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Update 15: Not So EXcellent After All
He listens to all and always does his utmost. He is truly a great man.
But there are things that need flexibility. He must learn not to be swept up by his own emotions.
And that’s it for this sub-event. We can’t progress it any further until we progress farther in the plot.
Yeesh. There’s so much Bloom on the ocean.
Are we really going to have to clear all this out?
We can’t exactly just leave it there, can we?
For the sake of our sanities, not that some of you really are that mentally sound, I suggest we do.
Besides, it would take us ages to clear it out with our ship as is.
I’m not gonna bother clearing out the Bloom on the ocean yet, since there’s no real reason to do so at this point in time. Also because the boat is really fucking slow and clearing out the Bloom now would take a really long time. 
Anyways, gonna cover that Undersea Treasure quest now. As we were told before, if we go North From Pleroma, and West from Simon Village, we’ll find the treasure. Its location is indicated by the sparkle, like with gathering points.
He said the spot was around here, wasn’t it? Wait, aha! Treasure off the port bow! Get ready to hoist it up!
You used the Salvager to check it out!
Um... that’s it?
Something tells me he isn’t gonna be too impressed with this find.
It can hardly be considered a valuable relic either...
You all need to open your minds up a bit more! Maybe there’s like, I dunno, a ton of history stuff or something he can get from this! I mean, he’s a scholar after all.
You... are severely overestimating the worth of a mere spoon.
So... this is really the sunken treasure. ... No matter how you look at it, it's just a spoon. What a dud.
Hmm, what was the saying I was looking for? Ah, right. “I told you as much.”
Oh well. Can’t be right about everything.
However, there's still a lot else left down there. I'm going to trust you to continue research with the Salvager for now. Keep seeking the treasures of the deep sea, Hunters!
The real reward from this quest is being able to use the Salvager. There are other spots on the ocean where we can pull up treasure, and those will be indicated by sparkles as well.
Odyssey read the ancient book.
Ahaha! Seems like this could spice up battles a bit more!
...Contrary to what the game just said, or should I say fan translation, we did not unlock Purgatory.
This actually unlocked Divine Roar. I’ll cover this later when I can actually show it off. And yes, that is a mistake the fan translation made, as they accidentally swapped the text for Divine Roar and Purgatory.
...I’m not even thinking about going through there!
The north part of the ocean is also blocked off to us for now.
Ah, here’s the last new enemy we can encounter on the ocean.
Sunfish
Level: 28
LIFE: 90
ATK: 70
DEF: 42
INT: 50
SPD: 30
Attack Type: Blunt
Enemy Type: Small Animal
Exp: 167
Gold: 28
Item Drops:
-Normal: Star Coral - 30% Drop Rate.
--Coral stuck to a Sunfish.
-Rare: Fish Meat - Kill with elemental damage. 10% Drop Rate.
--Fish meat. For carnivores. Increases magic affinity for the day.
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 100% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Lightning: 100%
Skills:
Wave Curtain: Provides a shield for all enemies that reduces physical damage taken by 40%. Can only activate 1 time per turn. Has a speed modifier of 100%. Has priority.
These enemies can be a bit annoying for physical attackers to deal with since they can reduce the amount of damage they deal by shielding other enemies. But if you have elemental damage or a Mage, they’re nothing.
This signals the use of Wave Curtain.
Here goes nothing! WAVE SPLITTER!
Too bad the Redfish’s HP was too low for Stella to care.
Mmm! More chopped fish for dinner tonight!
Somebody keep a closer eye on Ark and make sure that she doesn’t choke on a pile of soot again.
Oh she won’t be able to do that as long I don’t burn the food this time!
There’s nothing really notable about Sunfish otherwise, and having multiple physical attackers can neuter their one gimmick.
Back on the ocean, I run into a Bloom tile that’s taking a while to get rid of. You know what that means!
Free level up! For Stella at least.
I just realized that I could have leveled up this skill earlier, but oh well. Defense down now deals 128% damage and applies an 81% multiplier to the target’s DEF stat.
Some Salvager spots will give us garbage, because of course they will.
Music stops.
Interestingly enough, there’s an island in the middle of the ocean. Walking around on it will raise the encounter meter, but we actually can’t get into an encounter here.
By the way, if you’re playing on DeSmuME, and your version is below 0.9.11, your game will crash when you reach this cluster of islands. Just warning you.
Ooh! Pretty!
Uh, Stella? I really don’t think we should be messing with that right now.
