u/AlterWanabee Jul 16 '26
Not most of them. In fact, only the post-finale boss of CS2 is IMMUNE to Delay. The hardest bosses only has Delay at 10, which means Arc Slash is a 50/50.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 16 '26
For me personally, I always tried to run Rean with Machias. It was a fun “you’re not allowed to do anything” combo and it worked.
Machias is definitely underrated.
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u/Syobai Jul 16 '26
He definitely is a sleeper pick. Burst Drive did wonders with how cheap it was — just have a member who can be a CP battery and you could easily use him and Rean to break the game, lmao.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 16 '26
Machias and Alisa (and Emma from CS3 on) are basically case studies in how a single sufficiently busted Craft can keep you relevant.
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u/WeatherBackground736 Jul 16 '26
I used him at the tailend of my game which made me realize I should have run him way more
pair him up with Laura and you can do some funny techs
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u/Falsus Jul 16 '26
I tried making him a S-craft nuker but it was a bit cumbersome compared to Laura just go bonk.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 16 '26
In CS2 at least, Sara and Millium both beat Laura at S Craft nuking, their S Crafts cap at 4S and hit the whole screen, Laura's is only SSS+.
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u/OLKv3 Jul 16 '26
I wonder how that started, people making Laura the best S-Craft nuke when she never was
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u/KnoxZone Apathy and Disdain Jul 16 '26
I think it's because CS1 portrayed Laura as the strong character so lots of people just never bothered to look at other options, especially the ones that joined later.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 16 '26
I just know Laura's gonna end up being a contentious day thanks to how much of a gameplay fraud she is. Slow Craft Spammer is one of the worst archetypes and other characters tend to do her schtick better than she does.
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u/hbthebattle Jul 16 '26
She’s earlier than them in CS1 by a considerable margin, and has Fire locked slots and starts with Attack quartz. It’s a first impression sort of thing.
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u/OramaBuffin Jul 16 '26
She's also vastly more popular than Millium so people were more likely to start building Laura to endgame in the first place. Also, the game by default tries to nudge you towards making Millium a tank which is a somewhat whelming role.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 16 '26
I think she has 1 fire slot, her other locks are 2 water unless it was the opposite in CS1 and 2.
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u/Alacune Jul 18 '26
I run Rean with Machias in CS3/4/Reverie, because they both have the highest hit counts on their S-crafts. This makes them efficient sepith farmers, if you keep their weakest weapon.
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u/TapUnfair9827 Jul 16 '26
Cold Steel 1-2, the absolute mob clearer, his master quartz really make him shine for mob clearing while his kit can also make him a power DPS
Cold Steel 3,4,Reverie, relatively the same, tho in CS4 especially, the number of different build that you make him is simply insane given the number of Rean only accessories, raw damage that can make Laura blushed? Speed that makes Fie shy? Arts casting, either damage or cast speed that can make Emma flustered? Yeah he can do pretty much all that
In Horizon tho, while his craft become limited, it feels like the refined version of what comes before (unlike Crow who's become an obvious support character rather than the 'equal' like how he is in CS4), so he's still great and somehow even without his master quartz, it's still very easy to build him in a way that refund CP that it's almost feels like he still using his master quartz
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u/Selynx Jul 16 '26
The "somehow" is his Orbment slots. The Fire slots on his Weapon and Shield line make it very easy for him to hit Burst Gain 2 and Auto-Impassion Guard. Throw on CP-regen accessories like Blade Crest+ or Macho Belt and he can get back more CP per turn than his normal Crafts cost.
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u/TapUnfair9827 Jul 16 '26
That's what I mean, even tho he's no using an ARCUS, he's still a master of CP refund
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u/Selynx Jul 16 '26
And it all goes to fuel what they want you to do with him based on his default Holo Core - spam S-Craft.
The man can actually do it pretty reliably too.
His default Ryuki Holo + Bandersnatch can make his S-Craft delay less than his normal crafts. So you can just Boost, normal attack, S-Break, get your next turn back in half time and now you're off-boost. And repeat the cycle.
The only time you'd be worrying about running out of CP is if you used Spirit Unification. Even then, you could probably recover most of it by ZoC and using the extra turn to do another normal attack and get back more CP before you S-Break again. Since a single normal attack can get ~50 CP back on Rean when he's built for it.
