Hello there!

It’s a nice day to simulate some wars, so let’s discuss some of the new and old tactics that One Vision allows you to bring to the table. We’ll be covering what worked in the original, as well as what’s changed with those approaches. This page is going to be the long, rambling version for folks that really like to read. For a more concise set of into, see the links below!

Current Guide is (mostly) Updated to version 0.96a, which can be found HERE

Please contact Raics at the ModDB Comments Page or NG Plus Discord if you find any bugs.

You will need a copy of the original game, either physical, or digital.

Stats and basic terms

Before we get going, let’s cover what the different stats actually mean. It may seem overwhelming at first, but no worries, it’s way more understandable than it used to be.

For a more technical Stats and Damage Breakdown, Raics has provided this handy guide: Stats_and_damage

[STR] Strength – General muscle power, scales well with heavy weapons, and adds physical defense.

Boosted by: Rings, Powered Armor, Gauntlets

– General muscle power, scales well with heavy weapons, and adds physical defense. Boosted by: Rings, Powered Armor, Gauntlets [VIT] Vitality – Primary tank stat, boosts overall defense and health.

Boosted by: Rings, Most Armors, Notably Heavy Armor and Helmets

– Primary tank stat, boosts overall defense and health. Boosted by: Rings, Most Armors, Notably Heavy Armor and Helmets [DEX] Dexterity – Nimble attack skill, mostly used for bows, polearms, eastern swords, and small weapons. Secondary accuracy booser.

Boosted by: Rings, Light Gloves, Light Helmets

– Nimble attack skill, mostly used for bows, polearms, eastern swords, and small weapons. Secondary accuracy booser. Boosted by: Rings, Light Gloves, Light Helmets [AGI] Agility – Accuracy bonus, applies to all physical attacks and most Magic

Boosted By: Rings, Light Helmets, Western Swords

– Accuracy bonus, applies to all physical attacks and most Magic Boosted By: Rings, Light Helmets, Western Swords [AVD] Avoidance – General Evasion, applies to all damage types in different ways. While magic is included, some moves, such as those that attack from above, are unavoidable. Evasion maxes out at 75%, and has no effect on the Parry, Deflect or Overpower skills, which serve as saves for a bad roll.

Boosted By: Rings, Armored Vests, Leggings, Light Shields, Spears, Claws, Mirage Robes

– General Evasion, applies to all damage types in different ways. While magic is included, some moves, such as those that attack from above, are unavoidable. Evasion maxes out at 75%, and has no effect on the Parry, Deflect or Overpower skills, which serve as saves for a bad roll. Boosted By: Rings, Armored Vests, Leggings, Light Shields, Spears, Claws, Mirage Robes [INT] Intelligence – Primary magic attack stat.

Boosted By: Rings, Cudgels, Books, Rune Gloves, Robes

– Primary magic attack stat. Boosted By: Rings, Cudgels, Books, Rune Gloves, Robes [MND] Mind – Mixed Attack/Defense magic stat. Splits between both.

Boosted by: Rings, Mage Hats, Spell Daggers, Cloaks, Armguards

– Mixed Attack/Defense magic stat. Splits between both. Boosted by: Rings, Mage Hats, Spell Daggers, Cloaks, Armguards [RES] Resistance – Primary Magic Defense Stat

Boosted By: Rings, Runed Leggings, Mage Hats, Shields

[RT] Recovery Time – The score that ticks down when you take your turn. Weight sets a baseline for this, and every tile moved, weapon used, and ability has a cost associated with it, listed in the item’s stats. Bear in mind that Action moves aren’t exactly free, but they do allow you to take multiple action per turn at the cost of speed.

