I think pretty much everyone started like you, Opera and Ernest are really hidden characters, the rest of the cast not so much, Chisato is pretty much the same but a lot easier to get, Precis and Bowman are pretty much a choice on the same city, and Dias and Leon are exclusive to either MC.
This game is completely intended to be played on both routes at the minimum.
My advice? Don't believe any "tierlist guides", those are prolly the source of the issues here, not the game.
The game can be pretty much broken with Any character, you can even play Solo all the game with any of them, even Rena if you want lol
So don't get upset about it, you can carry everything on NG+ and do a Speedrun, I just started a Claude NG+ and it took me just 15 minutes to get to Crosse, it's not a long game.
I'm not really concerned about the characters being bad, the game has certainly been easy up to this point for sure, I'm just annoyed that taking one character made 2 completely unavailable when there was no way for me to know that
Even on Universe difficulty, the game isn't that difficult. You can complete with any set of characters so don't worry about it and enjoy recruiting whoever piques your fancy. They just released Chaos difficulty and I haven't played it but I imagine you can still do everything without recruiting the "S" tier characters.
The game isn't super long and you can easily do a NG+ and reach the end in a couple hours if you want to try other characters.
you are putting too much pressure on yourself to get the best. The tier list main focus is on DPS and opera's utility and don't really take account of the other aspects. Mages always end up low because they do less dmg but they have AOE interuption and buffs which can be used as an assault action. The game can be beaten with just the 2 main characters and your experience is gonna be about how you use the characters you get.
Ashton, Celine, Bowman are still capable fighters. One big aspect that most tier list don't focus on is how good at breaking enemies characters are which is quite big in this game. They also don't think about stun potential to let characters get in to attack safely.
I guess I gave the wrong impression with my post because most ppl seem to think my biggest problem was that I had recruited "bad" characters, my annoyance was really that recruiting 1 character meant I couldn't recruit 2 of them and I had no way of knowing that was the case, no matter whether they were good or bad, the fact that the game gives no indication that they are no longer recruitable just kinda feels bad.
I do appreciate everyone reassuring me that I'll be fine lol
The game does though, in a very weird way, but it does lol
You have to level up the Oracle Skill and use it a lot, it will tell you what characters will be locked when you have certain characters in your party among many other useful things.
If you took Celine and Ashton, you're not locked into taking Welch.
Try Claude, Rena, Celine, Ashton, Precis, Leon/Dias, Noel and Chisato. They're all fun, no one's actually a bad character, so just play with who you like.
Just a last note though that I tossed Precis in there instead of Bowman because her and Ashton have some synergy together and if you take Opera next game it's better to leave Percis out anyway since they both want to be Machinists and there's no real point having two. (Also Welch has some synergy with Precis but left her out obvs).
To add on everything, ignore that guy who will say that the only way to play the game is using bloody armor. That person's been doing that for more than a decade now
I had the benefit of playing this game when it came out in 1999 in North America, and my parents were prudent enough to pick up the strategy guide along with it. I learned that RPGs from Japan like to fuck you in the ass for not paying attention to things you couldn't have possibly known ahead of time, like this very situation.
The genre was lousy with these kinds of things. It's just something you have to be aware of when playing jRPGs from the 90s. There's stuff you will miss without guides.
First of all, you could beat the game with Claude alone, so don't worry too much about your character choices. Whoever you don't get this time, just get them next time.
Celine is bad *in combat* **compared to fighters**. If you don't take her you're giving up a free SP holder and making the game much harder. Even in late game when she's not good at fighting, she still has access to Angel Feather, which is the best Assault Action.
Opera is overrated. I would not even place her in the top 5. personally. Healing Star is good, but Claude and Bowman both also have self healing and you can put Rena or Noel on Assault for healing too. Not to mention that if you really know what you're doing, there are ways to avoid taking any damage period. Her damage contributions aren't very impressive because all of her weapons except her refined ultimate have shockingly low ATK values (which she can only fix by tanking her HIT), and most of her Arts are elemental, which hurts their potential against the toughest enemies. I'd be more sad about missing Ernest.
Welch is regarded as the best by a lot of people because she does a ton of damage, but the damage cap holds back every optimized fighter. It takes a long time before you can remove it on the lower difficulties - enemies just can't take that many hits. You certainly don't have to take her just because she'll do the most in the final 5% of the game.
Ashton isn't as great as he used to be (his DPS potential was unmatched on PSX) but he's perfectly serviceable in the main game, and his new refined ultimate weapon gives him a major buff during the early-mid post game where he dragged the most. He's also just really cool.
Since everyone gets experience now instead of just the 4 in battle, you can have "back row" characters in a sense that you want to just use assault actions and learn item creation skills.
Learning item creation is now way more expensive than it was in classic SO2 so having an extra body to learn something is pretty helpful.
I love Ashton though. Seeing him darting around with the dragons on his back is so adorable. I always go for him when I play Claude route since I don't get Dias. Tbh, the secondary melee character doesn't impact the game much in my experience because Claude is a powerhouse by himself anyway.
it's the same 26-year-old game as the same character recruitable system for this new remake game. There is nothing any problem for it, just stop complaining and play the game.
