Surprised it's finally a game where I don't have to write a walkthrough, since it was provided with the game...
The game is pretty decent classical RPG maker type... it actually feels more like your typical JRPG game than an H game with most scenes being there just for the sake of it and serve as a filler to actual game - first part of game involves getting your party together and explaining the core of the story along with first attempt at an ending... and then to reach the true ending you go in depth into each heroine personal story which somehow pieces together...
If you played octopath then it's somewhat similar feeling in terms of story telling except characters being more interactive with each other.
The story is nothing amazing but nothing too bad either. Think of it as tales series in that aspect - the story is there and it's fun enough to complete but don't expect something mindblowing.
I will instead provide some game tips, building information(since walkthrough lacks this) and 'girl tiers' to explain the more viable ones for combat since game is not a pushover unless you overgrind as well as provide the 100% save files below.
Let's start with the tips:
1) Go to the options and turn on autodash, this will save you the trouble of having to hold shift to run.
2) The very first town(Northland) has H scene recollection room - not only you can rewatch the scenes with girls there, but you can also grab the Aphrodisiac/Tan/Hair growth items.. you can technically earn them through in game means, but if you get them here it's like a cheat that skips needing to do that... I recommend just taking ~3 of each, that's enough to last you and always have them as you will be passively be earning more.
3) Items are hidden in random boxes/shelves in towns, but those are only random consumables.. there are 2 decent early game secrets - one being chest in the bar of 1st town which you can get after the people in town disappear and another being backtracking to the Northland ruins for the chest you have seen in the cutscene.
4) The chests in the dungeons on the other hand are pretty rewarding and it's worth trying to fully explore dungeon... one way to notice you are on the boss floor is the change of music... this means if you had other paths you could take -
One of the best items in the chests is IMO located in the Prodamunte dungeon(likely the last girl unlock dungeon you will enter) - the double gold earned item.. this will speed up the gold gain massively.
There is also the double exp item you get early on, but it sadly works on 1 girl you have it equipped on only.
5) Don't try to grind for buildings early on - progress with the game.. by time you enter 7th girl dungeon you can start earning ~10-15k per battle with double gold item but by ~5th girl you will have 0 problems unlocking all buildings whenever you want to.
Gold overall stops being a problem, since 2nd part of the game(after recruiting all 7 girls) has no new stuff in shops anymore so you will end the game with many millions.
6) The only way to revive your girls is pretty much using Nectar item(which you can only purchase at 500 per one in curio shop, you won't encounter it randomly anywhere) or having Sara use her Raise spell at lvl 25+(or more advanced versions later on) or resting at the inns/home.
7) You can use arrow keys in equip menu when selecting specific equipment piece to learn what it actually does in terms of stats.
This is especially important to notice why sometimes you take such massive damage in some equipment like bunny suit or swimsuit as well as other important information about equipment you might not even know it has.
8) Nearly every dungeon early on has a spot with a strong enemy, which is going to give more exp/gold than other enemies in the dungeon. Still not worth grinding IMO though.
9) Some optional stuff might be a bit too hard when you first encounter it, it's normal, just progress the main story and you will beat it easily later, losing fights simply returns you to before the scene happened. Overall the game is pretty challenging until you at least get 4 girls in party.
Moving onto building explanations:
7 girls houses - mostly just flavor and unlocking more scenes, but some are also required for other building quests.
Alchemist - can synthesize some great weapons and top tier accessories there.
Weapons should be obvious, but for accessory crafting here is a comfortable list of towns you want to visit for base accessories:
Fahbula - All elemental immunities(you need to pair those with elemental curios for crafting)
Saint Leah - All condition immunes, Ares Belt, Protective Earring, Ring, Wing Boots, Lucky Charm
Rota Moa - Noble Earring, Harbringer Piercing, Old Necklace, Antique Ring
Prodamunte - Talisman of the hunt/hare, Ares Talisman, Magic Repel Charm, Reflect Charm
Laskaria - Stunning Fang, Concealing Bracelet and 3 tome accessories
Northland(constructed armor shop) - Healing Choker, Serene Choker, Old Necklace
Best craftable weapons are only very slightly better than the artisan version of the best item when you get 7th girl.