– The score that ticks down when you take your turn. Weight sets a baseline for this, and every tile moved, weapon used, and ability has a cost associated with it, listed in the item’s stats. Bear in mind that Action moves aren’t exactly free, but they do allow you to take multiple action per turn at the cost of speed. [WT] Weight – Your equipment burden, which determines how fast you’ll move again. Bear in mind that while equipment does slow you down, there is rarely, if ever a time when going in naked is a viable option anymore. (This was a speed strategy, and the end game meta in Vanilla, and looked hilarious)

Lines and Formations

The big thing that sets TO apart from similar games of it’s genre is the tendency to towards long, drawn out slugging matches, where a dozen or more units on each side are throwing around all manner of debuffs and different attacks just to try and gain some ground on their enemy. Well, that’s ideally the way it’s supposed to work. In fact, many fights in the original involved forming everyone into a block and just camping in a corner while spamming heals, and turning into a free for all with really powerful ranged units by the end of the game.

This has changed to a more understandable and fluid system. Simply put, everyone does their job well, and everyone can fight on more or less equal grounds before skills, provided they aren’t 20 levels apart or something. This means that the better sword fighter in a better position will usually win, not the one that was so plot important that they could instantly vaporize someone with a butter knife. Instead of stat grinding and meta knowledge of stat growths, your fights will usually revolve around holding and maintaining defensive lines, knowing when to break those lines for a win, and when to sacrifice a few units to let someone get around and take out their healing elements. It is supposed to be a Tactics game, after all, gotta use them tactics.

The Art of the Shutdown

On thing you may remember from the original is the tendency to spend the first half of the game constantly stunned, while the end game revolved around dealing with a ton of petrification and charm.

Good news for ya.

First off, all debuffs are better all around now, so you’ll see and use far more varied abilities. For example, did you know that Leaden always reduced dodge? Probably not, seeing as the amount that it did was often negligible due to skills like Dodge and Truestrike anyway. Now, it does 10% damage on top of this already useful ability, and is far more useful when accuracy is hard to come by.

Remember poison? Remember how it was awful? Well, now it’s faster, and more available as well. Venom is downright deadly. Even Hobble got paired up with some nifty side abilities to make it really hurt (RT Delay, Slow, -1 Move).

Don’t worry, though, unlike before, counters for all of these are readily available. You don’t need to go out of your way to craft anti-Bewitch items, or have 5 healers on hand to deal with a single Paralytic Wave.

Instead, that system has largely been flipped on it’s head. Most casual debuff users end up having single target areas, while debuff counters usually hit an entire 5 tile area. Healing items are more readily available, and do a better job.

On top of this, Resists and Proofs got merged and improved into Wards. That unit is just able to ignore a debuff, plus can heal another unit for free.

Ultimately this means more and more effective debuffs, but far more counters, leading to more decisions of whether to help someone with a jacked leg, or try to guard them while doing some damage. Decisions, decisions!

Equipment, How It Was, and How It Is

Before I start covering all of the different categories here, it helps to understand just what it is that each part of this equipment does.

First off, every piece of equipment has the following:

Weight (WT) – see above

Bonus Damage/Defense – A % bonus if defending against a thing, or getting past armor

Att/Def Value – The piece’s contribution to base defense/armor piercing

Recover Time (RT) – see above

Class Allowance – Just who can use it

Skill Bonus – Such as +2 Parry from a shield

On Hit – Such as Silenced or poisoned, has a chance to have this effect, varies by item.

Debuff Resist – Any variation of a debuff guard.

Use Effect – Item can be used from the item menu for some spell effect

Resistances – Armor only, resists certain percentages of certain elements.

Note: Only the top hand weapon applies secondary stats, such as evasion, or a lower crit rate when it comes to dual wielding.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get into the differences. Like I said above, the big difference between Vanilla and OV is focus. Originally, pieces of equipment would usually slightly favor some stats over others for flavor, but generally those few points wouldn’t even be noticeable, and in the worst cases, could make armor into dead weight by end game. For example Terror Knights saw some good early game benefit to wearing basic and upgraded Baldur Armor (+5 Int per piece), but were left with no Int-boosting armor choices for a long time, leaving them forced to focus on either debuff accuracy or damage dealing, with only the first being that realistic.

