Jov's Guide to Characters and Gears -- My choice... by Jov -- pinoy ako! thundersenshi@geocities.com Please do not copy this character guide. I'd appreciate it if you ask me first before you rip me off by putting this on your own website and get credit from it. Table of Contents: Part I...Character and Gear Guide Part II...Selected Parties/Teams ------------------------------------------------------------- My ratings are: Below Average, Average and Above Average. 1-5 B. Average, 6-8 Average, 9-10 Above Average THESE RATINGS ARE COMPARATIVE. So far, these are the results that I have gathered from observing them in battle. Of course, this was my game. ^^; I just thought that maybe you'd be interested on how my characters turned out, and it may give you some idea on who to concentrate on. ------------------------------------------------------------- I. CHARACTER AND GEAR GUIDE In chronological order: 1.) Fei Fong Wong Offense: Above Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Average Deathblows: Above Average || Ether: Above Average Overall rating: 9 Gears: Weltall - Mediumweight Offense: Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Average Overall rating: 7.45 Welltall 2 - Mediumweight Offense: Above Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Average Overall rating: 8 Xenogears - Heavyweight Offense: Above Average || Defense: Above Average || Speed: Average Overall rating: 9 Fei is the main character of Xenogears. You can never take him out of your party, except for one time when he'll be out in a comma (that'll be a good time to develop your other characters!). You don't have to worry about developing him, since he *is* the main character. The reason why I rated Fei's ether as 'above average' is because he has this attack called 'Big Bang' and it really does a lot of damage. His 'Inner Healing' was quite helpful, too. Overall, He's one of my best characters, which really isn't surprising. No matter what you think of him, whether he's lousy or not, you can never really do anything about it since he's in your party permanently, except for some teensy weensy time. ^__^ 2.) Citan Uzuki Offense: A. Average || Defense: A. Average || Speed: A. Average Deathblows: Above Average || Ether: Above Average Overall rating: 10 Gears: Heimdal - mediumweight Offense: Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Above Average Overall rating: 7.9 Fenrir - looks mediumweight, but considering how fast this gear is?? Offense: Above Average || Defense: Average || Speed: A. Average! Woohoo! Overall rating: 9 Dr. Citan Uzuki had been Fei's friend for quite some time. He's already married to a beautiful woman named Yui and has a daughter (whom I first thought was mute) named Midori. Citan here is one kick-ass character, and should never be neglected-- otherwise, you'll regret it! He's agile, and a pretty tough character. He's awesome with offense and defense, and there's really no problem with him. He is of course, one of my 3 best characters. I can say the same for his omnigear, Fenrir. 3.) Elhaym Van Houten Offense: Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Average Deathblows: Average || Ether: Average Overall rating: 7 Gears: Vierge - Lightweight Offense: Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Average Overall rating: 7 Regs - probably Lightweight I don't really know, since you'll never be able to use it anyway. It's all for show, I guess. Elly is the female lead character. I know she's supposed to specialize in Ether attacks, but I never really found her ether attacks powerful, that's why I rated it an 'average'. Her elemental attacks actually infuriate me, not impress me. You know when someone fails to launch a powerful ether attack, then she says "Sorry, I failed."? Well in my game, Elly said that almost every time I used her ether attacks as a gear. But they do have their use sometimes. She's not a bad character, though, and neither are her deathblows. Overall, she's one of my 'average' characters. 4.) Bartholomew Fatima Offense: Average || Defense: Above Average || Speed: Average Deathblows: Average || Ether: Average Overall rating: 7.5 Gears: Brigandier - mediumweight Offense: Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Average Overall rating: 8 Andvari - meduimweight Offense: Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Average Overall rating: 8 Bart is also known as Prince Bartholomew Fatima. He met with Fei while he was pirating, and they didn't hit it off exactly in the most pleasant way. Bart can be arrogant, impulsive and reckless sometimes, but he really is smart, sensitive, caring and...cute. ^_^ Bart is an average character all in all (but not in looks, of course). His ether effect 'Wild Smile' which can be used only as a gear is pretty useful, though. 5.) Chu-Chu Offense: Below Average || Defense: Average || Speed: B. Average Deathblows: N/A || Ether: Above Average Overall rating: 4.5 Big Chu-Chu - heavyweight, I think Offense: Below Average || Defense: Average || Speed: B. Average Ether: Above Average Overall rating: 6.7 A 6.7 you say, even after all those 'b. average' ratings? Well, it's because despite all that, I find her quite useful. Never underestimate Chu-chu! She's also a good character, although she may be called weak, but I got her healing for 7000, and I haven't finished with the EthDrives, yet. I don't have to use Frame HPs when she's around, and sometimes when you don't need to heal, she can put in a 3000-damaging punch! My sister Skysenshi even entered Deus' Lair with her! I actually find her more useful than my other heavyweight gears. 6.) Rico Banderas Offense: Above Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Below Average Deathblows: Above Average || Ether: Average Overall rating: 7.5 Gears: Stier - heavyweight Offense: Above Average || Defense: Above Average || Speed: B. Average Overall rating: 8.5 Stier (omnigear) - heavyweight Offense: Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Below Average Overall rating: 6.5 Remember what I said about the ratings being comparative? Compared to the old gears, when Stier still reigned, I consider it an 8.5 (when compared to the others' gears). Stier 2 is more powerful than Stier, of course, but then by the time Stier 2 reigned, the other gears were more powerful already. What I hate about his gear is that it's slow. His gear (Stier) used to be one of the most useful. I do think that Stier 2 can be the one of most powerful gears, if given the chance. Rico Banderas is physically strong but awfully slow...he's just not that agile. So if you want him in your party, better have a fast character in the party, like Citan or Emeralda. 