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Bandits ring + dancers shoes and Meru is faster than some of the fastest bosses and hits so often it's insane

The problem I had with Rose Storm was that Meru had so many turns she burn out the Rose Storm before she got hit.

Doing these deep dives into the characters' stats really makes the dev's writing shine. Meru is a kid, so of course she starts out weak, but she's also a *spoiler*, so of course she winds up stronger than her peers. Just a great detail that's easy enough to miss

Giving Meru the accessorie that replenishes MP each turn is the smartest thing to do.

I find her additions the most FUN to perform :) she's so fast and if you master those additions she's one of if not my favorite char to have in the team

I remember thinking that Meru was completely useless when I played the game for the first time. Physically weak, low HP but I did notice how freaking fast she was but she still rode the bench. Finally on another play through I decided to see what she was all about…….needless to say, as soon as I get access to her in any subsequent playthrough, she immediately gets thrown into the main line-up and only leaves it when the story requires it. Also, her low attack doesn’t mean crap when she speed-blitzes everything 😂

I think a thing about game design people always forget when making characters is opportunities. The best character is almost always the character that can do what they’re good at the most, not the character who does what they do the best. Meru is so applicable in any situation and has so many options it’s really hard to even argue how the devs would have ever thought kongol was in the same ball park.

Meru with the dancer boots (+20 speed), dragon helm (+50% max health), and physical ring (+50% max health) is an unstoppable juggernaut.

She's broken no doubt but still a huge glass cannon. I don't care for her physical attacks at all. She has good healing but I still prefer Shana's healing.

Meru is one of my favorite characters to use in any RPG for the same reason I use characters like Nino and Est in Fire Emblem. There is a sense of smug satisfaction when you take a character who seems weak when they first join you and transform them into an absolute unit who's capable of tackling basically anything. I remember the first times I played this game at 6 years old totally overlooking Meru(As a little boy I didn't use girls in my parties in games because they had cooties), and then as the playthroughs piled up, I gravitated more and more toward Meru and toward a general philosophy of "speed kills" with how I built my parties in basically every RPG. As a random additional bit of trivia about my time with this game. Due to basically only being able to get secondhand games and systems growing up it took roughly 15 years for me to manage to get, a system, a memory card and a copy of the game that would all survive long enough for me to beat the game. It basically became my "one that got away" in terms of RPGs where I was pretty obsessed with it until I finally managed to beat it.

Meru: Diamond Dust! Shiva from Final Fantasy: Prepare to get SUED!

It is worth mentioning that, since in LoD you auto-purge any negative status by entering Dragoon mode, the status-cure effects on some spells are not actually all that useful. Just enter Dragoon/Special and you cure status anyway. The form also makes you immune to all status effects that can be cured. This isn't really a weakness, though. It means Rainbow Breath's secondary effect is not actually all that strong in most fights.. but its secondary effect is free anyway. Getting something meh for free is still better than not getting a secondary effect at all! Meru best candidate for the magic hat that gives +MP max and the ring too. Give her 250mp, go into boss fight, use triple dragon summon, ring, addition without having to restore MP! This is my personal favorite style for her. I like to Special.

A build I made for Meru which I have tested thoroughly now is probably one of the favorite ways to build her. Give her the Dragon Helm or Legend Casque, Mage ring and use Cool Boogie with the pretty hammer. This allows Meru to do lots of magic attacks very often and have Dragoon to lvl 5 insanely fast while farming. This gives her a whopping 400 sp a turn. This is mostly a build centered on Meru's magical strengths but hinders her physical.

This is my FAVORITE game of ALL TIME. Nobody EVER talks about it. This made me SO F**CKING HAPPY. Anyone with me in hopelessly praying they'll make a sequel or possibly just remake the exact game for a new gen console? Lol.

Meru is an Onion Knight, once she gets where she needs to be she’ll wreck everything in sight

Meru is the character that can be used as a prime example of how ONE stat can break a game into two, had she not had that much speed, she would have been seen as a more physical Shana, that can actually use additions, same for Kongol, had he not been so darn slow, his freakish defense and hp with attack would make him waaay better[not mention the only item you really need for him outside of bandit ring/shoe, is legend casque, and once he has this, he RARELY dies[unless it's one hit ko stuff]], and because of his large hp pool, even if he is low, as long as you juiced up his speed a bit, guarding with kongol means lots of hp back and reduced damage. Meru however, just because she can usually twice per character[even more so if you decide to go with "I Am Speeeeed" build and give her both dancer shoes and bandits ring] she has no issue getting her additions up, and cool boogie being a high sp addition, means she can also max out once you have both cool boogie and her dragoon spirit, she can guard if need be and can support other characters just because you don't need to worry about loosing out on turns with her. So all in all, Meru is great, but only because speed is a rather broken stat in the game that can be exploited very easily with her, yes she does take a bit of grinding to get there, and she could also be used as an example of those rpg characters that once you grind/farm out their stuff, they basically become the best unit in the game. Not trying to fully downplay her, I like her as a character, but I don't like it when people who are new to the game get bombarded with "just use Meru" comments, and totally over shadow what the other characters can do[at least because Meru is picked up in disc 2, newer players are familiar with just about every other character before she join, so there is that].