This location has little to no relevance to us. Let’s not waste anymore time here.
There’s nothing we can do here. And no, we can’t interact with that obvious beam of light. Nothing we can do aside from moving on.
Ah, there’s everyone else’s level ups.
Recover II now costs 2 mana instead of 3. Exciting. But leveling up both Recover I and Recover II to 5 unlocked Resurrection. One more level up, and I’ll finally have a reliable way to revive dead party members.
Boltstorm has a spell power of 260% and a damage multiplier of 160%. Should make clearing out encounters, especially ocean encounters, easier.
Moonlit Song has reached the next threshold, so it recovers 4 mana per turn.
Over on this spot, we get the Zero Degrees EX skill for the Mage.
There’s also one last monster that we can encounter near Pleroma that I didn’t get to show off until now.
Mustang
Level: 26
LIFE: 85
ATK: 80
DEF: 48
INT: 37
SPD: 36
Attack Type: Blunt
Enemy Type: Large Animal
Exp: 146
Gold: 26
Item Drops:
-Normal: Violet Mane - 30% Drop Rate. 5 needed to unlock the Flamberge. (Sword. +86 ATT, +15 LIFE, Fire.)
--Mane of a Mustang.
-Rare: Horse Meat - Kill with elemental damage. 10% Drop Rate.
--Horse meat. For carnivores. Increases Max MANA for the day.
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 100% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Lightning: 100%
Skills:
Backbite: Deals 130% melee ATK-based Blunt damage to one party member and has a 100% chance to inflict Stun. Has a speed modifier of 90%.
Laughably pathetic. The only notable thing about them is that they are nearly guaranteed to inflict Stun. (I say nearly guaranteed, because due to how 7th Dragon’s RNG works, skills with an infliction rate of 100% and above aren’t actually guaranteed to work, and actually have a 1% chance to fail. Unless they’re hard coded to be guaranteed to work, like the Fighter’s Purge and Eclipse’s Perfect Dark skills.) And if they target someone that already used up their turn, Backbite’s effect won’t even kick in.
Also I have no idea why the skill name is Backbite, when the Japanese name appears to be more along the lines of “Back kick”, which fits this enemy a lot more.
A complete joke of an enemy.
And here’s the last of the Mage’s EX skills that can be found in the ocean, Purgatory.
The Mage actually has one more EX skill that can be unlocked, but that won’t happen for a very long time.
Now that we’ve done all the sidestuff we can do on the ocean, it’s time to progress with the main game a bit.
Land, ho!
This portion of land to the west of Pleroma is our destination.
You’ll want to make sure to stop by this town first before going any further.
Oh, we came all the way from Kazan!
...Yeah? I wanna go someday.
I know it’s difficult for all of you to keep your kleptomaniacal tendencies in check, but really now.
Basho is littered with the Bloom too now. Best stay away!
laal errara irlamlmerl llem e'l lererr... Lalaara, lall la... Rai ramme ram la aimme mlel llera!!
...Did anyone understand any of that gibberish she spouted?
Dia, that’s not gibberish, it’s the Marero language! ...Not that I understood any of it either.
The only other language I learned recently was Aizo, sorry.
...Don’t look at me!
If you were wondering what that woman was saying, allow me to post the translated text.
Where on earth am I? Does anyone understand what I'm saying... Someone, help me!!
And if you speak to her after the quest notification pops up:
Is there anyone I can talk to here?
This particular quest can actually be completed now, but you would have to brute force it. Though the game doesn’t really stop you from doing so if you really wanted to. I’m gonna save this quest for when we can actually complete it without having to resort to that.
Nothing to sell...
Quite a few new items are for sale here. Stonols are probably the biggest thing of note here since Petrification starts showing up a bit more often from here on out.
I tried to clear out the Bloom around Zeza Port to lower the shop prices, but I got into a battle in the process.
Hedgehog
Level: 29
LIFE: 70
ATK: 83
DEF: 50
INT: 30
SPD: 37
Attack Type: Thrust
Enemy Type: Small Animal
Exp: 208
Gold: 29
Item Drops:
-Normal: Tiny Spine - 30% Drop Rate. 5 needed to unlock the Bolt Guard. (Accessory. -30% Lightning Damage.)
--Needle of a Hedgehog.
-Rare: N/A
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 100% Blunt: 150% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Lightning: 100%
Skills:
Needle Guard: When taking damage from physical attacks, 120% melee ATK-based Thrust damage is dealt to the attacker. Has a speed modifier of 100%. Has priority.
