5

I've been playing PSIV - End of the Millenium, and I thought that "chance to instantly kill" moves were fairly worthless, up until I got to Nurvus.

At this point in the game, you have to regularly fight high-HP mechanical/robot enemies. Some of them, like... uh... Bulzaren? Or something? The one that has a ridiculous amount of defense and floats with rockets. Anyway, some of them are difficult to defeat with conventional means. So I began experimenting with the instant-kill moves some more.

One thing I began to notice is that Demi's Spark skill seems to consistently kill these robotic enemies. Out of about 15 uses against robots, only one of them failed.

Then it hit me: Duh, she's an android, so she uses an EMP (or maybe hacking) to disable other robots instantly, that's why Spark works so consistently. In game terms, they probably doubled the chance for the skill to work against robotic enemies.

To contrast, Gryz's Crash is very hit-and-miss across all the enemies I've tried it on, and Rika's Eliminate has literally never succeeded, ever.

So my question is this: Does it matter what kind of enemy I use the different instant-kill moves on, and do different moves work better against certain enemies?

EDIT: I should add that before I went to Nurvus, Spark seemed about as helpful as the other instant-kill moves (that is, not very)

Improve this question
4
  • Why'd you remove the Genesis tag? I'm playing this game on a Sega Genesis right now!
    – Lucas Leblanc
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 15:39
  • Because the question isn't specific to the Sega Genesis. We only use platform tags if there's a difference in how the game works, if it's on more than one platofmr.
    – Frank
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 15:44
  • Oh, my bad. I thought it was for categorizing questions by the platform the game was played on.
    – Lucas Leblanc
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 15:45
  • We do, yes. But if the question isn't affected by the platform (which this doesn't seem to be), then there's no reason to include it; it'll work the same across all platforms.
    – Frank
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 15:46

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5
+50

Yes. All weapons and most techniques and skills are divided into one of 14 different attack categories. Each enemy has its sensitivity value, between 0 and 4, for each of these categories. Spark and EMP both lie in category 12, which is only effective (above 0) for mechanical enemies. Conversely, the Death ability won't work against mechanical enemies (sensitivity 0). Even within these creature types, the sensitivity varies from one creature to another, usually by 1 point (e.g. usually 2-3 for Spark et al.). Half the enemies in Nurvus are mechanical and have a sensitivity of 2 to Spark's category, which is why Spark is so effective there (that and Spark's high base effectiveness).

(Source. The explanation and table of attack types can be found under "Quantitative Analysis of Attacks". While the the list of monsters and their sensitivities is under "Monster Guide".)

Improve this answer
2
  • Oh, interesting... I guess I should have looked there first but the idea of assigning types to instant kill moves is a foreign one to me. Also, just as a fun fact, towards the end of the game where I was fighting fleshier and often mage-like enemies, Rika's Eliminate started becoming extremely effective.
    – Lucas Leblanc
    Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 16:00
  • Good to know. Insta-kill moves being typed is a bit of an odd thought, yes. It's kind of like if Death in Final Fantasy was Lightning elemental, or whatnot. On the plus side, making the insta-kill moves typed is what allows them to be so effective: It'd be boring to have a single, high-probability kill spell that worked on everything. The way I figure, making them type- and weakness-based adds that extra layer of planning that let's you feel clever using them. It helps it feel more like a puzzle than a "Press X to Win" button. YMMV on how effective it was at this, but it's an interesting idea.
    – Joshua Little
    Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 23:04

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .