For the cost of sending an email, we can vote for Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga Two
Lowdown on the restrictions of this challenge:
- EXP gain is only permitted in boss fights and forced encounters, and must be minimised by only having 1 character active at the end of each battle.
- Autolevelling must also be minimised as much as possible. Argilla and Roland take all XP before they leave the party to reduce the impact of this later on, and Argilla's level must not exceed 12 so it doesn't affect Sera's starting level.
- This is a cycle 2 playthrough on hard difficulty with no data transfer bonuses.
- I will be fighting all bosses rather than doing a true minimum EXP run, cuz that's more fun. And let's face it, you're only here for Satan.
- The use of Data items to permanently raise stats is forbidden for as long as possible - at least until Shiva.
This is the hardest story boss, but if I'd spent a few more hours grinding I could've made it easier. The real danger of this fight is Sera getting hit with Agidyne, so the difficulty is entirely dependent on how many mirrors you're willing to grind - 10k a pop is still a sizable chunk of money at this point. I was fed up of grinding and the ones I got in the Power Plant/as loot were enough to carry me through in just a few attempts. As an aside, Sera does survive Agidyne with max buffs, but will still die to any follow-up attack that connects. If a character dies and loses all their buffs it's generally a downward spiral from there, and probably best to just start over.
Start by throwing mirrors each round and maxing out on defensive buffs. Once the mirrors run out switch to Ice Drain and start stacking damage buffs. This opens Sera up to Agidyne as well as the irritant that is Silent Howl. It takes 4 Wild Bombs and an Impact Bomb to finish off the tentacles, but make sure Cielo is in human form so you can start damaging Vritra right away. It's especially important to get everyone to +3 in all parameters before killing them, because you won't have time to transform back and reapply buffs in the latter half of the fight.
From here it's a case of reducing his 3080 HP with Neutron Shot. Even with below average rolls you should be able to do this before they respawn. Sera's huge damage multiplier on Cielo's gun combo really helps here. As long as you don't fall below +2 defence everyone should be able to survive Inferno Roar from max HP and heal up - a Media from Gale will generally be enough but if his HP went below ~15 I threw a Medical Kit for extra safety. He always follows up roars with Sonic Wave, so keep a Void Panic shield up at all times.
I can't lie, even though I was keeping a rough track of his HP I was kinda bricking it in that last round. A satisfying way to end things though ;)
If you're wondering why I don't just put Sera in human form, this would mean somehow slotting her skills onto Cielo/Gale, which would also require a whole lot of additional grinding, and I wouldn't be able to use her OP Neutron Shot. So again, safer, but even more grindy than spending ~100k extra on mirrors.