Super Specialties

[To see what items can be made with each Specialty, click on the Specialty name. You will be redirected to either a dedicated page for that Specialty, or (if it's sufficiently simple, like Reverse Side or Blacksmithing) a section of a "Miscellaneous Item Creation" page.]

Super Specialties (I just refer to them as supers most of the time) represent the pooling of different party member's abilities to accomplish major tasks. All supers have two related specialties. One, which I'll call the major specialty, determines the level of the super. The other, minor specialty, puts the name of the super on the list of specialties when any character learns it. To learn a super specialty, two characters must have reached level 4 in the major specialty, and one character must have learned the minor specialty. The level of the super is then determined by the sum of the major specialty levels of all the members of the party divided by 3, rounded down.

For example, the super specialty Orchestra has a major specialty of Music and a minor specialty of Art. Thus, when a character first learns Art, the name of the super appears on the specialty list. If two characters were to reach level 4 in Music, the party would acquire Orchestra at level 2 -- (4+4)/3, round down. If one of the two raised their Music level to 5, or if a third character learned Music at level 1, Orchestra would rise to level 3. [Remember that only ONE character needs to learn the minor specialty, and only up to Level 1.] Since skills and specialties are easier to raise at lower levels, super levels rise faster when more characters learn the major specialty at low levels rather than a few characters raising the specialty to high levels. Super specialties have an upper level limit of 10.

All Super Specialties can be accessed from the Super Specialty Skills menu.

Super Specialty Format

--Name--
Description (taken from game text)
Major Specialty (determines level)
Minor Specialty (shows on specialties list)
Needed Items (needed but not consumed)
Consumed Items (consumed as specialty is being used)
Support Items (increases chances for success, sometimes enhances abilities)
Extra Comments (if any)

--Master Chef--
Description: Make elegant dishes and drinks with everyone's powers.
Major Specialty: Cooking
Minor Specialty: Compounding
Needed Items: none
Consumed Items: 2 ingredients (Seafood, Grain, etc.)
Support Items: All-Purpose Knife
Comments: Use two normal ingredients to make a special food. Only one food can be made with every combination of ingredients. These foods are special in that they are more powerful in HP/MP recovery and/or sell for a much higher price than food made through normal cooking.

--Orchestra--
Description: Make beautiful melodies and play them according to the time designated by a conductor.
Major Specialty: Musical Talent
Minor Specialty: Art
Needed Items: instruments, songs
Consumed Items: Conductor's Baton
Support Items: none
Comments: One of the most powerful supers and one of the hardest to acquire. To use Orchestra, there must be enough distinct instruments for party, and each of these instruments must have already had a song composed for them. Using Orchestra also consumes a Conductor's Baton, just like Musical Talent. The benefits, however, are substantial. While the song is playing, item creation and supers almost never fail, regardless of talent. Furthermore, talents have a much greater chance of being discovered while using a specialty (with the exceptions of Pitch and Sense of Rhythm, since using Musical Talent changes the music). Once learned, however, Orchestra makes Customizing, Alchemy, Blacksmithing, and any other item creation much more successful. [This is the uber-specialty. Learn this and make your life ten times easier.]

--Comprehension--
Description: Everyone tries to combine his or her power during combat for increased skill points.
Major Specialty: Practice
Minor Specialty: Survival
Needed Items: none
Consumed Items: none
Support Items: none
Comments: When Comprehension is in use, characters may gain extra SP when they reach a new level, up to around 2% per level of Comprehension. Normal SP gains are around the level of the character, i.e. a 40th level character can expect to gain around 40 points when they gain a level. Note, however, that the chances depend on the level of the super, and a failure might mean less SP than normal for a character. Also note that, similar to its associated specialty, Practice, there is a downside to Comprehension in the form of reduced combat speed for everyone while this super is active, making Comprehension dangerous to use around powerful enemies.

--Come on Bunny--
Description: Everyone sincerely calls the name of a cute little rabbit to have it come to you.
Major Specialty: Familiar
Minor Specialty: Scout
Needed Items: none
Consumed Items: none
Support Items: none
Comments: It may seem like a cute little thing, but in reality the bunny, whose name is apparently "Barney," [er... I think that's a mistransliteration of "Bunny", actually...] is actually quite large and mean, since he is big enough to carry around your entire party without any enemy attacking you. Barney can travel through any terrain except water, and is slightly faster than walking. Best of all, nothing is used up in calling him, so you can have a relatively low level in this super and just keep calling until the bunny decides to come and take you somewhere. If you plan to get this super at all, however, get it early, as the latter stages of the game provide you with transportation that makes Barney obsolete.

--Publishing--
Description: Use everyone's abilities to write a book that is good enough to print.
Major Specialty: Writing
Minor Specialty: Machinery
Needed Items: none
Consumed Items: Fountain Pen
Support Items: Text Software
Comments: An interesting super, this allows each character to write one of two possible stories that they want to tell. These books can be sold for some extra FOL. If sold to a publisher, they will publish the book for public reading, and you can pick up some royalties [about 8000 FOL per book per hour, which certainly adds up] from sales. The book also has the effect of changing the Emotional Levels of any character that reads the book towards the author. This can be good or bad, depending on how good the relationship was between the characters before, as reading a book resets the character's emotional levels towards the author to a set number (8). Each character can publish two books, one for friendship and a rarer one for romantic levels. An important skill to learn early for those that want to make sure they get the character endings they want...

--Identify All!--
Description: Use everyone's powers to identify and appraise the value of items correctly.
Major Specialty: Identify
Minor Specialty: Metalwork
Needed Items: none
Consumed Items: Spectacles
Support Items: none
Comments: This super is really more like bartering. Using Identify All!, you can affect the prices of items at store by Skill Level x 3% that lasts until the next time you buy or sell at a store. This affects ALL the prices, so if you decide to discount, you should only buy items, and vice versa for raising the prices. Each use of this specialty uses up one spectacle. [8 FOL each. Woo.] You can cancel the price adjustment, but you won't be refunded the spectacle you used. A highly useful skill, one that can also be used in conjunction with the Familiar Specialty to lower the prices during remote shopping as well.

--Blacksmith--
Description: Use everyone's powers to make magnificent armor from ore.
Major Specialty: Customize
Minor Specialty: Alchemy
Needed Items: none
Consumed Items: ore (Iron, Damascus, etc.)
Support Items: Magical Rasp
Comments: The counterpart to customizing weapons, this super creates powerful pieces of armor with the used ore. The supporting item (Magical Rasp) is unique in that it changes the Blacksmithing possibilities instead of giving you a better chance at succeeding, as different items are available from this super once the Rasp is in your inventory. [This super rocks, especially when you have Alchemy and the Lezard Flask!]

--Reverse Side--
Description: Use everyone's powers to make dangerous items. Is it ambition that fuels crimes?
Major Specialty: Pickpocket
Minor Specialty: Copying
Needed Items: none
Consumed Items: Vellum Paper
Support Items: none
Comments: The most dangerous of the supers, and also potentially the most rewarding. All the items made with this super are "illegal" but most are also quite powerful, allowing you to raid stores, stay at inns for free, cheat on you experience, and so on. However, there are a few risks. First of all, failure in this super results in creating and owning the worst item in the game. This item, the "Bounced Check," will not only continuously drain your money by the second, but COSTS money to get sell at a store (and the more you write, the faster your money drains...). The second risk is that the use of Reverse Side lowers the Emotional Levels for all the members of your party.