Compare this with the OV Terror Knight, who can constantly upgrade his equipment to keep the same build, and has a ton of different options to focus their abilities. Any build you make can last from the beginning of the game to the end.

Please note that this is a general list. Unique items are intentionally not covered to avoid spoilers.

Helmets

The new helmets are in many ways the evolution of what the originals tried to do. Before, You’d get a helmet, then would upgrade it to find some weirdly good early game hidden bonuses, such as stun resist on a bronze helmet, and some weirdly awful later bonuses. Point being, they’re just good out the gate now, here here’s the jist:

You have the basic helmets, such as the Bronze, Barbut, and Wyrmscale, which are there for their Res/HP/Def bonus, and provide a good amount of bulk to a unit. They provide good overall survivability.

Next are Cloth, which are mage hats with MP/Def/Mnd bonuses.

This ups regeneration (Through the MP bonus), and increases both magic attack and overall defense.

These can be sidegraded into a Def/MP/Mind/Vit bonus with negative resistance and Absorb MP, which lets a unit be a magical lightning rod of sorts.

Then are Light Helmets, such as the Circlet, which is a demo of what is later the Damasc and Sallet line, which specialize in Def/HP/Agi/Mnd, boosting melee accuracy, as well as magical proficiency.

Headgear tends to have more overall balance than other armors, and has a good option for any build.

Body Armor



Armor was pretty depressingly mistreated in the original game, but fear not, it’s actually armor now!

The categories are like such:

Light Armor/Vests are your starting leather, as well as all light plate vests, like the Damasc Vest. These specialize in Def/HP/Avd, and are your general purpose armor most classes can use. The avoidance bonus stacks very well with other evasion items, and are an integral part of a solid dodge build.

Medium Armor is what happens when your light armor eats too much, losing it/s Avd bonus for more Def/HP. This allows light classes to bulk up a bit.

Cloth are all robes, and generally will be Def/MP/Mind/Res, with options to be made into a Cloak, which gives Def/Agi/Avd/Res bonuses. Robes are for casters and hybrids mostly (Like the Angel Knight), while Cloaks are for trick fighters and hybrids, like the Warlock, or swordmaster, who benefit from being able to dodge and cast more than tank.

Heavy Armor is what all our front liners will be enjoying. It’s heavy, but has a solid Def/HP/Vit bonus, allowing for solid defense. Generally Heavy armor will shrug off smaller weapons, like arrows, knives, and so on, so use a heavy weapon to break them down.

Power Armor is the sidegraded Heavy, sacrificing HP and Vit bonuses for Def/Str. Essentially it’s slightly harder, and still gets a small defensive bonus from strength, but is mostly a power booster for stronger builds.

Armguards

Originally these were sort of a stop gap option that came up every now and then, sometimes helping with a very specific purpose, like the Vagrants.

Funnily enough, as is par for the mod, the best ideas from the original are the norm now.

They can be broken down as follows:

Gloves provide a moderate bonus to Def and two other stats, such as Int and Dex, Str/Dex, etc. They come in many flavors and are a general purpose damage booster.

Gauntlets are the heavy variant, providing Def and Str, as well as Overpower +1-2. They are fantastic for heavy weapon users that are sick of having their awesome damage pushed aside by those dang parries.

Bracers are sneak build variant, providing dex and luck bonuses to help ranged and sneaky units do their thing.

Runed Gauntlets are the gauntlet sidegrade for heavy hybrids, giving some casting bonuses to the bulky folks.

Sleeves are the sidegraded version of the same for the ranged hybrids. Also really good for warlocks and other trick fighters.

Legguards

Oddly enough, the original versions of these were a flat upgrade to their chest counterpart for some reason. I’ve personally never worn pants so good they prevented stabbing in the gut, but maybe I’ve just been to the wrong pants stores.

Light Leggings are just like their chest counterpart, allowing for Def/Avd/Vit, but with the added bonus of a +1 to Deflect once the get some metal on there.