As for best accessories - holy seal gives 20% resist to every element and battle maiden charm gives 80% resists to every condition.. first one is simply neat damage reduction vs magic and elemental physical attacks, while another one lets you mostly skip needing to immunize yourself to conditions via Nadia or Sara(if you got protection staff crafted)
You do get better weapons for free during final dungeon of the normal ending though, which you can access at approximately same time as best craftable ones, so this makes crafted ones pretty pointless. Except maybe Sara weapon, which technically has some use in form of giving status immunity skill as well as a magical dagger for cosette, since the ones you get are kinda eh.
Casino - you can buy some H scene items here as well as the elemental guns you can synthesize much later on in the game for Lucy... I would not bother with the H scene items since well.. it's a waste of time when you can get them via H recollection room instead... the holy gun on the other hand is worth going for if you have patience.
I doubt I need to explain the card game but it's IMO not a viable way to get cash fast unless you like it.
Instead I will explain the trick about the slots machine - it is not random. Each icon is always exactly the same and appears in exactly same order in the machien and those icons loop. What this means is that if you memorise when you should press the key for it to land on 7 by remembering the icon order - you can keep earning 5k easily very fast.
It's easier said than done but if you are confident in your skills then that's a great way to get holy gun for lucy very early and make her from so so character to a top tier/2nd best one at least until you get all 7 girls unlocked at which point all other weapons catch up.
I personally made a paper for myself where I put the icons I wanted and when to press approximately.. this allowed me to get 3x7 nearly 50% of the time.
Be aware that end game you will be so rich that you can easily buy all rewards by simply exchanging cash. So even if you want to play 'legit' without taking the items from H scene recollection room - you can still easily do it without actually playing casino.
Author's Residence - it's mostly a quest that you need to complete, described well in the walkthrough.
Trading Post - the best way to use this is explained in walkthrough, I will just add that the goal seems to be 15k coins gained. I think I saw some new NPCs appear by 25k+(not exactly sure when) but they didn't add anything. I reached 50k myself and stopped since it seems that 15k seems to be all you need.
The item you get as 15k reward is worth it though - solomon ring, which is +60 MATK and will make your nadia a viable nuker again if she was starting to fall off.
To accept reward you talk to the guy in the top room. The very first reward is a 'Lens' that is essentially nude mode for the game, to use it go to key items in your inventory.
Shops - if you didn't notice it before, each town offers gear for each girl individually and those update the more girls you get permanently in your party. But the shops you build instead offer 'artisan' gear, which is more powerful stat wise than the same gear in the town shops. Be aware that alchemist can't use artisan weapon versions to craft stuff.
Regarding armor - medium armor is best for lucy, light armor is best for mages and the hunting costumes are best for the other girls.
Hunters building - this one you don't purchase but unlock instead, it's in the walkthrough but I just want to emphasize the fact that this allows you to entirely skip buying armor for Lyla, Liddy, Sara(those are capable of equipping overpowered mage armor) and maybe Emma(for her the artisan dragon armor is slightly better). The monsters are pushovers by time you unlock the building, so it's a good idea to go for it, it's in the walkthrough.
Arena - arena is a solo girl fight against rounds of enemies without break each difficulty having 4 waves of enemies. Best girl to use is IMO Liddy.
It has 4 difficulties, here are the summary of them.
Easy - is 100% completed the moment you can beat it.
Rewards: First clear - Tan, Next clears - Elixir.
Normal - still easy on auto with liddy.
Rewards: First clear - Hair Restorer, Next clears - Elixir.
Hard - my Liddy was level 46 when I tried it(due to double exp item being on her all the time), I put on the healing choker for passive HP regen and could auto it all my way through hard. Even if you are lower than that - you will likely simply have to use chakra to restore HP on occasion and do fine. Another accessory that is good here is battlemaiden to be nigh immune to conditions.
Rewards: First clear - Aphrodisiac, Next clears - Elixir
Hell - this one was probably somewhat possible with the above and a bit RNG as well, but it's certainly not easy since it utilizes the monsters beyond what you have seen at that point. It's okay to leave it until later.
The weapon from normal ending final dungeon for Liddy makes this pretty easy due to the 50% counterattack chance.
