Two more mandatory battles that take place on Gran Plains. Both battles are against generic looking soldiers; however, the difficulty greatly goes up (especially in the case of the first one), as the level difference becomes more noticeable. Also be aware that I avoid spending money on equipment (because I don’t have so much money, and I’d rather spend it on restorative items which is a more efficient investment for this challenge). This is why things that generally hurt in a normal game hurt me even more sharply. The first battle was quite a nightmare. Let’s begin by saying that before you even get your turns, you might lose one of your characters. There are five enemies here, positioned all over the map, and they like casting Power Up on the front allies as early as the first turn. They also all attack and their hits stack for some serious damage – making healing AND attacking difficult. This is where a crucial strategy comes into place: Mana Bursts. Each character ultimately gets 3 mana bursts, one with each important storyline event, and the first one is a basic Turn Break command that doesn’t cost you a turn (you can still act after executing it), and which erases one of the enemies’ turn (it can be ANY enemy, nothing is immune to it). Turn breaks are hardly abusable as they take ages to charge to their maximum (in this low level challenge, I stay in random battles and heal until they fill up, then escape), and even in a long boss battle they aren’t likely to refill …
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