Part 3: Revisit (L)

But that's not all! Midway through the last LP I started playing on the hardest possible difficulty to distinguish the two routes. Well this time I'm doing that from the start, and I'm not going to cheat! Well, if you don't count ridiculous New Game + bonuses as cheating.



Unlike the first game, FMW2 lets you replay it. It follows the standard SRW NG+ policy of carrying over a percentage of your total funds and PP, and the more times you beat the game the higher this percentage climbs. Eventually you just get all of it. This file has seen ten game clears, so needless to say I'm rolling in dough.



More importantly it also lets me change my protagonist and difficulty level. I think FMW2's Lunatic was balanced on the idea that you'd be coming in on NG+, so being able to fully upgrade everyone doesn't affect the difficulty curve that much.



And it's especially useless in Chapter 16 (which is actually one of the harder Lunatic chapters) since I start with default units! NG+ doesn't let me carry over my FMW1 saves, which makes things harder on Marisa since she doesn't get Alice's full friendship bonus. That's another reason why I wanted Reimu to handle Lunatic.

Music: Danmaku Tactics



Enemies on Lunatic are far more aggressive, have more health, and boast harsher danmaku fields.



Marisa starts with a couple levels of Instinct Dodge (Hit/Evade rates increase as health goes down), so it's safe to let her get hit once. That fairy's Skill isn't nearly high enough for that critical to be non-bullshit though.



Reimu has an even higher level of Instinct Dodge, but Kedamas are deadly enough that it's best to just let her evade everything. And if she gets hit, well that just helps me.



On my turn everyone Focuses and casts spirits to even the odds. Reimu then stands directly next to Keine,



so she can use the latter's Support Attack. As long as the supporter in question is standing next to the attacker, they can chip into battles. Sure there's a slight damage penalty, but being able to attack multiple times per turn more than makes up for it.



Another annoying part about this difficulty is that enemies will now choose to defend or evade at critical health. Thankfully, Marisa won the coin flip.



Alice gets hit by a 29% for half her health.



This makes her (and Keine, who is also not doing too hot) a big target.



And ultimately, Keine just doesn't have the upgrades necessary to survive. If she hit 130 Power and triggered Belief maybe, but like that's happening on turn 2.

You better watch out at the next full moon!



A lucky fairy nails Reimu on a 24%.



I should restart this run since Keine was my main source of healing, but I'll just see how it goes.



Marisa and Alice move over to the right to hopefully draw fire from Reimu.



It doesn't take, and almost gets Marisa killed.



Reimu's evade rates are high enough that she takes like zero graze damage too.



Alice tried to take out a fairy, but somehow failed to crit. And dodge.

Sorry, I have to withdraw.



Well plan B, turtle on the shrine. Reimu and Marisa have a 5% friendship, which isn't much but I'll take anything at this point.



There are different battle backgrounds when you're on the ground. Sometimes even altered attack animations, though nothing big.



All of the enemies who attacked Reimu had really low hit rates, but I didn't want to risk it and Evaded two out of three.



The goal was to take those two out the next turn, but Marisa missed.



Reimu didn't.



The remaining fairy is crazy lucky and dodges both Reimu and Marisa.



No seriously, stop doing that.



I end up killing it solely because it took so long to hit that Reimu regenerated most of her health. That bumped Marisa to the AI-favored target, and since she had Alert on she could counter with impunity.



Reimu can only survive two hits anyway, so I move the duo out before she hits full so she can kind of benefit from Instinct Dodge. Cirno proceeded to zoom in.



And hits an evading Reimu. Man, halving the enemy's hit rate isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Oh well. I'll go back and have some tea.



Oh well, Marisa should be able to handle it from here.



It takes some finangling, but I manage to bait Cirno back to the shrine. If Marisa survives the next turn she can land and start abusing the terrain.



So of course she doesn't.

Ah well, guess I lost. Gonna head back for a nap!





And then the chapter restarts! If you fail a chapter in SRW, you get to try again with all of the Points and experience you got from the last run intact. You can't shoot for the bonus anymore though, and it's a blow right to the gamer pride.

So that was what happens if you try and play Chapter 16 Lunatic like it's Normal: you roll the dice until you win. Now let me show you how to do this chapter right.

Music: Specter Buster



The strategy: park everyone on the shrine, Focus, and stall to kingdom come.



Only Marisa and Alice should bother attacking on player phase since they have Alert.



Having said that, I tried to have Reimu and Keine take out a fairy anyway. The fairy hit back on a 14%.



At least I have Keine around for on the spot heals. Trust restores 2000 HP to any character on the field.



Speaking of Keine, she barely made it though enemy phase.



Another turn later and Proto Malice becomes available for use. It's accurate enough that Evading enemies aren't quite as annoying.



Once the top is clear, I send Marisa out to lure Cirno in again. She's the only one without a spirit that boosts her hit rate, so she's almost useless against Cirno. I can blow the rest of her SP on Alerts to ensure her safety too.

Note that if I wanted to get the Bonus, instead of just drawing Cirno's fire I'd aim for the entire bottom half. I'm already pushing my luck just making it past the first half without casualities though, so I'm not risking it.



Cirno has HP Regenerate, so I don't want to take her down until all of my characters are ready. I expect her to attack Reimu though, so I have her cast Sense.



She attacks Alice.



Who manages to hit with her finisher, so I guess it's not a total wash.



I start the final phase by using Alice's initial PS, Hourai Doll. This summons exactly that to the field. It's useless on its own, but it gives Alice another 5% friendship, which is enough to make Proto Malice 100% accurate.



I was half expecting Random Dodge to go off.



Marisa bombs (they have a 100% hit rate),



and Reimu goes for the kill. Her finisher, Fantasy Seal, has the highest accuracy boost in the game. Combine that with the Focus spirit and being focused, as well as her own ridiculous accuracy, and Reimu actually has a 104% hit rate. Too bad Cirno is Evading.

Music: Sealing Charm, Blessed Light



Suck it, chapter 16.



I didn't get the WP bonus, but screw those for this run.



I am a gazillionare so I can max out everyone right away. This will make the coming chapters much smoother.



I also dump all of my WP into Reimu. You'll see why much later.



Thanks to NG+. everyone has more then enough PP to buy their dream skill lists now. Reimu in particular has enough to buy almost every single skill. Characters starting with a preset amount of PP is a huge blessing for this feature, since it means even if you didn't use that character they'll still stockpile PP.

For Lunatic, everyone wants to invest in Stat Up skills. I won't bore you with the details of what I got, just know that they're all ridiculous setups that you could never do on a normal playthrough.



As a final note, on a default save I start with an E-Shooter. It only boosts hit rates by 10%, which is still good.

------
The game has been paused. Please take a break.

...Autumn is in full swing at Youkai Mountain. This beautiful place is the home of the Eight Million Gods. At the foot of the mountain, the goddesses of autumn promptly greet all visitors.

Everyone, I hope you will enjoy the leaves changing color as much as I do.

Now then, please have fun playing Chapter 17 of Fantasy Maiden Wars P: "The Mountain Where Gods Reside"!

(Translation Rough Draft)