User blog:IsGamer13/Character Branches: Special

The Special character branch is an unique character branch, mostly for characters with powers different from the usual, they are mostly focused towards specific functions, they have no restrictions when it comes to their special system, their skills or their stats, making them quite good and versatile. As a side note, they don't really require back-ups, maybe in the earlier levels to help them level, but on the later levels, they can almost handle themselves without problems.

On the other hand, they also have their drawbacks, mainly the leveling part, they take twice as much as any other character takes to level up, this becomes a big pain on the later levels as well, most Special characters also need certain requirements to be unlocked as well, since they are not entirely unlocked in the main stream of the story (unlike most of the characters). Note as well they have a restriction to use their skills, which becomes fairly neglible as you get to know how they work and use them properly. Aside from that, you can do their questlines to make the leveling part less tedious, so it's up to you if you want to take your time and dedication on these characters, in the end, it's quite rewarding.

The characters under the Special branch are:

Aria and Isaac: I list them together because, even if they are separate characters, they are the protagonists of the game, they are not really from any branch, but given their circumstances, I will put them in the Special branch, since it's the most fitting for them. Now, they both have very balanced and high stats, with some dedication, they can be among the most powerful characters in the game, the only drawback being you having to buy their skills past Lv. 30, but that's not a real problem if you go through the main story, which gives a lot of points, almost enough to buy all of their skills. If you pair one with another in a party, specially in the later levels, you got a devastating character combination, given how their skills have good synergy with each other. On the main story, they are obligatory to be in the party, although the main battle system is not present, on the Extra Story, it's similar, but there's a certain point in the game where you can use other characters instead of them, making room for 2 more characters and letting more freedom when making parties.

Yoshi: Yoshi is one of the first real Special characters you get, although he's quite simple to use, he introduces the characters that rely on other systems rather than the main special system used for the characters from the respective dimension, most other Special characters follow this property as well. Now, he actually relies on eggs to cast some of his skills, but in order to get eggs, you must let one turn pass, or let him use Gulp on an enemy (that is not a mini/boss) and then either spit it at another enemy to deal damage or just gulp it entirely to make more eggs. As for the eggs themselves, they are quite useful, because when you hit enemies with them, a random stat is debuffed on enemies, you can debuff 3 random stats so it's a matter of luck.

Rosalina: She is the second Special character you get, she uses no special system to cast her skills, similar to Yoshi, but without his restriction. Rosalina is a very good character, it's like a Balanced character but with much higher stats, on the offensive, she can obliterate enemies with Shining Starstorm, which is incredibly effective againist airborn enemies and Orbital Ring, which can bind an enemy for some turns, preventing it from doing physical attacks. She also has Galaxy Guard, which neglects projectiles and magic for the party for a lot of turns, it breaks with a single physical attack however, so try to know when to use this skill. Most of her skills own cooldown, but it's very minor compared to other Special characters.

Ganondorf: He is a bit peculiar, he relies on Darkness (his own "special system") to cast his skills, this system regenerates considerably among turns, what makes him so peculiar is that he hits for damage equal to someone in the Offensive branch, while being able to tank a lot of hits and even recover his HP when he defeats an enemy. Not only that, but his ultimate is one of the very few skills that can OHKO normal enemies at a certain rate or stun bosses for a lot of turns. On the other hand, however, Ganondorf is almost like Bowser in terms of Speed, on which he owns little to none, if you don't administrate his special system well, you might find yourself lacking a skill you want to use at certain intervals, and that's troublesome, specially if you need him to recover his HP.

Bandana Dee: Bandana Dee uses colors to buff and debuff his stats and gain different skills, he has up to 4 colors, which are Red, Orange, Green and Blue, most colors work like the other character branches from thsi game. Red buffs his Attack greatly while reducing his Defense and Resistance, his skills are from the Offensive branch as well, Orange makes his stats balanced and his skills are a mix of Offensive and Defensive (similar to a Balanced character), Green allows him to recover HP and recover status ailments himself, thanks to the skils he gets (similar to a Healing character) and Blue raises his Defense and Resistance while decreasing his Attack and Speed. He can switch colors once every 3 turns, you can't also use the previous color you used after switching colors, so you must think carefully what to use.

