• When leaving "safe" locations, be sure to load up on healing items. It's better to have too many than to run out. And since there are no healing spells in the game, items are your only way to survive.
• Don't waste money on single-purpose curative items, like Antidote or Unlock. You can pick up Multimeds, which serve as an all-purpose curative and take less inventory space.
• As soon as you find new Skill Items or Stat-boosting items, use them to get them out of your inventory. If your inventory is full, dump something. If you can, throw down a few traps, grab the items, use them and pick the traps back up.
• Be aware that a lot of enemies are strong versus one type of magic and weak against another. Use Lin's Profile ability to see what your foes are weak against and have Nina exploit them. You might want to set up a couple different weapons with different elemental spells. Since you can swap out equipped weapons once a turn, have Nina change over to a weapon with the spells you can use to wear down your foes.
• Feel free to use items as much as you want. They cost no AP to use. It's in your best interest to do all the healing you need before going into attack. Also, if you use up all your AP, you character's turn will automatically be over.
• The Colony - This minigame will take some money to get up and running, but once you do, you can get a good bit of your investment back, with interest. When you start off, hire as many ants as possible. Get them working on making new jobs and digging. You can set up a shop for skills and specific weapon shops for each of the characters. You can get a lot of skills you'll find in the game earlier by buying them in the Colony. Once you've gotten all the skills in the skill shop, switch it out for something else as you won't get any new skills after the store has filled up. Be sure to set up the Bank (which earns a good wage and allows you to deposit money to gain interest) and get three ants to work at the Newspaper to get a quick profit. Be warned, after a while, your ants will die off, so you'll need to hire new ants to replace them. By this time, you should be turning a good profit.
• Kokon Horay - This optional 50 floor dungeon is at the bottom of the Colony. When you enter, you start at level 1 and you face 50 floors packed with tough enemies. Why would you want to do this? Because all the best items and skills are down there. Luckily, when you leave, you'll go back to what level you were at when you entered. My suggestion is to go late in the game when you have a lot of Backpacks to store the items. Also, store up a lot of Party Experience so you can level your characters up right at the start so they have a shot at surviving.
• Once you beat the game, you can find Ryu's Dragon Blade in the Genic Processor early on in the game. The more times you beat the game, the stronger the blade gets.
• The undead don't tend to die when you dispatch them face to face. Instead, you need to find their host creatures and kill them. Zombies are being commanded by little green Breakhearts, Skeletons are under the command of Karons or little red Crushedhearts. You may not see the hosts right away, but they are there. Dodge the Zombies and Skeletons if you can.
• If you plan on SOL Restarting or are coming up on a boss fight that might prove to be too tough, go into the Colony to drop off all your money in the bank. Dump off important items with the Weapon Appraiser in the Item Locker. When you restart, you'll have all your equipped weapons, skills you've learned and Party Experience.
• If you don't want to attach Steal to your shields, attach the Greetings and C'Mere skills to a weapon for Lin. Start your attack with Greetings and then go into C'Mere to steal items from an enemy.
• Certain items are worth keeping in your inventory just because they give you a boost. Gold XP increases your experience gained in fights and Present raises the percentage that enemies will drop items.
• Getting money and special items from enemies - Kanaphages will drop zenny based on how quickly you can kill them with a max payout of 10,000 zenny. The Kanaphage DX you meet later on is worth 30,000 zenny. Jack Boxes and Big Jack Boxes give you more zenny based on the number of hit you can get in on them before they take their turn. The Wonderbox gives you a prize based on how close you get it to 1 HP before it self-destructs after you first attack it. The Pandora Box will reward you for taking punishment. If you let it blast you with spells for four turns, you'll get Nina's Mirage Blast.

Ryu's dragon form is a wonderful tool in beating just about any boss fight with little to no effort. Unfortunately, the cost to Ryu's D-Counter will keep most from using the Dragon form except in rare instances.

Move - In dragon form, movement doesn't cost Ryu any AP. This is good as you'll want to use as much AP thrashing your opponents as you can.

Vortex - Ryu's 10 AP can do some great damage, but it will rarely put down anyone except already weakened enemies.

Hurricane - The 20 AP attack is good for small, tight-nit groups, but the cost to AP and the D-Counter is not worth it for just one enemy.

Twister - The 30 AP attack will do some serious damage that can drop most Boss minions. Coupled with the Dragon Charge, this attack can even drop Bosses in one turn.

Dragon Breath - This attack is immense. If you keep your finger on the button, Ryu will continue to blast enemies in a straight line with his breath. You can rack up ridiculous amounts of damage with this attack. Unfortunately, it fills up your D-Counter so much that you may be only to use it once in the game and finish with less than 100% on the D-Counter.

Dragon Charge - For no AP and usually 2% on your D-Counter, you can power up Ryu's attacks with this. Do this two or three times and just about any boss will fall before him.

