http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIH3JBbOH4cIn this episode, we step up the game's difficulty a little at Hakugyokurou. The main gimmick in this area is that there's no random encounters, and all encounters are touch encounters. On top of that, you cannot run from ANY of these fights, so if you fight something you can't handle, you're pretty much dead. There's also technically 2 Notorious Monsters, but one is less so of one and instead a rather powerful enemy. Oh, and we fight a half-ghost and a ghost princess and get mauled by a tree.
Enemies:
Ghost Kedama: Typical ghost-type enemy, and where you'll see how ghosts are kinda. Heavily/fully resistant to physical attacks, likes to inflict various statuses, and can deal pretty decent damage. Oh, and instant death attacks, though this fellow doesn't use those.
Wandering Spirit: This enemy is highly resistant to physicals, and on top of that likes to inflict Poison/Blind/Silence or heal the party. Not super difficult to defeat at all.
Spirit Dragon: The Notorious Monster probably not listed as such, and is just instead one of the stronger enemies in the area. Hits like a truck with various elemental AoE attacks (Atomic Ray, Quake, Dragon's Frost), as well as capable of inflicting Stop and heal up massive HP with Curaga. A pretty powerful foe, but worth fighting if only to steal the Release Scroll Lv2 from!
Soul Flame: A pretty powerful enemy, and in fact should be killed off quickly. It has access to Aurora Flash, which can inflict AoE Sleep, making it the prime threat in any battle, but on top of that, it can inflict massive damage to party members with non-elemental attacks such as Magic Missile, Rainbow Bullets, and Prism Beam.
Greater Fairy: The Notorious Monster of the area. Who'd thought a fairy would be one eh? In any case, hits like a truck with Death Lance, which is Ghost-elemental, as well as with various Reimu spells (Fantasy Orb, Binding Border, and Spiritual Orbs). Can come in groups of 2, making them that much harder to defeat!
Bosses:
Youmu Konpaku: Youmu is fast, and she hits hard. Most often, if your name is not Meiling, Yuuka, or Momiji and if you're not defending, that character is going to die in one hit from any of her attacks. Other than that, she's easy to deal with as she has no way to kill the entire party in one shot.
Yuyuko Saigyouji: When fought with a party, Yuyuko's not that bad. Her attacks are single-target, despite her having Light of the Undead which seems like it should be AoE, so she can't really kill the entire party. However, the player has the option to fight Yuyuko with only Youmu, which makes the fight that much more difficult. However, should the player defeat Yuyuko in the solo fight, they will get the Netherworld Ribbon, which is a helmet found only once in beta6.
Saigyou Yuyuko: One of the more dangerous bosses encountered in beta2. What makes it so dangerous is that not only does it have Instant Death attacks (and an AoE one at that), but it has access to AoE Sleep, so the player has to decided if they want to prevent Instant Death or Sleep. Insomnia Charms bought in the shop can deal with Endless Nap, but the player will have to risk instant death with the Saigyouji Robe and Netherworld Dress, as those only reduce instant death by 40%. Or bring along a character with high resistance to instant death (Reimu, Sanae, Youmu).
