KCF has beaten Monster Sanctuary
This was unexpected. Given Sean beat it at 87% map and where I was the last time (low-60s%) I played plus me constantly running into walls when facing keeper battles (6 on 6), I thought that I would realistically beat it later in the month (assuming that I could overcome my obstacles).
I realize that there's A LOT of RNG when it comes to battling that just aren't discernable in the moment, so I tried again with the magma cavern keeper battle, and I ended up beating it on one of the first few tries. Then I was just in a groove where nothing could ultimately stop me. I eventually got into the final area last night, but I went to bed hitting another wall against one of the keeper battles there. Today, I went around the map doing other stuff and reached level 41, but I was still getting denied in that fight.
I turned to the internet, and there were suggestions to shift my monsters (all six in my party were unshifted), to get stat boosts and a passive ability. Boy, did that make a huge difference. I guess that I didn't know shifting was basically 100% beneficial and not a pro/con deal. It was still a very difficult challenge with that fight plus the remaining others, but I persevered.
My MVP through the game was probably my Mad Eye who was a debuff maniac. I chose the level 40 ability called Cataclysm I think, and I would use that at the very beginning of each fight just stacking debuff upon debuff to give myself an early advantage that I was bound to not screw up.
I love everything about this game except the extreme difficulty spikes with keeper battles that again often force you to tailor your setup to that fight as opposed to making in-fight adjustments.
I finished with 79% map completion.
KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy