Claude C. Kenni Age: 19 Birthday: January 23 Height: 5'9" Weight: 150 lbs. Weapons: Swords (Broadswords) Armor: Heavy Armor Favorite Food: Steak Favorite Instrument: Silver Trumpet (unique instrument) Voice Actor: Jimmy Freeman Starting Equipment: None Starting Skills: Scientific Ability 1, Functionality 1 Claude is required to be in your party, so you don't have much of a choice. Regardless, he is probably the best fighter in the game. Since you get control of him early in the game, no matter whose scenario you play, you get to control his "evolution" (i.e. Skill Points, etc.) much more thouroughly than some other characters. Claude's attack has excellent range and recovers pretty quickly. Add to that the fact that he can use the most powerful weapons and he becomes a valuable addition to the team. However, he doesn't really fall under the "Orlandu syndrome" so you still have to be careful with him. Pump up his Mental Training, Feint, and Parry skills and he'll be virtually unstoppable. The other combat skills help too, of course. My nitpicky commentary on voice: Eh, I really have nothing to say about Claude's voice acting. It's okay. There's one voice clip where he says "Crawd has advanced forward", though, and it seems as if it was recorded before they decided whether his name should be Crawd or Claude (both are valid transliterations of the Japanese name). Battle Strategy: Earlier in the game I stick Head Splitter and Air Slash on him. After he gets Ripper Blast I use that instead of Head Splitter. From there I usually don't change anything until he gets Mirror Slice, at which point I use that. [My strategy is to stick with Mirror Slice and Dragon Howl at the end of the game, since Dragon Howl's so good against flying enemies.]

Phase Gun
MP: 0
Not a real Killer Move, since you can't use it as soon as you step into the Salva Drift. Too bad, too, because this move is at least ten times as powerful as your starting sword attacks.

Air Slash
MP: 4 Level: 3 Top Proficiency: 200
At long range, fires a beam of energy across the ground for fairly good damage. At close range, makes a wave around Claude. I find this move a LOT more useful at long range, since the execution time means that you'll probably get hit out of it at short range.

Shooting Stars
MP: 7 Level: 7 Top Proficiency: 300
At long range (well, longer short range), fires a wave of energy at the enemy. The wave is no more powerful than a regular attack, so the only advantage is range. At short range it becomes a lot of punches. This will probably be your first multi-hit Killer Move, but I don't find it all that useful. You'll usually knock the enemy away and end up hitting them at most twice.

Head Splitter
MP: 9 Level: 13 Top Proficiency: 260
This is why I don't find Shooting Stars that useful: I use this instead. At any range, Claude jumps high into the air and falls sword first on the enemy. If Claude is being controlled by the computer he'll use this Killer Move like there's no tomorrow, which is bad in that it drains MP like heck, but it's good because you can build up proficiency easily. While he's high in the air he's invulnerable to normal attacks too, so that helps. If he's too far away though, the enemy will move and this will miss. Also, if you want to cross the battlefield really quickly you can perform this move on a far-away enemy instead of running over there.

Energy Sword
MP: 11 Level: 20 Top Proficiency: 200
To me this move is utterly useless. If Claude is doing his job he'll be smack in the middle of enemies, and this move will get disrupted before he ever finishes. Otherwise, it's supposed to refill some HP, but it's not that powerful anyway.

Burst Knuckle
MP: 12 Level: 28 Top Proficiency: 100
Claude fires flames at the enemy. I guess it's a more powerful version of Shooting Stars. I don't use this one that much either since it only hits once (at least until you power it up) and drains MP really quickly. It reaches top proficiency pretty quickly though.

Ripper Blast
MP: 17 Level: 38 Top Proficiency: 270
With a cry of "Tear into pieces!" (which my sister insists is "Pear into peaches!") Claude causes jagged boulders to rise up around him to hit the enemy. The rocks go high enough to hit aerial creatures. This move also hits multiple times if the enemy is caught in the middle of it. Like Head Splitter, the computer AI uses this one a lot too. It's a good move to invest proficiency into, though. Higher levels means more rocks.

Twin Slash
MP: 15 Level: 45 Top Proficiency: 160
Claude slices the enemy twice with his sword. At higher levels he does four slashes. Good if you're trying to disrupt enemy spellcasters, but the execution time is long if you miss. Another easy-to-level move. [Turn off Strong Blow if you use this, as Claude will smash the enemy out of range if it's on.]

Dragon Howl
MP: 28 Level: 53 Top Proficiency: 500
Claude creates a ghost dragon which shoots down energy at the enemy. This move is okay, but the MP cost is pretty high for the amount of damage it does, and unless you devote a lot of time into it, you can forget about achieving maximum proficiency in this move. You can use it to keep flying enemies away from you though. Handy against Weird Avior's and their ilk.

Sword Bomber
MP: 32 Level: 62 Top Proficiency: 420
Claude jumps into the air and lobs fire down at the enemy. Again, the higher the level, the more fireballs. I tend to not use this move too much, simply because of the high MP cost. Besides, you're only eight levels away from...

Mirror Slice
MP: 38 Level: 70 Top Proficiency: 460
Whoo! This is a great move. Catch a enemy in the blade and you can expect to hit at least five times for a heck of a lot of damage. Who cares about the MP cost? By the time you get this move you should have enough MP to perform it a lot of times, and the damage-to-MP ratio is really worth it. Turn off Strong Blow if you use this move or else you might knock the enemy out of the effect area.