God Wars: Future Past

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Table of Contents

Summary

God Wars: Future Past is a very Final Fantasy Tactics-like game, recently re-released for modern consoles. If you have enjoyed games like FFT, Disgaea, and Fell Seal, this game is definitely up your alley. The game is divided into chapters, with episodes for each, but nothing is blocked off by moving the plotline forwards. There are zero missables in the game, you can always go back to do things later, including picking up treasures on endboss maps.

Here is a brief overview of the game system, with references to how it is different from some other similar games like those mentioned above. This is not a full step by step FAQ, this is just tips and hints to make understanding the game easier. Everything in this game can be overcome on any difficulty with enough grinding and the proper spec setup, and there is no penalty for retrying – it’s very friendly, even if the difficulty curve is sharp on boss battles.

Note that this FAQ only covers the main game, as I didn’t go deep into maxing out Lv 200 characters for the DLC Dungeon or what-not.

XP, JP, Skills, and Stati

  • XP earns levels for your class
    • 100 XP per level no matter the level
    • Each character level applies the stat gains from your primary class to your character permanently
    • Max level in the main game is 99
  • JP unlocks abilities on the classes you have armed
    • JP is duplicated into the 3 classes – you get the full amount in your primary class, less in your secondary class, and still less in your intrinsic unique class. It doesn’t matter which class the skill is associated with, all 3 classes get JP in the same distribution no matter what
    • Once you max all skills, JP builds up and cannot be used and is wasted on a class
    • JP gains are according to the approximate formula:
      PRIMARY CLASS LEVEL x LEVEL OF THE SKILL USED x FACTOR
      where “factor” is some percentage that’s less for non-skill attacks, more for self-buffs, more for skill attacks and debuffs and healing, and most for super-skills. Note that the skill used doesn’t have to be in the primary class.
  • There is no collateral JP learned between units, unlike some tactics games where units get a trickle from seeing other classes perform actions – this is a shame, because every new class starts out empty and therefore useless until you have one battle under your belt
  • You get XP and JP even if you miss, no difference compared to if a skill works or fails or misses
  • Character leveling increases stats based on your primary class only, though honestly you’ll be cycling through classes for the whole game, it’s way too micromanaging to try to change back to a class just for a level-up
    • It’s unclear if XP or JP powers class levels, but whereas character levels are always 100 XP, class levels get longer and longer
    • Once you hit level 10 for a class, XP is wasted on that class
  • All characters are uniques, no generics
  • You arm three simultaneous classes
    • You get access to all skills for all three classes
    • You cannot change your intrinsic unique class
  • In addition to the three classes, you can arm 3 passive abilities that you’ve learned from any class
  • You do not automatically get all the passives for your currently armed classes, you must arm them in your three slots for them to count
  • You regain MP per turn, by a percentage of your max, and this percentage is a primary stat that you will see when arming weapons and such
  • The flower petal meter (you’ll eventually unlock this) resets to zero for every battle, increases as you perform moves, and is shared by all units. So, using it up with one unit makes the points unavailable to the next unit. Do use these skills though, it’s a waste to let the meter sit there full at 5
  • Armor and weapons permitted are based on your primary class only
  • Everyone can be every class, with the exception of the intrinsic unique classes
  • When a status ailment is applied twice, it becomes worse
    • So Poisoned twice becomes Venom, which does twice the damage
    • Note that anything that cures Poison will cure Venom – it doesn’t explain this well – same for all doubled-up stats
  • Many skills that use the range of the weapon are useable across both melee and ranged. Some are not – look at the icons to see next to the skill. However, a large number of melee attacks “count” as skills you can use at range with a bow, and this is extremely helpful
  • Impurity is a stat that grows on a character during battle as you perform actions. The higher the Impurity, the more likely that the enemy will target you. Some spells can increase or decrease this, and it makes it like Taunt or un-Taunt in a way. Some decoys can have high Impurity and thus lure more fire

Gameplay Overview

You generally move from one spot on the map to the next and there is generally a battle on every spot. Many times, there is a hidden spot between where you are and the next target location, so it’s a good idea to save before moving.

There are no random battles.

When you get to a spot with a Shrine and a Shop, the Shrine offers quests, which is basically an excuse to replay a map you ran into since the last shrine. This is your opportunity to pick up chests and grind. There are more than one page of quests, so click down to see more than 4. Clear other quests to unlock the painted ones. All quests other than the painted ones are infinitely re-doable for grinding.

