How BAD is Shana ACTUALLY? - A Comparative Analysis of Shana From the Legend of Dragoon
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- Опубликовано: 21 авг 2024
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Shana is the heel of The Legend of Dragoon. I mean, the healer. With the new PS4/PS5 remaster (FIGHT ME) of Legend of Dragoon, her white-silver dragoon spirit is resurrecting people all over the mutha-cluckin place. Oh I guess she can use light magic and stuff. But for real - is she as bad as her placement in many youtubers' tierlists would suggest?
In this video, I'll be taking a look at her strengths and weaknesses and comparing him to Dart, Rose, Lavitz, Kongol, Meru, and Haschel. Oh and this game was on the PS1 originally. That's an algorithm thing!
ALL VIDEOS IN THIS SERIES:
➤ Dart Analysis: • How GOOD is Dart ACTUA...
➤ Lavitz Analysis: • How GOOD is Lavitz ACT...
➤ Shana Analysis: • How BAD is Shana ACTUA...
➤ Haschel Analysis: • How GREAT is Haschel A...
➤ Rose Analysis: • Is Rose REALLY That Ba...
➤ Kongol Analysis: • Is Kongol ACTUALLY Tha...
➤ Meru Analysis: • How GREAT is Meru ACTU...
OTHER LEGEND OF DRAGOON VIDEOS
➤ Legend of Dragoon Tips and tricks: • 16 Legend of Dragoon T...
➤ Magic Tier list: • Which Dragoon Magic Is...
➤ Character Tier List: • ULTIMATE Legend of Dra...
➤ Character Build Guide: • ULTIMATE Legend of Dra...
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No one wanted Shana. Not even her dragoon spirit.
This is savage.
Shana-Miranda is hot sexy
Fk you, she's far better than Miranda as a character, and also her dragoon is better than Kongols... SMH at your stupid comment about Great Shana.
Complains about not being treated like an adult but behaves like a petulant child, and I WAS the same age as her when I played the game 😂.
Love Shana, she’s a sweetheart. Her role in the game was much more than to be an amazing fighter so I understand her weakness in battle. I however cannot get behind Miranda when Shana is replaced. Her tough cookie attitude does not match up with her fighting capabilities. In my opinion Miranda is the least likable out of the bunch.
For someone that uses Shana her lack of additions is far more frustrating when you learn the game actually shows what that could look like.
In the battle arena for Lohan you meet a fighter that uses a bow which in a way seems to be able to target specific body parts that gives a better % boost depending on what is picked.
This would have been perfect if not so much better if Shana could do this same feat as it not only sets her apart being the only bow caster but allows her a % boost to her Bow damage which she desperately needed.
I was about to make a post going "Remember that guy in the area that uses a bow and has those cool moves? Wouldn't it be great if Shana could do anything like that?"
@@Moodyman90 If they ever remade the game they could very easily implement different archer type moves. It's too bad that she's also the only one in the *ENTIRE* party that can hit multiple enemies at once in base form with just the bow and no magic.
hmm you know I just remembered that, I thought maybe she could do bow additions where shed shoot an arrow and then shoot again? oi maybe this was the discussion the devs had when creating concepts?
Well I hope its intentional of the Tantacles keeps on saying Shana and Lavitz like they will be around in the entire game
Spoilers...
Shana and Lavitz will eventually be replaced with Miranda and Albert
Hmm that would have been awesome they also could have mixed in some multi shots as well. If only they had thought of that, oh well.
Shana has one caveat that most people don't realize. If your patient, she actually cuts down your grinding by a 1/3, if you choose her, that's one less person you have to grind additions for, she's not going to kill the enemy most of the time with her attacks, so that's more times the other two can get more additions, and her sp goes up per dragoon level, yes she starts out at 30 sp per attack, which most characters will get more with most of their additions, however, if you use the early spirit potions on her, and maybe even grind for a couple more, she jumps up to 50, and if you equip any sp enhancing items, she can quickly get her dragoon level up as not only does she have high speed, she won't outright kill the enemy, especially later in the game. So if you say give her a wargod sash, and if you still need dragoon levels, the bow that gives her another 50% sp, you can easily drop a speed up on her nab close to 500 sp per battle if not more[ she goes up to 150 sp per attack, yes other characters final addition is either close to this amount as well, or not far behind, but remember, you can't exactly srew up shanas attacks, so unless she misses, thats 150 sp guaranteed]
Not to mention, the repeatable[if you answer the questions correctly] attack item can basically one shot most normal enemies, and take a nice chunk off a bosses hp. Near the last part of the game, where I had shana in my party, I had level 5 dragoon for everyone, and additions maxed out, so normal battles basically become useless, unless you need that xp cause your close to leveling, and that repeatable item can basically cut down time spent in battle since you really don't need to grind out sp/additions anymore.
In addition, if your not great at rpg's, but you still want to try the optional bosses, having someone who can revive, WHILE in dragoon form, can basically save a run, especially if your fighting for darts ultimate weapon and don't realize the order you need to kill the boss before its too late.
