I finally completed the game, with the endings of Ticklee Submission and n.5 Mefika's Pet.
Here are my observations:
GRINDING AND EXP CURVE
The increased XP was a crucial improvement, along with some collector's items, and the gaming experience was definitely smoother than in the previous version. I can't say that I never had to grind, but since I chose to try an all-ticklee party, which is the "hard mode", I always had to be on average 2 levels above the recommended level; so I can't really complain. The exp curve itself was good, the only point a bit rough was perhaps in the level 3-5 area (right after Cantrul), but nothing really unnerving. No big problems to signal here.
MAP
The new topografy of the map was a nice touch, it actually helped me to navigate without getting lost.
LEVEL SUPPORT AND CLASS-SWITCH SUPPORT
The ninja girl who offers to train you to level 5 for gold was an excellent idea. The crystals are useful as well, while the duelists not so much, at least in my experience: the concept isn't bad, but a one-to-one combat means a lot more punishment than average on a single character, thus a lot of high-quality consumables used and many turns wasted to heal. The thing was nice to try the first time, but after every attempt I always found that grinding was preferrable.
THE ALL-TICKLEE EXPERIENCE
Pretty smooth for the most part. Like I said, I always kept myself approximately 2 levels above the suggested levels in the walktrough and it worked pretty well. The only problem came with the factory. I went there not before level 16, but even then, the three mandatory bosses before Mefika were really difficult. The steel angel could arbitrarily "lock out" of combat with her tickling box the only mass-healer that I could have (the girl with benevolent touch); and when she did, unless I managed to let the girl die immediately and resurrect her, most of the times I had to surrender myself on the spot and try again, because I knew I wouldn't stand a chance against the following boss combo. In the end I didn't really win the fight by skill or even by prep-time, but only by luck: the angel did not tickle the healer until the very end, when it was too late, and I managed to kill her.
The black-hole minotuaur with the squid sidekicks was vulnerable to conditions, but unfortunately the ticklee arsenal offers very little in respect of this. The three guys can't be tickled, and Beg for Mercy does almost nothing to them; they usually shake it off after just one turn. Degenerative conditions inflicted trough items (sickness, etc) were of no use, because I had no hope of surviving that level of firepower for long enough to win by attrition; so I had to improvise, by using silk ropes to "bind" the squids. Luckily I could do that because I had found three ropes earlier in the game, but without this trick I wouldn't have known what to do.
The "shadow" party was an interesting challenge, basically an unending war of attrition: the princess of the other party could literally heal the whole team with a glance, and her mass-regeneration move alone was incredibly powerful (250 hp per turn on every member, on the top of the other spike heals). After the first failed attempts to overpower her monstruous healing faculties, I tried to incapacitate her with conditions... but, for some reason, the princess-type character was impossibile to bind, sick, paralyze, tickle, stun, or itch in any way. It was a fun, but quite tiring combat, which I could ultimately win after a very long time because the enemy healer used up all of her MP (at least I presume this was the reason). When I came to face Mefika, I have to confess, I didn't really challenge her: I was too tired. I just used the Torturous Exchange (which I thought was perfect to be used with her...) and enjoyed the ending.
I should also report that the post-ending cave dungeon is incredibly difficult; with a lvl 16 ticklee party I had troubles surviving even the first encounter with a "normal" mob. I suppose it is a content not intended for ticklee parties anyway; for the same reason I did not try the mimic boss.
DOUBTS AND QUESTIONS
- The Ending Walktrough, as well as some lines spoken by Lia, cleary imply that there is a "find Nathaniel" quest somewhere in the world. I didn't happen to stumble upon it, however, and it is not mentioned in the Walktrough. May I ask some advice?
- With the 2.0 release, has anything changed with regard to the endings point-system? Some new hidden scenes that can alter your planned ending or give new points, etc...? Also, a related clarification: in the Update Log you mentioned counterparts of "Yuka's Socks" being added for Lia and Lockelle. I presume they are "Panties" (adds toward +2 Wild Night for every uses?) and a similar object in Majuik Village that adds to some other ending?
- In the Update Log, it was mentioned that a new swamp dungeon was added. I found the entrance and, upon using it, I was immediately bad-ended by gluegirls and slimegirls. A nice ending, but is there an actual way to proceed somehow past the "trapped" entrance or that's the only possibile outcome?
BUG REPORT
The post-ending dungeon situated in the small island south of Cantrul is, to my knowledge, unaccessible: you can get there only by airship, but the airship refuses to land on forests or even directly on the buildings, thus making impossibile to disembark on the island. I have the key of Mefika, but maybe I am lacking the equippable item "parachute"? ;-P
That is all, I think. Should I find other issues while playing, I will post them; meanwhile, I hope I have been helpful!