Donating to the shrine gives one-next-battle-only bonuses, like in Dragon’s Crown. Upgrading the shrines does nothing. It’s purely for a trophy.

On normal difficulty you will want to do every quest as soon as you run into them, possibly more than once. If you are not overpowered for normal battles, you will be woefully underpowered for boss battles. Bosses are no joke, they have 5x the HP and attack twice per turn, and are often surrounded by very annoying ads that will get in your way or finish you off after a boss double-hit nearly party-wipes you.

You can save mid-battle. Make use of this in long battles or boss battles, just in case. Don’t overwrite your save, though.

You can “retire” from a battle free of charge. You lose what you earned, but you can go back to the map and re-spec with zero penalty. Even from boss battles.

The game specifically talks big about how bows increase in range downhill and decrease uphill but it is basically straight up lying. One level after it first telling you about this, you find yourself at a height advantage over archers, and they proceed to shoot uphill and eat your lunch, while the ledges literally prevent you from shooting downhill – this game mechanic was implemented extremely poorly, so be aware of how flaky it is.

This is one of those games where status ailments hit often and hard, so use poison, confusion, paralysis, slow/stop, and petrify; guard against them; upgrade your healing abilities to wipe status ailments where applicable. Keep a stock of all status ailment cures on hand, and keep a stock of healing potions as well, especially when the AoE ones become available. Both the HP and MP AoE items are heavily recommended. In fact, it might make sense to use the MP+50 or MP+100 AoE item at the beginning of almost every battle, to give everyone a head start on magic use – you’ll earn more than enough every battle to buy one.

Early Speccing

Make everyone’s first primary class a Priest, and get level 3 Proficiency+ and arm that forever. It makes earning JP much easier and speeds absolutely everything else up.

After that, consider arming Magician to get a few levels of MP+, as at the beginning of the game, it’s quite sparse. And since MP regains on a percentage basis, the more max-MP you have, the quicker you get it back.

Getting Warrior Lv 6 and then Archer gives access to Move+1. There are almost no items in the game that increase movement, so this is critical.

Later on, when you get Priest Lv 6 -> Monk Lv 8 -> Shinobi, this gives Move+2. You can wear both Move+1 and Move+2.

The first couple new characters you get have zero levels on zero classes, it’s incredibly annoying. Even later ones that join may have leveled skills, but none of them are the Priest’s Proficiency+ skill.

Once you start hitting later levels, consider swapping out MP+ with Reduce MP Cost instead, as you’ll have a lot of MP, so the extra won’t matter as much, and the later class spells have very high MP cost.

Consider always having a bow, no matter what. If your class can’t arm one, use a passive slot for Equip Bow. If you absolutely cannot use one, arm a spear. Range and movement is critical in this game and every square counts. The only exception is if you definitely have enough mage skills to handle yourself, in which case use a staff or club and max out MATK. Or if the class you have has a lot of skills that forbid use of the bow, like later on with the Warrioress.

Farming JP

In addition to making sure everyone has Proficiency+, there are a few more tips. The Maiden class, Priest Lv 6 -> Shintoist Lv 8 -> Maiden (Female Only) has a super-skill that increases JP gained for all units in battle, and the max level is +100%. You want this.

Always carry a few abilities that are cheap and don’t do damage to enemies, so that you can pin an enemy in a corner and grind on a skill for a while without ending battle. If you take the opportunity to do this a little at the end of every battle, you’ll grind less later. A little less.

You don’t get more for defeating harder enemies, so you can just grind on the easiest board if you want. I find that boring but to each their own.

Again, JP gains are according to the approximate formula:
PRIMARY CLASS LEVEL x LEVEL OF THE SKILL USED x FACTOR
where “factor” is some percentage, according to the rule:

Defend and Standby give zero. Pure attacking and using items gives the least. Using a buff on yourself gives more. Attacking or debuffing an enemy gives more. Healing or buffing others gives more. Using super-skills (that take flower petal points, you’ll eventually unlock this) earns the most.

This means you should use the highest class-level class as your primary while grinding, and max the level of whatever skill you use for grinding, and try to make it higher on that list.

On that note, Ritualist and Maiden make a ton of JP. Maiden has the +100% JP map skill but the skill itself, which only takes 1 flower point, also generates a ton of JP. But so does the Ritualist’s +100% XP. If you can get a unit to be one of these two, arm it as their primary, put a new class as secondary, and spam this ability to rack up JP.