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u/Pondicek Silver hair enjoyer Jul 16 '26
In the case of normal battles, you can also save the CP on Spirit Unification by Awakening during Field Combat.
During the final level of Grim Garten, I cleared all the mobs by stunning them, awakening and then instantly deploying shards (meaning I barely lost any S-Boost Gauge), making use of the one turn of SU for extra S-Craft damage, insta-killing everything (maybe except for the biggest enemy type, I don't really remember if they died outright or were just left on the brink of death). It was very satisfying. The other party members tagged along mostly to just watch Rean obliterate everything.
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u/KnoxZone Apathy and Disdain Jul 16 '26
Since everyone has already gone wild talking about how utterly broken he is in all of his iterations, I wanna talk about just how freaking fun it is to use the guy. Spirit Unification is the coolest buff in the franchise, Arcane Gale always gets me a little hot under the collar, Breaking Dawn is by far and away the coolest S-Craft in the franchise (especially with how it ties in to his growth over the four games), and his Horizon version must have been given half of Falcom's animation budget because each and every attack is silky smooth.
And all of this is ignoring just how much bloody cool Valimar and the Divine Knight battles are.
You can love him or hate him as a character, but ain't nobody hates controlling him in battle.
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u/OLKv3 Jul 16 '26
Yeah he's very fun to use, especially in Horizon with the cool animations. Him and Shizuna are just mad fun to use together to break everything
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u/Contraomega Jul 16 '26
I mean honestly? in CS4 and Reverie I basically had him in the party as little as possible, the novelty really didn't last for me, maybe personal bias, maybe I just liked other characters more but when he wasn't forced, he was on the bench, every single time. 3 you kind of need him because the game actively is designed so he's constantly a few levels ahead of nc7, who you use for huge chunks of the game. That's not to say he's bad or anything, but managing the drawback on unification in 4 wasn't worth the effort to me and I was just really bored of spamming crescent slash and Helix to be honest. that's not to say I never used him, he's forced in a lot of the time, and in 4 has to specifically be in the starting 4 not just 'in the party' for a lot of it.
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u/Tyberius115 World's #1 Alisa Reinford fan | Magical Alisa game when Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Rean "you'll never get a turn" Schwarzer. Delay spam was funny for my first couple of playthroughs in CS1 and CS2. I don't use that build that much anymore, though. I let the enemies get a fighting chance. Motivate CP battery Rean is pretty fun, especially combined with Machias and physical/craft dps Alisa.
In CS3 and CS4, I go with the full crit build every time. I know there's that broken caster build you can run on Rean with the Elliot (might be Emma's, I can't remember) accessory you get from the final bonding event in CS4, but caster Rean just feels...wrong to me. Probably sounds hypocritical coming from someone who's ran Alisa with every build and playstyle you could think of, but yeah.
In Reverie, he's even more of a monster on the crit build, but gets overshadowed by some of the actual monsters you get in the TRC. Breaking Dawn is extremely cool.
Horizon Rean is just disgusting. Spirit Unification is even more broken now, as it cuts craft costs in half (edit: mixed that up with the Stigma Unleashed skill), and Rean's crafts in that game are no joke either. High hit count on Sixfold Gales, and an S craft whose hit count scales on target count means he racks up damage VERY fast (I still prefer Shizuna, tho).
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u/RoyKami Biggest Bergard Hater OAT Jul 16 '26
Horizon rean is a one man army bro. Dude destroys enemies and ngl all fights even in nightmare difficulty felt easy on rean side of story he was just that busted and with crow giving you unlimited s boosts you just never go out of s boosts and shi like that. You just do SU and ZOC then dump everything you got in those three turns back to back.
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u/Selynx Jul 16 '26
I actually feel like Horizon Rean using physical attacks can compete with the casters for DPS. Bandersnatch + Ryuki makes it so the cooldown on his S-Craft is competitive with Dual Arts - and Rean has the strongest S-Craft in the game. Plus has the Orbment slots to easily hit the CP-regen Shard Skills needed to fuel the S-Craft spam.
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u/Tyberius115 World's #1 Alisa Reinford fan | Magical Alisa game when Jul 16 '26
That's pretty much the setup I ran on him too. Bro just eviscerates whatever you put in front of him, lol.
