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Soukoku no Arterial: Info


Clephas

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I figured I'd put together a bit of info about the game in general and the battle system in particular for those interested in playing this game.

 

The Game:  This game is a VN with a card-style battle system.  It is a fantasy VN with a fairly grim story and a pretty varied cast of characters.  There are three possible paths to proceed through the game: the angel, demon, and human paths.  Each of these paths splits off at the same point, and the basic story for each varies drastically, though certain common factors can be observed.  For those who played Kamidori and Himegari, you'll notice a much higher quality of writing, as well as more interesting characters.  For those who have played the Ikusa Megami series, you might find it a bit less satisfying (since those are Eushully's best games). 

 

The Battle System:  Though most of the system shows up in ITH when you use the h-code, allowing you to actually read the tutorial, I'll summarize the battle system for those who have some trouble with it.  First, the battles are set down on a grid with two rows and three columns.  The leader card, which is also the card that needs to survive for you to win the battle, is placed on the field from the beginning of the battle.  All cards possess four major parameters (I'll ignore special skills for the moment).  These are HP (in yellow - or LP, in the case of the leader card), Attack Power (red-kougekiryoku), Control power (shihairyoku), and Cost.  To put a card on the field, the spot you want to place it in has to have a Control power equivalent to or greater than its Cost.  You can increase the Control power of a space by placing other cards (living being ones) in adjacent spaces.  Since in the early game most cards only have a Control power of 1, that means the spaces adjacent to one such card will usually have only one Control power, allowing for the placing of a card with a Cost of 1 only.  To increase it, you have to place other cards around that space, thus allowing you to place cards with a cost of 2 or three by surrounding that space from two or three sides.  Later in the game, cards with a Control power of 2 appear, (most with a Cost of 3 have a Control Power of 2), allowing you to potentially put down cards with a Cost of 4 (the highest).  Though it is a general rule that cards with high cost are more powerful than those below them, there are exceptions, and it is possible to make lower cost cards as powerful as them by equipping items on them.  In battle, there are three stages to your turn.  The first is card movement, where you can move a card one space in any direction that is unoccupied on your side (though the leader can move into an occupied space and send the card to the graveyard).  The second is card placement, where you place cards from your hand onto your side of the field.  The last is attack.  In the attack phase, you can use the cards in your front row to attack any enemy card in a space in front of them or to either side (a card on the right side of the field can attack the enemy center or right, for instance).  Battles are concluded by defeating the enemy leader card.

 

Note on Replication:  The protagonist's card gains the ability to replicate enemy cards early on in the game, by defeating them with his leader card.  This is VERY useful, both for reinforcing your deck, for getting money (by selling them), and for gathering cards for fusion later on.

 

Characters and levels: When characters gain levels, it fundamentally just gains you an extra of their first card and possibly a new skill or level of an existing skill.  Also, some conversation events can only be accessed by characters reaching a certain level.

 

Party Level:  This is increased by fighting.  Each battle nets you a certain number of points that goes to increase this.  Increasing this lets you purchase more items, equipment, and even battle cards at the shops.  I really suggest you get this to 5 or 6 in the prologue or first chapter, simply because you need certain special items only sold then to access certain conversation events. 

 

For those wondering which path they should take on their first playthrough, I'd advise you against taking the Demon path if you aren't ready for a darker story - and a darker protag.  

 

 

Edit:  Here is a list of heroine endings you can get on each path.

 

Angel: Mehiisha, Madoka, Mirai, Arisa, Shanel, Narumi, Akari

 

Demon: Akari, Sayone

 

Human: Narumi, Mirai, Arisa, Shanel, Akari

 

Edit: Highest cost is actually 6, but considering the effort it takes to get a space ready for it, I can't see anyone bothering with them until your third playthrough, when you have the possibility (if you did the Angel and Human routes first) of obtaining the leader card with a control of 2.

 

Edit2: Basic strategy for late-game bosses, in particular ones with regen ability.  You should focus from the beginning on just getting rid of their servant cards, until they can't put anymore down, then shave the boss's hp with a three-point attack until he goes down.   Since most late-game bosses have the greater part of their decks composed of cost 3 cards and have a control of 2, once you've disposed of enough of their allies, they won't be able to put down anymore of their cards, if they used up their 2 and 1 cards.  Because of this, eliminating any cost 3 or 4 cards that start out on the field becomes a priority, as the presence of such cards allows the bosses to bring more such cards onto the field.  Once you've gotten rid of these cards, I suggest retreating your protag to the back, if he has less than 60 LP left, and leaving it to your front line.  Also, keep at least one control 2 card in the back to let you summon higher-level cards more easily, because otherwise you'll be slowed down significantly. 

