Part 8

Music: What's the Strategy?

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Just like the prologue with the SDM, this next scene plays on both routes.


Music: Dark Clouds

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Youmu Konpaku
Changes: Sword Arm now guarantees Parry will activate.
New Personal Skill: Spiritual Distance (+30% to Hit/Evade if enemy is one tile away)
New Spirits: Alert

Youmu is in a similar position to the rest of the non Reimu/Marisa protagonists: still good, but starting to fall behind the power curve now that 3.0+ units are showing up. Unfortunately, she's also in the awkward situation of really wanting a teammate to address her flaws (has to be up close, no way to buff damage), but essentially being the odd woman out since all the people who could help are better off with other people. Still, Infinite Kalpas is tied for second highest base damage in the game, Alert makes Youmu much more surviveable, and Spiritual Distance is basically a free Focus. And there isn't that much competition for spots right next to the boss in IN, so there's no reason not to use her. Just don't bother with Ghost Team.


Chen
Personality: Strong-willed (Hit: +1, Kill: +4, Get Hit: +1, Ally Killed: +1, Graze: +1)
Character Skills: Double Image [Chen] (activates at 120 Power, 33% chance), Shikigami [Chen] (if Ran is within 6 tiles, Hit rates +20% and 10% MP regen at the beginning of every turn)
Personal Skills: Sprint (Unfocused Move +2 when on the ground), Going Wild (at 120 Power, deal 10% more damage), Enhanced Shikigami [Chen] (increases the skill's accuracy boost and MP regen amount), Enhanced Bakeneko (in exchange for losing Shikigami [Chen], Double Image [Chen]'s activation rate jumps to 50% and Chen's finisher does more damage).
Spirits: Accel, Gain, Focus, Alert, Spirit, Assault (47)

Chen is surprisingly good! Once you fix her B in Air at least. Her Double Image and naturally high evasion make her hard to kill, she's got a crazy base movement range she can increase further with Accel, and once you get Ignore Size on her she even does respectable damage. Her one flaw is that Ran is even better, so if you've teamed the two up there's not much reason to have Chen in front.
I did a Team 9 run of the game once and threw Chen in as the sixth ranger. She was far and away the best unit on the team. Which admittedly isn't saying much, but still.


Yuyuko Saigyoji
Personality: Big-shot (Hit: +2, Miss: +2, Kill: +4, Get Hit: +1, Dodge: +1)
Personal Skills: Ghostly Butterfly Dance (increases Yuyuko's final Evade rate by an amount proportional to the difference between her skill and the enemy's)
Personal Skills: Ghostly Butterfly Dance+ (increases Shield Defense's activation rate), Deadly Butterfly (unit's next attack will kill the target, limited uses. Doesn't work on bosses, obviously), Sense of Elegance (doubles the effect of consumable hold items when Yuyuko uses them), Return to Yomi (when an allied unit is shot down, 50% of their remaining SP goes to Yuyuko), Ghost Spot (Yuyuko regains 10 SP whenever she shoots down an enemy)
Spirits: Guard, Mercy, Sense, Rally

Yuyuko is absolutely amazing. She has bucket loads of SP, hits hard, can tank for ages, and can dodge pretty well too since Ghostly Butterfly Dance affects the final Evasion rate. So if Yuyuko evades (which cuts the opponent's accuracy by half), the amount the skill adds can bring her dodge rates all the way up to the 80s, if not the 90s. Yuyuko is A Good Unit.
Return to Yomi used to be bugged and gave Yuyuko SP from defeated enemies too. This made her one of the best units in the game, since she could spam Rally to get everyone's Power up to 150 pronto.


Ran Yakumo
Personality: Calm (Hit: +2, Kill: +3, Evade: +2, Graze: +1)
Character Skills: Double Image [Ran] (activates at 130 Power, 35% chance), Shikigami [Ran] (if Yukari is within 8 tiles, Hit rates +20% and 10% MP regen at the beginning of every turn)
Personal Skills: Nine-tailed Fox (Increase the effects of Predict, Belief, Guard, and Diligence by x1.5), Enhanced Shikigami [Ran], Swastika (Ultimate Buddhist can be used after moving)
Spirits: Mercy, Accel, Focus, Guard, Fury, Triumph (42)

Ran rules. She has a (possibly post-movement) MAP, a ridiculous default PS, a host of strong attacks that cover a nice variety of ranges, and high Mobility and Armor so she can both dodge and tank. Basically her only flaw is that her best post-movement attack is her combination with Chen, but if you're deploying Ran I don't see why you wouldn't use Chen too.
If you were curious, Ran's team names with Chen are Youkai Domination and A Youkai's Shiki and a Shiki's Shiki.


