Part 51: Character Comparison - Combat Type

Oh ho, Eternal Forest is next? I've honestly never seen any of it besides the path to get the Joker for Spider, so this will be interesting. Duckbill getting clowned on is exactly what I was expecting though - Every time I played this game myself, I beat him first for Absolute Zero then doubled back to throw down with Rafflesian. The boost it gave Zero was the only way I could think of to win and get the Ultimate Armor. Speaking of that, it's time to talk about everybody who brings Swords to Gun Fights.

Combat Damage Party Members

Now's the time to cover what all makes Massimo, Marino, Cinnamon, and Zero stand out.

Massimo
Pros:
-His Action Trigger may as well just be the Death Star given how much damage it can do.
-His Massimo Plus force metal gives him easiest access to a passive counter outside of hyper mode, even if only at a 25% chance.
-The lil hover scoot he does for his basic attacks.
-Very Beefy LE wise, so outside of % damage attacks he's hard to take down.
-Becomes a golden god of destruction with Glint Armor.
-Uniquely the only Combat Damage character who can hit the entire enemy field with his basic attack, assuming you can get the weapon that enables this to drop.
Cons:
-Near deathly allergic to elemental damage.
-The Strategy Guide lied about his Hyper Mode fixing the above.
-Two force metal slots means you have to pick very carefully what you slot into him. (Protip from Bisby: WE Gain +10s)
-Rather lacking in damage output outside of his Action Trigger.
-Massimo needs force metal or Cinnamon assistance to use his Action Trigger on his first turn in combat.
-His weapons only give him Fire and Thunder for elemental damage, and of those only the Thunder ones can be purchased from shops.

Marino
Pros:
-Fastest party member, even before you get into the actual absurdity that is Quicksilver.
-Quicksilver lets you do just stupid things before the enemy even gets to THINK about having a turn because of the 200% boost to her already high speed.
-100% chance to steal items with her Action Trigger.
-Most of her weapons hit at least two times, helping bring up her total damage output.
-The only character who can swap between Combat and Shot damage without using Hyper Mode. She can't do it mid battle like X can, but the fact that she can is pretty nice.
-Related story, she's also the only source of Shot damage basic attacks that hit the entire enemy party outside of Spider thanks to her weapons.
Cons:
-As to be expected from the speedy character, she takes a lot of damage.
-Timing her Action Trigger can be a pain even at 100% WE.
-All of her shot damage weapons are elemental, while all of her combat damage weapons are non-elemental. It's not the worst thing in the world, but it can be annoying.

Cinnamon
Pros:
-Utility for days. Even in her normal mode, Energy Field and her Action Trigger are factually absurd in how useful they are.
-Iron Maiden makes her support even better by further boosting WE gain for the entire party, which stacks with any WE gain boosts other characters get from their Hyper Modes.
-Half damage from all elemental attacks helps pad out her low LE.
-Her Secret Shop weapon lets her function as a combat monster, since she can both deal damage and reduce enemy stats.
-Even without her Secret Shop weapon, she can inflict debuffs or status ailments with her other weapons or just go hard on two-hit damage options if you just want her to slap evil to death.
-She's goddamn adorable.
Cons:
-Lowest LE in the party, meaning if enemies start focusing on her she's in a bit of trouble.
-Almost too good, but I think that's a flaw most people don't mind.
-Her unique Force Metal can only be obtained by the Force Metal Generator, and it's not even that impressive.
-The only character in the game who cannot deal elemental damage with her weapons or Action Trigger.

Zero
Pros:
-Heat Haze lets him vomit out damage like nobody's business, especially in conjunction with his Command Arts Action Trigger.
-All but a small number of his weapons hit twice, and his attack power is quite high.
-He also is the only Combat party member to get all types of elemental damage on his weapons while still dealing Combat damage.
-His 'HAT Trick' combo I mentioned in his write-up is exceptionally good and means he's never at a detriment against flying bosses despite being melee, though it only works for his normal state and Black Zero Hyper Mode.
-Much like X, Zero has a second Hyper Mode and as expected it delivers in the damage department. Both also give him resistances to a specific elemental damage, which is handy.
Cons:
-His starting WE is terrible at 15%, so like Massimo he needs Gain WE force metal or Cinnamon to help him if you want to use his Action Trigger quickly.
-While his Heat Haze sub weapons are powerful, each one eats 25% of his WE bar. Stacking both is very strong, but also makes getting big damage out of his Action Trigger harder.
-If you're bad at imputing directional combos like you're in a fighting game, getting a lot out of his action trigger is a pain in the ass.
-Has three Force Metal slots, but pretty bad immunity.
-Most of Absolute Zero is Water damage based, so it runs into X Fire's problem of not being the best against elemental enemies, except you can't get around it with the Action Trigger like X can.
-Unlike Command Arts, Calamitous Arts gives the player prompts to input for attacks with no way to chose. It can still hit excessively hard, you're just more reliant on the RNG to get the biggest bang for your buck.
-Like Cinnamon, you need to use the Force Metal Generator to create his unique Force Metal. It's decent, but not good enough to really warrant a Force Metal slot over something like WE Gain +10.

Personally, I think the Combat Damage characters stack up fairly evenly - mostly because they're a 50/50 split on either 'destroys existence with overwhelming force' or 'enables the destruction of existence to arrive faster'. Zero and Massimo will bring the hurt, Cinnamon will make sure the hurt happens, and Marino will rob the enemy blind before either the Ultimate Robotic Force Of Destruction or Zero rip them apart. It's hard to pass up Massimo's Berserk Charge for single target damage, and Zero's HAT Trick lets him fire off a very potent attack that can't miss. Absolute Zero is a bit more mixed in results on the Action Trigger, but still very much worth using after you get it - it just isn't quite a one size fits all solution to enemies like the Ultimate Armor is. Sure they can't do much to help the team broadly speaking, but that's what Cinnamon and Marino do - and their biggest benefits have been talked about at length several times over. While there's no question that Cinnamon is the best in the game in terms of utility, for damage among the Combat Characters? Eh, call it a tie. Zero's a beyblade with a lightsaber taped to it and Massimo's packing an laser that can atomize a space colony; Both will get the job done, it's just a matter of preference and also what you're up against.