It contrast to the other characters it makes sense, too. Similar to Rose's drop off in stats and weak equipment/additions, Meru's increase later on is a good implication regarding her Wingly heritage. High magic and good physical damage combined with the highest speed is just icing for her character design.

She's a beast. I'm so glad she grew on me instantly storywise so I actually got to invest my time on her to discover all her potential. Because really, those early additions are painful (not for the enemies tho). Speedy, fun, kooky, and also brings tons of damage and utility? C'mon... Easily the best character. Love love her.

I gave her a fair shot in my latest playthrough and I gotta say, holy hell she is useful. Way better than Rose, whom I was using before. I dont think I can go back.

Oooh yeah! My favorite Meru... I was really looking forward to this video about her!

Story reason why this is so: Meru is a wingly. The 107th seed of the divine tree, and the penultimate race. Meru is the reason humans needed Dragoon form in the first place. Kongol, by the way, is Giganto. That's the 97th seed. Minitos which do not join the party are 99, Dragons are 105, Humans are 106. But winglies are so powerful 105 and 106 had to team up as Dragoon to fight back. Meru is OP due to species advantage.

When you were talking about play styles the second one is pretty much how I got through the third chapter of the game. I also wanted to mention that shana can use that play style however if you get her Dragoon level up to five it becomes a lot harder to do. This is because she get two Dragoon levels per shot at that level and because she has no additions you can't change that.

This is the first video I have seen of yours. Legend of Dragoon is definitely my favorite JRPG, my favorite game on PS1 or 2, and comes pretty close to beating my favorite game series, Mass Effect. But ME is a series I love, so I reckon Legend of Dragoon is my favorite individual game I have ever played. Lol. Anyways, Meru is my favorite character for sure. One idea for these character specific videos. If it is possible, I would love to have the characters theme song playing in the background. Meru's song is my favorite, right after Dart's song.

Lavits and meru having great synergy is the funniest joke i ever heard

I don't know how I'm finding guides and discussion on one of my absolute favorite games that's over 20 years old as if the game just came out this week, but I like it.

Never used her until my most recent playthrough, really enjoying her and Kongol combo.

Feel the Rhythm, Feel the Rhyme, get on up, Its bobsled time, COOL RUNNING!!!

After recently finishing the game again I would definitely agree she's the best! However, I will say I think she's better to start using after early disc 3. Once she gets her dragoon spirit and the dancer's shoes, dragon helm, and attack badge all around the same time she skyrockets from weak to absolutely broken really fast!

Funny enough speed runs highlighted this role goes to Shana/Miranda. Their damage makes them more of an asset than Meru despite her speed. Assuming you are using magic items with the multiplier with those two.

And now I feel guilty because my usual party was Haschel and Albert and I usually play VERY conservatively in my playthroughs with minimal magic and equal diversity between all characters including Kongol and Shana. This will give me new ideas of how I wanna play my latest run on the PS5.

Chrono Cross, Legend of Dragoon, and Chrono Trigger are literally my all time favorite games I still play today! Just found this video and I have to sub!

I have beaten this game AT LEAST 50 times and Meru has ALWAYS been in my end game party

Just give her a Dragon Helm (Double HP) and she's fine. She most likely won't die anymore.

I’ve been waiting for this one!! Thanks

Meanwhile, my 10 year old self: Girl in next to no clothes goes in party. No negotiation. My reaction to her last addition was something like, does good damage, kinda hard to do. I never used magic items. Too good to use syndrome.

Start the game…eventually have the party of her, dart and Albert…proceed to snap the game over your knee for the rest of the play through

I'm in total love for your videos and your writing!Thanks for this. When you finish your amazing videos of TLoD, what about another underrated game(s) Golden Sun? Thankyou for the all time and effort you do to entertain us!

Meru can be good as long as you can get by how much she misses at the beginning.

I well if there are people who are worried about low physical stats, I use the dragon helm to increase her HP by 50%, the dragon shield to cut incoming physical attacks by half. Then give her dancer shoes to increase her speed more. That's just me and I also give Lavitz the angel scarf for he poor magic defense.

When doing low level challenge, I put her in and she steamed rolled the game. I didn't get to enjoy the later levels but I enjoyed her making sure my party lives.

