So I'm at the Paintress agaaaaaiiiiiin

And I am very much dreading iiiiit

But I also really wanna get it over with because LOL

BEING ABLE TO UPGRADE without going to camp is VERY USEFUL

Also flying

Gonna try to just get through the Monolith tonight

I have yet to beat the hardest boss in the game for this playthrough

I just don't have the lumina to support the reserve team right now

Even mixing and matching between my usual reserve team and my main force doesn't seem to improve my odds

I'm consistently dying at around the ~10-20% hp mark of phase 2

Which is .... absolutely infuriating

He just has so much damned Health in NG+

Anyway

PAINTRESS? Cake walk

beep boop bop

One of those hindsight 20/20s but

The Paintress setting their heads on fire and only stopping after Verso's like Well, you'll stop if I'm on fire so. Let's burn together, Maelle

fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

rip I got to Tainted Hearts but I am eepy so the rest will be a tomorrow problem

I just watched one friend beat the game and another group of friends finish act 1

I have so much whiplash HNNNNNNNNGH

So I'm back to my playthrough and I just finished Tainted Hearts and realized little Verso got his train weeeh

NG+ just hits different f

So I'm on Act 3

Fighting Aline though, she said something like "This is your fault, you killed him" anddddddd wow

That hits so hard in playthrough 2

In playthrough 1, I assumed she was just generally upset we killed painted!Renoir

But no, she is probably directing that to Alicia and she's probably referring to Verso's death

Just. Damn. Woman.

I also realized I still need another 2 playthroughs before I can get all the baguette weapons LOL

On a side note

BUT MARK MY WORDS, THE BAGUETTES WILL BE MINE

I'm going to completely redo everyone's pictos and lumina setups, finally upgrade some weapons I've been holding back on and then I'm going to bed

I have only Clea and Simon fights left for this playthrough and I want to scream lol

I spent all of yesterday's playtime combing through the map

OH I still have some endless tower too

I am probably not playing tonight, ngl

Simon is crushing my motivation. I need more lumina

Verso needs 60 more for the build I have planned

Maelle needs a whopping 80

Monoco, Lune and Sciel need about 60 as well. But they are my supporters for the fight

For Simon, at least, I'm planning to go into the fight with Lune, Verso and Sciel

Then finish with Monoco and Maelle

Really, I just need Maelle

The plan is to glass cannon her and Gommage asap

I know she can one-shot phase 3

I just need Monoco to keep up Greater slow, greater defenseless and keep Maelle in one piece

Then it's just pray that Simon still is on fire from Verso and Lune's handiwork and ensure Maelle has Greater Rush, Greater Powerful and Virtuose stance aaaaaaaaaand boom

dead

Right now I need pictos to ensure she has Greater Rush/Powerful at the start of the fight and ensure they are both Greater/Longer buffs too

So that's the big lumina sink on her

Verso, meanwhile, is a lean mean pyuu pyuu machine

42 shots in one turn? Ha. I want 60

Sadly, I think the damage from Follow up falls off after a certain point

But more shots is still more damage, I won't complain

Sciel's just there to buff, Lune's just there to debuff

It all works out

Reviving this

I am down to Simon and the final boss run again

Honestly, my largest gripe with Simon is how many pictos I have to rearrange to fight him

Because in literally every other instance, Shield is King

But Simon is just a Shield Pacman, it's awful

THAT BEING SAID

If you give Maelle Barrier Breaker, she'll just eat Simon's shield right back

However

I usually keep Maelle in my reserve party for this fight

Because phase 3, I just want him dead asap

I don't want him to even try to blink

And I need Maelle to do that

Sooooooo the line up is

Main Party for Phase 1/2: Verso (damage), Lune (support), Monoco (Break Point enthusiast)

Phase 3: Maelle (Gommage), Sciel (Fortune's Fury)

Phase 1 is fine, but fffff phase 2

I keep getting stuck

He has so much HP in NG+ gaaaah

And holding Maelle until phase 3 hurts my soul lol

I'm gonna take a break before I rage quit

I have to learn phase 2 but I have to be in a mood to be willing to learn phase 2 and willing to die 100 times to phase 2 to do so

I know if I tried dodging instead of parrying everything it would go smoother but I'm being stubborn

TODAY IS THE DAYYYYYY

I am beating up Simon and I'm not leaving that abyss until I do so

I WANT MY BAGUETTES.

I lied

3 attempts later I need a break

I got him down to phase 3 and then he had 3 turns in a row and that was that

He was Greater Slowed, and Sciel and Maelle had Greater Rush and yet 3 turns in a row

I'm going to reconfigure their pictos to just SPEED and the crit we need

Forget HP, they get one shot anyway, it's useless

Defense won't save us either

He just doesn't care

This. I swear to god is the game trying to tell you to just make ONLY glass cannons lol

THERE IS NO POINT in having more than 1hp

Especially on Expert

Zero purpose

When I was playing at Anna's I started a new game fresh

253 stacks of blight? NO PROBLEM

Because they are one-shot no matter what. Blight is a joke

I think my next playthrough I'm going to just embrace the glass cannon and use everything I can to deplete hp/defense in exchange for damage

Because that's honestly what the game wants you to do lol

I will say

The hardest gameplay you get is at the start of a fresh game

I have 20 revive tints, only Simon can ruin my day in NG+

I can be utterly careless in NG+, the challenge is completely gone

Except for Simon

Not to mention the accumulation of lumina by NG+ is ridiculous

The lowest lumina count in my party is 350, the highest is 550

Do I need more? Yes. Always. But

I've got about 2000 lumina between them all and a library of pictos for each situation

I WILL SAY and I forget the pictos name so I need to look it up

SHORTCUT

That's it

Shortcut is a game changer against Simon

Shortcut, Revive Paradox, Survivor, Second Chance, all invaluable against Simon

Anything and everything to keep him from getting more turns

LOL WHILE I'M DOING TAGS

aaaaAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhHHHH

WE'VE WON.

I HAVEN'T HIT THE BUTTON BUT WE'VE WON

NG++ HERE I COME

So when I was watching my friend finish his playthrough

He was looking all around the opera house for the painting of Sophie and Gustave

We did not look up

We assumed it would be in a frame but no, it's the ceiling.