First Clear - Liddy best alchemy synthesized weapon, Next clears - Elixir
Overall pretty disappointing either way, making the arena pretty pointless.
Girl Tiers:
Here I will explain the girls and their uses overall as well as late game viability.
First of all I will start with explaining equipment, when doing the explanations I will refer to things as part 1 and part 2 of the game. Part 1 is the process of you getting the 7 girls into your party and the part 2 is the content after you get all 7 girls.
Weapon slot - There are 3 potential top tier weapons for each character: Best synthesized gear, normal ending final dungeon gear and the 'final weapon' you get when fully completing girl storyline during part 2.
I will cover more about weapon slot for each girl individually.
Shield Slot - is a scam, there are no shields in the game. Emma can dual wield though.
Hat Slot - best hat is available the moment you get all 7 girls and complete the quest to construct armory. Artisan sage crown is the best helmet for everyone doing magic and artisan feathered cap is the best one for physicals.
Armor Slot - same as hat slot, best is purchasable. Best for mages is 100% the artisan's emerald cloak which gives 40% element resists on top of crazy stats... those who can't equip it are in a sad shape though since all other equip sucks.. my favorite is artisan's brigandine, but costumes are also sometimes okay.
Accessory Slot - this is complex.. there are 2 good utility accessories, which are double gold and double exp(only for certain character, I used it on liddy during part 1 and lucy during part 2)
Aside of that the best one is probably battle maiden condition 80% resistance accessory. Also closer to the end of each character quests they get unique accessory. I
Now onto characters:
First of all I will mention the points at which the character values can change..
Obvious one is getting more and better girls, another one is different skill unlock making certain girls fall down or go up... also in some cases equipment.
Another fact that you need to know is that you unlock all skills pretty early by ~lvl 30-35, after that point you can already make decision about character yourself as well.
Sara - the first girl you get and the one that surprisingly has least content for her.
My overall grade for her is 7/10 and my end game grade for her is 7/10.
She is a character I used nearly all the time in the party despite that low grade I gave her.. it's just that she is mostly just sitting there.
Her main use is being a support. Her commander skill is what I mostly kept all the time, since trying to use the fast grind system is actually in fact more time consuming most of the time... sara ensures you don't need to heal between encounters even if you set battle to auto from get go.
On bosses her main use is healing.. when she does not need to heal I use her to buff atk with priority of it going to liddy.
Her best weapon is IMO the synthesized one that gives 'status immunity' to whole party, a skill which only Nadia has otherwise(and Nadia falls off late game). This allows other girls to equip any accessories you want instead of having to equip status immune ones.
Technically her quest for unique accessory and final weapon/skill is even shorter than Emma but it needs you to essentially complete everything else, so don't expect her to get those before you are essentially done with the game with only true ending fight left to complete.
Her unique accessory gives her 50 MATK, 50 MP and +50% healing effect, which is certainly great and worth using.
Her final weapon has pretty crappy stats and only has +50% healing effect as it's upside.. not worth, accessory is more than enough boost and it's better to keep the status immunity skill from crafted weapon.
Her final skill is a nuke which deals a damage of light element on par with Nadia final skill one and makes Nadia fully useless essentially. Still mostly whatever, but it does make her able to damage instead of just buffing Liddy atk.
Lyla - the 2nd girl if you go through the walkthrough order.
My overall grade for her is 5/10 or 9/10(will explain below), my end game grade for her is 8/10
The difference between her early game grade is you bothering or not bothering with getting holy gun from casino early on. Holy gun is basically among her strongest weapons and certainly the last one you will be able to craft otherwise.
With holy gun she instantly becomes 9/10 as her damage will obviously be insane.
But without it - she is pretty much just okay... her skills have pretty low dmg multipliers and her atk stat value is pretty low.
End game she gets unique accessory which gives +1 extra attack to her... sadly no skills synergize with it but it's good for autoing random encounters, which makes her 2nd best random encounter auto character.
Her unique final weapon is weird since it's actually seemingly weaker than the other ones, but it's purpose will be revealed with final skill unlock which pumps her into 8/10 range.
With final skill she deals a little over 3k damage(I tested it on same monster with other girls so it would be consistent) with optimal gear at usual end game ~lvl 60s... this is still lower than liddy did throughout the whole game, but overall it's not bad.