 

Edit2 part 2: Incidentally, a lot of cards can level up, opening up higher hp, attack, and/or slots for item equipping.  I seriously suggest you level up such cards, while getting the more basic cards that can't equip items out of your deck as early as possible.  I'd suggest getting the cost 1 succubus card leveled up, as that will take the place of the mineral giant you can get early in the game once those cards are leveled.  This will cover battles where using human cards isn't possible, such as in the arena.  Really, I suggest you get at least one cost 1 card type from each race type fully leveled, to give you varied possibilities for arena battles and the like. 

 

Edit2 Part 3: Late in the game, it is quite possible to auto-battle most battles.  As long as you aren't trying replicate a particular card, this is an ideal way of getting alchemy items, experience, jisseki (the points that up your party level) and the like.  I seriously suggest that you get at least 20 of every card you can replicate if you have the time, as it will make things easier in later playthroughs or when you want to use alchemy to make items, equipment, or cards.

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Second Post:

 

2nd playthrough benefits:  First, you get to keep everything that isn't a key item related to story progression, including your experience and party levels.  The level cap is increased from 9 to Z (essentially level 35).  In addition, you gain access to the cameo side-stories from the append discs, like obtaining the protagonists from Himegari and Kamidori, as well as Haishiera from the Ikusa Megami series (in Zero she is one of those cliched rpg bosses that you aren't supposed to beat, who treat you like a small child by letting you hit them a few times then wiping you out in a single hit).  You can also activate 'clone mode', which lets you keep all your characters and their accompanying skills.  For those wondering when the final skill for most characters is activated, most are activated at level A, in the second playthrough.  All levels past 9 require the same amount of experience to raise, and since you should have Madoka's exp modifier on you from the beginning, regardless of what path you chose, it is fairly easy to level up steadily as you go. 

 

Suggestions:  Play the human and angel paths first, as completing those gives you the items to synthesize a special item necessary for accessing Shuuya's final leader card, certain secret characters, as well as the other Append disc 3 benefits. 

 

A last few words:  For those who can't read kanji on their own, use the agth code, even though regular conversation show up in ITH.  The agth code also lets you access item, skill, and other info.

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Mapping: When you choose a route through an area, you can either go with the default by just clicking on the point you want to get to (and possibly running into an enemy you don't want to fight) or you can map your route point by point.  The latter method is mostly useful in the parts of the game where you have to do something in a very short period of time.  As an example, there is a part early in the game where you have to maneuver through an area to rescue civilians from monsters.  If you fight a monster along the way, the other monsters will start moving and eat the civvies.  So, in order to get the best quest reward, you have to map out a route that avoids all the enemies.  You do this by highlighting each point along the route you want to go in order (if you miss one, it resets your efforts) until you come to the point you want to get to.  This isn't covered by the tutorials and is only referred to obliquely in the Japanese walkthroughs, so I figured I'd put this down here.

 

Edit:  Here are a few early strategies that will help you for the late game.

 

First: Replicate all the early cards at least twenty times.  Most of them come in handy for alchemy later on, letting you create items that will be useful to you later.  In addition, keep all the coins and other items that seem only good for selling.  Just playing the game you'll have more than enough money to get what you want, as long as you aren't overly greedy.  Many of those items get used in late-game or second-run alchemy for high-level special character and leader cards. 

 

Second: Build yourself a varied stock of cards of all types.  The mid and late game arena has a lot of special conditions to some of its battles. 

 

Third:  Protag's Finishing Art is only useful at first glance.  Narumi's is far more useful when it comes to dealing with late-game enemies, so having her as your partner for boss battles is a life-saver.  With her help, it is relatively easy to clear the bosses' most powerful allies. 

 

Fourth: Do NOT play the Demon route your first or second time.  Get the other two routes out of your way first, so you can access the EX scenario as early as possible.  That EX scenario is the only way you can get non-protag leader cards and the Control 2 protag card. 

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  • 1 year later...

Most of the tips above are good. But maybe I will write many about game. Here come wall of text in case you hate it.

1. I would suggest do Deadbeat simply for 100% completion and some item that could make the game easier. If you thinking 150% LP is overpowered you can switch with lower LP card to make it challenging a little. For copying card of course to be easier you should still use highest ATK card for leader.

2. Speaking of Deadbeat, the card in the beginning maybe not to useful since it come with bad effect(can only attacking once). But here the useful function. Cost 0 Deadbeat card come with 1 control so you could deploy deadbeat card anywhere on the board. After you attacking using Deadbeat you could use it as shield too, especially zombie card with 4 HP and 8 ATK(You want to add it to your deck since it only cost 1 card).

3. Speaking of shield, normally you would be thinking equipping ring wall(-2 damage equip) to high HP Card or increase HP of any High HP Card. However, sometimes leader card could also has role for shield. Maybe in future there will be situation where high ATK SUB card is deployed beside leader, and then the enemy will be attacking leader. In this case it is better to just let the attack go through as long as leader have sufficient LP. Remember, there should be no change of prize if you end duel with 100% LP, 50% LP, 10% LP or even 1 LP(That would be nice though if for example 50% LP earning small salve, but that just me) so there is no point to not use this strategy(sorry if it's already known).

