Part 2: Revisit (2)

Music: Bizarre Smile

Full Text

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Music: Preparing for the Coming Game



And now the intermission, character upgrade central.



I can spend points to directly buff my characters' attributes (from top to bottom, HP, MP, Mobility, Armor and Weapons),



use Pilot Points to purchase skills,



and dump WP to buff the hell out of a selected character. A single WP level boosts all of a character's attributes by one (breaking the cap of 5 upgrades if needed) and increases their maximum Power by 5. This is very different from how WP was used back in FMW1, so Sanbondo was nice enough to refund all your WP. Hell they even assume you got the bonus on all 15 chapters, so you start with 225 WP.

You can choose to spread out WP levels or put them all into one or two characters. I normally put them all into the protagonist, but for this run I won't be using any WP at all. Marisa is somewhat of a flawed character, and you won't get to see any of that if she's maxed right out the gate.



First things first, I boost Reimu's Mobility to four upgrades. Back in FMW1 she only needed two to rock the entire game. Here she actually wants all five by the end, but four will be enough for the first half.



Weapon upgrades no longer cost an arm and a leg, so Reimu, Keine, Marisa, and Alice all pick one up. Marisa also grabbed another MP upgrade, maxing her out at 200 base MP.



Skills were rebalanced between games, and Unfocused Movement/Focused Movement in particular has completely changed in effect. Since those were the skills everyone wanted back in the first installment, Sanbondo was kind enough to refund everyone's PP as well. Another nice gesture is that all characters now start with a preset amount of PP and a couple skills, so there's never going to be a repeat of FMW1 Rumia (who was almost completely useless because she started with zero skills and zero PP).

Random trivia: the first edition of FMW2 had a bugged transfer process, so Reimu would always start with like 1200 PP. I thought it was incredibly fitting.



Reimu picked up her FMW1 standbys, Shotgunning (damage x1.2 if you attack from point blank with a move that could otherwise be used from further away) and P-Evade (Power +1 if you dodge an attack). This left her with 280 PP, and I honestly wasn't sure what to get because Reimu's so good she doesn't need anything else. Eventually I decided on Predict (Accuracy/Evasion +20 at 130 Power), but that still left me with 140. I ended up replacing Streaming (reduce Graze damage) with two levels of Range Up (increase Range stat by Skill Level * 5).

Note that since she already had it, Streaming level 1 is now free (and glowing blue). Theoretically this would allow me to more easily customize my characters, but in practice you're not going to shuffle skillsets often.



Marisa starts with P-Hit this time, so I just had to nab her MP Save (attacks cost 80% MP) and Predict. I could have started piling on Accuracy Up, but I wanted to save up for Support Attack (it's complicated, you'll see it later).



I also switch her Personal Skill from Danmaku Power (increase MP cost of the next attack to boost damage) to Hard Worker (+20% experience gained). Back in FMW1 you had to dump WP into characters to get these, but now they're learned through level up.

Yes they should technically be called WP Skills, but you can't make me.



Keine also starts with one of her FMW1 dream skills, Belief (Skill/Defense +20 at 130 Power), so she grabs the other one, Support Defense (also complicated). If this were FMW1 I'd start stacking Berserk (Armor and Critical rate increase as HP decreases), but it's not so she gets MP Save to better use her natural Support Attack.



Alice's initial skills are P-Evade and MP Save, which are nice but not what she needs. Alice is the best Support Attacker in the game, so I get her two levels of it. You might think she'd want Combo Attack (all Support Attacks are critical hits) but her Skill is so high it's practically redundant.



I didn't use Cirno much back in FMW1, so she doesn't have enough PP to buy anything good. So I just set her PS to Freeze (the next enemy hit gets a -25% Evade debuff for the rest of the turn, can be used three times per chapter).



Finally, equipment! Characters can slap on the stuff they earn in battle for a variety of buffs. Reimu doesn't need anything so she just gets a Soul of Scarlet, which... does nothing. It signifies I carried over a FMW1 save, and lets me switch my characters' battle themes.

No point to dumping images most of you can't even understand, so here's a list of who got what:

Marisa grabs the Sunflower (10% MP recovered every turn) and the N-Shooter (+15% Hit rate).
Keine throws on the Tengu Clogs (+1 Move, +5 Mobility) and the Oni's Fang (+800 HP, +80 Armor). If this were Reimu's route I'd have a Tengu Fan (+1 Move), but alas.
Alice gets the Grimoire (+70 MP) and the Frozen Frog (+5 Initial Power) I just got.
Cirno just sifts through what I have left and pulls out random junk. Ginju Sake (Consumable that restores 2000 HP), a Rat Tail (+5 Mobility), and a Beer (consumable that restores 100 MP). Note that in FMW2, consumables are restored after the chapter you use them, so no need to stockpile.

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Early FMW2 dumps old characters on you for the first few chapters, so I'll keep the analysis brief. These all assume you're familiar with SRW by the way.
_{Credit for all pictures goes to itomugi-kun}


Reimu Hakurei
Personality: Resolute (Hit: +1, Miss: -1, Kill: +4, Get Hit: +2, Ally Killed: +2, Graze: +1)
Character Skill: Shrine Maiden (Hit/Evade rates + 5%*[Skill Level - 1])
Personal Skills: Youkai Buster (Increased damage to Youkai), Duplex Barrier (-500 damage barrier, costs 10 MP), Intuition (Critical Rate +20%, Hit Rate -10%)
Spirits: Sense, Focus, Luck, Fury (learned at level 22)

Reimu is still the outright best character in the game, but the lead isn't quite as dominating as it used to be. MP and Points are abundant now, so being a primarily ammo-based character who only needs minimal upgrades isn't as much of a showstopper. But Shrine Maiden is still completely absurd, to the point that only one enemy in the game has an actual chance of hitting Reimu, and Youkai Buster may as well have been called Boss Killer. Cheaper Weapon upgrades essentially erase her damage "problems" too, so now she doesn't even have to exploit multipliers to kill things quickly. I have literally soloed the game with Reimu before, so I'd say she's pretty great!
Incidentally, Reimu's status as a one-woman army kind of makes the plot of the first half hilarious, but we'll get to that.

All Attacks
Battle theme: Specter Buster (Mystic Oriental Love Consultation)
Fantasy Seal theme: Sealing Charm, Blessed Light (Witching Dream)


Marisa Kirisame
Personality: Strong-willed (Hit: +1, Kill: +4, Get Hit: +1, Ally Killed: +1, Graze: +1)
Character Skills: Magician (Damage and range of magic attacks increases with skill level), Magic Barrier (Laser attacks underneath a certain damage threshold are nullified)
Personal Skills: Danmaku Power (Increase MP cost and damage of next attack, limited uses), Hard Worker (+20% Experience), Magic Thruster (Boost Hit/Evasion rates at the cost of some MP, limited uses), Speed Star (Move +1, Evasion rate +15% while Unfocused), Enhanced Barrier (upgrades Magic Barrier)
Spirits: Gain, Accel, Alert, Valor (23), Strike (28)

Now that she's made it through the first game, Marisa's a lot easier to use. Starting with Proto Malice Cannon and immediate access to MP Save nullifies her prior MP woes, Magic Thruster and her friendship with Alice can somewhat account for her lack of the Focus spirit, and if you're really dedicated you can eventually get Strike to deal with her accuracy issues entirely. By the second half of the game, Marisa is undeniably the second best character. It's just too bad that for the first half she's damn near useless against anyone with a decent Evasion stat. She'll probably be the first to learn Valor at least, so if she does hit (or when, if you save scum) she'll hit hard.
As an amusing note, going by game mechanics Marisa and Alice have a better friendship than any other pair in the game.

All Attacks
Battle theme: Be a Shooting Star (Casket of Stars, Time to Come)
Master Spark theme: The Moment Dreams Reach the Stars (Dimensional Dream)


Keine Kamishirasawa
Personality: Strong-willed (Hit: +1, Kill: +4, Get Hit: +1, Ally Killed: +1, Graze: +1)
Character Skill: Parry ([Skill Level/16] chance of negating attacks with a Solid property.)
Personal Skills: Teacher (Surrounding units gain more experience), Charge (+1 Focused Move), Meddler (Activates Keine's friendship with Mokou)
Spirits: Trust, Strike, Guard, Rouse (27), Valor (39?)

Keine is no longer the sole character with decent defensive stats, so she's not essential anymore. She's still a really great support character, and natural Support Attack along with a strong finisher is always handy. Access to Trust and Rouse is also pretty great. I don't remember the exact level she learns Valor, but I remember it being really, really late.
FMW3 should see some major upgrades for Keine, so that'll be nice to look forward too.

All Attacks
Battle theme: Brain of Steel (Plain Asia, Trombe, Ice Man)
Headbutt theme: Theme of a Punishing Love (Nostalgic Blood of the East)


Alice Margatroid
Personality: Calm (Hit: +2, Kill: +3, Evade: +2, Graze: +1)
Characters Skills: Magician, Magic Barrier
Personal Skills: Hourai Doll (for 25 MP, summons a Hourai Doll that knows Support Defense on an adjacent panel, limited uses), Shanghai Doll (for 40 MP, summons a Shanghai Doll that knows Support Attack on an adjacent panel, limited uses), Danmaku Brains (Critical hits do 10% more damage), Enhanced Barrier
Spirits: Focus, Mercy, Alert

Alice got practically zilch from FMW2. The buffed Shanghai and Hourai Dolls are kind of fun to play with, but Danmaku Brains is the overwhelmingly better option, and she didn't get any new spirits or new moves. The greater amount of PP in this game kind of dims her role as star Support Attacker, with Combo Attack in particular making her high Skill stat not as much of a big deal. She's still a mandatory character if you intend on using Marisa though, and it's not like she's bad.
The next game already seems jam-packed with content, but hopefully Mystic Square's plot finds its way in. Poor Alice is going to need her upgrade to keep up with whatever boost Marisa gets during Imperishable Night.

All Attacks
Battle theme: Dancing Doll (Doll Judgement, "Shooting Star, Cut Through the Night Ver H", Ace Attacker)
Doll battle theme: Beloved Handmade Dolls (Dollmaker of Bucuresti)
Bonus theme: Dancing Marionette (Doll Judgement, Marionette Messiah)