I also want to add, if you save up even say 2-4 attack item nukes[like night raid, spectral flash, etc.], certain bosses can be a breeze, especially the virage battles, as they always have multiple parts, and you really get your moneys worth using shana with those.
Most of this applies to Meru as well.
I like to use the full party dragoon transformation that change field effect, the field color indicate which element got enhanced (more damage). And in full party dragoon form, no item can be used which mean Shana is the only one able to revive someone.
I like equipping Miranda with the Amulet and a Magical Hat so she caps at 250 Mp, being able to use the OP dragon spell 3 times in a fight makes boss fight super easy when you’re nuking them into space 😂
FACTS
Yes indeed, and I also realized that without Shana, fighting Faust is really difficult since all he did is magic AOE attacks with super speed
Having someone who can heal and revive really ease the party
I've always been confused on what happened with Shana. You have this really cool, really important feature in additions and then you just DON'T give one of the characters that feature? If they'd replaced her additions with something like her bows applying unique effects or acting more like magic or giving her some form of magic in human form then it could have worked but nope. Just a borked character.
Would have been pretty cool if one of her bows let her use her MAT stat for attacking, or if one of the bows offered several hits instead of the usual 1....
Also, can we take note that you get the ONLY attack all bow at the second to last screen of the game? How ridiculous is that? It's not like you ever have a reason to use it anyway... but I mean, it could have been made so much better...
@@rpgfanatic5477 Yea more bows like her final bow would have been cool. Alas, we are stuck with this version.
She's designed to be the best magic user and an almost guaranteed hit (without an addition to screw up) to fill her sprit meter, making her more useful against bosses and especially Unique Monsters (birds/jars/OOPArts). Also a nice occasional break from the grind of constant additions.
@@jaydemetrick8399 Except Meru exists and eventually magic loses almost all of its luster as additions and equipment get stronger. 35 AP per attack is passable early on and laughable later. Shana workable early on and practically useless about halfway through disc two. The developers seemed to at least be sort of aware of this and, if I remember right, give you an infinite use magic item but that still suffers from the waning usefulness of magic and just eliminates the money portion and inventory space part of your problems.
Also personally I'll take timed hits over rapidly mashing the button and even THEN Wargod Calling exists to alleviate that issue.
@@palladiamorsdeus Except with Shana/Miranda you can give her an Amulet to double her Magic Points and the Magic Hat to add an extra 50 to that and she can do 3 Silver-White Dragon spells in a row. Toss on some Dancer's Shoes and the Power Up and it's "Meru who(cares)?" Yea, additions can be fun but sometimes they get annoying and tedious. Sometimes, I just want to blow them bosses up.
Plus, she's the Unique Monster killer. Equip her Long Bow for higher hit chance and the Dancer's Ring & Shoes, throw the Magic Sig Stone, and go hunting. All of them but the Red Bird, Rainbow Bird, and Lucky Jar don't stand a chance. (Even then, you can use her Star Children spell or magic attack items on Red Bird, Bemusing Arrow on Rainbow Bird, and Virulent Arrow on the Lucky Jar with good results.) She's really useful and frankly, I use her on most of the bosses with Lavitz/Albert for Rose Storm. My go to team.
Ironically, I think Shana is the best casual playthrough pick when you stop and think about it. When the dev team were going all-in on the Addition system there had to have been at least one guy on the team that was like, "Guys, wait... what if someone is struggling with the Additions?" and that was probably met with, "Bro, they can just have the characters use their level 1 Additions, it's literally a single button press!" and then guy 1 responds, "Okay, but that doesn't feel good. The player is going to think they suck--and they probably do--so we need to have a plan B. And probably a plan C just for that one kid who's parents bought them the game for Christmas, can't return it, and the kid still wants to finish the game."
And for that scenario you have wargod line of accessories and you have Shana who outright can't do Additions and yet can be insanely powerful despite sidestepping the system entirely.
The sad fact is that almost everyone can muddle through the Addition system and so Shana suffers and could be too much insurance.
It's like an inverse bell curve. The absolute worst of the casual lot? Shana all the way. The absolute apex of speedrunning? Shana all the way.
Shana(/Miranda) is mainly good for boss battles and especially good for killing Unique Monsters. Against Darkness element bosses (especially the Ghost Commander & his team of Ghost Knights or the Polter armour/helm/sword) she especially wipes the floor with them. Equip her with an Amulet to double her magic points and a Magical Hat to give her an extra 50 magic points on top of that... she can do 3 Silver-White Dragon spells (with a little bit left over). Congratulations, you've just created the magic god bomb. For extra fun, throw the Power Up item on her and marvel at the giant numbers. Watch your enemies pee themselves worse than Rose performing Astral Drain.
Against the Unique Monsters, equip Shana with the Long Bow (10% to physical hit %) & if you have them, Dancer's Shoes & Dancer's Ring for extra speed. Throw Magic Sig Stone, Speed Down on the annoying Bird/Jar/OOParts and the Speed Up (if you have them) on Shana and kill it with pleasure. Meru is a help with her naturally high speed to throw the items so Shana can focus on shooting it to death. They are so fast and dodgy (an unfair number of turns in a row and a stupidly high miss chance) that this is the only way you can get their sweet, sweet loot without the stupid thing whupping your a$$ and running away.