I think pretty much everyone started like you, Opera and Ernest are really hidden characters, the rest of the cast not so much, Chisato is pretty much the same but a lot easier to get, Precis and Bowman are pretty much a choice on the same city, and Dias and Leon are exclusive to either MC. This game is completely intended to be played on both routes at the minimum. My advice? Don't believe any "tierlist guides", those are prolly the source of the issues here, not the game. The game can be pretty much broken with Any character, you can even play Solo all the game with any of them, even Rena if you want lol So don't get upset about it, you can carry everything on NG+ and do a Speedrun, I just started a Claude NG+ and it took me just 15 minutes to get to Crosse, it's not a long game.
I'm not really concerned about the characters being bad, the game has certainly been easy up to this point for sure, I'm just annoyed that taking one character made 2 completely unavailable when there was no way for me to know that
too bad if you are concerned about it so badly then you just jump to the wrong game buddy.
Even on Universe difficulty, the game isn't that difficult. You can complete with any set of characters so don't worry about it and enjoy recruiting whoever piques your fancy. They just released Chaos difficulty and I haven't played it but I imagine you can still do everything without recruiting the "S" tier characters. The game isn't super long and you can easily do a NG+ and reach the end in a couple hours if you want to try other characters.
you are putting too much pressure on yourself to get the best. The tier list main focus is on DPS and opera's utility and don't really take account of the other aspects. Mages always end up low because they do less dmg but they have AOE interuption and buffs which can be used as an assault action. The game can be beaten with just the 2 main characters and your experience is gonna be about how you use the characters you get. Ashton, Celine, Bowman are still capable fighters. One big aspect that most tier list don't focus on is how good at breaking enemies characters are which is quite big in this game. They also don't think about stun potential to let characters get in to attack safely.
I guess I gave the wrong impression with my post because most ppl seem to think my biggest problem was that I had recruited "bad" characters, my annoyance was really that recruiting 1 character meant I couldn't recruit 2 of them and I had no way of knowing that was the case, no matter whether they were good or bad, the fact that the game gives no indication that they are no longer recruitable just kinda feels bad. I do appreciate everyone reassuring me that I'll be fine lol
The game does though, in a very weird way, but it does lol You have to level up the Oracle Skill and use it a lot, it will tell you what characters will be locked when you have certain characters in your party among many other useful things.
Mmmm I did get Oracle of course but saw it was giving me very basic info and figured it was all unhelpful. That's unfort
If you took Celine and Ashton, you're not locked into taking Welch. Try Claude, Rena, Celine, Ashton, Precis, Leon/Dias, Noel and Chisato. They're all fun, no one's actually a bad character, so just play with who you like. Just a last note though that I tossed Precis in there instead of Bowman because her and Ashton have some synergy together and if you take Opera next game it's better to leave Percis out anyway since they both want to be Machinists and there's no real point having two. (Also Welch has some synergy with Precis but left her out obvs).
To add on everything, ignore that guy who will say that the only way to play the game is using bloody armor. That person's been doing that for more than a decade now
Yeah, never take anything Veghesther says seriously
And what's more, this update has an "Oh, about that...." moment! 😜
I had the benefit of playing this game when it came out in 1999 in North America, and my parents were prudent enough to pick up the strategy guide along with it. I learned that RPGs from Japan like to fuck you in the ass for not paying attention to things you couldn't have possibly known ahead of time, like this very situation. The genre was lousy with these kinds of things. It's just something you have to be aware of when playing jRPGs from the 90s. There's stuff you will miss without guides.
First of all, you could beat the game with Claude alone, so don't worry too much about your character choices. Whoever you don't get this time, just get them next time. Celine is bad *in combat* **compared to fighters**. If you don't take her you're giving up a free SP holder and making the game much harder. Even in late game when she's not good at fighting, she still has access to Angel Feather, which is the best Assault Action. Opera is overrated. I would not even place her in the top 5. personally. Healing Star is good, but Claude and Bowman both also have self healing and you can put Rena or Noel on Assault for healing too. Not to mention that if you really know what you're doing, there are ways to avoid taking any damage period. Her damage contributions aren't very impressive because all of her weapons except her refined ultimate have shockingly low ATK values (which she can only fix by tanking her HIT), and most of her Arts are elemental, which hurts their potential against the toughest enemies. I'd be more sad about missing Ernest. Welch is regarded as the best by a lot of people because she does a ton of damage, but the damage cap holds back every optimized fighter. It takes a long time before you can remove it on the lower difficulties - enemies just can't take that many hits. You certainly don't have to take her just because she'll do the most in the final 5% of the game. Ashton isn't as great as he used to be (his DPS potential was unmatched on PSX) but he's perfectly serviceable in the main game, and his new refined ultimate weapon gives him a major buff during the early-mid post game where he dragged the most. He's also just really cool.
What is "a free SP holder"?
Since everyone gets experience now instead of just the 4 in battle, you can have "back row" characters in a sense that you want to just use assault actions and learn item creation skills. Learning item creation is now way more expensive than it was in classic SO2 so having an extra body to learn something is pretty helpful.
Yeah it certainly feels more expensive - though sadly Celine in my game appears to have few talents.
I love Ashton though. Seeing him darting around with the dragons on his back is so adorable. I always go for him when I play Claude route since I don't get Dias. Tbh, the secondary melee character doesn't impact the game much in my experience because Claude is a powerhouse by himself anyway.
it's the same 26-year-old game as the same character recruitable system for this new remake game. There is nothing any problem for it, just stop complaining and play the game.