That One Stat...

I probably shouldn't argue with people on GameFAQs so much. There was a discussion about the Unique Parameters on the 360 board because someone was asking about it and because the ENG guide doesn't really say anything about it. Not surprising, considering how thin that guide is. Anyways, about those stats... One user said that in Korea, it was supposedly confirmed that the unique was used for Criticals and Critical Defense. I'm not buying it. He also said that the stat maxes out at 100 in the Asian 360 version. ALSO not buying it. I know that I can push the stat to 100 and beyond, but that's because I'm playing the PC version. Then he posts, saying that it maxes out when you max your BR. Now why the hell would you want to max your BR on the 360 version?! That's pure suicide if you're not prepared! BR maxes at 255...

Anyways, the reason why I even decided to say anything was because of the Critical Hit and Critical Defense thing. Since he also had the JP guide, he should be able to tell the difference between several terms: Critical Hit, Critical Offense, Critical Defense, Critical Trigger, Trigger Chance.
Critical Hit: Exactly what it says. Not influenced by a stat, but by Morale.
Critical Offense: The chaining of commands through the use of the Critical Trigger.
Critical Defense: The chance to Parry/Shield Bash/Counter through the use of the Critical Trigger.
Critical Trigger: The QTE sequences during a CO/CD.
Trigger Chance: Exactly what it says, the chance to use the Critical Trigger.

Each piece of equipment has a CO/CD value to it. Remnants tend to have fairly high CO/CD values. It can also be influenced by Morale, so the value (Trigger Rate) isn't fixed. The unique stat doesn't have anything to do with it. What it DOES do, is influence the commands you get in battle, and possibly how they would Reassess/Rethink during a battle. Obviously, this also means that you should construct your unions with unique parameters that work well together. Another thing, COs seem to happen more often because the game makes as many passes minus 1 as there are units in that particular union. If you have 5 units, then you have 4 passes for the Trigger Chance. The CD only activates if you successfully Block/Dodge, which is dependent on the unit's equipment and Morale. So unless the battles are matched unit for unit with the same conditions, you wouldn't see CO:CD at 1:1. Ever. Then there's the Critical Hit. It happens randomly, and the rate is affected by the Allies' Morale. Take that crazy battle against an Observer, which lasted 31 turns. Morale never rose above 50% in my favour, which resulted in practically no crits unless I got lucky with a CO (about 20 times). Contrast with another fight with 100% against that unlucky Dragon. Filled with massive numbers of crits. Now, that's about 6 playthroughs of that, so I think I know what I'm talking about. And he said that his friend told him that...

So, about that unique stat... I'll give an example. Emmy/David/Irina/Rush/Haruko. Love/Authority/Bonds/Bravery/Inner Strength. Sticking David that high up might have been a bad idea (coupled with a high UP stat, >100) since his Shards commands pop up quite frequently and sometimes dragging Irina into using IAs, but the other units work well together by focusing on Morale control, healing and buffing. So it's essentially a support union. An insanely powerful support union with 3 Shards users, Hundred Flowers for extra pain, 2 Weapon Arts, 2 dual-wielders with Swift SS arts, 2 Psionics users, and just general MAs spamming. And a summon. Squee. Contrast to another union I had. Having someone like Constance (Cynicism) as the leader pretty much resulted in a suicidal union that rarely healed itself while in Deadlock. Her UP seriously clashed with everyone else's stat. Accounts from other users had similar effects of having screwed up (read: unfavourable) commands depending on the leader and the general union composition. Like replacing Irina with Wyngale. You don't want to replace someone nice with a complete nutcase if you want Arcana spam! And having someone hardworking and another who's lazy in the same union... It's not apparent to newcomers, but it becomes glaring once you engage in higher level play such as low BR runs and other self-imposed challenges.



And my interest in NieR has jumped quite a bit... because I started listening to the OST. It seems to be mostly ex-NAMCO composers that have worked on Tekken 6. Eh, whatever. It's probably going to be the next game I play. Just don't know if it'll be NieR RepliCant or NIER/NieR Gestalt.