Hedgehogs are basically an introduction to counter skills. Trigger one, and the enemy gets a free potshot in.
Messages like that indicate that the enemy in question is waiting to counter something.
Hey! That’s a cheap shot!
Annoyingly enough, counter skills activate before an enemy dies, so that’s something to be mindful of.
Best way to deal with these counter skills? Use elemental attacks. Those can’t be countered. Yet another reason to add to the pile of why Mage is one of the best classes in the game.
Also ran into another Bloom Seed while I was clearing out the Bloom.
Another level up for Stella.
With Defense Down at max level, it deals 132% damage and applies a 75% multiplier to an enemy’s DEF stat.
This is how much of the Bloom I had to clear out to get Zeza Port’s prices back to normal. Anyways, let’s head back over there.
"Meow, myew, mrow, rowf, wowf, woof, arf, dontcha, aint it...
Huh?
Now this is just silly.
That’s much more worthwhile.
Even if you know it's for show, it's still cute!
Ah, exploitative behaviors. How cunning.
This was an unneeded find.
Oh, we’re from Kazan!
Kazan, is it? It sounds familiar, but I don't remember much.
Well, even without my memory, living in the moment has its perks...
This quest can’t be completed yet.
I thought of heading to Nevanplace, but... I'd rather not cross the Yoba Sand Flats on foot myself...
Hey, it’s cheap! Cheap!
Zeza Port has a few new weapons in stock.
Anchors aweigh!
Though I only really bother with getting an Anchor for Stella.
Aww, it was worth a try.
No it wasn’t.
Ooh, this is a very rare item that can’t be bought in stores! A very good find!
Though this item is not as useful.
Lots of items hidden around Zeza Port.
That foolhardy, brazen, hellaciously lucky man... Who cares, anyway?!
Can’t say we didn’t try doing that favor of his.
But it'll cost 4000 G!
We definitely want to pay him.
Go forth and master the southern sea!
This is the only place where we can get this ability, and it’s needed to progress later in the game. So make sure to pick it up!
For a superb customer like you, it'll be 1000 G.
This ability isn’t as necessary to get, but it’s a very handy convenience option.
The secret is knowing what's coming next. That way, you can quickly avert a crisis.
Bon voyage!
We don’t have the entire ocean to ourselves yet, since there’s one last voyage skill we’re missing. We won’t be able to purchase Northsea until we progress further in the plot.
But instead of progressing the plot, let’s partake in some sequence breaking instead! 
Now that we have Southsea, we can travel to the southern part of the ocean. However, we aren’t actually really meant to do this just yet.
Also with High Speed, our boat travels really fast! Even faster than running around on land. It makes sailing so much more tolerable.
Also, as for what I meant by we’re not supposed to be here yet...
Not fair...
Round Sunfish
Level: 38
LIFE: 200
ATK: 98
DEF: 70
INT: 40
SPD: 40
Attack Type: Blunt
Enemy Type: Small Animal
Exp: 347
Gold: 38
Yeah, the encounters on this part of the ocean are considerably more souped up. If you think you can take them, go ahead. But as for me...
RUN! Um, I mean, SAIL AWAY! SAIL FAR FAR AWAY!
Ocean Killer
Level: 38
LIFE: 300
ATK: 114
DEF: 75
INT: 45
SPD: 44
Attack Type: Blunt
Enemy Type: Large Animal
Exp: 434
Gold: 38
SAIL FASTER!
Hey, been a while since we heard this song.
This town is the main reason I went out of my way to run through all those tougher encounters. You can pull this off if you’re using the normal patch, though you’ll have a lot more encounters to run or fight through.
And surprisingly enough, this town lacks a splash screen for whatever reason. It’s not a small town either, so I don’t know why this is the case.
This is Marlleaire... No one is allowed in right now at all. I apologize. Please head elsewhere.
Huh? Is something going on here?
Another woman arrives.
Lady Shandora! No problem, just turning these people away.
It seems news about us gets around fast.
Yes, you must be! I am Shandora, captain of the Amazons. And Queen Setis would like to borrow your power for a while.
Shandora’s dialogue changes depending on if we have any male party members tagging along or not. If our party consists of only women:
...The place you see has not admitted men since time immemorial. Only women are permitted passage or entry within. However, Odyssey represents a special case. We must bend the rules. Please come to the castle. ...But no sudden moves.
And we can explore the town at our leisure.
But if we have any men in the party...
However, your companions who are men may not enter. That would be too much. Only women are permitted passage or entry within.
