Mana series (Seiken Densetsu)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana:  Angela Part 14


Random enemies in Dragonsmaw did what many bosses in Trials of Mana never could:  kill the party.  Peepers were upgraded Beholders that reflected Angela's spells.  She was surprised when she silenced herself with a Stun Gust!  Peepers also cast an instant death roulette spell on a single target similarly to the winged eyeball monsters in Final Fantasy games.  Palette swapped knight enemies were as powerful here as they were in earlier dungeons.


DEATH COUNT:  5


It was clear that the party wasn't ready for the final Angela/Duran story dungeon.  So they backtracked through Crystal Desert and beat up the enemies there until reaching Levels 42-43.  The monsters became much easier once the session was finished in a way that couldn't entirely be accounted for by stats or equipment.  (Angela finally bought her Pedda staff during this part.)  Even Dark Assassins were being destroyed by melee, when before they required spells, debuffs, or possibly Stun Gust silence.  The enemies' levels must have some hidden mechanics.



Regarding class change, I found out on GameFAQs that upgrading automatically raises a character to the stat caps of the previous class.  That's why everyone gained so much DEX and LUCK at Level 38 when they became their final classes.  It also means that abstaining from class changes is effectively a low level playthrough in a game where being underleveled has harsh penalties, not just the lack of late game spells like I originally thought.



EDIT:  Trials of Mana can work well with a modified FF5 Fiesta style variant.  Roll 3 random characters at the beginning, then roll which class change you get when you reach Levels 18 and 38.  The closest thing to a "Berserker Risk" would be if you don't get Charlotte or Light class versions of Duran or Kevin, resulting in a team without a healer.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana:  Angela Part 15


Dragonsmaw was the largest dungeon yet, and its rooms looked similar enough to each other that I needed a GameFAQs map to find my way around.  Some regions were blocked off until rematches with early game bosses were completed in order.


Harcypete was first, and it was harder than the previous round in the Heavensway region.  Angela's Cold Blaze and Dark Force, melee, and a rare Hexas summon from Riesz defeated the harpy.


Jewel Eater was far easier than the Stonesplit Gap version.  It rarely attacked at all and preferred to debuff evasion with Impediment.  Debuffs combined with physical attacks made for a long but simple battle.


Fullmetal Hugger was the final rematch in Dragonsmaw, and it was a little more difficult than the other two.  At least Team Angela had to stop to heal when hit with Bubbleblast or Dive Bomb attacks.  Though melee and Class Strikes won again when combined with Riesz's stat reduction spells.


The worst part of Dragonsmaw was actually an ornate castle hall filled with a gauntlet of Peepers and Black Knights, complete with multiple instant death roulettes.


For some reason, the Crimson Wizard battle had the same music as the Wind Benevodon battle.  He spent most of the fight drifting around and chanting spells constantly.  He threw every elemental attack imaginable at Team Angela:  Evil Gate, Earthquake, Diamond Shards, Ice Smash, Holy Bolt, Thunderbolt, Lucent Beam, and some others I've forgotten.  To prepare for this, Riesz cast her debuffs and Charlotte set up Magic Shields for extra defense.  With these precautions there was still a chance of dying when the Crimson Wizard used the ultimate spell Ancient Curse and put everyone into critical HP.


Stun Gust was the main source of damage, inflicting nearly 600.  The Crimson Wizard's mobility made it difficult for melee to reach him, though regular attacks and Class Strikes were still used on occasion.


When the battle was over, the Crimson Wizard explained his backstory before committing suicide by Dark Force.  He was a failure in Altena, so he went to Dragonsmaw and sacrificed half his "life force" when the Dragon Lord's spirit spoke to him in exchange for magical power.  The Crimson Wizard agreed and the two villains thought of a plan to use the Mana Sword to resurrect the Dragon Lord completely.  Once the Benevodons were killed, the Dragon Lord returned to attack the Mana Sanctuary.


The True Queen had been brainwashed for the whole game, and spoke to Angela as if she were still skipping José's magic lessons in the castle.  The True Queen would have never agreed to sacrifice Angela if she were not being controlled, much less declare war on the rest of the world.


Our next update will probably be the last for this playthrough.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana:  Angela Part 16


Well, this isn't the last installment of the Angela playthrough.  You'll see why in a bit.


The corrupted Mana Sanctuary was a short dungeon, if a bit confusing because the layout was different from last time.  All the enemies here were Shape Shifters, like Zehnoa's minions.  Angela fought some when necessary, but mostly stepped around them to rush to the final boss.


