You just had to remind me of just how much a map clearer Katima is. Subaru on the other hand was pretty good in normal, but is deadweight in Hard. I remember I had some stages in 2nd playthrough (normal) where Katima cleared the entire map by herself. Too bad Narukana is SLOW, especially compared to all the black characters with high IP and the Final Velocity speed booster. So she doesn't quite obliterate everything anymore, but she's still not bad. As an attacker, she's not too amazing by that point, but still better than some like Nozomi at breaking through the defender. I did the Narukana route on my second playthrough (normal), so with her ultra-route-skills-of-pwnage, she's still one of the best defenders in Hard mode, even at level 30 (1500-1500 counter defense for 1 mana? ). I guess the first playthrough was the only time where she gets to run all over the place and obliterate everything in her path? Narukana is the last member to join the party, so the problem is the biggest with her. Until you could pull that character back up to speed (which might take a lot of time and mana, especially if the level gap is wide), that character is pretty much useless (not to mention they're still using their now-outdated skillsets from the first playthrough). By then, the level of your party and enemies could be in the 40s or even 50s, while the rejoined member is still stuck at lv30. The problem comes in for members who join the party later in the game. So you're basically starting the game with lv30 party members against lv31 enemies.

In hard mode, 30 levels are added to every enemy (so enemies who used to be level 1 are now level 31). This isn't much of a problem for characters like Nozomu or Nozomi, who are the initial party members. So all characters will carry that level over to the next playthrough. For example, at the end of the first playthrough, most characters should be around lv30 (which is the cap for the first playthrough). Narukana's lvl thing is hinted in my last post: during the second (or subsequent) playthrough, characters join the party with their endgame stats from the first (or last) playthrough.

Narukana is the cheapest unit ever, she could probably beat the game on her own. And for a moment there, I wondering why Narukana was left behind in lvls.

Sengoku rance nyaa