Opening Songs
OP 1 - Koko (Pan Tamura)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - Shissou Ginga (TEPPAN)

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Slice Of Life

Episodes: 10



So, "Kyousogiga" was something that I put off for a LONG time. I knew that it looked like an interesting show from the various short ONA episodes that I've seen god knows how long ago, but I left the full TV series on the sides for way too long. Fortunately, even after seeing it in 2015, I think that "Kyousogiga" maintains its high standards. A brilliant visual/animation style immediately keeps you hooked, and a fantastic setting just serves to further enhance the experience even further. There's quite a lot to like in "Kyousogiga", no matter what kind of person you are, its just one of those shows that can appeal to the general audience. Then again, while the series is one of the stronger ones that I've seen, its also one of the most confusing things that an anime could ever hope for. I like it, and I think many people will, but understanding it completely is a completely different matter. If you just want to watch something for the sake of watching it, "Kyousogiga" is a great choice. If you want a full breakdown after, you'll need some researching. Nonetheless, this is one for the books.



Happy, happy family


I never expected the songs in "Kyousogiga" to be any good, but I'm proven wrong yet again. "Koko" is the opening theme, and while I usually do detest cute-sy opening themes...this one really isn't. It reminded me of "Synchromanica", "Galilei Donna"'s opening theme, which I really liked, and "Koko" gives off a feel of transience and tranquility...its a cool song. The ending theme however, "Shissou Ginga" by TEPPAN, is a completely different feeling overall. Its rock-ish theme just sets it up to be one hell of a badass song, and for an ending theme, that says alot. Reminds me of old "Grandrodeo" songs.



Rating: 8.0/10



"Kyousogiga" is one of those shows that'll get you right from the start. Its charming, its different, and its certainly interesting. However, as interesting, weird, or as cool as things get, "Kyousogiga" remains confusing for a good part of the show. That's one thing that always got me. The series never did explain things in order, nor did it explain the lore behind most of the things in the show. There's A LOT to digest in "Kyousogiga" and honestly, it might not be for everyone, but lore aside, there is a lot to offer here. The animation and visual style is honestly one of the best things that the show has to offer, even as a 2013 anime, it looks very stylish, with its vibrant color palettes and varied character designs. The action scenes (no matter how scarce they are) are pretty good, and character interaction is pretty awesome, Koto is a pretty likable protagonist, and so are a majority of the characters in this one. The world and lore behind "Kyousogiga" is a pretty interesting one, though there isn't a lot of effort put into fully explaining everything efficiently. Still, a fair share of the anime's screen time is split into explaining the various different characters, making sure everyone gets a turn. That's always good.


Koto just doesn't give enough f**ks to care.

There once existed a high priest in a distant shrine secluded in the mountains. He was powerful, and because of his unique gift, he was shunned by the other priests. He had an amazing ability to make everything that he drew, come to life. He had been experimenting with this ability, he had created all sorts of things with his paintings. One of his paintings though, a black rabbit named Koto, started to grew to like the high priest. Alas, she was but a rabbit that came out of a painting, her love would go unrequited...would it? A god gave Koto her form and she materialized into a human female. Koto then lived with the high priest, madly in love with him. Together they started a family. They had a male son named Myoue, and to make sure that he wasn't lonely, the priest created a pair of siblings for him. Kurama, a smarter elder brother, and Yase, a demonic elder sister. Together the family lived a life of happiness and peace. until the order decided to banish the high priest from the world. The high priest had a secret weapon though, a world that he created in paintings, called the mirror capital of Kyoto. Him, Koto, Myoue, Kurama and Yase made for the painted world, where they reigned supreme as the leaders. However, one day, the high priest and Koto just upped and disappeared, leaving the 3 children behind. Many years later, the 3 grown up siblings grew to become the 3 heads of Kyoto, still awaiting for their parents to return. Someone did come into Kyoto though, a young girl wielding a massive hammer and two familiars. She introduced herself as Koto, much to the surprise of the 3 siblings.


"Kyousogiga" is a show that constantly showers its viewers with surprises. Its a unique anime with a nice sense of style, wonderful world and varied characters. Its only 10 episodes long, which is a shame. Compared to the small ONA episodes before, this comprehensive series does the franchise a good job, so I can't really complain.


Peace.



Class: Red Mage
Traits: Magic Versatility, BP Manipulation
Class Rating: 3/10
Subclass Rating: 6/10



The Red Mage sounds like a good class on paper. That is, until you realize how fundamentally confused this class actually is as a main. Red Mages have access to both Black and White Magic, yes this is good, but then you only get up to level 4 on both. At level 4 magic for both black and white, you're missing some of the CRUCIAL late game spells that can change the tides of a fight. As a result, there isn't much of a point to using the Red Mage if you're in need of any sort of burst damage or burst healing (which is kind of the point you're using mages in the first place). Their stats are also all over the place, excelling in neither INT or MND, their heals and damage spells will be subpar when compared to your real mages. They can play around with BP really well (which their only redeeming quality), but they are generally quite squishy, meaning that they die while trying to play around with their BP.


While the Red Mage blows as a main class, they aren't exactly great as a subclass either. You really don't gain anything with your puny leverage of Black/White magic, so they kind of suck as either a form of support or damage. HOWEVER, don't write them off just yet, they have good skills to pass on to other classes that can MILK the living shit out of the BP mechanics that the Red Mage skills provide. Ninja's abuse Turn Tables with Utsusemi, Revenge and Revival are amazing on tank classes that thrive on soaking damage (Knights, Templars, Swordmasters), and In The Red is great for magic damage dealing classes late game IF you can manage BP well.







