Part 23

Chapter 41 Lunatic is easy enough that it only really deserves an end-of-chapter note, but I wanted to talk about Full Upgrade Bonuses.



In most SRW games, fully upgrading a character lets you select from a list of bonus skills. There's usually a couple generic ones (attribute boosts, terrain rankings to S, etc) and a character specific one, and nine times out of ten you want the character specific one. But FMW pretty much moved all the unique FUBs to Personal Skills, so there's only generic options here. From top-to-bottom and left-to-right, there's HP +2000, Accuracy +20%, MP +100, Critical Rate +20%, Mobility +20, Weapon Range +1, Armor +300, Weapon Power +200, Unfocused/Focused Move +1, Sky Terrain Ranking to S, Half MP Costs for Barriers, and lastly Land/Water Terrain Rankings to S.

SRW veterans are probably wondering why you would ever pick anything besides Weapon Power +200 or maybe Unfocused/Focused Move +1. Well to be honest, there is no reason. Those are by far the best two options, because there's never a moment in the game where being able to hit harder or move faster is a bad thing. But always picking those would be boring, so for my Lunatic run I'm only going to do something silly: I'm never going to pick either of those two options whenever I FUB someone.

Reimu's Hit/Evade is insane enough she doesn't need the accuracy or mobility boost, so I had to pick from the critical rate buff (damage) and Sky Terrain S (general buffs). I eventually went with the latter since if Reimu really needs a crit, Yukari can just cast Triumph.



I have enough money I could feasibly FUB my entire main IN team, but it's kind of a waste of money when it comes to back row units. I mean I guess Suika could use that Sky Terrain S or the accuracy buff, but she's Suika.

Marisa has Strike and Alice, so the accuracy boost is kind of pointless. I ended up going with MP +100 just to be totally safe.

Alice got Weapon Range +1 because I love being able to snipe everything with Artful Sacrifice. Frees up the Butterfly Fan for someone else too.

Sakuya was in the awkward situation of being stuck between the accuracy and critical rate boosts, but I eventually went with criticals since she does have Focus.

Meiling took HP +2000 just so I could get her to over 10k HP. Also that makes it easier for Prevail to activate, but eh.

Youmu got the accuracy buff because I want to be damn sure she will slash whatever she needs to slash.

Finally, Sanae got the mobility buff just because I usually have the Shimenawa on her anyways.



41 is pretty much the same on Lunatic. I have to go a lot slower because of all the danmaku (especially on the north because fuck bats), but that's okay since I need to prepare for Mokou anyways.



Being fully upgraded is a pretty huge gameplay changer, as now I can outright muscle through some of Lunatic's bullshit.



Keine got a buff to her Armor, but I got a massive buff to my damage so who cares.



Since I know Next History isn't too much of a threat, I don't bother waiting for next turn to kill her. She has Guard after all.



Next History's effect changes on Lunatic. In what I assume is a typo, it supposedly "lowers" my characters' levels to 99.



But what it actually does is lower their levels to 1. Just for comparison, here's Reimu's current stats,



and here's what they were way back when I first got her.



The more annoying part is that I only get one Bomb on Lunatic, so I can't skip the effect.



Not that this means much when everyone's got enough casts of Grit or Alert to tank everything EX Keine does.



EX Keine herself is much more impressive on Lunatic, especially since she has Guts. You know, the full heal spirit.

Let's get this over with, shall we?

You're not going to try to talk sense into me?

I know how much thought you put into your actions, Keine. But we too have a goal that we can't defer. We might as well spare ourselves the circular arguments.

You make it sound so cut and dry. That makes me feel a little better!



If you were curious, she had 68,000 HP.



hi mokou



bye mokou



Mokou picked up an extra two levels of Prevail and Instinct, but most of her buffs went to her damage output.



Not that that means much when she can't hit a thing.



Capturing Possessed by Phoenix pretty much requires me to move Keine over to where Mokou spawns so my entire team can immediately beat her down. I didn't do that, so I don't have the numbers to fight through her HP regen.

But Mokou doesn't drop anything so no real loss.



I reloaded like 35 times to get Alice to hit a 50%. I didn't even need to do it since I was timing out the spell anyways but god damn it that was a coin flip. It should not have been that hard.

------

I see you've stopped the game. Thank you for your hard work.

...After crossing an endless hallway, we reach the inner part of the House of Eternity. But there we find a strange space prepared by Eirin Yagokoro. Our opponents also intend for this to be a decisive battle!

The end of the eerily shining fake moon is in sight...! But can we really defeat Eirin, the Brain of the Moon?!

Chapter 42 of Fantasy Maiden Wars I: "The Eternal Cage that Hides the Princess".

Please keep playing till the very end.

------

Total Cost: 42.0

3.5
Mima (38)
Yuyuko (36)
Yukari (36)
Suika (39)
Yuuka (37)
Kanako (36)
Suwako (37)
Palanquin Ship (36) [Always forced.]

3.0
Reimu (39)
Marisa (39)
Ran (36)

2.5
Meiling (35)
Patchouli (34)
Alice (39)
Youmu (36)
Komachi (32)
FA Nitori (34)
Momiji (35)
Aya (28)
Sanae (38)
Hatate (35)
(Sakuya is forced.)

2.0
Kurumi (32)
Elly (35)
Rumia (26)
Cirno (27)
Koakuma (36)
Chen (36)
Lily White (35)
Lunasa (34)
Merlin (37)
Lyrica (36)
Wriggle (37)
Mystia (36)
Shizuha (27)
Minoriko (28)
Hina (34)
Nitori (32)
Nazrin (29)
Shou (27)

1.5
Daiyousei (28)
Sunny (34)
Luna (31)
Star (32)

Magic Team is forced, so you have 36.5