Angela arrived at the Mana Tree only to learn that the Dragon Lord had cut it down.  He gave a typical villain speech and seemingly killed the fairy companion.  The Dragon Lord transformed into a dragon and knocked out the party until the fairy revived the team with a line about the "sword in our hearts called hope", probably the cheesiest RPG dialogue you can think of.


One gimmick for this final boss was that the Dragon Lord changed colors and elemental properties.  He cast as wide a variety of spells as the Crimson Wizard, and possibly more.  Frozen Crack debuffed Team Angela's physical attack to the point where only Class Strikes and spells could do anything more than pity damage.  Dragon Roar attacked everyone and debuffed accuracy/evasion, and Gigantaburn did the same for magic.  Shackles transformed the party into Moogles.  Flare simply hit everyone for around 300, and Ancient Curse was a similar attack.  Some spells seen throughout the game were Lucent Beam, Half Eclipse, and Thunderstorm.  When the Dragon Lord was in a foul mood, he chewed a character and spit her out with 240s damage with Fury Fang.


Team Angela put up a good fight with repeated Dark Force castings and a supply of MP and revival items, but it wasn't enough once the boss started dualcasting his attacks.  Level 47 wasn't sufficient, and the team required more STA and possibly SPRT.  Time to grind!


DEATH COUNT:  6

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana:  Angela Finale


Angela, Charlotte, and Riesz leveled to 50 in the Crystal Desert and Dragonsmaw region for one purpose.  Not gaining stats, as they were close to their low caps and had to put points into SPRT and INT.  Not for extra HP, although that was nice.  The true benefit of Level 50 came from one spell unique to the Rune Seer:  Annihilate.


Annihilate always dealt 999 damage to enemies, but only if Angela had a level greater than or equal to them.  No opponent that she encountered scaled beyond 50, including the Dragon Lord.  It was rewarding to see the "dark Triforce" animation play repeatedly.  The only hurdle was Angela running out of her 99 MP.  Charlotte resolved this by leaving Angela for dead while she cast Healing Light on herself and Riesz, then shoving a Cup of Wishes down the corpse's throat to restore Angela's mana.  After every revival, Charlotte reapplied Magic Shield.  One close call came after the Dragon Lord cast Flare, but one final Annihilate made the screen flash in negative.


(You also become immune to instant death moves when you're above the enemy's level, even the Peeper's roulette.  Solo runs may actually be viable then, if tedious with the amount of grinding you'd have to do.)


The fairy companion would become the new Mana Goddess, but it would take 1000 years for magic to return.  Altena would have to deal with the cold without the True Queen's power, and Angela didn't seem concerned at all.  Even though the game suggested that Altena's residents were not prepared even when the True Queen's powers were diminishing at the beginning.  Charlotte reunited with Heath, who had sacrificed himself to cure her grandfather, then was revived by the last of the Mana Goddess's power.  Riesz met Elliot (only 1 "t"!), who said he had a dream about his parents telling him to not depend so much on his sister.


Although the games may not be connected, I suspect Trials of Mana is a prequel to Legend of Mana somehow given this ending.  Trials of Mana is exactly what a Secret of Mana sequel should be.  If you like the concept but not the mechanics of the more famous Super Nintendo game, play Trials of Mana instead.  Physical attacks in particular are more useful, and you don't have to level your elements like in the previous game. 


This was an interesting playthrough, and for a Black Mage I had to use melee surprisingly often to get around certain enemies.  Her status ailment skills had some use later in the game, and Annihilate was the perfect endgame attack.  Charlotte was invaluable as a healer, and sometimes was the main damage dealer in Dark element battles.  Riesz's Dark class debuffs had a dramatic effect, and her high HP and defenses sometimes saved the party when she barely survived attacks that killed the other two characters.  The 3 female characters made an effective team.


There will probably be another Trials of Mana some time in the future, but I'm looking forward to playing a game that's much more popular (in general and on Realms Beyond) on Christmas. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana:  Angela BONUS:  Black Rabite


I may have finished the game, but there was still one thing left for Angela to do.  Trials of Mana's secret boss lived in an area of Dragonsmaw, and could therefore only be fought with Angela or Duran as the lead character.  Seeing YouTube footage of a battle with this monster convinced me to pick up Collection of Mana in the first place. 