Class: Salve Maker
Traits: Compounding, Healing, Magic Damage, Resurrect
Class Rating: 8/10
Subclass Rating: 10/10


This is it. The Salve Maker is one of the best classes in the game to invest into. If you've Norende in the higher levels, the Salve Maker actually becomes one of the most versatile classes in the game, both in the healing and damage department. As long as you've got materials, the Salve Maker provides you with EVERYTHING that you could ever ask for, even more so than the shitty Merchant trying to throw money at enemies. Sure, there's a massive list of Compounding combinations to look up, but if you've got the important ones memorized, you could be dishing out massive damage, healing your team for tons, or giving your team ridiculous buffs and boosts. They may not be the tankiest class out there, but like most teams, make sure they are topped up at all times and you've got yourself a very powerful addition to your team. Plus Resurrect, a full team revive + 25% heal with NO EXTRA COST? Yes please.


That being said, the only reason why the Salve Maker doesn't score higher as a main class is because with it as a subclass, you can do EXACTLY THE SAME THING. That is the absolute BEAUTY of the Salve Maker, it fills up the roles of an offensive damage dealer, a healer, or a support type buff character, ALL IN ONE. That being said, you can toss Salve Maker pretty much onto ANYTHING. A Ninja for speedy heals in a pinch, a White Mage for some good damage or buffs if your team is full HP, or a Knight/Templar for damage if you've already laid out the defenses. They are absolutely amazing on almost everything, as usual though, make sure you have the ingredients, then you're gold throughout.






Class: Performer
Traits: Party Wide Buffs, BP Manipulation
Class Rating: 9/10
Subclass Rating: 9/10


This may just be me, but I find the Performer to be one of the most broken piece of shit classes in the game. Sure the Salve Maker may just be wonderful all in all, but you need ingredients. The Performer is just sickening when you hit late game...with the right set ups. You can immediately shoot your team up to ridiculous levels of strong with their party wide buffs. Damage, defense. speed. magic, magic defense...you name it, these guys can put it out on your entire team in 1 turn. Hell, if you rush 4 actions in a single turn you can get your party to Max ATK and DEF, in just that one turn. However, that's not all they can do, they can draw aggro, give them a set-up with high evasion and you have an easy time. PLUS, BP manipulation via skills like One More For You or My Hero give your team LOTS of leeway. With mimic, the Performer is unstoppable.


They are amazing as a solo class, but as a subclass, they are pretty damn awesome as well. As mentioned, their buffs are amazing, and you can slap them on anyone else because these buffs do not scale. Yes, you can pretty much put them on anyone, and that's the beauty of it, very much like other non scaling classes such as the Salve Maker. However, My Hero tends to be better if used last, so Performer is exceptionally good on slower classes. They provide no damage, but they sure as hell help the other classes do what they need to do, SO MUCH better.








Class: Pirate
Traits: Physical Damage, Debuffs
Class Rating: 8/10
Subclass Rating: 3/10


Pirates are a quick, one way ticket to dealing tons and tons of physical damage. They have some of the highest single target damage in the game. They are obtained somewhere around mid game, but its somewhere towards the end where they truly shine. They have various methods to wear the enemy down with their good amount of debuff abilities. They can strip down physical defense, magic defense, or even decrease their damage for an easier time. Then when its time for them to lay down the hurt, they have stuff like Torrent or Amped strike, which can very, very easily hit the 9999 limit. Provided though, that you have good mana management (Free Lunch Strike is a popular option for the Pirate). One of the very viable damage classes late game, but no the best.


The Pirates are strong on their own, but as a subclass, I'd say otherwise. Their skill set really only works for themselves, dealing massive amounts of physical damage and debuffing their enemies so that they can do even MORE damage. However, not many classes have the physical attack power of a Pirate, so not many classes can make the full use of its high damage kit. If you want to slap it on as a subclass, I'd say that the only thing that they have going for you, is the fact that their attacks slap on debuffs. Actually, they are one of the only few classes in the game with debuffs, so you can weaken the enemy during your idle turns.





Class: Ninja
Traits: High Speed, High Dex, Evasion Tactics, Dual Wield, Frenetic Fighting
Class Rating: 8/10
Subclass Rating: 5/10


Ninja's are massive power spikes to your team the moment you gain access to them. They deal great damage mid-game, and with little effort, their damage can skyrocket to absolutely ridiculous amounts. They have trouble against high defense enemies, but otherwise, they are a very BP efficient class and they can do quite a good deal of damage if you have debuffs set up on the enemy. Late into the game with the proper equipment and skill set up (Frenetic Fighting, Hawkeye, Precision, Ikkikasei), your Ninjas can hit for easy 9999 x 2 for a single action, with 3 BP that's an easy 750000+ damage. For added effect, a spell fencer subclass for weakness application works wonders. Other than having great damage, they also play around with their various evasion skills for counters and even extra BP management with skills like Turn Tables.


Ninja's are an amazing source of damage as a main class, as a subclass however, they are quite situational. Having a Ninjutstu as your sub command, you have skills like Utsusemi, Kairai and Shunshin at your disposal, all of these play with evasion. If you put these into context, you have a very safe set of skills to make sure you survive fights, but you'll be wasting turns into making them work. IMO the best way to make use of a Ninja subclass is for a tank class (best for Swordmaster), as they can draw attention with Kairai. Otherwise, they have Dual Wield, which works for SOME classes (generally Two Handed is better), and Frenetic Fighting, which is amazing for high speed classes.






Class: Swordmaster
Traits: Counters, Physical Damage, Free Lunch
Class Rating: 5/10
Subclass Rating: 7/10


The Swordmaster is a fun class. Yes, its fun, its oh so fun to play and to build. But is it effective? Not really. The Swordmaster is a tank/DPS class hybrid that wants people to hit them. Yes, get your masochistic Agnes/Edea out there, have them take all the pain, and then watch them dish it back out in return. The Swordmaster plays around counters, which is a very iffy mechanic to rely on. If you are not hit, then you will dish out ANY damage at all...you've just wasted a turn. And since you revolve around trying to get people to hit you, you need to be somewhat tanky, and not to worry, the Swordmaster tanks decently well. Do know that if you die you don't get to hit back at all. Trying to risk turns trying to get enemies to hit you is never logical, especially with 4 members still alive. Unless you have a Ninja to direct attention to you via Kairai, you're a sitting duck with no damage. Make no mistake, when you deal damage as a Swordmaster, you deal damage in BULK, your damage is insane, but other classes can deal that damage easier without so much effort.


As a subclass, they suffer the same issue: counters. Their kit revolves around countering, meaning you'll be wanting people to hit you. For other tank classes like the Knight, this works with skills like Protect Ally or Full Cover, but for most other classes, its not very useful. There is however, one ability that is invaluable to most classes: Free Lunch. No mana cost for 2 turns is UNBELIEVABLY good for many of the main DPS classes in the game. Imagine, no mana costs for skills like Amped Strike or Meteor can really crank up the damage game against your opponent. Still skill alone makes the Swordmaster subclass a rather tempting one.






Class: Arcanist
Traits: Magic Damage, Status Ailments, Black Magic Amp, Sacrifice, Convergence, Max Black Magic
Class Rating: 8/10
Subclass Rating: 5/10


The Arcanist are the better alternative for Black Mages. If you're playing a Black Mage and you've just unlocked the Arcanist: its time to switch. The Arcanist can deal more damage then the Black Mage, just slap Black Mage subclass onto them and watch them do damage. Their kit revolves around playing with status ailments, which I'm not too much of a fan of. They also tend to have abilities that deal dark damage to their opponents, which also scales off magic, which works. However, to get the Arcanist to work as you want it to, you pretty much almost ALWAYS have to set a Black Mage subclass, which hurts your options. If you're fine with that, you'll definitely go quite far with the Arcanist.


As a subclass, they function well only for the Black Mage because they rely so much on status ailments. Coincidentally, their passive brought over abilities, while amazing, only work well for the Black Mage or any coherent classes that want to use Black Magic. If you stick all of the classes passives together, you've got one heck of a powerful black magic truck caster. The damage can get rather obscene, but you'll need to choose wisely, you can't fit everything into your skill slots.







Class: Spiritmaster
Traits: Heals, Ailment Immunity, Damage Immunity, Holy One, Maximize HP
Class Rating: 7/10
Subclass Rating: 7/10


Like how the Arcanist is the upgraded version of the Black Mage, Spiritmaster is the better White Mage. Any sort of heals that your Spiritmaster throws out...is going to be absolutely massive. Unlike the White Mage where you're going to be idle for a few turns because your team does not need healing, the Spiritmaster will almost always be busy. They can set up their team with buffs and put up all sorts of immunities on your team. You name it, damage immunity, ailment immunity, elemental damage immunity...the Spiritmaster will make things easy for your turn. However, they are hard to use, with many of their key skills costing a lot of BP to use. They are certainly a handy support class to have on your team.


As a subclass, the Spiritmaster is also very effective. Like most classes with abilities that don't scale, the Spiritmaster doesn't have scaling abilities, so they can easily be slapped onto other classes, like say a Ninja for emergency Stillness when your team is in a pinch. They can be attached to many classes, and that versatility makes it oh-so wonderful. To make things even better they have 2 wonderful passive abilities in the form of Holy One and Maximize HP. Holy One increases your recovery magic's effectiveness by 2.5 times, on a White Mage or any subclass with healing magic, this is absolutely massive. Maximize HP doubles your effective max HP in battle, perfect for Monks or Dark Knights, with their HP shooting to about 18-19K.





Class: Templar
Traits: High Defense, Rampart, Armor Lore, BP Limit Up
Class Rating: 5/10
Subclass Rating: 5/10


The Templar is a really weird class IMO. It serves as a tank AND a damage dealer, and as we all know, we can't have a class that's too good at everything. The Templar has both tankiness and damage, but it lacks the protection of the Knight and its damage is rather pitiful, to be perfectly honest. For a mid-late game class the Templar honestly does not offer much with its measly damage, and the class's only good defensive ability is Rampart, even then, that thing costs 2 BP. Also, that thing only blocks physical attacks. Even late into the game, the Templar is only situational, with little form of damage or defensive options.


As a subclass, the Templar doesn't function too well either. It fits for a defensive class who wants to further increase their defensive option with Rampart, or just with something like the Spiritmaster, then they can provide both magic damage and physical damage immunity. All in all, that's about it, since the Templar's damage options are so pathetic. Then you've got BP Limit Up, which is a godsend to classes who tend to stack BP (Swordmaster, Spiritmaster), and Armor Lore, which is the only lore ability I'm going to list. Because Armor is a godsend, and having everybody get the most out of their defense by equipping armors is just amazing.





Class: Dark Knight
Traits: Physical Damage, P.ATK Up 30%, Helm Lore
Class Rating: 8/10
Subclass Rating: 4/10


Dark Knight is the suicidal class in the game, and this thing just might work. When it comes to dealing damage to bosses, the Dark Knight is actually one of the most viable choices that the game has to offer. Their damage is crazy good, BUT...as we all know, you will be killing yourself in exchange for damage. There is an easy way to bypass this with the Spell Fencer Subclass spell drain, with that in mind, the Dark Knight class becomes extremely effective with a buttload of damage boosts. Dark Bane and Black Bane suddenly become very manageable abilities with Drain, and you'll be able to sustain through Rage, one of the best damage skills in the game for its cost. 6.25 times damage with 5 Dark Banes is rather insane.


As a subclass though, the Dark Knight honestly isn't too hot. All of their skills require them to kill themselves, and honestly, not many classes in the game would want to wound themselves just for damage, considering that some of them can do more damage with their own class skills that DON'T require them to kill themselves. With that in mind, the Dark Knight does set up for some good synergy with classes like Swordmaster, and they have 2 good skills to pass down, P.ATK Up 30% and Helm Lore. The former is amazing for physical damage dealers to exert their damage dominance, while the latter gives you defense, which is always nice to have.





