Part of what Droid has done in the recent tweaks is try to make sure that there is no perfect combination and that everything has a its own strengths and weakness's . ie If you try to just use lightening for the stun Ice Elementals are a problem etc .
Still not perfect , a lot of people were using Molly to try to just blow opponents away . Now Dylan seems to be essential instead , to provide health .
Personally I think that a game where there is a perfect combination and you just have to do the same thing everytime would be less fun !
Before, I would take Emily, Bella, and Dylan and play a very defensive game. With the recent changes, I find an offensive game is much more appropriate now and shields are too often circumvented by poison. So Emily got dropped in preference of Molly. I tried the seer pair, but I don't like giving up Bella's extra time in the field but need Dylan's healing more than ever.
Akane can be terrific in arranging cards and doesn't risk the opponent getting massive secondary lines, but the potential depends a great deal on random luck of the base deal and it takes longer to drop a tough enemy. Kitsune does more direct damage than Bella and has a bit of non-combat use treasure-finding at shrines, but nothing close to Bella's value.
Dylan is the only character that can remedy damage. He's OK initially, but becomes stupendous once regen is discovered. He becomes a must-have once you start hitting opponents with poison unless you want to gamble on finding and using rest areas or be forced to abandon the hunt early. It'd be nice if he found a love-interest. I feel sorry for him as surrounded by willing pussy as the MC is.
Emily mitigates most damage. This is generally helpful, but not as valuable as Dylan's regen. It's amusing Emily can teach regen, but not cast it.
Bella. A Bella. An OK direct attack, a quite decent poison attack, and a shield-stripper upgrade I have never used outside of the dragon encounter. But her passive uses! 10% damage reduction makes Dylan's job easier. Extra time in the field if I can locate a single rest area! Increased treasure finds!
Molly offers massive increase in damage potential once you fill flush and 3, 4, and 5 of a kind gems at the risk your opponent will complete some very nasty secondary lines unless you can take steps to stop it. She also has a secondary treasure increase function.
Katie is great to have at the beginning and the True Fire gem extends her use a bit, but her damage seriously begins to fall behind. The change to the fire gem to once per hunt from once per encounter exacerbated that.
Chloe is decent and more tactical in value than Molly at the cost of pure power. Certainly the odds the opponent gets really nasty combinations is reduced but so is your potential output.
The new spider critters tend to punch above their weight class I find. Massive bags of hp dealing nasty amounts of poison damage. They are part of why Dylan became a must-have. If Emily had an expunge poison spell, she'd be competitive with Dylan again.
As an RP aside, it'd be nice if the player could have a quiet sit-down with Kitsune and gently inquire about all her mongrel issues. It seems to be more than just being a god by-blow especially once the MC can name his father. It'd be nice to know what she surmises about the MC rather than simply constantly teasing the player with it and preventing further investigation by making the MC and Akane carry an idiot ball.
