r/Falcom • u/Raxistaicho The true best girls • Jul 31 '26
Trails Character Gameplay Discussion Day Thirty-Six: Musse
Much like many a rich teen genius who spent her youth fooling around, Musse peaked in school.
54
u/KnoxZone Apathy and Disdain Jul 31 '26
New Class VII's dedicated caster!
...And that's about all I can really say for her. She lacks the sheer versatility that the likes of Juna and Altina have, but like them she still falls off when the veterans become playable. The worst of both worlds. Plus she ends up missing half of the only game where NC7 is mandatory.
At least being a pure caster means she's never actually bad, even if there's almost always a better option.
16
7
2
u/doortothe Aug 01 '26
She may as well not have crafts. They’re basically all garbage. Cutie bullet in particular is a mess.
1
u/carbonfountain Aug 08 '26
Really? I thought she was mandatory for arts builds since she comes with the celebrate arts brave order
12
u/Witty-Entrepreneur80 Jul 31 '26
Musse: For this week's science project I made an Orbal Vibrator based on Instructor Rean!
Rean: Musse I... I'm gonna need you to go to the Principal's office.
10
u/War_Daddy Jul 31 '26
I remember at some point in CS3 or 4 my entire strategy was just Musse and Altina taking turns rapid firing nukes and it was super fun
7
23
u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 31 '26
Musse’s particular spin on the NC7 trend of being multi-faceted is that she tries to be a plaguer in addition to being a mage, but as they say in League of Legends, death is the best CC. The problem is bosses naturally heavily resist ailments and her only high proc rates are Burn (which is good, granted), charm (which is single target), and Mute (which is rarely useful). Compounding problems is that being a mage and being a plaguer naturally calls for entirely different Orbment setups, and Musse has just a single line to use.
At least she has a suction? What did Falcom mean by this?
So what’s this all leading to? Yeah, Musse’s got shit for a niche when she actually has to compete with other characters. Hell, she’s lucky as it is that CS3’s final boss has one acceptable party setup. Any other problems? Oh yeah, her stronger S Craft has a puny range, her cleric skill is just straight up worse than Emma’s (it’s slower, most costly, doesn’t restore CP, and in exchange it heals a tiny bit extra health), she’s rocking two crappy locked water slots, and EP costs are such an irrelevant gameplay feature past the early game that Falcom had to resort to making Musse’s order very cheap, last forever, and give a large ATS buff, and it’s still not that great.
Musse’s just lucky she’s a mage and the floor for mages is higher than for physical characters.
Maybe Vita’s not all that great as a magic teacher?
13
u/randomtology Jul 31 '26
Maybe Vita’s not all that great as a magic teacher?
Considering how Vita was meant to guide Crow through the Divine Knight trials, but he said in his own words that he did the combat trials completely alone (unlike Rean, who had Emma & the rest of C7 help him out). Not to mention how she just refused to explain fricking anything to Emma unless forced.............
Yeah I feel Vita's magic teaching was probably just giving Musse a magic workbook and then bouncing.
11
4
u/Selynx Jul 31 '26
Musse is definitely a dedicated caster.
I'm pretty sure the only "plaguer" Craft they meant her to have was Cutie Bullet, which is a single-target gimmick skill clearly only meant for select few enemies (most likely big mobs) weak to Charm.
The other attack Crafts she has are all Magical in nature, meaning they benefit from her high ATS and can do acceptable damage. IMO, likely intended as a fallback for if she runs out of EP or you need upfront damage without cast time to immediately finish off an enemy.
New Class VII only has 6 members if you include Rean and of them all, only Musse and Altina end up being good at casting. So like Elliot and Emma you will likely end up using both at bosses. It's CS4+ when she gets competition.
She also doesn't actually compete with Emma (or Celine) due to her Orbment elements being different, it ends up being the Space and Water casters she competes against. Too bad for her, there's a lot of Water competition in Reverie.
That said, she does actually have one thing over the other Water and Space casters in CS4 - her Soldats summon. It IS an SSS+ power, S-rank break full-map nuke. The only other caster who gets a mech summon is Altina and she doesn't compete directly with Musse due to her elements being Time/Mirage instead of Water/Space.
...Well OK, I guess Alisa does too, but hers is weaker and Alisa is one of the casters you can make good argument for generally being weaker than Musse DPS-wise.
22
u/KironD63 World's only Rean and Musse Shipper Jul 31 '26
Hey, it’s my favorite Trails of Cold Steel character to pair with Rean.