Class: Vampire
Traits: Genome, Healing, Magical Damage, Physical Damage, Life Steal
Class Rating: 10/10
Subclass Rating: 9/10


This class is so f**king ridiculous. The Vampire is just all sorts of broken in so many ways because of one reason: they are hands down the hardest class to make the strongest. Genome has you flying around the entire world hunting for monster abilities to add to your list, but when you have every monster ability in the game...it is oh-so satisfying. Trust me, the payoff is insane, you'll end up with the most badass character in your party. A damage dealing, self healing, support hybrid caster badass with a swag-tastic outfit is your final result. A Vampire with all of his/her key abilities is just a slaughtering machine that can support your party at the same time. Fireball ignores defense and does good damage. White Wind is a disgusting good heal. The Ja spells are EXCLUSIVE to vampires too. Feeling tempted yet? Just be prepared to grind for hours looking for all those abilities.


Because of their massive pool of abilities and sheer versatility, the Vampire is generally a really good class to have as a sub. However, unlike lets say, the Salve Maker, for example, the Vampire's ability pool actually scales according to stats, so its not always perfect on every class. It gets a very close 9 because many of its abilities work well on most classes, but it doesn't work on EVERY class. White Wind is a great heal on tanky classes, and many more. As long as you've Genomed everything, you can add everything, to your list of options in a battle, that is always sweet.






Class: Conjurer
Traits: Invocation, Obliterate
Class Rating: 5/10
Subclass Rating: 9/10


The Conjurer is a very subjective class to have on your team as a main. By itself, it brings almost no damage to the field because its entire active ability pool is based on buffing itself, but it has very good stats for a caster (can function with something like a Black Mage Subclass). The Invocations that it provides are AMAZING, allowing you to boost your stats to insane levels, provided that you have the summons. Of course, by itself, its useless, you're going to want a subclass that lets you do damage for this to actually work, for that, it kind of hurts the score. Slap an offensive subclass on it and watch it go to work, otherwise, being a subclass is what the Conjurer excels at.


This is where things get fun. Like some of the classes that get high subclass scores, the Conjurer does well here because Invocations do not scale. Anyone can use them, and depending on your class, these invocations can really kick some serious ass. Massive defense boosts, damage boosts or speed boosts are always welcome, and unlike the boosts from other support classes, the boosts you get from invocations get good quickly (most hit 150% with one cast). You can slap Conjurer on any class as a sub and it would most probably do well with the buffs. Plus, it gets Obliterate, a skill that instantly ends normal encounters if your levels are high enough, which means grind city is a coming.



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That's all for the unique classes of "Bravely Default". There are so many combinations you can mess around with, which is what makes this game so darn fun. I hope you enjoyed the readup as much as I did the writing.


Peace.

Since there are only 4 characters in "Bravely Default" and they're all almost the same thing with just small stat differences, there's no point in diving into these 4 characters, I'll be doing some standard run downs of all the classes available in the game. Like in most RPGs with customizable party options, different class combinations can really make or break your game. Some are better than others, but all classes are useful for something, which is what I love in this game. Without any further ado...here are the classes in "Bravely Default".


*Note that Subclass Rating also includes skills that you can bring over to other classes as a passive.







Class: Freelancer
Traits: Stat Equality, Equipment Diversity, Examine, Flee, JP Up, Mimic
Class Rating: 1/10
Subclass Rating: 7/10


The Freelancer is the starting class of the game, and thus its understandable that it pretty much sucks at almost everything. As a Freelancer, your stats are mediocre throughout, you can equip pretty much anything and everything, but you're not particularly good at using any of the stuff that you have on. Other than that...there's really not much reason for you to stay as a Freelancer throughout the game, at all. Sure you might want to grind it for some of its more useful skills later in the game, but to use Freelancer as your main class? ....No, I see no point to it.


As a subclass however, Freelancer is decent. You'll actually be using it quite a bit early in the game for stuff like Examine and Dungeon master, for dealing with bosses and pesky dungeons. As you level the class up, you get JP up, which is CRUCIAL, for grinding other classes IF you're looking to level up every class (you should). Flee is also wonderful against those loosing ambush battles, provided that your Freelancer sub is still alive. You also get Mimic, which has WONDERFUL synergy with one of the most broken abilities in the game: Performer's My Hero.






Class: Monk
Traits: Highest HP Among Classes, Physical Damage, Unarmed, Ignores Defense
Class Rating: 8/10
Subclass Rating: 7/10


The Monk is probably one of the first classes you get at the start of the game, and fortunately, its a damn good one. The Monk has naturally high HP, and since early in the game, you don't have a lot of choices, the Monk does naturally high damage unarmed, meaning that you won't have to think a lot and the Monk can do decent damage. Thing is, the Monk starts to fall off when you get the other classes as you continue, but if you stick to it, the Monk is pretty strong late into the game. With the proper item and skill set-up, your Monk will be set to destroy with his/her massive physical damage, and as a main class, they are really, really tanky (when combined with Spiritmaster's Maximize HP, you become god).


As a subclass, the Monk has some decent options. More specifically, you'll want 2 skills, Invigorate, which is good, but becomes slightly deteriorated later on, and more importantly, Pressure Point. Pressure Point is a GODLIKE ability that bypasses defensive stats, barriers, and abilities that reduce damage. Chaugmaur won't stand a chance against this move, even with his barrier. Pressure Point is actually one of the legit choices for damage late into the game, and that by itself justifies you to use the Monk as a subclass.






