Common misconceptions

Common misconceptions
Last revised: 12th September 2008

Heavy weapons raise weapon levels faster (General)

This is merely a coincidence, especially since Weight and Weapon EXP are two seperate weapon stats (Weapon EXP is a hidden stat). It is likely that most heavy weapons just have more Weapon EXP to make them more worth using.

This is important in Path of Radiance, where many people often suggest forging a weapon with high Weight so they will gain Weapon EXP faster. Do not do this. You will in fact gain Weapon EXP slower because you will double attack less and thus attack with your weapon less and, therefore, gain less Weapon EXP.

Critical before Hit (Sword of Seals)

During battles the game determines whether a character hits first, before determining whether that attack is a critical. For example, if an attack has 90 Hit and 5 Crt, the attack would have a 90% chance of hitting (assuming 1 Random Number is used) and, if it did hit, the attack would then have a 5% chance of being a critical (hence the total chance to critical is 90% x 5% = 4.5%).

Some believe that Sword of Seals swaps that order around, eg. if an attack has 30% Hit and 80% Critical, the attack would have a 80% chance of hitting and being a critical and, if the critical fails, there is a further 30% chance of hitting and performing a normal attack (hence the total chance to deal some damage is 80% + 20% x 30% = 86%). However this is false and the normal order is used.

Tactician affinity increases growth rates (Blazing Sword)

Some people still believe that choosing your Tactician's affinity to be the same as a character's affinity will boost that character's growth rates. This is actually completely false, and was proven with people hacking the game to give characters varying growth rates (95 to 100) and to see the effect of Tactician affinity. To make a long story short, there was no effect.

The Fire Dragon moves (Blazing Sword)

I don't know where this claim originated from, but the Fire Dragon never moves to attack, not in any difficulty mode or language version. I assume it was a prank, or wishful thinking as an explanation for the huge vertical space in the Fire Dragon's map.

Lyon... (The Sacred Stones)

Ah, Lyon. He is the centre of many myths.

Firstly, some people believe his maximum HP can surpass 60 as a playable character. However that is false, in all versions of the game, as 60 is the maximum HP for all characters. The only reason Lyon as an enemy (and other enemies) can have higher HP is because enemies do not have a HP cap (aside from 127, which is the maximum stat value).

Secondly, some people believe the Lyon could command all four magic types (Anima, Dark, Light and Staves) in the Japanese version. This is again completely false- he could still only use Dark magic and Staves. This myth probably stems from the opening class roll, which shows Lyon casting Thunder magic. I don't know why he casts he, because he can't... Not without cheating anyway (in case you didn't know, all magic classes share the same animation for casting Anima, Dark or Light magic).

The Beorcguard doesn't do anything (Path of Radiance)

The Beorcguard's description states that it reduces damage from Beorc attacks, similar to the Laguzguard's description, so you would think it would have a similar effect, right? However it doesn't seem to be working when fighting normal Beorc enemies...

That would be because the description is actually incorrect- the Beorcguard only negates the effectiveness of weapons effective against Laguz. Although I never actually used the item, I think it also negates the effectiveness of Anima magic against the different tribes, but not bows against the bird tribe, although some confirmation would be appreciated.

Nasir froze the Black Knight (Path of Radiance)

Some people are led to believe that Nasir breathes ice, thanks to his weapon's description that states "the icy breath of a white dragon". In fact the "icy" part was added for the localised English version. Nasir's breath looks more like light magic in battle, so I am inclined to believe it is Light magic-based.

Rajaion (Path of Radiance)

Seemingly a very large misconception. If I asked 100 people about this misconception, I can imagine 99 of them would believe it. As I already said, this is a very large misconception, so I didn't want to ruin your lives by posting the truth here. Instead, if you want to know the truth, please follow this link.

^Top