The Lost Child: The Dream Team, Part 1

As I'm inching closer to the final boss' lair, the time is ripe to unveil my ultimate — in every sense of the word — party. I firmly intent to take down the final boss with that close-knit quintet or die trying: not only am I too attached to them now to let any of them go, but I invested so much Karma in them that I basically backed myself into a corner. Any new addition to my team at that point would require grinding for Karma, which I'm totally not in the mood to do.

It should surprise no one that I dutifully stuck with the same Astrals for most of my run — a strategy that's pretty much the next best thing to a solo run in TLC. I actually toyed with the idea of crawling solely with Hayato and Lua at the very beginning; however, I quickly gave up when I realize that a) my hard-earned Karma would be wasted in the process, and b) the whole thing might well be darn near impossible. See, Hayato and Lua are actually quite weak: not only do they level up really slowly, but their stats are nothing to brag about, especially compared to those of a well-developed Astral. Their HP in particular is pitifully low, and certainly wouldn't allow them to survive most random battles, let alone dispose of bosses. They definitely fare much better in a full-party setting, as we'll see right now. Dear fellow gamers, let's kick off that presentation of my TLC Dream Team with its two mandatory fixtures, namely Hayato and Lua.

Hayato: A.k.a. the Finisher. You'd think that being the resident Chosen One, Hayato would kick ass on the battlefied; however, it's not quite the case — at least at first. Even with his Attack on steroids and pimped-up weaponry, he does only marginally more damage than a well-raised Astral. His defense and HP are none too glorious either; and as he has 0 MP, he cannot learn nor wield Skills at all. He's more or less condemned to single hits for most of the main game due to his type of weaponry and lack of Skills, and it's pretty common to see him do pitifully little in boss battles compared to the rest of the crew. However, Hayato has a niche of its own as the sole wielder of the Gangour. Apart from capturing Astrals, the Gangour can be used to deliver mighty blows during fights — blows that can give you a seriously good edge, if not terminate the fight entirely. Hayato is very much a slow burner: it takes time and dedication to hunt for Bursts and bring him to his full potential, but it's totally worth the effort.

Lua: A.k.a. the Jack-of-all-trades. And potentially master of none, indeed. Lua can fill different roles in a serviceable way; however, her versatility takes some time to fully reveal itself, and it must be wisely exploited if one wants to make the most of it. Lua learns Electric attacks, group buffs and healing spells; and whilst all those Skills can come in handy, it's pretty much mandatory to cherry-pick the ones you'll use in any given situation. The main issue stems from Lua's low MP, which prevents her from being all at once a Buffer, a Spellcaster and a Healer. Having Lua as the party's main Healer is an especially poor choice, because you can bet that she'll run out of MP before the end of the dungeon — or the boss fight, for that matter. I find that her limited MP is best used in group buffs and occasional status effect healing and resurrection, and thus focused primarily on raising her Attack — all the more so as, unlike Hayato, she can wield weaponry that target whole rows of enemies.

Although Hayato and Lua are the titular MCs, they are definitely not the main stars in all things fighting. Instead, they are here to add the finishing touches and perfect the strategy du jour, whilst the Astrals are the ones who truly get to shine and wreak havoc on the battlefield. I'll see you soon for the second part on that post, where I'll gleefully expand on the sheer awesomeness of my very own trio of Astrals. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!