Finished my second playthrough of Ragnarok Hikari to Yami no Koujo, doing Trenet’s route. Along the way I did about 90% of Yuri’s route as well, using the A.I.Z. function, but Yuri is a whiny twit so I decided not to finish his. I hate those “My country, right or wrong” characters, especially when it becomes clear very early on that “my country” is completely in the wrong.

Doing both routes at the same time was easy enough, but I can’t recommend it. First off, Your major characters will level up however they please and put points into all the wrong stats. It’s especially bad for Lord Knights like Yuri and Gaston, who will end up pathetically slow with only average defense if you leave them alone.

More importantly, it’s a waste of time because you’ll still have to go back and do the other route from scratch in order to get the clear data you need to unlock the True route. For example, I just got Trenet’s ending. I’ve saved my Trenet clear data. I have an old save with about 90% of Yuri’s path done at the same time, so I could go back and finish that. If I do so, however, I’ll only get Yuri clear data, but nothing for Trenet. In short, you still need 3 complete playthroughs to unlock the True route. tl;dr A.I.Z. is worthless.

Normally I’d add a few more lines and then cut this post off because I’m kind of tired of Ragnarok by now. Today, however, I found out that this game is being localized (talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel…) for Fall 2012, so allow me use this final post to share the few tips for success I’ve acquired over the 63+ hours I have spent playing what will soon be known as Ragnarok Tactics. Note that this is all based on how I played the game and what I would have done if I had to do it all over again, but you are under no obligation to do things my way.

1. Which stats should I raise? Speed and Strength. Specifically, put the majority of points into Agi and whatever counts as strength (Int, Str, Dex) for that class. Class that rely on Dex for strength (Snipers, Clowns, Dancers, etc.) can just stick to Dex. Put a few points into Vit here and there, especially for story characters.

You can safely ignore Int for non-magical classes (they usually have higher HP anyway and can take a few hits) and forget Luck entirely. If you feel your stats are lacking in some area but you don’t want to put points into it, you can make up the difference with handy stat-boosting cards. You can also save the bonus points for later if you need time to think.

2. Which attacks should I boost? You get 3 skill points to boost your special attacks every 3rd job level. Which attacks you want to pump depends entirely on your job and your style of play, but it’s usually safe to raise the first and second attacks on the list to their maximum level. I’ll mention what I think are the most useful attacks when I do the class rundown in the next point. Again, you can save the points for later if you don’t have anything you consider worth raising.

3. Which classes are best? I tried all of them except Dark Knight, Clown and Dancer. If I had to rank them from most- to least-useful, based entirely on my personal experience, it would look something like this.

Sniper – Great range, great speed, good attack power. Raising Dex improves both their Attack and their Speed at the same time, so you don’t have to waste points on lesser stats. Their defense is average, but you can either raise that with cards and equips or just keep them out of harm’s way. This is the class I started my MC out with. Useful skills: W Arrow and Charge Arrow, the first 2 on the list (I’m adding the list position because the English names will probably differ). Story character: Bercht on Cynthia/Yuri’s route.

Zonda – Gunman class. Only available on a second playthrough, and only for males. I gave my MC a sex-change and switched him to this. This class out-damages Snipers and seems to get frequent weapon updates in the stores – although this could be only because of my MC – but I rank it slightly below firstly because it’s not available from the start, secondly because it doesn’t have the Sniper’s highly-useful Charge Arrow (2nd on the list) attack and their attacks have lesser range on average, thirdly because their defense is worse than Snipers’. Useful skills: the first 2 on the list.

Kapla – Gunman class. Only available on a second playthrough, and only for females. Good class with high speed, but the fact that my Kapla used to be a Paladin may have affected her stats negatively, meaning she probably wasn’t as good as she could have been. Ranked below Zonda because of the lower attack power and fewer useful skills. They do have the funniest attacks in the game, though. Useful skills: 1st on the list. The skill that lets you hasten others’ turns (5th). If you use Overdrives a lot, Kaplas have a skill (6th) that lets them fill your Overdrive gauge.

High Priest – They keep you alive and allow you to keep attacking without wasting turns using items. Always take at least one with you, preferably two. High priests tend to have slow speed naturally, so raise their Agi along with their Int. Low HP and Vit shouldn’t bother you, since they shouldn’t be on the front lines anyway. They have a couple of attacking and buffing spells, but I don’t bother with those. Useful skills: Heal, Heal Mist (area heal) and Recovery. Story character: Fiona.

Champion – A monk by any other name… The only melee class worth getting, IMO. Great attack, good speed, so-so defense. They pack quite a punch and their turns come by quite frequently. However they’re not that good at taking hits so be careful not to advance them too far. At job level 36 they get a physical attack that hits every enemy on the map. If you have an army of champions, the battle could be over in the first turn. Barring super-grinding, however, you probably won’t reach job 36 until your second or third playthrough. Save 4 skill points for your champions for when that day comes. Useful skills: 2nd, 6th and 8th on the list. Story character: Trenet.

Wizard: Their spells can actually pack quite a punch, once they’ve been leveled up a bit. They’re useful against human enemies, but not so good against monsters who have all kinds of elemental defenses. They move a little faster than the other magical classes, but as usual they’re allergic to being attacked. They’re useful at earlier levels, not so useful later on when you’re using Burst Strikes that depend mainly on ATK.  Useful skills: Pretty much all of them. Earth Spike has great range. Story character: Cynthia.

Lord Knight: Good defense, great attack. Slow as hell unless you put a lot into AGI. They’re okay, but since 2 out of the 3 main routes come with a forced one, there’s no need to actually create one. Not without testing them out first, at least. Useful skills: Charge Attack (5th on the list) Story characters: Yuri and Gaston.

White Smith: Useless for my style of play, since their attacks tend to hit surrounding enemies, and a surrounded character is a dead character in my book. If you’re the type who likes to push ahead with a single super character, you might like one of these. They have very good defense, at any rate. The only good things about them are their Attack-boost and Critical-boost abilities. Good for aggressive players, not so special for people who play defensively, like me. Useful skills: Over-Trust (2nd on the list), Maximize Power (4th).

Paladin: I tried one for a while, and I got Darius after clearing Cynthia’s route. I’m not impressed. You’d expect a Paladin to have super high defense and HP so they can absorb a few hits, but these guys are pathetic on that score. They’re also rather slow and don’t hit particularly hard. On top of all their other sins, they also have bugger-all for useful skills. With some coaxing and stat cards I managed to get some use out of Darius, and paladins do have a Heal spell for emergencies, but I don’t recommend them. Useful skills: Shield Charge (3rd on the list). Story character: Darius.

Assassin Cross: Good speed, great range, pathetic attack, pathetic defense. Which means they can get to the enemy quickly… but they can’t actually do anything once they get there. Sound good to you? I thought not. Useful skills: Envenom (2nd on the list) Story character: Isara.

Shaman: Only available on a second playthrough. A fail cross between a Wizard and a High Priest. Their attack spells only hit in a straight line, and if you want healing you’re better off with a High Priest. Cool outfit, though. Useful skills: Nothing a Wizard or High Priest can’t top. Story character: Weda.

This post is getting huge. I’ll split it off here and continue tomorrow. I’ll be happy if other people can benefit from all the time I wasted on this affair.

Related posts:

Ragnarok ~ Hikari to Yami no Koujo ~ (1) Ragnarok ~ Hikari to Yami no Koujo ~ (2) Ragnarok ~ Hikari to Yami no Koujo (5) – Final roundup 2 Ragnarok ~ Hikari to Yami no Koujo (6) – This time I’m really done (spoilers)