Heavy Legguards start with mail, and once again are like their chest counterpart, providing a HP/Def/Vit bonus for optimal tankiness, but lowered speed compared to their Light equivalent.

Rune Legguards are similar to Light, however they trade the Avd bonus for HP/Res.

The Cloth Leggings category is a bit of an odd duck, however, in that there are lot out there. While the ones you start with are fairly basic, there’s legs for running farther, doing free dances, and doing all manner of tricks, like flying! Oh, and they have good stats now, not just Use abilities and the starting ring numbers. Additionally, they’re handed out during the story, allowing you to get a lot more use out of them, as well as the more situational buffs adding extra benefits, like Lavawalk being paired with Renewal.

Shields

Originally these were a simple defense upgrade at the cost of significant weight, but could be crafted into something that could defend against a single debuff.

Well, that’s boring, and OV is fun. One universal change is that on top of doing decent damage, shields are also quite accurate, so using them is sometimes safer than using your weapon to finish an opponent off.

Light Shields are your evasive variant, providing a hefty Avd bonus on top of defenses, as well as +1-2 Parry, depending on the shield. Just about anyone can use one, and they are a great general purpose option. They can be modified to Silence upon impact.

Heavy Shields are available only to the tanks out there, and come with Def/HP/Vit bonuses, as well as a +1-2 to Deflect. They are able to shield bash for a significant amount of damage, and can be modified to hit with Stun.

Trick Shields is what I’m going to use to describe everything else. These are shields like the Spiked shield, which reflects damage, Shard Shield which does the same for magic, and Mirror Shield. There’s other interesting side options out there, like Power Fists, Parrying Daggers, so expect to be able to pull off some fun builds.

Weapons

Ahh, the good ol violence allowance devices. Well, originally we got to see some really odd situations going on with these, such as anti-tank longbows, daggers that can cut through steel, and 2h greatswords that were apparently made of cotton candy. Hammers were pretty alright, haha.

Good news, Your weapons now make sense again! YAY!

All weapons work as one would expect them to, but sacrifice some realism for the sake of fun, of course.

2h Sword

The good ol western 2hander, this used to do nothing until it’s half decent finishers kicked in. This is a powerhouse can opener with both an Agi bonus and a chance to Stagger, reducing their target’s accuracy for a follow up. As if that wasn’t already awesome, they come with an Overpower bonus.

They can be modified into a heavier version with significantly more damage(and weight), but a large Agi penalty, making them horribly unwieldy without some sort of 100% hit chance move, such as the Warrior or TK.

It’s finishers are powerful and provide decent shutdown debuffs, along with some AoE moves that FF fans will love. (Stun, Shackle, A meteor move in a line with RT Reset, and the ol Grand Cross). It’s notable for having two very strong Finishers that can reliably take out light-medium units in one hit, with the right setup.

1h Sword

Originally the bread and butter weapon for much of the game, 1h swords were known for being a little on the meh side for damage, but straight up ignoring defense for a lot of their finishers, Rending Gale and Cherry Ronde being particularly scary.

Well no more, like the 2h, this is an accuracy focused weapon, and comes with a stagger effect. It’s not going to be carving through plate any time soon, but it does have good general damage against most things, as well as light enough weight to be a good, general purpose weapon.

It’s nicely in the middle between it’s historical sidearm, generalist weapon, and it’s fantasy lightsaber role.

They can be modified into a Bastard Sword, creating a sort of diet 2H sword that uses the 1h Finisher set.

The 1h sword’s finishers are large DPS trick moves, keeping it’s signature double slash (which no longer ignores defense), but also having several options such as sleep, venom, and stop in it’s repertoire.

Note that Bad Blood isn’t just a great move for Venom, but can also scale some really handy damage with Augment Water and enough TP built up.

