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Should You Pull? Festival: The Sages of Gensokyo

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Should You Pull?

9/30 Rerun: Everything said here still applies, but both units will be even better for harder fights in the future, as they have Fantasy Rebirths coming this October. Additionally, once the latest part of the Main Story (release date TBA for Global) is released, Yukari will get an extremely powerful, farmable Story Card that considerably amps up her damage output. Note this isn't Chapter 3 Act 2, it's the latest story part released in the Japan version.

Yes, if you want more options for harder fights. Whilst neither of the characters is truly top tier, this banner is a standout in that you get rate-up access to two pretty good, limited units. Yukari is nearly unparalleled in her ability to carry a team, providing outstanding Barrier support that can more than double the number of turns a team has to work with. Kasen, meanwhile, is a Solo nuker who can either deal solid damage at 1 Power, or build up to a truly impressive burst over 3 turns or so. If getting a shot at either of those units sounds good to you, you should definitely pull on this banner - but do keep both of these units lean more towards harder fights in use.

Both units on this banner are Festival, will not be added to the general pool, and will only appear in future banners in which they are explicitly included on.

Quick Overview

+ Unparalleled team-wide Barrier restoration, restoring 2 Barriers every 5 turns team-wide

+ Access to Earth on a Basic Shot at 0 Power

+ All targeting Spell Card with 2 Earth and Star Breaks at 3 Power

+ Very solid damage on All Last Word at 3 Power

- Last Word deals low damage at 1 Power

- Utility is entirely defensive, leaving her somewhat lacking for shorter fights

+ Powerful Solo Last Word that deals high damage in 1 turn and an incredible amount at 3 Power

+ Access to both Water and Earth element 

- Entirely selfish damage dealer with no utility

- Although she doesn’t entirely need support, for the rare fight she does self Quick can make it tricky to support her. 

- The number of Element Breaks on her Spell Cards is merely average; both Spell Cards and her Last Word have 1/1/2/3 Breaks at 0/1/2/3 Power.

Yukari Yakumo

One of the sages of Gensokyo, a group of individuals who collaborated to create it and work behind the scenes to keep it safe, Yukari Yakumo is a youkai with mysterious origins. Known as the gap youkai, she has the power to manipulate boundaries - such as the boundary between day or night, instantly changing the time of day from noon to midnight, or the boundary between heavy or light, making a feather weigh as much as a ton. Combined with this, she has the ability to open up ‘gaps’ between points in space, allowing her access to just about anywhere she pleases. 

Still, for all this terrifying power, she’s also awfully lazy. She tends to sleep many of her days away, or otherwise spends her time amusing herself and being a general menace. For such an important person, she’s really more of a lazy trickster most of the time, and garners fairly little respect from most who know her as a result. Still, everyone knows that deep down, there’s nobody who cares more about Gensokyo than her, and when it comes down to it, she’ll ultimately act to protect the land if things are truly dire. So, if she’s getting involved in something, you can either be assured it is a deadly serious matter - or she’s just really bored. It really could be either one.

In LostWord, this laziness is reflected in Yukari only really being suited to harder fights - she needs some time to wake up, stretch, and build her Spirit Power up. As a result, her All targeting Last Word, Profound Bullet Barrier - Phantasm, Foam, and Shadow, is rather weak at 1 Power, and keeps her from being useful or for shorter fights. But giver Yukari the time she needs, and that Last Word deals devastating damage, thanks to its extremely powerful Bullets on 3 Power that scale with her own Yang DEF on top of her Yang ATK, which works nicely with her second skill, Guardian Sage, boosting her and her entire team’s Yang DEF. She can match the likes of Ran, or even exceed them with additional support. But whilst that’s some impressive damage output, it’s not her primary selling point.

Instead, she’s perhaps the best tank in the game, even in JP, at keeping your tank alive. This is thanks in large part due to her third skill, Reinforced Barrier, recovering two Barriers for your entire team on a paltry five turn cooldown at level 10. This is an exceptional amount of defensive support and can double the amount of turns a team has to work with, or even more depending on the fight - useful for buying time for units to either build up Power or to go for a Full Break. Her first skill, Boundary Manipulation, also heals her by 35% and provides a rather large five Focus up for three turns, which can combine with her Focus Shot, Apparition Needle, to keep her at ten Levels of Focus Up indefinitely, and keep her healthy too. Focus is rarely useful, but when it is, Yukari absorbs Solo attacks very well.

Lastly, she’s also pretty solid for element Breaking too. Her Basic Shot provides 1 Earth break at 0 Power, which allows her to spam Earth breaks without consuming resources - a rather wonderful thing to have. Additionally her second Spell Card, Shikigami: Ran Yakumo & Chen, is a standout for having 2 Earth and Sun breaks at 3 Power, with All targeting - this is extremely useful as many fights feature enemies with varied weaknesses, so a mixed Element Spell Card with All targeting like this can get 4 or even more Breaks per use. Lastly, her first Spell Card, Abandoned Line: Aimless Journey to the Abandoned Station, provides 1/1/2/3 Earth Breaks at 0/1/2/3 Power - an average number, but still nice to have. 