As for Additions, it's a nice break from the incessant grind. I actually enjoy the simplicity of the one shot once in a while.
Shana is an angel and doesn't need all that other stuff.
Basically.. if you want a more mage-oriented character in the party..
Early game use Shana. After Hoax, use Rose (her magic starts high enough and she also has physical power).
After getting Meru, just use Meru.
Or go wild and crazy like me, use Shana AND Meru, and play more like that dude who completed the entire game using only magic damage items. It exists on RUclips and he did complete the run, juuuuust barely.. xD
Who? Missildine Online or LobosJr?
I'm actually playing LOD right now and it's been a breeze with Shana so far.
From a game design perspective, I think shana is actually well-intended to be the “easy” character. As a child I struggled with the additions. I would get stuck at bosses several times throughout because I just couldn’t do enough damage and wasn’t high enough in their dragoon levels. I got this game when I was 10 or 11 and couldn’t beat it until I was like 13 or 14? 😅 In a game with a completely different mechanic like additions, shana not having them can be nice for someone struggling. Her accuracy is naturally higher, and she’s pretty fast. And, to compensate physically, she’s the best magically. Not surprising they made the easy to use character the best healer. And if additions are hard, so to are the magic items perhaps, but her magic attack is so high that even if you don’t get a high multiple on the magic attack items, they’re still doing way more damage than anyone else. Speaking of design, its also pretty intentional the addition-less character is one of the first in the party. She gets removed from the party SEVERAL times throughout. As you journey farther into the story, more characters become available to replace her with. Rose is her counter with physical attack at least during the early levels of the game, but also Meru comes in later with better stats all-around compared to shana BUT with some of the trickiest additions. So it’s a give and take. Shana exists TO BE easier to play. But they also, at least in disc one, FORCE you to go without her (purposefully at a time when the other three characters all have dragoon spirits and you can use the special command for the first time, boosting their magical abilities with different types of damage or limited healing) to see what the game is like without her limitations. Then its up to you to decide to you put her back in or keep rose. It’s superb game design. Not every character is good at everything. That wasn’t the intent, so it’s not the implementation. Otherwise a character like Kongol wouldn’t exist either, his natural physical stats are CRAZY off the charts compared to everyone else. Because they all have different strengths. They aren’t equal. It’s a three-person party balance that is up to your personal choices and preference to figure out how best for you to play the game.
I will add that it’s okay that a character available later in the game is better than a character with similar properties available early in the game. She’s a beginner option. Her healing magic focuses on revives at an early point in the game where Angel prayers aren’t as widely available or you may not have as much money.
Yup. She's exists for people who can't get used to the game quickly.
Since she doesnt have additions it would have been nice if she had a multi shot mechanic or something
A couple of her bows let her bit all enemies... but with how pitiful her attack is it doesn't help much
Her attack should scale by magic. Her arrows should also be magic.
@@chaossnowkitsune6377one* of the bows. And you get it right before the very end of the game, just like rose.
Shana is one of those girlfriends that takes time and patience to bring out her full potential but then when she has blossomed it's not as fragrant as you thought it would be.
Easily your best video yet! I laughed, I cried, then I put Meru back in the party
Shana putting strain on your item bag is only true if you don't realize that she can effectively turn a single mp restorative into several items.
At Dlv.1 she can turn one into any combination that adds up to 2 of the following.
Angel's Prayer or Healing Fog.
At Dlv.2 she can produce:
2 AoE Spells
4 Angel's Prayers or Healing Fogs.
At Dlv.3 she can produce:
2 Healing Breezes
3 AoE Spells
6 Angel's Prayers or Healing Fogs
At Dlv.4 she can produce:
2 Healing Breezes (and 1 AoE Spell or 2 Angel's Prayers/Healing Fogs)
4 Consumable AoE Spells
8 Angel's Prayers or Healing Fogs
At Dlv.5 she can produce:
1 Simultaneous Spectral Flash and Healing Rain (plus 1 AoE Spells or 2 Angel's Prayers/Healing Fogs)
3 Healing Breezes
5 AoE Spells
10 Angel's Prayers or Healing Fogs.
Additionally using Shana in no way means you lose out on using Meru. One of my favorite party compositions involves the two of them running circles around the enemy with their dragoon spells and various repeatable items. Meru having ridiculous power with Perky Step also allows them to coexist on the same team quite effectively, since Meru can begin to rely on Perky Step for damage in mob fights while leaving powerful consumable spells for Shana to throw, all of this while Meru can still supply powerful Dragoon Magic when you feel the need. Not only this but they can actually synergize quite well with regards to stretching the game's limited inventory space to its maximum since Meru can also turn Moon Rhapsodies into multiple consumable items worth of spells.
You went full blown rainforest shade in the beginning. Love it
Moonlight can remove conditions at the cost of 50% heal, just let them die first then use it...
