Part 87: Bonus Update – Shamans II

We’ve got the Bad End to Breath of Fire II out of the way. Now obviously the correct choice is to choose to enter the gate and confront the Dark God, but before that there is the small matter of the three new Shamans we’ve recently picked up.

The bonuses imparted by these Shamans are as follows:

Sollo = Defence + 25%
Saynie = Max HP + 25% (Actually does nothing due to a bug)
Synne = Max AP + 25%

These bonuses are all nice (‘cept Saynie’s) but the real prize for having these new Shamans is that they are needed for nearly every transformative fusion. So why not show them off?



First of all we fuse Bosch with Saynie and Synne.



*Glowy transformy stuff*



…Um?



Holy shit, Bosch turned into a medieval Samus dog cyborg knight!



And he literally attacks by blasting the shit out of things with a canon! But it gets better – his Unique Skill changes from ‘Shot’ to ‘Shotgun’, sacrificing the chance of an instant kill in exchange for damaging every enemy on the field for regular attack damage. It’s basically a supercharged version of Tapeta’s ‘Pierce’ skill without the speed drawback. In addition he also shoots much faster in the hunting minigame.

The hard bonuses for this transformation are Max AP +40%, Wisdom +40%, Strength +30%, Defence +25% and Vigour +30%.


Well that was pretty cool. What about Nina? What happens when she transforms?



Nina requires Spoona and Saynie.





Hmm…



Nina gains an additional two wings that are much larger and lighter coloured than usual. She also gets a pimped out ball gown and her Unique Skill ‘Spirit’ becomes ‘Banish’.





Banish forces the enemy to flee. No questions asked, no saving throws, no possibility of resisting – they just run, no matter how strong they are. Naturally it won’t work on Bosses, but if you’re hunting Ragnariders and one of them starts kicking your ass it’s a useful skill to have.

Nina also retains the power to fly the party up out of holes.

The hard bonuses for this transformation are Max AP +50%, Wisdom +22.5%, Strength +15%, Defence +12.5% and Vigour +30%.

So that’s pretty cool too. How about our loveable goofball Tapeta?



There are actually three different combinations that result in Tapeta transforming. Saynie alone will do it, as will Sesso and Saynie or Spoona and Saynie. Saynie is an integral part no matter what. There are a few differences in the bonuses depending on which you use, but they’re fairly minimal. I go for Spoona and Saynie since it gives a higher priority to Tapeta’s physical stats which are in sore need of a boost, particularly his Vigour.





Oh my.



Tapeta loses his fat and becomes a lean, mean croaking machine. His speed still isn’t great, but he makes up for it with increased attack power and a very big sword. He also gains a Mohawk, which I feel the need to mention because, really, it’s a frog with a Mohawk. Tapeta’s useless ‘Pierce’ skill gets replaced with the far better ‘Cleave’. It would probably be best if I used a visual aid to describe how great it is, so here’s a video.



That’s right – after charging up for a turn, Tapeta cuts the screen in half and instantly kills every enemy on the field. It’s success rate is very high, much higher than Shot and it affects the entire enemy team. Who would have thought Tapeta could turn into such a knight in shining armour? Either way he’s one of the better fusions for this reason alone.

One thing to keep in mind is that Tapeta loses his Giant Frog transformation while fused.

The hard bonuses for this transformation are Max AP +30%, Wisdom +50%, Strength +30%, Defence +20% and Vigour +70%.

So far, so good. Now it’s Lin’s turn.



Lin also has multiple combinations that lead to transformation, in this case four. Sanamo and Synne, Sesso and Synne, Spoona and Synne or just Synne by herself will result in a transformation. As before the differences in stats are minimal, so I’ll be going with Sanamo and Synne to raise Lin’s offensive powers a bit.





Huh.



Fused Lin’s changes might not be as dramatic as some of the others, but make no mistake – she still packs a mean wallop. Fused Lin abandons her staff in favour of just beating the shit out of enemies with her hands and feet, and boy is she good at it – Fused Lin will be the hardest physical hitter in the game once she’s caught up a few levels. Lin also gains some AP in this form, enough to use her spells maybe once. Eh, I’ll take it I guess.

