Quote Originally Posted by edczxcvbnm View Post
I don't change my characters out because I found a terrific strategy for all encounters. I would feel like a fool to not go with it. Maybe there are better strategies for certain situations or maybe a better overall one but since nothing is challenging, I am not encouraged to try and figure out a new one.

I will tell you this, that one boss fight I mentioned above did force me to alter my party and it was exciting to try new combinations until I found one that worked. It would be great to have to tweak my party every other dungeon to find the team that works best for that area. But if this was Halo and everything was a wide open field, I am not dropping that sniper rifle to try something new...just to change it up. That is not who I am. By changing it up from a wide open field to narrow corridors, I switch up my weapons to find the next best option. I debate what weapon to take with me not knowing what the next area will bring. That is exciting!
I'm not going to argue but I feel that unless an JRPG has Megami Tensei in the title, then chances are very high the game is not going to offer up much of a challenge; so switching it up is more of just a chance to experieince everything rather than finding an effctive strategy. I've been switching out party members largely for the sake of variety. I've been doing all the side missions and it gets boring using the same party. I especially appreciate that several character play very differently from each other because that makes switching out new leaders more fun and productive. I don't think I've ever played a mage character in an action rpg/semi-action rpg that was quite as fun as using Melia. I probably should give Riki a whirl as well since his skill set is very interesting since he's kind of a Green Mage from FFTA2 in theory. I think Reyn is the only character who kind of got thrown into permanent sidelines since Dunban does his role as well (though not as effective) and fits my playstyle better. If Melia only had an Esuna style ability like Sharla, I would probably ditch Sharla for her instead since, Melia is a great offenseive character with some good healing abilities.

Anyway... I didn't accomplish much this evening besides trying to finish up a ton of sidequests in Frontier Villafe. I couldn't complete the Mark Hunt where you face the one creature at the Eks Watering Hole on a hot day , whatever that means. So I finally jumped into the Eryth Sea now that I've reached the 60 hour mark of the game. I finally reached the point where the mission grinding has kind of screwed the story difficulty, as I am 10 levels higher than everything in the area barring the level 80-90 creature just hanging around to make me have a bad day when I start to feel cocky. I may just begin to make a straight jump to the plot since everyone in this thread has remarked that Eryth Sea/Prison Tower is a bit of a turning point in the story.