Following on from Part 1, we’re treated to four more standard units! Will they be better than the previous batch? Are they any good at all? Let’s take a look and find out!
| New Units | |
 | Applies Possession to disrupt (his 3★) and to destroy (his 4★) |
 | Snipe-range unit cosplaying as a Slash-ranged one |
 | Pulls enemies in for your team to hit, then pushes them away so they can’t hit back |
 | Pops in every 3 turns to say hi (also, to murder everything) |
Masanori’s 3★ and 4★ variants are pretty different takes on the same theme:
His 3★’s skillset leverages Possession’s use as a disabling debuff – he’s got a decent chance of applying it, but pretty limited follow-up (beyond Possession in a Long Slash range behind his target, which we’ll get to with his 4★). Combining the disable with Buff Reversal will allow your heavy-hitting units to clean up without much fear of reprisal.
His 4★, on the other hand, leverages Possession’s use as an offensive debuff – much like Ellie, Masanori is built around getting others to do the dirty work for him. On paper, he certainly has the tools to do this: locking down and weakening the enemies that are going to be hit with Possession and Buff Reversal, ensuring they will be hit by changing his puppet’s weapon range, and (massively) boosting their damage with Doubt.
Unlike Ellie, Possession is his only trick – you’d better have a backup plan ready if it fails, because Masanori doesn’t leave you with many options.
Is it a good skillset? With the sheer number of enemies that are outright immune to Possession, maybe not.
Is it a fun skillset? Absolutely. I’ll certainly be jamming him into teams he has no right to be on 🙂
There’s not really a ton to unpack with Kresnik’s skillset: treat him like a Snipe unit that changes to a Slash unit on turn 2+ of each phase, and you’ve essentially figured him out.
He’ll do passable damage in either range, with Crit helping to offset both the steep Snipe damage multiplier and the fact that you lose one of your Combo attacks – this passive damage probably sets him up as one of the better 3★ units with Mentor (which, now that Looking up to My Teachers is a thing, is actually a useful skill to have).
His 4★ gets a very respectable damage spike from ATK Up and Non-Prayer Strengthening – you just need to either stick around long enough for Prayer to wear off or find another way of removing it.
You’re mostly going to be using his CS to reapply Combo when you need it, but Weakness is definitely a nice bonus to have.
Almost a dream support for glass cannon units that don’t want to be hit, Akiha’s main drawcard here is his combination of drawing enemies in on your turn, then pushing them back out of range for their turn.
For many enemies, this is simply going to be unbeatable – after all, if they can’t hit you, they can’t kill you.
Outside of this, he’s got the classic defensive buff/heal combo that has previously proven to be reliably decent. It’s a bit of a shame that he doesn’t apply much of it to himself, but his pushback effect should go a long way towards keeping him safe.
I greatly enjoy the design here – essentially disappearing from the board for 2 out of 3 turns is a great way to capture the essence of a character that doesn’t interact with time in a sensible fashion.
That’s not to say he’s useless for those turns – Berserk+ and Stigma (and Ardour, for his 5★) is a great damage boost for your team on the turns he’s not blowing up the board, and CP reduction to allies can be great on the right team (unfortunately, the upside is a bit limited on a CS-based character).
Just take care not to leave anything alive on the board after his CS – Weakness and Taunt is a nasty combo that he won’t be able to survive for very long!
Though perhaps not the most complex set of units we’ve seen, I don’t think you’d be mad to roll any of this bunch – there’s definitely some very strong skillsets on show here. As always, good luck if you are rolling!
The@Housamo 