Class: White Mage
Traits: Heals, High Magic Defense, Epic Group Cast (MND scales on heals)
Class Rating: 6/10
Subclass Rating: 7/10


The White Mage is a support class, like we all know. True to its name, the White Mage exists to heal, heal, heal, revive, cure status ailments....and heal. Oh yeah, they can put up defensive buffs as well....wait, that's it? Yeah, that's the extent you're going to get with the White Mage, which is not really a problem actually. They have the Aero skill line and Holy for damage, but otherwise, they are a purely support class, with almost nothing to offer but heals and buffs. If most other games, the White Mage would be invaluable, but here in "Bravely Default", there are a lot of support classes in the game, giving the Whie Mage some competition. As a main class, they work early on, but are outclassed later in the  game.


As a subclass, the White Mage is pretty good because of one obvious reason: they let ANY other class heal. Slap White Mage on top of a Black Mage, he/she becomes a hybrid healer/destroyer type caster. Slap White Mage on anything that runs on MND for that class to become a secondary support type. Hell, sometimes all you need is a character with a White Mage subclass to cover all your healing needs. Its a versatile and useful subclass, you can definitely always rely on it, but it may not always be the most useful when you compare it to other support classes, which is why its only a 7. If you do level the class up though, Epic Group Cast is very powerful and cost efficient late into the game, letting you put skills like Reraise on your entire team instantly.






Class: Black Mage
Traits: Magic Damage, Elemental Damage, Silence Immunity, Pierce M.Def, Status Ailments
Class rating: 7/10
Subclass Rating: 5/10


The Black Mage is what it is. It does magic damage, it inflicts status ailments...and it does a whole lot of nothing else. HOWEVER, the class itself IS great at what it does. Against most enemies with elemental weaknesses, the Black Mage does pull through and can do a great deal of damage at the expense of a lot of mana. Like in most games prior, the Black Mage's damage is not to be sneezed at, early game, it might not be the best, but later in the game, with the right skill set-up, the class does bring a lot of magic damage to the table, even when stacked up with all the other classes available to you. As a main class, it works, since it has the stats needed for great magic damage.


As a subclass though, its hard to justify the Black Mage. Black Resonance is only good if you have multiple people with it on your team, again, this does not justify the skill slots of your allies for the honestly rather meager damage boost. There's not much of a subclass synergy for the Black Mage, unless you want to make your healer into a semi damage dealer, with somewhat piss poor damage compared to the rest of your DPS characters. However, the Black Mage does have some good skills to learn from its tree, more specifically Silence Immunity (amazing for casters) and Pierce M.Def, which works wonders late game against those enemies with godly defense.






Class: Knight
Traits: High Defense, Ally Protection, P.Def 30% Up, Two Handed
Class Rating: 3/10
Subclass Rating: 5/10


I don't like the Knight Class, I'll be frank with you. Unlike the defenders of the "EO" series, in "Bravely Default", the Knight, which exists to serve the same function, pales in comparison. They exist solely to protect their team mates. They have damage options, but they are so pitiful that I'll give you cookies for trying. All the Knights can do is tank it out, they take damage in place of their allies with skills like Protect Ally or Full Cover. 3 GLARING issues with the Knight, One: Only Full Cover is truly useful for protecting allies. Two: Full Cover only blocks physical attacks. Three: the entire class itself has no way to defend the team from AOE attacks. Yeap, there you go, that's the Knight being useless in a nutshell. Unless you go for some full defense build with 2 shields for maximum damage with Super Charge, you won't be able to do much else.


As a subclass, they are also, unfortunately, rather pitiful if your main class is not Swordmaster. I mean, if your main class is not one meant to tank any sort of damage whatsoever, then chances are the Knight's Kit isn't going to do jack shit for you. Its going to suck, painfully, you will die trying to protect your team. HOWEVER, its not the end of the world for the Knight Class. They do have one saving grace: P.Def 30% Up. This skill is great for the squishier classes out there that need a little bit of beef in their survivability. And who could forget Two Handed, the bread and butter skill for most damage classes. Two Handed increases your damage output by quite a nice bit...its great that way.






Class: Thief
Traits: High Speed, High Dex, Steal Items, Life Steal, Physical Damage, Ignores Defense, Speed 30% Up
Class Rating: 7/10
Subclass Rating: 5/10


I actually quite like the Thief class in this game. The Thief class is obtained rather early into the game, and for such an early game class, they've got some sickening damage, especially with the bow. They are also the first class in the game with high amount of dex, allowing your character to go for some high, multi-hitting attacks, as well as beautiful critical hits. For the damage department, they've got you covered for the early game. Sure, they fall off about mid game, but when they get Godspeed Strike AND you have a proper, speedy item set, you're going to be hitting pretty f**king hard (GodSpeed Strike ignores defense). Plus, they can steal (a nice bonus) and  HEAL themselves through Life Thief (always great to be able to heal yourself without your healer's help).


While the Thief is pretty good as a main class, they aren't so hot as a subclass. When you pick a Thief Subclass, all you're bringing to the table is the ability to steal (not really useful in intense battles) and Godspeed Strike. The latter is really all you want if you're going for the Thief subclass, but honestly, its only worth it if you have godly speed, which most classes don't offer. You also have the Speed 30% Up skill that you can slap to some of your other slower classes, which really does matter if you think about it (you'd really want your healer going first sometimes, don't you?).






Class: Merhcant
Traits: More Money
Class Rating: 3/10
Subclass Rating: 2/10


I honestly detest this job because its so freaking useless unless you're willing to throw away alllllllll the freaking money that you have on you. If you're willing to throw money at your enemies, don't get me wrong, the Merchant is a pretty good class (the only reason why its not a 1), with skills like Takeover and Payoff. Hell, Takeover is actually a wonderful way to buy your way out of boss fights through PG, but always note that you could have just used that money to buy better stuff for your team. Not even a good class by any means unless your goal is to buy your way out of every battle, you'll be at a net loss before you know it.


As a subclass....don't even think about it. Its the same affair of spending money to win...it actually has no synergy with almost every other class in the game, putting it at quite a sad spot. Sure, you can use the merchant to milk money out of monsters for a farming exploit, but that's about it, in an actual battle, you're toast if you don't throw all your money at the dude. The only reason why the subclass rating isn't a 1, again, is because of More Money. Throw this baby on 4 of your guys for maximum cash expenditure, which is great for saving time when you don't want to grind for the best stuff.