Black Rabite looked just like you'd expect:  a palette swap of the Mana series mascot.  When its ENTRANCE dealt around 150 damage to the whole party, I knew I was in for a fun fight.  Charlotte was manually controlled for most of the battle because she constantly needed to heal, cure status ailments, and buff the team.  Riesz applied the usual debuffs at the beginning.  Angela's offensive spells were worthless, and it was discouraging to see Annihilate deal 0 damage.  Melee and Class Strikes were necessary to hurt Black Rabite at all with this team.


Early in the fight, Black Rabite cast Change Form to apply mini status to the whole party, which Charlotte cured with Twinkle Rain.  Her Magic Shield's magic defense boost perhaps helped the team survive the Lava Waves, Lucent Beams, Dark Forces, Moon Spirals, and Supersonics, (usually in 200s to low 300s range) but she stopped using it later in the battle because frequent Fetid Breaths debuffed that stat.


Black Rabite didn't fight alone.  It often summoned Level 99 Demons, which weren't as powerful as you'd expect a Level 99 enemy to be.  This was probably meant to prevent players from killing them with Annihilate just in case they picked the Rune Seer class for Angela.  Their Fetid Breaths supplemented those of the Black Rabite.  Another dirty trick Black Rabite had was to cast Dark Saber on everyone so their regular attacks would heal it.  Charlotte cast Holy Saber both to increase damage output and to counter Dark Saber.  Class Strikes seemed to be purely physical, and thus didn't heal Black Rabite for hundreds of HP.


Just when it seemed that Team Angela had a chance to win, Black Rabite started cheating.  It cast many consecutive spells without charge time, and could heal itself with Evil Gate, Black Rain, and Dark Force for far more than the party's damage output.  Sometimes the party had to spend a bit of time as Moogles.  Attacks were included in these multicast marathons, like Psychic Blast, Barrage Sting, Southern Slice, and Fetid Breath.  One Supersonic at the end of this session caused a defeat.  It was clear that Black Rabite was either designed for optimal parties or much higher character levels than 50.


FINAL DEATH COUNT:  7


EDIT:  To give some perspective on damage relative to player HP, Riesz had 700 health at this point.  Angela had 553, and Charlotte had 598.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana Kevin Part 1


I wanted to take a bit of a break from Pokemon, so I started up a new Trials of Mana playthrough.  Kevin the beastman was the leading character this time.  Duran and Hawkeye were chosen as the teammates since Riesz, Angela, and Charlotte were already used in the 1st playthrough.


Kevin's prologue took place in Feriol and the Duskmoon Forest instead of Angela's frozen kingdom Altena.  Humans apparently persecuted beastmen to the point where they forced to live in these gloomy woods, and Kevin's father the king was going to avenge his people by assaulting Charlotte's holy hometown of Wendel.  This was done with some encouragement by Goremand the wizard.


Kevin himself was caring for his only friend, Karl the wolf, when suddenly Karl attacked him.  Kevin was forced to punch Karl until he involuntarily turned into a werewolf.  This was all Goremand and the king of Feriol's scheme to force Kevin to abandon any emotional attachments and make him into a focused warrior.  Kevin was furious and tried to attack Goremand and the king once he overheard them gloating about their success.  But he had to leave the castle to try to save Wendel instead.


At that point, the town and dungeon sequence was the same for Kevin as it was for Angela.  Apart from some differences in the dialogue, the plot would remain similar until the first visit to the Mana Sanctuary, where Feriol would defeat Altena and Nevarl.


Werewolf transformations aren't just part of the story, but a powerful gameplay mechanic.  I didn't realize why until after this session was done.  It turns out that the werewolf is glitched in the player's favor, and taking damage in that form gives an automatic Strength Up buff.  As long as Kevin travels at night or uses Dream Reeds to change the time, he's the best melee fighter.


Fullmetal Hugger was simple at Level 5 with Kevin in werewolf form.  The tactic was "bash A, then B when the Class Strike gauge was full", while eating 3 Candies to heal.  Duran joined at Level 4 in the Jadd Stronghold prison, like all 3rd characters.


Duran's motivation for the quest was to level grind in order to beat up the Crimson Wizard:  "That's why the king let me go to Wendel to learn how to switch my class".  I didn't expect Trials of Mana to state that so blatantly!    


The two robots on the bridge to Valsena still existed in this alternate timeline, and their Rocket Launcher still hurt.  Especially when the save point statue didn't heal the party beforehand.  About 3 Candies were required to beat them up with werewolf punches, dual daggers, and sword slashes.