Cool Down - Use this to bring Ryu out of dragon form

Cyclops -
The best way to go about this fight is to play "keep away". Keep out of the Cyclops' range as you store up enough AP to move in, hit him with a series of attacks and then back away. You can stand in and trade blows with the Cyclops, but if you keep enough distance between the two of you, you can avoid taking a lot of damage. Also, there is a place in the rubble where you can take Ryu and the Cyclops won't be able to pass.

Bosch, Gunner Sergeant and Battler Sergeant -
Since Ryu is stuck in dragon form, you want to finish this fight quick. Luckily, Ryu can dish out lots of damage in this form. Have him wail on Bosch from behind, so that you can knock Bosch into the other Rangers on the far side of the stage. You can steal the Fang skill from Bosch, but since Ryu doesn't have a shield, you'll have to find a way to have Bosch attack Nina or Lin to steal it.

Gunner Lieutenant, Battler Lieutenant, Mage Lieutenant -
Don't waste the time to use an Antidote as you'll be poisoned every turn. Have Nina lay down magic traps for the Battler, while Lin should be targeting the Gunner and Mage (with Blow Up! if possible), who'll hang back. Once Ryu has dealt with the Battler, send him in to mop up the other two. Make sure to keep everyone at or above 100 HPs as the Mage has a special attack that does around 100 points of damage. He also likes to cast Iceblast, so make sure to not line your allies up or place them near each other.

Ranger Ambush, Part 1 - Rangers (x8) -
This fight is challenging solely because of the eight versus three odds. Your going to want to take out the Gunners as they like to snipe at your from a distance and then run away when you get close. Good thing is, though, Ryu can do some great damage to them when he does manage to catch up. Have Nina cast a lot of magic traps to keep the battlers at bay while wearing them down. You may want to move Nina out of the center of the room as she tends to be a huge target for everyone. Get Lin to hit multiple targets with Blow Up! if you can. You could switch Ryu into dragon form to make this fight a lot quicker, but I would suggest that you don't. A bit of patience should help wear down the enemies.

Ranger Ambush, Part 2 - Asimov -
Asimov creates and regenerates two Annexes to do his dirtywork. Both the Annexes and Asimov are susceptible to Ice magic. If Nina has it, have her cast Fragball between the party and Asimov. Using group attacks, like Ryu's Side Slash and Nina's Iceblast, try to attack Asimov and at least one of the Annexes together. It does no good to focus on the Annexes as they'll just be regenerated, but hitting them at the same time as Asimov can get them out of your way for a while. Have Ryu attach the skill Steal to his shield to grab Asimov's Generator, which will cut down his ability to reclaim AP. Once you beat Asimov to near death, he'll start a self destruct countdown. Run as far away as possible to keep from getting caught in the blast.

Ranger Ambush, Part 2 - Captain Zeno -
Zeno comes with two Mage Captains, who can dish out some damage with Iceblast attacks. Your best bet is to either take out one of the mages or just focus on Zeno early on. Once she takes enough damage or if both the Mages fall, Zeno will power herself up noticeably. You may want to wear both her and the second mage down equally and then hope to hit with a major combo before she powers up. Once she does, finish off the last mage and focus all your energies on her.

Tantra -
Tantra will try to put the party to sleep and then likes to drain power and hit points from your team. If you equip something that counters sleep, you should be able to lay into Tantra fairly easily. He doesn't have a lot of defense. Try to steal the C'Mere Skill from him, as it is very useful.

Deegon/Geegais -
Depending on which door you take, you can fight either one of Tantra's buddies. Deegon has a great reach, but is weak to Ice attacks. There shouldn't be much strategy to this fight other than pummeling him with Ryu and Lin's attacks and having Nina use Ice magic on him. Deegon will counter attack each of your combos, so you might want to finish each combo with an attack that pushes him away. Geegais has a lot of defense that will take some time to wear down. If you can use defense-ignoring attacks, those would be the best to take him down. From time to time, he'll power up and use Take That!, which damages based on how close you are to him. With a little backtracking, you can fight both bosses, but take note that if you kill both, they will both aid your next boss.

Tantra, version 2 -
Depending on which boss(es) you just fought, you'll have to take different strategies to finish Tantra for good. Tantra/Deegon can use Counter and Drain and has the gravity spell Pre-Primus. Tantra/Geegais has some nasty defense and the Take That! skill. Tantra/Deegon/Geegais has all of those skills, but his defense isn't as bad as it is with Geegais alone. You'll want to use Lin's Out of My Way! or Ryu's Kick to knock Tantra back at the end of your combos, which can keep him from counterattacking with a Drain attack. If you're going against Tantra/Deegon/Geegais, you'll want to steal the Crimson Rain skill from him. Tantra also has the same 100 point attack that you saw earlier.

