Board 8 > ~FIGHT!~ Lightning/Kyo/Alucard /Morrigan/Tira vs. Crono/Sabin/Leon /Terra

(+) Yeah! (+)

thing is this can be flipped on its head back at you: why would she use this spell, at the right time, on the character who's got a good bodyguard on her? she already has a bodyguard. i'd assume he'd get any protection first so he could tank it for her. since thisspell isn't something that can be spammed, she's gotta pick this exact spell at this exact time on the exact ally and none of that seems particularly probable. Lightning doesn't need to be targeted first either, like... why would she? obviously she's stronger but it's not like Terra can't fly/teleport as she wants, making her near impossible to take down in any quick strike.

Lightnings team knows that she is the most valuable asset. Plus, you're suggesting that Terra wouldn't even necessarily target her first, either. I think that Terra in esper form doesn't appear to be a non-threat as well.

My thought process here mainly is that Lightning and Terra duking it out will end in a pretty easy Lightning win if Terra attempts to cast while Lightning has an anti-magic sheild. The shield isn't spammable but how long would an exchange between the two even take? Lightning is very fast, and she can teleport, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Qy_jTK74M

I'm on mobile and idk how to copy at a specific time but at 3:20ish you can see some of her aerial mobility and 3:28ish you can see her clearly teleporting around. This is in the introduction to the game, too, so not even peak endgame Lightning.
---

MajinZidane posted...

at 3:20ish you can see some of her aerial mobility and 3:28ish you can see her clearly teleporting around.

Yeah, this is enough to convince me -- mobility is pretty much the key concern against a flyer spamming spells. Also I didn't know Lightning could teleport.

Also Jeezy's argument makes sense re: Alucard and petrify.

Also agree with whoever said that Lightning isn't immediately obvious as the most threatening target; she looks like a pretty standard RPG character.

Basically I think GameFAQs Terra has a lot of scenarios where she could win this -- paste Morrigan first before she casts anti-magic, then nuke Lightning from out of melee range, then the rest is cleanup. But I don't think it's likely since she doesn't have perfect knowledge, she doesn't know the optimal order of kills, she's not exactly the most brilliant tactical mind. Give me Everett branches Terra and I favor her.

Here, though, Team Lightning
---

Terra
---

I am a big fan of GameFAQs Terra
---

The Alucard argument is this:

-Alucard gets petrified by scrubby-ass enemies.
-Terra has MUCH higher magic power than said scrubs.
-Alucard can easily break out of a weak petrifying ability. Nothing suggests a petrifying spell cast by a very powerful mage wouldn't lock him down for a very long time.

Thus, Alucard jobbing to petrification seems very clear and consistent. I don't expect it to last 3 seconds, I expect it to last at least like 20-30 minimum if he can break out at all. Terra also doesn't need to lead with a Break against him - if anything she probably opens with Graviga into Ultima to blow everyone up. Anyone who survives then contends with status effects.

(Also, seriously, the Leon disrespect here is unreal. He's a trained sniper on top of a mountain vs people with a maximum range of 30 meters. Who exactly is taking care of him here? He's going to pop dudes like whoa.)
---

KanzarisKelshen posted...

-Alucard can easily break out of a weak petrifying ability. Nothing suggests a petrifying spell cast by a very powerful mage wouldn't lock him down for a very long time.

i am a bad person who skipped to the last post in the topic and don't feel like reading to leadup to this point

is there anything suggesting the potency of a petrify status effect depends on the skill of the caster, i mean chances of it hitting sure but the actual effect itself seems like it should be the same
---

is there anything suggesting the potency of a petrify status effect depends on the skill of the caster, i mean chances of it hitting sure but the actual effect itself seems like it should be the same

General mechanics of spell scaling pretty much. Like we know offensive spells work like that, that's not even worth discussing, but why wouldn't statuses also do that? Morrigan's (banned ones) function that way for instance - they become harder to resist, last longer, etc. Generally spells get stronger with their caster regardless of style in an FMV setting - like to reuse the FSN Reinforcement example, a Reinforcement from Caster on a person lets her Master fight Servants. A reinforcement from Rin onto herself just lets her outrun Lancer for a few moments, even though it's easier than what Caster did and less taxing. If we assume enemies can break out of what's effectively an instant kill in its own game, then it's fair to then assume the caster gets to boost the 'difficulty check' to do so by being badass at casting.
---

Alright Drak has brought me back around.