Class: Spell Fencer
Traits: Stat Equality, Elemental Damage, Physical damage
Class Rating: 5/10
Subclass Rating: 7/10


The Spell Fencer is a pretty versatile class, and is especially quite effective in the early stages in the game. You get the Spell Fencer rather early on, which is great because as a main class that's where it shines. The Spell Fencer specializes in adding elemental damage to your physical weapon, allowing you for some sick damage output against an enemy that is weak to the element that you applied to your sword. This is surprisingly good early on, and even though the Spell Fencer has no damage skills, having your Spell Fencer attack multiple times with an enemy weak to your element, your damage is not to be trifled with. Late game though, your damage drops, HARD, compared to what other classes provide, so...its time to switch.


The Spell Fencer might not work so hot as a main class late game, but as a subclass, I actually do like it. There are plenty of physical damage classes late into the game, and you've got plenty of ways to do tons of damage with the various magical enchantments that the Spell Fencer provides. Imagine Valkyrie + Spell Fencer + Super Jump. Yeah...that's a shit load of damage if the enemy is weak to the element that you've put on your spear. What about drain on a precision fighter dual wielding ninja? You're pretty much full health at all times since you immediately drain to full without effort. The synergy is real, and the subclass dream is there if you want to play with it.





Class: Time Mage
Traits: Speed Manipulation, Reraise, Magic Damage, M.Attack 30% Up
Class Rating: 8/10
Subclass Rating: 7/10


The Time Mage is SO FUN. You've got SO MUCH to play around with as long as you've got a Time Mage on your team, and believe me when I say the Time Mage is super effective against boss battles. They excel at playing around with speed. Hastes and slows galore, they even bring stop to the table, which is a godsend if it connects on bosses. They also have some magic damage with the Quake spell line, and later into the game, Meteor, which does a ridiculous amount of damage (albeit that the costs are insane). Early on, they aren't the best, but as you approach mid-late game and get some of the better skills, you'll see that the Time Mage is actually a valuable asset to your team against bosses. Reraise late into the game pretty much guarantees a second chance, combine that with Epic Group Cast for a fun time.


Even as a subclass, the Time Mage isn't too shabby. Because most of the Time Mage abilities don't actually scale on anything (you're playing with speed, there are no numbers), it actually works well as a subclass more than anything. Albeit, it only works as a support class, because you are bringing no damage to your table if you're slapping Time Mage onto a class with zero magic scaling. If you don't already have a Time Mage on your team, a subclass Time Mage works if you slap it on a support character, like a White Mage or something, put up some hastes or Reraises if you have nothing to do. That and you get M.Attack 30% Up, which works very well on magic damage classes.





Class: Ranger
Traits: Physical Damage, Ignores Default, Hawkeye, Precision
Class Rating: 6/10
Subclass Rating: 5/10


 The Ranger is actually in quite a weird spot. You get the class itself in the early-mid game, and during that point in the game, if you've invested into the Thief class, you'll find the Ranger somewhat similar, albeit they have lousier stats. The Ranger does a good amount of damage since Bows are a particularly powerful weapon early on, and throughout the game, I'd say that they are the most consistent. Their damage is mediocre-moderate throughout, and they don't really get much that boosts their damage until WAY later on, then they get Multiburst. Even then, Multiburst isn't the best skill late game, since there are better options out there. If you ask me, Ranger is more of a early-mid game class, they get outscaled later on.


As a subclass, the Ranger doesn't offer much except for a few minor abilities that are only useful to some other classes. For one, you'll get a lot of abilities that are good for killing monster archetypes, but since mos of the bosses are human types...these abilities are not very useful. Targeting is okay early on, but useless late game. You also get Multiburst, but that's not saying much as you have a lot better options later in the game. Hawkeye and Precision work for classes with high DEX builds (especially amazing on Ninja).







Class: Summoner
Traits: AOE Clear, Magic Damage
Class Rating: 4/10
Subclass Rating: 2/10


The Summoner is too impractical of a class to even work. Its a class that specializes in dealing magic damage. Its good that we have more magic damage classes...but how does the Summoner even work? They specialize in heavy AOE magic damage summons that cost a boatload of mana. In all honesty, you're never going to use this, its too impractical. You're going to need HEAVY mana management to make the Summoner work, and even then, something else would be better. They are very good against bosses with multiple enemies at once, but very inefficient against single target bosses. That being said though, their damage can be quite good, so there's that. Multiple summoners against the end game boss gauntlet is OKAY, but there are better, more consistent options.


As a subclass, the Summoner is probably one of the worst ones out there. Once again, they exist solely for damage, and you'll need the likes of summoning amp to make the summons stronger. The mana management is DREADFUL, even as a subclass. Running something like Free Lunch + 3 x Susasno-oh is okay, but as mentioned above, you'll need to be up against an AOE boss team for that to work. EVEN THEN, if you're playing for summon damage, you might as well use it as a main class. The only reason its not a 2 is that you can slap Summoner on a support class, have them pull out some damage when your team is full HP and all buffs are up.






Class: Valkyrie
Traits: Physical Damage, Airborne Immunity, Pierce Default
Class Rating: 7/10
Subclass Rating: 6/10


Valkyrie is ridiculously strong in the mid game, that much I cannot deny. When you get it, it might not be the best thing ever, but put a few levels into it and you'll most definitely see the results. They deal OBSCENE damage while being decently tanky. And since they can play around with their airborne immunity, there are plenty of turns where they take no damage at all. Give them some speedy equipment and watch them perma-jump every single boss to oblivion. They've got plenty of solid damage dealing methods, and their synergies with other subclasses can be quite phenomenal (amazing with Spell Fencer). Late into the game, their damage game is slowed down in comparison to other classes, but their immunity into the air still makes them a strong choice.


