So, playing The Alliance Alive, I just visited the Level 4 Water Devil Den in the Burning Realm, and decided I wanted to go to the Hermit's Cave in the Rain Realm. So, I got in the Ark, warped to the Caged Realm (which actually puts me in the Rain Realm in a spot that happens to be convenient for my purposes), and sailed a bit, looking for my destination.

A bit later, while sailing in the middle of the ocean, suddenly Vivian said something, then there was something about being pulled in. Just after that, I was in a lava-filled cave like the one from the Burning Realm. It seems that the game somehow glitched and wrong warped me into a place quite far from where I was.

Has this happened to anyone else?

(Also, is there anyone else monitoring the board and interested in some gameplay discussion? I could mention how I have found an RNG-free Final Strike-free method of doing over 2,000 damage before the events in the Snow Realm.)

I've not ran into a situation like this, either in playing the original 3DS version or the GOG version. It does sound like some sort of glitch, although I've not been over the whole ocean to confirm that there isn't a lava cavern under the ocean anywhere. The Lava Pit in the Burning Realm does have a conversation about being pulled under and placed in a cave, so it sounds similar to that. I'd be fine with that, although the GOG forums tends to not have a lot of conversation.

I didn't have much difficulty hitting over 1000+ damage, with the occasional 2000+ hit, from Axe Barbarosa and from Tiggy. Barbarosa can do that pretty easily with Berserk and a STR boost, while Tiggy can use Shot Coordination for her own buff and Triple Tap/Zero Distance Shot for really good damage.

It's been long enough since I played the game that I don't remember how I did that.

I do, however, remember one rather nice little trick that's great for those non-human party members. As soon as you can, have them learn that basic rain spell, the one that damages all enemies and is cheap (I think 5 of whatever that unit is) to cast. Then, use that spell all the time. Demon spells (and martial arts, I believe) don't use weapon power, so to compensate, the skill level becomes more important, and if you raise it enough through use, it becomes rather impressive for a cheap spell that hits all enemies.

Then, invest that one other type of points you get into reducing the cost below the regen rate, and you can now use this spell all the time.

Can only do this with the 4 non-humans. (Note that that one penguin has one of the more powerful (and expensive) rain spells at a high power level when joining, so you might choose to use that instead of learning and practicing the weaker spell.)

I did not realize that the skill level applies more to unarmed and sorcery arts. I do remember that the sorceries seemed stronger back when I played it on 3DS, but I chalked that up to just having much more focused attack power with the axe than anything else. It's probably because I've been focusing on training all weapon arts in all categories to 100% that I can find, and so I haven't been spending any time on upgrading the attack levels on my sorcery spells.

It does look like you can spam 9SP spells every turn once you've unlocked everything (-5SP discount and 4SP a turn with everything bought) so that's the break point between spammable every turn, and something stronger that you wouldn't be able to use all the time.

Even without leveling anything, I've found that Sensitive Rain (the healing sorcery you can learn from the Lost Staff) is really good. A heal on the whole party is pretty important sometimes, and Acuity on everybody isn't too bad when one character is tanking damage for everyone else. (Plus more damage against opponents.)

I believe healing doesn't scale as quickly.

In the case of Sensitive Rain, you actually *don't* want it to be too powerful. The spell heals enemies as well, and enemies have far more HP than you do.

By the way, for Symbology, you want to use an item with high attack power to cast the spell. For a while, unless you've sent people to that place where they research magic, the only semi-decent symbology "weapon", IIRC, is actually an accessory. (They really should have had some intermediate staves for sale in the mid-game.)

I did actually learn Sensitive Rain on the male demon. I also tried to get it on the female demon, but no luck. (I played up to the 3-party battle sequence, but then decided to quit before doing that part, for whatever reason.)

(Incidentally, I'm currently re-playing a different NISA release: Stranger of Sword City Revisited.)

Yes, I've found that weapons tend to be sparse. I've build up the Sigilmancy guild for the extra spells and equipment, but I think I've still only found two staffs and the one spear available in normal shops with the Sigil attached. I've managed to pick up a few accessories (two different rings) which have been handy when I don't want to be restricted to a staff/spear on a character.

And I agree, I don't really want Sensitive Rain to be all that strong. It already heals my full party HP, which is more than what I'd ever need. The SP cost is a bigger concern than the amount healed. Probably because they take away your two demons (likely the best sorcery users at that point) and once they give them back, you're then stuck inside the castle and need to equip everybody for an extended series of fights that ends with a boss battle where you're stuck using your split teams to fight. You're also prevented from jumping onto the Ark ship while the demons are taken away, and obviously while you're locked in town. AND your formations are restricted to the awful ones the game provides by default, rather than ones you've put together yourself - and you don't get to change them at all.

Just remember to check the character positions if you're going back to that. Having Azura in the defender slot despite having no defense options was a pretty terrible option for that team. Interesting, I'm a fan of good dungeon crawler games. I'll keep my eyes on that one.

Well, there is that penguin, who starts with one of the mid-level rain spells at something like 40 skill.