GameFAQs Terra is pretty good, but yeah she's not going to come close to actually hitting that.

Lightning doesn't solo, but is "good enough."


(And yes, I too agree that a Terra that has lived the battle a hundred times or so would stomp this. Not on the first try though.)
---

Not really exclusive to Alucard. I'm pretty sure Jonathan (Charlotte!) can break out of Medusa's PETRIFYYYYYYYY in the same manner
---

(I can think of final fantasy specific examples too btw, just not FF6 since status effects never pop up in the plot IIRC. But these things happen in the series. Spells scale.)
---

(It is of course hard to actually locate a video and find out, since every Castlevania video is a super duper no death speed run)
---

So basically to sum up, these are the reasons I think team Terra (but not Terra by her lonesome) mop this:

-Graviga into Ultima (which is cast at 250% power because of the Hero Ring amping her parameters to 25% before Trance) is liable to blow Morrigan the hell up. She's squishy, not a tank.
-Morrigan's casting is both obvious and immobilizes her. It has the advantage of being fast, but giving Leon a few seconds to tag her is an eternity.
-I feel like status spells scale with the user once you see them outside gameplay mechanics. Call this a D&Dism, but it applies consistently across series that actually use them, FF included.
-Leon is unreachable by the enemy team (and for that matter so are Crono and Sabin, who have Luminaire and Holy, to aid in the magical bombardment). He gets to pick off dudes at leisure unless Lightning prioritizes him. If she wants to chase after Terra that's good for the latter - it means Lightning's entire team dies in the process and then she has to solo...and she probably can't against this lineup.

Like the terrain advantage is huge, dudes. I can't hammer this home enough: Morrigan has a maximum spell range of 30 meters. She can't heal, cure or boost Lightning unless she stays very close to her, which if Lightning goes it alone (and why wouldn't she? She's Turbo Alpha Bitch Lightning) means she has no good defenses. The same goes for attacking the enemy team. Spells at a 25 meter range are not doing jack here. It's super important to not discount Terra's team because they get to have a field day blowing through their MP and ammo reserves cheerily killing Lightning's backup before turning to her. If they can do any lasting damage to Lightning this match is kind of not close.
---

(And if anyone wants to know why I'm so insistent on Morrigan being useless it's because I owned her. She doesn't play buffbot that well in this situation. People who were around for M4 might recall I suggested using her as a flying scout to preempt ambushes instead, which works better, but the problem is she has nobody to work on those ambushes with like she did on my team where there was an invisible seraph and another inconspicuous flier in Malfurion Stormrage. Here she's stuck supporting someone who is very much not a team player, which is a recipe for disaster considering Morrigan herself has a temper. Put her in a less vertical terrain and her ability to spam wide area spells in instants can wreck, but in this situation things ain't so great.)
---

Drakeryn posted...

GameFAQs Terra

FFDragon posted...

GameFAQs Terra

...alright, fill me in here: what exactly is "gamefaqs" about what's been said here? attackers are entering the mountain, defenders are already in a good spot. terra's in trance for the whole fight, there is no altered personality issue in the writeup written.

how is:
- teleport the sniper to a position he's good at.
- use the broken AoE spell that messes with gravity
- follow it up with other major spells
- the sniper doing his job at sniping

a "gamefaqs" anything as opposed to reasonable action done most often? like why is she going after one person in particular when she has AoE spam and the opponents probably aren't that far away from one another? i mean even if they were there's Meltdown, which in-game has such a wide effect that it hurts your own team. so like.... what "gamefaqs" kind of characteristics are you pointing out here? she's of sound mind, the opponents' locations is clear, the main tactics addressed are... normal. slapping that in front of characters doing completely sensible, in-character choices is totally not how it's used at all.
---

Gamefaqs terra is a less effective gamefaqs Yuri with boobs
---

e unbought pool, eaed fished her up with Epoch, and this means she's in broken permatrance mode with access to Graviga, Arise (revive on death automatically) and the instant kill of petrification.

no, arise is life 2/full-life, not life 3/reraise. pretty important difference.

kusanagi kyo
---

kusanagi kyo
---

terra

Never was an answer to Graviga into stronger attacks.
---

So is this a tiebreaker scenario so I can revel in the unpreparedness
---

Late, but lightning.