Mystic Ark/Characters

Heroes
The main characters of the game, they are the only characters able to navigate the Shrine and the only characters able to turn monsters into figurines.They wear heavy armor and are proficient in the use of swords.

You can choose the gender of the hero, which affects his/her abilities, status, and default name. They most likely came from the Green World.

The male protagonist gains slightly more HP, learns his skills slightly faster, and tends to focus on fire-elemental spells. (He is similar to Olvan the Dwarf from the 7th Saga.)
 * 1) Lemele the Hero & Ferris the Heroine

The female protagonist gains slightly more MP and magic, learns her spells slightly faster, and tends to focus on ice-elemental attacks. She also learns more magic than Lemele, especially healing and support spells. (She is similar to Kamil the Human warrior from the 7th Saga.)

Ferris is the better choice, for several different reasons. Her added MP means more healing, which easily cancels out Lemele's slight HP advantage. Furthermore, her higher magic means she will be more accurate with her spells, and dodge enemy spells more often. Ice magic also trumps Fire magic in raw damage, and several early game bosses are weaker to it than to Fire; her attacking spells are significantly more useful than Lemele's, especially given their greater accuracy. Finally, she learns the almighty Fullhealth spell 10 levels earlier than Lemele, and also learns how to heal status ailments. Combined with her having two stat increasing spells instead of one, she is a significantly better support character.
 * Direct comparison

In conclusion, Lemele has very little to offer in comparison to Ferris. His only real advantage is his marginally higher HP, slightly quicker Skill acquisition, slightly higher power, and he learns the power spell. However, the skills they learn are very situational, and the HP lead is minimal. Ferris ties or surpasses him in almost every way.

Spellcasting character classes

 * 2) Meisia the Priestess

A priestess (or White Mage), she is the main healer of the game. She can wear the same light armor as Miriene, the witch. The weapons she can use best are staves, but she should rather focus on magic. (She is similar to Valsu the Human healer from the 7th Saga.)

She is arguably the most consistently useful partner in the game. She effortlessly heals your entire party after each turn, she gets all stat increasing spells, and can even inflict decent damage.

She and Miriene are also highly resistant to magic attacks. Robes give 45% resistance to all types of attack magic, in comparison to the 30% that melee fighters get from their armor. The two also have exclusive access to "caps", which give an additional 20% resistance to all. As a result, they take only half as much damage from magic as melee characters do. She and Meisia are surprisingly hard to kill, as a result.

Meisia's unique spells & skills:
 * Prayer: regenerates Meisia's lost health.
 * Heal-more, Heal-high, Full-heal: the three strongest healing spells.
 * Compassion: regenerates Meisia's lost MP.
 * Aura: increases magic powers.
 * Holy Emblem, Freezing Hell: strong attack spells.


 * 3) Miriene the Witch

She is a fairly balanced spellcaster. She learns a wide array of spells with different effects, and she is especially useful with her support and debuff skills. She can also wear the same robes and caps as Meisia, the priestess. (She is similar to Esuna the Elf girl from the 7th Saga.)

Miriene, unfortunately, has trouble finding a niche until Level 23. Meisia is better for boss fights, Lux performs better at both offense and defense in the earlier game, and she shares many of her best damage spells with other people. To add insult to injury, Hydra Stomachs also cast Prominence (her second strongest damage spell) and can be bought for a good price in World 5. Status spells are also overshadowed by damage spells against most monsters, and utterly worthless against bosses. Blackout truly is her only trump card.

However, Blackout is an excellent one! A guaranteed chance of killing whoever you want is as good as it sounds, so you will always want her for random encounter from there on.

Miriene's unique spells & skills:
 * Mirror: protects from enemy magic.
 * Alluring eyes: reduces enemy magic.
 * Kiss of death: steals MP from enemy
 * Slow: makes enemy less dangerous and more vulnerable.
 * Fireball: a strong magic attack.
 * Hurricane, Prominence: strong magic attacks.