Team Kevin fought against Jewel Eater the mole at Levels 7-8.  Kevin had to fight in his regular beastman form because I forgot that the AM/PM option at the inn was only provided if resting in the daytime.  7 Candies were needed to survive attacks like Hard Hit and Ground Slam to the whole party, or Diamond Shards to an individual.  Otherwise, Jewel Eater liked to cast debuffs like Impediment, which didn't work because the evasion mechanics were glitched. 


Valsena was the 1st town to sell Chocolates and Honey Elixirs, important for a party that couldn't heal with magic yet.  The Night Market in a port town sold Strength buffing Drake Scale items, and Poto Oils for 60 HP healing to the party.  Kevin couldn't return for a while, so he made sure to stock up on them for boss fights.


Copper Knights and their spinning attacks were fearsome enemies in the Angela playthrough, but Team Kevin was trouncing them throughout the Heavensway region at Level 9.  I thought Trials of Mana was a hard game, but that must have been because Team Angela was weak. 


Harcypete the harpy was easy at Level 10 in spite of it flying around.  This was probably because there was no "height", so hitting it at the top of the screen still worked although its shadow gave the illusion of flying higher.  About 2 Candies were needed for healing, and the most significant actions the boss took were to cast buffs and debuffs and to damage the team heavily with Supersonic about a second before the boss death animation.

 
Riesz had a short cutscene when she was injured and forced to retreat from Laurent because she wasn't in the party.  Team Kevin stormed Laurent at Levels 10-11.  Consider that Team Angela had to level to 18 and then class change to stand a chance against the bosses, and you'll see how much of a difference party composition makes.  Trials of Mana's story is another case of "wizards are never trustworthy unless you're playing as them".  Then again, playing as a Black Mage is ineffective in comparison to being a werewolf.


Team Kevin prepared for Zehnoa the demon door statue by buffing themselves with Drake Scales.  Kevin himself didn't need them, but I didn't know about the glitch at the time.  The victory was surprisingly quick, and Zehnoa's minion summons and Strengthen buffs were feeble.  Only 2 Candies were necessary to heal.


Bil and Ben the Nevarl assassins, however, were still worthy opponents.  Their Shadow Menace and multi-target Shurikens put enough pressure on Team Kevin that they had to eat 7 Candies and 2 Poto Oils.  The only thing about Team Angela that I miss so far is Charlotte's healing, and Team Kevin can get healing if one party member becomes a Light class at Level 18.  Kevin and friends don't have to sit through all of Angela's spell charging time and animations either.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana Kevin Part 2


Kevin was trapped on the Ghost Ship during the day, so he had to fight past all the monsters without the werewolf STR glitch.  Hawkeye was the designated victim for the mandatory possession because he was relatively weaker than Kevin and Duran. 


Kevin prepared for the Gova boss fight by using Drake Scales on both party members to buff their STR.  Duran and Kevin then proceeded to flail at the ghost, stopping to eat 3 Candies and Poto Oils to heal.  The boss's Silence was irrelevant to this magically deprived party, though Ghostleader and Dark Rain dealt considerable damage to Team Kevin.  Gova cast Evil Gate just before its death animation played.


It was still daytime while Kevin was brawling through the enemies on the volcanic Beuca Island.  But after the party bought equipment in the village and reached Seaside Cavern, the sun went down.  Good thing, too, since some enemies healed themselves occasionally.  There was no boss here.


The Darkshine Knight recognized Duran in the Frostbite Fields before summoning 3 Machine Golems who immediately opened fire with their rockets.  Team Kevin was in the 15-16 level range at the time, a little below the random enemies.  Candies were still useful once each character's HP was in the 200s-300s range, but would soon become obsolete.  About 3 Chocolates were necessary for their higher HP recovery.  Battles in the playthrough so far ended quickly compared to Team Angela's timeline, but Team Kevin tended to be heavily wounded during battles.


On the way back to the snowy town of Alrant, I realized that the party was close to changing class, so Team Kevin backtracked to the Labyrinth of Ice Mana Stone.  Now the game would become more tactically interesting for a report.  Up till now it was just hitting enemies until they died and occasionally healing.


Kevin would still be the character I would control, so he was assigned the Light class of Monk.  Now he had the potential of casting Pressure Point to buff attack power, and Charlotte's starter single target version of Healing Light.  Duran became the Dark class Gladiator because the party didn't need a 2nd Healing Light user.  Duran would gain the "elemental Saber" buffs in case enemies had specific weaknesses. 