Silver: Silver is another peculiar character. he deals incredible magic damage to enemies (similar to Knuckles, which deals incredible physical damage), but unlike him, your only restriction is the skills, you can't repeatedly use a skill like you could with every other character, instead, you have to use another skill in order to refresh the previous you used, while also applying a cooldown of one turn to it, in other words, you have to be in a cycle of 3 skills if you want to repeatedly cast them. I would recommend that you use all of his skills however, since they all are very good and accomplish their function greatly, making his restriction not even noticeable.

Shadow: Shadow is somewhat like a Support character, because most of his skills don't really deal actual damage, but they do have an unique effect, which can strongly determine the battle, for example, one skill can alter the order at which the party members and enemies act, making the one that acted last act first and viceversa, he can also decrease the enemies' speed and increase the parties' as well. As for his actual attacks, they debuff a random stat, similar to Yoshi, but you can only debuff one at a time (it can stack however, so if you're lucky, you can debuff an enemy to the ground). Other than that, he has no real restriction, just cooldowns on some of his skills.

Jeff: He is one of the most useful characters in the game, his skills allow him to do practically anything, except maybe for recovering HP or special system, but among his skills, he can deal great damage to all enemies, erase buffs, debuffs and even shields, defend himself to block a good portion of damage and use his Bottle Rockets to take down bosses with ease. The huge drawback of Jeff is that most if not all of his skills have limited irrecoverable uses, so make sure you administrate those skills, because otherwise, Jeff won't be of use at some point in the battle.

Hexer: Heavily focused on dealing status ailments and damage over time, they can do about any status ailment known in the game (even Curse, which only some bosses can do), their damage over time when casting ailments also stack (as long as the status ailment succeeds), so they can slowly cripple the enemy down progressively. On the other hand, you can take the risk and let them take damage to dangerous levels, at which point you can cast their ultimate, Revenge, on enemies, which deals damage in proportion to the total HP lost, multiplicated by a certain amount and dealt while ignoring the enemies' defensive stats, so it's up to you when it comes to choosing them. They are the only Special class that actually use the general special system from their respective dimension.

Shulk: Shulk relies on his Monado Arts, his unique skill, to be effective in battle, his arts buff and debuff specified stats and grant him special side properties, you can change them constantly to keep Shulk from wasting a space in the party, the only drawback is that Shulk in general is fragile, his HP is quite low and, unless you have the Shield art up, he will have problems surviving. Overall, a versatile character you can use at your will, just beware of his HP.

Zeta: As mentioned in the main article, Zeta is an "original character" from a buddy and one of his very good ideas around the site. As for the character itself in the game, it's a dual character where the boy focuses on physical damage and defense while the girl focuses on magic damage, support and healing. They both can use the Shizen Blade to infuse elements on their attacks, which add side effects which go from status ailments to simply additional damage and special effects: They are fairly similar to the protagonists, since they back up each other's flaws.

Pit: He, unlike Palutena, is fast and can take down a single enemy with ease, he is very good at defeating bosses, specially when you obtain his ultimate, Three Sacred Treasures, which can burst down about any boss with ease, on the other hand, he has huge problems beating huge amounts of enemies, since he can only focus on one by one (due to his unique skill) and deal damage to it. Otherwise, if you're going for boss rushes, Pit is your best option, his stats are not a lackluster either, he can survive some hits and defend himself from some attacks as well.

Palutena: Palutena is the exact opposite of Pit, she is strong againist huge amounts of enemies (due to her unique skill), practically sweeping hordes of them or simply battles with a huge number of enemies involved. Her Black Hole, paired with her Mega Laser devastate even the most powerful amount of enemies in the game, at the cost of a huge cooldown as well. Her skills are also strongly focused towards hitting as many enemies as possible. On the other hand, she lacks quite some strenght againist bosses, because her skills deal way less damage, specially if there is just one enemy (being the boss of course) on the battlefield. She also survives quite well and can even protect other party members with certain skills she owns.

Robin: It's main gimmick resides in "charging" most of it's skills, it's skills start at the "first phase" and end at the "final phase", unless used, every skill charges into the next phase per turn, until it reaches it's final phase (it sounds redundant, but it works like that), there are 4 phases for a skill, and aside from changing it's name and increasing damage, it can change it's side effects and the way it works. Take for example, Fire is a simple attack on an enemy that you can continuously keep casting among turns, or you can charge it into the next phase and do Elfire, which hits more enemies for less damage instead of just one enemy, the charges go on with every other skill as well.