Spear/Halberd

Spears are hands down my favorite weapon in anything. If it can have a spear, I will use it, regardless of stats. Thing is…the base game spears were just a big ol bag of “meh” for the most part. They had a 2 tile range, but then switched to 2-3 tiles without asking if that’s what you wanted, suddenly making counters worthless. They became very hard to upgrade, and just didn’t have the damage of easier to acquire weapons. They took both hands, weighed a bit, an could only really be used by a small handful of classes. I should note that I was extremely disappointed that the Warrior couldn’t use a spear for several obvious reasons, but mostly because that was always my go-to in these games. I need my pikemen, dang it! Their finishers were not great until level 6, when they could just delete things with a triple hit suddenly. Go figure on that one.

Well no more! Spears are great again, as they should have been!

This time around, they are an evasive/defensive weapon, as they were historically. They have both 1 and 2 handed variants, and can be modified into 2-3 tile range pikes, if that’s your thing. All variants come with an Avd bonus, and the 2h variants come with a Parry bonus to make up for lacking a shield.

Their finishers are far more versatile now, starting with a silencing 2-range stab, going to a Speed Reduction wind strike at range (This used to be 1 tile.), having two AoE moves, with the final adding Slow to it’s tricks.

Just as a side note here, the unique spears later in the game also have drastically more interesting bonuses and moves now. No more chasing down a Heaven General, getting her spear and finding out it lets you..Instill Lightning. That spell was in the shop from almost the start of the game, thanks. The spear’s finishers are fairly adaptable, but may take some getting used to. Easily my favorite weapon across the board.

Claws/Fists

Seemingly mostly a flavor weapon at first, Fists were all about those high damage finishers in the og TO. However, they ended up taking both hands, they were nothing spectacular most of the time, and really were just kinda..there.

Not any dang more though! First off, I should point out that Monks can use them now. I know, this isn’t the classes section, but this will become important. Secondly, the come packed with Avd bonuses, useful finishers, and most importantly, a chance to poison on hit. I should note that a combo of an Evasion Ring, Light Vest, Light Shield, Light Legs, and a Claw is going to be able to get 75% evasion to dang near everything.

Now remember, poison is way stronger now, and lasts a really long time. If You have a monk with Counterhit just sitting there counter-poisoning for a while, they are going to be doing some crazy damage without even moving. Additionally, I should point out that 100% hit chance abilities, such as those that the Warrior and Spellblade have, can make the poison chance 100% as well. Now You may be saying “but wait, Spellblades can’t use fists!”, and yes, that’s true, but their buff can be used on multiple front line units to guarantee their debuffs.

They can be modified to an anti-mage variant, allowing them to carve off MP with every punch. This is great for Berskers that are so sick of that one witch burning their HP off.

Finisher wise, they start off with a long range Wither shot, great for taking down high HP enemies, then get a double attack, followed by high damage, and a good damage terror punch.

Hammers

Surprisingly, hammers haven’t actually changed that much. They were originally a great armor breaker, had decent damage, decent availability, and came with some good damage finishers.

Well, Hammers are still the go-to armor breaker. Both 1 and 2 hand variants are going to be the best at getting damage into a plated target, however, they came with extra FEATURES!

First off, they can now stun on hit, making them another great option for a counter-hitting Monk if You’re also obsessed with getting free debuffs. While they are heavy, a hammer user never has to worry about what they attack, because odds are, they are going to smash it. The hammer can also be modified to trade a little damage for a Knockback effect on hit. They are available to a lot of classes, but the kinds available are different now, such as TKs and Berserkers having the 2hs, while knights use the 1h variety.

Finishers for these start off with delaying effects, such as a TP Reset and an RT Reset, and later get a high accuracy AoE Explosion, plus a high range AoE Lightning explosion for all your Thor cosplay needs.

Axes

Axes in vanilla definitely existed. History knows this much. However they were so boring that no one actually remembers using one. Also why on earth does an axe start with a Silencing finisher (Arguably as a counter to knights…maybe)? They were an overall average strength weapon with the common problems of availability, lack of defining features, and competing with better options.

