Yet another QUARANTINE question...

[GyppyGirl2021]

Is it possible to beat the game at level 96? The normal monsters are a huge pain in the ass, and I don't really feel like leveling up all the way to 99...

[Advent_Winter]

Technically you can. I did, but I had a little help from the Twilight Bracelet though. After the Tarvos battle, I was Level 99, however, after a few run-in's with data bugs on the way to fight Cubia, The Bracelet's effects took hold, lowering my level by four by the time I fought Cubia. > >

[TheSorrow]

...I finished it at like lv91, maybe less, and i remember that because i still had to train with Kite and many other characters for a while to reach lv99, after beating the game XD

I don't really remember how i did it, but i didn't find it THAT hard...i always made sure to have different weapons for Kite, so i had access to skills of all elements, and took ALOT of advantage of elemental weaknesses on enemies (they inflict like 4x damage sometimes). Also, i managed my team alot, ordering them to use certain attacks and skills all the time...during most of the battles, i spent most of the battle just accessing menus XD
Oh, and i recall having my team use weapons with "Death" status too. Don't remember if that worked in the last dungeon before Cubia though....i just remember that place being hell and taking me like 3 hours to get through it.

[GyppyGirl2021]

Ah, yeah... well, I just beat Tarvos and didn't find it that hard (used 3 Resurrects, I think my teammates ended up using 1 or 2 more on Kite himself...), I won the previous Cubia fight without using any Resurrects. I'm on the way to the four dungeons with the Data Bugs that the Netslum inhabitants posted on the board... and haven't gone up one level. Lovely. -.-'

All this time, I've been using BlackRose and Balmung for my teammates... would it be good to re-introduce a Wavemaster into my retinue?

[Kuukai]

I also beat it at like 91. Make sure everyone in your party has like 99 resurrects, status restores, and whatever the max or second-to-max potions were called. There's no reason to be cheap, most of them are priced for newbies, and you should have more gold than Wiseman by now. When someone dies, tell your party to heal, throw a Mage Soul variant at the restored comrade, and then hammer "use skills" of the appropriate variety (usually "any"), throwing more SP at members as needed. SP drain weapons can do this job for everyone except your Wavemaster, and they're especially nice for Kite since they allow him to use Data Drain half a second after coming back to life (although Death is also insanely useful, it's a toss-up as to which is better). Tell the team to heal when someone needs healing. The AI is really good at doing all this stuff faster than a human can, and items are a lot faster than spells. If you just spam team commands thoughtfully the game basically plays itself. Unless you're ridiculously outgunned, it's pretty much impossible for monsters to take out a party that can instantly resurrect anyone.

Also make sure everyone's speed is up. I'm not sure how necessary this is, but it just looks really cool. As opposed to healing, there's no good way to do this without tying the caster up for a while, but I just gave BlackRose a piece of the time armor and that worked for me.

[hidora]

Is it possible to beat the game at level 96? The normal monsters are a huge pain in the ass, and I don't really feel like leveling up all the way to 99...

You're overleveled, so yes, it is (more than) possible to beat the game at this Lv (except for the end-game dungeon). Also, IMO some normal monsters are more of a pain than most bosses.

All this time, I've been using BlackRose and Balmung for my teammates... would it be good to re-introduce a Wavemaster into my retinue?

Kite, BlackRose and Balmung are my fav characters on IMOQ, so I liked to use them (except when I was soloing, of course). Also, I never liked to use Wavemasters, only used them during story-related events (and Helba during that dungeon infested with data bugs at end-game, her max stats were lovely <3).

i still had to train with Kite and many other characters for a while to reach lv99, after beating the game XD

Same here. I spent whole three days (playing at least 6h per day) killing The Bracelets to get Kite up to Lv99 after beating the game.

I don't really remember how i did it, but i didn't find it THAT hard...i always made sure to have different weapons for Kite, so i had access to skills of all elements, and took ALOT of advantage of elemental weaknesses on enemies (they inflict like 4x damage sometimes).

This.
Though it's hard to get an equipment with some descent water skills =/
(I was still using Fishskin at the end of Quarantine IIRC).

Also make sure everyone's speed is up. I'm not sure how necessary this is, but it just looks really cool. As opposed to healing, there's no good way to do this without tying the caster up for a while, but I just gave BlackRose a piece of the time armor and that worked for me.

Wouldn't Speed Talismans (or whatever they're called, don't remember well) be better?
I got 99 of them while trying to get 1st on the Grunty Races on Mutation and it lasted until the second-to-last dungeon on Quarantine xD
(yeah, I suck at those races ^^"")

[Mistral's_Man]

I don't even think I was IN the 90's for the final boss fight. Probably mid to high 80's. I really had no problems.
And I was using a basic party of Mistral and Black Rose.
So yeah, 96 should be a cinch.