Meru is my favorite character, I just started playing again yesterday and I'm looking forward to getting her back again... quite a while away from that though.

A better healer than Shana/Miranda, decent attacking magic, high speed. Her low physical defense makes her a bit of a glass cannon but if equipped properly she can go from average to an absolute monster with benefits of healing to boot. Meru, Dart and Albert or Meru, Dart and Haschel make you pretty unbeatable

FINALLY Meru

Yea I think you should do a human Vs dragoon comparison. I personally almost never transform into dragoon mode in my subsequent play throughs after I've mastered every addition. If I'm not mistaken, most characters do more damage in human form with additions and attack items than in dragoon mode. More so, there is no enemy in this game you can't beat in human form. I only use dragoon transformation to clear unwanted status effects. This way, you can free your inventory of purifiers and MP recovery items for more attack items instead, if you play Shana. This is why Shana is S tier if you play her right. She can easily fell bosses in 3-4 turns using attack items with the right elemental counter and one shot random encounters for free using Psyche X bomb. No one should ever really use her for physical attacks and dragoon magic, it's just not efficient. Imo dragoon mode for most characters are not great nor optimized for the best endgame damage. It is however great for casual players who can't master additions or can't mash above 250% for attack items. Dragoon magic would be an easy one click solution for decent damage, and spells like rose storm and rainbow breath are great for survivability. But if you can master additions and know how to optimize your character's play style even without legend equips, dragoon mode would just fall off pretty hard.

dragon helm + dancer shoes/rings= BROKEN

Jade Cocoon and Legend of Dragoon are my fave games from the ps1 era wis i could replay them

farmed 17 Satchets over 3-4 days + the free 3 for a total of 20. Gona make sure she hits level 60

Kongol with bandit ring and legend casque (I know, I know) is OP as hell.

before i watch, I fucking Loved Meru. shes usually in my main group that is all

Tells you a lot about Kongols quality as a unit when the character that's a complete opposite of him is the best character in the game.

I feel like this is one of the truest strategy games ever made.

I either use Meru or Shana. Once their dragoon lvls are maxed its pretty much a cake walk. The bosses will be weak to one of em and you can use their damage spells to deal heavy damage.

I lov IT i hope U grow in numbers

Meru is easily the best character in the game if you take the time to level up her additions Meru is the fastest, add the dancer shoe and ring she dominates the battle Her perky step final addition has 600% damage the highest in the game, that combined with her speed makes her the best attacker in the game Her dragoon is also great, she has the second highest magic after Shana, she can do incredible damage with spells and attack items and she can do good healing with her rainbow spell The only weakness Meru has is she has the lowest hp but that’s easily fixed with the dragon helm or giant ring Overall Meru is the best character but just needs protecting until you use dragon helm or giant ring

Tanty confirmed a based FF9 enjoyer.

her design really caters towards me, a gay man. love her

Powerful 20 MP heal, fun additions, high speed, good magic stats, comic relief. What part of her is NOT great?

Fun fact: ‘makes everyone wet’ was my nickname in college

Seeing her addition percentages, I got to thinking: What are the dragoon addition percentages? Is it a 100% damage just going off the dragoon attack boost or is there an actual percent boost? Also, I don't think the all-rounder is always limited. There are some, like Meru if you think about it, that require a lot of use/investment (time and using her additions in the case of Meru) in order to bring out their full power. Only example that comes to mind are later game Fire Emblem characters in the older games where you couldn't just grind on xp maps like you can in the new ones, they'd come in lower level and underpowered, but could end up very strong if you took the time to put in the work.

Ah Meru, the TG Cid of the game. A character I wrote off my original playthrough only to learn how super cheap she was in subsequent playthroughs. Her and Haschel on the same team just isn't fair 😂

You should have added that status unlike in some other games goes away after the battle ends but certain status conditions last indefinitely unless cured with items, dragoon spell or at healer in a village. Status conditions are very punishing in this game which is why Meru's rainbow breath is so valuable.

Meru was always my fave 🎉

Her low physical attack means nothing when she easily takes 2-3 turns per 1 for everyone else

I henerally give her a Aphysical ring to give her 50% more HP until I either get the phantom shield or bandits ring

We stan a Diamond Dust queen.

There is one factor that Kinda makes Rainbow breath less relevant... Rainbow breath is a better healing spell when you're not relying on the special command and you're out of purifiers... because while anyone is transformed they are immune(but retain it if they dragoon with it on)

My girl is one of the best JRPG character 💙

At last! We’ve made it to my favorite character. I just beat LoD for the first time in years and she power housed through everything. Stuck the Dragon Helm on her with the bandit’s shoes and ring (or mage ring) until I got the best helm and armor. With Perky Step, Speed Up, Power Up, and Power Down, she destroy everything.