Yukari Yakumo
Personality: Strong-willed (Hit: +1, Kill: +4, Get Hit: +1, Ally Killed: +1, Graze: +1)
Character Skills: Distortion Barrier (reduce all damage by 900, costs 5 MP), Wisdom (at 130 Power, Hit/Evade rates +30%, and Critical rate +10%)
Personal Skills: Spiriting Away (teleports a unit of your choice next to Yukari, limited uses), Yukari's Portable Gap (Yukari can use a consumable item another character is using, limited uses), Border of Dreams and Reality (-25% to SP costs of all spirits selected through Dream), Rescue Gap (a unit of your choice is loaded onto the Palanquin Ship, limited uses), Border of Focused and Unfocused (all allied units switch if they're focused or not, limited uses), Border of Front and Back (all allied teams switch who's in front, limited uses)
Spirits: Dream, Sense, Fury, Mercy, Cloak (40)

Yukari is a lazy jerk, so naturally she's the most backrow of backrow units. At a whopping one post-movement attack, she's almost useless in the front unless she spams Assail. But in the back, she can embrace her true role as Reimu's backpack the ultimate SP mule. She grants Accel, Triumph, Gain, Luck, and technically Spirit to whoever's in front, as well as more gimmicks than you can shake a stick at.
I feel like half of Yukari's PS list is just the developers screwing around.


Suika Ibuki
Personality: Resolute (Hit: +1, Kill: +4, Get Hit: +1, Ally Killed: +1, Graze: +1)
Character skills: Ibuki Gourd (can refill her MP once per chapter), Oni (ignores all harmful size penalities. At 130 Power, deal 10% more damage)
Personal skills: Missing Power (increases Suika's Size to LL for a turn, limited uses), Sake Bug (the Ibuki Gourd command can be used one more time), Hidden Power (increases the accuracy and critical rates of all attacks by 20%), Reckless Power (increases the base damage of all attacks by 50 and their ranges by 1)
Spirits: Fury, Guard, Strike, Spirit, Valor (47), Wrath (60)

As a 3.5 cost unit, you'd think Suika would be an amazing Super. You'd be wrong. She has a B in Air so her single item slot is basically forced to be either a Flight Charm or a Shimenawa, she doesn't have a shield so her tanking abilities are actually pretty limited, being basically Godsigma isn't all that helpful now that it's not FMW1 anymore, and even with Oni she just doesn't do that much damage without Missing Power on. Really, as far as I can tell she's supposed to be a backrow unit.
Believe it or not, this is Suika after being buffed. She was even worse in the original version!


Mystia Lorelei

Mystia's gimmick doesn't become apparent until partway through the next chapter, so I'll also leave her discussion for later.

Battle theme: Grilled Lamprey Under the Moonlight (Song of the Night Sparrow, Deaf to All but the Song, Seventh Moon)

Anyway, you might have noticed that all three of Reimu's SA partners are designed to be backrow characters. They're good on anyone (which is something Team Reimu has over Team Marisa, because haha Patchouli and Nitori), but I think they were balanced with the assumption that Reimu was in the front. So I may as well look at them.


Full Coverage of the Shrine Maiden / Exorcism of the Newspaper Subscription Solicitor

Reimu C is just Reimu with Accel. And that's actually really good! Reimu's still at her best when she's in the thick of things, so being able to spam Accel all chapter really helps with that. Aya is also the only 2.5 of the trio, so using her frees up space to put an Oshirasama on someone else.


Equal Human and Oni / Lazing Around the Shrine

Contrary to the source material, Reimu B is the strongest of the three teams. Suika may not be the best in the front, but she's one of the strongest backrow attackers in the game. And as a Super, she obviously provides a Support Defend safety net for Reimu to abuse. She's even good at it since not having a shield doesn't matter for that! Pretty much Reimu B's only issue is Suika's low accuracy, but since she's not in the front she can focus her PP on pumping that.


Illusionary Barrier Team but let's be real here, everyone's still going to call them Border Team

Aya gave Reimu Accel. Suika gave Reimu Support Defense. Yukari gives both of those (albeit at slightly reduced effectiveness) and more. Border Team is Reimu at her strongest, with Accel and Triumph through Dream, a Support Defend safety net, a solid team attack, a 10% friendship because why not, and a huge utility role with Spiriting Away. The synergy between Reimu always being on the frontlines and Yukari's ability to teleport anyone to her side is obvious, but things just get silly once Reimu gets Zeal. Since Yukari gets it too with Dream, by endgame Border Team can zip across entire maps in a single turn.
I mentioned earlier that Reimu would be getting a bunch of upgrades across the game; this is the first. Or second if you put the Yin-Yang Orb on her, but hey maybe you didn't carry over FMW2 data.


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

...As the Palanquin Ship tears through the night sky, its passengers continue their investigation. But before them appears some very strange youkai.

Why are they rampaging so close to the village? What could be going on here?

Chapter 38 of Fantasy Maiden Wars I: "UNDEFINED".

Please play it to the end!

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Total Cost: 36.0
3.5
Kanako (33)
Suwako (33)
Mima (33)
Yuuka (33)

2.5
Marisa (34)
Alice (32)
Sakuya (32)
Meiling (29)
FA Nitori (26)
Komachi (28)
Patchouli (30)

2.0
Nitori (26)
Hina (25)
Koakuma (24)
Elly (30)
Kurumi (29)
Wriggle (33)

1.5
Sunny (30)
Luna (28)
Star (31)

I'm forcing Magic Team. You have 31.0.