 * 4) Kamiwoo the Ogre

This character (a Black Mage) is best used for his offensive spells. His choice of armor is limited. The weapons he can use best are axes. (He is similar to Lejes the Demon from the 7th Saga.)

Kamiwoo is a long term investment. He is very lackluster, up until he learns Breath and Death Flare. Give Kamiwoo enough Intelligence Seeds to fuel those, and you may as well declare the game beaten. Kamiwoo truly is that good, with those two abilities plus Blackout in tow.

However, those only come quite late into World 5, if that early. If you want to use Kamiwoo earlier, Threaten tends to neutralize anything that is without magic attacks. Kill can even be good, if you have Alluring Eyes or Aura to help supplement its accuracy. Just be prepared for some unlucky rolls.

Kamiwoo's unique spells & skills:
 * Threaten: makes enemy less dangerous.
 * Sick: makes enemy more vulnerable.
 * Blood Suck: steals HP from enemy.
 * Ice Split, Blizzard hole: strong magic attacks.
 * Earthquake: strong magic attack.

Physical character classes

 * 5) Reeshine the Grappler

She specializes in strong melee attacks. The weapons she can use best are nunchunks and boomerangs. She can wear her own martial arts suits for protection. (She is similar to Wilme the Alien from the 7th Saga.)

Reeshine is usually pretty worthless. War Cry and Kick make her good against bosses from World 5 onward, if you have equipment with elemental resistances from the Arena. Apart from that, she has no consistent use.

Reeshine's unique skills:
 * Kick: a strong attack on one enemy.
 * Smash: a strong attack on all enemies.


 * 6) Lux the Tetsujin

"Tetsu-jin" is Japanese for "man of iron". A mysterious robot, Lux specializes in heavy attacks. While he shares many of his characteristics with Lux from The 7th Saga, there is no known relationship between the two. He can equip iron fists and iron armor exclusive to him.

Lux starts off the early game as arguably the second best partner you have. He is durable, he has high HP, and he consistently does great damage with both single-targeting and multi-targeting attacks. He and Meisia share the spot for most often used partner up until about World 4.

However, he starts tapering off after that. He has nothing besides direct attacking spells and abilities, and it is impossible for him to get elemental resistance on his gear. He gets passed up by everyone else, after a while.

Lux's unique spells & skills:
 * Atomic, Blast bomb: spells and skills that damage one enemy.
 * Laser, Wide ray, Full atomic, Spark: spells and skills that damage all enemies.


 * 7) Tokio the Ninja

A speedy ninja, he gains several useful abilities, like a double hit and a power-boosting yell. He can equip the same heavy armor as the Heroes and he is proficient in the use of most weapons; in particular, he is the only character proficient in the use of sabers and bows. (He is different from any of the seven characters in the 7th Saga.)

Tokio fares poorly in the early-game. He is fragile, and has trouble doing any meaningful damage. His fortunes turn with Illusion Strike, however. It deals two physical attacks at 100% regular damage, which is every bit as good as it sounds. Plus, he gains Bolt Earth at just Level 23, and Death Flare at Level 27. He really takes off from World 5 onward.

In any case, he is the best boss-killer in the game. Just be sure he has good elemental resistance equipment before fighting them; low HP will always be a problem.

Tokio's unique spells & skills:
 * Red burn: a weak spell that targets all enemies.
 * Illusion strike: a strong skill that allows two normal attacks per turn.

Character class triangle

 * Legend
 * TOP: characters with no magic abilities
 * BOTTOM: characters with great magic skills
 * LEFT: characters with healing magic ("white")
 * RIGHT: characters with attack magic ("black")

Comparison with the 7th Saga
Comparing the character class triangle above with the one for The 7th Saga, the parallel is apparent. The following table shows the correspondances between the characters in The 7th Saga and Mystic Ark, sorted by decreasing magic power.