As a subclass the Valkyrie isn't bad. It certainly works with a fair share of many other classes in the game, albeit that the Valkyrie has a lot of abilities that require you to be using a spear. Slap on Spear Lore and watch your Ninjas, Spell Fencers or Dark Knights do ALLLLL the work. Especially on something like the Ninja, with such speed, you can pretty much become untargettable in the most cheese-tactic strategy in all of RPG history. Plus, as mentioned, skills like Judgement are really universal, with the damage that it can put out.




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End Of Part 1



Opening Songs
OP 1 - Kenzen Robo Daimidaler (Endoh-Kai)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - Suki Suki//Links (Ayaka Ohashi, Ibuki Kido, Azusa Tadokoro)

Genre: Action, Comedy, Science Fiction

Episodes: 12



Okay before anyone blows me to bits I'll admit it: I watched this one because it looked...pretty damn kinky. I mean come on, it looked like a mix of mecha and the erotica elements in "High School DxD"! And it has penguins. Human...man...penguins...yeah. On paper, "Daimidaler" sounds like an absolutely ridiculous show. Hi-ERO particles? Generating energy via erotic interactions involving the pilot? Fondling BOOBS for power? Yeah, this is pretty damn insane, and that's what it SHOULD be for you. Go into "Daimidaler" knowing that its pretty much a fan service anime that's blown out of proportion, if that's not for you, then walk away, because honestly, "Daimidaler" provides little more than just that. If you want the fan service, I'll admit, it IS QUITE GOOD, but then again, THAT'S ALMOST ALL YOU'RE IN FOR! Story? Comedy? Mecha Action? They're all in there, but they are easily overshadowed and you can easily tell that these are just excuses for them to show some TITTIES. So yeah, that's about it, anybody still here? No? Yes? Anyway, let's just get on with it.



Yoko Hikasa has it rough...either that or she enjoys making
sexy moaning noises on sexy girls

The opening theme is "Kenzen Robo Daimidaler" by Endoh-Kai, which is, not surprisingly, the name of the anime itself. Its a very shounen esque song that sounds really powerful and has a lot of impact, honestly, it fits the anime but the lyrics are too god damn ridiculous for my tastes. The ending theme is "Suki Suki//Links" by the seiyuus of the 3 "professors" in the anime. Once again, not much to see here, typical attempt to make a cutesy/catchy song. Might appeal to some, but not to me unfortunately.



Rating: 7.0/10



Honestly, not many people like it because its morally quite stupid, but in my opinion, its one of those shows that's "So bad its good". Really, I'm serious. "Daimidaler" is actually BETTER than many shows I've watched before...those I can easily condemn, but "Daimidaler"...I guess it DOES have its charms. For one: the fan service, I think that its good. I do enjoy my softcore hentais like "High School DxD" and the uncensored gems like "Hyakka Ryouran" or "Hagure Yusha", you can't stop me, that's just the kind of guy I am. The fan service is the highlight of this anime, let's all be serious here. The story is ridiculous. Its not horrendous, its just so bad to the point that its kind of good. Its the kind of thing that's hard to take seriously. The mecha battles..they're not horrendous, they're just, once again, kind of ridiculous. Notice the theme here? Everything's bat shit insane here, and all you get is fan service in every, single episode. At least we have variety in characters, not just the boob grabbing Mandanbachi.



Yes, listen to the girl broadcasting her panties to the world!

Koichi is a high school senior student that hates to follow the rules. He ruins the school dress code and all he cares about is doing pervertic things to satisfy his youthful urges. He picks on everyone, his female school mates, and even his hot teacher. As for everything else, he just doesn't give much f**ks. One day, he is approached by a SEXY lady known as Sonan Kyoko, who mentions that he has an adept gift for producing Hi-Ero particles, something required to save the world from...human penguins with their fabulous dic-no, their fabulous front tails. Not buying it initially, they are attacked by these penguins, and after Koichi gropes Kyoko, he gains a surge in power and defeats the penguins. Later, the odds are stacked against them as a giant penguin robot attacks the town. Kyoko calls upon Daimidaler, a robot made to combat the horrors of the penguin empire, and Koichi pilots it. Knowing that he cannot do so without Hi-Ero particles, he does the only thing he knows to generate them:grope the living shit out of Kyoko. And thus he is accepted into the secret organization charged with the duty to do battle against the penguins, with Kyoko by his side as a "catalyst" to instill his urges upon.


"Daimidaler" starts off pretty damn ridiculous and ends off on quite a good note. It has a variety of different characters that end up thriving over the same thing, and honestly, if you're not the overly serious kind of person, you might be able to stand "Daimidaler". Seriously, if you don't go into this one not knowing what you're going to expect, then don't watch it in the first place. For a fan service show, "Daimidaler" is decent, and that's that.





Skeleton Lords
HP: 780, 780, 520
Skills: Fire Ball, Weapon Strikes, Death Call*
Souls: 15000


Difficulty: 1.5/5
Deaths: 0



With The Lost Sinner, The Duke's Dear Freja, and The Rotten out of the way, there's only 1of the soul lords left. Head to the Huntsman's Copse for a party with a ton of undead hunters, zombies and fat butcher blokes. Go to the very end to meet the 3 lords that are overseeing the entire area: The Skeleton Lords. Like the Royal Rat Vanguard, prepare for a pretty awkward battle, and not one of your usual 1 v 1 epic battles.



Come on guys wtf is this? 1 v 1 me!


The Skeleton Lords are just 3 very immobile, weak, and slightly tanky skeleton dudes that don't provide much to a fight. They each can do nothing much to kill you, and even with the 3 of them focusing you at once, you won't have too much to worry about unless you eat all 3 attacks at once. Here's a rundown on what they can do at their best.


Fire Ball - A Skeleton lord will shoot a straightforward projectile at you. Does moderate damage, but easily blocked or dodged.

