Part 3: Feinne's Notes: Character build outlines

Dragonatrix mentioned main character builds in the update, so let's talk about character builds in general for a moment (as our party members will also all fall into one of these categories). As noted in the update, a character can max out two stats and then has enough to float the others a bit. So, we'll characterize the builds by which stats they max out.

Strength/Vitality: The classic physical damage build. It's all about doing big damage with physical attacks (especially ones that get extra damage from our health total) and taking hits well. Unlike original Devil Survivor this is a pretty viable build for the Main Character, though it's got some issues that I'll discuss later as we are introduced to more party members. Without going into huge detail I agree with Dragonatrix that there are party members who do this just as well as you can and with how skills work in this game it's basically impossible to run more than two physical characters. Physical attacks are Really Good in this game, though, so you want someone who's using them.

Strength/Magic: A versatile build that can use both physical and magical attacks well. I wouldn't suggest this for the Main Character for a few reasons. It can leave you a bit fragile, and to me the marginal benefit of the added versatility is kind of limited. We'll also end up with a several characters who do their stats like this, so if you feel like you have something you can gain from it it's easy enough to carry one along.

Strength/Agility: This is a new build in Devil Survivor 2. It relies on a new type of physical attack, one that gets extra hits based on our Agility. This build has simply amazing capability to do physical damage. The big problem, though, is that we get several characters who can do this well and we definitely can't support more than one character of this type. Characters of this type are either a bit fragile or really skimp on magic, either of which has its own problems.

Magic/Vitality: To me, this is the King of Builds. It focuses on raw magic power while also giving you a lot of durability. Ideally you take the barest minimum of Strength for whatever skills you want and sink the rest into Agility. So, the strength of this build really is that you can support multiple characters like this quite easily. Indeed, you don't really get enough characters like this in my mind. I'd use an entire party of Magic/Vitality if that were even possible. The only real downside of a Magic build is that you do need to pick and choose elements for most of the party, and it does rely somewhat on skills that let you restore your MP.

Magic/Agility: This is another strong build in principle, that relies on having powerful magic attacks and always going first. Honestly I'm not a fan, because if I wanted to put 40 points into Agility I'd also want to just go Strength/Agility. It's certainly viable, though, and the same notes apply as to the Magic/Vitality build.

Agility/Vitality: No party members use this build, and you shouldn't either because it has shit offense.

Spread: This build, as it notes in the name, spreads stats out and doesn't try to max anything out particularly. It doesn't excel at anything, but it's equally not bad at anything. As Dragonatrix noted it's probably not a great idea to go with a build like this. There are a few party members who build themselves like this, one of whom I kind of like and another who is actually forced on you in one ending path.

Once we've actually seen some skills and characters I'll have more to talk about in this regard.

As far as notes on the 'Unkillable' run (where you don't lose any human characters in combat) you can't lose it on this tutorial fight, because you Game Over if anyone is defeated.