Part 10: Character Profiles: Alena's Party

Character Profiles: Alena's Party

Two chapters in, and we've seen 50% of the playable characters in the game. This chapter introduces a lot of characters, so we'll take a look at them.

Princess Alena



Princess Alena dresses like someone who lives in a cold climate and has both an awesome hat and a smug grin in place at all times. Her name is pretty consistent across the versions, although the kingdom changes from Santeem to Zamoksva in the DS version and gains a Russian veneer.

Why is Alena Good?

Remember how hard Ragnar hit things? Alena, if anything, hits harder. She's got great agility to improve her defense, and passable luck, so she also gets a lot of critical hits. She gets a good amount of HP as well, and she's pretty cheap to equip. A lot of people prefer her over Ragnar for her damage output.

Why wouldn't you ever NOT want to use Alena?

First off, Alena is in the same boat as Ragnar in that all she does is hit things and hit them hard. She's good enough at it, though, that you wouldn't want her to do anything else. The only other thing that hurts her is that she's got a very small equipment list. That Iron Claw we bought? That was Alena's second best weapon, and her best weapon only has an attack of 60. She can't use shields, and her best armor and other equipment isn't that great either. Some of that is made up for with her stats, but not all of it.

Best Possible Equipment:

Fire Claw, Dress of Radiance, and Golden Barrette. You might want to hand her a meteorite armband and increase her already considerable agility.

Brey/Borya



Brey's your token old wizard character, with emphasis on being a dirty old man mostly added by me. My wife (who insisted I add this note) says that's what I'm gong to end up as in 30 or so years. He specializes in ice magic, which makes a good deal of sense if you go with the whole Santeem/Zamoksva as Russia deal. In the DS remake his name gets changed to Borya which many people feel is an improvement. I kind of dig it too.

Why is Brey Good?

Brey may be a squishy wizard, but he's a fast squishy wizard with a lot of agility, luck, and TONS of MP. He's got enormous resources for long dungeons, and in addition to direct damage ice spells he's got a wide variety of debuffs and utility spells to his credit.

Why would you ever NOT want to use Brey?

Remember that description of Brey as a squishy wizard? Go ahead and underline that squishy part. Brey is lucky if he gains one or two HP per level, and he can get knocked out in a flash if you're not careful. He's tied for second slowest as far as gaining levels is concerned, and his equipment selection sucks. He's got a few staves he can use, and his best armor is even weaker than Alena's.

Best Equipment:

Magma Staff, Water Flying Cloth, Scale Shield, Hat of Happiness.

Cristo/Kiryl



Poor, lovesick Cristo. While it's subtler in the NES version, one universal trait he shares across all versions is a (possibly) unrequited crush on Princess Alena. He's actually a priest, but his class was given as chancellor because of Nintendo of America's draconian censorship laws. He's certainly rocking that church militant/ Russian soldier look regardless of what name he goes by.

What makes Cristo good?

A few people have mentioned that Cristo's defense is surprisingly good, and that's certainly the truth. He can use a lot of armors and weapons that other healing/support characters can't, and this gives him some great durability. He's got very balanced stats except for being highly intelligent, and thus has good MP growth. He's got a good selection of healing spells, some good support spells, and learns some instant death magic that actually WORKS most of the time. He's the only character other than the Hero to learn a full party heal, and the only character to learn the highest tier of resurrection, stopspell, and antidote spells.

Why would you ever NOT want to use Cristo?

This is almost as hard as figuring out why you wouldn't want to use Ragnar, honestly. You could say that there are a lot of people who fulfill his various roles better, but most of them only fulfill ONE of his roles better. His biggest weakness is a lack of direct attack magic, but he's got a good equipment selection to make up the difference.

Best Equipment

Magma Staff, Metal Babble Armor, Mirror Shield, Metal Babble Helmet/Iron Helm.