Although I agree with many of your points towards Meru, in the whole video you assume that Meru has a Max level Perky Step and Max Level Dragoon, which is something you will only achieve much later in the game unless you grind. We need to consider how is Meru when she arrives too, and in this case she doesn't look so good, she is one of the last characters to join the party, does not have her dragoon until the very end of disk 2, is really squishy, only has double smack, meanwhile your other characters are probably training better additions and have superior damage and resistance than her and a dragoon form (Albert probably already has all his additions, except his master addition unlocked and Rose Storm spell), so in order to achieve her potential in the video you will have to basically give up on using better characters early for her to be better later, so although I agree with you that later she becomes the strongest character, i think her weak start takes her position on top, for me the best character is Lavitz/Albert, joins really early in the game, has access to his best additions early and has Rose Storm Spell way earlier than Meru even gets spells, although he is slow, you can get access to a bandits ring on disk 1, in Shirley,s temple, and he is the best character to use it in that point. Great video, really liked it, although I think that only considering a character at its highest point to measure its power is not the best way to analyze it

Really goes to show that the winglies are better than humans

This game actually balances all characters physical attacks fairly evenly, excluding shana. At max level with the strongest weapons and additions the damage factors are Dart = 1012, Haschel = 1217, Albert = 1175, Meru = 1122, Kongol = 1026, and Rose with dragon buster and without = 1210/900. So everyone will eventually hit for near the same damage but that makes the slow characters useless late game as they not only dont shine with physical attacks but they are also the weaker magic attackers as well. Haschel with his ultimate weapon at max strength is the only one who really pulls away. also Dart is a literal embarrassment to all main characters.

3:22 How dare you waste those delicious goldfish crackers?

No jailbait characters. Kongol, Albert, and Dart. Bro comp.

I said it the other day and I will say it again objectively Meru is best girl the numbers don't lie

The only thing she can't do is tank. You're able to help out with that with one of the 10k broken items though.

Ive taken 4 turns with meru with item and shoes/ring

A 110spd Meru is Insane!

Can you do a video now that you did single guides comparing all the characters with equipment that patch up their weaknesses? Kongol with Legend Casque and Bandit Shoes,things like that. Cuz I think for example unlike Rose,Kongol is salvageable with equipment.

Yep. Ran Meru, Dart Haschel as my preferred party

I heard her last 10 levels before max level she gets massive str boosts but idk ive never even hit lvl 50

Meru is amazing. Shana who?

I just train all her additions and max out dragoon with sun rapsodies and she has phantom shield with legend casque yeah she's a beast on my team

All hail the Leg Queen

I only use Meru either for a magic based boss fight or any fire based enemy.

Meru is amazing though she is a winglie not a human. It’s just a nitpick and I’m not trying to complain or criticize but it still feels important.

im actually quite interested in D additions vs normal ones

Doesn't shanas dragon also heal the party in addition to dealing damage?

Another great way to utilize your magic users, particularly Meru, is to give her equipment that restores her MP when taking physical damage, magical damage, and/or10 MP every turn via accessory, at least, when she is not transformed, as you had pointed out that the armor and accessory bonuses do not transfer over when you are in Dragoon form. but I completely agree, Meru is one of the best characters in the game, I put her neck and neck with Lavits, because Lavitz is best boy, and as her second dragoon spell clearly indicates, she is LGTBQ friendly.

0:10 So it's war then

TANTACLES I HAVE A QUESTION. Does Lavitz' Rose Storm grant that damage debuff for three of HIS turns, or does the buff go away for individual party members after three of their own turns? Because if it's just three of his turns, then wouldn't that mean that granting Lavitz NO speed boosting item or equipment would be the most advantageous for Rose Storm?

At what level does she get her final addition? I'm on the one before it and I'm close to the end of the game. I want to maximize my chances of beating Melba Frama without dying too many times.

Finally! Best girl video is here

So brok3n . I got her to a point where she could do almost anything

My meru does more damage than my Dart hahahah

I agree with all that was said in this video, but does she spread La Mer on her toast in the morning?

I feel like somebody watches False Swipe Gaming, maybe?!?

Hey, you seem to think that Shana can't get much SP, you're wrong, Shana has about three different ways to get a ton of SP in one attack.

I think Meru fanboys tend to overhype her (particularly by ignoring the investment it takes to get her to shine), but this video has the most glaring example I've ever seen. "...compare her to Kongol and Lavitz. She gets about twice as many turns as each of them do, so if she's able to do only half as much damage as they can with each attack, she can still do about double their damage in total." Speed is great, but attacking twice for half as much damage doesn't give you 2x damage, it gives you 1x damage. 2 * 1/2 = 1 not 2.

No Miranda or Albert?