Nadia - 3rd girl you get with the walkthrough.
My overall grade for her is 9/10, my end game grade for her is 5/10.
Early on she is simply a beast that will carry you through part 1 of the game.. every time she feels like she is becoming weaker she gets some spike of damage again and is back to being great.
Early on best skill is the double hit ice skill vs bosses. Sometimes(rarely) when boss resists it you swap into an element suitable for boss.. eventually she gets enchant skill which is worth it if boss is going to take at least 3-4 rounds.
She is also the only girl to get party status immunity skill.(not counting sara weapon)
As game goes beyond lvl 30s her damage mostly stays same while other girls improve massively though and her end game gear does not help.
Her unique accessory is fully useless compared to solomon ring giving +60 matk(if you plan to use it on Nadia that is).. her final weapon gives you insane MP regen which gives more mana per turn than you can consume.. but it's stats are pretty whatever.
Her final skill is... not really much better than the outdated double ice atk.. it will deal ~2.3k and scales pretty badly with enchant, dealing only ~2.8k with it. This comes with added utility of having a status immunity skill, but honestly I would just take Sara with better damagers instead end game.
Lucy - 4th girl(although temporarily, will eventually lose her for a bit and get her back later due to how quest system works)
My overall grade for her is 8/10, my end game grade for her is 8/10 as well.
She is one of the 2 tankiest girls AND has highest atk value... this makes her good for auto combat...
Her last level up skill(which is relatively early) is 4 hits, which although have slightly lower dmg multiplier individually can all critical hit.
Assuming 0 crits you will do ~2.6k dmg with it on lvl ~60 but crits bump it to ~3k average I would say.
Best weapon for her due to that is the crafted one since it gives 4 crit at the cost of giving a bit less atk.
Her unique accessory is pretty meh, but allows you to easy beat arena with her since she is essentially immortal with it.
Her final weapon.. well.. just like accessory it makes her immortal to even higher degree and seems to have instant kill chance for the simple monsters. Has 1 atk and 4 crit less than crafted one though, so kinda meh.
Her final skill is also utter disappointment since it's simply ~1.5k dmg nuke of light element... meaning even against enemies weak to light it's usually worse than the 4 hit nuke. There is one advantage of this skill though - piercing through enemy counterattack chance.
Basically she has 0 improvement in end game but she was already pretty powerful without that.
Liddy - 5th girl and the one true powerhouse...
If you are experienced in old RPG maker games - the monk type characters with multiple attacks are nearly always top tier... usually it's because this allows you to go above the damage cap, but in this case it's because she actually deals multiple while having each individual attack deal essentially same damage as other girl single ones.
On top of being biggest damagers thanks to her double attack weapon she is also one of the 2 tankiest girls in the game.
My overall grade for her is 10/10 and end game grade I have to lower to 9/10 due to one girl becoming even more powerful. She is the one character you will never remove from party(minus maybe the bosses who have 100% physical counterattack chance)
Her main power comes from her 2 skills - rush and spray n pray... rush is simply a slightly more powerful basic attack due to ignore defence... spray N pray is a double basic attack(meaning 4 hits)...
On lvl 60 her spray n pray deals ~4k damage total against any boss thanks to def ignore.. the only downside is it can't crit, but it's still biggest dmg by far and buffing atk for her is in fact more profitable than using holy magic with sara.
Her best weapon pre end game is the normal ending final dungeon one, it gives 50% counterattack chance which is.. free damage when stuff attacks her.
Her unique accessory sadly simply makes her more resistant to damage and have the highest HP in the game.
Her final weapon is crazily overpowered BUT at same time does not improve her too much sadly due to how her skills work...
Basically weapon raises her crit chance by 80% up to 86% crit chance... but Liddy skills can't crit, so it's only for basic attacks.. Imagine this weapon on Lucy >>
But on Liddy it's simply bumping her dmg from ~4k when using skill to ~5k with basic attacks assuming both are crits... superb for auto as well, since it makes her one shot any random monster essentially.
She was the strongest and became even stronger.
Her final skill is fully useless.. it's pretty much same as rush but for 64 mana instead of 16... can't crit either so 0 point to use it.