7.) Maria Balthazar Offense: Below Average || Defense: B. Average || Speed: B. Average Deathblows: N/A || Ether: Above Average Overall rating: 4.5 Gear: Seibzehn - heavyweight ...when the other omnigears weren't discovered yet: Offense: A. Average || Defense: Above Average || Speed: Average Overall rating: 9 Seibzehn - heavyweight ...when Xenogears and the other Omnigears have arrived: Offense: Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Below Average Overall rating: 6.5 Here's Old Man Bal's granddaughter, cute li'l Maria! She has no deathblows and she's still just a little girl, so naturally her overall rating (as a person w/o gear) is 4.5. I kinda find her ether attacks (if you can call them that) really useful and powerful though! I wouldn't have survived the underground Shevat part without her ether, that's fer sure! Seibzehn was quite powerful compared to the other gears when the omnigears were unknown to most of Fei's gang. But then, the rest of my gears caught up with their new omnigears and they turned out to be more powerful than Seibzehn! ^^; But I do think Seibzehn would've been stronger, if I had developed it properly. As it turned out, I already had my perfect team made up by the end of Disc 1, so I spent all of my time developing them instead, and I practically ignored the rest of my characters. ^^; 8.) Billy Lee Black Offense: Above Average || Defense: A. Average || Speed: Average Deathblows: Above Average || Ether: Above Average Overall rating: 9 Gear/s: Renmazuo - meduimweight Offense: Above Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Average Overall rating: 8.5 Renmazuo (omnigear) - meduimweight Offense: Average || Defense: Average || Speed: Average Overall rating: 8 Billy is a superb character! He was one of my best characters, and I didn't mind having to reload his guns every time. I always brought him along tough battles, since he's pretty good in offense and defense. Oh, he's also Jesse's son, and he was into this Etone religion for some time. Renmazuo? It's okay, I guess. Unfortunately, I don't find this gear as impressive as the one who controls it (Billy), but there was a time when Renmazuo was really powerful. 9.) Emeralda Offense: A. Average || Defense: Average || Speed: A. Average! You go girl! Deathblows: Above Average || Ether: Above Average Overall rating: 9.9 Gear: Crescens - lightweight Offense: A. Average || Defense: Average || Speed: A. Average! Kick-ass! Overall rating: 9.95 The beautiful Emeralda is actually a nanomachine created by Kim (another 'Fei', or reincarnate of 'Abel'). When you get to meet her, she appears childlike (oho, but she's over 4,000 years old), but you can get her to 'grow up' if you enter the Lighthouse with her sometime. Emeralda is a speedy li'l character, rivaled only by Citan when it comes to that area (speed). She's quite strong, too! Her ether attacks are much more powerful and useful than that of Elly's, I have to admit. Crescens is her gear, and I have to say it's one heck of a machine! It's offense and speed is excellent, even surpasses those of Fenrir (Citan's gear). There's one catch, though. Crescens' HP is only 20800 so you have to take extra care and some precaution if you're one of those people who panic or faint at the sight of 10,000 HP. There are only two outstanding characters in my game, and Emeralda's one of them. I was quite surprised by her show of ability. Usually, female RPG characters were only good for magic usage and healing stuff. Well she was good with Ether, but she was also good for combat, to my great delight of course! Go, go, Emeralda! Btw, did you know that Emeralda weighs over 200 lbs. (but she's fast and agile despite all that @_@)? She's actually heavier than Fei (probably because she's a machine, maybe?), but I gave her some of those Anoret fruit and seeds, so now in my game she weighs only about 160. II. SELECTED PARTIES/TEAMS (My chosen ones ^_-) After reading my ratings for each character, I'm certain you won't be surprised by my chosen characters. -------------------------------------------------- For my main team (or the "Deus team"), I have: 1.) Fei w/ Xenogears (yeah, as if I have a choice) 2.) Citan w/ Fenrir 3.) Emeralda w/ Crescens -------------------------------------------------- Fenrir and Crescens are really excellent gears. They can handle it, even without Xenogears (even w/ Big Chu-chu in the party ^_^). I load Crescens up with equipment for defense, since her gear HP is only 20800 ;_; I call 'em my green team, because they're all green (except for Xenogears)! ------------------------------------------------- The original team: 1.) Fei w/ Weltall (or Xenogears) 2.) Citan w/ Heimdal (or Fenrir) 3.) Bart w/ Brigandier (or Andvari) ------------------------------------------------- This team is pretty good, and they were my main team until Emeralda showed up. If you concentrate on these three right from the start, they can be an excellent combination. ------------------------------------------------ My back up team: 1.) Stier 2.) Renmazuo 3.) Andvari ------------------------------------------------ If you develop these three properly, you can seriously kick ass! Stier & Renmazuo can do powerful damage and Andvari does a little bit of everything, kind of an all-around gear. The other gears which have the potential (in my opinion, that is) are Stier and Seibzehn. If you like their performance, then you might also want them in your party. They can be pretty slow though, so better have someone fast, if you're planning on including one of them in your party. Don't put the two of them together in your party, except if you're wanting Xenogears do all the work! Saturday, April 04, 1998 10:30:48 AM