The Book of Shadows

[littlebro]

You are further away in the game than me - but I am glad you take the same approach as me

Ha! Not quite the same approach. I almost always only try Hard on my second run. I like to have an overall idea of what skills actually do, and what enemies can get up to before risking that. Also discovering the limitations of the characters. So far I find Josie somewhat marginal. Her skills are limited and she is ultra squishy.

[darkange]

You are further away in the game than me - but I am glad you take the same approach as me

Ha! Not quite the same approach. I almost always only try Hard on my second run. I like to have an overall idea of what skills actually do, and what enemies can get up to before risking that. Also discovering the limitations of the characters. So far I find Josie somewhat marginal. Her skills are limited and she is ultra squishy.

I have to disagree with you on this one - learn the mana shield skill from her ... the squishiness disappears - the chicken was hitting her for only 30 dmg with mana shield on and that 20-30 dmg was deducted from mana - zero dmg to health bar ... if you enter the fight with full mana she resists so much in a boss fight ... not to mentional a normal fight . And if she resists that much on hard mode ... you will be fine in normal mode

[littlebro]

I have to disagree with you on this one - learn the mana shield skill from her ... the squishiness disappears - the chicken was hitting her for only 30 dmg with mana shield on and that 20-30 dmg was deducted from mana - zero dmg to health bar ... if you enter the fight with full mana she resists so much in a boss fight ... not to mentional a normal fight . And if she resists that much on hard mode ... you will be fine in normal mode

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely try that out.

What I have been doing is running Cedric as an earth mage, rather than the defense tank that I think he's meant to be. I've not bothered with any of the armour style gear, as they reduce his AGI to next to nothing. Instead I've gone for gear which boosts his speed (including the speed necklace) and MP, as his native DEF is pretty good. His Earthblast has been taking enemies down with ease ever since the beginning. So e.g. in the mushroom caves, Alex's Frigid Air + Sarah's Static Wave + Earthblast, with Liana using either a physical hit (Life Bracelet equipped) or Holy Touch to mop up any tailender, and the whole troop is down in one turn. I found those caves a breeze. My fighting philosophy has always included the idea that you don't need a defence tank if you can take them out in one turn.

[darkange]

I have to disagree with you on this one - learn the mana shield skill from her ... the squishiness disappears - the chicken was hitting her for only 30 dmg with mana shield on and that 20-30 dmg was deducted from mana - zero dmg to health bar ... if you enter the fight with full mana she resists so much in a boss fight ... not to mentional a normal fight . And if she resists that much on hard mode ... you will be fine in normal mode

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely try that out.

What I have been doing is running Cedric as an earth mage, rather than the defense tank that I think he's meant to be. I've not bothered with any of the armour style gear, as they reduce his AGI to next to nothing. Instead I've gone for gear which boosts his speed (including the speed necklace) and MP, as his native DEF is pretty good. His Earthblast has been taking enemies down with ease ever since the beginning. So e.g. in the mushroom caves, Alex's Frigid Air + Sarah's Static Wave + Earthblast, with Liana using either a physical hit (Life Bracelet equipped) or Holy Touch to mop up any tailender, and the whole troop is down in one turn. I found those caves a breeze. My fighting philosophy has always included the idea that you don't need a defence tank if you can take them out in one turn.

that is one of the beauty of these games - different people go for different strategies - at some point I stopped investing in Cedric and I started paying more attention to other characters like Sarah or that archer guy - forgot his name - his mental demons skill looks so visually cool and I like the name so much - and when I discover that skill where he reduces the incoming dmg by 66% and heals his HP to full (it says little hp on the description but it's actually a lot) I use him in every battle now - I really like the mind skills .

[littlebro]

that is one of the beauty of these games - different people go for different strategies

What really makes this possible, though, is that the reserve party earns full EXP, so you're not left with the choice of grinding to get unused characters up, or just sticking with the same party the whole time. Having said that, I haven't used Savina much, except underwater, but that's okay, she's on the substitute bench with the Learner Bracelet playing catchup while I wander around places like Northpass Mountains, Old Cave, and some place or other that's got an oasis attached.

In that cave, though, I found something called Enchanted Shirt. None of my characters can equip it. I assume that means that yet more people, or at least one more person, is going to join. That would tie in with the Knuckle weapon I've seen that no one can use.

[bgillisp]

Though iirc, there was a notification early in the game that if I'm too high, things will just run away from me, which wouldn't be much fun, so I'll have to watch that.

I'll clarify that one. The monster stacks on the map will move away from you instead of towards you if you get way too high level. But if you engage them in battle they will fight still.

