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Don't forget to check out Part 1 If you haven't already!



Wherein we meet two characters who will return many times throughout the game, and recruit more fun classes to play with. We might even tackle a random dungeon or two!



We're off to meet our client.



Alright, we're going to make mad bank on this job!



First mention of "the Great Purge" and Scarlet the Brave. Both will be coming up quite a bit throughout the game.



Have to make a living, even if it means making a killing.



Now we're off to Windmill Promotory, land of the evil Phantoms.



Though there aren't any in sight right away.



Too many adorable poses to count.



Some very familliar looking evil Phantoms. To Ash, anyway.



Guess Ash never told her that they're minions of the big guy that killed him, Haze, and Jasmine.



Fighting time.



These guys are called "Summons" and are one of the few monsters you can't make after defeating twenty or more of them. They're also generally not much of a threat, but they can do damage in large numbers.



In the center of the group is a Fusionist, beaming out Money +50% and Experience +50% Protections to the four Summons. So you know what that means - take out the Summons and leave her for last for some extra goodies.



Score! Now we can combine characters and items to transfer skills and Mana. Also, Rattar has named her "Dr. Ion", after the God Hand character.

Fusionists also have Mana Punch (which damages and gives Mana) and Mana Monger, which is the same as the Blacksmith's ability. Their stats are pretty poor all-around though.



As you can see, you select a character or item that you want to power up, and then select a character or item to combine them with. The second character/item will cease to exist, but you can transfer its accumulated Mana over. You can also transfer Skills, provided the skill is at least at Level 1, and there's enough Mana between the two items/characters to pay the required cost. Fusing also increases that character/item's maximum level; this starts at 100 for characters and 10 for items, but in true NIS game style both can eventually reach 9999.

Of course, you can't use Ash or Marona as fusion fodder, but you can fuse items and characters into them.

There's also a "Match" rating, determining how compatible the two character/items are, ranging from F to SSS. The better this is, the less Mana skills will cost to transfer. This is affected by things like levels and a character's compatibility with that type of attack. In the above example, since Ash is primarily a physical fighter and the Snakish has mostly physical skills, he gets a high "A" compatibility rating.



Fusing something to a weapon also gives you the option to increase the weapon's base stats or "Confine Efficiency", which grants better stats when you confine a character to that weapon.

We're going to hold off on actually combining things until we get some more Mana; that way we can keep some of those skills on there. You now have a good idea of how fusion works, though.

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A portal to the Netherworld. Looks like we've found the source of our evil Phantoms.



Looks like Ash still isn't going to mention the fate that befell him and Marona's parents, though.

Anyway, there's really not much to say about this map; just a handful of Summons to fight and no real Protections to speak of. However, there are two things of note:



There's a decent weapon here with a 'Great' title, which is one of the better ones available at this point in the game. Another good place to put your Bottlemail character to use.



And then there's this dude, a neutral Funguy unit that has the annoying tendency of throwing anything it can get its hands on out of the field, even stealing weapons right out of your characters' hands to do so. So if you want that Great Long Sword, get over there fast before he can chuck it.



Annoying bastard.



Ash is still lost in thought about these beasts.



Marona, on the other hand, is wondering just how they should deal with this portal; not being members of La Pucelle, they don't
have the means to seal the thing.



A sinister voice is heard!



Hey, it's intro guy again.



He doesn't even seem to notice Ash and Marona as he seals off the portal.



More foreshadowing ahead.



Just as quickly as he arrived, he's gone again.



Ah, I'd forgotten about this feature: Fusionists also give slight Mana bonuses to weapons from time to time; the higher their level, the better the odds of this happening (and the bigger the bonus).

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Okay, we're going to do a quick run into random dungeon territory, courtesy of our new Dungeon Monk, Turbine McFist (name provided by Syd).



So we're grabbing a few dungeon stats at random, a random title (with appropriately random name and stats) and an appropriate cost. The title will be applied to all enemies in the dungeon, by the way, and its stats increase the more floors you go down. Thus, the enemies become tougher and tougher the farther down we go.

There is an upside to this, though - we actually gain the title for our own use once the dungeon's cleared out, so we can use it to power up our characters as well once we get a Titlist.

This dungeon is about triple our party's average level, so let's cancel out and reroll.



Better, but Restrictions prevent us from using weapons, which our party's pretty much worthless without at this point.



Perfect.