Guess what Axes? It’s time for You to finally have Your day!

So axes are basically like the sister weapon to Hammers in OV. They do more damage, but have a harder time piercing armor. They are commonly available, and although less accurate than swords and less piercy than hammers, will have a nice place for a high for anyone. Will they still damage really well? Sure, they just won’t always get their bonuses against heavy stuff. They can also be modified to have a chance of RT Delay on impact.

Finisher wise we start with a high damage Slow, followed by a long range Bind, topped with a garnish of a Double Hit move, and for desert, the Earth Slash from FFT.

Daggers

Daggers were the first of many weapons that had a hidden bonus in the game. Technically it’s still there, but tamed. Personally I wonder if someone just tweaked it in there one day, because suspiciously almost all the weapons that benefit from this bonus are from the Eastern category. At any rate, this meant that units with high dex got an inordinately high damage bonus, letting them carve apart things like a Thanksgiving Turkey. Vyce, Arycelle, Denam, and Canopus in particular could easy run around one-shotting things with little to no effort, turning the humble knife into a lightsaber.

Here’s the thing. One could argue that historically daggers were primarily kept as a means to finish off downed opponents, and it would have been a nice touch if they did a ton of bonus damage against stunned or sleeping targets, but they used to just carve through armor like butter.

At any rate, this is fixed now. Daggers will do insignificant damage against armored targets, but will still be incredibly useful for taking out squishies. On top of this, they come with a chance to Bind on hit, potentially leaving an enemy crippled for a while, and can be modified to help out caster builds with a few uses of Spellstrike and some Mind bonuses at the cost of that crippling effect.

It should be noted that they weigh next to nothing, and allow a unit to move around very fast, making a light unit with a dagger potentially devastating if they get lucky with their hits. On more than one occasion I’ve gotten completely put out of place by a single Warrior using Mighty Strike and just good luck to cripple several units in a row.

Finishers are awesome Featuring MP Resets, Charm, and more!

Bow

It is undisputed that in the original game, few things rocked as hard as the humble bow. Funnily enough, despite shortbows often becoming next to obsolete, and usually leaving their users scratching their heads by the end of the game, Longbows clearly took their inspiration from Rambo, allowing even decent Dex units to destroy fully armored knights in just 2 shots or less. Their finishers used to utterly destroy anything they touched with few exceptions.

While a lot of this comes from the hidden Dex bonus I mentioned earlier, bows themselves had pretty decent stats, and their primary users had really high stats as well, making a trifecta of utter dominance. Personally, I believe that they just never had time to fully test the game, and maybe someone had some fun with those random background bonuses. Maybe they weren’t supposed to be there, but shipped on accident.

However it went, bows have been brought down to earth pretty significantly in OV. While their power is much lower, and the primary longbow class is much weaker, I would hesitate to call it a complete nerf. While they may plink off of armor now, plus are much slower to use, they still do very high damage against squishies, and also have incredibly high range. In fact, their sidegrade, the Siege Bow, has really good vertical firing, and has the second highest range possible in the game.

Their new finishers can best be described as trick shots. The first is improved, adding an RT delay to Leaden, they still have their sleep move, they have short range explosion (Similar to the one in FFTA), and shackle with their final one. None of them do crazy damage, but they’re universally useful.

Crossbows

Ahh, the good ol gun before we had guns. In vanilla, all crossbow users were required by law to pre-order the Extreme Grenade Launcher Edition, which allowed them access to arguably the most annoying Finisher in the game, which ever Cbow user loved to use, especially on No KO runs. While they didn’t have as extreme a bonus as the Bow, crossbows still had that damage scaling killmove, and had a tendency to have a lot of TP to dump into it.

This made for a punishing explosion gun masquerading as a medieval weapon.