Class Farming

You will slowly be earning new classes as you go. As a general rule, I found is useful to use something like the following as a general strategy.

Always use a skill every turn to earn JP, which is why it’s important to always have a few cheap skills on hand at all times. Think Guts and Throw Stone from FFT.

Have one class that you have at least a few skills in, while putting a new class in the other slot, rather than arming two level 1 classes at once. That way you’re not completely helpless while trying to build up two classes from zero. Also, because JP gains are partially based on primary class level, keep your highest class in primary and the one you want to build up in secondary. Yes, this means the secondary will gain a little more slowly, but the multiplicative factor of using a high primary class level times a high level skill (which is probably in that high level class) is going to more than make up for the slight loss in having your new class secondary. I made this mistake for a long time, so learn from my failure.

If you follow my above advice about aiming for Profiency+, Move+1, and MP+ for each character, you’ll have a little XP in each of the three branches, so that will make it easier later.

It’s fine to specialize in one of the branches for everyone, but eventually you’ll want everyone to have most of the tier-2 classes at Lv 8 in all three branches, as well as a good number of the tier-3 classes at Lv 8, because the tier-4 classes all have requirements from 2 or even 3 of the main branches.

Once a class is Lv 8 (or Lv 6 for a tier-1), stop focusing on it. You can leave it in one of the slots if you like, but move on to something else as a secondary. Once you max all the skills, it’s a waste to dump JP into a class, and once you hit Lv 10 for a class, XP is also wasted on it… so stopping around level 8 and moving on, so you can bring it back as a JP/XP sponge, is a strategic way to not lose points in the over-grind hole

Class Overviews

If you’re really looking for “best classes”, take the long aim for Tier-4 Tengu, it’s the single best class, though it’s also (not uncoincidentally) the hardest to unlock. Celestial and Elemental are all great casters (with Tengu being both a fighter and mage type and just as good as a mage class), with Tier-2 Spiritualist a good stepping stone. For fighters, any of the tier-3 fighter types or the gendered Warrioress or Champion are good in different situations, but not frankly that much better than the humble Tier-2 Archer and Samurai. Tier-2 Shintoist will get a lot of play as the best support class, though the Maiden will eventually get overused repeatedly for it’s JP+100% grind skill and overall good range of buffs.

The single strongest ability is the otherwise useless Barrierist’s super skill, which can trivialize most battles, including boss battles. But given the spikey difficulty curve in this game, take all the cheap shots you want, because the enemy will still gang up on you, paralyze or confuse everyone everyone, dodge all your 99% hit attacks, and then take two turns in a row and party wipe you. So, take a cue from Disgaea and cheat like hell.

NOTE: Even though some of the top tier classes are not as great as they could be, you should probably stick with them at endgame if for no other reason than level progression stats. The Champion class will provide vastly better growth than tier 2 or 3 fighter classes, for example. You can always mix in a secondary class to get skills you actually want. A Tier-4/Tier-3 combo, or Tier-4/Tier-4 is probably where you’ll end up late and post-game. The only tier-2 that might get mixed into even a post-game mix is Shintoist, as it’s the best support class in the game by far.

Tier 1 Classes

Warrior – this is like Squire in FFT. It’s very easy to have as a secondary for anything, and have some easy JP skills: Shout, First Aid, and Throw. Tackle has %chance knockback, and you’ll be using Heavy Blow for a long time for damage.

Priest – Proficiency+, nuff said. Also get one level of Exorcism (cure status ailments) and Recovery (healing) even during the Proficency+ JP grind. I only ever used these two skills. Note that Exorcism cures more statuses the higher the level.

Magician – MP+, nuff said. Get a little of all the spells, but you’ll top out of this class quickly, as all the attack skills are single-target. However, definitely max out MP+, Meditation, and Concentration. These alone make it a decent second class for any primary mage class. And both are excellent JP fodder.

Tier 2 Classes

Samurai – Cleave and Dragon Strike Flash are AoE. Gale attack and Quick Draw are high damage. Swallow Slash is ranged. And Back of Blade is useful to cause the Stop status. Many of these are even useful when armed with a bow. Two Hands is not helpful. Desertion is a good one just to end the turn with for JP.

Archer – Move+1, nuff said. Charge is good to use up a turn or gain JP. Flame and Poison are critically useful. Opposite Field and Heavenly Drop are AoE, the latter being slightly OP and very useful.