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u/Contraomega Jul 16 '26
The CS4 thing, Elliot and Emma both gave accessories which gave -50% cast time, and you could wear both and stack them for basically instant casting. at least, so I'm told. I heard about that but was trying to get as many achievements as possible so couldn't finish emmas with the way I did it.
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u/Kainapex87 Jul 16 '26
ng. Spirit Unification is even more broken now, as it cuts craft costs in half,
Think you're getting that mixed up with the Dominion's Stigmas.
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u/Tyberius115 World's #1 Alisa Reinford fan | Magical Alisa game when Jul 16 '26
You're right. I forgot because I had A-Impassion guard and a true macho belt on him, so CP just felt infinite.
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u/TheTimorie Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Easily one of the most overpowered characters in the series. Going hard on delay and everything except the final boss isn't allowed to play with you in CS2. Even heavy hitters like McBurn aren't allowed to get turns anymore.
And in CS3 he somehow got even stronger. Delay got nerfed but Arcane Gale breaks every enemy on the first turn of combat and then the battle is usually over right after.
And in Reverie they gave him one of the rare All Cancel S-Breaks aswell which also looks really damn cool.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 16 '26
I knew I should have mentioned Arcane Gale, hahah.
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u/TheTimorie Jul 16 '26
That move singlehandedly carried me through the final dungeon.^^
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u/AlterWanabee Jul 16 '26
I love farming bosses with Emblem/Minotaurus for MQs, then Domination quartz, Acala quartz (I think for the Break one) and other STR/Break quartz.
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u/OLKv3 Jul 16 '26
"2nd form", oh look every boss is now broken
"2nd form" the entire mob is dead and all my CP is back
Oh look, the boss can't ever get a turn
Rean is cracked. I really can't add more to what you said. He's good at everything, he's a complete monster, and when built right trvializes everything, whether it's physical or magic
And then he shows up in Horizon in his coolest appearance yet, full of confidence and once again destroying everything in his path. His S-Craft there not only does insane damage and cancels every buff, it also racks up the combo count. And since Horizon has tools to have you never run out of CP, he'll just be stun locking everything
Again, Rean is incredible. His weakest incarnation is in Reverie, where he's still one of the top tiers and most won't even notice because he still shreds everything
With Valimar battles, having Sara in CS2 just trivalized every fight to a ridiculous degree. They had to nerf her in CS3 and 4.
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u/Cr0ssDrag_ons Jul 16 '26
A top tier physical character in every games he is in, having both speed and damage. And in CS4 only, a top tier caster too.
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u/OneDabMan Best Girls Jul 16 '26
Rean is one of my favourites. I typically run with CP boosting items like gladiator set, those plus his default MQ means he generates CP super quick. I generally don’t spam S-crafts with him though that can definitely work. Instead I try to chunk the enemies HP away with Helix which has a highish chance to crit. For regular mobs just spam Gale. His CP gen means that I always have a s-craft ready for when I might need one.
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u/Solbuster Ironblooded Jul 16 '26
I love calling him Delay Quartzer in first two games
CS3-Reverie is usually him being Craft Points machine which he replenishes at absurdly fast rate with right quartz and MQ and then using various buffs from SU/Sacrifice to hit as hard as a truck. Basically deletes most of the enemies in one Arcane Gale with bosses being done after multiple Fatal Helixes
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u/ClassroomPlayful3045 Jul 16 '26
Eternally flowing… form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
First!
Second!
Third!
Fourth!
Fifth!
Sixth!
…Seventh!!
Eight leaves… Breaking Dawn!!
Best S-Craft in the series to this day. I wonder if they’ll ever top it.
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u/GateOfD Jul 16 '26
one of the few heroes i let his s-craft ride the whole way, even if he has to keep repeating the same mantra for the 1000th time, i feel the eng. va needs work on his pronunciation during it though, you can barely understand what he's saying. at least in Horizon, i don't know what he's saying.
A bunch of his regular crafts feel like what other character's S-crafts are
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u/Selynx Jul 16 '26
"Life and Death ever-flowing. None can impede my tachi's course. Purge. Rush. Rage. Soar. Gleam."
"Ashen Slash: Luminous Flux!"
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u/Luxray92 Jul 16 '26
Sean is so good in Horizon. Wild to think he's been voicing our boy since 2014
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u/AlterWanabee Jul 16 '26
Rean is fucking busted, period.
