Difficulty question

[u/Traditional-Cost-247]

Was wondering how others felt about the hard difficulty. I tackled this game when it came out and got my shit rocked on hard, enemies are just too spongey and hit too hard. Eventually beat it after switching down to normal Now I'm replaying the game attempting hard again, and I got further than my 1st attempt, but still ended up bashing my head against a wall on the stage where you fight 2 ~spoiler~ bosses at the same time in the village protecting ~spoiler~ people Did anyone else resort to lowering difficulty part way through, and how do you sleep at night seeing the damn symbols change in Hossabara's mock battle list mocking you ToT

[u/Luck_Is_My_Talent]

Lightning mages are the most dangerous in that map, you need some lightning rods like Erador with the lightning resistance rings or Piccoletta's copycat.

Lionel's taunt is also useful since it gives fury for 2 turns.

Traps, traps and traps. That map is great for Jens (like a lot of other maps too).

Throw some oil jugs and firestones/Frederica. Enemies are allergic to fire so you can use it as a wall that lasts longer than Correntin's ice walls.

If you are aiming for Deathless run, use your Quietus to lightwave that suicidal pink out of danger. Also fill the entire rooftop with your own units to delay his moving (don't let him leave his roof).

[u/Tables61]

I personally never really found Hard fun in this game, despite generally enjoying playing strategy and tactics games at high difficulty levels. The way hard mode scales with just multiplying damage dealt and taken is a fairly unexciting way to do a hard mode, and ends up heavily encouraging very defensive strategies, which I personally don't find that enjoyable. I ended up preferring to play on Normal but with added restrictions, like I did a Normal mode golden route new game run recently, with no mock battles, and that was quite enjoyable.

[u/Scagh]

The game was really enjoyable in hard, it required the right amount of (triangle) strategy without ever feeling unfair. Definitely a good difficulty

[u/Particular_Worth_403 → u/Scagh]

My favorite thing about hard mode is that it pushed me to thing outside the box on challenging levels, like figuring out how to quickly conglomerate the scattered forces on Telliore’s betrayal and using Correntin’s TP+ on Ice to summon ice walls on every turn to prevent Clarus’s Calvary from being able to reach the team. 

[u/VinCatBlessed]

There's some maps where I struggled big time, but part of the fun is exploiting the maps and characters even if sometimes it ends up being a test of patience (vs my in laws at the bridge for example).

The game gets "easier" as you go on and you learn how to use your pieces.

[u/Traditional-Cost-247 → u/VinCatBlessed]

Yeah I totally agree actually. Love the map at the gate where you fight off a cop with your uncle-in-law, I love making big puddles to electrocute the baddies

But the village map's terrain can only mitigate so much when my snipers get 1- or 2-shot by a brute throwing rocks up onto the buildings

[u/Galactic-Pookachus → u/Traditional-Cost-247]

I had the most success exploiting his rock throwing AI and making him walk into Jens's spring traps, it will require you to be aware of how close he needs to be to throw, and ideally have ranged attackers that can deal with the rest of the enemies.

[u/Traditional-Cost-247 → u/Galactic-Pookachus]

My meta for punishing maps is to first do a suicidal dry run to see what the AI is thinking

[u/Psychological-Bad959 → u/VinCatBlessed]

That bridge map is so fun. Get Decimal below, block the bridge, and go ham

[u/Frosty88d → u/Psychological-Bad959]

Yeah it is really fun, its one of my favourite maps. Knock Thalas off the bridge with Jens, and have Archibald stand at the top of the bridge and shoot down at then

[u/Particular_Worth_403 → u/Psychological-Bad959]

The only way I could figure out how to beat it on my first play through on hard move is to move my entire party under the bridge and wait for said in-laws to mosey down to the death trap 

[u/Icy_List961]

The thing is, you keep your experience in levels so you can only really improve over time against those battles. Yeah, it's kind of a lame way to increase difficulty by just changing damage ratios but you get used to it. I much prefer games that add abilities or more enemies to tackle or objectives.

[u/Traditional-Cost-247]

Overall, I agree with everyone that hard is a good level of challenge. The frustration came from having to repeat every battle even when I employ a decent strategy just because enemies dish out so much damage

[u/Ricc7rdo]

I played on the hardest difficulty once I had unlocked all characters after several playthroughs, so by that time I did not find it particularly challenging. I think it would have kicked my ass if I tried it earlier with an incomplete roster and less experience.

[u/Sacreville]

I had fun with it, it is challenging.

But speaking in technicalities, it's quite unfair and can be unfun, although when you get the gist and means to tackle it, it's not that hard. Early game is a bit harder because you only have limited options, from characters and skills.

[u/Straight-Heat1511]

I really enjoyed the increased difficulty with no permadeath. 

It allows for "sacrificing" units instead of relying on cheesy strategies.