Trinity -
The good news is that you only have to deal with two Trinity members at a time. The bad news is that you need to get Nina out from behind her bed before the first two guys kill her. Oh, and she has the Lock condition, which means you'll have to use Unlock or Multimeds to have her use any attacks. Have Lin and Ryu rush to Nina's aid as she should be trying to get out from behind the bed, while laying down magic traps behind her. Once she's clear, take care of the Trinity member that's casting magic. Once the first two are down, two more will come. Meet them at the door with a few magical traps and some strong combos from Lin and Ryu.

Bosch -
Looks like your old friend has gotten an upgrade. Bosch will spend all of his time focused on Ryu, so have Lin and Nina focused on keeping Ryu alive. Bosch will regenerate 25% of his health, so you're going to need to do some serious constant damage every turn. If you have Discharge, equip it and give Bosch a taste of what he's dishing out.

Deamoned -
If you thought the boss fights before this one were a challenge, be prepared to get beat down. Deamoned is basically the standard by which every boss that follows is measured. Deamoned has a number of high damage attacks that is sure to kill your team members in one turn. Do you best to spread everyone out to limit his ally-killing to one person at a time. Then, pray that you have a ton of Tonics to use. Deamoned has an Absolute Defense of 200, which means that each of your combos have to do 200 points of damage to even begin hurting Deamoned. Since Nina and Lin may not be able to cause that kind of harm, your best bet is to have Ryu charge up his AP bar and then unleash a massive combo. If you have Discharge, it will go a long way towards shortening this fight. If Nina has Transfer, have her dump as much of her AP into Ryu as possible every turn. This fight will take some time and a lot of items, but it is possible to win without resorting to Ryu's dragon mode.

Depending on your path through the Centre, you'll run into one of the following two bosses:

Cupid -
Cupid's greatest strength is Oncotte, a bodyguard that can't be damaged, but dishes out tons on its own. Every couple of turns, Cupid will order Oncotte to attack one character. Since Cupid has an Absolute Defense of 220, you'll need to do a lot of high-damage combos. Your best bet is to let Oncotte beat on Ryu and then have Ryu use Discharge on Cupid in a combo. As with Deamoned, you'll want to build up your AP for longer combos and even have Nina use Transfer to give Ryu enough AP to top him off.

Hortensia -
The biggest challenge of this fight is to be on the right panels at the right time. At the beginning of each turn, Hortensia will use Fortune to change the color of the floor panels. After which, she'll cast Hymn. Anyone on a red square will take damage, anyone on a blue square will get healed, and anyone on a white square will suffer no effects. So, you'll need to be aware of where you are at all times. Hortensia's elemental weakness varies, but with trial and error (or Lin's Profile ability), Nina can do considerable damage to this boss (who has an Absolute Defense of 260).

After the first boss fight (be it Cupid or Hortensia), you'll have the choice between two teleporters. Which teleporter you take will determine the boss you face. The left one leads to Jezuit and the right one leads to Vexacion.

Jezuit -
With an Absolute Defense of 50, you'd think Jezuit is a cakewalk. That is, until he uses Shadow Walk, which makes him impervious to harm. Have Nina lay down a wall of magic traps to break down this trick and then have Lin and Ryu work him over like you've done with previous bosses. Jezuit will cast Primus (a gravity-based attack) from time to time, but he can be dealt with fairly easily.

Vexacion -
This regent comes with two allies - Ryked and Nalaka, neither of which have Absolute Defense. Nalaka is trained to be strong against Nina's magic, so have Ryu deal with him right away before he takes her out. Ryked, on the otherhand, is strong against Lin, so have Nina focus on him while Lin and Ryu deal with her own problem. When those two are gone, focus on Vexacion, who has an Absolute Defense of 280. Be careful of his wide sweeping attacks, but you should be able to handle him once the others are gone.

Elyon -
This guy is probably the toughest boss in the main story. He comes with two Alter Egos and an Absolute Defense of 330. If you have plenty of room to give with your D-Counter, I'd suggest using your dragon form here to make this a quick fight. Focus all your attacks on Elyon and hope to catch his Alter Egos in the crossfire. Use the same tactics as before with saving AP for long combos, including Discharge. Use Nina's more powerful magic to hit multiple enemies. After five turns, Elyon should go into a meditative trance where he won't be able to resummon his Alter Egos. Use this time to finish them off and then focus on him. Since you have a limited number of turns to defeat him, you may have to use the dragon form at some time to polish this fight off.

Final Boss -
Surprisingly, you wont have use the dragon in this fight if you don't want to. If you use the same techniques as before (saving AP for long combos, using Discharge, having Nina use Transfer) and this boss will go down in time. He does have Absolute Defense, but all three characters can breach it with high damage combos. Be sure to equip shields with Valor or the ability to weather physical damage. You will need to finish this fight with about 10-15% left on your D-Counter, so just stick it out and the boss should drop.

Final Boss version 2 -
There really is only one way to win this fight - turn Ryu into a dragon. The bosses' dragon form will eventually destroy your normal party, so having Ryu turn into a dragon is the only way to win. Use D-Charge two or three times to power Ryu up and then lay into the boss. He should fold within very little time.