Board 8 > ~FIGHT!~ Agnes Oblige vs. Richter Belmont

(+) Yeah! (+)

Agnes Oblige has challenged Richter Belmont to a fight! Location of the fight: Dracula's Inverted Castle - As seen in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Access to the rest of the world is forbidden, and no enemies are present, but all traps are still functional and active. Attackers will start at the entry teleporter, while defenders will start at Dracula's final boss arena. Which side will win?

Guidelines

- The fight will occur in real-time (like an FMV sequence). Gameplay mechanics are less important than how the characters would function in a real-time environment.
- The members of each team are ideal teammates capable of a pre-selected plan of battle.
- "Broken" refers to a lot of things, including insta-death, auto-effects, a variety of status effects (e.g., Imp, Silence, Stop, *not* Poison), and revival. Unless stated otherwise, nobody has them, though do use your own discretion.
- There may be SPOILERS from all of the games the characters are from.

Rules for Voting

- Bold your votes (using bold HTML tags).
- You do not need to require justification for your vote, though the admins reserve the right to disqualify votes in the advent of obvious alt voting and other similar scenarios.
- Leaders cannot vote for their own teams, but they are free to argue their case.
- If you want to switch your votes simply bold the change; there's no need to delete your post, though you may if you wish.
- This match will end in 24 hours.
- The following conventions are in use for match topics: www.gamefaqs.com/boards/570224-mercs/75290480/878106427

Agnès Oblige is as she appears in Bravely Default, in the Dark Knight job with access to all of its support skills (even if slots do not permit, though she does not necessarily have to use all of them) and its specialty. She has her best non-broken equipment and the additional skillset of Ninja and Spell Fencer. She may freely Brave and Default in battle, but may not use Bravely Second.

~VS~

Richter Belmont is as he appears in the Castlevania series, wielding his trademark Vampire Killer whip, 99 hearts, and all of his sub-weapons aside from the clock. He may use item crash attacks, though they will be demanding on his heart supply.

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But enough talk! HAVE AT THEE! FIGHT!
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@DoomTheGyarados
@Mewtwo59

The floor is yours.
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So let me start by hyping up this Agnes setup. She's mostly been used as support or a mage, but I'm going to show you that she can be just as useful on offense.

So Dark Knight has a bunch of skills that deal dark damage to the enemy. One of these is Black Bane, which deals 1.5 times the damage of a normal attack to all enemies. She also has the ability Gloom, which increase that by a further 1.25. The drawback? It costs 30% of her health to use. But that's not going to be a problem here, because she also has the skillset of the Spell Fencer. Spell Fencers can enchant their weaponry with the effects of a spell. And what is Agnes going to enchant her weapon with, you may ask? Drain. When she hits the enemy with any of her dark arts, Agnes's health with be restored by the same amount she hit the enemy for, which will cancel out the damage she's doing to herself. But that's not all. She's got one more trick up her sleeve. Adversity, which means whenever she loses more than 25% of her total health, all her parameters increase by 10%. This includes the self-inflicted damage from Black Bane. So Agnes is going to be healing, buffing and dealing damage at the same time. Ninja gives her Utsusemi, which allows her to dodge one physical attack. Pretty powerful here considering that Richter's main attacks are physical attacks.

Now that you know what Agnes is capable of, I want to share a little secret about Richter. In his boss fight in SOTN, he's weak to dark element attacks. Here he's fighting someone whose main attack is dark attacks. Agnes is a pretty big counter to him. And that's before he gets outhealed and outbuffed.

Agnes also has one more trump card if things start looking bad. Minus Strike, which does max hp - current hp. So not only will she deal major damage to Richter, she'll heal herself fully thanks to Drain. It's a pretty powerful move to have, and can easily swing the match in her favor.
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Also worth noting is that Agnes has Dark Nebula, an attack that does 4x Dark damage to all enemies and allies. Normally this move isn't good to use because it also hits her party but...there's no party here. And Richter has an elemental weakness to darkness. So that's an 800% power shot. Want to hear something from Chris, but that's a very strong point in favor of Agnes.
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agnes' biggest issue comes down to range and speed i think. richter uses a whip, she uses a sword... i think?
if that's the case then she can be super powerful and capable of killing him but she still needs to get in range to kill him.

counter to that argument mostly comes in the bravery system, if it provides enough bursts of speed that she could make up the difference and tag him at the expense of major stamina.
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The darkness attacks are basically Agnes shoots a wave of darkness at the enemy. It's a powerful ranged option that's stronger than her normal attack. With Black Bane, Agnes has the range advantage.
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oh, she has sword beams.
in that case he's... probably reduced to crash attacks as the only way to counter her.
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Here's a video of Alternis using Black Bane: https://youtu.be/nH-jbHqQawA?t=7m58s. It has the same animation when Agnes uses it, so just pretend she's using it in that video.
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quick and covers over a decent area too. add in bravery mechanics she can get multiple off in rapid succession too.
nice counter.

agnes.
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Good points, having not to deal with the gameplay limitations really made this.
Agnes
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I really think people overestimate the Brave mechanic. Bravely Default's been one of the most GameFAQs mercs things, because it acts like she'd use that gameplay mechanic that everyone in her game can use to instantly win, when that clearly isn't the case in her game and leaves her ridiculously open. It'd have at least more merit with someone like Edea, but Agnes is reserved as hell, why would she INSTANTLY go to making herself vulnerable against an opponent before doing anything?