What!? Why!?
Best not to question it, just go along with it for now.
Of course we’re all girls!
They look like men to me... They're REALLY women?
Oh, are you talking about Edie here? I know she may look a little like a boy, but she’s totally a girl! Honest!
...“E-Edie!?”
...I apologize. We don't care about appearance here. All women are welcome. Please come to the castle. ...But no sudden moves.
Shandora leaves.
...I don’t know whether to thank you, or be worried about what’s going to happen to me once they find out who I really am!
You mean if.
If you’re that worried about being found out, “Edie”, I suggest that you keep your mouth shut and let us do the talking.
Thankfully, 7th Dragon doesn’t actually prevent you from entering this town if you have any male party members. If you have any men in your party, just lie straight to their faces to be allowed in. If you answered honestly to Shandora and got rejected, just talk to the guard and tell her that you’re party consists of only women to be let in.
No need to hurry! Take it easy in town.
This store here is what I’m really interested in.
Hypno Crystals! We can finally buy these, which lets us revive our party members more easily. Oh and no, thankfully you don’t have to wait until you arrive at Marlleaire Islands to get the option to purchase these. These are actually available in the next town that we’re actually supposed to go to first.
This is the item I’m interested in, and I’ll go over it in a bit.
Bamboo Flutes reduced the encounter rate, but they didn’t work at all if the enemies in question were of a higher level than your party’s. Ronam Flutes don’t care about the enemy’s level and will always be active.
As for the Oblivion Pearl, let’s check out what it does.
Hmm, what a curious obj-
-You know, I don’t think touching something called an Oblivion Pearl is a good idea other me- Uhh...
Um, Dia? Are you okay? Your voice sounds a lot different.
Wait, you can all hear me? Oh no. Ohhhhh no, this isn’t good!
H-hey, calm down Dia, and tell us what’s going on.
Using an Oblivion Pearl will refund all of a character’s SP, but will lower their level by 5.
And yes, this really is the only way to respec a character. And the earliest you can get your hands on one of these is in Marlleaire Islands. Yeah, made a mistake in your build? You’re gonna have to live with it until you’re willing to do a bit of sequence breaking, or you arrive here when the plot actually calls for it.
What do you mean you don’t know how to fight anymore!?
Well more like I never did in the first place, but...
Fantastic job, your majesty. I’m not sure what just happened, but I do believe you may have have just doomed us all with your little stunt.
Hey, why are you blaming me!? I’m pretty sure you touching that pearl is what caused this in the first place!
Is... is that voice coming from Dia? Wh-what’s going on here!?
Oh, excellent. you can all still hear me. This should make things much simpler to explain...
Okay, so this is kind of a long story, but...
Anyways, this is what I wanted to show off, because now I can actually showcase the various EX skills we’ve picked up. So let’s get around to doing that.
Starting off with Nila’s EX skills, as you can see, they all have very hefty prerequisites, on top of the EX skills themselves costing quite a bit of SP to unlock. For a Mage’s elemental EX skills, you need to max out the respective mastery, single target, and AOE spells. Taking into account the EX skills’ SP costs, you need a total of 21 SP to acquire one of the EX skills here.
None of the EX skills in the game cost any mana to use.
However, you are required to use a bar of your EX gauge in order to use them. EX skills do benefit from all the standard effects of EX (gains priority, skips accuracy checks, damage and infliction rates are boosted by 50%, and so on.) As a side note, all EX skills have a speed modifier of 100%, but this only matters if you’re using multiple EX skills at once.
See you in hell!
Feel Kelvin’s wrath!
Hear the sound of thunder!
I have to say, I really like the animations for the offensive EX skills in this game. They’re flashy and give the impression that your characters are delivering a really powerful attack. But the best part is that they get that across without being that much longer than the normal attacking animations. Seriously, the Mage’s EX animations in this case only take up around 3 seconds.
Anyways, as for the EX skills themselves. They deal Fire/Ice/Lightning damage to all enemies. They all have a spell power of 360% and a damage multiplier of 200%. For reference, the standard elemental AOE spells have a spell power of 320% and a damage multiplier of 200% at max level. And the single target elemental spells have a spell power of 400% and a damage multiplier of 200% at max level. Wait a minute...