Cosette - 6th girl, the useless one.
She wields the weakest weapon in the game(dagger)
Overall I would rate her 3/10 and end game I would rate her 1/10
When you get her you already have all the top girls so there is not much point to use her, BUT her nukes by default are pretty strong, so you can use her for a bit if you really want to.. problem is you don't get more nukes... those stay forever and end up just being crappy AoE... pair that with wielding the crappiest weapon in the game and you got the candidate for being the weakest in the game.
Her unique accessory grants her a better party heal which is still worse than what Sara has by default but more than enough for any healing needs...
Her weapon is giving her 80% magic evasion and crappy other stats... paired with magic evasion accessory this makes her essentially invulnerable to magic but... there is no point in that.
Her final skill is dealing ~2k dmg AoE on ~lvl 60 with solomon ring and magical attack dagger... which is pretty useless honestly and does not make her any more viable.
Emma - 7th and final girl. Per aspera ad astra is certainly about her.
She starts out at level 1, which means if you want to use her you probably want to give her exp charm so she catches up..
She dual wields the daggers(which makes them kinda okay) but she only does 1 strike by default with 2 daggers.
Her overall ranking is 4/10 BUT end game she spikes up all the way to 10/10
Dual wielding daggers would make you think she is amazing physical fighter... except she is not, in fact she only has 2 damaging skills - 1 is darkness magic AoE and another one is a skill that does 2 hits with dmg based on luck.
Essentially during part 1 she is basically nothing special... she has a skill which dmgs based on luck.. but it's pretty weak to ok after she gets the luck buff. And a dark magic AoE which you can also technically use if you make magic daggers...
Her weapon choice early on doesn't improve her much to be worth using either.
Her unique accessory gives her +100 MATK and some unique support skills.. which would make you think they want you to make her a mage once she gets the final stuff...
But nope, her final weapon is crazily overpowered, giving her 1 extra attack, 80% counterattack and DOUBLE LUCK.
This not only makes her 3rd best autoattacker(making lucy 4th best due to her single attack) but also boosts the dmg of your luck based skill massively...
But you thought that is ALL? Nope, it goes beyond that with her final skill - 4 attacks based on luck!
Yep, that's right, it's ~6-7k damage at ~lvl 70 with optimal gear(her unique weapon + vortex weapon from normal ending dungeon + lucky talisman.. technically lucky talisman is only small damage boost so if you really want to you can use condition immune for convenience) which by far tops the end game. If you buff her luck it can deal OVER 9000!!!
Also her luck gain from level is massive so each level up is a huge boost to her damage, making it worth to give her exp amulet.
Armor wise I still prefer mage armor/hat on her due to their massive stat gains and her atk value not mattering too much anyway but you can equip the physical fighter gear for a bit more counterattack damage. In fact the grasshopper costume at the very least might be fine to use thanks to +20 atk value.
She also has the shortest girl story making her extremely good as your 1st girl quest completion.
Final parties I used are:
Liddy/Emma/Lucy - those were always in end game party(once emma got her quest completed)
Last slot was either Lyla or Sara, most of the time it was Lyla though as I never needed heal due to killing stuff so fast.
This party is both amazing for putting it on auto during roaming and for bossing.
On bosses you use Lyla armor down(as 1st skill since only liddy ignores armor, after that you start using her final skill) into emma 4x hit, into liddy basic attacks(with final weapon) into lucy 4x hit skill.
Save files(100% completion as well) and their description:
BE CAREFUL WHEN USING SAVE FILES, IF YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR OWN SAVES THEN INSTEAD OF REPLACING FILES CHANGE THE NUMBER OF THE SAVE FILES FIRST!
Save file 1) About to enter the final dungeon for the true ending boss fight, 100% completion by this point.
Save file 2) Start of the true ending part in the walkthrough where you can still see the Sara part of quest with everything else being complete.
Save file 3) Can experience the normal ending final boss fight and normal ending itself.
Save file 4) The room you enter after the normal ending which gives hints on post game content as well as essentially post game start if you want to fully experience part 2 of the game yourself.
Save file 5) Near the true final ending boss, able to see the true ending from this save file easily.
Both save files 1 and 5 are very close to H recollection rooms with all H scenes unlocked.
