Version 4.9 © 2006-2008 by Bill Pringle, all rights reserved.
In addition to being a FAQ/Walkthrough, the purpose of this document is to help you determine how best to recruit people for the RPG video game Radiata Stories by Square-Enix. If you aren't familiar with the game, it is a combination of Final Fantasy, Zelda, Suikoden, and a few other games. What makes this game so neat is the large number and variety of characters that can be recruited.
| Pre-Split | Human Path | Non-Human Path | Groups | Post-Game | Misc |
This page can be found in two forms: an HTML (web) page at http://BillPringle.com/games/radiata_checklist.html, and as a text file on http://www.gamefaqs.com/. The HTML page will probably be updated more often, and tend to be the latest version. The HTML web page will include hyperlinks, so you can click on a link to find the appropriate section. The text file was created by the FireFox browser, which inserts hyper-links inside angle brackets (<like-this>). To find that location with a text editor, use the search feature to find the target name in square brackets ([like-this]). The link inside angle brackets will always start with a pound sign (#), indicating that the target is on the current page. The square brackets won't have that pound sign. For example, to find the target of link <#intro>, search for [intro]. If you are going to have an electronic copy of this FAQ, I recommend that you get the HTML version instead of the text file.
Not all details of recruitment are included, but enough to help you plan who to recruit and when. For a more detailed description of how to recruit a specific character, I had recommended that you use the web site http://www.divinemight.com/rs_recruitment/index.php/Main_Page. This wiki seemd to have gone away, which is a shame. As a result, I have taken the contents of this FAQ as the basis of a walkthrough at Strategy Wiki, a side project of wikipedia. (If you aren't familiar with Wikipedia, you should be.)
If you find any problems and/or have any questions, you can e-mail me at wrp103@gmail.com. Make sure you have "Radiata Stories" in the subject. I get a lot of spam, and will delete things without looking at them if I don't recognize the sender and the subject line doesn't stand out as legit (for example, a message with a subject of "a question" will probably get deleted without me looking at it.)
Although you can use this document as a walk through, that isn't its main purpose. The game is pretty good at telling you what you can/should do next, so a traditional walk through is less important. If you are ever in doubt, press R1 to bring up the map. You will see a green swirl where you should be headed. There are several places in the game where if you try to go into an area you shouldn't, Jack will make a comment and retreat. The hard (and most enjoyable) part of the game is recruiting characters. There are a number of resources that will tell you how to recruit a given character, but not so many that will tell you when and why you should recruit them.
I also recommend that you buy the Official Strategy Guide, since they have some good maps, plus complete bestiary statistics. There are, however, a number of errors in that guide, and I will point out the ones I've noticed.
I have tried to keep spoilers to a minimum, but there are times that you need to know something else will be happening later. I don't explain the content of cut scenes, which should reduce spoilers a bit. Actually, the game is relatively easy to follow. If you ever get stuck, hold down R1 to see the map. Your current destination will be shown with a swirl. If there aren't any swirls, then you probably need to sleep or enter your house to progress the game.
For each phase of the game, I will tell you what missions you will have, with a comment on what you will get from each mission. I will not give you step by step instructions because, frankly, you probably don't need them. The game is pretty good at making sure you are doing what you should be doing. For example, when you are on your first few missions, if you try to turn away from the path to your destination, the leader of the group will stop you and tell you that is not the way. If there are some optional side quests, I will mention them and give you enough information to succeed with those quests.
One of the things I enjoy about this game is the sense of discovery as I wander around the world. Even though I had the official strategy guide, I didn't bother with all the items that could be found, etc. Take time to explore each area of the world. Talk to everyone you see. Kick everything available looking for items. Try every door and see what's behind it. An RPG is like a fine meal: the goal should be to enjoy the game, not see how fast you can finish it.
I do give you detailed step by step instructions for the final dungeon of the game, since the map in the official strategy guide is confusing and has errors, and I haven't seen an accurate map of that area that was generally available.
A word of warning: avoid button mashing. If you are the kind of person that keeps mashing the "X" button during a battle, get out of that habit. The problem is that each time you click the button, it queues an attack. If you kill an enemy and there are still attacks queued, the target of the remaining attacks is the next one in the list of monsters. That might be the one right next to you, or it could be the one clear across the battle field. If you think you are close to killing an enemy, click the "X" button and wait to see what happens. If it drops, approach the next closest enemy and press "X" again. That way, you can concentrate on the enemies you want to defeat next, and avoid running clear across the field, past a bunch of enemies, to get somebody over in a corner that you hadn't even noticed, let alone was interested in. ;^)
You will sometimes see one of the enemies with what looks like lightning bolts over them. This indicates that they are calling for more help. If they succeed, another enemy will appear and join in the fight. Since each enemies gets you a certain amount of experience, you might want to give them time to call somebody before you take them out.