I think she is made for the people who don't like dragoon forms or additions, if you hate or have trouble with additions adding her in party means you only need 2 ultimate wargods.. 1 if you get that one from phantom ship...
The biggest barrier to her being useful is the consumable item limit... with her you will not need angel whispers.
Also, her dragoon form is surprisingly easy to level since her sp gathered depends on her dragoon level the higher level she is the faster she levels pop a bunch of speed on her and only attack with her she can max dragoon quick.
come to think of it this is giving me an idea for a whole new way to play the game...
Lolol
That godlike intro just earned a full sub. Well played. 10/10
Actually I can sit here and tell everyone that the only good use she has is in disc 1, by doing the gold and EXP farm on disc 1 she actually makes it easy to do the farms because at the time she has higher speed than all the others and because she has a higher accuracy to hit the OOPART's.
She's good againt rainbow birds in disc 4 as well, since she has one of the few weapons that causes confusion. Or you could just carry loads of panic bells, but I prefer using less money.
Dev Team: She is a broken Healer, so we need to Nerf her damage output.
Players: She is a "BROKEN" Healer who is the worst choice 99% of the time. And that last 1%? The second-best option is NEARLY as good, and far more useful during the aforementioned 99% of the time.
Dev Team: ...oops.
Shana sure is good for consumable magic items for a few hours until you get Rose
I never knew how good those magic items were until the replay I just started. I had no idea they used your MAtt stat. I'd just toss them with whoever to get them out of my inventory.
But they're absolutely wrecking bosses this time
Wrong. Shana far surpasses Rose with magic. Shana is the most powerful character in the game. People fail to realize mid to late game the enemies become more magical oriented so her physical weakness becomes mute, SHe has the best dragoon magic and with her high magic stat she literally melts bosses and keeps you alive at the same time. Let me put it this way
Psychedelic Bomb X thrown by Shana can literally one shot the final bosses third form.
I died at " The White-Silver Dragoon." LOL
Used her in my last run as a healer and spammed magic items. Absolutely killed it in boss fights
That being said, I wish she had additions
When I was a kid, I was not patient with her enough. But after thoroughly leveling her and her Dragoon, she became a fave to bring in boss battles (before I got Meru). But even to the end, I used Shana(Miranda) because resu is needed in some fights.
You know, that 32 item limit isn't actually as bad as you give it credit for. It's actually more limiting before you get to Bale as at that point you have constant access to shops you can backtrack to. Once you've got a couple of playthroughs under your belt you really start to know what you need and inventory management becomes much easier. It's more of a problem on your first playthrough.
As for repeatable items by the end of the game there's really only 5-6 worth holding on to, the Shadow Ball for guaranteed escapes being optional depending on your play style. The other 5 being Power Up, Power Down, Speed Up, Speed Down and the Psyche Bomb X which on it's own will deal with any random encounter in the game once you get it making inventory management even easier. All the items are useful of course, and I personally hold on to all of them because I like collecting them, but after certain points the rest just lose value.
You also failed to mention any equipment. If you're willing to reset on the ghost ship you can get the magical hat to boost her MP, this combined with the Amulet gives her 250mp which is enough to cast 3 W-Silver Dragon spells before needing to restore her MP at which point pretty much any fight should be finished and then you can just restore her MP outside of battle. Dancer's Ring is nice and all, but between the Dancer's Shoes + Speed Up she's going to have more than enough speed. Her ultimate weapon the game would have you believe to be the Detonating Arrow (been a while so I might have the name wrong) because it has the highest attack power. It is however the Arrow of Force which generates 50% more SP per attack minimizing downtime between transformations for bosses (really the only time you need to transform unless you get a random encounter you don't like, need to clear a status or are hunting special monsters that only take magic damage and want to conserve items).
Probably the best thing you can do with her is save every spirit potion you get until she gets her DSpirit to jumpstart her SP for DLvl and attack in most random encounters to rush DLvl 5, reserving battle items for bosses. This also helps with inventory management until she hits DLvl 5.
Now just a note on personal preference. At the end of the day every character is viable, use who you like the most. Everyone is good and can have their weaknesses patched up with equipment to a degree. I personally just don't like Meru so I have never once included her in any of my playthroughs. I just don't like her character.
Edit - Just wanted to put another note in on the Magical Hat on the Phantom Ship (called it ghost ship earlier by mistake but I'm leavin that in because that's kinda funny to me lol).
While it can turn in to an insane grind (which I personally absolutely love grinds) you can actually skip that grind if you want as there is 1 that you can just pick up in a chest in the Magical City Aglis, and 2 White Silver Dragon spells with just the Amulet is still a pretty hefty amount of damage when combined with whatever damage the other 2 members of your party are putting out. It's just really useful to take the time to grind one out on the Phantom Ship as it's the earliest point you can get it by a decent break in time between there and Aglis. In fact if you're a real masochist you can sit there and grind to get all 4 Magical Hats to potentially drop, 1 from the single Magician Bogey (think I'm remembering that name right?) and 3 possible from the fight against 3 of them. If you ever get all 4 to drop though the world is probably about to end in the next 5 minutes with how unlikely that would be as even getting 1 from the fight against the 3 Bogeys being enough of a grind to get already. I believe it's something like a 4% drop at base.