Monk – Herb Studies cures status ailments at higher levels which is very helpful, and Ki Wave is a good early ranged attack. Pressure Wheel attacks all 8 surrounding tiles. Meridian Aid’s HP Regen is useful, and Spirit Transfer can sacrifice your MP to give it to a nearby mage. Meridian is very good JP fodder.

Shintoist – The natural AoE extension of the Priest and a staple for the whole game. Give this to a fast unit to cast Bravery on everyone first turn, and get a lot of benefit out of it for the next several turns. Protection and Lustrum (status ailment cure) are also very useful. Healing is important to have, but unlike those others that are a diamond-shaped AoE, it’s only a measly plus.

Spiritualist – Your first AoE mage. Max out the elemental words (don’t do it so quickly you make their MP cost too high though), and consider the HP and MP drain single-target skills as a strategic resource. Consider leveling Reduce MP Cost as a replacement for MP+.

Incantor – I find this class useless. Paralysis and Confusion are powerful, but the AoE is only a plus. The Outer Spell skill to dispell enemy buffs is the best ability. Get this class over with and move on to better things.

Tier 3 Classes

The main draw of Tier 3 or 4 classes is that they have super-skills, whereas the lower tiers do not. It’s not critical in every class, but they do earn a ton of JP and you might as well use up the flower petals rather than let them sit there wasted.

Herculean – A simple brute class. Revolving Cut is a diamond-AoE attack, and Ground Splitter is a good row-attack. Otherwise not very helpful, and nothing depends on this class. The super is a battle-wide HP Regen which is okay.

Daredevil – Another somewhat generic attacker. You might drool after the Dual Wield, but it’s very disappointing, don’t bother with it. Annihilate, Vampire, Soul, and Ice attacks are decent and worth focusing on. Super is just a single-target high strength attack, possibly useful for bosses. However, half the tier-4 classes depends on this, so you’ll need it eventually – but don’t bother rushing to it.

Hunter – Honestly barely better than regular Archer, but a tier-4 depends on it, so you have to hit Lv 8. Target Heel/Forehead are good for inflicting Stop/Confusion, and Shadow Stitch (hello FFT reference) for Paralysis. Concentrate Fire is a AoE, Sure Hit is a 100% hit which can be useful in some places when a high agility enemy needs a smackdown. Super is a meteor, just ok.

Shinobi – Move+2, nuff said. Not as helpful as you might think otherwise. Foul Murder does good damage as a backstab, and Illusion does a ton of MP damage which is occasionally helpful against bosses or mages. Shuriken is ranged and Shuriken Rampage is an 8-square AoE. This class is a dead end, nothing depends on it, I didn’t use it much.

Barrierist – A mostly useless class, but required for a tier-4, so you need it. The barriers are stones that give some buff to allies within 2 squares (in a diamond, there’s no indication of this) once per turn. HP and MP regen ones are nice. But the big deal is the Super attack. Max this super attack, it is completely OP. Allies within 2 squares of the stone (a full 2-squares, i.e. a 5×5, unlike all the others) are invincible for 2 turns as long as they stay in range. They can still take poison damage, but all incoming attacks hit for 0 damage. It takes 2 petals, but it’s incredibly, incredibly useful. Use this in boss battles. Use this in those annoying stages where you have to run a gauntlet while being annihilated by archers on all sides. You should be able to earn those 2 petals back in the 2 turns it lasts.

Ritualist (Male Only) – The counterpoint to the Maiden, mostly dance attacks rather than dance healing, and with a map-wide XP+100% skill that can also be used to get lots of JP for the caster (even more if there’s also a Maiden on the field casting the JP+100% dance). The AoE mage classes are better damage overall, so this is nowhere near as helpful as the Maiden, but it’s useful here and there.

Maiden (Female Only) – This class. OMG. You must have a Maiden, if for no other reason than JP grinding. The Super is 1-petal and increases all units JP gain by as much as 100%. Get this. Now. The attack and defense dances are also very useful and you will use them constantly – sadly they only last 2 turns, even at max level. Also get the healing and curing ones, as those are full diamonds as well, unlike the Shintoist healing ability. The super skill and the healing in this class are the highest JP you’ll earn in the game, too, so arm Maiden as primary and put a new class in secondary and wail away for JP to feed the primary. Sadly this class is going to get so overused that you will max it out but still end up arming it anyways, and thus toss away a ton of JP into it’s already maxed class. Oh well.