4. For healing item there should be plenty in school. Stock it as many as your money allow to maintain SUB HP High(SUB in the beginning isn't have much HP, but in late game some of them has high HP so it would be useful to soak some damage). Small salve maybe rare, but there is another way to have LP recovery. There is healing ring, usable only by angel and Heal 4 LP. Also there is cost 2 angel which effect is same with the accessory. Speaking of angel, you could use them to kill spirit type enemy(half all battle damage expect from angel).

5. Arena had some useful accessories, but I would suggested not to do it until you got Fool Mil. This item is increase drop by 1 just like in Kamidori. It also work in the arena. If you do that, your prize will be doubled and you could gather some useful accessories to your SUB card.

6. Alchemy is one way to break the game IMO. My suggestion is take note of some item that you want to get as much as possible(the materials too), than started to hunt some material to create that. Mine would be Veteran Ring **(2 slots, +6 ATK).

7. Hard to beat any boss? Here one useful deck that I was copied from Eushully wiki. Note that you could only use it if Sayane is in your party(Ch. 7 Human route, Ch.5 Devil route)

Quote

Sayane Lockdown Deck

This deck provides a simple and reliable, if very cheap, way of defeating many of the game's stronger enemies (including some late-game bosses).  The deck contains only six cards:

  • 4x Sayane (Human #78)
  • 1x Sayane (Human #79) equipped with MHI Controller
  • 1x Sayane (Human #82)

These are all acquired from Sayane's plot and friendship events on the human and devil routes.

Begin by moving your leader to the back row and waiting for the computer to have a full field of cards. Then start by deploying all four #78 cards to the sides, with the #82 being deployed directly in front.  The #78s each reduce the cost of all enemies by 1, and the #82 will reduce their cost by a further point when removed from the field, which will leave most enemies at zero cost.  If the enemy leader still has positive cost, use a Blood of Revival to get one of your #78s back and repeat.

Once the entire enemy force has zero cost, deploy the #79 in front of the enemy leader.  Her special ability prevents her from being attacked by zero-cost cards, and the MHI Controller will prevent the leader from moving and overriding one of its existing cards; the computer will then be unable to stop you from gradually chipping away at its health until you win.

This can also be done with card #80 in place of #79 for a faster kill, but without an upgraded leader card, this runs the risk of lacking the support needed to deploy it in the first place.

This deck will not help you against leaders that are immune to abilities, those with Finish Arts that damage or remove your cards, or battles with time limits or in which running out of cards is a losing condition.

Note that this deck not working also to any card which had fortitude as ability(Immune to any change ATK boost or status change. Also couldn't hit by direct damage). This deck was able to defeat almost all dangerous enemy in human route with few exception.

I think that's all for now. Sorry if you already know all but I think it is still not in English yet. I will write more if I remember.

PS If you didn't like Deadbeat because it will make game too easy, you may ignore tips 1 and 2. But before going to Dreamland maybe you should reconsider to  go to Deadbeat since the boss there had like 19 ATK Power and many other strong card.

Edited by littleshogun
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  • 5 years later...

As for why there's no Atori's route, my guess would be that Eushully didn't find a time to include her route in original or didn't find a way to have her route convincing in the main game, so they decided to add it in the optional content. I think almost no one play this VN simply because it's still untranslated, and no the narration patch here really didn't help at all with the messy translation there (I need to guess the story based on the voices, and yeah I already beat the human route once). That said, you can try to ask some question though if you need it.

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Atori is best girl, what a shame. Madoka is really cute, but Akari and the imouto'z are far behind Atori ><

Okay another question: I think there is something wrong with my quests: I can't find all the parts of the chainsaw for Arisa, I have one missing, it should be in the East of the Shopping mall, but I can't find it at all. i suspect it is because I don't have underground yet but I dunno how to get it. I am in chapter 6...

Same for Akari, just after the quest where she asks me to check on her Kouhai outside, I didn't unlock anymore quest. I am supposed to be "getting closer" but I dunno how... Ah! there is still the quest with the doll of narumi. She is supposed to repair it but still nothing.

Edit: ok I am in the midle of chapter 7 and I got the forced Narumi route, I fucked up almost all the friendship event, but I really did everything I could, I don't know where I fucked up at all...

 

 

Edited by Kirashi
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As for relationship quest here, I forgot the exact detail here. So what I can say is that perhaps you just need to take a rest in order to initiate time skip, and perhaps some of the events that you mentioned will appear. While my suggestion here will be not helpful seeing that you're already on Narumi's route (It's a recommended route anyway, so it's okay), you may try it at your next playthrough.

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