Well, they are now more of an effective anti-armor ranged option, at least moreso than the others. They do decent damage against most things, but are limited by slow firing speed and a straight fire trajectory. They have decent range, which can actually be modified into the longest range in the game, but will force them to only fire in the 4 cardinal directions, with the ability to fire through some obstacles.

Finisher wise, their grenade launcher attachment is no longer AoE, it’s actually a decent damage single target stun move, great for sniping unsuspecting healers through the front lines. They can also pin folks to the ground, fire a rapid Earth Slash like shot, and do a long range Petrify. Additionally, Necromancers can use them for a guaranteed hit for half price.

Cudgels

Hey, remember these things? Oh, no one used their skill ever? Well, they actually had some really good Finishers, especially at the higher ranks, but unfortunately had a weapon that did 1 damage if not wielded by a unique character. Like many things, there were just so many better options that it fell into the “Why bother” category.

Good news everyone, they are an actual weapon now! In fact, they are a pretty decent weapon at that, coming out just at the bottom end of 2h weapon power, which is still significant.

There are only 2h options for this now, but you get great casting bonuses off the basic variant, and good parry/defensive bonuses off the modified version.

On top of this, the casting variants get a free MP charge ability.

The killmoves are similar to before, but a bit more sane. You start off with the same Holy smack, but now it comes with a shackle. Then comes with a Double Hit Stun, and yeah, this stick has stuff.



Fusils/Guns

Oh yeah, did you forget these existed? Tired from the War and Peace levels of text in here? Yeah, well there’s a lot to cover, sorry.

OK, so base game fusils were an odd duck. They were one of the best armor piercing weapons, especially rifles, as it should be. Their damage was average at best, their main class was very slow, and they were downright laborious to get ahold of. On top of this, their finishers were fairly iffy (What use does a gunner have for a Stagger move that needs direct Line of Sight?), but just like the spears, they had one multi-hit move that instantly deleted units. Aside from this, they took getting lucky drops on the very farthest parts of the POTD to even remain viable, ranging from the 70s at earliest to 114 at latest. This was especially true for pistols, which largely did negligible to average damage. They couldn’t be deflected, at least?

So, One Vision time again? Well, first off, they are slow as hell to fire. That’s a shame, however, they are far more powerful, and generally going to be able to pierce most armors, on top of their innate ability to not be deflected. They are far more viable to use, with The Fusil and Fusil Enchilada covering weapons that will be able to hold a party well into Coda+. All of those hidden super guns are just fun extras.

On top of this, I’d be remiss to not mention the awesomeness that is the new sub-class of Fusils/2h Swords, Gunblades. Now, technically they are Buccaneer Only, and so confusing they have their own skill to even use. However, they allow for the equivalent of carrying a rifle and 2h sword at the same time, and that’s always nifty.

As far as finishers, Fusils have a much better set this time around, starting with a Silence shot at long range, excellent for taking down healers. They also get a RT Reset, a short range High damage shotgun move, and my favorite, the long range Bewitch laser. Yes, the gunners have satellite lasers, and that’s awesome.

Oh, and Fusilliers can use them to exorcise undead with silver bullets.

2h Katanas

Folded 10 billion times over the fires of a demon or some crap, 2h Katanas were a weapon limited to a single class originally, and were a tad disappointing for damage. Their first and arguably best killmove seemed out of place, but was actually a reference to Hobyrim being astoundingly good at petrifying entire crowds in the original SNES/PS1 version. Interestingly they are the only completely eastern weapons without the hidden dex bonus.

So in OV, they are quite strong, coming in just under western 2h swords in terms of power. While they lack the Agi bonus, they do come with a Luck bonus by default, allowing them better odds at landing Crits, as well as a Deflect bonus and the ability to take off some TP with every hit. They are also available to Warriors, allowing the skill to be trained much earlier on.

If modified, they become a Spirit Blade, losing some weight and power, and gaining the ability to do a one-time use AoE Draw Out attack a la FFT. These are my personal favorite, as their lighter weight allows for faster movement, and that move can seriously wreck a large group if used at the right time (Namely when a gap opens in the front line, a they can run through to go all Spin to Win on like 6 guys at once).