You're legend of dragoon videos got me here and I'll be checking out the rest of your catalogue. I love LoD and these have been great videos. Well done! Subscribed.
Thank you!
i never go into a boss fight without shana. her dragoon magic is unbelievably clutch and her sp charges fast if you take the time to level her dragoon.
Not wrong with Shana, but you can have a build that would help her out. Mage ring and magical hat would help her. Gives more mp and mp recover every round. Then you can have armor that basically drops physical damage down to nothing then giving her dancing shoes and she can sweep through battles. Granted you can use physical attacks but you aren't using it to damage the enemies. you are using it to fill SP where at level 5 its 150. That's enough to keep up with the party. She well Miranda is best when facing something like Lloyd, Divine Dragon, and the Grand Jewel. Where they actually are a threat to the dragoon. And on the phantom ship, just take Shana use her dragon spell and beat the boss in one hit. She is a powerhouse but need a build like any other character would. I actually had Miranda/Shana in with Faust with that kind of build and Albert to keep up with defense to help defeat Faust.
Can you suggest other party rooster to beat Faust rather than Dart/Albert/Shana? Cuz I tried and only this combination work
Nice Rocky reference and great video
I love the edits and the development of your videos lately 👏💪
Thank you!
Shana is... interesting, from a game design perspective. Flawed, but interesting. If you think about it, Shana's dragoon form exists to mitigate a critical flaw in her standard gameplan: You only have 32 item slots, and Shana does her best damage with items. This means that with Shana you're kind of playing chicken with the item system: you can bring fewer healing items because your dragoon form has great healing, but if Shana gets knocked out then you're in a really bad spot... which will happen a lot considering how many physical attacking bosses there are and how much damage they can do.
Shana / Miranda is one of those characters who needs work and care to be powerful. Her lack of additions makes her struggle, with her strongest bow not really amping any effect. Only the Explosive Arrow being the viable tool that does AoE damage to all targets. In the game's files, there are known additions meant for her, but was cut for unknown reasons. (My theory being that the animations weren't all that creative or possibly being struggling with the game's limitations?)
I would've enjoyed Shana more if she was the only unit who could use magic without items. Clueing into her mysterious nature and potential; and to make up for her lack of strengths in the party. Making her a very useful, but fragile character in the party. Which would make the times when she's removed from the party in the story all the more tough because you don't have access to her magic.
I guess it make sense since she is the M*** t*** N**** S*** but when Miranda come to take her place, she is not lore-wise fit with the unique ability
How do you only have 2.9k subs??? Your videos are awesome! Hopefully those numbers get bumped, seeing as LOD is getting popular again.
Honestly, it just takes time to build an audience. But I’m grateful for everyone that watches. Things are growing, and I can be patient. 😉
I save Shana/Miranda for boss battles. Thats really the only time they get out of the bench because I'd rather make the boss fights quicker by nuking them with their overpowered magic stat from attack items that I collect in the dungeon anyway, lol
Can you do a video on top 3 team formations? just curious to see who you would pair together etc...
Today I learned the phrase opportunity cost lol
The way you explained the relationship between Meru and Shana was explain well at my workplace. If the Manager on Duty was to fall at work the next one to become manager is the highest in seniority and not highest rank. At first I thought this was a mistake until it was explained that the higher ranks, be it heads of department, specialize in one department instead of the whole store where the highest seniority would know more about the whole store. Having five departments in my store it was explained in this way; is it more as 1X11 or 5X4? The store had the mentality that the Sargeant on the field of war outranks a Lieutenant who doesn’t know.
Shana is in a weird place, I feel (and I don't mean Hellena). You lose her for significant portions of the early game (missing out on 3 bosses in just disc 1), so keeping an already frail party member leveled with everyone else becomes difficult. She isn't great at random encounters unless you have a penchant for just throwing magic every time you find it. No additions and a strict inventory limit makes it feel like the developers just didn't really want you to use her in combat. Only she absolutely destroys many of the bosses in the game. Fruegal? Divine Dragon? Last Kraken? If you've been leveling Shana, maybe it'll take her two turns. Three at most.
But she only really shines in boss fights, and the game is about 95% random encounters, where she'll be much less useful until disc 4 (otherwise known as the very end of the game).
TL;DR Shana is in a weird spot in this game. I kinda agree with the video, but it feels wrong to say the character is weak when she makes boss fights so easy.
I just watched your video and something was bothering me so I went to my game to check it out. So I figured that maybe I was crazy for years but I can finally confirm that I'm not. Shana's level one spell can In fact heal status effects. It can barely be seen but when you go to her spell menu in battle it shows in the description.
Whoooooooooooa I’m wrong and now I’m sad.
Pretty sure there's a few typo's in all dragoon abilities and shana's has the worse ones.
Moon Light - Restores 100% of a targets HP if they are Alive. Restores All Status Effects. If they are dead revive at 50% of their health.