The game has its own internal time system, which is roughly one hour of game time every minute of real time. This means that a new day starts every 24 minutes, or about once every half hour. The day is divided into day and night, with day running from 6AM to 6PM, and night from 6PM to 6AM of the following day. You need to pay attention to the time of day for a number of reasons. Each character has their own schedule which doesn't vary from day to day, until they are in your current party, or if they are involved in a current mission. Some character recruitment can only occur during specific time periods (such as when they are in their room, or at some other location). Some characters behave differently or have different abilities, depending on the time of day. For example, those who have either the King of Day or King of Night skills. One of the more interesting characters is Cornelia / Rachel, who transforms between a little girl and a young woman. If she is in your party, she will change appearances and fighting styles, depending on the time of day or night. Her name on the friends list is always where Cornelia should appear, but is listed as Rachel during her transformation.
There are also times when, if you enter your house between a certain time period, it will cause an event to trigger, which will progress the game. By avoiding your house except late at night / early in the morning, you can avoid triggering these events, allowing you to do things like level up and recruit people until you are ready for the next stage of the game. (And, when you are in your house, don't sleep, or that will also trigger an event.)
Monsters regenerate at midnight. Other things reset at midnight as well, such as who you have dueled, and some recruitments require things happening on different days. You can use this to your advantage sometimes. For example, if you need to talk to or duel someone on two different days, you can do it just before midnight, wait a minute or two until after midnight, and then do it again. If you clear out an area just before midnight, you can wait until the monsters are reset, and then clear it out again. Of course, that means you will have to wait until the following day if you need to do it a third time.
There are certain times in the game when the next phase happens when you enter your house during a certain time period (usually during the day). At other times, you need to sleep in your house to trigger the event. I generally tell you when you want to avoid your house if you don't want the game to progress. You can take your time to level up, earn money for items, etc. as long as you avoid your house during the day. What I usually do is enter my house late at night (after 10pm), save the game, and then leave to do whatever I want. A good rule of thumb is that you don't want to enter your house if Flau isn't sitting on the wall of the steps. (Of course, if you have Flau in your party, check the time instead.)
You will find a record player in your house, as well as in Fort Helencia if you choose the non-human path. You can insert records into the player, and then play whatever songs you want. Records carry over between games, so you only have to buy them once. If you need them in a later game, go to your house (or fort) and take them out.
Take time to explore the world. You can have a fun time just following certain characters around all day and seeing where they go, what they do, etc. Take time to admire the attention to detail that is throughout the game. See the section Easter Eggs and Silly Things for some suggestions on things to do and things to look for.
Like many role playing games, leveling up can make the fights easier. One of the unique things about this game is the ability to duel characters. You don't have to go out into the world or a dungeon to find a fight. Just kick somebody. If you kick somebody twice, they should fight you one-on-one. Some characters won't duel, so if they keep saying the same thing, try somebody else. You can only duel someone once per day. Fortunately, they don't seem to remember that you kicked them, other than a brief comment immediately after the fight. If you lose a duel, don't worry, the game isn't over, but you will have an HP of 1, so don't forget to heal (or talk to Miranda) before you get into a real fight.
When fighting in dungeons and in the world, you will notice that if you see more than one monster, that after the first fight, some of the other monsters may not be there. If you leave the area and come back, they will re-appear. In general, stronger monsters will be less likely to disappear than weaker ones, but it isn't always that way.
If you do a lot of leveling up like I do, then you can pretty much ignore all the strategy hints you read about for the boss fights. Just plow in and start hacking, telling your healer to concentrate on you, and it will be over in no time.
If you don't level up, then links will be more important. Using a link allows all members of your party to share the combined skills of everyone in your party. I only tend to use links when I need to learn a new skill or early in later games when my party members are still weak, but that's me; you might like to experiment with links. There's no "one right way" to play this game; if you're having fun, then you're doing it the right way.
I like the Septem Cave the best for leveling up before the split. In the very early stages of the game it might be a challenge, but as long as you have a good spear, you should be able to get through that area just fine, especially if you have the "Prevent Freeze" skill equipped. When you are in the second part of the cave, just before the exit, you will run into a large iceburg. Once in a while, after it is defeated, there will be another larva-like monster. This is the rare Killer Queen, who will give you a lot of experience, gold, and berries if you defeat it. Be careful, though, because she is tough. Don't be afraid to use your volty on it. Sometimes, after the fight with the iceburg, she doesn't show up. If that happens, exit the cave and come back in to fight her.
If you are at a low level and keep getting killed in Septem Cave, then you should start off in the sewers below Theater Vancoor. That is a good place to kill a few minutes, and pick up some gold and experience at the same time. Once you are strong enough, you can do whatever you need to do during the day, and then clear out Septem Cave, and get home before daybreak to save your game.
After the split, your best experience comes from battling members of the other group. If you pick the human path, use the Travel Pig to the Dark Elves location (Mikey won't fight you, but won't let you in, either.) Travel east, then southwest around the lake, and then head towards Fort Helencia. You can then use the pig to get to the Goblin village and wander around there. Towards the very end of the game, the Blood Orc homeland becomes available. You can get some great experience there.
What I often do during the non-human path is use the Travel Pig to Lupus Gate, and then walk from there to Earth Valley, taking all the side roads, including doubling back to the other gate at Radiata City. Be careful when you run into Godwin and Fernando (he is actually on the bridge); their volty blast can take out one of your characters. As long as it isn't Jack, that's not a problem, so if you see one of them flashing, just have Jack defend until the character is beaten or has used his volty. When you get to Earth Valley, take the Travel Pig to the Tria Region and fight the troops around there. That should get you a lot of experience and money. I can usually level the entire party up a couple of levels each day.