Blob enemies. Not all that strong but their defense is annoyingly high. He's also the only enemy on this map, which makes things easier for us.



Next floor down, one Slime enemy at level 6. Also easy.



Ah, and the more floors you clear in one trip, the bigger bonuses you get after each battle.



Shit.

At the end of each dungeon (or every few floors in the longer ones) is an "event" battle, which can be a variety of things - among them are higher-than-usual level enemies, a brawl where you team up with some weaker neutral units to fight one tough enemy, or in the worst cases, these: Self-Styled God stages, featuring a lone enemy that's roughly 3x the dungeon's level.



Yeah. We can't even make a scratch on this guy, but he's more than capable of wiping any of us out in a single blow. Our only chance here is to throw a few phantoms at him as decoys while we summon our Dungeon Monk and use his Escape skill.



Down goes Ash. Naomi soon follows.



The Monk's biggest flaw is perhaps their low speed - oftentimes they're dead before you can get a chance to make a getaway, forcing you to hit Reset. Here, though, we managed to stall the guy long enough to make our getaway, even if it's going to cost us 180 Bor.



Since we managed to get away, we at least managed to earn some of the usual bonuses, plus our Dungeon Monk gained some experience from the ordeal. Since Ash is "dead", upon returning to Phantom Isle we control Unknown Phantom until he's revived.

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I went through a few more attempts, and finally got lucky with a dungeon that let me get a few more classes AND had a manageable final stage! So let's check out my trials in CESz Factory.



Whoo, lots of enemies. Fortunately they're all level 2-3 and incredibly weak besides; the only real threats are the Titlists, which are decent mage-types.

Anyway, this is an easy mop-up job, let's move on to the next floor.



Even fewer enemies here. Easy peasy.



Alright, our first Combo item. Items with this title can't really be equipped, but they do have a large chunk of Mana and skills loaded onto them, so they're a great way to power up your other characters and items.



Here be Engrish. Also, double Mana!



Alright, more new classes here. There's also a couple monsters roaming about, but they're all still in the level 3-4 range so they're pretty ineffective against our level 6+ party.



Wiped 'em out. Now we have the CESz title...



And a whole mess of new classes. Let's take a look at each of them in more detail.



Owl Sentries. A bit weaker than our Valkyries and Fighters but sporting higher Speed and movement range.



Owl Knights. Good Attack, Speed and movement range, but they're pretty specialized on Physical Attacks.



Knights. Very strong with physical attacks and high defense, but very slow. However they also have the Healing Steps ability, which lets them recover some HP each turn.



Grannies. Their stats are absolutely terrible, but they'll randomly dispel "Dark Points" that appear on your characters if they attack and kill their own allies. Why would you do something like this, you ask? If you get 100 Dark Points you can earn the "Blsphm" title, which confers some high stat bonuses and the skill Dark Eboreus; however, once you start to rack up too many Dark Points, your other Phantoms will start to attack that character back on Phantom Isle!

So yeah, it's not really worth it in my opinion. Should you want to go that route though, you'll want to have a few leveled-up Grannies around to dispel those Points once you get the title.

Also note that Ash cannot gain the Blsphm title, but he can have Dark Eboreus transferred to him via a Fusionist.



Old Men. Like Grannies, their stats are awful, but they'll grant random Experience bonuses to characters; the higher their level, the better the odds of this happening (and the bigger the bonus).



But most important of all is this guy, the Titlist. Now we can swap titles around, as well as access a neat trick that lets us level up at an incredible rate in random dungeons, which I'll go into detail about below. He also has the "Big Bang" ability, which creates an explosion whenever he's confined to something; it's actually more annoying than useful, though, since you can damage your own allies with it.

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I ran through a few more random dungeons and came up with four new classes for us to play with. Let's take a closer look at these.



Owl Sage. Basically the Owl equivalent of the Healer. As with all the other owl classes, they have high speed and movement range.



Owl Mage. Same story as the other Owl classes.



Owl Ninja. Good with both elemental spells and physical attacks, but very poor Defense and Resistance.



Amazons. Very high physical attack power, decent physical skill grades, lousy with magic (and weak against it too). Like DungeonMonks, they have the Exp. Riser ability, which causes them to gain experience at a greater rate than other characters.

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Alright, we've now more than doubled our characters' levels (and wiped out most of our money reserves using the Escape skill). Let's wrap up the rest of this episode.




Didn't think it would be that easy.




So you rust Chromas, eh? You fiend!