Finisher wise, their starting Petrify move has been replaced with a very strong Double Slash, followed by an AoE sleep move.

1h Katanas

Another old favorite of utter OP-ness, the 1h Katana had a pretty unfortunately high amount of damage, and were exclusively available to one of the most over-statted classes in the game. They were a bit annoying to upgrade, but remained competitive because of their class mostly.

Their new counterpart takes a bit of a different approach, with the main version specializing in crits and TP reduction like it’s big brother. The modified version, however, is the total opposite, reducing Luck, and hitting a little harder with a Parry bonus. This essentially allows the two to be used together for more effective dual wielding, while still allowing a single sword build to have offensive and defensive versions for their convenience (If a Parry sword is used in the main hand, it will take off the crit bonus, so the first hit has less chance to push the other guy away. ).

Their Finishers no longer do crazy amounts of damage, but now specialize in shutdown debuffs, like Sleep.

Whips

Let’s not mince words here, the default versions SUCKED. They took the option of a shield, their finishers were kinda iffy, they were hard to get, and were essentially a suckier version of a spear. Ozma was just about the only character that was worth considering for this weapon.

Well all you kinky whip lovers rejoice, because they are back in a HUGE way! For one thing, they no longer just bounce off the closest thing, and can instead attack around obstacles, opponents, anything. On top of this, they can attack diagonally too. On top of even that, they have a Falsestrike effect with a decent chance to proc. As if that wasn’t enough, they have some pretty decent damage, and while they suck against armor, they will do a ton against mid to light armored units. Oh, and if even that wasn’t enough, they are available to a lot of classes now, notably the Warrior and Warlock, both of whom can make excellent use of it’s qualities. These don’t have a modified version, but simply upgrade. Oh, and they have a Tame bonus.

Even their finishers are great, with things like an AoE Poison Burst, A constricting Shackle hit, and more.

As of recent versions, Clerics also got these, and it’s quite a handy option for giving them the option of doing damage while screwing with the AI’s accuracy.

Books

Who remembers that books are a thing? Just that one guy that figured out the Double Attack Book Lord exploit? Well dang.

OK, books were kind of crap before. They provided a racial damage bonus, but otherwise weren’t exactly great. FFT had the right idea on books, and that’s where he went with these ones. They provide a much heftier bonus to racial skills than before, but now cause Rupture and have a short range, indirect telekinetic attack. This makes them essentially the one-handed counterpart to Cudgels. These don’t have a modified version, but simply upgrade.

Their finishers aren’t going to be winning any fights solo, but are great in certain situations. It’s definitely notable that the Curse status from the first one actually turns off the Counter ability.

Sidearms/Thrown/Blowguns

Alright. Best for last!

So ok, no one liked Thrown, don’t even lie. I spent so much time grinding up to rank 6 only to realize a finisher was never coming.

They were expensive, annoying, had no finishers, and had limited ammo. You could never rely on them for dungeons, because the darn things would just run out so fast.

Blowguns were a bit better, providing a bit of fun debuff action, but until ultra late game and the F-Gun, didn’t have a whole lot of damage to show for it.

So what’s a Sidearm? Why the improved, combined version of both of these, of course! First and foremost, thrown weapons are just like every other ranged weapon now, there’s no need for ammo grinding. They are a short range, decent damage single handed ranged option with a Hobble chance, with a bit of heft to them. They can also be modified to hit with Slow, at the cost of 1 range.

Blowguns are also included in this skill, and while still fairly low on damage, still provide lots of good debuffs as always. Some of those odd damage variants have been given debuffs, in order to make them competitive.

For a sidearm weapon, their finishers are fairly strong, aside from several debuffs, their overall punch is pretty great.

Alrighty, that’s all for this one, look for more soon!

Sincerely,

Coffee Potato, who wishes he could upload pictures faster.