Heaven's Gate - Restores 50% of all allies HP. Restores Status Effects (Pretty sure), Can Revive for 50% of their health.
White Silver Dragon - Restores 100% of all allies HP. Deals Damage as well. Not entirely sure it cures status effects but possible. Pretty sure this one doesn't revive though.
She's the best contender for x-bomb (and repeat items), gets an attack all bow later and has the best dragoon summon. You have to use arrows because that's how she gets SP and dragoon levels. At dragoon level 3, it's one dragoon transform per arrow. Then she makes grinding other additions trivial because she doesn't have any, and cranking her accuracy makes her good at hitting special monsters on the overmap world.
Shana is perhaps the most difficult character to balance. On one hand, if they fix her attack/additions then she can strictly make someone like Meru Irrelevant or stricktly worst by miles because they both already share similarities. On the other hand, I feel both are serviceable, and Meru doesn't seem to make Shana completely irrelevant but situational at the very least. One way to fix Shana and satisfy players, would be to give her "additions" but either leave her attack weak just like the way it is, or strong attack additions but make her generate less SP (but preferably the other way around since shes a healer, more SP and less attack power).
I have always used Shana in every run I did. Not sure why, I am obsessed with her and some battles become too easy if you don’t use Shana’s physical attacks. My party is always Dart, Shana and Meru.
Ngl, that intro had me cracking up laughing. Also, don’t forget Miranda.
You know, I was initially going to come in here swinging for my girl Shana but you're absolutely right. You bring up fantastic points. So well done to you, sir!
I thought White Silver Dragon was a 75% damage spell and 100% heal.
It always stuck out to me how the game railroads you into not using her.
1st: I nearly fell over from laughter, this video was hilarious.
2nd: I always found it curious that Shanas Dragoon Spirit can’t heal status ailments, especially when the whole reason that she got her dragoon spirit was because she became poisoned, and it was what was used to heal the poison. Because that’s not confusing at all.
And 3rd:There is absolutely no excuse for her to be a one trick horse as far as her physical attack is concerned, particularly since there was an archer in the Tournament in Lohan, who had many tricks and firing styles, so there was no excuse.for her abysmal physical attack. I mean, yes, due to a high magic attack stat, the “Detonate Arrow” has some added umph, but it’s an “End Game” weapon and Shana is replaced with Miranda by this time.
Shana’s lack of additions improves her value on the PSP, where input lag reigns supreme!
Someone on the party gotta be applyin the Repeat Items..might aswell have a deticated item Box user, for Repeat and one-off Spells, gave her HP ring for durability. (First Half of game)
You didn't mention her final arrow, or any of her arrows actually. Explosive arrow is kinda neat... She's the only character who can hit all enemies at once for free. Not that this saves her or anything, but it does make her phys atk slightly useful.
true but u cant change ur party in battle so if u have the full party u will still be getting a lower amount then u would say on disk 1 with if only she survives from what i remember its not alot but it enough to notice
LoD was the first RPG I ever played and is the game that made me fall in love with them. I'm praying that one day, we get a prequel, a sequel, a remaster, and remake. Is that asking for too much?
Imo, one of Shana's worst aspects in a casual or challenge run is that she misses out on 2k~4k exp in disc 1, and that leaves her in the gutter for at least the rest of the disc. This obviously compounds her weaknesses and makes her magic less appealing for the time. Most people just won't care to invest in catching her up. Not when they can simply use Haschel or Rose until Meru joins.
Also, I forgot that Meru's party heal clears statuses, as well. Why did they make her so absurdly broken?
The game could've been easy running Rose and Haschel more in my early game, but I primarily ran Shana and Lavitz/Albert till disc 3 and had an absolute blast. Yes, she's more of a challenge but it was easier upgrading my Lavitz/Albert additions as a result!
A lot of people dismiss Shana as she has no additions and her dragoon is given a-bit late, making her unusable and a dead weight at the early game
However….
If you take the time to level her up and her dragoon spirit she becomes a powerful character if not the most powerful
Her magic is unmatched, once you obtain the Psychological bomb X, she can one shot every random battle you enter, give her dancers ring and dance shoe she becomes speed demon
Stock up on attack items and she can kill bosses in a few turns
And her dragoon spells are awesome, she can heal the team and damage enemies
Plus she can easily fill her sp gauge with her normal attack with 200sp
Overall great character but needs babysitting in the early game
Again what you forget is All stats effects are cured when you transform. Also With the proper set up Shana can fire off 2 white sliver dragon attacks before needing Mp.
No offense if going to evaluate a character try to say ways to counter Thier weaknesses by picking the Team and Gear.
I have always wondered who is better Shana or meranda as the white silver dragoon
You're talking about Shana's Dragoon not curing status...
let me ask you, when you have any type of ailment or status effects and you transform into a Dragoon, what happens? What are dragoons immune to while they're in said form?
So honestly, is it really that big of a deal that her magic moves don't cure poison or anything like that speaking the Dragoon can do that in itself and this goes for every dragoon in the game not just hers so this part of the argument is a complete fail js not hating
Sass acknowledged
Also my go to party is always Dart, Meru and Albert although if Im bored I will swap out Albert for Rose. I know shes not as good but the animations for her Dragoon magic look the coolest in the game in my opinion.