Oh, okay, I get it now. He's looking to wipe us out and steal our bounty while he's at it.



See, he can't be all bad. He even held back on using one of the big seven!



The latest in our collection of flashy battle intros.



There's a few items around your starting area that give you two protections - Strengthen +20% and Heal 20% HP. You might want to save the ones nearest you until most of the Summons are cleared out, however.



Walnut has a few protections of his own - Experience x3 and Money x3, and he heals 20% HP a turn! Unfortunately, you can't get rid of the healing without also destroying the source of the Experience and Money bonuses, so you probably won't get them unless you're powerful enough to knock off a lot more HP than he can regenerate.



All the Summons in this fight are weak, and Neutral to boot, so Walnut will actually spend most of his SP wiping them out before turning on you.



It's a good thing, too, since that Burgundy move can dish out some serious damage.

---



Defeated, but in true villanous fashion, he says he'll win out in the end.



Marona takes pity on him despite all that he's said and done.

Well, let's report back and collect our reward.



Snap.



We've been set up!



All Walnut's doing, of course.



Like he's going to put it to better use.



I was planning to pay my rent, actually.



Okay, that's crossing a line.



Needless to say, Ash isn't really helping our case.



Marona decides it's not worth it and they leave.



Meanwhile, Walnut gloats and generally looks like an asshole.



Sadness ahoy.



Cue "It's a Wonderful Life" scene Just continue to the next day.

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Alright, let's wrap up this chapter with that quick leveling trick I promised to show you. To do this, you'll need a Titlist, a Dungeon Monk, and a bit of spare change.



Okay, first talk to Marona and choose to create someone. Pick a phantom a really bad title. Their class doesn't matter, as they won't be around long. Some good choices are: Meager, Ruined, Crappy and Failure, which will grant high penalties (50% or more) to all stats. Fortunately we have one with Failure, the worst of the bunch!

If you don't get anyone with these titles, cancel out and try again.

Name them whatever and toss their Experience on any stat, since they're a throw-away character. Now pick them up and talk to Marona again.



Choose to banish him back to the Stygian pit.



Now we have his title in reserve, which we can assign to whatever we choose.

Talk to a Dungeon Monk and generate a dungeon roughly twice your characters' average level.



This one will do.



You can probably guess what's next. Talk to our Titlist and attach the title to our new dungeon. Since all enemies within the dungeon gain the new title, they will all be dramatically weakened.



Now hop in there and wipe them all out. Since the Failure title grants a 100% penalty to experience gain and post-fight money bonuses, you won't get anything for killing them. However:



You will earn enormous experience bonuses for clearing out a floor with enemies twice your level, allowing you to gain at least 1-2 levels per floor!

This is also a handy way to level up your really weak characters like Grannies, Fusionists, and the like - when the map's mostly cleared, just confine them somewhere out of the way and then finish the job so they can rake in those huge bonuses.

You can also rake in extra money and Mana with this method - since the dungeon's level is so high, the items within it will be as well. Put your Bottlemail characrer to good use to snag a few extras, then sell them back on Phantom Isle for a fistful of Bor, or fuse them for a sizable boost to Mana.



As per usual, your Titles will still increase in stats slightly through clearing out a floor and may even gain skills (which enemies on subsequent floors can use), but since it's still such a pitifully weak title this shouldn't affect much.



Alright, we might even get an extra class or two out of this dungeon!



Yep. All we have to do is clear out this floor.



One of the Owls uses the Mega Wind skill granted to him by the dungeon's title, but due to his Failured stats it's only a threat to the other enemies roaming about.



We now have access to the Archer class. You may be thinking "But Spoony, there aren't any ranged weapons in Phantom Brave, why the hell is there an Archer class?" Well, let's take a look at their abilities and find out.



Good speed, movement range and Attack power, weak defense, and their only proficiency of note is Special Physicals, which are often energy and projectile-based attacks. So while you can't equip her with a bow, you can still throw attacks at enemies from a distance, and then use her extra movement range to get away from their counter attacks. They're also handy in that, like Ash, they start with the Quick Attack skill, which grants them a turn immediately upon being confined.

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Tune in next time for Part 3, in which we work to protect one of Ivoire's endangered species. Oh, and be sure to tell me of any characters you want me to make with all the new classes we've gained this chapter.

Continue to Part 3!

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- Spoony Spoonicus <- 2:42:35 pm, monday, march 10th, 2008 pdt