All in all, Yukari’s role is primarily for tougher fights, providing both an impressive amount of damage, as well as unparalleled Barrier restoration. Whilst she’s not the most useful at shorter fights, she’s extremely potent for longer ones, and is especially nice to have to babysit weaker units. Just don’t ask her to farm indefinitely for you - she needs her beauty sleep.

Kasen Ibaraki

Kasen Ibaraki, also known by her pseudonym Ibarakasen, is a woman who attempts to keep the fact she is both a sage of Gensokyo (a group of founders of the land, who work behind the scenes to keep it protected) and a oni a secret, claiming instead to be a simple hermit. Whilst her ability to keep either of these things a secret is somewhat lacking, she has a good reason to keep them hidden - neither sages nor oni have the best of reputation amongst the humans of Gensokyo, and Kasen wishes for the betterment of both human and youkai. Lately, she’s set her sights on Reimu Hakurei, attempting to scold and lecture her into a better person, almost like an adoptive mother - only time will tell if she can manage such a feat. Outside of her latest pet project, Kasen is a nice woman with time for just about anyone, if something of a hypocrite. She can tend to be more than a little gluttonous, and occasionally acts in ways one might consider less than ethical. But ultimately, she has the wellbeing of all (or at least the ones she deems the good ones) in mind. 

On the battlefield, Kasen tries to keep her true abilities a secret - there’s nary a hint of the fact she’s an oni in combat, save for the fact she has rather overwhelming strength. She primarily favors guiding her beloved animals in combat to help fight on her behalf, but when that’s not enough, her seemingly bandaged right arm is actually entirely a fake. Made up of black smoke held together by bandages, she can use both the smoke and bandages to whip lightning, wrap up and fling her foes, and even manipulate it into larger shapes to use as a blunt weapon (such as a dragon’s maw). She can even use it to fire blasts of energy and rainbow colored spheres! 

In LostWord, Kasen brings all of these powers to bear as a selfish damage dealer primarily focused on Solo targeting attacks. The centerpiece of her kit is her Solo Last Word, When the Ice Melts, the Waves Wash the Old Moss's Beard (try saying that three times fast!), which is unusual for a Solo Last Word in that it can deal a rather high amount of damage both in short and long fights. This is thanks to all the buffs on her kit - already, her Last Word provides Kasen with 3 turns of 3 Levels of Crit Accuracy, and 2 Levels of Crit ATK, Yin ATK, *and* Yang ATK Up. This, combined with its unusually high crit rate of 20% and high base damage are already potent enough, but then her skills add even more buffs: her second skill, Qi Movement, bolsters her own Cri ACC by another 3 Levels and then her second skill, Ibaraki Box, both gives her 1 Spirit Power (to jumpstart her damage even in shorter fights) and another 2 Levels of Yin & Yang ATK Up. To finish this all out her passive, Ability to guide animals, grants her 1 Level of Accuracy Up every time she boosts and even increases her damage by 40% when her attacks are resisted - meaning resistances aren’t a problem at all for her. 

Of course, this is all just what she has access to right away, and it’s certainly enough to make her hit extremely hard turn 1, but sometimes you just need even more damage. In cases like that, Kasen has you covered - both of her Spell Cards also give her 2 Levels of Yin ATK, Yang ATK, and Cri ATK Up for 3 Turns. This can lead to her being able to reach 10 Levels of Yin, Yang, and Cri ATK Up in time for a Last Word on turn 3 that will certainly do enough damage to obliterate virtually anything you aim Kasen at. 

 

Due to this, Kasen is useful for both farming and harder fights - although do keep in mind that it is uncertain at the moment if Global Lost Word will follow the same trends that JP did for their events. If it does, it may be some time before 1 Boss 1 Wave stages return to them - but when they do, Kasen will be able to farm just as well as any other powerful Solo Lost Word user. 

Outside of her Last Word, Kasen lacks any team-wide buffs or debuffs, and as such only has Elements for team support. Her access to Elements is merely average - 1/1/2/3 Water or Earth Breaks at 0/1/2/3/ Power on her first and second Spell Card, respectively, is pretty much just average. Her Last Word has the same but for Fire, but - you really shouldn't use it to Break. 

Overall, Kasen serves as a very powerful selfish damage dealer who’ll chip in some average Barrier Breaks on the side, and is a powerful asset to any player. She’s somewhat held back by her Solo targeting, but unlike many others she at least has the damage output to justify it. 

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