RPG Insanity

I started playing the PS4/PS5 version of Antiquia Lost. Like most Exe-Create console RPGs, the player can gradually acquire an in-game currency ("alchemy stones") through ordinary random battles, and this currency can be spent on what I assume are cash shop items in the mobile version.

I'm presumably 2/5 of the way through the game, since I just got access to a ship and I'm on sidequest 10 of 25.

What makes Antiquia Lost stand out among Exe-Create games is the hardest difficulty, "Hell", is the only one that provides any significant challenge (not counting Arena matches, which are always challenging if attempted below their recommended level).

I started Antiquia Lost on Normal, and bosses were dying in 1-2 special attacks. Then I tried Hard, and bosses were dying in 2-3 special attacks. Finally I moved it up to Hell, and regular encounters remain trivially easy - only dragons and Giga monsters are anything remotely approaching a threat.

Hell difficulty bosses are a solid challenge though, forcing me to think carefully about which skills to use, how to customize the team, and good grief walking into a boss fight without a full super meter is a very, very bad idea.

Antiquia Lost is one of the first Kemco/Exe-Create games released on Playstation systems, and I wonder if that has anything to do with its game balancing. Maybe not? Does anyone know if "Hell" was the only difficulty that provided any real challenge on the smartphone version?

I only played the PC version on the hardest difficulty setting, but all versions should be exactly the same stats- und balancing-wise. As soon as you obtain the ship, it's completely up to you how difficult the game will be. You can easily grind to level 999 while maximizing Lunaria's stats using the money earned in battles, and then you can just as easily maximize your other party members' stats thanks to the arena. So whatever challenge normally would have remained, I made sure that none remained for me.

While the main game on Antiquia Lost has been fun so far on Hell difficulty, one optional Arena battle (Silver Cup Hard) is definitely not balanced for Hell. This one battle has the condition "can't use skills", which means that the party can't use any skills AND they can't use any magic.

So far, I have not seen any damaging items in the game. The only way to do damage in this one Arena battle is with basic attacks, possibly enhanced by effects on the equipped weapon. On Hell difficulty, this makes the Arena battle nearly-unwinnable without excessive grinding - either grinding for levels/stats or grinding for gold/tickets to obtain a whole lot of weapons and fuse/customize them.

I turned the difficulty down to Easy for this one Arena battle, just to get through it and play through the Gold Cup on Hell difficulty. I find Arena battles more fun when I don't massively outlevel them, although on Hell difficulty I feel like I have to outlevel them little bit before they seem reasonably winnable.

I feel you. Many earlier Exe Create games feature an annoying arena battle in which the player must stick to basic attacks (either because skill usage is forbidden or because enemies are granted perma-reflect). The good news is that this particular arena battle in Antiquia Lost isn't the final one. That means you can one-shot through the final cup later, since it's the best way to earn the in-game premium currency, although the game is rather stingy; if I remember correctly, 30 ALP - or whatever it's called in this game - is the most you can get out of one arena battle.

Even though I had already maxed everything else (levels, stats, weapons), I still needed a few more hours to obtain every of the 25 or so spells from the gacha at least once for personal satisfaction/completion purposes (the statistics section taunts the player by showing the number of acquired spells). With 30 ALP per arena battle, you must win 34 of these battles to amass 1000 ALP, which grants you 11 gacha draws that are completely random (percentage-based) instead of contingent-based like in later Exe Create games. So it took me a while to obtain all 25 spells at least once, while already being aware of the fact that I didn't even need the strongest spells, since weaker multi-hit spells always inflict more damage than stronger one-hit spells when the spell user's stats are maxed (in this case, even the weaker multi-hit spells easily reach the damage cap of 999999 with each hit).

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the game very much apart from the spell grind at the end, and I hope you're still enjoying it, too.