MORE AND MORE
Playa legend of dragoon with shanna and loves the game "wow this games hard"
Sees this video
" oh oh wow ok"
I wish I had a turbo controller for Shana. 🤣
she great with Magic items raise her Magic DMG and she can do massive DMG
Also not to be a commenting Kathy but its easy to fix Shana. Half her human damage but double her SP. If shes going to be a magic user make her a magic user. Second reduce gates of heaven cost according to her HP where lower HP equals lower cost up to half off and make it revive dead players but at only 25% health healing live ones for 50%. Lastly change Moonlight into a debuff that does 25% damage every turn for 3 turns (75% total) and heals anyone that attacks the moonlight target for 10% max hp. I dont trying to buff her into a physical attacker is good but if she could debuff and refresh and be responsible for some dots, hots and...coconots she would be legit.
I've always hated the 32 item limit...
They could have just removed the bow, gave her a staff that has ranged attacks, and have her attack scale with her magic damage.
BEST IDEA
Even if they didn't know what to do to give a bow Additions, they could have used a single timed hit with increased damage and SP generation to just make it less boring.
Shana's physical attack has one advantage over every other character. It never misses. I always used her as a minor enemy finisher when someone else's addition gets them in the red
She's there to make it easy to level characters additions by only having 2 to focus on
She's a beast if you have a rapid fire controller
I wouldn’t say she’s awful she’s the healer of the group and everyone knows healers don’t have high strength she’s pretty much there to make sure no one else falls
Pity you can replace the whole character with cheap items and not have a massive dps loss in your party 🙄 healer doesn't have to mean useless.
@@LionheartX4 healing items take inventory space, also can't use healing breeze when you're in dragoon form for 5 turns. Its better to have her dragoon with the accessory that doubles mp. and also have magical items in inventory for her to use in human form. equipping a legendary casque on her breaks the game more than equipping it on anyone else. She comes up big against dragons, virage and winglies with her magical abilities.
@Uncle Evbo They can't kill you if they're dead. I have played this game dozens of times and not a single thing has ever challenged me to the point of needing a dedicated healer. She also needs consumable magic items to have any use outside of dragoon form. I'd MUCH rather have some healing items in my inventory than fill it up with offensive items when I can do just as much damage through other means.
@@LionheartX4 but she doesnt need magical items. we can all knock on her low attack power but she gets 2 attacks for every 1 attack other characters get. her speed makes up for lower attack power. I literally have no issues using her human form. she also makes killing the special enemies easier with her accuracy and speed. Makes it easier to form exp and gold.
Using a character and ignoring one of her optimal stats in favor of multiple attacks when you could do 3x+ damage with magic or just using a maxed addition on another character seems pretty wasteful to be honest. I'm not saying you can't like her, I'm just saying she's not good. There are much better choices for an optimal run.
Only char in solo playthrough that I have seen the damage cap of 9999 saddly no way to break it without modding the game I was curious to see how much she could do with power up Power down and Psyche Bomb X on some optional bosses and with that a 16k hp boss got 1shot by a 25k dmg rip dmg cap removing some of her Power.
I personally like her because of her magical abilities, but I do agree that she doesn't have the physical abilities to keep up with the others, especially since physical damage is critical and magic only really comes from consumables and dragoon forms.
Shana combat skills are bad being a archer but give her magic use a turbo controller and she can waste a boss quickly
Okay question what about her ability to revive when the can not revive ko happens? ( it's something that happens with bosses and some rare monsters) is there another way to get around it ( after the fact) or is she the only way?
The ... what? EDIT; I think you mean Can't Combat which is the instant death ability some enemies do, Angel Prayers, Talisman, Angel Robe + Holy Ankh work there.
I use both Meru and Shana
I play legend of dragon long ago as child.. Never have a deep thought about good unit or bad unit just using my favorite character and yet i still beat the game
All the characters are viable, and I think using your favorite is a great way to play!
i hated that in lod that you only have 32 item space and can not stack anything on top like in most other games its just tedious and one reason why i never liked using shana i really hate relying on consumables it sucks if you run out
So I am playing Shana right now and Heavens Gate cured status effects. Playing in PS4
For cereal? DAMN
yea shana is just ok / meh in most battles, i just grinded her dragoon magic to lvl5 to use her for the ghost commanders and for some specific stuff like the birds and ooparts after that but then i swap her out for other party members XD
She is not as bad at people said. She allow you to focus in the completion of addition of 2 character and yes She is not good ad mob clearing but she is a boss destroyer. Stop saying that she is horrible when she is not. She allow you to clear bosses so fast that it's not going to matter if she doesn't have additions. And stop with the she can't cleanse your debuff cause if you learn the enemy boss mechanics believe me you can by pass a lot of their debuff. Unless you are playing hard mode you won't feel the effects of the debuff. I'm not attacking you or anything I like your content but I hate when there is a lot of opinion base information in the videos. Believe I LOVE MERU and yes she is the most op character in the game but if we are going to talk about casual gaming she won't be that strong. Anyways keep it up man.