Her Unique Skill in this form is ‘Charge’, which is basically the same as Argus’s special ability from way back when. Lin spends a turn charging before unleashing an attack that’s twice as powerful as usual. You might wonder what the point of that is – surely you could just attack twice and get the same result? Ah ha. But Lin’s Charged attack can hit critically, usually for 600+ damage. The possibility, combined with Lin’s naturally high critical rate means it’s usually worth using.

The hard bonuses for this transformation are Max AP +47.5%, Wisdom +30%, Strength +45%, Defence +15% and Vigour +50%.

Now it’s Rand’s time to shine.



Again, Rand has multiple transformative fusions. He can fuse with Sanamo and Sollo, Sesso and Sollo, or Saynie and Sollo. We’ll go with Sanamo and Sollo for the extra offensive power.





Bwuh?!



So, uh, Rand. Rand’s transformation is pretty underwhelming – not only does he lose the ability to roll around the world map, he also doesn’t get an upgrade to his Unique Skill. I mean, the improved stats are nice and all but I really expected better.

The hard bonuses for this transformation are Max AP +30%, Wisdom +30%, Strength +32.5%, Defence +30% and Vigour +55%.

But now we finally get to the real fusion prize – Aspara.



Aspara has more fusion combinations than the rest of the team. He has eight possible transformative fusions. On top of that, he has three distinct transformative forms within those fusions, which I’m going to go through now.



The first form is simple – just fuse Aspara with Sanamo and Synne.





The result is a humongous dragon-thing made of leaves.



At first it looks like Snapdragon Aspara hasn’t changed his skillset much, but his Nature ability is now far more effective. You will always get the best effect whenever you use it – in a forest the trees will always squash the enemy flat, in a field the flowers will always bloom, etc.

The hard bonuses for this transformation are Max AP +45%, Wisdom +12.5%, Strength +37.5%, Defence +10% and Vigour +42.5%.

The second form has four possible combinations. Sesso alone, Sesso and Spoona, Sesso and Saynie or Sesso and Synne will produce this form. In this instance I go with Sesso and Synne.



This is the dreaded Waifu fusion.



Joking aside, the Princess Toadstool transformation is a bit of a mixed bag. Her spellcasting ability receives a nice boost, but her special skill, ‘Spore’, is kinda useless. It has the potential to put every enemy to sleep, but there’s a high chance it’ll fail, in which case it’ll put all of your party members to sleep instead. It’s a bit too random for my tastes.

The hard bonuses for this transformation are Max AP +55%, Wisdom +12.5%, Strength +17.5%, Defence +10% and Vigour +32.5%.

The third form has three possible combinations. Sesso and Sollo, Saynie and Sollo or just Sollo alone will produce this form. In this case I decide to use just Sollo.



It’s…a bulb?



The Bulb is fairly generic in terms of stat bonuses, but that's not why you should use it. Its special skill, ‘Blossom’, causes it to enter a powered up version of Autobattle and attack continuously for high damage every turn after spending one turn charging up. It will do this for about four turns before giving you back control again.

The hard bonuses for this transformation are Max AP +20%, Wisdom +12.5%, Strength +17.5%, Defence +22.5% and Vigour +60%.

--

With all that said, have some videos of the fused party members in action!



Battle 1 - Showcases Lin's Charge attack and Nina's Banish ability. Fused Rand also appears but doesn't do much.




Battle 2 - Shows off Robo-Bosch's regular attack and Shotgun attack, though sadly the latter isn't shown against multiple targets since one of the Mammoths died too quickly. SSJ Sten casts Sirocco because why not, and Bulb Aspara beats the shit out of enemies with Blossom.




Battle 3 - Shows SSJ Sten's Switch ability along with some more Bosch action.




Battle 4 - Shows Dragon Aspara's improved Nature power, as well as more fused Tapeta goodness.

--

I may add more videos later. Tune in next time to see Ryu take the correct choice and take the fight to the Dark God.