Celestial – These spells are very high cost but very powerful and large AoE. Reduce MP Cost is a good replacement for MP+. Guest Star and the Super are both whole-map magic attacks, some of the first you’ll come across. This is one of the most expensive classes to max out, get it to Lv 8 for Male characters so you can unlock Champion, but keep it as a good backup to have as a second class that is both powerful and will soak up a lot of JP before it fills up.

Elemental – Another super-powerful AoE attack mage. All attach spells have a long range in a 3-block wide straight beam. Each attack spell is paired with a spell that reduces elemental affinity for that element, so you can weaken fire and the hit with fire. It’s not worth it if you need two or less turns to kill the enemy, unless you have two Elementalists, one to soften them up and one to hit with the spell. The passives and super are both useless.

Confucian – Basically a time mage. The super is a map-wide haste, and there’s a teleport skill (not a passive) but otherwise this is weak. Get it to Lv 8 to unlock Chanter and then toss it in the woodchipper.

Tier 4 Classes

Tengu – Very powerful elemental spells, especially the Fire one that has an insane AoE. The Flight passive is nice strategically sometimes. But the spells are killer, and are almost half the MP usage of Celestial or Elemental to boot. Easily the single strongest class.

Chanter – Large AoE attacks that are status based not elemental, which can be good or bad. If you have proper selection of elements, it’s better to target an element. However, enemies that are strong against everything are better hit with non-elemental. The best thing in this class is the “Full MP Start” passive to literally do what it says and start battles topped off. That’s not bad, but frankly most battles where it matters, you can use an MP item on the first turn, which is otherwise a wasted turn for buffs for some members. Overall a bit of a disappointment as a supposed top-tier mage class. Tengu beats it out in spades.

Warrioress (F) – A weird mix of map-wide immunity spells for each status ailment, and super-long one-square wide elemental spells that only work with melee weapons. Super is a wide AoE full heal and cure, which is decent. The low-HP passive is bizarre – if you begin a turn with less than 25% HP, you get a full heal. That’s risky but powerful.

Champion (M) – A bunch of specialty melee attacks with rare status effects, a couple of AoE weapon attacks, and a Super that basically grants immunity to death (Survivability +100%) for a few turns. Technically there’s a “more Impurity equals higher damage” perk plus a skill to gain Impurity, but it’s not very powerful. There are also some desperation attacks only available at 25% or less HP. Overall the Warrioress seems like the stronger class, though both fall before the Tengu. You can of course have a Warrioress/Tengu or Champion/Tengu to get the best of both worlds, tough.

Class Tier Map

Numbers indicate the required level for the next in line. Note that the Tier-4 classes have multiple requirements, it just wasn’t clean to try to draw all the overlapping arrows.

Orihime

If you got the Orihime DLC you will meet her in a special Shrine at the very beginning of the game. At first she’s just an encyclopedia, answering questions for you. After you uncover 3 other shrines (maybe 4), go back and she’ll have a “quest” for you. Accept it. What this does is basically add a few new quests to those first 3-4 shrines, when you go there you’ll see that they have “Orihime” in quest name description. Go and do all those quests. Two of them are in a single shrine, by the way. Once they’re all done, you’ll get a message to go back. Do so, talk to her, answer anything you like (I love choosing “I want Orihime”, her reaction is adorable, ”まさか!愛の告白?!”), and she’ll join you.

Should you bother adding her to your already bloated clown-car of an army? YES. She has two insane abilities.

One is a seemingly innocuous, low-damage, single-target magic spell: Hamaya… that destroys all enemy buffs, and I mean ALL buffs, even the kind that prevent you from attacking with magic. This is incredibly powerful in some strategic situations.

The other is her Super, which is OP. It wipes out ALL enemy buffs map-wide, reduces all enemy stats battle-wide, and nearly halves all enemy elemental resistances battle-wide. At max level, this lasts for 4 turns. Use this just as you start an attack on a boss, or if you have to plow your way through a lot of mob trash at once with AoE spells but they don’t normally do enough damage. Basically, while under this spell, enemies, including bosses, will easily take double damage from everything.

Links and Credits

All rights Reserved by Sean Cusack
(c) 2020 Sean Cusack
This is to be published only on eruciform.com and GameFAQs, except by explicit written permission by Sean Cusack
Original link: https://eruciform.com/god-wars-future-past/
GameFAQs link: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/183174-god-wars-future-past/faqs/78886

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