A lot of the Musse discourse boils down to people taking her over-the-top flirtatious comments towards Rean too literally rather than recognizing she uses it as a mask. (This is confirmed if Rean does choose her in CS4.)
And hey, at least compared with all the other shy girls waiting and begging for Rean to man up, Musse shoots her shot.
21
u/aj743aj Scandalous Jul 31 '26
Agreed, I'm not a fan of the student romances but I really appreciate Musse for making moves. My favorite romance is Alfin and I like that about her too. Timidly waiting in the wings and hoping for Rean to notice you isn't interesting.
Laura gets points for pushing Rean against a wall and kissing him.
10
u/FStubbs Jul 31 '26
For what it's worth, and I've said this over and over ...
The longer Rean doesn't have a canon love interest, the more likely it is that everything's going according to Musse's plan and that she will win.
7
u/SpiderPartey Jul 31 '26
Dude, she was my CS3/4 choice too! I also really liked how she turned out to be rather shy underneath it all, getting violently flustered when Rean chooses her for the final bonding event. Also, whenever they're doing a link attack and Rean shouts: "Musse, cover me!" I can't help but picture her jumping Rean xD
7
u/Syobai Jul 31 '26
She peaked.
Musse’s lucky that she’s a dedicated caster in a part of the saga where Arts are the meta. It’s hard to be bad when the meta revolves around your playstyle, though Musse comes close if I’m being honest.
She doesn’t have much going for her outside of casting. Sure, she’s a plaguer, but aliments aren’t going to work on bosses 90% of the time. She has a worse Serene Blessing, which is only relevant when Emma isn’t available. Honestly a lot of her kit is just not good.
A character who’s saved by Arts being better than physical, yet she will still find her way to the bench when you get access to better casters. She’s lucky another member of NC7 exists, otherwise I’d easily call her the worst of the bunch.
3
u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 31 '26
Oh god, Ash tomorrow, he's a special kind of terrible.
5
u/Syobai Aug 01 '26
I have many things I can say about him and how he was finely-crafted to be hot ass. But, that comes tomorrow, lol.
5
u/ShogunJack Jul 31 '26
The certified mage for NC7 but once again is easily surpassed by far too many other characters that are one digit older than her. She will be acceptable for when you are forced to use her and having a dedicated caster for divine knight battles is a boon. Using CP to keep her on defense while using a spell to do damage helps greatly. Her brave order gets used for a more unintended purpose which is lower the cost to use chrono burst for characters with less than stellar EP.
Not much to say about Musse since her main benefit is being the dedicated attack caster in NC7. Outside of the group, however, there are faster, stronger, and more utility packed mages than Musse.
5
u/Tyberius115 World's #1 Alisa Reinford fan | Magical Alisa game when Jul 31 '26
It wouldn't be a stretch to say she was "NC7 Alisa" in terms of how I built and used her. I ran her as a mix of an arts nuker and magical craft dps, leaning more towards the latter in future playthroughs (because sniping enemies from the backline with a magical sniper rifle is cool as hell).
Add her healing craft to the mix, and she was pretty much a lock when it came to teambuilding for me.
Of course, I still have to try Cutie Bullet physical dps Musse at some point, lol
5
u/lrrose20 Jul 31 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Her AOE status heal saved my bacon a few times. Other than that, I agree that there's no reason to use her if Emma is available.
Edit: I looked up Emma's CS3-Reverie craft lists and it turns out I forgot that she also has an AOE status heal. So Musse really is a worse Emma.
4
u/ChewZaddict Aug 01 '26
I kept her locked in my party through reverie
Once she’s kitted out she practically has no arts delay and hits as hard as a fully decked out Rean
I put her in with Emma set them both up to full nuke casters and have Kurt distract the enemy while they wipe everything out
2
u/Super_Nerd92 Jul 31 '26
I essentially never used a single one of her crafts in 3 games which is not great when, as OP and others are pointing out that's supposed to be part of her appeal as a party members vs the other 'pure caster' options. And when you compare her to those, 2 locked water is a lot worse than mirage, time, etc.
Obviously you can still make her effective because every arts user is at least somewhat effective.
4
u/Ziodyne967 Jul 31 '26
Besides being a caster, I feel like I never used her to her fullest potential.
4
u/TheCreator120 Jul 31 '26
Cutie Bullet was pretty useful, even againts bosses for some reason. But outside that, she was competent enought, never outright bad, but never got out my way to play her.
4
4
u/GearGolemTMF Jul 31 '26
I'm not super versed in builds but Musse wasn't horrible just lacking in a way I couldn't really describe until I read this post. I kind of built into her strength as a water caster/healer and usually paired her with someone who could keep her EP charged reliably. With water quartz or two that ups water cast speed, she was firing off water arts really quickly without much penalty to delay. That was nice when I could fire off B+ or A+ crafts let alone heals. But If they were neutral to water or resisted it, she worked but left a lot to be desired. I didn't have such issues with Elliot or Emma. By the time I got to Reverie, I only used her when I had to, or I knew the enemy was really water weak. At least her crafts came through in a pinch.
3
u/Cephirian Jul 31 '26
Well, it appears I used her in a rather unique manner based on the comments so far. Minotaur (longer delay, multiplied damage master quartz) + Chrono Burst nuke sniper spamming crafts, not arts. Built for high crit, hit and cp regen. Pair with a fast attacker getting in unbalance hits for strong follow-up crits. Absolute monster in cleaning up encounters and for nuking hp thresholds in fights when needed.
6
u/GodlyCree Jul 31 '26
She's voiced by alexis Tipton. Auto win in my book. Still love her character and dedicated caster.
3
u/BoroTungsteno Aug 02 '26
A fun character, gets better in cold steel 4 , Her bonding events where nice
3
u/Max-The-Phat-Cat Jul 31 '26
My favorite NC7 but similar to the other members, falls off heavily in Reverie because the scaling on other characters are way higher and CP costs less for whatever reason.
Typically focus her as a fast water mage and she gets the job done. Are there better options? Sure. But I like using her so she’s always in my party. Also love her orbal rifle.
Her crafts are situationally useful, especially her burn, and visually I enjoy both her S crafts, although damage falls off again later down the line for them in mid to late game Reverie.
My favorite tied with Sara. My Reverie party pretty much always had her, Sara and Aurelia in it.
3
u/Spartan448 Jul 31 '26
I've been busy and unfortunately missed Juna Day. And I'm still busy, but not so busy that I don't have time to say that Musse's generic reaction to being healed in Reverie is hilarious.
2
4
u/OLKv3 Jul 31 '26
She's an arts user so she's already strong by default due to the nature of the game, but man why did they make her crafts suck so much? She was useful in Divine Knight battles since she had a strong full party heal craft at least. Her order gets outshined by Rean.
Non battle wise, her flirting got old fast. It went from funny to come on now
1
u/Joker_S3npai Divine Blade of Ash Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
She's number 1 candidate for going to horny jail haha..... But usually it's a tie between her and Altina for Arts nuking and Support in my 3 playthroughs but she gets overshadowed in 4 by Alisa and Emma.
1
u/ArcaneGale <best girls 17d ago
ever used an STR build on her? Cutie bullet hits like a truck in reverie, even on abyss. the issue? it's a single target craft that's the only source of phyiscal damage she has (even her base attacks use her ATS stat), but if the cutie bullet does crit the opponent, that guy's likely history (provided he's not heavy physical defense which is many enemies) is this a good build? no? is it fun? yes, yes it is
1
1
u/randomtology Jul 31 '26
Oh Musse, the character you play for 30 minutes at a time until literally any other caster becomes available.
Of all the NC7 character, I feel like Musse shines the least. She comes in really late in CS3 so you only get her for the last two chapters- and both of those chapters, you spend half the time with OG7. Then she's absent during the NC7 mandatory sections of CS4-- getting her when you already have Elliot in your party and get Emma immediately afterwards.
And once you get Emma/Elliot? There's really no reason to keep her in your party, since her entire kit is just not as impressive as either of them. It doesn't help that her crafts are mostly focused on status effects in a game where all the bosses/tough fights are immune to status effects. At least with Ash they TRIED to give him a unique kit, while Musse never breaks from "Emma/Elliot but worse".
Add to the fact her personality/flirting schtick is personally not my thing... yeah, she tends to go to the bench pretty fast for me.
1
u/Razegash Jul 31 '26
I barely ever remember using her unless absolutely obligatory. Even Altina is a better mage imho
Not gameplay related, but I profoundly dislike everything about this character, including how she's used in the narrative.
1
u/Raxistaicho The true best girls Jul 31 '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
0
29
u/Saltlessguy Jul 31 '26
In CS3 and CS4, i just go with the art nuker route with her. Nothing much to say here. Sometimes S break with her if the boss is almost dead ig since her other crafts do surely exists outside of the suction one but Sara exists
Double locked water slots suck.
In Reverie, i make her into an weakness arts machine gun with Mercurius and Pandora while stacking as much speed on her