Just got the game, and I've some questions

[Yukaris Glove]

Hello there

First of all, I'll like to tell the translation team: thanks a lot for your work!

I'm currently residing in Japan for some time, but I still don't have enough level of Japanese to be able to read and enjoy all of Puppet Dance Perfomance. I bought the fist game the other day since I knew you guys had already realeased a full translation patch for it. So far I've been enjoying it a lot. And as far as I've seen, it seems to me it's better than Pokemon in many ways, specially since Game Freak is so stubborn in not rebalancing a lot of things that need to be.

In any case, I've some questions:

-I've seen there is the Reincarnation option that replaces the breeding from Pokemon. I want to include Mima in my team, but since she's SO freakingly hard to encounter, I just couldn't have the patience to catch a relatively good one. So I thought I would wait until I was able to reincarnate.... But I just went up to the Moriya Shrine for the first time and I've still not been given the option. I don't want to know exactly when I'll have the option, since I don't really want to be spoiled. I just want to know if it's far from where I am. Maybe in the postgame?

-About the ability Wisdom Eye (Mamizô Defense gets it, for example). It's the equivalent of Pokemon's Unaware? You know, that ability that doesn't take into account foe's stat changes when attacking or receiving an attack from it.

-Do the Awakening Charm and the Curing Charm work 100% of the time when afflicted by Stop or a Status ailment, respectively?

Thanks in advance

[Spar]

I'm by no means an expert, but I'll see if I can help you out.
Answer to your first question: You're not really close to getting reincarnation unlocked, in my first playthrough arriving at the Moriya shrine was about halfway between starting and getting reincarnation... Assuming that you are playing the base game... And your mileage may vary (I didn't get lost in either the Hell of Blazing Fires or the Hakurei Mountain Cave, but some people I know have struggled with those two areas, but I did struggle in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which extended my early game). But don't be put off using puppets that you want to use just because they don't have optimal stats. It's not a terribly difficult game and I've beaten it using most of the puppets in one way or another...

Unwanted answer to first question: It's not really much of a "spoiler", there's no storyline event for it or anything.

Spoiler

Yes, it's in the postgame. After the credits go to the Scarlet Devil Mansion and talk to Patchouli. There should be a Patchy doll on the table north of her position in the library.

Answer to the second question: I stopped playing Pokemon a long time ago, so I'm not sure... Wisdom Eye ignores all stat changes except for Speed. I'm not sure if Unaware takes speed changes into account. If speed is also ignored in Pokemon then I guess the answer is "mostly"... Otherwise, yes, they behave identically.

Answer to the third Question: No. If your puppet has the Wasteful ability it won't use the charm... unless you change it's ability outside of battle. If your foe has the Overwhelm ability your puppet can't use the charm until the enemy puppet is either defeated or withdrawn, at which point the charm will be used at the beginning of your next turn (I think...). To my knowledge those are the only exceptions, and any other situation if it has the charm it will use it (Use limit is once per battle without the Resourcefulness move or the Economist ability).

[Yukaris Glove]

Hey, thanks!

I already got most of the questions answered just by playing, but thanks anyway

Yes, I know the game it's not that difficult, it's just that I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I like for my puppets to be minimally good. I finally came back to seal a rather good Mima.

[Spar]

Ah, I see. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

I can understand where you're coming from wanting puppets to be average or better, I just feel it's an interesting challenge to play with sub-par puppets and make them work before maxing them out with reincarnation. At least for me it gives me a slight sense of accomplishment to watch a puppet with poor initial stats defeating opponents that it aught to have no business beating. One of my favorite playthroughs was beating the whole game with only wild fairies (and no recatches), only using my starter to beat Marisa in the start and catch a Daiyousei.

[Yukaris Glove]

Well, I've played almost all of the Pokemon games without ever caring about the adventure's team stats, and in TPDP the IVs and EVs have a smaller influence -I really like that. But since it's so easy to check "hidden values" in this game, since there are only EVs from 0 to 16 and only a few of manually distributed EVs, my perfectionism got me to do it like this.

Btw, I've got another question. The wiki: http://tpdp.supersanctuary.net/wiki/Surprise_Tactics states that with Kurumi's Suprise Tactics ability, damage is received at the end of the turn. Does that mean that even if the opponent move first, she won't take any damage until the end of the turn?

[Spar]

I think so, but I've never used that ability, so I can't say for certain. I haven't used much of the terrain and weather effects.

[Yukaris Glove]

Okay, I've got some more questions:

-Is it possible to fight Koishi and/or Flandre in the postgame? Remember that I'm playing the base game.

-The ability Discourager says "Reduces the opponent's FoAtk when hit by a skill that your barrier resists". So does it work even if the resisted skill was a Spread Attack?

-On the other hand, the ability Disturber states "Reduces the foe's FoAtk or SpAtk when hit by a skill that your barrier resists". Does it lower one of the two at random or does it depend on the type of resisted skill received?

Thank you.

[Spar]

1st: No.

2nd: Yes.

3rd: It used to be random, but I thought I saw a change in patch notes for it after I beat the game, so not 100% certain anymore.

[Yukaris Glove]

So!

I liked the game so much that I want to get the expansion too

When I play Shard of Dreams, what'll happen with my original game? Also, I think I read somewhere that you could transfer something from the base game. Maybe it was the starter puppet with the same emblem and ranks she had before applying the patch or something like that? Even so, I think I also read that your starter puppet in Shard of Dreams always has all of her ranks at S.

Thanks!

[PhantomPilot]

the expansion is actually a separate game, so the base game won't be touched at all (though you still need to have it installed for the expansion to work)

you can choose to import your save from the base game in which case some of your puppets will carry over
and yep, your starter gets all S ranks

EDIT: i should probably explain better
if you import your save you get your same starter with the same mark/ranks but otherwise reset to default
if not, whatever starter you pick will have all S ranks

also if you imported your save you get access to your old puppet box in post-game (i think, it's been a while)

[Yukaris Glove]

Pretty neat, thanks!

Even so, if someone could confirm his information it'd be great.

[Spar]

He's correct on all counts.

[Yukaris Glove]

Thanks!

And if you equip items to the puppets in your boxes for the base game, do those items also carry over to the expansion?

[Spar]

Not as far as I can recall. It's just the puppets that get transferred... I could be wrong as it has been a long time since I did that. (I honestly didn't care about the puppet transfer as re-catching them was more fun anyway).

[Yukaris Glove]

Thing is in my case I want to start reincarnating the dolls in preparation for the expansion. I won't play it right away, I'll wait until either the translation is finished or I learn enough Japanese to be able to play it on my own without problems.