One of the reasons you want to recruit characters is so that you can learn their skills. If you link with a character that has a skill that you don't currently have, then after some number of links you will learn that skill. Once you have learned the skill, you need to fight with it equipped some number of times in order to level up the skill. Leveling up doesn't require links, any fights will do. You can go down to the sewers under Theater Vancoor to get into a lot of easy fights. This is useful since the character you are trying to learn the skill from is probably a low level character. Since the monsters in that area stay fairly weak, the low level characters have a better chance to survive a fight.
You can fill your party with characters having skills that you don't know yet, then equip yourself with Auto Cure and link your party together for each fight until you have learned the skills. Some skills are learned faster than others, so if you are in the sewers under Theater Vancoor, you can go to the first floor and swap out the character with the skill you just learned for someone who has another skill you need. You can keep this up until you learn all the available skills, or you run out of monsters in the basement. Remember that there are times when you don't want to go back to your house to sleep to force a new day.
The skills that I like the best are:
There are lots of other skills, and you might prefer some others, depending on your fighting style. As I keep saying, there is no "one true way" to play this game. If you are having fun and not getting killed off, then you are playing it just fine.
Like many RPGs, you have a selection of weapons you can use. You can also learn various attacks for each weapon. Once you have learned an attack, you always have it across all the games you play. You learn the various attacks by using a training dummy. Kick the dummy while you are holding the weapon you want to work on and you will be given a challenge (e.g., defeat enemy). If you succeed, you can learn a new attack.
Note: If the challenge is "Receive no damage", all you have to do is run around avoiding the enemies so that you don't take any damage. (You don't have to defeat the enemies without taking damage, just avoid getting hit.)
There are two training dummies in the training room of the castle, two in Theater Vancoor, and one just outside Fort Helencia. If you haven't built up skills by the time you first get to Fort Helencia (the Crocogator mission), take some time there, since you have a healing spot and a save flag available.
Each weapon has a CP value, and each type of attack also has a CP value. You can select a series of up to 5 (combo) attacks as long as the total CP value of the attacks is less than the value of the weapon. Each time you press the circle button the next attack is performed. Unlike similar games, button mashing can cause problems. If you queue up four hits on an enemy, and kill it after two hits, Jack will still perform the remaining hits, swinging at thin air. In the meantime, another enemy can be attacking you.
You can change the weapon as well as the attacks at any time during the battle. At the beginning of a battle with a number of enemies, you can select a spear and wide circle attacks that will hit a number of enemies at once. When there is only one enemy left, you can change the attacks, or you can switch to a sword or axe, and use strong attacks. Available weapons are swords, two-handed swords, axes, and spears.
At a minimum, you should use the training dummies through enough levels so that you can release your volty attack. You only have to do this once. Your weapon attacks are carried over from one game to the next.
You can sometimes get items during training fights. The one you should know about is the "Defeat a Blood Orc" during the Axe training. Sometimes the enemy will drop a Blood Orc Horn, which is a key item you need to recruit a couple of characters. Since you can only carry one of them at a time, since it doesn't carry over from one game to the next, and since you don't get to fight Blood Orcs in the field until later in the game, if you want to recruit those characters early in the game, you need to use this training mission to get that item and recruit the characters.
Most of this document deals with the game after you have been fired from the knights and join Theater Vancoor, when you are able to start recruiting characters. The beginning of the game pretty much leads you through whatever you need to do. There are some things you can do once you have arrived at some location for a mission, as well as some things you can do in the castle.
The important thing to remember is that whenever you have a chance, you want to level up your character as much as possible. This can be done by kicking characters to get them into a duel, as well as defeating various monsters in the field (or basement of the castle). Since the monsters regenerate at midnight, you can clear out an area, then wait until midnight, and clear it again. Most missions have a time limit, but it only kicks in once you have arrived and reported to whoever you were to visit. If you delay that meeting, you can prolong the time you have to level up. The higher your level, the better you will do when you start your own missions, and the easier it will be to recruit certain characters.
Kicking isn't limited to people. You can find items by kicking objects. Get in the habit of kicking everything and everyone in sight.
Part of the replay value of Radiata Stories is that the game has such a rich world with a diverse collection of characters. By selecting different characters in your party, the fights will take on different flavors. There is a lot of detail throughout the game, and a lot of fun things you can do in addition to the basic game. Look at the section on Easter Eggs and Silly Things
The basic flow of the game is that you have some missions with your squad that you must take (there are only a few of these at the start of the game), and you can take a number of solo missions. In general, once you receive orders for a mission, you are expected to travel to some location, complete the mission task, and then report back to Theater Vancoor and speak to Thanos. If the client is known, then you would usually speak to them before and after the mission task to get instructions and report the results to the client. Once this is done, you can speak to Thanos to get your pay and see if there are any more missions you can take on at this time. Usually you want to perform all the missions in the order they are listed, although you can accept them in any order if you prefer. You need to be a little careful if you change the order of the missions, because some missions are only available during certain stages of the game, and some missions will trigger events that might make the rest of the missions unavailable. I will usually tell you if there are any reasons you might want to perform any missions in a certain order. If there are no more missions, then you probably have to sleep to progress the game.
If you want to recruit Thanos (which is needed if you want to recruit Elwen and/or Nyx), then you must accept all missions and report back to Thanos at the completion of the mission. To prevent missing any missions, avoid going into your house during the day, and only save when you get there; don't sleep. Wait until 9pm before you go in and save. If Flau isn't sitting on the wall, don't go in. If you were waiting for her, wait a few minutes after she gets there before you go in, since she gets there a few minutes before 9pm. Don't sleep unless you want to progress the game. Once Thanos tells you there aren't any more jobs, then you probably need to sleep to make the game progress. You can do that right away, or you can take time to go out and level up your party, recruit more people, earn some more money, etc.
If you recruit every possible character (which takes at least two times through the game), you will be able to view a picture of the main characters. If you will be taking the human path, you probably want to recruit the guild leaders, which means you want to recruit all the members of the different guilds. The only reasons to recruit any of the farmers are to be complete, or possibly for a specific skill.
There are actually two different "Friends List": one you can access from the options menu, and another located either next to Thanos in Theater Vancoor, or on a desk in Fort Helencia. The one in your menu is the total number of friends that you have recruited, including any previous games. The one on the desk is the list of people you can use for your party in this game. So, if you want to use a given character at some point in the current game, you will have to recruit them during this game, even if they appear in the friends list in your menu.
It is a good idea to check out who you have recruited already. every so often, especially before the game progresses. Go to the Friends List on the desk and click on L1 to sort the list alphabetically. Then look over the list of people who you wanted to recruit, and make sure they are all on the list. If you are trying to recruit several people at the same time, it is very easy to forget something, especially if you remember doing that in a previous game.
There are a number of requirements that can affect your ability to recruit a specific character. In every case, you will at least have to talk to them. You should continue to talk to them until either they join or they start to repeat themselves. If they repeat, then something isn't right and you can't recruit them at that time. Check all the requirements for recruiting them and make sure they have been done. Also, if the character is involved in a mission, they may not be available for the rest of the day. For example, after training the monks, you will have to wait until the following day before you can find any of them to talk to.
In most cases, once a character becomes available, they remain available for the rest of the game (or to the split). If you try to recruit someone, but you find out that you are missing something, do whatever you need to and go back and try to recruit them again. There are a few characters, though, that are only available for a certain period of time, and if you don't recruit them by then, you will not be able to recruit them during that game.
A number of characters are recruited by beating them in a fight. In most of these cases, if you lose, you can try again the following day. You can continue trying until you win a fight.
The criteria for a specific character can be any combination of the following conditions:
Sometimes recruiting will happen in several steps, possibly spread over a fairly long period of time. For example, a character will ask you for something, but you can't get it yet. You will just have to wait until the item(s) become available, and then finish the recruiting. In some cases, you can wait to talk to them after you have obtained the item they want, and then give it to them when they ask.
Some recruiting has to be done over two days, like Alba, and others you want to take more than one day, like Joaquel. Since midnight is when the days switch, you can use this to your advantage. For example, Alba hangs out in the Void Community area all night. Speak to him just before midnight, fight him, and then just stand there for a few minutes until midnight passes. Then speak to him again, fight him, and you can recruit him. For Joaquel, when he asks you to guard the storeroom, do that just before midnight. As soon as he leaves, enter the room and take all the treasure. When he comes back, he will yell at you. Wait a few minutes until midnight passes, then talk to him again, but this time stay put and you will recruit him.
You can recruit one character at a time if you want, but you will find yourself doing a lot of running back and forth. I get a lot of enjoyment out of planning how I can recruit several characters in a group. For example, your initial human party should be Flau or Edgar as the healer, and Cosmo as the fighter. All of these are from the Olacion order. So, during the morning, go there and look for Flau. Talk to her and find out about her father, then look for Edgar cleaning windows. If he isn't there, remember you have to talk to him later. Go find Cosmo and talk to him to recruit him. Run down to the clinic and get the picture, stop in Fernando's room to kick the waste basket and get the belt. Give the items to Flau and Edgar. You have just recruited three characters with basically one trip to the Olacion Order shrine.
Make a list of what characters you want to recruit next. Add any times of day and locations. Then plan your trip to get the most number of characters recruited with the least amount of running around. This is great practice for having to multi-task in real life.
In general, you should recruit characters based on which path you will choose. If you will be selecting the human path, then your early party should be all humans (with possible exceptions like Donkey based on skills the first time through the game.) If you are going to select the non-human path, then recruit and include non-humans in your parties as early as possible.
You can keep the same characters in your party as much as possible (until a stronger character becomes available), or you can select characters for specific tasks based on their capabilities (e.g., skills or types of attack.) I tend to keep the same people in my party because I have leveled them up so much, they outperform any other character that might have more appropriate skills, attacks, etc. In general, you always want to have a healer in your party. The other two can be another fighter and a mage.
If you are choosing the human path, then Flora is your best starting healer. You will automatically have Clive, but he isn't very good. If you will be choosing the non-human path, then recruit Romaria as your healer. Not only is she the best non-human healer (IMHO), but she is a decent fighter. I put Romaria in my party at the start of the game, and she was able to hold her own up through defeating Gabriel Celesta. She wasn't able to keep the party alive during the battle with the Ethereal Queen, however. For that battle, you want to have Kain in your party, since his spells affect all party members, while Romaria (and most other healers) can only affect a single character. Actually, I might be able to win with Romaria by having Jack stay in the background and issue commands.
A good starting party for the humans path is:
For the non-human path, a good starting party is:
You probably want to "trade up" as stronger characters become available. At first glance, it might look like your current characters are the best available because you have leveled them up so much. However, you should consider the strength and defense of the characters, and the type and strength of any spells, rather than just HP.
Once Aidan reaches level 32, you can swap him out for his father, Cecil. I kept Lily in as the fighter up until I had Elwen and Nyx, and she held her own. You might want to replace the mage with Gerald when you recruit him (if you can stand him saying "What's wrong?" over and over).
Certainly when you get the heads of the guilds, you want to replace most of your party with them. If you are going to take the human path, you should at least recruit Elwen and Kain, who are the best fighter and healer available within the first part of the game. This means you want to recruit all of Theater Vancoor and all of the Olacion Order. Nyx is a nice addition, but not essential; you could probably keep your best fighter to round off the party. The reason for this is that in the post-game dungeon, when you get Valkyrie, you probably want to replace that character with her. If you want Nyx, however, you need to recruit all members of all the guilds, since you need to speak to Nyx with Elwen, Kain, and Curtis in your party to get him to join. This means that you not only have to recruit all of Vancoor and Olacion in order to get Elwen and Kain, but all four guilds if you also want to get Nyx.
For the non-human path, put Gil in your party as soon as you recruit him. He is already at a pretty good level, and he has an attack that hit all enemies. When you recruit JJ, you probably want to include him as well. Ganz has to be in your final party, and he isn't available until later in the game. You can either take time to level him up when you get the chance, or you can just ignore him and basically fight with three characters.
This section deals with the initial part of the game. You will do the following tasks, regardless of which path you will be taking after the split.
At the very beginning of the game, it is mostly cut scenes, with some minimal ability to control Jack. Sit back and enjoy the movie; it will help set up the characters. The next time you play this game, you will recognize most of the characters in the selection tournament.
You can't win the fight with Ridley, so don't bother trying. If you put up enough of a fight, you will see her use her volty command. You will eventually get accepted by the Knights and placed in the Rose Crochon (French for Pink Pig) Squad with Ganz and Ridley.
Later in the game, Ganz and Ridley will at times be able to appear in your party (actually, be required to be in your party), but they won't be in the final battle, so don't bother spending a lot of time leveling either up, or get too attached to how they fight.
When you finally get control again, you will be in your room. Save your game. You don't want to go through all those cut scenes again if something goes wrong.
Your first task is to go to a meeting on the third floor. If you try to wander somewhere else, Jack will remind you. (This is typical throughout the game, when there is a specific task to be done.) Another good habit to get into is to press R1 to look at the map. It will show you where you are (sort of), where any save points might be, as well as a swirl to indicate your destination. If you are in a building or dungeon, you can use the up and down buttons on the directional pad to see the other floors. The map is very handy, but it seems to be a bit off. If you compare your location on the map with your location in the world, there seems to be some differences.
When you get to the meeting room, another set of cut scenes will take over. There is no way to cancel a cut scene, but if you click "X" during a dialog, it will cancel the rest of the dialog. So, if you keep mashing the "X" button, you will reduce the total time a bit.
When all the cut scenes are over, you will get some training from Ganz (if this is the first time you played the game.) Followed by some more cut scenes. (The number of cut scenes gets much less further into the game. Don't get too discouraged at this point.) Eventually you will be starting off on your first mission. You won't be able to explore the castle until you get back.
You will be given some missions to accomplish:
Once you get back from your first mission, you can explore the castle kicking things to find items, but the most important ones are the Knight Edge in the locker near the training area, and the strength berry at the end of "The Path of the Spider" in the sub-basement of the castle. Don't forget to kick everyone in sight so you can level up by dueling people. Even characters you think won't be much of a challenge can be a surprise. If you kick one of the little kids in the castle, they will call some guards to fight you. (See if you can find the ghost.)
At some point after your second mission, when you leave your room you will run into Al, who is acting strange. Follow him west and down the stairs to the next door. (These are the same stairs that lead to the Path of the Spider). Go into the dungeon for a cut scene; you can then leave. If you don't see Al, then go to the dungeon yourself and see if you can trigger the cut scene. Before you progress the game, visit the store room (item shop) to get another solo mission.
When you get strong or bored enough, sleep in your room to progress the game. This is a normal way to progress this game. If it doesn't work, try sleeping again. Some things take several days before they trigger.
The game will progress by Ganz visiting you in your room. Just watch a series of cut scenes and save if you ever see a small blue flag. (This is another good general rule to follow.) The first fight with Jarvis will be very easy (he only has a small percentage of his HP remaining). The fight with Gerald you can't win, so don't worry.
After another series of cut scenes, you will end back at Theater Vancoor and get assigned to a squad led by (you guessed it?) Jarvis. You will have to fight Daniel I'm not sure what happens if you lose this fight, so you might want to make sure you have saved at some point before this. He isn't very strong, and his HP is only around 300, so you shouldn't have any trouble, assuming you did at least some leveling up.
The beginning of the recruitment period starts when Clive shows up and writes his name on your Friends List. You can then recruit a number of humans in Radiata City, as well as farmers and some non-humans (e.g., dark elves). The complete list of characters you can recruit at this time are listed below. The earlier you recruit a character and put them in your party, the higher level they will be later in the game. For example, when you first recruit Aidan, he isn't very useful, but as he gains levels, he becomes a decent mage.
You can't start recruiting characters until Clive turns up and writes his name in your Friends List. Clive is recruited automatically, and signals the start of the recruitment process. Work on getting your starting party first. Once you are happy with your party, you can work on recruiting the other characters. Most of the characters in this group can be recruited at any time, even towards the end of the game, so it isn't imperative that you recruit them now, but it is best to get them out of the way before you forget about them.
Once Clive has joined, you can continue to recruit people for about a day and a half, at which time you will be automatically sucked into the Crocogator mission. However, once you start on that mission, you can still take some time to recruit people, and wander around and level up. You will only have Jack and Jarvis in your party, however.
You won't be able to use any of the people you recruit until you get some solo jobs, which will be after you return from the Crocogator mission.
You might want to start out by buying better armor and weapons, buy and read some books so you can give commands to your party, and probably some cure items. (You will have to buy books each game, since the commands don't carry over.) The Dead End Armory in the Void Community has the Wind Garb, which is the best armor. Buy that and the best weapon you can afford. I find the lance to be very good when fighting monsters, since you can use a wide sweep and hit multiple enemies with one swing. For boss fights, I tend to use the sword, but you might want to experiment with other weapons to see which ones best fit your fighting style.
When choosing weapons, don't concentrate strictly on the attack value, but look at the side effects as well. A weapon that causes some status affliction can, in the long run, do more damage than a weapon that has a higher attack value but no side effect. This is especially true for afflictions such as petrify, which takes the enemy completely out of the battle for a while as you continue to hit them, and poison, which will continue to drain HP from the enemy. In fact, once you have poisoned an enemy, you might want to go and attack a different one, and let that one die a slow death.
Another factor to weapons is the types of attacks that you use. Some attacks will affect all enemies within a certain area. This makes it easy to get rid of a bunch of enemies in short time. You can switch weapons and/or attacks several times in the middle of a battle, so if one approach isn't working, try either a different set of attacks, or a different weapon. For example, you can start with a lance and wide swing (like wild spin) at the beginning of a battle. Then, once you have a single strong enemy left, you can switch to more powerful attacks, or knockdown type attacks.
At some point in the game, you will have to decide on the human or non-human path. Once this choice is made, no characters in the other group can be recruited, and none of the other type that you previously recruited will be available. Remember this before you spend a lot of time to build up a character that you will later lose.
Once the game is over, there is a bonus dungeon where you can recruit an additional character. She will only be available during post-game events, but she is a great fighter and will join at a high level.
Even though a character may become unavailable later in the game, there are still times when you might want to recruit them. This is especially true the first time you play the game and are trying to learn skills. (Once you learn a skill, it will be available for all subsequent games.) For example, Donkey is the only character available at the start of the game that has the "Absorb HP" skill. This is a very useful skill to have, so you should think about recruiting him and using him long enough to learn that skill.
While you are recruiting people, you will be required to go on a few missions with your squad. Normally, you will have some time between missions when you can recruit characters, but you can often do some recruting while you are on the mission as well. For example, during the Crocogator Mission, you will be able to travel anywhere and recruit characters before you encounter a Crocogator. If you get into any fights, you will only have yourself and Jarvis in your party, so if you didn't level up Jack earlier in the game, you might want to put off any of the more difficult areas.
Here is the next squad mission you will take part in:
Here are the characters you can recruit at the beginning of the game, grouped by categories:
If you want to recruit Elwen (the best fighter in the game), you have to recruit the rest of Vancoor. (Make sure you take Nocturne's letter to Gerald).
If you want to recruit Kain (the best healer in the game), you will need to recruit everyone from the Olacion Order.
If you want to recruit Nyx, you will need to recruit the heads of all the other guilds, which means all of their members. You can't recruit Curtis (the head) until all the other characters have joined. If you don't care about getting Nyx, then you may not care about recruiting Curtis, either.
If you want to recruit Nyx, you need to recruit everyone in the Void Community (as well as all the other guild leaders)
The only reasons to recruit these characters are either for a skill or because you want to recruit all possible characters (which will let you see a "special" picture on the Friends List.)
In some ways, these are the hardest characters to recruit. This is because of the small window of opportunity to contact them. In some cases, you can only talk to them for the brief time they walk from their house to their fields, and then when they come home for dinner. These periods can be as short as a few seconds that you have to talk to the character.
If you are going to choose the non-human path, you want to recruit these characters as soon as possible so you can level them up. If you don't, then when the split occurs, you will have a lot of weak characters to work with. You can use them on any mission before the split, so there is no real reason to go out of your way to recruit a human chacter unless you need one of their skills.
