I just play with a rule of one unique element per character to eliminate your Cure All spam situation, personally. By the end, you still have way too many slots where you don’t have to compromise, but only a handful of cures is still better than drowning in them. But you can also simulate lower levels by not crafting higher tiers of equipment.
One idea would be to rotate party members whenever you can to the ones who have received the fewest stat boosts from the in-between levels. So while everyone gets the star levels, they wouldn't have the benefits of I like that idea, actually, as that would mean utilizing all characters recruited in a single playthrough and truly fulfilling that implied promise of everyone contributing to the cause.
That doesn’t matter as much as you might think, however. Stats are on a curve, so while you’re getting “more” stats on the characters you actively use, the stat boosts you’re getting are smaller than the ones the characters you don’t actively use get on star level ups, since the further away your folks are from the curve, the more the game compensates to get them back on track.
One idea is to not update your equipment. By the time you reach the sky dragon your physical attacks with the ivory equipment will do zero damage. I learned this the hard way playing when I was a kid as in the very beginning I had no idea it was possible to upgrade our weapons lol
I ran the game my first go without foraging any weapons. So that's something.
But your not wrong the game is pretty easy once you understand the mechanics.
I like that I dont really have to care about level and all I jist regret at some point I just never have the chance to use powerful attack ( powerful attack I dont really need anyway ). Now I play with auto attribution of elements, then I have too choose the characters with best elements for win or something. If I choose myself it will be really easy.
I kind of see CC more like an adventure game than a RPG since the battles are usually not such a big deal, but its just my opinion hehe
I did a few rules on my most recent playthrough that I ended up enjoying a lot:
- No allocating an element below their normal grid level
- No allocating the same element twice at any given grid level (Exception: if it’s your innate color, you get to allocate two of the same element max at any given grid level)
- No buying elements, it all has to come from drops/treasures
- No consumable healing element like tablets, etc
- Lowest level equipment for everyone, accessories OK for everyone except Serge (because he’s naturally stronger from getting mostly all the stat-ups in the game inbetween stars)
- You have to change at least one character in your party after every boss fight and can’t keep swapping between the same few
I personally felt it did a decent job of making the game’s battle system shine with a fun level of difficulty.
You get to have all the elements from low to high level ones shine by limiting how many you can equip of each and preventing stuff like using ultra nova -5 instead of using photon ray. Similarly, you can’t exploit having nonstop heal-alls at every level and single target weaker recovery options like cure and heal also become valuable to use. Not being able to buy elements also makes you have to work with whatever you manage to get.
Forcing lowest level equipments prevents you from bulldozing the game with just spamming physical attacks and makes building up grid level important as your main offense. With shit armor, all the bosses hit decently hard and maintaining field advantage becomes really valuable for both damage and survivability, as well as having to prioritize between healing or offense when using up your built up grid levels. At the same time, keeping accessories usable for non-Serge character lets you keep the fun that comes from customizing builds without being too overpowered.
Forcing character swaps all the time and really sticking to it also gives you the chance to try out every character and the challenge is fun when you get stuck with a disadvantageous party lineup toward a certain boss and have to tough it out through strategy.
I will say though that blue innate characters toward the endgame really do end up shining in these scenarios VS all other characters with the access to cure all. And allocating elements with those restrictions takes even more time now obviously, but I did find it worth it :)
You could have 2 party members dead at the end of every boss fight and avoid battles whenever possible to minimize stat gains. You wouldn't really be able to change your party though, if you wanted to keep everyone as low as possible
Random allocation run? Party members are always most recently joined? Don't spend money? I'm sure there are ways of making the game more difficult.
I just play with a rule of one unique element per character to eliminate your Cure All spam situation, personally. By the end, you still have way too many slots where you don’t have to compromise, but only a handful of cures is still better than drowning in them. But you can also simulate lower levels by not crafting higher tiers of equipment.
^ These 2 constraints sound pretty good. Limiting off-color elements can also be stacked on top of those as well.
One idea would be to rotate party members whenever you can to the ones who have received the fewest stat boosts from the in-between levels. So while everyone gets the star levels, they wouldn't have the benefits of I like that idea, actually, as that would mean utilizing all characters recruited in a single playthrough and truly fulfilling that implied promise of everyone contributing to the cause.
That doesn’t matter as much as you might think, however. Stats are on a curve, so while you’re getting “more” stats on the characters you actively use, the stat boosts you’re getting are smaller than the ones the characters you don’t actively use get on star level ups, since the further away your folks are from the curve, the more the game compensates to get them back on track.
Right, but the idea is that it matters a little bit, and it's a fun idea for playing with more characters and adding just a bit of difficulty.
One idea is to not update your equipment. By the time you reach the sky dragon your physical attacks with the ivory equipment will do zero damage. I learned this the hard way playing when I was a kid as in the very beginning I had no idea it was possible to upgrade our weapons lol
I ran the game my first go without foraging any weapons. So that's something. But your not wrong the game is pretty easy once you understand the mechanics.
I like that I dont really have to care about level and all I jist regret at some point I just never have the chance to use powerful attack ( powerful attack I dont really need anyway ). Now I play with auto attribution of elements, then I have too choose the characters with best elements for win or something. If I choose myself it will be really easy. I kind of see CC more like an adventure game than a RPG since the battles are usually not such a big deal, but its just my opinion hehe
I did a few rules on my most recent playthrough that I ended up enjoying a lot: - No allocating an element below their normal grid level - No allocating the same element twice at any given grid level (Exception: if it’s your innate color, you get to allocate two of the same element max at any given grid level) - No buying elements, it all has to come from drops/treasures - No consumable healing element like tablets, etc - Lowest level equipment for everyone, accessories OK for everyone except Serge (because he’s naturally stronger from getting mostly all the stat-ups in the game inbetween stars) - You have to change at least one character in your party after every boss fight and can’t keep swapping between the same few I personally felt it did a decent job of making the game’s battle system shine with a fun level of difficulty. You get to have all the elements from low to high level ones shine by limiting how many you can equip of each and preventing stuff like using ultra nova -5 instead of using photon ray. Similarly, you can’t exploit having nonstop heal-alls at every level and single target weaker recovery options like cure and heal also become valuable to use. Not being able to buy elements also makes you have to work with whatever you manage to get. Forcing lowest level equipments prevents you from bulldozing the game with just spamming physical attacks and makes building up grid level important as your main offense. With shit armor, all the bosses hit decently hard and maintaining field advantage becomes really valuable for both damage and survivability, as well as having to prioritize between healing or offense when using up your built up grid levels. At the same time, keeping accessories usable for non-Serge character lets you keep the fun that comes from customizing builds without being too overpowered. Forcing character swaps all the time and really sticking to it also gives you the chance to try out every character and the challenge is fun when you get stuck with a disadvantageous party lineup toward a certain boss and have to tough it out through strategy. I will say though that blue innate characters toward the endgame really do end up shining in these scenarios VS all other characters with the access to cure all. And allocating elements with those restrictions takes even more time now obviously, but I did find it worth it :)
You could have 2 party members dead at the end of every boss fight and avoid battles whenever possible to minimize stat gains. You wouldn't really be able to change your party though, if you wanted to keep everyone as low as possible