Okay, and now we get to the bad part about EX skills. I won’t mince words. A lot of the offensive EX skills just plain suck and are completely outclassed by normal skills. In the Mage’s case, there’s absolutely no reason to ever use these over the single target spells in dragon and boss fights, since using EX on the single target spells instead will deal way more damage in that case. Not only that, you only need 7 SP to max each one out as opposed to having to spend 21 SP just to unlock one of the EX skills. And while the standard AOE spells deal slightly less damage at max level, they’re only going to be used in random encounters, and for most random encounters, that’s going to be enough. The EX skills are quite frankly, overkill in the case of random encounters. And maxing out one of the AOE spells only requires 12 SP. These skills are sadly a massive waste of SP.
Fortunately, support oriented EX skills are an entirely different story, as these tend to be far more useful and don’t tend to have the problem of being straight up outclassed by other skills. Miracle Cure needs Resurrection at level 5 in order to be unlocked. And unlocking that skill requires both Recover I and Recover II to be at level 5, and in order to unlock those skills, Medicine has to be at level 5. So all in all, this skill costs 23 SP to acquire.
I did all I can. Now please try to stay out of trouble! Oh, who am I kidding?
Miracle Cure heals all party members and revives any dead party members and dispels every single status effect on them. The actual life restoration component is fairly lackluster, as the base heal is only 40. Which is the same as a level 7 Cure and Cure All and a level 2 Cure II. But it is boosted by EX, though EX only boosts healing skills by 20%.
However, the real reason to take this is the fact that it can instantly dispel every single ailment in the game, including Bleed, Skill Seal, and Charm, which the Healer has no way of dispelling otherwise, and it revives dead party members as well. It also affects the entire party, and it doesn’t cost any mana as well. So it can make for a great panic button if a fight happens to be going south. The heal is really just the cherry on top. Definitely a skill worth considering for a Healer, and you unlock this fairly early on to boot.
Onto the Samurai’s EX skills.
Twin Sparrow requires Zanbato Arts to be at level 5, and that skill requires Katana Art to be at level 3. So all in all, this skill requires 12 SP in order to acquire.
However, Twin Sparrow isn’t a skill you can use straight away. You have to be in Zanbato Stance in order to be able to use it.
Perfect execution, if I do say so myself!
Twin Sparrow deals 160% Slash damage to one target, and has a 75% chance to inflict Bleed. For reference, the Downstrike skill in the Zanbato skill branch deals 180% damage at max level, though you need 18 SP to get it to that point. Granted while this skill does deal a lower amount of damage than some of the Samurai’s other skills, it can inflict Bleed. On the other hand, Bleed isn’t really a good ailment to be inflicting in the first place. Personally, I really don’t think this skill is really worth taking.
Behead all is the EX skill for the Iai skill branch. Like with Twin Sparrow, you need 12 SP to acquire this skill. You also need to spend a turn setting up Iai Stance in order to be able to use this skill as well.
Your time is already up.
Behead All deals 150% Slash damage to all enemies, and has a 75% chance to inflict instant death. The damage is outclassed by other skills. On the other hand, this is the only AOE attack the Samurai has. I guess it really comes down to how desperate you are to give your Samurai crowd clearing capabilities.
Onto the Knight’s EX skills. And we have unlocked all of them, for the record.
Ultima Guard has a very simple prerequisite. Just max out Shieldbearer. So you just need 16 SP in order to acquire this skill.
No matter what kind of attack the enemy brings out, there’s nothing to fear as long as I’m around!
Ultima Guard places a buff on everyone that applies a 75% multiplier to physical and magical damage for 3 turns.
That may sound like a very questionable effect for an EX skill, but Knights really don’t have much to use EX on in the first place. So it’s essentially a good EX skill due the fact that there’s really no competition from other skills with regards to using EX. They don’t affect shield skills, so they won’t be making use of EX much as a result. Damage reduction to most of the damage types in the game is a fairly nice effect, and it stacks with the Knight’s shield skills. In fact, feel free to rush for this skill if you want, since it’s one of the first EX skills you can get.
Like with Ultima Guard, Ultima Parry has a very simple prerequisite. You only need 16 SP to get this skill as well.
None shall harm me!
Hey, what about the rest of us!?
Sorry, but there’s only room for one under this shield!
Some Knight you are!
Ultima Parry on the other hand, is an extremely questionable investment. It will nullify every single attack that comes the Knight’s way... and only the Knight. In order for this skill to really be effective, you pretty much have to set up Provoke beforehand. And there are better things a Knight could be doing, and it does nothing for AOE attacks for the rest of your party. There are better places to spend your skill points on a Knight.
That’s all for EX skills and by extension, this update. Next time, we’ll continue on with the plot.