The reverse is true if you will be choosing the human path. You will want to recruit some of these characters for their skills your first time through the game, but if you are going to choose the human path, there is no other reason to recruit them.
Once you get back from the Crocogator mission, you will have some free time on your hands. At various points during these missions, you will see some cut scenes about Ganz. During this time, Flau and Rynka may not be keeping their normal schedule, since they are part of the cut scenes.
You can take any (or all) of three missions:
You probably want to do these missions in the above order, since the first one doesn't involve any fighting, and the third is probably harder than the second. Avoid going to your house during the day to prevent the game from progressing before you are ready. Enter your house after 9pm and leave before 8am to save your game. Remember not to sleep until you are ready.
If you go to the top floor of the Morfin Clinic, you will see a sick kid on a bed. Talk to him, and he asks you to come back again and tell him stories. The stories he wants to hear are the Crocogator mission, the Smilodon Fang mission, and the Rats in the Vareth Institute mission (which won't happen for a bit.) These stories are a critical part of recruiting his sisters Adina and Elena, who are from the Olacion Order.
Having gone on your own mission opens up a few more recruits, or at least you can start recruiting them.
To continue the game, enter your room during the day. Yuri will wake Jack up from a nap and take him to Vancoor Square. Defeat Sheila, and then return to Theater Vancoor to continue the game. This will open up a new mission concerning the rats in the magic institute (which is the final story for the sick kid.) Leave a space open in your party, since Daniel will automatically join you once you get there.
When you return to Theater Vancoor, you will be given a new mission with Jarvis and Daniel. This will be your last mission with the Hecton Squad. It is pretty straight forward: you are to escort the princess, who will be kidnapped, and you have to find them. Look in the abandoned house between the two gates near the Vareth Magic Institute and the Olacion Order. You will see a healing spot and a blue save flag, so use them both. There is a switch upstairs that will open a secret door on the ground floor. When you are in the sewers, take time to explore and collect the treasures that are available. When you are ready to progress the game, look for a large hole in the wall, which is a sewer pipe, that will take you to the Void Community. You get there by taking the "01" exit from the second square room. When the mission is finally completed (sort of), you will be made sergeant and have your own squad (i.e., your own party).
Once you are promoted, you will no longer be dragged into any missions with Jarvis and Daniel. This is much like the free-time missions your took earlier, but it opens up a number of new recruits, since you are more famous (and respected) now.
You should avoid Vancoor Square for a while, since that will trigger a new event. If you talk to Thanos, he will mention a strange man there, but ignore it for now. Also, stay away from your house during the day; don't enter until after 9pm, and don't sleep there. (The only reason you should ever sleep is when you want to force the game to progress.)
Here is who you can now recruit:
When you want the game to progress, enter Vancoor Square, where you will find a large man wandering about. The game will walk you through most of this.
Once you have met this large man, you have a couple days before the next part of the game will kick in. You can postpone this by not going into your house during the day. Wait until at least 9pm before you enter the house, and you can postpone the game from progressing. You can use this trick to make sure you complete all the missions before the game moves on.
Be very careful about avoiding Jack's house during the day. If you mess up, you could lose the opportunity to recruit Gerald, which in turn means you won't be able to recruit Elwen and Nyx.
You will have these missions available:
You can now (or soon be able to) recruit the following people:
When you are ready to progress the game, enter your house during the daytime. You will get a visit from Leonard, who will give you an invitation to Ridley's birthday party.
You will have a little bit of time before you will automatically go to the castle. Hopefully, you have already done everything you could have before this event.
After the party, you will be able to recruit two characters from the Void Community:
You will also have some new missions available, once you get another cut scene with Genius and Ridley and Zane. (Remember to keep away from your house during the day.)
After the training mission, you can start to recruit more people:
Once you are done doing everything you want, you can enter Jack's house during the day to progress the game.
If you enter Jack's house during the day, the game will progress. This will be the set-up for a major decision: which path will you take in the game. You will get an invitation to go to the castle that evening. You have until around 7pm before things kick in automatically. You will be back in your room, deciding to leave for the castle. Before you leave, Ridley will show up and tell you she is going to the City of Flowers.
This is where you decide whether you will take the Human Path (Go to the Castle), or the Non-Human Path (Follow Ridley). I recommend taking the Human Path the first time through the game, and then the Non-Human path the second time.
If you are thinking of saving the game someplace else, and then reloading it to take the other path, don't. The only way you get credit for recruiting all characters will be to start a new game using an already completed game. For the second game, you will start out with all your money, all your skills, and some of your items. This will make it much easier to get through it the second time around.
In this walk through, the Human Path is presented first, followed by the Non-Human Path.
This part of the game is only available after the split, and only if you chose to go to the castle rather than follow Ridley.
Any non-human characters that you previously recruited in this game will no longer become available for missions. They will still remain in your friends list in the menu section, but not on the list next to Thanos in Theater Vancoor.
If you chose to go to the castle, you will show up for a strategy meeting. After a series of cut scenes, you will gain control outside of the castle. Make sure you don't sleep at Jack's house until you are ready to progress to the next part of the game.
