maiji: Dream Team Then and Now (Star Ocean 2/Second Story R)

[images: Comic with digital inks and rough painted colours, titled “Dream Team Then and Now" by maiji. It is a 2-panel comic about the artist's favourite battle party in Star Ocean 2: Claude, Ernest, Dias, Bowman. Full story and detailed descriptions in the text below.]Full transcript [READ-MORE]Then (Star Ocean The Second Story):Dias and Ernest are coughing up blood and collapsing left and right.Claude is throwing blueberries at them, and glances over at Bowman while screaming and crying: Oh my god!! Dias and Ernest are dying!! Help!! Bowman!! You’re a doctor!! Please!! Rena only lets me use blueberries!! Bowman!!Bowman, in the background flying upside down through the air, completely oblivious: ha ha ha Pillory!Now (Star Ocean The Second Story R):Claude, his eyes blacked out horror-movie style with dark circles under them, is wearing Bloody Armor and cross-body sling bags packed with blueberries and blackberries. He’s wielding the Aeterna with 20% HP Drain and equipped with Sword of Life, and radiating ominous constantly-dying energy. His speech bubbles look like they’re dripping blood. He says: Okay. We’re ready for the next boss battle. *arrow that reads: Rena still won’t let him use anything except for berries*Dias is sweating bullets and standing behind Claude, eyeing him with a very nervous expression. Ernest, also standing behind Claude and sweating nervously, looks over his shoulder at Bowman.Bowman, still in the background flying upside down through the air obliviously: ha ha ha Neck Snap![/READ-MORE]In the PS1 days: One of the reasons Claude, Ernest, Dias and Bowman were my dream team is because I like my battles with fast-paced chaos. All four of them are frontline fighters with short- and long range attacks that allow them to fly across the entire field.  However, this team configuration was not considered optimal for a variety of reasons. The biggest one is that there is no healer. Players also had varying complaints about things like: Dias’ low defence; Ernest’s special moves leaving him open to hits; Bowman’s slow normal attack speed; et cetera. (As main character, Claude is designed to be one of your best fighters, so complaints about him in battle were uncommon.) Additionally, the way I played and used the game AI meant that all four of them had a tendency to swarm the enemy with attack spams. This meant everyone was concentrated in one place, especially with a boss. If there was a localized area attack, they’d all get hit at the same time.  Because both Claude and Bowman had moves where they could heal themselves (Energy Sword and Secret Medicine, respectively), they were usually OK. I almost always controlled Claude, so I would leave Bowman to his own devices, and heal Dias and Ernest with items when I needed to. However, Little Me was not particularly good at paying attention to people’s HP. So I often didn’t notice they were dying until, well, they were really dying or dead. Or paralyzed, poisoned, stoned, etc. So, Dias and Ernest died a lot. Additionally, Little Me was very cheap and had a tendency of hoarding items in my inventory. But I usually had lots of berries and they were very easy to replenish. So, that was what I’d use. Even if I had significantly better healing items.  Today: I talk about HP Drain on the Eternal Sphere/Aeterna and Bloody Armor here. (I feel like the actual experience of wearing something like Bloody Armor in real life would be pretty terrible.) Claude’s Energy Sword, Sword of Life in the remakes, has been upgraded in SO2R to be absolutely ridiculous. It recovers HP not just for him but also nearby allies, and even attacks the enemy at the same time. You can now play Claude as a very mobile, high damage-dealing healer. Basically this little 19 year old on-call medic running around the battlefield after anyone who’s dying. I haven’t noticed much difference in my experience of Dias, whose attacks were always strong and fast, nor Bowman, aside from the latter seeming to heal himself less frequently in my game…? But Ernest is fantastic now, and combined with the range of his whip, it’s great. He certainly seems faster, at times killing things across the field before even Dias or Claude can reach them. This team still has a tendency to swarm, practically running on top of each other trying to attack the enemy. Before this was a bad thing—in fact while playing SO2R I had an instance of all four of them getting Tractor Beamed together and dumped upside down on their heads right as the battle ended, which cracked me up. But now, it’s rare because they’re all so fast and break enemies frequently, and in any case the close proximity now also means everyone is in range for Sword of Life’s healing spirals. And then the enemy often breaks at the same time, and everyone continues spamming attacks nonstop.  Despite being a multi-Fol-liannaire in SO2R, I am still very cheap and hoard my items. I continue to sell things or use them for Item Creation when my inventory gets too full, instead of using them in battle. Old habits die hard. Blueberry bonanza for everyone. Yes, yes, there’s now Assault Formation, and you can now summon a bunch of all-party heals via Rena, Noel, Opera without them having to actually be in the active party. The problem is 1) there’s a recovery time for the Assault Formation heals before you can use them again and 2) honestly I just keep forgetting it exists and default to Claude Sword of Life-ing and throwing blueberries. This comic is actually outdated now, because I did more Remaking and got the entire dream team HP Drain on their weapons with Bloody Armor, so all four of them get to be invincible (unless they have a hard time reaching something...) and constantly dying in battle. Thus I blasted through Fienel and the final boss five times and am now blasting through the Fun City Arena, raid bosses, etc. With the periodic Sword of Life and berries, of course.