And don't forget, Richter faced Dracula and won handily, I think that whole darkness weakness is overstated as hell. If he didn't job out to Dark Inferno, what makes you think he's instantly down against Agnes just for having a Dark Knight class?
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He also faced Alucard and jobbed out. And Johnathan Morris. So I mean - there's an upper ceiling there, tbqh.
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I will note that Black Bane literally looks like a Castlevania boss mechanic in how it has a bit of a charge up time before being fired at the enemies, and if anyone is going to be good with Castlevania boss mechanics, it is going to be Richter Belmont.


Anyway in a 1 on 1 fight Richter has a huge advantage with the crash attack 'Thousand Edge' which paralyzes its victim. Dude is a knife throwing machine to be honest and unlike Agnes he doesn't have wind up time.
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Basically you have to keep in mind somethng: of course Agnes is going to have more spells to use, she's an RPG character. It isn't as if Richter isn't used to facing magic and - let's be real here - magic on a more potent scale than what Agnes has brought to bear here.
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https://youtu.be/hkRJRa4vCFc?t=22s

That shit hurts and is rapid fire as all hell. Spells are nice but Agnes is for sure getting tagged and then maimed. This thing butchers bosses..!
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KanzarisKelshen posted...

He also faced Alucard and jobbed out. And Johnathan Morris. So I mean - there's an upper ceiling there, tbqh.

I totally disagree there. He faced Alucard while possessed by Shaft and got knocked out of it, and his memory was used as a test of worthiness for Jonathan Morris. Neither of those are close to Richter himself fighting to the death.
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Also are we really going to act like Richter isn't used to beams of dark magic coming his way.

I mean look there's certain things that are likely to work but 'let me try to defeat Richter using wind up dark magic" just doesn't seem to be the best.
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He also doesn't have a weakness to darkness in any of his playable forms (Rondo and it's remakes, SotN, PoR, HoD). As a matter of fact, of his three boss appearances, he's weak to only dark in two of them, and weak to only pierce in the other one.
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Richter Belmont SOLOS

Good Agnes set up but Richter super outskills and outspeeds her.
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richter

I doubt I'm allowed to vote, so here's my take on two characters I like.

Richter is a lot faster. Dark Knights aren't slow, and Ninja passives boost her evasion, but whilst DK's are a B, Richter is effectively an S tier. Throw in terrain advantage and I think Agnès has a rough time hitting Richter.

If she does hit him though, it's going to hurt. A lot. Now I don't buy Richter having a weakness to dark for the reasons KJH mentioned a couple of posts above, but her damage output still eclipses his. Dark Knights are very strong.

I think two, maybe three solid connections should be enough to put Richter down, but the question is whether she can manage it. DK's aren't quite as tanky as they appear, but they still have access to heavy armour and shields, and I'm equally unsure if Richter has the tools to get around that. Good fight though!

Templar actually would've been interesting here. They're not as quick as DK's, but get around it by BSing the brave/default system, and are just as strong and physically durable.
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It's only her personality that puts me off of Agnes, since dear hell she's a whiny sissybaby. But Dark Knight really is a mean class, that's generally what I used to break the game in half
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Chris is playing mercs again?
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KJH posted...

I really think people overestimate the Brave mechanic. Bravely Default's been one of the most GameFAQs mercs things, because it acts like she'd use that gameplay mechanic that everyone in her game can use to instantly win, when that clearly isn't the case in her game and leaves her ridiculously open.

Brave is good in a teamfight where you can have allies tank for you while you're helpless. Or, if you're outclassed by mercs on both sides, and everyone thinks you're going to die after your first spell anyway (assuming mage Agnes), then being able to 4x that one spell is pretty good.

But yeah, it sucks in a 1v1. You have to be sure that you're going to kill your opponent, or you're just leaving yourself wide open for a counterstrike while you're helpless. Not a good idea against someone as nimble/dodgy as Richter.
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I've always held the interpretation that Brave casting significantly puts your abilities on cooldown like in game.

But yes GameFAQs Agnes is quite the thing.

Anyway yeah Richter basically bodies most lowbies in a straight up duel imooooo. Guy kills Dracula solo who is no joke even if it isn't GameFAQs Dracula!
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Richter. Better physically, better personality for fighting, better for getting around the terrain, better knowledge of the terrain, better equipment, etc.
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Agnes

richter

i have mad agnes respect but more as a caster and the terrain is better for richter imo
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oh i'm late because lol indonesia
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oh did i just tiebreak

if so, neat
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Uh it has over 12 hrs left nerd
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well

i maintain lol indonesia and lol me
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Lean Agnes here. Think the skillset she has is good enough to tag Richter here and there and with draining attacks that would be enough.