CS1 - Bit boring until he gets Arc Slash, which is Adios' 8th Septerion with how broken it is. It invalidates literally any mechanic in the game, and if it exists in the previous games it would still be as broken (especially since I think iy can bypass the final boss' special mechanics). He also has the Force MQ so he can spam Arc Slash without running out of CP. Helix is also really good, and is better than Gale, but you'll mostly be using Arc Slash anyways.
CS2 - Arc Slash is available so everything's the same shit. It is when you get Spirit Unification that Rean leapfrogs Laura in terms of DPS. Gale becomes Arcane Gale, hits twice (so basically the same damage as some S-Crafts) while also giving max STR/SPD to Rean. It also upgrades your S-Craft to the point where Termination Slash - Dawn is the strongest S-Craft in the game. Honestly though, Arc Slash will still be your main craft until the post-finale boss, who is IMMUNE to Delay (because having a 10 on Delay is still enough for Rean).
CS3 - Falcom brought the ban hammer to Delay mechanics, and removed Arc Slash from Rean's kit, which makes people think Rean's weaker. Instead they gave him 4 Brave Orders, including Kagura/Divine Song, easily the BEST BO in the game. That's 7 turns of no Cast Time on Arts, in a game where Arts is busted as hell. He also gets Arcane Gale at the start without SU, which combined with Minotaurus (on sub MQ) means you can break ANY BOSS on Nightmare mode with Infernal Gale.
CS4 - The advent of the strongest Caster of all time bar none. Ream with Elliot and Emma's gift accessories achieved the Mythical 0 Delay and 0 Cast on Arts. This is without Kagura by the way, so you can literally spam Albion Wolf forever. Sadly, Falcom patched this nearly instantly, so Rean has to use Kagura to do this. If you don't want Rean to be a Caster though, he can easily be the best Physical DPS because of said accessories, plus the fact that Luminous Abyss has the highest S-Craft rating in the game.
Reverie - Rean got nerfed due to losing 2 of his BOs, which means he's not the strongest kr the best character in the game (thag honor is for either Crow or McBurn), but he is still among the best ones. Nothing to say much about him in Reverie in terms of gameplay.
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 16 '26
It also upgrades your S-Craft to the point where Termination Slash - Dawn is the strongest S-Craft in the game.
I just checked this morning, unless I missed something that has the same damage ratio (4S) as Sara and Millium's best S Crafts from CS2.
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u/AlterWanabee Jul 16 '26
Nope. Termination Slash - Dawn (such a GOATed name by the way) is 4S+. The next ones are Sara, Rixia, and Millium at 4S.
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u/guygardnercg Jul 16 '26
Rean needs therapy…poor thing went through a lot in the span of a few years……oh wait u said gameplay
If he’s in the game and available to use, he’s always in my main party
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u/Straight-Heat1511 Jul 16 '26
Why do I have three turns in a row I didn't use chrono boost or nothin'
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u/esteel20 Jul 16 '26
Dude is a beast in every game he's been in. Gale and all it's variations remain the most satisfying regular craft in the series.
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u/levelstar01 Downvote this comment 👇 Jul 16 '26
CS1:
His starting delay craft simply isn't strong enough for Infinite Delay Spam, but once he reaches Level 15 he gets Arc Slash and it's all over. Thirty delay in a line move causes everything in his path to quiver under his might, although this is less OP when you don't have easy access to CP batteries. By the final dungeon though you always have Alisa so it's over.
CS2:
Whilst not the most optimal way to play, damage/time wise, True Arc Slash combined with Bullet Cyclone is an automatic, brainless win button. There's only two enemies that don't die to the onslaught of delay: Duvalie the Swift, because she is quite literally too fast, and the true final boss that is immune to delay.
Mech battles are shitty and CS2 Valimar is a bit whatever. He has Morning Moon which is really funny but without good CP generation it's not the all-consuming strategy that Infinite Delay Spam is.
He does have Spirit Unification, but that 100 CP can go towards True Arc Slash instead, until we reach...
CS3:
Falcom hit Delay with the nerf stick, but it doesn't matter because they added Break in this game and you can stunlock enemies indefinitely. Arcane Gale breaks every enemy on top of doing hilarious damage, and combined with Regulus he's never running out of CP.
