I was starting to get a bit frustrated with this game that I have been absolutely addicted to because I was entering areas that had a recommended "danger level" of 45 meaning that it would probably be a good idea if you were around that level before you take it on. I was well over that level and was still getting my ass handed to me by the first boss.... and it would be some time later that I would find out that this boss that was wiping the floor with me was just the first in three stages of bosses that you have to overcome in order to properly close this part of the story.
I thought that maybe they were messing with me and you really needed to be a lot higher level so I went off and did all the side quests I could, bought much better gear and found some as well, and then went back there when my main guy was around level 70 in an area where it is recommended that you are 45.
I was still losing
you see, it has been so long since I played a truly engrossing turn-based RPG in the simplistic style of the 90's that I guess I had forgotten how absolutely essential it is to understanding buffs (certain spells or items you can use that will improve your stats briefly) in order to get past something. It is also a very good idea for you to manage the sort of debuffs that you are putting on whatever it is that you are facing.
The boss that was kicking my butt was named General Ritsu and it didn't seem to matter how I approached it, he just wiped me, even once I went into the battle already knowing what weapons he is weak towards as far as breaking his shield is concerned.
I was missing something that goes back a really long ways in RPGs and that was status effects. You see, they don't hold your hand in this game, they presume that you are going to know a thing or two and at least have a look at the various items or pay attention to how when there is a black blob floating in front of your face (you are blinded) that your attacks are not going to land. I know this, yet I chose to remain kind of stupid about it. It also had never occurred to me up to this point that I should maybe focus on putting those sort of status effects on the other guys as well.
Now I'm not completely in the wrong here though, General Ritsu is a very full of shit boss in that they just give him as many attacks as he needs in order to wipe out your party even if you took precautions to make sure he can't one-shot you with the Sunder Earth attack that hits everyone in the group for normally, insta-death damage or near enough to it.
The trick was that this was a physical attack, and once I figured out that if I keep the guy blinded that he misses almost all the time with this spell/action/attack, the fight became extremely easy.
I'm a bit disappointed in myself that I looked online to find out a strategy and it was one of those "of course of course!" moments when I read it.
So now I am just going to indicate this to you guys out there as well that you are going to need to pay attention to this sort of stuff, probably right around the time you start hitting level 40 or above.
There are 8 characters to choose from but you can only have 4 of them in your party at once. I tried all of them out but there were two that I basically ignored and didn't use them at all unless I was forced to. They were Castti the Apothecary and Agnea the Dancer. Both of these chicks have horrible offense so you tend to push them to the side. Like most people I am interested in damage output but as it turns out these two are absolutely essential for buffing and debuffing.
This is especially true with Castti the Apothecary who when the time comes, can combine up to 6 ingredients to throw at the enemy that is going to apply a ton of debuffs to them, and also can damage them and wear down their shield at the same time. Conversely, she can also apply a huge amount of buffs or eliminate debuffs from your own group all in one go. So one of the most important things that you can possibly be focusing on is to make sure that she doesn't get hit by status effects and has as good of armor as possible.
The Dancer Agnea seems damn near useless until you figure out that she has certain dances that can triple or even quadruple the damage output of your normal sword/warrior types. To the point where once I had this all figured out, I did enough damage to General Ritsu in a single person's attack that it took more than half of his overall health away from him in one single turn.
This was just astounding to me that I could have been so stupid to not have realized this up to this point. I should have noticed that something was up when every single town that you visit has a store that focuses on ingredients for potions and I just thought in my arrogant way that this might be for the ultra-nerdy Japanese people who enjoy fishing side quests in any and every game.
Later on, you are going to find amulets that prevent you from ever being afflicted with blind, and you are going to run into weapons that automatically inflict blind when they connect or break a shield. This is a HUGE part of the game as it turns out.
Later on I would encounter this creature at an island called "curious nest" that had a dragon at the end of the path. This guy, once every 3 rounds or so, hits you with a mega debuff that afflicts your group with basically every single negative attribute under that sun. If you have Castti with you though, you can negate almost all of these in a flash. If you don't have her with you, I question if this boss fight is even possible to win because he hits you with negative attributes that drop your damage output so low that you are doing insignificant amount of damage to him - or I suppose it is more likely a her, since it was a nest.
Once you wrap your head around the status effects and how important they are, you are going to see the game become slightly more complicated, sure... but I think this is a lot better than just mindlessly grinding for levels until you overwhelm an enemy with superior stats.
tl;dr because I now that was too long
Don't ignore Castti and Agnea just because they seem boring and low-damage compared to your other characters. Their abilities to buff your characters is far more valuable than even if they were able to do the same amount of damage as your best warrior.
They are essential to the game and you need to learn how to incorporate them into your playthrough, or I don't think you will actually be able to complete a playthrough.