Hawkeye gained magic from his Ninja class on the Dark side, but I wouldn't use it much because only manually controlled characters would cast spells.  Hawkeye would mostly benefit from increased stat caps and an upgraded Class Strike.


On the way back to Alrant, I noticed that the Gladiator Class Strike was the same spinning attack that Copper Knights used to mortally wound Team Angela so many times.  It was nice to have it on my side for a change!  The Ninja Class Strike was just a jumping slash to a single enemy.  The Monk's version seemed variable:  a throw at close range, or a similar spinning attack to the Gladiator from long range.


Stat comparison at Level 18 after changing class:


Kevin

STR:  10
DEX:  9
STA:  12
INT:  8
SPRT:  8
LUCK:  8
 
 
Hawkeye

STR:  9
DEX:  12
STA:  9
INT:  9
SPRT:  9
LUCK:  12
 


Duran

STR:  12
DEX:  10
STA:  11
INT:  8
SPRT:  8
LUCK:  8


Poor Hawkeye!  He has superior DEX and LUCK, which are the two most useless stats due to glitches.  LUCK is meant for critical hits, but critical hits functionally never happen during a Trials of Mana playthrough.  At least with high LUCK, Hawkeye is less likely to activate treasure chest traps.     DEX governs evasion, but that doesn't work either.  His Ninja magic does scale with DEX, however.


Most of the time, stat points go into either STR for damage or STA for defense and HP.  SPRT is good for Kevin's Healing Light.  INT is only important for offensive magic that isn't Light element, and is pretty much the Angela stat.


The Hero King mentioned that the party should change class before going to Duskmoon Forest, so Team Kevin is leveling as the developers intended.  Team Angela was the rare "unintended variant playthrough".


EDIT:  It seems SPRT is used for the Poto Oil item too.  That explains why it only healed for about 60 per character when Kevin was using them at first.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana Kevin Part 3


Salamando's Mana Stone was in the Burning Sands desert near Nevarl in the southeastern area of the world.  The boss fight with Bil and Ben came before the volcano dungeon rather than afterwards.  Only 2 Drake Scales were needed because Kevin's werewolf form already gave him a STR buff. 


Bil and Ben were still as dangerous as ever with Shurikens to the whole party and Shadow Menace to a single character.  About 3 Candies and 1 Chocolate were used to heal. . .until Kevin leveled to 20 after killing one of the Ninjas and learned Healing Light!  He didn't get to cast it often before the final Ninja died.  Hawkeye had a brief bit of dialogue about how Bil and Ben were once his friends, before they were hypnotized. 


In the volcano, Kevin proved to be a competent healer when his Healing Light restored 210s HP.  Not something you'd expect from a werewolf martial artist.  Healing Light was necessary to withstand the knights' spinning attacks and Evil Ninjas' Shurikens.  This enemy gauntlet was a significant increase in difficulty.


One funny moment came during a shopping trip just before Duskmoon Forest.  The strongest available for Kevin at the time was called the "Moogle Claw".  Moogles in the Trials of Mana world must be much stronger than the Final Fantasy versions.  Even Mog from Final Fantasy 6 had to use a spear!


Duskmoon Forest itself had an enchantment so that it was always nighttime, which was great for Kevin.  He punched and kicked his way through all the wolves and werewolves to prove he was the true king of beastmen.  It was nice to notice certain minor details that I missed on the previous playthrough, since I realized that when Goremand was killing the Altena mages, he had the same animation as Angela's Annihilate spell.  Trials of Mana is good about giving player characters the same abilities as regular enemies and bosses.


Goremand's beastman minion Ludgar was the hardest boss yet.  He cast his Suzaku Aerial twice in a row, splitting portions of the screen with Super Nintendo special effects.  The party had no way to survive this, and I think it was a counterattack to a Class Strike.


DEATH COUNT:  1


On Take 2, Kevin spent most of the fight as an imitation Charlotte.  He cast Healing Light repeatedly as AI Hawkeye and Duran slashed Ludgar.  Duran's spin attack Class Strike was a suitable ending for the battle.


Dior had the usual upgrades, but the body armor was notable for providing much more MGC DEF than previous equipment.  It was mandatory to go through Lampbloom Woods at night because of the "Lost Woods" navigation gimmick.  Without following the nocturnal flowers, Kevin would have never reached the next area.  Being in werewolf form for the dragon plant boss Grapplavine at Level 21 was a nice side effect.  Grapplavine was easy with the typical Drake Scale preparation.  Grapplavine summoned insect enemies and occasionally cast Poison Bubble and Sleep Flower.  Sleep was annoying, but easily cured with herbs in the ring menu. 