Do agree that braving up would be stupid in a 1v1 though
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Agnes.

What wasn't said yet is that if Agnes is mortally wounded, she still gets a fatal counter at also 400% damage before she dies, See You In Hell. Richter is probably going to get caught offguard by it, and as good as he is, I don't see him surviving all those super boosted attacks unscathed. It's asking him a lot because Agnes can dish it out really hard and she also can take it. Richter can dish it but can't take what blows he'll get hit with.
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Kan, if anyone's good at dodging the desperation attacks of mortally wounded enemies, it's Richter. Almost every single Rondo of Blood boss has one. >_>
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Remember that Agnes is being buffed as she's getting hurt. 10% to physical and magical defense for every 25% damage she takes, and it persists even if she heals off that damage. And with Drain attacks, she can heal it off pretty easily, and get buffed up the full 150% pretty quickly. Richter doesn't have to just beat Agnes. He has to beat an buffed Agnes that heals every time she lands a hit on him. With her heals, Agnes should be able to outlast Richter.
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It's also a wide AoE attack. The fight would have to take place in a pretty big room for Richter to avoid it. Seeing as most rooms in the castle aren't really that big, odds are low that the fight takes place in a room big enough for Richter to avoid it.
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...the only way braving up is dumb is if you don't get the way that mechanic works. running it in gameplay terms...
if you start from 0 then yes, that'd be the case since the person is too drained to do anything. she wouldn't though, you can stock up by defaulting and end with +3 braves, giving yourself effectively 4 free attacks and the next turn would allow you to do 4 more. that would be where you're drained. but any initial encounter could effectively end with 2-3 attacks and you'd still be +2 or +1.

for more cutscenes, the brave and default system best lean into some sort of "combat readiness" and stamina sort of mechanic. if you're in a normal position you can expend a ton of stamina to repeatedly strike at full power or if you've been prepared the whole time you can unleash it all and still be in a mostly "normal" position. similarly, default would be defending/focusing yourself to use up more energy, an equivalent of whatever "charge" skill someone may have that increases their attack abilities.


either way, she'd basically be starting with free attacks basically. any first encounter should have agnes attacking 2-3 times. ninja would help for that too.
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I don't buy stocking up defaults before the fighting starts unless Agnes gets the ambush. Since that's only way you get them to start a skirmish in game

Which granted she's part ninja so it can be argued.
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Richter makes pretty short work of most enemies that are drastically more durable than Agnes is. Almost any Item Crash or whip is a significant hit and he can generally stay aggressive with his martial arts too, and if he lands the Thousand Blades one that Chris linked, there's just no way she lives through that one use or has the chance to do anything through it.
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She has Utsusemi, which lets her dodge one physical attack, and Transience, which lets her counterattack when she dodges an attack. Thousand Blades looks like a physical attack to me, so she's just going to dodge it and counterattack on Richter. You really don't want to use physical attacks against ninjas.
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...Thousand Blades is, no kidding, like 100 physical attacks at machine gun rates. >_>

Like in the same way Blink in FF makes you dodge 3 physical attacks in a row, if you tried to Blinktank through that, you'd still be eating 97 attacks probably before you can even react. Definitely before Agnes can react because I just frankly don't give her Ryu Hayabusa reflexes.
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Thousand blades is probably his worst crash against an opponent that isn't the size of a barn or as mobile as one.
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not just the part ninja but also the fact that both are mostly melee, work at medium to close ranges, and the place allows for a lot of upward/downward mobility and distance between them. ninja mostly helps in moving around and not auto-dying if she's in 'default' mode briefly. unless he gets the jump in a small, flat part of the castle, she's probably able to get 2-3 default equivalents off. some areas are huge, some are tiny, i'd assume she wants a bit more space to safely do that.
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if its only 100 why is it called thousand blades
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thousand blades has the issue of you seeing it work in a 2D environment.
in a 3d one you'd just uh... move left or right.
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Maybe he is throwing 1000 blades in cone pattern away from him, it's just that in a 2D environment only the 100 he throws directly in front of him can hit
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I mean it's bad even in SotN against most bosses so 2dvs3d isn't even needed.
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KJH posted...

...Thousand Blades is, no kidding, like 100 physical attacks at machine gun rates. >_>

Like in the same way Blink in FF makes you dodge 3 physical attacks in a row, if you tried to Blinktank through that, you'd still be eating 97 attacks probably before you can even react. Definitely before Agnes can react because I just frankly don't give her Ryu Hayabusa reflexes.

In Bravely Default, the characters attack multiple times per attack like in old Final Fantasy games. Despite this, the ninja asterisk holder dodges all the hits when she uses Utsusemi. All the blades from Thousand Blades should count as one attack, just like the physical attacks in Bravely Default.
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That is so gameplay mechanics.
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