You are now free to recruit some more characters, buy new weapons, etc. If you are short of money, just buy the weapons instead of the armor. You will be getting two sets of new armor for free shortly.
Once you are done recruiting who is available, you might consider leveling up some of the new characters. On the other hand, if you have been leveling up a lot, it will take a long time to raise the new characters to the current level of your party. Since will you probably be replacing them with the guild leaders eventually, you might want to keep that in mind.
Thanos will tell you about a guy in Carl's Pub who turns out to be Jasne crying about Ridley leaving. You should visit Kain, Ortoroz, and Ray C. Ross (who is the owl in the president's office of the Vareth Institute). Each of them will assign two members to work with you. You should recruit them at this time, along with some additional characters that are now available:
When you are ready to progress the game, sleep at Jack's house. You will not be able to leave Radiata City by any other gate until you return from Wind Valley, so make sure you've done everything you need before this. You will see some cut scenes with Ganz, Flau, and Rynka, and then Al will wake you up and tell you about Wind Valley.
When you wake up, some new missions will be available. You can do them either before or after your trip to Wind Valley. I like to do them before since both missions give me some nice armor that can come in handy. Before you leave, read the note on recruiting Dynas in the next section.
Here are the missions that are available to you:
Here is how to recruit those characters:
You can fight the fake transporters for experience, collect the various treasures, or go directly to the Wind Dragon.
The Strategy Guide has a map that can show you which are real and which are monsters. There might also be a map available from gamefaqs, but you really don't need any maps to tell the difference. If you approach a real transporter, the camera will turn to show you where you will be blown across to. If you approach a fake transporter, this doesn't happen. Kicking a real transporter will send you to another spot; kicking a fake transporter will start a battle.
Read the notes about recruiting Dynas before you approach the back area with the Wind Dragon. I never had any problems with the Wind Dragon, even with only three in my party. Remember, however, that I tend to level up a lot, so if you don't do that, you might want to be more careful.
After the Wind Dragon has been defeated, you will get some cut scenes and end up near Fort Helencia, where you will encounter Sir Gawain. You won't be able to win this battle, so don't worry about it.
Next will be some more cut scenes where Jack is in the Castle Infirmary. After this will be a touching cut scene with Ganz and Cody. When its all over, you will gain control of Jack outside of the castle.
When you get back from Wind Valley, you can do the previous missions if you decided not to do them before. You will also have some new missions available:
Here are the characters you can recruit at this time:
When you are ready to progress the game, sleep at Jack's house. You will be invited to meet with Dynas. Then you will meet the large man from Vancoor Square again, who wants you to help him get into the castle. (Great timing, huh?) Go to the castle for the meeting, watch the movies, and you will gain control outside of the castle when the meeting is over.
At this point, you will be allowed to enter the castle. This means you can recruit some new characters, and finish recruiting Walter. Remember that you need Walter if you want to get Elwen; the rest of these characters are optional, and you only need them if you want to recruit all available characters. If you have already done that in a previous game, you probably don't want to bother with any of them except for talking to Sheila in the prison. You should probably go right back inside the castle and recruit the following.
If you sleep twice at Jack's place, you will be ready to leave for Fire Mountain. There will be some cut scenes, of course, so sit back and take note. If you look at the face of the fire dragon when he takes off, you might notice a resemblence to a previous character. You will have to travel through the Goblin town, so either avoid the goblins or fight them for experience. (You will have to fight some, but there are others you can avoid.) The map in the strategy guide doesn't show it, but there is a recovery circle at the north east section of the first area of Fire Mountain.
There are two areas to Fire Mountain. In the first area, rocks will rise and fall periodically. This means that you can't move forward or back for a certain period of time. If you get to a ledge, wait a few seconds to see if a passage opens up. If you are on a section that goes up and down, it won't go down as long as you are standing on it.
If you didn't get the Blood Orc's Horn earlier using the training method, here is where you can find one. You will see a Blood Orc on a side path as you first enter, and there is another one on top of a vine/branch at the west end of the first area. Once you enter into the second area (climb down a vine at the north west corner of the first area), you will find some more.
When you get close to the Fire Dragon's home, a cut scene will take over. Also, after you beat the Fire Dragon, you will automatically be taken back to the castle. This means you want to come back later and open a couple of chests that you couldn't get on your first trip.
A new mission will be available concerning the sewers again. Be very careful before you take on this mission. It will trigger two events: Ganz's Letter, and the Fireworks Date. If you don't want either of them to kick in, you should avoid finishing the mission.
If you wondered about the shrine that Elwen and Alicia visit every day, there is another strange thing down there. Head there, but this time you will see a cut scene when you get to the square room. It appears that the original builders of the city constructed some things down there. Genius will show you some strange paintings and explain a few things. He is trying to figure some things out, but is stumped. You will actually give Genius a clue to solving his riddle.
When the cut scenes are done, you will be outside of the place where Genius is staying. Go back inside and talk to him to recruit him.
Once the mission is complete, you can recruit the following:
At this point, the Blood Orc homeworld is accessible. That is a great place to level up if you need to. That is the area next to the Ocho region. If you tried to go there ear