[GyppyGirl2021]

Yeah, I updated Mistral's equipment when she came back so that I wouldn't have to be forced to use Wiseman if I wanted a Wavemaster. (Don't like him. I don't like him in G.U. either. >.< )

[Mistral's_Man]

I think it would've been cool for them to add sorta a New Game + feature after beating all four.
Something like...Getting Helba at the beginning of the game haha.
Sure it'd kill the challenge. But I want to get even with Skeith! (He seemed to be the roughest Phase, minus Macha.)

[GyppyGirl2021]

Skeith's the only Phase so far that's Game Over'd me, and seeing as the only one I have left is Corbenik, I think he's going to be the only one period.

Kind of like a Tales game... I'd like a New Game+ with 2x exp or something like that.

[Mistral's_Man]

I'm pretty sure Skeith was the only Phase that game overed me as well. Mainly because I wasn't expecting much from him...Oh the memories of him ripping my party apart within minutes. His silly ice attack finished Black Rose and Kite, and then bang, he smacked poor Mistral with his scepter. You can't hit her! She's pregnant!

Yeah, Corbenick's all talk if you ask me. You shouldn't have any problems with it.

(Tales games - Exp X's 10! Haha, but I've only managed to place Tales of Symphonia, (and Dawn of the New World), Tales of the Abyss, and Tales of Vesperia. I missed out on all of the early games(which I heard was amazing.) Yeah, my younger days were basically 100% Final Fantasy. At least until I was 10 or something.

[GyppyGirl2021]

Skeith's cross attack is pretty painful if it hits. Though most of the time he'd use a Data Drain and then attack the person he just Data Drained - KOing them easily, but also allowing you to use a Resurrect without having to resort to status healers. It was kind of amusing, IMO.

I think I'd actually gotten him to Protect Break at level 28, though. He just pwned my ass after that. XD

As for Tales games, I own the first eight and the Tales of Destiny remake and Tales of Symphonia sequel... some of them imports. Don't tell anyone. XP

[Kuukai]

'

Also make sure everyone's speed is up. I'm not sure how necessary this is, but it just looks really cool. As opposed to healing, there's no good way to do this without tying the caster up for a while, but I just gave BlackRose a piece of the time armor and that worked for me.

Wouldn't Speed Talismans (or whatever they're called, don't remember well) be better?
I got 99 of them while trying to get 1st on the Grunty Races on Mutation and it lasted until the second-to-last dungeon on Quarantine xD
(yeah, I suck at those races ^^"")

You can use those too, but as far as I can tell they take as much time to cast...

I think it would've been cool for them to add sorta a New Game + feature after beating all four.
Something like...Getting Helba at the beginning of the game haha.
Sure it'd kill the challenge. But I want to get even with Skeith! (He seemed to be the roughest Phase, minus Macha.)

Parody Mode in the Japanese version of the games started Kite off at a really high level, so it was kinda like that...

[TheSorrow]

You can use those too, but as far as I can tell they take as much time to cast...

Both items and spells take the same time, but not really on casting....the effect applies as soon as you finish choosing the spell/item, but after it does, Kite or the character using it will do a silly gesture that'll make them unable to move for like 3 seconds. The very same happens in GU with items...the effect applies immediatly, but the character remains frozen for a few seconds (which can be exploited when you fight against an enemy that hits you quickly...the hit will make the character snap out of it and be able to use an item again).

And actually, i never lost against Skeith, or any Phase or Cubia battle :P The first time i fought Skeith i was UBERprepared...at like lv28 or less, but with lots of healing items and a full strategy (i pretty much heard of the whole battle thanks to a friend, including when i was going to fight it and what i had to do and all, so i knew what i was facing). Of course, i didn't live my .Hack//IMOQ life without gameovers....i got SEVERAL gameovers during training, mostly by me being overconfident and thinking i was too cool to train like normal and wanted to train on high-leveled areas, and 2 min. later seeing Kite and the rest of the team surrounded by like 10 enemies i've never seen before using attacks i never expected until then XD

[N3IWVC]

It never worked quite as well for me in infection as it did in the other 3 discs but from the beginning of mutation through the end of quarantine I could usually go to the highest level area possible even if i was still way under-leveled and kill most anything there with a wavemaster's help. When they get elemental criticals it really owns. you level up fast when you're getting over 500 xp per kill.

[TheSorrow]

I could usually go to the highest level area possible even if i was still way under-leveled and kill most anything there with a wavemaster's help. When they get elemental criticals it really owns. you level up fast when you're getting over 500 xp per kill.

Now try going without a Wavemaster, without any weapons or skills that give you any elemental advantage, and without even knowing what kind of enemies you'll fight :D lol

I learned about how to fight enemies correctly, regardlessly of their level, the hard way. And even so, i also had some trouble when the physical/magic tolerance started to appear and i had no idea what to do with them.

[Mistral's_Man]

Parody Mode in the Japanese version of the games started Kite off at a really high level, so it was kinda like that...

I miss all of the good stuff over here. *sighs*