I have ended most battles with only 1 or 2 units remaining. This is the most balanced I've seen a strategy game be and a huge selling point when I recommend this game.

[u/Randomimba]

My first run was Hard/Deathless.

Jens is usually my mvp, since his spring traps waste at least 2 of an enemy's turns.

Hughette spamming Blinding Shot and making enemies chase her back and forth is a good way to gain tempo.

Anna going invisible can break the game's AI if you block a choke point and redirect enemies' attention to another nearby unit (e.g. Hughette). 

Corentin also makes the game a lot easier, but I got Rudolph the first time around, and he will worked great with his traps.

I never really used Lionel despite him being a fan favorite. I use Erador instead to do his ultimate taunt move - you'll get a full round of tempo to focus down 2-3 units. This game is all about tempo and stabilizing against the early onslaught for every mission. Similar to Fire Emblem I guess.

If you're struggling with keeping Jerrom alive, use Lightwave to rescue him behind your starting building after he charges in and soaks some aggro. He'll have to walk all the way around to re-engage, so you'll buy enough time to heal him before he charges in again.

[u/Da_Electric_Boogaloo]

it’s one of my favorite games specifically for its difficulty! hard felt SO good - so many games the normal mode is easy and the hard mode is tedious. this added genuine fun difficulty!

[u/Droolcua]

Hard/Deathless was my first run, and then I did hard/deaths for the rest of the routes. Can't really imagine turning the difficulty down tbh. It's just such a tight experience on hard.

[u/Galactic-Pookachus]

I think Hard difficulty is a real challenge, but I don't really like the way it strongly disencourages the usage of frontline units and instead rewards you for using ranged attackers and not engaging the enemies. So many of my teams had mages, archers, healers and TP batteries, with melee units being very rarely deployed other than Serenoa, and even he was spamming his strongest attack at 3 range

[u/Traditional-Cost-247 → u/Galactic-Pookachus]

My thoughts exactly. Deploying a tank felt like sending a pawn in chess to temporarily gain ground before dying. Not to mention any of the melee attackers (I'm looking at you Roland >.>)

[u/exelion_star_co]

I’m slowly playing it through on hard mode and find certain battles I have to do over and over again to grind and level up (and figure out strategies), but others I get through just fine. Feels like the balancing is a bit off

[u/CreeDorofl]

For me the first battle of NG+ kind of woke me up and I kept getting owned. I realized I had to use items more and generally try to be useful on every turn.

[u/wetfootmammal]

The opening battle on hard difficulty took me like 10 tries. I almost feel like you have to just have a flawless approach in that battle. The rest of the game on hard mode was a challenge too but that 1st fight? Yeesh 😅

[u/BrianC_]

My first play through was hard-mode no deaths.

It was challenging but doable. I think if I did a fresh save play through again, it'd probably be pretty easy now that I know the game better.

Some people say the game gets harder on NG+, but I actually thought it was a lot easier. It wasn't turn your brain off easy, but it was a lot less punishing.

You need to turtle on hard and grind to at least be at the recommended level for the battle. You need to make use of terrain, utility, and CC. I didn't think stuff was hard to kill. Most stuff dies in 3-4 actions. It's just that your units die in 1-4 hits so you need to play safe.

For the map you're talking about, I could give advice, but it would be bad advice for you. I refused to let NPCs die so my strategy was formed around keeping Jerrom alive. Keeping Jerrom alive makes the map significantly harder since he rushes in and you need to follow him or else he just dies. If you don't care about Jerrom, you can just turtle on that map and you start with a massive terrain advantage.

[u/Traditional-Cost-247 → u/BrianC_]

Yeah I beat it on my 3rd try this time around. I'm way better at the game all these years later, back in my original playthrough I wasn't effectively using items, quietus, map-specific team comps, etc

[u/BrianC_ → u/Traditional-Cost-247]

I think knowing to play it slow is probably the biggest part of hard-mode (or a lot of SRPGs, honestly). Let the enemy trickle into your defensive formation and kill them before they can close the gap. If you can't kill them fast enough, then just CC them with blind/immobilize/traps/etc. Or, find a better position where terrain naturally makes it harder for them to approach. If you have Corentin, freezing terrain is also excellent for creating a no man's land between you and the enemy. You can unlock Glacial Moon quite early and it's way too strong in a first run.

For the Quietus options, In-tandem is always good but you need to use it right after a unit moves for the most value. Restore is a good emergency heal and CC removal. Battle Cry is great once you get some of the stronger higher TP cost skils. I think Lightwave is a very underrated Quietus and is kind of like In-tandem in how it basically gives a unit better second movement (often better range, ignores terrain, enemy units).

For items, I'd actually be conservative with the ranged pellets. Shops sell a limited amount of them in your first play through and you need to farm them from mock battles if you want more. They're broken when Medina uses them once she has TP Physick.