Has anyone actually gotten Amy to lv 50 so she learns Gigra?

[etony33]

Shir learning Nagra at level 45 is bad enough, though it definitely helps, generally speaking. Shir is underrated due to her almost always acting first.

[MadBill]

Yup. But I can't bother using anything Amy learns but her Deban, Rever, Res and Sar techniques.

To be honest, I was not even aware that she could learn Foi and Gra.

If she's a doctor, I'll play her as one lol.

Rolf and Shir already have Nagra (LVL 40 and 45, respectively)

[etony33]

Like Anna learning Zan at level 32. Not even Gizan. You probably have the Neislasher by that point, and if not, you at least have Storm Gear.

[MadBill]

I never really liked Anna. She seems undeveloped.

My usual party is Rolf, Amy, Rudo and Shir.

[etony33]

Shir is extremely underrated in my opinion. Not only does she have a ton of agility, she's also no slouch when it comes to defense (and unlike Rolf, Rudo, or Anna, you can give her two shields and have her use Storm Gear or a Crystal defensive item instead of attacking without sacrificing anything). Her very high agility is critical against Dark Force, as it enables her to use the Snow Crown for the Deban effect before Dark Force can act. Similarly, she can use Star Mist/Moon Dew as needed. That isn't even getting into her ability to steal valuable items/equipment. And, she learns good techniques such as NaGra.

Just don't bring her to Dezo if you plan on shopping (alternatively, save the game beforehand). She magically transports herself to Paseo despite your spaceship remaining in Skure. My theory is that Shir and Tyler have a sexual relationship and that they have to go back to Motavia to get condoms.

[etony33]

I like Shir because, unlike the rest of the characters in PS2, she has an actual personality.

Rolf: "Okay, guys, this is it. We are going to go see Lutz and go to wage the toughest battle of our lives in order to free Algo from tyranny. But first, we need to stop here to restock our supply of Trimates. Is everyone ready?"

Rudo: "Yes. I am ready. I may not survive, but at least I will have tried."

Amy: "I'm scared. But, I'm here, and I will do all I can to keep everybody healthy and alive."

Shir: "I am re---OMG A HIDAPIPE. AND HIS BACK IS TURNED."

*frantically starts text messaging Tyler* "Hey sexy, I'm in Ryuon. Come get me, and hurry, before Rolf finds out. Let's stop at the liquor store in Aukba on the way back."

[MadBill]

Just don't bring her to Dezo if you plan on shopping (alternatively, save the game beforehand). She magically transports herself to Paseo despite your spaceship remaining in Skure. My theory is that Shir and Tyler have a sexual relationship and that they have to go back to Motavia to get condoms

LOL

Yeah. Being Tyler a Space Pirate, they would make a fine couple. Too bad she hasn't a town named after her...

[Zucca]

Shir is extremely underrated in my opinion. Not only does she have a ton of agility, she's also no slouch when it comes to defense (and unlike Rolf, Rudo, or Anna, you can give her two shields and have her use Storm Gear or a Crystal defensive item instead of attacking without sacrificing anything). Her very high agility is critical against Dark Force, as it enables her to use the Snow Crown for the Deban effect before Dark Force can act. Similarly, she can use Star Mist/Moon Dew as needed. That isn't even getting into her ability to steal valuable items/equipment. And, she learns good techniques such as NaGra.

Storm gear is more than just GiZan - It damages every enemy in the battle, unlike Zan techs which "only" target a single enemy group. Zan delivering more damage than Gra per enemy makes Storm Gear one of the most valuable items. And as said, when given to Shir it's very good weapon. That said... I don't waste Shir's TP into Nagra. At least I'll leave some TP for her in case Rolf ends up using too many TP and is unable to use hinas or ryuka.
The Snow Crown + Shir is also one dang good combo.
Also IIRC Shir can equip Nei Emel. I remember she having the best defence at the end of the game...
Her only drawback is her attack power. I remember Laser Knifes being the best for her... Although Laconian Daggers should be the best possible weapons for her, but apparently developers forgot to add one zero there, nerfing their attack factor down to four points. Making them just one point worse than regular knife, although adding pretty good sum of defence still. See here.

Just don't bring her to Dezo if you plan on shopping (alternatively, save the game beforehand). She magically transports herself to Paseo despite your spaceship remaining in Skure. My theory is that Shir and Tyler have a sexual relationship and that they have to go back to Motavia to get condoms.

Haha!

But for Amy. I usually level her at least to the level where she learns NaSar.

[etony33]

Yup, Laser Knife is as good as it gets for Shir. That's probably fine until after Climatrol, when everyone outside of Rudo runs into a brick wall trying to deal melee damage to robots. You get one Storm Gear in the Blue Dam, and Shir is probably the best choice (Kain can equip it, but he's better off just using his techniques, Amy at least has the Fire Staff than can be stolen prior to Climatrol, and Hugh should not go anywhere near the dams).

[Zucca]

Yup, Laser Knife is as good as it gets for Shir.

It seems that you're into hacking the ROM images... You could then add the missing zero (or so... PSGII has the value at 45, but the stats vary quite a lot from PSII) for Laconian dagger and test out how well Shir plays out when getting all the nei items.

[etony33]

I just looked at my PS2 hacking notes.

The attack power for the Lac Dagger is indeed given as 04. If the programmers, as you said, just made a typo, it would probably to be safe to assume that the attack power would be somewhere between 40 and 4F (or between 64 and 79 in decimals).

Even at the low end of that, 64, wielding two of them would be 128 total attack power, more than everything except the Neisword. That seems way too high.

The Laconian Mace has 40 attack power, and the Laconian Slasher has 42. However, neither of them come anywhere close to the +22 defense that the Laconian Dagger gives, so something like +30 or +35 would seem reasonable.

If you want, I can tell you where to make this change if you want to do it yourself.

[Zucca]

I just looked at my PS2 hacking notes.

The attack power for the Lac Dagger is indeed given as 04. If the programmers, as you said, just made a typo, it would probably to be safe to assume that the attack power would be somewhere between 40 and 4F (or between 64 and 79 in decimals).

I meant decimals all the time. So 40 in decimals. It yields to 80 if wielding in both hands. Laser sword has 100 or attack power, so 80 isn't too much of an overkill.

I think if the devs had some kind of decimal based editor frontend, the missing zero from the "40" would make sense. Which is what I'm guessing.

BUT:

The Laconian Mace has 40 attack power, and the Laconian Slasher has 42. However, neither of them come anywhere close to the +22 defense that the Laconian Dagger gives, so something like +30 or +35 would seem reasonable.

Comparing to Laconian Mace it sounds like an overkill. Although Laser Knife has attack power of 38 and 5 for defence, thus making comparison now looks like attack power of 40 for Laconian Dagger looks ok.

To make this a little more complicated PSGII has the same values for Laser Sword and Laconian Scale (Laconian Mace equivalent?) for example as PSII. But Laser Knife seems to have 10 less attack power in PSGII.
Laconian Dagger on PSGII has 45 attack and 7 for defence, which is completely different from PSII one. But PSGII stats for Laconian Dagger may just fit for PSII too. Now I wonder if some other item in PSII has mixed attack and defence stats with Laconian Dagger.
By that I mean if the 22 defence points belong to some other weapon...

But obviously there is a typo in PSII, becuase the Laconian Dagger in PSGII has completely different stats.
Also the devs have admitted that the latter part of the game was rushed. Laconian Dagger being the weapon for the latter part seems to fit the "story".

[etony33]

In all honesty, Shir would probably be better off just with dual Laconian Emels and Storm Gear no matter what.