Feriol defeated Altena and Nevarl at the battle of the Mana Sanctuary this time.  Instead of being the final boss like in the Angela playthrough, the Dragon Lord had been killed in his own base while his followers were distracted.  The Darkshine Knight and the Crimson Wizard also disappeared, angering Duran who wanted to defeat them with his own power. 


Once Kevin and friends beat up the Rabite palette swaps in the Mana Sanctuary and retrieved the Mana Sword, they were at Level 23.  How far will they get before the 2nd class change at Level 38?  This isn't a low level challenge so much as the characters being so powerful that they can rush through every area without having to stop to grind.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana Kevin Part 4


One notable difference in the Kevin playthrough was having to fight through Feriol's castle instead of Altena's.  Feriol must have had more werewolves than the entire cast of Twilight, and they had all of Kevin's powers and then some unavailable to his current class.  Some could restore themselves and their teammates with Healing Light, while others struck with special moves like Abyssal Slice.  All hit hard enough to require several Cups of Wishes to revive fallen allies.  This was because some were Level 27, 4 above my party at the time. 


I had to look at a guide just to figure out where the throne room was.  Imagine Kevin bumbling through his own home and asking for directions.  Any random beastman seeking an audience with the king must be very confused when they try to navigate the castle!  After about 2 trips through the castle, Kevin and friends leveled to 26 and learned about Goremand's conspiracy with the Masked Mage of Mirage Palace to release the Benevodons and then devour the souls of the living. 


A special Kevin exclusive scene played on the roof of the castle.  Karl the wolf was actually alive, and Goremand had merely tricked Kevin into believing he was dead with illusion magic.  The king dug Karl out of the grave Kevin had made, and explained that he never wanted revenge.  The invasions of human cities were meant to unite the beastmen, making him a demagogue rather than someone who was motivated by sincere prejudice or anything like that.  Kevin's human mother never abandoned him, and instead died of illness.  The king told Kevin that she abandoned him in order to make him angry, which would supposedly make him a better fighter.


Kevin's father is characterized quite differently from Angela's mother.  The True Queen of Altena was hypnotized for most of the game, while the King of Feriol knew exactly what he was doing. 


Team Kevin can probably fight the Benevodons in any order, since they don't have to worry about not having the correct elemental spell to deal with them once they scale up.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Trials of Mana Kevin Part 5


I still remembered enough about the Gusthall's layout to reach Dangaard the 2-headed bird dragon Benevodon quickly at Level 26.  The sky graphics shown while fighting on Flammie's back looked like it was during the day, but it was mechanically still at night, enabling Kevin to battle in werewolf form. 


Duran's Gladiator class came with Stone Saber to provide everyone Earth element buffs on top of Drake Scales.  Unfortunately, every time the scrolling changed from horizontal to vertical (or vice versa), it would count as a "separate fight", meaning that all buffs had to be reapplied.  One beneficial side effect was reviving Hawkeye with 1 HP without having to use a Cup of Wishes, since all dead characters are resurrected after a screen is cleared.  Overall the battle with Dangaard was easy with the help of 3 Poto Oils and 4 Honey Elixirs.  Healing Light is overrated in most boss fights when items don't have to deal with spell charge time.


Team Kevin fought against Mispolm the pumpkin Benevodon at Level 27 in the Wandara Woods.  About 3 Poto Oils, 1 Chocolate, and 3 Honey Elixirs were consumed as the party smacked and slashed the poisonous plant.  Drake Scales only had to be applied once since there were no extra phases like in the Dangaard battle.


Fiegmund the ice dragon was confronted at Level 28 in the Labyrinth of Ice.  Drake Scales and the Gladiator's Flame Saber spell were the obvious ways to enhance damage.  Fiegmund died quickly, though it could have survived much longer had it stayed on the underside of the platform for longer.  Perhaps I should have had Hawkeye cast Ninja spells during that time.  While underneath the party's position, Fiegmund liked to cast Icicle and Spike Freeze, costing 2 Chocolates and 1 Poto Oil.


Overall, the Night Market can compensate for deficiencies in your party setup.  Poto Oils can heal the group if one character has decent SPRT, and Drake Scales make up for not having spells like Strengthen.


One thing I hadn't noticed while playing is that Hawkeye's Ninja spells also debuff enemies in addition to dealing elemental damage.  Maybe for the next few Benevodons, I'll have Hawkeye make preparations before switching back to Kevin.