Weapon Strikes - The Skeleton lords each strike you with their weapon of choice. Very slow and very short range, easily blocked or dodged.

Death Call* - When a skeleton lord is killed, a bunch of skeletons will spawn depending on which skeleton lord died.



The moment you walk into the arena the 3 skeleton lords will rise up from their thrones to face you. Funnily enough, when they land on the ground, they have rather long idle animations for you to take advantage of. At this point of the game, you should be strong enough to knock down their puny HP bars with your entire stamina bar's worth of damage. When they are idling when they get off their thrones, rush to them and take one of the skeleton lords down in an instant. You have the choice of either the scythe or halberd skeleton, do not kill the staff skeleton lord as it spawns deadly wheel skeletons.


Whichever of the 2 skeleton lords you choose to kill, he will trigger death call, summoning a group of skeletons depending on which one of the lords you killed. The Scythe and Halberd Skeleton Lords will spawn normal skeletons with shields and swords which can be rather easy to take down. The strategy to this is really simple. You've dealt with multiple skeletons before, so just take down 1 skeleton lord, kill off the group of skeletons that it spawns, then turn to the next skeleton lord, kill it, kill its spawns, rinse and repeat.


Whatever you do try not to kill multiple skeleton lords at once without clearing out the normal skeletons, because you will get swarmed really quickly. By themselves though, the Skeleton Lords are easy. Their attacks are slow, their melee attacks have no range and they take forever to swing. Their fireball attacks are slow as well, letting you dodge them with ease. Take them down one at a time, leave the staff Skeleton Lord for last, as he spawns wheel skeletons on death, which are harder to deal with as a group.


Wheels! Wheels everywhere!

Killing the Skeleton Lords net you 15000 souls, which is not much to write home about. Anyway, since this boss doesn't take much effort to beat, its understandable. We're not done for today, there's still someone we can kill in the Huntsman's Copse.


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Executioner's Chariot
HP: 4140
Skills: Arena Run*, Galloping Strike, Dark Fire*, Stomp, Rear Kick*, Furious Bite*
Souls: 19000


Difficulty: 3/5
Deaths: 10+



Deep into the Huntsman's Copse there's a bridge that leads to a whole new different area. There you'll run into executioners. They attack you frantically with their powerful weapons and relentless combos. They protect the path to the Undead Purgatory, where undead are killed off in a torturous game of cat and mouse. Guarded by a great sword wielding red phantom, the Undead Purgatory houses one of the most unique battles in the game, which is against the deadly horse & rider combo, Executioner's Chariot. If you go into this one expecting an easy battle, then you're going to be in for a surprise.



Run, run and die.


There's actually not a lot to this battle, despite it being a rather tough one. There's NOT A LOT to it, serious. You'll spend this entire fight running around a circuit while the Executioner's Chariot runs around the ring trying to RAM you into oblivion. The real fight only starts when you knock the rider off the chariot, and you'll need to get into a brawl with the horse. Before that, its a run around the ring, filled with infinite revival skeletons and those pesky necromancers.


Arena Run* - The basic run around the arena by the chariot. You can see him coming from a mile away. You'll need to hide inside the small gaps within the arena to completely avoid its onslaught. A single hit does massive damage, but doesn't warrant an insta-kill. Unblockable, but with the right timing, you can roll through it.

Galloping Strike - He runs straight at you for good damage. Can be blocked at the expense of a lot of stamina, but can also be easily dodged.

Dark Fire* - He spews flames forward or in a sweeping arc motion for a lot of damage. You can dodge it by being at his flanks, otherwise, this move is rather unpredictable.

Stomp - A simple forward stomp. Easily blocked or dodged.

Rear Kick* - He kicks backwards with his powerful hind legs, doing a lot of damage very quickly. Fairly low start up time, making it hard to see this attack coming.

Furious Bite* - He swings his head to bite you when you are near his front, Can be blocked, but has a fast startup.



The start of this battle is where the Executioner's Chariot is at his best. He runs around the ring constantly, and you'll need to always look for gaps to hide into. However, during this entire phase, you are CONSTANTLY harassed by skeletons that revive themselves everytime they are killed. This is HIGHLY irritating when you are trying to run through the circuit and they constantly block your way. They are easily dispatched, but since they always come back to life, it is in your best interest to ignore them.


Keep running and as you go deeper into the circuit, you'll run into necromancers. Killing these bitches will stop the skeletons they are in charge of from respawning, giving you A LOT more free space for breather. The amount of skeletons increase as you go deeper, making it one hell of an annoying experience. There are 2 necromancers, kill them both, kill all the skeletons, and then there's nothing left to stop you from running the circuit without any interuptions. Get to the end of the circuit to pull a lever to pull down the gate. The chariot will crash into the gate and the rider will be knocked off, now its a one on one brawl against the horse.


Here horsey horsey horsey...

Against the horse in a 1 v 1, its all about bursting him down. The Executioner's Chariot is a fairly squishy target that's easy to take down, BUT, do note that he can take you down fast as well. He's got plenty of damaging attacks to easily crush you, and its not worth trying to drag it out with him because in this enclosed battle space, he can easily close the gap on you to finish you off. His melee attacks are rather powerful and some have very fast start-up, most dangerous of them all would be his Furious Bites, which are fast and powerful.


If you flank behind him he has his rear kick, which does a lot of damage, is fast to come out, and knocks you down, leaving you open for another attack. At mid range, he breaths his dark flame breath, covering huge areas and doing massive damage. As mentioned, he is thankfully, very easy to take down quickly. Rush him down with endless sweeps of attacks and he goes down eventually. The key is to not slow down and keep going for him, trading a long, slow battle against him is just not going to end well for you.


Killing him nets you 19000 souls. This is an optional battle, but nets you access to the Brotherhood Of Blood Covenant (lets you kill people, wee). Next time we head further down the path to the Old Iron King.