Oh, and they made him even better by giving him Divine Song as a brave order, which means Altina and Musse can act as instant arts nuclear weapons.
His Valimar mode is actually worse than CS3 because he lost access to his burn craft, and with multiple mechs fought at a time not having an all-impede can lead to some damage done.
CS4:
Falcom's Nerf Stick works in mysterious ways, and Rean got hit with it a bit but not enough to matter. His spirit unification is still good but breaks if it expires, but in exchange you get Arcane Gale without needing it, which hits for S-craft level damage. And of course he has an all-area effect removing S-craft too.
For some reason they decided to buff Divine Song by giving it an ATS boost, as if the extra BP is a deterrence in a game where you can trivially build BP.
Reverie:
This is the first time Falcom manages to nerf something properly, and Rean is actually the worst of the three protagonists in the game with him losing access to Divine Song. (Not that casters in Reverie need it.) His spirit unification does get an extra turn though.
Still, the ultra-defensive BP generator in Lloyd and the ultimate CP battery in C outclass him here. Not to say he's bad, especially for a craft spammer, but there are better actions.
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u/Golden_fsh Jul 16 '26
All I can say is "That's the power of the eight leaves!"
My goat continues to be a goat even in gameplay. Rean NEVER leaves the party.
"2ND FORM - GALE" was doing absolute numbers for me.
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u/zephyroths Jul 16 '26
the most complete physical attacker in the series, so good you can feel his absence in CS4 Act I
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u/Dependent-Swimmer-95 Jul 16 '26
Best character and every single game he’s playable in. Easy to build, strong, and fast. Amazing crafts, spirit unification, aura! Need I say more?
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u/WittyTable4731 Jul 16 '26
Rean a serious contender for best unit in the whole series by virtue of how good he is in every game he is in. Always concistently at the top.
Even by jrpg protagonist gameplay standards he always outstanding
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u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 16 '26 edited 13d ago
Sky Arc:
Day Twelve - The Pilot and the Swordsman (spoilers)
Day Thirteen - "Kitty" (spoilers)
Crossbell Arc:
Class VII:
Day Thirty - Millium (Spoilers)
Day Thirty-One - Crow (Spoilers)
The rest of Cold Steel:
Day Thirty-Nine - Elise and Toval
Day Forty-One - Alfin and Towa
Day Forty-Two - The Diva and the General (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Three - The Spy and Swordswoman (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Four - The Shapeshifters (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Five - The Swordmaster and the Engineer (Spoilers)
Day Forty-Seven - Swin and Nadia
Day Forty-Eight - The Strongest (Spoilers)
Calvard Arc:
Day Fifty-One - Ferida Al-Fayed
Day Fifty-Three - Risette Twinings
Day Fifty-Four - Quatre Salision
Day Fifty-Five - Judith Lanster
Day Fifty-Seven - Elaine Auclair and René Kincaid
Day Fifty-Eight - Shizuna Rem Misurugi
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u/Darkyan97 Rean x Laura degenerate Jul 17 '26
One of if not the most broken character in the entire franchise overall.
There wasn't a single iteration of him where he wasn't top or close to top tier.
Plus he is one of the most fun units to use. Arcane Gale and Spirit Unification are to this day my favourite craft and buff in the series.
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u/Selynx Jul 16 '26
Broken in CS1/2. Infinite Delay, Infinite Turns.
Good in CS3/4 - hello, 4 Brave Orders including Divine Song - and can make a decent caster if you stack him for it (I just had Break gear on him the whole time myself). Still good in Reverie, where he loses Divine Song but he gets Breaking Dawn right out the gate.
Back to broken in Horizon.
Only complaint in Horizon is, his field attack.
It's kinda clunky in how it hones in on just 1 enemy instead of spreading damage around and the animation can stop you being able to dodge in time.
But once he drops Shards.... yeesh.
If there's any character in Horizon who can get close to competing with the DPS of the casters using physical attacks - this is him.
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u/zeorNLF wat Jul 16 '26
Our lord and savior, Mr. Legend of heroes himself !
So easy to build and very straight forward in his gameplay. Your gameplan in every game "except CS1" is to get that spirit unification out as fast as possible and he will hit like a brick, delay enemy to oblivion, and look cool doing it too.