Though if you grind up enough you'll get a couple unique scenes too due to your power. There's three of them, and they occur early Chapter 3, early Chapter 5 and early Chapter 7.

I do have a fairly serious bug to report.
I was underwater and doing exploration so thought I'd see where the vine by the heal crystal took me, and of course it took me back ashore. No problem, I bought myself 8 flowers, went to the dock with the sparkles, accepted Yes, and then nothing. No matter what I did I was stranded. Picked up from a save, which fortunately wasn't too far back. On the other side I thought I'd see what happens if I went back to complete the Waterstone quest. On the Emberfield dock when I accepted Yes, there was the dialogue about eating the flowers and I was able to get back to the other side. However, once there the same thing happened again, no dialogue and I was stuck - though this time I'd made a save immediately before trying as a precaution.

Confirmed, I can replicate that one. I've got a patch on the way to Indy. It only kicks in if you leave before completing the dungeon though, you can return after you finish it with no issue.

Other notes:
-Patch on the way to Indy to fix the few bugs reported. The Thundermeadow quests should properly clear out now, and the Underwater bug should not occur. I can't replicate the importing bug from the demo as all saves from the demo I got copy over fine, so if that happens again to someone please send me a copy (via PM) of your save file so I can try to replicate it.

-On Josie: I use her for her speed myself, as she is the 2nd fastest character in the game. Can't KO me if I can take you out first! Also her Energy Magic ignores enemy MDF which will mean more as the game progresses. Plus she has one of the fastest to invoke healing spells in the game too in Healing Tango (Level 3 Cheerleading), which is great if you must heal now.

-On party usage: I myself tend to move Alex into a healer as the game progresses, let Liana do offense magic (her high MAT is good for this) and buffs, and the other two I rotate as needed. But yes, everyone has their own strategy. And as some have pointed out, reserves do get full EXP here, that way party members don't end up hopelessly behind and worthless.

-On the Enchanted Shirt. That's a typo, you actually found Enchanted Clothing, and everyone should be able to equip it.

[littlebro]

Confirmed, I can replicate that one. I've got a patch on the way to Indy. It only kicks in if you leave before completing the dungeon though, you can return after you finish it with no issue. -On the Enchanted Shirt. That's a typo, you actually found Enchanted Clothing, and everyone should be able to equip it.

Not sure what you mean by there being no issue after you finish the dungeon. I assume that means after you finish the underwater dungeon - but as I said in my description, I did finish it and tried to go back, and it only works one way. I've just tried it again, same result.

On the Enchanted Shirt. That's a typo, you actually found Enchanted Clothing, and everyone should be able to equip it.

Thanks. I do indeed have that item in my inventory.

[bgillisp]

Are you trying from Riverdale or Emberfield?

[littlebro]

It works on the Emberfield side, but if I try to go back from Riverdale, I get stuck.

[bgillisp]

It works on the Emberfield side, but if I try to go back from Riverdale, I get stuck.

Ok, I can replicate it now with that info. Adding that fix to the patch before I send it to Indy.

[littlebro]

Ok, I can replicate it now with that info. Adding that fix to the patch before I send it to Indy.

Great! Thanks. I'm entertaining myself doing Northpass Mountains. They are tough there, but I'm slowly making progress. I have to keep going back to the inn, otherwise I'd go through all my healing items and bankrupt myself.

[littlebro]

I just found a funny typo. The message telling me what I'd found on a skeleton on a ledge towards the north of the map in Northpass Mountains says that I found a "Heathed Armor" instead of Heated. It's correct in the inventory. Also there's a typo in the description of one of the Strategies. It's called "Move it, Soilder". Again I found it amusing.

[bgillisp]

Whoops. I'll fix those for the next patch since I already sent the new one to Indy. Thanks for the report.

Patch note:
-The newest version of The Book of Shadows adds an option to the system menu to turn ON or OFF autosave. Anyone loading an old save or one from the demo will have it default to OFF. Be sure to turn it back ON if you wish to use it. Anyone who starts a new game though will have it default to the standard behavior of ON.
-Note if you are low on HD space or using a low end CPU turning autosave OFF may help speed up the game.

[littlebro]

Good to know that the patch is on its way.

Is it intended to do the Frost Giant at this stage? For clarity's sake I haven't gone into Tir Koraz yet, and I found him tough, although I defeated him on the first attempt (thank you darkange for the tip about Josie).

[bgillisp]

The intended level for defeating it is 25th, but it is doable as soon as you can get to it with clever strategy as long as you haven't been running from every fight to this point. The lowest level I've beaten it at is 17th.