A Heavenly Investment:

The popularity poll winners recruitment period is winding down.  With no major source of free quartz incoming, if I wanted to recruit the best memorias of the best characters, as agreed upon by the whole community, I would have to fork over some cash.  On top of the paid quartz I bought earlier to get pajamas Hisame, I slapped down $75 more dollars to get what I wanted -- and I got everything I wanted.

I got tuxedo Tsukasa, waitress Erika and tuxedo Ruka, all brand new SS Memorias.  I also got pajamas Hisame a limit break, swimsuit Yuina a limit break, shrine maiden Megumi a limit break, and some SS shards which get me halfway to a level 3 limit break for shrine maiden Megumi.  Now my collection stands at 61 SS Memoria in all.

Earlier I had managed to accrue enough protean shards to get swimsuit Sumomo her level 4 limit break, so my next target is swimsuit Tsukasa's level 3 limit break.  I'll have enough protean shards for her in a few days.  My swimsuit-exclusive squad is getting pretty darn impressive.

I really wanted waitress Erika because her base SS Memoria is non-elemental, which basically means she does no damage to serious bosses, who all have a -80% to non-elemental damage modifier.  As a defender you could argue she doesn't need to do damage, but unfortunately I need everyone to do as much damage as possible to beat the next anachrony -- which kills you instantly on turn 41 if you don't kill it first.  Also score challenges and the clock tower take into account how quickly you defeat opponents, so basically there's no situation where I don't need my defenders to do damage.

Erika's incredible original ability, angel wings, which completely nullify enemy attacks, is probably the best ability in the game.  But thankfully it can be introjected, which means any Erika memoria can inherit this ability, on top of whatever exclusive abilities the new memoria has.  This means graduating from base Erika to waitress Erika basically doubles' Erika's strength.  The only problem is base Erika is at limit break 2 and waitress Erika is at level 0, so right now base Erika is much stronger.  But the latent potential. . .  Someday waitress Erika will be great.

Tuxedo Tsukasa is vital because she's only my 6th light-element SS Memoria.  That means I can field a full light squad for the first time.  Eventually I'll need my light squad to beat some dark opponent, and I can't do that shorthanded.  (Also I just like Tsukasa).

Tuxedo Ruka is necessary because I plan on playing as my plot party once the plot resumes in Chapter 5, and base Ruka is too weak to handle Chapter 5.  Base Ruka doesn't even have the inspiring spark ability, which gives you +3sp per turn instead of the normal +2.  That extra sp per turn is essential to all combat strategies once you get to high level play.  Base Ruka didn't even have any AoE or elemental attacks.  She was totally useless.  Tuxedo Ruka fixes all that.  It's actually astonishing how long into the game, over 200 days of playtime, it took for me to graduate from base Ruka.  I got base Ruka for free as part of advancing the plot of the game -- so in other words in all this time I never got a Ruka SS Memoria via recruitment.  Do you know how many recruitment rolls I've done?  It was getting pretty bizarre, like maybe my account was just banned from getting Ruka or something.  But thankfully the issue is finally solved.  Ruka is the main character of the game.  I should at least be able to play with a decent version of her.

I have so many long-term plans for my squads based around giving these new recruits the limit breaks they need to shine.  If you just recruit an SS Memoria, you can eventually make it strong -- but if you miss the recruitment window and fail to recruit a girl entirely, it doesn't matter how many nordstrom crystals or protean shards you accumulate, because you won't have that girl to enhance.  So first above all you have to at least recruit the girl, then shuffle her away into a corner of your mind until you can get around to her.  But at least have her ready on the shelf.  Someday you'll definitely need her, and the day you need her you'd better have her because the game doesn't let you go back and try to recruit them again -- this popularity poll was precisely this 'last chance' fallback recruitment for people who failed to recruit these people at the appropriate time.  If I had missed this 'last chance' retry as well it would have been grim.

By missing the base Tama SS Memoria, I went through a lot of grief -- a long period of the game where I had no healer who could fix broken shields.  By blind luck I got base Tama recently, but I still haven't actually unlocked her vivifying light ability for lack of nordstrom crystals.  I can't imagine how much easier the game would have been if I'd just recruited base Tama early like I was supposed to have.  Maybe in a month I'll have the ability that the game expected I would have a year ago.  >.<.  

I already regret not recruiting samurai Inori because I failed to realize how powerful her critical pierce ability was.  I could have had another ability as strong as Hisame's Munechika if I'd only realized.  I don't want to fall into that pit again.

It's measurable that I'm not keeping up with the game's expected strength level.  I can't even beat the flat hand anachrony of Chapter 4 part 1.  There are two anachronies after that, that are even stronger.  I'm supposed to be able to beat those guys.  They're bosses from chapters I've already beaten, after all.  I'm three bosses behind.  It's the same with Orb Bosses.  I haven't even cleared the fire Orb Boss III level 2, and there's a whole nother level of Orb Boss III's after that.  I'm not paying money for trophy warriors, just to look at because they're cute.  I'm actually trying to catch up to the power they want me to be at so I can genuinely complete the game's full content.

Meanwhile, I finished Ayase's route in Riddle Joker and started Hazuki's.  I do like the onion-like levels of intrigue in Ayase's story, it really leaned into its spy thriller theme.  The only problem is I don't like Ayase herself.

I also finished my rewatch of SAOAGGO S2, part of my goal to rewatch all great anime.  Soon enough I'll finish my rewatch of Bleach TYBW S3, Off & Monster Monogatari and DanMachi S5 too.  All very good series so it's been fun.