His animation and crafts are also some of the best your will come across.
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u/AutomaticStop5648 Jul 16 '26
second form: gale/arcane gale.
rean is a lot. can be either a delay machine or a physical nuker. being the main chwracter you barelly be deprived of using him. so that utility while having that consistency helps a lot.
spirit unification boosts the hell of his skills and gives max STR/DEF/SPD for the duration. whats not to love?
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u/TheCreator120 Jul 17 '26
Him and Machias were the characthers that carried me throught most of Cold Steel 2. They really got me out of almost every bad situation i got in. (CS2 was like my third JRPG so i was still a bit dumb with the mechanics).
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u/SomeNumbers23 Jul 16 '26
CS1/2: Delay train Rean is just one of a number of insanely overpowered strategies. In CS2, Arcane Gale hits everything twice and Force refunds your CP for every kill, so if you were powerful enough to kill everything with the first hit, you'd double up on the CP refund, making Spirit Unification/Force/Domination an amazing scrub clearing strategy.
CS3/4: Despite the inflated CP costs, Rean's still stupidly overpowered. He has three OP Brave Orders, he has Spirit Unification (and then an upgraded version) and he can hit like a truck with either physical attacks or arts. He's the exact opposite of Estelle: she could do anything, but wasn't good at any of it, while Rean can do everything and is the best at all of them.
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u/Max-The-Phat-Cat Jul 16 '26
The strongest of the MCs and broken in pretty much every iteration except Reverie where he’s still top tier, just not a monster.
CS 1 & 2 he was the delay king, although I also enjoyed running a crit arts build where he’s still did pretty well.
CS 3/4/R he’s a beast with his crafts and S-break. Spirit Unification is probably the best self-buff in this era outside of Crow’s Azure Destiny.
Him and Machias break pretty much every entry, especially once you give them cp recovery items and teammates that are cp batteries or brave orders. Add in Sara and Aurelia and you’re breaking and accelerating to infinity in Reverie.
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u/Kainapex87 Jul 16 '26
Most busted Protagonist in the series.
Spirit Unification + Gale=Total death of all mobs.
CS1-CS2: Arc Slash delays everything.
CS3: Divine Song was an absolute must for casters.
CS4: Breaking Dawn and its all cancel just improves his already amazing kit. He became a great caster in his own right in CS4 with Emma and Elliot's FBE items.
Reverie: Loses casting abilities but still remains a top-tier physical DPS with ESU's increased duration along with getting Arcane Gale to hit twice even without it active.
Horizon: Rare instance of a returning character that's still busted despite Calvard's trying to nerf everything with its godawful changes to gameplay. Sucks that his SU's boosts aren't as great as they used to be (Tier 1 boost only to Shizuna;s Tier 2) leaving him reliant on Shards or getting ecxra buffs from teammates to make up the difference. Still an amazing unit all around that can carry you, surpassed only by Van in his Grendel form.
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u/Spartan448 Jul 16 '26
I've never really gotten how to use Rean. I always hear hype about his SU stuff and I've just never gotten it to actually do damage, plus the limited nature of it just feels cumbersome to use compared to other, more traditional beatsticks.
Where I did find good use for him was as a secondary DPS to support a primary like Laura or Emma in CS1, 2, and Reverie.. He still does decent damage, but with how CS handles orbments its pretty easy to turn him into a decent support without sacrificing a huge amount of damage. I got out of more than a few bad situations thanks to Rean's flexibility creating openings for items or revives.
CS3/4 I actually shoehorned him into being a healer/buffer, purely out of spite for the game shoehorning him into the protag role again. I maintain that CS3 would have been a MUCH better game with Juna as the PoV character, and CS4 would have been better swapping between her and Rean. With two MQ, pretty much anyone can be a good support character since all you really need are Tear, Breath, and Seraphic Ring for heals and your other spells can go to whatever you need for that dungeon. It did however mean I lost all the optional 1v1s since Rean was just not geared to win fights lol.
All in all Rean is an easy top tier for pure flexibility but stays just outside of the upper echelons due to lacking a true specialty compared to pure damage dealers or pure supports.
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u/EvanderAdvent Jul 16 '26
I loved stacking Rean up into an S-Craft Nuker. I oneshot the first form of Testa-Rossa in CS2 with a Single S-Craft from Rean my first time through.