I don't think Meru is a jack of all trades. She has horrible physical defense, and you'll be reviving her a lot if you use her.
Join the Tantacles discord!
discord.gg/jy7VsGMFFc
Not Shana being the Leslie knope of lod 😂😂😂😂
She likes waffles and hates both salads and libraries.
Are we just gonna act like we didn't go into dragoon special with everyone at dragoon level 5 and couldn't use healing items in dragoon form? The few times i ever died in the game was because of that. I will always use Shana/Miranda in a run.
For a important plot character you would think she would have more things going for her. The lack of additions just make her bad in comparison to Meru who can pretty much do everything she can do but better.
Shana's the type of character who gets such a bad rap that they go out of their way in the remakes to make them 'better', like Edward from Final Fantasy II/IV. Maybe if the game ever gets a remake/rerelease/remaster/hey you never know, she'll get a few buffs.
Shiranda is amazing. If you like to use magic.
This character could have had some sick additions with a bow!! Sighhhhj
Miranda should have been an upgrade to Shana, like give her archery additions
At least we got a personality upgrade.
I mean, i have never used Shana before, but on my most recent playthrew, i did, and wow, the game was so much easier.
Just beat the Divine dragon in a few turns, like 1700+ damage on each target, i bet if i used Speed up on her...ooooo
I’m laughing so hard at the opening 😂😂😂
Edit: and the character portraits☠️
It saddens me that Shana is so pathetic. It's like the game itself is going out of its way to make her the worst character in a fight. If she had Dragoon magic similar to Meru, or even had more items in stock to devote to magic items, then Shana would be so much better... and also give her additions, that decision was absolutely stupid.
Meru also is water though. So darts special hinders her. I think that’s the trade off since you can’t get rid of dartz
I didn't like magic attacks untill Shana Miranda convinced me
In the minority but:
Shana/Miranda>>>>>>Meru
I've watched my brother played the game for 2 decades already, as well as some people who played them for the first time. Ironically, it's my first time playing the game right now, and it's been a breeze using Shana so far. Not only do I not need to worry about grinding her additions, but the bosses have been dropping like flies to her. I just use consumable items and then VIOLA!!! The bosses die in just 3-4 turns. She is supposed to be a healer character but ironically, I use her as an offensive character. I nuke things with her. Also, I fill up my whole inventory with attack items and just 2-3 healing potion or 1 angel's prayer..... Because, I mean.... Who needs healing potion or angel's prayer anyway, if you can just easily finish bosses in 3 or even 1 turn... I mean, there's like, no danger of dying if you could just spam consumable items against bosses with her.
If we ever get a remake, I hope they just change/buff Shana instead of nerfing Meru haha. Shana should be able to attack ALL enemies (Detonate Arrow, but she gets this before the final boss like.. b*tch why?) and have arrows/bows that provide more status effects. Status effects were always hard to apply as a player if you didn't buy the items (why would you with a 32 item limit? We need those repeat items!).
She could also benefit from having her magic tweaked. Moonlight is fine, but Star Children should be 50% damage, Gates of Heaven should fully revive and remove status effects (or prevent them for 3 turns), and Silver Dragon should be a half health revive in addition to the damage + full heal.
If there's ever a remake, it'd be nice to see what they'd do to improve upon Shana. There were so many great things about this game and it was made in 1999!
I played the japanese version one which is the enemies lot harder n tankier than nerfed American version and her healing ability insanely usefull to keep party alive and can sustain strong attacks damage moreover u combine with Albert's rose storm buff...america version is sucks, they nerfed the game too much that why Shana/Miranda's potential buried down deeply and everyone said this is the worst character... do not wish the item magic throw can dealt huge damage in Japanese version and able to overkill the bosses with only few turns, they only do crappy damage including phydelic bomb X and will expect facing bosses longer while hit the party as hard as hell...she is the best support n magic tanker character who always make sure our team party stay alive and purified from any annoying debuff effects
To be fair, no one uses her for physical damage, as that would be like using Kongol for magical damage. But i guess if its for casual play then it doesn't really matter, since casual players will use the character to do everything rather than optimizing them for what they are good at. I do that too when i first played the game. But after a few playthroughs, i stop using even dragoon forms as they are just that much weaker than using final additions. Veteran players play the game very different than casual players.
Shana is overkill for any gameplay (casual / perfect run) EXCEPT challenge runs and against Faust. like for example: no addition runs, no shop runs, no guard runs, low level runs, japanese version runs and some form of punishment you wanna add. though she is meh in early and very weak in mid game, she became a god until you get the almighty Mage Ring and some useful items.
Fortunately LoD is like the easiest JRPG in history so even a weaker DPS character is still completely viable to easily clear the game.
Although I'm a Miranda guy myself.
Meru will always be number 1.
I've never been able to complete her later additions
oh god yes some additions are a nightmare i think it was darts madness hero god i hated it
Shana is the Sharla of LoD
TOO HOT!